Hello again! So I need to apologise for the incredible amount of time it's been since I posted the last chapter. Seriously. It's been ages. I am so sorry to the people that have been following this story, or to anyone that's favourited or just generally been reading it. I don't think my writing style has changed too much, but if it has I'm sorry for that, too. I'll make no promises as to when/if I'll keep posting chapters, and I know that's infuriating, but I honestly don't know what will happen. I can promise I'll try to keep updating, though. I will definitely try my hardest. So to anyone who's still here, or even people that have just joined us, sorry again! And merry Christmas!
"So," Amy said as she munched on what seemed to be a lettuce leaf, but tasted a lot more like chicken. "If the trees are only here to explode, what's the point in trying to eat people?" She and the Doctor were sat in a quiet corner of the pub, enjoying a meal of salad and beans. The ginger was sure they'd started the meal with at least thirty centimetres between them on the small bench beside the table, but they'd seemed to naturally gravitate towards each other and now had their shoulders and legs pressed together.
"To gain extra energy, I'd say. If they've already been here for quite a while and spent energy anchoring themselves in, maybe they need to stock up on food before their next attack." The Time Lord replied with a shrug, taking a sip from his cup of blue juice. Mothel, Amy remembered it had been called.
"So that's why they took the people and cattle, yeah? To get ready to attack again." She confirmed with a small frown, "But.. How much energy do they need before they can make a move?"
"Hopefully quite a bit more. We need as much time as we can get... In the mean time, let's see what we can get out of Molly. Maybe there's something about the history of this place that angered the trees.. Something that brought them here in the first place." He mused, rubbing his jaw.
"Maybe it's something to do with the caves? From what Mick was saying, they sound pretty old."
"Possibly, but they could just have naturally formed like any other cave." The Doctor sighed, looking up at his ginger companion. "I'm missing something, Pond. I know I am.. I just can't put my finger on it."
Amy smiled, nudging her shoulder gently against his. "You will do," she said in an assured tone. "You always do. It might just take you a while."
"The problem is we might not have that long."
The pair finished the rest of their meal in companionable silence, content to simply be in each other's company. After thanking Mick for the food and taking their plates and cups back to the kitchen, they made their way down to the elusive village elder's house.
"Are you sure she'll even speak to us?" Amy asked with a quirked eyebrow, "because it didn't seem that way yesterday. In fact, it sort of seemed like the opposite."
"Oh, come on now! You know me, I'm the king of charming, Pond. I can make anyone like me!" The Doctor declared with a confidence that, considering the roll of her eyes, the Scot didn't share.
"No, you're the king of bad clothes and ridiculous hats."
"Bow ties are cool."
"You wish."
The Time Lord simply grinned and straightened his favourite item of clothing before leading Amy up the path to the small house at the end of the road, his knuckles rapping against the wooden door. They only had to wait a few seconds before the heavy door creaked open, a chain keeping it from moving much farther than a few inches.
"Yes?" An old voice grumbled, untrusting eyes glaring from the darkness inside the house.
"Hello! I'm the Doctor and this is Amy. We met yesterday but I think we got off on the wrong foot.. Mind if we pop in for a chat? I've brought jammy dodgers." The Time Lord said cheerily.
"No. Go away." Came the response Amy had expected and she turned towards the Doctor with an 'I told you so' grin. He ignored her.
"Molly, we've come to talk about your parents!" He said quickly just before the door closed, pausing when it seemed to creak open once more.
"How do you know about them?" The old woman asked, surprise lacing her otherwise hardened tone.
"I know about everyone, I'm very sociable. Now, can we come in for a chat? Promise I won't bite. Amy might, but I'll keep her on a tight leash."
"Oi!" The Scot hissed, elbowing her friend in the ribs.
A few seconds later and the door shut, but only for a moment. It reopened fully and the elderly woman ushered the two of them into the dark house, her glare still stern. "I know what you want, but you can't blackmail me." She said as she walked them to a kitchen table, every piece of furniture coated in a thin layer of dust.
The kitchen was only a little brighter than the rest of the gloomy house, Amy realised, with a single candle lighting the room. This woman really took the biscuit for creepy old lady in a haunted house.
"Of course not! We just want to know about the caves.. And what your elders did in them." The Doctor replied, his voice still carefree.
Molly sighed before she nodded, seemingly conceding. "I'll get the books out.. If you're really here to help, I won't stop you." She said before moving slowly from the room, the creaking of old stairs telling the Doctor and Amy that she'd left that floor.
"Elders? What elders? And what happened with her parents?" Amy asked curiously as she looked at the Doctor with utter bewilderment.
"Oh, absolutely no idea. Lucky guess, I suppose. But old people have old secrets, trust me. I'd know." He replied, looking just as curious as his companion.
The pink haired lady returned a few minutes later, setting an old, leathery book down on the table with a heavy thump. "Everything you need to know is in there.. The mining work, the contracts, the agreements.. Even some of the minerals." She said, beginning to flick through the thick pages in learned strokes. She'd obviously done this many times before.
"Which minerals were they looking for?" The Doctor asked with a small frown, standing up to get a better view of the old book before he stopped Molly from flicking over a page with a small granule stuck to the rough paper. "Ah.." Came his realisation as he quickly scanned the material with the sonic. "Not good.."
"Not good? What is it?" Amy asked, leaning forwards in an attempt to see the small crystal formation a little better.
"Thgard." Molly replied, a crease forming on her wrinkled brow. "You don't know about this?"
"We've been living under a rock for a while," the Doctor interrupted before Amy could respond, reading the results on his screwdriver. "How much was found here?"
The elderly woman sighed. "Enough to burn down a city. But also enough to buy and build a city.. Which is what they did. They found a renewable source of the minerals deep below the village in the caves, so they started to mine it. Soon enough everyone was flooding in from around the system to see if they could find another source to mine.. They couldn't. Ours was the only one that kept producing the minerals at a fast enough speed, and it was safe work. We had more money than we knew what to do with."
"So why did they stop mining? What happened?" Amy asked, looking up to the older woman and being surprised at her now forlorn expression.
"The land was getting desecrated.. Our beautiful valley had been levelled by the miners and the wildlife was dying out.."
"In large quantities the minerals are poisonous," the Doctor explained, "Think of tonnes of nuclear waste mixed with radiation being pumped into the atmosphere and countryside.. Well, that was the effect that the gases released by the minerals had. Usually it'd naturally break down, but no environment can cope with that exposure."
"Exactly." Molly nodded. "So people started to leave.. Our money disappeared and none of the surrounding villages wanted to help. We'd shunned them for our riches, and it was time to reap what we sowed. We didn't help them when they struggled with their hunger, so they abandoned us in our time of need."
"Two wrongs don't make a right." The Time Lord frowned.
"They don't see it that way, obviously. And when the trees came.. Things only got worse."
"So.. Is that why the trees came here?" Amy asked, "Instead of the other villages, I mean. If you were the ones that started killing the land, did they come to stop you? They wanted.. I dunno, pay back for something? To blow up the entrances to the mines?"
The Doctor couldn't help but give her a proud look. Even he hadn't been quick enough to think of that.
"We don't know.. But you could be right. All we know is that they won't let us leave. You were told that we didn't know if the people that tried to leave escaped or not.. That's a lie. We found their bodies.. Or what was left of them in the earth tied up in roots. But not everyone knows because we want to keep hopes up.. I don't know what good that will do us anymore, though." The elderly woman grumbled, sitting down at the table.
"Thank you for your time, Molly. We'll do what we can.. We'll save your village. Trust me." The Time Lord said with a nod, standing up and gesturing for Amy to do the same. "Now, come along, Pond. I think we've bothered her enough."
A few minutes later and the Doctor and Amy were making their way out of Molly's house, Amy shielding her eyes when the bright sun hit them. "Could it have killed her to turn on some lights?" She asked, her gaze slowly adjusting as they made their way down the street hand in hand. Neither one knew who'd initiated the contact, but they weren't complaining.
"Maybe she liked the darkness," the Doctor suggested with a shrug, pausing to lean down and whisper into Amy's ear. "Maybe she's a vampire."
Amy snorted with laughter, rolling her eyes as she nudged her friend with her shoulder. "As if." She grinned before pausing and slowly looking up at him. "Wait.. Could she be a vampire?"
"Anythings possible." Was all he would say, but his teasing grin gave him away.
"Oh, shut your face." The ginger laughed, although she paused when a thought that had troubled her earlier popped into her mind. "What could we blackmail Molly about? And what did she mean when she said she knew what we wanted?"
The Time Lord paused as a furrow came to his brow, his free hand raising to rub his chin. "I'm not sure.. Obviously it wasn't information about the mining because she gave that up easily enough.."
"So she's got more secrets to do with her parents?" Amy guessed.
"Quite possibly. We'll have to keep an eye on her, Pond. When someone's hiding something it tends to be very not good."
"Not to mention when they're hiding it in a pitch black house."
"Definitely a vampire."
A few hours later and the time travellers were walking around the outskirts of the small town, although never straying too close to the trees. "And so that's when her head fell into the goo, and they tried to make me sonic it into a football!" The Doctor finished his story with a grin, his hands gesticulating wildly around him.
Amy was surprised she hadn't been smacked in the face yet as she burst into peals of laughter, stumbling along at her best friend's side. "That's mad!" She grinned, "the lizard would've been squished!"
"That's exactly what I said." He nodded, still chuckling to himself at his own story before the two of them fell into a comfortable silence. Which he knew he had to break in the most uncomfortable way. "So.. How are you doing?" The Time Lord asked softly, giving his friend's hand a gentle squeeze.
"Hmm?" Amy asked, looking up at him whilst keeping the smile on her lips. "Fine. I don't think I'll ever look at trees the same way, but hey.. It's part of the day job."
The Doctor sighed, shaking his head as he kept his gaze locked on hers. "You know what I mean."
A few seconds of silence hung between them with an air of discomfort before Amy pulled her hand from the Time Lords, folding her arms against her chest. "I'm fine, Doctor. There's nothing wrong with me anymore."
They both knew that that wasn't true.
"Amelia.. These things don't just disappear like that. It doesn't just go away before you're not.. Because you're not being hurt by him anymore."
"Don't call me Amelia." The ginger snapped, her shoulders hunched defensively. "My name is Amy. I'm not a kid anymore."
"You are to me. Everyone is." The Time Lord replied easily, still studying his old friend.
"That doesn't mean you get to treat me like one."
The Time Lord paused, replaying her words in his mind. "You think I treat you like a child?"
"Yes! Well.. No! But I can take care of myself!" The ginger stumbled over her words, her nails digging into her biceps. She didn't want the Doctor to feel like she was some stupid girl he had to take care of.. And she didn't want to be just another worry in his mind.
"Caring for someone and taking care of someone are two very different things.." He muttered, gently placing a hand on Amy's shoulder to stop her. He didn't miss the way she flinched when he raised his hand to cup her cheek. "I just want you happy, Pond.."
Amy paused to allow herself be comforted by the familiar feeling of his hand on her cheek before she replied, her eyes flickering closed for a second. Couldn't she just freeze this moment and live in it forever? "I know.. And I'm sorry for.. For being a nuisance and getting in the way. I wish I could just.." What? What did she wish for? Her gaze dragged down to his lips and suddenly she knew. "Doctor, I-"
"Hush." Amy was cut off by the Doctor's words as he held his hand up for silence. Suddenly she realised what he'd needed to concentrate on.. The ground was shaking.
A rumble sounded from somewhere deep in the forest, growing louder at an alarming rate. Was it getting closer..? "Doctor, is that-?"
"Probably!" He cut her off again. She hoped it was becoming a habit.. "Come on!" He said, ushering her away from the trees and scanning the ground as they went. "Oh dear.. Not good.. Very not good at all.."
"Doctor! What's going on?" Amy asked, stumbling along whilst the shaking only seemed to grow worse.
"It's the trees! They've got enough energy.. The roots are being pushed forwards under the village!" The Time Lord had to shout to be heard. "Come on! Inside!" Grabbing each other's hand, the two raced into the pub where Felix and Evan were doing their best to keep the bottles of precious food and drink from smashing to the floor.
"What's happening?!" Evan yelled when he saw the Doctor, his glare accusing. "What've you done?!"
"Oi! He's the one that's trying to help!" Amy defended, almost being sent crashing into a table by a particularly violent quake in the ground before the Doctor caught her in his arms, bringing her to his chest just as the shaking stopped.
"Well then.." He puffed, looking down at Amy ,who was still held tightly in his arms, with a smile and a twinkle in his eye. "That was fun." The ginger found herself grinning along with him as she finally pulled away, trying as hard as possible to keep the blush from her cheeks. What was up with her? She and the Doctor had hugged like that countless times when the ground wasn't shaking, so why did she feel like a silly school girl now?
"Well I'm glad you enjoyed yourselves," Felix snapped from where he stood, now relaxing his hold on the bottles. "Someone could've been hurt.. Or even died. Ever think about that?"
"Oh, lighten up. It was only a little earthquake, nothing serious happened." Amy replied with a roll of her eyes.
"Don't you tell me what to do, you stupid girl," Felix replied as he took a step towards Amy who instinctively stepped back to the Doctor's side. "You've already outstayed your welcome by arriving here. Watch yourself."
Amy didn't want to admit just how fast her heart was beating or how her hands were shaking at Felix's threat, and she was more than grateful when the Doctor intervened.
"Hey, calm down." He ordered, stepping in front of the ginger and holding her behind his back. "We're here to help, not hinder. And if you talk to her like that again," The Time Lord paused, his tone angry and his eyes dark as he stared the boy down, "you'll have me to deal with."
Amy couldn't stop herself from flinching again when Felix stormed out and slammed the door, and she felt more than stupid. She couldn't even deal with an overly aggressive teenage boy who had too many hormones pumping through his system without her mind bringing up memories of Rory's shouting, forcing her to flinch and shy away from slaps and punches that weren't even coming. Why couldn't she just pull herself together? The ginger clenched her jaw with anger at herself, blinking away the hot tears she felt forming in her eyes. This was beyond ridiculous.
However she was pulled from her thoughts by the Doctor's gentle hand clasping both of hers, his other hand resting on her cheek as he kissed her forehead. "Hey.. It's okay, it's alright. He's not going to hurt you.. I won't let him." He whispered, attempting to reassure his scared companion.. She was so obviously still fragile after her toxic relationship with her husband.. And after nearly being killed by him, who wouldn't be?
"I hate to break up the sweet moment, but could you tell me what the hell just happened?" Evan interrupted, walking around the pub and beginning to switch the lights as the sky outside grew dark.
"Doctor.." Amy murmured, now calmed by his reassurances as she looked to the window and bit her lip.
"Two seconds, Amelia. He deserves an explanation."
"But Doctor.."
"Basically, the trees have linked with the roots and now they're growing the roots under the village to enable the trees to gain more leverage when they try to-"
"Doctor, I really think-"
"-destroy the village and feast off of the ruins so that they can-"
"Doctor!" Amy finally broke through with a sharp tug to his sleeve. "The trees.. They've come closer."
The Doctor paused as his companions words finally registered in his mind before he was racing out the door, leaving Amy to roll her eyes and follow him along with Evan. "That's not good.. That's not good at all. They must've moved closer whilst the roots were spreading.." He thought aloud, using his screwdriver to scan the trees.
"But.. I don't understand, trees can't move!" Evan muttered under his breath with a shake of his head.
"Well quite clearly they can." The Doctor said with a roll of his eyes, catching Amy's hand and pulling her back when she began to step closer to the looming forest. "It's too dangerous, Amelia."
"And too late. You two had better get inside with me.. It's getting dark." Evan grunted, gesturing to the shadowy village. "Soon enough the Kwarls will come and I don't want Laura mad at me for letting them tear you apart."
"But I-"
"He's right. Come on." The Doctor agreed with a nod, happy he had a better excuse to keep his companion out of the woods than just some rather ominous looking trees. Granted they could move, but flesh eating monkeys just seemed more scary.
"Everything's dangerous around you. You can't protect me forever." The ginger grumbled, folding her arms as the two of them made their way inside the pub. "And if you interrupt me one more time I'll.. I'll steal your bow tie and cut it up."
"You touch my bow tie and I'll drop you naked in the Arctic Ocean."
A few hours later and the village was once again winding down and locking up for the night, the villagers leaving in groups for safety and Felix locking the door.
"The trees will attack tomorrow." The Doctor told Amy in a quiet tone, the two of them heading up the stairs to their room as he spoke. "And I've got no idea how to stop them."
The ginger frowned as she opened the door and walked inside, drawing the curtain across the window and settling down on the foot of the bed. "Could we use the mineral to.. I don't know, damage the trees?" She suggested, biting her lip.
"Good thought, but no. There isn't enough left to take down a single branch, let alone a whole forest. It was shipped off to other planets as soon as it was mined up." The Doctor replied as he paced back and forth in the room, his lips pressed into a thin line as he thought.
"And I'm guessing there's no way to make more."
"Correct." He sighed, finally slumping down to sit beside his friend with his back pressed against the wall, peaking out of the window to see the last of the house doors being slammed and locked. "I don't know, Amy.. Maybe this is one place we can't save. Maybe we just need to find a way to the TARDIS and leave.."
The Scot paused and frowned, shifting closer to the Doctor and resting her head down on his shoulder. "You never say that. You never give up on a planet.."
"First time for everything," Came the Time Lord's sigh.
"You'll think of something tomorrow." Amy said, sounding completely sure. "Besides, I'm not going to let that cute little man-eating hedgehog die."
A low laugh escaped his lips as he patted her knee, his head resting on top of her's. "That's my Pond. Always caring about cute little devil creatures."
"Learnt from the best." The ginger grinned, the first screech from the Kwarls making her shudder. "Although I think I'd be okay with letting those devil creatures die," she whispered, relaxing when she felt the Doctor's strong arm wrap around her shoulders.
"Let's just try and get some sleep, Amelia. Give my old brain some time to think."
With that, the pair settled down on the bed, neither mentioning their closeness or the fact that their legs were as tangled as the thick branches outside.
Amy found herself staring wordlessly into the Doctor's eyes once more, feeling as if she might get lost in them at any moment. She could almost see all the death he'd witnessed, all the hopeless destruction and devastation and loss.. But she could also recognise the happiness of saving a species, the unbridled joy at witnessing a new star's birth or the contented calm that came when a peace treaty was reached. She felt so safe here.. So happy tucked up in bed next to her raggedy man, her best friend, with his arm looped around her shoulders to keep her as close to him as possible.
Her gaze drifted down to his lips.. His perfect lips that whispered devotions and safety into her mind that was matched by nothing else in the universe..
And then she was kissing him. Slow and gentle at first, but soon speeding up when she felt the Time Lord reciprocate and begin to move his lips encouragingly against her own. Her fingers tangled in his brown hair and she took control, her hand on his chest pushing him to lay down as she moved to straddle his waist, their chests pressing urgently together as her heart thundered, nearly catching up with the double beat of his own hearts. A moan of pleasure slid past her lips when she felt a gentle hand cupping her cheek, the other gripping her waist and urging her on.
She almost didn't notice at first, but the grip was tightening and she could feel each individual finger digging into her hipbone, forcing her to pull away from the kiss. "You're hurting me.." The quiet, almost fearful words escaped her lips before she could stop them and she swallowed hard, her eyes flickering open when she heard the reply.
"Good. I want to hurt you."
"Rory.." No.. No, this couldn't be happening.. He wasn't here anymore, he wasn't even on the same planet!
"You think I don't know you're thinking about him, you filthy bitch?" His words sliced through her skin just like his violence had so many times before, opening up cuts and wounds that the Doctor had previously healed. She screamed as she felt her skin splitting open under his touch, gashes and welts forming across her body. "You deserve this.. You deserve to die and you know it.. Any desperate whore who cheats on her husband deserves to be punished.."
Amy was sent reeling from the bed after a fist connected with her temple, and she was soon gasping for breath as a foot pressed into her stomach. He was standing above her, pressing all of his weight down.. He'd kill her this time, surely.. Crush the life out of her like he'd tried so hard to do in the past. "Rory, please.." The Scot managed to gasp out, but was silenced when his other foot collided with her head in a strong kick. Her whole body writhed weakly in an attempt to escape, but she was so tired of this old game.. So tired of trying to fight to get away, so tired of fighting her own husband.. She saw his foot raise again and watched as it rushed down towards her head.. But the blow never came.
"Amy! Amelia! Wake up!" The Doctor's voice hissed in her ears. Wait.. The Doctor's voice? "It's a dream, just a dream, but you need to wake up!" He sounded worried.. Almost desperate.
Finally, her eyes flickered open and she was staring into those deep green eyes once more. Safe.. She was safe. It must've been another dream. "Doctor.." She whispered, although her words sounded muffled. His hand was over her mouth again, although he removed it as soon as she spoke.
"Hey, sleepy head." Came his quiet whisper, but his eyes never stayed on hers, continuously flicking to the door and back. "You were dreaming again.. I had to keep you quiet," the Time Lord apologised before he continued. "I think the Kwarls got inside downstairs.. They've broken the door down, but so far they haven't come up."
Amy paused, still trying to gather her bearings. Where the hell had that dream come from? She hadn't dreamt of being like that with the Doctor since.. Well, since she'd been married. And even then she'd just put it down to confusion. "What about Felix? He's down there with Mick, isn't he?" She finally whispered, hoping the blush on her cheeks had gone unnoticed.
"That's what I'm worried about. But as long as they keep quiet, I think they'll be o-" An animalistic scream interrupted his words, and they both heard the splintering of a wooden door as it was clawed and thumped against. But it didn't come from downstairs.. It came from the entrance to their room, just a few feet away.