A/N: Geez, don't apologise for reviewing:P I love reviews. They make me want to write faster :)
And originally I didn't want this to come in two chapters, but I'm afraid it has, so, sorry.
Chapter 30 – The Big Bad Wolf…Grrr!
The Doctor swung around in undivided alarm, letting go of Rose's hand to face the direction in which the wind had come from. There was nothing there.
But he could sense it.
"Doctor?" Rose called out, the entire group stopping and turning to watch him. His hands tightened into fists and he spoke in a low, sincere voice.
"Run back to the TARDIS."
His voice was so serious and deep that Rose almost began to feel terrified, despite the fact she couldn't actually see a physical threat. For a moment she stood still from a combination of fear, dread and confusement, and then Jackie took her firmly by the arm and started marching her hurriedly towards the TARDIS double doors.
"Run!" the Doctor yelled louder, and the two with Rose still clutching Rory, started jogging towards the blue box on the edge of the estate, Mickey and Howard not far behind.
"Mum, what the hell is goin' on?" Rose asked fearfully as the five tumbled into the TARDIS, the door slamming automatically shut behind them.
"I don't know darlin', but when the Doctor tells you to run, you run," her mother reasoned out with her, and Rose nodded, swallowing ever so slightly as she stared at the closed doors barring her from him.
The Doctor was slowly backing towards the TARDIS, his head twisting and turning, searching for the hidden Darkeese.
"Come out!" the Doctor yelled into the clearing, arms outstretched as he addressed apparently no one. "Who's your master? Who sent you?"
Nothing appeared.
"I know you're here! Only a coward attacks from the darkness! Show yourself!"
Suddenly on his command, something big and black fizzled into existence just infront him, big black eyes searching him over, as if weighing him up.
"Who sent you?" the Doctor tried again, but the Darkeese just stared at him – an ominous big form of blackness not moving it's eyes. It's a scary thing.
"Who's paying your corporation to do this job?" the Doctor said directly to it, now getting slightly impatient. "Answer me!"
"Look, mate," the Darkeese suddenly said, sounding extremely like Delboy out of Only Fools and Horses. "I don't get a bloomin' information pack on them; I just do my job, do it quick and get the green at the end of the month. But due to difficult and unforeseen circumstances – that's you, by the way, you killed the guy who was on this job previously – I am overdue on this job, and now don't get my bonus. So now I start gettin' money subtracted from this months pay if I go over a week, when it's supposed to be a one day job. Y'see my problem? So, what would be really nice is if ya let me through to that nice…telephone box of yours, and let me take the kid."
The Doctor frowned suddenly, scratching the back of his head in confusion. "Wait…you're not trying to kill him?"
"Blimey, no!" the Darkeese declared, looking almost positively horrified. "If I get so much as a scratch on him I'll be executed!"
"Then what was all that bus crash stuff about then?"
It was the Darkeese's turn to look confused. "…Bus crash stuff?"
The Doctor waved his hand vaguely to demonstrate. "Yeah, y'know, crash, bang, fire, screaming, dying Doctor?"
"…Has someone been tryin' to kill ya?"
"How the hell did you think I got so trashed?" the Doctor said, slipping out his casted arm and waving it about, as if to reinforce his point.
"Well, that wasn't me. Though…you can get a little mixed up in this line of work. Did the girl get hurt whilst pregnant during this?"
"Couple of deep cuts."
"Nope then, definitely wasn't me, sorry. I think someone has a grudge on you, to be honest," it tilted it's head and looked sideward at the Doctor, expression sympathetic. "Two dark forces comin' after ya? That's bad luck."
"Isn't it just," the Doctor said flippantly, before scratching the back of his ear - trying to figure it all out. "So…if you're trying to steal my son and I'm stopping you, what does that make me?"
"A bloody nuisance, that's what." The Darkeese stepped forward a little, extending a formless hand towards the Doctor's throat. "Sorry, I'm gonna have to kill ya if you insist on getting in my way."
"Wait, wait, wait," the Doctor suddenly interrupted, holding up a surrendering hand. "Stop. Hold it just a sec, can I ask one more question?"
The Darkeese sighed patiently, dropping it's arm to it's side. "What is it now?" it asked tiredly.
"Just answer me this – who paid your corporation to do the job? It's all I need to know. Just a name or a description or something. An address would be rather handy." The Doctor shrugged. "Though y'know, whatever, I can go with anything."
The Darkeese paused, tapping it's chin in mild thought. "They didn't leave a name, I didn't see them and they gave no address. All they left was an alias."
"Which was?"
"…Bad Wolf."
"I can't bear this," Rose muttered, trying to console her baby son as he cried his eyes out, holding him close to her. "I need to see he's alright. Just a peek."
Jackie tried to comfort her as best she could, sitting next to her on the Captain's double seat. "I'm sure he's fine Rose. If he can survive after everythin' that's happened to him in the past week or so, he can survive this."
Rose sighed, hushing reassurances to Rory whilst he kept crying with his eyes closed. The four sat in tense silence for over thirty seconds bar Rory, who was still crying his eyes out, before Rose finally could wait no longer and stood up. She handed Rory to her mother carefully, ignoring her protests and walked unwaveringly towards the TARDIS doors, pulling one open slightly and peeking through.
There she saw the Doctor and a Darkeese staring at one another, the Doctor looking absolutely mortified.
"No…" Rose heard him say as he slowly started backing away from the Darkeese towards her. "Tell me you're lying…"
The Darkeese made up the Doctor's back steps with forward ones of his own, extending an arm towards the Doctor's throat.
The Doctor suddenly swung around towards Rose, and ran.
"Stop!" the Darkeese bellowed, launching out with a clawed hand to try and stop him from running. They caught the Doctor on the back and he cried out in pain and stumbled in surprise, falling to the concrete ground.
Rose could only watch with her breath caught in her throat as the Doctor regained some slight strength and started trying to haul himself to his feet, but the Darkeese was quick to grab him around the neck and prevent him from moving any further.
"Surrender the child to me, and I'll let you and your friends walk away unscathed! Well, err, maybe now just your friends have the 'unscathed' part," the Darkeese muttered guiltily. "But still, sorry about that – was an accident."
"You're not getting him," the Doctor rasped, struggling to breathe. "I'll never give him over."
The Darkeese sighed dejectedly, lifting the Doctor off of the ground and in midair by it's grip around his neck, getting ready to throw him onto the ground.
"You do realise Doctor, that I'm just gonna keep hittin' you 'til you tell me?"
"Yeah," the Doctor breathed. "Pretty much."
The Darkeese rolled it's black eyes with a sigh, before casually tossing the Doctor a few metres across the road where he hit the ground with a thud. For a moment he squirmed on the ground in pain before he tried to desperately crawl onto his stomach back towards the TARDIS, only to be stopped by the Darkeese again.
Rose couldn't put up with this for much longer.
She turned quickly back into the TARDIS, her mind racing with the problem of where exactly the Sonic Screwdriver was at that precise moment in time. She ran through it's journey in her head.
First she had taken it from the Doctor's coat when she went to retrieve their clothes during their hangover; she had then given it to the Doctor to fight the Darkeese; then the hospital had given it to her in a brown paper bag which she had given to Howard to untie the Doctor…and then Howard gave the Doctor his coat, and had taken it back when the Doctor got back to the flat.
So, Howard had the Sonic Screwdriver.
"Howard!" Rose dived forward towards him, hands immediately plunging into his pockets and searching rapidly for the sonic device. "Sonic Screwdriver!"
"I put it back in the Doctor's coat!"
Rose instantly let go of Howard and for a moment in her rush, totally forgot she was wearing the Doctor's trenchcoat. When she realised it was actually on her, she dived into his pockets and began to search.
The pockets seemed to be bottomless as she drew out various types of fruit, a few cuddlytoys, hankies, combs and cans of drink. She knew they were so big that she wouldn't be able to find a rhino in either of them, even if she tried. She had to take the coat to the Doctor.
But that wouldn't be enough of a diversion. She needed a plan.
She mentally beat her brain, trying to find a solution to the dilemma. If only she had a brain that worked half the speed of light like the Doctor's…
Then it came to her.
"Of course!" she suddenly cried, making everyone who was staring at her jump in surprise as she tore over to where Rory was in her mother's arms, picking him up.
A/N: Chapter 31 - Eh-oh! Po!
"I'll give you the baby, just don't kill the Doctor!" she shouted back, and at these words the Doctor's brain buzzed into overload, his muscles instantly tensing in total panic and his hearts began to ache. He tried to shout out to her, but the Darkeese's grip on his throat was only just about letting him breathe, let alone shout.