Chapter 3: All's Well that Explodes Well

Once upon a time, when she was still a child, her mother had told her to wait patiently while she went to speak to a doctor. She had, for a time, until boredom overtook her. She wanted to do, to see, to touch, to taste, to play -- anything but sit still in the overbearing mahogany and leather waiting room. So she had moved, had played, had darted around the room, pulling books off the shelves, and strained to reach the interesting figurines that had been perched precariously on the too-tall shelves.

When her mother had returned, she found her daughter surrounded by the results of her play and a disordered room. She hadn't felt guilt at that time. She'd been bored and patience was a virtue that she had never been blessed with.

She certainly wasn't feeling very patient now.

The white walls of the room were too bright. The floor was too hard. The cat too smug. She had to wait patiently until Dracula was gone. Then, and only then, would she be able to leave.

"Oh, Doctor." She sighed his name and rubbed at an imaginary stain on her skirt. It amazed her sometimes that she had chosen to place so much trust in him. She knew he'd do anything to keep her safe.

Perhaps this was his way of keeping her safe now. Safe and sound and trapped within this single room. Protected by both the room and the silver-coated cat. But what about him?

What about the Doctor, stuck outside this tiny haven with only Dracula for company?

She shook her head and stood, pacing the room in a useless attempt to work off her worry. She wanted to be out there, with him. She'd never asked for this. Never asked to be protected, never asked to be locked away from danger. She was Charlotte Pollard, Edwardian adventuress. She didn't hide from danger. She faced it.

Except for now.

"Botheration!" she said and sat back down in a huff. She didn't fancy being eaten, of course. But what if she wasn't? What if she avoided Dracula, found the Doctor, and helped him in some way? What if she managed to stop Dracula on her own?

What if, what if, what if...

"Ow!" The sudden sharp pain caused her to look down in shock. One long, shallow scratch marred the skin of her hand. She shot a glare at the silver cat, caught in the moment of it retracting its claws. "What was that for?"

Safe here...

Oh, yes. She mustn't think about escape. Mustn't think about leaving safety, because Dracula might eat her.

Oh, bother that! She stood quickly and began to walk toward where she assumed the door might be.

NO!

She staggered both from the force of the sensation and the feel of the cat's sharp claws digging into her as it climbed her side. "Ow!" she protested as the animal finally found a precarious perch on her shoulder and stared intently at her.

The Doctor might need her. She…

The cat's emerald eyes were oddly hypnotic, she thought absently as she sank back to the floor.

No…she should just stay…

right…

here…

Safe…

The last sensation that she remembered before she drifted off to sleep was the low rumble of the cat's purr as it pressed against her neck.


"Oh, chronovore! Dinner! Yum-yums!" he called as he walked through the TARDIS' corridors. The device hummed pleasantly in his arms, giving him a false sense of security. At least, it seemed false. There were no guarantees that it would work. He might be brilliant, but even he had limits. However, he refused to consider any other options. This would work. He'd defeat the chronovore and save Charley just in time for afternoon tea. Yes. That would be perfect.

That was when he heard it, scratching against the walls of his beloved ship as it approached him. Yes. Perfect.

He thumbed the switch to activate the charge. Five minutes until he could see if his hard work had paid off. Five minutes for him to distract the chronovore. Five minutes had never seemed so long.

When the creature rounded the corner, he realised that he'd forgotten how ugly they could be. While he loved life in all its infinite forms, he suspected that only its mother could truly love the chronovore. Its shape defied description. One moment, it was vaguely dragon-like. The next, it was a writhing mass of darkness. The next it was humanoid-shaped, its fathomless black eyes reflecting an alien intelligence. Transdimensional creatures weren't known for keeping one identity, one form. It was all or nothing for them.

And they were always hungry.

"Oh, come for dinner?" He grinned widely as he mentally urged the charge to keep building. "Did you have fun meandering the corridors of my ship? You realise that it wasn't polite of you to come in uninvited. A nice knock on the door would be enough. Can't guarantee that I'd let you in, of course. Especially since you're not selling anything of interest."

"Time Lord…" Its voice was like the winter, chilling, cold, and cruel.

Since when had he started carting about a sign that declared his identity through time and space? Oh, right. Chronovore. He knew that he cast a shadow through the dimensions, through the past and the future, that such entities were sensitive to. Of course it'd know. The hum of the device increased its pitch. "Yes?" he asked, still grinning.

"The anomaly...belongs to me. Protection won't last."

Protection? Protection! Oh his beautiful, fabulous, fantastic, brilliant ship. He knew where Charley was! She was safe! And in the Zero Room! Must be! Oh, he loved the TARDIS. He felt fairly giddy with relief, but the danger wasn't over yet.

"She belongs to no one but herself," he corrected, willing the device to rip the hole in the space-time continuum at any time. Any time now would be preferred.

"The anomaly doesn't belong. You know my function, Time Lord. You cannot stop me." The chronovore moved closer, now in the shape of a dragon, its sharp teeth bared in a grimace of a smile.

Yes, he knew its purpose. Of course he did. It fed off anomalies, such as Charley, to maintain the web of time. Just as Rassilon intended. Damn him anyway.

The device was vibrating intensely now, its hum reaching a fever pitch. He looked into the chronovore's black eyes and answered, "Watch me."

And space-time ripped apart.

He lost control of all twenty-seven of his senses, each affected differently by the impact of the vortex within his ship. His poor, beautiful ship screamed around him. He couldn't keep the rip open for long without tearing her apart.

"Focus, Doctor!" he commanded himself, forcing his eyes open - when had they closed? - and saw - tasted? - the terrible beauty of the vortex before him. Thin tendrils of something faintly golden reached toward him and the chronovore, but he moved back, kept away. He couldn't let it touch him, he knew.

Never let it touch him.

Not yet…

The whisper of thought curled around his mind as the chronovore screamed its defiance. Golden tendrils surrounded it, cocooned it, enveloped it, and it was slowly drawn back into the maw of the storm.

Inch by pain-staking inch, it was pulled in. "This isn't over, Time Lord!"

But it was. The chronovore had lost. It'd lost!

Close your eyes…

The command was soft, but compelling. He did as it asked and, through the red-tinged shield of his eyelids, he could see a brilliant flash of light. A wave of heat blew past him and the device in his hands began to rumble dangerously.

Throw it…

Again, he obeyed. There was no time to consider what had given him the instructions, what was helping him. He knew his danger. So he tossed the device down the corridor and dove to the floor, shielding his head with his arms.

Another explosion ripped through the TARDIS, rocking the ship with its force. But it was minor, very, very minor compared to the rip in space-time.

Then there was silence. After the noise of the past few minutes, the quiet was deafening. Even the Cloister Bell had stopped. The tear was gone. The chronovore was gone.

It was over.

There was something that he was forgetting, he realised as he forced himself to his feet. Aches and pains revealed themselves from the force of his impact, but he ignored them. He was fine. But what about Charley?

Charley!

Yes. He must find her, make sure she was safe, and that the explosion hadn't hurt her. He looked at the blacked section of corridor before him and sighed as he patted the wall. "I'm sorry, old girl."

With another mournful glance at the corridor, he turned and headed for the Zero Room. First things first, next things next. And first, he'd find Charley. Then, with her in tow, he'd fix the TARDIS.

The TARDIS. What if the voice was the TARDIS? No. That was impossible. She'd never done anything like that before, if it was. However, his time ship could always surprise him. Anything was possible.

But, if it was, he smiled as he whispered, "Thank you."

It might've been his imagination, but he thought the ship's standard hum deepened in response.

Oh, how he loved his TARDIS!


"Charley!"

She heard his voice at the edges of her consciousness, caught between sleep and wakefulness. There was a desperation lacing her name that she'd never heard before, but it was such a struggle to open her eyes.

Wait a minute. She was asleep? Asleep? At a time like this, when Dracula was just outside, and the Doctor...

The Doctor?

He hadn't been there before, she was certain. There was a cat, she distinctly remembered a cat. It'd scratched her and...then nothing. Nothing until she heard her name.

"Charley!" he said again, and she could hear the soft rustle of fabric as he knelt at her side. She fought against the compulsion to sleep, to open her eyes, to reassure him that she was fine. But it was hard. So, so hard.

His fingers gently touched the pulse-point on her neck and she heard him sigh in relief. "Sleeping? I've just saved the TARDIS and her, invented the means of fighting off a transdimensional creature, and she's sleeping. Figures. Charley! Time to get up! We've got places to go. Haven't shown you Cerulia yet. Fantastic planet, gorgeous crystal caves. You've just got to be wary of the cave spiders. Sharp fangs. But you'd love it! Come on Charley, get up!"

Get up.

The command lanced through her mind, banishing the fatigue in an instant, and she opened her eyes.

"Doctor," she began before she got a good look at him. He looked like he'd just been through the wars. His velvet coat was singed, his hair was mussed out of its usual curls, and soot covered his face and hands. He looked wonderful. "Oh, Doctor! It is you!" She couldn't help herself. She flung her arms around him and gave him a quick squeeze before she released him. "But how? There was this cat, and I couldn't get out - or it wouldn't let me out - and... How'd you get in here?"

He grinned widely. Great. She knew that look far too well. "Through the door, of course."

Vaguely, she wondered if a court of law would convict her for wanting to kill him. But that wasn't important. What was important was… "Dracula!"

He blinked, apparently confused. "Dracula?"

"Whatever that, that creature was. It was chasing me. Didn't want to keep thinking of it as, well, 'it' so I gave it a name."

"But Dracula?"

She shrugged. "It certainly wasn't a Frankenstein. But, Doctor, what happened to it?"

He rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet and his brow furrowed, as if in thought. "Well, technically, it was reduced to its component particles due to the influx of a ten-thousand krenin pulse of chroniton energy. The interaction of its biomass with the chronitons, which happened to be its one-hundred and eighty krell polar opposite…well, we won't have to worry about your Dracula anymore."

She looked at him blankly. "If that was English, Doctor - which I doubt - I have no idea what you just said."

He grinned. "I opened a portal into the space-time vortex. The interaction between the transdimensional chronovore and the vortex resulted in its being pulled back into the maw of the storm. Either that, or it was destroyed. Can never really tell with chronovores. But, regardless, it's gone. And I'm going to be updating the TARDIS shielding to make certain it can't come back. I love company, you know. I just don't care for it when it decides you or your friends make a tasty meal."

She still had no idea what he meant, but it was enough to know that Dracula was gone. That was when she also noticed that her furry 'friend' had disappeared. "Doctor...you wouldn't happen to have a cat on the TARDIS, would you?"

He blinked and appeared confused. "How would you know about Wolsey? Left him with a friend a while back… Did you find one of his toys?"

Something must've been evident on her face because an understanding look appeared in his eyes. "Oh. Oh! I think I know what you mean. Wouldn't happen to be silver and have green eyes?"

She nodded. "Yes, exactly! And, Doctor, it walked through a door! Cats can't do that!"

His smile turned enigmatic. "Can't they?"

He could be so aggravating sometimes. She shook her head. "You know they can't! They're cats. As physical and as real as you or me. Walking through a door isn't possible! It just isn't, well, rational."

"Then perhaps you should consider the more irrational answer. When is a cat not a cat?"

She could feel a headache coming on. "A cat is a cat is a cat."

"Except for when it isn't," he corrected.

No question about it. The courts wouldn't be able to convict her. It was self-defence for her own sanity. "Doctor..."

His expression turned sympathetic. "It protected you, didn't it?"

She nodded. "Yes. It did, even when it attacked me, I knew it was trying to protect me. But, Doctor, what is it? Or was it?"

"It was what was needed. That's all." He shrugged faintly and offered her his hand. "Come on, Charley! No use hanging about in the Zero Room! We have places to go, you know. Important, dazzling places. Places where the sky's on fire, the ground's made of glass, and the cities resound with song. Places where your breath changes colours depending on your mood. Can you imagine that?" He laughed brightly and, as she accepted his assistance, he pulled her to her feet. "Your breath changing colours! I've always wondered what joy looked like. Or wonder. Or curiosity. Shall we see?"

She laughed. His joy always was infectious. Though he hadn't answered her question, she knew him well enough to know that he never would. But there were things to do and places to go. It wasn't worth worrying over his secrets. She had a universe to explore, and a place where her breath changed colours sounded brilliant.

Her smile widened into a grin as she nodded. "Oh, yes, let's!"

So they did.

THE END