Doctor Who_ Set Piece - Kate Orman [100]
‘Daddy,’ little Dorothy sobbed. ‘Daddy.’
‘I’m here,’ said a voice, and a hand took her hand, another brushed the sweat-soaked hair out of her face. A coolness entered her body, a sweet emptiness as the pain went away.
‘Daddy,’ she said again.
‘I’m here.’
Little Dorothy found the missing piece of jigsaw, plugged it into place.
Happy picture, happy family. She snuggled down to sleep under her eider-down, gripping her father’s hand.
Bernice found them in the morning, Ace breathing slow and steady as her body healed itself, the Doctor asleep next to her, their hands gripping tightly above the covers.
When Ace woke up, the burning was gone, inside and out.
The Doctor was sitting on the edge of the bed, wearing a strange little pair of spectacles and reading a small book. There was a bit of red ribbon hanging down from it. When he saw that she was awake, he carefully marked his place with the ribbon and closed the book. ‘How do you feel?’
‘Sane,’ she said.
‘Right then, we’ll be off.’ He slipped the book into his pocket.
‘Doctor, I –’
He raised a hand, sharply, between them. ‘Sometime today this whole building will be ablaze and they’ll be shooting women at random in the streets.’
Ace was struggling out of bed. ‘We have to –’
‘Ace,’ said the Doctor agitatedly, ‘there’s no time. Benny’s already aboard the TARDIS, let’s go.’
‘Doctor, I –’
‘No, no, don’t –’
‘But you –’
‘Just –’
They stopped, stared at one another for a long moment.
‘I want you to have this,’ said the Doctor.
He handed her the book.
197
‘This is your 500 Year Diary,’ said Ace.
‘I’ll be starting a new one,’ he said.
They embraced, awkwardly. Ace closed her eyes, trying to imprint the memory of him into her brain, so she would never forget the fabric of his jacket, the soft, alien smell of his hair.
‘Go and keep going,’ she whispered. ‘Don’t stop for anything.’
Slowly, very slowly, he let go of her. Slowly, very slowly, he turned away and went into his TARDIS.
A moment later, Benny came running out, clutching a denim bag. ‘You’re staying! You’re crazy! You haven’t even got a toothbrush!’
Ace tucked the Doctor’s diary into her jacket. ‘I managed Ancient Egypt, I’ll manage Paris. When I was a kid I always wanted to be in Paris in the 1880s.’
She grinned. ‘Wicked frocks!’
‘You haven’t had a fight? He hasn’t done something or something?’
‘No.’ Ace laughed. ‘Nothing like that.’
‘You can’t stay,’ said Benny. ‘You can’t stay here. You’ll be killed.’
‘I can’t leave and let all these people be shot.’
‘But you can’t change history.’
‘I don’t want to change it, I just want to be part of it.’
‘But the Commune’s about to collapse. What’s the point?’
‘Benny,’ said Ace, ‘what’s the point of any of it? Anybody we save just gets to die later on. The whole universe eventually dies.’
She saw Benny – not quite recoil, but she was taken aback. Not the same little girl, she was thinking, seeing Doctor stuff in Ace’s eyes. ‘I can’t stop the Versaillais, but I can ease the suffering and save a few lives. I’ve already made plans with the Women’s Battalion.’
‘Why stay and be a soldier?’ said Benny softly.
‘No, no. I’m not a part of anyone’s machine.’ She folded her arms, suddenly awkward. ‘The Doctor told me a story once, about this general trying to teach the King’s courtesans to be soldiers –’
‘Sun Tzu?’
‘Oh, you’ve heard that one. Well, I kind of see why he told me it now. I’m not taking anybody’s orders any more. I want to fight for something I believe in. That’s what these people are doing.’
‘They’ll do crazy things,’ said Benny. ‘They’re already setting the city on fire.
You’ll be killed.’
‘I’ll be alright. Hey, I survived Heaven and Olleril and Belial and Peladon and Antykhon, right? I even survived Perivale.’
Suddenly they were both laughing, laughing like sisters. ‘Some things,’ said Benny, pushing the bag into Ace’s arms. ‘Just some clothes and things, Ace.’
‘It’s Dorothy, actually.’ Ace put the bag down on the bed. ‘Thanks anyway.’
198
‘My God!