Fic: An Act of Charity (2/2)

[john_amend_all]

Title: An Act of Charity (part 2)
Author: john_amend_all
Characters: OCs, Ace, Dodo
Rating: All ages
Word count: ~4800 total, ~2400 this part
Disclaimer: 'Doctor Who' characters belong to the BBC.
Author's notes: It's widely acknowledged that the 'Dorothy' mentioned in SJA: Death of the Doctor is intended to be Ace. There's another school of thought that would prefer it to be Dodo. Here, it's both.
Summary: What it's like to work for A Charitable Earth.

[Part 1]

I'm a bit hazy on the next couple of minutes, but the next thing I remember clearly is that I was sitting on the floor in one of the empty downstairs rooms. I suppose a couple of the others must have helped me in there, because Dotty was just shooing them out.

"Now you get back and look after poor Deez," she was saying. "Make sure someone stays with her all the time. Oh, dear, what a to-do."

"What—" I muttered. "Is Deez all right?"

Dotty hurried over to where I was, and looked down at me.

"She's as well as can be expected, in the circumstances," she said. "No bones broken, as far as we can tell. Now," her voice was clear and her expression sharp, with no hint of her usual scatterbrained manner, "perhaps you'll explain why young Josh decided to try and knock her into next week?"

"I don't know what's happened to him," I said. "It was that ring."

"What ring?"

I explained, as best I could, how Josh had found the ring, and what it had done to him when he put it on.

"I see," Dotty said, once I'd finished. "Can you walk?"

I stood up, and took a few experimental steps. "Yes."

"Then come with me. I've got someone outside who'd like to hear that story."

She led me out of the house. As we passed through the hall I caught a brief glimpse of Deez still lying there, surrounded by the others, but Dotty hurried me along and I was outside almost at once. Her car was still there, and the van. Standing beside the van, looking as if she owned it, was the woman who'd been behind me at the shop — the one who'd given me the five pence.

"You were right, boss," Dotty said to her. "There was something here. A ring."

"'Course I'm right," the woman said. She turned to me. "So you're one of mine, are you? Nice to see you again. Just so you know, I'm the Director of this stupid excuse for a charity. Told you it was my job to give money to hopeless nerks like you, didn't I? You can call me Boss. Now, what's all this about a ring?"

I told my story again.

"Sounds about typical," she said. "You know what this bloke Josh looks like, right? Good. Then you're going to come with me and get this thing sorted out." She turned back to Dotty. "You. Get the job finished off here, OK?"

"OK," Dotty said, and disappeared back into the house, leaving me on the drive with — it seemed — the head of the whole organisation. She looked me up and down, then pulled out a smartphone and pressed a few buttons.

"He went this way," she said, and set off at a brisk walk. I hurried to keep up.

"Can I ask..." I began hesitantly.

"You can ask." She checked her smartphone again. "There he goes."

"What's happened to Josh? I mean, from the way you're talking, you've run into this sort of thing before."

"Yeah, it happens quite a bit. You wouldn't believe the weird stuff people have in their houses. That's how I got into this charity malarkey in the first place. Set the thing up as a front for a day, end up running it for eight years."

"A front?" I repeated. "But..."

"Oh, a lot of it's real by now. More or less." We'd passed the main entrance of the supermarket by now, and were heading down an alleyway that ran beside it. "Sometimes it even does something useful." She scowled at me. "Not today. Your friend Josh is in big trouble."

"What kind of trouble?"

"Depends. If he's lucky he'll get a piece of my mind. Otherwise we'll be picking up pieces of his body."

We'd already reached the far end of the alley. A gateway gave access to the loading bay behind the supermarket; she pushed at it.

"Unlocked," she said, sounding almost disappointed. "OK. He's somewhere in there. Here's the plan. You go in that door" — she pointed — "and get his attention. I'll come at him from the other way." She set off in the direction of another entrance, then seemed to think better of it. "Just in case, you'd better have this."

She dug in her jacket pocket and handed me another smartphone, that looked identical to the one she was still holding.

"I've got a phone," I said.

"Not like this, you haven't. If he gets me, you'll have to take him down. Point this end at him, and press the butterfly icon."

"Will he—" I began, but she just shoved me toward the door, with a cheery "Get a move on."

My heart was in my boots as I crept through the back door of the shop. The room beyond was a huge space, lit by harsh fluorescent lighting and lined with stacks of boxes, neatly organised and labelled.

"Josh?" I called, trying to shout and keep quiet at the same time.

I heard a door open and close, somewhere I couldn't see.

"Josh!" I called again. "It's me."

"And what do you think you're doing here?" a voice demanded from behind me.

I jumped, and spun round. It was the cashier — the same one I'd had all the trouble with before. She must just have come through from the shop.

"It's an emergency," I said. "There's a dangerous..." I realised how unconvincing I was sounding, but ploughed on. "...criminal at large."

"Pull the other one. Get out of here before I call Security."

"But I—"

"Go on!" She jerked her thumb over her shoulder.

I didn't seem to have much choice in the matter, so I took a few steps in that direction. Behind me, I could still hear her.

"You'd think people would learn to read," she said. "You'd have to be blind to miss the KEEP OUT sign on that door. And don't try telling me you actually are blind— Hey! You! Come out of there at once!"

I turned again, to see Josh standing in another doorway, on the far side of the room. He looked just as he had before — pale, grim, and very dangerous. Anyone with any sense would have run away from him as fast as they could. So of course the cashier walked straight towards him, still ranting.

"How many of you are there in here?" she asked. "You'd better have a good explanation, because—"

Lighting began to crackle over Josh's hand again. Staring coldly, he began to raise it, pointing at the cashier.

"Josh!" I shouted. "No!"

He jumped — obviously, he hadn't noticed that I was there. He turned to face me; I threw myself to one side, cannoning into a stack of boxes and losing my balance. A silvery, glowing bolt streaked through the space where I had been, smashing into another stack. Both stacks collapsed at once, half- burying me in shredded cardboard, fresh fruit and vegetables.

Josh, with the lightning still dancing around his fingers, turned back to face the cashier, who seemed to have only just realised the trouble she was in.

"No," she said, holding up her hands as if to try and push Josh away. "Please. No!"

The smartphone was still in my hand, I realised. Not giving myself time to think, I pointed it at Josh, and pressed the butterfly icon.

There was a hum. Josh, without moving a muscle, swung round to face me, as if he'd been on a giant turntable. Then he screamed in agony, and just went on screaming. The smartphone was vibrating in my hand, and seemed to be getting warmer. There was a horrible tearing sound, and the lights playing over Josh's hand and arm went out. He collapsed to the ground, his screams fading to moans of pain. The ring fell from his hand and rolled a little way across the floor.

Before I could extricate myself from the wreckage of the store's fruit and veg supplies, the Director appeared in the doorway where Josh had been standing, her own smartphone at the ready. She took in the situation, shoved her phone into her pocket, and hurried over to him.

"Get an ambulance!" she snapped at the cashier. "Go on!"

The stunned woman nodded, and hurried off. I managed to free myself, and crossed the floor to where Josh was lying. Now I was close, I could see that his clothes were in tatters, and his body, particularly the hand that had held the ring, was covered with fine red lines.

"Is he— Will he—" I asked.

"Dunno," she said. "I'm not a doctor." She looked up at me from her position crouching on the floor. "So why did you shoot him? I told you to distract him and wait for me."

"He was going to kill that... that checkout woman," I said. "I didn't see you anywhere."

"If it'd been me, I'd probably have let him zap her. Dozy cow." She stood, and patted me on the shoulder. "Nah, just joking. You did the right thing."

"Maybe all I've done is killed him instead of her," I said.

"He wouldn't be any great loss either. Nicking valuables on the job." She looked down at him. "You. You're sacked." She looked back at me. "Keep an eye on him, Fruitbox."

"Fruitbox?" I repeated stupidly.

She pulled a fragment of orange peel out of my hair. "From now on, you're Fruitbox. Now do what I told you. Oh, and I'll have my phone back, thanks."

"OK, boss," I said weakly, handing the smartphone over.

She glanced around, located the ring, and knelt down by it. I couldn't see what she did with it, but when she got up, it wasn't there any more. Then she pulled out her smartphone again, and looked at it.

"Stay there," she said. "I've got to make a few calls. Can't get a decent signal in here." She nodded at Josh, whose moans were getting quieter. "Don't try to move him."

Until the ambulance showed up, I stayed with Josh, holding his good hand. I tried to talk to him, but he didn't give any sign of understanding me, and he didn't say anything coherent himself.

Once the ambulance had arrived, and Josh had been carted off to hospital, my boss and I walked back to the house.

"What was that ring?" I asked her. "What did it do to him?"

"I don't know all the details," she said. "It's some sort of living metal. Takes you over and turns you into a weapon."

"A weapon? Who for?"

"We don't know. Probably aliens, but the only way we'd find out is getting someone to put one of the rings on and try and spot a pattern in who they killed."

"One of the rings?" I repeated. Now I thought about it, it made sense that there must be more of them. She'd known exactly what to do about this one, so she must have seen something similar before. "That thing you did with your phone—"

"You can get an app for anything these days," she said. "Needs a bit of extra kit in the phone, of course, but I know a girl who knows a guy."

"But what did it do?"

"When you put one of those rings on, your body ends up full of wires — same stuff that the ring's made of. Hit them with the phone, and they get ripped out. Shouldn't kill you, but hurts like bu— like nothing on Earth. That's the theory, anyway."

I felt sick at her matter-of-fact description of what had happened to Josh. Of what I'd done to Josh. She must have noticed.

"Had to be done," she said. "Try not to think about it."

I tried, and realised I'd overlooked something else she'd said. "You said aliens? You're telling me aliens are real?"

"Yeah, they're real all right."

I nodded dumbly. I was beginning to hope that I was dreaming, or going mad, and in a moment I'd wake up back in reality. I pinched my arm several times, but it didn't work.

When we arrived at the house, it was locked up, and everyone else was waiting for us on the drive. Among them was Deez, looking back to normal except for the beginnings of a black eye.

"Oh, Director, how wonderful to see you again," Dotty said. She'd gone back to being a quavering old lady again. "Everything's loaded and ready. Do tell me, is there any news of poor Josh?"

"I sacked him. Nicking stuff on the job is right out — got that, everyone?" She paused briefly while we murmured our agreement. "And so's mucking about with what you've nicked. He's in hospital now, the little scumbag. Deez, you feeling better?"

Deez looked slightly thrown. "Um, yeah, boss," she managed.

"Ace. OK, you and Fruitbox, in the van with me. Dotty, you take the rest."

Not waiting for an answer, she clambered into the cab of the van. Deez and I exchanged glances — I could see her mouthing Fruitbox? — and climbed in on the passenger side.

For most of the drive back, I was trying to explain to Deez what had happened, and answering her questions. She didn't have much to add to the story, from her point of view; Dotty had deflected everyone's questions, and kept them hard at work getting the house emptied.

"Boss," I said, once we'd run out of questions to ask each other, "You do this sort of thing all the time, don't you?"

"Not all the time," our Director said, keeping her attention on the road. "Only on the bad days."

"Did you do something like this with Deez? Because when we got back to the house, you knew who she was before she said anything."

"Not bad, Fruitbox. Yeah, she helped me once. Long story."

I made another mental leap. "And you were the one who called her Deez? I mean, in the first place?"

"That's right. Get her to tell you about it one day." She laughed. "You might have to use blackmail."

I glanced at Deez, who — for the first time since I'd met her — looked embarrassed. Then another thought struck me.

"Which hospital's Josh in?" I asked. "I ought to visit him."

"If I was you I'd leave the little toerag well alone," our boss replied. "He's probably telling anyone who'll listen it was all your fault. That you were the one who nicked the ring and he was only trying to get it back off you."

"I can guess." I shook my head. "But I've got to go. It's like it's my... duty?"

Deez punched me lightly in the arm. "Proper charity worker, aren't you?"

"Yeah," the Director added. "When you've finished your community service, you'll probably be hearing from me. I think you ought to get a chance at the good days, too."
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