Chapter Forty: Fear Her

The TARDIS materialised early in the morning of the 27th July 2012, in an outdoor storage facility near some train tracks. The Doctor went to check outside, but found that he'd parked with the doors facing a blue cargo container; he couldn't get out. Grateful he'd checked before the girls saw, he went back inside to rectify his mistake.

Rose and Alex were still asleep, but he'd decided to surprise them by choosing the destination early. That gave him time to get lost in his thoughts.

Though it didn't seem like it, it had been two years that the girls had been travelling with him. Two years since Autons at Hendricks. Twenty one months since Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North, and fifteen since Captain Jack Harkness, and who are you? The Doctor had seen so much with the girls. Autons, the Face of Boe, the Moxx of Balhoon, the Gelth, the Slitheen, a Dalek, the Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe, Reapers, Chula warriors, Nanogenes, Catkind, a werewolf, Krillitanes, Cybermen, the Wire, a pack of Hoix, an Absorbaloff, and even the Devil himself. He was so glad he'd given them a second chance to come with him.

***

It was another half an hour before Rose and Alex stumbled into the console room.

"Oh, good," the Time Lord said and led the girls outside.

Rose looked at a Shane Ward poster as the Doctor locked up. "So, near future, yeah?"

The Doctor grinned. "I had a passing fancy. Only it didn't pass, it stopped." He grabbed the girls' hands and walked to the nearest street: Dame Kelly Holmes Close. There were banners announcing London 2012, and the girls looked delighted. "Thirtieth Olympiad."

"No way!" Alex gasped, laughing.

"Why didn't I think of this? That's great!" Rose marvelled.

"Only seems like yesterday a few naked Greek blokes were tossing a discuss about, wrestling each other in the sand with crowds stood around baying." The Doctor pulled up short for a second. "No, wait a minute, that was Club Med. Just in time for the opening doo dah, ceremony, tonight." At Alex's smile, he grinned. "I thought you'd like that. Last one they had in London was dynamite. Wembley, 1948. I loved it so much, I went back and watched it all over again." The sisters' attention was snatched away by some posters of missing children on a telegraph pole, but the Doctor was oblivious. "Fella carrying the torch, lovely chap, what was his...? Mark? John? Mark? Legs like pipe cleaners, but strong as a whippet."

"Doctor," Rose interrupted.

"And in those days, everybody had a tea party to go to."

"Doctor!"

"Did you ever have one of those little cakes with the crunchy ball bearings on top?"

"You should really look at this, Kas," Alex told him, rolling her eyes and shivering. It was unusually cold.

He veered off his course, still talking. "Do you know those things? Nobody else in this entire galaxy's ever even bothered to make edible ball bearings. Genius!" As he joined the girls, he slipped straight into seriousness without a hitch. "What's taking them, do you think? Snatching children from a thoroughly ordinary street like this." He noticed Alex's goosebumps and lent her his trenchcoat. "Why's it so cold? Is someone reducing the temperature?"

Alex frowned. "It says they all went missing this week. Why would a person do something like this?"

"What makes you think it's a person?" The Doctor raised an eyebrow, and she tilted her head, acknowledging his point.

Rose watched as a woman hurried in taking her rubbish out and going back inside. The only other people on the street were the council road-menders and their white van. "Whatever it is, it's got the whole street scared to death. Doctor, what—?"

But the Time Lord had ran off up the street to go and investigate something or other. The girls rolled their eyes, before noticing a Mini that had stopped in the middle of the street. They went over to help out as the driver and one of the roadmenders started pushing.

"Do you want a hand?" Alex offered.

"No, we're all right, loves," the road-mender—who's name tag declared him Kel—smiled politely.

"You're not," Rose contradicted. "We're tougher than we look, honest." The girls joined in pushing and after a minute, the engine sputtered into life, jolting the car forwards. Kel fell over, and the driver thanked the trio, before getting back in and driving off.

"Does this happen a lot?" Alex asked, as Kel picked himself up and dusted himself off.

"Been doing it all week," he replied, before squinting at her. "Ain't you one of them Avengers people from America?"

Alex frowned. "Not the last time I checked."

"It's been happening since those children started going missing?" Rose checked, bringing them back to the topic at hand.

"Yeah, I suppose so." Kel was still looking at her sister confusedly. "Every car cuts out. The council are going nuts. I mean, they've given this street the works. Renamed it. I've been tarmacking every pot hole. Look at that. Beauty, innit? Yeah! And all that is because that Olympic Torch comes right by the end of this Close. Just down there. Everything's got to be perfect, ain't it? Only it ain't."

An old woman joined in the conversation from where she'd been walking along the street. "It takes them when they're playing."

"What takes them?" Rose questioned, brow furrowed.

"Danny, Jane, Dale. Snatched in the blink of an eye."

Hearing a familiar voice further down the road, Alex turned and sighed. A man had obviously discovered the Doctor investigating, and was now backing him down the road.

"I'm, I'm a police officer!" the Doctor insisted. "That's what I am. I've got a badge and a police car. You don't have to get—I can, I can prove it. Just, hold on."

"We've had plenty of coppers poking around here, and you don't look or sound like any of them. You look like one of them American thugs calling 'emselves heroes!"

"See, look!" the Doctor said, completely ignoring the man. He pointed to Alex. "I've got a colleague. Lewis."

The man looked her over, taking in her shorts, bare legs, and ACDC shirt, all under the Doctor's trenchcoat. "Well, she looks less like a copper than you do."

"Rude!" Alex whined.

"These two are in training. New recruits. It was either that or hairdressing, so..." The Doctor pulled his hand out from the trenchcoat's inside pocket where he'd been digging for a minute or so, brandishing his psychic paper. "Voila!"

"What are you going to do?" a young woman who had joined the group asked.

"The police have knocked on every door. No clues, no leads, nothing," the older woman stated.

"Look, kids run off sometimes, all right? That's what they do."

"Saw it with me own eyes. Dale Hicks in your garden, playing with your Tommy, and then pfft! Right in front of me, like he was never there. There's no need to look any further than this street. It's right here amongst us."

"Why don't we—?" the Doctor tried as everyone started arguing.

"Why don't we start with him?" another woman cut him off, pointing at Kel. "There's been all sorts like him in this street, day and night."

"Fixing things up for the Olympics," Kel explained.

"Yeah, and taking an awful long time about it."

"Come on, guys, let's just—" Rose was cut off.

"You don't—What you just said, that's slander!" Kel accused.

"I don't care what it is!"

"I think we need to just—"

"I want an apology off her!"

"Stop picking on him!"

"Yeah, stop picking on me!"

"And stop pretending to be blind! It's evil!"

"I don't believe in evil."

"Oh, no, you just believe in tarmackers with sack loads of kidnapped kiddies in their van!"

"Hey, hey, hey, that's not what she's saying."

"Would you stop ganging up on me?!"

"Feeling guilty, are we?"

Alex looked around at the various expressions of the arguing people around her, and rolled her eyes. She put her hands over her ears and gave a loud, piercing whistle. Everyone was silent, staring at her, and she smiled. "Thank you. Now, in the last six days, three of your children have been stolen. Snatched out of thin air, right?"

The old woman made a gesture of asking for permission. Alex nodded, pointing to her.

"Look around you. This was a safe street till it came. It's not a person. I'll say it if no one else will. Maybe you're coppers, maybe you're Avengers, maybe you're not. I don't care who you are. Can you please help us?"

The TARDIS trio smiled. As she sighed in relief that they'd be able to help, Rose noticed a girl watching from a window. One of the women went back inside to check on her.

***

Later, the Doctor was sniffing around in Tom's dad's front garden.

Alex frowned. "You want a hanky?"

"Can you smell it?" He replied with his own question. "What does it remind you of?"

The girls sniffed. "Sort of metal?" Rose said, shrugging.

The Doctor looked at them expectantly.

"Oh. Oh."

***

The trio then found themselves walking down an alleyway between two sets of back gardens.

"Danny Edwards cycled in one end, but never came out the other," Alex mused. Wherever he was, the poor kid must be terrified.

The Doctor reeled back suddenly. "Whoa, there it goes again! Look at the hairs on the back of my manly hairy hand."

"And there's that smell," Rose added. "It's like, er, a burnt fuse plug or something."

"There's a residual energy in the spots where the kids vanished. Whatever it was, it used an awful lot of power to do this," the Doctor frowned.

"Oh, aren't you a beautiful boy?!" Alex exclaimed as they left the alleyway, skipping over to pet the ginger cat sitting on someone's lawn. "Yes, you are, yes, you are!"

"Thanks!" the Doctor grinned, before he saw the cat. "Oh." Rose burst out laughing at his expression.

"Aww," Alex cooed as the cat rolled over to let her tickle its tummy. "Isn't he just adorable?"

"Nah, I'm not really a cat person. Once you've been threatened by one in a nun's wimple, it kind of takes the joy out of it," the Doctor replied dryly. The cat stood up and went inside a cardboard box, and Alex crawled after it, stopping short of the entrance.

"Hey, whatcha going in there for?" she asked, giggling, until she saw the empty interior of the box. "Doctor!" She then recoiled, the metallic smell hitting her.

The Doctor picked the cardboard box up, also recoiling once he sniffed it, and Alex stood up, putting her hands on her hips. "Whoa! Ion residue! Blimey! That takes some doing. Just to snatch a living organism out of space-time. This baby is just like, I'm having some of that! I'm impressed."

"So the cat's been transported?" Rose checked.

The Doctor nodded. "It can harness huge reserves of ionic power." He looked at both of the sisters. "We need to find the source of that power. Find the source and you will find whatever has taken to stealing children and fluffy animals. See what you can see." He winked at Alex, making her blush. "Keep 'em peeled, Lewis."

***

Alex was walking along the pavement outside a few houses with built-in garages when she heard a scuffling from inside one of them. She frowned, walking up to it. "Is that you, puss cat? Are you trapped?" There were more noises, and a thumping. "Not going to open it, not going to open it, not going to open it," she muttered to herself, squeezing her eyes shut. She sighed, opening her eyes, and tested the handle. The door was unlocked. She opened it a little, and a scribbly thing shot out, going around her, then knocking her onto her back.

"Stay still!" the Doctor instructed, and Alex heard the buzzing of his sonic screwdriver as the ball became smaller. It dropped into her hands. "Okie dokie?"

"Yeah, thanks," she said as he stood over her and grabbed her arms, pulling her up.

"No probs." He took a look at the thing as Rose joined them, and frowned. "I'll give you a fiver if you can tell me what the hell it is, because I haven't got the foggiest."

"I was thinking 'scribbly thing'," Alex inputted, smiling cheekily.

"Well, I can tell you you've just killed it," Rose remarked, looking at the still creature in the Time Lord's hands.

"It was never living. It's animated by energy. Same energy that's snatching people. That is so dinky!" the Doctor exclaimed, grinning. "The go-anywhere creature. Fits in your pocket, makes friends, impresses the boss, breaks the ice at parties."

***

Back in the TARDIS, the creature was under analysis.

"Okay, here we go. Let's have a look," the Doctor said, peering at the monitor. His eyes widened. "Get out of here!"

"What's it say?" Rose inquired.

The Doctor grabbed a pencil and used the eraser end on the ball, part of which was rubbed out. "It is! It's graphite. Basically the same material as an HB pencil."

"So, I was attacked by a what?" Alex prompted, looking at the Doctor meaningfully.

"Scribble creature—" At Alex's cough, the Doctor rolled his eyes and retrieved a £5 note from his jacket pocket for her. "—brought into being with ionic energy. Whatever we're dealing with, it can create things as well as take them. But why make a scribble creature?" He frowned.

"Maybe it was a mistake," Rose suggested. "I mean, you scribble over something when you want to get rid of it, like a, like a drawing. Like a, a child's drawing. You said it was in the street." 

"Probably," the Doctor confirmed.

"The girl," Rose realised.

"Of course!" Alex exclaimed, before looking confused. "What girl?"

"Something about her gave me the creeps. Even her own mum looked scared of her," Rose frowned.

"Are you deducting?" the Doctor asked.

"I think I am."

"Copper's hunch?" he teased.

"Permission to follow it up, Sarge?"

***

Rose had lead the trio to this girl's house, and so the Doctor rang the doorbell before rattling the letterbox impatiently. Eventually, a young woman answered.

"Hello. I'm the Doctor, this is Alex, and this is Rose. Can we see your daughter?"

"No, you can't," the woman replied quickly.

"Okay. Bye," the Doctor accepted, and the trio began walking off again.

"Why?" The trio turned back around. "Why do you want to see Chloe?"

"Well, there's some interesting stuff going on in this street, and we just thought... Well, we thought that she might like to give us a hand," Alex explained innocently.

"Sorry to bother you," Rose added.

"Yeah, sorry. We'll let you get on with things. On your own. Bye again." The Doctor waved, and they were off again.

"Wait! Can you help her?" the woman asked, sounding scared.

The Doctor smiled reassuringly. "Yes, I can."

***

Chloe's mother—who had introduced herself as Trish—lead them into the living room.

"She stays in her room most of the time. I try talking to her, but it's like trying to speak to a brick wall. She gives me nothing, just asks to be left alone."

"What about Chloe's dad?" Rose questioned.

"Chloe's dad died a year ago," Trish replied.

"I'm sorry."

Trish snorted. "You wouldn't be if you'd known him."

"Well," the Doctor said, diffusing the atmosphere. "Let's go and say hi."

"I should check on her first. She might be asleep," Trish said quickly.

"Why are you afraid of her, Trish?" the Doctor inquired, his brows knitting together.

Trish sniffed. "I want you to know before you see her, that she's really a great kid."

"I'm sure she is," the Doctor agreed.

"She's never been in trouble at school," Trish continued. "You should see her report from last year. A's and B's."

"Can you scout out upstairs?" the Doctor asked telepathically, and Alex nodded minutely.

"Can I use your loo?" she asked, smiling when Trish nodded, pointing up the stairs. She followed the directions, winking at the Doctor and Rose behind Trish's back.

As she reached the top of the stairs, Chloe exited her room, so Alex quickly hid in the airing cupboard until the younger girl went downstairs. She then went into Chloe's room and raised her eyebrows as she admired the pictures all over the walls, including one of the cat she'd been playing with earlier. There was a noise from the wardrobe, and Alex jumped, knocking over a jar of coloured pencils. She gathered them up again, then turned to the wardrobe.

As she approached, the doors rattled again. Alex frowned, opening them. A strong wind blew in her face. She parted the clothes to see a large drawing of a bearded, yellow-eyed man.

"I'm coming," a low voice warned hauntingly. "I'm coming to hurt you."

"Doctor!" Alex yelled, terrified by the sinister threat. She'd heard something similar only three years ago, and that had been bad enough.

The Time Lord burst in only a minute later and swiftly shut the wardrobe doors before checking Alex over for injuries. She was shaking, and he hugged her.

"Look at it," she whispered, her eyes wide.

"No, thanks," he replied, rubbing her back before moving to look at the other pictures.

"What the hell was that?" Trish asked as she, Rose, and Chloe entered.

"A, a drawing. The face of a man," Alex responded, shaking her head.

"What face?" Trish questioned, going to open the doors, but Alex stood in front of them.

"Best not," she shuddered.

"What've you been drawing?" Trish inquired, looking at her daughter confusedly.

"I drew him yesterday," Chloe said by way of reply.

"Who?"

"Dad."

"Your dad?" Trish sighed. "But he's long gone. Chloe, with all the lovely things in the world, why him?"

Chloe shrugged. "I dream about him, staring at me."

"I thought we were putting him behind us. What's the matter with you?"

"We need to stay together," Chloe stated.

Trish nodded. "Yes, we do."

"No. Not you, us," Chloe corrected her. "We need to stay together, and then it'll be all right."

"Trish," Alex cut in. "The drawings. Have you seen what Chloe's drawings can do?"

"Who gave you permission to come into her room?" Trish demanded. "Get out of my house."

"Tell us about the drawings, Chloe," the Doctor instructed softly, staring at the girl.

"I don't want to hear any more of this," Trish said, shaking her head.

"But that drawing of her dad. I heard a voice. He spoke," Alex persisted, her voice hollow with the memories that had been swirling round in her mind ever since.

"He's dead," Trish insisted. "And these, they're kids' pictures. Now get out!"

"Chloe had a power. And I don't know how, but she used it to take Danny Edwards, Dale Hicks. She's using it to snatch the kids," Rose explained quickly.

"Get out."

"Have you seen those drawings move?" Alex asked, even as she saw a picture-boy wave behind the Doctor.

"I haven't see anything," Trish denied weakly.

"Yes, you have, out of the corner of your eye," the Doctor realised.

"No."

"And you dismissed it, because what choice do you have when you see something you can't possibly explain? You dismiss it, right? And if anyone mentions it, you get angry, so it's never spoken of, ever again."

"She's a child."

"You're terrified of her," the Doctor continued. "But there's nowhere to turn to, because who's going to believe the things you see out of the corner of your eye? No one. Except us."

"Who are you?" Trish asked, bewildered. "Who are any of you?"

"We're help."

***

Down in Trish's kitchen, the Doctor started absentmindedly eating marmalade from a jar with his fingers. Alex rolled her eyes, clearing her throat. He stopped.

"Those pictures, they're alive," Rose summarised. "She's drawing people and they end up in her pictures."

"Ionic energy," the Doctor agreed. "Chloe's harnessing it to steal those kids and place them in some kind of holding pen made up of ionic power."

"And what about the dad from hell in her wardrobe?" Alex asked.

Trish sighed. "How many times do I have to tell you he's dead."

"Well, he's got a very loud voice for a dead bloke," Alex reasoned frankly, raising her eyebrows.

"If living things can become drawings, maybe drawings can become living things," the Doctor mused. "Chloe's real dad is dead, but not the one who visits her in her nightmares. That dad seems very real. That's the dad she's drawn and he's a heartbeat away from crashing into this world."

"She always got the worst of it when he was alive," Trish sighed.

"Doctor, how can a twelve-year-old girl be doing any of this?" Rose questioned.

The Time Lord raised an eyebrow. "Let's find out."

***

When the quartet walked in, Chloe was sitting on her bed. She held up the Vulcan salute when the Doctor approached.

"Nice one," he smirked, before putting his fingers on her temple, guiding her to lie down as she passed out. "There we go."

"I can't let him do this," Trish muttered, moving to stop him, but Alex stood in the way.

"It's okay. We're going to help your daughter. Just trust him."

"Now we can talk," the Doctor murmured.

"I want Chloe. Wake her up. I want Chloe," the thing that was possessing Chloe stated.

"Who are you?" the Doctor inquired.

"I want Chloe Webber."

"What've you done to my little girl?" Trish asked, her voice cracking a little.

"Doctor, what is it?" Rose questioned, but both were ignored.

"I'm speaking to you, the entity that is using this human child. I request parley in compliance with the Shadow Proclamation," the Time Lord continued.

"I don't care about shadows or parleys." Alex snorted, making the Doctor smile a little.

"So what do you care about?" he wondered.

"I want my friends."

The Doctor sighed. "You're lonely, I know. Identify yourself."

"I am one of many. I travel with my brothers and sisters. We take an endless journey. A thousand of your lifetimes. But now I am alone. I hate it. It's not fair, and I hate it."

"Name yourself!"

"Isolus!"

A look of realisation crossed the Time Lord's face as he sat down on the bed by Chloe's head. "You're Isolus. Of course."

"Our journey began in the Deep Realms when we were a family," the Isolus stated. As she spoke, she was drawing blindly in one of Chloe's sketchbooks.

"What's that?" Trish inquired, pointing to the picture.

"The Isolus Mother, drifting in deep space," the Doctor replied. "See, she jettisons millions of fledgling spores. Her children. The Isolus are empathic beings of intense emotions, but when they're cast off from their mother, their empathic link, their need for each other, is what sustains them. They need to be together. They cannot be alone."

Alex's eyes widened at the thought. She knew what it felt like to need someone, but this was on a whole other scale.

"Our journey is long," the Isolus added.

"The Isolus children travel, each inside a pod," the Doctor continued. "They ride the heat and energy of solar tides. It takes thousands and thousands of years for them to grow up."

"Thousands of years just floating through space. Poor things," Rose sighed. "Don't they go mad with boredom?"

"We play."

"You play?" Alex asked, frowning.

The Doctor nodded. "While they travel, they play games. They use their ionic power to literally create make believe worlds in which to play." 

She raised an eyebrow. "In flight entertainment?"

"Helps keep them happy. While they're happy, they can feed off each other's love. Without it they're lost." The Doctor looked down at the Isolus, his voice quietly concerned. "Why did you come to Earth?"

"We were too close," the Isolus replied. She drew something new on the sketchpad, which the Doctor translated.

"That's a solar flare from your sun. Would have made a tidal wave of solar energy that scattered the Isolus pods."

"Only I fell to Earth. My brothers and sisters are left up there, and I cannot reach them. So alone."

"Your pod crashed. Where is it?" the Doctor questioned.

"My pod was drawn to heat, and I was drawn to Chloe Webber. She was like me, alone. She needed me, and I her."

"You empathised with her," the Doctor realised sadly. "You wanted to be with her because she was alone like you."

"I want my family. It's not fair."

Alex frowned. "I understand. You want to make a family. But you can't stay in this child. it's wrong. You can't steal any more friends for yourself. You don't have to anymore. We can get you back to your brothers and sisters."

"I am alone," the Isolus stated forcefully. There was a crash from the wardrobe and a red glow emitted from the inside, shaking the door. Chloe's body was shaking with it.

"I'm coming to hurt you. I'm coming," Chloe's dad threatened. Alex closed her eyes briefly.

"Trish, how do you calm her?" the Doctor asked, calmly but urgently.

"What?"

"When she has nightmares, what do you do?"

"I... I," Trish stammered.

"What do you do?"

"I sing to her."

"Then start singing," the Time Lord instructed, moving away from Chloe as Trish went to her, instead going to hold Alex's hand.

"Chloe, I'm coming."

"Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree, merry, merry king of the bush is he."

"Chloe. Chloe. Chloe. Chloe."

"Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra, gay your life must be. Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra, gay your life must be," Trish sang, and finally, Chloe relaxed, and the wardrobe fell silent. Trish sobbed. "He came to her because she was lonely. Chloe, I'm sorry!"

***

Trish and the TARDIS trio were in the living room, collecting up all the pencils and pens they could find.

"Chloe usually got the brunt of his temper when he'd had a drink," Trish explained. "the day he crashed the car, I thought we were free. I thought it was over."

"Did you talk to her about it?" Rose asked.

"I didn't want to," Trish replied, shaking her head.

"But maybe that's why Chloe feels so alone. Because has all these terrible dreams about her dad, and she's so scared, but there's no one she can talk to," Alex suggested, raising an eyebrow mildly.

"Her and the Isolus. Two lonely kids who need each other," the Doctor mused.

"And it won't stop, will it, Doctor? It'll just keep pulling kids in," Rose added.

The Time Lord nodded. "It's desperate to be loved. It's used to a pretty big family."

"How big?" Alex inquired, although she wasn't expecting to like the answer.

"Say, four billion?"

***

After telling Trish to not let Chloe draw anything, Rose, Alex, and the Doctor set off back to the TARDIS.

"We need that pod," the Doctor said.

Rose frowned. "It crashed. Won't it be destroyed?"

"Well, it's been sucking in all the heat it can," Alex reasoned, thinking back to how cold she'd felt when they first entered the street.

"Hopefully that should keep it in a fit state to launch," the Doctor agreed. "it must be close. it should have a weak energy signature that the TARDIS can trace."

"And once we find it, then we can stop the Isolus," Alex finished cheerfully.

As the trio left the street, none of them noticed Chloe watching them from her bedroom window.

***

"We can scan for the same trace that I picked up from the scribble creature," the Doctor was saying as he unlocked the TARDIS. "We'd need to widen the field a bit."

Chloe watched the trio go into the small blue box.

***

Ten minutes later, the Doctor and Alex were building an energy-tracing device.

"You knew the Isolus was lonely before it told you," Rose noticed. "How?"

"I know what it's like to travel a long way on your own," the Doctor replied casually, before glancing at Alex. "Give me the styner-magnetic." She handed it to him, chewing gum at the same time.

"Sounds like you're on its side," Rose stated.

"I sympathise, that's all."

The blonde frowned. "The Isolus has caused a lot of pain for these people."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow, concentrating on the device he was making. "It's a child. That's why it went to Chloe. Two lonely mixed up kids." He smiled to himself briefly, remembering where he'd heard that before.

Rose shrugged. "Feels to me like a temper tantrum because it can't get its own way."

"It's scared," the Doctor whined. "Come on, you were a kid once. Binary dot."

"Yes, and I know what kids can be like. Right little terrors," Rose exclaimed, rolling her eyes.

"Gum."

Alex poked her tongue out with the gum in a ball on the end. The Doctor rolled his eyes, taking it and sticking it inside the device.

"We've got cousins," Rose continued. "Kids can't have it all their own way. That's part of being a family."

"That didn't mean you had to steal my Bob the Builder blanket when you had that sleepover with Shareen," Alex pointed out slyly, smirking. Rose rolled her eyes again.

"What about trying to understand them?" the Doctor asked.

Rose snorted. "Easy for you to say. You don't have kids."

"I was a dad once," the Time Lord replied. Rose blinked.

"What?" She shared a look with Alex, who just shrugged. She wasn't all that surprised. After all, when they'd met, the Doctor had been 900 (give or take a millennium), so it wasn't really shocking that he had had a family before the Tylers came along. 

The Doctor closed the lid on the glass globe containing the device with a grin, ignoring Rose's surprise. "I think we're there!" He then turned to the sisters. "Fear, loneliness. They're the big ones, girls. Some of the most terrible acts ever committed have been inspired by them. We're not dealing with something that wants to conquer or destroy. There's a lot of things you need to get across this universe. Warp drive, wormhole refractors. You know the thing you need most of all? You need a hand to hold."

"Hey," Alex said, pointing to the monitor which was showing a new display. The Doctor, thinking she was just holding her hand out, took it, grinning. "No." She laughed. "That's... that's great, that's really great, but look, I'm pointing."

The Doctor peered at the monitor for a second before grinning again. "It's the pod! It is in the street. Everything's coming up Doctor."

The girls made their way out while the Doctor followed, carefully handling the device so he wouldn't drop it. "Okay. It's about two inches across. Dull grey, like a gull's egg. Very light."

"So these pods, they travel from sun to sun using heat, yeah? So it's not all about love and stuff. Doesn't the pod just need heat?" Rose asked. There was a crash of glass breaking behind them.

"Doctor?" Alex inquired, rolling her eyes, before the girls turned, finding him and the TARDIS gone.

"Doctor!" Rose cried, looking around, and turned to find her sister had now vanished too.

***

Rose hammered on Trish's door. The woman let her in, and Rose pushed past her to run upstairs.

"It's okay," Trish called after her. "I've taken all the pencils off her."

In Chloe's room, Rose snatched the drawing of the Doctor, the TARDIS, and Alex, complete with wings, body armour, and the ends of her tattoo-like Mark.

"Leave me alone," the Isolus ordered. "I want to be with Chloe Webber. I love Chloe Webber."

"Bring them back, now!" Rose begged.

"No."

"Don't you realise what you've done? He was the only one who could help you. Now bring them back!" Rose was starting to cry.

"Leave me alone! I love Chloe Webber!" the Isolus insisted.

Rose sighed. "I know. I know." She looked down at the picture, where the Doctor and Alex were sitting with their backs against the TARDIS, the Doctor with his arm around her, Alex's head resting on his shoulder. "Doctor, Alex... if you can hear me, I'm going to get you out of there. I'll find the pod." She then dropped the picture onto Chloe's bed, and ran out onto the street, yelling to Trish, "Don't leave her alone, no matter what."

Outside, Kel was kneeling by his latest tarmac patch, admiring it.

"Heat," Rose muttered. "They travel on heat."

Kel looked up, and grinned when he saw her. "Look at this finish. Smooth as a baby's bottom. Not a bump or a lump."

"Kel, was there anything in this street in the last few days giving off a lot of heat?" Rose questioned.

"I mean, you can eat your dinner off this. Beautiful. So you tell me why the other one's got a lump in it when I gave it the same love and craftsmanship as I did this one," Kel complained.

Rose sighed. "Well, when you've worked it out, put it in a big book about tarmacking, but before you do that, think back six days."

Kel thought. "Six days. When I was laying this the first time round."

"What?"

He shrugged. "Well, that's when I filled in this pothole for the first time."

"Six days ago?" Rose checked again.

"Yeah."

"Hot fresh tar." She grinned.

"Blended to a secret council recipe." Kel nodded. Rose got up and ran into the back of his van. "I don't keep it in the van! Hey, that's a council van. Out!" Rock grabbed a pick axe, grinning maniacally. "Whoa, wait, wait, wait. You just removed a council axe from a council van. Put it back. No, don't—Wait! Put the axe back in the van. That's my van. Give me the axe. No! Wait! No!" Rose started digging up the pothole. "No! You, stop! You just took a council axe from a council van and now you're digging up a council road! I'm reporting you to the council!"

Rose ignored him, and dug through the crumbled tar to pick up the egg-like Isolus pod. "It went hottest thing in the street. Your tar."

"What is it?" Kel asked curiously.

"It's a spaceship," Rose replied. She paused, frowning. "Not a council spaceship, I'm afraid."

***

"I've found it!" Rose exclaimed, bursting into Trish's living room holding the pickaxe and the Isolus pod. "I don't know what to do with it, but maybe the Isolus will just hop on board." She blinked. "Hang on, I told you not to leave her."

On the TV, the presenter gasped. "My God! Er, what's going on here?" Everyone in the Olympic stadium had disappeared.

Kel entered, following Rose. "I don't care if you've got Snow White and the Seven Dwarves buried under there, you don't go digging up—"

"Shut up and look!" Rose snapped as she and Trish watched the screen.

"The crowd has vanished! Er, they're gone. Everyone had gone. Thousands of people have just gone. Right in front of my eyes. It's impossible. Bob, can we join you in the box? ... Bob? Not you too, Bob?"

Rose groaned. "The stadium won't be enough. The Isolus has four billion brothers and sisters." She ran up the stairs and tried Chloe's door, only to find it had been wedged shut with a chair. "Chloe? Chloe, it's Rose! Open the door! We found your ship. We can send you home."

"Chloe?" Trish asked, behind Rose.

"Open up!" Rose yelled, before sighing. "Right, stand back." She used the pickaxe to smash through part of Chloe's door so she could push the chair away and open it, to see Chloe drawing a picture of the Earth on her wall. "Chloe!" Trish and Kel followed her in.

"I'm coming to hurt you. I'm coming," Chloe's dad threatened from the wardrobe, the doors of which were rattling again.

"I've got to stop her," Rose muttered, starting forwards.

"If you stop Chloe Webber, I will let him out," the Isolus threatened, glancing at the wardrobe. Rose stopped in her tracks. "We will let him out together. I cannot be alone. It's not fair."

"Look, I've got your pod," Rose said, showing the egg-like ship.

"The pod is dead," the Isolus stated.

"It only needs heat," Rose frowned.

"It needs more than heat," the Isolus contradicted.

"What, then?" Rose asked, exasperated. She just wanted her sister and her best friend back.

"I'm not being funny or nothing, but that picture just moved. And that one!" Kel pointed to the picture of the Doctor and Alex. The Doctor was now pointing to a drawing of the Olympic torch, while Alex appeared to have fallen asleep (again) by the TARDIS.

"She didn't draw that, he did. But it needs more than heat, Doctor," Rose sighed. Suddenly, her ears tuned into the commentary on Chloe's laptop.

"... is still on its way. I suppose it's much more than a torch now, it's a beacon. It's a beacon of hope and fortitude and courage. And it's a beacon of love."

"Love," she repeated, her eyes lighting up in realisation. "I know how to charge up the pod."

Rose ran out of the house, pushing through the crowd with Kel to the barriers as the torchbearer approached the end of the street.

"Sorry, you'll have to watch from here," a policeman told her.

"No, I've got to go closer," she tried.

"No way."

"I can stop this from happening," Rose exclaimed, realising that probably didn't sound right to everyone else.

The pod chittered in her hands.

"You felt it, didn't you?" Rose asked it. "Feel the love." She threw the pod into the air, and it flew into the flame of the Olympic Torch. The torchbearer staggered briefly, but managed to carry on. "Yes!"

***

The Doctor and Alex were walking down Dame Kelly Holmes Close watching the celebrations with smiles when they heard someone behind them.

"Cake?" Rose offered. They turned around to see her holding out a pair of fairy cakes with silver balls on top.

"Top banana! Mmm. I can't stress this enough. Ball bearings you can eat, masterpiece!" the Doctor exclaimed, him and Alex digging in. He yelped a little when Rose squashed the pair in a massive hug.

"I though I'd lost you two."

"Nah," Alex grinned. "Not on a night like this." She smiled up at the stars, entwining her hand with the Doctor's. "This is a night for lost things being found."

"Come on," the Doctor said. He grabbed Rose's hand too, and started walking, swinging their arms.

"What now?" Rose inquired.

"I want to go to the Games," the Doctor said, like it was obvious. "It's what we came for."

"Go on," Alex nudged him with her shoulder, smiling. "Give us a clue. Which events do we do well in?"

"Well, I will tell you this: Papua New Guinea surprises everyone in the shot put."

"Really?" Rose blinked. "You're joking, aren't you? Doctor, are you serious or are you joking?"

"Wait and see," he teased.

The trio stopped and stared as the fireworks started.

Alex grinned. "You know what? They keep on trying to split us up, but they never ever will."

"Never say never ever," the Doctor warned.

"Nah," Alex shook her head. "We'll always be okay, you and me. Don't you think, Doctor?"

"There's something in the air," he mused. "Something coming."

"What?" Rose questioned, sounding a little worried.

"A storm's approaching," the Doctor stated, staring up at the night sky, the darkness seeming that little bit less welcoming somehow.