Author's note: Okay, so it is a doosy of a chapter this time. It's long, and it's full of information. I just hope that it isn't too much for everyone. It was the only place I could end the chapter. Hopefully it all makes sense. Gosh, so much going on!
Please let me know what you think of it; I can't improve unless you tell me what I am doing wrong :P
Enjoy!
Sally looked around the dark and empty pub, shivering slightly. The wooden shutters on the big windows managed to block out most of the little sunlight that was coming from outside and she felt that it was all rather dark and creepy and soon found herself bumping into a think wooden chair.
"Shh!" the Doctor said quietly.
"Sorry," Sally whispered back, rubbing her shin as she stood on one leg, glancing over to him.
In all honesty, she couldn't believe what she was doing. Breaking into someone's home and workplace to see if the owner of the home is dead or not so they could get Bella's memory back and stop an evil alien monster from destroying the Universe. Insane; this time last year, Sally Brenner still didn't believe in aliens, even after the so-called Dalek attack, yet here she was, standing beside one – even if he did look human, he was the owner of a very unique space ship. She still couldn't believe all the stuff the Doctor had said about parallel universes and that he and Bella travelled around saving everyone…
"Jack, what are you doing?" the Doctor whispered, looking over to Jack who had stepped behind the tall wooden bar. "Is this really the time?"
"Just so you know, Doctor, I don't drink," Jack said quietly back, disappearing as he knelt down as the Doctor and Sally glanced at each other before he stood back up. "Since Rose's little intervention actually. Besides," he said putting a heavy looking book down on the counter. "If anything strange has happened over the past few months, it'll show up in the book-keeping."
The Doctor grinned and made his way behind the bar to stand beside Jack, Sally following him, thinking that the two men had a very different kind of relationship to what she was expecting. They seemed incredibly close, yet she felt that there was something that seemed to be getting in the way…
"Brilliant," the Doctor smiled.
"I know," Jack answered confidently, causing the Doctor to roll his eyes.
"Anything in there?" whispered Sally curiously.
"Give me a minute." Jack said as he began flicking through the book's pages.
Sally watched the Doctor wander around somewhat impatiently, opening drawers and cupboards, poking through rubbish and looking at basically anything he could get his hands on, his face alight with childish curiosity.
"Found it," Jack said and Sally looked over his shoulder.
"What is it?" the Doctor asked, bounding over to them and standing on the opposite side of the counter.
"The pub didn't open for a week," Jack said, "from the twenty-third to the thirtieth of April last year.
"Was there any reason?" the Doctor asked, feeling that something sounded familiar about those dates.
"We all thought that he's gone missing too," Sally told him. "He didn't show up for work on the twenty-third – here or up in Bath, but apparently he was just unwell. He didn't open the pub, but he did aid in Bella's disappearance case briefly before this on the twentieth and then again when he confirmed my story later on."
"He declared her dead." Jack assumed.
"Then he is definitely the one." The Doctor declared.
"How do you know?" Sally questioned him, confused as to how this information confirmed anything at all.
"This about the dates, Sally." The Doctor said quietly, looking at her intently. "When was the first time I met Bella Lumic?"
"Uh –"
"Saturday the fourth of April." The Doctor said. "And then what was the date of Bella's disappearance?"
"Friday the seventeenth," Sally said almost at once, knowing it was not a date that she would ever be able to forget. "She still hasn't told me what really happened, you know."
"Yes she has," the Doctor said seriously and Sally shook her head in disbelief. "Now, that newspaper that we found at her house after we brought her back said that she's been declared dead –"
"That was on the Monday," Sally said. "In all honesty, I thought it had all happened a bit quick, considering you need to be missing for over seven years normally to be considered dead, but all the investigators said that because of the obvious signs of a struggle –"
"That would have been the Judoon," interjected the Doctor.
"- and the lack of a motive plus no ransom it was the only explanation so we would have to wait for her body to turn up somewhere… suicide crossed their mind too…" she added in an undertone, giving a shudder. "But then you guys came back on the twenty-fourth –"
"The day after Milton goes missing." The Doctor said pointedly.
"- And I go and tell the police that Bella is actually alive –"
"Then Edwin Milton turns up again to collaborate your story which was a complete lie in the first place." The Doctor added.
Sally frowned. "So you are saying that Milton has died?" she asked sceptically.
"Yes," he said. "Think about it; no one saw him for three days and why would a coroner – a man of scientific, legal and law enforcement backgrounds – back up your story unless he knew for a fact that Bella was alive –"
"- Because that Trickster bloke told him!" finished Sally excitedly.
"Exactly!" the Doctor smiled triumphantly.
"Alright Mulder and Scully," Jack said, "but that isn't normally how the Trickster does things."
The Doctor and Sally looked to him, their smiles now gone.
"After our conversation the other night, I sent a quick email to Sarah Jane, asking her about the Trickster." Jack said slowly. "Apparently the first time she had met him, he had gone into her past and made a deal with her best friend, who had died after falling off Blackpool Pier. The deal was that the friend's life was saved if another died in her place."
"Sarah?" the Doctor asked horror-struck
Jack nodded. "One of Sarah Jane's world-saving companions saved the day that time; a girl by the name of Maria Jackson."
The Doctor remained silent for a few moments, still horrified at the thought of Sarah Jane not existing at Bannerman Road; all those times she had saved the universe and his own life. All the aliens that she had helped him defeat; the Wirrn, the Cybermen, the Daleks, the Ice Warriors, the Krynoid, Morbius, the Sontarans, Sutekh and his mummies and the Zygons, plus the ones that she herself – with the help of her young friends – has come across on Earth.
"So – So you're saying that someone else should have died too?" Sally asked someone fearfully.
"If what happened to Sarah Jane is anything to go by," said Jack frankly.
"And who is Sarah Jane?" added Sally.
"A good friend." The Doctor said slowly, his mind racing after this new development before there was a sudden shout.
"What the blazers -!"
The Doctor looked around to his right and saw a short, chubby elderly man who would have been in his late sixties, early seventies with grey hair and a very large waist standing in the doorway that led into the kitchens, looking both shocked and angry.
"Ah," the Doctor said as he moved forward, Jack moving in front of Sally in case the situation got a tad dangerous.
"What are you doing in here?" ordered Milton furiously, glaring at them all in turn. "This is breaking and entering, I say!"
"No, no, we only entered, there was no breaking of anything at all." The Doctor said lightly, yet he was watching Milton very closely. Something was definitely wrong with him and the Doctor wondered how he didn't spot it the other night.
"That door was locked!" Milton said stubbornly.
The Doctor rolled his eyes and held up the black leather wallet that contained his psychic paper. "DCI John Smith, Scotland yard." He said sternly, Milton's dark brown eyes falling onto the paper. "I am here doing a follow up investigation concerning Isabella Lumic and the way it was handled by the Bath Police. This is my colleague DI Harkness and this is Sally Brenner, Miss Lumic's friend, as you are no doubt aware of."
As Milton glanced across to her and Jack, Sally wondered how the Doctor could possibly think that he could get away with such a lie, especially since Milton, who was now looking suspiciously back to the Doctor, had been part of the police service.
"We were wondering, Mr Milton, if we could ask a few questions?" the Doctor asked before continuing without waiting for a response. "Have you had any near fatal accidents lately? Fallen off a roof or ladder or from any other great height? Been hit by a car? Have you woken up to find a creepy, faceless guy watching you sleep?"
"What exactly does this have to do with Miss Lumic?" Milton said, glancing behind him into the kitchen somewhat fearfully.
"Oh, nothing really," the Doctor shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets. "I'm just curious – hence the job with Scotland Yard, you know what it's like; it's a small town though, people notice when someone is in some kind of accident, but speaking of near death experiences, you were the one who declared Miss Lumic deceased a little prematurely, were you not?"
"Is he always like this?" whispered Sally, amazed by how fast the Doctor spoke.
"Yeah," Jack whispered back with a slight smile.
"I was," Milton said after a moment's pause.
"And yet, correct me here if I am wrong," the Doctor continued, beginning to pace back and forth in front of Milton much like a prosecution lawyer would do in a court of law. "You were also the one to back Miss Brenner up concerning her story – and let's face it, all of us here know that the story of Bella travelling with long lost family is frankly a load of codswallop – a very interesting term codswallop and I am not sure I understand the term entirely, but it is a good word – very British, so I will use it here – anyway, I appear to have become side-tracked, where was I?"
"Told you," Jack whispered to Sally, who couldn't believe how fast he changed subject.
"Oh yes!" the Doctor said brightly before his child-like grin vanished, replaced by a look that Sally could only imagine to be deep, furious anger. "You backed up Sally's ridiculous story – ridiculous only because Bella's mother does not and never has had any living relatives on this wonderful planet, and anyone who looked into it seriously enough would be able to see that. Because for all of this to be pulled off, Bella needed to be alive and not have investigators lock her up for questioning; she would be no use to the Trickster as someone who could no longer exist, otherwise what is the point of allowing her to survive?"
A long, tense silence followed in which Sally continued to stare at the Doctor, this time with fear mixed in with the wonder. He had gone from happily rambling about his understanding of a word to staring at Milton with a furious expression and looking as though he was seconds away from throttling him.
"And so the foul, faceless being came to you, giving you the chance to live again but at a cost." The Doctor said his voice dangerously low and shaking slightly with anger. "A cost, I am sure you didn't fully understand because you hardly knew Bella. What did he tell you; that she would be safer back here, that she deserved it? Did he spin you a sad tale of nothing but lies? That she wouldn't be missed, that there was no harm in taking her from where she belonged, where she was happiest?"
"I think that you have me confused with someone else," Milton said calmly, which seemed to enrage the Doctor even more.
"You insignificant little human!" the Doctor said furiously. "You have no idea what damage this could be doing to this planet, to the entire universe! The only reason why the Earth is still in orbit, why everyone is still here and not all transformed into Cybermen, is because Bella Lumic risked everything to keep you safe!"
"I am going to have to ask you to leave now, Mr Smith." Milton smiled in a seemingly polite manner, but Sally didn't buy it, nor, apparently did the Doctor.
He took a few steps forward, his face only inches away from Milton's. "I will find out exactly what you've done to Bella and I will make sure that you will regret ever being a part of the Trickster's plans for the rest of your life."
"Is that a threat?" Milton asked, raising his eyebrows.
"No," the Doctor said through clenched teeth, "It's a promise."
Another tense silence followed in which the Doctor glared furiously at Milton, Sally watching nervously from behind Jack.
"Get out." Milton said in almost a hiss.
To Sally's surprise, the Doctor turned and stormed out.
"We still have more questions for you, so – uh – don't go anywhere too far away." Jack said slowly as he too began to head towards the door. "C'mon Sally."
Taking one last look at Milton, who was watching them leave with a dark, trouble expression, Sally followed Jack out of the dark pub and into the dull, grey sunlight that seemed much brighter than it actually was. She saw the Doctor standing on the footpath a little ahead of them, with his back towards them.
"Well, that went well." Jack said sarcastically as both the Doctor and Sally glared at him. "Sorry," he added hastily.
"We didn't really learn much from him did we?" said Sally.
"We've learnt a lot actually." The Doctor said darkly.
"We have?"
"He's as good as confirmed that he is in league with the Trickster." The Doctor said quietly. "Did you not see how he reacted when I mentioned the creep faceless guy?"
"Ah," Jack nodded slowly.
"When he glanced back over his shoulder?" Sally asked and the Doctor nodded. "But he looked kind of scared."
"Exactly," the Doctor said. "He may be regretting his decision to help the Trickster, and that may be the key to getting Bella's memory back."
"How exactly?" pondered Jack.
"I have an idea," the Doctor told them quietly, "But this isn't the place to discuss it, come on!"
- O -
From one of the windows in the Sleeping Policeman, Milton watched the three of them fearfully. They knew a lot, so much more than he or the Trickster had thought. The Doctor had pieced together nearly everything, and he knew that the Doctor suspected him of so much more. He shivered, remembering the fierce, protective look in the Time Lord's eyes and he knew that if anything permanent happened to his companion he would stay true to his word.
He had heard so much about the Doctor, and if he was honest with himself, had the Trickster mentioned that he would have been involved, he would have seriously considered dying. Maybe that was why the Trickster didn't give many details. Perhaps death would have been the better option?
He's known so little about the girl at the time of the Trickster's apparent gift, he was just so eager to have the chance to live, to not die, for the pain to stop, he had agreed, no questions asked. Looking back he felt that he should have known that a faceless monster couldn't be completely trusted. He sighed heavily, wishing that he had someone to confide in, someone to ask for guidance. But he had no one now; he was the only one left. His parents had died some years ago now, and his brothers and sisters – well, he didn't know what had happened to them. He knew that some had perished in the last war, he had seen them die with his own eyes next to him on the muddy battlefield, but he hoped and prayed that some of them had survived the needless violence. Maybe none of them deserved to live, maybe they did, he didn't know. His judgement had begun to blur more and more with each day that passed.
"You are failing me." said a voice from in the kitchen, making Milton wince as though someone had physically hurt him.
Reluctantly, and with a hint of fear, Milton walked through the doorway into the large kitchen, looking to the mirror beside the doorway where the familiar figure of the Trickster occupied the frame.
"The Doctor is dangerously close to the truth and Bella Lumic is on the verge of remembering everything!"
"Both of which you said could never happen." Milton snapped.
"There was always a possibility of that blasted Time Lord intervening; he has got to be the worst of all of them!" the Trickster said angrily and Milton could tell that this fact unnerved the strange creature. "As for the girl – well, it is all rather strange. It almost seems as though there is some external force is in her mind, trying to help her keep a tight hold of her precious memories."
The Trickster seemed to ponder this for a few moments before speaking once again. "I am unaware of how it is happening, but I believe the best thing to do would be to eliminate the Doctor and his freak-of-humanity friend just to be on the safe side."
"No!" gasped Milton, horrified. "Killing was not part of the deal!"
"Part of the deal?" the Trickster repeated with a small smile. "It was always part of the deal. Just remember Milton, the moment Miss Lumic remembers the Doctor and everything that she has ever done with him, I have no more use for you and I will send you back to where I found you; four and a half years in the future, cold, alone and slowly dying."
Milton glared at the cruel and merciless being, regretting his deal immensely now.
The Trickster grinned, baring his sharp, pointy teeth. "Kill the Doctor, wipe out any trace of his existence or die. It's your choice."
The Trickster suddenly vanished from the mirror and Milton sunk onto a nearby chair, covering his old, tired face in his hands.
- O -
Bella sat by herself for a very long time not really knowing what had upset her so much. Eventually she picked herself up, feeling angry. I won't solve anything by moping about it, she thought suddenly. It wasn't like her to do this; it wasn't like her to depend on someone else figuring everything out.
Frowning, Bella tried to remember the dream that she had had that morning. She had walked home from work because her guardians had taken her car that day. She had stood at her front gate, admiring her beautiful home when a tall, good looking man had jumped out of the bushes, warning her not to go into her house. Of course, she hadn't listened to him and she had gone inside to find that Mary and Mark, along with some of their strange friends, who had all turned into these horrid, green monsters and chased her into the kitchen. From there, the wondrous man had helped her escape through the window, rather than the door. She smiled slightly as she remembered that they had run hand-in-hand across her front yard only to be caught and taken to her father's old garden shed.
Glancing across the yard she saw that very same shed, covered in ivy and weeds. Slowly, if not a little hesitantly, she left her patient horse standing where he was, and walked towards the shed wishing that she had a Sonic Screwdriver – not that she knew what that was. She knew that it was impossible for there to be a secret underground lair, but something in her mind – a kind of soft, gentle voice – kept nagging at her to look. She eventually managed to pull the door open, freeing it from all the overgrowth. Coughing slightly from disturbing a year's worth of dust, she walking in, staring at the large, intricate rug on the floor.
It couldn't possibly be right, she thought, why would there be an expensive looking rug inside a shed that contained lawn mowers and other dirty gardening tools? Getting to her knees, she took the corner of the rug and threw it away from her, revealing a large circular metal part in the floor. She gasped and jumped back onto her feet, backing into the wall behind her, her hands instantly grabbing her head as it erupted in a sharp, searing pain.
- O -
The Doctor sat in the front passenger seat in Sally's little corolla and suddenly yelled "Stop!"
Sally slammed on the brakes in the middle of the road, looking wildly in all directions, wondering what she had missed.
"Stay here," the Doctor instructed, getting out of the car and shutting the door.
"Where are you going?" Sally asked, getting out of the car too as the Doctor walked away from her back the way they had just come.
He didn't answer her.
"Should I just park here then?" she yelled after him, making Jack smirk. "Leave her in the middle of the road do you reckon?"
The Doctor continued to ignore Sally's angry yells and kept walking down the road. This new pain in his head was almost blinding him, and it was the psychic link with the TARDIS trying to re-establish itself with his mind. The TARDIS kept dropping in and out like a badly tuned radio, but from what he could gather, she wanted him to get to Bella's garden shed as fast as he could.
He was unsure of what this meant; was Bella in danger and had been taken down into the underground vault, or had Bella gone there on her own accord? Either way, his assumptions from earlier had now been confirmed; the TARDIS had been trying to help Bella remember which was the reason why she was sounding so tired and over worked, something which relieved him slightly. At least he knew what was going on with one thing in his life.
As he rounded the corner, he stepped through a wild and overgrown gateway and came to a stop after seeing Bella step out of the shed that concealed the opening for her father's underground bunker, her expression thoughtful.
An idea came to him quiet suddenly, an idea that he wasn't entirely sure if it was his own or if it was the TARDIS's, but he strode forward none-the-less. He definitely hadn't thought the plan through; he just needed to give it a go. If Bella had already started to remember things on her own accord, maybe all she needed was something big to get her memories into gear again, and the Doctor knew just the thing. Of course, it could work in the opposite way as well; the memories and the shock of all her memories flooding back at once could be too much for Bella's mind (and the TARDIS) to cope with, therefore he could make the whole situation worse than it already was. It was a daft plan, especially for him, but that gave him the confidence that it would definitely work. She needed a shock, and he knew just the thing that would work.
"Bella," he called as he quickly approached her, his hearts racing as what he was about to do dawned on him.
A look of recognition spread across her face, her mouth opening and closing again before she shook her head. "John, what are you doing here?"
So close, he grimaced.
"I just have to try something," the Doctor explained quietly, Bella's eyes not leaving his. He stopped directly in front of her. "I'm sorry if this doesn't work, but I have to try, you need to know that I am doing everything that I can possibly think of to get you back."
"Get me back?" Bella repeated looking extremely confused. "Why is everyone talking about me in the past tense?"
"Bella," he said, moving forward a bit more to place his hands on her arms to quieten her. "You need to trust me."
"I – I do trust you." She whispered sounding slightly frightened as though she didn't understand why she would trust him.
"I know you do, Bella Lumic." He said very softly, his hand on her cheek now and his mouth very close to hers. "And that is why I need you to remember."
He closed the distance between them, his lips coming into contact with hers as he kissed her perhaps a little more passionately than he had originally intended, but he supposed that just went to show how much he wanted his plan to work, and to his surprise, Bella didn't pull away.
Moments later however, the Doctor suddenly let go of her and took a few steps back, his hands flying up to his head as he gasped in pain. His psychic link with the TARDIS seemed to have fully re-established itself again and once the Doctor had realised this, his eyes flew open.
Bella stood perfectly still, her eyes closed and her skin deathly pale and he knew as soon as he saw her that he had failed, that instead of forcing her memories back to the surface, it seemed as though her brain had almost entirely shut down in order to protect itself.
"No," his whispered emotionally, realising that the TARDIS must have given up too. He'd lost her. He had let the Trickster win, and Bella was his prize, meaning that he was destined to travel alone for the rest of his potentially long life; two companions in a row that would never, ever, remember him.
He felt a tear fall down his cheek as he took another step backwards. She was gone; the girl who had stolen both his hearts and he couldn't do anything about it. He knew that he needed to leave her, he knew that since the TARDIS was no longer trying to defend Bella's mind from the Trickster that Bella was in great danger if she saw him. But he couldn't bring himself to do it; to leave her, not after everything that they had gone through together… she was his best friend…
"I'm so sorry Bella." He managed to choke out, his voice full of guilt and pain, turning and forcing himself to walk away, but as he did so he didn't hear a very soft, emotional whisper from Bella behind him.
"Doctor…"