"Oh, such fun." The baby faced alien prowled the room, "Little human children, where are you? Sweet little humeykins, come to me. Let me kiss you better. Kiss you with my big, green lips."
One moment the alien was poised to take them all down, one already caught in her clutches (it was a 'she' right? Did these aliens even have genders like humans?), and the next it was screaming in pain as some kind of electricity wrapped around its body. They'd ran as fast as they could, catching a glimpse of the Doctor before they were forced to hide in one of the fancy rooms, Harriet behind a folding screen and her behind a curtain. They'd escaped the first time through pure luck. She didn't think they'd manage to do it a second time around.
The door opened. God, finally someone had found them! If they could get word down to the soldiers about the aliens in human skins-
"My brothers."
…okay. Never mind then.
"Happy hunting?" A new alien voice.
"It's wonderful." The female alien cackled, "The more you prolong it, the more they stink."
"Sweat and fear."
Another alien. There were three of them? How many aliens could you cram into Downing street?
"I can smell an old girl." One of the male aliens sniffed, "Stale bird and brittle bones."
"And a ripe youngster, all hormones and adrenalin." The female one cackled, "Fresh enough to bend before she snaps."
She screamed as the curtain was ripped away and the alien roared.
"No!" Harriet yelled stepping forward, "Take me first! Take me!"
They turned towards her, ready to strike her down then-
The Doctor kicked the door open and blasted the closest alien with a fire extinguisher. "Out! With me!"
She pulled the curtain over the alien's head in its moment of surprise and ran behind him. Never had she been gladder to see anyone in her life.
The Doctor frowned at Harriet. "Who the hell are you?"
"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North."
"Nice to meet you."
"Likewise."
He sprayed the aliens one last time before they bolted out of the room. "We need to head to the Cabinet room!"
"The Emergency Protocols are in there.", Harriet agreed, right behind him "They give instructions for aliens."
"Harriet Jones, I like you." He grinned.
"And I like you too1"
"Complementa later!" she yelled hearing the thudding of the alien footsteps behind them. "More running."
Door after door, the aliens slowly bridging the gap behind them as they ran.
"Doctor!" she warned.
"One moment." They burst through the Cabinet room doors and he grabbed a decanter from the side table.
"One more move and my sonic device will triplicate the flammability of this alcohol." He held up the beverage as threateningly as one could, "Whoof, we all go up. So back off."
Triplicate the what? She probably shouldn't have any disbelief on what the Doctor could do after seeing the Tardis and Joule doing Joule but triplicate the flammability in a bottle of wine? If it wasn't for the fact that it actually worked as a threat, she would have called him out on that.
"Right then. Question time." He smiled, "Who exactly are the Slitheen?"
"They're aliens." Harriet said.
"Yes. I got that, thanks."
"Who are you, if not human?" one of the male aliens questioned back.
"Who's not human?" Hairret whispered to her and she nodded towards the Time Lord.
"Him?! He's not human?"
"Can I have a bit of hush?" said not-human spoke.
"Sorry."
"So, what's the plan?" he continued.
"But he's got a Northern accent." Harriet whispered again.
"Lots of planets have a north." She echoed back the response she'd gotten.
"I said hush. Come on, you've got a spaceship hidden in the North Sea." The Doctor held up the beverage again, reminding them of the supposed threat, "It's transmitting a signal. You've murdered your way to the top of government. What for, invasion?"
"Why would we invade this God-forsaken rock?" one of the male aliens scoffed.
"Then something's brought the Slitheen race here. What is it?"
"The Slitheen race?" the same male laughed.
"Slitheen is not out species."The other male said"Slitheen is our surname. Jocrassa Fel Fotch Pasameer-Day-Slitheen at your service."
Joc the Slitheen. Now she could name one of them. Wonderful.
"So, you're family."
"A family business." Joc the Slitheen agreed.
"Then you're out to make a profit." He concluded, "How can you do that on a God forsaken rock?"
"Aaaaah, excuse me? Your device will do what?" Not-Joc the male Slitheen spoke up, "Triplicate the flammability?"
"Is that what I said?"
"You're making it up." He accused.
"Ah, well! Nice try." He offered the decanter to his right, "Harriet, have a drink. I think you're gonna need it."
Harriet, who was clutching a Red box only glanced at the offered drink, "You pass it to the left first."
"Sorry."
She received the decanter reluctantly, "Triplicate the flammability?"
"Oh, hush."
"Now we can end this hunt with a slaughter." Not-Jac held up his claws.
"Time to run maybe?" she offered.
"Fascinating history, Downing Street." The Time Lord began instead, "Two thousand years ago, this was marsh land. 1730, it was occupied by a Mister Chicken. He was a nice man. 1796, this was the Cabinet Room. If the Cabinet's in session and in danger, these are about the four most safest walls in the whole of Great Britain." He revealed a small switch behind the wall, "End of lesson."
Metal shutters slammed shut across all the windows and doors locking the Slitheen out.
"Installed in 1991. Three inches of steel lining every single wall." He smiled, "They'll never get in."
"And how do we get out?" she asked, already knowing the answer.
"Ah."
.
She sighed.
.
.
She stared at the two bodies in the room feeling halfway between throwing up and just…
The Doctor slowly knelt beside the young man. "What was his name?"
She looked at Harriet who looked as oblivious as she was, and maybe a little bit shameful. "I don't know. I talked to him. I bought him a cup of coffee. I never asked his name."
He stayed silent before gently moving the body next to the Prime Minister.
.
"All right." He muttered, "It's time to fight back. What do we have?"
"Nothing, I think. This place is empty." Except for the very posh and expensive antiques, but they wouldn't help now. "I… what I don't get is, when they killed the Prime Minister, why didn't they use him as a disguise?"
"Too slim. They're big old beasts." He fished his screwdriver from his jacket and began scanning the walls, "They need to fit inside big humans."
"But the Slitheen are about eight feet." She pointed out, "How do they fit inside big humans."
He motioned towards his neck.
"Those necklace things?"
"Compression field." He corrected, "Literally shrinks them down a bit. That's why there's all that gas. It's a big exchange."
She whistled, "Wish I had a compression field. I could fit a smaller size."
"Excuse me," Harriet scorned, "People are dead! This is not the time for making jokes."
"Sorry," she sighed, "You get used to this stuff when you're friends with him." That and standing around Joule for six seconds.
"Well, that's a strange friendship."
"Harriet Jones. I've heard that name before. Harriet Jones." The Doctor mused, "You're not famous for anything, are you?"
She scoffed and maybe it was just her, but she thought she heard a bit of sadness hidden in her tone, "Oh, hardly."
"Rings a bell. Harriet Jones" he insisted, pacing.
"Lifelong backbencher I'm afraid, and a fat lot of use I'm being now." She sighed "The Protocols are redundant. They list the people who could help and they're all dead downstairs."
"Hasn't it got like defense codes and things?" she asked, "Couldn't we just launch a nuclear bomb at them?"
The Doctor stopped and stared at her.
Oh, right. War vet.
"…sorry."
"There's nothing like that in here." Harriet mercifully broke the silence, "Nuclear strikes do need a release code, yes, but it's kept secret by the United Nations."
"Say that again." The Doctor stepped next to her to read the files.
"What, about the codes?"
"Anything. All of it."
"Well, the British Isles can't gain access to atomic weapons without a Special Resolution from the UN." Harriet explained.
She scoffed, "Like that's ever stopped them."
"Exactly, given our past record. And I voted against that, thank you very much." She added, "The codes have been taken out of the government's hands and given to the UN. Is it important?"
"Everything's important."
"If we only knew what the Slitheen wanted." Harriet laughed and covered her face, "Listen to me. I'm saying Slitheen as if it's normal."
"Well, you got it quicker than me." She offered.
"Really, how long did it take for you to get used to aliens?"
"Couple of hours. That one," she pointed a finger at the Doctor accusingly, "did not help whatsoever."
"Worth it though." He grinned cheekily and she rolled her eyes. "Back to the problem though, The Slitheen are just one family, so it's not an invasion. They don't want Slitheen World. They're out to make money. That means they want to use something. Something here on Earth. Some kind of asset."
"Like what?" Harriet asked, "Gold? Oil? Water?"
"You're very good at this." He commented.
"Thank you." She smiled a bit happily.
"Harriet Jones." He repeated, "Why do I know that name?"
Something beeped.
"Not mine." She said checking her phone, "I guess this superphone works through three inches of steel too."
"Superphone?" Harriet questioned.
She shrugged and turned to the Doctor who was staring at his sonic.
"They went after Jackie." He muttered.
"…what?"
"Don't worry. She's safe." He said before she could have a panic attack "Jay dealt with it. I doubt Jackie even knew she was in danger."
"Oh, god. I've got to call her." Her fingers fumbled on the call button.
"I told you, she's fine. I left Jay behind for a reason." He fiddled with his screwdriver, "It's Jay I'm more worried about."
"This's my mum we're talking about." she snapped, "What if they go back for her? What if Joule can't stop them next time?"
"That ca- won't happen." He tried to place a hand on her shoulder, but she slapped it away and pressed the speed dial.
"Mum?"
"Oh, Rose! You're fine! Are you out? Is it all over?"
"No, mum-" she tried to get a word in before she began chattering.
"I was so worried that you might have been sent to jail or something. I mean that police officer-"
"Police officer?" she cut in, "Mum, was that police officer fat?"
"What?"
"Was the police officer plump? Larger than normal?"
"I don't know, probably."
"Is he still there?" the Doctor has said that she was now safe but she had to be sure…
"No. He left ages ago."
She finally allowed herself to relax a little bit, "He left? Are you sure?"
"Yeah! Halfway through the interview too! What kind of officer does that?"
An alien one. The Doctor took her phone away before she could say anything, "Hey!"
"Jackie, pass me to Jay, please."
He stepped away from them talking in a quiet whisper and she eventually gave up glaring at his back to sink into one of the seats.
Harriet hesitantly sat down next to her, "I'm sure she's going to be fine."
"She wasn't supposed to be in danger." She whispered, "Just me, and that's only sometimes too. Have a quick adventure, have a good laugh, but my mum was always supposed to be safe."
"I worry about my mother too sometimes." Harriet said giving her a gentle hug, "All alone at the country side especially now that I've become a politician. She does have neighbors, good neighbors of course but if she got hurt… it could take her a long time to get the help she would need. It's why I was here today actually, I worked out a system so that cottage hospitals don't have to be excluded fro-" she sighed, "Look at me, rambling. I guess what I'm trying to say is sometimes we take risks to make the world a better place, even if we sometimes put the people we love in danger. She's all alone right now, my mother. If the world ends today, she'll be all alone…"
"Oh, Ricky the idiot. Get off the phone and pass me back to Jay." The Doctor exclaimed grabbing their attention.
"Good speech though. You could run for the next Prime Minister." She didn't think that being slightly secluded in the countryside could compare to being hunted by a Slitheen but she appreciated the effort. Definitely more than what mister Time Lord had done for her.
"Don't be ridiculous now." Harriet chuckled, "Who would vote for me?"
"I would." She said seriously.
"Okay, team!" the Doctor barked, motioning them to come over to his side of the table, "I got Ricky to go on UNIT's server to hear the signal and voila! Here it is."
He turned the phone to speaker as a slow warbling began playing.
"Hold on." She snatched the phone back, "Mickey?"
"Yeah?"
"Could you get mum to your flat for a while? Just until everything's all over?"
"I'm right here, you know."
"Even better." She muttered, why was Mickey at their place? "Mum, go to Mick's for a while all right?"
"Rosie, what's happening? For real this time."
"Just," she rubbed her temple, "Go to Mickey's, look after Joule okay?"
"Not okay! How am I supposed to just stay out of the way while you go around fighting aliens?"
"Speaking of fighting aliens, can I get some quiet? I need that signal."
She glared at him, covering the phone's speaker with her hand. "How about you answer this. What is she?"
"Who?"
"Don't play games with me right now Doctor!" she yelled, "This is my mother we're talking about! So you tell me what Joule is!"
His face closed off.
"Fine, be like that. Don't talk." She snapped, "But you better hope my mum doesn't get hurt."
"I'm fine by the way." Mickey. God…
"How much did you hear?" she winced.
"Enough, I told your mum to get some tea before she could hear too much. We'll be fine. You lot just figure out how to stop them aliens all right?"
"Thanks Micks. I owe you one."
"A little bit more than owe me one year."
She gave a weak laugh and reluctantly handed over the phone back to the Doctor.
"Your mum's safe Rose." He said, "I swear it on my life. I'll die before I let anything happen to her."
"Just…. Let's get to work."
"…okay. So what do we know about these aliens?" he jumped gears from broody to energetic fast enough to give her whiplash.
"Judging by their basic shape, that narrows it down to five thousand planets within travelling distance. What else do we know about them?"
"They're green." Harriet started.
"Yep, narrows it down."
They'd mentioned smelling hormones and perfume from across the room. "Good sense of smell."
"Narrows it down."
"The pig technology."
"Narrows it down."
"The spaceship in the Thames. Ion boosters or something?"
"Slipstream engine" Joule's voice from the phone. (She was not surprised this time.)
"Narrows it down."
"Hunting like a ritual."
"Narrows it down."
"Wait a minute." Harriet held up her hand, "Did you notice? When they fart, if you'll pardon the word, it doesn't just smell like a fart, if you'll pardon the word, it's something else. What is it? It's more like, er"
She snapped her fingers, "Bad breath!"
"Calcium decay! Now that narrows it down!" he grinned, "Living Calcium. Hyphenated surname. That means they're from Raxacoricofallapatorious."
"Oh, yeah, great." Mickey snarked, "We could write 'em a letter."
"How would you write them a letter? You don't even talk the same language."
"It's sarcasm Jay, ignore it." The Doctor said. "So Raxacoricofallapatorian comes to Earth for what?"
.
.
[BBC Broadcast - LIVE]
Ladies and gentlemen, nations of the world, humankind. The greatest experts in extra-terrestrial events came here tonight. They gathered in the common cause, but the news I bring you now is grave indeed. The experts are dead, murdered right in front of me by alien hands. Peoples of the Earth, heed my words. These visitors do not come in peace. Our inspectors have searched the sky above our heads and they have found massive weapons of destruction capable of being deployed within forty five seconds. Our technicians can baffle the alien probes, but not for long. We are facing extinction, unless we strike first. The United Kingdom stands directly beneath the belly of the mother ship. I beg of the United Nations, pass an emergency resolution. Give us the access codes. A nuclear strike at the heart of the beast is our only chance of survival because from this moment on it is my solemn duty to inform you planet Earth is at war.
.
.
The steel shutters opened.
"You get the codes, release the missiles, but not into space because there's nothing there." The Doctor stated, "You attack every other country on Earth. They retaliate, fight back. World War Three. Whole planet gets nuked."
"And we can sit through it safe in our spaceship waiting in the Thames." the Slitheen that had tried to kill them in the cabinet room earlier disguised in her skinsuit stepped forward, surrounded by more, "Not crashed, just parked. Only two minutes away."
"But you'll destroy the planet, this beautiful place." Harriet protested, "What for?"
"Profit." The Doctor said darkly, "That's what the signal is beaming into space. An advert."
"Sale of the century. We reduce the Earth to molten slag, then sell it piece by piece," the Slitheen grinned cockily, "Radioactive chucks, capable of powering every cut-price star liner and budget cargo ship. There's a recession out there, Doctor. People are buying cheap. This rock becomes raw fuel."
"At the cost of five billion lives."
"Bargain."
"I give you a choice." The Doctor stepped forward, "Leave this planet or I'll stop you."
At that all of the Slitheen burst out laughing, and she couldn't blame them. If she were in their position she probably would have too. But she knew better.
"What, you?" the female sauntered forward cockily, "In your little box?"
"Yes. Me." The Doctor repeated, "In my little box."
She caught the Slitheen's smug smile quickly fading away as the shutter closed in her face.
.
.
"You think you can use Joule?"
"I'm sorry. Who is this, Joule?" Harriet asked, "I'm assuming you're talking about another person not the scientific measurement, a friend of yours, am I right?"
"Kind of." The Doctor shrugged.
"She's someone who travels with him and she… has abilities." She finished lamely.
"Abilities?"
"It's difficult to explain." She sighed, "She can do… stuff."
"Well, there's our solution then." Harriet said brightly, "We can call your friend, Joule and quickly deal with this situation."
The Doctor shook his head. "It's not that simple."
"Why not?"
"Don't bother." She waved a hand at Harriet, "I've been asking since I met him and I still haven't gotten an answer."
"Well, surely the fate of planet Earth should be an ample enough excuse for-"
"It's not."
Harriet straightened up. "Even if five billion people die?"
"If things go wrong that number could be five billion, billion. Or bigger."
"So we've got no way out?" she asked.
"Well, I never said that."
"Great! Why aren't we out then?"
"Never said we'd be doing that either."
Forget being slapped by mum, she was so gonna slap him when they got out.
"So, what is this great big idea of yours, Doctor?" Mickey snarked, "Cuz the way I see it, end of the world. Nothing much we can do."
"Ricky, shut up and hack into the Royal Navy."
"I'm sorry, what? "
"You can use the buffalo password. It overrides everything."
"Now hold on," mum this time, "What are you hacking into the bloody navy for? If you need them just call them!"
"Look through the catalogues," he ignored, "we need a missile."
If everyone wasn't uneasy until now, that declaration did it.
"A bloody missile! Why do you need a bloody mi-" "I'm sorry Doctor but I think we need an explanation to-" "I've already been a murder suspect before, I'm not going to-"
"Rose." The Doctor's voice cut through all of them, and he looked at her, right in the eye, "Do you trust me?"
Trust him?
He held so many secrets that he didn't hide the skeletons in the closet, he hid the closet among the skeletons. So many things she didn't know about him.
But did she trust him?
"Yes," she nodded firmly.
"Do you really?" His gaze offered no escape.
"I do."
.
"Okay then Doctor.", mum, "Fine, we need a bloody missile, you're stuck with my daughter in Downing street, full of aliens and through all of that, my daughter trusts you with her life. Just answer me this then: Is my daughter safe? "
"You just-"
"Don't you dare try and talk your way out of this Doctor. Just answer the question."
He stared at the speaker soberly, unmoving.
"Well?"
"I could save the world," he began gently, "But lose your daughter. Is that enough of an answer?"
"Then don't you dare."
"This is my life Jackie. It's not fun, it's not smart. Most of the time it's just making the hardest choices because there's no other option."
"She's my daughter. She's just a kid."
"The world is at stake."
This was getting old, and emotionally tiring.
"Then what are you waiting for." She challenged, "You asked if I trusted you, I do. So do it!"
"I could save the world but lose you." He whispered.
"Except it's not your decision, Doctor. It's mine." Harriet made herself known in the conversation again.
"And who the hell are you exactly?"
"Harriet Jones, Mp for Flydale North. The only elected representative in this room, chosen by the people for the people. And on behalf of the people, I command you.", she ordered, "Do it."
.
"…Mickey." He began slowly, "Choose a missile, enter these coordinates."
"Done."
He dripped the back of a chair, "Mickey the idiot, the world is in your hands."
.
.
A single missile blasted out of the ocean and screamed as it arced over the surface of the water as it headed to its destination.
.
Downing Street.
.
.
Harriet immediately went to work, testing the metal shutters, "How strong are these.?"
"Not solid enough." The Doctor's arms were crossed while he paced along the table. "Built for short range attack, nothing this big."
Well, that was very helpful. Her turn then.
"All right, now I'm making the decision. I'm not going to die." She headed over to one of the cupboards, "We're going to ride this one out. It's like what they say about earthquakes. You can survive them by-"
She pulled the door open and was greeted to the sight of Mickey's living room. "…Doctor?."
"What?" the Doctor pushed past her, "No!"
Harriet stared agape at the doorway, "I… how?"
"Joule." She said helplessly, "Abilities." Because what else is there to say?
"Close the door." He pulled them through the door not so gently, almost desperately, "We have to close the link. Jay!"
"Yeah?" a shout from the other room.
"Rose? Oh, my god Rose!" mum burst through the door and was immediately pushed out of the way as the Doctor barraged past her.
"Close it!" he shouted, "Close, the goddamn link!"
"Doctor?" she pushed past mom (albeit more gently), "What's wrong?"
She found him kneeling next to Joulie, scanning her arm with the sonic. "The hell were you thinking?"
"…what?"
"When did you learn sarcasm?" he scowled, "You're destabilizing, badly. Why the hell did you do that?"
"Did what?"
"You learnt how to lie too?" he stood up, pulling Joule up, and it was only as it fell out of her lap that she noticed the Nintendo DS. "You're going back to the Tardis, now."
"You gave her your DS?" she whispered to Mickey as they fell into technobabble.
"Your mum called asking me what kids do these days." He shrugged, "What else was I supposed to do?"
"I'm sorry, where are we?"
Oh, right. She had forgotten about Harriet. "We're at Mickey's place, uh Mickey Smith. He's a friend, he was on the phone?"
"I… she backed off, "I can't. I'm sorry. I have to…"
KaBoooom
They didn't see the explosion itself, but they saw the great plume of smoke outside the window. The missile.
"My god." Harriet held a hand to her mouth, "I hope to god that nobody was hurt. I hope…"
She went back to the door that had been connected to the Cabinet room and pulled it open. Sunlight, smoke and dust. It was still connected?
"Someone's going to have a hell of a job sorting all this out. Oh, Lord. We haven't even got a Prime Minister." She was halfway through the doorway before she stopped and turned around, "I'll er, well… thank you Rose. For everything that you've done for our planet. Something tells me this isn't the first time you've done this so thank you. And tell the Doctor that too."
"I will." she nodded.
With a quick hug and a nod to mum and Mickey, Harriet was gone, the door slamming shut behind her.
She couldn't blame her for running. If she'd met Joule like that she'd have run away too.
Mickey hesitantly stepped forward and pushed the door open again. This time it stayed a normal doorway.
"That is some serious Narnia stuff there." He muttered.
.
.
"What does he eat?"
"What?"
They were curled up on their respective couches as the telly showed Harriet taking a speech on how the planet was saved. Mum had complained a lot about how she should have been the one on the telly and a year ago she would have agreed. But now? After all she's been through? She couldn't imagine herself standing in front of all those cameras and people giving a speech, now matter how much she thought she might deserve it.
"I was going to do shepherd's pie. All of us. A proper sit down," she shrugged, "'Cos I'm ready to listen. I wanna learn about you and him and that life you lead. Only, I don't know, he's an alien. For all I know, he eats grass and safety pins and things."
She scoffed. Safety pins? "He'll have shepherd's pie."
She could feel mum's gaze on her back, "What's wrong?"
"Who says anything's wrong?"
"Exactly." She heard the crumpling of the coach as she stood up, "Just tell me what's wrong sweetheart. I know that he's an alien now, and that you… traveled with him."
"Honestly, mum." She buried her face in her hands, "That's all we di-"
"Is it always this dangerous?"
The question caught her off guard enough to stop her talking.
"Today I watched as Mickey launched a missile at my daughter, and that's after I heard you were being chased by man-eating Grinches and then the magic door." She sat down, right next to her not allowing her to avoid her gaze, "I know you're going to go back sweetheart. I know you well enough to know that, but can you promise that you'll always be safe? That you'll be able to come back no matter what?"
"Mum, you saw what we did today." She said exasperated, "We saved the world and we got out without a scratch. And if we're in trouble and we can't get out alone, we always have Joulie to get us out."
"She's not a magic solution you know."
"I know, I know." She sighed, "It's just complicated."
"Just promise me." Mum knelt by her side, "Promise that you'll come back to me no matter what. I don't care if whatever planet is ending or there's some weird alien monster or whether the bloody universe is ending, Promise you'll come back to me."
"…I'll try."
"I suppose I'll have to be happy with what I have I suppose. Now when is he coming back out of his box of his?"
.
.
The answer? Not for a long time.
.
She'd seen him tinker with the Tardis before, sometimes halfway buried in wires, sometimes upside down on the ceiling messing around with whatever contraption he was working with. Always busy, always messy and always in the control room.
.
Not this time. She found him somewhere underneath the control room (probably underneath the control room, who knew how space worked inside here especially considering that the Tardis was sentient?), in a small pristine white chamber.
Wait, not white. A greyish black? Gold? Bronze?
"Don't look at it." The Doctor seemed to appear in the chamber, "It's not meant for human eyes."
"What is this place?" her eyes squinted, trying and failing to get a clear look at him.
"It's a stabilizing chamber for Jay." He said stepping out and finally she could look at him properly. "Whatever she did hurt her bad."
"And you put her in there?" she couldn't help but sound incredulous. "Why?"
"The chamber isolates her timeline and parallels it to the Tardis's." he began.
"Okay, I'm not even going to pretend I understand half of that." She sighed, "Just… tell me Doctor. What is she?"
"Something, if you're lucky you'll never have to know." He gave her a tight smile and walked past her back to the console room, "Come on. Chop chop. From what I know there's a plasma storm brewing in the horse head Nebula. We could fly straight into its heart and ride the shock wave to-"
"Is that it?"
He stopped, "Is that what?"
"I trust you, but you don't trust me enough to tell me anything?"
"I've told you enough."
She scoffed, "No, it's not!"
"What more do you want?"
"Something other than nothing!"
"What, all of time and space not enough for you?"
"Just tell me what she is!" she took a breath, reigning in her temper, "Doctor. I'm scared."
That seemed to hit him.
"You, the Tardis, all the aliens I've met, the places I've been. I can… kind of understand what they were, how they just are because you've been explaining all of that." She said, "You love explaining, showing off no matter what it is. Everything, everything but Joule. You've told me about the Time Lords and the Tardis but you absolutely refuse to tell me anything about her."
"I did tell you about her." He said but it was obvious that even he didn't believe it.
"All I truly know about her is that she wears that stupid helmet and wants to be an astronaut." She said, "The stuff she does… I know she can be dangerous, I don't think that you would keep her around if that wasn't the reason and I think I can accept that but you have to tell me something."
He looked at the ground, staring, still as a statue.
"Just something," she said gently, "Anything."
"…Jay is," he began, hesitantly, "Was… damn it."
He shuffled back to the chamber Joulie was in, "I need time." He said, "Rose, I promise I'll tell you… Just give me time."
"Promise?" Considering she knew how fluidly he could escape conversations she was hesitant to drop the subject and he seemed to pick up on that.
"I found Jay in the Time War and she was there when everything ended." He couldn't say the words quick enough. "I'll tell you the rest, just…"
She recognized the plea for what it is, "Okay" she nodded, "Later."
"Later," he agreed, looking relieved.
"I'll come back after I pack my bags." She nodded and began heading back up to the console room, "And mum's making shepherd pie for dinner and you're coming."
His faced turned to one into horror, "Jackie's cooking?"
"You haven't even had any of her cooking!"
He made a face, "Somethings you don't need to see to know."
"Well, you're coming anyway, and you better not run, or I'll make sure to bring back an entire months' worth back with me."
"You're threatening me with your mother's cooking." He pointed out, "That just tells me how bad it is."
"One month's worth." She repeated.
"But… the plasma flare…" he tried to argue.
"We have a time machine." She countered effortlessly, "Remember one month!"
She left laughing while she took one last look at his face.
.
Promises.
At least that was a start.
She could work with that.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
He watched as Rose disappeared up to the console room before slowly turning back to the chamber. He was getting soft. Being pushed to make promises like that. Promises that shouldn't be kept. He probably should take that as a bad thing but…
Maybe…
Just maybe…
.
He leaned his head against the cold/cool/warm/hot chamber surface.
"I did promise." He whispered, "I never believed we could but I did promise."
.
Maybe it was time.