A/N: Here's part two coming right at you!
Remember to review and no flaming please. Thanks :)
UNCONDITIONAL LOVE
"If you ever need somebody.
If you ever need somebody to love you.
If you ever need somebody.
You can count on me."
– Tonic: 'Count on Me (Somebody) (Head on Straight [2002]).
Kitchen
Hearing somebody moving about in the kitchen; the Doctor, Katy, and Trish head towards it and find Chloe standing in front of the open fridge, drinking milk straight from the carton.
"All right, there?" The Doctor greets the girl, who promptly stops drinking and puts the carton of milk back into the fridge and turns to look at her audience. Katy shudders at the completely dead expression on the young girl's face. She glances at the Doctor and is relieved to notice that he is a little disturbed himself by the tightening of his eyes. But he had somehow managed to compose himself and casually introduces himself. "I'm the Doctor."
"I'm Chloe Webber." She responds, coolly.
"How're you doing, Chloe Webber?" the Doctor asks, kindly.
"I'm busy," Chloe replies. "I'm making something, aren't I, mum?" She turns and looks blankly at Trish who looks uncomfortable.
"And like I said, she's not been sleeping." She confirms.
"But you've been drawing, though." The Doctor pointed out, drawing Chloe's attention again. "I'm rubbish. Stick men about my limit." He admits, nonchalantly. "Can do this though." He raises his hand up and gives the Vulcan salute. Chloe eyes it unemotionally. "Can you do that?"
"They don't stop moaning," Chloe promptly changes the subject.
"Chloe—" Trish speaks up.
"I try to help them, but they don't stop moaning." Chloe continues explaining like her mother hadn't even spoken to her.
"Who don't?" The Doctor asks, curiously.
"Sweetheart," Trish goes over to hug and reassure her daughter, but Chloe flinches out of her grasp.
"Don't touch me, mum!" Chloe states, sharply.
Chloe's bedroom
Rose sees the doors to Chloe's wardrobe rattle again, and she promptly opens them to investigate what could be causing them to rattle. A strong wind blows in her face, pushing back her hair from her face and making the blonde squint to see. Rose reaches forward to part the clothes hanging neatly inside and finds a large drawing of a bearded, yellow-eyed man who glares right at her.
"I'm coming…" the man warns in a low threatening voice.
Kitchen
Chloe turns towards the Doctor and fixes him with the same dead expression as before after harshly rejecting her mother.
"I'm busy, Doctor." She informs him, and the Doctor pouts in disappointment.
"Come on, Chloe. Don't be a spoil sport." He cajoles. "What's the big project? I'm dying to know. What're you making up there?"
"Doctor!" Rose yells in fear from upstairs causing the Doctor to immediately bolt for the stairs, followed closely by Katy and Trish, with Chloe trailing behind.
Chloe's Bedroom
Rose is mesmerised by the drawing that appeared to have come to life in front of her eyes and is drawn to it.
"I'm coming to hurt you!" The drawing of the man promises. However, the Doctor comes into the room first and abruptly shuts the doors, breaking the hold it has on Rose who blinks in slight disorientation and focuses on the Doctor's stern face with horror.
"Look at it…" Rose urges, but the Doctor grabs Rose by the shoulders and spins her around to face away from the wardrobe.
"No, ta." He responds, shortly. The Doctor then spots the other pictures and goes over to look at them, curiously. Trish comes in seconds later and looks bewildered.
"What the hell was that?"
"A drawing," Rose replied shakily. "The face of a man."
"What face?" Trish demands worriedly, and goes to open the wardrobe doors, but Rose promptly stops her and shakes her head.
"Best not." She insists, and Trish frowns suspiciously as she turns and faces Chloe who had calmly walked back into her bedroom and was watching them move about.
Katy stands in the doorway, leaning on the doorframe and observes; a bit annoyed with her sister for invading a little girl's privacy like that. Jackie would have her guts for garters for doing that, and Rose was damn lucky their mother wasn't here to witness this.
"What've you been drawing?" Trish demanded Chloe.
"I drew him yesterday." Chloe replied, nonchalantly.
"Who?" Trish asked.
"Dad."
"Your dad?" Trish was horrified. "But he's long gone. Chloe, with all the lovely things in the world, why him?"
"I dream about him, staring at me." Chloe tells Trish.
"I thought we were putting him behind us. What's the matter with you?" Trish was extremely worried about Chloe, and it was obvious to Katy that she was at her wit's end about how to deal with it emotionally.
"We need to stay together," Chloe stated.
"Yes, we do." Trish agreed, but Chloe gives her mother a baleful look.
"No. Not you, us." Trish's face fell out of hurt and confusion. "We need to stay together, and then it'll be all right." Rose saw that Trish was getting visibly distressed, so waded in to try and help make sense of the situation for her.
"Trish, the drawings. Have you seen what Chloe's drawings can do?" She asked, deeply concerned. But instead of being mollified, Trish instead glares at Rose.
"Who gave you permission to come into her room?" She snapped. "Get out of my house!"
"Tell us about the drawings, Chloe." The Doctor questioned Chloe, but Trish immediately intervenes, obviously intending on pretending that nothing was wrong when it clearly was.
"I don't want to hear any more of this!" Trish insisted.
"But that drawing of her dad," Rose tries again. "I heard a voice. He spoke—"
"He's dead!" Trish snaps at Rose once again. "And these," she brandishes Chloe's artwork at Rose. "They're kid's pictures. Now get out!"
"Chloe has a power," Rose attempts to get her point across. "And I don't know how, but she used it to take Danny Edwards, Dale Hicks. She's using it to snatch the kids."
"Get out!"
"Have you seen those drawings move?" Rose questioned Trish.
"I haven't seen anything," Trish was quick to answer; too quick. Katy's eyes widened in realisation. This was why Trish was so uncomfortable and flustered. She had obviously seen something she was incapable of explaining, yet alone believe with her own eyes.
"Yeah, you have, out the corner of your eye." Katy realised walking further into the room to come stand beside the Doctor, who was looking at Trish grimly.
"No," Trish tried to deny it.
"And you dismissed it," the Doctor continued, having come to the same conclusion as Katy had during his own observations. "Because what choice do you have when you see something you can't possibly explain? You dismiss it, right? And if anyone mentions it, you get angry, so it's never spoken of, ever again."
"She's a child…" Trish rationalised desperately.
"You're terrified of her," the Doctor wasn't about to let Trish off the hook; making her understand the reality of the situation instead of dismissing and pretending it didn't happen. "But there's nowhere to turn to, because who's going to believe the things you see out the corner of your eye? No one."
"Except us." Katy finished.
"Who are you?" Trish asked, quietly.
"Good Samaritans," Katy responded. "We're here to help you." She smiled understandingly.
Kitchen
The four of them left Chloe be in her bedroom and relocated to the Kitchen to come up with a plan to help liberate Chloe from her current situation. Absentmindedly, the Doctor strolls up to a nearby counter and scoops up a jar of marmalade, screws off the lid and dips into the jar with his fingers to sample the spread.
"Ahem…"
Two familiar voices clear their throats pointedly, and the Doctor pauses with his fingers in his mouth and looks at Katy and Rose who were glaring sternly at him and then looks at Trish who was barely paying attention to them, so lost in her thoughts. Sheepishly, the Doctor replaces the lid back on the jar of marmalade, and puts it back on the counter; pushing it away from himself.
"Those pictures," Rose kicks off the conversation. "they're alive. She's drawing people and they end up in her pictures."
"Ionic energy," the Doctor explains. "Chloe's harnessing it to steal those kids and place them in some kind of holding pen made up of ionic power." Both Katy and Rose just stare at him with confusion.
'I think I speak for everyone here when I say, "Huh?"' Katy quipped silently in her thoughts.
"And what about the dad from hell in her wardrobe?" Rose asked, still a bit shaken from the encounter. Trish narrows her eyes at the blonde with annoyance.
"How many times do I have to tell you he's dead?"
"Well, he's got a very loud voice for a dead bloke." Rose muttered in a 'I'm-just-saying' tone.
"If living things can become drawings, then maybe drawings can become living things." The Doctor hypothesised. "Chloe's real dad is dead, but not the one who visits her in her nightmares. That dad seems very real. That's the dad she's drawn and he's a heartbeat away from crashing into this world."
"She always got the worst of it when he was alive," Trish recounted, despairingly. Katy leaned over to whisper to the Doctor.
"Doctor, how can a twelve-year-old girl be doing any of this?" She wondered.
"Let's find out," the Doctor suggested, grimly.
Chloe's Bedroom
They found Chloe sitting cross-legged on her bed, and Chloe does the Vulcan salute in greeting when she sees the Doctor. He is amused and raises an eyebrow in response.
"Nice one!" He compliments. Chloe puts her hand down and the Doctor comes over and places his fingers on her temples, causing Chloe's eyes to roll up into her head as he connects his mind with the twelve-year-old's. The Doctor gently lays her back on the bed. "There we go."
"I can't let him do this…" Trish suddenly has second thoughts. But both Katy and Rose attempt to reassure her.
"Shh, it's okay. Trust him," Rose soothes Trish.
"Trish, I can assure you; Chloe is completely safe. The Doctor put me under the mind meld once and everything turned out fine." Katy explains, earning a suspicious look from Rose.
"When did this happen?" She demanded, as the Doctor flashes both sisters an annoyed look.
"I'll tell you later," Katy states. The Doctor steps back from the bed and folds his arms as a stern, no-nonsense expression forms on his face.
"Now we can talk."
"I want Chloe. Wake her up. I want Chloe!" a deep, raspy child-like voice demands, angrily. The twelve-year-old remains laying down with her eyes shut, as the entity within her is controlling her body.
"Who are you?" the Doctor asks, firmly.
"I want Chloe Webber!" the entity ignores him.
"What've you done to my little girl?" Trish demanded, tearfully. Rose comforts the poor woman.
"Doctor, what is it?"
"I'm speaking to you," the Doctor ignores Rose, focusing on Chloe's hypnotised body. "The entity that is using this human child. I request parley in compliance with the Shadow Proclamation."
"I don't care about shadows or parleys," the entity retorts.
"So, what do you care about?" the Doctor asks, curiously.
"I want my friends."
"You're lonely, I know." The Doctor emphasises, gently. "Identify yourself."
"I am one of many. I travel with my brothers and sisters. We take an endless journey. A thousand of your lifetimes. But now I am alone. I hate it. It's not fair, and I hate it."
"Name yourself!" the Doctor repeats, sternly.
"Isolus." The entity responds, and the Doctor's eyes widen with recognition, looking very surprised.
"You're Isolus. Of course!" He mutters in amazement as Chloe reaches for some nearby blank pieces of paper and a random coloured pencil.
"Our journey began in the Deep Realms when we were a family…" the Isolus narrates as it uses Chloe's hand to auto-draw a detailed picture of what looked like a strange combination of a magnolia flower and a jellyfish.
"Wow, that's beautiful…" Katy commented in awe.
"What's that?" Trish frowned down at the picture, looking confused.
"The Isolus Mother," the Doctor explained. "Drifting in deep space." He points to the picture. "See, she jettisons millions of fledgling spores. Her children. The Isolus are empathic beings of intense emotions, but when they're cast off from their mother, their empathic link, their need for each other, is what sustains them. They need to be together. They cannot be alone."
"Our journey is long…" the Isolus continues as it switches to a fresh piece of paper and continues drawing.
"The Isolus children travel, each inside a pod. They ride the heat and energy of solar tides." The Doctor states. "It takes thousands and thousands of years for them to grow up."
"Thousands of years just floating through space?" Rose was dubious. "Poor things. Don't they go mad with boredom?"
"We play…" the Isolus answers, overhearing Rose's comment. The blonde blinks at Chloe with surprise and amusement.
"You play?"
"While they travel, they play games. They use their ionic power to literally create make believe worlds in which to play." The Doctor clarifies, and both sisters grin at the thought.
"In-flight entertainment." Rose commented.
"That sounds wonderful. I wish I could do that!" Katy compliments the Isolus. The Doctor shrugged, nonchalantly.
"Helps keep them happy. While they're happy, they can feed off each other's love. Without it, they're lost." He addresses the Isolus. "Why did you come to Earth?" Chloe grabs another piece of paper and using a red pencil, starts messily drawing a spikey scribble in the middle of the page.
"We were too close…" It explained as the Doctor frowns down at the drawing the Isolus had Chloe create.
"That's a solar flare from your sun. Would have made a tidal wave of solar energy that scattered the Isolus pods."
"Only, I fell to Earth. My brothers and sisters are left up there, and I cannot reach them. So alone…" The Isolus sounded so miserable, and Katy's heart went out to it.
"Your pod crashed. Where is it?" the Doctor asks it.
"My pod was drawn to heat, and I was drawn to Chloe Webber. She was like me, alone. She needed me, and I her." The Isolus remembered, as the Doctor sits behind Chloe's head and starts stroking her hair soothingly, trying to comfort the Isolus.
"You emphasised with her," He realised. "You wanted to be with her because she was alone like you."
"I want my family. It's not fair!" the Isolus used Chloe's fist to smack the duvet in its frustration as the Doctor continued soothing it.
"I understand. You want to make a family. But you can't stay in this child. It's wrong. You can't steal any more friends for yourself." The Doctor chides gently.
"I am alone…" the Isolus insists.
They all jump when there is a crash from Chloe's wardrobe and an eerie red glow appears underneath the cracks of the doors which shake. Chloe also starts shaking in fear.
"I'm coming to hurt you..." The menacing voice of Chloe's father threatens. "I'm coming…"
The Doctor glances at Trish, urgently.
"Trish, how do you calm her?"
"What?" Trish was taken aback.
"When she has nightmares, what do you do?" the Doctor elaborated.
"I…I…"
"What do you do?" the Doctor repeated firmly.
"I sing to her," Trish explained, and the Doctor gets up from behind Chloe and gestures for Trish to come forward.
"Then start singing."
"Chloe, I'm coming…" Chloe's father warns, as Trish throws a disdainful look at the wardrobe and crouches beside Chloe, singing softly to her.
"Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree. Merry, merry king of the bush is he…" Trish sings.
"Chloe. Chloe. Chloe. Chloe."
"Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra, gay your life must be. Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh. Kookaburra, gay your life must be…" Chloe falls asleep and the wardrobe fall silent. Trish tears up with realisation. "He came to her because she was lonely." She buries her face into her child's hair and hugs her as she sobbed. "Chloe, I'm sorry…"
Living Room
Since Chloe had fallen asleep, and thus unable to answer any more questions, they decided to let her be. However, the Doctor strongly suggested that they collect all the coloured pencils they could find to avoid Chloe creating more pictures to steal herself some more friends. As Trish picks up some pencils, she decides to reveal more about the relationship she and Chloe had with her late husband.
"Chloe usually got the brunt of his temper when he'd had a drink," She explained with the Countdown for the Olympics continues playing on the Telly in the background on low volume, although nobody was really paying any attention to it. "The day he crashed the car, I thought we were free. I thought it was over…"
"Did you talk to her about it?" Rose asks Trish, who winced at the idea.
"I didn't want to," Trish admitted.
"But maybe that's why Chloe feels so alone. Because she has all these terrible dreams about her dad, but she can't talk to you about them." Katy pointed out.
"Her and the Isolus. Two lonely kids who need each other." The Doctor realised, sadly.
"And it won't stop, will it, Doctor? It'll just keep pulling kids in." Rose stated.
"It's desperate to be loved," the Doctor explained, looking rather uncomfortable. "It's used to a pretty big family."
"How big?" Katy asked with a little dread, knowing that what her boyfriend was about to say was not likely to be good. The Doctor let out a slow breath and scratched the back of his head as he guesstimates exactly how many of its brothers and sisters the Isolus had.
"Say around four billion?"
"You're kidding…" Katy and Rose's mouths fell open with complete shock.
Dame Kelly Holmes Close
After reassuring Trish that they'd be back soon, and to keep any pencils away from Chloe, the trio head out of the house and back onto the street.
"We need that pod," the Doctor stated matter of fact.
"It crashed. Won't it be destroyed?" Rose questioned, as she and Katy walked faster to keep up with the Doctor's strides.
"Well, it's been sucking in all the heat it can," the Doctor explains. "Hopefully that should keep it in a fit state to launch. It must be close. It should have a weak energy signature that the Tardis can trace. Once we find it, then we can stop the Isolus." He stated with confidence.
None of them were aware that Chloe was watching them from her window. So, while her mother was preoccupied talking on the phone with one of her friends, she snuck out to follow them all the way to the open ground, where the Tardis was still idling nearby patiently.
"We can scan for the same trace that I picked up from the scribble creature," the Doctor stated, pulling his Tardis key from his pocket and opening the double doors to let them in. "We'd need to widen the field a bit."
Chloe watches as the Doctor, Katy, and Rose disappear inside the Tardis, before turning and running back home.
The Tardis
The Doctor immediately got to work constructing a strange little gizmo, with the assistance of the sisters who were handing him items when he requested them. Rose eyes both her sister and the Doctor suspiciously, and for different reasons. But deciding that the Doctor was probably a better target to tackle first, Rose zeroes in on him first.
"You knew the Isolus was lonely before it told you. How?" She accused, and the Doctor shrugged, half-listening to her and half-focusing on the gadget he was constructing.
"I know what it's like to travel a long way on your own," He looks up briefly and holds his hand out to Rose. "Give me the styner-magnetic…" She looks at him blankly. "The thing in your left hand." He elaborates impatiently.
Rose hands it to him.
"Sounds like you're on its side," Katy pipes up.
"I sympathise, that's all." The Doctor defended himself. Rose snorted, disbelievingly.
"The Isolus has caused a lot of pain for these people."
"It's a child. That's why it went to Chloe. Two lonely mixed-up kids," The Doctor rationalised.
"Feels to me like a temper tantrum because it can't get its own way," Rose disagrees, and Katy frowns at her disapprovingly.
"Oh, honestly, Rose. It sounds like it's scared." Katy protested. "It wasn't that long ago that we were both kids. Cut it some slack."
"Binary dot." The Doctor asks Katy, who gives it to him, as Rose just gives her sister a sour look.
"Yeah, and I know how kids can be like. Right little terrors."
"Gum!" the Doctor holds his hand underneath Rose's mouth, and she makes a face but spits the wad into his hand.
"We've both got young cousins, Rose." Katy reminds her.
"I know that! But kids can't have it all their own way. That's part of being a family," Rose retorts, sulking a little.
"What about trying to understand them?" the Doctor piped up, sounding very pointed.
"Easy for you to say. You don't have any kids." Rose stated flippantly, and leans back against the console, folding her arms across her chest.
"I was a dad once…" the Doctor admitted, slyly.
"What did you say? Rose looks at him with shock, while Katy stiffens when his words suddenly trigger an unexpected flashback to her hidden memories…
Flashback
To Katy, it was like being trapped in split second camera flashes that showed her images of familiar and yet unfamiliar pictures.
But one particular picture of:
… her point of view of a young family, consisting of a mother and father with their daughter, accompanied by an older man; presumably the grandfather, who was dressed in a crisp white button-up shirt, with a grey waistcoat and black cravat, black and white checkered trousers with well-shined black shoes and wearing a waist-length black jacket, and slicked back snow-white hair. He leant part of his weight upon a wonky-looking wooden cane. She remembered feeling bittersweet emotions upon seeing that, before going on her way…
"Katy? Are you alright…?" Rose's echoey voice questioned from what seemed like faraway...
The Tardis
Katy jolts out of her trance and claps eyes on a worried looking Rose, who was shaking her gently to get her sister's attention, and a serious-looking Doctor who was still attaching Rose's chewing gum to the gizmo.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Away with the pixies…" Katy reassures Rose and the Doctor, both of which didn't look completely convinced with her harried answer, but the latter appeared to understand what might've happened and decided to change the subject to prevent Rose from prying further, knowing that Katy would tell him when she was ready.
"I think we're there," he indicated to the gizmo in his hands and stands up from the jump seat. "Fear, loneliness. They're the big ones, Rose." The Doctor explained. "Some of the most terrible acts ever committed have been inspired by them. We're not dealing with something that wants to conquer or destroy." He heads attaches the gizmo to the console and switches it on. "There's a lot of things you need to get across this universe. Warp drive, wormhole refractors. You know the thing you need most of all? You need a hand to hold…" He notices Rose holding out her hand and takes it with a grin.
She giggles but pulls away to point at the screen.
"No, look. I'm pointing…" Rose indicates that the scanner has picked up on an energy source.
"It's the pod!" the Doctor exclaimed excitedly. "It is in the street. Everything's coming up Doctor!" He gets to his feet and runs over to where he had thrown his jacket over one of the coral support beams and shrugs it on. "Come on!" Rose darts out of the Tardis without a second thought, while Katy was a little bit slower. The Doctor looks at her with concern. "You alright?"
"Yeah, I'm coming…" She promised and the Doctor nodded and steps from the Tardis as Katy walks around the console and down the metal gangplank towards the doors. However, when she pulls on the door to get through; it doesn't budge, and the Tardis suddenly shuts down and goes dormant. "Doctor?" She tries pulling the doors again but gets the same result. "What the hell is going on?" Katy runs up to the console to see if there was a button to release the lock on the door so she could get out. But she is unable to find one. Katy runs back to the doors and starts pulling at them frantically. "Doctor! DOCTOR!"
"Stay calm, young one. All is well…" the Tardis's familiar raspy voice suddenly spoke inside Katy's head, causing her to step back from the doors and look around.
"What's happening? Where's the Doctor?" Katy demanded.
"The Doctor and I have been spirited away to an unknown dimension, and unfortunately you have become an unintended passenger. Fear not, I am protecting you. We are on lockdown." The Tardis responded, and Katy frowned with confusion.
"Spirited away? What does that mean…?" Then Katy's eyes widened when she realised exactly what the sentient blue box was implying. "Chloe… Oh, God. That bloody Isolus has gone and trapped us in one of those creepy drawings! Where is the Doctor now?" She asked, worried.
"He is safe. My thief is trying unsuccessfully to gain entrance inside. He is very worried about you."
"What about Rose? Where is she?" Katy asked the Tardis who hummed sympathetically.
"Your sister is currently attempting to solve the problem the three of you had been working on together. The Doctor is giving her instructions while trying to gain entrance into here at the same time." Katy bit her bottom lip, getting overwhelmed by the situation. "There's really nothing more you can do right now but wait. Things will work itself out." The Tardis advised before Katy admitted defeat and reluctantly went to go and sit on the jump seat behind the console to wait it out.
She pulled up her legs into her chest and buried her face into her knees.
And she waited…
Katy's head snaps up when she hears the Tardis's door suddenly open, and a frantic Doctor comes stumbling in.
"Katy!?" He calls out, and she immediately hops down from the jump seat and moves around the console to run down the metal gangplank towards him. They pull each other into a relieved tight embrace. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. The Tardis kept me safe." Katy reassured him. "Did Rose find the pod? Is it all over now?" She asked, and the Doctor grinned triumphantly.
"She sure did. The Isolus's pod should be safely concealed inside the flame of the Olympic Torch right about now," The Doctor confirmed, and Katy pulled away from him a little to look at him quizzically.
"Run that by me again? Did you say the Olympic Torch? What's that got to do with all this?"
"It's actually very simple. The torch is a symbol of hope, courage, and love. Everything the Isolus craves," The Doctor explains, and Katy gives a small smile.
"Don't we all?"
"Sorry?" the Doctor blinked, looking surprised.
"Doesn't everyone need hope, courage, and love in their lives? I know I do." Katy leans in and kisses him gently on the cheek. "You've been giving me that all day, every day. Ever since I first met you that day back at Harrods."
The Doctor smiles at her warmly and leans in to kiss her back.
"I'd do anything for you, Katy. Remember that." Then he grinned again, and grabs Katy's hand pulling her towards the console. "Come on, I've got a surprise for both you and Rose." He announces, and Katy's eyes lit up.
"What do you mean? Where are you taking us?" Katy questioned, and the Doctor gave her a mock-stern look as he punches in some coordinates to an unknown location.
"Now, that wouldn't be much of a surprise if I told you that, now, would it?"
He throws the handle, dematerialising the Tardis.
Living Room
Back at Trish and Chloe's house, they both sat in their living room, watching the highlights of the Torch's journey towards the Olympic stadium in London. The announcer was practically beaming with delight.
"… Just look at this! Utterly incredible scenes at the Olympic stadium. Eighty thousand athletes and spectators. They disappeared, they've come back!" He reveals, just as Rose and Kel suddenly enter the room, with Rose looking worried that the Doctor had seemingly not come back yet from being 'stolen' by the Isolus. She scans the television screen for a glimpse of him. "They've returned. They've reappeared. It's quite incredible. Bob, this will certainly—"
"Eighty thousand people, so where's the Doctor? I need him," Rose muttered, forgetting for that brief moment that Katy had been missing too. She frowns when she notices that the Torch Bearer that had caught the Isolus's pod when she had tossed it at the torch, appeared to be disoriented.
"But hang on, the Torch Bearer seems to be in a bit of trouble. We did see a flash of lightning earlier that seemed to strike him. Maybe he's injured. He's definitely in trouble…" Rose's eyes widen when the Torch Bearer collapses on screen right in the middle of his run in the stadium towards the dish. "… does this mean that the Olympic dream is dead?" Trish, Chloe, Kel and Rose look at each other with worry. But they soon perk up when a man wearing a brown suit and white hi-tops suddenly picks up the torch and starts running.
Rose beams happily.
"Doctor…" She mutters with relief.
"There's a mystery man. He's picked up the flame. We've no idea who he is. He's carrying the flame. Yes, he's carrying the flame and no one wants to stop him. It's more than a flame now, Bob. It's more than heat and light. It's hope, and it's courage, and it's love."
Olympic Stadium
Katy watches proudly from where the Doctor had parked the Tardis at a safe distance away, and cheers loudly as the spotlight follows him as he runs up the red carpet to the lower cauldron. The Doctor whoops with joy in the general direction of where he had parked the Tardis and left Katy to observe his surprise for her and Rose, before turning and lighting the gas inside the cauldron.
"Go on! Join your brothers and sisters. They'll be waiting…" the Doctor encourages the Isolus, as he watches the flame run up to the main cauldron and ignites the proper Olympic flame.
The Isolus pod takes flight and zooms up into the night sky.
Dame Kelly Holmes Close
Celebrations are in full swing, with families with young children running about waving sparklers, laughing, and generally having a good time. The Doctor and Katy walk hand in hand down the street, taking in the sights of this lovely summer night and searching for Rose.
Meanwhile, the blonde was doing the same thing on the opposite side of the street, carrying a vanilla frosted cupcake with silver edible ball bearings, and grinning excitedly at the idea of presenting this to the Doctor. But the grin immediately faded when she spotted her sister standing with the Doctor with their backs towards her, hand in hand; and she fumed in a jealous rage. However, she schooled her features and 'calmly' walks over to them...
… and accidentally collides with an older blonde woman wearing a heavy ankle length Royal blue coat over a Guns N' Roses band t-shirt, black denim skirt, black tights and black combat boots, and drops the cupcake.
"Shit!" Rose swears underneath her breath, then stares in stunned surprise when the woman catches the cake with snake-like reflexes.
"Woah, sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going." The woman apologises. "Here you go!" She hands it back to Rose with a bittersweet smile on her pretty face.
"Thanks. Nice reflexes!" Rose complimented, momentarily distracted from the Doctor and her sister still standing obliviously in front of her with their backs to them.
"Something the matter?" the woman questions, looking a little concerned, and Rose flushes with embarrassment realising she had been caught out glaring with jealousy at her sister and the Doctor.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. Just a little worried. I'm trying to find my sister and our friend … well, designated driver is probably a better term." Rose babbles as she attempted to brush away her obvious resentment. But judging by the knowing look on the woman's face, she wasn't very convincing.
"You too, huh?" Rose blinked at the woman with confusion. "I'm also looking for someone. My husband actually," She leans in and whispers conspiratorially to Rose, "Tell you the truth, he's always getting lost."
"Yeah, now you mention it. So does my friend. That's so weird…" Rose mumbled, absently. "What about you? You look a bit upset as well…" She commented, and the woman nodded, sadly.
"Yeah, my husband and I lost some friends recently. We just said goodbye to them today. So, we decided to check out the Olympics to try and cheer ourselves up."
"I'm sorry," Rose responded sincerely. The woman waves a dismissive hand.
"It's okay. They've gone onto a better place, and we're pretty sure they're happy." Then the woman perks up and sighs with relief when she spots someone behind Rose. "Oh, there he is!" Rose turns to see who the woman was looking at and spots a young man in his early 20s with floppy brown hair and dressed in a pink shirt and a red bow tie, with brown trousers and suspenders and slightly scuffed black lace-up boots and wearing a waist-length tweed jacket; standing there with a sad smile on his face as he observed both blondes from a distance. "Well, I better go. He gets a bit restless when we stay in one place too long." The woman said, apologetically.
"Yeah, yeah. Don't let me keep you. Thanks again." Rose acknowledged as the woman goes to walk away, but she stops her once again. "Wait!" the woman turns to look at her, politely. "I didn't catch your name?"
"You can call me Heart," the woman responded cryptically before waving and jogging over to her husband, who gives a salute and warm smile to Rose, who frowns but returns his greeting with a nod before turning and walking over to the Doctor and Katy.
'Not sure why, but there's something oddly familiar about those two…' Rose thought, as she stopped and looked back to catch a glimpse of the couple, only to react with surprise when they were nowhere to be seen. Shrugging, Rose turned and walked over to the Doctor and Katy, and with a loud voice shout to the Doctor: "Cake?"
Both the Doctor and Katy turn around see Rose standing there holding out a fairy cake with edible ball bearings with a slightly strained (they noticed) grin on her face. The Doctor beamed with delight, ignoring the strained expression on Rose's face when he realised she had noticed that he was holding hands with his girlfriend (and not caring in the slightest) and takes the treat.
"Top banana!" He peels back a little of the patty pan and takes a generous bite out of the cake. "Mmm. I can't stress this enough: Ball bearings you can eat, masterpiece!" The Doctor complemented with his mouth full, earning a grimace from the sisters, who chose to ignore it just this once.
"I thought I'd lost you," Rose commented.
"What about your sister? She was missing too, you know." The Doctor indicates to Katy who was standing quietly and patiently between them, looking a little crestfallen that Rose appeared to have not given much thought to her being missing also. "Besides, you'd never lose me. Not on a night like this. This is a night for lost things being found. Come on!" The three of them take off walking down the street, with the Doctor walking in the middle of the sisters.
"What now?" Katy asked, casually.
"I want to go to the Games. It's what we came for," The Doctor responded, like it should've been obvious. Rose takes the chance to link arms with him as she decides to pump him for information about the Games.
"Go on, give us a clue. Which events do we do well in?"
"Well, I will tell you this: Papua New Guinea surprises everyone in the shot put." The Doctor hinted vaguely.
"Really? You're joking, aren't you?" Katy piped up, sidling up to him looking sceptical. "Doctor, are you serious or are you joking?"
"Wait and see!" the Doctor mimed zipping the lip and throwing away the key. The obligatory fireworks display begins, and the trio pause to admire the colourful sprays of lights bursting in the sky.
"You know what? They keep on trying to split us up, but they never ever will." Rose speaks up, and Katy winces; remembering what the Devil entity had predicted back on the Impossible Planet, and the Doctor notices.
"Never say never ever." The Doctor sternly scolds the blonde, who looks slightly hurt by the reprimand, but immediately brushes it aside.
"Nah, we'll always be okay; you, me … and Katy." Rose almost neglects to add Katy, but decided against it, not wanting to get on the Doctor's bad side. "Don't you reckon, Doctor?"
"There's something in the air," the Doctor commented, frowning at the night sky with obvious tension on his face. "Something coming…"
"What?" Katy questioned.
"A storm's approaching…" the Doctor trails off ominously.
A/N: That's a wrap! Thanks for reading this chapter. Stay tuned, we will be saying a temporary goodbye to Rose in the next two chapters. So, stand by for any updates coming your way! TTFN!