Flatline: On Our Own

Tailor winced at the sound of the alarms going off in her ear, the grinding noise the TARDIS was making telling her her Aunt Idris was NOT happy about all this, "Are they leaching the TARDIS again?" she asked her parents.

"Yes," the Doctor huffed, "I don't know how, but they're doing it again."

"How?!" Clara was asking, "The doors are closed!"

"They must have changed frequency," Angel spoke, "TARDISes can block certain attacks after they record the frequency, it had to have changed."

"Which means they're probably close," Tailor muttered to herself, before spinning to the men, "Ok, listen up, we need to move, they're getting close."

"Where, exactly?" the old man demanded.

Tailor paused, "Mum?" she asked, not sure if she herself could sense them given how anxious she felt, not that her mother wouldn't be anxious given the situation, but knowing her mother likely was handling it better.

"They're travelling fast," Angel warned her, "The flat surfaces make for few obstacles…"

Tailor frowned, it wasn't quite an answer, but it made sense to her, what her mother was trying to say, "There are too many of them to get a proper read," she told them, before thinking of the sonic in her hand and quickly turning to scan around them for any sign.

"Oh, that's just great," the old man scoffed, "Sounds important but means absolutely nothing. Can you tell your…"

Tailor jerked forward to grab Peter by the arm, yanking him towards her just as what looked like a giant hand tried to grab him, literally like a hand sticking OUT of the wall to make a swipe at him.

For one brief moment, she felt a thrill go through her at that, at how she'd saved a human's life, felt a swell of pride in herself, at how her sensations were sharpening…before another thought made her pause. She hadn't quite FELT what was coming, hadn't SEEN it, not the way her mother seemed to. Something had made her look at the wall, yes, but she'd seen the faint shimmering just behind Peter and reacted quickly. And…was that what she'd done earlier? With Stan? Had she seen the wall shimmer and reacted or had she FELT something coming?

She wished these Visionary qualities were a little sharper, a little clearer to her.

She shook her head, that wasn't important right now, what was important was that Peter was ok…and the enemy was RIGHT THERE.

"3D," she breathed, "The next stage."

"Tailor, go!" her father yelled in her ear, just as something in the shape of people began to rise from the ground across the room, vaguely resembling the people from the mural.

"Run!" Tailor shouted, grabbing the nearest person, Rigsy's arm, to pull him on.

"This way!" Rigsy pulled ahead, leading them down to another door…with a flat handle.

"Dad," Tailor said, starting to flash the sonic on the Two-Dis, "The door handle's flat…"

"Hold on, hold on, there!" her father called, and the sonic began to make an odd sound, "I've set it to boost the output, try it now."

Tailor nodded, holding the device up to the handle and flicking it on, breathing a sigh of relief when it became three-dimensional once more, "Go!" she yelled to the others, pushing through to hold the door open till the five men and MK9 were past, slamming it shut behind her.

"Wait, wait!" Clara called just as she was about to start running after the men, "Reverse it."

"What?"

"Reverse the process, make the handle flat!" Clara added, "If they're morphing into 3D, a 2D handle might slow them down."

"Dad?"

"It can reverse the process," the Doctor agreed, "Worth a shot."

"That's brilliant, Clara," her mother added.

And so Tailor moved back to the door, flicking the device on once more.

"Hey!" she could hear Rigsy call to her, "There's a ladder at the end of this. If we get down into the tunnel, we can make it into daylight."

"Be right there," Tailor yelled back to them, turning to join them as soon as the handle was flat once more.

"If it's flat, we're safe now, aren't we?" the old man asked, having been watching what she was doing.

"They can't get through, can they?" Rigsy turned to her.

"Mistress!" MK9 squeaked, unable to remain silent with what he'd picked up, "Scanners indicate approach!"

Tailor turned to look at the door, holding her breath as she heard a shuffling noise that she assumed was the aliens walking towards the door…and a moment later there was a glow of energy at the handle…which turned back into 3D.

"Run!" she turned to push the men on.

"How did they do that?" Clara asked, though she knew it wasn't directed at her.

"It appears they have a new ability," her father said grimly, "Of course they have. Now they're 3D, they can restore dimensions."

She glanced back, hearing a slam, to see that the creatures had made it through the door, well, as long as they were 3D they couldn't travel along the flat surfaces anymore, they had to go through openings like a door instead of slip under it. Good to know.

"Ok," Tailor called to her parents, "We need a plan C, D, and E."

"What we need is a plan to stop them," Clara countered.

"Right, yes, I may have a theoretical way to send them back to their own dimension," the Doctor spoke.

"So do it!" Tailor called.

"The TARDIS doesn't have enough dimensional energy to pull it off, sweetheart," he sounded pained and she could just picture him rubbing his hands down his face as he tried to work out another way, "Apparently these things can pump it out as fast as they can steal it."

"I can help," Angel's voice spoke up, "The Vortex energy is laced with dimensional energy. But I won't be at the door to help you, sweetheart…"

"It's fine," Tailor reassured her, turning to pick up the TARDIS, knowing it would be the best way to help them, their best tool/weapon against these creatures as soon as her mother got the energy back up to where they needed it, "We'll be alright, mum, just get the power going and…"

"Give me that machine!" the old man snapped, grabbing the TARDIS from her hands.

"Oi!" she glared at him, trying to snatch it back.

"Hand it over!" he demanded, only for Rigsy to step forward and try to fight him off to get the box back too.

Tailor stumbled back as the old man shoved her, and could only watch in horror as the men lost their grip on the box, sending it flying over the side of a railing and down a shaft, "No!"

She ran to the railing and looked down, wincing as the box landed on a track on the lower level with a thump.

Aunt Idris was going to kill her.

~8~

Angel had just gotten to the console, ready to help, when they were all thrown off their feet and to the ground as the box jolted around them. With the external dimensions being drained, there was less of a barrier to the outside world, any jolt or toss would be felt within with little stabilization.

"Angel!" the Doctor shouted, at her side in an instant as soon as the room stopped shaking, he reached out to her, helping her up, his hands cupping her cheeks to check on her.

"I'm fine," she reassured him, though she had to blink a few times to get the room to stop moving on her. Perhaps she'd hit her head on the floor when she'd fallen or something, but she felt rather dizzy now. Still, she didn't want to worry him so she forced a smile.

"Still a terrible liar," he told her, moving to press a kiss to her forehead.

"I'm fine!" Clara called, huffing as she picked herself up, "In case anyone was wondering."

"Tailor!" the Doctor shouted instead, moving to the monitor but only getting static, so he ran to the doors to check outside.

"Shields are down," Angel called over to him, hauling herself up to check the scanners, trying to turn the alarms off, but it was like none of the levers or buttons were working, "Structural integrity is failing."

"But that means…" Clara began, a deep frown on her face as a memory of her Time Lady life surfaced, "That means one more blow and we'll be goners."

"We're on the train lines!" the Doctor warned them, shutting the doors and racing back to the console to try and help, "And there's a train coming. Of course there is. Short-term re-materialization?" he asked, though he didn't give even Angel time to answer, "Not enough power. Teleport? Not enough power. Re-route the heart of the TARDIS through, not enough power! Not enough power!"

"Yes," Angel realized suddenly, "Yes, there is!"

She reached out and braced her hands on the rotor, closing her eyes as the golden glow of the Vortex began to swirl around her, pouring out of her and into the box, "Doctor!"

He grabbed Clara's hand, pulling her to the console to help try and get a short range materialization going, it would be incredibly dangerous to do in their current state, but it was their only option right now. But even though some of the power was coming back on, it wasn't enough, not with such differing dimensional shells pulling at each other.

The cloister bell began to sound.

"The train's coming!" the Doctor realized, dropping to the floor and pulling a panel out from the bottom of it, he reached in, just about to rip something out…when Angel screamed.

He looked up, his eyes wide in horror as the Vortex swelled and surged out of her, so bright and so powerful he had to look away, his arm up to block the worst of it…

And Angel kept screaming…

~8~

"Mum?" Tailor pressed a hand to the earbud, "Dad?" but there was no answer, "Aunt Clara? Hello? Anyone? What's happened?" she looked around, down at MK9 but the metal dog could only look back up at her, "We need to get down there."

"We're not risking our lives for a toy," the old man sneered at her.

But Rigsy understood what that box meant to her, who was inside it, and turned, trying to find something to help, "Ladder!" he found one and pointed at it, he looked at the others, "I wonder what they're like with ladders? Come on," he led the others over to it and quickly began to make his way down, leaving little room for others to argue.

Tailor shot him a grateful smile, moving to follow him with the others, MK9 tucked under her arm, even the old man reluctantly agreeing that a ladder down was better than other flat surfaces.

"There, see?" Rigsy turned to the old man once they all reached the bottom, "They'd be here if they were coming."

"What I want to know is where they went," Stan muttered, looking up the ladder as though expecting the creatures to jump down at them.

"There's no other way down," the old man looked at Rigsy, "Right? Hey! I'm talking to you."

"Isn't there a service elevator?" George answered instead, vaguely familiar with the area.

"Yeah, down the mouth of the tunnel," Peter nodded.

"We should go," Rigsy began to head for the tunnel, Tailor behind the men, looking for the TARDIS.

"No, follow the line," Tailor argued, flicking the sonic to torch-mode even as MK9's eyes flashed to light the way too.

"No, wait!" Peter reached out to grab Rigsy's arm, tugging him back, pointing past him at where they could see shadows of the creatures looming towards them from the end of the tunnel.

"And there's another train coming!" the old man realized, looking back the other way, a train whistle blowing and echoing down to them.

Tailor spun to the side, quickly aiming the sonic at a set of emergency lights on the wall, signaling to the train to stop, which the driver immediately did, "Oh thank god that worked."

~8~

Clara gasped as she sat up on the floor of the console room, panting as she looked around, half expecting the room to be as destroyed as when they'd had to travel to the heart of the TARDIS…but it wasn't. Everything was ok, or it would have seemed that way, had it not been for the unconscious Time Lords littered along the floor.

"Angel!" Clara scrambled over to the woman's side, remembering a piercing scream just before she'd been knocked out, "Oh god…"

Angel did not look well, at all.

The girl was pale, paler than death, a thin layer of sweat across her brow and she was shaking, almost jerking every so often as she laid there. Her eyes had rolled back into her head, her lips were blue, her hands freezing cold.

Clara leaned down to press her ear to the woman's chest, nearly sobbing when she heard only one heart beating and beating far too slow compared to how her chest kept rising and falling in short, rapid movements.

She looked around, frantic for help, "Doctor!" she shouted, seeing him a few feet away but not wanting to leave Angel's side, "DOCTOR!" she tried again, but he only grumbled something, "DALEKS!" she shouted, hoping it would get through to him.

The Doctor jolted straight up into a sit, his hand out as though he had the sonic in it, as though it would be a weapon. It took him a moment to get his bearings after realizing there was no Dalek, it took him a moment to recall where he was and what had happened, but as soon as he did, he was spinning, nearly falling onto his face in his mad scramble to his feet. His eyes instantly found Clara and Angel and he skid to his knees as he ran over to them.

"Angel!" he gasped, pulling her into his arms.

"Her heart is beating," Clara reassured him, grim though it was, but one heart was better than none, "Just the one. She's breathing, but she wouldn't wake up. We need to get her to the medical bay."

The Doctor could only shake his head, holding her closer in his arms, hoping his nearness would soothe her tremors, "We can't…"

"Doctor, Tailor will understand," Clara spoke, "I'll stay here and you can…"

"We've been triggered into siege mode," he told her, glancing over his shoulder at the distinct lack of any doors to be seen, "No way in or out. I was about to trigger it before the train hit, but Angel must have…" he swallowed hard, his voice cracking on her name, feeling a particularly violent tremor from her.

"Can't you turn it off?" Clara asked, her heart dropping at the knowledge they were trapped there with Angel in such a bad state.

He shook his head, "Angel powered us back up…but they were draining it as she did," he glanced at the console, "There enough to sustain the life support for a while, but...not much else."

"But…but Tailor…" she began hesitantly.

The Doctor could only tug Angel closer to himself and close his eyes in despair.

The absolute worst thing that had filtered across his mind, for the smallest fraction of a second before he refused to think on it, was that he could lose his daughter on this adventure.

Now…now he might lose his Mate too.

~8~

Tailor rushed over to the train driver as the man climbed out of the transport, hardly waiting to see if the men were following her.

"What's going on?" the man demanded, "Why the red light?"

"Sorry," Tailor apologized, quickly showing him the psychic paper, "Blockage in the tunnel and we need the train to ram it. It's empty right?"

"Yeah," the driver nodded slowly, "It's out of service. But you'd need someone to hold the dead man's handle, won't run without it."

Rigsy glanced at the group around him, then at the train, hearing that and knowing where Tailor's mind had gone. It wasn't like he knew the girl particularly well, but she just seemed the sort to refuse to ram the train if it would hurt one of them. She would waste time trying to come up with another plan when they had one, and when they had someone that would be willing to hold the dead man's handle and buy them time to get away.

"Is this official?" the driver continued, "Because I've always wanted to ram something."

Tailor reached behind her without turning to grab Rigsy's arm just as the boy tried to slip away from the group. She turned and pointed a warning finger at him, "No," was all she said, ignoring his wide eyes at being caught before he'd even done anything, to turn back to the driver, "All official, yes, we have to rig it up to drive without a driver, that's all," she turned to look pointedly at Rigsy, "Right?" she asked him, firmly.

"I wasn't gonna do nothing," he tried to defend himself, despite the fact that he very much WAS about to do something.

She merely gave him a look, "Right, so you weren't about to try and ram the train for us, buy us some time? Dying in the process, I might add?"

"Um…no?" as much as he wanted it to sound like an actual answer, all it came out like was a boy being caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"Good," she threw him a bone in letting it go, "Because there's no need to, not when I've got this," she held up the sonic, giving him a quick smile before dashing to the train with a call of, "MK9, keep guard!"

She hurried up to the controls, flicking the sonic to turn the train on and moving the dead man's handle into place, another quick flick locking it in place before she hopped out of the car just as it began to go. She had to wait on that side though, now that the transport was moving, there was no way to get back to the others till it had passed.

Even then, she wasn't going to waste time just standing there. One last quick flick of the sonic to torch-mode and she was scouring around for the TARDIS while she waited for the train to move out of her way.

Something that cut through her frantic search though, was the distinct sound of something NOT crashing into anything. She sighed, she'd been hoping that would work but unsure if it really would. So she turned, just in time to see the end of the train flatten into becoming a mural on the wall.

"Wonderful," she huffed, running a hand through her hair before hurrying back to the others along the tracks.

"Mistress!" MK9 called as she drew nearer, the little dog trundling towards her, "Scanners have located the TARDIS!"

"What, where?" she breathed a sigh of relief.

MK9 only turned to the left from where he was rolling, leading her right to where a small cube was resting just beside the tracks, etched with Gallifreyan symbols.

"Oh no," her eyes widened as she stared at the box, a helpless feeling rising in her gut along with an increasing fear.

"Hey, Taylor!" Rigsy called as the men caught up to her, before he caught sight of her expression and the cube in her hands, "What's that?"

"It's the TARDIS," she swallowed hard, turning it over in her hands, "It's in siege-mode, fortified itself," well that explained why she hadn't been able to hear her father shouting at her for trying to crash a train while she'd technically been in it…

"So…so your parents and your aunt are safe inside, then, right?" Rigsy offered, trying to make her feel better, "Fortified and all that…"

But Tailor shook her head, looking at him with tears in her eyes, "The creatures have been siphoning the energy…if the TARDIS has gone into siege-mode, it's cut everything off. It's STILL in siege-mode, which means there's not enough energy left to turn it off, and if there's not enough energy to do that…there may not be enough for the life support systems."

"What do you mean, life support systems?"

"It means they might be suffocating to death right now."

"Is there any way we can turn it off from the outside?" Rigsy tried, wanting to help her think of a way to fix this all, "Get them out?"

Tailor could only shake her head, gripping the box so tightly in her hands her knuckles turned white, before she took a breath, her gaze moving to the wall behind them, to the figures starting to rise out of the ground, "We need to go," she decided even if her hearts broke to know she couldn't take the time to work out how to help her parents and Clara, "Come on."

And, with that, she turned and ran down the path the train had come from, the men following her and MK9.

~8~

Tailor paced across a small office they'd found as far down the tracks as they could get. At least the creatures were slow when they were in 3D form and trying to work out how to walk. They had at least a few minutes to come up with a plan, though it seemed the men were leaving it mostly to her to do that while they focused on bringing the driver up to speed. She was having a hard time focusing on a plan right now though, not with the siege-mode box in her hands that she just couldn't seem to put down.

All she could think about was what her parents might be going through. She couldn't tell if the terrible pit in her stomach was from the situation in general or a warning of what her parents were enduring. HOW did her mother deal with these sensations all the time? Never really knowing, at least not in the beginning, what was causing it.

"They wear your skin?" the driver was gaping at them as they patched together what they all knew.

"I never thought I'd say this…" the old man began.

"This is insane!"

"…but I think preferred them when they were flat."

"What do you mean flat?!"

Tailor sighed, rubbing her head, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear, feeling the earbud as she went. She tapped on it, though she knew it wouldn't work part of her just needed to try, "Dad?" she called quietly so as not to draw the attention of the others, "Mum?"

But there was nothing, just a faint static.

She took a breath and moved to sit down by a desk, turning to MK9 as the dog nudged her knee, reaching out to pet him, "Ok," she sighed, speaking to the metal dog, "Ok, right now…right now I really am the Doctor, and the Angel, at the same time…what would they do?" she asked herself, "What would dad do?" she rephrased it, because her mother's way of handling it would be different than her father's. She didn't have access to the Vortex, just her mind, so she had to think like her dad and be the clever Time Lady she knew she was. But…there WAS a part of her mother that could help too, "The TARDIS," she started, she had to find a way to get them out of the TARDIS, she wasn't too proud to know she needed help right now. Her father said he'd worked out a way to stop those creatures, she needed him around to do so, he said he needed energy, and so did the TARDIS to get out of siege mode, "Energy," she continued, piecing it together, "Dad needs energy and so does Aunt Idris…think, think, think," she looked at MK9, "How do we get the energy?"

~8~

"Anything?" the Doctor called from where he was still on the floor of the console room, Angel in his arms, looking even worse, while Clara tried to get something working on the console, but it appeared all the controls were still locked…

"No," she sighed, glancing over at the Time Lords and back to the monitor where nothing but static was playing, "Come on," she muttered, trying anything she could think of to help, to get to Tailor so they could all make it…

~8~

"They've been leaching energy to turn 3D," Tailor frowned, a thought coming to her, "But they've been expending it to turn other things 2D, or to make things that were 3D but flattened back to 3D too…" she looked up, catching sight of a few posters hanging on the wall, 2D posters, of things that had never been 3D to begin with...

"I've got it!" she gasped, leaping to her feet, startling the other men as she turned and began to run around the room, grabbing a roll of paper and spray paint, shaking it fiercely.

"Leave her," the old man huffed, "She's lost it."

"Um, Taylor?" Rigsy called as the girl pulled the paper open to see a poster before she flipped it over to the blank side, "You ok?"

"I'm brilliant!" she beamed at them, "In both senses of the word. I'm doing brilliantly and my mind is brilliant! How are you lot doing?"

"Um…alright?" Stan answered, glancing around at the others.

Tailor turned and put the TARDIS on MK9's back once more so she could focus on the task at hand.

"What are you doing?" Peter finally asked.

"I've worked out how to help us!"

"You've got a plan?" George breathed, starting to smile.

"A thing," she corrected, smiling a little to herself as she recalled her father, "It's like a plan, but with more greatness."

"And…that is?" the driver tried to get her to explain.

"Oh, right, sorry Toby," Tailor gave them an apologetic smile for being so rude, "Rigsy, I need your help," she moved to the boy, tugging him over to the poster and tossing him the can of spray paint.

"What am I doing, exactly?" Rigsy eyed it.

"I need you to paint this like a door handle," she told him.

Rigsy didn't need to be told twice, didn't even need to ask why, just believing she knew what she was talking about and got to work.

"What's it for though?" Toby, the driver, asked.

"These creatures, they can take 3D objects and make them 2D, right?" Tailor began to explain quickly, "They can also take those same objects and bring them back to 3D, but it requires energy! They leach the energy to convert to 2D, but need to expend it to make 3D. But! I don't think they can take something that's always been 2D and make it 3D. So, theoretically, if we give them something, like a painting of a door handle, in 2D, they'll expel their energy to try and make it 3D again, but if it wasn't ever 3D to begin with, there's nothing to convert. They'll just expend more and more energy! And that's exactly what the TARDIS needs!"

"Affirmative!" MK9 squeaked.

Tailor gestured at the dog and smiled at the men, "Get it?"

The men just looked at each other and back at her.

"Come again?" Stan shook his head.

George got the distinct impression Tailor was now looking at them as though they'd dribbled on their shirts.

~8~

Tailor took a breath as she stepped out of the office, MK9 right beside her with his scanners running, the cube on his back with the painting held tightly in her hand. She was almost glad that the comms. had been cut off for the moment, her father would NOT be happy that SHE was the one doing this, taking the risk she was. But she didn't feel comfortable sending one of the men, not because she thought they'd get it wrong but because they were human. She was made of tougher stuff and, she liked to think, she was handling the danger a little better than they were. Fear could lead to mistakes, just like anger could, and often times fear led to anger as well. Right now there were only two things truly frightening her, the thought of what might be happening to her parents and the dark of the tunnel. With MK9 beside her, with his lights, she could handle that second fear. And, if her plan worked, that would take care of the first one too.

"Silent, boy," she murmured to MK9 as they moved down the tunnel, looking around for the closest space she could find that would fit what she had in mind. It was farther away than she hoped it would be, but closer than she feared it would be so she had to go with it.

She came to pause before a junction box, turning to scoop the TARDIS off of her dog and placing it in the space. She took a breath and got to work setting up the painting to block the space, making it look like there was a door there though there was nothing but the poster and TARDIS behind it. She nodded to herself and quickly led MK9 back to the office, hurrying inside and pressing her ear to the door to listen.

"You're going to get us killed," the old man muttered, "This plan is insane."

Tailor rolled her eyes, starting to understand what her father meant by calling them pudding brains, and huffed, "Shh!" she warned, "I can hear them coming. They CAN'T know we're behind this door and not the other one."

The other men, at least, backed her up, giving the man a glare till he grumbled but crossed his arms and fell silent.

Tailor turned her attention back to the door, listening intently...

~8~

Clara was silent as she sat on the floor of the console room, gripping one of Angel's hands in her own, the Doctor still having not let go of the woman since he'd first rushed to her side. The man was sitting with his eyes closed, his forehead resting on the top of Angel's hair, his arms around her as she trembled. At least it wasn't the jerking she'd seen earlier, but there wasn't much that was making her feel better about it all.

She'd tried to get more information out of the Doctor about what happened exactly, but all she could piece together before deciding he was too angry/hurt/worried to answer more was that…Angel had given too much. She'd utilized the power of the Vortex in the past to give the box a boost when it needed it…nearly died that time, from what she knew of the story. Creating and maintaining a paradox so that two versions of Amy Pond could live at the same time was dangerous. This…this was just giving more energy to the TARDIS after a majority had been siphoned off.

It shouldn't have been that bad, nothing that would result in this outcome. Which had led the Doctor to fear that those creatures out there might have been trying to take the energy of the Vortex along with the dimensional energy, sucking it out of Angel as she poured it into the TARDIS.

Whatever it was, she'd given too much too fast and she was paying the price for it now.

"No…" Angel murmured, her voice weak and hoarse, her words slurring, but it was the first they were hearing of her.

It was enough to jerk the Doctor upright for the language it was in, his eyes wide as he looked at his Mate, "Angel?"

Her face scrunched up more, in pain and fear, before she breathed a word in Gallifreyan that had the Doctor tensing, "…Kitta…"

~8~

Tailor tensed, not just from hearing that faint buzzing that indicated the creatures were using their power, but from a chill that shot up her spin, the pit in her stomach starting to churn away and leaving her feeling terribly on edge. She didn't know what would be worse, if the pit was from her plan failing and endangering them all...or an omen of her parents' fate. She didn't want to think about either.

"Energy building, Mistress!" MK9 reported as quietly as he could, mistaking her silence for a fear that it wasn't working.

"I still don't get it," Toby whispered, trying to be quieter than the old man, "How is pumping energy into the wall going to save us?"

"It's not a wall," Rigsy reminded them, "It's a painting."

"It's 2D," Tailor nodded, "They can't restore 3D to something that never was 3D, all that energy is going to go somewhere, hopefully into the TARDIS."

"And that will give it the boost to destroy the creatures?" Stan tried to follow.

"It's brilliant," George murmured.

"One of dad's favorite tactics," Tailor sighed, "Use your enemy's power against them."

She tried to shake the feeling that this NEEDED to work, that something horrible had happened and she needed to get to her parents as soon as possible.

~8~

"What's that?" Clara gasped as what sounded like an electrical buzz rose up, what looked like little streams of electricity starting to crackle around the room, "What's happening?" she turned to the Doctor, the man watching as the crackles began to travel along the ceiling and towards the rotor, "Doctor?"

The Doctor could only look down at Angel, the woman breathing even faster, though he could feel in his hearts it wasn't from what happened with the TARDIS but what was currently threatening their daughter. He swallowed hard, fighting against the Mating instinct refusing to let him release her, to gently pass her into Clara's arms and run to the console.

Angel would never forgive him if anything happened to their daughter, neither would he.

These creatures had endangered his daughter, harmed his Mate...if they knew what was good for them, they would run.

~8~

Tailor didn't even hesitate to throw the door open and rush into the tunnel at the sound of a crash and the beloved wheezing noise of the TARDIS, getting out just in time to see the box knock around the tunnel, now full-sized, and setting down, with electricity crackling from the light on top, creating a force field that kept the creatures from advancing.

"Oh, yes!" she cheered, nearly jumping in place as she punched the air, "It worked!"

The smile that had grown on her face at their victory fell though, when she heard her father beginning to talk through the speakers and just knew something was wrong.

He sounded furious.

"I tried to talk," the Doctor spoke, his voice dead calm, too calm, the sort that only came about when anger was simmering just under the surface on the verge of bubbling over, "I want you to remember that. My daughter tried to reach out, my Mate tried to understand you…"

Tailor tensed at the way his voice cracked at the word 'Mate.'

"But I think that you understand us perfectly. And I think you just don't care."

Tailor shook her head slightly for his words, he kept saying 'he thought' as though his Mate wasn't an empathic psychic who could likely tell by now what these creatures really felt.

…what had happened to her mother?!

"And I don't know whether you are here to invade, infiltrate or just replace us. And I don't care."

The snarl in his last four words was enough to make the men around her flinch.

"You are monsters. That is your role, and this is mine…" the doors to the box opened and the Doctor stepped out…

No, he stalked out. A glare in his eyes, a scowl on his face, his hands curled in fists, every bit the Oncoming Storm that had sent enemies like the Daleks running scared.

Tailor swallowed hard, desperately wanting to run into the box and check on her mother, who had yet to appear and there was NO universe where her mother wouldn't be trying to calm the Doctor from his rage or standing beside him as he faced an enemy…unless something had happened to her. But the doors were too far away for her to make it without distracting her father and that was a dangerous thing to do when he faced his enemies.

"I'm the Doctor," he proclaimed, "The man who stops the monsters. I'm sending you back to your own dimension," his scowl morphed into a smile that sent chills down the spines of the humans, "Who knows? Some of you may even survive the trip."

Tailor almost flinched, he didn't sound like he was hoping for survival of any of the creatures, quite the opposite in fact.

"But, if you do, remember this…you are not welcome here!" he snapped, "This plane is protected. I am the Doctor!" he held his hand out behind him, not even looking back as Tailor quickly tossed the sonic to him, "And I name you...the Boneless!"

With one thrust of the sonic into the air, a device in the TARDIS was triggered, a bright light pulsing out of the light on top of the box, flaring out like a wave through the 'Boneless,' disintegrating them as the Doctor watched on, grim, satisfied.

Tailor didn't even glance at the men as she hurried to her father's side, waiting till he turned to her to ask, "What happened to mum?"

~8~

Clara let out a breath as she stepped out of the TARDIS, relieved to see they were in the railroad lot, regular sized. Honestly she was just relieved they'd made it at all. She had been the only one piloting the box, but it seemed like Idris was working with her to help get the humans there. Not long after the Doctor had stepped out of the box to deal with the 'Boneless' he and Tailor had come running back in to get Angel to the medbay, now that the energy had been restored and the box out of siege-mode, the halls returned.

Which did leave the problem of getting 6 men back out of the tunnels with no pilots to do so.

She absently patted the corner of the box as she moved to the side to let the men out after her. She watched as Toby, as Tailor had quickly introduced, dropped to his knees and kissed the ground, though the other men, Stan, George, and Peter seemed far too eager to get as far away from the box as possible. She didn't blame them, travel in the box wasn't for everyone. But Rigsy and that old man…she couldn't recall Tailor identifying him, were still sticking nearby. She smiled when she noticed Rigsy was on her mobile, as she let him borrow it, calling his mother.

"Hi, Mum," she could hear him speak before he stepped further away, "It's me."

"You alright?" she called to Toby, crossing her arms and leaning on the box, not feeling comfortable being too far away right now.

The Doctor and Tailor hadn't left the medbay, and she was going out of her mind with worry for the Time Lady, but someone had to get the humans sorted and she'd never pull them from Angel's side right now.

"I'm alive and I've been inside that," Toby laughed, eyeing the box as he got to his feet, "I think I'm up on the deal," he gave her a laugh and a wave before walking away.

Clara nodded to herself, a tiny swell of relief moving through her. He was alive, and so were all the other men. Tailor certainly was her parents' daughter in that regard. This could have gone so much worse and, even when they'd been cut off from the girl, Tailor had still managed to protect everyone and keep calm. She was proud of the girl herself so she couldn't imagine what the Time Lords thought…or what the Doctor would think once he got past the initial anger and fear for his daughter.

"Yeah," she murmured, "You're alive," she looked at the disappearing figures of Stan, George, and Peter.

"Wouldnta shed a tear if they weren't," a voice spoke beside her, the old man wandering over, "So long as I made it."

"Excuse me?" Clara gaped at him for his horrific words.

He shrugged, "It's like a forest fire, isn't it? The objective is to save the great trees, not the brushwood."

"People aren't brushwood," she snapped.

"They ain't people, sweetheart, they're community-payback scumbags, I wouldn't lose any sleep."

"You're a terrible human being," she told him flat out.

He didn't seem perturbed in the slightest, "I'm alive though," he gave her a look as though he could have died, but someone purposefully made sure HE lived, terrible or not HE had lived through this ordeal, been saved and protected even if they didn't like him, "Wonder how that happened?"

"Don't ask it," Clara muttered to herself as he walked off, "Don't ask it."

"Ask what?" Rigsy asked as he joined her, finishing his call and handing her the mobile back with a nod of thanks.

"Do you ever wonder if the wrong people survive?" Clara said, not genuinely asking, but bringing up the question she was trying hard not to think about. That was the thinking of a monster, when you decided who deserved to be saved or not.

"Still, saved the world right?" Rigsy countered with a smile, though his gaze drifted to the inside of the TARDIS, "Do they…do they do that a lot?"

Clara smiled, "More than you will ever realize."

Rigsy nodded, "Um, could you tell them 'thanks' for me?" he looked back at her, "I would myself but…" he shrugged, "That lady didn't look well."

Clara nodded, swallowing hard at the reminder, "I will, yeah," she promised, "They don't hear it enough."

"Thanks," he smiled.

"And don't sell yourself short either," she remarked, "From what I understand, your last painting was so good it saved the world," she paused, considering something, "If Angel were here, she'd probably say that she can't wait to see what you paint next, I know I can't."

Rigsy smiled, almost bashful at the thought of such praise, "It's not going to be easy. I don't think the next one will save the world…" he chuckled, giving her another nod and a wave before he turned to head off.

Clara let out a breath, turning to head into the console room when her mobile rang, Danny calling her back. She hesitated, glancing up at the doors to the hall before she quickly ignored the call. She'd get back to him after she checked on Angel.

~8~

The Doctor inhaled deeply as he sat at the bedside Angel was resting in, one of her hands clutched tightly in both of his, pressed to his forehead, his elbows on the edge of the bed. For a moment he thought, again, that he should have moved Angel to their bedroom, that she'd be more comfortable there than the medbay. But another part of him couldn't bear to see her looking so pale and weak while lying in their bed. He'd seen enough of that during the awful year where she'd been slowly dying. He didn't want to see that image ever again. Medbay meant treatment, meant getting better, meant waking up and growing stronger. Medbay it was.

He looked up, pressing Angel's hand to his lips to look across the bed to where Tailor was curled up on an armchair she'd dragged in from the library, her favorite chair, asleep with MK9 in sleep-mode on the floor beside the chair. His daughter had refused to leave Angel's side, not that he blamed her, to see her mother in such a state had to be jarring given how strong Angel always was.

He had hoped to spare his daughter ever seeing Angel like this, lord knew he'd seen it too much. But the fates had not been kind this time.

The fact that Angel hadn't woken yet was worrying both of them, Tailor had fought nobly against falling asleep but with the excitement of their last trip (he was sure the panic and fear and anger would hit him soon enough regarding his daughter being in that position) and still being relatively young, it had gotten to her in the end.

He couldn't bring himself to sleep, just sit there and pray to every god of every pantheon across the stars that his Mate would wake up, all the while listening to the god awful beeping of the hearts monitor. He hated that noise, hated that Angel had to be hooked up to it, but loved that it made the four-beat rhythm now instead of the two beat it had been making when they first rushed her there. Her second heart was beating again shortly after Clara had popped in to check on them all, she had a little bit of color returned and her trembling had stopped an hour or so after Tailor piloted Clara home for the night with the promise to call as soon as Angel woke. He was still worried for the fever she had spiked and the pained expression on her face, but even the fever had gone down a degree so he hoped it was a sign she'd be ok.

"I'm the Queen of ok," a weak voice spoke, reading his thoughts.

His gaze sharply moved to his Mate as Angel's eyes fluttered, slowly starting to open as her head lulled to the side to face him. Just seeing her trying to give him a smile made his hearts twist painfully and brought tears to his eyes. She had gone through such an awful experience, and yet she was trying to smile to make him feel better.

"Oh, my love…" she breathed, and her fingers twitched like she was trying to squeeze his hand but couldn't muster it.

"Angel," he moved quickly, pressing a kiss to her forehead, not trusting himself to kiss her lips and be able to stop in his relief…and she needed rest.

"What happened?" she asked as he moved to sit back down, still clutching her hand.

He couldn't tell if she was being so quiet due to their daughter sleeping there or weakness…he liked to think it was the first.

"You were pouring energy into the TARDIS," he reminded her, "You gave too much."

"I did?" she frowned, seeming confused, like she didn't understand.

"The Boneless might have been trying to steal it as you were releasing it," he added, catching a thought in her mind that she'd been controlling how much she gave and had not intended to give as much as she clearly had.

"The Boneless?" she asked, before seeing his memories flutter across her mind, "I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for," he told her.

"You were alone," she began, always hating the times where he was left alone after she was hurt or taken, even with a Companion or one of the family there she knew that dark place he dipped into without her around.

But he shook his head, "That was not your fault," he reassured her, "They were a threat, and they were dealt with. The Earth is safe, the humans survived, and…" he sighed, hating to admit it but, "Our daughter made an excellent Doctor."

Angel smiled, "You know I'm going to tell her you said that as soon as she's awake."

"I do," he gave her a smile in return, always unable to hold back when she smiled at him in the first place.

She let out a light laugh, though she grew thoughtful after, studying his face as her thoughts raced.

He frowned, catching just the end of one, "Your dreams?" he asked, not sure if he'd gotten it right, not sure he was following it.

"Your memories," she began, "What Tailor told you happened after we entered siege-mode…I dreamed it," she told him, "It…it's like the entire time I wasn't here, I was there."

The Doctor blinked, startled, but seeing it more clearly in her mind, her perspective of it. She had felt the pain, the weakness, had a vague sense of him being near during the time she'd been unconscious to him. But, more than that, it was like she had been watching everything happening to Tailor as though she had been standing in the middle of the room while it happened, able to see and hear, but unable to bee seen or heard.

It was unlike any vision she'd had before, usually getting snippets of it, or glimpses of moments…this felt, to her, more like she was watching it play out.

"You were connected to the TARDIS," he began, trying to piece together an explanation, a theory at least, "You had to be to give her the energy. Perhaps, when the Boneless were leaching off you, it caused some sort of connection. Maybe you got trapped connected to the old girl, and you saw space and time like she does?"

They didn't really know exactly how a TARDIS saw space and time, given all the boxes could do, but what she was describing sounded almost exactly like what he imagined a TARDIS could do. They saw all space and time, in order to travel in it, maybe that was how the old girl always seemed to know when her pilots were in danger or select just the time and place they would be needed most. Maybe the Heart of the TARDIS followed its pilots, in spirit, while they were outside the box, to be present when and where they were?

"It…it did feel familiar," Angel admitted, thinking back to the handful of times she'd been taken over by the TARDIS. That feeling of being present, being THERE, and seeing it happen. She had just thought it was an effect of another consciousness being there, but perhaps it was more than that.

She opened her mouth to say more, when a yawn took her over.

The Doctor chuckled, reaching out with his left hand to touch her hair, "Rest," he told her, "I'll be here the moment you wake up, Tailor too, I imagine."

Angel gave him a gentle smile, lifting her other hand to touch his face, "You're too good to me."

"I'm not good enough," he shook his head, "But I try every day to be one step closer."

"I think you reached that point the moment you were born," she tugged the hand he was holding to press a kiss to his scarred knuckles, "Come here," she tugged him, shifting in the bed to try and make room though it appeared she was too weak to even wiggle to the side.

He chuckled again, shaking his head as he got up and moved around the bed, careful not to jostle Tailor, before he laid down beside his Mate, pulling her into his arms.

It wasn't even a moment later that they had both fallen asleep, their bond comforting them enormously.

Ten seconds later Tailor cracked an eye open to smile at the sight of her parents cuddled up on the bed. She let out a relieved breath that her mother was going to be alright, before her gaze turned to her father.

She had made an excellent Doctor…and she was never going to let him forget it.

~8~

A man in a light gray suit winced as he watched a woman dressed in a purple Edwardian garb throw her tablet into the wall and storm out of the stark white, empty waiting room.

A/N: Lol, I think Tailor made a pretty good Doctor for her first go at it ;)

Poor Angel and the Doctor though :( As I was writing this chapter, Angel kept remarking about how the energy wouldn't be a problem, because she could supply it, and when I got to that part I realized she would be feeding the TARDIS energy AS the Boneless were leaching it and it just sort of exploded into a very dangerous situation for Angel :( It's going to take a bit for her to recover from this, but the Doctor is very relieved she didn't die/regenerate from it, he hates the thought of his girls dying as do I :(

We got quite a helping of Oncoming Storm there, I almost feel a little bad for the Boneless... }:)

I'm fairly certain, once this initial fear and stress from what happened to Angel passes, that the Doctor will be very conflicted about Tailor's own part in all of it. On the one hand, brilliant job for her first attempt activates proud-papa-mode, on the other hand...his daughter, alone, surrounded by men, and in danger, about to crash a train and be flattened into 2D...means overprotective-dad-mode. I really am picturing him trying to put her in a kiddie leash so she can't wander more than 5 feet away lol. Don't think it'll go over well with Tailor though ;)

I'm sure some of you may have noticed that literally every man around Tailor had a name given to them except that old grouch. That was on purpose ;) He was so mean and miserable that I didn't feel like he deserved to have a name, he was just 'that old man' to Tailor lol ;)

Quick note, now that this episode is complete, I'll be switching to updating my Big Bang Theory story with Claire, get that caught up to the end of season 2 and then come back to Angel to wrap her up with the Forest, Dark Water, Death in Heaven, and Last Christmas ;) If all goes to plan, that should happen around July 17th/18th ;)

Some notes on reviews...

Lol, that old man is definitely pushing Tailor towards the edge of the 'humans are pudding brains' thought ;)

I definitely got a little teary watching Children of Earth, which was why I really loved getting to write it with Angel in that episode, having not just her but the Doctor around really helped make things feel more like 'it's going to be ok' in the end :) I haven't seen every episode of Torchwood, mostly just Exit Wounds, Children of Earth, Miracle Day, and a few clips here and there of the rest of the show. It's on my list of spin-offs to watch in full though ;) I really liked Rigsy too, he gave me some 'potential Companion' vibes as well :) For a moment, I actually thought he'd be pretty cool for Tailor to have as a Companion, but after this episode she sort of gave me the sense that she wasn't fully ready to handle that constant of a responsibility just yet. That's not to say she won't be teasing the Doctor about the possibility ;) I mean, she WAS an excellent Doctor and it's only right that the Doctor have a Companion, you know? ;)