"A Common Cause"
11. Two Sides, One Table
Coreidis, in the year 2019
While they'd waited for Della and Corius and the others to finish their shift, the Doctor had insisted on inspecting Kurt's head, after finding out about its encounter with Della's swing. There was something in the way the alien man looked after him, a distraction, and Kurt wanted to ask after it, but he couldn't bring himself to do it, so he held his tongue. What was important, he guessed, was that his head would be fine, and save for a tenderized bump, there'd be no further consequence.
Eventually the two factory workers had come to find them, and the Doctor and Kurt were escorted off to their house. It was as they went that they learned that Della and Corius were sister and brother, had been since they'd both been four years old and Corius had been adopted into the family. It was only after they'd welcomed the young orphan into their home that they'd learned he and Della coincidentally shared a birthday, and from that day on the blond girl had welcomed the curly boy on as her brother and her twin. If they hadn't understood how fiercely protective she was of him before, they knew it now.
At the house, the visitors discovered the boy and girl didn't lack for siblings, or family in general. It didn't seem there should have been enough space for all of them, but no one seemed to be complaining, not their mother or father, or their brothers and sisters - six of them - or their grandmother and grandfather, or their aunt and her two sons. The Doctor and Kurt walked into this, into a loud house full of people preparing for dinner. When Della and Corius' mother learned they'd be two more to eat, she went right along with it and set two more plates.
It wasn't until everyone started to sit that they began picking up on some tense notes. The parents sat at one end, the grandparents on the other, and along each length of the table there sat the eight children, their aunt, and their cousins. Six sat on one side, five on the other - seven with their guests. The six on one side wore the same style of uniforms the Doctor and Kurt recognised for being from the old factory, while the five across from them wore the sleek and identical uniforms of the new factory.
Before long, saying that things were tense seemed to be going in for as understated as a statement could ever be. Kurt looked around the table and expected that at any moment someone would tackle another across the table, or that some kind of shouting match would begin. Those on the old factory side, and even those on the ends, all seemed so at odds with those of the new factory that, just sitting on the bench there, they felt the gazes and they wondered if they should be apologizing for something... anything.
The dinner was by no means quiet; the house had an endless supply of constant sound. But if the Doctor or Kurt bothered to listen to the words unsaid as much as those who were said, they would come to pick up on what was really going on, thanks to the passive aggressive conversation.
It used to be that they all worked at the old factory, a tradition in their family going back generations, proudly so. Then the new factory came along, and at first nothing changed. They were loyal and would continue being loyal.
But then time passed, and recruitment was a rousing success at the new factory. Before too long, one of the siblings had transfered - defected, as far as the old factory side of the table named it - to the new factory. Then there went another, and another... Now three of the siblings, the aunt, and one of the cousins were with the new factory. Those still at the old factory made it clear where they stood on the matter; the transfers remained oddly calm about it ahim
Kurt wondered briefly why Corius had brought them here; he didn't see this ever being Della's idea, as the girl still looked at him like she only trusted him so long as she had her eye on him. But the more the dinner progressed, the more he came to understand. The boy wanted him and the Doctor to see what had become of his family since the new factory had come along. It wouldn't have surprised him to learn this was happening in other homes as well. This dinner invitation was Corius' call for help.
After they had all finished eating, Kurt had gone aside and signaller for the Doctor to follow.
"So what do we do now?" Kurt asked.
"Well, there's no point going anywhere now, the factories are shut until morning, and we need to see what's happening during active shifts more than anything."
"Wait, morning..." Kurt hesitated. It was only now coming on to him to remember how they had just left. As much as the Doctor had assured him how everything would be fine, he still needed to hear it repeated.
"I will take you back when all this is done and they won't know a thing," the Doctor vowed.
"Alright, well... What's the plan?" Kurt asked, then, "You have a plan, right?"
"Of course I have a plan, what do I look like? Don't answer that. We'll sleep the night off, and tomorrow morning we will walk through the door over at the new factory, find who is in charge - I have a strong idea who that is - and then we will deal with all this, yes," the Doctor looked energized, on the swing of things. "Yes, good, molto bene," he carried on, and as he paused, Kurt stared at him. He just smiled to himself, the kind of private smile that Kurt knew would be falling along into that category of things he would not ask after.
Though Della and Corius' father insisted they could stay the night at the house, the Doctor took Kurt back to the TARDIS. He set the boy up with a room of his own and left him there. When Kurt was changed and lying down, he closed his eyes and he thought of home, of his father, of Blaine... They might never know, not for a while, but he would do this for them.
TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)