"Emma do you want to see a secret?" Billy asked after Professor Ramsuen had left to go teach his class and the Doctor, lacking an excuse to stay had gone to move the TARDIS out of the classroom where we'd left it. He'd promised me no side missions with a teasing smile, and I'd repaid him by promising to not fall through some kind of time worm hole.
"I love secrets," I said, and he beamed at me in delight before pulling me to the front door and handing me my jacket. "Oh, this is an outdoor secret."
"All the best secrets involve adventures," Billy said seriously as he pulled on his boots. I laughed as I shrugged on my coat.
"I can't argue with that. What kind of secret is it?" I asked while I locked the door behind us, and Billy took my hand in his to lead me up the street towards campus.
"I don't know. I think it's a good secret," he said, and I hummed in agreement. We chatted about nothing in particular until we were standing in the Professor's office and there was a concerned weight unfurling in my stomach.
"Billy," I said slowly as I tried to not look at the bookshelf that hid the secret passage. My efforts proved futile as Billy walked right over to it and handed me the picture off of it.
"That was supposed to be my Mom," he said before turning back to the shelf and started moving a few books around. "The Prof—Dad doesn't know I know about this."
"Wow," I said weakly as the shelf slid to the side just like it had when the Doctor and I had been here a few hours earlier. Billy nodded as he slid his hand in mine again.
"I know it looks scary, but I promise it's good." He tugged me to the stairs, and I wondered idly how I always ended up in these situations. I did not have a good feeling about this, but I was hoping that I could get some good favour from the Doctor since I wasn't being held at gunpoint for once.
"How'd you find this place?" I asked and Billy shrugged.
"Dad isn't very subtle," he said. "I think he's trying to bring back my Mom."
"Is that a good thing?" I managed to get out around the surprised lump in my throat. Billy looked at me sideways.
"I may have lied about the good part of the secret. I want it to be good because I want a Mom, but if the secret was good, I don't think Dad would be hiding it," Billy said sheepishly. I smoothed his hair back comfortingly as I tried to decide what to say in response.
"That's very grown up and brave of you," I said before I squatted down in front of him. "Why'd you bring me here?"
"You're not a nanny. Or well you could be, but the Doctor isn't here for work. I think you're police of some kind," he said and I laughed even though I probably shouldn't have.
"Very brilliant. Do you mind if I call the Doctor?" I asked and Billy shook his head so I fished my phone out of my pocket and dialed quickly as I stood up from my crouch and took Billy's hand again. We continued towards the lab.
"No side trips I swear," the Doctor said as soon as he answered. "I had to avoid past you without drawing attention to myself."
"Oh, so you're still on campus?" I asked.
"Not quite I'm about halfway back."
"No don't go back to the house. Billy and I are heading towards the lab," I said and there was several moments of stunned silence before the Doctor spoke again.
"What?"
"Billy had a secret that he wanted to share with me. Apparently, he knows about everything that's been going on down here," I said as I shouldered the final door open, completely distracted until Billy started tugging anxiously on my hand. I looked down at him.
"She's gone," he said with wide eyed horror. I whipped my gaze to the table and Billy was right, the table where the android had been was empty with the sheet pooled on the floor.
"Doctor we have a huge problem," I said as my gaze whirled around the room while I tried to get Billy between me and the wall. I really hated when my bad feelings grew into fruition and I hated it even more when the Doctor wasn't right here with me.
"What?"
"The android isn't here." As soon as the words came out of my mouth there was a creaking, whirring sound from the darkest corner of the lab and it came lurching out of the darkness.
"Give me the boy, my boy," rattled out of it and I felt a scream building in my throat that I just managed to swallow as I shook my head.
"No, I can't," I said, and it lurched towards us faster. Billy threw his arms around my legs in what I took to be terror.
"Emma What is happening!?" I'd forgotten about the fact that the Doctor was on the phone and his voice in my ear made me jump which was enough to distract me from the android for a half second. When I returned my full attention to it it was uncomfortably close to me and reaching for Billy.
"Give me my boy." I shook my head again desperately because I couldn't get words out around the giant lump of emotions in my throat and it reared back its hand and cracked me across the face, sending me to the ground before I could blink.
I blinked out of the dark fog sometime later to the Doctor leaning over me, with a decent amount of concern in his eyes. I blinked furiously at him in confusion before I blearily reached up towards my throbbing cheek. The Doctor caught my hand and linked fingers with me.
"No don't touch it. It's broken," he said soothingly, and I blinked at him in confusion before running my tongue along my teeth to make sure I had them all and tested to see if my jaw still worked.
"What's broken?" I asked woozily. He smoothed his thumb over my uninjured cheek.
"Cheek bone." He sounded very shaky, so I frowned at him in concern as I sat up, albeit with his help.
"You okay?" I asked and he laughed reluctantly.
"Am I okay she asks after I was on the phone with her and she tells me that there's a huge problem and the next thing I hear is this inhuman voice seconds before a bone crunching sound and then nothing," he said while shaking his head and smiling before he ducked down to kiss me.
"That wasn't really an answer to my question," I said, and he laughed as he nuzzled my nose with his.
"I would very much appreciate it if you could stop getting in danger," he said, and I smiled.
"Well it's not like I do it on purpose," I said. "Do you know where it took Billy?"
"I didn't really look around on my way in," he said, and I sent him a look which he returned. "Yes, the next time I am out of my mind with worry over you I'll be sure to have a good look around first."
"I should think so. There's a little boy in the clutches of a creepy android," I said. He muttered something under his breath in quick Gallifreyan. I still couldn't figure out what he was saying, but I'd figured out enough to be able to tell when he was speaking it.
"You're impossible," he groused as we got up off the floor. I beamed at him and immediately winced from the pain.
"I learned from the best. By the way did I scrape another decade off your lifespan?" I asked as I resisted the urge to cup my cheek in my hand.
"Not quite a decade, maybe four or five years," he said with a fond smile as he dug out the sonic.
"We're only counting full decades," I said, and he raised an eyebrow up at me.
"Is that so?" He asked as he executed a quick spin with the sonic extended before holding it up next to his ear.
"It is so. Otherwise I will very quickly lose count," I said, and he laughed before he pocketed the sonic and held his hand out to me. I took it without a word, and we set off down the hallway the opposite way of the stairs, that I hadn't paid any attention to the last couple times I'd been down here.
"I think I found them," he said, and I nodded before I squeezed his hand in a death grip.
"It didn't sound like her. Half of it looked like her, but it didn't sound like her," I whispered even though I knew that this wasn't the best time for this, but if I didn't get the words out of me that they would eat me alive. The Doctor returned my death squeeze before he lifted our hands so that he could press a lingering kiss to the back of my hand. I felt him creep in slowly to my head and I metaphorically threw the doors wide open in welcome.
"One of these days I am going to just put my foot down and institute a new rule. Rule Four; Emma and the Doctor never separate," he said, and I laughed.
"I'd just break Rule One more frequently," I said, and he shot me a fondly exasperated look before his expression fell into one of acceptance.
"Yes, I would hate to make you break two rules instead of just one," he said dryly, and I laughed again.
"You're so kind and considerate to me," I said and blew him a kiss with my free hand just as we rounded a corner and came across the android hunched in a corner cradling Billy, who I was desperately hoping was asleep and not something worse. All the mirth in me fizzled out very quickly as the Doctor dropped my hand and moved a few steps forward with his hand extended beseechingly.
"Can I check to make sure Billy is okay?" He asked and the android hunched in further on itself, folding awkwardly around Billy.
"My boy. Supposed to be my boy." I chomped down on my lip as a harsh shiver went racing down my spine. As the Doctor scooted forward again while muttering soothing things that I couldn't hear over the pounding of my heart, I looked away to try and get myself under control. I noticed an exposed wire dangling from the back of the android's knee that was sweeping dangerously close to a puddle of water which confused me until my thundering heart slowed enough for me to realize that there was water dripping in from somewhere. I sucked in a deep breath and slid over to the Doctor to tap my finger at the back of his neck.
'It's standing in a puddle of water and there is a wire hanging out of its knee.' I felt more than saw the moment that the Doctor noticed what I had just before I pulled my hand away from his neck. I did see the remorse that flickered across his face as he reached in his pocket and pulled out the sonic.
"I'm so sorry," he said and then the android's hands unwrapped from Billy, in a way that was clear it hadn't wanted them to. The Doctor plucked Billy from the android just as it jerked away from us and the wire sparked in the water and it let out a horrible noise. I flinched as the Doctor shoved Billy at me.
"Go!" He ordered and I took off without a second thought. Or at least no second thoughts until I spilled out of the building into the cool night air and realized that the ringing I'd been hearing was in fact the fire alarm and that he wasn't right behind me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Professor Ramsuen so I headed towards him. He saw us and blanched white as his eyes widened and I could tell the exact moment that he figured out what had happened.
He took a few steps forward like he was about to go sprinting past me into the building which was now starting to smoke heavily, so I stepped in front of him.
"Stop! This is not what Kristina would have wanted!" I shouted as I shoved Billy at him. Somehow, he blanched further as he stared at me.
"How do you—"
"It doesn't matter! What would she have wanted!?" I shrieked. I'd started crying at some point, but I wasn't sure when. I was going to be a mess by the time the Doctor found me.
"She-" He swallowed hard looking between Billy and the building. "She wouldn't have wanted that."
He looked up at me and nodded before carrying Billy off towards the firefighters who had just pulled up. I mentally convinced myself that I couldn't go running back into the building because the Doctor would be furious.
"Emma my love you look like a mess," the Doctor said from behind me and I jumped in alarm and whirled. He grinned at me brightly before it fell off his face as I started weeping again and threw my arms around his shoulders. He held me tightly and whispered soothing words into the top of my head. He smelled vaguely of electricity and soot.
"I'm sorry," I said after I had gotten control of myself and he handed me a handkerchief to help.
"Apology not required. I figured I owed you a couple decades off your lifespan," he teased, and I laughed roughly.
"If not for Billy I wouldn't have left," I said. He smiled as he reached over and tucked me against his side.
"Why do you think I made you carry Billy?" He asked as he dropped another handful of kisses to the top of my head.
"I don't remember this fire," I said, and the Doctor shrugged.
"Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey."
"Some day you are going to say that to someone and they aren't going to like that answer," I said as I tilted my head to look up at him and he laughed.
"Yes, but I'll have you there to translate for me," he said and kissed me.