Chapter 3 The One With The Motorway
Thank you to those who reviewed or followed this story! Hope you enjoy the concluding chapter to Gridlock, again: I own nothing recognisable!
Enjoy!
The car's interior was reminiscent to Florence of the old VW camper vans, only metal and with, well, completely different steering controls - flashing lights and buttons with what looked like scanners similar to the ones she'd seen in images of submarines. The helpful stranger handed the doctor and Florence an oxygen mask each, which they gracefully attached and inhaled deeply.
"Did you ever see the like?" The man asked his companion, a dark curly haired woman wearing a cream knitted sweater. "Just standing there, breathing it in." He began to remove his scarf and goggles, revealing underneath what Florence could only describe as a cat face. A face of a cat. Is this oxygen or something else? She thought to herself, looking up at the doctor who gave her a look as if to say 'Don't say anything'. So she kept on inhaling, listening to the ramblings of the cat man who seemed to come from Ireland at the same time. "There's this story, back in the old days, on Junction forty seven, this woman stood in the exhaust fumes for a solid twenty minutes. By the time they found her, her head had swollen to fifty feet." Florence couldn't help but smile at the absurdity as she watched the man climb past them and into the driver's seat. His companion shook her head,
"Oh you're making it up." Florence could tell they must have been together for a while, as the woman seemed happily exasperated with his storytelling.
"A fifty foot head!" He repeated. "Just think of that. Imagine picking that nose." Florence turned away from their teasing to take off her oxygen mask and look around at the old fashion curtain that separated them from the back area of the car. Her attention was drawn back to the front when she heard the crank of a handbrake as the cars in front started moving.
Before they had gotten far, however, they stopped once more with a sharp halt. Florence wondered what had gone wrong, but the strangers seemed happy,
"Twenty yards. We're having a good day." The man smiled, before turning in his seat to look at the pair of them, "And who might you two be then? Very well-dressed for hitchhikers." The Doctor pulled his own mask from his face,
"Thanks, sorry, yes, I'm the Doctor."
"And I'm Florence." Florence interjected, eager to introduce herself to the kind strangers. The man laughed happily,
"Medical man!" He laughed. "My name's Thomas Kincade Brannigan, and this is the bane of my life, the lovely Valerie." He gestured to the woman next to him, his wife, who smiled prettily,
"Nice to meet you."
Brannigan pointed his thumb in the direction that Florence had been looking at earlier, "And that's the rest of the family behind you." Florence frowned but turned and pulled back the old curtain behind her, revealing a litter of kittens stretching out and meowing in a little wicker basket, she cooed,
"Oh my god, look at them." She looked up at the Doctor and bit her lip, "Doctor, look." He smiled.
"Hello." He said gently to the kittens, picking one up and letting Florence gently scratch at its head, before asking the parents, "How old are they?"
"Just two months." Valerie replied, smiling softly.
"Poor little souls. They've never known the ground beneath their paws." Florence looked at him with a frown and he elaborated, "Children of the motorway."
Florence was still unsure what he meant, "You mean they were born in here?"
"We couldn't stop." Valerie shrugged. "We heard there were jobs going, out in the laundries on Fire Island. Thought we'd take a chance."
"What, you've been driving for two months?" The Doctor asked, and Florence was glad to see he looked just as confused as she was. Brannigan only laughed,
"Do I look like a teenager? We've been driving for twelve years now." Florence's jaw dropped,
"Twelve years?"
"I'm sorry?" The Doctor asked.
"Yep! Started out as newlyweds." Brannigan smiled and took Valerie's hand. "Feels like yesterday."
"Feels like twelve years to me." Valerie joked, and despite her words smiled back at him.
"Ah sweetheart, but you still love me." Brannigan quipped, and Florence laughed at the pair of them, but the Doctor still had more questions,
"Twelve years? How far did you come? Where did you start?"
"Battery Park, it's five miles back." Brannigan answered, like it was nothing. Florence stopped stroking the kitten in the Doctor's arms,
"Hold on, five miles?"
"You travelled five miles in twelve years?" The Doctor asked, making Brannigan scoff a little, turning to Valerie,
"I think they're a bit slow." Valerie looked concerned,
"Where are you from?" Florence opened her mouth to reply but the Doctor cut her off with urgency,
"Never mind that." He placed the kitten gently back in the basket before looking out the front window, "We've gotta get out. Our friend's in one of these cars."
"She was taken hostage. Someone told us something about carjackers?" Florence interjected.
"We should get back to the TARDIS." The Doctor told Florence, throwing the sliding door open but stopping himself before he walked out into the smoke. Florence helped close the door.
"You're too late for that. We've passed the lay-by. You're passengers now." Brannigan told them, worrying Florence,
"But what about Martha?" She asked the Doctor, who looked as lost as she was. "When's the next lay-by?" She asked Brannigan, who made an unsure gesture,
"Oh, six months?" Florence blanched,
"Six months?" She looked up at the Doctor. "Doctor what are we going to do?" The man looked helpless, but turned to Florence and reassured her,
"Florence, I'll find her. We'll be fine." He turned to their drivers, "Have you got a communications system in here?"
Valerie nodded and pointed to the back of the vehicle, behind the kittens and makeshift bedding, he climbed over and pointed the screwdriver at the screen, similar to the one he had got working in the marketplace. The screen lit up with an emblem of the New New York police force, and the Doctor spoke into it,
"I need to talk to the police." Florence looked over his shoulder as wording appeared on the screen, and an automated voice responded,
"Thank you for your call. You have been placed on hold."
"What? But that's the police?" Florence frowned, looking back at Valerie and Brannigan for answers, "The police can put you on hold?" Valerie just shrugged, and the Doctor abandoned the screen to look at them again,
"Is there anyone else? We once met the Duke of Manhattan." He told them, ignoring Florence's ever present frown of confusion, "Is there any way of getting through to him?" Brannigan scoffed lightly,
"Oh now, ain't you lordly?" Florence shook her head at him,
"Please we need to find our friend."
Valerie took pity on them, "You can't make outside calls." She informed them. "The motorway is completely enclosed."
"What about other cars?" The Doctor asked.
"Oh, we've got contact with them, yeah. Well, some of them, anyway. They've got to be on your friends list." Brannigan told them, reminding Florence of Facebook. He turned to the screen where a list of numbers appeared, "Now, let's see. Who's nearby? Ah, the Cassini sisters!" He pulled up their information and brought a handheld radio to his mouth, "Still your heart, my handsome girls. It's Brannigan here." The radio crackled and an older woman's voice came through,
"Get off the line, Brannigan. You're a pest and a menace." Florence would have laughed had she not been eager to get Martha back, and she knew the Doctor felt the same.
"Oh, come on, now, sisters." Brannigan scolded. "Is that any way to talk to an old friend?"
"You know full well we're not sisters, we're married." Came the response, making Florence raise her eyebrows.
"Ooh, stop that modern talk. I'm an old-fashioned cat." Brannigan tutted, before getting back to the main focus, "Now, I've got two hitchhikers here, call themselves Florence and the Doctor." At his name the Doctor grabbed the radio from the cat,
"Hello. Sorry. I'm looking for someone called Martha Jones. She's been carjacked." He spoke urgently into the speaker. "She's inside one of these vehicles, but I don't know which one." There was rustling on the other end before another woman's voice came through,
"Wait a minute. Could I ask, what entrance did they use?" The Doctor looked at Brannigan for help, and he told him,
"Pharmacy Town." The Doctor repeated this information back to the women, who began looking for them.
"Just my luck." The first woman told them. "To marry a carspotter." There was a moment of silence before the second woman got back to them,
"In the last half hour, fifty three new cars joined from the Pharmacy Town junction." She told them, which caused Florence to sigh, fifty three? How would they find Martha with that many cars to get through.
"Is there anything else? Anything we can do?" She asked desperately, holding onto the radio in the Doctor's hand.
"All in good time." The older woman chastised her, before asking, "Was she carjacked by two people?"
"Yes! She was, yeah." Florence told her eagerly.
"Well then. There we are. Just one of those cars was destined for the fast lane." They were told. "That means they had three on board. And the car number is four six five diamond six." Florence smiled up at the Doctor,
"Okay! Now what?" The Doctor asked the ladies,
"Sorry, so how do we find them?"
"Ah. Now there I'm afraid I can't help." The Doctor looked at Brannigan,
"Call them on this thing. We've got their number. Diamond six." Florence nodded in agreement, but Brannigan did not,
"But not if they're designated fast lane. It's a different class." One of the 'sisters' tried to help,
"You could try the police." The Doctor sighed,
"They put me on hold."
"You'll have to keep trying. There's no one else." Florence felt helpless. And by the Doctor's face, she knew he felt the same.
"Thank you." He told the ladies, before hanging up and handing the radio back to Brannigan. "We've got to go to the fast lane. Take us down."
"Not in a million years." Brannigan told them firmly, but the Doctor refused to let up,
"But we've got more than three passengers."
"I'm still not going." Florence didn't understand his hesitation, and begged him,
"Please, Brannigan. She's alone and lost."
"She doesn't belong on this planet." The Doctor told them both. "And it's all my fault. I'm asking you, please. Take us down."
"No." Valerie cut in. "And that's final. I'm not risking the children down there."
"Why?" Florence asked, concerned. "What's down there?"
"We're not discussing it. The conversation is closed." She was firm, and surprisingly, the Doctor seemed to drop it.
"So we keep on driving. For how long?" He asked them, frustrated. Brannigan shrugged,
"Til the journey's end." There was a brief pause, before the Doctor grabbed the radio again, and Florence knew he had not given up that easily,
"Mrs Cassini, this is the Doctor." He spoke into the radio. "Tell me, how long have you been driving on the motorway?" There was static for a moment.
"Oh, we were amongst the first." They were told. "It's been twenty three years now." Florence gaped, just how long had these poor people been stuck in their cars.
"And in all that time," the Doctor continued his line of questioning, "have you ever seen a police car?" The Cassinis hesitated.
"I'm not sure."
"Look at your notes. Any police? Or an ambulance?" He pressed on. "Rescue service? Anything official. Ever."
"I can't keep a note of everything." The older woman replied, a little defensively.
"What if there's no one out there?" The Doctor asked harshly, causing Brannigan to take the radio back forcefully,
"Stop it. The Cassinis were doing you a favour." The Doctor shook his head,
"Someone's got to ask, because you might not talk about it, but it's there in your eyes. What if the traffic jam never stops?" Brannigan tried to remain optimistic, but Florence saw the worry in his eyes,
"There's a whole city above us. The mighty city state of New New York. They wouldn't just leave us."
"In that case, where are they, hmm?" The Doctor pressed, Florence felt bad for the pair who had been so kind to them, but understood that something seemed off about the whole place. "What if there's no help coming, not ever? What if there's nothing? Just the motorway, with the cars going round and round and round and round, never stopping. Forever." Florence tugged on his jacket a little,
"Doctor…" She said gently, hoping he would let up every so slightly.
Before she could say anything else the feminine automated voice she had heard back in pharmacy town spoke up from the monitor, "This is Sally Calypso, and it's that time again. The sun is blazing high in the sky over the New Atlantic, the perfect setting for the daily contemplation." Brannigan remained firm in his resolve, hope in his heart,
"You think you know us so well, Doctor. But we're not abandoned. Not while we have each other." Sally Calypso's parting words echoed in the silent car,
"This is for all of you out there on the roads. We're so sorry. Drive safe." A song drifted through the open radio channels, it sounded old, even to Florence. She thought it funny how even so many million years into the future, humans were the same, they held the same hope and compassion for their loved ones. She felt a tear escape her eye and was quick to wipe it away, though the Brannigans had no such shame. She looked up at the Doctor, who was looking down at her softly, and they smiled a small, intimate smile.
The song had ended and there was a heavy silence in the car, Florence wasn't quite sure of the next step, she wondered whether this all was a usual occurrence in the Doctor and Martha's lives, how often they found themselves separated from each other and in such danger that even the Doctor was unsure how to save her. She just wanted to go home. She wanted to hug Sally, and Sarah, and tell them how much they meant to her.
In the silence, however, the Doctor was not panicking or worrying like Florence, he was planning. He had to find a way to get closer to the fast lane, he needed to find out from someone less worried about their children what it was that was beneath them. He decided quickly and moved even faster, heading to the back of the car and crouching,
"If you won't take me, I'll go down on my own." Florence moved closer to him, watching him run his sonic screwdriver along the edge of a panel on the floor,
"Doctor…" she warned, not liking the way he seemed intent on opening a hole in the damn flooring. Brannigan seemed to hold the same sentiments,
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Finding my own way." The Doctor responded, looking up at Florence, "We usually do." Florence raised her eyebrows at him and he pulled the hatch up to reveal a car below them, "You coming?" Florence looked at the long drop,
"Down there?" He nodded, and pulled off his coat, handing it to Valerie,
"Yep." He turned to Valerie as he hung his legs in the gap, "Look after this. I love that coat. Janis Joplin gave me that coat." Florence shook her head,
"You're mad." He wiggled his eyebrows at her with a grin, Valerie agreed with Florence,
"But you can't jump." The Doctor took a deep breath and looked up,
"If it's any consolation, Valerie, right now, I'm having kittens." Brannigan was somehow both impressed and incredibly concerned for the sanity of this stranger in his car.
"This Martha." He began. "She must mean an awful lot to you." The Doctor looked guilty at this,
"Hardly know her. I was too busy showing off." He looked at Florence, who looked surprised at the knowledge that the two people who she assumed had been travelling together for a while had only just met. "And I lied to her. Couldn't help it, just lied." This concerned the young woman, what had he lied about? "Bye then." He dropped down hanging for a second, looking at Florence and winking, "Flo, decide quickly." He dropped down and landed in a crouch, moving forward and gesturing to Florence with a 'hurry jump' motion. She hung her legs in the gap like he had done with a deep sigh, stuck her thumbs up at the married couple before her and called down,
"If I die, I will kill you!"
"I don't doubt it! Come on!" He reached his arms out ready to steady her and she dropped down in a similar fashion she had seen him do moments before, landing roughly in his arms with a scream. He laughed slightly before they both started coughing, and he turned to unlock the hatch near their feet to the new vehicle. They dropped into a car vastly different to the one they had been in before, it was similar in layout but completely white. As was the man driving, which caused Florence to double take with surprise, a surprise echoed on the driver's face,
"Who the hell are you?" He looked indignant at the intruders, but the Doctor whipped out a black leather wallet and flashed something at him,
"Sorry, Motorway Foot Patrol. I'm doing a survey. How are you enjoying your motorway?" Florence nodded and the man and fixed her customer service smile to her face, the man seemed to trust them, making Florence wonder what exactly the Doctor showed him,
"Well not very much. Junction Five has been closed for three years!" The Doctor nodded and began to sonic the hatch on the floor,
"Thank you. Your comments have been noted." He hung for a second as the car below them came to a stop, before dropping down once more. Florence nodded at the man and braced herself for another jump,
"Have a nice day!" She said to the white man and dropped to the car below. The Doctor motioned her to go ahead once he'd got the hatch open and she covered her mouth with the sleeve of her hoodie as she jumped through the hatch into a colourful interior with what looked like a snakeskin floor. She moved out the way for the Doctor, who immediately began sonicking the floor to open the next panel,
"Thank you for your cooperation." She said before noticing some bandanas hanging from a shelf and grabbed two, "Do you mind if we borrow these?" Before they could answer she tied one round her face in a makeshift mask, handing a purple one to the Doctor, who did the same,
"Not my colour," He told her cheekily, "but thank you very much." He tightened the knot and dropped down once more, Florence following. They repeated the process a couple more times, into a nudist car (which made Florence give out a shocked giggle) and one covered entirely in red including the man (was it in anyway related to the white car?), before ending up in a car belonging to a man wearing a suit complete with a bowler hat. Florence pulled her bandana from her face and tried to clear her throat while the Doctor made introductions,
"Hello, Motorway Foot Patrol. Whatever. Have you got any water?" They were both still coughing and the man complied politely,
"Certainly. Never let it be said I've lost my manners." They both drank from their cups gratefully, Florence struggled to get her breathe back while the Doctor looked out the window,
"Is this the last layer?" The man nodded,
"We're right at the bottom. Nothing below us but the fast lane." Florence cleared her throat,
"So can we drive down, there are three of us?" The Doctor nodded in agreement, but the man shook his head,
"No thank you, not for all the credits on New Earth." The Doctor rolled his eyes at the refusal, moving towards the hatch in the floor,
"Then excuse me." He started to open it, and Florence held out her hands,
"Hang on! I'm not jumping into the smog."
"You can't! It's a thousand feet down." The man agreed, but the Doctor just peered into the smoke,
"No, I just want to look." Florence crouched next to him and looked down at the foggy brown atmosphere below, she could faintly hear the sounds of movement accompanied by, what Florence was not happy to hear, growling,
"Doctor, what is that?" He looked concerned,
"I'm not sure." He looked at the controls in front of him. "What are those lights? What's down there? I just need to see." He started fiddling with the computer. "There must be some sort of ventilation. If I could just transmit a pulse through this thing, maybe I could trip the system, give us a bit of a breeze." Florence bit her lip and asked,
"Enough to see through thirty years of smog?"
"Let's see, shall we?" The Doctor connected wires and Florence heard the whirring of machinery below them she looked down and saw clearer shapes appear in the fog,
"What are they, Doctor, is that a claw?" Her eyes widened, "Look at the size of that thing!" The man looked down too and gasped.
"What the hell are they?" He asked, and the Doctor looked troubled,
"Macra." Florence frowned,
"Macra? What are they like some mutated giant crabs?" The Doctor shrugged slightly,
"They used to be the scourge of this galaxy. Feeding off gas, the filthier the better." Florence nodded,
"So that's why they're alive down there. But… who put them there?"
"Who knows." The Doctor replied. "Last I knew of them they had built up a small empire using humans as slaves and mining gas for food." The man scoffed lightly,
"They don't exactly look like empire builders to me."
"Well," The Doctor supposed, "that was billions of years ago. Billions. They must have devolved down the years. Now they're just beasts." Florence couldn't believe what she was seeing, and gasped when she remembered something,
"Martha's down there with them!" The Doctor put a hand gently on the back of her neck, softly applying pressure so that she looked at him, and repeated his words from before,
"I'll find her. We'll get her back." If the moment wasn't so tense, he would have been almost relieved to see that despite how young this Florence was, how confused and distrusting she was of him right now, she still held onto her compassion and worry for his companions. He had to admit, it made the unfamiliarity she had of him worth it. Before he could do anything more there was a clanging noise on the metal above them, which caused the owner of the vehicle to look up in exasperation,
"Oh, it's like New Times Square in here, for goodness's sake!"
A figure clothed in grey began to lower herself into the car as its three occupants stood to greet them, the Doctor nudged Florence with a smile, "I've invented a sport." He smiled as he saw another cat person stand in front of them, this time a woman, Florence began to wonder how usual these odd people were to see in New New York. The cat smiled in relief when she saw the Doctor and Florence,
"Doctor, you're a hard man to find." Both Florence and the owner caught sight of the gun in her hand at the same time, Florence stepping back carefully while the latter cried out,
"No guns. I'm not having guns." But the woman seemed happy enough to throw the gun to the side in acquisition, shaking her habit covered head,
"I only brought this in case of pirates. Doctor, Florence, you've got to come with me." The Doctor looked confused.
"Do I know you?" He wondered, and the cat became slightly bashful,
"You both haven't aged at all. Time has been less kind to me." Florence looked between the two in confusion, wondering where she fit into all this, whereas the Doctor's eyes lit up in recognition, and he grabbed the woman to embrace her,
"Novice Hame!" He pulled away as quickly as he initiated the contact, "No, hold on, get off. Last time we met, you were breeding humans for experimentation." Florence started in surprised,
"I'm sorry, what?"
"I've sought forgiveness, Doctor," Hame pleaded with the man, "for so many years, under his guidance. And if you come with me, I might finally be able to redeem myself." The Doctor refused, pointing down at the hatch below them,
"We're not going anywhere. You've got Macra living underneath this city. Macra! And if my friend's still alive, she's stuck down there." Hame shook her head,
"You've got to come with me right now. Both of you, he insists." The doctor tried to refuse once more but Hame grabbed his and Florence's wrists, "I'm sorry, Doctor. But the situation is even worse than you can imagine." Florence wriggled in the tight grip of the cat woman, looking at the metal bracelet that was glowing ominously. "Transport." On her command the three were beamed away from the car in a bright light, and the Doctor's protests went unheard.
They landed roughly, perhaps even worse than Florence's initial entrance into the TARDIS, onto their backs amongst wires and overturned chairs in a darkened room, the Doctor groaned and rose to his feet, helping Florence to hers and giving her the quick once over, before turning angrily to Hame,
"Rough teleport! You can use that to go straight back down and get people out of there, starting with Martha." Hame shook her head,
"I only had the power for one trip."
"Then get some more!" The Doctor replied harshly. Florence took a moment to glance around the space they were in, trying to see anything that might tell her -
"Where are we?" She asked finally.
"High above, in the over-city." Hame told her, which did nothing to soothe the Doctor,
"Good. Because you can tell the Senate of New New York I'd like a word. They have got thousands of people trapped on the motorway. Millions!" He was yelling at this point, and Florence wondered where they could possibly be that such noise wasn't attracting some sort of attention. Hame answered her unspoken question, telling them,
"But you're inside the Senate, right now." She fiddled with the bracelet she had used to teleport them and suddenly the room was lit up so that the Doctor and Florence could see the great hall they stood in was in fact occupied. With hundreds of skeletons. "May the goddess Santori bless them… they died, Doctor. The city died."
The Doctor looked around, taking note of the dust covering the skeletons, "How long has it been like this?"
"Twenty four years." Hame informed them. Florence remembered their earlier encounter with the Cassinis,
"Doctor," she pointed out, watching him crouched in front of the skeleton in front of them. "the Cassinis have been driving that long." She turned to Hame. "What happened?"
"A new chemical. A new mood." She explained, peeling an old looking patch off of the skeleton's neck. "They called it Bliss. Everyone tried it. They couldn't stop. A virus mutated inside the compound and became airborne. Everything perished. Even the virus, in the end. It killed the world in seven minutes flat. There was just enough time to close down the walkways and the flyovers, sealing off the under-city. Those people on the motorway aren't lost, Doctor. They were saved." The Doctor finally understood, the Senate's final act was done to protect its people, there were no police or service cars because there was no one left.
"So the whole thing down there is running on automatic." He said simply, and Hame nodded,
"There's not enough power to get them out. We did all we could to stop the system from choking."
"And why do you need us? Who wanted us, who's with you?" Florence wondered, remembering the cat lady's insistence that they were required to accompany her.
"He protected me. And he has waited for you, these long years."
Before they could ask anymore, a smooth voice echoed through the halls, "Doctor…" The man in question grabbed Florence's hand and ran towards the direction it came from as soon as he heard it, crying,
"The Face of Boe!" They ran into the room where a giant wrinkled head inside a glass jar full of liquid sat, Florence gasped when she saw it,
"What the…" The face's mouth didn't open as his voice cut through the room, its eyes on her
"My dear Florence," He hummed, "it has been a long time. I knew you would both come. You always do." The Doctor crouched in front of the jar, his hands gently running along the glass, Hame explained to them both,
"Back in the old days, I was made his nurse as penance for my sin." The Doctor was hardly listening, he seemed to be giving the big face a once over,
"Old friend, what happened to you?"
"Failing." One said simply.
"He protected me from the virus by shrouding me in his smoke." Hame continued. "But with no one to maintain it, the City's power died. The under-city would have fallen into the sea." Florence smiled softly,
"He's the one who saved them." Hame nodded,
"The Face of Boe wired himself into the mainframe. He's giving his life force just to keep things running." The Doctor looked intently at Boe,
"But there are planets out there." He reasoned. "You could have called for help." Hame shook her head sadly,
"The last act of the Senate was to declare New Earth unsafe. The automatic quarantine lasts for one hundred years." Florence let out a sigh, imagining what must happen on the motorway when it reached fifty, even sixty, years. What happened to the dead?
"So the two of you stayed here, on your own for all these years." The Doctor still had his hand gently on the glass but moved to stand next to Hame.
"We had no choice." She told them sadly, and Florence placed a comforting hand on the former nurse's arm,
"Yes, you did."
"Save them, Doctor. Save them." Boe's soothing voice told them, and how could the hero say no to that.
Florence watched the Doctor run around, sonicking here and there until he managed to get a computer screen functioning, bringing up the car registration and instructed Florence to type in the number that the Cassinis had found for them while he connected wires and cables together. She yelled with glee when the red dot told her what they wanted to hear, "Doctor!" She called out to him. "Car four six five diamond six. It still registers! That's Martha!" The Doctor grinned at her and increased his fervour pulling wires out of their places and placing them in new sockets,
"I knew she was good." He spun in a circle, running his hands through this hair. "Think, think, think, think." He yelled out in a burst of inspiration and ran to another computer. "Take the residual energy, invert it, feed it through the electricity grid." Florence was clueless, but Hame understood enough to inform him,
"There isn't enough power." The Doctor shook his head wildly and grinned at her,
"Oh, you've got power. You've got me. I'm brilliant with computers, just you watch." He winked when he caught Florence's impressed look, making her turn away quickly. "Hame, every switch on that bank up to maximum, Florence give her a hand. I can't power up the city, but all the city needs is people." Florence did as she was told while he tightened some knobs to his left but couldn't help but ask,
"Wait what exactly are you going to do?"
"This!" He exclaimed, throwing a lever down.
And nothing. The lights powered down.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no." He cried out running over to the generators and scanning the switches, "The transformers are blocked. The signal can't get through." Florence didn't know how to help, she felt useless.
"Doctor." Boe tried to get his attention.
"Yeah, hold on. Not now." Boe persisted,
"I give you my last." Florence watched his eyes closed as he let out a deep long exhale, and as he did so the computers powered up. The Doctor rushes back to the console but not before instructing,
"Hame, look after him. Don't you go dying on me, you big old face. You've got to see this." He flipped the level once more and this time the computer whirred positively, the Doctor grinned at Florence, "The open road. Ha!" He ran over to where Florence was standing at the computer and entered some codes, enabling the same video message they had seen Sally Calypso appear on earlier. "Sorry! No Sally Calypso, She was just a hologram. My name's the Doctor. And this is an order. Everybody drive up. Right now. I've opened the roof of the motorway. Come on. Throttle those engines. Drive up. All of you. The whole under-city. Drive up, drive up, drive up! Fast! We've got to clear that fast lane. Drive up and get out of the way!"
Florence looked at him, he was incredible. He caught her staring out of the corner of his eyes and winked, before turning back to deliver a specific message.
"Oi! Car four six five diamond six. Martha! Drive up! You've got access above, now go!" He walked towards the window, dragging Florence over with him to get her first glimpse of the New New York he had promised her, while he told Brannigan to remember his coat. She looked out at the sunlit skyline of the city, filled with spires and skyscrapers and, for the first time in twenty three years, cars. "Oh and Car four six five diamond six, I've sent you a flight path. Come to the Senate." Martha's voice came through the radio, and Florence had never heard a sweeter sound,
"On my way!" Florence grabbed the microphone from the Doctor,
"Oh Martha I cannot wait to see that gorgeous face of yours!" Martha laughed in response but before she could respond, Hame cried out as a crack sounded,
"Doctor!" The two ran over to the jar that held the Face of Boe and saw a large crack covering its expanse.
Martha had finally made it up to the senate, bidding farewell to her kidnappers turned friends (a psychologist's field day, that), and walked through the eerie hall, trying not to dwell on the skeletons littering the floor. "Doctor! Florence!" She called out to her friends.
"Over here!" Came Florence's voice from round the corner, and Martha made her way towards them,
"What happened out there?" But as she entered the room to the side she saw what could only be described as a giant face lying amongst the remnants of a glass container, some sort of liquid coating the floor. She saw the Doctor crouched next to it with a cat woman (she didn't even question it at this point) while Florence stood looking in the direction she knew Martha would enter from.
"Oh Martha!" She called once she saw her, running over and hugging her tightly. Martha immediately tightened her arms around her, clutching the soft material of the younger woman's hoodie and exhaling in relief. "Thank god you're okay." It was easy to forget that this Florence had only just met Martha, she seemed no less familiar than the confident woman the young doctor had met at St Hope's only days before. Her clothes were different, her eyes were younger, and her confusion hurt the Doctor (she could tell as much from their interaction as she had entered the console room), but Florence's hugs never changed. They were permanently warm. She pulled back from the hug and her own thoughts and gestured to the face,
"I'm fine, what's that? What happened?" Florence turned back and led Martha to where the Doctor was crouched and place her hand gently on the wrinkled cheek of the face,
"It's the Face of Boe." She told her, and the Doctor encouraged her closer,
"It's all right. Come and say hello. And this is Hame." He introduced the cat lady, "She's a cat. Don't worry. He's the one that saved you, not me." The air seemed thick with sadness, and Hame spoke sadly,
"My lord gave his life to save the city, and now he's dying."
"No, don't say that." The Doctor refused to accept defeat. "Not old Boe, plenty of life left in him." A voice spoke, Martha presumed from the big face,
"It's good to breathe the air once more." She was still confused, having missed something in her ordeal down in the fast lane,
"Who is he?" She asked carefully, not wanting to offend or upset.
"I don't even know." The Doctor answered truthfully. "Legend says the Face of Boe has lived for billions of years. Isn't that right? And you're not about to give up now." Boe let out a chuckle,
"Everything has its time. You know that, old friend, better than most."
"The legend says more." Hame added, but the Doctor shook his head,
"Don't. There's no need for that."
"What does it say?" Florence spoke up, Martha thanked her silently for asking what she was thinking, and Hame complied,
"It says that the Face of Boe will speak his final secret to a traveller."
"Yeah, but not yet." The Doctor smiled slightly, "Who needs secrets, eh?" He caught Florence's eye before looking away, instead he looked guilty to Martha.
"I have seen so much." Boe continued. "Perhaps too much. I am the last of my kind, as you are the last of yours, Doctor." Martha and Florence both looked up at the Doctor sharply at this, what did he mean by that? When she had asked him on the TARDIS about his home planet, he had given no indication of this. Martha was desperate to ask him then and there, but he had such sadness in his eyes that she couldn't bring herself to do so.
"That's why we have to survive." He told the Face, tears in his eyes. "Both of us. Don't go." Martha saw Florence place her hand gently on the Doctor's arm, and once again Martha was glad that some things didn't change no matter her timeline, or however that wording worked to explain their situation.
"I must." The Face of Boe pressed, accepting his fate. "But know this, Time Lord." He paused and took a rattling breath. "You are not alone." He exhaled one last time before his eyes closed and there was silence in the room, silence that was broken by Hame's quiet sobbing.
Florence walked alongside the Doctor and Martha through Pharmacy Town, watching the former inspect the empty street, "All closed down." He commented, peering at the previously energetic market stalls.
"Happy?" Martha asked.
"Happy Happy." The Doctor quipped. "New New York can start again. And they've got Novice Hame. Just what every city needs. Cats in charge." He automatically grabbed Florence's hand to start in the direction of the TARDIS, and tried not to wince when she shrugged out of his hold after a few seconds. "Come on, time we were off." She crossed her arms and looked at him,
"But what did he mean?" He looked back at her. "The Face of Boe? You're not alone." He shrugged,
"I don't know." Martha stepped in line with Florence and gave him and thoughtful smile,
"You've got me. You've got Florence. Is that what he meant?"
"I don't think so." The Doctor crushed such a thought, and Martha's face fell. "Sorry."
"Then what?" She asked, but Florence noticed his evasiveness,
"Doesn't matter. Back to the TARDIS, off we go." The two women looked at each other and decided non-verbally that this response was certainly not good enough for them. They each picked up one of the foldable chairs that had been overturned and sat, arms and legs crossed. The Doctor almost rolled his eyes at the two of them,
"Oh alright, you two staying then?" Florence actually rolled her eyes at that,
"Til you give us some answers, yeah."
"He said last of your kind. What does that mean?" The Doctor still didn't seem eager to discuss this particularly branch of topic,
"It really doesn't matter."
"You don't talk." Martha argued, getting equally frustrated, which concerned Florence as to how exactly she was supposed to get answers from the man (alien?) about what the hell she was doing there. "You never say. Why not?" Before the Doctor had the chance to avoid their questions once more the sound of choir singing echoed through the street. "It's the city." They listened for a moment to the powerful lyrics, and Florence saw the Doctor's resolve weaken. He grabbed another chair and sat in front of them leaning forward on his elbows,
"I lied to you," He admitted to Martha what he had inadvertently told Florence while they were in Brannigan's car, "because I liked it. I could pretend. Just for a bit, I could imagine they were still alive, underneath a burnt orange sky." He sighed heavily. "I'm not just a Time Lord. I'm the last of the Time Lords. The Face of Boe was wrong. There's no one else."
Florence's heart broke for him. She didn't quite know what to say or do, but even this admittance wasn't enough to sate their curiosity, so she asked him: "What happened?"
"There was a war." He told them. "A Time War. The last Great Time War. My people fought a race called the Daleks, for the sake of all creation. And they lost. They lost. Everyone lost. They're all gone now. My family, my friends, even that sky. Oh, you should have seen it, that old planet. The second sun would rise in the south, and the mountains would shine. The leaves on the trees were silver, and when they caught the light every morning, it looked like a forest on fire. When the autumn came, the breeze would blow through the branches like a song."
They sat there, in the deserted lower city of New New York, a weary traveller, a young woman who admired his every move, and a girl. Who just wanted answers.
It may have been hours that they listened to the Doctor talk about his home planet, and the tragedy of the Time War, but in reality it was less than an hour before they dragged themselves up and walked together in unison again towards the TARDIS. The Doctor opened the blue doors and let the girls enter first, directing Martha once more to the corridors that would lead her to the bedrooms so that she could get some sleep before they headed off again. Florence knew he was waiting for her to make the first move as they stood on the metal grating of the console room, bathed in yellow light. She shifted on either foot watching him fidget with controls before breaking the silence. "Can you take me home?" The Doctor looked up at that, sadly.
"I can, of course I can. If that's what you want." He told her, and Florence hesitated before nodding slightly,
"This was…" She struggled to find the right words. "Incredible, and terrifying. I still don't quite know if this is all one big fever dream and I'm gonna wake up in hospital tomorrow morning but… I didn't choose this." He nodded, understanding what she was trying to say. "I don't know what brought me here, but it wasn't my choice. And if you're right, and we keep meeting, out of the right order… then next time yeah maybe I'll bump into you or, or.." She noticed his guilty face. "That's not how this works, is it?" He sighed. "You said you'd take me home! You said I could go home!"
"I can take you home." He repeated, shuffling closer to her, but she refused to meet his eyes, instead holding her face in her hands, "But you won't stay there. The darkness… you told me once that the darkness calls you back to me. I'm sorry Florence. Look at me." He gently took her hands, this time he did flinch when she ripped them away from him. "Florence, I will drop you off right now, but I had to tell you, I needed to at least try and save you the pain." She just shook her head at him.
"I don't care." She told him. "I want to see my friends, I want to go back. This isn't real." The Doctor stepped back from her, nodding in defeat,
"Okay. Okay." He began to flip some levers and pressing the controls, this time Florence had the sense to grab on to something as she found herself thrown about once more. By the time the shaking stopped and the Doctor motioned her to the doors, Florence had calmed herself down and nodded politely at him,
"Thank you, Doctor." She straightened her hoodie and made her way to the doors, pulling it open and looking behind her one last time before she stepped out onto the streets of London. "I'll see you soon, I guess." It felt odd saying goodbye without actually saying goodbye, so she walked out of the bigger-on-the-inside phonebox without waiting for a response, and did not hang around long enough to watch it vanish with a strange groaning noise.
She didn't even notice that by the time she had reached the corner of her own street, a dull pounding had taken up residence in the back of her head once more.
Ender of chapter three! That's that! They never meet again… kidding ofc
Reviews reviews reviews better than chocolate at the moment! See you for chapter four! xo