The Dread of Tomorrow and Yesterday – Chapter 29
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, if I did, that aftermath of that kiss between the Doctor and Donna in The Unicorn and The Wasp would have ended differently.
A/N: And here's the other half of The Unicorn and The Wasp. I'm actually really excited for this chapter. Heaps of flirting and intrigue and adorable Rhea and the Doctor moments, with a slight dash of angst at the end!
Notes on Reviews:
Rhian. Morgan. 1806: I will be doing Time of the Angels/Flesh and Stone very soon. In a couple of episodes, so Rhea will get to meet River soon, I promise.
Virginia I: There is a lot of downtime in the TARDIS I'm not writing, because writing an original scene at the end/beginning of each chapter gets a bit exhausting. You'll see around two of them in this chapter, I think. Between Donna and the Doctor and the Doctor and Rhea. Sleep doesn't come very easily to Rhea, she's very alert most of the time and this chapter should explain why that is.
Aka-Baka Hoshi: I know, I can't wait for Dream Weaver either! I'm so glad you liked the preview. I have started writing the first chapter, but because the first story in the series isn't as long, I really want to finish writing it completely before I start posting. I want to see how much writing I can accomplish in the two week break I have now and see if I can either finish writing Dream Weaver or at least get to the first season finale of The Dread of Tomorrow and Yesterday. The latter is definitely a pipe dream. I'm still trying to figure out where I want to go in each episode for my Time Lady, and she's having some difficulty in Season 6, with River, and River is definitely annoying me now. Not to mention, I keep calling my OC The Khaleesi instead of her real Time Lady name, which means I have to keep going back and deleting it :(
Kristina'sMyName: Oh, thank you. I'm so glad you liked my version of this episode. Rhea has been married before. As for when we'll see her husband and hearing about him, well there are two scenes that hint more about the relationship between him and Rhea. He's not a nice man at all. We might even meet him in the future, but, spoilers ;)
Marmalade1512: Oh, I'm so glad you reviewed and I'm so happy you like my story :) It's always nice to know that people like what you write. I do like drawing out the suspense when it comes to Rhea, her story is just that convoluted. I know, I had the same problem when I was reading LizzeXX's stories (which you should check out if you haven't) because I hadn't watched all of the episodes. When I first started this story, I still hadn't watched around half of Season 5, most of Season 6 and the first half of Season 7, and all of the Season 4 specials. I'm much better now, I've watched the whole of Season 5, the whole of Season 6. But there's still like 2 episodes in the first half of Season 7 and 2 of the Season 4 specials I haven't watched. And I am avoiding writing those episodes, but one may be coming up soon. It's good to know I am doing a good job, I do get a bit self-conscious about my writing sometimes :) Thanks again!
Warnings: Swearing, sexual innuendo.
The Unicorn and The Wasp: Psychogenic Fugue
"No, something's inhibiting my enzymes." The Doctor suddenly jerked forwards. Rhea dropped her drink in the worry and shock and knelt beside him, placing a shaky hand on his shoulder as her eyes searched him. "Aaahh!" He shouted and Donna rushed over, joining Rhea. "I've been poisoned." The Doctor said, through gritted teeth. Then he convulsed.
"What do we do? What do we do?" Donna asked, panicking.
Rhea frowned at the glass the Doctor had been drinking from. One of her arms left the Doctor and picked up the glass, holding it up to her nose and sniffing. "Bitter almonds." She murmured and her mind raced a mile per nanosecond. She paled, her hands clenching and unclenching. "There's cyanide in his drink. Fuck." She hissed, dropping the glass, abruptly.
The Doctor threw himself out of Rhea's hold and ran out of the room, Rhea, Donna and Agatha hot on his heels.
The Doctor staggered into the kitchen and grabbed Davenport by his lapels.
"Ginger beer." The Doctor said, through gritted teeth.
"I beg your pardon?" Davenport said, rearing back, scandalised.
"I need ginger beer." The Doctor growled, running to the shelves, haphazardly.
"The gentleman's gone mad!" One of the kitchen maids shouted. All of the kitchen staff planted themselves against the walls of the room, desperate to avoid the crazed man.
The Doctor drank half the bottle of ginger beer, before pouring the rest of the drink over his head and all over his body, his eyes shut, tightly, in pain.
"I'm an expert in poisons, Doctor. It's fatal! There's no cure!" Agatha shouted as they ran in.
The Doctor spat out some of the drink and gripped the table. "Not for me! I can stimulate the inhibited enzymes into reversal. Protein! I need protein!"
Rhea immediately ran over to the kitchen table and searched for something with protein in it, her hands flying over the wood as her eyes searched every label, desperately. "Walnuts!" She shouted in triumph, picking up the glass and rushing over to the Doctor.
"Brilliant!" He shouted, taking the jar from her and shoving them into his mouth, trying to talk through a mouthful.
He started shaking his hands as if he was pouring something.
"I can't understand you!" Donna shouted, desperation leaking into his voice. "How many words?"
The Doctor held up one finger.
"One. One word. Shake? Milk? Shake?" Donna's hands started shaking in time with the Doctor's hands. "Milk? Milk! No, not milk. Um, shake, shake, shake, cocktail shaker! What do you want, a Harvey Wallbanger?"
The Doctor swallowed the remaining walnuts in his mouth. "Harvey Wallbanger?!"
"Well, I don't know!"
"How is Harvey Wallbanger one word?" He asked, incredulously.
Rhea rolled her eyes in frustration. "God, both of you, shut up! He was miming salt! He needs something salty!" Rhea shouted, running back to the shelves.
"Salt! I was miming salt! Salt! I need something salty!"
Donna and Agatha joined Rhea back over at the kitchen table. Donna picked up a brown bag and rushed back to the Doctor.
"What about this?" She asked, hurriedly, holding up the bag.
"What is it?" He gritted out.
"Salt!"
"That's too salty!" The Doctor protested.
Donna rolled her eyes. "Oh, that's too salty."
"What about this?" Agatha asked, holding out a jar.
The Doctor nodded, seeing the label, and grabbed it from her. He opened it and downed the contents in a hurry, chewing frantically.
"What is it?" Rhea asked, her eyes focused on the Doctor's shaky frame.
"Anchovies."
The Doctor started to gesture again, his hands up and his palms out, in a sort of convulsing jazz-hand.
"What is it? What else? It's a song. 'Mammy'. I don't know, 'Camptown Races'?" Donna said, throwing her hands in the air, thoroughly fed up with his version of charades.
"'Camptown Races'?!"
Donna rolled her eyes. "Well, all right then. "Towering Inferno"."
"It's a shock! Look! Shock! I need a shock!" The Doctor growled, practically foaming at the mouth.
Rhea weighed up all of her options and decided this one was the best one to go with. Her hands shook at her side before she actually made the decision.
"Well, then, big shock coming up." She murmured to herself.
Her hands reached out and grabbed the Doctor by the lapels of his suit and yanked him down, at the same time as she surged up, crushing their lips together in a furious kiss. Her hands left his collar and slid under his arms to grip at his shoulder blades, as his arms flailed at his side, before one hand tightened a hold around her waist, and the other cupping the back of her neck and titling her head up for better access. Rhea rolled her eyes as the hand on her waist slid particularly low on her spine, practically groping her ass in his large hand. Figures he'd try and get to second base when I'm trying to save his life. Of course, she couldn't entirely innocent in all of this. That wasn't the way she was. She made sure to press her hips against his, hard, having the sudden, vulgar urge to climb him like a tree and properly wrap her legs around his waist. They held onto each other for a minute or two before the need to breathe overtook Rhea's lust and worry and she broke away with a gasp, panting heavily, her cheeks flushed and a few curls came undone. She looked over to the Doctor to see his head thrown back and black smoke erupting from her mouth, watching the event occur with shock and a slight bit of horror. He groaned, panting, himself.
Rhea licked the dark, powerful taste of him on her lips and turned to face Donna and Agatha, who had open-mouthed looks on their faces. "I'll tell you what it says about my kissing skills if he has the equivalent of an exorcism afterwards." She muttered to Donna. "By the way, you suck at charades!" She crowed, making Donna glare at her. She turned back to look at the Doctor.
"Ah! Detox." He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "I must do that more often."
Rhea snorted. "You wish." She glared at him, for a split second, her annoyance winning over her relief that he was alright. "Tum pagal ho! You are aware, right?" She breathed.
The Doctor clicked his tongue and smiled, cheekily, at her. He took the few steps forward that were necessary, one hand wrapping around her waist and the other around her back, and tipped her backwards. He slammed his mouth down on hers, muffling the shocked sound she made against his lips. He thoroughly ravaged her mouth before pulling her up again. They parted with a smack and Rhea flushed, holding onto the Doctor for stability. Oh, god, he tastes like time. I am so done for.
She looked up at him, a seductive smile on her face, as she grabbed his tie, pulling him closer to her. "Kiss me when I ask," She purred, tapping her finger on his chest. "And not a moment before."
The Doctor smirked down at her. "Oh, you'll ask." He said, knowingly, his hand still on her hip.
Rhea laughed, breathily, still quite breathless from the two wonderfully tantalizing kisses she had just had. "In your dreams, darling."
The Doctor chuckled. "In those too."
Agatha simply gaped at the duo and Donna rolled her eyes, too used to the excessive flirting. "Doctor, you are impossible!" Agatha whispered. "Who are you?"
That night, they all sat down in the dining room, while a thunderstorm raged outside, the lights dim, so that they were sitting in partial darkness. Rhea looked around, getting the feeling of a haunted house or the scene where someone is stabbed to death at the table in a murder mystery.
"A terrible day for all of us. The professor struck down, Miss Chandrakala cruelly taken from us, and yet, we still take dinner." The Doctor mused, taking a sip of the poison.
"We are British, Doctor." Lady Eddison said, plainly. "What else must we do?"
"And then someone tried to poison me… Any one of you had the chance to put cyanide in my drink." He looked up and ran his eyes over everyone sitting at the table. "But it rather gave us an idea, didn't it, darling." The Doctor looked down at Rhea with a fond smile.
Rhea hummed in agreement, grinning back up at him.
"And what would that be?" The reverend asked, frowning at the Doctor and Rhea.
Rhea smiled, cheerfully. "Well, poison." She smirked at all of them when they dropped their spoons with a clatter.
The Doctor smiled as well, knowingly. "Drink up." He urged the guests. They all stared at him, half in fear and half in disbelief. "I've laced the soup with pepper."
"Ah, I thought it was jolly spicy." The colonel said with a shaky laugh.
"But the active ingredient of pepper is piperine. Traditionally used as an insecticide." The Doctor clucked his tongue just as the thunder cracked. "Oh, anyone got the shivers?"
Thunder crashed again and the lights went out, enveloping the room in darkness. One of the windows slammed open, due to the strength of the wind, and all of the candles were snuffed out, taking the remainder of the light.
"What the deuce is that?" The colonel shouted.
"Listen! Listen! Listen! Listen!" The Doctor urged and everyone fell silent.
The silence remained despite the fact a buzzing sound could be heard.
"No…no, it can't be!" Lady Eddison cried out and Rhea's eyes snapped to the stricken woman.
Oh, she knows something. She definitely knows something.
Agatha stood up. "Show yourself, demon!" She called out.
"Nobody move!" The Doctor shouted as everyone began to panic, trying their hardest to run out of the room.
"No, don't!" Rhea shouted, herself. "Stay where you are!"
The Vespiform showed itself and Rhea marvelled for the second time at the size of the bee. She saw the butler, Greeves, usher Donna out of the room. The Doctor reached out with both of his hands and grabbed both Agatha and Rhea, pulling them out of the room.
"Out! Out! Out! Out! Out!" The Doctor shouted, leading the two women out into the hallway outside the dining room, where Greeves and Donna were already standing.
"Not you, Agatha. You've got a long life to lead yet." The Doctor said, grimly, before taking one of the samurai swords that were on display on the wall and brandishing it.
Rhea rolled her eyes and took the other sword off the wall, pulling out of the scabbard and gripping the hilt with steady hands.
The Doctor looked at her with confused eyes. "What are you doing?" He asked her, warily.
Rhea snorted. "Oh, please, out of the two of us, who has the more experience with a sword?" She asked.
The Doctor did have to agree with her on that one.
"Well, we know the butler didn't do it." Donna muttered, taking a quick look at the stiff man standing next to her.
The Doctor grimaced. "Then, who did?" He asked before they rushed back into the dining room.
The Vespiform was missing from the dining room and the lights came back on.
"My jewellery…the Firestone, it's gone! Stolen!" Lady Eddison cried out, feeling her bare neck.
"Roger." Davenport breathed.
Robina screamed.
Lady Eddison got up and walked around the table to where her son had been sitting. "My son…my child!" The woman sobbed over Roger's body, his face lying in the soup, his eyes bulging and a knife in his back.
The Doctor and Rhea stood by the fireplace and Agatha sat on the sofa when Donna rejoined them.
"That poor footman. Roger's dead and he can't even mourn him. 1926. It's more like the dark ages." Donna remarked, taking a seat next to Agatha.
Rhea smiled, ruefully. "I don't know, it doesn't change much from where we come from." She mused, thinking of a certain man in her life who had been forced to keep his secret for so long, because he was so afraid of his mother's reaction.
"Did you enquire about the necklace?" Agatha asked Donna.
"Lady Eddison brought it back from India. It's worth thousands."
"Figures." Rhea snorted.
The Doctor nudged her in the side. "Now's not the time to go into your anti-imperialist diatribe, Rhea." He said to her, sternly. He turned his attention back to the problem at hand. "This thing can sting, it can fly… It could wipe us all out in seconds. Why is it playing this game?" He growled.
"Every murder is essentially the same. They are committed because somebody wants something." Agatha said.
"So, what does a Vespiform want?" The Doctor asked.
"Doctor, stop it. The murderer is as human as you or I." Agatha scolded.
The Doctor's eyes widened. "You're right. I've been so caught up with giant wasps, I've forgotten." He pulled Rhea along to sit across from Agatha. "You're the expert."
"Look," Agatha rubbed her temples, wearily. "I told you. I'm just a… purveyor of nonsense."
"Oh, no, no, no, no, 'cause plenty of people write detective stories, but yours are the best. And why? Why are you so good, Agatha Christie? Because you understand. You've lived…you've fought…you've had your heart broken. You know about people, their passions, their hope and despair and anger, all of those. Tiny huge things can turn the most ordinary person into a killer. Just think, Agatha. If anyone can solve this, it's you." The Doctor said, determinedly.
Later, all the guests had gathered in the sitting room. The Doctor stood in front of the fireplace, with Rhea and Donna sitting on chairs off to one side, simply observing the proceedings.
"I've called you here on this endless night because we have a murderer in our midst. And when it comes to detection, there's none finer… Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Agatha Christie." The Doctor gestured to the blonde woman to stand up and take his place and then took his seat in between Rhea and Donna.
"This is a crooked house… a house of secrets. To understand the solution, we must examine them all. Starting with you… Miss Redmond." Agatha said and everyone turned to look at the young woman.
Robina paled. "But I'm innocent, surely." She stammered.
"You've never met these people and these people never met you. I think the real Robina Redmond never left London. You're impersonating her!" Agatha accused.
"How silly." Robina scoffed. "What proof do you have?" She asked, leaning back in her seat.
"You said you'd been to the toilet…" Agatha began.
"Oh, I know this," Donna piped in. "If she was really posh, she'd say 'loo'." Donna said, strongly, making Rhea chuckle.
"Earlier today, Mrs Smith, Miss Noble and I found this on the lawn…" Agatha picked up the tool case. "…right beneath your bathroom window. You must have heard that Mrs Smith and Miss Noble were searching the bedrooms and you panicked." Robina took a long, deep gulp of her dark drink. "You ran upstairs and disposed of the evidence."
"I've never seen that thing before in my life." Robina stammered, putting the drink back down on the table.
"What's inside it?" Lady Eddison asked.
"The tools of your trade, Miss Redmond, or should I say…the Unicorn." Agatha opened the case to show everyone. "You came to this house with one sole intention, to steal the Firestone!"
"Oh, all right then. It's a fair cop." Robina said, her voice turning rough and a clear Cockney accent falling from her lips. "Yes, I'm the bleedin' Unicorn. Ever so nice to meet you, I don't think. I took my chance in the dark and nabbed it." She reached under the strap of her dress and pulled out the necklace. "Go on then, ya nobs, arrest me. Sling me in jail." She said, smugly, to the Doctor. She threw the necklace and the Doctor caught it with one hand.
"So, is she the murderer?" Donna asked.
"Don't be so thick. I might be a thief but I ain't no killer." Robina sneered.
"Quite. There are darker motives at work, and, in examining this household… we come to you…" Agatha turned to face the man sitting in a wheelchair. "Colonel."
"Damn it, woman! You with your perspicacity! You've rumbled me!" The colonel growled and stood up, making everyone rear back in shock.
"You-you can walk? But why?" Lady Eddison whispered.
The colonel sighed and reached out, taking his wife's hand in his own. "My darling, how else could I be certain of keeping you by my side?"
Lady Eddison shook her head. "I don't understand."
"You're still a beautiful woman, Clemency. Sooner or later, some chap will turn your head. I couldn't bear that. Staying in the chair was the only way I could be certain of keeping you." The colonel turned to Agatha. "Confound it, Mrs Christie! How did you discover the truth?"
"Um, actually, I had no idea." Agatha said, sheepishly. "I was just going to say you were completely innocent."
Rhea bit her lip and repressed the urge to burst out into laughter.
"Ah… oh."
"Sorry." Agatha said, guiltily.
"Well, shall I sit down then?"
"I think you better had."
"So, he's not the murderer?" Donna asked.
"Indeed not. To find the truth… let's return…" The Doctor handed Agatha the Firestone. "…to this—far more than the Unicorn's object of desire. The Firestone has quite a history. Lady Eddison."
"I've done nothing!" Lady Eddison protested.
"You brought it back from India, did you not? Before you met the Colonel. You came home with malaria and confined yourself to this house for six months, in a room that has been locked ever since, which I rather think means—" Agatha shook her head, unwilling to speak the words.
"Stop, please!" Lady Eddison begged.
"You fell pregnant in India." Rhea said, suddenly, everyone's eyes turning to her, but she stared into Lady Eddison's wet ones. She gave an apologetic look at Agatha. "Sorry, but we needed to get the ball rolling." She cocked her head and looked at Lady Eddison again. "Unmarried and ashamed, you hurried back to England with your confidante, a young maid, later to become housekeeper, Miss Chandrakala." Rhea explained.
"Clemency!" The colonel cried out in shock. "Is this true?"
Lady Eddison let out a sob, covering her face with her hands. "My poor baby. I had to give him away. Oh, the shame of it."
"But you've never said a word!" The colonel said.
"I had no choice." Lady Eddison looked up from her hands, her face in a determined mask. "Imagine the scandal, the family name. I'm British… I carry on." She said, taking a resolute sip of her drink.
"And it was no ordinary pregnancy." The Doctor commented.
Lady Eddison's eyes widened. "How can you know that?"
"Excuse me, Agatha, this is my territory." The Doctor stood up and went to stand next to Agatha.
"When you heard that buzzing sound in the dining room, you said, "It can't be". Why did you say that?" Rhea asked, raising an eyebrow, and leaning back in her chair, her face cool and composed.
Lady Eddison shook her head. "You'd never believe it."
"The Doctor has opened my mind to believe… many things." Agatha said, sitting down next to Lady Eddison and taking her hand in her own, offering some modicum of comfort.
"It was forty years ago…" Lady Eddison began, her eyes going glassy as she remembered. "…In the heat of Delhi one night. I was alone and that's when I saw it… a dazzling light in the sky. The next day, he came to the house… Christopher, the most handsome man I'd ever seen. Our love blazed like a wildfire and I held nothing back." Lady Eddison swallowed hard. "And in return, he showed me the incredible truth about himself. He made himself human to learn about us. This was his true shape." She shook slightly as she recounted the circumstances that had led to her pregnancy. "I loved him so much it didn't matter. But he was stolen from me. 1885, the year of the Great Monsoon. The River Jumna rose up and broke its banks." Rhea grimaced at the pronunciation. "He was taken at the flood. But Christopher left me a parting gift… a jewel like no other. I wore it always. Part of me never forgot. I keep it close. Always."
"Just like a man…" Robina scoffed. "Flashes his family jewels and you end up with a bun in the oven."
"A 'poor little child'. Forty years ago, Miss Chandrakala took that newborn babe to an orphanage. But Professor Peach worked it out. He found the birth certificate." Agatha told everyone.
"Oh, that's 'maiden'," Donna added. "Maiden name." She said, through a mouthful of popcorn.
Agatha nodded. "Precisely."
"So she killed him." Donna said.
"I did not!" Lady Eddison said, scandalised by the prospect.
"Miss Chandrakala feared that the professor had unearthed your secret. She was coming to warn you." Agatha told her.
"So she killed her." Donna said, getting slightly agitated with all of the melodrama.
"I did not!"
"Lady Eddison is innocent. Because at this point… Doctor?" Agatha turned to him.
"Thank you." The Doctor stood. "Because at this point when we consider the lies and secrets and the key to these events, then we have to consider…it was you, Donna Noble…" The Doctor pointed at Donna.
Donna's eyes went wide and she choked on what she was eating. "What? Who did I kill?" Her voice went a little high-pitched in her confusion.
Rhea rolled her eyes, annoyed at the extent of the dramatics the Doctor was going to. "No one, Donna." She patted the redhead's hand, comfortingly. "Isn't that right, Doctor?" She asked, dangerously.
"No," The Doctor waved off. "But you said it all along, the vital clue… that this whole thing is being acted out like a murder mystery. Which means… it was you, Agatha Christie." The Doctor pointed again, this time at the blonde.
Rhea gritted her teeth in irritation. "If you point at someone once more, I swear to God…" She let the threat hang, her promise showing clearly in his eyes.
"I beg your pardon, sir?" Agatha said, shocked.
"So she killed them." Donna said, jamming more popcorn in her mouth.
"No," The Doctor shook his head. "But she wrote. She wrote those brilliant, clever books. And who's her greatest admirer? The moving finger points…" He twirled his finger to the right. "At you, Lady Eddison."
"Would you stop being so fucking dramatic and just tell us who the Vespiform is?" Rhea exclaimed, glaring at the Doctor. Jesus Christ, are all people from 1920s this dramatic?
"Leave me alone!" Lady Eddison murmured and proceeded to bury her face in her drink.
"So she did kill them." Donna said, impatiently, resisting the urge to punch the Doctor in the face just to get him to say who the murderer was.
"No, but just think… last Thursday night, what were you doing?" The Doctor asked Lady Eddison, ignoring Rhea's annoyance.
"Uh, I was uh…" She sniffled. "I was in the library. I was reading my favourite Agatha Christie thinking about her plots, and how clever she must be." She looked up at the Doctor. "How is that relevant?" She asked, haughtily, placing her drink back down on the table.
"Just think… what happened Thursday night?" The Doctor asked and turned to look at the reverend.
"I'm sorry?" The reverend asked, confused.
"You said on the lawn this afternoon, last Thursday, those boys broke into your church."
The reverend nodded. "That's correct…they did. I discovered the two of them… thieves in the night. I was most perturbed. But I apprehended them."
Rhea raised an eyebrow. "Really? A man of God against two strong boys?"
"A man in his forties? Or, should I say, forty years old…exactly." The Doctor finished.
Lady Eddison paled and stared at the reverend. "Oh, my God!" She breathed.
"Lady Eddison," Rhea looked at the grief-stricken woman. "Your child… how old would he be now?"
"Forty. He's…" Her voice broke off. "Forty." She whispered.
"Your child has come home." The Doctor said, grimly, not taking his eyes off the reverend.
"Ha! This is poppycock!" The reverend laughed, slightly flustered.
"Oh? You said you were taught by the Christian fathers, meaning, raised in an orphanage." The Doctor said.
"My son! Can it be?" Lady Eddison whispered, staring the reverend with shock and awe.
"You found those thieves, Reverend, and you got angry. A proper, deep anger for the first time in your life and it broke the genetic code. You changed. You realized your inheritance. After all these years… you knew who you were. Oh, then it all kicks off 'cause this…" The Doctor held up the Firestone. "…isn't just a jewel… it's a Vespiform telepathic recorder. It's part of you… your brain, your very essence. And when you activated, so did the Firestone. It beamed your full identity directly into your mind. And, at the same time, it absorbed the works of Agatha Christie directly from Lady Eddison. It all became part of you. The mechanics of those novels formed a template in your brain. You killed in this pattern because that's what you think the world is. Turns out we are in the middle of a murder mystery. One of yours, Dame Agatha." The Doctor sat on the arm of the sofa.
"'Dame'?" Agatha questioned.
Rhea reached out and whacked him on the arm. "1971, honey." Rhea said through gritted teeth.
The Doctor winced. "Oh, sorry, not yet."
"So he killed them? Yes? Definitely?" Donna asked, desperately hoping she would finally get an affirmative.
"Yes." The Doctor nodded and Donna and Rhea breathed a sigh of relief, exchanging similar looks, both glad they were finished with all of the melodrama.
"Well, this has certainly been a most entertaining evening. Really, you can't believe any of this, surely, Lady Eddizzz—" The reverend started twitching.
"Lady who?" The Doctor asked.
"Lady Eddizzzon…" The reverend struggled to say.
"Little bit of buzzing there, Vicar?" The Doctor mocked, tapping his pulse point with his fingers.
"Doctor," Rhea hissed. "Don't antagonise him." She stood up, warily, her hand slipping up her dress to her gun holster, deftly removing it and keeping it at her side in case she needed it.
"Don't make me angry." The reverend growled, standing up.
"Why? What happens then?" The Doctor raised an eyebrow, clearly not afraid.
"Damn it! You humanzzz! Worshipping your tribal sky godzzz! I am so much more! That night, the universe exploded in my mind! I wanted to take what wazz mine." The reverend turned to Agatha, who was standing there shell-shocked. "And you, Agatha Christie, with your railway station bookstall romancezzz…" A purple glow seemed to emanate from the reverend. "What'zzz to stop me killing you?"
"Oh, my dear God!" Lady Eddison cried out and one of her hands reached out for him. "My child!" She sobbed.
"What'zzz to stop me killing you all?" The reverend shouted and purple smoke enveloped him as he transformed into a giant wasp.
"Forgive me!" Lady Eddison shouted, approaching the creature.
"No, Clemency!" The colonel and Greeves grabbed Lady Eddison by the shoulders and pulled her away from the wasp, towards the door. "Keep away! Keep away, my darling!"
Agatha held up the Firestone, attracting the wasp's attention, her face a picture of determination and resolution. "No! No more murder! If my imagination made you kill, then my imagination will find a way to stop you, foul creature!" She shouted and ran out of the room.
Rhea threw her hands up in the airs. "Oh, for god's sake!" She shouted and followed the blonde woman, the Doctor, Donna and the wasp right behind her.
"Wait! Now it's chasing us!" Donna shouted as they raced down the steps in the direction Agatha was running towards.
The Doctor, Rhea and Donna ran outside and closed the doors behind them, trying to stop the wasp from following them, in vain. Agatha drove past in her car and honked the horn, drawing their attention. The Doctor, Rhea and Donna ran up to her.
"Come on!" The Doctor said to Agatha, urgently.
The Vespiform broke through the wooden doors without much effort.
"Over here! Come and get me, Reverend!" Agatha shouted, drawing its attention over to her.
"Agatha, what are you doing?" Rhea asked, incredulously.
"If I started this, then I must stop it!" Agatha told them before driving off.
The Doctor gripped Rhea's and Donna's hands and tugged them towards another car.
"Come on!" He shouted, jumping into the driver's seat, with Rhea taking a seat next to him and Donna behind him.
The Vespiform hesitated slightly before flying in the direction Agatha had taken off to, while the Doctor, Rhea and Donna followed in the second car.
"You said this is the night Agatha Christie loses her memory." Donna said to the Doctor.
"Time is in flux, Donna! For all we know, this is the night Agatha Christie loses her life and history gets changed!" The Doctor shouted over the noise of the wind.
"Where is she going?" Rhea shouted, squinting into the darkness to see if she could see the outline of Agatha's car. She tensed when she saw a sign at the side of the road, reading 'Silent Pool'. "The lake!" She nudged the Doctor, making him look at the sign. "She's heading for the lake! What's she doing?"
Agatha stopped beside the lake and got out of the car just as the Doctor, Rhea and Donna arrived at the scene. She held up the Firestone, her chin tilted up in determination.
"Here I am! The honey in the trap. Come to me, Vespiform." She called out.
"She's controlling it." Donna whispered.
The Doctor got out of the car. "Its mind is based on her thought processes. They're linked."
"Quite so, Doctor." Agatha nodded. "If I die, then this creature might die with me."
The Doctor took a step forward, in front of Agatha, as if to protect her from the Vespiform. "Don't hurt her! You're not meant to be like this. You've got the wrong template in your mind."
Rhea shook her head.
Donna exchanged a look with Rhea, the latter guessing what Donna was about to do and nodding in assent. "He's not listening." Donna said, edgily, before snatching the Firestone from Agatha and throwing it as hard as she could into the lake.
The Vespiform flew and dove into the water after it. The water bubbled and glowed purple. The four of them watched in sorrow.
"How do you kill a wasp?" Donna asked, softly.
"Drown it." Rhea finished, threading her fingers in the Doctor's when she saw the pain etched on his features.
"Just like its father." Donna mused.
"Donna, that thing couldn't help itself." The Doctor protested, looking at Donna.
Donna's eyebrows furrowed. "Neither could I." She said, defensively.
"Death comes as the end. And justice is served." Agatha murmured.
"Murder at the vicar's rage." The Doctor said. Rhea glared at him and Donna rolled her eyes. "Needs a bit of work." The Doctor agreed.
Agatha frowned and turned to look at the Doctor. "Just one mystery left, Doctor. Who exactly are you?"
The Doctor opened his mouth to answer her just as Agatha doubled over in pain, crumpling to the ground. The Doctor, thankfully, caught her before she hit the ground and lowered her, gently.
"Oh! It's the Firestone! It's part of the Vespiform's mind! It's dying and it's connected to Agatha!" The Doctor exclaimed, worriedly.
Agatha glowed with a purple light that faded after a few moments and her eyes slowly shut, falling into oblivion.
"It let her go. Right at the end, the Vespiform chose to save someone's life." The Doctor whispered in awe.
Donna looked at the blonde woman, worriedly. "Is she all right, though?"
The Doctor's eyes widened. "Oh, of course! The amnesia! Wiped her mind of everything that happened. The wasp, the murders…" He trailed off.
"And us." Rhea finished. "She'll forget that she met us." She said, slightly mournful. She had liked the writer. She was an interesting woman. Rhea was glad she had the chance to meet her. At least, she would have the memories.
"Yeah, but we solved another riddle… the mystery of Agatha Christie. And tomorrow morning, her car gets found by the side of the lake." The Doctor explained. "A few days later, she turns up at a hotel in Harrogate…with no idea of what just happened."
Agatha paused by some stone steps leading up to the front lawn of a large stone building that had a sign on the side, reading 'Harrogate'. She turned and saw the Doctor, Rhea and Donna standing in front of the TARDIS.
"No one'll ever know." The Doctor murmured.
Agatha turned her back on them and climbed up the steps.
"Lady Eddison, the colonel, and all the staff…what about them?" Donna asked.
Rhea nodded. "They all saw what happened. Won't they tell others?"
"A shameful story." The Doctor chanced a look at Rhea. "They'd never talk of it…too British. While the Unicorn does a bunk back to London Town, she can never say she was there."
Rhea stared after the blonde woman. "But what happens to her?" She asked, softly.
"Oh, great life!" The Doctor exclaimed, a beaming smile on his face. "Met another man, married again. Saw the world. Wrote and wrote and wrote."
"She never thought her books were any good, though. And she must have spent all those years wondering." Donna said.
"Thing is, I don't think she ever quite forgot." The Doctor said, once they were back in the TARDIS. "Great mind like that, some of the details kept bleeding through. All the stuff her imagination could use. Like Miss Marple!" He said, giving a knowing look to Donna.
Donna shook her head. "I should have made her sign a contract." She said, regretfully.
"And…where is it? Hold on… Here we go." The Doctor lifted a section of the TARDIS floor and pulled out a chest. "'C'." He opened the chest. "That is 'C' for Cyberman." He said, tossing aside a Cyberman plate. "'C' for Carrionites." He set down the purple globe that currently housed the three witches, as well as a bust for Caesar.
Rhea rolled her eyes. "Figures, you'd have a chest full of junk."
"Oi!" The Doctor protested. "It's not junk. It's valuable material. Now, hush." He scolded. His eyes lit up as he searched through the chest. "And…" He pulled out a small paperback. "Christie, Agatha." He held it up for Rhea and Donna. "Look at that." A copy of 'Death in the Clouds' had a large wasp on the cover.
Donna's eyes widened, leaning closer. "She did remember." Donna breathed.
"Somewhere at the back of her mind, it all lingered. And that's not all. Look at the copyright page." The Doctor said, encouragingly.
Donna took the book from the Doctor and looked inside. "'Facsimile edition published in the year…5 billion!?'" She exclaimed.
"People never stop reading them. She is the best-selling novelist of all time." The Doctor explained.
Rhea frowned. "But she never knew."
"Well, no one knows how they're gonna be remembered. We can only hope for the best. Maybe that's what kept her writing. The same thing that keeps me travelling. Onwards?" He looked at the two women, hopefully.
Donna grinned at him. "Onwards."
They both turned to look at Rhea, who rolled her eyes. "Oh, alright, onwards." She said, grudgingly and flipped the lever, setting the TARDIS into motion.
The Doctor, Rhea and Donna watched the time rotor rise and fall with equally indulgent smiles on their faces.
Donna walked, slowly, into the console room, hoping that the Doctor was still in there. And, thankfully, he was, underneath the grill, tinkering with something or another.
"Doctor?" She called out. She heard a curse and smirked when she saw the Doctor hit his head on the grill as he came up. His head poked out of the small square hatch and he rested his chin on the metal.
"Donna?"
"Can we talk?" She asked, a little hesitantly. She wasn't sure of how to bring up what she wanted to talk about. She knew how the Doctor was when it came to Rhea.
"Yeah, sure."
Donna approached and leaned against the console, while the Doctor continued to work.
"It's about Rhea." Donna said, softly.
The Doctor frowned, his head popping out of the hatch, immediately. "Why, what's wrong with her?" He asked, worriedly, panic rising in him.
"No, she's fine." Donna reassured him, quickly. "It's just, today, when we were talking about Agatha, Rhea mentioned her husband?"
The Doctor tensed and pushed himself out of the hatch, sitting down in the captain's chair, as he stared, blankly, at Donna. "What did she say?" The Doctor asked, carefully.
"She told us how he cheated on her a lot of times." Donna hesitated. "I didn't know she was married before." She murmured.
The Doctor sighed and looked Donna in the eye. "Rhea doesn't like to talk about him. It brings up bad memories. It's good you came to me instead." The Doctor fidgeted, slightly, the topic of conversation making him anxious. He didn't like thinking about Rhea's husband anymore than she did.
"So, she was married, then?"
The Doctor nodded, stiffly.
"And he wasn't good to her? I mean, she said he cheated on her heaps of times."
The Doctor nodded again. That was something that confused him on a constant basis whenever his mind turned to Rhea's ill-fated nuptials. How could someone possibly be unfaithful to someone like Rhea, who is so beautiful and clever and sweet and strong and incredibly sexy?
"Did he hurt her?" Donna asked, softly, trying to imagine her trigger-happy best friend allowing herself to be hurt by a man, let alone anyone.
The Doctor ran a hand through his hair. "Well, it's complicated." He said, carefully, not willing to give anything away, not willing to break Rhea's confidence. He didn't think she even knew he knew. But, by now, she had probably guessed.
Donna twisted her fingers, nervously, as she realised the Doctor hadn't agreed with her, but he hadn't said anything to the contrary, either. "After Lance, Rhea gave me some advice..." She trailed off.
The Doctor gave a wry smile. "She been through a lot. My Rhea. She knew what to say because she had already been there."
"Is..." Donna closed her eyes, plucking up the courage to ask the question. "Is he still alive?"
The Doctor's fists clenched. "Yes, unfortunately." He said, darkly.
"Has she met him since they...you know?"
The Doctor shook his head. "I don't know." He grimaced. "I don't know if she ever saw him before she met me. I don't know if she wanted to."
"Have you met him?" Donna asked, pointedly.
The Doctor raised an eyebrow, but didn't say a word.
Donna exhaled and stood up, still curious but knowing this wasn't a topic to be breached. She stopped at the entrance to the console room. "Doctor?"
"Yes?"
"You'll keep her safe?" Donna had to ask. She remembered everything Rhea had told her after Lance. Every word that had stuck with her those few years she had spent trying to find the Doctor and Rhea again. No one had ever defended her the way Rhea had. To hear that Rhea was a victim, Rhea had been hurt, made her feel uneasy and sick to her stomach.
The Doctor's eyes closed, briefly, thinking about everything Rhea still had to go through, things he wouldn't be able to protect her from, even if he tried, even if he wanted to. "With my life." He swore.
"Oh, baby, just go to sleep, I'll make sure everything's okay in the morning." A man crooned in her ear, pushing her down onto the bed, as she struggled, weakly.
Her hand curled into the bedsheet and screamed into the pillow as she fought against the ghost of that same, sick son-of-a-bitch, who haunted her every night. She felt hands on her and she fought all the more. Her hands reached out, gripping the person's clothes, and she yanked them down and to the side of her, straddling them and pressing her forearm against their throat.
Her eyes snapped open when she heard a sound of choked pain and she recoiled when she realised that the Doctor was lying under her.
"Oh, god," She breathed and sat back, not removing herself from his lap, immediately. "Doctor, I am so sorry." She whispered, pushing herself off of him and lying back down, her arm thrown over her face.
Suddenly, she felt arms wrap themselves around her and she was pulled into an awkward sideways horizontal hug.
"Nightmare?" She heard him murmur against her hair.
Rhea nodded, burying her face in his suit, her hands shaking, slightly, from the aftershock of the nightmare.
"About him?"
Rhea paled and looked up at him. "How did you know?" She asked, nervously.
"Donna told me you mentioned him." He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.
Rhea grimaced and pushed herself up. "I'm fine, really." She paused. "But..." She hesitated.
"Yes?" The Doctor asked.
"Would you mind, I mean, you don't if you don't want to, it's not something serious and you're totally free to say no-"
"Rhea," The Doctor interjected. "Just ask me, you know I'll say yes." He smiled, fondly, at her. "You have me wrapped around your little finger."
"Would you mind staying here for awhile?" Rhea asked, softly. "Only so that I don't get any more nightmares." She said, hurriedly, not wanting for him to get too much out of her request. "Totally platonic staying as well." She said, quickly, mostly for herself, rather than for the Doctor.
The Doctor nodded and held out his arms for her to settle into. She sighed a long-suffering sigh, not really meaning it, and curled up against his body. Her head rested against his chest, lulled by his double heartbeat, and her hand fisted in his shirt. Their legs were entwined and she was lying half on top of him. She was vaguely reminded of how they had woken up together in that inn with Shakespeare. She had grudgingly admitted to herself back then that his embrace did feel nice. And she wasn't a hugger. She was the proverbial lone wolf in this story.
"Is anything the matter?" The Doctor asked, softly, running his hand, soothingly, up and down her spine.
Rhea breathed in deeply, reaching out with one hand and scratching his sideburns, lightly, with her fingernails. She pressed a soft kiss to his jaw, trying to show him her gratitude for this through that one gesture of affection. "Nothing, nothing at all." Rhea murmured. I just didn't want to be reminded. But I can never tell you that. Oh, honey, let me go, I'm not good for you.
A/N: Hope you all liked the chapter!
Tum pagal ho (Hindi) – You're crazy.
Rhea doesn't have a good view about herself, does she?
Okay, so, a few things… the title actually came up in my research of Agatha Christie. Apparently, after she was found after her disappearance, the doctors diagnosed her with psychogenic fugue, which is a form of amnesia, because she couldn't remember where she had been.
Rhea kissed the Doctor and then the Doctor kissed her! I tossed up between Rhea and Donna kissing him to see what Rhea's reaction would be, but I decided to go with Rhea kissing him, just to put some sexy times into the story. It's been awhile since we got a good, toe-curling kiss between Rhea and the Tenth Doctor (because I know she flirted a lot with the Eleventh in the last episode) and I thought this would be appropriate. So they got a chance to flirt up a storm. Donna and the Doctor had a nice talk, didn't they? I like writing other character's viewpoints about the Doctor's and Rhea's relationship. And Donna's just as protective over Rhea as Rhea is over her, isn't that sweet? And what was that flashback all about? Rhea's husband really is not a nice guy, is he? And the Doctor knows that better than anyone.
Again, I'm sorry if you felt like Rhea took the spotlight away from Donna or Agatha. In the latter's case, I thought about how Rhea did kind of already figure out that Lady Eddison had a child before marriage back when she and Donna visited the locked room. I let Donna be the one to throw the Firestone into the lake because I felt like she needed to do it, rather than Rhea.
As for the next episode, we'll be going back to the Ninth Doctor for this one, it's been awhile since we've seen him, and we'll see how Rhea acts with him this time.
Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter, guys. Please keep reviewing, they push me to keep writing the chapters, plus I love talking about Doctor Who with you guys. If you are too shy to leave a review, talk to me on Tumblr, I check it at least five times a day, and every couple of days, I do post something to do with The Dread of Tomorrow and Yesterday, a scene or a cover, so please do check it out.