Plans Change

The first thing I felt was the wonderful snow, wonderful glorious snow.

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So, as my old tradition with Christmas carols.

“Everyone knows about Rudolph, our fleet footed friend from the north.” I skipped around in the snow, licking some of it up. “Who lights Santa’s way through the darkness as he drives he sleigh back and forth.”

In a burst of happiness, I fell back into the snow. I started making a snow angel. Oh, it had just been ages since I saw this much snow.

“But there’s someone else we should mention if we want the whole story told.” I sang, giggling like a child as I moved my arms about. “He carried the first gift of Christmas, more precious than diamonds or gold.”

I stood up, briefly looking at my snow angel before starting on the next one.

The TARDIS noise started, just around the corner. I didn’t dare stop making a singing, but I did start making some snowballs. Snow angels could wait, a surprise attack could not.

“Nestor was a donkey who seldom laughed or played cause no one ever used him in the stable where he stayed.” I sang, phasing about three snow balls already. The TARDIS noise was slowing down, so I didn’t have much longer.

Oh, I love today.

“And all the camels tease him, the other donkeys too. They said ‘look at little Nestor, there’s nothing he can do’.” Despite the somewhat sad song, I was smiling bright. “‘Look at little Nestor, his ears hang down to his knees. When he looks at his reflection, his ears are all he sees.’”

The sound stopped, telling me it was time to hide.

“Nestor’s heart was broken and his eyes were full of tears, if only there was something he could do about his ears.” I sang, hiding in an alleyway with my amo.

Then, I heard it. That deep, deep voice that could only belong to the Ninth Doctor.

“Ready for this?”

Not even a little bit. Holy shit, Nine. Back Home Nine did make me have the occasional private moment, but based on my last two days I had a feeling Terra would jump his leather clad body as life support.

He would be sarcastic, which I would adore. It would be exactly like those memes described, if Nine traveled with Donna, nothing would get done. The two of us would probably just be exchanging witty banter for days on end. It would be hilarious, don’t get me wrong, but I could be a big distraction when I wanted to be.

There would be extreme moments of anger, from both parties let’s be honest. I know I would end up getting pissed at him with the reapers on Father’s Day after that fight with Rose. It had been way too harsh of him, in my opinion.

Holy crap. The driving. I could make fun of his driving! Sweet Merciful Storyline, thank you.

“Here we go.” The Doctor said. “History.”

Leaning back, I prepared my bait.

“One dark night two strangers gave Nestor a surprise.” I sang, feeling like a siren bringing sailors to the rocks.

The Doctor and Rose took the bait. I could hear their footfalls in the snow. My first snowball was in my hand, with the other ready to be grabbed in my over hand.

“They chose him from all the others for they loved his gentle eyes.”

“Is that what I think it is?” Rose’s voice asked, piercing through the somewhat silent night.

There was a small pause from the Doctor. “Could be.”

“A man was called by Joseph, and Mary was his bride. She needed help to Bethlehem and Nestor’s back to ride.”

Soon, I saw the two walking by.

My eyes widened as I had the absolute best view of 1869. Rose was wearing a dress, it had a deep red skirt, billowing in the cold air, and a black corset which clung to her chest. A black cape was tied around her neck, as well as a black feather tied to her blonde bun.

The Doctor, that leather clad Doctor. The black leather jacket hung over his body, hiding it from me. His black shirt, however, clung in all the right ways. Those black pants of his weren’t doing me any favors either.

“Where is she?” Rose asked.

Then came the faces.

Rose had those shiny brown eyes, smooth white skin without freckle or blemish. Her dirty blonde hair held back into a bun. She had painted her lips pink, a similar shade to her dress.

The Doctor had very set in features. The big nose, the bigger ears, those lips in a look of pure befuddlement. His eyebrows were scrunched up, like he was thinking about something important. He had thin brown hair, almost a buzz cut.

He moved too fast for me to see his eyes. The blue eyes, the only ones I haven’t seen.

“Knowing her, it would be the biggest place here.” The Doctor said.

Time to see the eyes.

“Bonsai!” I shouted, leaping out into the street to pelt them with snowballs.

The Doctor and Rose turned towards me, startled. I began pelting them with snowballs, faster than they could defend themselves. The funniest part was the noise the Doctor shouted as I pelted him. It was a cross between an angry shout and a scared yelp.

Once they realized it was me, I started to shake in a fit of laughter. I wished I had a camera to get a look at their faces! Rose looked furious, guess she didn’t like snowball fights. The Doctor was looking at me with confusion, like of all the things I could do it was throw snowballs.

I smiled at them, tossing another snowball in the air. “Such a lovely night for a dance in the snow, no?” The ball was tossed between my two hands.

Rose was still gaping at me. “Terra?”

I forced proud smirk. “Ah. My reputation precedes me. Just what I needed, I was really hoping to meet people in order.” My posture changed from to a much more chill one. Hand on my hip, head lolled to the side, the whole shebang. “Who am I meeting this time?”

Rose seemed a bit surprised by my attitude, if not slightly offended. “Rose Tyler.”

My response was a head nod. “Rosita Tyler. Nice name. Like it.” I turned to the Doctor, giving him a once over. “Which Doc are you?”

He was still staring at me, surprised. A apart of me was worried. This wasn’t his first day seeing me was it? No. Rose said my name. Did something happen to me on the space station? Was I dead? No. Rose wasn’t that surprised to see me.

“You look beautiful.” The Doctor suddenly said.

My jaw dropped. Oh. Wow. This explains why Ten was stuttering after seeing me in this dress. “Shut up.” The blue eyes were looking at me. In those eyes, I saw how old he was. Nine hundred years of pain in those eyes, the pain of being completely alone in the universe.

He thought I was pretty? This guy, who had lost so much been through so much, thought I looked pretty?

“You are.” He said. “Considering.” The Doctor covered his earlier sentence.

My jaw picked itself up. Right. I was just a human. I wasn’t overly beautiful. He had only known me, what, a day? Plus, I was competing with Rose in the looks department. Rose, Sara Jane, Leela, any of the Romana’s.

These were lines I had learned by heart. It was a scene I watched with a giddy smile, watching him try not to fall in love with Rose Tyler.

Now that it was happening to me, I didn’t know how to feel.

“Think your next words carefully.” I said under my breath. I forcefully smiled at him. “Considering what?”

The Doctor didn’t heed my warning. “Considering you’re human.”

That did it. “Yeah.” It reminded me of all the others who said I was lesser. They were the people who called me a freak, or a weirdo, or kept me out of all the reindeer games. Sorry, I didn’t mean to make small of it. Making horrid jokes is my way of coping. Funny thing was, I wasn’t even human. A part of me wanted to tell him that, but was scared of the negative response he would give.

“I guess that’s as good as it gets.” I sighed. “Which Doc are you?” I repeated my earlier question.

Gosh, two hundred and fifty and I still had low self esteem. What the fuck? You’d think after becoming a mom it would go away, but if anything I think it got worse after that.

“Ninth.” He took a step closer. My eyebrows queued as he did. It gave me a better look at his rather handsome face. “What number are you on?” The Doctor asked, slowly.

“6.” I answered. “Nice to know you catch on so quick. It’ll save me time training you.”

The Doctor glanced down at the snowball still in my hand. “Snowballs?”

I nodded. The ball in my hand got tossed in the air, caught in my other hand. “Nothing says snow day like a snowball fight.”

“How did you know it was me?” The Doctor asked.

My head motioned in the direction of the TARDIS. “Like a neon sign, she is.” I said. “Seriously, why does she make that sound? I’ve asked you and you never said.”

The Doctor ignored my question, though hesitant. He instead went to look out at the Cardiff street. “Where did you get that dress?” The Doctor said, avoiding my question.

“Future you.” I shot back. “He said I was going into the past, so I needed the right dress.”

Rose walked up to me, seemingly nervous.

“Yes?” I said, a bit condescending. Apparently, I did not like Rose Tyler. Don’t know why, she was a perfectly good girl who would take the Doctor’s hea-

Oh. That’s why. Terra has a crush on the Doctor, and is apparently very jealous. Lovely. Never been possessive before. This would be fun.

Also, sad. I was really hoping Rose and I would get along. Maybe if she proved she wasn’t after the Doctor I would come to like her. Once she established no sort of romantic feelings would I welcome friendship.

An image of all four of the Doctor’s I’ve met flashed in my mind’s eyes. They were all grinning at me, all in my favorite outfit of their’s, and I bit my lip in appreciation.

Rose apparently had been speaking. “Sorry?” I said.

Rose sighed. “I was asking you if you were alright.”

I shrugged. “I’m okay. Why’re you askin’?”

The blonde paused, as if saying something she shouldn’t have. “No reason. Just...asking.”

Okay. Game time. The episode just before this was End of the World. The Doctor takes Rose to the space station to see Earth explode. Had something happened to make Rose concerned? I knew too little to figure it out.

“Yeah.” I nodded my head in disbelief. “Sure.”

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The Doctor: “I got the flight a bit wrong.”

Rose: “I don’t care.”

The Doctor: “It’s not 1860, it’s 1869.”

Rose: “I don’t care.”

The Doctor: “And it’s not Naples.”

Rose: “I don’t care.”

The Doctor: “It’s Cardiff.”

(That stops Rose in her tracks.)

Rose: “Right.”

(The Doctor and Rose hear the screams.)

The Doctor: “That’s more like it!”

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The Doctor: “Fantastic.”

(The corpse collapses.)

The Doctor: “Did you see where it came from?”

Charles: “Ah, the wag reveals himself, does he? I trust you’re satisfied, sir!”

(Sneed and Gwyneth pick up the corpse.)

Rose: “Oi! Leave her alone! Doctor, I’ll get them.”

The Doctor: “Be careful! Did it say anything? Can it speak? I’m the Doctor, by the way.”

Charles: “Doctor? You look more like a navvie.”

The Doctor: “What’s wrong with this jumper?”

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(The blue entity flies into a gas light.)

The Doctor: “Gas! It’s made of gas.”

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The Doctor: “Rose!”

Charles: “You’re not escaping me, sir. What do you know about that hobgoblin, hmm? Projection on glass, I suppose. Who put you up to it?”

The Doctor: “Yeah, mate. Not now, thanks. Oi, you! Follow that hearse!”

(The Doctor gets into a nearby carriage.)

The driver: “I can’t do that, sir.”

The Doctor: “Why not?”

Charles “I’ll tell you why not. I’ll give you a very good reason why not. Because this is my coach.”

The Doctor: “Well, get in, then. Move!”

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(The driver cracks the whip and the carriage moves down the street.)

The Doctor: “Come on, you’re losing them.”

The driver: “Everything in order, Mister Dickens?”

Charles “No! It is not!”

The Doctor: “What did he say?”

Charles “Let me say this first. I’m not without a sense of humor.”

The Doctor: “Dickens?”

Charles “Yes.”

The Doctor: “Charles Dickens?”

Charles “Yes.”

The Doctor: “The Charles Dickens?”

The driver: “Should I remove the gentleman, sir?”

The Doctor: “Charles Dickens? You’re brilliant, you are. Completely one hundred percent brilliant. I’ve read them all. Great Expectations, Oliver Twist and what’s the other one, the one with the ghost?”

Charles “A Christmas Carol?”

The Doctor: “No, no, no, the one with the trains. The Signal Man, that’s it. Terrifying! The best short story ever written. You’re a genius.”

The driver: “You want me to get rid of him, sir?”

Charles “Er, no, I think he can stay.”

The Doctor: “Honestly, Charles. Can I call you Charles? I’m such a big fan.”

Charles “A what? A big what?”

The Doctor: “Fan. Number one fan, that’s me.”

Charles “How exactly are you a fan? In what way do you resemble a means of keeping oneself cool?”

The Doctor: “No, it means fanatic, devoted to. Mind you, I’ve got to say, that American bit in Martin Chuzzlewit, what’s that about? Was that just padding or what? I mean, it’s rubbish, that bit.”

Charles “I thought you said you were my fan.”

The Doctor: “Ah, well, if you can’t take criticism. Go on, do the death of Little Nell, it cracks me up. No, sorry, forget about that. Come on, faster!”

Charles “Who exactly is in that hearse?”

The Doctor: “My friend. She’s only nineteen. It’s my fault. She’s in my care, and now she’s in danger.”

Charles “Why are we wasting my time talking about dry old books? This is much more important. Driver, be swift! The chase is on!”

The driver: “Yes, sir!”

The Doctor: “Attaboy, Charlie.”

Charles “Nobody calls me Charlie.”

The Doctor: “The ladies do.”

Charles “How do you know that?”

The Doctor: “I told you, I’m your number one-”

Charles “Number one fan.”

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Gwyneth: “I’m sorry, sir. We’re closed.”

Charles “Nonsense. Since when did an Undertaker keep office hours? The dead don’t die on schedule. I demand to see your master.”

Gwyneth: “He’s not in, sir.”

Charles “Don’t lie to me, child. Summon him at once.”

Gwyneth: “I’m awfully sorry, Mister Dickens, but the master’s indisposed.”

(A gas lamp flares.)

The Doctor: “Having trouble with your gas?”

Charles “What the Shakespeare is going on?”

(The Doctor goes past Gwyneth to the flaring gas lamp.)

Gwyneth: “You’re not allowed inside, sir.”

The Doctor: “There’s something inside the walls.”

(Mrs Redpath reanimates in her coffin.)

The Doctor: “The gas pipes. Something’s living inside the gas.”

Rose: “Let me out! Open the door!”

The Doctor: “That’s her.”

Rose: “Please, please, let me out!”

(The Doctor runs down the corridor and into Sneed.)

Sneed: “How dare you, sir. (to Dickens.) This is my house!”

Charles “Shut up.”

Sneed: “(to Gwyneth)I told you.”

Rose: “Let me out! Somebody open the door! Open the door!”

(Redpath grabs Rose. The Doctor kicks the door in.)

The Doctor: “I think this is my dance.”

(The Doctor pulls Rose away from Redpath.)

Charles “It’s a prank. It must be. We’re under some mesmeric influence.”

The Doctor: “No, we’re not. The dead are walking. Hi.”

Rose: “Hi. Who’s your friend?”

The Doctor: “Charles Dickens.”

Rose: “Okay.”

The Doctor: “My name’s the Doctor. Who are you, then? What do you want?”

(Redpath replies with several voices.)

REDPATH: “Failing. Open the rift. We’re dying. Trapped in this form. Cannot sustain. Help us. Argh!”

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“The snow’s piled up outside the door. The weatherman says it’s best to stay inside tonight. The mercury’s falling, the streets lights are shivering. You know to let you go wouldn’t be right.” I sang, bobbing my head along with the music playing in my head. “It’s the last week of December, so let’s wait out this snow together.”

Rose: “First of all you drug me, then you kidnap me, and don’t think I didn’t feel your hands having a quick wander, you dirty old man.”

Sneed: “I won’t be spoken to like this!”

Rose: “Then you stuck me in a room full of zombies! And if that ain’t enough, you swan off and leave me to die! So come on, talk!”

Sneed: “It’s not my fault. It’s this house. It always had a reputation. Haunted. But I never had much bother until a few months back, and then the stiffs, the er, dear departed started getting restless.”

Charles “Tommyrot.”

Sneed: “You witnessed it. Can’t keep the beggars down, sir. They walk. And it’s the queerest thing, but they hang on to scraps.”

(Gwyneth places the Doctor’s cup on the mantelpiece beside him.)

Gwyneth: “Two sugars, sir, just how you like it.” She handed me the other cup. “Five sugars, though that’s very bad for you.”

Sneed: “One old fellow who used to be a sexton almost walked into his own memorial service. Just like the old lady going to your performance, sir, just as she planned.”

Charles “Morbid fancy.”

The Doctor: “Oh, Charles, you were there.”

Charles “I saw nothing but an illusion.”

The Doctor: “If you’re going to deny it, don’t waste my time. Just shut up. What about the gas?”

Sneed: “That’s new, sir. Never seen anything like that.”

The Doctor: “Means it’s getting stronger, the rift’s getting wider and something’s sneaking through.”

Rose: “What’s the rift?”

The Doctor: “A weak point in time and space. A connection between this place and another. That’s the cause of ghost stories, most of the time.”

Sneed: “That’s how I got the house so cheap. Stories going back generations.”

(Dickens slams the door as he leaves.)

Sneed: “Echoes in the dark, queer songs in the air, and this feeling like a shadow passing over your soul. Mind you, truth be told, it’s been good for business. Just what people expect from a gloomy old trade like mine.”

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==PC==

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Gwyneth: “Please, miss, you shouldn’t be helping. It’s not right.”

Rose: “Don’t be daft. Sneed works you to death. How much do you get paid?”

Gwyneth: “Eight pound a year, miss.”

Rose: “How much?”

Gwyneth: “I know. I would’ve been happy with six.”

Rose: “So, did you go to school or what?”

Gwyneth: “Of course I did. What do you think I am, an urchin? I went every Sunday, nice and proper.”

Rose: “What, once a week?”

Gwyneth: “We did sums and everything. To be honest, I hated every second.”

Rose: “Me too.”

Gwyneth: “Don’t tell anyone, but one week, I didn’t go and ran on the heath all on my own.”

Rose: “I did plenty of that. I used to go down the shops with my mate Shareen. We used to go and look at boys.”

Gwyneth: “Well, I don’t know much about that, miss.”

Rose: “Come on, times haven’t changed that much. I bet you’ve done the same.”

Gwyneth: “I don’t think so, miss.”

Rose: “Gwyneth, you can tell me. I bet you’ve got your eye on someone.”

Gwyneth: “I suppose. There is one lad. The butcher’s boy. He comes by every Tuesday. Such a lovely smile on him.”

Rose: “I like a nice smile. Good smile, nice bum.”

“Yes.” I sighed. “I like ‘um with a deep voice. Something about him talking to you.”

Gwyneth: “Well, I have never heard the like.”

Rose: “Ask him out. Give him a cup of tea or something, that’s a start.”

Gwyneth: “I swear it is the strangest thing, miss. You’ve got all the clothes and the breeding, but you talk like some sort of wild thing.”

Rose: “Maybe I am. Maybe that’s a good thing. You need a bit more in your life than Mister Sneed.”

Gwyneth: “Oh, now that’s not fair. He’s not so bad, old Sneed. He was very kind to me to take me in because I lost my mum and dad to the flu when I was twelve.”

Rose: “Oh, I’m sorry.”

Gwyneth: “Thank you, miss. But I’ll be with them again, one day, sitting with them in paradise. I shall be so blessed. They’re waiting for me. Maybe your dad’s up there waiting for you too, miss.”

Rose: “Maybe. Er, who told you he was dead?”

Gwyneth: “I don’t know. Must have been the Doctor.”

Rose: “My father died years back.”

Gwyneth: “But you’ve been thinking about him lately more than ever.”

Rose: “I suppose so. How do you know all this?”

Gwyneth: “Mister Sneed says I think too much. I’m all alone down here. I bet you’ve got dozens of servants, haven’t you, miss?”

Rose: “No, no servants where I’m from.”

Gwyneth: “And you’ve come such a long way.”

Rose: “What makes you think so?”

“You, you have traveled the farthest.” Gwen spoke.

Gwyneth: “You’re from London. I’ve seen London in drawings, but never like that. All those people rushing about half naked, for shame. And the noise, and the metal boxes racing past, and the birds in the sky, no, they’re metal as well. Metal birds with people in them. People are flying. And you, you’ve flown so far.” She shuddered, turning to me. “Oh, but you especially ma’am. Further than anyone. The things you’ve seen, the things you’ve done, the things you will do. The darkness, the silence, the fields, the tiger, the big bad wolf. I’m sorry. I’m sorry, miss.”

Rose: “It’s alright.”

Gwyneth: “I can’t help it. Ever since I was a little girl, my mam said I had the sight. She told me to hide it.”

The Doctor: “But it’s getting stronger, more powerful, is that right?”

Gwyneth: “All the time, sir. Every night, voices in my head.”

The Doctor: “You grew up on top of the rift. You’re part of it. You’re the key.”

Gwyneth: “I’ve tried to make sense of it, sir. Consulted with spiritualists, table rappers, all sorts.”

The Doctor: “Well, that should help. You can show us what to do.”

Gwyneth: “What to do where, sir?”

The Doctor: “We’re going to have a séance.”

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==PC==

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Gwyneth: “This is how Madam Mortlock summons those from the Land of Mists, down in big town. Come, we must all join hands.”

Charles “I can’t take part in this.”

The Doctor: “Humbug? Come on, open mind.”

Charles “This is precisely the sort of cheap mummery I strive to unmask. Séances? Nothing but luminous tambourines and a squeeze box concealed between the knees. This girl knows nothing.”

The Doctor: “Now, don’t antagonise her. I love a happy medium.”

Rose: “I can’t believe you just said that.”

The Doctor: “Come on, we might need you.”

(Dickens sits down between Rose and Gwyneth.)

The Doctor: “Good man. Now, Gwyneth, reach out.”

Gwyneth: “Speak to us. Are you there? Spirits, come. Speak to us that we may relieve your burden.”

(The whispering starts.)

Rose: “Can you hear that?”

Charles “Nothing can happen. This is sheer folly.”

Rose: “Look at her.”

Gwyneth: “I see them. I feel them.”

(Gas tendrils drift above their heads.)

Rose: “What’s it saying?”

The Doctor: “They can’t get through the rift. Gwyneth, it’s not controlling you, you’re controlling it. Now, look deep. Allow them through. “

Gwyneth: “I can’t!”

The Doctor: “Yes, you can. Just believe it. I have faith in you, Gwyneth. Make the link.”

Gwyneth: “Yes.”

(Blue outlines of people appear behind Gwyneth.)

Sneed: “Great God! Spirits from the other side.”

The Doctor: “The other side of the universe.”

(The figures speak with two children’s voices, and Gwyneth speaks with them.)

The Gelth “Pity us. Pity the Gelth. There is so little time. Help us.”

The Doctor: “What do you want us to do?”

The Gelth “The rift. Take the girl to the rift. Make the bridge.”

The Doctor: “What for?”

The Gelth “We are so very few. The last of our kind. We face extinction.”

The Doctor: “Why, what happened?”

The Gelth “Once we had a physical form like you, but then the war came.”

Charles “War? What war?”

The Gelth “The Time War. The whole universe convulsed. The Time War raged. Invisible to smaller species but devastating to higher forms. Our bodies wasted away. We’re trapped in this gaseous state.”

The Doctor: “So that’s why you need the corpses.”

The Gelth “We want to stand tall, to feel the sunlight, to live again. We need a physical form, and your dead are abandoned. They’re going to waste. Give them to us.”

Rose: “But we can’t.”

The Doctor: “Why not?”

Rose: “It’s not. I mean, it’s not-”

The Doctor: “Not decent? Not polite? It could save their lives.”

The Gelth “Open the rift. Let the Gelth through. We’re dying. Help us. Pity the Gelth.”

(The Gelth go back into the gas lamps and Gwyneth collapses across the table.)

Rose: “Gwyneth?”

Charles “All true.”

Rose: “Are you okay?”

Charles “It’s all true.”

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==PC==

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Rose: “It’s all right. You just sleep.”

Gwyneth: “But my angels, miss. They came, didn’t they? They need me?”

The Doctor: “They do need you, Gwyneth. You’re their only chance of survival.”

Rose: “I’ve told you, leave her alone. She’s exhausted and she’s not fighting your battles. Drink this.”

Sneed: “Well, what did you say, Doctor? Explain it again. What are they?”

The Doctor: “Aliens.”

Sneed: “Like foreigners, you mean?”

The Doctor: “Pretty foreign, yeah. From up there.”

Sneed: “Brecon?”

The Doctor: “Close. And they’ve been trying to get through from Brecon to Cardiff but the road’s blocked. Only a few can get through and even then they’re weak. They can only test drive the bodies for so long, then they have to revert to gas and hide in the pipes.”

Charles “Which is why they need the girl.”

Rose: “They’re not having her.”

The Doctor: “But she can help. Living on the rift, she’s become part of it. She can open it up, make a bridge and let them through.”

Charles “Incredible. Ghosts that are not ghosts but beings from another world, who can only exist in our world by inhabiting cadavers.”

The Doctor: “Good system. It might work.”

Rose: “You can’t let them run around inside of dead people.”

The Doctor: “Why not? It’s like recycling.”

Rose: “Seriously though, you can’t.”

The Doctor: “Seriously though, I can.”

Rose: “It’s just wrong. Those bodies were living people. We should respect them even in death.”

The Doctor: “Do you carry a donor card?”

Rose: “That’s different. That’s-”

The Doctor: “It is different, yeah. It’s a different morality. Get used to it or go home. You heard what they said, time’s short. I can’t worry about a few corpses when the last of the Gelth could be dying.”

“Doctor, do you have any family?” I asked him, trying to sound curt and angry.

The Doctor gave me an angry look, it was sad in his eyes. He did have family, but they died. All of his family was dead. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“How would you feel if they came back?” I asked him. “But, they weren’t really your family? The person in that body had no idea who you even were?”

The Doctor flinched back. He hadn’t thought of it that way before.

“You’re asking for us to bring back the dead, so their bodies can be used as puppets.” I snapped. “And from what we saw with the old lady and Charlie, they still have some of the original human inside. We’re trapping thousands of humans with aliens, because you want us to.”

“Now, there is also the problem with the bodies.” I went on. “Say we give them what they want. Once people are alright with the dead coming back, and that they aren’t really dead relatives, the bodies could start to decay. Who knows how long the Gelth could keep them together, or if they even can. This doesn’t even begin to cover land disputes, resources, basic human rights.”

As my explanation went on, you could see the surprised looks on everyone’s faces. They never thought of these little things. How could they? They were all probably still in shock over the Gelth coming up.

“It’s only a matter of time before wars are fought. People start treating the Gelth as lessers, things instead of people.” I explained. “Wars have already been started by this time because people were being treated as less than human. Putting aliens in the mix? I don’t like our odds.”

Gwyneth: “Don’t I get a say, miss?”

“Of course you do.” I said. “I just don’t want you to do something for someone else’s war.”

Rose: “Look, you don’t understand what’s going on.”

Gwyneth: “You would say that, miss, because that’s very clear inside your head, that you think I’m stupid.”

Rose: “That’s not fair.”

Gwyneth: “It’s true, though. Things might be very different where you’re from, but here and now, I know my own mind, and the angels need me. Doctor, what do I have to do?”

The Doctor: “You don’t have to do anything.”

Gwyneth: “They’ve been singing to me since I was a child, sent by my mam on a holy mission. So tell me.”

The Doctor: “We need to find the rift. This house is on a weak spot, so there must be a spot that’s weaker than any other. Mister Sneed, what’s the weakest part of this house? The place where most of the ghosts have been seen?”

Sneed: “That would be the morgue.”

Rose: “No chance you were going to say gazebo, is there?”

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==PC==

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The Doctor: “Urgh. Talk about Bleak House.”

I was smiling like an idiot. Rose stared at me like I was insane. “Why’re you so happy?”

“Inside joke.” I snickered. “Morgues.”

Rose: “The thing is, Doctor, the Gelth don’t succeed, ‘cos I know they don’t. I know for a fact there weren’t corpses walking around in 1869.”

The Doctor: “Time’s in flux, changing every second. Your cozy little world can be rewritten like that. Nothing is safe. Remember that. Nothing.”

Charles “Doctor, I think the room is getting colder.”

Rose: “Here they come.”

(A Gelth comes out of a gas lamp by the door and stands under a stone archway.)

The Gelth “You’ve come to help. Praise the Doctor. Praise him.”

Rose: “Promise you won’t hurt her.”

The Gelth “Hurry! Please, so little time. Pity the Gelth.”

The Doctor: “I’ll take you somewhere else after the transfer. Somewhere you can build proper bodies. This isn’t a permanent solution, all right?”

Gwyneth: “My angels. I can help them live.”

The Doctor: “Okay, where’s the weak point?”

The Gelth “Here, beneath the arch.”

Gwyneth: “Beneath the arch.”

(Gwyneth stands under the arch, inside the Gelth.)

Rose: “You don’t have to do this.”

Gwyneth: “My angels.”

The Gelth “Establish the bridge. Reach out to the void. Let us through!”

Gwyneth: “Yes, I can see you. I can see you. Come!”

The Gelth “Bridgehead establishing.”

Gwyneth: “Come to me. Come to this world, poor lost souls!”

The Gelth “It is begun. The bridge is made.”

(Gwyneth opens her mouth, and blue gas comes out.)

The Gelth “She has given herself to the Gelth. The bridge is open. We descend.”

(The sweet blue apparition turns flame red with sharp teeth. It’s voice deepens and hardens.)

The Gelth “The Gelth will come through in force.”

Charles “You said that you were few in number.”

The Gelth “A few billion. And all of us in need of corpses.”

(The dead get up.)

Sneed: “Gwyneth, stop this. Listen to your master. This has gone far enough. Stop dabbling, child, and leave these things alone, I beg of you-”

Rose: “Mister Sneed, get back!”

(A corpse grabs Sneed and snaps his neck. A Gelth zooms into his mouth.)

The Doctor: “I think it’s gone a little bit wrong.”

Sneed: “I have joined the legions of the Gelth. Come, march with us.”

Charles “No.”

The Gelth “We need bodies. All of you. Dead. The human race. Dead.”

The Doctor: “Gwyneth, stop them! Send them back now!”

The Gelth “Three more bodies. Convert them. Make them vessels for the Gelth.”

(Dead Sneed backs Rose and the Doctor up against a metal gate.)

Charles “Doctor, I can’t. I’m sorry. This new world of yours is too much for me. I’m so-”

(The Doctor and Rose hide behind the metal gate, where the corpses cannot reach them.)

The Gelth “Give yourself to glory. Sacrifice your lives for the Gelth.”

The Doctor: “I trusted you. I pitied you!”

The Gelth “We don’t want your pity. We want this world and all it’s flesh.”

The Doctor: “Not while I’m alive.”

The Gelth “Then live no more.”

(Dickens runs out of the house, but blue gas seeps out round the door. He runs down the street, chased by a Gelph.)

Rose: “But I can’t die. Tell me I can’t. I haven’t even been born yet. It’s impossible for me to die. Isn’t it?”

The Doctor: “I’m sorry.”

Rose: “But it’s 1869. How can I die now?”

The Doctor: “Time isn’t a straight line. It can twist into any shape. You can be born in the twentieth century and die in the nineteenth and it’s all my fault. I brought you here.”

Rose: “It’s not your fault. I wanted to come.”

The Doctor: “What about me? I saw the fall of Troy, World War Five. I pushed boxes at the Boston Tea Party. Now I’m going to die in a dungeon in Cardiff.”

Rose: “It’s not just dying. We’ll become one of them.”

(Dickens runs back into Sneed’s house and turns the gas lamps off then on again. He holds a handkerchief to his mouth to try and stop himself choking on the unlit town gas as he goes.)

Rose: “We’ll go down fighting, yeah?”

The Doctor: “Yeah.”

Rose: “Together?”

The Doctor: “Yeah.”

(They hold hands.)

The Doctor: “I’m so glad I met you.”

Rose: “Me too.”

“He said ‘what the Shakespeare’.” I laughed.

(Dickens runs in.)

Charles “Doctor! Doctor! Turn off the flame, turn up the gas! Now, fill the room, all of it, now!”

The Doctor: “What’re you doing?”

Charles “Turn it all on. Flood the place!”

The Doctor: “Brilliant. Gas.”

Rose: “What, so we choke to death instead?”

Charles “Am I correct, Doctor? These creatures are gaseous.”

The Doctor: “Fill the room with gas, it’ll draw them out of the host. Suck them into the air like poison from a wound!”

(The corpses leave the Doctor and Rose, and start shambling towards Dickens.)

Charles “I hope, oh Lord, I hope that this theory will be validated soon, if not immediately.”

The Doctor: “Plenty more!”

(The Doctor rips a gas pipe from the wall. The Gelphs leave the corpses.)

Charles “It’s working.”

(The Doctor and Rose come out of the alcove.)

The Doctor: “Gwyneth, send them back. They lied. They’re not angels.”

Gwyneth: “Liars?”

The Doctor: “Look at me. If your mother and father could look down and see this, they’d tell you the same. They’d give you the strength. Now send them back!”

Rose: “I can’t breathe.”

The Doctor: “Charles, get her out.”

Rose: “I’m not leaving her.”

Gwyneth: “They’re too strong.”

The Doctor: “Remember that world you saw? Rose’s world? All those people. None of it will exist unless you send them back through the rift.”

Gwyneth: “I can’t send them back. But I can hold them. Hold them in this place, hold them here. Get out.”

(Gwyneth takes a box of matches from her apron pocket.)

Rose: “You can’t!”

Gwyneth: “Leave this place!”

The Doctor: “Rose, get out. Go now. I won’t leave her while she’s still in danger. Now go!”

(Rose and Dickens leave.)

The Doctor: “Come on, leave give that to me.”

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==PC==

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The Doctor: “Right then, Charlie boy, I’ve just got to go into my, er, shed. Won’t be long.”

Rose: “What are you going to do now?”

Charles “I shall take the mail coach back to London, quite literally post-haste. This is no time for me to be on my own. I shall spend Christmas with my family and make amends to them. After all I’ve learned tonight, there can be nothing more vital.”

The Doctor: “You’ve cheered up.”

Charles “Exceedingly! This morning, I thought I knew everything in the world. Now I know I’ve just started. All these huge and wonderful notions, Doctor. I’m inspired. I must write about them.”

Rose: “Do you think that’s wise?”

Charles “I shall be subtle at first. The Mystery of Edwin Drood still lacks an ending. Perhaps the killer was not the boy’s uncle. Perhaps he was not of this Earth. The Mystery of Edwin Drood and the Blue Elementals. I can spread the word, tell the truth.”

The Doctor: “Good luck with it. Nice to meet you. Fantastic.”

Rose: “Bye, then, and thanks.”

(Rose shakes Dickens’ hand then kisses his cheek.)

Charles “Oh, my dear. How modern. Thank you, but, I don’t understand. In what way is this goodbye? Where are you going?”

The Doctor: “You’ll see. In the shed.”

Charles “Upon my soul, Doctor, it’s one riddle after another with you. But after all these revelations, there’s one mystery you still haven’t explained. Answer me this. Who are you?”

The Doctor: “Just a friend passing through.”

Charles “But you have such knowledge of future times. I don’t wish to impose on you, but I must ask you. My books. Doctor, do they last?”

The Doctor: “Oh, yes!”

Charles “For how long?”

The Doctor: “Forever. Right. Shed. Come on, Rose.”

Charles “In the box? Both of you?”

The Doctor: “Down boy. See you.”

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Rose: “Doesn’t that change history if he writes about blue ghosts?”

The Doctor: “In a week’s time it’s 1870, and that’s the year he dies. Sorry. He’ll never get to tell his story.”

Rose: “Oh, no. He was so nice.”

The Doctor: “But in your time, he was already dead. We’ve brought him back to life, and he’s more alive now than he’s ever been, old Charlie boy. Let’s give him one last surprise.”

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