This is probably going to be crap, so please no flames!
And I do NOT own Doctor Who! Steven Moffat, Russel T. Davies, and the BBC possess all rights
to plot and characters! The only thing I own is Ellen!
And for future reference:
Within the story,
Italics are the characters' thoughts; mainly El's.
Bold is loudspeaker/ television/ A/N.
Ellen Rogers checked her watch. 'Half past noon,' she thought. 'They should have been here by now!' Ellen looked around, seeing the familiar sights of Trafalgar Square: the Charles I Monument and Nelson's Column, the National Gallery and the little shoppes scattered around the whole of the square. 'Might as well go inside the shoppe and wait for her there. I can text both Rose and Mickey and have them meet me here.'
Ellen sent the couple a text, "At the usual. Meet me here. ER~"
A few minutes later, the shoppe's bell jingled as the door opened. Rose and Mickey stood there, both with mussed up hair and rumpled clothes, sharing similar sheepish grins.
"Sorry El, Mickey and I got a little...distracted."
El shook her head at that. "Next time you're going to shag during our lunch break, don't plan it with me!" The three laughed. Ellen pushed her long ginger locks over her shoulder and looked at the clock. "Lunch's just about over. We should probably head back to the shoppe, Rose."
"Yeah... Sorry Mickey. We've gotta go." Rose gave him a peck on the lips and grabbed El's hand, dragging her out of the shoppe. They made it just in time.
"This is a customer announcement. The store will be closing in five minutes. Thank you."
El and Rose laughed and went to head out with the other girls, but the guard shoved a clear plastic bag in Rose's face."
"Oi!" The guard shouted.
Rose glared up at him, but took the bag and said, "El, come on." The two ran back to a lift and were taken down to the basement.
"Wilson?" Rose asked. "Wilson, I've got the lottery money!" No answer. "Wilson, are you there?"
The duo came upon his office. "I can't hang about 'cos they're closing the shop. Wilson! Oh, come ON!"
There was a faint thud a bit further down the corridor. El and Rose walked slowly towards where they heard the noise. 'This doesn't sound good at all...' thought Ellen.
"Wilson?" Ellen spoke up. "Hello? It's El. Hello? Wilson..?"
El moved over to the store room on the right and opened the door, stepping inside as Rose turned on the lights.
"El. This is where the noise earlier came from, I'm sure of it."
Ellen nodded and started edging around the boxes and dressed mannequins.
"Wilson?" Rose asked, frantic now. "Wilson!" Rose headed off in one direction, leaving El behind. The door they came through suddenly slammed shut, leaving them inside. Rose ran back to the door, pulling on the handle, but it was stuck.
"Great," Rose said. "Locked in the storage room. Just how I wanted to spend the rest of my life."
"Rose, calm down. We'll get out of this. Just you wait."
"I don't see how."
El let out an exasperated sigh and wandered off in the direction adjacent to the door. She heard more noises from behind her, and Rose shouting, "Is that someone mucking about? Who is it?" El turned around and started moving towards Rose just as a male shop dummy approaches Rose. "This is bad, this is very very not good..." El muttered.
"Yeah, you got me. Very funny!" Rose said as more shop dummies start moving towards Rose. "Right, I've got the joke. Whose idea was this? Is it Derek's? Is it? Derek, is this you?" Even more shop dummies start moving even as Rose keeps backing away down the storage area. Eventually they corner her against a wall. The lead mannequin raised its arm, ready to attack. Then a hand grabs Rose's wrist.
"Run." The owner of the voice said. He dragged Rose through the basement and into a lift, the dummies right behind them. El was waiting inside the lift, holding the doors open. She lets them close as soon as the two are in, but the lead dummy manages to get its arm in between the closing doors. After quite a few pulls, the stranger manages to yank the arm off, and the lift doors close.
"You pulled his arm off." Rose said, shocked.
"Yep. Plastic." the strange man said as he threw the arm to Rose.
"Very clever. Nice trick! Who were they then, students? Is this a student thing or what?"
"Why would they be students?" El cut in. The man looked at El with a grin. She knew the right questions to ask. She grinned right back at him.
Rose looked between the two. She seemed to catch on that the man and El would become fast friends. "I don't know..."
"Well, you said it." The man said, continuing El's thought.
"Why students?" Ellen said, finishing his sentence. He grinned at her like an idiot.
"'Cos to get that many people dressed up and being silly, they got to be students." Rose said, still confused as to how the man and her best friend could be so cheerful at a time like this.
"That makes sense," the stranger said. "Well done."
"Thanks."
"They're not students," said El and the stranger together. They grinned at each other again.
"Well, whoever they are, when Wilson finds them, he's going to call the police!" said Rose, eager to get both herself and El away from the strange man and his cheerfulness. He was making Ellen act strangely.
"Who's Wilson?" inquired the man.
"Chief electrician." answered Ellen.
"Wilson's dead."
"That's just not funny! That's sick!" Rose shouted as the trio left the building.
"Hold on. Mind your eyes," said the stranger.
"I've had enough of this now!" exclaimed Rose when the strange man used a little silver pen-thing on the lift mechanism, disabling it.
"Who are you, then? Who's that lot down there?" No answer. "I said, who are they?!"
"They're called Autons," said Ellen. The man looked at her in surprise, his mouth hanging open comically before continuing, still watching Ellen.
"They're made of plastic. Living plastic creatures. They're being controlled by a relay device on the roof, which would be a great big problem if I didn't have this." He held up a small bomb. "So, I'm going to go up there and blow them up, and I might well die in the process, but don't worry about me. No, you go home. Go on. Go and have your lovely beans on toast. Don't tell anyone about this, 'cos if you do, you'll get them killed." The man shut the door behind him, and opens it again a few seconds later.
"I'm the Doctor, by the way. What are your names?"
El's face lit up at his introduction. She had a feeling he was the Doctor, but wasn't sure. He had regenerated since she saw him last. She grinned and introduced herself, saying, "Ellen. Ellen Rogers."
His already wide grin widened to an impossible size as he took El in his arms and spun her around, hugging her tightly. Rose watched on, shocked into silence. The two knew each other, probably had a history. She knew the man was old, she could see it in his eyes. But El was the same age as Rose! Or so she thought.
When the Doctor finally let El back on her feet, they were both laughing. He still didn't let her go, however.
"And your name?" he asked, excited.
"Uh, Rose."
"Nice to meet you Rose."stated the Doctor. His expression changed to a maniacal smile. "Run for your life!"
Rose didn't need to be told twice. She took off like a bullet.
"Doctor, I'm going to go with her. Her mother's going to go mad if she thinks I was in the middle of this."
He looked into her eyes.
"Of course. Do what you need to. But we're going to talk later, okay?"
She smiled and said, "Always!" before leaning up on her tiptoes and giving him a peck on the lips. El then ran off in the same direction as Rose.
The Doctor was stunned into silence for a moment before shaking his head to clear his mind and get it back on task.
El caught up to Rose just as the upper floor of the shop exploded in a huge fireball. The two ran straight past an out of date police telephone box sat just in the alley between two other stores. They didn't stop until they made it back to Rose's flat.
"The whole of Central London has been closed off as police investigate the fire. Early reports indicate..."
Rose and El were both slumped over on the settee, as Jackie Tyler was on the telephone.
"I know! It's on the telly. It's everywhere! They're lucky to be alive! Honestly, it's aged them both. Skin like old Bibles. Walking in now you'd think I was Rose's daughter! Oh, and here's himself."
Mickey walked into the sitting room and sat down on Rose's other side, looking worried.
"I've been phoning your mobile. You could have been dead! Both of you! It's on the news and everything! I can't believe that your shop went up!
"We're all right. Honestly, we're fine. Don't make a fuss!" spoke Rose, slightly irritated.
"Well, what happened?"
"I don't know!"
"What was it though? What caused it?"
"We weren't in the shop. We were outside!" said Rose.
"Didn't see anything, other than the explosion." added Ellen.
Jackie decided to speak to them at that moment. "It's Debbie on the end. She knows a man on the Mirror. Five hundred quid for an interview."
"Oh, that's brilliant!" said Rose sarcastically. "Give it here!"
She took the phone and ended the call.
"Well, you've got to find some way of making money. Your jobs are kaput, both you and El, and I'm not bailing you out!" Just as she finished her sentence, the phone rang again and Jackie answered it.
"Bev! She's alive! I've told her, sue for compensation! She was within seconds of death!"
"What're you drinking, tea? Nah, nah, that's no good. You're in shock. You need something stronger," Mickey tried to convince Rose.
She laughed and said, "Is there a match on?"
"No, I'm just thinking about you, babe." He defended himself, unconvincingly.
"There's a match on, ain't there." Not a question.
"That's not the point, but we could catch the last five minutes!" He seemed to have just noticed El sitting there. "All three of us!"
El smiled and shook her head. She didn't want to be a third wheel. But she wasn't surprised when Rose declined as well.
"Go on, then. I'm fine, really. Go. And get rid of that." She pointed at the Auton's arm.
Mickey leaned down and kissed Rose, and El looked away, blushing.
"Bye bye." Mickey said to Rose.
"Bye," she replied quietly.
Mickey put the arm to his throat and pretended to be strangled, and left.
"Sorry about that, El. I know you didn't appreciate that much." Rose grinned. "We need to get you a date!"
Ellen's eyes widened and she shook her head. "Nah. I'm more of a loner."
Rose's voice dropped to a whisper. "It's him, isn't it? The guy from the shop. The Doctor, isn't it?"
El blushed slightly. "It is!" Rose squealed softly. "You like him!"
"Well..."
Jackie walked back into the room and settled on the chair. El breathed a sigh of relief, because she knew the Doctor's warning to Rose would keep her quiet around her mother. That conversation would wait for another day.
"Fire then spread throughout the store. Fifteen fire crews are in attendance though it's thought there is very little chance of saving the infrastructure."
Mickey threw the arm into a rubbish bin, whistling.
~THE NEXT DAY~
El had spent the night at the Tylers' flat; Jackie wouldn't let her leave after the incident at the shop. "I'd feel better if you stayed here! I don't want to wake up to a call saying that your flat had blown up and you were found dead!"
Ellen couldn't sway Jackie's mind; it was made up. She just smiled, said thank you, and curled up on the settee. She woke up to the sound of Rose's alarm clock going off at seven-thirty in the morning, and Jackie's voice calling from the kitchen.
"There's no point in getting up, sweethearts. You've got no jobs to go to."
A few hours later, the three were sitting at the kitchen table drinking tea.
"There's Finch's. You could try them. They've always got jobs."
"Oh, great. The butchers," Rose stated sarcastically.
"Well, it might do you some good. That shop was giving you airs and graces. And I'm not joking about compensation. You've had genuine shock and trauma. Arianna got two thousand quid off the council just because the old man behind the desk said she looked Greek! I know she is Greek, but that's not the point. It was a valid claim!"
The cat flap at the door started rattling.
"Mum, you're such a liar. I told you to nail that cat flap down! We're going to get strays!" said Rose as she headed to the door, El right behind her.
"I did it weeks back!"
"No, you thought about it."
El looked down and noticed that the screws that nailed the cat flap shut were on the floor. The flap moved, and Rose opened it, looking through. She saw the Doctor's face and quickly opened the door.
"Hello, El." He grinned at her, then looked serious again. "What're you doing here?"
"I live here!" Rose said, indignant.
"Well, what do you do that for?"
"Because I do. I'm only at home because someone blew up my job! El's here 'cos Mum wouldn't let her go to her own flat last night!"
"I must have got the wrong signal. You're not plastic, are you?" He knocked on her head.
"No, Bonehead." Rose said, impatient.
He grinned. "Bye then. El, wanna come?"
Before she could reply, Rose cut in. "You. Inside. Right now."
Rose grabbed the Doctor by the arm and pulled him inside. "Who is it?" Jackie said from her bedroom, where she was putting on makeup.
"It's about last night!" Rose replied. "He's part of the inquiry. Give us ten minutes."
"She deserves compensation! They both do!"
"Oh, we're talking millions," answered the Doctor.
Jackie looked at the Doctor with wide eyes, not noticing El right beside him, gripping his hand.
"I'm in my dressing gown," Jackie said flirtily. El tensed at that, but Jackie's intention just went right over the Doctor's head.
"Yes, you are." He said, not getting it.
"There's a strange man in my bedroom," she said, still flirty. He still wasn't getting it.
"Yes, there is," he answered.
"Well, anything could happen."
He finally got it. Pulling El in front of him, an arm around her waist, letting Jackie know he was taken, the Doctor said simply, "No."
Jackie looked shocked, to say the least. With a pout, she continued getting ready.
The duo walked into the sitting room together.
"Don't mind the mess," Rose stated. "Do you want a coffee?"
"Might as well, thanks. Just milk." He smiled at El.
"We should go to the police, seriously. All three of us." she said over her shoulder as the Doctor looked at the copy of 'Heat' on the coffee table.
"That won't last, he's gay and she's an alien." he said to El, who laughed softly.
"I'm not blaming you, even if it was just some sort of joke that went wrong," Rose continued.
The Doctor flipped through a paperback, scanning it.
"Hmm...," he stated. "Sad ending." El giggled.
"They said on the news they'd found a body."
"Rose Tyler...," he muttered.
The Doctor looked at himself in a mirror, and looked surprised. "Ah, could've been worse. But look at the ears!" He wiggled them with his fingers, making El chuckle at him again.
"All the same, he was nice. Nice bloke."
The Doctor then noticed a pack of cards. Grinning, he picked them up and tried to shuffle them, much to El's amusement. "Luck be a lady."
"Anyway, if we are going to the police, I want to know what I'm saying," Rose went on.
The Doctor's shuffling technique caused the cards to go flying around the room. The look on the Doctor's face as that happened caused Ellen to burst out laughing.
"I want you to explain everything," Rose said, her back still to El and the Doctor.
"Maybe not...," stated the Doctor just as the cat flap rattled again, like it did earlier when he was outside.
"What's that, then? You got a cat?" inquired the Doctor.
"No," said Rose. Right when she said that, the Auton arm grabbed the Doctor by the throat. The Doctor was fighting it off, with help from El.
"We did have, but now they're just strays. They come in off the estate."
With that, Rose walked in from the kitchen with three mugs of instant coffee. The arm was still strangling the Doctor, with both he and Ellen fighting it off, but Rose took no notice.
"I told Mickey to chuck that out. You're all the same. Give a man a plastic hand. And El, I can't believe you're playing this little game with him. I mean, I know you fancy him and all, but still." Rose's eyes grew wide as she realized what she had said. "I'm so sorry El... it just slipped out! Honest... And what's your name? Doctor, what was it?"
The Doctor finally managed to throw the arm off, but it stopped in midair and grabbed Rose's face instead. The Doctor and El pulled at it, managing to get it off after a few minutes of struggle by using the silver pen-thing with the blue tip. He then jabbed the device into the arm's palm, which caused the arm to stop struggling.
"It's all right, I've stopped it, There you go, you see?" The Doctor tossed the arm to Rose.
"Armless." supplied El, grinning.
"Do you think?" Rose said, smacking El on the arm with the arm.(Bit of a mouthful, that one.)
"Ow!" El said, glaring at Rose mockingly.
"Hold on a minute. You can't just go swanning off with my best friend!" Rose shouted, chasing the Doctor, who was holding El's hand, down the staircase.
"Yes I can. Here I am. This is me, swanning off." He raised a hand in goodbye. "See ya!" After a moment, he added, "Come on, El."
"But that arm was moving! It tried to kill me!" Rose exclaimed.
"Ten out of ten for observation." said the Doctor sarcastically. El sniggered.
Rose looked slightly taken aback, but continued anyway. "You can't just walk away! That's not fair! You've got to tell me what's going on!"
"No, we don't."
Rose continued to follow them. "All right then. I'll go to the police. I'll tell everyone. You said if I did that, I'd get people killed. So, your choice. Tell me, or I'll start talking."
The Doctor and El shared a look. "Is that supposed to sound tough?" the Doctor asked.
"Sort of," answered Rose.
"Doesn't work," replied the Doctor.
"Who are you?"
"Told you, the Doctor."
"Yeah, but Doctor what?"
"Just the Doctor."
"The Doctor." Rose said in disbelief.
"Hello!" he said, grinning and waving.
"Is that supposed to sound impressive?"
"Sort of."
"Come on, then. You can tell me! I've seen enough, and El knows! Are you the police?"
"No, I was just passing through. El's an old...friend. She and I are a long way from home."
"But what have I done wrong? How come those plastic things keep coming after me?"
"Oh, suddenly the entire world revolves around you. You were just an accident. You got in the way, that's all."
"It tried to kill me!"
"It was after me, not you. Last night, in the shop, I was there, you blundered in, almost ruined the whole thing. This morning, I was tracking it down, it was tracking me and El down. The only reason it fixed on you is 'cos you've met the two of us."
"So what you're saying is, the entire world revolves around you."
"Sort of, yeah." he grinned.
"You're full of it!"
"Sort of, yeah." he repeated.
"But all this plastic stuff. Who else knows about it?"
"Just El."
"What, you're on your own?"
"I've got El now. But who else is there? I mean, you lot, all you do is eat chips, go to bed and watch telly, while all the time, underneath you, there's a war going on."
"Okay." Rose took the arm from the Doctor, pushing her hair behind her shoulder."Start from the beginning. I mean, if we''re going to go with the living plastic, and I don't even believe that, but if we do, how did you kill it?"
"The thing controlling it projects life into the arm. I cut off the signal, dead."
"So that's radio control?"
"Thought control," interjected Ellen. "Are you all right?"
Rose hesitated. "...Yeah. So, who's controlling it then?"
"Long story."
"But what's it all for? I mean, shop window dummies, what's that about? Is someone trying to take over Britain's shops?"
The three laughed.
"No," El laughed.
"No," repeated Rose.
"It's not a price war. They want to overthrow the human race and destroy you. Do you believe me?" asked the Doctor.
"No." Rose replied.
"But you're still listening," countered Ellen.
Rose stopped walking.
"Really, though, Doctor. Tell me, who are you?"
The Doctor stopped walking and turned around, El in tow.
He glanced at El, who nodded.
"Do you know what we were saying; about the Earth revolving?"
He and El walked back toward her, still hand in hand.
"It's like when you were a kid," El continued. "The first time they tell you the world's turning and you just can't quite believe it because everything looks like it's standing still."
The Doctor picked up right where she left off. "I can feel it. El can feel it." Ellen took Rose's hand and continued for him.
"The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, and the entire planet is hurtling 'round the sun at sixty-seven thousand miles an hour, and the Doctor and I can feel it."
"We're falling through space, the three of us, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if you let go-" El released Rose's hand.
"That's who I am. Now, forget me, Rose Tyler." He reached out and took the arm back from Rose.
"Go home."
The Doctor led El towards the blue police box on the curb. Rose walked off towards another block of flats, when there is a sudden rush of air and a strange growling noise. She turned and ran back, and the police box was gone.
This is pretty much how every chapter of this is going to go. I'm going to do about half the episode as one chapter, and the other half as another chapter. I did this one a bit weird, three updated chapters, but that's because I wanted to get part of it out as soon as possible and see whether or not to continue with it. I think I've found that people like it well enough, so I'm going to continue it!
In case anyone's wondering, El and the Doctor are extremely close from the beginning. This will be explained later.
And Series Seven of Doctor Who comes out this month! I'm so excited!
Tune in for the second half of 'An Old Friend'!