Last Chance
They walked down the empty corridor, Tom slowing his stride to keep pace with Vivien, matching it to her shorter one. Vivien glanced up at him, before glancing behind them, noting he seemed to have dispensed with the usual assortment of armed guards that kept them company. He'd left her alone with Lourdes as well, the recollection instantly setting her on edge, sensing there was a trap in it somewhere. She said as much, making Tom trip to a halt, his brow furrowing.
"I'm not testing you, Vivien," he said, trying to keep his temper, "I'm trusting you."
"I could have hurt Lourdes," Vivien pointed out.
"You didn't," Tom snapped, "and you won't. And anyways, there were armed guards on the doors outside" -
- "Exactly, they were outside" -
- "Look, I'm not letting you wander wild and free," Tom spat, "but I'm not going to stick you in a cage either. Having you under armed guard is for your protection as much as ours. However, I don't see the need to have you surrounded every second of the day. As of now, I am more than capable of containing you if you committed the error of attempting to overpower me" -
"Why do you talk like a textbook?" Vivien cut across him, twisting her hair up into a bun, the style lending her features a pinched look. "Is it a history professor thing?"
Tom just shook his head, turning away from her.
"You know, I am a high security prisoner, Thomas," Vivien reminded him, letting her hair fall across her shoulders again. "Maybe you should start treating me like one."
Tom just kept his face averted, refusing to meet her pointed gaze, hackles rising at being addressed so formally.
"Look, I'm sorry about before," Vivien said, suddenly switching tack, making Tom finally look at her, "I shouldn't have tried to pull that stunt on you. It was... it was stupid." She hung her head, refusing to meet Tom's own pointed gaze this time.
"Of course it was stupid," Tom retorted. "Why on earth would someone like you go for someone like me?"
Vivien raised her head at this, staring at him in disbelief. "I wasn't trying to win your heart, Tom," she then said from between gritted teeth, "I was trying to play you for a fool so I could bust the Doctor out this shit-hole before your lot put another bullet in him."
"Well, whatever it was, don't try the same tactic on Jamil," Tom said, shouldering his rifle higher, "he's been warned not to even look your way again."
"He was only being friendly" -
- "That I don't doubt," Tom said coldly, "Jamil's one of the good guys. That's why he's been told to keep his distance. He might find himself moved to help you."
Vivien stared at him again, her jaw tightening. "You helped me," she said with some difficulty, "and you're still helping me."
"I'm not a soft touch," Tom said tersely. "Unlike Jamil."
"I think you are a soft touch," Vivien challenged, folding her arms across her chest. "You keep spouting this psychobabble about trusting me and keeping me safe - I mean, you're starting to sound like some life-sized Care Bear, for chrissake" -
To her surprise, Tom burst out laughing, not the bitter unwilling laughter of before, but a genuine boyish mirth, making him suddenly look younger. "Seriously, a Care Bear?" he said, leaning against the wall.
"You've practically got a bear-skin on your face, so yeah," Vivien said, shrugging her shoulder. "Care Bears all the way, baby."
"I'm more a Paddington man, myself," Tom said lightly.
"How... quaint," Vivien said, smirking now. "And there's me having you down as a man of mystery."
"I'm a man of mystery?" Tom said doubtfully, thinking of how he'd walked into a wall earlier, Vivien thankfully not there to witness his humiliation.
"Why else do you think there's all this tension between us?" Vivien pointed out, leaning against the wall beside him. "You're an enigma, and I'm the mousy young woman trying to figure you out, the sight of your beautiful beard sending me into transports of wild delight" –
Tom snorted at this. "Didn't I say you were mental?" he said, repressing a reluctant grin.
"I don't think mental quite covers it," Vivien said tiredly, half closing her eyes as she leant her head back against the wall.
Tom glanced around him, seized by a strange fit of daring. "Look, let's start again," he said, his words tumbling out in a rush, startling Vivien. "I was a history professor. What were you?"
Vivien stared at him, her black brows drawing together. "Hey, you're not just fishing for further information, are you?" she asked suspiciously.
"Nope," Tom said, shaking his head, "this is strictly off the record."
Vivien looked at him for a long moment, caught by his boyishness once more, how different it made him, younger and less stern. Tom studied her in turn, his dark eyes meeting hers, holding her gaze, making her heart thump erratically in her chest. "I was a toilet attendant," she said quickly, covering up her confusion, "and I happen to hate history."
"What!?" Tom exclaimed, straightening up. "Why!?"
"I just do," Vivien said, face tripping her. "I hated school full-stop. I dropped out when I was sixteen, no qualifications or anything."
"Hey, it's never too late to take up the reins of learning again," Tom said earnestly, looking down at her, his eyes alight with scholarly enthusiasm. "Even if it's just reading a chapter of Harry Potter, it's still a start."
"I don't like reading," Vivien said, folding her arms over her chest. "I'm barely literate."
Tom looked at her like she'd just said she liked to eat small children for breakfast. "You hate books?" he said in disbelief.
"I bet you live and breathe them," Vivien said darkly.
Tom laughed, almost against his will. "I do," he said, "ever since I was a little boy. They took me away into another world."
"What, like an escape?"
"Something like that," Tom said vaguely, staring off into the distance.
Vivien studied him for a moment. "Is that why you like history, then?" she asked, curious.
He nodded. "History opens a door into the past that anybody can step through," he said quietly, face thoughtful.
Vivien thought of the TARDIS's blue doors, before forcing herself to forget, the memory hurting her heart too much.
"My favourite area of history is military history," Tom said, breaking into her thoughts. "If I live and breathe anything, it's that."
"Why?"
"For its themes - valour, nobility and honour," Tom said more to himself than Vivien. "So why did you drop out of school?" he then said, changing the subject.Silence.
"I got knocked up," Vivien said bluntly.
"Oh."
"Oh indeed," Vivien echoed sarcastically. "I had a baby, big deal."
"What... what happened?" Tom asked, curiosity overcoming caution.
"She's dead... I mean, she died, a long time ago - for me anyways," Vivien said with great difficulty, before looking away, tears stinging her eyes.
"I'm sorry," Tom said awkwardly, running his hand across his beard.
Vivien looked away, her chin trembling.
"What was her name?" Tom asked gently.
"Alice, after my mother."
"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," Tom observed, remembering what Vivien had said of her mother knowing the Doctor.
"My other daughter, she was going to be called Amelia," Vivien said quietly, "I guess I had a thing for the letter A."
"You know, I always thought if I had a daughter, I would call her Alexis," Tom mused, "but at the same time, I always hoped I wouldn't – when my sons were born, it always felt like I'd had a lucky escape. I used to stand in the hospital corridor and just cheer with sheer relief."
Vivien stared at him, shocked. "Why the hell would you do that?" she asked incredulously.
"I... I was afraid of having a daughter," Tom admitted reluctantly, "I couldn't imagine tea-parties, princesses and boyfriends - all that pink and glitter. I mean, come on, look at me, I'm not exactly a glittery kind of guy."
Vivien raised her eyebrows.
"Look, I was never any good with women," Tom said, starting to get annoyed, "I only met my wife by nearly breaking her neck through accidentally tripping her up. Even talking to you has its trials, and you're not even" –
- "Human?" Vivien finished for him.
The Doctor and Pope were having another staring contest, the spectacle secretly amusing the soldiers. For them, the shock of discovering there were more aliens other than Mechs and Skitters had now worn off, even if the alien in question looked human and spoke with an English accent, but the shock was still hitting Pope like a tidal wave. For once in his life, he couldn't formulate a scathing sentence to express his feelings.
"Good morrow, my luxuriously maned friend," the Doctor said cheerfully, bestowing a brilliant smile on Pope.
"This ain't some Shakespearean tragedy, buddy," Pope managed to choke out. "Why doesn't ET phone home and get the hell off this planet?" he fired at the soldiers, who just ignored him.
"ET was merely a figment of Spielberg's imagination," the Doctor sighed heavily, "but unfortunately for you, I'm not. I'll always be here, bedazzling and bewildering you with my brilliance and Brilliantine."
"How the hell can this asshole be an alien?" Pope said to himself in disbelief.
"How can you wear leather trousers?" the Doctor retorted. "What about the chafing, old chap, the chafing!?"
Pope just buried his face in his hands, unable to bear the contradiction in the cage opposite anymore. He had been here for hours now, and the Doctor was driving him mad, making him regret giving up his broom closet. In there, he at least had peace and quiet; in here, it was like Bedlam, the Doctor alternating between delivering Latin sermons and declaiming in Danish. The only bright spot on Pope's horizon was the hot Hispanic doctor the 2nd Mass had on duty, the sway of her hips distracting him from his otherworldly woes. Even as he kept his hands to himself, his eyes wandered at their own freewill, annoying Lourdes no end.
As if on cue, Lourdes came through the swing doors, carefully carrying a glass of water for the Doctor. She'd noticed the responsibility of his care was beginning to become solely her responsibility, Anne washing her hands of him, Tom too entangled with Vivien to care for anyone else.
"Well, well," Pope said, taking in Lourdes from top to toe for the umpteenth time as she passed his prison, "it's Jenny from the block. How about taking my temperature, sweetheart? I'm feelin' a little hot under the collar."
"Leave her alone," the Doctor said dangerously, turning a page of his poetry book over.
"And what are you gonna do about it if I don't?" Pope said, standing up. "Fire lasers out of your eyes?"
The soldiers looked at each other, Lourdes squirming slightly as she waited for them to open the entrance to the Doctor's lock-up, wishing they would get a move on so she could leave.
"Unless you shut up, I'm going to make a certain part of your anatomy shrivel up," the Doctor said, turning yet another page, "so I suggest you make up your mind over which one it's going to be."
The soldier finally unlocked the cage entrance, Lourdes hastily leaving the glass of water on the ground, before making a quick exit, glancing over her shoulder at the Doctor as she went.
"She seems to like you," Pope said, watching the doors swing shut behind her.
"It's my natural animal magnetism," the Doctor said lightly, nodding at the soldier as she locked him in again, enjoying infuriating her.
"More like alien magnetism," Pope scoffed. "Is that how you got Red-Coat? Did you hook her with your two hearts?"
"She's just my friend," the Doctor said, sounding bored.
"Well, she's not going to be your 'friend' for much longer," Pope said, curling his fingers into sarcastic quotation marks, "not with the way Mason's wooing her. He's sticking his neck out for her, and no guy's gonna do that without expecting some return on his investment. "
"His nose errs on the extreme side of large," the Doctor said, yawning. "Vivien has taste, my friend, taste."
"And her taste seems to run to towering Thomases," Pope countered.
"Whatever."
"You haven't seen what I've seen, friend," Pope said, sitting down again, "so I wouldn't be so quick to diss and dismiss our dear Professor."
"Talk to the hand, Pope," the Doctor said, proffering his palm, "talk to the hand."
"I thought you weren't sticking me in a cage," Vivien said dryly, eying the mesh-wire with disdain. The issue of containing Vivien had been accidentally solved by Jimmy, who'd discovered the boiler room on one of the lower levels after snooping around the school when he should have been on perimeter patrol, poking his nose into overlooked corners. The boiler room, much like the lock-ups, had a mesh-wire door dividing the area in half, secured by a sturdy lock. Despite the dust and cobwebs, Tom had thought it suitable enough for a stop-gap, providing a rickety chair for Vivien to sit on until he sourced a spare sleeping bag for her.
To Tom's annoyance, the chair had been removed, and the guards he'd appointed gone, replaced by the double-denimed man and Danner. Ignoring Vivien's observation, Tom strode forwards, on the edge of losing his temper. "Where the hell are Heather and Anthony?" he demanded, making Danner take a step back despite himself. "I requested them especially!"
"Weaver overruled your... request," the double-denimed man drawled, leaning against the scarred brickwork.
Tom just stared at him, jaw working. "Where's the goddamn chair?" he said through gritted teeth.
"What chair?" the double-denimed man smirked.
"The fricking wooden chair I left here, that's what!"
"Ain't no chair here, boss man."
"Calm down, Mason," Danner said slowly, looking at Tom like he was nuts, "you're going to end up taking a heart attack. Grey's just doing his job."
Tom half turned away from him, running his hand across his beard, bitterly wondering at the double-denimed man being called Grey instead of Blue when he obviously had a predilection for the colour, Tom never seeing him out of it.
"Yeah, calm down," Vivien echoed, stepping forwards. "It's just a chair."
"The chair was for you to sit on," Tom said, at the end of his tether. "Now it's goddamn gone!"
"I can live without a chair, Tom," Vivien said, rolling her eyes. "It's not the end of the world."
Grey scoffed. "Thanks to your lot, it is," he said, "fuckin' end of days now."
Tom just shook his head, before turning his back on him. "Look, I'll go and get you another chair," he said, running his hand across his beard again, "so just sit tight till I come back, okay?"
"Sit tight?" Vivien said, raising a black brow. "On what exactly?"
"Just... just wait here," Tom said, making for the door, "and behave yourself, yeah?"
"Anything for you, angelcake," Vivien taunted, blowing him a kiss.
Tom shook his head, repressing a reluctant grin before leaving, closing the door behind him. He was half way down the hall when he suddenly heard Vivien scream, the sound abruptly cut off by a single gun-shot. He didn't remember running, but somehow he was back in the boiler room, only to be confronted by the sight of Vivien sprawled on the ground, limbs asplay like a broken doll, blood pooling round her body. Tom stumbled to a stop, heart hollow, head reeling. No, no no…
"Drop it, Grey," Danner ordered, sweat beading on his brow as he faced down the barrel of Grey's gun, "and drop it now!"
"Who's side are you, Lieutenant?" Grey spat. "Hers or the human race's?"
Tom took a trembling step forwards, hands raised, the world retracting around him like a kaleidoscope as he moved. "Just - just drop the gun, Grey," he said with great difficulty. "You don't need to do this - Danner's just covering your back, man." But as he spoke, his gaze fell upon Vivien so still and pale, her black hair fanning around her bloodless face, and he nearly lost it. But he held it together, just barely, his shaking hand now hovering above his holster, knowing he wouldn't have time to draw it.
"I don't think so," Grey sneered. "Danner's only coverin' his own back, not mine, not in a million years.'
"You should have seen this coming, Mason," Danner hissed, "this is your goddamn doing!"
"My doing!?" Tom exclaimed, shaking from head to foot now. "You just let a civilian get the jump on you!" Again, his gaze fell upon Vivien, unable to believe this was happening, that she was dead -
"He's taken down your little tart anyways" -
- "Fuck you!" Tom bellowed, spit flecking the air, tears burning the backs of his eyes.
"You were keeping that thin' like a damn dog!" Grey bellowed at Tom. "I just did what had to be done!"
But just as he said this, Vivien stirred, a faint moan escaping her lips, her eyelids flickering, making them all whirl around. Time seemed to slow down and speed up, Grey suddenly turning his gun on Vivien, face feral, Tom throwing himself forwards-
Then he was no more, the gunshot echoing in his ears, the last thing he heard before the darkness came to claim him.
Oh, there's no one left to call
Nothing much to say
Pretty sure the world is gonna end today…