First of all, I just have to say that I am SO SORRY that I haven't updated in so long. Between weekends away, conventions and street-art festivals, I have been certainly kept busy in the last while.
But I'm back now and I promise that chapter updates will be a lot more regular.
Huge, huge, massive, massive, ultra, epic thank yous must go to my friend Alan who helped me to write doctor eleven's dialogue with Michael. It really helps to have an awesome Whovian to advise you on how to make your fanfic that little bit more accurate and I only hope that one day I can return the favour.
As always, I'm humbled by the reviews, faves and follows and I hope y'all continue to be entertained by the exploits of the Weeping Angel and the archaeologist who can't seem to stop obsessing over each other.
Enjoy!
Never even in the throes of her wildest dreams, the haze of her most bizarre imaginings and the depths of her darkest nightmares, could Cassidy have ever forseen that she would be here.
There she lay.
Atop the crisp sheets of a honeymoon suite bed.
In complete darkness.
In her underwear.
In a hotel run by psychopathic aliens.
In Los Angeles.
In the year 1923.
Kissing a Weeping Angel.
The forced kiss had begun tentative, shaking and awkward.
Her pale pink, chapped and frayed lips pressed against the alien beast's in erratic brushes, mirroring the sporadic beats of the young woman's heart.
She began to wonder what exactly had possessed her to take this action.
It seemed necessary, however extremely illogical, (not to mention suicidal).
After all, fighting back, threatening and pleading had all proved fruitless- yet the idea that she could possibly be in love with him seemed to have silenced the Weeping Archangel.
Her attempts to prove this supposed "love" for him, certainly seemed to have halted him in his tracks.
His movements had stilled and he crouched above her, completely unmoving.
For the hundredth time, her thoughts briefly drifted back to the first time that she had ever kissed him- her mind glancing on the blurry, inebriated memory of meshing her lips against the cold stone.
It was almost as though he were made of stone once more, save for the fact that instead of lifeless, polished rock, she was touching lips that felt as real as her own.
His initial lack of action evoked fear and unease in Cassidy but she continued to kiss the Lonely Assassin, her lips dotting along the corners of his mouth, upon his Cupid's bow and flush upon the centre of the Angel's lips.
"This is wrong," she thought, continuing to crane her neck, becoming desperate in her caresses. "This creature above me is a monster…a monster who was going to force me to lie with him…a monster who has kidnapped me…he has done horrific things to me…"
Then all of a sudden, like a pile of tinder slowly catching fire, the Angel began to return the kiss.
Now it was Cassidy's turn to freeze- half panicked, half shocked.
Michael's lips slowly moved against hers, mirroring the movements of the human who lay beneath him. While his mouth lacked the fearful trembling that her own had suffered from, his kiss was clumsy- as if the act was foreign to him.
What he lacked in experience, however, he made up for in sheer vigour.
The living statue tucked one hand beneath her neck and firmly tilted her head upwards, preventing her from shying away from the kiss that she had initiated.
His other hand still remained tight around her wrist and was slowly starting to get tighter, to the point of pain.
Fearfully, Cassidy began to partake in the kiss once more and his grip slackened.
Her eyes widened, staring out in petrified shock into the darkness as Michael pressed his body fully against hers
Then, little by little, her eyelids drooped and she gave in.
The Weeping Archangel's lips were soon melting into the human girl's own.
His breath felt cool against her skin with each occasional parting and just when she thought that he was about to push her away- in a violent change of mind- his broad arm moved from cradling her neck to wrap around her bare shoulders.
Though her body had once felt rigid, her limbs soon fell limp and as the kiss deepened, Cassidy automatically lifted both arms to encircle his neck.
She felt the threatening broadness of his neck, the imposing breadth of his shoulders, the coarseness of his long hair as it spilled over her fingers and the eerie smoothness of his skin.
And all the while, she wanted to cry.
Cassidy felt ashamed of herself and truly repulsed at her own actions.
She was kissing and allowing herself to be kissed by a murderous, vicious monster, knowing that distracting and deceiving him was possibly the only way to stop him from forcing her to do something that she could hardly bear to think about.
She was letting him use her.
And the worst part was that it felt so good.
Cassidy had never been kissed in such a manner before- with such almost polite, hesitant tenderness coupled with half-tamed, brute force.
He was almost exploring her.
And she was more than happy to be explored.
Every part of her that had once been ruled over by logic, struck down by fear and dictated by caution had left her body.
Giving in was far too easy and far too pleasurable and soon, their actions had dissolved into pure passion.
Tears were running down both of her cheeks but Cassidy continued to kiss him, taking a deep breath and releasing a breathy sigh of wanton need when the feathers of the seraph's wings skimmed her arms.
Suddenly, all of her inhibitions, her sanity, her common sense, her fear…it had all dissipated into the same strange, terrible longing that she had felt upon her first meeting with Michael.
Each new sensation ignited wonder in her.
Wonder and warmth.
The same wonder and warmth that flickered in her chest when the wide-eyed archaeologist had first found the enigmatic but beautiful angel of stone, chained up in a forest clearing.
At first, Michael had been taken aback by his caged bird's sudden change in tune.
Only moments after clawing at him, screeching about how much she hated him and whimpering about how much she did not want to give herself to him- she was telling him that she was in love with him.
He knew that the human girl rightfully harboured great reverence for him but…love?
For the first time ever, she had called him by the title that she had given him.
She told him that she desired perfection in their relationship and thus, the perfect circumstances for their coupling to take place.
The Angel could understand this.
Perfection in their relationship- namely the two of them existing together, with no contact from any other living being- was precisely what he wanted.
But was fear forcing her to betray her true feelings to him?
Or was it merely prompting her to tell further lies?
However before he could further question her motives, she had kissed him.
For a moment, Michael did not move.
Despite his inaction, his Cassidy was persistent.
It was as though her fear of him- the precise levels of intimidation that he had carefully moulded and fostered within her- had suddenly vanished.
And for some reason that he didn't care.
"Kissing", as humans understood it, did not have the same meaning for the Weeping Angels.
The Kiss of an Angel could have gene altering properties depending on how it was used. Though he had never come across the need to use the ability, an Angel's Kiss could change the appearance of a human being.
In extreme situations, an Angel could also suck all the years of life from a person's body through lip contact too.
When caring for a cherub, Angels could also feed their young using mouth to mouth transfer.
Centuries of observing human behaviour had taught Michael that humans used kissing for an entirely different purpose.
For humans, a kiss was a sign of affection and could be used a great expression of intimacy.
It was the chance to sample the taste of a prospective mate.
Michael had never used the act for such a need but he was not naïve to the mechanics of human kissing.
The beast drove his mouth against his captive's, sealing his lips down upon hers and pressing his hulking form into her much smaller, frail body.
He felt Cassidy struggle to part for air- to create a seam between their lips to provide herself with the oxygen that her chest craved. Not one to have his dominance balked, Michael denied her such a luxury and insistently held the kiss, relishing the sound of her strained whimpers.
But much to his own surprise, instead of beating at him and struggling, his claimed pet quickly bent to his will, instead choosing to wrap her arms tightly around his neck.
It was sick, it was wrong, it was heresy, it was treason, it was a perversion of his nature…
Michael suddenly parted from her, rearing backwards and out of her reach, as though following a sudden, disgusted realisation of what he was doing.
He was engaging in a cultural act of intimacy with a human.
A lowly, filthy being, suited only to be an object of entertainment or nourishment.
And his slave, nonetheless!
He looked down at her in the dark, watching as she blindly writhed in the sheets, worry slowly etching across her features.
No doubt wondering why he had suddenly withdrawn.
Her eyes suddenly snapped open- wide, staring, darting and glazed over with such delicious fear.
A moment of silence past as his human' chest slowly began to heave- rising and falling with each nerve-ridden breath.
It was distracting to his thought process, Michael decided.
He growled, placing his hand flat on her chest and pushing downwards with the hope of stilling her.
However it was when he felt the heartbeat in her chest, drumming so frantically with the most terrifyingly evocative mixture of fear and yearning, that his mind suddenly emptied of all thought.
Glazed over by an instinct that was both primitive and impossible to ignore.
How dare she reduce him to this?
The little strumpet.
Sometimes, when he was keeping surveillance on his pet, he would catch a glimpse of her bathing through an open sliver in the bathroom door.
Through a slit in shower curtain, he would see her and envy every drop of water that traversed her soft, pale skin without a word of discomfort from her like a common voyeur.
"What kind of effect do you have on me? You lowly, pathetic little creature of the dirt? Why do you do this to me?"
He crushed his lips to hers once more, paying no heed to her muffled cries and relishing the sudden silence and instant warmth that came with her submission to him once more.
The Archangel parted to hiss in her ear between kisses, feeling her sharp intakes of breath against his face:
"Only I…can do this…to you… Only I can make you feel this way…"
He felt her head nod frantically, her fingers clinging to the skin of his shoulders as his mouth found hers once again.
All of a sudden, Michael sensed the presence of another being- a powerful being.
But not another Angel.
Swiftly, he parted from his human's warm, swollen lips and sprang up from the bed, glowering at the doorway.
In the back of his mind, he had known that this particular threat would eventually rear its head.
"Let him try to take her," he silently threatened, his fangs starting to protrude once more. "Let him try…"
The door opened and light poured into the bedroom, sending an illuminating curtain of glowing white light across the floor and over the bed.
The silhouette of a tall man appeared in the doorway, gilded in the all-too-bright gleam of the hall-way light.
Cassidy struggled to sit upright, her face flushed, her lungs crying out for oxygen and her body aching from the pressure of being weighted into the mattress beneath the colossal Weeping Angel.
Her eyes fell upon the figure whose shadow was cast over her.
"D-Doctor? Doctor?!"
"Yes, Cassidy," the Time Lord replied, slowly walking into the room. "It's me." He took a deep, quavering breath, rubbing his forehead. "I am truly sorry that I was so late but you're safe now."
His eyes travelled from Cassidy to the bedpost, to the painted window pane and finally to the Weeping Archangel that towered at his victim's bedside.
The doctor's eyes narrowed.
"Cassidy, come over here," he said quickly.
The young woman had only barely sat up when Michael suddenly snarled.
"Cassidy! Do not dare move. Stay where you are!"
"That's enough from you!" the doctor shouted at the living statue. "She is not yours to command anymore! She never was."
Cassidy's courage was instantly reignited by the doctor's confidence and abruptly pulling herself to her feet, she ran to his side. Her legs felt bloodless and weak but the sight of the wiry man, with a mop of brown hair and a scarlet bow-tie, brought her new determination.
After weeks of imagining the face of her saviour- after falling in and out of despairing moments in fear that he would never come- the doctor had finally arrived.
"Doctor," she breathed, looking up at him. "I can't believe you're…you're really here."
The doctor nodded slowly, glowering at Michael before pulling a hand-mirror from his pocket and raising until it directly in the Angel's line of sight. "Forgot to cover your eyes, didn't you?" he murmured quietly. "Well, I've never had the displeasure of meeting a male Weeping Angel before this but I can definitely say that the females of your kind are a lot smarter…"
The Time Lord looked down at Cassidy, smiling faintly. "It's nice to see you again too, Miss Albright. Nice to see that you're…unharmed…" The doctor's voice started to trail away as his eyes scanned Cassidy from head to toe, his brow furrowing deeply.
The young woman swallowed, feeling her face heat up with shame.
She stood before him in little more than her underwear and even that had been torn in several places.
She raised her arms to instinctively cover herself and the doctor coughed, awkwardly shrugging his long trench-coat off and handing it to her.
"Here," he told her. "Put this on and run to the elevator. Run straight there, go inside, close the door and don't open it for anyone. I won't need to knock and I'll be there with you in a few minutes."
Cassidy nodded breathlessly, quickly putting the coat around her shoulders. "Thank…thank you, doctor."
"Do not do as he says, Cassidy!" Michael roared. "Stay here!"
His words tore through her and the human girl suddenly found herself unable to move.
"Don't listen to him, Cass," the doctor said, his voice low but soft. "He has nothing over you anymore. Your freedom is right outside that door." He looked to her with a gaze that filled her with a sudden and inexplicable kind of hope. "Go now."
Cassidy nodded, turning to leave the bedroom and placing a hand on the polished doorknob.
"Cassidy!" the Weeping Archangel shouted at her. "Obey me! Remain at my side!"
She froze for a moment, her shoulders rising and falling rapidly with each unsteady breath.
Never before had she felt such a nauseating feeling encapsulate the trunk of her body.
Never such a mixture of elation and pain.
It shouldn't have hurt so much.
Why did it hurt so much?
"No," she said, though her voice was hardly more than a whisper.
And without so much as another sound, Cassidy left the room, disappearing down the long corridor behind her.
The doctor watched her leave, the ghost of a smile crossing his lips before he turned back to Michael, scowling once more. "Right…now to deal with you…"
The Weeping Archangel let out an infuriated roar before growling.
"If you think your meagre looking glass will keep me trapped for long, meddling human, then you are certainly mistaken!"
The lights in the hallway began to flicker as he drained their power, threatening to plunge the room into complete darkness.
With each flicker, Michael's face contorted further into one of demonic rage.
"Not so fast!"
The doctor pulled his torch from the pocket of his trousers, frantically pumping the handle and letting its yellowish halo of light shine on Michael. "Weren't expecting that, were you? Not used to playing on an even field?"
The lights in the hallway began to slowly stabilise once more until they were fully on.
The doctor lowered his torch but not the mirror, his eyes still firmly locked on the snarling statue before him.
"Now…we've not been formally introduced, have we?" the doctor said, his own voice quiet but shaking with barely suppressed anger. "Angel Michael, is it?"
"And you are the doctor," the Weeping Angel returned. "I know of your intentions. I have known of them since the first day that you attempted to contact my Cassidy. You will not take her from my possession…"
"Oh shut up!" the doctor barked over him. "Just shut up and stop embarrassing yourself and your race any further. Cassidy Albright is not "your" Cassidy. She's her own human being and she was never yours to take in the first place…"
"I fairly and rightfully claimed her as my own. To take her from me would be an act of theft, doctor," the Angel responded, his tone suddenly becoming eerily cool.
"Theft?! Get it through your thick, stone skull! She was never yours in the first place! And if you want to talk about any brands of criminal activity here, theft is a fairly light example. Especially when compared to abduction, forced slavery, brutal physical assault of a defenceless being from a level five planet…" The doctor's eyes narrowed, his lip twitching and his teeth gritting. "Sexual assault…"
"Assault? This is all part of we Angels' process of hunting and feeding," Michael responded with a guttural chuckle. "And such surplus accusations! Why, I daresay Cassidy enjoyed her stay here and my company. Are you certain that you have gotten the right side of the story, doctor?"
The doctor did not reply for a moment, only sucking in deep breaths between his teeth.
When he finally did speak, his voice was so chilling that even the Weeping Archangel was forced into silence.
"…I knew you were cold. I knew you were brutal. I knew you were monsters, but with all the terrible things I've seen in this universe I never, never thought you would stoop to playing these twisted games." The doctor shook his head slowly. "This isn't hunting. This isn't feeding. This isn't even "murder"…killing her would have been the kinder option. This is an abomination."
"Cassidy Albright is indebted to me. She was living under the rule of a number of other humans. Beings of her own species commanded her, berated her and constantly served as an impediment to her well-being. When with me, she was under the command and care of a superior being. I have infinitely improved her lifestyle…"
The doctor's eyes suddenly lost their usually bright glint and his brows fell heavy with anger.
"Improved?" he began softly, shaking his head. "Is that what you really think? No, Michael. You have not "improved" anyone's lifestyle. Especially not Cassidy Albright's. In fact, the only thing that you've done is to have made a number of terrible mistakes. Firstly, you brought Cassidy here. Secondly, you brought that little girl, Abbie, here. Thirdly, you've gotten on my bad side." His voice was now audibly shaking with rage. "If you think that you can make a human being into your own personal toy, if you think that I will let you take an innocent soul and use them for your damn, twisted horrors- just remember me. Remember these eyes. Your reign over Cassidy is over, Michael. Crawl into whatever hole you can find, in the darkest place in the cosmos. Because if you lay one finger on her or on any being with breath in its body ever again, no trick you can conjure will keep me from bringing the sky down on your head."
There was a long, tense silence between the two powerful aliens.
"Bold words," Michael finally said quietly though his cool tone was already threatening to fracture. "Though your threats will prove pointless as I will soon have Cassidy in my possession once more and rest assured, doctor, you will not take her away from me."
"She's already free," the doctor told the Weeping Archangel, slowly walking backwards towards the door. "And you'll never take her again. Never."
It was only when the doctor had slipped from the room and closed the doors behind him that the Atlasian alien monster let out an almighty, ungodly roar.
Cassidy had shrunk back against the back wall of the elevator when the doctor burst into the compartment, yanking the brass-cage door shut behind him and immediately going to work on the button panel.
After padding himself down in a frantic, self-nominated frisk-search, he turned to her.
"Pocket," he muttered, more to himself than to her. "In the right pocket, wasn't it?"
He reached forward and pulled a long metallic object from one of the pockets of the trench coat that Cassidy now wore. "Aha! Perfect. Here we are."
The doctor held the strange gadget to the elevator's button panel.
The bizarre humming sound and glowing light produced from the tip of the object might have been of greater surprise to Cassidy, if her mind wasn't so heavily weighted with other matters.
She could feel herself shaking beneath the welcome warmth of the doctor's coat.
She clung to the copper rail behind her as though it were a life-line, refusing to give into her quivering knees.
As soon as the elevator started to move, the slender young man with the vaguely familiar face turned to the young woman behind him.
Cassidy had been avoiding direct eye contact with him but it was almost comical to her that when he spoke first, his voice was the one that sounded awkward and unsure.
"Are you…alright?" the doctor asked her quietly.
His own breathing was almost as shaky as her own, as though he, too, was trying to calm himself down.
There were many ways that Cassidy contemplated responding to the question but when she opened her mouth, all that came forth was a low, gurgling sound in the back of her throat.
No matter how hard she tried, she could not force herself to form words.
Her eyes stung and her stomach churned.
She could still feel Michael's lips against hers.
"I…I…"
It was when tears began to slowly fall down her face that the doctor wrapped his arm around her shoulders, giving the smaller, human woman a hesitant but comforting squeeze.
"It's alright, Cassidy. It's all over now," he told her. "We may not be out of the woods yet but…I promise, I won't let him near you again." She heard the doctor let out a long, shaky exhale.
She could feel his heartbeat in his chest.
It was the strangest rhythm that she'd ever heard.
Her own mother suffered from a heart murmur- an irregular heartbeat.
She could remember pressing her cheek against her mother's soft bosom and listening to the strange ka-KA-thump, ka-KA-thump, ka-KA-thump.
"Everyone's heart beats to the rhythm of their own drum," Maria Albright had joked. "And my drum just loves a good reggae beat."
The doctor's heartbeat sounded as if it had its own polyphonic rhythms and harmonies, echoing around his ribcage and pumping in time to a bass-line.
"Wow," she thought numbly, almost forgetting about where she was. "This guy has the entire percussion section of the orchestra between his lungs."
"He didn't…harm you…just now," the doctor asked her quietly as the elevator continued its descent. "Did he?"
Knowing exactly what he meant and feeling his arms start to tense around her, Cassidy quickly shook her head.
If only you knew, doctor. If only you knew.
"…I'm fine," she managed, just as the elevator slowed to a halt. "Or…I'll be fine, anyway."
Maybe it was a lie but at the time, it seemed like a necessary lie.
The doctor gave Cassidy one last squeezing embrace, briefly resting his chin on the top of her head before turning to pull the elevator door open. "Quickly, Cass. Down to the room where Michael was keeping Abbie."
Cassidy's heart leapt at the knowledge that the doctor had found Abbie but they had only just stepped out of the elevator when she found herself recoiling again.
"Doctor…"
Three monstrously enraged Weeping Angels stood right outside the little girl's door, all of them frozen in stone but poised to attack.
"It's alright," the doctor explained, taking Cassidy by the wrist and pulling her in his shadow. "There's a mirror hanging on the door of the room. The Angels are stuck there. For now." His brow furrowed. "If these Angels haven't sounded the alarm already, it won't be long before that monster upstairs does. The whole hotel will be on red alert."
He slipped around the first of the trio of Angels, fumbling for the door handle.
"Don't stop looking at the Angels, Cassidy. Don't stop looking."
She nodded complying with his wish, despite the sudden, horrific realisation that Michael could have been standing behind her at that very moment.
Despite the intense bout of paranoia, she continued to stare intently at the three seraphs of stone.
After treating the door handle with his odd, buzzing device as he had the button panel, the doctor beckoned for Cassidy to follow him into the hotel room. She did so, keeping her eyes locked on the deadly Hecate that almost barred the entrance.
Their feral expressions up close were enough to stab her with a jolt of terror but not half as much as Michael's often quasi-demonic look of anger did.
"Where's old Ab…er…the old lady gone to?" she heard the doctor saying.
"We wrapped her up in sheets and put her under the bed. She was starting to creep the kid out but we wanted to give her more dignity than just hauling her out the window…"
She slipped into the doorway, avoiding the stone fingertips of the Angels who stood before her and once inside, stepping back to allow the doctor to close and lock the door once more.
The hotel room was warmer than the corridor and though she expected to look upon a mirror-image of her own holding cell when she turned, she was instead greeted by a very welcome sight of a face she hadn't seen in a very long time.
"St-Stan?"
The black-haired man grinned, grabbing her by the hand and tugging her forward into a tight hug. "Yeah, it's me, Cass. Good to know that you're alright. The doctor sure did come through on this one."
"Ye-yes," Cassidy stammered as her former-neighbour slowly released her, looking up into his warm brown eyes for the first time in months. "I…I'm glad that you're alright too."
"Cass!? Bloody Hell, I can't believe it's you."
The young woman turned to the owner of the familiar voice, only to have an equally familiar face greet her- having just walked out of the bathroom.
Her eyes widened. "Ed…Edmund?! Edmund, what are you doing here?"
The bespectacled young man jogged up to his colleague, immediately embracing her as Stan had done.
Cassidy stepped back a little, looking up at him. "Michael didn't take you here too, did he?"
"No," Edmund informed her with a smile. "The doctor and Clara took me along to help find you. It wasn't exactly easy, le-…"
Edmund Potter was promptly cut off by Abigail Drake latching herself on to Cassidy's right leg, squeezing it tight.
"Cassy! Cassy is here!"
Smiling faintly, Cassidy stooped to return Abbie's hug. "…I am. At last."
She stroked the little girl's tufty scarlet hair. "Are you ok, Abbie?"
Abbie nodded, resting her head in the crook of Cassidy's neck. "I'm all good. Clara and the doctor came here to rescue us."
Over the child's shoulder, Cassidy looked over to the pretty, brown-haired girl sitting on the bed.
"Clara, isn't it?" she asked, raising an eyebrow and giving her another faint smile.
"We met that day at the funeral," the doctor's companion confirmed with a nod, returning the smile.
"I don't mean to break up this delightful reunion but time is still quite of the essence right now," the doctor suddenly shouted over the cluster of people. "We all have to get out of here. Out of this room and out of this hotel."
Suddenly there was a loud cracking- the unmistakable sound of glass shattering- right outside the door of the room, causing five sixths of the room to jump in surprise.
"And it would appear that the Angel reinforcements have arrived and they've broken our mirror! We've got minutes to go."
Abbie squirmed in Cassidy's arms and looked her up and down, apparently having taken no interest in what the doctor had just said.
"Cassy, what happened to your clothes? You look really awful…"
For the first time, Stan and Edmund began to survey Cassidy too, starting to take note of her dishevelled appearance.
The American man's face was slowly slipping into a darkened scowl of realisation and the Englishman looked to her with quizzical concern.
"Cass, how on earth did you lose…your clothes?"
"I…"
Her face turned a deep red and her shoulders began to shake as humiliation and fear began to take root in the archaeologist's stomach.
"No time for chit-chat!" the doctor interjected once more, prodding the door with his sonic screwdriver. "We all have to get going, now."
"Alright then," Clara said, rising from the bed and walking over to the door. "Straight out the door, into the elevator and straight down to the lobby again?"
The doctor shook his head. "Nope. Straight out the door, into the elevator and straight up to the roof."
"The roof? Why the roof, doctor?"
"Actions, first. Explanations, later," the doctor said quickly, waiting for the others fall into line behind Clara. "Keep your mirrors and torches on hand. Cassidy, you'll find a mirror and a torch for yourself in the pocket of my coat…ready?"
"Actually doctor?" Cassidy asked suddenly. "When we get out into the hall, is there any way that I could go into the room where I was being held for just one second?"
"Cassidy, we have to go. This is-…"
"Please, doctor."
"Why do you need to go in there?"
"I…I want to get dressed properly…"
"You don't need to. No one is going to stare."
"I trust that but…there's something else…something I want to get…it's kind of personal…"
"We've got the mirrors, doctor," Clara pointed out. "And there are five of us. We could hold the Angels off for her."
The doctor sighed, slumping his shoulders. "…ok, ok but please be quick."
The Time Lord opened the door, slipping out and around the Angels, frowning as he went.
"Ok, it looks like the reinforcements were more than plentiful." He beckoned for his latest team of companions to follow. "Keep your eyes on them all. Use the mirrors. Cass, be as quick as humanly possible. In fact, be inhumanly fast."
She nodded and walked out into the hall.
Her heart was racing again, her temples starting to ache with nerves.
She looked around frantically as Stan, Edmund and Clara (whom Abbie had decided to attach herself to), took up their best vantage points.
Despite the flocks of Lonely Assassins that now flooded the hallway, Michael was nowhere to be seen.
Where was he?
Would he really give up on her so easily?
Or was this all part of another scheme of his?
"Quickly now, Cass."
Nodding in agreement, Cassidy hurried over to the door of the room that had served as her cage. She ran inside, finding a cluster of her clothes on the bathroom floor and dressing herself faster than she had ever dressed before, regardless of her trembling hands.
Before she left the room, Cassidy reached under the pillow of her bed, took out the wad of paper- the letters that she had wrote- and stuffed them into her pocket.
Maybe it was menial.
Maybe it was ridiculous.
But to Cassidy, they were both an aid and testimony to her survival and she wanted to keep them.
It was when she returned to the hallway that the true horror of the situation struck her for the first time.
The Weeping Angels had surrounded the group on both sides, their arms outstretched with the intent to kill and almost completely blocking the narrow hallway with lattices of their slender, grey limbs.
It was like a macabre forest of stone.
"Ok…roughly fifty or more of them versus six of us," the doctor said aloud his eyes wide, staring and darting as he held his mirror at arm's length. "Right…then. We're going to get to the roof via the elevator. Clara and I will lead off, Cassidy stay in the middle of the group at all times and Stan and Edmund, walk backwards to make sure our new friends don't follow us…" He lowered his voice. "This is it, everyone. One slip up and I'm afraid we're all dead."
Abbie let out a low whimper, prompting Clara to hiss. "Doctor!"
"Oh yes," the doctor exhaled, starting to move. "Lie to the little girl. That will make all the bad Angels go away."
Cassidy followed the doctor's lead, not saying anything.
Throughout the hoard, no matter where she looked, Michael was nowhere to be seen.
Even when the group made it to the stairwell, there was still no sign of him.
Just endless clusters of the vicious-looking females, all glowering at the small group of humans.
"Ok," she heard Edmund murmur softly as he traversed the petrified crowd, obediently walking backwards and swinging his mirror around wildly with each turn. "It's just like playing Minecraft. Just like playing Minecraft. Playing Minecraft and keeping an eye out for Creepers…"
"What the heck are you blabbering about?" Stan demanded to know, whispering through gritted teeth.
Edmund's reply was a near-comical mixture of terrified and dismissive. "Future st-stuff…nevermind."
After what felt like walking for an eternity through the labyrinth of murderous statues, the doctor finally led them up the final stairwell to the rooftop.
The air outside was heavy with humid, evening warmth but as soon as she walked out on to the flat, concrete surface, Cassidy felt a cutting draft of cold air drift across her.
Her heartbeat was loud in her ears and as she slowly came to a halt, her knees began to shake.
She hadn't been outside in so long.
She would have thought that her first time beneath a twilight sky with fresh air lapping against her skin, would have been an uplifting moment for her.
But at that very point in time, it was as though her senses were slowly slipping out of her control.
As she looked up at the sky- glowing with the last of the sun's sparse light and choked by wisps of blackened cloud- she became vaguely aware of the doctor shouting something.
Behind her, Edmund and Stan closed the door to the roof-top, seemingly following the other man's commands.
Amidst the sounds of her own blood pulsing in her ears, she could hear Clara saying something to the doctor.
Something loud.
Something anxious.
When she looked up next, the doctor was standing on the very edge of the roof, beckoning to the little girl, clinging to Clara's hand.
"We don't have much time left."
"Doctor, what are we doing up here? What…what do you want Abbie to do?"
Forcing herself to follow Edmund and Stan, Cassidy wandered over to the roof's edge, fumbling with the hem of her shirt as they approached the sheer drop.
"In order to poison the Angel's food supply…in order to kill this entire group of Angels, we have to create a paradox. One person dying twice in the same night is a paradox…"
"What? Dying twice?" Cassidy suddenly exclaimed, thoroughly torn from her reverie by the doctor's words. "What do you mean? Who died? Who's going to…?"
Realisation dawned upon her as her eyes slid sideways, down to the little girl whom the doctor's attention was also focused on. "What? Abbie! No…"
There was a loud bang and the large metallic door to the rooftop was suddenly rattling in its hinges.
"Abbie will not be harmed. I promise that. As soon as the paradox takes place, the Angels will die and it will be as though Summer Bank never happened…" The doctor looked downwards, inhaling and exhaling deeply before adding in a voice that was as hoarse as it was quiet. "No one can die from jumping from a building that never existed…" He looked over his shoulder at the four adults. "That's why I'm jumping too." The Time Lord swallowed.
Another loud bang rang out from behind them, reminding them of the ever-present threat that the Angels posed.
"Doctor," Clara said aloud, her voice faltering slightly as it left her lips. "This plan is …" She shook her head. "What it something goes wrong? What if-?"
The doctor swung around, looking into his loyal companion's glistening brown eyes with earnest intent. "I've been here before, Clara. You have to trust me."
For the third time, the door was rocked in its own hinges.
This time it was accompanied by the hellish screech of claws being raked down its metal underside. Abbie gave a loud whimper, squeezing the doctor's hand.
"I do trust you," Clara said aloud, suddenly taking the doctor's other hand and stepping up on to the ledge too. "And after everything, I'm with you no matter what you decide to do." She stole a wide-eyed glance at the terrifying ten-storey plunge before giving the doctor a shaky smile. "I'm jumping too."
Slowly, the doctor's fingers closed around Clara's and gradually, he returned the quivering smile. "Alright…"
"All for one, one for all," Stan suddenly said, hopping up on to the ledge and grabbing Abbie's free hand. "If we're gonna stick it to those damned stone demons, I say Miss Clara's got the right idea. Let's all jump together."
Edmund nodded, pushing his glasses up and along his nose, taking Clara's free hand and joining the foursome on the roof's edge. "You'd best count me in too, then."
Abbie smiled toothily. "It's not so scary with everyone up here with me…"
The door suffered another brutal attack.
"But I want Cassy to jump too. I don't want to jump unless Cassy jumps with us."
The little girl looked over her shoulder.
Stan stretched his hand out, ready for the archaeologist to accept it with a comforting smile on his face. "One step for freedom, Cass. We're finally there."
Yes.
Yes.
She was finally there.
It had all happened so quickly.
The doctor had finally arrived and was offering her a chance of escape.
She took her first conscious breath of fresh air- air from the outside world- filling both of her lungs.
It was the moment that she had dreamed about for so long but never once had she imagined the horrible clenching in her lower stomach. It was a feeling almost akin to guilt, though Cassidy could think of nothing that she should feel guilty for.
Her horrors were almost over.
Taking a tentative step forward, she lifted her hand to place it in Stan's.
"Cassidy! Do not dare do what that man tells you to!"
She turned around, her heart suddenly hammering and her entire body seizing- blood seemed to rush from the veins of her extremities to accommodate for the pumping in her chest.
The door to the rooftop had burst open and scores of Angels were now filtering on to the roof.
Michael was at the forefront of the group, his wings open and spread to their fullest, most intimidating span, his fangs were bared and one clawed finger was pointing at his claimed human.
"Cassidy!" the Archangel growled. "Come here this instant! Do not take a step further!"
The five standing on the roof had turned around.
"Goddamn it," Stan all but snarled. "Him." He held his hand out to Cassidy even more insistently, reaching out slightly to grab at her fingertips. "Come on, Cass. Grab my hand and step up."
"Jesus Christ," Edmund breathed, his eyes wide as he gawked at the huge, hulking statue. "It really is alive. It really is talking to her…"
"Keep looking at them," the doctor said through gritted teeth, scanning the rooftop but keeping a hold of Clara and Abbie. "Keep looking at them all." He looked down to Cassidy. "Cass. Don't listen to him. He has nothing over you. Just ignore him."
Cassidy's eyes were firmly locked on Michael's face.
She tried to avoid staring directly into his eyes but it was difficult when she could feel their gaze burning into her like the glare of floodlights.
"Cassidy, come here. Come to me," the Angel beckoned. "Come back to your master."
"Don't listen to him!" the doctor shouted. "You've beaten him, Cass. He's defeated and he's playing last minute mind games…"
Michael steadily ignored the doctor's words, his tone suddenly softening.
"Please, Cassidy. What you spoke of before…for us to be together…just you and I with no other distractions…we can still enjoy this as a luxury…"
Cassidy's face started to heat up but she shook her head, her breath catching in her throat.
"No…no…stop it!" she suddenly shrieked, taking a step backwards. "Stop lying to me!"
"To deny wanting to come with me is to admit that you are the liar, human," Michael seethed, his tone soft but intense. "Come here to me. I shall take you away from all of this. From everything that troubles you. Just one touch of my hand. That's all that it will take…"
"Cassidy," the doctor pleaded. "Don't listen to a word that he says…just take Stan's hand now…we have to go…"
"One touch," Michael repeated, speaking loudly and over the doctor. "That is all it will take. Come with your master now. I promise to honour our covenant in exchange for your obedience, you will be well-treated…I can take you away…just you and I together…is that not what you want? You told me endlessly of how all you wanted was to be taken away… by me."
"That's what I wanted!" Cassidy shouted at the Angel, the statue that she had found, liberated and cared for and the psychopathic alien who had been her captor and prison-warden. "Then you ruined it, Michael…then you turned into a monster…"
She was horrified by the tears that pricked at the corners of her eyes and the desperate sinking in her stomach as she backed away further, taking Stan's hand.
"Cassidy…no! NO! Return to my side NOW!"
"I don't belong to you!"
She stepped up on to the ledge, her legs shaking as she squeezed Stan's hand.
Her eyes remained on Michael as she twisted her body to face the drop.
Fear overcame her in a single, cold rush but she refused to let it permeate her sudden streak of courage.
"…you always will."
Michael's words shot straight through her chest like her arrows.
She could barely hear the doctor as he counted them in; his voice sounded far away and echoing.
As the six of them turned their heads, releasing the Angels from their quantum lock, their feet left the stony ledge.
Cassidy squeezed her eyes shut as she jumped.
She never saw nor felt Michael's fingertips, mere inches from touching the loose tendrils of her hair as she leapt out of his reach.
The first thing that she felt was the sudden, shocking, terrifying sensation of falling.
The feeling of air rushing around her, of her body going rigid and of nothing beneath her as she dropped.
She kept her eyes shut but could sense the ground nearing.
But all of a sudden, she could feel herself being engulfed by a sudden warmth.
A warmth that seemed to swallow her entire body, numbing her to the outside world and encasing her entirely.
Little by little, she felt the feeling return to her limbs and realised – with surprise- that she was standing on solid ground.
Daring herself to open her eyes, Cassidy found herself staring at the very hotel that they had just jumped from.
"Wh-what…?"
She looked around, realising that she was still holding Stan's hand.
Stan was still holding Abbie's hand.
In fact they were all lined up exactly as they had been before the jump, all standing on the footpath, across the road, opposite the hotel.
It wasn't long before they were all looking around quizzically too.
"Huh?" Stan opened his eyes fully, blinking and shaking his head. "How the heck did we get here? Didn't we just jump off the roof of the hotel?"
Edmund shuddered, running both hands through his hair. "That was the most bizarre feeling I've ever felt. For a second, I thought I was going to die and then…then I open my eyes and I'm standing here…"
The doctor released Abbie and Clara's hands looking around for a moment and then grinning widely, punching the air with delight. "We did it! Ha-ha! It worked! It actually worked!" He bent down and swooped Abbie up in a tight hug. "You are a super star, Abigail Drake! Never forget that!"
Clara opened her eyes and let out a long sigh of relief before rounding on the doctor.
"Did you just say "it actually worked"?!" She gave him a hard slap on the arm. "You mean you weren't sure whether it would or not?"
The doctor straightened up, giving Clara an equally tight hug. "Of course I was sure. There was no way I would have let the rest of you jump if I had any doubt in my mind…" He parted from his companion, shrugging with a grin. "But it's nice to celebrate, all the same."
"Shouldn't we start running?" Edmund asked, looking at the others in the group. "From the Angels, I mean. Won't they be coming after us?"
"You really haven't been paying an ounce of attention, have you, Eddie?" the doctor mock-goaded, chuckling. "We won't have to worry about any of those Angels any more. No one will."
"What's happening to the hotel?" Abbie suddenly chirped, pointing up at the building across the road.
Five pairs of eyes swivelled around to join hers.
The once-majestic building now appeared to be decaying right before their very eyes. A whitish light swirled in a hazy fog around its red-brick walls, coating the windows and lapping against the ornamental gargoyles that adorned its name-plaque.
Bit by bit, the Summer Bank hotel appeared to be fading away into a mist.
Disappearing into the night as the sky darkened above it.
"We created a paradox. The Angels' feeding ground has been poisoned. The Summer Bank hotel will have either never existed or will at least never have come under the Angels' control. It's starting to return to the form it was in before the Angels found it…"
"What about the other people inside?" the little girl asked with concern.
"They'll go back to their lives as if they were never taken by the Angels in the first place, Abbie. They won't remember anything."
"Why aren't I disappearing too?" Stan interjected. "And I don't mean to contradict you, doctor but I can remember everything just fine…"
"You've had contact with raw time energy, Stan. You've stepped outside of the Angels' artificial time-loop. Thus, your memories will be unaffected." He smiled to the black-haired man. "Don't worry though. We'll get you home safe and sound."
"…and the Angels?" Cassidy found herself asking, almost hesitantly.
"They'll all die. Their food source has been contaminated."
"Even…?"
"Yes, if he's been feeding off of the Summer Bank's food reserves, Michael will die too." The doctor looked sideways at Cassidy, giving her a curt nod. "He'll be gone."
The blonde-haired archaeologist nodded, unsure of her own feelings for a moment.
"Right then," the doctor said with a cough. "We'd best get everyone home. To the TARDIS!"
As the group started to walk away, (Edmund and Stan laughing and chattering about how they planned to celebrate their "Great Escape" when they got home and Abbie clutching both Clara and the doctor's hands, already asking one hundred and one questions about what she had just undergone), Cassidy found herself looking over her shoulder at the vanishing building behind her.
"So you'll be gone," she murmured to herself. "That's the end."
Her eyes slowly wandered up to look at the Los Angeles night-sky: she was free at last.
So why did she still feel like a prisoner?
As her hands rooted through the pockets of her shorts, her mind seemed to root through her memories- pulling very specific ones to the surface.
The first time she had seen Michael in the forest. The joy that she had felt at her find. The wonder that she had been ignited in her in the wake of his beauty, the magnificence of his body.
All the hours she had spent restoring him and repairing him.
All the hours that she had spent talking to him as she worked on him, completely unaware that he had been able to hear every word that she said.
The solstice that she had found in caring for him.
All the times that she had dreamt of him coming to life.
All the times that she had felt his eyes on her when her back was turned.
The roses that he had left for her.
The shock that she had felt on the night that he first revealed his true nature to her.
The terror that he could inspire in her.
The control that he exercised over her.
The starvation.
The isolation.
The fear.
The torture.
The necklace.
Michael glowering at her.
Michael stroking her.
Michael scratching her.
Michael touching her.
Michael hitting her.
Michael saving her from Kyrie.
Michael holding her shoulders in the elevator, her back pressed against his chest.
Michael looking at her.
Michael talking to her.
Michael teasing her as she repaired him.
Michael leering at her.
Michael holding her in his arms.
Michael threatening her.
Michael running his fingertips along her face.
Michael shouting commands at her.
Michael laughing after she told him the Greek myth.
Michael laughing cruelly at her as he humiliated her before the other Angels.
Michael whispering in her ear.
Michael force-feeding her.
Michael praising her physical appearance.
Michael choking her.
Michael kissing her…
Her fingers sifted frantically through the wad of paper that she had pulled from her pocket.
She rifled through the letters that she had written in the hotel room and pulled out the one that she had written to the Weeping Archangel.
"Why did you do this to me, you monster? Why can't you just leave me alone? Why can't you just let me hate you? "
She pulled the letter from the bunch and stuffed the other letters into her pocket before scrunching Michael's letter in her fist and tossing it on to the side-walk.
She repeated the words that she had said on the rooftop under her breath, this time trying to make them sound as firm and unfeeling as possible.
"Goodbye, Michael."
For a moment, she believed in her own determination.
She believed that she actually meant what she said.
Despite the feeling of the chains that had once been attached to her wrists- like phantom limbs- still here and still tingling against her skin.
Still keeping her shackled to him.
The doctor led them to an alleyway and Cassidy blinked in surprise, noticing a blue police box standing there- just like the one from that she had seen in the graveyard on the day of Louisa's funeral.
She watched as the doctor disappeared inside it, tugging Clara and Abbie in after him.
"What the-?"
Truthfully, she had been wondering how exactly the doctor planned to take them all back home and to their relevant time-zones.
The doctor had already told her that he was some kind of time traveller over the phone.
Cassidy caught up with Edmund and Stan, shaking her head as she approached the blue box- no bigger than a public telephone booth.
Maybe she had been expecting something along the lines of Hermione's enchanted hour glass or a Back to the Future, Doc Brown style DeLorean or leaping through a magical portal a la The Girl Who Leapt Through Time…but this box didn't exactly strike her as a particularly believable means of time travel.
"We're hardly all even gonna fit in that thing," Stan pointed out with a snort, seemingly sharing Cassidy's scepticism.
"Oh just you wait," Edmund grinned, catching the door handle and ushering them both inside.
"Sweet mother of-…"
"Oh God."
Both Stan and Cassidy could only manage a few breathless stammers as they walked into the TARDIS, the two of them looking from its polished panel floors to its high, arching ceiling to its strange but absolutely wonderful control deck with shock and amazement.
"But this was…"
"…and now it's bigger…"
"Yes, yes," the doctor called over from the main control panel. "Welcome to my TARDIS. She's very beautiful. Nobody touch anything…"
A loud whirring sound erupted from the centre of the great time machine as the mechanisms above the control panel began to pump and illuminate. There was the sudden grinding of metal accompanied by an almighty thunk from above them and suddenly the entire room began to shake.
Cassidy stumbled, feeling the floor beneath her feet starting to vibrate.
Clara caught her eye and beckoned for her to catch a hold of the railing that surrounded the control panel. "Whatever about his "don't touch anything" rule. You're going to want to hold on to something…"
Instinctively, Cassidy nodded and grabbed the railing.
Following suit, Edmund latched on to a nearby pipe of some kind and Stan wedged himself in an alcove in the walls.
Abbie was simply content to continue holding on to the doctor's left leg.
It took a few minutes for the TARDIS to steady up and it was only when vicious vibrating beneath the floor had dulled to a low purr that the doctor stood up straight once more.
"Ok then everyone. It looks like it's smooth sailing from here on out so…make yourselves comfortable, I suppose…"
It was her first time ever in a real life time machine.
Not to mention, she had just escaped a pack of ruthless, murderous alien statues.
She should have been celebrating with the others.
She should have been poking around the TARDIS, exploring the different rooms and examining every inch of its beguiling design.
She should have been drinking tea and eating cake without a care in the world.
Not standing with her forehead pressed against a wall in one of the TARDIS' more secluded corridors.
Cassidy took another deep breath, listening to the sounds of her own shaky inhalation.
"Relax," she told herself. "Just relax. You'll be home soon. You'll get to see your mum soon. Everything will be fine. Stop worrying."
She turned around to press her back into the wall and slowly slid downwards until she was sitting on the floor, nursing her head in both hands.
"Cassy!"
She heard Abbie's excited squeal and opened her eyes at the feeling of the little girl tugging on the sleeve of her coat. "Come on, Cassy. The doctor has bunk beds and he's going to let me jump on the top bunk! Come on and look!"
She looked at the little girl blearily and gave her a weak smile. "Abbie, I'm sorry. I'm not feeling too great at the moment. I'll come down and join you in a second, alright?"
"No, now!" Abbie pouted. "If you have a tummy ache, the doctor can give you medicines because he's a doctor. Now come on!"
"I think Cassidy just needs to have some quiet time for a bit," came Clara's voice from above them both and Cassidy looked up to see the young woman taking the boisterous little red head's hand. "Some people can get time-travel-sick, the same way you can get carsick or sea-sick." She smiled warmly. "I'm sure Cassidy will join us as soon as she starts to feel better, alright, Abbie?"
"Ok," the little girl sighed before rubbing her face against Cassidy's arm. "Get better soon, Cassy."
"I'll try to."
She looked up to meet Clara's sympathetic gaze properly and gave her a grateful smile, watching as the two of them disappeared down a far corridor.
It wasn't long after they left when Cassidy's quiet reverie was broken once more.
"Hey there, stranger. Mind if I join you?"
She looked up to see Stanley P. Quinn standing over her.
She shrugged. "Yeah, sure. If you'd like."
Stan crouched to squat down beside her, his elbows resting on his knees.
"You ok, Cass?"
"I'll be fine…my head's just a little sore at the moment and my stomach's all over the place."
He grimaced. "I know the feeling. Feels so damn weird to be out of that hotel. It's gonna take three or four days for my appetite to come back and I know I ain't gonna sleep well for the first few nights back home…" The man grunted, annoyed but then suddenly burst into peals of gruff laughter.
Cassidy looked at him. "What's so funny?"
He shrugged, looking back at her. "Well it's not that funny or anything. Just feels a little odd, I guess."
"What does?"
"To be talking to you without a wall between us."
Cassidy smiled as the thought dawned on her too. "Yeah, I guess that is a little odd."
"It's like I've known you forever but I've only actually seen you once or twice…"
"Thank you, Stan," she said suddenly. "Seriously. Thank you."
"Hm?"
"Thanks for being there for me to talk to. If I hadn't had you to talk with me about what I was going through and if I hadn't had you for human contact at all…I probably would have gone insane in that hotel room…"
Stan's eyebrows raised and he shook his head. "Hell, Cass. If anything, I should be thanking you. If it weren't for you, I'd be dead right now. Literally. I mean, on the day we first met, I was ready to commit suicide just to escape that place…but then you saved my life…you gave me back my hope…reminded me that there were still good people in the world…"
"Funny," she said softly. "You reminded me of that too."
She reached up to give her dear friend another hug, taking in his scent this time.
He smelled faintly of stale sweat and the innards of that hellish hotel but Cassidy didn't care.
What mattered was that he was real and that he was there.
"The doctor said that we'll be reaching North Carolina first. In my time. I always figured my mama would be freaking out wondering where I've been for a whole year but the doctor said he'll try to get me back as close to the day that I disappeared as possible." He shrugged, parting from her. "So I might not have too much explaining to do."
"Do you have many plans for when you get back?"
"Gonna hang out with old friends, spend time with mama and write to pops…probably go back to college for the next semester. I was studying law but when I was doing odd jobs in 1920s L.A., I really got into tinkering around with cars and stuff. The doctor was suggesting that I should get into engineering…Any plans yourself?"
Cassidy sighed. "Go back to working at the museum…maybe. I was suspended from work just before I left pending an incident with Michael. I don't know where I stand with the Curator at the moment. I guess I also want to spend time with my mum…she's pretty sick though…she might not be up to doing much at the moment…"
"That's rough, Cass," Stan murmured his eyebrows arching. "I really wish I could help you out somehow." He looked down slightly. "I can't believe that this is the last time I'm ever going to see you…"
Stan frowned, his head hanging for a moment before he suddenly brightened up, something dawning on him. "Hey, what's your address? I can write to you, can't I? Send you a letter in the future?"
Cassidy blinked, her brow furrowing. "That could be kind of confusing…and messy…" She looked up at the man beside her, an uncontrollable smile breaking across her face. "But I'd really, really like that…"
After an emotional farewell to Stan, Cassidy found herself sitting at a table somewhere in the depths of the TARDIS, recovering from a very competitive pillow fight, (Team Doctor and Abbie Vs Team Everyone Else) and having a cup of tea with Edmund.
"So how were things at the museum after I left?" she asked rather hesitantly, reluctant to know the answer but feeling that she needed to put the question to him. "Everyone whispering about me already?"
"Well, y-…not really," Edmund said quickly, sipping at his tea. "Obviously people were wondering what exactly happened and why you were suspended. Most people just bought into the story that you got drunk after Leon turned you down and messed with a display or something." His lip twitched and he shrugged. "And then after Michael disappeared, there were a few stupid rumours about you, Darrow and Hewitt banding together to steal it…Michael came back in the meantime though…and then disappeared again, I suppose… so I don't know what they're all saying now…"
Cassidy groaned, running both hands through her hair and leaning forward on the table.
"For Christ's sake, this is not fair."
Edmund placed a comforting hand on one of Cassidy's arms. "No, it's not fair but like I said, they're all just stupid rumours. Stupid, pathetic rumours. Nobody can prove anything and all the gossip will die down sooner or later…"
She took a breath, knuckling her temples. "I really hope so."
There was an uncomfortable silence for a moment before Cassidy looked up from her hands.
A single, comforting thought had just occurred to her and it prompted her to give Edmund a small smile.
"You came. You came to find me with the doctor and Clara."
"Of course I did," he said, mirroring her smile and pushing his glasses up and along his nose. "We've had our silly tiffs before but you're still my friend, Cass."
"That's good to know. I guess I've always considered you to be more of a friend than a co-worker…even with the rivalries…and even though I've always been a little jealous of you."
"Jealous? Of me?"
"Yes, of course. I mean you've got a higher ranking job than me at the museum, you've got such a good reputation for being one of the best dig co-ordinators, team leaders and public relations officers that the museum has ever seen. Not to mention the fact that Stanford loves you…"
Edmund waved a hand. "Yeah but you're the college girl who went from being a rookie to being Hewitt's apprentice in the space of a few months. And Hewitt always liked you better than me." He chuckled. "Look at the two of us, measuring pricks like a pair of schoolboys."
Cassidy laughed into her teacup, almost spitting up the mouthful.
When she had safely swallowed the tea down, she gave Edmund Potter a grin. "Either way, I'm rather happy that you came. It's nice to see a familiar face after all of this…"
Edmund smiled but then heaved a sigh, shaking his head.
"I am such a complete and utter prat, Cass. I'm so sorry for not believing you. I keep thinking that if I had believed you about the statue from the very start and had stayed with you that day, maybe…"
"There was nothing you could have done," Cassidy told him softly. "Michael would have come for me either way and I would have never forgiven myself if he'd hurt you for getting in the way." She smiled, putting her teacup down. "And you came after me. You came looking for me. That's what matters. That makes up for it."
"So you're really an alien too, then?"
"I am."
"Wow."
Cassidy stood by the control deck, standing next to the doctor as the two of them spoke.
"Thank you," she told him hesitantly. "Seriously, thank you so much for saving me. If you hadn't come when you did…" Her voice started to crack. "I don't know what he would have done…"
The doctor put his hand on her shoulder, giving it a squeeze. "I'm just so, so sorry that I couldn't have been there sooner. I was almost too late."
The man exuded warmth, his every word seemed to put her at her ease and it just about killed her to hear him sounding so forlorn.
"Doctor, it's alright. You weren't too late," she said, sniffing a little. "And even then, I shouldn't have been dependent on you. I should have fought back harder. I-…"
"No, Cassidy," the doctor said suddenly, pulling her sideways slightly to look at him. " This was not your fault. Nothing that he did was your fault." His bright eyes were burning with intensity. "Don't ever think that this was in any way your fault…"
Her own eyes fell downwards.
"Why me? I mean…why did he choose me? He definitely had access to other humans so why not choose one of them?"
The doctor frowned, rubbing his forehead.
"It's hard to say with situations like this. Some things happen to people because they need it. Some things happen to people because the very fabric of the universe says so. And then in your case, some things just happen to people because they end up in the wrong place at the wrong time."
She nodded slowly, trying to bring herself to understand before looking back up at the doctor again.
"Was that really a coincidence then? The day that you met me in the graveyard at Louisa's funeral?"
The doctor smiled faintly, running his hands along the TARDIS' polished control belt.
"I was actually trying to get to Spain in the 1960s. I promised Clara I'd introduce her to the famous architect, Gaudí. But if there's one thing that I've learned is that this old girl…" He gave the panel an affectionate tap. "Often takes me where I need to go, rather than where I want to go."
"You said that you met me before…in my future…does that mean that I'll see you again?"
"Yes. Well, no. Well, yes and no. You'll see me again. It'll be the first time that I've met you. I won't look like this though." He gestured to his entire body with a chuckle. "I'll look like a completely different man. Just be ready for a house-call from a man called John Smith. Oh and just a quick note for your future reference- I don't like pears. Not at all."
"Ah," she replied with a nod, not quite sure how to receive this information but mentally logging it away, all the same. "Right…er…will I ever see you looking like this, again?"
"Perhaps. Rather unlikely I'm afraid. But perhaps. The future is a vast and crazy thing. I just don't have any other memories or footnotes of ever having met you again so if we do cross paths again, Miss Albright, it will be in both of our futures.
"Doctor," Cassidy murmured quietly, mentally preparing herself the question that she had been longing to ask for quite some time now. "You're a time traveller and this time machine could take us anywhere in time that we wanted to go?"
"Yes and theoretically. Why? Some major historical event that you've always wanted to see?"
"If I could remember the exact date, time and area where I found Michael in Sherwood Forest, is there any way that we could…?"
"I can't prevent you from ever having met that Weeping Angel," the doctor said, looking rather crestfallen, his voice becoming quite sombre. "I'm sorry, Cass, but there are some events in history that are…fixed. They have to happen. I don't quite know why yet but…you and Michael meeting…that is one of those events…It can't be changed."
Cassidy nodded.
She should have known such an opportunity would be too good to be true.
"And Louisa's death? My friend from the museum?"
"…I'm sorry, Cass."
"That's alright, doctor." She forced herself to smile, patting the doctor on the arm. "You know, I'm aware we haven't parted ways yet but I already can't wait to see you again. It's not every day that one meets a real time traveller…"
The Time Lord looked at her sideways and gave her a wry smile. "Don't go making me blush now."
A few conversations and cups of tea later, the TARDIS finally touched down in the front yard of Cassidy Albright's home in Oakside.
She bid the doctor, Clara, Abbie and Edmund farewell, (and "see you on Monday" as necessary), before stepping out of the door of the blue box and back on to British soil- in her own era no less- for the first time in over a month.
She watched in both shock and wonder as the TARDIS whirred to life once more behind her and in a few pulses, faded away completely, vanishing.
It took her a few solid minutes to recover from having seen what she had seen.
She turned to face her house, her feet crunching in the gravel beneath as a cold wind drew across her, causing her to shiver.
Cassidy Albright looked up at the sky, feeling nothing but that cold wind for a moment.
"It's finally over," she whispered. "You're finally gone."
Then she felt it.
The terrible void.
The sudden, terrifying emptiness.
The phantom chains pulling on her again.
A warm tear slid down her cheek as she hung her head.
This was wrong.
She knew she shouldn't feel that way.
Another tear joined the first.
Feeling a pain in her chest, Cassidy dropped her head.
Her voice was nothing more than a shaky, breathless whisper.
"I could have gone my entire life without knowing how it would feel to kiss you…"
She lied.
She lied.
She had said that she wanted nothing more than for the two of them to be together.
Yet when given the chance to leave with him, she fled.
She had betrayed him.
She lied.
Though the way she had embraced him, the way her body moved to become one with his own…
There was no way to disguise that.
He had felt her rapid heartbeat, the scent of yearning, fresh on her skin…
Perhaps he was not the one that she had lied to.
Either way, he knew that he had been vastly underestimated.
Emerging from the wreckage of the Summer Bank, he desperately searched for her time signature- the imprint that would tell him where she had been taken.
While searching, he noticed a piece of paper that had ridden the night-time air to become entangled with the lower folds of his toga.
Growling with annoyance, he moved to flick the offending document away, only to notice the name that she had given him written in human tongue on the page.
He freed the paper and held it up to scan it.
His kind were intelligent.
Fast learners.
Learning the coded, written speech of humans had been easy to him.
He realised that it was a letter.
A written communication from her.
He read it and re-read it, taking in her words and processing them.
"Your prisoner,
Cassidy…"
After his final reading, he crushed the paper in his fist, letting it fall to the ground.
She was his prisoner.
She would always be his prisoner.
And if that meddling doctor and his companions thought that he was going to give her up so easily…
….they were sorely mistaken.
Hope you enjoyed! :D
Next chapter is already in the works and will be on its way soon!