A/N: Welcome back! 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 :)
WORKED THROUGH THE PROBLEM
"You can go the distance; you can run a mile.
You can walk straight through hell with a smile."
– The Script (feat. Will. ) (#3 [2012])
Gazebo
Donna found Agatha sitting in a little wrought iron gazebo just outside the manor. The older woman looked incredibly despondent, and the redhead was determined to help her strengthen her self-esteem.
"Do you know what I think?" Agatha glances up in surprise when Donna comes into view. "Those books of yours, one day they could turn them into films. They could be talking pictures." The redhead grins at Agatha, who looks at her puzzled.
"Talking pictures? Pictures that talk? What do you mean?" asked Agatha, and Donna winced when she realised that she had made another mistake and revealed too much about what was to come in the future.
"Oh, blimey, I've done it again," she mumbled, mentally kicking herself. However, Agatha knew that the redhead meant well, and instead of looking annoyed, she smiled graciously at her.
"I appreciate you trying to be kind, but you're right." She tells Donna, who looks confused. "These murders are like my own creations. It's as though someone's mocking me, and I've had enough scorn for one lifetime." Agatha looked bitter as Donna nodded in understanding.
"Yeah. Thing is, I had this bloke once," confesses Donna. "I was engaged. And I loved him, I did. Turns out he was lying through his teeth." She recalls with her brand of bitterness. "But you know what? I moved on. I was lucky. I found the Doctor and the Heart, and it's changed my life. There's always someone else." Donna reassures.
"I see," Agatha misinterprets Donna's empathetic love life tragedy. "Is my marriage the stuff of gossip now?" She looked a bit defensive, and Donna's eyes widened in realisation and immediately attempted to remedy this.
"No, I just. Sorry."
"No matter," said Agatha. "The stories are true. I found my husband with another woman. A younger, prettier woman. Isn't it always the way?" She sounded very defeated.
"Well, mine was with a giant spider, but same difference."
"You and the Doctor talk such wonderful nonsense." Agatha smiled at Donna with amusement, and the redhead returned the smile but wanted to get her point across that things would eventually get better for her in the future.
"Agatha, people love your books. They do," reassures Donna. "They're going to be reading them for years to come."
"If only." Agatha looked hopeful, but then sighed sadly. "Try as I might, it's hardly great literature. Now, that's beyond me. I'm afraid my books will be forgotten, like ephemera." She looks away from Donna momentarily, then frowns when she spots something out of place in the flowerbed directly across from where they are sitting. "Hello, what's that?" Agatha gets up from the gazebo bench and goes over to the flowerbed to investigate. "Those flowerbeds were perfectly neat earlier. Now, some of the stalks are bent over." She gently pushes aside the broken stalks and spots a small black case. Agatha picked it up and showed it to Donna, who brightened, looking impressed by the find.
"There you go. Who'd ever notice that? You're brilliant!" she praises Agatha, who looks modest. They head back inside to show the Doctor and the Heart their lucky find.
Sitting Room
Walking into the sitting room, Donna and Agatha immediately hand the Doctor the little black case.
"Let's see what we've got here," muttered the Doctor under his breath as he flipped the latches on the case and pulled it open. Inside, they discover lock-picking tools. "Ooh. Someone came here tooled up. He pulls one of the lock-picking tools out of the case and examines it up close.
"That's the sort of stuff a professional thief would use," said the Heart.
"And how would you know that?" The Doctor eyes his tether curiously. She rolled her eyes.
"The internet is a wonderful device, love." Muttered the Heart underneath her breath so that only he could hear her and not Agatha.
"The Unicorn. He's here!" Agatha realised.
"The Unicorn and the Wasp," grinned the Doctor as Greeves walked in with a tray containing their drinks.
"Your drinks, Ladies. Doctor." The Heart immediately goes over and picks up her Bee's Knees cocktail, thanking Greeves with a polite smile and takes a dainty sip from it, as she picks up the Doctor's drink and hands it to him.
"Very good, Greeves. Thanks, darling." Said the Doctor, who doesn't immediately sip from the glass and sets it aside momentarily. Greeves promptly leaves after Agatha and Donna accept their drinks.
"How about the science stuff?" asks Donna, referring to the sticky residue sample the Doctor had gathered up from the giant wasp's stinger. "What did you find?"
"Vespiform sting," responded the Doctor. "Vespiforms have got hives in the Silfrax galaxy." He explained, and Agatha gave him a confused, frustrated frown.
"Again, you talk like Edward Lear," she reminds him, but the Doctor ignores her, still focusing on the explanation he was giving to Donna. It was about this moment that the Heart suddenly started to feel rather weak. Unfortunately, none of the others noticed her sudden change in disposition.
"For some reason, this one's behaving like a character in one of your books," pointed out the Doctor to a puzzled Agatha. The Heart started to breathe heavily and squeeze her eyes shut in her pain.
"Come on, Agatha. What would Miss Marple do?" asks Donna, insistently. "She'd have overheard something vital by now." The Doctor's eyes widened slightly, and she attempted to stop her from elaborating further. But the redhead was oblivious. "Because the murderer thinks she's just a harmless old lady." Agatha looked intrigued by what Donna was saying.
"Clever idea," she said, looking thoughtful. Donna preened at the praise. "Miss Marple? Who writes those?" And Donna's smile freezes, and she winces, especially when she sees the Doctor trying to subtly shake his head no at her.
"Er, copyright Donna Noble. Add it to the list," improvised Donna, much to the Doctor's disapproval.
"Sweetie…" gasped the Heart, who was now in substantial pain because she was having trouble breathing. The Doctor raises his glass to his lips to have a drink as he glances over at the Heart to see what she wants, only to pause when he notices that she is in distress.
"Okay, we could split the copyright," Donna groaned.
"No, I'm not feeling so good…" the Heart admitted, and the Doctor immediately put down his glass and went over to his tether's side, looking serious. "Something's inhibiting my enzymes." The Heart then doubles over in pain, promptly launching the Doctor from his chair to steady her.
"What's wrong?" Donna asked worriedly. "What do we do? What do we do?"
"I don't know," the Doctor was extremely concerned, while Agatha immediately picked up the Heart's glass and sniffed her drink, going on a hunch. Her eyes widened in alarm.
"Bitter almonds." The Doctor's eyes widen in horror. "It's cyanide. Sparkling Cyanide." Agatha looked anguished as the Doctor immediately scooped up the poisoned Heart and ran from the room, followed by Donna and Agatha.
Kitchen
The Doctor barrels into the kitchen, nearly knocking over Davenport, as he hastily deposits the Heart into a nearby wooden chair and grabs Davenport, urgently.
"Ginger beer!" He demands.
"I beg your pardon?" Davenport responded, bewildered. The Doctor lets out a frustrated growl.
"My wife needs ginger beer!" He explains before spotting a bottle of the pop and immediately gives it to the Heart, who promptly starts chugging it down.
"What on earth?" the Head Cook blurted out as Agatha and Donna came running in, looking both sympathetic and filled with dread.
"Keep drinking, darling." The Doctor urges the Heart, who doesn't require prompting.
"I'm an expert in poisons," Agatha informs the couple. "Doctor, there's no cure. It's fatal." The Heart spits out a mouthful of the ginger beer before abandoning the glass bottle on the table beside her as the Doctor goes on a mad search for something.
"Not for us. We can stimulate the inhibited enzymes into reversal," he explained, indicating himself and the Heart. "Protein. I need protein!" He requests, urgently. Donna spots a nearby jar of walnuts and promptly snatches them up.
"Walnuts?" She suggested.
"Brilliant!" The Doctor nodded and took them from her, giving the jar to the Heart, who promptly filled her mouth with them. He starts searching again.
"What do you need?" Agatha asked, trying to help.
"Salt," responded the Doctor as Donna snatches up a small sack of salt and presents it to him. "No, too salty." He rejects the offered item, and Donna raises an incredulous eyebrow at him.
"Too salty?"
"What about this?" Agatha shows the Doctor a jar of something brown, swimming in what looks like brine.
"Yes!" He snatches it and hands it to the Heart, who repeats what she had done with the walnuts with the item, after briefly making a revolted face. "Don't complain, love."
"What was that?" asks Donna.
"Anchovies," said Agatha. This time, the Doctor looked hesitant.
"What is it? What else?" Donna prompted.
"We need to shock her," explained the Doctor. "Maybe I could find—" But without warning, Donna promptly grabs the Heart's face and plants a long and hard kiss on her lips. Nearly everyone in the room gasps in shock. What Donna had just done was a very scandalous act for the 1920s, as people were prejudiced against same-sex coupling, let alone kissing. But the kiss seemed to have done the trick, as when Donna finally releases the Heart, thick, black smoke streams from her mouth. "That'll do it." Remarked the Doctor in surprise. He goes over and squats in front of the Heart, looking concerned. "Are you alright, darling?"
"I'm fine," said the Heart, shakily. "Could've done without the unexpected detox, though." Agatha couldn't believe what she had just seen.
"That was impossible. Who are you people?" she demanded.
Dining Room
Night had fallen, and thunder and lightning crashed overhead. The hosts and guests are starting on the soup course. A vase of Yellow Irises sits in the middle of the table. The Doctor was being particularly protective of the Heart since her brush with death involving a cocktail that had been laced with sparkling cyanide, and the Heart herself was feeling resentful that she had been targeted. The Doctor's eyes everyone around the table, who were sipping at their bowls of soup, seemingly oblivious to the growing tension in the room.
"A terrible day for all of us," the Doctor mused casually. "The Professor struck down, Miss Chandrakala taken cruelly from us, and yet we still take dinner."
"We are British, Doctor," said Lady Eddison. "What else must we do?"
"And then someone tried to poison my wife." He ignored Lady Eddison's comment in the middle of proving a point. "Any one of you had the chance to put cyanide in her drink. But it rather gave me an idea."
"And what would that be?" the Reverend commented, mid-sip.
"Well, poison." The Doctor responded brightly. Everyone except for the Heart, Donna, and Agatha pauses and looks down at their soups. "Drink up. I've laced the soup with pepper." And they relax once more and resume eating.
"Ah, I thought it was jolly spicy," remarked Curbishley with a pleasant smile on his face.
"But the active ingredient of pepper is piperine, traditionally used as an insecticide. So, anyone got the shivers?" the Doctor asked. On cue, there is a crash of thunder, and the windows blow open, extinguishing the candles that illuminate the room. Nobody moves.
"What the deuce is that?" demands Curbishley, alarmed.
"Shush, something's in here." The Heart immediately announces, and everyone falls silent. Suddenly, there is a very ominous buzzing sound that fills the room. Lady Eddison's eyes widen.
"No, it can't be." This earns a few questioning frowns from both the Doctor and the Heart as lightning illuminates the room. Agatha rises to her feet from her chair, a look of determination on her face.
"Show yourself, demon."
"Nobody move," the Doctor warns. But some of the guests ignore him. "No, don't! Stay where you are." He insists. Then suddenly, the wasp appeared in the room, causing mass chaos and panic amongst the guests and attending servants. The Doctor's eyes widen in alarm when he senses immediate danger. "Out, out, out, out, out, out!" He seizes both the Heart and Donna by their wrists and pulls them towards the dining room door, followed closely by Agatha and Greeves.
Outside the Dining Room
Everyone scatters except for the Doctor, the Heart, Donna, and Greeves. The Doctor snags a sword from the panelled wall. He takes stock of who has fled from the room. Neither the Heart nor Donna was the wasp. He eyes Agatha, sagging with relief.
"Not you, Agatha. You've got a long, long life to live yet." He remarked, earning a strange look from Agatha for his troubles. Donna turned and looked at Greeves, who had gone pale with fright.
"Well, we know the butler didn't do it," she joked humourlessly.
"Then who did?" asked the Heart.
Dining Room
They head back into the Dining Room and discover that everyone was still in there, only looking confused and very frightened. The Colonel is on the floor, as his wheelchair had been overturned in everyone's haste to either leave the room or duck and cover to avoid being attacked by the wasp, which seemed to have mysteriously disappeared. Lady Eddison looks down and notices that her necklace has also disappeared.
"My jewellery!" she lamented. "The Firestone, it's gone. Stolen."
"Roger…" Davenport sounded devastated, and when everyone looked to see why, pandemonium ensued.
"Oh, no!" gasped the Heart. Roger had become the Wasp's latest victim. He was lying with his face in his soup bowl with a large knife in his back. Lady Eddison let out a mournful cry when she saw her child.
"My son. My child!" She drapes herself over her son's dead body and sobs into his back.
Drawing Room
Later on, the Doctor, the Heart, and Agatha relocated to the drawing room. Everyone was very quiet. Donna walks in, looking both mournful and disappointed.
"That poor footman," sympathised Donna. "Roger's dead, and he can't even mourn him. 1926? It's more like the dark ages." She takes a seat beside the Heart on a settee.
"Did you enquire after the necklace?" Agatha asked, and Donna nodded, using the change in topic to distract herself from the fact that same-sex relationships were taboo. To be caught kissing someone who was the same sex as you were, or suspected of being gay, meant that you were arrested, imprisoned, and ostracised from society. Which was why lavender marriages were so prevalent during this time, and why so many men were forced to undergo unnecessary and rather painful 'procedures' to reverse what was deemed to be unnatural.
"Lady Eddison brought it back from India. It's worth thousands," confirmed Donna. The Doctor was deep in thought, looking incredibly frustrated about the fact that the wasp remained elusive.
"This thing can sting, it can fly. It could wipe us all out in seconds. Why is he playing this game?" he pondered.
"Every murder is essentially the same," observed the Heart. "They are committed because somebody wants something."
"What does a Vespiform want?" asked the Doctor.
"Doctor, stop it," said Agatha, looking rather impatient with him. "The murderer is as human as you or I." The Doctor nodded in agreement.
"You're right." He looked appreciatively at Agatha. "I've been so caught up with giant wasps that I've forgotten. You're the expert." He stated with a smile, but Agatha continued to reject this.
"I'm not. I told you. I'm just a purveyor of nonsense."
"That many people enjoy immensely, because it makes them think things through. They enjoy the suspense and the challenge of finding out who did the crime before eventually reading for themselves to see if they are correct." The Heart attempted to bolster.
"Exactly!" agreed the Doctor. "Plenty of people write detective stories, but like the Heart said, yours are the best. And why? Why are you so good, Agatha Christie? Because you understand. You've lived, you've fought, you've had your heart broken. You know about people. Their passions, their hope, despair, and anger. All of those tiny, huge things that can turn the most ordinary person into a killer."
"Just think, Agatha. If anyone can solve this, it's you." Reminds the Heart sincerely, and Agatha's doubtful expression slowly shifted into one of confidence. A few minutes later, everyone gathers for the traditional denouement. The Doctor, still using his Scotland Yard detective persona, immediately kicks everything off.
"I've called you here on this Endless Night, because we have a murderer in our midst. And when it comes to detection, there's none finer. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Agatha Christie." He gestures towards Agatha, who gets to her feet and strides forward to continue, as the Doctor steps back and takes a seat beside the Heart and Donna. The latter was eagerly clutching at a bowl of grapes and eating them as though eating popcorn in the movies during a suspenseful moment. The Heart couldn't help but giggle discreetly when she saw this. The Doctor lightly places a hand on her knee and squeezes it in warning to behave herself, as they wait in anticipation for Agatha to start.
"This is A Crooked House. A house of secrets," began Agatha. "To understand the solution, we must examine them all. Starting with you, Miss Redmond." Agatha spins round to face Robina, who looks suspiciously nervous, despite her attempts at looking calm and nonchalant.
"But I'm innocent, surely?" she protested, but Agatha saw straight through it.
"You've never met these people, and these people have never met you," points out Agatha, which made everyone look at Robina with suspicion. "I think the real Robina Redmond never left London. You're impersonating her." Robina paused and smirked.
"How silly. What proof do you have?"
"You said you'd been to the toilet," explained Agatha. Donna couldn't resist calling out.
"Oh, I know this. If she were really posh, she'd say loo." This earns amused smirks from the Time Couple. Agatha ignores Donna's comment and picks up the little black box she and Donna had found earlier that afternoon.
"Earlier today, Miss Noble and I found this on the lawn, right beneath your bathroom window," Robina picks up her cocktail glass and takes a sip from it. "You must have heard that Miss Noble and Mrs. Smith were searching the bedrooms, so you panicked. You ran upstairs and disposed of the evidence." Robina eyes the black case for a split second.
"I've never seen that thing before in my life."
"What's inside it?" asks Lady Eddison. Agatha carefully prises open the case and shows everyone around the room what it contained inside.
"The tools of your trade, Miss Redmond. Or should I say, the Unicorn." All the guests, except for the Time Couple and Donna, gasped, while Robina merely glared at her. "You came to this house with one sole intention. To steal the Firestone." There was a brief pause before Robina decided the jig was up and decided to come clean.
"Oh, all right then!" she exclaimed with a rough cockney accent. "It's a fair cop." Robina gets to her feet. "Yes, I'm the bleeding Unicorn. Ever so nice to meet you, I don't think. I took my chance in the dark and nabbed it." She reaches into her cleavage and produces the Firestone, swinging it about by the chain. "Go on then, you knobs. Arrest me. Sling me in jail." She taunts the Doctor mockingly before throwing the necklace at the Doctor, who catches it with one hand.
"So she's the murderer?" guesses Donna.
"Don't be so thick," scoffs Robina. "I might be a thief, but, well, I ain't no killer." She retakes her seat, ignoring the looks she was getting from everyone else. Agatha continues with her speech.
"Quite," agreed Agatha. "There are darker motives at work. And in examining this household, we come to you, Colonel." She turns and faces Curbishley, who scowls at her.
"Damn it, woman. You with your perspicacity. You've rumbled me." Curbishley stands up from his wheelchair, shocking everyone at the party guests, especially his wife.
"Hugh, you can walk!" exclaims Lady Eddison. "But why?"
"My darling, how else could I be certain of keeping you by my side?" replies Curbishley tenderly.
"I don't understand…"
"You're still a beautiful woman, Clemency," Curbishley explains. "Sooner or later, some chap will turn your head. I couldn't bear that. Staying in the chair was the only way I could be certain of keeping you." He turned and scowled resentfully at a sheepish Agatha. "Confound it, Mrs. Christie, how did you discover the truth?"
"Er, actually, I had no idea," admits Agatha. "I was just going to say you're completely innocent."
"Oh. Oh."
"Sorry," apologised Agatha.
"Well. Well, shall I sit down then?" questioned Curbishley, and Agatha nodded, looking a bit awkward.
"I think you'd better have," agrees Agatha, while the Heart struggles to hold back laughter, despite the Doctor attempting to scold her. But even he found this funny.
"So, he's not the murderer," asks Donna, still munching away at her grapes. Agatha shakes her head.
"Indeed, not. To find the truth, let's return to this." She goes over and takes the Firestone from the Doctor and holds it up so that everyone can see it. "Far more than the Unicorn's object of desire. The Firestone has quite a history. Lady Eddison." Her ladyship looks affronted.
"I've done nothing!" she exclaimed, aghast.
"You brought it back from India, did you not?" clarified Agatha. "Before you met the Colonel. You came home with malaria, and confined yourself to this house for six months, in a room that has been kept locked ever since, which I rather think means—"
"Stop, please!" begged Lady Eddison, who had grown increasingly pale with every word Agatha was saying. But, while sympathetic, Agatha chose to ignore her and continue with the explanation.
"I'm so sorry. But you had fallen pregnant in India," she concluded.
"I knew it!" whispers the Heart to Donna, who nods in agreement.
"Unmarried and ashamed, you hurried back to England with your confidante, a young maid later to become housekeeper. Miss Chandrakala," accurately guesses Agatha. Curbishley looked at his wife with shock.
"Clemency, is this true?" he asked, looking dismayed.
"My poor baby," wept Lady Eddison. "I had to give him away. The shame of it."
"But you never said a word," stated Curbishley.
"I had no choice," insisted Lady Eddison. "Imagine the scandal. The family name. I'm British. I carry on."
"And it was no ordinary pregnancy," spoke up the Doctor from beside the Heart. Curbishley raises an eyebrow at him curiously.
"How can you know that?" He demanded. The Doctor glances over at Agatha and raises a finger.
"Excuse me, Agatha, this is my territory," He explains, and Agatha nods and gestures for him to continue. "But when you hear that buzzing sound in the dining room," he explains to Lady Eddison, who looks back at him with trepidation. "You said it can't be. Why did you say that?"
"You'd never believe it," stated Lady Eddison.
"The Doctor has opened my mind to believe many things," Agatha reassures her ladyship, who hesitated before giving in to her confession.
"It was forty years ago, in the heat of Delhi, late one night. I was alone, and that's when I saw it. A dazzling light in the sky. The next day, he came to the house. Christopher, the most handsome man I'd ever seen. Our love blazed like a wildfire. I held nothing back. And in return, he showed me the incredible truth about himself. He'd made himself human to learn about us. This was his true shape."
"A giant wasp," confirmed the Heart. Lady Eddison nodded.
"I loved him so much, it didn't matter. But he was stolen from me. 1885, the year of the great monsoon. The river Jumna rose up and broke its banks. He was Taken At The Flood. But Christopher left me a parting gift. A jewel like no other. I wore it always. Part of me never forgot. I kept it close, always." She concluded her tale, looking somewhat nostalgic.
"Just like a man," comments Robina. "Flashes his family jewels, and you end up with a bun in the oven."
"A poor little child," recalls Agatha. "Forty years ago, Miss Chandrakala took that newborn babe to an orphanage. But Professor Peach worked it out. He found the birth certificate."
"Oh, that's maiden. Maiden name," exclaimed Donna.
"Precisely," said Agatha.
"So she killed her," guessed Donna.
"I did not," frowned Lady Eddison.
"Lady Eddison is innocent," reassures Agatha. "Because at this point … Doctor." She turns the proceedings over to the Doctor, who nods and gets to his feet to take over.
"Thank you," He says to Agatha, who takes her seat. "At this point, when we consider the lies and the secrets, and the key to these events, then we have to consider it was you, Donna Noble."
"What? Who did I kill?" blinked Donna.
"No one. Don't be so paranoid," scolds the Heart.
"You said it all along. The vital clue. This whole thing is being acted out like a murder mystery, which means it was you, Agatha Christie…" The Doctor gestures towards the author, who blinks at him with shock.
"I beg your pardon, sir?"
"So, she killed them?" said Donna.
"No. But she wrote. She wrote those brilliant, clever books. And who's her greatest admirer? The Moving Finger points at you, Lady Eddison." The Doctor gestures at an ashamed Lady Eddison.
"Oh, leave me alone." She grumbled.
"So she did kill them," persisted Donna.
"No!" grumbles the Doctor in annoyance. "But just think. Last Thursday night, what were you doing?" He questions her ladyship, who thinks for a moment.
"I was, I was in the library," she recalled. "I was reading my favourite Agatha Christie, thinking about her plots, and how clever she must be." Lady Eddison frowns at the Doctor. "How is that relevant?"
"Well, just think. What else happened on Thursday night?" prompted the Doctor to everyone else around the room.
"I'm sorry?" blurted out the Reverend. The Doctor looked pointedly at him.
"You said on the lawn, this afternoon," He pointed out. "Last Thursday night, those boys broke into your church."
"That's correct. They did," the Reverend confirmed. "I discovered the two of them. Thieves in the night. I was most perturbed." He recalled. "But I apprehended them." The Doctor's eyebrow rose.
"Really? A man of God against two strong lads? A man in his forties? Or should I say forty years old, exactly?" stated the Doctor, and Lady Eddison's eyes widened with shock.
"Oh, my God!"
"Lady Eddison, your child, how old would he be now?" asked the Doctor.
"Forty. He's forty."
"Your child has come home," concluded the Doctor, gesturing towards the Reverend, who looked sceptical.
"Oh, this is poppycock." He scoffed in disbelief.
"But you mentioned earlier that you were taught by the Christian Fathers," pointed out the Heart, speaking up out loud for the first time since the discussion first started. "Meaning, you were raised in an orphanage."
"My son. Can it be?" asked Lady Eddison, still shocked but also looking hopefully at the man.
"You found those thieves, Reverend, and you got angry. A proper, deep anger, for the first time in your life, and it broke the genetic lock. You changed." The Reverend went quiet, avoiding eye contact with anyone. "You realised your inheritance. After all these years, you knew who you were. Oh, and then it all kicks off, because this isn't just a jewel." He gestures to the Firestone. "It's a Vespiform telepathic recorder. It's part of you, your brain, your very essence. And when you activated, so did the Firestone. It beamed your full identity directly into your mind. And, at the same time, it absorbed the works of Agatha Christie directly from Lady Eddison. It all became part of you. The mechanics of those novels formed a template in your brain.
"You killed, in this pattern, because that's what you think the world is. It turns out, we are in the middle of a murder mystery. One of yours, Dame Agatha."
"Dame?" frowns Agatha in surprise. The Doctor winces at his mistake.
"Oh. Sorry, not yet."
"So he killed them, yes? Definitely?" asked Donna, looking a bit frustrated. But this time, neither the Doctor nor Agatha objected.
"Yes," confirmed the Doctor, grimly. The Reverend glowers at the Doctor, but attempts to make light of the situation.
"Well, this has certainly been a most entertaining evening," He began. "You can't believe any of this, surely, Lady Edizzon." The Reverend makes a strange buzzing noise at the back of his throat.
"Lady who?" prompted the Doctor.
"Lady Edizzzzzon."
"Little bit of buzzing there, Vicar," mocked the Doctor, scratching lightly at his own throat with his finger, an indication of a 'sore throat'. The Reverend turns sharply on the Doctor.
"Don't make me angry," he warns.
"Why? What happens then?" asks the Heart, protectively.
"Damn it, you humanzz, worshipping your tribal sky godzz. I am so much more." The Reverend growled. "That night, the universe exploded in my mind. I wanted to take what wazz mine." He immediately turns on Agatha, who takes an uncertain step back from him. "And you, Agatha Christie, with your railway station bookstall romancezz, what'z to stop me killing you?" He sneers.
"Oh, my dear God. My child…" sobbed Lady Eddison, but the Reverend ignores his mother.
"What'zz to stop me killing you all?" He transforms into the giant wasp, as Lady Eddison goes to walk over to him.
"Forgive me!"
"No, no, Clemency, come back. Keep away. Keep away, my darling!" begged Curbishley as he wrapped his arms around his wife's waist and pulled her away from the giant wasp. Agatha grabs the Firestone from the Doctor.
"No! No more murder," She stated. "If my imagination made you kill, then my imagination will find a way to stop you, foul creature." Agatha runs out of the room with the Firestone. The Doctor, the Heart, and Donna follow her.
"Wait, now it's chasing us!" realises Donna.
"I think that's the idea!" stated the Heart as they made it to the front door of the manor.
Driveway
As the trio shut the main door behind them, they spotted Agatha getting into her car and driving off. She honks the horn to attract the giant wasp, who had burst through the doors. The Doctor, the Heart, and Donna back away from the enormous bug, but Agatha glares at him fiercely and holds up the Firestone.
"Over here!" she calls out. "Come and get me, Reverend."
"Agatha, what are you doing?" demanded the Doctor, urgently. Agatha doesn't take her eyes off the murderous wasp as she responds to the Doctor's question.
"If I started this, Doctor, I must stop it." She puts the pedal to the metal and drives off. The wasp visibly hesitates before eventually following after the determined author.
"Come on!" shouts the Doctor as he and the two women jump into another car that stands nearby and give chase.
In pursuit of Agatha
The Heart continued to cringe uncomfortably, as she could sense Agatha's guilt so powerfully, to the point that the Doctor continued to send her concerned looks.
"You said this is the night Agatha Christie loses her memory," reminds Donna, but the Doctor shakes his head, as he continues to focus on not running the car he was driving off the road.
"Time is in flux, Donna." Said the Doctor, hastily. "For all we know, this is the night Agatha Christie loses her life and history changes."
"Not on our watch!" insists the Heart.
"But where's she going?" asked Donna. Up ahead, Agatha's car passes by a signpost for the Silent Pool.
"The lake," he confirms. "She's heading for the lake." But then he frowned in confusion when he saw Agatha pull over to the side of the Silent Pool and get out of the car to face the approaching wasp by raising the Firestone high into the air. "What's she doing?" he pondered as he pulled up the car near Agatha's, and all three of them jumped out, ready to aid Agatha if she needed it.
"She's using the Firestone like it's some sort of talisman," stated the Heart.
By the lake
Agatha stood on the edge of the lake behind her, holding the Firestone aloft in the air. It was acting like a sort of beacon that drew the giant wasp to her like sonar. She glares fiercely at the approaching wasp.
"Here I am, the honey in the trap," she taunts. "Come to me, Vespiform." Once again, the wasp hesitated. Later on, the Time Couple and Donna would be kicking themselves during the aftermath of the situation that they hadn't figured this out sooner, but it was Donna who suddenly cottoned on to what was going on.
"She's controlling it!"
"Of course, her mind is based on her thought processes. They're linked." Realised the Doctor, and Agatha nodded in agreement, without looking away from the encroaching giant wasp.
"Quite so, Doctor," she states. "If I die, then this creature might die with me." The Heart's eyes widened at this.
"Yes, that's the implication. But it doesn't mean that you should test it." She starts forward to intercept Agatha, but the Doctor, fearing for her safety and Donna's, puts out an arm to stop her.
"Don't hurt her," reasons the Doctor to the wasp. "You're not meant to be like this. You've got the wrong template in your mind." He explained desperately. However, the wasp made no indication that it understood what the Doctor was saying, let alone inclined to stop.
"It's not listening to you," said Donna. Taking her chance, the Heart darts out of the Doctor's reach and goes over to Agatha. She snatches the Firestone from her hand and throws the jewel into the lake. Immediately, the wasp follows it. The Doctor, Donna, and Agatha run up behind her and look down at the lake with disbelief. However, the Heart had a look of self-satisfaction on her face.
"How do you kill a wasp? Drown it, just like his father."
"Darling, that thing couldn't help itself." Reminded the Doctor, who looked a bit disapproving. But the Heart shrugged in a 'sorry, not sorry' fashion.
"Neither could I. I was testing a theory that paid off," she retorts. The water starts bubbling purple.
"Death comes as the end, and justice is served." Agatha unknowingly references one of her books.
"Murder at the Vicar's rage," responded the Doctor, who then made a slight face and shrugged. "Needs a bit of work."
"Just one mystery left," Agatha turned towards the Doctor and the Heart, who was standing beside him, still looking grimly down at the drowning wasp. "Doctor, Heart. Who exactly are you two?" Suddenly, Agatha buckles over in pain as the Doctor catches her and lowers her to the grass.
"It's the Firestone. It's part of the Vespiform's mind," clarifies the Doctor. "It's dying, and it's connected to Agatha." The author starts glowing purple for a few minutes before the glow abruptly stops. "He let her go," The Doctor was amazed. "Right at the end, the Vespiform chose to save someone's life."
"Is she alright, though?" asks Donna, concerned.
"Oh, that explains a lot," remarks the Heart, earning a confused look from Donna as a result.
"What does?"
"The amnesia," explained the Doctor, realising also where the Heart's train of thought was heading too. "Wiped her mind of everything that happened. The wasp, the murders."
"And us," concluded Donna, looking sad. "She'll forget about us."
"Yeah, but we've solved another riddle. The mystery of Agatha Christie. And tomorrow morning, her car will be found by the side of a lake. A few days later, she turns up in a hotel at Harrogate with no idea of what just happened."
Outside the Harrogate Hotel
The Heart and Donna half-carry, half-lead a semi-unconscious Agatha into the Tardis and lead her towards the jump seat, while the Doctor puts in the coordinates for the Harrogate Hotel for a few days since they had taken care of the giant wasp. Once they get there, they lead a fairly confused Agatha towards the double doors. Once outside, the trio reassured the poor woman and pointed her towards the entrance to the hotel just yards away from where they were standing. Agatha nods uncertainly and walks slowly towards the hotel, looking back once looking extremely bewildered.
"No one'll ever know," stated the Doctor.
"Lady Eddison, the Colonel, and all the staff. What about them?" asks Donna, looking a bit worried. But the Doctor waves a dismissive hand.
"Shameful story. They never talk about it," He explained. "Too British. While the Unicorn does a bunk back to London town. She can never even say she was there."
"What happens to Agatha?" asks Donna as they turn to head back inside the Tardis once they are sure that Agatha is safely inside the Hotel.
"She had a great life." Confirmed the Heart. "She met a nice man, married again. Saw the world and wrote and wrote and wrote."
"She never thought her books were any good, though. And she must have spent all those years wondering."
Tardis
The trio head back inside the Tardis, and the Doctor peels off his trench coat and tosses it over one of the coral support beams as he strides over to the console. While both Donna and the Heart follow him, albeit at a more sedate pace. The Heart was mulling over Donna's depressing assumption.
"I'm gonna have to disagree with you on that, Donna." The redhead looked at her quizzically, waiting for her to elaborate. "If I recall, there were bits and pieces of our encounter that seemed to have filtered through somehow."
"Like what?" asked Donna.
"Like Miss Marple, for example." The Doctor piped up. Donna winced a little, then sighed.
"I should have made her sign a contract," she lamented as the Doctor went over to a nearby deck place and pulled it open. He dropped down into the small hole and started digging around.
"Where is it, where is it…" the Doctor muttered out loud to himself. "Ah, here we go!" He pulls out an old wooden chest, which he throws open with a cheerful grin. Donna stares at the chest curiously. "C. That is C for Cybermen, C for Carrionites." The Heart glowers at a glowing green ball, the Doctor sets aside with the three Carrionites that they had previously defeated, still scratching away at the glass, trying to get at them. "And Christie, Agatha." He presents a paperback edition of Death in the Clouds to Donna, who takes it and gapes at the cover in astonishment.
"She did remember!" she exclaimed. The cover depicted a picture of a wasp. The Time Couple nodded.
"Somewhere in the back of her mind, it all lingered," stated the Doctor.
"But that's not all. Look at the copyright page," directs the Heart, and Donna turns to the first page and scans it.
"Facsimile edition, published in the year five billion!" Donna was astonished.
"People never stop reading them," stated the Heart. "She is the best-selling novelist of all time."
"But she never knew," points out Donna, and both the Time Couple shrugged.
"No one knows how they're going to be remembered," countered the Doctor. "All we can do is hope for the best. Maybe that's what kept her writing. The same thing keeps me travelling." He glances between the women. "Onwards?"
"Onwards," agree both Donna and the Heart.
A/N: Thanks for reading!