Okay, here's chapter 40, you know, just last week this only had under 30 chapters and now it's got fourty, I'm shocked, both by that and the fact that I've bypassed the number of chapters that it's sequel has, oh well, I'll catch that up and probably finish that with more chapters than this one has. Anyway, I really should stop writing this note, but I can't seem to, I know... Let's start.

The Doctor, Rose and Sir Robert were looking through the books that were avaliable to them "Look up biology and zoology." Rose said "there might be something on wolves."

"What about this?" asked the Doctor "A whole book on mistletoe."

"The application of gunpowder..." Sir Robert read from a book "If we could build some sort of explosive."

"Hmm, that's the sort of thing." said the Doctor, without looking up from the book he was holding. "Ohh." he jumped down from the chair he had been standing on and put the book down on the table "Look what your old dad found." he said "Something fell to Earth."

"A spaceship?" asked Rose

"Shooting star." answered Sir Robert. "'In the year of our Lord 1540, under the reign of King James the fifth, an almighty fire did burn in the pit.' That's the Glen of Saint Catherine, just by the monastery."

"But that's over 300 years ago." Rose said "What's it been waiting for?"

"Maybe just a single cell survived." the Doctor suggested "Adapting slowly down the generations, it survived through the humans, host after host after host."

"But why does it want the throne?" asked Sir Robert.

"That's what it wants, it said so." said Rose "The Empire of the Wolf."

"Imagine it." said the Doctor "The Victorian Age accelerated. Starships and missiles fuelled by coal and driven by steam, leaving history devastated in its wake."

"Sir Robert." said Queen Victoria "If I am to die here..."

"Don't say that, Your Majesty."

"...I would destroy myself rather than let that creature infect me, but that's no matter." she said, continuing as though he hadn't spoken. "I ask only that you find some place of safekeeping for something far older and more precious than myself."

"Hardly the time to worry about your valuables." said the Doctor

"Thank you for your opinion, but there is nothing more valuable than this." She took a large diamond out of her bag.

"Oh, Your Majesty." said Sir Robert

"Is that the Koh-i-noor?" asked Rose.

"Oh, yes." the Doctor answered "The greatest diamond in the world."

"Given to me as the spoils of war." said Queen Victoria. "Perhaps it legend is now coming true. It is said that whoever owns it must surely die."

"Well, that's true of anything, if you wait long enough." said the Doctor "Can I?". He took the diamond from the Queen's outstretched hand "That is so beautiful." he said as he and Rose looked at it.

"How much is that worth?" Rose asked.

"They say, the wages of the entire planet for a whole week." he answered

"Good job my mum's not here, she'd be fighting the wolf off with her bare hands for that thing."

"And she'd win." the Doctor said, Rose laughed slightly.

"Where is the wolf?" asked Sir Robert. "I don't trust this silence."

"Why do you travel with it?" the Doctor asked.

"My annual pilgrimage." she answered "I'm taking it to Hellier and Carew, the Royal Jewellers at Hazlehead. The stone needs recutting."

"But it's perfect." said Rose

"My late husband never thought so."

"Now, there's a fact." said the Doctor "Prince Albert kept on having the Koh-i-noor cut down. It used to be 40 percent bigger than this, but he was never happy. Kept on cutting and cutting."

"He always said the shine was not quite right, but he died with it still unfinished."

Realisation hit the Doctor "Unfinished." he said "Oh, yes." He tossed the Koh-i-noor back to Queen Victoria "There's a lot of unfinished business in this house. His father's research and your husband, ma'am. He came here and he sought the perfect diamond. Hold on, oh, hold on. All these separate things, they're not separate at all, they're connected. Oh, my head, my head! What if this house...Its a trap for you. Is that right, ma'am?"

"Obviously."

"At least, that's what the wolf intended, but what if there's a trap inside the trap?"

"Explain yourself, Doctor."

"What if his father and your husband weren't just telling each other stories." he said "They dared to imagine all this was true, and they planned against it. Laying the real trap not for you, but for the wolf." Dust landed on the Doctor's head and he looke up "That wolf, there." he turned to run "Out! Out! Out! Out!" they cleared the door. They exited the room and then they ran. "We've got to get to the observatory." The Doctor turned around to make sure that Rose was behind him and what he saw almost made both of his hearts stop, the wolf was about to attack Rose. She screamed and just as the wolf took a swipe at her, she ducked and something was poured over it.

"Good shot!" said the Doctor

"It was mistletoe." said Flora.

The Doctor and Rose walked back in the direction that the wolf had just disappeared in. The Doctor turned to her "Are you all right?" he asked

"Yeah." she said, there was still fear in her voice. The Doctor hugged her quickly and they ran back to the Queen and Sir Robert

"Come on." the Doctor said.

"The Observatory is this way."

--

They entred the observatory "There's no mistletoe on theses doors, 'cause your father wanted the wolf to get inside. I just need time." the Doctor said "Is there anyway of barricading this?"

"Do your work, and I'll defend it." he replied.

"If we could bind them shut with rope or something..."

"I said I'll find you time, sir." said Sir Robert "Now, get inside."

"Good man." said the Doctor.

Sir Robert closed the doors and the Doctor walked over to the Queen "Your Majesty, the diamond."

"For what purpose?"

"The purpose it was designed for." She handed it to him. "Rose." he said as he went to the telescope and began to turn the thing beside it. "Lift it, come on."

"Not the right time for stargazing." she said

"Yes, it is."

--

The Doctor and Rose continued to do what they were doing "I thought you said this thing doesn't work?"

"It doesn't work as a telescope, 'cause that's not what it is." the Doctor replied "It's a light chamber. It magnifies the light, like a weapon. We've just got to power it up."

"With what?" asked Rose "There's no electricity." The Doctor shot her a look and then she realised what he meant. "Moonlight." she said "But the wolf needs moonlight. It's made by moonlight."

"You're 70 percent water, you can still drown." the Doctor said "Come on!"

The finally managed to get the light chamber in line with the moon. Just as the light travelled through it, the wolf broke through the door. The light hit the floor, just as the wolf went for the Queen. The Doctor slid the Koh-i-noor across the floor and it stopped under the light. The moonlight reflected off of it and hit the wolf. Rose stood next to the Doctor, shock and fear across her features. They watched as it changed back into a human, when it did, he said "Make it brighter. Let me go." The Doctor did as he asked and eventually everything stopped. Rose sighed in relief and the Doctor picked up the diamond.

"Your Majesty?" he asked "Did it bite you?"

"No, it's...It's a cut, that's all."

"If that thing bit you..."

"It was a splinter of wood when the door came apart. It's nothing."

"Let me see."

"It is nothing."

The Doctor handed her the Koh-i-nor and he and Rose left the room. They went to the library and stood staring out of the window. "I thought that thing was going to kill you, back there." the Doctor said

"It probably would have." Rose replied, realising just how close to death she had come that night. She hugged the Doctor and they stood and watched the sun come up.

--

They were knighted by Queen Victoria and dubbed Sir Doctor of Tardis and Dame Rose of the Powell Estate and then they were banished. After all of that, they hitched a ride back to the Tardis. "You owe me a tenner." Rose said

"I don't have it."

Rose just shook her head and leaned on his shoulder until the short journey was over. When they stopped the Doctor got off first and then Rose "Cheers." he said as the cart drove off "The funny thing is, Queen Victoria actually did suffer a mutation of the blood." the Doctor said "It's historical record. She was haemophiliac. They used to call it the Royal Disease, but it's always been a mystery because she didn't inherit it. Her Mum didn't have it. Her Dad didn't have it. It came from nowhere."

"What, and you're saying that's a wolf bite?" Rose asked as she looped her arm through his

"Well, maybe haemophilia is just a Victorian euphemism."

"For werewolf?"

"Could be."

"Queen Victoria's a werewolf?"

"Could be." answered the Doctor "And her children had the Royal Disease. Maybe she gave them a quick nip."

"So the Royal Family are werewolves?"

"Well, maybe not yet." said the Doctor "I mean, a single wolf cell could take 100 years to mature. Might be ready by, oh, early 21st century."

"No, that's just ridiculous." said Rose "Mind you, Princess Anne."

"I'll say no more." said the Doctor

"And if you think about it, they're very private." Rose said as they reached the Tardis "They plan everything in advance." The Doctor took his Tardis key out and unlocked the door "They could schedule themselves around the moon. We'd never know." They entered the Tardis "And they like hunting." she continued as they walked up the ramp "They love blood sports." the Doctor laughed as he set the coordinates for the Time Vortex "Oh, my God!" she said "They're werewolves."

Okay, and that's the end of Tooth and Claw. The next chapter will be a filler that will lead into School Reunion...Uh oh, Sarah Jane alert......

Anyway TTFN

Julie.