"My people once ruled this world, as well you know," Vastra explained to the Doctor, "but we did not rule it alone. Just as humanity fights a daily battle against nature, so did we. And our greatest plague, the most virulent enemy, was the repulsive red leech."
"Oooh," the Doctor cut in gleefully, "the Repulsive Red Leech."
He paused then pulled a face.
"Nah. On balance I think I prefer the Crimson Horror."
The Doctor turned to Terry for affirmation. She just smiled at him indulgently before she looked at Vastra.
"Perhaps you can explain for this child what it was, Madame." Terry suggested.
The Doctor pouted at Terry, but he listened intently as Vastra explained, "It was a tiny parasite. It infected our drinking water. And once in our systems, it secreted a fatal poison."
"If it's been hanging around," the Doctor murmured slowly, "lurking in the shadows, maybe it's evolved. Or maybe it's had help."
He trailed off thoughtfully. Clara piped up suddenly, "I've been thinking. The chimney-"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Way past that now."
The Doctor dismissed her as he continued to think.
"Yucky red parasite from the time of the dinosaurs pitches up in Victorian Yorkshire. Didn't see that one coming."
He looked to Terry, who just shrugged.
"Yeah, but the chimney-" Clara insisted, but the Doctor spoke over her.
"But what's the connection to Mrs Gillyflower?"
Clara looked to Terry in exasperation as the Doctor continued thoughtfully, "'Judgement will rain down on us all'. An empty mill."
Terry just gave Clara an enigmatic smile, apparently not interested in helping Clara. Feeling cross with the two Time Lords, the companion said loudly, "A chimney that doesn't blow smoke."
The Doctor stopped in his tracks and turned his head to look up at the ceiling as he remembered seeing the chimney on the roof of the factory. And, as Clara had pointed out, he remembered that it had not blown any smoke.
Terry meanwhile winked at the companion.
"Well done." She complimented the shorter woman and Clara narrowed her eyes playfully.
"You so weren't helping me on purpose." The companion said accusingly and Terry grinned.
"Missed me?"
Clara laughed and the Doctor swept in to smoochTerry's temple.
"Yeah, lots." He informed her before hugging Clara. "Sorry, Clara."
"Oh, at this point it's just part of the task of parenting you." Clara shrugged with feigned nonchalance.
Terry meanwhile opened the elevator door they had all been standing in front of.
"All aboard!"
In the boiler room, the group all peered around the racks at the edges of the room, staying hidden in the shadows as they watched the pilgrims move about.
"She's going to poison the air." The Doctor realized as they watched the pilgrims moving around the base of a rocket.
'A rocket in Victorian England.' Terry mused absently. 'Now that's not a sight you see every day.'
They watched as the pilgrims unveiled a large vial of red liquid near the rocket and the Doctor muttered, "And there's the poison."
Looking around at the group, the Doctor announced, "All right, gang, I've got a plan."
At his nod, they all stood… and the Doctor knocked over a metal spanner. They all immediately ducked again as the sound of metal clanging caused the pilgrims to look in their direction. Terry shook her head at the Doctor fondly.
"Not a word." He implored and Terry closed her mouth but her blue eyes were still sparkling with mirth as the group - slowly this time - straightened up once more.
The group had split up, hurrying about to get in their places for the Doctor's plan. Clara had followed the Doctor at Terry's insistence while she took off in the opposite direction and outside. Skidding around the corner, Terry spotted Strax standing beside a young boy.
"Strax! Thomas Thomas!" Terry called.
The boy looked surprised that she knew his name while Strax perked up hopefully.
"Are we about to throw in the grenades, Terry?" Strax asked gleefully. Terry gave him a disapproving look.
"What do you think the answer is going to be, Strax?"
Strax paused, then asked, still hopeful, "Yes?"
Terry shook her head.
"Of course it's a no, Strax."
Strax grumbled, starting to sulk again, but he did look up as Terry said impatiently, "Now, come with me, Strax. And do please leave the gun. But do you have a slingshot?"
Terry watched the rocket take off into the air while Mrs. Gillyflower laughed from where she stood on the stairwell inside the false chimney that the rocket had been hidden inside. Strax was protesting loudly against her hand where Terry was forcing him to be silent as she watched from the shadows of the boiler room while the Doctor had chased Mrs. Gillyflower to no apparent use.
"Now, Mr. Sweet, now the whole world will taste your lethal kiss!" Mrs. Gillyflower crowed as she stroked the disgusting red creature attached to her bosom, utterly heedless of how her daughter was sobbing after being rescued by the Doctor from her mother's gunpoint.
But Mrs. Gillyflower's triumph was thwarted as the Doctor called, "I don't think so, Mrs Gillyflower."
He snapped his fingers and Mrs. Gillyflower gasped as Jenny and Vastra stepped out of the shadows near the rocket, removing their veils as they revealed themselves to be the pilgrims who had been in charge of loading the rocket with the poison. The poison that they now carried between them.
Mrs. Gillyflower let out a growl of frustration and she turned on the Doctor as she snarled, "Very well, then. If I can't take the world with me, you will have to do. Die, you freaks-!"
The madwoman started to point her pistol between the Doctor and Madame Vastra, when suddenly, something black hit her hand. Mrs. Gillyflower screamed in pain as she dropped the pistol, which clattered far down to the ground, and she clutched her bleeding hand. The Doctor started before he spotted the fan that had fallen to Mrs. Gillyflower's feet. A fan that had been altered. A fan with a very sharp edge - a very sharp edge currently coated in red.
"Wh-What?!" Mrs. Gillyflower cried in a mix of frustration and pain just as Terry stepped out of the shadows with Strax at her side.
"It's over, Gillyflower." Terry called firmly while the woman stared at her with increasing fury. "Just let it go."
Mrs. Gillyflower screamed but there was nothing she could do now that she was weaponless. Terry just watched her with a mix of disgust and resignation. The woman was absolutely vile, in Terry's humble opinion. Not only was she willing to poison all life on the planet, but she had used her own daughter as a guinea pig in order to test out the strength of the toxin. It was why Ada was blind, why she was so scarred, why she had been raised to feel inferior to everything and everyone. In many ways, Terry felt that Mrs. Gillyflower deserved the fate that Terry had seen for her - but she knew she had no right to dictate who lived and who died.
'The Doctor's angel indeed.' Terry thought to herself dryly as she watched Vastra and the Doctor close in on Mrs. Gillyflower. 'I wonder... is it the name that makes the person or the person who makes the name? Or is it like the chicken and the egg?'
"Wait. No. NO! Mr. Sweet? Mr. Sweet!"
Mrs. Gillyflower's wails broke Terry out of her thoughts while the Doctor recoiled from Mrs. Gillyflower in disgust as the red parasite dropped away from the woman's bosom.
It was then that the others realized that the parasite was injured, having also been cut accidentally by Terry's fan. The parasite seemed to croon pathetically on the ground as it wriggled in pain. Terry grimaced - as if the thing hadn't looked disgusting enough before.
"What will you do with that thing?" Clara asked, her face scrunched up with equal disgust as the others. She let go of Ada to take a closer look and the blind young woman tapped her way tentatively forward as she followed Clara.
"Take it back to the Jurassic era, maybe." The Doctor shrugged as he eyed the parasite with distaste. "Out of harm's way."
By then, Ada had tapped her way to the parasite and the blind woman poked it with her walking stick. The others let her, focused on subduing Mrs. Gillyflower while the woman continued to cry out for her Mr. Sweet. And then Mrs. Gillyflower let out another scream of pain, anger and surprise as Ada proceeded to whack her walking stick at the red leech repeatedly, letting loose all of her own fury and despair and killing the parasite as it was smashed to smithereens.
The Doctor blinked and he amended, "On the other hand…"
Terry had joined them by this point, and she held no sympathy in her heart for the dead creature or the wailing old woman. The Doctor seemed to sense this and agree with her as he wrapped his arm around Terry's waist, pulling her close just as the rocket exploded harmlessly far above them in the sky.
The next day
"Right!" The Doctor called brightly as he led Clara back into the Tardis after waving goodbye to the Paternoster Gang and Ada.
Mrs. Gillyflower was safely in custody and the red leech poison safely in Vastra's vault. Ada herself, now feeling like a new woman with the shadow of her mother removed from over her life, had bid them all goodbyes with a smile as she looked forward to taking down her mother's empire and doing something good with the world.
The strong young woman's changed confidence still made Terry smile as she followed the Doctor, who was saying to her, "Right, we were headed for London before you arrived."
"Were you now? So what happened, you thought Yorkshire was in London?" Terry teased as she patted the Tardis fondly before she stepped inside after Clara. The Doctor grumbled behind her.
"'Thought Yorkshire was in London'. 'Thought'-"
"The Doctor's been getting us lost quite a lot lately." Clara confided in Terry. "He's just not the driver you are."
"Oi!" The Doctor complained as the doors shut behind him and Terry took them off. "I'll have you know, I'm an excellent driver. I know exactly where I'm going."
"It's true." Terry agreed with a straight face. "The Tardis just mysteriously acts up when he's driving."
Clara laughed while the Doctor pouted and Terry landed them. She nodded to the doors.
"London, 2013." Terry announced. "And you're just in time for babysitting duties."
"Thanks, angel. See? Better driver." Clara told the Doctor as she blew them kisses before bounding out the door. "See you later!"
"Bye, Clara!" Terry called after the disappearing companion before turning to the Doctor. She grinned at his sulky countenance. "Oh, come on. You know we're just messing with you and I am the better driver."
"I know that. But you always take their side." The Doctor complained but his arms were already snaking around Terry's waist. Terry grinned before she kissed the Doctor enthusiastically when he pressed his lips to hers.
But before he could start moving his hands up her sides, Terry broke away. Pulling back slightly, she murmured in a somewhat breathless voice, "Doctor, there's something I've been meaning to ask."
The Doctor stopped his attempts to follow her lips and tilted his head questioningly.
But his gaze saddened as Terry explained slowly, "I've only just regenerated a day ago."
The Doctor's gaze flooded with understanding but he let Terry continue.
"Before that, I remember waking up on the pyramid in Area 52, when reality was collapsing. I remember that part clearly… but I also know I was somehow the one holding time and reality together."
The Doctor didn't reply right away so Terry pressed on.
"I also remember seeing Donna and the clone that grew from your severed hand. They were engulfed in flames and then a gold light. Solomon was engulfed like that too, back in 1930 New York with the Daleks."
Terry paused but again the Doctor didn't answer as he simply watched her with veiled green eyes.
"I remember all of this, Theta, but the thing is, I don't remember actually being there. It's like remembering a dream - things are hazy, details unclear and only flashes remain with me."
"That's not a question, angel." The Doctor said at last, his tone soft and his gaze so very sad as he stared at her like she was the most precious jewel in the world and he had to give her away. Terry studied his expression for a long moment.
"It's all spoilers, isn't it?" She asked at last. The Doctor's lips tilted up into a sorrowful smile.
"Yes." He confirmed and Terry sighed. But there was nothing else to be done - she would find out with time.
Terry pressed another kiss onto the Doctor before she pulled back with a lighter smile.
"Now, I do believe you have something for me, husband."
The Doctor tipped his head in confusion before understanding dawned as Terry wagged her empty left hand at him. He laughed.
"You don't have the ring yet." He realized and Terry shook her head.
"I told you - I've only just regenerated. It's been about two days for me since we got married." Terry admitted. The Doctor's eyes softened and he withdrew the ring box from his pocket.
"I always wondered when I would give this to you." He murmured as he slid the thin white-gold band with the angel's tear gem glittering in the centre onto Terry's left ring finger. "But you always had it with you until now."
Terry beamed up at him, unable to dim the wide smile that had blossomed on her face as the Doctor looked down at her with love shining in his green eyes.
"I love you, Theta." Terry told the Doctor, whose smile mirrored her own.
"And I love you, too, my angel." The Doctor murmured, kissing Terry softly. She started to chuckle as they drew apart.
"I can't believe I was so convinced you and River would get married." Terry laughed, thinking back on her previous fears and wondering why she had thought it would ever come to pass when it had been abundantly clear even up to the hotel with the minotaur in 'The God Complex' that the Doctor hadn't been interested in River and still loved her.
A shadow passed over the Doctor's face at her comment but he had it wiped away when she looked back at him in amusement.
"Yes, if you weren't so adorable when you're jealous, I do believe I would have gone quite mad." The Doctor answered before he narrowed his eyes playfully at her. "Then again, you treated me like some adulterer and you dared to believe I could fall out of love with you so easily. What do you have to say for yourself, wife?"
Terry answered by kissing him passionately.