Sorry for the long wait! As we're now in Lockdown 2.0, hopefully, we can get a few more updates!
I hope you enjoy! We finally have some Tennant in the story!
Also, if anyone's interested… I envisage 'Hally's' guard to look like Richard Armitage, only very mean.
The Doctor turned around, manic energy radiating off him as he stalked towards the TARDIS. "Jack, with me." He shot the Captain a look which he obviously wasn't going to argue with.
Jack nodded quickly and hopped into action, heading through the TARDIS doors. Hally took a step towards them but The Doctor swirled around, holding his hand up.
"Not you." He scanned the room quickly.
"Turn everything up. All transmitters full power, wide open!" He called to the remaining humans in the room. They didn't move.
"Now! Do it!" A few of them jumped but it worked, they quickly moved to their computers and began typing furiously. The Doctor looked back at his daughter.
"Stop the Daleks from transmatting on board. Get them to contact earth, warn them." Hally nodded slowly as the Doctor backed himself into the TARDIS.
"See if we can get any firepower or defences. Evacuate everyone…"
She nodded again. The Doctor paused for a moment, looking into her eyes. He could see a burning anger flickering behind the soft hazel. He opened his mouth to say something else, before thinking better of it, shutting the TARDIS doors behind him.
As soon as the TARDIS began to dematerialise, Hally ran to the computer she'd been sat at, quickly flicking through the system schematics to see what she had at her disposal.
"Pavale?!" She called out. A moment later she felt the nervous man lean over the desk to her left.
"Ummm, yes?"
She looked up at him, her face was hard but not uncaring. "Transmitters are all on full power, yes?"
He nodded quickly, flicking a look to his work colleagues.
"Good. Did you contact earth?"
He coughed awkwardly, Hally raised an eyebrow expectantly. They didn't have time for pleasantries.
"Pavale!"
He spluttered a little, nodding again. "We did… but they just suspended our license…" He added weakly, worried she'd shout at him again.
Hally let out an overly dramatic sigh. "Humans."
She paused for a moment, flexing her jaw. The large screen at the front of the room flickered into life once more, The Doctor was streaming his position live from inside the Dalek ship. She looked up momentarily to see The Doctor step out of the TARDIS with both Jack and Rose.
"Exterminate!"
"Exterminate! Exterminate!" A dozen Dalek's surrounded them, blasting directly at The Doctor. Hally smirked slightly as the blasts ricocheted off an expanded TARDIS force field.
She turned back to the computer as The Doctor addressed the Daleks.
"Right…" She muttered more to herself than to Pavale, trying to think of a way to protect the earth from the millions of Daleks hovering above them.
"The satellite… it must have a defence system, yes? To protect from space debris?" She turned to look at Pavale again who was watching the feed of The Doctor.
"Oh, umm yes." Pavale moved so he was right beside her, with a few taps on the keyboard he brought up the satellite defence system.
"Hmm…" Hally made a face. "It'll do."
Pavale looked slightly offended.
"…Any weapons at all?" She continued, raising an eyebrow at him.
He made a small whimpering noise. "No…"
She narrowed her eyes, turning back to the computer silently. A moment later she cried out in frustration and hit the desk underneath her hands hard. The sound echoed through the room as all the humans turned to look at her. Pavale smiled nervously at them.
She looked over at him, sucking on her teeth irritably. After a moment her expression softened. "Sorry… you've done great." She smiled at him in what she hoped was an encouraging manner. "Help the others with the evacuation…"
Pavale nodded quickly before scurrying back over to the others. Hally let out a long breath, running her hands through her hair. She made quick work of putting the defence force field on full power, extending its range so it would at least cover the earth.
Her heartbeats were beating loudly in her ears, her stomach felt like lead. Even if they could evacuate everyone and the satellite's defences were strong enough to hold off the Dalek attacks, they were still sitting ducks without any sort of weapon system. Hally looked back up at the screen, The Doctor was taunting the Dalek Emperor, probably stalling so they'd have time to evacuate as many of the levels as possible.
"They're insane…" She heard his voice crackle over the speakers. "Hiding in silence for hundreds of years, that's enough to drive anyone mad. But it's worse than that. Driven mad by your own flesh. The stink of humanity. You hate your own existence. And that makes them more deadly than ever…" He shot a dark look straight down the camera.
"We're going." The Doctor turned, pushing Rose and Jack back towards the TARDIS.
The Emperor's deep voice made Hally's hair stand on end. "You may not leave my presence."
The Dalek's surrounding the trio waved their blasters threateningly as their lights flashed angrily demanding The Doctor's presence, but the TARDIS was already beginning to dematerialise. The link cut off as the TARDIS disappeared from the screen. Hally felt a soft breeze run across her back as the TARDIS landed right back in its original space.
The Doctor bounded out, Rose and Jack in tow. "How did you get on? Did you contact Earth?"
Pavale piped up from the other side of the room. "Well, we tried to warn them, but all they did was suspend our license because we stopped the programmes."
"…And the planet's just sitting there, defenceless." The Doctor groaned.
Hally stood up, getting his attention. "Not quite, I managed to extend the force field from the satellite. So they can't blow us or the earth out of the sky just yet." She sent him a small smile which he returned with a big, stupid grin.
"Brilliant! You definitely get your genius from me!" He waggled his eyebrows happily.
Hally scoffed, crossing her arms. "Nope. I'm actually terrible at this stuff." She chuckled when his exaggerated grin fell from his face. "I just had a very persistent tutor." She shrugged.
The Doctor opened his mouth, no doubt to insist that she got her intelligence from him, when he noticed that Lynda was still hovering in the room.
"Lynda, what're you still doing onboard? I told you to evacuate everyone." The Doctor moved past Hally to the human, who shot him a small smile.
"She wouldn't go." Pavale crossed his arms.
"Didn't want to leave you." She shrugged as if it was obvious.
Hally frowned, this girl had known The Doctor for all of 20 minutes? Were all humans so terrible at self-preservation?
The snooty woman that had spoken earlier piped up. "There weren't enough shuttles anyway, or I wouldn't be here." Hally let out a snort, that was more like it. "We've got about a hundred people stranded on Floor Zero."
The Doctor was looking at Lynda, his face scrunched up into a frown. Jack moved his way over to the front, flicking a switch which brought up the live images of the Dalek fleet again. This seemed to remind The Doctor that they had things to do, as he suddenly jolted away from Lynda and began to manically pull wires out of the surrounding computers.
Hally moved slowly over to him, watching silently as he began to reattach the wires. Everyone else in the room was quiet too, until Pavale noticed the Dalek ships beginning to move on the screen.
"Oh, my God. The fleet is moving. They're on their way." He muttered quietly, but the whole room heard him. Hally swallowed loudly, panic beginning to bubble up into her stomach.
"Dalek plan. Big mistake, because what have they left me with?" The Doctor's voice cut across the nervous silence. He was rearranging wires, left, right and centre. "Anyone? Anyone?" He looked between the humans and his companions. "Oh, come on, it's obvious. A great big transmitter. This station. If I can change the signal, fold it back, sequence it, anyone?" He rambled on quickly, looking at them all like they were all children. He shot Hally an expectant look, which she ignored, sending him a small glare by way of telling him to get on with the explaining.
"You've got to be kidding…" Jack stepped up beside her, staring at The Doctor like he was insane.
The Doctor grinned. "Give the man a medal!"
"A Delta Wave?" Jack asked slowly.
"A Delta Wave!" The Doctor confirmed, he looked ecstatic.
"What's a Delta Wave?" Rose asked from behind them. Hally looked up to Jack to see that he was also staring at her, an incredulous look on his face. It was as if he was wordlessly asking her if her father was serious. She shrugged, turning back to The Doctor who had gone back to pulling wires unceremoniously out of the floor.
"A wave of Van Cassadyne energy." Jack turned back and began to explain the plan for Rose. "It fries your brain. Stand in the way of a Delta Wave and your head gets barbequed."
"And this place can transmit a massive wave. Wipe out the Daleks!" The Doctor called.
"Well, get started and do it then!" Lynda called from the other side of the room. Hally crossed her arms over her chest, seeing multiple holes in The Doctor's plan.
The Doctor winced. "Trouble is, wave this size, building this big, brain as clever as mine, powering it up should take about, oh, three days…?" He looked over to Pavale. "How long till the fleet arrive?"
"Twenty-two minutes." He confirmed, swallowing loudly.
The room fell into another silence as everyone went into internal panic mode. Hally looked around the room, no bright ideas from the humans then.
She let out a loud sigh which drew everyone's attention. "I…" She let her arms drop to her sides as she cocked her head to one side. "I might have something to help with that."
"Oh…" She heard Rose mutter from behind her. Hally rolled her eyes, striding towards The Doctor who was looking at her with uncertainty etched all over his face.
"A little bit of confidence wouldn't go amiss." She scoffed, pulling the wire from his hand. She looked up to see that all of the humans were still staring at her. "Don't you all have anything better to be doing? Preparing for war and such?!" She snapped.
She could feel The Doctor's eyes on her face, one of his eyebrows raised slowly as the humans started to make themselves look busy. All except Jack and Rose, the former was looking at her with undying curiosity while the later looked on in understanding.
Hally rolled her eyes, turning back to The Doctor. "I can power it." She told him, not offering any further explanation. "Configure the wires to draw power from me."
The Doctor blinked a few times, his eyes narrowing as he tried to compute what she was saying. "Wha-?"
"Look, you can either ask stupid questions with very complicated answers or you can kill all the Daleks." She cut him off. "Which will it be?" She raised an eyebrow.
The Doctor surveyed her for a moment, she could see the hundred questions that he wanted to ask her burning behind his eyes. Then, he nodded and silently set to work.
When everything else was ready, The Doctor began to gently connect the wires to his daughter. He could connect most of them via conductive patches but a few needed him to secure the conduction underneath the skin. If she was in any pain she wasn't showing it. The Doctor found himself staring at the face of his daughter for a moment.
She didn't notice, she was too busy trying to listen in to what Jack was telling the remaining humans. "They'll have worked it out at the same time. So, they want to stop the Doctor. That means they've got to get to this level, five hundred. Now, I can concentrate the extrapolator around the top six levels, 500 to 495. So they'll penetrate the station below that at level 494 and fight their way up." He was explaining.
The Doctor coughed awkwardly from beside her which caught her attention. She slowly looked up at him, his expression was unreadable.
"This won't kill you… will it?" He muttered quietly so that only she could hear him.
She let out a soft laugh, looking back at Jack. "I like that you've waited until after you've wired me in to ask." A small smile played at her lips, but she shook her head all the same. "No. I'll be fine."
The Doctor seemed to deflate with relief, nodding slightly.
"Well… as fine as any of us are going to be when the Delta Wave hits." She quipped, flicking her eyes back up to him. His expression was grim but he didn't say anything further.
Meanwhile, Jack was trying to organise the six humans that were left with some kind of strategy. The Doctor must have heard them too because he quickly interrupted.
"Rose, you can help me. I need all these wires stripping bare." He quickly removed her from Jack's group and Hally watched as he started to get her to strip wires for seemingly no reason whatsoever.
"Right, now there's five of us." The stern woman quipped.
"Then let's move it," Jack ordered. "Into the lift. Isolate the lift controls."
Pavale and his fellow colleagues quickly scrambled into action. Lynda made her way over to The Doctor, saying a quick goodbye.
Jack hung back, turning to The Doctor. "It's been fun…" He gave them a weak smile. "…but I guess this is goodbye."
"Don't talk like that." Rose frowned, looking between Jack and The Doctor. "The Doctor's going to do it. You just watch him." She smiled hopefully, but Jack just smiled knowingly.
"Rose, you are worth fighting for." He leant down and kissed her hard, cupping her face gently in his hands. When he pulled away he gave her a playful wink before looking at The Doctor.
"Wish I'd never met you, Doctor. I was much better off as a coward." The Doctor smiled slightly and let out a small sound of protest when Jack grabbed his face and kissed him too.
Hally laughed, watching the exchange fondly.
"See you in hell." Jack gave The Doctor a small salute after he'd finally let him escape from the kiss.
The Doctor nodded gravely.
Jack took a few steps closer to Hally, a mischievous glint in his eye.
Hally smirked, mirroring his expression. "There's currently 50 million volts of energy coursing through me Harkness… but you're welcome to try."
Jack paused for a moment as if he was genuinely considering kissing her anyway. "Maybe next time." He winked, sending her a genuine smile before disappearing into the lift.
Rose looked back up to The Doctor. "He's going to be all right, isn't he?"
Neither Time Lord answered her.
Hally closed her eyes, finally focusing inwards. Whatever was happening around her slowly melted away and suddenly it was as if she was alone. The energy within her pulsed slightly, the sound of her own heartbeats strangely comforting in her ears. She could feel the wires that extended out and into the heart of the transmitter, it was like a maze of energy splayed out inside her mind. In the middle of the maze lay the source of the Delta Wave. It pulsed and jumped erratically as Hally fed her energy out of her body and along the map of wires, feeding the Delta Wave, powering it. The more she pushed her energy in, the brighter the source shone. Slowly she felt a resistance building along the wires as the system stretched and fought against the fatal build-up of power that was being forced into the transmitter's core.
Hally winced slightly, the resistance causing a burning sensation to run along the wires and up into her arms.
"Hally?"
The voice was muffled. It was coming from outside of her. The voice spoke again, closer this time. She felt a gentle pressure on the side of her face.
"Hally, the Delta Wave is ready. You did it."
Slowly the voice came more into focus and Hally could recognise it as The Doctor's. She opened her eyes slowly, blinking a few times as she adjusted to the artificial lights that lined the ceiling of the room.
The Doctor's face came into view in front of her. He dropped his hand from her face and gave her a small smile. He bent over and swiftly began to remove the wires which held her in place, connecting her to the system. She frowned, noticing that both the TARDIS and Rose were no longer in the room. Hally could feel The Doctor's eyes on her face, so looked up at him the question obvious on her face.
"I sent her home." He stated simply, but Hally understood the meaning behind his words. Neither of them would be getting out of this alive.
Hally nodded as she pulled out the final wire and stepped down from the platform. "You did the right thing." She muttered just loud enough for him to hear.
She felt him move back over to the other side of the room, reconnecting the wires to lock the power into the system. At the same time, he started talking to Jack and the others over the communication system. Hally followed him slowly, her muscles screaming at her with each step. She held her hand up to her face, noticing her skin was unusually pale. She weakly clenched her hand into a fist, trying to stop the small tremors that were wracking her arms.
"You should probably sit down…" She heard the quiet voice of The Doctor, he was staring at her again.
She rolled her eyes weakly, putting on a smirk. "Not likely."
Jack interrupted the moment over the comms system. "The Delta Wave. Is it ever going to be ready?"
Before either The Doctor or Hally had a chance to respond, the low, threatening voice of the Dalek Emperor cut across them. The screen at the front of the room flickering onto his massive form.
"Tell him the truth, Doctor. There is every possibility the Delta Wave could be complete, but no possibility of refining it. The Delta Wave must kill every living thing in its path, with no distinction between human and Dalek."
The Doctor began to move towards the screen to address him but Hally got there first, she stared up at the monstrosity, anger spurring her on despite her weakened body.
"Oh, it's complete." She spat out, the creature's beady eyes finally focusing on her. "We're going to blow you back to hell."
For a moment the Emperor was quiet before a furious hiss escaped through the voice modulator. "You…"
She laughed weakly. "Oh, you know me?" She felt The Doctor's hand around her arm, pulling her back behind him.
The Dalek Emperor turned on The Doctor. "Even with The Archangel of Death by your side, Doctor, there is no way to refine the wave. All things will die. By your hand."
"Doctor, the range of this transmitter covers the entire Earth." Jack's voice crackled across the speakers, heard by all of them.
"You would destroy Daleks and Humans together. If I am God, the creator of all things, then what does that make you, Doctor?"
The Doctor stepped closer to the screen. "There are colonies out there. The Human Race would survive in some shape or form, but you're the only Daleks in existence. The whole Universe is in danger if I let you live!" He lowered his voice slightly. "Do you see, Jack? That's the decision I've got to make for every living thing. Die as a human or live as a Dalek. What would you do?" His voice wavered, threatening to break.
"You sent her home. She's safe. Keep working." Jack responded, he spoke with a finality that tugged painfully on Hally's heart.
"Never doubted him. Never will."
Hally watched her father, a small frown on her forehead. How did he garner such loyalty? He was just a crazy old man with a martyr complex.
She almost laughed at her own hypocrisy. Because she too would stand with him until the end. She supposed, if she really thought about it… it came down to doing the right thing. Damn the cost.
The satellite shuddered and a pained rumble erupted from outside. The Daleks had initiated their attack. From that moment everything seemed to happen so quickly, moments of panic and flashing lights, the satellite groaned threatening to break under the Dalek's assault.
"Defences have gone offline. The Dalek's have overridden the lot!" Lynda cried over the comms. The room they were in shook and the lights blew out. Both Hally and The Doctor were knocked sideways. The Doctor scrambled up quickly, tapping furiously on the nearest computer.
"Floor Zero… They killed them all." The human muttered as the noises of the fight grew louder over the speaker system. Hally let in a shaky breath, turning her back on the room.
"Lynda!" The Doctor shouted over the noise. "What's happening on Earth?!"
"The Fleet's descending. They're bombing whole continents. Europa, Pacifica, the New American Alliance... Australasia's just gone!"
Jack's voice could be heard over the comms. "Floor 499, we're the last defence. The bullets should work if you concentrate them on the Dalek's eyestalk. I've got the force field at maximum so Dalek firepower should be at its weakest!"
Hally took a stride forward towards the lift but a strong grip pulled her back. She turned to see The Doctor had stopped her, his face was pale with panic.
She gently encased his hand with hers, sending him a small smile, she softly prised his hand away from her arm.
"Don't…"
The sound of his desperate voice in her mind almost changed her mind. She pulled him into a tight hug, wrapping her arms around him.
"I love you." She whispered, gripping onto him tightly.
"I love you too." He whispered, emotion pulling heavy on his voice. He loosened his grip on her, pulling back from the hug.
She smiled at him, her eyes twinkling. With one final squeeze of his hand, she turned and walked into the lift punching the numbers 499 into the panel.
The lift ride down to the level below was long and silent.
The noise was the first thing that hit her as the doors slid open. "Open fire!" Jack cried out as he and two other humans started shooting relentlessly at three advancing Daleks.
"It's not working!"
"Concentrate your fire! Eyestalk, two o'clock!"
"My vision is impaired! I cannot see!" The Dalek started shooting blindly as a bullet smashed its eyestalk, its blasts ricocheting around the short corridor. One of the humans fell with a horrible scream, their body twisting painfully as the blast hit them.
Hally held out her hand, a bolt of golden energy shot forward from her arm hitting the Dalek square in the head. It exploded.
The remaining two Daleks instantly turned their fire on her. She gritted her teeth, trying to put up a shield as she walked forward, placing herself in front of Jack and the last human.
"Nice of you to join us!" Jack shouted from behind her. He kept firing at the oncoming Daleks, aiming at the eyestalks. A weak, golden shield was flickering into life between them and the Daleks. He looked at the shaking form of the young Time Lady. She was already deathly pale and Jack could tell that whatever it was she was doing, it wasn't going to last long.
The shield flickered again and one of the Dalek blasts whizzed past Hally's head, by the scream that came from her left, she knew that it had hit the penultimate human. With an angry scream, Hally pushed both of her hands forward towards the middle Dalek. A golden shockwave ripped through the Dalek and its outer shell crumpled in on itself, its shrill scream filling the corridor.
"For God's sake, Doctor, finish that thing and kill them!" Jack cried.
The shockwave snapped back towards Hally's outstretched arms, she doubled over in pain letting out a sharp scream as the wave ripped up through her arms, shattering the bones.
"Doctor, you've got twenty seconds maximum!" The Captain grabbed her by the shoulder, pulling her back as the final Dalek took aim.
It shot at her first, the impact of the laser knocking her back into the lift. Jack heard the sickening crack as her head connected with the back wall, her body slumped forward. He shot a quick look behind him as the machine gun finally ran out of bullets. Somehow she was still alive.
He threw the automatic to the floor, pulling out a smaller pistol and emptying all of those bullets at the Dalek too.
The Dalek paused, seemingly waiting patiently for the Captain to run out of firepower.
"Exterminate." It stated.
"I kind of figured that." Jack discarded of the pistol too, hitting the 'up' button hard on the lift behind him. He heard the doors click shut just as the Dalek aimed and fired.
Hally's ears were ringing. Everything hurt.
She gagged as the stench of her own burning flesh hit her. Curled up on the floor of the ascending lift, she turned her head to look up at the ceiling. For a moment she wondered if she could die like this, but slowly she felt the familiar warmth embracing her broken arms as her body tried its best to heal her injuries.
The lift door opened onto floor 500. Hally had to cover her eyes with the back of her hand as the bright golden tendrils of light streamed into the lift. She managed to prop herself up, seeing the silhouettes of The Doctor and Rose in the middle of the light. He leant forward and kissed her. As he did the tendrils of light rushed forward and into him, finally seeming to release Rose, who instantly fainted in The Doctor's arms.
That was when The Doctor saw his daughter, and when his daughter saw the empty space behind him where the Dalek fleet had been only moments ago. Confusion flitted across her face for a split second but The Doctor was already carrying Rose towards the TARDIS.
"Move!" He cried out to her, not giving her any more time to dwell.
She stumbled to her feet and by pure willpower alone, managed to stagger the few short steps into the welcoming arms of the TARDIS. The doors slammed shut instantly behind her and she took no time in collapsing back to the floor, using the doors to prop herself up. She groaned in pain, her arms were still pulsing and the blast to her stomach was only just beginning to heal. A bead of sweat ran down the side of her face as she cradled her arms close to her chest.
The Doctor set Rose back onto her feet as she regained consciousness. "What happened?" She looked around, confused to find herself back in the TARDIS.
"Don't you remember?" The Doctor asked.
The human scrunched up her face slightly, trying to remember. "It's like there was this singing."
The Doctor smiled stupidly. "That's right. I sang a song and the Daleks ran away."
Hally let out a scoff which turned into a cry of pain when the effort burnt at the inside of her lungs.
The Doctor shot his daughter a look of concern, which she returned when she saw that his skin was beginning to darken. Small waves of regeneration energy beginning to flow through him.
The Doctor turned back to his human companion. "Rose Tyler. I was going to take you to so many places. Barcelona. Not the city Barcelona, the planet Barcelona. You'd love it. Fantastic place. They've got dogs with no noses. Imagine how many times a day you end up telling that joke, and it's still funny." He grinned at her.
Rose only looked more confused. "Then, why can't we go?"
"Maybe you will, and maybe I will. But not like this."
Rose's voice broke slightly, it was obvious that she was starting to get upset. "You're not making sense."
"I might never make sense again. I might have two heads or no head. Imagine me with no head. And don't say that's an improvement. But it's a bit dodgy, this process. You never know what you're going to end up with…" The Doctor was cut off by a wave of pain, he doubled over.
"Doctor!" Rose cried, rushing to him to help him.
Hally pulled herself up gingerly, moving to the young woman and gently tugging her away from The Doctor. "Rose, its ok…"
Rose looked back at her in confusion as The Doctor shot Hally a look of thanks. He leant against the TARDIS console. "You're not looking so great yourself, maybe she shouldn't be standing next to you either…" He tried to chuckle but the pain caused him to double over again.
Hally shot him a sad smile and pulled up the bottom of her top to expose the already half healed Dalek blast wound. "I've got it covered."
Despite the pain, The Doctor barked out a laugh. "Well that's not fair."
"Doctor, tell me what's going on!" Rose exclaimed, pulling on Hally's hold.
"I absorbed all the energy of the Time Vortex, and no one's meant to do that. Every cell in my body's dying."
Rose whimpered. "Can't you do something?"
He nodded. "Yeah, I'm doing it now. Time Lords have this little trick, it's sort of a way of cheating death." He chuckled darkly, motioning to Hally. "Looks a little cheap next to that little trick though…except it means I'm going to change, and I'm not going to see you again. Not like this. Not with this daft old face. And before I go…"
Tears were streaming down Rose's face now. "Don't say that!"
"Rose." The Doctor insisted. "Before I go, I just want to tell you, you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic." He forced a bright grin onto his face.
"And you…" He looked up at Hally again, his eyes softened. "You're brilliant. It's an honour to be your father... Fantastic."
He groaned as the wisps of regeneration energy began to spill from his being. "And do you know what? So was I."
All of a sudden, he threw his arms out wide as the regeneration took hold of his body. Rose cried out in anguish and Hally pulled her into her arms, shielding her eyes from the bright light. The regeneration was violent and over quickly. The Doctor seemed to snap back like an elastic band, instantly alert and ready.
Hally loosened her grip on Rose, letting her turn around to look at the new Doctor. He was taller, maybe taller wasn't the right word. He was longer than the previous version.
He grinned madly, looking between the two women. "Hello." He stopped suddenly. "Okay. Oooh, new teeth. That's weird. So, where was I? Oh, that's right. Barcelona!"
IIIII II
27 November 2007
It had been a few weeks since Hally had seen Dr Saxon. After her previous little 'episode' as the staff had called it, he seemed to be avoiding her.
Hally was sat on the cold, metal surface of what she assumed was a picnic table out in the exercise yard. She rubbed her arms through the thin jumper as the icy winter breeze bit into her skin. The yard wasn't overly large, just enough space for a few tables and a half-sized netball court for anyone who wanted to use it. Most of the other girls who were outside with her were huddled around tables too, but there were a few groups who were dotted across the court or leaning against the tall, wired fence that kept them all trapped inside.
Even though she was alone and quite obviously not causing any trouble, Hally could feel the burning gaze of the tall guard drilling into her back. She turned slightly where she sat to send him a knowing glare. His eyes never left her.
Deciding to ignore him, Hally scanned over some of the other girls. Over the past few weeks she'd come to realise that most of them were harmless. There were a few with some quick and fiery tempers but most were quiet and obedient.
However, there was a small group that had started to grate on Hally. Led by a tall, strong, blonde named Courtney, the group of five seemed to take joy in picking on some of the younger girls. Starting fights they knew they would win. Hally watched as two of the group broke away from the fence, heading towards the other side of the court, where Hally's neighbouring cellmate sat with one of her friends.
Bethany, who Hally had learnt was only 13, had been nothing but kind to Hally since she'd arrived. So, seeing as she had nothing better to do, Hally had decided that she should take on the role of protector for her young friend. It seemed like the right thing to do.
Hally quickly slipped off the table, eyes pinned on the two girls who were approaching Bethany. Out of the corner of her eye, Hally noticed Courtney, flanked by her other two cronies, edge a little closer.
"Hey…" Hally called out, loud enough to get their attention. Bethany looked up at Hally, noticing the other five girls approaching. She quickly got up, quickly sensing something wasn't right.
"You'd think it'd get boring only ever picking fights with girls half your size…" Hally muttered, shooting Courtney a warning glare.
"Back off!" One of her sidekicks growled at her.
Hally rolled her eyes. "I've told you before. Leave them alone." Hally spat at her.
Bethany had already moved out of the way and was now safely in a larger group on the other side of the yard. A few of the other girls had stopped what they were doing to watch.
Courtney laughed, stepping up right in front of Hally. She was at least a head taller than her and took every pleasure in looking down on her as she sneered. "Well as you asked so nicely."
Hally crossed her arms defensively, quickly realising that she was now alone and facing the five of them. Courtney seemed to notice her predicament too because she smirked. "Tell me. What's so special about you then?"
Hally raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"
Courtney looked pointedly over Hally's shoulder towards the tall, blue-eyed guard who was watching them with interest. Hally's eyes twitched in confusion. Courtney's ugly snort of laughter set off a jolt of anger deep in her abdomen.
"Yes. Your own little personal guard over there." She looked Hally up and down as if in disgust. "He only showed up when you did and surprise, surprise… wherever you go, he does. So I'll ask again, what's so special about you? Because I don't believe for one second that you're all that dangerous." Courtney laughed loudly and the four other girls quickly chimed in with laughter.
Hally would have laughed in their faces at the irony if she wasn't currently so powerless.
"Oh! Or maybe he's here to protect her… she is rather weak and pathetic looking…"
Hally scoffed at that. "I really doubt that."
So far, the only interactions she'd had with the hulking guard involved him forcing her to eat and threatening to Taser her.
Courtney's face lit up like she'd just had an excellent idea. "Let's find out."
Before Hally could comprehend what the girl had just said, her fist made contact with the side of her face. Hally stumbled back, her vision blurring for a second. Another blow made contact with her ribs and Hally coughed violently as all the air was knocked out of her.
The guard didn't move a muscle.
Before Courtney could get another hit in, Hally jumped at her, crying out in fury she sloppily aimed a hard punch at her jaw. Hally only had a small moment of victory as her fist made contact with the smug girls face, when a thick arm forced it's way around her neck and she was yanked back into the body of the guard.
She struggled against him but he was rock solid behind her, he responded by tightening the chokehold he had on her neck, causing Hally to have to grab hold of his arm for support.
Within seconds he had pulled her away from the group and over to the other side of the yard, hauling her inside. As she gasped for breath and tried to struggle out of his vice-like grip, all Hally could see was Courtney's smug face as she was carried away. She had been right.