But, more than that, he was determined to prove himself to his father. His mother had died six months ago and it had left a huge hole in his family. His father had been distraught and had never come out of the fog he was in. Richard thought that if he could do well at college and make something of himself then at least his father could at last have something to smile about.
He had been wearing his headphones and had wondered why Town FM had been playing a loop CD for the last fifteen minutes. He’d heard three songs, but no DJ and he was coming close to removing them. He liked the banter between the different DJ’s and just listening to ongoing music was boring.
He was about to pull them from his ears when there came a high-pitched whine. He froze, his face a look of confusion. He started to shake and convulse, the whole bed rattling under his weight.
For a moment he thought, amongst the noise and the white light, that he saw his mother, smiling at him sadly.
But then she was gone.
And so was Richard Baker. His body still and unmoving.
‘Switch it off!’ screamed Caroline as Danny glowed white, his eyes quivering in their sockets.
‘DO NOT TOUCH IT!’ yelled Don. ‘I will have her back. I will. I will.’
Caroline waited until Don wasn’t paying attention and crept up next to Danny.
‘Danny, can you hear me?’ she whispered into his ear. ‘Danny, it’s me, Caz. Your old friend. I don’t know what they’ve done to you, but I know you’re still in there somewhere.’
‘We need to get out!’ hissed Phil.
‘We need to save the station,’ said Lee, unsure of whether to tackle Don to the ground or not.
Gaz simply stood there, not knowing whether to run or fight.
‘Danny, please tell me that you can hear me,’ said Caroline, desperation in her voice.
She was about to give up when Danny’s lips moved.
‘What was that?’ she asked, leaning in closer.
‘Caz…’ was all she could make out.
‘Yeah, it’s me. It’s your Caz,’ she grinned. ‘Remember when I helped you back when we first met the Doctor? Remember fighting them at the church? Well, you need to do it again.’
‘Caz…’
‘Fight them, Danny. Fight them. You and I need to get out of this. We need to get back to the Doctor and go and find out what’s up with me. We need to help the Doctor. We need to help you.’
‘Caz…’
‘Please, Danny, please.’ She grabbed his face and looked into his eyes. ‘You’re my best friend. You have and always will be, and I love you.’
With that Danny rose from his seat and threw out his hand. It was glowing white hot and Don turned to look around in shock.
‘What are you doing? Sit down?’
‘It is not time,’ said Danny in a rasping, growl of a voice. ‘You will not disrupt the normal course of things.’
‘I said sit down,’ said Don, crossing over to Danny.
A bolt of white light flew out of Danny’s hand, knocking Don back. He staggered backwards and then scrambled forwards again, running towards Danny.
‘Lilly has forgiven you, but she cannot forgive you for what you’ve done now!’
Danny flung out his arms and a wave of white light flew from him and hit Don full-on in the chest. Don flew back and hit the control desk.
And then the lights went out.
The Doctor had decided to go with Sophie after all. He laid Caroline down on the sofa in her living room and turned to her mother. She looked sad and drained of energy. Her face was pale and she was on the verge of tears.
‘What’s wrong, Mrs Parker?’ asked Sophie.
‘I just…I never wanted this for her. I wanted her to live a normal, happy life.’
‘And she will do,’ said the Doctor. ‘She’ll have a fantastic life.’
‘But she’s with you now,’ said Cath.
The Doctor sighed. ‘Life has it’s ups and downs. I can’t tell you everything, but I can tell you that your daughter grows up to be a kind and caring woman. She is very, very determined and she knows her own mind. You couldn’t ask for anything more.’
‘But her father. He won’t treat her as his own. It’s like he hates what she is. It’s like-’
‘Hush,’ said the Doctor, holding up a finger. ‘The future is still out there for you. I hope the three of you learn to enjoy it.’
An hour or so later Caroline had awoken in her bed with the worst headache imaginable. She frowned and rubbed her temples. She was sure she had forgotten something, but she couldn’t think what it could possibly be.
She got out of bed, put her slippers on and headed down the stairs. Her mother opened the door to the living room and stepped out, her arms folded.
‘How do you feel love?’ asked Cath.
‘I’ve got a pretty bad headache actually,’ said Caroline, wincing.
‘I’ll go get you a paracetamol,’ said her mum, kissing her on the top of her head.
Her mum returned with a glass of water and a tablet which Caroline washed down quickly.
‘Oh,’ said Cath, ‘by the way, your friend, Danny called.’
‘Is he coming over?’ asked Caroline hopefully.
‘No, I told him you’re still not well enough.’
Caroline looked dejected.
Her mum brushed passed her and then turned back to look at her. ‘I don’t want you seeing him anymore.’
‘Mum,’ said Caroline, ‘I’m almost sixteen. I think I can learn to look after myself now.’
‘He’s a wildcard,’ said her mum. ‘I don’t want you introduced to…dangers.’
‘What dangers?’ asked Caroline, getting more and more angry.
‘There are just…dangers out there. You won’t see him again.’
Caroline made a sound which looked as though it should have been accompanied by a fist punch, turned and then ran up the stairs.
Catherine walked into the living room, sat down and burst into tears. She wasn’t exactly sure what was to come, but she was damned if she was going to let her daughter become involved in anything dangerous - and that included this Doctor.
But at the back of her mind, she wondered if meeting him was inevitable.
‘Where’s he gone?’ asked Caroline, clambering through the wreckage of the mixing desk.
‘Don’s dead!’ said Gaz. ‘He’s dead!’
‘No more than he deserved,’ coughed Lee.
‘Phil!’ called Caroline, ‘where’s Danny?’
Phil coughed and clambered over to Caroline. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I didn’t see anything after the lights went out.’
‘We need to get out of here,’ said Gaz, hearing the sirens in the distance.
‘No way,’ said Lee, ‘I’m not letting the station go to ruin cos of this lunatic.’
‘All the equipment’s bust,’ said Gaz, trying to salvage a few CD’s from the wreckage. ‘It’s useless. If we get caught we’ll get arrested!’
‘You go then,’ said Lee, sitting himself down on the battered remains of the mixing desks chair.
‘There’s a dead man lying there in front of you! You’re insane,’ said Gaz as he made for the exit.
‘We need to find Danny,’ said Caroline. ‘He must have made a run for it.’
Caroline and Phil turned and ran out of the remains of the caretakers office and into the bright sunshine.
Lee watched them go and then turned to the mixing desk. There was still a little power running through it and a CD was jammed inside the player. He checked the readout and then the CD inlay and then picked up the twisted headphones that were lying across Don’s body.
This is Town FM 107.9. We’ve had a bit of a rough morning here. I can hear police sirens in the distance. It looks like time’s finally up for us….I don’t want this to end. It was all such a big, big mistake. There should have been another way. I just wanted to help people. I just wanted to help you all. Are there any of you still out there? Can you still here me?…. This is our last song. Remember us. I hope you enjoyed our broadcasts. This is “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” by Radiohead. Town FM signing off.
Caroline and Phil had spotted Danny boarding a bus headed for the neighbouring town of Yarathorpe. They just missed the bus so instead caught the next one.
‘Why do you think he’s heading up to Yarathorpe?’ asked Phil.
‘I don’t know,’ said Caroline, watching the houses whoosh by. ‘Me and him used to go up to the beach a lot when we were together.’
‘So you think he’s reminiscing or something?’
‘Perhaps he’s trying to find a connection. Somewhere that was special only to us.’
‘Sounds like he still has a thing for you.’
‘I don’t know,’ said Caroline sadly.
‘Do you still have a thing for him?’
She shook her head. ‘We’re friends. We’ll always be friends. But I don’t love him in that way. Not anymore. I met someone and I fell in love with him. My heart’s with him, no matter how far away he is.’
The bus eventually came to a stop on the sea front after about ten minutes. The pier stretched out across the beach and into the sea, but standing on the beach, in the shadow of the pier, was Danny, looking out to sea.
Caroline told Phil to wait there and then raced down the stone steps and onto the sand.
Danny’s eyes were glazed over as she ran up and put a hand on his shoulder.
‘What are you doing out here?’ said Caroline.
‘Thinking,’ said Danny.
‘You’re freezing cold,’ said Caroline, touching his face with the back of her hand. ‘We need to get you inside.’
‘Nobody can help me,’ said Danny. ‘That thing’s trapped in there.’
‘But you stopped them coming through. You stopped them before their time.’
‘The link’s gone, but that one is still inside of me.’
Caroline sighed and walked in front of him. ‘Why did you come here?’
‘To help me to remember who I am.’ He turned to face her. ‘Can you remember when we had both left school?’
‘We came up here,’ smiled Caroline.
Danny nodded. ‘We came up here and got my cousin, Gina, to buy us a couple of bottles of Hooch.’
Caroline smiled, remembering the drunken memory, the sharp taste of the alcoholic soft drink.
‘First time we ever drank,’ said Danny. ‘You looked so beautiful that day, you know.’
Caroline smiled. ‘Danny, if this is about you and I-’
‘It’s not,’ said Danny. ‘I know we’re friends and we’ll never be anything more. And I don’t want to be anything more. Not now. But I have and always will love you.’
Caroline smiled. ‘Look’s like you’re not in that boat by yourself then.’
Danny managed a smile. ‘Fancy a swim?’
‘You must be joking!’ she said, managing to laugh.
‘It didn’t stop you last time. Hey, maybe we’re around here somewhere.’
‘It was bloody freezing. And anyway, it was night back then. I’d never go skinny-dipping in the day!’ laughed Caroline.
Danny laughed and then winced, keeling over. He was pale and his eyes like glass.
‘Danny, we need to get you back to the Doctor. We need to find a way to get that Apparite out of you before it’s too late.’
‘I want to stay here. Stay where I’m happy. I don’t want to be forgotten.’
‘You won’t be forgotten,’ said Caroline, trying not to cry.
‘But it’s taking over me. Every day I feel it taking over me! I am Danny Lennon. I can’t let it take me!’
‘Then come with me. Come with me now. Let’s get this sorted once and for all.’
Around an hour had passed when Caroline, Danny and Phil had finally met up with the Doctor and Sophie. They had both exchanged stories, but the Doctor had left out the stuff regarding meeting the younger Caroline. To Caroline it seemed like the Doctor had had a rare, uneventful day.
Danny was hunched over on the bench beside the TARDIS.
‘What are we going to do?’ asked Caroline.
‘We need to get him somewhere that can help,’ said the Doctor. ‘Aleena’s people can help. They have some advanced equipment on that world.’
‘And kill two birds with one stone?’ asked Caroline, thinking about the Doctor’s ongoing predicament with Matthew Cole and his regeneration.
‘Exactly. Hopefully their scientists can help us.’ The Doctor crossed over to Danny and knelt down beside him. ‘We’re going to take you to where there’s help, Danny.’
Danny nodded, a look of confusion on his face.
‘Everything’s going to be alright,’ said Caroline.
The Doctor stood up. ‘Help him inside. I’ll join you shortly.’
Caroline helped Danny to his feet and took him into the TARDIS.
The Doctor stood there with Sophie, the two of them unsure of what to say to each other.
‘Well,’ said the Doctor, finally breaking the silence, ‘you’re quite welcome to come with me. I’d be over the moon to have you with us.’
Sophie looked as though she couldn’t decide between saying yes or no. She opened her mouth, frowned and then closed it again.
‘It’s entirely up to you,’ said the Doctor.
‘You were right what you said earlier,’ said Sophie, a little sadly. ‘I need to go back home and sort out things with my husband. I need to be there for my daughter.’
‘Don’t let me get in the way of your family.’
Sophie stood there with her hands on her hips, looking around and trying to hide the fact that she had started to cry.
‘Sophie’ said the Doctor, ‘I’m always around. You know that. If you ever need me then give me a call. You have a direct line to the TARDIS now.’
Sophie nodded remembering the mobile phone the Doctor had given her.
‘I won’t write the article,’ said Sophie. Her voice lowered. ‘I know we need to keep this thing quiet from Caroline.’
‘Until I find the right time to tell her,’ said the Doctor, looking worried.
Sophie put a hand on his arm and looked up at him. ‘Tell her. You still have that memory stored in the TARDIS, don’t you?’
The Doctor nodded.
‘Then be honest. Give that memory back to her. Give it to your Caroline.’
‘Maybe. Eventually,’ he said.
She reached up and kissed him on the cheek. ‘Take care of yourself, won’t you?’
The Doctor smiled. ‘You too, Sophie.’
She turned to go and then stopped, taking one more look at him. ‘What about that letter?’
‘Clearly I wrote it.’
‘I think you wrote it to help me,’ said Sophie.
‘That’s effectively a time loop,’ said the Doctor. ‘I wrote it because I saw that I’d written it.’ He smiled to himself.
‘Then you better go and write it and get it sent quickly.’
She smiled and then turned to go.
For a while the Doctor watched her as she disappeared into the crowds of shoppers. And then she was finally gone.
‘Has your friend left?’ asked Caroline, emerging from the doorway.
‘Yes,’ said the Doctor sadly. ‘How’s Danny?’
‘He’s sleeping in his room. Are we really going to get him sorted out?’
‘I hope so,’ said the Doctor. He turned to her, almost told her about what had happened with her fifteen year old self and then stopped himself. ‘I’m proud of you.’
‘Proud?’
‘You were able to tackle those Apparites without even needing me.’
‘It was all Danny,’ said Caroline, slightly embarrassed.
‘Nevertheless, I didn’t know anything about what was going on.’
‘But, Doctor,’ said Caroline, ‘doesn’t this affect what happens in the future?’
‘I don’t see why,’ he said, heading towards the TARDIS. ‘Clearly this was just another, small-scale attempt at breaking through to our universe.’
‘But do you reckon we’ll ever find out exactly who they are? That bloke - Don - said that there were others, interested in stopping them coming through.’
‘Caroline,’ he said, putting an arm around her, ‘I do have a plan, believe it or not. But first we need to get Danny to Aleena’s home world and save him. And then I have every intention of finding this woman called Jayne and getting some answers out of her.’
‘Good,’ said Caroline, ‘because I need answers about myself as well, and I’m sure there’s some connection.’
The Doctor stopped himself and looked guilty. He knew a hell of a lot of truths about her, but he wasn’t sure what he should do. Instead he shook his head clear and went inside the TARDIS.
‘Caroline!’ called a familiar voice.
Caroline turned and saw Phil running down Victoria Street towards the TARDIS.
‘Just give me a minute,’ said Caroline.
The Doctor nodded and entered the time machine.
‘Were you going without saying goodbye?’ said Phil.
‘I’m not very good at goodbyes,’ said Caroline with a weak smile.
Phil flung a paper into her face. ‘They arrested Lee. They found him babbling to himself about aliens and monsters.’
‘How are they explaining it all?’
‘The police say high frequencies causing people to have seizures.’
Caroline sighed. ‘I guess the truth would be too much. And Gaz?’
‘Lee’s that screwed in the head he hasn’t even mentioned Gaz or me or any of the others.
‘Good,’ said Caroline. ‘I think Gaz was caught up in something he had no control of.’
‘Me too. He wasn’t such a bad person.’ Phil stuttered. ‘Are we ever going to see each other again?’ asked Phil.
Caroline smiled. ‘Maybe. I’m still sort of around in the future, you know?’
‘I’ll be around your age in 2012.’
‘Yep,’ said Caroline.
‘Take care, won’t you?’ said Phil.
Caroline kissed him on his forehead. ‘You too. And stay away from dodgy blokes with illegal radio stations.’
Phil laughed. ‘I will do.’
‘And get yourself into college and go out there. Get a grip on life. Have a laugh. That’s the best way forward.’
Phil nodded. ‘See you Mrs Fieldgate.’
She smiled at the name as she went into the TARDIS.
A few seconds later the blue box dematerialised into thin air as Phil watched on in surprise. He then smiled, turned and headed home.
As he passed the church area he saw two woman - one with long, curly blonde hair and the other with her reddish-blonde hair tied back. She was speaking with an American accent and the other spoke in English. They seemed to be concerned about something. Phil was sure he heard the American woman mention Town FM, but he just continued to walk past them, happier in life…and wondering if his mum was going to forgive him for screwing up the job interview…
In the TARDIS the Doctor had just finished writing the letter and popped it into an envelope, sealing it with a blue drop of wax.
‘So we’re on course for Xanji-For then?’
‘Yes,’ said the Doctor. ‘I’ve just got to pop this letter in the post.’
Caroline shook her head. ‘You and a letter. You never make any sense. Hey,’ said Caroline, frowning, ‘I’m really surprised we never bumped into my mum or dad or even me.’
The Doctor shifted uncomfortably and tried not to meet her gaze. ‘What were you doing back in 1998?’
‘Loads of stuff,’ said Caroline. ‘I know I was pretty ill during that month though. It’s all a bit of a blur really. I do remember being disappointed that Town FM had gone off the air though. The rest of the memories…well, like I said - bit of a blur.’
The Doctor tapped the console. The part that he had used to extract the memory from the younger Caroline.
‘Oh well,’ said the Doctor, ‘hopefully it’ll come back to you one day.’
‘Yeah,’ said Caroline distantly. ‘I better go check on Danny.’
The Doctor watched her go and then sighed, leaning with his head down against the console. He would tell her, but only when the time was right.
Sunday May 10th, 1998
Caroline heard the knock on her window. She pulled the headphones off from her ears and turned to look behind her. Standing there at the window was Danny looking nervous and worried. She frowned, clambered out of the bed and opened the window for him.
He clambered inside and shook his head. ‘Never doing that again.’
‘I thought they only did it in the films,’ said Caroline groggily.
‘It can stay in the films.’
Caroline patted the bed. ‘Sit.’
‘How you feeling?’ asked Danny, sitting next to her.
‘Still like rubbish, but a bit better.’
He smiled and kissed her on the forehead.
‘You can’t be here though,’ said Caroline. ‘If mum catches you then I’m dead.’
‘She won’t catch me.’
They both heard a noise outside and Danny leapt off the bed. ‘I need to get revising anyway.’
‘Yeah me too.’
‘When you’re feeling better though,’ he said, holding a finger up as he clambered back out of the window.
‘Danny,’ said Caroline, a look of confusion on her face.
‘Yeah,’ said Danny.
‘Have you ever had one of those weekends where everything seems a blur.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I don’t know…I just feel like something’s…missing.’
‘Me of course. We haven’t seen each other since Friday afternoon at the park. It’ll be the flu,’ he smiled.
They heard another sound.
‘I’ll see you later,’ he said, clambering down the sloping roof.
‘Love you,’ said Caroline.
Danny looked back up at her and smiled. With a final wink he disappeared from view.
Caroline returned to her bed and soon fell asleep. In her dreams she saw a bald man standing in a church-like room. But the dream soon faded and she forgot.
THE END
Next time: "The Problem with Death" - The Doctor, Caroline and Danny arrive on Xanji-For - Aleena's homeworld - looking for help with the ailing Danny, but they soon find themselves embroiled in a new adventure when the Xanji God, Ireel, puts in an appearance.
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