
Closing Time - Two
"It was right here." The Doctor knelt on the floor his head under a small table, scanning as he and the Stone listened to Val continue to explain.
"A silver rat with glowing red eyes." The Stone asked making sure they were talking about the same thing.
"Yes." She nodded at the ginger. "Then it whizzed off. I wanted to get one for my nephew, but stockroom say there's no such item."
"I bet they do." The Doctor said moving out from under the table and placing his sonic in his pocket.
"That's probably for the best." The Stone muttered with a small wince not wanting to know the catastrophe that could occur if a young human child managed to get their hands on a cybermat.
"Well, what was it then?" Val asked not hearing the Stone. "Answer me that."
"It's a prototype." The Stone lied.
"Yes." The Doctor quickly backed his wife up. "A new prototype."
The Stone slowly nodded. "The company wants to see how well children interact with it before it is sold on a large scale."
"Exactly."
"Whoa!" They suddenly heard the cry of Craig not that far away from them.
"What's all that hullabaloo?" Val asked.
"Er, that'll be my partner with the er..." he trailed off.
"Don't start." The Stone shot him a look.
"Yes dear." He muttered before they both hurried off. Val staring at them both very confused behind them. She couldn't understand their relationship with each other or with Craig.
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The Time Lords ran around the store, attempting to find Craig, who currently trying to pick up a rack of woman's underwear. Craig swallowed hard wishing he wasn't in this situation. "Make a habit of hanging round in women's wear, sir?" George, the security guard asked.
"I'm sorry." He apologised just as Alfie started to cry. "Oh, shush. Alfie, come on." He pleaded slightly rocking the buggy.
"He's a pervert." Kelly, the woman working in the woman's section pointed at him. "Look at him."
"Hello, everyone." The Doctor ran up to them all with the Stone right beside him. "We're here to help."
"Hello, Doctor." Kelly greeted instantly smiling. "Hello Stone."
"Hello, Doctor hello Stone." George smiled at them both.
"Hello." They both replied.
"Has anyone seen a silver rat?" The Doctor bluntly asked making the Stone shake her head at him. "No. Okay. Long shot."
The Stone noticed the pleading look on Craig's face and the state he currently was in. "I see you've met our friend, Craig." The Stone nodded. Craig let out a small breath of relief.
"Nice uniform, George." The Doctor nodded at the man.
"Thank you, Doctor." He nodded. "If he's with you two, that's all right, then."
"Sorry." Kelly instantly apologised. "I thought he was hassling me because that's the last thing I need today." The Doctor motioned a chatting hand to George who smiled a little. The Stone hit him around the back of the head making him wince a little before stopping when he spotted his wifes narrowed eyes she was shooting at him. "Because Shona's not turned up." Kelly continued. "Right, so I'm doing twice the work for the same money, if you don't mind."
"Shush." The Doctor instantly silenced her with a finger on his lips.
"Please teach me how to do that." Craig begged.
"No." The Time Lords replied. "Hold on. Un-shush." He said to the woman. "Shona?
"My supervisor." Jelly supplied. "She's meant to be in today but never showed up."
"Well, where did you last see her?"
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The Doctor, Stone and Craig walked into the womans changing rooms. "How do you do that?" He asked. "It's a power, isn't it. Some sort of weird alien hypnotic power. I bet you excrete some sort of gas that makes people love you both."
The Stobe chuckled and shook her head. "Would that I could, Craig." The Doctor answered before looking through a pair of curtains, a woman screamed and he instantly closed them closing his eyes in the process.
"Can I not take you anywhere?" She pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Er, sorry, Madam." The Doctor apologised and opened the curtains again. "I'd try that in red if I were you."
The Stone smacked the back of his head this time. "Don't touch anything mister."
"Is someone jealous?" He smirked.
"No."
"Well." The Doctor grew quiet and whispered into her ear. "Don't worry dear I got the last Time Lady as my wife. You're not going anywhere."
The Stone let out a shaky breath at the suggestive tone in his voice, she definitely wasn't jealous and knew he was only playing with her but this was just tempting her to drag him back to the TARDIS right now if Craig wasn't currently a couple of feet away from them.
"I'm right though, aren't I?" Craig interrupted the two not noticing the bright red stained blush on the Time Lady's cheeks.
"Well, you love me, I've never excreted any weird alien gases at you."
"I don't love you." Craig protested. "Don't start that again."
The Doctor leaned in to listen to Alfie gurgling. "Yes. Course he does. Of course, you do. We're partners."
"Doctor." The Stone threatened.
"Yeah, but I did exactly what you would have done, and I nearly got arrested." He protested.
"Stormy thinks you should believe in yourself more." The Doctor informed after the baby gurgled again.
"Great." Craig groaned. "So now my baby's reviewing me."
"That's never going to stop." The Stone chuckled remembering even when her own children who were way past being classes as children on Gallifrey judged her.
"Here." The Doctor cut in scanning the area with his screwdriver. "Right here. Last night. A Cyberman took Shona."
"A Cyberman?" Craig repeated. "I thought it was a little silver rat."
"It's not a rat." The Doctor corrected. "It's a Cybermat."
"All right." He raised his hands up. "Don't have a go at me just because I don't know the names."
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"Cybermats are infiltrators." The Stone explained as they walked. "Very small, very deadly."
"They collect power like bees collect pollen." The Doctor added. "One of them's been sucking the electrical energy from this area. But why a shop?" He turned to the Stone. "You know, why not a nuclear power station?"
The Stone shrugged and looked at Craig as the Doctor also did. "Okay, why?"
The Doctor grinned. "Let's ask it. We wait for the shop to shut. We stake the place out and grab ourselves a Cybermat."
"And this is just a coincidence, is it?"
"What is?"
"Aliens in Colchester," Craig answered. "Aliens twice in my life, happening to me, just when you two turn up."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." The Doctor instantly defeated him and the Stone. "This is not our fault, Craig."
"Oh, shush." He tried to hush Alfie who was now crying. "Look what you've done now."
"That isn't the Doctors fault." The Stone shook her head. "Frankly I wouldn't blame him if it was because you two are arguing but it isn't, his nappy needs changing.
"Well sorry, I don't speak baby, do I."
"There's a changing station over by Electrical Goods." The Doctor supplied.
"And of course, you'd know that." He groaned and headed off. "Come on, Alfie."
"Craig!" The Doctor shouted. "It's a coincidence." He protested as the Stone turned around not knowing why she felt like she did before it hit her. "It happens. It's what the universe does for-" he froze and saw what his wife was looking at. Amy and Rory were walking towards them, not noticing either of the Time Lords. A young girl then stopped Amy and held a small notebook and a pen. "Can I have your autograph, please?"
Amy looked nervously at Rory who shrugged. "Er, yeah. Sure."
"Fun." The Doctor murmured after staring at them.
"What's your name?" Amy asked the girl.
"Elly."
"To Elly." She smiled. "I like your hairband."
"Thank you."
The Doctor went to call them before stopping himself.
The Stone sadly smiled and took the Doctors hand. The Time Lord looked down at his wife, almost forgetting she was actually there before he returned the smile.
"Come on sweetheart." The Stone whispered pulling him along. In their time Amy and Rory had probably already have witnessed the death of the Doctor and the Stone in America already. Seeing the Time Lords would only hurt them even more than it would to not speak to the humans.
They both hid behind a rack of clothes quietly watching.
"All right?" Rory asked.
"There you go." Amy smiled handing the notebook back.
"Thank you." She smiled and watched them head off. Elly then pointed towards, or rather behind the Time Lords when her mother headed over to the girl.
"Oh my." The Stone whispered turning around smiling at the large board of a perfume advert with Amy's face on. The Stone smiled at the name of the brand. "Petrichor." She let out a small breath. "Idris."
"Amelia Pond." He grinned proudly reading the catchy slogan: 'For The Girl Who's Tired Of Waiting'
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The two Time Lords hid behind a perfume cabinet with Craig waiting for George to pass by, his shoes making a sound on the floor with each step.
The man walked by without hearing the breathing or beating of hearts and the Doctor stood up bringing out his screwdriver to scan the area with.
"Right." He murmured. "Let's be having you then, Cybermat." He moved around quietly the only noise being the buzz of the sonic. "Shush." He tried to order Alfie to be quiet.
"Can't you put that on quiet?" Craig asked.
"No. It's a sonic screwdriver." The Doctor protested. "Sonic equals sound."
"That is a good idea." The Stone nodded at Craig. The Doctor pouted at the Time Lady. "Okay fine sweetheart." She rolled her eyes.
"Take this." The Doctor handed him a papoose. "I got it on my discount, ten percent off. It's a papoose."
"Why do I need a papoose?"
"Alfie wants you attached to him." He explained. "You are far too slow when he summons you."
"When's he going to stop giving me marks?"
"Like the Stone said before. Never. That's parenthood. Couldn't you have just got a babysitter?" He asked and Alfie gurgled. "No, any babysitter." He gurgled again. "No Alfie you cannot have my wife as your baby sitter because she is hot." He narrowed his eyes at the baby. "And excuse me, I'm the only one allowed to call her hot."
Alfie gurgled again and the Doctor groaned. "No, I'm not saying that she isn't hot because honestly the Stone is the most gorgeous woman I have ever laid eyes on. Ha!" He pointed. "See better than hot." The Doctor grinned.
The Stone chuckled slightly and shook her head at her husband. "Sweetheart, are you getting jealous because of a baby?"
"No." He protested sounding a little upset that the Stone would assume such a thing.
"Oh Doctor." She shook her head, "you really should understand by now that you can't lie to me and get away with it."
"I'm not lying though." He protested.
"Good." She smiled at him seeing it was useless to take it any further. She would just get back at him later, maybe not so much after admitted that she was hot.
"I told everyone I know I didn't need their help this weekend," Craig explained.
"Well."
"They won't even answer my calls. I didn't know there was going to be an invasion of Cyberman."
"Shush." They both hushed Alfie again, Craig placing him into the pamoose. The Cybermat suddenly appeared, the Stone grabbed the large net from the Doctor and swung it down, trapping the cybermat under it.
"Aha!" The Doctor cheered and then smacked a hand over his mouth. "That's very odd." He frowned. "It must be on low power. Or you're better at that than I remember."
"Or it's just that I don't have you nattering into my ear this time." The Stone smirked.
"I was busy." He whined.
"Yeah, yeah." She rolled her eyes carefully pulling it out of the net and holding it up.
"Oh, is that it? Craig blinked at them.
"Yeah."
"Oh, that's quite cute." He smiled and shifted Alfie so the baby could see. "Look at that. Look, Alfie, look."
The cybermat bared its teeth making the Time Lady yelp and hold it away while Craig protectively held Alfie, screeching with the Doctor who flashed his sonic at it.
"Metal rat, real mouth!" Craig cried pointing to the cybermat and then his own mouth. "Metal rat, real mouth."
"Yes, we know it is." The Doctor nodded.
"Metal rat, real mouth."
"Stop screaming." The Doctor ordered. "Stop, stop screaming. Shush." He instantly stopped him. Their heads all shot up at a scream that sounded a lot like George. "Come on!" The Doctor shouted running off. The Stone hesitated for a moment seeing Craig was struggling with Alfie and the pampoose. She sighed and shook her head muttering and apologising before quickly aiding Craig before running off the man zipping the Pampoose up.
"Doctor!" The Stone shouted after turning a corner in a small hallway and spotting him on the floor. Her ear instantly went against his chest hearing his two steady hearts beating in rhythm. She sighed thankful that nothing seemed to be wrong. "Doctor!" The Stone heared Craig shout trying to find him. "Stone."
"In here." The Time Lady shouted moving a strand of hair from the Doctors face.
"What happened?" Craig asked, voice thick with worry seeing the Doctor on the floor.
"He's okay." She nodded watching the Doctor see if he was waking up. "We should be dead though."
"We?"
"Oh never mind..." she muttered and lightly tapping the Doctors cheek. "Come on sweetheart, wakey, wakey." The Time Lord groaned and slowly opened his eyes, looking a little tense for a moment before relaxing seeing who he was looking at. "Morning sweetheart." The Time Lady smiled at him.
"Oh hello dear." He groaned a little trying to sit up a little too quickly. "Oh, I've been..." he ran a hand down his face. "I've been chipped, chapped, chopped. The Cyberman." He stood up placing a lot of weight on the Stone who had an arm wrapped around him. "It killed George, took him back to the ship."
"The Cybermen are here?" Craig asked slightly worried. "But you said-"
"Yeah, I know what I said." He cut in. "I say a lot of things. But the Stone fused the teleport. It should have taken them days to repair."
"Are you okay?"
"Oh, we should be dead." The Doctor Lords kissing at the Time Lady who just squeezed his hand. "But the arm it chopped me with, it was damaged. Old spare parts. Must have changed those missing people."
"They've changed the missing into Cybermen? Why didn't they change you?"
"It's a long story." The Stone went to explain it simply. "We're not exactly compatible. But why are they using spare parts? Why?"
"Everything we find out makes less sense." The Doctor shook his head slightly angry that they hadn't figured it out yet.
"Doctor, Stone, listen to me. If the Cybermen are here, then we're not safe. We've got to go. We've got to go back to base."
"We've got a base?" The Doctor asked his face brightening into a smile. "When did we get a base?"
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The Doctor and the Stone found themselves back in Craig's kitchen, the Doctor mixing milk and many other strange things in a mixing bowl.
"I'm going down the shop," Craig announced appearing in the hallway. "We've run out of milk. You know what to do if he cries." He tossed a mobile phone to them. The Doctor caught it.
"No." The Doctor shouted to him.
"Me neither," Craig said then left.
The Stone chuckled shaking her head. Alfie then started to cry. The Doctor looked at her his eyes practically begging her to help.
"Fine." She sighed. Instantly he grinned. "I hate you." She muttered standing up to leave the Time Lord.
"No, you don't!" He called grinning to himself. He moved over to the living room with his mixing bowl.
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The Stone quietly entered the room, the small baby still crying in the cot. "Hello, Stormageddon." She smiled quietly moving over to the cot. "It's only me. The Doctors downstairs trying to figure this all out." He continued the cry and she sighed a little rubbing her forehead. "It's been a long time... hey shush." She softly pleaded. "There, there. Go to sleep." He didn't listen. "You need to stop crying because you've honestly got a lot to look forward to, you know. A normal human life on Earth." She shrugged taking her jacket off. "Of course others may disagree but I think your simple lives are just so amazing. You have so much potential in life, you have friends and family that will love you and care for you, possibly a pet in the future and even a job that you will hopefully love, not everything is like that though, there will be dark days where you feel like you want the Universe to swallow you whole but now is not one of those times. Save the tears for later." She shook her head at him. "Trust me I was human for a while. Oh, that was a long time ago now." She reached in and picked the baby up who no longer was crying. "No, really I am." She shook her head. "Me and the Doctor, we're so old now and so near the end."
Alfie gurgled and the Stone chuckled. "Yes you are, Alfie Owens, you are so young and right now, everything's ahead of you. You could be anything." He gurgled again and she nodded in reply lightly bouncing him. "Yes, you could walk among the stars." She glanced up and frowned at the projection on the ceiling. "They don't actually look like that, you know But I'll fix that." She winked and held her sonic to the holographic starscape. The projection then changed to show more realistic stars, she placed her sonic into her jacket. "Yeah. When me and my husband were young we dreamed of the stars, we had no idea how far we would go."
The Doctor softly smiled standing in the doorway, watching them. Honestly, he had dreamt of something like this before, in a completely different setting and definitely not with Craigs child. It wasn't going to happen though, not with their track record and with what was soon facing them. "I think we lived that dream." He murmured walking into the room. "We owned the stage, gave it a hundred and ten percent. I hope you have as much fun as we did, Alfie."
"And how long were you there for?" The Stone asked.
"Long enough." Was all he replied. "Your dad's trying his best, you know." The Doctor said to Alfie. "Yes, we know it's not his fault he doesn't have mammary glands. No, neither do I." The Stone squeaked at the baby's next comment. "No, you can't." The Doctor sternly protested.
"Doctor is that a phone beeping?" The Stone asked hearing a beeping noise coming from behind them.
They turned around and saw the Cybermat gnashing it's teeth. "No you don't." The Doctor gritted his teeth and it and pulled out his sonic, flashing and stunning the cybermat. "Go, go, go." He and the Stone hurried past the robot and headed down the stairs.
"Shhhh" the Stone tried to sooth the baby as they headed to the kitchen.
"It's going to be okay." The Doctor reassured. "Good Alfie." The baby then gurgled and the Doctor nodded. "Yes. Don't worry about anything. We're going to go outside." He opened the patio door and accidentally dropped his screwdriver in the process by trying to open the patio with the hand holding the sonic. "Oops." He mumbled after shutting the door and realising it locked itself.
The Stone groaned and wanted to hit the Doctor around the head but currently, that wouldn't help anyone so she just gritted her teeth as the Doctor tried to ring Craig. "Come on, Craig, pick up, pick up, pick up, pick up." He muttered into the phone.
"Craig?" The Doctor asked hearing the answer phone. "Don't worry. Alfie is fine. But on no account enter the house."
"Doctor!" They heard him shout. Shooting their heads to look into the kitchen they saw Craig lying on the floor trying to force the cybermat away from them. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!" They both shouted.
"Help me!"
"Stone sonic."
"It's in my jacket, which is upstairs." She groaned. "I am stupid."
"Never mind." He shrugged it off. "And no you're not. Stay here with Alfie." He then stood in front of the glass door and then crashed through it, actually landibg perfectly and brushing some glass out of his hair.
"Okay..." the Stone quietly murmured. She blinked wheb Alfie gurgled. "Shut up, he's my husband I am allowed to think like that with him if I want, which I am not right now."
"Where's Alfie?" Craig shouted. "Where's Alfie?"
"He's safe." The Time Lords both shouted. "He's safe!"
"Get it off me!" Craig pleaded. The Doctor picked up his sonic and fiddled with the settings.
"I think I can find the right frequency, shut it down again!"
"Kill it!" Craig protested.
"All right, all right, all right!" The Doctor agreed. "Move!" He hit the Cybermat with a large pan. It then leaped onto the Time Lord. The Stone swallowed hard, if the Cyberman didn't kill him the Cybermat sure would.
"Baking tray, Craig." The Doctor cleared the Time Ladys thoughts with him shouting. "Baking tray!"
The human man did so and they both forced it onto the floor.
"Hold it down!"
"Get on with it!"
"Ah, it must be shielded from metastatic energy." The Doctor groaned trying to find the setting. "Of course."
"Of course," Craig muttered.
"Don't worry, I have an app for that. Stand back. Stand back!"
Craig moved back and the Doctor used his sonic to kill the Cybermat that sparked. The Time Lady sighed glad that no one was hurt.
"Success." The Doctor grinned. "That was amazing. You must be really, really strong. That thing should have had you easily."
"Is it definitely dead?"
"Inactive, yes." The Doctor nodded. "Technically never been alive. It was playing possum before, to take us by surprise. Bravo."
"Phew." Craig sighed in relief before his eyes widened and he ran to the door. "Alfie!"
"He's fine." The Stone smiled handing the baby over to Craig. "He honestly found it more amusing than worrying. I think he's been around the Doctor too much." She shot the Time Lord a look.
"Says you dear." The Doctor smirked.
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