The Ordinary One Part Three

Notes: I seem to still be in favour…which I guess is a good thing! Thank you to Tai for reviewing once, depressing me, but having the decency to apologise! I love ya Tai! Anyway, I've uh, DISCOVERED a reason why Stella got onto the TARDIS. I worked long and hard to find a suitable reason, and I actually looked in my SCIENCE TEXTBOOK to check it was VAGUELY FACTUAL. I hope that'll sort you lot out…crikey, you complain a lot in this section. Be satisfied! NOW!

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The TARDIS lurched wildly to the right. The Doctor exchanged a worried glance with Rose, then scrambled towards the control panel. Rose pulled herself up beside him.

"Bad news?" she asked instinctively as the TARDIS suddenly stopped dead. The Doctor nodded.

"According to the TARDIS, we're about 7000 years in the future."

"OK. Where?"

"A Gaal warehouse," said the Doctor grimly. "A whole planet used for storing stolen goods." He groaned. "They're guarded according to how much the goods inside are worth, so we have to be careful. That means you, Strawberry Girl." Stella laughed, getting to her feet. The Doctor rolled his eyes. Teenagers. They never listen.

"That was incredible!" she exclaimed, grinning like fury. She tried laughing again, then realised no one was laughing with her. "What's up?"

"Nothing," said the Doctor, too deep in thought to spare Stella's feelings. Rose glared at him, but he didn't notice.

"We didn't land right," she explained. "We're in a huge warehouse, 7000 years in the future." To the Doctor, she added, "But why are we here? Did we pick up another distress signal?"

"No, something's broken, something important," he said, bringing out the famous sonic screwdriver and sliding underneath the controls. Rose squatted down next to him. "Here." The Doctor handed her his leather jacket and she held it accordingly. Stella stood nearby, unsure of her place. Was she still an intruder now they were on an adventure? Stella smiled faintly. An adventure. She'd been reading too much Enid Blyton.

"Gold." The Doctor straightened up again. "We need gold."

"Why gold?" asked Rose, holding out his jacket to him.

"You…can wear that…if you like," muttered the Doctor. Stella was intrigued to see he looked ever so slightly pink. Rose slipped it on wordlessly. Still warm, and with that 'old leather' scent that she found oddly comforting. "Two of the TARDIS's most important mechanisms are gone. The wiring was made of gold," he said, resuming his business like tone. "Great metal, gold. It's not magnetic, fairly strong, conducts electricity incredibly well, easy to work with (if you have the right tools), and it doesn't react with anything. Well, nothing on the TARDIS anyway. The perfect metal."

"Valuable too," added Stella, thinking she ought to assert herself.

"Not in this day and age. They found a new element, called it blode. Much rarer and shinier. Gold was tossed onto the scrap heap," said the Doctor.

"Why weren't these important mechanisms wired with…'blode' then?" asked Rose.

"It's hell to melt down," answered the Doctor.

"OK. So now we can't go anywhere…unless we get some gold?" asked Stella. She shook her head. "Wait…why do we need gold again?"

"It shattered, all gone. Can't think why though," said the Doctor, looking puzzled.

"S'weird," said Rose. "How could gold just…shatter?" The Doctor shrugged.

"No idea. But if I find out it was you…" he said, pointing an accusing finger at Stella. Stella backed off, holding up her hands.

"Do I look like I know how to shatter gold?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. The Doctor glared at her.

"What's in the bag?" he asked roughly.

"Doctor!" Rose grabbed his arm.

"Nothing but my swimming gear, I swear," said Stella, looking a tad scared. The Doctor suddenly realised that he was intimidating a fourteen year old girl with a wet swimsuit. He dropped it and started bashing a keyboard. "OK, Gaals, Gaals…right. Luckily this warehouse isn't important, storing mainly textiles. That's good and bad."

"There won't be many guards storing textiles," Rose realised.

"Right, but that's also a bad thing because it means our only chance of getting gold is reaching the Mahzart," he replied, flashing up a picture on one of the screens. "He's the one in charge of this warehouse, Klideog the third. Nice looking chap, isn't he?" The picture showed a tall, mean looking creature with yellowish skins and very long, slender fingers. On each of these was a gold-coloured ring.

"He likes his bling," Rose commented.

"Lucky for us. Lets just hope it's real gold," said the Doctor. "If not, we're stuck."

"What exactly is broken?" asked Stella timidly.

"Guidance system. I can't land anywhere accurately," said the Doctor.

"Not so much change there then." Rose grinned at him mischievously.

"And all the protection is gone. All we had left was the lock, but somebody broke it," growled the Doctor. Stella looked away. "Anyway, I can fix that." He made his way over to the door and fumbled for the sonic screwdriver. He glanced at Rose, looking embarrassed. "Uh…in my jacket…" he muttered. Rose went a bit pink and took it off, throwing it to him. "Thanks." He started to fix the lock.

"What's that?" whispered Stella.

"Sonic screwdriver," said Rose. "It can do almost anything, open doors, reattach barded wire…"

"Right, that's done," said the Doctor, straightening up. "Let's get out there."

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Stella laced up her rollerblades as the Doctor and Rose began to explore what appeared to be a maze of boxes. Rose opened one and pulled out a lurid green dress. She held it against herself.

"What do you think?" she teased.

"Not your colour," said Stella, skating around them neatly.

"That's made of shedded reptile skin," the Doctor informed her, Rose hastily stuffed it back where it belonged. Stella lazily skated backwards in front of them as they walked on so she could face them. Something had occurred to her that she wanted to ask them about, but she wasn't quite sure how to word it. She scrutinised them carefully as the Doctor casually took Rose's hand. They looked like a couple, but the last thing she wanted was to offend them and end up stuck in a warehouse 7000 years in her future. She decided to ask anyway, having more mouth than sense.

"So is that why you two don't have kids?" she blurted out. They both stopped dead and dropped each others' hands. One word: speechless. Stella pressed on anyway. "Not…that you look old enough to have them or anything…I mean, Rose doesn't—" Stella paused and re-grouped. "But is it because of the danger? Like with me?"

"Me and Rose are…" The Doctor seemed unable to finish his sentence, so Rose finished it for him.

"…not a couple." Stella raised her eyebrow. They even finished each others' sentences. This was just too cute.

"Of course you're not," she said, not unpatronizingly. Rose glanced at the Doctor for a second, just thinking…if they were a couple. But just for a second. The Doctor looked incredibly flustered and annoyed at the same time, and was very relieved to detect a faint humming that meant machinery. He charged past Stella through the 'corridor' of boxes, round a corner and was pleased to find a computer.

"Fantastic," he said, grinning again, restored back to his natural colour. Rose and Stella joined him and he prised the back off the computer, which was attached to a rather heavy-duty looking door. "We can access the mainframe from here, get a blue print and find the control room. Then we can get our gold and take Trouble home." Stella raised her hands.

"I was just curious," she said defensively. She decided from the Doctor's scowl it was probably best if she skated elsewhere, and went off to explore another corridor.

"Not shy, is she?" Rose commented. "Do you need an access code?"

"Not the way I do things," said the Doctor, getting out the sonic screwdriver and fiddling with the back of the computer.

"Stupid question," said Rose, grinning. "You never play by the rules."

"I'm a rebel," agreed the Doctor happily. He faintly heard Stella calling his name and chose, unwisely, to ignore it. "We're in!" Next, he took out a small, handheld computer.

"How much junk can you keep in those pockets?" asked Rose incredulously. "That looks like a navigation computer from an expensive car."

"It's roughly the same thing. We can stick the blueprint on here, save my memory," he said as he attached the navi-PC to the computer. "It'll take a few minutes to download and then we're away!"

Suddenly, they both heard Stella yelling. "She's in trouble," said the Doctor, looking annoyed. "I knew this would happen. This is why I don't do domestic!"

"Wait a second," said Rose. "She didn't cry for help." They kept out of sight and watched Stella skate past, waving briefly, but picking up speed, closely followed by three Gals. "They're guards!" Rose whispered.

"That stupid girl distracted the guards!" said the Doctor, but he didn't look annoyed. He looked delighted. "Finally, a teenager who uses her BRAIN!"

"Excuse me, but I'm still 19," said Rose, pretending to look insulted. "I…am still 19, right?" The Doctor shrugged.

"We have to get going. Stella will probably go back to the TARDIS eventually, and we have to be ready with the gold when she does, otherwise she's unprotected," said the Doctor, grabbing Rose's hand and pulling her into a run towards the control room. "And I don't fancy being slapped by another angry mother."

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Heeeeheee! big smiley face What do you think? Be gentle with me!

As a side note, how incredible was the last episode! THEY KISSED! IT WAS SO AWESOME! I hope David Tennant is good, otherwise I may growl a lot and send some angry emails. I watched the regeneration three times and I'm beginning to like him a little. I just can't believe my Doctor is dead!

To my reviewers: I really hope you're still here, sorry it's been a while since I updated. Hope you'll forgive me! Getting a bit more action-y now, bit of a rollerblade chase next time. Hoped all you shippers liked the not so subtle shipping. wink I know the whole children thing seemed pointless, and it was, but it was quite amusing at the time. I can totally see Stella doing something like that. That girl doesn't think. Wa-ay too impulsive! more winking puts on exceedingly good Dalek voice Review! Review! Review!

Because technically, if you don't review, you're stealing something from me without payment! even more winking And that may result in pollination.

Crawdie: Uhhh…don't you mean extermination?

No, Crawdie. No I don't. And that, folks, is all for today!