8. Off Again so Quickly?
Chloe finds herself in her lounge at home with the Doctor's Tardis still parked in one corner.
Alyssa's adjustments to the controls have worked! She was left behind when the Master went, and the Doctor's Tardis is no longer encapsulated.
Quickly, she dashes to the Doctor's Tardis.
"Off again, so quickly?" Devyon asks, contemplating the cups of tea he's prepared, as he's just seen a block of concrete appear and disappear a moment earlier, leaving Chloe behind. .
Tardis Internal Time permits a lot to happen inside the Tardis while very little time passes outside the Tardis.
We've seen the Tardis arrive, and then they step out almost immediately... .
She finds the Doctor standing by the Console. She looks at the monitor screen and immediately notices - there's no redness, showing that the Tardis is no longer encapsulated. Chloe feels there's no time to waste by walking to the Console.
"Tardis, get out of here!" she shouts to activate the Tardis.
The Doctor turns, but the grinding of the Tardis alerts him to something happening that Chloe's instigated.
He smiles. He knows that Alyssa has been successful.
He strolls over to where Chloe's still tense and stressed near the door and hugs her. He knows she's safe and that he's safe ... for now.
"Thank you! Now we must rescue your sister!"
He strolls over to the Console, while Chloe says, "Tardis, remember this moment!" She has it in mind to re-visit her lounge and see what happens next.
The Doctor turns. "Why? It's nothing special."
"What's happening in my lounge right now might be!" .
"Yes, let's start there." The Doctor seems to be very composed. He senses Chloe's urgency and feels the need for a counter-urgency to calm her, requiring his calmness. .
Chloe's feeling anything but composed. The Master's Tardis might be anywhere, including in her own lounge at home! That feels more like a disaster! She's keen to start there and then, in her own lounge at home! She feels frustrated by the slowness of the Doctor. .
The Doctor takes the Tardis back to Chloe's lounge. They step out; there's no-one there, not even her father, Devyon.
Three steaming hot cups of something like tea stand on the low table.
"Dad?" Chloe calls out. Then more urgently, "Dad?"
She looks in the kitchen, then runs all over the house, in every room, looking.
Chloe returns to the lounge. "Doctor, he's taken my dad!"
The steaming cups of tea suggest that Devyon hasn't simply gone out for a walk.
The Doctor sighs. The Master's having a really good go at Chloe and her family ... and then he feels it's surely his fault! Surely he's brought this upon Chloe and her whole family.
Chloe sees his face fall. She springs to be right by him and hugs him. She's seen this happen before.
"It's not your fault!" she says gently but firmly. It feels like a drop in the ocean of what he needs to hear, as the myriads of those he occasionally permits himself to feel that he's let down pass before his mind's eye. He's told her before how it happens for him.
Suddenly he snaps out of it.
Chloe might have timed the interval between his face falling and him snapping out of it. This always seems to be the same ... maybe becoming slightly longer each time as more beings join the myriads; but surely it isn't that many!
"Right! Alyssa and Devyon!" Suddenly he's re-focussed and ready.
What's been happening for them?