A/N: Sorry the chapter is so late! These last few days have been hectic, and the teachers decided to pile on the homework.
~DW~
"Twelve hours, you said?" The Doctor grins and nods.
"Yep."
"Alright," I say looking at him pointedly. "No running off, you. I'm just gonna pop in and see my mum, that's all. I won't be long. Then we're back in space, okay?" He nods again, and I turn back to the Estate, jogging up the stairs and to the front door of the flat. Taking my key out, I unlock the door and walk inside.
"Mum, I'm back!" I call. Mum races out to the hallway from the kitchen, looking even more shocked than when I told her about my wings, holding a cup of tea. "What's going on? Is something wrong?" I ask. She drops the cup, and it shatters.
"Rose?" she gasps. "Oh my god, Rose! It's you, it's really you!" She runs to me, jumping into my arms and hanging on for dear life, sobbing.
"What is going on?" I ask aloud, not expecting a response. Suddenly the Doctor races inside.
"Um, Rose? It's not been twelve hours. It's been twelve months. You've been gone an entire year," he says apologetically.
"Are you freaking kidding me?" I mutter.
~DW~
Once we've gotten past all the drama (and by drama, I mean Mum slapping the Doctor and going off on an angry rampage) I sit with her at the kitchen table.
"Rose, really, who is that man? Please, tell me. What could be so bad that you can't tell me?" Mum begs. She lowers her voice. "He's with the School, isn't he? Have they done something else to you? Did they hurt you again? If they did, I swear…"
"Mum! He's not with the School, I promise," I tell her. "Really, he asked me to come travelling with him, and I did. Simple as that."
"You didn't phone once. Did you even think about me?" Mum cries softly.
"The whole time," I reply just as softly.
"Then why can't you tell me where you were?"
I don't have an answer.
About an hour later, Mum gets in the shower to cool off for a bit, and I sit on the roof with the Doctor.
"What do I tell her?" I ask. "How do I even begin to explain? I missed an entire year…was it good? Did I miss out?"
"Eh," the Doctor shrugs.
"You're no help."
"Does this mean you aren't coming back with me?"
I'm torn. Everything the Doctor has shown me is so wonderful. How could anyone give that up, ever? But Mum…
"I can't do this to her again. She's done so much for me, I could never put her through it knowingly. But I don't want to give this up, it's fantastic, I mean, a once in a lifetime chance, even rarer than that!" I say. I look at him, noticing his red cheek, and smile slightly.
"What are you smiling for? Last I heard you were contemplating a major life decision!" he says.
I can't hold it in anymore, I burst out laughing. "She slapped you!"
"Nine hundred years, I've lived, and never has anyone's mother slapped me before," he comments.
"And on top of that, she thinks you're what, forty, give or take five years? You're nine freaking hundred…"
Suddenly there's a streak in the sky.
"Fantastic! Some action, finally!" the Doctor cries, as the spaceship strikes Big Ben.
"We've been here for like, three hours," I tell him.
"Exactly! Feels like forever. Time for some investigating!"
"You know the streets are gonna be blocked off, right? And with all the crowds, you probably wouldn't be able to make it there if you tried," I say. The Doctor's face falls, before taking on a thinking expression.
"You know we can just watch it on the TV, like everyone else?"
We race downstairs and turn on the television, and pay close attention as they ramble on. "Stay inside! Don't panic! We're working on it!" After a while, it got tiring, and I help Mum make tea. I'm bringing a cup over to the Doctor when something catches my attention.
"It's unconfirmed, but a body has been found in the wreckage, supposedly of extra terrestrial origin…"
"Did he just say what I think he just said?" I ask, looking toward the Doctor. "Why is it, you show up in my life, and when I come home, to Earth, all of a sudden it's aliens!"
Later that night, I catch the Doctor wandering off, clearly wanting to avoid all the people Mum has called over to the flat.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"I don't do domestic."
I gaze at him for a moment, distrusting. "Just, please promise me you won't go disappearing?"
The Doctor looks thoughtful for a moment, before digging around in his pocket. My eyes widen when his arms slides in up to his elbow.
"Are you freaking serious? Your pockets are bigger on the inside too?" He just smiles and pulls his arm back out, a silver chain hanging in his hand. He gives it to me, and I hold it up to the street light so I can see it better.
"A TARDIS key?" I say disbelievingly. "You're giving me a TARDIS key?"
"It's about time you had one. You're an official companion, now," he says, grinning. "I promise I won't leave without you. I'll be back." He walks off into the night, leaving me clutching the silver chain. I glance down again at the key in my fist, before sliding the chain around my neck and hiding it under my shirt. It feels like it was meant to be there. I feel special, like I'm a part of something important, but it's different than the whole 'It's up to you to save the world!' speech Jeb continuously gave me. I feel like I'm part of something beautiful.
~DW~
Things are suddenly silent when the door slams open. Someone walks into the flat.
Mickey.
"I was going to come see you," I say quietly.
"Were you though?" he says bitterly, nodding his head in the direction of the kitchen. I follow him in.
"I was worried sick about you for the first few weeks, worried that the School had gotten you, that you were suffering, then I gave up. You hadn't come back; it had been how many months? I thought you were dead Rose. Actually, properly dead. Whatever happened to the Doctor anyway? I just saw him get in that police box and leave," Mickey rants.
"Mickey, I really am sorry…" I pause. "Wait. Did you just say that…?"
"He left? Yeah!" Mickey cries. I grab my jacket off the hook on the wall and race outside to the empty lot.
"He promised me," I whisper, trying not to cry. "He said he wouldn't leave without me." I know I've only been travelling with the Doctor for a little while, but it feels like lifetimes, and in a way, it has been. I thought I was more important than that. I'm turning back to walk inside when I hear the sound of the TARDIS. A huge smile crosses my face.
"I knew it! I knew he wouldn't leave without me!" Mickey and Mum have followed me outside, and they stare at the TARDIS as it materializes in front of us.
I rush inside. The Doctor looks up from the TARDIS screen. "Sorry, I just had to go check it out. Big Ben, spaceship, how long is this opportunity going to come along?" His eyes move to Mickey and Mum behind me.
"Rose, what is going on?" Mum cries.
"Doctor!" Mickey says angrily. "You took her away! It's your fault!"
"Good," the Doctor moans sarcastically. "A domestic!"
"You don't even remember my name, do you?"
"Ricky."
"Mickey."
"That was a real spaceship?" I interrupt, not wanting an argument to break out. I walk over next to the Doctor and look at the screen.
"That's an awful invasion plan," Mickey cuts in. "They put the entire world on red alert."
The Doctor is under the TARDIS console a few minutes later, doing whatever he does under there. Mickey and I lean against the wall on the other side of the room.
"You're not going to stay, are you?" he says.
"Mickey…"
"It's alright, Rose, really. I didn't even know you for the first fourteen years of your life. I just always assumed you were happy, because you looked it…but now, in comparison, you're glowing. Adventure, adrenaline…that really keeps you going, doesn't it?" I smile weakly.
"You have no idea, Mick."
The Doctor stands up abruptly, checking the screen again, before muttering to himself.
"What is it?" I ask.
"The spaceship came from Earth," he says. "It went up and came back down."
"Did you just say it came from Earth?" Mickey asks.
~DW~
An hour later, I've been arrested, escorted to Downing Street, and mobbed by paparazzi. I let out a sigh of relief when we get inside the building. The Doctor looks at me.
"You okay?"
"I'm not one for crowds. Or attention, for that matter."
The guards lead us up some stairs to a doorway, and a man hands the Doctor an ID card.
"Sorry, your companion doesn't have clearance," he says, referring to me.
"Talk about me like I'm not here, why don't you?" I mutter to myself. A woman walks up.
"That's alright, I'll keep her company. I don't have clearance either." She turns to me, flashing an ID card. "Harriet Jones, MP, Flydale North."
~DW~
"What was your name?" Harriet asks as we walk down the hall.
"Rose Tyler," I say. She looks at me for a moment.
"Are you sure?"
"Why wouldn't I be sure of my own name?" I laugh.
"Aliens aren't the only thing I investigate," Harriet says carefully. She pulls out a paper from one of her files. "I investigate all government secrets. I've been spending a lot of time lately on this." She gives me the paper.
My heart stops when I look at it. There, right on it is my picture, wings and all. Written underneath is all my experiment information.
Maximum Ride, human-avian hybrid. 98% human, 2% bird. Brown hair, brown eyes…
The list goes on, but I stop reading.
"How did you find this?" I ask, deadly calm. "Or did they give it to you? Are you working for them?" I back against a cabinet.
"Maximum, I promise you, I'm not. I work against the School. What they did to you is not right, and I intend to help put a stop to it."
"Rose. My name is Rose," I whisper. Harriet nods.
"Your name is Rose."
I step away from the cabinet, but my jacket gets caught on the door, and it opens. A body falls out. The Prime Minister.
The same man from before who said I didn't have clearance walks in, gasping, and behind him follows another woman, shorter and overweight.
"But he was driven away from Downing Street this morning!" the clearance man cries.
"And who told you that?" asks the woman, before smiling wickedly and reaching up to brush her hair off her forehead. "Me."
She pulls what looks like a zipper across her forehead, before basically taking off her skin. It's extremely gross, but really, I've seen worse. A tall, fat, green-skinned alien stands in front of us. The creature roars, grabbing the man between its claws and pinning him to the wall, strangling him. I go to attack, but Harriet holds me back.
"Let go of me!" I shout.
"It will kill you, Rose!"
We watch as the monster strangles him. I could swear I hear evil laughter from the other room.
