im so tired
help
i want an irish girlfriend. it would be so cool. i love irish and scottish people. also british.
----
After their encounter with the ghost the group moved to the parlor where Gwyneth was pouring them tea. The Doctor and Elizabeth stood near the fireplace as the listened to Rose yell at her kidnappers.
"First of all you drug me, then you kidnap me, and don't think I didn't feel you hands having a quick wander, you dirty old man." Rose said pointing a can at Mr. Sneed, the Undertaker.
Elizabeth and The Doctor chuckled at the blonde who was glaring at the man. "I won't be spoken to like this." Mr. Sneed yelled.
"Then you sent me in a room full of zombie!" She shouts. "And if that ain't enough, you swan off and leave me to die! So come on, talk!"
"It's not my fault, it's this house!" The old man yells. Everyone's eyes lock onto the old man that made eye contact with them. "It always had a reputation. Haunted. But I never had much boher until a few months back, and then the stiffs... the, um, the dear departed started getting restless."
"Tommyrot!" Charles Dickens said from his seat at the table, teacup and saucer in hand.
"You witnessed it!" Mr. Sneed exclaimed. "Can't keep the beggars down, sir. They walk. And it's the queerest thing, but they hang onto scraps..."
"Two sugars, sir, just how you like it. And for you miss, cup of coffee." Gwyneth said as she handed their small china cups. Elizabeth smiles and sip on the bitter coffee. "Um." Elizabeth gagged. "Doctor, how does she know how you like your tea?" She whispered.
"Don't know. Would you like to trade?" The Time Lord asked. Elizabeth smiled and the two traded cups and The Doctor took a sip, and gagged like Elizabeth did. The brunette giggled and quietly sipped the Doctor's tea. "Wow, the oncoming storm, can't handle a bit of strong coffee." She giggles.
The Doctor glared at the Irish woman and sat his cup down. "Give me that." He whispered. Elizabeth rolled her eyes and handed back his tea. After he sipped the hot drink, she was given back the tea and the two shared it every now and then.
"One old fellow who used to be a sexton almost walked into his own memorial service. Just like the old lady going to your performance, sir, just as she planned." Mr. Sneed continued.
"Morbid fancy." The author growled. "Oh, Charles, you were there." The Doctor said giving him an eyeroll.
"I saw nothing but an illusion."
"If you're going to deny it, don't waste my time, just shut up." The alien snapped at the author.
"What about the gas?" Elizabeth asked.
"That's new, miss. I never seen anything like that." Mr. Sneed replied. "Means it's getting stronger, the rift's getting wider." The Doctor said, as if he was thinking out loud. "And something's sneaking through."
"What's the rift?" Rose asked. "A weak point in time and space. A connection between this place and another. That's the cause of ghost stories, most of the time." The Doctor explained.
"That's how I go the house so cheap, stories going back generations." Mr Sneed said. While Elizabeth was sipping her and the Doctor's tea, she followed Charles Dickens as he left in the room without a word. She nudges the Doctor and motions toward the door with her head. The Doctor nods giving her the 'Yeah, I saw' look.
"Echoes in the dark. Queer songs in the air. And this feeling, like a shadow passing over your soul. Mind you, truth be told, it's been good for business, just what people expect from a gloomy old trade like mine." Mr. Sneed said.
Elizabeth snorts causing the Doctor to smile and chuckle at her. "Excuse us," The Doctor said and he grabbed the drink from Elizabeth and sat it on the top of the hearth. Elizabeth scowled at the alien who grabbed her and pulled her out of the room.
"I was drinking that." She whispered, slapping him on the shoulder.
Turning the corner, they saw Charles Dickens open one of the caskets in the viewing room. He waved his hand in front of the face trying to decipher how the hell they were moving. He looks under the casket and pats around the body.
"Checking for strings?" The Doctor asked. "Wires... perhaps." Charles said.
"There must be some mechanism behind this fraud." He continued.
"Oh, come on, Charles. All right, I shouldn't have told you to shut up. I'm sorry. But you've got one of the best minds in the world. You saw those gase creatures." The Doctor said.
"I cannot accept that."
"And what does the human body do when it decomposes?" Elizabeth asked. "It breaks down and produces gas. Which would be a perfect home for these gas thingies."
"Yep. They can slip inside and use it as a vehicle, just like you driver and his coach." The Doctor said.
"Stop it!" Charles snapped. "Can it be that I have the world entirely wrong?"
"Not wrong. There's just more to learn." The Doctor told him.
"I've always railed against the fantasists! Oh, I love an illusion as much as the next man, revelled in them, but that's exactly what they were, illusions. The real world is something else." The man said.
"I dedicated myself to that. Injustices, the great social causes. I hoped that I was a force for good. Now, you tell me that the real world is a realm of spectres and jack-o'lanterns. In which case... Have I wasted my brief span here, Doctor? Has it all been for nothing?"
-----
Gwyneth had struck a match and lit the gas light in the pantry when Rose had just walked in looking around.
"Please, miss, you shouldn't be helping, it's not right." Gwyneth exclaimed.
"Don't be daft. Sneed works you to death." Rose said as grabbed a small white towel. Gwyneth flinches and holds out her hands for the towel. With a sigh, Rose handed her the towel and asked, "How much do you get paid?"
"Eight pound a year, miss." The maid answered.
"How much?" The blonde asked as if she heard incorrectly. "I know! I would've been happy with six." Gwyneth said.
Rose gave her a wide and crazy stare as Gwyneth started cleaning dishes.
"So did you even go to school, or what?" The blonde asked.
"Of course I did, what do you think I am, an urchin?" Gwyneth replies. "I went every Sunday, nice and proper."
"What, once a week?"
"We did sums and everything. To be honest, I hated every second." Gwyneth said with a sigh.
"Me too!" Rose giggled.
"Don't tell anyone..." The maid began. "But one week I didn't go and I ran down the heath, all on my own."
"I did plenty of that. I used to go down the shops with my mate Shareen. And we used to go and look at boys." Rose said with a cheeky smile.
Gwyneth stopped smiling and looked at her like she's crazy for saying such a thing. "Well, I don't know much about that, miss." She says turning back to the dishes.
"Oh, come on, times haven't changed that much." Rose said. Gwyneth shook her head.
"I bet you've done the same." The blonde smiles.
"I don't think so, miss." The maid told her. "What are you guys discussing?" The Irish woman asked, walking into the room. She had left the Doctor to his conversations with Charles Dickens and how the 'real world' is.
"Checking out the opposite sex." Rose said giving Elizabeth a cheeky grin. "Oh lord, here we go." Elizabeth mumbles.
"Gwyneth, you can tell me." Rose said poking her. "I bet you've got your eye on someone."
"I suppose, there is one lad." Gwyneth said.
Rose giggles and Elizabeth rolls her eyes but she continues to listen to the cheesy information. "The butcher's boy, he comes by every Tuesday. Such a lovely smile on him." Gwyneth said.
"I like a nice smile." Rose said. "Good smile, nice bum."
Gwyneth looks up at Rose with wide eyes again, shocked and appalled. "Well, I have never heard the like!"
The three women laugh. "What about you, miss?" Gwyneth asked Elizabeth. Elizabeth shakes her head and says, "I haven't looked at anyone like that."
Rose snorts. "Liar." She mumbled.
"Oh and why do you think that?" The brunette asked. "Nothing." Rose answered.
"No, come and tell me Rose Tyler, why do you think I'm not telling the truth?" Elizabeth asked as she put her hands on her hips. "I see the way you look at him," Rose said.
"Who?" Elizabeth asked. She didn't even need an answer, she knew who Rose was talking about. The Doctor.
"You know who." Rose smirks and gives her a wink. "I'm sorry, I'm a bit lost. Who are you exactly talking about?" Gwyneth said.
"No one. He's not my type." Elizabeth said. "Oh and what is your 'type'?" Rose asked.
"I like a man who loves to tell stories. One who adventures and see a great deal. I like a man that is kind and gentle, but when provoked he will be clear on what his opinions are. I like someone who reads as much as I do." Elizabeth told the two. Clearly describing the Time Lord who was totally not standing outside the door listening in to the girls conversations.
There was a brief silence before Elizabeth turned her attention back to Gwyneth's man. "Anyway," She began. "This lad of yours, as him out. Give him a cup of tea or something, that's a start."
The two friends nod in agreement on the advice that was given. "I swear, it's the strangest thing, miss. You've got all the clothes and the breeding, but you talk like some sort of wild things." The maid tells Rose.
"Maybe I am." The blonde said. "Maybe that's a good thing. You need a bit more in your life than Mr. Sneed."
"Oh, now, that's not fair." Gwyneth denied. "He's not so bad, old Sneed. He was very kind to me to take me in because I lost my mom and dad to the flue when I was 12."
"Oh, I'm sorry." Rose said.
"Thank you, miss. But I'll be with them again, one day. Sitting with them in paradise." Gwyneth smiled. "I shall be so blessed. They're waiting for me. Maybe your dad's up there waiting for you too, miss."
Red flag.
"Maybe." Rose said. "Um, who told you he was dead?" Elizabeth asked.
Gwyneth's smile dropped and she turned back to the dishes again. "I don't know, must've been the Doctor." Gwyneth answered.
"My father died years back." Rose said.
"You've been thinking about him lately. More than ever." Gwyneth said as she put dishes on the shelves. "Suppose so." Rose mumbled.
"How do know all of this?" Elizabeth asked. "Mr. Sneed says I think too much, I'm alone down here. I bet you've got dozens of servants haven't you, miss?" Gwyneth asked.
"No, no servants where we come from." Elizabeth answered with a laugh. "And you both have come such a long way." Gwyneth said.
"What makes you think so?" Elizabeth asked.
"You say you're from London. But I can tell you're not, and not just by the accent." The maid told Elizabeth. "I've seen London in drawings, but never like that, all those people rushing about. But for you Miss Elizabeth, I see red sand and snowy mountains. Trees that are on fire but only when then sun is just right. You're lost."
"All those people, Miss Rose, half-naked, for shame. And the noise... And the metal boxes racing past... And the birds in the sky... No, they're metal as well. Metal birds with people in them. People are flying." The maid whimpers.
"Do you hear their screams in your dreams, miss Elizabeth? The sound of children crying and the fire burning the land. You've flown so far. Further than anyone. The things you've both seen. The things you've lost. The darkness."
"The big bad wolf. The Lady of Time who carries magic in her soul"
Gwyneth gasps and stumbles back as she stares at Rose and Elizabeth in shock. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, miss."
"It's all right." Elizabeth mumbles. Elizabeth winces as another headache slowly inches it's way into her head. "I can't help it." Gwyneth whimpers. "Ever since I was a little girl, my mom said I had the sight. She told me to hide it."
"But it's getting stronger." A voice called from the doorway startling the three girls. Elizabeth turns and sees the Doctor and wonders how long he's been standing there. Or, how much he has heard.
"More powerful. Is that right?" He asked.
"All the time, sir." Gwyneth answered. "Every night, voice in my head."
"You grew up on top of the rift. You're part of it." The Doctor said.
"You're the key." Elizabeth said looking at the Doctor who nodded. "I've tried to make sense of it, sir. Consulted with spiritualist, table-rappers, all sorts." Gwyneth said.
"Well, that should help. You can show us what to do." The Doctor said. Gwyneth gave the Time Lord a weird look and asked, "What to do where, sir?"
"We're going to have a séance." The Doctor said.
Elizabeth giggled with delight as the Doctor and her held hands when they walked down the hallway back to the parlor. "I always wanted to speak with spirit realm. Oh, I also wanted to see if I could talk to Agatha Christie or Edgar Allen Poe!" The brunette squealed. "Or William Shakespeare!" She exclaims.
The Doctor chuckled as the book nerd fangirled next to him. "Are we gonna find people under wooden floors? Or maybe see Banquo?" Elizabeth asked.
The Doctor smiled and said, "No, we're gonna talk to aliens."
"Darn." Elizabeth sighed.
-----
"This is how Madame Mortlock summons those from the Land of Mists, down in big town." Gwyneth said to everyone who was seated around the table. "Come. We must all join hands."
"I can't take part in this." Charles Dickens said as he got up from his seat. "Humbug? Come on. Open mind." The Doctor said.
"This is precisely the sort of cheap mummery I strive to unmask." Charles said. The Doctor and Elizabeth roll their eyes in sync at the author. "Seances! Nothing but luminous tambourines and a squeeze box concealed between the knees. This girl knows nothing." Charles spat.
"Now don't antagonize her. I love a happy medium." The Doctor said. Rose snorts from across the table and facepalms. "I can't believe you just said that." Elizabeth mumbles from beside him. "Come on. We might need you." The Irish woman pestered.
Hesitantly, Charles sat down back in his seat. "Good man." The Doctor said. "Now, Gwyneth. Reach out."
Elizabeth watched as Gwyneth's eyes lock on a certain point on the wall and she said, "Speak to us."
"Are you there? Spirits, come. Speak to us that we may relieve your burden." Then Gwyneth's head peaked up as her gaze locked onto the ceiling.
"Can you hear that?" Rose asked. Elizabeth listened for sound and she could hear distant voices but nothing was made out. "Nothing can happen, this is sheer folly." Charles said.
"Look at her." The blonde said. Elizabeth turned back to Gwyneth who was rocking slightly back and forth. "I see them!" She whispers. "I feel them."
Blue smoke rolls in above the group as the voices got louder. Elizabeth tightens her grip around the Time Lords hand as the group stared at the gas that suddenly appeared. "What's it saying?" Rose asked.
"It can't get through the rift. Gwyneth, it's not controlling you, you're controlling it. Now look deep. Allow them through." The Doctor said. "I can't" Gwyneth cried out.
"Yes, you can. Just believe it. I have faith in you, Gwyneth." Elizabeth said as the maid snapped her eyes shut. "Make the link. You've got this." The Irish woman whispered.
Gwyneth's head dropped and her eyes opened, she stared straight ahead. "Yes!" She exclaims.
Behind her, a mass of blue smoke rises from her back and Elizabeth can make out a face from the gas. Two more appeared but their facial features weren't as defined as the middle one.
"Holy- That's more than just a Banquo." Elizabeth mumbles.
"Great God." Mr. Sneed mumbles. "Spirits from the other side!"
"The other side of the universe." The Doctor said.
"Pity us!" The gas figure said. "Pity the Gelth!"
"There is so little time. Help us!"
"What do you want us to do?" The Doctor asked.
"The rift. Take the girl to the rift. Make the bridge."
"What for?" Elizabeth asked. "We are so very few. The last of our kind. We face extinction!"
"Why, what happened?" The brunette asked again.
"Once we had physical form, like you. But then the War came."
Elizabeth felt the Doctor's hand tighten as the topic brought up. He knew what war. Elizabeth turned to the Time Lord and she rubbed her thumb in a comforting matter on the back of his hand.
"War? What war?" Charles asked.
"The Time War. The whole universe convulsed. The Time War raged. Invisible to smaller species but devastating to higher forms. Our bodies wasted away. We're trapped in this gaseous state"
"So that's why you need the corpses?" The Doctor asked.
"We want to stand tall. To feel the sunlight. To live again. We need a physical form and you dead are abandoned. They go to waste. Give them to us."
"But we can't." Rose spoke up.
"Why not?" The Doctor asked. "It's not... I mean, it's not... " Rose began.
"Not decent? Not polite? It could save their lives." The Doctor said. "Open the rift. Let the Gelth through. We're dying. Help us. Pity the Gelth."
One by one the blue gas floated back into the gas lighting. Gwyneth gasped and she collapsed onto the table and Elizabeth got up and rubbed the maid's back. "Gwyneth!" She called.
"All true!" Charles Dickens mumbled.
"Gwyneth, are you okay?" Rose asked.
"It's all true."
------
Elizabeth stood next to the Doctor as they watched Rose wipe Gwyneth's forehead with a wet cloth. The maid had been moved to a green velvet chair after the seance.
"It's all right. You just sleep." Rose said as the maid started to wake up. "But my angels, miss! They came, didn't they? They need me." Gwyneth mumbles.
"They do need you, Gwyneth. You're their only chance of survival." The Doctor called from his place. "I've told you, leave her alone." The blonde snapped. "She's exhausted and she's not fighting your battles."
The Time Lord leaned his head against the wall and let out a soft sigh. "Now, drink this." Rose whispers to the maid.
"But what did you say, Doctor? Explain it again. What are they?" Mr. Sneed asked from the table. "Aliens." The Doctor answered.
"Like, foreigners, you mean?" Mr. Sneed said.
Elizabeth snorts. "Pretty foreign, yeah. I'm guessing from up there." She points upward.
"Brecon?" The Undertaker asked. "Close." The Doctor shrugs. "And they've been trying to get through from Brecon to Cardiff, but the road's blocked. Only a few can get through and even then they're weak. They can only test drive the bodies for so long."
"Then they have to revert to gas and hide in the pipes." Elizabeth stated earning a smile from The Doctor, signaling that she is correct. "Which is why they need the girl?" Charles Dickens called from the corner.
"They're not having her." Rose called.
"But she can help." The Doctor said. "Living on the rift, she's become part of it. She can open it up, make a bridge and let them through."
"Incredible!" The author exclaimed. "Ghosts that are not ghosts but beings from another world, who can only exist in our realm by inhabiting cadavers."
"Good system. It might work." The Doctor thought.
Rose stood up and gave the Doctor a cold look before saying, "You can't let them run around inside of dead people!"
"Why not? It's like recycling."
"Seriously though, you can't." Rose snapped at the alien.
"Seriously though, I can." The Doctor retorted. "But it's just wrong!" The blonde exclaims. "Those bodies were living people. We should respect them, even in death."
"Do you carry a donor card?" The Doctor asked.
"It's different, that's..."
"It is different, yeah. It's a different morality. Get used to it. Or go home." The Time Lord shouted. "You heard what they said, time's short. I can't worry about a few corpses when the last of the Gelth could be dying."
"I don't care, they're not using her." Rose mumbled quietly.
"Don't I get a say, miss?" Gwyneth asked as she sat up in the chair.
"Well, yes... Look... You don't understand what's going on." Rose told her.
"You would say that, miss, because that's very clear inside your head, that you think I'm stupid." The maid said.
"That's not fair." Rose said. "It's true though." Elizabeth said as she joined the three. "Let the girl choose, I can tell she's very clever." The brunette said with a smile.
"Things might be very different where you're from, but here and now, I know my own mind, and the angels need me." Gwyneth said. "Doctor? What do I have to do?"
"You don't have to do anything." The Doctor answered.
"They've been singing to me since I was a child. Sent by my mom on a holy mission, so tell me."
The Doctor gives her a small smile. "We need to find the rift."
"This house is on a weak spot, so there must be a spot that's weaker than any other. Mr. Sneed, what's the weakest part of this house? The place where most of the ghosts have been seen?" The Doctor asked.
"That would be the morgue." Mr. Sneed answered.
"No chance you were going to say gazebo, is there?" Rose mumbled.
Elizabeth rolls her eyes at the blonde. "Alright, boys. Let's move out!" She said and waited for Mr. Sneed to show them the morgue.
----
The Doctor unlocked the door after the group traveled to the basement and walked into the morgue. On two stone slabs, there were bodies covered in white sheets. One of the body's purple and blue feet were hanging out in the open, a tag tied onto his big toe.
"Hmph. Talk about Bleak House." Elizabeth said as she spotted another body on a stone slab.
"The thing is, Doctor," Rose began. "The Gelth don't succeed, 'cause I know they don't. I know for a fact that corpses weren't walking around in 1869." Rose said.
"Time's in flux, changing every second." The Doctor said.
"So, our world could be rewritten. Time can be rewritten?" Elizabeth asked as she poke a dead body.
"Spot on, Lizzie!" The Doctor smiled. "Nothing is safe. Remember that. Nothing."
"Doctor, I think the room is getting colder." The author said. "Here they come." Elizabeth said grabbing onto the Doctor's hand.
All of a sudden, the blue mist swarmed the basement and the Gelth appeared again.
"You've come to help! Praise the Doctor! Praise him."
"Promise you won't hurt her!" Rose yelled at the ghost.
"Hurry! Please! So little time. Pity the Gelth!"
The Doctor, with Elizabeth, walked forward to the gas creature and said, "I'll take you somewhere else after the transfer. Somewhere you can build proper bodies. This isn't a permanent solution, all right?"
"My angels! I can help them live." Gwyneth said.
"Okay, where's the weak point?" Elizabeth asked.
"Here, beneath the arch!"
"Beneath the arch." Gwyneth said as she walked into the arch way and in front of the ghost. Rose ran forward and grabbed her shoulders. "You don't have to do this."
Gwyneth grabbed Rose's face and said, "My angels."
"Establish the bridge!" The creature shouted, startling Rose. "Reach out to the void. Let us through!"
"Doctor, I have a bad feeling about this." Elizabeth whispered into the alien's ear. The Doctor didn't say anything but, he started to rub circles on the back of her hand like she did earlier upstairs.
"Yes!" Gwyneth cried out. "I can see you. I can see you! Come!"
"Bridgehead establishing."
"Come to me! Come to this world. Poor lost souls." Gwyneth cried out. Elizabeth locked eyes with the maid and she gasped quietly. The poor girl was dead. "Doctor." She mumbles. The Doctor turned his head to the Irish woman and saw her eyes well up in tears. "What?"
"It has begun! The bridge is made."
Gwyneth's mouth opened and more blue gas creatures poured out of her mouth and into the basement.
"She has given herself to the Gelth!"
"Didn't they say there were only few?" Elizabeth asked as she watched the figures float around.
"The bridge is open. We descend."
The gas creature that was blue turned into a blazing orange and more blue creatures flew out of Gwyneth's mouth
"The Gelth will come through in force."
The sweet innocent voice darkened and sounded like growl. Elizabeth yells out, "You said that you were few in number!"
"A few billion! And all of us in need corpses!"
One by one, the dead corpses rise from the stone slabs and they started to slide off, stumbling towards the living people.
"Now, Gwyneth, stop this. Listen to your master! This has gone far enough. Stop dabbling, child, and leave these things alone, I beg of you." Mr. Sneed said.
"Mr. Sneed, get back!" Rose shouts as one of the corpses grab the Undertaker. The dead corpse wraps his burly arms around Mr. Sneed's neck and snaps it, allowing a ghost to enter.
"I think it's going a little bit wrong." The Doctor uttered.
Elizabeth smacks his arm earning a whine from the alien. "You don't say." She whispered.
"I have joined the legions of the Gelth. Come, march with us."
"Oh, Glory!" Charles exclaimed.
"We need bodies. All of you, dead. The human race, dead."
The Doctor pushes Elizabeth and Rose behind him as to guard them as the corpses inch after them.
"Gwyneth, stop them! Send them back, now!" Elizabeth shouts.
"Three more bodies! Convert them! Make them vessels for the Gelth!"
"Doctor, I can't! I'm sorry. This new world of yours, it's too much for me." With that, Charles Dickens ran out of the room leaving the three behind. The Doctor opens up a metal gate and pulls the girls in.
"I trusted you. I pitied you!" The Doctor shouted at the corpses that were reaching for them through the iron bars. The Doctor wrapped his arms around Elizabeth's waist pulling her closer to him and they interlocked their fingers.
"We don't want your pity! We want this world and all its flesh"
"Not while I'm alive." The Doctor muttered. "Then live no more."
"But I can't die. Tell me I can't." Rose mumbled. "I haven't even been born yet, it's impossible for me to die. Isn't it?" She asked The Doctor.
"I'm sorry." He mumbled.
"But it's 1869, how can I die now?" Rose asked. "Time isn't a straight line, it can twist into any shape. You can be born in the 20th century and die in the 19th. And it's all my fault. I brought you guys here." The Doctor mumbled.
"It's not your fault." Elizabeth mumbled. "We wanted to come."
"What about me? I saw the fall of Troy. World War Five. I pushed boxes at the Boston Tea Party. Now I'm gonna die in a dungeon, in Cardiff." The alien said.
"And it's not just dying." Rose said. "We're gonna become one of them. We'll go down fighting, yeah?"
"Yeah." The Doctor mumbled. "Yeah."
"Together." Elizabeth mumbled. "Elizabeth?"
"Yes, Doctor?" Elizabeth said. "I'm glad I met you, you peculiar girl."
"Same too you, alien boy." The Irish woman replied. "Rose, I'm glad we met." The Doctor said.
"Me too." Rose said.
"Doctor! Doctor! Turn off the flame, turn up the gas! Now fill the room! All of it, now!" Charles Dickens shouted as he appeared again.
"What are you doing?" The Time Lord asked.
"Turn it all on!" The author shouts. "Flood the place!" Charles Dickens reaches up to the gas light and turns a knob, killing the flame.
"Doctor, the gas!" Elizabeth said, nudging him. "Brilliant!" The Doctor exclaims. "What, so we choke to death instead?" Rose asked.
"Am I correct, Doctor?" Charles asked. "These creatures are gaseous."
"Fill the room with gas, it'll draw them out of the host!" Elizabeth and the Doctor exclaimed. "Suck them into the air like poison from a wound!" The Doctor continued.
The walking corpses turn around to face Charles Dickens, and they slowly stumble trying to catch him. "I hope... Oh Lord. I hope that this theory will be validated soon." The author mumbled. "If not immediately."
"Plenty more!" The Doctor exclaims and tears down a gas pipe that was next to them. He pulled out a cloth from his pocket and covers Elizabeth's mouth and nose. "Breathe into that."
The corpses let out a scream and groan as the gas creatures exited the bodies. "It's working." Charles said.
The three burst through the door and run over to Gwyneth. "Gwyneth, send them back. They lied, they're not angels!" Elizabeth shouts.
The maids arms drop and her eyes look dead straight to Elizabeth's. "Liars," She mumbles. "Look at me. If your mother and father could look down and see this, they'd tell you the same. They'd give you the strength. Now send them back!" The Doctor ordered.
"Can't breathe." Rose coughed out.
"Charles, get them out of here." The Doctor ordered as he pushed Elizabeth towards the exit. "No, I'm not leaving you." She whined as she slapped at his hands. "No, I want you safe." The Doctor mumbles, grabbing onto her wrist. "No. Not without you." She mumbles.
"They're too strong." Gwyneth said.
"Remember that world you saw? Rose's world? All those people. None of it will exist unless you send them back through the rift!" The Doctor said. "I can't send them back. But I can hold them. Hold them in this place. Hold them here. Get out." The maid ordered as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a box of matches.
"You can't!" Rose yelled. The Doctor grabbed onto Rose before she could go any further.
"Leave this place!" Gwyneth ordered.
"Rose, get out, go now." The Doctor pleaded. "I won't leave her while she's still in danger. Now go!" Rose and Charles Dickens run up the stairs, escaping the basement.
"Elizabeth, please. Go. I'll be fine. You'll suffocate to death. I don't want to lose you." The Doctor whimpered as he pushed back a loose hair with his fingers behind her ear.
"No. I'm staying with you."
"You're so stubborn!" The Doctor groaned. "Leave it to me, Gwyneth." He said holding out his hand.
"Doctor, there's something wrong. I thought I was dumb, but I think... I think Gwyneth died." Elizabeth whispered. She couldn't help but start coughing as the gas began to fill up the room.
The Doctor then put his hand against her neck to find her pulse, coming to find there was none. "I'm sorry." He whispered. He gives her a kiss on the forehead and grabs Elizabeth's hand.
"C'mon!" He yelled and pulls them up the stairs.
The Doctor and Elizabeth sprint outside just in time for the house to explode and burst into flames. Rose ran towards Elizabeth and helped her stand upright as she stumbled.
"She didn't make it." Elizabeth said after a while.
"I'm sorry. She closed the rift." The Doctor said.
"At such a cost. The poor child." Charles mumbled.
"I did try, Rose, but Gwyneth was already dead. She had been for at least five minutes." The Doctor said. "What do you mean?" Rose asked.
"I think she was dead from the minute she stood in that arch." Elizabeth said as she stared down at the snowy ground. "But, she can't have, she spoke to us." The blonde said. "She helped us, she saved us. How could she have done that?"
"There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Even for you, Doctor." Charles said.
"She saved the world." Rose mumbled. "A servant girl. No one will ever know."
----
"Right then, Charlie boy, I've just got to go into my, um, shed." The Doctor said as they approached the blue box. "Won't be long."
"What are you going to do now?" Rose asked the author.
"I shall take the mail-coach back to London, quite literally post-haste. This is no time for me to be on my own. I shall spend Christmas with my family and make amends to them." He answered. "After all I've learnt tonight, there can be nothing more vital."
"You've cheered up." Elizabeth smiled giving him a quick poke with her finger.
"Exceedingly! This morning, I thought I knew everything in the world. Now I know I've just started. All these huge and wonderful notions, Elizabeth!" Charles exclaimed. "I am inspired, I must write about them!"
"Do you think that's wise?" Rose asked.
"I shall be subtle, at first." Charles answered. "The Mystery of Edwin Drood still lacks an ending. Perhaps the killer was not the boy's uncle. Perhaps he was not of this earth! 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood and The Blue Elementals!' I can spread the word, tell the truth."
"Good luck with it." Elizabeth said, shaking his hand. "It was lovely to meet you, fan-freaking-tastic!"
"Oi! That's my word." The Doctor whined to Elizabeth. "Well too bad." She giggled.
"Bye, then. And thanks." Rose said shaking his hand as well and finally giving him a kiss on the cheek.
"Oh, my dear! How modern." The author blushed. "Thank you. But I don't understand, in what way is this goodbye? Where are you going?"
"You'll see. In the shed." The Doctor said pointing at the TARDIS.
"Upon my soul, Doctor, it's one riddle after another with you. But after all these revelations, there's one mystery you still haven't explained. Answer me this... Who are you?" Dickens asked.
"Just a friend. Passing through." The Doctor said after a pause.
"But you have such knowledge of future times. I don't wish to impose on you but I must ask you... My books, Doctor, do they last?"
"Oh, yes." Elizabeth answered.
"For how long?"
"Forever." Elizabeth answered again.
"Right." The Time Lord began. "Shed. Come on, girls."
"What? In the box? All three of you?" Charles asked.
"Down boy. See ya."
The three time travelers then climbed into the blue police box, leaving Charles Dickens in a state of confusion.
"Doesn't that change history, if he writes about blue ghosts?" Rose asked.
"In week's time, it's 1870." The Doctor said.
"That's the year he dies." Elizabeth continued for the Doctor. "He'll never get to tell his story."
"Oh, no. He was nice." Rose sighed.
The three gathered around the monitor to watch the author who was standing outside. "But in your time, he was already dead." The Doctor said. "We've brought him back to life and he's more alive now than he's ever been."
"Old Charlie Boy." Elizabeth giggled.
"Let's give him one last surprise." The Doctor said and began to click buttons and flip switches.
And then they were off.