PARTY AT GROUND ZERO
a 7th Doctor & Ace fanfiction by Lori Summers
***********
"How can I help it if I think you're funny when you're mad?"
--Barenaked Ladies
PART TWO: Made Ya Look
The minutes dragged slowly by, the long lagging seconds stretchin out like the lazy shadow of a tall man on a sunset road in the middle of nowhere. Ewens stood ramrod straight by the door, his ice-chip eyes flicking over the hostages, who could do nothing but sit there and endure him lookin.
Ben paid a particular mind to the woman Dory and his odd little floor-sitting partner, but he didn't see no more underhand signals...or much of anything, truth be told. He kept half an eye on Loretta, sitting with the white trash-y family with her hair comin' askew from her bun. It made her look kinda fetchin', actually...cut that out Ben, it ain't the time. Once she looked up and met his eyes, an expression of terror in hers, and he tried to reassure her with a smile but didn't think he did a very good job of it. He watched as one of the cowboy truckers taught the little boy how to make shadow puppets on the wall till Roget made 'em stop. Ben frowned. Seemed like she did it just to keep everyone as miserable and wound-up as possible. She seemed the type to enjoy twistin the thumbscrews just for the fun 'o the twistin.
The Doctor was humming under his breath and seemed just as unconcerned as he could be...the weird thing was that wasn't surprising, even given their situation. Seemed like he'd feel in control just 'bout wherever he was or whatever he was doin. Ben was starting to get the vibe that even if'n Ewens thought he was in charge here, he wasn't.
"Ho!" came a cry from outside, and all the commandoes in the motel snapped to attention with ridiculous uniformity. Ewens began motioning to his underlings, who herded the hostages into a single corner. Ben and the Doctor exchanged a "what-now" glance...then they heard the sound of a vehicle pulling up to the front doors. A few tics later an unfamiliar commando came lurching in, dragging a young guy who could only be a newsman...he was wearing a really hideous polyester suit and an expression like a desert hare sitting on the hottop with a big old Mack double-trailer bearing down on its little fuzzy hide. A weaselly-looking cameraman was hurrying along behind with all the demons 'o hell on his ass. "They're clean," the commando growled, and was dismissed with a curt little nod from General Lockjaw.
"Set up over there," Ewens barked, pointing to the reception desk. The video crew scrambled to comply. Ben found himself once again having to hold back the chuckles...he had a very clear mental image of the hapless cameraman getting his over-anxious feet tangled in the power cords and falling into the newsguy and him bumping into Ewens and everyone going crashing to the ground in a big ole commando hogpile. Ewens wasn't finished. "I have a statement to give which you will record in its entirety. There will be no questions allowed. You will return to your station and broadcast this statement immediately. Do I make myself clear?" he said, his gun-hand twitching just a little. The newsguy nodded so fast he looked like one of those little dolls you could buy at stadiums that have their heads on springs and just bobble around till you either make 'em stop or just crunch the damn thing under yer bike tires.
The Doctor nudged him. "I have something to take care of in a moment. Whatever happens, stay here and don't interfere."
Ben blinked in surprise, but agreed...privately thinking that he'd decide for himself if he was going to interfere or not.
The camera was running, and Ewens was Having a Moment. "Citizens of the United States," he began in his best magnificent-son-of-a-bitch voice, "I speak for the People's Liberatory Front. For too long you have denied basic right and freedoms to those whose ideals and values differ from yours. We wish only to enjoy the recognition and the..."
Without warning, the Doctor sprang to his feet with surprising grace and marched directly over to Ewens. Before anyone had time to react, he had thrust his face into Ewens' precious camera shot. "Hello everyone, I'm the Doctor. This is an important public service announcement urging you to please, if you're going to tolerate your government yielding to terrorism, at the very least send a strongly worded letter to your representatives. We can't all excuse ourselves from the decision-making process, you know, even if it is easier to rationalize." Ewens was too shocked to do anything for a few seconds. Ben jumped up...the little guy was gonna earn himself a bullet between the eyes for his trouble. He rushed forward and grabbed the Doctor's arm, trying to pull him away. He was nuts, he had to be. He heard Loretta call for him to stop but didn't pay her no mind. Sorry, hon...mite busy at the moment.
"Bloody hell," the commando called Dory exclaimed, drawing her sidearm. Ewens, his paralysis broken, gave the Doctor...and in the process Ben too...a good hard shove away from his spotlight. Before you could say "psychopath" Dory was at their side with a gun barrel socked into the Doctor's ear.
"Get this idiot out of my sight," Ewens growled.
"It's my duty to urge the populace to make a stand against these kinds of tactics! You can't tell me everyone and their pet spaniel isn't going to be watching this broadcast, might as well get in a spot of public service with your blackmail!" the Doctor crowed as Dory dragged him away from Ewens.
"Lemme take 'im out back and teach 'im a lesson about following instructions," Dory growled, her deadly, flat tone running little shivery feet up Ben's spine. "Serve as an example to anyone else gettin' heroic delusions."
"Do what you want," Ewens snapped, "just keep them both out of the way."
The Doctor glanced at Ben, uncertainty showin up in his expression for the first time since Ben had laid eyes on him. "I don't think there's any need for this chap to come along...he was just trying to stop me."
"He should have known better," Ewens said.
Dory hesitated. "The git's right, Ewens. No need to..."
"Take them both!" Ewens roared. Dory seemed about to protest further for a second, then thought better of it. She shoved them both ahead of her. Ben heard Loretta crying in the background and pushed it away with a mighty effort.
"All right, you heard the man. Move it."
Ben trudged across the hottop with his hands up, feeling a mite goofy but mostly terrified. The Doctor said nothing, nor did their stone-faced captor. Ben fully expected to feel a bullet in his back at any moment. "What now?" he whispered.
"I think we should do as she says," the Doctor said neutrally, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, which Ben reckoned it was.
Dory guided them towards a storage shack out away from the building. Ben cast a few quick glances around...he could see the shadowy figures of more commandoes guarding the perimeter but they were pretty far away. If Dame Dillinger here decided to just grease both of them there'd be no one to stop her, assuming they'd even want to.
She pushed them ahead of her into the shack and closed the door behind her. Ben backed into the corner in spite of himself...but all she did was whip off her sunglasses and press her eyes to the little ventilation slit and. The Doctor took a step towards her. "Well?" he whispered.
Ben was getting a real strange suspicion, which jacked up a notch when Dory holstered her weapon. She turned towards them and all the malice was gone from her face, leaving it open and honest-looking. "All clear," she whispered. "No one's watching." Then she turned towards the Doctor and...
Now, Ben had heard the phrase "his jaw dropped" his entire life, but had never experienced its literal meaning and always sorta thought it was just an exaggeration...but when that gun-toting commando McShane and the mysterious little Doctor rushed into each other's arms, it was as if all the muscles in his face decided it was time for a little nap. His lower jaw fell open and his eyes just about bugged right outta their sockets. Then they were kissing, and with such passion that after a few amazed seconds of staring, Ben had to look away. His mamma'd brought him up to have manners, which meant that when you're trapped in a crappy little shack with two very odd people who were playing smash-face then you goddam well better put yer eyes somewheres else.
He waited for a few moments, studying the wall intently and listenin' to his own cogs turn. She must be some kinda spy infiltrating the commandoes, he thought...and she and the Doctor are working together to put the stop on Ewens. Looking back later, he realized that it had never even occurred to him that they both could have been working for *Ewens* and that the *Doctor* was the one who'd done the infiltrating. Funny, that. Same way it was funny that he'd always sorta instinctively deferred to the Doctor without even really knowin why. When he turned cautiously back to them, the scene they presented brought a hesitant smile to his face...and since they were done kissin he felt he could look without it bein too rude.
They were just standing there, perfectly still, in a tight embrace of total communion...it almost seemed like they were talkin' in their minds, or somehow rejuvenating each other just by the contact. While he watched they pulled apart, and the Doctor glanced over at Ben as if just remembering that he was there. "I do apologize for the display, it's just that we haven't seen each other in three months."
"I guess the two 'o you are acquainted?" Ben said.
The Doctor smiled. "Ben, I'd like you to meet my wife, Ace." On top of everything else, that hardly came as a surprise at all. Ben stepped forward and shook her hand. "Ace, this is Ben Garrett...an interesting new acquaintance," he added, giving her a slight nod in response to her questioning look.
"Pleased to meet you, Ben," she said, all the hard edges gone from her accented voice.
"Likewise, Mrs...?" Ben said hopefully.
She laughed. "Just call me Ace."
"Well, the pleasure's all mine, ma'am. Specially seein' as you ain't gonna shoot me." He folded his arms and looked from one to the other. "So...you two gonna let me in on yer little plan?"
"What makes you think we have one?"
"Don't gimme that, Doc. I didn't just fall off the turnip truck yesterday."
The Doctor thought for a moment, then took a step towards him. "All right, then. Seems pointless to keep it from you. We're here to stop a disaster."
"What disaster?"
"There's a very large and nasty bomb in the lorry parked out front," Ace said, "and in ten hours it's gonna go off."
"How d'you know?"
"We're time travelers," the Doctor said calmly.
Ben said nothing for a long moment. "I see," he finally replied. The Doctor and Ace exchanged a glance. Ben's tone and attitude had just changed subtly, in a way they'd seen many times before...he had the appearance now of a man who's just realized he's dealing with lunatics but isn't sure how to handle it.
"Not to worry, dear man, we can prove it. First do something for me."
"What's that?"
"Take a walk around this loo," the Doctor said, tapping his umbrella against the side of an old abandoned outhouse that stood in one corner of the shack. "Have a good look."
Ben complied, managing to do so without too much of an air of humoring-the-loony. He came around and shrugged. "Looks like a regular old outhouse to me."
"Yes, doesn't it?" The Doctor pointed to Ben's wristwatch. "Note the time, please."
"It's...9:34."
"Very good. Now remove it and put it on that shelf there." Not taking his eyes off the Doctor, Ben did as he asked. "There we are. Now, in you go," the Doctor said, holding open the door of the old outhouse.
By this point Ben was no longer sure which way was up. A few short moments ago he'd felt once again secure in the length of his life, now he was back to being certain he was about to die. In an outhouse, of all places. Not having any real choice...Ace still had her gun...he walked into the outhouse...
...and came into the TARDIS console room, stopping short with that same jaw-dropping sensation he'd experienced earlier upon seeing his two companions' reunion. He whirled around to see the Doctor and Ace right behind him, smiling. Ben pushed past them and back out the door. They always did that, for one more trip around the TARDIS to make sure they hadn't missed a huge room attached to it the first time.
Ace elbowed the Doctor. "You never get tired of that, do you?"
Ben rushed back in before he could answer. "But it's...it's..."
"Bigger on the inside than the outside, I know. This is our time machine, the TARDIS."
"Time machine?"
"Yes, yes, time machine. Now, about this bomb..."
"Are you human?" Ben managed...quite well, he thought, seeing as there wasn't any air left in his lungs.
"She is, I'm half. Do you want to hear this or not?"
"You betcher ass I want to hear it! Lay it on me!"
Ace stepped forward and laid her gun on the weird-looking console in the middle. "This little group here isn't any different than any of the other dozens of wacked-out paramilitary muckety-mucks that ran loose in this decade. Always demanding their independence and raising private armies and stockpiling weapons. Most of 'em are little more than nuisances hiding out in the backwoods and the mountains and writing manifestos."
"Except that this one's just stolen a rather large bomb," the Doctor continued seamlessly. "From an ordinance center in Utah."
"What they don't know is that it's a prototype, a collaboration with a secret branch of the UN military. Very powerful."
"Right now Ewens is in there threatening to detonate the bomb if his group and all the others like it aren't given full recognition as separate states, and all the rights that go with it."
"He's perfectly capable of killing the hostages, but he doesn't have any intention of setting the bomb off," Ace said. "Militant and wiggy, but not stupid. It's just a bargaining tool so they know he means business."
Ben's mind was starting to catch up. "You just said it *does* go off."
"It does. In just under ten hours...but we don't know why or how. It must have been an accident," the Doctor said.
"Or mutiny."
"Or sabotage."
"Or that old standby, foul play."
"Or..."
"I get the idea," Ben interrupted. "So you...you saw this? In the future?" He shook his head in amazement.
"Yes," the Doctor said soberly. "It goes off and vaporizes everything within a 1000 mile radius, and renders all land west of the Rockies from B.C. down to the Panama Canal uninhabitable for the next 15,000 years."
Ben whistled. "So you sent Ace here to infiltrate the group and try to disarm it in advance..." He trailed off, then snapped his fingers. "That's what that little gesture was back in the motel! You was tellin him you hadn't been able to pull the plug!"
The two exchanged another glance...they did that a lot, Ben had noticed, and these little looks seemed to contain entire conversations. The Doctor nodded. "Very observant, Ben. Indeed that's so." He tapped his brolly on the floor. "The problem remains that we still don't know what causes the explosion. The best course of action is to attempt to disarm the warhead before it can occur."
"I haven't had the chance,"Ace said. "They never leave me alone with the bomb. Ewens is a mite paranoid...he trusts me enough now to put me on the motel team, but not enough to give me access to the bomb. It's pretty much him and Fieldstone that have the keys."
"Can you disarm it if you can get to it, even without the keys?" Ben asked.
"Oh, Ace has a way with explosives," the Doctor said flatly. Ben didn't miss his vaguely disturbed expression as he said this, nor the annoyed look that she shot him in return. He examined their faces and this control room and felt himself believing them. He couldn't deny that this...whatever this was, time machine or funhouse or whatever...seemed to defy all rules of physics, and these two were certainly outside his experience. The Doctor stepped forward, sensing how close Ben was to acceptance. He picked up the man's hands and placed them on his chest. "Feel that?" he said.
Ben's eyes widened. "You...you have..."
"Two hearts," the Doctor said. "I'm not human, Ben. I'm a Time Lord. Ace and I travel through space and time in this ship."
"Doing what?"
"Fighting evil, of course," Ace said with a trace of a smile.
"Of course," Ben said. "Why didn't I think 'o that? What else would you do with a time machine?" The three shared a cautious smile, then a look of alarm crossed Ben's features. "Hey, we'd better get back in there! We've been gone way too long, Captain Ramjet's gonna get suspicious."
The Doctor laid a finger aside his nose. "Easily fixed." He did something to the controls on the console and the funny cylinder on top started to rise and fall, but it had barely started before it stopped again. The doors opened and the Doctor breezed out, plucking Ben's watch off the shelf in the shack where he'd left it.
Ben took it and checked the time. "9:35...but we were in there at least ten minutes." He glanced up at their nonplussed expressions. "Time machine, gotcha." He strapped the watch back onto his wrist and shrugged. "Now what?"
Ace grinned. She was starting to like this matter-of-fact trucker, who clearly had more between the ears than his aw-shucks attitude might suggest. She turned towards the Doctor, who was looking out the ventilation slit. "Doctor?"
"Yes?" he asked, turning. Ben jumped as Ace hauled back and punched him across the jaw. The Doctor staggered back a step, his hand going to his face. "Some warning, perhaps?"
"It's easier when you don't know it's coming," she said gently, running a hand over his already-reddening cheek. She turned to Ben. "Sorry, Ben...I was supposed to work you guys over."
He nodded, resigned, and steeled himself. "Go ahead." Ace's punch landed on his upper cheekbone; that would black up nicely. She stepped back and made as if to lead them back to the motel but Ben stopped her.
"Oh c'mon, we can do better than that." He bent and grabbed a handful of sharp gravel and rubbed it vigorously on his unbruised cheek, leaving angry red abrasions. He tore the pocket half off of his jean jacket and mussed his hair. He plucked the Doctor's hat off his head and stomped his foot on it.
"That's my favorite hat!" the Doctor said, retrieiving the smushed chapeau with an injured expression. Ace chuckled as Ben rubbed dirt into the Doctor's coat and tugged his tie loose.
"That's better," Ben said, admiring his handiwork. "Might as well be convincin' about it."
"Let's go," Ace said, smothering her grin. They stepped to the door but the Doctor paused, putting a hand on her arm.
"Be careful," he said quietly. "If you can slip away and get to the bomb, do it."
"I'll try, but Ewens is keeping me on a pretty short leash."
"We have ten hours before the cursed thing detonates, Dorothy. If you cannot get to the truck, then we'll have to create an opportunity for me to do so." She nodded, her jaw muscles clenching. Ben watched, learning more about his new friends by the minute. He could tell just by the way they looked at each other that these two people had enough history together to fill a DAT tape, and not all of it had been pleasant. They might love each other now, but there was hostility and mistrust there too. After another of their uncannily telepathic "looks" Ace stepped behind the two ersatz hostages and drew her gun. They preceded her out of the shack and across the tarmac to the motel.
When they arrived, shoved unceremoniouly through the door by Ace back in ruthless-commando mode, the camera crew was packing up their crap to hightail it back to the safety of the TV station. The other hostages stared at Ben and the Doctor's bruises and rumpled clothing, their eyes wide and starey. Ben winced as the little boy began to whimper and crowd closer to his mother. Ewens just grinned and tossed Ben and the Doctor into a corner by themselves. Ace resumed her spot over by the door, no trace of her earlier good humor in her expression.
Loretta scooted across the floor to Ben's side. "Are you all right?" she asked, her lip trembling.
"I'm fine, Loretta. Prob'ly looks worse than it feels."
"Oh, you're bleeding. Here, let me..." Ben sat and let her dab the blood away from the cuts on his cheek with her bar towel, knowin that while it wouldn't make much difference to him it'd make her feel better.
"I'm okay, really. Now, you go on over there and help keep the little fella calm. He's got to be mighty scared."
"*I'm* mighty scared, Ben," she said.
He squeezed her hand. "Everything's gonna be okay, you'll see. Go on, now." She managed a weak smile and went back to her spot.
The waiting resumed. The newsguys left and a creaky silence fell over the little motel. The hostages murmured amongst themselves but the commandoes didn't seem to pay much attention.
After a few minutes Ben scooted a little closer to the Doctor. "So what do you want me to do?" he whispered, scarcely moving his lips.
The Doctor didn't look at him. "What do you mean?"
"Well, I can help, can't I? Back in the shack you told Ace I might be able to."
Now the Doctor did give him a quick glance. "I said no such thing."
"Sure you did. When you called me an 'interesting new acquaintance' she gave you a look like she wanted to make sure she heard you right, then you nodded just a little. What is that, some kinda codephrase meaning somebody useful? I can see where she mighta been surprised that you thought I had the stuff."
The Doctor looked at him, blinking. "You picked up on that, did you?"
"I might not be a rocket scientist but I ain't blind, Doc. Don't take a Socrates to read people's eyes and the looks they give each other."
"And what else did our eyes tell you?" the Doctor said, intrigued.
Ben thought a moment. "You love your wife very much but she scares you sometimes, and that pisses her off. Funny thing is that she feels just the same way about you. You been through hell and back together, ain't you? And I think you musta put each other through some nasty times, too."
The Doctor sighed. "Anything else?"
"Yeah. You're on probation, ain't you?"
"In what sense?" the Doctor said, his tone so even that Ben knew he was right.
"In the sense that you musta done something pretty bad not so long ago, and you're still tryin' to make up for it." He peered at the Doctor's inscrutable face. "What was it? Have an affair? No, that ain't it. You got too much control for that. Didja do somethin to hurt her?"
The Doctor nodded. "Yes, I did."
"Thought so."
The Time Lord examined Ben's sunbeaten, leathery face carefully. "Why did you approach me before all this started, back in the cafe?"
He shrugged. "You just weren't right for the moment, you seemed outta place. And you was waitin' on something, this little invasion I guess, plus you didn't want anyone to know you were married."
"How do you..."
Ben picked up the Doctor's left hand and tapped the pale circle around his ring finger. "Wear a ring long enough and it don't come off so easy. And you weren't really readin that book you had."
The Doctor chuckled. "You're not a truck driver, are you, Ben?"
"What makes you say that?"
"Your sharp eyes and your keen mind. Ever had your IQ tested? Five'll get you ten it's above 140."
"192." The Doctor whistled. "So Doc...is there some law they forgot to tell me what says that truck drivers can't have sharp eyes and more than three or four marbles rolling around upstairs?"
"Well, no..."
"I've been driving a truck all my adult life, Doc. Ain't never done nothing else. I like it. The freedom of the road in front of me, plenty of time to think my thoughts."
"Those might be thoughts worth eavesdropping upon."
"Oh, I dunno. Half the time I just rethink my favorite ones over and over again. I got me a whole big box of books on tape and enough tunes to make it across the country and back. Everything I own I keep with me. It's a nice life for a guy like me."
"Ben, I don't think there *are* any other guys like you."
***********
Time crawled forward and Ben and the Doctor fell into silence. Ben fancied he could hear the gears a-turnin' inside the Doctor's head as he worked out just how he was gonna stop that bomb. For himself, Ben was contented to study Ace as she stood her post near the back door.
"We better do somethin' fast," he finally whispered to the Doctor. "Soon as that tape gets played this truck stop's gonna turn into a John Q. Law convention."
"The situation will become more and more untenable the more people become involved."
"You got that right." Ben glanced over at Ace. "She's got a plan."
"Yes, she does. I'd know that look anywhere, even when she's hiding it."
No sooner had the Doctor spoken when Ace walked casually over to Ewens and said something into his ear. After a moment's thought he nodded and Ace continued on out the door in the direction of the parking lot.
"I hope she knows what she's doing," the Doctor whispered.
"I think she's decided it's time for the brute force method," Ben replied. "She must be..." He broke off and his hand came up to clamp onto the Doctor's arm. A half-second later the Doctor saw what had grabbed Ben's attention. As soon as Ace was out of the room, Ewens met Roget's eyes and made a small head gesture that said "follow her" plain as a neon sign.
The Doctor allowed himself a small sigh of distress. "Oh, crumbs."
***********
Ace strode confidently through the now-deserted diner and out the doors to the parking lot like she had every right to be there. She was counting in her head. Four in the motel. She'd seen five on perimeter, but there might be more she'd missed. That meant there were max, three people in the truck. She could handle three people. Get in, knock 'em out, disarm the bomb and smash the arming mechanism all to hell. Let 'em chew on that. Won't matter they'll know I did it as long as it's done.
She mounted the steps into the second trailer. Two commandoes were there in the antechamber beyond which lay the warhead, sitting placidly clamped to a table...so much contained death in such a small metal cylinder. "McShane," one of them grumbled in what she guessed was supposed to be a greeting.
Ace didn't pause or break stride, she didn't speak, she just strode forward and slammed the butt of her gun into the first commando's face. He fell backwards, quite unconscious, with a helluva gash across his forehead. The other had barely gotten out of his chair when he became intimately acquainted with her fist and joined his companion on the floor of the trailer. Ace stepped calmly over their inert forms and shot out the lock on the door leading into the sealed chamber.
In a few seconds she was standing beside the warhead, beads of sweat forming on her brow as she carefully unscrewed the metal plate over the arming mechanism using miniature tools from the kit she kept strapped to the back of her thigh under her skirt. She was so intent on her task that she did not hear the door to the trailer open, she did not hear Roget's stealthy steps across the floor, and she didn't hear as the woman crept up behind her.
Her first clue that the jig was up was when she felt the barrel of Roget's pistol at the base of her neck and heard the mercenary utter one of the most ridiculous sentences she'd ever heard come out of the mouth of a completely dead-serious terrorist: "Drop the wires, McShane, and gimme the teeny screwdriver."
