The last chapter was slow paced at the moments when the Doctor wasn't there because that's how Rose's life was before the Doctor: slow, boring, mostly solitary (so little dialogue haha), and filled with a needless abundance of unimportant descriptions. This one has a lot of Doctor, so it's quicker, and more interesting.
Mickey parked his yellow beetle across the street from 'Clive's house, lecturing Rose all the while. "... and if he even so much as looks at you funny, you hightail it out of there, you hear?"
"Don't be such a worrywart. He's safe. He's got a wife and kids," Rose exited the car and Mickey accompanied her.
"Yeah, who told you that? He did. That's exactly what an internet lunatic murderer would say," he chided as they crossed the street. One of Clive's neighbours, who was in the process of putting out the rubbish, gave Mickey a nasty look. Rose smiled awkwardly at the man in apology.
"Oh, and Mickey, stay away from any plastic," the blonde whispered when the man turned away. She glared suspiciously at the rubbish bin.
"What?"
"Just - I've never led you wrong before, right? Please just trust me on this."
Mickey was still looking at her funny as she knocked on the door to Clive's house.
A young boy opened it.
"Hello, I've come to see Clive? We've been emailing," she told him.
"Oh great. I thought you were a bit too pretty to be normal," the boy said. Mickey snickered.
The young boy turned and yelled into the house. "Dad! It's one of your nutters!"
A middle aged man lumbered to the door.
"Oh, sorry. Hello. You must be Rose. I'm Clive, obviously."
Mickey interrupted, glowering threateningly at Clive. "Hello. I'm Mickey, and I'm gonna be waiting in the car, just in case you decide you're going to try and kill Rose."
"Ah yes, good point. No murders." Clive waved Mickey off as the younger man headed to his car.
"Who is it?" a woman asked from further inside the house.
"Oh, it's something to do with the Doctor. She's been reading the website. Please, come through. I'm in the shed."
"'She'? She's read a website about the Doctor? She's a she?"
"... The Doctor is a legend woven throughout history. When disaster comes, he's there. He brings the storm in his wake and he has one constant companion: death," Clive continued, gesturing towards the photographs on the table.
"Wait, that's not fair," Rose scowled at him. "Why are you saying that trouble follows him? It's much more likely that he's following trouble, to try to fix it! He saved the Daniels family, you said. And there's no evidence Krakatoa had anything to do with him, just because the picture was there. How could he have made volcanoes blow up?"
"Well. In any case, if the Doctor's back, if you've seen him, then one thing's for certain. We're all in danger."
"You're labelling him as a harbinger of death and destruction. Okay, I get that, I guess. But who is he, actually? Or rather, who do you think he is?"
"I think he's the same man. I think he's immortal. I think he's an alien from another world."
As this conversation was taking place, Mickey was experiencing something rather supernatural out in the street. As he stood next to his car, watching Clive's house like a hawk, the rubbish bin began to roll closer to him. Spotting movement from the corner of his eye, he turned around and stared at the wheelie bin making its way towards him.
His first instinct was to go see if someone or something was stuck in there, but Rose's warning stilled his feet. It was true - she hadn't led him wrong before. Not ever.
When the bin reached within a meter of him, Mickey decided he would camp out in the car. He pulled out his keys and turned to get into the vehicle -
The gray rubbish bin gave a ferocious burp as it gobbled Mickey Smith up whole.
"Mickey, an alien. Clive thinks the guy's an alien from another world. Imagine, a whole different planet with a culture we've never seen before!" Rose was nearly vibrating with energy as she slid into the passenger seat. Her excitement prevented her from noticing Mickey's unnaturally shiny skin, or his fixed smile. "I need something greasy to calm myself down. I think I fancy a pizza."
"Pizza! P-p-p-pizza!"
Rose continued to chatter happily as 'Mickey' weaved unsteadily down the road.
"But you know, I am going to need to get another job soon. Maybe I should try the hospital? Suki says they need a new receptionist. What do you think?"
"So where did you meet this... Doctor?"
"And you told me you weren't curious," Rose laughed, still oblivious to Mickey's jerky movements.
"Because I reckon it started back at the shop, am I right? Was he something to do with that?"
"Nooo..."
"Come on."
"Well, a little."
"What was he doing there?"
"I don't want to get you hurt, so don't ask me anymore. He told me, 'don't tell anyone unless you want to get them killed', and I can't put you of all people into that kind of danger."
"But you can trust me, sweetheart. Babe, sugar, babe, sugar. You can tell me anything. Tell me about the Doctor and what he's planning, and I can help you, Rose. Because that's all I really want to do, sweetheart, babe, babe, sugar, sweetheart," Mickey's voice fluctuated strangely as he listed pet names.
Rose was suddenly made aware of how plastic her best mate looked at that moment.
"Your champagne?" she heard a waiter ask.
"Sorry, it's not ours. What have you done with Mick-?!" she felt an insistent nudge at her shoulder.
"Madam, your champagne?" Rose looked up to see the Doctor grinning at her with champagne in hand. She bit her tongue.
"We didn't order any champagne," Plastic Mickey said, still trying to interrogate Rose. "I need to find out how much you know, so where is he?"
"Look, doesn't anyone want this champagne?"
Rose smirked as she subtly slid her chair out. She tensed her muscles, preparing to run at a moment's notice.
"Look, we didn't order it," Plastic Mickey snapped. He finally looked up. "Ah. Gotcha."
"Oh, don't mind me. I'm just toasting the happy couple. On the house!"
The Doctor shook the bottle in his hands vigorously and aimed it at Plastic Mickey before releasing the metal holding the cork. It flew into the Auton's forehead.
After a few moments, the plastic man spit it out and stood. His hand turned into a chopper and began to smash the table, attempting to deal the Doctor a killing blow.
The blonde sprang up and ran to the fire alarm as the Doctor tore the Auton's head off.
"Don't think that's gonna stop me," she heard. Rose smashed the glass and pulled the alarm.
"Everyone, get out right now! No pictures, stop running around like brainless chickens! Get out! Get out! Get out!"
That taken care of, Rose ran through the kitchens with the Doctor hot on her trail as the headless plastic clumsily destroyed the restaurant. The two spilled out into the alley that held the TARDIS and slammed the back door shut.
"You went into that thing earlier and disappeared," Rose said, running up to the blue police box and circling it. She knocked on a wall. Wood. "Is it real wood? Can it turn invisible? Is it a spaceship?"
"All of the above. Enough questions, just get in here," the Doctor grabbed her hand and yanked her into the box, closing the door just as Plastic Mickey's body decimated the door to the alley.
"But the door's just wood!" Rose protested, peering out through the window.
"The assembled hoards of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door, and believe me, they've tried. Now, shhh."
Rose turned -
- and stared, awestruck, at the gigantic space that met her eyes.
"You see, the arm was too simple, but the head's perfect. I can use it to trace the signal back to the original source. Right. Where do you want to start?"
"I went around the entire box. You don't just have a spaceship that can camouflage well," Rose took a deep, calming breath. "Outside these doors... it doesn't just look smaller, it literally is smaller! Is this a different dimension?"
"You could have just said 'it's bigger on the inside'. That usually works for most people."
"It's alien."
"Yeah."
"Are you really an alien?"
"Yes. Is that alright?"
"It's brilliant."
The Doctor grinned. "It's called the Tardis, this thing. T-A-R-D-I-S. That's 'Time And Relative Dimension In Space'."
Rose began to grin back when she suddenly had a realization. Mickey!
The Doctor's face fell when tears began to well in the blonde's eyes.
Dammit. First human since that... and he'd reduced her to tears already. She was a clever one too.
He cleared his throat and instead said, "Er, don't cry. That's okay. Culture shock. Happens to the best of us."
"Did they kill Mickey? Is he dead?"
"Oh. I didn't think of that," he muttered.
"He's my closest mate - sometimes my only mate - and you didn't even think about what's happened to him? And - oh no, the head's melting! The signal!"
"Melting?"
The Doctor whirled around. The plastic head was melting on the console, where it was attached by cables.
"Oh, no, no, no, no, no!" He sprinted around the console, hitting this and pumping that and flipping all the switches in between.
"Can you still follow it?"
"It's fading. Wait a minute, I've got it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Almost there. Almost there... Here we go!"
The TARDIS shook a bit and the Doctor ran for the door.
"Did we get there?" Rose asked, following him out. "Didn't feel much like we were flying."
"That's 'cos we weren't. Disappears there and reappears here. You wouldn't understand."
"I'm going to be an astronaut. I might as well learn."
He looked at her consideringly. "Maybe..." he hesitated. "Maybe later." He shook his head. "Anyway, I lost the signal, I got so close."
"Will we find Mickey if we find the controller? Will he be alive, do you think?"
"Mickey this, Mickey that. Look, he might be kept alive to maintain the copy" - Rose sighed in relief - "but I can't be constantly worried about a single human kid when I'm trying to save the life of every stupid ape blundering on top of this planet, all right?"
The young blonde scowled at him. "You really are alien, even though you sound like you're from the north."
He rolled his eyes. "Lots of planets have a north."
"So what do the living plastic creatures want? They're being very War of the Worlds."
"That's exactly it. You've got such a good planet. Lots of smoke and oil, plenty of toxins and dioxins in the air, perfect. Just what the Nestene Consciousness needs. Its food stock was destroyed in the war, all its protein plants rotted, so Earth, dinner!"
"How do we stop it?"
The Doctor held up a tube of blue liquid.
"Anti-plastic."
"Anti-plastic."
"Anti-plastic. But first I've got to find it. How can you hide something that big in a city this small?"
"What?"
"The transmitter. The Consciousness is controlling every single piece of plastic, so it needs a transmitter to boost the signal."
"What does it look like?"
"Like a transmitter. Round and massive, slap bang in the middle of London..."
Rose stared at the looming landmark over his shoulder with a raised brow.
"... A huge circular metal structure like a dish, like a wheel. Radial. Close to where we're standing. Must be completely invisible. What?"
The Doctor turned to look at what Rose was staring at on the south bank. Even after looking straight at the aforementioned object, the penny didn't drop.
"What? What is it?" He kept seeing Rose's smirk every time he turned back to her. "What?"
She coughed and nodded at the structure behind him. After a final turn, the Doctor finally caught on to what Rose was looking at. The London Eye, the biggest wheel in the world, stood proudly on the south bank of the Thames.
"Oh. Fantastic!"
The Doctor and Rose ran towards the wheel.
"Think of it, plastic all over the world, every artificial thing waiting to come alive. The shop window dummies, the phones, the wires, the cables - "
"The breast implants," Rose laughed.
"Still, we've found the transmitter. The Consciousness must be somewhere underneath."
Rose looked over the parapet and quickly identified a large manhole entrance at the bottom of some steps. "What about that?"
"Brilliant!"
The pair ran down and the Doctor opened up the hatch to reveal gloomy red lighting. They climbed the ladder into a multileveled chamber.
"The Nestene Consciousness. That's it, inside the vat. A living plastic creature."
"What are you going to do now?"
"I've got to give it a chance."
"Then before you go down there, hand me the anti-plastic," Rose told him.
"Why?"
"Well, what if you get searched? They aren't going to believe your 'I come in peace' if you have a weapon specifically tailored to kill them on you!"
The Doctor stared at her. "Yes. Right. Good idea, here."
She rolled her eyes and surreptitiously hid the vial in her bra, making his ears turn red. The Doctor abruptly turned and walked down to a catwalk overlooking the seething vat.
"I seek audience with the Nestene Consciousness under peaceful contract according to convention 15 of the Shadow Proclamation," he boomed. Rose spotted Mickey a level below, struggling with a plastic dummy, and ran down as the Doctor did his thing.
"Mickey, you're alright! I was so worried," she said, glad that she'd kept her torch lighter just in case. She carefully burned down the dummy's hands as Mickey kept it in place, and the now-released Mickey wrapped the thing up tight with a nearby chain and kicked it aside.
"Rose what are doing here? That thing down there, the liquid, it's dangerous! You'll get hurt, or worse!"
"You're stinking," she replied, used to his overprotectiveness. "Doctor, they kept him alive, isn't that great?"
"Yeah, great, can we please keep the domestics outside?" The Doctor continued walking downwards until he stood at the edge of the roiling liquid. "Am I addressing the Consciousness? Thank you. If I might observe, you infiltrated this civilisation by means of warp shunt technology. So, may I suggest, with the greatest respect, that you shunt off?"
"Pff-" Rose stifled her laugh. What a horrible pun.
A face formed in the vat of plastic and made a series of strange noises.
"Oh, don't give me that. It's an invasion, plain and simple. Don't talk about constitutional rights. I am talking!" the Doctor roared. The Nestene Consciousness quieted. "This planet is just starting. These stupid - and sometimes clever - little people have only just learnt how to walk, but they're capable of so much more. I'm asking you on their behalf. Please, just go."
"Doctor! Behind you!" Rose yelped.
A pair of shop dummies grabbed the Doctor before he could turn to look.
"I'm not your enemy though. I swear, I'm not. I'm here to help." More angry noises from the vat. "What do you mean?"
A door slid back to reveal the Tardis. Rose narrowed her eyes and started to think of a plan.
She pulled a confused but still protesting - honestly, alien invasion and he was still trying to act all 'protective big brother' - Mickey towards the blue box.
"No. Oh, no. Honestly, no. Yes, that's my ship. That's not true. I should know, I was there. I fought in the war. It wasn't my fault. I couldn't save your world! I couldn't save any of them!" The plastic continued roaring at the Doctor, but Rose couldn't understand anything.
"What's it doing?" the blonde asked as she reached the TARDIS. She inched towards a long metal chain adjacent to her, attached firmly to the ceiling. A quick estimation of its length revealed that it would easily reach the Doctor.
"It's the Tardis! The Nestene's identified its superior technology. It's terrified. It's going to the final phase. It's starting the invasion! Get out, Rose! Just leg it now!"
As the plastic in the vat kept roaring, Rose scoffed. "Not likely."
She tossed Mickey her mobile and her bag. "Call mum, tell her to go home and stay there, no matter what."
"Rose, what are you doing?" Mickey snapped, recognizing the signs of 'Reckless Rose'. He sighed when she told him to "just do it" and acquiesced reluctantly.
"I gave up most of my friends and studied my arse off so I could go see the stars someday." Rose grabbed a nearby axe and swung it at the rope holding the metal chain. "I'm going to see them no matter what, and I won't let a bloody plastic invasion stop me." She firmly gripped the chain in her hands. "And one of the best assets an astronaut can have is physical agility!"
Rose stuck the anti-plastic vial between her teeth and ran off the cat-walk with the chain in her hands. She gave the dummies that held the Doctor a harsh kick as she flew by, and spit out the vial when she swung over the vat. The two dummies fell into the shrieking Nestene Consciousness as it turned blue.
"Rose!" two male voices yelled. The Doctor caught Rose as she swung back and, instead of dropping her on her feet, carried her with him as he ran to the TARDIS. The Nestene Consciousness shrieked and roared and screamed all the while.
"... My feet work perfectly fine," Rose told the Doctor's shoulder.
He grinned at her. "This is faster."
They reached the blue spaceship and the Doctor carried her entire weight with one arm as he turned the key with the other. Rose, ignoring her friend's furious expression, grabbed Mickey's wrist as the Doctor entered the box, and the TARDIS doors closed behind the trio just in time to protect them from the exploding blue plastic.
Mickey glowered at the Doctor. "Hey, drop her."
"Okay, Rickey," the Doctor snarked. He placed Rose on the jump seat and began rushing around the console to pilot it to a different location. Whenever Rickey tried to get close to Rose, the TARDIS 'accidentally' tilted in the other direction and tripped him up. (The Doctor smirked each time this happened.)
Finally, the TARDIS materialised on the Embankment by a row of shuttered kiosks, neither of the passengers aware that the pilot had spent several minutes pretending to look busy piloting as he chatted with Rose; he actually had left the TARDIS floating in the time vortex for much longer than necessary.
Mickey stomped out of the box with several new bumps and bruises. Rose giggled at the glare he shot at the Doctor.
"A fat lot of good you were," she told her mate. "Is mum safe though?"
"Yeah she's fine. Nothing much happened out there, you took care of the monsters quick 'nuff. But what were you thinking?"
"I was thinking that I was going to save the world from being invaded by plastic."
"Rose, you could have died!"
"No I wouldn't have. I haven't done gymnastics for years just to die because I couldn't hold onto a chain!"
The Doctor quickly interrupted the argument before it could escalate. Ugh, domestics. "Yeah, great job by the way. Nestene Consciousness? Easy." He snapped his fingers.
"Don't encourage her!"
Rose sighed to expel her anger, and then gave the Doctor a tongue-touched grin. "You were useless in there. You'd be dead if it wasn't for me."
"Yes, I would. Thank you," the alien replied quietly. He coughed, and then shook himself. "Right then, I'll be off. Unless, er, I don't know, you could come with me. This box isn't just a London hopper, you know. It goes anywhere in the universe free of charge. Didn't you say you were going to see the stars?"
"Don't! Who knows what could happen to you? Rose, you can't keep being so reckless, putting yourself into danger like this."
"Right, he's not invited. What do you think? You could stay here, and sure, you may be able to walk on Mars one day... or you could come with me, go anyplace, any planet, anywhere in the universe."
"Is it always this dangerous?"
"Yes. Maybe. Do you want it to be?"
Rose's face clearly reflected her inner turmoil.
She wanted to go. She wanted to, needed to go. This was her dream come true, but without having to wait years and years, and without being limited to just this solar system.
But, Mickey was right. He and Jackie would have aneurysms if she left right now, they would die with worry. She couldn't do that to the two people who'd supported her beyond anything. Not to mention, someone had to be there for her poor, lonely mum. She couldn't be so selfish.
"I- I- I can't. I can't just leave my mum and Mickey to worry about me like that, that would be awful of me. And my mum, she needs me to take care of her."
As soon as the words escaped from her lips, she wanted to take them all back. What was she doing? This was the chance of several lifetimes, this was what she'd lived her life for!
"Okay." The Doctor's shoulders hunched forwards. He shoved them back and turned around to walk off stiffly. "See you around."
No, she wanted to scream at his back, no I didn't mean it, no please, take me with you!
She wanted to throw Mickey's arm off her shoulder she wanted to run to that beautiful blue box she wanted to grab the Doctor's hand and never let go -
The TARDIS dematerialised.
Rose stood there for a few beats, not moving, not even breathing.
Mickey gave Rose a one-armed squeeze. "Rose, take in a deep breath. Come on sweetheart, you can do it."
No response.
Suddenly, the two heard a wheezing noise that seemed to resonate with the empty vacuum of space, echoing out to the deepest recesses of reality.
Rose looked up to see that the Tardis had rematerialised. The Doctor's head popped out.
"By the way, did I mention it also travels in time?"
The blonde, who'd looked as if she had died inside, instantly came back to life.
"Mickey," she said, cupping her closest mate's cheeks in her palms. "Thanks for so much."
The young man sighed. "I'll tell Jackie. She'll never believe me though, so tell her yourself when you have the chance."
"Yes. Thank you. I love you big bro." She gave Mickey a tight embrace and kissed his forehead. She took her bag from him.
Rose ran to the TARDIS and grabbed the Doctor's outstretched hand, never looking back.
AN
Rambling... Please feel free to ignore...
Reckless Rose is reckless.
I love how cute unjaded Rose is.
Rosie is so jeopardy friendly, common sense or no, and naïvity isn't very conductive to survival, haha. Jimmy's assholeness hasn't taught her to be wary of the world, so now she has to learn for herself (ooh, poor girl... The heartbreak!) And Mickey's driving himself wild with worry.
Did you notice how the door handle got bent up last chapter? I first hinted at her physical adroitness then (plus when the dummy's arm came off), since I read somewhere that astronauts needed to be very physically fit: Rosie wouldn't neglect any of the requirements to fulfil her dream.
Omg the Doctor's so strong! Carrying Rose one-armed!
The ending made me happy, even though I wrote it and even though I knew it would happen all along.
... End rambling.
There's an awww scene with Rose and the Doctor next chapter, so look forward to that. :)
Please review, my darlings! I love your guys' reviews, I find them supertastic - ooh, new word - and I find that lots of reviews makes me all giddy and happy and want to update faster. Wink wink, nudge nudge.