The Unicorn and the Wasp Part 3

Disclaimer: Alice belongs to me the rest BBC.

"My faithful companion!" Lady Eddison sobbed as they all sat in the drawing room. The awful news had just been broken to everyone of the Housekeeper Miss Chandrakala's death. The atmosphere was nothing but a little depressing, "This is terrible!"

"I'm so sorry for your loss…" Alice offered her condolences, passing a tissue to her, taking it and blowing her nose.

"Excuse me, my lady," Davenport recalled to Lady Eddison stepping in, coming to stand behind the sofa, "She was on her way to tell you something."

"She never found me. She had an appointment with death instead!" Alice moved from her spot beside the Doctor, sitting in the free space on the left as her son occupied the other and gave her arm a comforting pat.

It's now that the Doctor speaks up, "She said, 'the poor little child'. Does that mean anything to anyone?" he asked looking at each everyone of them.

"No children in this house for years," Hugh shook his head before glancing over to his son Roger who Alice sees him avoiding it, "Highly unlikely there will be."

"Mrs Christie, you must have twigged something..." Lady Eddison turned to her, "You've written simply the best detective stories."

"Tell us, what would Poirot do?" Revered Golightly agrees.

"Heavens sake. Cards On The Table, woman. You should be helping us!" Hugh slammed down his fist on the armrest of his wheelchair.

"But… I'm merely a writer," Agatha countered with a stutter.

"But surely you can crack it," Robina remarked leaning forward, "These events, they're exactly like one of your plots."

Alice nodded, "It's exactly like your books."

"That's what I've been saying," Donna added on with a nod, "Agatha, that's got to mean something."

"But what?" Agatha protests with a shake of her head, "I've no answers. None," she sighs heavily looking down at her feet, "I'm sorry, all of you. I'm truly sorry, but I've failed. If anyone can help us, then it's the Doctor, not me."

All eyes went on the Time Lord, except for Alice who is gazing at Agatha, feeling rather sorry for the woman.

-Doctor Who-

Whilst Donna had gone out into the gardens to have a chat with Agatha to give the woman some reassurance seeing as she understood what she was going through. Alice on the other hand stayed behind in the sitting room with the Doctor. They aren't left alone too long as Agatha and Donna returned with something interesting in their possession.

The Doctor opened up the case upon the coffee table, it was rolled out showing an array of tools inside, the lock-picking kind, "Ooh... Someone came here tooled up…the sort of stuff a thief would use," he now comments.

"The Unicorn. He's here!" Agatha gasps.

"Could be a he or a she," Alice points out to them.

"The Unicorn and the wasp," the Doctor mutters.

Greeves enters the sitting room with a tray, "Your drinks, ladies. Doctor."

The Doctor thanks, smiling at the butler as he stood up, taking a drink from the tray with Agatha, Alice and Donna taking theirs as well, "Very good, Greeves."

He nods before leaving the room and the Doctor sits back down in his seat.

"How about the science stuff?" Donna asks, looking at him, "What did you find?"

" Vespiform sting," he responds, leaning back in the seat taking a sip from his drink pulling it back before continuing, "Vespiforms have got hives in the Silfrax galaxy."

"And…" Alice says slowly, gesturing with her hand for him to go on.

Agatha remarks with a sigh, "Again, you talk like Edward Lear.

"And for some reason, this one's behaving like a character in one of your books," the Doctor took another sip of his drink.

"Come on, Agatha," Donna looks to her, "What would Miss Marple do? She'd have overheard something vital by now, because the murderer thinks she's just a harmless old lady."

"Clever idea," Agatha gives it a thought, "Miss Marple? Who writes those?"

Alice elbows her sister to give a response, "Er, copyright Donna Noble. Add it to the list."

"Alice… Donna…"

"Okay, we could split the copyright."

"No, something's wrong," Alice could see it from the pained expression on his face.

"She's right," his voice comes out a little off as , "Something's inhibiting my enzymes!"

He jerks forward crying out, "Argh!

Immediately, Alice, Donna and Agatha rushed to his aid. The young Nobles heart was beating hard against her chest, "What's wrong?!" her voice comes out frantic matching the expression on her face. She didn't know what she would do he if regenerated.

"I've been poisoned!" he doubled over in pain, grabbing Alice's arm making the young woman panic all the more.

Donna was just the same, "What do we do?! What do we do?!"

Agatha picked up his glass, sniffing it, "Bitter almonds. It's cyanide," she gasps, "Sparkling Cyanide!"

The Doctor let's go of Alice, charging out of the room as they ran behind him to keep up. They just get inside the kitchen as he's pouring beer in his mouth, getting some of it over him.

"I'm an expert in poisons, Doctor!" Agatha cries, "There's no cure. It's fatal."

The Time Lord spits out the beer, quickly he gripped onto Alice's arm rather hard trying to fight the pain, knowing he couldn't really bear the thought of regenerating right now and got the sense she wouldn't be able to cope. This was the last thing he wanted to put her through and he was going to fight this for her because he come to care for her a great deal in the time he's known her. More than he was willing to admit as he looked in her eyes, "Not for me. I can stimulate the inhibited enzymes into reversal. Protein! I need protein!"

Soon as he finished speaking, Agatha and Donna searched the kitchen for something that he required. Alice still letting him hold onto her not really caring about the painful grip of his hand on her and she was letting him do it because she cared. Not because of the hand print he would leave there afterwards.

"Walnuts!" Donna shouted, holding them to him with the lid open.

"Brilliant!" the Doctor grabs a handful from the jar shovelling them in like an greedy animal. His mouth is full of the walnuts and he can't even speak and he lets go of Alice needing his other hand and starts to mime

"I can't understand you!" Donna told him, but Alice knew how to play a game of charades to understand what he was saying. "

"How many words?" she asked and he held up a finger, "One. One word," she pondered as he mimed it.

"Shake. Milk shake. Milk? Milk? No, not milk?" Donna tried taking a crack at it but failed miserably, "Shake, shake, shake. Cocktail shaker. What do you want, a Harvey Wallbanger?"

"Harvey Wallbanger?!"

"Well, I don't know!"

"How is Harvey Wallbanger one word Donna?" Alice questioned rolling her eyes.

"What do you need, Doctor?" Agatha asked.

"Salt! He wants salt!" It comes to Alice in a flash.

"Salt!" he nodded, feeling gratitude towards her for figuring it out, "I was miming salt. It's salt. I need something salty!"

"What about this?" Donna held up a big brown paper bag.

"What is it?"

"Salt."

"No, too salty."

Donna rolled her eyes with a bit of exasperation, dropping it back down on the floor, "Oh, that's too salty!"

The young Noble spots something nearby that can help, grabbing the jar quickly she tossed it to the Doctor, who catches it, "What about this?"

He opens the jar downing the contents, "What's that?" Donna asked.

Alice cringed and so did Donna, "Anchovies," both the the sisters had a disliking for them.

Having finished the Doctor started miming again, his hands up and palms flashing.

"What is it?" Donna shakes her head, "What else? It's a song? 'Mammy?' I don't know. 'Camptown Races?'"

"'Camptown Races?!'" he exclaims voice nearly going high pitched.

"Well, all right then, 'Towering Inferno'"

"It's a shock!" he explained manically flashing his hands with the gesture once again, "Look, shock. I need a shock!"

But Alice didn't need to say it, knowing that she was kissing him for the first time (of course she's kissed other guys before) but she's dreamed of this soo many times of how it would go. She was willing to risk this kiss to save his life, for her Doctor. Quickly grabbing his face, she pressed her lips to his hard. Alice feels a electrifying warmth tingling throughout her body as he responded and saw fireworks behind her eyes. Boy was he an phenomenal kisser.

Donna watched on receiving a shock of her own, that her sister was being so bold on showing on how much she cared for him and that maybe, just maybe neither of them needed her help to get there. Well maybe just a little bit.

But it was only after a couple of seconds it was over, the Doctor throughly shocked and dazed by having Alice kiss him out of the blue. Grabbed the nearest counter to him and tipped his head back releasing black smoke from his mouth. It vanished into thin air and he groans, facing forward again.

"Ah! Detox," he wiped his mouth on the back of his sleeve, "I must do that more often," seeing Alice blush innocently as he gazed briefly at her surprisingly finding himself doing it as well, "I mean, the detox."

Alice let out an awkward laugh not sure what to feel about the situation, still blushing like mad, "Yeah…"

"Doctor!"

Agatha grabbed his attention, taking it away from the very woman who saved his life, making a reminder to thank her later.

"You are impossible!"

He looked looks to Alice clicking his tongue while giving her a rather flirtatious wink, before running out the kitchen. Agatha followed right behind him.

"Who are you?"

The sisters go straight after them, Donna looked to Alice with a pleasing smirk, "Enjoy giving the Doctor his 'detox', Al," she teases, making her sister blush.

"Oh, shut up Donna!"

-Doctor Who-

Later that night, whilst a thunderstorm went on outside they ate their soup at the dining room table. The Doctor briefly glanced to his side at Alice, who… was unusually quiet with a far off look on her face pushing the broth around with her spoon. She was not in the best of moods to eat and had a lot on her mind. Like kissing the Doctor in the kitchen earlier, along with the confusing feelings that came along with it afterwards. But this needed to be put aside for now, not when two people are already dead and here they all were going on like nothing has happened and Alice just found it very wrong.

Donna patted her sisters knee to keep her calm and left her hand there, sensing the uneasiness coming off her, just as the Doctor spoke taking a spoonful of his soup, "A terrible day for all of us," he started saying, "The Professor struck down, Miss Chandrakala taken cruelly from us, and yet we still take dinner."

He heard Alice mutter in agreement, "It's revolting…" Donna gives her knee another squeeze.

"We are British, Doctor," Lady Eddison straightened herself in her chair, "What else must we do?"

The Doctor saw Alice was about to respond to this but sensing she was being watched by him stopped herself. "And then someone tried to poison me… anyone of you had the chance to put cyanide in my drink. But it rather gave me an idea."

"And what would that be?" Reverend Golightly asked, taking a sip of his drink before going back to his meal.

"Well, poison," everyone stopped eating in that instant as the Doctor smiled raising his glass. "Drink up," they turned to look at him at little horrified. "I've laced the soup with pepper," he now explained.

Hugh is the first to say something about it, "Ah, I thought it was jolly spicy."

"But…" The Doctor dragged out, leaning forward, "The active ingredient of pepper is piperine, traditionally used as an insecticide."

"So, anyone got the shivers?"

Right on cue, another crack of thunder had crashed outside much louder reminding Alice of the gunshot back on Messaline. All of the lights suddenly went out, as the windows slammed open and extinguished the candles, plunging the room into complete darkness. She couldn't move rather terrified of the dark, Donna pulled her up to feet as loud buzzing filled the room. She gulps gripping her sisters hand tightly and it's returned it back.

"What the deuce is that?" Hugh gasped, rather shocked at the turn of the weather.

"Listen!" the Doctor stood up slowly, "Listen, listen, listen!" He hushed putting his finger to his lips, making everyone fall silent as he tried listening into the silence…buzzing is faintly heard.

"No…" Lady Eddison gasped, "It can't be!"

Agatha stood just as the lighting struck and slammed her hand down upon the table, "Show yourself, demon!" she demanded of it.

Not long after, everyone in a panic tried getting out of the room with the Doctor trying to tell them to stay put, "Nobody move. No, don't! Stay where you are!"

The Vespiform finally made it's appearance, and Alice no longer felt the tight grip of her older sisters hand, "Donna!" she shouted, getting rather scared looking around madly in the dark for her. Alice then heard her sister screaming for her, but couldn't make out where. It was only that the buzzing got louder that it blocked out Donna's voice, Alice swore she could hear it close to her ears, nearly making her scream.

It was dark and she was so scared, that she didn't know what to do her mind has gone completely blank. The lights came back on putting Alice somewhat at ease, followed by a scream from Robina. Turning to face what had caused her do so. She went entirely numb, catching the sight of Roger, Lady Eddison's son stabbed in the back face down in his soup.

Alice got flashed with the images of Gallifrey, children lying motionless on the ground, then to Jenny laying in the Doctor's arms when she had died saving his life. Everything becomes all too much and her knees give out dropping to the ground, going pale she wrapped her arms around herself, tucking her knees into her.

A whimper leaves her trembling lips. She hadn't noticed that everyone had left the room, until she feels the familiar arms of Donna cradling her and whispering some words of comfort, "It's all right…" she stroked Alice's hair trying to calm her, "Everything's alright…"

The young Noble let out a shuddering breath, to stop herself from shaking. Donna now helped Alice up onto her feet and hugged her rather tightly, burying herself into her sisters chest trying to hide her tears.

-Doctor Who-

Alice wrapped her arms around her body as she sat by the sofa nearest the fireplace in the sitting room. She didn't like all these feelings she had the memories she had saw from Ariana earlier. All considering herself to be a smart and independent woman, all she could think about was Jenny. She had felt a motherly instinct towards the girl even though she had been made from the Doctor's DNA. To think if Jenny hadn't of died. Would she be traveling the stars with them right now? Enjoying their amazing adventures?

She glanced over at the Doctor who's leaning against the other end of the fireplace, wondering if he still ever thought about Jenny. Even though he hasn't mentioned her since Messaline.

"You ok Alice?"

His voice snaps Alice from her thoughts as she gazed up at him, "Huh?"

"You ok, been staring at me for the last five minutes."

She'd been really staring at him for that long? Alice just looked away hiding the blush on her cheeks that she could feel coming.

"Nothing I'm fine…" she mumbles, "It's only that…"

"What?" He comes to sit beside her.

Alice sighs deeply, before looking up to greet his eyes, "It's just when I saw Roger lying there dead… It made me think about Jenny that's all," she sees him freeze, "I know I shouldn't mention her but… I wanted to know if still thought about her?" she put her hand on his shoulder.

"Of course I think about her… everyday," he admitted looking away, not minding the warming touch of Alice's hand where it was.

"Do wish you could go back and save her?" Alice wondered.

"No… it's a fixed point," he replied softly looking at her again.

"I know about the whole timelines thing and all that," she squeezed his shoulder lovingly, "But if you had the chance… would you?"

"Of course I would Alice, in a heartbeat," he responded honestly with a smile, "But at least I've still got you and Donna with me, what would I do without you both?"

"What would we do without you more like?" Alice joked in return with a small laugh, lightly shoving him with her hand that had been on his shoulder. He returned it smiling back at the young woman and they continued to talk until Agatha and Donna returned. He was grateful for Alice having saved his life more than once since knowing her, she had jumped in front of a bullet for him and now just a few hours ago she had just kissed him from being poisoned. The Time Lord couldn't help but think that maybe… just maybe he might be falling for the smart, yet cheeky and beautiful Alice Noble.