Health and Safety: Chapter 9 – Face the Music
"You know Doctor; it would be really nice, just once, to go somewhere that you can say 'they're playing our song' and mean an actual piece of music, a proper song, played with instruments instead of the high pitched sounds of panic." I inform him.
"Put that on the list right after proper scones okay? Lake District, and then dancing, sounds good yes?"
It really does sound good to me, fantastic actually. It sounds almost painfully normal and lacking in any kind of complication, which means that it will probably never happen of course. Stranger things have happened though I suppose, saying that stranger things have happened than a normal day is really an excellent summary of life with the Doctor, where the normal becomes abnormal.
The two of us are not the only ones in the building trying to make our way towards the sound of trouble, doors are flying open all around us, with people stumbling out in various states of awareness and dress. Some are just in whatever they went to bed in; others are fully clothed with spurred boots jingling off of the wooden floors as they clap hats onto their heads. The Doctor makes his way through the crowd, easily slipping this way and that between the people, pulling me right along with him.
My heart sinks when we make it down to where the screams came from, because we find ourselves in front of the door to the room Vastra and Jenny were sharing. It's odd though; there are no signs of the door being forced open.
"Joint Marshals, make way!" The Doctor calls, flashing the physic paper about, pushing our way through the tightening swarm of people right outside the room.
After running his hands over the frame of the door and examining the lock closely, I guess making sure it hadn't been forced open somehow, the Doctor pulls the sonic from his jacket and uses it to open the door none too discreetly.
Inside, Vastra is laying in a crumpled heap on the ground, she doesn't seem to be visibly hurt, but when I move to turn her over she isn't responsive either. Seeing that I was taking care of Vastra, the Doctor races around the room, taking in the scene, there are obvious signs of a struggle.
It must have been the window we heard shattering from upstairs, jagged edges are all that remain in the opening, with shards of glass littering the floor and the bed which has been torn apart. The bedside table has been flipped over, right on top of one of the swords Jenny brought from the TARDIS, half drawn from its scabbard.
Hikaru strides into the room while I fumble in an attempt to find Vastra's pulse. Seeing as I don't have a clue what would be a normal heart rate for a Silurian I'm not sure what I would do even if I could find it, but I want to do something to help...
"What is going on here?" Hikaru demands, after seeing the state of the room.
The Doctor settles beside me, gently taking the hand I was using in a vain attempt to find Vastra's pulse. I hadn't noticed it had started shaking a bit… He runs his thumb over the back of my hand a few times as he guides it a couple inches above her wrist before turning his wrist up so I can see the hands of his golden watch.
"Silurians have a slower heart rate than humans do; a standard range is 50 to 80 beats per minute." He says very quietly too me, right in my ear as he rests his head on mine for a brief moment, like he is assuring himself I'm still here.
"Doctor Smith, I asked what is going on here." Hikaru repeats, sounding annoyed at his delay to answer her.
"Please keep everyone outside, and send someone to fetch Walter and Daniel." The Doctor says as he uses his watch free hand to examine Vastra closely with the sonic.
His didn't say it loudly, and he didn't sound angry, but it was a command without coming out like an order, one which Hikaru listens to instantly, leaving the room and closing the door behind her.
After taking his readings, the Doctor turns the sonic on the door, and I hear the lock click softly. Once he has confirmed with me that Vastra's pulse was pretty stable, he gives her a few gentles taps on the face with the palm of his hand.
"Come on, wake up..." He pleads.
The moment her eyes fly open, Vastra lunges up, grabbing the Doctor by the throat with one hand and throwing him down to the ground, bearing her teeth and hissing menacingly, demonstrating just how bad of an idea it is to shock her. That would definitely be a bite that is nothing like a kiss.
"It's okay! It's us! Calm down!" He tries to explain in choking gasps, his hands shooting to the arm at his throat as I try to grab her from behind and pull her off of him.
She lets him go as quickly as she grabbed him and shoves me away from her in a dash to the window, crunching the broken glass under her feet.
"It is not okay! Jenny, where is Jenny?" She has the sound of tears in her voice, though I can't see her face to tell if they are freely falling.
"Open up." Walt's voice calls from the doorway.
The Doctor nods to me, before going to the window with Vastra, speaking to her soothingly, which is brave of him considering she had him down and out seconds ago. Pulling the door open, the room quickly feels a lot smaller as Hikaru, Walt and Daniel all slide in with Ria behind them. Daniel obviously wasn't thinking he would be heading out anywhere else tonight, his hair is wet and half of his face is covered in shaving cream.
"What the hell has happened now?" Walt demands.
"One of our associates has gone missing." I tell him. Vastra spins around from her spot at the window, eyes narrowed, anger replacing sadness once again.
"She has not gone missing, she was taken! The two of us were asleep, several hooded figures came in through the window, we tried to fend them off, but I was shot by some kind of light that immobilized me… I was helpless, I could not move... She was taken from me before my very eyes!" Her voice breaks over the last sentence, sounding utterly heartbroken.
"It's a horrible feeling." The Doctor says quietly, looking right at me.
"How did they get in though? Did they climb up the side of the walls? There is nothing outside this window, no balcony or anything." Ria wonders aloud as she sticks her head out the broken window, wary of the broken glass.
"Let's go down and take a look." Daniel suggests, leaving the room and indicating for her to follow him.
"With the amount of time she spends helping you two or keeping you from killing each other, you ought to start paying her as a deputy or something." Hikaru grumbles at Walt.
"I wouldn't have a problem with that." He replies, more happily than usual.
The Doctor has moved back to scan the window, concern evident on his face.
"I want to take a look outside as well." He says softly, almost more to himself than anyone in the room.
"I'll get the masses back to bed, horrible way to end a day after I got such good news." Hikaru mutters as she purses her lips.
"You got the promotion then?" Walt asks as we go to leave the room.
"Yes sir, book me a ticket to Ottawa!" She grins before beginning to shoo the people clustered by the door.
"What about-" Walt starts, but doesn't finish as Hikaru gives him a pointed look.
He seems worried about something, but follows the Doctor and I outside. The street feels freezing cold now that the sun has been gone for hours; it's a stark contrast to how hot it had been when we arrived. Daniel is trying to use his shirt sleeve to clean the shaving cream from his face when we find him.
"There are no tracks, nothing, not a mark on the ground, not a dent in the wall. And with the saloon closed, no one was on the street to see anything either." He sighs.
When I see the Doctor is looking in the air, and not at the ground it reminds me of something he had mentioned offhandedly earlier.
"Doctor, you said that the cities were more high tech; you said something about hover cars, what if someone flew in?" I ask him. He looks back down at me, nodding slightly. He had been thinking something along those lines as well then.
Walt stares at us like we are mad though, before dropping onto his hands and knees, crawling along the ground to look for some kind of trace himself, not trusting his partner's assessment of the situation.
"The only people who can afford that kind of tech are the Government, the energy magnates and the underground marketers, and the later two are hard to tell apart sometimes." He says distractedly.
"Exactly, what would any of them want here?" Daniel chips in.
"To kidnap people it would seem." The Doctor answers firmly.
"You don't actually think someone flew in here to snatch your associate?" Daniel scoffs.
"Explain another way they managed to enter a third floor window without leaving any sign of doing it and I will put it under serious consideration as the method of entry." The Doctor challenges.
"It makes sense Dan. Three attacks in twelve hours over a large distance in outlying areas, and there were similar kidnappings happening in Estevan too, you said so yourself earlier. They must be connected somehow; a whole bunch of random people didn't just up and decide that abduction sounds like a fun pastime on the same day." Ria reasons, still running her hands over the building's wall, like she doesn't want to be right.
Walt and Daniel exchange a glance, seeming to try and find some way to argue.
"This problem is coming from the city, from Estevan; it's the only place close enough where people with this kind of capacity are." The Doctor asserts.
"Doctor, please, we have to go there, I will do anything, we have to find Jenny." Vastra pleads.
"Hikaru promised that I could borrow one of her coach wagons, I will take you there myself in the morning." Ria promises her firmly.
Vastra's usually composed self is nowhere to be found, she seems like she's going to either break down and cry, or lash out again. The Doctor casts a sad glance my way and then looks towards the stable. We could get there right now and we both know it. He doesn't want me back in the TARDIS yet, but he wants to help Vastra. He cares about her, and about Jenny, they're his friends.
"We have a way of getting there tonight." I say for him.
Vastra's eyes light up and she starts nodding.
"Yes, yes of course, I will bring the swords and find Strax, we will leave at once." She says before retreating back into the building.
Walt and Daniel seem at a loss for words about this whole situation.
"I am going to need a local guide for this assignment, someone who knows their way around the city, it looks like we will be doing some proper investigating and my partner doesn't like us getting lost. We need someone who keeps their head in a tight spot and someone who will be willing to ask a lot of questions to help us get to the bottom of this." The Doctor says, almost staring Ria down the whole time. I don't think he understands just how powerful his eyes can be sometimes…
Walt ponders what the Doctor has just said, then follows his eyes to Ria, then looks back to the Doctor.
"You can't take her into the thick of this mess!" He barks.
"Its Victoria's choice, not yours." The Doctor says simply before taking my hand and leading me towards the hidden TARDIS, not looking behind him to see if she follows us or not.
A/N: Sorry this took a bit longer than expected, I have turned into a rather doubting perfectionist when it comes to editing it would seem… Thank you so much to everyone who is reviewing! I am much better at coming up with ideas than actually getting them down coherently, so I really appreciate the feedback and being encouraged to get a move on. And I promise Clara and the Doctor will actually get a bit of time to chat in the next chapter.