Chapter One
The Powell Estate in Peckham was a dull, miserable affair. Grey concrete stretched across the ground, interspersed with a few spots of yellowing grass and drooping flowers that only saw water when it rained. A newsagent had one window boarded up and a racist slur half sprayed across the board where it was clear that someone had made a half-hearted attempt at scrubbing it off before giving it up for a bad job. There was the local bookies that was open and alive even on a quiet Sunday morning with the horse racing playing on the old square TV that was mounted in the corner. The pub on the corner to the estate was also doing steady business despite the early hour. It was only made quieter by the inhabitants of the Powell Estate sleeping off their Saturday hangovers. Soon enough, they would emerge from the ugly, square buildings of flats and shuffle to the nearest Wetherspoons for a greasy fry-up and a hair of the dog.
Nothing exciting ever happened on the Powell Estate.
Unless one counted the time that Jonny Dixon thought he could fly and tried to take a running jump off the top of his building and had to be wrestled to the ground by police officers whilst only wearing his baggy grey Y-fronts. Admittedly, he had been high on LSD at the time and was soon sectioned shortly after, which everyone considered a good thing as he'd once rubbed soup into Priti Azadi's hair on a night out at the pub. No one was quite sure where he'd got the soup from in the first place – or the can opener. Priti swore she smelt like minestrone for days afterwards.
Ever since Jonny was bundled into the back of the police car three years earlier, things had been quiet and dull on the estate.
Therefore the arrival of a big blue box would have caused quite the stir if anyone had been awake to see it. It was a huge wooden box with bluer than blue paint on the outside and a somewhat dusty light on the top; fogged glass was set into the wooden doors and a small panel opened and shut, clacking as it breathed into existence with a shuddering, wheezing groan. The latch was broken and needed to be fixed, although it had needed to be fixed for the last one hundred and fifty-three years so it wasn't holding out much hope for it to be fixed soon. The box wouldn't have looked out of place in the 1960s when things such as public police boxes were still used.
It kicked up a fierce wind as it settled onto the concrete with its back against the brick wall of the pub, pieces of rubbish tumbling and rolling across the floor, smacking against the newsagent's. A cat shivered behind the dustbin with its hackles raised, teeth bared as it hissed at the strangeness of the box before it streaked out and was across the courtyard to seek safety and comfort elsewhere. There was one brief moment of silence as the world settled back down around the new arrival before the wooden door opened and a young woman, familiar to those who lived on the estate, stepped out.
"How long have I been gone?" Rose asked, pushing her hair from her eyes as she looked around at the estate, eyes trying to see whether anything had changed but it all remained exactly as she remembered it.
Part of her had expected there to be some great change after everything she'd been through and she was a little disappointed that there was nothing different.
The man who stepped out after her leaned against the side of his box. "About twelve hours."
"Oh, right." She said, having a little trouble connecting the small passage of time with everything that she had seen and done inside the box. "Well, I won't be long. I just want to see my family."
"What're you going to tell them?" The Doctor asked, surprised at himself for actually being curious. He had never once bought a companion back home before it was time for her to stay at home.
He congratulated himself for his growth.
Rose pulled a face and scrunched up her nose, undecided. "I don't know. I've been to the year 5 billion and only been gone, what? Twelve hours?"
He raised his eyebrows, amused.
Humans.
"Nah, I'll just tell 'em I spent the night at Shareen's." She grinned at him, tongue pressed between her teeth and his eyes flicked away from her, arms folding across his chest. "Don't you disappear while I'm gone, you hear me?"
The Doctor gave her a small, mocking wave and she dashed off with excitement and happiness pulsing through her. She didn't plan on staying long but she did want to see her mum and sister again before she took off travelling again. She also wanted to pack some of her own clothes. The Doctor's wardrobe was all well and good but she preferred her own jeans and T-shirts. She pulled open the door to her building and she bypassed the lift that hadn't worked in years and always reeked of urine. Instead, she took the stairs two at a time and was out of breath by the time that she reached the top. She hadn't dared shower on the TARDIS. It was all so alien that she was worried the water might strip her skin from her or, possibly less nefariously, turn her a different colour. She didn't think the Doctor bothered thinking too much about those things.
She dug into the pocket of her jeans for her keys, relieved that she hadn't lost them in her travels, and she jammed it into the lock. She had to jiggle it as the lock always stuck but she opened the front door with her heart thundering from her workout up the stairs.
"I'm back!" Rose called out, tossing her keys into the bowl near the door, moving towards the living room. "I was with Shareen. She was all upset again. Are you in?"
She spared a passing glance at her bedroom, which looked different, and her mother's room, which looked the same. She breezed into the living room, nearly tripping on a box by the sofa and tossing her hair from her eyes. She grinned. Her mother was framed in the doorway of the kitchen in her dressing gown holding a cup of tea and looking as though she had seen her ghost. Her sister was eating cereal at the table but seemed to have forgotten that she was holding a spoon because the milk and cheerios were dribbling into her lap.
Rose looked between them.
"What? What're those faces for?" She asked, looking between the two. "It's not the first time I've stayed out all night."
Her sister let out a strangled sound of disbelief and her mother dropped her cup of tea. The ceramic mug shattered on the floor and the hot liquid soaked into the permanently stained carpet.
"It's you." Jackie Tyler whispered, voice cracking and eyes filling with tears. She reached out for Rose before she snatched her hands back, hesitant and unsure about whether she was dreaming.
Uncertainty and a hint of fear began to take root in her chest. Rose looked to her sister for some sort of help but Zoe was as pale and as shocked as their mother. "Of course it's me."
"Oh my God. It's you. Oh my God." Jackie choked on her tears, moving forwards and grabbing Rose in a hug so tight and so desperate that she had no choice but to wrap her arms around her mother's warm, soft body and hug her back.
Zoe dropped her spoon and it bounced off of her thigh and fell to the floor, drawing Rose's attention to posters with her face smiling out from the front.
Missing from the Powell Estate.
Last seen 6th March 2005.
If you have any information, please call this number.
07772065812
Rose didn't have time to do anything more than feel a blank shock unfurling through her when the front door burst open and the Doctor sprinted in, startling all three women. He was out of breath and he looked more flustered than Rose had ever seen him. His eyes were big and apologetic as he curled his fingers around her elbow and pulled her towards him; he didn't manage to detach her from her mother, whose eyes begun to narrow suspiciously.
"It's not twelve hours, it's twelve months." The Doctor said, eyes darting around the women in the room nervously. "You've been gone a whole year. Sorry."
Silence grabbed the room and everything froze.
Jackie stared at the Doctor.
Rose stared at the ceiling.
Zoe paused in the middle of standing up from her chair.
And the Doctor grinned in a manner that made him look as charming as a serial killer who had just discovered cannibalism was the best means for disposing of bodies.
Rose had never wanted to smack anyone harder in her life.
"Who the hell are you?" Jackie demanded, finding her voice and her anger with it. Her words shook with fury, confusion, and grief.
"Oh, yes, sorry." The Doctor said with his wide smile that was bordering on terrifying. "I'm the Doctor. Nice to meet you."
"The Doctor?" She repeated, disdain dripping from every inch of her body. "Really?"
"Mum..." Rose said quietly, and Jackie swept her attention back to her daughter, her face softening but still tight with tension.
She noted how much older Jackie looked – her hair was dark with roots, and her face had extra lines that hadn't been there the last time Rose had seen her mum. She looked tired and thin and stretched tight like an elastic band pulled between two distant points. She'd never looked so ill and worn before and guilt painted the inside of Rose's throat.
"Where have you been?" Jackie asked, fingers curling around Rose's biceps. "You've been gone an entire year. We thought you were dead!"
Rose looked down at the ground. Her shoes were scuffed and the laces were frayed. "I...just...I was travelling."
"Travelling?" Zoe said, speaking for the first time. Rose risked a glance. Zoe stood the rest of the way, her fingertips resting on the table; her face was young and confused.
Rose swallowed. "Yeah."
"But you didn't have your passport." Zoe said and Rose pressed her lips together, panic fizzing in her chest. "It's still in the drawer. We checked when you...when you didn't come home that night. The police thought you might have run away."
"I..." she looked to the Doctor but he seemed as lost as she was.
"Zoe." Jackie said sharply and her youngest daughter jumped a little. "Call the police. Tell 'em that Rose is back. Maybe they can get some sense out of her. Then go put some clothes on." She eyed the Doctor distrustfully. "This one seems to like 'em young."
The insult took a moment to register but when it did, the Doctor looked outraged. "Oi!"
"Oi, what, mate?" Jackie snapped back at him, all fire and fury. "What've you been doing with my daughter, you filthy pervert?"
Under any other circumstance, Rose thought that she might have found the look of disgust, outrage, and horror on the Doctor's face entertaining. He fumbled for his words through his indignation but Jackie was in no mood for a reasoned discussion and the tips of his ears burned red as she kept insulting him whilst he struggled to respond. Whilst Zoe edged past them around the edge of the room to slip into the hallway to call the police with a wary look on her face, Jackie launched into a furious tirade.
She seemed unable to decide what she wanted to know first – who the doctor was and what his relationship to Rose was, or where Rose had been for the last year.
It was a tense forty minutes as they waited for the police officer to arrive. No one seemed to know what to say to each other and Jackie was getting more and more worked up the more that Rose kept avoiding the question. Zoe returned to the living room after calling the police and throwing on some decent clothes before tucking herself away in the corner to listen and watch. Even after the police officer arrived, things didn't become much clearer.
Constable Stanley Vickers was having a hard time understanding what was going on as everyone was talking quite loudly and very angrily. Although, by everyone, he did just mean Mrs Tyler who seemed to be able to shout loud enough for all of Peckham and the gentleman that she was directing her ire towards had retreated into a sulky silence by an armchair. It wasn't how he had wanted to spend his Sunday shift. He quite liked Sundays at the station. There was never a lot of crime on a Sunday, which meant that he could watch the football match in the afternoon in the back office or he could do his crossword with his feet propped up and a nice cup of tea next to him. He hadn't been too happy at getting sent out by his sergeant to follow up on a missing person who seemed to have returned home none the worse for wear.
From what he could make out, in between the shouting that was, she'd taken off with a new boyfriend and just hadn't told her mum.
Typical.
It happened more often than people thought. People had arguments with their families, found a new partner to kick around with and then not call so as to punish the parents or guardians. It was a little sad but that was life on the estate. Admittedly, no one had taken it quite as far as Rose Tyler – a year without contact was pushing the boundaries too far but she was back, unharmed as far as Stanley could see, and eager to be away from there again if the expression on her face was anything to go by.
"The hours we've sat here, days and weeks and months, all on our own." Jackie said, voice wavering between blistering fury and deep grief as it rose and fell in a crescendo. "We thought you were dead! And where were you? Travelling. What the hell does that mean? Travelling? That's no sort of answer." She stepped back and blew out an agitated breath. She looked to Stanley who was discreetly doodling on his police pad. "You ask her. She won't tell me. That's all she says. Travelling."
"That's what I was doing." Rose said, her voice thick with tears and guilt as she pulled at the knees of her jeans, actively avoiding eye contact with her mother.
Stanley opened his mouth to speak.
"When your passport's still in the drawer?" Jackie demanded, shaking her head. Stanley shut his mouth again. "It's one lie after another."
Rose raised her wet eyes. "I meant to phone. I really did. I just...I...I forgot."
"For a year?" Zoe asked and Stanley hid his surprise well, or at least he felt he did. He'd forgotten the girl was there she'd been so quiet, sitting in the corner and just watching and listening. "You forgot for a whole year? Rose...mum and I thought you were dead. Do you understand that? We thought someone had killed you and dumped your body in a river, and you're saying that you forgot to call us for an entire year? I'm with mum. I don't believe that."
Jackie sank down in front of Rose and held her knees in her hands, her palms curling over her daughter's jeans. "Why won't you tell us where you've been?"
"Actually," the Doctor said, clearing his throat awkwardly. All eyes turned to him. "It's my fault. I sort of – er – employed Rose as my companion."
From the corner of his eye, for he didn't dare look openly, the Doctor saw Zoe frown and mouth the word 'companion' with a scrunched nose. Maybe he did need to change what he called his travelling companions. Assistant? Partner? Comrade?
He would have to think about it.
"When you say companion," Stanley said, finally able to get a word in. "Is this a sexual relationship?"
"NO!" Rose and the Doctor exclaimed together, colour rising in Rose's cheeks at the question.
"Then what is it?" Jackie exclaimed, anger and frustration billowing out of her again. "Because you!" She stood and turned to the Doctor who lacked the good sense to look even a little wary. "You waltz in here all charm and smiles, and the next thing I know, she vanishes off the face of the Earth!"
Rose gained a new interest in her knees.
"How old are you then?" Jackie demanded. "Forty? Forty-five? What? Did you find her on the Internet? Did you go online and pretend you're a doctor?"
"I am a Doctor!" He protested, once again giving into outrage at the line of questioning.
Zoe knew what Jackie was about to do. She could see it coming after a lifetime of watching her mother get into various scraps whilst out shopping. She had plenty of time to intervene and prevent it from happening but she wanted to see it, and she wanted to live it vicariously because she knew that she would never be able to do it herself. Part of her knew it was wrong to let it happen but the larger part of her, the part that had spent the last twelve months listening to her mother cry at night and experiencing dreams of her sister rotting in a river somewhere, was silently urging her mum to make it hurt.
"Oh, yeah? Well, stitch this, mate." Jackie drew her arm back and the crack of palm against cheek was as satisfying as Zoe had hoped.
The Doctor's head snapped to one side and he looked so bewildered and surprised, as though not able to believe that someone would dare hit him, that Zoe started laughing. Her laughter broke the mood of anger and frustration, restoring some semblance of normality and good manners to the group. Jackie stalked off to the kitchen and set about making the angriest cup of tea she could, banging the kettle and snapping the cupboard doors shut so that it echoed and rattled. Zoe popped herself down on the sofa and occasionally had to hide her face in her knees as the giggles took over whilst Stanley took statements from Rose and the Doctor.
He promised to close the case within the week and he seemed pleased to leave when he did. Families were a particular minefield that he was happy to have avoided. He was on the older side of fifty and was happy to go home every night to his small flat and his loyal cat who would curl up on his lap as he watched the TV. It was perfect; much better than the chaos that families brought with them. He nodded to Zoe Tyler, who had politely shown him to the door in an attempt to stop the laughter that kept bubbling up within her.
It didn't work as she was still smiling when she shut the door and turned around only to find herself nose to chest with the Doctor who was attempting to leave the flat. He looked disgruntled and unhappy; his left cheek flared with red and the marks of Jackie's fingers. She snorted and dissolved into fresh laughter, hand fumbling for the door handle before pulling it open. His face twitched with annoyance and he left the flat with as much dignity as he could manage whilst Zoe shook with laughter against the door.
It felt like hours later when everything finally settled down and tears were shed and hugs were exchanged. Zoe felt emotionally worn out and she wanted to curl up on the sofa and have a nap in front of the TV. Neither her nor Jackie still knew what was going on but they were focusing on the fact that Rose was home and alive and seemingly safe. They had no idea of who the Doctor was but he hadn't returned to the flat after leaving it in the wake of Constable Vickers. Both of them preferred it that way. There was something about him that was just a little bit off and neither of them could put their finger on it. They reluctantly watched Rose leave to go and look for him – Jackie clearly wanted to refuse, or follow her, just so that she wasn't out of her sight but she held back.
The front door shut quietly behind Rose and the flat filled with the same silence that had wrapped around it for the last twelve months. It felt empty and bereft without Rose there and Zoe dropped her head into her hands, exhaling deeply. Her mum patted her clumsily on the back before stepping away into the kitchen. It was only a few minutes before Zoe could hear her sniffling and trying to muffle her cries in the other room. She felt exhausted, physically and emotionally exhausted, wrung out from the last twelve months of worry and fear and thinking up all of the worst case scenarios she could imagine about what had happened to Rose. She let her forehead fall onto the surface of the table that was a little sticky from the milk that had dried there and she closed her eyes.
She must have dropped off for a moment because she jumped, surprised, when she felt Jackie's hand on the top of her head some time later. Her mother took the seat next to her and Zoe tipped into her arms, face against her shoulder; she wanted to crawl into her lap like she was five years old again.
They sat there in silence, Jackie absently stroking her daughter's hair. Zoe listened to the comforting sound of her heartbeat. "At least she's alive."
Jackie smiled a troubled smile against the top of her head. "Yeah. Lyin', but alive."
"I'll take that over dead and truthful any day." Zoe said on a sigh and Jackie gave her a tight squeeze. She tilted her face up and gave a little grin. "Nice slap, by the way."
Her mother laughed, wiping at her face. "Felt bloody brilliant."
Zoe kissed her cheek. "Why don't you go put on your make-up and I'll go see where Rose and the big-eared pervert have got to?"
"Alright." Jackie agreed as she did feel vulnerable and naked without her usual layer of make-up on. She didn't like the idea of Rose's bloke seeing her without it. It felt as though she was giving away a layer of protection. "Take your phone, love."
"Of course." She replied. Ever since Rose had disappeared, Jackie had never let Zoe leave the flat without her phone fully charged and at least £10 credit on it.
To be fair though, Zoe didn't much like leaving the flat since Rose's disappearances. She could get herself worked up with the worst case scenarios and worry that whoever had taken Rose would come back and take hers. The number of nightmares she'd had over the last twelve months that had left her sweaty and terrified all blended together to form one tight ball of anxiety and fear that made the outside world a scary place to be – not all the time, not during the day, but at night, when she was walking home from work...she hoped the fear would leave her now that Rose was back.
She made her mum a cup of tea before she left the flat. She left it on the dressing table in her mum's bedroom before she grabbed her denim jacket from her bedroom, pulling it out from under her textbooks. The day was cool but spring was definitely in the air. It smelt fresh and lovely – or as fresh and lovely as London could ever smell – and she peered over the railing to look down into the courtyard below but she could only see Devon Costello playing football against a wall. Rose wouldn't take off again, not so abruptly, not when she had seen how upset Jackie was; at least that was what she told herself as she headed for the stairwell. She took the stairs up two at a time before reaching the roof.
The door was flapping in the breeze and she pushed it open, placing the brick that the residents used to keep it open down on the ground. Residents weren't technically allowed on the roof but the council barely came around except when the rent was late so no one paid much attention to the rules they set down. The general attitude was that they'd start paying attention when the council started fixing things – starting with the elevator that had been out of order for coming on three years now. The council kept saying they would send someone around and then they kept not doing it.
She looked around and, sure enough, she saw Rose and her new fancy man/kidnapper/weirdo sitting on the low wall and talking. She stuffed her hands into the pockets of her jacket and approached them, their voices cutting out at the sound of her peeling trainers dragging across the grey concrete. They both looked around at her approach.
"Don't mind me." Zoe said, a hint of sharpness in her voice. "Don't mean to interrupt this textbook display of Stockholm Syndrome."
The Doctor rolled his eyes even as his mouth twitched with a hint of amusement. Rose's face creased in confusion. "Stockholm what?"
"I'm implying that this prat kidnapped you." Zoe said, jerking an elbow at the Doctor whilst looking at her sister. "You've never appreciated my wit."
"You've got to have wit for me to appreciate it." Rose replied, and Zoe and the Doctor both snorted with laughter before eyeing each other suspiciously, as though uncertain whether it was a positive thing that they'd both found that funny. "Mum sent you to check up on me?"
"Don't be a bitch." Zoe frowned. "You put mum and me through hell this last year. Least you could do is act like you're even a little bit sorry about it."
Rose's face softened and opened up with honesty. "Zo, I am sorry."
Zoe looked away from her and out across the buildings that formed her small part of London. "Yeah, which is why you're up here having a grand old laugh with big ears here instead of downstairs with your family."
The Doctor looked offended. "My ears aren't that bad!"
"Have you looked in a mirror, mate?" She shot back at him and he scowled at her. She scowled back, enjoying the childish pettiness, before looking to Rose who was playing with the hem of her pink T-shirt. "If you don't want to tell mum, fine, whatever, but you can tell me what you've been doing. I'm your sister."
"Zoe, I don't..." Rose hesitated and she made the mistake of looking to the Doctor.
"What?" Zoe asked, anger coursing through her. "He doesn't let you speak without his permission? You've forgotten how to think for yourself again?" She felt dizzy with anger and she removed her hands from her pockets to clench them into fists at her side. "Jesus Christ, Rose, is this Jimmy fucking Stone all over again? Because if it is, just say the word, and I'll push this asshole off the building."
"No! No! Of course not!" Rose protested, jumping down from the wall and moving towards her. "Zoe, I promise. It's not like that at all."
The Doctor watched them with great interest. "Who's Jimmy Stone?"
"How about I push him off the building anyway?" She asked hopefully but Rose shook her head even as the Doctor shifted slightly further away from her. She watched him with narrowed eyes.
Rose stared at her sister. All their lives, it had been just the two of them and Jackie. The Three Musketeers against the world. Jackie looked older and so did Zoe. She'd lost the soft roundness of her face, and her jaw and cheekbones were sharper than she remembered. She looked thinner as well, more breakable than she'd ever done before. The dig about not thinking for herself had landed exactly how Zoe had intended it to and Rose made her decision between one heartbeat and the next.
"I was travelling." Rose said and Zoe opened her mouth so Rose rushed on, words tripping out of her mouth. "In time and space."
The Doctor's head swivelled and his eyes were as focused as lasers.
Interesting he thought. He couldn't remember if anyone had ever told their family the truth before. He was curious to see what happened.
Over the years, he'd been amazed by the human capacity to accept that which was strange and terrifying to them. All of the bright and shining companions he'd had since arriving on Earth all those years ago, all of his brilliant and miraculous friends, they'd truly been the best that Earth had to offer. Their minds were bright and open and full of the same joy and curiosity that drove him to explore and travel. Yet, within the very same species, there were humans who ignored that which was obvious and right in front of their noses. He'd seen scientists and politicians, teachers and doctors, all ignore the blindingly obvious because it didn't fit it with their accepted world view.
He was curious as to which category Rose's sister would fall into.
Zoe pushed away from her sister with a roll of her eyes. "Fuck off. If you're going to lie to me then at least think up a decent lie, Rose. I'm not fucking stupid."
"I'm not lying to you." Rose said, fighting to grasp Zoe's hands that were still clenched as fists at her side. She finally managing to get hold of them as her little sister had never been particularly good at fighting her off, winning one fight in ten over the years. "Zoe. He's an alien."
Zoe looked at the Doctor over Rose's shoulder. The Doctor's focused face switched to a large toothy grin that she imagined he thought was reassuring but was actually just disturbing. "And I'm the Queen of Sheba."
"Met her once." The Doctor piped up cheerfully. "Lovely woman. Very intelligent. Makes a great chicken soup."
Zoe blinked at him. "Rose, I swear to God –"
"I can prove it to you." Rose said firmly, ignoring the Doctor as he was being absolutely no help. "He has a ship. This – this space ship, I suppose, but it's not just a space ship – it's also a time machine. It's called the TARDIS."
"Stupid name."
"Oi!" The Doctor exclaimed, finally hopping down from the wall. She'd gone one step too far by insulting the TARDIS. "There is nothing stupid about my ship, young lady."
"Young lady?" Zoe repeated. She wrenched her hands out of Rose's and marched over to the Doctor who, still sore from Jackie's slap, wisely retreated but she wouldn't let him. She stood toe to toe with him, if not eye to eye, and she poked him in the chest. Hard.
"Ow."
"Listen to me, you KGB wannabe." Zoe said furiously, poking him in the chest again. "I don't know what you've done to my sister but when I find out, I'm going to find the nearest car I can and I am going to run – you – down."
Rose tried to pull her back but she wouldn't let herself be moved. "Zoe!"
"Aliens and time machines!" She shot at him. "Have you drugged her with something, you –?
Whatever fresh insult Zoe had concocted in her anger never had the opportunity to be spoken aloud as there was a sound of a deep, loud horn that blared from above them. She physically jumped from the ground in surprise and fear at the unexpected sound, and all three of them snapped their heads around and looked up into the sky, following the source of the noise. From the clouds that covered London that cool Sunday morning, a spaceship careened close to the city with black smoke trailing in its wake. Zoe felt a strong hand press against her shoulders, forcing her to the ground. Her knees cracked against the unforgiving concrete and she dropped the rest of the way without any encouragement as she covered her head with her arms whilst the world around her shook around her – the spaceship passed overhead, missing them by only a few feet.
The pressure on her shoulder eased and she sat up, wide eyed and breathless. "Oh my god."
Rose grinned at her, face bright and glowing. "Believe me now?"
The Doctor leapt to his feet and Rose scrambled after him. "Come on!"
Zoe stared up at him from the ground. "What?"
"Come on!" He laughed, delighted at the turn of events. He bent and scooped Zoe up, lifting her to her feet so swiftly that she stumbled. He grabbed Rose's hand, and then Zoe's and pulled them along in his wake. "Hurry up!"
"Where are we going?" Zoe asked, stumbling down the steps after them, not used to having someone hold her hand whilst she walked let alone ran.
"A spaceship just crashed into the middle of London." The Doctor grinned and his entire face was transformed – he looked like an excited child. "We're going to look at it."
"We'll never get close enough." She protested as she tried to get her feet under her.
Rose bounced along beside her, weaving through people who had emerged from their flats to see what had happened. "We've got the TARDIS."
"Nope." The Doctor shook his head. "Whole world's going to be on alert. Don't want anyone picking up the TARDIS and realising I'm here. You lot are going to have to figure this out on your own."
"Then how are we going to get close?" Rose asked as the Doctor dragged Zoe down the stairwell – Rose was eager enough to move under her own steam.
"You've got two legs, haven't you, Rose Tyler?" He asked. "We're going to walk."
"Then I'll repeat myself since you seem to be hard of hearing despite the excess help." Zoe said, finally pulling her hand free of the Doctor's and grabbing him by the back of his leather jacket. She pulled him up short and he gave a little sound of surprise at being so manhandled; she spun him around. "We'll never get close enough."
His interest in her fled in the face of her dullness. "Then stay here."
"Listen, Spock." Zoe scowled. "The whole of London just saw a giant alien spaceship crash into the centre of London. It takes 25 minutes to get to the centre by the tube. By the time we get there, all the streets for at least a mile around will be shut down and blocked off and the police will be in place. We. Won't. Get. Close. Enough."
The Doctor finally stopped. He stared at her. "Oh."
"Yeah. Oh." Zoe rolled her eyes, flexing her hand where he had been gripping it a little too hard in his enthusiasm. He looked like a small child who had been told he couldn't have his dessert.
Rose looked between them. "Now what?"
"Now we go back upstairs and watch it like everyone else." Zoe replied, already starting up the stairs at a more sedate place. "On the bloody TV."
