Disclaimer: I do not own DW and never will, but I do own Sophie McQueen and any other characters I make up.
A/N: Edited chapter. :) Enjoy!
"I got you some tea." I said as I came back into Jackie's room with the tea cup in hand. Jackie had made it for the Doctor just in case he woke up. But he hadn't woken up since the last time I was in here. "I know you probably won't wake up to drink it, but Jackie thought you should have it just in case you do." I went to sit down the tea on the side table. Before I sat it down all the way, Rose's loud voice was heard.
"Mum, get off the phone!"
Glancing one last time at the Doctor, I quickly sat down the tea and reentered the living area where Rose, Mickey, and Jackie were at. The air around them was tense. What was wrong?
Rose took the phone from her mum's grasp, quickly speaking into it. "Bev? Look, it'll have to wait." She ended the call, throwing the phone on the couch, and she looked at us worriedly. "Right, it's not safe. We've got to get out. Where can we go?"
"My mate Stan, he'll put us up." Mickey suggested.
Rose quickly turned his idea down. "That's only two streets away."
"What's going on?" I questioned.
Rose ignored my question as she looked at her mum. "What about Mo? Where's she living now?" she asked quickly.
"I don't know. Peak District."
Rose nodded. "Well, we'll go to Cousin Mo's then."
"No, it's Christmas Eve!" Jackie exclaimed. "We're not going anywhere. What are you babbling about?"
Like with me, Rose ignored the question but only because she noticed something. "That's a new tree, where did you get it?"
I looked at what she was looking at and she was right. The tree was now green, not white.
"I thought it was you," Jackie said, looking at her daughter confused.
"How can it be me?"
"Well, you went shopping. There was a ring at the door and there it was!"
Rose began to look nervous. "No, that wasn't me."
Jackie looked at the tree. "Then who was it?" She looked at me. "Was it you?"
"No, it wasn't me," I answered immediately. "I think I would know if I brought a Christmas tree with me."
We all looked at the tree just as it suddenly lit up by itself. My eyes widened as it started to play 'Jingle Bells."
"Oh, you're kidding me," Rose said exasperatedly.
The tree started to rotate in different directions, creating a strong wind causing us to grab onto one another because of how strong it was. What the hell was going on? The tree started to move, chopping through a coffee table. We screamed.
"Get out! Go, go! Get out!" Mickey cried.
He didn't have to tell me twice. I was out of there and back into Jackie's room.
"Come on Doctor!" I shouted at him. "If there was time to wake up, it would be now!"
But he didn't move a muscle causing me to growl in frustration.
"We've got to save the Doctor," Rose said to Jackie causing me to look at her and her mum. She must have just got here.
"What are you doing?" Jackie asked over the loud noise.
"We can't just leave him."
"Mickey! Get out! Get out!" Jackie cried to Mickey while he was still trying to fight off the Christmas tree.
"Mickey!" Rose exclaimed. "Get out of there!"
Mickey finally rushed in while Jackie stayed out trying to tell us to just leave the Doctor there.
"Get in here!"
With a loud over exasperated groan, she ran into the room as the Christmas tree spun towards us. Jackie helped Mickey put a wardrobe across the door to barricade the tree.
"Doctor, wake up!" Rose tried to wake up him up.
But he didn't wake up. Quickly remembering this thing that my aunt told me the Doctor used called a sonic screwdriver, I ran over to his jacket, searching through the pockets. I found it just as the Christmas tree crashed through the door, still turning around and around. Jackie cowered against the wall.
"I'm going to get killed by a Christmas tree!" Jackie wailed.
"Doctor, wake up!" Rose tried again, but it didn't work yet again.
I put the sonic screwdriver in the Doctor's hand and I whispered desperately in his ear, "Wake up and help us, Doctor! We need you! Please!"
In a blink, the Doctor sat up and used to the sonic screwdriver to blow up the Christmas tree. I was surprised. It worked. I woke him. I was too amazed that I didn't notice the confused look on Rose's face, not knowing why she wasn't able to wake up him up while I was able to.
"Remote control." The Doctor mused out loud, snapping me out of my amazement. "But who's controlling it?" He quickly grabbed the nearby robe and slipped it on as he led us out of the flat and onto the balcony. Looking down below at the ground, I saw three Santas gazing up at us, one of them holding a remote control.
"That's them," Mickey said. "What are they?"
Rose shushed her boyfriend as the Doctor, with an intense look on his face, aimed the sonic screwdriver at them causing the Santa's to back away. Then suddenly, they were beamed away.
"They've just gone." Mickey looked amused. "What kind of rubbish it that? I mean, no offense." He looked over at the Doctor. "But they're not much cop if a sonic screwdriver's going to scare them off."
The Doctor and I seemed to have the same train of thought because we both said at the same time, "Pilot fish."
As soon as those words left our mouths, we looked at each other and I smiled at him nervously. He stared at me for a moment before he looked over at Rose as she spoke up.
"What?" she asked, confused to what we were talking about.
"They were just pilot fish," The Doctor replied, repeating what he said, returning to look where the three Santa's were once at. Suddenly, he fell back and groaned in pain, causing all of us to fall down in front of him.
"What's wrong?" Rose asked, grasping his shoulders with a worried look on her face while the rest of us watched on.
"You woke me up too soon." The Doctor managed to say through gasps of pain. "I'm still regenerating. I'm bursting with energy." He exhaled the golden energy I had seen in the bedroom. "You see? The pilot fish could smell it a mile away. So they eliminate the defense, that's you lot, and they carry me off. They could run their batteries on me for a couple of. Ow!" He gasped in pain as he tumbled over to the other side.
"Oh! Oh! Oh!" Jackie was freaking out if the look on her face was any hint.
"My head!" He groaned again. "I'm having a neuron implosion. I need…"
"What do you need?" Jackie asked frantically as she grasped the front of the robe, pulling him towards her.
"I need…"
"Say it. Tell me, tell me, tell me." She pressed.
"I need…"
"Painkillers?" she guessed.
"I need…"
"Do you need aspirin?" she guessed again.
"I need…"
"Codeine? Paracetamol? Oh I don't know!" Jackie sounded exasperated. This was an amusing sight to see, but I held back a giggle since this was a serious situation. "Pepto-Bismol?"
"I need…"
"Liquid paraffin. Vitamin C? Vitamin D? Vitamin E?" Jackie kept on guessing.
"I need…"
"Is it food?" Jackie questioned. "Something simple. Bowl of soup. A nice bowl of soup? Soup and a sandwich? Soup and little ham sandwich?"
"I need you to shut up," The Doctor finally gritted out.
Jackie looked insulted and she huffed. "Oh, he hasn't changed that much, has he?"
Lurching again, the Doctor leaned against the opposite wall. "We haven't got much time. If there's pilot fish, then…" He reached into the robe and pulled out an apple.
"What the hell is an apple doing in there?" I said, looking at the apple with an odd expression on my face.
"Oh that's Howard's, sorry," Jackie apologized.
"He keeps apples in his dressing gown?" the Doctor asked. He was looking at the apple with the same expression I was.
Jackie shrugged. "He gets hungry."
"What, he gets hungry in his sleep?" The Doctor said.
"Sometimes."
The Doctor groaned in pain, collapsing on the ground, breathing heavily. "Argh! Brain collapsing." He grasped Rose's forearms. "The pilot fish mean that something, something, something is coming." He passed out right then and I managed to catch him to make sure his head didn't hit the ground. I rested his head on my lap and looked up, meeting Rose's eyes, who was looking at me with this expression that I couldn't comprehend.
"What?" I asked.
She looked away from me. "Nothing."
-0-
Back in the flat, since I was the one who had the Doctor in my lap, I put him back into Jackie's bed, taking off the robe. He had started to sweat and I tried my best to get him cooled down, but it wasn't working. Not only that, he only had one of his hearts beating. My stomach tightened with worry as I ran a hand through his hair, to get it out of his sweaty face.
"You're going to be alright Doctor," I whispered to him, not knowing if this was true. He shuddered under my cool touch while I continued to run a soothing hand through his hair. "Everything's going to be alright. Just you wait." Though I didn't want to leave him all alone in here, I knew that I had to go out there. I knew what pilot fish were so I could help. I ran my hand through his hair one last time before I got out of the bed and went into the living where Rose, Mickey as he sat at his laptop, and Jackie were at.
Rose looked up at me when she noticed me come in. "How is he?" she asked worriedly.
I sighed. "Not doing so great," I told her. "Only he has one heart beating now." My friend looked upset. I wished I could do something to reassure her that he was going to be alright, but I didn't know if he would.
The telly was going on and we all looked at it as a reporter started speaking.
"Scientists in charge of Britain's mission to Mars have re-established contact with the Guinevere One space probe. They're expecting the first transmission from the planet's surface in the next few minutes."
The telly switched to a press conference that was going where a man named Daniel Llewellyn – who was the Guinevere Project Manager – was speaking to a large crowd.
"Yes, we are." He said, "We're back on schedule. We've received the signal from Guinevere One. The Mars Landing would seem to be an unqualified success."
"But is it true that you completely lost contact earlier tonight?"
"Yes, we had a bit of a scare. Guinevere seemed to fall off the scope, but it, it was just a blip. Only disappeared for a few seconds. She is fine, absolutely fine. We're getting the first pictures transmitted live any minute now. I'd better get back to it, thanks." He left the scene, cameras flashing at him from behind.
"Here we go, pilot fish," Mickey said loudly catching our attention. Rose and I went over there while Jackie stayed on the couch, watching the telly.
I took out my glasses from my pocket and I slipped them on, bending down slightly to look at the computer as Rose's boyfriend continued to speak.
"Scavengers, like the Doctor said. Harmless. They're tiny. But the point is, the little fish swim alongside the big fish." The computer showed two fishes swimming alongside each other.
"Do you mean like big sharks?" Rose asked.
"Yeah, that's exactly what he means." I answered as I leaned back, crossing my arms over my chest. Mickey and Rose looked at me. "So what the Doctor was trying to say is that since those pilot fish left, it's only a matter of time until something bigger comes along. And that's definitely something we don't want because who knows what could happen.
"How much longer do we have until something happens?"
"Honestly, I have no idea," I said, replying to Rose's question. "But I do know that is that they don't swim that far from their daddy."
"So, it's close?" Rose guessed.
I just nodded.
"Funny sort of rocks."
Rose, Mickey, and I looked at what Jackie was looking at on the telly. A blurry picture was on it and it seemed to be cutting off so it didn't give you a good idea on what it was. But it was definitely wasn't rocks. That was for sure.
"The first photographs," said the newsreader on the telly.
Rose's eyes narrowed at the screen. "That's not rocks."
"Definitely not," I added, biting my bottom lip, wondering what on earth the picture could be besides rocks. Hope it wasn't an aliens or something…
"This image is being transmitted via mission control, coming live from the depths of space Christmas morning."
The picture finally cleared up and all of us jumped in fright as this red-eyed creature with a head like a goat appeared on the screen, growling and gurgling. I gulped. So much for not being aliens…
"The face of an alien life form was transmitted live tonight on BBC1."
"On 25th of December, the human race has been shown absolute proof that alien life exists."
"These remarkable images have relayed right across the world…"
-0-
It was a little while later and Rose and I were sitting on the couch, watching the news, not saying anything.
"Rose. Sophie. Take a look at this." Once we were on either side of Mickey, still on his laptop, he continued, "I've got access to the military. They're tracking a space ship. It's big, it's fast, and it's coming this way."
"Coming for what though?" Rose said.
"Maybe there's coming for the Doctor," I suggested since it was the only thing I could think of for what they could be doing here."
"I don't know," Mickey told Rose. "Maybe it's coming for all of us." The laptop screen now showed a clearer picture of the four aliens. They looked hideous which was too be expected. I mean, they were aliens. They couldn't look beautiful, now could they?
"Have you've seen these kind of aliens before Rose?" I asked hopefully.
My friend shook her head, still looking at the screen. "No."
My hope deflated and I sighed internally. If only the Doctor was here, he would know what these aliens were. I didn't really think about it until now…but it was weird, how much I wanted the Doctor to be here. But I brushed it off, deciding it was because of the fact I wanted to see him in action. That had to be it…just had to be it. I snapped out of my thoughts when one of the aliens on the screen started talking in a strange tongue.
"I don't understand what they're saying," Rose said.
I looked at her confused, wondering what she meant by that. "What do you mean?" I questioned.
"The TARDIS translates alien languages in my head, all the time whenever I am." Rose explained.
"So why isn't it doing it now?" Mickey asked her.
"I don't know," Rose replied quietly. "Must be the Doctor… like he's a part of the circuit, and he's…he's broken…"
I finally took notice to the fact that Jackie wasn't here. "Where's your Mum?" I asked Rose, but she didn't respond, too lost in her thoughts.
"I think she went to check on the Doctor," Mickey told me when he saw that Rose wasn't responding.
I nodded and I walked off to Jackie's bedroom where she was bent down next to the bed, watching over the Doctor who was still out of it but you could tell that he wasn't having a fitful sleep with the way he was twitching in his sleep. My stomach tightened with worry at the sight of this.
"Oh come on Sweetheart," Jackie murmured to the Doctor. "What do you need?"
"Jackie?" I called tentatively. She turned to me with tired eyes. "Why don't you get some sleep?"
"But—"Jackie glanced at the Doctor.
Knowing what she was thinking, I told her, "I'll keep an eye on him."
"Are you sure?"
I nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure. Really. I don't mind at all."
Jackie nodded tiredly as she rested her head on the bed. It didn't take much for her to fall asleep since a couple minutes later, I heard her lightly snoring. The Doctor was still twitching on the bed and I quickly went over there. Not really thinking about it, I climbed into the bed and curled against his side as I used one of my hands to run a hand through his hair.
"Shh, you're alright." I said softly.
This seemed to calm him down. His breathing was starting to even out just enough where I was able to breathe a sigh of relief. But I still ran my hand through his hair, not even knowing why. I had only done it to calm him down, yet here I was still doing it. I just felt this connection to him and it wasn't just because of the fact that my aunt used to travel with him, it was something more but I didn't know what it was. It was definitely a different feeling as I never felt it before, especially not with any man. I yawned and decided to get some shut eye as well so I stopped running my hand through his hair and I rested my head on his, closing my eyes and falling asleep almost instantly.
-0-
Third person POV…
Wanting to see the Doctor herself, Rose headed to her mum's room expecting just to see the Doctor and her mum but she didn't expect to see Sophie and the Doctor on the bed, wrapped in each other's arms…well Sophie had her arms wrapped around him and her head was resting on the Doctor's. She was asleep and so was he. It was completely innocent.
But that didn't make it any less surprising to see. It was even more surprising than the fact that Sophie had been able to wake up the Doctor when the Christmas tree attacked and not her. Rose wanted to wake Sophie up to get her out of the bed with her Doctor, but they both looked so content in each other's arms that she didn't have the heart to do that. Sighing, she left the room leaving the Doctor and Sophie alone, sleeping soundly.
-0-
Sophie's POV…
The next morning went by so quickly that it seemed to blur together. First of all, everyone on the Earth was on top of buildings, standing on the edge, so close to falling to their death. Second of all, Harriet Jones made this speech about needing the Doctor and for someone to find him. Last but not least, this big giant spaceship that looked like a large pointed rock appeared, destroying everything in its path.
But as right now, Rose, Jackie, Mickey, and I were heading towards the TARDIS because it was the only place on Earth that was safe. Rose and Mickey struggled to carry the Doctor while I was helping Jackie carry stuff.
"No chance you could fly this thing?" Mickey asked Rose as we entered the TARDIS which did in fact look bigger on the inside just like my aunt said. It was just simply amazing and I had to contain my excitement since it wasn't the time.
"No, not anymore," Rose replied as she and her boyfriend sat the Doctor on the ground.
"Well you did it before?"
"I know, but it's sort of been wiped from my head like it's forbidden. Try that again and I think the Universe rips in half."
"Ah, better not then," Mickey said.
"Yeah, I think that's a good idea." I said, a little bit sarcastically. I shot a worried look at the Doctor. "Will he be alright lying there?" Since I wasn't looking at Rose, I didn't see the slight annoyance flashing in her eyes.
"Yes, he'll be fine," she said.
I nodded but I still looked worried. So, I took off my jacket as I went over to him and bend down to his level to put my jacket behind his head to give him something to rest on. I brushed the hair out of his face before I stood back to my feet and looked towards Rose and Mickey as they talked to each other.
"So what do we do? Just sit here?" Mickey asked.
"That's as good as it gets." Rose leaned against the console as Mickey went to stand next to Jackie, who had a flask in her hands.
"Right, here we go," Jackie said. "Nice cup of tea."
"Mmm, the solution to everything," Rose grumbled to herself but her mum heard her.
Jackie gave her daughter a look that only a mother could give. "Now stop your moaning," she snapped slightly as Rose looked away from her. She changed the subject. "I'll get the rest of the foot." She gave Mickey the flask and left the TARDIS.
"Tea," Mickey said, shaking his head. He slightly grinned at Rose and me. "Like we're having a picnic while the world comes to an end. Very British."
Rose wasn't paying attention. She was too busy looking at the Doctor. Mickey looked a little bit sad so I patted his shoulder. He smiled at me thankfully and I smiled back.
"How does this thing work?" Mickey asked Rose, looking at this scanner than was hooked up the console. "If it picks up TV, maybe we could see what's going on out there. Maybe we've surrendered." He tried to figure it out. "What do you do to it?"
"I don't know. It sort of tunes itself." Rose pressed something on the scanner as I looked on in worry, having a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.
After a few minutes, an odd pattern appeared on the scanner. Since I didn't have my glasses on, it was kind of blurry so I quickly slipped them on to get a better look.
"I wonder what this pattern is," I said thoughtfully, pointing it out to Rose and Mickey. "It's really odd looking."
"Maybe it's a distress signal," Mickey suggested.
I frowned slightly. "Mmm, maybe. But if it is one, I think we would have gotten a warning. Like a noise of some kind signaling that's there's danger."
With a depressed look on her face, Rose sighed deeply. "A fat lot of good that's going to do."
My frown deepened. I know she was upset about the Doctor, but she didn't have to be so downright negative.
"Are you going to be a misery all day?" Mickey asked annoyed.
"Yes," Rose drawled out as she leaned against her hand.
Mickey sighed. "You should look at it from mine and Sophie's point of view," he said. "Stuck in here with your mum's cooking."
"Jackie doesn't cook that bad," I protested earning a look from Mickey. "Okay, maybe a little, but that's it."
Mickey smirked in response.
Rose looked around, finally noticing herself that her mum wasn't here. "Where is she?" she asked.
"She went out to get the rest of the food," I replied, returning to look at the scanner, which was still showing that odd pattern.
"I'd better give her a hand," Rose told me and Mickey as she headed towards the doors of the TARDIS. "It might start raining missiles out there."
"Tell her anything from a can is fine," Mickey called, following her while I stayed where I was.
Rose turned to him now in front of the doors. "Why don't you ask her yourself?"
"I'm not that brave," Mickey told her simply.
"Oh, I don't know." Rose smiled for the first time since coming into the TARDIS.
I couldn't help but chuckle as my friend left the TARDIS, closing the door behind her.
Then out of nowhere, there was a loud scream.
"Rose?" Mickey called as he ran off, accidentally dropping the open flask of tea near the Doctor.
He threw open the doors, revealing Rose being carried off by two aliens. She was struggling to get out of their firm grip.
"Rose!" I exclaimed in fright about to run out, but Mickey beat me too it.
"Get off of me! Get off of me!" Rose cried, continuing to struggle. Then to Mickey, she screamed, "The door! Close the door!"
He managed to get the doors closed before an alien got him. I ran to the doors and tried to pull them open but it was no use.
I started to pace, my mind going into overdrive. Because of this I didn't notice that the tea that had fallen on the ground near the Doctor had dripped down onto the TARDIS workings underneath the time console. It was only when I started smelling something that I noticed that tea vapor had rised through the floor grating. I turned around just in time to see that the Doctor had exhaled that golden energy. The tea vapor slowly disappeared and the Doctor was still lying there.
Wondering what that was all about, I went over to the Doctor and I got down to my knees. I took off of my glasses and put them in my pocket before I bent down to get a closer look at the Doctor. But then suddenly…
SMACK!
The Doctor had ended up flying up in a sitting position and we hit heads really hard.
"Well, that's going to leave a mark," The Doctor said with a small moan, rubbing his forehead as I leaned back, groaning in pain while rubbing my forehead too. He got to his feet getting over the pain rather quickly while I still sat on the floor as I rubbed my forehead, grimacing in pain. He held out a hand just as I looked up at him.
I didn't hesitate in grabbing his hand and I allowed him to help me to my feet.
"Now, who are you then?" The Doctor asked cheerily as I looked at him in disbelief.
"Uh, my name's Sophie," I managed to reply.
"Sophie," The Doctor repeated then he grinned. "Lovely name. I knew a Sophie once…" He frowned then. "Or was her name Sarah? Or it might have been Sasha?" He shook his head. "But that's beside the point, I'm the Doctor."
"Yeah I know," I said quickly earning a surprised look from him. I quickly explained, well not the truth. He didn't need to know that part yet. There was more important things to deal with. "I'm friends with Rose. She explained everything to me."
The Doctor nodded, accepting this explanation. "Of course," he said. "Well, come on." He headed towards the doors. "Let's see what I kind of man I am now." Seeing I wasn't following him, he looked over his shoulder at me. "Are you coming?"
I quickly nodded and he grinned at me.
"Wait!" I called after the Doctor before he could move towards the doors again. I finally remembered Rose and Mickey. The Doctor turned to me. "The aliens have Rose and Mickey!"
"You're just telling me this now," The Doctor said with an expression on his face that really did look adorable on him. But I quickly shook out of that. This wasn't the time.
"Well I'm sorry, my head was little messed up," I protested. "We hit heads if you don't remember." I huffed and then I pouted when the Doctor chucked. "It's not funny!"
His face turned serious. "Yes, your right. It's not." But I knew that he wasn't thinking about what I said, but about Rose and Mickey. Not wasting any more time, he turned a heel and walked to the doors with me right behind him. He opened up the doors revealing Rose, Mickey, Harriet Jones, this black haired guy, and all the aliens. He smiled charmingly at everyone. "Did you miss me?"
TBC...
In...
The Christmas Invasion, Part 3