This is dedicated to margie-me , who went and reviewed every single chapter as they read it! Thanks a bunch! You made writing so much easier this time!
Chapter 21: Rise of the Cybermen
She walked into the console room to hear Rose and the Doctor laughing over an adventure they had had at one point. Freya vaguely remembered hearing about it. It was one of the times she'd chosen to stay on the TARDIS.
Mickey was holding down a button on the console, nodding as the two of them laughed.
"Yeah. Where was that, then? What happened?" Mickey asked when they stopped laughing.
"Oh, it was on this, er, this er, planet thing. Asteroid. It's a long story, you had to be there. Er, what're you doing that for?" he asked, giving Mickey an odd look.
"Because you told me to," Mickey defended himself.
"When was that?" the Doctor asked, awkwardly running a hand through his hair.
"About half an hour ago," Mickey said, frustrated.
"Er, you can let go now," the Doctor said.
"Well, how long's it been since I could've stopped?" Mickey demanded.
"Ten minutes? Twenty?...Twenty-nine," the Doctor finally finished meekly.
"With him, you just have to guess," Freya told Mickey. The Doctor jumped to his feet when he saw her.
"There you are! What do you want to do today? Anywhere!" the Doctor beamed. He was ecstatic, moreso than he usually was.
"What's got you so happy?" Freya asked suspiciously.
"New day, new places to see, new eyes to see it with!" the Doctor said cheerfully.
"You want to show off. You have your entourage, and now you wanna show off," Freya summarized, staring at him. The Doctor's grin became sheepish.
"Still new eyes," he tried. Freya glanced over at Mickey, who still looked rather peeved.
"He forgets a lot. Come on, walk me to get tea?" Freya offered Mickey. The Doctor looked quite put out at not being asked but didn't say anything as Freya ushered Mickey away. They didn't make it to the kitchen.
"How are you doing?" Freya asked him softly as soon as they were outside of the console room. Mickey's shoulders slumped.
"Frustrated," Mickey managed to say. Freya nodded sympathetically.
"Are you and Rose still broke up?" Freya asked him, and Mickey nodded miserably.
"Yeah. I think she's hung up on the Doctor. I tried telling her there was no chance, since he was married to you, but she said she just didn't feel anything for me anymore," Mickey admitted, the words rushing out.
"So now you feel left out," Freya realized. Mickey nodded uncomfortably.
"It wasn't so bad, yesterday. Rose paired up with me. But today? Ever since I've made it out here, the two of them have been laughing with each other over stories. She wasn't away that long, was she?" Mickey asked in confusion.
"No. She's probably exhausted all of her experience with him by now," Freya reassured him.
"I wanted to see the stars. I just didn't think I'd have to see them the whole time too," Mickey finally admitted.
"Don't worry. The Doctor doesn't like her like that. You still do though, don't you?" Freya realized. Mickey guiltily looked at the ground. Freya grabbed his chin and pulled it up.
"I can tell you right now that one day, you're going to meet a fantastic woman who you will love and she will love you in return," Freya promised him.
"How do you know that?" Mickey asked miserably. Freya stared at him, thinking for a second that this could be a bad idea before shoving it down.
"Because I've met her," Freya said.
About that time the TARDIS gave a sudden jerk.
"What was that?" Mickey asked as it started to jerk harder.
"I think we're crashing," Freya said, scrambling to find something to grab on to. The walls were smooth. Mickey latched onto her just as the TARDIS crashed violently.
As soon as Mickey was sure it was steady, he released Freya.
"We should go find out what happened," Freya suggested as the power shut off. They managed to stumble into the console room, where gas masks were hanging from the ceiling. Freya shuddered at the sight of them.
"What happened?" Freya asked as she entered the room. The Doctor had her locked in his arms in a heartbeat.
"Are you okay? Feel okay? Did you get hurt? Did you make it to the kitchen?" the Doctor rambled, eyes skimming her quickly for any injuries.
"I'm fine. Mickey and I were still in the hallway. What happened?" Freya repeated.
"The time vortex is gone. It just vanished. And now the TARDIS is dead. Again," the Doctor said, his voice forlorn.
"You can fix it, right? You fixed it before," Rose pointed out. The Doctor whirled on her.
"No. Freya fixed her last time by offering up eighty years of her life. There's nothing to fix now. She's perished. The last TARDIS is dead, and there isn't any way to bring her back," the Doctor said sadly.
"Could I give some of my life to get her back again?" Freya questioned, only for the Doctor to shake his head immediately.
"No. You have too little life left. You are not sacrificing your life for my TARDIS. Not again," the Doctor warned her.
"Can we get help?" Rose asked curiously.
"Where from?" the Doctor said miserably.
"Well, we've landed. We've got to be somewhere," Rose pointed out. The Doctor merely shook his head before resting it on top of Freya's, tucking her head into his chest.
"We fell out of the vortex, through the void, into nothingness. We're in some sort of no place. The silent realm. The lost dimension," the Doctor said grimly.
"Otherwise known as London," Mickey called from the doorway. The Doctor pulled away from Freya and rushed for the door. Freya and Rose were on his heels as they followed Mickey into the street. He picked up a discarded newspaper.
"London, England, Earth. First of February this year. Not exactly far flung, is it?" Mickey asked the Doctor, handing him the newspaper.
"So this is London," the Doctor asked flatly, staring straight at the sky.
"Yep," Mickey said cheerfully as Freya caught sight of a zeppelin. Her eyes widened. She hadn't seen those in London the last time they'd been there.
"Your city," the Doctor continued flatly.
"That's the one," Mickey agreed.
"Just as we left it?" the Doctor asked him.
"There's zeppelins, Mickey," Freya pointed out.
"What the hell?" Mickey breathed in disbelief.
"That's beautiful," Rose whispered.
"It looks like trouble," Freya murmured. The Doctor's arm roped itself around her waist and gave her a gentle squeeze.
"Not everything foreign is trouble," he reminded her.
"No, just most things," Freya teased him.
"Okay, so it's London with a big international Zeppelin festival,' Mickey tried.
"This isn't our world," Freya told him, noticing how no one even stared at the zeppelins. If it was their world, people would be taking pictures or at least staring at them. Not even the children spared them a second glance.
"But if the date's the same, it's parallel, right? Am I right? Like a parallel Earth where they've got zeppelins. Am I right? I'm right, aren't?" Mickey repeated happily.
"Must be," the Doctor mused, glancing about.
"So, a parallel world where…" Rose drifted off as Mickey started talking once more.
"Oh, come on. You've seen it on films. Like an alternative to our world where everything's the same but a little bit different, like, I don't know, traffic lights are blue, Tony Blair never got elected," Mickey continued.
"And he's still alive," Rose breathed. Everyone turned to see that Rose was staring at a poster for Vitex Lite, some kind of drink. In the picture was her father.
The uneasiness Freya was feeling intensified.
"A parallel world and my dad's still alive," Rose said, sounding stronger this time.
"Don't look at it, Rose. Don't even think about it. This is not your world," the Doctor told her sternly, his grip on Freya tightening. Rose touched the ad and it played a short clip before going black. She touched it again, only to gasp.
Freya's face appeared on the screen. With an ad for perfume.
"A parallel world where Freya is a supermodel?" Mickey asked in disbelief before immediately giving Freya an apologetic look.
"No offense," he said quickly, but Freya shook her head, staring at it.
"Petrichor. For the girl who's tired of waiting. I've never heard of that," Freya said.
"No. I doubt it exists in our universe. We need to get you back to the TARDIS before someone spots you and mistakes you for your parallel self," the Doctor told her, ushering her quickly back to the TARDIS.
"Mickey, keep an eye on Rose. Don't wander off," the Doctor ordered as he hurried Freya back into the TARDIS.
"What is parallel me tired of waiting for?" Freya wondered aloud as they entered the TARDIS.
"Who knows? A number of things, I'm sure. Must have quite a bit to be noticed as a model. Because you look the same, but even though you could be a model, you're not. Because you don't have connections," the Doctor told her.
"But how different are our lives?" Freya mused. Her phone, from the console, beeped. She reached for it and flipped it open just as the Doctor grabbed it. He scanned the screen before shaking his head.
"It connected to the internet here. You don't need to see anything on there," the Doctor told her, but Freya snatched the phone from him.
"I'm not going to run off and try to replace parallel me. I'm happier with you than I could be here. I'm just curious," Freya argued as she started a search for herself.
"Curiosity killed the cat," the Doctor warned her, earning a glare from Freya.
"And satisfaction brought it back. Honestly Doctor, warning me against curiosity? You're worse than I am. Aren't you curious as to if there is an alternate you here?" Freya asked him.
"There can't be. Time Lords can only exist in one reality," the Doctor told her. Freya nodded and clicked on one of the links. After a few minutes of reading, she glanced back up at the Doctor.
"You still have nothing to worry about. Alternate me is miserable, according to the tabloids. Bad relationship with her parents, bad relationship with men, bad relationship with…well, everyone. It says she was tired of waiting for love and adventure, and that's why she launched her career as a model. Sounds like a proper brat, I do," Freya mused.
"Not you. Alternate you," the Doctor reminded her.
"But outside of being insanely wealthy, there are no differences. How did she turn out that way and I didn't?" Freya couldn't help but ask.
Mickey walked in the doors alone before the Doctor could form a coherent sentence.
"I told you to keep an eye on her!" the Doctor said, glad for the distraction.
"She's all right," Mickey waved it off.
"She goes wandering off. Parallel world, it's like a gingerbread house. All those temptations calling out," the Doctor said.
"Oh, so it's just Rose then? Nothing out there to tempt me? To tempt Freya?" Mickey countered angrily.
"Well, I don't know, I can't worry about everything. And Freya's with me. If I could just get this thing to…" he drifted off, kicking the console.
"Did that help?" Freya asked him gently, wrapping her arms around his stomach.
"Yes," the Doctor said grumpily.
"Did that hurt?" Mickey asked, a grin on his face. The Doctor's expression didn't change.
"Yes. Ouch," he complained. Mickey and Freya shared grins.
"We're not meant to be here. The TARDIS draws its power from the universe, but it's the wrong universe. It's like diesel in a petrol engine," the Doctor tried explaining.
"She'd be rather cross if she knew you were comparing her to an engine," Freya reminded the Doctor, moving one of her hands from him to pat the console reassuringly.
"But I've seen it in comics. People go hopping from one alternative world to another. It's easy," Mickey complained, puzzled.
"Not in the real world. It used to be easy. When the Time Lords kept their eye on everything, you could hop between realities, home in time for tea. Then they died, and took it all with them. The walls of reality closed, the worlds were sealed. Everything became that bit less kind," the Doctor said sadly.
"Then how did we get here?" Mickey pressed.
"I don't know. Accident? Should've been impossible. Now we're trapped. What's that?" the Doctor asked, catching sight of something below the grate. He moved away from Freya, towards the tiny light.
"What?" Mickey asked. Freya saw it too and followed the Doctor quickly.
"That, there. Is that a reflection?" he asked, waving his hand over the area. Nothing changed.
"It's a light! Is it? Is that a light? I think that's a light. That's all we need. We've got power! Mickey, Freya, we've got power! Ha!" he shouted joyfully.
He was prying the grate up before anyone could even react. Freya moved closer and attempted to help him before he batted her off.
"Mickey, some help?" the Doctor asked. Freya moved back, staring at the two of them. She was not that far along. Could she really not lift anything?
"It's alive!" the Doctor exclaimed as he crawled into the TARDIS.
"What is it?" Mickey asked as the Doctor held up a tiny panel.
"It's nothing. It's tiny. One of those insignificant little power cells that no one ever bothers about, and it's clinging onto life, with one little ounce of reality tucked away inside," the Doctor said gleefully.
"Enough to get us home?" Mickey asked excitedly.
"Not yet. I need to charge it up," the Doctor said, undeterred.
"We could go outside and lash it up to the National Grid," Mickey offered.
"If we need it to retain our reality, we can't charge it by ways of this reality," Freya said slowly, hoping she was right. The Doctor nodded.
"Wrong sort of energy. Freya's right. It has to come from our universe," he said.
"But we don't have anything," Mickey complained.
"We're from our reality," Freya reminded him.
"There's me," the Doctor said in agreement before he blew on the panel. It started getting brighter. The Doctor's eyes were positively gleaming.
"I just gave away ten years of my life. Worth every second," he breathed giddily.
"You can give away parts of your life? I thought you regenerated. How does that work?" Freya asked him critically.
"I gave away the remaining years I had available in my last body to keep you from dying when you brought the TARDIS back. Each body has its limits. I can't have the same body for a few thousand years," the Doctor told her. Freya nodded, pretending she understood.
"Wait! It's going out! Is that okay?" Mickey asked in concern, staring at the panel in the Doctor's hands.
"It's on a recharging cycle. It'll loop round, power back up, and be ready to take us home in, oh, twenty-four hours?" the Doctor said.
"So that gives us twenty-four hours on a parallel world?" Mickey asked. Freya could see his thought process. And she was worried.
"Shore leave. As long as we keep our heads down. Easy. No problem. Freya, stay here. Mickey and I'll go get Rose. You can try to change into something that disguises you really well and when we get back we can all go out and get some food," the Doctor told her. Freya nodded and headed for the wardrobe as the Doctor and Mickey made their way out of the TARDIS.
Freya spent a good deal of time wondering how to disguise herself. She didn't have to hide the baby bump – unless for some reason this Freya was also pregnant. If that was the case, maybe she did need to hide it. It was a vicious cycle – none of the articles she'd managed to skim mentioned Alternate Freya being pregnant, but that was something the family would surely keep under wraps as long as they could.
With that, she picked a loose fitting shirt, but one that still showed she was pregnant. She tucked her hair under a baseball cap and threw on a pair of sunglasses before padding back to the console room.
No one was there.
She figured that, with all the time she spent trying to pick an outfit, they would have returned by now. A sinking feeling settled in her gut and she quickly made her way out of the TARDIS, eyes scanning the area. She made her way back to the ad they had seen before.
No one was their either.
She needed to get back to the TARDIS. To her cell phone. She'd left it somewhere. The TARDIS console, perhaps? That's where her cell phone always ended up when she didn't realize she'd forgotten it. She needed to call Rose, find out where they were.
She was within sight of the TARDIS when they arrived.
Three men in black all but materialized in front of her. When she tried turning around, another two were there. A woman walked up to the group and tutted at her.
"Really, Miss Freya, this is your best disguise? You haven't been this shoddy in years. Come along. You were under strict orders to stay inside," the woman said.
Freya's hearts stuttered. She'd been caught.
The Doctor handed Rose's phone back to her, his worry growing.
"Rose, we should go back. Something's wrong. Freya's not answering," the Doctor said. Rose kept walking.
"She never answers her phone. Always losing it," Rose said dismissively. But the Doctor shook his head.
"You don't understand. She always loses it in the TARDIS. She should be able to find it in there. She has no idea we aren't coming straight back. Come on. We can see your dad after we make sure Freya's okay," the Doctor said, grabbing Rose's arm and tugging her after him.
"She's fine! I'm going to see my dad, one way or the other. You can either come with me or go get Freya and try to catch up. But I'd rather Freya not be there. We both know what happened the last time Freya got to meet my father," Rose added, noting the Doctor's wince.
"If anything happens to her…" the Doctor drifted off, but Rose shook her head.
"She's in the TARDIS…what's the worst that could happen?"
Freya's apprehension grew as they reached a mansion. An elaborate mansion, one that Alternate Freya apparently lived in.
She'd barely been ushered in the door before a boy had launched himself at her.
"FREYA!" he shouted cheerfully, gripping her tightly around the waist. Freya stared down at him, unsure as to what she was to do.
"Tony, let go of your sister right this instant," a sharp voice called from the stairs. Freya turned, seeing her mother – no, alternate mother – coming down the stairs, a glare focused solely on Freya. She winced.
That part hadn't changed.
"Just where did you think you were going? You know you were to stay in the house today. You are not to leave for any reason today," her mother told her angrily. Freya opened her mouth but was cut off.
"Your father made it very clear that you and Tony were to remain in the mansion while I represent the family and attend Jackie's distasteful birthday party. You're supposed to plead sick for not being there tonight! How can I say you're sick if you're out traipsing around London?" her mother demanded. Freya winced. She wanted nothing to do with this; she wanted to curl up in a ball, get out of there.
No.
She wasn't that Freya anymore. And she had the feeling that neither was Alternate Freya.
"I wasn't out traipsing around London. I got bored. I put on a disguise," Freya said with a sniff. Her mother let out a harsh laugh.
"A disguise? That's the worst you've wore in ages. I thought we agreed that your pregnancy was to be kept a secret. We can't have you out flaunting it. What would the press think? They'd have a field day speculating on the baby daddy. Go to your room," her mother ordered. The men in black literally picked her up by the arms and carried her up the stairs, Alternate Freya's younger brother trailing behind them, looking quite desolate.
"And do not put those ear pods in. We've already confiscated two pairs from you. Your father told you no headphones. Not tonight," her mother added as well. What headphones? Freya glanced at the men in black to see that they all had two earpieces, one on each ear. Who needed two? That seemed a bit excessive.
She was all but tossed into a room with the door locked firmly behind her. She quickly tried opening the door, but it wouldn't go. She then rushed for the window, only to see bars across it.
She really was a prisoner. How would she find the Doctor now?
"Running off? That's not really your style," a familiar voice chuckled from behind her. Freya's hearts nearly stopped at the sound. No. It couldn't be.
Two hands rested on her hips as a body pressed itself against her , lips hovering next to her ear.
"Did you miss me?" he asked before spinning her around.
Her eyes caught sight of the Doctor, big-eared Doctor, only for a second before he pulled her in for a passionate snog.
He pulled back long enough to begin kissing down her neck, eliciting a gasp from Freya.
"Doctor?" she asked. The man in front of her paused, his eyes rising to meet hers.
"Are we roleplaying now?" he asked before he continued his downward quest with his mouth.
And Freya knew.
He wasn't the Doctor.
She pushed him away with as much force as she could manage.
"Get away from me," she ordered him, taking as many steps away from him as she could. The man who looked like her big-eared Doctor stared at her for a moment.
"I need you to clear this up for me. I'm not as up on current things. Is this part of one of your fantasies, or do you really not want to do this right now?" he asked, staring at her with his lust-filled eyes. It unnerved Freya. She'd never seen her Doctor look at her like that. It was almost scary.
"No. I-I don't. I don't know you," Freya said honestly.
That stopped the Doctor look-alike in his tracks. He stared at her for a moment before scowling at the door.
"Is this their work? I thought they were fine with us being together, as long as it got them more fame," the Doctor look-alike spat.
Freya stared at him. She had no idea what to do. What was going on. How to explain this to someone who had no idea about time travel or aliens or anything.
"I'm not Freya," she said slowly. She was Freya. She just wasn't his Freya. Whoever he was.
The Doctor crossed the floor quickly, seizing her arms before she could run away.
"Is this some sort of scheme to get rid of me? Of course it's you. I can tell my own fiancée from a stranger," the Doctor look-alike scoffed. Freya shook her head, trying to pull her arm from him.
"I'm a Freya, but not your Freya. I'm from a different world," she tried explaining.
She got no more words out before she was pushed backwards onto her bed. The Doctor look-alike pinned her down immediately, staring angrily into her eyes.
"Is this one of your games? What other worlds could produce an exact replica of you? Same haircut, said shade of eyes, same pattern of freckles on your face," the Doctor said, tracing her freckles with one hand as his other hand held both of hers, trapped. His hand then slipped down the back of her shirt. Freya panicked and struggled against him for a moment, only stopping when his hands stopped moving.
"Same mole in the middle of your back," he said, hand moving back upward and stopping on a tiny scar she had on her shoulder.
He'd moved her shirt halfway off her shoulder by that point.
"And this. Your only scar. Bicycle accident when you were twelve," the Doctor look-alike said affectionately, kissing the scar. It sent a shiver down Freya's spine.
And then his words registered to her. And her eyes widened.
"No! Wait! I have another scar. A big scar. A scar that would prove that I'm not lying to you. That I'm not your Freya," Freya rushed the words out. The man lifted his head, watching her carefully as Freya tried to think of the best way to show him without completely exposing herself. The man on top of her was horny – hornier than even Jack had ever seemed to be, and the last thing she needed to do was encourage him.
"What type of scar?" the Doctor look-alike said suspiciously.
"A scar from a surgery. It's faded. Almost completely gone. On my chest – in the middle. I had heart surgery as a baby," Freya said. The Doctor look-alike examined her for a moment before slowly pulling her shirt down.
She heard his breath halt. He'd seen it.
"That's not been there before. I've seen every inch of your body. That wasn't there before," the man repeated as he traced the scar with his hands. Freya tried wriggling away from him as he did. His hands were not in the places she'd want them to be. The sooner he let go of her, the better.
"Because I'm not your Freya. I'm someone else's Freya. Can I please sit up?" Freya begged. The man reluctantly released her hands and shifted so that he was sitting up next to her rather than pinning her down.
"If you're not my Freya, where is my Freya?" he asked her. Freya shook her head.
"I don't know. My husband, my friends and I, we crash landed here. He tried hiding me when we realized there was another me here, but I got captured. They think I'm her," Freya explained. The Doctor look-alike examined her for a moment.
"You called me Doctor. So you know another me, yes?" the man said. Freya swallowed and nodded.
"But he died. He was…he was the father of my baby," Freya finally said. She could have tried explaining to him about Time Lords, but she had a feeling that wouldn't go over. As long as she didn't mention aliens or time travel, she should be fine. About the moment she started on that, she'd be in trouble.
"Right. Fine. Let's go then," the Doctor look-alike said before standing.
"Go where? We're trapped here," Freya said uncomfortably. The man gave her a grin that made her heart ache.
"They don't know I'm here. Which means I got in," he said cheerfully.
"Who are you? What's your name?" Freya asked as she stood as well.
"James. James McCrimmon," he said with a shrug. He ignored Freya's wide eyes and motioned for her to follow him.
"Well come along then. If I know my Freya, she's in the middle of trouble. Which means Jackie Tyler's birthday party."
The Doctor wanted to get out of there so bad.
Rose was complaining. And he was in his unlucky suit. Holding a tray of tasty nibbles. That he wasn't supposed to devour.
"We could have been anyone," Rose repeated for the fifth time in the last three point five minutes.
"Got us in, didn't it? If you want to know what's going on, work in the kitchens. And I want to get in and out as soon as possible. Freya's back at the TARDIS alone. She gets bored. Now, according to Lucy, that man over there…" the Doctor was cut off.
"Who's Lucy?" Rose asked immediately.
"She's carrying the salmon pinwheels over there," the Doctor said, pointing to the girl. She was friendly. Very forthcoming with information, the Doctor had found.
"Oh, that's Lucy, is it? What would Freya say?" Rose huffed.
"I was just getting information. Anyway, Lucy says, that is the President of Great Britain," the Doctor said, pointing out a man.
"What, there's a President, not a Prime Minister?" Rose asked in disbelief.
"Seems so," the Doctor mused.
"Or maybe Lucy's just a bit thick," Rose muttered.
The Doctor wandered off as soon as Pete started talking, making his way through the crowds. He was listening to conversations, trying to shake the feeling that something was incredibly wrong.
He had just entered a room when he heard the door slam shut behind him. He spun around...to see Freya standing in the doorway, hair tucked up and in a maid's outfit, but most certainly Freya. He was at her side in an instant, pulling her into a tight hug.
"I told you to stay put. Why didn't you have your phone on you?" he murmured as he hugged her. He pulled back and stared at her, instantly noticing that she seemed a bit…off.
"Hello stranger," she breathed as she licked her lips.
And that was the only warning he got before her lips were on his.
She knocked him to the ground, wasting no time in straddling him. The Doctor managed to break apart.
"No time. Good you're here, but you should have stayed hidden. What if someone recognizes you?" the Doctor hissed at her. Freya just laughed.
"People only see what they want to see. No one would suspect that the pregnant maid is actually an heiress," Freya said as she stood, eyes still glued to the Doctor.
"We need to go find Rose before she gets into trouble. And then we need to get out of here. Something's wrong," the Doctor said.
"Of course something's wrong," Freya told him, rolling her eyes. The Doctor stared at her.
"What do you know? What'd you manage to find out?" he asked her quickly.
"Something's going down here. Tonight. And it has to do with the ear pods. The ear pods and John Lumic. I wasn't supposed to be at this party tonight, so something bad is supposed to happen here," Freya said.
"You mean your parallel you?" the Doctor asked her. Freya stared at him. And he knew. She had no idea what he was talking about. But then she nodded.
"Whatever is going to happen, tonight is the starting point," Freya told him.
Her slipups were odd. Had someone possessed her body once more? He would think it was the Alternate Freya, but she was pregnant. Alternate Freya was a supermodel; she wouldn't be pregnant without Freya having found something about it on the news. Right? He was confused. Oh, he hated being confused.
"Are you my Freya or are you this world's Freya?" the Doctor asked her carefully. She regarded him for a moment.
"I can be whatever Freya you want me to be," she finally answered him with a wink. He shook his head.
"No. That means you're not my Freya. Which means you're missing. Which means they're looking for you, or my Freya. Which means we need to find Rose and get out of here," the Doctor said quickly, his words slurring together.
He stumbled into the main room only for his eyes to widen.
Cybermen.
Cybermen were everywhere.
That was why this place felt wrong. Because it was wrong.
He saw Rose standing by Pete Tyler and took off running, his hand automatically grabbing Alternate Freya's hand as he did. Even if she wasn't his Freya, he was going to do his best to get her out of there alive as well.
The tunnel James McCrimmon led her down was cool. Cool and dark. Freya didn't like it. She was freezing.
A jacket rested on her shoulders before she could register that James had moved. She slipped her arms in before shooting him a curious look.
"Just because you aren't her doesn't mean you don't feel like her to me," he said gruffly, reminding Freya of his Doctor counterpart.
"Thanks," Freya told him He nodded, obviously not used to being thanked.
"What kind of surgery? Heart surgery, I'd assume, I mean, but why? What was wrong with your heart?" James asked her suddenly.
"My heart wasn't working. My system was mutated; my body was designed to have a heart on the right side but it was on the left and wasn't working as it ought, so they inserted a new heart on the right. Left the old one in too. Both are beating now though," Freya admitted. James stopped in his tracks.
"You have two beating hearts?" he asked in disbelief. Freya nodded, biting her lip.
"Yeah. The second one was always very weak, but it's been more or less jump-started recently," Freya told him.
"May I?" he asked her, gesturing towards her chest. Freya considered telling him no – he had, after all, been feeling her up before. But he seemed genuinely curious now. Freya nodded, biting her lip as she did.
This time, however, his hands didn't stray. They rested right over her hearts for a moment, feeling for the erratic double beat.
"That's incredible," he breathed, staring at her. Freya took a step back and glanced down. James took that as a sign and started walking once more.
"But why did you have a heart problem and my Freya didn't? You two are the same person, sort of, but not. Why was she not the same as you physically?" James persisted. Freya shook her head.
"Certain things are different. Like we don't have zeppelins in our world like you do. And we have the Doctor. Him and his people can only exist in one universe, he said. Maybe that has something to do with it," Freya said with a shrug.
"Did the Doctor do it?" James asked bluntly.
"Do what?" Freya asked in confusion.
"Is he the reason you have two hearts? Because if he's one of the few big differences, it'd make sense," James said reasonably. Freya stared at him.
"Maybe? I don't know," Freya admitted as they came to the end of a tunnel. James turned to her and zipped the leather jacket up all the way. He then stopped and reached for the wall of the tunnel, pushing in a section. A hat popped out. Freya's eyes widened. James smiled at her and placed the hat on her head, carefully tucking her hair in. Most of it. He stopped after a moment and pulled a pair of scissors from the little hidden compartment.
"They're going to be looking for your. Your other self would never cut her hair. Best way to get out of here, find the other you, and stay alive would be to cut your hair," James told her.
"If that's the only option," Freya responded dryly, staring at him. She doubted that everything hinged on her getting her hair cut, but she wasn't going to argue with him. She didn't have a strong attachment to her hair. James nodded and pulled her hat back off, placing it on his own head as he pulled the leather collar up.
"It won't be overly fashionable, but it'll do. I'm not a hairdresser," James grumbled slightly as he started cutting.
The first cut was the ponytail. He was cutting her hair short. Freya felt something akin to regret the moment she felt the weight from her hair fall, but she had no time to protest it. James made a few more cuts, more likely to even it up and make it look less impromptu, before hiding the scissors and placing the hat back on her head. He then brushed all of her hair off the jacket.
"Why do you keep a hat and scissors here?" Freya asked him.
"Disguises. With her life, we're all about disguises. I'm always trying to convince her to cut her hair to keep us hidden, but she refuses. Figured one day she'd give in and make it easy on me. Didn't realize it wouldn't be her when that happened," James joked. Freya couldn't hold back her laugh at that. Because it was so ironic. And it was so him.
He slipped his hand in hers and pulled her along out after him into night.
"How did he do it?" James asked her quietly as they made their way down the streets.
"How did who do what?" Freya asked him.
"How did the other me win you over? He didn't keep you because he died, I guess, but how did he win you over?" James asked her.
"Probably some way close to how you won other me over," Freya joked with him, but he was silent. Freya stopped walking, pulling James to a stop alongside her. He looked at her curiously, but she was examining him.
"I haven't won her over. Saved her life and won her parents over, maybe. They like me. She puts up with me. Likes sex. Not so sure about me," James admitted. Freya smiled at him.
"I wouldn't say that," Freya told him.
"But seriously. How did he do it?" James persisted. Freya sighed and pulled him forward a bit, hoping they could get moving. James took the hint and started walking once more.
"Do you believe in aliens?" Freya asked James. His steps faltered for a moment before he continued on walking.
"Depends on what you call aliens," James said casually, but his eyes were glancing over at her suspiciously.
He did believe in them.
"The Doctor is an alien. He's called a Time Lord. One of the things they can do is change their face – well, their whole bodies – when they are dying. When I first met the Doctor, he looked like you. So he managed to keep me," Freya told him. James glanced at her sideways.
"And he just swooped you off your feet?" James asked her.
"Actually, he rescued me from jumping off a bridge, prompted by some life energy sucking aliens," Freya corrected him. James blinked before nodding.
"Ah. Some things are similar then," he said.
"James…you believe in aliens but you're not supposed to. Why? What do you know?" Freya asked him.
"I work for something called UNIT. We deal with aliens and how to keep them secret from the general public," James said gruffly. Freya gave his hand a squeeze.
"Well, I'm not the general public. What's that?" Freya asked as she saw a bright light flash at a mansion on a hill.
"Trouble. That's the Tyler mansion. Come on!" James told her, taking off at a sprint. Freya managed to keep up with him but only barely as they barreled in the front gate just as a wave of metal men seemed to appear. James cursed.
"Freya, whatever you do, don't let go of my hand," James told her as he ripped his earpieces off, throwing them at the ground. Freya hadn't even noticed him wearing them. He was then moving again, racing towards a group of people. His hand was back in his pocket as he ran, keeping his other hand that held Freya's hand behind him as he did.
Freya's eyes widened when she realized the Doctor was in the group. The Doctor, Mickey, Rose, and….Alternate her. Along with Pete Tyler. And another Mickey.
James yanked a hand-held device from his pocket and held it in front of him as he charged forward.
His movement drew all of the metal men's attention away from the group. James stopped suddenly and pulled Freya behind him, his hand gripping hers tight enough to very near break the bones in her hand.
"Trust me?" he asked her as the metal men took a few steps towards them.
"Oh yeah," Freya breathed automatically.
"Good," he said.
Just as three of the metal men shot him.
Okay. :) So:
1. Don't hate Rose too bad. That's how she acted in the show for this area, and since it didn't truly involve the Doctor, I couldn't see her acting any differently.
2. What do you think of James? I was so excited when the idea came to me. And you're going to love the next chapter! I promise!
3. It's my birthday! So leave me a review as a birthday treat. Sorry this one is short. It's about the place the episode left off, and it held the potential to be the maximum cliffhanger ending. ;)
I got a ton of reviews last chapter, thanks to margie-me mainly, but I still got quite a few. So thank you to all of you who read my stories and review. I really appreciate it.
Andi