When they reached the street they heard a woman speak. "The planes are coming. Can't you hear them? Into the shelter. None of your nonsense, now move it!" the Doctor and Melanie climbed onto a couple of dustbins to look over the garden wall where the woman was talking. She was ushering a boy into an air raid shelter. The woman turned back to the house "Arthur! Arthur, Will you hurry up? Didn't you hear the siren?" she called.

A large man exits the house "Middle of dinner, every night. Blooming Germans" he grumbled. "Don't you eat?" he shouted at the sky. The Doctor found that rather amusing.

"The Germans are doing him a favour. He could do with losing a bit of weight", Melanie said quietly watching him follow his wife inside the shelter. The Doctor chuckled at that. The second the family had gone in the shelter, Nancy creeped out from behind the shelter and slipped inside the house. "What do you think Doctor? Fancy having dinner in the middle of an air raid?"

"Yes I think I do. And we can make a friend at the same time", the Doctor said climbing down from the bin.

The Time travellers entered the house via the back door and hung back as several children entered through the front door. The Doctor sat at the table with the children and the young woman who'd spoken to them before. Melanie stood behind his chair staying as quiet as she could as everyone else chatted away, completely oblivious to the two adults in the room. That is until the Doctor spoke up after taking two slices of meat.

"It's all right! Everybody stay where you are!" Nancy said to the children who were startled by the presence of Melanie and the Doctor.

"Good here, innit? Who's got the salt?" the Doctor said grinning at them. Melanie also gave them a smile. "So, you lot, what's the story?" he asked helping himself to some sauce.

"What do you mean?" the boy called Ernie asked.

"You're homeless, right? Living rough?" the Doctor questioned.

"Why do you want to know that? Are you a copper?" Jim asked.

"Of course I'm not a copper. Ellie isn't one either. What's a copper going to do with you lot anyway? Arrest you for starving?" the children laughed at his question, the tension in the room now broken.

"Why aren't you guys in the country? You should've all been evacuated by now", Melanie asked reaching over and stealing one of the Doctor's slices of meat.

"Oi!" he protested.

"Rationing. You're only supposed to take one", she stated before she ate it. As the Doctor still looked put out at what she did, Melanie gave him a kiss on the cheek. That made him brighten up immediately.

"I was evacuated. Sent me to a farm", Alf explained, answering Melanie's question.

"So why'd you come back?" the brunette questioned.

"There was a man there", Alf said quietly.

"Yeah, same with Ernie. Two homes ago", Jim spoke up.

"It's better on the streets anyway. Its better food", Ernie added.

"Yeah. Nancy always gets the best food for us", Jim agreed.

"So, that's what you do, is it, Nancy?" the Doctor asked the young woman.

"What is?" Nancy asked.

"As soon as the sirens go, you find a big fat family meal still warm on the table with everyone down in the air raid shelter and bingo! Feeding frenzy for the homeless kids of London Town", the Doctor replied "Puddings for all! As long as the bombs don't get you".

"Something wrong with that?" Nancy asked getting defensive.

"Wrong with it? It's brilliant. I'm not sure if it's Marxism in action or a West End musical", the Doctor said with a grin.

The children looked at him confused. "Why'd you two follow me? What do you want?" Nancy demanded.

"I want to know how a phone that isn't a phone gets a phone call. You seem to be the one to ask", the Doctor answered.

"I did you a favour. I told you both not to answer it, that's all I'm telling ya", Nancy said standing up taking his plate away. Melanie frowned, there was something Nancy wasn't telling them. "Alright what do you two want? You didn't just come here for food and about the phone call. There's something else", Nancy continued.

She's rather smart Melanie thought. "There is something else. We've been looking for something that would've fallen out of the sky about a month ago, but not a bomb" the Doctor take out a notebook from his pocket "It would've fallen out of the sky about a month ago. It wouldn't have exploded like a bomb, just buried itself in the ground somewhere. And it would've looked something like…" the Doctor quickly sketches the object he'd been chasing through the time vortex "this".

He shows them the drawing. Nancy looked at it intently but didn't say anything. Melanie knew she was definitely hiding something. Suddenly there was a knock at the window. The Doctor and Melanie went over to the window, the teenager pulled the curtain to reveal a child wearing a gas mask.

"Mummy?" he called knocking on the glass "Are you in there, mummy?"

"Who was the last one in?" Nancy asked urgently.

"They were", Ernie said pointing at Melanie and the Doctor.

"No, they came round the back", Nancy said "Who came in the front?"

"Me", Alf said quietly.

"Did you close the door?" Nancy asked. When Alf hesitated, Nancy asked again "Did you close the door?" she didn't even wait to get a reply, she just rushed out into the hallway and bolted the door.

"Mummy?" the child called through the front door.

"What's this, then? It's never easy being the only child left out in the cold, you know", the Doctor said joining her out in the hallway with Melanie.

"It's not exactly a child", Nancy informed them.

Melanie frowned wondering what she meant by that. As she had a soft spot for children, she felt sorry for the child. He must be so scared being out there on his own. Both time travellers watched as the children hurried out into the hall and out the back.

"Mummy?" the boy called again. Melanie took several steps towards the front door. "Please let me in, mummy", the child begged. A little hand with a scar on it poked through the letter box.

"Are you all right?" the Doctor asked standing beside Melanie.

"Please let me in", the boy repeated. Melanie reached out but before she could touch his hand, an object goes sailing past and shattered against the door. The child's hand withdraws from the letter box.

"You mustn't let him touch ya!" Nancy warned.

"What happens if he touches her?" the Doctor asked tugging Melanie behind him to put some distance between her and the boy.

"He'll make her like him", Nancy replied.

"And what's he like?" Melanie queried.

"I've got to go", Nancy said not really wanting to spend another moment longer in the house.

"Nancy, what's he like?" the Doctor asked repeating Melanie's question.

After a moment's hesitation, Nancy answered "He's empty"

The telephone rings "It's him. He can make phones ring. He can. Just like with that police box you saw" the Doctor picked up the phone.

"Are you my mummy?" the trio head the child say. Nancy snatched the receiver and slammed it back down. Radio started to play in the dining room, the child calling through it for his mum. A clockwork monkey also started up, the child's voice also coming from it as well. Melanie looked at the shadow of the boy by the front door. How can an ordinary child speak through all those things? She thought confused. Nancy left the house not wanting to stay there a moment longer.

"Doctor", Melanie called seeing the boy stick his hand through the letter box.

"Mummy? Let me in please, mummy. Please let me in", he pleaded.

"Your mummy isn't here", Melanie said torn between staying where she was and going to the door. On one hand there was Nancy's warning and on the other there was a scared little boy outside.

"Are you my mummy?" the boy asked again.

"No mummies here", the Doctor said when he joined Melanie "Nobody here but us chickens", he glanced back as the deserted house "Well, two chickens" he corrected.

"I'm scared"

"Why are those other children frightened of you?" the Doctor asked.

"Please let me in, mummy. I'm scared of the bombs", the child pleaded again.

"Should I open the door?" the Doctor asked Melanie. He wanted because he left sorry for the boy but he also didn't want to if it turned out the Nancy was right and he was dangerous.

"Yes. If the boy turns out to be dangerous, we can always run. I doubt he'd be able to catch either of us, he just a kid", Melanie reasoned.

"Okay. I'm opening the door now"

The boy pulls his hand back and the Doctor draws back the bolts. When he opened the door, the boy was gone. The Doctor and Melanie walked down the path looking up and down the deserted street. There was no sign of the child. "I take that back. He's very fast", Melanie remarked.

"We need to find Nancy. If anyone's going to have answers, it's her", the Doctor said and Melanie nodded in agreement.

Nancy was startled when she turned around to see the Doctor and Melanie standing in the doorway of the outer house she'd just entered. "How'd you follow me here?" she asked.

"I'm good at following, me. Got the nose for it", the Doctor said, sounding rather proud at that.

"People can't usually follow me if I don't want them to", Nancy said looking at both of them suspiciously.

"My nose has special powers", the Doctor explained making Melanie smile.

"Yeah? That's why it's uh…" Nancy trailed off, not able to finish that sentence without cracking up.

"What?" the Doctor asked wondering why she just trailed off.

"Nothing", Nancy said trying really hard not to laugh.

"What?" the Doctor asked again.

"Nothing!" Nancy grinned "Do your ears have special powers too?" she asked teasingly.

"What are you trying to say?" the Doctor asked calmly as Melanie burst out laughing. She was aware that his ears were a bit big but that didn't really bother her that much. She didn't even find them funny until Nancy asked her question about them having magic powers.

"Sorry Doctor", Melanie said when she'd finally calmed down.

"Goodnight, Mister", Nancy said turning away. Her teasing had put a smile on her face as well as making Melanie laugh.

"Nancy, there's something chasing you and the other kids. Looks like a boy and it isn't a boy, and it started about a month ago, right?" Nancy turned back to the pair "The thing I'm looking for, the thing that fell from the sky, that's when it landed. And you know what I'm talking about, don't you?"

"There was a bomb. A bomb that wasn't a bomb. Fell the other end of Limehouse Green Station", Nancy replied.

"Take us there", the Doctor ordered.

"There's soldiers guarding it. Barbed wire. You'll never get through", Nancy told them.

"Won't stop us", Melanie said confidently.

"You sure you want to know what's going on in there?" Nancy asked both of them.

"I really want to know", the Doctor replied.

"Same here", Melanie added.

"Then there's someone you need to talk to first"

"And who might that be?" the Doctor asked.

"The Doctor", Nancy replied. She turns away, missing the confused look the Doctor's face.

Even after Nancy showed them where the bomb was, she still insisted that they go see the Doctor first. When Melanie asked why, Nancy replied with "Cos then maybe you won't wanna get inside".

"Where're you going?" the Doctor asked as she started to head back up the steps.

"There was a lot of food in that house. I've got mouths to feed. Should be safe enough now", Nancy replied.

"Can I ask you a question? Who did you lose?" he asked, turning to face her.

"What?"

"The way you look after all those kids. It's because you lost somebody, isn't it? You're doing all this to make up for it", the Doctor said having worked all that out while they were in the house.

"My little brother. Jamie. One night I went out looking for food" Nancy explained "Same night that thing fell. I told him not to follow me, I told him it was dangerous, but he just. He just didn't like being on his own"

"I'm so sorry Nancy", Melanie said sincerely. She didn't know what is was like to lose a loved one, having not experienced herself but she did know that it did hurt, a lot.

"Amazing", the Doctor remarked.

"What is?" Nany asked confused.

"1941. Right now, not very far from here, the German war machine is rolling up the map of Europe" the Doctor explained "Country after country, falling like dominoes. Nothing can stop it. Nothing. Until one, tiny, damp little island says 'no'. No. Not here".

"Kinda like a mouse in front of a lion", Melanie added.

"Exactly", the Doctor agreed "You're amazing, the lot of you" he looked between Melanie and Nancy, a proud look on his face "Don't know what you do to Hitler, but you frighten the hell out of me. Off you go then…do what you've got to do. Save the world".

Feeling slightly better by the Doctor's words, Nancy turned and walked away. "So you think we're amazing now, huh?" Melanie asked as she and the Doctor walked down the steps "because the last time I checked, you called us stupid apes".

"Ellie I was angry at the time and I'll admit that sometimes for a reasonably smart race, you humans do some very dumb things", the Doctor said "but sometimes you do amazing things too like sending people to the moon or…"

"Or standing up against the country who seemingly wants to take over the world?" Melanie said giving him a smirk.

"Definitely. That is amazing", the Doctor agreed "and you're amazing too, my Ellie". For the third time that day, Melanie blushed.

"I'm your Ellie now, am I?" the brunette said teasingly.

"Yes you are", the Doctor said "My Ellie, my Bonded".

"About that…I was thinking…I'd like to form the Bond with you", Melanie admitted.

"Are you sure?" the Doctor asked "because once it's done…"

"It can't be undone", Melanie cut in gently "I know. But I'd like to do it after this trip".

The Doctor nodded "of course", he said with a happy tone in his voice. He was very glad she'd decided to form the Bond with him. He had really hoped that she would. The pair continued down the rest of the stairs. When they reached the gate, the Doctor got out his sonic and used it on the padlock. He then pulled open the gate and they entered the abandoned hospital.