Chelsea and the Empty Child
The Doctor Dances
Thanks to Charmed 2100, Sage1988 and TimeTraveller-1900 for favouriting and following this story.
The patients continued to surround the Doctor, Chelsea and Jack. Then, the Doctor stared sternly around at them. "Go to your room." he ordered as though he were addressing a disobedient child.
The patients hesitated.
"Go to your room!" the Doctor repeated.
The patients all cocked their heads to one side.
"I mean it!" the Doctor continued sternly. "I am very, very angry with you. I am very, very cross! Go... to... your... room!" he thundered, pointing violently in no particular direction.
The patients all turned meekly away, their heads down as if they were sulking, and they climbed back into their beds.
"I'm really glad that worked." the Doctor grinned in relief "Those would've been terrible last words."
With the danger over for now, Chelsea went over to one of the beds to examine one of the patients, while Jack settled down in a chair. "Why've they all got masks on for?" Chelsea wandered.
"They're not. The masks are flesh and bone." Jack replied.
"How was yer con supposed to work?" the Doctor interrogated.
"Simple enough, really." Jack replied. "Find some harmless piece of space junk, let the nearest Time Agent track it back to Earth. Convince him it's valuable, name a price. When he's put 50% upfront, oops! A German bomb falls on it, destroys it forever. He never gets to see what he's paid for. Never knows he's been had. I buy him a drink with his own money and we discuss dumb luck. The perfect self-cleaning con."
"Yeah, perfect." the Doctor muttered darkly.
"The London Blitz is great for self-cleaners." Jack continued flippantly. "Pompeii's nice if ya wanna make a vacation of it, though. But you've gotta set ya alarm for volcano day." He laughed at his own joke, but stopped when he saw both the Doctor and Chelsea glaring daggers at him. "Getting a hint of disapproval."
"Millions of people died in Pompeii, show some respect!" Chelsea told him icily. "And I don't like being conned either!"
"And take a look around the room." the Doctor told Jack sternly. "This is what your 'harmless piece of space junk' did."
"It was a burnt-out medical transporter, it was empty." Jack insisted.
The Doctor looked at him darkly and walked off. "Chelsea?" he called.
"Where're we going?" Chelsea asked.
"We're going upstairs." the Doctor replied as he headed for the door. Chelsea followed.
"I even programmed the flight computer so it wouldn't land on anything living, I harmed no-one!" Jack insisted, getting up too. "I don't know what's happening here, but believe me, I had nothing to do with it."
"I'll tell you what's happening." the Doctor retorted sharply. "You forgot to set yer alarm clock. It's volcano day."
A siren wailed in the distance. "What's that?" Chelsea asked.
"The all-clear." Jack replied.
"I wish." the Doctor scoffed and strode grimly out of the ward.
It wasn't long before the two Humans lost the Doctor. "Dr McCoy?" Jack called as he and Chelsea searched for the errant Time Lord.
"Doctor?" Chelsea tried as they passed a flight of stairs.
The Doctor popped his head over the banister. "Yer got a blaster?" he called.
"Sure!" Jack answered and he and Chelsea hurried up the stairs to join the Doctor outside the door to room 802.
"The night your space junk landed, someone was hurt." the Doctor explained. "This is where they were taken."
"What happened to them?" Chelsea asked.
"Let's find out." the Doctor replied, and turned to Jack. "Get it open."
Jack grinned and stepped towards the door, ready to open it. "What's wrong with ya sonic screwdriver?" Chelsea asked the Doctor quietly.
"Nothing." the Doctor replied casually as Jack pulled out a futuristic-looking gun and fired a square-shaped beam of blue energy at the door, cutting a perfectly square-shaped hole in the lock. "Sonic blaster, 51st century." the Doctor noted as Jack pulled the door open. "Weapon factories of Villengard."
"You've been to the factories?" Jack asked.
"Once." the Doctor replied, taking the blaster and examining it.
"Well, they're gone now. Destroyed. The main reactor went critical, vaporised the lot."
"Like I said, once." the Doctor said casually, handing Jack the blaster back. "There's a banana grove there now. I like bananas. Bananas are good." he smiled pleasantly at Jack and entered the room.
"Nice phaser." Chelsea commented as she examined the perfectly square-shaped hole. "Doesn't make up for you lying to me, though." And she followed the Doctor into the room.
The Doctor switched the light on to reveal that room 802 appeared to have been vandalised. The window was broken and furniture was overturned. "What d'yer think?" the Doctor asked no one in particular.
"Something got outta here." Jack observed.
"Yeah. And?"
"Something powerful. Angry."
"Powerful and angry." the Doctor murmured in agreement.
"Let's just hope they didn't forget anything and decide to come back for it." Chelsea muttered.
Jack entered a room off to the side. The floor and walls were covered with child's drawings. There were a few toys on the floor and a little bed in the corner. "A child?" Jack stared. "I suppose this explains 'mummy'."
"How could a kid do all this?" Chelsea wandered as she surveyed the carnage.
The Doctor found a tape recorder and switched it on. "Do you know where you are?" Dr Constantine's voice asked.
"Are you my mummy?" the child's voice asked.
"Are you aware of what's around you? Can you... see?"
"Are you my mummy?"
"What do you want? Do you know..."
"I want my mummy! Are you my mummy? I want my mummy! Are you my mummy?"
The Doctor looked around the room. All of the drawings depicted the child's mother.
"Are you my mummy? Mummy? Mummy?"
"Hang on, I've heard that voice before." Chelsea frowned.
"Me too." the Doctor replied softly.
"Mummy?"
"The same thing, over and over again." Chelsea observed. "Like he doesn't know. Why doesn't he know who his mum is?"
"Are you there, mummy? Mummy?"
Presently, the Doctor joined them in the other room and began pacing.
"Mummy?" the child's voice said on the tape "Please, mummy? Mummy?"
"Doctor, what is it?" Chelsea asked, realising that the Doctor was thinking about something.
"Can you sense it?" the Doctor asked in response.
"Sense what?" Jack asked
"Coming out of the walls, can you feel it?"
"Mummy?"
The Doctor stopped pacing and turned to look at the two Humans, who were both just looking at him blankly. "Funny little Human brains, how d'yer get around in those things?" he remarked.
Chelsea rolled her eyes at that remark. "When he's in a bad mood, he likes to insult other species." she told Jack.
"Chelsea, I'm thinking." the Doctor retorted, resuming his pacing.
"He gets a paper cut, he goes on for half-an-hour about life-forms he thinks he's better than." Chelsea continued.
The Doctor stopped pacing and turned to face the others, his back to the window. "There are these children, living rough round the bomb sites. They come out during air raids looking for food." he mused.
"Mummy, please?"
"Suppose they were there when this thing, whatever it was, landed?" the Doctor continued.
"It was a med-ship. It was harmless." Jack insisted again.
"Yes, you keep sayin' 'harmless'." the Doctor waved him off. "Suppose one of them was affected, altered?"
"Altered?" Chelsea furrowed a brow.
"I'm here!"
"It's afraid." the Doctor continued. "Terribly afraid, and powerful. It doesn't know it yet, but it soon will." He gave a small laugh. "It's got the power of a god and I just sent it to it's room."
Then, they all noticed a loud crackling sound filling the room. "Doctor..." Chelsea began uneasily.
"I'm here." the child's voice called. "Can't you see me?"
"What's that noise?" Chelsea asked.
The Doctor's smile faded. "The end of the tape." he breathed. "It ran out about 30 seconds ago."
"I'm here now. Can't you see me?" the child's voice called.
"I sent it to his room." the Doctor said quietly. "This is it's room." He spun round to see the child standing by the tape machine in the other room.
"Are you my mummy?" the child asked, cocking his head to the side, considering Chelsea. "Mummy?"
"Doctor?" the young woman asked nervously, hoping the Doctor had a miracle up his sleeve.
Jack stepped forward. "Ok... on my signal... make for the door. Now!" He violently produced a banana and pointed it threateningly at the child.
The Doctor grinned and produced Jack's sonic blaster, blasting a square hole in the wall. "Go! Now! Don't drop the banana!" he urged.
"Why not?!" Jack asked, hopping through the hole in the wall with Chelsea.
"Good source of potassium!" the Doctor shot back as he scrambled through after them.
The trio found themselves back in a corridor. The child approached them from inside the room. "Gimme that!" Jack said, snatching his blaster back off the Doctor.
"Are you my mummy?" the child asked as it advanced towards the hole.
Jack fired at the wall and it rebuilt itself, blocking the child out. "Digital rewind." Jack explained to Chelsea and tossed the banana to the Doctor. "Nice switch." he remarked.
"It's from the groves of Villengard. "I thought it was appropriate." the Doctor replied.
"There's really a banana grove in the heart of Villengard and you did that?"
"Bananas are good." the Doctor said simply.
Suddenly, there was an almighty thump from the other side of the wall, which began to crack. "Sh*t! It's breaking through!" Chelsea realised.
"Come on!" the Doctor urged, and led the trio down the hall. They rushed down a short flight of steps and down another corridor, only to see a group of infected patients burst out of the ward ahead, all calling for their mummy. The trio hastily backtracked, but they found more patients coming from the other direction too. They found themselves back at the point they'd started, where the child was breaking through the wall. "He's keeping us here till he can get at us." the Doctor realised.
"It's controlling them?" Jack asked, waving his blaster around.
"It is them." the Doctor told him. "It's every living thing in this hospital."
"Ok. This can function as a sonic blaster, a sonic cannon and a triple-enfolded sonic disrupter." Jack said as he continued to wave his blaster around "Doc, what you got?"
The Doctor took out his sonics screwdriver. "I've got a sonic, er. Oh, never mind." he trailed off, realising that a screwdriver wouldn't do much damage.
"What?"
"It's sonic, okay? Let's leave it at that."
"Disrupter? Cannon? What?" Jack persisted.
"It's sonic!" the Doctor waved him off. "Totally sonic! I am soniced up!"
"A sonic what?!"
"SCREWDRIVER!" the Doctor yelled, holding his screwdriver up.
Jack spun round and stared at him.
"We don't have time for this!" Chelsea reminded, and at that moment, reinforcing her point, the child managed to punch through the wall and began to climb through. Seeing that there was only one thing for it, Chelsea grabbed Jack's wrist and forced him to aim the sonic blaster at the floor. "Lift going down!" she called and blasted a hole in the floor, causing them all to fall in a messy heap on the floor of the darkened room below. Jack hurriedly activated the digital rewind, sealing the hole so that they couldn't be followed. "Everyone ok?" Chelsea asked.
"Could've used a warning." the Doctor grumbled, nursing his sore backside.
"You're welcome." Chelsea muttered as they all stood up and brushed themselves off
"Who has a sonic screwdriver?" Jack asked.
"I do!" the Doctor retorted.
"Can't see a thing in here." Chelsea muttered as she began searching for a light switch.
"Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks 'Ooh, this could be a little more sonic'?" Jack scoffed.
"What yer've never been bored?" the Doctor replied indignantly.
"Where's the bloody light switch?!" Chelsea grumbled as she looked around the room
"Never had a long night? Never had a lot of cabinets to put up?" the Doctor continued to defend his sonic screwdriver.
"Oh, for God's sakes, will you two stop arguing about ya stupid toys?!" Chelsea told both men irritably. Then she found a light switch and flipped it. The lights came on to reveal that they were in a ward full of infected patients, who all promptly sat upright in bed and called out for their mummy.
"Door." Jack urged, and the trio rushed to the door at the end of the ward as the patients started getting out of bed. Finding the door locked, Jack aimed his blaster at the lock and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. "Damn it!" he groaned and stepped back to allow the Doctor to unlock the door with his sonic screwdriver. "It's the special features, they really drain the battery." Jack explained to Chelsea.
"Battery?!" Chelsea raised a brow as the door was opened and the Doctor ushered her through it. "51st century and ya still use batteries?!"
They found themselves in a store room. The Doctor slammed the door shut behind them and locked it with his sonic screwdriver, while Jack ran to the window and checked it. "I was gonna send for another one," he said to Chelsea, "but someone's gotta blow up the factory!" He levelled a glare at the Doctor
"Huh. Tell me about it." Chelsea remarked. "He loves blowing stuff up. Derek Meddings' got nothing on him!"
The Doctor finished with the lock "Ok, that door should 'old them for a bit." he announced, going to check the room.
"The door?! The wall didn't stop it!" Jack scoffed.
"Well, he's gotta find us first!" the Doctor retorted. "C'mon, we're not done yet. Assets, assets."
"Well, I've got a banana and in a pinch, you could put up some shelves." Jack said flatly.
"Window."
"Barred, sheer drop outside. Seven stories."
"And no other way out." Chelsea said, looking around the room.
"Well, the assets conversation went in a flash, didn't it?" Jack huffed, sitting down in a wheelchair.
The Doctor turned and eyed him for a moment, then turned to Chelsea. "So, where'd yer pick this one up, then?" he grunted.
"I didn't." Chelsea retorted. "He picked me up."
"She was hanging from a barrage balloon, I had an invisible spaceship. I never stood a chance." Jack grinned, causing Chelsea to roll her eyes.
"Ok, one: we've gotta get out of here." the Doctor through aloud. "Two: we can't get out of here. Have I missed anything?"
"Yeah, Jack's gone." Chelsea told him, and the Doctor turned to see Jack's empty wheelchair. "He just disappeared." Chelsea explained. "Guess he must have a transporter on that fancy ship of his. So, what d'we do now?" she asked the Doctor.
"We find a way out of here." the Doctor replied.
"Well, better get ya thinking cap on, then." Chelsea said.
The Doctor sat down to think while Chelsea went over to the door and peered through the keyhole. "They're still waiting out there." she observed. "It's eerie. They're like statues. How could that Smarties tube cause all this?" she wandered.
"I'm working on it." the Doctor replied.
Suddenly, an old radio crackled into life. "Chelsea? Doctor?" Jack's voice came through the radio. "Can you hear me?"
The two time travellers hurried over to the radio and the Doctor picked it up.
"I'm back on my ship." Jack said. "Used the emergency teleport. Sorry I couldn't take you. It's security-keyed to my molecular structure. I'm working on it, hang in there."
The Doctor noticed that the radio wasn't even wired up to a plug. "How're you speaking to us?" he asked.
"Om-com." Jack replied "I can call anything with a speaker grille."
"Now there's a coincidence." the Doctor remarked.
"What is?"
"The child can om-com too."
"He can?" Chelsea asked.
"Anything with a speaker grill." the Doctor confirmed. "Even the Tardis phone."
"That kid can phone us?" Chelsea stared.
"And I can hear you." the child's voice came over the radio. "Coming to find you. Coming to fiiiind you!"
"Doctor, can ya hear that?" Jack asked.
"Loud and clear." the Doctor replied.
"I'll try and block out the signal. Least I can do." Jack said.
"Coming to find you, mummy." the child said.
"Remember this one, Chelsea?" Jack said and Moonlight Serenade began to play.
The Doctor looked to Chelsea questioningly. "Long story." she replied, a little embarrassed.
~8~
Presently, Chelsea was sitting on a table watching the Doctor run his sonic screwdriver over the bars on the window. "What you doing?" she asked him.
"Trying to set up a resonance pattern in the concrete." the Doctor replied. "Loosen the bars."
"Ya do realise that even if ya do get 'em off, there's a seven-storey drop outside?" Chelsea reminded. "Haven't got a ladder in those bigger-on-the-inside pockets have ya?"
"No, but I'll think of something." the Doctor replied.
"You don't think he's coming back?"
"Wouldn't bet my life." he retorted.
"Yeah, don't blame ya." Chelsea remarked. "I don't trust him either. Still, to be fair to him, he did save my life and he's a bit like you, now that I think about it."
The Doctor stared. "What?"
"Well, ya both have spaceships and fancy gadgets, and ya both like showing off." Chelsea said. "Only difference is, his idea of showing a girl a good time is dating and dancing."
The Doctor shot her a look.
"What?"
"Yer just assume I'm..." the Doctor began.
"What?"
"You just assume that I don't... dance."
"Do you?"
"900 years old, me. I've been around a bit. I think you can assume that at some point I've danced."
"You dancing?" Chelsea said incredulously.
"Problem?"
"I thought the universe would blow up or something if you danced." Chelsea laughed.
"Well, I've got the moves but I wouldn't wanna boast." the Doctor said off-handedly.
"Huh. If you say so." Chelsea snorted.
"When we get out of here, I'll prove it." the Doctor said defensively.
"Now that I wanna see." Chelsea said.
The Doctor suddenly stopped his resonating and turned to her, something occurring to him. "Barrage balloon?" he questioned, putting his sonic screwdriver away and climbing down to join Chelsea.
"What?"
"You were hanging from a barrage balloon." the Doctor said, examining Chelsea's hands.
"Oh... yeah. Just after you left me. I saw that kid standing on a rooftop so I went up to try and help him. Ended up dangling thousands of feet over London in the middle of an air raid." Chelsea shuddered.
The Doctor raised his brows "I've travelled with a lot of people, but you're setting new records for jeopardy-friendly." he said dryly.
"Oi, I didn't do it on purpose!" Chelsea retorted indignantly. "I only went up there 'cos I thought I saw a kid in danger! I tried to tell ya but you'd already buggered off and left me, so don't go blaming me!"
"Fair point." the Doctor conceded, then examined Chelsea's hands again. "Hanging from a rope a thousand feet above London. Not a cut, not a bruise."
"Captain Jack fixed me up."
"Oh, we're calling him Captain Jack now, are we?"
"What's wrong with that? His name's Jack and he's a captain, so Captain Jack. I could call him Commander Riker if it'll make ya happy."
"He's not really a captain, Chelsea." the Doctor said in a self-satisfied way. "Or a commander."
"And you're not really a doctor." Chelsea retorted. "Yet, you call yourself one."
"If ever he was a captain, he's been defrocked." the Doctor said.
"I'm not surprised." Chelsea commented.
"Actually, I quit." Jack's voice said, and the Doctor and Chelsea looked round to see that they were now aboard Jack's ship instead of inside the store room. "Most people notice when they've been teleported. You guys are so sweet. Sorry about the delay. I had to take the nav-com offline to override the teleport security."
"You can spend ten minutes overriding your own protocols? Maybe you should remember whose ship it is." the Doctor said irritably.
"Oh, I do. She was gorgeous." Jack smirked. "Though, not as much as you." he winked at Chelsea, who blushed slightly. "Like I told her, be back in five minutes." And he ducked into a compartment underneath the console
The Doctor looked around at the ship "This is a Chula ship." he recognised.
"Yeah, just like that medical transporter." Jack called up. "Only, this one is dangerous."
The Doctor snapped his fingers and his hand was instantly surrounded by nanogenes. "Those're what fixed my hands up." Chelsea remembered. "Jack called 'em something beginning with N."
"Nanobots? Nanogenes?" the Doctor offered.
"Nanogenes, yeah."
"Sub-atomic robots. There's millions of 'em in here, see?" the Doctor explained. "Burned my hand on the console when we landed. All better now. They activate when the bulkhead's sealed. Check you out for damage, fix any physical flaws." He waved the nanogenes away and turned to Jack. Take us to the crash site. I need to see yer space junk."
"As soon as I get the nav-com back online" Jack replied "Make yourselves comfortable. Carry on with whatever it was you were..." he gestured between the Doctor and Chelsea, "doing."
"We were talking about dancing." the Doctor said innocently.
"Is that what we're calling it now?" Jack smirked.
"Oh, shut up." Chelsea grunted.
~8~
Presently, the Doctor sat down on a bunk to think, while Chelsea went to talk to Jack. "So, if you used to be a Time Agent, why're you trying to con 'em?" she asked.
"If it makes me sound any better, it's not for the money." Jack replied, fiddling with the controls of his ship.
"Then what?"
"Woke up one morning when I was working for them, found out they'd stolen two years of my memories. I'd like 'em back."
"They stole your memories?" Chelsea frowned in disbelief.
"Two years of my life. No idea what I did. Your friend over there doesn't trust me, and for all I know he's right not to."
The computer beeped.
"Ok, we're good to go." Jack informed the Doctor. "Crash site?" He spun round in his chair and piloted the ship to a spot near Limehouse Green station.
~8~
After landing, the trio walked alongside the railway line to the crash site "There is is." Jack said, pointing to the barbed wire. "They've got Algy on duty. Must be important." He gestured to a British Army Captain, who was pacing up and down on guard.
"We've gotta get past." the Doctor said.
"I s'pose muggins here'll have to distract him." Chelsea said resignedly.
"I don't think that'd be such a good idea." Jack told her.
"You got a better idea?"
"I've got to know Algy quite well since I've been been in town." Jack said. "Trust me, you're not his type. I'll distract him." He began to walk away. "Don't wait up." He took a short cut through a stabled locomotive's cab and headed off towards Algy.
Chelsea turned to the Doctor, looking confused and a bit alarmed.
"Relax, he's a 51st century guy." the Doctor smirked. "He's just a bit more flexible when it comes to dancing."
"Just how 'flexible' are we talking about?" Chelsea enquired.
"Well, by his time, you lot have spread out across the galaxy."
"What's that got to do with it?"
"So many species, so little time." the Doctor grinned.
"So you're telling me that mankind goes out to the stars to seek out new life and..."
"Dance." the Doctor finished smugly.
"Huh. Kirk and Riker would be proud." Chelsea said lamely. "I guess that explains why Jack was so... forward with me. Just remind me never to let him meet my cousin Amy. She's just as bad."
Jack meanwhile approached Algy "Hey, tiger!" he called. "How's it hanging?"
Algy turned to him with an inquisitive look. "Mummy?"
"Algy, old sport, it's me."
"Mummy?"
Jack's smile faded. "It's me, Jack."
"Jack?" Algy asked and cocked his head, observing Jack with a child-like curiosity. "Are you my mummy?" Then he coughed and fell to his knees.
Then, right before Jack's eyes, Algy's face transformed into a gas mask. The Doctor and Chelsea had seen everything, as had Algy's men, who hurried over.
"Stay back!" the Doctor warned as he and Chelsea rushed over.
"You men, stay away!" Jack warned Algy's men, who wisely complied.
The time travellers reached them and looked down at the transformed Algy, who was now lying on the floor. "The effect's becoming air-borne." the Doctor realised. "Accelerating."
"Are we safe?" Chelsea asked cautiously.
"No." the Doctor replied grimly.
An air raid siren sounded in the distance. "Ah, here they come again." Jack groaned, looking up at the sky.
"Oh, this just gets worse and worse." Chelsea groaned, then she remembered something. "You said a bomb was gonna land here." she reminded Jack, who nodded.
"Never mind about that." the Doctor said grimly. "If the contaminant's air-borne now, there's hours left."
"For what?" Jack asked.
"Till nothing." the Doctor replied ominously. "Forever. For the entire Human race. And can anyone else hear singing?"
They all listened and sure enough, they could hear a woman's voice singing Rock-a-by-baby. The Doctor pinpointed the source to a nearby shed. He looked inside to find Nancy handcuffed to a table, singing to a transformed soldier. The Doctor motioned for Nancy to keep singing, so she did so while he crept up and used his sonic screwdriver to unlock her handcuffs. The handcuffs snapped open and Nancy was able to sidle away, leaving the soldier fast asleep.
The group went back to the bomb site and Jack and the Doctor removed the tarpaulin to reveal the Chula med-ship. "You see? Just an ambulance." Jack said.
"That's an ambulance?" Nancy asked incredulously.
"It's hard to explain," Chelsea said, putting a comforting arm around her, "but it's... it's from another world."
Jack looked at the med-ship's controls. "They've been trying to get in." he noted.
"Of course they have." the Doctor replied. "They think they've got their hands on Hitler's latest secret weapon. What you doing?" he asked as Jack began typing in a code on a key pad on the ship
"Well, the sooner you see this thing's empty, the sooner you'll see I had nothing to do with it." Jack retorted.
The key pad suddenly sparked, causing them all to jump back, and an alarm sounded.
"Didn't happen last time." Jack said sheepishly.
"It hadn't crashed last time." the Doctor retorted. "They're the emergency protocols."
"What's it doing?" Chelsea asked, seeing a flashing red light on the console, then she saw the doors to the shed that Nancy had been imprisoned in were now rattling. "Doctor!" she warned.
"Captain, secure those gates!" the Doctor ordered.
"Why?" Jack questioned.
"Just do it!" the Doctor snapped, and Jack obeyed. "Nancy, how'd you get in here?"
"I cut the wire." Nancy replied.
"Show Chelsea." the Doctor ordered, and tossed his sonic screwdriver to Chelsea. "Setting 2428D." he told her.
"What does that do?" Chelsea asked.
"Reattaches barbed wire." the Doctor answered. "Go!"
So Chelsea and Nancy went off to do as they were told, while Jack slammed the site's gates shut and secured them with chains.
Nancy held the two ends of the barbed wire together while Chelsea used the Doctor's sonic screwdriver to fuse them together again. Having finished on one wire, they moved on to the next one. "Who are ya?" Nancy asked. "Who're any of you?"
"You'd never believe me if I told ya." Chelsea waved her off.
"You just told me that was an ambulance from another world." Nancy retorted. "There are people runnin' around with gas mask heads callin' for their mummies, and the sky's full of Germans dropping bombs on me. Tell me. D'ya think there's anything left I couldn't believe?"
Chelsea looked at her, getting the point. "Alright. The Doctor's an alien, and Jack and I are time travellers from the future."
"Mad, you are."
"I'm serious. The Doctor's got a time machine. It's how he and I got here."
"It's not that." Nancy said. "Alright, you've got a time machine. I believe ya. Believe anything, me. But what future?" She looked up at the sky, which was full of German bombers.
"Nancy, I know what ya thinking, and I know things look hopeless right now, but it's not the end." Chelsea told her.
"How can you say that?!" Nancy burst out. "Look at it!"
"I live in London." Chelsea persisted. "I'm from London in about 60 year's time."
"From here?"
"Yep. Ok, I was born in Leadworth, but my dad and I moved to London when I was 8 and we've lived here ever since."
"But... but you're not..."
"Not what?"
"German."
"Nope, English and proud of it." Chelsea smiled. "Well, my mum's half-Scottish, but my dad and I are English. In fact, the Germans never invade Britain, and they don't win the war either. Don't tell anyone I told ya this, but d'ya know who does win the war? You do!"
"Us?"
"Yep." Chelsea smiled. "Good ol' England wins."
Nancy felt better at this news and they soon finished repairing the wire, then they headed back to join the Doctor and Jack, who finished typing in the code and opened the med-ship's hatch. "It's empty. Look at it." he said.
"What d'yer expect in a Chula medical transporter? the Doctor asked sarcastically. "Bandages? Cough drops?" He turned to his companion. "Chelsea?"
"No idea." Chelsea replied.
"Yes, you do." the Doctor encouraged, miming the nanogenes with his hands.
"Oh, the nanogenes!" Chelsea realised.
"It wasn't empty, Captain." the Doctor told Jack. "There was enough nanogenes in there to rebuild a species."
Jack went white as a sheet, realisation dawing on him. "Oh, god."
"Getting it now, are we? When the ship crashes, the nanogenes. Billons upon billions of them, ready to fix all the cuts and bruises in the whole world. But what they find first is a dead child, probably killed earlier that night and wearing a gas mask."
"And they brought him back to life?" Chelsea asked. "Can they do that?"
"What's life? Life's easy. A quirk of matter." the Doctor answered. "Nature's way of keeping meat fresh. Nothing to a nanogene. One problem, though. These nanogenes, they're not like the ones on your ship. This lot have never a Human being before. Don't know what a Human being's supposed to look like. All they've got to go on is one little body, and there's not a lot left. But they carry right on. They do what they're programmed to do; they patch it up. Can't tell what's gasmask and what's skull, but they do their best. Then off they fly, off they go, work to be done. 'Cos, yer see, now they think they know what people should look like, and it's time to fix all the rest. And they won't ever stop. They won't ever, ever stop. The entire human race is gonna be torn down and rebuilt in the form of one terrified child looking for its mother, and nothing in the world can stop it!"
Jack was shaking with horror at his mistake "I didn't know." he breathed.
The Doctor fixed him with a cold stare then turned to examine the med-ship in an attempt to see if there was anything that could be done to stop the nanogenes.
Suddenly, Nancy noticed something. "Chelsea?" she called.
Chelsea rushed over to Nancy's side and followed her gaze. The patients from the hospital were walking zombie-like along the line towards them. They were still quite a distance away, but still too close for comfort. Chelsea rushed back to the med-ship and her eyes fell on the flashing red light on the control panel. "It's bringing 'em here, isn't it?" she realised.
"The ship thinks it's under attack. It's calling up the troops. Standard protocol." the Doctor told her.
"But... those people aren't troops!" Chelsea protested.
"They are now." the Doctor replied. "This is a battlefield ambulance. The nanogenes don't just fix yer up, they get you ready for the front line. Equip you, programme you."
"So that's why the boy's so strong, and why he can do that thing with phones." Chelsea nodded.
"He's a fully equipped Chula warrior, yes." the Doctor confirmed. "All that weapons tech in the hands of an hysterical 4-year old looking for 'is mummy. And now there's an army of them."
The patients and transformed soldiers all halted their advance when they reached the fence.
"Why don't they attack?" Jack wandered.
"Good little soldiers, waiting for their commander." the Doctor replied.
"The child?" Jack questioned.
"Jaime." Nancy told him.
"What?"
"Not 'the child', Jamie." Nancy said, causing the Doctor to look at her, remembering what Dr Constantine had told him.
"How long we got 'till that bomb falls?" Chelsea asked.
"Any second." Jack answered her
"What's the matter, Captain?" the Doctor snarled at him. "Bit too close to the volcano for you?"
"He's just a little boy." Nancy said sadly.
"I know." the Doctor said understandingly.
"He's just a little boy who wants his mummy."
"I know. There isn't a little boy born who wouldn't tear the world apart to save his mummy. And this little boy can."
"What're we gonna do?" Chelsea asked.
"I don't know." the Doctor replied gravely.
Nancy welled up in tears. "It's my fault." she sobbed.
"No, 'course it isn't." Chelsea tried to comfort her.
"It is." Nancy wailed. "It's all my fault."
"How can it be your..." the Doctor began, but he trailed off and looked around at the patients, all calling out for their mummy, then turned back to Nancy, a sudden thought striking him. "Nancy, what age are you?" he asked. "20? 21? Older than yer look, yes?"
A bomb landed nearby, causing Jack and Chelsea Rose to flinch.
"Doctor, that bomb. We've got seconds." Jack urged, as another bomb landed nearby.
"Can't you beam us out?" Chelsea asked.
"Not you guys. The nav-com's back online." Jack told her. "Gonna take too long to override the protocols."
"So it's volcano day. Do what yer've gotta do." the Doctor told him, focussing on Nancy.
"Jack!" Chelsea glared at the American.
Jack looked at her apologetically. He made his decision and teleported himself out.
"How old were you five years ago?" the Doctor asked Nancy. "15? 16? Old enough to give birth, anyway."
Nancy, still sobbing, glanced up at him and then down at the ground again, shame faced.
"He's not yer brother, is he?" the Doctor pressed. "A teenage single mother in 1941. So yer hid. You lied. You even lied to him."
The gates burst open to reveal the patients, with Jamie standing at the forefront, ready to charge. "Are you my mummy?"
"He's gonna keep asking, Nancy." the Doctor said. "He's never gonna stop. Tell him."
Nancy hesitated as Jaime and the patients began to walk forward.
"Nancy... the future of the Human race is in your hands." the Doctor said. "Trust me... and tell him."
Nancy swallowed hard as Jaime approached. "Are you my mummy?"
The Doctor gave Nancy a gentle push in the direction of Jamie.
"Are you my mummy?" Jaime repeated.
Nancy plucked up courage. "Yes. I am your mummy." she said,
Jaime slowly walked forward. "Mummy?"
"I'm here."
"Are you my mummy?"
Nancy kneeled down in front of him. "I'm here."
"Are you my mummy?"
"Yes." Nancy whispered.
"He doesn't understand." the Doctor said sadly. "There's not enough of him left."
But Nancy wasn't about to give up "I am your mummy." she said sincerely "I will always be your mummy. I'm so sorry." And she took him into her arms, no longer caring about what could happen. Nanogenes surrounded them, bathing them in a golden glow. "I am so, so sorry." Nancy whispered to Jaime.
"What's happening?" Chelsea asked the Doctor. "If it's gonna change her, hadn't we better...?"
"Shh!" the Doctor shushed her, watching the nanogenes envelop Nancy and Jaime "Come on, please!" he breathed. "Come on, you clever little nanogenes, figure it out! The mother, she's the mother. It's got to be enough information. Figure it out."
"What's happening?" Chelsea asked him.
"See?" the Doctor pointed. "Recognising the same DNA."
Nancy fell back as the nanogenes disappeared, while Jaime stayed standing. The Doctor and Chelsea rushed over, and Chelsea helped Nancy up while the Doctor stared down at Jaime, hardly daring to hope. "Oh, come on. Give me a day like this. Give me this one." he pleaded to the heavens, then reached out to Jaime's gasmask... and removed it, revealing a perfectly normal 4-year old boy underneath it. The Doctor laughed ecstatically and pulled Jaime into his arms. "A-ha-ha! Welcome back!" he grinned. "20 years to pop music. Yer gonna love it!"
"What happened?" Nancy asked in wonder.
"The nanogenes recognised the superior information, the parent DNA." the Doctor beamed, putting Jaime down. "They didn't change you because you changed them. Haha!"
"I guess mum always knows best!" Chelsea grinned.
"Jaime!" Nancy wept with happiness and embraced her son.
Another bomb landed nearby. "Doctor, that bomb..." Chelsea suddenly remembered.
"Taken care of it." the Doctor replied nonchalantly.
"How?"
"Psychology."
Then, they heard the whistling of a falling bomb, coming straight for them. Just as it was about to hit the med-ship, it was snatched in mid-air by a tractor beam from Jack's ship. A moment later, Jack appeared, sitting legs astride the bomb. "Doctor!" he called.
"Good lad!" the Doctor called back.
"The bomb's already commenced detonation. I've put it in stasis but it won't last long."
"Change of plan, don't need the bomb." the Doctor replied. "Can yer get rid of it? Safely as you can?"
"Chelsea?"
Jack called
"Yeah?" the young woman answered.
"Goodbye." Jack said and disappeared, only to reappear a second later. "By the way, love the biker look." he grinned.
Chelsea returned the grin, blushing slightly.
Jack and the bomb teleported away and the ship flew off into the night.
The Doctor walked a few paces away, looking intently at his hands. Two swarms of nanogenes fluttered around them. "What's that?" Chelsea asked him.
"Software patch." the Doctor replied. "Gonna email the upgrade. You wanna see my moved, Chelsea? I'll give ya moves!" He flicked his hands, sending the nanogenes towards the patients, who were all still milling about on the railway lines. The nanogenes surrounded them and they all fell to the ground.
"Everybody lives, Chelsea." the Doctor beamed ecstatically. "Just this once, EVERYBODY LIVES!"
The patients all got to their feet, their faces all restored to normal Human faces. "Ah, all's well as ends well." Chelsea smiled as she and the Doctor bounded over to them.
The Doctor approached Dr Constantine. "Doctor Constantine. Who never left his patients. Back on your feet, constant doctor. The world doesn't wanna get by without you just yet, and I don't blame it one bit. These are yer patients." he said, gesturing to the people milling about in confusion "All better now."
"Yes, yes.. so it seems." a completely confused Dr Constantine replied "They also seem to be standing around in a disused railway station. Is there any particular reason for that?"
"Yeah, well, yer know, cutbacks." the Doctor laughed. "Listen, whatever was wrong with 'em in the past, yer probably gonna find that they're cured. Just tell 'em what a great doctor you are. Don't make a big thing of it, ok?" And he sauntered happily away.
An elderly woman approached Dr Constantine. "Dr Constantine?" she called.
"Ah, Mrs Harcourt, how much better you're looking." Dr Constantine said.
"My leg's grown back!" a bewildered Mrs Harcourt said. "When I come to the hospital, I had one leg!"
Dr Constantine looked flummoxed to think of an answer, so Chelsea came to his rescue. "Ah, the miracles of modern medicine." she said nonchalantly, and went over to join the Doctor, who had climbed on top of the med-ship.
"Right, you lot." he called "Lots to do! Beat the Germans, save the world, don't forget the welfare state!"
The hospital staff regained their bearings and began to usher the patients away from the bomb site.
The Doctor pressed some buttons on the key pad and spoke to Chelsea, "Setting this to self-destruct as soon as everybody's clear. History says there's an explosion here. Who am I to argue with history?"
"The first in line!" Chelsea snorted.
~8~
The Doctor was still in good spirits when he and Chelsea returned to the TARDIS. "The nanogenes will clean up the mess and switch themselves off, cos' I told 'em to." the Doctor chattered happily, walking up to the console. "Nancy and Jaime will go to Dr Constantine for help, ditto. All in all, all things considered, fantastic!"
Chelsea was amused by his enthusiasm. "Look at you; grinning away like ya Father Christmas!"
"Who says I'm not?" the Doctor retorted. "Tracy Island when you were 5."
"Eh?!" Chelsea stared.
"And everybody lives, Chelsea." the Doctor continued happily. "Everybody lives! I need more days like this."
"Doctor..." Chelsea began.
"Go on, ask me anything." the Doctor replied cheerfully. "I'm on fire!"
"What's gonna happen to Jack?" Chelsea asked.
The Doctor's smile fell and he carried on working, as though he didn't want to answer the question.
"Is he gonna be alright?" Chelsea persisted.
~8~
Jack's ship soared through space. "Ok, computer, how long can we keep the bomb in stasis?" Jack asked.
"Stasis decaying at 90% cycle." the computer replied. "Detonation in three minutes."
"Can we jettison it?"
"Any attempt to jettison will precipitate detonation. 100% probability."
"We could stick it in an escape pod." Jack tried .
"There is no escape pod on board."
"Ok, see the flaw in that. I'll get in the escape pod!"
"There is no escape pod on board."
"Did ya check everywhere?" Jack asked, his voice rising.
"Affirmative."
"Under the sink?!" Jack yelled.
"Affirmative."
"Ok." Jack nodded, beginning to acknowledge the situation. "Out of one hundred, exactly how dead am I?"
"Termination of Captain Jack Harkness in under two minutes. 100% probability."
"Lovely. Thanks." Jack sighed in defeat. "Good to know the numbers."
"You're welcome."
"Ok then. Think we'd better initiate emergency protocol 4-1-7."
"Affirmative."
A martini glass appeared on the dashboard. Jack took it and had a sip. "Ooh, a little too much vermouth. See if I come here again!" he joked. "Funny thing... last time I was sentenced to death, I ordered four hyper-vodkas for my breakfast. All a bit of a blur after that. Woke up in bed with both my executioners. Hmm, lovely couple. They stayed in touch." He pondered this. "Can't say that about most executioners." he laughed again "Anyway, thanks for everything, computer. It's been great."
Suddenly, Moonlight Serenade began to play. "Oi, pretty boy, hurry up if ya wanna live!" Chelsea's voice called, and Jack spun round to see that the TARDIS had appeared inside the ship. Jack leapt to his feet and scrambled inside.
The Doctor and Chelsea were dancing a rather awkward attempt at a waltz. "Ok, and turn." Chelsea instructed. The Doctor complied, getting Chelsea's arm twisted. "Ow! Watch it!" she grumbled. "Girls don't like having their arms pulled out of their sockets!"
"I'm sure I used to know this stuff." the Doctor muttered, moving back to the console. "Close the door, will yer?" he ordered Jack, who was looking around the room in awe. "Your ship's about to blow up, there's gonna be a draft."
Jack complied and the Doctor flicked a switch to dematerialise the TARDIS away from Jack's doomed ship. "Welcome to the TARDIS." he told Jack.
"Much bigger on the inside." Jack commented.
"You'd better be." the Doctor retorted.
Chelsea rolled her eyes at him. "Never mind him." she told Jack. "He's just jealous."
"I've just remembered!" the Doctor said suddenly.
"What?" Chelsea asked.
In the Mood began to blare out of the speakers and the Doctor moved in time to the music, snapping his fingers. "I can dance!" he grinned.
"Good for you, Doctor." Chelsea smirked. "Tell ya what, let's see ya put ya money where ya mouth is." She tossed her jacket aside and let the Doctor take her hands. He pulled her closer to him and he spun her perfectly. Jack watched as they danced around the console room, perfect partners. The Doctor suddenly threw Chelsea backwards over his arm, earning a whoop of delight from the young woman. "Woah! I take it back, Doctor. Ya do have the moves!" she laughed as she pulled herself up. "The Dancing Doctor. Beverly Crusher, eat ya heart out!"
Author's notes: And that rounds this story up. Doing these two episodes with Chelsea was something I couldn't resist doing, as it gave me a chance to show Chelsea's more fun-loving side and that's clearly evident in this chapter. I thought it'd make a chance from the more moody persona she had when traveling with the 11th Doctor. Two notes about Chelsea's back story in this AU, she moved to London with her father the year before Amy's first meeting with the Doctor, so Chelsea wasn't there for that event and it's also the reason why she has a much better relationship with the Doctor here, as there's no broken pedestal from childhood. The other point is that I've aged Chelsea up by two years in this AU. In her main story, she was born in 1989, which would make her 16 in 2005. I felt that this would make her too young to be travelling with the Doctor, so I've moved her year of birth up to 1987, making her 18, which was Ashley Greene's actual age in 2005. So, hope you enjoyed this story and thank you all for your support.