THE FAMILY OF BLOOD
edited as of march 13th, 2021
"Make your decision, Mr. Smith," Jenny orders the teacher, her gun still pointed at Martha's head.
Baines, keeping John glued in his spot with the gun pointed at him, smirks. "Perhaps if that human heart breaks, the Time Lord will emerge." A second later, the Family hears a whisper from the other end of the room and faces each other. "It's him!" exclaims Baines.
Using the distraction to her advantage, Charlotte rips her arm out of Clarke's loosening grip, turning to punch his nose. As he groans, bringing his hand to his throbbing nose, Charlotte takes the gun out of his hand, pointing it to him.
Meanwhile, Martha did something similar with Jenny. "One more move and I shoot," she warns Baines.
"Oh, the maid is full of fire!"
Charlotte groans. "Can you just give up?"
"Careful, Son of Mine," Clarke tells Baines, remaining calm despite the gun pointed to his head. "This is all for you so that you can live forever."
Narrowing his eyes, the boy shouts at Martha, "I'll shoot you down!"
"Do it and you'll both die together with your dad," Charlotte warns him.
Baines still has his smirk written across his face. "Would you really pull the trigger?" he questions Martha. "Looks too scared."
"Scared and holding a gun." She shrugs. "It's a good combination. You wanna risk it?"
Baines grits his teeth, looking back to the terrified John, before lowering his gun. Relieved nothing wrong happened, Charlotte kicked Clarke's shins (just in case), and went to stand beside John.
"Mary, Doctor, get everyone out," Martha tells them. "There's a door at the side. It's over there. Go on!"
Seeing John standing indecisively, Charlotte pulled him with her, beginning to usher out the screaming civilians. Spotting one of his students, Latimer, John quickly ushered him out amongst the others.
"And you. Go on. Just shift," says Martha.
Charlotte looks over to her friend, not keen on leaving her alone again. "Alright, and what about you?"
"I'll be fine," she told her. Martha looks to John. "Mr. Smith, I think you should escort your lady friend to safety, don't you?" she questioned him, causing Charlotte to scrunch her nose. At that, both Mary and John run out of the village hall.
"... Don't touch me!" exclaimed Latimer when John was giving him a message for the headmaster. "You're as bad as them!" Before he could reply, Latimer ran off.
---
Panting, John, Charlotte, and Martha arrived at the school. The moment the door closed behind them, though, John began ringing a bell, awakening the students and staff.
Martha glanced at him, confused. "What're you doing?"
"Maybe one man can't fight them, but this school teaches us to stand together," he tells her as they begin hearing footsteps on the floor above them. "Take arms! Take arms!"
"Are you insane?!" Charlotte hissed.
"You want me to fight, don't you?" The boys begin running down the stairs. "Take arms! Take arms!"
The first boy down, Hutchinson, asks his teacher, "I say, sir, what's the matter?"
"Enemy at the door, Hutchinson," John alerts him, repeating himself as the rest of the students run down.
While the boys ready their machine guns, Martha and Charlotte follow him down into the room, the latter saying to him, "John, stop. You can't do this... John!"
The man, however, continues giving instructions to the boys. "Maintain position over the stable yard."
"They're just boys!" Martha said. "You can't ask them to fight!"
John still ignores them. "Faster now! That's it."
"Can you just think? They don't stand a chance," Charlotte tells him.
"They're cadets, Mary," John responds to her. "They are trained to defend to defend the King and all his properties."
A second later, the Headmaster enters the room, utterly astonished by what was occurring. "What in thunder's name is this?" he says when coming in. "Before I devise an endless series of punishments for each of you, could someone explain very simply what is going on?"
John, as the leader, steps forward. "Headmaster, I have to report the school is under attack."
"Really? Is that so?" the Headmaster nods, not believing an ounce of this. "Perhaps you and I should have a word in private."
"I promise you, sir," says John, sticking to his spot. "I was in the village with Miss Thomas. It's Baines, sir. Jeremy Baines and Mr. Clarke from Oakham Farm. They've gone mad, sir. They've got guns. They've already murdered people in the village. I saw it happen."
The Headmaster nodded along, then looked to Charlotte. "Miss Thomas, is that so?"
"It's true," answers Charlotte, shaking her head solemnly.
"Murder on our own soil?"
She took in a sharp inhale. "It was all true."
The Headmaster looks back at John. "Perhaps you did well then. What makes you think the danger's coming here?"
Cutting off John's stuttering, Charlotte responds instead, "Baines threatened him, sir... said he'll follow him."
"Very well." The Headmaster looks around the room. "You boys, remain on guard. Mr. Snell, telephone the police. Mr. Philips, with me. We shall investigate."
The Headmaster nears the door, but in his way stands Martha. "No, it's not safe out there," she warned him.
He eyes John. "Mr. Smith, it seems your favorite servant is giving me advice. You will control her, sir." On that note, Martha lets the Headmaster leave.
Sighing, Martha leaves the room in search of the watch with Charlotte following her.
---
Along with Charlotte, Martha searches John's office up and down for the watch. "I know it sounds mad," she tells her, "but when the Doctor became human, he hid his alien part of himself and the watch is the key to it. It's not really a watch, it just looks like a watch."
Charlotte gives up after searching the couch cushions. "And what happens after he uses it?"
"What do you mean?"
She sighed. "... After he becomes the Doctor again, what happens to John Smith?"
"I'm not sure."
"Well, that's just great." Charlotte laughs nervously. She used to be able to find her way around the events easily, but, as her time grows longer each day, she's beginning to forget aspects... what really happens to John Smith is one of them.
"Do I know you?" asked Martha, but before Charlotte could reply, Martha shakes her head, not thinking so. "If we find that watch we can stop them."
As they continued looking for the watch, one looking harder for it than the other, guns began firing outside of the school. While Martha searches, Charlotte goes to a window, looking above the scene; scarecrows at the far end with straw laying at their feet and the boys at the other, guns pointed.
Once seeing the little girl from before approaching them, Charlotte runs out. "Mr. Rocastle," she called him, "please. Don't get close."
He rolled his eyes. "She's harmless, she's a girl!"
"Just listen," said Charlotte. "She's part of it. Mr. Smith, tell him."
The Headmaster waited for his reply, and John, who was holding his own gun, nodded. "She was. She was with Baines in the village."
He gave a sharp look back at John. "Mr. Smith, I've seen many strange sights this night but there is no cause on God's earth that would allow me to see this child in the field of battle, sir." The Headmaster held out his hand for Lucy, the little girl still holding her balloon. "Come with me."
The girl doesn't smile, yet says, "You're funny."
"That's right. Now take my hand."
The Headmaster kept his hand out for Lucy, but the girl didn't take it. "So funny," she said, reaching into her coat pocket, pulling out a gun, then shoots the man easily. "Now who's going to shoot me, any of you, really?"
The boys all looked around at each other. "Put down your guns," John orders them, lowering his own.
"But, sir," began Hutchinson, "the Headmaster..."
"I'll not see this happen. Not anymore," said John, looking from the anxious boys to the scarecrows and the Family standing at the other end of the yard. "You will retreat in an orderly fashion back through the school," he orders them. "Hutchinson, lead the way."
"But sir..."
"I said, lead the way," John repeated himself.
On the other side of the yard, Baines grins. "Go on, then, run!" he shouts, shooting his gun into the air. With the shot, the boys scream as they retreat into the school.
"Come on!" shouts Martha, who joined them.
Leaving her room, where she was preparing for injuries, Joan joins them as they help the boys escape through the stables. "Let's go!" John shouts to the boys. "Quick as you can!"
Charlotte, too, ushers them out. "But not to the village, it won't be safe!"
"And you, ladies!" said John, when all the boys who followed them were out, but there were still many captured by the Family in the school.
Just minutes later, the four of them left the stables, running in the woods outside of the school until they hear Clarke yelling in a sing-song voice, "Doctor! Doctor!" They stop, looking through the bushes to see the man standing in front of the TARDIS. "Come back, Doctor. Come home. Come and claim your prize."
As the rest of the Family joins, calling for the Doctor, John was noticeably staring only at the TARDIS. Martha sees this, whispering to him, "You recognize it, don't you?"
"I've never seen it in my life."
Charlotte frowns. "Do you know its name?" When he says nothing she continues, "John, you dreamt of a blue box like that."
John shakes his head. "I'm not-" his voice breaks. "I'm John Smith. That's all I want to be. John Smith, with his life, his job... and his love. Why can't I be John Smith? Isn't he a good man?"
While Charlotte nodded her head, her heart broke. "Of course he is."
"Why can't I stay?"
"But we need the Doctor," says Martha.
John looks back at her. "So what am I then, nothing? I'm just a story." He leaves their spot watching the TARDIS, the rest following him after a pause.
The group rushes down a road, alone in the countryside when Joan stops them. "This way. I think I know somewhere we can hide," she tells them.
John, finding that ridiculous, shakes his head. "We've got to keep going."
"Just listen to me, John. Follow me," says Joan, leading their way through the forest and into a dark house. "Here we are," she says, panting. "It should be empty. Oh, it's been a long time since I've run that far."
Martha walks in last, closing the door behind her, and looks around the home. "But who lives here?"
"If I'm right, no one." She leads them to the first room, the kitchen, then calls out, "Hello?" no one replies, and Joan shrugs. "No one home. We should be safe here."
Charlotte nods, glancing around the kitchen. "Whose house is this?"
"The Cartwrights," answered Joan. "The little girl at the school, she's Lucy Cartwright, or she's taken Lucy Cartwright's form. If she came home this afternoon and if the parents tried to stop their little girl, then they vanished." Joan puts her palm on the teapot set on the table. "Stone cold." she sighed. "How easily I accept these ideas."
John was sat at the table, rubbing his forehead. "I must go to them before anyone else dies."
"You can't," said Charlotte. She sits down beside him but looks at Martha. "Martha, there's another way."
She shook her head. "Not without the watch."
"You're the Doctor's companion!" exclaimed John. "Can't you help? What exactly do you do for him? Why does he need you?"
Martha crosses her arms. "Because he needs a friend."
A knock at the door catches their attention. Joan looks around at the group. "What if it's them?" she wonders.
"It's not," said Charlotte. "I don't think it's not, I mean."
Martha, at that moment the closest to the door, opens it up to reveal Latimer, the schoolboy who stole the watch. Martha rushes back to John, holding the watch in her palm while Latimer closes the door respectfully.
"Hold it," Martha tells him.
John's eyes were glued to the watch, as if fearful. "I won't."
"Please, just hold it." He doesn't.
Latimer walks up with his hands behind his back. "It told me to find you. It wants to be held."
"Why did it take you this long to return it?" questioned Charlotte.
"Because it was waiting," he responded. "And because I was scared of the Doctor."
Joan tilts her head. "Why?"
"Because... I've seen him." Latimer pauses, trying to find the right words to describe the man. "He's like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun."
John looks down at his hands. "Stop it," he ordered Latimer, his voice quiet. Charlotte looks to Latimer, urging him to continue, as John needed to hear this most of all.
"He's ancient and forever," Latimer describes. "He burns at the center of time and he can see the turn of the universe."
John couldn't take any more of it. "Stop it!" he shouted. "I said stop it."
"And he's wonderful," Latimer finished.
An explosion erupts from the village, close enough for the house to shake. "What the hell..." whispered Charlotte, standing up from the chair to look out the window. Through it, she watches as meteorites fall onto the town, breaking out in fires across the wooden village.
"They're destroying the village," whispered Joan, but in the silent kitchen, everyone could hear her.
"Watch," says John, taking it from Martha's hand. Charlotte turns around, watching as he looked down at it as if he were listening.
Latimer, the only other person in the room who the watch would allow to listen, asks him, "Can you hear it?"
"I think he's asleep," John commented. "Waiting to awaken."
"Why did he speak to me?"
John, now with the Doctor's accent and mannerisms, spoke, "Oh, low-level telepathic field. You were born with it. Just an extrasynaptic engram causing..." he stopped, looking around frantically. "Is that how he talks?"
Martha grins, nodding. "That's him! All you have to do is open it and he's back."
"You knew this all along and yet you watched while Mary and I..." he stopped his sentence, in shock whereas Charlotte had no hard feelings against her.
Stepping forward, Martha replies, "I didn't know how to stop you! He gave me a list of things to watch out for but that wasn't included."
"Falling in love?" he says. "That didn't even occur to him?"
"No, that's not what I meant." Martha shook her head. "What didn't occur to him was falling in love with someone else." she eyes Mary, then he looks to, but she looks between the two.
Charlotte's gaping mouth closes, and she looks to Martha. "Who do you think I am?"
"Your Mary Thomas, what are you talking about?"
Charlotte felt as if she was removing a mask, but this time she was tired of not understanding why Martha couldn't recognize her with it on. "You met him at the hospital, there was the Judoon." Martha still didn't seem to understand, so Charlotte simply said, "Did 'Mary Thomas' honestly not ring any bells? Charlotte Mary Thomas-Bolton."
"Oh!" exclaimed Martha.
"Yeah, oh," grumbled Charlotte, falling back down into her chair. With her bun becoming loose, she takes the hair tie out, her hair falling down. "Why didn't you recognize me?" Another explosion occurs outside, and their attention is torn away from Charlotte.
Martha looks to John. "The Doctor said the Family's got a limited lifespan. That's why they need to consume a Time Lord. Otherwise, three months and they die."
John nods, saying, "So your job was to execute me."
"People are dying out there!" Martha cried out. "They need him and I need him. 'Cause, you've got no idea of what he's like." she sighed. "I've only just met them, but he and Charlotte are my best friends." Martha looked over to the woman in mention. "And I hope to God you won't tell him I said that if he forgets."
As the explosions become more frequent, the house shakes non-stop. "It's getting closer," said Latimer.
"I should've thought of it before..." John looks down at the watch in his hand, holding it carefully. "I could give them this. Just the watch. Then they can leave and I can stay as I am!"
Charlotte stands up from her chair. "You can't!"
"If they want the Doctor, they can have him."
Martha became furious, glaring at the teacher. "He'll never let you do it."
"If they get what they want, then..."
Joan, who has heard some of the stories from him, interrupts, "Then it all ends in destruction. Those creatures would live forever to breed and conquer. War across the stars, for every child."
John's lip began quivering, unable to make out any words. Seeing his state, Charlotte looks around the room. "Martha, Joan, Latimer, could you leave us alone?" Once the three left the house, John broke down with Charlotte hugging him tightly.
A minute later, the two soon found themselves sitting on the floor, their backs to the wall, and a tight hold on each other's hands. "I'm sorry I told you I was someone else," she apologizes to him, finding it easier to say than she thought.
"I don't have a care for that," he truthfully tells her. "Why did you, though?"
Charlotte took in a deep breath when another explosion hit. "There are two souls in my body, and, I guess, I needed a break."
"And... are you alright with that?"
She shook her head. "I don't even know how she got here."
"Okay," says John, before moving onto another subject, trying to get the most out of the limited time.
"Don't think because we need the Doctor back, that I don't want you..." Charlotte bit the inside of her cheek. "-'Cause I do. You mean everything to me, John." She gave a watery smile.
She knew this moment was coming. Charlotte knew this part was going to come at one time or another, yet, here she was unsure of how to react. For her, the worst thing about having pre-knowledge was knowing itself. One knows who dies, how they die, and when... When she looked at John the last few days, she began seeing him as a ghost and had a harder job seeing him the way she did previously.
Thankfully, until now, she has yet to get to a day where someone she got to know left for good (Donna, River, so on), but she dreads them even now. Charlotte wants to enjoy moments with all of those people, yet, when seeing them, all she can do is wonder how much longer they had.
Looking at John, she wished she could've forgotten every kind of knowledge she had on what would happen. Charlotte wishes she enjoyed their moments more, and that she could've lived those days without knowing how they'll end. All in all, Charlotte wants to forget how the Doctor's life goes so she can live through it... even if she had to at random points.
"You need to become the Doctor, John," Charlotte tells him. "Not just to save everyone here, but because I don't know what having two souls means and because I want to know why Martha didn't recognize me."
They stood up from the ground, and John rubbed his thumb over the top of the watch. "I'll be the Doctor again, but what happens to John Smith?"
"I don't know," answered Charlotte. "But, I can't watch," she says. Charlotte steps forward, kissing his cheek, before beginning to leave.
"Goodbye," said John.
At the door, Charlotte looks back to him before waving. "I'll see you soon enough."
---
Charlotte, once everything finished and the Doctor was back, leaned against the door of the TARDIS, waiting for him to return after saying goodbye to Joan. When learning the Doctor didn't remember any of the weeks he was human, she found it easy to lie to him that Joan was the one he fell in love with. While it did hurt to say, she couldn't let him know it was her. She couldn't let him know what happened between them... as, just like John, that Doctor will die, and she'll be there, and she'll be there to watch the ones after.
Charlotte didn't know how many times she could watch him die, so, she lied to the Doctor because she didn't want him to feel the same about her that John did.
Now wearing her clothes, jeans, and a jacket, Charlotte digs her hand into her pocket to find the thing she put in there earlier. Pulling it out, she unfolds the drawing of the nebula John made for her.
Hearing the door open behind her, Charlotte moves for Martha and puts the drawing back in her pocket.
"So, are you sure he doesn't remember anything?" asked Martha.
"Yeah..." Charlotte nods. "Thanks for going along with the lie about Joan."
Martha smiles. "'Course, if anything I'm surprised she went with it. You'll tell him one day, though, right?"
"I don't know." Wrapping her arms around herself, she asks, "Why didn't you recognize me?"
Nervously, Martha laughed. "Oh, c'mon we hardly even saw each other there."
"Yeah, but when we did..."
"When we did, we were around the Doctor and he didn't know, so I lied for you."
Charlotte raises her eyebrows. "Well, I was in his dreams, so why couldn't he recognize me from that?"
"He did and didn't mention it, maybe?"
She rolled her eyes. "Sure..." Looking down the hill, they both saw the Doctor, now back in his pinstripe suit and trench coat, walking up to them.
"All right," he said, once reaching the TARDIS. "Molto bene!"
"How was she?" asks Martha.
The Doctor shrugs. "Time we moved on."
"If you want, I could go and..."
The Doctor repeats himself, "Time we moved on."
As he begins unlocking the TARDIS, Charlotte says, "Are you sure there are no memories in there?"
He nods his head, finally unlocking the door, but yet to go inside. "Oh, no. Nothing."
Charlotte gave a tight smile. "Good."
"Good?"
Her eyes widened. "Yeah, good."
Remembering something, the Doctor grins. "Wasn't it lucky you got here when you did?"
"I was really only there the last few days," she lied, rolling her eyes playfully. "It was Martha who was there the whole time."
"Right." The Doctor looks at Martha, still smiling. "I never said thank you for lookin' after me."
The two hugged, going apart when Latimer approached the TARDIS. "Charlotte, Doctor, Martha," he greeted them.
"Tim-TImothy-Timber," said the Doctor when seeing the boy.
Latimer smiles. "I just want to say good-bye. And thank you, because I've seen the future and I now know what must be done. It's coming, isn't it? The biggest war ever."
They looked down at him, not sure what to say when knowing how terrible the war will be. "You don't have to fight," Martha advised him.
"I think we do," he responds.
Martha scrunches her eyebrows. "But you could get hurt."
"Well, so could you, traveling, but it's not going to stop you."
The Doctor steps forward, searching his pockets for something in particular. "Tim, I'd be honored if you'd take this." From his pocket, the Doctor takes his watch and hands it to Tim.
The boy held it to his ear curiously. "I can't hear anything."
"No, it's just a watch now," he said. "But keep it with you. For good luck."
Charlotte ruffles the boy's hair. "Bye." The three of them return to the TARDIS, and Latimer stands outside, watching as the ship disappears without a trace.
Inside the ship, though, Charlotte knew she was supposed to be here even after the weeks away. She missed her home, however, things still felt wrong.
_______
Next up: Charlotte and the Doctor
GIF FROM motherflunker ON TUMBLR
a/n
I am sososo sorry but the next chapter is gonna be AH
Also this month marks 2 years of my wattpad account and may will mark 2 years since I published the 1st chapter of charlotte :))) so happy