The Doctor crash landed on Earth due to him acting a little crazy after his regeneration went wrong.
"Here we are, then! London! Earth! The Solar System! We did it!" I heard him say after he got out of the TARDIS. "Jackie! Mickey! Rose! Blimey! No, no, no, no, hold on. Wait there, I've got something to say. There was something I had to tell you. Something important, what was it? No, hold on, hold on... Hold on, shush, shush, shush, shush... OH! I know! Merry Christmas!" I rushed out of the TARDIS when I heard him fall to the ground.
"What happened? Is he all right?" I asked the three humans staring at him.
"I don't know, he just keeled over! But who is he? Where's the Doctor?" Mickey asked me.
"That's him. Right in front of you. That's the Doctor." I told them checking his head over for any injury.
"What d'you mean, "that's the Doctor"? Doctor who?" Mum asked me as I checked him over.
The Doctor was tucked up in my old bed, wearing a pair of stripy pyjamas. I was sitting on the edge of the bed looking at him when Mum and Rose came in the room, holding a stethoscope for me.
"Here we go. Tina the Cleaner's got this lodger, medical student. And she was fast asleep, so I just took it." Mum told me handing me the stethoscope. I put the stethoscope in my ears and listened to his heart beats. "Though, I still say we should take him to hospital." I removed the stethoscope from my ears and gave her a look.
"We can't. They'd lock him up. They'd dissect him. One bottle of his blood could change the future of the human race." I told her. She opened her mouth to say something but I silenced her. "No! Shush!" I shook my head and put the stethoscope back in my ears and placed it on one side of the Doctor's chest. I heard his steady heartbeat then placed it on the other side and heard the same. "Both working." I said happily.
"What d'you mean 'both'?" Rose asked me.
"Well, we've got two hearts." I told her.
"Oh, don't be stupid." Mum told me.
"We do!" I told her.
"Anything else he's got two of?" Mum asked me.
"Leave him alone." I told her and she left the room. I followed her into the living room
"What do you mean 'we'?" Rose asked me.
"I'm not human. I got my memories back as well as as something else." I told them. They both looked at me strange and I sighed. "I'm a Time Lady. During the Time War my husband used a bit a technology we have to disguise me and send me here after I had died and regenerated. That when you found me." I said looking to Mum. "You found me after Dad died and took me in, not knowing my past. The Doctor and I will be forever grateful for that." I told her.
"What's your real name then?" Rose asked me.
"I can't tell you my real name. It's against the laws of my people. But we choose a name when we come of age. The Doctor chose his name and the name I chose was The Hunter. But I'm still Ashlee Tyler. She's another part of my personality, of who I am. You can call me what you wish either Ashlee or the Hunter, I leave that decision for you to make." I told them before looking back to my husband.
"Who was your husband?" Mum asked me and I smiled.
"The Doctor."
I walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge and grabbed some juice to drink.
"How can he go changing his face? Is that a different face or is he a different person? Can you change your face?" Mum asked me.
"It's a way to save us from dying. The old us dies and a new person walks away with our memories and our loved ones. So in a way he is a different person and yet he's not. And yes I can do the same thing but I'd have to die first and I don't plan on doing that right now." I told her. "The big question is... where'd you get a pair of men's pyjamas from?" I asked her smiling.
"Howard's been staying over." she told me walking away. I waved to Rose and Mickey as they left to go shopping.
"What, Howard from the market? How long's that been going on?" I asked her.
"A month or so. First of all, he starts delivering to the door and I thought, 'that's a bit odd'. Next thing you know, it's a bag of oranges." she told me.
"So you started dating him?" I asked her.
"Yeah." she answered smiling. I laughed lightly and turned towards the TV.
"Is that Harriet Jones?!" I asked walking into the living room. "Why's she on the telly?" I asked Mum.
"She's Prime Minister now. I'm eighteen quid a week better off." Mum told me and I smiled. "They're calling it 'Britain's Golden Age'. Keep on saying "my daughters have met her"." Mum told me with pride in her voice.
"Did more than that. Stopped World War Three with her. Harriet Jones..." I said as I started watching the program.
"Harriet Jones - what about those calling the Guinevere One Space Probe a waste of money?" a man asked her.
"Now, that's where you're wrong. I completely disagree if you don't mind." she said and I laughed. "The Guinevere One Space Probe represents this country's limitless ambition. British workmanship sailing up there among the stars."
"This is the spirit of Christmas, birth and rejoicing, and the dawn of a new age, and that is what we're achieving fifteen million miles away. Our very own miracle." the TV showed a computerized image of the probe zooming from the Earth.
"The unmanned probe Guinevere One is about to make its final descent. Photographs of the Martian Landscape should be received by midnight tonight." a newsreader said and I smiled.
I sat next to the Doctor as Mum was in the living room talking on the phone. I had refused to leave his side now that I had my drink. I nursed my drink as I watched him sleep. Mum wandered in as I was drifting of to sleep and placed some tea down on the nightstand next to me.
"Thank you." I said smiling at her. She nodded and smiled her motherly smile at me before walking out again, talking on the phone. I heard someone burst into the flat and jumped to my feet and looked out of the room.
"Get off the phone!" Rose told Mum.
"It's only Bev! She says hello." Mum told us. Rose grabbed the phone off Mum and started talking to Bev.
"Bev? Yeah- look, it'll have to wait." Rose said before hanging up and I gave her a curious look. "Right, it's not safe, we've gotta get out - where can we go?" Rose asked.
"My mate Stan, he'll put us up." Mickey told her.
"What going on?" I asked her.
"That's only two streets away." Rose said to Mickey ignoring me. "What about Mo? Where's she living now?" Rose asked Mum.
"I dunno! Peak District!" Mum told her.
"Oh, we'll go to Cousin Mo's then." Rose told us.
"It's Christmas Eve! We're not going anywhere!" Mum told her.
"What're you babbling about?" I asked her.
"Mum, Ash..." Rose started saying before looking behind Mum. "Where'd you get that tree?" I looked behind Mum to see a green tree which had been white when we drug the Doctor in.
"That's a new tree. Where'd you get it?" I asked her.
"Well, I thought it was Rose!" Mum told me.
"How can it be me?" Rose asked her.
"Well, you went shopping, there was a ring at the door, and there it was!" Mum told us.
"No, that wasn't me." Rose told us.
"Then who was it...?" I asked as we all stared at the tree. I walked forward, putting them all behind me, when the tree lit up. "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me." The tree started to spin slowly but then quickly picked up speed. Jingle Bells was playing sped up as it spun. The tree moved towards us, reducing the coffee table to firewood within seconds and Mum screamed.
"Go, go, go! Get out!" Mickey yelled out. I pulled them with me into my old room but Mum and Rose ran to the front door instead.
"We've got to save the Doctor!" I told them.
"What're you doing?!" Mum asked me.
"We can't just leave him!" I told her.
"Mickey!" Rose called to her boyfriend. "Leave it! Get out! Get out!" Rose called to him again but he stood his ground against the tree. "Mickey! Get out of there!" He finally gave up and they ran into the bedroom the Doctor and I were in.
"Just leave him!" Mum told me.
"Get in here!" Rose told her. Mum slammed the door shut and Rose and Mickey slide a wardrobe in front of the door while I bent over the Doctor.
"Doctor, wake up!" I told him. The three of them leaned against the wardrobe and I took the sonic screwdriver out of the Doctor's leather jacket. I saw the wardrobe start to shake as the Christmas tree tried to get through to us. Mum screamed and I placed the screwdriver into the Doctor's hand and waited for the right moment to wake him. The tree finally smashed through the wardrobe and the three of them were thrown towards me.
"I'm gonna get killed by a Christmas tree!" Mum squeaked in fear. I leaned down close the Doctor's face and kissed his cheek.
"Help me." I whispered to him. I drew back as he sat up suddenly and pointed his screwdriver at the tree. It exploded and the Doctor lowered the screwdriver.
"Remote control. But who's controlling it?" he asked and he jumped out of bed.
The Doctor and I went out to the balcony as he secured a dressing gown around him, with Rose Mum and Mickey followed us. On the ground stood three Santas.
"That's them. What are they?" Mickey asked us.
"Shush!" I told him. The Doctor raised his screwdriver and pointed it at the Santas threateningly and they backed away, standing closer to each other before they teleported away.
"They've just gone! What kind of rubbish were they? I mean, no offence, but they're not much cop if a sonic screwdriver's gonna scare them off." Mickey said.
"Pilot Fish." The Doctor said.
"What?" Rose asked him.
"They were just Pilot Fish." he said before he coughed and threw himself backwards against the wall, clearly in pain. We all hurriedly knelt down to him.
"What's wrong?!" I asked him.
"You woke me up too soon." he told me breathing heavily. "I'm still regenerating. I'm bursting with energy." he said as some of the vortex escaped through his mouth. "You see? The Pilot Fish could smell it. A million miles away. So they eliminate the defence - that's you lot - and they carry me off. They could run their batteries on me for a couple of year—" he never finished his sentence as he lurched forward, groaning.
"Oh! Oh! Oh!" Mum said.
"My head!" He said as Mum and I held him up. "I'm having a neuron implosion. I need-"
"What do you need?" Mum asked frantically.
"I need-"
"Say it, tell me, tell me-"
"I need-"
"Painkillers?"
"I need-"
"Do you need aspirin?"
"I-"
"Codeine? Paracetamol? Oh, I dunno- Pepto-Bismol?"
"I need-"
"Liquid paraffin. Vitamin C? Vitamin D? Vitamin E?"
"I need-"
"Is it food? Something simple? Uh- a bowl of soup? A nice bowl of soup? Soup and a sandwich? Soup and a little ham sandwich?"
"I need you to shut up." The Doctor told Mum finally
"Oh, he hasn't changed that much, has he?" she asked me as he lurched forward in pain again before leaning against the opposite wall.
"We haven't got much time. If there's Pilot Fish, then—" He stopped talking when he pulled an apple out of his dressing gown pocket. "Why's there an apple in my dressing gown?" he asked.
"Oh, that's Howard, sorry." Mum told us.
"He keeps apples in his dressing gown?" I asked her.
"He gets hungry." she told us.
"What, he gets hungry in his sleep?" he asked her looking at the apple confusedly.
"Sometimes." she told us. The Doctor suddenly shouted with pain again and sank to the floor.
"Brain- collapsing-" he said grabbing hold of my upper arms, holding them tightly. "P- the Pilot Fish. The Pilot Fish mean... that something- something— Something's coming." he said before he collapsed into my lap. After we moved the Doctor back into my old room I sat on the bed next to him, tucked him in and mopped up his forehead with a flannel. He was restless and sweaty unlike the first time when he was peaceful.
"Ash?" I looked up to the doorway to see Rose. "Why don't you come have some tea?" I nodded and got up to join them in the living room.
"It's midnight. Christmas day." Mum said handing me a cup of tea as I sat on the arm of a chair. "Any change?" he asked me.
"He's worse. Just one heart beating." I told her. She sighed and sat in the air next to me.
"Scientists in charge of Britain's mission to Mars have re-established contact with the Guinevere One space probe. They're expecting the first transmission from the planet's surface in the next few minutes." the reporter said on the TV.
"Yes, we are. We're - we're back on schedule. We've received the signal from Guinevere One. The Mars landing would seem to be an unqualified success." the scientist said.
"But is it true that you completely lost contact earlier tonight?" a man asked him.
"Yes, we had a bit of a scare. Guinevere seemed to fall off the scope, but it - it was just a blip. Only disappeared for a few seconds. She's fine now, absolutely fine. We - we're getting the first pictures transmitted live any minute now. I'd better get back to it, thanks." he said before leaving.
"Here we go, Pilot Fish." Mickey said and Rose went to look over his shoulder at the laptop. "Scavengers, like the Doctor said. Harmless - they're tiny, but the point is, the little fish swim alongside the big fish."
"Do you mean like sharks?" Rose asked him.
"Big sharks." I told her.
"So, what the Doctor means is, we had them... now we get that." Mickey told her and they watched an animation of a shark on the screen snap viciously.
"Something is coming..." watching the TV go staticy.
"How close?" Rose asked.
"There's no way of telling, but the Pilot Fish don't swim far from their protection." I told her.
"So, it's close?" she asked me.
"Funny sort of rocks." Mum said and I looked at her. I followed her gaze to the TV and gave it a good look.
"That's not rocks." I told her as the image became clearer. I edged toward the TV and tried to get a better look at the creature on the screen.
"Coming live from the depths of space on Christmas morning." the reporter said. The image became clearer and roared at everyone. The four of us jumped back at the surprise.
"The face of an alien life form was transmitted live tonight on BBC1." A reporter said and I changed the channel.
"On the 25th of December, the human race has been shown absolute proof that alien life exists." an American reporter said and I changed the channel.
"These remarkable images have been relayed right across the world." another reporter said and I sighed.
"Ashlee." I rushed over to Mickey and looked over his shoulder at his laptop. "Take a look, I've got access to the military. They're tracking a spaceship. It's big, it's fast, and it's coming this way." he showed me the ship coming our way.
"Coming for what, though? The Doctor?" Rose asked me.
"I don't know. Maybe it's coming for all of us." I told her. Am image of four aliens came onto the screen and began to speak their native language. Sycoraxic.
"Have you seen them before?" Rose asked me.
"No. But I know them. They are the Sycorax and they're not to friendly." I told her.
"I don't understand what they're saying. The TARDIS translates alien languages inside my head, all the time, wherever I am." Rose said remembering what I told her.
"So, why isn't it doing it now?" Mickey asked looking at me.
"I don't know. Must be the Doctor. Like he's part of the circuit, and he's still regenerating." I said.
"Despite claims of an alien hoax, it's been reported that NATO forces are on red alert." an American reporter said.
"Speaking strictly off the record, government sources are calling this our longest night." another news reader said.
I was leaning against the door frame watching Mum and the Doctor sleep. I heard footsteps coming towards me and turned to see Rose.
"The Doctor wouldn't do this. The old Doctor. The proper Doctor. He'd wake up. He'd save us." rose told me.
"He's regenerating, Rose. Sometimes it takes me energy from each regeneration. It all depends on how we died." I told her.
"You really love him, don't you?" she asked me and I nodded my head, tears starting to fall from my eyes. I heard some commotion going on outside the door and rushed to see what was wrong.
"Sandra?" I asked seeing the woman trailing after her husband.
"He won't listen! He's just walking, he won't stop walking! There's this sort of... light, thing. Jason? Stop it!" Sandra said following her husband. I followed her with Rose and Mickey behind me. "Right now!" I looked over the balcony and saw dozens of people that seemed to be hypnotized by the same blue light.
"What's going on?" Rose asked me.
"Some type of control. But what kind? What makes this group of people so different from everyone other human out there?" I asked looking them over. We followed the hypnotized people as they positioned themselves on the very edge of the roofs of the high-rise buildings. They all just stood and waited for something.
"What do we do?" Mickey asked me.
"We wait. That's all we can do." I told him before we left to go back to the flat.
I watched the telly with Mum, Rose and Mickey to see Harriet siting at a desk.
"Ladies and gentlemen... if I may take a moment during this terrible time. It's hardly the Queen's speech, I'm afraid that's been cancelled." she turned her head addressing someone off-camera. "Did we ask about the royal family? Oh. They're on the roof. But - Ladies and gentlemen - this crisis is unique, and I'm afraid to say, it might get much worse. I would ask you all to remain calm. But I have one request: Doctor. If you're out there... we need you." The three of them turned and looked at me, but I ignored them. "I don't know what to do. But if you can hear me, Doctor... If anyone knows the Doctor, if anyone can find him... the situation has never been more desperate." I turned away and walked to the room he was sleeping in and watched him. "Help us. Please, Doctor. Help us." Mum came up to me and hugged her hard, never wanting to let her go.
"He's fine. He'll be fine. We just need to wait for him to wake up. We just have to wait." I said sobbing. I knew he'd be okay but it was hard to see him like this.
"It's all right... I'm sorry..." Mum said comforting me. Suddenly the windows smashed, showering the floor with glass as the ground shook violently. Mickey and Rose left the flats and I stood on the balcony and looked up. I watched a huge spaceship floating into view, obscuring the sun. I went back inside to my old room.
"Rose, Mickey, we're gonna carry him." I said throwing the duvet off the Doctor. "Mum - get your stuff, and get some food. We're going." I told them.
"Well, where to?" Rose asked me.
"The TARDIS. It's the only safe place on Earth." I told them.
"What're we gonna do in there?!" Mickey asked me.
"Hide until either the Doctor wakes up or I figure out something." I told her.
"Is that it?!" Mum asked me.
"Mum - look in the sky. There's a great, big, alien invasion and - I don't know what to do, alright? I've been out of the playing field for a while. All we can do for now is run and hide, and I'm sorry. Now, move." I told her. Mum left the room and I took the Doctor's shoulders while Rose and Mickey took his legs. "Oh - lift him." I told them. Rose Mickey and I carried the Doctor out of the front door with Mum behind us. Mum dropped a shopping bag full of food and stopped to pick it up.
"Mum, will you just leave that stuff and give us a hand?" Rose asked her.
"It's food! Ash said we need f-" Mum tried telling her.
"Just leave it!" Rose said as we went to the stairs. When we got to the TARDIS doors Rose came over to me and got his shoulders while I unlocked the door.
"No chance you could fly this thing?" Mickey asked me.
"Nope." I told him.
"Well, you did it before." He reminded me.
"It's not that I can't fly it. The TARDIS landed here for a reason and I'm not going to leave." I told him.
"So, what do we do? Just sit here?" Rose asked me.
"That's as good as it gets." I told her.
"Right, here we go. Nice cup of tea." Mum said pouring us a cup.
"Hmm, the solution to everything..." Rose said.
"Now, stop your moaning. I'll get the rest of the food." Mum said leaving the TARDIS after giving the thermal to Mickey. I sat down net to the Doctor and held his hand in mine.
"Tea. Like we're having a picnic while the world comes to an end. Very British." Mickey said laughing a little.
"How does this thing work? It picks up TV, maybe we could see what's going on out there. Maybe we've surrendered." Rose asked me and I looked at them to see them messing with the monitor. "What do you do to it?"
"It sort of tunes itself." I told them as they pressed a few buttons. A bleeping noise now coming from the console. I knew they would be able to detect it on the ship. We were about to have company.
"Maybe it's a distress signal." Mickey suggested.
"Fat lot of good that's gonna do." I told him.
"Are you gonna be a misery all the time?" Rose asked me.
"Only when the occasion calls for it." I told her.
"You should look at it from my point of view - stuck in here with your mum's cooking." Mickey told us.
"Where is she?" Rose asked and I looked around.
"I'd better go and give her a hand. It might start raining missiles out there." I told them.
"Tell her anything from a tin, that's fine." Mickey told us.
"Why don't you tell her yourself?" I asked him.
"I'm not that brave." he told me.
"Oh, I don't know..." Rose told him and I rolled my eyes before walking out of the TARDIS. As soon as I stepped outside the door I was grabbed by someone making me scream.
"Get off! Get off me!" I ordered the person holding me. I heard Mickey and Rose run out of the TARDIS. I turned to them and see they left the door open. "The door! Close the door!" Mickey dashed to the door and slammed it shut be he and Rose were grabbed by the Sycorax. The leader yelled with glee, and the onlookers cheered. I saw them pushing people to us, one of them being Harriet Jones.
"Rose. Ashlee." We hugged each other tightly. "Rose! Ashlee! I've got you. My Lord. My precious things. The Doctor... is he with you?" she asked me.
"Yes. but we need to buy him some time." I told her. When we parted the Sycorx leader pointed to me and addressed me angrily.
""The black girl. She has the clever blue box. Therefore, she speaks for your planet."" Harriet's friend translated for them.
"But she can't." Harriet said.
"Yeah, I can." I told her.
"Don't you dare." Rose told me.
"We have to buy the Doctor time to get better. This is the best way." I told her.
"They'll kill you." Harriet said grabbing my arm.
"It wouldn't be the first time." I told her, shaking her off. I walked forward and looked at the Sycorax leader. "I address the Sycorax according to article fifteen of the Shadow Proclamation. I command you to leave this world in peace." I told him. He began to walk towards me. Suddenly they began laughing before the leader began to speak again.
""You are very, very funny. And now you're going to die."" The man translated for them again.
"Leave her alone!" Harriet demanded of them.
"Don't touch her!" Rose said.
"Leave her alone." Mickey demanded but they were all restrained by the Sycorax.
""Did you think you were clever with your words? We are the Sycorax. We astride the darkness."" the man is translated. The leader hissed at me and I made a face. ""Next to us you are but a wailing child. If you are the best your planet can offer as a champion...""
"Then your world will be gutted..." the leader said and I smiled.
""... then your world will be gutted..."" the man said thinking he was still translating.
"... and your people enslaved."
""... and your people enslaved."" the man looked up from his device to the leader. "Hold on, that's English."
"He's talking English." Harriet repeated.
"You're talking English." Rose said.
"I would never dirty my tongue with your primitive bile!" he told her.
"That's English for the humans." I said before looking at the others. "Can you hear English?" I asked them and they all nodded.
"Yeah, that's English." Mickey told me.
"Definitely English." the other man said.
"I speak only Sycoraxic!" he told me angrily.
"If we can hear English... then it's being translated. Which means it's working. Which means..." I turned to the TARDIS with Mickey and Harriet following my actions. The doors opened and there, standing and smiling in his stripy pyjamas and dressing gown, was the Doctor.
"Did you miss me?" he asked us. I smiled in delight at him. The Sycorax leader roared in fury and lashed his whip at the Doctor, who simply caught the end and pulled it away from him before discarding it. "You could have someone's eye out with that!" the leader roared again and tried to attack him with his staff, but the Doctor snatched it off him and snapped it over his knee before chucking it to the floor. "You just can't get the staff. Now, you, just wait. I'm busy." he said pointing at him warningly before walking to us.
"Mickey! Hello! And Harriet Jones MP for Flydale North! Blimey, it's like 'This Is Your Life'!" he told them before he turned to me, beaming. "Tea! That's all I needed! A good cup of tea! Superheated infusion of free radicals and tannin. Just the thing for healing the synapses... Now... first thing's first... be honest. How do I look?" he asked me and I giggled.
"Different." I told him.
"Good different or bad different?" he asked.
"Good different." I told him.
"Am I... ginger?" he asked me seriously and I laughed.
"No, you're just sort of brown." I told him and he turned away put out.
"Aww, I wanted to be ginger. I've never been ginger." he said before turning back, pointing at Rose violently. "And you, Rose Tyler, fat lot of good you were - you gave up on me- oh, that's rude. That's the sort of man I am now, am I? Rude. Rude and not ginger." he said before walking back to me, smiling. "The Hunter. I never thought I'd see you again. You always did have faith in me, even when I didn't." I smiled at him and he kissed me deeply.
"I'm sorry - who is this?" Harriet asked us.
"I'm the Doctor." He said parting from me.
"He's the Doctor." I told her.
"But what happened to my Doctor? Or is it a title that's just passed on?" Harriet asked us.
"I'm him. I'm literally him. Same man, new face - well, new everything." he said walking to her.
"But you can't be." Harriet said.
"Harriet Jones. We were trapped in Downing Street, and the one thing that scared you wasn't the aliens... wasn't the war... it was the thought of your mother being on her own." he told her.
"Oh, my God." Harriet said staring at him.
"Did you win the election?" the Doctor asked her.
"Landslide majority." She said smiling.
"If I might interrupt!" the Sycorax leader said. We all spun to look at him, having forgotten about him.
"Yes! Sorry! Hello, big fella!" the Doctor said smiling.
"Who exactly are you?" the leader asked him.
"Well. That's the question." The Doctor told him.
"I demand to know who you are!" The leader roared at him.
"I DON'T KNOW!" The Doctor roared back at him. "See, there's the thing. I'm the Doctor, but beyond that, I- I just don't know. I literally do not know who I am. It's all untested. Am I funny? Am I sarcastic? Sexy?" he winked at me and I smiled. Right old misery? Life and soul? Right-handed? Left-handed? A gambler? A fighter? A coward? A traitor? A liar? A nervous wreck? I mean, judging by the evidence, I've certainly got a gob. And how am I gonna react when I see this?" I moved to see what he was pointing at to see a button. "A great big threatening button." he ran up some stairs and we followed him. "A Great Big Threatening Button Which Must Not Be Pressed Under Any Circumstances. Am I right? Let me guess, it's some sort of control matrix? Hmm? Hold on, what's feeding it?" He bent down and pulled open a small door in order to access the controls underneath the button. "And what've we got here? Blood?" He dipped his finger into it and tasted it. "Yeah, definitely. Blood. Human blood. A Positive. With just a dash of iron." He stuck his tongue out and wiped his finger on his dressing gown. "Ahh. But that means... blood control- Blood control!" he said excitedly.
"Oh! I haven't seen blood control for years! You're controlling all the A Positives!" I said looking at the leader.
"Which leaves us with a great big stinking problem. 'Cos... I really don't know who I am. I don't know when to stop. So if I see a Great Big Threatening Button Which Should Never Ever Be Pressed... then I just wanna do this." the Doctor whacked the button hard.
"No!" Rose and Harriet called out.
"You killed them!" the man said.
"What do you think, big fella? Are they dead?" the Doctor asked the leader.
"We allow them to live." the leader told him and I rolled my eyes.
"Allow? You've no choice! I mean, that's all blood control is. Cheap bit of voodoo. Scares the pants off you, but that's as far as it goes. It's like hypnosis - you can hypnotize someone to walk like a chicken or sing like Elvis, you can't hypnotize them to death. Survival instinct's too strong." The Doctor told him.
"Blood control was just one form of conquest. I can summon the armada and take this world by force." the leader told us.
"Well, yeah, you could, yeah, you could do that - of course you could. But why? Look at these people." he said gesturing to the humans. "These human beings. Consider their potential. From the day they arrive on the planet and blinking step into the sun. There is more to see than can ever be seen. More to do than- no, hold on..." I began laughing lightly at him. "Sorry, that's 'The Lion King'. But the point still stands. Leave them alone!"
"Or what?" the leader asked him.
"Or..." the Doctor grabbed a sword from one of the Scvorax guarding us and ran down the steps into the empty floor space in front of the TARDIS and rose it into the air. "I challenge you." the Scyroax leader and the others burst out laughing again. "Oh, that struck a chord. Am I right that the sanctified rules of combat still apply?"
"You stand as this world's champion." the leader asked him drawing his sword.
"Thank-you. I've no idea who I am, but you just summed me up." The Doctor said shrugging off his dressing down and tossing it to me. "So - you accept my challenge? Or are you just a cranak pel casacree salvak?" the Sycorax leader hissed at him and they knelt by their swords.
"For the planet?" the leader asked him.
"For the planet." the doctor told him. They both stood and attacked each other to begin the fight. After a few seconds the Doctor was thrown aside and the Sycorax leader laughed. The Doctor, however, straightened himself up and they begia to fight again. The Sycorax Leader swung his sword at the Doctor.
"Look out!" Rose called out to him.
"Oh, yeah, that helped. Wouldn't have thought of that otherwise, thanks." The Doctor said and they began to fight again. The Doctor led the fight up the stairs. "Bit of fresh air?" He hit a button and a door opened leading to the outside of the ship. The humans, a few of the Sycorax and I followed them out as they continued their fight. The Sycorax Leader managed to catch the Doctor slightly on his nose, and he groaned. I began to run forward, but the Doctor raised a hand to stop me. "Stay back! Invalidate the challenge and he wins the planet." he said wiping his nose, and he and the Sycorax Leader ran towards each other, clashing swords. They both grimaced with the effort, and the Doctor was knocked backward to the ground. Taking advantage, the Sycorax Leader slashed at the Doctor's wrist, succeeding in chopping his hand off, up to the elbow. It fell off the side of the spaceship, sword and all. The Doctor watched it drop, and looked back at the Sycorax Leader, looking rather stunned and annoyed. "You cut my hand off."
"YAH! Sycorax!" the leader called out triumphantly.
"And now I know what sort of man I am. I'm lucky. 'Cos quite by chance... I'm still within the first fifteen hours of my regeneration cycle. Which means I've got just enough residual cellular energy... to do this." he held up his stump of an arm, and before our eyes it grew back.
"Witchcraft." the leader said.
"Time Lord." I corrected. I then took of of the Sycorax's swords out of its sheath and threw it to him. "Doctor!" He caught it by the handle and spun it around.
"Oh, so I'm still the Doctor, then?" he asked me.
"Always and forever!" I told him.
"Wanna know the best bit? This new hand... It's a fightin' hand!" he said the last bit with a Texan accent and ran at the Sycorax leader. They clash swords for a few more moments, then the Doctor jabbed him hard in the stomach with the handle of the sword. The Doctor does the same twice more, causing the Sycorax Leader to fall to the ground. The Doctor pointed his sword at his throat. "I win."
"Then kill me." the leader told him.
"I'll spare your life if you'll take this champion's command: leave this planet, and never return. What do you say?" the Doctor asked him.
"Yes." the leader told him.
"Swear on the blood of your species." the Doctor told him.
"I swear." he said.
"There we are, then! Thanks for that! Cheers, big fella!" The Doctor said. He jabbed the sword into the ground and walked towards us.
"Bravo!" Harriet said clapping her hands.
"That says it all. Bravo!" I said helping him into his dressing gown.
"Yeah! Not bad for a man in his jim-jams! Very Arthur Dent. Now, there was a nice man. Hold on, what have I got in here?" he took a satsuma out of his pocket and I laughed. "A satsuma. Ah, that friend of your mothers - he does like his snacks doesn't he? But doesn't that just sum up Christmas?" we walked back to the others hand-in-hand. The Doctor threw the satsuma in the air and caught it again. "You go through all those presents and right at the end, tucked away at the bottom, there's always one stupid old satsuma. Who wants a satsuma?" We heard the leader draw the sword from the ground and the Doctor threw the satsuma at a switch on the side of the ship causing the ground beneath him to open making him fall to the Earth. "No second chances. I'm that sort of a man." We walked back inside and stood in front of the TARDIS. The Doctor turned and addressed the remaining Sycorax. "By the ancient rites of combat, I forbid you to scavenge here for the rest of time. And when go you back to the stars and tell others of this planet... when you tell them of its riches - its people - its potential. When you talk of the Earth, then make sure that you tell them this: It - is - defended." We were then teleported back to Earth.
"Where are we?" Rose asked looking around.
"We're just off Bloxom Road. We're just round the corner, we did it!" Mickey said laughed and jumped and gown in glee.
"Wait a minute... wait a minute..." The Doctor said as the engines started on the ship. We watched it take flight back to the stars.
"Go on, my son! Oh, yeah!" Mickey said excitedly.
"Yeah! Don't come back!" Rose said jumping on Mickey's back. I leaned into the Doctor and he hugged me into his side.
"It is defended!" Mickey yelled out. I laughed as Rose jumped off his back and hugged him. I turned to him and kissed him properly.
"Welcome back." I said grinning,
"Good to be back." he told me. We then turned to Harriet and she raised her arms, grinning.
"My Doctor." she said.
"Prime Minister." he said and they hugged happily.
"Absolutely the same man." Harriet said as they parted. The Doctor smiled and we all looked up at the sky. "Are there many more out there?" she asked us.
"Oh, not just Sycorax. Hundreds of species. Thousands of them. And the human race is drawing attention to itself. Every day you're sending out probes and messages and signals - this planet's so noisy. You're getting noticed... more and more." The Doctor said looking at her. "You'd better get used to it."
"Rose! Ashlee!" Mum called running to us.
"Mum!" Rose called out running to her.
"Oh! Talking of trouble...!" the doctor said and we walked to mum.
"Oh, my God! You did it, Ashlee! Oh!" Mum said and I hugged her tightly before looking back at my Doctor.
"You did it too! It was the tea! Fixed his head!" I told her.
"That was all I needed - cup o' tea." the Doctor told her.
"I said so!" Mum said and I laughed.
"Look at him!" Rose said smiling happily.
"Is it him, though? Is it really the Doctor? "Oh, my God! It's the bleeding Prime Minister!" Mum said.
"Come here, you." The Doctor held his arms out for mum and she threw her arms around him. Rose Mickey and I joined in the group hug. "Aww...! Are you better?"Mum asked him.
"I am, yeah!" The Doctor told her.
"You left me!" Mum said when we all broke apart.
"I'm sorry!" I told her.
"I had all the food!" Mum reminded me. Mickey started telling her everything that happened on the ship and I wrapped my arms around the Doctor.
"I'm gunna want my weapons back." I told him.
"I know. Lucky for you I kept them." he told me and he bent down to kiss me. I jumped as a beam of green light shot loudly up from the ground nearby. The same green light beamed up from another four points and the five points met in the middle. The energy shot up into space and hit the ship, destroying it.
"What is that? What's happening?" Rose gasped.
"Oh my god."I looked from the sky to Harriet as the Doctor walked toward her slowly.
"That was murder." The Doctor told her angrily.
"That was defence. It's adapted from alien technology. A ship that fell to Earth ten years ago." Harriet told us.
"But they were leaving." I told her.
"You said yourself, Doctor. They'd go back to the stars and tell others about the Earth. I'm sorry, Doctor, but you're not here all the time. You come and go. It happened today - Mr Llewellyn and the Major. They were murdered. They died right in front of me while you were sleeping. In which case - we have to defend ourselves." Harriet told us.
"Britain's Golden Age." The Doctor said disdainfully.
"It comes with a price." Harriet told him.
"I gave them the wrong warning. I should've told them to run - as fast as they can, run and hide because the monsters are coming: the human race." he told her.
"Those are the people I represent. I did it on their behalf." she told us.
"Then we should've stopped you." I told her.
"What does that make you? Another threat?" she asked me.
"Don't challenge us, Harriet Jones. 'Cos I'm a completely new man. I could bring down your Government with a single word." he warned her.
"You're the most remarkable man I've ever met. But I don't think you're quite capable of that." Harriet told him.
"No, you're right. Not a single word. Just six." he told her.
"I don't think so." Harriet told him.
"Six words." he said again.
"Stop it!" Harriet ordered him.
"Six." they stared at each other for a few seconds, a battle of wills. Then the Doctor walked around her and approached her helper. He took off the earpiece and spoke to him quietly. He walked off again, leaving the man looking rather confused, and Harriet just plain alarmed. He joined us again, and the five of us walked off down the street.
"Doctor! Doctor, what did you- what was- what did he say?! What did you say, Doctor? Doctor?!" We all ignored her and continued walking.
The four of us prepared the Christmas Dinner while the Doctor changed into new clothes. I was setting the table as Mickey carved the turkey. Rose started to served the sprouts at the table as we all joked and laughed about what had happened in our lives. When I heard the door shut I looked up to see the Doctor in a brown suit and coat. I smiled up at him and he smiled back before joining us at the table. We popped Christmas crackers after dinner and it was all a wonderful fun. I screamed in surprise as the Christmas cracker I pulled with the Doctor banged. The Doctor had won but he held it out to me.
"Oh, that's yours..." he told me and I pulled out a pink paper party hat out of the cracker.
"It's pink! Mum, it should be yours!" I told her putting the hat on my head.
"Pink! Lovely!" he told me and I smiled at him. I leaned over to him and kissed him lightly as we went back to talking.
"Look, it's Harriet Jones!" Rose said and we all turned to look at the telly, the Doctor taking a pair of glasses from his pocket and putting them on.
"Prime Minister, is it true you are no longer fit to be in position?" a reporter asked her.
"No. Now, can we talk about other things?" Harriet asked them.
The Doctor stands up and putting a pair of thick rimmed, geeky glasses on, looking sternly at the television.
"Is it true you're unfit for office?" a man asked her.
"Look, there is nothing wrong with my health! I don't know where these stories are coming from! And a vote of no confidence... is completely unjustified." she told them.
"Are you going to resign?"
"On today of all days, I'm fine. Look at me, I'm fine. I look fine, I feel fine." she insisted.
"It's Beth. She says go and look outside." mum told us.
"Why?" I asked her.
"I dunno, just go outside and look. Come on, shift!" We all got up and took off our hats then went outside. A lot of people were outside and it looked to be snowing. Rose laughed in delight and I looked up to see meteors in the sky. The Doctor and I stood beside each other with my family and Mickey a short way behind us.
"Oh, that's beautiful. What are they, meteors?" Rose asked us.
"It's the spaceship breaking up in the atmosphere. This isn't snow, it's ash." I told her.
"Okay, not so beautiful." she said.
"This is a brand new planet Earth. No denying the existence of aliens now - everyone saw it. Everything's new." The Doctor said.
"And what about you? What are you gonna do next?" Rose asked us.
"Well... back to the TARDIS... same old life." he told her.
"And you Ash?" she asked me.
"Where the Doctor goes, I go." I told her.
"You're never gonna stay, are you?" She asked us.
"There's just so much out there. So much to see... One day you'll understand." I told her.
"Yeah." Mickey said wrapping his arms around his girl.
"Well, I reckon you're mad. The pair of you. It's like you go looking for trouble." Mum told us.
"Trouble's just the bits in-between. It's all waiting out there, Jackie. It's brand new to me." The Doctor told her. "All those planets... creatures and horizons... I haven't seem them yet! Not with these eyes... And it is gonna be... fantastic." we smiled at each other and he held his hand out to me. I took his hand and we looked up at the sky for a few moments. He tucked me into his side and I laid my head on his shoulder.
"So, where're we gonna go first?" I asked him.
"Um... that way. No, hold on... that way." he said pointing to a point in the sky.
"That way?" I asked him.
"Hmm?" he turned to me and I nodded.
"Yeah. That way." we smiled at each other for a few moments before looking up at the sky again.
Coming up on the Doctor's Girl:
"So, where are we going?" I asked him.
"Further than we went when you were human." he told me grinning.
We quickly changed direction and ran around the side of the house.
"You are complete. You will come." a droid said.
The Doctor ran and grabbed a gun-like object from the wall, using it to spray ice at the droid.
"Cat nurse nuns." I said watching a nurse walk away from us.
"May I introduce Miss Sarah Jane Smith."
As we ran the school exploded behind us.
Two nurses approached us.
After a hard stare we continued walking upstairs.
The Doctor pulled the blanket off to reveal a metal dog.
"K9!" K9 and I had shot two of them down.
The droid extended an arm and a menacing looking blade slide out near the Doctor's face.
We blew gently on the power cell and it glowed brightly.
"There are legends you know, saying that you're millions of years old." The Doctor said kneeling before him.
The man in the cage raised his head slowly and opened his eyes, which were completely black.
"Might I introduce her Majesty Queen Victoria."
We ran behind the line of men with guns poised and ready.
We jumped over the ledge to our escape.
Pointing the sonic screwdriver at her threateningly. "Give her back to me."
We ran through the corridor and fire.
She pulled his face towards us and kissed him.
"Bullets can't stop it!" I told him.
We ran up a slope, only to be greeted by another row of Cybermen.