4Future Past - Chapter 4 - Did You Just Threaten My Wife
Dr. Rory Pond was considered a philanthropist, a genius and also a gentleman, but not a hero. He never seems to offer a shred of violence to anyone at the hospital. He had talked down madmen, spoken the native tongue of those who were afraid, and treated everyone with such kindness that the hospital on that side of NYC now had the reputation of a place to go to get well, and not just to die.
So when he knocked on the door of the Mafioso who was forcing girls into prostitution to discuss the matter of one of his nurse's little sister, Boss Man Ferretti made his last mistake. He threatened to take Mrs. Pond in place of the young girl.
Ferretti often boasted of his Italian heritage, and with the money he'd made during prohibition had put up a real display of museum pieces from the Roman era, including gladius swords, short daggers and other devices.
"So Doctor, why the hell should I send that girl to you? She makes me good money and I'll get years of service out of her. What can you offer in return? "
Doctor Pond remained silent and looked into Ferretti's eyes like he was some kind of a tough guy.
"I hear you have a little spit fire of a wife. We could trade. A real looker like that will make me thousands."
Pond's face turned to stone and he rose slowly to his feet and began to walk around the well appointed room. "You proud of your roots, Mr. Ferretti?" he asked in that whimsical voice that his patients loved.
"Yeah, I am, what about it?"
"I know about ancient Rome and the way they did things. Do you?" he asked in Italian.
Ferretti sneered.
Then the gentle doctor man grabbed both a gladius and a dagger up and put the dagger through the throat of the one body guard Ferretti thought was necessary.
"Did you just threaten my wife?" asked Doctor Pond in a voice now that held 2,000 years of ice.
Ferretti yelled for help and pulled a gun. As the doors burst open, he lost his gun and his hand. As his astonished body guards ran in they saw him lose his head. It was the last thing any of them ever saw, except the gleam of a well-kept, well-balanced gladius.
XXX
Later that evening, in the brothel where Karen Miller was forced to live as a prostitute, all the guards mysteriously disappeared. Then dear Doctor Pond came into her room and kicked her so-called customer out. "Karen, I'm here to take you home."
"Ferretti will kill us all," she said tearfully.
"He's dead and so are all his bodyguards and lieutenants. This is our chance. Are there any other unwilling girls here?"
When Doctor Pond came home with 15 terrified prostitutes, Karen and the other girls were sure that his wife would throw them out. They were tainted with the stain of sexual sin and good women didn't deal with the likes of them anymore.
Instead, Amy smiled at them all and made tea.
Men were cruel to them, but women more so. Many had tried to leave before Ferretti had taken over and then been forced by good women back into the life they hated with a passion.
This was a happy house, it was homey and rich at the same time, with good rugs and good furniture and all the things they'd like themselves if they had a life again. Even their most innocent member, Karen, sat frightened and overwhelmed.
Mrs. Pond brought in tea and smiled at them. "Why the frowns?" she asked.
"We're sorry we're here messing up your respectable home, Ma'am." said Mable, the most outspoken of them, and the one with marks on her back from her last drubbing.
"Looks fine to me," she said.
"If people know you had us here, they'll cut you off, Mrs. Pond."
"If people will cut me off for lending a helping hand, they aren't my friends," said the lady rather fiercely, her Scottish accent getting broader now that she was angry. "And I'm Amy to my friends," the lady said, "unless you don't want to be friends, please call me Amy."
"They'll want us back eventually. The person who killed them off will take over the territory."
"No they won't," said Doctor Pond, "because you'll all be gone to another state,"
Then he proved he was not only not "posh", but a close relative to Saint Nicholas, because he got them traveling clothes (a whole wardrobe for each of them), and arranged traveling money, their own body guards, and a place to live in California along with jobs working for a company he owned part of.
While the girls sat and cried and wondered at this new life rearing up before them, Karen got up and went to the next room to thank them privately. There she saw the good Doctor on his knees, his head in Amy's lap, weeping. "The Doctor will be so disappointed in my," he muttered, as Amy there there'd him and stroked his hair lovingly, "He'd have found a way to get them safe without killing, but me, I had to kill those men."
"They were threatening me, weren't they?" she asked.
He didn't meet her eyes, but nodded miserably, "Our Doctor has caused deaths before, love. He knows you did the best you could, and it's not like each one of them didn't have blood on their hands. You did it for Karen and for me."
In shock, Karen silently made her way to the rest of the girls.
"What's wrong?' asked Madge, who was waiting to find out Santa wasn't real.
"The mob didn't kill Ferretti's boys," she said softly, "Doctor Rory did. He killed them all to save me and to protect Mrs., Miss. - Amy."
"Lord God Almighty," said Rosie, "That gentle man killed them? How?"
"With a sword and a dagger," said Rory from the door. "It's my own fault really. I shouldn't have gone to his home alone. But then he threatened my Amy and it was easy to see that killing human beings meant nothing to them. I'm sorry. I just couldn't risk it."
Karen watched Madge's eyes fill with tears, as the older woman said softly, "You killed those awful men, those dangerous men to protect Karen and your wife and you're apologizing."
"Human life, actually all intelligent life, is precious," said Doctor Pond, "A very special friend of ours taught us that and he would have found a way to save them without shedding a drop,"
"That's not necessarily true, Rory, you know that," said a British voice in a regretful tone, and a young man appeared before them, bathed in a strange light, like a veritable angel from heaven.
The girls screamed, but Karen simply clutched Madge's hand.
"Doctor!" shrieked both their saviors.
Doctor Pond looked around frantically, "The time line, Doctor," he cried in fear
"Is in absolutely no danger because I'm not really here. Hologram don't you know, I just figured out how to send them through time and receive simultaneously without damaging the crack or anything else. And I can see I came in the nick of time, as it were, just when I'm needed. Here now, you two, you seem to be getting on swimmingly and I'm very proud of both of you."
"Couldn't have done it without your help, Doctor," said Amy, looking like a young girl, eyes filled with happy tears.
"Doctor Pond must be Rory," thought Karen excitedly, "I wonder if they talk to angels all the time".
"Tosh," said the Doctor, "enough of that, I miss you both more than words can say, so I whipped up this holographic time transmitter so I could check in from time to time and see what you were doing. Not the same as a hug, of course, but delightful to see you are both doing so well."
"Doctor I just slaughtered a Mafia Don," exclaimed Rory.
"I know, Rory, and because you did, these ladies have a chance at a new life. Time has changed just a bit for the better. They'll have lives and love and families to care for and will make little changes, all good, all based on kindness, because you did this. Its true, I hate to take lives, but I will, if I must. Especially to protect those I love. Sometimes even I can't help that."
Suddenly the angelic man was shoved out of the way and a lovely intelligent looking woman came to view and waved
"Daddy! Mummy! Its so good to see you. I've missed you both so much."
Doctor Rory's eyes lit up. Karen wondered why an angel that was older than them both was calling them her parents. Maybe all the babies that were lost had a chance to grow up in heaven.
"I helped with the holographic time transmitter," she said, "and you'll be getting a box soon, so you can call us too. We'll be years apart, of course, but we can talk as long as you want." This was said with such fondness that Karen's eyes filled with tears.
"Oh my little girl," said Amy and Doctor Rory took her in his arms.
"Is he taking good care of you?" he asked.
"I'm taking good care of him, as usual," was the rather terse reply. Amy and Doctor Rory burst out laughing.
The girls who weren't in a dead faint were watching all of this now with avid attention.
The young man slipped up behind the lovely lady, "And now I know that Amy is well protected. Oh, Rory, I couldn't be more pleased. We have to dash for the moment, you have your work to do and I'm getting a distress call from 2017, but soon we'll be able to chat, I miss you both so much," he said with a beatific smile.
He waved at them, the lovely lady waved too. Everyone waved back, even Madge and the girls. Then there was another flash and both the heavenly visitors disappeared.
Karen sat down and cried her eyes out. They couldn't be that bad if Angels were showing themselves. They'd said they were going to have good lives and make the world a kinder place. She swore then and there to be like Rory and Amy Pond and to always look for angels.