Chapter Two

The walk back to Vincent's house was long, but when they left the covered walkways of the city streets, the night sky was filled with hundreds upon thousands of bright, brilliant, beautiful stars. Robyn had never seen so many in her life, even though she'd already seen them up close. She looked at the Doctor and smiled, clutching his hand tightly. "Thank you," she said quietly.

"What for?"

"Everything."

The Doctor smiled. "What brought this on?"

"That girl."

His smile faded. "I'm sorry; you should never have seen that."

Robyn shook her head. "No, it's okay."

"No, it's not. The look on your face back there proved as much."

"Bit late now," she replied ruefully.

"Unfortunately."

"We have to find the thing that killed her, Dad; we can't let it kill again."

"I know, Robyn. But the only way we'll do that, is if, and when, Vincent paints that church."

"Then we'll just have to convince him to do it, won't we?" She nodded at the artist ahead of them. "Talk to him." She pointed up at the night sky. "Why don't you start the conversation with the stars?"

The Doctor grinned. "That's a good idea." He started to walk faster, in order to catch up with the painter. "Dark night," he called. "It's very starry."

Robyn giggled. "I said talk to him, not drop hints like anvils."

But Vincent didn't take the hint, and soon they came to a small house and yard, unkempt and slightly overgrown. Painting, and not gardening, was obviously Vincent's strongest suit. "It's not much," he explained. "I live on my own. You should be okay, for one night. One night."

Amy grinned. "We're going to stay with him?" she whispered happily.

"Until he paints that church," the Doctor replied.

As he led them inside his home, Vincent pointed to a painting that was hanging near the doorway. "Watch out, that one's wet," he said, putting his hat on a hook by the front door.

Amy looked closely at the picture, recognising it as the one Vincent had done of his bedroom, and the sense of excitement she'd felt all day swelled up inside of her once again. She was actually going to stay in the same house as Vincent Van Gogh. His actual house! Where the actual bedroom he'd painted was! She'd have to thank the Doctor again later, not just for taking her to the museum, but for bringing her here. She headed inside, joining the Doctor, Robyn, and Vincent, just as he lit the one lantern he kept in the room.

"Sorry about all the clutter," said Vincent, shaking the match in his hand as he put it out.

"Some clutter," the Doctor replied, gazing at the numerous paintings with awe.

"Are you kidding?" Robyn exclaimed. "This is not clutter. This is amazing." She smiled at the artist. "I love them."

Vincent looked at the little girl, smiling a sad half-smile. "I've come to accept the only person who's going to love my paintings is me."

Robyn's smile faded. "Surely you don't believe that," she said. "Because not everything a person believes is the truth and if you believe in something enough, well... anything can happen. You can prove people wrong." She glanced at the Doctor. "I thought I'd never be adopted, but look at me now." She turned back to Vincent, beaming happily. "I've got the best big sister and the daftest dad ever!"

Amy looked around the room, stunned by the beauty of all the artwork around her. "Wow. I mean really, wow."

"Yeah, I know, it's a mess," Vincent said with a sigh, heading into the next room and lighting the lantern. "I'll have a proper clear out. I must, I really must." He moved on to the last room in the house, a kitchen of sorts, which contained a lantern, and a fireplace which had a cabinet filled with firewood next to it. He lit the lantern. "Coffee, anyone?" he offered.

"Not for me, actually," the Doctor called. He stuck his head through the doorway, just as Vincent rest the coffeepot on top of one of his paintings. "You know, you should be careful with these, they're... precious."

Vincent scowled as he wiped the coffee stain from the canvas. "Not precious to me, not precious to anyone else."

"They're precious to me," called Amy.

"And to me," added Robyn, following her into the room.

"Well, you're very kind," Vincent replied. "Your kindness is most welcome."

The Doctor decided it was time to steer the conversation back to the church, which was going to be interesting. He was pretty sure by then that it was the only thing he'd been talking about, but it was important, so he knew he had to stick to his guns, as distasteful as he found the analogy. "Right, so, this church then, near here is it?"

Vincent frowned as he opened the wood cabinet, then pulled out a few logs. "What is it with you and the church?" he asked, annoyed by the Doctor's incessant referrals to the subject.

"Oh, just casually interested in it, you know."

"Far from casual," Vincent replied, placing the wood in the fireplace. "It seems to me you never talk about anything else." He nodded at Robyn. "He's a strange one."

Robyn laughed. "I know, why do you think I have so much fun?"

The Doctor smiled. "Okay, so, let's talk about you, then. What are you interested in?"

Vincent gestured around the room, at all the paintings lining the walls. "Well look around," he said. "Art. It seems to me there's so much to the world then the average eye is allowed to see. I believe, if you look hard, there are more wonders in this universe than you could ever have dreamed of."

"You don't have to tell me," the Doctor replied, sharing a knowing look with Amy and Robyn.

As Vincent returned to the fireplace, Robyn looked at the paintings he'd pointed out to them. The colours swirled and danced on the canvas, and she envied the talent the Dutchman had inside of him. She wished that she could make things better for him, but there was nothing she could do on her own, and, she suspected that nothing would change, not drastically enough that Vincent's story would end differently. The Doctor had explained once about fixed points in time; back then she hadn't thought anything of it, but now... now she had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. This wasn't going to end well at all.

It was going to end in tears.

OoOoOoOoO

A short while later, the coffee had been made, and drunk, and the Doctor and Robyn were listening to Vincent talking about his work. Amy had gone outside for some fresh air, and to look at the stars, and the rest of Vincent's paintings, but Robyn preferred the warmth inside the house. She watched carefully as Vincent spoke, his passion, and the love he felt for his art was written on his face, plain as day.

"It's colour," he said. "Colour that holds the key. I can hear the colours." He motioned for quiet. "Listen to them." Vincent pointed through the window. "Every time I step outside, I feel Nature is shouting at me - Come on! Come and get me! Come on! Capture my mystery!" At the end of his ramblings, Vincent grabbed the lapels of the Doctor's jacket, shaking him in his seat.

The Doctor looked up at the artist, wide eyed and slightly fearful. "Maybe you've had enough coffee now," he said carefully. "How about some nice, calming, tea?" He punctuated his point by tapping Vincent's chest. "Let's get you a cup of camomile or something, shall we?" He frowned. "Amy. Where's Amy?"

His question was quickly answered by a loud high pitched scream, and there was no mistaking who the voice belonged to.

Robyn yelped, leaping to her feet. "Dad, that's Amy!"

"No, no, no!" the Doctor cried, jumping up from the chair.

Racing outside, they found Amy cowering in the grass, trembling from fright. The yard, except for the four of them, was completely empty, and there was nothing to indicate that something had even been there, let alone able to frighten anyone. But the Doctor knew they weren't alone, something in the air told him so. Something had to be roaming the area, and it had to be connected to Vincent somehow for it to come from killing a girl near the very cafe they'd met the artist, to making its presence known on the grounds of his own home. They'd have to be careful, he thought to himself, because there was the possibility that the creature was still around, and quite close.

"What happened?" the Doctor asked.

"I don't know," Amy replied quickly. "I didn't see. I was looking at some of the paintings out here when something hit me from behind."

The Doctor nodded. "It's okay," he said, trying his best to calm her down. "He's gone now, we're here."

Robyn swallowed. "How can you be so sure of that?"

"Honestly, I'm not, but we'll just have to stay calm."

As soon as he'd said this, however, Vincent started to yell, as if something had appeared in front of him. Yet he was the only one alarmed by what he saw, as if he were the only one who could see it. Whatever he could see, he started to back away from it, absolutely terrified by what it was. "No... no!" he screamed, inching towards the walls of his house. From his stance, it was clear that he was going to try and defend himself, but to the Doctor, Amy, and Robyn, these actions were unfounded, because there was nothing, at least nothing they could see, that would warrant such a reaction.

"Take it easy," said the Doctor, coming between the artist and the invisible object of his terror. "Take it easy!"

Amy got to her feet. "What's happening?" she asked. "What's he doing?"

The Doctor shrugged. "I don't know," he replied.

By now, Vincent had managed to find something to use as a weapon... a nasty looking two pronged pitchfork. He brandished the tool in front of him, waving it menacingly, as if that would be enough to drive the invisible terror away.

"Oh dear."

Vincent charged, running straight towards the Time Lord, and the two girls, keeping the pitchfork in front of him. Before they could be impaled by the tool, they quickly jumped to the sides' right when Vincent passed between them; missing them moments before the poor man could harm them. "Run, run!" he cried, waving them out of the way.

"Yeah," the Doctor hastily agreed. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's not a bad idea. Amy, Robyn, get back, he's having some kind of fit!" Making no attempt to argue, Amy quickly took Robyn by the hand and the two of them ran back to the safety of the house. "I'll try to calm him down," he added, turning his attention to the terrified artist. "Easy, Vincent, easy. No, no, no, look. It's me, it's me, it's me." He waved his hands in front of him, his palms facing forward in a peaceful gesture. "It's the Doctor, look," the Doctor said slowly, trying to keep his voice as even as possible as he walked toward the artist. "No one else is here. So, Vincent..."

Robyn and Vincent both noticed the barrel behind the Doctor falling over at the same time. Robyn's heart leapt to her throat, as Vincent yelled "Look out!"

But the warning didn't come quick enough, and something hit the Doctor hard enough that he went sailing through the air, landing on his back as something tore one of the paintings that Amy and Robyn were trying to hide behind.

"I can't see anything!" cried Amy. "What is it?"

"That is a good question," the Doctor replied as he got to his feet, talking more to himself than to Amy. He picked up a stick from the ground nearby, then ran to Vincent's side. "Let me help you," he said, running around the other side of the table in the middle of the yard.

"What, you can see him too?"

The Doctor swallowed. "Uh... yes... ish... well... no, not really," he confessed, waving the stick about. Then suddenly, without any warning this time, he was in the air again, the invisible terror sending him flying over the top of the table.

"You couldn't see him?"

"Ugh... No," he admitted, jumping to his feet. He ran back to the other side of the table, where the creature had been, swinging the stick and hoping he'd make contact with it.

At long last, Vincent managed to drive it off, wounding it with the pitchfork, so it didn't get away completely unharmed. But the Doctor, in his haste to defend Amy and Robyn, didn't notice that the danger was past, continuing to wave the stick in the air, much to Amy and Vincent's amusement. Robyn, however, was just grateful that he was all right.

"He's gone," said Vincent, as Amy came and stood beside him.

The Doctor turned to face the group, panting heavily, and feeling more than a little bit foolish. "All right, yes, of course." He threw the stick on the ground, taking Robyn by the hand, and leading the way back inside the house. "Right," he said, as they re-entered the kitchen. "So he's invisible. What did he look like?"

Vincent grabbed one of his paintings, then a paintbrush coated in white paint, and then painted over the top of it. "I'll show you."

"Oh, no!" the Doctor cried, when he noticed the artist doing this. "No, no!"

Amy gasped, horrified that Vincent treated his work in such a way.

"What?"

"It's just... um... that was quite good." The Doctor sighed. "No. On you go."

Once the paint was dry, Vincent started to sketch what he had seen out in the yard. With each new line the artist drew, something began to take shape, something nearly identical to the image in the painting of the church, but on a much larger scale. It looked like a combination of things, but predominately bird-like, particularly around the mouth of the creature, which looked more like a parrot's beak. When he was finished, he showed it to the Doctor.

He nodded. "Okay. Okay," he murmured, taking the painting from Vincent. "Right, Amy, make Mr. Van Gogh comfortable, don't let any invisible monsters in through the front door," he turned to Robyn, "and you, stay here, you'll be safer here with Amy and Vincent."

"I want to stay with you," Robyn protested.

"You can't," the Doctor replied. "I need to get something from the... you know... and it's better if you stay here." He kissed her forehead. "Amy and Vincent can keep you safe here."

Amy stood. "But it could be outside, waiting," she said, not eager for a repeat of the evening's events.

"Oh, don't worry, I'll risk it. What's the worst that could happen?"

"You could get torn into pieces by a monster you can't see," Amy and Robyn replied at the same time.

The Doctor frowned. "You're right, yes, that. Don't worry, I'll be back before you can say 'Where's he got to now?'." On that note, he walked out of the room, but he raced back in as quickly as he left. "Not that fast!" he cried, making the three humans in the room jump with fright. He laughed. "But pretty fast."

Robyn sighed.

This was definitely going to be a long night.

OoOoOoOoO

The Doctor hadn't been gone very long, or at least it hadn't felt like he had, but the thought of him being out there alone with the invisible creature roaming the streets had Robyn's stomach tying itself in knots. Vincent had set out a pair of small cots, and Amy had insisted that they should try and get some sleep, considering that they didn't know how long the Doctor was going to be. But try as she might, Robyn couldn't make herself drift off to sleep at all. She looked over at the other cot, where Amy slumbered peacefully. She briefly thought of waking the older girl, but decided against it. Vincent was asleep in the other room, and she didn't to him wake up either. Instead, she carefully got out of the cot, then put on her coat, and walked to the front door.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," she whispered to herself, marching into the yard and beginning the long walk back into town. She soon spotted the Doctor, about to turn into the street that they'd landed the TARDIS in, and started to walk faster. She was almost up to him when a noise came from behind her, a sound which the Doctor also heard. He noticed Robyn immediately. She blushed and waved. "Uh, hi, Dad," she said.

"Robyn... what..." The Doctor shook his head in disbelief. "What are you doing here?"

Robyn looked at the ground, tracing circles in the dust with the toe of her shoe. "I... I couldn't sleep," she admitted. "And I was worried... about you."

The Doctor sighed. "I told you to stay with Amy and Vincent," he scolded. "It isn't safe out here for you."

"It's not safe for you either," Robyn replied. "But you're still here."

"Well, you're here now, so there's no point sending you back to Vincent's place."

Robyn grinned, grateful for small victories. "So, I can stay with you?"

"You'll have to," the Doctor replied, leading her to the TARDIS. "But maybe you could help me."

"Help you how?"

"I have, somewhere hidden away, a device that will help me see the creature that Vincent can see. But I thought it was just a really bad present at the time I got it, so I put it away and never thought about it again."

Robyn rolled her eyes. "And now that you need it, you don't know where it is."

The Doctor shrugged. "Yeah, pretty much." He smiled. "So, coming?"

"Always."

And so, the pair of them went through the cavernous storage cupboards, searching for the device that would help them find the invisible creature and tell them what it was. The search took a couple of hours, and by the end of it Robyn was unable to keep her eyes open, crawling into one of the chairs surrounding the console and falling fast asleep. At least she was asleep, until something came whizzing past her into the console room. She jerked awake, looking for the source, then realised it was her father, digging through an old trunk and muttering to himself.

The Doctor grinned, feeling quite pleased with himself, not noticing that Robyn was watching him. "Right, you here somewhere, I can't apologise enough," he said, lifting from the trunk a device that looked like it could be strapped to the body with the belts attached to it, and had a mirror, not unlike a car's side view mirror, stuck on the front. "I thought you were just a useless gadget. I thought you were just an embarrassing present, from a dull godmother with two heads and bad breath... twice." He laughed. "How wrong can a man be?"

"I can give you a good idea," Robyn said, smiling sleepily. She hopped out of the chair and approached the console, coming to stand beside the Doctor as he worked.

The Doctor glanced at her. "I'm sure you could," he replied, taking the odd and bulky device over to the console. "But that's not important right now." He connected the device to the console, then turned it on, and the device burst into life instantly. Adjusting the mirror, the Doctor looked into it, sticking his tongue out at his reflection. A moment later, the device made a loud noise, signaling that it had recognised the Doctor's image. He pushed the spacebar on the typewriter, and to Robyn's delight, it started to print out a picture, but the picture was of an old man, and written at the top were the words 'Name: Doctor' and 'Planet: Gallifrey'. "Good, okay, you're working," he said to himself.

Robyn looked at the printout carefully. "Who's that?" she asked.

"That's me," the Doctor replied. "When I was young... err... when I was younger."

She pointed to the next photo that the typewriter started to print. "Is that you too?"

"Yes, that was the second me, the older looking one was the first me."

"So there are more of you running about?"

"Yes... no... sort of..."

Robyn scowled. "What's that supposed to mean?"

The Doctor sighed. "Yes, there are more of me running about," he replied reluctantly.

"So how many of you are there, and which one are you?"

"Eleven, and I'm the Eleventh."

Robyn's eyes widened. "Then that means there are ten other Doctors out there, all of them different, but at the same time, they're all you?"

The Doctor rumpled the little girl's hair affectionately. "Exactly."

"Okay, now we've got that cleared up... what's Gallifrey?"

A look of great sadness washed over the Time Lord's face, and Robyn knew that she had touched upon a delicate subject. She shook her head. "Sorry, Dad, I shouldn't have asked, and I wouldn't have asked if I'd known it was the wrong thing to do."

The Doctor looked down at his daughter, then knelt so they looked at each other eye to eye. He said nothing for a few moments, then gathered the girl into the biggest hug he could manage. "You scared me when you showed up like that out there," he murmured, changing the subject. "I expected you to stay where it was safe." Pulling back, he kissed her forehead. "Should've known you wouldn't listen."

Robyn blushed. "Couldn't leave you out here by yourself. Too dangerous."

"In that case, we need to find what we're up against." The Doctor stood, picking up Vincent's drawing. "Let's see what it makes of this." He held the drawing up to the mirror. "Who is that?"

It took a few minutes for the device to analyse the drawing and dredge up the information from its databanks, but when it finally made the noise to signal it had found something that matched, the Doctor frowned. "Now, I know some of that," he said, studying the image of the parrot that had come up on the screen. "There are thousands of them, and you can see them plain as day." The device made another search, but this time the image that appeared on the screen was that of a polar bear sticking its tongue out!

"I don't think that's what we want either," said Robyn with a laugh.

The Doctor smiled. "No, definitely not," he replied. "This is the problem with the impressionists, not accurate enough." He sighed. "This never would have happened with Gainsborough, or one of those proper painters. Sorry, Vincent, you'll just have to draw something better."

Robyn scowled. "Oi, don't diss Vincent."

The Doctor grinned. "Don't worry, he's still a great artist," he said. "But we just need a more accurate image if we're going to work out what this invisible creature is." He disconnected the device from the console. "And, it's about time we started heading back," he continued, strapping it to his chest. "Probably almost morning outside, which means Amy and Vincent will be wondering where we got to."

Taking her by the hand, the Doctor and Robyn went outside, where it was, indeed, starting to become much lighter. They stopped in front of the TARDIS for a second, while the Doctor adjusted the mirror, and then the dial on the front of the device. It made the noise again a moment later, the one that meant it had found something, and the Doctor smiled. "That's better, old girl," he said. "Time delay, but you always get it right in the end." Words flashed across the screen. "Good, let's find out who this is, then." He read the display carefully. "Well, well, there you are, you poor thing. You brutal, murderous, abandoned, thing. I hope we meet again soon, so I can take you home."

But while the Doctor was occupied, the hairs on the back of Robyn's neck stood up, and she felt as if someone was breathing on her. She swallowed. "Dad, I think there's something behind us."

The Doctor looked in the mirror again, realising that the Krafayis itself had been what the device had used to identify it. His face went pale. "Maybe not that soon."

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