Miracles Out Of Nowhere
Chapter 14
Susan stopped running, her breath ragged, her face now covered in spilt tears. Her planet was gone. And her grandfather had destroyed it. Quivering lips pressed together as she tried hard to prevent the sobs from escaping her, covering her mouth with a hand as she sank down, her knees giving way as Susan collapsed, her head resting against corrugated iron. Finally she let out a wail through fingertips and her body was shaking as the grief and sadness encapsulated her.
Susan let out a sob and wiped her eyes furiously as she buried her face in her knees, drawn up like a child. It was gone, all gone. No red sky, no mountains, no home. Then, she heard a yell.
"Keeper? Thief!" Susan blinked, rapidly as she wiped her face, standing up again and adjusting her clothes as she listened to the voice. It was the mad woman. That silly woman. Susan cursed this whole asteroid, wishing they'd never come. Wishing she'd never met her grandfather again.
Then something struck her, an odd thought, a niggling feeling. Susan followed the voice to another hovel, this time with a cage, and inside it laid the mad woman. Susan approached cautiously, clearing her throat in an attempt to banish her grief; that would be dealt with later and now it was time to take a leaf out of the Doctor's book…and hide it.
"You…you said about the boxes. You meant the Corsair's box. You said they'd make me sad…why did you say that?" Susan asked the woman, who sat up and looked over.
"Ah, it's my Keeper." Idris spoke with calm assurance and Susan only stamped her foot.
"What do you mean by that, hm? Keeper? Keeper of what? I assume you mean me so what does it mean?" Susan asked. Perhaps the woman was simply mad.
"Nothing. It means nothing. Will mean nothing. Used to mean nothing." Idris replied, with a faraway look. Susan got impatient and strode over, clasping the bars with her hands.
"Look, just tell me…please. I just lost my planet. I want to know why you have a Timelord psychic container unless…" Susan took a step back in shock. "A trap? Who are you?"
"It's about time." Idris said, and something about her voice made Susan turn to see her Grandfather, a stony expression on his face as he ran towards the cage, pointing at Idris, his face contorted.
"How did you know about the boxes? You said they'd make me angry. How did you know?" He roared, stopping in front of the cage and pausing, the anger seeming to come off of him in waves. "Who are you?" He asked Idris, angrily. Anger. The boxes made him angry. Susan stepped away from the cage, not looking at her grandfather. Neither acknowledged one another.
"Do you not know me? Just because they put me in here?" Idris replied. Susan frowned and turned back to face the cage.
"They said you were dangerous." She stated, gesturing to her.
"Not the cage, stupid." She said, looking straight back at Susan as she stood up, then her gaze fell on the Doctor as she placed her palms to her cheeks. "In here." She gripped the cage. "They put me in here. I'm the…Oh, what do you call me?" She said, exasperated as both the Doctor and Susan watched with confusion. "We travel. I go…" She made a move to whistle but instead what came out was the most beautiful sound Susan had ever heard. The sound of the TARDIS.
Wait…TARDIS? The Doctor seemed equally concerned and disbelieving.
"The Tardis?" He supplied and Idris elaborated immediately.
"Time and Relative Dimension in Space. Yes, that's it. Names are funny. It's me. I'm the Tardis."
"No, you're not. You're a bitey, mad lady." The Doctor turned away in anger. "The Tardis is up and downy stuff in a big blue box." He stated, gesturing as Susan instead stepped forward, examining the woman, whose gaze was on her grandfather.
"Yes, that's me. A Type Forty Tardis." Idris smiled thoughtfully. "I was already a museum piece when you were young, and the first time you touched my console you said-"
"I said you were the most beautiful thing I had ever known." The capsule had been on display, an antique. He'd snuck in, the doors opening for him to view the white console room. The buy had touched the console and uttered the words, knowing one day that was how he would escape this planet. When it was put in for repair for a navigational problem, it had seemed perfect. Of course, it had been that girl that'd pointed it out, but the memory was fuzzy- fleeing from one's planet did that. Susan had been so young. He stole a small glance at her, who had moved to sit down against the cage, not moving, just staring out empty. His hearts clenched.
"And then you stole me." She looked at Susan. "You both stole me." Her gaze returned to the turned away figure of the Doctor. "And I stole you." Idris said, and Susan gave a breathless smile that quickly faded. The Doctor was lost in thought, almost speaking to himself as he replied.
"I borrowed you." He whispered.
"Borrowing implies the intention to return the thing that was taken. What makes you think I would ever give you back?" Idris asked with a quirk of her lips. The Doctor finally turned back to face her, slowly, ever so slowly.
"You're the Tardis?"
"Yes." She answered, eyes widening in happiness that her Thief had pieced it all together. How clever he was.
"My Tardis?" He asked, eyes narrowing, voice louder, not believing her. It was too much. Too much and not to mention impossible! And yet…
"My Doctor. Oh. We have now reached the point in the conversation where you open the lock." The Doctor doesn't move, to shocked, and Susan huffs, getting up and getting the sonic from his pocket, despite small protests as she reached in his jacket. Susan pointed the sonic at the cage and the lock gave a slight click as it swung open. Then she dropped the sonic onto the dirt ridden floor and gets out of their way as the Doctor scrambles to get the sonic, perturbed when he gets up to find Idris staring at him, close.
They watch each other, out of curiosity, trying to identify each other. Idris looks the Doctor up and down. "Are all people like this?"
"Like what?" Susan asked from her seat that she had returned to, but the TARDIS' gaze never wavered from that of her thief.
"So much bigger on the inside. I'm, oh, what is that word?" She moves away, past the Doctor, lost in thought "It's so big, so complicated. It's so sad."
"But why? Why pull the living soul from a Tardis and pop it in a tiny human head? What does it want you for?" The Doctor asked, seemingly getting his voice back.
"Oh, it doesn't want me."
"How do you know?" Susan asked with her brow furrowing as she surveyed the awkward pair. You'd've thought he would have smiled at least.
"House eats Tardises." Idris replied,
"House what? What do you mean?" Susan asked, more and more confused.
"I don't know. It's something I heard you say." She pointed at the Doctor.
"When?" The Doctor questioned.
"In the future." Idris told him, circling the Doctor as she explored the room.
"House eats Tardises?"
"There you go." Susan said with a quick raise of her eyebrows, not looking at the Doctor, her head now resting on her hands. The Doctor was worried. She should be ecstatic; a human TARDIS! Their TARDIS! Why was she not happy? Well of course he knew the answer, of course he did. Idris, almost as though hearing the constant stream of worried thoughts for his granddaughter, placed a thumb on his lips.
"What are fish fingers?" She questioned.
"When do I say that?" He mumbled against her thumb.
"Any second." Then it hit him.
"Of course. House feeds on rift energy and Tardises are bursting with it. And not raw, all lovely and cooked. Processed food. Mmm, fish fingers." He stared off lovingly into the distance.
"Do fish have fingers?" Idris asked with a blank face. He screwed his face up, stuttering as if he was trying to get all his ideas to form one understandable sentence.
"…But you can't eat a Tardis. It would destroy you. Unless, unless-"
"Unless you deleted the Tardis Matrix first."
"So it deleted you." He gave a chuckle, not believing it could be that easy. It wasn't easy."
"But House can't just delete a Tardis' consciousness. That would blow a hole in the universe. So he pulls out the Matrix, sticks it in a living receptacle and then it feeds off the remaining Artron energy. Oh. You were about to say all that. I don't suppose you have to now." Idris relayed at a rapid pace with a gasp.
Susan then stood up quickly. He was a stupid man. The Doctor looked at her in confusion.
"You sent Amy and Rory in there. They'll be eaten." She yelled at him, and his face turned to one of panic as he grappled the phone from his jacket pocket, clasping it to his ear.
"Amy! Amy? Rory? Get the hell out of there." He roared, already running away. Susan looked at Idris, then at his retreating figure and gave a yell of frustration.
"Stay here!" She yelled, already working out that she was dying. Of course she was, it can't hold a flesh body and live. Idris needed to rest. Susan pointed firmly at the woman before running off, after the Doctor's shouts as they both ran down a corridor, 6 seconds apart.
Susan reached the Junkyard just after him, enough to hear what he was yelling into the phone. They were Ponds, they had to be safe.
"But I've unlocked it." He yelled, fear coursing through his voice. Amy answers and he gave a grunt of anger, getting out the sonic and buzzing it at the doors. Susan, younger than he was, sprinted the last few metres ad reached the door first, banging furiously on the door, trying to get them to shift.
"Come on, come on!" She shouted, the Doctor tried the sonic again, but disregarded it, snapping his fingers.
"Open!" He said to the doors, as though they would listen. Susan was close to tears now, it was getting too much, all of it, all of this, too much. Too much to handle, to process. The TARDIS bell rang and she kicked the door out of pure need to release emotion.
"Open this door!" He roared and the fury was so evident that Susan stood back, her gaze on him. Now this was the man she could imagine wiping out his race. And it horrified her. He pounded on the door once more. "Amy. Rory!" He was fixated on the doors, of getting to his companions, but then the cloister bell rang out.
"No." Susan whispered, before tugging on the Doctor's jacket, making him step back, faltering as they both looked at the TARDIS, dematerializing. The Doctor stood still for a few moments, as though expecting it reappear, as did Susan. Expecting…hoping. But it didn't and he whirled back around, the phone beeping as he held it to his ear.
"Amy? Amy, can you hear me?" Susan watched his face fall. She looked back to the spot where the TARDIS had been, helpless. "Okay, right. I don't, I really don't know what to do. That's a new feeling."
Susan looked back to see the Doctor slap himself, the smile leaving as he turned back and started to run back up the road.
"Doctor!" He brushed her off, because, yes, she knew about Gallifrey, yes, she was probably angry but he had to save the Ponds. There had to be something that he could get right today!
They ran back to the woman who called herself the TARDIS.
"It's gone." He growled at her. Idris looked up from where she sat as the Doctor and Susan came into the room.
"Eaten?" Idris queried.
"No, it left. Not eaten, hi-jacked. But why?" The Doctor was fuming, trying to collect his thoughts as he paced angrily. Susan noticed his hands; balled up into fists. She thought she should feel sorry for him. She decided against it. Then the buxom figure of Auntie spoke up.
"It's time for us both to go, Uncie, and keep together." She spoke to the patchwork man as they gathered various items, drawing shawls around them. The Doctor turned to them, livid.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Go? What do you mean, go? Where are you going?" He asked, sternly.
"Well, we're dying, my love. It's time for Auntie and Uncle to pop off." She answered him, not seemingly bothered but Susan looked back at Idris, as though she would supply the answers, then back at the patchwork people as they walked over to a place to sit, right next to Susan.
"I'm against it." Uncle said with a shrug of his shoulders.
"It's your fault, isn't it, sweets? Because you told House it was the last Tardis." Auntie explained, pointing a finger at the Doctor before turning to Susan next to her. "House can't feed on them if there's none more coming, can he?" She patted Susan's leg and Susan got up, a slightly disgusted look falling on her face as Uncle and Auntie sat down together. The Doctor looked at Susan and she looked at him, but diverted her gaze quickly. The Doctor folded his arms, now determined to keep his focus on the Ponds. He could…explain to Susan later.
"So now he's off to your universe to find more Tardises."
"It won't."
"Oh, it'll think of something." She chuckled, before suddenly collapsing, Susan assuming dead but none the less rushed towards her, checking her pulse, furtively looking between Auntie and Uncle. The Doctor too, rushed over to see if he could help.
"Actually, I feel fine." Uncle remarked. Then he too, fell to the floor with a thump, dead. The Doctor let out a yelp, clambering ungracefully to Uncle's side.
"Not dead. You can't just die!" He cried, bending over them, throwing his arms around.
"We need to go to where I landed, Doctor, Susan, quickly." Susan turned to her, aghast that she would suggest leaving them.
"Why?" She let out, annoyed as she let Auntie's arm drop.
"Because we are there in three minutes. We need to go now." She started running but let out a yelp of pain, wincing, she turned back to Susan and the Doctor, clutching her hip. "Ow. Roughly how long do these bodies last?"
Susan didn't need the sonic to tell her what was going on but apparently he did, getting it out, scanning her before looking at the readings, a look of sadness crossing over his features as he came to the conclusion.
"You're dying."
"Of course she's dying…" Susan said, harshly, looking back at her grandfather before helping Idris stand properly. "She doesn't belong in a human body." Susan added, gruffly as Idris stood on her own and Susan whirled around, taking the sonic from him. She was trying to remain detached but it was so hard.
"I could blow the casing in no time." Idris added, taking the sonic lightly from Susan's hands as the Doctor just stared at her, eyes big and sad. "No, stop it. Don't get emotional. Hmm. That's what the orangey girl says. You're the Doctor. Focus." She held out the sonic, but this seemingly only provoked another outburst.
"On what? How? I'm a madman with a box, without a box. I'm stuck down the plughole at the end of the universe on a stupid old junkyard. Ooo." He stopped, a smile playing on his face which only riled Susan.
"What?" Susan asked him, demanding.
"I'm not." He replied simply.
"Not what?" She inquired, just as fast. He turned, walking right up to her, staring into her eyes. He was willing her to get it, to understand. Susan stared him down, fiercely but there was something else there. Something the Doctor searched for, to pinpoint, to identify. It came to him and he turned back away, shutting his eyes. Disappointment. In him. The Doctor got back on track, shutting away his emotions and turning back to Idris.
"Because it's not a junkyard. Don't you see? It's not a junkyard."
"What is it then?" It was Idris this time who had asked.
"It's a Tardis junkyard. Come on!" He ran towards them both, then past them, and onto the corridor before whirling around, his apparent glee etched onto his face with a huge grin. He had a plan. But he needed to ask something. "Oh, sorry. Do you have a name?
"Seven hundred years, finally he asks." She said, offended slightly.
"But what do I call you?" He asked, plainly, wondering. He couldn't just call her TARDIS, or Idris. Speaking of which, Idris took a moment to think."
"I think you call me Sexy." She said a smile on her features as she stood taller, seemingly smug. Again, Susan was hit with the feeling of wanting to yell, laugh and throw up at the same time. Sexy? Really? The Doctor paled, eyes darting to Susan and then to the woman deemed Sexy.
"Only when we're alone." He whispered. Susan couldn't help but chuckle.
Sexy?" She asked him, and he shot her a bashful smile.
IDRIS: It's only Susan." Idris seemed not to be perturbed. Susan held up her hands in surrender, walking past them and on and into the corridor, towards the main junkyard.
"By all means." She said. The Doctor glanced back at her, and then nodded a smile playing on his features as he looked back at Idris.
"Oh. Come on then, Sexy." And he grabbed Sexy's hands and pulled her along, round a corridor, grabbing Susan's as they past till all three were running. Susan let out a gasp as they came to an opening and onto the vast expanse of pure TARDIS junk. The Doctor ran forwards, letting go of Idris and Susan, his sonic out and scanning, searching for something. Idris and Susan shared a look, Susan giving her a small smile as they made their way up a small hill and saw what the Doctor had expected.
"A valley of half-eaten Tardises." He announced to them both, smiling. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"I'm thinking that all of my sisters are dead. That they were devoured and that we are looking at their corpses." Idris whispered, and Susan went to console the woman, taking her hands and lightly squeezing it, before whispering in her ear.
"I know how you feel. Sorry."
"Oh, my Keeper, you will experience more before this ends." Susan frowned, but the Doctor had heard none of this.
"Ah. Sorry. No, I wasn't thinking that."
"No. You were thinking you could build a working Tardis console out of broken remnants of a hundred different models. And you don't care that it's impossible."
"It's not impossible as long as we're alive. Rory and Amy need us. So yeah, we're going to build a Tardis." The Doctor gave a grin, finally able to have a plan, to be in control of something, and know exactly what he was doing. He bounded down the steep hill, recognising that they needed to be fast to save the Ponds. Susan stayed with Idris, holding her hand and looking on at the Doctor who was now hooking a length of rope around a shard of wall. Susan squeezed Idris' pale hand.
"We'd…probably best help." She spoke, not wishing to. Yes, she wanted the Ponds, but the idea of working with her Grandfather…it made her sick. She wished it didn't but all she could imagine was the blood on his hands. The blood of their people.
"I will help, Keeper." Idris seemed to understand, and let go. The adrenaline from the mystery and run was fading.
"Just…call me Susan." She whispered, walking slowly and steadily with the TARDIS to where the Doctor was.
"Susan. I like it."
"So did I." She chuckled, remembering picking it out. She didn't know the meaning of Keeper. She'd never made her Promise. She had been too young. She had chosen her Earthen name, merely liking the sound. Better than Rose.
"Good." Idris nodded, but her mind was now preoccupied as she watched the Doctor, before bending down and picking something up. "Bond the tube directly into the Tachyon Diverter." She called to him.
"Yes, yes, I have actually rebuilt a Tardis before, you know. I know what I'm doing." He cried tugging on the rope as he gritted his teeth.
"You're like a nine year old trying to rebuild a motorbike in his bedroom. And you never read the instructions." Idris countered.
"I always read the instructions." He protested, tugging harder, as though that would vent his anger.
"There's a sign on my front door. You have been walking past it for seven hundred years. What does it say?"
"That's not instructions." The Doctor shouted.
"There's an instruction at the bottom. What does it say?" Idris said, patiently.
"Pull to open." He admitted, reluctant.
"Yes. And what do you do?"
"I push." He yelled, still struggling to drag the wall.
"Every single time. Seven hundred years. Police Box doors open out the way." Idris shook her head, imitating the doors. The Doctor threw down the rope in annoyance and strode over to her.
"I think I have earned the right to open my front doors any way I want."
"Your front doors? Have you any idea how childish that sounds?" Idris' eyes widened but the Doctor growled, turning away.
"You are not my mother." He said harshly under his breath.
"And you are not my child." She pointed out. This mad the Doctor wheel round and stride back towards her, Idris face now slightly alarmed.
"You know, since we're talking with mouths, not really an opportunity that comes along very often, I just want to say, you know, you have never been very reliable." He was angry, annoyed, frustrated and not just at the TARDIS, at everything. At the fact he was useless, the fact the Ponds were gone, the box was gone and the fact that it was as though he had broken his own granddaughter.
"And you have?"
"You didn't always take me where I wanted to go." He reasoned, a little calmer, but Idris met him face on, knowing exactly what to say. After all, the TARDIS always knew.
"No, but I always took you where you needed to go." The Doctor let out a breathless laugh, in a moment turning from fury to happiness as he ran back towards her, ecstatic.
"You did. Look at us talking. Wouldn't it be amazing if we could always talk, even when you're stuck inside the box?"
"You know I'm not constructed that way. I exist across all space and time, and you talk and run around and bring home strays." She replied, looking at him with confusion before she buckled at the knees, the Doctor catching her.
"You okay?" He asked, voice low and worried. Idris merely looked back.
"One of the kidneys has already failed. It doesn't matter. We need to finish assembling the console."
"Using a console without a proper shell." He gave a low whistle. "It's not going to be safe."
"This body has about eighteen minutes left to live. The universe we're in will reach Absolute Zero in three hours. Safe is relative."
"Then we need to get a move on. Eh, old girl?" The Doctor said, and moved back, grabbing the cable and glancing back over to the human TARDIS, then at Susan, who hadn't moved all through the conversation. She sat, silent and lost; all energy drained a glaze over his eyes. Composing himself, he began to pull the shard of wall once more.
Idris stumbled again and this time Susan looked up, and went over as Idris looked faint.
"Hey." Susan whispered with a small and only slightly forced smile as she took Idris' arm kindly, the woman giving her an odd smile back as they went and sat down on a raggedy old sofa that had an arm rest torn off. Idris clutched the spot where her kidney was placed, her face twisted. Susan wished she could help. But she could.
She looked over at the Doctor who was busy, before turning back to the faint Idris. Her mind was set. "Here, let me help."
She reached out, brushing away Idris' hands before looking down at her own; fair and small, steeling her nerve. Summoning her energy, Susan closed her eyes, breathing deeply as she focused all her mind on her very cells, very DNA. She opened them again. To an onlooker, they would see her eyes glow with a golden light. But the only golden light that Susan could see was that streaming from her hands, curling in the air. It was beautiful.
Susan steadied herself as she placed her hands on Idris' stomach, to heal her. But the glare of the light had made the Doctor turn round to see the sight of his granddaughter using her own regeneration energy. Panic and angry soared through him as he dropped the parts he was holding and charged over.
"Susan, what are you doing? Stop that!" He roared as he ran but Susan didn't. She ignored him and pressed on, watching a hint of colour return to Idris' face. Finally the Doctor reached her, tugging her hands away, despite the danger. Susan's eyes faded along with her hands and she stared at him defiantly.
"That is a waste of regeneration energy and you shouldn't!" He shouted at her, appalled that she would do that, she shouldn't. She needed to keep her lives. She was being stupid. But Susan wasn't going to take that. Finally, all the emotions, the hurt and the confusion, the pain and the loss all converged.
"And WHY NOT?" She yelled, glaring at him and the Doctor just stared, fearfully at Susan because he understood. Why she did it. Not just to help Idris. She could've just helped Idris to walk. No, why she used her energy. Susan viewed it as useless. Of course, what was the point in having extra lives when there was no one to spend them with? He would be dead, only a few faces left himself, even if they all lasted for hundreds and hundreds of years, she still out live him, even if she wanted to see them again. It was in that moment, he saw what he had done to her.
He walked back, needing to rebuild a console and Susan sat back down, patting Idris' arm, silently.
And now reviews notes,
Copperdragon2: I am sorry! I didn't mean to make you cry! Well, I sorta did, but that's cause it's gotta be sad!
Kirbyfan1996: I agree with you on that. There is a lot more intensity, simply because Susan is a complex character and since her return, so has their relationship. She left the TARDIS to grow up and she did. The Doctor's just gotta deal and learn how to be a grandfather again. My plan so far? Is to get to the Day of the Doctor. I don't know how far this fic is going to go as far as moving onto 12, I guess we'll see. But with each series, I will make a new story and make it into a series sorta thing, okay?
DanniFielding: As ever, a joy to see you review! Thanks for your comments, everyone is sad and confused and angry at the moment. It's so depressing. Things will get better though! Maybe...
I hope you liked this chapter guys! It's intense at the moment and I really want opinions on that last scene between Susan and 11! So, reviews would mean so much!
Heather x