Chapter 10: Fear Her
The TARDIS materialised between two gates. The Doctor opened the door but found he had parked the TARDIS the wrong way round. The gate blocking to doorway.
"Ah." He muttered before heading back inside. The TARDIS dematerialised, and materialised again, this time the right way round. The Doctor stepped out Hermione behind him chuckling at his bad parking "Ah!" Rose followed them.
Both the Doctor and Hermione had found it hard to keep their hands from each other when Rose had returned from Jackie's. The completed bond was new and hard to satisfy. But they managed, with difficulty. Hermione had also been keeping her distance from Rose, she didn't want another attempt on her life. But she knew if it happened again she wouldn't be keeping it from the Doctor. They looked around and Rose noticed a Shayne Ward poster advertising his greatest hits album tacked onto a fence.
"So, near future, yeah?" Rose asked.
"I had a passing fancy." The Doctor told them, Hermione rolled her eyes. It wasn't a passing fancy he'd asked little James to say 4 numbers and James just babbled about his ages before his birthday and it came out as 2…0…1…2 "Only it didn't pass, it stopped." They walked down the road towards a street with a banner saying 'LONDON 2012' "30th Olympia."
Rose linked her arm through his delighted "No way! Why didn't I think of this, that's great! Ah!"
The Doctor linked his other arm with Hermione, who hadn't tensed at Rose's contact, she now knew he was hers completely and there was nothing Rose could do.
"Only seems like yesterday a few naked Greek blokes were tossing a discus about..." the Doctor beamed. "…Wrestling each other in the sand with crowds stood about, begging...no, wait a minute...that was Club Med." He laughed at his own joke, nudging Rose as Hermione rolled her eyes at him again "Just in time for the opening doo dah, ceremony...tonight, I thought you'd like that. Last one they had in London was dynamite. Wembley, 1948. I loved it so much, I went back and watched it all over again. Fella carrying the torch...lovely chap, what was his name..." he trailed off. Hermione and Rose had noticed the 'MISSING' posters tacked onto the lamp post, Rose moved closer to investigate, as the Doctor carried on oblivious, still yapping to himself, pulling Hermione along. "Mark...? John..? Mark...? Legs like pipe cleaners, but strong as a whippet."
"Doctor..." Hermione called trying to pull him back towards the posters.
"And in those days, everybody had a tea party to go to." He continued.
"Doctor?"
"Did you ever have one of those little cakes with the crunchy ball bearings on top..."
"You should really look." Rose called.
"Do you know those, those things?" he finally sauntered over to her with Hermione "Nobody else in this entire galaxy's ever even bothered to make edible ball bearings. Genius." He read the posters "What's taking them, do you think?" he asked as he scanned the street "Snatching children from a thoroughly ordinary street like this. Why's it so cold...? Is something reducing the temperature...?"
"It says they all went missing this week." Hermione stated reading the posters.
"Why would a person do something like this?" Rose asked.
The Doctor considered Rose "What makes you think it's a person?" he asked her. The Doctor turned and walked down to the other end of the road pulling Hermione with him.
The Doctor quickly stepped onto someone's lawn and held his hand out in front of him, as though feeling something invisible. He crouched, his hand hovering above what appeared to be an ordinary area of grass. The Doctor giggled making Hermione raise her eyebrow at him as he felt whatever sensation he was experiencing over the grass.
"Tickles!" he giggled again.
Hermione reached forward and waved her hand over the spot and felt the tickling sensation he felt. A shadow appeared over them, they turned their heads and found a man there with his hands in his pockets.
"What's your game?" the man asked.
"My...um...Snakes and Ladders?" the Doctor floundered "Quite good at...Squash. Reasonable." He noticed the look on the man's face and pulled Hermione behind him "I'm...being facetious, aren't I?" he asked Hermione who nodded "There's no call for it." The man grabbed the Doctor and shoved him back on the street and before he could do the same to Hermione the Doctor had grabbed her and pulled her to him. "I'm...I'm a police officer!" he called "I've got a badge, and...and a police car...you don't have to get...I can...I can prove it! Just hold on." He fished in his pocket for the psychic paper.
"We've had plenty of coppers poking around here, and you don't look, or sound, like any of them." the man said roughly.
The Doctor spotted Rose "See, look! I've got another colleague! Lewis." Rose gave the man a policeman-like wink.
"Well, she looks less like a copper than you do."
"Training. New recruit." Hermione stated.
"It was either that or hairdressing, so..." he brandished his psychic paper at the man "Voila!"
A black woman joined them "What are you going to do?" she asked.
"The police have knocked on every door, no clues, no leads, nothing." An old woman said standing next to Rose.
"Look, kids run off sometimes, all right?" the man said "That's what they do..."
"Dale Hixon in your garden, playing with your Tommy, and then...!" the old woman mimicked something disappearing "Right in front of me, like he was never there!" Hermione frowned curiously at that and looked round "There's no need to look any further than this street. It's right here amongst us."
"Why don't we..." the Doctor began.
"Why don't we start with him?" a neighbour pointed at a road worker "There's been all sorts like him in this street, day and night."
"Fixing things up for the Olympics!" the worker said indignantly.
"Yeah, and taking an awful long time about it." Tommy's dad complained.
"I'm of the opinion that all we've gotta do is just..." the Doctor tried again.
"You don't...what you just said, that's slander!" the worker cut in.
"I don't care what it is!" the neighbour shouted.
"I think we need to just..." the Doctor said.
"I want an apology off her!" the worker pointed.
"Stop picking on him." the old woman defended.
"Yeah, stop picking on me!"
"And stop pretending to be blind! It's evil!"
The neighbour glared at the worker "I don't believe in evil."
"Oh no, you just believe in tarmackers with sack loads of kidnapped kiddies in their van..." the worker said angrily.
"Ay, ay, ay, that's not what she's saying." Tommy's dad cut in.
"Would you stop ganging up on me?!"
"Feeling guilty, are we?" the neighbour demanded shrilly.
"Fingers on lips!" the Doctor shouted over the babble and put his finger on his lips, Hermione copied him immediately with a smile. He glared around at them all as if daring them not to do the same. Slowly everyone followed. The Doctor looked pointedly at Rose, who followed suit. Now all of them had their fingers on their lips, and silence had fallen. "In the last six days, three of your children have been stolen. Snatched out of thin air, right?" he asked.
"Er...can I...?" the old woman gestured to her finger. The Doctor motioned for her to go ahead and she removed her finger. "Look around you...this was a safe street 'til it came. It's not a person. I'll say it if no one else will. Maybe you're coppers, maybe you're not. I don't care who you are. Can you please help us?"
oOo
The Doctor sniffed around the front lawn like a sniffer-dog. Hermione and Rose watched him for a few moments.
"Want a hanky?" Rose commented.
"Can you smell it?" Hermione and Rose sniffed. "What does it remind you of?"
"Metal." Hermione said.
The Doctor nodded "Mm-hm!" The Doctor stood and they walked off down the street, they turned and walked down a narrow alleyway. "Danny Edwards cycled in one end but never came out the other." He felt for something again "Whoa, there it goes again!" he showed Hermione and Rose the back of his hand "Look at the hairs on the back of my manly hairy hand."
"There's that smell again." Hermione said sniffing "it's like a um...a burnt fuse plug or something."
"There's a residual energy in the spots where the kids vanished." The Doctor explained as they walked out of the alley "Whatever it was, it used an awful lot of power to do this."
"Aren't you a beautiful boy?!" Hermione cooed from behind the Doctor and Rose.
The Doctor beamed "Thanks! I'm experimenting with back-combing." He then noticed she was talking to a cat "Oh." He pouted disappointed.
'Don't pout, my handsome Doctor.' Hermione echoed in his mind as she stroked the cat he smiled at her slightly "I used to have one like you." She told the cat as it meowed and purred. The Doctor watched uncomfortably, looking as though he had a nasty taste in his mouth. "What?" Hermione asked noticing the look.
"No, I'm not really a cat person." He told her "Once you've been threatened by one in a nun's wimple, it kind of takes the joy out of it." The cat wandered over to Rose who smiled and gave it a stroke.
"You would have love Crookshanks, he was half Kneazle. They're very good judges of characters and are very protective." Hermione told him.
"Come here, puss!" the heard Rose call "What do you wanna go in there for?" There was a whooshing sound, and the cat's meow echoed slightly as if fading into the distance. "Doctor!" Rose called and he hurried over to her, Hermione behind him. Rose hurriedly stood up as the smell hit her.
The Doctor and Hermione backed off "Whoa! Hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!" He waved the smell away and picked up the empty cardboard box. "Iron residue. Blimey! That takes some doing!" he turned the box round impressed "Just to snatch a living organism out of space and time. This baby is just like," he put a rough accent on "'I'm 'avin' some of that', I'm impressed."
"So the cat's been transported?" Rose asked.
"It can harness huge reserves of ionic power. We need to find the source of that power." He looked round "Find the source and you will find...whatever has taken to stealing children and fluffy animals. See what you can see." He whacked Rose on the shoulder and gestured to his eyes "Keep 'em peeled, Lewis." Rose nodded as the Doctor and Hermione walked off.
oOo
The Doctor and Hermione ran round the corner, they had worried when Rose hadn't returned.
"Stay still!" the Doctor called to Rose as he pointed his sonic screwdriver at the giant scribble that had attacked her, and it convulsed, collapsing into a small ball which fell into Rose's outstretched hands. The Doctor rushed to Rose and stood over her. "Okey dokey?" He held out his hand and pulled Rose to her feet.
"Yeah, cheers." Rose breathed out of breath.
"No probs." They shared a quick hug before returning their attention to the object in Rose's hand. "I'll give you a fiver if you can tell me what the hell it is." He poked it with the sonic screwdriver "'Cos I haven't got the foggiest."
"Well, I can tell you you've just killed it." Rose said.
"It was never living." The Doctor took it off her "It's animated by energy. Same energy that's snatching people." He threw it up and down, quite delighted "That is so dinky! The Go-Anywhere creature. Fits in your pocket...makes friends, impresses the boss...breaks the ice at parties..." He pocketed it as Hermione laughed and they move off.
oOo
The Doctor had put the object on the TARDIS console for analyse. "Oh, hi ho, here we go. Let's have a look." The Doctor, Hermione and Rose were watching the computer screen, which was displaying Gallifreyian symbols. Hermione recognised some of the words as the Doctor had taken to teaching her when she had seen his name written in the language by her bond mark "Get out of here..." he said surprised. Hermione frowned before she recognised the word and her eyebrows shot up.
"What's it say?" Rose asked.
As if to confirm what he has just seen, the Doctor took a pencil from his pocket and held the object out in front of him. He used the rubber at the end of the pencil to rub out part of the object.
"It is!" he blew at it "Its graphite! Basically the same material as an HB pencil."
"I was attacked by a...pencil scribble?" Rose asked.
"Scribble creature." He sniffed it and then let Hermione and Rose sniff it "Brought into being with ionic energy. Whatever we're dealing with, it can create things as well as take them. But...why make a scribble creature?!"
"Maybe it was a mistake..." Hermione said "I mean, you scribble over something when you wanna get rid of it. Like a like a drawing. Like a..." a look of realisation crossed her face "a child's drawing, James does it all the time."
"You said it was in the street." Rose said.
"Probably..." the Doctor nodded.
"The girl."
"Of course!...What girl?"
"Something about her gave me the creeps...even her own mum looked scared of her."
The Doctor leaned in "Are you deducting?"
Rose gave him a conspiratorial look "I think I am."
"Copper's hunch?"
"Permission to follow it up, Sarge."
oOo
They stood at the door of the house Rose had brought them too. The Doctor rang the doorbell, when there was no answer he rattled the letter box. The door was opened by the black woman from before.
They all gave her friendly smiles. "Hello! I'm the Doctor, this is Hermione and this is Rose. Can we see your daughter?"
"No!" the woman snapped "You can't."
"Okay! Bye." They walked away in silence, waiting, and sure enough.
"Why?" They turned in unison. "Why do you want to see Chloe?"
"Well, there's some interesting stuff going on in this street, and I just thought, well, we thought, that she might like to give us a hand."
"Sorry to bother you." Hermione smiled.
"Yeah, sorry. We'll let you get on with things. On your own. Bye again!"
They turned and walk away again, but the woman didn't close the door. And after a few moments.
"Wait!" she called and the Doctor, Hermione and Rose turned again. The expression on the woman's face was helpless, vulnerable. "Can you help her?"
The Doctor smiled "Yes, I can."
She stepped back and allowed them in "I'm Trish, by the way."
"The Torch Bearer is running up towards the mall, which I can tell you is..." the Olympic commentator said from the TV as they entered the living room.
Rose sat herself down on the sofa while the Doctor flung his coat down next to her and Hermione sat on the other end of the sofa. The Doctor then perched himself next to Hermione on the arm of the sofa. Rose watched the movement, she had noticed recently that the two had gotten closer, she noticed the little touches and secret smiles. Something happened when she had been gone and she didn't like it. It had made her regret leaving Hermione alone with her Doctor for a few days while she cheered up her mum.
"She stays in her room, most of the time." Trish told them pulling Rose away from the Doctor and Hermione "I try talking to her, but it's like trying to speak to a brick wall. She gives me nothing, just asks to be left alone."
"What about Chloe's dad?" Rose asked.
"Chloe's dad died a year ago."
"I'm sorry."
"You wouldn't be if you'd known him."
"Well! Let's go and say hi!" the Doctor said brightly.
"I should check on her first..." Trish said hesitantly "she might be asleep."
"Why are you afraid of her, Trish?" Hermione asked.
"I want you to know before you see her that's she's really a great kid."
"I'm sure she is." The Doctor nodded.
"She's never been in trouble at school...you should see her report from last year. As and Bs." She smiled proud.
Rose smiled back "Can I use your loo?" she asked and Trish nodded. The Doctor and Hermione watched her leave the room.
"She's in the choir..." Trish continued "She's singing in an old folks home. Any mum would be proud." They heard the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs "You know...I want you to know these things before you see her. Because right now, she's not herself."
The Doctor nodded before he pulled Hermione up and popped his head around the corner, looking through the dining room into the kitchen. "All right, there?" he asked as Chloe drank some milk from the fridge. The Doctor walked into the kitchen, Hermione and Trish behind him. He settled himself against a table, pulling Hermione to him as Chloe replaced the milk and closed the fridge door. "I'm the Doctor and this is Hermione."
Chloe faced them "I'm Chloe Webber."
"How're you doing, Chloe Webber?" he asked.
"I'm busy. I'm making something. Aren't I, mum?"
Trish swallowed before looking to the Doctor and Hermione "And like I said, she's not been sleeping."
"But you've been drawing, though." Hermione observed.
"I'm rubbish." The Doctor commented "Stick men are about my limit,"
'James liked your Dinosaur drawing.' Hermione told him.
His lips twitched as he continued out loud "Can do this, though..." He did the 'live long and prosper' sign from Star Trek. Chloe's face remained expressionless. "Can you do that?" Trish nodded at Chloe, encouraging her to answer.
"They don't stop moaning." Chloe complained.
"Chloe..." Trish sighed.
"I try to help them, but they don't stop moaning."
"Who don't?" Hermione asked her quietly as the Doctor lowered his hand.
"We can be together."
Trish moved towards Chloe her hand reaching for her "Sweetheart..."
"Don't touch me, mum." Trish stopped in her tracks, letting her hand fall back to her side. She, the Doctor and Hermione glanced at one another. "I'm busy...Doctor. Hermione." She left.
The Doctor called after her disappointed "Oh, come on, Chloe! Don't be a spoil sport!" he and Hermione followed her back into the hallway "What's the big project? I'm dying to know! What're you making up there?"
"Doctor!" Rose called terrified upstairs and the Doctor lurched forward and sprinted up the stairs, Hermione, Trish and Chloe following.
Rose was staring into the wardrobe as though transfixed when the Doctor and Hermione ran into the room.
"I'm coming to hurt you..." a deep masculine voice threatened.
The Doctor slammed the wardrobe doors shut without as much as a glance at the inside.
"Look at it." Rose breathed.
"No, ta." He walked away to examine the drawings on the wall, putting his glasses on.
"What the hell was that?" Trish asked as Hermione stepped further into the room and looked round it.
"A drawing." Rose told her "The face of a man."
"What face?" Trish tried to open the doors but Rose rammed herself up against them, stopping her.
"Best not."
Trish turned to Chloe "What've you been drawing?"
"I'm drew him yesterday." Chloe replied.
"Who?"
"Dad."
Trish looked unpleasantly surprised and upset "Your dad? But he's long gone. Chloe, with all the lovely things in the world, why him?"
"I dream about him, staring at me." she told her mum.
"I thought we were putting him behind us. What's the matter with you?"
"We need to stay together."
"Yes, we do."
"No." Chloe glared "Not you. Us." The Doctor and Hermione glanced around at this. "We need to stay together. And then it'll be all right." Trish went over to her, putting her hands on her daughter's cheeks making Chloe flinch.
"Trish, the drawings, have you seen what Chloe's drawings can do?" Rose asked.
"Who gave you permission to come into her room?" Trish said coldly to her "Get out of my house."
"Tell us about the drawings, Chloe." The Doctor stepped up.
"I don't wanna here any more of this."
"But that drawing of her dad..." Rose argued "I heard a voice. He spoke."
"He's dead. And these, they're kids pictures. Now get out!"
"Chloe has a power." Hermione cut in "And I don't know how, but she used it to take Danny Edwards. Dale Hicks, she's using it to snatch the kids."
"Get out!"
"Have you seen those drawings move?" Rose asked pleading.
"I haven't seen anything."
"Yes you have." Hermione stated.
"Out of the corner of your eye." The Doctor agreed.
Trish turned to them "No."
"And you dismissed it, because what choice do you have when you see something you can't possibly explain?" the Doctor moved to her "You dismiss it, right? And if anyone mentions it, you get angry, so it's never spoken of, ever ag..."
"She's a child..."
Hermione moved over as well "And you're terrified of her. But there's no one to turn to, because who's gonna believe the things you see out of the corner of your eye?"
"No one. Except us." The Doctor told her.
"Who are you?" Trish asked them.
"We're help."
oOo
The Doctor swiped a jar of marmalade off the worktop, unscrewed the lid and dipped his fingers into it and started sucking the jam off. Hermione cleared her throat, making him pauses, and Hermione shook her head at him, mouthing 'no'. The Doctor, looked for all the world like a naughty schoolboy caught red-handed, he glanced at Trish who was just staring at him. He meekly replaced the lid and handed her the jar and she placed it behind them.
Hermione turned to Trish "Those pictures, they're alive. She's drawing people and they end up in her pictures."
"Ionic energy." The Doctor explained "Chloe's harnessing it to steal those kids and place them in some kid of holding-pen made up of ionic power."
"And what about the dad from hell in her wardrobe?" Rose asked.
"How many times do I have to tell you? He's dead." Trish replied frustrated.
"Well, he's got a very loud voice for a dead bloke."
"If living things can become drawings, then maybe drawings can become living things..." the Doctor thought. He suddenly shivered violently, making Rose jump. "Chloe's real dad is dead, but not the one who visits her in her nightmares. That dad seems very real. That's the dad she's drawn and he's a heartbeat away from crashing into this world..."
"She always got the worst of it when he was alive." Trish commented.
"Doctor, how can a twelve-year-old girl be doing any of this?" Rose asked.
"Let's find out." He said after a pause. He strode off, Hermione and Rose following him.
oOo
The Doctor, Hermione, Rose and Trish entered Chloe's bedroom. She was sitting cross-legged on the bed.
The Doctor stood before her, looking down at her. She said nothing, but did the 'live long and prosper' sign. "Nice one." He smiled kneeling in front of her, holding her head in his hands, fingers on her temples." Her eyes rolled back in her head for a moment before closing. He closed his own eyes before suddenly Chloe fell backwards onto the bed. "There we go..."
Trish stepped forward towards them in her concern "I can't let him do this..."
Hermione stopped her "Shh, it's okay. Trust him."
The Doctor straightened up and addressed Chloe "Now we can talk."
"I want Chloe." When Chloe spoke, her voice came out as a strange whisper, and it's obviously wasn't her. "Wake her up. I want Chloe."
"Who are you?" the Doctor asked.
"I want Chloe Webber!"
"What've you done to my little girl?" Trish asked upset.
"Doctor, what is it?" Rose asked as the Doctor walked slowly around the bed, all the while looking down at Chloe.
"I'm speaking to you." He said to Chloe "The entity that is using this human child. I request parley in compliance with the Shadow Proclamation."
"I don't care about shadows or parley." Chloe replied.
"So what do you care about?" Hermione asked stepping forward.
"I want my friends."
The Doctor kneeled by her "You're lonely, I know. Identify yourself."
"I am one of many." Chloe answered "I travel with my brothers and sisters. We take an endless journey. A thousand of your lifetimes. But now I am alone. I hate it. It's not fair. And I hate it!" Her eyes snapped open.
"Name yourself!"
"Isolus."
"You're Isolus." His eyes widened as if that explained everything "Of course."
"Our journey began in the Deep Realms when we were a family." She was drawing on a piece of paper next to her on the bed whilst speaking.
Trish looked at the drawing "What's that?" she asked as the drawing began to take shape.
"Isolus Mother, drifting in Deep Space." The Doctor stood "See, she jettisons millions of fledgling spores. Her children. The Isolus are empathic beings of intense emotions, but when they're cast off from their mother, their empathic link, their need for each other, is what sustains them. They need to be together. They cannot be alone."
"Our journey is long." Chloe said.
"The Isolus children travel, each inside a pod. They ride the heat and energy of solar tides. It takes thousands and thousands of years for them to grow up."
"Thousands of years just floating through space..." Hermione sighed "poor things."
"Don't they go mad with boredom?" Rose asked.
"We play." Chloe replied.
"You...play?"
The Doctor sat down on the bed. "Mm. While they travel, they play games." He told them "They use their ionic power to literally create make-believe worlds in which to play."
"In-flight entertainment." Rose commented.
"Helps keep them happy. While they're happy, they can feed off each other's love. Without it, they're lost." He then turned to address Chloe "Why did you come to Earth?"
"We were too close." She ripped the piece of paper she was drawing on off the pad and started anew.
The Doctor looked at the drawing "That's a solar flare from your sun. Would've made a tidal wave of solar energy that scattered the Isolus pods."
"Only I fell to Earth. My brothers and sisters are left up there." Chloe commented "And I cannot reach them. So alone."
"Your pod crashed..." Hermione frowned "Where is it?"
"My pod was drawn to heat...And I was drawn to Chloe Webber. She was like me. Alone. She needed me. And I her."
Hermione stroked Chloe's head "You empathised with her." The Doctor said "You wanted to be with her because she was alone like you."
"I want my family. It's not fair."
"I understand. You wanna make a family. But you can't stay in this child. It's wrong. You can't steal any more friends for yourself."
"I am alone."
There was a thump from the wardrobe making Trish gasp. "I'm coming to hurt you." Chloe's dad called. Chloe started to shake and tremble in fear, although her face remained impassive. There was a pounding on the door of the wardrobe. "I'm coming."
"Trish, how do you calm her?" Hermione asked as Chloe's body started jerking as though she is having a seizure.
"What?!" Trish asked.
"When she has nightmares, what do you do?" the Doctor asked.
"I...I..."
"What do you do?" he asked urgently.
"I sing to her."
"Then start singing." Hermione said softly and the Doctor motioned for Trish to come over. Trish took his place next to Chloe.
"Chloe...I'm coming." Chloe's dad growled.
"Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree, merry merry king of the bush is he..." Trish sang
"Chloe...Chloe..." The banging and thumping on the door continued. The Doctor, Hermione and Rose look over at it, whilst Trish stroked Chloe's hair, trying to sooth her. "Chloe...Chloe..."
"Laugh, Kookaburra laugh, Kookaburra, gay your life must be." Trish continued to sing as the banging and the voice eventually faded. "Laugh, Kookaburra laugh, Kookaburra, gay your life must be." Chloe was now asleep. Trish had tears falling down her cheeks "He came to her because she was lonely...Chloe, I'm sorry..." She buried her head in her little girl's shoulder, arms around her, sobbing.
oOo
Trish strode into the sitting room and started gathering up all the pencils that were lying around. "Chloe usually got the brunt of his temper. When he'd had a drink. The day he crashed the car, I thought we were free." Rose handed her a bunch of pencils. "I thought it was over."
"Did you talk to her about it?" Rose asked.
"I didn't want to."
"But...maybe that's why Chloe feels so alone. 'Cos she has all these terrible dreams about her dad, but she can't talk to you about them."
"Her and the Isolus..." the Doctor spoke "two lonely kids who need each other."
"And it won't stop, will it, Doctor?" Hermione asked "It'll just keep pulling kids in."
"It's desperate to be loved. It's used to a pretty big family."
"How big?" Rose asked.
"Say around...four billion?" This reply drew a stunned silence from Hermione, Rose and Trish. Rose turned her attention to the television and Hermione linked her fingers with the Doctors.
oOo
The Doctor shrugged into his coat as he, Hermione and Rose left Trish's house.
"We need that pod." The Doctor said.
"It crashed, won't it be destroyed?" Rose asked.
"Well, it's been sucking in all the heat it can...hopefully that should keep it in a fit state to launch." He looked round "It must be close. It should have a weak energy signature that the TARDIS can trace. Once we find it, then we can stop the Isolus." The Doctor then looked to Hermione "Do you think your magic could help?"
"Possibly, I might have to come back and scan Chloe." Hermione told him.
The Doctor, Hermione and Rose approached the TARDIS. "We can scan for the same trace we picked up from the scribble creature. Just need to widen the field a bit." He fished in his pocket for the TARDIS key and opened the door and they went inside. None of them seeing Chloe watching from a distance, taking in the sight of the TARDIS.
The Doctor fumbled with some device, putting it together. Rose was sat in the chair next to the console. "You knew the Isolus was lonely before it told you. How?" Rose asked.
The Doctor shoved Rose off the chair and sat down on it himself. "I know what it's like to travel a long way on your own. Give me the stina magnetic erm..." he nodded towards it violently "thing in your left hand!" Rose glanced at him, chewing on gum absent-mindedly.
"Sounds like you're on its side." Rose slotted the 'thing in her left hand' into the device whilst the Doctor held it still between his legs.
"I sympathise, that's all."
"The Isolus has caused a lot of pain for these people."
"It's a child!" Hermione exclaimed from where she was leaning on the console "That's why it went to Chloe, two lonely mixed up kids."
"Hmm...Feels to me like a temper tantrum because it can't get its own way." Rose said. Hermione gave her a 'look who's talking look'. But Rose ignored it.
"It's scared!" the Doctor defended "Come on, you were a kid once. Binary dot." Hermione handed him the binary dot.
"Yes!" Rose agreed "And I know what kids can be like. Right little...terrors."
The Doctor held his hand out under Rose's mouth "Gum."
Rose spat her gum out into his hand "I've got cousins. Kids can't have it all their own way. That's part of being a family."
The Doctor stuck the gum to the device, securing it. "What about trying to understand them?"
Rose turned away with a slight smile "Easy for you to say. You don't have kids."
"I was a dad once." The Doctor said offhandedly.
Rose turned to him shocked and stunned "What did you say?"
The Doctor didn't seem to notice the effect his words had on Rose as he didn't reply. Rose turned to see Hermione's reaction but found none. Hermione knew, Rose didn't like that at all. Why did Hermione know all this stuff and she didn't, she had known the Doctor longer but hardly knew him. Hermione had known about the regenerations, known about his many companions, known about him being a dad! And she knew nothing, it hurt.
"I think we're there!" the Doctor cheered pulling Rose from her thoughts. The Doctor stood and went over to the console "Fear. Loneliness. They're the big ones, Rose. Some of the most terrible acts ever committed have been inspired by them."
Hermione nodded in agreement "Tom Riddle became Voldemort through loneliness and a loveless life." She told them.
"We're not dealing with something that wants to conquer or destroy." He continued with a nod as Rose was still reeling from the bombshell he had just dropped. He carried on oblivious, pulling levers and pressing buttons on the console. "There's a lot of things you need to get across this universe." He indicated "Warp drive...wormhole refractors..." Rose held her hand out. "You know the thing you need most of all? You need a hand to hold." He noticed Rose's outstretched hand and took it, grinning.
"No! Look, I'm pointing." She laughed. The Doctor looked at the computer screen where she was pointing, a flashing white light on a map of the neighbourhood indicated the whereabouts of the pod.
"It's the pod!" he said excitedly "It is in the street! Everything's coming up Doctor!" He scooted off towards the doors. Rose following after a moment, still slightly distracted. Hermione frowned when she heard the TARDISes quiet groan. She slowly walked out the door after she patted the console comfortably and closed the door behind her. "Okay. It's about two inches across. Dull grey, like a gull's egg. Very light." The Doctor told them.
"So these pods, they travel from sun to sun using heat, yeah?" Rose asked "So it's not all about love and stuff. Doesn't the pod just need heat?" A crash from behind her caused her to turn, the device she, the Doctor and Hermione had just constructed was shattered on the floor, and the Doctor and Hermione had vanished. Rose's eyes widen in shock. "Doctor?" The TARDIS was also gone too. "Doctor?"
oOo
Rose grinned searching the streets for the Doctor. She had saved the day, just like her Doctor would have wanted and maybe, just maybe she will finally get her wish. She had seen the Doctor, but not Hermione. Maybe not everyone returned. She could live with that and yes the Doctor will be sad but she will be there to comfort him. She would finally have him to herself and they will live happily forever.
She spotted the Doctor walking down the street and she beamed. She checked the cupcake decorated in edible ball bearings in her hand was okay, before she started to head over. She frowned when she saw him stop and then froze when she saw a grinning Hermione running towards him.
She watched as Hermione jumped into the Doctors arms and he spun her around both laughing. Her heart broke and she fumed when Hermione pulled her Doctors head down and passionately kiss him and her heart broke more when the Doctor returned the kiss. They pulled away smiling and Rose tried to pull herself together. Shaking her head and taking a deep breath, she schooled her features and brought forward her happy smile before she sneaked forward towards them.
"Cake?" she asked when she had reached them.
The Doctor turned and started to laugh at the sight of the cupcake and so did she, finding it hard not to be happy to see him again, safe.
"Top banana!" he said delighted taking it from her hand. He took a bite out of it whilst Rose watched him "Mm. I can't stress this enough. Ball bearings you can eat, masterpiece!" Rose watched him for a few more seconds and then threw her arms around him, holding him tight.
"Ooh, I thought I'd lost you." She said, trying to read Hermione's reaction about them hugging, but she just watched silently. That annoyed her, why didn't Hermione get annoyed when she saw them together, like she did when she saw them before and countless other times.
"Nah! Not on a night like this! This is a night for lost things being found. Come on!"
The three of them walked down the road together.
"What now?" Rose asked.
"I wanna go to the games! What we came for!"
"Go on, give us a clue, which events do we do well in?" she asked him.
"Well, I will tell you this:" the Doctor said around a mouth full of cake "Papua New Guinea surprises everyone in the shot put."
"...Really?" Hermione asked "You're joking, aren't you?" she laughed before she frowned "Doctor, are you serious or are you joking?"
"Wait and see!" he teased.
Fireworks exploded overhead as the Doctor, Hermione and Rose walked down the street, the Doctor and Hermione hand in hand out of Rose's view.
"You know what; they keep on trying to split us up, but they never ever will." Rose said, Hermione could her the underlying to the comment. It was Rose saying that she would keep fighting for the Doctor and Hermione knew Rose will end up disappointed and seriously hurt.
The Doctor looked at her, coming to a halt. "Never say never ever."
"Nah." Rose said with confidence "We'll always be okay, you and me." the Doctor was silent "Don't you reckon, Doctor?"
The Doctor looked skywards, reflecting for a moment, as though he sensed something. "Something in the air. Something coming."
"What?" Hermione asked him.
The Doctor, Hermione and Rose looked up at the sky, which was lit up with fireworks.
"A storm's approaching."
Rose glanced at him nervously and shivered and Hermione squeezed his hand.
