Restored

Daleks in Manhatten

As it would turn out, the ladder lead to a dressing room. Tallulah's dressing room to be exact. Tallulah, who now had a gun trained on the group, a determined glint in her eye to not be messed with. 

"Laszlo's my boyfriend. Or was my boyfriend until he disappeared two weeks ago. No letter, no goodbye, no nothing. And I'm not stupid. I know some guys are just pigs-" The irony was really not lost on Raelle. "-but not my Laszlo. I mean, what kind of guy asks you to meet his mother before he vamooses?"

The Doctor, his eye trained on the gun, gestures to the gun. "Yeah. It might, might just help if you put that down." 

"Huh?" Tallulah realises what the Doctor means, rolling her eyes if it's nothing as she casually tosses the guns onto some fabric on the table. "Oh, sure. Oh, come on. It's not real. It's just a prop. It was either that or a spear."

"Thankfully no spear." Martha mutters to Raelle, her hand still on her shoulder in a silent comfort from before. Her comment makes a small tip of Raelle's lip go up, before Martha speaks up. "What do you think happened to Laszlo?"

Tallulah sighs. "I wish I knew. One minute he's there, the next. Zip. Vanished."

The Doctor takes a step forward, falling into his planning and saving the world mode. "We can try to find Laszlo, but he's not the only one. There are people disappearing every night."

"And there's creatures. Such creatures." Solomon adds gravely.

"Alright doom and gloom." Raelle mutters to herself, still bitter about Frank. 

Tallulah frowns, warily looking between the group before her eyes land on the Doctor. "What do you mean, creatures?"

The Doctor sighs, looking at Tallulah seriously. "Look, listen, just trust me. Everyone is in danger. I need to find out exactly what this is." He pulls out the jellyfish from earlier. Raelle grimaces at the sight of it. "Because then I'll know what we're fighting."

"Yuck" Tallulah matches Raelle's grimace. Her sentiments exactly. 

No longer being threatened by a fake gun, the Doctor and Solomon found themselves rummaging through the props room of the seemingly theatre they were in, looking for something to make a makeshift DNA device. Tallulah had revealed to Raelle and Martha that she was a performer, as she sat at her dressing table, gushing about Laszlo while putting her earrings in. 

"Laszlo. He'd wait for me after the show. Walk me home like I was a lady. He'd leave a flower for me on my dressing table. Every day, just a single rose bud." Raelle rested her chin about her hand on the table, listening, as Martha leaned against the wall. 

"Haven't you reported him missing?" 

Tallulah shrugs, meeting Martha's eyes in the mirror. "Sure. He's just a stagehand. Who cares? The management certainly don't. 

Raelle frowns at that fact. "Can't you kick up a fuss or something. You're one of their stars, surely they can't fire you?"

Tallulah gives Raelle a almost sympathetic look, as if she doesn't understand. And maybe she doesn't, understand the inner working of Manhattan's society. "Oh honey, I got one song in a back street revue and that's only because Heidi Chicane broke her ankle. Which had nothing to do with me whatever anybody says. I can't afford to make a fuss. If I don't make this month's rent, then before you know it, I'm in Hooverville."

"Okay, I get it." Raelle nods slightly, giving Tallulah a small smile. 

"It's the Depression, sweetie." Tallulah turns from the mirror to look at both Raelle and Martha. "Your heart might break, but the show goes on. Because if it stops, you starve. Every night I have to go out there, sing, dance, keep going hoping he's going to come back."