A-Levels and Aliens

Here's part three, hope you enjoy and thanks for all the reviews so far. I'm not going to be able to update again until next Tuesday at the earliest as I'm going away on Thursday and it's pretty unlikely I'll update tomorrow. Sorry.

Disclaimer: Nothing you might recognise belongs to me


Rose pushed open the TARDIS door about an hour later and quietly walked in.

"Hey honey," Jack greeted cheerfully from beside the control panel, "Had a good day?"

"It was OK," Rose mumbled, throwing herself onto the captain's chair, "Where's the Doctor?"

"Under here," came his muffled voice, "Be out in a sec."

Rose waited patiently, hugging her knees to her chest and thinking. After a few minutes, the Doctor climbed out from his pit under the TARDIS and came and stood in front of her. She raised her head to meet his gaze.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Rose lied, dropping her eyes, "I'm fine. Can you ask the TARDIS to put a desk in my room so I can do my homework?"

"I can," the Doctor said, narrowing his eyes and then dropping to his knees in front of her and taking her hands. "Don't lie to me Rose. I know you too well,"

"I'm not," Rose said, not looking at him, "Just leave it, OK?"

"No, tell me," he demanded, gently rubbing her hands with his thumbs, "You're troubled."

Rose finally looked into his eyes and saw the raw love and understanding in them. "It's Matt," she said in a rush, "He says he saw us leaving in the TARDIS and he knows all about you being an alien and he says he doesn't want to be friends with a 'freak' like me who hangs round with aliens." She looked at the Doctor whose head had lowered and whose hands had suddenly grown very still. "Doctor?"

She heard him take in a deep breath before answering.

"He must have done some research on me and then decided to act immaturely and take out his fear on you,"

"Little bastard," Jack commented from where he'd been listening in, "He needs to sort out his priorities."

Rose nodded and squeezed the Doctor's hands to get him to look at her again. "What do I do?"

"Nothing," the Doctor said, "Just act naturally. Don't make a big fuss or blank him. Hopefully he'll come round and see what an idiot he's being,"

"What if he doesn't?"

The Doctor shrugged. "His loss,"

"I hope he does come round. I like Matt, he is… was a good mate,"

"Yeah," the Doctor replied, standing up and pulling her into a hug, "Come on, your Mum came over earlier and she's cooking. Said something about cottage pie…"


Rose did her best to follow the Doctor's advice over the next few weeks but Matt still didn't speak to her other than the basics or when they were forced to in class. All their friends had noticed immediately and had at first bombarded Rose with questions, many of which she didn't know the answers to herself. Being the good friends they were, Kirsty and Lauren talked to Matt and tried to get him to open up to them. He refused, they reported back, but he did chat with them like he had always done; it was just around Rose that he clammed up. Rose found it very upsetting and, especially in the first few days, she had to take five minutes out and physically stop herself from crying. She was sad that she was loosing a good friend because of what she viewed as the best thing, or the best person, in her life: the Doctor. It was in his arms that Rose cried when it all got a bit too much and managed to forget her troubles for a little while.

It was after one of these episodes that the Doctor finally made a decision. It was a Saturday in early October and Rose had been dragged out by Jack and some of her college friends to go to the cinema in London. Jack had cheerfully said that he hoped they were going to see the latest chick flick and that he hoped that the cinema sold toffee coated popcorn. Laughing at the random things Jack came out with sometimes, Rose had collected her coat and bag, kissed the Doctor and they had left. That had been thirty minutes ago.

Now, the Doctor pulled on his long, brown overcoat, checked he had his sonic screwdriver as he always did and left the TARDIS. He knew exactly where he was going, having looked it up in Jackie's telephone directory and A-Z the previous night. He left the Powell Estate and walked for fifteen minutes, passing the pub where Rose hung out from time to time and the road that led to her college, before arriving on a middle class housing estate. He navigated his way through the warren of streets before arriving on Beech Street and pausing. Coming towards him, having just left his house, was Matt.

Quickly ducking back, the Doctor leant nonchalantly against a nearby beech tree and folded his arms. "Hello Matt," he said dangerously, as the boy approached.

Matt stopped and looked at him before scowling. "What do you want, alien?"

"To speak with you," the Doctor replied, calmly,

"Well, I don't want to speak with you!"

"That's a shame. I want to know exactly why you're behaving so horribly towards Rose,"

"Rose already knows. Why don't you ask her?" Matt spat,

"You know what I think?" the Doctor said, "I think that when you saw the TARDIS disappear all those weeks ago, you searched the internet for information about me- I now wish more than ever that Mickey- the- Idiot had actually done what I asked him too- and you discovered what you've been suspecting ever since I reappeared last June- that I'm not entirely human. And, do you know what else I think? I also think that that information scared you and you're now taking your fear out on Rose. What do you say?"

He looked at Matt who had gone very pale.

"I'm right, aren't I, Matt? And this stupid behaviour towards Rose has got to stop now. I've given you a chance to sort it out yourself but you haven't. So, now I have to step in,"

"What's it to you anyway?" Matt burst out, suddenly finding his voice.

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "Rose is my life. If she's upset, I'm upset, even the TARDIS is upset! We've suffered weeks of dim lighting thanks to you! Do you know how many times Rose has been in tears these past few weeks because of you?"

Matt shuffled awkwardly.

"In fact, I seem to remember when you first met me that you explicitly warned me that if I ever hurt Rose again, I'd have you to answer to. So now I return the threat. If you continue hurting my Rose like that, you will be sorry."

The seventeen year old boy in front of him swallowed heavily before looking directly at the Time Lord. "I'm sorry."

"Not me you should be apologising to," said the Doctor, shortly.

Matt chewed his bottom lip. "I guess," he muttered before sighing. "I've really been an idiot. It… it was because I was scared. I mean aliens don't exist or nobody believes they do anyway. I couldn't believe what I was reading about you and Rose was caught up in it all and I didn't want her to be, I wanted her to be safe with…"

"You like her, don't you?" the Doctor asked, suddenly realising that he had discovered the catalyst of the problem.

Matt reddened but nodded. "She's just amazing and pretty and intelligent and funny and, well, just great," he confessed,

"I know what you mean," the Doctor nodded, smiling at the thought of his Rose, "She's fantastic."

Matt grinned before freezing as he realised just exactly who he was telling all this too. "I know she's yours," he said quickly, "And I promise I won't infringe on your relationship. I couldn't anyway. You two are so deeply in love that even a blind man could see it. I realised I had no chance last January when she first told me about you and I could see it even then, when she hadn't seen you for over half a year."

The Doctor smiled again. "Don't worry, Matt. And she isn't mine. She belongs to herself." He suddenly turned serious again. "Are you going to apologise to Rose and stop ignoring her?"

Matt slowly nodded. "Yes sir."

The Doctor heaved a sigh of relief. "Thank God. How about you come around to the TARDIS tomorrow morning- that's the blue police box you saw- and you can do it then and then I'll try and explain some of who I am exactly,"

"I will," Matt promised, "Thank you, Doctor,"

"See you then," the alien said, before striding away, leaving Matt to his guilt-ridden thoughts.


OK, how do you think Rose should react to Matt? Should she be all forgiving or cold and harsh?

Review please. Constructive criticism is gladly received