A/N: Welcome to Amongst the Stars! The first story in the God-knows-how-long series! The series is full of different fandoms including Doctor Who, Supernatural and Sherlock. Other fandoms could make an appearance but we'll have to wait and see! I'm not sure how often this will be updated – hopefully I'll be able to update at least once a month! Please let me know what you think of the story – I would really appreciate it!
Amongst the Stars
Chapter 1: Born to Run
"Cause I'm hungry for adventure, And I'm fed up with this grind, If I don't get some excitement soon, I'm gonna lose my mind, I want a life that's filled with thrills, That's wild and free, There's gotta be something better, Something better, There's gotta be something better than this for me."
- The Muppets Treasure Island; Something Better
"Go back." The warrior spoke in the broken voice. "Go back to your lives. Go and be the Doctor that I could never be. Make it worthwhile."
"All those years, burying you in my memory," murmured the youngest of the two.
"Pretending you didn't exist." said the oldest. "Keeping you a secret, even from myself,"
"Pretending you weren't the Doctor, when you were the Doctor more than anybody else,"
"You were the Doctor on the day it wasn't possible to get it right,"
"But this time,"
"You don't have to do it alone."
The two Doctors placed their hands with the Warrior's, on the big red button. The three of them united.
The Warrior, so grateful, whispered, "Thank you."
"What we do today is not out of fear or hatred. It is done because there is no other way."
"And it is done in the name of the many lives we are failing to save."
Rose hurried around the flat, zipping up her jacket and throwing her lunch into her bag when her mother, Jackie, handed it to her.
"Right then, how do I look?" Rose and Jackie glanced over at the young man who walked into the kitchen. He spread his arms wide indicating to the cheap suit he had borrowed from a friend for the day. The shirt hadn't been ironed, and the tie was crooked.
"Handsome as always," Jackie cooed at her son. Sebastian playfully rolled his eyes while Rose fixed up his tie. "Just remember to not get too cocky in there, alright? We don't want a repeat of what happened with you and Gary Kane."
Rose fought back a sigh. Jackie Tyler considered it the norm now – Sebastian Moran attending court for petty crime – Rose, however, believed that one day her half-brother would find himself in too deep.
"I better go for the bus," said Rose, giving Jackie a quick kiss on the cheek.
"You not want a lift?" Sebastian asked with a mouth full of toast.
"Nah, you're all right." Rose grabbed her keys from the kitchen table, before turning back to Sebastian to point a finger. "And I better come home tonight and see you, yeah?"
Sebastian grinned. "Yeah, you will, don't worry about it."
Rose smiled at him; despite her constant worrying, Sebastian always got off lightly. Rose headed towards the front door, calling "Bye – See you later!" before heading off to work.
Rose sighed as the lift made it's journey down to the basement. It had been a long day at work, and all Rose wanted to do was go home. Sebastian had called her during her lunch break to let her know that court went fine, and that they were having a Chinese to celebrate. Just as Rose was about to walk out the shop, Nick – the security guard – handed her an envelope full of money. An envelope full of money that Rose had to take down to the basement for the shop's chief electrician, Wilson.
The lift's doors slowly opened, to reveal the dim basement corridor. Rose edged out, hoping that Wilson would just be there so that she could leave quickly. Rose had only been in the basement a handful of times but she wasn't keen on it. She always found herself imagining that someone would jump out wielding a knife at her down there – mostly because when she first started working at the shop, Sebastian had told her creepy things that could happen in the basement. Big brothers are douchebags like that.
"Wilson?" Rose called down the corridor. Silence replied. "Wilson – I've got the lottery money." Rose glanced around the corridor, but Wilson hadn't popped out. "Wilson? Look, I can't hang about, they're closing up the shop."
Rose wandered down the corridor, hoping Wilson would appear soon. "Oh come on," she muttered to herself. Rose glanced back at the lift, wondering if she should just head back up and give Nick the money back. Rose was about to do so, but then she heard a door open at the other end of the corridor. "Hello, Wilson?" she called. "Wilson, it's Rose."
Rose grew more alert and frowned at the lack of response. She cautiously made her way down the corridor, glancing around for Wilson – for anyone – as she did. "Wilson?" Shuffling noises and whispers seemed to erupt from behind a storage room door. "W-Wilson?" Rose grimaced at the door, debating whether or not she should go inside. What could happen? She tried to reassure herself. She pushed the door open to reveal darkness. Surly, if anyone was in the storage room they wouldn't hang around in the pitch black? Rose paused for a moment, again debating if she should advance further into the room. Just come out, Wilson, so I can leave. When nobody seemed to appear, Rose flicked on the lights.
"Wilson?" The room seemed to be empty. The only things in there were cardboard boxes and mannequins – a lot of mannequins. When Rose was younger, Sebastian told her that mannequins came to life at night, she had believed him and feared the dummies for years. It wasn't until she became a teenager that the fear faded. She walked down the long corridor of the room, calling out Wilson's name.
Rose went over to another door in the room and pulled hard on the handle, only to find it locked. As she considered leaving again, the main door slammed shut. Rose's eyes widened and she ran back towards the door to pull it open but it had been locked as well. Someone had locked it. "Come on, come on," she muttered fearfully.
Suddenly, something rattled from the side of the room, forcing Rose to steady her breathing, and make her way slowly through the room. "Is that someone mucking about?" She demanded. It had to be someone. "Who is it?" Another sound came from behind – a sound Rose didn't recognise. She abruptly turned around, and saw one of the mannequins turn it's head towards her. Rose held her breath. She was scared and fascinated and awestruck all at once. Had she seen that right? Did she imagine it? Slowly, the mannequin tilted it's head from side to side studying the blonde girl in front of it. Rose wondered if this was part of a joke – if someone had tied the head to string and was moving it around to scare her. The thought seemed comforting to Rose – how else could it be happening? But then the mannequin's body shifted forwards, and began walking towards Rose.
"Okay," Rose's voice shook as she spoke. "Okay, you got me, very funny-"
The dummy continued walking towards her, and others from around the room seemed to do the same. All of them seemed to be limping over to her. Rose knew that the whole thing was too huge for someone to pull off, but she remained hopefully that it was just a prank.
"Right, I've got the joke!" She yelled, growing more frightened, as she began backing up away from the plastic bodies. "Whose idea was this? Is it Derek? Is it?" Rose prayed that it was the store prankster, who the other staff often complained about. "Derek, is this you?" The whole thing seemed a bit too clever for Derek's simple mind, a bit far beyond fake spiders in the lifts.
Rose quickly turned into an empty part of the room between boxes and clothing racks, watching the dummies make their way towards her. Every single one in the room was alive and moving – faster and faster it seemed.
Rose backed up against the wall – the exits were locked and on the other side of the room – she didn't know what to do. Dead, white eyes stared down on her, and Rose forced herself to stare back. Slowly, the dummy closet to her raised it's arm and Rose knew that it was preparing to strike and slice through her. She closed her eyes – there was no way out – she waited for death as calmly as she could, telling herself in her head that it'll all be over soon, and then -
A hand grabbed hers tightly. A warm, soft hand. A human hand.
Rose's eyes snapped open to see who was there. A man. A man, Rose had never seem before. A man with short black hair, a long face and big ears.
"Run!"
The man pulled Rose round a corner, just as the mannequin's hand came down onto the pipes. Rose and the man ran through the corridor, through a door, and down another corridor. The dummies were following them – faster than they had been in the storage room (they were clearly somehow gaining energy). Rose glanced behind her, about ten of them where following. The man didn't look back once, he just continued to run, his hand tight around Rose's – like he was reassuring her that he was going to get her out. Rose hoped he'd get her out.
They ran through another door, into a corridor with a lift. The man pulled Rose inside, and pushed her to the very back. The dummies where at the doors, as they began to close – one of them managed to get it's arm through and the man grabbed hold of it – tugging it. Rose pushed her body back against the wall, watching as the man pulled the arm off, and the lift doors closed.
"Y-you pulled his arm off?" Rose was confused – how had that happened? Had what she just experienced even been real?
"Yup." replied the man, unfazed from all that had gone on. He threw the arm at Rose, who caught it. It was solid plastic – not flesh like she had suspected – plastic. "Plastic." The man confirmed.
It was a joke then, Rose thought. It actually was someone playing a joke. And this man was involved. "Oh, very clever," she said sarcastically. "Nice trick. Who were they then, students?" Secondary school students were always pulling off things like this, and university students did similar things in protest. "Is this a student thing?"
The man crossed his arms and frowned. "Why would they be students?" So...he wasn't in on it?
"I don't know." Rose wanted answers, this man must have some – why else was he in the shop's basement.
"Well you said it, why students?"
"'Cos..." Rose struggled to find an explanation. "To get that many people, all dressed up and being stupid, they've got to be students." Pathetic, Tyler.
Rose wished that Sebastian could've been with her in that moment. Sebastian would have had a brilliant theory and explanation behind his theory that wouldn't have made Rose look like an idiot.
The man smiled at her. "That makes sense. Well done." He praised, turning his gaze to the lift doors.
"Thanks." Rose didn't know if she should be genuine or sarcastic.
"They're not students." So the man did know something, he must have been in on it.
"Well, whoever they are," Rose said confidently, trying to scare him. "When Wilson finds them, he's gonna call the police."
The man turned back, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion. "Who's Wilson?"
"Chief electrician,"
The lift doors opened. "Wilson's dead."
Rose's eyes widened in shock and she watched the man walk out of the lift. Had she heard right? Did he actually just say that Wilson is dead? Rose stormed out of the lift and towards the man who had turned his attention onto lift button.
"Why would you say that?" she demanded. "That's not funny – that's sick-"
"Hold on," the man interrupted, pushing Rose gently back and pulling something that looked like a large pen from his jacket pocked. "Mind your eyes."
"I've had enough of this-" a blue light glowed out of the object in the man's hand as he pointed it at the lift button. "Oh!" There was a small explosion and sparks flew from the button. The man jolted away from the lift. "Who are you then? Who's that lot down there?"
The man ignored her, and Rose ran after him – he was strange, and seemed to be part of whatever was going on, but he had gotten Rose out of the storage room and she felt as though she should trust him
"I said, who are they?"
Rose followed the man through another corridor. "They're made of plastic," he explained. "Living plastic creatures, and they're being controlled by a relay device in the roof," Rose struggled to keep up with what the man was saying – living plastic creatures that were controlled by something on the shop roof? "Which would be a great big problem if I didn't have this-" The man pulled out what Rose could only describe as a box with a timer and a mobile phone keypad tapped to it, but she knew it was a bomb. The man led Rose towards the fire exit as he continued to quickly explain what was going on. "-so I'm gonna go upstairs and blow it up-" He pushed the fire door open and guided Rose outside, the cold air hitting her face. "-and I might well die in the process but don't you worry about me, no. You go home, go on, go and have your lovely beans on toast." Rose looked at the bomb, he had to be joking, none of what he was saying could be true. He couldn't be on his way to the shop roof, to blow it up and possibly kill himself doing so – what sort of person would do that? "Don't tell anyone about this, cos if you do, you'll get them killed."
And on that note, the man slammed the door shut. Rose blinked and looked around the back alley of the shop. She realised she still had hold of the plastic arm. The door suddenly opened again and the man leaned out and smiled. "I'm the Doctor, by the way, what's your name?"
"Rose."
"Nice to meet you, Rose." The man's smile, turned into a grin and he waved the bomb at her. "Run for your life!"
"-the whole of central London has been closed down-"
"Seriously though, you sure you didn't hit your head or anything? You said you were across the road – something could've been thrown at you!"
"I'm fine Seb, really, just a bit shocked."
"I know! It's on the telly!" Jackie handed Rose a cup of tea while talking to Lord-knew-who on the phone. Sebastian sat with Rose on the sofa, the News playing in the background, showing footage of the shop now on fire. The man had actually blown it up, like he had said he planned to do. Rose had arrived home to a distraught family, all thinking she had been caught up in the blast. "She's lucky to be alive," Rose tried not to roll her eyes at her mother's exaggeration. "Honestly, it's aged her, skin like a bible – Seb go and get some water and sleeping pills for her, she'll need them tonight." Rose remained quiet as Sebastian made his way out the living room. Jackie looked up from Rose when she heard the front door open and close. "Oh, and here's himself-" she muttered following her son into the kitchen when Rose's shocked boyfriend rushed over to her.
"I've been phoning your mobile, you could've been dead! It's on the news – I can't believe it was your shop!" He wrapped his arms around Rose, pulling her into a hug.
"I'm okay – look, Mickey, I'm fine – don't make a fuss."
Mickey pulled away, still shocked and revealed that Rose was alive. "But what happened? What was it?"
"I dunno," Rose lied. "I wasn't in the shop, I was outside,"
Sebastian came back into the living room, nodding at Mickey. "I put the water and pills in your room, all right?" He told Rose. "At least you get to have a lie-in tomorrow, eh?" Rose smiled at her brother's attempts to cheer her up.
"'Ere, Rose!" Jackie came back in with the phone. "It's Debbie-on-the-end," Sebastian grimaced. Debbie had a daughter, a few years old than Rose, who Sebastian had briefly dated and broken the heart of. "She says she knows a man on the Mirror, five hundred quid for an interview."
Rose grew slightly annoyed. "Oh that's brilliant," She said with false enthusiasm, she held out her hand, indicating to the phone. "Give it here."
Jackie handed her the phone, and Rose hung it up and threw it down on the coffee table. Jackie sighed. "Well you've got to find some way of making money, your job's kaput and I'm not bailing you out."
"If Debbie calls back, Mum, tell her I'll do the interview," said Sebastian. "I'll pretend I was there waiting for Rose."
"Yeah, but you were out with that Mitchell Smith, and you know what he's like – he'll grass you up and you'll lose more than the five hundred quid."
"What're you doing with Mitchell Smith?" asked Rose forcefully.
"Just a bit of business," said Sebastian vaguely. "Just as well I am."
"Mitchell Smith robbed Mr. Keswick's flat last month."
"Yeah, but me and the boys made him take all the stuff back it's fine."
The phone rang again, and Jackie jumped to grab it. "Bev! She's alive – I told her, sue for compensation..."
Jackie's voice trailed off as she retreated into the kitchen.
Rose ran a hand through her hair, when Mickey tugged on her arm. "Come on, let's go down the pub – you need a proper drink."
"No, I'm all right." Rose dismissed. Her head was bouncing, and she could do without a hangover.
"No, come on, you're in shock, you need something stronger than tea, my treat."
"There's a match on." Sebastian told Rose. Mickey sent him a quick glare.
"Don't listen to him, babe – I'm thinking of you."
Rose gave him a little smile. "There's a match on."
"That's not the point." Rose raised an eyebrow and Mickey cracked. "But we could catch the last five minutes if we get a move on."
Rose gave a small laugh – relieved that she had an accuse for not going that Mickey couldn't argue with. "Go on, you go. I'm fine really, I'm gonna have an early night." Mickey rose from the couch. "And get rid of that." Rose pointed over to the chair where the plastic arm had been placed. No one had questioned her having it when she had arrived home, Jackie and Sebastian had just assumed she was in shock.
Mickey gave Rose a quick kiss, before leaving the flat with the plastic arm. "Bye, bye!" he called. Rose gave a quick goodbye back, followed by a grunt from Sebastian.
"Go on, kid," said Sebastian. "You go to bed, I'll make sure mum doesn't go in and hammer ya about compensation."
Rose smiled, and went off to her bedroom, her smile fading as she thought about what had just gone on. She had met a man who had blown up a building and killed himself doing so.
The next morning, Rose was sat with Sebastian at the kitchen table, watching him sort through disks – pirated DVDs.
"There's Finch's, you could try them – they've always got jobs."
"Oh great, the butcher's." said Rose, dismissing Jackie's suggestion.
"What's wrong with them? Seb worked there for three years,"
"And there's a reason I don't work there any more." Rose grinned at her brother. "I'll help you find a job, Rose."
"Nothing dodgy, Seb." His sister warned. "Nothing involving Mitchell Smith."
"Right, well I'm going down the pub to give Dave some of these," Sebastian stood up and pulled on his leather jacket, putting a couple of the now boxed DVDs in his pocket. "I'll ask him about some shifts for you – decent hours and decent pay, no sister of mine is working for nothing. See you later." Sebastian gave Jackie a quick kiss on the cheek.
"See you later, darling." Jackie turned her attention back to Rose. "Might do you good, working elsewhere, that shop was giving you airs and graces."
Rose rolled her eyes as her mother stood up and made her way to her bedroom. "And I'm not joking about compensation, you've had genuine shock and trauma." She paused half way out the room and turned back. "Arianna got two thousand quid off the council, just cos the man at the desk said she looked Greek. I know she is Greek but that's not that point." Jackie went into the bedroom, her voice raising slightly so Rose could still hear her. "Ask Seb to sort it for you, he had a good solicitor at his hearing yesterday, I'm sure we can get him again."
Rose ran a hand through her hair. It had taken her ages to get a secure job at the shop. Sebastian could probably help her but Rose didn't hold her breath on her getting something good. She sighed as she heard the cat flap on the front door open and close.
"Mum, you're such a liar," she called, walking towards the front door to check that no stray cats had allowed themselves into the flat. "I told you to nail that cat flap down – we're gonna get strays."
"I did it weeks back,"
"No, you thought about it,"
Rose noticed several nails scattered on the floor, she knelt down to observe. Suddenly the cat flap jolted towards her and Rose jumped back. It hadn't been a cat – a cat would've jumped straight through.
Leaning down, Rose slowly reached her hand towards the plastic flap. She pushed it up to reveal the man from the shop. He too was kneeling down, looking through the cat flap door at Rose in confusion.
Quickly Rose shot up and open the front door. He wasn't dead. The man – the Doctor – he hadn't died in the explosion, he had managed to get himself out.
"What're you doing here?" he asked her, standing up.
"I live here."
"Well what do you do that for?"
"Because I do." Rose couldn't believe she was arguing her reasons for living where she lived. "And I'm only at home 'cos someone blew up my job."
Rose watched the Doctor take the same object he had used on the lift buttons out of his jacket pocket. He turned on the blue light, it making a strange noise as he did so. "I must've got the wrong signal." Rose frowned. What the hell did that mean? "You're not plastic, are you?" The Doctor tapped Rose on the head with his hand to check, she pulled a face in annoyance. "Nope, bonehead. Bye then." He smiled, and went to stroll away, but Rose wasn't letting him get away that easy.
She grabbed his arm. "You, inside, right now." She didn't give him much of a choice, and the Doctor found himself being dragged into the flat.
"Who is it?" Jackie called from her bedroom.
Rose stood in the doorway, while the Doctor glanced around the hall. "It's about last night, he's part of the inquiry, just give 'es ten minutes." Rose walked away towards the living room.
"She deserves compensation." Jackie called to the Doctor when he appeared in the doorway.
"Oh, we're talking millions." The Doctor glanced around Jackie's room, as she stood up and flicked her hair back.
"I'm in my dressing gown," she stated coyly.
The Doctor looked over at her. "Yes, you are."
"There's a strange man in my bedroom,"
"Yes, there is,"
Jackie tilted her head to the side and shrugged. "Well anything could happen,"
The Doctor smiled. "No,"
Rose was moving magazines and rubbish from the couch when the Doctor strolled into the living room. "Don't mind the mess." She muttered, making her way towards the kitchen. "Do you want a coffee?"
"Might as well, thanks, just milk." The Doctor picked up a magazine that Rose had left on the coffee table, while Rose spoke to him about the events of the previous night.
"We should go to the police," she said. "Seriously. Both of us. And I'm not blaming you, even if it's some sort of-"
"Huh," the Doctor said to himself reading the magazine. "That won't last. He's gay and she's an alien."
"-joke that just went wrong. Cos my brother told me that they said on the News that they found a body, I suppose that was Wilson. I didn't really-"
The Doctor picked up a book after tossing the magazine onto a chair, he riffs through it, reading it all in a second. "Aaah, sad ending."
"-know him, but all the same, he was nice though, he was a nice bloke-"
"Rose Tyler," He read out loud from an envelope.
"-We owe it to him. If we really are going to tell the police though, we'll have to go to the station, we can't have them round the house, my brother will get into trouble if we do-"
He looked at his reflection in a mirror. "Could've been worse. Look at the ears!"
"-and I want to know what I'm saying, I want you to explain everything-"
The Doctor heard a scrambling from behind the couch, he glanced behind it, frowning. "Have you got a cat?" He called to Rose. The moment he did, his throat was grabbed by a solid, cold hand.
"No," said Rose walking into the living room with the Doctor's coffee. "We did, but strays came in off the estate." She glanced up at the Doctor, as he grasped at the plastic arm, trying to pull it off his neck. Rose sighed. "I told Mickey to chuck that out. You're all the same, give a man a plastic hand – anyway, I don't know your name, Doctor what was it?"
The plastic hand flew from the Doctor's throat and grabbed Rose's face, suffocating her. The Doctor hurried over to her, and pulled on the arm but it's grip was strong – stronger than when the Doctor had been dealing with it last night at the shop. The Doctor pulled hard and he fell backwards – bringing Rose and the arm with him – crashing down on top of the coffee table, it collapsed under the weight, sending them both to the floor. Realising that he couldn't pull the arm off, the Doctor pushed Rose up onto the sofa, and pulled out the blue-light object. Rose pushed the arm back and with the Doctor's help they managed to pull it off. Rose watched as the Doctor pressed the object against the plastic hand, it's blue light glowing and making the strange noise again. The hand's movements slowed and eventually froze.
"It's all right, I've stopped it." The Doctor said, chucking it at Rose. "There you go, harmless."
"D'you think? How'd you stop it?"
The Doctor held up the magical object and waved it at Rose. "Sonic Screwdriver."
"How does it work?"
"Dunno, just point it at stuff and see what happens."
Rose followed the Doctor out of the building, she wanted answers and she wasn't letting him disappear again.
"Who are you?" She asked.
"Told you, I'm the Doctor."
"Yeah, but Doctor what?"
"Just the Doctor."
"'The Doctor'?"
He grinned and waved his hand. "Hello!"
Rose raised an eyebrow. "Is that supposed to sound impressive?"
"Sort of."
Rose was silent for a moment. "Come on then." She grabbed his arm, and he turned to look at her. "You can tell me, I've seen enough." The Doctor didn't say anything back. "Are you the police?"
"No, I was just...passing through." He smiled to himself. "I'm a long way from home."
Rose realised she wasn't going to get anywhere so tried a different approach. "But what have I done wrong? Why do those plastic things keep coming after me?"
"Oh, so suddenly the entire world revolves around you! You're just an accident, you got in the way, that's all."
"It tried to kill me!" Rose defended.
"It was after me, not you. Last night, in the shop, I was there for first, you blundered in, almost ruined the whole thing! This morning-" The Doctor held up the plastic arm he had brought with him from the flat. "I was tracking it down, it was tracking me down, it only fixed on you, cos you'd met me."
"So what you're saying is...the entire world revolves around you?" Rose concluded sarcastically.
The Doctor grinned. "Sort of, yeah."
"You're full of it!" Rose mocked.
"Sort of, yeah." The Doctor repeated.
"But all this plastic stuff...who else knows about it?"
The Doctor didn't answer for moment. "No one."
"What, you're on your own?"
"Who else is there? I mean, you lot, all you do is eat chips, watch telly and go to bed. When all the time, underneath you there's a war going on."
Rose was growing more and more interested in the man who called himself the Doctor with every second that passed. "Okay. Start from the beginning. I mean, if we go with living plastic – and I don't even believe that, but if we do – how did you even kill it? With your...sonic screwdriver thing, what was it like radio control?"
"Thought control," The Doctor corrected. "The thing controlling it projects life into the arm, I just cut off the signal, killing it."
Rose was silent, comprehending what she had just been told.
"You all right?"
"Yeah...so who's controlling it?"
"Long story."
"But what's it all for? Using shop window dummies against the world. Is someone trying to take over Britain's shops?" Rose joked, sharing a laugh with the Doctor.
"No! It's not a price war!" The Doctor joked back. He stopped laughing abruptly and his tone turned dark. "They want to overthrow the human race and destroy you. Do you believe me?"
"No," said Rose honestly.
"But you're still listening."
Rose stopped walking. "Really though, Doctor. Who are you?"
The Doctor stopped walking and turned to Rose, looking at her hard and smiling to himself. "You know when you're a kid," he walked towards her. "and they tell you the world's turning and you can't believe it, cos everything looks – everything feels – like it's standing still. I can feel it." The Doctor grabbed Rose's hand as he spoke. "The turn of the Earth. The ground beneth our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour." As he spoke, Rose imagined what he was saying and she could feel herself becoming dizzy. "The entire planet is hurtling round the sun at sixty-seven thousand miles an hour, and I can feel it. We're falling through space – you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go-"
The Doctor pulled his hand away from Rose's, the dizzy feeling seemed to stop. "That's who I am. Now forget me, Rose Tyler. Go home."
Forget? How could she forget a man like him? After everything he had said, everything he had done, how could she forget?
Rose watched as the Doctor walked away from her, into the direction of a blue police box in the car park. Rose sighed and turned away. She couldn't get any answers from him, he would've told her something useful by now if she could. Rose made her way through the park, back towards her flat, when suddenly she heard a loud noise. Rose was used to loud noise on the estate, but this was different. This was a heavy, groaning, grinding noise, like ancient engines rising and falling. The noise continued to grow louder and louder, and Rose ran towards the direction of the noise – the direction of the Doctor – however the noise soon died away, Rose couldn't tell where it was coming from. But one thing she did notice; the blue box had vanished.
A young man in his mid twenties, sat at a diner, savouring a double bacon cheese burger he was served. In front of him was a newspaper with several articles circled and marked. He was waiting for the Doctor to arrive.
Just as he swallowed his mouthful, he heard the familiar groaning, grinding sound from outside. He smiled as he watched the Doctor step out of the blue box and towards the diner. Once inside, the Doctor made his way over to the young man's table without stopping to make sure he was headed towards the right table.
"How's it going, Dean?"
Dean Winchester shared a grin with the Doctor. "Not bad, Doc. Had a few more hits with this, uh, plastic thing, checked one out last night."
"And?"
"And, whatever it is, the signal must be coming from your neck of the woods, 'cos they're pretty weak here."
The Doctor smirked, his tone becoming smug. "So no signs of demonic activity?"
Dean shifted in his seat, and glanced down at his food. "Shut up."
Mickey Smith was wearing hideous green boxers when he answered the door. "Wa-hey! Kit off! Here's my woman!"
"Oh shut up!" Rose grinned, giving Mickey a quick kiss and making her way into his untidy flat.
"Coffee?" Mickey asked, sauntering towards the kitchen.
"Yeah, but only if you wash the mug and I don't mean rinse, I mean wash." Mickey rolled his eyes. "Can I use your computer?"
"Yeah, any excuse to get into the bedroom." He joked. When Rose got to Mickey's bedroom she heard him call, "Don't read my e-mails!"
Sat at the desk, Rose wondered what exactly she was searching for. Information on the Doctor, she supposed. But what exactly did she type into google?
Doctor – Search – 17,700,000 results
She racked her brains, thinking back to what she and the Doctor talked about.
Doctor Living Plastic – Search – 55,300 results
Rose bit her lip, thinking about to their walk through the estate. Then she wondered about that blue box in the car park. And how the Doctor didn't seem to go running at that strange noise – which was similar to that of the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, the more Rose thought about it.
Doctor Blue Box – Search
Rose's eyes widened at the first result on the page.
DOCTOR WHO?...do you know this man?
Rose clicked on the link, and up came a blurred picture of the Doctor. Below it was a second link, CONTACT CLIVE.
"You're not coming in." Rose said firmly, as the yellow Beetle pulled up into a suburbia street. "He's safe, he's got a wife and kid."
"Yeah, and who told you that? He did." Mickey had been arguing with Rose every since she told him yesterday about Clive – the man who she contacted about the Doctor. "It's like Seb always says, the best criminals know how to lie."
"No, Seb always says that the best criminals don't tell anyone about their crimes." Rose corrected, she climbed out of the car. "Stay here."
Rose made her way over to the address she'd been given. Clive sounded safe enough, babbled on a bit, but Rose felt that the middle aged father was safe. She knocked on the door, and waited a few seconds before a boy answered.
"Um, hello, I've come to see Clive," Rose explained. "We've been emailing."
The boys strolled off into the house. "Dad!" he called. "It's another one of your nutters!"
A flustered man appeared from the kitchen. "Hello!" he greeted with a kind smile. "You must be Rose, I'm Clive – obviously." Rose shook his hand.
"I'd better tell you now, my boyfriend's waiting in the car, just in case you're gonna kill me."
Clive laughed. "No, good point. No murders!" Clive waved at Mickey, who glared back.
"Clive?" a voice from upstairs called out. "Who is it?"
"It's something to do with the Doctor!" Clive called back, his wife walked downstairs. "She's been reading the website. Come through," he said to Rose. "I'm in the shed."
Dean had his feet propped up again the TARDIS console as he skimmed through the papers in front of him.
"Okay, so what you're saying is that some plastic obsessed alien...freaks, wanna take over the world. Plastic freaks want to take over the world. God – my job's too hard."
The Doctor chuckled from the other side of the console where he was spinning dials and doing what Dean called TARDIS-y stuff.
"I thought you and John would be working something like this together?" The Doctor raised an eyebrow at the hunter. "Where is he anyway?"
Dean shrugged. "Some demon gig in N-Y-C. Probably gonna check on Sammy too, while he's on the road."
"How's Stanford going for him?"
Dean cleared his throat. "No idea. He won't answer my calls."
A silence fell between the Doctor and Dean Winchester, it felt like minutes before a beeping alert noise came from a screen on the console.
"Aha!" The Doctor cried. "Plastic activity in London – big plastic activity."
Dean stood up. "Well that's my cue. See you 'round, Doc."
Dean watched from the side of the road, perched on the hood of his beloved '67 Chevy Impala as the TARDIS vanished.
Rose sat in the restaurant trying to take her mind off the meeting with Clive. I think he's an alien from another world. Rose knew she wasn't going to see the Doctor again, she might as well stop thinking about it and focus on other things. Like finding a job, for example.
"Seb said he'll ask around for me – I'm not holding my breathe on him finding me anything permanent, though." She explained to Mickey, who just smiled and listened. "Y'know what Seb's like, he'll get himself into something dodgy and once he does, no one will want him around and that'll be the same for me." She thought for a moment. "Maybe I should try the hospital, get a job in the canteen." She sighed again. "Is that it then, dishing out chips? I could do A-Levels, anyone can get into college these days. I dunno. This is all Jimmy Stone's fault. I only left school because of him and looked where he ended up." Rose looked at Mickey who just stared back at her, clearly he wasn't listening to her. Not properly. "What do you think?"
"So where did you meet him then?" Mickey asked her. "This Doctor?"
"Oh sorry, was I talking about me for a second?"
"'Cos I reckon, it all started back at the shop, am I right?" Rose shifted in her seat. "Was he something to do with that?"
"No." Rose lied.
"Come on," Mickey smiled, and Rose suddenly felt guilty for lying to him.
"Sort of," Rose debated about saying any more.
"What was he doing there?"
"I'm not going on about it, Mickey." Rose glanced around the restarunt and toned down her voice. "I know it sounds daft but...I think he's dangerous." She whispered.
"But you can tell me, sweetheart-babe-darling-sugar-babe-sugar." Mickey had suddenly called Rose every pet name all at once. Rose blinked at him, confused. "You can tell me anything. Tell me about the Doctor and what he's planning and I can help you, Rose. 'Cos that's all I really want to do sweetheart-babe-sugar-sweetheart."The pet names were spoken with no affection at all, it was almost robotic.
"What are you doing that for...?
"Your champagne." A waiter came over to their table, holding a bottle of champagne towards Mickey, who didn't look away from Rose.
"We didn't order any champagne – where's the Doctor?" Mickey grabbed Rose's hand tight, and Rose grew worried.
"Madam, your champagne." Rose ignored the waiter.
"That's not ours – Mickey, what is it, what's wrong?"
"I need to find out how much you know so where is he?" Why did Mickey need to know about the Doctor? Rose was confused, when she had told Mickey about the Doctor yesterday, he hadn't been interested – he told her that he's probably some lunatic, and she should probably forget about him.
"Doesn't anybody want this champagne?"
"We didn't order any cha-" Mickey looked up, his annoyed face turning to sadistic glee. "Ah, gotcha."
Rose looked up – the Doctor.
"Don't mind me," he began shaking the champagne bottle. "I'm just toasting the happy couple." He aimed the champagne bottle at Mickey. "On the house!" Rose watched on as the Doctor popped the cork and it hit Mickey right in the forehead, his face obsorbing it, then spitting out his mouth.
As another smile snaked it's away across Mickey's face, Rose stood up beside the Doctor, that wasn't Mickey – not her Mickey.
She watched in horror as Mickey stood and raised his arms, his hands moulding into flat chisels, everyone in the restaurant seemed to be watching them. Mickey suddenly swiped his hand down, slicing the table in half. People started screaming and running as the Doctor dived forwards and grabbed Mickey in a headlock.
Rose could only watch them, gobsmacked. If that wasn't Mickey then where was Mickey? What had happened to him? People around her screamed and the Doctor pulled Mickey's head off his body. For a moment, Rose thought that Mickey or whatever it was, was dead, but then-
"Don't think that's gonna stop me." the head was alive and speaking to the Doctor, and the body was clumsily making it's away around the restaurant, smashing anything in it's way.
Rose ran towards a fire alarm and smashed it. "Get out!" She yelled to the diners and staff. "Everyone, out, now!" Everyone ran towards the front door, and Rose led the Doctor towards the back. Running through the kitchen with Mickey's body following, The Doctor and Rose made they way outside the back door and into the alley. The Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to lock the door, and Rose ran towards the gates only to discover them locked. They were trapped. And Mickey's body was hammering at the door.
"Open the gate!" Rose yelled in panic at the Doctor. "Use that sonic-thing, come on."
"Sonic screwdriver." He corrected.
"Use it!"
"Naah, tell you what, let's go in here."
The Doctor stepped in the blue box. The blue box that Rose could've sworn had been in the car park yesterday. She must be losing her mind.
"You can't just hide in a wooden box!"
The banging on the door was becoming harder and louder. Rose frantically ran back to the gate, pulling at the chain in pathetic attempts to get it open.
"He's gonna get us!" Whump! The door was going to be smashed to a thousand pieces – Rose could just see it. "Doctor!"
In blind panic, Rose ran into the box and stopped dead in her tracks. Rose ran back out of the box, and circled it, running her hands across it's wood to make sure it was real. A chisel hand sliced through the door and Rose ran back inside, slamming the wooden doors shut behind her.
"It's gonna follow us," she told the Doctor quietly.
"The assembled hordes of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door, and believe me, they have tried, now shut up a minute."
Rose looked around the wooden box she had run into for safety. Expecting nothing but to hide in a wardrobe, Rose felt like she was dreaming. The inside of the box was a huge control room, a six-sided console in the centre, and an alien design all around, Rose didn't know how else to describe it but alien. All of it was alien.
"Y'see, the arm was too simple, but the head's perfect," the Doctor was saying. "I can use it to trace the signal back to it's source." The Doctor went around the console, turning bolts and flicking switches with the different pieces of technology around it. When he finished, he turned to Rose, knowing what was coming. "Right, where d'you want to start."
"Um," Rose kept level, holding back her terror. "The inside's bigger than the outside."
"Yes."
"It's...alien?"
"Yes."
Rose knew what she wanted to ask, but didn't know if she should. "Are...are you alien?"
"Yes." The Doctor stared at her. "That all right?"
"Yeah."
"It's called the TARDIS, this thing." he explained. "T-A-R-D-I-S, that's Time And Relative Dimensions In Space." Rose pulled a face, holding back a sob. "That's okay, culture shock. It happens to the best of us."
"Did they kill him?" Rose asked. She probably shouldn't but she needed to know. "Mickey – did they kill Mickey? Is he dead?"
The Doctor blinked. "Oh. I didn't think of that."
"He's my boyfriend." Rose said angrily. "You pulled his head off, and you didn't even think?" Rose glanced at Mickey's head which the Doctor had placed on the console. "And now you're just gonna let him melt!"
The Doctor turned and ran towards the head, pulling melted chunks off the levers and wires. "No, no, no, no!"
With a stony look on his face, the Doctor made his way around the control panel, pulling levers, and causing a glass column at the centre of the console to rise and fall and rotate
"What are you doing?" Rose yelled. The noise she heard yesterday erupted from the TARDIS – ancient engines rising and falling.
"Following the signal," The Doctor explained, "It's failing! Wait a minute – I've got it – I've-" Rose could only stand and watch the Doctor run around the console. "Ohhh no you don't, no no no no NO!" The Doctor pulled a huge lever and the TARDIS jerked. "Almost there, almost there-"
The engine noise faded away, and the Doctor ran for the doors.
"You can't got out there it's not safe!" Rose told him. He ignroed her, and she ran out after him to help fight off the thing that had copied Mickey, but Rose stopped dead in the doorway.
"Lost the signal!" The Doctor complained. "I was so close!"
Rose slowly stepped out of the TARDIS. They were no longer in the back alley of the restaurant, they were in central London, overlooking the Thames.
"We've moved." Rose said, "Does it...fly?"
"Disappears there and reappears here, you wouldn't understand." The Doctor explained quickly.
"But..." Rose's head hurt. Her boyfriend could be dead, she was with an alien, she had just travelled from one place to another in an alien police box. "If we're...somewhere else, what about the headless thing?"
"It melted with the head, are you gonna witter on all night?"
Mickey's body had melted with his head. Rose slowly soaked that in. "I'll have to tell his mother."
The Doctor looked over at her blankly.
"Mickey. I'll have to tell his mother he's dead, and you just went and forgot him again! You were right, you are alien." Rose turned away.
"Listen, if I did froget some kid called Mickey-"
"He's not a kid!"
"-it's because I'm busy, trying to save the life of every stupid ape blundering about on top of this planet, all right?"
"All right!"
"Yes, it is!"
The Doctor and Rose stood in silence, both sulking around.
"If you're an alien, how come you sound like you're from the north?" Rose asked.
"Lots of planets have a north."
Rose glanced at the TARDIS. "What's a 'police public call box'?"
"It's a telephone box, from the nineteen-fifties." The Doctor grinned. "It's a disguise."
Rose smiled. "Okay. And this...living plastic...what's it got against us?"
"Nothing. It loves you. You've got such a good planet, lots of smoke and oil, plenty of toxins and dioxins in the air – just what the Nestene Consciousness needs. Its foodstock was destroyed in the War, all it's protein planets rotted. So. Earth. Dinner."
Rose didn't really understand majority of what the Doctor had just said but she picked up on the basics. "Any way of stopping it?"
The Doctor pulled a tube of blue liquid out of his jacket pocket. "Antiplastic."
"Antiplastic?"
"Antiplastic!" The Doctor's smile faded. "But first of all, I've got to find it. How can you hide something that big in a city so small?"
"Hang on – hide what?"
"The transmitter. The Consciousness is controlling every single piece of plastic, so it needs a transmitter to boost its signal."
"What's it look like?"
The Doctor paced around. "Like a transmitter! Round. And massive!" He faced Rose with his back to the river, Rose glanced behind him as he spoke. "Somewhere slap-bang in the middle of London. A huge, metal, circular structure, like a dish, like a wheel, radical, close to where we're standing. It must be completely invisible." He noticed Rose's gaze. "What?"
Rose indicated behind the Doctor with a nod, the Doctor turned around and looked across the Thames at the London Eye, all lit up on show. "What? What is it? What?" Slowly, a look of realisation dawned on the Doctor. "Oh. Fantastic!"
The Doctor and Rose made their way through a greasy metal underground chamber, it looked like it had been abandoned for decades – the perfect place to conduct an alien invasion from. They looked down at a pool of thick, churning liquid, glowing yellow like lava.
"The Nestene Consciousness," The Doctor told Rose pointing at it. "That's it, inside the vat, a living plastic creature."
Rose was full of fascination and fear. "Well then, give it your antiplastic and let's go."
"I'm here to kill it. I've got to give it a chance." Rose watched as the Doctor made his way down metal stairs, closer to the Nestene Consciousness.
"I seek audience with the Nestene Consciousness under peaceful contract, according to Convention Fifteen of the Shadow Proclamation." The Consciousness replied in a shrieking alien language. "Thank you, If I might have permission to approach."
Rose glanced around the chamber and saw a human figure cowering in the corner. "Oh my God-" she ran across to the grimy figure, curled up in a ball. "Mickey! Oh my God – Mickey, it's me, it's okay."
"Rose!" Rose gently rubbed Mickey's shoulder. "Rose – that thing down there, it can talk..."
"Doctor, they kept him alive!"
"Yeah, that was always a possibility." The Doctor said dismissively. "Keep him alive to maintain the copy."
"What, and you knew that? You knew and you never said?"
"Can you keep the domestics for outside, thank you." The Doctor turned his attention back to the alien creature. "Am I addressing the Consciousness?"
Another shriek erupted, as the Doctor walked down to the lower level floor.
"Thank you. If I might observe. You infiltrated this civilisation by means of warp-shunt technology. So may I suggest, with the greatest respect, that you shunt off."
The conciousness shrieked in anger.
"Oh don't give me that! This is an invasion, plain and simple, don't talk about constitutional rights-"
Another shriek inturpted the Doctor.
"I-am-talking!" The Consciousness fell silent, Mickey and Rose watched as the Doctor continued his speech. "This planet is just starting. These stupid little people have only just learnt how to walk, but they can achieve so much more. I'm asking you, on their behalf, please. Just go."
"Doctor!"
Rose's warning was too slow – two mannequins, restrained the Doctor, and revealed the antiplastic from his pocket.
"I wasn't gonna use it – it was just insurance-"
The Consciousness roared in fury, as the Doctor struggled to break free from his captors, Rose and Mickey watched helplessly.
"I was not attacking you – I was trying to help! I swear, I am not your enemy, I'm not-" The Doctor's eyes widened as the Consciousness spoke. "What d'you mean? No. Ohhh no. Honestly, no..."
A door slid open and revealed and the TARDIS, Rose looked down at the Doctor as terror drowned him. "Yes, that's my ship-" Another shriek. "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!"
Suddenly, pools of light slammed on, systems started up, Rose called down to the Doctor, "What's it doing?"
"It's the TARDIS! The Nestene's identified it as superior technology, it's terrified, it's going to the final stage – the invasion is starting, right now!" The Doctor turned to her with pleading eyes. "Get out, Rose! Just leg it!"
The invasion is starting – Rose had to warn her family, she had to her. As quickly as she could she called Jackie;
"...Mum?"
"There you are, 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?"
"I'm in town."
"Go home, Mum, right now."
"Darling, you're breaking up, listen – I'm just gonna do a bit of late night shopping, I'll see you later, ta-ra!"
Jackie hung up and Rose quickly dialled Sebastian's number.
"Rose?" Sebastian sounded a bit out of breath. "You all right – what is it?"
"Seb, find Mum, you need to find Mum and go home!"
"Rose? You there? Rose? Hello-?"
"Seb?"
The call cut off as the activation signal was transmitted – a streak of blue lightning struck from the vat through the underground building. The invasion had begun.
"Just get out, Rose!" The Doctor yelled. "Just run! RUN!"
Rose turned to Mickey and pulled him up in his terrified state, pulling him over to the TARDIS. Rose pushed the door, but no safety could be reached.
"It's locked!"
Mickey and Rose cowered against the TARDIS doors, there was no way out. There were all going to die. The Doctor turned and locked his eyes on Rose as she stood up and ran towards a fire axe on the wall.
"Rose! There's nothing you can do!" Mickey pleaded.
Rose jumped and slammed the axe down on a large chain against the wall. "I've got no A-Levels," Schunk. "No job," Schunk. "No future." Schunk. Rose grabbed the chain as it was freed. "But I know what I have got," She wrapped the chain around her arm. "Jericho Street Junior School, under-7's gymnastics team," she turned to face the Doctor and the dummy holding the antiplastic. "I've got the bronze!"
Rose ran forward, and leapt off the platform, swinging towards the dummy. As she does, it caught the dummy holding the Doctor off guard, giving him the chance and throw it into the vat. Rose kicked out and the dummy holding the antiplastic fell into the vat too – antiplastic still in hand. The Consciousness shrieked in pain and anger, and the Doctor and Rose ran to the TARDIS.
With the Doctor, Rose and Mickey inside, the TARDIS vanished in seconds, leaving the Consciousness to it's destruction.
Rose Tyler had just saved the Earth.
"Rose, don't go out the house! Tell your brother as – oh no never mind he's here – there were these things, they were shooting, they-"
Rose hung up the phone, her mum and brother were all right and they were together. She knelt down at Mickey's side, he was in shock and shivering like mad. He pointed towards the TARDIS as the Doctor leaned against the doorway, grinning at Rose.
"Nestene Consciousness," He clicked his fingers. "Easy!"
"You were useless in there, you'd be dead if it wasn't for me." said Rose smugly.
"Yes I would." The Doctor smiled. "Thank you. Right! I'll be off then. Unless...I dunno. You could come with me?"
Rose's eyes widened, battle aliens with the Doctor?
"This box isn't just a London hopper, it can travel anywhere in the universe – I was in America this morning – free of charge."
Mickey grabbed Rose's arm. "Don't! He's an alien! He's a thing-"
"He's not invited." Rose was so tempted. "What d'you think? You can stay here, fill you life with work and food and sleep, or you could go...anywhere."
"Is it always this dangerous?" Rose asked him.
The Doctor didn't lie. "Yes."
Mickey wrapped his arms around her waist, resting his head on her hip. "I can't, I've...I've got to go find my mum and my brother, and...someone's got to look after this stupid lump." She patted Mickey's shoulder.
"Oh." The Doctor was silent for a moment. "Okay...See you around."
Rose watched as the Doctor stepped in the TARDIS, the engines started up and the box faded away into nothing. Rose waited for a moment, hoping the Doctor would come back, but nothing came.
"Come on, let's go." She helped Mickey stand, and they began to make their way home, when the wind picked up around them and the TARDIS returned. The door opened and the Doctor leaned out.
"By the way, did I mention? It also travels in time."
Rose stared at him, they both knew what she was going to do. The Doctor went back inside, leaving the door open. Rose turned to Mickey and kissed his cheek. "Thanks."
"For what?"
"...Exactly."
Rose turned and ran into the TARDIS, leaving Mickey and Jackie and Sebastian behind. Rose ran to the Doctor, to adventure.
OMG THE FIRST CHAPTER! Please let me know what you guys think - if you have any questions then I'll answer them in the next update. Also, if there are any mistakes I am so sorry and I will work to get them removed. Thanks for reading and I really hoped you enjoyed it!