The Doctor would not, under any circumstances, let Danni set out of the TARDIS first. He pretended that he wasn't as overbearingly protective as his predecessor but he didn't fool anyone, especially Danni. He felt like he had good reason to be concerned, though, and so he stepped out into the street first to check out the area.
It was dark outside, and pale street lights ensured that everything looked a little rundown. There were no people, which both relieved him and made him suspicious. It was very rare for somewhere to be this completely deserted.
He held the door opened for his wife and, after a moment, she stepped out. He watched the confusion immediately change her facial expression. "Are we sure this is right?"
River appeared at the door. "It's just night," she replied. "You know it's right because I flew us here."
The Doctor mocked her. Silently, just because he didn't want to upset Danni anymore. "What are we looking for?"
"Well, he's about six foot, has a trench coat fetish…"
"I meant where do we think he is," the Doctor interrupted her before she could irate him even more. "Do you know the building? The street? The postcode, perhaps? Are we on the right planet?"
"Doctor," Danni said in warning before turning to River. "I've got the ear piece, so you two don't have to talk. Do you have any idea where we have to head?"
"According to the TARDIS he's about half a mile down the street from here," she explained in a much more civil tone. "Just turn right and follow the road, but I can't give you a building."
"Alright. Stay in the TARDIS and we'll keep you updated," Danni told her. "We don't need you disappearing from history. One of us is quite enough."
"Don't joke about that," both the Doctor and River scolded her at once.
"Don't take that tone with me," Danni replied. "I can joke about it if I want to." She was allowed to. She was the one disappearing, after all. She met the Doctor's eyes before nodding down the street. "Come on." As they headed away from River, she looked over the shoulder. "Don't leave the TARDIS!"
"Yes mother!"
The rest of the street didn't look any more appealing than where they'd landed. There were no lights in any of the windows, and everything looked rather run down. Danni immediately moved a little closer to her husband, reaching out to take his hand.
"Are we sure this place isn't completely deserted?" she asked him.
"It would be a good place to hide a overexuberant ex-Time Agent," he reasoned. "There's almost no noise at all. It'd be the last place I'd look for him. There's no wild parties and questionable people hooking up with other questionable people."
Danni looked up at him. "'Hooking up'?" she repeated, amused. "Trying to be down with the kids now, Doctor?"
"Oi, I can still be 'hip' when I want to be," he protested. "I just don't want it. Have you seen it? Most times 'hip' just seems to be exhausting."
Danni knew exactly what he was doing. He was a self-proclaimed hater of 'banter', so this was all for her benefit. He was trying to keep her calm instead of panicking about what was happening to Jack and, in turn, what was happening to her. The last thing he needed was to have to spend time calming her down when their main goal was saving Jack, which in turn would save her.
"These people have a problem with me, right," she started and the Doctor sighed heavily. However, he knew better than to stop her train of thought. "But then, why go for Jack? Surely if they know about me then they know that he's, you know, immortal?"
"I would suspect so, yes," he replied.
"Well, you know, then they must know he's immortal," she explained. "As in 'he's always going to come back from the dead'. That's why I'm just flitting between existing and, well… not."
"I'm unsure of your point," he told her, a little short. He wasn't too bothered about the motives behind their attempt to get rid of his wife, he just wanted to stop it.
"Well, my point is, why Jack?" she asked. "Why would they go for the ultra unkillable parent? Not-Not that I want them going after River, or anyone really, in fact I'd rather they'd just left my time line alone and maybe, perhaps, try and stop me doing whatever has pissed them off…" The Doctor shot her a look and she caught herself in her ramble. "Anyway. What I mean is, why would they not go for River? Even if they took her when she was still Mels, that's only at most twelve times they'd have to kill her. Not that I'm advocating killing anyone, but if I was some evil mastermind that's what I'd do."
"You're mistaking these people for people with actual brains," he pointed out. He couldn't help but look around, taking in the fact that the street seemed unnaturally quiet. They'd obviously landed in a city and it was extremely unlikely for somewhere with this kind of infrastructure to be so… silent. "You're clever, they're not. That's why they're on this ridiculous mission."
His eyes caught sight of a security camera above the heads pointing straight at them. Not at the street, or the ground, he could have sworn it was pointed directly at him and his wife. He pulled her to a stop, looking around for more cameras, which confirmed his suspicions. Every camera around them had turned and was pointing straight at them.
"Somebody's watching us," he told her lowly. Danni's grip on his hand tightened and her gaze followed his to the cameras.
"Have we already stumbled onto somewhere we're not allowed?" she asked. "That's quick, even for us. What do we do?"
He wasn't too sure, to be honest. If the people that had been foolish enough to take Jack were in control of those cameras, they probably were already too late to hide away. The buildings, whilst looking rundown, also looked like they were locked down for the night.
He'd not really thought this through. A lot of his brain power had been worrying on the fact that his wife could disappear at any moment during their current adventure. He'd been trying to plan for that eventuality, which wasn't exactly something that was easy to plan for. Especially considering there was no guarantee that she was pop back into his life again like she'd never been gone.
"Well, getting out of view is not an option," he told her. "So…"
He let go of her hand to hold both of his up, waving them in the direction of one of the cameras like he was eagerly greeting an old friend. "Hello up there!" he cried. "Big brother has got his eyes glued on us, hasn't he? Hope he doesn't mind the old sod he's managed to spot along with his wife."
Danni grabbed one of his arms, pulling it down to stop him waving manically. "What are you doing?" she hissed. "Are you insane?"
"Whoever is looking through those cameras is looking at us," he replied. "Which means they must be looking for us. Aren't you at least a little bit curious as to why? Perhaps they could lead us to your father, or to the people who are trying to kill him. Maybe they're just the local dog wardens."
"Or maybe they'll just kill us!"
"Perhaps," he agreed. "But listen." He held his hand to his ear and she focused on the sound he was trying to pick out from this distance. "Sirens. Someone is heading our way. Police, maybe, judging by the fact that it sounds like quite a slow siren and we have a bunch of security cameras pointing at us which would imply we've done something wrong."
"And your response was to bring them to us sooner?" she asked. "Shouldn't we be running to the TARDIS?"
"No, what I'm doing is giving the people who are actually watching us a chance to get to us before the police do," he explained. "This is a city with a fully working surveillance system. The buildings are rundown but there's street lighting. No one, and I mean no one is outside but us. Call me a pessimist but I'm going to call that a curfew."
"And we're two random people, who have appeared from nowhere outside in a city with a curfew," she finished. "Which explains the police coming for us."
"It does. But the bigger question is: 'why is there a curfew'?" he pointed out. "What's the first thing that comes to mind when there's a city-wide curfew?"
"The military?" she replied, which he couldn't deny was a fair assumption. The sirens were getting closer.
"Crime," he said. "Crime and not enough power to stop it. Which to me says that we should be visited any moment by the people who are actually in charge."
"And you don't see the problem with that at all?" she asked him.
"Do you think Jack is in the possession of the police?" he countered. She sighed angrily – of course he just had to make a lot of sense. She reached up, pressing her finger against her ear and turning on the communicator.
"River?" she asked.
"Lost already?" River sounded rather amused. Danni didn't appreciate it.
"Not quite," she replied. "We're about to encounter some criminals. Fancy trying to get us some information on who they might be?"
"Of course," River replied. "I'm going to guess it's the Doctor who's pulled their attention?"
"Who else?" Danni replied. "Although, I'm sure they're just as happy to see me as him.
"Be careful."
"Oh, don't worry about us. I'm sure they're going to be just the friendliest."
"You know, the sarcasm really wasn't necessary," the Doctor told her as she lowered her finger to end the call.
"Yes, it was," she replied simply as she spotted a group of figures appearing out of the shadows. "Oh look, we've appeared to have entered a 1930's crime movie."
She wasn't wrong. The group of five men were all in black suits and ties, but it was obvious the one the approached them first was in charge. They were incredibly well-groomed, the Doctor noted, but the others were built to do some serious damage should they have been instructed to. And the street lights really didn't help remove the rather intimidating atmosphere.
Danni frowned. Each of them had a black patch over their right eye. Her stomach lurched horribly. "Please don't tell me this is a Silent thing," she muttered to her husband. "I really don't want that again."
"I doubt it. I stopped them," he reminded her. Still, the sight also made him very uneasy. It wouldn't have been the first time they'd meddled with his wife's wellbeing. Still, he couldn't be too safe…
He stepped forward. "Hello boys," the Doctor greeted before they could get a word in. He wanted their attention on him and not on his wife should this go sour. It was definitely going to go sour. "Looks like the neighbourhood has gone downhill. Want me to take a look at that for you?"
Danni winced, but instead of the smack that she was expecting him to receive, the man in charge opened his arms with a grin on his face.
"Doctor, Danni, welcome!" he greeted. "I have to admit, I thought we would be seeing you during the day, but it's so lovely to finally see you." With an almost grand wave, he motioned to the side and towards one of the locked-down buildings. "If you would just follow me, Doctor, I'm sure we have a lot to talk about."
Danni and the Doctor shared a look. Both of them had been doing this long enough to never trust a man with a charming smile whose words sounded inviting but his tone suggested that they very much didn't have a choice.
Running at this point probably wasn't going to go down too well, so the Doctor shot him his own fake smile. "We'll be glad to," he replied.
"Ah, ah," the man said, stopping the pair in his tracks. "I'm sorry, I understand where the confusion would have come from. Unfortunately we have other plans for you, Danni." He nodded towards her. "Take her."
Two of his henchmen stepped forward to grab her, but the Doctor used his grip on her to pull her back towards him. "No," he stated firmly, in warning. "You're trying to wipe her from existence. You are not to lay a finger on her."
This didn't go down too well, and the henchmen all turned their attention to the Doctor and the threat that he was obviously issuing to their boss. The Doctor didn't care. He'd bested Robin Hood in a sword fight with a spoon. He'd stared down Daleks and Cybermen. A group of thugs wasn't going to scare him.
"Now, now, there's no need for that," the man replied, motioning his own little army back. "You're not really going to have much choice in the matter, anyway, I'm afraid."
"Oh?" the Doctor retorted. "You obviously have not done enough research about my feelings towards people trying to kill my wife."
"There's quite the difference between dying and never being born," the man pointed out. He reached into his pocket, pulling out what looked like a walkie-talkie. "Kill him."
Danni had just stood back and let her husband talk. He could get a bit headstrong at times, but if anyone could talk them out of a situation it was her Theta. If she needed to step in, she would, but it was always best to let him run the show until he did something stupid.
It wasn't even him threatening the group of oversized goons that made her gasp in horror. If the man wanted the Doctor dead he wouldn't have called his henchman back. He was ordering someone to die elsewhere. He was ordering someone to kill Jack.
"Don't you dare!" she exclaimed, coming out from her safe place behind the Doctor. "You leave him alone!"
"Done," a crackly voice replied on the other end.
The man grinned happily. "Three, two, one."
The Doctor felt her ripped from time again like a punch to the gut. She disappeared as if she had never been there and the fury exploded in his chest. If he had been a man who carried a gun, there would be a bunch of dead people lying on the floor around him.
"There we go," the man continued like he'd dealt with a problem and not erased his wife. "How about we have that talk now?"
The Doctor glanced at the spot where she'd disappeared from. That was where she would reappear, mid-sentence, like she'd lost no time at all. She'd be confused, scared, and a little angry but at least she wouldn't be anywhere near the man who had ordered it in the first place.
"Fine," he snapped, walking towards the building he had been directed to. "Make it brief. No jokes, no compliments, no fawning over how spectacular I am. I'm a busy man and I don't appreciate flattery."
"Oh, I wouldn't dream of it," the man replied. He sounded amused. The Doctor hated that.
"And your goons follow," he added. "There's no need to keep waiting for her. I assume you'll keep Jack dead as long as it takes, correct?"
"That is the plan," the man agreed, giving a silent cue for his men to follow him. "He is a slippery one, though. He just doesn't want to stay dead."
~0~0~0~
The Doctor's inklings had been correct. The moment they'd stepped into the rundown building, the difference almost smacked him in the face. The walls were shiny with marble, the floor complimented it perfectly whilst also showing off a rather obscene amount of wealth. There wasn't a sign of anyone else in the building but he assumed that they were hiding away from the boss man. People like that loved to show their power over their domains.
He didn't particularly care. Nor did he care about the door that obviously led to a stairway which was obviously the way to where Jack was being held – oh, there he went noticing things again. Did this body have a noticing face like his old one? When he finally got to the bottom of this absolutely infuriating affair he would have to ask Danielle. He wasn't sure if he wanted one or not because people didn't seem to like it. Craig was terrified of his noticing face.
The office he was taken to just continued the theme of being better than anyone else. Under any other circumstances the Doctor would have dismissed the man as a pain in the side of the universe, but he couldn't exactly do so when he held Danni's very existence in his hands. The Doctor had to play nice. He hated playing nice.
"Please, have a seat," the man offered as he headed around the oversized desk. The Doctor shook his head.
"I'll stand," he replied. "I find it better for running away."
The man chuckled. "I can understand that," he replied, sitting down anyway. There was no denying that the chair was supposed to be some sort of throne. "I'm sure you'll be wanting to get back to Danielle the moment she reappears?" The Doctor didn't reply, just shot the man a look that told him he hated people stating the obvious. "I wouldn't worry about that, Doctor. Even if she does come back, it won't be for very long. I doubt she will miss you."
Again, the Doctor didn't acknowledge his words. Of course she would miss him, even if she was only back for a second. She loved him as much as he loved her.
"Who are you?" the Doctor asked. "Why are you trying to erase my wife?"
"Straight to the point," the man said with a nod. "As I'd heard. I like someone who's direct."
"Then, directly, get to the point," the Doctor retorted. "Why do you want rid of my wife?"
"Do you know what planet you're on, Doctor?" the man asked in reply. "Or what year it is? Or did you just follow the trail of that over indulgent Captain of yours?"
The Doctor sighed heavily. "Tell me," he said in exasperation.
"You're on Edhurd, 3346."
The Doctor frowned, shaking his head. "No, that's not right," he stated. "Edhurd was in a three-hundred-year period of growth and prosperity at that time. You must be mistaken."
"I'm really not," the man replied. "We were doing splendidly until your wife showed up. There was chaos, carnage. Families were torn apart, our infrastructure collapsed and the military took over the government. Only a few of us remember what should have been happening but that's all slowly fading as well. Hence the, well," he tapped the eyepatch, "rather primitive technology. Your wife cannot be stopped when it happens, so the only option is to remove her from the equation."
The Doctor scoffed. "That's not my wife," he dismissed. "You've got your stories wrong. I'd offer to help, but you've not exactly endeared yourself to us. Plus, once the Captain is free, your life is very limited. Even I can't get him to stop with the guns."
The man looked sympathetic, which was rather annoying. Like he believed the Doctor was just in denial and not right. It was a look he saw often, because people always seemed to think he was wrong, but he wasn't about this.
"Oh, Doctor, your wife is a scar on the universe," he explained, standing up and walking over to a cabinet that lined the wall. He opened it up and brought out a brown envelope. He walked over, pulling out a picture. He held it out to the Doctor. "You can't see it, but you will. She needs to be stopped."
The Doctor snatched the photo off him, turning it around so it was upright. It was a screenshot from a security camera of a rather well-lit area. And there, in the middle, wearing all black and carrying a gun was his Danielle.
"I have stories to tell you Doctor. But first, you must accept the fact that your wife is not what she has led you to believe. The Time Child must be stopped, at any cost."