A/N: I don't own anything except Margaret and the Iaculi, as usual. And a rather nice 4th Doctor scarf that I'm wearing while I write.
The thing about me, Margaret thought calmly and proudly, is that I'm brilliant at hide-and-go-seek.
The little girl was curled up in a cold corner of the Iaculi stronghold, knees to chest, footed feet crossed. After the Doctor had let her go, she had furtively crept around the stronghold in the dark until she encountered the best place to hide. It turned out that pretending to be playing hide-and-go-seek with mean bad guys and one good guy called the Doctor was a fantastic way to hide.
She'd been sitting in the same iron corner since she found it, in the same position. At first, it had been exciting—the bad guys could be anywhere! The Doctor was going to confuse them and find her, scoop her up, take her home to Mummy. She'd been sparking with energy.
Now, the minutes seemed to pass like hours. Staying up past 9:30 the night before to see whether Father Christmas would come out of the upstairs toilet, through the front door, or from within the pantry was starting to take its toll. Pink and green spots danced in front of her eyes in the darkness. She was starting to get extremely sweaty and itchy in her pajamas, and she smelled like a shopping mall bathroom.
She shifted around, sliding down the metal wall into a fetal ball on the metal floor. Sticking out her arm, Margaret lay her head against her sleeve and sighed.
Nothing to do now. Nothing but wait.
I think I'll just close my eyes so those dots go away…
She was with the Doctor.
Margaret blinked. Wow, what is this place?
She turned slowly on her tiptoes, trying to take in the sheer magnitude of the huge room surrounding her. The ceilings were high, higher than she would ever reach, and made of a warm coppery metal. The soft hummmmm of machinery filled the room, but it wasn't like anything she had ever heard. To her right was a huge panel of blinking lights and buttons and knobs and levers and things that made sound and things that didn't. To her left was a massive green Christmas tree, with silver wrapped presents. in numbers too high for her to count, in a mound underneath.
"Do you like them?"
She jumped and spun around. The Doctor stood behind her, wearing his silly red bowtie and an inviting smile. "The presents. Do you like them?" he repeated.
"Oh, yesyesyesyesYES!" Margaret squealed, making the Doctor laugh. "There's so many and they're all so pretty! Who are they for, Doctor?"
"They're for you."
"REALLLY?" The Doctor laughed again at her exhilarated shriek. "Oh, thankyouthankyou! Can I open them right now?"
"Of course you can, Margaret." He walked over to her and sat down next to her.
Screwing up her face in thought, she scrutinized the mound of presents. Should I open the round one, or the long one, or the blocky looking one? Closing her eyes, she randomly plucked one of the presents up.
She opened her eyes. It was a shoeox-sized silver box with bright blue ribbon. Grinning from ear to ear, she untied the ribbon and ripped off the silver paper. Giving the Doctor a "here goes" look, she threw open the lid and gasped.
There was a woman in the box. A woman with blonde curls and a gun. The woman seemed to be in a part of the box that went below the box itself, like a little room in her present. She didn't seem to notice Margaret until Margaret released a tiny squeak.
The woman looked up. "Margaret," she said, her voice unnaturally cool. "Hello."
"Who are you?"
"Not someone you know, but someone who can help you."
"What are you doing in my present?"
"Helping you."
"Oh."
"Margaret, do you know why you were taken from your mummy?"
"No." A tear welled in Margaret's eye.
"Well, it's because there are dangerous people, mad people, who think that you're your mum." The woman shifted her feet. "And it's my job to keep them away from you. Which is why I'll have to do this. I'm sorry, but you'll thank me when you're awake. Your mum loves you." She smiled helplessly, as though she couldn't stop herself from whatever she had to do. "Sorry, sweetie. I don't want to do this."
Before Margaret could flinch, the woman pointed her gun at her.
Margaret screamed and dropped the box. "DOCTOR! THERE'S A WOMAN IN MY PRESENT AND SHE'S POINTING A THINGY AT ME!"
But the Doctor was no longer in the room. Nor were the rest of the presents or the tree.
Margaret heard a whirring noise, and suddenly she was sucked into the box, falling, falling, screaming, flailing, falling into a deep void, stars blinking past her, deep space consuming her, the woman nowhere to be seen…
Margaret woke up, sweatier than she had been before falling asleep. Footsteps shook the metal grating beneath her, boots clanging on iron.
She sat up, scooting against the wall, trying to condense herself into a small enough ball so as not to be seen.
One, two, three, two…no! It's one…two…threefourfivesix…seven…seven…
Not even counting could quell her mind, the words in her brain replaced with runandhide runandhide runandhide. She was paralyzed with fear.
She knew the Doctor wanted her to hide, but all she wanted to do was run away, run far away.
A weak, watery beam of light began to solidify on the floor in front of her, shaking like a flashlight in a tidal wave. She shrunk away from it, into the shadows, her legs tucked beneath her and her arms wrapped around herself, bracing herself, prepared to run.
The light shone brighter than the sun now. Margaret closed her eyes tightly, her little fingernails digging furrows into her upper arms.
Doctor! she thought frantically, red light streaming through her eyelids.
And suddenly the clanging stopped, the light froze.
"Hello, sweetie. You must be Donna's little girl."
The voice was comforting, a syrupy whisper. A familiar one. Margaret didn't risk opening her eyes.
"It's okay, I don't want to hurt you."
Keeping her eyes closed, she shook her head.
"Sweetie, I really don't want to hurt you."
Where had she heard that voice before?
My dream!
"Sweetie?"
"NO!" Margaret stood up boldly, opening her eyes but keeping her arms crossed. "No, I know you! You're the woman from my box!"
Sure enough, the woman before her was the woman from her dream. However, instead of wearing a catlike grin, the blonde-haired woman frowned, hands on her hips.
"I'm not sure what you mean." The woman brushed a curly tendril of hair away from her face.
"Yes, you do!" Margaret shouted. "You were in MY BOX and you tried to hurt me and you made the Doctor dis-appeared!"
The woman shook her head. "Sweetie, I don't know what you mean, but I would never hurt you or the Doctor. I've known him for a very long time and I've come to regard him as a person who's more than exceptional."
"What?"
"Sweetie, I'm…a rather close friend of his."
"Then why did you try to hurt me in the box?" Margaret inquired. "Why did you do that if you and the Doctor are friends? The Doctor's my friend too!"
Something in the blonde woman's pocket buzzed, but she ignored it. "I've never seen you before. I don't know what you could possibly mean, but I don't think we should be waiting around here. There's probably some nasty life-forms who wouldn't mind taking a bite of me and whisking you off to another planet. Let's not dilly-dally...what's your name?"
"Margaret." She squinted suspiciously at the Doctor's supposed friend.
"Well, come along, Margaret. This isn't a place for either of us little girls."
Keep on R&Ring, y'all! I'm grateful for every new follow/favorite I get on this piece. Hopefully, this quarter of the school year won't be entirely debilitating, and I'll be able to post more frequent updates.
Here's hoping. ~Nat