"Make you decision, Mr Smith." Jenny sneered.
In the crowd stood Latimer, reaching into his pocket and slowly pulling out the watch.
"Perhaps if that human heart breaks, the Time Lord will emerge." Baines suggested. Latimer opened the watch, making the Family stiffen, "It's him!"
Using the distraction, Martha span Jenny around, holding the gun to her head, "One more move and I shoot." She threatened.
"Oh, the maid is full of fire!"
"And you can shut up!" She shouted, firing up into the ceiling before aiming it back at the Family.
"Careful, Son of Mine." Clarke said cautiously. "This is all for you so that you can live forever."
"Shoot you down!" Baines shouted.
"Try it." Martha nodded. "We'll die together."
"Would you really pull the trigger? Looks too scared."
"Scared and holding a gun. It's a good combination. You wanna risk it?"
Baines looked over at John, who was pulling Zara into a hug, looking petrified and eventually lowered the gun. Joan moved away, shuffling up next to John.
Zara pulled away, moving next to Martha and staring over at Baines, "Doctor, get everyone out." She called over her shoulder. "There's a door at the side. It's over there. Go on!" John stared at her, confused. "Do it, John. I mean you!"
"Do what she said." Joan nodded. "Everybody out now." She turned to the crowd, beginning to usher everyone out. "Don't argue, Mr Jackson. They're mad. That's all we need to know. Susan, Miss Cooper, outside, all of you!" She followed out of the door after the screaming villagers.
John moved over, helping ushering people out when he came across Latimer, "Move yourself, boy. Back to the school, quickly." He said gently.
"And you." Martha called over her shoulder to him. "Go on. Just shift."
John looked at Martha and Zara, "What about you two?"
"Mr Smith, I think you should escort your lady friend to safety, don't you?" John looked at the door, then back at the two women before running out. Zara moved over to Martha's side as she pushed Jenny back over to the family, holding the gun with both hands. "Don't try anything. I'm warning you, or sonny boy gets it."
"She's almost brave, this one." Baines commented, the family slowly advancing on the two of them.
"I should have taken one of these two as my form." Jenny sneered. "Much more fun. So much spirit."
"What happened to Jenny?" Martha asked as she and Zara slowly backed away. "Is she gone?"
"She is consumed. Her body's mine."
"You mean she's dead." Zara deadpanned.
"Yes. And she went with precious little dignity. All that-aah-screaming."
A scarecrow came up behind Martha, making her drop the gun, "Get the gun!" Baines shouted.
Zara grabbed hold of Martha, pulling her under the scarecrow's arm and towards the door. They bolted out of the door to find John and Joan standing outside waiting for them.
"Don't just stand there, move!" Zara shouted. "God, you're rubbish as a human! Come on!" Martha and Zara ran past, John and Joan running after them.
...
John, Martha, Joan and Zara arrived at the school, breathless. John shut the heavy wooden door behind them, pulling Zara into a hug.
"You ok?" He mumbled into her hair.
"Fine." She breathed, pulling back and looking up at The Doctor. She half pulled back, John's arms still wrapped around her waist, and looked up at him. She gulped, placing a hand on his cheek. No, she shook her head, he was just some idiot she travelled with... or some human bloke. Either way, he was just some mate. She pulled away, breathing in sharply. John coughed, grabbing a bell off a shelf and ringing it.
"What're you doing?" Martha gasped.
"Maybe one man can't fight them, but this school teaches us to stand together." John replied. "Take arms! Take arms!"
"You can't do that!"
"You want me to fight, don't you? Take arms! Take arms!"
Boys began rushing down the stairs, Hutchinson running up to them.
"I say sir, what's the matter?" Hutchinson asked.
"Enemy at the door, Hutchinson. Enemy at the door." John explained quickly. "Take arms!" He shouted as Hutchinson nodded, running off.
John walked off into the school, Joan, Martha and Zara following him into a room where the boys began loading guns.
"You can't do this, Doctor." Martha called. "Mr Smith!"
"Maintain position over the stable yard." John called to the boys, ignoring Martha.
"They're just boys! You can't ask them to fight!"
"Faster now! That's it."
"They don't stand a chance!"
John turned back and looked at Martha, "They're cadets, Miss Jones. They are trained to defend the King and all his properties."
The Headmaster stormed into the room, "What in thunder's name is this?" He asked. "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."
"Really? Is that so? Perhaps you and I should have a word in private."
"I promise you, sir. I was in the village with Matron. It's Baines, sir. Jeremy Baines and Mr 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."
The Headmaster turned to Joan, "Matron, is that so?"
Joan nodded, "I'm afraid it's true, sir."
"Murder on our own soil?"
"I saw it, yes."
The Headmaster sighed, looking back at John, "Perhaps you did well then, Mr Smith. What makes you thing the danger's coming here?"
"Well, sir, they said, um..." John began.
"Baines threatened Mr Smith, sir." Joan cut in. "Um, said he'd follow him. We don't know why."
"Very well. You boys, remain on guard." He turned to two other teachers who had appeared next to him. "Mr Snell, telephone the police. Mr Philips, with me. We shall investigate."
Martha stepped in front of the Headmaster, "No, it's not safe out there." She begged.
"Mr Smith, it seems your favourite servant is giving me advice. You will control her, sir." He turned and pushed past her.
Martha sighed, ignoring Zara swearing under her breath, "We've gotta find that watch." She grabbed Zara's hand, pulling her off, Joan following after.
...
Martha searched furiously through John's office with Joan and Zara, Martha calling over her shoulder, explaining everything.
"I know it sounds mad, but when the Doctor became human, he took the alien part of himself and stored it inside the watch." Martha explained. "It's not really a watch, it just looks like a watch."
"And alien means...not from abroad, I take it." Joan said.
"The man you call John Smith...he was born on another world."
"A different species."
"Yeah."
"Then tell me, in this fairy tale...who are you two?"
"Just a friend. I'm not...I mean you haven't got a rival, I'm just his friend." Martha said, looking back at Joan who was looking at Zara. "But he fell in love with another human," She mumbled, only loud enough for Joan to hear. "And he can't admit it, and she can't see it."
Joan shook her head as Zara looked back, "You're both human I take it?" She asked, looking between the two of them.
"Human, don't worry," Martha nodded, returning to searching for the watch. "And more than that, we just don't follow him around. I'm training to be a doctor-not an alien doctor-a proper doctor, a doctor of medicine."
"Well that certainly is nonsense. Women might train to be doctors, but hardly a skivvy and hardly one of your colour."
Zara advanced towards angrily before Martha pulled her back, "Oh, d'you think?" She asked, stepping in front of Zara so she didn't try to hit the woman. "Bones of the hand." She held up her hand, pointing to each bone. "Carpal bones, proximal row; scaphoid, lunate, triquetrum, pisiform. Distal row; trapezium, trapezoid, capitate, hamate. Then the metecarpal bones extending in three distinct phalanges; proximal, middle, distal."
"You read that in a book."
She laughed, "Yes, to pass my exams. Can't you see this is true?"
"I must go." She said, turning and heading for the door.
"If we find that watch we can stop them." Martha called after her.
"Those boys are going to fight. I might not be a doctor, but I'm still their nurse. They need me." She walked out, leaving Martha and Zara alone.
Martha continued searching before screaming aggravation, throwing papers in the air. Zara rolled her eyes, grabbing her arm and dragging her out the room.
...
Zara, Martha and Joan peered out of the window at Lucy, the young girl who had been possessed by the Family, conversing with the headmaster.
"You child, come out of the way." The Headmaster called to her, holding out a hand to her. "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 and Zara bolted out of the school to them, Joan following.
"Mr Rocastle, please." Martha begged. "Don't go near her."
"You were told to be quiet." The Headmaster snapped.
"Listen to me, she's part of it! Matron, tell him."
"I think-I don't know." Joan stammered. "I think you should stay back, Headmaster."
"John." Zara begged pleadingly.
"She was-she was with-with Baines in the village." John said quickly.
The Headmaster sighed, unimpressed, "Mr 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." He turned back to Lucy. "Come with me."
"You're funny." Lucy smirked.
"That's right. Now take my hand."
"So funny." She reached into her coat and pulled out her gun, shooting the Headmaster. "Now who's going to shoot me - any of you, really?" She shouted as the boys stared, stunned.
"Put down your guns." John said to the boys, lowering his own rifle.
"But sir, the Headmaster-" Hutchinson began.
"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."
Baines appeared inside the gate, behind Lucy, "Go on, then, run!" He shouted, firing his gun in the air, making the boys scream and panic, retreating.
"Come on!" Martha shouted, pushing them on their way.
John, Joan, Martha and Zara ran into the school with the boys, leading them out through the stables.
"Let's go! Quick as you can!" John called.
"Don't go to the village! It's not safe!" Martha shouted.
"And you, ladies!"
Joan shook her head, "Not until we get the boys out."
...
Outside the stable, John paused, heading back to the school as Martha, Joan and Zara waited.
"Now, I insist. The three of you just go." He said, "If there are any more boys inside, I'll find them." He opened the door to the passage to find a group of scarecrows before slamming it shut, locking it. "I think...retreat."
They turned and bolted off.
...
John, Martha, Joan and Zara made their way through the woods, John clutching Zara's hand tightly when they heard Clark.
"Doctor!" Clark called in a sing song voice. "Doctor!" Zara pulled them over to an opening and they peered out at Clark, Jenny and Baines in front of The TARDIS. "Come back, Doctor. Come home. Come and claim your prize."
"Out you come, Doctor!" Baines shouted. "There's a good boy. Come to the Family."
"Time to end it now!" Jenny added.
"You recognise it, don't you?" Martha asked softly as John stared at The TARDIS, fixated.
"Come out, Doctor! Come to us!"
"I've never seen it in my life." John mumbled.
Zara squeezed his hand, "Do you remember its name?" She asked.
"I'm sorry, John, but you wrote about it." Joan gulped. "The blue box. You dreamt of a blue box."
John looked down at Zara, tears in his eyes, "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?"
"Yes." Zara whispered. "Yes, he is."
He looked over at Joan, "Why can't I stay?" He asked her.
"But we need the Doctor." Martha sighed.
"So what am I then, nothing? I'm just a story." He pulled his hand away from Zara and bolted off, Joan running after him.
Zara screamed inaudibly in frustration, "I can't do this anymore!" She hissed to Martha. "This bloody man, travelling, everything! I'm fed up."
Martha stared sadly at her, hoping she didn't mean it, and took her hand, pulling her off after John.
...
The four of them rushed down a country road, stopping to get their bearings, breathing heavily.
"This way." Joan said, moving off. "I think I know somewhere we can hide."
"We've got to keep going." John shook his head.,
"Just listen to me for once, John. Follow me."
Martha looked between them before following after John.
Zara took John's hand, "I am so sorry, Doctor." She whispered to him before gently pulling him off.
...
The four of them stopped outside a dark, abandoned country house.
"Here we are." Joan said, breathing heavily. "It should be empty. Oh, it's a long time since I've run that far."
"But who lives here?" Martha frowned.
"If I'm right, no one." They walked slowly to the front door and stepped into the abandoned cottage kitchen, a tea set on the table. "Hello?" She called, getting no response. "No one home. We should be safe here."
"Whose house is it, though?"
"Um, 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." She put her hand against the teapot to find it cold. "Stone cold. How easily I accept these ideas."
John slumped into one of the chairs at the table, "I must go to them before anyone else dies." He said.
"You can't." Joan begged, sitting down next to him. "Zara, Martha, there must be something we can do."
Martha shook her head regretfully, "Not without the watch."
John looked up at them, "You're this Doctor's companions! Can't you help? What exactly do you do for him? Why does he need you?"
"Because he's lonely!" Zara shouted at him.
"And that's what you want me to become." He snarled. "I thought you were real Zara, you were the one person who was meant to be there through all this and you're not even real!"
She groaned in frustration, throwing her hands in the air and moving towards him so they were face to face, staring angrily at each other, "I never asked you to come back!" She shouted. "And I'm talking to The Doctor now, who's still somewhere inside your head! Why did you have to make your human self so unlike you! Your human self should do little things that you do! AND YOU'D NEVER KISS ME-" She was cut off by a knock at the door.
Joan looked over at the door, "What if it's them?" She asked nervously.
"I'm not an expert, but I don't think scarecrows knock." Martha remarked. She opened the door to reveal Latimer.
"I brought you this." He said, holding out the watch in his hand.
"Martha, Zara." The watch whispered.
Martha took the watch from him, holding it out to John, "Hold it."
He shook his head, "I won't."
"Please," Zara begged. "Just hold it."
"It told me to find you." Latimer explained, stepping in. "It wants to be held."
"You've had this watch all this time?" Joan frowned. "Why didn't you return it?"
"Because it was waiting. And because I was scared of the Doctor."
"Why?"
"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." John snapped.
"He's ancient and forever. He burns at the centre of time and he can see the turn of the universe."
"Stop! I said stop it."
"And he's wonderful."
Zara and Martha shared a look, knowing the young boy was right, and grabbed each other's hands, squeezing them tightly.
Joan reached into her coat pocket, pulling out the journal, "I've still got this. The journal."
"Those are just stories." John stammered.
"Now we know that's not true. Perhaps there's something in here."
An explosion went off outside the house, making them all gasp.
"What the hell?" Martha asked as they looked out of the window, watching as meteorites fell to the ground.
"They're destroying the village." Joan gasped.
John looked down at the watch, "Watch." He mumbled softly, picking it up.
"John, don't."
"Come closer." The watch whispered.
"Can you hear it?" Latimer asked.
"Closer. Closer."
"I think he's asleep." John mumbled, looking over at Zara. "Waiting to awaken."
"Why did he speak to me?" Latimer frowned.
"Oh, low level-." Zara began with a sigh.
"Telepathic field." John interrupted, in his usual voice as The Doctor. "You were born with it. Just an extra synaptic engram causing-" He stopped, breathing heavily, looking at Zara and Martha, scared. "Is that how he talks?"
"That's him!" Martha said, excited. "All you have to do is open it and he's back."
"You knew this all along and yet you watched while Nurse Redfern and I-"
"We didn't know how to stop you!" Zara snapped, stepping forward. "He gave us a list of things to watch out for but that wasn't included."
"Falling in love? That didn't even occur to him?"
"No."
"Then what sort of man is that? And now you expect me to die? All those years of us, Zara-"
"They were never real!" She gasped, trying to get through to him. "It was always going to end, though! The Family's got a limited lifespan. That's why they need to consume a Time Lord. Otherwise, three months and they die."
Martha nodded in agreement, "Like mayflies, he said." She said quietly.
"So your job was to execute me." John said bitterly, looking between them.
"People are dying out there! They need him and we need him. 'Cause you've got no idea of what he's like. We've only just met him . It wasn't even that long ago, but he is everything...he's just everything to us and he doesn't even look at me, but I don't care..." She looked at Zara. "Because it's her he should be looking at and because we love him to bits. And I hope to God he won't remember me saying this."
The house rocked from the explosions as Zara shook her head, wishing Martha would stop with trying to pair her and The Doctor together, she had no idea where the idea came from in the first place!
"It's getting closer." Latimer gulped.
"I should have thought of it before-I can give them this." John stammered, holding out the watch. "Just the watch. Then they can leave and I can stay as I am!"
"You can't do that!" Martha gasped.
"If they want the Doctor, they can have him."
"He'll never let you do it."
"If they get what they want, then-then-"
"Then it all ends in destruction." Joan interrupted, holding the journal. "I never read to the end but those creatures would live forever to breed and conquer. War across the stars...for every child. Zara, Martha, Timothy, would you leave us alone, please?"
John sobbed as the three nodded, stepping out of the house. They sat down on a bench, the two women pulling Latimer into a hug.
Back in the house, John and Joan sat by side, huddled up and looking at the watch.
"If I could do this instead of you, then I would." Joan mumbled. "I'd hoped...but my hopes aren't important."
John looked up at her, "He won't love you."
"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...you were so..."
"It was real. I wasn't...I really thought..."
"Let me see." She took the watch from him. "Blasted thing." She turned it over in her hands. "Blasted, blasted thing. Can't even hear it. It's nothing to me."
John reached out, grabbing Joan's hand as flashbacks filled their minds. He watched their lives play out, their wedding, the birth of their first child, walking in the park with her and their three children, and finally his peaceful death in bed. Suddenly, all of the memories with Joan burnt away in a orange fire, and all he was left with was an image of Zara, her beautiful blonde hair falling across her face as she leant over the console of The TARDIS, looking at the scanner.
He pulled back, stunned, finding himself back in the cottage.
"Did you see that?" He asked.
Joan nodded, "The Time Lord has such adventures but he could never have a life like that."
"And yet I could!" He gasped, looking at the watch.
"What are you going to do?"
He stayed silent for a moment, before deciding what he had to do. "Get Zara in here." He whispered.
...
John stumbled into the ship, Zara behind him.
"Just-" John began, giving a clumsy lurch, falling against the wall of the ship and bashing a few buttons, making Zara roll his eyes at him. "Just stop the bombardment. That's all I'm asking. I'll do anything you want, just stop."
"Say please." Baines sneered.
"Please."
After a moment, Jenny turned a switch, stopping the bombs as the ship hissed in response.
"Wait a minute." She inhaled deeply. "Still human."
"Now I can't-I can't pretend to understand, not for a second, but I want you to know that I'm innocent in all this."
Zara stepped forward, interrupting him, "He made him John Smith, ok?" She said sharply. "It's not like I had any control over it, I tried to stop him." She nodded over at him as he fumbled against some more buttons in fear.
"He didn't just make himself human, he made himself an idiot." Jenny smirked.
"Same thing, isn't it?" Baines asked. "And the Zarantheon Paradox isn't going to stop him!" He laughed at Zara, making her frown.
"What did you call me?" Zara breathed.
"I don't care about this Doctor and your family, I just want you to go." John stammered.
"So, he's made his choice." Zara sighed sadly as John held out the watch. "You can have him. Just take it, please!" She breathed in sharply. "Take him away."
"At last." Baines smiled, taking the watch, grabbing John by the lapels. "Don't think that saved your life." He sneered, pushing his away and making him land against more buttons. "Family of Mine, now we shall have the lives of a Time Lord." He opened the watch, the whole Family breathing in deeply, nothing coming out. "It's empty!"
"Well, where's it gone?" John stammered.
"You tell me."
Baines threw the watch at him and he caught it one handed, "Oh," He began, his usual voice as he shared a smirk with Zara, "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." Zara continued. "But it has got to be said, I don't like the looks of that hydroconometre." She peered at a green tank on the wall. "It seems to be indicating you've got energy feedback all the way through the retrostabilisers feeding back into the primary heat converter.
"Ah!" The Doctor hissed through his teeth."'Cause 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." He grabbed Zara's hand, pulling her out of the ship.
The two of them ran out and across the grass, the Family following and the ship exploded, throwing them all to the ground.
...
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. 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. 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. We wanted to live forever, so the Doctor made sure that we did. The Doctor... he was being kind. But maybe, one day, the brilliant woman on his arm, Zara Saxon, will turn him cold and angry, out of protection for her. Out of his love for her...
...
The Doctor and Zara stepped into the Cartwright house,
"Is it done?" Joan asked, looking out of the window.
"It's done." The Doctor nodded.
"Police and the army are at the school. The parents have come to take the boys home. I should go. They'll have so many questions. I'm not sure what to say." She turned round and looked at him. "Oh, you look the same. Goodness, you must forgive my rudeness. I...find it difficult to look at you. Doctor, must call you Doctor. Where is he? John Smith?"
Zara smiled, "He's in here somewhere." She said, tapping The Doctor in the side of the head.
"Like a story. Could you change back?"
"Yes."
"Will you?"
"No."
"I see. Well then. He was braver that you, in the end. That ordinary man. You chose to change. He chose to die. He fought for her," She nodded at Zara. "And not me." She span round, looking back out at the window.
The Doctr stopped, stunned. He'd been planning on asking Joan along, to come travel with them, when her last sentence made him realise. Zara had been the one to keep him safe. She'd fallen in so much with her own back story, keeping him in his human life so that she'd make sure Martha was safe, not her, not him, but Martha. She'd protected him and kept away from all topic of their real lives. Whilst Joan... just provoked it. She should of just read the journal as just dreams and got on with it.. but she just kept trying to make the image, the idea of The Doctor shine brighter, which The Doctor's companions do do, but... They also did what was best for the universe. And Zara couldn't bare to inflate his ego any more than it was.
"Answer me this, just one question." Joan continued, not bothering to look over. "That's all. If the Doctor had never visited us, if he'd never chosen this place on a whim...would anyone here have died?" The Doctor looked away, taking Zara's hand. "You can go."
They turned and left the house.
...
"All right." The Doctor cheered as he and Zara approached Martha as she stood outside the TARDIS on a hill. "Molto bene!"
"How was she?" Martha asked.
"Time we moved on."
"If you want, I could go and-"
"Time we moved on." Zara repeated, shooting Martha a look that meant she'd explain everything later. She looked up at The Doctor, "I meant to say back there, last night-I would have said anything to get you to change."
"Oh yeah, of course you would. Yeah." He nodded.
"Especially shouting at you."
"Of course." He laughed.
Martha breathed in sharply, smiling at the two of them, "So here we are then."
"There we are, yes." He smiled at the two of them. "And I never said thanks to you two for lookin' after me." He pulled the two of them into a big hug, laughing, when Latimer came running up the hill.
"Doctor, Zara, Martha." He called.
The Doctor turned back to him, "Tim-Timothy-Timber." He cheered.
"I just wanted to say good-bye. 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."
"You don't have to fight." Martha said softly.
"I think we do."
"But you could get hurt."
"Well, so could you, travelling around with him, but it's not going to stop you."
"Tim, I'd be honoured if you'd take this." The Doctor said, handing him the watch.
Latimer frowned, holding it to his ear, "I can't hear anything."
"No, it's just a watch now. But keep it with you. For good luck."
Martha hugged him, "Look after yourself." She kissed him on the cheek and stepped into The TARDIS.
Zara ruffled his hair, kissing him on the head before following after her.
"You'll like this bit." The Doctor smiled, stepping into The TARDIS.
...
In a world war 1 memorial service, Latimer sat in his wheelchair, clutching the watch in his leather gloved hand. He turned, looking past the vicar who was reading a sermon, and spotted The Doctor in the distance, standing next to Zara as Martha attached a poppy to the lapel of his jacket. He smiled as they watched him.