AN: Hello my dear friends! How are we all doing? I hope life isn't getting you down too much at the moment.
I hope you enjoy this chapter - and that you're looking forward to what's coming next! Even if, like me, Doomsday always makes you cry a bit.
Much love,
Azzie xx
Chapter 12: Fear Her
"Ah."
"What's wrong?"
The Doctor glanced over his shoulder at his girls. Eris had a knowing look on her face, but Rose just looked a little confused.
"Nothing major, just a slight… calibration fault. Hold on."
He closed the doors before she could see that he'd landed them with no way of getting out of the ship. Returning to the console - and with Eris' help - he managed to turn the Tardis by ninety degrees and land in exactly the same spot, at exactly the same time.
"That's better!" He grinned, walking out to the construction yard with his hands shoved in his pockets.
Rose looked around, and her eye caught on a large poster proclaiming: Shane Ward, Greatest Hits!
"So, near future, yeah?"
He smirked.
"I had a passing fancy. Only it didn't pass, it stopped."
The nearest residential area was a place called Dame Kelly Holmes Close, and it was clear to see what the Doctor had been aiming for from the moment they got to the entrance.
"Thirtieth Olympiad."
A large banner for the London 2012 Olympics fluttered lightly in the breeze.
Rose grinned, linking an arm with his. "No way! Why didn't I think of this? That's great."
"Only seems like yesterday a few naked Greek blokes were tossing a discus about, wrestling each other in the sand with crowds stood around baying. No, wait a minute, that was Club Med." He laughed at his own joke, laughing harder at the eye roll both girls gave him.
"Just in time for the opening doo dah, ceremony, tonight, I thought you'd like that. Last one they had in London was dynamite. Wembley, 1948. I loved it so much, I went back and watched it all over again. Fella carrying the torch. Lovely chap, what was his…"
But neither of his companions were listening to him any more. They'd both seen a rather upset looking man sticking posters to all the lampposts in the street, and went to check one out. The Doctor was still rambling.
"Mark? John? Mark? Legs like pipe cleaners, but strong as a whippet."
"Doctor."
"And in those days, everybody had a tea party to go to."
"Dad!"
Finally spotting them, he walked over, still talking about the tea parties.
"Did you ever have one of those little cakes with the crunchy ball bearings on top? Do you know those things? Nobody else in this entire galaxy's ever even bothered to make edible ball bearings. Genius."
A glare from Rose got him to pay attention. It was a missing children's poster for a boy named Dale Hicks. Above his, was a poster of a little girl. And further down the brick wall they could see yet another poster with the word 'Missing' in bright red letters at the top.
"What's taking them, do you think? Snatching children from a thoroughly ordinary street like this. Why's it so cold? Is someone reducing the temperature?"
"It says they all went missing this week. Why would a person do something like this?" Rose shook her head.
The Doctor's look darkened a little. "What makes you think it's a person?"
Around them, the street was almost entirely empty except for a few road workers and their van.
"Whatever it is, it's got the whole street scared to death. Doctor, what-"
But he'd already run off to investigate a garden.
Before they could join him, they were distracted by the sputtering engine of a Mini. One of the road workers had gone over to help him.
"There you go. Fifth today. Not natural, is it?"
The driver shrugged. "I don't know what happened, I had it serviced less than a month ago."
"Nah, don't even try and explain it, mate. All the cars are doing it. And do you know what? It's bonkers. Bonkers. Come on then, pal. I'll help you shift it. Quicker you're on the way, happier you'll be."
The two men started pushing the car, with little success.
Eris and Rose moved to help them.
"Do you want a hand?"
The road worker's name badge said Kel. "No, we're all right, love."
Rose snorted. "You're not. I'm tougher than I look, honest."
And they both joined in, pushing the car much further and more efficiently than the boys had been, until the engine burst into life again. The driver said thanks and drove away.
"Does this happen a lot?" Rose asked.
"Been doing it all week."
Eris hummed thoughtfully. "Since those children started going missing?"
He thought for a second.
"Yeah, I suppose so."
The Doctor was currently blissfully unaware that the owner of the garden he was currently crouched in was watching him, arms crossed. He held his hand out over a patch of grass and giggled.
"Ooo, tickles!"
Unable to put up with it any longer, the man grabbed his shoulder.
"What's your game?"
He turned to look up at him. "My er... Snakes and Ladders? Quite good at squash. Reasonable. I'm being facetious, aren't I? There's no call for it."
Kel, Rose and Eris were strolling down the close. The girls were listening to Kel's take on things.
"Every car cuts out. The council are going nuts. I mean, they've given this street the works. Renamed it. I've been tarmacking every pot hole. Look at that. Beauty, init? Yeah! And all that is because that Olympic Torch comes right by the end of this Close. Just down there. Everything's got to be perfect, ain't it? Only it ain't."
An old woman approached them. "It takes them when they're playing."
"What takes them?" Eris frowned, alarmed at the use of 'it'.
"Danny, Jane, Dale. Snatched in the blink of an eye."
The Doctor was backing into the road.
"I'm, I'm a police officer! That's what I am. I've got a badge and a police car. You don't have to get- I can, I can prove it. Just hold on."
He tried to find the psychic paper in his pockets as the man sneered.
"We've had plenty of coppers poking around here, and you don't look or sound like any of them."
"See, look. I've got a colleagues. Lewis and Stewart."
Rose and Eris had caught up with them, smiling politely at the man so as not to anger him further.
"Lewis?" He glanced over at Rose. "She looks less like a copper than you do."
The Doctor shrugged, finally setting his hands on the paper.
"Training. New recruit. It was either that or hairdressing, so, voila!"
A couple of other people had joined them - a youngish woman with blonde hair and a slightly older black woman. She started asking questions first.
"What are you going to do?"
The old woman shook her head. "The police have knocked on every door. No clues, no leads, nothing."
"Look, kids run off sometimes, all right? That's what they do." The man - clearly a father of one of the missing children - seemed to be trying to convince himself more than anyone else.
"Saw it with me own eyes. Dale Hicks in your garden, playing with your Tommy, and then pfft! Right in front of me, like he was never there. There's no need to look any further than this street. It's right here amongst us."
The Doctor tried to step in.
"Why don't we-"
"Why don't we start with him?" The blonde interrupted, pointing an accusatory finger at Kel.
"There's been all sorts like him in this street, day and night."
Kel looked hurt. "Fixing things up for the Olympics."
"Yeah, and taking an awful long time about it."
A little desperate now, the Doctor tried again.
"I'm of the opinion that all we've got to do is just-"
"You don't. What you just said, that's slander!"
"I don't care what it is."
"I want an apology off her."
The old woman stepped in. "Stop picking on him."
"Yeah, stop picking on me."
"And stop pretending to be blind. It's evil!"
The woman scoffed. "I don't believe in evil."
Kel huffed. "Oh no, you just believe in tarmackers with sack loads of kidnapped kiddies in their van."
The man looked a little alarmed at that statement, and backtracked.
"Here, here, here, that's not what she's saying."
"Would you stop ganging up on me?"
"Feeling guilty, are we?" She crowed, and the Doctor had had enough.
"Fingers on lips!"
Shocked, everyone followed his lead and rested a finger against their lips in the universal shush gesture - even Rose, after a little encouragement. This gave him the chance to speak, and actually be heard.
"In the last six days, three of your children have been stolen. Snatched out of thin air, right?"
The old woman raised her hand. "Er, can I? Look around you. This was a safe street till it came. It's not a person. I'll say it if no one else will. Maybe you're coppers, maybe you're not. I don't care who you are. Can you please help us?"
As the Doctor sniffed about in the garden of the house he'd been loitering at before, Rose and Eris stood out of his way. They had both seen the silhouette of a young girl in one of the windows, but neither had mentioned it so far - it was probably just a kid that got curious about what all the chatter in the road was about. Rose looked a little put off as the Doctor sniffed deeply.
"Want a hanky?"
"Can you smell it? What does it remind you of?"
They got closer, and both girls wrinkled their noses as it hit them.
"Sort of metal?"
Eris looked a little nauseous. "Definitely metallic."
The Doctor stood up, and led them down an alleyway between two lots of back gardens.
"Danny Edwards cycled in one end but never came out the other. Whoa, there it goes again! Look at the hairs on the back of my manly hairy hand."
Rose nodded. "And there's that smell. It's like a er, a burnt fuse plug or something."
"There's a residual energy in the spots where the kids vanished. Whatever it was, it used an awful lot of power to do this."
Back on Dame Kelly Holmes Close, Rose spotted a ginger tom weaving it's way gracefully between the bushes.
"Aren't you a beautiful boy?"
The Doctor preened a little, touching his hair lightly.
"Thanks! I'm experimenting with back combing." Then, he noticed. "Oh."
Next to him, Eris doubled over laughing, tears streaming down her cheeks at the look of consternation and disgust on her dad's face.
"I used to have one like you." Rose saw his reaction. "What?"
"No, I'm not really a cat person. Once you've been threatened by one in a nun's wimple, it kind of takes the joy out of it."
Calming down a little, Eris pulled a face too.
"Sorry Rose, I'm not big on cats either. Got chased by some very carnivorous ones once, and it's definitely spoiled the appeal for me."
The cat, ignoring them, slunk inside an overturned cardboard box. Rose followed it, cooing.
"Come here, puss. What do you want to go in there for?"
But when she got to the box, it was completely empty - and the smell coming from it was horrific.
"Doctor! Phew."
They joined her, both recoiling at the strength of the odour.
"Whoa! Hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo. Ion residue. Blimey! That takes some doing. Just to snatch a living organism out of space-time. This baby is just like, I'm having some of that. I'm impressed."
Rose looked up and down the street. "So the cat's been transported?"
"It can harness huge reserves of ionic power. We need to find the source of that power. Find the source and you will find whatever has taken to stealing children and fluffy animals. See what you can see. Keep them peeled, Lewis."
While the Doctor took the front, Rose and Eris went for the back end of the close, walking between a long line of garages. A noise from one of them caught Rose's attention, but Eris didn't seem to have noticed.
"Is that you, puss cat? Are you trapped?" There were more noises and a lot more thumping, and her heart sank a little as she approached. "Not going to open it, not going to open it, not going to open it…"
Deciding to do it anyway, she gently pulled at the door and opened it, seconds before being knocked to the ground by a large whirling ball of greyish squiggles. She yelped in surprise and the next thing she knew, there was a blur of movement and Eris slammed down on the ground beside her, struggling to hold onto the thing as it fought back against her.
The Doctor came running, aiming the sonic screwdriver at the ball.
"Stay still!"
He used it and the ball shrunk down to the size of a small tennis ball. Which would have been perfect, had Eris not been using her chest to press it down. Her chin slammed down onto the concrete and she swore, rolling onto her back and rubbing at her jaw. Rose picked the ball up and got to her feet, helping Eris up with her. The Doctor checked them both over.
"Okey dokey?"
"Yeah, cheers."
Eris grimaced. "Sore, but nothing broken. I'll be fine."
"No problem. I'll give you a fiver if you can tell me what the hell it is though, because I haven't got the foggiest." He tossed the little ball up and down.
"Well, I can tell you you've just killed it." Rose poked at it.
"It was never living. It's animated by energy. Same energy that's snatching people. That is so dinky! The go anywhere creature. Fits in your pocket, makes friends, impresses the boss, breaks the ice at parties."
Back in the Tardis, the mysterious ball was resting snugly in the detection port on the console, while the scanner got to work. It chirped a couple of times, and the Doctor put his glasses on.
"Oh, hello, here we go. Let's have a look."
He and Eris squinted at the screen, with the latter trying to spell out the results.
"I'm not quite sure what that bit says. But this part… G. R. A. P. H-"
She was cut off by a gasp of shock from the Doctor.
"Get out of here."
Not entirely sure what was happening, Rose frowned at her friends.
"What's it say?"
Rummaging in his pockets for a moment, the Doctor pulled out a pencil with a rubber on the end, and tentatively rubbed at the ball. Some of it disappeared.
"It is. It's graphite. Basically the same material as an HB pencil."
Rose snorted, incredulous. "I was attacked by a pencil scribble?"
"Scribble creature, brought into being with ionic energy. Whatever we're dealing with, it can create things as well as take them. But why make a scribble creature?"
"Maybe it was a mistake. I mean, you scribble over something when you want to get rid of it, like a, like a drawing. Like a... a child's drawing." Something hit her. "You said it was in the street."
"Probably."
"The girl."
"Of course! What girl?"
Eris thought back to the houses on the street, and remembered.
"There was a girl in one of the windows, are you thinking about her?"
Rose nodded. "Something about her gave me the creeps. Even her own mum looked scared of her."
The Doctor couldn't hold back his grin. "Are you deducting?"
"I think I am."
"Copper's hunch?"
Giggling a little, Rose put on a Cockney accent.
"Permission to follow it up, Sarge?"
After checking that this one was definitely the right house - they'd already visited two, and been very embarrassed to realise they were at the wrong ones - the girls made the Doctor knock on the door. He rang the doorbell a few times, and rattled at the letterbox before the woman answered the door.
"Hello. I'm the Doctor and this is Rose. Can we see your daughter?"
"No, you can't."
He shrugged, and turned to walk away. "Okay. Bye."
Before he could get to the end of the garden path, the woman called to him.
"Why? Why do you want to see Chloe?"
"Well, there's some interesting stuff going on in this street, and I just thought. Well, we thought, that she might like to give us a hand."
Eris smiled kindly. "Sorry to bother you."
"Yeah, sorry. We'll let you get on with things. On your own. Bye again."
The three of them had just got onto the pavement again when she shouted back to them.
"Wait! Can you help her?"
"Yes, I can."
Letting them into her home, the woman - Trish - sighed.
"She stays in her room most of the time. I try talking to her, but it's like trying to speak to a brick wall. She gives me nothing, just asks to be left alone."
Rose perched on the arm of the sofa.
"What about Chloe's dad?"
Something changed on Trish's face, and both Eris and the Doctor noticed. It was definitely grief, but there was something else in there too - relief, maybe some guilt.
"Chloe's dad died a year ago."
"I'm sorry."
She sniffed. "You wouldn't be if you'd known him."
The Doctor clapped his hands together. "Well, let's go and say hi."
"I should check on her first. She might be asleep." And Trish glanced nervously up the stairs.
"Why are you afraid of her, Trish?"
"I want you to know before you see her that she's really a great kid."
Eris smiled reassuringly. "I'm sure she is."
"She's never been in trouble at school. You should see her report from last year. A's and B's."
"Impressive!"
Rose interrupted. "Can I use your loo?"
Trish nodded, and directed her up the stairs before continuing.
"She's in the choir. She's singing in an old folks home. Any mum would be proud. You know I want you to know these things before you see her, Doctor, because right now… she's not herself."
Upstairs, Rose hid herself in the airing cupboard as Chloe left her bedroom, heading towards the stairs. Once she was sure that the girl was downstairs, she crept into her bedroom. It was fairly normal, aside from the wall behind her bed - it was plastered with sheets of paper, covered in drawings. Most of them were people, with a few animals thrown in here and there too. The desk, bed and floor were littered with papers too, and she picked up the nearest one. It was a drawing of a sad looking little boy in a Union flag T-shirt, and a ginger cat that looked suspiciously like the one that had disappeared into the box a little while earlier. As she stepped backwards she knocked against the desk and sent a jar of coloured pencils flying to the ground. She stooped to pick them up, and set them back where they had been before looking at the picture again. Her heart stopped as she did so - because now, the little boy was scowling.
Conversation stopped as Chloe entered the kitchen, making a beeline for the fridge and getting herself a drink of milk. The Doctor waved cheerily.
"Alright, there? I'm the Doctor, and this is Eris."
"I'm Chloe Webber."
"How're you doing, Chloe Webber?"
"I'm busy. I'm making something, aren't I, mum?"
Trish took the opportunity to express more of her concerns.
"And like I said, she's not been sleeping."
Spotting the telltale streaks of coloured pencil on her hands and sleeves, the Doctor smiled.
"But you've been drawing, though. I'm rubbish. Eris is pretty good, but stick men are about my limit. Can do this, though."
He held his hand up in the Vulcan salute. "Can you do that?"
Chloe didn't look impressed, and pulled a face.
"They don't stop moaning."
Trish frowned down at her daughter. "Chloe."
"I try to help them, but they don't stop moaning."
Eris tilted her head to one side a little. "Who don't?"
"We can be together."
"Sweetheart." Trish tried to reach out a hand, but Chloe stepped out of reach.
"Don't touch me, mum."
Exchanging looks with her dad, Eris pressed on.
"Can you tell us what you're working on, Chloe."
"I'm busy."
The Doctor tried cajoling her a little more.
"Come on, Chloe. Don't be a spoilsport. What's the big project? I'm dying to know. What're you making up there?"
A sudden scream from upstairs interrupted them - it was Rose!
"Doctor!"
He was the first one to get there, closely followed by Eris, and they both put themselves between her and the wardrobe as the thing inside growled.
"I'm coming to hurt you."
The Doctor shoved the doors closed as Rose pointed shakily at it.
"Look at it."
Eris led her away. "I'd rather not, thanks."
Trish joined them, Chloe by her side. "What the hell was that?"
Rose's breathing was still a little erratic as she answered.
"A drawing. The face of a man."
"What face?" She started forwards as if to open the wardrobe.
"Best not."
"Chloe, what've you been drawing?"
The girl seemed apathetic. "I drew him yesterday."
"Who?"
"Dad."
"Your dad? But he's long gone. Chloe, with all the lovely things in the world, why him?"
"I dream about him, staring at me."
"I thought we were putting him behind us. What's the matter with you?"
"We need to stay together."
Trish tried to put an arm around her. "Yes, we do."
But Chloe pulled away.
"No. Not you, us. We need to stay together, and then it'll be alright."
A little wary, Rose brought up the subject they were all avoiding.
"Trish, the drawings. Have you seen what Chloe's drawings can do?"
Eyes flashing angrily, Trish crossed her arms.
"Who gave you permission to come into her room? Get out of my house."
Eris looked up from a pile of papers on Chloe's desk.
"Tell us about the drawings, Chloe."
"I don't want to hear any more of this."
Rose was doing her best not to shout at the woman.
"But that drawing of her dad. I heard a voice. He spoke."
"He's dead. And these, they're kid's pictures. Now get out!"
"Chloe has a power. And I don't know how, but she used it to take Danny Edwards, Dale Hicks. She's using it to snatch the kids."
"Get out."
"Have you seen those drawings move?"
A pause. "I haven't seen anything."
The Doctor turned, sensing her dishonesty.
"Yes, you have, out of the corner of your eye."
"No."
"And you dismissed it, because what choice do you have when you see something you can't possibly explain? You dismiss it, right? And if anyone mentions it, you get angry, so it's never spoken of, ever again."
Trish sounded less angry now, just defeated. "She's a child."
He stepped towards her. "You're terrified of her. But there's nowhere to turn to, because who's going to believe the things you see out of the corner of your eye? No one. Except me."
"Who are you?"
"I'm help."
With tensions still running a little high, they had moved down to the kitchen. Naturally, the Doctor put his foot in it once again by swiping a jar of marmalade from the counter and opening it, dipping two fingers in and licking them clean. Rose cleared her throat at the same time as Eris stamped on his foot, and he realised what he was doing. He put the jar back down, and Rose got the conversation back on track.
"Those pictures, they're alive. She's drawing people and they end up in her pictures."
He nodded. "Ionic energy. Chloe's harnessing it to steal those kids and place them in some kind of holding pen made up of ionic power."
"And what about the dad from hell in her wardrobe?"
Trish groaned. "How many times do I have to tell you, he's dead!"
"Well, he's got a very loud voice for a dead bloke."
The Doctor hummed thoughtfully. "If living things can become drawings, then maybe drawings can become living things." He shuddered. "Chloe's real dad is dead, but not the one who visits her in her nightmares. That dad seems very real. That's the dad she's drawn and he's a heartbeat away from crashing into this world."
Looking down, Trish muttered. "She always got the worst of it when he was alive."
"Doctor, how can a twelve year old girl be doing any of this?" Rose asked, glancing up at the ceiling as she did so.
He shrugged. "Let's find out."
Knocking twice, the Doctor didn't wait for a response before leading the way into Chloe's bedroom. She was sat cross legged on her bed, and at the sight of him showed the same gesture that he'd demonstrated a short while ago.
"Nice one." He grinned, before resting two fingers on her temples and settling her gently back against the covers. "There we go."
Trish stood with Rose in the doorway. "I can't let him do this"
"Shush, it's okay. Trust him."
As Eris joined her dad next to Chloe, he started to speak again.
"Now we can talk."
The voice that answered wasn't Chloe's - it was little more than a harsh whisper.
"I want Chloe. Wake her up. I want Chloe."
"Who are you?"
"I want Chloe Webber."
Trish started to sob. "What've you done to my little girl?"
"I'm speaking to you, the entity that is using this human child. I request parley in compliance with the Shadow Proclamation."
The thing inside Chloe spat. "I don't care about shadows or parleys."
Eris' interrogation tactic was to keep her voice as calm and friendly as possible.
"So what do you care about?"
"I want my friends."
"You're lonely, I know. Identify yourself, please."
"I am one of many. I travel with my brothers and sisters. We take an endless journey. A thousand of your lifetimes. But now I am alone. I hate it. It's not fair, and I hate it."
The Doctor snapped, losing his temper a little. "Name yourself!"
"Isolus."
There was a pause, and he sat back a little, calming himself.
"You're Isolus. Of course."
Chloe picked up a pencil and began to draw quickly on a piece of paper next to her.
"Our journey began in the Deep Realms when we were a family."
Craning her neck to look at the image, Trish frowned. It was some sort of flower.
"What's that?"
The Doctor watched the girl's hand speed across the page.
"The Isolus Mother, drifting in deep space. See, she jettisons millions of fledgling spores. Her children. The Isolus are empathic beings of intense emotions, but when they're cast off from their mother, their empathic link, their need for each other, is what sustains them. They need to be together. They cannot be alone."
"Our journey is long."
"The Isolus children travel, each inside a pod. They ride the heat and energy of solar tides. It takes thousands and thousands of years for them to grow up."
Rose couldn't help but feel sorry for the alien.
"Thousands of years just floating through space. Poor things. Don't they go mad with boredom?"
Chloe shrugged. "We play."
"You play?"
The Doctor understood. "While they travel, they play games. They use their ionic power to literally create make-believe worlds in which to play."
Eris smiled. "In flight entertainment."
"Helps keep them happy. While they're happy, they can feed off each others love. Without it, they're lost. Why did you come to Earth?"
This time, the voice was a little angrier, and it started a new drawing - this one of a glowing ball.
"We were too close."
"That's a solar flare from your sun. Would have made a tidal wave of solar energy that scattered the Isolus pods."
"Only I fell to Earth. My brothers and sisters are left up there, and I cannot reach them. So alone."
"Your pod crashed. Where is it?"
"My pod was drawn to heat, and I was drawn to Chloe Webber. She was like me, alone. She needed me, and I her."
Eris reached down to hold Chloe's hand.
"You empathised with her. You wanted to be with her because she was alone like you."
"I want my family. It's not fair."
The Doctor nodded. "I understand. You want to make a family. But you can't stay in this child. It's wrong. You can't steal any more friends for yourself."
"I am alone."
A sudden crash from the wardrobe startled them all, and a red glow shone underneath the doors. Chloe started to shake. The voice of a man started to snarl.
"I'm coming to hurt you. I'm coming."
The Doctor stood.
"Trish, how do you calm her?"
"What?" She hadn't been expecting the question.
"When she has nightmares, what do you do?"
"I, I-"
"What do you do?"
"I sing to her."
"Then start singing."
The picture of Chloe's dad growled again. "Chloe, I'm coming."
Trish sat by her daughter's side, singing softly.
"Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree. Merry, merry king of the bush is he-"
"Chloe. Chloe. Chloe. Chloe."
"Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra, gay your life must be. Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra, gay your life must be."
Another voice joined hers as she started the little rhyme again. A soft, low alto that seemed to wrap around the two of them like a blanket. She glanced up to see Eris, standing in front of the wardrobe, singing the familiar words with them.
Finally, the voice from the wardrobe became silent, and Chloe's tremors stopped. Trish pulled her daughter into a hug, not noticing the Doctor do the same to Eris.
"He came to her because she was lonely. Chloe, I'm sorry."
Down in the living room, they had managed to get all the pencils that they could find in Chloe's room and hide them, just in case she felt the urge to draw again once she woke up.
Trish was a little less weepy than she had been a few minutes ago, but was still clearly upset.
"Chloe usually got the brunt of his temper when he'd had a drink. The day he crashed the car, I thought we were free. I thought it was over."
Rose gave her a sympathetic smile. "Did you talk to her about it?"
"I didn't want to."
Eris rested a hand on the woman's shoulder.
"Have you considered that maybe that's why Chloe feels so alone? Because she has all these terrible dreams about her dad, but she feels like she can't talk to you about them."
Leaning against the wall, the Doctor looked like he had something on his mind.
"Her and the Isolus. Two lonely kids who need each other."
"And it won't stop, will it, Doctor? It'll just keep pulling kids in." Rose joined him.
"It's desperate to be loved. It's used to having a pretty big family."
"How big?"
"Say around four billion?"
The silence that followed was almost deafening.
Leaving Trish with instructions to keep an eye on her daughter, the three of them left the house and headed back to the Tardis. The Doctor explained his plan.
"We need that pod."
"It crashed. Won't it be destroyed?" Rose wondered.
"Well, it's been sucking in all the heat it can. Hopefully that should keep it in a fit state to launch. It must be close. It should have a weak energy signature that the Tardis can trace. Once we find it, then we can stop the Isolus."
Eris frowned. "How can we trace it though? We don't know what sort of signal it'll be giving off."
"We can scan for the same trace that I picked up from the scribble creature. We'd need to widen the field a bit."
They reached the Tardis and slipped inside, none of them realising that Chloe had followed them there and was watching from behind a nearby fence.
Rose watched as the Doctor started constructing some kind of gadget, helped every now and then by a hand from Eris as she passed bits of circuitry up from underneath the Tardis console.
"You knew the Isolus was lonely before it told you. How?"
He shrugged. "I know what it's like to travel a long way on your own. Give me the styner-magnetic... The thing in your left hand."
She passed it over. "Sounds like you're on its side."
"I sympathise, that's all."
"The Isolus has caused a lot of pain for these people."
"It's a child. That's why it went to Chloe. Two lonely mixed up kids."
She snorted. "Feels to me like a temper tantrum because it can't get its own way."
Wriggling her way out from under the console, Eris raised an eyebrow at her.
"It's scared. Come on, you were a kid once."
The Doctor agreed, before nodding at Rose's hand. "Binary dot."
"Yes, and I know what kids can be like. Right little... terrors."
"Gum."
"Dad, that's disgusting." Eris wrinkled her nose up as the Doctor squished Rose's used chewing gum into the top of the device.
Rose kept talking. "I've got cousins. Kids can't have it all their own way. That's part of being a family."
"What about trying to understand them?"
"Easy for you to say. You don't have kids. Well, actual kids - Eris doesn't count."
The brunette huffed jokingly. "Oh, thanks."
The Doctor commented absentmindedly, "I was a dad once."
Rose's jaw dropped.
"What did you say?"
Ignoring her second question, he checked the finished gizmo over, turning it this way and that.
"I think we're there. Fear, loneliness. They're the big ones, Rose. Some of the most terrible acts ever committed have been inspired by them. We're not dealing with something that wants to conquer or destroy. There's a lot of things you need to get across this universe. Warp drive, wormhole refractors. You know the thing you need most of all? You need a hand to hold."
He looked up to see Rose holding her hand out to him, and he took it, grinning. She directed his hand to the scanner with a laugh.
"No, Look, I'm pointing."
"It's the pod! It is in the street. Everything's coming up Doctor."
The three of them left the Tardis, Rose taking the lead as Eris told her what to look for.
"Okay. It's about two inches across. Dull grey, like a gull's egg. Very light."
"So these pods, they travel from sun to sun using heat, yeah? So it's not all about love and stuff. Doesn't the pod just need heat?"
Behind her there was a crash, and Rose turned to see the smashed gadget on the ground - and no sign of the Doctor, Eris, or the Tardis.
"Doctor? Doctor!"
Realising what had happened, she broke into a run.
Making it back to the Webber house, Rose pounded on the door and didn't even stop to let Trish open it completely before shoving her way past. As she ran up the stairs, she ignored Trish's shout.
"It's okay. I've taken all the pencils off her."
Rose burst through the girl's bedroom door and snatched the piece of paper she was using from her hands, almost sobbing at the sight of the Doctor and Eris on the page. The quality of the drawing was excellent, as all of Chloe's drawings were.
Chloe's voice was once again the whispered snarl of the Isolus.
"Leave me alone. I want to be with Chloe Webber. I love Chloe Webber."
"Bring him back, now."
"No."
Rose's voice was practically a shriek now.
"Don't you realise what you've done? He was the only one who could help you. Now bring him back!"
"Leave me alone! I love Chloe Webber!"
She took a deep breath, and calmed herself down. It would do no good to frighten the poor girl too much - it was hardly her fault.
"I know. I know. Doctor, if you can hear me, I'm going to get you out of there. I'll find the pod." She turned to Trish where she stood in the doorway of her daughter's bedroom. "Don't leave her alone, no matter what."
Out in the street, Rose was looking this way and that, trying to find anything that might be relevant. "Heat. They travel on heat." She muttered to herself, before overhearing Kel congratulating himself on his handiwork.
"Look at this finish. Smooth as a baby's bottom. Not a bump or a lump."
She ran to join him. "Kel, was there anything in this street in the last few days giving off a lot of heat?"
"I mean, you can eat your dinner off this. Beautiful. So you tell me why the other one's got a lump in it when I gave it the same love and craftsmanship as I did this one."
"Well, when you've worked it out, put it in a big book about tarmacking, but before you do that, think back six days."
"Six days. When I was laying this the first time round."
"What?"
"Well, that's when I filled in this pothole for the first time."
"Six days ago."
"Yeah."
Her mind was racing. "Hot fresh tar."
Kel nodded, not really noticing as Rose started walking towards his van.
"Blended to a secret council recipe." Finally, as she yanked the doors open, he realised what she was up to. "I don't keep it in the van! Hey, that's a council van. Out."
Rose grabbed a pickaxe from the back and adjusted to the weight of it in her hands.
"Whoa, wait, wait, wait. You just removed a council axe from a council van. Put it back. No, don't, wait. Put the axe back in the van. That's my van. Give me the axe. No! Wait! No!"
But it was too late - Rose had already run for the pothole that he'd pointed to moments ago and was hacking at the tarmac.
"No! You, stop! You just took a council axe from a council van and now you're digging up a council road! I'm reporting you to the council!"
Kneeling, she searched through the lumps with her hands until she found a small greyish brown object, egg shaped and flecked with blue.
"It went for the hottest thing in the street. Your tar."
"What is it?"
"It's a spaceship. Not a council spaceship, I'm afraid."
She burst back into the living room with a grin on her face.
"I've found it! I don't know what to do with it, but maybe the Isolus will just hop on board." The grin faded as she saw Trish standing in front of the television. "Hang on, I told you not to leave her."
The woman simply pointed at the screen as the reporter sounded completely confused.
"My God! Er, what's going on here?"
Kel stomped into the room, shooting a glare at Rose.
"I don't care if you've got Snow White and the Seven Dwarves buried under there, you don't go digging up-"
"Shut up and look!" She cut him off.
"The crowd has vanished! Er, they're gone. Everyone has gone. Thousands of people have just gone. Right in front of my eyes. It's impossible. Bob, can we join you in the box? Bob? Not you too, Bob?"
Rose groaned. "The stadium won't be enough. The Isolus has four billion brothers and sisters."
Now feeling a little uneasy, Kel frowned.
"If it's the people, then where's this thing gonna get four billion people from?"
Before he'd finished speaking, Rose's heart dropped.
"The planet."
Sprinting up the stairs, closely followed by Trish and Kel, Rose stopped outside Chloe's bedroom door and started hammering at it.
"Chloe? Chloe, it's Rose! Open the door!"
Inside, they could hear the sound of furious scribbling, mized with a low rumbling sound that Rose didn't like the sound of at all.
"We found your ship. We can send you home."
"Chloe?" Trish struggled at the door, arms straining. "The lock on her door's broken, why won't it open?"
Remembering that she still had the pickaxe, Rose ushered Trish backwards.
"Right, stand back."
As she smashed the door in, that rumbling noise became audible as a deep, male voice. The same voice that had come from the wardrobe earlier.
"I'm coming to hurt you. I'm coming, coming to hurt you."
Rose tried to get the girl's attention. "Chloe!"
"I'm coming to hurt you. I'm coming."
"I've got to stop her."
Chloe turned to look at her.
"If you stop Chloe Webber, I will let him out. We will let him out together. I cannot be alone. It's not fair."
"Look, I've got your pod."
"The pod is dead."
"It only needs heat."
"It needs more than heat."
"What, then?"
Suddenly, Kel yelped in shock and backed away from the desk.
"I'm not being funny or nothing, but that picture just moved. And that one!"
Rose turned to look down, and picked up the drawing of the Doctor and Eris. But something had changed. Eris was now holding a small egg shaped object that was obviously the pod, and the Doctor was pointing to a slightly wonky drawing of the Olympic torch.
"She didn't draw that, he did. But it needs more than heat, Doctor."
Something on the news caught her ear.
"-Is still on its way. I suppose it's much more than a torch now, it's a beacon. It's a beacon of hope and fortitude and courage. And it's a beacon of love."
"Love." She breathed. "I know how to charge up the pod!"
Running out into the street and shoving people out of her way, she managed to make her way through to the front of the crowd. She would have got even nearer to her target, but a policeman stopped her in her tracks.
"Sorry, you'll have to watch from here."
"No, I've got to get closer."
"No way."
"I can stop this from happening!"
Chloe was almost finished - the countries were messily coloured in green, and she'd made a start on the ocean surrounding them. Next to her, the wardrobe rattled threateningly.
"Chloe."
Trish sobbed, hands over her mouth. "Chloe, please."
"I'm coming to hurt you."
"She's my baby! You're not going to hurt her again!"
"I'm coming."
Taking a chance as the runner passed by, Rose pulled her arm back and threw the pod as forcefully as she could. Her face split into a grin as it landed perfectly in the top of the torch, sending up a small jet of flame and making the bearer stagger a little as it did so. She could'nt help but cheer.
"Yes!"
Suddenly, Chloe froze, seconds away from finishing the drawing. The Isolus inside her was elated.
"I can go home. Goodbye, Chloe Webber. I love you."
And the tiny white flower that had caused so much heartache to the residents of Dame Kelly Holmes Close floated gently away, sailing through the open window. Chloe blinked for a moment, looking slightly dizzy, before turning.
"Mum?"
Trish's tears were joyous, this time. "I'm here."
"Mummy!"
"You did it! What was it you did?" Kel reached Rose's side, still looking baffled.
All along the close, the children from the missing posters ran towards their parents, being met with hugs and tears. But there were two people who hadn't made an appearance.
"Eris… Doctor." Rose's heart sank as the moments passed. The old woman they'd met earlier in the day approached her and took both her hands, smiling tearily.
"I don't know who you are, or what you did, but thank you, darling! And thank that man for me too."
As she walked away, Rose was hit with an unpleasant thought.
"Where is he? He should be here. Hold on. All the drawings have come to life. That means all of them... Oh, no."
She looked up, just in time to see a harsh red light fill Chloe's bedroom, and ran for the front door.
Before she could get inside the house, the door slammed shut.
"Trish, get out!"
Trish and Chloe were tugging at the door as Rose pushed from the outside.
"I can't! The door's stuck!"
"Is the Doctor in there?"
"I don't think so."
Chloe turned to look up the stairs, and whimpered. "Mummy."
A low, growling voice was getting closer and closer.
"Chloe, I'm coming to hurt you."
"Please, dad. No more."
"Chloe."
Rose shouted through the letterbox.
"Chloe, listen to me. It isn't real like the others. It's just energy left over by the Isolus, but you can get rid of it."
Trish was panicking too much to listen. "Help us!"
"Oh, it's because you're so scared that he's real. But you can get shot of him, Chloe."
"Mummy!"
"You can do it, Chloe!"
"I can't!"
The voice seemed even louder. "Chloe, I'm coming."
"I can't! I can't!"
"I'm coming."
"I can't."
"I'm coming."
"Mummy." Chloe's voice was almost a whisper by now.
"Chloe."
Holding her daughter tightly, Trish made a promise.
"I'm with you, Chloe. You're not alone. You'll never be alone again."
Thinking quickly, Rose came up with a plan that might just work.
"Sing again! Chloe, sing!"
This time it sounded like he was just at the top of the stairs.
"Chloe. Chloe. Chloe. Chloe. Chloe, I'm coming to hurt you. Chloe!"
With shaky voices that soon grew louder and more steady, Trish and Chloe began to sing.
"-merry merry king of the bush is he. Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra, gay your life must be. Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra, gay your life must be."
Above, the red glow of the drawing faded, before vanishing altogether.
"Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree. Merry merry king of the bush is he. Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra, gay your life must be."
Kel, hands in pockets, walked up to Rose where she sat on the doorstep. She was visibly upset. He helped her off the floor and offered her what he hoped was a reassuring smile.
"Maybe they've gone somewhere."
It didn't seem to help.
"Who's going to hold his hand now?"
As Rose and Kel walked into the Webber family's living room, the bemused voice of the reporter played.
"Just look at this! Utterly incredible scenes at the Olympic stadium. Eighty thousand athletes and spectators. They disappeared, they've come back! They've returned. They've reappeared. It's quite incredible. Bob, this will certainly…"
She sniffled a little, before jumping as a hand landed on her shoulder. The familiar smell of her best friend's perfume wrapped around her at the same time as her arms did, and she relaxed.
"You're okay!"
Eris kissed the side of her head, still hugging her.
"Yep, always. Any sign of him yet?"
"I thought he'd be with you!"
She shook her head, but there was a slight glimmer in her eye that Rose didn't quite notice.
Rose scrunched her nose up.
"Eighty thousand people, so where's the Doctor? I need him."
The reporter's voice became clear again.
"But hang on, the torch bearer seems to be in a bit of trouble. We did see a flash of lightning earlier that seemed to strike him. Maybe he's injured. He's definitely in trouble."
And the torch bearer dropped to the ground, breathing heavily.
"Does this mean that the Olympic dream is dead?"
Almost from nowhere, an arm in a brown suit reached down and picked up the torch. The camera panned back to reveal-
"Doctor!" Rose gasped, watching with a smile as he ran towards the Olympic cauldron.
"There's a mystery man. He's picked up the flame. We've no idea who he is. He's carrying the flame. Yes, he's carrying the flame and no one wants to stop him. It's more than a flame now, Bob. It's more than heat and light. It's hope, and it's courage, and it's love."
The spotlight followed him as he sprinted up the red carpet, whooping with joy as he lit the gas and watched the flame blossom.
"Go on. Join your brothers and sisters. They'll be waiting." He whispered to the pod, watching as it shot upwards into the darkness of the sky.
Not too long later, he was strolling back down Dame Kelly Holmes Close, looking around in satisfaction at the people celebrating around him. It was always nice to see the results of their hard work. As he walked, a voice behind him made him stop and grin.
"Cake?"
It was Rose, standing with a small cake in her hand. As he got closer, he could see tiny silver balls on top.
"Top banana. Mmm. I can't stress this enough. Ball bearings you can eat, masterpiece!"
While he shoved the cake into his mouth, Eris strolled up to them, grinning.
"I made sure Trish and Chloe are ok - they're a bit shaken up, but they seem to be alright. I think they'll cope."
Smiling fondly, Rose hugged her.
"I didn't get the chance to say it, but I thought I'd lost you. Both of you."
The Doctor slung an arm around each of them.
"Nah. Not on a night like this. This is a night for lost things being found. Come on."
"What now?"
"I want to go to the Games. It's what we came for."
"Go on, give us a clue. Which events do we do well in?"
He raised an eyebrow. "Well, I will tell you this. Papua New Guinea surprises everyone in the shot put."
Rose pulled a face. "Really? You're joking, aren't you? Doctor, are you serious or are you joking?"
"Wait and see."
The fireworks display started up, throwing the sky into a glittering haze, and Eris leant against her dad's shoulder.
Rose smiled across at the two of them.
"You know what? They keep on trying to split us up, but they never ever will."
His smile dropped slightly. "Never say never ever."
"Nah, we'll always be okay, you and me. Don't you reckon, Doctor?"
He paused for a moment.
"There's something in the air. Something coming."
The tone of his voice made Eris frown, and she blinked up at him.
"What is it?"
He sighed, gazing up into the night.
"A storm's approaching."