Receiving Another Chance (Book Ten of The Bad Wolf Chronicles)

Last Christmas

10.5K words . . . I keep forgetting how long it takes to write Christmas specials . . . good Lord.

Anyway, this is the hard work of over 24 hours and many breaks to keep my sanity intact because it is difficult watching the episode and making sure you get actions and tones correct - not to mention adding four characters - so hopefully this is a chapter everyone will like!

Rose joins the TARDIS crew, and for her first trip, she gets the North Pole, Santa Claus, and crabs that give dreams within dreams.

Enjoy "Last Christmas!"

***

"So it's Christmas, and I get the North Pole," Rose zipped up the parka she had gotten from the TARDIS, following the others towards the building they were approaching. "OK. Good."

"Not exactly good considering everything that happens on Christmas," Pietro grimaced.

"Right," Rose made a face. "Sycorax, that weird spider person, the Titanic – "

"Yeah, welcome to Christmas a la TARDIS," Jessie snickered. "We've got an adventure around the corner every year."

"Here we are," the Doctor twisted the wheel on the door.

He swung it open, and as he and Jessie stepped inside, there was a sharp scream from a blonde girl on the floor, a set of headphones on her head. "We've – we've got ghosts!" she gasped. "Yeah, yeah, it's a skeleton man, some runway model, and four others like backup singers, except two of them are in nighties!"

"Excuse me?" Pietro squawked.

"Runway model?" the Doctor looked at Jessie, grinning widely.

"Oh, shush," Jessie swatted his shoulder.

"What the hell is this?" Rose looked around what appeared to be an infirmary, four bodies covered by sheets.

"No, no, no!" the girl shook her head desperately, trying to cover her ears. "Don't make me think about them!"

"Nothing good," Pietro guessed, to answer Rose's question.

Wanda squeaked and backed away as one of the bodies started to sit up.

"Look, just don't ask, yeah?" the girl gulped, squeezing her eyes shut. "And don't look! Don't make me think about them!"

Rose's jaw dropped as the sheets fell away from the bodies getting up, revealing slimy carapaces on their faces. "Oh, my God!"

"Yeah, told you it's not always good!" Pietro backed away.

"Deaf," the Doctor frowned, scanning with his screwdriver. "Blind. How can they see us? How do they even know that we're here?"

"They can only see you, yeah, if you see them," the girl said nervously. "So just – so just don't look, don't even think about them!"

"Oh, telepathic," the Doctor nodded. "They can home in on their own image in someone else's brain. Third party perception. Mind piracy. We're being hacked."

"Which means?" Rose looked at him.

"The visual input from your optic nerve is being streamed to their brains. Stop broadcasting! Close your eyes!"

Rose quickly did so, and all around them, the others followed suit. Hissing still came, and Clara gulped. "They're still coming, aren't they?"

"Someone's still thinking about them!" Jessie called.

"Yes, so long as you retain them as an active memory, they can still home in," the Doctor confirmed. "Think about something else!"

"How?" Clara asked.