{"You know what they say, Family don't end with blood."}

"Make your decision, Mister Smith."

"Perhaps if that human heart breaks, the Time Lord will emerge." Out of sight, Latimer takes the watch from his pocket, and opens it. Golden energy shimmers and the Family turn their heads quickly. "Time Lord." They hiss, "It's him!" Latimer closes the watch. Martha gets the gun off Jenny and uses her as a shield while she aims it at Baines. "All right! One more move and I shoot." I was still stuck, not wanting to endanger my child more than it already was, Theta watching me closely. He was ready to step in even if he knew he would be much help, he was human after all.

"Oh, the maid is full of fire." Baines spoke smugly, "And you can shut up!" She fires the gun at the ceiling. "Careful, Son of Mine. This is all for you so that you can live forever." Clark smirked, "Shoot you down."

"Try it. We'll die together."

"Would you really pull the trigger? Looks too scared."

"Scared and holding a gun's a good combination. Do you want to risk it?"

The family lower their guns and I return to Theta, "Doctor, get everyone out. There's a door at the side. It's over there. Go on. Do it, Mister Smith. I mean you." She gave a pointed look towards me as Joan reached for his hand. "Do what she said. Everybody out, now. Don't argue, Mister Jackson. They're mad. That's all we need to know. Susan, Miss Cooper, outside, all of you." The villagers run out, screaming. "Move yourself, boy. Back to the school, quickly." Theta pushed a couple of kids out as she looked towards me. "And you. Go on. Just shift."

"What about you?" I asked her causing her to sigh, "Mister Smith, I think you should escort your lady friend to safety, don't you?" She spoke towards John who yanked me out as I tried to stay behind to protect her.

"Mister Hicks, warn the village. Get everyone out. Latimer, get back to the school. Tell the headmaster-"

"Don't touch me. You're as bad as them." Latimer runs off leaving us confused.

Theta closes the main doors behind them, grabs the bell and starts ringing it. "What are you doing?" Martha and I asked confused, "Maybe one man can't fight them, but this school teaches us to stand together. Take arms! Take arms!" My eyes widened at the sight of him with a gun. "You can't do that!" I shouted in horror as he turns to me. "You want me to fight, don't you? Take arms! Take arms!" He shouted to the boys, "I say sir, what's the matter?" Hutchinson asked with a confused frown, "Enemy at the door, Hutchinson. Enemy at the door. Take arms!" The guns are being passed out. "You can't do this, Doctor. Mister Smith!" Martha cried out, "Redfern, maintain position over the stable yard. Faster now. That's it." He pointed away from us to put Joan in a corner.

"They're just boys. You can't ask them to fight. They don't stand a chance." I told him taking his head as he looked down at me with a sad look. "They're cadets, Kate. They are trained to defend the King and all his citizens and properties." The Headmaster enters, "What in thunder's name is this? Before I devise an excellent and endless series of punishments for each and every one of you, could someone explain very simply and immediately exactly what is going on?"

"Headmaster, I have to report the school is under attack." Theta turned to the Headmaster, "Really? Is that so? Perhaps you and I should have a word in private." He raised an eyebrow, "No, I promise you, sir. I was in the village with my wife. It's Baines, sir. Jeremy Baines and Mister Clark from Oakham Farm. They've gone mad, sir. They've got guns. They've already murdered people in the village. I saw it happen."

"Matron, is that so?"

"I'm afraid it's true, sir."

"Murder on our own soil?"

"I saw it. Yes."

"Perhaps you did well then, Mister Smith. What makes you thing the danger's coming here?"

"Well, sir, they said.." He was interrupted. "Baines threatened Mister Smith, sir. Said he'd follow him. We don't know why." Joan tried to explain, "Very well. You boys, remain on guard. Mister Snell, telephone for the police. Mister Philips, with me. We shall investigate." The Headmaster gave a nod with a confident look. "No! But it's not safe out there." Martha speaks up with a frown, "Mister Smith, it seems your favourite servant is giving me advice. You will control her, sir." Rocastle and Philips leave. "I've got to find that watch."

Joan follows Martha. They pass Latimer, who is hiding with the watch. "Hold me. Keep me safe. Keep me dark. Keep me closed. The time is not right. Not yet. Not while the Family is abroad. Danger!" Lucy sneaks into the school.

I watched everyone get ready for the war, Joan and Martha had taken off for just a few minutes to search for the watch as I leaned to look out the window watching silently as everyone outside also prepared for the war. It was going to bad if we didn't figure out a way to stop this all. I needed to get Theta back even if it meant hurting the other side of him. We needed a hero and he would be it.

Joan has changed into her uniform, as I made my way back over to Theta who gave me a look. "You're with Armitage and Thwaites. They know the drill. Kate, it's not safe." He insisted pulling me close and placing his forehead on mine with a sigh. "I'm doing my duty, just as much as you. Fine evening we've had together." I teased with a small laugh as he kissed me gently. "Not quite as planned." He chuckled before frowning again, "How can you think that I'm not real? When I kissed you, was that a lie?" He asked looking at me sadly.

I shook my head with tears in my eyes, "No, it wasn't. No." I insisted, "But this Doctor sounds like some, some romantic lost prince. Would you rather that? Am I not enough?" I kept shaking my head as I cried, "No, that's not true. Never. I love you. You know this, John or Theta you are the man I love." His eyes widened because he understood the Gallifreyan I spoke. "I've got to go." He insisted causing me to nod back with a small smile, "Come back to me safely."

"Mister Smith, if you please!"

"What choice do I have?" He kisses me again.

Martha gives a little scream, throws papers into the air and leaves the Doctor's study. Latimer is hiding, talking to the watch. "What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?" Latimer asks the watch in a panic, "Beware." It whispers, "Beware of what?" He asked, scared. "Her." Latimer looks up and sees Lucy standing in the corridor, holding her balloon. She sniffs, "Keep away." Latimer demands, "Who are you?" Lucy asked Latimer. "I saw you at the dance. You were with that family. You're one of them."

"What are you hiding?"

"Nothing."

"What have you got there?"

"Nothing."

"Show me, little boy." Lucy demanded, "I reckon whatever you are, you're still in the shape of a girl. How strong is she, do you think? Does she really want to see this?" Latimer aims the watch at Lucy and the golden energy shows her an explosion. She runs away scared of the sight she had seen.

The army of scarecrows moves forward.

"Stand to!" The scarecrows hammer at the main gate. "At post!" Everyone takes aim, "Enemy approaching, sir." Someone shouted from of the side, "Steady. Find the biting point." The scarecrows break in. "Fire!"

The boys open fire and take down scarecrows as they advance. Theta does not squeeze his trigger. We are treated to another chorus of To Be A Pilgrim as a contrast to the automatic gunfire. All the scarecrows are down. "Cease fire!" He walks over to the scarecrows. "They're straw. Like he said, straw." Rocastle scoffed, "The no one's dead, sir? We killed no one?" Footsteps on the gravel. "Stand to!" It is Lucy and her balloon, "You, child. Come out of the way. Come into the school. You don't know who's out there. It's the Cartwright girl, isn't it? Come here. Come to me.

Martha runs out of the school, "Mister Rocastle! Please, don't go near her." He doesn't listen though as he glared at Martha. "You were told to be quiet." Rocastle snapped angrily, "Just listen to me. She's part of it. Matron, tell him." Martha turned to her as she shook her head. "I think that. I don't know. I think you should stay back, Headmaster." Martha turns to us, "Mister Smith."

"She was, she was with, with Baines in the village."

"Mister Smith, I've seen many strange sights this night, but there is no cause on God's Earth that would allow me to see this child in the field of battle, sir. Come with me."

"You're funny."

"That's right. Now take my hand." He reached for her but she just chuckled. "So funny." Lucy produces a ray gun and vapourises the Headmaster. "Now who's going to shoot me. Any of you, really?" Lucy asked smugly, "Put down your guns." Theta tried but it wasn't working. "But sir, the Headmaster." Hutchinson tried, "I'll not see this happen. Not anymore. You will retreat in an orderly fashion back through the school. Hutchinson, lead the way."

"But sir."

"I said, lead the way." Theta spoke, "Well, go on, then. Run!" Baines fires his gun into the air, "Come on!"

"Reanimate!"

The boys scatter through the buildings, followed by the reanimated scarecrows. Latimer runs upstairs, "Let's go. Quick as you can." Theta rushed us all up. "Don't go to the village. It's not safe." Latimer insisted, "And you, ladies."

"Not till we've got the boys out."

"Now, I insist. The pair of you, just go. If there are any more boys inside, I'll find them." He opens the door. There are scarecrows on the other side. He slams it shut and locks it. "I think, retreat."

Latimer is running for the woods when Baines and Jenny get to the dormitory. Clark stands outside the building, shouting, as Theta, Joan, Martha and I are hiding in the bushes. "Doctor! Doctor!" He has the Tardis with him. "Come back, Doctor. Come home. Come and claim your prize." He taunted, "Out you come, Doctor. There's a good boy. Come to the Family." Baines also tried with a smirk, "Time to end it now." Jenny snarled, "You recognise it, don't you?" Martha spoke towards Theta. "Come out, Doctor. Come to us!"

"I've never seen it in my life."

"Do you remember its name?"

"I'm sorry, John, but you wrote about it. The blue box. You dreamt of a blue box."

"I'm not. I'm John Smith. That's all I want to be. John Smith, with his life, and his job, and his love. Why can't I be John Smith? Isn't he a good man?" He looked towards me with puppy eyes, "Yes. Yes, he is." I whispered placing my hand on his check and smiled gently. "Why can't I stay?" He whimpered as he leaned into my hand, "But we need the Doctor." Martha spoke up from behind us. "What am I, then? Nothing. I'm just a story." Theta runs away with my hand in his as the women follow. "One more phase and we won't have to hunt. The Doctor, Mister Smith, the boy, the watch, they will come to us. Soldiers, guard this thing."

"This way. I think I know somewhere we can hide." Joan leads us somewhere, "We've got to keep going." Theta insisted as he tries to continue on, "Just listen to me for once, John. Now, follow me." We follow her to a small cottage, "Oh, here we are. It should be empty. Oh, it's a long time since I've run that far."

"But who lives here?"

"If I'm right, no one."

It is dark inside. The table is laid for tea, "Hello? No one home. We should be safe here." We slowly make our way inside, "Whose house is it, though?" Martha asked with a frown as she looked around. "Er, the Cartwrights. That little girl at the school, she's Lucy Cartwright, or she's taken Lucy Cartwright's form. If she came home this afternoon and if the parents tried to stop their little girl, then they were vanished." Joan touches the teapot, "Stone cold. How easily I accept these ideas."

"I must go to them, before anyone else dies."

"You can't. Martha, there must be something we can do."

"Not without the watch." Martha snipped, "You're this Doctor's companion. Can't you help? What exactly do you do for him? Why does he need you? Especially when he has her, when we have her." He looked over at me and grabbed my hand with a gentle smile. "Because he's lonely, and so is she." She looked towards me with a smile. "And that's what you want me to become." A knock at the door, "What if it's them?" Joan asked, scared. "I'm not an expert, but I don't think scarecrows knock." Martha opens the door. "I brought you this." The watch, "Hold it." Martha insisted but he backed away shaking his head. "I won't."

"Please, just hold it."

"It told me to find you. It wants to be held."

"You've had this watch all this time? Why didn't you return it?" Joan snaps at him causing me to glare at her and pull him close. "Because it was waiting. And because I was so scared of the Doctor." I looked down at Latimer with a sympathetic look. "Why?" Joan asked, "Because I've seen him. He's like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun."

"Stop it."

"He's ancient and forever. He burns at the centre of time and he can see the turn of the universe. An standing by his side, A Queen. The mother of time, but the bringer of death. The one they call killer and the one others call mother." I backed away slightly as he looked at me. My eyes widening in horror, "Stop it! I said stop it." Theta snapped, "And they're wonderful." He breathed out causing me to cry out, I just needed to cry for a minute. "I've still got this. The journal."

"Those are just stories."

"Now we know that's not true. Perhaps there's something in here." Big bang. The cottage shakes, "What the hell?" Fireballs are falling to earth a little way away. "They're destroying the village."

"The watch."

"John, don't."

"Closer."

"Can you hear it?"

"Closer."

"I think he's asleep. Waiting to awaken."

"Little man."

"Why did he speak to me?" Latimer asked me, of course I could hear him too. "Oh, low level telepathic field. You were born with it. Just an extra synaptic engram causing." I explained to him, "Is that how he talks?" John asked, "That's him. All you have to do is open it and he's back." Martha spoke slowly as we all watched him. "You knew this all along and yet you watched." Theta looked confused and hurt, "I didn't know how to stop you. He gave me a list of things to watch out for." Martha paused looking at me, Joan looks in the journal by moonlight through the window.

"Falling in love with Kate? That didn't even occur to him when he loves her as well? If he's me and I'm him, wouldn't that apply?!" He looked at me in shock causing me to look away, to be honest we were in a rush running from them. "No." Martha spoke lowly, "Then what sort of man is that? And now you expect me to die?" He snapped angrily, "It was always going to end, though! The Doctor said the Family's got a limited lifespan, and that's why they need to consume a Time Lord. Only reason Kate didn't change human is because of her shielding as a Queen. Otherwise, three months and they die. Like mayflies, he said."

"So your job was to execute me."

"People are dying out there. They need him and I need him. Because you've got no idea of what he's like. I've only just met him. It wasn't even that long ago. But he is everything. He's just everything to me and he doesn't even look at me, but I don't care, because I love him to bits. And I hope to God he won't remember me saying this. Kate, I'm sorry, I really am but I can't help and love him almost as much as you."A explosion close by, I watch in silence. "It's getting closer." Latimer tells us as I watch her, I almost wanted to be angry but I knew. I knew from the moment he kissed her that she had fallen in love with him.

I also knew that she was trying to get over him, she wasn't being a bitch like Rose. She was trying to move on without breaking our friendships and that's what made me appreciate her more than I had anyone.

"I should have thought of it before. I can give them this. Just the watch. Then they can leave and I can stay as I am. We can be happy, Kate. We can start our family and be in peace." My head snapped over to him as he looked away, "You can't do that!" Martha shouted in shock and I agreed with her. "If they want the Doctor, they can have him."

"He'll never let you do it."

"If they get what they want, then.."

"Then it all ends in destruction. I never read to the end, but those creatures would live forever to breed and conquer, for war across the stars for every child. Martha, Timothy, would you leave us alone, please?" Martha and Latimer leave. I watch as Joan hugs a stone faced Theta.

The bombardment on the village continues as Martha and Latimer sit outside, then she hugs him. "If I could do this instead of you, then I would. I'd hoped. But my hopes aren't important." He looked down at her as if he didn't care at all. I couldn't help but frown, I was grateful that he loved me so but he was so cold to her. "He won't love you." He spoke coldly, "If he's not you, then I don't want him to. I had one husband, and he died. I never thought, ever again. And then you were so-" He interrupted her. "And it was real. I don't love you either. I won't ever because I love her." She glared up at him with tears streaming down her face. "Let me see. Blasted thing. Blasted, blasted thing. Can't even hear it. It says nothing to me." She snatches the watch from him but frowns when he grabs it back. Giving her one last look, he walks over to me and pulls me out leaving her to cry alone in the dark room.

"We'll blast them into dust, then fuse the dust into glass, then shatter them all over again." The spaceship door opens to admit, "Just" A boom rocks the ship, and he lurches against a column of switches. "Just stop the bombardment. That's all I'm asking. I'll do anything you want, just, just stop." Baines smirks at him, "Say please."

"Please." Jenny activates a control, "Wait a minute." She sniffs the air, "Still human." She hissed at him with a glare. "Now I can't, I can't pretend to understand, not for a second, but I want you to know I'm innocent in all this. He made me John Smith. It's not like I had any control over it." He runs his hands over more switches. "He didn't just make himself human. He made himself an idiot."

"Same thing, isn't it?"

"I don't care about this Doctor and your family. I just want you to go. So I've made my choice. You can have him. Just take it, please! Take him away." The Doctor holds out the watch. "At last." Baines takes the watch with one hand, and the Doctor's lapels by the other. "Don't think that saved your life." He pushes the Doctor away. More switches get activated as the Doctor falls against the wall. "Family of Mine, now we shall have the lives of a Time Lord." Baines opens the watch and they all sniff deeply. "It's empty!"

"Where's it gone?"

"You tell me." Baines throws the watch to the Doctor, who catches it without looking. "Oh, I think the explanation might be you've been fooled by a simple olfactory misdirection. Little bit like ventriloquism of the nose. It's an elementary trick in certain parts of the galaxy. But it has got to be said, I don't like the looks of that hydroconometer. It seems to be indicating you've got energy feedback all the way through the retrostabilisers feeding back into the primary heat converters. Oh. Because if there's one thing you shouldn't have done, you shouldn't have let me press all those buttons. But, in fairness, I will give you one word of advice. Run." The Doctor runs out of the ship as alarms start to sound. "Get out! Get out!"

The Family run, then their spaceship goes KaBOOM!

"He never raised his voice. That was the worst thing. The fury of the Time Lord. And then we discovered why. Why this Doctor, who had fought with gods and demons, why he'd run away from us and hidden. He was being kind. We endanger the one he loved and his child. We would get his wrath no matter how far we'd run if we could." Clark, wearing heavy chains, falls into a pit. "He wrapped my father in unbreakable chains, forged in the heart of a dwarf star. He tricked my mother into the event horizon of a collapsing galaxy to be imprisoned there forever." Jenny is sucked out of the Tardis in deep space. "He still visits my little sister once a year every year. I wonder if one day he might forgive her, but there she is. Can you see? He trapped her inside a mirror, every mirror. If ever you look at your reflection and see something move behind you, just for a second, that's her. That's always her. As for me, I was suspended in time. And the Doctor put me to work standing over the fields of England, as their protector." Baines has become a scarecrow. "We wanted to live forever, so the Doctor made sure that we did."

In the pouring rain. Martha and I are waiting by the Tardis, which is now parked where the scarecrow that Theta mended used to stand, "Right then. Molto bene." He chuckled lowly causing me to smile gently. I knew it had been awkward for him to say goodbye to her. "How was she?" I asked him, "Time we moved on." He muttered back, he wanted to disconnect. I could tell, an I knew that he truthfully wanted nothing to do with her as he didn't want another Rose.

"If you want, I could go and-" He shot Martha a look, "Time we moved on." He spoke sternly, "Er, I meant to say, back there, last night. I would have said anything to get you to change." She smiled trying to play it off and apologize to me, but he just nodded back. "Oh yeah, of course you would. Yeah." I watched her, I knew she meant what she said but I wasn't about to start anything with her. "I mean, I wasn't really-" She still tried to apologize to me but I just smiled lowly. "You know what they say, Family don't end with blood."

"Good."

"Fine."

"So here we are then."

"There we are, yes. And I never said. Thanks for looking after me." He hugs Martha as Latimer walks up to us, "Doctor. Martha. Kate." He smiled at me causing me to give him a tight hug, "Tim Timothy Timber." Theta cheered as the boy blushed. "I just wanted to say goodbye. And thank you. Because I've seen the future and I now know what must be done. It's coming, isn't it? The biggest war ever." He muttered watching us with a scared look, "You don't have to fight." I told him gently, "I think we do."

"But you could get hurt." I told him as I pushed some of his hair back, "Well, so could you, travelling around with him, but it's not going to stop you." Latimer snipped back as he raised an eyebrow at me. "Tim, I'd be honoured if you'd take this." Theta gives Latimer the fob watch. "I can't hear anything."

"No, it's just a watch now. But keep it with you, for good luck."

"Look after yourself." Martha hugs and kisses Latimer, the goes into the Tardis. "You'll like this bit." Theta joins me as we move into the Tardis, and it dematerializes.

"In June 1914, an Archduke of Austria was shot by a Serbian, and this then led, through nations having treaties with nations, like a line of dominoes falling, to some boys from England walking together in France on a terrible day."

•~᯽~•

A lady vicar is reading from, by Laurence Binyon. "They have no lot in our labour of the day time. They sleep beyond England's foam. They went with songs to the battle." Latimer is sitting in a wheelchair, an old soldier with his medals and the watch." They were young, straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow. They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted." He looks across the grass to where Martha is pinning a poppy to the Doctor's lapel with Kate standing by his side. "They fell with their faces to the foe. They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning. We will remember them."

•~᯽~•

I sat down at the table drinking a warm cup of tea thinking about recent events. Theta had gone to bed, not feeling up for much after checking to make sure the baby and I were okay. We both needed so time to think, it wasn't a bad thing but he also needed sleep so I didn't blame him. "Hey." I jumped slightly at her voice, looking over I gave Martha a small smile. "I want to see how we where, you know. Cause of the whole I love the Doctor thing." She muttered and fidgeted around. I gave her a small smile and patted the spot next to me.

"We are okay if we talk about it."

She nodded and sat down, so that's what we did. We talked for hours, she explained that she would try and get over her feelings and she had no desire to be a home-wrecker, plus she still wanted to help me with my baby.

We were all good as I made my way to the bedroom to cuddle with the man I love.

๑๑

This one is short, and kinda all over the place. To be honest I wasn't sure how I wanted to write this one also because I didn't like this two parter episode.

Thank you all for the love and support!!

I was going to skip this week but I figured I would at least finish this two parter episode. I won't update next week, gonna take a small break to catch up. Although I do have a question, I have another Doctor Who fanfic in progress. I only have the prologue right now but I was wondering if you guys wanted to read it yet or not.

4,700 Words