{The Unquiet Dead}
Rose stood in front of the control panel holding down one of the many buttons and knobs that made the TARDIS fly. She could hear the great time machine chuckle slightly at the sight of her thief telling his newest companion on which button to hold down, when it was the wrong button. She shook sending them in the complete opposite direction to the place were the Time Lord needed to be.
"Hold that one down!" said the Doctor.
"I am holding this one down."
"Well, hold them both down!"
Rose reached over the controls but didn't quite reach the leaver he pointed to. "It's not going to work!"
"Oi! I promised you a time machine, and that's what you're getting. How does 1860 sound?"
"What happened in 1860?" asked Rose.
"I don't know. Let's find out. Hold on here we go!"
The TARDIS jerked to the right, and spun through the time vortex. She smiled to herself shifted more to the right then to 1860 to a later time where they were need. They landed with a bump throwing the couple to floor.
"Blimey!" said Rose.
The Doctor looked over at the blonde and said, "You're telling me. Are you all right?"
"Yea I think so. Nothing's broken." said Rose getting up off the floor. "Did we make it?"
The Doctor stood up and looked at the screen that held different shapes that was in High Old Gallifreyan. "Give a man a medal! Earth Naples, December 24, 1860!"
Rose beamed at the Time Lord. "It's so wired. It's Christmas!"
"It's all yours." said the Doctor.
"It's Christmas 1860 and it only happens once it's gone, it's finished. No wonder you don't stay still." she said happily.
"Not a bad life."
"It's better with two. Come on then." said Rose running to the doors.
"Hey were do you think you're going?"
"1860."
"Going out there dressed like that. You'll start a riot, Barbella. There's a wardrobe through there." said the Doctor motioning to the doorway. "First left, second right, go straight ahead, under the stairs, under the bins, fifth door on your left. Hurry up." He smiled and watched the human run out of the room.
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Rose looked around and groaned. She had missed a turned somewhere. "Great. I'm lost. Can you help? I'm so lost." She smiled when a door appeared in front of her. "Thank you!" She ran to through the door into a ten storey closet. "Oh my god. Ok, I need something suitable for the 1860s." The closet shifted revealing only dresses from the era. "Something dressy but not too dressy or revealing." The dress minimized leaving less then before. "A something that's between first and second class." Rose beamed at the gown that was before her. "Wow, that's perfect!"
Rose grabbed the gown and slipped it on and quickly twisted her blonde hair up and placed a feather holding it in place. She kissed her fingers and placed against the doorframe as a thank you. She quickly made her way back to the control room.
The Doctor looked up stunned at how beautiful she looked standing on the staircase. Rose was dressed in a black sequenced with red under the black dress that swooped showing off her shoulders. A shawl covering them to keep her warm.
"Blimey!"
"Don't laugh." said Rose.
"You look beautiful considering." said the Doctor quickly covering up the complaisant.
Rose smiled her tongue poking slightly between her teeth. The Doctor's hearts stopped at that smile. She had to smile that way that made him so drawn to her, and it was in away he didn't want to feel.
Rose's brow frowned slightly, "Considering, what?"
"That you're human." said the Doctor.
"I think that's a complaisant. Aren't you going to change? " said Rose.
"I've changed my jumper. Come on."
Rose lifted up her dress slightly and made her way down the stairs. "You stay there. You've done this before. This is mine." She opened the door and saw the snowy grown. She stepped her foot out of the phone booth and lifted it up revealing her shoe print. She stepped out fully into the snowy town.
The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS and asked, "Are you ready for this? Here we go. History." He held out his arm to her. She smiled and hooked her arm through his with a bright smile.
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Meanwhile several blocks away in the Funeral Parlor of Sneed and Company, Mrs. Peace laid in her coffin while her grandson mourned over her dead, until her eyes snapped opened, and she grabbed him around the neck snapping it killing him intensely. Mr. Sneed entered the parlor and found the young man dead on the floor and the dead woman up and about. The dead were walking. She left the parlor and roamed the streets.
Sneed and his servant girl, Gwyneth left the funeral home in search for Mrs. Peace in hope not to draw unwanted attention to learn that the dead were out and about the streets. Sneed turned to Gwyneth and told her to use the sight that she had been given to by her mother. She closed her eyes and saw that the dead woman was going to see a great man, the writer Charles Dickens. They quickly made their way to the theater to get the woman back to morgue and try to figure out what to do with the dead woman.
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In the music hall Charles Dickens stood on the stage reading his story, "A Christmas Carol," to the crowd. He stopped suddenly when a woman in the crowd began to glow blue and vapors left her mouth and into the gas lanterns scaring the crowd out of the hall.
The screams grab the Doctor and Rose's attention from outside. They ran through the crowd and into the music hall. Sneed and Gwyneth also followed the screams from the hall. Charles Dickens blamed it on the Doctor because of excitement of the event.
"Hey, leave her alone!" yelled Rose from the stage when she saw the couple near the elderly woman. "I'll go after them." She told the Doctor.
"Be careful." called the Doctor and he turned his attention back to the man next to him wanting more answers.
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Rose groaned and slowly opened her eyes. She looked around and found herself surround by coffins. She sat up wondering how she got the room. She narrowed her eyes remembering that the old man had drugged her, and placed in the room. She was snapped out her wonderings when she saw the dead raise from their coffins.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me." said Rose and she quickly ran over to the door. She turned the knob to find it locked. "Let me out! Let me out!" She yelled banging on the door.
"Rose stand back!" yelled the Doctor from outside the door.
She quickly moved back from the door, and the Doctor kicked the door open. He grabbed Rose by the arm and pulled her to his chest, "I believe this is my dance."
She grabbed onto his leather jacket. She turned her head slightly and breathed in the musky scent of his after shave and leather. He looked down and rubbed his hand up and down her arm.
"This is a prank." said Charles.
"No it's not. The dead are walking. Hi."
"Hi." said Rose. "Who's your friend?"
"Charles Dickens."
"Okay." said Rose slightly stunned being locking in room full of zombies.
"I'm the Doctor. Who are you? What do you want?"
"Failing. Open the rift. We're dying. Trapped in this form. We can not contain. Help us. Help the Gelth," and the vanished into the gas pipes.
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Gwyneth stood in the living room pouring everyone a cup of tea. She listened to the young blonde snap at Sneed. She couldn't blame her for her reaction.
"First of all you drugged, then you kidnap me, and don't you think I didn't feel yours hands taking a quick wonder. You dirty old man!"
The Doctor stood in front of the fire with a smirk on his face. He had found himself a feisty companion. He knew she had spunk and he spunk.
"I won't be spoken to like that." said Sneed.
"Then you stuck in a room full of zombies! And if that an't enough you swant off to leave me to die. So, come on talk!" yelled Rose.
"It's not me. It's this house." said Sneed.
Gwyneth walked up to the Doctor and handed him a cup of hot tea. "Two sugars the way you like it sir."
He took the cup trying figure out how the servant girl knew how he liked his tea. She left the living room for the kitchen. Rose followed the young woman from the room leaving the men to talk. She remembered in the journal that Gwyneth had spoken to her. She hoped to get more information out of the young woman.
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"You've done this before Miss." said Gwyneth as she studied Rose carefully. Rose nodded her head. "You must be careful or time will unravel and the star burn out. You burn bright as the sun only you can keep the stars burning. The Big Bad Wolf."
Rose stepped closer to the servant girl and whispered, "Yes. Please, you have to help Gwyneth. What must I do to keep my mind from burning this time?"
Gwyneth whispered, "Look into it twice Miss." She steeped back. "I'm sorry Miss. I can't help it. I've grown up hearing voices inside my head."
"You've grew up on top of the rift. You're the key. We can help the Gelth."
"What are we going to do?" asked Rose.
"We're going to have a séance." said the Doctor with a smile.
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Rose entered the morgue and wrapped her arms around herself. She rubbed her hands up and down her arms. She didn't like the idea of Gwyneth bringing the Gelth through the rift. She assumed because she knew what was going happen.
"Doctor she shouldn't be doing this. What if it kills her? What if the Gelth are lying?" said Rose trying to make him think about what was about to happen.
"Rose they said they were few. I can save a race and take them somewhere they start again." said the Doctor.
"What must I do?" Gwyneth asked the Gelth.
"Stand here beneath the arch."
Gwyneth stepped under the arch, and the Gelth exited the rift through the servant girl. The Doctor pushed Rose into the cellar and closed the door to stop the zombies from reaching them. Because the Gelth had taken over the dead bodies that laid in the morgue. While Charles ran from the house not wanting to die in a morgue.
"I'm sorry Rose. I should have listened. Now, I've got you trapped here."
"I can't die. It's 1869. I'm not even born yet." said Rose.
"Time isn't in a straight line. You can be born in twentieth century and die in ninth, and it's all my fault."
"It's not your fault. I wanted to come." said Rose.
"What about me? I saw the fall of Tory. World War Five. I pushed boxes at the Boston Tea Party. Now I'm going to die in a dungeon in Cardiff."
"It's just not dying. It's becoming one of them." said Rose trying to back up closer to the wall as the zombies reached in the cell through the bars. "We'll go down fighting. Yea?"
"Yea." said the Doctor and he took Rose's hand into his own.
"Together?"
The Doctor looked into his companion's brown eyes and smiled gently. "I'm glad I met you."
She smiled, "Me too."
Charles ran back into the morgue and told them to turn off the flame and turn off the gas. The Doctor turned and quickly yanked the gas line from the wall filling the room up and watched the Gelth leave the hosts. He opened the cell door and pushed Rose out of the cell. He told Charles to get Rose out of the house.
"I'm not leaving you." coughed Rose.
"Rose you're going to choke. Go with Charles." said the Doctor. "Charles get her out of here," and the writer quickly pulled Rose from the house. The Doctor walked up to Gwyneth and held out his hand when she pulled out a box matches. "You let me do that."
"You have so much ahead of you sir. So much more life to live. Go sir. I can't stop them, but I can hold them. Go. Go make the stars burn and the time turn."
The Doctor gently touched her cheek, and felt her face was cold. He knew she had died the moment she stepped into the arch. "Thank you," and he ran from the house.
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The Doctor ran up to Rose and Charles just as the house exploded from the gas. The Doctor squeezed Rose's hand when she asked about Gwyneth. He told her that she didn't make it. She looked at house and took several deep breathes. She all ready knew that the young woman had saved the world at the price of her life, but it still didn't make it any easier on her.
"Well, come on Rose." said the Doctor and they walked to the TARDIS.
Rose leaned over and kissed Charles on the cheek and they left after telling him that his book would live on forever. The writer watched the blue Police Public Call Box vanish from sight. They left Charles Dickens happy man on Christmas.
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Hit the button and tell me what you think about chapter 4!