Chapter 15
Up until then, that part of their adventure had seemed meaningless. Just a child in need during a dangerous situation, but as Clara told them about the little girl in the shelter no one had paid attention to, the Doctor's eyes grew a little wider and the frown lines on his forehead deepened while he listened to her. Sally, that ordinary girl that had seemed to fit in perfectly and yet hadn't because no one around had even looked at her or seen her loneliness. No one but Clara. In a community like this, someone should have taken care of her, but they hadn't and now, for the first time, it made sense.
"She was just a frightened girl, but she was all on her own," Clara explained frantically. "I don't think anyone else actually noticed her."
There was more to her story, but as Clara tried to invoke the memory of the girl, tried to picture what she had looked like, Sally's face remained blank in her mind. There was nothing there except for blurry, distorted features not unlike the alien they had encountered in the spaceship. Sally had fooled her, too, but she hadn't worked her alien magic on her entirely.
"Why did I see her at all?" she wanted to know, directing her question at the Doctor. "If they're supposed to blend in perfectly, if their aim is not to be noticed, why did I?"
The Doctor frowned at her for a moment longer and Clara racked her brain for an answer to her own question, but it wouldn't come.
"We're not one of them," he said eventually. "We don't know what the colonists are supposed to look and act like and you're a teacher."
He made a waving gesture towards her.
"You're good with children, your brain is tuned that way, to spot a child in trouble and you did. You even talked to her. Can you describe what she looked like?"
Once again, Clara tried to remember, but there was a blurry spot in her mind where Sally's face should have been. She shook her head.
In response, the Doctor sighed audibly and rose from his chair to resume his pacing. It was his way of thinking hard and it might go on like that for another hour, but Clara didn't have the patience for it. There was an alien girl out there all alone and they needed to find her. She rose to her feet.
"What are you doing?" the Doctor asked, a hint of surprise in his voice as he threw her a look of confusion.
"I'm going to find her," Clara replied and placed her arms on her hips. "She's scared and she's on an alien planet all on her own and we need to help her."
The confusion on his face didn't lift, instead, it only seemed to grow. "A few hours ago you were scared of the aliens and our plan was to help the humans and not them."
"Plan has changed," she said determinedly. "That thing in the woods was scary, yes, but Sally isn't and you made me realise that."
The Doctor raised his eyebrows just a little, asking her what she meant by that with his eyes.
"You were right," Clara told him, "I am a teacher and I'm good with children. I know a troubled girl when I see one and there was nothing scary about Sally. In fact, I think everything around here was scaring her more than the alien in the woods scared us. I don't know what happened or why they're here, but Sally needs our help."
Only when she heard Geoffrey clear his throat, Clara remembered that the blacksmith was still present and as she looked at him, she noticed that he, too, had risen from his chair. "You said something about the colony being wiped out in a matter of weeks," he said, his voice careful as if he was treading on eggshells. "Does it have something to do with the aliens? What exactly is going to happen?"
The Doctor looked at Clara for a moment longer, almost piercing her with his gaze before his eyes slowly shifted towards Geoffrey. It was rare to see him at a loss, but this was one of those rare moments. "I don't know," he admitted. "The Lost Colony of Roanoke always remained a mystery, but when the supply ship arrives, they will find the colony abandoned… again. No one ever found out what really happened to the colonists."
The blacksmith needed a moment to take in the words, but once they had settled in his mind, he nodded, then shook his head. "We would never give up," he said. "This is our home now."
"But you're going to give it up," the Doctor responded and his voice was surprisingly stern as he stepped forward. In direct comparison, the men were almost the same height, but there was always something impressive about the Doctor. "The site will be found abandoned, not dead. There will be no corpses for anyone to find and you will just… vanish."
If the prospect frightened Geoffrey, he didn't let it show. Instead, he straightened his shoulders and nodded towards Clara. "Whatever happens, I believe this girl will be able to answer some of our questions. I agree with you. We need to find her."
"Then let's not waste any more time," the Doctor concluded.
They left the house together, Clara following after the Doctor and Geoffrey following after her and as they stepped out into the darkness, Clara began to ask herself how and where they would find an alien that could fit in anywhere like a chameleon. The Doctor seemed to have had the same thought as he came to a halt in front of the house and turned to face them.
"We should split up," he announced. "Look for anything you don't want to look at."
Clara paused and she could see Geoffrey frown even in the dim moonlight. "Um, what?"
The impatience was visible on the Doctor's face as he went on to explain. "The alien will try its best to blend in, using a perception filter that will make you want to look away, ignore what you've seen and move on and that's where you'll have to go. To find her, we must ignore our basic instincts. Look where you don't want to look, go where you don't want to go and if anyone seems too normal, that's who we're looking for."
Despite the blacksmith's continued look of confusion, Clara was beginning to understand what the Doctor was trying to tell them, so she nodded. "You go alone and I'll take Geoffrey," she determined, knowing that, on his own, the man was more likely to walk past Sally than notice her.
In response, Geoffrey threw her a grateful smile.
The Doctor agreed with a quick nod. "Good luck," he wished them and then turned around and headed into the village.
Clara and Geoffrey were slower to move, walking in the opposite direction, and she could still feel the blacksmith's reluctance in his every step. Not that she blamed him. She and the Doctor had only just overturned his entire world view.
"Are you actually ready to face an alien?" Geoffrey asked after a moment of silence and she heard a hint of fear in his voice.
Clara turned her head and tried her best to give him her most reassuring smile. "You've already met her once," she argued. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"
"True," Geoffrey agreed. "But then I assumed she was just an ordinary girl."
"And you've met the Doctor," Clara went on. "As far as aliens go, he's a bit rude but otherwise alright."
When she moved on, she had to suppress a chuckle because Geoffrey stopped dead in his tracks behind her, unable to move while the newest information was only just sinking in.
"Wait," he said, "the Doctor is an alien, too?"
Clara smiled to herself, realising that it was one of those moments that she truly loved about travelling with the Time Lord.
