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The Doctor, Danni, Craig and baby Alfie hid behind the perfume counter as George walked past on his nightly patrol. The Doctor had his blue net in on hand and Danni's hand in the other, all of them silent as George walked past, oblivious to their presence. He popped his head up to watch George walk past, then crouched back down by Danni.
"OK, shhh." He instructed them as George left the department. The Doctor shot up first, dragging an exhausted Danni with him. He wished she had just taken baby Alfie back to Craig's house and tried to get so rest but she had insisted on staying with them... well, actually it was staying with him. She didn't like to leave his side, and he really wasn't complaining but he wanted her to be safe. Danni held his sonic in her other hand and at his look began scanning the area, the buzzing ringing through the room.
"Right. Let's be having you then, Cybermat." He muttered as Alfie began crying at the noise. Craig bent over to try and soothe his soon.
"Can't you put that on quiet?" He snapped at Danni. The tensions between the two had been high ever since she called him a 'jackass', although it didn't seem to bother her too much as she turned and glared at him.
"No! It's a sonic screwdriver. Sonic equals sound!" She hissed in reply. The Doctor squeezed her hand, trying to get her to calm down and she closed her eyes and took a deep breath in, "Sorry, sorry." She told the pair. It was just because she was tired, she didn't mean to snap. The Doctor smiled gratefully at her, then kissed her on top of her head before pulling out a papoose from the inside of his never ending coat and handing it to Craig.
"Take this. I got it on my discount, 10% off. It's a papoose." Craig looked at it confused as he strapped it on.
"Why do I need a papoose?" Maybe it was something to do with the Cybermat...
"Alfie wants to attach you to him." The Doctor told him, "You're far too slow when he summons you." Craig looked down at his son as they continued down the aisle, the Doctor now using the screwdriver in the hope Craig wouldn't be so mad if it was him making the noise.
"When's he going to stop giving me marks?" Craig asked.
"Never. That's parenthood. Couldn't you have got a babysitter?" Alfie gurgled and the Doctor leant down to listen to him, "No, any babysitter...doesn't have to be a hot one." Alfie gurgled again and the Doctor looked at Danni, laughing slightly and nodding, "Yeah, I suppose she is." Danni frowned.
"What?" She asked.
"He said it did have to be a hot one and that you were here." The Doctor explained and she smiled wildly, stopping to give Alfie a kiss on the forehead.
"Aren't you sweet?" She cooed. Craig watched her soften as she looked at his son and shook his head; he had to remember she was ill, maybe that's what was making her so cranky. She'd been ill the last time he saw her as well, but not dying like she'd told him before. He wasn't completely convinced by her casual declaration, but he hadn't really wanted to bring it up again. Anyone could see she really wasn't well.
"I told everyone I know I didn't need their help this weekend, they won't answer my calls. I didn't know there was going to be an invasion of Cybermen." He explained as Alfie started fussing at the mention of the silver men, "Shhh." He picked him up, bouncing him slightly as he tried to soothe his impeding crying fit.
"It's OK." The Doctor tried help with the baby when he saw the Cybermat coming towards them. He lunged forward with the net, chucking it over the device and catching it, "Ha-ha!" He cried triumphantly as Craig stared at him with his mouth open in shock, "That's very odd. It must be on low power. Or I'm better at that than I remember." He told them, this time in hushed tones as he picked it up and walked over to them.
"I'll go with the first one." Danni told him before yawning. He shot her a mock hurt look and she stuck her tongue out in return, causing him to beam at her playfulness. He took the Cybermat out of the net and showed Craig.
"Oh, is that it?" The man asked and the Doctor nodded.
"Yeah."
"Oh, it's quite cute look at that. Look, Alfie, look." He turned his son to look at the little metal creature when it bared it's sharp teeth at them. Craig screamed slightly and turned his son away again to protect him and the Doctor soniced it to switch it off.
"Okay, not so cute." Danni muttered. Craig began panicking, pointing between the Cybermat and his own mouth.
"Metal rat. Real mouth! Metal rat, Real mouth, metal rat, real mouth!" He repeated over and over again.
"Yes I know it is, Stop screaming. STOP SCREAMING! Shhh!" He held his finger to his lips again, silencing Craig who was more bewildered at the trick working again when the Doctor had said it wouldn't, rather than his inability to talk. The Doctor placed the Cybermat in the stroller and a scream echoed from downstairs. The trio looked in it's direction for a moment before the Doctor ran off towards it, hand tightly grasping Danni's again.
"Come on!" He called back to Craig, who followed after strapping Alfie in the papoose.
~0~0~0~
The Doctor led them down the the basement of the department store, holding Danni slightly behind him protectively as he used the sonic screwdriver as a torch, searching for the source of the scream.
"George!" He called, sure that the scream had been from the security guard as they turned down another hallway. George's torch on the floor, still lit as if it had been dropped in surprised. He rushed over to it and bent down, spotting George's body lying just up from it. He glanced at Danni, who didn't seem affected by the man's dead body, then pulled her gently over to examine him, "George..." he breathed out sadly but before he could get closer a Cyberman appeared out of a nearby doorway, knocking him to the ground with one arm. He was thrown onto Danni, taking her down with him and they both blacked out as they hit the floor. The Doctor came to first as Craig called his name, trying to wake him him. He blinked at the man with a baby strapped to his front, trying to remember what had happened.
"What happened?" Craig asked worriedly.
"Oh, I've been chipped, chapped... Chopped!" He stuttered out. Craig helped him stand and he leant against the wall, squeezing his eyes shut as he tried to control the headache he had from hitting the stone floor, "The Cyberman... it killed George, took him back to the ship."
"The Cybermen are here?" Craig cried but the Doctor barely heard him as he saw Danni splayed out on the floor next to where he had been. He dropped to his knees, scanning her quickly and sighing in relief at the results. She was just knocked out. He looked her over anyway, just needing to see for himself that she was all right and his gaze fell on her fingers, tapping the four beats against the stone floor.
"Why's she doing that?" Craig asked with a frown, "Is that a Cyberman thing too?" The Doctor shook his head.
"No... No, that's a Danni thing." He whispered sadly, stroking her hair. He had to wake her up, but this was probably the most rest she had found in a long time.
"Before," Craig started uncertainly, "She said she was dying." The Doctor looked up at him, shocked that she'd told Craig considering she'd spent the entire time they'd been back in his life wanting to leave again, then back down at her.
"Yeah she is." He admitted sadly, "She had this thing... this noise in her head and it's killing her slowly. But I'm going to stop it." He told him determinedly, "I'm not letting it take her. But she can't sleep, she can't eat. It's what's causing her mood swings. She doesn't mean to be angry, she just wants peace." The Doctor sighed and shook her gently and she came to with a small groan, her fingers stopping their tapping. He smiled sadly at her and she looked at him, confused. He pulled her in for a hug, burying his face in her hair as she stroked his back soothingly.
"I'm not going anywhere." She promised him, as if she knew what they had been talking about, "Okay, I may jump around a bit, but I'll always be popping up in your life." Craig couldn't help but smile sadly at the pair, the Doctor deserved someone in his life. After everything the Time Lord had shared with him when they'd first met, it was nice to see him not so alone. He shook his head, remembering what was going on.
"Hold on, The Cybermen are here? But you said..." The Doctor stood up then helped Danni up, getting back to the problem at hand. He stumbled into a cage, finally allowing the force of the Cyberman's chop to hit him now he knew that his Danni-Girl was okay.
"Yeah, I know what I said, I say a lot of things!" He snapped before scanning the area as Danni rushed over and helped him lean against an unfinished wall, "But I fused the teleport it should have taken them days to repair." He placed his head in his hand, his headache pounding as he used his other one to pull her against him, placing another kiss on her hair. He was going to kiss her as many times as possible before he headed to Lake Silencio. Craig joined the pair, rubbing the Doctor's back in his own attempt to comfort the man while hugging Alfie to him closely.
"Are you OK?" He asked gently. The Doctor shrugged him off as he rotated his shoulder, easing the throbbing there.
"I should be dead...but the arm it chopped me with, it was damaged, old spare parts. Must have changed those missing people." He shook his head, clearing away the headache once and for all. Danni rolled her eyes at the sight. Time Lord biology; what she wouldn't give to be able to just shake off a headache like that.
"They changed the missing into Cybermen? Why didn't they change you?" Craig asked.
"The Doctor's not compatible with their software," Danni replied, "and if they're on old, spare parts then I doubt I'm in the most optimum condition for them to use. They'll need fit and healthy people."
"But why are they using spare parts, why?" The Doctor mused, confused but utterly grateful. If they had been fully working, then they would have taken Danni and fixed her up for use and he couldn't have stopped them, "Everything I find out makes less sense!" He hated not knowing what was going on and Danni could tell he was getting more and more frustrated, so she grabbed his hand tightly. He always seemed to calm down when they were holding hands, or hugging, or just touching generally. It made her feel useful.
"Doctor, listen to me. If the Cybermen are here, then we're not safe, we've got to go." Craig told him urgently. Danni nodded.
"He's right. We've got to go back to base." The Doctor turned to her as she smirked, knowing that would catch his attention.
"We've got a base?" He asked, then looked at Craig, all of the frustration gone and an excited grin plastered on his face, "When did we get a base?"
~0~0~0~
The Doctor sat at Craig's kitchen table, pouring random kitchen items into a bowl and mashing it together with a wooden spoon. Danni sat next to him, rubbing her temple gently as she looked out of the patio doors into the garden outside. The Doctor tried to focus on what he was doing, not on the constant 'one, two, three, four' she was muttering under her breath. He doubted she even realised she was doing it. Craig appeared in the kitchen doorway, coat on.
"I'm going down the shops, we're out of milk. You know what to do if he cries." He tossed the baby monitor at the Doctor and began walking away. The Doctor put it down on the table, continuing to stir for a moment until his eyes went wide and he paused, alarmed.
"No!" He exclaimed.
"Me neither." Craig called from the hallway before slamming the door shut, the noise causing Alfie to cry upstairs. The Doctor looked upwards not knowing what to do. Danni stood up.
"I'll sort him out, you continue." She muttered, walking out of the room without waiting for a reply and heading upstairs into the nursery. A nightlight projected star and moon shapes onto the ceiling and a soft similar themed mobile hung above the crib. She smiled fondly, even here the Doctor had had an impact on Craig's life. She approached the crying baby softly.
"Hello Alfie... No, Stormageddon sorry. What's wrong, little fella?" She picked him out of the crib and bounced him on her hip, "Do you miss your mummy and daddy? I miss mine too, so I don't blame you for crying. Although, I haven't cried over them in a long time." She frowned at the thought before brushing it aside. There was a time and place, after all. She began pacing around the room, trying to calm him down, "Shhh, shhh, there there sweetie. There's no need to make such a noise, just think of all of the things you have to look forward to in your life. Playing outside, going to school, growing up, getting a mortgage, having children, growing old and dying." She paused mid-step, "Okay, again, maybe a good reason to cry. But you'll love it, Alfie. An ordinary human life, not all of us can have that you know?" She picked up a blanket with one hand and wrapped it around him in an attempt to warm him up. She wasn't an expert with babies, but Claire's sister had had a little boy about a year before she'd left and she'd helped Claire with him a couple of times. What was his name? "Some of us didn't stand a chance. Some of us get swept off our feet by a madman in a blue box and taken out into the stars; to distant worlds and far off galaxies and no matter how hard we try we can't make it last. We get torn away from it all, with little choice." She squeezed her eyes shut and placed a kiss on the boy's head and they stood in the middle of the room silently as she tried to not start crying.
Instead she smiled to herself and began bouncing him again, "But you know what, Alfie my angel? I'm not going to let it get me down. I'm going to spend every single moment I have left with that beautiful man, and I'll be happy. Because, around all the mortgages and nine-to-fives and masses of death and destruction, I love him and most of the time he loves me. And that's all that matters, in the end. That beautiful madman and his blue box." Alfie gurgled and she looked upwards at the shapes spinning on the walls around them, "And I can tell you something else; them stars are rubbish. The real things are so much more... just much more." There was a quick buzzing noise behind her and a much more realistic projection of space appeared above their heads. She turned around and saw the Doctor leaning against the door frame, a small smile on his face as she held Alfie, who was more interested in the new images above him. He had heard her over the monitor and had come upstairs as quietly as possible so he didn't disturb her, wanting to watch and listen to her. She'd looked beautiful holding the baby in her arms, so natural and once again he felt guilty for taking that away from her. She should have kids. Loads of kids. Loads of mini-Danielles and mini-Daniels runing around her feet. She'd love them unconditionally, just like she did with him.
"And there he is." She whispered. He pushed himself off the frame and walked over, wrapping his arms around her waist.
"You know, when I was little like you," He spoke to Alfie, "I dreamt of the stars. I think it's fair to say, in the language of your age, that I lived my dream and much more. I owned the stage, gave it a 110%. I met the most wonderful woman and we've run so far together, and I'm never going to let her go. I hope you have as much fun as I did, Alfie." He kissed Alfie on the head, the turned to Danni and kissed her as well.
"Your dad's trying his best, you know." He told Alfie after they broke apart, Danni panting slightly, "Yes, I know. It's not his fault he doesn't have mammary glands. No, but neither do I!" Alfie gurgled again and the Doctor looked shocked, "Alfie!" He scolded.
"What?" Danni asked, giggled slightly at the look on the Doctor's face. He'd obviously said something to offend him.
"He said, 'She does'." He grumbled and Danni laughed.
"Sorry Alfie, not a chance." She told the boy, then she frowned as a quite beeping noise started behind them. "What's that?" She asked the Doctor.
"Alfie..." He started before also hearing the noise from behind them, "why is there a sinister beeping coming from behind us?" He finished instead, turning around slowly to see the Cybermat, now fully functional, in the doorway chomping it's mouth while electricity sparked from it.
"I thought it was dead!" Danni exclaimed as she stepped away from it, holding Alfie as close to her as she could.
"Oh, no you don't." The Doctor warned it, pulling out his screwdriver and zapping it, "Come on, Alfie. Danni, run! It's only stunned!" He took hold of her hand and pulled her out and down the stairs as she held Alfie tightly to her. The baby, frightened, started crying and she shushed him gently. The Doctor pulled them towards the patio doors in the kitchen.
"Listen, it's going to be OK. Good, Alfie." The Doctor tried to calm him down as well, "We're going to go outside. Don't worry about it." He opened the door and ushered them outside.
"Doctor, wait!" Danni called as he slammed the door shut, "Your screwdriver." She finished lamely as he caught sight of it in a pile of cushions on the other side of the door, his screwdriver sitting nice on top of them. He rattled the door a couple times but it was locked. Danni rolled her eyes as she hugged Alfie, who was still murmuring, scared. The Doctor looked around but saw that the garden was completely enclosed by high fences, the only way out through the house itself.
"Craig." He whispered as he remembered the other man before pulling out his mobile, ringing him, "Come on, Craig, pick up, pick up, pick up, pick up!" He muttered into the phone impatiently. Danni walked up to him as the phone went onto voice mail, "Craig, don't worry, Alfie is fine, but on no account enter the house." Danni turned around at the sound of a crash in the kitchen to see Craig on the floor, the Cybermat at his throat.
"Doctor!" The pair cried at the same time and the Doctor spun to see him fighting the metal rat.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!" He repeated as he chucked the phone on the floor.
"Help me!" Craig called out and the Doctor turned to Danni and kissed her on the head.
"Stay here." He told her, "Look after Alfie." He turned towards the door, then turned back to place another kiss on her head before turning back around. He studied the glass door for a moment then spat on his hands, rubbed them together and dove straight through the glass. Danni shielded Alfie from the shards of glass that flew everywhere.
"What an idiot." She murmured before grinning widely at the man she loved, who brushed all the glass off him.
"Where's Alfie?! Where's Alfie?!" Craig shouted, the Cybermat still going for his neck.
"He's safe. Danni's got him, he's safe!" He promised the man as he turned and retrieved the sonic, flashing through the settings trying to find the right one.
"Get it off me!"
"I have to find the right frequency, shut it down!" He explained.
"Kill it!" Danni screamed from the garden, "It's going to kill him if you don't!" The Doctor groaned, not wanting to damage it further.
"All right, all right, all right! MOVE!" He grabbed a pan from the table and smacked it hard against the Cybermat, hitting Craig in the process. The Cybermat went skidding across the floor then jumped through the air, going straight for it's attacker. Craig scrambled up, looking slightly helpless.
"Ow! Baking tray, Craig, baking tray!" He begged and Craig reached over to the oven, grabbing the baking tray off the top. When he reached the Doctor again, the Time Lord chucked it onto the ground and Craig covered it up, holding the little machine in place.
"Hold it down!" The Doctor commanded as he scrambled up, flashing it with his screwdriver.
"Get on with it!"
"Ah, it must be shielded from metastatic energy! Of course!" Craig rolled his eyes, although he wasn't surprised the Doctor was impressed by it.
"Yeah, of course!"
"Don't worry," The Doctor told him with a grin, "I have an app for that. Stand back. Stand back!" Craig moved back just as the Doctor zapped it and with two beeps it died. The Doctor reached down and picked it up.
"Success! That was amazing, you must be really, really strong. That thing should have had you easy." He told Craig.
"Is it definitely dead?" Craig asked, just wanting to make sure this time it was going to jump up and try and eat them.
"Inactive, yes. Technically never been alive. It was 'playing possum'," he explained with air quotes, "before, to take us by surprise. Bravo." He clapped Craig, thoroughly impressed by him. Craig laughed, exhilarated by the adrenalin running though him.
"Whoo!" He closed his eyes and took a calming breath to try and calm down, then his eyes shot open, "Alfie!" The two men rushed outside to see Danni pushing him in the baby swing, sat on the ground and watching the action inside.
"There he is, Alfie. Your amazing dad." She stood up as Craig picked him up out of the swing,"That was fantastic, Craig." She praised him sincerely and he smiled at her, knowing she just wanted to make amends for earlier that evening.
"Thanks." He told her before kissing his son's head, so happy he was okay.