Hello everyone, sorry I didn't update yesterday!
Turtle you are just adorable! (And you were right to worry as I'm not ok, more like coping. That was even more adorable, and thank you...)
So this is chapter 20! I'll write more tomorrow as tomorrow is bank holiday for us!
I wonder if you found some clues... ;)
Enjoy!
Melody - x.
Chapter 20
The next morning, the Doctor stepped out of Craig's house, holding the Cybermat in his hand, ready to go and try to stop the Cybermen.
"Safe mode…" he smiled. "Clever me! Come along Bitey." he said, stroking the metal rat as if it was a cat and walk off to the department store.
Inside the house, Craig and Melody were both sleeping, not even bothered by the morning light laying upon them. A beep echoed and Sophie's voice started to speak on the answerphone, waking them up:
"So I'll be back about ten, because Melina's totally gone off on one. She's going to kill David Jenkins. I know I'm stupid to worry. I can't wait to get home to my special boys! Love you Alfie, love you Craig."
"Oh, no, no, no, no." Craig freaked out. He got up and went to the kitchen, followed by Melody.
"Doctor?" she called. "Oh no… I forgot about that…" she said, looking at the TARDIS blue paper on the fridge door.
"Dear Craig. Gone to stop Cybermen. Sorry, goodbye. The Doctor."
"You idiot!" exclaimed Craig. He went upstairs to take Alfie and put him in the papoose, getting ready to go to the shop after the Doctor. The Time Lord must have taken Alfie to his bed the night before when they all were asleep.
But Melody was not moving. She was staring at the fridge door. There was nothing for her, not a single word saying goodbye to her. A strange feeling of emptiness filled her before being replaced with anger.
"Oh I hate him!" she exclaimed before taking her coat and going with Craig to the shop.
When they arrived at the department store they searched for the Doctor, Melody trying hard to remember where it was. When they bumped into Val, Craig asked her to take care of Alfie for a moment because they needed to find the Time Lord.
"Come on, concentrate, concentrate!" Melody urged herself. She looked around her, her eyes searching for something that would make her remember. From afar she saw Kelly chewing gum and her mind clicked. Kelly, Shona, the changing rooms, the mirror! "Come on Craig, this way!"
They both ran to the changing rooms in the ladies section and found in the last cubicle, the wall wide open in the shape of the mirror that was hiding it until then. Melody stepped into the tunnel that was going down, Craig following her after taking a laser barcode reader thinking that could pass as a weapon.
When they arrived in the cave holding the old wrecked Cybership, they headed towards an entry to see the Doctor just being seized by the Cybermen. Seeing this, Craig jumped out of their hideout, shouting:
"Cybermen! Get off my planet or I'll activate this!"
"Craig what are you doing! Get out of here!" exclaimed the Doctor.
"It's like you said Doctor, got to believe you can do it."
Melody stepped out of the shadows:
"This has to happen Doctor, it's important for Craig."
"Melody… What are you doing here, why did you come? You had to stay home, safe!"
"You didn't say a word to me! Not a single one! You really thought that I'd wait for you to come back - if you were to come back that is!"
"Oi! I'm not talking to you!"
"I hate you!"
At these words the Doctor's face was left with no emotions to see though, somehow, in his eyes a hint of doubt could be seen. Was she joking? Or being serious?
"Cease, this conversation is irrelevant. You are intelligent, you will be like us, you will be more than us." a Cyberman cut in.
"What? No, you don't need me, I'm not intelligent!" exclaimed Craig.
"Do not fear, we will remove fear from you. Your designation is Cyber-Controller."
They seized Craig and pushed him into a Cybersuit for conversion. The parts enclosed his body, one after the other, leaving the face free until he gets converted. The Doctor glanced at Melody, worried as this was taking a wrong turn.
"You are not compatible, you are an anomaly. We will use the parts, the rest will be discarded." another Cyberman spoke up, turning to Melody and approaching her.
As Craig's conversion had already started, they seized Melody.
"No! Leave her, let her go! Please let her go! You already have me, let her go! Listen to me, you metal morons, you harmed her once, do that again and I'll burn each and every one of you!" the Doctor shouted, rage in his voice and his eyes dark, trying desperately to break free.
The grip of their metal hands on her neck, arms and shoulders was tight, too tight, and it was hurting her. Meanwhile, the Cybersuit was enclosing Craig's face. As she tried to break free, the screens started to scramble and soon, the image of Alfie in Val's arms in the shop appeared. Alfie was crying, somehow feeling something was wrong with his dad.
"Alfie… I'm sorry Alfie, there's nothing I can do… this has to happen…" said the Doctor sadly.
"What is this?" a Cyberman asked.
"This is irrelevant, this is sound of fear."
"D'you think?" Melody asked defiantly. "Well wait and see, fellas!"
She looked at Craig, hoping that all would go to plan. A few seconds later, Alfie's cries surrounded them, Craig's fingers twitched, making an alarm start to ring.
"Come on Craig!" muttered the Doctor.
"Alert! Alert! Emotional subsystem rebooting. This is impossible." the Cybermen started to freak out - if that could be said of them.
"He can hear him… He can hear Alfie. Oh, please, just give me this. Craig, you wanted a chance to prove you're a dad. You are never going to get better one than this." the Doctor said.
"What is happening?" asked a Cyberman.
"What's happening, you metal moron? A baby is crying. And you'd better watch out, because guess what? Ha ha! Daddy's coming home!"
Melody smirked as the Cybermask flung open, letting Craig's face free again.
"Alfie! Alfie I'm here I'm coming for you!"
The dad broke free of the Cybersuit and as the metal men were confused by the situation, the Doctor broke free, using the sonic screwdriver on the ones holding Melody to pull her back behind him before running towards the surface as the Cybermen - because of the short in their emotional inhibitors Craig created - were now all exploding, conscious of what happened to themselves.
Melody, the Doctor and Craig, jumped into the teleport and sonicking it, they got teleported into the lift, back to the surface, in the shop and safe.
As always, please let me know what you think and see you next chapter! :)