A/N: Thanks for your patience. Here's the final chapter for this episode. Please enjoy.
I don't own Doctor Who. All I own is my OC and this story. Please review and no flaming will be tolerated.
Cheers x
FLYING WITHOUT WINGS
"Everybody's looking for that something.
One thing that makes it all complete.
You'll find it in the strangest places.
Places you never knew it could be."
– Westlife: 'Flying Without Wings' (Westlife [1999])
Corridor
An extremely determined Doctor leads a very stoic Heart and everyone else to the safety of another of Titanic's many corridors. It was time for the Time Couple to act now and finish this to avoid anyone else getting killed or becoming heroes when there wasn't any reason to be.
"Right!" the Doctor turns and addresses Astrid, Copper and Slade to give them certain tasks to accomplish until both he and the Heart would return after getting to the bottom of this nonsense together. "Get yourselves up to Reception One." He looks meaningfully at a nervous Copper. "Once you're there, Mister Copper, you've got staff access to the computer. Try to find a way of transmitting an SOS."
"Astrid, you're in charge of this…" the Heart hands the waitress Bannakaffalatta's EMP transmitter, which Astrid looks at sadly. "Once it's powered up, it'll take out a Host within fifty yards but then it needs sixty seconds to recharge. Understand?" Astrid nodded and held the EMP tightly.
"Rickston?" the Doctor addresses the unpleasant man, who looks back at him with suspicion. "Take this." He reluctantly gives him the sonic screwdriver. Both the Doctor and the Heart were uncomfortable with giving this selfish man any sort of task to perform, since it had been plainly obvious that given the right circumstances, Slade was likely to cut and run. But it was a team effort, and they essentially had no other alternative. "I've preset it. Just hold down that button." The Doctor shows him what to do. "It'll open doors. But, do. Not. Lose it! You got that?" Slade nodded. "Now go and open the next door. Go on, go!"
"All right!" Slade nodded obediently and heads off to do as he's told.
The Doctor then hands Copper a first aid kit.
"Mister Copper, you're going to need this." He tells him, when he realises that both he and Astrid had been wounded during the ordeal with the Host Angels on the metal beam when they were attempting to fend them off. "I need you fighting fit." Copper nods and tends to his wounds.
"Astrid, where's the power points?" the Heart asks her.
"Under the comms." Astrid responded and led the other woman towards them and plug in the flat EMP transmitter to charge for sixty seconds. "When that thing is ready, a blue light will come on—"
"Hang on, you're talking as if you're both not coming with us." Astrid realised and looked accusingly at the Time Couple.
"The Doctor and I discovered that there's something hiding down on deck thirty-one. We need to go and find out what it is." The Heart explains patiently.
"What if you meet a Host?"
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." The Heart confirmed and Astrid blinks at her.
"Sounds like you and the Doctor do this kind of thing all the time."
"Yeah, it's unfortunately become a regular thing on our adventures. But it's definitely not by choice." The Heart states sheepishly.
"We're just travelers," the Doctor adds; having overheard their conversation when he came over to check on them. "No taxes, no bills, no boss. Just the open sky." He grins at the Heart who smiles back at him warmly.
"Well, um, I'm sort of unemployed now." Astrid stated, awkwardly. Both the Doctor and the Heart glance at her; immediately understanding where Astrid was heading with this statement. "I was thinking the blue box is kind of small, but I could squeeze in it, like a stowaway." She joked light-heartedly and the Time Couple smiled and nodded understandingly but were also hesitant to accept straightaway.
"You gotta know, love. It's not always safe travelling with us." The Heart warns her, but Astrid shrugged nonchalantly.
"I've got no one back on Sto," She insists. "No family, just me. So, what do you think? Can I come with you two?" Astrid looks at them hopefully, and the Time Couple grinned.
"Of course, you can come." The Heart nodded.
"Yeah, we'd like that. Yes." The Doctor grinned happily. Their heads snapped up at a loud bang. The Doctor rushes over to a nearby intercom. "Mister Frame, you still with us?" He called out urgently.
"It's the engines, sir. Final phase." Frame explained, sounding resigned. "There's nothing more I can do. We've got only eight minutes left."
"Don't worry, we'll get there." The Doctor promises him.
"But the bridge is sealed off." Frame reminds him.
The Doctor is quick to dismiss that reminder.
"Yeah, yeah. We're working on that. The Heart and I will get there, Mister Frame." Then looks at the Heart with mild worry. "Somehow…" The Heart shrugs too before the Doctor redirects his attention on Copper and Astrid. "Mister Copper, look after her…" the Doctor indicates to Astrid. "Astrid, look after him…" He gestures back to Copper. "Rickston…" the Doctor hesitates and the Heart chimes in to finish.
"Take care of yourself."
"Exactly!" the Doctor agreed. "We'll see you again, promise." He grabs the Heart's hand, and both go to sleuth floor thirty-one when Astrid unexpectedly stops them both.
"Hold on! There's an old tradition on Planet Sto…" She rushes over to them and stops first in front of the Doctor, who looks at her in exasperation.
"Astrid, I'm sorry. But we really need to go—"
"Just wait a minute!" Astrid insists, grabbing the first aid box from Copper. She places it on the ground, stands on it and grabs the Doctor's lapels, pulling him in for a kiss. The Heart immediately reacts.
"Oi! Just what the hell do you think you're doing?!" She protests angrily, then is cut off when Astrid releases a slightly stunned Doctor and immediately turns and repeats the same thing on an unsuspecting and rather surprised Heart. "Oh!" She gasped in surprise.
"Yeah, that's a, ahem, very old tradition, yeah…" the Doctor mumbles.
"I wasn't expecting that…" the Heart muttered as Astrid beams brightly at them both.
"See you later!" She chirped.
"Count on it!" the Hearts smiles warmly at her as the Doctor grinned back.
"Oh, yes!" He crows before seizing the Heart's hand and they run back across the bridge while Astrid, Copper and Slade carry on upwards.
Galley
The Doctor and the Heart reach the Galley and both of them arm themselves with whatever they could find. The Doctor locates a large sauté pan, while the Heart spots a rolling pin and snatches it up just as four Host Angels appear before them.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!" the Doctor raises both hands in the air in a surrender as he decides to negotiate with the robots first before resorting to violence. "Security protocol one. Do you hear me? One." The Host Angels temporarily relax, waiting for the Doctor to proceed with his three questions. "Okay, that gives me three questions. Three questions to save my life, am I right?"
"Information: Correct."
"No, that wasn't one of them. I didn't mean it. That's not fair. Can I start again?" the Doctor asks, hopefully. If the Host Angel he was talking to was capable of doing so, the Heart reckoned it would be smirking at her tether.
"Information: No."
"No! No, no, no, no. That wasn't a question either." The Doctor bemoaned, as the Heart shook her head in annoyance.
"Bloody hell…" She mumbles underneath her breath and scowls at the Doctor for his thoughtlessness.
"Blimey. One question left. One question. So, you've been given orders to kill the survivors, but survivors must therefore be passengers or staff, but not us." The Doctor gestures between himself and the Heart who waits impatiently for him to get to the point to avoid the both of them becoming walking-talking shishkabobs. "We're not passengers, we're not staff. Go on, scan us. You must have bio-records. No such people on board. We don't exist; therefore, you can't kill us. Therefore, we are stowaways, and stowaways should be arrested and taken to the nearest figure of authority." The Doctor stated, at his usual million miles an hour. "And I reckon the nearest figure of authority is on deck thirty-one. Final question. Am I right?"
The Host Angels pause momentarily to do exactly what the Doctor stated and scanned the Time Couple to clarify what he had been claiming.
"Information: Correct."
"Brilliant!" The Doctor ditches the sauté pan on the ground, and the Heart reluctantly does the same with the rolling pin and raises her hands in the surrender pose. "Take us to your leader." Then he turns and grins cheerfully at the Heart. "I've always wanted to say that."
"You're living the dream, sweetie." The Heart chuckled in fond exasperation as the Host Angels surround the couple and lead them off towards deck thirty-one.
Deck 31
The Host Angels 'escort' the Doctor and the Heart towards this mysterious deck thirty-one. If she was being completely honest, the Heart was expecting there to be something impressive either about the deck or contained in it, if it had to be completely hidden away from everyone. But she felt let down, disappointed and thoroughly unimpressed the moment they set foot inside. It was just as ordinary as the rest of the ship, only minus the Christmas decorations. If anything, it looked more cluttered and was strewn about with discarded pieces of metal. The Doctor raised an eyebrow; just as underwhelmed as his tether.
"Wow. Now that is what you call a fixer upper." He comments casually.
"You said it, sweetie." The Heart agreed. The Doctor takes a couple of steps deeper into the room, obviously ready to delve deeper into the mystery that was deck thirty-one.
"Come on, then, Host with the most, this ultimate authority of yours. Who is it?" He requested, eagerly.
The Host Angels don't respond but instead head towards some nearby doors and opens them.
"Impressive." The Heart reluctantly concedes.
"I agree. That's very clever. An omnistate impact chamber. Indestructible. You can survive anything in there. Sit through a supernova. Or a shipwreck. Only one person can have the power and the money to hide themselves on board like this and I should know, because—"
"—My name is Max." A head attached to a large device with small wheels comes out.
His gold tooth glints.
"Huh. Fancy that. It really does that." The Heart was baffled. Max Capricorn frowns suspiciously at the couple and turns towards the Host Angels who had escort them to him.
"Who the hell are they?" He demanded.
"I'm the Doctor. Hello!" the Doctor greets Capricorn brightly, before gesturing to a bewildered Heart. "And this is my lovely partner, the Heart."
"Er, hi." The Heart raises a hand in acknowledgement.
"Information: Stowaways." One of the Host Angels explained, and Capricorn merely looks bored.
"Kill them."
"Oh, no, no, no. Wait, but you can't. Not now." Capricorn eyes the Doctor curiously. "Come on, Max. You've given me so much good material like, how to get a head in business." The Heart groaned at the bad joke. "See? Head? Head in business? No?"
"Everyone got the joke, Doctor. We just don't like it." The Heart explains, looking a bit embarrassed.
"Oh, ho, ho, the office joker. I like a funny man. No one's been funny with me for years." Capricorn comments and the Heart makes a face.
"Can't imagine why." She stated, sarcastically. Capricorn ignores her comment in favour of travelling down memory lane.
"A hundred and seventy-six years of running the company have taken their toll."
"Well, look on the positive side. You've got some flashy wheels." The Heart pointed out.
"No, a life support system, in a society that despises cyborgs." Capricorn looked a bit dejected. "I've had to hide away for years, running the company by hologram." He turns towards a nearby Host Angel. "Host, situation report."
"Information: Titanic is still in orbit." The Host Angel responded promptly. Capricorn looks incensed and rolls over towards a nearby monitor.
"Let me see. We should have crashed by now. What's gone wrong?" He scans the monitor and groans in frustration. "The engines are still running! They should have stopped!"
"Yeah, and when they do, the Earth will be roasted. How exactly does the Earth factor into this?" the Heart demanded, but Capricorn just dismisses her and the Doctor with a sneer.
"This interview is terminated." Neither the Doctor nor the Heart were going to take that dismissal lightly, and they also fail to notice that Astrid had materialised out of nowhere, using one of the teleportation cuffs and immediately hid before anyone could see her.
"You are about to kill billions of people!" the Heart roared angrily, storming over to give the wheeled wonder a piece of her mind. But the Doctor intercepts her, attempting to persuade Capricorn a different way.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! I can work it out." The Doctor volunteered. "It's like a task. I'm your apprentice. Just watch me. So, business is failing, and you wreak the ship so that makes things worse." He suddenly realised what he had said and sighed heavily. "Oh, yes! No. Yes. The business isn't failing, it's failed. Past tense."
"My own board voted me out. Stabbed me in the back." Capricorn confirmed, bitterly.
"If you had a back…" the Heart muttered.
"So, you scupper the ship, wipe out any survivors just in case anyone's rumbled you and the board find their shares halved in value." The Doctor continued, attempting to puzzle it out. "Oh, but that's not enough. No. Because if a Max Capricorn ship hits the Earth, it destroys an entire planet. Outrage back home. Scandal! The business is wiped out…"
"And the whole board thrown in jail for mass murder." The Heart realised, throwing the cyborg a look of disgust.
"While you sit there, safe inside the impact chamber." The Doctor looked equally appalled by the discovery himself.
However, Capricorn had the arrogance to not look the slightest bit concerned about that, or the lives he would be potentially snuffing out.
"I have men waiting to retrieve me from the ruins and enough off-world accounts to retire me to the beaches of Penhaxico Two, where the ladies, so I'm told, are very fond of metal." He waggled his eyebrows lecherously, and the Heart made a face at him.
"So that's what it all comes down to? Money. Even worse, it's blood money. Every penny of it." The Heart stated.
"And a so-called retirement plan. Two thousand people on this ship, six billion underneath us, all of them slaughtered, and why?" the Doctor's lip curled unpleasantly. "Because Max Capricorn is a loser."
"Of the highest caliber." The Heart agreed with contempt.
"I never lose," Capricorn smirked.
"You can't even sink the Titanic." The Doctor pointed out.
"Oh, but I can, Doctor. I can cancel the engines from here." Capricorn revealed.
An alarm suddenly goes off and both the Doctor and the Heart react with horror.
"You can't do this!" the Doctor protested.
"Host, hold them." Capricorn orders a pair of nearby Host Angels who come up behind the Time Couple and restrain them.
"Get off me!" the Heart struggled but winced when the Host Angel restraining her tightened its grip on her arms warningly.
Capricorn grinned nastily at them.
"Not so clever now, are we?" He taunts them as the Doctor glares at him for the cowardly, audacious plan and the fact that he didn't seem to care about the innocent lives he was going to be snuffing out. "A shame we couldn't work together, Doctor. You're rather good, as is your attractive little companion. All that banter yet not a word wasted." He sighed heavily. "Oh well, time for me to retire. The Titanic is falling. The sky will burn. Let the Christmas inferno commence." Capricorn goes to reverse away and do just that before he 'belatedly' remembered something. "Oh! Oh, Host. Kill them both."
Both the Doctor and the Heart stiffened, waiting for their necks to be broken, or something else even worse when…
"Mister Capricorn!" Said man turns his head and looks curiously towards the owner of the voice, while both the Doctor and the Heart reacted with horror when they see Astrid sitting in a forklift, looking determined.
"Astrid!?" the Doctor exclaimed.
"What the hell are you doing?!" the Heart yelled out in alarm. But Astrid ignores them both, in favour of focusing on Capricorn who frowned at her with confusion.
"I resign." Astrid stated before putting the forklift into gear and driving towards Capricorn; prongs lifted high into the air, ready to snare the cyborg.
"Astrid, don't!" the Doctor pleaded.
But Astrid had already managed to get the forks underneath Capricorn's life support, and the two machines battle each other. In an effort to help its master, one of the Host Angels removes their halo and hurls it towards the forklift Astrid was operating. It glances off Astrid's cab with a few metallic sparks.
"It's cut the brake line!" the Heart notices.
In slow motion, the Time Couple and Astrid manage to catch one last glimpse of each other before Astrid lifts Capricorn completely off the ground and powers both of them forward through the guard rail; knowing full well that she was unable to stop in time, before they plunge into the engines.
"Astrid!" the Doctor shouts frantically, as he and the Heart rush towards the smashed guard rail and look over the side to watch helplessly as she fell.
"Titanic falling." The computer reveals, as a tearful Heart looks away from the engines towards the ceiling in despair, while the Doctor continues staring down at the engine, also in despair but also sorrow; having lost yet another heroic friend and companion who had sacrificed their life for him.
"Voyage terminated. Voyage terminated."
Bridge
On the bridge, Frame attempts in vain to steer the failing ship and prevent it from plummeting down to the Earth, while Slade and Copper hold on for grim death to anything bolted down to the floor. Meanwhile the grieving but determined Time Couple walk hand in hand through a shower of fire explosions and debris. They pause before the Doctor wordlessly snaps his fingers. Immediately, two Host Angels walk up either side of him and take his arms. The Heart solemnly wraps her arms around her tether's neck and holds on tight, as the Host Angels fly both of them upwards; their arms punching forward like Superman in flight, before they smash their way through the floor of the bridge, scaring the daylights out of Frame.
"Deadlock broken." The computer announces just as the Doctor disengages himself from the two Host Angels and helps the Heart out of the hole. He politely greets Frame with a small smile.
"Ah, Midshipman Frame. At last."
"Er, but, but the Host—" Frame stammered, utterly confused. The Heart goes over to him to explain. She had a rather bitter smile on her face too.
"Long story, love. Suffice it to say; we're in charge now." The Heart indicates between herself and the Doctor. But Frame unfortunately has more bad news for them.
"But there's nothing we can do. There's no power. This ship's going to fall." Frame despairs.
"Titanic falling…" the computer announces, just as the Doctor walks over to Frame to bolster him.
"What's your first name?" He asks Frame who blinks at him.
"Alonso." Frame responded, and both the Doctor and the Heart freeze.
The latter is amused.
"No way. You're joking." She questions the young man who frowns at her with confusion.
"Why would I joke about that?" He demands. But neither the Doctor nor the Heart responded, choosing instead to laugh at their luck.
"That's something else I've always wanted to say. Allons-y, Alonso. Whoa!" the Doctor grabs the ship's wheel and spins immediately just as the alarms overhead sound when the ship enters the upper atmosphere and starts to burn on entry. Once into the cloud layer, the Heart switches on a scanner and cusses when she realises what their impact area was going to be.
"We're headed straight for west Central London, Doctor!" She informs her tether who nodded wordlessly and reaches for the comms.
"Oh. Hello, yes. Could you get me Buckingham Palace?" the Doctor requests urgently.
Back on Earth, the world is just starting to wake up to greet Christmas morning, unaware of the impending crisis rocketing towards them.
"And as dawn rises over Great Britain, it seems that this year the city of London has escaped alien intervention." The News 24 broadcaster reports in. "The Queen has remained in residence in defiance of extraterrestrial attack."
On the Titanic, the Doctor is getting frustrated with the person on the line with him.
"Listen to me. Security code seven seven one." He declares. "Now get out of there!" He yells impatiently.
Buckingham Palace
The Queen, dressed in her fluffy pink dressing gown, runs down a red carpeted corridor, accompanied by a footman, carrying one of her Corgis. The footman bellows at a member of staff.
"Open the door!"
Street
The elderly news seller emerges from his booth and glares up at the sky towards the oncoming Titanic hurtling towards them, unaware that the Doctor and the Heart were attempt to prevent tragedy.
"Don't you dare!" He growls. "You aliens! Don't you dare!" He shakes his fist, angrily at the approaching starship.
On board on the Bridge, both Frame and the Heart cling for dear life to something sturdy while the Doctor pulls back on the steering wheel, trying to pull the ship's nose back up.
"Engines active. Engines active." The computer announces. The Titanic manages to miss Buckingham Palace by inches and the Doctor steers the ship back into the sky.
"Yes! You did it!" the Heart cheers triumphantly, and rushes over to fling her arms around a relived, grinning Doctor, and hugged him tightly in her excitement and relief.
Outside Buckingham Palace
The Queen watches as the Titanic soars back into space, and waves gratefully at the retreating ship with her handkerchief.
"Thank you, Doctor. Thank you. Happy Christmas!" She bids him as the Titanic levels off.
On board, the survivors laugh with relief.
Bridge
The Heart and Frame were dancing and cheering loudly for the Doctor's achievement. At the same moment, the portrait of Capricorn on the wall, suddenly falls down into one of the remaining small fires and lights up like rice paper; incinerating what was left of the greedy, unscrupulous cruise liner tycoon.
"Used the heat of re-entry to fire up the secondary storm drive." The Doctor explains. "Unsinkable, that's me!" He grinned triumphantly. The Heart pulls him in for another hug and plants a wet kiss on his cheek.
"We made it!" Frame stated with relief, which causes both the Doctor and the Heart to remember one small price of their victory, which immediately sours the celebration for them.
"Not all of us." The Heart mumbles as she pulls away from the Doctor and leans against the Captain's chair, looking solemn.
But then, the Doctor remembers something crucial.
"Teleport!" He exclaimed, earning a perplexed look from the Heart. The Doctor and looks insistently at her. "She was wearing a teleport bracelet!" He reminds her and the Heart immediately brightened up with hope before dashing forward and seizing the Doctor's wrist, pulling him towards the door.
"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" She stated impatiently, and they and Frame rush from the Bridge back to the reception room.
Reception
The Doctor and the Heart burst into the room, with Frame not too far behind them; still supporting his wounded side gingerly. He was studying the couple in a bewilderment.
"Rickston, sonic!" the Doctor does the 'gimme' gesture to Slade who produces the sonic and tosses it to the Doctor who catches it and begins fiddling with the teleportation stand. "Mister Copper, the teleports, have they got the emergency settings?" He inquired to Copper who frowned.
"I don't know. They should have." He responded, somewhat helplessly.
"She fell, Mister Copper." The Heart reveals to the old man whose face falls at this piece of news about Astrid's sacrifice. "She fell. Do you know the emergency code?" Copper comes over to the teleportation stand.
"Er, let me see." He requested and the Doctor steps aside to allow Copper access to the teleportation stand.
"What the hell are you doing?" Frame demanded.
"Bringing her back." The Heart replied, matter of fact.
The Doctor and Copper continue working out how to get the teleportation stand to work. Copper suddenly realises the Doctor and the Heart's intention and flicks the right switches to get the machine to work.
"If a passenger has an accident on shore leave and they're still wearing their teleport, their molecules are automatically suspended and held in stasis." Copper explains. "So, if we can just trigger the shift…"
"There!" the Doctor shouts triumphantly. A very faded image of Astrid appears before them, looking similar to a television signal on the fritz.
"I'm falling…" Astrid's voice was echoey. The Doctor frowned a little and attempted to make a few adjustments.
"Only halfway there. Come on!" However, the Heart's hopeful expression immediately became a sombre one when she realises the hopelessness of the situation. She turns and lays a gentle hand on her tether's arm.
"Sweetie…"
"I keep falling…" Astrid states. However, the Doctor fails to recognise the grave tone in the Heart's voice.
"Feedback the molecule grid. Boost it with the restoration matrix." It has no effect, and the Doctor lets out a despairing groan. "No, no, no, no, no! Need more phase containment." He realises, and the Heart tries again to make him understand.
"Sweetheart…" The Heart spoke up.
"No!" the Doctor immediately shuts her down. "If I can just link up the surface suspension—"
"Doctor, she's gone." Copper backs up the Heart.
"I just need to override the safety. I can do this. I can do it." The Doctor was determined, and the Heart's two hearts broke at this.
"Sweetheart, we need to let her go." The Heart realises, and she hated herself for the reality of this situation. The Doctor looked incredulously at her.
"I can do anything!" He insisted, but Copper shook his head.
"Stop me falling…" Astrid pleaded.
"There's not enough left." Copper explained. "The system was too badly damaged. She's just atoms, Doctor. An echo was the ghost of the consciousness. She's stardust." The Doctor's face fell, and he stepped away from the teleportation stand, gripping the Heart's hand in his tightly.
"Astrid Peth, citizen of Sto." The Heart quietly spoke up; tears glistening in her eyes.
"The woman who looked at the stars and dreamt of travelling." The Doctor added, before lifting up the sonic and sadly aiming it at Astrid's ghost form, which begins sparkling like millions of sapphires. "Now you can travel forever…" He points the sonic at a nearby window, which immediately opens up.
Astrid floats up and out of the window.
"You're not falling, Astrid, you're flying." The Heart corrects her friend who shoots across space like a falling star.
A little later on, Frame had finished inspecting the teleportation stand and was satisfied with the results. He turns towards the Doctor, Copper and the Heart to give them the result.
"The engines have stabilised." He tells them. "We're holding steady until we get help, and I've sent the SOS. A rescue ship should be here within twenty minutes. And they're digging out the records on Max Capricorn. It should be quite a story."
They nodded in agreement.
"They'll want to talk to all of us, I suppose." Copper guessed, looking a bit resigned to his fate because of his fraudulent credentials. The Heart looks at him sympathetically as Frame nodded his head.
"I'd have thought so, yeah."
"I think one or two inconvenient truths might come to light." Copper confessed to Frame who looks at him in askance. But before he could inquire further, Copper carries on with his confession. "Still, it's my own fault, and ten years in jail is better than dying."
"Gold star for looking at the positive side of things, Mister Copper." The Heart praises him, with a small smile. Slade chooses that moment to come over to the Time Couple and Copper.
Both the Doctor and the Heart look at him blankly.
"Doctor, Heart. I never said thank you." The Heart blinks at him in astonishment; was this a potential turning over of a new leaf for Slade? "The funny thing is, I said Max Capricorn was falling apart. Just before the crash, I sold all my shares, transferred them to his rivals." Spoke too soon… "It's made me rich. What do you think of that?" Slade was grinning from ear to ear, and the surprised expression immediately fell from the Heart's face, and she exchanges a look with the Doctor and Copper. Slade's phone suddenly rings and the arrogant man immediately picks it up. "Salvain. Those shares. I want them triple bonded and locked." He snaps down the line to whoever Salvain was.
"And there's my limit." The Heart declares. "Do excuse me for a moment…" She immediately walks over to Slade who had his back to the blonde Time Lady. Copper's eyes widened in alarm when he realised what she was about to do.
"Uh, Heart. I'm not sure that's a good idea—" He goes to intercept her, but the Doctor calmly reaches out and grabs Copper's wrist, stopping him in his tracks.
"Let her go." He advises, trying and somewhat failing to hide an amused smirk off his face.
The Heart finally approaches Slade and taps him on the shoulder. He turns and gives her an impatient glare.
"Do you mind? I'm on the vone—" He is cut off when the Heart pops him one in the face, and he hits the deck like a sack of potatoes.
"I suggest you invest in some proper decorum lessons, mate." The Heart advises him with disgust before turning and flouncing back towards a stunned Copper, a grinning Doctor and a bewildered Frame.
"Of all the people to survive, he's not the one you would have chosen, is he?" Copper observed, as they watched Slade push himself off the floor; rubbing his sore jaw and looking a combination of fearful and outraged at a gloating Heart, looking every bit of her brother at that moment. "But if you could choose, Doctor, if you decide who lives and who dies, that would make you a monster." Copper rationalised just as the Heart rejoins the three men and casually takes the Doctor's arm.
The Doctor doesn't respond to Copper's observation, but instead 'casually' reaches behind him and picks up three of the teleportation bracelets, and hands one to Copper.
"Mister Copper, I think you deserve one of these." The Doctor states as he hands the other to the Heart who wordlessly snaps it onto her own wrist. Frame notices this, but instead of protesting merely salutes them just before they disappear.
Hampstead Heath
It was snowing as the Doctor, the Heart and Copper make their way across a grassy meadow towards where the Tardis had landed when it had floated away from the Titanic. Copper was grilling the semi-exasperated Time Couple with Earth facts.
"So, Great Britain is part of Europey, and just across the British Channel, you've got Great France and Great Germany—"
"No, Mister Copper. There's no Great France and Great Germany." The Heart corrects him patiently. "It's just France and Germany."
"Only Britain is 'Great'." The Doctor added.
"Oh," Copper looked baffled. "And they're all at war with the continent of Ham Erica?" He questioned and they hesitated a little.
"No. Well, not yet. But it's debatable, actually." The Heart conceded and sags with relief when they finally walk up to the Tardis, who she could sense was somewhat peeved with them both. "Hello, love!"
"And just what time do you call this?" the Tardis bitches at them, crabbily. The Heart winces but the Doctor appeared to be unfazed by the time machine's ire.
"There she is. Survive anything, she can!"
"You know, between you and me." Copper glances up at the snow falling softly from the heavens, uncomfortably. "I don't even think this snow is real. I think it's the ballast from the Titanic's salvage entering the atmosphere." The Doctor sighs, remembering something similar to this a few Christmases back when he had first regenerated into this body and Torchwood had blown away the Sycoraxes' ship.
"Yeah. One of these days it might snow for real..." He commented sadly.
"So, I, I suppose you'll be off." Copper guessed.
"The open sky." The Doctor nodded, pulling the Heart closer to him and wrapping an arm around her bare shoulders to stave off any potential cold wind and keep her warm. She automatically leans her head against his shoulder and glances up at the night sky.
"And, what about me?" Copper asked, timidly.
"We've only just recently had a friend leave us. I think it's time we were by ourselves for a bit." The Heart states apologetically.
"It's best that way." The Doctor nodded in agreement.
"What am I supposed to do?" Copper looked at them, in a panic.
It was a point, and technically they were responsible for him since they had just liberated him from a wrecked cruise liner and potential jail time for his offence. They needed to help him out somehow. That was when the Heart remembered the credit card Copper had to help buy souvenirs for Titanic's passengers.
"May I see that credit card for a moment, please?" She asks him politely, and Copper hands it over.
"It's just petty cash." Copper justifies, as the Time Couple examine exactly how much was on the card and were stunned and slightly amused at the amount they discovered. "Spending money. It's all done by computer. I didn't really know the currency, so I thought a million might cover it."
"And then some…" the Heart mutters underneath her breath as the Doctor subtly elbows her in the ribs and proceeds to explain things to Copper.
"A million? Pounds?" He clarifies.
"That enough for trinkets?" Copper asked.
"Mister Copper, a million pounds is worth fifty million credits." The Heart states and Copper's eyes nearly fall out of his head at the amount she mentioned.
"How much?"
"Fifty million and fifty-six." The Doctor corrects his tether. Copper is momentarily stunned, before a brilliant smile spreads across his face.
"I've got money!"
"Yes, you have." The Time Couple say in unison, amusement all over their faces.
"Oh, my word. Oh, my Vot!" Copper was almost speechless. "Oh, my goodness me. Yee ha!" He proceeds to do a little dance on the spot.
"It's all yours. Planet Earth. Now, that's a retirement plan." The Doctor grinned at Copper for his good fortune. "But just you be careful, though." He cautions him.
"I will, I will. Oh, I will!" Copper promises.
"No interfering. I don't want any trouble." The Doctor insisted, sternly. "Just, just have a good life."
"But I can have a house. A proper house, with a garden, and a door, and—Oh, Doctor, Heart, I will make you proud!" The Time Couple beam happily at the old man as he starts skipping away, muttering to himself about all the possibilities he could have now that he was financially able. "And I can have a kitchen with chairs, and windows, and plates and—"
"Where are you off to?" the Heart calls out to Copper, who turns back and shrugged.
"Well, I've no idea." He admits but then looks solemnly at the Time Couple. "But Doctor, Heart, I won't forget her." Copper refers to Astrid, who streaks across the night sky in blue starlight zigzagging away. It was a melancholy moment, broken only by Copper's joyful yells of triumph as he walked away to celebrate his new life.
The Doctor and the Heart smile bittersweetly.
"Merry Christmas, Mister Copper." They bid him, before going inside the Tardis.
A few moments later, it dematerialises.
A/N: WOW! That was a long couple of chapters. I hope everyone is enjoying the new year so far. Let me know what you think of this chapter. TTFN!