She stepped out to the Powell Estate, blinking in the sun. "How long have I been gone?"
"Bout twelve hours."
She laughed in wonder turning around. Everything she'd been through in twelve hours. What was her life now? "Oh, Right, I won't be long. I just want to see my mum."
"What're you going to tell her?" he asked.
She snorted and pretended to think, "I don't know. I've been to the year 5 billion and only been gone, what twelve hours? No," she shrugged, "I'll just tell her I spent the night at Shareen's. See you later. Oh," she waved her finger at him, "don't you disappear like Joule does."
It was amazing how a simple walk up the stairs seemed so special after everything she'd been through. Probably because of the feeling how she'd be home in such a long time. So familiar but some how nostalgic at the same time.
She opened the door to their flat, ready to pretend nothing had happened, "I'm back! I was with Shareen. She was all upset again. Are you in?"
She found mum in the kitchen, "So, what's been going on? How've you been?" she paused at the look on her face, "What? What's that face for? It's not the first time I've stayed out all night."
Alarm bells rang in her head when she dropped the mug she was holding.
"It's you." mum whispered.
"Of course it's me." She blinked, slowly. She was only supposed to have been gone for twelve hours, what…?
"Oh, my God. It's you." she cupped her cheeks, "Oh my God."
She instinctively hugged back as she was given a fierce hug and looked around the apartment fro why she was acting this way. It should have been obvious at first glance. The couch had been moved, the wall was now a different color, and the posters strewn across the coffee table all asking the same thing, 'Have you seen Rose Tyler?'.
The Doctor ran in, "It's not twelve hours, it's been twelve months." He panted, "You've been gone a whole year. Sorry." He gave them a sheepish grin.
.
.
"The hours I've sat here, days, weeks and months, all on my own. I thought you were dead!"
She listened to her mum's ranting with half an ear open. The Doctor stood beside the couch she was on, a police officer on the other and somehow Joule sitting at the table flipping through a book that she'd found… somewhere.
"Actually, it's my fault." The Doctor cut in, "I sort of er, employed Rose as my companion."
"When you say companion, is this a sexual relationship?" the officer asked because of course he had to.
"No" they answered at the same time.
Joule snorted from her corner.
"Then what is it?" Mum turned on him, "Because you, you waltz in here all charm and smiles, and the next thing I know, she vanishes off the face of the Earth! How old are you then?" she demanded, "Forty? Forty five? What, did you find her on the internet? Do you go online, collecting pretty girls, pretending you're a doctor?"
"Pretty?" Joule spoke up from her corner.
"I am a Doctor!" the Doctor protested, and she winced. That tone to mum was a one way ticket to getting-
"Prove it. Stitch this, mate!"
Slap
"And you!" she turned away from the groaning Doctor and towards Joule, "Who're you supposed to be? You skip out of school, following him around for easy money?"
"Why would I want money?" Joule's oblivious tone was only slightly better than the Doctor's.
"Who are you then?" she pressed on "Better yet, who is he? Why do you follow him around wearing that space getup? Did he come to your house and kidnap you too? Dragging you along? Where's your parents?"
"Joule is, umm," the Doctor cut in again before Joule could open her mouth, "She doesn't know who her parents are so I've been trying to help her find them. Rose has been helping me for the last year."
She blinked. That was… convenient and effective too looking at mum's face.
But she had to wonder, how much of it was true?
.
.
"Basically, all of it," the Doctor answered later on the roof, "Joule doesn't know how to lie, so I had to work one out that wouldn't contradict what she'd say."
"Looking for her parents?"
He stuffed his hands into his pockets, "It's part of the reason why she's with me. What?"
"I dunno," she bit her lips, "I just thought she might have been your secret great granddaughter or something."
"Secret great granddaughter?"
Yeah, that sounded stupid saying it out loud.
"Well, what was I supposed to think?" she tried to defend.
"Secret great granddaughter?"
"Oh, shut up!" she shoved him gently, "You're lucky mum's fretting over Joule now or she would have smacked you again."
"Yeah," he frowned, "Why is that?"
"Pete, my dad, mum's husband," she shrugged, "He died when I was really young, so she was probably reminded what I was like when I was little. Probably taking out all her stress by looking after her."
"Well, lucky me then."
"What am I supposed to tell her?" she shook her head, "She's never going to forgive me. Even with the Joule excuse."
"Well, if it's this much trouble, are you going to stay here now?"
"I don't know." She looked up at the sky, "I can't do that to her again, though."
"Well, she's not coming with us." He said firmly.
She thought for a moment, mum going about in time and space, dressing down aliens for trying to destroy the world. She shared a look with him and they both burst out laughing.
"No chance," she chuckled.
"I don't do families."
"That slap though!"
"Nine hundred years of time and space, and I've never been slapped by someone's mother." Still shocked over the fact then.
"Your face." She giggled.
"It hurt!" he complained.
"You're so gay," she shook her head, "When you say nine hundred years?"
"That's my age."
"You're nine hundred years old." She confirmed.
"Yeah."
"My mum was right. That is one hell of an age gap." She skipped off the ledge, "Every conversation with you just goes mental. There's no one else I can talk to. I've seen all that stuff up there, the size of it, and I can't say a word. Aliens and spaceships and things, and I'm the only person on planet Earth who knows they exist."
Que a giant smoking spaceship flying over their heads. Blaring a loud air horn, rumbling through the sky swerving left and right, crashing into big ben and then landing in the Thames with a great big splash. They stared at the trail of smoke.
"Oh," she murmured, "That's just not fair."
The Doctor just grinned, "Fantastic!"
He grabbed her hand, and they ran towards the landmark river.
"I can't believe I'm here to see this." He exclaimed as they run, "This is fantastic!"
"Did you know this was going to happen?" she asked dodging a cyclist.
"Nope."
"Do you recognize the ship?"
"Nope."
"Do you know why it crashed?"
"Nope!" he looked positively giddy.
"Oh, I'm so glad I've got you." She said without bite.
"I bet you are. This is what I travel for, Rose. To see history happening right in front of-" he stopped as he saw the roadblocks set up by the soldiers, "Oh."
"We're miles from the centre." She stood on the tip of her toes trying to get a good look, "They city must be grid locked. The whole of London must be closing down. We'd better use the Tardis."
"Better not." he nodded towards the soldiers standing guard, "They've already got one spaceship in the middle of London. I don't want to shove another one on top."
"Yeah, but," she frowned, "yours looks like a big blue box. No one's going to notice."
"You'd be surprised." He said, "Emergency like this, there'll be all kinds of people watching. Trust me. The Tardis stays where it is."
She sighed, "So history's happening, and we're stuck here."
"Yes, we are."
"We could always do what everybody else does," she suggested, and he turned to look at her confused, "We could watch it on TV."
She tried not to laugh at the face he made.
.
.
"Here you are sweetheart, nice warm cup of tea, just for you," mum said as she gave Joule the cup before turning to glare at the Doctor, "None for you though, I'm not going to make you welcome after you stole my daughter for an entire year."
She decided that an annoyed Doctor and an uncomfortable Joule would be on her top ten list of things that's make her laugh. Especially Joule, it was bizarre to see her being treated and acting like a normal fourteen year old.
The doorbell rang and she groaned as she heard the telltale voices of mum's friends at the door. Gods, this was going to be a job and a half wasn't it.
"Jay, come here" the Doctor called, and he pointed at the screen and began to have a quiet conversation.
"Hold on," she dragged her couch closer to them. "You're not leaving me out of this. What are you lot talking about?"
"Calculating the trajectory of the spaceship," he muttered, "The angle of descent, the color of smoke etcetera etcetera…"
"And…?" she leaned in. Finally something interesting! "Is it another invasion."
"From what we can tell? It was perfect. A genuine crash landing." He grinned, "Nothing for me to do."
"That's it?" she tried not to sound too disappointed, "You're just going to sit here and watch telly and do nothing?"
"Rose, this could be it." He pointed at the screen again, "First contact. The day mankind officially comes into contact with an alien race. I'm not interfering because you've got to handle this on your own. That's when the human race finally grows up." He smiled, "Just this morning you were all tiny and small and made out of clay. Now you can expand. As for what I'm actually going to do?" he turned to Joule, "How many are going to come?"
"A lot."
He took a deep breath, "Time to escape then. Not you though." He pointed at Joule, "You can stay here. Try to be normal."
"Where you going to go?" she asked.
"Just off on a wonder, that's all. You don't need me." He nodded towards the ever growing crowd, "It's going to be too human for me in here soon. You stay here, celebrate with your mum."
"Promise you won't disappear?" She might not have decided to keep traveling with him but she didn't want him to leave before she made a choice?
He smiled at her softly, "Tell you what, Joule? Give her a Tardis key. Bout time you had one." He went for the door, "See you later."
She looked at the small key Joule handed over to her, fingering the cold (and probably alien) metal.
"He's going to see the aliens, isn't he?" she asked Joule.
"Obviously."
.
.
"Here's to Martians!" the crowd cheered.
"They're not Martians." She heard Joule mutter into her book, "Martians look totally different."
"Really?" she asked, amused at her obvious annoyance, "What do you think they are then?"
She shrugged, "I can't tell you."
"Can't?" she raised an eyebrow, "You mean, you do know what they are? Why haven't you then?"
"Complicated."
"What kind of complicated?" she pressed.
"Rose."
Oh, shit. Mickey.
"I was going to come and see you." She said lamely.
"Someone owes Mickey an apology." Ru said sagely.
"I'm sorry." Wincing. She'd talked about not being able to tell anyone about aliens to the Doctor. Now that she thought about it, Mickey had been in that exact situation for the last year. She could only imagine how that had gone for him.
"Not you." She blinked as Ru glanced at mum.
"Well, it's not my fault. Be fair." mum crossed her arms, "What was I supposed to think?"
Nobody dared answered that.
.
"You disappear," Mickey began immediately after they got some privacy in the kitchen, "who do they turn to? Your boyfriend. Five times I was taken in for questioning. Five times. No evidence. Course, there couldn't be, could there? And then I get her," he pointed towards mum, "your mother, whispering around the estate, pointing the finger. Stuff through my letterbox, and all 'cos of you."
"I didn't think I'd be gone so long." She offered weakly.
"And I waited for you, Rose." He said angrily, "Twelve months, waiting for you, the Doctor and whatever she is," he pointed to Joule, "to come back."
"Hold on." Mum cut in, "You knew about the Doctor? Why didn't you tell me?"
"Yeah," he said gaining confidence by the second, quickly closing the open doors after a glance. "Yeah. Why not, Rose? Huh? How could I tell her where you went?"
"Tell me now." Mum demanded.
"I might as well," Mickey said with a smug look on his face, "'cos you're stuck here. The Doctor's gone. Just now. That box thing just faded away."
She rubbed her eyes, already tired after an entire day of people around her saying almost the same thing, "He went to look at the aliens. He's coming back."
"Why?" he challenged, "Because he left you behind?"
"No, because he left her behind." She nodded towards Joule, "And there's no way that's going to happen."
"Really?" he turned to Joule now, "What are you then? What kind of alien are you? How do you know he's not going to leave you behind?"
"Don't you go off on her!" mum scolded, "And don't be silly. How can she be an alien?"
"Joule?" she interrupted before they could start fighting, "Do you know when the Doctor's coming back?"
A shrug, "He already has."
.
.
He wasn't back.
"Oh, he's back is he?" Mickey crowed at the empty lot, "Oh, he's dumped you, Rose. Dumped the both of you. Sailed off into space. How does it feel, huh? Now you're left behind with the rest of us Earthlings. Get used to it."
She sighed, "Joule?"
"What?"
"You'd said he was back."
"I did."
"Then why isn't he?"
"He is."
"What are you chimps going on about?" mum asked confused, "What's going on? What's this Doctor done now?"
"Ho, ho, ho." Mickey sounded smugly, "He's vamoosed."
"He wouldn't just leave." She insisted pulling out her Tardis key, "he gave me this. He left Joule behind he-"
Then familiar sound of the Tardis materializing washed over them.
Oh crap, mum, "Mum! Mum, go inside." She tried to push her away, "Mum, don't stand there, just go inside, Just, Oh blimey." She sighed as the Tardis fully docked.
Mickey just gave her a knowing look and pointed between her mum and the Tardis.
"Joule…" she trailed off half glaring at her.
"What?" the girl shrugged "I said he's here."
"No. Why did… How do you…? Never mind." She pushed the Tardis doors open.
"All right, so I lied." The Doctor threw his hands in the air without even looking back, "I went and had a look. But the whole crash landing's a fake. We thought so. Just too perfect. I mean, hitting Big Ben. Come on, so I thought let's go and have a look-"
"My mum's here." That got his attention.
"Oh, that's just what I need." He groaned, "Don't you dare make this place domestic."
Mickey, not being one to lose his chance, stepped up first, "You ruined my life Doctor. They thought she was dead. I was a murder suspect because of you."
The Doctor didn't even acknowledge him, "You see what I mean? Domestic."
"I bet you don't even remember my name." Mickey continued.
"Ricky."
"It's Mickey."
"No, it's Ricky."
"Mickey?" Joule offered.
"Oh, hush."
"Yeah, it is Mickey," said man nodded, "I think I know my own name thank you very much."
"You think you know your own name?", he questioned, "How stupid are you?"
That's when she remembered mum. Mum who was starting to run away.
"Mum, don't!" her voice only made her go full sprint, "He's not… I'll be up in a minute. Hold on! It's not like that!" she called after her, "I'll be up in a minute. Just hold on!"
She sighed and went back inside the Tardis where Joule was quizzing the Doctor about the spaceship, talking about Ion boosters or something.
"What is it?" she interrupted their conversation, "Are they invading?"
"Funny way to invade, putting the world on red alert." Mickey commented.
"Good point!" the Doctor agreed, "So, what're they up to?"
"We could patch up the radar?" Joule suggested, "See where they came from?"
"We'd need to rewire the radio submitters to get a strong enough signal." The Doctor mused, "10 minutes, tops"
"Seven."
He frowned at Joule, "Is that foresight?"
"Just a feeling."
"Okay then," he rubbed his hands together, "Love a good challenge, I'll reroute the buffers, you do the wiring. You two," he pointed at her and Mickey respectively, "go and watch telly or something while you wait."
"Yeah, fat chance of that happening." Mickey scoffed, "Why? So, you can disappear again?"
"Oh, Ricky," he shook his head, "I wonder how you survived the cops with that thick head of yours." He disappeared beneath the floor grates.
.
.
"Some friend you got." He muttered.
"He's winding you up." She winced, realizing how harsh that sounded, "I am sorry." She tried again.
"Okay."
"I am though."
"Every day, I looked." He choked, "On every street corner, wherever I went, looking for a blue box for a whole year."
"It's only been a few days for me." She rubbed her forehead, secretly wishing for a drink, "I don't know. It's… it's hard to tell inside this thing but I swear it's just a few days since I left you."
"Not enough time to miss me, then?" he said dejectedly.
"I did miss you." She tried smiling.
"I missed you." He echoed back barely returning the smile.
"So, er, in twelve months, have you been seeing anyone else?" she asked hesitantly.
"No."
"Okay." She felt bad for feeling happy about that.
"Mainly because everyone thinks I murdered you."
"Right." A bit less happy now.
"So," he began, and she knew what he was going to ask which was why she was so thankful that the Doctor cut in, whooping with joy.
"Five minutes!" the Doctor crowed, rushing over to the monitor, "That's a record right there. Now we should be able to follow the flight trajectory and… there." A small model with the Earth with a dotted line showing the flight path, "That's the spaceship on its way to Earth, see? Except… It did a sling shot around the Earth before it landed."
"Fully cloaked for a while before that too," Joule popped out from behind Mickey making him yelp in surprise, "They've been hiding here for a while."
"Then the question is," the Doctor crossed his arms after throwing an amused look at Mickey, "what have they been doing?"
"I've seen stuff like this before!" Mickey exclaimed, "Aliens coming to Earth and pretending to be humans, infiltrating us!"
"You've seen aliens before?" Joule's helmet tilted.
"Not in real life, I mean in movies and stuff."
"Rickey," the Doctor rolled his eyes, "Movies, really?"
"Which ones?" Joule again.
"You know," Mickey shrugged, "Men in Black, Independence day…"
"Men in Black?" the Doctor scoffed.
"What about them?" Mickey challenged, "Remind you of your old job?"
"Hold on," she held up her hand, turning to Mickey "Job?"
"UNIT. Yeah, I know all about them." He pointed a finger at the Doctor, "I didn't sit 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."
"That's nice," the Doctor didn't look away from the screen, "Good boy Ricky."
She was starting to get a headache from all their bickering, "If you know them, why don't you go and get some help?"
"They wouldn't recognize me." He said, "I've changed a lot since the old days. Besides, the world's on a knife edge. There are aliens out there and fake aliens. We want to keep these aliens out of the mix as much as we can." He gestured towards himself and Joule, "Joule, watch the Tardis, and Jackie if you can. Mickey! You can do some driving."
Mickey opened his mouth, probably to say something rude, but stopped when she gave him a pleading look. "Where to?" he sighed.
"The roads are clearing. Let's go and have a look at that spaceship." He skipped out of the Tardis and froze.
"Do not move!" a megaphone amplified voice bellowed, "Step away from the box and raise your hands above your heads!"
They were surrounded by a dozen police vehicles and armored personnel carriers flashing their lights all of it topped off by a helicopter beaming its spotlight on top of them.
"Oh," he checked his watch, "Seven minutes."
.
.
She settled into the comfy leather seat, admiring the posh car. A luxury she'd have never experienced in a normal life. She would have gotten arrested sooner if she knew it was going to be like this. When she told the Doctor as much he just laughed.
"We're not being arrested, we're being escorted!"
She stared. If what she saw on the news was true then… "Where to?" she asked hopefully.
"Where'd you think?" he grinned, "Downing street."
"You're kidding!"
"I'm not."
"10 downing street?!"
"That's the one."
She joined in on his laughter, "Oh, my God. I'm going to 10 Downing street?" she paused, "How come?"
"I hate to say it, but Mickey was right." He shrugged, "Over the years I've visited this planet a lot of times, and I've been, er, noticed."
"Now they need you?"
"Big giant alien spaceship crash landing in the middle of London in broad daylight," he reminded her, "They're probably gathering experts in alien knowledge from all over the world and guess who's the biggest expert of the lot?"
He really liked to be called clever, didn't he? Well, she was more than glad to humble him. "Patrick Moore?"
She snickered at how fast his smile dropped, "Apart from him."
"Oh, don't you just love it."
"I'm telling you. Lloyd George, he used to drink me under the table." he said, doing his 'thinking back' expression, "Who's the prime minister now?"
She shrugged, "How should I know? I missed a year." She probably should be more worried about that than she was.
.
She followed him in half a daze, entering downing street, getting past the camera of the press (he had the gall to mug for the camera, how come there weren't more people like Clive around?), then the entire room full of people, every single one of them powerful enough to have her arrested on the spot or have her so that she would never have to work again in her life. She recalled the time on the space platform, in the room full of rich aliens and gave a quiet laugh.
"What?" the Doctor asked.
"Nothin'." she took a deep breath, "Just remembering. Memories and all that."
"You've been in a room full of executive people wondering what kind of alien is trying to kill them?"
She just raised an eyebrow at him, "As a matter of fact…"
It took him a while to realize what she was talking about. "Oh!" he chuckled, "Oh, we have, haven't we?"
"A room full of the great and the good." She giggled.
"All we need is a flap of skin going on and trying to kill us." He agreed, "Low chance of that happening this time though."
"Ladies and gentlemen, can we convene?" a young man called for attention, "Quick as we can, please. It's this way on the right, and can I remind you ID cards are to be worn at all times."
"Well," he offered her his arm, "Game time."
"Oh, you betcha." She grinned.
.
The man from earlier stopped them by the doorway, "I'm sorry, your companion doesn't have clearance."
Thankfully the Doctor spoke up, "I don't go anywhere without her."
"You're the code nine, not her." He said, "I'm sorry, Doctor. It is the Doctor, isn't it? She'll have to stay outside."
"She's staying with me." The Doctor repeated firmly.
"Look," the man said tiredly, "even I don't have clearance to go in there. I can't let her in and that's a fact."
Having been a shop worker facing stubborn customers, she felt for the poor guy. "It's all right. I'll stay." She said.
"Excuse me, are you the Doctor?" a council woman spoke up and she internally winced at the expression that immediately came upon the man's face. Stubborn customers.
"You sure?" the Doctor asked drawing her attention away from the two.
She nodded, "Yeah, I'll just wait around, and you can later say it."
"I suppose so," he patted her shoulder giving her a knowing look, "Don't get into trouble. No insulting trampolines."
She cracked a smile at that. "I'll try not to."
"I'm going to have to leave you with security." The man started to lead her away.
"I'll look after her," the council woman spoke up and she frowned as noticed the pure desperation in her voice, "Let me be of some use. Walk with me." She led her away by arm, and she could feel her trembling, "Just keep walking. That's right. Don't look round. Harriet Jones, MP Flydale North." The council woman, now Harriet, flashed her identification at her and she wondered if she did that whenever she was nervous.
"This friend of yours," she stammered when they reached a closed areas, "he's an expert, is that right? He knows about aliens?"
Any previous doubt was wiped from her mind, "What did you see?"
Harriet began crying on her shoulder.
.
.
.
.
.
Skins. Again.
Oh look, things with claws that wanted to kill her too.
That confirmed it. The universe was laughing at her.
.
.
.
.
.
.
She thought she knew her daughter. Little sweet Rose, always smiling, always trying. It wasn't her fault a bloke came barging into her life, ruining everything. She knew if Pete saw her, he'd be proud of her.
But then that Doctor came in, taking Rose away for a whole year! And Rose seemed fine with it! And they had a little girl with them and if it hadn't been for the age difference, she would have accused her of hiding her granddaughter.
Things would have been bad enough with that but then… aliens. That Doctor was an alien. The little girl, Joule, was maybe an alien too (although a very sweet one, it was obvious she hadn't had someone to look after her properly during her younger years) and Rose...
And then the police had come, taking the two of them away, leaving her with Joule to look after (or the other way round as she put it, which was very sweet) and the officers to whom she was left trying to explain to.
"Well, all I can say is," the chubby police officer told her, "your daughter and her companion might be in a position to help the country. We'll need to know how she made contact with this man, if he is a man."
She couldn't help but scowl, "You should ask Joulie. She was the one with him."
Said girl squirmed uncomfortably at the mention of her name.
"Oh, don't worry dear," she comforted the poor girl, "You won't get into trouble or anythin' and I'll make sure that the Doctor doesn't get to you."
"Get to me?"
"May I ask, what you know about this man, young girl?" the officer spoke up.
"I'm not supposed to say."
"My dear, like I said, this is a matter of national security." He leaned forward, "I simply have to know about him."
"Want." Joule corrected.
"I'm sorry?"
"You're using the wrong verb."
She sighed at the loyalty Joule had to this mysterious Doctor, "You know what? I think I'll get us all a nice cup of tea. Tea always helps." She headed for the kitchen.
.
"Honestly, I think that you should look into that spaceship first," she said as she poured, "I mean bigger on the inside and all that. Imagine what we could do with that, bigger houses, less mortgage. And the disappearing and reappearing part, imagine how much shopping I could do with-" she stopped at the lack of officer in the room. "Where did he go off to?"
Joule shrugged, accepting the cup.
"Well, that's rude innit?" she scoffed, "Running away mid-interview. And he calls himself an officer. You reckon any more will come to pick up where he left off?"
"No, they won't." the helmet tilted, "They've got better things to worry about."
"Well, you got that right," she sat down on the couch next to her, "Do you want to watch the telly? 'Cos we might be able to catch Rose and that Doctor on the news. Would you like that?"
"I think so, yeah."
.
They watched the news together.
.
.
.
The officer was already forgotten.