Author: mkcrl120
Disclaimer: Doctor Who characters belong to the BBC or some other people. I don't own anyone hinted at from the crossover universe either.
Summary: Small drabble/ficlet - Rose needs to get used to this new Doctor.
Rating: No swearing, nothing that should be inappropriate for any reader.
Rose still wasn't sure what she thought about this new Doctor.
He'd seemed nice enough, and once he'd settled in he definitely appeared to have the same memories as the man she'd been travelling with. But she was starting to realise that this wasn't some simple face-lift... if she was right, it was like an entire personality-lift. Maybe even a whole person-lift.
It felt like a lot of the sadness the other... well, him... was gone. Though not really gone, if she was being honest. It was that he didn't wear it on his sleeve anymore.
And in other regards, he was manic in a completely different way than he had been before. He seemed more knowledgeable about things, though she wasn't sure how that was possible. Especially considering everything that she'd already seen during her journeys.
The previous guy seemed to know quite a few things, but this one... She realised she was definitely looking at him-them as though they were two seperate people.
And for the first time, that he truly was an alien.
Someone... still some one, some person... not quite moved into the some thing level of alien. But alien all the same; someone she might never fully understand.
She was aware her behaviour towards him had changed, she also wondered if he'd even realised that was the case and what he was intending to do about it.
Was he giving her time to adjust, or was he also working out if she was the type of travelling companion that this new him would take with him?
Was he secretly eyeing up other people, seeing if he could find a more preferable option?
What would you do if you were suddenly lumped with someone else's memories, someone else's life and all the choices that went with it? How long would it take you to decide which aspects were still you, and which belonged in the past with the old face, the old body and maybe even the old friends?
Would she be cast aside as casually as he'd traded clothing style?
She was having a hard enough time dealing with it from her own point of view, especially the part where she was having serious doubts as to whether she'd have even started travelling if this had been the person she'd met originally.
Maybe he was also having doubts, it would explain why once the problem with the invading race at Christmas had been dealt with they were still here. Still camped out in her mother's flat.
She'd tried asking him about it, but he'd fobbed her off with some excuse about liking the human race.
Well she'd realised that ages ago, everywhere they went there was normally some sort of human presence. Or at least humanoid...
She wasn't really that clear on the specifics of it all.
But since Christmas all he'd really done was go sight-seeing in London. A whole space-time continuum to work with and they'd generally stayed within twenty miles of her own flat.
It was on another one of these little trips that she realised maybe, just maybe, she would have gone visiting the galaxy with this man too.
It'd started out as quite normal. Actually if you were comparing it to some of the trips she'd taken with the old Doctor then it was mind-numblingly normal. This was mum-normal, Mickey-normal, this was her old life-normal.
They'd been out seeing the sights, she'd taken him to the London Eye. Okay, so it had been a lame attempt on her behalf to force a reminder on him. She'd hoped it'd be a giant wake-up call. A rather unsubtle nudge in the 'Remember when we had adventures and spent time saving people.' direction.
But they'd gone and left without any discussion. They'd stood side by side, in silence, just both of them staring at the giant wheel as the sun slowly went behind the horizon.
It was when they were walking back to the flat that everything changed.
Some sort of large four-legged green alien creature had come bounding off one of the low roofs on the opposite side of the road. This new Doctor had merely turned in it's direction.
Rose's heart immediately began to quicken. Aliens, an adventure... maybe the Doctor had been waiting for this very event, and everything else had just been him killing time.
She grabbed his hand, intending to spur him into action. It was as she was virtually forcibly dragging him down an alley after it, that she realised most of his attention seemed focused on something behind them.
She glanced backward silently hoping that there wasn't another of these aliens chasing them; confirming it was clear apart from a humanoid form also running in the same direction, she returned her attention to the alleyway ahead again. Just in time to spot the creature as it's claws dug deeply into the brickwork and it quickly scaled the two story building.
She felt herself being slowed down by the Doctor trailing behind her, his attention fully on the man following.
"It's only a Greiven." He informed her, without bothering to turn around.
"I don't know what a Greiven is!" She shouted back, pulling heavily on his arm in an attempt to yank him after her.
The man was now close enough to make out in the dim light of the alleyway. To Rose's estimation he seemed of fairly heavy build, dark unruly hair, and he seemed to be holding something. But it was the eyepatch that attracted Rose's attention the most.
"It's not a Griffin." The man responded in a strong American accent.
She was about to respond when the Doctor beat her to it.
"Of course it's not a Griffin." The Doctor responded immediately. "There hasn't been a Griffin in Europe in over fifteen hundred years, Griffin indeed... what sort of person would mistake that for a Griffin? It didn't even have wings."
The man seemed to look them over with his good eye, skipping over her after a few seconds perusal he gave the Doctor a more detailed look before returning his attention back to the rooftops. "It's not safe out." The man informed them before taking off in the direction the Greiven had last been seen, as he ran away from them Rose noticed the strange object strapped to his back.
Rose was about to ask the Doctor a question when suddenly he grabbed her hand and began running in the same direction. She quickly got herself up to full speed as they tried not to let the man get too far ahead of them.
She figured they were in luck when he reached a junction, and suddenly paused. She saw him pull a mobile out of one of his coat pockets and begin speaking to someone.
He was just finishing the call just as they reached him, Rose was only able to make out the end of the conversation before he hung up.
As he began to run down one of the alleyways they quickly followed, now less than ten feet behind him.
"Come on." The Doctor urged from slightly in front of her.
As she turned to face him, she noticed the grin on his face, she immediately returned the smile feeling that she was back on more familiar ground.
"An American... with a stick... and an axe... and some friends." He gestured up to the rooftops, Rose glanced at where he was pointing and could definitely make out what looked like women running along the roof edges.
She was shocked when one of them leapt across the alleyway to land on the roof edge opposite. Returning her line of sight back to ground level she guessed that it was about a twelve foot gap.
She wondered if this was that free-running craze that Mickey had mentioned, she was about to comment when the Doctor continued.
"And they seem to be hunting monsters." The Doctor added with a wild look in his eyes. "How can people not love this planet?" He shouted to the sky, receiving a curious glance from the one-eyed American ahead of them.
Rose let out a brief laugh as she tried to pick up the pace. She probably would have gone with this Doctor too, the alternative would have been unthinkable.
The End