Chapter One Hundred and Forty Two
When the Doctor came to, he was strapped into a metal chair in a bare room with concrete walls and floors. Across the small room was Alan, strapped into a similar chair. The side of the Doctor's face hurt and he winced at the stinging pain.
"Hello, seems we got ourselves in a bit of a pickle," Alan said to him the moment he saw his eyes open.
"What happened to the others?" the Doctor asked.
"Well…up until someone pointed a gun in my face and then knocked me out with it, they were okay, after that I had no idea until I woke up and found myself in here. However, I have been communicating mentally with them and they've been taken to a waiting room. But no one's said anything to them. Hope is upset though, bless her little cotton socks. I was juggling in her mind to try to entertain her but there's only so much I can do."
The Doctor connected with Rain's mind.
Latara, are you alright? He thought to her.
Yeah, so far. They haven't told us what they want, just given us a plate of food. Rose was brave enough to try it and she didn't drop dead or pass out so we're eating it to calm our nerves. What about you? Are you alright, love?
Um…alright as far as no one has touched me since they knocked me out. I'm strapped to a chair though and Alan's across the room. Um…are you eating cheese?
Yes, that's one of the things on the plate. Why?
Well, Hope is now in my mind eating cheese and staring at me, the Doctor thought.
The Doctor imagined a large red heart shaped balloon. Hope giggled when he made it bounce into her and catch her inside. He bounced her around inside it while he was talking to his wife. While they were talking, the door opened and Josiah entered. The Doctor mentally told Rain to wait while he and Alan looked at their captor as he closed the door behind him.
"What's going on here?" the Doctor demanded. "Why have you done this?"
"We have need of your female relatives," Josiah said.
"Yeah, well we have need of them as well so I suggest letting them go," the Doctor shot back.
"They are beautiful. All of them could be real princesses," Josiah said.
The Doctor was momentarily shocked into silence. He wasn't expecting that.
"Um…yes, yes, they are," the Doctor said after a moment. "But…what does that have to do with anything?"
"We are collecting candidates to replace our princess who was killed in an assassination. We have set up this princess for a day experience to lure young women here so we could dress them up and observe them. The prettier ones are taken and put in cryogenic storage so our people can judge them."
"Well, wait," Alan said. "I had a friend that brought his daughter here and they went through this whole princess for a day thing without being kidnapped by anyone."
"Ah, well, probably because we deemed the females in that family too ugly for consideration."
"Blimey, I better not let Mazz get wind of that," Alan said.
"So you kidnap people, put them in storage and have a vote on who's the least manky?" the Doctor said to Josiah. "What happens to the losers then?"
"They're returned unharmed to their families."
"And if they're voted most prettiest, then they have to become your princess whether they want to or not," the Doctor said.
"We would like them to stay with us, yes," Josiah said.
"And what about me and my brother, what happens to us?" the Doctor asked.
"Yeah, is this why we didn't get our royal robes because it's off with our heads now?" Alan said.
Josiah gave them a sheepish look and didn't say anything.
"Well, answer him," the Doctor said. "We're superfluous, right? So…off with our heads so we don't get in the way of your Pop Idol Princess audition?"
"Well, we were…kinda hoping the two of you would convince them to go along with it and we'd like your approval as well."
The Doctor and Alan stared at him for a moment in silence.
"You want us to approve you kidnapping our family members?" Alan finally said. "Are you an escaped mental patient or something?"
"Not to mention you're going to choose your next princess based solely on looks, not ruling ability or IQ or past performance? I mean, what if you choose the most beautiful woman and she turns out to be a raving, slobbering axe murderer who can't think of anything else other than kill, kill, kill? That's what you want for your ruler?" the Doctor said. "Because that a pretty daft way to select someone who's destined to lead your country…planet…town…I'm sorry, where are you from exactly? Because they don't have a monarchy on this planet as far as I know."
"I'm from Macca. As I said, there is civil war on our planet and our princess was assassinated."
"Do you have a king or queen then?" Alan said.
"A king, yes."
"Oookay, then here's a thought. Give the king a night off with the misses and let him produce the next princess instead of stealing one of your own."
"He can't do that. He's sterile."
"And the assassinated princess? Where did she come from?" the Doctor said.
"She was adopted."
"Adopted…as in kidnapped from a princess for a day thing or legitimately adopted?" Alan said.
"Legitimately adopted."
"Ooookay, then have your royal highness haul arse to the nearest orphanage and pick out a pretty princess instead of pinching our relatives," Alan said.
"We can't do that."
"Why not?" the Doctor said, narrowing his eyes.
"Orphanages won't let him adopt anyone."
"Again, why not?" the Doctor said.
"Well…he's an unfit parent, to be honest."
"And you want our approval to turn our wives and child over to an unfit parent for possible selection?" the Doctor. "Tell me something. Have you been checked recently for mental stability because if not, I know a few psychologists who would love to have you as their patient."
Suddenly the door flew open and Hope stomped inside, followed by Thomas.
"Hey," Hope said, walking over to the Doctor. "This is boring. I wanna go get a burger. I don't wanna be a princess anymore. I'm hungry. Let's go!"
The Doctor fought to keep from laughing when Hope stood there at his side, hands on hips while she waited him to get out of the chair he was currently strapped to so they could go. The Doctor gave Josiah a pointed look.
"Well, your princess is bored and hungry and wants to leave, shouldn't you be doing her bidding?" he said while Alan snickered.
Thomas grunted when Rain suddenly shoved him out of the way and entered the room. He nearly fell to the floor but recovered in time for Rose to grab him by his shirt.
"Set…them…free…now!" she said to him through clenched teeth as she pointed to the Doctor.
Meanwhile, Hope, frustrated that her captive father wasn't moving fast enough was now undoing the straps on his wrists while the Doctor was giving Josiah a warning look in case he tried to interfere.
"I want a burger, Daddy, this is boring now," Hope said as she unbuckled the first strap. "Can we go get a burger?"
"Yes, love, just as soon as Daddy gets free and sees how many people this nice man has on cold storage," the Doctor said, not taking his eyes off Josiah.
He giggled when Rose shoved Thomas's back. Thomas let out a grunt as he nearly collided with Josiah and Rose snorted disdainfully while she went over to free her husband. Josiah and Thomas turned to run and saw Rain standing there, arms crossed over her chest.
"I wouldn't if I were you," Rain said to them. "My husband likes people to cooperate with him. Means he doesn't have to beat them into submission. Not to mention you don't want to come up against my Navajo temper, especially since you threatened my daughter's life."
"Actually, Latara, they weren't threatening her per say, it was really me and Alan who were in danger of snuffing it. Still…"
The Doctor, freed his other arm after Hope freed him. Hope watched while he undid the straps and got out of the chair along with Alan.
"So…" he said, putting his hands in his pockets as he strolled casually over to Josiah, "let's see these other candidates you got tucked away and do it quickly, my daughter is very hungry."
A few hours later, the TARDIS arrived back at the Doctor's house and all of them entered the house, food sacks in hand and tired and weary. Much to the Doctor's relief, they only had five candidates in cryogenic pods, all beautiful he had to admit, and he managed to wake them up and find out where they belonged. He quickly took them home but not before he turned Josiah, Thomas and their helpers into the local authorities for kidnapping and cryostasis imprisonment.
The Doctor walked into the kitchen, sat his bulky food sack down on the counter and with a sigh turned to go to the lavatory to pee and freshen up. He smiled when he saw his daughter coming in after him, food sack in hand and a little purple alien plushie that came with her kid's meal under her arm. The Doctor let Hope keep her outfit and as she came in now and put the food sack on the table, he marveled how cute she looked in her slippers and dress and tiara. To his relief, Hope seemed to think that the kidnapping was part of the playacting and wasn't traumatized. It amused him that his daughter seemed to be bored by it all and he knew that without a doubt, this was his biological daughter.
"What we gonna do after we eat, Daddy?" Hope asked him.
"Well, you're gonna go to bed, actually," the Doctor teased.
"No!" she said while he laughed. "I wanna do more. I wanna go somewhere and do things. I want fun!"
"Yup, my love, you are most definitely my daughter," the Doctor said, patting her on the head and giving her a kiss before he walked out of the kitchen and headed towards the bathroom.