AN: Hello Sweeties! Sorry it's been a while. Senior year is busy! And it's Nanowrimo! National Novel Writing month is hard! So anyway. Hope you enjoy it.
Big thanks to Vivere Memento who just knows how to make this story better. Thanks sweetie!
Disclaimer: I own nothing except for Rebecca and even then she's not copy righted.
Chapter Twenty Five- The Doctor Dances
The gas mask people were surrounding the four of them and Rebecca was searching for a way out when she came up with an insane idea.
"Go to your room!" she watched the gasmask people hesitate. "Go to your room I said! I mean it I am very, very angry with you. I am very, VERY cross! Go-to-your-ROOM!" she yelled at them pointing in no particular direction and miraculously all the gas-mask people turned away meekly and began to leave crawling back into their hospital beds. Rebecca let out a sigh of relief and looked at the other three incredulously.
"I'm really glad that worked. Those would've been terrible last words. Don't you think?"
"Remind me not to get on her bad side." Jack told Rose who nodded.
"Where did you get such a 'mum' voice?" Rose asked her.
"Did drama club one year and played a mother who yelled a lot. So… I learned how to yell. Good skill to have right?"
"I think you're kinda sexy when you yell." Jack told her and she rolled her eyes. The Doctor shot him a look.
"Back to the problem at hand" Rose interrupted. "Why are they all wearing gas masks?"
"They're not. Those masks are flesh and bone." Jack told her taking a seat beside one of the gasmask people.
"How was your con supposed to work?" the Doctor asked.
"Simple enough, really. Find some harmless piece of space-junk... let the nearest Time Agent track it back to Earth. Convince him it's valuable, name a price. When he's put 50% up front - oops! A German bomb falls on it, destroys it forever. He never gets to see what he's paid for. Never knows he's been had. I buy him a drink with his own money, and we discuss dumb luck. The perfect self-cleaning con."
"Yeah. Perfect." The doctor said a bit sarcastically.
"The London Blitz is great for self-cleaners - Pompeii's nice if you want to make a vacation of it though, but you've got to set your alarm for volcano day." Jack laughed at his own joke but Rebecca and the Doctor gave him a look and the laughter died down.
"Getting a hint of disapproval."
"Take a look around the room. This is what your 'harmless piece of space-junk' did." The Doctor exclaimed, gesturing to all the gas mask people.
"It was a burnt-out medical transporter - it was empty." Jack tried to explain as the doctor walked out."
"It was a more or less well thought out clever plan." Rebecca told him. "Morally it was pretty bad. I gotta agree with Doc on that."
The Doctor went over to Rose who was standing over the beds and grabbed her shoulder. "Rose,"
"We getting out of here?" she asked him.
"We're going upstairs. Rebecca come on."
"I even programmed the flight computer so it wouldn't land on anything living - I harmed no-one! I don't know what's happening here, but believe me - I had nothing to do with it." Jack tried to explain to Rebecca.
"I'll tell you what's happening. You forgot to set your alarm clock. It's volcano day." The Doctor spat out. A siren then went off.
"What's that?" Rose asked.
"The all-clear." Jack explained.
"I wish." The doctor said rushing out of the ward. Rebecca gave Rose a look.
"I'll go after him" Rose told her running through the door after him. Jack exchanged a look with Rebecca and let out a sigh.
"I swear, I didn't mean to cause any problems. I was just-" Rebecca put up a hand to stop him.
"Hey. Look at me. It's okay. It was an accident and we're gonna fix this." She told him with a smile. "Now come on, I gotta make sure those two stay out of trouble." She then ran ahead in the direction Rose had run. "Race you Captain!" she called back and he began chasing after her laughing.
"Mr. Spock?" Jack called out.
"Doctor?" Rose yelled.
"DOC?" Rebecca called as they passed a flight of stairs. He suddenly popped his head over the banister.
"Have you got a blaster?" he asked.
"Sure!" Jack said and then the three of them ran up the stairs and found themselves standing outside a door.
"The night your space-junk landed, someone was hurt. This was where they were taken."
"What happened?" Rose asked.
"Let's find out. Get it open." Jack grinned, pulling a blaster out of its holster on his hip.
"What's wrong with your sonic screwdriver?" Rose asked the Doctor quietly.
"Nothing." He told her as they watched Jack's blaster cut a perfectly square hole around the lock of the door and it opened up.
"Rose, you know, boys and their toys." Rebecca told her. "You can almost feel the testosterone levels increasing."
"Sonic blaster, 51st century. Weapon Factories of Villengard?"The Doctor asked Jack.
"You've been to the factories?" the Doctor took the blaster from Jack to take a look and quickly passed it off to Rebecca who began to examine the mechanism.
"Once."
"Well, they're gone now. Destroyed. The main reactor went critical. Vapourized the lot."
"Like I said - once. There's a banana grove there, now. I like bananas. Bananas are good."
"And I'm sure you had nothing to do with that Doc." Rebecca gave him a look and he gave her a sheepish grin as the pair entered the room.
"Nice blast pattern." Rose said.
"Digital."
"Squareness gun."
"Yeah."
"I like it." She walked into the room and Jack laughed, following her in. With the light switch flipped on, the room was flooded with light revealing that it looked as if it were vandalized. A window was broken, glass scattered across the floor with lots of other broken pieces of furniture and toys.
"What d'you think?" the Doctor asked.
"SOMETHING got out of here..." Jack said.
"Obviously." Rebecca said. "What else?"
"Something powerful. Angry."
"Powerful and angry." The Doctor repeated. Jack and Rebecca entered a room off to the side, the floor and walls covered with a child's drawings. There were a few toys scattered around the room and by a little bed.
Rebecca knelt down and picked up a plush teddy bear and looked at it sighing, imagining how scared this child had to be, so lost and alone.
"A child? I suppose this explains 'mummy'." Jack said, bending down beside Rebecca offering her a hand. "You okay?" she gave him a sad smile and nodded she took his hand and together they stood.
"How could a child do this?" Rose asked incredulously. The Doctor shook his head and stuck a tape into a cassette player to hear Dr. Constantine talking to the Child.
"Do you know where you are?"
"Are you my mummy? "
"Are you aware of what's around you? Can you... see?"
"Are you my mummy?"
"What do you want? Do you know—"
"I want my mummy. Are you my mummy? I want my mummy! Are you my mummy?"
"Are you my mummy? Mummy? Mummy?"
"Doctor, I've heard this voice before." Rose said.
"Me too." The Doctor said. Rebecca looked around at the drawings.
"These pictures, they're all of the child's mother." She told tehm.
"Mummy?" the child's voice called out again.
"Always, "are you my mummy?". Like he doesn't know."
"Mummy?"
"Why doesn't he know?"
"Are you there, mummy? Mummy?" the Doctor then began pacing around.
"Doctor?"
"Can you sense it?"
"Sense what?" Jack asked. Rebecca shivered. Whatever it was, she felt it. Jack immediately pulled off his coat and put it over her shoulders.
"Thank you." She told him smiling at him.
"Anything for the beautiful lady." He winked at her.
"Oi! You two quit flirting. But can't you feel it? Coming out of the walls, can you feel it?"
"Mummy?" the child called again.
"Funny little human brains, how do you get around in those things?" he asked aggravated by the fact that he couldn't figure out what was being emitted from the walls.
"When he's stressed, he likes to insult species." Rose told Jack. The Doctor glared at her as he continued pacing.
"Rose, I'm thinking."
"Cuts himself shaving, does half an hour in life forms he's cleverer than..."
"There are these children living rough around the bomb site. They come out during air-raids looking for food."
"Mummy, please?"
"Suppose they were there when this thing - whatever it was - landed?"
"Doc, Nancy's brother was out that night. He was the first victim. He's the child. Somehow he was affected –altered."
"It was a med-ship. It was harmless." Jack protested.
"Yes, you keep saying. 'Harmless'." The Doctor said grumpily.
"Altered how?" Rose cut him off.
"I'm here!"
"It's afraid. Terribly afraid, and powerful. It doesn't know it yet, but it will do." The Doctor let out a small laugh. "It's got the power of a god, and Rebecca just sent it to its room." A loud crackling noise filled the room.
"Doctor..." Rose asked grabbing onto his arm scared.
"I'm here. Can't you see me?" the child cried out.
"What's that noise?"
"End of the tape. It ran out about 30 seconds ago." The smile was wiped off of his face.
"I'm here, now. Can't you see me?" Rebecca's hand flew to cover her mouth, in realization.
"I sent it to it's room. THISis its room." She spun around spun around and saw Jamie standing by the tape machine.
"Are you my mummy?" he cocked his head to one side, looking at Rose as if considering her to be his mother.
"Doctor?" Rose asked.
"Okay... on my signal... make for the door. NOW!" Jack called out producing a banana and point it threateningly at the child. The Doctor grinned and produced Jack's sonic blaster, blasting a hole in the wall.
"Go! Now! Don't drop the banana!" he called out hoping through the hole in the wall. Jack hopped through after Rose and helped Rebecca through.
"Why not?!"
"Good source of potassium!" he said. The child began to approach them and then Jack grabbed the blaster off the doctor.
"Give me that!"
" Are you my mummy?" Jack pointed the blaster at the wall and it rebuilt itself, blocking the child out.
"Digital rewind?" Rebecca asked.
"Yeah. Nice switch Mr. Spock."
"It's from the Groves of Villengard. I thought it was appropriate."
"Bananas are good." He said simply. Suddenly the wall began cracking.
"Doctor!" Rose called out.
"Come on!" They began rushing down a flight of stairs and down a corridor before encountering more patients bursting out of the ward chanting "Mummy." They attempted to backtrack and found themselves surrounded by the gasmask people and found themselves back where they started with the child breaking through the wall.
"It's keeping us here so it can get at us."
"It's controlling them?" Jack asked turning around and facing all the gasmask people, brandishing his blaster at them.
"It ISthem. It's every living thing in this hospital."
"Okay. This can function as a sonic blaster, a sonic cannon, and a triple-enfolded sonic disrupter. Doc, what you got?" The Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver but Jack didn't notice it.
"A sonic, er... oh, never mind."
"What?" the Doctor turned to face the other group of gasmask people switching on his sonic screwdriver as Rebecca and Rose were looking around for other escape routes.
"It's sonic, okay? Let's leave it at that."
"Disrupter? Cannon? What?"
"It's sonic! Totally sonic! I am sonic-ed up!"
"A sonic WHAT?!"
"SCREWDRIVER!" Jack spun around and suddenly the child had broken through the wall. Rebecca grabbed Jacks wrist and pointed the blaster at the floor.
"Going down!" she called out, blasting a hole in the floor. They fell in a heap on the floor, Rebecca half on Jack's chest. He quickly activated the digital rewind but was in no hurry to get up.
"Hello there beautiful." He said looking at her blue eyes and brushing back a piece of her light brown hair. She laughed.
"Did you hit your head?" she asked him. He laughed and shook his head, she rolled off of him and pulled him up to a standing position.
"Rose, Doc, are you okay?"
"Could've used a warning...!"
"Ugh, the gratitude." Rebecca said with a roll of her eyes. Rose and the Doctor stood up and began brushing themselves.
"Who has a sonic screwdriver?" Jack asked.
"Ido!" the Doctor said.
"Light!" Rose said searching around for a light switch.
"Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks "oohoo, this could be a little more sonic"?"
"What, you've never been bored?" the Doctor said indignantly.
"There's gotta be a light switch! Becks help me!" The two girls were running their hands along the wall searching for the wall.
"Never had a long night? Never had a lot of cabinets to put up?" the Doctor asked. Rose found the switch and flipped the lights on. All the gas-mask people lying in the beds sat up and started chanting mummy.
"Door." Jack called out. They rushed to the door as the patients started getting out of bed. The door however was locked. Jack tried to using his blaster but it didn't work.
"Damn it!" He took a step back and tried whacking it a few times.
"What's wrong with it?" Rebecca asked as the Doctor began using his sonic screwdriver instead.
"It's the special features, they really drain the battery."
"The battery?!" Rose asked as the Doctor opened the door and they ran in.
"That's so LAME." Once inside the room the Doctor sealed the door.
"I was gonna send for another one, but SOMEBODY'Sgonna blow up the factory." Jack said shooting a glare at the Doctor causing Rebecca to laugh.
"Oh, I know - first day I met him, he blew my job up. That's practically how he communicates." Rose said.
"Okay, that door should hold it for a bit."
"The door?! The WALLdidn't stop it!" Jack said incredulously.
"Well, it's gotta FINDus first! Come on, we're not done yet! Assets, assets!"
"Well, I've got a banana, and at a pinch you could put up some shelves."
"Window—" the Doctor asked
"Barred, sheer drop outside. Seven stories."
"And no other exits." Rose finished.
"Well, the assets conversation went in a flash, didn't it?" Jack said sarcastically.
"So, where'd you pick this one up, then?" the Doctor asked.
"Doctor... "
"She was hanging from a barrage balloon, I had an invisible spaceship." Rose shifted around in her seat uncomfortably. Jack went over to Rebecca.
"Warning this might feel a bit weird." He whispered in her ear.
"What?" she asked but suddenly the ground beneath her feet disappeared and she was on Jack's ship.
"Okay, one, we want to get out of here. Two, we CAN'Tget out of here. Have I missed anything?" the Doctor asked Rose.
"Yeah... Jack and Rebecca just disappeared." The Doctor spun around to see the pair of them gone.
"Welcome aboard." Jack said setting himself down in the pilots chair. Rebecca looked around in awe.
"Nice ship you got here." She said removing his jacket and placing it on the back of his chair. "Thanks for letting me wear your jacket. I was freezing."
"Not a problem. Hold on, I'm gonna communicate with the Doctor and Rose." He told her tapping a few keys.
"What're you doing?" she asked curiously.
"There was an old radio in the room with them. I can use OmCom to talk to them." He hit a few more keys. "It'll only be another minute.
"Okay, so he's vanished into thin air. Why is it always the GREAT looking ones who do that?" the Doctor peered up at her, giving her a look.
"I'm making an effort not to be insulted."
"I mean... men."
"Okay. Thanks. That REALLYhelped." He said with a sarcastic smile. An old radio suddenly sprang to life.
"Rose? Doctor? Can you hear me?" Jack's voice said.
"I'm back on my ship. Used the emergency teleport. Sorry I couldn't take you. It's security-keyed to my molecular structure. I'm working on it - hang in there."
"How am I here then?" Rebecca asked him.
"You were wearing my jacket. Some of my DNA is in there from my sweat and pheromones." He said turning around to face her.
"Regardless, How're you speaking to us?" the Doctor asked.
"Om-Com. I can call anything with a speaker grille."
"Now there's a coincidence."
"What is?"
"The Child can Om-Com too."
"It can?" Rose asked.
"Anything with a speaker grille ,Even the TARDIS phone."
"What, you mean the Child can phone us?"
"And I can hear you. Coming to find you. Coming to fiiiiind you." The Child said through the radio in a sing-song voice.
"Doctor, can you hear that?" Jack asked.
"Loud and clear."
"I'll try to block out the signal. Least I can do."
"Coming to find you, mummy!" Jack then began typing in a frenzy on his keyboard, having a difficult time blocking the signal.
"May I?" Rebecca asked him. "You don't have to block the signal per say. You can just replace it using Radio waves." He looked at her impressed.
"By all means, go ahead." He said getting up from his chair and allowing her to sit down. A moment later, after hitting a few keys the music came on.
"I blocked the signal using Radio waves Doc. I hope you two like Glen Miller." She then turned to Jack who was smiling at her.
"What?" she asked smiling back.
"That was very impressive."
"I try." She winked at him and then turned around to face the control panel again. "You think that was impressive? Now watch me Captain, because I'm gonna lock onto their molecular signatures and beam them up."
Rose sat around in a wheel chair, bored while the radio still played some soft jazz music. The Doctor was holding his sonic screwdriver to the window.
"What you doing?" she asked him.
"Trying to set up a resonation pattern in the concrete. Loosen the bars."
"You don't think he's coming back, do ya?"
"Wouldn't bet my life."
"Why don't you trust him?"
"Why do you?"
"Saved my life. Bloke-wise, that's up there with flossing." The Doctor didn't respond. "I trust him 'cos he's like you. Except with dating and dancing." The Doctor shot her a look
"What?"
"You just assume I'm..."
"What?"
"You just assume that I don't... dance." The Doctor said, his voice sounding vulnerable.
"What, are you telling me you DO...dance?" Rose grinned.
"Nine hundred years old, me. I've been around a bit. I think you can assume that at some point I've danced."
"You?!" she asked, smiling growing wider and wider.
"Problem?"
"Doesn't the universe implode or something if you... dance?" she teased.
"Well, I've got the moves but I wouldn't want to boast." Rose hopped up from the wheel chair and got up, and turned up the music on the radio and walked over to the Doctor flirtatiously and offered him a hand.
"You've got the moves? Show me your moves." She challenged.
"Rose, I'm trying to resonate concrete. "
"Rebecca and Jack'll be back, he'll get us out. So come on - the world doesn't end 'cos the Doctor dances." The Doctor snapped his sonic screwdriver, replaced it in his jacket pocket and stepped away from the window toward her, and odd sort of confused expression on his face. He stood in front of Rose and took her hands, and instead of pulling her into a dancing position, he turned her hands over and looked at them.
"Barrage balloon?"
"... What?" she asked completely lost.
"You were hanging from a barrage balloon." The Doctor stated.
"Oh... yeah. About two minutes after you left me. Thousands of feet above London - middle of a German air-raid - Union Jack ALLover my chest." He raised his eyebrows.
"I've travelled with a lot of people, but you're setting new records for jeopardy-friendly." He continued examining her hands.
"Is this you dancing? 'Cos I've got notes"
"Hanging from a rope a thousand feet above London. Not a cut, not a bruise."
"Yeah, I know. Captain Jack fixed me up..."
"Oh, we're calling him 'Captain Jack' now, are we?"
"Well, his name's Jack and he's a captain..." Rose reasoned.
"He's not really a captain, Rose."
"D'you know what Ithink? I think you're experiencing Captain envy." The Doctor half nodded, not denying her statement. He took his hands and they began to dance. Rebecca at that moment beamed them up, without them even noticing.
"You'll find your feet at the end of your legs. You may care to move them." Rose teased.
"If ever he was a captain, he's been defrocked."
"Yeah? Shame I missed that. "Actually, I quit. Nobody takes my frock." Rebecca laughed at him.
"Most people notice when they've been teleported. You guys are so sweet. Sorry about the delay." Rebecca said.
"This is a Chula ship." The Doctor said looking around.
"Yeah, just like that medical transporter. Only, this one is dangerous." Jack told him. The Doctor snapped his fingers and his hand was instantly swarmed by nanogenes.
"What are those?" Rebecca asked curiously.
"They're what fixed my hands up! Jack called 'em, um..." Rose stammered trying to remember their name.
"Nanobots? Nanogenes." The Doctor offered.
"Nanogenes, yeah"
"Sub-atomic robots. There's millions of them in here, see? Burned my hand on the console when we landed - all better now. They activate when the bulk head's sealed. Check you out for damage, fix any physical flaws."
"How do they work Doc?" Rebecca asked, wondering if she could carry around a vial of them to heal any of the injuries they received on their adventures.
"Not now Becks, Take us to the crash site. I need to see your space junk." He said addressing Jack.
"As soon as I get the nav-com back online. Rebecca had to disable it." The Doctor looked mildly annoyed.
"Sorry." She squeaked.
"Anyway you and Roe, make yourselves comfortable. Carry on with whatever it was you were... doing."
"We were talking about dancing!" the Doctor said innocently.
"It didn't look like talking."
"Didn't feel like dancing." Rose said a tad disappointed. Rose then took a seat in one of the chairs and flipped her mobile back on.
"So, you used to bea Time Agent - now you're trying to con them?" Rebecca asked Jack as he began to reestablish the Nav-com connection."
"If it makes me sound any better, it's not for the money."
"For what?"
"Woke up one day when I was working for them - found they'd stolen two years of my memories. I'd like them back."
"They stole your memories?" Rebecca asked horrified.
"Two years of my life. No idea what I did." He gestured to the Doctor. "Your friend over there doesn't trust me. And for all I know... he's right not to." Suddenly the computer bleeped. "Okay, we're good to go." The Doctor looked up from what he was doing.
"Crash site?" and they were soon on their way to the crash site. The four walked by the rail station near the crash site.
"There it is." Jack said. "Ay, they've got Algy on duty. Must be important."
"We've gotta get past." The Doctor said.
"No shit, Sherlock." Rebecca muttered.
"The words 'distract the guard' head in Rebecca's and my general direction."
"I don't think that'd be such a good idea." Jack warned.
"Don't worry... we can handle it."
"I've got to know Algy quite well since I've been in town. Trust me. You're not his type. I'll distract him." He told them, walking away. "Don't wait up."
"Relax, he's a 51st century guy. He's just a bit more flexible when it comes to dancing." The Doctor told the girls.
"HOWflexible?" Rebecca questioned.
"Well, by his time, you lot have spread out across half the galaxy."
"Meaning?"
"So many species, so little time..." the Doctor said with a grin.
"What, that's what we do when we get out there? That's our mission? We seek new life, and... and..." Rose trailed off.
"Dance." The Doctor sniggered.
Jack jumped down onto the rail track of the bomb site where the soldier, Algy was pacing.
"Hey, tiger! How's it hanging?" Algy turned to him.
"Mummy?"
"Algy, old sport, it's me."
"Mummy?"
"It's me, Jack." His smile faded.
"Jack?" Algy cocked his head to one side, observing Jack with a child-like curiosity. "Are you my mummy?" he began coughing and fell to his knees, beginning to transform into a gas mask person. The other soldiers in the area began to hurry over.
"Stay back! You men! Stay away!" Jack yelled at the soldiers, still horror struck. Rebecca, Rose and the Doctor rushed over to Jack and Algy who laid on the ground lifeless.
"The effect's become air-borne. Accelerating." The Doctor said.
"What's keeping USsafe?" Rose asked.
"Nothing." The air-raid siren sounded.
"Ah, here they come again." Jack said looking up.
"All we need. Wait, Didn't you say a bomb was gonna land... HERE?" Rebecca asked. She heard someone singing in the background.
"Never mind about that. If the contaminants air-borne now, there's hours left." The Doctor said.
"For what?"
"'Til nothing. 'Til forever. For the entire human race. And can anyone else hear singing?" he looked to a nearby Shed and spotted Nancy, singing to a gasmask faced soldier sleeping on a table.
"Rock-a-by baby, on the tree tops, when the wind blows the cradle will rock... When the bough breaks the cradle will fall, and down will come baby, cradle and all." The door creaked open and the Doctor motioned for her to keep singing so she began her song again. The Doctor spotted her handcuffed to the wall and quickly used his sonic screwdriver to unlock them. When her cuffs were unlocked she quickly backed out of the shed and they silently headed back toward the crash site.
"You see? Just an ambulance." Jack said as he uncovered the Chula warship.
"That's an ambulance?" Nancy asked incredulously. Rose wrapped an arm around Nancy.
"It's hard to explain, it's... it's from another world."
"They've been trying to get in." Jack said looking at the controls, beginning to type in a code.
"Of course they have. They think they've got their hands on Hitler's latest secret weapon. What're you doing?"
"Well, the sooner you see this thing is empty, the sooner you'll see I had nothing to do with it." The control panel exploded with sparks and an alarm began to go off and they all jumped back.
"That didn't happen last time."
"It hadn't crashed last time. They're the emergency protocols."
"Doc, what isthat?" Rebecca asked watching as the gates of the bomb site began to shake.
"Captain, Rebecca, secure those gates!"
"Why?" Jack asked.
"Just do it!" Rebecca and Jack looked to each other and then ran towards the nearest gate and began securing them together.
"Nancy, how'd you get in here?"
"I cut the wire."
"Show Rose." He tossed Rose his sonic screwdriver. "Setting two thousand four hundred and twenty eight D."
"What?" she asked.
"Reattaches barbed wire. Go!" Rose and Nancy ran towards the fence where Nancy had come in. Nancy held together the two ends of wire so Rose could fuse them together with the sonic.
"Who are you? Who are any of you?" Nancy asked.
"You'd never believe me if I told ya."
"You just told me that was an ambulance from another world. There are people running around with gas-mask heads calling for their mummies, and the sky's full of Germans dropping bombs on me. Tell me. Do you think there's anything left I couldn't believe?"
"We're time travelers from the future."
"Mad, you are."
"We have a time travel machine - seriously!"
"It's not that. All right - you've got a time travel machine. I believe ya. Believe anything, me." She looked up at the sky. "But what future?" the bombs were bursting in air, the German planes soaring around.
"Nancy, this isn't the end. I know how it looks. But it's not the end of the world or anything..."
"How can you say that? Lookat it."
"Listen to me. I was BORNin this city. I'm from here, in like, 50 years time."
"From here?"
"I'm a Londoner. From your future." She smiled encouragingly.
"But... but you're not..."
"What?"
"German."
"Nancy, the Germans don't come here. They don't win." Nancy furrowed her brow. "Don't tell anyone I told you so, but do you know what? YOUwin."
"We win?" Rose nodded, smiling at Nancy who let out a laugh.
"Come on, we gotta get back." Jack was opening the hatch of the med ship when they arrived.
"It's empty. Look at it."
"What do you expect in a Chula medical transporter? Bandages? Cough drops? Rose?" the Doctor asked her. Rebecca raised her hand as if she were in class, she had figured it out.
"I dunno."
"Yes, you do." The Doctor told her miming summoning the nanogenes like he had on the ship.
"Nanogenes!"
"It wasn't empty, Captain. There was enough nanogenes in there to rebuild a species."
"Oh, God." He said shaken. Rebecca grabbed his shoulder giving it a comforting squeeze. She was determined that they would fix this.
"Getting it now, are we? When the ship crashes, the nanogenes escape. Billions upon billions of them, ready to fix all the cuts and bruises in the whole world. But what they find first is a dead child, probably killed earlier that night and wearing a gasmask."
"And they brought him back to life? They can DO that?" Rose asked.
"What's life? Life's easy. A quirk of matter. Nature's way of keeping meat fresh. Nothing to a nanogene. One problem, though - these nanogenes - they're not like the ones on your ship. This lot have never seen a human being before. Don't know what a human being's supposed to look like. All they've got to go on is one little body, and there's not a lot left. But they carry right on. They do what they're programmed to do, they patch it up. Can't tell what's gasmask and what's skull, but they do their best. Then off they fly - off they go, work to be done. 'Cos you see NOWthey THINKthey know what people should look like and it's time to fix all the rest. And they won't ever stop. They won't ever, ever stop. The entire Human Race is gonna be torn down and rebuilt in the form of one terrified child looking for its mother, and NOTHINGin the world can stop it!" His voice had risen to almost a shout and Jack took a step back shaken.
"I didn't know." The Doctor fixed on him with a cold stare for a few moments. Rebecca gave him a look telling him to back off. He rolled his eyes at her before examining the ship.
"Rose?" Nancy said frightened. Rose rushed next to Nancy and followed her gaze, now seeing the gasmask people stumbling toward them over the rail road tracks, getting closer and closer.
"It's bringing the gasmask people here, isn't it?" she asked, gesturing to the flashing red light on the control panel.
"The ship thinks it's under attack. It's calling up the troops. Standard protocol."
"But... the gasmask people aren't troops..."
"They are now. This is a battle-field ambulance. The nanogenes don't just fix you up - they get you ready for the front line. Equip you, program you."
"That's why the Child's so strong. Why it could use Om-com." Rebecca added.
"It's a fully equipped Chula warrior, yes. All that weapons tech in the hands of a hysterical four year old - looking for his mummy. And now there's an army of them." The gasmask people began surrounding the fence.
"Why don't they attack?" Jack asked.
"Good little soldiers. Waiting for their commander."
"The child?"
"Jamie." Nancy corrected.
"What?"
"Not 'the child'. Jamie." She told Jack annoyed. Both the Doctor and Rebecca gave her a look.
"So, how long until the bomb falls?" Rose asked.
"Any second." Jack told her.
"What's the matter, Captain? Bit close to the volcano for you?" the Doctor taunted.
"Doc, shut up. You're not helping."
"He's just a little boy." Nancy said sadly.
"I know." Rebecca said, wrapping an arm around her.
"He's just a little boy who wants his mummy."
"I know. There isn't a little boy born who wouldn't tear the world apart to save his mummy. And this little boy can." The Doctor said.
"So what're we gonna DO?" Rose asked loudly.
"I don't know." The Doctor said. Tears began to well in Nancy's eyes.
"It's my fault." She cried.
"No, don't say that." Rebecca said.
"It is. It's all my fault."
"How can it be you fault?" the Doctor suddenly spun around, looking at all the gasmask people calling for their mummy and then back at an inconsolable Nancy.
"Nancy, what age are you? Twenty? Twenty-one? Older than you look, yes?" A bomb landed nearby and Rose, Jack and Rebecca flinched.
"Doctor - that bomb. We've got seconds." Jack said as another landed and Rebecca jumped again.
"You can teleport us out yeah?" Rose asked.
"Not you guys. The nav-com's back online. Gonna take too long to override the protocols."
"So it's volcano day. Do what you've got to do." The doctor said, his eyes fixed on Nancy and Rebecca. Jack teleported and Rebecca stared at the spot where he had been moments before in shock.
"How old were you five years ago? Fifteen? Sixteen? Old enough to give birth, anyway." The Doctor said to Nancy, glanced up at him and then glanced away, shame faced.
"He's not your brother, is he?" Rebecca asked. Nancy shook her head, tearful.
"A teenage single mother in 1941. So you hid. You lied." Nancy nodded, tears streaming down her face.
"You even lied to him." The Doctor said. The gates swung open and the child stood in front of the army of gasmask people, ready to charge.
"Are you my mummy?"
"He's gonna keep asking, Nancy. He's never gonna stop. Tell him." The Doctor told her as the gasmask began to walk forward. "Nancy... the future of the human race is in your hands. Trust me... and tell him." Nancy sniffled, still tearful as Jamie approached them.
"Are you my mummy?" Rebecca gave Nancy a gentle nudge in Jamie's direction.
"Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy?"
"Yes." She whispered. "Yes. I AMyour mummy." She said stronger.
She faces him. The Child walks slowly forward.
"Mummy?"
"I'm here."
"Are you my mummy?"
"I'm here." She kneeled before him.
"Are you my mummy?"
"Yes." She whispered.
"He doesn't understand. There's not enough of him left." Rebecca said horrified.
"I amyour mummy. I will always be your mummy. I'm so sorry." Nancy said, eyes brimming with tears. She took him into her arms, no longer caring what could happen to her. The nanogenes surrounded them, causing them to cover them with a golden glow."I am so, so sorry."
"Doctor,What's happening? Doctor, it's changing her, we should—" he held an arm out to silence her. He stared intently at the two of them surrounded by nanogenes, apprehensive and excited.
"Come on, please. Come on, you CLEVERlittle nanogenes - figure it out! The mother. She's the mother! There's gotta be enough information, figure it out!"
"What's happening?"
"See? Recognizing the same DNA. " Nancy fell away from Jamie and to the ground as the nanogenes disappeared. Rebecca was the first over to the child, staring at him hopefully.
"Oh, come on. Give me a day like this. Give me this one. " the Doctor begged. He reached out and removed the gasmask, revealing a perfectly normal little boy underneath. The three women stared at the little boy delighted, Rebecca had happy tears in her eyes, and the Doctor laughed completely ecstatic. He lifted the little boy into the air and swung him around.
"Ah-ha-ha! Welcome back! Twenty years 'til pop music - you're gonna loveit." He hugged the child.
"What happened? " Nancy asked.
"The nanogenes recognized the superior information - the parent DNA. They didn't change YOU because YOU changed them! Haha!" he put Jamie down in front of Nancy. "Mother knows best!"
"Jamie...!" she cried happily. Suddenly a bomb landed nearby.
"Doctor, that bomb..." Rose said.
"Taken care of it"
"How?"
"Psychology!" he said, a bomb plummeting toward them and was suddenly snatched out of the air by a blue force field. Jack's ship appeared hovering in the tunnel of light and he called down to them.
"Doctor!" he called out.
"Good lad!"
"The bomb's already commenced detonation. I've put it in stasis but it won't last long."
"Change of plan - don't need the bomb. Can you get rid of it? Safely as you can?"
"Rebecca?"
"Yeah?" she responded.
"Goodbye." He said, and Rebecca looked up tears in her eyes. He was sacrificing himself to save all of them.
Jack disappeared again. His ship zooming, off into the night sky as the Doctor began pacing, staring intently at his hands. He then summoned the nanogenes. They began fluttering around his hands.
"What're you doing?" Rose asked.
"Software patch. Gonna email the upgrade. You want moves, Rose? I'll give you moves." He threw the nanogenes away from him, toward the gasmask people who were still milling around on the train track. The Doctor grinned ecstatically watching the gasmask people fall to the ground and the nanogenes surrounded him.
"Everybody lives, Rose. Just this once. Everybody lives!" the gasmask people got to their feet, no longer gasmask people. They were normal. The Doctor bounded over to Doctor Constantine.
"Doctor Constantine. Who never left his patients. Back on your feet, constant doctor! World doesn't wanna get by without you just yet, and I don't blame it one are your patients. All better, now! "
"Yes, yes... so it seems. They also seem to be standing around in a disused railway station. Is there any particular reason for that?" he asked confused.
"Yeah, well, you know - cutbacks. Listen, whatever was wrong with them in the past, you're probably gonna find that they're cured. Just tell them what a great doctor you are. Don't make a big thing of it. Okay?" He rushed backed to Rose and Rebecca.
"Right, you lot! Lots to do! Beat the Germans, save the world - don't forget the Welfare State!
Setting this to self-destruct, soon as everybody's clear. History says there was an explosion here. Who am I to argue with history?"
"Usually the first in line." Rose said. The three of them walked back to the TARDIS and the Doctor continued to chat happily all the while.
"The nanogenes will clean up the mess and switch themselves off - because I just told them to. Nancy and Jamie will go to Doctor Constantine for help - ditto - all in all, all things considered - fantastic!"
"Look at you, beaming away like you're Father Christmas!"
"Who says I'm not? red-bicycle-when-you-were-twelve." He told Rose.
"What?!"
"And everybody lives, Girls! Everybody lives! I need more days like this."
"Doc?"
"Go on, ask me anything. I'm on FIRE!"
"What about Jack?" the Doctor's smile faded and he carried on working. He didn't want to answer her. "Is there anything we can do?"
He sighed. "You can try to find his ship and we can bring him aboard."
"Good thing that ship was easy to hack then." She said with a grin and a moment later they had pulled up beside his ship. She opened the ships door and called out to him.
"Well, hurry up then!" He dropped his drink and dashed aboard to find Rose and the Doctor trying to dance. Jack looked around in awe.
"Welcome aboard Captain." She said with a smile.
"Right, and turn..." Rose said, her arm getting all twisted as the Doctor spun her. "Okay, okay, try and spin me again, but this time - don't get my arm up my back!" He looked at her sheepishly.
"No extra points for a half-nelson."
"I'm SUREI used to know this stuff." He turned to Jack "Close the door, will you. Your ship's about to blow up - there's gonna be a draft. Welcome to the TARDIS." He said continuing to try and dance.
"Much bigger on the inside..."
"That's what everyone says." Rebecca told him.
"Rose! I've just remembered!" the Doctor called out.
"What?" A new song began to blare out of the speakers, and lights began to flash all around the room and the Doctor moved toward Rose in time with the music, snapping.
"I can dance!" he said twirling her around. She smiled and laughed.
"Perfect Partners." Rebecca said leaning against a pillar, watching the pair dance in synch with a sad smile on her face. "Best leave them to it."
"What? No dance for me?" he asked expectantly. Rebecca shook her head no.
"Not tonight Captain. Let's get you settled in. This way." She said leading him down the hallway toward where the bedrooms were. She stopped in front of a doorway, clearly marked with a letter 'J', right across from her room.
"For some reason, I think this one is yours." She said pushing open the door to find a room decorated all in a dark blue, contrasting from her own light blue room across the hall.
"The TARDIS should have everything you need in here. The bathroom is attached, clothes in the drawers and since the TARDIS is sentient, if you need anything, you can ask nicely and she'll provide most of the time."
"Sounds good." He said flopping down on his bed. "Wanna join me?" he asked with a wink. Rebecca uncomfortably shifted back towards the doorway.
"Goodnight Captain." She said closing his door behind her. She walked across the hall to her room and picked up the box of adoption papers she had brought with her from home and sat on her bed attempting to read through them once more.
She had been found at a fire station safe haven by Daniel Goodman, back when he had been a volunteer firefighter, before his inventing career had taken off. She had been about one year old based on her body weight and development, so November 23 had become her birthday. She read through the paper's discovering that everything she had thought about her past was wrong and that she was then quickly adopted by the Goodman's who had lost Natalie and Gabriel less than a year and a half prior. She stared at the locket once more trying to make sense of the symbols, as they slowly began to morph into a name.
"Cascada." She read out loud. I wonder if that's my real name. I'll ask Doc about the language tomorrow, he's too engrossed in Rose right now to be bothered. She set the locket down on her night stand and filled in today's adventure in the diary River had given her before singing herself her lullaby and falling into a fitful sleep, tossing and turning the whole night, dreaming of a city doused in fire, burning to ashes.
AN: So yeah… there it is folks! I hope you enjoyed it!
Do you like snow? Or are you terrified that it's probably ash from some ship that UNIT or TORCHWOOD destroyed? Personally not a big snow person.
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Thanks!