House Call
Chapter 17
Location: Davros' laboratory
The two Daleks escorted the Doctor and the rest of the Time team down the white halls and into the laboratory. The doors were automatically thrown open and within they saw an enormous chamber within the fortress. There were machines everywhere with wires and tubes pumping all sorts of interesting things that both the Doctor and Joe found extremely fascinating. They were like two kids in a candy shop.
Eleven picked up a device and handled it excitingly before setting it back down. "Whoo, a trans-dimensional vacuum. I hadn't seen one of those in a while. It's cool."
Joe looked over Eleven's shoulder and frowned. "It's not that special. You should see what they've got in the Vault at Torchwood 1. I do my best shopping there."
Rose laughed and shook her head. She skipped and grabbed onto Joe's arm and said, "You think you're so brilliant. Nicking things from the Vault isn't shopping. You're just lucky Pete lets you get away with it."
Joe smiled warmly at his lovely pink and yellow companion and said, "Oh, Pete doesn't mind. Remember, we have an agreement. I keep saving the bloody world and your old man lets me do whatever I want. It's bit like the Brigadier and Unit. Rose, have I ever told you about Unit?"
"It's ok, Joe. I already heard all about them from Mickey."
Joe huffed. "Rickey the Idiot doesn't know a thing about the old Unit, Rose. It was different."
Rose turned to meet the leather-clad man's eye and reached down to take his hand and swing it playfully between them. She tilted her head to the side and teasingly licked the edge of her teeth. Then, oh so wisely she said, "Every things different, Joe. Everything changes eventually."
Joe grinned and swung their hands back and forth too and stated, "Yeah, but some things never do."
Though, the Doctor paused after their little interaction and frowned. It pained him to see Rose hitting it off so well with his double's double, Joe Noble. It used to be him that she held hands with. It used to be him that she used to smile coyly at and said such touching things and meant it. Rose used to be the rock. He used to cling to her in order to weather the storm that was always brewing inside him. She had once filled a void between his hearts, but now she belonged to someone else. She used to be the thing that never changed—or at least the one he wanted to believe.
"MASTER, WE HAVE BROUGHT THE IN-TRUDERS," screeched one of the Daleks.
The sound of the Dalek's harsh voice broke Eleven out from his thoughts. He saw a group of Daleks separate from what looked like a group meeting. He saw that in the middle of their huddle was Davros. He was blind and wheelchair bound like he remembered, though beside him was Sally. The evil she-TARDIS was standing proudly next to the handicapped villain. She had her hand over the back of his seat and she had the gall to actually smile.
The entire Time team was confused. They couldn't understand what Sally was doing. Though, ever curious the Doctor stepped forward and did what he did best. He started to speak.
"Well look at you. Now that is interesting. You're smiling. You never smile. I haven't seen you smile or show any expression at all since we met. I thought you didn't care or that you simply lacked the capacity, but oh—I was wrong. So, what it is? What have you done this time, you naughty girl? I thought you wanted to end the Daleks, not make friends with them. So, what are you planning?"
Davros seemed unimpressed by Eleven and asked, "Who are you? How do you know of my creations?"
The bow tied man grinned and gave Davros a friendly nod. "Oh, hello. I'm the Doctor and this is Joe, River Song and Rose. And no need to introduce yourself, we've already done that, so Sally—what are you scheming?"
The TARDIS avatar glanced at the travelers calmly and replied, "I've offered to give Davros my help. He wants to eliminate the Thals and I'm going to do it."
"How, exactly?"
Davros interrupted and said, "As another Time Lord from Gallifrey, I suppose you'll understand our plan's eloquence. But lets not waste time talking about it when I can do better and show you."
Intrigued, the travelers followed. Davros wheeled himself towards another room. The Daleks opened the door for their master and Sally trailed behind him closely. Davros offer her his hand and she accepted. The Doctor didn't think Sally was the type to play games, but obviously he was wrong. She clearly playing Davros for a sap. He had no idea what sort of deal she made with him, but it wasn't going to last. Davros didn't care about anybody, but science. He wondered what kind of carrot Sally had dangling in front of his face.
Though, a second later his hearts froze at the sight he saw. Shocked, he and Joe ran to the edge of a trailing to look at a machine housed down bellow in Davros' lab.
"Rassilion, it can't be," said Joe.
"What? What is it?" asked Rose.
Eleven turned to his friends and replied, "It's the Eye…the Eye of Harmony."
The four companions looked down at the nearly complete machine. It was composed of a large platform with a strange half sunken sphere in the center with four pillars at each end. Several Daleks were monitoring the readings from the sphere with instruments connected to various tubes and wires that came up from under the floor. It looked like a weird device. It looked more like architecture then an eye to Rose.
Puzzled, the blonde asked, "Ok, what is it?"
XXX
Location: evil TARDIS (a.k.a. Peach)
Meanwhile, back at the inside of the evil TARDIS, Amy and Rory had finally located the source of Sally's creepy plants. They had used the Doctor's sonic screwdriver and followed the beeping to a room under the second library and beneath a bowling alley to a dark strange room. It looked sort of like a greenhouse, but the ceiling was really, really high and had a great big hole were the vines traveled up to the control room.
However, the plant was a lot bigger than either Rory or Amy thought. Amazed, Rory watched as Amy circled the base of the plant and thought it rather looked like a tree.
"It's—uh, bigger than I thought."
Amy bit her bottom lip and agreed. "Yeah. That's one big tree. It's huge. How's he expecting us to hack at his thing?"
Awkwardly, Rory said, "I saw a tool shed over by the door. Maybe there's an ax we could use. It looks like there maybe something inside for pruning."
Amy shoved her husband in the arm. "We're not pruning, idiot. We need to cut down that tree. The Doctor is counting on us, yeah? So, lets go and hack this thing."
"Ah, right. Wait here. I'll go get us something—I'll go get us some tools. I'll be back."
Rory then rushed over to the nearby tool shed and opened it up. He was surprised to see that the inside was pretty ordinary. It was your run of the mill gardening shed with spades and rakes and blowers. Though, to his luck he found an ax. He took it and gave it to Amy as he rolled up his sleeves and spat at his hand.
The redhead made a face. "Ewww, gross. What are you doing?"
"I'm getting ready. I'm going to cut down this tree. Why? What's it look like?"
"Bad hygiene, and you're a nurse."
"Well, I'm manning up, Amy. Now, give me the ax."
"Right, here."
Amy then gave Rory the ax and watched as he began hacking at the bark bit by bit. He kept swinging and chopping, but it looked like a lot of work and it would take forever. Impatiently, Amy said, "This is taking forever. Can't you go any faster?"
Exasperated, he said, "I'm doing the bloody best I can. I wasn't expecting to be chopping down trees inside a creepy ship when I woke up this morning. Why don't you go see if there's anything else we could use inside the shed?"
"Right," she replied.
Amy ran back to the tool shed and started pulling out the tools and making a mess. She figured she didn't' have to clean up. It was an evil TARDIS they were on after all, who cared? Frankly, she tossed out shoves and small flower pots until she found what she was looking for.
"Ah-ha! I knew there had to be something better than that ax."
Rory paused mid chop and suddenly heard the roar of a motor. Confused, he turned and wiped his brow and saw that Amy had found an electric chainsaw. She walked a few steps away from the shed and posed with the saw at her hip and revved up the engine. Rory was amazed.
Reverently, he said, "You look so hot."
Amy winked at her husband and smiled. "Yeah, I know."
XXX
TBC
XXX
Thanks for your comments and encouragement: Dreamcatcher49, TwiCloiser89 and Kabooshka and to the many other readers who have put me on your alert list. I love positive feedback.
I'm glad you all like the dash of Bad Wolf thrown in the story. I promise you I will write Bad Wolf in somehow. I don't want to give anything away. And as for the comment about Davros having a clean white lab, well in the older DW episodes sets for the show were pretty bare.
Please read and review. Thank you.