This is a story that I almost forgot about that I had sitting on the hard drive of my old laptop. I've wanted to write an adventure including Mickey for a long while and this is the result.
Enjoy!
As always: I don't own Doctor Who, but the aliens mentioned in this story are from an old original story of mine that I've re-purposed for this one.
Mickey's head was buzzing. He suspected he was hungover. He carefully made his way down to the TARDIS kitchen (which he swore was a good deal closer to his room the other day) to make himself a nice strong cup of tea.
He wasn't at all acclimated to life on this strange ship. Night and day seemed to blur together; there were no clocks around to tell you what time it was. It was a strange irony seeing that this was a time machine.
He finally stumbled into the kitchen, the bright lights making him squint. He registered Rose sitting at the small table sipping away at her mug of tea. She smiled brightly at him and he mustered up the strength to smile back. A quiet cuppa with Rose sounded perfect right now. He hadn't had much time alone with her since he came aboard. Their adventures with the clockwork robots didn't really count in his mind. They were too busy trying to stay alive!
But they weren't alone.
"Mornin', Ricky!" A male voice boomed happily behind him, followed by a good-natured slap on the shoulder. Mickey nearly jumped out of his skin. Then he sighed. Oh course, wherever Rose was, the Doctor was never far behind. Those two were practically inseparable.
"Watch it…" Mickey grumbled as he sank into a chair next to Rose. His head hurt too much to even point out that the Doctor got his name wrong… again. He knew it was just good-natured teasing, although it didn't start that way. Back when the Doctor spoke with a Northern accent, it sounded almost malicious, now the words didn't have the same sting. But it still got on his nerves. He felt a bit better when Rose put her hand on his back and started rubbing small circles into it.
"You all right?" She asked. Mickey shook his head. "Hangover?" He nodded. This resulted in the Doctor chuckling into his tea.
"Look, I warned you about having too many of those Triaxillan ales!" His face broke out into a wide grin. "How much of last night do you remember?" Mickey squinted even more trying to look up at the Doctor. Rose looked up at him too, trying to contain her own giggles. She knew where the Doctor was going with this. Mickey tried to concentrate on what happened the night before and found it quite hazy. He remembered entering the tavern with the Doctor and Rose. There was something going on inside that the Doctor had explained was like Karaoke back on Earth, in fact there was a selection of "classic" Earth music to sing along to. He remembered ordering his first drink, but after that…
"Don't remember much." Mickey finally admitted. The Doctor and Rose were now roaring with laughter. It made his head hurt even more than it already did. Rose jumped up and sidled up beside the Doctor as he pulled what looked like a video camera out of the pocket of his pinstriped jacket. They focused their attention on the small screen, and Mickey began hearing the WORST rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody he had ever heard in his life. Then it dawned on him.
"Wait… that's… that's…!" He stuttered. Rose had her head buried in the Doctor's shoulder, trying to stifle her laughter.
"Yup!" The Doctor laughed, popping the 'p'. "Once you got it in your mind you wanted to sing, weeell, we couldn't stop you!" He focused on the screen once more and bubbled over with more laughter. He gripped Rose's shoulder to try and keep himself steady. Mickey's face flushed with embarrassment and he lay his head down on the table.
"Can someone just get me a cup of tea…?" Rose took some pity for him, and went to the stove to retrieve the kettle.
"We are soooo showing that to mum next time we visit!" She giggled with her tongue wedged firmly between her teeth, beaming away at the Doctor.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" The Doctor laughed as he pocketed the camera. "We can't just keep this to ourselves! YouTube! The worlds just gotta hear how beautifully Mickey Smith can sing!" The large lump of a human groaned in the corner.
"But Doctor that was filmed on an alien planet! Don't you think someone's gonna notice?" Rose poked him in the middle of the chest.
"Nah! Plenty of places look like that!"
"Yes, but humans don't look like big purple… blobs? You got a couple those people in frame, you know!"
"Really?"
"One of them was right in front of us! You couldn't have missed him."
"No, I meant humans looking like big purple blobs. Just last week I saw this bloke and he was just this… OW!" Rose punched him playfully in the arm. "Am I being rude again?" Rose nodded, then gave him another tongue in teeth smile. The Doctor beamed back at her as he rocked back and forth on his heels. Mickey shot them both his best glare.
Could these two flirt later? Or not at all?
"Hello, man needing tea over here!" Mickey shot his arm up in the air like a kid in school. The Doctor looked over at him, almost appearing to notice him for the first time.
"Oh, sorry." The Doctor handed Rose a mug from the cupboard behind him, then he immediately sprinted from the room as alarm bells started ringing in the direction of the console room. Rose almost slammed the mug onto the counter as she sprinted away after him.
Mickey still sat at the table staring at the open door. 'Typical… I'm just an afterthought.' He hauled himself to his feet, draining the remaining tea from Rose's mug and running to the console room himself.
"What's going on?" Rose asked the Doctor frantically, with just a hint of excitement in her voice.
"Dunno!" He reached around the time rotor to grab his scanner, in doing so he stepped right into Rose and bumped shoulders. She didn't move away, she was too transfixed by the Gallifreyan words that appeared on the screen. He pulled his glasses out of his pocket, threw them on his face and stared at the screen.
"Well?" Rose prodded him, watching his face twist into a look of intense concentration, with a hint of a grin on his face, the tip of his tongue planted firmly behind his top teeth. The more trouble they found themselves in, the more filled with glee he seemed to become. It just radiated off of him and Rose found herself hard pressed not to start smiling even during the most dangerous times. The time rotor suddenly flared to life.
"Something's drawing the TARDIS off course!" The Doctor frantically reached for some switches on the far side of the console. "Hold on!" Rose was forced to take a step back as he suddenly flung his foot at the console, the rubber tip of his Converse shoe hitting yet another lever. She grabbed onto the railing as the TARDIS pitched wildly to the side. Mickey stumbled and fell into the nearby jump seat, clinging to the tattered fabric for dear life. The Doctor continued his contortionist act as he tried desperately to regain some measure of control over his precious ship. He frantically pointed to a lever beyond his reach and Rose flipped it without any sign of hesitation. A panel started throwing electrical sparks. He grabbed one of his mallets hanging nearby and hit it until the sparking ceased. Then as suddenly as it started, the time rotor stopped.
"Well… we've landed." The Doctor took his foot off the console and stood up straight. He held his hand out to Rose who had stumbled and fell during their rocky trip through the Time Vortex. She took it gratefully and allowed him to lift her to her feet.
"You alright?" She smiled at him indicating she was not hurt. He smiled back and gripped her hand a little tighter.
"So, where are we exactly?" Mickey asked. The Doctor spun around with a surprised look on his face.
Oh, right. Mickey was still here!
He released Rose's hand and grabbed his long brown coat that was hung haphazardly on one of the coral columns and threw it on.
"Let's go find out!" he smiled at his friends as he adjusted the collar of his coat making a wild dash to the door.
"But I'm still in my pajamas!" Mickey hollered at them as they disappeared outside. The Doctor poked his head back in and gave him a quick appraising glance.
"Oh, just hurry up, will you! Shift!" He barked impatiently and retreated outside once again.
OoOoO
Rose was completely entranced by the sights in front of her. They had landed on a hillside overlooking a grand city. The sky was dark, but the city was glistening with thousands of lights that made it look like it was comprised of stars.
"It's so pretty." She breathed as she hugged the Doctor's arm still gazing at the city below them.
"Yeah." He wasn't even looking at this city, just the fair-haired girl who was standing so close to him. He smiled as he leaned into her slightly. She looked up at him and smiled back. He cleared his throat, realising he'd been staring (again) and focused his attention on the city below them. He traced the skyline with his eyes then looked up at the stars to get a further bearing on their location. He did a quick calculation in his head.
"This is the year 6,892. We're on the planet Katoria Prime, and that is their capital city of Reynos." He made a grand gesture with his free hand.
"Why would the TARDIS bring us here? Not that I'm complaining. That city looks gorgeous!" Rose couldn't tear her eyes away from the sparkling spires. The Doctor shrugged.
"I'm sure we'll find out soon enough. But we need to be careful." Rose looked up at him, her brow knitted together.
"You? Careful? That I'd love to see." She chuckled as she elbowed him in the ribs. He shot her a long-suffering look as he wriggled out of her grasp and turned to face her fully.
"Rose Tyler! I'm always careful."
"Is that why you fly the TARDIS with your feet and a mallet?"
"I get us where we need to be!" He pouted at her in mock-exasperation. She crossed her arms at him her eyebrows shooting upwards, that adorable tongue in teeth smile. "Well… ah… usually." He tugged at his earlobe absently. "But seriously, we need to be careful. The Katorians are generally friendly, but they've gotten a bit more militaristic the last few years. They don't always take too kindly to alien visitors. Something drew the TARDIS here and until we figure out what that is we best be careful." He looked back at the blue, smaller on the outside Police box just as Mickey was emerging wearing clothing more befitting a walk outside than fuzzy slippers and oversized T-shirts would. The Doctor pointed in that general direction. "Maybe we should keep that out of sight as well. Don't want to be alarming them." Mickey only caught the last two sentences and looked at the Doctor in horror.
"What? I'm not even a person anymore?! I'm the Tin Dog all over again!" Mickey hollered. The Doctor blinked in confusion.
"I'm sorry? What? You don't look anything like K-9. He was a lot cuter." Rose rolled her eyes. The Doctor was being so thick, and Mickey so insecure, but equally thick.
"He meant the TARDIS, Mickey." Rose clarified, hoping to defuse the situation before it got any worse. "The Doctor thinks it'll make the locals nervous." Mickey seemed to relax a bit, but still couldn't look the Doctor in the eye. Then a thought occurred to Rose.
"Wait a minute, Doctor. I thought you said the TARDIS was designed to be unnoticeable."
"Well usually she is, but sometimes people take notice. Remember the Nesteen Consciousness? Well, how could you not? That's how we met! Grabbed your hand, told you to run, just before that Auton chopped you in half! And people call me rude!" The Doctor smiled heartily at Rose. Mickey shuddered at the memory. "Anyway, the Nesteen found the TARDIS a threat and wanted to destroy it. Same thing could happen here. There are some paranoid people living on this world. These people have had some terrible wars. Not as bad as the Time War, but still... I can't have the TARDIS falling into the wrong hands. But I have an idea." He bounced on his heels. "Wait here you're gonna love this!" He turned towards the TARDIS so fast that his coat-tails swirled around him and ran back in and only stopped when he reached the console. He started flipping switches and pressing buttons as Rose and Mickey watched from outside. The Blue Box began to shimmer, almost as if it was dematerialising, but the time rotor was silent. The shimmering faded, and all they could see of the TARDIS was the console room through the still open door.
"Cool! Cloaking device!" Mickey was thoroughly impressed.
"Oh yes!" The Doctor crowed, grinning from ear to ear as he sauntered back out to his friends. He closed the door behind him and the TARDIS disappeared completely. "Let's just remember where we parked. I don't want what happened at Earl's Court to happen again!"
"What happened there?" Mickey innocently asked.
"Long story."
"Ooh, I know how we can remember!" Rose piped up. She picked up four small stones and walked back to where the TARDIS stood. She made a slight miscalculation and bumped into it causing the outer shell to shimmer for a moment before becoming completely invisible again, but eventually managed to place each stone at the corners.
"Rose Tyler have I ever told you how brilliant you are?" The Doctor was beaming at her. Rose grinned back.
"Why thank you!" She put on her most posh voice and did a mock courtesy. Mickey chuckled too, but with a little less mirth. All this flirting under his nose was starting to get a bit stale for his tastes.
"Come on then, comrades!" The Doctor clasped one arm around Rose's shoulder and the other around Mickey's they took a few steps forward but then halted when the Doctor got lost in thought. "Comrades? No that still doesn't sound right… amigos? Nah. Mates? Ugh, no! Someone may get the wrong connotation. Slang may be different here…" He suddenly realised that the humans standing beside him were giving him strange looks. He sighed as he began walking again. "Okay then, you two, let's go explore that city!"
OoOoO
The three time travellers eventually found themselves on a paved road heading into the city. They passed a few of the local inhabitants along the way. Rose noted that they looked very similar to Humans (or the Time Lord in their midst) except they all had these dark, scaly stripes along the backs of their necks and arms. Everyone's hair was exceedingly long and most of them had it tied back into tight braids and their colour ranged from black to bright auburn. A few of them seemed to stare at Rose's hair, but the Doctor explained that blonde was not a colour usually seen on this planet, and seen as a rare display of beauty. Quite a few more seemed to physically gasp at Mickey's appearance.
"Let me guess, on this planet my skin colour isn't common either?" Mickey half joked. The Doctor shrugged.
"Actually, here it's just as common as it is on your world. See?" He gestured to a couple sitting at what looked to be a café with the same chocolate complexion as Mickeys.
"Then why are people staring at me like that?" Mickey caught a young child staring, but she quickly looked away when she met his gaze. "It's kinda getting creepy." Before he could get an answer, a small round robot about the size of a football floated up to them and hovered about a foot away from the Doctor's face. He blinked as a bright green light shone on his face for a moment and the robot made a humming noise briefly. The light shut off abruptly.
"Identification please." Came a mechanical voice from the round robot. The Doctor fished the psychic paper out of his pocket and held it up to where he suspected the robot's eye was.
"I'm the Doctor, and these two are my friends: Rose Tyler and Mickey Smith." The Time Lord grinned manically as he gestured to his companions in turn. The robot floated away from the Doctor and scanned Rose then moved on to Mickey. Things changed abruptly when it scanned Mickey's face. The green light switched to red.
"Error: You are not Mickey Smith." The robot droned. He blinked.
"Course I am!" He rooted through his pockets, retrieved his wallet and held out his driver's license in the same manner as the Doctor used the psychic paper. The robot scanned the card. "See?"
"Negative: You are not Mickey Smith."
"Then who the hell am I?"
"You are Lord Kraverst."
"Who?"
He didn't receive and answer. A bright light suddenly enveloped Mickey. The next thing they knew, the Doctor and Rose were left standing on the street without him with the robot hovering in front of them.
"The Doctor and Rose Tyler; You are under arrest."
Long first chapter is long. Expect more soon!