Chapter 6

Bad Reception

As Rose entered the function room, the Doctor following a little way behind, she was greeted by a terrible commotion. Shouts were coming from the direction of the banqueting table and as Rose hurried over she saw that the fuss was being caused by Mickey and an ex-boyfriend of hers, Dan. By the time she reached them it was too late, the row had escalated to the point where they were throwing punches at each other; this soon descended into an ungainly wrestling match between them until, ignoring Rose's pleas for them to stop, they both fell onto the trestle table which, for the second time that day, began to topple over. This time, however, no-one was there to rescue the Smurf cake or anything else. There was a crash, and Betty cried out as cake, table, Mickey and Dan all hit the floor.

Rose marched up to them. They were lying amongst the debris of broken glass and cutlery, both their heads together on what at first looked like rather a messy, heart-shaped pillow. Rose was to later reflect that at that moment they actually looked quite sweet. Now, however, 'sweet' wasn't on the agenda.

"What the Hell do you two think you're playing at?" Rose demanded.

"Oh, you leave off, Rose," said Mickey, picking himself up and confronting her. Pink and white icing stuck to his hair like a halo, decorated with the occasional purple rose. Papa Smurf hung from his left ear.

"He started it," he said, pointing at Dan, who was trying to scrape cream and icing out of his hair. "He insulted you. He said you'd gone off with the Doctor for a quick... In fact..." Mickey pushed past Rose and glared at the Doctor. "Where the bloody hell have you two been?"

At that moment a chirpy ring-tone sounded from somewhere inside the Doctor's jacket.

"Ah..." said the Doctor, smiling at the watching crowd and pointing at his jacket pocket, "my mobile... Please excuse me, folks." All eyes were on him as he began to back out of the room. "Well, thanks a lot, everyone. It's been great... Thanks for having me, Rose, I really enjoyed it...Whoops!.. I mean... Bye!" The Doctor turned and fled, slamming the door in the faces of Mickey and several irate guests.

-

The Doctor hurried downstairs, through the back bar and out into a little back yard with tables, benches and umbrellas. It had begun to drizzle and no-one else was there. He sat under an umbrella and answered his mobile.

"Hello, Jack?"

"Hi, Doc... at last, I've got through. The reception here is lousy."

"You've had that problem too, have you?" said the Doctor, glancing nervously over his shoulder to make sure no-one was following. "When and where are you?"

"It's 10.30 pm, June twentieth, two-thousand-and-nine. I'm in the yard of 'The Moon.'

"Oh? Me too"

"Hey! Maybe that's why reception is so much better. We should meet here more often."

"Changed much?"

"Not really. Same landlord – he recognized me from the other night... That is, four years ago. But Doc, I'm having problems with the TARDIS. I don't know whether it's because of the crystal or something I did when I was trying to land her, but she's playing up; I can't seem to get any further than 2009..."

"Not the shock-absorber, by any chance?"

"What? No... Hey, what's going on? I've just seen Rose, and she asked me if I'd found the shock-absorber..."

The Doctor smiled. "She's a good memory, has our Rose. How is she?"

"That's why I'm ringing. I've just been having supper at Rose and Mickey's place. Doc, she's still got the crystal. She wears it as a pendant round her neck. Mickey says she never takes it off. He thinks she got it from some charity shop... She's clearly told him some bullshit..."

"Wait..." The doctor interrupted. "A charity shop? She might not be lying. Jack, I've just spoken to Rose as well. The crystal's been stolen."

"Stolen?"

"Yes. It was taken from her flat while she was out. She knows nothing about it, except that the thief clearly knew what he was after. The place was ransacked but nothing else was taken. Did you learn anything else?"

"Only that Rose is acting real strange."

"Strange? In what way?"

"I dunno... I guess you could call it OOC. She seemed kind of detached. She showed no interest in you at all..."

"That is strange."

"The worst thing was, we had a drink here at 'The Moon' before supper and, as we were walking back to their apartment, there was this young kid in front of us on a skateboard. He was about eight. Anyway, his board hit a broken paving stone and the poor kid went flying. Hit his face real bad on a brick wall. There was blood everywhere..."

"And...?"

"And Rose just ignored him. She virtually stepped over him, and just carried on walking as if nothing had happened. She left me and Mickey to sort the poor kid out... Then there was lots of little stuff during supper – funny stuff that Rose came out with. And then I asked them about starting a family, and they both said they'd been trying for a baby since their wedding day, with no luck. Mickey had gone for all the tests, and he's OK. But Rose won't hear of any fertility treatment, although she claims she wants a family real bad. So then I 'went to the John' and had a snoop round their bedroom. You know what I found in Rose's underwear drawer? Contraceptive pills. She's on the pill, Doc, but she's pretending to Mickey that she wants a baby. I don't get it..."

"Hmmm..." the Doctor considered for a moment, then said: "If you don't have any good reason for staying around there, you might as well come back and I'll take a look at the TARDIS...try and find out what the problem is. But before you come back, find out more details about how Rose got the crystal, if you can. There's a charity shop in East Street that she loves – she tells me she's always in there. Find out if it's that one. And also when it was she bought it. Get a rough date if possible."

"OK, Doc. Will do. See you soon, then. By the way, what happened? Did you go to the wedding? How was the party afterwards?"

"Interesting, Jack... Let's just say it was interesting..."