‘What did you do with the mug?’ Hilary Walsh asked the Doctor, who was skulking near the lounge door, looking decidedly uncomfortable.
‘The mug?’
‘I made you a cup of tea,’ she reminded him. ‘When you came to look at Noah’s room.’
‘You left it in Velma,’ Bill reminded him.
‘Velma?’
‘My camper van,’ Charlotte said from the leather chair in the corner of the room. ‘Guess I’ll never see her again.’
‘I doubt she’d pass her next MOT,’ the Doctor told her.
‘That’s nothing new,’ Charlotte said, still looking shell-shocked.
Sammy knew how she felt. She could remember hardly anything about the last few days, not since she’d run out to confront the Shining Man. There were scraps of memories, but she was pretty sure most of them weren’t even hers. All that mattered was that she was home, snuggled on the sofa with her kids.
‘Did someone mention tea?’ she asked, going to stand up. ‘I’ll pop the kettle on.’
‘No you won’t,’ her mum told her, springing into action. ‘I’ll make one for everyone, and then I’m running you a bath, Sammy love.’
Sammy didn’t argue.
Her mum bustled from the room, pushing the Doctor out of the way. Sammy still wasn’t really sure who he was, other than that he was a friend and Noah adored him.
PC Schofield walked in, wearing her peculiarly gold uniform. She handed a mobile phone back to Bill.
‘Thanks. A car’s on its way. Turman’s in hospital.’
The police officer had the same look in her eyes, like she’d just come out of a dream.
‘I suppose they’ll want to talk to us all,’ Sammy said. ‘But what are we supposed to say?’
‘Beats me,’ Charlotte admitted. ‘Any advice, Doctor?’
Sammy looked towards the lounge door.
‘Doctor?’ Noah said, leaning forward on the sofa.
Sammy pushed herself up, walking out to the kitchen. ‘Mum, are the Doctor and Bill with you?’
‘No, love. They’re in the lounge, aren’t they?’
Sammy turned to see the front door was ajar.
‘They haven’t gone?’ PC Schofield asked, flinging the door open and looking out on the street. ‘How am I supposed to explain all this to the Sarge without them?’
A wave of dizziness washed over Sammy. Her mum was beside her in a flash, helping her back to the sofa.
‘Mum?’ Masie looked over from where she was passing her mobile phone to that Charlotte girl. ‘Are you all right?’
‘I’m fine,’ Sammy insisted. ‘I promise.’
Of course she was. She was home.
‘I could have done with a cup of tea,’ Bill complained as they trudged through the wood.
‘We have tea,’ the Doctor told her. ‘A whole room of tea. Straight on past the boot cupboard and second door to the right.’ He paused. ‘Or is that the observatory? Anyway, it’s all in there. Earl Grey. Darjeeling. PG Tips …’
He held a branch aside so that she could continue along the path, apologising to the tree as he let it swing back.
‘Or you could wait until we get back to Bristol. You know how Nardole likes to fuss around you. I bet he can even find some Battenberg.’
She pulled a face. ‘Ugh! Can’t stand the stuff.’
‘There’s no accounting for taste.’
‘What about this place?’ Bill asked as they found the TARDIS exactly where they left it.
He paused by the door. ‘What about it?’
‘Are they gone now? The Fae?’
He looked around at the trees, sniffing the air. ‘The veil has been secured again. The barrier only lowered thanks to all the fear generated by the Shining Men craze. That’s how the ultra-terrestrials could slip back and forth. I doubt they’d want to come back for a while.’
‘And the Shining Men? The fake ones, I mean.’
‘Oh, they’ll be forgotten soon enough. Some other nonsense will replace them online.’ He patted down his pockets, looking for the key. Then he stopped and sighed.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘The key’s still in the Invisible,’ he told her mournfully.
Bill couldn’t believe what she was hearing. ‘Then how are we supposed to get back into the TARDIS?’
He smiled and clicked his fingers, the TARDIS door snapping open behind him. ‘Magic?’
She smiled, shoving him into the control room. ‘Show off.’
Boggle Wood reverberated to the unearthly sound of the TARDIS engines. The noise faded away and with it the police box.
‘Gotcha!’ said Charlotte from behind a tree. She pressed the red button on Masie’s camera app and checked the footage. On screen, the Doctor and Bill got into the TARDIS and the blue box disappeared.
She paused the video and smiled.
This was going to go viral …