Chapter 30: The Empty Child

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, it belongs to BBC

Lion's Roar- First Aid Kit

But don't you come here and say I didn't warn you

About the way your world can alter

And oh how you try to command it all still

Every single time it all shifts one way or the other

And I'm a goddamn coward, but then again so are you

And the lion's roar, the lion's roar

Has me evading and hollering for you

And I never really knew what to do

Well I guess sometimes I wish you were a little more predictable

That I could read you just like a book

For now, I can only guess what's coming next

By examining your timid smile

And the ways of the old, old winds blowing you back 'round

Kit sat cross legged in the biggest and comfiest chair she could find in the library. She turned the page to the book she was reading and her frown on her face deepened. She closed the book after finishing the final page and rubbed her eyes tiredly.

Nothing. Again. In the last three months she had read every and any book on time travel. She was hoping that one of the books could tell her something on how to stop herself from dying. Three months and about forty books but still nothing. All they said was the same thing the Doctor said; that she was being stretched and that if she didn't get back to her time then she would die.

Kit throw the book across the room in frustration. "Why did you send me back if you knew I was going to die!?" She shouted at the Tardis.

There was no reply and she sighed. She knew it was pointless. She had screamed at the Tardis so many times. Each time was met by silence. It wasn't a normal silence either like when you asked the Tardis something and knew you just couldn't hear her. No, this one was empty like it didn't want to answer.

She was stressed. Not just because of not finding any information but because of the Doctor as well. It had been awkward between the two of them or maybe the best word was strange. She started to notice that when she made a comment about his future or something about him that she knew, he would grow uncomfortable. He would have an odd look on his face; a sour look. He started avoiding her more when they weren't on trips. In fact, when they were together he could barely look her in the eye.

She knew why though. The Doctor hated people knowing more than him. He hated people knowing about him and he hated people knowing about his future. So why wouldn't he be wary of her? With all this she wouldn't be surprised if he hated her. She once mentioned she knew what Gallifrey looked like and the Doctor looked like someone had slapped him. They didn't go on any trips for a week after that.

All in all, she was starting to feel lonely and distraught. This was the exact thing she was worried about. Every time she would try to talk to him about it he would make an excuse and run off. She couldn't sleep or think about anything other than this. If it wasn't for Rose being around thing would be much worse.

Rose was growing suspicious too. She probably could feel the tension in the room, who couldn't? They still hadn't said anything to Rose and Kit kind of felt bad. She was in the middle of something she had no idea about. Rose once tried to ask her what was going on but Kit just said to ask the Doctor and she never heard anything back.

Kit sighed again feeling slightly defeated. She was about to go get the book she threw when the Tardis suddenly jerked forward sending Kit tumbling to the ground. The Tardis shook violently and Kit struggled to get up.

She stumbled out of the library and into the hall. She noticed Rose coming out of her room with the same confused expression on.

"What the hell is happening?" Rose questioned.

"I don't know! I've been in the library," she replied.

"Emergency!" Yelled the Doctors voice around them. "Get to the control room now!"

They did as they were told and ran to the control room. Once there they saw the Doctor running around the console trying to keep the Tardis steady.

"What's the emergency?" Rose asked trying to hang on to the counsel.

"It's Mauve," the Doctor simply stated.

"Your point?" Kit questioned, trying to keep her balance.

"Don't you know?!" He snapped at her.

Kit was taken aback and stood there shocked for a couple of seconds. The Doctor had never yelled at her like that. Sure, there were time he got grumpy but he hadn't yelled at her over the fact that she was from the future. Things were getting worse between them and she knew if she didn't fix it soon he was going to start resenting her.

"No I don't!" She countered. "I don't know everything!"

Rose looked between the both of them as they stared intensely at each other. "Um, guys? Emergency, remember? What's important about Mauve?"

The Doctor's eyes snapped to Rose. "It's the universal colour for danger."

Rose raise an eyebrow in question. "What happened to Red?"

"That's just human. By everyone else's standards, red's camp. Oh, the misunderstanding. All those red alerts, all that dancing," he explained. He looked up at the screen in front of him. It showed a cylinder object flying through time. "It's got a basic flight computer. I've hacked in, slaved the Tardis. Where it goes, we go."

"Is it safe?" Rose asked nervously.

"Totally," the Doctor replied.

He gave them a confident smile and then flipped a switch. The moment he did, there was a large bang and the controls sparked causing everyone to fly backwards.

"Safe? Are you sure about that?" Kit questioned, coughing from the smoke.

"Maybe there should've been a reasonably in there." He looked back at the screen. "No, no, no, no! It's jumping time tracks, getting away from us."

"I thought you said that it was a basic flight computer. That where it goes, we go," Kit quoted. "How is it getting away from us?"

"Don't know. Must be smarter than I thought."

"What the hell is that thing anyways?"

"No idea."

"And we're going after it because…?"

"I already said, it's mauve and dangerous."

"How dangerous?" Rose inquired.

"Let's just say it's thirdly seconds away from the center of London," the Doctor replied.

Rose and Kit both shared a panicked look. And she thought she was going to have a quiet day. She really should have seen this coming.

They kept following the object as it got faster and faster and closer and closer to the earth.

"Everyone hang on! I'm going to materialise to earth and I'm technically not suppose to do it at this speed," the Doctor told them.

Rose and Kit clenched the console and held on for their lives. The Tardis whipped left and right giving Kit some serious whiplash. After some time, the Tardis started to slow down and then came to a stop. Kit blew the hair out of her eyes and looked at everyone's troubled face.

"Well, that was… fun," Rose finally said.

"Fun is not the word I would use," Kit muttered. She turned to the Doctor who was still staring at the screen. "Did we make it in time?"

"We weren't too far behind it. It should have landed about a week ago, maybe a month."

"Wait, I'm confused," Rose shook her head. "How did it land here a week ago when we were right behind it."

"It was jumping time tracks all over the place," he explained. "We're bond to be a bit off."

"A bit?" Kit raised her eyebrow in question.

"Yes, a bit."

"How much is a bit?"

"Ish," he said simply as he made his way to the door.

"Ish? Really?"

"Yes, ish. Do you want to drive?" He snapped.

Kit glared at him. "Maybe."

The Doctor stared at her for a second and then shook his head. "We don't have time for this."

"We never do," Kit muttered sadly as she watched him storm out of the Tardis.

When they left the Tardis, Kit realized they were in a dark alleyway. The hair on the back of her neck suddenly stood up and it felt like someone was watching her. She looked around but saw nothing.

"So, what's the plan, then? Are you going to scan for alien tech or something?" Rose asked as they started walking down the alley.

The Doctor looked at her like she grew a second head. "Rose, it hit the middle of London with a loud bang. I'm going to ask."

He rampaged around in his pocket. He pulled out his psychic paper and showed it to Rose.

"Doctor John Smith. Ministry of Asteroids," Rose read.

"It's psychic paper. It tells—"

"Whatever you want it to tell you, I remember."

The Doctor shrugged. "Sorry."

They finally stopped at a door. They could hear the distant sound of laugher and music.

"Not very Spock, it is, just asking."

The Doctor ignored her and pressed his ear up to the door. He took his sonic out of his pocket. "Door, music, people. What do you think?"

"I think it's the best lead—the only lead we got," Kit replied.

Rose just crossed her arms and looked between the two of them as the Doctor soniced the door. "Well, I think you should do a scan for alien tech. Give me some Spock for once! Would it kill you?"

Kit tried to suppress her laugher as she watched Rose fume. "What's with you and Spock today?"

"I came along to travel with the Doctor to see some alien tech, not just do normal things like ask people."

Kit finally laughed. "Rose, we just traveled in space ship following an unknown alien object. How much more Spock do you need?"

Rose huffed. "I just think we could have a little more."

"Are you sure about that t-shirt," the Doctor changed the subject as he unlocked the door.

Rose face relaxed and looked down at her Union Jack t-shit. "Too early to say. I'm taking it out for a spin. What do you think, Kit? Does it look good?"

Kit shrugged. "I don't know. I guess."

Rose sighed. "You're a useless girl, you know that right?"

She rolled her eyes. "I've become aware."

"Do you two need a minute or can we go?" The Doctor asked impatiently.

Kit rolled her eye again. "Yeah, we can go."

"Mummy? Mummy?" A child's voice cried which catch Kit's attention.

"What was that?" Rose asked.

Kit shrugged. "Probably some lost kid. Come on, let's go inside."

Kit followed the Doctor inside without waiting for Rose. They walked down a long dark hallway until they spotted at waiter and then followed him. They entered a busy room that smelled strongly of cigarette smoke. On a stage in front of them was a women singing. The people in the room were drinking and laughing. Kit figured from the clothes they wore that they were not in the 21st century.

They watched and waited for the singer to finish. While they were watching, Kit noticed at poster on the wall. The poster read, 'Hitler will send no warning!'.

Looks like asking around isn't an option, Kit thought, realizing they were in the middle of World War Two.

Kit was about to tell the Doctor this when the singer finished singing and the Doctor jumped on stage. Kit faced palmed realizing he was going to make a fool out of himself.

"Excuse me. Excuse me. Could I have everyone's attention just for a mo? Be very quick." Everyone quieted down and stared at the Doctor. Kit waved her hand to try to get the Doctor's attention but he ignored her. "Hello! Might seem like a stupid question, but has anything fallen from the sky recently?"

Everyone was silent while Kit waved her hands more franticly and tried pointing to the poster. The Doctor finally noticed her and gave her a curious look. She waved her hand in front of her throat making the 'stop talking' motion. Suddenly everyone in the room burst out laughing.

"Sorry, have I said something funny? It's just, there's this thing I need to find. Would've fallen from the sky a couple…" The Doctor suddenly noticed Kit pointing to the poster and squinted his eyes to see what it said. His face went stone cold.

A loud alarm rang and people stood up from their seats. They started to leave the party and a man yelled, "Quickly as you can, down to the shelter."

The Doctor watched everyone leave as realization came to him. "Oh." He quickly walked off the stage and towards Kit. "So, asking people might be a bust."

"You think?" Kit replied sarcastically.

"Guess we'll have to go with Rose idea."

"Looks like it." Suddenly Kit looked around. "Wait a second, where is Rose?"

"You were the last to talk to her," the Doctor accused.

"I thought she was right behind me at the time!" She justified.

"How do you lose a whole person?" The Doctor kept arguing.

"You lost her too," she countered. "And anyways, I tend to lose things easily. You once gave me a pet rock and I managed to lose that!"

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Pet rock?"

Kit crossed her arms. "I wasn't allowed to have a dog and you said it was the next best thing!" The Doctor kept his eyebrow raised. "I was six! What do you want from me?"

The Doctor just shook his head. "Doesn't matter now. We better find her before she gets herself in some kind of trouble."

Kit snorted. "I'm sure we're too late for that."

They ran back down the dark hallway and out into the alleyway again. They looked around the area but found no Rose.

The Doctor shook his head. "You know, one day, just one day, maybe, I'm going to meet someone who gets the whole don't wander off thing."

"Not likely. Man, the amount of times I've wandered off. There was this one time—"

"I get it," the Doctor cut her off. "I don't want to know."

"I was just saying that—"

"I said, I don't want to know!" He snapped and started to walk away from her.

Anger flared up in Kit. "God, what is your problem?!"

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. What's your problem? Every since I told you I was your future companion you've been distant and—and almost scared of me. I get it, it's hard for you to be with someone that knows more than you. That knows you. But, God, can you just stop being so—so… stubborn! This isn't my fault!" Kit finally let go everything she's been holding in for months.

"We're not doing this right now!" The Doctor argued.

"Then when? Because every time I try you just run away!"

"It's complicated."

"Then simplify it!"

"I can't!" He barked.

"Try because I can't do this anymore. I lost my Doctor. I was taken away from him and now all I have is you. I was so scared and lonely when I realized I might not see him again but then we started to become friends and I thought I might be alright. Then this happened and—and I'm back to being scare. I'm back to being alone!" She yelled at him. She could feel hot tears run down her face. "I don't want to be alone," she said quietly.

The Doctor's face grew soft. "You know, sometimes I forget that you're just a kid." He sighed. "Your eyes are too old."

"And yours are too young."

They stayed quiet for a moment. Both were trying to analyze each other. It was a phone ringing that finally snapped both of them out of their thoughts. Kit looked over to the Tardis and realized it was the Tardis phone.

The Doctor froze. "The phones ringing."

"I can see that. So?"

"The phone doesn't work."

Kit eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Really? My Tardis had a working phone."

"Well, this one doesn't," he said through his teeth.

They both looked over to the phone still ringing with the same curious yet caution expression. The Doctor moved slowly over to the phone.

He looked at it for a moment. "What am I suppose to do with a ringing phone that shouldn't ring?"

Kit shrugged. "I don't know. What are you suppose to do with any phone? You answer it."

"Don't," a voice ordered from behind them causing Kit to jump in surprise. "It's not for you."

Kit turned around quickly to see a girl around Rose age with braided pigtails and a long coat. She wore a very stern yet warry expression on her face.

"And how do you know that?" The Doctor questioned

"Cos I do," she replied vaguely. "And I'm telling you, don't answer it."

"Why's that?" Kit asked with suspicion of the girl.

"Just trust me, you don't want to answer it."

Kit stared to become annoyed with the same answer. "Can't trust you if we have no idea what you're talking about."

The girl pressed her lips together in a thin line. It looked like she wanted to say something but chose not to.

Kit saw the Doctor's eyes narrow on the girl. "Okay, if you know so much tell me this. How can it be ringing? It's not even a real phone." The Doctor and Kit now watched the phone cautiously as it kept ringing. "It's not even connected. It's not—"

The Doctor stopped when he turned to talk to the girl and realized she wasn't there anymore. Kit looked around trying to see where the girl went to.

"Spooky," Kit muttered. "She's better than Batman."

"Agreed."

Kit saw the Doctor reach for the phone. "What are you doing?"

He looked from the phone to her and back. "Answering it."

"The girl just said not to," she said sternly. "I know she seemed crazy but she looked convinced on not answering that phone."

"What's the worst that could happen from answering a phone?"

She sighed in defeat. "I guess we'll find out."

The Doctor picked up the phone and put it to his ear. "Hello? Hello? This is the Doctor speaking. How may I help you?" He grinned which caused Kit to roll her eyes. The Doctor's grin slowly disappeared and was replaced with a frown. "Who is this? Who's speaking?" He demanded in a serious tone.

"What? Who is it?" Kit questioned nervously. "What're they saying?"

The Doctor just shook his head. "Who is this?" His frown grew deeper. "How did you ring here? This isn't a real phone. It's not wired up to anything."

Kit had had enough not know what was happening and stormed over to the phone. She took it out of his hand and put it to her ear. She took the phone just in time to here the next word from the other end of the line.

"Mummy?" Then all she heard was the dialing tone.

Kit froze. "Mummy," she whispered to herself.

"Yeah, it kept asking for his mum. Why? What's wrong?"

"I heard the except thing before."

"When?"

"Right before we went in the building. I heard some kid ask for his mummy. I thought the kid was just lost or something but Rose—" Kit stopped dead. Her eyes widened. "Rose seemed really worried!"

"She probably went after it—whatever it is," the Doctor concluded.

Suddenly they heard a loud crash coming from the other end of the alley. Kit and the Doctor both looked at each and then took off running towards the direction of the crash. They rounded a corner and kept going straight until they were almost out of the alleyway.

"Hurry!" The Doctor shouted.

The Doctor started running out of the alleyway but Kit caught his arm, stopping him in his tracks. She could tell the Doctor was becoming irritated with her but she didn't care. They still needed to talk.

"We never finished our conversation," she stressed.

"Can this wait? We have a bit of a crisis on our hands," the Doctor argued harshly.

"There's always a crisis!" Kit snapped. "There will always be a crisis for you to run to. It's what you do. I would know because we used to fight all the time and every time you would run. Run with the excuse that there's a crisis. No more! I'm so tired not getting a clear answer from you! So, promises me. Promise me that after this 'crisis' we'll finish our conversation."

The Doctor blinked with mild shock written on his face. "Kit, I—"

"Promise me!"

The Doctors face became calculating and he watched her. "Alright, I promise."

She narrowed her eyes on him. She didn't believe him. It was hard for her to. She was so used to him lying to her that she would be more surprised if he kept his promise than if he didn't. She was starting to have trouble trusting him. It was what made her and her Doctor argue so much. She didn't trust him anymore and her Doctor knew it.

A loud boom snapped her out of her thoughts. She jumped and looked up at the sky. Bright lights flashed through the dark clouds like lightning but this wasn't lightning. Another loud crash came from behind her and she turned to see smoke far in the distance. The blaring sound of sirens were all around her.

"We should find shelter," the Doctors voice cut through the sound of bombs.

She nodded in agreeance. "But where?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Most families should have a bomb shelter. We can see if anyone will let us in."

"What about Rose? She's still out there."

The Doctor's face grew sour. "It's too dangerous to look for her right now. We'll have to hope she's alright and that she found a place to take cover."

All Kit could do was nod. They started to leave to find a place to hid out when two voices caught their attention. They were angry and panicked. A hint of fear in their voices.

"Can't you hear them? Into the shelter. None of your nonsense, now move it!" A female voice shouted.

"Looks like we found our shelter," the Doctor commented.

Kit looked at him skeptically. "They don't sound like people who would let us in."

"Never judge a book by it's cover, Kit. Anyways, it better than standing out here."

She sighed and followed the Doctor to a wall in front of the backyard. He jumped onto of a garbage can and peered over. Kit did the same. They watched the people trying and failing to get into the shelter quickly.

A plump women turned back to the house. "Come on, hurry up, get in there. Come on. Arthur! Arthur! Will you hurry up? Didn't you hear the siren?"

Her husband came out of the house with a sneer on his face. "Middle of dinner, every night. Blooming Germans. Don't you eat?"

"I can hear the planes!" The wife shouted at him.

"Don't you eat?!" He repeated with anger.

"Oh, keep your voice down, will you? It's an air raid! Get in. Look, there's a war on."

"I know there's a war on!"

The two argued all the way into the shelter and then closed the door behind them. Kit was just about to climb over the wall when she saw a familiar face getting up from her hiding spot behind the shelter.

"It's the girl from earlier," She pointed out to the Doctor.

The Doctor nodded. "I see her."

"What the hell is she doing?"

"I have no idea but I'm about to find out."