A/N: Sorry, quick note, I usually do ~8~ as a scene break, but for these three chapters I'm also going to use ~0~ as a scene break but for when the Doctor/Angel/Rose scenes appear just to not confuse you. The first chapter will focus on the Doctor/Angel/Rose involvement with the Elemental Shade, the next on the creature in the warehouse (with some fluff in between), and finish with a final scene in the last chapter about the end of the Shade. Though there's probably mentions of both the Doctor and Angel in quite a few of Elton's scenes too. Which reminds me, anything in italics will be Elton's voiceover/him in front of the camera in his room :) Enjoy! (I think this might be the longest chapter of the story so far lol)
~8~
Love and Monsters: LINDA
A blonde man stood in front of a disused building site, spotting a faint familiar shape in the distance and took off after it. He stopped at the top of a hill, panting as he came across a series of deserted but identical outbuildings in a very run down area. A blue police box was parked right in the middle, looking very out of place and unusual. He stopped, staring at it, and slowly walked towards it. He reached out to place a hand on it, when he heard a voice...
"Angel!" a young woman called in the distance, "Doctor, the trap!"
He turned, running towards the source of the shouting and into one of the buildings, a warehouse. He looked up, hearing shouts and scuffling sounds emanating.
"Where's he gone?" a man yelled, "Can you see him?"
"There he is! Stop, no! Watch out! There!"
"Where?"
"There!" another woman called, "Over there!"
He ran up a set of stairs, slowly approaching a door at the end of a long corridor with many doors along the side of it at the sounds of banging and growling at the end. There was a bright light shining through the bottom of the door. He walked up to it cautiously and swung it open.
A ferocious looking monster snarled at him and roared.
~8~
"That's what it did," the same blonde man said as he sat in front of his computer, recording his retelling of his adventure, "It went RRROOOOAAAAAAAAARRR! And if you think that was the most exciting day of my life, wait 'til you hear the rest. Oh boy..." he smiled, "So there I was, with that thing going RAAAAH!"
~8~
The monster slowly approached him, snarling, when a woman stepped behind it. She was a tall woman with long red hair in a plait draped over her shoulder and warm chocolate brown eyes. She was wearing a long sleeved, white knit, off-the-shoulder sweater that folded at the top, stopping just above her bust and went just below her hips. She had on a pair of dark blue jeans, similar in color to the phone box outside. But what really caught his attention was the fact that she was holding a large pork chop in her hand, dangling it just out of the monster's reach, "Here, boy!" she called, "Come and have a treat! Over here…"
The monster turned back to her as a man appeared past the woman's shoulder, a very familiar man in a brown suit and long brown jacket, "Get out of here, quickly!" he shouted as the woman continued to try and bait the monster, "I said, run!"
He backed away as a blonde woman ran past him with a loud cry, splashing the liquid of a blue bucket all over the monster.
"Wrong one! You made it worse!"
"You said blue!" the woman shouted.
"I said 'not blue!'"
"I told you to just say red!" the ginger cut in, when she noticed the monster glaring at the blonde woman and nudged the man.
"Oh…hold on!" he quickly slammed the door shut as the blonde ran off, followed by the monster.
He watched, stunned, as the monster chased all three people in a very Scooby Doo-like manner, in and out of the doors. The blonde woman ran out of a room with a red bucket this time, chasing the monster now, as the ginger and the man followed her.
The man stopped suddenly and turned back to him, peering closely, "Hold on...don't I know you?"
He just turned and ran out of the building, pressing himself against a wall outside, when he heard a wheezing noise. He sighed, defeated, knowing he had missed his chance.
~8~
"You can't imagine it," he began, looking at the camera, "The Doctor's machine, the most beautiful sound in the world. Yet that wasn't the first time I met the Doctor, and it certainly wasn't the last, oh no. I just put that bit at the beginning because it's a brilliant opening. But...er...this is the story of me, and my encounters with alien life forms. But be warned, because it is gonna get scarrrrry," he leaned closer to the camera for dramatic effect, "I…I need a remote control zoom, I'm having to do that with the lean, the scarrrrry. But look, don't worry, 'cos it's not just me sitting here talking, oh no."
~8~
He stood on an ordinary street, talking to the camera, "That's Ursula on camera."
"Hello!" Ursula waved a gloved hand at the camera.
"My good friend, Ursula Blake, and my brand new camera," he smiled. The camera moved in to look at a beige colored, terraced house in the middle of the street, before turning back to him, "That was my family home, down there," he leaned in, whispering, "I did try, but there's two women live there now and they're a bit...severe," he winced, "So...never mind. But that, is where it all started. That's when I first met the Doctor. What was it...er...I must have been three or four years old. Middle of the night, went downstairs, and there was this, man and woman…" he paused, thinking back to when he'd woken late at night and crept down the stairs into the sitting room to see the man in the brown suit, the Doctor, standing there, looking at him, sorrowful, with the ginger woman standing beside him, his arm around her waist.
"So what happened?" Ursula asked, seeing him drift off, "Elton, tell me. Why were they there?"
"I don't know. I…I still don't know. All those years ago..." he paused a moment in thought before waving his hands at the camera, cutting off.
~0~
Angel and the Doctor raced around the console as Rose clung to the railing, trying to keep her balance, a small alarm was going off on the monitor, a blinking red light that Rose knew couldn't mean something good was coming.
"What is it?" she shouted, watching the new Angel man the controls, reaching for things out of the Doctor's grasp, the two sharing a smile.
"The TARDIS has picked up a hostile blip," Angel told her.
"A hostile…blip?"
The Doctor nodded, stepping around Angel though his arm lingered around her waist, moving with him as he passed her, making her squirm. It seemed this new Angel's ribs were ticklish…a fact he loved exploiting because it made her smile and laugh and try to grab his hands, which always gave him just enough leverage to pull her closer to kiss her.
He loved kissing her too.
That and touching her hair. It was so long he just loved playing with it. He hadn't got much of a chance to do that with her previous incarnation, who always had her hair clipped back most of the time, but this one well…it still wasn't hanging freely, but in more of a loose plait…but still, he loved tugging on it softly, curling it around his finger. It was…such a lovely shade of red, she made a beautiful ginger.
It still wasn't fair though.
"The TARDIS picked up technology that doesn't belong on Earth and comes from a typically hostile species," the Doctor explained, pulling a lever, sending them flying off into the Vortex.
"What species?"
"No idea!" the Doctor cheered, "Cloaking device on the technology just after it touched down."
"Too slow for the TARDIS not to pick it up though," Angel smiled up at the rotor, patting it, "You're too quick for them aren't you girl?"
Rose laughed as the TARDIS hummed in content and, what Rose assumed was, pride.
Angel nodded, turning the monitor to show Rose the scan the TARDIS had run, the location of the blip, "See," she pointed, "The TARDIS managed to locate the last known area of the blip and we set a course for it. Should be there…" she reached back and, without looking, slapped the Doctor's hand away from a knob, pushing a button instead, making him pout and Rose laugh and the TARDIS thump, "Now!"
"Brilliant," the Doctor cheered and wrapped his arms around Angel from behind, spinning her around, making her squeal and laugh.
He'd noticed her intuition had been much sharper than before. Not exactly 'feelings' like a sense of the future but just...more of what was happening in the present. She would answer the phone when it rang a split second after it rang having already been reaching for it, she knew when he was about to hit a button that would explode the TARDIS, she turned the kettle off right when it whistled. And if this was her at the START of this incarnation, he could only imagine what she'd be able to do and sense and feel ages later…and it WOULD be ages later, he'd make sure of it.
She'd only had a year in her body before she'd burned it out using the Vortex only days ago. He would make sure she had MUCH longer in this body. He swore to himself she would. He'd protect her. He'd do a better job. Be a better Mate. Help…
His thoughts were cut off when he felt someone press their lips against his.
Angel.
He smiled, reaching out to cup her face and hold her closer when she'd just started to pull away again. They hadn't really had an adventure recently, him having wanted to make sure that she was completely ready before they headed out. But he could tell she was eager for this adventure, she wanted to find herself, see what sort of woman she was now.
He and Rose already had an idea though. This Angel…was so different than her last one, but still…she had similarities to her that made them realize she was still the same girl deep down. She was still the most compassionate, kind woman he'd ever met. She still had a bit of a sweet tooth, though now she seemed to prefer cupcakes to cookies. He'd made her a batch of different flavors just for fun, for her to see which flavors she liked.
Red Velvet.
Which suited her.
The ginger of the cupcake world.
She was different in some regards though. All her time around Rose and Mickey had seemed to have an impact on her. She understood humans much more than she had. She got their expressions and rhetorical devices and jokes now. There were still little things about them that confused her, little things though. But for the most part, she knew what to say and not to say…though she retained her blunt honesty it seemed. She didn't like lying just as much as the last her hadn't.
And she blushed the loveliest shade of red, he'd noticed, when they pulled away from the kiss, both a bit breathless.
One thing was certain, Angel had most certainly gotten used to her new new lips and he'd had a wonderful time helping her.
"So what are we waiting for?!" Rose cheered, beaming at them.
She'd been…worried…about Angel when she regenerated. She'd been afraid she herself wouldn't be able to handle it, much like when the Doctor had regenerated. But Angel had seemed to sense that because, as soon as she was up and about Angel had gone up to her, smiled, and held out her hand saying 'New new Angel, nice to meet you.' She'd smiled and laughed, hugging the woman instead, before Angel pulled her to the wardrobe for some girl-bonding as she got her to help pick out her current outfit, which she had to admit suited Angel more than her last incarnation's clothes. That gesture, Angel still coming to her for help in some areas, reassured her, it was STILL Angel. A little more eager and understanding an Angel, but still the kind, thoughtful, psychic woman she'd always been. Though, she secretly suspected, that having travelled with Captain Jack might have had an effect on Angel a bit. She was slightly…flirty…when it came to the Doctor. Well, actually it was more how aware she was of what she said and did around the Doctor really. Before, she'd noticed Angel would compliment him in a way where she almost didn't seem to realize she had, like when she'd remarked about 'the great looking ones disappearing in TARDISes' but not now. NOW she seemed to know what she was saying and what it meant. The Doctor though, seemed to enjoy the new attention and affection, which made her smile to watch, those two really were endlessly sweet.
"She's right!" Angel beamed, "Let's go!"
The Doctor laughed and took her hand, pulling her towards the doors with Rose running after them, stepping out to a row of houses, the TARDIS across the street from a beige one.
~0~
"Ok, first things first," Elton sat in his room again, "My name is Elton. Er...not to be confused with…" an image of Elton John performing cut in, "I left school, got a job, Transport Manager, Rated Logistics, modest little haulage company, perfectly normal life, and then...it all went mad."
~8~
Elton walked through a busy London street, carrying shopping bags.
~8~
"Two years ago, I was in town, I was stocking up. You know, nothing special, all the usual stuff, when all of a sudden..."
~8~
As he walked past a shop, a window dummy inside it raised its arm and hit the glass, shattering it. He stopped in shock, looking around as the other dummies came to life, marching out of the windows, causing chaos.
~8~
"Shop window dummies! Come to life!"
~8~
The dummies marched through the street, shooting people and telephone wires with jets of red light, creating electrical fires. They smashed up cars and attacked people in all directions. Elton ran off, nearly getting hit by a car as he fled.
~8~
"I survived...obviously..."
~8~
He walked down an ordinary street one day, when something caught his eye.
~8~
"Twelve months later, I'm back in town. I'm up west, looking for a new suit, something nice and smart, when I hear this plane overhead."
~8~
There was a loud hum and everyone stopped to look over as a large alien spaceship struck Big Ben, ripping it apart, everyone staring in horror.
~8~
"But it wasn't over yet, 'cos then...Christmas Day..."
~8~
Elton was sleeping in his bed on Christmas morning…
~8~
"I'm in bed fast asleep, nice and cozy, quarter to eight in the morning, when all of a sudden…"
~8~
The window shattered inwards as his eyes snapped open.
~8~
"SMASH! And I was stuck in bed, right, 'cos there was glass everywhere! And I was barefoot! I had to invent a rudimentary pulley system just to reach my boots! And by the time I'd done that..."
~8~
Elton looked around at the glass everywhere as he made his way to his window, looking out at the spaceship hovering over London.
~8~
"And that's when it all started happening. That's how I met Ursula…that's how I met Victor Kennedy…that's how I met Jackie Tyler…and that's how I finally met the Doctor and that ginger woman, the Angel…and realized the truth."
~0~
The Doctor pushed the doorbell of a quaint beige house in the middle of the street. They'd been looking into the families up and down the block all day to see if anything odd had happened, but no such luck. This though…this was the last house.
Just as the door opened, Angel shivered.
'What is it?' the Doctor asked her.
Their mental bond was doing VERY well ever since she'd regenerated. Almost like it had gotten a boost. It was odd. He'd assumed it would be severed, or weakened at the very least, when she regenerated in the middle of the process. But it had gotten stronger! He thought, perhaps, it might have something to do with the dampener not being the last thing she'd had before regenerating. This time she'd done so with her mind free and already growing stronger. Actually it was almost like the floodgates opened, it was actually hard to BLOCK the thoughts now. They pretty much heard everything the other thought at every moment. The purpose of the mental connection was to drop their natural mental barriers and let their Mate in, now that they were connected, they had to erect the barriers again but around the connection instead.
'This is the house,' she murmured to him.
He reached out and took her hand, his thumb running along her knuckles to calm her. He wasn't happy with this now…the thought that something beyond the door could be dangerous...but Angel squeezed his hand.
'We'll be fine,' she reassured him, offering him a smile. A bit pleased that she'd been able to offer that and not some odd remark that came out of nowhere. She wasn't sure what it meant for her sensations, if it was just because she was still settling into her new body or if her feelings had just progressed a bit more. To be honest, she wasn't sure she wanted to find out.
He smiled back. Her sensations had gotten stronger too it seemed, but…there was something about it, almost like she wasn't happy with that. He remembered her earlier concerns though, about her feelings getting too strong for her to control. But this new her was equally stronger as well so he did his best to reassure her.
"Hello," a lovely blonde woman opened the door, a small apron around her waist.
"Hi!" they cheered.
The Doctor pulled out the psychic paper, holding it up, reading it, "Dr. John Smith, editor of the...Traveler's Companion Guidebook," he made up as he went, wrapping an arm around Angel's waist, "My wife, Angela," and then nodded at Rose, "And my assistant Rose."
Rose smiled though it was small. Angel was a ginger now, not a blonde, that was something she missed. People often used to mistake them for sisters and, while she knew Angel still considered her to be that, it was harder to get others to believe the same.
"How can I help you?" the woman smiled, wiping her hands off on her apron.
"We're writing a small editorial," the Doctor continued, "Travel guidebook, this town is so quaint it's perfect for our segment on local treasures."
"Could you spare a few minutes to answer some questions?" Angel asked.
The woman beamed, "Of course! This town is so lovely, it's about time other people recognized it. Come in, come in," she gestured them into her home, leading them to the sitting room, "Oh, I'm sorry for the mess," she quickly scooped up a small teddy bear that had been lying on the ground with a few other toys, moving to sit on a sofa chair across from them on the sofa, smiling as she saw the Doctor's arm move around his 'wife's' shoulders, the ginger woman leaning on him, "My son, Elton."
"It's no problem at all," Angel reassured her, "My nephew was much the same."
The woman nodded, "So, how can I help?"
Rose pulled out a small notepad that she'd been using in her role as the 'assistant' jotting down notes and questions to ask. The few minutes flew by, the questions being answered with enthusiasm…but Angel though…was distracted.
The Doctor watched her out of the corner of his eye as she kept glancing around, 'What is it?'
'I keep seeing something out of the corner of my eye,' she remarked, 'But it's gone before I can spot it!'
He nodded, trying to focus on what the woman, Mrs. Pope they'd learned, was saying but then he felt Angel stiffen, 'There!' she called.
He followed her gaze to see a shadow zoom across the wall behind Mrs. Pope, all on its own. He froze, his hearts racing, his mind immediately going to the worst possible shadow-like alien…the Vashta Nerada…and his Mate was right there!
He was just about to leap to his feet and pull her out of the room when Angel squeezed his hand, 'It's not them,' she told him, hearing his thoughts shifting in his mind as though they had been in her mind as well.
He looked at her, eyeing her intently as she nodded, he turned, eyeing the shadow as it continued to move around, thinking itself unobserved, and realized she was right, it couldn't be. It was moving through the sunlight easily, Vashta Nerada would have slowed at least.
"I'm sorry to interrupt Mrs. Pope," Angel cut in, knowing they needed to be quick and they needed to be alone to do it, "But, could I trouble you for some tea?"
"Oh of course!" the woman stood, "How rude of me. Yes of course."
She turned and headed through a door to the kitchen as Rose looked at them, "Go after her," the Doctor told her, "Keep an eye out."
Rose's eyes widened, realizing this must be the house, that the woman was in danger, and rushed after her, asking if she needed help.
The Doctor jumped to his feet, whipping out the sonic as he aimed it at the shadow, freezing it in place for a moment as he drew nearer, scanning it as it twisted, trying to escape the sonic's hold. It only lasted a few more moments before it whizzed off and up the wall, hiding upstairs…Mrs. Pope returning to tell them the kettle was on preventing them from rushing after it, the Doctor sliding the sonic back into his pocket.
"Oh, sorry," the Doctor turned to the woman, on edge, the sonic hadn't managed to get a good enough read on the creature, they'd need the TARDIS to help scan it, "But I've just noticed the time, best be off, have a deadline, bye!"
He grabbed Angel's hand and pulled her out the door as she called back, "It was nice to meet you!" over her shoulder, Rose rushing after them.
~0~
Elton sniffed, seeming to have just woken up early in the morning, "Um, I should say, this isn't my whole life. It's not all...spaceships and stuff, 'cos I'm into all sorts of things. Er...I like football...I like a drink...I like Spain, and if there's one thing I really love, Jeff Lynne and the Electric Light Orchestra, 'cos you can't beat a bit of ELO."
~8~
Elton danced around his room to 'Mr. Blue Sky.'
~8~
"So, great big spaceship hanging over London. Imagine the theories."
~8~
He sat in front of his computer, typing away, when the computer suddenly sparked and smoke flew out of it. The monitor exploded, causing him to jump back.
~8~
"The Internet was on meltdown. But I kept on digging. Something was going on, oh yes."
~8~
He opened up a blog on the web, 'My Invasion Blog,' with a photo of the Doctor, in his brown suit, his arm around the waist of a woman with blonde hair clipped back, in a lacy, dark blue duster as they looked back at something.
~8~
"And then one day, on some obscure little blog by someone called Ursula Blake, it was like a chance in a million. It was him, it was that man again, his arm around some woman. But the photo was new, it was taken on Christmas Day but Christmas just gone. And he looked exactly the same."
~8~
Elton sat on a park bench beside a woman with long brunette hair and glasses, Ursula, both talking about the Doctor and the mysterious woman, "His name is the Doctor," she replied, "And hers is the Angel."
"Doctor what?" he shook his head.
"That's all anyone knows. On Christmas Day I was taking photos all over the place. I went mad with it all, spaceships and lasers and everything. We all went to Trafalgar Square that night, 'cos everyone was celebrating, just being alive. And I snapped them in passing, that's all. He was just some bloke with a girl. I didn't realize they were significant, until Mr. Skinner pointed it out."
"Who's Mr. Skinner?"
"Oh, there's a few of us," she smirked, "The Inner Sanctum, all studying this Doctor and Angel."
"I've seen them," he murmured, sliding closer to her, "The Doctor at least. I swear to you, I saw him when I was a kid. He was in my house, and he was downstairs."
"Don't tell me, he looked exactly the same then as he does now. And so did she?"
"Yes, yes! Well, he was there, it was a woman with red hair that was with him that time. But, oh my God. You believe me!"
Ursula smiled, "You're not the only one, you know..."
~8~
"So that's how I met Ursula, all thanks to the Doctor and Angel. Turns out we read all the same sites and she only lived half a mile away. She was like a proper mate. But like she said, there was this little community, the select few, all with their stories of the Doctor and a few about Angel."
~8~
A group of five sat around a table in some sort of basement, talking and laughing.
~8~
"This little gang used to meet up, underneath the old library on Macateer Street. Mr. Skinner, first name Colin, but we always called him Mr. Skinner. I don't know why, we...just did."
~8~
Mr. Skinner showed off a presentation on a paperboard, with different characters all sketched around it, "To me, the Doctor isn't a man, he's more a collection of archetypes...and the Angel, well, clearly she is meant to represent her namesake..."
~8~
"Then there was Bridget."
~8~
Bridget, an older woman with black hair, set off a slide projector, "All these different Doctors come and go, but the single constant factor is this faux police box. It keeps cropping up, throughout history..."
~8~
"She lived way up North, but she travelled down without fail, just for the meetings. Then, there was Bliss. She was ever so sweet, bless. Bless Bliss, we used to say."
~8~
A young black woman uncovered a modern art piece, blue and white sort of squiggles, "What I'm trying to do is sum up the Doctor," she gestured to the blue, "And Angel," then the white, "What they mean to us," Bliss explained, "What they could represent and what they should represent. And what they...never won't represent...sort of thing."
~8~
They all sat around a table, "We should have a name," Ursula stated, "You know, as a group."
"Names are very important," Bliss nodded.
"What we need is a good, strong name, like a team," Elton added, "Something like...London Investigation 'n' Detective Agency, LINDA for short."
"Say it again," Mr. Skinner shook his head.
"London Investigation 'n' Detective Agency."
"'N?'"
"Fish 'n' Chips," he smiled, "Rock 'n' Roll...Chaka Demus 'n' Pliers!"
Everyone laughed, nodding.
"Oh, I like it, it's not too solemn," Bridget grinned.
"I like the 'n,'" Bliss nodded.
"We're the men from LINDA!" Mr. Skinner cheered.
"And the women!" Bridget added.
"LINDA United!"
"Did you think of that on the spot?" Ursula leaned over to Elton.
He gave a sheepish smile, "No, I've been wanting to use it for years."
"I give you...LINDA!" Mr. Skinner raised his glass in a toast.
"LINDA!" they all cheered.
~8~
"So we'd all meet up, every week, and we'd talk about the Doctor and Angel for a bit. But after a while...Bridget started cooking."
~8~
Bridget laid out Tupperware containers full of food, serving them around, "Oh my God, that's gorgeous!" Ursula complimented, "No really, wow! Oi, the rest of you, get your hands off!"
~8~
"The next thing you know, Mr. Skinner started his readings, 'cos he was writing his own novel."
~8~
Everyone sat on the edge of their chairs, listening to Mr. Skinner read aloud from a pile of papers, "'That's the last time you ride the ghost train, Johnny Fransetta...now say your prayers!' To be continued..."
Everyone groaned.
"You can't leave it there!" Bliss exclaimed.
~8~
"As time went on, we got to know each other better and better."
~8~
Bridget sat, talking to everyone, tears in her eyes, "I started all of this because...er...my daughter disappeared. It wasn't aliens that took her away, it was just...drugs. I come down to London, every week, and I just keep looking for her."
Ursula moved over to comfort her as she started to cry, "Bridget..."
~8~
Bliss sat before them, playing a guitar and singing, "I gave my love a chicken, it had no bone, I gave my love a cherry, it had no stone..." and then Ursula joined in, beating the tambourine, both singing cheerfully.
~8~
"Then it turned out that Bridget could play the piano, and I confessed my love of ELO. Next thing you know...Musical LINDA."
~8~
The group stood around, playing music, Bridget on piano, Mr. Skinner on drums, Bliss on guitar, and Ursula on bass with Elton in the middle as the singer, "You got me running, goin' outta my mind..." he sang, "You got me thinking that I'm wasting my time. Don't bring me down."
~8~
"Just for fun."
~8~
"Don't bring me down!" he sang, twirling around as they continued to perform, when suddenly the electricity cut out and the basement went dark.
"Careful, mind the cables," Mr. Skinner remarked, getting up.
The basement's outer door opened with a banging noise and a black silhouette illuminated in the inner doors. There was a creaking as the gate of the lift was opened and the shadow stepped through.
~8~
"And that's when it all changed, that Tuesday night in March. That's when HE arrived."
~8~
"Lights!" a well dressed man with gray hair and a beard called, the lights switching on.
~8~
"That's when we met Victor Kennedy. The golden age...was gone."
~8~
Victor Kennedy looked at them all as they stared back, bewildered, "So, we meet at last...'LINDA,'" he sneered, putting down his briefcase and holding his silver fisted cane in his hand.
"Pleased to meet you, sir," Mr. Skinner extended a hand, "I'm sorry, was the music too loud?"
"No, no, no, no," he backed away quickly, "I don't shake hands, back, back. I suffer from a skin complaint, Eczeema."
"Oh, you mean 'eczema?'" Elton asked.
"Oh, this is worse, much worse, I blister to the touch. Back, back, all of you, further, further. Thank you," they stepped back.
"Sorry, don't mind me asking, but who are you?"
"I am your salvation."
~0~
Dawn had just started, the sun peeking into the sky, when Rose, the Doctor, and Angel stepped out of Mrs. Pope's home. The Doctor had his arm firmly around Angel's waist as they moved, the girl resting her head on his shoulder, frowning, so sad for the little boy inside the house. She couldn't help but feel like it was all her fault, what happened, like she'd failed to protect the boy.
The Doctor squeezed her around the waist as they walked towards the TARDIS, silent. He had to talk to her about what she was feeling, but that was something that needed words not thoughts and he wanted it to be private despite the fact Rose had been there and seen it all happen.
"Come on," he unlocked the TARDIS, opening the door for them, Rose stepped in, though Angel paused, looking over her shoulder at something before stepping in as well, "I think…we all earned a good night's rest eh?" he looked at the girls, "I'll go put the TARDIS to the Vortex, you lot head off to bed."
Rose nodded, yawning, the adrenaline of the adventure fading off as she made her way up the gantry to the halls.
"Go on," the Doctor nudged Angel on as he moved to the console, "I'll be there soon."
She hesitated but did as he asked. She paused in the hall by the bedrooms, glancing at her old door, a light wooden one with golden Gallifreyan symbols on it, Angel, in Gallifreyan. Even with the species nearly gone, she didn't feel right putting her name where others could see it. She smiled softly, walking over and lightly traced the symbols with her finger, "You can delete this room if you'd like," she called to the TARDIS, "Everything in it was put in the Doctor's anyway. I've no more need for it," her smile widened just a bit, "I don't think I'll need it again."
There was a small hum, almost a sad one, as though the TARDIS was sad to see the room one of her pilots had lived in go even though it hadn't been lived in for quite some time now, but the door slowly faded into the wall.
"Thank you," she murmured, letting out a breath as she made her way into the Doctor's room, well…their room…now. She stepped in, it was a tasteful, almost…Victorian…themed room. A large window, with curtains, an old desk to the side, a wardrobe, a door to the bath, and a large four poster bed with dark blue sheets. She walked over to it and just laid down, rolling onto her side to look out the window, at the stars beyond, false stars, but not really. She knew they were in the Vortex and that the TARDIS was showing her the stars outside it. The Doctor always let them drift through the Vortex when they weren't in the console room, it was safer, he claimed, than drifting out in space as not many others could access the Time Vortex.
That was new.
Safe.
The DOCTOR wanting to be SAFE.
When she'd laughed a bit at that, oh, what felt like ages ago, he'd just looked at her intensely and said he always wanted her to be safe, especially in her sleep. Her breath had caught in her throat at that, she'd lost her breath when he'd kissed her as well.
She smiled in thought of that, but it faded as she remembered what had happened.
"Don't do that Nella," the Doctor murmured as she felt the bed dip and his arms wrap around her, "You know I hate it when you frown," he told her.
She rolled over in his arms, moving to rest her head on his chest, "I can't help it," she sighed, "I feel like…"
"Like it was your fault," he cut in, having heard everything in his mind, "But it wasn't. There wasn't anything we could do. It blocked us out of the house and that was what made us late."
"Still," she murmured, "I should have sensed what it was going to do and we could have gotten in before then."
"And then what?" he asked, "The Elemental Shade would have attacked us as well, it could have attacked you," his arms tightened around her, "I don't ever want you to be harmed."
"I don't want others to be harmed either."
"Nor do I, but Nella…if it hadn't been for your feelings, that Shade would have attacked the boy as well…and spread. That whole street, that whole town, could have fallen to it if we hadn't stopped it when we did."
"I know," she nodded, curling her hand in his shirt, holding him, "I just…don't like losing people."
He smiled, recalling when he'd said much the same when they'd first started travelling together, "Me either but you were right," he turned his head, dropping a kiss onto the top of hers, "Together we've been able to save so many more people than apart," she had to smile at that, thinking of those people as well, "We lost one," he nodded, "But that will just make us just try harder won't it?" he squeezed her, rubbing her shoulders, "Your feelings are getting stronger Nella, that's true, but it'll take time."
She frowned even as she nodded, torn. She wanted to be stronger, to help more people but…at the same time…she didn't want her abilities to strengthen, she didn't want to lose control of herself to them.
"But I'll always be here Nella," the Doctor finished, looking down at her till she looked up at him, "I'll ALWAYS be here for you."
She smiled, leaning up to kiss him softly, her Mate was so amazing.
~0~
LINDA gathered around Mr. Kennedy's laptop as he showed them footage of the Doctor, the ginger girl, and a blonde heading towards the blue box what seemed like a couple decades ago the footage was that worn.
"That's the Doctor!" Ursula gasped.
"It's really him!" Elton's eyes widened.
"You've forgotten your purpose in life," Kennedy reminded them, "You, with your band...and your cakes...and your blubbing and all the while they still exist, the Doctor and the Angel."
"But the Angel isn't there," Mr. Skinner remarked.
"Of course she is," Kennedy glared, freezing it at the ginger looking back, straight at the camera before stepping into the blue box, "She's right here."
"But I thought she was a blonde," Bliss said, confused.
"You've speculated that the Doctor can change his face yes?" he looked up at them, they nodded.
"You mean…that's the Angel?" Bridget breathed, looking at the ginger with wide eyes, "Just look at her!" they moved closer.
"Move back, move back, all of you!" Kennedy snapped, "Oh, wait for this, the picture cuts out, but the sound still continues," he pressed a few keys and the picture resumed, "Listen. Listen to the sound of the Universe...yes..."
The wheezing of the engines played through the room.
Elton fell back onto a chair, stunned, recognizing the sound, as he put his head in his hands.
"What is it?" Ursula looked at him, "What's wrong?"
"Leave him!" Kennedy stood, extending his cane and walking over to him, "You've heard it before, haven't you? When? When was it? Where? Where were you?"
"I'd forgotten, until now," he breathed, "But it was that night..."
"What night?"
"I was just a kid...that's why I went downstairs. It woke me up. That noise..." he thought back to when the wheezing had awoken him in the middle of the night, "But what is it? What does it mean?"
"That is a sound of his spaceship."
A/N: I hope the new Angel was alright here. I'm trying to leave her a little vague as it's her first adventure with the Doctor and Rose after regenerating so she's not sure who she is yet and neither are we, but we'll discover it as she does :) We'll also learn more about why she's so iffy about her abilities, is it just a carryover from her last body? Or is it something the new her knows something about that the Doctor doesn't? Hmm...I guess we'll find out :)
And thanks for the suggestions for deviantart as well! I'll definitely check it out. If there are any other sites that anyone thinks of for where I might be able to post pictures, feel free to let me know. I'll be checking out quite a few of them (if work doesn't completely kill me by the 1st of March) and going from there :)
As for Angel glowing and what she and the TARDIS negotiated...not saying :) Well, at least not about the negotiation, THAT will probably come around near the end of Series 4 without a complete explanation till we get to Idris. We'll never know what the TARDIS was thinking till she can speak for herself :) But as for the glowing...that will definitely be popping up throughout the saga with more and more about it being revealed as we go :)