Riley is back in the mortuary, standing alongside the Doctor and the woman from earlier. The pig is lying on a table in front of them and all three are looking down at it. Riley can't help but feel morose, like she was at a funeral, which was strange because it was a pig! She eats pork and bacon like the next person, even though her teacher tries to preach the goodness of vegetarianism, and those are from pigs. But there was just something very sad about this whole affair, something clearly beyond reason.
"I just assumed that's what aliens look like, but you're saying it's an ordinary pig from Earth." The woman was saying. Riley had yet to learn her name but she felt like it wasn't so important right now; maybe later.
The Doctor had been explaining for the past five minutes how this pig wasn't an alien at all but rather just an ordinary pig. Riley had been listening with half an ear but her focus was on the creature on the table and not the conversation.
"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. It must've been terrified. They've taken this animal and turned it into a joke." The Doctor said hotly.
Riley looked up at his face and saw a cold fury there. Something that should have been scary had she not agreed with his sentiments. She reached out and took his hand; normally if a person was upset she would have hugged them but she barely knew the man and he didn't really seem like the hugging-type so a single hand would have to do. The Doctor grabbed a hold of her hand as well, nearly swallowing hers up completely with his larger appendage, and squeezed. The woman started saying something again but the Doctor led her silently out of the room without the other noticing. They walked in silence toward the cupboard where Sexy was parked although Riley noted a certain edge to her companions stride; he was walking like a man with a goal.
Once back inside Sexy he positioned himself by the console but didn't actually start pressing buttons or pulling leavers. Riley stood at his side and was thinking about her day so far and that poor pig.
"Do you think it had a name?" She asked.
The Doctor jolted into awareness at the girls question though it took some ten seconds before the question actually translated into a meaning in his mind.
"A name?" He asked incredulously. What kind of question was that? Was it even important?
"Yes, a name." Riley confirmed resolutely. "I mean, I know it was a pig and all but... all creatures have names. Even the ones that you don't think about."
Of course, he realized, she is a child. A question like that would make sense to a child and it would definitely be important. He suddenly remembered how long ago it was that he last dealt with children.
"I suppose you're right." He admitted, after all such a mindset that all things are important (even the name of a single pig) is precious and could only be found in a child. It was something that he would not take away from her.
"I wish we knew it." She sighed. "That poor pig."
The Doctor looked at her a little uneasily, hoping that she wouldn't start crying. But the girl, Riley, surprised him when her face switched from sad to determined and even a bit angry.
"The people who did this to that poor innocent pig." She started and turned toward him. "You'll catch them, right?"
It wasn't really a question, the Doctor realized with slight humour, the girl was ordering him. The console heated up under his hands and he felt, for the first time in a long while, the presence of his ship in his mind.
You better.
Well, isn't that a new development? The TARDIS must really have taken a liking to this human child if she was already exhibiting possessive traits about her. The Doctor suddenly realized that he'd be seeing quite a lot of Riley in the future, weather he wanted to or not, if this was any indication.
"I'll do my best." He said, answering both of them.
Riley hung on to the railing as the Doctor flew Sexy back to Powel Estate. The man had owned Sexy for some time, she had been told, but he clearly had yet to master the art of flying her. Wasn't there some kind of license for driving a machine like Sexy, like there was for cars? Judging by the Doctors driving there definitely should be.
They had only been landed for half a minute when the front doors opened and Riley watched as Rose Tyler and Mickey Smith jogged up to the console. Well, how about that! The Tyler daughter had returned! It only took her a year. Riley remembered reading the posters that Mrs. Tyler put up all over the estate and her aunt talking to her explaining again the rules about strangers and candy, even though she had already had that talk years before. Rose Tyler's disappearance had been hot gossip for nearly a year in the neighborhood and everybody knew the story. Riley suddenly realized that Rose must have been with the Doctor for that entire time; Sexy had mentioned that the latest stray was blonde and the first time Riley had seen the box was around the time when Rose disappeared.
"All right, so I lied. I went and had a look. But the whole crash landing's a fake. I thought so. Just too perfect. I mean, hitting Big Ben. Come on, so I thought let's go and have a look." The Doctor started talking but Rose interrupted.
"My mum's here."
Riley turned around again and sure enough, Jackie Tyler was standing right at the landing and staring around wide eyed.
"Oh, that's just what I need. Don't you dare make this place domestic."
"Hi Mrs. Tyler." She waved cheerily. Riley wasn't really the kind of person to find fun in other people's freak-outs but sometimes the moments just too good.
But it wasn't the elder Tyler who reacted to her presence; it was the younger.
"What's she doing here?" Rose asked the Doctor sounding both shocked and accusing.
"Long story." Was all the Doctor said and turned back to his scanner. Long and complicated, he wasn't sure if he even knew exactly why the girl was there yet.
"You ruined my life, Doctor. They thought she was dead. I was a murder suspect because of you." Mickey spoke up for the first time.
"You see what I mean? Domestic." He turned to half-glare at the blonde.
"I bet you don't even remember my name." Mickey continued goading him.
Riley watched amused as the Doctor argued that he too remembered the boy's name and that it was Ricky. Mrs. Tyler looked more frightened by the second and Rose was starting to look a cross between amused and exasperated. It sure was lively in here. How Sexy could get bored was beyond her? But then again, none of the participants in the room were addressing the ship. Being ignored could get boring, she supposed.
She watched as Mrs. Tyler finally broke and ran out, thoroughly freaked, and saw Rose run after her before shortly returning. Riley decided that rather than observing she would have more fun if she interacted with them and as such walked up to the console and positioned herself next to Mickey.
"That was a real spaceship." Rose said next to the Doctor.
"Yep." He answered.
"So it's all a pack of lies? What is it, then? Are they invading?" She continued remembered what he'd said when they entered.
"Funny way to invade, putting the world on red alert." Mickey pointed out next to Riley and she rather thought he'd made a good observation.
"Good point! So, what're they up to?" The Doctor complimented him reluctantly.
"Unless they want us all panicking." Riley added quietly. The Doctor turned to her and gave her a thoughtful look.
"Hm." Was all he came up with before starting to kneel down and remove part of the grating from the floor.
Riley was standing to the side again, watching the Doctor work on the floor (or rather, beneath it) as he fiddled with wires and the like. Rose stood to her left, the blonde had thrown her a few looks in the past five minutes but had not made an attempt to talk to her, and Mickey was standing over the Doctor.
"So, what're you doing down there?" He asked and leaned down further to see.
"Rickey." The Doctor started and Riley giggled. She knew he was doing it on purpose and it was kind of rude but all the same; it was funny.
"Mickey." Mickey corrected.
"Ricky." The Doctor persisted. "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?"
That was a good point. And Sexy was magnificent, not just her body but her personality too. Did she feel it when the Doctor was working on her wires? That was a weird thought.
"I suppose not." Mickey had to admit.
"Well, shut it, then."
Mickey gave up and walked over to Rose, the two of them starting a conversation and Riley suddenly felt like she was imposing. Those two had been going out together when Rose disappeared and even though she still wasn't to clear on the details of the blonde's return she knew that they probably wanted some space. So she walked over to the Doctor and took up a stance where Mickey had just been.
"That was a bit rude of you." She said, not really scolding him but just pointing it out.
"Stupid questions get stupid answers." He answered.
"It wasn't a stupid question, though." Really, it wasn't. Though Mickey probably wouldn't have understood the explanation it was only natural that he be curious and the Doctor could have levelled it down a bit so that he would understand.
The Doctor said nothing to this but just continued working. Riley sighed having recognized the sign of stubbornness and decided it just wasn't worth it. Rather she backed off a bit and stood the side so that she could still see the Doctor but not close enough to talk to him. She leaned at the railing and sighed softly.
Maybe it was time for her to go home? She was already way past being late for dinner and she was sure her aunt would have started to worry now. She was just about to announce that she was going home when the Doctor gave out a triumphant yell.
"Got it! Ha ha! Patched in the radar, looped it back twelve hours so we can follow the flight of that spaceship." He explained quickly and they all stepped closer to see. "Here we go. Hold on. Come on."
The screen turned blue and a simple picture of Earth showed up. There was a line coming into Earth's atmosphere that Riley assumed was the ship. The Doctor pointed at it.
"That's the spaceship on its way to Earth, see? Except. Hold on." The screen flickered and he hit it impatiently. "See? The spaceship did a sling shot round the Earth before it landed."
Riley didn't really see anything but it seemed to make sense to the Doctor. She supposed it was because he was clever or maybe it had to do with his status of being an alien. Sexy had said her thief wasn't from Earth, well more like mentioned it in passing while they were exploring, and that meant he must be alien right? Maybe aliens know stuff about other aliens by pure principle?
"What does that mean?" Rose asked and Riley tried to pay more attention, she might actually learn from this. And besides, she had a feeling that the Doctor had already forgotten about the pig in a space suit but Riley certainly hadn't. She was going to make them pay for that poor creature's suffering and if the Doctor didn't then she would just have to it herself.
"It means it came from Earth in the first place. It went up and came back down. Whoever those aliens are, they haven't just arrived, they've been here for a while. The question is, what have they been doing?" The Doctor answered.
Riley stilled, thinking about the new information. These alien people had been here for a while? Why? What did Earth have to offer for people that had already mastered space travel?
The Doctor started going through channels on his screen, apparently it was both a computer screen and a television, and Mickey stepped closer.
"How many channels do you get?" He asked and Riley nearly laughed, aliens on Earth and he was asking about the television? Was that even important?
"All the basic packages." The Doctor answered distractedly.
"You get sports channels?" Really, Riley thought, sport? Men can be so one-track minded sometimes, at least that's what her aunt used to say.
"Yes, I get the football." The Doctor sighed but then perked up a bit. The channel he was currently on showed a bunch of people marching down a hallway wearing official looking uniforms. "Hold on, I know that lot."
It appeared to be a news story and a reporter was speaking off screen. "It is looking likely that the Government's bringing in alien specialists - those people who have devoted their lives to studying outer space."
"United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. Good people." The Doctor explained to Mickey and Rose while Riley was focusing on the screen. These people had devoted their lives to this kind of thing? That was impressive... and slightly sad.
"How do you know them?" Rose asked intrigued.
"'Cos he's worked for them." Mickey began before the Doctor had a chance to tell her. "Oh yeah, don't think I sat on my backside for twelve 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."
"Well that's dramatic," Riley muttered. "A list of the dead? What, did you take drama in high school?"
"That's nice. Good boy, Ricky." The Doctor seemed to agree with her though he looked somewhat irritated and troubled at the same time.
"If you know them, why don't you go and help?" Rose tried getting them back on track.
"They wouldn't recognise me. I've changed a lot since the old days." He said evasively. "Besides, the world's 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 er, I'd better keep the TARDIS out of sight. Ricky, you've got a car. You can do some driving."
"Where to?" Mickey asked, already giving up on correcting the man about his name.
"The roads are clearing. Let's go and have a look at that spaceship." The Doctor said excitedly and started walking toward the door before he stopped and turned to Riley.
"You coming as well?" He asked, not entirely sure he wanted her to. When he had seen Riley and Rose standing next to each other he had realized how young the girl really was. It hadn't occurred to him before but there was a stark contrast between the two girls in age even though it couldn't have been more than five or six years. But at the same time the girl intrigued him. The TARDIS had taken a liking to her and that above anything made her special.
"I suppose." Riley answered slowly, thinking that she was already in trouble with her aunt so some more couldn't hurt all too much.
"Are you sure?" Rose asked the Doctor. "I mean, I don't know what she's doing here but it could get dangerous."
"Well, she's already involved. Might as well see it through to the end." He said looking at the girl in question.
Riley nodded her head and smiled. She wanted to know what these alien people were doing on Earth and she had a pig to avenge.
"There you go!" The Doctor exclaimed and clapped his hands together.
All four of them walked toward the door and out on the pavement only to get blinded by bright helicopter lights and assaulted by the yells from over a dozen police officers in action gear.
"Do not move! Step away from the box and raise your hands above your heads."
Riley looks around startled and slightly scared. She feel the Doctor's arm on her shoulders pulling her closer to him, as if trying to protect her, and she sees Mickey run off. She looks over at Rose who seems just as startled as herself. Suddenly Jackie Tyler comes out of the apartment complex running toward them.
"Rose!" She yells panicked but is held back by more police officers.
"Raise your hands above your head. You are under arrest." The man in the helicopter shouts down through the megaphone.
All three of them raise their hands and Riley sees her aunt coming out of the complex next to Jackie.
"Riley?" She calls bewildered. "No! Riley"
She tries to get to her but like Jackie she is held back. The two women stand next to each other looking scared but determined over at their girls.
"Take me to your leader!" The Doctor shouts out with a mad grin on his face.
"Are you serious?" Rose asks exasperated but also smiling, having realized that if the Doctor wasn't worried then maybe things were okay.
"Brilliant." Riley laughed and the other two turned to her. "What? Oh come on, it is! I wished I had thought of that."
The Doctor's grin grew wider and Rose starts to giggle.
"Well then." She says after her giggle fit died down and they are being led to a police car. "This promises to be interesting."
"Oh yes." The Doctor agrees. "I can't wait."