Doctor, I Need You!

Part 14: Slitheen

All three of them whirled around and Sarah Jane began to cry again. Her daughter was alive. She was tied up, but she was alive.

“Victoria!” She cried, beginning to run over to her daughter, but the Doctor wrapped his arms around her before she could even get close to her.

“Doctor what are you doing, get off me!” Sarah Jane shouted, trying to struggle out of his arms, but he was holding her too tight.

“It’s a trap Sarah, you know it is.”

“I don’t care!” She shouted, kicking at his skinny legs in frustration.

“Sarah please, just let me go first.” The Doctor pleaded in her ear. After a moment or two Sarah Jane finally stopped struggling and went limp in his arms, giving in.

“Fine, but be careful Doctor.”

The Doctor slowly unwrapped his arms from around Sarah Jane’s body and stepped back, waiting for her to run again, but she didn’t.

“Mummy I’m scared.” Victoria cried out. The Doctor could see the pain it was causing Sarah Jane not to run to her daughter at that moment.

Donna stayed behind with Sarah Jane as the Doctor edged towards his daughter, the sonic screwdriver held before him like a gun.

“Help me!” Victoria called out. The Doctor’s hearts began to break.

“Okay Victoria, I’m going to help you okay, I’m right here. Now, tell me who took you, what did they look like?” The Doctor asked, still looking around for a potential attacker.

“I don’t know! They were big and terrifying, their skin was green. I heard them say something abou-“

“Now, now, we can’t have you telling daddy our little secrets now can we?” A woman’s voice said. The Doctor turned towards his daughter and saw that she was no longer alone. A Slitheen was standing behind her, one of her massive claws at his daughter’s throat.

“Get you away from my daughter!” Sarah Jane screamed, charging towards Victoria and the Slitheen. Someone caught her again before she could reach her child, but this time it was another Slitheen instead of the Doctor. The Doctor didn’t know whom to go to first, his companion or his daughter. Of course he knew which of those Sarah Jane would want him to choose.

“Just let them both go and I’ll give you whatever you want.” The Doctor said pleadingly. “Just don’t kill them.”

“Oh don’t worry Doctor, little Victoria is quite safe for now. It is her we want anyway, but killing you along the way will make things easier. As for your girlfriend, we don’t need her.” The female Slitheen said. The Doctor turned to watch the Slitheen holding Sarah Jane raise his giant claws to stab her.

“Mummy!” Victoria screamed.

“Sarah!”

The Doctor ran to his companion, but before he could get to her a crashing BANG filled the warehouse and the Slitheen who was about to kill her slammed to the floor. Standing behind him was Donna, who appeared to have just tumbled a large, very heavy, appliance onto his head.

“Thank you!” Sarah Jane breathed, still in shock. The female Slitheen looked horrified at what they had just done to her partner, but it didn’t stop her.

“He will wake, and when he does we will both be out of here, with the child, and you three shall be dead.” She said. 

The Doctor, Sarah Jane and Donna all began to edge closer to Victoria and the Slitheen, but they were too scared to do anything drastic in case the Slitheen killed her. They didn’t have time to come up with a plan together; he had to think of something, fast.

The Doctor looked around him, trying to see anything they could use against the Slitheen. There was vinegar in the tardis from when Donna got bored waiting on him and bought chips, but he couldn’t get to that now.

Victoria looked so scared, but she didn’t utter a word.

There was a light just above the Slitheen’s head. He could make it fall with the sonic, however there was a chance of it hitting Victoria. But, if he ran and grabbed her out of the way as the Slitheen was distracted she could be fine. The Doctor tried to think of another plan, but it was their only option. Sarah Jane kept looking at him, expecting him to know exactly what to do. There was nothing else for it.

Behind his back he started to use the screwdriver, only he could hear the soft noise it made. A couple of screws fell from the light above the Slitheen.

This was it.

The last screw hit the Slitheen on the head and she looked up in time to see the light begin to fall.

The Doctor dropped the sonic and ran towards his daughter.

He tackled her away from the Slitheen a second before he heard the crash of the light. He lay face down on the ground and smiled, relief washing through his body. She was safe. Victoria was safe.

Then he heard a scream.

High pitched, agonizing.

The pain of a billion people was in that one scream.

And it was coming from Sarah Jane.

The Doctor lifted his head from the ground to see his companion. See why the woman whose daughter had just been saved sounded like she was dying inside.

Then he saw why.

Victoria wasn’t safe.

There was blood soaking the Doctor’s clothes and all over the floor. It made a pool around Victoria’s still body.

There was a gash on Victoria’s throat so deep her head was barely still attached to her shoulders.

Her eyes were wide and glassy.