"It's the whole world."
"Doctor!" John's shout pulls her back into the deadly present. He pulls desperately at the car door handle. Wilf bangs on the window from the inside but the gas is taking its toll, and no one has a good feeling as the man shows his taxed physicality.
The Doctor moves aside as Sylvia comes out wielding an axe of all things. The windshield shatters irreparably at the strike of the steel head. Behind the cracked glass Wilf takes his opportunity to breathe in actual air. "Get him out of there!"
John jumps to and clears the glass off the bonnet of the car. He helps Wilf out, sliding him down the blue metal. Once on the ground he can stand, with John's help, and the Doctor ushers them all inside. John turns to his mother. "Why do you have an axe?!"
"Burglars!" is the woman's tetchy response.
"Seal off the doors and windows and stay in the house," the Doctor waves at them as she sees Ross pull up in some dreadful looking thing.
"This is all I could find without Atmos, Ma'am," he shouts to her.
"John," is all she has to say, not asking if he's coming or not.
"John, no, stay with us! That Doctor is nothing but trouble," Sylvia begs of her son in distress.
"Don't listen to her, son," Wilf waves his daughter off bids his grandson away. "You go with the Doctor! That's my boy, John!"
John takes one final look at his family before jumping in with the Doctor and Ross. He sends Wilf a two fingered salute: a sign from his boyhood that he would do honorably. "They're gonna be all right, yeah?"
"If they stay in the house, they should be," the Doctor says sidelong. She sounds dismissive but John sees in her eyes that she cares as much as he does. It comforts him.
"We're here," Ross responds soon enough, breaking them from their intense eye contact. How long was that ride exactly?
John jumps out of the old car but instantly chokes on the air. He tries to catch his breath without dry heaving. "This is disgusting."
"John, you should go to the TARDIS," the Doctor says to him quietly. She pulls out the key she had been planning to give him after his flying lesson. "Here: it's your own key to the TARDIS to keep."
"Wow," John coughs a little but stares at the plain metal key. It feels warm, but maybe it's just him being a sop. "Kind of a big moment, huh?"
"Yeah, but maybe get sentimental about it after we've saved the world from choking to death?" The Doctor nods before sending him on his way. "I've got to go stop a war, you stay in the old girl until I find it safe!"
"This is only time I'm going to obey that order, I hope you know that!" John shouts and waves. He jogs to the TARDIS, letting himself in with great pride. The air clears around him and he pats the wall in thanks. It vibrates under his touch in return. "What has she got planned?"
The TARDIS doesn't answer the question but jerks under John's feet. The sentient police box senses the change. She softens her lighting to get John's attention. It works.
"What is it? What's happening sweetheart?" John asks the TARDIS, hands on the controls.
We have been moved onto the Sontaran ship.
'Oh, that's new,' John thinks.
You'll get used to it. Listen to me, John Smith: the Doctor is going to contact them. They will use me as a hostage but she will know you are here. Do not worry, she will find a way to save you.
"Of course she will," John says aloud. "I can talk to you like this, right, I mean, that's cool with you?"
Yes, it is very cool with me.
John smiles at the old girl's dry tone. She must take after her owner, he thinks.
If anything my Doctor takes after me, John Smith. Per relationship who do you think is the mother?
John sweats a little at the agitated tone of the voice in his head. He thinks on the answer long and hard. "The…mother…ship?"
Correct; good save, human boy.
"This is the Doctor."
John blinks intensely as the screen flickers a bit. For a second he thinks he can see a flash of a man's face but it's gone. The Doctor's face comes up, along with the colonel's (the latter of which John is less thrilled to see). "Doctor, are you there?"
"Tell me, Staal," the Doctor begins after deftly shoving the colonel's face out of screen with her hand. Some complaining is heard but she zeroes in on the monitor, speaking directly with the Sontaran General. "When did you become such a coward?"
"How dare a woman speak to the great Sontaran Empire in such a way!"
"Please, poison gas is a coward's weapon and you know it. A lot like you, hellbent on honor and valiant battle, there must be something else up those little potato domes of yours." The Doctor leans back just a little, so the angle on her face is changed and she takes on a tigress kind of expression. "Losing the war against the Rutans, I bet. You fun-meal-toys have been battling for fifty thousand years! Why, so you can get some glory under your pudgy little star trek fingers and do your little dancy chants?"
"You will not be so quick to ridicule when you see our prize!" The viewpoint moves on the Doctor's end and she sees her TARDIS. "We are the first Sontarans to capture a TARDIS!"
The Doctor is diligent in schooling her features, to the point where neither the enemy nor the colonel can detect a change in expression. John can, though. If he looks really closely he sees the slight tension in the Doctor's rusty brows. It's a microexpression but it's there.
"As far as prizes go it's all right, but I lost my key to it, so I'll need a Smith. Maybe he can Johnny it open—oh, no, the expression is jimmy, innit? Either way, you won't be able to get in there."
"She's talking to me!" John declares to himself and the TARDIS. He runs his fingers through his hair. "She's talking to me and I can't answer! Grr, didn't she think that would be a problem?!"
Patience, John, listen to what she's saying.
John obeys the TARDIS's word and calms himself.
"Of course, I'll have to phone him," the Doctor makes an audaciously fake show of patting her pockets down, "but I left it in there. Darn, well, at least I've got a remote."
"Cease transmission!"
John gawps as the screen goes black. He waits several seconds but it remains a blank slate. "Is that it? What does she want me to do? Am I supposed to call her? No, she said she'd call me, right? What do I do, though? Do I just sit and wait? She said they couldn't get in here, right? So, I just wait here?!"
Silence looms over him, like a dark cloud.
"I..I'm sorry, I am sorry I shouted, but please help me," John pleads with the TARDIS. "I wasn't trying to yell at you but…I'm scared, sweetheart, and I need to know how to help the Doctor."
There is nothing to forgive, John, but you must listen. The Doctor is gong to help. She and I have a connection and she knows that we could hear her. She will find a way to help but you must wait.
"That doesn't seem fair," John chokes out. For once he has the opportunity to help, actually make a difference, and he's stuck as a hostage! What is she going to do? Not that she needs his help by any stretch but he might dare say she needs him. Who else is going to pull her away when she's too stubborn to back down. What about when she goes all self-sacrificing, who's going to talk her into finding another way?
John, you care for the Doctor as much as I, but you don't yet know her like I do. Trust in me, and her, and be patient.
With an audible sigh/groan of defeat he throws himself onto the stairs. He looks at the mobile in his hand. The Doctor will call, he reminds himself. In the meantime, he might as well take care of something.
"Mum, are you all right?"
"John, darling, where are you?" Sylvia asks sweetly into the phone. "What's happening? All that talk about ozone and global warming, I thought it was rubbish. Now your Granddad's sealing us into our own home, oh, I wish you were here."
"Come on, Sylvia, it won't help," Wilf takes the phone even though the strain in her voice adds to the choke on his. "John, where are you?"
"I'm, uh," John looks around how he should describe it, "it's hard to say. I'm not with the Doctor-"
"You promised she was going to - she said she would - look after you," Wilf manages to vocalize a frown.
"She will, Gramps, you know that," John answers quick as instinct. "She's taking care of things."
"It's just so…it's the scale of, John. I mean, how can one woman save the whole world?"
John smiles through his slight tearing up. "If anyone can, Gramps, she can…and she will."
"Well, if not, tell her she'll answer to me."
John swallows thickly and hangs up after a click is heard. He sits, feeling heavy. His bones ache with the kind of cold that sneaks into you after you've expended everything you have. This must be what they mean by "dead tired". He kicks his trainers a bit childishly. "What do I do now?"
Wait for her, John. You have done so, haven't you?
"Yeah," John muses in easy discussion with the sentient one.
You waited and searched for her, through the rift in time. How long was it for you, John? How long did you wait for her?
"A year…I waited a year to find her," John runs another hand through his hair (great hair, it is, and thank goodness it's healthy and thick or he'd have none of it left). "Sometimes it felt like only minutes, other times it was like an eternity. In my reality, a year passed without the Doctor."
Was it painful for you?
John swallows another bout of emotion and hopes his voice is even. His throat is suddenly dry and he feels colder than before. He doesn't like having to relive the year that wasn't. "Yes, it was."
Then trust that she will find you. It might not have been a year, but my Doctor was as desperate to find you as you were for her.
"Really?" John asks with his interest piqued. If he were a dog his ears would stand up straight, while his tail was wagging.
I see why she thinks you have puppy dog eyes…
"What?" John's question is an octave or two higher than normal.
Don't tell her I told you that. She doesn't even know we talk, you and I.
"Our little secret, then?" John smirks and winks up to the ceiling. A ringing cuts through the silence and scares him half to death. He jumps, staring at the mobile in his hand as if it takes him a couple seconds to realize what's happening. "Doctor, what's happened? Where are you?"
"Still on Earth, but don't worry, I have my secret weapon."
"What's that?" asks John.
"You," the voice takes on a slightly cheeky but overall fond note.
"Um, I don't know how that's gonna work out, and don't you have a remote?" John scratches the back of his neck as he moves over to the controls. So far there's no activity.
"Yeah, I don't have a remote. I really should uplink the Sonic's elctromagneticizer to the TARDIS's but that's why I need you on that ship. That's why I had them move the TARDIS. I'm sorry, but you have to go outside."
"But aren't there Sontarans out there?" John watches the door dubiously.
"They'll be at particular battle stations, I mean they don't exactly have union coffee breaks up there. I'll talk you through it."
John pauses a moment. "What if they find me?"
The silence on the Doctor's end is possibly even less promising. He can hear the struggle in her, the gears turning her mind. "I know, and you know I wouldn't ask, but there's nothing else I can do."
It's true, she wouldn't ask him to do a damn thing if she could help it. "What do you need me to do?"
"The Sontarans are inside the factory here, which means they have a teleport linked to the ship you're on. It's deadlocked, though, so you have to reopen the link."
"I might know how a circuit board works but that doesn't mean I can use alien technology—when I was four I got my hand stuck in a toaster!"
"John, don't be so deprecating, you're brilliant! I know you can do this. A Sontaran has a weak spot on the back of the neck where a Provic Vent is. One hit knocks them out cold."
John thinks for a second, on his earlier question. What if they find him? "They'll kill me, won't they."
He can imagine the Doctor's face now, all clenched in pain and anxiety. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry - I'm so sorry - but you have to try. The whole world is choking to death, John, and you're the only one who can save it."
It's all the motivation John needs. He pats the old girl for good luck and picks up the wrench the Doctor sometimes uses for repairs (hitting the old girl when she tilts too much). Peeking out the door he can see the Sontaran standing right outside. They're wee things, aren't they?
Wham!—one blow and the guard falls to the ground. John lifts the mobile to his ear with a grin not entirely appropriate for the amount of peril he's in. In a whisper: "back of the neck!"
"Oh, you're good. Now, find the internal junction feed to the teleport."
"There's a door," John offers, in case that helps any.
"Okay, it must be through there. There should be an access panel."
"It's Sontaran shaped, for three really fat fingers," says John.
"You'll probably need all of your fingers to fit, but it should still work."
John, figuring in for a half/in for a whole, bends to the switch. He carefully fits his hand to the mold. The door swishes open and he continues. "Live long and prosper; I'm in."
"Ooh, you're brilliant, you are," the Doctor praises, by the sounds of it, through pursed lips.
Not that he doesn't love the praise from her, but John presses for her to continue. "Okay, okay, now what?"
"Find a circular panel with a "T" with a line through it—gotta go!"
John could murder her, suddenly alone on a murderous alien race's spaceship. He leaves the phone on as he continues. As a door slides open John shrinks into a corner. These things are ruthless, the Doctor said. They seem to be, too, despite their Mister-Potato-Head appearance. He waits for the troops to go through. After another door closes he counts to ten and lets out a quiet breath. After checking about he continues on.
"John, hold on, I'm coming for you, I swear."
He appreciates the assurance, even though he hasn't doubted it for a moment. Finally he finds the panel but has no idea what to do with it… "Doctor, hurry up!"
"John!—okay, flip up all the blue switches inside like on a fuse box. That should get the teleport working."
John quirks his lips - the way she usually does - and figures it should work. He does so, slowly, so as not to set anything off.
"Clonefeed!—it's clonefeed…" the Doctor chatters on through the phone. The sentence continues beyond coherency as John hears it.
He hisses into the phone: "Doctoorrrrrrrrrrrr!"
"Now!"
John catches a glimpse of two Sontarans in his periphery before he blinks. The light swallows him up and the next millisecond he can see the Doctor, with the Sonic. He has never been so glad to see anyone in his whole life. "Sometimes I really hate you!"
The Doctor could beg to differ as she feels herself crushed into his embrace. His arms encircle her entirely, lips pressed to her forehead. She pats his back and struggles to make words audible against his chest. "Okay, John, yeah, but I've gotta get the TARDIS back."
John steps aside so she can Sonic the controls of the teleport. Shaun joins them inside, only nodding to John. Not that he expected otherwise, but he can tell that attempted friendly air has gone. "You've been busy without me, haven't you?"
"Oh, yes," the Doctor smiles at him briefly before teleporting them again. As John looks out the other way he sees not the factory but…an office? Also there's a kid…with a gun. "You…should put that away, she doesn't take too kindly to those."
"The Sontarans lied to me," the kid starts to babble.
"You are too young to be wavin' this thing around," the Doctor brusquely grabs the gun out of Luke's hand and tosses it across the room like a toy.
John and Shaun walk around the boy without so much as a glance. John shoves his hands into his pockets before breaching the touchy subject. "So, you fancied the Doctor, eh?"
Shaun figured it was only a matter of time before the younger man got too curious to resist. Not that Shaun can claim he's innocent either. First opportunity alone with the Doctor he asked everything he could
"So," Shaun began gingerly. "This John Smith; he seems nice."
"He is nice, very nice," the Doctor answered him with an already testy tone. She had been anticipating this conversation for quite a while.
"He seems quite fond of you already," was the best Shaun could come up with. It wasn't that he was still in love with the Doctor (entirely), or that he was a jealous man (horribly), or even that he just didn't like John (completely). He just…wanted to know…why?
"We get along well," the Doctor answered, still short about it.
"Oh, don't pull that with me," Shaun gave up, exasperated. "He clearly fancies you and believe me, I watched you enough to know the signs of you fancyin' him."
"Oh, so we're back to how emotionally stunted I am?" the Doctor snarled at him.
"Don't give me that," Shaun retorted easily. "I see the way you look at him and I can tell. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, and I'm happy for you, really. I just want to know…why?"
"Why what?" the Doctor put down the Sonic and looked at him squarely.
"Why him?—and why do you care about him so much?" Shaun watched an evolution of emotion in her. There was recognition, and pensiveness, then came reminiscence, fondness, trepidation, and a touch of fear. He sighed to himself; these were all the signs of love.
"I don't know, Shaun," the Doctor addressed him, finally feeling as if she could talk with him as an old friend. "I didn't even plan to travel with him, but I'm glad that I am."
"He has grown on you, it's easy to tell," Shaun smiled fondly. His tone softened when hers did, making the atmosphere of the room lighter.
"He's brilliant," she smiled just before John came back from investigating personnel.
"Well, you said yourself, no one would blame me," Shaun shrugs at John, who nods his concurrence. "It was complicated, though. I mean she wanted to be friends, I wanted more, it worked out for the best, though. I mean we were married briefly-"
"What?!" John yelps like a cat that has had its tail stepped on.
"Chameleon arc, fob watch, human physiology, memory loss, long story, I'll tell you later," the Doctor waves her hand about nervously, visually cringing at the thought. "Luke, where's the atmospheric converter?"
The sad looking boy points pitifully to the lab. It's in parts but the Doctor begins throwing them together as if they're a child's Lego model. She babbles on, mostly out of pure need to do so. Shaun catches some words and John is at least able to follow the speed of her speech.
"Atmospheric converter?" John looks from the Doctor, who is just about finished, to Luke.
"It was going to be a new world," Luke spouts as if it will excuse things.
"Luke, you can't run away from your problems," the Doctor takes a second among all the chaos to speak softly. She places a hand on his shoulder and looks into his eyes. "The only way to solve a problem is to face it head on. You'll figure it out; you're brilliant like that."
"Doctor, are you doing what I think you're doing?" Shaun asks.
"Igniting the atmosphere!" she shouts as she runs ahead, only telling John through a nod to bring the atmospheric thingy. Outside the sky is grey, and you can barely see the city beyond the hills, let alone the skyline. London is covered in a blanket of grey smog. "Here we go!"
A laser shoots into the air and soon the entire atmosphere is in flame. Th smog over the whole world ignites as quickly as a match. The whole sky is fire, over the entire planet Earth. It roars with a frightening force. Yet, when it clears, the sky is blue again. It's a promising blue.
With only a gesture from the Doctor Shaun picks up the large device and rushes it back into the transporter room. She puts herself into the chamber and takes the heavy machine. With a thud she puts it on the floor and takes a good look at her companions. "Shaun, thank you, for all the times…every time. John, thank you…so much, for everything. Luke, sweetheart, you're going to be all right, you're a clever boy."
"Why are you saying goodbye?" John steps forward, shaking horribly.
"The Sontarans will be ready for war, and they will destroy the Earth if given the opportunity. I set this thing for Sontaran air," the Doctor pats the atmospheric converter.
"You're going to ignite their air," Shaun spells it out.
"You'll kill yourself," John cuts in harshly.
"Can't you just, I dunno, put it on a delay, send it up on its own?"
"I can't," the Doctor looks at Shaun then towards John. She knows he knows why, too.
"You have to give them a choice." John says for her. The next second she's gone, blinked out with light. He pulls at his hair madly. His throat makes a choking noise and tears burn his eyes. He didn't…he couldn't…there were….they could have…she promised!
"Easy there, mate, you knew she would try this," Shaun tries to comfort John through his own grief. He knew the Doctor for a year and it's the stranger who has known her for all of three(?) trips who's crying? Shaun scoffs in his head for lack of anything else to do but cry.
"I could have stopped her—should have stopped her." John hangs his head miserably.
"She told me a story," Luke finally speaks up, also in tears. "It was about a boy, and I thought it was her son, but she said she didn't have a son."
"She had a son," Shaun corrects him automatically.
"She said," Luke trails off but John speaks up.
"Did she say she didn't have a son or that she doesn't have a son?"
The realization hits Luke hard, and he seems to have the wind knocked out of him. In a blur he's at the teleporter, rewiring things, tears still flowing down his cheeks.
"What are you doing?" asks Shaun.
"Something clever," Luke answers before disappearing. As soon as he's gone the Doctor is back in his place. She seems to lose the strength in her knees as she wobbles out of the chamber. John catches her first, holding her tightly in his arms. He is breathing just as hard as she is, both trying to fight tears. He presses a kiss to her hair without realizing. Shaun comes to them, touching the Doctor's arm in slight disbelief.
"He took my place," the Doctor whispers. They all look out the window and all is well. "He ignited the atmosphere."
"He did something clever," John ghost's the boy's earlier words. The Doctor hangs her head, grief stricken at the boy's death. She had wanted to save him. Even though he very well facilitated the Sontaran invasion, she wanted to save him—show him he didn't have to be alone to be brilliant. John holds her as he feels tiny sobs wrack her body.
—
"Everything's well here, Lad," Wilf smiles at his grandson. The Doctor made sure to check on them but made herself scarce when Sylvia appeared at the end of the road. The axe incident really put a fright to her. "And I won't tell her."
John nods. He feels a little recovered after the whole ordeal, but he's still reeling from the monstrosity of it all. It ended as well as it could have, though, he guesses. "I…I'll be careful, Gramps. I'll be with the Doctor, after all."
"You go with that wonderful Doctor, Johnny, and you see the stars." Wilf chokes down his tears and pats his grandson's hand. "Then, then maybe bring a piece of 'em back for your old Gramps."
John chokes back his own tears as well. He pats his hand and smiles a watery smile. "Yeah…love you."
"John," the Doctor pokes her head in the door. She does a quick glance around for Sylvia. "Hello, Wilf; John, we best be off."
John smiles, a little tiredly, but happy all the same: "Allons-y."