Chapter 9.

The Wish.

It was not fair. Even as she stood there, under the arm of the Doctor, perhaps watching the thing that would kill her race across the pavement, she could only think of how unfair it was. When he offered to take her here, it seemed like the best thing that had ever happened to her – aside from meeting him in the first place. If she could just get impossibly far away from her own quiet home, she might feel some semblance of peace. But something like this had to happen.

It was not just unfair for her, but for the little girl she had met. Polly. What did she have in life? She had a smart, loving father. She had a brother somewhere. But her mother was dead. She was literally the property of someone else. Her life meant so little to the people at the bottom of those steps that they probably would have offered her up to the dogs to save their own skins. What kind of life was that? Seven years and that was what she got out of it?

Grace put her hand on Polly's arm, taking precious seconds out of their last moments. "Forget what the Doctor said. Nothing really dies, Polly. Nothing ever really dies." She found the girl's hands, and looked into her flabbergasted, terrified eyes. "I want you to wish with me. Wish really hard. Wish that Lovely was here with us. Wish that she was okay."

Polly pressed her eyes shut and mumbled to herself, spelling out her wish and thinking as hard as she could about it. Grace did the same, trying to picture the dog for herself.

And then suddenly she could see it.

She could see the dog. She could hear the blast of the gun, see the dog crumple under it, hear Polly screaming hoarsely as she witnessed her best friend get taken away.

She had little time to wonder. Her chest tightened. She felt cold inside. Her eyes suddenly refused to open. She fixated on the dog, and let her soul wrap around its short life.

She saw another image of it, a better memory. The dog was running through a wheat field.

The cold struck her harder, like it was sapping away at her life.

Grace staggered away. Her eyes popped open. She almost tripped down the steps, but the Doctor caught her. The barking stopped. The attacking dogs dissipated. The people stopped screaming. From the depths of the mist, the Shepherd came out in full color, darting straight through the crowd and up to the stoop.

Polly twisted out of her father's arms and wrapped the dog in a hug. Lovely danced around, whimpering, and snuggled her owner.

The Doctor drew in a gasp. "What…?"

She was alive.

Grace crouched and ran her hands over the dog's pelt. She was alive. She was real. She was soft to the touch, and her eyes were sparkling, and the cold spot in Grace's chest was replaced with a burning heat. She smiled. Polly giggled. Her father looked on in shock. The rain stopped and the sky lightened, and the mist faded all around.

The barriers were gone.

"It's a miracle," Grace murmured.

Henry nodded. "Thank God."

The Doctor grabbed her arm suddenly, yanking her upright and directing her down the steps, out of earshot of the celebrating townspeople. "How did that happen? Did you do something?"

Grace jerked her arm away from him, surprised by his aggression. "What? How could I?"

"Grace, if you did something, you need to tell me right now. That dog was dead."

"I know. And the wish-makers brought it back. You said it yourself."

"No. I said they could never do that. I said that could never happen!"

"Stop yelling at me! I didn't do it."

She was surprised, and enlightened, by the accusation. Had she done it? He kept insisting she was an alien, but was she that sort of alien? Was it even possible? She had felt a cold flash inside, and seen memories of the dog. None of that seemed possible, either. But he looked so upset by it, so disturbed, so genuinely disgusted, that she would never admit to the possibility.

After a few moments he let the tension fade, and he looked at the girl and her dog. "This is never meant to happen. When things die… It happens for a reason."

"It happened because John shot her. And he shot Henry's wife, too. Was that for a reason?" Grace tried to keep the edge out of her voice, because he was her ride home, after all, but she couldn't help her anger. "I think it was because of a monster."

The Doctor was very serious. "No, not a monster. It was a person."

Grace diffused their argument by wrapping her arms around him. She squeezed until he relented and hugged her back. "We got a happy ending. Let's not dig into it."

He had one eyebrow raised defensively when she pulled away. "I suppose. But-"

"No buts. Mostly everybody lived. Polly got her dog back. Drop it."

He set his jaw stubbornly. "Grace-"

Grace slapped her hand over his mouth. "I told Henry we would take him somewhere else to live. Don't you want to yell at me about that, instead?"

He seemed reluctant, and then he took the bait. "I know you want to help him, but-"

"Think of what kind of life he could have! He's so smart! And Polly is so strong!"

"Yes. Think of the life they could have." The Doctor was grim. "Henry would probably cause a lot of waves. So would Polly. They could change the course of human history, just the two of them. I know how much it burns to know that we get to leave, and they have to stay, but it has to be that way. I wish it were different."

He was resolved, not willing to budge on this issue, and he had dropped the undead dog, so Grace made herself let it go. She wanted to help Henry achieve those things he dreamed of so badly that she ached inside, but she was also afraid that if she pushed too hard, the Doctor would realize she was more trouble than she was worth. She never wanted to go back home.

So she looked at Henry, and at the little girl and her dog, and let herself feel the warmth of this moment. Maybe they would have good lives anyway. Maybe it didn't have to be tragic.

"We should go, before they turn on us again." The Doctor put his arm over her shoulder, turning her toward the road they had come in on. The TARDIS was still sitting in the middle of that field. "Your gene was probably a random mutation."

"Yeah, and I could never cite this as a source, anyway."

He smiled, waving his hand out like he was announcing a title. "My travels in the past, and no, I'm not completely bonkers!"

"It'll be a hit!" She looked back again, finding Henry watching them leave. "You go. I want to say goodbye. I'll be right back."

The Doctor groaned. "Behave yourself."

"I don't know. I'm feeling very rebellious today."