Author's Notes: Though the classic series novelizations are very popular among fans, the BBC are reluctant to produce any for the revived series. This is understandable since novelizations are less profitable in this day and age. But what is fan fiction for but to plug in the gaps the official release can't.

Disclaimer: As you may have guessed, I do not own Doctor Who.

Rose

Chapter 1: An Unearthly Intruder

In the entirety of the universe, there was no race that could imagine the unbelievable vastness of space and time. There were worlds made of diamonds. Worlds swathed in negative light. 3000 new stars were being born every second.

Among the vast panoply of worlds, the small blue-green planet seemed surprisingly insignificant to many. Its main sentient race were only just poking their noses out beyond the atmosphere and their colonisation schemes were yet to extend further than their single moon. To most of the world's inhabitants, the distant stars still felt like tiny dots on the night sky. Life dragged on, much as it had for hundreds of years.

On an ordinary Tuesday morning, in a council flat in London, a twenty-something girl was woken by the steady beep of her alarm clock. Instinctively, she reached for the snooze button before remembering that she'd already done so once and now had to drag herself up and get her thought into some semblance of order. Most of them concerned with wondering who's bright idea it was that everything should get done in the morning.

"Morning Rose." Her mother said chirpily as she moved into the kitchen, handing her a fresh cup of tea. Rose had a feeling that woman never went anywhere if it was more than five minutes from the nearest source of tea. Though her habit did have its uses.

She could never be bothered to fry anything in the mornings so she poured herself some cereal. The milk was a couple of days past its date but she poured it on anyway.

Feeling slightly more awake, she threw some clothes on, brushed her hair, kissed her mum goodbye and headed for the bus, which was on time for a change.

At 8:00, her shift in a department store began. Locating empty shelves or items which had been on display longer than a fortnight, clearing space, re-stocking the shelf and then repeating the process. Just as she'd done every day that she'd worked there. Just as she would probably be doing every working day of her life since she had only a handful of GCSEs on her CV. Sometimes, she sometimes longed to meet difficult customers just to add some variety to the day.

It wasn't all bad though, at lunchtime, she headed to Trafalgar Square where her boyfriend Mickey had arranged to meet her for lunch. Mickey always had a way to brighten up the day. He spent their time together entertaining her with the stories of the misadventures of drunken friends.

All too soon though, the lunch hour was over and it was back to endless inescapable drudgery. Rose found it hard to believe that there were people in the world who actually liked their jobs.

Finally though, 5:00 came around and Rose could pull on her hoodie and made her way home. Perhaps see if anything was on the telly or head to the pub. And then do all this again tomorrow.

Halfway to the door however, her supervisor, miss Oswin, tapped her on the shoulder. "Forgotten something?" She said, shaking a small bag.

Rose sighed. At least this would only take a couple of minutes. As the others made their way out, she made her way to the staff lifts, hitting the button for the sub basement.

The storage floor was a far cry from the bright and sparkly showrooms. It comprised a collection of dimly lit stock rooms, connected by bare concrete corridors. Any customer who got out on this floor (as some had, by mistake) might have thought they'd wandered into the set of a horror film. The floor was also where the maintenance staff lived and that was who she'd come to see.

She knocked on a door labelled HP Wilson CEO "Wilson? Are you there? I've got the Lottery money. Listen, I can't hang about 'cos they're closing the shop. Wilson?" She tried the handle and found the door locked. Typical.

A small clunk sounded in one of the rooms as something got knocked over. Well that was a start. "Hello? Hello Wilson, it's Rose." She called following the sound through the door. Inside was a long room lined with a low ceiling. The floor was littered with piles of junk, and manikins of all shaped and sizes, in a variety of states of half dress. "Wilson?" She called several more times, moving deeper into the room.

What she didn't realise was that the door was swinging shut behind her. Not until she heard it slam. She rushed back and rattled the handle several times but it had auto locked. It was with increasing alarm that she realised that she didn't know the number of anyone with a key.

Before she could reflect further, she heard something else falling to the floor. Rose had heard stories about young girls working late who'd ended up taken captive by intruders. She was increasingly worried that was about to happen to her. "Is there someone mucking about?" She shouted uncertainly. She moved away from the door and peered intently at all the junk piles but it was a futile task. There were just too many places someone could hide. "Who is it?"

Rose thought about grabbing a loose arm off a dummy to use as a weapon but she was too afraid that some serial killer may be impersonating one, waiting for her to come closer. Her mind conjured images of every dummy in the place suddenly reaching out for her. A moment later, she realised that one of the dummies actually was reaching out for her. Raising its arm and turning its head her way.

Rose backed away from it. "Okay, you've got me very funny."

The dummy took a stepped out and turned to follow her. It was a bit slow at first and it creaked and stumbled with every step.

"Right, I've got the joke. Who's idea was this?"

The dummy ignored her and continued forward. Around it one after another was raising itself up to join it.

"Is it Derek? Derek is this you?" Rose spun around to see manikins closing in on her from all sides. Panic rising, she dodged through the only gap she could find and backed away further. Every dummy in the place was moving now, their initial stiffness was overcome and they marched forward with steady rhythm. Her back hit the wall just as the nearest one raised its arm. Rose closed her eyes in anticipation.

Just then, a fleshy hand grabbed her's. She opened her eyes to see a skin headed man, dressed in leathers smiling at her. "Run!" He said, and whisked her down a narrow passage and out of a back door. The dummy's karate chop missed her by inches and split open a steam pipe behind her.

The two of them fled down a back corridor. The dummies in hot pursuit. Several ranks more of the things came stumbling out of other rooms, trying to catch them. But somehow they made it through the gauntlet and into the lift. But before the door could shut, a dummy managed to get its arm in, fingers grasping furiously for the leather-clad man's throat. Without even breaking a sweat, the man grabbed the arm and twisted until it snapped free of its owner. Wit it out of the way, the doors swung shut.

"You've pulled his arm off!" Said Rose, pressed against the back wall.

"Yep." He said handing it to her. "Plastic."

Indeed, the arm was solid plastic. "Very clever, nice trick." Said Rose. "Who were they then, students? Is this a student thing or what?"

"Why would they be students?"

"I don't know."

"Well you said it."

"'cos... to get that many people dressed up and being silly, they've got to be students."

The man smiled. "Good idea, well done."

"Thanks."

"They're not students."

"Whoever they are, when Wilson finds out, he's going to call the police."

"Who's Wilson?"

"Chief electrician."

"Wilson's dead." The man said, with a tone no more serious than someone saying a plate had got broken. At this point, the lift reached the ground floor and he strolled out.

"That's not funny, that's sick!" Rose cried, following him.

"Mind your eyes." Said the man. He waved a strange blue whistling device at the lift button, which emitted a puff of smoke.

Rose was becoming increasingly confused. "Who are you then? Who's that lot down there?" The man hadn't broken his stride and was marching down the corridor towards the fire exit. Rose ran after him. "Hey, answer me, what's going on?"

"They're called Autons. They're made of plastic. Living plastic. They're being controlled by a big relay device up on the roof. Which would be a big problem if I didn't have this." With one hand, he waved a small box which was beeping. With the other, he pushed the fire exit open. "So... I'm gona go upstairs and blow it up and I might well die in the process. But don't you worry about me you go home." He guided Rose out the door. "Go on. Go have your lovely beans on toast. Don't tell anyone about this 'cos you'll get them killed." He shut the door. Rose stood, blinking, in the back alley for a few moments before the man opened the door again. "I'm The Doctor, by the way. What's your name?"

"Um... Rose."

"Nice to meet you Rose. Run for your life!" And with that, he closed the door once more.

Rose took his advice to heart and ran. She sprinted down the side alley. Round the front and across the street before she paused for breath.

All around her, life was proceeding as normal. Commuters were making their way home. Tourists were marvelling at the buildings and the traffic was crawling along the street. It was hard to believe that she'd just been attacked by creatures which shouldn't exist and barely escaped with her life. And yet she still had the Auton's arm clutched in her hand.

Shaking badly, Rose headed for the bus. Only for a tremendous explosion to sound from the upper floor, almost knocking her off her feet. She turned back and saw the entire department store engulfed in flames. Shards of glass were raining down on the street below. Rose ran all the harder, the strange blue box she had to dodge around barely registering in her mind.


"I know. It's on the telly. It's everywhere! She's lucky to be alive!" Jackie Tyler spoke to her friend on the phone as she made more tea. Her daughter was sat in the living room, watching a news report on the blast, though her mind was clearly miles away. "Honestly, it's aged her. Skin like an old bible. Walking in now you'd think I was her daughter."

Her mum's conversation was cut off by a knock on the door. Mickey rushed past Jackie the moment she'd opened it, and threw an arm around Rose.

"I've been phoning your mobile and everything. You could have been dead. It's on the news and everything!" He said. "I can't believe the shop went up."

"I'm fine. Honestly." Said Rose, flinching slightly under his grasp.

Mickey sensed her discomfort and let go. "What happened though?"

"I don't know." She lied.

"But what caused it?"

"I don't know. I wasn't in the shop. I was outside."

Her mum returned with the phone. "It's Debie on the end. She knows a man at The Mirror. 500 quid for an interview."

"Oh that's brilliant." Said Rose. "Give it here." She took the phone and hit end call.

Jackie glared at her daughter. "Well, you've got to find some way of making money. Your job's kaput and I'm not bailing you out." The phone rang once more so she picked it up. "...Hello Beth... Yeah, I've told her... She should sue for compensation. She was within seconds of death!"

Rose turned her attention back to her drink. "What you drinking? tea?" Said Mickey. "Nah Nah, that's no good. You're in shock. You need something stronger."

"I'm alright." She insisted once more. But Mickey tried to pull her to her feet.

"No. C'mon. You deserve a proper drink. We're going down the pub. You and me, my treat."

Rose smiled. "Is there a match on?"

Mickey looked awkward. "No no. I'm just thinking about you."

"There's a match on, isn't there?"

"Well... yeah. But that's not the point. Though we can catch the last 20 minutes."

"Go on then. Go. I'm fine really. Oh and could you take that out when you go?" She nodded at the plastic arm lying on the chair.

Finally satisfied that she'd be fine. Mickey kissed her goodbye and got up to leave. Though Rose caught his leg briefly on the way out. "Bye." He called, using the plastic hand to wave, then pretended it was strangling him. Anything to cheer Rose up.

She looked back at the news and wondered if she should have done something. She was just glad that the BBC were reporting no casualties.

Mickey made a brief detour to toss the arm in the dustbins and then strode off, trying to think which pub was nearest. He guessed that would be The City Arms, though it tended to be overcrowded when there were matches on.

Had he stood a little longer, he may have heard a rattling sound as something clambered up the side of the bin.