Before You Die

“Erica!”

The Doctor’s voice rang through the Tardis on a screeching overhead loudspeaker. I covered my ears with my weapon filled hands and waited for him to figure out how to use the device. When he finally did I saw Ben beginning to stir and hurriedly thwacked him over the head again.

“Erica, I hope you haven’t fallen into the pit of ravenous snakes because I forgot where they were and didn’t warn you. So just saying, I hope you aren’t dead or dying and if you could possibly come back very quickly, I've come up with a plan.”

I began hauling Ben into a chair before retying him to the wood and dragging the chair slowly out of the kitchen and down the hall.

“Doctor!” I called as I got closer, my arms aching with the effort of dragging Ben who was double my weight. The doctor came running when he heard the desperation in which I called but he didn’t move to help me. Apparently physical exertion – if it wasn’t running – was off the charts.

“What did he ever do to you?” he asked as he eyed the both of us warily.

“He’s been undermining us since we picked him up,” I explained as I finally set him down in front of the controls. The Doctor looked at me dubiously.

“I highly doubt that,” he answered. “I get that you’re jealous because it’s no secret that I like him more but you don’t need to make up some story about sabotage…what is that?”

When he caught sight of Ben’s fishney in my hand I was extremely relieved that he didn’t spot the fake mistilec showing slightly from beneath my jacket.

“Oh,” was all he said before pointedly avoiding looking at Ben as he made his way around the controls. “Well I've got this cleaned up so we’re all set to send the transmission.”

“Do it,” I answered, leaning backwards on the controls and facing Ben with a curious expression. “He obviously didn’t want it done, so do it.”

With a single button, a high pitched frequency echoed throughout the Tardis momentarily before it stopped and the Doctor spun around and stared at Benjamin Brown disappointedly.
“So did you get a plan out of him?”

“Tried to kill the Faurai sister, failed. UNIT decided to send out a call to the Gangores and get them to settle some ancient fight with the family. They weren’t counting on the Faurai coming to Earth to try and get some payback on Ben.”

“You know,” the Doctor started, folding his arms, “I don’t think he actually minds. After all, this seems to be the only thing he’s got going for him. Other than the fact that he could have been a model if he hadn’t crash-landed in UNIT. Obviously he doesn’t have the smarts.”

“Oi,” I exclaimed. “Don’t insult humans just because we haven’t been around for the past thousand years. By the way, do you really think that a transmission is going to solve all our problems? As t turns out, they originate on Earth with my former employer.”

“Yeah but I don’t really fancy sticking my lot in with UNIT again,” he shrugged. “I think it was bad enough being fired the first time.”

“Didn’t you –”

“Anyway,” he said, stepping forward and nudging Ben with his foot. Slowly, the sleeping boy began to stir in his bonds and open his eyes.

“This doesn’t seem like a PG scenario,” Ben started before seeing the deadly looks that both the Doctor and I were staring him down with. “She told you then.”

“She did,” the Doctor answered. “Betrayal is not something I like Benjamin.”

“Neither does she,” Ben inclined his head towards me as I tapped my finger on my arm in annoyance. No I didn’t. The fact that I'd stood up for him to Helia and yet he’d lied to me really pissed me off. We’d had an agreement. I'd stuck to it

“You promised me,” I managed. “Our first day of Year Twelve. You would never lie to me. Never hurt me and always stick up for me.”

The Doctor found himself looking between my resolute gaze and Ben’s apologetic face in curiosity. I suppose, the way I was speaking, anyone would assume Benjamin and I were more than friends. Maybe we were, for all of a week. But in a second, we were over, better as friends – just like Jack and I.

Ben didn’t respond and so the Doctor kept going, “What shall we do with you now Benjamin?”

“It doesn’t really matter,” he shrugged. “I failed in my mission. UNIT will fire me and most probably wipe my memory, the Deknera will search for me until I am dead and the Gangores will take over the world.”

“Not our problem,” the Doctor responded.

“Well, the last one is,” I muttered. “I doubt the world will take kindly to being run by miniature dinosaurs.”

“Well fine,” the Doctor sighed, turning his back to the boy and running to the opposite side of the Tardis controls. “We’ll get to that once we drop you home.”

“Sure we shouldn’t turn him over to the cops?” I murmured, running after him.

“Whose cops?” the Doctor muttered back to me. “Your cops? America’s cops? Britain’s cops? The wizard cops? What kind of Police force is going to care that a teenage boy assisted, barely, in the Gangorian infiltration of Earth, when the Gangores soon WILL be the police.”

“Midget dinosaurs running the world?” I said, with wide eyes and a smile playing at the side of my mouth.

“Yep,” the Doctor replied, looking into his screen as he hit a few buttons. He looked up at Ben who was struggling with the ropes to me, and gave a small smile. “That would be hilarious if it wasn’t this world.”