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Chapter 45 - Crazy Day at the Office

The Doctor popped into his office. He was wearing his new, dark grey, pinstriped three piece suit. He walked out and saw Michelle standing there chatting with J.K. Rowling. He walked out and shook her hand.

"This is a surprise! It's nice to see you again." he greeted her.

J.K. Rowling smiled, "I'm sorry to just pop in like this. Michelle said it would be alright."

"Yes, it's totally fine. Please come in."

He shut the door behind them and lead her over to the other side of his office to sit on the sofa. He sat in the chair next to her.

"I wanted to bring these by to show you. They are the drawings for the first book. The cover design and such."

"Oh! These are lovely. Yes. I like this one best." he told her as he looked over the drawings.

She smiled. "That's the one I like the best as well. Also, the publisher called and ran into a problem. I told him I would rather discuss it with you before I made a decision on what to do."

The Doctor stood up and walked over to the small bar. "These are your books, you don't need my opinion on this. Drink?"

"Oh, no thank you. I won't keep you long. He seems to think that we should write two versions of them. One for Great Britain and one for the Americas."

He sat down as he drank his bottled water. "Oh, right. I hadn't thought about that. There are two versions of that first book." he said quietly.

"I'm sorry?" she asked.

"Nope, that's totally fine. Let them put the words into American English. But, only for this first book. After the Americans read it, they will be wanting more and will be able to read it in British English. They will even find that they like it and come back and buy the British version of the book as well." he explained.

"You think so?" she asked.

"Oh, I do. I'm anxious to read them to my daughter. They sound amazing."

She smiled. "How old is your daughter?"

"Nearly five. I have a four year old brother, as well. I plan to read them to him, too." he smiled.

She smiled at him as she stood up to leave. "I can't tell you thank you enough."

He saw her out. He smiled like a loon at Michelle. "Oh, wow! I'm so excited to go to that game tonight! Harriet Jones is awesome. I love it. Hey! What are you doing tonight? Would you like to bring your boys? They would probably love that, too."

Michelle looked surprised. "Oh, they would love that. Are you sure?"

"Yeah, least I could do. How old are your boys?"

"Logan is 17, then I have an 15, 12, 8 and twins that are 5."

"Five year old twins. Wow! All of them like football?" he asked her.

"Of course. They are British!"

He laughed at her. "Of course. When you arrange a car for my lot, just arrange one for yourself. Make a night of it for them."

"Thank you, Doctor Smith!" Michelle said.

"Ah. No, just the Doctor. Okay, what else do I need to do today?"

"You need to approve these experiments for next week. " she said as she handed him a few folders.

He grunted. "Ugh. Paperwork. Blah. Boring. I'll do that later. What else?"

"I've got your schedule for next week ready. I can give it to you to look over."

"Ah, put it with the boring paperwork. I'll look over that when I go see Pete tonight. What else?"

"This other boring paperwork that you need to sign and get back to the realtor for that other project you have."

"Ugh. My life has become all about signing my damn name to stuff." the Doctor complained as he put those folders with the other ones.

Michelle laughed at him. "Pete complained about the same thing. And then there is this. The files about Melissa and Genie that you asked for. Finally got them. All loaded up on this tablet."

"Brilliant! I've been wanting to look over this. Knowing my luck, it will bring up more questions than answers."

Michelle pointed at the tablet and told him, "As Director, you have complete access to all personal files currently on record. But, only on this tablet. Keep it someplace safe. The password is your birthday."

He looked at her curiously. "My birthday? How do you know my birthday?"

"Not much gets past me, Doctor."

He looked shocked.

"I have Rose's number. She told me. Relax."

He laughed and rolled his eyes. "Of course. I was beginning to suspect you worked for MI-6 or something. Geez. Logan did worn me! Eyes on top of eyes!"

"It's none of my business. But is Pete alright? He usually calls even if he is out of town. Chelsea says she's not heard anything from him."

The Doctor rubbed his chin. "Give me a bit. I'll be right back. I'll take these to look over." He grabbed the folders and tablet and walked back in his office and tossed them on his desk and leaned against it.

'Rose. I have a problem.' he spoke to her.

'What's the matter?' she asked him.

'My secretary's mutant senses are telling her something is wrong with Pete. What should I tell her? I can't keep it from her. She's like the ultimate spy. I'm glad she's on our side.'

He could feel Rose's laughter. 'You nutter. She's not a mutant. I'm not sure. What do you think?'

'Well, she can keep it to herself. I feel we should tell her and Chelsea. I have no idea how long it will be until he wakes up. It could be days or weeks. How is he?'

'No change. He feels more peaceful though. More like he is resting. Nothing like he was yesterday. I wonder what he's dreaming about?'

'Trust me Rose. You don't want to know. I don't want you to suffer with that image in your head.'

He could her laughter. 'Thank you. I'll not push.'

'I'm going to tell them. Have them keep it between themselves. Do you think they will?'

'Absolutely. You can trust them.' Rose agreed.

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Chelsea and Michelle sat in the Doctor's office in shock.

"When did it happen?" Michelle asked.

"Thursday night." he answered. "We would prefer if no one knew. We don't know how long he will be in the hospital. The doctors seem sure of his recovery. But, we just have to be careful with what people know about the Tyler family. I know you two understand that."

They both nodded.

Jake walked in the door. "Hey Doc. We have problems."

He tossed up his hands. "Don't you have another greeting for me?"

Jake laughed as he motioned for the Doctor to follow him.

The Doctor looked at Chelsea and Michelle. "Excuse me. Stay here if it makes you feel safer." He said as ran out the door.

Jake ran down the hall and lead the Doctor the lift. As they rode down, Jake explained. "Another one of those peppershakers are here. Several in fact."

"What the hell is Malcolm doing? I told him to not reopen that unless I was there!"

"I have no answers. We are all on damage control. These things are violent kitchen appliances."

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Daleks are soldiers. They are extremely dangerous! We'll be lucky to get out of this without anyone getting hurt! Do NOT shoot me again!" he pointed at Jake as the lift door opened.

They ran to the stairs and to the door of the floor where you could hear the Daleks firing at the Torchwood soldiers.

"Want an gun?" Jake asked.

The Doctor shook his head. "Nah. Thank you, anyway." He looked around and found a long lead pipe.

Jake looked surprised at the Doctor's choice in a weapon. The Doctor quickly opened the door and hit the eye stalk on a Dalek as it rolled past him. It broke off. The Doctor grabbed it and held it up for the other Daleks to see.

"I am the Doctor! The great enemy to the Daleks! Contact your superior and await instructions on what to do with me!" he demanded.

The other Daleks looked at him. "He has attempted to disguise himself." One said.

"We should exterminate him." another one said.

He held up his hand. "Ah! That wouldn't be a good idea. Your superior would really be cross about that. I'm promised as a war prize to many of your superiors. It is ordered that I be taken alive."

The Daleks considered.

Just then, the Doctor felt Genie scream in his head. He ran and dove behind some barrels for cover as the Daleks began to fire again. Jake was right beside of him.

"That go how you expected?" Jake asked.

'Rose. Is Genie alright? She just screamed in my head.' he asked her.

'I'm with her now. She's alright. Just a skinned up knee. She's asking for you.' Rose told him.

Jake pushed his head down as he was very nearly shot from a Dalek blast.

'Tell her I'll see her as soon as I can. I'm wrapped up with something at the moment.' he told her.

He could feel her laughter at him. 'Right. Daleks, again?'

'The same. I'm going to kill Malcolm.' he said.

'Be careful. And tell Jake not to shoot you.'

He smiled, "Rose says to tell you not to shoot me, again."

"Tell her I make no promises." Jake said as he smiled. "It's your fault I'm this hungover this morning."

"See and I can fix that!" the Doctor told him as he dodged another blast.

"If you can fix it, do it Doc. I'm dying here." Jake told him.

"Really? Now?!" the Doctor asked him.

"Hell yeah. I'm miserable and can't see straight enough to shoot these damn things."

The Doctor put his hands on the side of Jake's forehead and closed his eyes. Suddenly, Jake yelled, "AH!" as his eyes popped open. "Jesus! What the hell did you do?"

"You'll feel better in about ten minutes. Works everytime." the Doctor said as he dodged another blast.

"Are our guys even shooting?" the Doctor asked.

"Yeah, they just aren't doing enough damage to them. You need to sonic their guns as well."

"No, they just need different guns. How many are there in all?"

"Six." Another solider said.

"Ugh. That's not good. Six took over the other universe briefly." The Doctor complained as he dug around in his pocket. "Can I have that gun now?"

Jake handed it over. The Doctor took the side of it apart and rubbed his chin. "No wonder. That Dalek is made of polycarbide and dalekanium. This gun is not going to do much. Where is that gun you used yesterday?"

Jake said, "Upstairs. In my locker."

"Locked up nice and safe. Ugh. This is the trouble with guns." the Doctor complained as he used his sonic screwdriver to do something to the gun and the Dalek's eyestalk that he still held in his hands. He ran his hands back down in his pockets and pulled out Rose's lip gloss. He smiled and put it back in his pocket as he continued to look for something. He found some chewing gum and quickly popped it in his mouth. He took it out and used it to stick something in the gun together.

"Can you see well enough now to shoot something for me?" he asked Jake.

Jake smiled. "Sure! Just tell me what to aim for."

The Doctor slid the gun and eye stalk across the floor right between the Daleks. Jake took aim and fired. A huge explosion rocked the building. The Daleks stood destroyed.

The Doctor looked at Jake. His face was black from the smoke from the explosion. His hair stuck up.

"Ha! You look like me now!" the Doctor laughed at him. His face was black as well. He smacked a dazed Jake on the back and stood up. "Brilliant! Alright. I'll be right back. I've got to go check on Genie. Start cleaning this mess up. Tell Malcolm to turn that damn thing off and I want to see him."

He zapped away.

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