Notes: Sorry this took so long, I wanted to finish it before xmas, but I just couldn't seem to get through it. I had planned on changing more in this story, but I couldn't seem to find a way to get Rose lost and in danger in the woods and have it believable.

Chapter Three: The Wolf, The Widow, and The Wardrobe – part three

"Cyril? Cyril, can you hear me?" the Doctor called repeatedly through the door at the top of the stairs. It was locked and the Doctor was trying desperately to open it with his sonic screwdriver. "Oh, of course. It's wood. It's rubbish at wood," he grumbled when he remembered that everything, even the locks, had been grown by the forest.

"It doesn't look like wood," Lily argued.

"It's disguised wood. Have you been listening?" he reminded her, sounding a bit exasperated.

"How can trees grow into a building?" she questioned. It really didn't seem possible.

"Never underestimate a tree, Lily. I met a representative of the Forest of Cheem once. She fancied me. Rose wasn't too happy with that," he replied.

"Look at that," Lily gasped as she looked out a little window to the forest outside.

"Busy, actually. Yes, I know, it's wood. Get over it," the Doctor told her dismissively while arguing with his sonic.

"But there are stars. There are stars coming out," she told him, awestruck by what she was seeing.

"Yes, that does happen, Lily. Cyril!" the Doctor told her quickly. He was desperate to fix this mess and she was gaping at the stars out the window?

"Yes, but out of the trees," she added happily and he quickly ran to see what she was looking at. "What is that?" she asked.

At the top of every tree, there were little twinkling lights, just hovering in the air, as if waiting for something. It did indeed look like stars.

"Life force. Pure life force, just singing," he explained.

"Beautiful. Doesn't it make you want to cry?" Lily choked, overtaken by the beauty of it.

"Crying when you're happy. Good for you. That's so human," he told her. It was something he had seen his wife do sometimes. He had cried slightly in relief on a few rare occasions, but not from overwhelming happiness.

They were suddenly both drawn back to the matter at hand by a bright yellow light emanating from behind the door where Cyril was.

"What's that? What is it? Tell me what?" Lily pleaded.

The Doctor didn't have a clue what the forest wanted with them. He simply had to get through the door. "Cyril, can you hear me?" he called desperately, banging on the door.

Suddenly, they heard the sound of loud footsteps coming up the staircase. They couldn't be sure, but it was most likely the wooden King coming toward them.

"Oh my god. Oh my god," Lily whispered fearfully. The Doctor stayed close to her, trying to be a reassuring presence.

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Madge insisted that the workers take Rose and herself inside the large vehicle they had arrived in. Once inside, Rose tied them up so they could work at finding the children and the Doctor more quickly.

"What is all this? Is it some kind of cockpit? My husband's a pilot," Madge questioned as she looked at all of the controls.

"It drives the platform," the woman answered.

"Don't worry, Madge. I can drive just about anything these days," Rose assured her as she sat down at the console. "Just need to run a scan for life signs out there."

"There is nobody else in this forest. There can't be," Ven Garr argued.

"Well, they found a way in. Maybe her kids did, too," the female suggested logically.

"Then God help them," their leader grumbled.

"Why do you say that?" Madge questioned worriedly.

"Yeah, you said something was about to happen in this forest, what is it?" Rose pressed.

"This forest is about to be harvested," he replied frankly.

"Harvested?" Madge wondered.

"What? Tonight?! You can't be serious! Oh, Doctor, your sense of timing is appalling!" Rose shouted and worked faster on the scanners to find them quickly.

"Androzani trees. Greatest fuel source ever. The entire area is being melted down for battery fluid," the man continued to explain.

"Melted down? How do you melt a forest?" Madge argued. She knew you could cut down or burn a forest, but wood didn't melt as far as she knew.

"Acid rain. The satellites are in position. Anyone still out there in five minutes is going to burn," he told her.

"I am so sorry, Madge. This was all meant to be a fun trip for the children. A nice little trip to a beautiful place where they could see Christmas trees that grew their own decorations and play in the snow. Our son used to love coming here, but it's all gone wrong. I swear to you, we will find them and get them home, safe and sound," Rose rambled as she locked onto the location of the three life signs she detected and looked over the platform's controls.

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The Doctor frantically tried to get the door open to where Cyril had gone, but despite all of his attempts, the door wouldn't budge. Until it opened on its own.

"That wasn't me," the Doctor whispered worriedly as he stared at the now unlocked door.

"It doesn't matter," Lily told him as she rushed through the door to find her brother.

They found themselves inside the glass dome at the top of the tower. Cyril was sitting in a large chair in the middle of the room, his eyes closed, and a golden circlet sitting on his head.

"What's wrong with him, Caretaker? Is he dead?" Lily asked as she tried to wake him.

"It's okay. He's just unconscious," the Doctor assured her. He took a moment to tell his wife, "Just found Cyril, he seems to be unconscious and we are dealing with some sort of wooden creatures."

"Sounds great, love. I have to figure out how to drive some kind of mechanical tree-harvesting thing to reach all of you before the acid rain starts melting the forest down for battery fluid," she replied, her worry for all of them clearly coming through their bond.

"So what are you? Not a King, a Queen! The Queen Bee of the forest," the Doctor said aloud, addressing the wooden woman standing behind Cyril.

"Caretaker, look," Lily called. She was looking out the window again and all of the stars hovering over the trees seemed to be gathering closer together.

"It's like..." he started.

"Like what?" Lily wondered when he trailed off.

"Like the life force is leaving the forest," he told her thoughtfully. Rose told him that there was about to be an acid rain fall that would melt the forest. Perhaps the trees knew about it?

The large wooden king entered the room and joined the queen in standing either side of where Cyril sat.

"What are they doing? Stop him!" Lily shouted angrily.

The Doctor aimed his sonic at both of them, but it was completely ineffective. "Annoying aliens made of wood! It was always going to happen, you know," he directed at his screwdriver in frustration. The creatures simply stood next to the little boy though. "Er, it's okay. I think they just want to talk to us."

Cyril's eyes suddenly opened and he spoke, "They're scared. Can't you hear them? The trees are screaming. Can't you hear?"

The Doctor scanned Cyril and realized that the circlet on his head was connecting him to the forest. "No, but you can. You're connected to them."

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"I've got them on the scanner. I've just got to figure out these controls, Madge and we'll get everyone out of here," Rose assured her.

"It takes years of training," the female officer protested.

"Yeah, good thing I've got a lot of experience piloting just about everything at this point. A few centuries of travelling time and space gives you a lot of opportunities for that sort of thing," Rose told them.

"A few centuries?" the leader questioned incredulously.

"Acid rain alert. Five minute warning. Prepare for beam out," the computer announced ominously.

"Great! Always work better with a time limit," Rose grumbled and the platform made its first tentative steps through the snow.

"Evacuate," the computer said before all three of the officers disappeared in a flash of light.

"Good. Don't need them telling me what I can and can't do anyway. Let's go get those kids," Rose responded. "On our way, love."

"Acid fall in five minutes. Unauthorised personnel will be incinerated," sounded the computer once more.

#######################

"Why have the stars left the trees?" Lily asked her brother.

"I think they're..." Cyril replied thoughtfully.

"Just concentrate. What are they doing?" the Doctor asked, clearly the boy was having trouble translating the thoughts he was getting into words that he understood.

"Evacuating. They're evacuating," Cyril said finally.

"Of course, Rose told me what the harvesters were up to. The forest knows!" the Doctor shouted.

"They're frightened of the rain. The rain that burns," Cyril told them.

"Caretaker, please explain. I'm frightened," Lily pleaded.

"Those stars. They're pure life force. Souls, if you like. And they're trying to escape because they think their home is going to burn," the Doctor informed her.

"Why can't they just float up into the sky?" she wondered.

"They need to travel inside a living thing. Inside Cyril. You see, this, it's not a crown, it's a relay. They're turning your brother into a lifeboat. That's what this place is for, then. It's an escape plan, is that it?" the Doctor postulated. The wooden queen reached to grasp Cyril's shoulder and the Doctor snapped at her, "Don't you harm him. Do not touch that child!"

"Your coming was foretold," the queen spoke with a distorted voice through Cyril's mouth.

"Oh my God, what is that? Why did he sound like that?" Lily was panicking for the safety of her brother.

"Oh, hello. Are we lip synching now?" the Doctor asked, addressing the queen.

"We had faith. Your coming was foretold," she repeated.

"There's no such thing as foretelling. Trust a time traveller," the Doctor replied.

"We waited, and you came. The Wolf and her consort," the queen elaborated.

"Well, that's a new one. Usually the Wolf is considered to be with me. So, you've got an escape plan. Why aren't you escaping?" he wondered.

"The child is weak."

"You mean he's a child," he reasoned.

"No, he is weak. The forest cannot live in him. But there are others," she replied.

"There certainly are. And, the good thing is I look great in a hat. So, let's get this thing off, eh?" the Doctor suggested and reached for the crown.

"You are also weak," the queen protested.

"I'm really not. Let's save a forest, eh, Cyril?" the Doctor insisted.

"You are not the one. You are weak," the queen warned.

"I'm really not," he argued and lifted the circlet. It glowed a bright gold and burned his hands, but his fingers were firmly wrapped around the band and unable to let go. He shouted in pain.

"Let go! Just let go! Drop it! Let it go! Please, just drop it," Lily shouted at him.

"I can't!" he cried and the young girl snatched the crown from his hands.

Lily giggled as she held the now normal looking crown in her hands. "Oh, it's funny, isn't it. It's sort of tingly," she said as she backed into the wooden queen.

"Tingly?" the Doctor gasped, still trying to recover from the agonizing pain he had experienced from it.

The queen grasped her shoulder and spoke through Lily, "She is strong, but she is young."

Lily gasped and pulled away from the queen, dropping the circlet in the process. It rolled along the floor.

"She's strong, I'm weak. Interesting," the Doctor commented, trying to work out the obvious mix up in translation.

"Mummy?" Cyril mumbled, waking up from the trance he had been in.

"Cyril, it's alright. It's me. Mummy isn't here but, we're going home to her right now, aren't we, Caretaker?" Lily assured her brother.

"Your mother is on the way here, along with my Rose. Maybe she's the strong one they're looking for?" he reasoned. They seemed to know about her at least. Thunder sounded above them and they could hear the acid rain as it started to fall on the glass over their heads.

All of them ran to the window when they heard the large machine crashing through the trees outside.

"What's that?" Lily asked.

"It's an Androzani Harvester. With my darling wife and your mother on board," he answered with a grin.

The Doctor instructed the children to stay upstairs while he ran down the huge staircase to greet the two women. Both had the hoods of their coats over their heads and holes were burning through the outer layers from the rain outside.

"Talk about nasty weather!" Rose called and quickly found herself in a spinning hug from her husband.

"Caretaker?" Madge addressed the Doctor.

"Yes?"

"You're fired!" she told him.

"Oh. Well, let's go check on the children shall we?" he suggested and led both of them back upstairs.

Madge hugged both of her children upon reaching the dome and chastised them for all of this trouble, "Oh, what are you doing? How dare you leave the house? Cyril, what have I told you about opening your presents early?"

"Sorry, mummy," he mumbled.

"Something like this was bound to happen. What are those?" she asked upon seeing the wooden king and queen.

"Well, I think they were waiting for Rose," the Doctor said, placing himself and his wife between the wooden creatures and the full humans.

"What makes you think they want me?" Rose wondered. She was more than willing to take the risk in place of the others, but she knew he had worked something out before she got there.

"Well, apparently, Cyril and I are weak. Lily is strong, but too young. And they mentioned that they were waiting for the Wolf and her consort to arrive. So, there you are, love. We need to get these frightened tree spirits away from here," he explained.

"Sounds like solid reasoning to me," Rose answered and approached the queen who was holding the glowing circlet in her hands.

The queen took Rose's hand, but held the circlet back from her. "We fear the Wolf. She is strong, but dangerous. The other can help us," the queen said through Rose.

Rose backed away with a gasp. "Dangerous? I would never hurt you. Why does it have to be Madge?"

"That's beautiful, isn't it?" Madge commented, suddenly fixated on the glowing crown.

"Mummy?" Cyril questioned as she dropped her children's hands and walked toward the queen, seemingly in a bit of a trance.

"Madge, are you sure?" Rose asked worriedly. The Doctor held her back from stopping the woman, as they watched her approach the queen.

"See how it shines," Madge sighed as she watched the creature place the circlet on her head.

Suddenly, all of the little stars from outside gathered and flowed straight into Madge. She laughed and behaved as if the sensation was quite pleasing.

"The stars are going inside her. She's taking the whole forest," Lily gasped in awe.

"Oh, this is marvellous. Oh, this is really quite wonderful," Madge told them.

Her eyes seemed to be looking up at something none of them could see, but she was speaking to them clearly. When the last of the lights entered her, the circlet disappeared.

"Madge? Are you all right? Talk to me. Madge, can you hear me?" the Doctor questioned.

"Yes, I can hear you. I'm perfectly fine, thank you," she replied as if he was the one being rather silly.

"Fine? You've got a whole world inside your head," he protested.

"I know! It's funny, isn't it? One can't imagine being a forest, then suddenly one can. How remarkable," she answered.

"Is she really going to be alright after this?" Rose asked the queen standing beside her.

"She is strong," the queen answered through Madge after grasping her shoulder.

"Ooo. That wasn't me. This is all really rather clever, isn't it?" Madge interjected, taken aback by having the creature speak through her.

"She's strong. She's strong. Ooo, stupid me. Stupid old Doctor. Do you get it, Cyril?" the Doctor said in realization.

"No," he replied.

"Lily, you do, don't you?" the Doctor prompted.

"No," she answered

"I think I've got it, love. They're matriarchal, yeah?" Rose suggested.

"Of course you figured it out. You're brilliant. Think about it. Weak and strong. It's a translation. Translated from the base code of nature itself. You and I, Cyril, we're weak. But she's female. More than female, she's mum. How else does life ever travel? The Mother ship!" the Doctor shouted excitedly.

"But I'm a mum too," Rose protested.

"Your mind is too strong. The Wolf would devour us," the queen spoke again.

The dome shifted then, as it detached from the tower and rose into the air.

"What's happening?" Lily asked.

"No idea. Do what I do. Hold tight and pretend it's a plan," the Doctor told her honestly.

"It's worked for us so far," Rose added, grasping her husband's hand firmly.

The large glass ball around them blasted away from Androzani and into the Vortex.

"This is amazing," the Doctor told them as he stared out the window. The forest had not only grown a space ship, but it was capable of travelling through the Vortex.

"Where are we?" Cyril wondered.

"Technically, we're not anywhere. We've flown into the Time Vortex. You've what you wanted. Those idiots down there can burn your old home and you'll be safe out here. But these people helped you, and they're in my protection. Now help them. How do we get home?" the Doctor asked the queen.

"Think," the queen told them through Madge.

"Sorry? What?" the Doctor asked for clarification.

"She must only think."

"Madge, did you hear that? You said it, but did you hear it? You've got to think," the Doctor told her urgently, unsure of how long this ship would last.

"Think what?" she asked, not understanding.

"Think of home. Just picture it, feel it! You have to really feel it. Can you do that? Your mind is controlling this vessel. You can fly us all back for Christmas," he told her firmly.

"My head is full of trees, Caretaker. Can't you fly us home?" she requested, her eyes still dazed from the experience.

"I don't have a home to think of. And between you and me, I'm older than I look and I can't feel the way you do. Not any more. And you really need to feel it, Madge. Everything about home that you miss until you can't bear it. Until you almost burst," he said to her.

"Till it hurts. Is that what you mean, Caretaker? Till it hurts?" she asked.

"Yes, Madge. Now, we do have a home, despite what he said, but it's not the same as yours. You can focus on one real, solid time and place for home. You can do this, because just like they said, you are strong," Rose told her, taking her hand firmly.

Madge reached her other hand into her pocket and pulled out the folded paper that Rose realized was the telegram informing her of what happened to her husband.

"Well then, home in time for Christmas!" she said confidently. She cried out and shut her eyes as the ship sped up and crashed through the Vortex.

"What's happening? Where are we going?" Lily asked.

"Show them! Show them!" the Doctor demanded and the front of the dome became a view screen to display where they were going. "Ha! The Time Vortex. Your mother is flying a forest through the Time Vortex. Be a little impressed. What are you going home for? What's pulling you there? Please, try. Please, think."

As her thoughts focussed, images of her husband flashed in front of them.

"Reg!" she cried.

"Daddy!" Cyril called happily.

"My Reg!" Madge shouted. Rose gripped her hand more tightly and her eyes filled with tears as she realized just how much this really was feeling it until it hurts.

"That's it, focus on Reg. Be careful, but focus on him," the Doctor instructed.

"Oh, I don't know," she cried, losing her concentration.

"I know, Madge. I know it's hard. Think about happy times. How did you meet him?" Rose prompted.

"He followed me home. I worked in the dairy. He always used to follow me home," she told them as her memories flashed in front of them.

"Look at Father. He looks so young," Lily said happily.

"He said he'd keep on following me till I married him. Didn't like to make a scene."

"That's lovely, Madge. Keep thinking about him. Stay focussed and bring us all home," Rose told her.

"This thing, it works psychically. It'll find a signal and lock on," the Doctor added.

The images shifted to a bomber plane at night.

"No. No, please. Don't show me that. Please don't show me that!" Madge pleaded, tears leaking from her eyes. They were still clenched shut, but clearly she was seeing everything they were being shown.

"Is that Daddy's plane?" Cyril asked innocently.

"Please, I don't want to see that! Please!" she cried desperately.

Smoke billowed out of the plane's engines as they watched.

"No, no, no, no, no, Madge. Don't break the signal now. We can't break it now. I'm sorry, Madge," the Doctor insisted as she sobbed in the chair.

"Not the night he died. I don't want to see him die!" she pleaded.

"What do you mean, the night he died?" Lily questioned, her voice quavering.

"Oh please don't make me watch him die!" she sobbed, tears running down her face.

"Mummy? Is Daddy dead? Mummy!" Cyril asked with tears filling his eyes as well behind his thick glasses.

"Oh Madge, I'm so sorry," Rose whispered.