Travelling with the Raggedy Man
The Vampires of Venice
Thanks to Morgaine Moonblade for favouriting this story
To say that Chelsea had woken up in a bad mood was putting it mildly. She was currently sitting on one of the seats in the TARDIS console room, pointedly ignoring Amy who was nervously pacing around on the upper walkway. Amy occasionally made to speak up, but upon seeing the sour look on her cousin's face, she wisely thought otherwise, Chelsea's furious rant at her the night before still resonating with her. Presently, the tense atmosphere was broken by the Doctor arriving with Rory in tow, the Doctor having fetched him from his stag do. Chelsea's mood immediately changed. "Rory!" she grinned, standing up to greet him, "Are you a sight for sore eyes!"
"Um, hi, Chels." Rory greeted, somewhat in awe of the TARDIS, then he noticed a bandage on Chelsea's forehead, despite her trying to hide it with her fringe. "Are you alright? What happened to your head?" he asked worriedly
"Oh, this? I had a fall yesterday." Chelsea replied, "Don't worry, it looks worse than it feels. So, how was the stag do?"
"Fine till he showed up." Rory replied, casting an annoyed look at the Doctor, who had gone downstairs to do some tinkering with the tribophysical waveform macro-kinetic extrapolator.
"What did he do?" Chelsea groaned
"He jumped out of the stripper cake and told me that Amy kissed him." Rory accused, casting a look at Amy, who bowed her head in shame.
"Oh, Doctor." Chelsea groaned
"Well, it sounded like a good idea in my head." the Doctor defended weakly, "Anyway, cutting to the chase, the life out there, it dazzles. I mean, it blinds you to the thinks that are important. I've seen it devour relationships and plans..." Suddenly, a small explosion went off from where he was working. "It's meant to do that." the Doctor waved it off, "Anyway, for one person to have seen all that, to taste the glory and then go back, it will tear you apart." He remembered what Sarah Jane Smith had told him about how hard it was adjusting to normal life after travelling with him. "So... I'm sending you somewhere. Together."
"Whoa. What, like a date?" Amy spoke up, coming downstairs.
"Anywhere you want, anytime you want." the Doctor replied, "One condition: it has to be amazing. The Moulin Rouge in 1890, the first Olympic games. Think of it as a wedding present, because, frankly, it's either this or tokens." He then finished up his work on the extrapolator and headed upstairs. "It's a lot to take in, isn't it?" he said to Rory, who had gone back to looking around the console room, "Tiny box, huge room inside. What's that about? Let me explain."
"It's another dimension." Rory cut in
"It's basically another dimen... what?" the Doctor blinked, not expecting a Human he'd only met once to figure that out.
"I'm not the only one did their homework, Doctor." Chelsea told him
"After all that strange stuff that's been happening over the last two years, I've been reading up on all the latest scientific theories." Rory told the Doctor, "FTL travel, parallel universes..."
"I like the bit when someone says, 'It's bigger on the inside!'" the Doctor sulked, "I always look forward to that."
"So, this date." Amy spoke up, feeling a bit ignored right now, "I'm kinda done with running down corridors. What d'you think, Rory?"
Rory was hard-pressed to answer. Being asked where in time and space he would like to go wasn't exactly a question he'd ever thought he'd have to answer.
"How about somewhere... romantic?" the Doctor suggested and set the TARDIS into motion.
~8~
One quick flight through the Time Vortex later, and the TARDIS materialised on a quayside in Venice. The Doctor was first to exit, followed by Amy and Rory, and Chelsea brought up the rear. "Venice!" the Doctor announced, throwing his arms out, "Venezia! La Serenissima! Impossible city. Preposterous city! Founded by refugees running from Attila the Hun. It was just a collection of little wooden huts in the marsh, but became one of the most powerful cities in the world. Constantly being invaded, constantly flooding... constantly... just beautiful! Oh, you gotta love Venice. And so many people did. Byron, Napoleon, Casanova. Ooh, that reminds me..." He checked his watch. "1580. That's alright. Casanova doesn't get born for 145 years. Don't wanna run into him. I owe him a chicken."
"You owe Casanova a chicken?" Rory raised a brow
"Long story. We had a bet." the Doctor waved him off
"And let me guess, you lost the bet." Chelsea remarked
"Like I said, long story." the Doctor said rather embarrassedly
The group went to enter the city but were stopped by an official in black robes. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Papers, if you please." he demanded "Proof of residency, current bill of medical inspection."
"There you go, fella." the Doctor replied, showing the official his psychic paper, "All to your satisfaction, I think you'll find."
The official's eyes widened when he saw the paper. "I am so sorry, your holiness! I didn't realise!" And he immediately bowed to the Doctor.
"No worries." the Doctor said, "You were just doing your job. Sorry, what exactly is your job?"
"Checking for aliens." the official replied, "Visitors from foreign lands what might bring the plague with them."
"Oh, that's nice. See where ye being me." Amy huffed, slapping the Doctor's arm, "The plague!"
"Don't worry, Viscountess." the official said and bowed, ""No, we're under quarantine here. No one comes in, no one comes out, and all because of the grace and wisdom of our patron, Signora Rosanna Calverri." He gestued to his clipboard, which had a fancy crest on it.
"How interesting." the Doctor frowned, "We heard the plague died out years ago."
"Not out there." the official replied, "No, Signora Calverri has seen it with her own eyes. Streets are piled high with bodies, she said."
"Did she, now?" the Doctor muttered suspiciously.
The official moved off to bother someone else. Rory took the Doctor's psychic paper. "Uh, according to this, I am your eunuch!" he stared
"Oh, yeah, I'll explain later." Amy waved him off as they continued onwards.
"A eunuch. Really?" Chelsea remarked flatly to the Doctor
"Not my best lie, I'll admit." the Doctor shrugged, "But be fair, he doesn't exactly look like a royal in that shirt!"
"Amy's wearing a skirt that barely covers anything and you made her a Viscountess." Chelsea countered, "And what did ya say I was, a skivvy or something?"
"Nothing so lowly." the Doctor assured her, "I said you were the duchess of somewhere or over."
"A duchess that wears t-shirts and yet you made Rory a eunuch." Chelsea raised a brow.
"Ee-yeah, I'll have to work on my excuses." the Doctor waved her off and headed off into the city, the three Humans following.
~8~
The group walked for a while before pausing when they saw a group of people gathering to watch something on the other side of a canal. They could see a group of young women in white gowns and veils walking along led by a woman in black and plum robes. "What do you want?" the woman demanded as a black man approached them with a determined look on his face.
"Where's my Isabella?" the man demanded, lifting up the veils on the girls one by one, "Isabella?" He paused when he recognised one of the girls. "It's me!"
Another of the girls advanced on him and something about her made the man fall to the ground in shock "Girls, come along." the woman in black ordered, and the procession resumed their walk. A young man in fancy robes pressed his foot on the black man's chest to keep him down "She's gone." he taunted, and with a swirl of his cloak, he was gone.
"What was that about?" Amy wandered, turning to the Doctor, only to see that he'd gone "I hate it when he does that." she grumbled
"Here we go again." Chelsea muttered, getting rather fed up with the Doctor's habit of galivanting off and leaving them.
~8~
Presently, Amy and Rory were wandering through the alleyways that made up Venice, Chelsea trailing along behind them. "And what've you been doing?" Rory asked cautiously. He'd learned that the women had been travelling with the Doctor for three days from their perspective.
"Well... running." Amy replied tactfully, "And fighting. I've been scared. More scared then I though I was..." she tailed off. Yesterdays ordeal with the Weeping Angels had badly shaken her and made her act irrationally. She was ashamed of herself for attempting to seduce the Doctor and she knew she was in the doghouse as Chelsea hadn't said a word to her all day and even the Doctor was keeping his distance.
"Did you miss me?" Rory asked
"I... I knew I'd be coming back." Amy said, not really answering his question.
"He was right." Rory sighed gloomily, "It blots everything else out."
"Rory... this is our date." Amy said, "Let's not do this. Not now."
There was a fluttering of wings and Rory looked up, remembering where exactly they were. "Ha! We are in Venice and it's 1580!" he cheered up
"I know!" Amy laughed and hand-in-hand, they walked off with Chelsea following, none of them noticing the well-dressed man from earlier skulking on a stair well.
A few passages further on, they stopped and Amy posed in front of a doorway while Rory took a photo of her on his phone and Chelsea used her own phone to take a photo of the city. Suddenly, they all heard a woman screaming and they hurried off to investigate. They found the well-dressed man kneeling over a young flower seller. The man lifted his head to reveal that his teeth were blood-soaked fangs. With a hiss, he walked off, shielding his face with his cloak.
Rory rushed over to the girl, his medical training kicking in. "Is she alright?" Chelsea asked him as he checked the girl's vital signs.
"She'll be ok." Rory replied, then he and Chelsea looked up to see Amy running off after the man. "Amy! Come back!" Rory called
Amy didn't listen and rushed off. Her chase came to an abrupt end at one of the canals as the man had disappeared into thin air. "Lost him." Amy groaned as Chelsea reached her,
"Maybe it's just as well." Chelsea told her, "What were ya gonna do if ya caught him? You saw his teeth. They're not Human!"
"Yeah, they looked like fangs." Amy shivered, "C'mon, we'd better tell the Doctor." And she rushed off again. Chelsea could only give a long-suffering sigh and went after her. It seemed that Amy hadn't learned her lesson from the Weeping Angel ordeal and was as reckless as ever.
~8~
The trio found the Doctor running the other way near a canal. "I just some vampires!" the Doctor said excitedly at the same time as Amy said, "We just saw a vampire." And they both began to talk over each other excitedly.
Rory and Chelsea caught up to them, Rory looking somewhat flustered. "We think we just saw a vampire." he panted
"Yeah, yeah, I know. Amy was just telling me." the Doctor said
"Yeah! The Doctor actually went to their house!" Amy added excitedly
"Oh." Rory nodded slowly, not seeing what was so thrilling about that, "Right, well..."
"Ok, so..." the Doctor said, slapping Rory's cheeks, "First we need to get back in there somehow."
"What?!" Rory spluttered
"Oh, please, no." Chelsea groaned
"How do we do that?" Amy asked
"Back in where?!" Rory persisted
The Doctor put an arm around his shoulder. "Come meet my new friend." he said cheerfully.
~8~
The time travellers were soon all gathered in the house of the black man, Guido. He had told the Doctor that he had entered his daughter Isabella into the school and was now worried about her welfare as something strange happened to any girl who entered the school. Guido was currently showing the group a map. "As you saw, there's no clear way in." he told the Doctor, "The House of Calvierri is like a fortress. But there's a tunnel underneath it, with a ladder and shaft that leads up to the house. I tried to get in myself once, but I hit a trapdoor."
"You need someone on the inside." Amy grinned cockily
"No." the Doctor and Chelsea said together
"You don't even know what I was gonna say!" Amy protested
"We pretend you're an applicant for the school to get you inside and tonight you come down and open the trapdoor to let us in." the Doctor said
"Oh. So you do know what I was going to say." Amy said lamely
"Are you insane?!" Rory stared at his fiancé
"We don't have another option." Amy defended
"He said no, Amy. Listen to him." Rory said firmly
"Somehow I don't think she will." Chelsea muttered
"There is another option." Guido spoke up, and pointed to some barrels behind Rory. "I work at the Arsenale. We build warships for the navy."
The Doctor sniffed one of the barrels. "Gunpowder." he noted, causing Rory to promptly get away from the barrels as quick as he could. "Most people nick stationary from where they work." the Doctor commented dryly, "Look, I have a thing about guns and huge quantities of explosive."
"That didn't bother you yesterday." Chelsea reminded.
"What do you suggest then?" Guido snapped at the Doctor, "We wait until they turn her into an animal?!" He turned away and poked the fire.
"I'll be there three, four house tops." Amy persisted
The Doctor mulled her suggestion over. He had to admire Amy's determination, she reminded him of Rose, but then he remembered what had happened to Rose because of her blasé attitude to life or death situations. "No, no, no, no, no, no!" he groaned, "It can't keep happening like this. This is how they go." He sat down and took a breath. "But I have to know."
"Then I'll go." Chelsea decided
"What?!" the other three time travellers said together
"I'm older than Amy, and if that vampire we meet is in there, he'll recognise her, so I'm the best choice." Chelsea told the Doctor
"Then we go together." the Doctor said, "Say you're my daughter."
"Daughter? You look nine!" Amy snorted
"Brother, then." the Doctor tried
"Doctor, we look nothing alike." Chelsea told him flatly
"Fiancé?" Amy suggested
"Ugh, god, no!" Chelsea said hastily, "Look, Rory can come with me."
"Me?!" Rory blinked
"Those vampires in the school have already seen the Doctor so they'll recognise him." Chelsea told him, "None of the vampires have seen us, so we've got a better chance of not being recognised. We can pose as brother and sister. You're like a brother to me anyway."
"This whole thing is mental." Rory swallowed, "They're vampires, for god's sake."
"We hope." the Doctor said ominously
"So if they're not vampires..." Amy began
"Makes you wonder what could be so bad it doesn't actually mind us thinking it's a vampire." the Doctor finished darkly.
~8~
That evening, the group put their plan into action. The Doctor used the TARDIS' medical equipment to cure Chelsea's head wound then she and Rory borrowed some period clothes from the TARDIS wardrobe and they both went to the Calverri school. They were soon stood before Signora Rosanna Calverri, the woman in black and plum robes they'd seen earlier. By her side was the man Amy had chased.
"So, basically, both of our parents are dead from getting the plague." Rory said uneasily, "I'm a gondola... driver... so... money's a bit tight... so having my sister go to your school for special people would be brilliant. Cheers."
The man took a special interest in Chelsea and approached her while Rosanna turned to a servant. "Carlo, explain yourself. Why have you brought me this imbecile?" she demanded
"Signora, they have references from the King of Sweden." the servant replied
"What? Let me see." Rosanna stared, holding out her hand. Rory stepped forward and handed her the Doctor's psychic paper. "Well, now I can see what got my steward so excited." Rosanna remarked as she handed Rory the paper back then she turned to the man, who was circling Chelsea in an almost predatory way. "What say you, Francesco? Do you like her?"
"Oh, I do, mother." Francesco smirked, "I do."
Chelsea could only do her best to maintain her composure and not gag on the pungent smell of fish that was radiating from the man.
"Then we'd be delighted to accept her." Rosanna said to Rory, "Say goodbye to your sister."
Carlo promptly grabbed Rory and began to drag him away.
"Tell Amy and uncle..." Chelsea thought hard for a moment, "John, I'll see you all soon." she called to Rory, "I'll be alright."
"Be careful." Rory called to her before the doors shut, separating him from his fiancé's cousin.
~8~
Carlo led Chelsea through the school. As they entered a dormitory, Chelsea saw some girls in white nightgowns skulking about like vultures ready to pounce. All she could do was try and ignore their piercing stares and follow Carlo into the room. "There are clothes on the bed." he told her, "Get changed and wait here."
"So this is Hogwarts." Chelsea murmured as she looked around the rather opulent room. Carlo and all but one of the girls then left the room. The one who stayed behind was a young black woman who looked rather shaken and timid. "Hello." Chelsea greeted her, "I'm Chelsea. What's your name?"
"Isabella." the girl answered
"Ah, just the person I was looking for." Chelsea smiled, "Listen, I've come to rescue ya, but can you tell me what they've been doing here?"
"They um... they come at night." Isabella replied shakily, "They gather around my bed and they take me to a room... with this green light and a chair with... with straps, as if for a surgeon."
"And what do they do in there?"
"I wake up here. And the sunlight burns my skin like candle wax."
A bell tolled in the distance and Chelsea looked around warily, a pit growing in her stomach. She was starting to wonder if travelling with the Doctor was worth it. Between nearly getting eaten by a starwhale, almost getting blown up by Daleks, being chased by Weeping Angels and now being alone in a school full of vampires, she was starting to wish she'd stayed at home.
~8~
Later that night, Chelsea crept through the school's darkened halls, now dressed in a white dressing gown and carrying a lantern. She heard a moan coming from somewhere and it took every once of willpower for her to not go and follow it. As much as she wanted to help whoever it was in distress, she knew she was only one person and her best chance was to find the trapdoor, open it and allow the Doctor, Amy and Rory to get in, so with a heavy heart she pressed on.
Presently, she reached the courtyard where the trapdoor to the tunnel was located. She set down the lamp and released the bar locking the grate. Mission completed, she retrieved the lamp and turned to leave only to walk straight into Carlo who swiftly apprehended her.
~8~
Carlo frog-marched Chelsea down the stairs into a room exactly like the one Isabella had described, the young woman struggling furiously in his grip. "Control yourself, child!" he growled
"I'll control you if ya don't let go off me!" Chelsea retorted as he pushed her into the room, where Rosanna, Francesco and some of the girls were waiting.
"Psychic paper." Rosanna remarked, "Did you really think that would work on me?"
"Yeah, I was hoping." Chelsea muttered.
There was a hum of power and the room was bathed in a green light. "Where are you from?" Rosanna probed, circling Chelsea as Carlo held her, "Did you fall through the chasm?"
"Mother, this is pointless." Francesco interrupted, "Let's just start the process."
"Hold your tongue, Francesco!" his mother snapped, "I need to know what this girl is doing in a world of savages with psychic paper." Two of the girls then brought forward a wooden chair with wrist straps. "Who are you with?" Rosanna questioned Chelsea while Francesco set a hook into the chair and one of the girls attached an IV bag to the hook, "I scarcely believe your idiot brother sent you. What are you doing in my school?"
"Alright, you got me, I'm from Ofsted." Chelsea said, trying to stall them until the others could find her, "I'm doing an undercover inspection of this so-called school and you've failed!"
Rosanna just gave a laugh. "Put her in the chair." she ordered, and Carlo pushed Chelsea into the chair and the girls strapped her in with the manacles.
"No!" Chelsea protested, trying to get free, "Don't you dare!"
"Oh, make sport of me, will you?" Rosanna snorted, "Tease me as if I were your dog? Well, this dog has a bite, girl." And she promptly bared her fangs, causing Chelsea to recoil in fear, then Rosanna sunk her fangs into Chelsea's neck.
After what seemed like an age, Rosanna pulled away and licked her blood-soaked lips. Francesco then leaned in and ran a finger around the puncture marks on Chelsea's neck. "Mother, where you drink from her, may we share?" he asked, "I'm so thirsty."
"Of course, darling." Rosanna smirked, and Francesco promptly helped himself to Chelsea's blood too, while the girls left, having sensed the presence of intruders.
~8~
By the time Francesco had finished his drink, Chelsea was white as a sheet from loss of blood and her eyes were glazed. "This is how it works." Rosanna told her callously, "First, we drink you dry. Then... we fill you with our blood. It rages through you like a fire, changing you, until one morning you awake and your humanity is a dream... now faded."
"Or you die." Francesco added smugly, "That can happen."
"And if I live?" Chelsea managed to croak out
"Then there are 10,000 husbands waiting for you in the water." Rosanna answered
Then, Chelsea noticed a bulge on Rosanna's right hip. "Sorry to disappoint ya, but I'm quite happy being single." she said, and summoning all her remaining strength, she gave Rosanna a good kick on the right hip.
There was an electrical hiss and Rosanna pulled back her skirt to reveal an electrical device clipped to her hip. The device spluttered and Rosanna flickered into an insectoid creature with a fish's head. She managed to fix the device and she flickered back into a Human. Then, footsteps were heard nearby, so Rosanna, Francesco and Carlo went to investigate, leaving Chelsea unguarded.
Suddenly, a hand reached out to undo Chelsea's bonds. She looked up to see Isabella. "Thank you." Chelsea said weakly, then managed to find the strength to stand and she and Isabella left the room.
~8~
The Doctor, Amy and Rory found themselves surrounded by Rosanna, Francesco and Carlo on one side and the girls on the other. "This rescue plan, not exactly watertight, is it?" Rosanna taunted
The Doctor simply brandished a UV torch at them, causing them to flinch back. "Ha-ha!" he crowed, "Now, where is Chelsea Willows?"
At that moment, Chelsea and Isabella appeared out of a side corridor. Amy's blood boiled in fury at the sight of the puncture marks in her cousin's neck. "What did you do to her?!" she growled at the vampires.
"She was delicious!" Francesco smirked, liking his lips.
Amy was about to storm over to him and punch his lights out when Isabella intervened. "Quickly, though here!" she urged, leading the time travellers back the way they came.
"They're not vampires." Chelsea managed to gasp out as the Doctor soniced a door locked to buy them some time.
"What?!" he stared
"They're aliens. Looked like a fish."
"Classic!" the Doctor grinned
"That's good news?!" Rory stared, "What is wrong with you?!" he glared at the Doctor. Chelsea didn't look well at all, yet all the Doctor seemed to care about was the creature responsible.
Then, they all heard a banging from the other side of the door. "C'mon, move!" the Doctor urged, shooing everyone forward through the tunnel as Francesco broke through the door and gave chase. The Doctor waved his UV torch in the alien's face, causing him to back off and let the Doctor get ahead.
Isabella opened the door at the other end of the tunnel to find her father waiting with a gondola. "Quickly, get out, quick!" she urged everyone and Amy and Rory ran out first, both of them supporting Chelsea, then the Doctor brought up the rear. Everyone piled into the gondola and Guido rowed them away into the night. Once they were away from the blood-sucking aliens, Chelsea gave in to the pain she was in and passed out.
~8~
When Chelsea came to, she found herself lying on a bed in the TARDIS' med-bay with Amy and Rory at her bedside. "Ah, Chels, thank god you're awake." Amy said, "We were so worried about you."
"What happened?" Chelsea mumbled groggily
"You passed out from loss of blood." Rory told her, "We brought you back here and fixed you up. Now, just take it easy. You lost a lot of blood."
"Where's Isabella?" Chelsea asked, sitting up.
"She's fine." Amy assured her, "She's with her dad. The Doctor managed to reverse whatever it was they did to her."
"Where's the Doctor now?"
"Right here." the Doctor said, walking into the room, "Good to see ya awake, Willows." He went over to the bed and checked the scanner above it. "Good. No sign of infection and the wound's healing nicely." he read out, "You're gonna be ok."
"How did ye get on at the school?" Amy asked him
"Ah, learned a bit." the Doctor replied, "I just need to work out what she's up to." He began to pace around the room. "Come on brain, think, think, think!"
"If they're fish people, it explains why they hate the sun." Amy remarked
"Stop talking, brain thinking, hush." the Doctor said, putting a hand over Amy's mouth.
"It's the school thing I don't understand." Rory said
"Stop talking, brain thinking, hush." the Doctor said irritably, putting his other hand over Rory's mouth. "Her planet dies." he thought out loud, "So they flee through a crack in space and time, and end up here. Then she closes off the city and, one by one, changes people into creatures like her to start a new gene pool. Got it. Then what? They come from the sea, they can't survive forever on land, so what's she gonna do? Unless she's going to do something to the environment to make the city habitable... She said, 'I shall bend the heavens to save my race.'" He removed his hands from Amy and Rory's mouths and placed them on their heads, forcing them to nod. "Bend the heavens... Bend... the heavens." Suddenly, it clicked for him. "She's going to sink Venice."
"She's gonna sink Venice?" Amy asked incredulously
"And repopulate it with the girls she's transformed." the Doctor finished
"You can't repopulate somewhere with just women." Rory pointed out, "You need... blokes."
"She's got them." Chelsea spoke up
"Where?" the Doctor questioned
"In the canal. She told me there was '10,000 husbands waiting in the water.'"
"Only the male offspring survived the journey here." the Doctor realised, "She's got 10,000 children swimming in the canals, waiting for mum to make them some compatible girlfriends. Ew. I mean, I've been around a bit, but, really, that's... that's... Ew."
"Well, hadn't we better stop them?" Amy said obviously
"Yes, definitely." the Doctor decided, "C'mon, let's get to Guido's. Looks like we're gonna need his gunpower after all." And he left the room, Amy following.
Rory looked rather torn. On the one hand, he wanted to follow his fiancé and keep her out of trouble, but he also didn't want to leave his patient. Chelsea seemed to realise his conflict. "Go with her, Rory." she told him, "I'll be alright. I'll just rest here. Good luck."
"I think we'll need it." Rory nodded, and he went off after Amy and the Doctor.
~8~
A few hours later, Chelsea was still resting in the med-bay when Amy returned, looking rather chipper. "Hey, you." she said, "Looking much better now."
"Is everything alright?" Chelsea asked her
"Yeah, fine." Amy replied, "Guido blew the fish-vampire girls up, I toasted mummy's boy, the Doctor stopped Rosanna, Venice is safe and Rory's coming with us."
"Ah, good." Chelsea smiled
Amy then took a breath. "Look, Chels, I'm sorry I've been a rotten cousin lately." she said earnestly, "I've just been so caught up in it all. You're right, it is dangerous and we nearly lost you today. It made me realise just how much of a child I've been."
"Apology accepted, Ames." Chelsea replied, "So, Rory's staying, then?"
"Yeah. It'll do us good. Be nice to have a man in the TARDIS." Amy smiled
"Oi!" the Doctor huffed, choosing that moment to enter the room.
"I mean, Human man." Amy waved him off, "Anyway, I'm gonna pop the kettle on. See ya later, Chels." And she left the room.
The Doctor crossed over to Chelsea's bed and checked the scanner again. "All fine." he told her, "You're ok to move about again."
"Ah, glad to hear it." Chelsea remarked, getting up off the bed, "It was getting boring just lying here looking at the ceiling."
"D'you wanna go home?" the Doctor asked her, "I know things haven't exactly gone to plan and I understand if you wanna leave."
"To be honest, Doctor, I really don't know what I wanna do." Chelsea told him, "I came along because I needed to keep Amy safe for her wedding and I was curious about what's out there. Just answer me this: is there anywhere in the universe where it isn't all death an destruction?"
The Doctor smiled. "Yes, there is." he said, "Tell ya what, tomorrow we'll go to Karass don Slava. They're got candle meadows there, and there's no Daleks, Weeping Angels or Saturnytes to bother us."
"You promise?"
"Cross my hearts." the Doctor replied, doing just that.
"Alright, I'm gonna hold ya to that." Chelsea laughed, "Night, Doctor."
"Night, Willows." the Doctor nodded as Chelsea then left the med-bay to go to her bedroom. After she'd gone, the Doctor's expression turned thoughtful. Rosanna had told him that she and her fellow survivors had fled through cracks in time and they'd seen silence and the end of all things through them. These revelations worried the Doctor immensely.
Author's notes: Ok, so apologies for this chapter being so short. I'm not too fond of this episode and I couldn't be bothered to adapt the whole thing so I skimmed through it. At least we've got one of series 5's standout episodes coming up next, so that should be suitable compensation. Off-topic, series 13 is now finished. Gotta say, it started off decent enough but kinda went to pot in the last couple of episodes. Still, we've only got to put up with a few more Chibnall misfires then we can look forward to RTD's comeback, so there's light at the end of the tunnel!