His instinct was to run to the edge, to reach for her, but he forced himself to turn the other way, sprinting back up the invisible staircase.
"Let me out!" Shae's voice came from the locked TARDIS. He could hear her fists hammering against the doors.
In a swift motion, he unlocked the doors and rushed into the console room, snagging Shae's wrist on the way and pulling her from the exit as the doors fell closed behind him.
"You. Locked. Me. In!" she yelled at him accusingly. Then her eyes seemed to see him properly, and she glanced back towards the door. Her voice was worried and fearful as she spoke again. "Where's Sara?"
He ran around the console, working furiously. "She fell," he told her simply in a monotonous voice.
"No!" She turned ran back to the doors and started hammering on the again, frantically shaking them and turning the useless lock. "We have to Help her!"
"We are!" he assured her. "I shouldn't. It's dangerous. But I heard the TARDIS." He now knew that what he heard wasn't his imagination.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Shae's face light up. "So you've already saved her?" Her expression turned commanding, like a scolding mother. "Then hurry up!"
He winced at how instinctively she seemed to understand the dilemma of crossing timelines, but he pushed his musings to the side to deal with later.
He sprinted back to the doors and opened them - just in time to catch Sara who fell into his arms. "Gotcha!" he said, before slamming the doors shut again and sealing them safely inside. He let Sara drop limply to the floor, although he controlled her descent enough so she wouldn't get hurt. He immediately ran back to the console and sent them into the Time Vortex. He wouldn't make the same mistake again.
He turned his attention back to Sara. Shae was already by her side, comforting the other woman. Sara's eyes were wide and her whole body was shivering - a combination of adrenaline and terror. The Doctor closed his eyes and took a deep breath, opening his eyes again as he released it. How was he going to deal with this?
Shae put her arm around Sara's shoulders but as the Doctor turned to examine them, she paid him a look of quiet resentment before gazing back at Sara, falling quiet. The girl nearly died in her desperation to escape him and the Doctor almost facilitated it while at the same time, locking her inside.
She shivered remembering how he immediately dragged her away from the door. Was Sara really right? She never wanted to be back with her son, her family as desperately as she did in that moment. But if they were gone….Shae's breath hitched in her throat. Sara had talked about God describing her friend's death. Last words that were said to her. It had been a while since Shae had been to church but distant memories flickered in her mind. The voice of her grandmother. And the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil.
Is that what happened if the universe was gone? Was her family taken away to be with God? But what about me? Why didn't I go with them? Shae pressed her lips together as tears started to come to her eyes. Was I not righteous?
"I need you both to listen to me." The Doctor said.
"Or what?" Sara wrapped her arms around herself, suppressing the chills that were erupting on her skin. "Wait, let me guess. You'll lock us in a room? Strap us down to a bed?" She clenched her fists together. "Command us to sleep if we don't behave? Already know you did that once…oh, and you lied about it." She shook her head with fervency. "Something's never change, do they?"
He looked at the volatile girl before him, remembering how she resisted his telepathic control. A human should have had no such defences, not that all humans were comparable . A rare few were immune to hypnotic suggestion but he had been able to impart surface commands to Sara up to the point where she willfully broke free. That alone was a cause for concern. If she manifested such an ability with her energy signature, Shae might too and now both women appeared temperamental towards him.
"I'm sorry, Sara." He glanced at Shae who was doing her best not to make eye contact. "I truly am. For what happened. For what you both may have lost." The Time Lord crouched down in front of them so he appeared less intimidating, keeping his expression even as he clasped both hands together in front of him. "I'd like to try to help if you let me."
"Help." Sara repeated. "By locking us up." She closed her eyes desperately wanting to erase the sight of the console room from her vision. It was a sign of everything she detested, her lack of freedom, every shred of independence she had being torn away from her. To make matters worse, Shae was now about to experience the very ordeal she went through. Sara had wanted to spare her from this insanity but in the end she failed. Just like Christina. My responsibility. My fault. "I'm sorry." She whispered to Shae, knowing the Doctor could hear her but nonetheless, she had to say it. Maybe someday Shae would forgive her.
The alien paused hearing Sara's muttered regret and seeing the bleak expression on Shae's face, he reached out to take her hand in support but Shae moved, taking her own hand just beyond his grasp. He grimaced.
"Yes, I can help because I don't know if you've noticed but I'm no longer the Time Lord Victorious." He attempted to offer a smile. "Just me. The Doctor. And if you take a bit to get to know me you'll find-"
Sara shook her head frantically. "You don't get it. I don't want to get to know you because you're still HIM!" She leapt to her feet as Shae suddenly glanced up at her in surprise. "So if you actually care and you really want to help us, take us back to our time and let us go." She inhaled briefly. "Do that and who knows? Maybe I'll consider it."
"Sara," He started calmly. "Shae." He stood up as he went to lean against the console, pondering how he would extricate himself from this very difficult situation. He never expected it nor wanted it. The human ran into him and he couldn't help but overhear her. "Dr. Walter Simeon has seemed to taken an interest in you and I suspect, Sara you know the reason why. People…creatures just like him will use either of you for information or the energy you're carrying."
"We would have gotten away." Sara protested.
"Would you?" The Doctor unfolded his hands, open them wide while shrugging his shoulders. "My associates told me he has made quite a few disappear. What knowledge of the snow you have, believe me he knows more."
Briefly she closed her eyes and shuddered. It was a reminder of everything she was trying to escape. These horrendous adventures she had been forced to endure before and she felt her hands tremble. "I just want to go home." Her voice was faint.
"I know." The Doctor's voice was gentle. "But if it's true what happened to your reality…" His voice trailed as he started to see tears come to Sara's eyes. "I'm sorry. I am, but right now, the TARDIS is the safest place for you and Shae. I promise I won't lock either of you in a room and why would I? The ship is infinite. I would say you should have plenty of room to-"
"We can't." Sara's voice rang with finality. "I just can't do it anymore. I nearly…." She started to shudder at the memory of her suicide attempt in her former bedroom she had been confined into by the Time Lord Victorious. "I can't."
The Doctor frowned seeing the very state Sara was in. Shae wouldn't even look at him and he started to pace thinking about both the women now in his charge. The pain they suffered, so like the Doctor's own. This was never the way he liked to garner a companion. He wasn't even looking for a passenger but here they were. His hands pressed against the console. The decision was his. He could lock them inside the TARDIS indefinitely and be justified in doing it. How would that make me any better then that dimensional duplicate? He told them he was no longer the Time Lord Victorious. Perhaps now he needed to prove it.
"What else do I have to do?" He asked aloud, remembering how he'd just lost his whole family. "Earth, I assume." He started working the controls. " What year?"
Both Sara and Shae looked up at him, their eyes wide as breath suddenly stilled in Sara's throat. Was he actually going to let them go? That meant…hope filled Sara for the first time in the past several weeks. He's going to take us to our time period and drop us off. Come back here to do this alone like he should. Sara wanted nothing more then to believe in this possibility.
"I think 2010 is fine." Sara glanced at Shae who provided a brief shrug in acquiescence.
"And where to?"
That was a challenging question. Sara was from Seattle while Shae lived in Sydney but maybe going to her home country on an alternate world would be too much of a painful reminder for Shae. Sara in that moment was flexible if the other girl wanted to live in Australia, she could adapt to life in another country. After all, before she had been thrust into this world, it was a place she always wanted to visit.
"Shae…" She started.
"Going to need to find us a home big enough for all three of us." The Doctor muttered as he stared at the screen. "Can't really compare to the TARDIS but we'll try to make do." He glanced at Shae and briefly rubbed his hands together. "You lived in Sydney, eh? Always wanted to try that. Living there. Maybe take up playing cricket once again. Ooooh, I love pavlova. Don't know if I tasted it with this mouth." He spoke referring to this regeneration.
Sara and Shae were struck silent. He wasn't going to release them from the TARDIS with a handshake and a bid farewell. No. His intention was to stay with them on Earth in that timeframe to supervise them. Sara felt her heart start to fall. He was never going to leave them alone.
Sara spoke first with increasing reluctance realizing also the certain consequences of what would occur if the Doctor didn't return to resolve the events they had started to experience in the Victorian era.
"Doctor…..we…" She paused and then shook her head. He couldn't contemplate grounding himself. Not right now. Once those events had resolved and he took them back to the future, a plan could be conceived where Sara and Shae could disappear once the door was opened. If the Doctor had difficulty locating Clara Oswald in the modern time, they might stand a chance of eluding him.
"You what?" He hadn't activated the time rotor, glancing at the girls with keen intellect, awaiting their decision.
"Walter Simeon." Sara said finally. "You have to deal with him first. There's a paradox and he's…." She shook her head. "We can't leave right now." Her voice was faint. "He'll kill everyone. Destroy the world."
The Doctor gave a brief sigh of relief. His little strategy might work after all as he began setting the coordinates back to Victorian England. Since both girls were precognitive, he had no doubt they felt the paradox. The impending disaster that was about to take place but he kept his face even and nodded. "Then we'll deal with Walter Simeon. No running off this time, either of you, eh?" That being said, he would have to take them with him. If Sara was so precognitive as to manipulate the doors…he briefly shuddered as to the consequences of leaving either one inside his TARDIS unsupervised. He might need to utilize Vastra and Jenny in this situation.
"Shae," The Doctor was addressing the other woman. "Perhaps you would like to go to the wardrobe. Get a fresh change of clothes." Her modern clothing was likely to cause a riot.
Shae didn't respond to him. Her face was turned slightly away refusing to even acknowledge him. From where he was standing, he could see the betrayal that still covered her face and he grimaced to himself. She had been so full of wonder and delight when he first brought her into the TARDIS, and it had only taken moments to destroy that joy. His eyes flickered between the two of them and he sighed internally. Unless he wanted the rest of their lives to be miserable, he was going to have to work hard to get them on his side. They might be willing to stay with him long enough to prevent a paradox, but he had little doubt that that was all that was keeping them in check.
"Come on," Sara whispered, pulling Shae along with her. Together they slowly entered the labyrinth that was the TARDIS. The Doctor didn't offer them directions to the wardrobe, nor did they ask for such. If they got lost in the TARDIS for a while away from him, they were okay with that.
"I can't believe him!" Shae seethed after a few minutes of walking. "He's not supposed to be like this. He's supposed to be nice."
Sara waited quietly. She didn't need to remind Shae that he wasn't 'nice'. He'd already proved that. Shae just needed the opportunity to work through the truth.
"I'm sorry," Shae told her after another moment.
Sara looked at her with surprise and guilt. "It wasn't your fault. I was the one who got his attention." She shook her head. "It's my fault we're stuck here…"
"No, I didn't mean that." Sara saw Shae's eyes glint with something, like steely determination. "I'm sorry I didn't believe you about him. You were right, but I didn't want to listen."
"Don't worry, we'll get out," Sara promised. "When this is all over and he goes to the future looking for Clara, we'll find a way to sneak out. He'll be distracted and we'll get away! Once we're in our own time, we'll be able to find somewhere to hide. Maybe Donna or Jack or Sarah Jane…" Sara's voice trailed off as she thought of the possibilities. Donna had helped her in the last universe, maybe she could help them again.
Shae shook her head. "It wouldn't work. They're all too loyal to the Doctor. And Donna doesn't remember anything."
"She helped my last time," Sara objected. "And we never saw Jack with this Doctor, maybe they had a falling out."
Shae nodded, but Sara could tell that it was a hollow gesture. She could almost feel the hopelessness pouring off the other woman. She'd just about given up.
The girls walked on aimlessly for a few more minutes, until Shae stopped and leaned heavily on against the wall. Sara turned back to her and her heart twisted as she saw her friend's expression. "Is it true?" she asked, her voice broken and bitter.
Sara gently placed her hand on the grieving woman's shoulder. "I'm so sorry," she whispered.
Shae slowly sank to the floor, her sobs coming out as shattered gasps as she clutched at her chest. She shook her head in denial, but nothing could stop the pain. Her chest felt like it was about to break open, and only by squeezing her arms tightly to her chest could stop herself from falling apart. She felt Sara wrapping her arms around her, but even that small offer of comfort did nothing to ease her grief. Every breath caused her body to shudder, and she could do nothing to lessen the keening sound she made as they were released.
Sara could think of nothing to say as comfort. What could she say when Shae's whole family, including her son, had been killed with the rest of their universe. As she held Shae tightly, She wondered how she would have felt had someone been there to support her. She internally shook her head. The Time Lord Victorious would never have been that person. But now, she could be there for Shae.
They sat huddled together for a few minutes before Sara felt the back of her neck prickling. She looked back down the hallway from where they'd come and saw the Doctor watching them, his expression reflecting Shae's grief. He met Sara's eyes and she minutely shook her head at him. He couldn't help; he would only make things worse. To her slight surprise, he turned and walked away from them again, giving them what little privacy he could offer.
"Come on," she gently urged the broken woman. "Let's make some tea before we do anything else."
Shae mutely acquiesced, allowing herself to be drawn to her feet.
xxxxxxxxxx
Meanwhile, the Doctor had returned to the console room with heavy hearts. He wanted to assure the girls that they were wrong, that there was no evidence that their universe had been destroyed, but if Sara was right, then his denial would only cause them more pain later. No, better to let them grieve now, and if he determined that their grief was unfounded then they could celebrate later. He checked the scans he'd already programmed into the console. He'd found a few interesting wobbles in time, and one tiny tear that had already sealed itself, a tear that was reminiscent for the energies he'd detected from the girls earlier, but nothing as glaringly catastrophic as Sara had described. Sara seemed to have been to a parallel reality, but Shae hadn't. If Shae had been brought straight from their universe to his, the residual energies of the crack she came through would verify Sara's story. But so far he hadn't been able to even find how Shae had fallen into his path, let alone find a tear that matched Sara's description.
He sighed to himself. He would be able to perform much more acute scans if he could investigate the girls and their strange energies readings more clearly. He could run some scans from the console room, but they weren't as specialised as the tests he could perform in the medbay. However, he needed to rebuild his rapport with them before he could convince them to accompany him for testing. Besides, they would be with him for a long time, and it would benefit him more in the long run to show a little patience.
He again looked at the results of his earlier scans. He could see that each girl had energies within them that were unique from the other, which made some sense if Sara had been trapped in a universe with his counterpart – she may have been exposed to something in his reality that accounted for the discrepancies between them – but somehow there were some wavelengths that he couldn't quite differentiate. He couldn't tell if it came from one or both of them.
He shook his head, thinking of the tests he would have to wait to run. Earlier, Shae might have gone willingly with him, but now? And Sara was bound to be a handful as well. He shuddered as he thought about the way Sara fought him, the way he almost lost her off the cloud. No, she wasn't going to make things easy for him at all. Perhaps, after he'd dealt with Doctor Simeon, it would be best to gently separate the girls, to approach each of them on their own rather than as a united front against him. He'd need to be careful, delicate, so they wouldn't be afraid when he came to them.
But first he needed to come up with a plan to keep them from running in Victorian London. He hoped that his promise to return them to the future afterwards would be enough, but he needed a backup plan just in case.
He rubbed his forehead in frustration. Nothing was ever easy. The universe treated him as a cruel joke. Over and over again giving him families he cherished, then painfully snatching them away. His own family on Gallifrey, taken before their time, and by his own hand. And his human family, his frail little family. No, he decided he wouldn't do it anymore. He wouldn't accept more people into his life just to lose them again, just for them to die. Yet, once again, the universe was forcing his pain to repeat itself, this time in the guise of Sara and Shae; two more fragile humans who would only live to die on him. His thoughts returned to his new passengers, and his recognised their kindred pain. They too were grieving the loss of everything they'd known and cherished. Perhaps, just maybe, that would give them grounds to come to some sort of understanding, perhaps even a friendship. He shuddered at the thought of supervising these girls for the next few decades if they remained stubbornly reticent against him.
He flicked a switch on the monitor, and checked their location on his ship. They were moving away from the kitchenette where they'd gone after his brief interruption. He thought back on Shae's grief in that hallway, so like his own. But Sara had been right to warn him away. Given the look of betrayal he'd seen on Shae earlier, his intrusion on her grief would not have been a welcome addition. He changed some settings on his console, temporarily relocating the wardrobe in their path. He would solve this problem of Simeon and the snow, and then he would help his new companions as they adjusted to their new lives with him. He didn't doubt that they would resist, but humans were the great adaptors, and he would find a way to make it work.
xxxxxxxxxx
Sara successfully managed to blend together a loose leaf variation of English Breakfast with Chai for the spice before handing a steaming cup to Shae as she put the kettle in the sink. Taking out a container of whole milk with a bowl of sugar she put it on the table while only measuring a small dash of the former in hers.
"Thank you." Shae's voice was bleak. "I didn't think there were that many tea drinkers in the states." She grimaced briefly as she sipped from her cup.
"Coffee makes me nauseous but my friend Jessica used to love it." She gripped tightly to the mug, her mind also inevitably straying to the family she would never see again. "In Seattle, we had two coffee places on every street corner and rain or shine…." Sara shook her head. "I loved it either way. When I first arrived in London, the weather reminded me a bit of home."
"I've never been to London before." This variation of London was hardly Shae's ideal and she shivered. "I was planning to go when Jesse was a bit older. Maybe see…" Her voice trailed as she considered her previous desire to see the film locations for the show. Now, in the dreaded reality of the circumstance, it seemed a frivolous notion.
"I'm sorry." Sara told her gently. "Sorry that the Doctor isn't who you thought he was." She certainly wished it could have been different but experience was a great teacher. Sometimes she wondered whether her own contrary attitude against the show was what sent the other Doctor down the path of the Time Lord Victorious causing him to become wretchedly stuck in that degree of thinking.
Shae pushed away from the table, staring at the cup in her hand listlessly. Her own grief made it difficult to concentrate and it was difficult to feel any sense of optimism for the future. If they did survive what Walter Simeon had planned, then what? If by some chance they extracted themselves from the Doctor, she would be nearly entirely on her own again in an unknown Earth struggling to survive. She took a deep breath. In contrast to the horrific account Sara had already given, that was likely preferable then psychological torture.
"Come on." Sara's voice was faint. "Let's get this over with."
Of course, period specific clothing had to be found for Shae and it seemed the corridors reconfigured so the Wardrobe Room was directly across from them. Venturing inside, they were able to make distinctions of the clothing by the decade of style. Both women went through a change of clothes since the attire Sara was wearing was considerably damp. Nothing could prepare Shae for the actual torment of wearing a corset and having the laces tighten around her ribs. Her chest and torso ached from the device and she had to resort to shallow breathing since her lungs refused to expand.
"Do I really have to wear this?" Shae protested and Sara grimaced in result.
"The bodice of the dress won't fit without it." Sara informed her. "And if you go without a corset they might think you a prostitute."
The severity of the clothing seemed to match those ideas as they put on dresses appropriate for 1890's London that were high neck with silver clasps, dropping to long A-line waists since bustles apparently had gone out of fashion in the 1880's. Sara could only account that Clara's dress was a few years old and not in keeping with the trends. Removing two cloaks from their respective hangers, she handed one to Shae. "Are you ready?"
Shae frowned. She didn't want to face seeing the Doctor again but eventually knew she had no choice. It didn't mean, however, she had to speak to him after the betrayal she suffered. Briefly, she looked to Sara and nodded as they made their way out to the console room where he had apparently been waiting, his clothing changed. Sara's mind flickered in recognition. Sherlock Holmes. Apparently, this was when he would choose to confront Dr. Simeon and find the Great Intelligence lurking right inside. Briefly, she shook her head. She didn't like how he was about to make a mockery of the character from her favorite television show.
"What's wrong?" He asked, hardly missing her reaction to his change of attire.
"Nothing." Sara said, closing her eyes. Shae simply looked at her feet and the Doctor sighed. Gesturing towards the door, it opened and he watched them carefully as they walked outside proceeding towards the staircase. The trip downwards proved uneventful as he adjusted the water vapour to allow them access to the ground. Both flinched as he rested his hands each of their forearms steering them directly to the path of the carriage where Strax was waiting. Sara immediately tried to jerk her arm away as he held firm.
"Let go." Her tone was a warning as her temper was rising.
"Sara, relax. I just need to make sure-"
"Of what?" She challenged. "I told you we had to go back. Obviously, it's in our best interest not to see the world wiped out by Dr. Simeon, so there's no point in running right now is there?" She shook her head. "Especially when you'll have your lackeys go and fetch us again." She tried to breathe. "Maybe Strax can toss a grenade in our direction!"
Strax, ever vigilant seemed to perk up at the mention of using explosives. "Will you be requiring weapon support today, sir?" He glanced at Sara suspiciously who was in the midst of her conflict with the Doctor. "Perhaps for the boy." He started to recommend as the Doctor turned on him in frustration.
"At the moment, Strax, all we require is transport to see Dr. Simeon." He briefly clenched his jaw as he led the girls inside. The night was not proving favorable as they began their progression to the destination of his newest adversary.
Shae silently watched the city roll passed her window. Like Sara, she had felt instantly revolted by his controlling gesture, but in contrast to the other, she gritted her teeth and allowed herself to be lead. There was no use resisting now, and if he thought she was complacent it might make it easier for her to get away in the future. That didn't, however, mean she had to voluntarily interact with him.
"I want you both to stay close to me," he was saying. "And if I tell you to do something, you do it straight away. I don't know what he wants with you yet, but I'd prefer not to find out the hard way."
Sara scoffed from his other side. "When is anything you do not the hard way?"
He simply stared at her. Despite Sara's unwillingness to allow him the satisfaction of thinking he intimidated her, she wouldn't meet his gaze. Using his name in her mind managed to break his light telepathic hold before but it had considerable side effects leaving her without entire control of all her faculties. What if the Doctor realized she had his name? He somehow didn't seem aware of it at the time but using the name had the same impact on this Doctor as it had on the Time Lord Victorious in the previous dimension. At any rate, it was one card she wanted to keep hold of for emergencies. Maybe I should give it to Shae. Sara thought looking at the other woman with compassion. No doubt the Doctor got inside her head. It would have been the only way to have calmed the girl down sufficiently to lead her back to the TARDIS and Shae had no such defense. However, it would have to wait until a prudent time when the two were alone and out of earshot. Of course, with the name, came all the inherent dangers so Shae needed to be fully informed.
"Sara," the Doctor tried again. "I really do want to help."
"Help." Sara repeated. "Your stupid time war destroyed our entire dimension." She closed her eyes, again struggling for a deep breath through the constricting corset. Tears came to Shae's eyes but she blinked rapidly as she fought to maintain focus on the scenery outside of the carriage. Sara continued on in the midst of her rant. "Oh that was so helpful. Everyone I ever loved, ever knew gone and I-"
"I lost my family too." The Doctor interrupted gently. "All of my children, my parents and my brother on Gallifrey." He paused. "You're both angry, I know but have you stopped to consider that we may have a bit in common?" His hands in a nervous gesture straightened his coat. "My human family were taken from me as well and I-"
"Wanted to be left alone." Sara finished. "And your friends respected your decision. Helped you. But you know what?" She shook her head. "You never bothered giving us that same choice." She gritted her teeth, inhaling through her nose. "I was tormented by your duplicate! He tortured me! He forced his way inside my mind and….." She couldn't help the tremors that broke out. "It hurt. It hurt so much. Leaving me in my room for days at a time. Pinning me to a bed….I wanted to die." She pressed her lips together. "I tried to…." She swallowed. Suicide was a mortal sin and the memory of the shadows coming off the walls to claim her…..briefly then, her mind reflected on the dream she had of the Eleventh version of the Doctor. In a nightmare, he was the Valeyard. In a dream, he attempted to offer consolation. Her brows furrowed in confusion. She was tremendously startled when the Doctor took her hand in his. Instantly, she reacted, trying to pull away but for the moment, he held firm.
"I'm sorry. I really am." He said with utter sincerity. "I would never do that to either of you. You have my word."
Sara's face became rigid only affording him a glare. "No. Too late. Your promises are worthless…." At this point, she knew better then to trust him. "You always lie. The Doctor always does."
This was going to be even more difficult then the Doctor could anticipate. Sara's complete ambivalence towards him and Shae's refusal to even acknowledge his presence. He finally released Sara's hand and she took up Shae's posture of staring out the window. He sighed. Despite what they thought of him, he still intended to keep his word, which meant grounding himself in one point of time in the Twenty First century. Given that scenario, he would have plenty of time to speak with each girl individually as he planned to before. Still, he cringed at the mere notion. He would need to establish identities, a residence where they could stay. What if they both wanted to work? He scowled inwardly. Trying to keep an eye on two willful charges at two different places of employment would be an added hardship. Also there was the consideration of whether they decided to start a relationship and a family. Their children could have the same intensive level of precognition. He could literally be stuck on Earth going through time the regular monotonous direction humans were so adapt to using for centuries.
Best not get ahead of myself. He still needed to run tests. Their abilities and gifts might be singular and not inherently linked to their chromosomes. The carriage was pulling to a stop and he took a deep breath as he opened the door, exiting first to ensure that both girls were directly within his line of sight.
"You both ready?" He asked.
"To watch you make a fool of yourself?" Sara said bitterly. "Sure."
"Oi! I am not making a fool out of myself." He protested with seeming indignation.
"You're dressed up as a fictional character to challenge the Gr-" Sara cut herself off as Shae squeezed her arm in reminder. "I mean Walter Simeon."
The Doctor's eyes narrowed minutely. Originally Sara hadn't been going to say 'Walter Simeon'. What else was behind this mystery of the snow, and just how much did these two know of it? He pushed the thought aside as he grasped the ornate doorknocker and firmly made his presence known to those within.
When the butler answered the door, he took in his clothing with unadulterated surprise and was just as incredulous as Sara by the identity the Doctor offered.
"I'll have you know Sherlock Holmes was a friend of mine. I knew him in my seventh regeneration and…." The Doctor was sputtering in an attempt to defend himself.
The servant who had quickly raced ahead through the door where Walter Simeon was located was heard to announce, "Sir, it's Sherlock Holmes."
The Doctor keeping a firm grip on both the girls entered the room to approach his adversary who merely looked back at him with introspection, then at both the women with keen interest in his expression.
He quickly scanned the room with his eyes. "Oh, nice office!" he exclaimed, then he locked his gaze with the cold glare of Walter Simeon. "Big globey thing." He deliberately drew his companions to the centre of the room by the large desk before carefully dropping their wrists. He lifted the cane that he'd hung on his arm as he entered and began waving and pointing it for emphasis. "Now, shut up, don't tell me! I see from your collar stud you have an apple tree and a wife with a limp. Am I right?" He ignored Sara's distasteful groan as he took a few steps forward as he spoke to keep himself between Simeon and his wards.
"No." Simeon's voice almost seemed to drip with venom as he spoke. His expression was sour, even though a smirk hinted at his lips as his eyes played across Sara and Shae.
"Do you have a wife?" the Doctor demanded, drawing the other man's attention back to himself.
"No," Simeon replied in the same tone.
Shae trembled at the unexpected atmosphere in the room. The air somehow felt thick and heavy, like the damp before a thunderstorm, only more intimidating. Her eyes drifted to the giant snowglobe that she knew housed the Great Intelligence. On the show if was merely a cool looking prop, but as a reality she could almost feel the presence of a malevolent entity lurking as though just out of sight, just behind a screen. She shot a look to Sara, and from the other girl's eyes, Shae guessed she could feel the same sensation.
"Bit of a tree? Bit of a wife? Some apples?"
While the Doctor continued his charade, Sara stepped closer to her shivering friend. "Come on," she whispered. "Let's wait closer to the doors." She gently took Shae's hand and encouraged her to the other side of the desk, placing an extra barrier between themselves, the Great Intelligence and his minion.
The Doctor turned and approached the desk once more, collecting one of the business cards into his fingers. His eyes briefly met Sara's and he nodded slightly, as though approving of her subtle movement in the room. "I see this is one of your business cards," he said as he spun around. "It says so on the front."
Simeon had stalked towards the younger looking man, and he swatted the Doctors hand, snatching the business card from the irritating man. "Who are you, and what are you doing here?" he demanded.
The Doctor grabbed another card which he flashed in Simeon's face before secreting it in his pocket. "This!" he told the man darkly, then he rushed up to the giant snowglobe, brandishing his cane at it. "Wakey, wakey!" he roared, bashing the wooden stick loudly against the glass.
Simeon reacted instantly, moving the defend the equipment which house the formless creature in his office, speaking scathingly to the Doctor as he did so.
While Shae remembered the voice of the Great Intelligence on the show, nothing could have prepared her for the reality. She gripped her head as the heavy voice pressed itself into her mind, the telepathic sound drowning out the rest of the room. It was the same feeling of presence that she'd felt since they'd arrived, but the words were somehow cutting and painful as the weight of the words forced themselves into her thoughts. She distantly heard the Doctor speaking, but under the thick blanket that seemed to surround her, his voice held no meaning. Shae almost cried out when the monstrous entity spoke in her head once more.
By the time Shae's awareness began to settle back from the pressure against her mind, the Doctor was already pacing between the snowglobe and herself and Sara. Vaguely, she noticed that the Doctor didn't walk around the globe as he had done in the show. Instead he simply paced back and forth always keeping between the globe and the desk behind which they stood. Shae's eyes briefly followed Simeon as he stepped away from the Time Lord and approached the bell beside the doors through which they'd entered.
"Now, what are you, eh?" The Doctor continued, as though oblivious to everything else in the room. "A flock of space crystals? A swarm? The snowmen are foot soldiers, mindless predators. But you, you're the clever one. You're Moriarty. So, you turn up on a planet, you generate a telepathic field to learn what you can." As he spoke, even with his back turned, the Doctor pulled out his screwdriver and sonicked the doors Simeon waited by, locking out the help that he had summoned. "Ahh, of course, but that takes massive amounts of energy to maintain this form and the telepathic field, hence all these generators. So you need to either find yourself a source of unlimited power or to change into a more sustainable form. You need to translate yourself into something more, well, human."
Shae suddenly gripped Sara's arm as the Doctor's words registered to her.
His educated rant continued as he paced around the front of the globe. "These two have just arrived, so you've prepared the latter plan. But to do that you'd need a perfect duplicate of human DNA in ice form. Where do you find that?"
"But, that's wrong!" she whispered to Sara. "That wasn't the line from the show."
"This is why we can't be here," Sara told her equally softly. "Things change because we're here. Sometimes only little things, but sometimes…" She shook her head as she searched for the right words. "Think of how many times the Doctor saves the universe. But if we change things, and events don't happen like they should…"
While the Doctor was busy tossing Simeon's file onto the floor, Shae's jaw slowly dropped and her eyes widened as the realisation sunk into her. While Sara had already convinced her that they couldn't trust the Doctor, that he wasn't the Santa Claus like figure who loved and helped people with no ulterior motive like she'd thought from the show, she hadn't even considered the danger or them interfering with the Doctor's future. The episode 'Turn Left' rushed to the forefront of her mind, where one little variation lead to the death of the Doctor and so many lives were lost as a result of Donna's seemingly insignificant change of direction. What if they too changed something in the Doctor's life, bringing about the end of everything?
Suddenly, the Doctor silently launched himself over the desk, and grabbed their arms spinning them around. "Time to go!" he softly hissed.
Shae tried to keep her footsteps as silent as his, but the sudden spin had knocked her off balance and she tripped slightly, clattering her hard soled shoes against the wooden floor. In the corner of her eyes, she noticed that Sara was faring only slightly better than herself, and yet the Doctor insistently pushed them in front of him and through the doors through which sunlight streamed.
Xxxxxxxxxxxx
"I'm not leaving either of you in the TARDIS and that is final." His childlike face was nothing compared to his ancient eyes that took on an edge of firm determination as he stared down at his two reluctant passengers. Of course he couldn't take any chances. Sara knew how to get out of the TARDIS and much more, she could barricade him from entering his own time machine. From what he determined she was traumatized and suicidal. Given the information Shae had, her mental state could be in no better condition and he would not take a risk in losing another companion. Not so soon after losing the Ponds. He just couldn't.
"But you and Clara…" Sara's voice trailed. Her stomach clenched and her head already hurt fiercely from being in the presence of the Great Intelligence. She had already dealt with having one mind parasite inside her mind but feeling the powerful touch of another….she shivered.
"Clara and I, what?" The Doctor prompted.
Shae finally spoke, still not meeting the Doctor's eyes, staring past him directly at the console. "The two of you should do this alone." Her voice was flat. She didn't want to risk a paradox and the change in dialogue that occurred at Walter Simeon's home frightened her.
The Doctor was carefully reading between the lines. At least Shae was speaking to him. That was an improvement even if she didn't make eye contact. Maybe there was hope yet for the three of them or at least a faint trace of it. "So, Clara is that important, eh?"
The two girls remained silent as Shae leaned against the railing now refusing to answer. She was tired. The clothing only made it worse and she longed for nothing more then to close her eyes, fall asleep and have this be regarded as some nightmare for which she could duly wake up from.
The Doctor only adjusted a switch while pulling a lever before opening the door beckoning to his passengers. "Well, come on, then. Off we go. Sooner we look at the pond and see to Clara…"
"I told you, we don't want to go!" Sara exclaimed, folding her arms across her chest. Shae looked just as disagreeable about this particular venture.
The Doctor only exhaled slowly through his nose, leaning against the doorway, giving each girl a look. "Well then, if you're not going to go, neither am I." He kept his tone light. "I s'pose the three of us will just sit up here and while away the time." He paused for a moment. "What do you think? Said yourself there was a big open paradox right there but you know me." As acutely precognitive as these girls were, that statement couldn't have been more accurate. He snapped his fingers as the door shut and he walked to the center. "Any of you want ice cream? I know humans love ice cream. I have over three hundred flavors on board and-"
"Wait…." Sara was sputtering. "Ice cream?" She was aghast. "There's an entity out there that wants to destroy the world and you want to eat ice cream?"
"Nothing better to do if you two are going to stay right here." He was looking directly at her, the innate depths showing clearly in his eyes. "So what about it? Take a look at a pond or we all decide what's our favorite flavour. Mine is-"
"Fine!" Sara gritted her teeth exchanging a look with Shae. Perhaps they had forgotten how obnoxious this Doctor was in this regeneration. How purely intransigent he could really be. Or how manipulative. Still, neither could let the universe be destroyed because of their inaction or the Doctor's. When we get back to current times… Shae might be disheartened by their chances but that didn't mean Sara would give up. If her sonic recharged in time….she shook her head and tried to focus. For now, what she needed was to play along.
The girls followed the Doctor begrudgingly down the staircase where he extended it to the ground. Some subtle manipulation of his sonic managed to shift the position by only the slightest proportion of degrees just in case Walter Simeon happened to show. If he knew the position of his TARDIS….the Doctor briefly shuddered.
Sara and Shae kept a fair distance back as the Doctor carefully started to examine the frozen pond beneath his feet.
"Body frozen in pond." He muttered to himself. "The snow gets a good long look at a human being like a full body scan. Everything they need to evolve." The Doctor looked thoughtful. "Pond." He nodded to himself. "Good point, Clara." He suddenly turned as they heard footsteps behind him. "What are you doing here?"
It was Strax who was proudly and aggressively holding a large and very fearful looking weapon.
"Madame Vastra wondered if you were needing any grenades?" The Sontaran asked eagerly.
"Grenades?" The Doctor asked doubtfully.
"She might have said help." Strax admitted reluctantly.
As they continued to argue, Shae and Sara looked up at the window to see Clara's very familiar face gazing at all of them in confusion. It wasn't until the Doctor finally made eye contact with her, appearing flustered when he found himself waving back in return to her gesture, telling her five minutes and the girl in return smiled, disappearing from the window.
The Doctor was shaking his head apparently angry at his own immediate response, gazing at his hand in some resolute indecisiveness. After a few moments, he promptly came to a decision. "Right. We go around back through the servant quarters." He immediately took Sara and Shae's arms, propelling them around the house as they barely struggled to keep up. "It's best to keep a low profile."
"Must be next to impossible with you." Sara muttered under her breath.
"Oi, I know what I'm doing," he replied indignantly, pausing briefly as they reached the plain door. He shot the girls a frustrated glare as they snickered at his assertion, but he ignored them in favour of unlocking the door with his screwdriver.
They entered into a narrow plain hallway that extended into the middle of the house. The Doctor glanced through some of the doors as Sara and Shae reluctantly followed. After checking the rooms off the dimly lit hallway, the Time Lord backtracked toward the laundry which had been behind the first door he'd opened. To his right a dark steep staircase extended into the upper level. "Bingo! Well, come on, then," he called to his reluctant companions. He bounced up the stairs two at a time and then hovered impatiently at the top of the stairs for the girls who were finding it a little harder to make their way up the dark incline. The stairs were barely wide enough for them to squeeze their shoulders through, so they had to fight to pull their thick skirts through the narrow space, all the while concentrating on their balance and footing so as to not lose either.
The Doctor led the pair in the direction of the window they'd seen Clara in, however, on this level there were only three exits off the short servants hallway. Presumably two of these lead to rooms while the third opened towards the middle of the house, possibly into the main corridor. The Doctor peered into the room off the left side of the cramped hall, before silently sneaking inside. Sara went to follow him with Shae close behind her when the Doctor swiftly held his hand up to them, halting their actions. The Doctor was standing a few metres into the room, the only light illuminating him being the light streaming in from the window behind him. After spotting the puppet theatre near the door where they stood, Sara recognised it as the room where the Doctor first saw the ice woman. He was silently staring at the main door, his expression intent. In the silence, Sara and Shae recognised the faint sound of Clara screaming, just as she had in the show.
"Get back!" the Doctor ordered, then he dove behind the puppet theatre where he could observe without being seen. The two women stepped back and Sara quickly closed the door. A moment later, they heard Clara and the children rushing into the room.
Shae found herself frowning as she listened to the exchange in the room. The children sounded so much more frightened and desperate than they had been on the show, but that most likely came from these children living the danger rather than just acting it. Had Sara not been between herself and the door, she probably would have pushed into the room to try to help Clara comfort the children. She rubbed the dampness from her eyes, willing herself not to break.
"Frannie," The desperation in Clara's voice was evident. "Frannie, imagine her melting."
Shae released a shiver as Sara immediately clasped her hand from behind the door. Her heart was filled with dread. What if something else goes wrong?
"What?" Frannie's voice was filled with confusion.
"In your head." Clara said quickly. "Melt her."
"I can't!" Frannie exclaimed, hysteria plainly evident. The room was dropping several degrees in temperature as a horrible grinding was heard at the door. The governess was attempting to force it open despite Clara's efforts to barricade it.
"I'm getting very impatient!" Her dreaded voice echoed around the room as an encroaching threat and Sara blanched. Just listening to her was almost as frightening as feeling the presence of the Great Intelligence inside her mind. The burning, grinding sensation that still seemed to resonate even after they left the room. That entity, that thing had felt them both and still seemed to be reaching out for them. Sara closed her eyes briefly in recognition of the sensation. It felt like….like something she had experienced only weeks before in New Roman. The mind parasite. Christina….tears came to her eyes as she suddenly trembled.
"I'm getting impatient!" It was the morbid reminder of the governess as she started to force the door open. The children's cries of terrors were evident as she started to emerge and Shae let out a gasp only catching a glimpse. It was far worse then television could have ever encapsulated. Grey, mottled skin, peeling beneath the layers of ice. Eyes encrusted over in a death like stare. She swallowed arduously finding herself hardly able to breathe.
"You have been very naughty." The voice was louder now. Inhuman. Vicious. Nearly demonic in its undertones.
"What about the man?" The boy insisted plaintively to Clara. "You said the man was here. The cloud man!" He was back pedaling running smack into the wall. Suddenly, he turned, glimpsing both Shae and Sara and gasped. His eyes widening further at finding them secreted in that very room.
Seeing the terrified gaze of the little boy meeting her own, Shae couldn't restrain herself anymore. She knew that she shouldn't interfere with the episode, but she couldn't just abandon the children when she could shield them from the monster that approached them. Besides, what if just being there she and Sara had changed things so the Doctor could no longer defeat the ice lady?
Without another thought, she pushed past her friend and placed herself between Clara, the children and the ice sculpture from hell. At the worst, she could direct the three through the servant halls she and Sara had hidden in.
"Can you help us?" the boy asked behind her. "Where's the Doctor?"
"Doctor?" a voice from the puppet theatre called. Everyone turned to see Mr. Punch rubbing his hands together. "Doctor who?"
The puppet reached down and lifted the sonic screwdriver, using it to cause the woman to explode, casting ice throughout the room. Everyone flinched under the shower of the frozen debris, and the Doctor poked his head up in the cramped theatre. "That's the way to do it," he cried out for Mr. Punch in a ridiculous voice, then he continued his charade with the puppet, which included the kiss and being whacked in the face with the tiny wooden arms.
After untangling himself from the tiny puppet stall, he crouched down and scanned the melting remains of the monster.
"Where did she go? Will she come back?" the little girl, Frannie, asked.
"No, she's currently draining through your carpet," the Time Lord replied lowly. "And you two," he began, standing and turning on his two companions. "In future you stay out of sight until I tell you otherwise. You don't go blundering in when I've got everything under control!"
"Control?" Sara snapped. "That wasn't 'under control'. That was 'Mr. Punch'! The children were frightened. Why did you waste time playing with puppets?"
"Because the children were frightened," he replied angrily a hint of a smirk on his face from knowing he was right.
"Ahh..." Shae murmured in sudden understanding. She'd always been frustrated by the Mr. Punch's dialogue in the show, but seeing the children's smiles at the Doctor's ridiculous antics gave her a new appreciation for his action. He wasn't being silly simply because that was in character according to the whims of the writers, he was being kind, doing his best to help the children when they were frightened.
"See? She gets it." The Doctor clicked his fingers and pointed at Shae while not taking his eyes from Sara's.
Sara slowly turned to look at the children. They did appear a great deal less apprehensive likely by the Doctor's approach. She knew he had been a father once. He also imprinted on a ten year old. She sighed briefly and glanced at Shae. The other woman was clearly drawn to the children likely reminded of the boy she lost in their devastated dimension.
And I didn't get it. Sara thought bleakly. She always wanted to have a family. Children of her own. Briefly, she recalled the visit the eleventh Doctor paid her while she was comatose, still trapped with the Time Lord Victorious.
'All I ever wanted was to have a normal life, have a career, get married, have children and in an instant, that was gone.' Her voice had been bitter in addressing the eleventh Doctor.
'Do you want to know why?' He asked.
'Why…?'
Oh, she remembered the conversation when she had nearly committed suicide on that TARDIS but in reflection, what did the 'why' really matter? Would any explanation, however vast serve in giving her the life she wanted? Just words. She thought. Empty words. She might never comprehend the protective instinct around children having not been a mother herself. Maybe she had spent too much time in captivity that she could act little better then a feral cat who would openly scratch you if you get too close.
"Are you alright?" Shae asked, touching Sara lightly on the arm and Sara forced a nod, feeling down right selfish. Shae was coping with the loss of her own son. If Sara had been in her shoes, she knew she would want to run and vent that particular loss in some dark corner where no one would find her. She wouldn't be able to handle it. She would….Sara swallowed remembering how she hung from the side of the bridge. Her screams at the Doctor when she was told her universe had been obliterated. She hadn't even recognized her own voice.
"Yeah, it's just…" Her voice trailed. "I'm tired." Sara finally said. Indeed she was tired but not in the sense of weariness. She was tired of being considered a threat to the universe. An anomaly that had to be watched. Locked up. Now Shae was in the same predicament.
"I know." Shae looked at Sara, her attention now focused on her new friend and away from the children. She wouldn't risk saying anything else since she could sense the Doctor's eyes on them both as he stared at the mirror. She could see him in the back of her mind looking at them with intensity while he spoke with Clara. It felt as though that gaze could move directly through her and see to her very core. Those ancient eyes. She gave a faint shudder. Could they really get away as Sara seemed to suggest? Even if they got back to the modern day and got out of his line of sight, he still had a time machine. Sara mentioned a signal she emitted….she pressed her lips together. If there was only a way to block it. Still, getting a biodampner or perception filter wasn't easy and required more then a single visit to an electronics store. She doubted the Doctor would just leave them lying around for them to find.
"What is it?" Clara was asking worriedly. "What's wrong?" She noticed the intensity of the Doctor's gaze. "Who are they?" She gestured towards Sara and Shae. "Are we all in-"
"No." The Doctor cut her off. "It's just…" He shrugged. "I didn't know I'd put it on." He was adjusting his bow-tie, a flicker of a smile appearing on his lips. "Old habits." He nodded his head towards Sara and Shae. "These are my…." He was struggling to find the right word. Companions? They weren't there voluntarily no matter how funny or giddy he tried to be. Passengers? He frowned. The TARDIS called them 'strays' but he-
"It's cooler." Clara said as the Doctor was jerked out of his thoughts, looking back at the mirror.
"Yeah, it is, isn't it?" He felt a tinge of familiar enthusiasm run through him as he examined his bow-tie remembering the first time he grabbed one from a clothing line near Amy Pond's house. His little Amy Pond. I always liked Amelia. He fretted briefly. Why did she change it to Amy? It sounds like….He shook his head, knowing he was losing focus. "It is very cool." The Doctor said emphatically. "Bow ties are cool."
Sara rolled her eyes briefly. This wasn't her favorite show and she didn't understand how the Doctor could get so attached to a piece of clothing. Even the tenth Doctor who had a particular wardrobe didn't go around stipulating how awesome his tan overcoat was. The ninth Doctor didn't brag systematically about the spectacular elements of his leather jacket. Maybe Time Lords really should never imprint on children.
Shae smiled briefly at the one familiar piece of dialogue. Now she knew he was attempting to calm the children. He certainly was the more silly in terms of regenerations but she could see how calculating he was. He wasn't disordered in terms of his actions but often allowed people to think he was. To set them off guard. To work his way beneath their defences so you didn't even know he was there until it was too late. Her smile faded away as she thought of how he so aptly manipulated her onto the TARDIS. It was so wholly different. Seeing him on the telly versus seeing him in real life, she wasn't just watching an actor recite his lines while acting like a child but seeing a centuries old alien so practised in the art of manipulation, that everyday he was giving a command performance.
"No." Clara insisted. "The room. The room's getting colder."
A distinct bulge was forming on the carpet just beneath them and Shae reacted, putting her arm up in front of the children, pushing them to the back of the room. Sara stumbled near towards the puppet theater as the Doctor stepped forward, evermore alert.
"She's coming back." The little boy cried out.
"What's she going to do?" Frannie was breathing hard glancing between Clara and Shae. "Is she going to punish me?"
Shae squeezed the girl's shoulder, shaking her head in answer as she watched the creature reform before her very eyes.
"Er, er," The Doctor moved forward immediately grabbing hold of Sara's wrist who yelped in protest while he dragged her away from the theatre towards the rest of the group. "We need to stay together." He told her sternly as she yanked her arm away, giving him a glare. One he missed, as he turned to examine the reanimated governess before him. "She's learned not to melt." He gritted his teeth. "Of course, she's not really a governess, she's just a beast." He looked at the children and nodded. "And she's going to eat you. Run!" Was the Doctor's fierce command.
Author's Note: I hope you're enjoying the story so far. It is certainly a different change of pace to write from the Eleventh Doctor however you must forgive us for trying to fill in certain plot holes or at least our attempts to do so. Please give us your feedback. Let us know what you think of our interpretation of the Eleventh Doctor. I know it might be a bit confusing with the other story, Living Fiction, etc. but the Great Intelligence here is simply using that singular avatar we saw in the show although he is an interesting nemesis.
Thanks for all your insight and of course to LovelyAmberLight for her inspiration although I do know the Eleventh Doctor isn't a favorite. Thank you to all your reviews.