The future isn't certain. It can change as quickly and swiftly as the wind changes direction. Anything can affect the it…turning left instead of right…or leaf falling off a tree…
For me it was going to my best friend's flat to pick up my sketch book. That's when I met the Doctor. I didn't know it at the time but from the moment I met him, my life was going to change…
~Powell Estate: 2005~
Imogen knocked on the front door and Jackie Tyler opened it. "Hello Imogen", she greeted.
"Hi Jackie. I'm not disturbing you am I?" Imogen asked noticing that the blonde woman was still in her bathrobe.
"No, you're not. I was about to get dressed", Jackie said. She stepped aside allowing the teen entrance. "Rose is in the kitchen. Make yourself at home", the woman said.
"Will do, thanks Jackie", Imogen said. She headed off down the hall and stopped in the doorway. In the living room a man wearing a leather jacket. He was flicking through her sketch book singing a couple of lines from Luck by a lady. "See anything you like?" Imogen spoke up.
The man turned around. "Quite a few things actually", he replied "whoever this Imogen is, she's pretty talented".
"Thanks", Imogen said "mum suggested that I should take it up as a career. But I don't know…I think I want to travel…see the world a bit…" Imogen trailed off "I'm sorry, I don't know why I'm telling you that. I don't even know you, no offense".
"None taken. And people can't help telling me things. I've just got one of those faces", the man said with a grin.
Imogen let out of laugh "right! Of course you are".
"Oh, Imogen I didn't know you were here", Rose suddenly spoke up through the hole in the wall.
"Your mum let me in", Imogen answered.
"I'm making a coffee. Want one?" Rose asked. Imogen politely declined saying that she already had one. "Ok", Rose said turning back to the kettle.
Imogen turned back to the mystery man. "So what's your name then?" she asked.
"The Doctor", he replied. Imogen didn't comment on his 'name' though it was a bit strange. If that was the name he preferred to give then she wasn't going to force him to tell her his actual name.
"And what are you doing here Doctor?" Imogen asked. The Doctor was about to answer her when they heard a scuttling behind the sofa "Rose I think another stray has gotten in", Imogen called leaning over the sofa to have a look. She gave a yelp when a plastic arm leaped out and latches itself around her neck. She stumbled back from the force of the arm leaping out at her from behind the sofa. The Doctor rushed over to pry its fingers away from her throat as the brunette gasped for air.
She fell back onto the sofa, the Doctor practically falling on top of her as he was still trying to remove the plastic arm which seemed unwilling to relinquish its vice like grip of Imogen's neck. Rose came in carrying two mugs of coffee "I told Mickey to chuck that out", she said seeing the arm but taking no notice of the fact that it was trying to kill her best friend while the Doctor was attempting to help her "honestly give a man a plastic hand…" Rose set the mugs onto the table at the same time as the Doctor managed to yank the arm away from Imogen.
It flies across the room then seemed to turn in mid-air and go for Rose. Before it could even grab her by the face, an object collided with it sending the arm across the room. It was Imogen's sketchbook. Rose sat beside Imogen and rubbed her back as she coughed. The Doctor lunged for the arm as it tried to scuttle across the floor. He trapped it in his arms struggling to get his sonic screwdriver out from his pocket. The Doctor eventually managed it and used the tool on the arm.
"It's all right, I've stopped it", he said assured them. The Doctor tossed it to Rose "there you go, you see? Armless".
"Do you think?" Rose asked getting up and smacking him with it.
"Ow!" the Doctor exclaimed rubbing his arm.
"How can you joke when that thing almost killed Imogen?" the blonde girl said crossly.
"You alright?" the Doctor asked Imogen having the decency to look concerned. Imogen nodded rubbing her sore throat. She knew he didn't mean for her to be strangled by the plastic arm. She didn't blame him at all. "See she's fine" the Doctor said taking the arm from Rose "nice to meet you Imogen" he added.
"Likewise", Imogen said her voice slightly hoarse from being strangled by the arm.
Without another word the Doctor left the flat. Rose and Imogen exchanged a look before running after him. "Hold on a minute. You can't just go swanning off", Rose said hurrying down the stairs after the Doctor, Imogen close behind.
"Yes I can", the Doctor said "Here I am, this is me, swanning off. See ya!"
"But that arm was moving", Rose said "It tried to kill Imogen".
"Ten out of ten for observation", the Doctor said sarcastically.
"You can't just walk away", Rose said not about to let this go. First she gets attacked by plastic dummies in Henricks and then her best friend is almost strangled to death by a plastic arm! She wanted answers and this Doctor bloke was going to give them to her. "That's not fair. You've got to tell us what's going on", Rose almost demanded.
"No, I don't", the Doctor replied still going down the stairs.
"All right, then. I'll go to the police. I'll tell everyone. You said, if I did that, I'd get people killed. So, your choice. Tell me, or I'll start talking", Rose said as they left the block of flats.
"Is that supposed to sound tough?" the Doctor asked
"Hate to break it to you Rose but that didn't sound tough at all", Imogen said from behind them.
"Who are you?" Rose asked walking next to the Doctor.
"Told you. The Doctor", the Time Lord replied.
"Yeah, but Doctor what?" Rose questioned. Unlike hers and Imogen's name, 'The Doctor' wasn't a normal name. For anybody. Yes, there were some medical professionals who had the title of Doctor but even they'd have their surname attached to it like…Doctor Smith or Doctor Jones.
Imogen sped up so she was walking in step with Rose and the Doctor "I'm just curious. Why did that plastic arm attack us?" she asked.
"It wasn't after you two, it was after me", the Doctor answered "Last night in the shop, you blundered in…" he looked at the blonde pointedly "almost ruined the whole thing".
"You're the reason Henricks went Kaboom?" Imogen questioned.
"Yes he is", Rose replied. As much as she didn't really like working there, it was the only decent job she could get. Now she doesn't even have that and it's all thanks to the Doctor.
"So what about me?" Imogen asked "I've never met you before today and yet it still attacked me".
"Wrong place, wrong time", the Doctor said with a shrug. He couldn't place it but there was something about her...something so familiar. He felt it the moment he saw her at the flat. He was pretty sure that he'd never met her before, he would most definitely remember those eyes of hers considering that it was such an usual colour for a human to have in the 21st century. This was probably going to bug him for a while which is the last thing that he needed. He needed to focus on...
"This plastic stuff. Who else knows about it?" Rose asked breaking through his thoughts and inadvertently putting the Doctor back on track with the situation at hand.
"No one", the Doctor replied.
"What, you're on your own?" Rose asked surprised.
"Well, who else is there?" The Doctor said "I mean, you lot all you do is eat chips, go to bed, and watch telly, while all the time, underneath you, there's a war going on".
"Ok then enlighten us. How did you stop that arm from moving?" Imogen questioned.
"The thing controlling it projects life into the arm. I cut off the signal, dead", the Doctor explained quickly.
"So that's radio control?" Rose asked.
"Thought control", the Doctor corrected.
"Who's controlling it, then?" Imogen queried.
"Long story", the Doctor said.
"But what's it all for?" Rose pressed. She had to know more "I mean, shop window dummies, what's that about? Is someone trying to take over Britain's shops?"
"No", the Doctor replied.
"I'd probably hazard a guess and say that they want to take over the world", Imogen surmised.
"Exactly", the Doctor agreed "Do you believe two me?"
"No", Rose replied as she stopped walking. Imogen stopped walking too while the Doctor continued on by himself.
"Yes", Imogen replied surprising Rose.
"Really, though, Doctor. Tell us, who are you?" the blonde girl asked. The Doctor stopped and turned around.
"You know when you're a kid and they tell you the earth if turning but you can't quite believe it because everything looks like it's standing still" the Doctor walked back to the girls "I can feel it. The turn of the Earth" he said. He then took Imogen's hand, intertwining his fingers with hers "The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, and the entire planet is hurtling round the sun at sixty seven thousand miles an hour, and I can feel it" as the Doctor spoke, Imogen could've sworn that she felt the ground beneath her feet vibrate as if it was moving as fast as the Doctor said "We're falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go…" the Doctor released her hand "That's who I am. Now, forget me, Rose, Imogen. Go home".
The Doctor walked away from them heading back to his TARDIS. He entered the blue box and placed the arm on the console. As he worked on wiring it in to the console, in order to track down the source of the signal, his thoughts turned to Imogen. He still couldn't shake that feeling of familiarity. He glanced down at his hand. Holding hers felt so...natural...like he'd done it many times before.
The Doctor shook his head to break out of his thoughts. It didn't matter if the girl seemed familiar to him in some way. He had more important things to worry about like tracking down the source of the signal to the living plastic.