Chapter 10

It ended up being the Doctor who carried the boy, Segun, up into the house, to a room that Moran showed them, with planet models hanging from the ceiling and a bed covered in a duvet printed with Star Wars characters.

Rose leaned on her mother, who had her arm around her waist and was uncharacteristically quiet, while they followed behind the Doctor and the B&B owner. Still, Rose had to ask.

"So, what were you shouting about anyway?"

Jackie gave her an incredulous look.

"Well, I saw it, didn't I," she nodded back toward the way they had come. "I was looking out the window at the garden, and the kid was messing about on his bike, and then all of a sudden there was this flash and he was on the ground." She shrugged. "So, I shouted."

"Wasn't there anyone else with him?" Rose wondered, recalling the Little Red Hood's words.

Jackie shrugged.

"Not that I could see." Her forehead furrowed in thought. "Though, I did think it a bit strange, 'cause he kept looking over and everything, like he was talking to somebody." She shrugged again.

"Kids though, a lot of them have imaginary friends. You had one when you were little."

"Really?" asked Rose, momentarily distracted.

Her mother looked over with a smile.

"O'yeah, I think it must have been a pirate or something." Her gaze became far away as she seemed to be looking back into old memories. "I thought it was going to drive me barmy, how you said "Aye, aye, Captain" all the time."

Rose shot a look ahead at the Doctor, and was sure that she saw his stride falter for a moment, but he didn't glance back.

Arrival at the boy's room pushed more questions, reluctantly, to the back of Rose's mind.

…But I never did ask for an explanation about how Jack was still alive, and Ill want to know that as soon as we've sorted all this out, Doctor. She promised herself.

The Doctor laid the boy down in his bed gently and placed his hand on the smaller face.

"Let me just bring him round slowly." He murmured as the rest of them waited silently. Moments ticked by slowly as they all watched the Doctor and the boy.

Nothing seemed to be happening for quite some time, and then between one breath and the next, the boy relaxed and seemed to give a great sigh. Then his eyes flickered open.

The sob of relief from his grandma was very loud in the room, and the boy's eyes moved to focus on her, though Rose thought he looked muzzy, as if not quite awake yet.

"Give him a moment." The Doctor murmured, carefully straightening and looking over at Moran. She looked a right mess, with flour and tears all smeared together on her face, and she was still wearing her flowered apron, but it was obvious that nothing was going to distract her till she was assured of her grandson's safety. The Doctor spoke quickly and quietly.

"I've tried to isolate and lock down the damaged portions of his mind, which means that he probably won't remember most of this day. Don't try to remind him of it." He issued the order with emphasis. Rose saw Moran nod slowly, despite an expression of confusion.

"He'll probably feel a bit sick and feverish, but he should get over it soon. The young tend to recover fast, but you need to get me if anything seems to be going wrong with him."

Moran gave him a sharp look.

"What kind of things would be "going wrong"?"

The Doctor shook his head.

"Just anything, anything that seems unusual." He shrugged "I can't get any more specific because I don't know."

The small voice of the boy on the bed interrupted the conversation.

"Granny?" He called, and Moran rushed instantly to his side. The Doctor backed away.

"It's okay, sweets, Granny is here." She brushed his hair back, and felt his forehead.

"I don't feel good." The boy stated in a kind of half-asleep mumble.

"Granny will look after you till you feel all better" the older woman promised, and continued to stroke the boy's forehead till he relaxed into apparent sleep.

The Doctor spoke up quietly, at last.

"Ma'am, we need to talk about your local spirit."

"The Little Red Hood." Moran Spozanga murmured. "I cannot see how she could do this, she's a good spirit and always has been."

"A bit more than a story then?" The Doctor regarded her with a look of satisfaction, but the old woman snorted quietly.

"My family has lived in this Cove since before the Viking times, Doctor. There isn't a rock or a shrub within twenty miles of this place that I don't know like the back of my hand." Absently she reached over and began untying her grandson's shoelaces and pulling off his shoes.

"I played hide and seek with the Little Red Hood when I was barely a toddler, and my children and grandchildren played with her." She shrugged and looked directly at the Doctor.

"My great-great-great grandfather believed that the markings that the Little Red Hood made on stones, like the one you showed me, were letters from some kind of alphabet, but he could never decipher them because she herself didn't seem to know what they said."

"They don't really say anything, at least the ones on that stone." The Doctor admitted. "They're just random letters, actually."

"But, why would she start hurting us now, after all this time?" Moran asked, obviously not much interested in the mystery of the letters.

"I don't think that she meant to do any harm." Rose interjected. She felt a bit steadier now, and though her head still ached, at least it didn't feel like it was going to wobble off her shoulders. She stepped away from her mother's support, toward the Doctor.

"Remember, she kept saying sorry, and how she didn't mean it."

Moran looked doubtful and shrugged, but the Doctor tapped his teeth with the tuning fork.

"It's got to have something to do with the rift closing." He observed.

"But it closed before." Rose countered. "If it's so old, how come it didn't affect it before?"

The Doctor gave her a sour look.

"I didn't say that it was a great theory."

Jackie's voice broke into the conversation.

"Oi, that's not half rude, that is!" She looked at them all reproachfully. "What did you stop speaking English for?"

Rose looked at the Doctor and then her mother again in bewilderment.

"What do you mean? When did we stop speaking English?" She asked.

"Just now." Jackie insisted.

Rose was just going to open her mouth and ask her mother if she was crazy, but the Doctor coughed meaningfully.

"Sorry, Jackie" He apologized. "We just got a bit carried away, I think."

Jackie Tyler nodded her acceptance of the apology, but she wasn't finished talking.

"Well, I think it's a bit daft to go on talking about why it's making trouble, when what we really need to do is find it before it does any more harm." She looked at Moran Spozanga. "You say you know the place so well, so were does whatever-it-is live?"

"Mum, it doesn't have an actual body." Rose sighed. "She doesn't have to live anywhere."

"But she does." Moran spoke quietly, and her face looked as if she half wished she could take back her own words.

"Moran, you know how important this is. Lives are at stake." The Doctor encouraged quietly. She swallowed and nodded.

"The painted cave." The older woman looked up and around at their faces. "That is what we have always called it, and the Little Red Hood lives there."

"What do you mean lives there? she's a spirit…thing?" Rose asked, confused.

Moran shrugged.

"We always know that we can find her there." She glanced around as if searching for words. "It's part of her somehow."

"Can you take us to this cave?" The Doctor asked grimly.

Moran hesitated again, but finally nodded.

"Not tonight though." She added. "The path is very rough, and I need to look after my grandson."

The Doctor looked on the point of arguing, but sighed instead and nodded.

"First light then?"

She nodded.

Rose couldn't help feeling a bit relieved that they wouldn't be hiking back to some cave in the dark. She was beyond tired, and not sure how far she would make it if she didn't collapse into a bed soon.

"Do you think you can walk, Rose?" The Doctor's voice startled her out of, what she guessed was a light doze. She jerked her head up to look at him and winced as her headache dealt her skull a sharp rap of reprimand. He stood next to her, looking down with concern.

"I'm fine," she assured him, but somehow the mushy words that actually came out of her lips didn't seem to do the trick. He slipped his arms around her waist and under her knees and picked her up.

"You're exhausted; now wrap your arms around my neck and lay still." He ordered in response to her noise of protest.

It was actually nice to just lay there. Rose did as she was told, and a few moments later she was half asleep again.

Rose didn't know how much time passed, but she eventually became aware of the Doctor putting her down on a soft surface that could only be a mattress. He straightened her legs and pulled off her shoes, and was just pulling the blanket up when she tried speaking again.

Rose knew, in some part of her mind, that she was asleep, but just a bit of her wasn't ready to abandon the mystery yet.

"Doctor, do you suppose," she mumbled as he tucked the cover around her shoulders. "Could the Little Red Hood be a Time Lord ghost?"

His hand halted a moment on her shoulder, and, without thinking, she moved her own hand up to grab it.

"I don't know, Rose." He sighed. "There was a time that I would have said it was impossible, but now…" She felt him shrug and leave the sentence unfinished. She yawned.

"Just a thought." Then she added. "Good night Doctor."

Rose fell asleep before she could hear him respond, and before she could realize that she hadn't let go of his hand.

Rose Tyler sleeping. It was a magical thing to just watch the steady pulse at the base of her neck, and the slight movement of her eyelids as her brain played dreams for her. Her mouth fell slightly open in her sleep and a small, whistling snore emerged, which made the Doctor smile even more. He looked at her hand, still gripping his and felt absolutely no inclination to pull away. Instead he glanced around and located a chair, a rocking chair no less, not too far away in the corner of the neat, yellow bedroom. With a foot stretched out, and a little bit of effort, he managed to pull the chair over.

He sighed as he settled into the chair, still holding her hand.

I wonder if I will actually sleep in this body? Was his last complete thought before a haze of exhaustion washed over him and swept him away to the land of slumber.