Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who
Chapter 36: Dinner Date
"Now all I've got to do is pass as an ordinary human being. Simple. What could possibly go wrong."
-The Doctor
"This ship is impossible! It's superb! How do you get the outside around the inside?"
Margaret walked around the inside of the TARDIS with a look of awe on her face. Personally Amy thought she was laying it on rather thick - even if she did know right where to hit. Although the Doctor was keeping a stern eye on Margaret he practically beamed with pride.
"Like I'd tell you the secret, yeah." The Doctor scoffed. Amy shook her head. It wasn't that big of a secret. Rory had figured it out easily enough.
"I almost feel better about being defeated. We never stood a chance. This is the technology of the gods."
"Don't worship me," The Doctor advised, "I'd make a very bad God. You wouldn't get a day off, for starters..." He trailed off, realizing he was off topic, the turned to the Captain, "Jack, how we doing, big fella?"
Jack was on the floor attempting to wire the extrapolator to the TARDIS. Amy had no idea where he'd learned the interior wiring of the TARDIS, but he seemed to be doing an alright job. He hadn't dropped any thermo-couplings yet.
"This extrapolator's top of the range." He peered around the console at Margaret, "Where did you get it?"
"Oh I don't know..." Margaret waved her hand around nonchalant, "Some airlock sale...?"
Jack scoffed, "Must have been a great bid heist. It's stacked with power."
"But can we use it for fuel?" The Doctor inquired.
Jack sighed, "It's not compatible...but it should knock off about twelve hours. We'll be ready to go my morning."
"Then we're stuck here. Overnight." The Doctor sounded like he rather face a horde of Daleks.
Margaret grinned, "I'm in no hurry..."
"We've got a prisoner," Rose suddenly observed, "The police box is really...a police box."
Amy grinned at the girls exuberance and leaned against the railing.
Margaret just smiled pleasantly, "You're not just police, though. Since you're taking me to my death, that makes you my executioners. Each and every one of you..."
"Oh, please!" Amy snorted, "Police bring criminals to justice in accordance with their crimes. That's their job. Doesn't make them an executioner any more than a lawyer or a jury."
Margaret eyed her coldly, her self-satisfied smirk slipping off her face, "You're very quick to soak your hands in my blood, What makes you better than me, how exactly...?"
Amy rolled her eyes, "Well, I didn't try to blow up a planet to sell it for scraps...not to mention whatever other crimes you're being tried on."
One of the first lessons she's learnt with the Doctor is that sometimes you had to make hard choices. If they brought Margaret back to her homeworld then she would die. But if they let her go free, billions of people would die.
There was still the chance that the Doctor would find another solution - he tended to work miracles like that. She had all the faith in the world that he would somehow same both Margaret and the Earth. But there was no way she was going to let the alien try and guilt her with false words.
"Long night ahead," Margaret completely disregarded Amy's words. Amy shook her head. "Let's see who can look me in the eye..."
She mixed her gaze on Mickey who stared at her for a few moment. Then he looked away uncomfortably.
Second, she looked at Rose who glanced at the Doctor guilty.
The Doctor only looked up for a second, before going down to his work. But he was still very aware of the thick tension.
Then she turned to Amy.
Amy held her gaze.
Rose and Mickey left soon after, the tension in the room too much for them. After a few minutes the Doctor turned on the scanner and watched it intently.
Amy leaned over the console to look at the screen. He saw blond hair and smirked. The Doctor saw her looking and quickly turned it off, a soft red blush cover his cheeks.
"Oh yeah." Amy clicked her tongue, "You've got it bad."
The Doctor looked away, "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Of course not," Amy sighed, leaning up. She looked down at Jack who gave her a look that mirror her own. Maybe if they locked them in a closet...
The Doctor looked over at her, his face now very serious, "You seem very fine about all this...sending Margaret to her death."
Amy bit her lip, looking over to see Margaret sitting on her own out of hearing distance. She turned back to the Doctor and gave him a soft smile, "If there's another way you'll figure it out."
"You think so?" He asked.
Amy nodded, "Of course. You always do...and always will."
The Doctor gave her a reproachful look, but followed it with a genuine smile. "No pressure." He jested.
"None at all, Doctor."
"Mind if I interrupt your little moment." Jack pushed in uncomfortably close to Amy, pressing a couple of buttons on the console. Amy just backed away with her hands raised.
"Woah, there," Amy smirked.
"I gather it's not always like this..." Margaret spoke up. They all turned to look at her. The Slitheen hadn't spoken for a few hours now. "Having to wait. I bet you're always the first to leave, Doctor. Nevermind the consequences, off you go. You butchered my family and then ran for the stars, am I right? But not this time. At last, you ave consequences...how does it feel."
"I didn't butcher them." Was all the Doctor had to say.
Amy went to argue with the women but Jack put a hand on her arm, "Don't answer back. That's what she wants."
Amy nodded and pulled back.
"I didn't," The Doctor whispered to them, needed them to understand, then turning to Margaret, "What about you? You had an emergency teleport, you didn't zap them to safety, did you?"
"It only carries one. I had to fly without coordinates. I ended up on a skip in the Isle of Dogs."
Amy help up a hand to hide her laughter, but the Doctor and Jack didn't both as they sniggered.
"It wasn't funny!" Margaret snapped sharply.
The Doctor looked sheepish, "Sorry."
But none of them dropped their grins.
Margaret turned around to see them smiling.
"It is kind of funny." Amy chuckled.
And then they were all laughing again. Even Margaret started to laugh quietly.
More relaxed, Margaret turned to the Doctor, "Do I get a last request?"
All humor left his face, "Depends what it is."
"I grew quite fond of my little human life. All those rituals...the brushing of the teeth, and the complicated way they cook things...there;s a little restaurant. Just round the bay." The Doctor looked at her skeptically, "It became quite a favorite of mine."
The Doctor walked over to talk with her properly, "Is that what you want? A Last meal?"
"Don't I have rights?" She asked defiantly.
"Oh, like she's not gonna try to escape." Jack scoffed.
Margaret looked at him bitterly, "Except I can never escape the Doctor, so where's the danger?" She considered the Doctor, "But I wonder if you could do it? To sit with a creature you're about to kill and take supper. How strong is your stomach?"
"Strong enough."
"I wonder...I've seen you fight your enemies...now dine with them."
The Doctor looked at Amy out of the corner of his eye. She gave him an encouraging smile. He looked back at Margaret, "You won't change my mind."
Her grin turned evil, "Prove it!"
The Doctor hesitated, looked very tempted. Then he shook his head, walking away, "There are people out there. If you slip away for one second, they'll be in danger."
"Except..." Jack spoke up softly as if he wasn't sure if he should continue, "I've got these." He held up a hair of metal hoops that looked like bracelets, "You both wear one. If she moves...more than ten feet away." He made a buzzing noise and Margaret jumped in alarm. "She gets zapped by ten thousand volts."
Amy chuckled, "Do I even want to know where you've used those?" Jack winked at her.
The Doctor smiled at Margaret, "Margaret, would you like to join me and Amy to Dinner? Our treat."
Amy's smile dropped, "What?"
Margaret lowered her head suggestively, "Dinner in bondage...works for me."
After much grumbling and complaining on Amy's part they finally found themselves at the restaurant Margaret had spoken about. She couldn't help but think The Doctor was punishing her for something. She would rather stay back at the TARDIS and help Jack with the extrapolator them chaperone the Doctor date with the Slitheen.
Which is exactly what it probably looked like to other people. The two were holding hands due to the handcuffs.
They took their seats, and Amy immediately picked up the menu not really wanting to get into conversation with the alien.
"Here we are." Margaret spoke up as she looked at her menu, "Out on a date, and you haven't even asked my proper name."
"It's not a date!" The Doctor defended before calming down, "What's your name?"
"Blon. I am Blon Fel Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen."
"That's a mouthful." Amy noted not taking her eyes off the menu. If the Doctor was paying she was going to get something good.
Margaret barely gave her a passing glance, which Amy was a bit offended at, "That's what it'll say on my death certificate."
"Nice to meet you, Blon," The Doctor didn't acknowledge her guilt trip.
"I'm Sure." Margaret spoke before lowering her menu, "Look..." She gazed out a window, "That's where I was living as Margaret."
The Doctor turned to look but Amy just kept her eyes on her menu.
"Nice little flat. Over there. On the top. Next to the one with the light on. Two bedrooms...bayside view...I was rather content. Don't suppose I'll see it again."
A clinking sounds caught Amy's attention and she looked over her menu in time to see the Doctor switch Amy's wine glass with Margaret's.
Amy's mouth dropped. "You tried to poison me?"
Margaret gave her an exasperated look. The Doctor continued, grabbing his own wine glass and pouring into Amy's old one. It seemed she'd tried to poison both of them.
"Thank you." Sarcasm dripped off Margaret's voice.
The Doctor picked up his menu, matching her tone, "Pleasure."
Margaret's face twisted into a grin again, "Tell me then, Doctor, Amy - what do you know of our species."
"Only what we've seen." The Doctor answered for both of them.
"Did you know," Margaret spoke normally, like this was normal small talk, "For example, in extreme cases, when her life is in danger...a female Raxacoricofallapatorian can manufacture a poison dart within her own fingers - "
Then she pointed her finger at the Doctor and something shot out the tip. Amy gasped and dropped her menu. But the Doctor just reached out a snapped it out of the air without even looking up from his menu.
"Yes, I did." He set the Dart down on the table.
Margaret grinned pleasantly, "Just checking."
The Doctor smiled. Amy nervously picked up her menu again, wondering why the Doctor wanted her here.
"And one more thing...between us three..." Margaret looked around the room, as if checking to see if anyone was listening in. Then she leaned in as if to tell a secret. The Doctor did as well but Amy watched from a distance. No way she was getting in the middle of that after the dart.
She whispered, "As a final resort, the excess poison can be exhaled through the lungs,"
She exhaled loudly and a small cloud of green as emerged from her mouth. Without even flinching the Doctor lifted a Gold Spot and squirted it into her open mouth.
Amy contorted her face, trying to hide a Laugh at the look on the Slitheen's face at the unexpected taste.
"That's better," The Doctor leaned back, "Now then, what'd you think? Mmm, Steak looks nice. Steak and chips.
"I thinking the seafood." Amy added.
The Doctor grinned, "Good choice."
Margaret glared at the both of them darkly then picked up her menu and opened it roughly.
"Public execution is a slow death." Margaret was getting desperate now. Trying very openly to get through to the Doctor, "They prepare a thin acetic acid...lower me into the cauldron...and boil me. The acidity is perfectly gauged to strip away the skin. Internal organs fall out into the liquid. And I become soup. And still alive. Still screaming.
Amy felt nauseated, "And you call Earth uncivilized." She cringed.
"I don't make the law," The Doctor informed her.
"But you deliver it." She spat.
Nobody said anything. Amy wanted to yell at her again. She didn't really have anything against the Slitheen (besides her trying to blow up the planet), but she was messing with her friend. And nobody messed with her friends.
But she got the feeling the Doctor didn't ask her here to do anything. Just to...be there.
"Will you stay to watch?" Margaret asked him
He didn't even have to answer for Amy to know the Answer. Yes he would.
"What else can I do." The Doctor asked resignedly. Amy watched him fondly, maybe her words had hit him harder than she thought. He was probably looking for another way to save her.
"The Slitheen family's huge. there's a lot more of us, all scattered off-world. Take me to them. Take me somewhere safe." She begged him.
"But then you'll just start again."
Margaret lowered her voice, "I promised I won't."
The Doctor sighed, and looked at Margaret sadly, "You've been in that skin-suit too long. You've forgotten. There used to be a real Margaret Blaine. You killed her and stripped her and used the skin. You're pleading for mercy out of a dead women's lips."
"Perhaps I have got used to it. A human life. An ordinary life. That's all I'm asking."
Amy couldn't hold it back, "If you're so used to a normal human life then why were you going to blow up the planet in order to leave it?"
Margaret glared at her and the Doctor gave her an exasperated sigh.
Amy held up her hands in surrender, "Just saying."
Margaret turned back to the Doctor with a pleading stare, "Give me a chance, Doctor...I can change."
The Doctor looked down, "I don't believe you."
Margaret sighed, looking defeated. "I promise you! I've changed since we last met, Doctor. There was this girl...just today...young thing. Something of a danger. She was getting to close. I felt the blood lust rising, just as the family taught me, I was going to kill her without a thought. And then...I stopped. She's alive somewhere right now, she's walking around this city because I can change - I did change. I know I can't prove it-"
"I believe you," The Doctor interrupted calmly. Amy furrowed her eyebrows confused. Didn't he just say he didn't believe her?
Margaret smiled, thinking she was getting through to him, "Then you know I'm capable of better."
He shook his head, "It doesn't mean anything."
"I spared her life!"
"You let one of them go, but that's nothing new," The Doctor looked remorseful, "Every now and then, a little victim's spared. Because she smiled...because he's got freckles...'cos they begged...and that's how you live with yourself. That's how you slaughter millions. Because once in a while, on a whim, if the wind's in the right direction...you happen to be kind."
Margaret looked at him coldly, "Only a killer would know that."
The Doctor looked thrown and Amy cringed inwardly. Of course Margaret wouldn't know just how badly her words had cut, but Amy did.
"Is that right?" Margaret smirked, "From what I've seen, Your happy-go-lucky little life leaves devastation in its wake. Always moving on 'cos you dare not look back. Playing with so many people's lives," She glanced at Amy when she spoke, affirming her point, "You might as well be a God."
The Doctor dropped eye contact and Amy glared at the alien. She knew how bad that would have hurt him. She reached under the table and gripped his hand in comfort.
"And you're right, Doctor...you're absolutely right. Sometimes...you let one go." And she caught the Doctor's gaze, eyes full of tears, "Let me go."
The Doctor looked at a loss. Margaret had finally found the nerve to touch. A nerve that was very much still open and raw.
Amy couldn't hold it back, "The Doctor's not a killer, not like that!" Margaret turned to look at her but the Doctor looked down. Amy continued, "He blames himself for deaths that aren't his fault. He makes the choices that nobody else can. That doesn't make him a killer!"
"Amy..." The Doctor whispered.
"You could never find a kinder man in the universe!"
"Amy..."
"What?" She dared him to argue with her.
He gently placed a hand on her arm, begging her with her eyes to let it go, "Amy, it's not what you think..."
The pain in his eyes made her pause. She realized he wasn't talking about his normal displaced guilt. It was from the war. The Time War.
Amy looked at him for a few moment, wanting nothing more than to comfort her friend. She made a split second decision that she'd probably regret.
She grabbed his hand that was still on his arm, removing it, "I do understand. More than you know."
His eyes widened as he understood her meaning.
"But.." He froze, his eyes narrowing, "I haven't told anyone-"
"Not yet." Amy whispered.
He understood immediately. He stood up straighter, staring at her like he was seeing her for the first time. She bit the inside of her cheek. Now she'd done it. Until now he had no way of knowing how she knew him in the future. But for her to know that...
"How...exactly..." The Doctor whispered, but Amy shook her head.
"No offence Doctor," She sighed, "But maybe we should do this later."
He looked back at Margaret who was looking between them curiously.
"Am I interrupting?" She bit out sarcastically.
"No," The Doctor sighed, before turning to Amy, "This conversation isn't over."
She nodded, inwardly groaning as she slouched in her seat. She hd been hoping to put this conversation off until...forever.
Margaret went back to her begging, but she still kept half an eye on Amy, "In the family Slitheen, we had no choice. I was made to carry out my first kill at thirteen. If I'd refused, my father would have fed me to the venom grubs."
A low rumble filled the room providing a distraction that Amy grabbed at immediately. She turned, looking out the window where people were glancing at the ground in confusion. The Doctor turned his head, noticing the sound as well.
Margaret was completely oblivious, "If I'm a killer, it's because I was born to kill - it's all I know!"
Neither of them responded as they listened to the rumble, which continued uninterrupted. Something wasn't right.
"Are either of you even listening to me?"
"Shhh." Amy held up her hand, trying to pinpoint exactly where the sound was coming from.
Margaret gapped at her, offended, but the Doctor didn't let her speak, "Can you hear that?"
"I'm begging for my life-"
"No," Amy waved her down, "Listen."
The Doctor turned to look at the glasses on the Table. Amy followed his gaze. The glasses were shuddered, the liquid inside rippling as the vibrations echoed around them.
Then the windows shattered, and exploded in.
A/N: So The editor is working...but my internet is not. Which sucks cause it means that I edited this entire thing, went to save and the internet crashed losing all my changes. I cried a little bit.
Before this the Doctor probably thought that Amy was maybe a one trip companion, but I doubt very much that he would've ever thought she was such a huge part of his life. But now he has to wonder how close they were if she knew that he was the one who killed the Time Lords. Remember, at this point the person he's closest to, Rose, doesn't even know that. She finds out's later, although it's never made clear if she pieces it together herself, or if he told her. I like to think that she figured it out herself, and then he told her after.
Anon Review Replies
Misty: Hey we're Neighbours! I myself live only about an hour from the Alaskan border. I love 'Idiot Mickey' but at the same time, like to take it easy on him. He's so adorable sometimes. I had a longer response, but as I said above the internet crashed and I lost my entire response, and now I cannot remember for the life of me what I wrote. It was something nice.
So we're probably going to be getting that preview right on time for me to start to sequel, which'll be nice. I can't believe this story is almost done. You guys are all fantastic.
So review with questions, concerns, thoughts and other stuff. I'll try to respond to all questions if I have the time. I did not since last chapter so some of you were left hanging. Sorry guys!
Until Next Time,
-Ash