Chapter Text
Jamie stepped out of the TARDIS and observed the surrounding environment.
“Where are we, Doctor?” he called out to the Time Lord, who was still inside the time ship fitting with the console’s controls. The Doctor was confused.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“This doesn’t look like Americana to me,” Jamie said. The Doctor decided to go have a look for himself. But when he stepped out of the TARDIS, and he was surprised.
“This doesn’t look like North America,” he told himself.
“Aye, that’s what I’m sayin’,” replied Jamie, as he pointed to the funny looking trees with an animal in it.
“Hey Doctor. Would ya look at that fuzzy lookin’ thing in the tree,” he said tapping the Doctor’s shoulder, and pointed to the tree. The Doctor looked over.
“That’s a Koala, Jamie,”
“A what?”
“A Koala, a type of mammal native to Australia. … which I guess that is where we are now,” he said, looking around. Jamie wasn’t so sure. Australia sounded familiar, but he couldn’t quite put his figure on it.
“Uhmm. Doctor? Have we been to Australia before?” he asked.
“Yes, we have, Jamie. In the 21st century. Remember, with Victoria? And Salamander?” he asked. Jamie had shivers go down his spine, remembering those horrible and annoying few days.
“Och, don’t remind me, Doctor,” he said. The Doctor smirked and shrugged his shoulders.
“Well, you were the one to ask,” he replied smirking cheekily. The Doctor turned and looked around. They were somewhere in the outback, but not too remote, because there was a house in the distance, on a slight hill.
“Looks like we are in the middle of some farms,” said the Doctor. Jamie looked around too and notice some animals in the distance too. Jamie didn’t know this, but they were cows, but not the ones he was used to in Scotland.
“Weird lookin things, ey?” he muttered to the cows, as he looked over to see a house on top of the hill. “Hey, maybe we could go there,” he shocked the Doctor’s shoulder. He turned around and saw to what Jamie was pointing towards a house. A brown wooden one with a fire out the back of it, and three horses too.
“I suppose we could have a look,” said the Doctor. “Could tell us where we are. Come on, Jamie,” as he started walking up to the house.
“Yeah well, it’s like I have much of a chose if I didn’t point it out,” replied Jamie following closed behind. As they walked up hill towards the house, the long grass was brushing up against their legs, especially Jamie’s, whose was bare and hairy, and the brushing of the grass was making him itchy and slightly tickling. The air was strangely cold too, when Jamie remembered it being hot the last time they were in Australia.
“Why is it cold?” asked Jamie.
“It must be wintertime for them, Jamie,”
“Aye, but there’s no snow on the ground,”
“Well, it does snow in Australia, it’s just that, most of Australia is flat and low-lying. It sits within temperate to tropical latitudes. Only in restricted and very high-altitude mountains is when it will snow,” explained the Doctor as the continued to walk. They were nearly the house and saw what was making the smoke. There was a chimney on the roof, making all the dark grey clouds. The three horses from earlier, where standing directly in the sun to stay warm, as the wind blew cold air at them. Two of them had a lightish brown coat and looked very identical to each other. The other one had a more of a dark grey coat and was a little smaller than the two brown ones.
“Oof, she a wee bit cold, ey Doctor?” said Jamie, feeling the coolness on his legs and under his kilt. The highlander was very used to the cold, this type of cold weather was nothing on him, but to the Doctor, it wasn’t.
“Yeah, sure,” he said, wrapping his black waistcoat around his body, as he stopped by a fence. It led into the yard where the house was located. It had a nice garden with different flowers and a massive tree with a swing. Opposite the tree was a little greenhouse that had plants in pots inside, and a chicken coop beside it, with chickens roaming free in the little yard they had.
“Seems like a little farm here,” said the Doctor. Suddenly, they heard a dog barking. The two jumped, as they saw two dogs running up to them and barking like crazy. One was a female and the other was a boy. Jamie hit behind the Doctor, as the dogs continued to bark at them.
“It’s alright, Jamie. There are just protecting their home. Nothing to worry about,” said the Doctor loudly, so Jamie could hear over the barking.
“Daisy! Leonard! Get away from the fence!” came a voice. One of the dogs looked back and while the other continued to bark at the two. The Doctor stepped back a few steps, in hopes that the dog would stop barking.
“Daisy! Come here!” came another’s voice. The two looked up and saw a man and boy coming over. The man looked around late middle age. He was taller than the Doctor and Jamie, with muscle and fat built into him. Short black hair and a short black beard with grey hairs, and he was wearing old fashion farmer’s clothes that were covered with mud and dirty. The little boy looked to be around late tween years, with dark chocolate coloured hair, and overalls with a yellow shirt and boots. The little boy grabbed the barking dog by the collar.
“Don’t hold her like that Jamie!” came another voice. It was a girl, who looked around to be in her late teenager years to young adult years. The same dark chocolate brown hair as the boy, wearing a light-yellow dress that covered her body and what it looked like was tiny little orange flowers printed on the dress. She was telling off the little boy for grabbing the dog by the collar, and the two soon started quarrelling about it.
“Oi!” yelled the man at the two dogs. “Cut it out, you two. Take these two inside,”. The two stopped quarrelling and brought the dogs inside. The man sighed and Jamie and the Doctor could finally breath.
“Sorry about the dogs. They have always been like that. Especially Daisy, since she had the puppies,” he said, looking at the two smiling.
“So, I’m guessing you are the Van der Waltz?” he asked them.
“Oh nonono. We aren’t family,” replied the Doctor, as Jamie stood there wondering if him and the Doctor did look alike. “Just travelling by, that’s all,”.
“Oh, sorry, mate,” the man chuckled. “I’m expecting some people to come by to have a look at the puppies,”. The man put his hand out to shake the Doctor’s.
“I’m Charles Fletcher, but please call me Charlie,” he introduced himself. The Doctor shook his hand. It felt very rough and hard when he touched it and felt a few skin cracks throughout it.
“Nice to meet you, Charlie. I’m the Doctor, and this is my best friend, James McCrimmon,”
“Please, call me Jamie,” replied Jamie, as the pair shook hands.
“Nice to meet you two… so what are you two doing travelling through here?” Charlie asked. Jamie looked at the Doctor, who was trying to find the answers.
“Well, I- we are just having a look around, that’s all, heh… yeah,” the Doctor said, trying to sound confident, but the reality was, he didn’t put in the correct coordinates through into the TARDIS.
“Well good luck with that. Nothing much to see around here, mate. Just farms out here and the post offices is a walk down the hill, but the closet clinic is the next town over,” Charlie said. There was a silence between the three men. Charlie could tell the two of them weren’t from about here, and not just because one was Scottish and the way the pair dressed.
“You sure, you aren’t lost?” asked Charlie.
“Nono, we aren’t lost-,”
“Yes, we are,” Jamie interrupted. “We were met to go to America but the Doctor put in the wrong- Ouch!” the Doctor processed to elbow Jamie in the arm, hard enough for it to hurt for him.
“Well, we were met to take a right to America, not a left, mate,” said Charlie jokingly, followed by him chuckling at his own joke. A cold wind blew. It swept through the air and gave the Doctor goosebumps up along his arm and the back of his neck. Jamie and Charlie stood there unfazed by it.
“She a bit cold, isn’t she?” Charlie said.
“Aye, agree,” said Jamie.
“Say, I would have thought you would use to the colder weather, Doctor,” he said, as he watched the Doctor shiver and wrapping his black coat around his torso. The Doctor shivered, and his teeth were chattering against each other.
“Say, would you two like to come inside, just to get you out of the cold, Doctor,” recommend Charlie.
“Ye-Yes please,” shivered the Doctor. Charlie opened the gate for the two, and they followed the stoned pathway that headed towards the back of the house. Charlie and Jamie were in front while the Doctor hobble behind them, shivering from the cold, the wind continued, it was making to Doctor’s body temperature dropped dramatically. He was so cold in fact, he felt as if he was going to freeze to death. He felt himself get weaker and his head began to spin violently.
As they got to the back of the house, where it was undercover, just before the entries to the door, the Doctor tripped over, falling to his knees. He fell with a groan. Jamie looked back and saw his friend. He felt his heart dropped to his stomach.
“Doctor! You alright?” he asked, as he gave short breathing.
“I-I-I’m s-s-s-so c-c-cold,” the Doctor shivered, but it was so hard to know what he was saying. Charlie looked back and saw it the Doctor shaking.
“He alright?” he asked concerned.
“He feels cold,” said Jamie, putting the Doctor’s right arm over his shoulder and he felt how cold he is. The Doctor was just as ice and his body was heavy like it to, as Jamie tried to help move him. Charlie walked over to help, supporting the other side, and he saw the Doctor’s face. He looked very uncomfortable and all the colours had drained from his face, leaving him whiter than his shirt.
“Well, get you to bed Doctor. Come on,” Charlie said, as they walked into the house.
“Matilda! Come quickly?” Charlie called. She came running over, and the two children from before watched from around the corner.
“Oh, my! What happened?” she asked, and Jamie began to explain what had happened.
“I’ve never seen him react to the cold this badly before,” Jamie added. Matilda looked at the Doctor’s face and she looked horrified.
“Come on, let’s get you to bed,” she said, as she opened her and Charlie’s bedroom door. Jamie and Charlie laid the Doctor down onto the bed, backside down. The quickly got him under the blankets to keep him warm. His body felt cold, his skin pale white and covered with goosebumps, and he was shivering violently.
“Get Antoinette to bring some blankets,” Charlie told Matilda, as she went to go grab her. Charlie went over to put fire on that was in their room, as Jamie sat beside the Doctor, looking at his friend, feeling hopeless, he didn’t know what to do and he was feeling very overwhelmed and unsure on what to do.
“It’s okay, Doctor. I-I’m here. It’s alright,” he said, as he felt the Doctor grab his hand. His hand was so cold, he thought they had been in a freezer. The Doctor tried to speak but every time he tried, it was covered up by the chattering and tapping nose of his teeth tapping and rubbing up against each other. Matilda came back with Antoinette with blankets.
“Here you go,” said Antoinette to Jamie, handing him a blanket to put on the blanket. Once they had put the blanket on the bed where the Doctor laid, he suddenly stopped shivering, and he stopped shaking. The Doctor’s vision started to blur and everything and everyone around him became fuzzy, and his head continued to spin like crazy, as he closed his eyes.
“Doctor?” Jamie was now even more worried. Did he die? Antoinette, the girl that gave Jamie the blanket, got down beside the Doctor, and put her hand above his mouth to feel breathing.
“His still alive,” she said. Jamie sighed with relief.
“He must be resting his body, after overworking it from all the shaking and shivering,” came a voice. Jamie looked over and saw it was the girl from early, and the little boy beside her. As everyone looked at the Doctor’s pale face, as he rested.
“The fire should warm him up soon,” said Charlie, next to Matilda. “Will see how he is fairing once he wakes up,”
“And how long to you think it will take?” asked Jamie.
“Depends,” said the girl next to him. “From the shivering and shaking, his body was mostly trying to warm himself, but it seems as if it wasn’t doing it justice. I say your friend’s body is at a resting stage, and it might take time for him to recover,” Jamie was impressed, even if he didn’t understand half of those words she said.
“Well, Rosemary, I say it better we leave the Doctor here to rest, and to keep an eye on him too,” said Charlie.
“But we can’t. remember, we have a dinner today with the Barringtons,” said Matilda. “We can’t cancel on them now,” Charlie looked at his wife.
“Antoinette, Rosemary and Jamie, can stay with the Doctor and McCrimmon tonight, it can just be us with them,” he said. Matilda was unsure, she didn’t want two strangers in the house, along with her children.
“Mum, I’m sure we will be fine. I’ll look at the Doctor and Mr McCrimmon,” said Antoinette.
“Oh, alright then,” said Matilda. Antoinette couldn’t help but smile, she was secretly quite gladly she didn’t have to go to dinner with the Barringtons, she didn’t want to see Oliver anyways. Antoinette looked down at the Doctor and his sleeping face. Everyone decided it be best and wait for the Doctor to wake up and pray that he would.
Time had passed, and the Doctor was slowly opening his eyes, he didn’t remember what had happened, but hours must had passed, because he could see it was dark outside, and the only light was the of the one coming from the fire, that was slowly going out. His head was slightly thumping, but his vision had come back, and he wasn’t as cold as he remembered himself being before. He only remembered laying in the bed he was in now, but everything was a blur to him. As he sat there slightly dazed and confused, but he could smell something, something rather delicious, like beef or chicken. The Doctor looked over to the side and on the bedside table he saw some soup waiting for him. He was a little confused, but he was hungry and couldn’t help but foam at the mouth at the sight of it. He picked up the bowl and the spoon and realised, it wasn’t soup, but stew, and must have been a beef stew, because the liquid was a rich dark brown colour, and had vegetables, like carrots, beans and potatoes, along with chunks of beef.
“Hmm, smells quite nice,” he told himself, as he picked it up. It was slightly warm, making it a couple minutes old, but the Doctor still felt a little weak in the knees and decided to eat it anyways. The stew was flavourful and delicious, even if it was near cold. It felt like he was getting a warm hug from his mother again, like he was a little boy again, but instead of a beef stew it would have been a fish soup. As he ate the stew, he was trying to remember what would have caused him to get here in the first place. Just as he was thinking, he heard footsteps and a light getting closer. A candle, with Antoinette holding it. She had long black wavy hair that went to her hips with was braided into a long plat, being healed by a white ribbon at the end. She was wearing Edwardian winter pyjamas, with white cotton socks on her feet. She had little freckles on her nose and that spread to her cheeks and the most gorgeous green eyes the Doctor had ever seen.
“Hello, you must be the Doctor, right?” she asked, placing the candle on the bedside table.
“Oh! Yes, I am,” said the Doctor, wiping the juice dripping from the side of his mouth. Antoinette smiled and gave him her handkerchief to wipe the mess of him.
“I’m glad you are awake, your friend, Mr McCrimmon has been worried about you,” she said. The Doctor looked up, with a worried look painted on his face.
“Jamie! Is he alright?” he asked worried.
“Perfectly, but he is asleep now, Doctor, and I best you leave him to rest,” she said.
“Oh, thank you,” said the Doctor. Antoinette sat down at opposite to him, just near his knees.
“How are you feeling, Doctor?” asked Antoinette.
“I feel fine, I mean. I’m still here… I don’t remember much, just remembering my vision going blurring and my head going fuzzy when I laid down in the bed,” he explained. Antoinette felt sympathy for the Doctor.
“You might be just a little tired. You have been travelling, from what Jamie told us,” Antoinette said.
“I suppose he does have a point,” he sighed, feeling a little annoyed, because Jamie might have had been right for that. He continued to eat the stew, as Antoinette watched
“Do you like it?” she asked. The Doctor replied with a nod.
“Yes, it is very nice, do you make it?” he asked.
“Yeah, a beef one I put together. We were going to go out for dinner tonight with some friends of Mum and Dad’s, but you showed up with Jamie, and I decided to stay and look after you,” she said. “Besides, I didn’t really want to go anyways,”.
“Oh? How come?” asked the Doctor, finishing the food. Antoinette fell silence, she played with her fingers, unsure if she should tell him about it.
“I… I don’t think it is for you to know, Doctor,” she said. The Doctor looked at her, seeing straight through her and her worries.
“It’s your parent’s friends, I presume?” he asked. Antoinette looked up at the Doctor with her eyes. “I say one of them is someone you don’t like seeing?” he asked. Antoinette nodded.
“The Barringtons… more specifically, the eldest son, Oliver Barrington,” she said. “My mother is very old school and believes that I should be fitted with a husband instead of founding one on my own. One of Mum’s friend, Lillian is married to Oliver’s father, and she wants me to marry him,” Antoinette concluded. The Doctor felt sorry for Antoniette.
“Is there a reason as to why your mother believes that?” asked the Doctor, but Antoinette just shrugged.
“I haven’t a clue, Doctor,” she replied. “But Dad thinks it’s for the money, because his father builds steam locomotives for a living, and Oliver will do what he is doing soon,”. The Doctor nodded, as he listened to what Oliver was like as a person and how much Antoinette despites it so much.
“He is like a grown adult toddler. If he doesn’t get his own way, he will through a hissy fit until you get him what he wants,” Antoinette finished.
“Well, my dear. I believe that you could do a lot better than that man,” said the Doctor.
“I guess so, but I don’t think I have any luck of founding another man that would want me,” Antoinette explained. The Doctor looked at her with such bewilderment.
“Oh nonsense, my dear. You are very pretty for your time,” he said.
“That’s the thing, people only fall for others for their looks, not their personality…” she explained. “And that’s the case with me. Men don’t care if I’m funny, kind, caring, good at cooking, which I hope I am. They only want me for my looks. I don’t want to be seen as a doll... I want to see as me,” she said. There was a little pause of silence, as the Doctor thought on what to comment.
“Well, you are young and you don’t have to get married straight away. You could travel the world and enjoy your life,” said the Doctor. “You could go back to school or go to college or university, and get a well-paying job, and maybe when you are ready, you could decide to settle down,”. Antoinette thought about what the Doctor said.
“I guess so, I do have a job, but I doubt I will keep it for much longer,” she said. “Mum thinks it’s a little unlady-like for me to have a job,” The Doctor felt sorry for Antoinette. It seems to him that Matilda was that or a traditional late 19th-century woman, who viewed on women’s lives as nothing but a man’s property, that Antoinette didn’t seem to like it much. So, there were possibly in the early 20th century.
“Well, you could be a chief, since you are an excellent cook,” chuckled the Doctor sweetly. That made Antoinette flustered, her cheeks went pink and giggled slightly.
“Thank you,” she said. A long silence fell, and Antoinette thought it was best to leave the Doctor to rest.
“I’m gonna go get some sleep now. Maybe you should to,” said Antoinette, getting up from the bed and going to grab the candle. “Mum and Dad will sleep in the cottage house tonight, you can rest in their bed, Doctor,” she said, as the Doctor smiled at her.
“Very well then, my dear,” he said. Antoinette couldn’t help but feel a shock go up her body from the way the Doctor called her dear. She had never been called that before, and a faint blush came over her face.
“Thank you,” she said shyly. “But you can call me Antoinette,” she added.
“Antoinette? Haven’t heard that name in years. Last time I had that was from the Queen of France herself. It’s a lovely name, as was her too, despite what people think,” said the Doctor. Antoinette couldn’t help but smile as her cheeks went rosy, pink, but she also wanted to question if the strange man in her parent’s bed was being true about meeting Queen Marie Antoinette of France.
“Goodnight, Doctor. Sleep well,” she said to him.
“Goodnight, Antoinette,” he said, as he watched her disappear into the darkness. However, the Doctor wasn’t tired. He felt as if his energy had returned. He couldn’t sleep now. He looked around the room. He could hear the fire crackling away and the sounds of crickets and bugs singing outside, and howls hooting, for some reason the Doctor found this the most relaxing. He looked over to the bedside table next to him and there was a newspaper.
“The Queensland Times,” he told himself. “Well, that answers where we are then,”. The Doctor opened the newspaper and started to skim through it. He also found a date of year. 1914, but it must have been prior to World War One. As he skimmed through the article to found something that caught his eyes, he was at the end on the newspaper and found it.
“Ooh, hello, what’s this?” he said, as he read the news article.
“June 20th, 1914. Missing Person: Grace Van Der Waltz. Age: 6 and 10 months. From Local District. On the 12th of the 6th month, Grace Van Der Waltz went missing after not being making it home from school on Friday afternoon. Mr and Mrs Van Der Waltz have sent out a search party and are asking people in the district to help with the search and report any signs of her.” The Doctor continued to read, feeling sorry for the Van Der Waltz family, until he saw something that caught his attention.
“A local in the area, to which is where Mr Elijah Van Der Waltz works, is of noticing a strange woman walking about the area, commonly in the afternoons when students are walking home. The local, Miss Williams reports saying she has seen students, as young as 12-6 years old walking side-by-side with the woman and not returning home. While one reported say it was Mrs Van Der Waltz herself walking Grace away from her home… Mrs Van Der Waltz was put on trial and asked about the disappearing of her daughter but was fortunately found innocence.” The Doctor paused as he continued down to the end of the page.
“If anyone sees a woman wearing black mourning clothes, with a black veil covering her face, please report to your local police station immediately… Oh dear,” he said, as he looked at the bottom and something that made him stomach turned. Grace Van Der Waltz name along with 11 other names, and they were all children that had gone missing in the last six months.
John Williams, Victoria Mansfield, Jacob Moffatt, Olive Todd, Daisy Todd, Trevor Worthington, Ruth Cerrett, Elizabeth Schmidt, John Summerhouse, Margot Curtin, Eddie Ashton.
The Doctor felt sorry for the children, and he wanted to find a way to help, but more importantly, his investigate sounded like something that wasn’t Earthly. He yawned as he thought about it. He took off his black coat and put it to the side. He laid on his back, as he closed his eyes, and slowly drift off to sleep.
The house was quiet and still. Not a noise coming from anyone in the house. Antoinette, Rosemary and Jamie all in their beds, and Jamie was sleeping on the couch in the living room, with the fire going, as well as Daisy with her puppies, and Leonard was outside underneath the house, where it was warm for him. Charlie and Matilda were home late that night and slept in the small cottage house. Very thing was quiet, and everyone was sounding sleeping, but they would have wished they weren’t.
The next morning, Antoinette was the first one to wake up, the sun wasn’t up yet, and it was colder than yesterday morning. She put on her house slippers and made her way to the kitchen. She walked past the living room, where Jamie was still sleeping on the couch, with his blanket wrapped around him. Antoinette walked past him quietly and went to her little brother’s room. She slowly opens the door and whispered.
“Jamie… you awake?” she whispered. “It’s time to milk the cows,”. She walked into the room and found nothing. Jamie wasn’t in his bed. The sheets were pulled back and he wasn’t there. Antoinette knew something was up and her heart sank to the bottom of her stomach.