Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who
A/N: I've been meaning to ask, do you guys like me adding these little bridges between scenes and episodes? I think it helps the chapter flow and makes it feel a bit more organic, but I was hoping to get some feedback on whether it's working. Also, sorry if the Beethoven bit is clunky, but I couldn't think of how to work it into the actual story and keep the flow going. Suggestions welcome, I can edit if necessary. Sorry this chapter took so long, again, I've been down near Leicester for a week practising my driving ;)
Before the Flood – Part One
"It can't be…" Emily murmured, staring through the glass at the 'ghost' of her father. Clara and Flavia looked at her with pity, thinking she was in understandable denial. "Oh, Emily, I'm so sorry" Flavia began, but Emily shook her head.
"No, I mean it really can't be him" she insisted, her shaking voice growing stronger and more confident. "Dad wouldn't just die, it would take way more to get the best of him. My mum would never let him be killed…no, this is a trick. I don't know who's making it, but that is not my father. I know it isn't".
/
It turned out that Bennett didn't take well to time travel; when the TARDIS dematerialised and the console room had lurched, he clapped a hand to his mouth and rushed off down the corridor in search of a bathroom. O'Donnell sighed, a bit embarrassed, and quickly changed the subject. "So, we're going back in time to stop the ghosts, yeah? Can't wait" she grinned excitedly, "But um…if the ghosts don't attack us in the Drum, then…won't that cause a paradox?"
"Yeah, which is why we're not stopping the ghosts" the Corsair replied, "At least not the way you're thinking. We can't stop Moran or Pritchard…or whoever the other guy is…from dying. Sorry".
"No, I get it. Um, what sort of paradox would it cause, if we did?"
"Excellent question" the Doctor announced suddenly, stepping into O'Donnell's field of view and making her jump. "So there's this man. He has a time machine. Up and down history he goes, zip, zip, zip, zip, zip, getting into scrapes" he explained, walking up the steps to the gallery that lined the console room as he talked. "Another thing he has is a passion for the works of Ludwig van Beethoven" he continued, holding up a vinyl LP of Beethoven's 5th.
"And one day he thinks, what's the point of having a time machine if you don't get to meet your heroes? So off he goes to eighteenth century Germany. But he can't find Beethoven anywhere. No one's heard of him, not even his family have any idea who the time traveller is talking about"; as he talked, the Doctor placed the LP down and picked up a bust of Beethoven.
"Beethoven literally doesn't exist. This didn't happen, by the way. I've met Beethoven. Nice chap. Very intense. Loved an arm-wrestle, just ask the Corsair. No, this is called the Bootstrap Paradox. Google it" he instructed, "The time traveller panics", he put the bust down on a pile of sheet music, "He can't bear the thought of a world without the music of Beethoven.
"Luckily he'd brought all of his Beethoven sheet music for Ludwig to sign. So he copies out all the concertos, and the symphonies and he gets them published. He becomes Beethoven. And history continues with barely a feather ruffled. But my question is this. Who put those notes and phrases together? Who really composed Beethoven's Fifth?" he asked O'Donnell. She blinked and tried to figure it out…she still didn't understand what changing the past would do to the future, but who cares, the Doctor was explaining the bootstrap paradox! To her!
The TARDIS landed on a railway platform, and four of the five emerged from the time machine. "Where's Bennett?" the Doctor demanded, "We need to get going".
"Oh, he's still throwing up" O'Donnell admitted, "One small step for man, one giant bleaurgh" she paraphrased jokingly.
"Not everyone takes well to the TARDIS, especially the first time" Romana acknowledged sympathetically.
"Somehow I doubt that Rose or Martha or Amy lost their breakfast on their first trip".
"You seem to know an awful lot about me" the Doctor noted. He didn't dislike O'Donnell, she was nice in an 'eager to please' sort of way, but for centuries he'd been trying to keep a low profile and not have people keep tabs on him and his family all the time, except perhaps UNIT.
"I used to be in military intelligence" she explained, "I was demoted for dangling a colleague out of a window".
"In anger?"
"Is there another way to dangle someone out a window?"
The Corsair chuckled and remarked, "You know, I really like you".
"Really?!...I mean, thanks…what year is this?"
The Doctor licked his finger and held it up, and answered "1980".
"So, pre-Harold Saxon. Pre-the Minister of War. Pre-the moon exploding and a big bat coming out" O'Donnell commented. Romana wondered how many reports she'd read about their adventures…
"Minister of War?"
"Yeah…"
"No, never mind. I expect we'll find out soon enough".
Just then, Bennett stepped out of the TARDIS, still looking a bit peaked but less likely to be sick. "Sorry about that" he said apologetically, "Had a prawn sandwich, might have been off".
"Don't worry about it, Bennett, the TARDIS can be…tricky to get used to" Romana admitted, it was for some humans at least, "Now then, shall we get going?"
"Just one sec, I've got something in my boot" said O'Donnell, resting a hand on Bennett's shoulder to keep her balance, "You three go ahead".
So Romana, the Doctor and the Corsair walked away; the moment they were out of sight, O'Donnell beamed and began hopping up and down in excitement. "It's bigger on the inside, it's bigger on the inside, it's bigger on the inside. How can it be bigger on the inside, Bennett?" she asked, grinning hysterically…then she cleared her throat and adopted a serious expression. "Okay, let's roll".
The two of them caught up with the other two, walking past shop fronts, a telephone box and a poster of Stalin. Bennett noticed the poster and all the Cyrillic writing and inquired, "Why have we gone to Russia?"
"It's still Scotland, mate" replied the Corsair, "We were very careful to only travel in time and not space…well, Romana and I were being careful, someone was showing off".
"I was answering O'Donnell's question" the Doctor defended, even though he had actually confused her more, "Anyway, this is the town before it flooded. The TARDIS has brought us to when the spaceship first touched down. But here and now, it's the height of the Cold War. The military were being trained for offensives on Soviet soil" he explained to Bennett.
They found the spaceship parked in front of the church, its rear ramp lowered. Naturally they went inside, finding the stasis chamber still in place and a shrouded corpse lying on a raised platform. "Oh, is that the pilot?" asked O'Donnell, eyeing the wrapped figure, "My God, look at the size of it".
"No, that's the body" the Doctor corrected, as the Corsair crouched down and opened the floor hatch, seeing that both power cells were present.
"What do you mean, the body?"
"This isn't just any spaceship. It's a hearse".
"It probably arrived quite recently" the Corsair remarked, "Given that the stasis chamber and power cells are still here".
"And there are no markings on the wall" O'Donnell noted.
"Yet" the Doctor said ominously. Romana sighed in mild exasperation and asked, "Did you really need to say that, dear?"
As they emerged from the spaceship, a Tivolian hurried to meet them, dressed in Victorian-esque clothes and waving a white handkerchief in a typical gesture of surrender. "Greetings!" he said cheerfully.
"It's him, that's the ghost from the Drum" O'Donnell realised. The Tivolian walked right up to the Doctor, squinting at him curiously, and then at the others. "Remarkable; oh, and humans too" he noted, which made Romana and the Corsair glance at one another. How did he know they were Time Lords?
"Albar Prentis, Funeral Director" the Tivolian introduced himself, handing out business cards to them all. O'Donnell smirked in amusement at the slogan 'May the remorse be with you', Bennett looked at his in bewilderment, and the three Time Lords just tossed theirs away.
"You're from Tivoli, aren't you?" asked Bennett, trying to sound knowledgeable and confident in front of O'Donnell…or really, just in general, it wasn't like he wanted to impress her or anything…that wasn't going well, with him throwing up earlier.
"The most invaded planet in the galaxy!" Prentis agreed, "Our capital city has a sign saying, if you occupied us, you'd be home by now" he said, completely serious.
"Yes, we've had dealings with your lot before" the Doctor commented, gesturing to his fellow pilots, "Can't say we're fans, even if it was the best adventure I've ever been on".
Best adventure? Romana asked quizzically, then added, Oh, because we…but that was after the adventure, Theta.
If it weren't for that adventure I wouldn't have known you loved me or realised that I loved you, so yes, best adventure.
"No, we do tend to antagonise" Prentis chuckled, oblivious to the private conversation. An odd clattering noise caused O'Donnell to look briefly over to some kind of storage area, but she didn't see anything untoward, so she ignored it.
"What are you doing on Earth, exactly?" Romana asked Prentis, trying to get them back on topic.
"Ah, yes, of course" he nodded, hurrying up the ramp to the shrouded body, "This is the Fisher King. He and his armies invaded Tivoli and enslaved us for ten glorious years! Until we were liberated by the Arcateenians" he sighed, and then perked up, "But, thank the Gods, soon we'd irritated them so much, they enslaved us, too!" he laughed, as if it were the greatest thing to ever occur.
"My first proper alien, and he's an idiot" Bennett muttered. Prentis either didn't hear him, or decided to ignore him.
"And now, in accordance with Arcateenian custom, I've come to bury him on a barren, savage outpost".
"You mean the town?" inquired O'Donnell.
The Corsair cleared his throat and corrected, "Actually, he probably means the planet".
Prentis came back down the ramp and up to the Doctor, invading his personal space somewhat. "Although, at the risk of starting a bidding war, you could enslave me" he suggested conspiratorially, "In the ship I have directions to my planet and a selection of items that you can oppress me with".
"Listen, we've come from the future" the Doctor explained, "You're about to send some sort of signal. How do you do it? Is it a special pen?"
"What are you talking about?"
"The technology you use. The thing that wrenches the soul out of the body and makes it repeat your coordinates for eternity. Give it to me now, I'm going to take the batteries out".
"We don't have anything like that!" Prentis shook his head, giggling in a rather irritating way. He gestured at the spaceship and explained, "Even this belongs to the glorious Arcateenians".
"Wait…but if he's not creating the ghosts, then…who is?" the Corsair wondered. They looked up at the mummified corpse on the slab…
"Back to the TARDIS" the Doctor said decisively, "We'll see how the others are holding up".
/
Meanwhile, in the not so distant future, a small group of five were waiting and watching in the mess hall. Cass was sitting right in view of the ghost Doctor, frowning slightly in concentration as she read his lips, having noticed something wasn't quite right there. Emily sat nearby, also looking at the ghost, scanning it for any clue as to it's true origin. She refused to believe that her father would have died completely, that her mother and the Corsair would let him put himself in that much danger.
Clara and Flavia sat apart, talking in hushed tones. "Do you think she's right?" asked Clara, "Emily, I mean. About the ghost…" she couldn't bring herself to say 'ghost-Doctor', "Not being real".
"I…I honestly don't know, Clara" Flavia shook her head helplessly, "Emily is certainly taking after her father as far as detective skills go, and her reasoning is sound, but…"
"But if she's wrong, she'll be devastated" Clara finished, frowning sadly, "We all would…"
Lunn approached Emily hesitantly, sliding into the seat next to her. "You've been here before" he began, "In situations like this before".
"You mean something impersonating my dad? Yeah, it happens, usually we know what's causing it though".
"Well, err, I meant…you've had to deal with the possibility of losing someone close to you…I guess what I'm asking is, what I should say to you" he explained awkwardly.
"You can say that you believe me, that I'm right about this not being a ghost like the others" she replied. Lunn hesitated, and she began to frown…but before either of them could say anything, Cass suddenly slapped the back of her chair, causing them all to jump. Lunn realised she wanted their attention and made to translate her sign language.
"Cass thinks the Doctor's saying something different to the others. He's saying 'Moran, Pritchard, Apprentice – no, Prentis, Corsair, O'Donnell, Clara, Emily, Bennett, Cass, Flavia, Romana, Doctor…It's a list of all our names and when he finishes, he just goes back to the beginning again, over and over. That's it".
"Who's Prentis?" Clara wondered.
"The Tivolian" Emily answered confidently.
"How do you know?"
"He's the only one who's name we didn't know" she shrugged, "But don't you see? If it was like all the other ghosts, it would be saying the same four words as they are, but it's not; which means it's even more likely to be a trick!"
"Yes, but, who's tricking us? And why?" asked Flavia.
Emily faltered. "I haven't quite worked that part out yet…"
Suddenly, Clara's mobile began ringing. "It's the Doctor" she said when she'd checked the caller ID.
"He's alive?" asked Lunn.
"Of course" Emily insisted with stubborn confidence.
For the moment Clara thought, but she didn't say it aloud. Whilst Lunn signed the good news to Cass, she answered the video call and immediately inquired, "Doctor? Doctor, are you alright?"
"Yeah, fine" he replied casually, "So listen, the spaceship, it's a hearse…"
/
"Clara, is something wrong?" Romana asked in concern, noticing small tears in the corner of Clara's eyes. They were in the TARDIS; the Doctor had linked the phone to the console scanner so they could see Clara, and she did not look happy.
"Another ghost has appeared" she told them.
"What?" the Doctor frowned, "Who? Has someone died?"
"Doctor…" Clara hesitated, she didn't know how to tell them… "It's you" she admitted sadly. Romana's eyes widened in worry, the Corsair frowned…the Doctor simply stared solemnly at the screen, digesting this…unfortunate revelation.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah…well. Currently…"
"What does it mean?" asked Clara, propping the phone up on a mug of half eaten soup.
"It means I die" he answered solemnly. Romana looked at him in alarm; the finality in his voice scared her, surely he wasn't giving up so easily…?
"You're just a barrel of laughs today, aren't you?" the Corsair snarked.
Then Emily came into the frame beside Clara, and declared "No, it doesn't. I figured it out, the ghost isn't you! I mean, it is, but…You wouldn't just die like that, you'd regenerate, and it's not even saying the same thing as the other ghosts, it just keeps repeating our names. It's okay, dad, you don't die!" she smiled confidently, hopefully.
Her father's next words pulled the floor out from underneath her. "Emily…I'm not invincible, you know. Whatever created those ghosts is powerful, who's to say it isn't powerful enough to kill a Time Lord?"
"Who's to say it is? Maybe it's trying to trick you into a trap, dad. Don't be stupid; mum, tell dad he's being stupid".
"I think he heard you".
"Doctor…Emily might have a point. You can change this; you can alter the sequence of events so…" Clara trailed off,
"This isn't a potential future" the Doctor interrupted, "This is the future now. It's already happened. The proof is right there in front of you. I have to die".
"You can't…" Romana shook her head, "Doctor, what if Emily's right? This could be a trap, a misdirection…and besides, time can be rewritten, isn't that what you always say? It's not too late to stop this ever happening".
He smiled sadly and reached out to take her hand, running his thumb over her knuckles. "Romana, Emily…it's already happened. Once you know your own future, it's set in stone and we can't change it. Even the tiniest change, the ramifications could be catastrophic. It could spread carnage and chaos across the universe like ripples on a pond…"
"Drama queen, much?" the Corsair muttered.
"Oh, well, I've had a good innings. This regeneration, it's a bit of a clerical error anyway" he remarked to O'Donnell, before turning to Romana and saying soberly, "I've got to go sometime".
"No…no, you don't" she shook her head, tears springing hot and sharp to the corners of her eyes, Theta, you can't leave me, not now. I thought I'd almost lost our daughter, don't tell me I have to lose you as well.
"Dad, you can't!" Emily protested, shaking her head in stubborn disbelief.
"Clara, give the phone to Emily. I need to talk to my wife and daughter…in private" the Doctor added pointedly. The Corsair got the hint and ushered Bennett and O'Donnell away, down the steps to the lower level of the TARDIS console.
"C'mon, you two, I'll show you the thermo-couplings…"
Clara gave Emily a supportive squeeze and left her with the phone. "Why can't you just believe me?" she demanded, "I'm not trying to 'cope', I know something doesn't add up here!"
"Emeya, I'm not saying I don't believe you" the Doctor told her calmly, "There's a possibility this ghost is a trick…but there's also the very real possibility that it isn't. We all have to face death eventually, be it ours or someone else's".
"So you're saying if it turns out to really be your ghost, you're not even going to try to escape?" asked Romana, "You want to abandon all of us?"
"Of course not, but whatever happens, a ghost version of me comes into existence…and if that's because I die, then it's because I die. I can't change that, there are rules, remember?"
"Dad, you never cared about rules. When I was little, you always said 'rules are more like suggestions'. Who cares if it's a paradox?" Emily sniffled a bit, and admitted in a small voice, "Dad…I still need you".
"So do I" murmured Romana, squeezing his hand, the long fingers still grasping hers. "What would we do without you? This isn't fair, and if the Laws of Time want to take you, they'll have me to answer to. Doctor, if you love us, you will fight this. We will fight this" she insisted, her eyes shining with determination and unshed tears.
Can we, though? Time can't always be rewritten…but, if Emily is right, if my ghost is different, then maybe… he wondered, and pondered, and finally reminded them, "We can't save Moran or Pritchard". There were some things they really couldn't change…still, what was the harm in finding out what they could?
"No, but if we figure out what's going on, we can save everyone else. Including you, my love" Romana smiled gently.
In spite of everything, the Doctor found himself smiling back. "Okay" he nodded, agreeing to try and, if not break the Laws of Time, at least bend them a little.
Emily grinned, excited and relieved. "Great!" she cheered quietly, "But don't start kissing, please. I feel traumatised enough".
"Don't be cheeky, young lady, or else I'll come back and haunt you on purpose" the Doctor warned her, before adding, "We have to be careful though; the future has already happened. We've met the undertaker and he's still alive".
/
At this moment, Prentis was walking up into the spaceship, making notes in a small book as he went. The planet appeared to be a marvellously suitable location to bury the Fisher King…if it weren't for the fact that, as Prentis discovered when he looked up, the body was missing. The cowardly Tivolian gasped in alarm, sniffed the air with his flat little nose…he turned and noticed something peculiar, four symbols carved into the side of the spaceship. As he puzzled over the symbols and the disappearing corpse, Prentis didn't notice a large shadow looming in the entrance of the craft…until it was too late.
/
Emily switched the phone to speaker mode whilst Romana called the Corsair, Bennett and O'Donnell back to the scanner. "So, ghost me. You've got a better view than me. How do I look? Any signs of trauma, any scars? Any clues as to how I might die? If ghost me is, indeed, actually me, but dead".
"Yeah, I get it" Clara sighed, "Um, no, nothing. You're the same as all the other ghosts with the weird black eyes and - No. No, wait. Your coat, it's torn. The right shoulder" she explained, turning the phone around so they could see the ghost Doctor standing outside in the water.
"Did you say I'm not saying the same words as the others?"
"No, you're saying a list of names. Our names, mainly; Moran, Pritchard, Prentis, Corsair, O'Donnell, Clara, Emily, Bennett, Cass, Flavia, Romana, Doctor…Emily says Prentis is the mole faced guy".
"That's him" the Doctor agreed. Suddenly, ghost-Doctor stepped forward through the glass, causing Clara to drop the phone onto the table in surprise.
"What's the matter, Clara, what's happening?"
"You've…I mean, it moved inside. It's inside here now…do we call it 'it' or 'you'?"
"I hardly think it matters. What am I doing?"
"Err, nothing. You're just…you're just standing there".
"I'm not trying to kill you? Why am I not trying to kill you?"
"Maybe it's a decoy" Emily theorised, "Or a ho"-
"No, wait, you're moving, going toward the control panel" Clara interrupted. They watched as the ghost-Doctor made his way over to the control panel, accessed the controls for the Faraday Cage...
"I think you spoke too soon, Doctor" Flavia remarked, swallowing, "Your…your ghost, just opened the Faraday Cage. He's freed the other ghosts".
"I need to talk to me now" the Doctor insisted over the phone.
"Didn't you hear her?" Clara demanded, "You opened the Faraday cage. The other ghosts are outside. Shouldn't we be hiding?"
"In a minute, I need to talk to ghost me".
So Clara placed her phone, balanced on its longer edge, on a cabinet in view of the ghost-Doctor. "Okay, Doctor, you're on".
"Doctor" he greeted his ghost pleasantly, "Such an honour. I've always been a huge admirer. This is really a delight. Finally someone worth talking to…ah, except you, dear" he added to Romana. The Corsair just rolled his eyes.
"Focus, dear".
"Yes, right" he nodded, before addressing his ghost once more. "So firstly, why are you here?"
Rather than reply…Cass was ready to read his answer…the ghost-Doctor turned away from the camera phone.
"What's going on?" asked O'Donnell, wanting to ask the right questions and really get involved, help solve the mystery of the ghosts. She really hoped Emily was right, that this ghost wasn't really the Doctor…O'Donnell, for one, was starting to be convinced.
"It stopped moving, the ghost" reported Emily, "Oh, wait, never mind".
Cass suddenly signed something out; Lunn made to translate but Flavia beat him to it. "Cass says his words are different. He's saying something else now, he's saying…"
"What?" Clara, the Doctor and Lunn asked simultaneously.
"He's saying, 'the chamber will open tonight'" Flavia translated, before asking, "What in the name of Omega does that mean?"
"Never mind that for now" the Corsair insisted, "Listen, now that the ghosts are out of the Faraday Cage, you all need to get in there. They won't be able to get to you then".
"Oh, there's a problem…" the Doctor realised.
"Problem?" Clara frowned, "What problem? Oh, really? Because everything else is going so smoothly" she said sarcastically.
"The phone signal won't be able to get through. What you'll have to do, Clara, put the phone outside, and you can watch it through the little round porthole. And when you see it ringing, if it's safe to do so, go out and answer it".
"Okay" she agreed, "How long are you going to"-
"Clara, listen to me" the Doctor interrupted firmly, "Don't let that phone out of your sight. I need to be able to reach you, I need to know everything my ghost does. Do you understand? We'll come back for all of you. I swear" he promised. Clara nodded resolutely, and then hung up. The five of them grabbed a few rations and ran out of the room, intending to make their way to the Cage…and hopefully, avoid the ghosts on the way.
/
Back in the TARDIS, when the signal was lost, the screen flickered to black. "Come on" the Doctor beckoned, "Oh, wait a minute. Not you, O'Donnell" he said, stopping her at the doorway.
"Why not?" she demanded, she was perfectly capable, thank you very much!
"Someone needs to stay and mind the shop" the Doctor explained, "What if Clara calls?"
"The last bloke that said something like that to me got dangled out of a window".
"Heh, you've got pluck" the Corsair grinned, "Stick with me, I'll look out for you".
"Err- maybe the Doctor's right" Bennett suggested quickly, "Maybe it's best if you stay here".
"Hey, if Romana is going, then so am I. Seriously, have you even met me?" she asked rhetorically, stepping between the Doctor and Bennett and exiting the TARDIS. The Corsair clapped Bennett on the shoulder and remarked with a wink, "Don't worry, I'll keep her out of trouble for you".
That's sort of what I'm afraid of Bennett thought jealously, as he walked out of the TARDIS after the Corsair, followed by the Doctor and Romana. They returned to the spaceship, and as they neared, they saw a body on the slab that clearly wasn't the Fisher King.
They ran up to the spaceship. "Prentis…Prentis!" the Doctor checked for a pulse, and found none.
"Guess that dead body wasn't so dead after all" O'Donnell remarked.
"And now we've got the writing" Bennett noticed.
"The Fisher King did it himself" the Doctor realised, "The future is still coming".
"Yes, but which one?" Romana wondered.
"Let's go and check out the church" the Corsair suggested.
When they arrived, they found marks in the soil outside. "He's taken the suspended animation chamber to the church".
"Way to state the obvious, there, Doc. Aren't those things usually moved with anti-gravity controls?" the Corsair inquired, moments before a loud roar echoed through the fake Russian town.
"What was that?" O'Donnell asked in alarm.
"Something large and dangerous…" answered Romana, "Let's get back to the TARDIS, now!"
Once again they ran, but another roar ahead of them, and closer, forced them to duck into a narrow passageway.
"It's cut us off" the Doctor warned, his hand gripping Romana's tightly. Whatever happened, he wouldn't let her be harmed…of course, she'd want him to protect everyone else as well, and he would.
"Let's split up" O'Donnell abruptly proposed, "Go on, Bennett" she said, ushering him towards the Doctor whilst she turned and ran in the opposite direction. The Corsair followed her; Bennett tried to protest this arrangement, but Romana pulled him away before he could get the words out. He hid with her and the Doctor in a fake bathroom, jamming the door handle with a chair…O'Donnell and the Corsair crouched beside the wall of a fake living room.
Just as Romana described, something large and undoubtedly dangerous stomped its way through the half hollow, fake house, roaring as it went. It passed the broken window of the bathroom and approached the living room…its footsteps began to fade, and O'Donnell thought that perhaps it had given up and left. She made to stand up, but the Corsair gripped her arm and shook his head, motioning for her to stay put. With great care, he rose to his feet and moved up to the door, taking out his blaster. He stepped out into the corridor, weapon at the ready, and turned…
Bennett heard a loud, furious roar and the sound of shots being fired from the direction O'Donnell and the Corsair had gone in…without thinking, he pulled the chair away from the door and rushed out, ignoring the Doctor's cries of, "No, Bennett, wait!"
There was a sudden thud and a pained yell rang out; the Doctor and Romana looked at one another in alarm, and rushed out after Bennett. When they reached O'Donnell, she was trying to rouse the Corsair. "I think it shoved him into the wall" she explained as the Doctor knelt down, pulling out his sonic sunglasses. He observed the Corsair through them and announced, "He's got a concussion, bit of bleeding at the left temple…The Fisher King must have attacked and then gone off to lick his own wounds. It's a good thing we all have thick skulls, otherwise he might have died. If the blow had been any harder…"
"He would have died, wouldn't he?" Bennett finished, "And…and so would you" he said to O'Donnell, "Because I just realised; Moran, Pritchard, Prentis…I was starting to think it was the order everyone was going to die in, but if you and he survived, then…did the future change?"
"Possibly…" the Doctor said slowly, "Or perhaps the list of names was simply random".
"Either way, I'm grateful" Bennett sighed; he couldn't believe he'd felt jealous of the Corsair when all the man was trying to do was protect his friend for him; no, not friend, O'Donnell was not just a friend to him.
"Why, were you worried about me?" O'Donnell laughed…she soon sobered up when she noticed Bennett's serious expression.
"Yes, I was" he nodded, "Alice, if you'd died…I don't know what I'd have…I mean, you never listen to anyone, it drives me mad, and I wish you hadn't come…"
"I wanted to keep an eye on you, make sure you didn't die. Mason…what are you saying?"
"I…I'm saying…I was worried because…I love you, Alice".