I sat between Rose and Dickens, though he had yet to sit down. Gwyneth to Dickens right and the Doctor to hers, Sneed to Rose's left.

"This is how Madame Mortlock summons those from the Land of Mists, down in big town. Come, we must all join hands," Gwyneth begins shyly, offering her hands to the Doctor and the currently empty seat that belonged to Mr. Dickens.

"I can't take part of this," said man said shaking his head as he studied the table.

"Humbug?" the Doctor offered as he accepted Gwyneth's hand, "Come on, open mind."

Dickens shook his head once more taking a step back, "This is precisely the sort of cheap mummery I strive to unmask. Séances? Nothing but luminous tambourines and a squeeze box concealed between the knees. This girl knows nothing."

"Now don't antagonize her. I love a happy medium," the Doctor said happily as he grinned at Dickens, humored by his own joke.

I let out a heavy sigh and I rolled my eyes at him as Rose shook her head at him, "I can't believe you just said that," she muttered to him and he grinned at her.

"Come on we may need you," the Doctor tried as he returned his attention back to the man who had yet to sit down.

Dickens studied him for a moment before sighing and taking his seat beside myself and Gwyneth.

I gripped his hand before he changed his mind, and Gwyneth did the same though a bit more gently.

"Good man. Now Gwyneth, reach out," the Doctor said speaking gently to the young maid next to him.

She took a steadying breath and spoke, "Speak to us. Are you there?" I could see Dickens roll his eyes as she spoke, "Spirits, come. Speak to us that we may relieve your burden."

Whispered played on the edge of my ear like a dull hum in the background, though they were too quiet to make out any words.

"Can you hear that?" Rose whispered to me gripping my hand tighter. I nodded my head and rubbed the back of her hand.

"Don't worry Rosie, it'll be alright," I murmured soothingly to her as Dickens scoffed.

"Nothing can happen. This is pure folly," he said trying to pull his hand from mine but I tightened my grip barely noticing when he winced.

"Look at her," I urged, loosening my grip ever so slightly.

"I see them. I feel them," Gwyneth gasped staring at the ceiling as gas began to form around her.

"What's it saying? Rose asked out loud, not caring who answered.

"They can't get through the rift. Gwyneth, it's not controlling you, you're controlling it. Now, look deep. Allow them through," the Doctor told Gwyneth, glancing at her as he spoke before returning his attention to the gas.

"I can't!" Gwyneth fretted, brow crinkling with worry.

"Yes you can, my dear, believe in it. I have faith in you, Gwyneth, make the link," I spoke softly, encouraging her.

She looked to me and nodded, "Yes."

Seconds after she spoke the outlines of the figures became clearer until we could almost see details.

"Great God! Spirits from the other side!" Sneed yelped leaning away from the table and the now prominent figures.

"The other side of the universe," the Doctor told him making me roll my eyes at him.

"Pity us," the Gelth spoke with small childlike voices and Gwyneth spoke with them, "Pity the Gelth. So little time. Help us."

"What do you want us to do?" the Doctor asked the new figures. Rose fidgeted with my fingers as we watched the scene unfold, though Dickens had tightened his grip on my other hand.

"The rift. Take the girl to the rift. Make a bridge," the Gelth and Gwyneth spoke, the blank stare she was giving us was unnerving.

"What for?" I asked the creatures, worried for our new friend, and Rose nodded to my question.

"WE are so very few, the last of our kind. We face extinction," the Gelth told me turning their heads to look at me.

"Why, what happened?" the Doctor asked and the Gelth returned their attention to him.

"Once we had a physical form like you, but then the war came," the Gelth answered.

"War?" Dickens leaned forward, interested, "What war?"

"The Time War," I glanced to the Doctor and he met my gaze for a moment before glancing to Rose, then looking away from both of us, "The whole universe convulsed. The Time War raged. Invisible to smaller species but devastating to higher forms. Our bodies wasted away. We're trapped in this gaseous state," they said looking to Dickens.

"So, that's why you need the corpses," the Doctor said, looking up to them.

"We want to stand tall, to feel the sunlight, to live again. We need a physical form, and your dead are abandoned. They're going to waste. Give them to us," the Gelth spoke, their voices edging on demanding.

"But, we can't," Rose spoke suddenly from my side.

"It'll save their lives Rose," I told her softly as the Doctor looked at her.

"Why not?" he asked her, eyebrow raised.

"It's not," she started searching for words, "I mean, it's not-"

But the Doctor cut her off, "Not decent? Not polite? It could save their lives," he told her sternly, nearly repeating what I said seconds ago.

"Open the rift. Let the Gelth through. We're dying, help us. Pity the Gelth," they said urgently before letting out a squeal and returning to the lamps, leaving Gwyneth to slump forward onto the table.

"Gwyneth!" I gasped shooting from my chair to rush to her side.

"Gwyneth?" Rose asked alarmed as she followed after me.

I took her wrist to check that her heart was still beating as Dickens spoke.

"All true," he gasped finally catching on.

"Gwyneth? Are you alright?" Rose asked going to her other side.

"It's all true," Dickens said again before stumbling from the room.

"Rose, help me get her to the lounge," I said grabbing Gwyneth's arm and lifting her from the table. Rose nodded and helped me carry her from her chair to the couch that we had sat on earlier.

Gwyneth tiredly stumbled along beside us until we had her settled down in the lounge.

"Now you leave her alone," Rose told the Doctor sternly before turning to me, "I'll be right back, don't let him bother her."

I grinned "Got it," I said raising my hands in surrender, as she turned and strode from the room.

"Will it always be like this?" Gwyneth asked catching my wrist as I turned to walk away, "The visions, did it get easier for you?"

"Eventually, with enough practice, you'll be able to contact them easier, just like how the voices are so much clearer now, than when you were little," I told her sweeping some of the hair from her brow.

"How did you do it? By yourself?" she asked me eyes wide with innocence.

"By knowing that one day, it would've been worth it. But your gift it's so much stronger than mine. You See all the time, but I only See when there's been a change," I said and she nodded and released my wrist as Rose returned with a cool cloth.

"It's alright, you just sleep," Rose told her wiping the sweat from Gwyneth's brow.

"But my angels, miss, they came didn't they? They need me?" Gwyneth asked Rose, a near desperate tone coloring her voice.

"They do need you, Gwyneth. You're their only chance of survival," the Doctor spoke from his place near the wall.

"I've told you, leave her alone. She's exhausted and she's not fighting your battles," Rose scolded before turning to Gwyneth with a glass of water she had procured, "Drink this."

"Well, what did you say, Doctor? Explain it again. What are they?" Sneed asked still confused with what had just happened.

"Aliens," was the Doctor's simple answer.

"Like foreigners, you mean?" Sneed tried to clarify looking at the Doctor oddly.

"Pretty foreign, yeah. From up there," the Doctor told him pointing upwards.

"Brecon?" Sneed questioned, making me snort.

"Bit farther, but I suppose that would work," I told him humorously as Rose swatted my hand for teasing the man.

The Doctor smirked at me before replying to Sneed, "Close. And they've been trying to get through from Brecon to Cardiff but the road's blocked. Only a few can get through and even then they're weak. They can only test drive the bodies for so long, then they have to revert to gas and hide in the pipes."

"Which is why they need the girl," Dickens surmised.

"They're not having her," Rose stated strongly rising from her place next to Gwyneth.

"But she can help. Living on the rift, she's become part of it. She can open it up, make a bridge and let them through," the Doctor tried to reason with her.

"Doctor even I'm not too fond of this idea," I told him, glancing at Gwyneth worriedly.

Rose gestured to me as if to say 'see?'

"Incredible. Ghosts that are not ghosts but beings from another world, who can only exist in our world by inhabiting cadavers," Dickens said, too in his head to notice the tension between the Doctor and us rising a bit.

"Good system it might work," the Doctor said crossing his arms irritably.

"You can't let them run around inside of dead people. Jezabelle will agree with me," Rose said turning to look at me daring me to say otherwise.

"That's not the part I'm worried about Rose," I told her softly and she huffed before turning back to the Doctor as he spoke.

"Why not? It's like recycling," he argued.

"Seriously though, you can't," she tried.

"Seriously though, I can," was the mature reply.

"It's just wrong. Those bodies were living people. We should respect them, even in death," Rose told him, still not liking the idea of the dead walking about.

"Rose, I understand that you're not fond of the idea, and frankly I'm not completely on board either, but if we make the sacrifice of a few of our dead to save the last of a species, don't you think it would be worth it?" I asked Rose, gently taking her hand in mine to ensure I had her attention.

"But-" she started to argue, but the Doctor cut her off.

"Do you carry a donor's card?" he asked.

"You hush, you making it harder than it needs to be. Rose there's a different mentality that you're going to have to get used to while travelling with us, do you understand?" I asked her after scolding the Doctor.

She slowly nodded her head, then opened her mouth to speak again, "But why do we have to risk Gwyneth?"

"Don't I get a say, miss?" Gwyneth asked sitting up.

"Look, you don't understand what's going on," Rose told her, pulling her hands from mine to look at Gwyneth.

"You would say that, miss, because it's very clear inside your head, that you think I'm stupid," Gwyneth told her as if it was the simplest thing, only minutely hurt that Rose thought so little of her.

"That's not fair," Rose tried to sooth, but Gwyneth shook her head.

"It's true though. Things might be very different where you come from, but here and now, I know my own mind, and the angels need me. Doctor, what do I have to do?" she asked looking to the Doctor for the next step.

"You don't have to do anything, my dear," I told her gently, giving her the chance to back out.

"Jezabelle's right, it's your choice," the Doctor said nodding to me.

"They've been singing to me since I was a child, sent to me by my mam on a holy mission. So tell me," she told us both, decided on her path.

"We need to find the rift. This house is on a weak spot, so there must be a spot that's weaker than any other. Mister Sneed, what's the weakest part of this house? The place where most of the ghosts have been seen?" the Doctor asked man cause him to jerk his attention back to the room.

"That would be the morgue," Sneed said after a moment of thought.

"No chance you were going to say gazebo is there?" Rose asked sarcastically, nearly rolling her eyes.

"Or perhaps a nice garden?" I responded in kind, grinning back at Rose after she grinned at me for my comment.

oOo

"Let it be said that I'm not fond of this idea. It's giving me a bad feeling," I griped as we entered the cold morgue, tables with bodies under white sheets dotted about the room.

"Ugh, talk about bleak house," the Doctor said as he entered the room a moment after me.

"The thing is Doctor, the Gelth don't succeed, cause I know they don't. I know for a fact there weren't corpses walking around in 1869," Rose said, trying to figure out the little paradox we had on our hands.

"Time's in flux, changing every second. Your cozy little world can be rewritten like that. Nothing is safe. Remember that. Nothing," the doctor told her as she shivered.

"Cold?" I asked, and she nodded running a hand down her forearm.

I reached down to my boots and grabbed my gloves and passed them to her as Dickens spoke, "Doctor, I think the room is getting colder."

Rose nodded thankfully, pulling on my gloves, as she said aloud to the room, "Here they come."

Blue gas comes out of the lamps around the room as the Gelth took form under the stone archway.

"You've come to help. Praise the Doctor, praise him," the Gelth spoke in its high pitched voice.

"Promise you won't hurt her," Rose demanded, but the Gelth easily ignored her. I frowned, not likely the way this was turning out at all.

"Hurry! Please, so little time. Pity the Gelth," the gaseous form wailed.

"I'll take you somewhere else after the transfer. Somewhere you can build proper bodies. This isn't a permanent solution, alright?" the Doctor asked the creature but they didn't answer him either.

"My angels. I can help them live," Gwyneth said happily, gazing upon them with wonder.

"Okay where's the weak point?" the Doctor asked the Gelth, finally getting an answer out of them.

"Here beneath the arch," it cried, and the feeling in my gut intensified.

"Beneath the arch," Gwyneth breathed as she strode pass me towards the arch. I caught her hand as she passed, "Gwyn, we can find another way," but she simply smiled and patted my hand and continued on to the arch.

"You don't have to do this," Rose tried to reason with the young girl.

"My angels," Gwyneth smiled standing underneath the arch, in the Gelth.

"Establish the bridge. Reach out to the void. Let us through," the Gelth spoke, their tone nearing on demanding.

"Yes, I can see you. I can see you. Come!" Gwyneth cried raising her arms up as if beckoning the Gelth.

"Bridgehead establishing."

"Come to me. Come to this world, poor lost souls."

"Doctor! I don't like this!" I said but it was mostly drowned out by the Gelth.

"It has begun. The bridge is made," as the Gelth speaks over me Gwyneth opens her mouth and blue gas spills out.

"Gwyneth!" I cried out alarmed.

"She has given herself to the Gelth. The bridge is open. We descend," the Gelth said as its nearly angelic blue form, turned red and violent.

"The Gelth will come through in force," it said with a deeper and harsher voice.

"You said you were few in number," Dickens stated, alarmed by the amount of spirits coming into this world.

"A few billion. And all of us in need of bodies," the Gelth told him easily as the dead under the sheets began to stand.

Sneed approached Gwyneth semi-confidently, "Gwyneth, stop this. Listen to your master. This has gone far enough. Stop dabbling, child, and leave these things alone, I beg of you."

"mister Sneed! Get back!" roe shouts before one of the corpses grab Sneed and snap his neck, and one of the gaseous Gelth flew into the newly dead body.

"I think it's gone a little wrong," the Doctor said making me glare at him.

"You think?" I snap pulling Rose to me and away from the Gelth.

"I have joined the legions of the Gelth. Come march with us," the Gelth that now inhabited Sneed's body said.

"No," said Dickens.

"We need bodies. All of you dead. The human race, dead," the Gelth said as if it was simply saying my hair was red.

"Gwyneth stop them! Send them back!" the Doctor called to Gwyneth hoping the young girl could help.

"Four more bodies, convert them. Make them vessels for the Gelth," the main Gelth said as the Sneed-Gelth backed the Doctor, Rose, and I into a metal gate.

"Doctor, I can't. I'm sorry. This new world of yours is too much for me, I'm sorry," Dickens said from the side of the room while the three of us slipped behind the gate which we were previously back into, when I glanced back he was gone.

"Give yourself to the glory. Sacrifice your lives for the Gelth."

"I trusted you. I pitied you!" the Doctor shouted at them through the bars of the gate.

"We don't want your pity. We want this world and all its flesh."

"Not while I'm alive," the Doctor told them strongly.

"Them live no more," was the reply, if it wasn't life or death I might've rolled my eyes.

"But can't die. Tell me I can't. I haven't even been born yet. It's impossible for me to die, isn't it?" Rose said, verging on hysterical. I grabbed her hand and squeezed hoping to calm her at least slightly.

"I'm sorry," was all the Doctor said.

"That's not how it works Rose sweetie," I told her taking a deep breath to calm myself as the Gelth continued to reach for us.

"But it's 1869. How can I die now?" she asked not calm in the slightest.

"Time isn't a straight line. It can twist into any shape. You can be born in the twentieth century and die in the nineteenth, and it's all my fault I brought you both here," he spoke rapidly, looking up to the ceiling.

"It's not your fault, I wanted to come," Rose told him and I nodded, "You couldn't keep me away if you tried."

"What about me? I saw the fall of Troy, World War Five. I pushed boxes at the Boston Tea Party. Now I'm going to die in a dungeon in Cardiff," he scoffed, making me snort.

"It's not just dying, it's becoming one of them," Rose told him.

"Pulled to a new universe, kidnapped then rescued. And now I'm gunna die in Cardiff, next to a pouting Time Lord. Jack would be disappointed," I muttered rolling my eyes, and the Doctor gave me a look for my comment.

"Disappointed bout what?" Rose asked, the question distracting her from the more pressing matter of the Gelth.

"Not kissing the last Time Lord in existence while I had the chance. My brother's a bit of a man whore," I explained to her making her grin.

"We'll go down fighting, yeah?" Rose asked turning serious once more, though a bit more calm this time.

"Yeah," the Doctor and I said together.

"Together?" she asked and I nodded my head.

"Yeah," the Doctor said griping Rose's other hand, "I'm so glad I met you, both of you."

"Me too" Rose told him smiling at us both.

"Best decade of my life," I replied, squeezing Rose's hand making the leather on my glove that she was still wearing, creak slightly.

In that moment Charles Dickens came running back in, his handkerchief pressed tightly over his mouth.

"Turn off the flame turn up the gas! Now fill the room, all of it! Now!" he commanded us removing the handkerchief for a moment before returning it, as he messed with the gas lights.

"What're you doing?" the Doctor asked.

"Turn it all on. Flood the place," Dickens reiterated doing such on the lights he could get to.

"Brilliant. Gas," the Doctor said as it clicked for him.

"Is he doing what I'm thinking?" I asked hopefully, glancing between the two men.

"What, so we choke to dead instead?" Rose asked as she covered her mouth and nose.

"Am I correct, Doctor? These creatures are gaseous?" Dickens asked the Doctor.

"Fill the room with gas, it'll draw them out of the host. Suck them into the air like poison from a wound!" the Doctor exclaimed as the corpses left the gate and began after Dickens.

"I hope, oh lord, I hope that this theory will be validated soon, if not immediately," Dickens fretted as the Gelth forced him back further.

Plenty more," the Doctor called and he released Rose's hand turned around, ripping a pipe from the wall, releasing even more gas; the Gelth began to leave the corpses.

"It's working," Dickens said thankfully as the bodies chasing after him collapsed.

I pushed the gate open and pulled Rose from the alcove as Doctor rushed to Gwyneth's side.

"Gwyneth, send them back. They lied. They're not angels," the Doctor told the young girl trying to get her to reverse the process.

Gwyneth looked to him sadly, "Liars?"

"Look at me, if your mother and father could look down and see the, they'd tell you the same. They'd give you the strength. Now send them back!" the Doctor tried a new route.

I came forward and took the girl's hand, "You can do this Gwyneth, save everyone, make your parents proud."

"I can't breathe!" Rose gasped then let out a cough.

I turned to her and Dickens, "Get her out Charles," I barked, I was not going to risk her life.

"I'm not leaving her," Rose argued when Dickens tried to pull her away.

"I'll stay with her Rose, go!" I told her as Gwyneth gasped, "They're too strong!"

"Remember that world you saw? Rose's world? All those people. None of it will exist unless you send them back through the rift," the Doctor said coming closer to her.

"I can't send them back. But I can hold them. Hold them in this place, hold them here. Get out," she commanded but I wasn't going to leave, especially when she let go of my hand and reached into her apron and pulled out a box of matches.

"You can't!" Rose shouted at her coming forward a bit.

"Leave this place!" Gwyneth told us.

"Rose I told you to leave!" I called to her sternly.

"Rose, get out. Go now. I won't leave her while she's still in danger. Now go!" the Doctor told her just as sternly and she listened to him, finally leaving the room, Dickens in tow.

"Come on, leave that to me," the Doctor said trying to coax the matches from her.

When Gwyneth didn't move I touched her cheek and it was cold, I checked for a pulse but there wasn't one.

"Oh sweetie, I'm sorry," I whispered leaning to leave a gentle kiss on her cheek, my lipstick leaving a red smear on her cheek, "Thank you."

I turned and grabbed the doctors hand and forcibly pulled him from the room.

"I said I wouldn't leave her!" he shouted at me trying to go back but I wasn't going to let him.

"She's dead Doctor, no pulse, she cold. She's saving us all," I spoke quickly tugging up the stairs and out of the house just it exploded sending us both across the street.

I blinked away the double vision but there was a harsh ringing in my ears, making everything around me strangely drowned out.

I stood and stumbled into Rose who came to steady me, I could hear her speak since she was so close and the doctor came closer as well so I was able to hear both sides of the conversation.

"She didn't make it," Rose said sadly and I hugged her to me.

"I'm sorry. She closed the rift," the Doctor said just as sadly. Dickens said something, his mouth moved but it wasn't loud or close enough for me to hear, something about a child?

"I did try Rose, but Gwyneth was already dead. Jezabelle had to pull me away from her."

"What do you mean?" Rose asked us.

"She'd been death for at least five minutes. I think from the moment she stepped under the arch," I informed her and she and the Doctor and Dickens all looked to me strangely, "Sorry am I being loud? There's a ringing in my ears, can't hear much."

"But she can't have. She spoke to us. She helped us. She saved us. How could she have done that?" Rose questioned us, still not happy that Gwyneth didn't make it out.

"There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Even for you Doctor," Dickens said, I was able to hear him now so my hearing must be clearing.

oOo

Charles Dickens, two humans, and a Time Lord stood in front of a time and space machine, sounds line the set up for a bad joke.

"Right then, Charlie boy, I've just got to go into my," the Doctor glanced to the Tardis, "er, shed. Won't be long."

"What are you going to do now?" Rose asked him reaching out to grab my hand, she still was upset about Gwyneth, rightfully so.

"I shall take the mail coach back to London, quite literally post-haste. This is no time to be on my own. I shall spend Christmas with my family and make amends to them. After all I've learned tonight, there can be nothing more vital," Dickens told us, much more emotion in his voice than when we had first met him.

"You've cheered up," the Doctor noticed.

"Exceedingly! This morning, I thought I knew everything in the world. Now I know I've just started. All these huge and wonderful notions, Doctor. I'm inspired. I must write about them," Dickens stated excitedly.

Rose looked at him worriedly, "Do you think that's wise?"

"I shall be subtle at first," he soothed her, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood still lacks and ending. Perhaps the killer was not the boy's uncle. Perhaps he was not of this Earth. The mystery of Edwin Drood and the Blue Elementals. I can spread the world, tell the truth."

The Doctor grinned, "Good luck with it. Nice to meet you. Fantastic."

"Bye, then, and thanks," Rose said shaking his hand and giving him a kiss to the cheek making him flush.

"Oh, my dear girl. How modern, thank you" he muttered as I shook his hand.

"She is indeed modern, I like to call her my 21st century girl," I told him teasingly and Rose swatted my arm giggling.

"But, I don't understand. In what way is this goodbye? Where are you going?" Dickens asked when he released my hand.

"You'll see. In the shed," the Doctor said simply, not bothering to elaborate when Dickens looed to him confused.

"Upon my soul, Doctor, it's one riddle after another with you. But after all these revelations, there's one mystery you still haven't explained. Answer me this. Who are you?" he asked seriously and I smirked, he picked one of the very few questions the Doctor wouldn't tell him.

"Just a friend passing through," the Doctor told him with a little shrug.

"But you have such knowledge of future times. I don't wish to impose on you, but I must ask you. My books. Doctor, do they last?" Dickens questioned warily, hesitant yet hopeful for the answer.

"Oh, yes!" the Doctor told him happily, grinning at him.

"For how long?" Dickens asked, now eager for the answer.

"Forever," the Doctor said easily making the man smile happily, "Right. Shed. Come on, you two."

I grinned to Dickens as shock crossed his face and ushered Rose ahead of me and into the Tardis first.

"In the box? The three of you?" Dickens asked aghast.

I turned in the doorway of the Tardis and winked at him and the Doctor shooed me inside, "Down boy, see you."

The Doctor shooed me further inside before I could do anymore mischief and closed the door behind himself.

"Doesn't that change history if he writes about blue ghosts?" Rose asked from the console as the Doctor and I made out way up to meet her.

I began pulling the more annoying pins from my hair as the Doctor replied, "In a week's time it's 1870, and that's the year he dies. Sorry. He'll never get to tell his story."

"Oh, no. he was so nice," Rose said sadly, growing attached so easily.

"But in your time, he was already dead. We've brought him back to life, and he's more alive now than he's ever been, old Charlie boy. Let's give him one last surprise," the Doctor said happily and with a grin he flipped a lever and the Tardis took off.

AN: It's been so long since my last update that I've disappointed myself. I've been working on a lot of different things, new stories and personal things. But I'm hoping to update regularly soon. Thank you all for staying with me for so long. Fav or follow my account if you haven't already so you can be on the look out for my new stories