The central console of the TARDIS sparked crazily as Martha, the Doctor and I picked ourselves up off the floor. The Doctor dashed to my side and grabbed my face.
"Did they see you?" he asked me urgently.
"No." I told him before pulling myself out of his grasp and to the console as he moved to Martha. He grabbed her by her arms and looked into her face.
"Did they see you?" he asked her with the same urgency he did me.
"I don't know!" she told him.
"Did they see you?" he asked her again.
"I don't know, I was too busy running!" she told him.
"Martha, it's important - did they see your face?" he asked once more.
"No, they couldn't have!" she told him smiling. The Doctor ran round the console and started playing with the controls.
"Don't mess up what I've already done." I told him. "Hold on to something." We watched the rotor intently before a warning beep cut in.
"Ahhh!" the Doctor shouted annoyed before grabbing the console screen and reading it.
"Tell me it doesn't say what I think it says." I told him.
"They're following us." He confirmed and I hit the console in frustration before going back to the controls.
"How can they do that, you've got a time machine." Martha said.
"Stolen technology, they've got a Time Agent's vortex manipulator. They can follow us wherever we go, right across the universe-" he said. "They're never going to stop."
"Do you think it's his?" I asked him.
"No, you know where he is." He told him running his hand through his hair nervously and staring.
"We have to hide." I told him and he turned to me knowingly. "We have to hide perfectly and in plain sight." He sighed before turning to Martha.
"Martha, you trust us don't you?" he asked her.
"Of course I do." She told him.
"Cause it all depends on you." He told her before diving beneath the console to retrieve two watches as Martha watched in confusion.
"What does, what am I supposed to do?" she asked. The Doctor reappears and tossed one of the ornate pocket watches to me before showing his to her.
"Take this watch, 'cause my life depends on it. The watch, Martha- The watch is-"
I woke suddenly, taking a deep breath. I rose from my bed and putting on my dressing gown. I looked outside before sitting down and writing what I'd dreamt once more. One I was done, I dressed for the day before a knock was heard on the door.
"Come in." Martha walked in my room with a tray.
"Good morning Ms. Tyler." She greeted.
"Morning." I greeted as I put up my hair. Martha walked to the middle of the room and set the tray down before setting up the first cup of tea.
"How are you this morning Miss Jones?" I asked her.
"I'm well Ms. How are you doing this morning?" she asked me.
"Have you ever felt like you don't belong somewhere?" I asked her missing the look she threw my way. "I keep having strange dreams about the most extraordinary man. At times I wake feeling lost without him."
"I've felt that feeling." She told me, a fond smile crossing her face. "It was right after Mr. Smith and I arrived from London."
"Yes. I forgot you two arrived shortly after I did." I remembered going to the mantle.
"Are you sure you're alright Ms. Tyler?" she asked me.
"Yes." I said absently looking at a watch on the mantle. "Isn't it funny how dreams always manage to slip away?" I asked her.
"To bad life can't be more like a dream." She said and I smiled at her.
"Yes, too bad."
The day passed fairly normal after that. I went to work as a nurse under Matron Redfern. At midday, young boy was sent to me by Mr. Smith.
"What seems to be wrong, Jenkins?" I asked him with a kind smile. He told me his symptoms and I diagnosed him before ordering him to rest in a bed we had available. A short time later, the post came by and he brightened considerably from a letter he'd received.
I was walking in the hall when a young boy almost ran into me.
"Excuse me, ma'am." He said moving by to I could pass. I noticed Mr. Smith overloaded with a stack of book and smiled as I approached him.
"Good morning, Mr. Smith." I greeted. Mr. Smith fumbled with the top book and it fell to the floor. He quickly stepped on it to stop it from falling away.
"There we go." He said.
"Let me help you." I told him going for the book.
"No, no, I've got it, no..." he looked from the book back to his stack. "Um... ah... Just to... retrieve... ah... If you could take these—" he handed me the stack of books before bending to pick up the books.
"Good." I said smiling warmly at him.
"No harm done." He said smiling at me. "So, um, how was Jenkins?"
"Oh just a cold, nothing serious. Missing his mother, more than anything." I told him.
"Aw, can't have that." He told me sympathetically.
"He received a letter from her this morning so he left my office a lot more chipper." I told him before looking down at the books once more. "I appear to be holding your books."
"Yes, so you are! Sorry, sorry." He said starting to relieve me of his books awkwardly. "Just let me—"
"Why don't I take half?" I offered.
"Ah, brilliant idea, brilliant. Perfect. Division of labor." He said grinning an infectious grin at me.
"We make quite a team." I said grinning back at him.
"Don't we just." He was still all smiles for me before I snapped out of it.
"So, these books, I imagine they were being taken in a particular direction?" I asked him.
"Yes. Um..." he looked up at the corridor, thinking, before turning to the other direction. "This way." Ever the gentleman, he let me lead on. In another corridor, we had finally settled into a coherent conversation.
"I always say, Nurse Tyler, give the boys a good head of steam, they'll soon wear themselves out." He told me.
"Truth be told, when it's just you and me, I'd much rather you call me Ms. Tyler. 'Nurse' sounds rather...well, official." I told him.
"Ah, Ms. Tyler it is then." He told me.
"Though we've known each other all of two months, you could even say 'Ashlee'." I said.
"Ashlee?" he asked me.
"That's my name." I told him.
"Well, obviously." He told me flustered.
"And it's John, isn't it?" I asked him.
"Yes, yes it is." He confirmed. A wooden noticeboard is on one wall of the landing we were approaching.
"Have you seen this, John?" I asked looking at one particular notice. "The annual dance at the village hall tomorrow. It's nothing formal, but rather fun by all accounts I hear. Do you think you'll go?" I asked him, hopeful.
"I hadn't thought about it." He told me flustered.
"It's been ages since I've been to a dance, only no-one's asked me since my husband died." I laughed nervously before a short tense silence.
"Well, I should imagine that you would be...um...I mean I never thought you'd be one for... I mean there's no reason why you shouldn't- if you do, you may not...I probably won't, but even if I did then I couldn't...um, I mean I wouldn't want to—" he stammered.
"The stairs, John." I warned him.
"It- what about the stairs?" he asked me.
"They're right behind you." I told him. He turned to see them before overbalancing and falling backwards down the stairs and sending the books flying. I rushed down after him to make sure he was alright.
A little later, I was cleaning a cut on the back of his head as he groaned against the pain.
"Stop it. My boys cause me less fuss than this." I told him hiding a smile.
"Because it hurts!" he complained and I laughed lightly before Martha burst in.
"Is he alright?" she asked all concern.
"Excuse me, Martha, but it's hardly good form to enter a master's study without knocking. As I'm sure you know." I told her.
"Sorry, right, yeah." She said, sounding annoyed with me before she ran back to the door and knocked on it before rushing back to us. "But is he alright?" she asked me before looking back to John. "They said you fell down the stairs, Sir."
"No, it was just a tumble, that's all." He told her.
"Have you checked for concussion?" she asked me.
"I have. And I must say I know a lot more about it than you do." I reminded her.
"Sorry. I'll just..." she looked to John before going to the desk. "Tidy your things."
"I was just telling Ms. Tyler—Nurse Tyler, um, about my dreams. They are quite remarkable tales." He told us. "I keep imagining that I'm someone else, and that I'm hiding—"
"Hiding? In what way?" I asked looking sitting next to him in another chair.
"Um... er... almost every night..." he laughed at his thoughts. "This is going to sound silly—"
"You can tell me anything." I told him.
"I dream, quite often, that I have two hearts." He told me.
"Well then, I can be the judge of that for you right now." I told him reaching into my battered doctor's bag. I drew out a stethoscope with a smile. I put the earbuds in my ears before placing the stethoscope against his chest. I heard a heartbeat on the left side of his chest then moved over to the right, and heard nothing. "I can confirm the diagnosis- just one heart, singular." I told him and smiling and he laughed at his silliness.
"I have written down some of these dreams in the form of fiction... um... not that it would be of any interest." He told me.
"I'd be very interested." I corrected him and looked at me in amazement. I nodded to him encouragingly. John stood and moved to his desk and collected something.
"Well... I've never shown it to anyone before." He told me before handing me a black, leather-bound journal. I opened it and read the title.
"'Journal of Impossible Things'" I read. I turned the pages to them covered in both writing and ink pictures. Some of the pictures were familiar, somehow. A large mechanical room with a clear central pillar was on the first page. Then a strange window covered in circular symbols. A child wearing a gas-mask. "Just look at these creatures!" I turned the page again to reveal a strange pepper pot creature in all its inked glory. The creature struck a thread of unknown fear through my heart. "Such imagination."
"Mmm. It's become quite a hobby." He told me. More pages filled with more pages of writing. The face of a strange creature, its forehead stretching far above his face gave way to strange emotionless people, then to a clockwork creature in French garb.
"It's wonderful. And quite an eye for the pretty girls." I said showing him the face of a beautiful woman with long dark hair next to a young blonde woman.
"Oh no no, she's just an invention. This character, Ashlee." he said looking at me sheepishly. "That's what I call her, anyway. Seems to disappear later on..." another page showed another sketch of a strange metal man and in the top corner of the next page was a small wooden box with a more detailed sketch further down the page. "Ah, that's the box, the blue box, it's always there. Like a...like a magic carpet, this funny little box that transports me too far away places."
"Like a doorway?" I asked him curiously.
"Mmm." He nodded. The next page was mess of writing, but the pictures stood out brightly. Multiple faces of men and women side by side. "I sometimes think how magical life would be if things like this were true."
"If only." I agreed looking at the many pictures and the writings that surround them.
"It's just a dream." He said giving me a short, quiet laugh. The next page had a picture of a watch, inside and out.
That night, I was crossing a field alone. When suddenly, a green light burst into life brighter than before, a few meters ahead and hovering in the sky. I shielded my eyes, but saw a green beam shining down on me. After a few seconds later, the beam went out, leaving me staring. Turning to look the way she had come, the green beam lit up again, and started to drift across the countryside before going out again. Spooked by it all, I turned and ran.
A while later, I reached a nearby pub. I saw Martha stand and look at me in concern.
"Nurse Tyler, are you alright?" she asked me.
"Did you see that? There was something in the woods... this light..." I told her looking back the way I'd come. I turned when I heard the door to the pub open and saw John walk out.
"Anything wrong, ladies? Far too cold to be standing around in the dark, don't you—" I cut him from his next words.
"There!" I said pointing into the night sky as the light flew overhead like a shooting star. "There, look in the sky!"
"That's beautiful." Jenny said.
"There...orgom. Commonly known as a meteorite. It's just rocks falling to the ground, that's all." John told us.
"It came down in the woods." I told him seeing its landing.
"No, no no, they always look close, when actually they're miles off. Nothing left but a cinder." John told us before turning to me. "Now, I should escort you back to the school. Ladies?" he asked turning to the maids.
"No, we're fine, thanks." Martha told him still staring at the sky.
"Then I shall bid you goodnight." He told them putting on his hat. He offered me his arm and I took it before we walked back towards the school.
"Look out!" the Doctor shouted. We dove to the floor as a bolt flashed past, creating a fountain of sparks to erupt from the console.
"Ahhh!" the Doctor shouted annoyed before grabbing the console screen and reading it.
"Tell me it doesn't say what I think it says." I told him.
"They're following us." He confirmed and I hit the console in frustration before going back to the controls.
"How can they do that, you've got a time machine." Martha said.
"Stolen technology, they've got a Time Agent's vortex manipulator. They can follow us wherever we go, right across the universe-" he said. "They're never going to stop."
"Do you think it's his?" I asked him.
"No, you know where he is." He told him running his hand through his hair nervously and staring.
"We have to hide." I told him and he turned to me knowingly. "We have to hide perfectly and in plain sight." He sighed before turning to Martha.
"Martha, you trust us don't you?" he asked her.
"Of course I do." She told him.
"Cause it all depends on you." He told her before diving beneath the console to retrieve two watches as Martha watched in confusion.
"What does, what am I supposed to do?" she asked. The Doctor reappears and tossed one of the ornate pocket watches to me before showing his to her.
"Take this watch, 'cause my life depends on it. The watch, Martha- The watch is us." Confused, Martha took the watch as he ran round the console.
"...Right, okay, gotcha..." she told him. "No, hold on! Completely lost!"
"Those creatures are hunters, they can sniff out anyone- and us being Time Lords; well, we're unique." I told her. "They can track us down across the whole of time and space with that vortex manipulator."
"And the good news is?" she asked laughing.
"They can smell us, they haven't seen us." The Doctor told her. "And their life's bound to be running out- so, we hide, wait for them to die."
"But they can track us down." She reminded us.
"That's why we've got to do it." He told her. "We have to stop being Time Lords. We're gonna become human." We watched as the headset was lowered within our reach. I took a deep breath as memories flashed before my eyes of the last time this was used on my.
"Last time I did this I was human for nineteen years." I reminded and he held me close to him.
"You shouldn't worry." He told me softly. "It'll only be for three months this time. Never thought I'd use this on you again. All the times I've wondered how it felt."
"What does it do?" Martha asked him.
"Chameleon Arch." He told her. "Re-write our biology. Literally changes every single cell in our bodies. I've set it to human." Taking the pocket watch back from me and Martha, he fit mine into the headset and I got into the machine.
"Now, the TARDIS will take care of everything. Invent a life story for us, find us a setting and integrate us. Can't do the same for you...you'll just have to improvise. I should have just enough residual awareness to let you in." the Doctor told her.
"But... hold on, if you're going to rewrite every single cell- isn't it going to hurt?" Martha asked him.
"Of course it hurts." I told her giving her a look before he started the Arch. I screamed in pain as it did its work, grabbing onto the device.
I woke breathing deeply from reliving the mystery woman's pain. On my bedside table was John's journal I'd been reading as I went to bed. His stories must have wormed their way into my dreams.
Later that day, I walked outside to see John's class practicing shooting at dummies. I hated guns, ever since my husband was killed in the Great War.
"Hutchinson, excellent work!" John called out to his students as the Headmaster walked down to them.
"Cease fire!" he called out and the boys obeyed.
"Good day to you, headmaster." John greeted.
"Your crew's on fine form today, Mr. Smith." Headmaster complimented him.
"Excuse me, Headmaster, we could do a lot better. Latimer is being deliberately shoddy." Hutchinson told him.
"I'm trying my best." Latimer said.
"You need to be better than the best. Those targets are tribesmen from the dark continent." Headmaster told him.
"That's exactly the problem, sir. They only have spears." Latimer told him.
"Oh dear me. Latimer takes it upon himself to make us realize how wrong we all are. I hope, Latimer, that one day you may have a just and proper war in which to prove yourself. Now, resume firing." Headmaster ordered. Hutchinson did so with Latimer feeding the ammunition.
"There's a stoppage, immediate action." I heard Hutchinson say. "Didn't I tell you, Sir, this stupid boy is useless! Permission to give Latimer a beating, Sir?"
"It's your class, Mr. Smith." Headmaster told him.
"Permission granted." John told him.
"Right, come with me, you little oiyk." Hutchinson said grabbing Latimer's wrist and pulling him up. He and most of the other boys escorted Latimer away to be beaten. Baines remained standing next to John, and turned to him, sniffing loudly. John turned and gave him a look.
"Anything the matter, Baines?" John asked him.
"I thought... No sir. Nothing, sir." Turning sharply, he headed off to join the beating as I watched them go.
"As you were, Mr. Smith." Headmaster said before walking off.
"Ah... Pemberton, Smythe, Wicks, take post." John ordered and as three more boys took up their positions at the gun, John spotted me and smiled. I smiled and waved at him.
"Ah, Ms. Tyler." He greeted walking up to me.
"I'll give you back your journal when next I see you. I haven't quite finished it yet." I told him.
"No, no, no, you don't have to." He told me and I looked at the scenery around him troubled.
"If you'll excuse me, Mr. Smith, I was just thinking about the day my husband was shot." I told him before turning and running from the area.
Later on, in the village, Mr. Smith and I were walking through the village.
"His name was John, also. He died in the battle of Spy-On-Cope. We were childhood sweethearts. We and one other did everything together. I was angry with the army for such a long time." I explained to him.
"You still are." He noted.
"I find myself as part of that school watching boys learn how to kill others and I can't stand for it." I told him.
"Don't you think discipline is good for them?" he asked me.
"Does it have to be such military discipline?" I asked him. "I mean, if there's another war those boys won't find it as amusing as they do at the school."
"Well... Great Britain's at peace, long may it reign." He told me.
"In your journey, in one of your stories, you wrote about next year." I told him. "Nineteen fourteen."
"That was just a dream." He reminded me.
"All those images of mud and wire. You told of a shadow, a shadow falling across the entire world." I reiterated.
"Well, then we can be thankful it's not true." He told me. "And I'll admit mankind doesn't need warfare and bloodshed to prove itself - everyday life can provide honor and valor and... let's hope that from now on this, this country can... can find its heroes in smaller places..." he seemed distracted by something, his eyes darting between multiple things. "In the most... Ordinary... Of deeds!" he suddenly snatched a cricket ball from a young boy and pitched it at a bundle of spare scaffolding poles standing outside the ironmongers. The poles fell, hitting a plank of wood with a brick on the end. The brick flew into the air, up and over a piano- just as the rope snapped and it started to hurtle to the ground. The brick hit a milk churn on a cart, sending it falling into the path of a perambulator and stopping it in its tracks. A woman screamed and the piano hit the floor and smashed. I smiled and looked amazed at John, while he himself looked amazed by his own skills. As the baby in the perambulator started to cry, the two workmen rushed to see if the woman was alright. "Lucky..."
"That was not just luck." I told him.
"Ms. Tyler, might I invite you to the village dance this evening? As my guest?" he asked me and I laughed quietly.
"You're an extraordinary man!" I told him. "It would be my honor to accompany you to the dance." I told him before we both laughed, looking at what would have been a fatal scene.
Later on, we were passing fields - one of which had a scarecrow.
"It's all becoming clear now - the Doctor is the man you'd like to be, doing impossible things with cricket balls to save women and children."
"Well, I discovered a talent, that's certainly true!" he said laughing with me slightly.
"But the Doctor has an eye for beautiful ladies!" I teased.
"The devil!" he said and we laughed again.
"A girl at every fireplace." I teased once more.
"Now, there I have to protest, Ashlee, that's hardly me!" he laughed.
"Says the man dancing with me tonight!" I said.
"That scarecrow's all skewed." He said and I turned to see a scarecrow that wasn't quite right. I followed him across the furrows to reach it and he started stretching it across its frame.
"Ever the artist." I complimented. "Where did you learn to draw?"
"Gallifrey." He told me.
"I've heard of that place before." I told him. "Is that in Ireland?"
"Yes, it must be, yes." He said a little unsure.
"But you're not Irish?" I asked him.
"Not at all, no. My father Sidney was a watchmaker from Nottingham and my mother Verity was..." he paused for a moment before smiling. "...um...well, she was a nurse, actually."
"We make such wonderful wives!" I joked before noticing him getting uncomfortable.
"Really? Right. Yes. Well, my work is done, what do you think?" he asked me standing back. I looked at his work and smiled.
"Your masterpiece." I told him.
"All sorts of skills today!" Laughing, we headed back onto the road.
Later in the day, we sat in his study as he sketched me into his journal as I sat posing.
"Can I see?" I asked him when I noticed him lowering his journal. He moved to sit next to me on the sofa making me smile as he showed me his work.
"Oh, dear..." I laughed. "Do I really look like that?" I asked him. "Are you sure that's not me?" I asked pointing to a puffy faced creature with large eyes and a small mouth on the opposite page.
"Most definitely this page, I should think." He told me, pointing to his sketch of me.
"You've made me far too beautiful in this image." I told him.
"Well that's how I see you." He told me and I looked back up at him.
"Widows aren't supposed to be beautiful according to the world." I reminded him. "The world would rather we stopped." I paused. "Is that fair? That we stop?"
"That's not fair at all." He told me, brushing the side of my hair. Slowly, he leaned in towards me and I returned the movement before the two of us shared a chaste kiss. "I've never, um..." he seemed to run out of words before kissing me once more, a long and loving kiss. We heard the rattle of the door and we broke apart quickly. "Martha, what have I told you about entering unannounced?"
"Be easy on her." I told him. "If I didn't know you better then I'd say she cared for you far more than she should, and that you never noticed."
"I've encouraged no such feelings." he told me.
That evening I turned round in my dress, borrowed from Matron Redfern, showing it off to John.
"You look wonderful." He told me smiling.
"You'd best give me some warning, can you actually dance?" I asked him.
"Um...I'm not certain..." he told me confused.
"There's a surprise." I told him. "Is there anything you're certain about?"
"Yes." He said stepping towards me. "Yes." We shared another loving kiss before Martha burst into the room.
"They've found us." She said.
"This is getting ridiculous..." I said under my breath knowing John heard me.
"Martha, I've warned you." He told her.
"They've found us, and I've seen them- they look like people, like us, like normal. I'm sorry, but you've got to open the watch." She told him before looking onto the mantelpiece. "Where is it?" she asked shuffling through the things on the mantle. "Oh my god, where's it gone? Where's the watch?"
"What are you talking about?" he asked her.
"You had a watch, a fob watch. Right there!" Martha told him. "It's the same as the Hunter's!" she told us.
"Did I?" he asked. "I don't remember."
"I can't see what concern it is of yours about any watches. Mine or John's." I told her.
"But we need them..." she told us. "Oh my god, Doctor, Hunter we're hiding from aliens, and they've got Jenny and they've... possessed her or copied her or something and you've got to tell me, where's the watch?" she asked.
"Oh I see..." the Doctor said before turning to me. "Cultural differences." He said quietly and picking up his journal. "It must be so confusing for you. Martha, this is what we call a story."
"Oh you complete..." she said sounding annoyed. "THIS" she waved her finger to indicate the both of us. "Is not you, THIS is nineteen thirteen."
"Good. This IS nineteen thirteen." He told her.
"I've sorry, I'm really sorry but I've got to snap you out of this." She told him before reaching back her hand and slapping him hard across the face.
She reaches back her hand and slaps his hard across the face.
"Martha!" I said shocked.
"Wake up! You're coming back to the TARDIS with me!" she told us. She grabbed his hand and tried to pull him along.
"How dare you!" John told her angrily. "I'm not going anywhere with an insane servant! Martha, you are dismissed, you will leave these premises immediately. Now get out!" he used Martha's grip on him to drag her to the door and thrown her out. He turned back to me annoyed. "Nerve of it, absolute cheek! You think I'm a fantasist, what about her?"
"Are you alright?" I asked him.
"I will be. Shall we be off?" he asked me and I smiled at him.
"We shall."
"She's infatuated. You're a dangerous man." I told John as we made our way the dance hall.
"You've taken my arm in public." He reminded me.
"I'm very scared." I told him and we laughed.
"Spare a penny for the veterans of the Crimea, sir?" a man asked us.
"Yes, of course." John said digging in his pockets and pulling out a coin or two. "There you are." He gave him the coin as we went inside. Inside, people were milling about, getting drinks from a beer keg, laughing and talking.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Please take your partners for a waltz." John and I took our places, and started to dance as the music started.
"You can dance." I said smiling up at him.
"I've surprised myself." He told me grinning before we danced into another pair. "Sorry."
After the dance, I sat down at a table as John went for drinks. I looked to him and smiled and he motioned that he was still waiting. I waved back to him until a familiar figure stood at my table. Martha.
"Please, don't. Not again." I told her. "Just leave."
"He's different from any other man you've ever met, right?" she asked me.
"Yes." I agreed.
"And sometimes he says these strange things, like people and places you've heard of, but can't remember clearly, yeah? But it's deeper than that. Sometimes when you look in his eyes you know - you just know that there's something else in there. Something hidden. Right behind the eyes, something hidden away. In the dark." She said.
"I think you should leave now." I told her firmly.
"You do. I can see it." She told me. "There's something about him and about you that you know is different. I just wanted to say sorry for what I'm about to do." She told me before turning to John who joined us.
"Oh, now really, Martha. This is getting out of hand. I must insist that you leave." John told her. She just held out a silver tube to him.
"Do you know what this is? Name it. Go on, name it." Martha told him.
"John?" I asked looking at him. Martha gave me a look before placing a gun on the table. John took the device from Martha as I stared at the gun.
"You're not John Smith and Ashlee Tyler. You're called the Doctor and the Hunter. The man and woman in your journal, they're real. They're you." She told us. Suddenly, Mr. Clarke entered with a strange gun in his hand, while knocking over a hat stand as he strode in making people shriek and move away.
"There will be silence! All of you!" he ordered as scarecrows filed in after Baines and Jenny when they walked in. "I said silence!"
"Mr. Clarke! What's going on?" the announcer asked him. Mr. Clarke turned and fired at the announcer, dissolving him into nothing. My hand flew to my mouth stifling a shriek.
"Mr. Smith, Nurse Tyler, everything I told you, just forget it! Don't say anything." Martha ordered us taking the tube and gun and hiding them.
"We asked for silence! Now then. We have a few questions for Mr. Smith and Nurse Tyler." Baines told us.
"No, better than that." A little girl said joining the three. "The teacher and the nurse. He's the Doctor and she's the Hunter. I heard them talking."
"You took human form." Baines said.
"Of course we're human, we were born human!" John shouted at them indicating to both of us. "As were you, Baines. And Jenny, and you, Mr. Clarke! What is going on, this is madness!"
"And human brains, too! Simple, thick and dull." Baines told us.
"They're no good like this." Jenny told Baines.
"We need a Time Lord." Mr. Clarke said.
"Easily done." Baines said stepping forward and raising his gun to aim at John. We all gasped and recoiled. "Change back."
"I don't know what you're talking about." John told him.
"Change back!" he shouted.
"I literally do not know—" Jenny suddenly grabbed Martha, holding a gun to her head making her scream.
"Get off me!" Martha ordered her friend.
"She's your friend, isn't she? Doesn't this scare you enough to change back?" Jenny asked him.
"He's already told you, he doesn't know what you mean!" I shouted at them.
"Wait a minute..." Jenny said and I stared her down. "The maid told me about Smith and the nurse... and if the nurse is truly the Hunter… that woman, there!"
"Let's have you!" Mr. Clark grabbed me and held me hostage as Jenny did with Martha.
"Have you enjoyed it, Doctor? Being human? Has it taught you wonderful things, are you better, richer, wiser?" Baines asked him as John looked between the two of us. "Then let's see you answer this. Which one of them do you want us to kill? Maid or nurse? Your friend - or your wife? Your choice."