Continuing from 'Boom Town - Part III'

✧

THEY WERE STILL AT THE TABLE, having just ordered their food and their menus being taken right after. The flame of the candle between them flickered as Margaret trudged on, informing the two of them. "Public execution's a slow death," The Doctor and Lily stared at her, trying to look unbothered. But that was hard as Margaret was very good at details. "They prepare a thin acetic acid, lower me into the cauldron and boil me. The acidity is perfectly gauged to strip away the skin. Internal organs fall out into the liquid, and I become soup. And still alive, still screaming."

The Doctor's face twitched but his voice stayed hard. "I don't make the law."

"But you deliver it." She reminded him. "Will you both stay to watch?"

Lily sighed, twisting at her locket. "What else could we do?"

"The Slitheen family's huge. There's a lot more of us, all scattered off-world. Take me to them." Margaret begged and pleaded with them both. Lily started to feel sympathy for her. "Take me somewhere safe."

"But then you'll just start again." The Doctor frowned.

"I promise I won't."

"You've completely forgotten, have you?" Lily shook her head in disbelief, softening her tone. "There used to be a real Margaret Blaine who had her own life on Earth. You killed her just for the use of her skin."

The Doctor nodded at what Lily said and added. "You're pleading for mercy out of a dead woman's lips."

"Perhaps I have got used to it," Margaret admitted with a sad chuckle. "A human life, an ordinary life. That's all I'm asking." Her eyes stayed on the Doctor's, understanding his leadership. "Give me a chance, Doctor. I can change.."

He shook his head. "I don't believe you."

✧

Rose leaned her elbows on the railing and kept her eyes out onto the water. It was much colder there with the night air sending cold air towards her from the river, but it was better than being where Mickey sat. "So, what do you want to do now?" He asked from the bench behind Rose.

"Don't mind." Rose shrugged.

"We could ask about hotels." She heard him suggest.

Rose scoffed and said the thought that came to mind. "What would Trisha Delaney say?"

"Suppose." He ignored her. "There's a bar down there with a Spanish name or something-"

Rose turned towards him and let her frustration out. "You don't even like Trisha Delaney!"

"Oh, is that right?" Mickey stood, turning on her- his voice raising. "What the hell do you know?"

"I know you, And I know her." She said, matching his loud tone, "And I know that's never going to happen." Rose exclaimed. "So who do you think you're kidding?"

"At least I know where she is!" He yelled and Rose flinched back at the intensity of his words.

Rose started to understand where this resentment was coming from. "There we are, then. It's got nothing to do with Trisha. This is all about me, isn't it?"

"You left me!" He snapped. Rose forced a swallow when she saw tears forming in his eyes. "We were nice, we were happy. Then Lily disappeared and things went wrong. And then what?" Rose looked to the side as his words started to physically hurt. "You give me a kiss and you run off with them, and you make me feel like nothing, Rose! I was nothing!" He cried. "I can't even go out with a stupid girl from a shop because you pick up the phone and I come running. I mean, is that what I am, Rose? Standby?" Mickey accused her. "Am I just supposed to sit here for the rest of my life, waiting for you? Because I will!"

Rose was frozen, only able to mutter out two words. "I'm sorry."

✧

"I promise you I've changed since we last met." Margaret kept begging them. "There was this girl, just today. A young thing, something of a danger. She was getting too close. I felt the blood lust rising, just as the family taught me, I was going to kill her without a thought. And then I stopped. She's alive somewhere right now." Lily believed Margaret as she heard no deception in her pleads. "She's walking around this city because I can change. I did change. I know I can't prove it-"

"I believe you." The Doctor interrupted.

"Then you know I'm capable of better."

Lily sadly shook her head. "But that doesn't mean anything-"

Margaret interrupted her. "I spared her life!"

"You let one of them go," The Doctor corrected her. "but that's nothing new. Every now and then, a little victim's spared because she smiled, because he's got freckles because they begged." He narrowed his eyes slightly at that last word. "And that's how you live with yourself. That's how you slaughter millions. Because once in a while, on a whim, if the wind's in the right direction, you happen to be kind."

"Only a killer would know that." Margaret sneered, making the Doctor turn his gaze down. "Is that right? From what I've seen, your funny little happy-go-lucky little life leaves devastation in its wake. Always moving on because you dare not look back. Playing with so many people's lives, you might as well be a god. And you're right, Doctor." She admitted. "You're absolutely right. Sometimes you let one go. Let me go."

✧

Rose and Mickey now both sat on the bench but with a good-sized gap between them. "I'm not asking you to leave them, because I know that's not fair. But I just need something, yeah?" He pleaded with her. "Some sort of promise that when you do come back, you're coming back for me."

Rose's attention was taken from Mickey when a rumble shook the ground. "Is that thunder?"

"Does it matter?" Mickey asked, bitterly.

Rose's eyes widened, realizing what it wasn't. "That's not thunder."

That's when the streetlights exploded around them. As Mickey was ducking Rose was already running towards where they came from. "Oh, go on then, run! It's them again, isn't it?" Mickey shouted at her. "It's them! It's always them! It's always gonna be Lily and the Doctor and it's never me!"

✧

"In the family Slitheen, we had no choice. I was made to carry out my first kill at thirteen!" Margaret continued to plead her case but the Doctor's as well as Lily's attention was somewhere else. "If I'd refused, my father would have fed me to the Venom Grubs. If I'm a killer, it's because I was born to kill. It's all I know." She realized neither of them were listening. "Doctor, are you even listening to me?"

"Can you hear that?" He listened to the rumble get even louder.

"I'm begging for my life!"

Lily shushed her with a finger to her lips. "No, just listen."

The three of them witnessed their glasses on the table shake. When all of the restaurant's windows shattered the Doctor was fast at shielding Lily from any impact. They now all stood, the Doctor's arms still around Lily, as they watched the customers screaming and running outside.

Lily realized something as she struggled to stand by the Earth's constant shaking. "Rose!"

She sprinted out of the restaurant and hurried to where the TARDIS was, hoping her sister was there now. She heard the Doctor and Maragert hurting behind her. They spoke and she only took in their conversation as she didn't think to pause and see what they were doing.

"The handcuffs!"

The Doctor groaned and there was the sound of the sonic before the unclasping of their bangles.

"Don't think you're running away." He warned her.

"Oh, I'm sticking with you. Some date this turned out to be!"

When they made it to the TARDIS Lily was shocked to witness energy streaming from it up towards the sky. "It's the rift." The Doctor informed them, pushing Lily towards its doors. "The rift's opening!"

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

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- Kayleigh