The Doctor sat next to the Tardis console, thinking. His mind felt easier after telling his story to someone. And now Lily knew, and between what she'd learnt from Rose and now from him, she knew even more than even Rose had known. But it felt right, and now the Doctor was wrestling with himself because he wanted her to know more. And it wasn't safe for her.
He'd lied to her, perhaps not directly because she would never ask, but he had allowed her to believe she wasn't important to him beyond friendship. And the lies were hurting him. He wanted to tell her, and to see if she felt the same way.
Sometimes he thought she did, when she looked at him a certain way with those shining eyes. But then, she never really reacted- not even when he'd kissed Martha. He sighed, rubbing his eyes. This was going nowhere.
He tossed the subject from his mind- again- vowing to come back to it later- again. He looked up and almost sighed when he saw the subject of his thoughts walk in. She saw him and grinned, and he shook himself mentally while grinning back at her.
"So, where're we headed next?" She asked him lightly as she leaned on the console. The Doctor smiled and leapt up, beginning to punch buttons. "Where do you want to go?" He asked, and Lily smiled.
"Somewhere amazing." He grinned at her and nodded. "Somewhere amazing it is then. Allons-y!" He cried as he pulled a lever. Lily laughed and shouted: "Martha! We're on our way!"
The Tardis wheezed and whooshed as it landed, and Martha stepped out first, excited. The Doctor held the door for Lily, and she stepped out with the Doctor behind her.
"Where are we?" Martha asked excitedly, and Lily peered around to see they were standing at the exterior corner of an Army base. She looked up and her eyes widened.
"Ah, smell that Atlantic breeze. Nice and cold. Lovely." The Doctor exulted, before he winked at Lily. "Ah, Lily's spotted her. Martha, have you met my friend?" Martha turned around, and they all stared up.
"Is that? Oh, my God." Martha breathed. "That's the Statue of Liberty." The Doctor mused: "Gateway to the New World. 'Give me you tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free.'" He quoted, and Lily laughed.
"So, we've come from New New York, to New York, then?" She asked, looking at him, and the Doctor laughed with her. "That's so brilliant." Martha breathed as she continued to stare at the statue.
"I've always wanted to go to New York." Martha commented, and then added hastily: "I mean the real New York, not the new, new, new, new, new one." "You missed a couple 'new's". Lily teased, and the girls laughed while the Doctor turned around and nodded at the city across from them.
"Well," he commented, "there's the genuine article. So good, they named it twice." The Doctor led them down towards a pier as he continued, the girls following while smiling broadly: "Mind you, it was New Amsterdam originally. Harder to say twice. No wonder it didn't catch on. New Amsterdam, New Amsterdam."
Lily laughed while Martha commented: "I wonder what year it is, because look, the Empire State Building's not even finished yet." "Work in progress." The Doctor agreed.
Lily peered to the side, and bent down while the Doctor murmured: "Still got a couple floors to go," Martha noticed Lily picking something up from the bench nearby while the Doctor mused "and if I know my history, that makes the date somewhere around-"
"November 1st, 1930." Martha told him as she leant over Lily's shoulder at the New York Record. The Doctor paused before saying confusedly: "You're getting good at this."
He turned to them, and rolled his eyes. "Of course, leave it to Lily." He teased, and she grinned at him while Martha rolled her eyes. "Hey, you, that hurt." She teased, before looking down at the papers again.
"Eighty years ago." She murmured and Lily suddenly frowned at something while Martha continued: "It's funny, because you see all those old newsreels all in black and white," the Doctor saw Lily's face and leaned over to peer at what she was looking at, " like it's so far away, but here we are. It's real. It's now."
She laughed delightedly while Lily and the Doctor exchanged glances. "Come on then, you two. Where do you want to go first?" She asked, turning to them and finally noticing their frowns and thoughtful expressions.
The Doctor told her: "I think our detour just got longer." Lily turned the paper so that Martha could read the title.
"Hooverville Mystery Deepens." Martha read, and then looked up at them. "What's Hooverville?" She asked. Lily shrugged and the Doctor pursed his lips.
They were walking down Central Park, Lily and Martha containing their excitement for now as the Doctor explained: "Herbert Hoover, thirty first President of the USA, came to power a year ago. Up till then New York was a boom town, the Roaring Twenties, and then."
He paused and Lily's eyes brows shot up. "The Wall Street Crash." Lily realized. Martha's eyes widened as she repeated: "The Wall Street Crash. When was that, 1929?" She asked the Doctor.
"Yeah." The Doctor told them. "Whole economy wiped out overnight. Thousands of people unemployed. All of a sudden, the huddled masses doubled in number with nowhere to go. So, they ended up here in Central Park."
Lily and Martha looked surprised and Martha asked: "What, they actually live in the park?" The Doctor looked at them. "In the middle of the city?" She added skeptically and he raised his brows at them. Martha frowned while Lily's brows furrowed.
They walked just a bit further and soon reached Hooverville. A downtrodden town, filled with ragged people and little sheltered spaces held together by anything the people could get their hands on. Lines of washing hung around in the air, and sickness floated about as they heard people coughing and hacking from different sides.
"Ordinary people lost their jobs." The Doctor said quietly as they walked through. "Couldn't pay the rent and they lost everything. There are places like this all over America. No one's helping them."
People stared at them briefly, and Martha and Lily huddled in a little tighter. "You only come to Hooverville when there's nowhere else to go." He told them, and Lily was startled as a man yelled out: "You thieving lowlife!"
She glanced over into a side street where a brawl was taking place as two men shouted something about a loaf of bread. A dark-skinned man came out of a nearby tent, ordering: "Cut that out! Cut that out right now!"
He broke up the fight and the man who'd yelled first said angrily: "He stole my bread!" "That's enough!" The leader ordered before he turned to the accused man.
"Did you take it?" He asked and the man said angrily: "I don't know what happened. He just went crazy." The accuser became furious and tried to throw another punch, but people pulled him back.
The Doctor turned around and led them back to where the leader was ordering again: "That's enough!" The leader turned and warned the accused man: "Now, think real careful before you lie to me."
The trio stood and watched as the accused man said: "I'm starving, Solomon." Soloman simply held out his hand, and the accused man hung his head, reaching into his coat and pulling out the bread to the dark murmurs of the crowd that had gathered to watch.
Soloman snatched it from him, saying as he glared at the two men: "We all starving. We all got families somewhere." He broke the loaf in half, handing each man an equal share. They each took it and Solomon reminded them: "No stealing and no fighting. You know the rules."
He raised his voice so that it carried to the crowd. "Thirteen years ago I fought in the Great War. A lot of us did. And the only reason we got through was because we stuck together." He glared between the two men. "No matter how bad things get, we still act like human beings. It's all we got." He finished, and the men retreated, with dark looks.
"Come on." The Doctor whispered to Martha and Lily, before stepping up to Solomon as the crowd dispersed. "I suppose that makes you the boss around here." The Doctor commented as they followed Solomon's steps, and Solomon glanced at them.
"And, er, who might you be?" He asked, coming to a stop. Martha glanced up at the Doctor, who remained silent. So Martha answered: "He's the Doctor. I'm Martha. This is Lily."
Lily sent a grim smile to Solomon, who looked at the Doctor in surprise. "A doctor. Huh." Solomon grunted. The Doctor smiled at the other man, but it didn't reach his eyes.
Solomon continued slowly: "Well, we got stockbrokers," he nodded at a nearby man, "we got a lawyer," Lily saw a man leaving a tent, "but you're the first doctor. Neighborhood gets classier by the day." Solomon said sarcastically.
Martha asked with concern: "How many people live here?" Solomon glanced at her and answered: "At any one time, hundreds." Lily looked around sadly, while Solomon continued: "No place else to go. But I will say this about Hooverville."
He turned back to face them as he said: "We are a truly equal society." The Doctor looked about while Martha's face fell in sadness at the situation. "Black, white, all the same. All starving." Solomon chuckled a little, sounding grim.
"So you're welcome, all three of you." He said seriously. But then he paused as he looked at the Doctor. "But tell me." He began a little sarcastically: "Doctor, you're a man of learning, right? Explain this to me."
He gestured over at the Manhattan skyline, which could be seen from where they were situated as it shone brightly against the sun. He led them a little over so that they could see the Empire State Building.
"That there's going to be the tallest building in the world." He told them, and the three of them looked up at it while Solomon turned to them. "How come they can do that," he pointed at the building, "when we got people starving in the heart of Manhattan?" He asked darkly.
Martha gazed at the building sadly while the Doctor and Lily watched Solomon leave. Lily lifted her eyes to the building again, staring at it with pursed lips. After a moment, the Doctor wandered after Solomon, and Lily and Martha followed.
They approached the man slowly as he stood outside his tent, and the Doctor called, drawing Solomon's attention: "So," he pulled the newspaper from earlier out of his jacket, "men are going missing. Is this true?" He held the paper up for Solomon to see, and the man peered at it before sighing.
"It's true all right." He said as he took the papers. He nodded his head to his tent, stepping in. The Doctor and the girls followed him as the Doctor peered into the tent, asking: "But what does missing mean? Men must come and go here all the time. It's not like anyone's keeping a register." The Doctor pointed out, and Solomon gestured for them to follow him.
"Come on in." He said, and they all slipped in, sitting around Solomon's small fire as he explained: "This is different." "How different?" Lily asked from her perch next to the Doctor, and Martha added from her spot across from them: "In what way?"
Solomon replied: "Someone takes them," the Doctor's face changed and he listened more intently, "at night. We hear something, someone calls out for help. By the time we get there, they're gone like they vanished into thin air."
The Doctor asked with furrowed brows: "And you're sure someone's taking them?" Solomon smiled grimly as he explained: "Doctor, when you got next to nothing, you hold on to the little you got. Your knife, blanket, you take it with you."
Lily's shoulders slumped as she understood where he was going with this. "You don't leave bread uneaten, fire still burning." Solomon finished and Martha asked sadly: "Have you been to the police?"
Solomon looked at her, smiling sarcastically as he replied: "Yeah, we tried that." His smile dropped as he said angrily: "Another deadbeat goes missing, big deal."
Lily and Martha slumped, Martha nodding at him in silent understanding. The Doctor murmured: "So the question is, who's taking them and what for?" His brows furrowed, but suddenly a voice called from beyond the entrance to the tent.
"Solomon!" They all looked up to see a young man, hardly more than a boy really, run into the entrance. "Solomon, Mr. Diagoras is here." The young man said, and Lily watched as Solomon's face dropped into a serious frown. He stooped to pick up his hat, and left quickly.
The Doctor shared a look with the girls, and they followed Solomon out quickly. Lily looked up to see three well-dressed men, all dressed in expensive looking suits and hats, standing on a crate in the middle of the slum.
The man in the centre, whom Lily presumed was Mr. Diagoras, called: "I need men. Volunteers. I've got a little work for you and you sure look like you can use the money."
The young man who'd called Solomon called out: "Yeah. What is the money?" "A dollar a day." Mr. Diagoras replied, and Lily couldn't believe her ears. She heard scoffing in the crowds, so clearly they thought so too. Solomon called: "What's the work?"
Mr. Diagoras called back: "A little trip down the sewers." The Doctor's eye twitched and he cocked his head. "Got a tunnel collapsed needs clearing and fixing. Any takers?" The crowd was murmuring angrily, none of them interested.
"A dollar a day?" Solomon said loudly, and the murmuring stopped so that his voice could be heard clearly. "That's slave wage. And men don't always come back up, do they."
He looked at Diagoras pointedly, and the man said complacently: "Accidents happen." He shrugged, and the Doctor asked: "What do you mean? What sort of 'accidents'?" Lily glanced at him, not liking where she could see he was going.
"You don't need the work? That's fine." Diagoras leered at the Doctor, before turning away. "Anybody else?" He called as the Doctor raised his hand. Lily sighed in defeat, and raised her hand as well.
Martha stared at them while Diagoras said annoyed: "Enough with the questions." Lily sighed again while the Doctor glanced at her and said: "Oh, no, no, no. I'm volunteering. I'll go. And I think she's with me."
Diagoras raised his brows at Lily and she nodded. "I'm volunteering as well." She called, making sure her voice carried. She saw the young man and Solomon exchange looks while Martha also raised her hand. "I'll kill you for this." She whispered at them, and the Doctor chuckled at her while Lily muttered: "Don't worry it's all on him."
"Anybody else?" Diagoras called, and Lily was unsurprised to see the young man raise his hand swiftly. The Doctor also saw, and grinned over at the young man, and Solomon standing next to him. Lily saw Solomon make a face before he also lifted his hand half-heartedly.
Lily could hear rats squeaking as they all climbed down into the sewers. Solomon was carrying a shovel and they each had a torch, while Lily carried looped ropes on her shoulder. They were waiting for the last one, the young man- Frank, to climb the ladder down.
As soon as he was in, Mr. Diagoras said: "Turn left. Go about a half a mile. Follow tunnel two seven three. Fall's right ahead of you, you can't miss it." Frank asked flatly: "And when do we get our dollar?"
Diagoras looked at him and said lightly: "When you come back up." "And if we don't come back up?" The Doctor asked in a low voice as he stared straight at the man. Diagoras just said simply: "Then I got no one to pay."
The Doctor's brows raised and Lily said sarcastically: "Oh, I like the sound of that." Solomon said firmly, flashing his torch at Diagoras's face: "Don't worry, we'll be back."
"Let's hope so." Martha muttered as Solomon turned and led them down the tunnel. Lily stayed next to the Doctor as he and Diagoras had a staring match. The Doctor turned slowly as Frank was saying: "We just got to stick together. It's easy to get lost."
The Doctor turned around fully, taking Lily with him as they followed the others, leaving Diagoras behind them as they walked into the sewer tunnels. Frank continued to say to Martha: "It's like a huge rabbit warren. You could hide an army down here."
The Doctor moved on ahead, looking around and Lily fell in step with Martha and Frank as Martha asked: "So what about you, Frank? You're not from around these parts, are you?" He scoffed at that.
"Oh, you could talk." He chuckled, before he explained: "No, I'm Tennessee born and bred." Lily looked at him surprised. "How'd you end up here?" She asked, making him realize she was there.
He glanced at her, and took the ropes hanging on her shoulder from her, slinging them over his own shoulder as he answered lightly: "Oh, my daddy died." Lily and Martha's faces fell but he pretended not to see.
"Mama…" he paused before he continued: "couldn't afford to feed us all. So, I'm the oldest, up to me to feed myself. So I put on my coat, hitched up here on the railroads." Lily glanced at him, and he just smiled at her when he saw her sad eyes.
"There's a whole lot of runaways in the camp, younger than me, from all over. Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas. Solomon keeps a lookout for us." He gestured up front, and Solomon glanced back.
Martha and Lily smiled at the kind man, while Frank grinned at the man in thanks. "So, what about you two?" Frank asked the girls as Solomon turned back to the front. "You're a long way from home." He commented, chuckling a little and Lily joined in.
Martha smiled as she replied: "Yeah, I'm just a hitcher too." Frank nodded before glancing at Lily. "And you?" He asked, and Lily smiled. "Me too." She replied softly and the young man grinned at them.
"You stick with me, you'll be all right." He grinned, and the girls smiled back when the Doctor suddenly piped up. "So this Diagoras bloke, who is he then?"
The three younger ones at the back fell silent as Solomon explained: "A couple of months ago, he was just another foreman. Now, it seems like he's running most of Manhattan." The Doctor looked at Solomon with raised brows while Lily frowned. She listened intently as the Doctor asked: "How'd he manage that then?"
Solomon answered: "These are strange times. A man can go from being King of the Hill to the lowest of the low overnight." The Doctor suddenly noticed something on the floor.
"It's just for some folks it works the other way round." Solomon finished but the Doctor wasn't paying attention anymore. "Whoa!" The Doctor called, pulling them to a stop as he pointed his torch at the ground. Lily and Martha peered around the two men in front to see what looked like a luminous green jellyfish.
Martha gasped, leaning down to shine her torch on it as she asked: "Is it radioactive or something?" The Doctor pushed her aside so he could kneel down, and Martha quickly moved to his other side so she could also kneel down.
Lily peered over the Doctor's shoulder while Martha gagged. "It's gone off, whatever it is." She moaned while the Doctor placed his glasses on his nose. The Doctor reached down, picking the thing up and Lily wrinkled her nose in disgust while Martha complained: "And you've got to pick it up."
The Doctor brought it up to his nose and sniffed it. Martha gagged again while Lily frowned as she wrinkled her nose again. "That's disgusting." She said flatly. The Doctor simply told her: "Shine your torch through it."
Lily did as she was told, and the Doctor murmured as he rubbed all over the slimy thing: "Composite organic matter. Martha?" He turned to the girl who still had her hand clapped over her mouth. "Medical opinion?"
Martha removed her hand and said, while the Doctor turned back to the thing: "It's not human. I know that." Frank and Solomon exchanged looks while the Doctor murmured: "No, it's not."
He stood up abruptly, his voice back to its normal range as he said: "And I'll tell you something else. We must be at least half a mile in. I don't see any sign of a collapse, do you?" He asked in a dark voice.
Lily groaned as she realized he was right, and they all looked around slightly alarmed, pointing their torches as the Doctor continued: "So why did Mister Diagoras send up down here?"
"Where are we now? What's above us?" Martha asked fearfully and the Doctor replied with a shrug: "Well, we're right underneath Manhattan." "No, really?" Lily muttered sarcastically.
They'd continued down the tunnel for some time now, and Solomon murmured: "We're way beyond half a mile. There's no collapse, nothing." Lily frowned as she walked right behind the Doctor and Martha questioned: "That Diagoras bloke, was he lying?"
"Looks like it." The Doctor answered and Frank asked in a low voice: "So why'd he want people to come down here?" They'd paused by some grates, and the Doctor addressed Solomon.
"Solomon, I think it's time you took these three back." The Doctor nodded at the three youngers, and both Lily and Martha frowned. "I'll be much quicker on my own."
Lily opened her mouth to argue when suddenly squeals echoed around the tunnel. They all turned around, each facing a different intersection of the tunnel as they looked around for the source of the sound. What freaked Lily out was the fact that it sounded like pigs.
"What the hell was that?" Solomon asked in a low voice, and Frank called: "Hello?" "Frank" Solomon warned in a whisper while Martha shushed him urgently. Frank whispered to them: "What if it's one of the folk gone missing? You'd be scared and half mad down here on your own."
The Doctor turned to the young man. "Do you think they're still alive?" He asked in a low voice, and Frank shrugged as he said: "Heck, we ain't seen no bodies down here. Maybe they just got lost."
There were more squeals and they all turned in alarm, looking around frantically. "I ain't never heard nobody make a sound like that." Solomon said and Lily added: "It sounded almost like… pigs."
Frank whispered: "Where's it coming from?" There was more squealing and the Doctor stepped forward in the direction of the sound. "Sounds like there's more than one of them." Frank said fearfully.
"This way." The Doctor murmured as he headed down one side of the corridor. Lily hesitated from following, unsure when Solomon said, pointing down a different path: "No, that way."
Martha turned in the opposite direction from the Doctor, and her torch lit up a figure crouched over at the far end of the tunnel. She turned, and whispered, terrified: "Doctor?"
They all turned to look, pointing their torches at the figure. They all huddled in closer to peer at it as Solomon called: "Who are you?" It gave a groan, and Frank called: "Are you lost?"
The figure had sat up, and grunted at them. Frank tried again: "Can you understand me?" He made to take a step forward as he said: "I've been thinking about folk lost down-" "It's all right, Frank." The Doctor interrupted in a low voice as he motioned with his hand for Frank to stay put.
Lily and Martha stared at the figure cautiously as the Doctor told Frank: "Just stay back. Let me have a look." The Doctor stepped forward and Lily said softly: "Doctor."
"It's alright, Lily." He reassured her and she waited hesitantly as the Doctor walked forward slowly. "He's got a point, though, my mate Frank." The Doctor said to the figure as he walked closer.
"I'd hate to be stuck down here on my own. We know the way out. Daylight. If you come with us-" He broke off as he knelt down and saw that the figure, although dressed in a man's clothes, was in fact a pig. He breathed: "Oh, but what are you?"
Lily's eyes widened and Solomon asked in a shaky voice: "Is that, er, some kind of carnival mask?" He tried, sounding hopeful but the Doctor dashed his hopes. "No, it's real." The Doctor called back, and then he turned back to the pig-man who squealed sadly.
The Doctor looked at him with sad eyes, saying softly: "I'm sorry. Now listen to me. I promise I can help." There was the sound of footsteps, but the Doctor ignored it, assuming it was either Martha or Lily as he asked the pig-man: "Who did this to you?"
Martha and Lily's eyes widened as they lifted their torches and saw further down the tunnel. Martha called, her voice shaking: "Doctor? I think you'd better get back here."
The Doctor turned to see more pig-men coming around the corner of the tunnel. They all grunted a little as they walked over slowly, and Lily finally called sharply: "Doctor!" The Doctor stood slowly, and murmured: "Actually, good point."
He backed slowly towards them and Martha said terrified: "They're following you." "Yeah, I noticed that, thanks." The Doctor answered, keeping his voice calm and collected. He reached them and they all began to back away slowly as the pig-men approached.
"Doctor." Lily said in a forced calm voice and he replied in the same tone: "Well then, Lily, Martha, Frank, Solomon." They backed back into a tunnel as Martha asked in a high-pitched voice: "What?"
The Doctor said in that forced calm voice: "I think, um...Basically…" He gripped Lily's hand and she knew what he was going to do. Sure enough: "Run!" The Doctor yelled, pulling Lily with him as they all turned tail and ran.
