Thank you for all the great FB on this story so far. Sorry it's taken me longer than planned. The first version had me giving away Tegan's secret a little too early, so I had a re-write to do eg Yes, despite what you learn in this one, Tegan is still keeping something to herself.
Hope you enjoy!
Chapter 3
It was all true!
Inside the TARDIS wasn't at all like Vanessa had expected. For a start the console room, as her mum had called it, wasn't as big as their living room. It was as big as their entire house!
It felt alive too. It was as if she'd walked into a dark room with someone in it she couldn't see or hear, but she knew there was someone there anyway, standing beside her in the dark. It wasn't a scary someone though. It was like the times she had felt her mum watching her in the dark. She felt safe.
"So? What do you think?"
Vanessa smiled up at the Doctor, hardly able to contain herself, yet finding she couldn't quite describe what she was feeling either.
"Mum was right. It's bigger on the inside." She looked around the cavernous room. "Way bigger on the inside."
"Yes, well, I've redecorated since your mum was here last." He stood to look at his own handy-work. He hadn't actually meant to do so much to the place, but once he got started, he found he just couldn't stop. The trouble he'd had hauling the large and rather ornate Seal of Rassilon out of storage and getting it up above the door. Especially when the anti-grav stabilisers had failed on him. "Still, it's not too shabby, don't you think?"
As soon as Vanessa had been old enough to understand, her mother had been telling her stories. Tales of other times and other worlds and for a while, she had believed every single word. But recently, the stories just hadn't been as convincing. They were fun and entertaining, but no more than any other story. It had felt as if she had grown up past them, that she was too old to believe in them any more. Now she felt like she could believe in Santa Claus again. "I think it's great!"
The Doctor grinned at her in delight. "Come on. Let me show you your mother's old room."
Hand in hand, he led her deeper into the TARDIS.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Damn-it!"
How could he have lost them!?! He stumbled through the dark wood, knowing that they had to be here somewhere. After all, where else could they be?
He'd just decided that he was worrying over nothing, that the kid was probably alright when he realised something.
"How the hell do I get back?" P.C. Graham Campbell of her Majesties Police Force, was well and truly lost.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Vanessa ran her fingers over the dark velvet cloth of the clothes hanging from the hat-stand, wondering who had once worn such a strange outfit.
She turned to the bed, noticing a mirror lying on the nightstand beside it. It was one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen. Maybe it had been her mothers and the Doctor would let her keep it? After all, it was only a mirror.
Curious now, she reached out, picking it up and looking at herself.
Her eyes…
She couldn't stop looking at her eyes, couldn't seem to tear her gaze away from her reflection.
~Little girl~
She watched as her eyes widened in fear at the sound of a voice that chilled her to the bone.
No one else was in the room, no one else had come in, so who was in here with her?
She felt herself begin to panic, wanting nothing more than yell for the Doctor to help her.
~Pathetic human child~
She watched a tear run down her cheek, still unable to pull her gaze away. It was like she was looking at someone else's eyes.
And someone else was looking right back at her.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Ah! There you are!"
The Doctor grabbed an old and very dusty box off the top shelf in one of his storage rooms, sneezing as the dust danced around the room.
Vanessa was going to love these, he thought to himself, looking at the small blue globes that filled the old cardboard box now in his hands.
He'd noticed on his way over that a lot of the houses in the town had Christmas lights on the front of them and in their gardens. Well, these where going to make those look very pale in comparison.
He found himself smiling as he made his way back down the corridor to Tegan's old room. Vanessa and he were getting along famously, plus, he was starting to feel as if he was finally shaking off the lingering effects of his 'death' in San Francisco. Must be the company I'm keeping, he thought to himself.
"Vanessa, wait till you see…" Tegan's old room was empty. Turning, he looked up the hall and saw no sign of her. He hoped she hadn't decided to go exploring without him. The TARDIS was a very big place. It was infinitely easy to get lost in it's depths.
Yet, something drew him back to the room. He stood looking at it for a few seconds, knowing something was wrong, but trying to put his finger on it.
A mirror lay broken on the ground. From the look of things, it had been thrown hard against the wall.
"Oh no."
He knew something had happened. Something bad.
Dropping his box, he ran to the console room, seeing no sign of Vanessa anywhere.
The door was open. He hadn't shown Vanessa how to open it.
He ran outside, sure now that Vanessa was no longer in the safety of his TARDIS, but somewhere out there, in the dark. He just wasn't sure she was alone.
"Vanessa!" he called out desperately, hoping to hear an answering cry in response.
He ran out into the night, pulling the door shut behind him. "Vanessa! Answer me! Vanessa!"
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
He couldn't believe how stupid he felt right now. He was supposed to be a trained professional for Gods sake! Yet here he was, tramping about like a blind man all because he wanted to get into Tegan Jovanka's knickers.
Graham angrily kicked out at a tree before making himself stop so that he could think for a minute.
Just then, when he was actually being quiet enough, he heard something. He turned his head, listening now for all he was worth.
It sounded like a child crying. Not too far from him either.
Despite being overly full of himself, Graham Campbell was a police officer, and while he had wanted the prestige and excitement that being a police officer had held for him in his youth, another part of him did actually care. It was just so little happened with his work that he rarely had the chance to show that he could be good at this job.
"Hello? Who's out there?" He moved forward a little, in the direction of the crying. He felt a shiver of fear shake through him. Oh God, he thought. He'd been right all along. That man had been out here to cause harm to that little girl. And he was out there, somewhere, doing God alone knew what to her.
"It's ok. I'm a police man," he tried to scan the surrounding area, but darkness had really fallen by this stage, and he could barely see his own hand in front of him. "You know me, I'm Graham. A friend of your mum's, remember?"
A heart-filled cry had him turning to the sound, and he thought he could see a vague shape not too far ahead of him in the dark.
He moved towards it, afraid of what he might find, his heart pounding furiously in his chest. This was it. This was his time to prove his worth as a police officer and maybe get a transfer to somewhere with a bit more excitement.
He could now make out a definitive shape in the darkness, a figure lying curled up at the bottom of a tree. He moved quickly to her side, wary that he might scare her more if he wasn't careful.
"Vanessa, isn't it?" He knelt down beside her, wanting to get them both away from this place. Even in the dark he could make out that her clothes were filthy.
Her crying had almost stopped, and her breathing sounded ragged. Dear God, what had that monster done to her?
Gently, he reached out his hand, only to be startled when she turned to look at him, a weary smile on her face.
"Yes, that's right. You can trust me kiddo."
He felt a hand reach out to his, small delicate fingers prising his hand open. She was standing, holding his hand and he rose with her. "Come on, I'll get you back home, safe and sound." Then he was going to find out what the hell had happened. Who left a child alone in a forest in the dark? He looked around him, suddenly remembering that this girl had been hand in hand with a man, a stranger he'd never seen around the town before. He must still be out there somewhere.
"Come on," he whispered. "Let's get you home."
He turned to try another direction, not knowing what else he could do in the dark but to try and find his way back. He had the girl to look after now, and he was damned if he was going to let her down.
Yet when he started walking, the girl refused to budge and turning, even in the dark, he could now see that despite her tear-stained face, she was smiling.
Her small fingers threaded through his, and for a second he wondered what she was doing. "We don't-
Then he felt something; his fingers were going numb, yet at the same time, he could feel something dark start to slither up his arm, a coldness that had nothing to do with a lack of heat. As it crawled further up his arm, over his shoulder and up past his neck and into his mind, he felt it's icy blackness envelope that part of him that made him who he was.
Unable to let go, P.C. Graham Campbell screamed for all he was worth into the unforgiving darkness of Royston woods.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Tegan sat at the dinner table, three untouched meals sitting in front of her. She was trying not to look at the clock, trying not to notice that it was getting late and that they should have been back well before now.
"To hell with this."
Jumping up from the table, she ran out into the hallway, pulling a torch from the cupboard under the stairs and a coat off the hanger.
She'd never been one to do nothing. Especially when it came to her daughter.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Even with his ability to see better than most in the dark, there was absolutely no trace of Vanessa.
Not knowing what else to do, the Doctor stopped and focused his hearing on the night around him.
Sounds far off from the town; animals hunting and dieing in the dark.
But no sounds of Vanessa.
"No." There had to be something. Anything. He concentrated even harder.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
This felt new. Liberating in a way.
Graham looked down at the child lying at his feet. She looked so vulnerable, so defenceless lying there. So still and quiet.
He bent down, picking her up gently and with care. He knew what he had to do.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Nothing!"
Frustration was a feeling the Doctor had experienced many times before. He'd felt fear in the past too. Oh, he was careful not to show it, after all, sometimes it paid to fool your enemies into thinking you weren't affected, that you were a cool and an unfeeling creature.
But now…
This was a new sensation. He'd held the fate of entire worlds in his hands and had felt nothing but logical and calm, sure that what he needed to do, no matter how terrible, really was for the best. A burden, yes, but one he had accepted a long time ago.
The fear he felt now was eating at him. This wasn't one of his companions; this wasn't something that shouldn't have been outside of his control. This was a child, placed into his care by a valued and dear friend. This was something that he should have been able to prevent.
He was loosing his ability to think clearly and he realised it. Yet he seemed powerless to stop the overwhelming and conflicting emotions that twisted around and around in his head.
He needed to think clearly if he was going to be any help to Vanessa.
He turned and ran back to the TARDIS.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Tegan knew where the TARDIS was parked, having recognised the place from the Doctor's description of it over tea earlier.
As she made her way to it, she'd convinced herself that whatever thoughts running around in her head where simply the workings of an over active imagination, coupled with the natural worrying any mother would have if their daughter was running late.
The sound of feet crashing through the woods startled her, and she raised her torch only to recognise the Doctor. Relief flooded through her.
"God but you startled me." She shone her torch past him. "Where's Vanessa, Doctor?"
"Tegan…"
And just like that, she knew. Something was wrong.
"Where is she Doctor?"
He pulled a key out of his waistcoat pocket. "Come inside. She's lost out in the woods somewhere. I'm going to use the TARDIS scanners to locate her life signs."
Her torch once again rounded onto the dark woods about her. "She's lost out there? In the dark!" Tegan felt sick and angry at the same time. "You said you'd look after her!"
"Tegan!" The Doctor shouted, and Tegan blinked at him in worry and confusion. "Inside. Please?" It was said more gently this time, and she realised that the Doctor was just as upset as she was. She nodded, following him through the doors.
She noticed the change and barely gave it another thought, following him to the console that stood in the centre of the room.
He was already flicking switches, and hitting buttons. "Are you getting anything?" she asked.
The Doctor looked down in concern at the small screen set in the console. "I'm not picking up any human life signs." He looked up at her. "She's hardly been gone an hour."
Human life signs. "What if she wasn't exactly human?"
"What?"
"What if she wasn't all human?"
The Doctor looked at her for a moment. "I should have realised. Turlough?"
Tegan nodded, feeling part of the weight on her shoulders fall from her. For a second, she thought she seen a look of anger in his eyes, but it had happened so quickly that she was sure she had been mistaken. He ran over to a very large and ornate chest of drawers, searching through them for something. "Ah! Here we are."
He came back over to her side, holding what looked like a small silver hollow tube. "I need you to place a finger inside the tube. It's a DNA/RNA reader. I can place your genetic profile into the search parameters, we won't need any more than that."
She placed a finger inside, expecting it to hurt. Instead it gently ran a light over her finger. "Thank you." He then hit another button on the console, a small, stubby rod raising out of it. He placed the tube over it and they both watched as it sank back into it's recess.
"And all I need to do now is…"
They both turned to look at the screen.
The Doctor turned to Tegan. "I'm sorry, but there's nothing out there."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
It was quite a journey to the other side of the village, but with his night-vision a lot better now, it was easy going.
He was heading for the graveyard.
He paused at the gates, setting Vanessa carefully down on the ground. Thankfully they weren't locked. They were just old and rather heavy and he needed both hands to push them open. They didn't have any trouble in Royston, why lock something up when you didn't have to?
He pushed them aside, picking the girl up again as he made his way to the large Victorian crypt that dominated the graveyard.
The Royston family had once been prevalent within the community, but with tax and death duties as well as the obligations to the people who lived on the old estate, they'd been forced to sell it all back in the 1930's. The tomb was nothing more than an ornate curiosity to those who came within the cemetery walls.
Until now.
He looked at the old and rusted padlock, and shifting Vanessa slightly so he could reach it better, he snapped it in two and leaned his shoulder against the solid metal door and pushed it open.
Inside it was dark and musty, although the smell of decay was long gone. Placing Vanessa on the rather large tomb in the middle of the room, he covered her with his coat and, making sure she was secure, left again. He'd come back later tomorrow with a fresh padlock.
She needed to rest after what she had done tonight, and he would have to go back and distract anyone from looking in the right places for her.
He left the graveyard, and made his way back to his own home. He was expecting a call about a missing child any moment now.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Tegan was starting to feel frantic. "Widen your search parameters! Scan the town for miles around." She looked desperately at the console.
The Doctor stared down at the scanner, willing it to show him where to find Vanessa. "I'm not picking anything up. Either someone or something is hiding her DNA or…"
"You think she's dead?" Tegan couldn't believe she had said that so calmly.
The Doctor shook his head. "No. Even if that were the case, it would take millennia for decomposition to sufficiently corrupt the DNA to prevent the TARDIS from finding her."
Tegan shuddered at his words. "Then what do you mean, Doctor?"
"I don't see how, but there's only two options here. One, as I said, she's being hidden, or two…"
"Two?"
"Or two, she's no longer on the planet."
Tegan gave a short hysterical laugh. Seconds later she felt herself being led over to an armchair. "Jesus Christ Doctor. You come back into my life and within hours, trouble is at my door."
He was kneeling in front of her, trying to hide how worried and upset he was feeling. It would do Tegan no good if she thought he was being anything other than the cool, logical and 'alien' personae she was used to. Yet he still wanted to comfort her, tell her everything was going to be alright. Somehow he found he was unable to.
"What happened Doctor? How did 'this' happen?"
So he told her.
"Somehow she opened the door by herself. I didn't show her how to do that Tegan. Something more is going on here than we know about."
"Do you think she's still on the planet?"
"Honestly? I believe she is. Something happened inside the TARDIS, not outside it. Something in here set things into motion. She's out there, somewhere. We just have to find her."
Tegan sat silently for a moment, thinking. "We need to find her. I'm going to call the police, get a search party organised or something."
"Are you sure that's such a good idea?"
Tegan glared and the Doctor quickly got the point. "I'll just go patch the communications system into the local satellite network. Shouldn't take two ticks and you can call from here."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"How long has Vanessa been missing then Tegan?"
"Yes, I sighted her myself just before then. She was with a man. I took it he was known to you to allow your daughter out with him. If I had only known…"
"Oh, so this man ~is~ a friend of the family then? I see. Would you mind giving me his name?"
"The Doctor? Doctor who? Just Doctor. Seems a little strange to me, but then again, what would I know about it. Still, I'll need to speak to him, as he was the last person to be seen with her."
"Don't worry, Tegan. I'm ~sure~ she's fine. She's a smart young lady and a Jovanka to boot. I'll call through to the main police station in Stanton, get a few more officers in for an early morning search. In the mean time, I'll check all the local areas in the town, get a few people up to help me."
"No, not at all. I'll call you at home if I have any news for you. Yes, I'll see you then. I'm sure we'll find her safe and sound. Goodbye."
P.C. Graham hung up the phone. Everything was going according to plan.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
tbc
Hope you enjoy!
Chapter 3
It was all true!
Inside the TARDIS wasn't at all like Vanessa had expected. For a start the console room, as her mum had called it, wasn't as big as their living room. It was as big as their entire house!
It felt alive too. It was as if she'd walked into a dark room with someone in it she couldn't see or hear, but she knew there was someone there anyway, standing beside her in the dark. It wasn't a scary someone though. It was like the times she had felt her mum watching her in the dark. She felt safe.
"So? What do you think?"
Vanessa smiled up at the Doctor, hardly able to contain herself, yet finding she couldn't quite describe what she was feeling either.
"Mum was right. It's bigger on the inside." She looked around the cavernous room. "Way bigger on the inside."
"Yes, well, I've redecorated since your mum was here last." He stood to look at his own handy-work. He hadn't actually meant to do so much to the place, but once he got started, he found he just couldn't stop. The trouble he'd had hauling the large and rather ornate Seal of Rassilon out of storage and getting it up above the door. Especially when the anti-grav stabilisers had failed on him. "Still, it's not too shabby, don't you think?"
As soon as Vanessa had been old enough to understand, her mother had been telling her stories. Tales of other times and other worlds and for a while, she had believed every single word. But recently, the stories just hadn't been as convincing. They were fun and entertaining, but no more than any other story. It had felt as if she had grown up past them, that she was too old to believe in them any more. Now she felt like she could believe in Santa Claus again. "I think it's great!"
The Doctor grinned at her in delight. "Come on. Let me show you your mother's old room."
Hand in hand, he led her deeper into the TARDIS.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Damn-it!"
How could he have lost them!?! He stumbled through the dark wood, knowing that they had to be here somewhere. After all, where else could they be?
He'd just decided that he was worrying over nothing, that the kid was probably alright when he realised something.
"How the hell do I get back?" P.C. Graham Campbell of her Majesties Police Force, was well and truly lost.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Vanessa ran her fingers over the dark velvet cloth of the clothes hanging from the hat-stand, wondering who had once worn such a strange outfit.
She turned to the bed, noticing a mirror lying on the nightstand beside it. It was one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen. Maybe it had been her mothers and the Doctor would let her keep it? After all, it was only a mirror.
Curious now, she reached out, picking it up and looking at herself.
Her eyes…
She couldn't stop looking at her eyes, couldn't seem to tear her gaze away from her reflection.
~Little girl~
She watched as her eyes widened in fear at the sound of a voice that chilled her to the bone.
No one else was in the room, no one else had come in, so who was in here with her?
She felt herself begin to panic, wanting nothing more than yell for the Doctor to help her.
~Pathetic human child~
She watched a tear run down her cheek, still unable to pull her gaze away. It was like she was looking at someone else's eyes.
And someone else was looking right back at her.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Ah! There you are!"
The Doctor grabbed an old and very dusty box off the top shelf in one of his storage rooms, sneezing as the dust danced around the room.
Vanessa was going to love these, he thought to himself, looking at the small blue globes that filled the old cardboard box now in his hands.
He'd noticed on his way over that a lot of the houses in the town had Christmas lights on the front of them and in their gardens. Well, these where going to make those look very pale in comparison.
He found himself smiling as he made his way back down the corridor to Tegan's old room. Vanessa and he were getting along famously, plus, he was starting to feel as if he was finally shaking off the lingering effects of his 'death' in San Francisco. Must be the company I'm keeping, he thought to himself.
"Vanessa, wait till you see…" Tegan's old room was empty. Turning, he looked up the hall and saw no sign of her. He hoped she hadn't decided to go exploring without him. The TARDIS was a very big place. It was infinitely easy to get lost in it's depths.
Yet, something drew him back to the room. He stood looking at it for a few seconds, knowing something was wrong, but trying to put his finger on it.
A mirror lay broken on the ground. From the look of things, it had been thrown hard against the wall.
"Oh no."
He knew something had happened. Something bad.
Dropping his box, he ran to the console room, seeing no sign of Vanessa anywhere.
The door was open. He hadn't shown Vanessa how to open it.
He ran outside, sure now that Vanessa was no longer in the safety of his TARDIS, but somewhere out there, in the dark. He just wasn't sure she was alone.
"Vanessa!" he called out desperately, hoping to hear an answering cry in response.
He ran out into the night, pulling the door shut behind him. "Vanessa! Answer me! Vanessa!"
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
He couldn't believe how stupid he felt right now. He was supposed to be a trained professional for Gods sake! Yet here he was, tramping about like a blind man all because he wanted to get into Tegan Jovanka's knickers.
Graham angrily kicked out at a tree before making himself stop so that he could think for a minute.
Just then, when he was actually being quiet enough, he heard something. He turned his head, listening now for all he was worth.
It sounded like a child crying. Not too far from him either.
Despite being overly full of himself, Graham Campbell was a police officer, and while he had wanted the prestige and excitement that being a police officer had held for him in his youth, another part of him did actually care. It was just so little happened with his work that he rarely had the chance to show that he could be good at this job.
"Hello? Who's out there?" He moved forward a little, in the direction of the crying. He felt a shiver of fear shake through him. Oh God, he thought. He'd been right all along. That man had been out here to cause harm to that little girl. And he was out there, somewhere, doing God alone knew what to her.
"It's ok. I'm a police man," he tried to scan the surrounding area, but darkness had really fallen by this stage, and he could barely see his own hand in front of him. "You know me, I'm Graham. A friend of your mum's, remember?"
A heart-filled cry had him turning to the sound, and he thought he could see a vague shape not too far ahead of him in the dark.
He moved towards it, afraid of what he might find, his heart pounding furiously in his chest. This was it. This was his time to prove his worth as a police officer and maybe get a transfer to somewhere with a bit more excitement.
He could now make out a definitive shape in the darkness, a figure lying curled up at the bottom of a tree. He moved quickly to her side, wary that he might scare her more if he wasn't careful.
"Vanessa, isn't it?" He knelt down beside her, wanting to get them both away from this place. Even in the dark he could make out that her clothes were filthy.
Her crying had almost stopped, and her breathing sounded ragged. Dear God, what had that monster done to her?
Gently, he reached out his hand, only to be startled when she turned to look at him, a weary smile on her face.
"Yes, that's right. You can trust me kiddo."
He felt a hand reach out to his, small delicate fingers prising his hand open. She was standing, holding his hand and he rose with her. "Come on, I'll get you back home, safe and sound." Then he was going to find out what the hell had happened. Who left a child alone in a forest in the dark? He looked around him, suddenly remembering that this girl had been hand in hand with a man, a stranger he'd never seen around the town before. He must still be out there somewhere.
"Come on," he whispered. "Let's get you home."
He turned to try another direction, not knowing what else he could do in the dark but to try and find his way back. He had the girl to look after now, and he was damned if he was going to let her down.
Yet when he started walking, the girl refused to budge and turning, even in the dark, he could now see that despite her tear-stained face, she was smiling.
Her small fingers threaded through his, and for a second he wondered what she was doing. "We don't-
Then he felt something; his fingers were going numb, yet at the same time, he could feel something dark start to slither up his arm, a coldness that had nothing to do with a lack of heat. As it crawled further up his arm, over his shoulder and up past his neck and into his mind, he felt it's icy blackness envelope that part of him that made him who he was.
Unable to let go, P.C. Graham Campbell screamed for all he was worth into the unforgiving darkness of Royston woods.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Tegan sat at the dinner table, three untouched meals sitting in front of her. She was trying not to look at the clock, trying not to notice that it was getting late and that they should have been back well before now.
"To hell with this."
Jumping up from the table, she ran out into the hallway, pulling a torch from the cupboard under the stairs and a coat off the hanger.
She'd never been one to do nothing. Especially when it came to her daughter.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Even with his ability to see better than most in the dark, there was absolutely no trace of Vanessa.
Not knowing what else to do, the Doctor stopped and focused his hearing on the night around him.
Sounds far off from the town; animals hunting and dieing in the dark.
But no sounds of Vanessa.
"No." There had to be something. Anything. He concentrated even harder.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
This felt new. Liberating in a way.
Graham looked down at the child lying at his feet. She looked so vulnerable, so defenceless lying there. So still and quiet.
He bent down, picking her up gently and with care. He knew what he had to do.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Nothing!"
Frustration was a feeling the Doctor had experienced many times before. He'd felt fear in the past too. Oh, he was careful not to show it, after all, sometimes it paid to fool your enemies into thinking you weren't affected, that you were a cool and an unfeeling creature.
But now…
This was a new sensation. He'd held the fate of entire worlds in his hands and had felt nothing but logical and calm, sure that what he needed to do, no matter how terrible, really was for the best. A burden, yes, but one he had accepted a long time ago.
The fear he felt now was eating at him. This wasn't one of his companions; this wasn't something that shouldn't have been outside of his control. This was a child, placed into his care by a valued and dear friend. This was something that he should have been able to prevent.
He was loosing his ability to think clearly and he realised it. Yet he seemed powerless to stop the overwhelming and conflicting emotions that twisted around and around in his head.
He needed to think clearly if he was going to be any help to Vanessa.
He turned and ran back to the TARDIS.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Tegan knew where the TARDIS was parked, having recognised the place from the Doctor's description of it over tea earlier.
As she made her way to it, she'd convinced herself that whatever thoughts running around in her head where simply the workings of an over active imagination, coupled with the natural worrying any mother would have if their daughter was running late.
The sound of feet crashing through the woods startled her, and she raised her torch only to recognise the Doctor. Relief flooded through her.
"God but you startled me." She shone her torch past him. "Where's Vanessa, Doctor?"
"Tegan…"
And just like that, she knew. Something was wrong.
"Where is she Doctor?"
He pulled a key out of his waistcoat pocket. "Come inside. She's lost out in the woods somewhere. I'm going to use the TARDIS scanners to locate her life signs."
Her torch once again rounded onto the dark woods about her. "She's lost out there? In the dark!" Tegan felt sick and angry at the same time. "You said you'd look after her!"
"Tegan!" The Doctor shouted, and Tegan blinked at him in worry and confusion. "Inside. Please?" It was said more gently this time, and she realised that the Doctor was just as upset as she was. She nodded, following him through the doors.
She noticed the change and barely gave it another thought, following him to the console that stood in the centre of the room.
He was already flicking switches, and hitting buttons. "Are you getting anything?" she asked.
The Doctor looked down in concern at the small screen set in the console. "I'm not picking up any human life signs." He looked up at her. "She's hardly been gone an hour."
Human life signs. "What if she wasn't exactly human?"
"What?"
"What if she wasn't all human?"
The Doctor looked at her for a moment. "I should have realised. Turlough?"
Tegan nodded, feeling part of the weight on her shoulders fall from her. For a second, she thought she seen a look of anger in his eyes, but it had happened so quickly that she was sure she had been mistaken. He ran over to a very large and ornate chest of drawers, searching through them for something. "Ah! Here we are."
He came back over to her side, holding what looked like a small silver hollow tube. "I need you to place a finger inside the tube. It's a DNA/RNA reader. I can place your genetic profile into the search parameters, we won't need any more than that."
She placed a finger inside, expecting it to hurt. Instead it gently ran a light over her finger. "Thank you." He then hit another button on the console, a small, stubby rod raising out of it. He placed the tube over it and they both watched as it sank back into it's recess.
"And all I need to do now is…"
They both turned to look at the screen.
The Doctor turned to Tegan. "I'm sorry, but there's nothing out there."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
It was quite a journey to the other side of the village, but with his night-vision a lot better now, it was easy going.
He was heading for the graveyard.
He paused at the gates, setting Vanessa carefully down on the ground. Thankfully they weren't locked. They were just old and rather heavy and he needed both hands to push them open. They didn't have any trouble in Royston, why lock something up when you didn't have to?
He pushed them aside, picking the girl up again as he made his way to the large Victorian crypt that dominated the graveyard.
The Royston family had once been prevalent within the community, but with tax and death duties as well as the obligations to the people who lived on the old estate, they'd been forced to sell it all back in the 1930's. The tomb was nothing more than an ornate curiosity to those who came within the cemetery walls.
Until now.
He looked at the old and rusted padlock, and shifting Vanessa slightly so he could reach it better, he snapped it in two and leaned his shoulder against the solid metal door and pushed it open.
Inside it was dark and musty, although the smell of decay was long gone. Placing Vanessa on the rather large tomb in the middle of the room, he covered her with his coat and, making sure she was secure, left again. He'd come back later tomorrow with a fresh padlock.
She needed to rest after what she had done tonight, and he would have to go back and distract anyone from looking in the right places for her.
He left the graveyard, and made his way back to his own home. He was expecting a call about a missing child any moment now.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Tegan was starting to feel frantic. "Widen your search parameters! Scan the town for miles around." She looked desperately at the console.
The Doctor stared down at the scanner, willing it to show him where to find Vanessa. "I'm not picking anything up. Either someone or something is hiding her DNA or…"
"You think she's dead?" Tegan couldn't believe she had said that so calmly.
The Doctor shook his head. "No. Even if that were the case, it would take millennia for decomposition to sufficiently corrupt the DNA to prevent the TARDIS from finding her."
Tegan shuddered at his words. "Then what do you mean, Doctor?"
"I don't see how, but there's only two options here. One, as I said, she's being hidden, or two…"
"Two?"
"Or two, she's no longer on the planet."
Tegan gave a short hysterical laugh. Seconds later she felt herself being led over to an armchair. "Jesus Christ Doctor. You come back into my life and within hours, trouble is at my door."
He was kneeling in front of her, trying to hide how worried and upset he was feeling. It would do Tegan no good if she thought he was being anything other than the cool, logical and 'alien' personae she was used to. Yet he still wanted to comfort her, tell her everything was going to be alright. Somehow he found he was unable to.
"What happened Doctor? How did 'this' happen?"
So he told her.
"Somehow she opened the door by herself. I didn't show her how to do that Tegan. Something more is going on here than we know about."
"Do you think she's still on the planet?"
"Honestly? I believe she is. Something happened inside the TARDIS, not outside it. Something in here set things into motion. She's out there, somewhere. We just have to find her."
Tegan sat silently for a moment, thinking. "We need to find her. I'm going to call the police, get a search party organised or something."
"Are you sure that's such a good idea?"
Tegan glared and the Doctor quickly got the point. "I'll just go patch the communications system into the local satellite network. Shouldn't take two ticks and you can call from here."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"How long has Vanessa been missing then Tegan?"
"Yes, I sighted her myself just before then. She was with a man. I took it he was known to you to allow your daughter out with him. If I had only known…"
"Oh, so this man ~is~ a friend of the family then? I see. Would you mind giving me his name?"
"The Doctor? Doctor who? Just Doctor. Seems a little strange to me, but then again, what would I know about it. Still, I'll need to speak to him, as he was the last person to be seen with her."
"Don't worry, Tegan. I'm ~sure~ she's fine. She's a smart young lady and a Jovanka to boot. I'll call through to the main police station in Stanton, get a few more officers in for an early morning search. In the mean time, I'll check all the local areas in the town, get a few people up to help me."
"No, not at all. I'll call you at home if I have any news for you. Yes, I'll see you then. I'm sure we'll find her safe and sound. Goodbye."
P.C. Graham hung up the phone. Everything was going according to plan.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
tbc