Whoo! Final part of The Unquiet Dead : ) I can't believe that a little over a month ago we hadn't even finished The End of the World, but I suppose that's just how stories go sometimes : ) I'm looking forward to getting these 'beginner' adventures done so I can move into more interest territories with the characters and get the story going : )
I want to say a massive thank you to those of you that reviewed the last chapter. It got a really great response so please keep it up as it really does mean a lot to me as a writer : )
Also, please remember that Doctor Who is not owned by me, but Craig Tyler is.
Enjoy : )
The Unquiet Dead – Part 4
Mr Sneed led the group down to his basement which doubled up as the morgue. He unlocked the door, and they all trooped in, the Doctor looking around at the cold, gloomy place with interest. Several tables were placed in rows, each with a body under a white sheet resting on top.
A strange sort of cell was at the back of the room, iron bars making up its door.
The Doctor grimaced, trying not to imagine what Mr Sneed used that for. He really didn't want to think about what Gwyneth could have done to deserve being locked up. Probably just saying 'No'.
"Talk about Bleak House" the Time Lord said with false cheer.
"Am I missing something Doctor?" Craig said from the back of the group.
"Other than a brain?" the Doctor teased.
Craig smiled and rolled his eyes fondly.
"Alien Git. But really, am I? Because I know for a fact that corpses weren't walking around in 1869. So how can the Gelth possibly succeed?" he asked interestedly.
The Doctor fixed him with a serious look.
"Time is in flux. It's changing every second. Your cosy little world could be rewritten like that" the Time Lord clicked his fingers to emphasize his point, "Nothing is safe. Remember that. Nothing".
"Cheery. Thanks. Any time you want to unnerve me, feel free" Craig rolled his eyes sarcastically.
"Will do, ta" the Doctor beamed at him.
"Hang on though, if it'll change time, isn't that a reason not to let the Gelth through" Rose piped up.
The Doctor scowled at her, annoyed that she was still up for an argument about this.
"You're just being prejudice now" he told her sternly, "You're just scared of the Gelth and you're lashing out at them".
"No, I'm not" Rose snapped back, "I'm not afraid of them. I'm just worried. I don't think they can be trusted, and you're not looking at the full picture".
"Meaning?" the Doctor demanded heatedly.
"Look, if those ghosts hadn't become like this because of the Time War, you wouldn't be suggesting any of this" Rose told him angrily.
The Doctor's jaw dropped.
As loathed as he was to admit it, he knew that Rose had a point there.
"You want to undo some of the damage. That's what this is all about" Rose said more gently.
The Doctor swallowed hard, and looked at her with suspiciously bright eyes.
"Is that such a bad thing?" he asked in a voice more vulnerable than Rose would ever imagine him using.
"No" she immediately shook her head, needing him to understand her point, "It's a wonderful thing that you want to try and reverse the damage done to the Gelth. But overlooking the dangers because you're blinded by desire for retribution isn't the way to do it".
"Dangers we don't know actually exist" the Doctor mumbled.
"Doctor" Craig piped up, mostly just to break up the argument, "Is it just me, or is the room getting colder?"
The rest of the group all felt it too.
"I would imagine that that is their cue" Charles said as the gas lamp on the wall began glowing and flickering.
They all watched the lamp intently.
"Here come the Ghosts" Rose muttered as the Gelth Leader flooded into the room, positioning itself beneath a great archway that held up the ceiling and probably the house above.
"You have come to help!" it cried delightedly, "Oh, praise the Doctor! Praise him!"
"Promise you won't hurt her! That you won't hurt anyone!" Rose yelled at the translucent figure before them.
"Hurry!" the Gelth completely ignored her words, "Please. So little time. Pity the Gelth".
Rose narrowed her eyes.
Ignoring her like that really hadn't helped their case as far as she was concerned. She wanted to call them out on it, but the Doctor spoke up before she could.
"What planet do the Gelth originally come from?" he asked quietly, "What happened to it during the war?"
The Gelth let out a dreamy sigh, and if it had a corporeal form, Craig would bet its face would be wistful right about now.
"Our world was truly a world of beauty. It was called Geladon, after our goddess Geladonus, who swallowed stars from the sky and sparked the fire of life. The plasma forests were our home, and the planet's core was an enigmatic beacon that pulsed out an hourly wave of psychic energy. We felt safe there, united with the rest of our kind" the Gelth explained in its echoing voice, before its tone darkened miserably.
"But then the Time War raged. Our skies burned as alien radiation destroyed our beautiful paradise and all the worlds around it. They vanished from existence as our bodies melted away before us as our minds watched. Now we are trapped in this wretched form, trapped in the Darkness, which is why we beg you will save us. We beg that you will pity the Gelth" the creature pleaded desperately.
Rose bit her lip. Despite her worries about the Gelth, she couldn't help but feel sorry for them after hearing that.
Unless it was all a lie...
"I'm so sorry" the Doctor whispered, horrified by the images in his mind's eye, "I'm sorry that I can't bring Geladon back. That I couldn't save it. But I can give the Gelth a second chance. Once you've got the bodies and we've finished the transfer, I'll take you somewhere else. You can't stay on Earth but I'll find you another planet, I promise".
Craig looked at his alien friend sadly.
He could tell just how much he meant those words.
"My angels" Gwyneth looked up at the figure, hope burning in her eyes, "I can help them live".
"Okay, where's the weak point?" the Doctor asked eagerly.
The Time Lord was keen to get this show on the road, the possibility of redemption clouding his sight of Rose's warnings and the dangers involved.
"Here, beneath the arch" the Gelth sang happily.
Gwyneth went to position herself beneath the arch, but Rose rushed to her and gently took her hands.
"You don't have to do this" she pleaded for the maid to see reason, "We still can't be sure".
Gwyneth just smiled and placed a hand on Rose's cheek.
Even now the servant girl could see a little glimmer of gold sparkling in the child's eyes. She knew that one day; Rose Tyler would shine brighter than the stars themselves.
"My angels" she said, as if to confirm her decision.
Then she pulled away from Rose and stepped into the archway.
Rose staggered backwards, and Craig took her hand to offer her some silent comfort.
He saw a flash of an image of a young Rose on her first day of primary school, grinning at their mum through the iron gates, but with great effort he forced the image away.
"Establish the bridge, reach out to the void, let us through!" the Gelth cried, its shape starting to glow and look more defined.
"Yes. I can see you!" Gwyneth gasped in delight, "I can see you! Come!"
"Bridgehead establishing" the Gelth said, almost mechanically.
"Come!" Gwyneth whispered, "Come to me! Come to this world, poor lost souls!"
The figure hovering over Gwyneth sharpened into complete clarity.
"It is begun!" the Gelth cried gleefully, "The bridge is made!"
Craig doubled over and let out a grunt of pain as the pressure at his temples started building again. He let out a whimper and tore his hand from Rose's, clutching at his head.
"Craig?" Rose gasped in alarm, "What is it?"
"It's the rift" the Doctor realised.
He walked over to his doubled-over friend and rubbed his back reassuringly.
"It'll pass Craig, just hold on" the Time Lord soothed.
Craig whined as more images hit his mind, and he tried to force them away. But it was just so hard… and it hurt. Forcing them away hurt his mind.
Craig gulped in some air and forced himself to stand up straight again.
The Doctor and Rose put an arm around him each to support him. Again, Craig's mind felt theirs, but he tried to block them out again. A string of images still leaked through though.
They turned back to Gwyneth just in time to see her mouth fall open and be filled with a white light as the Gelth began pouring out of her.
"She has given herself to the Gelth!" the leader of the Gelth said happily as more and more of the ghostly aliens poured out of her mouth.
The Time Lord and the humans looked up as the Gelth began circling the ceiling.
"There's rather a lot of them, eh?" Charles muttered nervously.
More and more ghosts kept pouring out.
"The bridge is open" the Gelth leader cried, its voice changing from child-like to that of a feral beast, "We descend".
Suddenly, the figure changed from a cool blue to a demonic red. Its angelic appearance vanished, leaving an ugly, monstrous figure in its place.
"The Gelth will come through in force" it growled possessively.
The group all stared at it in horror.
"You said that you were few in number!" Charles suddenly yelled, outraged by the deception.
"A few billion" the Gelth laughed nastily, "And all of us in need of corpses"
All around them, the bodies on the tables began to stir and rise as the Gelth poured into them, taking them over as the Doctor, his companions, Charles and Mr Sneed looked on helplessly.
"Oh no… Doctor!" Craig cried, hunching over again and clutching at his head.
The Time Lord whirled on the spot.
"What is it?!" the Doctor demanded.
He leaned down and gently tilted Craig's head up so he was looking him in the eye. The Time Lord gasped when he saw Craig's eyes sparkling with an unearthly light.
"I can… I can see them for what they really are… they won't let you take them to another planet… they want the Earth… and they will take it!" he whimpered.
Horrified, the Doctor looked back at the Gelth leader, trying to think of a way to end this peacefully but coming up with nothing.
"Gwyneth... Stop this!" Mr Sneed started shouting, storming over to his servant, "Listen to your master! This has gone far enough. Stop dabbling, child, and leave these things alone. I beg of you..."
But Gwyneth was helpless to obey her Master.
She was gone now, lost in the abyss, her shell the gateway for the invaders that just kept passing through her.
"Mr. Sneed!" Rose yelled, seeing something the others hadn't, "Get back!"
A corpse grabbed Mr Sneed from behind and he yelled out.
Unfortunately, the undertaker was easily held in place by the zombie, and with a sick crack, they all winced as the Gelth-infected-host snapped the poor man's neck.
Another Gelth flooded into his mouth and took over his body.
The Doctor, Rose and Craig all leapt back in shock and disgust and pity for the poor bastard.
Craig cringed in horror.
The bastard may have sexually assaulted his sister and Craig loathed him for that, but he'd never wanted this. He hadn't wanted the man dead.
And he was dead.
He was looking up at them through blank, empty eyes.
"I think you might have been right Rose" the Doctor said weakly.
"Oh really?" she snapped furiously, gesturing angrily at Mr Sneed's possessed body, "And whatever makes you think that Doctor?!"
"I'm sorry" he whispered, ashamed of allowing himself to be so easily manipulated.
"I have joined the legions of the Gelth" Mr Sneed's body growled at them, "Come. March with us".
"No!" Charles whispered from his relatively safe position by the door.
The other three living beings in the morgue weren't so lucky.
The crowd of bodies was blocking their way out, advancing on them and forcing them back. And more and more kept coming to life as more Gelth poured into their world from another.
"We need bodies" the Gelth said in unison, the voices of their bodies talking with them, "All of you. Dead. The human race. Dead".
Like hell the Doctor would let that happen.
"Gwyneth, stop them!" he shouted over them, "Send them back! Now!"
"Four more bodies convertible" Gwyneth droned helplessly, "Make them vessels for the Gelth".
Rose stared at the maid, horrified by her words.
"She can't help Doctor" Craig whined as they backed up towards the dungeon door, "They've taken her".
"Doctor! I can't! I-I'm sorry!" Charles cried in alarm.
The Doctor glanced over his shoulder to the cell door, before deciding it was their only option. He grabbed Rose and Craig by the shoulders, the latter clutching at his temples again and hissing in pain, before he pushed all three of them into the cell and slammed the door behind them, trapping them inside.
"This new world of yours" Charles rambled, "It's too much for me! I'm so..."
Another Gelth screamed and dive-bombed towards him, and casting one more fearful look around the room, Charles Dickens turned and fled.
"What now?" Craig cried, frightened, "What do we do now?"
The corpses stalked up to the dungeon's door, rattling the bars and reaching through.
The Doctor, Rose, and Craig all pinned themselves against the back wall so they weren't in the clawing hands' range.
"Give yourself to glory" they said in their echoing voices, "Sacrifice your lives to the Gelth".
The Doctor glared at them, disgusted by them and by himself.
"I trusted you. Rose was right all along, but I was too blind to see the truth in her words! I can't believe I actually allowed myself to pity you!" the Time Lord spat venomously.
The corpses' face all curled into ugly sneers.
"We don't want your pity!" the Gelth all snarled in response, "We want this world and all its flesh!"
"Not while I'm alive" the Doctor snapped back.
"Then live no more" was their simple collective response.
"That's original" Rose scoffed sarcastically.
"But what do we do now?" Craig asked hopelessly, "We're completely trapped! Are we…?"
The blonde man looked striken.
"Are we what?" the Doctor turned to him.
He'd never heard the Tyler male sound so afraid before.
"We are… we're gonna die, we're gonna die here and now in this dungeon… oh god…" Craig was close to losing it now.
The Doctor turned to him, and the guilt was burning away in his ancient eyes.
I'm so sorry" he whispered.
"But… hold on, isn't this whole thing a big paradox?" Rose rubbed her chin thoughtfully, "If we die in 1869, and the world as we know it ends... that means we would never be born... which means that you won't meet us in 2005 and you won't bring us here to see the past… which means that we won't get Gwyneth to open the rift and let the Gelth through and take over the world!" Rose exclaimed excitedly.
Any other time, the Doctor would have been extremely impressed that Rose, a member of the stupid apes, had actually figured all that out.
Right now however, things were too bleak to be focusing on the minor things.
"In theory… but if we never came here, the Gelth would still pour through, until eventually the rift fractured instead of opening… same result in the end" the Doctor shook his head sorrowfully.
"Oh..." Rose looked disheartened.
"So there's no way out of this?" Craig asked desperately.
Sighing, the Doctor shook his head.
"No… this is all my fault. I'm so sorry Craig, and you Rose. If I had just listened to you… I'm sorry" he said, guilt and shame in his voice.
The Tylers shared a look before either of them replied to his words.
"Don't be… this isn't your fault" Rose told him sincerely.
"We don't blame you, you were just trying to help those you thought needed it" Craig added.
The Doctor stared at them both in amazement.
Once again these brilliant, shining little humans astounded him.
By rights they should be raging at him, accusing him of being their executioner, but here they were, offering him assurances.
He would never understand these Tyler people.
"It's still my fault though" he shook his head miserably, "I brought you both here".
"We wanted to come" Craig reminded him pointedly, "Both of us did. And besides, what would we have ever achieved, staying at the Estate?"
Rose nodded her agreement.
"What about me?" the Doctor almost laughed, "I saw the fall of Troy! World War Five! I pushed boxes at the Boston Tea Party, now I'm going to die in a dungeon!" he suddenly looked horrified at his next realisation, "In Cardiff!"
"But it's not just dying" Rose frowned, "We're gonna become one of them".
They all looked at the dead bodies that were still rattling and reaching through the bars. Craig nervously nudged Rose in the side. He felt her fear flash through his mind at the touch and shivered.
"Remind you of anything, Liz?" he asked with a weak chuckle.
Rose snorted humourlessly.
"Very much, Shaun" she smirked and Craig smiled.
The Doctor stared at them both in absolute bewilderment.
"What the hell are you two on about?" he demanded.
Rose and Craig both looked at him, then at each other, and then back at the Doctor again.
"Barbara" they said together, before laughing.
The poor Doctor looked more confused than ever.
"No, I'm the Doctor, remember? I left Barbara behind with Ian… blimey, now that was a long time ago" the Doctor shook his head reminiscently.
Craig and Rose stared at him blankly.
"No?" the Doctor blinked, "Then I'll just assume you were just trying to settle your nerves with some primitive ape humour" he shrugged off the moment.
"It's a film, about zombies…" Craig giggled at the bewildered look on the Time Lord's face.
"I don't know" the Doctor shook his head, "We're all going to die, right here and right now... and you two are quoting bad zombie films. That's just typical".
"But it brings up a good point, because I'm not going down without a fight" Rose's voice was suddenly very determined.
She looked around the ground and spotted some tools and pipes that littered the floor of the cell. She picked up a heavy looking wrench and handed it to Craig, gathering up a pipe for herself.
The Doctor looked at her for a moment, before his face split into a grin, and he pulled out his sonic screwdriver.
"You boys with me?" she asked and they both nodded.
"Yeah" the Doctor nodded, turning back to the crowd of Gelth Zombies.
"I'm with you Sis" Craig replied.
"All three of us together?" she asked to confirm.
"Yeah!" the Doctor almost laughed.
"Definitely" Craig held the wrench up higher.
The Doctor and Rose linked their free hands, sharing a look of understanding, yearning, and determination. So many different emotions passed between them in that one look.
"I'm so glad I met you" he whispered to her.
The grin that lit up Rose's face almost made all this worth it, the Doctor thought bitterly.
"Me too" she beamed.
They smiled at each other, before the Doctor looked past her to Craig instead.
"I'm sorry I can't promise you that I'll get you and your sister out of here Craig. But I can promise that I'll try my best" he said, genuinely meaning it.
Craig smiled at him, and the Doctor felt some of his guilt ease away.
"I know you will Doctor… thank you… for all of it" he said, his smile widening all the more.
"Right then, here we go" the Doctor reached for the door, "Good luck!"
He slammed the door open and the trio charged out, their weapons held high.
Craig dodged out of the way of the cold dead hands grabbing at him, and he swung the wrench at Mr Sneed's head, gorging a thick chunk of flesh and skull away, leaving a bloody great whole in his face.
The blonde man grimaced in disgust and guilt, but it wasn't enough to stop the Zombie advancing on him.
Rose briefly hesitated as Mrs Redpath's corpse came at her. It was in the form of an old lady after all. But she quickly pushed the uneasy feeling away as she remembered that the woman was already dead. She whacked Mrs Redpath in the chest with the pipe, making the old lady stumble and trip.
As she fell down, Rose brought the pipe crashing down over her head, her skull making a sick crunching noise as it caved in on itself.
The Gelth inside the body wailed angrily.
The Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to mess with the Gelth's psychic connection to their human hosts, making their limbs flail and wobble, out of control. It wasn't enough to actually force them from the bodies though.
A scream echoed around the morgue, and the Time Lord spun around in horror to see Mr Sneed and Mr Redpath holding Craig, grabbing his hair and forcing his head back.
Another Gelth swooped down towards him…
"CRAIG!" the Doctor yelled, his latest nightmare coming to life before him.
"NOOOOOO!" Rose screamed in horror, her heart threatening to burst out of her chest.
The Gelth reached the terrified human male... it was about to pour into his mouth... about to consume his essence and take his body for its own… the creature touched his lips…
And with a horrific scream it exploded into millions of atoms of gold light that simply blew away.
The Doctor and Rose both stared in astonishment as the blast of energy knocked Mr Sneed and Mr Redpath and all the other Zombies away from Craig, who slumped to the floor, coughing and with tears streaming down his face.
"Craig!" the Doctor rushed towards him, practically ignoring the Zombies crowding around them.
"What the hell was that?" Rose demanded, also joining them, but keeping an eye on the crowd of Gelth Zombies.
"I don't know" the Doctor cried, kneeling down beside Craig, "What happened buddy? Was that the rift protecting you somehow?"
Craig whimpered with the effort it took, but managed to look up at him.
"N-No… not the rift… something else… AH!" Craig moaned in pain, rubbing his throbbing head, wishing it would stop pounding so badly.
"Doctor!" Rose shouted.
Turning, the Doctor saw Rose pointing at the Zombies which were closing in on them.
Something in the Time Lord finally snapped.
The Doctor furiously leapt to his feet. Something was very wrong with his companion, and these blasted Ghosts were putting him in danger and under more strain.
And the Time Lord wouldn't stand for it.
"ENOUGH!" he yelled, brandishing the sonic at them.
The Zombies just kept advancing on them, coming at them from all sides.
"Doctor!" a new voice called, and the Doctor turned to see Charles running back into the room, "Turn off the flame, turn up the gas! Now fill the room, all of it, now!"
"What're you doing?" the Doctor looked confused.
Charles ran over to a gas lamp on the wall, turning off the flame and upping the gas. They heard it hissing out and the air started to grow thick.
"Turn it all on!" Charles cried, rushing to repeat the procedure on another lamp, "Gas the place!"
It clicked in the Doctor's mind.
"Brilliant" the Time Lord gasped in realisation, "Gas!"
"What, so we choke to death instead?" Rose cried, batting another Zombie away with her pipe as it tried to grab her.
"Better... than turning... into one of them" Craig groaned.
"Am I correct, Doctor?" Charles asked with a smile, "These creatures are gaseous".
"Fill the room with gas, it'll draw them out of the host" the Doctor cried happily, "Suck them into the air like poison from a wound!"
The corpses were still fighting though, and now they seemed to be gravitating towards Charles, who didn't have a weapon, and Craig, who was still crouched on the floor.
"I hope... oh, Lord" Charles gulped fearfully, "I hope that this theory will be validated soon… if not immediately".
"D-Doctor… quick…" Craig gasped from his kneeling position, pointing in the direction of the cell.
The Doctor followed his finger, grinning when he saw a gas pipe attached to the wall.
"Plenty more!" he yelled, pushing his way through the Zombies.
He quickly ripped the pipe off the wall.
More gas oozed out, and the Gelth all screamed and wailed as they were dragged from their human hosts, the dead bodies collapsing to the floor around the Time Lord and the living humans.
"It's working" Charles sighed in relief.
"Thank god for that" Rose breathed, throwing down her pipe.
Craig shakily got to his feet as the Doctor headed towards Gwyneth, who was still under the arch.
"Gwyneth!" he cried, stopping in front of her, "Send them back! They lied, they're not angels".
Gwyneth's arms flopped to her sides and she stared up at him with unfocused eyes.
"Liars?" she repeated blankly.
"Look at me. If your mother and father could look down and see this, they'd tell you the same. They'd give you the strength. Now send them back!" the Doctor urged.
Behind him, Rose and Craig both started coughing heavily, attracting his attention. He noted with worry how pale they both were, how laboured their breathing was.
"Can't breathe" Rose said from behind the hand she was using to cover her nose and mouth.
"Charles, get them out" the Doctor ordered.
Craig took a wobbly step towards the door and Charles grabbed Rose's arm, but she immediately pulled away.
"I'm not leaving Gwyneth!" she cried angrily.
"I'm not going without Rose!" Craig immediately said when Charles turned to him exasperatedly.
"They're too strong" Gwyneth winced in pain and Craig echoed it.
He could feel the Gelth's hold on her too. It was too strong for them to allow her to reverse things and send the Gelth back through the rift.
"Remember that world you saw? Rose's and Craig's world?" the Doctor tried to be gentle but his voice was growing desperate, "All those people - none of it will exist unless you send them back through the rift".
"I can't send them back" she told him sternly, "But I can hold them. Hold them in this place, hold them here. Get out".
Her hand went down to her apron pocket and she took out a box of matches.
Rose rushed forwards in alarm.
"You can't!" she screamed in panic.
"This whole place will go up in smoke!" Craig added in alarm.
"Leave this place!" Gwyneth ordered them.
The Doctor lunged forwards, grabbing Rose's shoulder. He would have grabbed Craig too, but he didn't want to risk further thoughts and images leaking through to the boy.
"Rose, get out. Craig, you too. Both of you, go now. I won't leave her while she's still in danger, now go!" the Doctor yelled urgently, pushing Rose towards the door.
Charles grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the room.
"Doctor… please" Craig looked at him hopelessly.
"Craig, go, I'll be right behind you" the Doctor promised.
Craig's expression darkened, not so sure he believed him.
"Go" the Doctor insisted when Craig didn't move immediately.
Scowling, Craig rushed out of the basement after Rose and Charles.
Satisfied that at least his friends would be safe even if he wouldn't be, the Doctor turned back to Gwyneth and held out his hand to take the matches from her.
"Give those to me" he said, "Let me do this".
Gwyneth did not respond. She just stared at him with empty eyes.
Frowning in concern as a terrible thought struck him; the Doctor leaned forwards and placed his hand on Gwyneth's neck, feeling for a pulse. His face fell when he failed to find one.
"I'm sorry" he said guiltily, wishing more than ever that he had just listened to Rose, "Thank you" he whispered, placing a kiss on the maid's forehead.
Then he turned and ran out of the Morgue.
Gwyneth took a match out of the box and waited for a few moments, just to be sure that the Doctor was able to safely get out of the house in time.
Then she struck the match.
She felt it as the air and the gas exploded around her, and she heard the beings that had lied about being angels scream in agony as they were torn apart by fire.
Then she felt a tug around her naval as she slowly dissolved into tiny particles of blue light, and an echo of Gwyneth was sucked into the rift itself…
The Doctor leapt out of the front door just as the whole undertakers went up in flames behind him. He sprawled across the ground, miraculously alive, smiling as a hand offered to help him up.
He took Rose's hand and let her help him up, brushing the snow off his jacket and trousers as he did so. He winced at the expression on her face though.
It was as clear as day in her eyes.
She was asking why Gwyneth wasn't with him.
The Doctor looked down at her, his face guilty and ashamed.
"She didn't make it" Rose whispered in horror.
"I'm so sorry Rose" he nodded in confirmation, "But she didn't die for nothing. She closed the rift".
"I… I felt it… the Gelth can't reopen it" Craig told them, slightly awestruck.
The Doctor and Rose both stared at him weirdly, too tired to even wonder how he knew that.
"But stopping those creatures came at such a cost. The poor child" Charles shook his head mournfully.
"I did try, Rose, but Gwyneth was already dead. She had been for at least five minutes" the Doctor pleaded with Rose to stop looking at him as if accusing him of something.
"What do you mean?" Rose stared at him, not understanding.
"I think she was dead from the minute she stood in that arch" the Doctor said with regret.
Rose shook her head resolutely.
"But... she can't have, she spoke to us. She helped us - she saved us" she argued, "How could she have done that?"
"Her body was dead, it just couldn't withstand the pressure of the Gelth passing through her… but her mind was being kept active by the Gelth… and in the end she used her mind to decide what was right and what was wrong" Craig said with such certainty that nobody could argue with him.
They all silently reflected on that for a moment.
"There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy" Charles suddenly said solemnly, before turning to the alien genius, "Even for you, Doctor".
"She saved the world" Rose frowned up at the burning building, "A servant girl. No one will ever know".
All four of them just gazed up at the stars for a moment, wondering if perhaps, somehow, Gwyneth might be looking down at them from somewhere…
Meanwhile, in a different time, a different world almost, on the 16th of August, 1978, in Swansea Hospital, there was a woman on one of the beds, screaming in agony as she went through the painful process that was labour.
Her name was Mary Cooper, and she clutched at her husband's, Geraint Cooper's, hand tightly, trying to breathe through the crippling agony.
"Almost there my love, you're almost there" Geraint pressed a kiss to her temple.
Mary screamed and screamed and screamed, until finally, the sound of a newborn baby's crying echoed around the ward.
At the exact same instant that the newborn drew her first breath, a crack opened in the sky above the hospital, and particles of ghostly blue light drifted down through the open window, being inhaled directly into the baby's body.
"Do you have a name for her yet?" the nurse asked as she wrapped the baby girl in a blanket.
It was obvious that none of them had seen what had just happened.
Mary, too tearful to speak as the nurse handed her daughter to her, didn't reply.
"Gwen" Geraint smiled down at his two girls proudly, "We're going to call her Gwen Elizabeth Cooper".
And the heroic spirit of Gwyneth the Servant Girl lived on.
Back in 1869, the Doctor led the way back through the streets to the Tardis. Rose and Craig stood next to the doors as they all turned to say goodbye to Charles Dickens.
"Right then, Charlie-boy" the Doctor announced in a cheerful façade, "I've just got to go into my um... shed. Won't be long!"
He fitted the key in the lock.
"What're you going to do now?" Rose asked the famous author curiously.
"I shall take the mail coach back to London. Quite literally post-haste. This is no time for me to be on my own. I shall spend Christmas with my family and make amends to them. After all I've learned tonight, there can be nothing more vital" Charles said happily.
"You've cheered up!" the Doctor smiled at him.
"Exceedingly! This morning, I thought I knew everything in the world and now I know I've just started! All these huge and wonderful notions, Doctor! I'm inspired. I must write about them!" he cried enthusiastically.
"Is that such a good idea?" Craig arched an eyebrow at him, "You could spark a panic… or get yourself sent to an asylum".
"I shall be subtle at first" Charles assured him, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood still lacks an ending. Perhaps the killer was not the boy's uncle. Perhaps he was not of this earth. The Mystery of Edwin Drood and the Blue Elementals. I can spread the word! Tell the truth!"
"Good luck with it. Nice to meet you" the Doctor beamed as he shook Charles' hand, "Fantastic".
"It was really great meeting you Charles… sorry about how rude I was when we first met" Craig apologetically shook his hand too.
He was very relieved that no images were flashing across his mind again.
It seemed that when Gwyneth sealed the rift, that little gift had vanished along with the Gelth.
And Craig certainly wasn't going to complain about that.
"Think nothing of it my dear boy, you were merely concerned about your rather charming sister" Charles smiled warmly.
Rose giggled as Charles turned to her.
"Bye, then. And, thanks" she leant forwards and kissed him on the cheek.
She giggled again at the almost astonished look on Charles' face.
"Oh, my dear- how modern" he touched the spot Rose had kissed in surprise, "Thank you, but, I don't understand - in what way is this goodbye? Where are you all going?"
"You'll see. In the shed" the Doctor said, opening the door to the Tardis.
"Oh, my soul. Doctor, it's one riddle after another with you. But after all these revelations, there's one mystery you still haven't explained. Answer me this - who are you?" Charles arched an inquiring eyebrow.
There was a pause as the Doctor tried to think of an appropriate answer.
"Just a friend" he eventually smiled, "Passing through".
"But you have such knowledge of future times" Charles cried anxiously, "I don't wish to impose on you, but I must ask you. My books. Doctor - do they last?"
"Oh, yes!" the Doctor beamed.
"For how long?" Charles asked.
"Remember that I said I read them?" Craig asked him, and Charles nodded.
"Well I'll do that in about… oh, one hundred of thirty six years' time" he grinned at the stunned expression on Charles' face.
"And so will many more people for so many years after that" the Doctor added joyfully.
Charles smiled widely, practically radiating pride.
"Right" the Doctor clapped his hands together, "Shed. Come on, Rose, and you Craig".
They all turned to the door of the Police Box.
"In... in the box?" Charles stammered in shock, "All three of you?!"
"Down boy" the Doctor laughed, "See ya!"
The Doctor, Craig and Rose entered the TARDIS, Rose shutting the door after them. She followed the boys up the ramp where they were waiting by the console.
"Doesn't that change history if he writes about blue ghosts?" she asked curiously as she joined them near the monitor.
"In a week's time it's 1870, and that's the year he dies" the Doctor informed them regrettably, "Sorry. He'll never get to tell his story".
"Oh, no!" Craig exclaimed sadly, "He was so nice".
The Doctor looked over at him and smiled encouragingly.
"But in your time, he was already dead!" the Time Lord pointed out, "We've brought him back to life! He's more alive now than he's ever been, old Charlie-boy".
"Then why don't we give him one last surprise?" Rose asked cheekily.
The Doctor grinned at her.
"Rose Tyler, you are just too wicked" he laughed.
Rose and Craig joined in with him.
The Doctor hit a button on the console and the engines started to rev up. They smiled as they watched Charles' stunned face on the monitor as the TARDIS started to disappear before his eyes.
"Hey!" Craig suddenly cried as they were halfway gone, "Merry Christmas!"
Rose and the Doctor both stared at him for a moment, before their faces broke out into identical grins.
"Merry Christmas" they both beamed back at him.
Soon enough, they were gone completely and the screen went blank as they entered the Time Vortex, just drifting through reality for a moment.
And drifting was exactly what they needed right now.
And there's The Unquiet Dead : )
Yay! Another episode down : ) Like I keep saying, I'm SO looking forward to the later episodes in season one. Some of my favourites are Dalek, Father's Day, and Boom Town, all of which I have plenty of ideas for : )
Craig's mild telepathic gift is gone. Oh well... really it was just a hint of stuff that'll happen later on, but I won't spoil the surprise ; )
Anyway, beyond that I don't really have too much to say, other than thank you so much reading, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please leave a review on your way out as I really love hearing your thoughts and opinions on this story's content : )
Until the next time, keep on reading : )