A/N: Here we go, story number 2. I wasn't sure whether to split up this episode or not, as Rose doesn't have much screen-time, but I've nearly finished writing Army of Ghosts and it was getting kinda long, so I've split it here. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: most of the dialogue was written by the writers of Doctor Who.
CW: Homophobic language (it only appears right at the start, nowhere else in this chapter).
Ryan stepped out of the TARDIS, clutching a rucksack. The Doctor had promised a trip back to modern day London, and it seemed he had kept that promise, as Ryan recognised the playpark they were in as the one next to the Powell Estate. He grinned as he threw his rucksack onto his shoulders; the Doctor exited the TARDIS after him and shut the door. They silently set off on the quick walk to Bucknall House. The Doctor held his hand out for Ryan to take – which he did – and let their arms swing together.
As they walked across the estate, chatting, Ryan noticed a couple of teenage boys looking at them and smirking.
"Oi! Faggots!" hollered one of the teenagers, his friend howling with laughter. Ryan stiffened and felt himself begin to panic.
"Just ignore them," the Doctor murmured, tugging Ryan closer to him. The Doctor dropped his hand once they reached the door to Bucknall House, opening it and following Ryan through.
"Mum! It's us, we're back!" Ryan shouted as he entered the flat.
"Oh, I don't know why you bother with that phone, you never use it!" Jackie scolded. Ryan pulled her into a hug and noticed the Doctor try to slip past them. Unfortunately for him, Jackie noticed as well.
"No, you don't! Come here!" Jackie insisted, grabbing the Doctor. Ryan smiled at the Doctor's weak protests - but felt sorry for him as he was kissed repeatedly and was squeezed tightly in a bone-crushing hug.
"Hang on," Jackie said suddenly, giving the Doctor an opportunity to wriggle out of the hug. "What's happened to your voice? Oh my god, are you ill?"
"Vocal mutation," said the Doctor, as if that explained it. "Growth of the larynx with lengthening and thickening of the vocal folds."
"You what?"
"He means my voice is breaking, Mum," Ryan said. "I started testosterone injections four weeks ago."
Jackie's jaw dropped. "Is that safe?"
"Yeah, it's fine Mum."
Jackie hesitated, then hugged Ryan tightly. "Congratulations."
"Thank – thank you," Ryan awkwardly mumbled as he pulled back. He groaned as he pulled the heavy rucksack off his back and dropped it into Jackie's awaiting arms.
"I've got loads of washing for ya, and," he said, digging through his pocket for a small golden object, then presented it to Jackie. "I got you this. It's from the market on this asteroid bazaar. It's made of, erm, what's it called?" he asked, looking over his shoulder.
"Bazoolium," the Doctor replied, looking up from the magazine he was flipping through.
"Bazoolium," he repeated. "When it gets cold, yeah, it means it's gonna rain. When it's hot, it's gonna be sunny. You can use it to tell the weather!"
Jackie nodded. "I've got a surprise for you an' all."
Ryan sighed. "Oh, I get her Bazoolium, she doesn't even say thanks," he said sarcastically, tossing the Bazoolium between his hands.
"Guess who's coming to visit? You're just in time, he'll be here at ten past. Who do you think it is?"
Ryan shook his head. "I don't know."
"Oh go on, guess," Jackie insisted.
"No, I hate guessing, just tell me."
"It's your Grandad." Ryan's eyes widened. "Grandad Prentice. He's on his way, any minute. Right, cup of tea," Jackie said nonchalantly, heading into the kitchen, as if she hadn't said something that should be impossible.
"She's gone mad…"
He heard the Doctor beside him. "Tell me something new." Rude.
"Grandad Prentice, that's her dad," he whispered. "But he died, like, ten years ago. Oh my god, she's lost it." He moved to the kitchen doorway. "Mum!" Jackie turned away from the kettle. "What you just said about Grandad…"
"Any second now," Jackie said excitedly.
Ryan faked a smile and nodded. "But he passed away. His heart gave out. D'you remember that?" he said softly.
"'Course I do!"
"Then how can he come back?" he questioned.
"Then why don't you ask him yourself?" Jackie checked her watch. "Ten past. Here he comes."
A strange, ghostly figure faded into the room, walking around the kitchen. Ryan dropped his jaw.
"Here we are then," Jackie smiled. "Dad, say hello to Ryan. You've got a grandson now!"
The Doctor dashed out the flat and outside into the courtyard, Ryan closely following him.
"They're everywhere," the Doctor exclaimed. Around them, everyone was going about their usual business; carrying bags of shopping and playing ball games, whilst the ghosts were being ignored.
Ryan turned and spotted a ghost that was about to walk into the Doctor. "Doctor, look out!"
The Doctor inhaled deeply and pulled his shoulders up high as the ghost simply passed through him.
"You haven't got long. Midday shift only lasts a couple of minutes - they're about to fade," Jackie explained as Ryan continued to watch the ghosts.
"What do you mean, 'shift'? Since when did ghosts have shifts? Since when did shifts have ghosts? What's going on?" the Doctor asked impatiently.
"Ooh, he's not happy when I know more than him, is he?"
"No one's running or screaming or freaking out."
Ryan frowned; the Doctor was right, he'd seen enough interactions between humans and alien life to know that was the typical reaction, and it was very odd that it seemed normal to everyone.
"Why should we?" asked Jackie. "Here we go, twelve minutes past." On cue, the ghosts faded away. The Doctor and Jackie when back inside, with Ryan hesitantly following them.
The Doctor had settled on the floor, in front of the television. He was watching some new program called Ghostwatch, which Ryan had (unsurprisingly) never even heard of, let alone seen.
"What the hell's going on?" the Doctor muttered as he flicked over to another channel, this time a weather report, but it was talking about ghosts rather than whether it was going to be sunny or not. On Channel 5, there was some talk show where a woman was confessing to having married a ghost. The Doctor continued to switch through channels, skipping through adverts, French news about something the President had said that day about the ghosts, an Indian report about ghosts around the Taj Mahal, and Japanese news where people had been welcoming the ghosts, cutting to a trio of Japanese teenagers who said that they loved ghosts. Finally, he settled on an omnibus edition of EastEnders.
"It's all over the world…"
The Doctor watched a segment of Peggy Mitchell having a go at a ghost – Ryan knew that the Doctor had a soft spot for EastEnders (he would never admit to it) – before turning off the television and tossing the remote onto the coffee table.
"But when did it start?" the Doctor asked, leaning against an armchair.
Jackie leant forward, eager to explain. "Well, first of all, Peggy heard this noise in the cellar, so she goes down- "
"No, I mean worldwide."
"Oh, that was about two months ago. Just happened. Woke up one morning, and there they all were. Ghosts, everywhere. We all ran around screaming an' that, whole planet was panicking. No sign of you, thank you very much." She nodded at the Doctor. "But then it sort of sank in. It took us time to realise that we're lucky."
Ryan was still concerned, and he could tell the Doctor was too. "What makes you think it's Grandad?" he asked.
"It just feels like him. There's that smell, those old cigarettes. Can't you smell it?"
Ryan shook his head. "I wish I could Mum, but I can't."
"Well, you've got to make an effort," Jackie insisted. "You've got to want it, sweetheart."
"The more you want it, the stronger it gets?" the Doctor inferred.
"Sort of, yeah."
The Doctor scratched the back of his head. "Like a psychic link. 'Course you want your old dad to be alive, but you're wishing him into existence. The ghosts are using that to pull themselves in."
"You're spoiling it," Jackie told him.
"I'm sorry Jackie, but there's no smell, there's no cigarettes. Just a memory."
"If they're not ghosts, what are they, then?" Ryan asked.
"Yeah, but they're human!" Jackie protested. "You can see them, they look human!"
"She's got a point, I mean, they're all sort of blurred, but they're definitely people," Ryan added.
"Maybe not," the Doctor mused. "They're pressing themselves into the surface of the world, but a footprint doesn't look like a boot." He dashed off, presumably back to the TARDIS.
Ryan quickly bored of listening to Jackie talking to her friends on the phone. Noticing the headline on the front page of a newspaper, he grabbed it and went after the Doctor.
"According to the paper, they've elected a ghost as MP for Leeds Central," he announced as he walked up the TARDIS ramp. He walked over to the console, lobbing the newspaper onto it and looked down to where the Doctor was crouched under the grating. "Now, don't tell me you're gonna sit back and do nothing."
The Doctor jumped up, wearing a backpack and holding something that looked vaguely like a blaster. "Who ya gonna call?"
"Ghostbusters!" Ryan exclaimed.
"I ain't afraid of no ghosts!" Ryan laughed at his antics and followed him out of the TARDIS.
Outside, the Doctor was placing brown cones on the ground in a triangular formation. "When's the next shift?" he asked Jackie.
"Quarter to," Jackie replied, looking at her watch. "But don't go causing trouble. What's that lot do?"
Ryan smiled to himself. Pretty much all the Doctor ever did was cause trouble, even if it was unintentional.
"Triangulates their point of origin," the Doctor explained.
"I don't suppose it's the Gelth?" Ryan enquired.
"Nah. They were just coming through one little rift. This lot are transposing themselves over the whole planet, like tracing paper."
"You're always doing this," Jackie sneered. "Reducing it to science, why can't it be real? Just think of it though. All the people we've lost, our families coming back home. Don't you think it's beautiful?"
The Doctor looked up from the cones he was setting up. "I think it's horrific." He took a reel of cable back into the TARDIS, not giving Jackie any time to argue back. "Ryan, give us a hand!". Ryan sprinted into the TARDIS after him.
Inside, the Doctor plugged the cable into a port on the far side of the console.
He pointed at the monitor. "As soon as the cones are activated, if that line goes into the red, press that button there." He indicated at a small button on the console, then pulled his sonic screwdriver out of his coat. "If it doesn't stop, setting 15B, hold it against the port, eight seconds and stop."
"15B, eight seconds," Ryan repeated in understanding.
"If it goes into the blue, activate the deep scan on the left."
"Hang on a minute, I know." Ryan leant over the console and hovered his hand over a small button. "Is it that one?"
"Close."
Ryan moved over to a large silver button. "That one?"
"Mmm, now you've just killed us," said the Doctor lightly. Ryan laughed and brought his hand back a bit.
"Er, it's that one?"
"Yep!" The Doctor turned to Jackie. "Now what have we got? Two minutes to go?"
Less than two minutes later, the Doctor was outside with the cones whilst Ryan was monitoring everything at the console.
"What's the line doing?" the Doctor shouted.
"It's alright, it's holding!" Ryan yelled in reply.
"You even look like him," Jackie commented dryly from over Ryan's shoulder.
"How d'ya mean?" Ryan asked. He knew exactly what she meant. Not in physical appearance, but how he was holding himself, confidently working at the console. "Well, suppose I do, yeah."
"You've changed so much. And I'm not talking about your gender thingy, that would have happened without him around. Eventually."
"For the better?"
"I suppose," Jackie breathed out.
Ryan turned around to look at her. "Mum, I used to work in a shop," he said exasperatedly.
"I've worked in shops, what's wrong with that?" Jackie countered.
Ryan shook his head. "No, I didn't mean like that."
"I know what you meant. What happens when I'm gone?" she said suddenly.
"Don't talk like that," Ryan replied, shocked.
"No, but really. When I'm dead and buried, you won't have any reason to come back home. What happens then?"
"I don't know." It was true, Ryan didn't know. Barely anyone on Earth knew of the life he lived. And now that Mickey was gone, the only proper connection he had to Earth was his mum. And when she was gone, who knows.
"Do you think you'll ever settle down?"
"The Doctor never will, so I can't. I'll just keep on travelling."
"And you'll keep on changing. And in forty years time, fifty, there'll be this man, this strange man walking through the marketplace on some planet a billion miles from Earth. But he's not Ryan Tyler. Not anymore. He's not even human."
Ryan briefly pondered over Jackie's monologue. Sure, she had made some valid points. He'd already done the 'walking through the marketplace on some planet a billion miles from Earth' part. He would keep on changing. That was inevitable, like death and taxes. But not even human? He'd barely scraped through a GCSE in single-award science, and the biology module certainly didn't cover anything like that.
Thankfully, the Doctor had chosen that moment to disturb his thoughts. "Here we go!"
Ryan turned his attention back to the monitor. "Scanner's working! It says delta one six!"
"Come on then, you beauty!" he heard from outside. On the live video feed from the scanner, he could see a ghost struggling within an electrical pyramid encasing, whilst the Doctor fiddled with a device, his back to them. After less than a minute, the ghost disappeared and the Doctor gathered up his equipment and ran back into the TARDIS.
"I said so! Those ghosts are being forced into existence from one specific point, and I can track down the source! Allons-y!" And with that, the TARDIS rattled into dematerialisation, throwing the Doctor and Ryan backwards with the jump seat there to break their fall. They quickly recovered and the Doctor moved around the console, twisting dials and pressing buttons.
"I like that, allons-y. I should say allons-y more often. Allons-y. Look sharp, Ryan Tyler, allons-y!" the Doctor said as he moved back around to Ryan. "And then, it would be really brilliant if I met someone called Alonso, 'cos then I could say 'Allons-y, Alonso!' every time!" Ryan returned the Doctor's happy grin. "You're staring at me."
"My mum's still on board," Ryan mouthed, barely audible. He watched the Doctor's gaze slowly find Jackie.
"If we end up on Mars, I'm gonna kill you," Jackie warned. Ryan smiled and nodded at the threat that the Doctor was taking at least semi-seriously - probably out of fear of being slapped into his next regeneration.
A/N: The first scene was based off a deleted scene, which I wish they had kept as it was very cute. As always, thank you for reading, any feedback is welcome. The next chapter will be up very soon, probably tomorrow.