Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who and I never will

I'll be graduating university on the 18th July! More importantly, I'll be getting my results on the 2nd July. Can't wait!

Sorry this chapter wasn't exactly speedy, I've been working on a short original story that I'm going to try and get published somewhere. Also, I slipped in a little reference to a Pixar movie, see if you can spot it!

Night Terrors – Part Three

George hid behind his dad's legs as the Doctor approached the cupboard. Much to Romana's amusement, he cracked his neck and began to psyche himself up as if he was about to skydive or something. A rumbling sound suddenly assaulted their ears and everyone jumped. "It's alright, it's just the lift" Alex assured them, even though he had been spooked for a minute. The Doctor reached out slowly, ridiculously slowly, and unlocked the cupboard door…then he yanked it open and jumped back.

There was nothing there – nothing of note, anyway. Clothes on hangers, and an assortment of toys tucked inside, including a doll house. It was, for all intents and purposes, a perfectly ordinary cupboard. "I don't understand it" the Doctor said in disbelief, "It has to be the cupboard. The readings from the sonic screwdriver, they were…" he trailed off, eyes widening as he realised what he'd been missing, and fled from the room.

Alex turned to stare helplessly at Romana. "Where's he going?" he asked. Before Romana could answer, the Doctor hurried back into the room, holding the photo album open on the page with Claire holding baby George. "How old is George, Alex?" asked the Doctor. Alex blinked confusedly. "What? How old?"

"Yes, how old is George?"

"Well, I told you, just turned eight"

"So you remember when he was born, then?"

"Of course!"

"Course you do. How could you not? You and Claire, Christmas Eve, 2002, right?" said the Doctor, pointing to a photo of Claire at a party, smiling and laughing.

"What? Err, yeah"

"Couple of weeks before George was born. Tell me about the day he arrived. Must have been wonderful" the Doctor continued. Romana looked at the picture and nearly gasped as she realised what the Doctor had. How had they missed that?

"Well, it was the best day of my…life" Alex replied unsurely, looking confused and slightly scared…much like his son, in fact. "Sure?" asked the Doctor. Alex stared at him. "Yes" he replied, but his voice was shaking slightly. "You don't sound sure" said the Doctor, and Alex turned to Romana. "What's he going on about? Tell me, please. I don't like this, this…this is scary" he said desperately.

Romana took the album from the Doctor, turning it to let Alex see the photo's properly. "This picture of Claire with George, as a newborn, was taken just a couple of weeks after this picture of her at the Christmas party" she told the man, who shook his head, not seeing her point. "So?" he asked. Romana directed his attention to the photo of Claire at the party. "Look at her stomach, Alex. It's flat, not round. She's not pregnant in this picture, so how can she have given birth just two weeks later?"

"Well, she didn't, Claire can't have kids" Alex admitted, only to stare at the Time Lords in shock when he realised what he'd just said. "Say that again" the Doctor said slowly. "We tried everything. She was desperate. As much IVF as we could afford, but…Claire can't have kids. How? How can I have forgotten that?" he asked helplessly. The three adults turned to George, who was huddling on his bed with his arms wrapped around his knees.

"Who are you, George?" asked the Doctor. Alex was still in shock, shaking his head and muttering "It's not possible, this isn't…"

Romana sat on the bed besides George and tried to put her arm around him, but he flinched away. The lift travelled past behind the wall and made George's toys rattle. His bedside lamp switched on by itself, flaring with light, and an even brighter light suddenly shone out of the cupboard. The Doctor and Alex were jerked back, as if some powerful force was yanking them back into the cupboard. "Doctor!" Romana cried, jumping up to try and pull him back. For some reason she was unaffected by the light.

The two men struggled. "George! George, what's going on? Are you doing it?" asked the Doctor. "What's happening?!" cried Alex. George screwed his eyes shut and held his hands over his ears. "Please save me from the monsters! Please save me from the monsters! Please save me from the monsters!" he cried over and over again, rocking back and forth.

Romana gripped the Doctor and Alex's hands in hers. "George, if you're doing this, stop it, please!" she begged, but George wasn't listening, he just kept repeating "Please save me from the monsters". Alex's hand slipped from Romana's, and he was dragged back to the cupboard. "Help me!" he cried out in terror, grabbing onto the cupboard itself to try and stop himself from getting sucked in.

"George, stop it!" Romana cried, trying to pull the Doctor away from the light. It was too strong, whatever George was doing…their feet were sliding on the carpet. "Aagh!" Alex cried as he was dragged into the cupboard. The Doctor looked over his shoulder as Alex vanished into the light, and then looked back at Romana. "Let me go" he told her. "What?!" she cried, unable to believe her ears.

"Romana, let me go! I'll help Alex, you help George" he explained. Romana shook her head frantically. "No, no I can't...I can't be on my own" she protested, forgetting for a moment who she was talking to. "You can do this, Romana, but you have to let go. It only wants me and Alex, let me go and this will stop" the Doctor insisted. Romana hesitated. "How do you know something bad isn't going to happen?" she asked.

"I don't!"

This was not the most reassuring answer, but Romana nonetheless took a deep breath, and released her near death grip on his hands. The Doctor was yanked backwards into the cupboard, and its doors slammed shut a moment later. Everything fell quiet…too quiet. Romana dropped to her knees, pressing her hands to her temples. The silence was almost unbearable. She couldn't believe the Doctor had endured this…awful nothingness in his head for so many centuries.

/

Meanwhile, Flavia and the Corsair were making their way down a corridor, just as shadowy as the last. "Of all the places we could have been sent to, why did it have to be a doll house? Why couldn't it be a normal house, with people, and lights, and a front door that actually works?" Flavia grumbled.

"You know, you don't have to be scared. I'll protect you" the Corsair assured her. Flavia rolled her eyes when he wasn't looking. "My hero" she muttered under her breath. Suddenly, they heard running feet and raised their torch and lamp to see a man, familiar to Flavia, hurrying towards them as fast as he could. "Help me, please! Keep them away from me! Keep them away!" he yelled in panic. Behind him marched wooden peg dolls.

The Corsair stepped forward, reaching for his gun, when to his and Flavia's horror the peg dolls grabbed the man, who screamed as he was transformed into a doll himself. "Okay, now you can be scared. Run, run!" cried the Corsair. The Time Lords ran back the way they'd come. "Don't run away, we want to play" the peg dolls sing-songed. Not likely they thought simultaneously, ducking into the library and shutting the doors on the dolls.

/

A warmth filled the bit of her mind that now felt so devoid of her fellow Time Lord's minds. Romana could sense that the presence was merely a small tendril of a much greater consciousness, and there was only one being who could reach through her mental barriers like that. Thanks old girl she thought gratefully. A small hand tapped her on the shoulder. "Miss Romana? Are you okay?" George asked anxiously.

She took a deep, calming breath and counted backwards from ten. "Yes, I…I'm okay" she nodded, and tried to smile reassuringly. It soon faded when she remembered… "George? Did…did you send your dad and the Doctor into the cupboard?" she asked. George bit his lip nervously, and shook his head. "I don't know what happened" he said honestly.

Romana sat on the edge of his bed and patted the patch of duvet next to her. George took the hint and sat next to each other, twisting his hands in his lap. "I didn't mean to send them away" he murmured quietly, "I was just scared. I did do that, didn't I? I made my dad and your friend disappear. I'm sorry!" he said pitifully, eyes watering. Romana pulled a handkerchief from her pockets and gave it to him. "What were you scared of?" she asked. Perhaps that would be the key to getting the Doctor…and Flavia and the Corsair, of course…back.

"Um, first the Doctor was going to open the cupboard, and that's where all the scary stuff is. Then my dad got scared, and I heard the lift, and it sounds like someone's breathing behind the wall and it's really creepy" explained George, looking most distressed; Romana put an arm around him and cuddled him until he calmed down. "The s-scariest thing was…was when dad said that mum can't have kids. If my mum can't have kids, then…how can I be here?"

George was a very smart boy, Romana mused. She didn't blame him for getting scared, anyone would be frightened if they realised they might not be…usual, for lack of a better word. "Miss Romana?" George tugged on her sleeve, "am I an alien?" He knew they existed, he'd seen spaceships and stuff on the TV before his mum and dad said he shouldn't watch it anymore.

At first, Romana hesitated – she had no way of knowing what kind of alien he was without…then she remembered, she did have a sonic of her own. George stared curiously at it as she scanned him. "You're a Tenza" she told him. George hung his head. "That's not bad" Romana added hurriedly, "the Tenza are nice aliens".

He shook his head. "My mum and dad won't want me" he mumbled.

"Oh, no, of course they do! Your mum and dad love you very much"

"It's true!" George said stubbornly, "I heard them talking. They want to send me away" he sniffled. Romana's eyes widened as she realised what must have happened. Tenza young could assimilate perfectly into their host family, but if they felt rejected, the fear of not being wanted would amplify even little worries into full blown phobias, which the Tenza would put inside a psychic container.

"Oh, George, you don't understand" she said gently. George looked at her in confusion. "Your parents do love you, and they were worried about you. They didn't know how to stop you being so scared of everything, they don't know about Tenza or how scared you are of being unwanted. They wouldn't have wanted to send you away forever, they were just trying to…trying to help" she explained.

The little boy blinked as understanding slowly dawned. "They…they do want me?" he asked in wonder. Then he thought of something else, and his face fell… "but, they won't want me when they find out I'm an alien, will they?" he said sadly. Romana gave him a comforting squeeze. "They'd be very foolish not to want you. You are a lovely boy, alien or not. Now then…how about we get your dad back now, eh?" she suggested.

George took a deep breath, and nodded. The cupboard and the lamp began to glow again as he chanted under his breath, "Please save me from the monsters, please save me from the monsters". When the doors flung open, the light didn't suck them in; they had to walk into it themselves. George clung to Romana's hand tightly as they approached the cupboard. She squinted against the bright light, and squeezed his hand, before they stepped through.

/

When they emerged from the light, they found themselves in what appeared to be the front hall of an old manor house. "Well, we're certainly not in Narnia" Romana commented. To her relief, she could sense the Doctor and Flavia in her mind once more…but not the Corsair, for some reason. Or rather, she could sense him, but it was very faint. Briefly letting go of George's hand, she cupped both of hers around her mouth and shouted, "Doctor!"

Just then, the Doctor came running down the stairs with Flavia and Alex, who was trying to fend off some walking wooden dolls with a pair of giant scissors. "Romana! George! Thank goodness" the Doctor cried in relief. He tried to come down the rest of the stairs, only for more peg dolls to appear and cut him off. Some of them started walking towards Romana and George, surrounding the pair.

"Don't let them grab you!" Flavia cried in warning, "the Corsair, he…" she pointed up at a doll with a mop of short black hair. Romana grimaced and tugged George closer to her protectively. "George, listen to me! You created this whole world, you can smash it, you can destroy it" the Doctor called down. He had to get George to reverse all this, he didn't want them all to be trapped here for eternity. "George, please, if you don't stop this now we'll all be trapped in a living death"

George shook his head helplessly. "I don't know how!" he protested.

"Just want it, want everything to go back to normal…ah, something's holding him back, but what?" the Doctor wondered desperately. Romana had an ephiphany. "Alex, do you love your son?" she asked. He stared at her, briefly bewildered by her question. "What?"

"He heard you talking, about sending him away. He thought it was because you didn't want him anymore"

"Of course, of course! George is a Tenza; his sole function is to fit in, to be wanted, and you were rejecting him. He still thinks you might reject him" the Doctor told Alex, who looked lost. "But how can we keep him? How can we? He's not..."

"Not what?"

"Not human!"

The Doctor looked at him solemnly. "No" he agreed. But that shouldn't matter he thought, he's still your son.

The peg dolls were very close to George and Romana now. "Dad!" George cried, terrified…and Alex made up his mind. He shoved the giant play scissors into the Doctor's arms, pushed his way past the dolls and hugged George tight as could be. "Whatever you are, whatever you do, you're my son, and I will never, ever send you away. Oh, George. Oh, my little boy" he said soothingly.

George clung to him in relief. The dolls stopped moving, and Romana was able to get past them and run up to the Doctor. "Hey!" he smiled, pulling her into a hug. Neither of them noticed that they lingered on the hug a few seconds longer than usual. As they pulled away, a light flashed through the room. When it had dissipated, they were back in George's bedroom; except for Flavia, who was presumably with the Corsair.

The Doctor reached out and opened the cupboard door. "You did it, George. Everything's back to the way it was…that doll house, is just a doll house now" he said. Alex smiled down at his son, and then checked his watch. "Oh, gosh, is that the time? Claire's gonna be home soon" he realised. The Doctor clapped him playfully on the shoulder. "Well then, we should make sure she has a hot meal waiting for her then, shouldn't we?" he grinned.

/

The Corsair and Flavia stepped out of the lift. "Was I…?" he asked tentatively. Flavia nodded. "Yes".

"…Let's never go in a lift again".

"Agreed".