Chapter 4 – A Day At The Zoo
Weeks passed in the Hub.
Alex just seemed to be getting sicker and sicker, and the Doctor had moved him to the Infirmary for a long term stay as a precaution. Martha and Mickey were back from their honeymoon and Martha had checked Alex over herself but there was nothing new she could add to the treatment. Pretty soon Jackie had found out about her grandson and drowned him in kisses and get well presents, which Leah had been incredibly annoyed about.
The search and rescue operation was proving to be a success, at least five aliens a day were turning up in the Hub, usually terrified and terribly thankful to the Doctor for his taxi service. As well as listing the Hub as a refuge centre the Doctor had also fixed a homing beacon to it to guide any aliens to them. But despite all this the Doctor knew that although they were doing all they could to help the stranded aliens, this was not a long term solution. Pretty soon the amount of aliens would become too much. When that day came he would have to think of a new plan, but without going directly to the Shadow Proclamation he could only treat the symptoms and not the cause. Less of a Doctor, and more of a hot lemon drink.
Not long after that it was the day of Leah's fourth birthday. Martha assured the Doctor and Rose she would look after Alex back in Torchwood so they could go out for the day. After twenty minutes of deciding where she wanted to go, Leah had finally chosen the Universal Zoo.
"What's in this one?" Leah wondered, her nose pressed up against the glass of a tank.
The Doctor looked at the information plate. "Umm... The Invisible Topiazaries."
"I can't see anything," Jack muttered, his nose also up against the glass.
"Of course not, they're invisible," the Doctor replied with a roll of his eyes.
"What's the point of that?" Jack wondered seriously, knocking on the glass. Suddenly the glass thunked and both Jack and Leah jumped back in surprise, simultaneously squealing.
The Doctor just laughed, looking around for any sign of his wife. "Where's Rose? I want my ice cream."
"Here!" came a voice from behind him and he turned to find her holding and assortment of ice creams in a tray. He picked out the mint chocolate and gave it to Leah, who licked it eagerly before he took his own jam flavoured one and Jack retrieved his curry ice cream.
Rose took her butterscotch, and looked at Jack with disgust as he licked his curry one eagerly. "That's so disgustin'."
"Wanna try?" Jack asked her, offering his ice cream.
"No, thanks!" she said, laughing and moving to the next enclosure. She reached the fence and peeked in, seeing a small red monkey. Then to her complete surprise, it exploded in flames.
"Combustible monkeys," the Doctor supplied from behind her. "Indigenous to the Nebulax cluster. They explode on sight of strangers."
"It's dead?" she gaped.
He laughed. "No, when you look away they reform from the ash. Quite ingenious, really."
She looked back, and saw the monkey again. It once more exploded. Then three more appeared from the enclosure's bushes, and they all simultaneously exploded as well.
"That's so weird," she muttered under her breath.
"Daddy, what's a boggart?" Leah suddenly asked from behind them and they turned to see her standing staring at the sign of a booth saying, 'CONFRONT A FEMALE BOGGART!' with one next to it saying 'CONFRONT A MALE BOGGART!' with a long list of side effects next to it, including, Rose noticed, one advising currently gestating, replicating and pollinating species not to enter.
"Boggarts!" Rose scoffed, laughing. "Aren't they from Harry Potter?"
"Well JK got her ideas from somewhere," the Doctor reasoned with a grin. "It's a defence mechanism, the females show you what you love the most so you won't hurt it, and the males show you your greatest fear so you'll run away."
"I wanna try!" Leah said, running off to the booth before the Doctor could protest. She stepped into the female viewing booth through the cloth, and stared through the glass. Within moments the female boggart lingering there had assumed the form of a giant playful teddy bear, and Leah squealed in delight, licking her ice cream.
The giant teddy bear waved at her, and she waved back, before the female boggart retreated and Leah stepped back outside.
"What did you see?" Jack asked eagerly.
"A big teddy bear!" Leah enthused, beaming.
"Oh, me next!" Jack said quickly and dived into the booth. The other three waited patiently until they heard a laugh of joy and he came back out, grinning from ear to ear.
"It was Ianto holding a..." He trailed off, looking at Leah. "Well... Holding something."
Rose handed the Doctor her ice cream, running in next. She reappeared with another broad smile.
"That was so weird, it showed me you," she said, looking at the Doctor.
He grinned and smoothed down an eyebrow. "Well you know, I'm just that good."
"... Holdin' a lot of chocolate," she completed, grinning with her tongue between her teeth.
The Doctor rolled his eyes with a laugh, then started to move away.
"Wait, aren't you having a go?" Jack asked him.
He shook his head. "No, thanks. I don't like things looking in my brain."
"Can I try the other one, please Daddy?" Leah asked eagerly, tugging on his sleeve. "The male?"
He frowned slightly. "It's going to scare you, it'll be what you most fear, Leah."
"I'm not scared," she said boldly, still licking her ice cream.
"Are you absolutely sure?"
She nodded.
He was still frowning, knowing it wasn't a good idea, but had to resign. She had him wrapped around her little finger and didn't he know it. "Well okay, but remember, whatever it is it's not real and it's not going to hurt you."
"I know," Leah replied as if he was the dumbest person in the world before running into the second booth.
She stepped inside, and instantly the room temperature seemed to drop, giving her goosebumps. Somewhat apprehensively, she stepped up to the glass... and the male boggart appeared.
She watched, absolutely fascinated as she wondered what she was going to see. For a moment it just stared at her, and then, to her absolute horror, it began to bubble and boil with blood red veins bursting out of its skin, its whole body twisting and merging before her eyes before it suddenly turned completely black and melted where it stood, disappearing from sight behind the wall.
A human hand suddenly slammed onto the glass, covered in blood. Leah jumped and shrieked but she stayed in place, determined to be brave. The hand tried to grip the glass but it failed and trailed down, leaving a path of blood behind it. Then the top of a head appeared, matted brown hair, thin, pale face...
It was her Daddy, covered in bruises and scars with an expression of indescribable pain on his face. He finally made it upright to reveal torn and blooded clothes, tears falling down his cheeks, staring at her through the glass with his deep brown eyes wide and terrified...
"Leah..." he mouthed, soundless behind the glass. "Help me..."
She couldn't move, couldn't make a sound. The ice cream she was holding slipped silently out of her hand and hit the floor with a plop.
"Leah!" he yelled soundlessly, hitting the glass barrier three times with his fist. It shuddered with the impacts. "Please! Please help me!"
Then suddenly there was something coming up behind her Daddy, something big and black... It raised something in the air which gleamed in the light as she realised it was... a knife. Heading straight for her Daddy's back.
"DADDY!" she shrieked, pointing desperately to the thing with the knife behind him. "DADDY!"
It was too late. The knife plunged into his back and he fell down out of sight, dead...
"Leah!" came a cried from behind her, but it seemed like miles away. The black figure was advancing towards the glass, slowly becoming more and more clear...
She felt someone shaking her but she was completely transfixed. She watched with wide, horrified eyes, screaming her lungs out but not even aware she was doing it as the black figure revealed itself...
It was the head woman from the Shadow Proclamation.
There she was, standing there staring at Leah, her red eyes shining brightly through the glass. Slowly the edges of her mouth began to curve upwards into a sickening smile and she raised her hand... Pointing straight at Leah.
She was suddenly taken hold of and she screamed, kicking and punching desperately to try and get free of whatever was holding her. It seemed not to care about that, carrying her away from the woman and out into bright, warm light.
"Leah! Leah!" someone was yelling at her, and slowly the world came back into focus to reveal her parents and Jack sitting in front of her, looking terrified. "Leah, Leah, talk to me!"
She blinked at looked up at her Daddy for a moment... and then burst into tears.
"Leah," the Doctor said gently, kissing her and hugging her. "Are you okay?"
She choked an unconvincing, "yes" through her sobs.
He kissed her again, very worried. "What did you see?"
She shook her head quickly, still crying.
"It's okay, you can tell me," the Doctor assured her.
She looked up at him again and sniffed, wiping her eyes. Then she leant forward whispered what she'd seen into his ear. He instantly scooped her up into a massive hug, holding her tightly.
Rose and Jack both looked at him enquiringly, but he didn't explain, just holding his daughter close.
"It's fine, it wasn't real," the Doctor told her. "None of that was real. Now come on, it's your birthday, you're meant to be happy! We'll get you another ice cream later if you like. Now, what do you want for lunch?"
She sniffed again. "Chicken, please," she said quietly.
He nodded, getting to his feet and holding her close. "Good idea. Give me a smile, come on."
Her lips wobbled before she looked up at him and smiled.
"There we go," he said happily, kissing her once more. "Let's get chicken."
He turned and walked away from the boggart enclosure, Leah watching over his shoulder at the tent flap. She felt very weird inside.
"Aww, a little gift shop!" the Doctor enthused, beaming from ear to ear as they finished their visit and made to the docks through the zoo gift shop. He felt an insistent tugging on his trouser leg and he looked down to find Leah standing there with innocent eyes, silently holding a cuddly toy tiger to him.
"Whatever you want," the Doctor assured her, and she quickly grabbed his hand and yanked him further into the shop, throwing things in his arms along the way.
Jack laughed at the sight as Rose drew out her phone, calling Martha. He looked at her.
"Checking Alex," she said in explanation, phone at her ear.
Jack watched her contemplatively for a moment, before Rose started talking down the phone.
"Hey, Martha, it's Rose... Yeah, it's been great, thanks... Yeah, I was just calling to check on Alex... Oh?... So is that... Okay, then... Yeah, I'll let him know... We'll be heading back soon... Okay thanks, bye."
"How is he?" Jack asked.
"Pneumonia," Rose replied, biting her lip.
"Poor kid," Jack said seriously, and on impulse hugged her in comfort. "He'll be okay."
"I know," Rose replied quietly. "But I just hate seeing him like this, you know?"
Jack just nodded. Suddenly the Doctor and Leah reappeared through the crowd, the latter beaming happily with the former's head lost in amongst the tens of toys and sweets in his arms as he struggled not to fall over. However, he couldn't see where he was going, so he ended up walking into a wall and falling backwards, toys and sweets everywhere.
A/N: Sorry for the delay and all that, glad you're sticking with me! It's get better, I promise :P