Disclaimer: Negotiation are officially over. I have opted for the Plan E for explosion. If you would like to be on my spaceship, safe and sound you will need to write an essay detailing why I am the rightful owner of Doctor Who. David and Matt will of course be saved, as will the TARDIS. Slots are limited and filling fast, so hurry up.
Ch. 53:
"Stop it." Joan said, smiling as he groaned as she cleaned his cut. "I get boys causing less fuss than this."
"Because it hurts!" John protested sulkily.
The door burst in and Martha came running in.
"Is he alright?" she asked.
"Excuse me, Martha." Joan rebuked. "It's hardly good form to enter a master's study without knocking."
"She's with me." Lily said, running in. "But since I'm wearing a damn corset and she's not, she can run faster. Also I don't knock." she told the other woman.
"Language." John rebuked her.
She sank to her knees in front of John, grasping his face with both hands.
"They said you fell down the stairs." she said softly.
He reached up and gently grasped one of her hands.
"It was just a tumble, that's all." he told her.
She breathed a sigh of relief.
"What have I told you about scaring me like that?" she told him sternly.
"It's not like I meant to fall." he told her crossly.
"Have you checked for concussion?" Martha asked Joan.
"I have." the woman answered crossly. "And I daresay I know a lot more about it than you."
"I wouldn't bet on that." Lily answered, glaring up at the woman. "One of Martha's duties is to look after my health."
"You're sick?" Joan asked her. "Why have you never come to me?"
"Because it is a private family matter." Lily sneered at her. "And since you are not family and Martha is perfectly capable of taking care of me, I felt no need to inform you of it."
"I was just telling Nurse Redfern-Matron," he quickly changed when Lily glared at him, "um, about my dreams. They are quite remarkable tales." he told them, trying to defuse the tension between the two women. "I keep imagining that I'm someone else, and that I'm hiding…"
"Hiding?" Joan asked. "In what way?"
"Um…er…almost every night…" He laughed. "This is going to sound silly-"
"Tell me." Joan pushed.
"I dream, quite often that I have two hearts." he told her.
"And every morning," Lily interjected, "I assure him that, although he loves enough for two," she gently laid a hand on his chest, "his body contains only one."
She stared into his eyes and he gently grasped her hand and held it.
"Ahem." Martha cleared her throat, bringing them back to the room.
"I have written down some of these dreams in the form of fiction…um," he hesitated, "not that it would be of any interest…"
"I'd be very interested." Joan replied.
Lily got to her feet and stalked to the other side of room and Martha followed her, as John stood and moved to his desk.
"What is wrong with you?" Martha hissed.
"Those are our stories." Lily hissed back. "Mine, and yours, and the Doctors. Rose is in there. He shouldn't just be throwing them around for amusement."
"To him they're just dreams." Martha told her softly. "You need to get a handle on yourself."
Lily sighed.
"I know." she told her friend softly. "It's just, it's so quiet in my head. It's driving me mad."
"I know, but one more month and we'll be gone." Martha reassured her.
Lily nodded and hugged her friend, ignoring the disapproving look John shot her as he handed the book to Joan.
She walked back, her arm linked with Martha's, just as Joan was opening the book.
"Just look at these creatures!" Joan exclaimed as she turned to picture of a Dalek.
Martha actually heard Lily grind her teeth and elbowed her slightly.
"Such imagination." she continued.
"It's become quite a hobby." John told her.
"I think it's fantastic." Lily said, grinning up at him, which he returned.
"It is wonderful." Joan agreed, turning the page again and landing on a picture of Rose. "And quite an eye for the pretty girls." she told him.
"Oh no, no." he told her. "She's just an invention. This character, Rose, I call her, Rose."
Martha felt Lily stiffen next to her and looked up to see her look away from the book, sadness written on her face.
"Seems to disappear later on…" John said, not noticing Lily's reaction.
Another page, this containing a small drawing of the TARDIS.
"Ah, that's the box, the blue box." he told her. "It's always there. Like a…like a magic carpet, this funny little box that transports me to far away places."
"Like a doorway?" Joan asked.
"I sometimes think how magical life would be if things like this were true." he told her.
"Could I see that a moment." Lily asked suddenly, taking the book from Joan.
She ran her fingers over the faces of the Doctor, landing on the ninth face and looking at it sadly.
John stared at the face she focused on.
"Oh, Lily." he said softly. "I'm sorry. I never realized James had made his way into my dreams."
"It's alright." Lily told him. "I was just surprised."
She closed the book and handed it back to him.
"It's just a dream." she said softly.
Joan left John and Lily alone, but Martha followed her.
"Ma'am!" she called. "That book-"
"Oh, I'll look after it, don't worry." Joan told her. "He did say I could read it."
She went to leave, but Martha stopped her again.
"But it's silly, that's all." she told her. "Just stories."
"Who is he, Martha?" Joan asked her.
"I'm sorry?" Martha asked.
"It's like he's left the kettle on. Like…" she paused. "He knows he something to get back to, but he can't remember what."
"That's just him." Martha told her nervously.
"You arrived with him, didn't you?" Joan asked. "You're his sister-in-law's maid, isn't that right?"
"I grew up with them." Martha told her. "Miss Lily was taken in when she was a young girl, and when she married Master James, I went with her. When Master James died, we returned to Master John."
"Well, I'd be careful." Joan told her. "If you don't mind my saying, you sometimes seem a little familiar with him. Best remember your position."
With a nod, she left. Lily walked out of the room and stood behind Martha.
"If she ever talks to you like that again," Lily said quietly, "punch her."
Martha just shook her head and walked off, laughing softly.
"Or I could do it for you!" Lily called after her as she ran to catch up.
"Ooh, it's freezing out here!" Martha said, as she brought a pint out to Jenny. "Why can't we have a drink inside the pub?"
"Now, don't be ridiculous." Jenny told her. "You do get these notions! It's all very well for those Suffragettes; but that's London, that's miles away."
"But don't you want to scream sometimes, having to bow and scrape and behave?" Martha asked. "Don't you just wanna…uh oh."
She spotted Lily walking down the road. Well, stalking was more like it. Lily looked every inch the mad woman.
Spotting Martha, she changed direction and headed straight towards her.
"I'll kill them all." she said without preamble. "Every last stupid one."
"I take it dinner did not go well." Martha said, making room for her.
"Hah!" Lily said, sitting down. "I've seen natural disasters that were easier to stomach than that bunch of morons." she huffed. "'Oh Mr. Smith, your sister in law is so charmingly naïve, but you should teach her that women are meant to be seen, not heard'." she said mockingly.
"What did you say?" Martha asked.
"I may have told them that, when mixed properly, two certain elements cause a fairly large boom." Lily told her innocently.
"Are these two elements ones that normally explode when put together?" Martha asked wearily.
"No." Lily admitted.
"Lily!" Martha rebuked.
"I'm sorry." Lily whined. "But they're so superior. And John didn't stick up for me, not once!" She buried her head in her arms on the table. "I wanna go home." they heard her say.
"One more month." Martha told her, rubbing her back. "One more month and we'll be gone."
"I can't wait." Lily said, raising her head to look at the stars.
Suddenly a green light flared in the sky.
"Did you see that?" Martha asked.
"See what?" Jenny asked, looking up.
"Did you see it though?" Martha asked again. She stood up, Lily following suit. "Right there, just for a second."
"Martha, there's nothing there." Jenny told her, returning to her drink.
"Yes there was." Lily muttered.
She sat down only to groan and stand back up.
Up the road came Joan, running.
"Matron, are you alright?" Martha asked her.
"Did you see that?" Joan asked them breathlessly. "There was something in the woods…this light…"
Just then John walked up to them.
"There you are-Oh hello, Nurse Redfern." he said as he joined them.
"You-don't talk to me." Lily told him, glaring.
"Lily-" he tried, but she cut him off.
"No." she said angrily. "You will not speak to me. Since your so embarrassed by me, this should make your life that much simpler."
"Can we please have a discussion like rational adults?" he shot back. "I know it's hard for you to act as such but-"
"Oh, there we go!" Lily exclaimed, throwing up her arms. "You know what, Jonathan? You can rot in-"
"There, look!" Joan said pointing at another green light in the sky.
Lily and Martha exchanged a look.
"That's beautiful." Jenny said softly.
"They're meteorites." John told them. "It's just rocks falling to the ground, that's all."
"It came down in the woods." Joan said.
"No, no, no, they always look close, when actually they're miles off." he told her. "Nothing left but cinder."
He turned back to Lily.
"Now, can we please go back to the school and discuss this?" he asked her. "Please?"
"You can discuss it all you like." Lily told him. "I shall be ignoring you."
With that, she turned to Martha.
"Martha, please check in with me before you go to bed?" she asked, her eyes flicking towards the woods.
Martha nodded that she understood and Lily turned back around, and without another word, stalked off towards the school.
John sighed.
"I should escort you back to the school." he told Joan. "And we should go before she-"
"OW!" came Lily's cry.
John sighed again.
"Too late." he muttered.
"John." Lily called.
"Would you ladies like to come with us?" John asked Martha and Jenny.
"No, we're fine, thanks." Martha told him.
"Then I shall bid you goodnight." he said as Lily called for him again.
He led Joan a little ways down the road to find Lily sitting there, looking fairly pathetic.
"What happened?" he asked.
She looked almost in tears.
"I fell down, and I can't get up in this stupid dress." she said, not meeting his eyes.
"Come on." he said simply, holding out his hand.
She grasped it and he helped her to her feet.
"Can you walk?" he asked her.
She nodded.
"Then lets go home." he told her, not letting go of her hand.
He never even noticed her mutter.
"I wish."
"Jenny, where was that?" Martha asked. "On the horizon, where the light was headed."
"That's by Cooper's Field." Jenny told her.
Martha took off in that direction.
"You can't just run off!" Jenny called after her. "It's dark, you'll break a leg!"
Martha reached a clearing in the woods, but there was nothing as far as she could see. Jenny came running behind her, much slower.
"There y'are…" Jenny said breathlessly. "Nothing there. I told you so."
"And that's Cooper's Field?" Martha asked, pointing in front of her.
"As far as the eye can see." Jenny told her. "And no falling star. Now come on, I'm frozen to the bone. Let's go. As your Mr. Smith says, 'Nothing to see'."
Martha nodded and followed her back to the school.
"There was nothing?" Lily asked.
"Nope." Martha replied, sitting on the bed.
Lily plopped down next to her.
"Maybe we'll get lucky." she said. "Maybe we'll live out this god-awful month, trick John into opening the watch, get the Doctor back, and go on our merry way out of this hell hole."
"Do you really believe that?" Martha asked.
"Of course." Lily said sarcastically. "And I also believe that unicorns are going to ride in and save the day."
"Yeah I didn't think so." Martha replied.
"We need to go to the TARDIS." Lily said after a moment.
A/N: Chapter two done. Lily really doesn't do well in Victorian England, does she? And she also doesn't seem to get on well with the human Doctor. What does the future hold in store? Find out next time on Never Gonna Be Alone.
Question: What is your favorite quote, Doctor Who or Torchwood, about the Doctor?
Answer: As hard a question as this is, I think I'm going to have to go with Gwen from Children of Earth (It changes on a daily basis, but at this moment, this is the one I'm going with):
There's one thing I always meant to ask Jack. Back in the old days. I wanted to know about that Doctor of his. The man who appears out of nowhere and saves the world. Except sometimes he doesn't. All those times in history when there was no sign of him, I wanted to know why not. But I don't need to ask any more. I know the answer now. Sometimes the Doctor must look at this planet and turn away in shame.
Abbey
