Even with an impending sense of doom looming over them, Ophelia managed a smile at the Doctor's direction, he gave them a be safe and they parted ways to act out a not so safe plan. Sure, she'd have preferred to stay with him but he'd probably do something idiotic or self sacrificing, during which he'd not be able to guarantee her safety. So of the two went, thinking of a way to get everyone off the ice before a big fish began to swim freely.
"We should try to find Kitty." Ophelia's suggestion was easily accepted by Bill.
"That's a good idea." Both lifted up their skirts to run around in hopes of finding the urchin leader.
That girl most likely knew every nook and cranny over the ice, having used it as stages for many cons over time. If they wanted people's safety to be guaranteed, she was their best bet at getting everyone out of there in one piece. It didn't take long to find the urchins, who were playing their lost dog piece. Kitty was about to pick a pocket when Bill tapped her on the shoulder, not her smartest choice because the girl nearly ran away before Ophelia grabbed her arm.
"Need help, need it now." Bill joined them, trapping Kitty between two older girls. "Are you in?"
"Where's your friend?" The Doctor has gone off to cause mayhem, with a side dish of bringing down a racist prick.
"Not here." Bill's short answer didn't satisfy Kitty.
"What's he doing?" Her voice was harsher than a girl her age should be.
"Not sure." Be safe, that went both ways Ophelia prayed while answering. "But whatever it is, I don't think we're going to miss it."
Did caring about people mean this awful feeling every time they were in danger? Ophelia hoped not because it'd be horrible to have such a heavy heart every time they stepped out of the TARDIS. Putting her emotions in a corner to be dealt with later, all three girls spread out but stayed within each other's sights. A few minutes later every urchin that Kitty took care of began call out to people, all of whom promptly responded.
"The thaw! The thaw is here!" Dottie no longer had a top hat on, instead she wore a pale pink bonnet. Paired with her innocent eyes and blonde hair, that little girl made people believe in her, fleeing from the cracking ice.
"A lady fell through the ice!" Kitty ran right behind her acting as if they had never met, after all two witnesses were more credible than one.
"The ice is melting!" Ophelia's voice held so much desperation that it caused the contortionist's entire audience to flee.
"Quick! Get to the shore!" Bill ran through people still milling between barracks, successfully having them leave.
Sutcliffe stood atop those same steps they'd taken to come down yesterday morning, checking his watch only to see it was almost noon. Chaotic screaming began to reach his ears as a crowd reached the riverside, clambering upstairs until they reached him.
"It's a mistake!" He stood facing them in vain. "The ice isn't melting." One, two, five, eight people ran past him. "I swear to you, there is no thaw!"
But there was no way to stop the people running up the steps to the shore. Infuriated, he descended into the frozen river to see what had gone wrong with his plan.
"The ice is melting!" Harriet, still in her boy clothes, banged a couple of pans together while yelling as loud as possible.
"Quickly, quickly, that's it." Bill's kindness impressed people, some definitely changed by it.
Ophelia's eyes surveyed the Frost Fair, checking for any stragglers before they were caught by a rather (though not surprising) sight: another of lord douchebag's henchmen laid out the fuse wire across the ice as douchebag himself checked on a small box propped near where they'd stolen diving suits from.
"Come on! Hurry! Come on! Something's happened. They've got the word out. We blow it now!" HIs words were loud enough to reach Bill.
"No, not yet." Ophelia caught onto what made her stop and ran around to get everyone to leave. "Harriet, run!"
"But there's still people..." The little girl got down from her crate, where she'd climbed to get more visibility, with Ophelia's help.
"Forget them. There's no time." Bill's voice didn't leave any room for argument. "Kitty? Run! Now!"
She had been trying to get a couple of soldiers to leave but the warning made her run, the men gambling on top of a barrel simply waved her away. Ophelia quickly ran back to stand by Bill both bracing themselves for a big explosion, most likely a swim for their lives, as Sutcliffe primed his generator and pushed the lever. His henchmen cringed, expecting a boom or something dramatic, but nothing happened.
"What?" The racist once again pushed the plunger but the Doctor was to blame for a general lack of exploding ice. Both girls hesitantly opened their eyes, the few people still on ice going about normally.
He pushed the plunger one more time, distant explosions reaching their ears. Lord Sutcliffe got fed up with his useless workers, running into the frozen Thames himself towards a tent supposedly filled with fireworks and explosives. Though she trusted the time lord blindly, Bill began to usher a final wave of fair goers out of there.
Either way, this ground wouldn't be solid for too long.
"Quick! Get to the shore!"
All around them ice began to flourish with cracks, spreading out until pieces fell in the water. Lord Douchebag stared at a dorsal fin cause even more damage in disbelief, watching generations of his family's work be destroyed just like that. Not too far away Ophelia's first mistake was turning around to watch the majestic creature swim freely, that man falling into his watery demise being a very good bonus. Freedom! Her laugh echoed over a thawing river before going to catch up with Bill's long strides.
"Doctor!" The young woman pulled up a mess of pale pink fabric to climb up stone steps. "You did it!"
"I did it!" He still wore a lathery diving suit, showing a crazed smile in his smile. "Where's Ophelia?"
"Bill!" The last third of their crew raced barely ahead of a dangerous net of cracks, seemingly drunk on happiness. "Doctor!"
Happiness for what remained unclear. They'd managed to save every human on the ice, Douchebag Sutcliffe poetically met the same fate he'd condemned many people to. Freedom! The creature could finally live its best fish life on the depths of some other river where no one would enslave it again just as no one one would force her to do anything again. No more handmaiden fifty one. Ophelia would pick a last name, cut her hair the wrong way, make some bad fashion choices just because she could. She'd make mistakes and learn from them.
"You did it!" Her smile eased their fear. "We're free!"
Ophelia didn't have time to climb stairs so the Doctor and Bill knelt by a space between two wooden pillars, catching her arms after she'd jumped up for their hands and they pulled her onto the dockside with great effort. Bill's hug felt even warmer, though she still had some trouble responding to it.
"Don't ever do that again." Their shared smile solidified another step of friendship. The Doctor's face matched theirs while he pulled on a wire to retrieve his sonic screwdriver. The creature swam past them. "Where will she go?"
"Somewhere cold, I imagine." He continued to pull on the very long wire. "Hopefully, she's smart enough to avoid you lot now."
"What if she isn't? What if we just like, doomed Greenland?" Bill's curious nature amused Ophelia greatly.
"We could check in on Greenland." The Doctor nodded at Ophelia before checking his recently surfaced sonic over for any damage.
"How long is she?!"
That answer came in the shape of a humongous flipper sending a splash of cold water at them, thoroughly soaking both girls who didn't have any diving suits to protect them. Their fish friend used that as a goodbye for beyond old London Bridge, she sang and breached like a humpback whale.
"Can you hear that?"
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Given she'd gotten along the best with those kids, Ophelia's training kicked in to get a carriage to transport the urchins from a muddy riverside stairwell to Sutcliffe Manor. Other than her giving Kitty a rundown of what had happened at the river, no one spoke until they got out of the carriage.
"Harry, look!" Harriet pointed at a lever used to ring the bell before doing so.
"No pinching anything, you hear me?" Kitty's words were directed at Dottie, cleaning a bit of her face with Ophelia's handkerchief before turning to the older ones. "And no staring like gapeseeds if the lady talks peculiar. It's rude."
The door opened to reveal a smiling Bill Potts, who looked at her friend before checking the children.
"Get a load of you lot! Cute as! Come in."
Their party of six walked through the entrance hall, a vast empty space with many old portraits over baby blue walls. Dottie nearly ran ahead, clearly in awe of everything, while Kitty talked to both older girls in the back.
"You going to tell us what we're here for?" She looked at Bill.
"A very long time, I hope." Saint Luke's lunch lady continued her mystery.
At a vast dining room, the Doctor sat separately, at a small writing desk. Ophelia stopped by his right side as he scrapped some ink off a Last Will and Testament between the words 'unto the said' and 'Sutcliffe'. All four kids looked wistfully at the main table laden with food.
"Go on." Bill encouraged them. "Eat as much as you like."
"Er, you, boy!" The Doctor asked one of the kids. "Remind me, what's your name?"
"Perry." Ophelia's years of caring for kids as they grew up helped to understand things said with a mouth full, her friends looked confusedly at the urchin leader.
"Perry. His name's Perry." Kitty offered them. "Why?"
"Apparently, Lord Sutcliffe's long-lost heir can't be a girl." The TARDIS crew shared one look before their leader continued his work.
But Peregrine Sutcliffe had just gotten a much easier life ahead of him.
༓☾☽༓
With a series of vwoorping sounds, the TARDIS materialized again back where it should be. In a corner of the Doctor's office, over a carpet.
"We must have changed something, right?" The man in question went straight over to his desk to sort through some papers. "I mean, people saw a monster in the Thames."
"Well, everything looks pretty much the same to me." Ophelia's eyes were wide with wonder. Would she get to go outside? This world looked great through a stained glass window but her feet longed to get lost on those streets.
A round man, who very much reminded her of an egg, though his name was actually Nardole, entered with the tea tray. The Doctor glanced quickly at his new acquisition while she browsed one of his many bookshelves, hidden out Nardole's sight.
"All right. There you go. There's your tea. I put a bit of coffee in it, as well, just to give it some flavour. See, it's much better when you stick to your oath."
The strange man then noticed their change on clothes, guessing what was behind it.
"Oh sir, no. This is unacceptable. This is beyond unacceptable. This is naughty." He directed his attention back to a innocent looking time lord.
"Language." The Doctor's actions didn't even slow down.
Ophelia was distracted from a first edition copy of A Study In Scarlet when Bill spoke out, to no one in particular.
"I don't get it. London, 1814. Monster, sea creature, serpent, really, really big fish. Nothing." She finished near the Doctor, hoping he found it as weird as she did.
"Sir, you said you wouldn't be going off-world." Nardole's eyes narrowed in confusion as he berated the time lord.
"Do these look like off-world clothes to you?" His words nearly got a laugh out of Ophelias lips but thankfully she remained silent.
"But, sir, you said you'd be coming back to your office!" Bill's presence was totally ignored as her phone still came up with unfruitful searches.
"Look, here I am. I'm in my office." The Doctor continued to look at papers, comparing a couple of them. "I'm drinking my tea, in my specially chosen tea clothes."
"I don't understand. How could it not have been headline news?" Bill's ongoing disorientation made her newest friend put down a very good book and take the girl's phone.
"Never underestimate the collective human ability to overlook the inexplicable." Nardole turned around to put some things away, clearly unhappy with what they'd done, still unaware of a second woman in the room. "Also, the Frost Fair involved a lot of day drinking."
Ophelia was quick to pull up the British Newspaper Archives, using a few touches to find useful information.
"You can always rely upon the papers to miss a headline." The Doctor quickly read over what Ophelia presented him with before handing Bill's phone to it's rightful owner.
"Lord Sutcliffe drowns in snap thaw." Nardole's eyes finally registered a fourth person, his mouth falling open in shock. "Shock as steel fortune is passed to street urchin!"
"Who is that?" A friend was the only explanation he got. "Sir. We need to talk. Your oath."
"The new Lord Sutcliffe was found starving on London's streets." Bill continued to read loudly. "The inheritance was contested, everyone got super mad, blah, blah, blah, Urchin boy deemed legitimate. Oh my God, it worked! You did it. You saved them."
Ophelia's giggle finally escaped. It had worked. Noy only a beautiful sea creature had been released but four kids had their lives changed for good.
"You did. You gave the order, boss." The Doctor's words warmed Bill's heart, her friend nudging her side and whispering a well done.
"Sir." Nardole looked with irritation at the new girl and she knew it'd take a while for them to get along.
"Give me a coin. We'll toss for it." His offering sounded fair enough. "Heads, the Tardis stays put. Tails..." He looked at both girls, their hopeful smiles making his mind race with possible adventures he could take them on. "Tails, you leave me alone."
‧͙⁺˚*･༓༓･*˚⁺‧͙
look at me updating and all that. one episode down, eight to go.