A/N: So. My boyfriend and I are going as the 9th Doctor and Rose to a Halloween party on Friday and I was editing a Dalek Wikipage for a class...so this happened. Quit judging.

Disclaimer: Don't own Doctor Who, Rose, or anything from the Whoniverse.

The whirring of the T.A.R.D.I.S.' engines began to slow following a gentle thud, letting the Doctor and Rose know without a doubt that they had landed. These adventures, the in-between times, they didn't even bother to look where the T.A.R.D.I.S. took them. She had a mind of her own and did what she pleased; mostly, the visits were for entertainment. Sometimes she put Rose and the Doctor into some interesting circumstances, but rarely were they deadly.

This one appeared pretty innocuous as they exited their police-box-shaped ship and stepped into grass, the sidewalk two steps in front of them. They were amidst rows of houses, down what appeared to be a side street. It was a simple enough area, cars lining the street almost from one end of the block to the other. The house lights were on, large spider webs lining every available surface from front to back. Music was thumping practically through the soles of their feet.

"What…"

"Racnoss?" the Doctor murmured, eyebrows furrowed over his large nose as he adjusted his black leather jacket. He dropped his hand and offered it to Rose, a wicked grin on his face.

"What's a Racnoss?" she asked and, as they approached, the Doctor began to speak in response.

"Large spider-like aliens but they were destroyed a long time ago," the Doctor frowned a little and stopped short of the white painted stairs as the door opened in front of them.

And they walked out.

"Quick, hide," he jerked Rose by the hand and pulled her to the side of the house, hidden by the corner from their past selves.

"Wait, how are we here?" Rose whispered, trying to peak around the corner.

"Shhh," he responded, listening to the two as they struck up a conversation.

"I wish you wouldn't smoke," the male voice started, a groaning undertone. It sounded nothing like the Doctor's northern accent. It was a different sound entirely.

"I wish you wouldn't travel through time and space, and then ultimately leave me behind," the girl's voice retorted, equally distant from Rose's voice. Neither had anything that sounded even remotely like a British accent.

The Doctor dared to stick his head out enough to look around the corner. They looked like them; a little, anyway. Upon closer inspection, he realized that they were not them. Alternate universe them?

Letting go of Rose's hand, he curved his body out from behind the corner and brushed off the front of his jacket and jumper. Rose followed closely behind, adjusting her scarf.

"'Ello," the Doctor said with another grin on his face and the two people in front of him looked up. The man, older than the woman by a decade at least, turned his head from looking at his companion. He stood with his back against the side of the house while the girl sat on the stairs of the patio, a cigarette placed between two fingers. The man wore a jacket very closely resembling the Doctor's, a dark green jumper, black pants, and brown boots. His hair was cut closely like the Doctor's own, but shades darker. The girl wore a winter jacket, a Union Jack shirt, jeans, and a pair of gray-blue tennis shoes. After half a second the Doctor realized the girl's blonde hair was a wig and her eyes were definitely green, not brown. Her lips were half the size of Rose's, easy.

"Holy crap, I told you that you should get prosthetic ears," the girl remarked, smiling broadly from the Doctor to her Doctor.

"Oi…my ears aren't that big," the Doctor responded and Rose, for her part, giggled a little.

"They were kind of dead giveaway," she finished, trying to turn her laughter into just a smile.

The girl on the steps raised a dark eyebrow after she took a drag on her cigarette, "Man, you guys really got into your costumes. I can't fake a British accent to save my life. Did you bleach your hair? I thought about it, but the bossman didn't like the idea. Thought about getting shoe-polish to get her dark roots right."

Rose's eyes widened and a hand flew to her roots, touching them tenderly. It was the Doctor's turn to be amused, although he was still trying to get a proper handle on the situation. They were them, but weren't them. They were also clearly American. And knew about them. But they – the people dressed like himself and Rose – didn't think that they – himself and Rose – were…them.

"Right. So. I'm the Doctor and this is Rose. Who are you?"

"You stole the words right out of my mouth," the other man said, an eyebrow raised and a small smile on his lips.

"Do you know Dee or did someone else invite you?" the girl asked, lifting a red plastic cup to her lips. The other man had one dangling precariously from his hand and eyed the girl, as if she was doing something wrong.

"Dr. Dee is here?" the Doctor asked, recalling a man from three regenerations previous, the Merlin of Mortlake as Evelyn had called him.

"Uh…No, she's not a doctor too," the girl responded, looking curiously up to her male companion. "She's the horse's ass."

"That's not very nice to say," Rose said, her face scrunched in curiosity and indignation.

"No, literally – she is dressed as the ass-end of a horse," the girl laughed, shaking her head. "Did you guys just pop in then, heard about the party somehow? Well you're welcome to come in, just don't tell Dee you didn't bring a fifth. It's kind of an unwritten rule."

"Wait…who are you really?" the Doctor asked finally, his arms folding across his chest.

"I'm Marlee – Marvy, if you ask half of the people here. This is my friend, Alexander. We're going as the 9th Doctor and Rose from the 'Empty Child' episode."

"I told you that you shouldn't be so specific."

"But Rose is hard to do without a specific reference. At least Martha wore the same thing most of the time."

"Couldn't go blackface?"

"I should hit you," the girl, Marvy, responded finally as she stuck her tongue out at her boyfriend. "Ignore him."

"What do you mean episode?"

"Wait…how do you not know what I mean by episode, you guys are clearly dressed from 'Boom Town'. Awful lot of denim, how'd you find it all? I've got the skirt, but couldn't find the jacket to save my life."

"Dress from 'Boom Town'?" Rose repeated, looking from the girl, down to her outfit, and back. Suddenly, she recognized the outfit.

"Doctor. What she's wearing, it's a lot like what I wore when we met Jack, back in London in-"

"Yeah, hanging in the sky in the middle of a German air raid with a Union Jack across your chest or something, right?"

"How…did you know I said that? Doctor, how did she know I said that?"

The Doctor stared at Marvy for a long moment before he leaned in, very close, staring into her eyes.

In a quick movement, he withdrew his sonic screwdriver and scanned her forehead.

"That tickles. Why does that tickle? Yours must be fancier, his just lights up."

Alexander made a face, withdrawing his own screwdriver and pressing a button to make the end light up blue.

"She's human," the Doctor confirmed as he stood up, pushing his coat back a little. He turned to the man and did the same thing, to which Alexander just continued to look put out.

"…so is he," the Doctor said as he put his screwdriver back into his jacket pocket.

"Uhm…Yes, yes we are. What did you expect? Chameleons?"

How did they know? The Doctor mused to himself, taken aback by their knowledge of the race of humanoids that had effected not only Earth but also Krennos and he had had to stop not once, but twice in both his second and sixth incarnations.

"Doctor. What is going on?"

"Alex, I don't…uhm…Would you…mind…getting me another drink?" Marvy asked, grasping at straws to try and figure out how to get him away. What she was about to propose to the two people in front of her would make Alexander question her sanity and he likely wouldn't believe anything they said anyway.

"You said you were driving."

"We can crash."

"I don't want to."

"I'll pay for a cab, just get me another drink," Marvy shot him a look and, after a long moment, he did as she asked but not before he downed the rest of his own drink. He muttered something indistinguishable under his breath as he disappeared inside, leaving the fake blonde with another one and the gentleman in the jumper.

"So. I have a theory," Marvy began, stubbing out her cigarette in a nearby ashtray before she lit up another one. "I think you're real. Like. The real-deal, Doctor from Gallifrey and Rose Tyler from London – your mom is Jackie, Mickey was your boyfriend – is your boyfriend? My timeline is a little messed up, so spoiler alert. But you guys. You're not…the…you're real. Holy shit," Marvy exclaimed, her eyes wide as the fullness of what she was saying dawned on her. Even though it had struck her moments before, it didn't really mean as much until she said it out loud.

"Doctor, is she crazy?"

"I don't think so, Rose. I think…Marvy, how do you know all of this?"

"I've watched your adventures – like the mannequins when you two first met, when the…what was it, the Nestenes? That race, when it was controlling the mannequins? And then you guys on the space ship, at the end of the world? With Lady Cassandra? She's a right bitch, isn't she? I mean, honestly – oh, you're not there yet. Uhm. And then Gwen – I mean Gwyneth with the Gelth and Charles Dickens? And then the pig-that-wasn't-an-alien and the Slitheen and-"

"But how?" the Doctor asked, incredulous. Marvy stilled, her hand mid-air, as the Doctor grew intimidating. "How do you know?"

"The television," Marvy squeaked, green eyes wide. "You're on a television show. You're not real. I mean, obviously you are real…but, you're not real, not here. You're played by actors."

"So we're in a different universe, then?" Rose asked, blinking in confusion.

"Must be. I don't know how the T.A.R.D.I.S. got us here but – why are you dressed like that?"

"Well, Doctor – can I call you that?" Marvy grinned, obviously giddy, and although the Doctor wasn't sure why he certainly wasn't complaining, "—it's Halloween."