Author's Note: First and foremost, I need to apologise to you all for taking such al ong time to post this new chapter and even to reply to your comments. Life has been pretty hectic over the past month, so hopefully it will improve from here on in. I promise to catch up on all of your own stories, but be patient as it looks like I am very far behind!
Anyway, here is the newest chapter. It would seem that this post is full of apologies! I hope you enjoy!
Ch6 – The Doctor's Apology
The Doctor woke with a start, breathing heavily. He had been dreaming of the Trickster; he had been laughing cruelly at the Doctor who was unable to help the unconscious Bella. He shook his head and looked at Jack's watch; six thirty a.m.
He slowly got up, stretching himself as he walked out of the living room and into the hallway, where he made his way to the front door, which he opened quietly.
The warm morning sun could just be seen behind a green, luscious hill that was a few paddocks away and the cloudless sky was slowly lightening. A low fog in traditional British styling, kept the mood of the place down, though despite the sun.
He heard a sudden neigh from around the side of the small cottage, so he followed the sound of hoof beats down the length of the house and past the out-of-place police box to find a sand arena that was surrounded by wooden fence that contained several multi-coloured – and very tall – horse jumps.
Bella was also in the arena, sitting atop a tall, dark bay horse that trotted calmly yet with enough energy to make it seem that Bella was still in control of the pace, around the outside before Bella must have given the aids for her horse to move up into the canter. The Doctor watched as Bella and her horse moved confidently over the obstacles, The Doctor impressed with her riding ability; he had always known that she had ridden horses, he had guessed that the first time he had been in her room almost a year ago, but he had never quite realised just how good she really was.
"She's good isn't she?" Sally said as she wheeled a big, green and white dirt bike towards him. "She is self-taught, so it proves that she's a natural."
"Mmm," the Doctor agreed with a small smile. She was a natural at many things, he thought.
"Hey Bella?" she suddenly yelled loudly.
Bella, having just cleared another jump, glanced over to Sally and the Doctor before trotting over to them at the fence.
"Sally, I didn't get to finish my course," Bella complained with a frown, pulling her horse to a halt, which began to sniff the Doctor curiously. "It was a clear round too…"
"Sorry," Sally said with the slightest hint of a smirk on her face.
"You're both up early." Bella observed.
"I'm an early riser," the Doctor shrugged indifferently, patting the horse on his nose.
"Me too," Bella grinned before looking back to Sally. "Are you going somewhere?"
"Yeah, Dad called – woke me up nice and early –"she muttered darkly before continuing again. "Anyway, apparently next doors cows have broken through our connecting boundary fence in the south-east paddock and are eating all out grass that was meant to be for the ewes and lambs in the spring."
"Did you need a hand?" Bella asked, and the Doctor heard a familiar eagerness in her voice.
"Do you mind? I just need some help herding all the cows back onto next door's property – why they can't help me I have no idea!"
Bella smiled, looking back to the Doctor. "Want to come too?"
"No, I will be fine here thanks." The Doctor said.
"Are you sure? I can quickly saddle up one of the other horses for you,"
"No thanks," the Doctor answered, resisting the urge to agree. As much as he wanted to go with her, he still needed to find out what was wrong with the TARDIS. "Maybe next time," he suggested.
"Okay," Bella said looking away and the Doctor could have sworn he heard disappointment in her voice. "Let's get going then," she added to Sally. "I've got work in six hours! See you later on, John."
The Doctor gave a slight start at being called John, but he regained enough composure to give her a small grin and a wave before she turned her horse around to walk to the gate.
"We'll be back soon," Sally said quietly to the Doctor. "Are you and Jack okay here?"
"I need to work on the TARDIS," the Doctor told her.
"Your ship… thing?" she asked.
"Yes, my ship thing." Agreed the Doctor gingerly, trying not to be offended.
"Right," Sally grinned nervously, climbing onto her bike before turning it on.
"Shouldn't you have a helmet on?" the Doctor asked loudly over the roar of the bike.
"I should, but I don't." Sally grinned mischievously, before accelerating after Bella, who was already halfway across the next field, leaving the Doctor shaking his head in disbelief.
"Teenagers," he sighed as he turned and walked back to the TARDIS.
Turning his key in the lock, he pushed opened the door and winced as he entered. The noise that the TARDIS had been making the night before seemed to have doubled. Rushing forwards, he threw his overcoat over its usual coral pillar before bounding up the ramp to the centre console, quickly pulling the computer screen towards him and typing things into the keyboard.
"Okay, old girl, I've found Bella so now you have got all of my attention, just like I promised." He said looking up to the stationary time rotor. "Now what is it, what's wrong?"
The TARDIS continued to groan in a sick machine kind-of-way while the scan moved along at an alarmingly slow rate.
"Did I work you too hard trying to find Bella?" he asked aloud guiltily. "No, that can't be it, you were drawing power from the rift in the Medusa Cascade! And besides, I have put you through worse before."
He started to pace backwards and forwards, running his hands through his hair a few times. "Did you digest something that you shouldn't have?" he pondered, but the TARDIS didn't respond which made him give a heavy sigh. "Are you angry at me for putting Bella first?"
No answer.
"Because I'm sorry, but I had to, you know that –"
"It always gets ugly when another woman gets involved."
The Doctor turned towards the doorway to see Jack walking slowly towards him up the ramp. Despite Jack's light, joking tone, the Doctor could hear concern and alarm in his voice.
"She's gotten worse," Jack observed with a frown.
The Doctor looked back to the time rotor, worry etched into every inch of his face. His TARDIS was sick, very sick and he couldn't think of how to help her. Perhaps a wire had fallen out of place, or some dirt had gotten in between one of the various parts? No, he thought to himself, this was much bigger than that.
The Doctor closed his eyes and just stood listening to the TARDIS. It felt strange, he felt somehow disconnected with her, almost like the psychic link was no longer there. But that was in itself impossible; the psychic link was part of the TARDIS, who she is, what she does. If something was interfering with the heart of the TARDIS – well, that was fearsome technology.
He stopped thinking and just listened. It sounded as though all of the TARDIS's thoughts and power was being put into something external either willingly or being drained by something and he didn't like it one bit. The sound made goose-pimples form on his skin; she sounded so sick, so unwell, like whatever the problem was it was physically hurting her, making her scream in pain…
The Doctor shivered and opened his eyes, his hearts physically aching at that last, horrid thought. He strode forward a few paces, retrieving a small hook from inside his jacket and bent down to pull part of the corrugated iron floor up. Leaning it against the console, he put the hook back inside his jack so he wouldn't lose it and jumped down into the depths of the TARDIS.
"Does she need an oil change?" Jack suggested lamely in a desperate attempt to lighten the mood. "How about a new battery? Maybe she just needs to go for a quick spin around the block?"
"She isn't a car Jack!" the Doctor snapped, popping his head back up to stare angrily at Jack. He sighed and looked away from him. "Even if a quick trip could help her, I couldn't go; there is too much of a risk of not landing on the right day or at the right time. I can't leave Bella."
Jack nodded solemnly. "Is there anything that I can do?" he asked helplessly. Even though he was a man from the fifty-first century that knew a lot about various technologies, he felt that a TARDIS was way out of his league, unless it had something to do with reconnecting wires from an extrapolator gun.
"Maybe, I just don't know yet," the Doctor said kindly, disappearing once again into the depths of the TARDIS.
Hours passed incredibly slowly in the Time Ship that day as the Doctor worked below the centre console, sonicing wires, pulling various components apart and grumbling loudly when something didn't turn out the way he planned.
Jack sat above him on the chair beside the console, looking through the corrugated iron floor, occasionally holding something for the Doctor or passing something down to him. At one point he had to go searching for a few tools that had wandered from the toolbox, and he was thankful for something to do.
After finding the blow-torch beside the swimming pool under one of the chairs (where the TARDIS's sick tones could still be heard), he headed back to the console room, where he sat beside the hole in the floor and lowered the blow-torch down, waiting for the Doctor to take it from him.
"Thanks," said the Doctor, relieving Jack of the blow-torch. "Where was it?"
"Beside the pool,"
"The pool?" the Doctor repeated, poking his head up to stare at Jack incredulously. "What on Earth was it doing down there?"
"No idea," Jack said lightly.
The Doctor shrugged before disappearing again, and moments later Jack heard the blow-torch fire up.
Eventually, the Doctor surfaced again, pulling off his welding mask and throwing it onto the floor in front of him.
"What time is it?" he asked.
"Eight-thirty," Jack answered. "P.M." he added to clarify.
The Doctor gave a heavy sigh. "We'd better go and see if Bella is back yet."
"And the TARDIS?" asked Jack.
"Isn't going anywhere," the Doctor said sadly feeling quite disheartened as he lifted himself out of the hole.
Jack followed the Doctor out of the TARDIS and into the cool night air as a voice rang out.
"Finally," said Sally from the doorway of the house. "I've been waiting for you two to come out of that little box!"
"Oi!" the Doctor complained.
"Sorry," Sally grinned.
"Is something wrong?" Jack enquired.
"No, Bella is fine – she shouldn't be home for another half-an-hour," Sally said, pulling the two men inside and into the warmth, "Which is good actually, because I need to show you something."
The Doctor exchanged a confused glance with Jack and followed Sally, who still had a tight hold on the Doctor's arm, down the hallway.
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