Author's notes: I think I'm supposed to say something introductory at the start. Sadly I can't think of anything. Getting on with the story...

Oh and, I don't own Doctor Who.


Father's Day

Chapter 1: Pete Tyler.

With her mum watching some boring grown up programme on the telly, young Rose Tyler had gone to make another attempt at getting into Narnia. Sadly, the backs of all the cupboards remained solid.

In one of the last ones she tried, her mother's bedside cabinet, Rose found a small stack of photo albums. She liked photographs so she decided to have a look through. These ones were old. Older than her. They showed a lot of people she didn't know. Including one man who appeared in a lot of them.

She took the album into the living room and got Jackie's attention. "Mummy. Who's this man with you in all the photos?"

Jackie went wide eyed for a moment, then quickly took the album off her daughter. "I've told you not to go through my things!" And she quickly carried the book back to her bedroom.

When she didn't come back for several minutes, Rose sheepishly put her head round the door, in the hope of saying sorry.

She found Jackie on the bed, looking through the album herself, holding back tears. "I'm sorry I got cross. Come here." She said patting the bed. Rose went to join her. Jackie smiled and pointed to one of the pictures. "This man. He's your Daddy you're not old enough to remember when he died. 7th of November 1987. Do you remember what I told you? The day Sarah Clarke and Stuart Hoskins got married. He was always having adventures. He'd've loved to have seen you now."

"My Mum always told me these things about him. Said he was the most wonderful man in the world." Rose said to the Doctor, having finally worked up the courage to ask him about something she'd been rolling around in her mind ever since she'd first stepped into the TARDIS. "So I was wondering... Could we? See him while he's alive I mean."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Where's this come from all of a sudden?"

Rose turned to try and find something to look at on the far side of the control room. "It was just an idea. I mean, it's probably against the laws of time or something..."

"No, should be OK, 'slong as we're careful. It's you I'm worried about. Are you sure you want to see him?"

Rose nodded. "Yeah."

"Your wish is my command." Grinned the Doctor. "But be careful what you wish for." He gave the temporal tiller a hard shove and the TARDIS steered towards the 1980s.


"Repeat after me. I, Peter Allen Tyler, take you, Jacqueline Andrea Suzette Prentice."

Pete gulped with nerves. "I, Peter Allen Tyler, take you, Jacqueline Suzzane... Su... Suzette Andrea... er... Prentice." He looked at the vicar, not sure if he should start again or not.

"Oh just carry on." Said Jackie. "It's good enough for Lady Di."

Pete smiled, reminded of some of the reasons he was marrying this woman. With this boost in strength, he got through the rest of the vows with little trouble.

"In the back of the church, ignored by most of the guests who assumed they were someone else's cousins. The Doctor and Rose were watching, with slight amusement.

"I thought he'd be taller." Said Rose.


"Well, that's them." Said the Doctor, watching the Tylers pose for the photographer. Rose remembered seeing this very scene in a photo on her mother's nightstand. She even spotted the woman with her shopping, wandering past, the one Jackie had pointed out and explained that the photographer had airbrushed her to look like a bush.

She turned to the Doctor. "There's one other thing..."


"He was so close to home when he died." Said Jackie. "But I wasn't there. No-one was. It was a hit and run driver. We never found out who. He was dead before the ambulance got there. I just wish someone could've been there for him."

"I'd like to be there, with him." Said Rose.

The Doctor simply nodded. "November the Seventh?"

"1987."

He turned the chronometric dial the slightest of fractions, hit a couple of switches and released the handbrake. The column sounded just once before the machine came to a stop.

Rose stepped out. It was a reasonably warm day for November. Birds were singing. Cars were driving past. A man in denims was putting up posters demanding No third term for Thatcher. Somehow, this wasn't what she was expecting.

"The day my Dad died. I thought it would be all dark and stormy. It's just an ordinary day."

"The past's a foreign country." Said the Doctor. "1987's just the Isle of Wight. You sure you wanna' do this?"

Rose nodded. "He can't die alone."

The two of them stepped round the side of an abandoned pool club. It was a quiet street they found themselves in. A convenient place to park, just within sight of the Powel Estate.

"This is it, Georgie Road." Said Rose. "He was late. Mum said he'd gone to pick up a wedding present, a vase. Mum always said, that stupid vase." She watched as a green Ford pulled up at the curb. "He parked here... Went to cross the road..." Around the corner they heard the sound of someone over-revving their engine. Seconds later, a brown car skidded round the corner. "My God, this is it."

The driver slammed on the brakes and swerved to the right, but it was too late. Pete was knocked across the tarmac. The vase he was carrying flew through the air and shattered on the ground. The driver panicked and slammed the throttle, speeding away, while a group of girls gathered round a phone box scrambled to dial 999. But Rose remained rooted to the spot.

"Go to him, quick." Said the Doctor.

"I can't." Sobbed Rose, who promptly disappeared round the corner. The Doctor followed.

Shortly afterwards, the sound of a siren filled the air.

"It's too late now." Said Rose. "By the time the ambulance got there, he was dead." She looked up "He can't die on his own. Can I try again?"


Alarm bells were ringing in the Doctor's head as he led Rose round the far side of the building. Peering round the corner, he could just see himself and Rose from a few minutes ago. He was taking a lot of risk being here, but he didn't have the heart to tell Rose it couldn't be done.

"It's a very bad idea, two sets of us being here, so make sure they don't see us. Wait until she runs off and he follows."

They watched as Pete pulled up at the curb again.

Rose was looking at the girls stood by the phone box, in a minute, they'd phone for an ambulance but none of them would think to go to her dad. Nor would any number of people looking out of their windows. But she couldn't fault them too far. After all, she'd just watched a man get hit by a car and done nothing to help. And now she was about to do it again.

"I can't do this." She said.

"You don't have to do anything you don't want to. But this is the last time we can be here." Said the Doctor.

Rose could see the brown car approaching now. "No, I mean..." Oh screw it. Before the Doctor could stop her, she raced round the corner, in the direction of Pete's car.

Pete just had time to catch the approaching vehicle in the corner of his eye, before he heard a cry of "Look out!" Followed by a solid weight shoving into him, knocking him to one side. The vase slid from his grip and rolled along the road, undamaged.

The past Doctor, looked back and forth between the two Rose's for a few moments, before he and past Rose vanished, as though God had abruptly wiped them from the scene.

Pete, meanwhile, was picking himself up and staring at the retreating car as it disappeared from view. "Did you see how fast he was going? Did you get his number?" Next to him, the girl was picking herself up off the road, with a strange look of bewilderment on her face.

"I did it! You're alive!" She gasped. "That... that car was gonna kill ya."

"Give me some credit, I could see it coming. Wasn't just gonna walk under it was I?" He grinned.

"I'm Rose." The girl blurted.

"Pete." He tried to shake her hand, but she seemed slightly non-responsive. "I've got a daughter named Rose, nice coincidence."

"Good choice! Rose. Great name!" Rose said, with poorly disguised glee. There was something very odd about the girl, though she seemed harmless enough.

"Right, well I should be off. Got a wedding to go to."

"Is that Sarah Clarke's wedding?"

"Yeah, why? You headed there?"

"Yes!" She said on the spur of the moment.

"Perhaps you and your boyfriend'd like a lift." He gestured over to the Doctor, whom Rose had virtually forgotten about. The time lord was stood there, glaring daggers at her.


Had anybody thought to look skywards, they would have suffered an incredible sense of alarm. As it was, the creature circling overhead paid them no heed. It would return for them. For now, their mistake was giving it strength. Strength enough to look for victims to devour.


Pete led his guests through the front door. Rose had calmed down considerably as they walked up here. The man was yet to speak.

"Sorry about the mess." He said. "If you want some tea, it's in the cupboard above the sink. Milk's in the fridge. Obviously. Where else would you put milk? I suppose the window sill, in the winter. Someone could probably make a lot of money if they made a special window sill with compartments. One for milk, one for eggs... sell it to students... I should probably write that down... Anyway, excuse me, I need to change." He disappeared into Jackie's room. No, his and Jackie's room, Rose reminded herself.

She looked around the flat.18 years in the past and the place was in no better a state. Different walls, different furniture, but still just as cluttered and just as filthy. Some of the fittings, she hadn't seen in over a decade, but she still remembered them.

But then there were also details she couldn't remember. For one thing, the strong smell of baby, which presumably was coming from her. More significantly, the various artefacts left behind by Pete. Keen to engage the Doctor in conversation, she decided to show him.

"All the stuff Mum kept. His stuff. She kept it all packed away in boxes. Used to show me when she'd had a few. Here it is. On display, where it should be." She picked up a trophy from a shelf. "Third prize in the bowling. The first two got to go to Didcot." The Doctor's glare failed to alter so she tried again. "Health drinks." She picked up a bottle from a large stack in the corner, labelled Vitex. "Energy drinks, Mum used to call 'em. He made his money selling this Vitex stuff. He had lots of jobs, he was so clever." Still, the silent treatment. In one last attempt, Rose brushed some clutter off a set of blueprints on a table. "Solar power. Mum said he was gona' do this. Now he can." The Doctor still wouldn't respond. "Look, I'll tell him you're not my boyfriend."

The Doctor spoke at last "When I asked you if you wanted to travel in space, you said no. When I said time, you leapt at the opportunity."

"Look, this wasn't some big plan. I just saw it happening and I thought... I can save him."

The Doctor shook his head. First Adam, now her. "I've done it again. Picked another stupid ape. 'cos it's never about seeing the universe, it's about making the universe do something for you."

"Oh so it's ok when you save people, but it's not ok for me to save my Dad?"

"I know what I'm doing! Two sets of us being there made it a vulnerable point."

"He's alive!" Cried Rose.

"My whole planet died. My people. Do you think it never occurred to me to go back and save them?"

"But it's not like I've changed history. He's never gonna be, like, a world leader or something."

"Rose, a man's alive in the world who shouldn't be. An ordinary man. That's the most important thing in creation."

"Would you rather he died?"

The Doctor looked at his feet. "I'm not sayin' that..."

"Yeah, I get this now! For once, you're not the most important man in my life, and you can't stand that."

"Well let's see how you get on without me. Give it."

"What?"

"The TARDIS key. Since I'm so insignificant to you."

"Alright fine!" She handed it over.

"Well, since I've got you where you wanted, I'll be off." He turned to storm out.

"You don't scare me!" Rose shouted after him. "'cos I know how sad you are! You'll be back for me. Probably wait outside the TARDIS. And I'm gonna make you wait a long time!" She slammed the door behind him and leaned against a wall for support.

"Boyfriend trouble?" Said Pete.


The creature watched as the man in leathers left the flat. Unnoticed by him, it sniffed at him. What it smelled disturbed it and it decided to leave him for now.

Instead, it swooped over a row of gardens, hidden by some tall buildings. No one would see it unless they happened to look skywards at the moment it appeared overhead. That was just what a woman hanging out her s washing did. It was the last thing she ever did. The creature swooped down, and in a second there was no trace left of her left. It proceeded onwards, taking out a man cutting the grass, and old lady digging up weeds, a child looking out of the window and a tramp in the alleyway outside. Few of the victims even had time to scream.

The creature wasn't alone. One by one, creatures like it were appearing out of thin air, ready to devour all the people below.


Author's Notes: Just a thought: Why is a trip to Didcot considered a prize? I don't quite get that.