Chapter Seven
The Doctor had spent his entire afternoon in complete silence thinking of a way to escape. The men who had captured him and Strax had removed anything weapon like before caging them including the screwdriver.
Strax had tried pushing at the bars to no avail – and more distressing was Vastra noticing the dirt floor of their cage was in fact coated in dried blood and was not naturally this rusty colour.
There were no windows in the room, so it was unclear what time it was, but soon enough the room around them began to fill surrounding a much larger cage at the centre of the room. Some laughed and jeered at the cage, others where scrutinising, inspecting them. The Doctor felt his own lip pull back in a distasteful sneer.
Eventually the sound of snarls where beginning to echo in the room, and Cass stood – the Doctor stood with her unwilling to drop her hand from his. He followed her gaze as she looked towards the door where the viewers in the room where also looking. A large, even larger than Cass, wolf was brought through the doors and quickly locked into the large centre cage. It thrashed and snarled, bright green eyes so similar to Cass's darted around the room as it let out a bloodthirsty snarl. Beside him, Cass gasped – hand flying to her mouth- and her hand squeezed the Doctors tight enough to hurt him.
When the Doctor looked at her he was startled to find tears rolling down her cheeks.
"Cass, are you alright?" Jenny asked having noticed too and found her voice a lot sooner than the Doctor found his.
"Tha-that's my dad." She hissed at the group.
"What?" the Doctor hissed back, having heard her clearly but not quite believing. What other part of her time line where they going to run into while they were here? The sooner they sorted this out and left the better.
"The fur markings… that's my dad, I have the same eye markings as he does. The two white dots above our eyes." Cass said sounding almost dazed. She snapped out of it as soon as she saw the purple eyed Dhampir that caught them approaching the cage, glaring at him she stepped forward and dropped the Doctors hand, taking a discreet step away from him.
"Oh too late sweetheart." The Dhampir cooed as he stood outside the cage, he levelled a gun at the Doctor through the bars. "You come out and fight, or your mate gets it."
Cass paused "He's not my mate…" she said, focusing on the least important part yet to her stressed out mind it was the most important.
The Dhampir shrugged. "Whatever love, you females are all the same. I'm betting you care enough about him that you will get out here and fight just so I don't shoot the bastard in the head."
Cass grimaced and hung her head, giving her answer by pulling her clothes off finding no time for modesty as she shifted into wolf form. While she was changing the Dhampir had unlocked their cage, threatening the others into the corner with the gun.
The Doctor tried to step forward, tried to stop her having to do this for him, but she growled at him with eyes that told him to stay put. He glared right back at her – a heated gaze that told her just how furious with her and the situation he was – before he watched almost horrified as she allowed the Dhampir to slip a muzzle leash over her head and lead her towards the larger cage and her wild father.
A part of the Doctor hoped he would not have to watch her fight. He wasn't the only one of their group who stepped towards the bars again when the door locked and the gun was gone, Strax and Vastra peered out too even they were looking worried. Jenny mumbled something about not wanting to watch as she turned away.
The muzzle was brought off Cass as she was locked into the cage with the larger dun coloured wolf. He snarled and paced eyes locked onto hers while Cass stayed still as a statue, head ducked low and tracking his movement with her eyes. Around them people began to yell bets.
Cass's father lunged at her suddenly, his eyes on her throat, however Cass darted to the right her slim smaller body just managing to keep out of reach. For once Cass was glad she was small and fast rather than bulky and strong like most wolves.
However she couldn't keep dodging forever. Eventually he managed to pin her, and Cass had no choice but to struggle beneath him, her back paws clawing at his belly, she used her front to surprise him dragging him down to her rather than away and biting at his throat – deliberately avoiding the jugular.
He backed off as he yelped in pain, giving Cass time to get up.
Around them people where banging the cage and throwing bottles and other objects demanding more blood. They wouldn't stop until one of them was dead. Was this how she was finally going to die?
Her father lunged suddenly with a snarl and she met him halfway, both balancing on their back legs as the snapped and clawed at each other with growls. Cass threw her weight trying to knock him off balance, it worked successfully and she ended up pinning him beneath her, however once like that she had no idea how to continue without killing him. Could she choke him without killing him and make it look like a death strike?
Cass darted her head forward and enclosed her teeth around her father's throat as he struggled, shutting her eyes tight as she clenched down softly enough to restrict his airway but not enough to tear into his flesh too much – difficult with the amount of fur a wolf has on their neck to protect from such a strike.
When she backed away her ears where down and she met the eyes of her friends in their cage across the room. There where look of confusion and anger to meet her before her view was blocked by the Dhampir who'd caught her coming to remove the 'dead' wolf.
As soon as he entered Cass lunged, fangs embedding themselves deep in the Dampier's wrist and filling her mouth with acidic blood that made her want to gag and release – but she just clamped down harder as his bones crushed and he screamed letting go of the gun.
Gamblers began to back off as they realised what was happening – Cass took the advantage and picked up the dropped keys, leaping over the fallen Dhampir to toss the keys towards the cage.
Something landed on her back, tiny fangs trying to reach her skin as the Dhampir she'd injured did his best to bite her. Cass would had rolled her eyes it the situation around them hadn't been chaos. Vastra, Jenny and Strax had obviously found their weapons and had joined the fray.
Cass loosed the Dampier on top of her with ease, she stood over him, the choice to kill him completely in her hands. He was the last one in the room, the others had either been slaughtered by Vastra and hers or escaped. She stood over the Dampier snarling, fully aware that the Doctor and Vastra were waiting on her, waiting on her choice.
Yes the Dampier was evil, enslaving others to fight in brutally fatal games, and murdering humans for food. But really was it her right to take away his life when she had killed before herself? Sometimes she hated to admit she had even relished in the feeling of killing – especially when she knew others would benefit the death.
Cass stopped snarling, she lowered her tail and ears and stepped off the Dampier. She backed up right until she bumped into something. She looked up and found the Doctor looking down at her, his expression unreadable, he stepped away from her and into the cage leaning down the check the pulse of her father. When he looked up again he was frowning at her. "You didn't kill him?" he said it like a question, despite knowing she couldn't answer.
Cass put her ears down and looked away from the Doctor, a little hurt he would think she had killed him – even if she was destined to do so in the future. Cass turned tail and went to sit in the corner of the room, not looking when she heard Vastra and Strax begin to question the Dampier she left alive. In fact Cass was feeling too… misplaced to do much more than just stare and think hard, until the Doctor brought her out of her thoughts by dropping her clothes down in front of her. She still couldn't read his expression, but assumed this was a strong indicator that he wanted her to shift forms again.
When she sat in front of him, still not looking at anyone, she felt the Doctors hand brush her cheek and with utter surprise looked at him. His fingers lingered on her face for a moment before he stood up and turned to the others.
"Vastra, I think we are done here."
Jenny came over and offered Cass a hand to help her stand up, which she took after shuffling into her trousers again. "I thought what you did was rather clever, and brave." Jenny said in the otherwise hushed room.
"No it wasn't." Cass said simply. "It was a necessary action." She began to head out of the little room, catching the Doctor watching her with the same expressionless face before she looked away from him again. She did not fail to catch Vastra's concerned expression – though she doubted it was concern for herself.
OoO
The Doctor was not one for goodbyes, he never had been, not that he ever just left without a word. He gave his farewell nods to Vastra, Jenny and Strax before he disappeared into his blue box.
Cass stayed outside to say her goodbyes. "It was very nice to meet you all." She said, shaking Vastra's offered hand and surprised at Jenny's hug – Strax's salute was not really unexpected.
"You are a curious one Cass, I am sure we shall be seeing you again." Was Vastra's parting words, they seemed a lot more encouraging than the suspicious way she had treated her with when they first met.
Cass hurried into the TARDIS when she heard a gong that announced the Doctor was getting impatient with having to wait for her, she waved goodbye as she passed through the blue wood doors.
On the inside of the TARDIS the Doctor was prowling around with an angry expression that she suspected he'd been hiding with his blank look. Cass thought better about approaching him and instead chose to lean on the TARDIS railing furthest away from him. After about an hour he finally spoke.
"Why are you hiding yourself away little wolf?" he murmured softly, ice blue eyes staring into hers from across the TARDIS control panel. He was right of course, he usually was. When he moved towards her, she moved away always keeping the same distance between them.
Cass cocked her head to one side like a curious dog, keeping her eyes on the Doctors, as she replied "You are angry."
He took two steps around the control panel towards her and flicked a switch, still never breaking eye contact. "And that scares you?"
"A little bit. The rage of a good man can be very frightening." Cass confessed, noting him take another step.
"Am I a good man?" he frowned, hesitating before stepping towards her again.
"One of the best."
He had taken another step towards her now, close enough that the tips of their shoes touched and Cass could hear the echoing thump of both his hearts, craning her neck backwards just to be able to look up at him since she was so much smaller. "Why are you angry, Doctor?" she asked quietly.
The Doctors hands balled up into fists tight enough to make his knuckles turn white. "Because" his voice shook angrily. "You keep having to do things you shouldn't have to do. You shouldn't have to get hurt to protect me, or be forced to fight. For god sakes Cass after the life you've led you deserve to not have to fight anymore."
"Doctor, you're my pack. I'll always protect you. Fighting is just a part of what I am." Was Cass's quiet reply.
"But I don't want you to get hurt. People always get hurt or worse around me."
"I can heal better than most Doctor, I'll be fine."
"You're not listening Cass" he insisted "Whether or not you can heal yourself is not a fact when I feel like I've been punched in the gut every time I see you get hurt." He brought his forehead down to touch hers, an intimate contact that surprised Cass.
"Doctor…?"
"Why?" he asked, eyes closed as he leaned on her. "Why do you put yourself in harm's way because of me?"
"Because…" Cass began, her voice soft. "Because you're worth it. Because you deserve to be protected for a change, because if I don't do it who will, and where would the world be without you, because I can protect you…and…"
Cass had brought her hand up to the Doctors cheek while she was speaking, surprised that his tough looking face was surprisingly soft and smooth. She had felt a man with so many unseen battle scars should feel rougher than he did…
"And?" the Doctor urged, not even noticing the contact of her hand.
Cass could think of nothing else to say that he might understand, and acting on utter impulse she reached up and slid her mouth over his in a chaste kiss, once again surprised at the smooth feel of him rather than the roughness she expected. She had no idea if he would understand her gesture at all, but before he could say anything in reaction to her move, she had darted out of the control room, leaving him standing there.
She could swear the TARDIS was laughing at her as she bolted to her room and threw the locks on the door – keeping him out or her inside she hadn't the foggiest.