The Tardis was in a rather jerky flight. “Hold that one down!” The Doctor shouted.
“I'm holding this one down.” Rose called back.
“Well, hold them both down.” The Doctor told her rudely.
“That’s rude.” Maddie comment as she helped them.
“It's not going to work.” Rose tried to stretch across half the console.
The Doctor looked at them. “Oi! I promised you a time machine and that's what you're getting. Now, you've seen the future, let's have a look at the past. 1860. How does 1860 sound?”
“Sounds good to me.” Maddie replied. “I believe my mother went there.”
The Doctor looked at her. “Your mother?”
Maddie nodded. “Yeah, she stole a box and ran away into my father. With pit stops i should say.” She replied.
Then Rose interrupted them. “What happened in 1860?”
“I don't know, let's find out. Hold on, here we go!” The Doctor replied to her.
The Tardis materialised at the end of a snowy street. The Doctor, Maddie and Rose were lying on the floor. It had been a rough landing. “Blimey!” Rose exclaimed.
“Dear god.” Maddie added. “Is it always this rough?”
The Doctor looked at them. “You're telling me. Are you all right?”
“Yep.” Maddie replied.
Rose nodded. “Yeah. I think so. Nothing broken. Did we make it? Where are we?”
The Doctor looked at the screen. “I did it. Give the man a medal. Earth, Naples, December 24th, 1860.”
“I will give you a medal when I see it for myself.” Maddie comment.
“That's so weird. It's Christmas.” Rose told them.
“Christmas Eve.” Maddie corrected her. Rose glared at her. “What it is so.”
“All yours.” The Doctor told them.
“But, it's like, think about it, though. Christmas. 1860. Happens once, just once and it's gone, it's finished, it'll never happen again. Except for you. You can go back and see days that are dead and gone a hundred thousand sunsets ago. No wonder you never stay still.” Rose rambled.
The Doctor shrugged. “Not a bad life.”
“Better with three. Come on, then.” Rose went for the doors.
“Hey, where do you think you're going?” The Doctor asked.
“1860.” Rose replied.
The Doctor pointed at the hallway. “Go out there dressed like that, you'll start a riot, Barbarella. There's a wardrobe through there. First left, second right, third on the left, go straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on your left. Hurry up!” Rose walked out already, but Maddie stayed. The Doctor noticed her. “Why aren’t you going as well?”
Maddie looked at him. “Do we have to dress up?”
“1860’s. I think you have to.” The Doctor replied.
Maddie sighed. “No, I don’t.” Then she changed the subject. “What was the strange feeling, when we first touched?”
The Doctor went tense, he fired her another question. “What did you mean your mother stole a box and ran away?”
Maddie glared at him. “I don’t think, I know you well enough to tell you that.”
“And there is my answer to your question.” The Doctor was being rude.
“Rude, but I know the answer already. I just wanted to hear it from you.” Maddie revealed the information. “It happened to my mother and my father.” She smiled fondly when her mother told her all about it.
The Doctor looked confused. “Then why ask?”
“As I just said, I wanted to hear it from you.” Maddie replied. “I need to know if its the same.”
Then the Doctor walked forwards to her. “What aren't you telling me?”
Maddie looked at him. “My mother Sirena, do you know her? Heard from her? Anything at all?”
“I wouldn’t think so, why?” The Doctor frowned.
Maddie sighed. “It’s not important right now.” She replied, looking sad.
“I think it does to you.” He comment, taking a few steps towards her. Until he noticed her necklace. “Where did you get that necklace?”
Maddie grabbed her necklace. “My mother give it to me. She said to keep it on, always.”
“Your mother must be smart then?” He asked her.
“Very.” Maddie replied. “Like you. But I’m going to change.” Then she walked out of the console room. Before the Doctor could say something else.
------------------------
Later the Doctor was working under the console when Rose and Maddie returned, appropriately coiffed and attired for 1860. He looked up. “Blimey!”
Maddie looked at him as Rose comment. “Don't laugh.”
“You look beautiful, considering...” The Doctor trailed off as he looked more at Maddie.
Rose frowned. “Considering what?”
“That you're human.” He replied to them.
“Well, I’m not entirely human.” Maddie let it slip. The Doctor had his eyes widen, but before he could say anything. Rose spoke up.
“I think that's a compliment. Aren't you going to change?” She asked to him.
The Doctor grabbed his shirt. “I've changed my jumper. Come on.”
“You stay there.” Rose pointed at him as then she walked towards the doors. “You've done this before. This is mine.”
“I’m next.” Maddie added.
-----------------
Rose opened the door and stepped gingerly out into the fallen snow. Followed by Maddie and the Doctor. “Ready for this? Here we go. History.”
“Oh, I love history.” Maddie comment, smiling.
Just then they walked down the street while a choir sing God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. They moved on before the hearse stopped. Then the Doctor buys a newspaper. He read it. “I got the flight a bit wrong.”
“It happens.” Maddie comment.
Rose looked around her. “I don't care.”
“It's not 1860, it's 1869.” The Doctor told her.
“I don't care.”
“And it's not Naples.”
“I don't care.”
“It's Cardiff.”
That stopped Rose in her tracks. “Right.”
Maddie looked at the Doctor. “You don’t get that medal now.”
Suddenly they heard the screams. “That's more like it!” The police was arriving outside, blowing his whistle. A corpse was walking about. “Fantastic.” Then the corpse collapsed. “Did you see where it came from?”
“Ah, the wag reveals himself, does he? I trust you're satisfied, sir!” Dickens replied.
Sneed and Gwyneth picked up the corpse. Rose noticed it as did Maddie. “Oi! Leave her alone! Doctor, I'll get them.”
“I’m going with.” Maddie added.
“Be careful!” They heard the Doctor calling after them.
------------------
Rose and Maddie walked up to Sneed and Gwyneth. “What're you doing?!”
“Oh, it's a tragedy, miss. Don't worry yourself. Me and the master will deal with it. The fact is, this poor lady's been taken with the brain fever and we have to get her to the infirmary.” Gwyneth replied.
Rose put her hand on the poor woman. “She's cold. She's dead! Oh, my God, what'd you do to her?”
Sneed sneaked up behind Rose and put a pad of cloth over her mouth. She struggled briefly then passed out. “What the hell?!” Maddie exclaimed, but Sneed did the same with her. Then she passed out.
“What did you do that for?” Gwyneth asked to her master.
“They seen too much. Get them in the hearse. Legs.” Sneed replied.
-----------------
Rose and Maddie woke up as blue gas from the lamp animated young Mister Redpath, who had been placed in a coffin. They both saw the man. “What the hell?”
Rose had her eyes widen. “Are you all right? You're kidding me, yeah? You're just kidding. You are kidding me, aren't you?” Redpath climbed out of the coffin and walked zombie-like towards them. “Okay, not kidding.”
“No, its not.” Maddie comment.
Just then Rose runs for the door. “Let me out!” Then Maddie went for the door as well. “Open the door! Please, please, let me out! Let me out! Somebody open the door! Open the door!”
“Open the bloody door!” Maddie shouted.
Just then Redpath grabbed Rose and Maddie. The Doctor kicked the door in. “I think this is my dance.” Then he pulled them away from Redpath. The Doctor felt Maddie briefly, he didn’t understand it, he people were dead.
“It's a prank. It must be. We're under some mesmeric influence.” Dickens told them.
The Doctor looked at him. “No, we're not. The dead are walking.” Then he looked at the girls. “Hi.”
“Hi. Who's your friend?” Both girls asked.
“Charles Dickens.” The Doctor replied.
“Cool.” Maddie comment.
“Okay.” Rose added.
The Doctor spoke to the corpse. “My name's the Doctor. Who are you, then? What do you want?”
Redpath replied with several voices. “Failing. Open the rift. We're dying. Trapped in this form. Cannot sustain. Help us. Argh!” The gas leaves Redpath and his mother and returned to the gas lamp. The corpses collapsed.
--------------------
They al went to the living room. Gwyneth poured tea for them all. Rose was scolding Sneed. “First of all you drug me and my friend, then you kidnap us, and don't think I didn't feel your hands having a quick wander, you dirty old man.”
“I won't be spoken to like this!” Sneed cried out.
Rose looked very angry. “Then you stuck us in a room full of zombies! And if that ain't enough, you swan off and leave us to die! So come on, talk!”
“It's not my fault.” Sneed sighed. “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.”
“Tommyrot.” Dickens told them.
Sneed looked at Dickens. “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 placed the Doctor's cup on the mantelpiece beside him. “Two sugars, sir, just how you like it.”
“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.” Sneed told them.
Dickens looked in disbelief. “Morbid fancy.”
“Oh, Charles, you were there.” The Doctor comment.
“I saw nothing but an illusion.” Dickens told him.
“Some people don’t know what they see what’s in front of them.” Maddie told them, glancing at the Doctor.
The Doctor looked at Dickens. “If you're going to deny it, don't waste my time. Just shut up.” Then he looked at Sneed. “What about the gas?”
“That's new, sir. Never seen anything like that.” Sneed replied.
“Means it's getting stronger, the rift's getting wider and something's sneaking through.” The Doctor explained.
“What's the rift?” Rose asked confused.
The Doctor looked at her. “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.”
“Yeah, right.” Maddie muttered. “There is no sues thing as ghosts.”
Sneed nodded. “That's how I got the house so cheap. Stories going back generations.” Just then Dickens slammed the door as he leaves. “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.”
-----------------
Gwyneth light the gas lamp. Rose started the washing up and Maddie helped her. “Please, misses, you two shouldn't be helping. It's not right.”
“I love to help.” Maddie told her.
“Don't be daft.” Rose added. “Sneed works you to death. How much do you get paid?”
“Eight pound a year, miss.” Gwyneth replied to her.
Maddie had her eyes widen. “How much?”
Gwyneth nodded. “I know. I would've been happy with six.”
“So, did you go to school or what?” Rose asked.
Gwyneth looked at them. “Of course I did. What do you think I am, an urchin? I went every Sunday, nice and proper.”
“Times change.” Maddie hummed.
Rose had her eyes widen. “What, once a week?” She asked.
“We did sums and everything. To be honest, I hated every second.” Gwyneth replied.
Rose nodded. “Me too.”
“Nah, maybe I did hate some of it.” Maddie comment.
Gwyneth looked at them. “Don't tell anyone, but one week, I didn't go and ran on the heath all on my own.”
“I did plenty of that. I used to go down the shops with my mate Shareen. We used to go and look at boys.” Rose told her.
Gwyneth looked at her. “Well, I don't know much about that, miss.”
“Come on, times haven't changed that much. I bet you've done the same.” Rose told her.
She shook with her head. “I don't think so, miss.”
“Gwyneth, you can tell me. I bet you've got your eye on someone.” Rose comment.
Maddie sighed as Gwyneth nodded. “I suppose. There is one lad. The butcher’s boy. He comes by every Tuesday. Such a lovely smile on him.”
“Lovely, we are talking about boys.” Maddie muttered.
“I like a nice smile. Good smile, nice bum.” Rose remarked, smiling.
Gwyneth looked down. “Well, I have never heard the like.”
“Ask him out. Give him a cup of tea or something, that's a start.” Rose suggested.
“It is.” Maddie agreed to that.
She looked at them. “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.”
“Maybe I am.” Rose told her. “Maybe that's a good thing. You need a bit more in your life than Mister Sneed.”
Gwyneth looked at her. “Well, 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.”
“Oh, I'm sorry.” Rose told her.
“I’m sorry too.” Maddie added.
“Thank you, misses.” Gwyneth told them. “But I'll be with them again, one day, sitting with them in paradise. I shall be so blessed. They're waiting for me.” Then she looked at Rose. “Maybe your dad's up there waiting for you too, miss.” Then she looked at Maddie. “And you miss, your grandparents from another world are waiting up for you too.”
“Er, what?!” Maddie asked in shock.
Rose frowned. “Maybe. Er, who told you he was dead?”
“I don't know. Must have been the Doctor.” Gwyneth replied.
“I would never tell him that.” Maddie exclaimed.
Rose looked at her. “My father died years back.”
“But you've been thinking about him lately more than ever.” Gwyneth told her. Then she looked at Maddie. “And you do too.”
“Maybe so.” Maddie comment. “But how in the world you know that?”
Rose frowned. “I suppose so. How do you know all this?”
“Mister Sneed says I think too much. I'm all alone down here.” Gwyneth looked at them. “I bet you've got dozens of servants, haven't you, misses?”
“No, never.” Maddie replied.
Rose shook with her head. “No, no servants where I'm from.”
Gwyneth looked at them both. “And you've come such a long way.”
“What makes you think so?” Both girls asked.
“You two are 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. Further than anyone.” Gwyneth told them as then she looked at Maddie. “The things you've seen. You other planet burned. I haven’t seen anything like it. The darkness, the big bad wolf. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, miss.”
“It's all right.” Maddie told her.
Gwyneth looked at her. “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.”
Suddenly the Doctor stood in the doorway. “But it's getting stronger, more powerful, is that right?”
Gwyneth nodded. “All the time, sir. Every night, voices in my head.”
“You grew up on top of the rift. You're part of it. You're the key.” The Doctor told her.
“I've tried to make sense of it, sir.” She nodded. “Consulted with spiritualists, table rappers, all sorts.”
“Well, that should help. You can show us what to do.” The Doctor told her.
Gwyneth looked at him. “What to do where, sir?”
“We're going to have a séance.” The Doctor replied.
--------------
In the living room, everyone was gathered around a table. “This is how Madam Mortlock summons those from the Land of Mists, down in Bute Town. Come, we must all join hands.”
“I can't take part in this.” Dickens told them.
Ten Doctor looked at him. “Humbug? Come on, open mind.”
“This is precisely the sort of cheap mummery I strive to unmask. Séances?” Dickens looked in disbelief. “Nothing but luminous tambourines and a squeeze box concealed between the knees. This girl knows nothing.”
“If I’m doing this, so are you.” Maddie comment. “I don’t even believe it, so suck it up.”
The Doctor looked at Dickens. “Now, don't antagonise her. I love a happy medium.”
“I can't believe you just said that.” Rose told him in disbelief.
“I can’t belief it either.” Maddie added.
“Come on, we might need you.” The Doctor told to Dickens. Dickens sat down between Rose and Gwyneth. “Good man. Now, Gwyneth, reach out.”
Gwyneth spoke out to the spirits. “Speak to us. Are you there? Spirits, come. Speak to us that we may relieve your burden.”
The whispering started. Rose noticed. “Can you hear that?”
Maddie noticed it as well. “I hear it too.”
“Nothing can happen. This is sheer folly.” Dickens told them.
“Look at her.” Rose comment. They all looked at her.
“I see them. I feel them.” Gwyneth told them. Gas tendrild drift above their heads.
“What's it saying?” Rose asked curious.
The Doctor looked at her. “They can't get through the rift.” Then he looked at Gwyneth. “Gwyneth, it's not controlling you, you're controlling it. Now, look deep. Allow them through.”
“I can't!” She shouted.
“Yes, you can.” The Doctor believed in her. “Just believe it. I have faith in you, Gwyneth. Make the link.”
Gwyneth make the link. “Yes.” Blue outlines of people appeared behind Gwyneth.
“Great God! Spirits from the other side.” Sneed exclaimed.
“The other side of the universe.” The Doctor corrected him.
The figures spoke with two children's voices and Gwyneth spoke with them. “Pity us. Pity the Gelth. There is so little time. Help us.”
The Doctor looked at them. “What do you want us to do?”
“The rift. Take the girl to the rift. Make the bridge.” The Gelth replied.
The Doctor frowned. “What for?”
“We are so very few. The last of our kind. We face extinction.” Gelth replied.
Maddie had her eyes widen. “What?”
“Why, what happened?” He asked to them.
“Once we had a physical form like you, but then the war came.” Gelth replied.
Dickens was confused. “War? What war?”
“The Time War.” The Gelth replied. Maddie tensed up. “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.”
“So that's why you need the corpses.” The Doctor concluded.
“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.” Gelth told them.
“But we can't.” Rose protested.
The Doctor looked at her. “Why not?”
“It's not. I mean, it's not...” Rose trailed off.
“Not decent?” The Doctor looked at her. “Not polite? It could save their lives.”
“Open the rift. Let the Gelth through. We're dying. Help us. Pity the Gelth.” The Gelth went back into the gas lamps and Gwyneth collapsed across the table.
Maddie hurried over to her. “Gwyneth?”
“All true.” Dickens comment to them all.
“Are you okay?” Rose asked.
“It's all true.” Dickens comment, clearly in shock.
---------------------
A little later, Gwyneth has been laid on the couch. Rose looked at her. “It's all right. You just sleep.”
Gwyneth looked up. “But my angels, miss. They came, didn't they? They need me?”
“They do need you, Gwyneth. You're they're only chance of survival.” The Doctor replied.
“She needs a rest.” Maddie comment.
Rose sighed. “I've told you, leave her alone. She's exhausted and she's not fighting your battles.” Then she gave Gwyneth a glass. “Drink this.”
Then Sneed looked at the Doctor. “Well, what did you say, Doctor? Explain it again. What are they?”
“Aliens.” The Doctor replied.
Maddie face palmed. “Well, of course.”
Sneed frowned. “Like foreigners, you mean?”
“Pretty foreign, yeah. From up there.” The Doctor comment.
“Brecon?” Sneed asked.
The Doctor shrugged. “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.”
Maddie made a face. “Nope, I don’t like this idea. Nope, nope, nope.”
“Which is why they need the girl.” Dickens told them all.
Rose glared at them. “They're not having her.”
“I agree with Rose.” Maddie added.
“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.” The Doctor protested.
Dickens looked at him. “Incredible. Ghosts that are not ghosts but beings from another world, who can only exist in our world by inhabiting cadavers.”
"Good system. It might work.” The Doctor comment.
Maddie made a face, while Rose told him. “You can't let them run around inside of dead people.”
“Why not?” The Doctor asked. “It's like recycling.”
Rose shook with her head. “Seriously though, you can't.”
“Seriously though, I can.” He comment.
“Its not right.” Maddie told him.
“It's just wrong. Those bodies were living people. We should respect them even in death.” Rose told them all.
The Doctor looked at them. “Do you carry a donor card?”
“No.” Maddie replied to him.
Rose sighed. “That's different. That's...”
“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.” The Doctor interrupted her.
Rose was stubborn. “I don't care. They're not using her.”
“Don't I get a say, miss?” Gwyneth asked.
Rose looked at her. “Look, you don't understand what's going on.”
“You would say that, miss, because that's very clear inside your head, that you think I'm stupid.” Gwyneth told her.
Rose scoffed. “That's not fair.”
“It's true, though.” Gwyneth told her. “Things might be very different where you're from, but here and now, I know my own mind, and the angels need me.” Then she looked at the Doctor. “Doctor, what do I have to do?”
“You don't have to do anything.” He replied.
Gwyneth looked at him. “They've been singing to me since I was a child, sent by my mam on a holy mission. So tell me.”
“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?” The Doctor asked.
“That would be the morgue.” Sneed replied.
“No chance you were going to say gazebo, is there?” Rose asked.
“No.” Maddie replied.
-----------------
A cold basement where the recently departed lie under white sheets. The Doctor made a face. “Urgh. Talk about Bleak House.”
“This is your idea.” Maddie comment.
Rose looked at the Doctor. “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.”
“Time's in flux, changing every second. Your cozy little world can be rewritten like that. Nothing is safe. Remember that. Nothing.” The Doctor told her.
“Expect fixed points in time, those you can’t change.” Maddie added.
Dickens noticed that the room was getting colder. “Doctor, I think the room is getting colder.”
“Here they come.” Rose comment.
A Gelth came out of a gas lamp by the door and stood under a stone archway. “You've come to help. Praise the Doctor. Praise him.”
“Promise you won't hurt her.” Rose told them.
The Gelth ignored that. “Hurry! Please, so little time. Pity the Gelth.”
The Doctor looked at them. “I'll take you somewhere else after the transfer. Somewhere you can build proper bodies. This isn't a permanent solution, all right?” The Gelth didn’t say anything.
“My angels. I can help them live.” Gwyneth told them.
“Okay, where's the weak point?” The Doctor asked to them.
“Here, beneath the arch.” Gelth replied to her.
“Beneath the arch.” Gwyneth stood under the arch, inside the Gelth.
“You don't have to do this.” Rose told her.
Maddie looked at her. “I agree.”
Gwyneth didn’t listen. “My angels.”
“Establish the bridge. Reach out to the void. Let us through!”
“Yes, I can see you. I can see you. Come!”
“Bridgehead establishing.”
“Come to me. Come to this world, poor lost souls!”
“It is begun. The bridge is made.” Gwyneth opened her mouth and blue gas came out. “She has given herself to the Gelth. The bridge is open. We descend.” The sweet blue apparition turned flame red with sharp teeth. It's voice deepened and hardened. “The Gelth will come through in force.”
Dickens frowned. “You said that you were few in number.”
“A few billion. And all of us in need of corpses.” Gelth told him. The dead got up.
Sneed pleaded. “Gwyneth, stop this. Listen to your master. This has gone far enough. Stop dabbling, child, and leave these things alone, I beg of you...”
“Mister Sneed, get back!” Maddie shouted to him. Just then a corpse grabbed Sneed and snapped his neck. A Gelth zoomed into his mouth.
“I think it's gone a little bit wrong.” The Doctor admitted.
Maddie glared at him. “Oh, really? I hadn’t noticed.”
“I have joined the legions of the Gelth. Come, march with us.” Sneed told them.
“Never.” Maddie called.
“No.” Dickens told them in a panic.
“We need bodies. All of you. Dead. The human race. Dead.” The Gelth told them all.
The Doctor looked at Gwyneth. “Gwyneth, stop them! Send them back now!”
“Four more bodies. Convert them. Make them vessels for the Gelth.” Gelth called. Dead Sneed backed Rose, Maddie and the Doctor up against a metal gate.
“Doctor, I can't. I'm sorry. This new world of yours is too much for me. I'm so...” Dickens trailed off.
The Doctor, Maddie and Rose hide behind the metal gate, where the corpses can’t reach them. “Give yourself to glory. Sacrifice your lives for the Gelth.”
“I trusted you. I pitied you!” The Doctor shouted.
“We don't want your pity. We want this world and all its flesh.” Gelth told him.
“Not while I'm alive.” He protested.
“Then live no more.” Gelth called. Dickens runs out of the house.
Rose looked at the Doctor. “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?”
“I'm sorry.” The Doctor told her sadly.
Maddie looked at the corpses. “Lovely day to die, is it not?” She asked sarcastically.
Rose looked in disbelief. “But it's 1869. How can I die now?”
“Time isn't a straight line. It can twist into any shape. You can be born in the 20th century and die in the 19th and it's all my fault. I brought you here.” The Doctor replied to them.
“It's not your fault. I wanted to come.” Rose told him.
“Me too.” Maddie added.
The Doctor looked in disbelief. “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.”
“Bloody hell!” Maddie shrieked.
“It's not just dying. We'll become one of them. We'll go down fighting, yeah?” Rose asked to them.
“Yes.” Maddie replied.
The Doctor nodded. “Yeah.”
“Together?” Rose asked.
“Yep.” Maddie replied.
“Yeah.” The Doctor added. They all hold hands. “I'm so glad I met you.”
“Me too.” Rose comment.
“Me three.” Maddie added.
Just then Dickens runs in. “Doctor! Doctor! Turn off the flame, turn up the gas! Now, fill the room, all of it, now!”
“What're you doing?” The Doctor asked, frowning.
“Turn it all on. Flood the place!” Dickens replied to him.
The Doctor blinked. “Brilliant. Gas.”
“What, so we choke to death instead?” Rose asked sarcastically.
“Lovely.” Maddie added.
“Am I correct, Doctor? These creatures are gaseous.” Dickens asked.
The Doctor nodded. “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, Maddie and Rose, and started shambling towards Dickens.
“I hope, oh Lord, I hope that this theory will be validated soon, if not immediately.” Dickens comment.
“Plenty more!” The Doctor ripped a gas pipe from the wall. The Gelth leave the corpses.
Dickens looked amazed. “It's working.”
The Doctor, Maddie and Rose came out of the alcove. “Gwyneth, send them back. They lied. They're not angels.”
“Liars?” Gwyneth asked.
The Doctor looked at her. “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!”
Maddie and Rose coughed. “I can't breathe.”
“Charles, get them out.” The Doctor told to Dickens.
“I'm not leaving her.” Rose told him.
“Me neither.” Maddie added.
“They're too strong.” Gwyneth cried out.
The Doctor looked at her. “Remember that world you saw? Rose's world? All those people. None of it will exist unless you send them back through the rift.”
“I can't send them back. But I can hold them. Hold them in this place, hold them here. Get out.” Gwyneth took a box of matches from her apron pocket.
“No, don’t!” Maddie shouted.
“You can't!” Rose also shouted.
“Leave this place!” Gwyneth shouted at them.
The Doctor looked at them. “Rose, Maddie, get out. Go now. I won't leave her while she's still in danger. Now go!” Rose, Maddie and Dickens leave.
“This way!” Dickens called on their way out.
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The Doctor runs out and KaBOOM! He went flying across the street. “Doctor!” Maddie exclaimed as she rushed over. She checked him, he was okay.
“She didn't make it.” Rose told them.
The Doctor looked sad. “I'm sorry. She closed the rift.”
“At such a cost. The poor child.” Dickens told them.
“Omg.” Maddie comment sad.
The Doctor looked at them. “I did try, Rose, Maddie, but Gwyneth was already dead. She had been for at least five minutes.”
“What?!” Maddie exclaimed.
Rose frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I think she was dead from the minute she stood in that arch.” The Doctor replied to her.
Rose shook her head in disbelief. “But she can't have. She spoke to us. She helped us. She saved us. How could she have done that?”
“There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Even for you, Doctor.” Dickens replied to them all.
“She saved the world. A servant girl. No one will ever know.” Rose told them.
“Its a sad story.” Maddie added.
--------------‐-
They had arrived by the Tardis. The Doctor looked at Dickens. “Right then, Charlie boy, I've just got to go into my, er, shed. Won't be long.”
“What are you going to do now?” Rose asked to Dickens.
Dickens looked at her. “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.”
“You should do that.” Maddie told him.
“You've cheered up.” The Doctor added.
Dickens looked at them. “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.”
“Do you think that's wise?” Rose asked.
“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.” Dickens replied.
“Good luck with it. Nice to meet you. Fantastic.” The Doctor told him.
“Bye, then, and thanks.” Rose shook Dickens' hand then kissed his cheek.
“Bye.” Maddie comment, she was waving a bit.
Dickens looked at them. “Oh, my dear. How modern. Thank you, but, I don't understand. In what way is this goodbye? Where are you going?”
“You'll see. In the shed.” The Doctor replied.
Dickens looked at him. “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?”
“Just a friend passing through.” The Doctor replied.
Dickens frowned. “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?”
“Oh, yes!” The Doctor exclaimed.
“For how long?” Dickens asked.
“Forever.” The Doctor replied. “Right. Shed. Come on, Rose, Maddie.”
Dickens frowned. “In the box? All of you?”
“Down boy. See you.” The Doctor replied as then they walked inside the Tardis.
Then Rose looked at him. “Doesn't that change history if he writes about blue ghosts?”
“In a week's time it's 1870, and that's the year he dies. Sorry. He'll never get to tell his story.” The Doctor replied to her.
“Oh, that’s sad.” Maddie comment.
Rose looked sad. “Oh, no. He was so nice.”
“But in your time, he was already dead.” The Doctor told them. “We've brought him back to life, and he's more alive now than he's ever been, old Charlie boy.” Then he pulled some levers. “Let's give him one last surprise.” The Tardis dematerialised.
YOU ARE READING
Lost Souls (1)
ФэнтезиAu from Home, the long way round. Where Maddie met the 9th Doctor instead of the 11th Doctor, but her family is also different. Read to find out! What's up with Bad Wolf? Why does it follow them? What would that mean for Maddie and the Doctor?
