A/N: Rapid and excessively long update? Due to lingering guilt caused by the last drought? Possibly. Don't get used to it. I did a lot of episode chopping here, please let me know if it was at all confusing. Or if you would have preferred more confusion. Either way would be grand. Thanks for not giving up on me!...yet!
- 1913 -
- Farringham -
Retreat. That was the word that had her feeling a sharp hollowness in the pit of her stomach. It wasn't that it was the wrong decision, the school was overrun. The first wave of those creatures posed as scarecrows had fallen. They had been victorious. But then the little girl had come, the headmaster had tried to pull her away, out of the danger of the battle. And she had killed him, the same way they had killed Mr. Philips. She was one of them. John had seen the horror of the situation, had known he couldn't order those boys to gun her down. And so they had retreated.
They had to run. They couldn't fight these creatures. There was no other choice.
But nor did she have any control of the situation. Neither did John, every time she looked to him, hoping to see a hint of that man who had taken her through so many adventures, all she saw was a stranger. Just as lost as herself. Martha hadn't found the watch either, what little flame of hope in her chest still existed was on its last reserves, flickering in the wind. She admired Martha's strength, her refusal to give up, but even the Doctor's most stalwart companion was showing signs of desperation.
"Come back, Doctor. Come home. Come and claim your prize!" They were slinking out behind the bushes, distancing themselves from the school. The Matron, or Joan, as she had finally introduced herself, had come with them as well. Never far from John's side. The Family all stood outside the school walls, the largest of them boasting, calling out into the darkness. Trying to tempt the Doctor to come out of hiding, but there was only John. Calypso didn't know what they would do to him if he came forward, human as he was. It didn't sound like he'd be much use without the watch. They would probably just kill him. Despite the distance between them, Calypso feared that more than she cared to admit.
"Out you come, Doctor. There's a good boy. Come to the Family." The student was calling him again, they hunched down in the bushes and stopped for a moment. Calypso finally recognized the boy from earlier in the day, the one who had looked at her so strangely. And Jenny too. But the carefree girl she had met the night before was gone, replaced with some sinister caricature who had a meanness to her eyes that frightened Calypso.
But then she saw something that made her heart stop. The TARDIS was there, on the grass with them. The man patted the side smugly. She felt inexplicably angry, and for the first time, not afraid. Not of the Family, and not of their weapons. That was her blood, her sister. They had no right to keep her, to use her as a pawn.
"What, are you mad?" Martha's sharp whisper brought her back down to earth and so did her tight grip on her shoulder. Calypso hadn't even realized she had started to stand up. Still she bristled, furious that she couldn't do anything from where she sat. Angrier still at John for losing the watch.
"You recognize it, don't you?" Martha was speaking to John, who had a haunted look in his eyes. Similar to the one he had worn at the top of the stairs.
"I've never seen it in my life." He said, but even Calypso could see he was lying.
"I'm sorry, John," Joan spoke up. "But you wrote about it. The blue box. You dreamt of a blue box." He looked at her for a long moment and his resolve seemed to crumble.
"I'm not," he shook his head, desperately trying to deny what they were all saying. "I'm John Smith. That's all I want to be. John Smith, with his life, and his job, and his love." He looked at Joan again and Calypso tried not to let it crush her. "Why can't I be John Smith? Isn't he a good man?" His voice cracked as he searched Joan's eyes for answers.
"Yes," she whispered, but her gaze fell to the ground. "Yes he is."
"Why can't I stay?" He was asking Martha now, and Calypso. The pleading in his eyes cut her more deeply than she was expecting. It was easy for her to expect him to accept the idea that he had been living as a different man. Even Joan seemed to understand it, she wasn't happy, but she could sense the truth of it. It was only John who had to accept the idea that he wasn't real, that he was nothing more than a character the Doctor was playing.
"We need the Doctor." Martha said as gently as she could, still it looked like she had struck him.
"What am I, then?" He asked, his anguish turning to anger. "Nothing. I'm just a story." He shook his head bitterly and started to leave.
"No," Calypso spoke up, suddenly realizing why she felt so pained on his behalf. She knew this feeling, understood it completely. The feeling of not belonging, of being worthless, of not being real. A phony in her own life. "You're real." She said with conviction. "You're very real."
The anger receded for a moment and he blinked, once more looking confused by Calypso. Somewhere in there he was struggling, fighting to remember, trying to separate the dreams from reality.
"But you're not whole yet." She finished, hating that she said it, but knowing she needed to. His face darkened and he turned away from them, disappearing into the field. She wanted to offer comfort, and she certainly didn't want to hurt him. But John couldn't save them, only the Doctor could. If any of them were going to live through the night, they had to bring him back.
The cottage was dark, empty. It was made all the more forlorn by the knowledge that the family who had once resided there would never return. The little girl who had lived there was lost, and so was her family. They were all dead.
"I must go to them, before anyone else dies." John finally spoke up, but it lacked any real conviction. He looked desperate for anyone to offer an alternative.
"You can't," Joan placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Martha, there must be something we can do." She looked to Martha for guidance. Calypso caught her eyes and saw the bleakness reflected in the other woman. She shook her head.
"Not without the watch."
"You're this Doctor's companion," John scowled. "Can't you-" But he was interrupted by a knock at the door. Their temporary feeling of safety had suddenly fled, leaving behind a tense fear that they all shared. Martha rose from her chair and started for the door.
"What if it's them?" Joan whispered, her eyes wide with fear. Even Calypso could feel her heart beating fiercely in her chest, wanting to warn Martha away from the door.
"I'm not an expert, but I don't think scarecrows knock." She said with a shrug. She opened the door and a young blond student from the school stood outside, looking a bit disheveled, but harmless.
"I brought you this." He said, holding out his hand. There was a silver pocket watch sitting in his palm. Martha let out a short sound of surprise as she ushered the boy inside, her smile broadened as she met Calypso's gaze.
"Hold it," she told John, the bleakness that had settled across her features had been washed away and she looked younger. But John just shook his head, standing from the table and taking a few steps back as the boy approached him. "Please," Martha begged. "Just hold it."
"It told me to find you. It wants to be held." The boy smiled as he took another step forward but John made it very clear he didn't want anything to do with the watch.
"I won't." He insisted, looking to Joan for support, but she only pursed her lips. "You've had this watch all this time? Why didn't you return it?" He asked the boy.
"Because it was waiting. And…because I was scared of the Doctor. I've seen him. He's like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun."
"Stop it." John whispered harshly, raising his hand as though he might be able to block the boys words.
"He's ancient and forever. He burns at the center of time, and he can see the turn of the universe. He's wonderful."
"Stop it! I said stop it!" John was afraid now, and Calypso couldn't blame him. The Doctor was all of those things, and so much more. "Those are just stories, dreams. None of that is real." He was grasping at straws now, needing to deny the truth, no matter if he was starting to believe it. There was nothing Calypso could say to make it any better, or easier.
"We know that's not true." Joan's voice was soft, gentle, and filled with her own hurt. Something in it broke John, deeply inside. He shook his head slowly, running his hand through his hair, trying to come to terms with the fact that his life was falling apart around him.
The world outside exploded and the ground shook violently beneath their feet. Plates fell from the shelves and shattered against the hard floor.
"What the hell…" The rumbling subsided and Martha ran for the window, Calypso followed her. A fireball shot out from the field, arcing through the air before hitting the ground some distance away. Another followed it, now in a pattern.
"They're destroying the village." Joan whispered, her hand covering her mouth. Calypso realized it was true. The stones weren't random, there was a focus, an errant one had struck near the cottage, but most of them were falling on the small cluster of lights on the horizon. The village was the target, the same place she would have been had Martha not come to find her. The same place that many people probably still were.
"The watch." John said firmly, stepping forward for the first time since the boy had arrived. He handed it over eagerly and hope sprang to Martha's eyes.
"John, don't." Joan was still afraid for him, and Calypso knew why, though she hated to admit it. She didn't want to see how their hands touched every so often, or how John looked to her for reassurance, for strength.
"Why did he speak to me?" The boy asked, curious, despite the seriousness of their situation.
"Oh," John drawled. "Low level telepathic field. You were born with it. Just and extra synaptic engram causing-"
Calypso's head shot up, as did Martha's. It was him, it was the Doctor. But just as quickly as it had come, it was gone again.
"Is that how he talks?" John was afraid, horrified even, and he distanced the watch from his body.
"Yes," Martha said with a smile. "That's him. All you need to do is open it and he's back." She was so hopeful, so happy to have the Doctor back. But all it did was aggravate John.
"You," He pointed at her accusingly. "You knew this all along. And now you're just expecting me to die?"
"It was always going to end," Martha said, shaking her head sadly. "The Doctor said the Family's got a limited lifespan. That's why they needed you, they needed your life force, or energy. That's why they had to consume a time lord. Otherwise, three months and they die. Like mayflies, he said." She said bitterly, as though the Family could ever be compared to something so harmless.
"But you knew…" He shook his head, looking back to Joan. "You watched, while Nurse Redfern and I-" He swallowed, unable to finish the thought.
"I didn't know how to stop you," Martha insisted. "He gave me a list of things to watch out for, but that wasn't on the list." Calypso knew Martha wasn't to blame, but she also wished she had done something, anything to have prevented this, for her own sake, as well as John's.
"Falling in love? That didn't even occur to him?" He looked aghast.
"No."
"What sort of man is that? A man who isn't even capable of love? How can you ask me to change back?"
"He is, though," Calypso found herself speaking before she could stop herself. "He is…so capable of love. And so special to-" She swallowed, aware that all eyes were on her. "I just wish…I wish you could know him like I do." She whispered. This admission seemed to surprise everyone, and Joan looked more than a little alarmed, but it was John's eyes that she felt boring down on her most acutely. "Like we do." She added, though it was too late to hide what she had really meant. The silence lingered on, with only the low rumble of a distant fireball interrupting the quiet.
"Who are you?" John finally asked with a frown, taking a step toward her. She couldn't answer that, not to this man. And certainly not to the woman he actually loved.
"I'm sorry," Calypso gave a strained smile. "I'm just rambling. I should- I need some air." She spun around and headed for the door.
"Wait-"
"Please," Martha interrupted, leaving Calypso free to escape the cottage that seemed entirely too small. "People are dying out there-" The door shut behind Calypso and she couldn't hear whatever argument Martha was going to make. She took a deep breath, the cool air calming her frayed nerves. She could see the fireballs exploding over the village now, they were less frequent now, as though the Family was waiting, biding their time. She just hoped Martha could talk some sense into him. Without the Doctor, she had no idea what they could do. She let her feet carry her down the path that led to the field, unsure of where she planned to go, she just knew she couldn't face John again, or Martha for that matter.
"Probably not the best idea to wander off," The boy's soft footsteps gave her warning before his head popped up at her side.
"I know, I'm sorry. It's all just been a bit much for me."
He smiled easily and nodded. It had all probably been a bit much for him as well, but he was young, and seemed to have a comfortable handle on the madness that was happening around them.
"So you knew him before? Before he was John Smith?" He sounded eager to hear more about the great Doctor and Calypso had to smile.
"Yes, I did. I knew him after too."
"After?" He frowned. "But how is that possible?"
"It's complicated-" Her smile turned to a frown as they both heard the rustling further down the path. As she strained her eyes, she could see the outlines of figures coming toward them in the darkness. Scarecrows. "Get down," she whispered, pushing him to the side of the road. But she realized that there was nowhere to hide, the shrubs nearby were scattered at best, they would only be hidden until the creatures were right on top of them, and then it would be too late. The boy hid anyway, beckoning her under the small bush where he had tucked himself. "Stay there. Don't say anything." She warned him, before he could protest, she started running down the path.
"Hello!" She called out, waving her arms to gather their attention. "Please, don't hurt me. I've got something the Family wants." She came to a stop several paces from the scarecrows, she wanted to lead them away from the boy and the cottage, but she didn't want to find out too late that they didn't take prisoners.
"Oh?" Asked a cold voice in the darkness. The cluster of straw men stopped their forward march and a single figure stepped forward. She recognized Jenny in the moonlight as she closed the distance between them, but her sneer erased any real similarity there might have once been. "And what have you got, you puny thing?"
"I've…I've got me. I'm like the Doctor, I can power your ship. I can keep you alive." She didn't really know if it was true, but at this point she was really just buying them time. If it was true, well, maybe John Smith could live on, happily with the woman he had fallen in love with. Where would the harm be in that?
Jenny was skeptical as she sidled up alongside Calypso, sniffing the air delicately. She stopped very suddenly and straightened. She sniffed the air once more, deeply this time, and a sinister grin curled her lips upward.
"Oh. Oh yes." She said, smacking her lips. "You will do quite nicely." She lurched forward and Calypso took a nervous step back.
"I won't run," she said, holding up her hands. "Or fight. Just, please. Leave the village alone. Leave this planet."
Jenny tilted her side to the side, taking a moment to consider the bargain.
"Very well." She said finally and Calypso let out a small sigh of relief. Jenny closed her eyes and her face glowed green for a moment. "Husband of mine, Son of mine. Prepare the ship. I've found what we're looking for." Her eyes snapped open again and Jenny nodded to the scarecrows who still waited nearby. "Grab her."
"If I could do this instead of you, then I would. I'd hoped-" Joan shook her head, her eyes falling to the floor again, thinking of the village, thinking of the headmaster, of the family that used to live in this home that they were hiding within. She swallowed. "But my hopes aren't important." She said in a hushed whisper.
John shook his head, gripping her hands in his own. "He won't love-"
"Doctor!" Martha burst back in through the front doors, interrupting what he had planned to say.
"I'm not him." John turned to Martha, his eyes were blazing dangerously. "And I don't want to be."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"
"They've taken her!" Timothy shouted, pushing past Martha. "It doesn't matter who you are or aren't. They've taken your friend. They mean to use her for their ship. She's going to die if you don't help her." Martha looked just as desperate, on the verge of shouting at John. They needed the Doctor, and they needed him immediately. When Timothy had come running up the path, shouting about the scarecrows, Martha was afraid it was going to be too late for Calypso. But she had to try.
John stood up slowly and stared at them both, the anger that had been there a moment earlier had all but vanished. "Calypso…" he said slowly, turning his eyes to the watch in his hand. He thought he felt it tremble, but he couldn't be sure. Was it because he truly knew her, in this other life? Or was it just the fear of another death laid at his feet.
The time is now…He nearly jumped when the voice whispered into his mind. He stared at the watch, hating and fearing it all the more.
"They only want the watch…" he whispered to himself. "They don't want me. They want the watch."
"We'll blast them into dust, then fuse the dust into glass, and then shatter them all over again." Son of mine grinned sinisterly as he pushed one of the levers, causing the ship to shake as he fired another shot into the village.
"Please," Calypso strained against the cuffs around her wrists. "You said you would leave." She couldn't hide the desperation in her voice. They had chained her to a column in the center of the ship, and continued to attack the village she had hoped to save. She had been so stupid to believe them, stupid to think she could have helped any of those people she knew and worked with.
"Well, I lied!" Jenny cackled, a sharp grating noise that echoed in the ship. "Besides, we can't just leave the Doctor so that he came come to find us. What a silly idea."
The door to the ship hissed as it sprang open and they all turned to look. For a wild moment, Calypso thought maybe Martha had been able to convince John, and that maybe, the man who walked through those doors would be the Doctor, her Doctor.
"Just…" He stepped forward, wide eyed at his surroundings. The ship shook again as it fired another missile into the night. It caught John off guard and he stumbled sideways, sprawling against one of the columns, struggling to catch his balance. "Just stop the bombardment. That's all I'm asking. I'll do anything you want, just, just stop."
"Oh John," Calypso said miserably, knocking her head against the pole that held her trapped. Martha had failed, just as she had. "You have to run," she said, her voice starting to crack. "They're only going to kill you, you have to run John." His brown eyes met hers, looking concerned, but also frightened, like a caged animal. It had taken all of his courage just to get this far, he couldn't just flee now.
Son of mine watched this all with interest as he tilted his head to the side. "Say please." Amusement pulled at the corner of his lips.
"Please," John begged them. "I can't pretend to understand, not for a second, but I want you to know I'm innocent in all this. He made me John Smith. It's not like I had any control over-" He tripped on the uneven floor and stumbled against another wall covered in switches.
"He didn't just make himself human," Jenny sneered at him. "He made himself an idiot."
"Same thing, isn't it?" Son of mine grinned. Calypso hated them then and she fought her restraints again, on the verge of screaming. The sharp metal cut into her skin, but it didn't yield. Warm blood trickled down her wrist, but she knew it didn't matter. What mattered was that they both had to get out of here, or they were going to die. And so would everyone in the village too.
"Listen, I don't care about this…this Doctor, or your family. I just want to go. I've made my choice. You can have him-"
"John, don't!" Calypso lurched forward, but she couldn't block him from stepping forward. He cast her a quick glance, but continued past.
"If you let us go. Both of us. Just take it, please. Take him away." He held the watch out, terrified of what it contained.
Son of mine snatched it out of his hand, a greedy look in his eye. He grabbed John by the shirt collar, pulling him close. "Don't think this saved either of your lives." He sneered before hurling John across the room where he hit the wall and crumpled to the floor.
"Family of mine," He grinned as they all gathered around him. "Now we shall have the lives of a time lord, and a Gallifreyan. We shall live forever." He flipped the watch open and they all breathed deeply. For a moment nothing happened, Son of mine's eyes shot open. "It's empty!" His voice was fully of venom as his gaze found John where he was still sprawled on the floor.
"But…where's it gone?" He asked helplessly.
"You tell me," Son of mine threw the watch at John, who snapped it out of the air effortlessly as he glided to his feet. He tossed the watch up and caught it once more, looking at Calypso and winking.
"Oh, I think the explanation might be you've been fooled by a simple olfactory misdirection. Little bit like ventriloquism of the nose. It's an elementary trick in certain parts of the galaxy."
Jenny's nostrils flared as she stepped forward. "Alright Doctor, but we still have your friend. We'll use her just as we intended to use you. You've still lost." She sneered.
"Well," He drawled as he took a step forward and peered carefully at the readings on the column that Calypso was still attached to. "I wouldn't be so sure. And it needs to be said. I don't like the looks of that hydroconometer. It seems to be indicating you've got energy feedback all the way through the retrostabilisers feeding back into the primary heat converters. Oh. Because if there's one thing you shouldn't have done, you shouldn't have let me press all those buttons. But, in fairness, I will give you one word of advice. Run." He waggled his eyebrows as he pulled the sonic screwdriver out from his pocket and aimed it down at Calypso. With a sharp whir, the shackles snapped open and he bent to take her hand. "Come on then, you know the drill." He grinned as he pulled her up from the floor just as the ships alarms started to wail.
"Get out! Get out!" She could hear the Family screaming behind her, but they were already crossing the field, heading for the trees. The Doctor finally stopped and they turned back just in time to see the ship erupt in the same green fire that had consumed the Headmaster and Mr. Philips.
"Well," The Doctor said, looking quite pleased with himself. "All in all, I think that went pretty well." He turned to Calypso, but his cheery smile faded. "What? You're leaving already?"
Calypso looked down to her arms to see that same familiar yellow glow trickling over her skin. It dawned on her that she had been perhaps a little overzealous in her attempts to escape. One of her wrists was bleeding quite badly from where she had split the skin. She clapped her hand over the wound, but it didn't matter, the damage had already been done.
"Sorry, I didn't know you had a plan."
"I'm the Doctor," he said indignantly. "I always have a plan." Calypso raised her eyebrows at him. "Well, it was sort of a plan. I suppose it was a bit more like…improvisation, maybe. Or possibly something else, more impressive sounding. Anyway, the point is, it worked. Let's not argue semantics."
Calypso felt a nervous laugh start to rise in her throat, she was just so happy to see him. The Doctor. Not John Smith. She didn't know how relieved she'd be until she realized her eyes had begun to tear up. "Oh, I'm sorry." She shook her head, feeling like an idiot. She tried to brush them away, but realized her hands were mostly coated in blood. "Really, sorry."
"Hey, it's alright. We're okay." He said, smiling at her reassuringly, gripping her shoulders so she couldn't turn away from him.
"I know, it sounds stupid. I guess," she took a deep breath and sniffed sharply. "I was worried I'd lost you."
"Oh, no. No, no no." He pulled her forward and hugged her tight. She had needed that badly and she felt the pain in her chest ease some with his arms wrapped around her. "I'm not going anywhere. I promise. And you…" He pulled back, holding her at arms length again. "Well, you are going somewhere. But that's alright. We'll meet up again, I'm sure of it. After all, you said I was special." He grinned and his eyes twinkled with mischief. She was too exhausted to be mortified, so she only laughed.
"Yes," she nodded, finally feeling the tears subside. "I guess I did."
"See, we'll be alright then." He brushed a strand of her dark hair back from her face and held her cheek, but she couldn't feel it any more. "See you around." He smiled and she couldn't help but return it.
"Okay."
