"Make your decision, Mister Smith." Jenny ordered him with her gun at Martha's head.
"Perhaps if that human heart breaks, the Time Lord will emerge." Baines suggested looking at me.
"Now if that loophole was in there, don't you think I'd know about it first?" I asked him before suddenly the Family all turned their heads in another direction. Martha suddenly got the gun from Jenny and used her as a shield while she aimed at Baines.
"All right! One more move and I shoot." Martha warned.
"Oh, the maid is full of fire." Baines said.
"And you can shut up!" She ordered before firing at the ceiling.
"Careful, Son of Mine. This is all for you so that you can live forever." Mr. Clark reminded him.
"Shoot you down." Baines said.
"Try it. We'll die together." Martha warned.
"Would you really pull the trigger? Looks too scared." Baines said.
"Scared and holding a gun's a good combination. Do you want to risk it?" Martha asked. They stared at one another for a moment before the family lowered their guns and I went back to John. "Doctor, get everyone out. There's a door at the side. It's over there. Go on. Do it, Mister Smith. I mean you."
"Do what she said. Everybody out, now. Don't argue, Mister Jackson." I said ushering them all out. "They're mad. That's all we need to know. Susan, Miss Cooper, outside, all of you." The villagers ran out, screaming.
"Move yourself, boy. Back to the school, quickly." John ordered.
"And you. Go on. Just shift." Martha told John as I stood in the doorway watching them.
"What about you?" John asked her.
"Mister Smith, I think you should escort your lady friend to safety, don't you?" Martha asked him and John looked torn between her and me. He eventually got back to me and we ran outside.
"Mister Hicks, warn the village. Get everyone out. Latimer, get back to the school. Tell the headmaster." John ordered.
"Don't touch me. You're as bad as them." Latimer said running back to the school.
"Don't just stand there, move! God, you're rubbish as humans. Come on!" Martha ordered and we all ran back to the school.
When we got to the school, John closed the main doors and grabbed the bell and started ringing it. I ran to my room and changed into my nurses uniform and looked at the watch on my mantle.
"Now if that loophole was in there, don't you think I'd know about it first?" Why did I say that? I grabbed the watch and slipped it into my pocket before going to my post. I got down to them as the guns were being passed out.
"You can't do this, Doctor. Mister Smith!" Martha told him.
"Redfern, maintain position over the stable yard. Faster now. That's it." he ordered.
"They're just boys. You can't ask them to fight. They don't stand a chance." Martha warned him.
"They're cadets, Miss Jones. They are trained to defend the King and all his citizens and properties." John told her as the Headmaster entered.
"What in thunder's name is this? Before I devise an excellent and endless series of punishments for each and every one of you, could someone explain very simply and immediately exactly what is going on?" Headmaster asked.
"Headmaster, I have to report the school is under attack." John told him.
"Really? Is that so? Perhaps you and I should have a word in private." Headmaster told him.
"No, I promise you, sir. I was in the village with Nurse Tyler. It's Baines, sir. Jeremy Baines and Mister Clark from Oakham Farm. They've gone mad, sir. They've got guns. They've already murdered people in the village. I saw it happen." John told him.
"Nurse Tyler, is that so?" Headmaster asked me.
"I'm afraid it's true, sir." I told him.
"Murder on our own soil?" he asked.
"I saw it. Yes." I confirmed.
"Perhaps you did well then, Mister Smith. What makes you thing the danger's coming here?" Headmaster asked.
"Well, sir, they said..." John dropped off.
"Baines threatened Mister Smith and myself, sir. Said he'd follow us. We don't know why." I told him.
"Very well. You boys, remain on guard. Mister Snell, telephone for the police. Mister Philips, with me. We shall investigate." Headmaster told him.
"No! But it's not safe out there." Martha said trying to stop him.
"Mister Smith, it seems your favorite servant is giving me advice. You will control her, sir." Headmaster ordered before he passed her to the door.
"Mister Philips has been murdered, Mister Smith. Can you tell me why?" Headmaster asked when he returned alone.
"Honestly, sir, I have no idea. And the telephone line's been disconnected. We are on our own." John told him.
"If we have to make a fight of it, then make a fight we shall. Hutchinson, we'll build a barricade within the courtyards. Fortify the entrances, build our defenses. Gentlemen, in the name of the King, we shall stand against them." Headmaster ordered.
"Yes, sir! Right, come on. Let's get moving." the boys started to mobilize and a wooden beam was put across the main doors.
"You're with Armitage and Thwaites. They know the drill." John said before coming to me. "Ashlee, it's not safe."
"I'm doing my duty, just as much as you. Fine evening we've had together." I joked.
"Not quite as planned." he told me.
"No I imagine not." I laughed lightly. "Tell me about Nottingham."
"Sorry?" he asked confused.
"That's where you were brought up. Tell me about it." I told him.
"Well, it lies on the River Leen, its southern boundary following the course of the River Trent which flows from Stoke to the Humber." he told me and I smiled.
"That sounds like an encyclopedia. Where did you live?" I asked.
"Broadmoor Street. Adjacent to Hotley Terrace in the district of Radford Parade." he said.
"But more that facts. When you were a child, where did you play? All those secret little places, the dens and hideaways that only a child knows? Tell me, John. Please tell me." I told him. "I can't remember. I don't know any secret places I would have played."
"How can you think that we're not real? When I kissed you, was that a lie?" he asked me and I placed my hands on his face, smiling.
"No, it wasn't. No." I assured him.
"But this Doctor and Hunter sound like some, some romantic lost heroes. Would you rather that? Am I not enough?" he asked me.
"No, that's not true. Never." I tried assuring him.
"I've got to go." he told me.
"Martha was right about one thing, though. Those boys, they're children. John Smith and Ashlee Tyler wouldn't want them to fight, never mind the Doctor and the Hunter. The John Smith I was getting to know, he knows it's wrong just as I do, doesn't he?" I asked him.
"Mister Smith, if you please!"
"What choice do I have?" he asked me before pulling me to him and kissing me.
I looked through the windows to see the army of scarecrows moving forward with Martha at my side.
"Stand to!" Headmaster called out as the scarecrows hammered at the main gate. "At post!" the boys took aim.
"Enemy approaching, sir."
"Steady. Find the biting point." at that point the scarecrows broke in. "Fire!" they boys open fired and took down the scarecrows as they advanced. I watched as all the scarecrows were gunned down. "Cease fire!" The Headmaster moved into the piles of scarecrows and looked around. "They're straw. Like he said, straw."
"The no one's dead, sir? We killed no one?" Hutchinson asked John.
"Stand to!" Headmaster said moving back to the boys and the little girl came into the courtyard. Martha and I left the window and went for the door. "You, child. Come out of the way. Come into the school. You don't know who's out there. It's the Cartwright girl, isn't it? Come here. Come to me."
"Mister Rocastle! Please, don't go near her." Martha asked.
"You were told to be quiet." Headmaster reminded her.
"Just listen to me. She's part of it. Nurse Tyler, tell him." Martha told him.
"I think you should stay back, Headmaster." I told him.
"Mister Smith." Martha said.
"She was, she was with, with Baines in the village." John told him.
"Mister Smith, I've seen many strange sights this night, but there is no cause on God's Earth that would allow me to see this child in the field of battle, sir. Come with me." Headmaster told her.
"You're funny." the girl said.
"That's right. Now take my hand." Headmaster ordered once more.
"So funny." the girl produced a ray gun and vaporized the Headmaster. "Now who's going to shoot me. Any of you, really?"
"Put down your guns." John ordered.
"But sir, the Headmaster." Hutchinson said.
"I'll not see this happen. Not anymore. You will retreat in an orderly fashion back through the school. Hutchinson, lead the way." John ordered.
"But sir." Hutchinson started.
"I said, lead the way." John ordered.
"Well, go on, then. Run!" Baines called out before firing his gun into the air.
"Come on!" Martha ordered as we pushed the boys back into the school.
"Reanimate!" Baines called out. The boys scattered through the buildings, followed by the reanimated scarecrows.
"Let's go. Quick as you can." John ordered.
"Don't go to the village. It's not safe." Martha told them.
"And you, ladies." John ordered.
"Not till we've got the boys out." I told him. We pushed the boys out and stood by the door.
"Now, I insist. The pair of you, just go. If there are any more boys inside, I'll find them." John told us and I waited by the door for him as he opened a door. He slammed it shut and locked it before running back to us and grabbing my hand. "I think, retreat." We ran to the school grounds to see Clark standing outside the building, shouting.
"Doctor! Hunter! Come back, Doctor, Hunter. Come home. Come and claim your prize."
"Out you come, Doctor. There's a good boy. Come to the Family." Baines told him.
"Time to end it now." Jenny called out.
"You recognize it, don't you?" Martha asked him.
"Come out, Doctor. Come to us, Hunter!"
"I've never seen it in my life." John insisted.
"Do you remember its name?" Martha asked him.
"I'm sorry, John, but you wrote about it. The blue box. You dreamt of a blue box. And so did I." I told him.
"I'm not. I'm John Smith. That's all I want to be. John Smith, with his life, and his job, and his love." John cried and I smiled at him, tightening my hand in his. "Why can't I be John Smith? Isn't he a good man?"
"Yes. Yes, he is." I told him.
"Why can't I stay?" John asked.
"But we need the Doctor." Martha told him.
"What am I, then? Nothing. I'm just a story." John said getting up and pulling me with him as we walked away from the school.
"This way. I think I know somewhere we can hide." I told them pulling John with me by the hand.
"We've got to keep going." John told me.
"Just listen to me for once, John." I ordered. I led them to a cottage
"Ok, here we are. It should be empty." I told them making my way to the door.
"But who lives here?" Martha asked me.
"If I'm right, no one." I said. I opened the door and looked around the dark cottage with tea still on the table. "Hello? No one home. We should be safe here."
"Whose house is it, though?" Martha asked.
"The Cartwrights. That little girl at the school has taken Lucy Cartwright's form. If she came home this afternoon and if the parents tried to stop their little girl, then they were vanished." I said before placing my hand on the teapot. "Stone cold."
"I must go to them, before anyone else dies." John told us before sitting on a bench.
"You can't." I said sitting next to them.
"They may leave you alone if I go." he told me and I shook my head.
"Martha, there must be something we can do." I told her.
"Not without the watches." she told me and I thought back to the heavy watch in my pocket.
"You're this Doctor and Hunter's companion. Can't you help? What exactly do you do for them? Why do they need you?" John nearly shouted at her.
"Because they're lonely." she told us.
"And that's what you want us to become?" John asked grasping my hand in his again before we heard a knock at the door.
"What if it's them?" I asked.
"I'm not an expert, but I don't think scarecrows knock." Martha said before going to the door and opening it.
"I brought you this."
"Hold it." Martha told John.
"I won't." John denied.
"Please, just hold it." Martha begged him.
"It told me to find you. It wants to be held." Latimer told us.
"You've had this watch all this time? Why didn't you return it earlier?" I asked him.
"Because it was waiting. And because I was so scared of the Doctor and the Hunter." he told us.
"Why?" I asked him.
"Because I've seen them. He's like fire and ice and rage. She's like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun."
"Stop it." John ordered.
"They're ancient and forever. They burn at the center of time and they can see the turn of the universe." I pulled out my own watch and looked down at it.
"Stop it! I said stop it."
"And he's wonderful."
"I've still got this. Your journal." I said holding it out to him.
"Those are just stories." he insisted.
"You and I know that's not true. Perhaps there's something in here." I suggested before a big bang shook the whole cottage.
"What the hell?" Martha asked and we all moved to the window to see fireballs falling to the earth a little way away.
"They're destroying the village." I said.
"The watch." John said taking it from Martha and standing a ways away from us.
"John, don't." I begged.
"Closer."
"Can you hear it?" Latimer asked him.
"Closer."
"I think he's asleep. Waiting to awaken." John told us.
"Little man."
"Why did he speak to me?" Latimer asked him.
"Oh, low level telepathic field. You were born with it. Just an extra synaptic engram causing..." John gasped and looked up to us with tears in his eyes. "Is that how he talks?"
"That's him. All you have to do is open it and he's back." Martha said hopefully.
"You knew this all along and yet you watched while Nurse Tyler and I..." John started saying.
"The Hunter is his wife. She's your love and his. He didn't say anything about falling in love with anyone in his list of things to watch out for." she told him.
"Falling in love? That didn't even occur to him?" John asked her.
"No."
"Then what sort of man is that? And now you expect us to die?" John asked her.
"It was always going to end, though! The Doctor said the Family's got a limited lifespan, and that's why they need to consume a Time Lord. Otherwise, three months and they die. Like mayflies, he said." she told him.
"So your job was to execute us." John accused.
"People are dying out there. They need him and I need him. Because you've got no idea of what he's like. I've only just met him. It wasn't even that long ago. But he is everything. He's just everything to me and he doesn't even look at me, but I don't care, because I love him to bits. And I hope to God he won't remember me saying this." she told him and I looked down at the watch in my hand as an explosion happened close by.
"It's getting closer." Latimer told us.
"I should have thought of it before. I can give them this. Just the watch. Then they can leave and I can stay as I am." John tried.
"You can't do that!" Martha told him.
"If they want the Doctor, they can have him." John told her.
"She'll never let you do it." Martha said pointing at me.
"If they get what they want, then, then..."
"Then it all ends in destruction and chaos." I told him, showing him the watch in my hand."The family would live forever to breed and conquer, for war across the stars for every child. Martha, Timothy, would you leave us alone, please?" I asked them and they did as I asked. John began to cry and I held him to me in comfort.
"I could do this instead of you. You could stay in this village and I could go to them." I told him.
"No, you can't do that." he begged me.
"But don't you see? Ashlee Tyler would be dead. The Hunter would be going to them, not me as I am now." I said trying to smile at him.
"But why you?" he asked me.
"The Hunter is the Doctor's protector. She's willing to die so you and he can live." I told him.
"It was real. Our love for each other. We weren't. I really thought..." John said and I held his hand.
John Smith kissed Ashlee Smith as the bells rang above us.
She handed him his first-born child and he held him gently in his arms making her smile.
We take two children for a walk in the woods, a third between us holding our hands.
John lied on his death bed, an old man as I held his hand tightly.
"They're all safe, aren't they? The children, the grandchildren. Everyone's safe?" he asked me.
"Everyone's safe, and they all send their love, John." I told him.
"Well, it's time. I love you." I watched with tears in my eyes as he closed his eyes and breathed his last.
"Did you see?" he asked me.
"The Time Lord has such adventures, but they could never have a life like that." I told him.
"And yet we could." he said.
"What are we going to do?" I asked him.
We tripped through the spaceship door as a boom rocked the ship and lurched us against a column of switches.
"Just stop the bombardment. That's all I'm asking. I'll do anything you want, just, just stop." he begged.
"Say please." Baines told us.
"Please." Jenny activated a control and we stood hand in hand.
"Wait a minute." Jenny sniffed the air. "Still human."
"Now I can't, I can't pretend to understand, not for a second, but I want you to know we're innocent in all this. He made us John Smith and Ashlee Tyler. It's not like we had any control over it." he told them before we bumped into a wall and ran our hands over more switches.
"He didn't just make himself human. He made himself an idiot." Jenny said.
"Same thing, isn't it?" Baines asked her.
"We don't care about this Doctor, Hunter, and your family. We just want you to go. So we've made our choice. You can have them. Just take it, please! Take them away." he begged them holding out the watches.
"At last." Baines took the watches from his hands with one hand and Mr. Clark grabbed me as Baines grabbed his lapels by his other hand. "Don't think that saved your life." They pushed us at a wall and more switches got activated as we fell against the wall with him holding me. "Family of Mine, now we shall have the lives of a Time Lord." Baines opened the watch and they all sniffed deeply. "It's empty!"
"Where'd they go?"
"You tell me." Baines ordered before throwing the watches to us. We caught it without looking and I smiled at them.
"Oh, I think the explanation might be you've been fooled by a simple olfactory misdirection." The Doctor told them as we stood. "Little bit like ventriloquism of the nose. It's an elementary trick in certain parts of the galaxy. But it has got to be said, I don't like the looks of that hydroconometer."
"It seems to be indicating you've got energy feedback all the way through the retrostabilisers feeding back into the primary heat converters." I said looking at their screen.
"Oh. Because if there's one thing you shouldn't have done, you shouldn't have let us press all those buttons." The Doctor told them moving towards the entry. "But, in fairness, I will give you one word of advice. Run." he told them smiling before grabbing my hand. We ran out the door as alarms started sounding.
"Get out! Get out!" Baines ordered and the family ran behind us as their ship exploded.
He never raised his voice. That was the worst thing. The fury of the Time Lord. And then we discovered why. Why this Doctor, who had fought with gods and demons, why he'd run away from us and hidden. He was being kind. He wrapped my father in unbreakable chains, forged in the heart of a dwarf star. He tricked my mother into the event horizon of a collapsing galaxy to be imprisoned there forever. He still visits my little sister once a year every year. I wonder if one day he might forgive her, but there she is. Can you see? He trapped her inside a mirror, every mirror. If ever you look at your reflection and see something move behind you, just for a second, that's her. That's always her. As for me, I was suspended in time. And the Doctor put me to work standing over the fields of England, as their protector. We wanted to live forever, so the Doctor made sure that we did.
The Doctor and I made our way in the pouring rain to Martha who was standing beside the TARDIS. We'd been trying to find the journal he'd written as John Smith, but had no such luck.
"Right then. Molto bene." the Doctor said.
"Did you find the journal?" Martha asked us.
"Time we moved on." the Doctor insisted.
"If you want, I could go and..." Martha offered.
"Martha." I said and she looked to me. "Just leave it."
"Er, I meant to say, back there, last night. I would have said anything to get you to change." Martha told us.
"Oh yeah, of course you would. Yeah." the Doctor agreed.
"I mean, I wasn't really..."
"Oh, no, no."
"Good."
"Fine."
"So here we are then."
"There we are, yes. And I never said. Thanks for looking after us." The doctor told her hugging her.
"Doctor. Hunter. Martha." We turned to see Tim and I smiled at him.
"Tim Timothy Timber." The Doctor greeted.
"I just wanted to say goodbye. And thank you. Because I've seen the future and I now know what must be done. It's coming, isn't it? The biggest war ever." Tim asked us.
"You don't have to fight." Martha told him.
"I think we do." Tim told her.
"But you could get hurt." Martha said.
"Well, so could you, travelling around with them, but it's not going to stop you." Tim reminded her.
"Tim, I'd be honored if you'd take this." The Doctor said handing him the fob watch.
"I can't hear anything." Tim told him.
"No, it's just a watch now. But keep it with you, for good luck." The Doctor told him.
"Look after yourself." Martha said hugging him and kissing his cheek before going into the TARDIS.
"Thank you, for what you did for us." I said, hugging him tightly before joining the Doctor at the door.
"You'll like this bit." The Doctor said and I laughed as we went to the console and made her dematerialize
In June 1914, an Archduke of Austria was shot by a Serbian, and this then led, through nations having treaties with nations, like a line of dominoes falling, to some boys from England walking together in France on a terrible day.
The three of us stood off to the side of a memorial as a lady vicar was reading from a book.
"They have no lot in our labour of the day time. They sleep beyond England's foam. They went with songs to the battle." Tim was sitting in a wheelchair, an old soldier with his medals and the watch in his hand. "They were young, straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow. They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted." he looked across the grass to see us and smiled. "They fell with their faces to the foe. They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them."