Act the Fourth: The Empty Child
Parts: 4
Word Count: 13,000~
Rated: T
Beta: JolinarJackson
Summary: A strange mauve capsule leads the trio to London, circa 1941 where there seem to be bigger problems than air raids...
Part One
All three of them stood huddled around the console as the Doctor stared at the readout screen. It was barely visible but from what Ianto could make out there was a long cylindrical capsule hurtling through space.
"What's the emergency?" Rose asked, dressed in a garish Union Jack tee. Maybe it was the Welsh in him that made him find it somewhat appalling, Ianto brushed the observation aside. She had a point; they seemed to flying a bit more recklessly than usual. It was difficult to remain upright.
"It's mauve!" The Doctor announced as though that meant something. The Tardis veered particularly hard to the left and Ianto had to grab onto the panel to prevent landing on his arse.
"Mauve?" Rose repeated, once the ship had settled some. She moved over to where he and the Doctor were to get a look at the screen.
"Universally recognized color for danger," the Doctor explained. Ianto glanced down at what he'd decided to wear: a mauve shirt. Rose noticed too and smiled at him before picking up the conversation again.
"What happened to red?"
"That's just humans, by everybody else's standards red's camp. Oh the misunderstandings! All those red alerts, all that dancing!" The Doctor answered, grinning madly, he seemed to get a better lock on the object and the screen revealed it was a large capsule, and it was indeed mauve, "It's got a very basic flight computer, I've hacked in and linked the Tardis. Wherever it goes, we go."
"And that's safe?" Ianto asked skeptically.
The Doctor looked at him, "Totally."
Sparks showered from the controls, blindingly bright, and Ianto instinctively raised his arm to shield himself as Rose squeaked and jumped back.
"Okay, 'reasonably,'" the Doctor said, diving in and hitting buttons to fix the problem, "I should have said 'reasonably' there." He returned to the screen, "No, no, no! Stupid time tracks, it's getting away from us!"
"What exactly is this thing?" Rose asked.
The Doctor looked up at her, and then back down as he frantically pressed the controls, "No idea!"
"Then why are we chasing it?" She questioned, and Ianto had to agree with her doubts. If they had no idea what it was, linking it to the Tardis and going after it hardly seemed prudent.
"It's mauve and dangerous!" The Doctor told her excitedly, "And it's about thirty seconds from the centre of London."
"Naturally," Ianto intoned.
The Doctor beamed at him, "See, he gets it!" Then he focused on the pursuit, zeroing in on the vessel and furrowing his brow as the thing dipped and rolled before barreling upwards.
Ianto wasn't too pleased that they had to perform the same maneuvers as they raced to the surface of the Earth, and he couldn't have been more relieved when they landed. The Doctor left for the door, which he held open for the both of them. Rose stepped out first and Ianto was right behind. He surveyed the alley they landed in.
It was wet with recent rain, and grey was the predominate color. It was quite barren, with pipes that jutted out from the nearby building. The dumpster a few feet from them smelled rancid.
"Do you know how long you can knock around space without happening to bump into Earth?" The Doctor grumbled genially as he joined them, taking in the scene around him.
"Five days? Or is that just when we're out of milk?" Rose responded, her eyes searching for something. The mauve capsule if Ianto had to hazard a guess.
"Of all the species in the universe and it has to come out of a cow!" The Doctor exclaimed, and Ianto felt like he was missing some part of that exchange. Cows certainly weren't the only species with milk, almost every mammal on Earth was capable of lactating, perhaps the Doctor was disgruntled that Rose would only drink milk from cows.
"It must have come down somewhere quite close," the Doctor announced, moving on, "within a mile anyway."
He seemed to have just picked a direction at random, but that was always how he seemed to do things- at random. Ianto looked at Rose and they both went along with him.
"And it can't have been more than a few weeks ago," he continued now that they were at his side, "maybe a month."
Rose looked affronted, "A month? We were right behind it."
"It was jumping time tracks all over the place, we were bound to be a little behind," the Doctor countered, and as they rounded a corner he shot back, "Do you want to drive?"
"Yeah," Rose grumbled sarcastically, "How much is a little?"
"A bit." The Doctor answered quickly.
Rose looked at the Time Lord and a smile was threatening to take over, "Is that exactly a bit?"
"Ish," Ianto couldn't resist chiming in and the Doctor looked pleased. Rose rolled her eyes as they carried on with no idea where they were headed. Surprisingly, it didn't bother Ianto who was used to knowing exactly where he was going and what he was supposed to be doing. He'd lived by a routine for so many years, and now… here he was. A tiny smile played at his lips.
"So what's the plan then?" Rose asked, "You going to do a scan for alien tech, or something?"
The Doctor frowned at her, "Rose, it hit the middle of London with a very loud bang, I'm going to ask."
"We could always look the old-fashioned way," Ianto contributed, "You know, with our eyes."
Rose made a disgruntled noise, clearly not finding the same humor in it that the Doctor did, he clapped Ianto around the shoulders as he pulled out some sort of wallet. Rose took it and squinted while she read out, "Doctor John Smith, Ministry of Asteroids."
Ianto scowled in confusion.
"It's physic paper, it tells you whatever I want it to tell you," the Doctor explained and handed it over to him. Ianto stopped walking for a minute and studied it. First it said, in a very official looking manner, exactly what Rose had read out, but then the words disappeared and instead the words, 'see, I told you,' emerged. Ianto gaped and rushed to catch up; evidently they had continued walking without him.
The Doctor held his ear to a large black door, "Door, music, people. What do you think?" He was asking Rose.
"I think you should do a scan for alien tech!" She insisted, "Give me some Spock! For once, would it kill ya?"
The Doctor was crouching down and using his—Ianto believed he'd called it a 'Sonic Screwdriver' at some point—to open the latch. The Time Lord looked up at her, eyeing her up and down.
"Are you sure about that t-shirt?" He asked. Ianto smirked, while Rose became a bit defensive.
"Too early to say, I'm taking it out for a spin." She bit out.
The Doctor fumbled with the lock and Ianto moved to help, tugging at it until it came loose with a loud clang. The door creaked as the Doctor opened it and ushered Ianto inside.
"Come on if you're coming," the alien called to Rose as he ducked inside too, "won't take a minute."
.[D].
The door led them to a hallway stacked with cardboard boxes, but otherwise empty. Ianto nudged him and pointed out where the light was coming from, a doorway with those funny little decorative beads hung up in place of a door. The first notes of a familiar song drifted to the Doctor's ears as a waiter parted the beads, ruining the tropical picture they created.
"Looks like the place to start," the Doctor said and Ianto gave a sharp tilt of his head in agreement.
He shuffled in as singing started and he found they must have been in a parlor, or a pub. The lights were low and not oppressive, smoke hung thickly in the air as it coiled around tables that were packed with people. The Doctor moved further in to allow Ianto inside, and he noticed that Rose had decided against joining them.
The woman on stage had a lovely voice, rich and smooth, and the Doctor leaned up against the wall to listen. She was dressed in a shimmery dress and singing 'It Had to Be You', an old classic, and when her performance finished the Doctor applauded her loudly until she left the stage.
"Wait here," he instructed Ianto. Then he was picking his way through the tables and people to climb up on the stage with the grand piano. Ianto looked surprised, but he did what he was told and stayed put.
The Doctor tapped the microphone once before addressing the crowd, "Excuse me, excuse me, if I could have everybody's attention just for a mo?"
The audience fell still and looked at him with a mild sort of distaste.
"Be very quick," he added to soothe their potential ire, "Hello! It might seem like a stupid question, but has anything fallen from the sky recently?"
More silence, and then the crowd began laughing heartily. It started with a few couples and gradually spread to the whole room. The Doctor looked on feeling baffled. It wasn't that stupid.
"I'm sorry, have I said something funny?" He continued, "It's just there's this thing that I need to find, it's fallen from the sky, probably a couple of days ago."
The laughter was unrelenting. The audience was in hysterics, at least until a loud whine was heard and then they were all scrambling.
"It would have landed quite near here!" He spoke up to be heard over the noise and the clatter of people hurrying to leave, he glanced up to see if he could find the source of the commotion, "With a very loud…"
The Doctor looked at Ianto, who was moving aside to let people through. Their eyes locked, and the Welshman tilted his head towards a poster in the back. The Doctor followed the gesture and realized what Ianto meant.
"…bang."
The poster was a wartime bomb-threat notice, lettered in bold print and informing the people, 'Hitler will send no warning.' He looked back to Ianto and noticed the entire parlor had cleared out.
"So much for asking then," the youth deadpanned.
The Time Lord hopped off the stage and began rushing out, "Come on, we've got to get Rose!"
If that poster mentioned Hitler then that meant they were in World War Two London during the Blitz and that high-pitched whine was to alert everyone of the incoming planes about to lay waste to the city. They needed to get somewhere safe, pronto.
He was in a dead run with Ianto right behind him when reached the street again. He frowned as he saw that his other traveling companion was no longer there. Where could she have wandered off to?
"Rose?" He called out, "Rose!"
No sign of her, not even when he rounded the corner and neared the Tardis. He sighed to himself. Of course she'd gone off somewhere in the middle of an air raid. That was just how humans were, no sense of self preservation that lot.
"I don't see her," Ianto reported needlessly, as they slowed to a stop.
The shrill ring of a telephone made them both jump, and the Doctor headed for the sound narrowing his eyes suspiciously. It grew louder as they reached the Tardis… but it couldn't be. That was just impossible.
Curiosity compelled him to open the slot to the phone, and sure enough, that old-timey phone was the source of the racket. The Doctor continued to stare incredulously.
"How can you be ringing?" he demanded of the replica, "What's that about, ringing?"
"I'm guessing it's not supposed to do that," Ianto mused insipidly.
The Doctor didn't bother to answer as he pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver to begin investigating.
"Don't answer it," a female voice instructed, and both travelers spun to look at her. She was a young woman with pale skin and dark hair done in braids that made her look younger still, "it's not for you. Either of you." She informed them matter-of-factly.
"And how do you know that?" The Doctor asked, stepping closer while Ianto hung back.
She stayed where she was, somewhat obscured by shadows, "'Cause I do. And I'm tellin' ya, don't answer it."
The Doctor drew closer still and studied her carefully. She was sure of what she said, and she was clearly disturbed by something. Something was haunting her, and the Doctor had no doubts it was something to do with his suddenly functional telephone replica.
"Well, if you know so much, how can it be ringing?" He asked, always ask the right questions, he lived by that, "It's not even a real phone, it's not connected to anything."
He turned around and headed for the incessantly ringing telephone. Ianto shifted out of his way.
"And she's gone." The boy announced flatly. The Doctor whipped his head up and found an empty alleyway where the girl had once stood. He frowned and the phone kept bleating at him while the faraway sound of bombs could be heard in the distance.
Well, he couldn't just leave it, so as daft as it was to pick up a phone that couldn't possibly work, he did.
"Hello?" He asked into the speaker. Ianto started chewing on his thumbnail.
"Hello, this is the Doctor speaking. How may I help you?"
A pause.
Then, a soft, tiny little voice, "Mummy?"
The Doctor froze and Ianto tensed in response.
"Mummy!"
"Who is this?" He demanded, "Who's speaking?"
"Are you my mummy?"
"Who is this?" The Doctor insisted, determined to solve this, "How did you even ring it? This isn't a real phone, it isn't wired up to anything."
The voice repeated mummy once more and then it ceased. The Doctor stared, perplexed, before he hung up the receiver.
"One mauve colored capsule, two disappearing girls, and one phone call received via not-an-actual-phone. Business as usual then?" Ianto summed up, his hands snaking into his pockets as he leaned against the Tardis.
The Doctor grinned, "Sounds about right."
