London 2006
"I don't know what they're making so much fuss about," Brigadier Cottell said as Kate followed him through the impromptu base they'd set up, her arms full of old files they'd pulled in an attempt to make some sense of this mess. "It's not like no one's ever seen an alien before."
"No, but none of that is common knowledge," Kate said. "Even among UNIT it's not all well known." There were things even she hadn't known until reaching her current security level. It amazed her how close some of the calls had been; without the Doctor she suspected the human race wouldn't have survived.
This looked like the sort of situation they could use the Doctor for, she thought. An alien spaceship crashing into Big Ben, everyone knowing that aliens existed? Kate wondered, not for the first time, where it was the Doctor had been all these years.
"I suppose not," her commander answered absentmindedly. "Take those and bring them to Dr. Sato over in the morgue, she'll need them."
Kate turned and left, eying the heavily armed soldiers with distaste. It had never occurred to anyone that aliens could be greeted in any other way but violence. Oh, be ready, absolutely. But always make sure first. Do the research. In the middle of her thought process, a door down the hall opened and a group of people came through, looking determined. Kate stepped aside to let them pass, but one of them stopped her.
"Let me see those," a man in a leather jacket leading a group of soldiers through the halls said, not even waiting for Kate to stop before he started taking the files out of her arms.
"Those are classified, sir, you can't-" Kate spluttered.
"Believe me, I'm more classified than these files. Right then, let's go." Having found what he was looking for, the man handed the files back to her and abruptly walked off, the soldiers following him, looking sort of confused as to why they were following his orders, but doing it anyway.
Kate wasn't sure, but she thought she might have just had her first glimpse of the Doctor. She had expected them to call on him, if they could. What she hadn't expected was that he would answer.
"No, he wasn't," Kate said for the hundredth time. "He wasn't wearing anything that marked him out. Just a leather jacket. He looked just like anyone else."
"No vegetables? No ridiculous hat? No scarf?" Her father asked, pacing up and down. "Doesn't sound like the man I knew at all."
"He was, though. I'm sure of it," Kate said. "He had the air of authority about him, like you said. Like he knew exactly what he was doing in the face of utter chaos. And his eyes...it was like you could see the whole universe reflected in them."
"Hmm," her dad settled himself in his favorite armchair. "That sounds more like him." He picked up a framed photo from the early days. A UNIT Christmas party. Kate could see it in front of her eyes. Her dad, Sergeant Benton next to him, the Doctor on the other side with his arm around Jo Grant. It was, she believed, the only posed photo of the Doctor in existence.
"Still, now everyone knows about aliens," he continued. "At least I don't have to go around pretending most of my career didn't happen."
"And next time I see him, I'll tell him to drop by," Kate said.
April 2009
Kate ran through the makeshift base, trying to find Dr. Jones. She knew Martha would listen to her, and she'd been trying to find someone who would listen to her talk about ATMOS for months. How ironic, now that there was really something wrong, she couldn't find anyone.
"Have you seen Dr. Jones?" She asked a passing soldier.
"No, ma'am," he said. "But I heard they were calling in some kind of expert, she might be with him."
Kate took off running before he could finish. There was only one expert Martha Jones would have called in. But when she got to the main research area, all she found was a red-haired woman surrounded by office files and looking disgruntled. Kate stopped, confused, then smiled to herself. Of course. The Doctor always traveled with someone. She had even, as a child, imagined herself in that position one day, until she realized that her place, like her father's, was on Earth.
"And don't you dare let any of your men shoot at them," a loud, high voice yelled, watching a group of soldiers go outside. He turned to the red-haired woman, "Donna, I'm just going to grab a coffee, do you want one?"
She shook her head, just as Kate realized she was standing near the coffee, and quickly moved over as he came over.
He grinned at her, a magnetic, sunny smile that could have lit up the entire base. "Hello, I'm the Doctor. You look a bit lost."
"Oh, no, I'm fine," Kate said, smiling slowly. "It's just a bit... military here for me. I'm in the research division, the science department."
"Oh, are you scientific advisor?" He asked, his face lighting up even more, if possible.
"No, not exactly, just a researcher. Astrophysics."
"Oh, a woman after my own hearts," the Doctor said. He lowered his voice. "To tell the truth, it's a bit military in here for me too. I used to work with UNIT a lot, decades ago. It was much smaller then."
Kate smiled, "I know. My father used to work for UNIT."
"Oh, really?" The Doctor asked. "What was his name? I probably knew him."
"Yes, you did. He was-" Kate started, and just then, someone yelled across the room.
"Doctor!" The Doctor looked up, waved and turned back to Kate.
"Sorry, I've got to run. Tell your dad I said hi, though."
"I will," Kate said quietly as he left.
"Converses?" The Brigadier asked incredulously as Kate described the new version of the Doctor. "Are you sure?"
"And a trench coat," she affirmed. "He was nice, I liked him."
"Well, that can't possibly be him then," her dad said, making her laugh aloud. "The Doctor is many things, but very rarely nice."
"Oh, come on, Dad, what about the one with the celery? You always said he was nice," Kate said.
"Yes, that's true. Too nice for what the Doctor gets up to," her dad said. "You didn't get a chance to tell him to drop by, did you?"
"No, he was too busy," Kate said. "Next time, I swear."
