A million things flash through her mind, but the foremost of them is that she has no idea what she's supposed to say. So she blinks, drops the screwdriver, and the Doctor lets go of her wrist to grab it.
James steps back.
"I kind of saved you all," she says, for a lack of better things to say. The Doctor's eyes are tinged with doubt.
"But how?" Rose asks, and then Jackie is yelling at them all.
"Did you just see the Christmas tree that almost killed us?" She waves around her arms. "What was that? Why are they doing this?" And then she spins to the Doctor. "It's you, isn't it!" She accuses, and then Doctor struggles up, shooting James a look before snagging a dressing gown off the coat hanger.
"Remote control," he says darkly. "Let's see who's controlling it."
The Doctor looks like he wants to handcuff her to the balcony as they look over the three Murderous Santas, barely focused on the aforementioned Murderous Santas as if she's the one with the murderous intent. It's also ridiculously simple how he just waves his magic wand and the Santas all beam up.
And then James steps back, and the Doctor is in pain, and she watches him gasp for breath. She's not sadistic per se, but...it feels good to see him lose control. Wow, she does fucking sound like a sadist. It's just that the 10th Doctor she knows is really smug all the time with that holier-than-thou vibe she really really dislikes. Would it be fair to him if she said her favorite Doctor was the 12th?
She observes Rose and Mickey and Jackie as they flurry around, trying to help the Time-Lord. Useless, she wants to tell them. Just give him that cup of tea you Brits are so famous-infamous- for.
"Brain...collapsing," the Doctor grimaces. Then he's muttering something about Pilot Fish and she rolls her eyes and he's staring right at her, and his gaze is not the gaze of a man that just said his brain was collapsing.
"Keep...keep her here," he grasps Rose's arms, falls limp.
James blinks. And she shrugs at the accusing looks, tries to turn away, but then Rose is grabbing her wrist.
"You can't go," Rose says, eyes wide. "You can save him, right?"
"What?"
"You knew how to stop the tree," the pretty girl reasons. "You're not just a human. Are you a Time-Lord like him? Who are you?"
James doesn't know what to say, so she stares at Rose, wondering if she's serious. How can she be an alien? She was from fucking Sacramento, Sacramento. An alien? Just because she knew how to use his fucking magic wand?
"Uh," James lets out. "I'm not an alien."
Mickey steps forward, eyes crinkled. "Then explain how you knew about his screwdriver."
"Sonic screwdriver," Rose corrects, and the two of them briefly stare at each other like seriously? James would have laughed if she wasn't really here. But then the two Brits turn their combined gaze upon her and her eyes flit to the heavens, subtly.
"Just luck, I guess." She says, hoping they will believe her bullshit because they seemed to believe everything in the tv show, but no, Mickey scoffs.
"Luck? You just had the thought to go through his pockets and pull out that sonic screwdriver and wave it at the tree?"
Uh, yeah, that sounded dumb.
"Whatever," she slips her hand out of Rose's grip. "Think however you want. I'm just gonna-"
"You're not going anywhere!" Jackie blurts out, pulls out the nightgown's strap from under the Doctor's bod and advances on her, and James wonders if this is really happening.
Judging by Rose's look, she's also wondering that.
"MUM!" Rose cries. "What are you doing?"
"You said she's an alien as well! What if she was the one controlling the tree? That might be how she knew how to get it to stop," Jackie huffs. "I never trust Americans!"
The four of them are frozen for a moment until Mickey takes the string from Jackie's hands and surges forward, grabs James.
"You just gotta stay until the man wakes," he says. James recoils.
"Uh, no. You're not tying me up."
He ties her up.
She doesn't really struggle, because Mickey is obviously a nice dude and they do have reason to suspect her, and, well, she doesn't think struggling is going to work. She's not a really physical person, to be honest. It's still not very nice to be tied up.
"If I were an alien," she tells the three of them. "I would eat all of you."
Mickey takes a step back, the strap connecting her to him in his hand. He looks slightly apprehensive.
"Yes," she nods at him. "I'll be starting with you."
It's boring, being held captive by three Brits. There isn't any torture, any questions, just uneasy looks thrown to her corner of the room. Mickey goes to work on his laptop and they watch the tv, well, the telly, and it's amazing how boring it is in Doctor Who.
"Can you give me a cup of tea?" James asks. The three of them ignores her. Just as well, because she doesn't really feel like saving the Doctor right now, with Rose and Mickey and Jackie having tied her up, although the strap is loose against her arms and she could wriggle free at any moment.
It is weird. It is just weird to be sitting here, staring at the old-ass everything. 2005 was a bleak year, wasn't it? With phones like that? And the laptop, thick as a book?
She needs to go back. She loves her laptop too much to stay.
And then she falls asleep, dreams about fishes and pilots and stars and laptops.
When she wakes, she's not sure where she is, but then Rose is shaking her shoulder with an intensity, and then she's stumbling up.
"We have to go," the pretty girl says. And then the girl rushes away and the foreign house is a mess, and oh yes, Doctor Who.
James starts not-breathing. It's air, knocked out of her lungs, fighting her in the head. There is a sound of something rushing, not a sound, a scream, and she leans against the wall and hyperventilates.
It's a spiral of thoughts, from where am I to I want to go home to what the fuck to I can't breathe.
Reality smacks her down to the floor, smacks her head around the world and when she blinks she sees white, her knuckles clenching her shirt. No, no, she wants to go home.
The strap falls. She straightens, knees weak but standing. She has to go home. She will go home.
Mickey and Rose carry the Doctor outside, and James follows, drawing in a sharp air at the surroundings. Everyone's on some sort of roof, ready to fall, ready to die. It's like a game-a morbid one, but a game nonetheless. These people won't die, but everyone thinks they will.
Except for her.
Rose fumbles with the key and the Tardis is a sight before her, even the outside of it, and James wishes she had been here in better circumstances. But then she thinks what are better circumstances and then she can't think anymore because if the outside of the Tardis is a sight the inside of it is a fucking vision. It's unbelievably cool, how big it is, how shiny all the gadgets are, and she feels her inner 12 year old squeal with glee.
Bad luck she's not 12 anymore, because she is sure the 12 year old herself had much better social game than the present herself.
Rose shoots her an anxious look, and nudges Mickey. "Keep an eye on her."
I can hear you, James thinks, doesn't bother to say it.
Mickey nods, presses his lips into a line. "No chance you could fly this thing?"
Rose winces. "Not anymore, no."
Mickey looks at James. James shrugs, sighs, crosses her arms.
"Can I have a cup of tea?" She asks, and the three of them stare at her, but Jackie has a flask that she thrusts into James's hand.
"There you go, alien. Don't say the British are not polite."
James rolls her eyes, takes a sip-huh, pretty good-, dumps it on the ground.
Rose springs back, looks at her with wide eyes. "Are you insane?"
"No, pretty girl." She hadn't actually meant to say pretty girl, but she went with it. "I'm not insane."
"Then-"
Steam rises, and she can taste the tea in the air, which is a line not as romantic as it should be, because it tastes quite nice. It's like perfume, bittersweet, calming and healing. The Doctor takes a breath, releases, and shimmery golden stuff escapes his mouth. James tastes that too, and it's startling how sweet it is. Intoxicating, if she was being poetic.
"Did he just-" Jackie looks confused. "What was that?"
"Dunno," Rose answers, still staring at the man's still form. Then she raises her gaze to James's. "My name is Rose," she says. "Not pretty girl."
"Hello, Rose." James responds. "I could be pretty girl, if you want."
Awkward silence. "Call me James," she mutters. "James Ann."
"But-that's a normal name!" Jackie says. "I thought aliens had weird names, like Doctor, and-"
"That's true," James nods. "But then, unfortunately, I'm not an alien. I'm from Sacramento, I'm Korean-American, I love music and other human creations. Entirely human."
"But-"
The Tardis fills with a beeping, an annoying constant sort of beeping James usually has for morning alarms. They all raise their head, looks around wildly.
"What is that?" Mickey shouts over the noise. Rose steps to the console, pushes a few buttons, tilts her head.
"I think it's a distress signal!"
"Stop pushing random buttons," James murmurs, and nobody hears. She decides, no, she will not indulge in primitive yelling. She squats down next to the Doctor, rolls her eyes and just sits on him.
"You got your cup of tea, haven't you?" She whispers. "So, wake the fuck up."
A beat of silence, well not actual silence, a beat of time that is filled with yelling and beeping and noises, but what to her, feels like silence. She holds her breath, his eyes snap open, their gazes meet.
"Will-will you get off me?" He asks, voice wary, and she scrambles up, laughs to herself, and Rose opens the door.
Then they meet some aliens.
