Willow Tyler: the Doctor's Companion
Rose
So, basically, this is the Other Tyler. I've been trying really hard to fix each individual chapter and people aren't really happy about it so I've decided to repost the story altogether and that way, I hope I won't miss anything.If I do, please review or PM me.Thanks J
June 16, 1995
A very small and ginger nine-year-old girl ran up to the blonde woman, hugging her around the top of her legs.
"Auntie Jackie! Auntie Jackie!" the little girl cried out. "I missed you!"
"I missed you, too, love," Jackie Tyler said, hugging her niece, whom had recently been orphaned. Pete Tyler's (who had been dead for nearly nine years now) brother, Robert, and his wife, Amanda, had just been killed in a car accident only two days before. Poor little Willow Tyler had been thrown from the backseat of the car when the door had sprung open just before the car had sailed off a cliff. She still had a deep gash across her forehead and a dark bruise on her right cheek.
"Rosie!" Willow cried out her nickname for her cousin, who had just entered the living room.
"Willie!" the nine-year-old Rose Tyler yelled, rushing up to hug her only cousin. The redhead immediately started tearing up, hugging Rose as hard as she could, as if she were the only lifeline Willow had. Jackie looked upon the two sadly, before she carried the two small suitcases that belonged to Willow down the hall to Rose's bedroom, where the little orphaned girl would be living from now on, seeing as Jackie and Rose were her only living relatives. The funeral would be held the following day, with a dinner at the Tyler residence afterwards and Jackie wasn't looking forward to it.
Later that night, after Jackie had gone to bed, Rose woke to the sound of sobbing. She found Willow sitting on her bed with her head in her small hands. She got up and sat down beside her cousin, putting one arm around her and stroked her head with the other.
"I m-miss them, Rosie!" Willow sobbed.
"I know, Willie, but don't worry! Mum and I will take good care of you," Rose assured her. "You are my bestest friend in the whole world."
Willow gave her a small, sad smile. "You're my bestest friend, too, Rosie, but it isn't really the same. I-I'll never see them again!" She broke down into new tears, clutching onto her cousin.
Rose held her cousin until Willow had cried herself to sleep. The next morning, Jackie found both of the girls in the same bed, hugging onto each other.
Ten years later….
"Rosie," a now nineteen-year-old, 5'8" Willow whined. "C'mon. We've got to go. I told Aunt Jackie that we'd be home in time for dinner."
"Sorry, Willow, but I gotta go give this money to Wilson," Rose Tyler said, edging towards the elevator.
"Fine," Willow sighed. "I'll wait up here for you, but if you're not back in five minutes, find another ride."
"Right," Rose said, with a smile.
Willow watched as Rose disappeared into the elevator and down to the basement level. Willow sighed again. She was never serious about leaving Rose behind to find another ride. It was an ongoing joke between the two. Willow wandered around the now-empty Hendrik's clothing shop. The guard, Joe, had locked the doors only moments before and was patrolling the place.
"Hey, Joe," Willow greeted him in her usual quiet voice.
"Oh, hey, Willow. Waiting on Rose again?" Joe asked.
"Don't I every night?" Willow said with a small laugh. Joe wandered off to patrol the rest of the shop, leaving Willow on her own. She sighed for a third time and started to browse through the clothes. A couple of minutes later, she glanced at her watch. It had been five minutes, but there was no sign of Rose. That was odd. Usually, she was back within a couple of minutes. She rubbed the scar on her forehead unconsciously, as she always did when she was worried. It was leftover from the car accident that had killed her parents.
Willow tapped her foot impatiently, debating what to do. She could stay right where she was and keep looking at the clothes, waiting, or she could go look for Rose. So much for a normal day… She heaved another sigh, before going back to browsing through the clothes, telling herself that she was just overacting, like usual. She had a bad habit of being a worry-wart, nearly having Jackie Tyler beat.
She suddenly heard a sound that came from behind her. She whirled around, but saw no one.
"Hello?" she practically whispered. "Joe? Joe, is that you?" Still seeing no one, Willow took cautious, baby steps to the area where the noise had come from, despite her gut telling her to run for it. There was nothing there but a male mannequin….which turned its head to look directly at her. Willow let out a small squeak before asking, "Is that you, Joe? 'Cos that's not funny at all!"
Another mannequin turned to face her, taking a step towards her. Willow started to slowly walk backwards to the entrance of the shop.
"Who are you? Who put you up to this, hmm?" Willow demanded. "Was it Rose? Or maybe Derek, 'cos he likes a prank now and then, him." Not getting a response, Willow kept backing up.
"Joe! Rose!" she suddenly screamed, noticing that it wasn't a joke or a prank anymore. She was nearly backed up to the wall, surrounded by the mannequins. Willow was always usually good at thinking on her toes, so she quickly whipped her head around, searching for a quick exit. The elevator would take too long, the back way was blocked by mannequins, and she only had so much space in the store to run around in to escape, which would be pointless.
Looked like it was the front entrance that Joe had only locked only minutes before. This thought process only took about three seconds to complete and Willow started to sprint towards the glass doors at the front. A sudden banging sound made to screech to a halt, startled. There were mannequins in the front display boxes of the shop, trying to get out. She shook her head quickly and took the last few steps to the door.
Knowing it was locked, she pulled down a metal rack that was holding clothes and started using the metal rod to try and break the glass, screaming for help all the while. She spotted Rose immediately, running down the sidewalk on the other side of the street, holding something and looking terrified. Willow started pounding on the door harder, but her blonde cousin didn't take notice.
"Rose!" she screamed. She started crying, then. Thick, hot tears of frustration, fear, and anger. She realized that this was probably the end. Death by plastic mannequin. Who knew. Giving up on her cousin, Willow grew more determined to break the glass with the metal rod, but it didn't give. It had been built to withstand guns and robbers, it wasn't going to break from a skinny girl with no arm strength. Getting ready to take another swing at the door, the ground shook violently beneath her feet as an explosion ripped through the building. The glass doors she was trying to break blew apart, sending glass in every direction. Willow was knocked off her feet and hit her head, rendering her unconscious.
Rose knew she was forgetting something, but in her panic, she just couldn't remember what it was. Her eyes suddenly snapped open wide, as she remembered her cousin, whom had been waiting for her. An explosion sounded in the night and flames burst out of the windows of the building she had just left and her cousin was still inside of.
"WILLOW!" she screamed out, sprinting back to the building, while people were running and screaming with panic. Smoke and flames were billowing out of every crack and exit in the building, as well as the roof. Rose stuck the plastic arm she was still carrying under her arm and shoved her way through the crowd of people to the front doors. Coughing, Rose put her pink jacket-covered arm over her mouth and nose, squinting into the chaos, trying to find Willow.
Rose tripped over something, but recovered herself before she fell to the floor. She found out that that something was her cousin's leg, sticking out of the rubble. Willow was still unconscious when Rose grabbed her arms and started pulling her out into the street.
"C'mon, Willow! Wake up!" Rose yelled, trying desperately to wake her red-headed cousin.
"Rosie?" Willow mumbled, and then she groaned.
"Yeah, Willow, it's me," Rose said. "Now, we gotta get outta here."
Rose helped the dazed girl to her feet and put an arm around her waist. Willow put her arm around Rose's shoulders and the two girls hobbled towards the Tylers' flat, Rose practically making Willow run.
"Geez, Rosie, where's the fire?" Willow muttered, still dizzy.
"Don't you remember?" Rose asked, starting to panic.
"I-I remember waiting for you. You took forever. And then I spoke to Joe. A-and then….oh, my gosh! The mannequins, Rose! T-they were—"
"Alive. Yeah, I know," Rose nodded solemnly.
The girls rushed down the sidewalk, not seeing the large, blue police box sitting right in plain sight….
When they returned to the Tylers' flat, Jackie made them tea, while watching the news and gabbing away on the phone. Jackie had freaked out, which was putting it mildly, especially after seeing the state Willow was in. Willow had glass shards stuck in her clothes all over the place as well as dirt streaked everywhere. She also had a small gash on her head, which was giving her the mother of all headaches.
"I know, it's on the tellie! It's everywhere. They're lucky to be alive!" Jackie said into the phone. Willow didn't catch the rest of what Jackie was yammering on about as she went to clean up and change into her comfy pajamas. She had cleaned up the blood from the glass exploding and had a butterfly bandage on her head. Other than that and some slight bruising she would have the next day, she was alright. Jackie was concerned that Willow had a concussion and had wanted her to go to the hospital, but Willow refused. Jackie relented and had Willow sleep on the sofa so she could wake her every two hours.
Willow was now slumped on the sofa, sitting by Rose, resting her head on her cousin's shoulder, sipping at her tea. When Mickey rushed in to see Rose, Willow took that as her cue to leave. She picked up the plastic mannequin arm that Rose had brought home and took it to her room. Sitting on her bed, examining it, she thought that there was no possible way that the mannequins should have been walking as they had. There had to be some sort of explanation and Willow's mind was leaning towards extraterrestrial.
She started when Mickey popped his head in the room.
"You okay?" he asked.
"Yeah, fine," Willow said. She had always liked Rose's boyfriend, Mickey Smith, even if he was a bit of an idiot every now and then.
"Right, well, I'm going down to the pub. Wanna come?" he asked.
"Nah," she said. "Shouldn't drink with a supposed concussion; Jackie would have a cow. Plus I don't fancy watching a match," she teased.
"Er, yeah, probably not," Mickey agreed. "Well, I'm off. Oh, and Rose wants me to take that there arm with me. 'Course I don't' see the bloody point to it. It's just a plastic arm."
Willow tossed the arm to Mickey, who pretended to strangle himself with it, making Willow giggle, and then he left the flat. She wandered back into the small sitting room and passed by Jackie, who was still on the phone and flopped down by Rose again.
"So what did happen?" Willow asked. "I leave you alone for all of ten minutes and you blow up the building on me!"
"I really don't know," Rose said. "It was that man."
"What man?" Willow asked in curiosity.
"I'll you later tonight," Rose whispered as Jackie came back into the room and stopped to fuss over Willow's wounds.
"I'm fine, Aunt Jackie!" Willow insisted.
After promising Jackie that she'd come back out and sleep on the couch, Rose and Willow went into the bedroom. Rose told Willow all about the mysterious man who had called himself the Doctor who had saved Rose's life by kicking her out of the building and to run for her life.
Willow lay awake on the sofa that night, not knowing what to make of the odd circumstances she found herself in, but then again, she was having a hard time just thinking straight. As promised, Jackie woke Willow up every two hours in the night and when the alarm went off the next morning at 7:30, like every other morning, Willow groaned. She was groggy when she woke up, as well as stiff and sore everywhere. Jackie handed her a couple of painkillers with her coffee and Willow downed both of them, feeling a bit better afterwards.
She felt every better after taking a hot shower and dressing for the day. When she wandered into the kitchen for another cup of coffee an hour later, she bounced over to Jackie and gave her a kiss on the cheek. She grinned widely at Rose behind Jackie's head as Jackie tried to talk her daughter into getting a job at the butcher's. Rose only rolled her eyes at Willow as Jackie wandered off to her bedroom. A sudden noise made Willow and Rose both jump. Willow was still jumpy after what had happened last night, thinking it was the mannequins coming back to get her.
"Mum, you're such a liar," Rose shouted at Jackie. "I told you to nail down that cat flap down. We're gonna get strays."
"I nailed the flap down myself weeks ago, Rose," Willow said. The two girls crept towards the front door, where they both crouched, examining the nails that were now on the floor.
"How on earth did that happen?" Willow wondered aloud. The flap pushed open a bit, making Willow jump. She stood back up, watching as Rose carefully poked at the cat flap and finally pushed it open. Rose then jumped straight up and pulled the door open.
Willow's eyes widened at the sight of the strange man in the jumper and leather jacket on the other side, also straightening up.
"What're you doin' here?" the man asked Rose.
"I live here," Rose retorted.
"Well, what'd you do that for?" the man asked, his Northern accent coming out strong.
"'Cos I did," Rose said. "I'm only home 'cos someone blew up my job." Her tone had accusation in it.
"Um, Rose," Willow said, "who is he?"
"I'm the Doctor," the man announced with a large goofy grin on his face, holding a little stick-like thing that was glowing blue on the end. "And you are?"
"Willow," she said, then turned to Rose. "This is the Doctor?" She was skeptical.
"Nice to meetcha, Willow," he said. "Musta got the wrong signal. You two aren't plastic, are you?" He knocked his hand against Rose's forehead. "No, bonehead. Bye then!" He turned to leave. Willow giggled softly.
"You. Inside, right now," Rose said, grabbing the Doctor's leather jacket sleeve. Willow stepped aside to accommodate a third person in the small entryway.
"Who is it?" Jackie asked.
"Er, no one, Aunt Jackie," Willow said at the same time Rose said, "It's about last night. He's part of the inquiry. Give us ten minutes to talk to him."
Willow rolled her eyes as Jackie ranted on about Rose getting compensation as well as Willow getting something for being injured. We went into the kitchen and put the kettle on to make some tea. Rose came in a moment later and started making coffee.
"Cake?" Willow offered the man called the Doctor through the kitchen window. He was looking through a magazine and Rose's mail.
"Sure, why not?" he said, not bothering to look up. Willow put some of the double chocolate cake (some she had made two days ago) on a plate and took it out to him.
"Here ya go," Willow said softly.
"Thanks," he said with another big grin.
He looked up at her this time and appeared as if he was seeing her for the first time.
"Yes?" she asked, slightly annoyed with his staring.
"You're ginger," he said.
"And is there something wrong with that?" Willow asked defensively. She had been made fun of for being ginger all through school.
"Nope," he said, popping the 'p.' "I've always wanted to be ginger."
Willow went back into the kitchen with a strange look on her face.
"He's a bizarre man," Willow told her cousin. "He just told me that he's always wanted to be ginger. Sometime I hate being ginger."
Rose grinned at her cousin before saying to the man in the sitting room, "It said on the news that they found a body."
The Doctor didn't say anything in return, just looked at his reflection in the mirror, flicking his ears, muttering, "Ah, could've been worse," to himself.
Willow got herself her third cup of coffee for the day and took more painkillers for the headache that was starting to return. Rose was trying to talk the Doctor into going to the police and the Doctor was walking around the sitting room, not directly answering Rose's questions, talking to himself, and messing with anything he saw, which, at the moment, just happened to be a deck of cards. Willow let out a giggle as the cards went flying everywhere.
She went about fixing a cup of tea for the Doctor as he asked, "What's that then? Have either of you got a cat?"
"No," Rose answered. Willow sipped coffee out of her favourite mug and took the Doctor's cup of tea into the sitting room to him. She nearly dropped the mugs as she saw the Doctor being strangled by the plastic arm. The same plastic arm that she had thought Mickey had thrown out the night before.
"Shit!" she exclaimed, eyes widened in fear. Willow stood there for a full second in fear before realizing that the Doctor needed help. She quickly rid herself of the two mugs and took a step forward to help, but was pushed out of the way as Rose came by with her own mug of tea. Rose sighed when she saw the Doctor.
"I told Mickey to chuck that out. All the same. Give a man a plastic hand….Anyways, I don't even know your name. Doctor…what was it?" Rose asked.
Willow let out a small shriek as the Doctor finally got the plastic arm from around his neck. It flew in her direction, and she ducked as it flew over her head. She turned around to find it had latched itself onto her cousin's face.
"Rose!" she cried, rushing over to help her. The Doctor was there first, trying to pry the plastic arm away. Rose was struggling against the wall, visibly freaking out and suffocating. The Doctor gave one good tug on the arm a little too hard and both he and Rose went flying back into the glass coffee table, completely shattering it. Rose finally managed to make it back on the couch, with Willow assisting her. Willow knelt next to her on the other cushion, trying to pry the hand off of her cousin's face, holding her tears back, running on adrenalin.
"Doctor, do something!" Willow shrieked. She felt rather useless at the moment. The Doctor pulled something out of his jacket pocket. It was the same stick with the blue light at the end.
"What good is that thing gonna bloody do?!" Willow yelled.
The stick thing made a whirling sound and the hand came off of Rose's face. Willow put her arm around her cousin and they both scrambled back away from the plastic. More whirling sounds came from the stick-looking thing and the plastic went still.
"It's alright, I've stopped it," the Doctor said, looking at Willow and Rose. He tossed the arm to Rose, who gasped but caught it, holding it away from her body. "'Armless," the Doctor said, trying to be funny.
"D'you think?" Rose asked, hitting the Doctor in the arm with the plastic arm. The Doctor grabbed his arm and said, "Ow!"
"Stop being a baby," Willow said. "Explain, now please."
"Haven't the time," the Doctor said, standing up and grabbing both her and Rose's hands, yanking them out of the flat and to the stairs.
"Hold on a minute. You can't just go swanning off," Rose said, Willow on her heels.
"Yes, I can. Here I am. This is me, swanning off. See ya!" the Doctor said.
"It isn't right!" Willow yelled after him.
"But that arm was moving. It tried to kill me and it could've killed Willow!" Rose said. By this point, Rose and Willow were running down the stairs of Powell Estate, following the mysterious man who was carrying a plastic mannequin arm. It was all rather strange to Willow.
"Ten out of ten for observation," the Doctor said.
"You can't just walk away! That's not fair. You—you've got to tell us what's goin' on," Rose demanded.
"No, I don't," the Doctor said.
"Yeah, you do!" Willow yelled out to him. Willow followed after the Doctor and Rose as they pushed open the doors to the building and went out into the street, leaving Powell Estate behind them.
"Alright then," Rose said. "We'll go to the police and tell everyone. You said if we did that, we'd get people killed. So, your choice. Tell us or we'll start talking."
"Rose!" Willow exclaimed, shocked. She wasn't about to get anyone killed. Not even for this lunatic.
"What, that supposed to sound tough?" the Doctor asked.
"Sort of," Rose admitted.
"Doesn't work," the Doctor said.
"I think it does," Willow piped up, only to be ignored as Rose went on.
"Who are you?" Rose questioned the man.
"Told you, the Doctor," he said.
"Yeah, but Doctor what?" Rose asked as Willow asked, "Doctor who?"
"Just the Doctor," he answered both of them.
"The Doctor?" Rose and Willow questioned at the same time.
"Hello!" he said, waggling his fingers at them.
"Is that supposed to sound impressive?" Rose asked.
"Sort of," the Doctor said.
"But it's not," Willow said, getting irritated.
"C'mon then and tell us. We've both seen enough. Are you the police?" Rose asked, skipping to walk next to the Doctor.
"No, I was just…passing through," the Doctor said, still carrying the plastic arm. "I'm a long way from home."
"But what have we done wrong? How come those plastic things keep coming after us? Me and Willow?" Rose asked.
"Oh! Suddenly the whole world revolves around the two of you? You were just an accident. You got in the way, that's all," the Doctor said.
"It tried to kill us!" Rose exclaimed.
"We're not disposable!" Willow said, getting red in the cheeks.
"Never said you were," the Doctor said. "It was after me, not you two. Last night in the shop, I was there. You blundered in, almost ruined the whole thing. This morning, I was tracking it down, it was tracking me down, the only reason it fixed on you is you met me!"
"You have a big ego, don't you?" Willow asked, eyeing him in distaste. He grinned at her.
"So, what you're saying is that the entire world revolves around you?" Rose asked with sarcasm.
"Sort of, yeah," the Doctor said, serious.
"Definitely a big ego," Willow said, making the Doctor turn around and give her another big grin. She frowned at him, wary. Something drew her to him, but at the same time, she didn't really like this man called the Doctor.
"You're full of it!" Rose said.
"Sort of, yeah," the Doctor said again.
"But, all this plastic stuff, no one else knows about it?" Rose asked.
"No one," the Doctor confirmed.
"Except us," Willow said. "What about your partner?" The Doctor just gave her a sad look.
"What, you're all alone?" Rose asked, noticing the look.
"Well, who else is there? You lot, all you do is eat chips, go to bed, and watch tellie, when all the time, beneath you , there's a war goin' on," the Doctor said.
"Okay," Rose said. She suddenly reached out and snatched the plastic arm from the Doctor and Willow crossed her arms over her chest. "Start from the beginning."
"The very beginning," Willow said, moving to walk on the Doctor's other side. Even as the Doctor explained everything, Willow couldn't help but feel as if he were leaving something out.
"I mean, if we're gonna go with a living plastic, (and I don't even believe that) if we do, how did ya kill it?" Rose asked.
"The thing controlling it projects life into the arm. I cut off the signal, dead," the Doctor said.
"So, that's radio control?" Rose asked.
"Thought control," the Doctor said. "Are you two alright?"
"Fine," Willow said. She was surprised to find that she really was fine with it all, as strange as it sounded.
"Yeah," Rose said, looking at Willow for a moment. "So, who's controlling them, then?"
"Long story," the Doctor said, stepping around the question.
"What's it all for? I mean, shop window dummies…what's that about? Is someone trying to take over Britain's shops?" Rose asked innocently.
Willow giggled along with the Doctor and Rose and said, "I doubt it, Rose."
"No," the Doctor said.
"I know," Rose said, trying not to seem dumb.
"Rose just likes to pull your leg," Willow said, coming to her cousin's aid.
"It's not a price war," the Doctor said, laughing, then he turned serious.
Wow, bi-polar much? Willow thought to herself.
"They want to overthrow the human race and destroy you. Do you two believe me?" the Doctor asked them.
"No," Rose said and the Doctor turned to Willow for her answer.
"Eh—it's a bit, I dunno, far-fetched," Willow said, giving her honest opinion.
"But you both are still listening," the Doctor pointed out.
"It is intriguing," Willow muttered mostly to herself.
Rose stopped walking suddenly, causing Willow to run into her back, while the Doctor kept going.
"Really, though, Doctor. Tell us—who are you?" Rose asked and the Doctor stopped, turning back to the girls.
"Do you know like we were saying? About the Earth revolving?" he asked, walking back up to Willow and Rose, stopping in front of them. "It's like when you were a kid. The first time they tell you the world's turning and you just can't quite believe it because everything looks like it's standing still. I can feel it."
He took one of Rose's hands and one of Willow's. Willow felt something stir in her stomach at the touch of his hand that she couldn't explain and flushed slightly.
"The turn of the Earth. The ground beneath out feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, and the entire planet is hurling around the sun at sixty-seven thousand miles an hour, and I can feel it. We're falling through space, you, me, and Willow. Clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go…" he let go of their hands and Willow was both sorry he let go and relieved. "That's who I am. Now, forget me, Rose and Willow Tyler."
He took the plastic arm from Rose and waved it at both the girls and said, "Go home." He turned on heel and walked away from them again.
Willow sighed and started to walk away. She was both relieved and strangely sad that the mysterious man called the Doctor was out of her life now. She couldn't really explain it as it wasn't really a secret from Rose that she didn't exactly like the man. As she started back to the flat, there was a sudden whooshing noise and Willow found herself alone on the street. Rose had taken off in the other direction, towards the noise. Willow sighed again, rubbing her scar on her forehead and waited for Rose, who came back a minute later.
"Is he gone?" Willow asked.
"Yeah, just disappeared into thin air," Rose said, frowning.
"We shouldn't worry about it anymore," Willow said, sounding unconvincing. "Home?"
"Nah, let's stop by Mickey's first," Rose said and Willow groaned and rolled her eyes, but followed after her cousin. Willow hated going by Mickey's flat. It was always dirty (typical of a man) and she always felt the need to clean it, which she usually did. Mickey let them in a minute after they knocked.
"Yahey, there's my woman!" Mickey exclaimed and Willow rolled her eyes and then flushed as Mickey smacked Rose on the ass. "Kit off! Oh, hey, Willow," he said, grinning at the red-head.
"Hey, Mick," she said, smiling.
"Shut up," Rose teased, giving Mickey a kiss. "Mwah!" she smacked their lips dramatically.
"Coffee?" Mickey offered the girls.
"Sure," Willow said absently, not being able to get her mind off the Doctor, who had left her life quickly but intrigued her greatly, despite what she told Rose.
"Yeah, only if you wash the mug. And I don't mean rinse, I mean wash. Can we use your computer?" Rose asked.
"Yeah," Mickey answered. "Any excuse to get in the bedroom."
"Gah!" Willow gasped, disgusted. "I'm still here, you know!"
Mickey rolled his eyes at Willow's usual attitude and blush and went into the kitchen to make coffee, while Willow followed Rose into the bedroom, shutting the door behind her.
"Don't read my e-mails!" Mickey shouted through the flat.
"Ew," Willow said. "Don't intend to. I always feel like I seriously need to clean this place. Especially after you've been here," she teased her blonde cousin.
"Oh, shut up," Rose laughed.
Willow pulled up a chair next to the computer and Rose switched it on. When it was fully on and the pop-ups were closed, Rose typed in 'Doctor' into the search engine. When it didn't provide anything useful, Willow suggested, "Try 'Doctor, living plastic' or something."
Rose typed it in, but there was still nothing. She finally typed in 'Doctor Blue Box'. The first result was titled 'Doctor Who—do you know this man? Contact Clive here…'
"I can't believe we're doing this," Willow whispered. "Why blue box?"
"It's what he disappeared in," Rose answered, clicking on the website to find a very blurry picture of the Doctor that was titled, 'Have you seen this man? Contact Clive.'
"Oh, gotcha," Willow nodded, still a bit confused though.
Rose clicked on 'Contact Clive' to find an address that was nearby, which Willow wrote down on a notepad sitting next to the computer.
"Right," Willow said. "Now to convince Mickey to drive us to see this Clive. You e-mail Clive to let him know we're coming later today, I'll go see how that coffee is coming along."
It took some begging and a lot of kissing from Rose's end to convince Mickey to drive them. Two hours later, the trio was sitting in Mickey's Volkswagen Beetle in front of Clive's house.
"You're not coming in," Rose told Mickey. "He's safe, he's got a wife and kids."
"Besides, Rose and I can handle ourselves," Willow said. "I took those self-defense classes, remember?"
"Yeah, but who told you he had a family? He did. That's exactly what an Internet lunatic murderer would say," Mickey argued.
Rose just got out of the car, Willow following. Willow giggled, thinking it was cute that Mickey wanted to protect them even though she knew that when it came down to it, he would be useless. Rose and Willow waltzed up to the door and knocked on it. It was answered by a boy who looked to be about eleven or so.
"Hello," Willow said, trying to be pleasant. "We're here to see Clive?"
"We've been e-mailing," Rose added.
"Dad! It's a couple of your nutters!" the boy yelled inside the house.
"Rude," Willow muttered to Rose. A man appeared at the door.
"Sorry," he said. "Hello, you must be Rose and Willow. I'm Clive, obviously."
"I'd better tell you now—my boyfriend's waiting in the car, just in case you're going to kill us," Rose said.
Willow giggled, along with Rose and Clive at Mickey's idiocy.
"No, good point. No murderers," Clive said and he waved past the girls to Mickey, who nodded.
"Who is it?" a woman asked.
"Oh, it's something to do with the Doctor! Both these girls here have been reading the website. Please come though, I'm in the shed," Clive said.
The woman who had spoke came down the stairs by the door, carrying some laundry.
"Girls? They read a website about the Doctor? They are girls?" she asked and Willow waved shyly at her. The woman shut the door behind them and Clive led Rose and Willow through the house out back to a shed, which looked like a strange shrine to the Doctor.
"A lot of this stuff's quite sensitive, I just couldn't send it to you two. People might intercept it, if you know what I mean. If you dig deep enough—keep a lively mind—this Doctor keeps cropping up all over the place. Political diaries, conspiracy theories. Even ghost stories. No first name, no last name. Just 'The Doctor.' Always 'The Doctor.' And the title seems to have been passed down from father to son. It appears to be an inheritance. That's your Doctor there, isn't it?"
He pointed to the blurry picture of the Doctor that had been on his website.
"Yeah," both Rose and Willow said at the same time.
"I tracked it down to the Washington public archive last year. The online photo's enhanced, but if we look at the original…"
He showed the girls the original picture of the Doctor standing in a crowd. Willow identified it as Dealey Plaza in Dallas Texas.
"No way," she breathed.
"November 22, 1963. The assassination of President Kennedy," Clive confirmed.
"That's not possible," Willow gasped.
"Must be his father," Rose suggested and Willow nodded in agreement.
"Going back further…April 1912," Clive said, pulling out a photo album to show them another picture. "This is a photo of the Daniels family, Southampton. And friend," he added, pointing to the Doctor, whom was standing behind the family. "This was taken the day before they were due to sail off for the New World on the Titanic. And for some unknown reason, they canceled the trip and survived. And…1883. Another Doctor. And look—same lineage. He's identical. This one washed up on the coast of Sumatra on the very day Krakatau exploded. The Doctor is a legend woven throughout history. When disaster comes, he's there. He has a storm in his wake. And he has one constant companion."
"Who's that?" Rose asked as Willow took a deep breath, processing everything.
"Death," Clive said. "If the Doctor's back…if you two've seen him, Rose, Willow…then one thing's for certain…we're all in danger. If he's singled you two out…if the Doctor's making house calls…then God help you two."
"Who is he exactly?" Willow asked.
"Like, who do you think he is?" Rose asked him a moment later.
"I think he's the same man. I think he's immortal. I think he's an alien from another world," Clive said.
Rose and Willow both thanked Clive for the information, all while trying not to laugh, and left, heading back to Mickey and the car.
"Alright! He's a nutter! Of his head! COMPLETE online conspiracy freak! You win!" Rose told Mickey, while Willow broke down into giggles while climbing in the backseat. "What're we gonna do tonight? I fancy a pizza. What about you, Willow?"
"Pizza's good," Willow said.
"Pizzzaaa! P-p-p-pizza!" Mickey said.
"You okay, mate?" Willow asked, concerned.
"—or Chinese…" Rose suggested, a little weirded out.
"Pizza!" Mickey said, driving the car off down the street to their favourite pizza parlour.
Willow sat at a table with Rose and Mickey that was originally meant for only two. She felt like a total third wheel and was considering walking home, which luckily wasn't too far away from the pizza parlour. Seated beside Willow, Rose was jabbering on about finding a new job.
"D'you think I should try the hospital? Suki said they had a few jobs going in the canteen. That's it….dishing out chips…I could do A levels…" Rose wondered aloud.
Willow let out a laugh and said, "Ha! Right, you going back to school? That's a laugh, isn't it? That'd mean I'd have to go back to school, too, to tutor you."
"I dunno," Rose said, sighing, and giving up on that idea. "It's all Jimmy Stone's fault. I only left school because of him, and look where he ended up. What do you think?" Rose asked Mickey.
"He's only where he is because of me," Willow muttered to herself, thinking of the beating she had given him after he had hurt Rose.
"So, where did you two meet this Doctor?" Mickey asked, not even listening to Rose's chatter before or what Willow had said.
"Pardon?" Willow asked him, not sure she had heard him right.
"I'm sorry, wasn't I talking about me for a second?" Rose asked.
"Because I reckon it started back at the shop, am I right? Is he something to do with that?" Mickey asked.
"Yeah, but since when d'you care about how we met the Doctor?" Willow asked her friend, curious about how he was acting. "You didn't before when we were talkin' about meeting Clive…"
"No…." Rose answered Mickey's question, not sounding at all convincing.
"Come on," Mickey said.
"Sort of," Rose admitted.
"What was he doing there?" Mickey asked.
Willow sighed and said, "Saving us. Does it really matter right now, Mickey?"
"We're not going on about him, Mickey, we're not, because I know it sounds daft, but…I don't think he's safe. I think he's dangerous," Rose said, giving a slight grimace.
Willow nodded her head in agreement and said, "I get a bad feeling in my stomach when I'm around him. He's no good and we're staying away and forgetting him like he said."
"But you can trust me sweetheart! Babe, sugar, darling, sugar," Mickey said really quickly, completely disregarding what either girl said entirely.
"What was that?" Willow wondered, looking at Rose, both of them confused and a tad bit frightened.
"You can tell me anything. Tell me about the Doctor and what he's planning and I can help you, Rose, Willow. Because that's all I really wanna do, sweetheart, babe, sugar, sweetheart." Mickey said.
Willow shrank back from him. She knew something was wrong with Mickey. He was acting completely out of character and not like himself at all.
"Why are you doing that for?" Rose asked the question that was on Willow's mind.
"Your champagne," a waiter said, stopping at their small table behind Willow.
"We didn't order any champagne," Mickey said, using both hands to grab one of Rose's and one of Willow's hands tightly. "Where's the Doctor?" he demanded.
The waiter, persistent, walked around the table and directly into Willow's line of sight. She shifted her eyes from Mickey to the waiter's face and was shocked and a bit scared to see it was the Doctor, offering a bottle of champagne to Rose. Willow's terror only increased seeing him.
"Ma'am, your champagne," the Doctor said.
"It's not ours…Mickey what is it? What's wrong?" Rose asked, concerned about her boyfriend.
"I need to find out how much you two know, so where is he?" Mickey demanded again, looking between the two bewildered and scared girls.
"Doesn't anyone want this champagne?" the Doctor asked, slightly disappointed that nobody except Willow had noticed him yet.
"No, we don't want the bloody champagne!" Willow exclaimed, surprising everybody, especially Rose who had never heard Willow have an outburst like that. Willow even surprised herself, as she was usually a quiet person.
"Look, we didn't order i—" Mickey broke off, as he looked up finally and realized that the waiter was in fact the Doctor. "Ah. Gotcha," he said.
The Doctor shook up the bottle of champagne and said, "Don't mind me. I'm just toasting the happy couple and friend. On the house!"
The cork popped out of the bottle, causing Willow to squeak, instinctively covering her face with her hands. The cork, however, didn't even go near her. It hit Mickey directly in the forehead. Actually, it didn't even do that, Willow noticed. The cork absorbed into 'Mickey's' forehead and he spat it back out of his mouth.
"Holy-" Willow managed to squeak out. "What the hell was that?"
"Anyway," 'Mickey' said like it was totally normal for what had just happened. His fist, however, turned into a sort of hammer, and he smashed in into the table, splitting it in half. Willow tried to jump backwards, but only ended up tipping herself backwards in her chair, head over heels.
"Don't think that's gonna stop me," she heard 'Mickey', or the now obvious fake 'Mickey' say. Willow tried to get behind some cover while, at the same time, scramble to her feet.
An alarm started going off and Willow heard Rose shouting, "Everyone out! Out now!"
There was a sudden burst of chaos as everyone in the small pizza parlour started to make for the exit. Willow lost sight of the Doctor, Rose, and 'Mickey' as she got shoved around by panicking people. She heard Rose shout again, "Get out! Get out! Get out!"
Willow was still trying to stand and started as a hand grabbed hers, but she was surprisingly relieved to see that it was the Doctor.
"Run," he told her, yanking her to her feet and to the back of the restaurant through the kitchens where Rose was slightly ahead of them. They took the backdoor from the kitchens and ran out into an empty lot with the fake Mickey still on their tails.
"Why do you have the head?" Willow asked the first thing that had popped into her head, rather calmly for just nearly dying.
The Doctor didn't answer. Instead he took out his silver tube thing with the blue light at the end and put it to the door they had just come through. It made a strange whirling sound and then the Doctor let go of the door, walking away from it.
"What good'll that do?" Willow asked, freaking out a bit more again. "He's gonna come through!"
While Willow was standing in the same spot, reeling from all that had happened, Rose was running around the small lot like a chicken with its head cut off, trying to find an escape route.
"Open the gate!" Rose shouted at the Doctor. "Use that tube thing, come on!"
"What, this? This is a sonic screwdriver," the Doctor answered her.
"Obviously it is!" Willow said sarcastically, finally unfreezing, trying to help Rose find a way out.
"Use it!" Rose screeched, not coping as well to the situation as Willow was.
"Nah," the Doctor said nonchalantly. "Tell you two what, let's go in here." He walked over to a blue police box that was sitting in the lot. Willow did a double-take, not noticing it before. The Doctor pulled out a silver key and unlocked the door. Willow jumped and tore her attention away from the blue box as the fake Mickey was still banging on the door and was starting to make large, noticeable dents in it.
"We can't hide inside a wooden box!" Rose yelled at the Doctor, pointing out the obvious.
"It's too small!" Willow agreed, freaking out. She was starting to think that the Doctor wasn't gonna be able to get them out of the situation. However, she started backing away from the dented door and towards the police box and started subbing the scar on her chin nervously.
"It's gonna get us! Doctor!" Rose yelled. She ran into the police box after the Doctor and Willow followed after her, just like she always did when they were kids. Though she didn't fully trust the Doctor, she knew she had to protect her cousin however she could. Her thoughts were cut short when Willow suddenly ran into Rose's back and fell on her ass.
"Rosie, what'd you stop for? That bloody hur—" Willow broke off in shock as she took in her surroundings. The inside was enormous. The centre console was surrounded by grating on the floor and railing, as well as large coral pillars. It was impossible as well as beautiful.
"Oh, goodness," Willow whispered to herself, as Rose ran past her, back outside. A moment later, Rose reentered, still in a panic.
"It's gonna follow us!" Rose said, while still in shock. Willow finally picked herself up off the ground and stared in awe at the large room that was bathed in green light and packed inside a small, blue police box.
"The assembled hordes of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door, and believe me, they've tried. Now, shut up a minute," the Doctor said, plugging the head into the console, trying to get a signal.
Willow stepped past Rose and made her way to the console that was in the centre of the room. She lightly ran a hand over a few of the buttons, but didn't press any of them, as the Doctor was eyeing her closely.
"It's impossible," she whispered to herself. "It's like I've seen it before in a dream or something."
The Doctor went on, not minding the two stunned and scared girls.
"You see, the arm is too simple, but the head's perfect. I can use it to trace the signal back to the original source. Right. Where do you want to start?" the Doctor asked, facing both of the girls.
"Um…the inside's bigger than the outside?" Rose said it like it was a question.
"Yes," the Doctor simply said.
"It's alien," Rose spoke again, while Willow just took it all in.
"Yes," the Doctor said again.
"Are you alien?" Rose asked the Doctor.
"Yes," the Doctor said a third time. "It that alright with you two?"
"Yeah," Rose said, rather quickly.
The Doctor looked at Willow expectantly for an answer.
"You're an alien?" Willow repeated Rose's question.
"Yup. One hundred percent alien. Is that alright by you?" the Doctor asked her.
"I guess…" Willow trailed off, sounding unsure and still in slight shock.
"It's called the Tardis, this thing. T-A-R-D-I-S, that's Time and Relative Dimension in Space," the Doctor said, moving on.
Rose let out a small sound that Willow knew was a sob. She walked over, knowing that Rose was thinking about Mickey, and pulled her cousin into a much needed hug. She held in her own tears at the thought of one of her only friends, dead.
"That's okay. Culture shock. Happens to the best of us," the Doctor said, thinking that Rose and Willow were still in shock from seeing the Tardis.
"Did they kill him? Mickey? Did they kill Mickey? Is he dead?" Rose asked, nearly crying.
Willow gave him a fierce glare as he said, "Oh…didn't think of that."
"He's my boyfriend and Willow's friend, too! You pulled off his head—they copied him and you didn't even think? And now you're just going to let him melt?" Rose asked hysterically.
Willow looked at the console and sure enough, the fake Mickey's head was nearly a melted plastic blob.
"Melt?" the Doctor asked, turning around. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no, NO!" He started running around the console and pulled, what seemed to Willow, random levers and buttons.
"What're you doing?" Rose exclaimed.
"Reviving the signal, it's fading! Wait, I've got it…no, no, no, no, no, no, NO!" the Doctor shouted again. The Tardis started shaking all over and Willow grabbed onto the railig that was near her for safety. She then grabbed Rose's arm to make sure she stayed in place as well.
"Almost there! Almost there! Here we go!" the Doctor yelled. Willow noticed that he did a lot of that, yelling and running. She noticed that she also yelled a lot around him, something she rarely did ever. Everything stopped moving suddenly and the Doctor ran past Rose and Willow and out the door without a word to either of them.
"You can't go out there, it's not safe!" Rose yelled after him. After receiving no answer, Rose ran after him.
"Wait, Rosie!" Willow exclaimed, running after her cousin. "You can't just—"
Willow broke off and stopped dead behind her cousin, yet again stunned into silence. They were no longer in the small lot they were before. Now, they were in Central London, next to the Thames.
"We've moved! Does it fly?" Rose asked the Doctor. Willow fully exited the Tardis, pulling the door shut behind her.
"Disappears there, reappears here, you wouldn't understand," the Doctor said.
"But if we're somewhere else, what about the headless thing? It's still on the loose," Rose told him.
"It melted with the head. Are you gonna witter on all night or be nice and quiet like your cousin?" the Doctor asked Rose.
"I'll have to tell his mother," Rose said quietly.
"I'll be there with you," Willow told her cousin, rubbing her arm consolingly. The Doctor looked at the two girls questioningly.
"Mickey! She has to tell his mother that he's dead, you idiot, and you've forgotten about him again!" Willow scolded the Doctor, hugging a very distraught and near crying Rose to her chest. The Doctor just rolled his eyes. Willow narrowed her eyes and let go of Rose. She strode up to the Doctor and slapped him, right across the face.
Rose gasped as Willow had never used violence before. Willow had felt the strange anger building up inside of her as she wanted to protect her family and friends and the Doctor blew her off. If one word could be used to describe Willow Tyler, Rose would've chosen loyal and the Doctor just seemed to bring out the worst in Willow.
"Now, you listen here, 'Doctor'. DO NOT roll your eyes at me like that. Someone has died, and he was close to Rose and me. You, you-" Willow was so angry, a foreign thing to her, that she couldn't even form her words properly. The Doctor looked bewildered beyond belief.
"You were right, you ARE alien," Rose said, and turned to walk away, Willow right behind her.
"Look," the Doctor finally said, "if I did forget some kid called Mickey—"
"Yeah, he's not a kid," Rose defended Mickey.
"It's because I'm trying to save every stupid ape blundering on top of this planet, alight?" the Doctor asked, getting defensive.
"Alright!" Rose exclaimed.
"Yes, it is!" the Doctor said.
"No, it's not!" Willow nearly screeched, having enough of this man. Yet, there was something strange about him that drew her in, that made her curious. She was also just short of pulling her hair out of her head.
"If you're an alien, how come you sound like you're from the North?" Rose asked. Willow looked at her cousin with a confused look on her face, her eyebrows furrowed. Of all the questions to ask, that was the one she was going with? How about: 'What happened to Mickey?' 'Where did the plastic mannequins take their friend?'
"Lots of planets have a North," the Doctor answered, folding his arms over his chest, still defensive.
"What's a police call box?" Rose asked.
"It's a telephone box from the 1950s. It's a disguise," the Doctor said, grinning and patting the side of the Tardis. Rose and Willow both smiled, Willow now feeling calmed down. She took a deep breath and exhaled the anger.
"Okay. And this living plastic, what's it got against us?" Rose asked.
"Nothing, it loves you," the Doctor said. "You've got such a good planet. Lots of smoke and oil, plenty of toxins and dioxins in the air…perfect. Just what the Nestine Consciousness needs. It's food stock was destroyed in the war, all of its protein plants rotted, so Earth…dinner."
"Any way of stopping it?" Rose asked.
The Doctor grinned his goofy grin and pulled a tube of glowing blue substance out of his jacket pocket.
"Anti-plastic," he said, still grinning.
"Anti-plastic?" Willow asked, befuddled. What on earth was anti-plastic?
"Anti-plastic! But first I've got to find it. How can you hide something that big in a city this small?" the Doctor said, almost talking to himself.
"Hold on, hide what?" Rose asked.
"The transmitter," the Doctor said. "The Consciousness is controlling every single piece of plastic so it needs a transmitter to boost the signal."
"What's it look like?" Rose asked.
"Like a transmitter. Round and massive, slap-bang in the middle of London," the Doctor said, as he started pacing. "A huge circular metal structure…like a dish…" He turned to face Rose and Willow. Still facing them, he walked over to the railing. Behind him, the London Eye stood big, tall, and very round, like a dish. "…like a wheel. Close to where we're standing. Must be completely invisible," the Doctor continued on.
Rose and Willow looked at each other and then at the London Eye. Willow wondered how someone so smart could be so daft.
"What?" the Doctor asked them.
Both Rose and Willow nodded their heads in the direction of the London Eye, as if it were obvious, which it was. The Doctor, turned to look behind him, but didn't really see what they were indicating to.
"What?" he asked again.
Rose shook her head and Willow snorted quietly, but both girls continued to stare at the London Eye.
"What is it? What?" the Doctor asked, still totally clueless. Both of the girls still stared at the Ferris Wheel, and Willow rolled her eyes. She thought that this man was supposed to be a genius. The Doctor turned and looked again at the London Eye before it finally dawned on him.
"Oh!" he exclaimed quietly. He turned around to Rose and Willow and grinned like a maniac. "Fantastic!" he said happily before he started running off with Rose and Willow following after him.
The three of them ran through the streets of London, until they arrived at the London Bridge, with the Doctor holding one of Rose's hands and one of Willow's. Willow thought she was almost being electrocuted from the Doctor's hand as they ran across the bridge to the base of the London Eye.
"Think of it. Plastic, all over the world. Every artificial thing waiting to come alive. The shop window dummies, the phones, the wires, the cable…" the Doctor said, letting go of the girls' hands. Willow rubbed her still tingling hand and looked at it , wondering why it was feeling like that.
"The breast implants…" Rose said, causing Willow to giggle quietly to herself.
"Now, isn't that a scary thought?" Willow said, still chuckling. The cousins shared a grin.
"Still, we've found the transmitter. The Consciousness must be somewhere underneath," the Doctor explained to Rose and Willow.
Rose suddenly had an idea and ran opposite where they were standing, dragging Willow behind her, over to a manhole entrance at the foot of a wall below them.
"What about down here?" Rose yelled out to the Doctor, who had still been thinking and hadn't noticed the girls wandering off. He ran over to join them.
"Looks good to me," he said, grinning at the girls' brilliance, which surprised him, since they were both apes. The three of them ran down the stairs, with the Doctor leading them, and holding Rose's hand. Willow was behind Rose, holding her cousin's hand. She didn't particularly want to hold the Doctor's hand again anytime soon. The Doctor lifted the manhole cover so that the three of them could climb down. A red light and smoke came out of the hole in the ground.
"Holy smokes," Willow breathed and the Doctor looked at her and grinned at her pun.
The Doctor led the way down, climbing the ladder into the manhole, with Rose and Willow following behind him. Willow was glad she had decided to wear jeans and sensible shoes that day, instead of her normal skirts and dresses she usually liked to wear.
Down the sewer passageway, the Doctor opened a door that led to another very large chamber. They went down a set of stairs and the Doctor pointed to a very large, orange, blobbing mass in the middle of the chamber.
"The Nestine Consciousness, that's it, inside that vat. A living, plastic creature," the Doctor informed the two girls.
"Well, then. Tip in your anti-plastic and let's go," Rose said, ready for the strange day to be over.
"Rose, you heard him. That's a living creature down there," Willow said, horrified at what Rose was suggesting. While she wasn't a vegetarian, Willow was against animal cruelty or murder and that included aliens that were trying to take over the planet, too.
"I'm not here to kill it, Willow, don't worry," the Doctor said, causing Willow to give a sigh of relief. "I've got to give it a chance."
They went down another set of stairs, closer to the plastic and the Doctor leaned over the railing and started yelling, "I seek audience with the Nestine Consciousness under peaceful contract. According to convention fifteen of the Shadow Proclamation."
The large blob of plastic wiggled around a bit and made a growling noise.
"Thank you. That I might have permission to approach," the Doctor said.
Rose disappeared from Willow's side as she spotted Mickey. Willow caught the Doctor rolling his eyes and glared at him.
"Oh, my god! Mickey! It's okay! It's alright!" Rose exclaimed. Willow raced over to both of her friends, crouched and hugged her missing friend.
"Mickey! You're okay! We thought you were dead!" Willow cried out.
"That think down there, the liquid, Rose, Willow—it can talk!" Mickey said.
"You're stinking! Doctor, they kept him alive!" Rose exclaimed to the Doctor.
"Yeah, that was always a possibility. Keep him alive to maintain the copy," the Doctor said.
"What?!" Willow said, stunned that he knew that but let herself and Rose think that their friend was dead.
"You knew that and you never said?" Rose asked, not believing it.
"Can we keep the domestics outside? Thank you," the Doctor said.
Rose grabbed Mickey's left arm and Willow stood up and grabbed Mickey's right arm and the girls helped Mickey to his feet. The Doctor ignored them and approached the Consciousness.
"Am I addressing the Consciousness? (Growl) Thank you. If I might observe, you infiltrated this civilization by means of a warped, shunt technology. So, may I suggest, with the greatest respect, that you shove off?" the Doctor told the blob. It growled back at them and Willow assumed it was a 'no' and furrowed her eyebrows.
"Oh, don't give me that, it's an invasion! Plain and simple! Don't talk about constitutional rights!" the Doctor ranted at the blob.
Willow edged up to stand behind the Doctor to see what was happening (curiosity got the better of her), but stepped back when the plastic reared back and roared again, sounding angry.
"I. Am. Talking!" the Doctor yelled out, startling Willow. She stepped back again, frightened. "This planet is just starting. These stupid little people have only just learnt how to walk, but they're capable of so much more. I'm asking you on their behalf—please, just go."
As Willow was still stepping backwards, she didn't notice the three mannequins come up behind her and the Doctor. One grabbed her arms and held them behind her back tightly. The other two each grabbed one of the Doctor's arms.
"Let go of me!" Willow demanded.
"Willow! Doctor!" Rose yelled.
"Rosie, run!" Willow exclaimed to her cousin.
"No! Not without you!" Rose cried.
The mannequins grabbed the Doctor, and one grabbed the anti-plastic out of his jacket pocket.
"That was just insurance! I wasn't gonna USE it!" the Doctor cried out. The plastic made another angry noise. The mannequin tightened its grip on Willow, causing her to cry out in pain. "I was not attacking you. I'm here to help. I'm not your enemy. I swear, I'm not…(growl) what do you mean?" the Doctor asked.
Doors opened up across from them to reveal the Tardis, escorted by more mannequins.
"Oh, oh, no—honestly, no! (growl) Yes, that's my ship!" the Doctor argued with the blob. The plastic roared again. If Willow had her hands free, she would have covered her ears, it was that loud. "That's not true. I should know, I was there. I fought in the war—it wasn't my fault! I couldn't save your world! I couldn't save any of them!" the Doctor yelled to the blob.
"What's it doing?" Rose asked.
"It's the Tardis! The Nestine had identified its superior technology—it's terrified! It's going to the final base. It's starting the invasion! Get out, Rose! Go with her, Willow! Just leg it! Now!" the Doctor insisted.
"Well, I would if I could," Willow said, rather calmly. "Just run, Rose!" she said to her cousin.
"Mum?" Willow heard Rose yell out and she panicked.
"Where's Aunt Jackie?" Willow asked, trying to look around for her aunt, but was unable to.
"She's not here," the Doctor clarified for her. "Rose isn't listening to me! She's on her mobile! Why do you stupid apes never listen?"
"Rude!" Willow scolded him.
"Mum?" Rose said again.
"Oh, there you are," Jackie said from the other end of the mobile. "I was just gonna phone. You can get compensation. I said so. I've got this document thing off the police—don't thank me!"
"Where are you, Mum?" Rose asked.
"I'm in town!" Jackie said.
"Go home! Just go home, right now!" Rose insisted, panicking.
"Darling, you're breaking up. Look, I'm just going to do a bit of late night shopping. I'll see you late," Jackie said, hanging up.
"Mum? Mum?!" Rose yelled, really starting to worry about her mum.
"What's happening?" Willow asked, as something suddenly changed in the room.
"It's the activation signal! It's transmitting!" the Doctor said.
"The end of the world…" Rose trailed off.
"Get out, Rose! Just get out! Run! I'll try to save Willow, you just go!" the Doctor exclaimed.
Part of the ceiling fell in and Willow let out a bit of a scream, terrified.
"Rose, just run!" she yelled. "I love you, now go! Please, just save yourself and Mickey!"
"The stairs have gone!" Rose yelled back. She and Mickey tried to get into the Tardis, but it was locked. "I haven't got the key!" she yelled.
"We're gonna die!" Mickey whimpered.
Willow desperately tried to get loose of the mannequin, but it only tugged painfully on her arms and wrists.
"Get the anti-plastic, Willow!" the Doctor yelled to her.
"I can't!" Willow cried out. "I'd have to get rid of this idiot first! I can't get loose! I'm sorry, Doctor!"
"Just leave them!" Willow heard Mickey yell to Rose. "There's nothing you can do!"
Willow still struggled as she heard something that sounded like chain rattling and then she heard Rose shout, "I got the bronze!"
Rose then came into Willow's view, swinging over the gap and the Consciousness on a chain. She kicked the mannequins over that had been holding the Doctor and knocked them into the Nestine Consciousness below, along with the anti-plastic. The Nestine Consciousness started to scream and writhe about, as if it were in pain (Willow imagined it was). Rose landed safely in the Doctor's arms on the other side of the gap.
"A little help, if it's not too much trouble!" Willow said nervously to the two.
"Now we're in trouble," the Doctor said. "C'mon, let's get Willow and get out of here."
The Doctor and Rose ran over towards Willow and the Doctor punched the now dead mannequin that was still holding tightly onto Willow's arms and then grabbed her hand after she was loose. Willow's hand tingled again as the Doctor pulled her along with him and Rose, Mickey following them, in a panic.
The four of them ran until they finally reached the Tardis. The Doctor unlocked the door with his key and they ran inside. Willow collapsed on the pilot seat next to the console, panting. The Doctor was rushing around the console, pushing, pulling, and twisting various knobs and buttons. There was a small thump and then a freaked out Mickey ran backwards out of the Tardis.
Willow immediately hopped off the seat and followed Rose, whom had followed Mickey out of the Tardis. When she exited, Mickey was sitting against a wall on the ground, totally panicking and Rose was on her mobile with Jackie, ignoring him. Willow walked over and gave Mickey a quick pat on the shoulder, but suddenly gasped as Mickey grabbed her hand and hugged it to his chest.
"Rose! Rose! Don't go out of the house, it's not safe!" Jackie exclaimed as soon as she answered the phone. Rose just laughed as Jackie said, "There were all of these things! And they were shooting! And they—"
Rose just shook her head and hung up, smiling. She then walked over to Mickey and Willow, knowing that her mum, was safe. Mickey was still clutching onto Willow's hand tightly, whimpering.
"A fat lot of good you were! You wanted me to just leave Willow behind! She did better than you did!" Rose scolded her boyfriend. Mickey let out another whimper, hugging Willow's whole arm now, making her crouch down beside him. The Doctor stood in the doorway of the Tardis, watching the three of them.
"Nestine Consciousness?" he said, snapping his fingers. "Easy."
Rose had a teasing look on her face as she told the Doctor, "You were useless in there. You'd be dead if it wasn't for me."
"Yes, I would. Thank you," the Doctor said sincerely. "Right, then! I'll be off! Unless, uh…I don't know…you two could come with me," he said, looking at Rose and Willow. "This box isn't just a London hopper, you know, it goes anywhere in the universe, free of charge.
"Don't! He's an alien! He's a thing!" Mickey shouted, nearly in Willow's ear. She pulled her arm away from him, crossing them over her chest after rubbing her ear and glared at her friend slightly.
"He's not invited," the Doctor said, also glaring at the young man. "What do you think? You both could stay here and fill your lives with work and food and sleep, or you could go, uh, anywhere."
"Wait," Willow said, bewildered. "You mean me? Not Mickey and Rose, but me and Rose?"
"Yeah," the Doctor said. "I was talking and looking at you."
"Yeah, well, I thought you was talking about Mickey," Willow said, shrugging.
The Doctor snorted and said, "Why would I want him?"
"Is it always this dangerous?" Rose asked suddenly.
The Doctor nodded and said, "Yeah."
Mickey put his arms around Rose's legs then and looked like a scared little kid.
"Yeah, I can't…I've, um…gotta go and find my mum and um…someone's gotta look after this stupid lump…and Willow…so…" Rose trailed off, looking unsure.
"Okay. What about you, Willow?" the Doctor asked, looking hopeful.
"Oh, um…I don't know…it sounds…um, interesting, but um…I don't think I can," Willow stuttered. "And…and my family….I can't leave them…"
"Okay, see you around," the Doctor said, sounding disappointed. Both Willow and
Rose stared at the Doctor, neither of them believing him. He closed the door to the Tardis and the blue ship started to disappear in front of their eyes. Willow watched it with wide eyes, wondering where she had heard the sound before. It was from her past or a dream, she knew that much. Then, the ship was gone, as if it had never been there in the first place.
"C'mon, let's go," Rose said. Mickey was still in the same place, shocked and staring where the Tardis had been. "C'mon. Come on," Rose said as she and Willow helped Mickey to his feet again. The three of them began to walk away with Willow tailing behind the couple. The whirling sound of the Tardis filled her ears again and she whirled back around to the Tardis materialize. The Doctor popped his head out of the door.
"By the way, did I mention it also travels in time?" the Doctor said. He grinned at Rose and Willow and went back in the Tardis, leaving the door open. Rose and Willow gave each other a look, both knowing that the other was going to join the Doctor in the Tardis. Rose turned to Mickey and said, "Thanks."
"Thanks for what?" Mickey asked.
"Exactly," Rose said. She kissed his cheek and ran into the Tardis, grabbing Willow's hand along the way, the both of the smiling hugely.
"Bye, Mickey!" Willow called out over her shoulder. She hopped that by travelling with the Doctor, she would get the answers to the questions that had been plaguing her mind all day, such as why the Tardis had looked so damn familiar to her when she had never stepped in it before that day. Her smile faded slightly and a determined looked entered her eyes as the Tardis doors closed behind her.