Thanks to Turner1999, StoryLovingAuthor, Serenity Rena, bella cullen the original, Charmed2100, , time-twilight, BlueJae3, ErrantHuntress, nguyenthanhtam95 for following/faving my story.
frosty600: thanks!
Melanie leant against the railing of the balcony glad to be out of the Tyler flat. It was getting far too crowded and quite frankly she'd had enough of the gossip between Jackie and her friends. She wanted to hear what was on the news, not listen to tales of dodgy top-up cards. There wasn't enough tea and banana loaf to help block out their incessant nattering. Hence why she decided to get some air.
The brunette glanced behind her when she heard the door open and the Doctor stepped out. "Did it get a bit too much for you too?" she asked.
"Yep" the Doctor replied "I'm going for a walk. Do you want to join me?"
"Sure", Melanie replied. They'd started to walk away when Rose came out of the flat.
"And where do you two think you're going?" she asked.
"Nowhere", the Doctor replied turning back "It's just a bit human in there for me. History just happened and they're talking about where you can buy dodgy top-up cards for half price. I'm off on a wander, that's all".
"And I'm gonna keep him company", Melanie added.
"Right", Rose said slowly "There's a spaceship on the Thames and you're just 'wandering'".
"Nothing to do with me! It's not an invasion!" the Doctor said "That was a genuine crash landing. Angle of descent, colour of smoke, everything. It's perfect!"
"So…" Rose said.
"So maybe this is it! First contact! The day mankind officially comes into contact with an alien race. I'm not interfering because you've got to handle this on your own. That's when the human race finally grows up. Just this morning you were all tiny and small and made of clay! Now you can expand!" the Doctor laughs in delight and Rose smiles "You don't need me. Go and celebrate history. Spend some time with your mum".
"You promise you won't disappear?" Rose asked hoping he wouldn't just take off in the TARDIS with Melanie and leave her behind.
"Don't worry Rose, I'll make sure he comes back", Melanie assured her earning her a small pout from the Time Lord.
"Tell you what. TARDIS key", he said pulling one out of his jacket pocket "It's about time you had one" he handed it over "See you later!" With that he and Melanie left. Rose looked down at the key in her hand and smiled.
Melanie was surprised when the Doctor took her to the TARDIS. "I thought we were going for a walk?" she asked as he unlocked the blue box.
"We did. We walked to the TARDIS", the Doctor pointed out. He pushed open the door "you first Ellie", he said gesturing with his hand. Melanie took a breath before she walked inside.
"Oh. My. God!" she exclaimed, her mouth dropping open at the interior. It was amazing! "You said it was bigger on the inside but this…this is incredible!" Melanie said walking around the console, taking it all in. The Doctor smiled at her reaction, happy that she liked it. He also noticed how the lights seemed to brighten slightly and a gently, happy hum resonated in the air the moment Melanie had stepped in. The Doctor knew that the TARDIS had acknowledged Melanie was his Bonded even though they hadn't formed the Bond yet.
"I take it you like the TARDIS then?" the Doctor asked as he programmed the console with the co-ordinates for Albion Hospital where the supposed 'alien' was being housed.
"Absolutely!" Melanie replied turning to him "what are you doing?" she asked.
"Putting in co-ordinates for Albion Hospital", the Doctor answered.
"That's where they've got the alien from the wreck", Melanie said recalling something like that being mentioned on the TV. It was one of the very few things she heard as she'd gotten distracted by Jackie and friends' gossip. "Why do you want to go there?" she questioned.
"So I can take a closer look", the Doctor replied "hold on tight!" he said before he pulled a lever.
"Whoa!" Melanie exclaimed stumbling back a few steps when the room suddenly shook. The Doctor grabbed hold of her and guided her back to the console taking care not to hold her hand. Though he wanted to form the Bond, it wasn't the time.
When the console started to smoke, the Doctor had to remove his arm from around Melanie's waist to take grab the mallet by the console. "You think hitting it will help?" the brunette asked. And then the smoke stopped. "I take it back, it did help", Melanie said.
"Yep, it did", the Doctor said grinning at her.
~...~
"Nice storeroom", Melanie commented when they left the box after it had materialized. She raised a brow when the Doctor shushed his sonic after it made a loud buzzing noise once he'd turned it on. Eventually he got the door open and the pair stepped out into some sort of waiting room and came face to face with at least 20 soldiers.
The moment the soldiers saw them, they leapt to their feet and pointed their guns at them. The Doctor immediately stood protectively in front of Melanie. She was his Bonded. It was his job to protect…to take care of her…to keep her safe. And he be damned if he was going to let anything happen to her.
It was a rather tense moment which was broken by a scream. "Defence plan delta!" the Doctor shouted at soldiers "Come on. Move! Move!" they all ran down the corridor with the Doctor and Melanie in the lead.
When they reached the mortuary, they found a Japanese woman, Toshiko, cowering on the floor "it's alive!" she exclaimed.
"Spread out. Tell the perimeter it's a lockdown", the Doctor ordered the men that was behind him. Melanie went over to the woman, grabbing a cloth on the way and knelt down.
"It's ok", she said gently dabbing the cut with the cloth "what did it look like?"
Toshiko didn't get a chance to answer when they heard a clattering behind them. Melanie watched as the Doctor dropped to his knees and crawled around a desk. Melanie was startled when a pig wearing spacesuit raced across the room. The brunette darted after it, closely followed by the Doctor.
"Don't shoot!" he shouted at the solider in the doorway as the pig scurried past.
"No!" Melanie cried as a soldier that had been posted in the hall fired at the pig, killing it. She turned away from the body. The Doctor put his arms around her, holding her close.
"What did you do that for?" he demanded to the soldier.
"You didn't need to kill it", Melanie mumbled starting to tear up "it was scared".
A bit later she, the Doctor and Toshiko stood around the table where Time Lord had placed the pig's body. Though the young brunette was avoiding looking at the pig for fear she was going to cry again. "I just assumed that's what aliens look like, but you're saying it's an ordinary pig from Earth", Toshiko said.
"More like a mermaid. Victorian showmen used to draw the crowds by taking the skull of a cat, gluing it to a fish and calling it a mermaid. Now someone's taken a pig, opened up its brain, stuck bits on, then they've strapped it in that ship and made it dive bomb", the Doctor explained.
"It must have been so terrified", Melanie said quietly. The Doctor placed a hand in the small of her back when he noticed that she was struggling to keep it together. The second Toshiko was suitably distracted, the Doctor ushered his Bonded away.
~...~
When the TARDIS was in the time vortex, the Doctor joined Melanie on the captain's chair. He reached for her hand but stopped, remembering that if he continued, it would trigger the Bond. Melanie wasn't in the right state to go through the process. Instead he settled for putting an arm around her shoulders. The brunette leant against him "Why would anyone do something so cruel to a defenceless?" she asked quietly.
"I don't know Ellie. I don't know", the Doctor replied. They'd sat there for a good few minutes until Melanie spoke.
"Shouldn't we get back to Rose?"
"We'll go back whenever you're ready", the Doctor said. He didn't want to go back and face a possibly upset Rose if Melanie wasn't feeling up to it.
"I'm ready", Melanie said sitting up.
"You sure?" the Doctor questioned.
"Yeah, I'm sure", Melanie answered.
The second the TARDIS appeared on the Powell Estate, an upset blonde stormed in along with Mickey and Jackie "All right, so I lied. I went and had a look", the Doctor said to Rose.
"And you took Ellie with you", Rose said annoyed that their 'wander' had turned into a short trip in the TARDIS.
"Sorry Rose", Melanie said apologetically "I kinda didn't have a chance to tell you where we were going".
Rose opened her mouth to say something when Mickey suddenly spoke up "You ruined my life, Doctor. They thought Rose was dead. I was a murder suspect because of you".
The Time Lord didn't say anything, just turned back to the screen where he and Melanie had been looking at footage of the spaceship crashing into Big Ben. Mickey takes a few steps towards him "I bet you don't even remember my name", he said giving the Doctor a pointed look.
"Ricky", the Doctor answered not even bothering to look away from the screen.
"It's Mickey", Mickey corrected him.
"No, its Ricky", the Doctor insisted.
"I think I know my own name", Mickey retorted.
"You think you know your own name? How stupid are you?" the Doctor said. Melanie couldn't help but laugh at that. The Doctor grinned at her. Behind them, Jackie had gotten too overwhelmed with the sheer size of the console room, hurried out with Rose following her.
"Doctor, if this is an invasion, it's a rather weird way to go about it", Melanie said "I mean, it's a rather clumsy way to invade. Surely it would be better to do it in such a way that we wouldn't realise until it was too late".
"That would be a better way", the Doctor agreed "So, what on Earth are they up to?"
A little later...
The dark-skinned man crouched down to where the Doctor was working under the console "So, what're you doing down there?" Mickey asked him. The Doctor removed the sonic from his mouth.
"Ricky. If I was to tell you what I was doing to the controls of my frankly magnificent time ship, would you even begin to understand?" the Doctor asked.
"I suppose not", Mickey answered.
"Well, shut it, then", the Doctor said rudely. Mickey then walked off, re-joining Rose.
Melanie nudged his leg with her foot "that's not very nice", she said "he was only interested in what you were doing".
"Are you interested?" the Doctor asked.
"A little", Melanie admitted "but like Mickey, I wouldn't understand".
"I can explain it to you if you want", the Doctor offered.
"Uh sure", Melanie answered. The Doctor shifted over and patted the space next to him. Melanie laid next to the Time Lord continued his work while explaining what he was doing. Melanie tried to follow along as best as she could. She flinched from the sparks that was emitted but the Doctor was too fazed. In fact, he looked happy.
The Doctor and Melanie got up from under the console and around to the where the scanner was. "That's the spaceship on its way to Earth, see? Except. Hold on. See? The spaceship did a sling shot round the Earth before it landed", the Time Lord explained as they watched the graphic on the screen.
"What does that mean?" Rose asked.
"It means it came from Earth in the first place. It went up and came back down", the Doctor said "The aliens hadn't just arrived. They've been here for a while".
"But if they were here to being with…why do that whole thing with the ship and the pig?" Melanie asked.
"I don't know", the Doctor answered "something we need to find out".
Melanie, Rose and Mickey watched the Doctor as he switched between channels minutes later "How many channels do you get?" Mickey asked.
"All the basic packages", the Doctor replied.
"You get sports channels?" Mickey questioned.
"Yes, I get the football", the Doctor replied. He stopped on one channel when he recognised a group of people "I know that lot"
"Who are they?" Melanie asked.
"UNIT. United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. Good people", the Doctor replied.
"How do you know them?" Rose questioned.
"'Cos he's worked for them", Mickey answered "Oh yeah, don't think I sat on my backside for 12 months, Doctor. I read up on you. You look deep enough on the Internet or in the history books, and there's his name, followed by a list of the dead".
The Doctor didn't seem fazed by that. He kept his focus on the scanner "That's nice. Good boy, Ricky", he said.
"If you know them, why don't you go and help?" Rose queried.
"They wouldn't recognise me. I've changed a lot since the old days. Besides, the worlds on a knife-edge. There's aliens out there and fake aliens. We want to keep this alien out of the mix. I'm going undercover…and eh, I'd better keep the TARDIS out of sight. Ricky! You've got a car-you can do some driving"
"Where to?"
"The roads are clearing. Let's go and have a look at that spaceship", the Doctor said.
The four of them stepped out of the TARDIS and were immediately blinded by a helicopter's search light. The time travellers were surrounded by police and soldiers.
"Raise your hands above your head. You are under arrest", a voice ordered over a loudspeaker.
"Take me to your leader", the Doctor said after raising his hands. Melanie shot him an 'are you serious?' look before she raised her own hands.
