"Again, really?" Molly sounded incredulous as she opened the black body bag. She stared down at the body's angular features and smug smile, his glistening eyes, bright and, as always, full of life.
The Doctor lay stock still, resisting every urge in his body and mind to move. Molly hadn't said what he wanted her to, he hadn't had the greeting he'd been patiently waiting for, for nigh on twenty years. Although, he supposed, it was only six months for Molly herself. If he didn't move, maybe she'd remember, sound logic.
"If you refuse to move, I'll have to assume you dead and continue with the autopsy, John Smith, and I'm sure it would be an enlightening experience." Molly smiled cheekily, fully aware that The Doctor was waiting for their customary greeting; but if she pandered to the wants of all the tall brooding men in her life she would most certainly go nowhere fast. Upon her threat reaching his ears, the TimeLord jumped haphazardly to his feet, clattering to the floor with a great thud, the lower-half of his body still encased in the black zip up bag. Molly almost joined him on the floor, as copious bouts of laughter racked her being.
"Oh, you brilliant fool. What's the saying, 'look before you leap'?" She said, as she gasped for breath to fuel her laughter. The Doctor's stony glare softened, the blow to his pride healing as Molly's laughter slowed. He joined in the last sparse giggles at his own expense, happy to see his Hooper, relieved that her smile was just how he'd remembered. "Hello, my handsome man." She smiled, grasping his hand and lifting him to his feet, light as a feather this one, and helping him step out of the bag.
"Now if you'd have just said the in the first place, we could have avoided this mess." The Doctor chided, glaring around at the scattered utensils on the floor, the clipboard forgotten by the side if the crumpled body bag.
"I can hardly avoid mess with you around. It's inevitable."
"Well..."
"Well, that's the most dangerous word in the English language. Careful." Molly's smiled faded almost imperceptibly, the last time those words had been uttered she had to leave him behind, so he could travel, with someone else, someone new. And even if it was her choice, her decision made, it hadn't stopped the heartache, the poisonous thoughts of being replaced flooding her mind.
"Anyway, what are you doing here, trying to scare the life out of my students?" She laughed. "Aren't you meant to be gallivanting around with some pretty young thing?"
"Gallivanting? Hardly. No I thought it was high time to take a break, travel alone… But it was lonely Molls. Come back with me?" His eyes where questioning, desperate and still gleamed with the loneliness all of time and space could provide, when lacking in companionship.
"No." It was immediate and harsh and wholly unlike the Molly. Her stuttered and rushed voice caught up with her mind, "I mean, I just can't. I've not been back long, I need to get used to the everyday, the slow path. Every time you whisk me away I'll only want to stay longer, and I'm not the one meant to stay with you forever." She pulled the lean man into a hug before he could respond, she did not mean it harshly, but those words, in any inclination have the ability to break hearts. "I've got work, and consulting on alien deaths with Torchwood. There's Mum and Toby. And then there's you, I've got to be here when you need me, living out the slow path so you'll always find me." Her arms dropped then, not unkindly, still gripping his coat lapels, so she could look into his eyes, those eyes that were filled with nine hundred years of life, nine hundred years of death, nine hundred years of pain and redemption.
"Why Hooper, must you always be right?" Her grinned, that lopsided grin he reserved for the cleverest of minds and the strongest of hearts. "But if you won't fly away with me, the least you could do is... Run." His voice dropped an octave, his tone filled with urgency and that odd hint of giddiness.
"Why?" Molly spoke as her feet carried her through the halls of St Bart's, each white wall, every pale blue sign blurring into one, she may question him, but that does not mean she won't follow.
"We always run."
"Don't suppose you could flesh that out a bit."
"Yep."
Molly halted, she stood sock still, all bar the gentle tapping of an impatient right foot, her impatience also mirrored in the cross of her arms and quirk of her brow. Molly Hooper meant business and The Doctor knew better than trying to dissuade the question any further.
"Okay, so the Hirrodites, shape-shifting forms from the planet cluster of Hetsabodicolrolicoindasight, they have sent probes, small ships with no more than three Hirrodites per vessel into this galaxy, each ship scans a solar system and when it finds life infiltrates the planet until they are confident of a full blown invasion. Clever, I mean they shape shift, they can become the species that they will conquer, but thankfully earth has me! And I know their one fatal flaw, the thing that sets them apart from the rest of humanity, green viscous blood and three hearts... now that's just greedy. But that means they have a Doctor for their own kind on each ship, and it just so happens he's decided to use Bart's as his infiltration point of choice... Have you noticed anything different about Doctor Franz recently?" Molly listened intently, she always had, always will. But the clattering footfalls gathering speed and gaining upon their current position caused Molly to spin on her heels, facing the way of the hurried steps.
"Well…Yes, he's running towards us. And considering he's wheelchair bound that's quite the feat."
"As I said... Run."
When they reached the familiar blue doors of the TARDIS, Molly giggled as she noticed it was parked in a non-parking zone. Trust The Doctor.
"So, how do we stop them?" Molly ran her hands over the paneling that lined the interior walls, following the curve of the rails and reaching the controls. She fiddled gently, fondly with the few parts of the TARDIS' console she knew the full purpose of. "Hello sexy. It's been a while, hmmm?"
The machine's response was brimming with the emotion of simultaneous time and space, a metallic hum resonating in Molly's ears and pulling at her lips until she was beaming.
"Now if you two would stop flirting, I need to think of a plan."
That had Molly in peals of laughter, not the idea of flirting with the TARDIS, oh no. "Think of a plan? I didn't know 'wing it' require such dedicated thought."
"Their weakness Molly, we can't go in all sonics blazing without an inkling towards a weakness." His posture boasted a confidence he was falling flat on. "I always have a plan." He added, affronted by Molly's claims.
"Of course." A cheeky grin still graced her ever-so-slightly thin lips. "Where do we start then?"
The Doctor was tapping and banging at the console, achieving what looked, suspiciously, like a Galifreyan google search on the alien's in question. "Well, as creatures of Hetsabodicolrolicoindasight, as shape-shifters they will inherit a form of their double's weakness, to a lesser extent. Handy. But more importantly... Aha. Yes... Ooooh, that's brilliant!" The Doctor kissed the screen in front of him, pulling the device to meet his lips. "They dissolve, literally fizzle out and disappear upon contact with strawberries, a perfect sugar density and enzyme balance only found in strawberries, that is, when there is a particular frequency of sonic disturbance. I have the sonic... and if I know you Hooper, your fridge will be clogged with punnets of strawberries."
"There's other food in there too you know."
"Of course." He gave her a sly sideways smile. "But first, I need to borrow some strawberries Miss Molly."
"Miss Molly? Miss?"
"No? Okay then, just trying out something new..."
"Let's just stick with the old favourites shall we, handsome?"
"Too right, Hooper!"
"Okay, so what? We feed them strawberries? Throw them at them? Blend them into a healthy smoothie and pour it on them?" Molly held a strawberry up to the fluorescent light of the hospital lift, they had escaped, ran and ran, gotten to Molly's flat and stocked up on the outrageous amount of strawberries she appeared to have for one small woman. Then, as it always was with The Doctor, plan changeable and flimsy but partially in place, minds racing and bodies following, they ran straight back to the epicenter of trouble.
"Squash and throw, Hooper. Squash and throw." He smiled, clearly proud of his plan, beaming with his certainty of success.
"Oh, how very scientific..." Sarcasm dripped for her words.
The lift doors opened, slowly teasing apart, the usually swift movement set into slow motion, as Molly pressed the fresh red fruit she was grasping, between her two palms releasing the gooey flesh. Greeting them was the menacing cold stare of the once kind, once distinctly un-alien Doctor Franz. Molly pelted him in the face with her weapon of choice, The Doctor's sonic screwdriver emitting a high pitched wail behind her; and they watched as his skin dissolved and burnt away, falling back into the hall, falling over his feet, constantly changing forms from one man to the next, from alien to cat and finally into pooling clothing and a trail of blue smoke.
"...but, it works."
The rest had been quite simplistic, with only a few of the species sent on the scouting mission their defeat was quick and practically painless, well for Molly and The Doctor that is, dissolving isn't particularly fun.
The Doctor had not failed to reason with the creatures, another neat trick was their ability to hold conscious thought even when formed in the surrounding atmosphere. The air would hold them for a while until a replacement body could be found and utilised, and being in a morgue, they hardly had a problem. It certainly reminded The Doctor of his little trick.
Once each of the three beings, had been 'strawberried' and the small vessel that had taken them to earth found, The Doctor managed to persuade... Well more like intimidate, the Herriodites to stay away from earth, and in some small way avoid inhabited planets, when there were plenty free elsewhere. Molly had never seen the threat of strawberries been taken so seriously.
"Do you believe them Doctor, a whole race, changed because of one small threat? I mean they can stop, those three, and earth is safe… earth has you."
"Molly, I can't save everyone. I can't save every world, every race, everything living thing. I couldn't save Gallifrey or Rose. But I can try to save you, and your world and your slow path, and that's just… molto bene!" His slow smile was juxtaposed to his tone, but his final words held that crisp note of happy finality.
"Molto bene." Molly nodded, wrapping her arm loosely around The Doctor's lean waist, and leaning into his side; his arm followed suite as they walked away from St Bart's towards an old blue box. Their pace a far cry from their adventure's rapidity.
As they reached the TARDIS, glaringly obvious to those with knowledge of the wibbly wobbly, passed unnoticed by those unaware of the adventure, Molly pulled the Doctor down to her height with all the strength she could muster, his gangly limbs bending to compensate for the difference in stature. It was less of a hug more of a 'I'm-so-glad-you-never-cease-to-be-alive' squeeze, reaffirming his appearance in her life, even if for just that short moment.
"I guess this is me then." The Doctor gestured towards the TARDIS doors. "Unless you want to come with me, I hear October 2003 is very good this time of year."
Molly only shook her head in answer. "See you around Handsome. You promise me one thing… no two things. One, you wont do any of this travelling alone nonsense, you need someone you old fool. And two, visit, even if you have a new face, a new personality, a new smile, new hair. Visit me, I may well have chosen to live out time in order, but it doesn't mean I won't get bored, doesn't mean I wont miss you."
"Cross my hearts."
And with one last hug, a kiss on the cheek, he was off. Bounding into the TARDIS with a false urgency. Whispering a broken "Allons-y, Hooper" as he kicked the TARDIS into life.
Molly waited for the soft whir, watching the blue box slowly vanish. Work's going to be so tedious tomorrow.