"Venice!" The Doctor exclaimed, stepping out of the TARDIS with his arms spread wide. "Venezia! La Serenissima! Impossible city, preposterous city! Founded by refugees running from Attila the Hun. It was just a collection of little wooden huts in the march, but became one of the most powerful cities in the world. Constantly being invaded, constantly flooding … constantly … beautiful."
The Doctor finally seemed to exhale, a feat nearly as amazing as the view around them as they traveled around the market they landed in. Amy couldn't help but drink it all in, even if she was admittedly less-than-thrilled that Rory was with her, tip-toeing around in utter nervousness. And maybe a bit guilty that she had jumped to so many conclusions about the the Doctor's wife who was currently in the TARDIS they'd ventured away from. And she was most certainly selfish in wanting this whole experience just for herself without anyone lingering over it, even if it meant still being very firmly shut out by the Time Lord driver. She could have played it off as him being asexual. Or gay.
"Oh you gotta love Venice." The Doctor continued. "And so many people did: Byron, Napolean, Casanova. Oooh, that reminds me." He checked his watch, shoulders relaxing. "1580, good. Very good. Casanova doesn't get born for a 145 years. Don't want to run into him, I owe him a chicken."
"You owe Casanova a chicken?" Rory asked incredulously as Amy giggled.
"Came here on my honeymoon with Rose. Met the man, bet him a chicken that he could not, in fact, turn the head of any woman in the room. Had Rose conversing with him the rest of the night. We did look a bit alike, though." He explained, hands flying in mad gestures all around. He was about to add more the story, Amy was certain, when some sort of official looking man in black came storming up to them.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Papers, if you please." The official man asked, hand outstretched to the Doctor. "Proof of residency, current bill of medical inspection." He tilted his chin in a sorta pompous way, and Amy moved up beside the Doctor to see what was going on. She watched the Doctor reach into his jacket, pull out a billfold, and show it the official.
"There you go," he said, bouncing on his heals a bit as the official took it. "All to your satisfaction, I think you'll find."
The official's eyes went wide, and he bowed deeply. "I am so sorry, your Holiness. I didn't realize." He said as he handed back the billfold.
The Doctor took the billfold back, then clapped the official on the shoulder. "No worries, you were just doing your job." He paused. "Sorry, what exactly is your job?"
"Checking for aliens," He replied, and Amy's heart leapt into her throat. "Visitors from foreign lands what might bring the plague with them."
"Oh, that's nice. See where you bring me?" She whacked him on the arm, wincing as she realized all that muscle was likely tensed and the reason the slap stung. "Plague?"
"Don't worry, Viscountess." The official man bowed to her, and while Amy crossed her arms, she couldn't help but smirk at the royal treatment. "We are under quarantine here, no one comes in, no one goes out, and all because of the grace and wisdom of our patron, Signora Rosanna Calvierri." He tapped the front of the old fashioned looking clip-board kind of thing he'd had tucked under his arm, pointing the the crest on it.
"How interesting." The Doctor mused. "I heard the plague died out years ago."
"Not out there," The official gestured to the waterfront. "No, Signora Calvierri has seen it with her own eyes. Streets piled high with bodies, she said." The official nodded with confidence, but before anything else could be discusses his beady eyes widened. The man hurried off as Rory plucked the billfold from the Doctor's hand while the Time Lord pondered after the little old man in black.
"According to this, I'm your younger brother." He said, reading the paper in the billfold.
"Yes, thought we looked enough alike we could get away with it. Don't know for sure, though. Still haven't really looked at myself yet. Did have a nose like yours once, though, so it's a family trait." The Doctor said as he started moving forward. Rory patted at his nose a moment before falling in step, and Amy moved with them.
"At least it says Amy's my wife." He said, handing back the billfold to the Doctor. "Isn't it weird for you to be traveling with your younger brother and his wife?"
"Rose and I had a companion who frequently passed himself off as her brother. Actually, we've had two companions like that. Our daughter has had to pretend she's Rose's sister for how little age gap there looks to be between them. Point is, of course, no one really pays attention to that sort of thing. Official-type-person had a look, I gave him a believable story, all is done. No one is going to question it again, at least so long as you don't bring it up."
To that, Rory nodded, following them without another word.
As they came up to another canal, pausing at the rail to allow watch the gondolas, Amy noted the crowd around them slowed and stopped. Their attention turned to something on the other side of the water, something that caught even the Doctor's eye. It was group of girls, from a local school if the whispers were any indication, with their faces covered in veils as they made a procession. It was lovely in a weird way, and she didn't really understand what was so intriguing about it that everyone gave pause.
Everyone, it seemed, but one man.
She couldn't quite hear what he was saying aside from the shout of a name, Isabella. There was a struggle after he seemed to find the girl he was looking for, and some man stopped to somewhat kick the poor guy while he was down. As the girls passed, two guards picked up the man and half dragged him away.
"What was that about?" Amy asked, hoping the Doctor would give some sort of insight. When she turned, he was gone. Huffing, she turned to Rory. "I hate it when he does that," She grumbled.
He scoffed, rolled his eyes, leaned a bit more heavily on the rail as he shook his head.
She didn't understand. Rory seemed fine a moment ago when the Doctor was with them, was nice enough to the man who brought them here.
A sinking feeling hit in the pit of her stomach. How much did the Doctor tell Rory of what happened? Of what she was planning? And worse yet, how much did even knowing she left for a short time without him damage their relationship?
~DWDWDW~
He wanted to hate her. He wanted to hate her with every fiber of his being for running off with another man the night before their wedding. It didn't matter that the man was an alien with a wife he was devoted to, or that the running off likely would never have been known about if they hadn't stopped to get him. The point was, Rory was positive Amy had gotten over her Raggedy Doctor when he didn't come and find her during the Pepper Pot invasion. The second one, not the first that also had the robots and his Mom died.
But no, no of course she'd take off with her literal dream man first chance she got. And what did he have? Nothing that could compete with an alien, apparently.
Yet no matter how angry or bitter he was, he couldn't hate the Doctor. Couldn't even blame him in the slightest for what happened. Because he'd witnessed first hand the love he had for the woman in the coma, saw a lot of what he felt for Amy reflected in the alien's green eyes as he gazed down on his partial human bride. He would not have, in fact, tried to lure Amy away for anything other than a trip. Amy, the flirt and tease that she was, the untamable ginger whom he'd been enamored with since childhood, had likely seen more to it than what there was. Like she had with Jeff, with Carlos that she modeled with a few times. Always someone bigger, stronger, more dangerous.
Yet he followed her, because as much as he wanted to, Rory couldn't hate her. He still adored the way she nervously looked at her feet as they slowly strolled down the Italian walk ways. The way her hands were balled into fists to keep him from holding her hand because he knew she wouldn't be able to handle it. And the way her big, brown eyes kept glancing over at him and over poured with guilt because no matter what she thought of doing she still loved him.
"So," he thought he'd clear the air first. "What have you been doing?"
She stopped, and so did he. She fleetingly met his eye, but couldn't hold it or her smile for more than a few seconds at a time. "Well, running. And fighting. I've been scared. More scare than I thought I was …."
Her eyes were wide, but he just nodded. He knew what she was scared of.
"Did you miss me?" He asked. Sure, it hadn't been long for him, but he had a sense that the Doctor and Amy had actually been together for a while. If he'd gone back for her as soon as the Doctor believed he had, mere minutes after the whole prisoner zero thing for him, and his wife had been out for days, Rory could do the math at how long Amy had really been gone.
"I … I knew I'd be coming back." She said, giving him a playful punch to the arm while keeping her distance.
"Did you?" He challenged. "Or was I just going to wake up tomorrow and find out my bride was no where to be found?"
"I was gonna come back, really!" Amy protested. "Ask him. First thing I wanted to know was if he could get me back for our wedding."
"And did you tell him it was our wedding you wanted to go back for?" He asked her, and Amy blushed.
And she was beautiful when she blushed, really she was. But as much as he loved it, he hated what that meant for her answer.
He sighed, rolling his eyes, pulling at his hair in frustration.
"Rory, please, it's our date." She whined, taking his arm and pulling herself over to him. "I know, okay? I know I screwed up. Didn't mean to, honest." She gave him the look. The pouty look with her big doe eyes and her lip jutting out just a bit. The one he knew she knew he could never really say no to. He huffed, looked up at the architecture around him, and smiled.
"We're in Venice, and it's 1580." He said out loud, allowing the thought to really hit him. "1580. Venice."
"I know!" Amy giggled. "Come on, let's look around." She tugged his arm, her giddy excitement returned.
He couldn't stay angry. Not completely. They'd discuss this later, but for now he could enjoy when and where they were.
~DWDWDW~
The Doctor had successfully snuck into the school, pleased as punch that it had been so easy with his new friend Guido helping in him. He liked that name, Guido. Maybe he could convince Rose to get a dog, or a cat of some variety when she woke up, name it that. No, not a cat. A hundred years and he still hadn't confessed that he only said he wasn't a cat person because she'd called that one ginger kitty gorgeous all those years ago. She may have caught the truth in there somewhere over time, but she'd never mentioned it. Seemed like something she would say.
But he was losing focus.
He made his way down the natural course of the stone stairs into a chamber. Nothing too odd or off about it, considering the time and place they were in. He was about to move along when he caught his reflection in a mirror.
"Hello, handsome." He greeted his image, straightening his bow tie. He felt a pleased hum in his mind and smiled. "See that too, do you Sweetheart? Bond opened wide, can see me admiring myself. What do you think, better teeth this time? I can say … fantastic." He waited, and a beat later he felt the happiness of his wife wash over him. "Are you awake?" He asked on a whisper, only to feel that flash of pain he'd experienced earlier hit him for a second before he felt the tickle of Rose's mind receding.
"Who are you?" A course of young, female voices asked behind him, and he turned to see five girls in their nighties looking at him.
His hands flailed a bit as he looked between them and the mirror, jaw dropping before the corner of his mouth turned up in a grin.
"How are you doing that?" He asked with complete and utter astonishment. "I am loving it! You're like Houdini, only five scary girls. And he was shorter. Will be shorter. I'm rambling." He said, realizing he was getting away from himself and not paying enough attention to the scary girls with no reflections.
"I'll ask you again, signor. Who are you?"
I and not we. Hive mind. Interesting.
"No one, really, just a passerby. Admirer of your lovely, well, I suppose, school. Or something. Basically just a man who thought he'd check things out." He started backing up as the girls moved toward him. Their teeth were odd, vampire in nature but not really what he would expect from a real one. "Pale creepy girls who don't like sunlight and can't be seen in mirrors." He thought out loud, checking the reflection in the glass again. He only saw the walls. "Am I thinking what I think I'm thinking?" He mused. Because if he was thinking what he was thinking then this was a treat. Sorta, maybe. "But the city, why shut down the city? Unless…." Water. Yes, they liked water, didn't they? Needed it to live, if they were what he thought they were, and was fairly certain they were.
"Leave now, signor, or I shall call for the steward … if you are lucky."
He grinned as he dashed into the doorway. They bared a bit more of their teeth as they hissed at him, and he was so very nearly certain he knew what was going on, but really couldn't be sure. Not fully.
"Listen," he said. "I would love to stay here, chat more. This whole thing, really, I'm thrilled. It's Christmas, really!" They lunged and he shut the door, holding his back against it as he soniced the door locked. He heard them growl and hiss behind it. "Vampire fish. Or just Vampires. Oh, Rose, you are so going to wish you hadn't missed this one." He beamed as he dashed up the stairs and followed the way he entered to escape the school.
As he stepped out into the night, he heard Amy and Rory across the canal, the latter calling out to the former. The Doctor dashed, eager to tell his companions what he discovered. He tripped a couple times, but was learning how to recover on the quick, and despite the stumble up the stairs he caught up with Amy just as she came up to the spot he'd left them earlier.
"Doctor!" She cried out, and just as he told her he'd met vampires, she cried out. "We just saw a vampire!"
"They were very creepy girls not even my friend Jack would touch," He said as Amy grabbed his biceps in an iron grip. On reflex, he held her elbows but made sure to keep his distance.
"Vampires! Blood sucking, fanged vampires! No sparkles!" She said over him before jumping up and down and giggling gleefully.
"We think we just saw a vampire." Rory said calmly as he came up to them, throwing a thumb over his shoulder in the general direction they'd come from.
"Yes, I have heard. Good show, fantastic. And you, calm as ever, love it." The Doctor said as he let go of Amy and pointed to Rory, then waved his hand toward the school. "Found some myself in there, gonna have to go back in."
"Sorry, what?" Rory asked, shaking his head and leaning in as if he hadn't heard the Doctor clearly.
"Oh my god, seriously?" Amy asked, taking one of the Doctor's arms in both her hands and squeezed. "How do we do that?"
The Doctor went to answer but then stopped as a tickle in his mind caught his breath. Concern and caution paired with encouragement and a bit of excitement trickled through and made his heart stop. And what's more, it didn't fade.
The Doctor laughed, short and deep in his chest, his smile stretching ear to ear. Oh he wanted to run back to the TARDIS, wanted to see if Rose was awake, but the memory of the vampire though possible fish girls were nudged to the front of his mind. More pressing things were going on, and his wonderful Rose was reminding him.
He looked to Rory and Amy, the former confused, the latter much more eager to know what was about to happen.
"Come along, Pond, Rory. Let's go meet my new friend." He said, leading the way through the city to Guido's home.
The walk was short, and he was thankful there was light in the window as he knocked on the door. He could hear Guido moving about inside before the large wooden door creaked open, and he peeked out. Guido's eyes widened as he took in the Doctor's smiling face.
"You have found her?" He asked.
"No," The Doctor said. "Well, yes, I suppose, I did get in. But I didn't find Isabella specifically. Though you're right, they do do something to the girls. But I need another way in, and you, Guido, you are going to help me." When Guido only looked at him in confusion, the Doctor asked, "Do you have a map of the city?"
Guido nodded. "Come in."
"Thank you," The Doctor said as Guido waved he, Amy, and Rory into his small but cozy home. He led them upstairs where the living quarters were. Barrels were lined against the wall opposite the hearth, two small beds were against the wall closest to it. In the middle of the room was a small table with two chairs, a couple more barrels near it, possibly for additional seating.
The Doctor moved to the table, sitting on one of the chairs as Amy hopped up on to a barrel next to him. Rory crept off to the side, sitting on one of the barrels by the wall. The roman-nosed man looked at his surroundings, but barely looked toward his fiancee or the Doctor.
Something to ask about later, he supposed.
Guido came over to the table and spread a map over its surface. "As you saw," he said as he pointed at different points of the map, "the House of Calvierri is like a fortress. But there's a tunnel underneath it, with a ladder and shaft that leads up to the house." He indicated the route the tunnel followed, and a giddy kind of excitement sparked in the Doctor at the possibility. Stealth, infiltration, getting in the old fashioned way. Brilliant. "I tried to get in once myself, but I hit a trapdoor." Guido instantly deflated the hope for that particular kind of adventure.
"You need someone on the inside," Amy said casually.
The Doctor looked at her, caught her eye. "No." He said simply.
"You don't even know what I was going to say!"
"We pretend you're an applicant for the school to get you inside and tonight you come down and open the trapdoor to let us in." He replied, watching her lips curl up a bit as he went.
"So you know what I was going to say." She said, leaning toward him a bit.
"Course I know what you were going to say. Rose would have said the same thing."
"And you wouldn't let her do it either, would you?" Rory asked from his perch on the barrels. "Because it's insane."
"Yes. Insane, completely insane. But you're wrong, Rory, I would let Rose do it. But Rose is special, sorry Amy, she just is. I wouldn't have to worry about her in house full of vampires."
"But she's not here, so we don't have another option." Amy countered with confidence, and he looked at her incredulously.
He wasn't all too pleased with the gentle nudge in his mind, despite the glee it made rush through his hearts. Rose was listening in, at least as much as she could with his bond all the way open and hers still partially closed. And, of course, despite likely not knowing everything that was going on, she agreed with Amy.
"There is another option," Guido pulled his attention, and the Doctor watched as he pointed toward Rory. "I work at the Arsenale. We build the warships for the navy." He explained, and the Doctor got to his feet. He moved to the barrels, sniffing around Rory and blocking out the scent of human to pick up on something that made his stomach knot.
"Gunpowder. Most people just nick stationary from where they work," he said, putting a hand on Rory's shoulder. It didn't stay there long before Rory slid off and away from the powder kegs. "I have a thing about guns and huge quantities of explosives, though I appreciate your dedication to getting your daughter out. Been known to go through nearly the same lengths to protect my own. But we can't go blowing it up."
"What do you suggest, then?" Guido bit back. "We wait until they turn her into an animal?" He turned to the fire and stirred it while the Doctor moved toward one of the beds and plopped down on it.
"I'll be there three, four hours tops." Amy said with nonchalance.
He smirked, thought of all those times in their far younger years when Rose would be as insistent on jumping head into danger without knowing there would come a time when that danger was no longer a factor. He felt a weak brush on his mind as his chest tightened with how much he suddenly missed her, and it eased the pain even as Rose's connection drew back.
He looked up, found Rory, met his gaze with the most apologetic look he could muster. "I have to know, have to get in there." He then turned to Amy. "We go together, say you're my daughter."
"What?" Rory demanded, getting to his feet.
"Your daughter? You look about nine!" Amy protested, getting to her feet and getting a little closer to him.
"Looks mean nothing, you've met Jenny."
"Who's Jenny?" Rory asked.
"My daughter." He turned to Rory for a moment before turning to Amy. "Fine, not father. Your brother then."
"Too weird, fiance." Amy countered.
"I'm not having him run around telling people he's your fiance." Rory countered.
"Agreed." The Doctor said, getting to his feet. "One, no: wrong." He ignored the pout and frown that accompanied Amy's crossed arms.
"Thank you." Rory murmured, sounding relieved.
"Two: What fiance would want his future bride to go to a school? A churchy school, no less. Churches usually don't encourage the kind of activities husbands want wives to engage in. No, has to be a blood relation. If not a father or a brother, then. Some sort of guardian, care taker."
"You're right." Amy relented. "Already seen you though, so Rory should do it."
"What?" Rory asked coming to stand beside Amy.
She smiled a stilted smile, one that was hiding what ever she was actually thinking or feeling as she reached over and ruffled Rory's hair. "You can be my brother."
"Right, so, him being your brother was weird, but with me it's okay?"
The Doctor cringed, knowing that tone even if it were coming from a man. An angry, jealous, bitter calm that never lead to anywhere good and made time lines move a shift in the wrong direction.
The Doctor peeked over at Guido who also picked up on it Rory's undertone, and shifted a little before focusing his attention on the fire again.
"This whole thing is mental." Rory protested. "They're vampires for God's sake."
"We hope." The Doctor added without thinking.
The room went quiet, and while he was looking at his large, gangly hands as they twisted themselves in knots, he could feel the eyes of the other three people in the room staring back at him.
"But, if they're not vampires …?" Amy asked expectantly.
"Makes you wonder what could be so bad it doesn't actually mind us thinking it's a vampire." The Doctor mumbled. He looked to Rory, met his eye. "We'll have to find you both something to wear, something that fits the era more appropriately, then at sun up we'll go."
"I can help you with the clothing." Guido said. "Just give me a moment."
As Guido turned away, Amy giddily jumped in spot a moment before turning away from Rory. Rory, Rory the Roman who in that moment gave the Doctor a glare so potent it actually made him cower a bit in the small human's presence. Time lines shifted again, but they still didn't connect as they should.
~DWDWDW~
The wait was bad, the Gandola ride was worse, and while the Doctor could feel Rory's eyes on him, heard the odd comment the man made, he ignored it. He focused on his bond with Rose, on the mission ahead, on anything that was not the man he was executing this plan with.
He should've simply dropped Amy back off home for kissing him. Let them sort out their relationship instead of him getting involved. It was domestic, too domestic. It didn't matter that he had a wife, and daughter, a horse at one point, more extended family than he'd ever care to have, this whole thing between Amy and Rory was exactly the kind of thing he didn't want to be involved in. Yes, traveling through time and space does sort of blot out the other things. He remembered what it was like when Rose went back to Mickey after only a few trips, though he'd never admit he only invited Mickey along out of fear of how his own feelings for her. Not that he wasn't relieved when he first declined the offer.
Still, he remembered telling her not to go making the TARDIS domestic on that trip. He'd never thought a century later he'd have had as much a hand in making it that way as she did.
Though he couldn't shoulder any of this situation on to Rose. This was all him.
They left the gondola, giving a nod of thanks to Guido, then carried on.
"Right, okay, I'll go first." He said to Rory as they ventured into the underground beneath the school. "If anything happens to me, go back…."
"Why did she kiss you?" Rory cut him off.
The Doctor huffed. "I dunno." He said as they came up to a door. He pushed it open gently, finding it both excellent and suspicious that it was unlocked.
"You don't know?" It was Rory's turn to huff. "I was supposed to be getting married in 430 years, to a woman I thought wanted to marry me, only to find out that she ran away with you and tried to kiss you."
The Doctor paused, leaning against the cool stone wall, turning to Rory in the dim light.
Rory's jaw was tense, but his eyes betrayed the fear he had. His hands were in fists by his side, and his head was held high.
"I was engaged to Rose for five years. Sorta engaged. Time Lord engaged, I suppose. Not proper human kind, but she was never bothered by that. Put off bonding with her for a slew of reasons, all stupid and pointless, but most of all was fear. Fear I wouldn't live up to what she wanted, fear that she'd discover she didn't really love me, fear that forever would be too much.
"Amy was scared. Don't know how often she's been properly scared through her lifetime, but she seems the type to do impulsive things when she's frightened. I was an impulsive thing, both to run away with and when she tried to kiss me. I didn't know she was getting married, otherwise …."
"You would have brought me along from the beginning." Rory said, and the Doctor cringed.
"I wouldn't have let her come." He admitted. "It's been brilliant having her, truly. She's a great girl, your Amy, clever and quick. But if I'd known she was supposed to be getting married I'd have wished her well and spent some time in the Vortex waiting for Rose to wake up. Churchill could have waited, my daughter … well, I would have gone for her, and the circumstances would have turned out worse than they were, but the point was …."
"So if Amy hadn't kissed you, if she never told you about me at all … would you have brought her back?"
"Of course. She said she wanted to be back for your wedding, wouldn't have kept her around much longer. Mind, she didn't actually say what she wanted to be back for, just said stuff. Had to be back for stuff." He mused, his time sense focusing on the time lines surrounding Rory, connecting him to Amy. They swayed and merged but never fully connected.
A drip of condensation caught the Doctor's attention and pulled him out of his thoughts, and he looked around the room. "Mind if we don't do this now? Would like to see those vampires."
"Yeah, sure." Rory said with exasperation, gesturing for the Doctor to keep going.
He lead them down the tunnel a little further until they made it under a grate where they could see the moonlight coming through. "Must be at the courtyard." The Doctor mumbled more to himself than anything. He reached up, having to jump a little to get the grate out of the way, then turned to Rory. "Help me up, I'll pull you up after."
"I'm smaller, should let me up first." Rory countered.
"Smaller in height, maybe, but I'm a Time Lord. Where you're mostly fleshy flesh, I have more muscle mass."
"You're a twig." Rory deadpanned.
"A near unbreakable twig." The Doctor countered. "Trust me, hoist me up." He gestured again, and Rory rolled his eyes and sighed. He helped the Doctor up, and once the Time Lord emerged into the Calvierri school courtyard, he laid on his stomach, reached in, and pulled Rory out.
He didn't say anything about the ease the Doctor made it seem he had pulling him out, but in all actuality the Doctor found it wasn't quite as easy as he expected. The angle, he'd wager. The angle, and this body's lack of grace. "There we are," The Doctor said, getting to his feet and looking around for their ginger accomplice. "Amy?" He called out, but he didn't hear anything. His eyes didn't seem quite as good this time around. Still superior to a human's but he found seeing in the dark wasn't quite as easy as it had been before. "I can't see a thing," He said as he began riffling in his transdimensional pockets for a torch.
"Just as well I brought this, then." Rory said as he pulled out a tiny, microscopic, virtually useless torch.
The Doctor's hand wrapped around the grip of the torch he'd been searching for. "Portable sunlight." He said to Rory with a grin.
"Yours is bigger than mine." Rory said sheepishly.
"Best we don't go there," The Doctor said as he turned the light about until he saw a door still partially open. He moved for it, hearing Rory follow behind as they entered the school.
~DWDWDW~
He hadn't meant it. If there was one thing Rory wanted to do, in that moment, as he and the Doctor ran away from the terrifying women with fangs, it was to go back to before he'd said those awful words.
He wasn't angry with the Doctor, not entirely, certainly not to the degree that he lashed out at him at.
But he was terrified for Amy, because as much as she was doing a very good job at making him feel inadequate, he loved her. And when the Doctor opened the chest to reveal the skeletal remains of humans, explaining in a nonchalant tone that maybe not everyone survives what ever the vampires do, he snapped.
"And I suppose this would have been your attitude if your wife was the one inside and not Amy? 'Maybe not everyone survives the process'. Yeah, maybe not, but they didn't know the risks of coming in here, and you did. You did, and you told Amy not to come, but let her anyway. Because she begged, and pleaded, because she wanted to impress you. That's the most dangerous thing about you, you somehow making it so people don't want to let you down. You make people dangerous to themselves, and I'm willing to put everything I have on the line to say that you're the reason your wife is in a coma."
The Doctor, who had had th good grace to stand there and take Rory's rant, turned cold and fearsome at the last words. If eyes were the windows to the soul for aliens as much as humans, then Rory could say for certain the soul of the Doctor had turned to dark, raging storm clouds with lightning and fierce wind. He was all power and dominance as he stepped toward him and stared Rory down.
"You're right, I am the reason she's not here." He said in an even, calm voice that was far worse than yelling. "And you're right, I do tend to bring out the worst in people. But maybe, Rory, maybe the reason Amy went in was not to impress me, or you, or anyone, but because she wanted to. Maybe she wanted the adventure, or maybe she wanted to be a part of something bigger than a simple life in an English village, but what ever that reason I'm going to be very clear on one thing: I do not make anyone do anything, and that includes your fiancee, am I clear?"
"Who are you?" A group of girls had said at once. The very girls they were running from now, and as Rory did his best to keep up the Doctor he also tried to swallow his guilt.
Because the Doctor was right. He didn't make Amy go in, he didn't make Amy run away from their wedding, he didn't do anything except exactly what Amy had said he would do since they were kids: come and take her away from her boring life.
And Rory, as much as he wanted to push the blame on everyone else, knew without a doubt that he was probably the biggest reason Amy ran.
~DWDWDW~
He figured it out. Proud moment for him, he thought, considering all the domestic going on around him that he really didn't need. But the Doctor knew without a doubt that they were indeed fish girls. With Amy and Rory sent away for a few hours rest (and for Rassilon's sake, maybe discuss their problems), the Doctor had a moment to run through his mind all the possible reasons why a depleting race would leave their perfect planet for Earth, of all places, as he waited for the Signora to find him in her throne room.
The Doctor sat on her throne, felt the electrical hum behind and beneath him but ignored it for now. Likely something to do with the perception filters he knew the fish people were wearing. He then felt Rose nudge his mind, and he couldn't help the smile or the nudge back.
"Any ideas, Sweetheart?" He asked aloud but softly, leaning against his hand with his elbow propped up on the arm of the throne. An image of water came through. "They have lots of water, whole planet is made of it." An image of chips came to his mind next, and he chuckled quietly at it. "If you mean food, I suppose that could be it. They are piranhas for lack of better word. But why here?" An wave of encouragement came through. "We'll figure it out." And then there was regret so strong he ached with it. "We, Rose, always we. You're always with me. I …." He hushed as he heard the door click open, sitting straighter at the sound of shoes clicking on the stone. He let out a whistle as the Signora Rosanna got closer, causing her to startle and pause. "Long way from Saturnyne, aren't you Sister of the Water?" He asked with a smug grin.
She returned it. "Let me guess: The owner of the psychic paper?" He nodded his head once. "Then I take it you're a refugee, like me?"
Refugee? Oh well that was a bit of unexpected information. He shifted a little on the throne, straightening only a touch.
"I'll make you a deal," The Doctor said, feeling Rose ease off just enough that she wouldn't distract him. "An answer for an answer. You're using a perception filter, but seeing one of you for the first time in, say, a mirror, the brain doesn't know what to fill the gap with so it leaves it blank. Hence, no reflection." He leaned forward a bit. "So why can we see your big teeth?"
Rosanna laughed. "Self preservation over-rides the mirage. The subconscious perceives the threat and tries to alert the conscious brain."
Fair enough, he could understand that, he supposed. "Where's Isabella?" He asked. Poor girl, Guido's daughter, who freed Amy and helped them all escape was pulled back into the school just as she was near freedom. He'd hoped that maybe she was still a prisoner here, or being converted. He'd have hated to let Guido down.
"My turn," The Signora countered, and the Doctor bit his tongue in an effort to keep things civil. He felt Rose's calm like balm, and he managed to keep his head. "Where are you from?" Rosanna asked.
"Gallifrey," He answered without thought.
The Signora lifted an eyebrow. "You should be in a museum. Or a mausoleum."
He clenched his jaw, feeling more anger than he should have over the offhanded comment. He sent reassurance back to Rose, and his tension eased.
"Why are you here?" He asked, trying a different route of interrogation.
"We were forced to flee by Her. Why are you here?" Rosanna rushed out.
"Wedding present. What do you mean by Her?" The Doctor asked, leaning forward a little bit.
The Signora, for all her true fish physiology would have allowed, paled.
"She … She was looking to build an army against a great and powerful force. One, she said, is known in whispers across the Universe. A hero to some, an enemy to many, but she would not say who or what this was. When we refused to help her, she poisoned our waters, killed so many of our kind in retaliation. We fled. She had some sort of technology, like a warp point, I'm not sure. It allowed our kind to get through to here where there were oceans of our own, but we are very small in numbers. We planned to return when we thought She'd left, but now we see that Saturnyne is lost to us."
"So Earth is to become Saturnyne Mark II?" The Doctor asked, quietly digesting what the Signora had told him.
"And you can help me." She said with urgency. "We can build a new society here, as others have. What do you say?" She asked with hope.
He stood, walking slowly toward her. He felt the curiosity of Rose in his mind, weak and not nearly as rapid firing as it normally would be, but it was enough to stoke the embers of his own. Who was She and why was she trying to find an army? And who was she going against?
But before he learned anything else, he wanted to circle back to the one question he did not get an answer to. "Where's Isabella?" He whispered to the Signora.
"Isabella?" She asked in confusion.
Anger coursed through his veins, the certainty of where this was going becoming too clear. "The girl who saved my friend." He replied.
"Oh," The Signora said as if she hadn't even thought of her. And the Doctor would wager she hadn't. "Deserters must be executed. Any general will tell you that." She shrugged before becoming serious again. "I need an answer, Doctor. A partnership, any which way you choose?"
She looked so hopeful, perhaps like she was trying to be seductive as well.
"Married." He said. "Already have a partnership that will last me a life time."
"Carlo!" She called out, though the Doctor did not let it surprise him. He heard someone entering the throne room but ignored their presence for the Signora. "I will bend the heavens to save my race and if you will not help me then I have no need of you."
"This ends today," He warned her as he sense a human coming toward him. "I'll tear down the House of Calvierri stone by stone. Take your hands off my, Carlo." He said, flashing his eyes to the man as his hand attempted to grip the Doctor's shirt. Carlo backed off at the flash of storm in the Doctor's eye. The Time Lord could feel a subtle hint of protectiveness and helplessness in his mind as Rose seemed to understand someone was threatening him. He sent her calm, though it did little for himself as he turned and marched toward the doors with Carlo trailing behind like he could have done something to him to either get him to leave quicker or stay. "And do you know why, Signora? Why I will tear this house down?" The Doctor stopped and turned, sensing the fear rolling off her. "You didn't know Isabella's name."
And with that last word in, the Doctor left.
~DWDWDW~
He had returned to Guido's home, found Amy, and went immediately to her. The Doctor pulled the sonic out, set it to heal and scan, and went over the bite marks on her neck. Rose was there in his head, stronger than earlier. Perhaps it was because they were closer to the TARDIS, perhaps she was awake and waiting. He didn't dare ask her if she was, preferring to feel her mind hum as it went over the possibilities in the background.
When his eyes registered that Amy's marks had been healed, he pulled the sonic away and read the results.
"You're fine." He said, sticking the sonic in his pocket and pulling out a hard butterscotch. "Open wide." He instructed, and she did as she was told. He slid the candy in her mouth, and walked toward the window. He could see water, of course, as it was Venice, but he wasn't really looking for it. He was looking for his third and fourth hearts who were of course unseen at this angle, even if the latter was mobile again.
But water, water helped him think as fish people would. Maybe. It at least helped a bit to look out at it. Possibly. No, it really didn't. "I need to think." He said, returning to the table and plopping down in the chair that was between Amy and Rory.
Between. No, there shouldn't be a between. No gaps. No, they should have gotten over their differences, talked it out, came to an understand, not gaps between chairs.
No. Save Venice first, this relationship second.
"If they're fish people, it explains why they hate the sun." Amy said around the Candy.
Rude and ginger, of course.
The Doctor slapped his hand over her mouth. "Stop talking, brain thinking hush."
He had a chastising nudge from his wife. He ignored it.
"It's the school thing I don't understand." Rory thought out loud only to be rewarded with the Doctor's hand across his mouth as well.
"Stop talking. Brain thinking. Hush." He repeated, his lips twitching a touch when the chastising came through a little stronger this time.
"I say we take the fight to them." Guido, who had been in a bit of a stupor since the Doctor returned without Isabella, spoke with passion.
The Doctor looked to him, then to Rory, and nodded.
Rory reached over and covered Guido's mouth.
"Her planet is terrorized, so she steals tech and escapes, ends up here only to find out there is no way to get back there even if there are survivors. So they come here, and she seals off the city, and changes girls into creatures like her. All fish head and bug body, starting a new gene pool. But then what? They come from the sea, they can't survive on land. So what's she going to do?" He dropped his hands from Amy and Rory's mouth, Rory releasing Guido, and thankfully none of them spoke. An image of terraforming came to his mind from Rose. "Change the environment to make the city habitable, yes, I agree. But how? Bend the heavens. She said she'd bend the heavens to save her race." He got the image of rain. A bit of the scent, too, and he breathed it in deep. It helped make it click. "She's going to sink Venice!" The Doctor realized.
"She's going to sink Venice?" Guido asked incredulously.
"And repopulate it with the girls she's transformed." The Doctor nodded.
"But …." Rory said, getting his attention. "You can't repopulate with just women. You need blokes."
Amy smacked her forehead, huffing a bit. "She's got blokes." She said as if she thought she was stupid for not seeing something sooner.
"Where?" The Doctor asked. He was very, very certain that Carlo was a human. There were probably a couple sons, too, but he'd really only seen girls.
"In the canal." Amy said, looking between he and Rory. "She said to me 'there are ten thousand husbands waiting in the water'."
"Only the male offspring survived the journey, then. She's got ten thousand children swimming in the canals, waiting for Mum to make them some compatible girlfriends." He grimaced. "Ew. I mean, I've been around a bit but that's…." The mental slap was hard, jarring, and enough to make him cry out loud. "Ah!" He gripped his head, slid his hands over his ears, then dropped them by his side as he got a flash of the scowl Rose would have given him if she were there. "You know all this already, it's hardly news!" He shouted around at the ceiling. It didn't ease the retaliation.
"What are you going on about?" Rory asked him, and he noted the confusion wasn't just coming from him but also Guido and Amy, though she seemed highly amused.
"My wife just sorta slapped me for that comment. Mentally slapped, as we have a bond. Telepathic, can feel and hear each other's thoughts and my end's been wide open seeking her out. Means she heard everything I just said. Didn't like it much."
"You have a telepathic bond … with your wife? What does that mean?" Guido asked.
The Doctor wrung his hands, having forgotten that there was at least one person in the room who likely hadn't known he was an alien. He opened his mouth to come up with some sort of excuse when a clattering above his head distracted him.
"The people upstairs are very noisy." He commented instead, crossing his toes in hopes that he wasn't going to get the answer he was expecting.
"There aren't any people upstairs." Guido replied.
"I knew you were going to say that." The Doctor sighed. "Did anyone else know he was going to say that?" He asked Amy and Rory but they both remained quiet and nearly perfectly still.
Another creak sounded over their heads.
"Is it the vampires?" Rory asked softly.
"Like I said," The Doctor replied, reaching in his pocket and pulling out the ultraviolet light from earlier. "They're not vampires. Fish from space."
A loud thump came from the doorway, the glass on the windows broke, and from every possibly exit point they were blocked in by the fish girls, all bearing the teeth.
The Doctor used the light to try and hold them back, which worked for the most part, but he wondered if maybe the perception filters also seemed to help shield them from the sun as well. Pulling out his sonic, he changed the setting and disrupted the filters.
"What's happened to them?" He heard Guido ask in a shaky voice. Fear, and not just of the girls, but for the one girl he knew now he would really never see again.
"They've been fully converted." He replied as he looked at the fish aliens in front of him. "Blimey, fish from space have never been so … buxom."
"Oi! Watch where those new eyes of yours are pointing." He heard Rose's mental voice yell in his mind and he straightened right up.
"Yes, Sweetheart." He sent back with a smile.
She groaned, and he felt a ripple of a headache before she faded back to just a hum in the back of his mind.
"We have to move, come on!" He said, and they all rand down the stairs.
"Give me the lamp," Guido asked from behind him, and since he was the last in their little group, the Doctor didn't think twice about it. He instead rushed Amy and Rory along, out the door, through the flock of chickens just outside, encouraging them to run on.
It wasn't until he was a few feet away from the door did he realized he hadn't heard footsteps behind him. The Doctor turned, seeing a determined Guido at the door.
"Stay away from the door, Doctor." He said before shutting it hard.
The Doctor could hear the click as he ran closer, and pounded on the door as he got out his sonic. "Guido! What are you doing?" He demanded. No answer. "I'm not leaving you! Just tell me what you're doing?" He begged, pointing the sonic at the door. "Blimey, I have make a wood setting for this thing. Guido!" He pounded again.
He was about to kick in the door when it hit him as to why Guido would keep the girls inside, lock them out. All those barrels. It would only take a single spark, a tiny flame.
He ran. He ran as quickly as his new feet would carry him, absently surprised by the grace in which they carried him when danger was causing the sprint. He heard the explosion, felt the rush of air on his back, and stopped to turn and look at the disaster as smoke billowed out the windows and loose debris fluttered around him.
The Doctor stared at the house.
That's the most dangerous thing about you, you somehow making it so people don't want to let you down.
Rory's angry words from the night before reverberated in his mind. He knew on instinct that Guido didn't want to impress him, he simply did what he thought was right. But it still stung, still felt like his fault, and despite the calm reassurance from Rose, he hated himself. He should have thought to set some sort of trigger to let the barrels explode on their own. Should have forced Guido to go ahead of him.
"My fault." Rose's mental voice was weak, pained.
"No, no not your fault." He replied, feeling the intensity of her headache coming over him. "Rest, Rose. Heal. Please."
He felt rather than heard her acknowledgment, and while the pain she was in faded off he still felt traces of it.
He heard the thunder around him, sensed that the clouds were darkening, and sighed. No time to mourn, no time for anything. As Rory and Amy came up behind him he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Rosanna's initiating the final phase," He said.
"We need to stop her." Amy replied, "Come on."
"No, got back to the TARDIS." He said, waving her off.
"You can't stop her on your own." Amy countered.
And that, that more than anything, tipped him over the edge. "That was not a request!" He snapped, whirling around on her. "I'm capable of handling Rosanna on my own. Now, I tell you to go to the TARDIS, you do it!"
He regretted it the second it came out of his mouth. It was all too much too soon. Rose communicating but still in pain because of him. Guido having died to help him. And Isabella likely lost her life helping as well. He could still feel the time lines wavering around them, and he wasn't sure if that had something to do with the events happening now or the choices Amy had made along the way.
And with the quiver of Amy's lip before she turned swiftly around and bolted, he realized he'd been too harsh.
Rory didn't seem to know how to take it. He looked like he wanted to thank him as much as he wanted to yell right back, and the Doctor would take it. Instead, he simply nodded, and as Rory turned and chased after Amy, the Doctor turned his gaze skyward. Rosanna's plans were coming to fruitation, and he needed to stop it. Now.
~DWDWDW~
It had been a while since he'd been around so much death, and the Doctor's hearts were heavy with it. He'd stopped the storm, admittedly with Rory and Amy's help despite him asking them to leave. But he also watched Rosanna commit suicide, putting the blame of her species' end on his shoulders, and he was feeling all the weight of it.
He'd raised his shields, putting on his cheerful mask, and led Rory and Amy back through the streets of Venice to the TARDIS.
"Now then, what about you two, eh?" He asked, hearing how fake his happiness sounded in his head. Still, he buggered on. The time lines around them were slowly coming back together, and he hoped they just needed that final push. Something had to go right today. "Next stop, Leadworth Register Office? Maybe I can give you away?" He turned to walk backwards, hoping to find a happy couple holding hands following him.
Amy was stiff, looking nearly like she was going to be sick with the thought, remaining a good distance away from her fiance. Rory had noticed, looked exasperated, and the Doctor sensed the time lines splitting again.
"Maybe not." Rory said, causing them all to stop in front of the TARDIS. He looked to Amy who gaped at him, her panic changing to something else. Rory looked at his feet. "You ran." He said. "And I don't get it, except I sorta do. I do. I think. So, I mean, umm …." He looked to the Doctor. "I guess you could drop me back."
"Would you like to stay?" The Doctor offered, and Amy's face lit up. She seemed to take a breath and held it, looking to Rory and practically staring holes in his skull.
"Yeah?" Rory asked, seeming honestly surprised by the offer. "Yes, I would like that." He nodded firmly.
"Nice one!" Amy threw her arms around Rory's neck and kissed him firmly on the lips. Time lines still bent and curved, but they were drifting back closer together and that was a start. "I will pop the kettle." She turned to the TARDIS, pushing the door open a little. "Hey, look at this. Got my spaceship, got my boys."
"Oi, your space ship?"
Amy and Rory looked confused as the Doctor choked.
He gaped at them, not sure he dared believe he heard that voice outside his head. Without any grace he shoved through the doors, earning a protest from Amy as she was shoved out of the way without apology.
He darted up the ramp and paused at the top, his respiratory bypass kicking in while his hearts beat double time.
"Have a whole new level of understanding 'bout everything you go through when ya change. Let's try not to go through it again anytime soon, yeah?" Rose said as she sat on the jumpseat, feet tucked under her, a mug on the floor within reach. Her hair was straight, and she was dressed in trousers and a blouse.
The Doctor moved toward her, eyes never leaving the sight before him, and he collapsed on his knees in front of her. He reached up, cupped her cheek, choking back a sob as she closed her eyes and leaned in to his touch.
And then, in his mind, she sighed his name. And he was done for.
He pulled her to him, kissing her deeply, tears flowing from his eyes unabashedly as he felt his bond flaring with every touch of their skin.
"Can't completely feel you in my head." He said against her lips before trailing his down her cheek and neck. He buried his nose in her hair and breathed in her scent mixed with her banana shampoo.
"Mine still hurts." She said as her fingers laced in his hair. "Don't want you to feel it."
"I do." He pulled back, pressing his forehead to hers. "I caused you that pain, I should feel it. All of it."
Rose shook her head as best she could before pressing her lips to his.
Oh and they felt magnificent on these new lips of his. He kissed her so many times already, but to feel her take charge, to feel his wonderful Rose bestow the affection was brilliant. Fantastic. Utter perfection.
"Hate to break up the party, but we're waiting to go somewhere." Amy tore him from the bubble that was just he and Rose. He looked to his fire haired companion with a smile that barely lasted when he met her eye and was greeted with a cold glare.
A/N: Sorry for the tease, initially, as this likely came up posted but was gone. My bad. Sick with a cold and forgot to post the note.
THANK YOU to the readers, followers, favoriters, and reviewers.
Ryann Bennett, shadowneko003, Insane-Bookworm-4ever, LaughingLadyBug, PanoramaGirl, Guest, DuShuZhi, Dreamcatcher56, princessgumdrop16, Fleur24, pyro-pixiechik, CupcakeFlake, WaitingformyDoctorintheTardis, AmeliaJane14, debygobel, x.-kTa-.a, tscheby, Guest#2, TheDoctorMulder, greeneyesCutie, and Shadow Eclipse. Thank you all for leaving word
So Rose is back, and the next chapter is entirely her.
And speaking of next post I humbly ask with a large pout and big, sad eyes that you forgive me if it's a little later than normal. I am sick with a cold, which has hindered me from writing and while the next post is finished I do want to keep well ahead of myself. I will try my absolute best to play catch up, and keep on schedule.
Until next post. I promise even if it's late you will not go more than a week without it.