So I'm back, nearly a week since the last update, I think. Entering exam mode, so I'm going to reserve Fridays for writing a new chapter. We'll see how it goes. And nearly finished with the Unquiet Dead as well. I quite liked this episode. Thank you so much for the people that reviewed the last chapter. For the people that asked about the Bad Wolf, I have an idea that I'm developing about it, but it's still being kicked around inside my head.

Disclaimer: Not Mine

The Unquiet Dead: Part 4

"You cannot be serious," Rose was saying to the Doctor who frowned, "You can't let them use her for something that you don't know what for,"

We were having a problem with the issue of using the dead bodies for the Gelth to use. Rose was firmly against it. The Doctor was firmly for it. Charles was pondering the existence of everything that he had ever encountered before, and I was torn between two differing opinions. On one hand, waste not, want not. The dead weren't being used for anything per say, but I could see why it could be a serious problem for some people. On the other hand, I was nearly one hundred percent that there weren't any blue gas creatures inside corpses in the twenty first century. I was reluctant to do anything that meant that my world was changed in any way.

There was also the problem of Gwyneth. I wasn't quite sure but I was sure that in situations which were usually presented like this, usually the person who was the bridge between two worlds didn't exactly come out of the situation perfectly. And I liked Gwyneth. Nevertheless this argument with the Doctor was going to go around in circles before anything would truly rectify itself. Better to see what everyone's opinion was before we acted, and Charles wasn't being overly helpful, Gwyneth was out cold and Sneed was being quiet in the corner of the room.

"It would save their lives," the Doctor pointed out, "They're dying and I refuse to be the one who would dash their hopes," they both glared at each other, and I decided to busy myself with checking Gwyneth, feeling that she was stirring slightly, "Who are you to say that they should be left?"

"Who are you to say that they should use dead bodies?" she retorted, and it seemed to be a rather stalemate between them. Gwyneth's eyes fluttered open and Rose broke the glare to attend to her, "It's all right, you're just asleep,"

Gwyneth frowned at us and then bolted upright. I caught her gently, making sure that she was all right. I tried to think back to the first aid presentation that had been shown to me in school, but the only thing I could remember was to consult a Doctor. I didn't think the Doctor was exactly a Doctor of Medicine, "My angels, miss!" Gwyneth said, "They came, didn't they? They need," she was speaking rapidly, all in one long breath. I decided that she was probably fine but should remain in the bed for a little while longer.

"They do need you, Gwyneth," the Doctor stepped closer to the sofa, looking at the girl lying there. I tensed slightly, neither Rose nor the Doctor were really taking Gwyneth's choice into the equation, pushing for her to take their own side, "You're their only chance of survival-"

"Back off," I warned him, and he looked at me with slight surprise. I hadn't said anything against his proposal yet. Rose beamed at me, before her smile faded when I looked at her pointedly, "Both of you leave her alone for a few minutes. She's exhausted, and she's just managed to contact aliens from the other side of the universe. You," I pointed at the Doctor, "She's not going to be fighting your battles for you. And you," I moved my finger to point at Rose, "Let her make her own choice in this. Neither one of you are going to foist your opinions on her," I turned back to Gwyneth, handing her a glass of water, "You better drink this, you've been asleep for a while,"

I had at least shut the argument down for a few more minutes at least. The lull in the conversation allowed for Sneed to pipe up from his overly stuffed armchair. I hadn't failed to notice that he hadn't helped in helping Gwyneth, "What did you say, Doctor?" he asked the man, "Explain it again, what are they?"

"Aliens," the Doctor said bluntly, and I withheld a smile at that. He was clearly impatient to be doing something. I didn't think he would ever be able to keep properly still when it came to something like this. He would much rather do something than talking about it.

"Like foreigners, you mean?" Sneed pressed him, and I did chuckle at that. I really shouldn't, but eighteenth century minds were so close minded. It made me want to ask the Doctor whether we could bring someone from now to my time and see how they would react. The fall out probably wouldn't be very good, but it was something to think about. Very interesting from an academic point of view. Still something to think about...maybe later.

I drew myself back to the conversation in front of us as the Doctor tried to find the words that would properly explain what exactly the Gelth were in relation to location, "Pretty foreign, yeah," he told Sneed finally, "From up there," he pointed upwards. Well that was a way to explain it simply.

"Brecon?" I shook with suppressed laughter at Sneed's words and bit down on my lip in order to stop myself from laughing outright.

"Close," the Doctor answered with a smile, before taking the analogy further, "And they've been trying to get through from Brecon to Cardiff, but the road is blocked," he waved his hands slightly, and I watched him carefully from the chair I had next to the sofa, "Only one or two can slip through, and even then, they're weak, they can only test drive the bodies for so long," test drive, he made it sound like it was extremely easy, "They have to revert to gas, and hide in the pipes,"

"That's why they need the girl?" Charles asked from his chair.

"They're not having her," Rose said firmly and we all turned to look at her. She didn't falter under the careful observation, "I don't care what you said; they are not having her as a bridge so they can possess dead people,"

"But she can help," the Doctor implored her, before looking at Gwyneth, "Living on the rift has made her a part of it," he shrugged, and I leant on my knees, my chin in the palm of my hand, watching him carefully, "Gwyneth can open up the rift, make a bridge and let them through,"

Charles sighed deeply, and I flicked my eyes at him, "Incredibly," he chuckled slightly and then addressed the rest of the room, "Ghosts that are not ghosts, but beings from another world. Only able to exist in our realm by inhabiting cadavers..."

"I can't say it's my favourite way of doing things," I murmured, and then cleared my throat, looking at Rose, "You have to admit it, Rose. It could very well work for the Gelth. It's a good...system. The bodies aren't technically being used, and the Gelth need somewhere to stay for the time being," I drifted my eyes over to the Doctor, "I am, however, not particularly happy about letting the Gelth roam around Earth unchecked. We don't know anything about them,"

"They need help," the Doctor said, "Every minute they're dying and we're running out of time. I don't want to be responsible for their deaths when we can so easily prevent it from happening. It's something that I'm not going to let happen. It's like recycling,"

"But you can't," Rose inputted, "You can't let them run around inside dead people," we both looked at her and I ponder on the seriousness of the debate. It was repugnant to allow something or someone to possess a dead body, simply because they had been people that lived and breathed, laughed and loved. And it was a very odd concept to have a family relative dead and then revived again but with a different person inside. But on the other hand, the Doctor did say that the Gelth probably didn't have long to live. Dilemma, dilemma, dilemma, "Seriously though, you can't," she continued.

"Seriously though, I can," the Doctor snapped back, and I sighed, placing my head in my hands once again. This conversation was going to do my head in if I didn't find a way to properly solve it without Rose or the Doctor blowing up at each other. It seemed like a rather likely note.

"But it's just wrong though," Rose told the Doctor firmly, "Those bodies were living people. We should respect them, even in death," I nodded my agreement to that. There was something to respecting another person in death and in this instance; it wasn't like we were asking the dead people if they didn't mind us using their body for an alien from outer space.

"Do you carry a donor card?" the Doctor demanded of her, and Rose made a frustrated noise.

I decided to put my two cents in, "That's a different kettle of fish, Doctor," I informed him, "Donor cards are the choice of people, not the people that are left behind. No one has asked the corpses whether they want to be used. And donor cards are used for science, to further research. They're not getting possessed by aliens who currently live halfway across the universe. If the people want their bodies to be in use for a Gelth then fine, but you can't just dictate it to the whole of the human race. It's a completely different thing,"

"Yeah, it is different," he answered me, "It's a different morality," he wasn't understanding the different argument here, and it was starting to annoy me just a little, "Get used to it, or go home," we stared at each other, and I refused to back down. I knew that my opinion was a fair and valid one, just like the one that he had just spouted, and if I was being honest with myself, I was a little hurt. The last time anyone had told me to basically shut up and sit down was when I was twelve and I was asking a question in my history class. Same feeling of hurt then...maybe I just had a problem with the authority of such a command, and unlike when I was twelve years old; I wasn't going to let the Doctor win over this argument.

"Not easy, is it, my dear?" Charles asked and both the Doctor and I broke the gaze together as we turned to look at him, "This new world," his tone of voice was slightly reverent and in awe of what was being revealed to him in the course of this evening, "Oh, I was so sure of myself. The great Dickens! Every day, checking the papers for my name," he sighed again, his voice turning back to despondent, "Such vanity. When I'm nothing but an old fool,"

"I wouldn't say that," I replied gently, "There's nothing wrong with staying in this world," I thought on his words, "And I don't think that you're an old fool. An old fool wouldn't be able to write all those books. But I suppose there's always the aptitude to learn more. There's nothing wrong with learning more all the time,"

"But learning what?" he asked of me, "That I'm a spent force? That this addled brained scribbler is no longer use nor ornament?" he looked deep into his glass of sherry, "I didn't need you tell me that, Miss Alice. I've known that for a very long time now,"

The Doctor looked at Rose, "You heard what they said. Time is short," he told her, "I can't worry about a few corpses when the last few Gelth could be dying,"

That didn't exactly sway Rose over to the Doctor's side on this matter, "I don't care," she reiterated firmly, folding her arms, "They and you are not using her," she was speaking rather slowly, as if to get it through his skull and embed the words somehow into his brain. I found it slightly amusing, if not a small bit patronising. I remember when she used to use it on me. Older sister versus the younger sister. Privileges that lay with the older child. I didn't envy her.

"Don't I get a say, miss?" we all turned to look at Gwyneth, still lying there on the bed, still looking rather pale and wan from her previous experience with the Gelth.

"Well, yes," Rose said, "But you don't understand what is going on,"

"Well you would say that miss, because it's very clear inside your head that you think I'm stupid," Rose gaped at the girl's words which were surprisingly not resentful or annoyed. She was simply just stating them as they were fact. And somehow I knew that she was saying fact to my sister. Maybe the eighteenth century wasn't the only period in time that had prejudices of certain class. I was guilty as much as Rose in that respect, people who had only gone to school once a week had the slight disadvantage to someone who had gone every day, but I was learning that cleverness came to many different people. Gwyneth was clearly intelligent, simply from the way that she knew things, "It's true though. A simple child, that's what I am to you. Things might be very different where you come from, but here and now I know my own mind. And my angels need me" she looked at the Doctor, "What do I have to do?"

"You don't have to do anything," the Doctor at least was relenting on that particular front of not demanding that Gwyneth had to do something. I supposed she was probably sick to death of being told what to do all the time, especially with Mr Sneed and the job that she had to do every single day.

But Gwyneth seemed firm about helping the Gelth cross over the bridge and into our world, "They've been singing to me since I was a child," she told us, and the wonder in her voice almost made me smile. She only wanted the chance to help, "Sent by my mam on a holy mission, so tell me,"

"We need to find the rift," immediately by that sentence, I knew that whatever the answer was, I wasn't going to like it. I wasn't being particularly rude or anything, but I didn't think we had a particularly good track record in places where important things lay. The Nesteen Consciousness was in a cellar under London. The switch which turned on the air conditioning on Platform One was on the opposite side of the fans, and now we were in an undertaker's and we had to find something again. I didn't feel hopeful, "This house is a weak spot," the Doctor informed us, pacing around the room, energy clearly bounding around him, "So there must be one spot that's weaker than any other. Mr Sneed," he turned to the other man, "What's the worst part of this house? The place where the most ghosts have been seen?"

The old man looked troubled, "That would be..." he sighed, "The morgue,"

Forget what I said about not being hopeful. That statement dampened the whole of my evening. I mean, come on, the morgue. It had to be the one place where you keep cold dead bodies, and apparently a rip in the whole of the universe. I figured we just had really, really bad luck.

"No chance you were going to say gazebo, was there?" I said mournfully and the rest of the company looked at me like I was insane.

I cornered the Doctor as we were preparing to go down into the cold cellar- I refused to call it the morgue, "You know that theoretically this might save the Gelth from permanent extinction from another part of the universe," I told him, "But clearly it provokes other questions concerning this procedure. What exactly is going to happen once you have made the bridge to the Gelth? Just let them run around inside human bodies for a while?"

"I'll take them to an uninhabited planet," he replied, looking at me honestly, "They can grow and live and be...Gelthlike on their own planet. A new start for them," I nodded slowly, "You're troubled, I didn't think you had a problem with the use of corpses,"

"No, it's not just that," I told him, "Although I do have to admit that the use of corpses gives me shivers and a very strong desire to run away as fast as I possibly could. I don't know...perhaps it's just human nature to be scared of death. It's not exactly natural," he continued his glare, "I mean we're born, we live, we die, and our bodies revert to the soil. Lion King, Gospel One, Chorus. Circle of Life," allowed my shoulders to sag slightly, "But I understand that you need to rescue them, it's perfectly understandable. We just don't know who these aliens are,"

"They're alien," he said, "And they've been affected by the Time War, I can't let them just die. Not like..." he trailed off, his mouth tightly closed.

"But they aren't your people," I finished for him softly, "And as far as I'm concerned, they're not exactly spilling their whole life story to us. I know that there weren't corpses around in the twenty first century society. All I want to know is whether they are able to hold up their side of this bargain we appear to have struck. I like Gwyneth," I pressed him, "And I don't want them to hurt her in any way shape or form, despite the fact that they need her to be a part of this key thing,"

"It will be fine," he assured me, "Everything will work out as it should do. We'll all get out of this safely,"

I looked at him seriously, searching his face carefully for any trace of doubt and then sighed when I saw that he was being surprisingly honest about his intentions. Sighing also seemed to be the action of the day. I was slightly worried about the amount of serious melancholia in this building, "As you wish," I answered him, "I don't particularly like it, but I will go along with this as it seems to be the only option left for the Gelth,"

The cellar, if I was being particularly polite, was downright, bloody freezing. This, if I thought about it for a minute or two, was really the point of a morgue. It was dark, there was no heating and I was wishing that I had remained in my clothes from the twenty first century because it was at the point where the only thing I could possibly think about was getting warm somewhere. And I wanted to get out of the morgue, which was understandable.

"Talk about Bleak House," the Doctor commented as he went into the room, and I shot him a look, rubbing my arms in order to continue the circulation in them, "No need to get annoyed at me about it,"

Rose stepped up to him, lowering her voice, "Thing is Doctor, the Gelth don't succeed," she said to him, "I know they don't succeed. I know for a fact that there weren't any corpses running around in 1869, so they can't have come through the Rift,"

"Time is in flux," he answered, "Changing every second. Your comfy little world," he snapped his fingers, "Could be rewritten like that," she stepped back, "Nothing is safe. Remember that," I rocked back on my feet, not liking the sound of the whole timeline being rewritten. Would I even exist if it got rewritten? I remembered something about if someone stepped on a butterfly they could change the course of human history. I felt sorry for the butterfly, but I knew I'd feel even worse for myself if I wasn't alive anymore, "Nothing,"

"Doctor..." we all looked at Charles, who folded his arms tightly against his chest, "I hope you don't mind, but is it me...or is the room getting colder?" I looked around, hearing the whispers and chatters that seemed to pour from the walls.

"I guess this is it," I answered him, watching as the gas lamps flickered sharply, the blue light replacing it as the beautiful image of the Gelth appeared and floated out of the lamp like a bubble before hovering in the middle of the archway, "Promise me you won't hurt her," I said to them.

"You have come to help!" the Gelth said, "Praise the Doctor! Praise him!" they were clearly ignoring me on the subject of Gwyneth, but then I supposed that there was the whole thing about them dying every second now, "Hurry! Please! So little time! Pity the Gelth!"

You had to admit, I thought as I watched the flickering blue ghost in front of me, what they were saying was starting to sound a little repetitive. But I pushed that out of my mind and paid attention to the Doctor, "I'll take you somewhere else after the transfer," he informed him, "Somewhere you can build proper bodies. This isn't a permanent solution, all right?"

Gwyneth stepped forward toward them, "My angels," she smiled happily, looking so glad to be finally helping those that had been singing to her throughout the entirety of her short life. It was more than personal to her, "I can help them live,"

"Here, beneath the arch!" the Gelth called, and Gwyneth went to stand underneath it, her face practically glowing with the chance to do something. As soon as she stood in the archway however, light bloomed out behind her, swirling, "Establish the bridge! Reach out to the void! Let us through!"

The mere mention of anything remotely connected to something called: the Void, made the hairs on my neck stand up, and I shivered slightly and for once it had absolutely nothing to do with the temperature of the room. The mention of the Void seemed to be something...remote...intangible and downright scary, "Yes, I can see you!" Gwyneth was speaking to the air, seeing things that only she could see on a completely different plane of existence, "Come! Come to me, come to this world, poor lost souls,"

And then light bloomed out her mouth, "It has begun! The bridge has been made!" the Gelth sung behind Gwyneth, "She has given herself to the Gelth!" streams of blue gas seemed to be pouring out of Gwyneth's mouth, Gelth after Gelth. It was a beautiful light display, but I was worried when it appeared that the Gelth didn't seem to be showing any signs of slowing down. More and more were forcing their way through into this world, and I suddenly had a very horrible feeling.

"Doctor," I said to the man standing in front of me, "Forgive me but...there seems to be rather a few more than a limited number," I watched as the Gelth zoomed around the room, "I would even go as far as to say that there were almost an indefinite amount,"

The Gelth in the middle of the room, once looking so lovely and peaceful suddenly transformed itself. It was now larger, flames flickering inside it's body, and it's mouth was crueller, teeth filled, and mocking. It didn't seem like the type of alien that was willing to be accommodating, "The bridge is open!" it announced, and it was far from the airy voice of the previous Gelth. It was rough and clearly masculine, "We descend! The Gelth will come through in force,"

"You said you were few in number!" the Doctor shouted at the Gelth and I could see that he was horrified at being tricked by the aliens.

"A few billion!" the Head Gelth crowed at us, "And all of us in need of corpses!" I wasn't too sure on the math, but I didn't think that there was enough dead bodies that we needed to dispose of that would help with the Gelth's problem of physical form.

Sneed stepped forward towards Gwyneth. He was trembling slightly as well, "Now Gwyneth," he told his servant, "Stop this, there's a good girl. Listen to your master! This has gone far enough now, now stop dabbling, child and leave these things alone, I beg of you," All around us the Gelth were zooming into the different dead bodies that had been stockpiling in the room ready for their funerals in the coming days. As soon as they were possessed, I could see their cold dead hands twitch and move.

"Mr Sneed, get back!" Rose shouted, and I saw a corpse dressed in a nightgown grab a hold of the undertaker's throat and slowly throttle him to death. I tried to move forward, but a tight grip on my arm from the Doctor restrained me enough not to go anywhere near him.

"I think it's gone a little bit wrong," the Doctor said and I looked at him incredulously. That was the understatement of the year. And judging by the fact that Sneed was standing up, his eyes rolling in his head, when he had been dead a few seconds ago showed how much that statement had been.

"I have joined the legions of the Gelth," he rasped, "Come, march with me," I have to say that I was a little confused. Was the Gelth controlling Sneed the Gelth's personality, or Sneed's personality? It sounded like the second but I knew he had been possessed, "We need bodies," the dead bodies were walking towards us, "All of you, dead. The human race, dead, fit only to become our vessels. The Gelth shall march in victory," I wasn't much pleased with that analogy.

"Gwyneth!" the Doctor shouted as we moved back away from the approaching dead, "Stop them! Send them back!" but she couldn't hear us, just being the mouthpiece for more and more Gelth appearing into this world. And we were getting hopelessly outnumbered.

"Four more bodies!" the Head Gelth snarled at us, "Make them vessels for the Gelth!"

"Forgive me," I said wryly, looking at the dead that were approaching us and backing us into a corner, "But I am very reluctant for that to happen," I noticed that Charles had been split away from us, "In fact, I think it's the last thing on earth that I want to happen to me,"

"I'm sorry, Doctor, Miss Alice," I looked over to Charles who was now in the doorway, free to leave, "But I can't. I'm too old! Your new world is too much for me. I'm so sorry..." and then he just disappeared, running through the house. I wasn't much impressed with him, if I was being honest. But then if one person out of all of us was the most important, then it would be a tie between Charles Dickens and the Doctor. At least one of them managed to get out.

And the dead were still gaining on us.

"Into the sluice!" the Doctor quickly opened a metal grill, and we all bundled into it, slamming the grate shut, and preventing the oncoming dead to properly get to us. They stayed at the door, shaking it to try and get into the little place where all three of us were.

"It was a good idea," I admitted to the Doctor, "However we don't have any way of getting out," I looked at him, "And eventually, that grate is going to give way,"

So one more chapter left concerning the Unquiet Dead. I have to say that this is one of my favourite episodes, but am looking forward to doing the next episodes. Particularly Father's Day.

Till Next Time.