XV
Fooled
20th Century
Planet Earth
Wales
The Slitheen spaceship
1984
The Doctor and April have been sitting in the cell in silence for at least a few hours now. April sits on the iron ledge in the corner of the cell, chucking an elastic band ball she found, letting it bounce from the floor, off the wall and back to her. The Doctor sits on the floor in the corner to her right, looking down at his lap in concentration. April throws the ball one last time harshly before catching it again and stopping.
"Are we really going to sit here until we blow up and die?" April snaps, glaring at the Doctor but he doesn't move. April lets out a little laugh of disbelief. "Would you believe it? The Doctor has given up on himself. Since when did you become so pathetic?" April chucks the ball again, letting it smack against the wall before catching it and throwing it again. "You nearly gave up on us when we were hiding under the church but I managed to knock some sense into you and I want to do the same," April raises her voice to a shout as she stands up. "Doctor, you're not giving up on me again and breaking my father's promise! Just get your bloody act together and help us like you're always supposed to do!"
"What I'm supposed to do?" The Doctor whispers.
"Save the world. Isn't that you usually do?"
"What about saving yourself?"
Silence fills the cell as the Doctor continues to look gloomily at his lap.
April angrily chucks the ball at the Doctor, but it narrowly misses his face as it bounces off the wall and rolls along the floor. The Doctor doesn't even flinch. Not believing him, April throws herself back onto the ledge and scowls at the cell door, resting her chin in her palm.
"It's like trying to get blood out of a stone when talking to you, Doctor." She mumbles.
The Doctor reacts to this as he looks at her. "Are you always going to be this sulky?"
April raises her eyebrows but keeps her eyes on the door. "Yes I am, if you haven't already taken note before." She replies indifferently.
"I said I'm sorry, April. There's nothing we can do."
April stares at the Doctor harshly. "I hate you."
"Face the facts."
"Fuck off!" She screams, jumping to her feet.
Silence follows. But the silence only lasts so long before April notices that the Doctor is in hysterical giggles. She looks at him suspiciously as he falls about the floor, clutching onto his stomach and letting out roars of laughter. He laughs so much that tears start to stream down his face.
April is confused.
"What's the matter with you?" April asks rudely as she draws her hand from her face.
She starts to feel vulnerable and anxious as the Doctor points at her and tries to say something through his laughter but nothing can be said. The Doctor cries out in laughter so loud that April soon realises that he has been holding onto that laugh for a few hours and is perhaps fooling her. She stands up and faces him, crossing her arms tightly across her chest.
The Doctor wipes away his tears as his laughter starts to subside. A proud smile beams across his face as he pushes himself back onto his feet and looks at April in amusement.
"April, my dear, dear, April Hollerford," He says, standing opposite her. "You are just like your mother. You are an easy one to tease," He wipes away the remaining tears as April narrows her eyes. "You didn't like me when we first met. You were very unwilling to travel with me, let alone believe anything I said and you never wanted to say a thing about yourself. But just look at how much you have grown since: you've put your whole faith into a crazy man in a moving police box to get you away from here. You're clever, but God you are gullible as well." The Doctor laughs and then reaches his hand to touch April's face but she instantly flinches away. He lets his hand hover for a moment, allowing April to relax before clasping her face in both his hands. It is their first real physical contact since they met and April's tense body suddenly relaxes. "I guess bad beginnings make happy endings, eh?"
April looks at the Doctor and raises an eyebrow. "You're saving my life as much as I'm saving yours."
"And that's a promise." He says, nodding his head.
April then frowns again. "But what was so funny?"
The Doctor steps away from her as he tries not to laugh again. "You should've seen your face when you thought I had given up on you, Mrs Robinson." The Doctor laughs again as he mocks her. He takes out his sonic screwdriver and twists it in his hand.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
The Doctor laughs again which angers April as he has made a fool of her.
"Oh you, bastard!" April snaps.
"I'm the Doctor," He says. "And I never give up on stopping aliens from killing the planet," He then shines the screwdriver at the back wall. "Besides I fooled you into believing me and that's impressive."
There is a click as a section in the middle of the wall suddenly opens like a cupboard door. Inside the wall are many different wires tangled with one another. To the left is a digital clock counting down the minutes and a large bomb in the middle. The Doctor starts to pull out some of the wires and shines the sonic screwdriver over the bomb.
"So you do know how to stop this bomb." April says.
"Not stop it, no. The bomb is linked to about ten more in their ship, but I know how to get out of here."
April frowns. "Why didn't you say so before?"
"I just wanted to see if you had faith in me." The Doctor replies as he reaches into the wall, almost as if he's trying to avoid April's gaze.
"That's just not fair, Doctor! You've been wasting time when we could have been out of this cell hours ago to save Rose and Terry and the others," April shakes her head. "I hate you."
The Doctor pulls out a screen and taps something into the keyboard underneath. Soon enough the Doctor smiles again.
"They're alive," He announces excitedly. "Rose, Terry and Aiden, they're still alive. And I know where they are."
"So what do you plan to do then?"
The Doctor jumps to his feet and presses his ear against the wall. "Get away from here quickly." He glances down at the digital clock, noting that they have a minute until the bomb is due to go off. April notices this too. They are silent for a couple of seconds before the Doctor notices that there is a slight hissing sound in the wall.
"April," The Doctor starts calmly as he moves away from the wall. "Do you know what I like to do when there is nothing else to do? And I do it very often."
"You said to run."
"Yes. I run. Are you ready to run like you've never ran before?"
April stares at the Doctor. "Who says I'm not used to this?"
The Doctor smiles. "And when I say so, I want you to run as fast as you can back to the village and never stop. Not even when we're on another planet. We must always keep running," He looks at the clock and there are only a few seconds left. "Run!"
With that, the Doctor unlocks the door with his sonic screwdriver and they sprint out of the spaceship and across the boggy field, heading towards the pathway between the two hills.
As they get further and further away from the ship the Doctor reaches his hand out towards April. She looks at him, before taking his hand just as the ship explodes behind them.
