AN: OK, I'm really enjoying writing this story, so I'm going to keep posting when I can, but I give up on doing it regularly. Uni is hard, so it's too difficult to write what I want regularly. Thank you for your patience and the positive messages.

9 – Escape

There were four rows of angels stretching down the length of the narrow room. The rows were arranged in two pairs, with the angels facing each other. Outside the door, a whole lot of running feet went past.

'Hmm,' said the Doctor. 'Clever.'

'What's clever?' asked Colin.

'Every angel has another angel watching it, so every angel remains in its quantum-locked state and can't move. Best way to deal with a Weeping Angel, really.'

'What about smashing them?'

'Every piece of an angel becomes an angel. Every piece you smash off has the potential to grow into another whole angel. Plus if you happen to touch it without looking at it, poof! You're gone. Zapped into the past.'

'What about the crack in space and time you mentioned before?' said Hermione.

'Ah, yes, well, while that is technically better, since it disposes of them permanently, or relatively permanently, but having a convenient crack in the fabric of space and time to throw them into creates a whole host of other problems.'

'There's a lot of them,' said Colin. He raised his camera to take a couple of photos, but the Doctor put a hand over the sense.

'Every piece of an angel becomes an angel, including photographs. Unless you want to kill all of us, and then a whole lot of other people, don't photograph them.'

Colin lowered the camera again.

'So, are you going to do anything about the angels?' asked Hermione.

'No. I don't like the fact that they're here, but it really is the best place to keep them, and moving them is too risky. I can't think of a better place to put them, anyway. At least I know they're here. I'll just have to keep an eye on this place to make sure they're not being misused.'

'Misused? How do you misuse a Weeping Angel?' said Hermione.

The Doctor sighed. 'With a lot of greed and a lot of death.'

'Well, I'm glad that's sorted,' said Colin. 'But how do we get out of here? Because I think they just figured out where we are.'

Sure enough, running feet were heading back down the corridor. 'They must have broken into the Angelae room,' shouted the voice of the wizard who had seen through the psychic paper.'

The Doctor grinned and waggled his eyebrows. 'Ready to run?'

He pulled the door open for them and Hermione and Colin slipped out and began pelting down the corridor towards the lifts. The Doctor ducked out right behind them.

'Sorry, you might need to fix the hinges on this door,' he called cheerfully to the wizards running towards him. Several of them pulled out wands. The Doctor waved and took off after Hermione and Colin.

He caught them at the lift. Colin was frantically jabbing the "Up" button.

'Do you enchant your lights?' asked the Doctor.

'No, just the windows,' said Hermione.

The Doctor raised his sonic screwdriver.

'Drop it or we'll fire,' yelled one of the wizards running down the hall.

The screwdriver whined and the lights along the corridor shattered, dropping hot glass onto the approaching wizards. The wizards flinched and ducked and the Doctor, Hermione and Colin ducked into the lift. Colin hit Level 1 and then started jabbing the "Door Close" button. The Doctor aimed his sonic screwdriver at the doors, which slammed shut, then at the ceiling, and the lift began to go up a lot faster than they'd gone down.

They arrived at Level 1 and tumbled out of the lift, then set off at a brisk walk back the way they'd come in.

'How do we get out?' asked the Doctor.

Hermione grimaced. 'Right-hand fireplaces by the look of it, but we'd need another fireplace connected to the Floo Network to go to.'

'No, look!' said Colin. 'The fireplaces at the end aren't Floo fireplaces. People are just standing in them and disappearing. No Floo powder or talking involved.'

'Well spotted, Colin,' said the Doctor, grinning. 'Let's go jump the queue.'

'Hey!' came a shout from behind them.

'And we run,' said the Doctor. He grabbed Hermione and Colin's hands and ran towards the far fireplaces.

The queue was about five people long. The Doctor ran up to the man at the front.

'Hi,' said the Doctor, giving his best charming smile. He fished around in his pocket and produced his psychic paper, showing it to the man. 'John Smith, fireplace inspector. Just need to check these are working properly. Do you mind?'

The wizard frowned. 'Well, actually—'

'Excellent,' said the Doctor. 'Won't take a second.' He shoved Colin into the fireplace. He disappeared, and Hermione jumped in after him, closely followed by the Doctor.

The Doctor frowned, trying to get his bearings. Why was he standing in a toilet?

'Doctor, come on,' said Hermione, grabbing his hand and pulling him out of the toilet. The three of them left the toilet block, thankfully not covered toilet water, probably due to magic.

'Where now?' asked Colin.

'Back to the TARDIS before they figure out where we've gone,' said the Doctor.

10 minutes later, after a very quick walk, they were standing inside the TARDIS.

'So,' said the Doctor. 'Anywhere and everywhere. Everything that was or is or will be. Where do you want to go next?'

'Is it always this dangerous?' asked Hermione.

'Well, normally I try to avoid…Who am I kidding? Yes, somehow it always does seem to be this dangerous. You still on board?'

'Yes. At the rate Harry's going, I need practice at dangerous situations.'

'Colin?'

Colin grinned. 'For sure. This is awesome.'

'Excellent. So where to?'

They were interrupted by a loud ringing sound.

'Is that a phone?' asked Hermione.

'Well, it is a phone box,' said the Doctor. 'Just a second.' He stuck his head out of the TARDIS and grabbed the phone. 'Hello? Oh, hi Vastra. No, I'm fine. No, I'm not moping. Well, maybe, but I'm not by myself. No, I haven't found Clara again, but I've met Colin and Hermione. You should meet them. Look, you can't just call me and criticise me, or the TARDIS will stop putting you through. What, really? No, sounds like fun. What's the date at the moment? Great. See you then.'

The Doctor hung up and grinned at Hermione and Colin. 'Fancy a trip to Victorian London?'