Partners in Crime
Disclaimer: Alice Noble belongs to me, and the rest of the characters belong to BBC.
It had been a year and a half since the incident last Christmas, that at Alice's older sister Donna had vanished in a beam of light at her wedding whilst walking down the aisle. But a miracle happened many hours later Donna had returned, arriving at the reception that Lance and their mother Sylvia decided to throw without hesitation on Donna's part which left her fuming. To everyone's surprise she had brought along a rather tall, yet attractive man, who wore a brown pinstripe suit and sandy coloured converse. Alice couldn't really recall much of what his his face looked like, as she lightly remembered having gotten sent home by her mother after getting completely hammered. Having woken up with a really bad hangover the very next morning.
Alice had finished University last year and earned a History Degree, she was the first of the Nobles to get a high-end education which was something to be celebrated and was now taking a gap year off her education.
It was that only last week Donna had walked out of her job in Chiswick council's Health and Safety department. Now, a week later, Donna tried constantly to convince her sister to let her come into work with her at Adipose Industries where recently she had applied for reception work. But soon enough Alice gave in, out the kindness of her heart even if she thought Donna sounded absolutely crazy about what she planned to do.
"This is mad what you're doing! Letting you, snoop around my work as a fake Health and Safety Inspector. All because of some silly assumption you found on the internet, that's probably not even true. If they find out, I'll lose my job and it will be all on you," Alice implied moodily to Donna about the riskiness of plan, shaking her head, as they both walked towards Alice's work place.
Donna was wearing a matching black suit and trousers with her hair down, while Alice wore a smart yet fashionable blue blouse, along with a grey suit jacket that matched the pencil skirt, with daring electric blue heels and bag to go with her blouse. She had tied her strawberry blonde locks up into a neat bun.
"I know you've said it over and over how insane I'm being about this, but I will only be here for two-three days tops, after that I'll be out of your hair for good if I haven't found anything," Donna calmly reassured her sister for her not to fret over it.
They finally arrived at the building and entered together, both going their separate ways. What neither of them knew was, at that very same moment a certain Time Lord had secretly entered on the same quest for answers as Donna.
Later that day, much to Alice's dismay, at the end of her work shift Donna called telling her to find her own means of transport to get home, as it seemed she was planning staying out later than she intended. "Mum, I'm back," Alice called out to her mother, as she entered the house putting her bag down by the front door and slipping her heels off.
"Oh, hello dears," her mother returned in greeting, thinking both of her daughters have returned home. "You're back late?" she questioned out of curiosity, looking down at her watch before going over to the kettle and putting it on. In the meantime Alice walked into the open planned kitchen-living room, pulled out the kitchen chair and slumped into it with a sigh of relief. "Where's that sister of yours?" Sylvia asked her daughter with concern, only having just noticed that Donna hadn't followed in behind her. While waiting for an answer, she came over to Alice and handed her a mug of tea. Alice gladly accepted it and placed on the kitchen table in front of her.
"Out, said she was 'busy' apparently," Alice scoffed back in annoyance, covering for Donna using air quotes as she emphasised the word busy. "That's why I'm home late as well. Told me to get the bus home."
"That sister of yours has been nothing but an oddity lately. Has been like it ever since her wedding when that strange man showed up." Sylvia told her daughter with worry, as she joined her daughter at the kitchen table, bringing her own mug of tea and a plate of biscuits to share.
"I know mum, I worry about her too sometimes. But that trip to Egypt did her some good though." Alice calmly put, trying to keep her mother at ease about Donna patting her mother's hand gently, before she grabbed a biscuit and took a bite out of it.
The front door opened and closed at half past eight later that evening. Alice and her mother looked at each other and rolled their eyes, knowing exactly who it was, as granddad was still up the on hill looking through that silly telescope of his. "And what time is this?" their mother shouted out moodily, knowing their mother only meant trouble for Donna.
"How old am I?" Donna bit back at her mother.
"Not old enough to use a phone!" Alice heard their mother retort sharply to her sister, as she stepped out into the hall briefly. Sylvia had made Alice call Donna several times that evening to see where she was. After that her mother bite her sister's ear off for at least half an hour for everything under the sun. But neither of them knew that the following night would be full of surprises.
-Doctor Who-
The following morning Donna drove Alice to work again, after their mother nearly came out of the house in her dressing gown and with rollers in her hair, complaining that she needed the car to go out later that evening.
"So what's your grand plan at today then?" Alice asked in annoyance, breaking the silence between them soon as they arrived and parked up in the alley near her work.
"I'm staying until closing," Donna replied with an informative tone. As they now got out the car Donna locking it and walking on in front of her sister.
"What?!" Alice voiced in disbelief, catching up to her wondering if her sister has really thought this through and not get caught, "All day long? Are you mad? Where do you plan on hiding exactly?" But she Alice had her suspicions that her big sister was on a stake out. But what for?
"Yes all day. And I'll be staying in the women's toilets on the third floor," Donna simply informed her. Alice said no more on about the matter after that going their separate ways. She was going to find out what her big sister was up to because right now she has gone too far.
Work finished bang on six and as Alice bid everyone goodbye as they walked past reception, leaving the offices. Afterwards she headed straight up to the third floor where Donna is hiding in the toilets.
"Donna," Alice called out to her in a hushed voice as she entered the bathroom.
"Al, what are you doing here? I thought you would of gone home." Donna asked in surprise, poking her head out from behind the door of the last toilet cubicle, seeing her little sister standing there.
"Well Don, I haven't gone home, because I'm here to make sure you don't do anything dangerous or stupid," Alice replied harshly, glaring at her sister.
"Ok then," Donna sighed, knowing she had no choice but to let Alice stay. "Has the building cleared out?" she went on to ask, wanting to make sure it's safe to come out of hiding.
"Yes, about fifteen minutes ago, but whatever you came to do you need to do..." before Alice could even finish, Donna's mobile interrupted her and in return Alice rolled her eyes. "Really Donna, that will definitely help them not find us," she complained in a joyous yet sarcastic manner, still keeping her voice level down as they both dashed into separate toilet cubicles.
"Not now," Donna replied in an annoyed whisper, while Alice now listened in with her ear up against the wall, realizing from the tone of her sister's voice that it was their mum on the other end of the line. "I can't. I'm busy," Donna replied with the same manner, when their mother mentioned that she needed the car. "I'm in church," Donna lied convincingly, when in fact she was still in the office building. "Praying," she replied. Still, their mother went on talking about her friend that had been taking those Adipose pills. But before anymore could be said, the door to the ladies toilet came crashing open, hitting the wall and making Donna hang up her phone instantly.
"We know you're in here so why don't you make this nice and easy and show yourself?" Miss Foster, Alice's boss asked firmly. At this moment Donna thought that now would be a good time prop her feet up on the toilet to hide them from view. "I'm waiting. I warn you, I'm not a patient woman. Now, out you come," Foster commanded while getting a little impatient. "Right. We'll do it the hard way," she said the impatient tone audible in her voice now after nobody emerged from the cubicles. "Get her," she instructed her guards and they started to kick the doors open, but they stopped, eventually when they have found who they were looking for. "There you are," Foster said.
"I've been through the records, Foster, and all of your results have been faked. There's something about those pills you're not telling us," a young woman implied that she'd found dirt on the company, leaving Alice with her mouth hanging open, shocked on what she's just heard.
"Oh, I think I'll be conducting this interview, Penny," Foster told and called by name the woman who had hidden in the toilets. Alice and Donna were relieved that they haven't been found. As soon as Foster left, Donna and Alice carefully came out of the cubicles, looking around to see if they're gone.
"Now do you believe my silly assumption?" Donna asked turning to Alice smugly, knowing she was right all along.
"Yes, now I do," Alice replied back, now believing in her sister's hunch to why she needed to come here with her in the first place.
-Doctor Who-
After what just happened, Alice led her sister to the adjoining small office to Miss Foster's which connected straight on to hers. Both of them listened in intently on the conversation, not knowing the Doctor was doing exactly the same thing as well. Only except he was in a window cleaner trolley with a stethoscope pressed against the glass on the other side of the room outside the building.
Alice could not believe what she was hearing. This was all still shocking for her to find out that she's been working for a company that produces aliens from people's fat. Whether they did exist that is and they were called Adipose, named after the pills of all things. The thought alone just made her nauseous. They both now slowly sneaked through the circular window of the office door in to Foster's office.
Out the corner of Alice and Donna's eyes they saw him, the man from the wedding reception that was over a year ago. At least what Alice could remember of him apart from his clothing hadn't changed, she could now put a face to it and he had quite a nice face if she did say so herself. Even if he did look just as equally shocked as Donna did, as he stood opposite them mouth hanging open.
'Donna,' he silently mouthed her name in surprise as Alice now watched the silent exchange between them.
'Doctor!' she takes notice of the man's name her sister used, thinking it rather an odd name for someone, or that it was probably a nickname he liked to use.
'W-what?' he asked with a frown of confusion.
'Oh, my God!' Donna put back, not being able to contain her excitement that the Doctor was here.
'How?' he asked, still trying to make heads and tails over this.
'It's me,' Donna pointed to herself being rather too obvious, making Alice roll her eyes ironically.
'I can see that,' the Doctor gestured to himself and then to her that he got it, 'Who's that with you?' he asked nodding to the young woman with the reddish blonde hair and warm brown eyes beside Donna.
'My little sister Alice,' she introduced, knowing she hadn't really mentioned her when they met the first time round. Seeing as she was a bit preoccupied at the time.
Alice looked over at him.'Hi' she greeted giving him a small wave and a pleasant smile.
Before her sister went on in her excitement about seeing the Doctor, 'but oh this is going to be brilliant!'
'What the heck are you doing there?' he asked Donna was doing here the same time as him apparently.
'I was looking for you?' she replied honestly pointing at him. Now Alice found out why her sister was acting so odd. The real reason they were both stuck in the office is because Donna was looking for him, the man across from them. But what was so special about him?
'What for?' he asked a little confused. But after that Alice got lost in what they were saying to each other because Miss Foster notices them.
"Are we interrupting you?" Miss Foster asked them before the Doctor mouthed a word to them.
'Run!' And in doing so they headed to the stairwell going up the stairs, hoping to meet the mysterious Doctor halfway. Luckily they did, after going two flights of stairs they bumped into him.
They hugged each other, being so happy to see each other. "Oh, my God!" Donna cried with happiness, grasping onto the Doctor and checking if he was really there before her. While Alice stood in awkward silence before them, now recognising the suit he was wearing, the very same one from the wedding reception. "I don't believe it!" Donnas squealed excitedly, stepping away holding his arms, "You've even got the same suit!" she said while looking at his clothes. "Don't you ever change?" Donna asked.
"Yes, she's right! Do you ever change?" Alice asked in the same way.
"Yeah, thanks both of you, not right now," he said in all seriousness before there was the sound of the doors in the stairwell slamming open, making all of them look down. "Just like old times," he said excitedly grabbing hold of Donna's hand. "But for you this is something new," he added looking in Alice's direction before they charged up the stairs.
"You have no idea," Alice answered in a somewhat scared, yet excited way that she found this danger exhilarating, which seemed strange to her.
They all rushed out onto the roof, the Doctor locking the door behind them with some sort of device that Alice saw him holding in his hand. "Cause I thought 'How do you find the Doctor?' And then I thought, 'Look for trouble, and then he'll turn up'," Donna started to go on, explaining about how she started looking for him.
"That's why you wanted to come into my work to look for him?" Alice asked her sister moodily, gesturing at the Doctor before following him over to where the window trolley was.
"So I looked everywhere, you name it," she continued to explain. "UFO sightings, crop circles, sea monsters. I looked, I found them all," Alice thought she sounded crazy at first, but all the stuff Donna had looked up online sort of made sense since finding out her boss was an alien.
"That song about the bees disappearing, I thought, 'I bet he's connected'," she went on while the Doctor did something to the control panel of the trolley. "Cause thing is, Doctor, I believe it all now. You opened my eyes to all those amazing things out there," It sounded to Alice that her sister never believed in such things before, but she did now. "I believe them all. Well, apart from that replica of the Titanic flying over Buckingham Palace on Christmas Day. That's got to be a hoax!"
"What do you mean the bees are disappearing?" The Doctor asked Donna about that one particular thing, sounding confused as he went up the steps and into the trolley.
"I don't know. That's what it says on the Internet. On the same site, there were all these conspiracy theories about Adipose Industries, and I thought, 'Let's take a look'," Donna went on to tell him. Alice now knew that Donna's theory about this place had been right all along.
"In you get both of you!" he called to the sisters, when Alice's vertigo suddenly set in, remembering she was on a tall office building.
"What, in that thing?" Donna asked like he was mental.
"Are you insane? I'm not getting in that thing and I'm not exactly a fan of heights," Alice implied stepping away from the steps in fear.
"Yes, in that thing," the Doctor complained to them, not really taking her fear into account.
"But if we go down in that, they'll just call us back up again" Donna pointed out the dilemma.
"No, no, I locked the controls with a sonic cage. I'm the only one that can control it," he explained it as Donna climbed the stairs, the Doctor helping her. "Now, come on, you don't have to look. Just keep your eyes shut and you'll be fine," The Doctor assured Alice from the window trolley. Keeping herself calm, she closed her eyes and climbed the stairs as his rough hand took her smooth one quickly guiding her in before sonicing the window trolley to start moving.
The trolley had moved bit down the building a bit before Foster arrived. What they didn't know is that she had a sonic device of her own, pointing it at the controls and destroying them, making the trolley start to plummet. Alice opened her eyes screaming along with Donna holding onto the said trolley for dear life.
"I don't care how scared I am now but do something useful! Use that sonic thing you've got! Alice suggested, shouting out in fear while remembering him using it on the controls when Donna was rambling to him. The Doctor got it out straight away after she told him, pointing to the mechanism making it come to a complete stop at a window.
"Hold on! Hold on, we can go in through the window," The Doctor suggested while scanning the window for them to get back into the building. Which was nearly impossible because Foster deadlocked the building from the outside. "I can't get it open!" he shouted in frustration from not being able to get in. On the floor of the trolley there was a spanner that Alice picked up, showing it to Donna and passing it to her as a sort of a hint.
"Smash it, then!" Donna shouted and started to hammer on the glass, trying to break it. In the meantime Alice was praying it would work so she could get off this thing.
While the Doctor and her sister were trying to get through the window, Alice looked up as she heard the sound of a sonic device similar to the Doctor's, a light cutting through the rope, making Alice panic. "She's cutting the cable!" Alice shouted out, making the other two look up seeing it as well just before it was too late the cable was cut.
"Alice, Donna!" the Doctor called out in panic as Alice and Donna tumbled out of the trolley screaming.
"Doctor!" Donna shouted, scared for her life holding on to a piece of metal.
"Help me Doctor, oh my God help me!" Alice screamed out of her wits, holding onto the legs of her sister for dear life while keeping her eyes closed, knowing she was dangling so many feet off the ground.
"Hold on both of you!" he shouted back to them as he was trying to make sure they don't panic.
"We are!" they both shouted back together, as the Doctor tried to pull them both up by the cable but failed too because they were too heavy together as an equal weight.
But the Doctor noticed Foster was about to cut the other cable and pointed his sonic to where she was aiming at hers it shocked her and dropped it from her hand. He caught it and placed it between his teeth before climbing the cable and sonicing the next window above with Foster's device. "I'm going to fall I think my grip is slipping!" Alice shouted nervously while trying to keep grasp of Donna's legs her hands getting a bit sweaty.
"This is all your fault. I should have stayed at home," Donna complained to the Doctor as he looked back down at the two sisters.
"Yes, Donna we should have," Alice agreed with her.
"I won't be a minute," he told them, stepping through the window he just opened up while he thought of a plan to save the girls by going to the next floor below them. Which meant that he had to go into Foster's office to help them through the window.
He eventually got to Foster's office to where Alice and Donna where hanging in front of the window that they both spotted him at earlier. While Penny the reporter was tied up in the chair she complained and asked questions, while the Doctor unlocked the window with his sonic before sliding it up looking down to the younger Noble sister.
"Alice, grab hold of my hands and I'll pull you in," The Doctor told her what to do. Alice has let go of Donna's leg with her right hand and reached her hand out with her eyes still closed, grabbing hold of his hand and hoisting herself up through the window into the room, landing on her feet and finally opening her eyes.
"Get off!" Donna shouted while kicking her legs about, thinking that one of the guards have caught her, but it was the Doctor helping her now that he saved her sister.
"Calm down Donna, it's the Doctor! He's trying to help you!" Alice informed her.
"Donna, stop kicking!" he told her so he could help her through the window, in which he eventually succeeded.
"Is it always like this with you?" Alice asked him wonderingly, while Donna caught her breath thinking if his life was this daring and exhilarating that made that exciting rush go through her again like when she was in the stairwell.
"Oh, yes. And off we go!" he replied to them both, looking at the sisters with a menacing yet attractive grin on his face. They all rushed out of the room before the reporter called him back so he would undo the binds on her chair, telling her to get out of here.
-Doctor Who-
They continued going until they came to a complete halt of the office cubicles with Foster standing in their way.
"Well, then. At last," the alien woman said now that she had stopped them from leaving.
"Hello" Donna greeted her awkwardly with a small wave and then her sister did the same.
"Hi."
"Nice to meet you. I'm the Doctor" the Doctor greeted in a pleased way like he was happy and interested to meet her. He was doing so probably because he wanted to know her intentions.
"And I'm Donna. She's Alice," the older Noble introduces herself and her sister
"Partners in crime," Foster indicated while looking at all three of them. "And evidently off-worlders, judging by your sonic technology," Foster stated, looking in the Doctor's direction, making Alice now understand that he wasn't just a man; but an alien man and an attractive one at that. She has come to except maybe aliens do exist after all.
"Oh, yes. I've still got your sonic pen," he said pulling out the black and silver object that looked really convincing for a pen. "Nice. I like it. Sleek," he commented on how well crafted it is, showing it to Alice and Donna.
"It's kind of sleek," Alice commented before the Doctor looked at her strangely, like he was about to say those words but brushed it off as a coincidence.
"Oh, it's definitely sleek," Donna agreed with Alice and the Doctor on the sonic pen.
"And if you were to sign your real name, it would be...?" The Doctor asked with intrigue, wanting to know what her true name was.
"Matron Cofelia of the Five-Straighten Classabindi Nursery Fleet. Intergalactic class," Foster told the Doctor her true designation.
"Wow, that's a mouthful," Alice mutters to herself.
"A wet-nurse. Using humans as surrogates," he stated.
"I've been employed by the Adiposian First Family to foster a new generation after their breeding planet was lost" she told them her mission.
"What do you mean, lost? How do you lose a planet?" The Doctor asked.
"Oh, politics are none of my concern. I'm just here to take care of the children on behalf of the parents," she replied, waving it off and letting them know it wasn't the sort of thing that she dealt with.
"What, like an outer space super-nanny?" Alice asked a little confused.
"Yes, if you like" Foster replied in agreement with the question.
"So..." Donna started, trying to think of what to say. "So those little things, they're made out of fat, yeah?" she asked, and the thought still made Alice cringe. "But that woman, Stacy Campbell, there was nothing left of her," she remembered what she saw when she was at the woman's house.
"Oh, in a crisis, the adipose can convert bone and hair and internal organs. It makes them a little bit sick, poor things," The alien woman stated.
"What about poor Stacy?" Alice asked with concern, stepping forward hearing about the poor woman who lost her life.
"Seeding a level five planet is against galactic law," the Doctor told Cofelia what she has done is wrong and against some sort of space law apparently.
"Are you threatening me?" Matron Cofelia asked, feeling like she has been challenged by what the Doctor said about the law.
"I'm trying to help you, Matron. This is your one chance," he said, offering to help her with a way out of if she would accept this chance he was giving her. "Cause' if you don't call this off, then I'll have to stop you," he warned her that he'll bring down her operation by force.
"I hardly think you can stop bullets," she threatened, making the guards point their machine guns at them and making Alice and Donna jump in fear.
"No, hold on, hold on, hold on!" the Doctor said and put his hands up in surrender, making them halt their actions.
"One more thing, before dying," he said while getting his sonic out of his suit jacket. "Do you know what happens if you hold two identical sonic devices against each other?" he asked and held both sonic objects in each hand.
"No," Cofelia replied, being unsure what he was trying to do. Alice and Donna were also unsure about his next move.
"Nor me. Let's find out," he said before holding them opposite each other, pressing the buttons on them and making the most severe high-pitched noise ever heard making a piece of glass break. Everyone has covered their ears except for the Doctor who was still holding the sonic devices. Alice nudges him so he would stop and so they have left.
-Doctor Who-
They got down to the basement level of the building. Before coming to a halt at a cleaning cupboard. The Doctor went inside and started to throw everything out, from a ladder to a mop bucket.
"Well, that's one solution. Hiding in a cupboard. I like it," Donna implied. Alice thought so too and nodded her head.
"Been hacking into this thing all day 'cause the Matron's got a computer core running through the centre of the building. Triple-dead locked," the Doctor explained to both as he slid on some glasses that Alice found rather sexy on him, but she shook her head to make that thought go away. She and Donna tried to understand what he was saying as he slid the wall panel open, revealing alien machinery as they came in and closed the door behind them. "But now I've got this, I can get into it" he said holding the sonic pen up to them, grinning before working on the machine. They didn't know that at the same time the Matron has opened the panel in her office, putting it to work.
"She's wired up the whole building," he pointed to the loads of cables before pulling one out with a sharp tug. "We need a bit of privacy," he snapped it in two and held the wires opposite each other, electrocuting the guards outside. "Just enough to stop them"
"Why has she wired up a tower block? What's it all for?" the Doctor asked in wonder. He yanked out some more cable and gave them for Donna to hold while he started sonicing the ends of it before putting them back in place. While Alice leaned against the wall observing.
"You look older," Alice heard Donna imply to the Doctor who was still doing the same thing with the cables. She didn't mean to eavesdrop, but she did anyway. Alice noticed what her sister meant, that he looked tired, yet somehow felt his eyes looked impossibly old for a man his age whatever it was.
"Thanks," he replied trying not to sound offended.
"Still on your own?" Donna now asked him. 'Did that mean he was a traveller?' Alice questioned in thought.
"Yeah," he replied, nearly lying at first before telling the truth. "Well, no. I had this friend. Martha she was called. Martha Jones. She was brilliant. And I destroyed half her life," he went on, being honest about the woman he travelled with.
"But she's fine, she's good. She's gone," he continued on a sort of happy tone, meaning she had moved on with her life and made a better one for herself.
"What about Rose?" Alice heard Donna ask about another girl. "Still lost," he replied mournfully like she died or part of her died with him. It also sounded like to her he used to be our was in love with this girl.
"I thought you wanted to travel the world," he implied remembering the last thing he said to her.
"Easier said than done," she sighed. "It's like I had that one day with you, and I was going to change. I was going to do so much," Donna told him about the day she met him. "Then I woke up the next morning... Same old life," Donna sighed sadly about the day when everything returned to normality. Alice now knew that was when her sister's life went downhill after that day. "It's like you were never there."
"And I tried... I did try," Donna told him as if he was something special, but Alice didn't know if she could see it.
"Yes Donna, more like we made you try. At least that Egypt trip did you some good," Alice interrupted, pointing out that it was her and their mother that gave her that much needed push to get out of the slump she'd been in.
"Yeah, I went Eygpt. I was going to go barefoot and everything. And then it's all bus trips and guidebooks and 'Don't drink the water' and two weeks later you're back at home," Donna told him about her trip. "It's nothing like being with you" she confessed to him. "I must of been mad turning down that offer," she reminded him of his offer, making Alice look up in attention as she had been looking at red painted nails.
"What offer?" the Doctor asked Donna, wanting a reminder.
"To come with you," she told him.
"Come with me?" the Doctor asked while turning to her, sounding sort of confused and happy.
"Oh, yes please!" she replied, but Alice saw that the Doctor was now talking about the question, but Donna must have heard it another way.
"Right," he dragged out a little unsure himself what was going on, while Alice looked at Donna like she'd gone loopy again.
"Inducer activated," the computer announced making them all look to the alien machine.
"What's it doing now?" Donna asked.
"She's starting the programme," the Doctor replied Donna in a panicked way.
"I've got a bad feeling about all this," Alice said with worry. What Donna and Alice didn't know was that meanwhile the Adipose were starting to take effect on the people who using the pills and Donna's and Alice's mother was witnessing it at this very moment.
"So far they're just losing weight, but the Matron's gone up to emergency parthenogenesis," The Doctor continued to go on while trying to stop the program.
"And that's when they convert..." Donna started to understand.
"Skeletons, organs, everything. A million people are going to die," he implied madly making Alice worry. What this alien woman was doing was wrong on so many levels and she could tell how desperate the Doctor was to save these people from certain death. "I've got to cancel the signal," he said, getting the pendant that was issued by the company out of his jacket. "This contains the primary signal. If I can switch it off, the fat goes back to being just fat," unscrewing it and taking out a small metal like coil he attached it to one of the wires he'd been modifying.
"Inducer increasing," the machine announced, meaning that whatever the Doctor tried to do, the Matron seemed to have bunked it up another notch.
"No, no, no! She's doubled it! I need..." he started to get frantic, unsure what he needs to do to stop it. "I haven't got time. It's too far. I can't override it" he went still for a moment as he was unsure what to do. If he didn't do something soon, it would be too late. "They're all going to die!"
"Is there anything I can do?" Alice asked, seeing if she could offer any help to the panicking Doctor.
"Sorry, Alice, this is way beyond you," he assured her as he moved the dials on the machine. "I've got to double the base pulse. I can't..." he went on as he put his hands up in frustration.
"Doctor, tell me, what do you need?" Donna then asked, now offering her help seeing that her sister already tried.
"I need a second capsule to boost the override, but I've only got the one. I can't save them," he told Donna, who then patted her pockets for the pendant.
"Oh, God I must of left it in my bag," she whispered to Alice in frustration.
"Hang on," Alice searched at the back of her neck for the clasp of the pendant that was right above the one for her locket that she always loved to wear. Unclasping the pendant she held it out dangling it in front of Donna as they both smiled.
"When did you get that?" Donna quickly asked in a whisper.
"When I started work everyone was issued one," she told her sister. Alice tapped the Doctor on the shoulder to get his attention. "This what you're looking for?" she asked as he saw the pendant hanging from her hand, both her and Donna looking at him with a smug looks on their faces, making the Doctor grin at them proudly and gasp in delight. He grabbed hold of it quickly, unscrewing it and attaching it to a wire shutting the machine down entirely.
-Doctor Who-
They all felt a tremor underneath their feet and the sound of a loud electrical humming that seemed to be coming from outside. "What the hell was that?" Donna asked as Alice clung onto her in fright. The sisters had no idea that a spaceship has entered the atmosphere and that their granddad was none the wiser about what was going on.
"It's the nursery," the Doctor informed her.
"Wait a minute," Donna implied while wondering what it is.
Alice also eagerly wanted to know the same thing, "When you say 'nursery', you don't mean a crèche in Notting Hill?"
"Nursery ship," he told them.
Suddenly the machine that was shut off by the Doctor moments ago came back on again, surprising the Doctor with the sound it just made. "Incoming signal" the machine announced meaning it was receiving a message that starts coming through in a language neither of the sister's understood, but the Doctor did.
"Hadn't we better go and stop them?" Alice asked, wondering if they shouldn't go before the aliens would get away.
"Hold on, hold on," the Doctor told her politely so he could listen to the language coming from the machine. "Instructions from the Adiposian First Family," he told them both.
"She's wired the tower block to convert it into a levitation post...Ooh!" he concluded what the Matron has done to the tower block. Before he could finish he heard something that the Adiposians were saying. "Oh! We're not the ones in trouble now," he realised that what they were saying was not sounding good at all. "She is!" It sounded like it was bad for the Matron so they all charged out of the cupboard, hoping to save her in time.
As they got to the roof of the building they hurried over to the end of it and saw many levitation beams before them with all the little fat-made child aliens floating up into the spaceship. Alice couldn't believe what she saw and was distracted from the fact that she was on a tall building. "Wow" she whispered as she was shocked but also amazed at the sight.
"What are you going to do then? Blow 'em up?" Donna then asked if he was going to hurt them or not.
"They're just children. They can't help where they come from," he said while he was putting his glasses away. His answer made perfect sense to Alice because he didn't seem to be the kind of alien that would harm children. His answer showed her what a caring being he really is.
"Oh, that makes a change from last time," Donna said to him as if was different the last time she met him. "That Martha must of have done you good," she then mentioned the girl he was with.
"Yeah, she did. Yeah. Yeah," he answered while nodding his head. "She did. She fancied me," he added before Alice and Donna looked at each other and decided to play a little word game about the woman for having a crush on the Doctor.
"Mad Martha, that one," Donna started off.
"Blind Martha," Alice then said.
"Charity Martha," Donna finished before she looked back to the fat floating up the beams. One of the fat-made aliens waved at them, making Donna, Alice and the Doctor wave back in amusement. "I'm waving at fat," Donna implied, but Alice thought that they were cute, as if though the fact that they were made from fat didn't nauseate her any more.
"Actually, as a diet plan, it sort of works," the Doctor said matter of factly as they kept watching before the Matron came into their vision. "There she is!" the Doctor called as they rushed over to her. "Matron Cofelia, listen to me," he called out for her to listen to him so he could explain her what he heard about the instructions from the Adiposians.
"No, I don't think so, Doctor. And if I ever see you again, it'll be too soon," she insisted, not wanting to hear what he had to say.
"Why does no one ever listen?" he asked the sisters but they shrugged their shoulders.
"I'm trying to help! Just get across to the roof," he instructed what to do. "Can you shift the levitation beam?" he asked of her.
"What, so that you can arrest me?" the Matron asked back, thinking he's bluffing.
"Just listen. I heard the Adiposian instructions. They know it's a crime breeding on Earth, so what's the one thing they want to get rid of?" he asked rhetorically. "Their accomplice," he explained to her.
"I'm far more than that. I'm nanny to all these children" she answered as she thought more highly of herself.
"Exactly. Mum and Dad have got the kids now. They don't need the nanny anymore," he answered honestly just before the beam cut out. The Matron looked at them in shock before she fell to her death, screaming and finally hitting the pavement. The two women pulled closer to the Doctor's side so they wouldn't have to see it. They looked up and saw the spaceship was already full with the children, and it went shooting off into space while Alice went looking on in wonder.
Now wondering outside from the office block the Doctor walked along looking at the sonic pen in his hand. He noticed a bin nearby and tossed it in just as Alice and Donna came up beside him.
"Oi! You three!" the reporter Penny shouted, getting their attention while apparently being tied to a chair once again. "You're just mad! Do you hear me? Mad! And I'm going to report you for..." she went on to them angrily while trying to think what she could report them with. "Madness!" she finally said, making Alice snicker at the woman as she struggled down the stairs still tied to the chair.
"Some people just can't take it," Donna sighed while looking on at the young woman.
"No," the Doctor agreed and Alice nodded her head
"And some people can," Donna said getting more upbeat. "So then, TARDIS. Come on!" she said excitedly and grabbed his arm, pulling him along in a run. While Alice stood there for a bit, contemplating about putting her sister in a mental home.
"Don, what are you on about!?" she called out. "Don, Donna!" she called out as she chased after the Doctor and her sister.
She comes to a complete halt in the alley way where the car is parked. Not really taking much notice of what her sister was saying at this moment. Because standing there before her was an 1930's Police Box. Not being able to concentrate on anything else, Alice admired it's historical beauty.
"And I've been ready for this. I packed ages ago just in case," she heard Donna go on, coming back to reality on what her sister was saying about getting ready for a trip.
"So that's why you haven't been letting mum use the car," Alice voiced surprisingly, while looking at all the bags in the boot.
"Cause I thought, 'Hot weather. Cold weather. No weather. He goes anywhere. I've got to be prepared'," Donna told the Doctor while handing some bags to him. Once again Alice looked at her sister like she was crazy again. Where was her sister really planning on going with him?
"You've got a...A hatbox," The Doctor pointed to the item Donna had placed on top of the other bags.
"Planet of the hats, I'm ready!" Donna shouted in excitement, reminding Alice how much Donna loved them.
About five minutes later Donna was still rambling on. While Alice looked on in amazement through the open door of the Police Box. Inside it she saw a large room and thought her mind was playing a tricks on her.
"You're not saying much," Donna said as she noticed that the Doctor hadn't said a word. He simply looked emotionless.
"No, it's just. It's a funny old life, in the TARDIS," he told her in a way that wouldn't upset her.
"You don't want me," Donna answered sadly.
"I'm not saying that," he implied.
"But you asked me," she pointed out sadly. "Would you rather be on your own?" she asked, making sure how he felt about her going.
"No. Actually, no," he told her honestly, dropping the bags to the floor gently. "But..." he started to say. "The last time, with Martha, like I said, it..." he tried to put in a gentle way about the last person that travelled with him. "It got complicated. And that was all my fault. I..." he finally decided to say what he felt. "I just want a mate," But Donna didn't hear it properly which made her take it the wrong way.
"You just want to mate!" she shouted back in an offended way.
"I just want 'a' mate," he said it out more clearly to her.
"You're not mating with me, sunshine!" Alice shook her head and snickered silently at her sister's misinterpretation.
"'A' mate. I want 'a' mate," he went out in annoyance, trying to get it through to her.
"Don I think that he's trying to say that he wants a friend, not a lover," Alice said lightly, playfully whacking her sisters shoulder to knock some sense into her.
"Well, just as well, because I'm not having any of that nonsense I mean, you're just a long streak of nothing. You know, alien nothing," Donna said stepping out of the ship pointing out how skinny he was.
"There we are then. Okay," the Doctor agreed with her about it.
"I can come?" she asked while trying to make sure if this time she was really going.
"Yeah. Of course you can, yeah," he replied being straight forward, nodding his head lightly. Now the situation of the 'mate' thing was out the way. "I'd love it," he added with a grin which made Donna whoop in happiness before rushing over about to hug him.
"That's just..."
"Car keys Donna, mum's going to need those," Alice pointed out to Donna.
"Car keys," she repeated what Alice told her, holding them in front of the Doctor.
"What?" the Doctor asked while sounding confused to what they were talking about.
"I've still got my mum's car keys. Won't be a minute," she told him before marching past the Doctor and her sister, leaving them both in an awkward silence before he picked up some of the bags putting them inside the doorway.
"So, you had a strange night?" he asked Alice casually, picking up the last of the bags.
"You could say that, yeah. Weirdest night of my life, really," she sighed somewhat happily, folding her arms across her chest and leaning against the car. While he finished putting the bags inside.
"Got any plans?" he asked out of interest, implying she didn't have a job anymore.
"I don't know. I was only going to stay in the job I had until I went back to University next year. Now I don't know what to do," she replied sadly, with a shrug of her shoulders.
"Come, I'll show you the inside if you want. Saw you peaking earlier," the Doctor said knowing that Alice had viewed the inside from afar earlier. Stepping aside and he letting her through before him, closing the door behind them. He walked past her as she stood there glued to the spot on the ramp, scanning the magnificently large space with her brown orbs, looking from the coral beams to the circular console stood in the centre of the room, it was full odd contraptions and gizmos it surrounding a tube of glass illuminated by turquoise light.
"I looked at it from the outside but... this is it's..." she spoke in excitement at a complete loss for words until it came to her, "it's beautiful."
"Welcome to the TARDIS. It stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space," he explained to her.
"It really travels in time as well as space?" she asked rather amazed at what the space ship could do.
"Anywhere, anytime," he replied truthfully, leaning against the console and smiling at the thought of another person's discovery of the TARDIS. But to the Time Lord's surprise, she took it rather well.
"So, staying?" he asked, feeling rather hopeful that Alice would stay to keep her big sister company.
"Oh, definitely," she replied, turning around and looking back to him with a smile.
Not long after that Donna came back discovering her sister was coming with her. The Doctor couldn't have known that on her way back she had seen Rose, a long-lost friend of the Doctor's. Donna was happy that the Noble sisters were going to be travelling to the stars together. But for Alice there would be a life changing surprise in store. One which she did not expect to discover about herself.