Doctor Who_ Empire of Death - BBC Worldwide [10]
James sat bolt upright and stared at the physician, startling him. The boy opened and closed his mouth soundlessly, as if trying to speak but unable to emit the words. His hands rapped on the wood of the examination bench, staccato rhythms that made no sense to Kirkhope's ears. Then the words came tumbling forth from the boy, but spoken in the voice of another - the voice of a woman.
'Robert? Is that you, Robert?'
The doctor dropped his pencil in shock. `Morag?' He could feel goose pimples creeping across his skin as the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. A pungent, sweet and sickly odour assaulted his nostrils. Kirkhope's eyes darted around the room, searching for the source of this impossible voice.
His wife had died during childbirth a decade ago, after falling pregnant long past her fortieth year. He had begged her not to carry the baby full term but she would not listen. To her the infant was a blessing from on high, proof their union had been recognised at last. Morag had long been a fervent churchgoer, unlike her husband. He knew the pregnancy would almost certainly kill his wife but could not persuade her of this truth. When she died, her sad eyes had been filled with questions he could not answer. Now she was calling to him again.
'Why, Robert? Why did you do it?'
The boy's lips were moving but the voice was that of Morag, the distinctive Highland accent with which he had fallen in love decades before. The doctor forced himself to put disbelief aside and answer her questions.
'What, my love? Why did I do what?'
'Why did you kill all those babies?'
Kirkhope was rocked back on his heels. This was impossible, the boy could not know, could not understand anything about this secret!
‘I've seen the babies, you know. Their brittle bones, eyes that will never see - their tiny lives taken by you. How could you, Robert?'
'Please, Morag –‘
'You swore all you ever wanted was a baby, yet you took the unborn children from other women. You murdered them, Robert - why?'
'Please, Morag - you don't understand... '
'Make me understand. You buried their bodies but in doing so you have created a horror beyond imagining, sown the seeds of our destruction. How you could do that?'
Tears streamed down the physician's face as he began to sob. 'Please, my darling, you don't know what I went through, the things I had to do - I had no choice.'
'There's always a choice, my love.'
‘I wanted a family more than anything in the world, but it came too late -'
‘It was a blessing, Robert.'
'No! No! Damn you, woman, why wouldn't you listen?
You'd still be alive if only you had listened to me!' Kirkhope could feel the rage welling up inside him, the same impotent fury that had haunted him all these years. 'For the love of Christ, I did nothing wrong!'
‘I see now,' the boy said, his lips mouthing the words as Morag's sing-song voice echoed from within him. 'God was punishing us.'
`No, it's not true!'
`He was punishing us for what you'd done, all the lives you stole.'
`No, woman, you're wrong!'
'He took me from you, just as you took those babies from their mothers.'
'No, please...’ Kirkhope began flailing at James with his fists, beating them against the child's chest. 'Please, don't say that...’
'Goodbye, Robert.'
'No, no, no!' Kirkhope screamed, but the boy had fallen silent again. The physician shook him by the shoulders but it was no use. The dead voice was stilled once more. Kirkhope wept over the boy, scarcely able to hold himself upright. He stayed like that for minutes, until the arrival of James's parents pulled him back to the present. The doctor wiped his face clean with a damp cloth and composed himself before letting them inside.
Martha Lees threw herself at the boy, embracing him tightly but getting no response. Mr Lees stood back, a cap