Here's the chapter, I don't have much more to say. Anything important to mention is in the author's notes at the bottom.: magical fan18
thank you magical fan18 fo following
Marion liked to climb stuff.
When she was a kid, if it had potential footholds and handholds and no one in authority tried to stop her, and she had a reasonable amount of confidence that it could support her weight then for better or worse, she'd climb it.
That being said, climbing inside of a corroded pipe that was probably made of lead wasn't exactly high on the list of things she wanted to do.
Marion couldn't stop her brain from subtly reminding her about the dangers of lead pipes and the fact that this was the 60s and that this house probably wasn't new enough to not have them.
Even if they weren't lead pipes, this was a lab sink pipe owned by a man who Marion doubted cared much about the proper disposing of chemicals.
And come to think of it, didn't this pipe lead to a drainage pipe? That thing better not lead into the water supply.
"Are you alright down there!" Marion heard Susan call from just below her.
"Yes, I'm all right, my dear. I can manage very well."
"And what about you Marion?"
"Oh me? I'm just peachy," Marion pulled herself higher up the pipe, "Perfectly peachy,"
"Good," Susan said either ignoring or simply choosing not to acknowledge the tone in Marion's voice, "It's just as well this pipe's corroded, isn't it. There are plenty of footholds."
"Yes."
"Well, onwards and upwards, my dear, eh?"
They continued to climb.
"Marion, do you know how much farther we are from the top?" the Doctor called up. He sounded breathless.
"Ah…no. Not exactly. But it shouldn't be too, too, long, maybe a couple of minutes if that? Why, are you sure you're alright? Remember, if you need to, you can tie yourself to that rope and I can help you up the rest of the way. Just let me know so I can brace myself. You know how it takes me a couple-,"
"No no no my dear," the Doctor said, he sounded breathless. But again, Marion wasn't getting any vertigo. "Like, you said, it's not much farther now,"
"Right!"
A little bit further and finally, the light in the pipes grew brighter and stronger as they got closer and closer to the drain opening itself. Once it was in arms reach, Marion reached up for one of the metal bars of the drain and kicked off the side of the walls. Her legs kicked back and forth.
"CAREFUL!" Susan called up to her.
"Don't worry."
It wasn't that Marion had lacked upper body strength before, but there was something that was just so cool about how, after a short burning moment, holding herself up was practically effortless.
Marion pulled herself up the rest of the way, out of the grate, and into the sink basin. She breathed in a quick gasp of fresh-er air and then leaned down to look back in the drain.
"Need help?" she said, reaching a hand down. "I'll pull you up the rest of the way."
Marion grabbed ahold of Susan's arm (who weighed practically nothing at all) and helped her climb up and out the drain for the rest of the way.
Then she reached down to grab the Doctor as well. He weighed a little bit more than Susan, at least for a moment, and had a decently strong grip on her wrist. Marion grabbed his wrist back but was very, very, very, very, very careful not to grip too hard.
Could she break someone's wrist accidentally? Hopefully not.
Marion pulled him up and out of the drain and off to the side where Susan was. The moment he was lying down, his eyes shut.
"Grandfather?" Susan shook him lightly, "Grandfather. Grandfather, we made it. We got to the top."
Marion touched the side of the man's neck and his chest. For a moment, the single heartbeat made Marion flinch. And then she remembered something. 'Time Lords having only one heart in their first regeneration is a thing right?'
Yeah, that was definitely a thing. It was the writers way of making that time that Ian took the Doctor's pulse and only heard one heart beating make sense.
Oh but didn't Romana I have two hearts…
Anyway, the Doctor's chest was rising and falling normally, he seemed fine, and "some Time Lords in their first regenerations have just one heart and some don't" was far less upsetting than "the Doctor's circulatory system is only half functional right now."
The Doctor opened his eyes.
He didn't look to be in distress, and he wasn't desperately clutching at his chest and Marion wasn't feeling dizzy, so he was probably fine.
"Are you alright Doctor?" Her voice echoed around the basin.
"Just leave me for a minute," the Doctor said, breathing heavily, "I shall be all right in a little while."
He was fine.
Susan helped her grandfather sit up and he began to breathe deeply.
He. Was. Fine.
"Oh," the Doctor said between deep inhales, "the smell of that chemical very nearly overpowered me,"
Somewhere in the distance, Marion heard the low growling of proper-sized human speech.
"Yeah," Marion stretched, "I don't know what the hell they've been pouring down that pipe but they probably shouldn't be."
"I think I heard some people talking just now. I heard a sort of low growling sound like Ian said, you know"
"Well, come to think of it, our voices sound rather odd. It's this-" the Doctor shook his wrist as if trying to remember the word, "sink, of course. It's all working like an echo chamber."
"Yeah. I think we should try and find them, don't you?" Susan said, "Marion, do you know where they are?"
"Yeah," Marion said, untying the rope from around her waist and wrapping it back up, "they're over in the lab. Not like, in a negative way. They haven't been caught or experimented on. That's just- it's where they are. Anyway, they can probably hear us if you shout."
Susan cupped her hands around her mouth. "IAN!" she shouted, "BARBARA! CAN YOU HEAR ME?
"Susan, they can hear us, but that doesn't mean that we would be able to hear them."
"WE'RE IN THE SINK!" Marion called up. "IN THE LAB, JUST FOLLOW OUR VOICE!"
"Marion, I just had a thought, what if the people in the house can hear us?"
"No," the Doctor shook his head, "our voices are much too high. It's a different frequency altogether, my child. A dog might be able to, perhaps, but, well, try it again."
"IAN!" Susan shouted, "BARBARA!"
After another few moments, Marion could see Ian and Barbara over the top of the side of the sink. Marion looked up at them, and waved cheerfully.
"MARION!" Ian called down to them, "DOCTOR! SUSAN! WE'RE UP HERE!"
"HEY UP THERE!" Susan shouted, beaming with delight.
"What uncanny good luck!"
"Oh, Grandfather, we found them!"
"Oh good," Marion said, "we need to climb out now,"
"Oh but Marion, we can just come out the way you three came in-,"
"Not right now!" Marion interjected. At any moment, one of the men was going to come back into the room and start running to taps. If they were still in the sink, they'd have to hide in the overflow pipe. That was what was SUPPOSED to happen.
But what if something went wrong, the Doctor got flushed out and time reset.
"Why can't Ian and Barbara come down to us!"
Or even worse, Susan was the one who got washed away and time wouldn't rewind for her.
No, no, no, best to get out of the sink.
Marion was already making her way towards the plug chain.
"Just listen to me, it'll make sense, come on. Don't you trust me? I feel like you should trust me. Come on!"
Climbing up the chain was much easier than Marion imagined climbing down would be. And far, far, far easier than climbing down the sink pipe and it didn't take nearly as long as Marion had been concerned that it would. She climbed to the top first, so that if need be, she and possibly Ian and Barabara could pull the other two up.
When Marion made it to the top, Ian grabbed a hold of her wrist and helped to steady her on the edge of the basin.
Susan came up next. When she was within arm's length, she held out her arm for Marion to grab and Marion pulled her up. The Doctor was trailing a little bit behind which wasn't ideal since Marion was starting to hear the deep growling sounds of human speech.
"QUICK," Ian called down, "Hurry up, someone's coming."
"I'm going as fast as I can Chesterton!"
"Help me out here, Ian,"
Marion reached down and grabbed a hold of part of the chain and started to pull. Her arms burned for a moment, but it was just that, a moment. "Hold on Doctor," Marion continued to pull until the Doctor was close enough to grab Ian's hand and he too joined the rest of them on the side of the sink.
"Marion, how long do we have?" Barbara asked.
"Long enough," Marion replied, the deep growls of the normal-sized humans were getting louder. "We need somewhere to hide."
"The briefcase," Ian said quickly, "Come on. It's just over here."
The five of them sat crouched down lying low inside of the briefcase that Barbara and Ian had been brought in.
Marion noticed that Barbara was pointedly keeping her hands to herself. They were crossed in front of her and her shoulders were hunched. The Doctor was sitting down on the side of a matchbox and his granddaughter was sitting right next to him. Marion had one knee on the ground and was leaning forward so that her hand pressed against the ground.
"I'll check outside," Ian said. He looked around the area.
"Marion you were right, he's standing at the sink. I can see him standing at the sink. He's turned the tap on! Good Lord,"
"Dear me, it's a good thing we're not in there. We might've been drowned!"
"Not exactly, " Marion replied, "You would've crawled back inside and hidden in the overflow spout. I mean, you probably would've been fine, I just don't like to take unnecessary risks."
Neither the Doctor, Susan, Ian, nor Baraba said anything. They just stared at her in silent judgment.
"I'll take your lack of response as agreement!" Marion said, knowing very well that it wasn't and that they'd probably watched her do something that would be reckless if she could die. And if the Fifth Doctor didn't get that sometimes, Marion had to get stabbed a little so that things went better in the grand scheme of things, she doubted that One, Susan, Ian, or Barbara would.
After washing his hands for what had to have been at least a good four minutes at minimum, the man finally turned off the sink, shook his hands, and pulled the plug out of the sink. He walked away before the sink could fully drain and then left the lab along with his partner, and then a few moments later, they heard a deep thud noise.
"I'm getting used to these sounds," Ian remarked, standing up and out of the briefcase, "I think that last one must have been the door closing."
"Are you sure they have gone?" Barbara asked, as she and the rest of them joined Ian closer to the middle of the table, where there rested a dish covered in seeds that smelled like sulfur and sweetness. Even if Marion didn't know that it was absolutely soaked in a pesticide dangerous enough to kill a fly that landed on it instantly, she still would've been wary of it. There was a fair bit of space between the Doctor and the petri dish, but Marion still felt dizzy.
Or maybe that was the after effects of whatever chemical fumes were in those pipes entering her lungs. She coughed.
Hard to say. Marion pointed at the dish.
"I don't need to tell you this, I don't think, but nobody touch those seeds. They are absolutely dripping with dangerous pesticides and highly poisonous."
"What would happen if one of us did touch one of those seeds," Barbara asked, "Ian and I saw a fly land on one of those and it died near instantly. Would it kill us?"
"We're built differently from insects. There's no chance of it killing you instantly, so as long as we get to the TARDIS and back to our real sizes, which we will, there's no real worry about dying. But they'd feel really, really, really, awful for a bit while the toxin works its way through their body,"
Unnoticed by Marion, Barbara's face ran through several different expressions before she crossed her arm once again.
Ian looked around the room and then his eyes caught on something on the lab bench. A notebook. The kind that was bound with a spiral at the top and was just about the size of a normal-sized person's palm."Hey! What's that over there, it wasn't there before!"
Susan followed where he was pointing and she and Ian ran to it. Marion and the rest followed close behind.
Susan stepped up on top of the notebook and started to walk around on it, examining it.
"Half drawing and half writing. Ian, it's a formula."
"Yes, I believe you're right, Susan,"
Chemistry was not a field that Marion was especially gifted in. She knew enough about it to get a decent grade in the class in high school. But then she proceeded to never take anything chemistry related ever again.
She knew that she was looking at a chemical formula, and she knew that the letters represented elements, and her having watched the show allowed her to know what she was looking at, but she had no idea how those two things connected with each other.
Luckily, she was traveling with a man from a scientifically advanced society and a science teacher.
"Marion, is that the formula to the insecticide?" Barbara asked.
"Should be,"
"Well, then, it can tell us what we're fighting against," Baraba exclaimed, "We might even find a cure."
"A cure?" Ian asked, incredulously, "What's the good of that?"
"I don't know," the woman replied.
"No, neither do I!" Ian exclaimed, looking around at the formulas at his feet, "If we're going to do anything at all, we must stop it."
"Yes, Ian's right, Barbara," Susan agreed, "You only need a cure if somebody's infected. What we've got to do is stop it being produced."
"Yes, all right."
'Barbara didn't touch that right?' Marion looked at the woman warily. 'Surely not! I told them not to touch anything, and that the place was full of dangerous pesticides. She's probably just thinking about the bees and stuff,'
"Barbara, is there something you want to say?" Marion asked.
The woman shook her head no.
"Cool, just checking,"
"Well, I won't be relieved until we take a closer look at this oversized document. The more we know about the enemy the better." the Doctor said, his voice rising.
Ian pointed to one of the drawings. "Those things up there are definitely molecular structures."
"Yes, you're quite right, my boy. I only wish I could see it more as a whole,"
"Couldn't we lever it up in some way, stand back, and look at it?" Barbara suggested.
"Yes," Susan agreed, "it'd be like a huge advertising poster, wouldn't it?"
Ian looked down at the notebook at his feet thoughtfully. He stepped off of it and looked around the lab bench and then back at Marion.
"Marion?"
"You want me to lift it?"
"You don't think it'd be too heavy do you?"
Marion looked down at it.
"Susan, could you-," Marion waved her hand. Susan stepped from on top of the notebook. Marion grabbed a hold of one of the spirals and tugged at it backward for a bit with a thoughtful look on her face. After a few seconds of effort, the burning feeling in her arms that always came when she attempted to lift overly heavy things faded and she was able to move several steps backward. Marion set it back down.
"Oh yeah," Marion said finally, "I can move that easily. Thing is, I'd need something to lean it up against. Too big for me to hold it up myself high enough for you to see all of it without risking it falling over and crushing someone."
"Yes, yes I see,"
"Marion," Ian asked, "Do you think that you could stand it up over there? Against the back of the wall that this bench is shoved up against."
"Yeah. Hold on."
Marion grabbed the metal rings again and dragged the notebook over to the side wall. Once it was there, she crouched down and pushed the side of it up so that the notebook partially leaned upwards against the wall, and then pushed it the rest of the way. Until it was fully up against it.
Honestly, it wasn't too dissimilar to putting up a large pin-up board for class.
"How's that?" Marion asked. She shook her hands lightly, as the weird sensation in her forearms slowly faded.
"It's perfect my dear!" the Doctor said, cheerily patting Marion on the shoulder. "I don't know what we'd do without you."
"You'd manage just fine," was Marion's instant response.
"Hmm," the Doctor said, a neutral humming noise. He stepped back and started to examine the equations and diagrams.
"Yes, yes," the Doctor nodded, he pointed upwards at one of the hexagons, "This is the insecticide quite clearly. It's a bit rough, of course, but it tells us the story."
"Yes. I'm not very well up in this, Doctor," Ian remarked, "but isn't that phosphoric acid?"
"This indicates the amount of organic esters,"
Marion knew what some of those words meant separately.
Esters were chemicals made from corn right? Wait no, that was ethanols.
There was a very, very, very, very good reason that she hadn't studied chemistry in university.
Ian nodded and pointed at a letter N surrounded by Os. "Yes, and this is mineral nitrate. That's about as far as I go, I'm afraid."
"My dear boy, this formula's quite clear, look, with one vital difference. The inventor has made the insecticide everlasting."
Marion let out a low whoosh of air. "That's not good. That's really, really, not good. That's potentially catastrophic."
"That means it would seep into the soil!" Susan exclaimed.
"Oh no, not just that Susan. When it rains, it'd get into the groundwater and infect that water supply as well."
"What about human beings?' Barbara asked.
And Marion hoped that that was just a hypothetical and that Barbara hadn't lied to her earlier.
"A lot of manufactured pesticides are just poisons in a low enough dose to hopefully kill bugs but leave people alone. But a high enough dose…"
"Well, given in sufficient quantity, of course, it's capable of killing human beings!"
"Yes," Barbara nodded, "IF they drink and eat infected food and water."
"Yes," the Doctor nodded, "or even coming in contact with it."
"Penetrating the skin to get into the bloodstream."
"Well, then why do we go on just sitting here!" Barbara shouted.
Marion took a slow, deep, breath.
"Barbara. Are you sure that you're alright?"
Marion looked Barbara in the eye when she asked this.
"Yes, I'm alright Marion," Barbara assured. She started to rub at her head tiredly "It's just-I feel a bit giddy. I think I must be hungry."
"Yes, now there's another point to consider, my dear boy. Eating," the Doctor said, tapping on Ian's shoulder, "We can't, even if we do find food here."
"Yes, well, the less we talk about food the more I'll like it."
"We can go back to the sink, of course," the Doctor pointed out, "The water in the tap is quite safe."
"Not to mention I've got a couple of bottles of water with me. And the rope shrunk proportionally, so it stands to reason that the water in the bottle should as well"
Marion was pretty sure that being shrunk the way they were was playing fast and loose with the laws of physics but that was basically the TARDIS in a nutshell, wasn't it?
"Hm, yes," said the Doctor, "We could also go back to the sink, of course. The water in the tap is quite safe."
'Assuming of course this house isn't still using lead pipes.'
Ian nodded firmly. "Well, no need for all of us to go. I'll go and fetch some."
"Ah, but I want to go into that direction," the Doctor said, starting towards the sink, "You see, there's something over there that might be the solution to all this business."
"Well, what's that?" Barbara asked.
The Doctor pointed across to the other side of the room on the other end of the sink.
"A telephone, my dear"
It was a large black rotary phone. It looked older than Marion's granddad's had and from their perspective, it looked like the size of a house. They walked around the edge of it and towards the back were several coils of wire lead from the phone itself and into the walls.
Ian and the Doctor went around to the other side of it.
"It's climbable," Ian remarked, looking upwards at the wires.
"Yes. The thing is, my boy, how heavy is that receiver?"
Susan and Barbara came from behind them holding a large test tube cork in between them. The cork they were holding looked like it was the size of a small chair.
The two of them set it down and then Susan tapped her grandfather on the shoulder.
"Grandfather, I think I've got just the thing. Look. We can push this underneath the receiver."
"Yes," Barbara said, still breathing heavily, "there are lots more over there."
"Hey, you all right?" Ian walked up to Barbara and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Yes, I'm fine. I told you, I haven't eaten for ages. I think that's what it must be. Don't make a fuss."
Marion reached into her bag and retrieved one of her food bars.
"Here," Marion said, holding it out to the woman, "eat this and rest. It might help some,"
Marion really hoped that Barbara was just hungry.
"You just sit and rest there," Marion pointed to the pile of wires. "We'll do the rest."
"Ian, Susan, the three of us'll climb up. Doctor, you'll pass it to Susan, Susan pass it to Ian, and then I'll lift up the receiver so that you can push the cork under it. Does that work?"
"I was going to suggest something similar in fact!" Ian said with a nod. He picked up the cork in his arms and then handed it to the Doctor.
"Very well!"
Marion scrambled up the wires first with Ian and Susan close behind them. Susan stopped halfway waiting for the Doctor to pass her while Ian and Marion made their way to the top of the phone.
"Oh, er, oh, Barbara," the Doctor asked, "would you mind bringing another one of these, please?"
Barbara nodded and stood up to retrieve it.
The Doctor passed the cork up to Susan who passed the cork up to Ian.
Barbara came back moments later, sounding like she'd run a marathon carrying a sack of bricks and not walked a few yards carrying the second cork.
"Ah, thank you, my dear," the Doctor took it from her, "You look very tired."
"Yes, I am a bit,"
"Well, we can manage," the Doctor assured, "You just sit down and rest for a while, hmm?"
Ian took the second cork from Susan and set it down.
"Right, you'd better all come up now!" Ian called down to them.
"Coming. Grandfather? Barbara?" Susan called up as she made her way the rest of the way.
"Marion, can you try lifting the receiver now," Ian asked, turning to look at her.
"No try about it,"
Marion crouched down slightly under the black plastic and braced her hands carefully under it. She took a long deep breath and then started to try to stand. Her muscles burned for a moment, and then it went from feeling like she was pressing against a high ceiling to feeling like she was trying to lift a prop made of styrofoam and cardboard.
"Could one of you place the cork please?" Marion asked.
"I've got it!"
Ian picked up one of the corks and wedged it into the spot.
"You can let that side down Marion now,"
Marion very carefully lowered her arms so as to not jar the cork, and then moved to the other side of the phone and lifted it as well. It was easier this time.
Susan was the one who put that cork into place for them that time. Marion lowered the phone back down and stepped back. She grabbed ahold of her shoulder and rolled it for a bit. Barbara stood next to the speaker side of the phone while the rest of them stood by the receiver.
"CAN! YOU! HEAR! US!" they shouted into the receiver. "PUT! US! THROUGH! TO! THE! POLICE!"
"Any luck?" Ian turned to ask Barbara.
"No. No, nothing at all." Barbara said and then collapsed.
Marion looked at the woman for a moment and then grimaced.
'Oh, she definitely touched those seeds.' Marion sighed heavily, '100%'
Marion walked over to the woman and helped her sit up.
"We can't have failed after trying so hard!" Ian insisted.
"Yes, I'm afraid we have and it's my fault. I thought it was worth trying."
"Well, we must try again. What if we tried Marion's phone? You said that it can connect to people even when though you're not in the 21st century?" Ian looked at her imploringly.
Marion hadn't considered that actually. She didn't know if that was how her phone works, but she was willing to take his word for it. He was probably repeating something he'd heard the Associate say. She went to reach into her bag.
"No, no, no my boy," said the Doctor, "even if our voices weren't too high pitched to be heard, you remember what happened with the TARDIS scanner the moment we tried to look at the outside hm? The screen exploded. Your phone may very well do the same,"
"Well, then we'll have to try this phone again. We'll have to see if there's a way to lower our voices somehow. I'll go and tell Barbara," Ian then noticed the woman, leaning heavily against Marion, "Hey, you've been overdoing things."
"Yes," Barbara said, between deep breaths. She wiped her face with a handkerchief from inside of her bag, "yes, I think I have."
"Marion, could you pass me one of those bottles of water please?" the man started to reach for the handkerchief Barbara was holding and she jerked her hands away.
"NO!"
"What's the matter?"
Barbara was wringing the fabric in her hands, not unlike the way Marion messed with her bag strap when she was anxious.
"You can't have it. You mustn't touch it."
"Barbara?"
"No one must touch!"
"Barbara!"
And then the woman passed out. Marion caught her so that she didn't fall out on the ground and carefully lowered her on her back.
The Doctor lifted up the handkerchief with his pen and sniffed it. He grimaced.
"There. The same aroma. Insecticide," he dropped the handkerchief. "You didn't eat or drink anything?"
" Well, no!" Ian shook his head, "certainly not,"
"She touched that dish of seeds on the petri dish. The one that's been coated in that pesticide,"
"Why didn't you say anything?"
"I would've said something Susan, but I thought that me telling her not to touch anything in an area full of dangerous pesticides would be enough to get her to not touch random things in petri dishes! When I asked her if something was wrong, she said no. I took her word for it! I thought she was fine!" Marion defended.
Barbara started to stir. She blinked rapidly as if the light was hurting her eyes. "W-what happened? Did I…?"
Susan patted her on the shoulder. "You fainted, that's all,"
"The insecticide," she blinked, "Is that why I feel like this?"
"Yes," the Doctor reapplied, "You've got some of it on your hands and you didn't tell us anything about it. It was very wrong of you, wasn't it."
"Why didn't you say anything! I thought you hadn't touched anything and were alright!"
"Am I, am I-?"
"No, no, no, no," the Doctor assured her, "this little attack you've experienced is only temporary."
Barbara started trying to sit up.
"No, no, no, no, no,"
"Take it easy. Come on, take it easy,"
Marion and Susan helped her shift back against the side of the phone so she had something to lean against. Marion took out one of the bottles of water. She shook it experimentally. It swished like normal. She took the wrapper off so she'd be able to tell it from the other bottle and unscrewed the cap.
"Here,"
Marion brought the bottle to the woman's lips.
"Here, you said you were thirsty. Drink this."
Barbara drank nearly half the bottle of water before she stopped.
Marion hadn't noticed that Ian and the Doctor had walked off to talk until Ian was suddenly crouched down next to them.
"How are you feeling?"
"Oh, a bit ropey," she took another breath, "Marion gave me some water, so I am feeling a little bit better than I was before,"
Marion pressed the back of her hand against the woman's forehead and frowned.
"We're going to get you back to the ship," Ian promised.
"All right," the woman sighed, "Just give me a minute"
"Come on, Barbara. Got a long way to go," Ian stood up and turned to look at the Doctor, "You can get us back to normal size, can't you?"
"Oh, yes, of course, I can, dear boy. Yes. Of course, I can. I hope."
"Like I said," Marion piped in, "this is reversible."
"How am I supposed to fix this?"
"No clue. I just know that whatever idea you've got Doctor is going to work,"
"Have I ever told you how helpful you are Marion." the Doctor said, his voice full of obvious sarcasm.
"Regularly. It's nice to be appreciated," Marion replied, pretending not to notice.
Barbara got herself to her feet. "We can't leave!" she insisted. "Not yet anyway, the pesticide is still out there!"
"Barbara, you're ill" Ian pleaded, "You've got to let us take you back to the ship. You could die. Doctor, make her see some sense," he yelled.
"There's nothing I can say, dear boy. Barbara's quite right." the Doctor walked away.
"Susan!"
The girl looked at Ian for a moment and then buried her face in Barbara's shoulder.
"Marion! Come on! You know better than anyone else. Barbara-"
"-will be alright long enough for us to get rid of the insecticide and get back to the TARDIS." Marion finished.
"How can you be so sure?"
"Same way I'm sure about most things. Every adventure you've ever had with me hasn't happened to me yet, but surely, you know by now that I know what I'm talking about. If we don't get rid of this insecticide, people are going to die. Especially children, especially people who were already sick, especially the many, many, many people who live in areas that the people in power don't care about. People who were already vulnerable to begin with. We've got the power to fix these things, so we should."
"Marion's right!" Barbara insisted. "In comparison to that, I'm not important,"
"No, no, no, don't say that. Don't EVER say that." Marion grabbed the other woman by her shoulders, "I need you to understand that the only reason, and I mean the ONLY reason that I'm not dragging you out of this lab and into the TARDIS right now, is that I know that if we take the time to get rid of the insecticide, we can still get you back to the TARDIS with plenty time to spare. And if I had to do that, then I'd figure out some other way to fix this. This way is just quicker. That's why we're doing it."
"What IS it?" Ian asked, "What are we supposed to be doing. We're this size, we don't even know what's going on! Marion?"
"Uhhhh," Marion closed her eyes and leaned backward. "Okay, so, the murderer killed the man who picked up the matchbox because he was going to tell everyone the truth about his pesticide. The murderer then told the third guy that he killed the victim in self-defense, but he's still kind of suspicious. The third guy doesn't know about the pesticide yet, but he's going to find out soon. Or right now. But that's the context. That's what's occurring."
"That's great Marion, but what are we supposed to do?"
"My boy, what we need is something big, something to catch the people outside's attention. Something like-" the Doctor snapped his fingers, "A fire my boy. A fire."
"I do enjoy a good fire," Marion nodded.
"There's nothing like a good fire," the Doctor excitedly rubbed his hands together.
Ian stared at both of them.
"Yes…" he said. "Yes. Can we start a big enough one to do any real damage?"
"Ian, this is a chemistry lab. You teach teenagers. You of all people should know how easy it is to blow things up."
"That…is true. What do you think, Barbara?"
"I think it's a good idea. If we could manage to start a fire it would certainly attract people here."
"Yes!" Susan clapped her hands, "They'd find that man's body."
"We just need a way to light a fire," Ian sat down, deep in thought. He snapped his fingers. "That's it. The gas tap!"
"What?" Susan asked.
"Well, if we could only turn it on."
"Then what?"
"I'll soon show you.,"
Marion heard a loud boom somewhere off to the side.
"Look out!" Susan shouted.
Ian looked around. "Quick! Behind this water tank,"
Ian and Marion helped to push the other three back and behind the tank. Ian stood in front and Marion stood in between Ian and the outside. She leaned in such a way that she could sort of see the men around the corner, but Marion doubted that it would have been possible for them to notice her unless they knew that she was there already and was actually looking for them.
There were two men. One of them in a tan suit and the other in a dark grey one. Marion was pretty sure that the man in the dark grey suit was the one who was a murderer. The two of them were shouting at each other in tones too deep and growling for Marion to make it out.
The phone started ringing but neither of the men went for the phone at first because they were still arguing. Eventually, the man in the tan suit stormed out of the lab and the man in the dark grey one finally picked up the phone. He talked for a moment and then he paused, and then he talked some more.
The man in the dark grey suit hung up the phone and then left the lab, closing the door behind him.
"Are they gone now Marion?" Ian asked.
"Yup, that was them closing the door."
"Right. Doctor, Susan, Barbara, can the three of you start on the bunsen burner while Marion and I grab a match from the briefcase?"
"Of course,"
"...sure,"
It would be easier for two people to maneuver a match than just one person, even if that one person was strong.
Marion grabbed the other end of Ian's match. It, like most things, was heavy for a moment, and then it wasn't."
She re-adjusted the match under her arm so that it was about level with Ian.
"Hey!" Marion shouted out, "Ian and I have the match. Are y'all ready with the gas?"
"We're ready for you!" Barbara shouted back.
"Great!"
"Ready Marion," Ian asked.
"Ready!"
The two of them took a couple of steps back and then charged at the lighting side of the matchbox. It didn't work. They clipped off the side of it, tripped, and fell to the ground.
"This never would've happened if I had had a lighter. Do I get lighter at some point? Don't answer that. I'm definitely going to try and get my hands on a lighter. One of those would be very useful right now,"
"Marion,"
"Right, right, matchbox, gas. Understood."
Marion stood back up taking the match with her. Once she was on her feet, Ian grabbed hold of it once again as well.
"Try hitting the box at a sharper angle. More force, more vim, hmm?" the Doctor shouted over to them."
"You try lighting something with a match that's as tall as you are!" Ian shouted back.
"Right, second try."
This time, when the two of them rushed forward against the side of the matchbox. This time, it lit up brightly with a scraping noise and a dull roar.
"Ha Ha!" the Doctor laughed with delight, "Come on, let's light the gas jet. Turn it on."
Barbara, Susan, and Doctor pulled the lever down some..
"Turn it down a bit," Ian called out, "You don't want us burned alive. Doctor, Barbara, and Susan get behind that tap. Get behind, that's it. Ready, Marion?" The two of them started to step forward, guiding the match towards the gas, "Now take it easy, eh? Please."
And then the two of them took another step forward and the gas lit up brilliantly, the flames flickering towards an aerosol can of pesticide.
"Shan't be long now," the Doctor said, cheerfully.
"Take cover," Marion cautioned, walking further behind the water tank and dragging the Doctor by the arm as she did. "When that thing explodes, it'll send tin shrapnel everywhere like a bomb,"
"It'll be just like that air raid, Grandfather. Do you remember?"
"Yes, very well, and what infernal machines those Zeppelins were."
A few moments, later Marion heard the sound of the door opening along with the sounds of people that were much, much bigger than them talking. Marion, knowing what was about to happen, crouched down and covered her ears. It was barely enough to keep her ears from ringing at the sound of the can exploding with a loud pop and a whistle.
"It's worked!" the Doctor shouted, "It's worked! Come on, all of you. Back to the ship. Susan, Marion, take care of Barbara. Quickly, quickly."
Marion had Barbara put most of her weight on her while Susan helped to steady the two of them.
It wasn't safe to take Barbara back down the pipe drain. There was no telling if Barbara would be able to keep her grip on either the sides of the pipe or Marion. So, they managed to sneak through the open door that the police walked through without anyone noticing. The police were more preoccupied with the dead body and man waving around a gun than he was with either of them.
That made things easier.
It took a while, but they eventually made their way back to the ship with the Doctor lagging slightly behind because of the large seed he was carrying in his coat. He set it down near the chair and Susan and Marion guided Barbara too.
And yeah, Marion was able to feel a difference between supporting Barbara's weight inside of the TARDIS and outside of the TARDIS. It wasn't like Barbara became impossible to carry, but she was glad that it wasn't just her helping the woman climb since she'd nearly lost her balance and sent them toppling.
The Doctor ran to the TARDIS console and started to flick switches and press buttons.
"Got to repeat exactly the things that happened to us when we landed," he said aloud, more to himself than the rest of them.
"Is there anything I can do?" Ian asked.
"Yes. That seed over there, by the chair. Take it over to that table so that we can all see it," the Doctor shrugged off his cloak and handed it to Ian, "Wrap that round it when you do it."
Ian retrieved the seed and brought it over to a large, glass, table.
The Doctor pressed a few more buttons and the Time Rotor in the center of the console began to flicker and move, and Marion could hear Honey humming under her feet in the same rhythm of noise the ship made as it dematerialized.
"Doctor. Doctor, I-"
The Doctor held up a hand to cut Ian off. "Marion, is it working?" he laughed, "Ha ha! I think it's working!"
"Doctor! Look at that seed!"
Ian pointed to the table and Marion followed his finger. The seed that had formerly been the size of Marion's torso was steadily shrinking and then it was too small to see.
"Yes! Yes!" the Doctor's laughter became more and more manic! "We've done it! Yes! We've done it!" He hit Ian on the shoulder and laughed.
"Doctor, it's incredible. That seed, it's completely vanished,"
"Not quite,"
"No." the Doctor was still laughing in delight as he walked towards the table.
God, he was young. It didn't look young, but things like this? He certainly was.
He was happier. He seemed so, so, much happier, so much more excited by small things.
"Look, you see?" he held up the seed to the light, "It hasn't vanished at all."
Something started to brush against Marion's leg.
"No, but I think I'm about to I'm afraid,"
"Oh but Marion. I was hoping that we could talk for a moment"
"I don't have a say one way or another Susan. But we can talk later, okay? It'll be later for both of us."
And then whatever was tugging on her leg tugged harder and she went down like she was falling through the floor.
Next Chapter: Sandwich, Sleep, Specters
Marion, upon hearing about DN6: Hmm, this will affect the trout population I think.
Look, until I got to the end of this chapter, I did genuinely plan on doing the Rings of Akhaten, but then I realized that I didn't want to have Clara's, Amy's, AND Rose's, second meeting with the Doctor be Marion's first with them.
Also, Rings is an episode I realized works better after I've set up more about Marion and her whole...
ANYWAY
I still wanted to do something with Clara and Eleven next though. So I'm going to be doing "Hide" instead. I'll do Rings later when I've set up enough to do it justice.