A/N: This chapter update is based on the Doctor Who episode 'The Unicorn and the Wasp. '
I do not own Doctor Who. All I own is this story and my OC. Please review, and no flaming will be tolerated. Please be respectful of both me and other readers. Thank you :)
STIRRING UP A HORNET'S NEST
"No attorneys to plead my case.
No opiates to send me into outer space."
– Pink: 'Trouble' (Try This [2003])
Estate Grounds
The peace of the English countryside was broken by the sounds of the Tardis materialising just inside the grounds of a grand old manor house. The Doctor, the Heart, and Donna step from the Tardis as the Doctor takes in a deep breath of fresh air and lets it out with a contented sigh.
"Oh, smell that air." He grinned enthusiastically. "Grass and lemonade. And a little bit of mint. A hint of mint." The Doctor scented the air. "Must be the nineteen twenties." He summed up, and Donna just looked at him sceptically.
"You can tell what year it is just by smelling?" She said, and the Doctor nodded.
"Oh, yeah." He insisted, but the Heart snorted sarcastically and casually pointed towards something coming up to them off in the distance.
"Or maybe the big vintage car rolling up the drive gave it away?" the Heart pointed out, and the Doctor pouted at her.
"Aw, you're no fun, darling." He feigned annoyance, and the Heart pretended ignorance.
"I don't know what you mean, love. I've always been fun." She stated, light-heartedly. They observed as an open-topped tourer turned onto the gravel in front of the estate and sounded its horn to announce its arrival. Two servants immediately come walking out, heading straight for the antique car. The elder of the two servants, most obviously the butler of the household, turns towards the younger male and speaks authoritatively to him.
"The Professor's baggage, Richard. Step lively." The younger man nodded and walked around the car to the back to pull out several of the passengers' bags. The Professor, an older gentleman, gets out of his vehicle and removes his goggles, greeting the butler jovially. "Good afternoon, Professor Peach."
"Hello, Greeves, old man." Both turn when they hear the sound of a bicycle's bell and see a young vicar riding up towards them. "Ah, Reverend!"
"Professor Peach," the vicar greets him politely. "Beautiful day. The Lord's in his heaven, all's right with the world." He stated, tilting his head up and glancing at the almost cloudless blue sky with admiration. Greeves politely addresses the vicar.
"Reverend Golightly. Lady Eddison requests you make yourself comfortable in your rooms." He informs him. "Cocktails will be served on the lawn from half past four." Both guests looked pleased with this information, however, the Professor also looked a bit distracted by something.
"You go on up. I need to check something in the library." He explained to the Reverend, who raised a curious eyebrow.
"Oh?" He looked and sounded like he wanted to come with, but Peach looked firmly at him.
"Alone." Peach insists, and Golightly looks slightly disapproving.
"It's supposed to be a party," He reminded the Professor, then sighed heavily. "All this work will be the death of you." Both men then make their way towards the estate to attend to their affairs. The Doctor, the Heart, and Donna were eavesdropping nearby in the shrubbery. Donna's face lit up with delight.
"Never mind Planet Zog," the redhead said dismissively. "A party in the nineteen twenties, that's more like it." She sounded very excited about the concept. The Heart nodded in agreement.
"I agree. A little bracing fresh air and fun in an outdoor cocktail party sounds like heaven to me." She smiles in both relief and contentment. The Heart reckoned it was exactly what she and the Doctor needed after losing their 'child' only just recently. It had hit the Doctor the worst because it was like reliving the destruction of Gallifrey all over again.
"The trouble is, we haven't been invited." The Doctor points out that both women went to the protest. However, their words fell flat when their designated driver pulled out his psychic paper and waved it casually about in front of them. "Oh, I forgot. Yes, we have." He grinned playfully. Both of them smile back at him as Donna hooks an arm through the Heart's and does an about-face back towards the Tardis.
"Come on, Heart. Time to dress up in something a little more comfortable." The redhead said in an exaggerated posh voice.
"Oh, yes. We'd cause a riot with what we're wearing at the moment." The Heart agreed. "Women in men's pants in the 1920s were frowned upon in the biggest way."
"Well then, off you go. Meet back here in twenty minutes." The Doctor shooed the women away, and Donna and the Heart started chatting enthusiastically about what experiencing an authentic 1920s cocktail party was going to be like since neither of them had ever attended one, even back in Donna's present.
Outside the Tardis
Twenty minutes came and went, and an impatient Doctor turned and rapped his knuckles on the Tardis door.
"Come on, you two. We'll be late for cocktails." He reminds them and steps aside when the door promptly opens up. Donna steps from the Tardis wearing a beautiful brown beaded flapper's dress, very suitable for the 1920s. Her auburn hair had been pinned up as close to 1920s fashion as she could get it, and she had a delicate strand of hair pearls perched on her head and a long, amber glass beaded necklace dangling around her neck. Donna strikes a pose in front of him.
"What do you think? Flapper or slapper?" Donna questions him, and the mildly annoyed expression on the Doctor's face softens to a fond one, and he smiles at her.
"Flapper. You look lovely." He compliments her.
"Thank you!" Donna beamed happily before shouting over her shoulder back inside the Tardis. "Come on, Heart. Shake a leg!" The doors opened again, and out stepped the Heart dressed in a baby pink 1920s cocktail dress with a choker of white pearls strung around her neck. Her curly blonde hair had also been pinned up into a 1920s hairstyle like Donna's, but looked a little bit more authentic. The poor Time Lady also looked a bit worried, unsure if what she was wearing was appropriate or too dressy for a simple outside cocktail party.
"Do I look okay? Is it too much?" The Heart fretted, and the Doctor cleared his throat, looking a little flustered.
"No," He mumbled. "You look lovely." The Doctor reassures her, and the Heart relaxes with relief.
"Oh, thank God!" She smiles at him and Donna before closing and locking the Tardis door behind her with her Yale key. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" She scolds them lightly before trotting away across the lawn towards where the servants had already set up for the party. The Doctor watches her go, still looking flustered, as a smirking Donna elbows him lightly in the ribs.
"Close your mouth, Doctor, or you'll catch flies." She teases him, and the Doctor throws an unamused look at Donna before the two of them power-walk to keep up with the Heart.
Lawns
The young footman who had unpacked Professor Peach's car earlier was now putting on a record that played smooth jazz as the housekeeper went around giving orders to the servants charged with attending the guests at the party.
"Look sharp!" The housekeeper barks with a noticeable Indian accent. "We have guests." She plastered on a professional smile as the Doctor, the Heart, and Donna made their way over to them.
"Drinks, sir? Ma'am? Miss?" The young footman offered, and Donna was quick to accept the offer.
"Sidecar, please."
"I'll have a Bee's Knees, please." The Heart requested with a polite smile, and the Doctor sidles up to her and puts in his order.
"And a lie and soda, thank you." He asks with a cheerful, friendly smile. The footman nods and heads over to the estate to fill the orders as Greeves makes an announcement.
"May I announce Lady Clemency Eddison?" He presents as a petite older woman who comes into view. The Doctor is quick to greet the hostess.
"Lady Eddison." He offers his hand towards and Lady Eddison takes and shakes it, giving him a curious, uncertain look.
"Forgive me, but who exactly might you be, and what are you doing here?" She asks.
"I'm the Doctor, and this is the Heart, and Miss Donna Noble, of the Chiswick Nobles." He gestures emphatically towards his tether and their rapt companion, who puts on a posh accent and drops into a curtsey.
"Good afternoon, my lady. Topping day, what? Spiffing. Top hole—"
"Please stop." The Heart mutters quietly underneath her breath, earning a pout from Donna as the Doctor nods in agreement and reaches into his pocket for his psychic paper.
"Yeah, don't do that. Don't." He urges Donna before he hands the psychic paper to Lady Eddison. "We were thrilled to receive your invitation, my lady." The Doctor invents a fictional chance meeting with her. "We met at the Ambassador's reception."
"Oh, yes!" Lady Eddison reacts like she is absent-minded. "Doctor, how could I forget you?"
"Yes, how can she?" The Heart mutters under her breath. The Doctor takes a subtle step backward and nudges her with his hip in reprimand. Thankfully, Lady Eddison doesn't notice this.
"But one must be sure with the Unicorn on the loose." She clears her throat, looking about nervously. The Doctor immediately perks up at this.
"A unicorn? Brilliant. Where?" He looked genuinely excited by the idea, and the Heart steps up to 'clarify' for him so that he doesn't arouse Lady Eddison's suspicions.
"No, dearest. I believe Lady Eddison might be referring to an actual person, using 'the Unicorn' as an alias." She hints, and the Doctor clears his throat, looking embarrassed as Lady Eddison continues to explain.
"The Unicorn is a jewel thief. Nobody knows who he is. He's just struck again. Snatched Lady Babbington's pearls right from under her nose." Her ladyship gossips, and Donna raises an eyebrow.
"Funny place to wear pearls." She comments, just as Greeves makes another announcement of the arrival of more guests.
"May I announce Colonel Hugh Curbishley, the Honourable Roger Curbishley?" A handsome young man roughly the same age as the Heart looked pushed an older man in a wheelchair up to the group. Lady Eddison brightens when she sees them and turns to introduce them to the trio.
"My husband and my son." Roger spots both Donna and the Heart and goes up to them to greet them. The Doctor looks a bit grumpy when he sees this.
"My word, you both are super ladies." He flirts with them both, but the Heart merely smiles politely.
"Thank you, sir." The Heart acknowledges graciously before stepping backwards to stand with the Doctor and wraps a hand around his arm, indicating her relationship with him. The Doctor noticeably relaxes. Donna, however, looks positively chuffed at Roger's attention.
"Oh, I like the cut of your jib. Chin, chin." She flirts back with a giggle. The Doctor goes up to him and shakes Roger's hand.
"Hello. I'm the Doctor." He smiles politely, and Roger immediately scans him up and down with an appreciative grin, which makes the Doctor feel both uncomfortable and relieved.
"How do you do?"
"Very well," the Doctor acknowledges as the footman returns with everyone's drinks. "Thanks!" He takes a sip from his drink as the footman turns to Roger and presents him with his cocktail.
"Your usual, sir?" The footman gives Roger bedroom eyes, and the Heart struggles to hold back a giggle. She had noticed Roger checking out the Doctor and, like him, figured out Roger's romantic preferences.
"Ah. Thank you, Davenport. How I like it." Roger very obviously flirts back with the young footman. Donna sidles up to the Doctor, looking at the small family of three with confusion.
"How come she's an Eddison, but her husband and son are Curbishleys?" Donna questioned as they watched them greet arriving guests warmly.
"The Eddison title descends through her," the Doctor explains, taking another sip from his drink. "One day, Roger will be a lord."
"Robina Redmond." Greeves introduces a young woman who is wearing a fashionable red dress and a radiant smile. Lady Eddison sidles up to the trio.
"She's the absolute hit of the social scene. A must." Redmond strolls up to her.
"Spiffing to meet you at last, my lady. What super fun!" Redmond beamed enthusiastically.
"Reverend Arnold Golightly."
"Ah, Reverend. How are you?" Lady Eddison greets him. "I heard about the church last Thursday night. Those ruffians are breaking in." She stated distastefully.
"How dreadful," the Heart commented with concern.
"You apprehended them, I hear," Curbishley noted, and the Reverend looked rather modest.
"As the Christian Fathers taught me, we must forgive them their trespasses. Quite literally." He confirmed.
"Some of these young boys deserve a decent thrashing," Roger reckoned, and the young footman, Devonport, piped up from the sidelines, not too far away from Roger.
"Couldn't agree more, sir." That earned more flirty eyes exchanged between both men, which this time was caught by Donna, who sagged with disappointment.
"Typical," She whispered to the Time Couple, who nodded with sympathy. "All the decent men are on the other bus."
"Or Time Lords…" the Doctor added casually. Roger turns towards his mother and addresses her formally.
"Now, my lady. What about this special guest you promised us?" He looks around curiously, trying to spot someone out of the ordinary. As if by magic, a smartly dressed woman in her mid-thirties comes walking up to the group. Lady Eddison beams with excitement as she approaches.
"Here she is," Lady Eddison gestures towards the woman who looks embarrassed by the applause she is getting from the group of party guests. "A lady who needs no introduction."
"No, no, please, don't," the woman begged modestly. "Thank you, Lady Eddison. Honestly, there's no need." She reassures her. The woman then turns towards the trio and sticks out her hand towards them to introduce herself. "Agatha Christie." The Heart's eyes widened in shock. But the Doctor and Donna remained momentarily oblivious.
"What about her?" Donna inquired innocently.
"That's me," Agatha stated, puzzled. Donna and the Doctor finally started gaping in awe.
"No. You're kidding!" Donna gushes with delight.
"Agatha Christie." The Doctor grabs her hand in his and pumps it up and down in his enthusiasm. "I was just talking about you the other day. I said, I bet she's brilliant." Agatha smiles, flattered. "I'm the Doctor. This is the Heart and Donna." He gestures to each woman accordingly. "Oh, I love your stuff. What a mind! You fool me every time. Well, almost every time. Well, once or twice. Well, once. But it was a good one."
"You're rambling, love." The Heart tells him, fondly. Agatha looked amused by the Doctor, who looked sheepish.
"You make a rather unusual couple." Agatha gestures between the Doctor and Donna, and once again, they groan in frustration.
"Oh, no, no, no, no. We're not married." The Doctor firmly corrects the famous author.
"We're not a couple." Donna insisted, and Agatha nodded in agreement.
"Well, obviously not. No wedding ring." Her sharp eyes point out Donna's bare left ring finger. The Doctor grinned, impressed.
"Oh. Oh, you don't miss a trick." He compliments her while discreetly digging around his coat pocket for something. The Heart's eyes widen minimally when she feels the Doctor sliding something on her ring finger. "But it's a common mistake. This is my lovely wife…" He intertwines his hands with his tether and holds them up, displaying a thin gold wedding band on the Heart's finger that the Time Lady recognises as the bio-dampener ring the Doctor had once given Donna to help shield her from the Rocness Queen.
"Oh, how wonderful. How long have you been married for?" Agatha asks politely, and the Heart frowns a little with concern when she senses sadness coming from the author.
"Ooh, almost a year ago." The Doctor fibbed, pulling the Heart closer and placing an affectionate kiss on her temple. Lady Eddison steals back Agatha's attention.
"Mrs. Christie, I'm so glad you could come." She fawns. "I'm one of your greatest followers. I've read all six of your books. Er, is, er, Mister Christie not joining us?" She inquires awkwardly. At the mention of her absent husband, Agatha became unexpectedly defensive.
"Is he needed? Can't a woman make her way in the world?" She inquired a little sullenly.
"Don't give my wife ideas." Curbishley jokes as Lady Eddison playfully slaps her husband on his shoulder.
"Now, Mrs. Christie, I have a question. Why a Belgian detective?" Roger asked, changing the subject. The Doctor's attention is distracted by the Colonel's discarded newspaper. He goes over to the Colonel and gestures towards it.
"Excuse me, Colonel." The wheelchair bound man gives his consent, and the Doctor grabs the newspaper and snaps it open, studying the date.
"Belgians make such lovely buns," Agatha answers Roger's question. Satisfied, he glances around, frowning a little.
"I say, where on Earth's Professor Peach? He'd love to meet Mrs. Christie." Roger was concerned by the academic's absence from the party. The Reverend steps up to answer him.
"Said he was going to the library." He confirmed, as Lady Eddison promptly turned towards her housekeeper.
"Miss Chandrakala, would you go and collect the Professor?" She requested, and the Indian housekeeper nodded obediently.
"At once, Milady." She turns and heads back across the lawn towards the manor. The Doctor taps both Donna and the Heart to grab their attention.
"What's wrong, sweetie?" The Heart asks him, and he gestures towards the date of the newspaper he was still carrying in his hand.
"The date on this newspaper," He stated, and Donna frowned.
"What about it?" She asks, as the Heart studies the date and immediately pales in realisation.
"It's the day Agatha Christie disappeared." She confirmed as the Doctor grunted in agreement.
"She'd just discovered her husband was having an affair," the Doctor said, looking solemn. Donna looked surprised, probably expecting to see Agatha looking a bit sadder than she currently looked.
"You'd never think to look at her, smiling away," Donna observed.
"Oh, I'm sensing sadness, anger, and a feeling of betrayal from Mrs. Christie." The Heart corrects Donna, who looks sympathetically at Agatha.
"Plus, she's British and moneyed." The Doctor added, also looking sadly at the poor woman. "That's what they do. They carry on. Except for this one time. No one knows exactly what happened. She just vanished." Donna's eyes widened in alarm. "Her car will be found tomorrow morning by the side of a lake."
"And ten days later, Agatha Christie turns up in a hotel in Harrogate. Said she'd lost her memory. She never spoke about the disappearance till the day she died, but whatever it was…"
"It's about to happen," Donna finishes the Doctor's prediction.
"Right here, right now." The Doctor nodded. A panicked scream alerts everyone, coming straight from the manor. As heads turn in that direction, they see Miss Chandrakala running toward them, looking distraught.
"Professor! The library! Murder! Murder!" She informs. The Time Couple were among the first to run towards the manor quickly.
Library
Miss Chandrakala directed the group of partygoers towards the Library where Professor Peach's corpse lay. The Doctor enters the room, tugging the Heart along with him, followed by Donna and Agatha. The Time Couple immediately goes over to the body.
"Oh, my goodness!" Greeves exclaimed in horror. The Doctor leaned in closer to observe a particularly obvious head wound on the Professor's head. Both he and the Heart grimace at the viciousness of the attack.
"Bashed on the head. Blunt instrument." The Doctor reveals.
"Watch broke as he fell," the Heart points out, observing the Professor's broken watch face closely. "Time of death was a quarter past four." The Doctor gets up from his squat and goes over to a nearby desk that presumably Professor Peach had been sifting through moments before he had been killed. Donna spots the murder weapon lying not too far away from the body.
"A bit of pipe," the redhead notes while Agatha spies something amongst the ashes smouldering in the fireplace and goes over to inspect it. "Call me Hercule Poirot, but I reckon that's blunt enough." Donna scoffed, not noticing Agatha as she found a piece of burnt paper in the fireplace grate, quickly nabbed it, and put it in her purse. However, both the Doctor and the Heart did, but said nothing for the moment.
"Nothing worth killing for in that lot," the Doctor states, moving away from the paper-strewn desk. "Dry as dust."
"Hold on," Donna says, garnering everyone's attention. "The Body in the Library? I mean, Professor Peach, in the library, with the lead piping?" She notes with mild amusement that Lady Eddison, her husband, and the rest of the guests force their way into the room to play gooseberry as well.
"Let me see!" Lady Eddison insists, shouldering her way past Greeves.
"Out of my way," Curbishley demands, also attempting to wheel his way past his butler into the room with his wife. Lady Eddison spots the body almost immediately and gasps in dismay.
"Gerald?"
"Saints preserve us!" The Reverend exclaims sympathetically the moment he sees the body.
"Oh, how awful!" Robina pales when she sees the body for herself. Agatha decides to become the voice of reason.
"Someone should call the police," She suggests, and the Doctor was quick to act, immediately spinning on the spot and brandishing his psychic paper around the room for everyone to see as he 'introduces' himself.
"You don't have to," He reassures the group. "Chief Inspector Smith from Scotland Yard, known as the Doctor. My wife and Miss Noble are the plucky young women who help me out." He added hurriedly.
"I say." Lady Eddison looked astonished by his 'confession' while behind the Doctor's back, the Heart rolled her eyes and Donna scowled at him in offence at being labelled as 'plucky'.
"Mrs. Christie was right. Go into the sitting room. I will question each of you in turn." The Doctor instructs firmly. Agatha begins ushering people out of the room.
"Come along. Do as the Doctor says. Leave the room undisturbed." She instructs them as the Heart smirks at her retreating.
'Hypocrite…' She thinks, remembering the piece of evidence she had hidden in her purse. Donna immediately turns on him.
"The plucky young women who helps me out?" She complains, and the Heart quickly explains.
"No policewomen in 1926." She revealed, and Donna still looked affronted.
"You're going along with that?" She was a little peeved that the Heart wasn't a bit more miffed like she was. But the Heart shrugged, looking unperturbed.
"I found it easier just to play along with his schemes." The Heart explained as Donna huffed.
"Why don't we phone the real police?" She wondered, and the Doctor frowned at the very idea.
"The last thing we need is PC Plod sticking his nose in." The Doctor's sharp eyes spot evidence hidden in the cracks of the floorboards and snatches up a fountain pen from the desk. "Especially now I've found this." He digs around the crack of the floorboard, and a bit of grunge that looks a bit like honey drips from the pointed end of the pen. "Morphic residue."
"Morphic?" Donna repeated. "Doesn't sound very 1926."
"That's because whoever killed Professor Peach left it behind when it genetically re-encoded itself." The Heart tells Donna, whose eyes widened in alarm.
"The murderer's an alien?" She blurted out, and the Time Couple nodded, looking grim.
"Which means that one of that lot," the Doctor points towards the closed Library door, "is an alien in human form." He confirms. An excited smile spreads across Donna's face when she realises that she is in a real-life murder mystery.
"Yeah, but think about it. There's a murder, a mystery, and Agatha Christie."
"Your point?" the Heart deadpanned.
"This happens to us all the time," the Doctor added, just as nonchalant. But Donna was trying to get her point across.
"But isn't that a bit weird? Agatha Christie didn't walk around surrounded by murders. Not really. I mean, that's like meeting Charles Dickens, and he's surrounded by ghosts at Christmas."
The Time Couple gave each other nostalgic smiles as they remembered their first trip back in time together with Rose to Cardiff, Wales, in 1869, when they had met Charles Dickens and the Gelth, who were masquerading as the malevolent spirits Dickens had written about in his story A Christmas Carol.
"Well…" the Doctor responded casually, and Donna looked at the couple disbelievingly.
"Oh, come on!" She grumbled. "It's not like we could drive across country and find Enid Blyton having tea with Noddy." When neither of them responded, Donna looked somewhat alarmed. "Could we? Noddy's not real. Is he? Tell me there's no Noddy." She begged, and the Doctor rolled his eyes as the Heart leaned in to confirm.
"Yes, Donna. There's no Noddy."
Outside the Library
Unknown to them, Agatha was waiting for them outside the door, obviously curious about the murder and the trio. She immediately walks up to them, intending to ask questions, but pauses as she listens in to what Donna was in the middle of saying.
"Next thing you know, you'll be telling me it's like Murder on the Orient Express, and they all did it." Donna comments, and an intrigued Agatha speaks up.
"Murder on the Orient Express?" She said as the three of them jumped when they saw the author. The Doctor and the Heart instantly panic, but Donna is quick to smile and respond to them.
"Ooh, yeah. One of your best." She complements a puzzled Agatha.
"But not yet…" The Heart mutters to herself, underneath her breath, to Donna, who flushes in embarrassment. However, Agatha doesn't appear to notice.
"Marvellous idea, though."
"Yeah." Donna smiles weakly. "Tell you what, Copyright Donna Noble, okay?" She ignores it when the Heart elbows her in the side out of warning. The Doctor changes the subject.
"Anyway. Agatha and I will question the suspects. Donna, you and Heart search the bedrooms. Both of you look for clues." He leans in to whisper in Heart's ear. "Look for any more residue." The Heart nodded and started for the staircase. The Doctor produces a magnifying glass from one of his pockets and hands it to a disgruntled, miffed Donna. "You'll need this."
Donna takes the magnifying glass and raises an eyebrow at him.
"Is that for real?" She raises the magnifying glass for emphasis, and the Doctor pushes her gently in the direction of the staircase where the Heart was patiently waiting for her.
"Go on. You're ever so plucky." He teased the redhead, who looked like she wanted to give him a few choice words that would've been hugely inappropriate for the current time frame, probably scandalising Agatha in the process, but she thought the better of it. She stomps her way towards the staircase. The Doctor turns and grins eagerly at a disapproving Agatha. "Right then. Solving a murder mystery with Agatha Christie. Brilliant!" He rubs his hands together in anticipation.
"How like a man to have fun while there's disaster all around him." Agatha scowls at him, and the grin on the Doctor's face instantly disappears.
"Sorry," He apologises, looking shamefaced. "Yeah."
"I'll work with you, gladly," Agatha acquiesces. "But for the sake of justice, not for your amusement." She scolds him firmly, and the Doctor looks like a chastised schoolboy.
"Yeah." He nodded as both he and Agatha headed for the sitting room to begin the interviewing process of the investigation.
Sitting Room
The Doctor and Agatha set up a makeshift interviewing room in the manor's sitting room and interrogated each guest one by one, with the Doctor as the interrogator and Agatha taking notes.
First up: Reverend Golightly. The priest is ushered into the room by Greeves, and he nervously takes a seat in front of the Doctor.
"Now then, Reverend. Where were you at a quarter past four?" the Doctor asks him, politely.
"Let me think," the Reverend responded, with a contemplative frown on his face. "Why yes, I remember. I was unpacking in my room."
"No alibi, then." The Doctor noted.
"You were alone?" Agatha spoke up, and the Reverend laughed lightly as he addressed Agatha's question.
"With the Lord, one is never truly alone, Doctor?" He points out, and both the Doctor and Agatha thank him and allow him to leave. Next, Roger saunters in and takes a seat, crossing one leg casually as he waits for the questions.
"And where were you?" the Doctor asked.
"Let me think," Roger unknowingly repeated the same thing as the reverend before him. "I was… Oh, yes. I was taking a constitutional in the fields behind the house. Just taking a stroll, that's all." Roger stated, and the Doctor and Agatha raised their eyebrows at his response.
"Alone?" the Doctor prompted.
"Oh, yes, all alone. Alone." Roger was quick to respond, a little too quick and sounding a bit too innocent. "Completely. All of the time. I wondered lonely as the proverbial cloud. There was no one else with me. Not at all. Not ever." He was very insistent, and the Doctor and Agatha had no choice but to move on to the next suspect.
"And where were you?" the Doctor questioned Robina, who put on a quizzical expression.
"At a quarter past four," She mused. "Well, I went to the toilet when I arrived, and then er. Oh, yes, I remember. I was preparing myself. Positively buzzing with excitement about the party and the super fun of meeting Lady Eddy." Robina explained.
"We've only got your word for it," the Doctor pointed out, and Robina merely looked down her nose at him, unconcerned.
"That's your problem, not mine." Robina is then dismissed, and in rolls Curbishley in his wheelchair.
"And where were you, sir?" the Doctor asks politely.
"Quarter past four?" Curbishley looked surprised. "Dear me, let me think. Ah, yes, I remember. I was in my study, reading through some military memoirs. Fascinating stuff." The wheelchair bound man had a slightly goofy expression on his face that made both the Doctor and Agatha seriously believe that the reading material Curbishley was describing was decidedly not military. Both of them grimace a little with disgust. "Took me back to my days in the army. Started reminiscing. Mafeking, you know. Terrible war."
"Colonel, snap out of it." The Doctor urges him a bit uncomfortably.
"I was in me study—" Curbishley continues, misunderstanding the Doctor's request, and the Doctor was quick to verify.
"No, no, no. Right out of it." The Doctor was insistent, looking a little revolted. Curbishley jolts out of his slightly pornographic fantasy and flushes a little in embarrassment.
"Oh, sorry." He apologises. Curbishley is dismissed, and her ladyship is summoned next for her interrogation.
"And where were you at a quarter past four, my lady?" the Doctor asks, and Lady Eddison fidgets nervously in her seat, obviously uncomfortable being interrogated about a murder that had taken place in her home.
"Now, let me see," Lady Eddison recalled. "Yes, I remember. I was sitting in the Blue Room, taking my afternoon tea." She explains. "It's a ritual of mine. I need to gather strength for the duty of hostess." Both the Doctor and Agatha nodded. "I then proceeded to the lawn where I met you, Doctor, and I said, Who exactly might you be and what are you doing here? And you said, I am the Doctor and this is the Heart, and Miss Donna Noble—"
"Yes, yes. You can stop now. I was there for that bit." The Doctor reminds her patiently.
"Of course," Lady Eddison nodded, then let out a small burp, which she immediately covered with her handkerchief. "Excuse me." When the Doctor and Agatha give her permission to leave, the pair find themselves back at square one with no leads. Agatha was pacing the length of the room while the Doctor remained sitting in his chair and brooded.
"No alibis for any of them," Agatha stated, looking a bit frustrated. "The Secret Adversary remains hidden. We must look for a motive. Use ze little grey cells." She unintentionally quotes Hercule Poirot.
"Oh, yes, little grey cells. Good old Poirot." The Doctor grinned. "You know, I've been to Belgium. Yeah, with the Heart. I remember we were deep in the Ardennes, trying to find Charlemagne." His mind wanders towards that particular adventure, missing the strange look that Agatha was giving him the moment he had mentioned Charlemagne. "He'd been kidnapped by an insane computer."
"Doctor? Doctor!" Agatha attempted to bring him back to the here and now, and the Doctor snapped out of the past and back into the present.
"Sorry," He apologises and straightens up in his chair.
"Charlemagne lived centuries ago," Agatha pointed out with a raised eyebrow, and the Doctor smirked knowingly.
"I've got a very good memory."
"For such an experienced detective, you missed a big clue," Agatha stated, and the Doctor's smirk broadened.
"What, that bit of paper you nicked out of the fire?" the Doctor pointed out promptly, and she looked astonished.
"You were looking the other way…"
"Yeah, but the Heart noticed and informed me at the same time that I saw you reflected in the glass of the bookcase." Agatha looked impressed.
"You and your wife are very crafty." She opens her purse and pulls out the burnt piece of paper, showing it to him. "This is all that was left." The Doctor peers down at the burnt piece and notes the word aiden printed on the paper.
"What's that first letter? N or M?" He questioned out loud.
"It's an M. The word is Maiden," Agatha concludes.
"Maiden!" the Doctor randomly shouts, startling Agatha, who throws him an annoyed scowl. "What does that mean?" He wondered.
"We're still no further forward. Our Nemesis remains at large," Agatha looked disappointed. "Unless Miss Noble and Mrs. Smith found something." She headed towards the sitting room doors, missing the small smile on the Doctor's face when he mentioned the Heart's temporary title, and found that he didn't mind her being called that.
Upstairs Corridor
The Heart walked a bit more sedately behind a visibly annoyed Donna as they searched the upper levels of the manor.
"Penny for your thoughts?" the Heart queried, curious about why the redhead was sporting a massive chip on her shoulder.
"Pardon?" said Donna, choosing to act ignorant of why her friend was asking such a question. Which only earned her a flat look from the Heart.
"You heard me. What's with the case of the grumps?" the Heart probed, and Donna sighed heavily. "I would've thought that you'd be chomping at the bit to do something like this. Particularly because it involves Agatha Christie."
"I'm not upset," Donna clarified.
"Could've fooled me," retorts the Heart. "Wanna try again with that answer? 'cause I can sense that you're lying to me." The Time Lady points out, and Donna pauses before caving and confessing.
"Fine. I'm not upset because the Doctor made us search up here. I'm—"
"Sceptical?" the Heart supplied, trying to be helpful and earning an irritated look from the redhead.
"Yeah, I guess. I don't understand how an alien could be the killer, let alone one of the guests." Donna shrugged, and the Heart let out a sigh of her own and attempted to rationalise her friend's lack of understanding.
"There is one thing, Donna, that you'll learn while travelling with the Doctor and me. And that is, sometimes, people, objects, and situations don't always make sense, but we persevere, nonetheless. Because sometimes there is a reason for everything."
"That's just bonkers," stated Donna. They come across a door, and Donna jiggles the handle, attempting to gain access. "It's locked."
"You won't find anything in there." Greeves approaches them from out of nowhere, making both women jump out of surprise.
"Good lord, man. Make a bit of noise to let someone know you're there before you talk," scolds the Heart as Donna gestures towards the locked door curiously.
"How come it's locked?"
"Lady Eddison commands it to be so," Greeves explains, ignoring the Heart's protestation.
"And we command it to be otherwise," Donna retorted. Scotland Yard. Pip, pip." She gestures, and Greeves reluctantly withdraws his keys and unlocks the door for the two of them.
"Why's it locked in the first place?" the Heart questioned as Greeves finally unlocked the door and opened it up for them.
"Many years ago, when my father was butler to the family, Lady Eddison returned from India with malaria. She locked herself in this room for six months until she recovered." He explains, rather crisply. "Since then, the room has remained undisturbed."
"How unfortunate," the Heart sympathised with Lady Eddison's bad luck.
She and Donna step into the room and glance around. The room was sparse, containing only a single, neatly made bed with a dusty duvet. The curtains in the room were drawn, and a lonely little teddy bear sat at the bottom of the little bed. It didn't take long for the Heart to realise that Donna and she were standing in a child's bedroom, and that the 'six months' that Lady Eddison had secluded herself in this room to recover from malaria, was an obvious alibi to cover up the fact that she had been three months pregnant when she returned from India.
"There's nothing in here," insisted Greeves impatiently, and the Heart was inclined to agree.
"How long's it been empty?" Donna questioned.
"Forty years," said Greeves.
"Why would she seal it off?" the redhead ponders out loud. "All right, we need to investigate. You just butle off." Donna dismisses Greeves and shuts the door in the indignant butler's face. She and the Heart started looking around for evidence that might be linked to what was currently happening. "You find something?" asks Donna after about five minutes, and the Heart shakes her head disappointedly.
"Nothing sticks out," the Time Lady responded. The sound of an insect buzzing gets louder and louder, coming from behind the curtain drawn across the window. Donna looked amused by this.
"1926, they've still got bees." Donna walks closer to the bedroom window. The closer she got to the window, the louder the buzzing noise got. "Oh, what a noise. All right, busy bee, I'll let you out. Hold on, I shall find you with my amazing powers of detection." She promised the trapped bug. However, the Heart frowned.
"That doesn't sound like a bee, Donna. Sounds more like a—" the Heart spins around when Donna pulls open the curtains, revealing a giant wasp hovering outside the window. Both the redhead and the Time Lady were stunned. "Bloody hell…" muttered the Heart as she and Donna ducked when the giant wasp smashed through the glass and spun around to face them for a second attempt at attacking them.
"That's impossible," lamented Donna as she and the Heart backed up to the broken window.
"Obviously not," retorts the Heart.
"Doctor!" Donna yelled as she held up the magnifying glass and focused the bright sunshine on the insect. It screeches with displeasure, which gives the women the chance to run out of the room.
Upstairs corridor
The Heart pulled the door shut behind them with a slam, trapping the giant wasp inside. Both women were breathing hard from the adrenaline rush.
"Doctor!" Donna repeated her call, this time with more urgency and just a hint of annoyance. Both she and the Heart screamed in fright when the wasp's giant sting pierced through the wooden door like it was no more than rice paper, and they jumped back like the door had electrocuted them.
"Heart! Donna!" the Doctor calls out to them in alarm when he and Agatha hear their frightened shrieks. They appear from around the corner of the corridor, and the Doctor approaches both women, looking at them urgently.
"Oh, my God," the Heart muttered in sheer disbelief.
"It's a giant wasp," Donna explained, and the Doctor blinked at her, obviously trying to comprehend what she had just told him.
"What do you mean, a giant wasp?"
"Oh, c'mon, sweetie. It's not that hard to understand," snapped the Heart impatiently.
"We mean, a wasp that's giant," Donna elaborated, looking just as irritated as the Heart did.
"It's only a silly little insect," dismissed Agatha with a flippant little laugh, but the two women were adamant about what they had seen, confirming that the suspect they were looking for was indeed a shape-shifting alien.
"THAT was not a 'silly little insect, '" mocked the Heart with a scowl.
"When I say giant, I don't mean big; I mean flipping enormous!" insisted Donna. "Look at its sting." She gestures towards the protruding wasp sting in the wooden door. The condescending smile on Agatha's face immediately dropped when she saw the sting, while the Doctor's eyes widened in surprise.
"Let me see." He shoves aside Donna and the Heart and pushes open the bedroom door.
Child's bedroom
Only when he got inside, the giant wasp mysteriously disappeared.
"Where did it go?" the Heart exclaimed, looking over the Doctor's shoulder and looking puzzled.
"It's gone. Buzzed off," said the Doctor, and the Heart throws him a dirty look for the awful pun.
"Don't make me hurt you."
"But that's fascinating," Agatha remarked, and the Doctor and the Heart looked down to see Agatha squatting beside the broken-off stinger, reaching out to touch the sticky residue dripping from it.
"No. Don't touch it." The Doctor hastily stops her. "Don't touch it. Let me." He reaches into his suit jacket pocket and produces a test tube and a pencil. Squatting down beside the dripping stinger, he uncorked the test tube and, using the pencil, scooped some of the sticky residue into it. "Giant wasp. Well, tons of amorphous insectivorous lifeforms, but none in this galactic vector." The Doctor muttered as he corked the residue and examined it closely.
"I think I understood some of those words," stated Agatha before she frowned at the Doctor in bewilderment. "Enough to know that you're completely potty." Both Donna and the Heart struggle to hide amused smirks due to the direness of the situation. The Doctor, true to form, ignores the comment, still focused on the giant wasp.
"Lost its sting, though," muses Donna. "That makes it defenceless."
"Nah, a wasp this big? It'll be able to grow a new one," disagrees the Heart. Agatha let out an incredulous scoff and stepped in front of the three of them to get them to see reality.
"Can we return to sanity? There are no such things as giant wasps."
"Exactly!" the Doctor agreed. "So the question is, what's it doing here?" They all snap to attention when somebody screams from outside the manor. Immediately, everyone scrambles to investigate.
Outside the kitchen
The Doctor, the Heart, Donna, and Agatha rush outside and down a gravel path that leads to the main part of the house. They round a corner and immediately spot a figure lying crushed underneath a broken stone gargoyle.
"Oh, no," quietly mumbled the Heart as she and the Doctor scrambled to the figure's side. It was Lady Eddison's housekeeper, Miss Chandrakala. "Can you hear me?" She whispered to the mortally wounded woman, who feebly looked up at her and the Doctor with glassy, vacant eyes.
"The poor little child…" Miss Chandrakala moaned before promptly dying. But there was no time to mourn the poor woman, as all heads glanced around on high alert when they heard buzzing noises.
"There!" the Doctor points towards the sky as the same giant wasp that attacked Donna and the Heart flies overhead. It had grown a new stinger already. The wasp immediately heads for the manor, and the Doctor seizes his tether's wrist and pulls her to her feet. "Come on!"
Staircase
Once inside, the four of them ran up the staircase to the guest bedroom corridor, chasing after the giant wasp. Somehow, Donna saw the funny side to this entire situation.
"Hey, this makes a change."
"How pray tell?" questioned the Heart dubiously as they finally made it to the top of the staircase and raced down the corridor.
"There's a monster, and we're chasing it." Donna clarified, and the Heart rolled her eyes while Agatha continued to deny the possibility that the giant wasp even existed. A typical response for people to rationalise away something that they had first recognised as impossible to begin with.
"It can't be a monster. It's a trick. They Do It With Mirrors." Agatha insisted, but she soon ate her words when the aforementioned wasp suddenly appeared in front of them, buzzing furiously and trying to get at them with its stinger. "By all that's holy…" She gasped in disbelief.
"Oh, but you are wonderful!" gushed the Doctor with a huge grin. The giant wasp takes a deliberate stab at the group with its stinger once again, and the Doctor immediately backs off and narrows his eyes. "Now, just stop. Stop there." He requested sternly but calmly. The wasp ignores him and continues to lunge at them, scarring the wall with its stinger in its attempt.
"Donna, the magnifying glass…" suggests the Heart, indicating the implement in the redhead's hands.
"Oi, fly boy!" a determined Donna calls out to the wasp before angling the magnifying glass in direct sunlight, sending the resulting light beam into the wasp's path. It immediately retreats down the corridor.
"Don't let it get away!" instructs the Doctor as he tears down the corridor after the giant insect. "Quick, before it reverts to human form." The quartet follows the wasp down the corridor before it turns a corner and disappears down the guest bedroom corridor. "Where are you?" the Doctor calls out, firmly. "Come on. There's nowhere left to run. Show yourself!"
Every door opens up in the corridor, and bewildered, confused guests and homeowners step out in response. The Doctor's face falls in dismay.
"Oh, that's just cheating!" he bemoaned in frustration.
Drawing Room
The quartet gives Lady Eddison news about her housekeeper's death, and her ladyship sinks into a nearby seat and starts crying into her handkerchief.
"My faithful companion, this is terrible."
"Excuse me, my lady," Davenport steps forward to explain what Miss Chandrakala was doing before she was murdered. "She was on her way to tell you something."
"She never found me," said Lady Eddison. "She had an appointment with death instead." She continues weeping into her handkerchief as the Doctor comes over and sits beside her, a look of sympathy on his face.
"She said, the poor little child," he informs Lady Eddison, who looks up at him curiously. "Does that mean anything to anyone?" He addresses everyone in the room. Curbishley snorted.
"No children in this house for years." And he gives his son a disapproving scowl, which Roger pretends not to notice as he flushes an embarrassed red. "Highly unlikely there will be."
"Mrs. Christie." Lady Eddison turns toward Agatha, who looks pained, as though knowing what her ladyship was likely to be asking her. "You must have twigged something. You've written simply to best detective stories."
"Yes, tell us. What would Poirot do?" the Reverend pipes up, with interest.
"Heaven's sake. Cards On The Table, woman. You should be helping us." Curbishley exclaimed in frustration when Agatha very visibly hesitated to respond.
"But I'm merely a writer."
"But surely you can crack it," insisted Robina. "These events, they're exactly like one of your plots." She pointed out, and Donna nodded in agreement.
"That's what I've been saying. Agatha, that's got to mean something." The redhead was attempting to bolster the reluctant writer, but Agatha stubbornly refused to acknowledge what they were saying.
"But what? I've no answers. None," she looked visibly defeated and turned towards the Time Couple, who frowned disappointedly at her. "I'm sorry, all of you. I'm truly sorry, but I've failed. If anyone can help us, then it's the Doctor and Mrs. Smith, not me." Everyone's face falls in disappointment as Agatha gets to her feet and walks from the room. A determined Donna followed her.
A/N: Don't go away, we'll be right back!