Casino TARDIS Part Four

Notes: I know. I'm a worm. I shouldn't have left the last chapter on that absurd cliff hanger.

But it was worth it.

Immi-in-the-TARDIS: I know I'm so mean…addicted? You know, it's not good to get addicted to things Immi. Would you like to see a counsellor? On a more serious note, thanks for your review!

Becsy Lexi: Hey, I'm mean, but I don't smell! I thought I had that clear? Yeah, isn't it frustrating? You can't do anything…they can't do anything…it's like a big Catch 22. Lol, that was one of my favourite bits too. I needed something light before we get into the really dark upsetting stuff.

Porkpie: Man I could do with a pork pie…OK, I need to stop drooling over people's names. You're a newbie, ain't ya? Welcome my friend. Welcome to the insanity.

Morph: I love the TARDIS too! I think the best fics have her in them as a proper character…And here I am, keeping it up. Have fun and enjoy my work.

Cloudhaven94: I know, I'm evil…and don't worry, slowly but surely, I'm working on Jack's Agenda. Reviews speed up the thought process…hint hint double hint!

Mutants rule: I nearly fell out of my chair reading your review, so I guess we're square. ;)

Uh.yeah: Thanks so much for all your reviews! I wrote you a big rambly thank you email, so I won't go on too long…but it's so great that you're reading. And why does everyone hate me so much? I know it was a big cliffie…but…you gotta admit, it was excellent. INFLATE MY EGO, PEOPLE!

So, here we go.

Definitely going.

On our way now.

Going, going…GONE!

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Two shots.

Two wounds.

Crimson.

Two bodies.

Dilys screamed until her throat was raw. Her parents…this was how it ended? Taking their last laboured breaths in their wedding clothes, hands desperately entwined? How could it end like this?

Flint sniggered. He was insane. Satisfied, he calmly dropped the gun and walked out of the building.

Davey lowered himself to the floor, trying to get into some form of recovery position, fighting the bile rising in his throat. He heaved. This was worse than on TV. So much worse.

But Dilys had no time to comfort him. She ran to where her parents lay and fell to her knees.

"Please no," she whispered.

They were dead. Of course they were dead. All hope of finding them, being reunited, crumbled into despair. She tried to reach out and touch them, tears pouring down her face as her fingers slipped through them. Just projections. Pictures of what was.

She didn't know them now, although she had. And she wouldn't know them again.

They were bodies.

They were empty shells, lying in their own life blood. Their souls were somewhere else and it was far too late for Dilys to grieve for them because they'd been gone so long already. But that didn't stop her sobbing until her throat ached and her eyes burned. How long had she waited for this day? How long had she spent dreaming of seeing her parents again?

Davey, slightly recovered, struggled across the floor to her and laid a hand on her shoulder. How can I help her through this? he thought as she turned to him and buried her face in his chest. He threw his arms around her and hugged her close, her tears soaking his uniform. For a moment they were children again, just lost little children, clinging to each other because that was all they had left.

"Rose?" The two teenagers parted to see who had spoken. "Doctor?"

Dilys rubbed a hand across her face as the hologram Jack ran straight through them.

"Rose…" he murmured as he saw her, her beautiful hair matted with blood. He knelt beside them, not caring as their blood seeped into his jeans and stained his hands. He stroked her hair. "Not my Rose…how could this happen? ...Why did I leave you? ...Oh my poor Rose…"

"This is so awful," whispered Dilys. Davey squeezed her hand. For once, he couldn't think of anything funnyto say. There was nothing funny about death.

"Want to leave Dilly?" he asked.

But something was happening to the Doctor. His lifeless form was suddenly wrapped in golden light. His features changed. As the light faded, Dilys saw that the man she had only just begun to accept as her father had changed completely. This Doctor was younger, more handsome. As he began to stir, Dilys looked eagerly towards he mother.

But whatever magic or miracle had revitalised her father wasn't working for Rose.

"Jack?" muttered the new Doctor as he opened his eyes and sat up.

"That's me," Jack said quietly. "Welcome back."

"Rose…is she…" His face fell.

"I'm so sorry," said Jack. The Doctor looked at him and then towards his wife.

"Rose?" He shuffled towards her and lifted her head gently, cradling it in his hands. "Come on Rose…please…wake up, you silly human…"

"Doctor." Jack laid a hand on his arm. He looked at him silently.

There was a pause.

"Why today Jack?" asked the Doctor, tears spilling down his cheeks as his voice rose. "Why did it have to be today!"

"I know, it's not fair," said the Captain, trying to quieten him. "But…but your daughter is safe. On the TARDIS."

"My last link," murmured the Doctor "My last link to Rose…she needs to be safe. I'll send her to Jackie." He produced the sonic screwdriver and held it high as it whirred into life. In the distance, Dilys heard a whirring, grating noise that she'd never heard before…she assumed it was the TARDIS in flight. She wished she could fly it herself. "I need one of my girls safe."

And with that. The projection faded away, leaving Dilys and Davey standing alone in a corridor of the TARDIS.

This corridor held four doors: one at the end, two on one side and one on the other.

"OK Dil," said Davey. "What now?"

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"Now…" What now? Now I want to curl up in a little ball and never do anything again, thought Dilys, but she pushed it from her mind. This was no time for grieving. It wouldn't bring them back. Rose…Rose had died a long time ago. And her father and Jack had been missing for years. Besides, she had her whole life for grieving. Now she just had to survive.

She needed to know more.

"Let's try that door first," she said, moving to one lining the left wall. Davey followed her like he always would, grinning because she was so brave, and he was so proud of her.

This was definitely Jack's room. Davey inspected the stars and stripes bedspread and was amused to find various naughty magazines hidden behind the pillow. Dilys promptly took them from him and put them back, giving him a thwack over the head first.

It was incredibly untidy in the Captain's room, and quite hard to get around. Half broken (or half mended?) gadgets littered the floor, mixed with tools, clothes and hair products. A fancy looking gun lay on his bedside table along with a strip of silly pictures of him, Rose and the Doctor crammed into a photo booth. Dilys tried one of his drawers cautiously, feeling a little guilty for snooping but too intrigued to care. Inside lay several photo albums and a box crammed with mini disks, obviously home videos from the labels. Here was a man who loved his friends.

"You should look at those," said Davey.

"I will," agreed Dilys. "But not by myself." Davey grinned.

"Who said you'd be by yourself?" he said.

The next room along was overwhelmingly pink. A pile of out of date fashion magazines and a copy of Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus was sat in a corner, along with several cuddly toys. This was Rose's room. The little pink TV had a Friends DVD balanced on top and Dilys was intrigued to see a little post-it note stuck to the CD player. On it was written, in rounded script with little hearts over the i's—Just about sums it up! Dilys felt a surge of happiness as she realised this was a note from Rose. Not to her, obviously, but from Rose all the same. She pressed play. The Corrs' 'When He's Not Around' flooded the room.

He's uncool

An unsophisticat

He's a tightrope walker on an open path

He's a maze of curiosity

He is the living bread that cures my appetite

I find that I can't breathe and I can't sleep

When he's not around…

Dilys turned it off.

"She really loved him," put in Davey.

"Yeah," said Dilys, sniffing back tears. "Yeah, she did."

The room at the end of the corridor was also very pink, with a border of Winnie the Pooh and his friends generally having a good time. A small bed with a Disney Princess bedspread was in the centre, with a mobile of stars and planets dangling above it. Dilys switched it on with interest. A melody she knew very well filled the room.

"It's my lullaby!" she cried. "My Gallifreyan lullaby!"

Davey knew she probably wasn't going to explain this, so he let it wash over him like the exquisite music. He looked at the rest of the room, which was much like every other little girl's. Stuffed toys, picture books, flashing trainers…

Dilys was singing. Davey had heard her singing before and she had a lovely singing voice, but it was what she was singing that disturbed him. She was singing to the same tune the mobile was playing, and she was singing in…well, he guessed it was Gallifreyan, or whatever she'd called it.

Davey shivered. Something about the lullaby made his hairs stand on end. He'd never realised beautiful things could be frightening.

The lullaby ended and they move to the last room.

This was the Doctor's room. It was plain, black and white, and had very little in it except a picture of Rose and Jack and a half finished remains of something he'd been making out of scraps of metal. There was a bookcase in his room too, and Davey felt his neck prick again. Most of the books weren't in English.

"Dil, when do you want to check out those albums and disks?" he asked his friend, who seemed a little spaced out.

"Um…" Dilys looked clueless.

"Do you want to watch the disks tonight?" he asked again. "I can stay over and we can watch them…and have popcorn and…and pizza…"

"OK," said Dilys, looking vaguely happy. "Yes. Right, let's do that." And they collected the disks and albums, food from the kitchen, and made their way to a TV room, where they spent a normal evening laughing at silly photos and films and crying at the sad ones.

And Davey became subconsciously linked with the TARDIS.

Because even though neither of them knew it, the TARDIS recognised at once what had happened.

Dilys, in the tradition set by her father, had found herself a companion.

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Bit of a sappy chapter that, but there you go. I want to make it clear now that Davey is not a romantic companion like Rose: him and Dilys are best friends and nothing more. You can have a soul mate without being in love with them you know. ;)