A/N: A small bit on the good news end of the spectrum.
From what I understand Chell-P, or mia_pearson as a user informed me their wattpad now directs, has taken down the stories containing stolen content from my DW stories and oleanderhoney's Sherlock story. They sent messages to me and, as soon as I don't feel like pieces of my heart are stabbing me each time I see something related to the plagiarism pop up, I'll respond. Because if I've learned anything from my family over the years it's that I don't want to respond directly to a person when I'm upset or angry or hurting so I'm taking time to compose myself and process what I feel and, even though I know I'll be hurting for a while yet since 9 stories is a lot to stomach, hopefully it won't feel as fresh and I can respond politely and considerately soon.
In lighter news, I've also resumed my 'episode covers' on my tumblr for the stories. I'll be posting them mostly on just the weekends for now, but they're back.
On to the chapter...
~8~
In the Forest of the Night: Gingerbread House
Angel couldn't help the giggle that escaped her, "Ooh, that tickles!" she lightly tried to push the tiger away from her as it continued to lick at her face.
Tailor had to shake her head at the sight, even as her father had a minor heartsattack beside her, animals certainly did love her mother.
"Alright, alright, love, stop it, stop!" Angel laughed, trying to shoo the tiger off her. It certainly had looked quite menacing when it lunged, but it was a sweetheart at heart, nuzzling her and licking at her face instead.
The tiger finally dropped back down to the ground, the weight of its paws off her shoulders a welcome relief, and she moved to kneel before it, petting its head, scratching behind its ears as it purred. She smiled at it, so many people would see an animal like that and think it vicious or dangerous, but it was like a large kitten really.
"What do you think we should call this one?" Angel called out, adding, "Mr. Pink?" when no one replied.
Tailor was about to ask why they would name it that, when she looked over to see that her mother had been speaking to Mr. Pink, not naming it Mr. Pink. Clara and Danny were indeed standing there, torches in hand, Mr. Pink looking like he was about to try and flash his at the tiger's eyes, with all the kids hiding behind them, gaping at the tiger.
Angel looked over at the man, for a suggestion, "No?" she asked, then turned to Maebh, "What about you, dear? What shall we call him?"
Maebh blinked, startled, and her face scrunched like she was seriously considering it, "Tigger."
Tailor snorted, reaching out to pat her father's arm as he groaned, considering the name to be not awesome enough.
"Very well," Angel nodded, turning back to the tiger, "Now, Tigger, we shall not go scaring people, shall we?" she asked the animal. It just let out a light roar and turned to trot into the woods.
"How did she do that, sir?" Bradley asked, tugging on Danny's arm, all the kids staring wide-eyed at Angel as she stood.
"What are you doing here?" the Doctor's own question cut off Danny's reply, the man shaking himself out of his stupor to glare at the two adult humans, "I said stay in the TARDIS. I said don't wander off. I said Tailor and I would go retrieve them…"
Angel walked over to the iron fence, a light golden spark near the lock of a gated portion allowing her Mate and daughter to the other side, "Did you actually say all that, my love?" she asked with a knowing smile.
He opened his mouth to answer, only to snap it shut realizing he may have said at least two of those things in his head and not out loud.
"One third isn't too bad," Tailor reassured him with a smile.
"Miss," little Maebh spoke, tugging on the edge of Angel's poncho, her face still scrunched but now from pain, "They're getting loud again. Could you ask them to stop?" she began to swat at the air once more.
"Has she had her medication yet?" Danny frowned, stepping over with Clara.
Clara moved to take off her backpack, "I have it…" she began, the school entrusting the adults with any sort of medicine, not wanting to leave it to the kids to remember it or to take it in the proper amount.
"No," the Doctor shook his head, watching as Angel knelt down before the girl, "Not the medication. We don't want to shut her up. We want to know what she knows…"
"Could just ask mum," Tailor suggested, earning looks from the other adults, "Maebh asked mum to 'make them stop again,' which means she did it once before at least," she shrugged, "So mum must have some idea…"
"Asked who to stop?" the Doctor turned to his Mate.
Clara glanced at Danny, half expecting him to go on the defensive or berate the Time Lords for something or another, but the man was surprisingly quiet, watching Angel closely as she interacted with Maebh, yes, but appearing very much like he was going to give them a chance to help the girl first.
"Please!" Ruby shouted, "Just give her her tablets! She's been in a state since her sister went missing."
Maebh suddenly threw herself into Angel's arms, "Thank you, Miss," she whispered to the woman as the flittering and buzzing and specks of light around her head head only they could see backed off again.
Angel patted her back lightly, moving to pull back, but Maebh seemed quite content where she was. Angel chuckled and stood, scooping Maebh up with her as she glanced at the others and to the Doctor and Tailor, "We're very close," she told them, "If you're up for another moment or two of walking, we should have more answers."
The Doctor nodded, smiling, "Lead the way," he offered, more at ease now that he was there with her to watch over her.
Angel stepped up to him to press a kiss to his cheek before she continued on, the humans following though they didn't have much choice given Maebh was in her arms.
"I don't get it," Ruby huffed along the way, "What are we even looking for? It's not like we're gonna find her sister out there."
"You never know what could be hiding behind a bush," Angel called back to her, making the girl flush at having been caught muttering about it, "And…here we are," Angel came to a stop in a small area that had much younger trees than the surrounding forest, the tops covered with a light webbing.
Maebh didn't seem to like it, burying her face in Angel's neck, "It's coming," the girl sounded near tears, "It's coming for everyone, and I can't unthink it."
"Angel?" the Doctor turned to her, a small smile on his face as he saw his Mate, a child in her arms, swaying absently to sooth Maebh.
"The forest is communicating," Angel said simply, "And not many can hear what it's saying as clearly as Maebh could. Even I needed to get closer to do that."
"You can hear the trees?" Bradley eyed her oddly.
"You can hear what Maebh is," Clara realized, catching that part of it.
Angel nodded.
"Who's doing all this?" Tailor asked her mother, really hoping it wasn't some sort of alien invasion, not while she actually 'got a job' like her father, she didn't want to mess this up with an invasion.
"It was me," Maebh sniffled, turning her head to speak, "I did this. I did these trees."
"No, Maebh," the Doctor shook his head, speaking more gently than Danny expected him to given his irritation with the other children, "You didn't make a global forest appear overnight. How could you do that?"
Maebh sighed, "Thoughts come to me. Ever since Annabel went missing. I look for her everywhere. I don't find her, but I find thoughts. The big forest was one. I thought everyone would love it," she winced, her face scrunching again as she buried her face in Angel's neck once more, clutching her tighter, "The thoughts go so fast!"
"Oh, it's alright, sweetheart," Angel soothed, patting her back, shifting her hand to rest on Maebh's shoulder, signaling the girl to pull back just a bit so she could speak to her, "They want to say something, like a kid in the back of the class being disruptive because no one will listen," she glanced at Clara for that, reminding her of Courtney, "So how about we let them speak so that they'll be a bit quieter?"
"I'd like them to not be so loud," Maebh agreed.
"Right," Angel nodded, turning to the Doctor and depositing Maebh in his startled arms with a light laugh, "Tailor, could you help your father, he's got his hands full right now."
Tailor beamed and snatched the sonic out of his hand, the man having pulled it out when the tiger appeared, "What do you need?"
"If you could increase the gravity just a bit in this area, it should slow them down enough for me to translate what they're saying."
"Gotcha," Tailor nodded, flicking the sonic on and holding it up. Suddenly lights appeared in the air around them, like large fireflies frozen in place, "Oh, that's beautiful."
"Who are they?" the Doctor frowned at the multitude of them, startled he hadn't been able to see them but reassured Angel had sensed them.
"No," Angel spoke, stepping to the side, in between the Doctor and the lights, "You will NOT use that child to speak. I can hear you just fine, you speak to me."
Tailor bit her lip to contain her smile, it wasn't often her mother took charge, being more content to allow the Doctor to since he enjoyed it so much, so when her mother did so…it was always wonderful.
The group fell silent, watching Angel as she tilted her head, as though listening to something none of them but Maebh could hear, before she nodded, looking around.
"They say they're the Here."
"The Here?" Clara blinked.
Angel nodded again, "Because they've been here since the beginning and will be here to the very end," she listened again, blinking, "Ok, that was a mouthful. Let's see…" she tried to condense what she'd heard and make sure she'd gotten it all, "They are the green shoots, the grass, everything green apparently. They are the life that prevails over everything."
The Doctor stepped closer to her, shifting Maebh into one arm while he reached out to take Angel's hand, never comfortable when she was used as a receiver or a mouthpiece, it just reminded him far too much of the 456, hearing something no one else could. Those aliens hadn't been good ones, "Why now?" he asked her, "Why are they here now?"
"They've always been here, dad," Tailor reminded him, having caught that, "They're not new. They're just…active."
"But why?"
"They heard the call," Angel answered, listening, "The sun," she looked at him, "They were worried about the sun destroying other green things."
"And they sent Maebh to us to help?"
She shook her head, "No, Maebh caught Clara's thoughts about…Tailor. How she was like us, always helping…and Maebh thought we could help too," she winced a little, feeling a flash of the pain the Here were feeling at being restrained, before she turned to her daughter, "You can release them, sweetheart."
Tailor nodded, clicking the sonic to release the lights, allowing them to disappear in how fast they moved.
"That was actually quite cool," one of the boys murmured.
Maebh nearly slumped in the Doctor's arms, "They're quiet!" she beamed, relieved, "You were right, Miss," she turned to Angel, wiggling a bit till the Doctor set her down, "They wanted to be heard, but I didn't know how to say what they wanted."
"They wanted to warn us about the solar flare," Tailor realized, thinking back to the drawing of Maebh's, how she'd tried to tell them in pictures, but when it got to words it was too jumbled with the thoughts of other people to come out right.
"Stars implode," the Doctor sighed, "Planets grow cold. Catastrophe is the metabolism of the universe. I can fight monsters. I can't fight physics."
"You're not," Angel said simply, "YOU won't be the one fighting it, none of us will."
The way she looked around the forest was all the Doctor needed to realize what she meant, "The trees grew to protect us!"
"What?" Clara blinked, a little lost.
"Oh my god, yes!" Tailor cheered, getting excited, working it out too.
"Care to share with the rest of the class?" Clara called out.
Tailor turned to her parents, bobbing on her toes, her hands clasped just under her chin, a pleading look on her face till the Doctor chuckled and gestured her on, moving to wrap his arm around Angel's shoulder as Tailor rounded on the humans.
"The trees!" she shouted in her excitement, "They can't burn the trees down, they're fireproof!"
"Fireproof trees?" Danny gave her a look.
She rolled her eyes, as though the trees of the magic forest that sprang up in mere hours being fireproof was the one thing he didn't believe was real, "Dad and I walked past someone literally using a flamethrower to try and burn down a tree."
"Wicked," Bradley nodded at how cool that image was.
"But it didn't work!" Tailor continued, "The tree was fine, not a singe on it. Because trees produce oxygen!"
The kids still seemed lost.
The Doctor sighed, adding some context to why his daughter was so happy, "There's a solar flare coming," he told them, "A thousand kilometers a second. Coronal mass ejection. Geomagnetic storm. It's huge. It's brewing up a solar wind big enough to blow this whole planet away."
"What is wrong with you?" Danny gaped at the man, the kids looking utterly terrified now.
"No, but you see," Tailor cut in, not even chastising her father for his poor choice of words, "It happened before! The Tunguska Blast, 1908, should have killed everything…"
"Tailor!" Clara shot her a look at how much like her father she sounded.
"But it didn't!" Tailor continued, rolling her eyes, "Honestly, if you two would stop interrupting this wouldn't be nearly as frightening," she huffed, before going on, "A few trees fell over during the Blast. But that was it. And do you know WHY?"
Ruby glanced around at the others and back, "Um…trees?" she guessed since the girl had been going on about the trees for a while before.
"Exactly!" Tailor pointed at her, "Well done, Ruby!" she cheered, making the girl smile, "A massive forest sprang up, just like this. It pumped the atmosphere full of oxygen, like an airbag in a car. That way, when the flare hits…" she looked at the students, then at Clara and Danny when the kids didn't get it...probably not as familiar with car parts as an adult would be.
"Oh, are we allowed so speak now?" Clara deadpanned, her arms crossed.
"Only if you know the right answer."
Danny's lip quirked at that, actually following along, "It bounces off," he said, "Like an airbag. It protects the planet."
"Yes!" Tailor cheered, rushing over to high-five the startled man, "All the extra oxygen gets burned off and everything is fine!"
"Some rather different sunsets," Angel added, "And a bit of odd weather, but apart from that," she nodded.
"So…the trees are protecting us?" one of the other girls asked slowly.
"Very much," Tailor nodded, "It's like a suit of armor. The earth is a knight and the trees are its shield. Protecting you from everything and anything space could throw at you. Well," she took it back, "Almost anything. But everything else is where we come in," she gestured between herself and her parents.
"That tree…" Ruby began, "That red ring…"
"Yes," Tailor beamed, pleased she'd made that connection, "That ring was like the Blast 100 years ago, atmospheric dust, but so much worse! And that tree lived on much longer after, didn't it?"
"And so will we?" Bradley asked, hopeful.
"Many, many years," Angel nodded, casting a look to her daughter, "Excellent work...doctor."
Tailor positively glowed at that.
"Now…" the Doctor clapped his hands, "Who wants to see it happen from space?"
Every hand of every kid shot into the air, which only had Clara groaning as Danny chuckled beside her, well they'd walked through an enchanted forest, followed a trail of breadcrumbs, it was only fitting they got to the temptation of the gingerbread house.
~8~
In the vastness of space, the solar flare began to form.
~8~
The Doctor and Angel walked hand in hand behind the Coal Hill kids, through the forest to head back to the TARDIS. Clara was up near the front with Danny, while Tailor and Maebh talked lightly near the back, Tailor keeping an eye on the students so none would wander off.
"Everywhere we go-o-o!" Danny called back a cadence to the kids to keep them moving, not that he needed to do much, the prospect of a trip in a spaceship to watch a 'super cool flame thrower' as Bradley called it, was enough to get them near running back the way they'd come.
"Everywhere we go-o-o!" the kids repeated.
"People wanna kno-o-ow!"
"People wanna kno-o-ow!"
"Who we a-a-re."
"Who we a-a-re."
"So we tell them."
"So we tell them."
"We are the Coal Hill, Gifted and Talented."
"We are the Coal Hill, Gifted and Talented."
~8~
Somewhere in the lush forest, Mrs. Arden stopped pedaling, hearing the voices of a number of children singing in the distance.
~8~
It didn't take long for the group to reach Trafalgar Square, only to see the TARDIS covered in more vines and leaves than before.
"Come on, team," Danny called out, leading the kids over to pull the vines off.
"You're not really going to take them to space to see it, are you?" Clara had to ask as she watched, glancing at the Time Lords a moment.
"If Mr. Pink is agreeable, I don't see why not," Angel remarked.
Clara sighed, "He can't say no after the Doctor offered," she told them, knowing Danny wasn't happy about it. But he was trying to be professional for the kids, who were just SO excited for the prospect of a trip to space that he'd never live it down if he refused. They'd honestly never seen the kids so eager to learn something about science, to watch history happen, to be so engaged. If they refused now, those kids would never be interested in anything else for the rest of their lives, because they had something they ALL wanted to do and the adults said no and why bother ever getting their hopes up again.
"Oh, he can't?" the Doctor asked, though his tone and the smug smile on his face told them all he'd done it intentionally so that neither Danny nor Clara could refuse in the end.
"Dad does love having kids in the TARDIS," Tailor told her, "No matter how much he might grumble about it. And so does Aunt Idris," she shot her parents a sly look, "Wouldn't have gotten to this point if there were more kids in the TARDIS. Like a boy. A small boy. A brother perhaps…"
Angel chuckled and reached out to pat her daughter's shoulder, though she had no real response to that. She and the Doctor hadn't been trying or not trying during all that time on Christmas. Centuries gone by without a child, she was starting to think Tailor would be all they had, and she was fine with that. She loved her daughter more than anything. Would she like another child, oh yes, very much, and if it happened she would be over the multiple moons in the Universe. But if it didn't, she would be content as well.
"You've got MK9, isn't that enough?" the Doctor lightly teased, knowing the girl would be regaling the poor dog's mechanical ears about this trip later, the dog was somewhere in the TARDIS, forced out of the console room when they'd 'childproofed' it so the kids wouldn't try to steal him, "He takes more looking after than…"
"NOT the same, dad," Tailor huffed, nudging him, but letting it go for now. She was starting to understand her parents' views on it. She hadn't been there for ALL of the war on Christmas, but she was there for part of it and her parents hadn't had a child then, nor in the last half. She knew, vaguely, of her mother's family, their difficulty with conception and pregnancy, and she never wanted her mother to feel bad if there was no other children but her. Still, part of her couldn't help but bring it up once in a while, to let them know, if it happened, she would still be very ok and happy about it.
"And how, exactly," Clara began after a moment, "Are you going to keep the kids from telling their parents all about their trip in a spaceship?"
Tailor snorted, "VR," she answered, "Perhaps the museum let them try out a new projection of space that they're adding. Do you really think any of the parents are going to actually believe their child went to space?" she gave Clara a look, "They'll brush it off as a story or a dream or a movie they watched or a museum attraction."
"Why don't you want them to do it?" the Doctor asked. He might be a bit oblivious and unaware of humans, but even HE was getting that this was more about Clara's objections than Mr. Pink, especially as Mr. Pink hadn't said a word about it either way.
Clara sighed, deciding she should come clean with them, with Danny too, later, now that her worlds had collided again, "Danny doesn't want to travel in the TARDIS," she began.
"YOU invited him?" the Doctor gaped at her.
"YOUR Mate did," she pointed out.
"I told you I did," Angel reminded him, he'd even been about to complain about it earlier.
"Yes, but I thought you were joking," he frowned, Tailor shaking her head at him.
"Anyway," Clara continued, "He's not sure he could handle it, the danger it can put people in, very well. He…he's made mistakes in his past, when he was supposed to protect people and couldn't. I don't think he'd do well if something happened and he failed at that again," she'd seen how he reacted on their first few dates, the mentions of the army, the flashbacks and guilt he still had. He was in a fragile state to begin with, anything more and she didn't want to think what could happen, "I don't want to push him," she turned to them, "I don't want to force him into that box, onto an adventure, when he genuinely does not want to do it. It's not right."
"I promise you, Clara," Angel reached out to take her hand, "This won't be like that. No adventure, no danger, no trip. We fly the TARDIS up, watch, and bring her right back down. We won't land anywhere but earth, no travel in time, won't even step out of the box."
"And if Mr. Pink still has a problem with that, he can just stay here and wait for us to get back," the Doctor added.
"Danny will never leave those kids so long as he's breathing," Clara remarked.
"Maybe it could be a good thing?" Tailor suggested, watching as the kids nearly finished with the vines, "A tiny little taste of an adventure, without the actual adventure," she looked at Clara, "He still doesn't know, does he, what it's like? A lot of our anxieties and fear come from not understanding, not knowing. A tiny introduction, so he at least has the basis of knowledge, might make it easier for him when you're off on one."
Clara fell silent at the words, considering them. It…made sense, in a way. Danny had only stepped foot in the TARDIS, but he hadn't actually experienced travelling in it, how easy it was to see something wonderful because of that box. And this wouldn't be a real adventure, not with so many kids in hand, it would be just a hop, not even, a fraction of a hop. The tiniest toe in the water.
A cheer went up by the box as the kids finished with the vines, high-fiving each other, proud of themselves and their teamwork…and then immediately began taking selfies of each other.
The Doctor rolled his eyes at the sight, "And this, this is why no mobile for you," he told Tailor, who mimicked him by rolling her eyes too.
"Are we going to see the solar flare now?" Ruby called out as the Time Lords and Clara approached.
"Are we going into space?" Bradley was more excited for that.
"Yes, and yes," Tailor laughed, moving to open the doors to let the kids back in.
"We need to hurry!" Ruby called out, ushering her friends in faster, "Before the trees are gone."
"What do you mean, before the trees are gone?" the Doctor asked as he stepped in, shutting the doors behind them all, noticing that Mr. Pink had joined the children, though he did look uncomfortable and tense and silent. But that was not his problem.
"It says here," one of the boys began to read from his mobile, "'Government crews have been deployed with the latest de-fo... defoo...'"
"Defoliant," Tailor read from over his shoulder, "It's chemicals used to take leaves off of trees," she frowned, turning to her father, "So they're easier to burn."
The Doctor sighed, "What is it with you people?!" he asked the humans, "You hear voices, you want to shut them up. The trees come to save you, you want to chop them down," the leaves were helping to create the extra oxygen, remove it…and there might not be enough left to deflect the flare.
"Well, then," Angel smiled, looking at the students, "We had best figure out how to stop them, then, hadn't we?" she turned to the Doctor.
He grinned, "Who wants to help take down the government?"
Clara was not impressed, especially not with how many hands went into the air, the Doctor's included.
"…he's not serious, is he?" Danny whispered to her.
"Who do you think brought down Harriet Jones?" Tailor answered as she passed by him to get to the console.
Danny could only stare.
Clara sighed, "Doctor, could we please keep the anarchy to a minimum?" she asked, "We'll never have a calm lesson after that."
He huffed, but amended, "Fine, who wants to save the earth?"
Tailor had to chuckle at how the hands raised were slightly less enthusiastic than before.
~8~
Angel smiled as she watched the children, spread across the floor of the console room, gathered around Maebh to help her write her little speech to the world. The girl had volunteered to be the one to give the message they hoped to broadcast, claiming she had started all this, and so she should finish it. SHE got the sense there was a tiny bit more to it than that.
"Ok," Maebh looked up at her, "I think that's it."
Angel held out a hand to help the girl to her feet, walking with her back to the console, where the Doctor and Tailor were trying to get the broadcast set up.
"Everything good?" Clara asked the Time Lords, seeing Maebh approach with her paper, the other students following.
The Doctor nodded, "Excellent!" he told her, "Mobile networks are still operative. Right, we are going to call everyone on Earth and tell them to leave the trees alone."
Tailor reached out to flick a switch, sending out the call to every mobile device on earth, both inside the TARDIS and out.
~8~
Mrs. Arden stopped biking, feeling her mobile buzzing in her pocket and quickly pulled it out, hoping it was Maebh or someone who had found her. She nearly sagged in relief when she heard her daughter speaking, though it sounded more like a broadcast than a call.
"Essential services have been disrupted due to an unexpected forest…" Maebh began.
"Maebh!" she called, trying to get through, "'Where are you?!"
~8~
"We'd like to reassure you that the situation will be rectified very soon," Maebh continued, speaking into a microphone on the console, Mr. Pink behind her, holding her up slightly so she could reach it, the other students around her for support, "Please don't be scared. And please don't chop, spray, or harm the trees. They're here to help. Be less scared. Be more trusting. Oh!" she added as a quick afterthought, "And Annabel Arden, please come home."
The Doctor reached out to flick another button, cutting off the call, "Now," he clapped his hands to face the students, "Are we ready to witness a once-in-a-billion-years solar event at close quarters?"
The class began to cheer at that, when Maebh gasped, pointing to something on the monitor near her face, "Mum!" she cried, seeing an image of her mother biking into Trafalgar Square, "There's my mum!"
She turned and ran for the doors, Angel already there and pulling one open for the girl to rush out.
Maebh ran straight for her mother's arms as the woman hopped off her bike, hugging her tightly, "I thought I'd lost you too!" her mother exclaimed.
"Never," Maebh clutched her, "Not ever."
The Time Lords watched on with a fond smile as the mother and daughter reunited, Angel reaching out to link her arm with Tailor as the girl rested her head on her shoulder, empathy for the two beyond the doors swelling in her. Even the children seemed touched by the reunion, Clara and Danny making sure they were respectful and giving Maebh her moment.
"Oh, mum, come with me!" Maebh remembered something, pulling away from her mother to tug her hand over to the TARDIS, "This is the Angel Doctor, they helped me," she told the woman, "I feel much better now."
"Um, thank you?" Mrs. Arden offered, a little confused, but too relieved her daughter was alright to question it.
"They're going to show us the solar flare that's coming!" Maebh beamed.
"Right," Clara nodded, looking at the kids, "Trip, anyone?"
The kids let out a brilliant cheer.
"I've never seen them so excited for an educational opportunity..." Danny murmured under his breath, nor had he seen them so well-behaved. The Doctor had put a finger to his lips to quiet them and they'd immediately lowered the volume.
"Would you like to join us, Mrs. Arden?" Angel offered, not about to separate mother and daughter right now.
"Oh, um, no, that's quite alright," Mrs. Arden offered a slightly embarrassed smile, seeing the rest of the class and the two teachers behind. Miss Oswald had been right, her daughter had been safe and collected and she'd likely panicked for nothing. They were still on a school trip and she didn't want to disrupt that any more than she had, "I'll just…wait right here," she smiled, ushering Maebh into the box with her friends.
"Right then, coronal ejections, geomagnetic storms…" the Doctor began, turning to head to the console.
"We'll be right back," Angel promised the woman, closing the TARDIS doors to go help her Mate pilot.
It wasn't till a funny wheezing began and the box her daughter had entered began to disappear before her eyes that Mrs. Arden even noticed it was a tiny little police telephone box…that was bigger on the inside.
She blinked, staring at the spot now empty before her, honestly wondering if she'd taken one of Maebh's tablets by accident this morning...
~8~
It should have been a difficult thing to do, manage it so that all the students could see out the tiny doors of the TARDIS and watch the solar flare. But Clara had forgotten, for a moment, Angel's affinity with the TARDIS, how her daughter was following right in her mother's footsteps when it came to working the controls, and between the two…they'd shooed the Doctor away after he'd somehow turned the front doors into automatic sliding glass doors…they managed to get the box to widen the doors, and added a protective glass across the front so that the students could look out without fear of falling into space, which the teachers appreciated.
"That's really green," Bradley remarked, eyeing the ball that should have been more blue, with wide eyes.
"That's cos of all the trees," Ruby reminded him, eagerly looking out.
"Ooh!" Tailor called in excitement, "Here it comes, look!" she pointed off to the side with all the anticipation of a child at Christmas, at a streak of orange and yellow shooting across the black of space, burning brightly as it hit the earth…and curved, flowing around it. It looked a bit like a blowtorch heating up a marble for a moment.
"There goes the planet-sized airbag," the Doctor commented as he, too, watched the event, "That's the trees, harvesting the solar fire…"
"And there's the Earth," Angel smiled, as the flare tapered off, weakening and fizzling out, leaving a blue earth once more, the trees mostly gone, "Just fine, with all the indomitable humans still below."
"What's indomitable mean?" one of the boys asked.
"Impossible to defeat," Clara answered, a gentle smile on her face that grew even more when Danny, who had been standing beside her, silent, took her hand.
~8~
The Edwardian woman blinked as she watched the solar flare on her tablet, muttering to herself, "Now, that WAS surprising," she paused, considering the other surprises that had happened to throw a spanner in her plans, "I hate surprises."
~8~
The Doctor let out a long sigh as he stood on Clara's balcony later that evening, Angel and Tailor with him, Clara on the other side of his daughter, watching the odd sunset, pleased with how things had turned out. After the flare happened, as promised, they brought Maebh right back to Trafalgar Square, to her mother. Clara and Danny had denied their offer to return the children to their homes. After the flare, enough trees had disappeared with it that the roads were clear enough for Danny to man the bus that had been parked outside the museum to bring the kids to the school where the parents would collect them.
The Time Lords had hopped across the globe a handful of times, checking on the state of the trees in other areas, seeing they all appeared in a similar state. About half had disappeared, taken out by the flare, and the rest were slowly fading away.
By the time they made it back to Clara's flat, it was just in time for the sunset and to watch the rest of the trees vanish.
"That is amazing," Clara smiled, watching it, "How will they explain this tomorrow?"
"You think they'll even remember it?" Tailor gave her an amused look.
"You'll all forget it ever happened," the Doctor agreed.
"We are NOT going to forget an overnight forest," Clara argued.
"You did last time," Angel remarked, "According to the Here. This happened before, but it was so odd, so random, happened so fast and disappeared so suddenly, you thought you imagined it."
"You remembered the fear and you put it into fairy stories," the Doctor surmised, "It's a human superpower, forgetting. If you remembered how things felt, you'd have stopped having wars. And stopped having babies."
Angel moved a hand to her stomach at that word, just thinking about her own experience. It wasn't so much about forgetting the pain, for her, but the knowledge that something else, something so much more wonderful and precious, was well worth the pain. She looked over at Tailor and smiled at her daughter, yes, worth every last ounce of pain.
~8~
And just like that, all across the world, the trees disappeared.
~8~
Maebh beamed as she walked, hand in hand, with her mother, down the road the next day, pushing a bicycle with her other hand. Her smile began to fall slightly as an odd thought came to her. She paused and turned to look around, her attention moving to a hydrangea plant…to a face staring back at her from through the leaves.
"Mum…" Maebh breathed, tugging her mother's hand, dropping hold of her bike to point at the face.
The bush disappeared, leaving a little girl standing there behind it.
"Annabel!" Mrs. Arden gasped, running for the girl with Maebh, "My Annabel!"
Maebh launched herself at her sister, hugging her tightly, "I knew you'd be here. The thought of you came to me."
Annabel could only smile and tuck herself into their arms.
~8~
Angel smiled as she sat on the plush armchair of the console room, a plate of grapes with a side of ketchup resting on her lap. She had to chuckle at her taste, alien as ever apparently, and sighed. She had been worn out earlier, that long trek in the forest, the emotional whiplash of poor Maebh, the over-excitement of the children, it had been a lot to handle after the energy sapping she'd endured at the hands of the Boneless. She and the Doctor had gone to bed, as had Tailor retired to her room, but it was like her mind had settled for only an hour before something was telling her to get up. The Doctor had remained a sleep, surprisingly, though she'd had to move her pillow into his arms as he kept reaching for her in his sleep and she hadn't the hearts to wake him just because she was up. After his last incarnation had all those horrible nightmares, she tried to always let him sleep when he was soundly doing so. She'd thought, perhaps, she was just a bit hungry and gone to get a snack, until her feet led her to the console room instead of back to the bedroom.
She glanced over at the console, setting aside her half eaten plate, to stand and move over to it, absently rubbing the small of her back. For as comfortable as the chair looked, she always felt such a backache when she got up from it. Though, that could also be the result of the bedrest the Doctor kept trying to force her on.
She reached out almost without noticing and picked up the phone a split second before it began to ring, "Hello, Mr. Pink," she greeted, not needing to check who it was to know.
"Oh…um, hello, um, Mrs...Smith?" Danny's voice came over the line.
"You CAN call me Angel, Mr. Pink."
"Then, please, call me Danny," he seemed to sigh, "It's just…weird."
Angel chuckled, "What did you think of our little adventure today?" she asked, sensing that was why he had called but that he didn't know how to bring it up himself, not after how he'd reacted to the Blitzer.
"It was…different," he admitted, "Than what I expected."
"Less danger and running and being shot at?" she guessed.
He chuckled a little, "Among other things."
She nodded to herself, "It's hard to form an opinion of something when you only have one example to go on," she said wisely. She tilted her head a moment, considering what her intuition was telling her, "Harder still when other reports both contradict and support that first example, too, I'd imagine."
"…did they tell you I called them?" Danny asked after a moment, hesitant.
Angel could practically feel his mix of emotions through the phone. He sounded like he hadn't wanted her to know he'd actually called other members of the family, that he hadn't wanted her to know he'd checked in about them, or that he'd been interested to learn more about them. He also sounded a bit betrayed, like he'd asked them not to say and they'd told anyway.
Well, that wouldn't do to not trust the family.
"You know that saying people have, when their ear feels hot or rings a bit, and it means someone else is talking about them somewhere?"
"Yes?"
"For me it's a bit less of heat or a ringing and more of a tickle," she told him.
"You really are psychic, aren't you?"
"It appears so."
Danny sighed, "I didn't mean to pry..." he began.
"Sarah Jane gave you their numbers for exactly that reason," Angel laughed, "She wanted you to pry, to ask questions you didn't think you could ask me or the Doctor or Clara," she moved to lean on the console, "Were they helpful?"
He nearly scoffed, "Define helpful."
"Did they tell you what you wanted to know?"
"In a way," he said, "I…I wanted to know more about your adventures with them, and they told me…everything. All of it, good and bad, though it sounded a lot to me like most of it was bad. I mean, seriously? Robots trying to take over the world and mad space marbles slaughtering the population? Cannibal shadows and vampires? Space bats and killer pepper pots? It sounds horrific!"
"But?"
"But they sounded so happy," Danny spoke, "It was like, as bad as it got, they enjoyed it all. And doesn't that seem wrong? No one should ever enjoy having their life on the line."
Angel was quiet a moment, contemplating his words, "Were they happy about those dangers, or about their time in general?"
This time Danny was quiet for a long while, "Their time," he finally answered, "They didn't hold back how right frightened they were, how panicked or anything but…" he sighed, "They trust you. You and the Doctor, don't know about Tailor, she wasn't there for most of the stories I don't think…"
"Clara was the first to really travel with Tailor," Angel answered, Amy and Rory, bless them, only had a handful of trips.
"Yeah," Danny cleared his throat, "They just kept saying that, no matter how scared they were, they knew you two would help them, save them. You had to have done that. Not just cos they're clearly still alive, but…no one would believe it as much as they did if it hadn't already happened a bunch of times."
She nodded though he couldn't see it, "We do our best."
"I don't know how I'd feel," he admitted, "If Clara was in danger, and I couldn't help her. I don't know how I'd feel if it was you or the Doctor that did instead of me. Like…like I wasn't enough because..." he fell quiet a moment, "I wasn't enough."
Angel felt her hearts twinge at the pain in his voice for those last three words, "All we can do is our best, Danny," she repeated, "And it doesn't always work."
"And it's not always dangerous, isn't it?" he asked, and Angel got the feeling that THIS was what had driven him to call and talk, "Clara told me, everyone told me, about all the dangerous things that happen. They focused on that a lot. And I get it, if anyone's gonna travel with you lot, they should know what they're signing up for. And yeah, there were a couple light things that came up, but…it happens more than they made it out to be, doesn't it?"
Angel laughed, "Not everything is as dangerous as a Blitzer," she agreed, "We don't set out to find only dangerous trips, I can promise you that. We never have, not in the past, and certainly not now that our daughter is with us. Sometimes things happen, things escalate, and all we can do is try to keep it getting worse."
"I just…I don't know if it makes it better or worse that it's not all danger and running," he continued, "If Clara's not in danger, then…then there's no reason to feel bad. But if she is…"
Angel nodded, "Not even I can know which way a trip will turn, there's really no way to KNOW which will be absolutely safe or not. As much as I'd like to, I can't see everything."
"I was sort of afraid you'd say that," Danny admitted.
Angel could understand his conflict. On the one hand, the fact that he even called meant he was, on some level, considering travelling with them as she'd offered. On the other hand, he could not handle Clara being in danger with his fear of failing her. And if there was no way to tell…there was no way to travel. And he didn't know if he felt relieved to have that excuse or let down in himself that he couldn't push past it.
"There's no pressure, Danny," she spoke, "I invited you because I thought it might help you understand, things about us, about Clara, about yourself. But it doesn't mean you HAVE to go if you don't want to, if you're not ready to. You wouldn't be the first to say no. No one would ever think less of you for that, not me or Clara or any of the family. They understand, probably better than you give them credit for."
"Yeah."
"Talk to Clara," she offered, "Ask her about the calm trips. Ask her about the things she's learned to keep herself safe with. And then take time to ask yourself if you might be putting unnecessary pressure on yourself, if you really need to keep Clara safe as much as you think you do," she chuckled, "She's quite brilliant in her own right."
"She is," Danny agreed, "And I will. Thanks."
"Of course," she nodded, "Have a good night."
"You as well. Bye."
Angel turned and placed the phone down, looking up when the box hummed above her, before she reached out to pat the rotor, "I know, Sissy. All these men in our lives, putting so much pressure on themselves to keep us safe. We women are perfectly capable of saving ourselves."
The TARDIS could only hum in agreement.
A/N: A large part of Danny's personality, I think, came from his mistake during the war with that poor little boy. His guilt over it, being a teacher to children, protecting them as a way to make up for it, it's weighed on him SO much. And I think part of him sees too much of himself in the Doctor's soldier-qualities. But there's also a bit of jealousy, something he doesn't want to confront.
The Doctor is a 'soldier' but unlike Danny (from what Danny sees) the Doctor actually does manage to save lives. Danny joined the army to keep people safe, and accidentally killed a child. He sees the Doctor running about and barking orders to keep people safe and managing to DO it. He sort of sees a constant reminder of his failure in the Doctor's success. With the Blitzer, there was this monster that would kill the children, and not only did Danny not realize it, he had no idea how to stop it. It's a hard thing to face for a soldier, I'd imagine, to be powerless to protect. And then there's the Doctor, who DID know, who discovered the danger and neutralized it, and succeeded in keeping the kids safe. That the Doctor has succeeded in keeping Clara safe, on adventures Danny didn't even know were happening, which is just like with the Blitzer.
And now he finds out, it's not always dangerous. It's not always running and being shot at, it can be calm and enchanting. And...he WANTS to experience it with Clara, but to not know which trip will be calm or dangerous? Feeling like he can't handle it if it would be dangerous, because if he failed Clara he would not come back from that? And then to have that excuse to not travel, and still feel like he's failed, because he's a soldier and he should be able to push himself to get past this and do his duty, and he can't :(
I feel like he needed that little talk with Angel, that reassurance that no matter what he chose to do, he wouldn't be looked down on for it, he wouldn't be met with anger or disappointment, but understanding. She took the pressure off him and, I think, tried to help hint that he might be putting more pressure on himself in other areas that didn't need quite so much of it on him. There are still quite a few revelations for Danny to have going forward, but I like to think he's made steps in a good direction ;)
As for the kids, I know in the episode, the kids wanted to go home and were not in space to watch the flare, but to me it seemed to happen more because they thought the flare was going to kill everyone and, even after finding out it wouldn't, that fear was still there and they still wanted that parental comfort. Here, they were reassured earlier that everything was fine, between Angel speaking to the Here and her own intuition, no one was in danger, and, therefore, they were more excited to see it happen than wanting to go home ;)
And we've made it to the next 100 reviews! Which means...sneak peek time! :D Since I'm not sure we'll make it to the next 100 before the story is over, I think I can give a tiny bit of a bigger spoiler in this peek ;)
~8~
Kate glanced at something just over Missy's shoulder, "I want that woman contained."
"It would be my genuine pleasure," an American voice said and Missy was jerked back, off to the side, trapped in the iron grasp of a man in a WWII jacket.
"Jack!" Angel beamed at the man as he smiled widely back at her.
"Angie," he winked, "Doc."
"Captain," the Doctor greeted with a chuckle, "Odd place to find Torchwood, middle of a UNIT investigation."
He shrugged, "We've been working together a little more lately. Heard a story about how you nearly died for real, thought we better step up our game."
~8~
JACK! :D I was SO tempted to have him be part of the Blitzer episode instead of Sarah Jane, or to show up in this episode because there's no way a forest springing up over night wouldn't alert UNIT or Torchwood, but then I thought, given Jack's history with the Master, this would be a better fit for him. HE of all people would notice something going on related to death and possible alien invasions ;) We may or may not see the rest of the team, but at least we know Jack will be there ;)
Some notes on reviews...
I'm so glad you've enjoyed the stories enough to reread them :') The plagiarism definitely hurts and never feels good and as much as I wish it would stop happening, I live more in that sort of expectant fear that 'today I'll open my messages and another person plagiarized me' :( It's sort of become more of a 'when' it happens again instead of an 'if' it happens again and it really stinks to feel that way :( I don't blame anyone who read my work and the other work, it did begin originally, as many do, and then took small parts, then moved on to taking larger parts :( It's harder to identify plagiarism when it starts originally because, I think, we're set to think the rest is original if it starts original, and the fact that the other works were paraphrasing and not directly copy/pasting my content makes it even harder to notice. Side by side, it's very obvious, but on its own, most would think it's just the author's own content. It was why I looked most closely at original things that did not come from the episode or transcript when I went to investigate, the argument between Rose and the Doctor was what tipped off the person who alerted me about it, and I figured if that was taken other original content might have been too, and sadly I was right :( I won't lie and say I don't find my self discouraged to continue to write. It always happens with each plagiarism though. I can usually push through it, but it's harder to do that when more than one story is taken and 9 were so I'm having a harder time at the moment :( I sort of just keep editing and writing, even if my heart isn't in it as much as it should be, until I can get to that point where my heart comes back and then I go back and try to re-edit and make things better. I haven't quite gotten to that point yet, so this chapter may be less than I wanted it to be before all this happened :( I feel like it's a sort of 'fake it till you make it' phase for me after it happens :( I really do thank you though, you and all my readers who have reached out with kind words and support. You guys are why I keep trying to push through, because you are all amazing people who deserve the best I can give you. Thank you again :')
Oh I do not find it embarrassing at all, I am right there with you ;) I've wanted them to have a second child forever! Especially because of all the missed opportunities when it came to Tailor growing and being born, all that adorable paternal and Matey goodness of the Doctor just tripping over himself because 'Angel's pregnant! I need to baby proof the TARDIS!' and Angel walking in to see bubble wrap covering every available surface lol :) It would definitely also be a healing moment for the Doctor, to be able to experience everything he couldn't and to prove to himself and his subconscious that 'yes, I CAN keep my Mate and child safe!' sort of thing. If he could just get through a pregnancy and have it be 'normal' (as normal as an alien Time Lord pregnancy could be lol) I think it would do wonders for his mind and hearts and soul. It made perfect sense to me ;) We'll just have to wait and see ;)