Chapter 23 The One that could be a West End Musical
Welcome welcome welcome! Chapter 23 in honour of my 23rd birthday! Happy Birthday to me! Like, follow, review, and enjoy!
As Always:
I own nothing recognisable x
Florence awoke from her telepathy-induced nap feeling refreshed and utterly at ease, though the soft plush pillows she was snuggled up into did nothing to inspire any desire to get out of bed, the thought in fact was ghastly. She nestled down further, deciding in that moment to give herself a few more minutes of peace before facing the madness of the Doctor once more. She blew some hair out of her face and stared up at the ceiling contemplatively, feeling better not only after a nice long sleep but also after expressing her feelings to the Doctor following her confusion over his and Clara's behaviour. She was still confused, she had to admit, and still frustrated at her lack of understanding compared to that of Clara, but she also realised there was no use taking it out on the Doctor, or Clara for that matter, since they were in the same position as her. Plus, she'd rather not make things awkward for her future self who would have to put up with the aftermath of any spats.
She groaned once more, stretching her arms out in front of her before glancing around her room, a smile tugging at her face at the decor, the TARDIS really knew how to treat a girl to her dream bedroom that she would have never been able to afford off her measly pay and student debt. Throwing her covers aside and sitting up, she dangled her legs off the edge and wiggled her toes in the cold air, trying to rid them of the pins and needles she was feeling. She sighed lightly and stood, craving a coffee and some toast, or maybe a croissant, whatever the TARDIS had to offer her that morn-
"Floooorence! Wake up!" Came from outside her door, along with a succession of harsh knocking. "Florence!" She held her head in her hands. "Flossie!" At that she stood, grumbling all the way to the door, flinging it open and dodging the Doctor's hand raised to knock again. "Ah, good, you're awake." She rolled her eyes at him,
"Yeah, me and half the galaxy… what do you want?" His thick grey eyebrows drew together.
"What do you mean what do I want?" He asked. "You've been asleep for fourteen hours, I'm bored." She gave him a look of disbelief,
"Bored?" He nodded. "Oh I'm so sorry!" She quipped sarcastically. "Well, why don't you fetch me a coffee and a croissant while I get changed?" He folded his arms, leaning against the door.
"And why would I do that?"
"Because you're bored and I'm hungry." At his blank look she smiled sweetly. "And once I eat we can go explore Jupiter or something… please?" He hesitated for a moment before bobbing his head in agreement.
"Fine." He acquiesced. "But I can do much better than Jupiter." He sighed. "You have ten minutes!" He stalked off and Florence laughed at his dramatics, calling out as he went,
"Milk, no sugar!" She shut the door before he could take back his reluctant offer. Turning away from the door and towards the poor imitation of the TARDIS' wardrobe that was her chest of drawers she smirked in triumph.
The pins and needles didn't leave her, instead they worked their way up her body until she was clutching her sweatshirt so tightly she thought she might rip a hole in it as she pulled it over her head, she groaned when she opened her eyes, reeling away in shock as the pitch black enveloped her sense once again. Her breathing became harsh as the base of her neck tingled, the need to rub and itch at it as though she had been bitten by a thousand mosquitos, but tried to focus away from the pain and on the whispers that accompanied the darkness.
"It'll be over soon. It'll be over soon. It'll be over soon." She muttered to herself, running her hands over the fabric of her jeans and then her sweatshirt, the material pressing into her fingertips to ground her momentarily as she waited for the darkness to release her. She took a shaky breath, closing her eyes.
When she opened them she was standing, and she laughed in shock as she realised it was the first time she had managed to stay on her feet during a jump. "Yes!" She cheered to herself, moments before having her feet swept out from underneath her as the TARDIS jolted left then right, the accompanying yells of surprise from its two other occupants joining her own. "For fuck-" She pushed herself up, grabbing onto the side of the console and trying her best to balance herself. "What is going on?!" She yelled out, seeing a leather jacket clad buzzcut poke his head around the central column with a grin, followed by a blonde dressed in a Union Flag t-shirt.
"It's a mauve emergency!" The Doctor yelled out, yanking on a few levers at the same time, Florence stumbling her way around the console to get closer to them.
"'Mauve?'" She repeated, her and Rose sharing a look of confusion.
"The universally recognised colour for danger." He told them, and Rose glanced over at him before turning back to the screen, where an image of some cylindrical object was careening through space.
"What happened to red?" She asked him, latching onto Florence's arm as the woman nearly went flying again. "Red means bad!"
The Doctor laughed, fiddling with a dodgy looking keypad under the screen. "That's just humans. By everyone else's standards, red's camp!" He let out a loud laugh at the girls' shocked expressions. "Oh, the misunderstandings! All those red alerts, all that dancing…" He pulled up some high tech looking records on the screen. "It's got a very basic flight computer. I've hacked into the computer, slaved the TARDIS. Where it goes, we go." Florence gave him a sceptical look,
"And that's safe?" She asked. "For us?"
He cast her a quick look, smiling. "Totally!" At that he pulled up a lever and the TARDIS let out a bang and sparks flew from the console, Rose and Florence reeling back with a scream. "Okay… reasonably." He amended. "Should have said 'reasonably' there." The object on the screen jumped suddenly, spilling into the swirling purple vortex and further from them. "No, no, no, no! It's jumping time tracks, getting away from us!" He fiddled with more buttons, all traces of humour gone.
"What exactly is this thing?" Rose asked him.
"No idea." He told them, flicking a switch on his right and squinting at the screen, gaining on the object.
"Why are we chasing it then?" Florence wondered, curious as to where they were heading, latched onto the object as they were.
"Because it's mauve and dangerous… and about thirty seconds from the centre of London." Came his response, and Florence immediately tightened her grip on the console, ready for the bumpy ride.
The TARDIS landed with the familiar sound, and the three occupants with a thump. Florence stretched her arms above her head groaning as the Doctor straightened his jacket with a grin. "Right, London!" He told them, glancing quickly at the screen and nodding. "Easy does it." Florence huffed,
"Oh yeah, smooth sailing." She said, sarcastically, causing Rose to laugh and the Doctor rolled his eyes. He stopped in front of her as Rose made her way to the doors to grab her coat from the rack and turned, giving her a sweet smile.
"Hello, by the way." Florence returned his smile, staring up at yet another face of the man she had come to enjoy travelling with so much.
"Hello."
"Hello." He said again, and Rose opened the door dramatically, leaning against the doorway and looking at the two of them, shaking her head,
"Hello!" Florence peeled her eyes from the man in front of her and laughed at Rose, sidestepping the Doctor and running over to her, hugging her tightly,
"Come on then, good old London Town!" The three exited the TARDIS into a dark alleyway filled with crates and industrial rubbish, lit only by the moonlight and the dim light coming from the TARDIS. Florence peered around curiously. "This is… exciting." The Doctor frowned and picked up a crate, looking into it before throwing it back down.
"D'ya know how long you can knock around space without happening to bump into Earth?" He asked, looking pretty unenthused for someone who, in however many years time would greet a rainy New New York with the excitement of a kid at Christmas.
"Five days?" Rose guessed. "Or is that just when we're out of milk?"
"Of all the species in all the Universe and it has to come out of a cow." He told her simply, Florence rolling her eyes slightly at his oddness. "Must have come down somewhere quite close." He continued, looking around the alleyway again as if the object was about to pop out from around a crate. "Within a mile, anyway. And it can't have been more than a few weeks ago. Maybe a month."
"A month?" Rose repeated incredulously. "We were right behind it." They began to walk down the alleyway, looking for something that could give them clues as to where the capsule had fallen.
"It was jumping time tracks all over the place!" The Doctor protested, raising his eyebrows in innocence. "We're bound to be a little bit out. Do you want to drive?" He asked snarkily at the end, and Florence nodded firmly.
"Please." She told him, thinking about Clara's incident with the telepathic circuits. "It really would come in handy…" He nudged her shoulder with his arm and she laughed lightly.
"How much is a little bit?" Rose asked, looking around the dingy alleyway.
The Doctor shrugged. "A bit." Florence and Rose shared a look at his evasiveness.
"Is that exactly a bit?" Florence asked him sarcastically.
"Ish." She giggled at his childishness.
"What's the plan then?" Rose asked, shoving her hands in her pockets. "Are you going to do a scan for alien tech or something?" Florence laughed,
"The Doctor? Rushing into things with only 5% of a plan? No!" The Doctor pulled a face at her words, reaching into his bottomless pocket for something.
"Oi!" He scolded Florence. "Listen, it hit the middle of London with a very loud bang." He finally pulled the psychic paper from his pockets. "I'm gonna ask." He handed the paper over to Rose who peered at it curiously.
"'Doctor John Smith, Ministry of Asteroids'." The Doctor nodded,
"It's psychic paper." He explained. "It tells you-"
"Whatever you want it to tell me…" Rose finished for him, looking less impressed than the Doctor wanted. "I remember." The Doctor led them to a blue service door to a building, looking at the lock curiously.
"Sorry." He apologised, though Florence could hear from his tone that he wasn't quite sure what he was apologising for.
"Not very Spock is it, just asking?" Rose complained, and Florence gave her a funny look,
"Didn't peg you for a Star Trek fan, Rose." She shrugged slightly,
"Oh, mum went out with superfan for a while, and I mean superfan." She explained and the Doctor huffed, still preoccupied with her earlier comment, pressing his ear against the door.
"Door, music, people." He told her. "What d'ya think?"
Rose frowned at him. "I think you should do a scan for alien tech. Give me some Spock, for once!" She demanded. "Would it kill you?" Florence gave the Doctor a funny look as he adamantly focused on sonicking the lock.
"I think it just might." She quipped, smiling sweetly when he glared at her in response.
"Funny." He managed to get the door open and gestured Florence to enter, before pausing slightly to look Rose up and down. "Are you sure about that t-shirt?" Rose stretched it out from the bottom, looking at the flag in all its glory.
"Too early to say. I'm taking it out for a spin." She mused, and Florence gave it an appraising look,
"I like it… very Scary Spice." Rose beamed at that. The Doctor huffed impatiently and motioned the open door again,
"I've been very clever here, is no one going to acknowledge it?" Florence patted his cheek as she stepped into the dark hallway.
"Yes, dear." The Doctor turned to follow her before looking back at Rose, who had been distracted by something.
"Come on, if you're coming. Won't take a minute." He called back to her before leading Florence further into the building.
Florence looked over her shoulder at the still open door, "Rose not coming?" The Doctor waved her off,
"Like I told her, we'll only be a minute." As she hesitated a second too long for the impatient Time Lord, he grabbed her hand and pulled her along with him. They walked down a hallway listening out for where the sound of music was coming from, Florence nudging the Doctor in the direction where she could see a sharply dressed waiter carrying a trayful of drinks walking through a beaded curtain. He raised his eyebrows at the dresscode and held his crooked arm out. "Shall we." She laughed and threaded her arm through his,
"Oh, go on then." They followed the waiter through the curtain and into what looked like an underground jazz club, completely with small cabaret tables, a band, and a singer wearing a brilliant white dress on stage. Florence looked around in wonder at the space, catching sight of couples lighting cigarettes, laughing over a drink, enjoying life, wondering if she would experience such a relaxed night out anytime soon. She shared a grin with the Doctor, who merely smiled down at her before clapping along to the end of the song and hurrying up to the stage once the woman had left, Florence held out a hand too late to stop him.
"Excuse me!" He called out to the audience, there was a moment of confused silence and Florence looked at him like he was insane, which, she supposed, wasn't far off the truth. "Could I have everybody's attention just for a mo? Be very quick. Hello!" He waved awkwardly, reminding Florence a lot more of his future bow tied self than smarmy northerner he was at that moment. "Might seem like a stupid question, but has anything fallen from the sky recently?" There was silence, before everyone in the room - band included - burst out into slow laughter. The Doctor shared a look with Florence, before turning back to the audience. "Sorry, have I said something funny? It's just, there's this thing that I need to find." Florence looked around as they continued to laugh, before stopping suddenly at the posters on a pinboard that had caught her eye. "Would've fallen from the sky a couple of days ago. Would have landed near here..."
"Uhh… Doctor?" Florence called, about to point them out to him, but before she could a loud siren echoed through the club. A familiar sound that was played in most history classes at some point in the curriculum, and led to the audience shuffling around collecting their coats and cigarettes and hurrying out of the club by the time the third round of the air raid siren blared.
"With a very loud…" The Doctor looked at Florence in realisation and she pointed at the black and white poster that had caught her attention, the words 'Hitler Will Send No Warning' signalling what - and more importantly, when - the TARDIS had brought them to. "Bang."
The club emptied and the Doctor jumped off the stage, grabbing Florence's hand and dragging her out the entrance from which they had come. "Right, bit of a spanner in the works…" He mumbled, half to himself half to her. "Well, the whole toolbox really…"
"So now how are we gonna find the capsule… thingy…?" She asked him. "Surely there'll be someone somewhere who saw something not quite a bomb fall?" The Doctor shrugged slightly,
"Who knows now, middle of the Blitz! They've probably got more on their minds." Florence's mind whirred before landing on the key word he had just mentioned, she laughed slightly. "What?"
She smiled up at him, squeezing the hand that was still leading her through the corridor at a pace. "The Blitz. Your future self told me this is where we had just come from." The Doctor frowned slightly,
"That's a bit of a spoiler." Florence rolled her eyes slightly,
"It's not that much of a spoiler, it was the first time I had met this you, now that's a spoiler!" The Doctor was about to retort, scowl planted on his face, but was stopped by the absence of a certain blonde when they had stepped back out into the alleyway.
"Rose?" He called, looking around, before they ran down the alley and turned the corner to where the TARDIS had been parked.
"Rose!" Florence called out, hands on her hips as she wondered where she could have got to. A cat miaowed and the Doctor picked it up gently, talking to it as he stroked its chin.
"You know, one day… just one day, maybe, I'm going to meet someone who gets the whole "don't wander off" thing. Nine hundred years of phone box travel, it's the only thing left to surprise me!" Florence gave the cat a tentative stroke,
"Don't listen to him, I'm not that bad."
"Yet…" The Doctor murmured, and before she could retort there was the shrill ringing of a phone. "Hang on…" The two of them looked at each other and slowly turned to face the TARDIS, whose phone was ominously ringing for the first time Florence had seen.
"Uh, I didn't realise that actually worked…" The Doctor placed the cat down and slowly approached it,
"It doesn't." He opened the hatch on the left of the door they used to enter and exit the ship, revealing an old fashioned brass mouth and earpiece. "How can you be ringing?" He asked. "What's that about, ringing? What am I supposed to do with a ringing phone?" Florence gave him a look,
"Well… let's see who it is." She reached a hand out to grab the earpiece when a voice behind them called out, scaring the living daylights out of the short brunette.
"Don't answer it." They whipped around to see a young woman, with her hair tied in two plaits on the side of her face. "It's not for you." She told them in a thick east London accent, and the Doctor stepped in front of Florence slightly in apprehension.
"And how do you know that? I could be quite a popular person."
"Coz I do." She answered simply, speaking over the continuous ringing. "And I'm telling you, don't answer."
The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "Well, if you know so much, tell me this. How can it be ringing?" He turned his back to the woman, and Florence followed him with her eyes as he got his screwdriver out and prodded the phone. "It's not even a real phone. It's not connected, it's not-" The both turned back and the woman had disappeared into the night.
"Sorry." Florence replied. "Probably shoulda kept an eye on the freaky lady…" The Doctor waved her off, looking back at the phone that was still ringing, a while after what Florence would consider to be an acceptable length of time. He hesitated for only a second before picking up the earpiece and holding it to his ear.
"Hello?" He said, politely. "Hello? This is the Doctor speaking. How may I help you?" Florence watched him wait for a reply, unable to hear what was happening on the other end. His face fell as he listened to the response. "Who is this? Who's speaking?" Florence looked around the dark alleyway again, stepping closer to the Doctor as he tensed up. "Who is this? How did you ring here? This isn't a real phone. It's not wired up to anything…" He pulled the earpiece away and Florence could hear the dial tone.
"What?" She asked him. "Doctor, who was it?" He placed the piece back on its hook and looked at her with a frown covering his features.
"It was a little boy… asking for his mummy…" Florence's eyes widened,
"A kid? How is that… how did he get the TARDIS' number?" The Doctor looked over her at the darkened alley before shutting the hatch.
"I don't know. But we should find Rose." There was a clatter from the entrance of the alley, and the two looked at each other before running towards the noise, they found themselves behind a group of houses, where they could hear all the families running to their shelters.
"The planes are coming. Can't you hear them?" Came a female voice from one of the gardens. "Into the shelter. None of your nonsense, now move it!" The Doctor looked at the bins that were next to the garden gate and tugged Florence towards them, putting a finger to his lips and patting the top - a clear indication as to where he wants her to go. She rolled her eyes and accepted the hand held out to help her onto the metal container, he clambered onto the one next to her. Despite the extra height, Florence still had to grip his leather jacket tightly for stability as she tentatively stood on her tiptoes to actually see over the red brick wall.
A larger woman wearing a green dress with a wrap around floral apron was ushering her son into the corrugated steel shelter. "Come on, hurry up, get in there. Come on." She didn't follow him in, turning back to the house instead. "Arthur! Arthur, Will you hurry up? Didn't you hear the siren?" An equally large man was grumbling as he stormed into the garden, red faced and angry.
"Middle of dinner, every night. Blooming Germans." He shook his fist up at the sky. "Don't you eat?"
"I can hear the planes!" His wife fretted as he continued grumbling his way into the shelter, the Doctor and Florence shared a smile at the domesticity of it. "Keep your voice down, will you? It's an air raid! Get in. Look, there's a war on." Bombs exploded in the distance as the shelter door finally shut behind the family, their voices muffled.
Florence prepared herself to step down from the bins and continue their search for Rose, but the Doctor nudged her gently, keeping her where she was. The two watched as a familiar young woman popped out from the bushes behind the shelter and snuck past swiftly, making her way down the path and into the house via the back door that the family had left unlocked. The two voyeurs looked at each other, the Doctor's eyebrows raised.
"Well, well, well…" He jumped down from the bin as quietly as possible before helping Florence down. "Do you think she might know any more about our phantom caller?" Florence made a 'so and so' expression,
"Maybe she saw Rose when she was hanging round the TARDIS?" The Doctor nodded, pulling out his sonic screwdriver and opening the garden gate next to them. They heard a loud whistle coming from the street in front of the house and Florence frowned at the Doctor in confusion, but he merely shrugged in response and held the gate open for her to go ahead. Florence looked at the shelter as they quietly walked past it, the occupants unaware of the break in that was occurring in their home. "Poor people, they're just tryna stay safe." The Doctor shushed her gently as they approached the back door.
Suddenly she felt herself being pushed into the shadows behind the wall of the house and covered by the Doctor's figure. She breathed in his earthy scent and attempted to maneuver her head to see what had spooked him, the Doctor allowed her to turn her face slightly just in time to see a couple of children in tattered clothing sneak down the garden, unaware they were being watched.
"She musta left the gate open…" One of them whispered.
"You sure it's alright I come?" One of the boys asked gently, and the first one smacked him slightly on the shoulder.
"Course, she wouldn't turn ya away!" The boys ran inside and Florence looked up at the Doctor with a slight laugh,
"Did she just ring the dinner bell?" The Doctor smiled broadly, looking from the house to her in glee.
"Fantastic!"
The two of them had managed to sneak into the house undetected by any more children or the strange unnamed woman who was hosting the air raid feast, sidling into the room and slipping into the last unoccupied seat just as the plate of turkey came around to them.
"Thanks, miss!" The Doctor said cheekily, stabbing two slices with the fork and dropping them onto their shared plate as Florence held the platter, his other arm preoccupied around her waist trying to keep them both on the chair. The children gasped when he spoke, cutlery falling to their own china with various clatters, Florence supposed it was quite sad that these children were so focused on what could have been their first load of good food in days that they hadn't noticed two adults join them. Some of them started to get up to run away, one boy even had a bit of turkey dangling from his mouth as he contemplated fleeing, but the oldest girl at the head of table stopped them calmly.
"It's alright." She told them all. "Everyone stay where you are!" The children looked around sceptically and Florence smiled at them gently while the Doctor fussed over their food,
"Good here, innit?" He mused, dolloping some bread sauce on the plate. "Who's got the salt?" Florence took the shaker from a terrified boy next to her, whispering her thanks.
"Back in your seats. He shouldn't be here either." They slowly sat back down at her words, still eying the couple suspiciously.
"So, you lot, what's the story?" The Doctor asked, cutting up a potato and shoving it in his mouth, while Florence gratefully began enjoying the warm meal in front of her, the realisation that she hadn't actually received the croissant she was promised by the future incarnation of the man beside her suddenly hitting.
"What do you mean?" One of the older boys asked, and the Doctor waved around the table.
"You're homeless, right? Living rough?" Another boy across the table, whose voice Florence recognised as one of the boys from outside, looked up from his plate.
"Why do you want to know that? Are you a copper?" The Doctor shook his head,
"Nah, we're not coppers! What's a copper going to do with you lot anyway? Arrest you for starving?" The two adults laughed along with the children. "I make it 1941." Florence nudged him slightly at his phrasing. "You lot shouldn't even be in London. You should've been evacuated to the country by now." He continued anyway, and another boy nodded,
"I was evacuated. Sent me to a farm." He told them, and Florence frowned,
"Why're you back, then?" Clearly these must have been orphans or runaways, no parents to come back to.
"There was a man there…" He trailed off and Florence looked back down at her plate, his tone suggesting the worse.
"Yeah, same with Ernie. Two homes ago." The second boy who had spoken to them piped up, pointing at the first, who glared at him.
"Shut up. It's better on the streets anyway. It's better food." Ernie turned back to his plate and Florence glanced at the Doctor, who was smiling slightly at the head of the table.
"Yeah. Nancy always gets the best food for us." One of the children said, and the Doctor smiled wider,
"So, that's what you do, is it, Nancy?" He asked the finally named young woman, you still looked at them with distrust.
"What is?"
"As soon as the sirens go, you find a big fat family meal still warm on the table with everyone down in the air raid shelter and bingo!" The Doctor exclaimed. "Feeding frenzy for the homeless kids of London Town. Puddings for all, as long as the bombs don't get you." He ended, slightly darkly, and Nancy raised her eyebrows at that.
"Something wrong with that?"
The Doctor shook his head, and even Florence smiled at her slightly through a mouthful of some gorgeous gravy covered carrot. "Wrong with it? It's brilliant. I'm not sure if it's Marxism in action or a West End musical." Florence nodded emphatically,
"Lloyd-Webber would lap it up!" She agreed, and the Doctor laughed with her.
"Why'd you follow me?" Nancy interrupted their laughter. "What do you want?"
The Doctor gave her a look as if to say 'you know why'. "I want to know how a phone that isn't a phone gets a phone call." He waved his knife lightly as he spoke and Florence had to force his arm down lest he stab a child. "You seem to be the one to ask."
"I did you a favour." Nancy maintained. "I told you not to answer it, that's all I'm telling you."
"Great, thanks." The Doctor replied, a hint of sarcasm in his tone. Florence nudged him and he looked down at her, as she raised her eyebrows reminding him of the other reason they were there. "And I want to find a blonde in a Union Jack... I mean a specific one. I didn't just wake up this morning with a craving." The children all laughed along with him while Florence rolled her eyes smiling. "Anybody seen a girl like that?" Nancy suddenly stood from the top of the table and strode over to the pair, taking their plate from them. "What did we do?"
Nancy looked sternly at them. "You took two slices." Florence pouted slightly at her,
"But there's two of us!"
"You share a seat, you share a slice." Nancy responded, almost petulantly, and Florence crossed her arms in annoyance. "No blondes, no flags. Anything else before you leave?" The Doctor held a finger up and nodded,
"Yes, there is actually. Thanks for asking." He pulled a little black notebook from his pocket and started scribbling a rough drawing of the image they had seen on the TARDIS' screen.
"We're looking for something." Florence explained as he drew. "It would've fallen from the sky like a month ago, or then-ish. But not a bomb." She told them, familiar scepticism on their faces as the adults in the club. The Doctor held up his crudely drawn capsule.
"It wouldn't have exploded, that's the thing. No explosion, just buried itself in the ground somewhere… something like this." Florence wouldn't say his drawing was a masterpiece, but was hopeful that it would get the point across. Before anyone could offer up any information or even speak up to criticise the oblong graphite that the Doctor called a drawing, there was a sharp knock on the window, and they all gasped.
"Mummy?" Came a small voice from outside. "Are you in there, mummy?" The Doctor stood and pulled the curtain of the window aside to find a little boy wearing a grey jacket and a gas mask covering his face. Florence sighed slightly in relief, but the atmosphere of everyone else in the room was still tense and frightened. "Mummy?"
"Who was the last one in?" Nancy asked quickly and quietly, and Ernie pointed across the table.
"Him." Nancy shook her head.
"No, he came round the back. Who came in the front?" Florence looked around in confusion at the panicked look on all their faces, one boy slowly raising his hand. "Did you close the door?" He stuttered slightly. "Did you close the door?" Nancy asked again, firmly.
"Mummy? Mummy? Mummy?" Called the boy from outside, and Florence turned to the window just in time to see him turn away before Nancy rushed from the room, the Doctor following quickly after her, leaving no choice but Florence to copy. She came into the hallway just in time to see Nancy bolt the door shut, the shadow of the little boy still visible from the frosted glass.
"What's this, then? It's never easy being the only child left out in the cold, you know." The Doctor commented, and Nancy huffed slightly,
"I suppose you'd know." The Doctor shrugged.
"I do actually, yes." Florence spared a brief thought to the young boy that had been crying himself to sleep in a cold, dark barn in the middle of nowhere, but shook it from her head at Nancy's next words.
"It's not exactly a child." She told them, and the shadow raised its hand to the glass.
"Mummy?" Florence shook her head at the pitiful call of the boy.
"It bloody sounds like one!" She told Nancy, but the girl ignored her in favour of rounding the children in the dining room up.
"Right, everybody out. Across the back garden and out the back gate. Now! Go! Move!" They heard her tell the children, who didn't hesitate to grab their coats and flee from the house, the Doctor and Florence merely watching them run from the hallway, one last small girl following at the rear.
"Mummy?" Called the boy once more. "Mummy? Please let me in, mummy." The Doctor stepped closer to the front door, Florence following carefully behind him. "Please let me in, mummy." A small hand stretched through the letterbox, and Florence's heart ached at the sight of it.
"Are you alright?" The Doctor asked.
"Please let me in." The small voice begged, before a small vase came flying through the air and smashed upon hitting the door, the hand withdrawing in surprise.
"You mustn't let him touch you!" Nancy told them, coat on and ready to run, Florence shook her head at the girl,
"What happens if he touches you? Who is he?" She asked her, but Nancy shook her head.
"He'll make you like him." She warned them, and the Doctor and Florence shared a look,
"And what's he like?" The Doctor asked, Nancy looked between them and the back door impatiently,
"I've got to go." She turned to leave.
"Nancy," the Doctor called, stopping the girl in her tracks, "what's he like?"
"He's empty." Was all she said. Suddenly, the phone began to ring, echoing through the eerily quiet house. "It's him. He can make phones ring." Nancy explained. "He can. Just like with that police box you saw."
Florence reached out and picked up the receiver before anyone could stop her, the now familiar young voice filling her ears.
"Are you my mummy?"
Nancy grabbed the phone from her and hung up, just as music filled from the dining room, the Doctor and Florence ran into the room and the Doctor fiddled with the dials.
"Mummy? Please let me in, mummy." He turned to another station but the noise continued, Florence turned in horror as a monkey toy playing the cymbals started moving. "Mummy, mummy, mummy." Called the voice and the pair looked at each other in a mixture of confusion and fear (the latter mainly from Florence).
"You two stay if you want to." Nancy told them from the doorway, before turning away again and finally leaving through the back door. Florence poked her head out into the hallway again as the child's hand came through the letterbox.
"Doctor…" She called, and the two of them stepped closer to the door, Florence could see something on the back of his hand, she thought it was a mark or dirt until she stepped nearer and could clearly make out a strange sort of sideways 'Y' shaped scar on it. "What's that?" She whispered to the Doctor, who crouched down but was still careful not to touch him, heeding Nancy's words.
"Mummy? Let me in please, mummy. Please let me in."
"Your mummy isn't here." The Doctor said firmly.
"Are you my mummy?" The boy asked, and the Doctor shook his head, even though he couldn't be seen by the child.
"No mummies here. Nobody here but us chickens." Florence noticed him smile up at her out of the corner of his eye but couldn't bring herself to tear her eyes from the tiny hand reaching out to them as it turned over, begging to be held.
"I'm scared." Florence grabbed the Doctor's shoulder at that, her heart hurting at the whimpering tone.
"Why are those other children frightened of you?" The Doctor asked gently.
"Please let me in, mummy. I'm scared of the bombs." The Doctor paused before nodding slightly,
"Okay." He told the child, standing carefully, the tiny hand pulling back out of the letterbox. "I'm opening the door now." He reached up and unbolted the door, Florence peeking out from behind him as he grabbed the handle and swung the door open. Only to reveal an empty doorstep, the pavement and the street itself completely deserted.
What a creepy little child! So adorable but so creepy!
See you for chapter 24! xo