Hey if you're reading this it might be worthwhile for you to read chapter five of the side stories fic before reading this. You don't have to, but it's where the events of this episode's cold open take place.
I'm super excited for season 14 (I refuse to call it season 1)
Speaking of excited, bookworm did more art!
superwholocked2016 [put a dot here] tumblr [put a dot here] com/post/749724891017887744/just-a-sketch-but-i-had-the-fun-idea-that-marion
superwholocked2016 [put a dot here] tumblr [put a dot here] com/post/749187522499887104/marion
Lately, Marion had been having two sorts of dreams. The kind that she remembered, the kind where it was dark and she was in pain. And then the kind where she woke up with no memory of what she had dreamt about but with a strong feeling or impression.
This was the latter. When she woke up, she was angry. And then she was annoyed. Not because of the dream, but because when she reached to stretch, she lost her balance and she fell off the bed.
If she had been more awake, she might have noticed the fact her balance had in fact been stolen. But Marion was nowhere near conscious enough to be aware of the fact that she'd been pulled off the bed and into the past by the Bitch Force or that her bag had fallen off the chair and gone with her. All she knew was that she had been in her bed, and then her stomach dropped and she was on the floor and then she was back in bed and nuzzling as deep into her pillow as she could.
She felt better now than she had when she had first crawled into bed.
Maybe she could just sleep all day. That might be nice.
And then, just as she was about to finally drift back to sleep, she heard the sound of her door being swung open and hitting a wall with a thud.
'Has my bedroom door always opened inwards?' she thought.
"Hgk?" she said.
"Marion! Are you awake?"
Marion opened her eyes, pushed the pillow back, and stared up at the ceiling.
"Oh good! Your eyes are open!"
Marion's sleepy vision came into focus. And she realized the person standing over her bed was Twelve. He was still wearing a suit and not a hoodie. So he wasn't currently a St. Luke professor. But, at the same time, his hair was fluffier than it normally was when he was dressed that way. It was probably about as fluffy as it would get without him being dressed in a hoodie.
Her quarter-asleep brain remarked that it was nice of the Doctor to change in a way that made it easy enough to figure out when in the timeline she was.
"Now I know that you told me not to barge into your room without knocking unless there was an emergency. "
"That sounds like something I would say, yes."
She yawned big enough that she heard something crack and made a noise that might have sounded like an excuse if her mouth had been able to shut.
"Yes, well, this is an emergency. Up you get, I've let you sleep for as long as I could. I was just about to go without you, but the last time I was in this part of New York at this time of time, well… you remember"
"I don't."
At least, she didn't remember the thing that he was talking about. But then again, it wasn't as if there wasn't something fresh in her mind that made her unwilling to let the Doctor go anywhere alone in New York. She
"Oh!" the Doctor replied, "Well, that's even better."
"What happened?"
"Spoilers!"
"Something embarrassing?"
"Go ahead, and get dressed." the Doctor said in a way that both was and wasn't an answer as he started to walk away.
"Just give me a moment. When is it out there?"
"December 2016."
"Great." Marion gently pushed the Doctor out of the door. "I'll be right out there in a jiffy."
"That's only a hundredth of a second."
"I will be out when I'm out!"
Thick well worn-in boots, a soft blue cable knit sweater over a black undershirt, and a pair of black pants that looked decently dressy enough, while also feeling like sweatpants. She ducked into a bathroom, wet her hair a bit and combed it out until it looked neat and round.
She thought that she looked presentable enough. At least enough to sneak around an office building without turning too many heads.
She wasn't sure that she could pass for someone higher up. But she could most certainly pass for an intern if she needed to. Faking an internship might be even better for investigations because interns are sort of expected to only barely know their way around and not know who anyone is.
Marion found a lanyard clip on top of her desk and tugged it over her head and slid her psychic paper inside, just to be safe, and tucked it into her sweater.
"There you are. What took you so long? Nardole went off without us!"
"Trying to fix my bed head enough that it didn't look like something small animals should be nesting inside of."
"Nardole doesn't have that problem."
"Nardole doesn't have hair."
"And he's all the more efficient for it. Take this, don't let what's in it fall over, and follow me,"
He handed her a rolled-down paper bag. Marion wasn't certain what was inside.
The Doctor very subtly took out his sonic screwdriver and scanned around the room. And then he started walking without another word with Marion following close behind.
Marion smiled politely at the people they passed and waved and nodded politely, especially at the people who stopped to look at them. There weren't that many, and they weren't anything more than quick glances, but she didn't want there to be a reason for any of them to do double-takes. Just marching through without hesitation might call attention to them. Not that it mattered one way or the other, but she'd rather not be noticed for being too quiet.
"So, weird energies in New York?" Marion asked.
"How did you guess?"
"You mean besides the whole…" Marion gestured to herself and her head.
"Yes."
"There's always weird energies in New York. I think the only way normal energies could be found in the city would be if something stranger happened. And every so often those energies are extraterrestrial in origin. And then sooner or later, you'll notice and pop in."
"Well there's that-" The Doctor replied. "And a handful of other odd things. Weird energy. Abrupt personality changes. People seeing odd things and then disappearing after they tell anyone. Multinational corporations engaging in suspicious behavior"
"Yes, yes, fork found in kitchen,"
The Doctor brought a hand up to his ear. "Nardole's given me the all clear."
"Oh, given the all clear has he, are you bringing back James Bond?"
"Bringing back? I'll have you know I inspired James Bond."
"Yeah, I know-"
"You know?"
"That you inspired the creation of James Bond? Yeah. It was back when you were working for UNIT?"
"Still am working for UNIT, I never quit. Neither did you."
"Pulled one hell of a no-call no-show."
"They can't fire me." the Doctor replied, "I'm James Bond! Now, this way." The Doctor took Marion around a corner. The floor had been mostly full of people milling about here and there, but heading down this corridor, Marion could hear the sounds of chatter behind her, but not in front of her. In front of her, it was largely silent. Until they stepped forward a little bit more and Marion could hear the sounds of movement and speech off in the distance. Towards the end of the hall was a safe door and something blue glowed behind it and woman dressed as a cleaning lady.
That was another good disguise if you wanted to look around without anyone questioning your presence.
As they approached the Doctor took the brown bag and rummaged around inside of it.
"So, what's in the bag?" Marion asked.
"A late lunch for me, breakfast for you. You like Sushi right? Well, I know you like Sushi, you know you like Sushi right."
Marion nodded and reached out a hand. "I do."
"Oh good. I got a salmon roll. No avocado."
"I do like salmon" Marion nodded, and popped one of pieces into her mouth.
From the other side of the vault, Marion could hear two men talking to each other. She wasn't quite sure what they were saying. One of them was probably the CEO or otherwise some sort of guy in charge, and the other had a slight accent. It reminded Marion a bit of Tryst's.
"Well?" said the guy in charge.
"Look at them. You see nothing unusual?" said not-Tryst.
"I see brains every place except here. These specimens were donated to this facility by our benefactors for a top-secret research project. A project which is not to be questioned, impeded, or in fact mentioned by any of the employees of the Harmony Shoal Institute. Even I don't have the clearance to know what's going on in here."
"But why?"
"It's not your job to ask questions. Stick to science."
Marion wasn't high up in a large company, but she was pretty sure that if she were one, and the people in her company were doing something that she didn't have the clearance to know about, she wouldn't be that chill about it. Especially if it involved a safe full of brains in jars.
Even if SHE didn't feel safe to investigate directly, she'd probably pay someone else under the table to do it for her. She absolutely wouldn't react to it so nonchalantly.
Marion popped another piece of sushi roll into her mouth.
"Sir, the first time I came in here, I counted twenty-four specimens. The second time I counted, there were thirty. Now there are thirty-six."
"Well, I guess they've got the space."
"You don't understand. There have been no deliveries. I checked it. Some of these brains, sir, they just... ..arrived."
The Doctor bit down on what he was eating especially hard, and the woman dressed as a cleaning lady turned to stare at them. Marion knew she wasn't actually a cleaning lady, she was a reporter. Her curly pale blonde hair was tied up in a puffy ponytail.
Marion knew her name had a strong L sound in it and that it was short and that it wasn't Lois. Maybe it was Lucy? Maybe? She looked like a Lucy.
The Doctor whispered back to her. "It's okay. We're intruders too."
"We've been here for long enough that if we were going to ring an alarm, we would have done it by now."
Lucy (?) stared at the two of them longer. Both Marion and the Doctor brought another bite of food to their mouths at almost the same time. "Yeah, we brought snacks. Mark of a pro. Keep listening."
"Looks like a brain to me. Kind of blue, I guess, but that's the fluid, right?" said the man in charge.
"Yes. That's the fluid." After several moments of silence, "Tap the glass, sir."
"What'd you say?"
"Tap the glass, please."
Marion heard two high-pitched clinking noises.
"What? What the hell is that? Is that a joke?"
"No sir, it's not a joke."
"It's got eyes! Look at them, they're like-" A moment of shocked and horrified silence, "They're like your eyes."
"Yes sir, they are."
"Doctor Sim? What are you pointing at?"
The Doctor had finished eating, and he had moved to peak over hopefully Lucy's head. Marion remained facing away from the door, so she could hear them, but not see them. She didn't want someone to sneak up behind them.
She felt vaguely anxious, but her vision was steady. And she was sure that that would change if something happened, but she was going to stay put anyway.
"I'm pointing at Doctor Sim. Don't look so alarmed. We merely exchanged containers. You might call this a hijack."
Marion heard the sounds of a short scuffle and then the sound of something fleshy clicking into place.
"What happened to you? I don't understand." said the man who was supposed to be in charge.
"The same thing that is about to happen to you. I had a change of mind."
Something that Lucy and the Doctor saw made them quickly move to get away from the safe door, and Marion of course walked with them. They moved to the end of the corridor, where they could still see down the hall.
Marion heard the sound of something hydraulic closing and metallic clicking sounds.
Marion still watched their back until the Doctor tapped probably-Lucy on the shoulder with the back side of his chopsticks and then lightly nudged Marion in the side with his elbow. Marion looked over at him, and then gestured with his head to the side. There had been a bit of nausea, but that had soon disappeared the farther away they got the more of the faint dizziness Marion felt was gone.
The Doctor walked towards the stairs instead of the elevator, and they walked down. Once they were far enough away that they had plausible deniability, the Doctor finally spoke.
"Who are you?" the Doctor asked.
"Lucy Fletcher, a reporter from the Daily Chronicle." the woman froze, "Hang on, why am I telling you the truth?"
Huh. Her name actually was Lucy. Marion didn't actually think she had gotten it right.
"He's got a trustworthy face," Marion answered. "A lot of people tell him things they don't need to. One of many reasons that it's a good thing he's not a cop."
"Looking for a story?" the Doctor asked. He started walking off and with Marion and Lucy following close behind him.
"I think I just found one." Lucy remarked.
Their group passed the TARDIS and the Doctor took them to wherever he was taking them.
"Brains with minds of their own? No one will believe that. This is America."
Marion hummed thoughtfully. "Well, no, I think people will believe it. But the people who'll believe it will be the sort of people that having them believe your story will make everyone else disbelieve it."
Course, Marion also figured that if she gave it half a dozen or so years, people would respond to such an article with a "Ok. Sure. Fine. Whatever. That's far from the most batshit thing I've read this morning."
Twenty-sixteen had been fairly deranged from what she could recall. But most people were still in the "Wow, that's strange" way of thinking and hadn't fully reached the levels of "yeah, sure, okay, whatever" that resulted in the most common reaction to a congressional hearing saying that aliens might be real with shrugs.
Lucy stared at the two of them in confusion.
"Who ARE you?"
"Special Agents Dan Dangerous and Marion Mayhem" "That's not-" the Doctor continued speaking as if Marion hadn't "from Scotland Yard, Scotland. The Doctor for short. See," on the wall was a large stylized map of the world made of raised metal. At various points on the map, was a raised white dot. "they've got institutes all over the world. And always in capital cities."
"Nope,"
The newcomer was a bald man who was taller than Marion, but shorter than the Doctor wearing an orange hoodie.
Nardole.
Marion, honestly, didn't remember much about Nardole off the top of her head. But she knew she didn't dislike him. She was fairly certain that he was of the flavor of companion that made fun of the Doctor, but like, in a way that was funny and deserved instead of aggravating.
The Doctor turned to glare at him. "Yes, yes, they are, see?" The Doctor pointed around the map.
"New York's not a capital city, is it?"
"You don't need to point out the mistakes." the Doctor whispered loudly at Nardole, "That's not what you're for."
Marion looked at the map carefully. She pointed upward towards its left side.
"I think there's one in Los Angeles too."
"Los Angeles and New York City aren't even the capital of their states." Nardole mused "Looks like there's one in DC too. At least they got that right."
The Doctor looked between the two of them. "Why are you ganging up on- Marion?"
Whatever the Doctor was going to say was interrupted when she saw Marion suddenly sway on her feet. Just as a spotlight flashed on with a loud click. A man was approaching the four of them holding a gun, and the closer he got, the more the dizziness transitioned into arm pain.
Shit.
She knew that this was going to happen, but she figured that it wouldn't until they were at least a little bit further into the building. She would've told the Doctor to keep moving.
The three of them put their hands up, with Marion subtly shifting herself to be closer to the Doctor.
Marion finally got a face to the voice. He looked largely unremarkable, save for a diagonal line going from the upper left side of his face to the lower right side of his face. It might've been confused for a scar if Marion didn't know it for what it was.
A seam.
"I would call Security," the man's hand was shaking but it was rhythmic and fake. Like he was doing it more for the sake of an observer, like a silent camera, "but they might leave you alive. I do not want any awkward questions about the intruders I was forced to shoot for my own protection."
Marion bit back a remark.
"Good plan. Here's another one." The Doctor spun on his heels and faced the map, "Go on. Tell them you shot us in the back in self-defence." Nardole and Lucy looked at each other and turned around too. Marion did as well. "We'll be laughing all the way to the slab."
Weirdly enough, when the Doctor turned around, the pain in her arm faded away into just a bit of low-level nausea. And she didn't want the guy to fire at her, miss, and hit someone else. So goading the man was out.
And she was pretty sure that there was a superhero on the way, so there was no reason to believe that this was going to escalate into the Doctor possibly dying.
And if it did-
Well. She knew what she would do. She'd proven to herself that she was capable of doing it. Even if she had a panic atta-...even if she freaked out a little afterwards.
Marion heard a loud rhythmic knocking on one of the nearby floor-to-ceiling windows.
"Face me"
"Nah," Marion replied, "Feel free to pull the trigger though."
"Face me now!"
Marion heard more and more knocking noises from the window.
"What is that?" "Sim" asked.
"Maybe you should look." Marion replied. She was sure that the smile could be heard in her voice, "Might be something important. Don't worry, we'll wait."
"It sounds like-"
"Someone's at the window," The Doctor finished.
"We're on the hundredth floor," Lucy said in disbelief.
The five of them turned around to see the source of the noise.
There was a man floating just outside of the window. His cape waved back and forth in the wind, and one foot raised slightly higher than the other. He was dressed in dark blues and reds with a silver "G" on his chest and a mask covering his eyes.
"Oh, my God, he's real!" Lucy said in disbelief.
"Who's real?" the Doctor asked.
Marion smiled at the man and waved.
"Marion, who is that?"
"The Ghost," Lucy answered.
Marion couldn't see if he was smiling or not, but he did wave back.
"Who's the Ghost?" the Doctor asked.
"Masked vigilante. But he's-"
"What?"
"Super."
The Ghost snapped his fingers and the window frame shattered with a loud twinkling noise. Marion found herself wincing at the noise.
He floated through the opening and walked across the glass towards "Sim"
Marion glanced over at the Doctor to find him staring at the Ghost carefully.
"Mind if I come in?"
The man was clearly trying to deepen his voice to make himself sound more heroic. It almost didn't sound fake.
"Impressive. Those windows, like everything in this building, are built to withstand a blast equivalent to four nuclear explosions."
"Hmm."
Sim proceeded to empty his gun into the Ghost's chest while the Ghost continued to march forward towards the man, not even flinching.
Unlike Marion, who was in close proximity to repetitive loud and booming noises that just kept getting closer and closer.
Marion didn't understand why people kept trying to fire bullets at beings to which ballistics had no effect. It wasn't just an evil makes you stupid thing, because she'd seen UNIT soldiers do the same.
Why on Earth would you continue to fire your gun at the chest of a person when it doesn't absolutely nothing. You should either stop shooting or aim somewhere else.
If "Sim" realized this, it wasn't until he had run out of bullets which didn't matter.
Ghost plucked off a bit of bullet that had gotten embedded in his emblem and then he grabbed "Sim" by his chin and lifted him up in the air.
Marion wished that she was tall enough to do that to people. Not that she'd do it, but being able to lift people up in the air was a good intimidation tactic that she herself was too busy being five-foot-one to accomplish.
"Please understand, it's against my personal code to cause lasting harm to any individual." Ghost said, before throwing "Sim" against the wall. "However," he finished, "light to moderate injury's fine."
"That was good." Nardole remarked, "Marion, have you ever done anything like that?"
"Well, not yet," Marion replied. "But I hope so, it looked cool as hell."
"Hello," the Ghost said, focusing his attention on Lucy. Marion thought that he might have deepened his voice a bit more. Marion wondered if it was on purpose or not. "Was that man annoying you?"
Lucy's eyes hadn't left the man since he'd appeared floating in front of the window.
"You're real?" she said breathlessly. Her voice getting slightly higher as she spoke. Marion was fairly certain that that wasn't important. "I can't believe it, you're actually real."
"I'm afraid I am. I enjoy your column, Miss Fletcher."
"You read my column?" Lucy stepped closer and closer to the man. "You read? You're real and you read?"
"Though I find the political bias in your paper's editorial not entirely to my taste."
"I'll pass that on," she said quickly.
"Thank you." the Ghost nodded and pointed at their group, "Who are these people?"
"They're, er." Lucy stared at them and paused, "I don't actually know."
The Doctor hadn't stopped staring at Ghost.
Probably, because he was looking at someone who despite being specifically told not to use the superpowers he'd given them by accident had become a superhero.
"These are my friends, Marion and Nardole."
"Hiya!" Marion waved.
"Hello, the Ghost."
"And I'm the Doctor."
"The Doctor." the Ghost said slowly, "I thought we had lots of doctors."
"I'm the main one."
The two of them stared at each other, before the Ghost glanced towards Marion as if expecting her to say something. Marion shrugged and nodded her head towards Lucy. He turned to look at her.
"Can I give you a ride home?"
"You have a car?"
"No." the Ghost picked Lucy up in his arms bridal style. "I hope you're okay with heights."
"I'm okay so far," she replied, her voice getting a little bit high pitched again.
"Have a good evening, gentlemen and lady." the Ghost said, and then he flew off.
"He seems nice." Nardole remarked.
"Grant," the Doctor said staring after them, "Marion, this is your fault, isn't it."
"He would've become a superhero even I never did whatever it is that you remember me doing."
"But you encouraged him."
"I mean," Marion, shrugged, "probably. Sounds like something I'd do."
"I don't suppose I could convince you not to."
"Wouldn't really matter if I did it or not."
The Doctor's silence was deafening as he walked ahead of Marion and unlocked the TARDIS. He pushed the door open and nodded with his head for Marion and Nardole to get inside.
"Besides," Marion continued, already walking back to the TARDIS, "If I thought that him becoming a superhero was going to get him or anyone else killed, I would have said something. You know that. It'll be fine!"
"It still might draw attention that we absolutely don't need." The Doctor replied.
"Because you're so good at keeping under the radar."
The TARDIS landed on a roof just to the right rooftop air handling unit. The Doctor stepped outside, looked around for a moment, and then seemed to know exactly which door he needed to go down and which floor they needed to get to.
The Doctor stepped outside, continuing not to talk with Marion following after him.
"There are worse men to give superpowers." Marion remarked as they walked down the stairs and through a door labeled "Sixty" "Honestly, all things considered, you got one of the better ones."
The Doctor continued to walk until he soniced open a door and then walked inside beckoning for the two to follow after him.
The apartment was warm both in color and temperature and relatively cluttered. Not in the sense that it was messy or anything, but more of a fact that it was a smaller space that people lived in for a while.
The Doctor walked past a bedroom with comic books littering the floor. And then he stopped and backtracked. He walked into the small bedroom. In the corner was a pink crib with a small baby inside.
The baby's face was scrunched up like they were about to cry. The Doctor quickly walked forward, lifted the child into his arms, and shushed them.
The baby looked up at him as the Doctor bounced them softly. Tiny hands holding onto the Doctor's shirt. It was sweet the way the baby seemed to trust him implicitly.
"Oh hello," Marion said softly crouching down to be eye level and in that high-pitched little voice people find themselves compulsively using while addressing babies and small animals. The baby turned to look at her. "You're tiny aren't you."
In the distance, they heard the sound of someone running and the slide of said person stepping on comic books and slipping and hitting the ground.
"One of the better ones," The Doctor remarked to Marion dryly.
"I said what I said"
Moments later, a man with tousled hair who was identical in build to the Ghost but not in posture rushed into the room and darted straight toward the crib, before he realized that it was empty.
Marion and the Doctor watched the man, staring down into the crib as if hoping against hope that the baby was just invisible and would appear. Until the baby, seeming to recognize the man, made soft baby noises.
"With great power comes great responsibility." the Doctor said coldly.
The man who was the Ghost sighed as the Doctor continued,
"No man worthy of the title leaves a baby alone. No matter what Marion might think."
The Doctor stood up and started to walk away still holding the baby in his arms. The baby continued to stare up at him, but was largely quiet.
"How did you find me?"
He had dropped the fake gravel in his voice. What was left was something that sounded a lot more mild-mannered. If Marion didn't know better, she definitely wouldn't have been able to tell who was who.
"I tracked the gemstone inside you." the Doctor answered.
The Doctor fully walked out of the nursery. The Ghost practically tripped over himself trying to pick up some of the comic books that had been left on the floor before running after him.
The baby kept staring at Marion and Marion stared back.
"Your powers, they don't belong in this world. They're an anomaly."
"May I take her?" The man asked, reaching out for the baby.
"She's yours?"
"He's her nanny." Marion replied.
The Doctor lifted up the baby and passed her over to the man. She held her arms out for the Doctor, and didn't seem to relax until she realized that she was in a much more familiar person's arms.
"You're her nanny? He's her nanny." The Doctor spun on his heels to turn around and walk away.
"Yeah, her nanny." the man said defensively, "You got a problem with that?"
"No, no, it's just, well," the Doctor started sputtering, "okay, so you are a superhero and a nanny?"
"Well, you've got to make a buck somehow. I mean, you don't get paid for saving people."
"When do you sleep Grant- it's Grant right? Grant. Tell me, do you sleep at all or do you just blink really hard around 3 am."
"The middle of the night is when most crime happens."
"Christ."
Marion hadn't realized that Nardole had walked off somewhere until he came back holding a bottle out to Grant. (At least, she was pretty sure his name was Grant. She was pretty sure that's what the Doctor had called him earlier, and Grant hadn't corrected her when she'd called him Grant. Plus. He looked like a Grant.)
"Here you go," Nardole said, "nice and warm. And tasty. Ooo, elephant" Nardole walked off.
"It's fine." Grant assured, walking away holding the baby "It's a long-range baby-monitor. I can get back to this apartment quicker than most people can get to their kids' bedrooms."
"Grant, Grant," the Doctor stared at him, "this is insane. Look, I'm me, the Doctor, and even I think this is insane. Marion, you're human. This is insane isn't it!"
"Yeah Grant, bud, this is concerning."
"I can cope." Grant nodded with a familiar smile.
Marion was pretty sure she knew exactly how that smile would feel on her own face. Not because of recent events, but because of her own sub-optimal sleep habits in her third year.
"Of course, you can't." the Doctor sighed, "Marion brings up a good point. When do you sleep? When are you not on call? How complicated do you need your life to be?"
The door to the apartment opened and closed. Grant sighed.
"Well, not as complicated as it's about to get." he turned and walked away, "Er, we're in here, Mrs. Lombard."
"Oh, Jennifer," a familiar voice said, "look at you, up again? Don't you ever sleep?"
Marion, Nardole, and the Doctor peeked through the living room and towards the door. Lucy, the woman from before, was standing by the door holding her baby in her arms and cooing softly.
"Did you have a good evening, Mrs. Lombard?"
The Doctor's eyes flickered towards Marion who flickered back and they watched Grant trail after Lucy.
"Oh, it was work. Why would it be good?"
"Well, I don't know, you seem a little buzzed. I thought maybe you'd met someone."
"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. Grant-" finally, the woman noticed the three of them standing in her living room, "What are you doing here?" she hissed.
"We could ask you the same question." Nardole replied, "But it's your apartment, so we probably won't."
"Well, we," from behind Lucy, Grant shook his head quickly at the Doctor, "we, we, we were worried about you." Grant nodded, "We wanted to make sure that you were all right, so, er, we followed you."
"Yes!" Marion cut in, "I mean we watched you be carried away by a strange man-" Grant glared at her, "We just wanted to make sure that you had gotten home alright- and at all."
"You followed me and got here first?" Lucy wasn't buying it.
"Well, that's just a measure of our concern."
"Very concerned." Nardole nodded.
"They said they knew you. I let them in."
Lucy glanced back at Grant. "We met tonight." The woman stepped forward towards Marion and the Doctor. "We need to talk, you two and me."
"Oh! Did something happen?"
"Nothing for you to worry your pretty little head about." the woman turned around to walk away, "I'll put her to bed."
Grant stood in front of her. "I can do that."
"No, it's okay, I want to."
Grant stared after her as she left while the Doctor stared at Grant.
"Lombard's her married name. He ran off when the baby came along."
"Lucy," The Doctor said softly, "Same Lucy that was your favorite in high school. The one that you liked enough that you started floating halfway up the wall when she said hello to you."
Grant nodded. And gestured towards the balcony. He stepped outside and Marion and the Doctor followed him.
"A couple of years after high school, I ran into her again."
Marion vaguely remembered how this story went and she was already wincing in sympathy.
"She even remembered me."
"Oh, that was lucky,"
"And I was with my best friend at the time, and she couldn't take her eyes off him."
"Okay."
"Love at first sight."
"Right."
"Then marriage, then a baby, and then he ran off with someone else."
Marion grit her teeth and let out a short burst of air.
"And that I suppose," the Doctor replied, "Leaves the field open for you to move in-"
"Yeah."
"So she could keep working and possibly date other friends of yours."
"Pretty much."
Marion nudged Grant's side. "Sounds rough."
"Marion, you know the future," Grant said slowly. "Or at the very least you know things you shouldn't be able to know."
"That's not incorrect."
"What are the chances of Lucy and I-"
"Can't answer that."
"Is that a no?" Grant asked.
"It's a 'can't answer that'. Don't want you pursuing or not pursuing a relationship based entirely on my word."
Just below where they were perched on the fire escape, Marion heard the sound of sirens. Looking down, a fire truck roared past with a cop car leading it. Off in the distance, just behind a building, Marion could see the bright orange glow of a fire.
Grant stared off in the distance and handed Marion his glasses.
"Excuse me."
Marion blinked and then the Ghost was gone.
There was a gust of wind, and all Marion could make out of the hero was the shadow he made against the bright lights of the cityscape.
Marion stared off into the distance and then her calm was ruined when the worst most high pitched grating noise pierced through her ear like a needle. She flinched and turned to see the source of the noise.
Lucy was leaning out the kitchen window. In her hand was something that looked kind of like Beaker the muppet's head, but tan and plastic.
"This is Mister Huffle." Lucy said simply, "Mister Huffle feels pain."
'Something the two of us have in common,' Marion thought.
Lucy squeezed Mister Huffle again and Marion winced again.
"Meet me in the kitchen." The woman said sternly. Then she ducked back inside of her apartment without another word.
The apartment felt pretty warm compared to a fire escape in December. When Marion and the Doctor ducked back inside to the apartments and went into the kitchen, Lucy had changed out of the cleaning lady outfit and into a grey shirt and a pair of lounge pants. The kitchen TV was turned to the news article about the Manhattan fire that the Ghost had run off too.
Lucy had her laptop open and was typing something as she was sitting at the smaller side of a rectangular table. An open notebook with her phone resting on top of it. The notebook was filled with writing and a diagram on a sketch or two. Without looking up she pointed at the two chairs on the longer side.
The Doctor sat down on the chair closer to Lucy and Marion sat on the chair a little bit further away. Lucy continued not to look up and continued to type. Marion wasn't in a position where she could look over her shoulder and see what she was doing. Her guess was that it was an email, not an article, but that wasn't something that she could be 100% sure about.
"With you in a minute." The woman said quickly as she decided to type.
Marion felt like she was in the principal's office.
Finally, she looked up. She placed Mister Huffle between the two of them.
"So, you're from Scotland Yard?" she asked.
"Ye-"
Lucy grabbed Mister Huffle and squeezed.
Did Marion have Advil in her back? She felt like she should. And if she didn't, surely she should look into getting a hold of some. It had been one of many things she had been planning on picking up before, you know.
The toy made a terrible noise as it was squeezed and a longer, drawn-out, just as bad noise as it reinflated.
"It's fine if you don't tell me your secrets." Lucy said quietly and carefully, "I intend to keep mine. But don't lie to me."
"Or what?"
"I hurt Mister Huffle."
Little Jennifer was going to have some interesting stories to tell about growing up. Not necessarily bad, but interesting.
Lucy continued. "I assume you belong to some kind of, I don't know, agency, I don't care which one, and that your current assignment is to investigate Harmony Shoal. Correct?"
"Eh…" Marion waved her hand. "No agency. Not really. Not technically? And no Assignment."
"No Assignment, then why were you investigating Harmony Shoal?"
"Truthfully, he just kind of woke me up a few hours ago, told me to come with him."
Lucy looked directly at the Doctor, "So was it your idea to investigate Harmony Shoal?
"I was just passing through."
Lucy grabbed Mister Huffle with both hands and squeezed tightly. Marion's shoulders were up to her ears.
"Okay, okay. Yes, fine, okay, yes, broadly speaking, yes."
"What are those brain things?"
"How big's your standard for weird and unlikely before you just kind of give up. I mean you saw a man twist apart his head at the seams and a room full of sentient brains in jars, and a man with super strength flying through the sky, so I'd hope that your standards would be pretty high but if you've reached your limit then things might get-."
"You're stalling." Lucy replied reaching for Mister Huffle
"No, I'm rambling," Marion said, reaching out to stop her. "I do it when I'm nervous. And when I'm not nervous. A regular chatterbox me."
"Those brains," the Doctor jumped in, "they aren't just brains. They're independent alien life forms."
"And?"
"They migrate from planet to planet, extracting and replacing the central nervous systems of compatible hosts."
"And?"
"Harmony Shoal is a multinational corporation with large, nuclear bomb-proof skyscrapers in capital cities and large population centers."
"Harmony Shoal's true purpose is to extract and replace the brains of key authority figures from around the world, and prepare Earth for full colonisation."
"Ha,"
Mister Huffle reinflated himself the rest of the way with a shriek.
"You believe me?"
"I don't think you're lying. Slightly different."
"You know what you saw in the vault." Marion replied, "What did you think was going on then? They literally said that they were swapping brains. You know what you saw, and they tried to kill you over it."
Lucy stared at Marion for a moment, before she continued.
"What has Harmony Shoal got to do with the Ghost?"
"Nothing outside of saving your lives and both being in New York."
"So you know who the Ghost is" Lucy leaned closer to Marion.
"Oh?" Marion replied.
"Stop it!" Lucy leaned forward her hand squeezing down on Mister Huffle, "We just went to a top-secret science research facility apparently run by brains from space, and a flying man with superpowers turns up. Anybody would assume the two were connected, except for somebody who already knew they weren't. So, clearly, you know the Ghost and trust him. Nobody trusts anybody without knowing who they are, so you know who he really is."
Marion blinked slowly. I mean, the end result to her conclusions were correct but-
"Wowee. There's a lot to unpack there. You don't use that kind of logic for your articles do you? There's a lot of leaps in logic there. Please tell me you don-"
She squeezed Mister Huffle again.
"I wish you wouldn't do that."
"You're stalling again. Is he your boss?"
"Who? The Ghost?"
"No. Him," she nodded her head towards the Doctor.
"No. 'Course not. Why would you think that?"
"The way he act he's not used to working for anyone. So either he's your boss or you don't work for an agency."
"Even when he actually worked for an agency he as an active part of he acted like that. That's just the way he is."
"So you did work for an agency."
"Like as long as I have, you'll do anything at least once," The Doctor remarked.
"But you aren't working for one now,"
"Not technically no."
"So why are you investigating Harmony Shoal?" Lucy demanded, "What's in it for you?"
"I like to keep busy."
"And you've seen the kind of trouble he gets into." Marion pointed to him, "You think I'm going to let him explore alone? Absolutely not. The Ghost hadn't come when he did then you might've gotten shot."
"You did it again."
"Did what? Ramble?"
"She tends to do that," "I tend to do that." The Doctor and Marion said at the same time.
"You said you."
"What are you talking about?"
"Dr. Sim had his gun pointed at all of us."
"Yes."
"But when talking about it, you've been saying you. You did it just now 'you might've gotten shot'"
"That is what guns tend to do? I don't see how reminding you that you might've died if not for the Ghost's timely intervention."
"You've been saying you."
"As opposed to?"
"We. Us. You've been excluding yourself from the situation. As if the rest of us were in danger, but not you. Are you working with them?"
Ah. Maybe path to her conclusions aside, she couldn't deny that she was good at connecting the dots. "No" Marion said slowly, "I just-" Marion closed her eyes and opened them again. "Fuck." she hissed under her breath. "Okay" Marion got out of her seat and moved a bit away from Lucy. Lucy got up.
"Lucy, I'm about to make a point, and that point requires me bringing out a knife. I'm telling you, because I don't want you to think I'm pulling the knife out to attack you, because I'm not."
"Marion," the Doctor also stood up,
"Calm down," Marion said, rummaging through her bag. "I'm not going to do anything crazy like stab myself. Just a little prick."
Marion held up the pocket knife and held out her left hand where Lucy could see it. She pressed the edge of the knife against her thumb until it stung and then held it up. A tiny bead of blood flowed down her finger for a moment, before stopping and flowing back upward into the wound. Then it sealed itself shut.
"I didn't count myself because if Sim shot me, I would simply just get back up. It'd be kind of a pain, and my shirt would get ruined, but other than that, 'snot something worth bringing up. Is that good enough?"
Above Marion's head, the TV showed the Ghost being interviewed by a reporter about the fire and taking the time to do a quick PSA. Lucy grabbed the remote and raised the volume a bit.
"Because fire prevention is the responsibility of every citizen, so get a smoke detector!"
In the nursery, baby Jennifer cried softly. Lucy, the sort of mother that she was, turned around to look in that direction and just missed the Ghost looking at a baby monitor at the same time.
She turned back around just in time to hear him say. "Sorry, duty calls.", but not quick enough to see the reason why and connect the dots, or at the very least, those dots.
"Oh, look at him go. I need to know who he is. So, you work with him or are you separate."
"Separate."
Grant suddenly ran back into the room holding Jennifer and bouncing her in his arms.
"You're all right." he assured, he looked at Lucy, "She just needs a change."
"Oh, it's okay, I'll do it." Lucy said, picking Jennifer up out of Grant's hands, "You're so quick, Grant."
"Oh, yes. He's definitely quick-"
Marion passed the glasses to the Doctor who quickly put them back on Grant's face before she could get a look at his face without them.
The TV continued to blare on about the fire while Lucy left the room. The two of them smiled at each other, when Grant's smile dropped as soon as Lucy walked out of the room and he realized that the Doctor and Marion were staring at him.
"Dude, are you okay?"
"Do you have any time off?"
"Sure"
Another reporter started to recount ANOTHER breaking news story.
"As the storm hit, it became clear that two children were still trapped on the big wheel. The two small can be seen clinging on to the-"
Marion heard a gust of wind and the glasses once again dropped in her open palm. She gently placed them on the counter.
"Doctor? Marion?" Lucy called the two of them into the nursery.
"So, can you put me in touch with him?" she asked. She spoke softly so that she didn't wake the already half-asleep baby up the rest of the way. "The real guy behind the mask? I mean you work with him don't you? He knows you at least. And you both have powers. Does he have powers too?" Lucy pointed to the Doctor.
Marion tilted her head. "I think that depends on what you consider powers. But, I think he might know me better than I know him. Grant, I mean."
"What does that mean?"
Marion shrugged. "What it sounds like."
The Doctor looked frustrated, but not angry.
"You're smart. You're so clever I actually noticed. I hardly ever listen when other people are talking. If it's that important Marion'll sum it up for me later."
"So what?" Lucy asked.
"So why can't you find him yourself?"
"I got a lead," Lucy replied with a smile.
"What lead?"
"You two. You know him. Don't even try telling me you don't. There can't be that many people running around New York with superpowers. And at the same time."
The Doctor grimaced. "Maybe you know him too."
Lucy put Jennifer back down into her crib and then she paused. She stood back up again and looked around.
"Hey, where'd Grant go?"
"Right here, Mrs Lombard."
The man was standing at the doorway, slightly out of breath and looking like he'd just been standing outside in the rain for hours.
"Oh."
Grant had been doing his "the Ghost" voice at the beginning of that sentence, before he quickly seemed to realize where he was and who he was talking to, and his voice got normal at the end.
"Would you like your coffee?"
"Oh, no, I'm okay, thanks." Lucy seemed to notice the state that Grant was in, "Are you all right?"
"Sure. Why?"
"You're kind of wet."
"I prefer mild-mannered."
Lucy looked at Grant for another moment, inhaled deeply, and turned around to look back at Marion and the Doctor.
"Can you put me in touch with him?"
"The Ghost?"
"Yeah, the Ghost."
A quick glance at the Doctor's face saw an expression of disbelief and frustration and annoyance. Meanwhile, the expression on Marion's face was that of a person who understood that laughter was an inappropriate response to the current situation, and was carefully blanking their face lest they smile, giggle, or full on laugh.
"Mrs. Lombard, there are some situations which are just too stupid to be allowed to continue."
"And there are some situations that are just stupid enough they should be allowed to continue for as long as they can with minimal intervention."
There was a woosh of air and Grant disappeared from the doorway. A few moments later, the landline started to ring.
"Hang on. Hello."
"Yes. Who is this?"
"Am I? Sorry," the woman smiled and lowered her voice, "am I, am I speaking to the Ghost?"
The Doctor looked up from the crib, turned around, and stared at her in confusion. The Doctor did a double take, and then walked out of the room.
"Kitchen," Marion mouthed at him.
As they left the room, Lucy's voice got softer and softer, but a masculine voice got louder and louder until they found Grant leaning against the kitchen counter with his phone to his ear.
"An interview is entirely possible, but I must make one thing clear. There must be no talk of who I really am."
The Doctor continued to stare at Grant in disbelief.
"Discussion of my true identity would put the people closest to me at risk. That is not acceptable."
There was a bit of silence. Marion couldn't really make out what Lucy was saying from the kitchen but she could hear that she was talking and when the noise stopped Grant started to talk again.
"For what?"
"Dinner."
"Of course, I eat dinner."
Something that Graham heard on the other end of the phone caused him to frantically stare down at his phone before opening the oven, tossing his phone inside, and then kicking the door back up. He made an attempt to look casual as he wiped off his hands on a dishtowel. The Doctor made himself busy looking at the trophy he found and Marion, just flopped down on the couch next to him..
Lucy rushed into the room
"Grant, could you babysit for me tomorrow night?"
"Um…"
"Please, it's important."
"I've got a date." "I've got a date."
The two of them said at the same time.
"A date?" "A date?"
"Er, kind of a date," Lucy added.
"Okay"
"An interview." she stared at Grant for a moment and squinted, "Are you seeing someone?"
"Um-"
"None of my business. I mean. But are you? I mean, you never even go out, and suddenly you've got a date?"
"Yeah, well, it kind of came as a surprise to me too."
"I'm sorry?"
"It's complicated," Grant offered.
"I can confirm that it's definitely complicated."
"And honestly, very funny."
Grant glared at Marion for a moment.
"You know," Grant said quickly, "don't worry about it, I'll look after Jennifer."
"You will?"
"You will?"
"I'll figure it out. Let me take care of it."
"Okay"
"Okay"
Lucy left the room.
The moment she was out of earshot, the Doctor quickly walked towards the men.
"She's jealous." the Doctor whispered.
"I'm jealous!" Grant whispered back.
"Grant, you are jealous of you."
"Technically, she's jealous of her."
"You're both jealous of each other and this whole situation is very dumb in a way that I hope you two laugh about later. Watching you two would be incredibly painful if it wasn't so incredibly funny."
"Grant, how long have you known this woman?" the Doctor asked.
"Since elementary school. Twenty-four years,"
Marion expected the Doctor to get solemn after the Doctor's twenty-four year long date with River but instead, the Doctor seemed even more frustrated.
"You're still dancing around each other after nearly a quarter of a century!" The Doctor stared at Marion, "Marion! You're a human! This can't be normal can it? You lot would never get anything done if you danced around each other this much! You don't live long enough for that! You would die out."
Marion looked sheepish. "I'm probably not one to talk. I found out during sophomore year of college that one of my classmates had been openly flirting with me for months and she'd taken my lack of response as a subtle rejection."
"And was it?"
"No." Marion said bluntly, "I just didn't notice."
"I don't know why I expected a different answer out of you."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means that nothing about what you just told me is surprising and honestly, it's my fault for asking. Grant, I'm afraid you've got your work cut out for you. Frankly, I have no idea how your species has lasted as long as it has."
Grant stared at the two of them.
"Doctor are you-"
"No." the Doctor said quickly
"Doctor, you cut him off, you didn't even let him finish!"
"He was going to ask if the two of us 'dancing around each other'"
"Oh!" Marion looked Grant in the eye, "No."
"No?"
"Are you together then?"
"No." "No"
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. Speaking of things I'm certain about. Be careful on your date."
"Why? Is something going to happen?"
"Well, it might."
Next Chapter: He's Right Behind Me, Isn't He?
The Doctor: Grant, this is stupid I wish you would stop.
Marion: Grant, this is stupid, I wish you would continue.
I'm going to be honest, the thought process that led to me doing the return of Doctor Mysterio started with me going "Hey, wouldn't it be funny if I made the chapter titles dumb Marvel Quotes"