Posted by Bowen Cates on 3/27/2008, 12:50 pm, in reply to "Chapter 18 part two"
24.207.121.197
Chapter 19: In Which The Climax Begins
The first thing Theodore saw when Lestrade landed the hover car was a great deal of green grass; in fact, greens of every imaginable shade seemed to dominate the entire estate upon which Sir Evan Hargreaves’ laboratory was situated.
Lazy hills rolled away into the darkening distance, their smooth symmetry interrupted only by the plentiful groups of trees that dotted the horizon.
It was beautiful, and enough to make anyone want to pull out the camera.
The laboratory it’s self was situated in the front of the estate, an old stone fence gracefully extending outwards from its carefully shingled front. A wide dirt path curved away from it, gently; Meeting the house only at the sheltered steps of the front doorway.
More trees littered the path and the lawn in front of the house, shivering slightly in the cool breeze of the night.
Behind this lovely vision, conjoined to the back of the house, was a huge metal building, which seemed to be made almost entirely of gleaming black curved roof and purplish oddly shaped circular protrusions.
But aside from that curiously out of place attachment, Sir Evan’s residence seemed only to speak of a great deal of taste and care.
This place of serenity and velvety silence commanded none of the austerity of Powell’s Victorian monstrosity. Upon beholding it for the first time, the last thing one could possibly associate with it’s lush grounds and tasteful decoration, were the dark halls and endless dusty passages of their previous destination.
Theodore felt a tap on his shoulder and turned in his seat, pulling his eyes away unwillingly from his painting like surroundings.
“You coming Theo, or do you want to stay out here and climb trees?”
He bit his lip, trying not to take the accidental reminder of the day he had been forced to leave his family, personally.
“Sorry” he apologized, attempting to smile at the joke, Lestrade was leaning in the window from the outside of the cruiser, he hadn’t realized she’d been standing on the path waiting for him for the past few minutes.
“It’s just that I didn’t expect it to be so pretty here,” he confessed as he climbed out of the hover car after her.
“Ya” she smiled back, forgetting for a moment the dark purpose of their presence there “they were nice surrounding for Holmes when he was brought back, an easier transition then just waking up right smack dab in the middle of New London.”
“Can we get out now?” Interrupted Greg nervously from the back seat, the guilt seemed to be getting to him even more then back at his employer’s laboratory; he looked tired and emotional.
“Sure, one sec” Theodore ran around to the other side of the cruiser so that Greg could get out first and unlocked the door from the outside.
Lestrade had put on the auto safety lock before they had taken off, to prevent Powell from trying to escape while they were in the air, ‘not much chance of that’ Theodore had thought to himself, the guy looked absolutely destroyed.
Joining Theodore and Lestrade outside on the dirt path, Greg began to unwrinkle his lab coat, which he had forgotten to take off before they had left. He then put his hand out to Powell and grabbed his arm, helping him out of the cruiser as well.
He too, was still clothed in his research apparel.
Theodore hadn’t thought it was possible for anyone to look older or more tired in the face then Thomas Powell, but the Doctor Had just broken his own record.
Even his great frame seemed to have crumbled in on its self, and his entire appearance spoke of one word:
Broken.
Theodore had the distinct and inescapable feeling that the Doctor would never be the same again.
“Should we go in?” he asked, he could feel the adrenaline beginning to take over.
“No, we still have to wait for the irregulars; they should be here in ten or fifteen minutes.” Lestrade reminded him.
“Uh…the who?” asked Greg, looking over his shoulder at his ex-boss
“The irregulars, some kids Holmes gets to help him out with cases every once in a while, annoying as zed but what else is new?” She informed him, before Theodore could open his mouth to attempt a defense.
“You mean those kids that kept hanging around the lab before?”
“Yup, Don’t mind if I stand beside you do you Doctor?” that last question was directed towards Powell who shook his head and sighed.
Lestrade took a few steps over to him and laid her hand on one of his sagging shoulders.
All at once, a huge amount of rustling was heard in the bushes behind them, then someone yelled, Lestrade whipped out her ionizer and opened her mouth to yell ‘freeze’ just as a familiar voice was heard above the racket.
“That was my foot Wiggins! Not the zedding ground!”
“Oh ya, sorry, it’s not my fault there are so many trees around here, I can’t see where I’m going!” apologized the voice of the oldest irregular.
“Beep clock clock!”
“Don’t go telling me not to make noise! It’s his fault, he stepped on my foot!”
And with a last rustle Deidre walked out of the bushes followed by Wiggins, who promptly tripped over a root and fell on her, sending them both reeling forward. They landed at Theodore’s feet in a complicated tangle.
Tennyson floated out of the same bush a moment, later shaking his head tiredly.
Theodore broke into a grin as he reached his hand down to Deidre, helping her up.
“Hi guys, long time no see.”
“Tell that to clumsy ‘ere.” she retorted, pointing her thumb at Wiggins as she dusted off her knees with her other hand.
“I said I was sorry! What more do ya want?”
“Eh hem” Lestrade coughed into her hand, immediately Deidre stopped talking, and Wiggins, now back on his feet, straitened his shoulders, both suddenly reminded of the task ahead of them.
“Okay, we got here about ten minutes ago and neither Hargreaves, or anyone else has come out to say ‘hi’, now, that could mean that they don’t know we’re here, or that Holmes expects us to come inside, but all the same I want everyone to be on their guard.”
Everyone, except Powell nodded.
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