Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who that goes to the BBC
In space above Earth, a large warship turned its guns on the planet below as a warning was being given to the people of Earth.
"People of Earth, you stand alone," a voice said on the warship's intercom as a series of explosions occurred throughout the ship as an alarm went off, "Intruder alert, intruder alert. Intruder alert."
The Doctor and Rose both ran along the corridor with the explosion following behind them as he fell and looked behind him at the flames with Rose doing the same before standing back up and continued to run down the corridor with Rose as she pulled out her sonic screwdriver and aimed it at a closed door with it opening just in time as both Gallifreyans ran through the door.
Rose then turned around and used her sonic screwdriver to close the door as another large explosion took away a section of the ship, the section where the Doctor and Rose were, causing the Doctor to cling onto exposed wires as he tried to climb back into the ship as Rose began trying to help him up before they saw two empty spacesuits lying on the floor as he began reaching out for one of the space suits.
"Come here, spacesuit. Come to Doctor," the Doctor muttered to himself as he began reaching out for one of the space suits as Rose put on the other space suit along with its helmet when suddenly there was another explosion and the Doctor's spacesuit flew into space, heading towards Earth and with a scream, the Doctor let go and the blast propelled him after the suit as he grabbed it by the foot with a manic laugh, "Got it!" As he plummeted towards the planet, the Doctor hurriedly tried to get into the suit as Rose followed her husband towards Earth.
A woman with light skin, blonde hair that had some curls in it and blue eyes named Madge was riding a bicycle with a headlight and a basket attached to the bike's handlebars down a road in the countryside of London as she heard two prolonged screams before she saw a bright light followed by a crash, causing Madge to fall off her bike into a bush before she slowly stood back up and made her way into the field and the smoking crater and at the bottom was the Doctor and Rose with their faces lying down in their spacesuits.
"Hello? Hello? Hello? Are you two all right? Are you both hurt?" Madge asked them as she climbed into the crater, "Did you both fall?" She then looked up at the sky, "Where did you both fall from?"
"The helmet…" The Doctor muttered as he groaned.
"Are our visors closed?" Rose asked Madge.
"All right. Just... Just let me... I don't want to hurt you," Madge said before opening both visors of the Doctor's space suit, only to reveal the back side of his head rather than the front, "Oh!"
"I can't see! I'm blind!" The Doctor exclaimed as he couldn't see anything.
"Oh, no, love. No. I think you've just got your helmet on backwards," Madge assured the Time Lord, "How did you manage that?"
"He got dressed in a hurry," Rose answered, "Now can you please open my helmet's visors as well?"
"Sure," Madge said before opening the visors of Rose's spacesuit to reveal the front of her face unlike her husband.
"Now, who are you?" Rose asked her.
"Madge. Madge Arwell," she answered, "And who are the two of you?"
"My name's Rose and this is my husband, the Doctor," Rose told her as Madge helped them up, "We need to find a big blue police box."
"I can help you two with that," Madge stated as they walked away from the crater.
Inside Madge's house, a young boy with light skin, light ginger hair and brown eyes wearing round shaped glasses and pajamas was looking up at the night sky through a telescope as a Christmas tree was in the room behind him as Madge entered her house and saw him.
"Cyril, what are you doing awake?" Madge asked him as she began searching a jacket's pockets as it was resting on a chair when a girl, who was a bit older with the same skin tone as Cyril, but had brown hair and eyes and was in her pajamas named Lily entered the room.
"It's the moon's fault, apparently," the girl answered, "It's too interesting."
"It's astronomy," Cyril stated.
"Don't make up words," Lily told him, "He's always making up things and breathing."
"Where's your father?" Madge asked them.
"In the garden," Cyril answered.
"What's he doing in the garden?" Madge asked him as she walked towards the window.
"Agriculture," Cyril answered.
"You're not fooling anyone!" Lily muttered to herself.
"Listen, Cyril. Tell him that I've borrowed Mr Goldsmith's car, that I found a spaceman and his wife in a field...possibly angels... but they're injured, and I can't get the spaceman's helmet off, so I'm taking them into town to find a police telephone box," Madge told Cyril, "All right?"
"All right," Cyril replied.
"Good boy!" Madge told him before she kissed Cyril on the head before leaving the house as
Cyril turned back to the telescope but just as he looked back into the telescope, Madge's husband, Reg, who had light skin, a receding hairline and brown eyes entered the room.
"Was that your mother?" Reg asked him, "Where's she going?"
"Out," Cyril answered.
On the country road, Madge was driving a 1930s four door convertible – rather poorly – through the street as ahead of them was a police box before Madge pulled off to the side of the road and as she went to put it in park, it jerked forward, hitting a small post.
"Did we just... bump into something?" The Doctor asked Madge.
"No, no," Madge answered.
"Actually we did, Madge hit a small post with the car," Rose told her husband.
"I had a feeling that she did," the Doctor muttered, "We seemed to bump into quite a lot of things."
"Well, a lot of things get in the way. It's hardly my fault, Doctor. You need to take that silly thing off like your wife has," Madge told the Time Lord as she and Rose got out of the car and walked around to the passenger side of the convertible.
"He can't, it's an impact suit, when you wear the helmet backwards and fall to a planet it starts to repair the wearer and it's still repairing him," Rose explained to her.
"Repairing him?" Madge said with confusion as she opened the door as Rose helped her husband out of the convertible.
"Yeah," the Doctor confirmed, "Well, I mean, that's the idea."
"Won't it repair you all back to front?" Madge asked him as she and Rose walked with him down the street.
"It can't," Rose answered.
"Rose is right," the Doctor said, agreeing with his wife as he felt his body, nervously.
"Well, that's good!" Madge told him when the Doctor suddenly walked into a streetlamp, "Oh, there's a streetlamp."
"Yes. I got that impression," the Doctor muttered.
"It'll be better when you take that helmet off after it finishes repairing you, Doctor," Rose told her husband.
"Round this way," Madge muttered as she walked him to the front of the police box with Rose, "Don't you want me to take you to hospital or something, Doctor? Or you both are welcome to come to our house."
"No, no, no. we're fine," he answered as he and Rose both began searching their pockets for their TARDIS keys, "We just need to find our... our keys…"
"Oooh, do you both want me to do it with a pin?" Madge asked them as she pulled out a hairpin, "I'm good with a pin." She then began to work on the lock with the hairpin.
"Hairpins won't work on it," Rose told her, "It's impossible to work with the lock."
"Rose is right, it has a multi-dimensional, triple-encoded temporal interface. Not really susceptible to pointy things," the Doctor said, agreeing with Rose as he went to lean on the box but missed and nearly fell over with Rose stopping him from falling on his stomach.
"Got it!" Madge announced as she opened the police box's lock with her hairpin.
"OK," the Doctor muttered as he scratched the top of his helmet, while Rose had a confused look on her face, "Suddenly the last 900 years of time travel seem that bit less secure." He then held out his hand to where he thought Madge was standing, "Thank you for taking care of me and Rose. You didn't have to, you know. You've been very kind."
"Yeah, thank you, Madge," Rose said, agreeing with her husband.
"Don't be silly. It's Christmas Eve," Madge told them, "No one should be alone at Christmas, especially the two of you."
"If there's ever anything that we can do for you, let us know," the Doctor muttered.
"How?" Madge asked them.
"I don't know. Make a wish, that usually works," the Doctor answered.
"Does it?" Madge asked him.
"Well, it did for me and Rose. You're here, aren't you? Well, don't wait around here. Just... off you go home. we'll just go and, and wait inside here," the Doctor answered as he headed into the TARDIS and as he entered the TARDIS, Rose realised that it wasn't the TARDIS but was actually a real police box as she heard a thud, "Ow!"
"This is the wrong one, Madge," Rose told Madge, "Do you think we could try again?"
Back at Madge's house, Reg was sitting reading the newspaper with the headline reading 'war Looms' in the sitting room before he looked up when Madge entered the room.
"You were a long time," Reg told his wife, "Been taking home strays, as usual?"
"Just two this time," Madge answered, "What have you been reading?" She then looked at the newspaper's headline, "Not the war again! People keep reading about the war, then it will actually happen." She then sat in a chair next to him and pulled out knitted fabric and needles for knitting, "And then where will you be?"
Three years later, Madge was sleeping in her bed when she suddenly woke up and sat up slowly before she looked over at her bedside table where a telegram laid open as she saw the words, 'We regret to inform you…over the Channel…due to enemy action…deepest sympathy,' being on the telegram.
"When's Father coming back?" Cyril asked as Madge looked out the window as they along with Lily were in their house's parlour with Madge looking out the window as her children were sitting at the dining table behind her as the house was decorated for christmas.
"For Christmas, like he always does," Lily answered as she held out a wishbone, "Now, hurry up and think of something."
"But we're going to Uncle Digby's house," Cyril stated, "Will he be there?"
"He will, won't he, Mother?" Lily asked their mother, "Daddy will be there?"
"Of course he will," Madge answered as she turned around towards her children as she faked a smile.
"See?" Lily told him, "Now, have you thought of anything?"
"Yep," Cyril answered.
"Count of three, then," Lily told him, "Make a wish. One, two, three."
As the children pulled the wishbone, Madge closed her eyes, seemingly making her own wish as the TARDIS flew past the telescope's lenses in space.
Digby's house was large, the type that would have had a group of servants looking after it in its heyday and as Madge and her children arrived at the house on Christmas Eve, Madge set down her suitcase and just looked at the house.
"Is it haunted?" Cyril asked his mother.
"Is it draughty?" Lily asked her mother.
"This is no good. Where's Mr Cardew? He was supposed to be here," Madge said as she walked over to the front door of the house and knocked on it.
"Maybe it's haunted by the ghost of Uncle Digby," Cyril suggested.
"Uncle Digby is still alive," Lily told her brother as she looked at him, "He's in a home in Battersea."
"Mr Cardew!" Madge said as she knocked on the door again.
"But why do we have to come here?" Cyril asked his sister.
"Because of the bombing, stupid," Lily answered.
"I like the bombing. It's exciting," Cyril told her as Madge walked back over to her children.
"Will Father be here?" Lily asked her mother, "He will, won't he? You said he'd meet us at the house."
"He'll be here, of course he will," Madge assured her, "You don't need to keep asking about it."
"Father!" Cyril and Lily both said, happily as they heard the sound of a door lock turning from inside the house as they ran towards the door.
"Sorry! It's the door, it's developed a fault," they heard a man's voice said from inside the house but it was muffled as they tried to open the door but it didn't open fully as the door was seemingly stuck.
"Hello? Mr Cardew?" Madge called out to the man before the door fell inward with the sound of the door echoing through the house as the man revealed himself to be the Doctor as he stuck his head out from behind the other door with Rose standing next to him.
"There we go! Well, come in, in you come," the Doctor said, greeting them.
"Yeah, come in, you lot," Rose told them, agreeing with her husband before Madge and her children slowly walked slowly into the front hall as the Doctor and Rose were standing behind them.
"Mind your step. Now, don't worry, the back door is still, broadly speaking, operational," the Doctor said as he pushed the door back into place with Rose.
"Can we take your cases?" Rose asked them.
"Thank you," Madge told the Time Lady as she set her case on the floor.
"Thank you," Lily said, agreeing with her mother as she set her case on the floor as well.
"Thank you," Cyril told the Time Lady, agreeing with his mother and sister as he also set his case on the floor.
"Lovely. Would you mind carrying them for us?" The Doctor asked Madge and her children, "We need to show you round." He and Rose then walked past them and up the stairs with Rose.
"No, wait!" Madge said as he looked at the Time Lord, "You're the Doctor, aren't you?"
"I'm the caretaker," the Doctor answered as he stopped and turned around with Rose doing the same.
"But you're not Mr Cardew," Madge told him.
"I agree," the Doctor said, agreeing with her.
"But I don't understand. Are you the new caretaker?" Madge asked him.
"He is for the weekend," Rose answered, "He and his wife received a letter that said that he was not needed this weekend a few days ago."
"You're right, I'm usually called the Doctor. Or the Caretaker. Or Get Off This Planet. Though, strictly speaking, that probably isn't a name," the Doctor said, introducing himself as he walked back down the stairs with Rose as she facepalmed herself, "And this is my wife, Rose Smith. Hello, Madge Arwell."
"Hello," Madge said as she shook the Doctor's hand.
"And Cyril Arwell. And Lily Arwell," the Doctor stated as he and Rose both shook Cyril and Lily's hands, "Now, come on, come on, lots to see. Whistle-stop tour. Take notes, there will be questions."
Inside the house's sitting room, the Doctor opened a set of double doors with a flourish as Rose stood behind him with the Arwells looking on, overwhelmed by the Doctor as the room was small with multiple objects inside the room with portraits on the wall, chairs, lamps, a piano-like desk and a harp.
"Smaller sitting room," the Doctor told the Arwells, "Just chairs. Bit pointless without a television, so we made some repairs."
The Doctor then smiled at Rose before she smiled back at him as she flicked a switch on the wall with her hand, causing the chairs to begin moving around like a ride as Lily and Cyril looked on with amazement on their faces.
"I like it," Rose said as she looked at the Arwells.
"I know!" The Doctor told them.
"Kitchen!" The Doctor said as he, Rose and the Arwells walked into the house's kitchen as he opened its doorway before he began pointing things out, "That's a cooker, probably. And these are taps. Hot, cold... lemonade."
"Lemonade?" Cyril asked him with surprise in his voice.
"I know!" The Doctor said as he appeared from behind the cupboards and smiled at them.
"Don't either of you like lemonade?" Rose asked them, causing Lily to smile at both Gallifreyans.
"Staircase," the Doctor said as he stepped on the button step as he, Rose and the Arwells reentered the house's front hall as he expected it to be an escalator and nearly stumbled when it didn't seem to move, causing Rose to giggle as she shook her head in disbelief, "Seems to have broken down. We'll have to walk up."
As soon as they walked up the stairs, the Doctor continued the tour with Rose as he pointed at different doors within the corridor.
"We sleep up there, stay away," the Doctor told them, "Beware of panthers."
"Do what he says, don't go in there during your stay here," Rose said, agreeing with her husband.
"Panthers?" Madge repeated with confusion in her voice.
"They're terrifying!" The Doctor stated as he and Rose walked around the corner, "Have you never seen panthers?" Lily and Madge then began to follow both Gallifreyans around the corner, while Cyril stayed behind as he looked up the stairway to the attic.
"Cyril!" Rose called out to Cyril before he hurried to catch up with her, the Doctor, his sister and mother.
As they approached the door to the house's master bedroom, the Doctor opened the door to reveal that the room was done in varying shades of blue with gold and brown and there was a half-canopy over the bed as well as a small fireplace across from the bed.
"Mum's bedroom, grown-up, your basic boring," the Doctor stated before he closed the door again.
The Doctor soon opened the door to the house's children's room, which looked more like a playroom than a bedroom with a myriad of toys and gets very excited, showing them the highlights
"Lily and Cyril's room! I'm going to be honest... masterpiece," The Doctor said as he began to get very excited as he began to show the children the highlights of their room, The ultimate bedroom. A sciencey-wiencey workbench. A jungle! A maze! A window disguised as a mirror. A mirror disguised as a window! Torches for midnight feasts and secret reading. Zen garden, mysterious cupboard, zone of tranquility, rubber wall, dream tank, exact model of the rest of the house... not quite to scale, apologies... dolls with comical expressions, the Magna Carta, a foot spa, Cluedo, a yellow fort."
"Where are the beds?" Cyril asked the Time Lord.
"Sorry, but we couldn't fit everything in this room," Rose apologised to him.
"She's right, we couldn't fit everything in. There had to be sacrifices," the Doctor said, agreeing with his wife, "Anyway, who needs beds when you've got…" He then ran over to the wall by the door and pulled a lever, causing two hammocks to begin descending down from the ceiling above them, "hammocks?!" Rose then shook her head in disbelief as he whispered to the children, "I know!"
"How do you get on?" Cyril asked the Doctor as he tried to climb onto one of the hammocks.
"Watch and learn, kid," the Doctor said before he made a running leap towards the hammocks, only to fall between the hammocks on the floor.
"Doctor, you really are a sight for sore eyes!" Rose muttered with disbelief in her voice, "You can navigate the universe, but a hammock seems to be your greatest challenge yet."
"For God's sake!" Madge said as she looked at the Doctor.
"This hammock has developed a fault!" The Doctor muttered with a stunned expression on his face as he sat up.
"Can you please stop talking, Doctor?" Madge asked the Time Lord, "Can you please just stop?"
"Sorry," the Doctor apologised in a chagrined tone in his voice.
"What's wrong?" Rose asked her.
"Children, go downstairs," Madge ordered her children.
"Why?" Lily asked her.
"Are we leaving?" Cyril asked his mother at the same time.
"Yes! No! I don't know," Madge answered, "Just, please, go downstairs!"
"You don't need to shout," Lily told her as she and Cyril walked out of the room.
"Why are you both doing all this?" Madge asked both Gallifreyans.
"We're just... trying to take care of things," the Doctor answered, "I'm the caretaker."
"And I want to help as well," Rose said, agreeing with her husband.
"That's not what caretakers do, Doctor," Madge told the Time Lord.
"Then why are they called caretakers?" The Doctor asked her.
"Their father's dead," Madge told them.
"I'm sorry," the Doctor muttered, sympathetically.
"I'm sorry for their loss as well," Rose said, agreeing with her husband.
"Lily and Cyril's father. My husband, is dead, and they don't know yet," Madge added, "Because if I tell them now, then Christmas will always be what took their father away from them, and no one should have to live like that. Of course, when the Christmas period is over, I shall... I don't know why I keep shouting at them."
"Because every time you see them happy, you remember how sad they're going to be, and it breaks your heart," the Doctor explained.
"And we know how that feels as we've been through that before," Rose added with sadness in her voice.
"Mother, come and see!" They suddenly heard Lily call out to Madge from outside the room and in the distance with her voice being muffled from the room's closed door.
"Mother, you've got to see this," they heard Cyril call out to Madge from outside the room and in the distance as well, "Come on!"
"Because what's the point in them being happy now if they're going to be sad later?" The Doctor asked her, rhetorically.
"Because, Madge, happiness is not just a destination, it's also a journey. It's those little moments of joy that give us the strength to face the sadness," Rose told Madge with a small smile on her face, "And remember, when they're older and they look back on this christmas, they won't just remember the loss of their father. They'll also remember the love and the laughter, the games in this magical room, and the Christmas they spent with their brave and loving mother. That's why we make them happy now, because these moments of happiness will become their shield against the sadness to come."
"Mother!" They heard Cyril call out to Madge again.
"Mother? Are you coming?" They heard Lily ask Madge from outside the room as well.
"My wife is correct and the answer is, of course... because they are going to be sad later," the Doctor told Madge, "Now, we'd better get downstairs. I think they may have found the main sitting room."
"Yeah, it seems like it, Doctor," Rose said, agreeing with her husband.
"Mother!" They heard Cyril call out to Madge yet again.
"We repaired it," the Doctor whispered to Madge before she left the room, leaving the Doctor and Rose in the room as they exchanged a look as they smiled at each other before they walked towards the door with the Time Lady opening the door wide open, "Ha." She then left the room and followed Madge with the Doctor doing the same thing as he closed the door.
Meanwhile inside the house's main sitting room, the room looked like something from a Christmas display in a store as there was a large tree in the centre with model trains and planes circling it, ribbons draped from the ceiling and on the floor, there was a large present, almost as tall as Cyril as the children turn in amazement as Madge and both Gallifreyans entered the room.
"I know!" The Doctor said with a smile on his face.
"Do you like it?" Rose asked them.
"Look at that present!" Cyril said as he and Lily walked closer to the tree and a present with dark blue wrappings and a white coloured ribbons around it now that their mother and both Gallifreyans were present before he turned over the tag, "It's for me!"
"It says it's for all of us," Lily told him as she read the tag.
"I'm youngest, I get to open it first!" Cyril stated as the Doctor and Rose watched them from the doorway.
"Doesn't say who it's from," Lily said as she looked at the tag again before she and Cyril turned around towards their mother, "Mother, who left this here?" Madge then turned around to look at the Doctor and Rose, only to see them disappear as they walked back down through the doorway and down the corridor.
"That couple is quite ridiculous," Madge stated, "You must stay away from those two."
"I like them," Lily said as she looked at her.
"I like them, too," Cyril said, agreeing with his sister.
"And it's a nice tree, isn't it?" Lily asked them as she looked at the tree.
"It's the best tree in the world," Cyril told her as Madge walked over to them as she stared at the tree.
"Yes. Yes, I suppose it is," Madge said, agreeing with them.
"Say it, mother. Go on, please," Cyril urged her, "Say the thing you always say."
"This Christmas is going to be the best Christmas ever," Madge told them as she turned around towards her children before she wrapped them in a hug as she kissed both of them on the forehead before she closed her eyes as Cyril looked past his mother and saw the present glowing white from inside with voices whispering from it.
Later that night in the attic, Lily, who was now wearing pyjamas with a robe over it entered the room and saw the Doctor sitting at a desk as he was working on something with his sonic screwdriver as Rose standing next to him as she was helping him with the TARDIS standing behind them and in the centre of the room.
"You were lying about the panthers," Lily told the Time Lord as she crossed her arms.
"Famous last words," the Doctor stated as he looked at her.
"What are you doing in here?" Rose asked her, "We specifically told you, your brother and mother that neither of you were to come in here during your stay here."
"Well, I just wanted to know what that sound I heard was," Lily answered before she started at the TARDIS, "Why have you both got a phone box in your room?"
"It's not a phone box, it's our... wardrobe," the Doctor lied, causing Rose to shake her head in disbelief, "I've just painted it to look like a phone box."
"What are you two doing?" Lily asked them.
"Rewiring," the Doctor answered.
"Yeah, you could say that," Rose muttered to herself.
"Why would either of you rewire a wardrobe?" Lily asked both Gallifreyans.
"Have you seen the way I dress?" The Doctor asked her, causing Rose to giggle before Lily smiled at him.
"Doctor, Rose, who are the two of you?" Lily asked both Gallifreyans as they continued on with their work, "Really, who are you both?"
"Your brother, where is he?" The Doctor asked her as he heard a light blinking from one of the electrical wires that he was working on with Rose, which concerned him.
"Yeah, where is he, Lily?" Rose asked Lily as she looked at her before she left both Gallifreyans and the attic.
"Still in bed, asleep," Lily reported to both Gallifreyans a few minutes later as she reentered the attic, causing the Doctor and Rose to look up at her.
"OK. Faulty, then," the Doctor muttered as he used his sonic screwdriver on the wires.
"Yeah, it seems like it needs more interfacing," Rose stated as she continued to help her husband on the wires.
A few moments later, Lily was sitting on a trunk across the room from the Doctor and Rose before the device connected to the wires beeped again, causing both Gallifreyans to look at it before they turned around towards Lily.
"You're sure he's still in bed?" The Doctor asked Lily.
"Yeah, are you absolutely sure, Lily?" Rose said, agreeing with her husband.
A few moments later, Lily, the Doctor and Rose entered the house's children room.
"See?" Lily said as she looked at Cyril's hammock.
"I don't think that's Cyril, Lily," Rose muttered as the Doctor put his index finger to his lips, shushing Lily with it before walking over to the hammock as he pulled down the blanket to reveal a teddy bear, "I suspected as much."
"Oh, he's good. The old bear and duvet, eh? Classic," the Doctor stated before he rushed out of the room followed by Rose and Lily.
As soon as the Doctor, Rose and Lily reentered the house's sitting room, they saw Cyril's hand near the large present, which had been opened as he was halfway through the box and reached back through the box to grab a flashlight as both Gallifreyans and Lily ran towards the box.
"Cyril!" The Doctor called out to Cyril before he crawled into the box with Rose as they entered a forest on an alien planet covered in snow before Lily stopped behind the Time Lord and the box.
"What's happening?" Lily asked both Gallifreyans, "I don't... What is that?"
"We don't have time to explain," Rose told her as she looked through the box.
"With us, quickly, come on!" The Doctor told Lily as he reached his hand out through the box towards her before Lily took the Doctor's hand as he pulled her through the box as she entered the forest before he lowered her to the ground, "That's it. In you come. Brr! Bit cold. Never mind." He then looked around as he called out for Cyril in a whisper-sounding tone, "Cyril? Cyril?" He then pulled out a flashlight as he noticed a cracked shell and began to examine it.
"Where are we?" Lily asked both Gallifreyans as she looked around in wonder.
"In a forest in a box in a sitting room," the Doctor answered, "Pay attention! He's about 20 minutes ahead of us." He then stood back up and began to walk after Cyril.
"But we just saw him," Lily said with confusion.
"Time moves differently across the dimensional planes," the Doctor explained as he cut through the trees, "What do they teach you in schools these days?" He then headed off to find Cyril.
"Doctor, remember, Lily's from the 1940s. Concepts like different dimensional planes and time moving differently are far beyond what's taught in school those days," Rose reminded her husband.
"But I don't understand where we are!" Lily told them.
"We've gone through a dimensional portal... thingy," the Doctor tried to explain as he stopped and turned back around towards Lily.
"Well, what's that supposed to be?" Lily asked them, "Where did it come from?"
"Let's just say that we travelled through time and space," Rose explained.
"She's right and besides, it was a present," the Doctor said, agreeing with the Time Lady, "And it wasn't supposed to be opened till Christmas Day. Honestly, who opens their Christmas presents early? OK. Shut up. Everyone."
The three of them then heard voices whispering around them as they followed the trail of footprints in front of them.
"I don't understand. Is this place real?" Lily asked both Gallifreyans as they continued to follow Cyril's footsteps, "Is it fairyland?"
"Fairyland?! Grow up, Lily! Fairyland looks completely different," the Doctor told her before he got down on his knee to examine the footprints, "Now, these are Cyril's footprints, and these are the ones he was following. Notice anything?"
"The other footprints are getting bigger," Lily answered.
"Yes. Whatever your brother's following... it's growing," the Doctor stated.
"And whenever we run into stuff like this, it usually means trouble," Rose added as she stared at the footprints.
"Well, then we have to get after him!" Lily told both Gallifreyans before she ran ahead before she brushed against a tree, causing Icicles to drop from the tree with spheres forming from the tree's icicles as she stopped and turned around towards it as she stared at it, petrified.
"It's OK, you're fine," the Doctor assured her, "Don't worry."
"Yeah, it won't do any harm to you," Rose said, agreeing with her husband.
"Is that tree... alive?" Lily asked them.
"Of course it's alive, it's a tree!" The Doctor answered.
"But is it dangerous?" Lily asked them.
"Well, every rose has its thorns," the Doctor told her.
"Let's find out," Rose suggested as she pulled out her glasses from her jacket's pockets and put them on before they bent over to examine the spheres.
"They're like Christmas tree decorations," Lily stated as she stared at the tree's spheres.
"Yeah. Naturally occurring Christmas trees," the Doctor said, agreeing with her before he sniffed the tree's pine, "How cool is that?"
"Isn't it fascinating Lily?" Rose asked her as she looked at her as she removed her glasses and placed them back inside her jacket's pocket, "The universe is full of wonders, and sometimes, they're not as dangerous as they seem."
"I don't understand," Lily told them.
"It's a big universe. Everything happens somewhere," the Doctor explained as he and Rose walked towards her, "Call it a coincidence, call it an idea echoing among the stars. Personally, I call it a brilliant idea for a Christmas trip. Or it should've…" He then heard the wind gusting around them, "Been. Do you know the difference between wind and trees talking to each other?"
"What?" Lily asked him.
"What is it, Doctor?" Rose asked her husband at the same time before he licked the index finger of his right hand and held it up to test the wind at the same time as he placed the index finger of his left hand to his lips.
"No wind," he whispered to them, "I've been here many times, but I've never heard the trees so active. Something's wrong." He then looked behind and stared at one of the trees, "What are you doing? What are you up to?"
He then looked into an ornament around one of the trees and saw his reflection in it before it morphed into that of a tree with a face.
"I'm sorry, Lily," the Doctor apologised to Lily, "I really am, but there is something very wrong in this forest, and your brother's right in the middle of it." He then grabbed his sonic screwdriver from his tweed jacket's pocket with his right hand and grabbed her hand with his other hand.
"Yeah, I'm sorry as well, we didn't know that this would happen," Rose said, agreeing with her husband as she took out her sonic screwdriver as well.
"Why would you bring us to this place?" Lily asked both Gallifreyans as they continued to search for Cyril through the forest at a faster pace than before.
"It was supposed to be a treat," the Doctor explained, "This is one of the safest planets we know. There's never anything dangerous here." The three of them then suddenly heard a loud thud as the ground began to shake, "There are sentences I should just keep away from."
"You can say that again," Rose muttered to herself, sarcastically.
"It's just irresponsible!" Lily told both Gallifreyans as they continued to search for Cyril through the forest, "How can you both do this to my brother?"
"It was meant to be a supervised trip," the Doctor explained.
"And we're here, Lily," Rose assured her, "We won't let anything happen to Cyril."
"To the future?" Lily asked them.
"The future, yes," the Doctor confirmed.
"It's a bit like stepping into a storybook, isn't it?" Rose said as she looked at Lily, "But don't worry, we've done this before, we do this almost every other day."
"On a different planet?" Lily asked them.
"Yes, very different," the Doctor answered.
"Different, but also beautiful and full of wonders," Rose added, "Just like Earth."
"Where Christmas trees just happen," Lily stated as she looked at both Gallifreyans.
"Well, sort of Christmas trees, they're not really Christmas trees," the Doctor explained to her.
"They're unique to this place, just like daffodils are to Wales," Rose told her, "It's part of the charm."
"Oh, look at that!" The Doctor muttered as he, Rose and Lily arrived at a tower made from stone and with a dome at the top that looked like it was made from glass as they looked up at it.
"What, are we going in?" Lily asked both Gallifreyans as they headed towards the tower's door as she followed them.
"Well, Cyril did," the Doctor explained.
"Yes, if we are to find Cyril, we'll need to enter the tower," Rose said, agreeing with her husband, "This place is unfamiliar and potentially dangerous. We can't let him explore it alone. Don't worry, we'll make sure we all get back safely."
As they entered the tower, the Doctor entered the building first as he walked into a room and saw a seated statue with a creature that looked like the tree with a face that he saw on the ornaments of one of the trees.
"Interesting…" the Doctor muttered as he looked around the rest of the room.
"It's nothing like we've ever seen," Rose stated as she looked at the statue that looked like that of a tree with a face.
"What's that? What's that statue?" Lily asked as she looked around the room, "What is it? It's like a king."
"A king, possibly, but not a statue," the Doctor whispered before he gasped as he aimed his flashlight at the floor, "Look at the floor." They then saw the footprints on the floor, "This is what Cyril was following... the growing thing. Hatched from a bauble on a tree. Grew to this size in less than an hour, I'd say. Impressive. And so is this building! Yes. It's grown, see. This building, it isn't a building, it's a group of trees grown in the shape of a building, disguised as a building. Clever, I love. Clever, clever old forest. So, a forest grows a building. Why would it do that, Lily?"
"I don't know," Lily answered.
"It's like a puzzle, isn't it?" Rose said as she looked at her, "We just need to figure out the pieces."
"Why's there honey in a honey trap?" The DOctor asked LIly.
"Because it's a trap?" Lily surmised.
"Exactly," the Doctor confirmed, "Thing about people, we can never resist a door."
"And sometimes, curiosity can lead us into unexpected situations," Rose stated.
"So, this is a trap?" Lily asked them, "We've just walked straight into a trap?"
"A people trap," the Doctor answered before whispering to her, "Question is, why does a forest need people?"
"And most importantly, what does it want with Cyril?" Rose asked her before they both turned their heads to look at the statue again.
"We should go!" Lily suggested as she headed for the door to the tower, "We have to get out of here."
"Except?" The Doctor said as he held up his left hand's index finger.
"Except Cyril's here," Lily answered.
"And we're not leaving without him," Rose told her.
"So, let's find Cyril," the Doctor suggested as he reached his left hand behind him before Lily took it with her right hand.
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