the last train home page 2

'Ah yes, London.' The Doctor looked at Rose, a puzzled look upon his face.

'You also, Doctor Smith?'

'Please, just Doctor. Yes, my companion and I are off to savour the delights of the City.'

'Delights?' a high pitched voice from the opposite side of the carriage could be heard. One of the lady companions put her hand down sharply, but carefully not to disclose her hand to her traveling companion.

'Well, um, yes. Are you not traveling to London also?' the Doctor asked.

'We are, sir, but not for the, what you call "delights" of the City. We're visiting-- ' she was cut short by the Doctor who continued:

'Ok, well that's that then, we're all going to London...' he paused as the woman showed her disgust at the interruption and turned back towards her traveling companion.

'How rude! Typical of the sort we're likely to find in London, Cynthia.' she placed her next card down onto the table, her concentration momentarily diverted by their new traveling passengers had caused her to play the wrong card resulting in Cynthia winning the game.

'Oh really.' she muttered.

The Doctor had moved over to towards Rose. 'So we're on a train heading for London.' she muttered.

'Appears so.'

'Then, Doctor, why does it look like we're in the middle of the dessert?'

'What?'

'When we were in the other carriage, with the luggage, I thought it looked like we were in the middle of the dessert.'

The Doctor moved over to the windows, leaned across and pulled the curtain back. The sun light burst through the window filling up the entire carriage. Once he was accustomed to the light, he looked closer through the window and out to the horizon. 'We're not in the dessert,'

'Then, where?'

'I'm not sure; we're even traveling to London.' The Doctor turned away from the window and stared back into the carriage. He suddenly launched into a run back towards the carriage where he had left the TARDIS.

'Doctor, what is it?' Rose began to follow.

Having returned to the carriage, the Doctor looked around frantically at its contents. Rose stepped up to his side as she entered.

'What is it? What are you looking for?'

'Something's not right here,' he said and began to open the various luggage cases that were piled up around them.

'If you tell me what you're looking for I might be able to help you.'

He paused as he opened the last stack of luggage. 'I think I've found it.'

Rose went over to see what it was he had found, but he held out his hand stopping her form coming any closer. 'What is it?'

'I think I've found one of the passengers.'

'Oh,' Rose had stepped forward and immediately moved away at the site she saw. There in one of the trunks was the body of a man dressed in a dark suit with a look of fear still etched upon his face. The body had been folded, contorted to fit into the suitcase.

The Doctor knelt down to examine their discovery. 'He's been dead for some time, hard to say how long thou, rigor mortis hasn't set in yet.'

'Who is he?' Rose asked.

The Doctor examined the trunk further and found it to be the same trunk they had stood on earlier. 'R.H.' he whispered.

'This is all a bit weird,' she muttered.

'Weird? Not really, but there are a few questions to be answered. Come on!' he suddenly jumped to his feet and headed back towards the other carriage, 'Let's see who our mysterious R.H. is.'

Rose looked around her and hurried to catch up with the Doctor.

Once back with the other passengers the Doctor rushed up to the other end of the carriage and declared, 'R.H. Mean anything to you?'

The gentleman put down his newspaper and looked at the Doctor, 'I'm sorry, sir, but have we met?'

The Doctor turned to him, a puzzled look over his face he momentarily glanced back at Rose and then continued, 'Just a moment ago. You introduced yourself and your companion, Charles and...' the Doctor stumbled over the young lady's name and looked at Rose for help.

'Mary,' she said

'Yes, Mary Moore. I'm the Doctor.

Charles stood up and went to shake the Doctor's hand but the Doctor didn't respond. 'Doctor?' he asked.

'We've just met,' said Rose, 'You introduced yourself to the Doctor and me.'

'I'm sorry, young lady, but I don't recall ever having met you before now.'

Mary turned to look at the Rose and smiled.

'Don't you remember us?' asked Rose but Mary just apologised and continued to peer out of her window.

The Doctor turned to the two ladies playing cards at their table. They glared back at him at the sudden intrusion. 'You're about to play the three of hearts.' he suddenly said.

'Pardon me?'

'And Cynthia here is about to play the five of clubs.'

'How could you possible know that?' asked Cynthia.

'Because you've both played the same game before.' the Doctor turned to look at Rose but his eyes looked beyond her.

Rose turned and looked behind her. There stood before them was the same man they had found in the trunk. She stepped back cautiously towards the Doctor. 'Doctor, why is a dead man walking?'

He pulled her behind him as if to protect her. 'I'm not sure.' he whispered.

The man moved towards them and promptly took a seat close to the carriage doors.The Doctor moved over to their new passenger. 'Hello,' he said attentively, 'I'm the Doctor and you are R.H. I presume.'

The man turned to look at him; a grey ashen face looked back at him. Rose moved over to the Doctor, 'He looks half dead.'

'No. Very much alive if I'm not mistaken. Aren't you?'

'But he's dead, we just seen him stuffed onto a trunk in amongst the rest of the cargo.'

'Oh, he may well look like our dead friend back there, but he's just a copy of the original.'

The man stood up. 'Stand back, whatever you do don't touch him,' declared the Doctor, putting out his arms to protect Rose and the other passengers.

The man seemed to stare at them before casually walking back out through the door towards the rear carriage. A glowing green light filtered through the window of the door and the cracks in the door frame.

The Doctor moved forward slowly towards the door. The eerie green light losing its intensity as the creature disappeared back up the ladder and onto the roof of the carriage as Rose had seen it do earlier.

'What was it?' asked Rose. 'I thought I saw it earlier, just before we entered the carriage.'

The Doctor didn't answer; instead he was looking over Rose's shoulder at the other passengers.

'What is it?' Rose asked turning to look at what it was that had caught his attention.

'It's like nothing has happened,' whispered the Doctor.

The other passengers continued as they had done before, Charles Wyndham continued to read his newspaper, while his companion continued her gaze through the window and the two lady passengers continued with their game of cards.

'Couldn't they see that thing?' Rose asked slowly walking over towards the passengers. 'Hello!' she cried out, 'Are you blind?'

The two ladies looked up from their cards as Charles Wyndham put down his paper and looked over at Rose. 'I'm sorry,' he said.

'Rose,' whispered the Doctor, 'They don't see it because they're part of a Time Bubble, going round and round endlessly repeating the same sequence of events just like before.'

'But what about us? When we entered they acknowledged us, of sorts. Even introduced themselves.'

'A glitch. Perhaps the Time Bubble is stretching, allowing new events to follow but each time it returns to the beginning.'

'I'm sorry,' repeated Charles, 'have we met?' he said standing, like before and introducing himself to the two time travelers. It was then that Rose suddenly noticed the newspaper lying on the table. She picked it her eye had caught the headline spread across the front of the page in big bold letters.

'Doctor, look.' she held the newspaper up for the Doctor to see.

'What does it mean?' he muttered. 'Everywhere we go the same two words, "Bad Wolf".'

Suddenly their attention was drawn away from the newspaper to the two lady passengers playing cards. They had both finished their game.

'Well done, Cynthia.' said the first.

'Thank you, Lady Carstairs.' replied Cynthia. 'Care for another game?' she enquired.

'Not right now, it seems that our last game was something of a long challenge,' she mused pondering on the thought as to when the game had ever started in the first place. 'Maybe later, my dear. Care for some refreshments?'

Cynthia acknowledge with a polite nod of the head, as Lady Carstairs turned to the Doctor and Rose. 'You there, a pot of tea as quickly as you like.'

The Doctor and Rose turned to look at each other. 'Sorry, but we ain't your servants,' Rose spat. The Doctor grabbed her arm gently before she could utter another word.

The two lady passengers looked at each other with disgust.

'Don't you remember us?' the Doctor asked, looking at them all.

'Well, no not really.' said Charles 'Have we met, sir?'

'Yes, several moments ago. You introduced yourself as Charles Wyndham,'

'Why, yes that is I.'

'And your companion...'

'Mary Moore,' said Rose

'Yes, Miss Mary Moore.'

Mary looked over at them at the mention of her name. Charles gave them a slightly bewildered look as he hadn't as yet introduced her, or so he thought.

'Are you sure we've met before, sir?' Charles began to struggle to find some sort of explanation. 'Perhaps on a previous visit to St James's, my club, The Eccentric, in London,' he whispered as quietly as he could so that the Lady passengers couldn't hear.

The Doctor leaned over, 'The Eccentric Club...' he thought for a moment.  It sounded very familiar.

'Doctor?'

'Of course!' declared the Doctor, 'The Eccentric Club!!'

'You've heard of it?' asked Rose.

'Yes, in fact I'm sure I'm a member, or was a member.'

'You are?' asked Charles, a puzzled look crossed his face as he thought long and hard to recollect having ever met a Doctor John Smith. 'My memory isn't as good as it used to be but perhaps you are right.'

'What's The Eccentric Club?' Rose asked.

'The Eccentric Club was the name given to several London Gentlemen's clubs established in the 1800s at St James's.' He looked at Charles and then looked at Mary Moore. 'And Charlie boy there was or is, one of its founders.'

'Is he famous?' whispered Rose.

'Famous?' declared the Doctor, 'Yes.' he mused, he turned to Charles, 'What year is this?'

'The year?' Charles Wyndham found the question odd to say the least.

'Yes, the year.'

'1903'

'1903, which means Charlie boy here is the actor, "Sir" Charles Wyndham.' a big smile crossed his face as the Doctor realised who they had before them and shook the gentleman's hand

'Should I know him?' asked Rose, 'He's not exactly anyone I would call famous.' she stated.
 
'Opened Wyndham's Theatre in the West End.'

'Madonna!'

'Madonna?' asked the Doctor.

'Yeah, saw her there couple of years back. not bad from what I can remember.'

'Madonna?' the Doctor reinstated again a look of disbelief on his face. 'Charlie boy here established the Wyndham's Theatre.'

'It's all in the name.' said Rose, smiling back at the Doctor.' Are they?' whispered Rose, indicating that there appeared to be more than just friends between Sir Charles and Mary. The Doctor looked at her and gave a knowing nod.


'She's his manager, and yes, they will or do marry, eventually.'


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