Chapter 24.

"What were you two talking about?"

Grace watched the Doctor work, surprised he could ask questions with his elbows buried in a rudimentary computer of some sort. He was throwing it together with bits of metal, springs from the seats, and flashes from his little screwdriver. Somehow, he did all of that while trying to interrogate her, looking up constantly.

"Just about her toy."

"It looked a little serious to be about a toy."

"What is that thing?"

"Don't deflect."

Grace huffed. "How about it's none of your business?"

"It is my business. This is your first excursion. You can't say anything that would alter the timeline. You already know what that causes."

"Yeah, but it was you who did it last time, so why are you so worried about me?"

The Doctor stood straight, staring at her. She clamped her jaw shut.

His eyes were wide. "So it was me."

"I don't know what you mean."

The Doctor had a million questions bubbling up. Grace thought his head might explode. But he pushed it all down. He would bring it up later, she was sure, but for now he focused on his device.

Grace flicked the side of the box, which was made of a warped metal pot, "What're you doing? You gonna make 'em all some lunch?"

"No. It's a sort of filter. I want to see if I can extrapolate some of the swarm to figure out what it's made of. I need to isolate them to do that."

"Ahh. Do you think it'll work?"

"Probably not, but I don't have any other ideas, so there you have it." He smacked the contraption, shining his screwdriver at it again and then tucking it under his arm. "Do me a favor and open those doors if you hear me screaming."

Grace helped him move furniture from the doors while the guards looked on.

It must have been midday by now. Everyone was too tired to intervene. Somehow that big supply of food had been distributed unevenly to the crowd in the center of the room – the wealthy ones.

Henry and Polly joined them at the door.

"Dangerous out there," Henry said.

The Doctor pressed his ear to the door for a moment, then pulled it open. He glanced at the three of them, nodding. "Right. Open the door if you hear screaming. Very simple."

Grace didn't like the idea of him being out there with the mist and the dogs, but when she thought of following him, a chill went down her spine. Maybe next time. She held the door open to watch him as long as she could, and when he was out of her sight, she stepped onto the stoop to listen. Henry joined her, and Polly lingered in the doorway.

"Your friend is very brave," Henry commented.

"Or stupid. Whichever way you want to look at it."

"You're very opinionated for a woman."

"You're very educated for a slave."

He frowned, and she felt she might have gone too far.

But it was too late to take it back.

The rumble erupted underfoot – the fourth time or so that same hour – and she heard the Doctor yelp. He came around the corner, shouting, tossing his little device. Behind him, a stream of barking dogs made completely of mist skidded into the road.

Grace was ready at the door. As soon as he was in, she slammed it shut, and she and Henry began stacking furniture. The people in the hall stirred, looking around wide-eyed as the dogs tried desperately to get in. The Doctor leaned over a pew and panted, holding his hand over his chest. He looked afraid and exhilarated.

"I think they're… I think they're…" He struggled to catch his breath. "I think they're coming in cycles. On a timer. Or something like that. They were just waiting at the mist. Just there."

The mayor, Samuel, came from the front. "You, sir, are becoming a nuisance!"

"I just wanted to extrapolate a few of them, to see what they were." The Doctor stood up, recovering his breath. "If I can identify them, I might be able to find a way to talk to them, or a weakness, if it comes to that."

"Listen to you, thinking you know everything!" One of the other men approached, poking the Doctor hard in the chest. "You're the reason John got killed!"

The Doctor held his ground. "Oh? I'm pretty sure we all saw him march out there of his own free will. I tried to stop him!"

"And you just went out to invite the dogs to our door!" the man accused.

"He was trying to help," Grace cut in. "And what have you been doing? You just sit around and puff your chest out."

The man twisted to come toward her, but the Doctor stepped between them. "Relax. I don't want any violence. I just want to help. If we work together, we can solve this. We can figure out what's happening, and everyone can get out of here safely. But that won't work if you keep up with this."

"Why were you here again?" The man jabbed the Doctor in the chest again, and Grace felt a flash of protectiveness. If he did it again, she might just try and break that finger. "You show up sayin' you come for the President, but listen to you talk!"

Somehow the Doctor maintained his calm. Grace admired him for that. His voice was even.

"It doesn't matter. I'm trying to help."

"No, Doctor, everything was fine a few moments ago." Samuel looked at him coldly. "And all you've been doing since we got here is asking if we've seen anything strange, anything different. Well that's you, sir. You're the strange one. You're different. Listen to your accent! Listen to you talk! You're not from here – you or your lady friend."

The Doctor's voice developed an edge. "Leave her out of this."

"Oh, I will, if you go quietly."

The Doctor stilled, and his expression darkened. "Go where?"

"Go outside." The mayor started moving furniture. "It's you it wants. It's obvious. Those dogs were coming after you."

Were they really going to try and throw out the only person who might actually be able to help them? Grace was appalled. "Those dogs were coming after everyone!"

The Doctor touched her arm, shaking his head. "Leave it. I'll go."

"But-"

"Shut it, or it'll be both of us. I need to be out there, anyway. No one in here knows anything and we're all just sitting ducks until we do." He gave her a quick kiss on the forehead, and mumbled under his breath, "Be careful."

The Doctor walked through the doors and stood on the stoop, looking sadly back inside as the doors shut in his face. Grace sat against them, refusing to move when the men wanted to stack the furniture again. They gave in, and Henry and Polly came to sit with her. The Doctor settled on the other side. She could feel him right behind her, like a warm spot through the wood.

"I've been counting. Every ten minutes or so, the rumbling comes." The Doctor sounded unafraid, but she knew it must have been terrifying, being out there with the mist. "It's accelerating every time. We must be working up to something."

"Like in the other world," Grace supplied.

"Exactly like that. Something is coming to a head. We have to find out what."

Grace glared at the nearby guard, who was more intent now to keep the Doctor from coming back inside. "I'll make them let you back in."

"No, just leave it for now."

"The dogs will come for you!"

"And they might throw you out with me. Where would that put us?"

Grace got up, ignoring his protests. She stormed down the center aisle, to the mayor and the other man who had suggested the Doctor be thrown out. They seemed like best friends now. She stopped as close as she could without actually crashing into them.

"You need to let him back in!"

Samuel cocked one bushy eyebrow and laughed at her. "And you need to learn some respect, young lady."

She hated being called that. Baxter called her that. "If those dogs come back, they'll kill him!"

None of the men seemed remotely sympathetic.

Grace tried a different tactic. "If he dies, I'll kill you."

"Right you will." Samuel laughed again. "Look at you all fired up."

Grace hit him – hard – and before her hand came to rest she got a hard right hook to the cheek. She fell, her whole face tingling with the impact. The room gave a little spin, a little shake. And rage surged up in her stomach, an almost sickening amount.

She got back to her feet and lunged at the mayor, determined to do serious damage, but someone caught her around the waist.

Henry.

He lifted her, taking away her traction, and carried her away, apologizing as he departed. "I'm sorry, sir! She's just manic, that's all! Lost her good sense!" He tightened his grip when she struggled. "I'll take her away, let her cool down! Apologies, sir!"

He carried her into another room and dropped her in the middle of the floor, slamming the door shut before she could make a break for it. Polly had followed them. Grace charged Henry, but he was at least a foot and a half taller and made of concrete – hitting him was like running into a truck.

Henry pushed her back effortlessly. "Calm down! Do you know what those men will do to you?"

Grace tried to dodge around him, groaning when he grabbed her arm and sent her staggering backward. "Do you know what I'll do to them?"

"Yeah, nothin', with no weapon and all hundred pounds of you."

"Okay, bite me. And get out of my way!"

"The Doctor saved my life, and I owe it to him to keep you from getting yourself hanged!"

Grace gave one last pitiful attempt, and then her shoulders slacked. He was right. She was outnumbered. She had no weapon. Getting into a fight with the mayor and his friends would not get the Doctor back. Besides, her head throbbed. Blood dripped down her chin from a split in her lip. The mayor had a lot of power behind his punch.

Henry shifted from frustrated to sympathetic. He put his hand on her shoulder and urged her toward the back of the room, pulling two parlor chairs out of a stack. "Sit down. Let me look at that."

He handed his daughter a pack of matches, and the girl went around the room and lit some candles. It turned out to be a small place, like a storage area, with show props and pictures on the walls. There was a back door, locked with heavy metal, and plenty of chairs. Henry dabbed at her lip with a strip he tore from an expensive-looking curtain.

"What was that voice you did?" Grace wondered, allowing herself to calm down, if only for the somber mood of the room. Candlelight did that to her.

Henry shrugged. "Something they like to hear."

"They like to hear you sound like an idiot? Because that's how you sounded. Stupid."

His jaw clenched. "It's the dialect of my people."

"Oh… sorry. I just meant that you sounded way different."

Henry pulled a chair and sat in front of her. "It makes them feel better. You should try it."

Grace snorted.

"You're very… outgoing for a woman. You and that Doctor – you match. You must come from some other place, to be allowed to talk like that."

"Oh, I'm not allowed where I come from, either. But it doesn't stop me."

"Polly told me that she wants to be just like you." He beckoned the girl over, lifting her into his lap. "And I keep thinking, what a bad thing to be! That'll get you killed! But now that I've seen it in action, I like it. No one has ever hit the mayor like that."

Grace shifted, a little embarrassed by his praise. "He deserved it."

Henry was quiet for a little while. He braided his daughter's hair, whispering comforts to her. As she watched him she wondered about his life, about his thoughtful eyes. The Doctor had described this form of slavery to her, and though it sounded very different from what they had in her time, she had imagined it was similar.

Now she doubted herself.

When she looked at people, she felt their pain as a pit in her own stomach. She could feel him wondering, feel his fear – and it was not just fear of the mist, of the unknown, but of the mundane. It was his life. She almost wanted to leave herself wondering, but her curiosity got the better of her. What could be so horrible that it permeated the air like that?

"What's it like to be a slave?"

He cocked an eyebrow, and then chuckled. Despite all the fear inside, he managed to be lighthearted. He was like the Doctor in that respect – no wonder the two of them got along.

"You must be from further away than I thought."

"Yeah. I'm from really far away. And I don't get it. Don't you get sick of doing whatever other people want? Don't you just want to leave?"

"Of course I do. More than anything. But where would I go? How could I protect my family?"

Grace thought of what the Doctor told her about this time. There were laws in place against his freedom. It was not a crime to kill him. Did that mean anyone, at any time, if they found him disagreeable, could just get rid of him? How did he live like that?

"You could come with us, when this is all over. The Doctor could find you another place to live."

"My home is here. We can only hope that things will change one day." Henry could not possibly understand what she was offering him, but she thought she saw a little spark in his eyes.

She knew things would change, but the Doctor said it took a very long time. She imagined Henry and his daughter, and maybe even her kids, would be dead and gone before then.

Polly slid out of her father's lap and curled up on the carpet, yawning, probably ravenous, since the food rarely made it all the way to the slaves. Grace felt an impossible symmetry with her again.

She had once lived on the streets, in that dreamlike world they had corrected. She could remember fighting for scraps with her mother after her father went missing, and before Baxter stepped into their lives. She had looked as downtrodden as that little girl, and wore two faces to protect herself from people who couldn't understand.

Henry had very thoughtful eyes, like the Doctor, and they focused on Grace for a while. "She said she told you about her dog. About what John did."

Grace nodded.

"I'm glad he's dead. But it wasn't just the dog. Lovely was a few days ago, yeah, but John did more than that. He killed my wife. And he'll never go to trial. She got buried out in the field and we went back to work the same day. He had a temper, so I lost her. Simple as that."

Grace let that sink in. She let herself in on his pain.

He went on, quiet, determined, as if imparting these words was suddenly more important than the peril of this situation, as if no one had ever asked him this question before, and he was determined to get the answer right, to do it justice.

"I can read. I've read all sorts of things, from all sorts of places. Gives me a taste of freedom, just to hear about people roaming the countryside. No fear. No responsibilities. No scars on their backs, no calluses on their hands. I think about how nice that must be, and I dream about it, and I tell my kids about it, but I know – oh, I know – that my life will never be like that. It never goes further than this. It never moves past this point, right where we are, right here. I might never step out of this town for the whole rest of my life. Polly might never step out of this town, and her kids might not, and their kids. We can dream, and wish, and want, but it's never enough."

He swallowed, nodding to himself, and he cast a glance down at his daughter to add to the gravity of his words, because they also applied to her.

He concluded grimly, firmly, "That's what it's like to be a slave."

Grace had to look away. His story made it hard to breathe. She had always been able to see a little more than everyone else – to taste their lust, their greed, their rage more strongly – but she usually shied away from it. People were horrible. People were cruel. But this man was an open wound, and no matter how much it stung to be so close to him, she couldn't bring herself to shut out his pain. It was important. She wanted to understand it.

"I almost wish I couldn't read," Henry went on. "I wouldn't know that there was anything else. But then, I think, I would miss out on it, even if it's only in my dreams. At least I get to dream."

Grace swallowed the lump in her throat. "Just stop talking for a second. Stop."

"I'm sorry, I-"

"No, don't apologize." She wondered how she could explain what she was feeling. It seemed impossible. "I asked, and you answered. I'm glad you told me that. But it just… you have to give me a second, because what you said is just…" She shrugged, running her sleeve over her face. She yelped when the fabric of the stupid, puffy dress caught on her busted lip.

Henry jumped a little at the sound, frowning. "You're crying for me?"

"I hate that you can't have what you want." Grace gathered her words, and forced them out. "It's so simple. It's stupid! Why can't you just…? Do they even realize that you're a person? How do you forget about something like that? I'm sorry, it just… confounds me. That's the word. I can't wrap my head around it. I wouldn't even believe that this was happening if I wasn't here."

She paused, realizing the simplest statement to sum up her feelings.

"When this is all over, I get to walk away, and go home, and do whatever I want, whenever, and you and Polly have to stay here for the rest of your lives."

Henry had a strange expression, somewhere between understanding and confusion. She wondered if anyone had ever stated it to him that way, or if anyone ever really stopped to listen to him in the first place. If they did, how could they hurt him? How could they hurt Polly? What could be wrong with them to make them believe Henry was worth less than they were?

It was hard for her to wrap her head around, but she was trying. No wonder the Doctor had made such a big deal of it to begin with. He must have thought she was so cold, the way she responded.

But she wasn't. She was the opposite.