April 2008
The Doctor was gritting his teeth as Rose encouraged Ross Jenkins to drive slower in what only he would label a flirtatious way but then again whenever Rose had spoken to a younger, more handsome and charming man he would label it flirting. After the Doctor helped Alex Rose examine the ATMOS Donna had discovered that all the workers had never taken a day off, which led to Martha and her examining the workers. Donna had then decided to go back to her family to warn them and had taken the twins with her (Alex Rose had mumbled something about her winnings as she left the car) leaving the Doctor, Rose and Ross to interrogate Rattigan, the creator of ATMOS who now owned his own school for geniuses.
While interrogating Rattigan the Doctor discovered a transmat, a Sontaran transmat and used it to find himself on a Sontaran ship when he came back Rose snapped at him until one of the Sontarans followed. The three ended up running.
"Rose will you stop flirting with your latest pretty boy for one minute!" the Doctor growled. "We have bigger issues than what speed Ross over there is driving"
"Excuse me I was not flirting!" Rose snapped. "If I wanted to flirt with someone it wouldn't be Ross, he is far too young for me; in fact he looks like my own children's age!"
"Oh yes speaking of our children, were you ever going to tell me or was I supposed to be in the dark about it for all eternity" the Doctor shouted back.
"Erm, Sir? Ma'am?" Ross said nervously.
"No! No, I was just trying to protect them because whether you intend to or not you would have broken their hearts" Rose snapped defensively. "I did my best to protect them and there had been moments when I almost called you-"
"So why didn't you?!" the Doctor grounded out in frustration, yanking at his hair.
"Because I was too scared! I was scared how you would react; I was scared that you would treat them like dirt that you would treat me like dirt that you would run away..." Rose snarled.
"Sir? Ma'am?" Ross said again.
"I wouldn't!" the Doctor protested.
"Wouldn't you? You were pretty keen to put a distance between us and we were only sleeping together" Rose said bitterly.
"SIR! MA'AM!" Ross shouted terrified.
"WHAT?!" both Rose and the Doctor snarled furiously.
"I'm not driving the car" the pair sat there in silence. "I've got no control, it's driving itself! It won't stop!"
This spurred the pair into action; the Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and began to use it on the ATMOS while Rose began to tug at the doors.
"The doors are locked!" Rose shouted.
"Ah, it's deadlocked, I can't stop it!" the Doctor shouted.
"Turn left" the Sat-Nav said in it's electronic voice, the jeep jolts and swerves left.
"The Sat-Nav's just a box, wired through the whole car!" the Doctor exclaimed.
"Oh I am so going to kill Alex Rose when I get my hands on her" Rose muttered, the Doctor sharing her sentiment exactly, the cheeky little brunette knew exactly what was going to happen. The Doctor's thoughts were cut off as the jeep swerved off the road, heading towards the river.
"We're heading for the river!" Ross shouted.
"ATMOS, you're programmed to contradict my orders?" the Doctor asked the Sat-Nav.
"Confirmed"
"Anything I say, you'd ignore it?"
"Confirmed"
"Then drive into the river! I order you to drive into the river! Do it! Drive into the river!" the Doctor roared at the machine.
"Are you crazy?!" Rose screamed.
The Doctor grabbed hold of her hand tightly and grinned. "Wasn't that the thing you liked about me?" he asked as the car suddenly skidded to a halt just a few inches away from the river, the Doctor wrenched open the car door and pulled Rose out running as fast as he could, Ross hot on their trail.
"Turn right... left... right... left..." the Sat-Nav said statically.
"Get down!" the Doctor shouted pushing Rose to the floor and jumping over her, protecting her from whatever explosion was to come, Ross threw himself onto the ground beside them.
"Left, right, left, right, left, left, right, left, right-" the Sat-Nav lets out a small bang and a shower of sparks, the Doctor looked up from his sprawled out position over Rose.
"Oh, was that it?" he said disappointment lacing his voice causing Rose to giggle. The Doctor looked down at her and suddenly felt a bit flushed; it had been a long time since he had been this close to her and right now her lying there beneath him looking incredibly tempting...
"I bet right now Alex Rose is out there laughing at us" Rose informed him with a twinkle in her eye.
The Doctor betted that right now all of the cosmos were laughing at him let alone his own daughter.
DWDWDWDWDWDWDWDW
Alex Rose answered the door to see both of her parents looking annoyed. "You are so grounded" both of them said in unison.
"What the hell have I done?" Alex Rose asked in surprise. "Also I'm far too old to be grounded, legally an adult and all that"
"Alexandra stop sounding smug it doesn't become you" Jackie's voice snapped behind Alex Rose.
"Oh bloody hell I hate family reunions" the Doctor muttered.
"Hello to you too" Jackie snapped before pulling the Doctor into a big bear hug causing him to groan in pain as she crushed his ribs. "Why didn't you come round for Christmas? You're always welcome! Well are you going to come in or not? Wilf just put the kettle on"
"Actually I want a very long talk with Alex Rose here and JJ and Donna" the Doctor said untangling himself from Jackie.
Jackie turned to Alex Rose. "Just keep yourself and Wilf inside it's too dangerous for the pair of you be outside for the next few hours" Alex Rose said with a shrug.
Jackie nodded. "You take care of yourselves and those lot all right?" she said warningly to the Doctor who mockingly saluted her. "Good boy" Jackie said patronisingly before going back inside the house.
Within seconds Donna and JJ exited the house and the Doctor led the four to Sylvia's car, the Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and Alex Rose sighed.
"Look I'll save you sometime" she said holding a hand up. "It's not the best idea to touch the ATMOS with that because it would cause the defence mechanism to start. Yes I know exactly what the Sontarans are up to and it's not good"
"Why don't you just tell us and not let us do this song and dance?!" the Doctor groaned.
"Because we need to be subtle!" Alex Rose snapped. "look you know as well as I do that there are things I can't say and these are one of them, though I will say there's no point in calling Martha" she shot Donna a look who was half way dialling Martha's number at the Doctor's request. "It's not overly bad she'll help us but only in the Sontaran interest the real Martha is safe for now. That's all I can say right now"
"Oh good lord it's him and the twins, my day is ruined"
Everyone turned to see Sylvia standing there and Donna let out a moan. "Mum not now!"
"Those twins have an horrible habit of blowing things up, just last month they blew up my toaster!" Sylvia snapped while JJ and Alex Rose looked sheepish.
"We brought you a new one" JJ said weakly.
"And him! Doctor what's his name, he ruined your wedding, remember Donna? All explosive killer Christmas trees and Santas" Sylvia carried on pointing to the Doctor.
"Best party ever" Alex Rose muttered to JJ who nodded in agreement much to the Doctor's and Rose's amusement.
"Whenever that man is around bad things happen" Sylvia finished off, just then all the exhaust pipes began to release gas.
"Blimey she's good at being prophetic" Alex Rose muttered causing Donna to glare at her.
As they looked round the street they soon realised they couldn't see much since the gas had built up to a thick fog.