Running Through the Stars (Book One of the Bad Wolf Chronicles)

Chapter Nine: The Empty Child

"Door, music, people," he replied. "What do you think?"

"I still think you should do a scan for alien tech," Jessie replied, and the Doctor scoffed, working at the door handle with the sonic screwdriver. "Give me some Spock for once. Would it kill you?"

The door opened, and the Doctor eyed her shirt warily. "Are you sure about that T-shirt?"

Jessie looked down at the Union Jack, then grinned and shrugged. "Too early to say. I'll take it out for a spin."

"Mummy? Mummy?"

She frowned, looking up when she heard the voice. "Come on if you're coming," the Doctor told her, going inside. "It won't take a minute."

"Muuuuuummy . . . "

She gasped when she saw a little boy in a gas mask on a nearby roof. "Doctor!" she called. "Doctor, there's a kid up there!" She began walking closer. "Are you all right up there?" she shouted up.

"Mummy?" She ran up a fire escape staircase and made it to a flat roof still below the child. "Mummy?"

"OK, hang on. Don't move!"

***

The Doctor pushed through what seemed to be a hidden nightclub, looking around. He saw the woman singing into a microphone and raised his eyebrows, going over and taking it from her. "Excuse me. Excuse me." He looked around at the audience. "Could I have everybody's attention for just a mo? Be very quick." He waved as they all looked to him. "Hello! Might seem like a stupid question, but has anything fallen from the sky recently?"

He frowned as everybody began laughing. "Sorry, have I said something funny? It's just, there's this thing that I need to find. Would've fallen from the sky a couple of days ago."

He looked up as a siren began going off, and people began leaving. "Would've landed quite near here," he continued. "With a very loud - "

"Quickly as you can!" someone shouted. "Down to the shelter!"

"Bang," the Doctor finished when he saw the poster on the wall: Hitler Will Send No Warning!

Hope you don't mind being caught in WWII, Jess.

***

Jessie looked around desperately, then found a dangling rope hanging close by. She grabbed it and began using it to help climb up to the child. "Mummy! Balloon!" he called to her.

"What?" she yelped.

She looked up, realizing she was dangling from a barrage balloon a few seconds too late. It began drifting away from the wall, and she screeched, realizing she was hanging over London with absolutely nothing to break her fall besides crashing into the alleyway. "Doctor!" she began screaming. "Doctor! Doctor!"

She blinked as search lights began raking through the sky. She heard explosions going off and saw fires begin. "Oh, hell no!" she gasped, realizing where they were even as German planes began heading for them. "Maybe not this T-shirt." She looked down. "World War II?" she shouted. "Not funny!"

***

"Jessie?" the Doctor called, running out of the nightclub. A cat meowed nearby, and he sighed, looking at it. "You know," he began. "One day. Just one day, maybe, I'm going to meet someone who gets the whole 'don't wander off' thing. Nine hundred years of phone box travel, it's the only thing left to surprise me."

He jumped when a telephone began ringing. He walked over to the TARDIS and opened a small door, frowning at the telephone there. "How can you be ringing?" he asked. "What's that about, ringing? What am I supposed to do with a ringing phone?" He pulled out his sonic screwdriver to fix it.