FORGET-ME-NOTS
A Sixth Doctor Story
By Carrie.
Author's Notes: Once again I do not own Doctor Who. Annette is a original character created by me. Constructive feedback is heavily welcomed. I'll post more if I get a review! Thanks!
Annette Langley carried a silver tray containing some meat, vegetables, a forget-me-not in a vase and a glass of cool water up the stairs. Tending to her heavily pregnant sister was one of her greatest joys in the world, and they were expecting to move to America once the baby was born. Life just seemed more prosperous over there; compared to the dark face of war in the heart of London. Many houses around them lay in rubble and many were empty, but Annette did her best to keep the house - which had been in her family for generations - in order.
The servants had fled, the younger siblings had moved to the country, and Annette received word of her father's passing at the hands of Germans merely two weeks ago. She had lost her mother in childbirth a year ago delivering the youngest of the Langley children. Annette had tried her hardest, but with resources cut back so drastically – it was either lose the mother or the baby.
So, looking after her sister the best way possible. She knocked on her door. Carefully creaking it open she saw her sister Mary propped up in bed reading a book. Annette had always been jealous of Mary in a way, she was rather beautiful. Annette was the eldest out of all the children, however and she sighed happily as she set the tray on Mary's left side.
"Do you need me to help you with the blackouts?" Mary asked her, and Annette shook her head.
"No. I've already put them up, all the windows are covered." Annette smiled as Mary placed the tray on her lap. "How are you feeling?"
"Fine." She patted her belly. "I am hoping this baby will be born soon. Did you send for the Doctor?"
"Yes," frowned Annette. "He will not come until the morning. The wireless said that the Germans are planning more attacks... nearly all the neighbourhood has gone. I do not know why you didn't go to the country with the children! I would have sent for you."
"I know you would have. It would take several more weeks for me to receive Tom's letters, you know what the postal service is like. We received father's last letter months after his friend with gall bladder problems was sent home and he came around for a visit!" Mary grunted, and Annette clasped her hand. "I'm fine, really. Please. You need to eat. Don't worry about me."
Annette pursed her lips and rose from the bed, smoothing down her skirt. "All right, but ring that bell as soon as you need me! I'll be up for a little while." She kissed her sister on the forehead and turned to walk down the corridor.
"The Doctor will come in the morning, yes?"
"Of course." Smiled Annette.
The Doctor had barely moved from his console in days. The Trial had been incredibly draining on him, and the directions he was hoping to turn had just left his TARDIS face an infinite loop. He could feel her lust for adventure and she could feel his pain. Peri's events could not have happened that way – despite the Valeyard's attempts to make them so. He let out a sigh and turned, facing the white walls of his console room.
He faced himself in a desperate situation of wanting to find Peri, apologise to her – that is, if the events of her final moments before becoming King Yrcanos' wife were true. The Doctor didn't want to believe it knowing that was exactly what the Valeyard wanted him to.
He'd spent the last few days searching the Universe for any essence of Peri Brown. He'd lacked on his recommended hour of sleep. His cheeks failed to show any colour at all, and his usually bright coat seemed to have faded as a result of his mood. Eventually he stepped back from the console and let his hands slip into his pockets, watching the Time Rotor hum quietly. "Was he right all along?" He asked the TARDIS. "Did I really abandon Peri?"
A flicker of hope crossed the Doctor's face, however – finally a tube blinked on the other side of the console and he hurried to it as he felt colour return to his cheeks. He stood back and laughed, patting the Time Rotor and flicking a switch as the TARDIS exited the loop. "Oh, you incredible old girl! I knew you'd find her! Just make sure you document everything. I implore this as a matter of urgency that the whole Trial was complete and utter nonsense. I've found you, Peri!" The TARDIS shuddered violently – the Doctor struggling to stay upright. "Wait a minute! I didn't leave Peri in this Time Period! But oh, my memory has been less than reliable lately – perhaps I did."
With Mary settled, Annette had finished her supper. She was washing up the dishes when she heard a strange noise coming from the cellar. Setting the dish and the tea towel down, Annette reached for a pistol kept atop of the pantry. It wasn't unheard of for intruders to pass this area – and Annette couldn't take any chances. Cocking the pistol with a shaky hand she started making slow movements across the floorboards. It sounded as if someone was rattling the cellar door. But, how could that be?
The cellar hadn't been accessed in years. Her father wouldn't allow anyone to trespass, and Annette wasn't one to venture down there even though he had passed. She swallowed hard, feeling her palms sweat and nearly dropping the loaded pistol as a strange sort of blue flashing light from outside came through a small crack from the boarded up windows in the kitchen. "I've got to get Mary out of here," she whispered. A shadow suddenly crossed her path and she felt her heart skip a beat. The shadow extended up in front of her, near the wall, when a man jumped out.
"There you are, Peri!"
Annette jumped and fired the pistol with a terrified scream. The bullet missed the intruder with a loud BANG as it hit an expensive vase behind him for he too also jumped.
"I'm sorry I abandoned you, but there's no reason for you to try and kill me!" The Doctor stepped forward as he made eye contact with the short, thin brunette woman trembling like a leaf. She couldn't be any older than thirty-two. "Peri?" His voice squeaked a little as he attempted to calm her. She was quickly raising her pistol again and the Doctor in turn raised his hands. "No, no. Don't shoot! I won't hurt you. I promise." It couldn't be Peri. Her eyes hindered no sense of recognition. It bothered him. Why did the TARDIS land him here? "Just... put the gun down. I promise I won't hurt you."
There was something in his tone, which made Annette's sweaty grip on her pistol loosen. She was still trembling, however. She had never wanted to fire a pistol at all in her lifetime, but if it were to protect Mary and the baby she had no choice. The intruder wore a coat of many colours; a red polka-dot cravat and an interesting coloured vest with teddy bears for buttons. His yellow pinstripe pants, green boots and neon orange spats weren't something to take seriously either. In fact, Annette's fear finally started to turn into that of a smile. She lowered her pistol and suddenly burst out laughing, hinting at a scent of nervousness. He couldn't be an intruder dressed like that! "You look ridiculous." Annette chuckled, as the intruder's face turned from that of being gentle to confusion.
"Oh come on Peri!" The Doctor said with a shake of his head. "We've been through this already! You've become used to this wonderful sense of fashion I have." He reached forward and gave her a gentle squeeze of the shoulders, but what he didn't expect was an uppercut to his chin, sending him flying backward a few feet. Darkness swirled around him once his head hit a coffee table and he lay quite still.
Annette dropped her pistol and ran to the intruder, her heart racing. She didn't want to kill him! Why was he calling her Peri? Looking around, Annette picked the intruder up by his ankles and dragged him across the floor. Grunting as he was quite heavy, she struggled to put him on the couch in the living room feet first. The scuffle had clearly woken Mary for she was standing in the hallway with her hand on her belly.
"Annette, what have you done!" Mary cried, hurrying forward and helped her sister lift the intruder's upper body onto the couch as his right arm dangled to the side. "Is he..."
Annette puffed from the effort of carrying the intruder and shrugged. "I don't know." She paced back and forward for a moment, shaking her hands in an attempt to calm herself down. Another quick look at the intruder and she didn't notice any blood on his face. Wringing her hands together as Annette looked to her sister, she suggested "I could listen for a heartbeat."
"Do you think it's the Doctor they sent? Maybe he came through early after all..."
"No. He didn't have a medical bag on him." Taking a breath, she made a few steps forward and pressed her head against the intruder's chest. She could feel him breathing through his nose against her hair, but the heart beat was odd.
"Annette?" What's wrong?"
"Something sounds a little off. It doesn't sound like a normal heart beat, the beats are different. Maybe I should call a Doctor..." Annette wandered to the telephone.
"No one will come at this hour, Annette! We'll just have to keep him restrained until the morning. He didn't try to hurt you, did he?" The colour from Mary's cheeks started to fade and she sat down in a nearby lounge chair, propping her feet up on a stool.
Annette allowed her hand to go to her side. She sighed. "I suppose I should stay with him. I didn't mean to hurt him – just look at his clothes, Mary! Surely a man dressed like that wouldn't harm us. Unless he's homeless. Maybe I should check his pockets."
"What if he wakes up?" Mary asked.
"Just go upstairs and use the telephone in father's study if I don't give you a verbal signal."
"The grass is greener?" Mary questioned with a brow raise as Annette nodded.
"Yes, go on. And do stay calm! Everything will be all right."
Mary shuffled to her feet with a grunt and wandered back up the stairs as Annette started to peel aside a lapel of the intruder's coat. She dug her hand into the pocket of his yellow pinstripe pants and pulled out a yo-yo. She set it aside. Feeling the pocket in his coat next, she took out a strange silver device. It had a trigger and it looked like a miniature pistol. Suddenly, the intruder stirred and Annette grabbed the yo-yo and put it behind her back with the silver pistol.
The Doctor groaned, raising a hand to his chin. "Susan?" He called, clicking his jaw back and forth a few times. What had made Barbara so angry this time? He slowly got up as the lounge room started to spin. Another hand reached for the back of his head, and satisfied that he could still feel curly hair he let out a sigh. "Glad I didn't regenerate, wouldn't want to lose this handsome face so early! Right, Susan?" He looked around. "No! Not Susan. Peri. Yes, Peri! She hit me! Oh, now I remember," His face fell for a moment. "Unless, she's not Peri?" His eyes finally fell on Annette. "Hello! I do believe you have some items of mine behind your back."
Annette fumbled with the yo-yo and the pistol as the intruder started to ramble. Feeling sorry for the fact that she had knocked him out earlier, she didn't want to do it again so throwing one of them at him wasn't an option. Sighing, she presented the objects in question. "You're not going to hurt me, are you?"
The Doctor took his yo-yo and sonic disrupter. He placed them back in his pocket and smiled. "I wouldn't dream of hurting you! You're her ancestor!" A pause. "How far along, though. Ah. Yes. No – you're a little too old to be her grandmother. Yes! Great-Aunt! I swear the likeness is incredible, clearly the genes in Peri's female line are quite strong – not to mention her personality." Definitely the personality. He clicked his jaw again.
Annette was more confused than the moment the Doctor stepped through her front door. "You're clearly babbling. I'm sorry I hurt you. I will send for a Doctor in the morning – he needs to see my sister, I fear her baby could be due at any moment..."
"Baby?" The Doctor's eyes lit up. "Oh! It's Peri's mother about to take her first breath. I assure you my dear, she will be absolutely fine with no complications in fact her daughter is..." He was cut off by a sudden smash coming from under their feet. "...tell me. You weren't happening to hold a pistol on my behalf were you? What is your name?"
Annette's nerves started to get the better of her and she found her palms sweating again. The crash beneath their feet didn't help, either. "No... I heard a noise coming from the cellar just before you showed up. My name is Annette. Annette Langley." Perhaps he was here to help after all. She didn't seem to understand what he was talking about, but the brief sense of trust she had felt when he had asked her to lower the pistol returned. Annette couldn't face what could be down in the cellar alone, and she swallowed. "Are you sure you're all right? I pressed my ear against your chest earlier and your heart beat seemed rather irregular."
The Doctor nodded. "I am. Honestly! Oh, and don't worry about that." He grinned. "I'm the Doctor. I am a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. I wouldn't want to go back there so soon, it's a rather silly place as of late." Recalling the earlier Trial he shrugged, and noticed Annette had gone rather white. "Perhaps I should be asking if you are all right?"
"You're a... what? From where?" Annette squeaked, wringing her hands together and moving away from him in surprise.
The Doctor sighed. "I'll explain later. Come on! We must investigate the cellar." He took a long stride forward as Annette hurried after him following a minute of hesitation, and instantly the Doctor felt himself again.
A glowing ball hovered before his sunken thin lipped face, as the scene of the multi-coloured Doctor and his new companion came to a close. The ball ceased to glow for a second but remained to hover as the Keeper of the Matrix felt he was no longer alone.
"Must you intrude, Coordinator? Your sallow presence is hardly welcoming in my Matrix." He turned to see Coordinator Vansell standing there with his hands clasped behind his back. "I take it that you have been observing this current nonsense the Doctor is up to?"
"I have indeed." Vansell said with a clear of his throat. "It is quite.. unnerving to say the least. The Doctor is clearly violating Miss Brown's timeline! We must take him out of there at once."
"Oh," Chuckled the Keeper of the Matrix. "I do have another plan, Coordinator. The younger sister shall remain alive as expected, but the Doctor and Ms Langley..." A smirk crossed his pale face as he waved his hand over the orb. It glowed again, giving a sickly yellow hue to the Keeper and Vansell's face as they watched.