A/N: Hi! Thank you so much to my followers, those who have favorited, and those who have left such wondeful reviews! Love you all :) I really hope you like this chapter!
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who. That goes to the BBC. *Some lines below are borrowed from the episode The Family of Blood. Credit for those lines belong to their respective writers.*
"Make your decision, Mr. Smith," Jenny taunted the human man.
John Smith couldn't even begin to fathom what was happening all around him. It was like one of his nightmares come true. Seeing Rose in danger was what made it the worst. It wasn't just that he felt protective over her, oh no, his dream alter ego, the Doctor, felt the same. He was terrified of losing his beloved pink and yellow human. It made John's emotions even more confusing. At the moment he was sure this Doctor character's feelings were seeping into his own.
"Perhaps if that human heart breaks, the Time Lord will emerge," Baines said, bringing John from his thoughts.
Time Lord.
Suddenly the Family stopped and sniffed. "It's him!" Baines cried.
Rose made quick eye contact with Martha and at the slightest nod of her head both women had maneuvered out of their captor's holds and grabbed their guns as well. Martha held her gun at Jenny while Rose kept her's trained on Mr. Clark. "All right! One more move and we shoot," Martha warned the aliens.
"Oh, the maid is full of fire."
"And you can shut up!" she shouted, shooting her gun at the ceiling.
"Careful, Son of Mine," Mr. Clark told Baines. "This is all for you so that you can live forever."
The possessed boy had his own gun trained at her, while the young girl had her's raised at Rose. "You do realise that we can shoot you both down right now."
Rose smirked with false bravado. "You could try."
"Go ahead," Martha said with her own smirk. "We'll die together."
"Would you really pull the trigger? Either of you?" Baines asked. "Looks too scared."
Rose answered first, "Nah. I've faced down far worse than you."
"I somehow doubt that," Mr. Clark injected.
"Ever heard of the Daleks?" she asked the Family.
The looks on their faces was answer enough. "T-they disappeared," Jenny said carefully.
"Yeah they did," Rose said with a smile. "Cause of me. You see they have a name for my friend. The Oncoming Storm they call him. But you know what they call me?" She paused dramatically. "They call me an abomination, cause I saw every atom of their existence and I divided them like that." She snapped her fingers. "Turned 'em to dust."
"Not possible!" Baines told her. "You're just a silly human girl."
"Yep! And doesn't that just scare you to death?"
Silence filled the village hall. Finally Martha cleared her throat. "Yeah, well, I might not be like her but I'll fully admit that I'm scared. Scared and holding a gun's a good combination. Do you want to risk it?" The Family eyed her and Rose carefully before lowering their weapons. "Doctor, get everyone out. There's a door at the side. It's over there. Go on. Do it!"
"She means you, John!" Rose shouted when he stood there without moving. She felt relief when Joan Redfern popped up and was able to keep a level head. She encouraged John to help her to do as Martha said. Rose took a moment to be pleased at Joan's presence at the dance. She had clearly come alone but at least she hadn't waited for a man to ask her. She wanted to go and she did. Good for her! Rose thought to herself as the last of the townspeople left.
"And you. Go on. Just shift," Martha warned John when he was the last person left.
"What about you? I couldn't possibly leave you two here!" John said with anguish.
"John, you need to escort the Matron to safety," Rose told him calmly, wanting him as far away from the Family as possible. "We'll be alright. I promise."
Reluctantly he gave a nod and ran outside. He went to one of the men he recognized from town. "Mr. Hicks, warn the village. Get everyone out." He then noticed the Timothy Latimer was still lurking about. Latimer, you shouldn't be here! Get back to the school. Tell the headmaster-"
Tim pulled out of the man's reach and screamed, "Don't touch me. You're as bad as them!"
As soon as he was gone Jenny and Mr. Clark broke away from Martha and Rose. "Don't try anything. I'm warning you, or Sonny boy gets it," Martha said as she kept her gun pointed at Baines.
"She's almost brave, this one," he taunted as the Family began to slow walk towards the two women,
"I should have taken her form. Much more fun. So much spirit!" Jenny said with envy.
"Oh I wish I had got Miss Tyler," the little girl grinned. "It would have been so much more exciting to be in her form."
Rose and Martha began to inch their way backwards as the latter asked, "What happened to Jenny? Is she gone?"
"She is consumed. Her body's mine."
"You mean she's dead?"
"Yes. And she went with precious little dignity. All that, ah, screaming!"
"You're sick!" Rose spat out at them right before two possessed scarecrows grabbed Rose and Martha from behind.
"Get the guns!" Baines commanded. They were able to do as they were told but both women were able to escape out of the hall. "Good work, soldiers."
Rose and Martha both groaned in unison when they ran outside and saw the John and Joan were still there, waiting. "Don't just stand there, move!" Martha shouted. "God, you're rubbish as a human. Come on!"
Rose quickly grabbed John's hand and whispered, "Run!"
A feeling of unease spread throughout him as he felt a distinct sense of deja vu.
Once they made it safely back to the school John grabbed the nearest warning bell and began ringing it loudly. "What are you doing?" Martha asked.
"Maybe one man can't fight them, but this school teaches us to stand together. Take arms! Take arms!" he began shouting.
"John stop it!" Rose shouted back, reaching to grab the bell away from him.
He held the object out of her reach and asked, "You want me to fight, don't you? Take arms! Take arms!"
"I don't want you to fight," she said just loud enough for him to hear.
One of the older boys came running down the stairs. "I say sir, what's the matter?"
"Enemy at the door, Hutchinson. Enemy at the door. Take arms!"
Rose screamed in frustration. Where the bloody hell is that watch! She never took it out of her pocket. Even when she slept, she kept it under pillow. The only time it had ever been a part from her was when she had toppled over Tim and he found it on the ground. Tim! Her mind began to race back to earlier in the evening when he ran into her. Could he have taken the watch? She had to find him immediately. With a quick word to Martha telling her to keep John in her sights, Rose ran upstairs in search of Latimer.
Rose flopped onto her bed as she struggled to keep her eyes open. Now was not time to take a nap. She had searched every dormitory for the boy. Even checked the kitchen and the library to see if he was hiding there, but nothing. Finally, she went back to her room and decided to search all of her dress pockets, just to make sure the watch hadn't magically teleported there. Which, honestly, wouldn't be that hard for Rose to believe.
Suddenly Martha burst into the room with Joan Redfern trailing behind her. "Did you find the watch?"
Rose shook her head sadly. "No. I'm almost positive Timothy Latimer took it from me, but I can't find him anywhere!"
"What do we do?" Martha asked nervously.
"I don't know," Rose admitted. "If we could get him back to the TARDIS perhaps She could help us..."
"You two are talking nonsense!" Joan finally injected, reminding Rose and Martha that she was still there. "The Doctor was just a story Mr. Smith dreamed about and wrote in his journal."
"It's all true, Matron. Everything he wrote about his really true. Martha and I travel with the Doctor. And I know what you're thinking!" Rose added when Joan opened her mouth to speak. "We're not crazy. We're not even from 1913. We just came here to hide from the Family."
"I know it sounds mad," Martha continued, "but when the Doctor became human, he took the alien part of himself and he stored it inside the watch. You know, the one Rose always carries around. Only, it's not really a watch, it just looks like a watch."
"And alien means not from abroad, I take it," Joan said cautiously.
"The man you call John Smith, he was born on another world."
"A different species."
"Yes," Rose confirmed. "He looks like a human though. Or technically humans look like Time Lords. That's what he is, by the way, a Time Lord."
Joan seemed to ponder this before finally asking, "Then tell me, in this fairy tale, who are you two?
"We're his friends," Martha answered. "Rose has been with him for a few years now. I've only been around for a few months... I think. It's hard to tell sometimes."
"And you're humans, I take it?"
Rose giggled. "Humans," she confirmed. "Not only that, our Martha Jones is training to be a doctor in her own right!" Rose declared proudly.
"Not an alien doctor, a proper doctor. A doctor of medicine," the women in question clarified.
"Well that certainly is nonsense. Women might train to be doctors, but hardly a skivvy and hardly one of your colour," Joan said with haughtiness.
Rose shook her head. "You can accept the fact the John Smith is a time traveling alien yet you can't believe that Martha's going to be a doctor? Shame on you, Nurse Redfern."
"There is no way she could be a doctor!"
Martha raised en eyebrow. "Oh, do you think? Bones of the hand. Carpal bones, proximal row. Scaphoid, lunate, triquetal, pisiform. Distal row. Trapezium, trapezoid, capitate, hamate. Then the metacarpal bones extending in three distinct phalanges. Proximal, middle, distal."
"Bravo!" Rose cheered.
"You read that in a book," Joan replied meekly.
"Yes, to pass my exams. Can't you see this is true?"
"I must go."
"If you see Tim you must stop him!" Rose called out to her.
"There might not be time..."
"If we find that watch, then we can stop them," Martha told her firmly.
Joan blinked back tears. "Those boys are going to fight. I might not be a doctor, but I'm still their nurse. They need me." With that she ran out of the room.
Rose cringed when, a few minutes later, the sound of gunfire echoed throughout the school. "The Doctor's going to hate himself for this," she muttered before turning to Martha, "Come on. We need to get him to the TARDIS."
The other woman sighed. "He's not going to come willingly."
"Then we'll knock him out and drag him there!" she said exasperated.
Martha laughed, "Skinny bloke like him? No problem."
This is wrong, John thought to himself as he watched his students open fire on the scarecrow men. They were just children. It was blessed relief when Rocastle commanded the troops to, "Cease fire!" It was even more of a relief when they realised that the scarecrows were made purely of straw and the boys hadn't actually killed. It was then that they all noticed a little girl, holding tightly to a red balloon, standing in the line of fire.
The headmaster stepped forward. "You, child. Come out of the way. Come into the school. You don't know who's out there. It's the Cartwright girl, isn't it? Come here. Come to me."
"Nooo!" Rose screamed as she ran outside.
Martha was right behind her shouting, "Mr. Rocastle! Please, don't go near her."
"Seriously, Headmaster. Step away from her," Rose warned.
"That's enough from you, Miss Tyler. And you, Miss Jones," the older man told them.
Martha held back an eye roll. "Just listen to us. She's part of it," she said noticing that Joan had made her way outside as well. "Matron, tell him."
"I think that... I don't know... I think you should stay back, Headmaster," Joan said with an exhale.
Rose saw John looking around with anguish. Clearly uncomfortable with the whole situation. "Go on, John, tell him," she encouraged.
"She was," he started, "she was with, with Baines in the village."
"Mr. Smith, I've seen many strange sights this night, but there is no cause on God's Earth that would allow me to see this child in the field of battle, sir," the headmaster told him before turning back to the girl. "Come with me."
"You're funny," she said.
"That's right. Now take my hand."
"Mr. Rocastle, please listen to me!" Rose pleaded with the man.
"So funny," the little girl said darkly before pulling out a gun and vapourising the man. She turned and looked at the group before her. "Now who's going to shoot me. Any of you, really?"
There was a moment of silence before John Smith ordered, "Put down your guns."
"But, sir, the Headmaster..." said the older boy from before.
"I'll not see this happen. Not anymore. You will retreat in an orderly fashion back through the school. Hutchinson, lead the way."
"But sir-"
"I said, lead the way."
Baines stepped up from behind the little girl, saying, "Well, go on, then. Run!" He shot his gun in the air as chaos ensued.
"Come on!" Martha shouted to the boys as Baines ordered the scarecrows to, "Reanimate!"
"Let's go. Quick as you can," John shouted to the boys as the began fleeing the school.
"Don't go to the village," Martha added. "It's not safe."
"And you, ladies," he said to Martha, Rose, and Joan.
"Not till we've got the boys out," the nurse told him firmly.
As soon as the area around them was cleared of students John turned to the women next to him, "Now, I insist. The three of you, just go. If there are any more boys inside, I'll find them." He opened the door closest to him, only to come face to face with a group of scarecrows. "I think, retreat!"
The four adults made their way outside and hid in the bushes. It was then they heard the voice of Mr. Clark call out, "Doctor! Doctor! Come back, Doctor. Come home. Come and claim your prize." Rose gasped when she peaked through the bushes and saw that the Family had the TARDIS.
"Out you come, Doctor," Baines shouted. "There's a good boy. Come to the Family."
Jenny stepped forward. "Time to end it now."
Martha looked at Rose and saw the dejected look on her face. That phone box was her home. But then there was the way John looked at it. He knew it! "You recognise it, don't you?" she asked quietly.
"Come out, Doctor. Come to us!" Jenny called before he could answer.
"I've never seen it in my life," he told her, not wanting to except what was right before him.
Rose gave a sharp intake of breath at his answer, as a few tears began to trickle down her face. Martha squeezed her hand in reassurance. "Do you remember its name?" she questioned carefully.
"I'm sorry, John," Joan said sympathetically, "but you wrote about it. The blue box. You dreamt of a blue box. I saw it in your journal."
Tears welled in his eyes as he began to shake. "I'm not... I'm John Smith. That's all I want to be. John Smith, with his life, and his job, and his," he stopped and looked at Rose, "and his love. Why can't I be John Smith? Isn't he a good man?"
Rose took his face in her hands. "Yes, yes, of course he is!"
"Why can't I stay?" he pleaded with her.
Rose didn't know what to say. How could she possible answer him? Thankfully, Martha sensed her dilemma and spoke up, "But we need the Doctor."
"What am I, then?" he asked her. "Nothing. I'm just a story."
He took off at a run and the women hastily followed him. Rose was able to get up next to him but was met with silence. She turned to him and said, "We're all just stories in the end, John." She went to reach for his hand but he quickened his steps and moved away from her.
Rose flexed her hand as her own words rang back at her, "Who's going to hold his hand now?"
Coming Soon: The Family of Blood Part 2
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