My Mad Man

by thehelpinghand

After committing a Great Crime against Magic, the Mistress of Death is reborn into a new world. Adopted by Pete Taylor, she becomes the older sister to an inquisitive young lady. and then, she stumbles upon a Mad Man who might just show her the stars and remind her what it means to laugh and live once more.

5. Chapter 4: Aliens of London

A/N: I have edited chapters 1-5. 02/04/2021

Chapter four: Aliens of London

The TARDIS materialized outside the Powell Estate, in the same place that the Doctor had dropped Mickey and me off after the Living Plastic Adventure. I stepped out with a small bag over my shoulder. They were stopping of at Earth so I could pick up some cloths – the TARDIS was happy to provide period appropriate cloths but I liked my own comfortable footwear and jeans – especially if they were planning on going in the future since the Doctor said it was quite common for old style cloths to make a reappearance, or not raise an eyebrow, in the future or on alien planets.

I also needed to have a word with Rose about their father and sort out some other things that would require my attention before I could realistically spend an extended period of time with minimal contact with Earth. The Doctor stepped out just behind me and leaned against the blue door with his arms folded.

"How long have I been gone?" I asked him, eyes scanning the area for anything different or out of place.

"About 12 hours," he answered confidently.

"Right, I won't be long. Need to talk with mum, stop her from hounding on Mickey. And I need to have a difficult conversation with my sister."

"Where do you plan on telling them you've been?" the Doctor asked before I could run off.

"Planning where we will be going and what we'll need for our travels." I winked before turning and jogging off. I ran all the way up to mum's flat and opened the door using the key that was on my neckless (it was one of those things that I kept on my person at all times).

I raised an eyebrow at the pile of dirty clothes in the hall but figured mum was just doing a clean down. It didn't happen often but sometimes she would just clean the whole flat in an attempt at keeping busy when she was feeling particularly lonely. I walked into to the living room just as mum and Rose walked in holding a cup of tea each.

"It's you," Rose said like she couldn't believe it, her eyes wide in shock.

"Hay, of course it's me." I moved forward and hugged her when I realised that Rose was close to tears.

"Oh, my God. It's you, it's actually you. Oh my God." Mum says shakily before throwing her arms round me and Rose, her cup of tea hitting the floor and shattering. Over the heads of mum and Rose I saw a pile of 'Where's Anna' photos. And the calendar on the wall told me it was the 5th of March 2006, a year and two days after I left. At that moment, the Doctor came crashing in.

He opened his mouth to say something but I cut him off before he could put his foot in it: "I know, Doctor."

"Right," he winced and rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "Sorry."

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"The hours we've sat here. Days and weeks and months all by ourselves. We thought you were dead. And, where were you? Travelling. What the hell does that mean? Travelling? That's no answer." I was sitting on the couch with Rose holding my right arm hostage in her hands, her head still in the crook of my neck, while mum was stood ranting at me. A policeman was sitting uncomfortably in an armchair while the Doctor stood to the side. "You ask her. She won't tell me! That's all she says. Travelling." She says to the policeman.

"That's because that's all you'll let me say." I snapped, gently prying Rose off me and standing up to catch mum's shoulders. "I was travelling the world with the Doctor. We went to France, Italy, Rome, and Egypt. I tried calling home but my phone was broken and every time I tried using a pay phone the line was engaged."

"For a whole year? You couldn't get through for a whole your?" Mum demanded. "You just left Rose and I sitting here; I don't believe you. Why won't you tell me where you've been?" she places her hands on my cheeks and I could see she was close to tears.

"Actually, it's kind of my fault. I sort of employed Anna as my companion." The Doctor spoke up from where he stood. Mum let go of my face and turned to look at him while I raise an eyebrow: why was he using the shortened version of my name again? I wondered.

"When you say 'companion', is this a sexual relationship?" the policeman asked.

"NO!" the Doctor and I denied together.

"Then what is it? Because you, you waltz in here all charms and smiles and the next thing I know, she vanishes of the face of the earth! How old are you then? 40? 45? What, you find her on the Internet? Did you go online and pretend you're a doctor?" she advanced dangerously on the Doctor.

"I AM a Doctor!"

"Prove it! Stitch this, mate!" she slaps him hard around the face. The Doctor groans loudly while I darted forward to check he didn't have a split lip (something mum was very good at giving). Mum and Rose were hugging once I turned round.

"Did you think about us at all?" Rose asked me while they both cry. I stood back slightly, uncomfortable with the amount of uncontrolled emotion that was being displayed.

"I did! All the time! But…" Mum pulled away from Rose and engulfed me in a hug.

"One phone call. Just to know that you were alive." She sobbed into my shoulder.

"I'm sorry. I really am." I held out a hand to Rose, once she grabbed it, I dragged her into the hug.

"Do you know what terrifies me, is that you still can't say. What happened to you, Anna? What could be so bad that you can't tell me, sweetheart? Where were you?"

I couldn't answer her. She wasn't prepared to listen, or understand alien life yet. Mickey, he understood, he knew that the Doctor was an Alien but Rose had gotten her mother's mind and she hadn't really matured yet – she was still just a naïve teenager. Maybe, one day they would understand where I had been. Why I left.

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I went to the roof of the building and sat on the wall. I always came up here when I needed time to think and get away from Mom's overbearing attitude especially when she was shouting. The roof had always been my escape, and right now I needed to clear my head before facing mom and Rose again. The Doctor followed me up, unwilling to be left alone to deal with my family, and leant against the wall.

"I can't tell them. I can't even begin…they're never going to forgive me. And I missed a year? Was it good?"

"Middling." The Doctor shrugged.

"You're so useless." I sighed.

"Well, if it's this much trouble, are you gonna stay here now?" the Doctor asked me, his tone was indifferent but I could see the worry in his eyes. He didn't want to be alone again.

"God no, I'm not staying here, but I can't do that to them again."

"Well, they're not coming with us." I burst out laughing at the thought of my mum travelling with us and the Doctor soon joined in.

"No chance." I said after I calmed down.

"I don't do families."

"She slapped you!"

"900 years of time and space, and I've never been slapped by someone's mother before." The Doctor told me.

"Your face." I recalled the shocked and slightly disbelieving face he had made after mum slapped him. It was like he couldn't comprehend that anyone would get angry at him. Maybe he had never had to deal with the 'domestics' of having a companion before.

"It hurt!"

"You're such a drama queen." The Doctor rubbed his cheek, offended. "When you say 900 years, that means your age right?"

"Yeah."

I nodded, his age hardly bothering me, since I had known vampires in my previous life and some of them didn't look older than fourteen and yet they were more than a few centuries old. "Well technically I'm 97 years old."

The Doctor turns to me. "Really?" he asked surprised.

"Yeah, I was 72 when I activated the ritual." I had felt so much older than my years; a powerful witch of her calibre could easily live into their 200s, but at 72 I had felt twice that. I had been without friends and family for so long, and had been fighting for so many that I truly felt far older than 72 when I activated that ritual. The chance to live again as a child was something I hadn't anticipated, but I was grateful because it reminded me that life always carried on and there was beauty and hope even in the darkest of times. I shook my head to get rid of such thoughts.

Before the Doctor could respond a spacecraft narrowly misses our heads as it falls from the sky and heads for Central London. It smashes into Big Ben, then lands with a splash in the Thames. The Doctor and I stand up with our mouths open.

"Oh, that's just not fair." I muttered.

The Doctor laughs gleefully, grabs my hand and pulls me off in the direction of the action.

It's complete mayhem on the streets when the Doctor and I arrived as close to the scene as we could get.

"It's blocked off." The Doctor frowned staring at the backed-up cars and the military blockade. From the red caps they were all wearing, I assumed that they were UNIT.

"We're miles from central London. The whole area must be grid locked." I told him.

"I know. I can't believe I'm here to see this. This is fantastic!" the Doctor said, grinning like a mad man.

"Did you know this was going to happen?" I asked suspiciously.

"Nope."

"Do you recognise the ship?"

"Nope."

"Do you know what could have caused it to crash?" I finally asked, having not seen any external damage to the hull of the ship accept the black smoke, until after it hit Big Ben.

"Nope."

"Oh, I'm so glad I've got you." I muttered sarcastically.

"I bet you are. This is what I travel for, Annamae. To see history happening right in front of us." The Doctor said excitedly like a kid in a candy store.

"We can't take the TARDIS there, so what are we going to do?" The Doctor felt a spark of pride as Annamae correctly recognised out the dangers of using the Tardis. "History is happening and we're stuck here." I muttered frowning.

"Yes, we are." The Doctor frowned, obviously displeased with that idea as he tried to think of a way around the blockade.

"Well, we should do what everyone else does." I grabbed the Doctor's arm and started dragging him back to my mother's flat since my own flat was within the blockade and I knew mum and Rose would be wanting to speak with me. "Watch it on TV."

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(News 24 is on the scene.)

Big Ben destroyed as a UFO crash lands in Central London. Police reinforcements are drafted in from across the country to control widespread panic, looting and civil disturbance. A state of national emergency has been declared. Tom Hitchinson is at the scene.

The police are urging the public not to panic. There's a help line number on screen right now if you're worried about friends or family.

(US news channel.)

The military are on the lookout for more spaceships. Until then, all flights in North American air space have been grounded.

(Back to News 24.)

The army are sending divers into the wreck of the spaceship. No one knows what they're going to find.

(Back to US news channel)

The President will address the nationlivefrom the White House, but the Secretary General has asked that people watch the skies.

"I've got no choice." Mum was saying to her friend while she brought in tea for everyone but the Doctor.

"You've broken your mother's heart." Ru – mum's sister - said to me. I ignored her, watching the news just like the Doctor was. Now was not the time to deal with my overly dramatized family who didn't even like me due to the fact that I was not a Tyler by birth. I was regretting not taking the Doctor back to my flat. Unfortunately disappearing on my family again at such a time would be a bad idea and the Doctor probably needed to be close to the TARDIS for when he decided to investigate/interfere.

"I'm not going to make him welcome." Mum continued.

"Oi, I'm trying to listen." The Doctor called over his shoulder annoyed.

(News 24)

…his current whereabouts. News is just coming in. We can go to Tom at the Embankment.

They've found a body. It's unconfirmed, but I'm being told a body has been found in the wreckage. A body of non-terrestrial origins. It's being brought ashore. A body of some sort has been found inside the wreckage of the spacecraft.

"Oh, guess who asked me out. Billy Crewe." Mum said sitting down and addressing the other people in the room that she had invited to celebrate my return. I rolled my eyes – only my mother would discuss her dating life when Aliens have crashed into Big Ben.

(News 25)

Brought to the nearest shore. Unconfirmed reports say that the body is of extra-terrestrial origin. An extraordinary event unfolding here live here in Central London. The body is being transferred to a secure unit mortuary, the whereabouts is yet unknown. The roads in Central London are being ….

The channel changed to Blue Peter making me laugh. The Doctor was trying to get the remote back from a toddler who had climbed onto his lap. I reached forward, tickling the toddler making him let go off the remote. I lifted the toddler off the Doctor's lap and shimmied him back to his parents.

(News 24)

…Albion Hospital. We still don't know whether it's alive or dead. White hall is denying everything. But the body has been brought here, Albion Hospital. The road's closed off. It's the closest to the river. I'm being told that General Asquith is now entering the hospital. The building's been evacuated. The patients have been moved out onto the streets. The police still won't confirm the presence of an alien body contained inside those walls.

(Reporting from outside Number 10.)

Mystery still surrounds the whereabouts of the Prime Minister. He's not been seen since the emergency began. The opposition are criticising his lack of leadership, and… Hold on.

An official looking black car pulls in behind the reporter and a rather portly man gets out.

Oh, that's Joseph Green, MP for Hartley Dale. He's Chairman of the Parliamentary Commission. On the monitoring of sugar standards in exported confectionary. With respect, hardly the most important person right now.

The Doctor gets up and begins moving out of the room. I frowned and follow him out of the apartment and to the stair well having been waiting for him to try and make his escape.

"And where do you think you're going?" I asked him with a raised eyebrow.

"Nowhere. It's just a bit human in there for me. History just happened and they're talking about where you can buy dodgy top-up cards for half price. I'm off on a wander, that's all."

I raised a disbelieving eyebrow. "Right. There's a spaceship on the Thames and you're just wandering."

"Nothing to do with me. It's not an invasion. That was a genuine crash landing. Angle of descent, colour of smoke, everything. It's perfect."

I didn't lower my questioning eyebrow at him. This was starting to sound too perfect.

"So?" I asked. His mind was working; coming to conclusions faster than I could list all the facts. This man, who knew far more about aliens then me, was planning something in order to gain more data about what was going on.

"So maybe this is it. First contact. The day mankind officially comes into contact with an alien race. I'm not interfering because you've got to handle this on your own. This is when the human race finally grows up. Just this morning you were all tiny and small and made of clay. Now you can expand. You don't need me. Go and celebrate history. Spend some time with your mum and sister."

"Promise me you'll return?" I asked of him. Feeling rather useless at the moment and fighting back my insecurities that I had been hiding and battling for a long time.

"Tell you what. TARDIS key. It's about time you had one. See you later." He handed over the small golden key which I took in my hands looking at the Doctor with wide eyes.

"Be careful." I kissed him on the cheek, accepting that he didn't want me by his side right now. But if he found trouble, I wasn't going to let him leave me out of it. He didn't need to be alone anymore. A truth that was going to take a little while to get through to him because he was so used to being and working alone even when he wasn't.

I had just retaken my seat in mum's living room with my cup of tea in hand when mum raised her class of wine in a toast.

"Here's to the Martians!"

"The Martians!" the rest of the room cheers.

I was about to say something snarky about the likely hood of them being Martians, when Mickey ran into the room. He leant against the doorway looking shell shocked.

"Mickey. You okay?" I questioned, shooting a look at Rose wondering why he was only turning up now when I had been home for going on three hours.

"Someone owes Mickey an apology." Ru said in a teasing voice from behind her cup of wine.

"Well, it's not my fault. Be fair. What was I supposed to think?" Mum said defensively.

"Well, you could have listened to me." Rose said frowning disapprovingly as she got up and led Mickey into the kitchen, I followed dragging mum with me.

"You disappear, who do they turn to? Me! The last person to see you alive." Mickey said, his voice suspiciously close to crying.

"But you weren't the last person to see me alive, Mum and Rose were." I pointed out confused. "And mum was the last person I talked too when I phoned."

"They wouldn't believe me because mum refused to admit it." Rose explained.

"But there would have been records of the phone call." I was baffled about how Mickey could have been blamed for my disappearance. It's not like I didn't make it clear I was leaving before I lost contact with them for the year.

"Five times I was taken in for questioning. Five times. No evidence. Course, there couldn't be, could there? And then I get her, your mother, whispering around the estate, pointing the finger. Stuff through my letterbox. The only person who believed me was Rose."

"We weren't expecting to be away for so long. And I certainly wasn't expecting to be out of contact." I told him, my eyes flickering to Rose to include her in that statement as well. "And I left instructions in your room and a letter, surely that would have been proof enough to have cleared you?"

"They didn't care. Thought it was faked or that I had forced you to write it." Mickey blinked back tears. "I waited for you, Anna. Twelve months, waiting for you and the Doctor to come back."

"Hold on. You knew about the Doctor? Why didn't you tell me?" Mum interrupted the moment as I pulled Mickey into a reassuring hug.

"Or me?" Rose frowned at her boyfriend.

"Yeah, yeah. Why not, Anna? Huh? How could I tell them where you went?" Mickey pulled back, all the secrets and repressed emotions stirring now that I had returned. Mickey was loyal to a fault and unlikely to spill someone's secrets – especially if it's mine or Rose's – but he didn't like keeping secrets from those he considered family and that included Rose. It must have killed him to keep so much from Rose for the last year especially when I had no doubt Rose had broken down crying on Mickey several times about my disappearance.

"Tell me now." Mum pleaded.

"I might as well, 'cos you're stuck here. The Doctor's gone. Just now. That box thing just faded away."

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

"He's left you. Some boyfriend he turned out to be. Go and see."

"Mickey, even if he is gone. He will be coming back." I informed him strongly.

"You don't know that." Mickey started leaving purposefully, the rest of us following him down into the court yard. Just as I had expected, the TARDIS was gone.

"Mickey, this doesn't mean he's gone. For good. The Doctor has travelled alone for so long that sometimes he needs to go and investigate on his own. He doesn't abandon people." I explained to Mickey, but he was far too gleeful at the thought I would be back on earth without the Doctor.

"Oh, he's dumped you, Anna. Sailed off into space. How does it feel, huh? Now you are left behind with the rest of us Earthlings. Get used to it."

"He'll come back. He's just gone to investigate." I repeated my statement. The Doctor didn't just abandon people without cause or reason, and he let them know if he was leaving without them. Giving me the key was the Doctor's way of promising me that he was coming back, and that he wasn't abandoning me.

"Ho, ho, ho. He's vamoosed." Mickey cheered.

"No…" I started saying again but I paused when a faint humming sounded in my head which almost sounded like a warning.

"Mum! Mum go inside. You too Rose. Don't just stand there, go." I said, trying to get mum and Rose to go back to the flat but the TARDIS had started to materialise and they were both staring at it.

"Just, Mum, go. Oh, blimey."

The TARDIS had finished materialising and hummed apologetically.

"Huh?" Mickey said, obviously shocked that the Doctor had returned.

"How'd you do that, then?" Mum asked.

"Anna?" Rose asked worried.

I just sighed, annoyed, before entering the TARDIS and running to the Doctor's side.

"All right, so I lied. I went and had a look. But the whole crash landing's a fake. I thought so. Just too perfect. I mean, hitting Big Ben. Come on, so I thought let's go and have a look."

"My mum and sister are here." I informed him when he finally stopped talking and turned to face me.

"Oh, that's just what I need. Don't you dare make this place domestic!"

I rolled my eyes. I wasn't planning on telling them about who the Doctor actually was, but I no longer had any choice. They were far to pig headed and stubborn. They only listed to me when I got truly angry at them, and right now I was only annoyed and that was more about the situation than them.

"You ruined my life, Doctor. They thought she was dead. I was a murder suspect because of you." Mickey marched into the TARDIS self-righteously.

"You see what I mean? Domestic." The Doctor waved his hand at Mickey while trying to ignore him by working on something else.

"I bet you don't even remember my name." Mickey accused as I turned around and lent against the console, really not wanting to be part of this.

"Ricky."

"It's Mickey."

"No, it's Ricky."

"I think I know my own name." Mickey said which caused me to sigh and look at Rose in exasperation which made her smile despite the weirdness of the situation and the overwhelming difference between the TARDIS interior and the exterior.

"You think you know your own name? How stupid are you?"

I was about to speak when Mum turned and ran out of the TARDIS. "Mum, don't!" I pointed at the Doctor. "Don't leave without me." Then I turned to Mickey. "Don't start a fight." Then I turned to Rose. "Don't say anything offensive."

Then I ran out of the TARDIS but mum was half way back to the flat. That women really could leg it when she was scared, even if she had no cause to run in her daily life. "Mum! Let me explain! Please! I'll be up in a minute with Rose! Hold on!"

I returned to the TARDIS, when what the Doctor had said when I first entered sank in.

"That was a real spaceship."

"Yep." The Doctor said happy.

"So it's all a pack of lies? What is it, then? Are they invading?" I asked confused. Why would they alert the world to their presence and put it on red alert if they were attempting to take over. If you're going to try and take over a civilisation, letting them know your coming was never a good idea "Funny way to invade, putting the world on red alert." I voiced my thoughts.

"Good point! So, what're they up to?" the Doctor asked as he started to lift one of the floor grates so that he could fiddle with the wires.

I moved over to Rose who was stood looking around herself in shock. The Doctor could take three minutes to an hour to sort out whatever he needed to under the consol.

"You okay?" I asked softly.

"Yeah, it's just… it's bigger on the inside." Rose muttered motioning the console room.

"Yeah, takes some getting used to." I smiled.

"It's alien."

"Yes."

"He's an alien."

"Yes." I assessed Rose face. "Is that a problem?"

"What?" Rose jerked slightly and stared at me. "No, cause not." She denied.

"Some friend you've got." Mickey said, walking over to them after the Doctor dismissed his questions.

"He's winding you up. Sorry." I replied. The Doctor did that, especially when people asked him stupid questions. He hadn't wanted my family on board his TARDIS and now that they were there, I didn't blame him for being at bit short on Mickey – especially since Mickey hadn't even tried to get along with the Doctor.

"Okay." Mickey nodded.

"I am though, both of you." I looked at Rose to include her in the apology, no longer talking about the Doctor but rather the year I had missed of their live. The longest either of them had been without me was two months, and even then, I had been in contact for all but three weeks of that.

"Every day, I looked. On every street corner, wherever I went, looking for a Blue Box for a whole year." Mickey said, his voice wobbling slightly.

"It's only been three days for me. It's a time machine. The Doctor made a mistake and we appeared in the wrong time frame." I explained.

"Not enough time to miss us, then?"

"I always miss you, that's why I was coming back after only three days." I sighed puling Mickey and Rose into a hug and looking up to the ceiling of the TARDIS as she hummed comfortingly in my head.

"Got it! Ha, ha! Patched in the radar, looped it back twelve hours so we can follow the flight of that spaceship. Here we go. Hold on. Come on."

He runs around the other side of the console, prancing, obviously pleased with whatever he had just done. He pulls the monitor forward and flicks a few buttons making an image of the Earth appear.

"That's the spaceship on its way to Earth, see? Except. Hold on. See? The spaceship did a sling shot round the Earth before it landed."

"What does that mean?" Rose asked.

"It means that they came from here." I explained moving to the console to take a look.

The Doctor beamed at me before he continued the explanation. "They have had three days to learn about us and how we would react. And they have had three days to plan."

"Whoever those aliens are, they haven't just arrived. They've been here for a while. The question is, what have they been doing?" I said, frowning. The Doctor beamed at me once again, pride shinning in his eyes like it always did when I said something 'intelligent' or I asked the 'right' questions.

The Doctor went back to fiddling with something by the console while I watched over his shoulder. Rose and Mickey started channel-hopping on the scanner.

"How many channels do you get?" Mickey asked as he flicked through.

"All the basic packages." The Doctor shrugged not really paying attention.

"You get sports channels?" Mickey turned to face them as Rose turned the dial to a news channel.

"Yes, I get the football. Hold on, I know that lot." He jumped up and ran around the screen to see what was playing, since he had recognised a couple of the names that had been listed.

"It is looking likely that the Government's bringing in alien specialists - those people who have devoted their lives to studying outer space."

"UNIT. United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. Good people."

"They're all very military these days." I told him with a light frown, trying to see if I recognised any of the experts.

"How do you know them?" Rose asked both me and the Doctor, but mostly the Doctor.

"'Cos he's worked for them." Everyone turned to Mickey with a look of surprise as he was the one to answer Rose. "Oh yeah, don't think I sat on my backside for twelve months, Doctor. I read up on you. You look deep enough on the Internet or in the history books, and there's his name, followed by a list of the dead."

"Mickey," I said sharply. The Doctor didn't kill people, he was always trying to save people's lives. And if there was a list of dead it was because he found himself caught in trouble once more and saving the human race.

"If you know them, why don't you go and help?" Rose asked, confused.

"They wouldn't recognise me. I've changed a lot since the old days. Besides, the worlds on a knife-edge. There're aliens out there and fake aliens. We want to keep this alien out of the mix."

"Undercover?" I asked with a smirk. The Doctor didn't do subtle and he defiantly didn't do undercover.

"And er, I'd better keep the TARDIS out of sight. Ricky, you've got a car. You can do some driving." The Doctor added.

"Where to?" Mickey asked confused.

"The roads are clearing. Let's go and have a look at that spaceship." The Doctor smiled at them as he grabbed his jacket.

Stepping outside of the TARDIS they found themselves directly in the spotlight of a helicopter. They were surrounded by police and army cars, the personnel all pointing their weapons at them.

"Do not move! Step away from the box and raise your hands above your heads." One of the police men order.

Mickey squeaked and bolted, heading to hide behind one of the trashcans. Raising my hands I stepped lightly in front of Rose so that she wasn't in the line of fire of the guns.

"ROSE! ANNA!" Mum shouted coming out of the block of flats but she was held back by the army personnel.

"Raise your hands above your head. You are under arrest." The police officer repeated his order.

"Take me to your leader." The Doctor smirked while raising his hands above his head.

"Doctor," I groaned, now really wasn't the time especially since my family had been caught in the middle of this.

A couple of police officers came forward and escorted me, the Doctor and Rose into the back of a black police car. Rose sat closest to the far window, while I sat in the middle with the Doctor on my other side.

"This is a bit posh. If I knew it was going to be like this, being arrested, I would have done it years ago." Rose said straightening out her cloths as she looked around the vehicle.

"We're not being arrested, we're being escorted." The Doctor answered with a smirk, leaning back comfortable against the seat.

"Where to?"

"Downing Street." I answered, relaxing back into the car as well. It was going to be a long night. I recognised the 'unmarked' black car that was regularly used to transport people of interest into Downing Street. I had been able to avoid the inside of them for a while now, but it seemed that the Doctor was determined to get me into, and doing, things that I either tried to avoid or hadn't done in a long time.

"You're kidding." Rose said shocked, looking between me and the Doctor.

"We're not." The Doctor answered slightly arrogantly

"10 Downing Street?" Rose clarified.

"That's the one."

"Oh, my God. I'm going to 10 Downing Street? How come?"

The Doctor exchanged a slightly uneasy glance with me before he explained. "Over the years I've visited Earth a lot of times, and eventually, I got noticed."

"Now they need you?" Rose asked confused.

"Like it said on the news. They're gathering experts in alien knowledge. And who's the biggest expert of the lot?"

"Patrick Moore?" The Doctor's smile fell at Roses' teases. I leaned slightly into the Doctor at feeling his mood drop slightly.

"Didn't you say you had met Lloyd George?" I questioned him curiously making the Doctor smile brightly again. He loved talking about all the people he had met during his years of time travel – especially if they had made a name for themselves like the Presidents, authors and even a couple of movie stars.

"Yeah, he used to drink me under the table." the Doctor smiled reminiscently. "Who's the Prime Minister now?"

"I have no idea, I don't really pay attention to that sort of thing." Rose shrugged.

"I missed the election." I reminded him when the Doctor turned to me expectantly.

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When we got out of the car at Downing Street, the Doctor grinned and waved at the reporters, while Rose did a sort of unsure half-wave. I, however, kept my head turned away from the cameras and used the Doctor as a shield since I disliked publicity and I tried very hard to keep my name and face out of the public record. Which was one of the many reasons why I had previously avoided the black escort car.

When they walked into Number 10 they were shown to a waiting room where there were several people milling about and armed guards stood along the sides of the room. A man in a suit stepped forward and called the attention of the room to himself.

"Ladies and gentleman, can we convene? Quick as we can, please. It's this way on the right, and can I remind you ID cards are to be worn at all times."

As the alien experts started leaving the room, he stepped in front of the Doctor and handed him an ID card to wear as well. "Here's your ID card. I'm sorry, your companions don't have clearance."

I raised an eyebrow, if he had done his research on the Doctor's companions, he would have known that I did in fact have clearance to be in this meeting. But I wasn't going to draw attention to this fact because I hadn't explained this part of my past to the Doctor yet, and Rose didn't know what I get up to when I wasn't with her. Perhaps, I would explain my job to the Doctor when we returned to the TARDIS. He deserved to know that I was not a complete novice when it came to aliens. Then there's also the fact that it wasn't my birth name they had on file, only my code name and a series of identification phrases. Very few people knew what I looked like – it was a precautionary measure I had taken to ensure that my family didn't get dragged into the dangerous side of my life.

"I don't go anywhere without Anna." The Doctor said as he pinned the ID card onto his jacket pocket.

"You're the code nine, not her. I'm sorry, Doctor. It is the Doctor, isn't it? They'll have to stay outside."

"She's staying with me." the Doctor said adamantly.

"Look, even I don't have clearance to go in there. I can't let her in and that's fact." The man repeated.

Realising that the Doctor was going to continue being stubborn I intervened. "It's alright Doctor. I'll stay out here with Rose. You go, they'll need you."

A woman with short cropped grey hair stepped forward then. "Excuse me, are you the Doctor?" she asked hesitantly.

"Sure." The Doctor shrugged, not really paying attention as he looked at me, trying to decide what to do.

"Not now. We're busy. Can't you go home?" the suited man said, obviously having had enough with this woman.

"I just need a word in private." The women insisted.

"Don't get in any trouble." The Doctor ordered me and Rose before he turned and headed after the other experts having made his decision.

"You haven't got clearance." The man insisted while looking at the women before turning to me and Rose. "I'm going to have to leave you both with security."

"It's all right. I'll look after them. Let me be of some use." the women said before turning to face me and Rose and I noticed the fear in her eyes. "Walk with me. Just keep walking." She led us after the others but instead of going right they went left.

"That's right. Don't look round." She said stopping Rose from turning round while I kept an eye on where we were heading. I had only been here once but I'm pretty sure they were heading in the direction of the cabinet room. "This friend of yours, he's an expert, is that right? He knows about aliens."

Noticing the hitch in Harriet's voice when she said alien, I placed a comforting hand on her arm and pulled them to a stop, hidden by the curve of the stairwell. "You've seen them." I stated, instead of questioning.

Harriet nodded and started crying, trying to describe what had happened between her sobs.

Once she had calmed down, she led us to the cabinet room and went to one of the cupboards where she grabbed what appeared to be a skin suit.

"They turned the body into a suit. A disguise for the thing inside!"

I frowned; I hadn't heard of these aliens before. I was starting to think that I should spend some time in the Doctor's library (which he had briefly mentioned in passing following the Dicken's incident) learning about different aliens and their cultures. It would probably stop me from being such a liability and accidently insulting someone. I was good with technology and tracking, and I wanted to do better when it came to the other areas of interacting with alien life.

"It's… it's alien." Rose muttered trying to take charge. "They must have some serious technology behind this. If we could find it, we could use it." Rose said and started searching the room.

"I doubt the technology would be here. They probably have it on their person so they aren't fixed to one place when they wish to change forms. But it does explain how they were able to hide from detection for the last three days if they were disguised as humans." I said with a frown.

Rose ignored me and opened another closet and a body fell out. Dashing to the man's side I rolled him over and placed my fingers on his pulse point. But I knew it was pointless, the man had been dead for at least nine hours. And judging by the bruising around his neck, he had been strangled by the alien (the bruise pattern indicating three very long fingers were used which wasn't something a human could replicate with any known equipment without leaving indications).

"Oh, my God. Is that the…" Rose started to ask in horror when the man from before came into the room.

"Harriet, for God's sake. This has gone beyond a joke. You cannot just wander… Oh, my God. That's the Prime Minister!" he stared in horror down at the body.

Before anything more could be said however, a high-pitched women's voice interrupted them. "Oh! Has someone been naught?"

Standing swiftly, I pushed Rose and Harriet behind me and started herding them close to the flag pole. This woman didn't seem to be worried about the body on the floor and that smile just felt wrong. She was too happy, pleased, about what they had discovered.

"That's impossible. He left this afternoon. The Prime Minster left Downing Street. He was driven away." The man said in denial as he took a couple of steps towards the women.

"And who told you that, hmm? Me." she continued to smile as she reached for her hair line and my suspicion was confirmed since that was how Harriet said they removed the skin suits.

The newly revealed alien went to grab hold of the man but I was quicker. I swung the flag pole round and hit her across the arm and grabbed the man to pull him behind me with the women. The alien made to lunged at them when she was suddenly surrounded in electricity.

"RUN" I shouted doubting that whatever the Doctor did (because who else would it be?) would last very long.

Herding the others out of the room I kept a tight hold on my flag pole certain that that was not the only alien in Downing Street. Harriet made as though to stop but I grabbed her arm and pulled her along.

"No, wait. They're still in there. The emergency protocols. We need them." Harriet protested, trying to resist my pull.

"Not important right now." I told her as the sound of smashing wood came from behind them alerting her to the fact that the alien was no longer held by the electricity field.

The alien was starting to catch up with us when it was distracted by the lift opening. Using this distraction, I pushed the other three into what appeared to be a sitting room. There was a settee in front of a coffee table, a large drinks cabinet to one side and a folded screen by one of the windows to keep out the draft.

"Hide!" I ordered them. The man went behind a curtain, Rose ducked behind a cabinet while Harriet went behind the screen. Instead of hiding like the others I took up a defensive stance and held the pole tightly. If I could distract the alien long enough it would probably give the Doctor time to come up with a plan to save them since I had absolutely no doubt that he had been the person in the lift.

It was only a few seconds after everyone had found their hiding place that the alien that had been perusing them entered the room obviously having followed their scent since there were several places they could have gone when it was distracted.

"Oh, such fun. Little human children, where are the others? Sweet little humeykins, come to me. Let me kiss you better. Kiss you with my big, green lips."

"You'll have to get passed me first." I told her sharply. While the alien was focused on me Rose quickly dived behind the other curtain realising her hiding place was very poor.

Before the female alien could reply another two entered the room and I shifted my stance slightly trying to think of the best way to handle this situation that didn't endanger the others.

"My brothers." She greeted them.

"Happy hunting?" the one on the left asked while the other looked me up and down like a piece of meat.

"It's wonderful. The more you prolong it, the more they stink." The she-alien said gleefully. I narrowed my eyes, I had assumed that she had followed their sent into this room but, how impressive was their scenting ability?

"Sweat and fear." The one who had been looking me up like meat said.

"I can smell an old girl. Stale bird and brittle bones." The second male alien said, beginning to move slightly to the right, but I stopped him by changing my stance and giving a warning swipe with the pole.

"A ripe youngster, all hormones and adrenalin. Fresh enough to bend before she snaps." The she-alien continued.

"A male, quivering in his bones." The two new comers turned to me as I shifted my stance again, ready to intervene should the aliens make their way to the curtains or the screen again.

"And then there's this one. No fear, only determination." The she-alien agreed in curiosity. "But it will do you no good, you will die." She raised her claw to strike me but the door burst open once again and the male aliens were both hit with the CO2 from a fire extinguisher.

Taking this opportunity, I hit the she-alien hard enough to make her stagger to one side and allow the others a passage through.

"Out, with me!" the Doctor shouted.

Once all three of them had skirted round the alien I joined them behind the Doctor who was quickly running out of CO2.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked looking to Harriet.

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North." She greeted him while showing her card like she had done earlier. The Doctor turned to the man who stammered out his name, his eyes wide with fear as he stared at the aliens.

"Ganesh."

"Nice to meet you." He turned back to the aliens and threw the fire extinguisher before herding the lot of us into the corridor.

"We need to head to the cabinet rooms." The Doctor said leading us back the way we had just came at a run. I abandoned the pole and kept a tight hold off both Ganesh and Rose since they had started to lag, but Harriet was keeping pace without assistance.

"The Emergency Protocols are in there. They give instructions for aliens." Harriet spoke up.

"Harriet Jones, I like you." The Doctor smiled down at her.

"And I like you too."

Ganesh gave the two of them looks of disbelief. He was red in the face, terrified and barely able to keep up while these two were having a pleasant conversation. They were running for their lives; people were not supposed to act this calmly.

When they all ran into the cabinet room the Doctor span round and grabbed the decanter from by the door and stood in the doorway. The aliens had caught up with them during the chase and the door would have been useless in stopping them.

"One more move and my sonic device will triplicate the flammability of this alcohol. Whoof, we all go up. So back off." The Doctor threatened sharply. When they followed his orders and stepped into the outer office the Doctor smiled cheerily.

"Right then. Question time. Who exactly are the Slitheen?" The Doctor asked and I smiled slightly as I could finally put a name to these aliens. It was something I had been trying to do since that first adventure with the Doctor – put a name to everything and everyone so that I could recognise them if we ever ran into the species later. It also helped with my resolve to research them later in the library if I knew their names.

"They're aliens." Harriet said, clutching the emergency protocols to her chest.

"Yes. I got that, thanks." The Doctor muttered with a roll of his eyes.

"Who are you, if not human?" the Slitheen on the right asked.

"Who's not human?" Harriet asked again.

"He's not human." Rose responded.

"He's not human?" she parroted in shock.

"Can I have a bit of hush?" the Doctor asked looking over his shoulder at them.

"Sorry." Harriet and Rose muttered.

"But he's got a Northern accent."

"Hush." I told them. Seriously they were facing murderous aliens who had taken control of the British government and placed the world on red alert and here these two were gossiping about the one alien in the vicinity not trying to kill them.

The Doctor shot me a grateful look before turning his full attention back to the Slitheen. "Come on. You've got a spaceship hidden in the North Sea. It's transmitting a signal. You've murdered your way to the top of government. What for, invasion?"

"Why would we invade this god-forsaken rock?"

"Then something's brought the Slitheen race here. What is it?"

"The Slitheen race?" one of them asked in what appeared to be amusement.

"Slitheen is not our species. Slitheen is our surname. Jocrassa Fel Fotch Pasameer-Day-Slitheen at your service."

The Doctor raised a sceptical eyebrow at them. "So, you're family."

"A family business."

"Then you're out to make a profit." I frowned at the three aliens in front of me annoyed. Why did it always come back to money?

"How can you do that on a Godforsaken rock?" The Doctor asked agreeing with my deduction.

"Ah, excuse me?" The male-Slitheen that had not introduced itself spoke up suddenly. "Your device will do what? Triplicate the flammability?"

"Is that what I said?" The Doctor asked looking slightly unsurely at the alcohol like he couldn't believe he had actual used that lie.

"You're making it up." The Slitheen accused.

"Ah, well! Nice try. Harriet, have a drink. I think you're gonna need it." The Doctor passed the decanter over his right shoulder.

"Can you pass it to the left first?" Harriet requested since she was still clutching the protocols.

"Sorry." The Doctor shifted to hand it to Rose who muttered a thanks.

"Now we can end this hunt with a slaughter." The female Slitheen said gleefully.

"Don't you think we should run?" Ganesh asked unsurely.

"No," I responded. The Doctor would not have specifically made us run back to the cabinet rooms without a reason.

"Fascinating history, Downing Street. Two thousand years ago, this was marsh land. 1730, it was occupied by a Mister Chicken. He was a nice man. 1796, this was the Cabinet Room. If the Cabinet's in session and in danger, these are about the four safest walls in the whole of Great Britain. End of lesson." The Doctor lifted a small panel by the side of the door and pressed the red button within. Immediately metal shutters crashed shut across all the windows and doors.

"Installed in 1991. Three inches of steel lining every single wall. They'll never get in." The Doctor said quite pleased with himself.

"Yeah, and how do we get out?" Rose asked.

The Doctor's pleased smile faded a bit. "Ah."

"Really, that was the manufacturers fault, not yours." I informed the Doctor with a twitching smile.

=^^= = ' . ' = =^^= = ' . ' =

=^^= = ' . ' = =^^= = ' . ' =

"Right, what have we got? Any terminals, anything?" The Doctor asked once they had put the late prime minister and the body suit into one of the cupboards.

"No. This place is antique." Rose said, shaking her head in negative.

"What was that thing the Slitheen wore around their neck?" I asked in confusion from my place lent against the wall.

"It's compression technology. It creates a field around them that allows them to shrink down a bit and fit into human bodies. That's why there's all the gas. It's a big exchange." The Doctor answered with a proud smile. He had explained what happened in the meeting – including the excessive farting.

"Wish I had a compression field. I could fit a size smaller."

"Rose." I snapped, annoyed at how insensitive she was being.

"People are dead. This is not the time for making jokes." Harriet agreed.

"Sorry." Rose blushed and bowed her head.

"Harriet Jones. I've heard that name before. Harriet Jones. You're not famous for anything, are you?" The Doctor murmured with a frown. He was like a dog with a bone, once he was on the scent, he wasn't going to let it go.

"Oh, hardly." Harriet denied.

"Rings a bell. Harriet Jones?"

"Lifelong backbencher I'm afraid, and a fat lot of use I'm being now. The Protocols are redundant. They list the people who could help and they're all dead downstairs." Harriet dropped the files on the table in her annoyances.

"Hasn't it got, like, defence codes and things? Couldn't we just launch a nuclear bomb at them?" Rose asked.

"You're a very violent young woman." Harriet frowned.

"Gets it from her mother." I sighed.

"I'm serious. We could." Rose snapped defensively.

"There wouldn't be anything in there." Ganesh told them.

"He's right. Nuclear strikes do need a release code, yes, but it's kept secret by the United Nations." Harriet agreed.

"Say that again." The Doctor ordered, leaning forward on the table intently.

"What about the codes?"

"Anything. All of it."

"Well, the British Isles can't gain access to atomic weapons without a Special Resolution from the UN."

"Like that ever stopped them." Ganesh muttered with a frown.

"Exactly, given our past record. And I voted against that, thank you very much. The codes have been taken out of the government's hands and given to the UN. Is it important?"

"Everything's important." The Doctor answered distractedly with a thrown.

"If we only knew what the Slitheen wanted. Listen to me. I'm saying Slitheen as if it's normal."

"What do they want, though?"

"They're only one family, so they aren't planning an invasion." I pointed out the line of thought from earlier.

"You're right. They don't want Slitheen World. They're out to make money. That means they want to use something. Something here on Earth. Some kind of asset." The Doctor agreed, with a thoughtful frown.

"Like what, gold? Oil? Water?"

"You're good at this." The Doctor noted.

"Thank you," Harriet blushed slightly at the compliment.

"Harriet Jones. Why do I know that name?"

My phone beeped, interrupting whatever else the Doctor was about to say.

"Sorry," I apologised as I pulled the phone out of my pocket.

"But we're sealed off. How did you get a signal?" Ganesh asked.

"It's more powerful than a normal phone. The Doctor did something so I would always get signal." I explained bringing up the message. It was from Mickey.

"Then we can phone for help. You must have contacts." Harriet said brightly.

"Dead downstairs, yeah." The Doctor said grimily and Harriet deflated slightly.

"It's Mickey." I told them, clicking on the picture he had sent me.

"What does he want?" the Doctor asked with a raised eyebrow.

"They encountered a Slitheen." I told him showing him the picture.

{Mickey?} I asked hitting speed dial on my phone.

{ANNAAAMEA. Thank god!} Mickey exclaimed, his voice slightly higher than normal and his speech quicker indicating that he was still terrified.

{Take a deep breathe, let it out slowly, and then tell me what happened.} I instructed gently.

{There was an alien. No, no, no, no, no.} He backtracked quickly, like he wanted to say something more. {Not just alien, but like, proper alien. All stinking, and wet, and disgusting. And more to the point, it wanted to kill us!}

{I could've died!} I faintly heard my mother's voice.

{Are you both alright?} I asked.

{Yeah, we're okay.} Mickey was quick to reassure me.

{I'm passing you to the Doctor.} I informed them when I saw that he was moving towards me. He smiled briefly when he realised that I knew him well enough to know what he wanted.

{Is that Micky? Don't talk, just shut up and go to your computer.} The Doctor ordered.

I didn't hear what Mickey said on the other side of the phone, but the Doctor grimaced slightly. "Mickey the idiot, I might just choke before I finish this sentence, but, er, I need you."

It took a couple of minutes for the Doctor to talk Mickey through the process of getting onto the UNIT website. Luckily Mickey was always very good at computers and didn't need as much help as Rose or mum would in his position. During a brief pause, the Doctor plugged my phone into the conference phone speaker.

"Say again." The Doctor ordered, having missed whatever Mickey said.

{It says password.} Mickey repeated.

"Buffalo." the Doctor and I said as one. The Doctor looked at me a little confused for a moment. "Two Fs, and one L." The Doctor continued.

Mum said something to Mickey on the other end of the line. {All the secret information known to mankind. See, they've known about aliens for years. They just kept us in the dark.} Mickey explained.

"Mickey, you were born in the dark." The Doctor commented.

"Oi, leave him alone." Rose snapped, but I knew that the Doctor was actually being nice. He hadn't called Mickey, Ricky once during the entire phone call. Being rude was just the Doctor's coping mechanism, especially when dealing with humans or his companions being in danger.

{Thank you. Password again.}

"Just repeat Buffalo, every time it asks." I instructed. Before I had decided to work as a consultant for UNIT, I had done some research on them. During that research I found the Buffalo backdoor which seemed to have been installed into the mainframe back when the UNIT systems were first built which was why it wasn't caught every time there was an update to the system.

"Big Ben – why did the Slitheen go and hit Big Ben?" The Doctor muttered frustrated.

"You said to gather the experts, to kill them." Ganesh pointed out.

"That lot would've gathered for a weather balloon. You don't need to crash land in the middle of London." The Doctor snorted.

"The Slitheen are hiding, but then they put the entire planet on Red alert. What would they do that for?" Rose asked this time.

{Oh, listen to her.} Mum said mockingly.

"At least I'm trying." Rose grumbled back while I bowed my head. I knew what was coming; our mother was extremely predictable.

{Well, I've got a question, if you don't mind.] Mum said, gearing up for a good old rant. {Since that man walked into our lives, I have been attacked in the streets. I have had creatures from the pits of hell in my own living room, and my daughter disappears off the face of the Earth.}

"Mum…" I said warningly, looking up at the Doctor who was staring at the floor with a pained expression. I could see it, he was blaming himself for those attacks.

{I'm talking to him. 'Cos I've seen this life of yours, Doctor. And maybe you get off on it, and maybe you think it's all clever and smart, but you tell me. Just answer me this. Is my daughter safe?}

"Mum!" I said more sharply this time because I knew that the Doctor couldn't promise that. I didn't expect him to promise me that. I didn't want him taking the responsibility on his shoulders every time I got hurt, because I didn't doubt that I would be hurt – the only thing I didn't know was when and how badly. But I did know that I would survive and never blame the Doctor.

{Is she safe?} Mum repeated, ignoring my warning. {Will she always be safe? Can you promise me that? Well, what's the answer?}

The Doctor's face was pained and I knew he couldn't answer the way she wanted without lying. Stepping forward I gentle turned his head so that he was looking at me. My ability to project my thoughts without a pre-established mental connection wasn't the best and I required eye contact in order to let him feel the emotions I was allowing to flow beyond my shields. I needed him to see that I trusted him because right now I couldn't let him fall and break. Later, when they were safe in the TARDIS, I could catch him when he fell, but right now he needed to be strong and if he used my strength for that, I didn't mind.

{We're in.} Mickey's voice suddenly cut through their staring match.

"Now then," the Doctor straightened himself out, "On the left at the top, there's a tab, an icon. Little concentric circles. Click on that."

{What is it?} Mickey asked as a sound started coming through the phone.

"The Slitheen have got a spaceship in the North Sea and it's transmitting that signal. Now hush, let me work out what it's saying." The Doctor leaned forward on the conference table, concentrating. "It's some sort of message." The Doctor muttered.

"Can you identify the language?" I asked curiously. Normally the TARDIS would have translated foreign alien languages but this was a transition of radio waves which was different to an actual spoken language. Since it was different to what humans would use, I was hoping that the Doctor could identify what species the language belonged to.

"It's universal, quadrant six." The Doctor shook his head with a frown.

"What's it saying?" Rose asked.

"I don't know. It's on a loop though, keeps repeating."

"Hush!" The Doctor said when the sound of a bell could be heard over the transmission.

{That's not me.} Mickey responded before talking to my mother. {Go and see who that is.}

"It's beaming out into space, who's it for?" The Doctor frowned.

"The denizens of vector six?" I asked cautiously.

"No, most space ships have translation software for such transmissions." The Doctor disagreed.

{They've found us.} Mickey suddenly spoke into the phone in a panic.

"Get out of there." I ordered sharply. "Doctor." I spoke his name softly, pleadingly.

{We can't. It's by the front door.} Mickey told them. I gritted my teeth at that, the only way out of Mickey's flat was the front door since the fire escape was rotted and the landlord was currently in the process of replacing it.

{Oh, my God, it's unmasking. It's going to kill us.} My mum's voiced sounded shrilly through the speakers.

"There's got to be some way of stopping them! You're supposed to be the expert, think of something!" Harriet said panicked while Rose starred at the phone in horror.

"I'm trying." The Doctor snapped back. And he was, he really was because he knew that Annamae loved her family dearly and she would break if she lost them so violently and so soon.

{I'll take it on, Jackie. You just run. Don't look back. Just run.} Mickey's voice said over the phone.

"Right, if we're going to find their weakness, we need to find out where they're from. Which planet. So, judging by their basic shape, that narrows it down to five thousand planets within travelling distance. What else do we know about them? Information!" The Doctor cried out, this was why he needed companions. Because sometimes his brain wasn't enough.

"They're green." Rose put in.

"Yep, Narrows it down."

"They have an incredible sense of smell – picking up emotions and hormones. They also hunt like it's a ritual." I added my own observations from the earlier chase through the building.

"Narrows it down."

"The pig technology." Harriet inputted her information.

"Narrows it down."

"Slipstream engines." I spoke, unsure if that would help.

"Narrows it down."

{It's getting in!} Mickey's panicked voice informed them.

"Wait a minute. Did you notice? When they fart, if you'll pardon the word, it doesn't just smell like a fart, if you'll pardon the word, it's something else. What is it? It's more like, er…" Harriet trailed off unsure how to put it.

"Bad breath!" Ganesh exclaimed.

"Calcium day! Now, that narrows it down!" The Doctor said brightly.

"We're getting there, mum!" Rose shouted down the phone.

{Too late!} Mickey told them.

"Calcium phosphate. Organic calcium. Living calcium. Creatures made out of living calcium. What else? What else? Hyphenated surname. Yes! That narrows it down to one planet. Raxacoricofallapatorius!"

{Oh, yeah, great. We could write 'em a letter.} Mickey said sarcastically.

"Get into the kitchen!" The Doctor ordered sharply, ignoring what Mickey had said.

"Calcium, weakened by the compression field. Acetic acid. Vinegar!" The Doctor told them.

"Just like Hannibal!" Harriet realised.

"Just like Hannibal." The Doctor agreed. "Mickey, have you got any vinegar?" the Doctor asked.

{How should I know?} Mickey replied.

"It's your kitchen." The Doctor said in disbelief.

"Cupboard by the sink, middle shelf." Rose said sharply. Apparently, she had been spending a lot of time around her boyfriend's recently if she knew the layout of his cupboards.

{Oh, give it here. What do you need?} Mum's voice suddenly said.

"Anything with vinegar!" the Doctor and I repeat the order.

{Gherkins. Yeah, pickled onions. Pickled eggs.} Mum listed off as she found things with vinegar.

"And you kiss this man?" The Doctor asked Rose who grimaced slightly.

There was suddenly the sound of something exploding on the other end of the line and I breathed a sigh of relief. They were fine.

"Hannibal?" Rose asked now that the danger had passed.

"Hannibal crossed the Alps by dissolving boulders with vinegar." Ganesh explained.

"Oh. Well, there you go then." Rose raised her glass of port that Harriet had handed out.

"To Hannibal." Harriet said with a smile. Everyone knocked back their glass of port apart from me, who hadn't accepted a class. The Doctor spat his drink back into the glass almost immediately as he realised that he didn't actually like the taste. New body, new rules. He hadn't had the chance to test run several things about this incarnation – particularly in regards to his taste buds.

{Listen to this.} Mickey said a moment later. Mickey must have held the phone close to the TV because we could hear what sounded like a news broadcast.

"Our inspectors have searched the sky above our heads. And they have found massive weapons of destruction capable of being deployed within forty five seconds."

"What?" the Doctor asked confused.

"Our technicians can baffle the alien probes, but not for long. We are facing extinction, unless we strike first. The United Kingdom stands directly beneath the belly of the mother ship. I beg of the United Nations, pass an emergency resolution. Give us the access codes. A nuclear strike at the heart of the beast is our only chance of survival because from this moment on it is my solemn duty to inform you planet Earth is at war."

"He's making it up. There's no weapons up there, there's no threat. He just invented it." The Doctor said frustrated.

"Do you think they'll believe him?" Harriet asked uncertainly.

"Yes." I answered bluntly.

"That's why the Slitheen went for spectacle. They want the whole world panicking, because you lot, you get scared, you lash out." The Doctor continued my explanation.

"The United Nations release the defence codes." I picked up again, my mind finally putting everything in some sort of perspective.

"And the Slitheen go nuclear." The Doctor finishes.

"But why?" Harriet asked completely confused as to why someone would want to do something like that.

The Doctor didn't respond. Instead, he moved back to the door and opened it. His face was serious and he appeared to be calm, but I could feel it: the furry that was burning underneath the Time Lord's mask.

"You get the codes, release the missiles, but not into space because there's nothing there. You attack every other country on Earth. They retaliate, fight back. World War Three. Whole planet gets nuked." The Doctor told the Sliteens who were stood outside the door, revealing that he wasn't completely disconnected from the world despite being sealed in.

"And we can sit through it safe in our spaceship waiting in the Thames. Not crashed, just parked. Only two minutes away." The she-Slitheen from before agreed, back in her human suit.

"But you'll destroy the planet, this beautiful place. What for?" Harriet asked horrified since they had all stood to join the Doctor at the door. I stepped close enough to place a comforting hand on the small of the Doctor's back – unnoticed by the Slitheen. Underneath my hand I could feel the tightly wound muscle relax ever so slightly under my support.

"Profit." I answered for the alien.

"That's what the signal is beaming into space. An advert." The Doctor agreed, disgust evident in his tone.

"The sale of the century. We reduce the Earth to molten slag, then sell it piece by piece. Radioactive chunks, capable of powering every cut-price star liner and budget cargo ship. There's a recession out there, Doctor. People are buying cheap. This rock becomes raw fuel."

"At the cost of five billion lives." The Doctor reminded her with a raised eyebrow.

"Bargain." The Slitheen smirked.

"I'm giving you a choice. Leave this planet or I'll stop you." The Doctor warned them seriously.

"What, you? Trapped in your box?" the she-alien mocked.

"Yes. Me." The Doctor agreed while closing the shutters.

=^^= = ' . ' = =^^= = ' . ' =

=^^= = ' . ' = =^^= = ' . ' =

The sun was starting to rise the next morning when mum picked up the phone and spoke to the Doctor. {"All right, Doctor. I'm not saying I trust you, but there must be something you can do?"}

"If we could ferment the port, we could make acetic acid." Harriet commented.

"Except we don't have a way of fermenting the port." Ganesh returned realistically.

"Mickey, any luck?" Rose asked since Mickey had been phoning the emergency numbers in the hopes of telling someone, in a position to do something, what they had learnt.

{There's loads of emergency numbers. They're all on voicemail.} Mickey replied.

"Voicemail dooms us all." Harriet said, finally losing her composure as she threw her arms in the air.

"If we could just get out of here." Rose said frustrated.

"There's a way out." The Doctor spoke up from his position against the wall. He hadn't moved a muscle in several hours now, just listening to the conversations going on around him, and it was starting to worry me.

"What?" Rose asked shocked. Everyone had fallen silent to listen.

"There's always been a way out." The Doctor continued.

"Then why don't we use it?" Rose asked confused, but I knew the answer. The Doctor wouldn't have hesitated unless it endangered their lives. He wouldn't have hesitated if it was just his life, but it wasn't.

"Because I can't guarantee your daughters will be safe." The Doctor leaned forward and spoke into the phone.

{Don't you dare. Whatever it is, don't you dare.} Mum shouted back angrily.

"That's the thing. If he doesn't dare, everyone else dies." I spoke up softly. The Doctor's head snapped up and looked at me. "Do it." I told him.

"You don't even know what it is. You'd just let me?" the Doctor asked incredulously.

"Yes. You're the Doctor, and you do what is right never what is easy. Never cruel or cowardly." I told him, stepping forward and placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. I didn't know were the last four words came from, but they struck a chord with the Doctor because he straightened proudly, not taking his eyes of mine.

"Never give up. Never give in." he finished softly.

"A promise in your name." I reminded him, my magic swirling gentle around me, whispering the truth in my ear. Normally I would only get such reactions in regards to people – whether I could trust them or not – although I had been known to have 'feelings' or 'know' about something that I shouldn't have known. This knowledge of the Doctor, the words that span with his name so tightly that they were interwoven, they were a truth that would never change. Powerful enough that my magic was able to pick up on the words and not just the feeling behind the promise (the hope, the joy, the anger, the pain, the sadness, the determination, and the no more…).

{Please, Doctor. Please. They're my daughters. Rose's just a kid.} Mum begged, breaking the moment between the Doctor and I.

"Do you think I don't know that? Because this is my life, Jackie. It's not fun, it's not smart, it's just standing up and making a decision because nobody else will." The Doctor told her angrily.

"Then what're you waiting for?" I asked him, offering him a half smile as he turned back to me.

"I could save the world but lose you." He looked me right in the eyes when he said that, and there was such pain there. Pain of a man who had lost too much and too many. But it was different now, there was the chance that I was still immortal, and I trusted the Doctor enough to take that risk. And no matter what he wanted to do, my magic reserves where fall, I was capable of shielding everyone in that room from quite a few things. I tried to convey my trust, my understanding and my belief to the Doctor without words now, because I doubted my words could make any more of a difference.

"Except it's not your decision, Doctor. It's mine." Harriet spoke up, standing from her chair.

{And who the hell are you?} Mum demanded angrily.

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North. The only elected representative in this room, chosen by the people for the people. And on behalf of the people, I command you. Do it." The Doctor and I looked to Harriet in shock for a moment before we exchanged a glance. Harriet was taking responsibility from the Doctor's shoulders and placing it on her own.

"How do we get out?" Rose asked after a beat of silence.

"We don't. We stay here." The Doctor replied rummaging through the Emergency Protocols.

"Use the buffalo password. It overrides everything." The Doctor instructed Mickey after telling him to hack the Royal Navy.

{What're you doing?} Mum's voice floated through the phone. Apparently, they had decided to put it on speaker phone so they didn't have to keep passing it between each other.

{Hacking into the Royal Navy. We're in. Here it is. HMS Taurean, Trafalgar Class submarine, ten miles off the coast of Plymouth}" Mickey reported.

"Right, we need to select a missile." The Doctor told him.

"We can't go nuclear. We don't have the defence codes." Ganesh reminded him.

"We don't need it. All we need's an ordinary missile." The Doctor responded and my eyes widened when I realised what he wanted to do. "What's the first category?"

{Sub Harpoon, UGM-A4A.} Mickey read off hesitantly.

"That's the one. Select." The Doctor said brightly. "You ready for this?" the Doctor turned serious once more.

{Yeah.} Mickey breathed his response, like he wasn't really sure.

"Mickey the idiot, the world is in your hands. Fire."

"How solid are these?" Harriet asked.

"Not solid enough. Built for short range attack, nothing this big." The Doctor replied.

"Harriet, Rose, Ganesh, help me empty this cupboard." I ordered sharply moving towards one of the closet-like cupboards that had been instilled.

"Why?" Rose asked confused, while the other two got up and helped me without question.

"The strongest parts of a building are the doorways and small spaces. This cupboard is small so it's strong. If you're all going to survive it, then we need to be in here." I explained. It was a valid reason for why we all got out alive, because I was capable of protecting from a sub-harpoon even if these walls weren't.

{It's on radar} Mickey informed them while we started emptying the cupboard. {Counter defence five five six.}

The Doctor, understanding what that code meant quickly ordered Mickey to stop them intercepting it.

{I'm doing it now.} Mickey promised.

"Good boy." The Doctor smiled, obviously pleased with Mickey's computer skills.

{Five five six neutralised.}

The Doctor unplugged the phone and joined them in the cupboard. They were all sat along the back wall. The Doctor was on one side of me and Rose the other. Harriet was on the Doctor's other side and Ganesh on Harriet's. Closing my eyes, I extended my shield around the confines of the cupboard and fixed it to the walls, preventing it from slipping encase I lost concentration when we were hit.

"Here we go. Nice knowing you all. Hannibal!" Harriet said shakily.

Suddenly the cupboard started to roll and they were all knocked about a bit. Once they came to a stop, the Doctor shakily climbed to his feet and helped me up. While I was helping Rose, he got Harriet and Ganesh to their feet.

"Made in Britain." Harriet said proudly once she had climbed out of the cabinet.

"Oh, my God. Are you all right?" One of the soldiers asked, running up to them.

"Harriet Jones. MP, Flydale North. I want you to contact UN immediately. Tell the ambassadors the crisis is over. They can step down. Go on, tell the news." Harriet order, in her element once more.

"Yes, ma'am." The solider saluted, not even questioning her authority.

"Someone's got a hell of a job sorting this lot out. Oh, Lord. We haven't even got a Prime Minister." Harriet realised.

"Maybe you should have a go." The Doctor suggested.

"Me? Huh. I'm only a back-bencher." Harriet dismissed.

"I'd vote for you." Rose smiled.

"Me too," Ganesh agreed.

"Now, don't be silly. Look, I'd better go and see if I can help. Hang on!" Harriet called to the solider and hurried after him, tripping slightly on the rubble.

"We're safe! The Earth is safe! Sergeant!" Harriet shouted, the presses and soldiers turning to look at her.

"I should help, it's part of my job description." Ganesh said, straightening himself out, and going to help Harriet calm the masses.

"I thought I knew the name. Harriet Jones, future Prime Minister. Elected for three successive terms. The architect of Britain's Golden Age." The Doctor smiled proudly.

=^^= = ' . ' = =^^= = ' . ' =

=^^= = ' . ' = =^^= = ' . ' =

Later that day, I got Rose home to mum. She was very relieved to see us both alive, and even apologised for the way she had reacted. I just forgave her and went to make a cup of tea. Everyone had been a bit high strung lately.

"Harriet Jones. Who does she think she is? Look at her, taking all the credit. Should be you on there. My daughters saved the world!" Mum was saying as I came back into the living room.

"I think the Doctor helped a bit." Rose said, smiling at her mom.

"All right, then. Him too. You should be given knighthoods."

"That's not the way he does things. No fuss. He just moves on. He's not that bad if you gave him a chance." I told her, sitting on the arm of the chair.

"He's good in a crisis, I'll give him that."

"I'll take what I can get." I smiled at her.

"What does he eat?" Mum asked suddenly.

"How do you mean?" Rose asked confused.

"I was going to do shepherds pie. All of us. A proper sit down, 'cos I'm ready to listen. I wanna learn about you and him and that life you lead. Only, I don't know, he's an alien. For all I know, he eats grass and safety pins and things."

"Mum, the Doctor doesn't stay." I told her softly. I wasn't sure why, but I could guess. Staying would mean he was part of the family and I don't think he was ready to move on yet. He was still finding his feet, and himself.

"You can go and visit your Gran tomorrow. You'd better learn some French. I told her you were in France. I said you were au-pairing." Mum said ignoring me as she disappeared into the kitchen. Rose chose now as a good time to retreat outside and join Mickey sensing the potential argument brewing between me and mum.

"Hello?" I answered my phone confused when it rang with an unknown number.

{Right, I'll be a couple of hours, then we can go.} The Doctor's voice sounded through the phone.

"You've got a phone?" I asked him shocked.

{You think I can travel through space and time and I haven't got a phone? Like I said, couple of hours. I've just got to send out this dispersal. There you go. That's cancelling out the Slitheen's advert in case any bargain hunters turn up.} The Doctor smiled.

"I'll be there in a bit. Just got to convince my mother you don't do tea."

{You're right.} The Doctor seemed to be smiling on the other end of the phone. {When did you get to know me so well?}

"I'm just good like that." I told him cheekily.

{When are you joining me?} he asked.

"Soon, hopefully my talk with mum doesn't take too long." I promised him.

The talk with mum didn't go very well. She was still clinging to me and refused to let me go although she had said she was ready to listen to me. However, I wasn't going to hang around, as much as I loved my mother, I was growing to care for the Doctor and perhaps there might be more in that one day. And the Doctor was less likely to die on me compared to my mother who only had forty odd years left in her. I wasn't abandoning her for good – I was simply starting to move on with my own life so that when the time came, I wasn't left alone in my grief.

"I'll get a proper job. I'll work weekends. I'll pass my test, and if Jim comes round again, I'll say no. I really will." Mum was pleading with me as we walked towards the TARDIS were Mickey, Rose and the Doctor were waiting.

"I'm not leaving because of you. I'm travelling. I promise to come back for visits." I told her, finally starting to get fed up as I had repeated this several times now.

"But it's not safe." My mum begged.

"Mum, being in danger is only half of it. It's beautiful out there and there is so much life. The Doctor is willing to show me that – I can't just say no."

Turning from mum, I pulled Mickey into a hug before also hugging Rose. "Oh, I'm going to miss you." I told them, pulling back with a smile.

"Actually," The Doctor spoke up, "If you would like to come, I wouldn't mind." The Doctor offered. Annamae didn't have very much family left, and she would out live them with her accelerated healing factor in effect. The least he could do was offer them more time together.

"I've got things to do here on earth." Mickey waved off the offer, trying to hide how terrified the concept made him. He had started growing up in the year I had been gone, but he still wasn't quite ready to join them on the TARDIS. Maybe one day. "Like upload this disk," he raised the small white box he was holding as proof.

"I would love to come." Rose answered after looking to Mickey to see what he thought.

"Then you're going to need to pack a bag. The TARDIS has a large wardrobe, but sometimes your own cloths are better." I told her with a smile. Rose gave a bright smile in return before running back to the flat to pack some things.

Once Rose was gone, I moved to hug the Doctor. "Thank you," I whispered into his ear. I knew that he didn't have to offer Rose a place in the TARDIs, especially since she was very much a child without a lot of life experience, and yet he was letting her come along for my sake. I knew it was going to be stressful with Rose out in the stars, because I would want to protect her from her moments of naivety, but it would be good for her too. To learn and to grow, to become her own person outside of mum's influence.

"You still can't promise me. What if she gets lost? What if something happens to you, Doctor, and they're left all alone standing on some moon a million light years away. How long do I wait then?" My mum demanded, angry that the Doctor was now taking her other daughter with him.

"Mum," I released the Doctor and turned to her without stepping away from the Time Lord, "the TARDIS is a time machine. Now the Doctor is not known for his timing skills…"

"Oi." The Doctor pouted, mock offended. I patted his arm consolingly, but didn't turn from my mother. I didn't want to leave her with while we were arguing, not again.

"But it is a time machine. And we will come back and visit as often as we can." I promised.

There was another around of hugs before me, Rose and the Doctor disappeared into the TARDIS.