The Always More (Doctor Who Fanfiction)

Chapter Twenty-two

Chapter Twenty-two
Irene

He hasn't answered. My friend The Doctor hasn't even flinched or moved, long after the fairies' cry for help died away into the scorched desert air.

"Doctor?" I ask. He looks at me.

Flatly, he inquires, "What?"

Isn't it obvious? "Well, can we help them? Don't you want to help them? Isn't that what you do?"

He studies my face inquisitively. Then he walks up to me, shielding me from the glare of direct sunlight in his shadow, and putting a hand on my shoulder. "Irene," he says gravely, "We should go."

"What?"

"I have to keep you and your brother safe. I didn't sign up for this. I don't... do this anymore."

I can't believe it. "What, help people? But you've done it before. I've seen you do it! Are mermaids and fairies different, somehow?" I exclaim, folding my arms.

"That was when I had no choice. I didn't have a way out." His sharp, reprimanding tone makes me want to flinch and cower, but I take one look at the fairies and stand up taller.

Looking him in the eyes, I call up all the courage in me and state, "You still don't."

"Eh?"

"Not while I'm here. Not while I travel with you. I literally came with you to save people. Or things, or whatever the fish sticks those things are. Santhers are kind people, Doctor. And as long as one of us travels with you, you have to be the same. And in this case, there are two of us. Double whammy."

"Then I'll take you home."

My wandering gaze which has been taking in the fairies in all their glory until now, halt, and I turn to stare up at him. "If you want me gone just 'cause I insist on helping people, then I'd rather stay home anyway. I mean, come on."

He seems to consider me for a long moment. Then he turns away from me, and strides a few paces in the opposite direction. For a few moments, the sound of his leather shoes stretching is all that I can hear above even the screaming of hungry birds coasting on the desert wind. I hope they're birds, anyway.

He doesn't look back at me. I don't know which part of what I said made him change his mind, but he raises his voice again, addressing the fairies. "I can help you, if you let me. Tell me where you're from."

The fairies murmur amongst themselves. Such a human-like reaction displayed by such extraordinary creatures makes my brain has to relive the memory a moment to fully comprehend it. The first one who appeared moves forward, and sits down on the floor, it's long, delicate silver legs criss crossed. The Doctor carefully does the same across from it, and motions for my brother and I to do the same just behind him, which we do.

"Do you know anything about what happened? What may have taken them?"

Silence. Then, a sound erupted from the sky. A sound that nearly knocked us all off our feet. The scream. The exact same bone-chilling, gutteral shriek from the flashback.

"Doctor?" I scramble to my feet, only to stumble, and drop into the empty pathway that cuts through the center of the gazebo. The four foot wall is well over half my height, so climbing out onto slippery marble proves a bigger challenge than I thought it would be. "Tony!" I cry above the nightmarish noise. The fairies look at the sky as though panicked. Then, a sickening cracking noise sounds under my feet. I risk peering over my shoulder, and watch giant pieces of the pathway under me break away and fall into an endless pitch black.