8:20. The Doctor was standing at the corner of the road still waiting for Rose to show up. I guess she's still mad at me, he thought. Oh well. It's getting dark anyway, I'll just talk to her at home. Slightly disheartened by Rose's desertion, he turned and started home. Halfway there he was still thinking of what he was going to say to Rose when something caught his eye. There, parked on the side of the road, still running, was a car that looked identical to Teddy. No, he noticed upon closer inspection. That IS Teddy. But then… He looked all around and, finding no trace of Rose, sent her a brief text. His phone's screen declared that "MESSAGE HAS NOT BEEN SENT". Ignoring the uneasy feeling that was starting to build in him, the Doctor hopped into the drivers' seat and started off home.
When he arrived home, he found Jackie and Pete eating a later dinner.
"Tony's been quiet tonight. Maybe he's finally past having to be put down for bed ten times a night," Jackie said to her husband just as the Doctor walked in. He looked around the kitchen, but Rose was nowhere to be found. He tried to keep his voice light as he asked the couple if they'd seen their daughter that evening. Jackie's brow furrowed.
"Why? Isn't she with you?" asked Jackie. The worry on her face was much more evident than what the Doctor was feeling. "But she had the car. She wouldn't have just left him running on the street, she loves that thing. Oh, Pete, you don't think she's in any sort of trouble, do you?"
Before he could answer, the Doctor said, "I'll just have a look around the house, see if anything turns up." He walked out of the kitchen, leaving Pete and Jackie to worry alone.
"Where could she have gotten off to?" The Doctor said to himself as he walked into the bedroom that they shared. Perching on the edge of the bed, he withdrew the sonic screwdriver that Rose had presented to him only a few nights ago. He turned it in his hands and set to pointing it at random objects. With every object he sonic'd, his brain moved faster and faster. He began mumbling to himself.
"Where could she have gone? I didn't think it was too much… but maybe it's been different for her here, those years without me. Maybe she's changed more than I knew. But even then, Rose wouldn't just leave. She never leaves. Even when she saved her father and ripped apart the universe, it was me who left. Not a proud moment, come to think of it. Lucky thing the TARDIS let me know there was something really wrong or else - OH OF COURSE!" The Doctor leapt up from the bed and spun towards the door, racing out of the house.
"The TARDIS! Teddy!"
"IDENTIFY YOURSELF!"
Rose didn't speak. She was standing backed up against a wall, petrified.
"IDENTIFY YOURSELF OR YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!" The Dalek was less than an arm's reach away, and Rose could feel the heat coming off of it like a furnace. She glanced left and right; there was no way to escape. Slowly, she started to answer.
"I'm Rose Tyler," she said. "What do you want with me?" She could feel the adrenaline coursing through her body, her heart beating twice as fast as normal.
"INITIATE BIO-SCAN ON THE CAPTIVE," the Dalek ordered his comrade. Rose saw a blue light appear on the wall facing her and felt a certain warmth pass through her body, as if she had suddenly been dunked into hot water, but the sensation passed as quickly as it had come.
"HUMAN FEMALE," it said. "ORIGIN: EARTH. BLOOD TYPE: AB+. AGE: 23 YEARS. CONFIRMED: ROSE TYLER."
The lead Dalek gave a little nod of his eyestalk, seeming satisfied, when the second one began speaking again.
"SECONDARY LIFE FORM DETECTED. UNDEVELOPED HUMAN. ORIGIN: EARTH. BLOOD TYPE: UNKNOWN. AGE: FIVE WEEKS. NO IDENTIFICATION RECORDS."
"What?"
"YOUR IDENTITY HAS BEEN CONFIRMED. YOU WILL TELL US WHAT YOU KNOW."
"What?!" Rose said again. This whole situation was a strange mix of ridiculous and terrifying. "Are you saying I'm… I mean, what are you saying?! How could you know that? I mean…" Rose trailed off. She didn't know what to think or say. This should have been a happy moment, one that she shared with the Doctor. She had definitely not imagined finding out something like this while captive on a Dalek spaceship in the middle of who-knew-where while her husband was back on Earth, unable to help her or even know where she'd gone. And we were just arguing about it too. Great, he probably thinks I've blown him off or something 'cause I'm still angry. How the hell do I get myself into these situations?!
"YOU WILL TELL US WHAT YOU KNOW OR YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"
"But I don't know anything, honest! I don't even know why I'm here, or what you want with me. Just let me go!" She knew from experience that begging wouldn't work, but it did make her feel better.
"OUR INTELLIGENCE INFORMS US OF HUMAN PLANS TO INTERFERE WITH THE DALEKS. YOU WILL TELL US WHO YOUR LEADER IS."
Suddenly, Rose had an idea. Terrified as she was, she knew that the only way for her to get out of this mess was to contact the Doctor. He may be only half Time Lord, but that was at least better than none. If she could only tell him where she was, then she was certain that he would be able to free her. She replied to the Dalek who had asked the question.
"Y-yeah, that's right. We know all about who you are and what you've been up to. The man you're looking for is called the Doctor."
"DOCTOR? DOCTOR WHO?"
"He's a time traveller from another universe. Where he's from, he's faced you hundreds of times, and he always beat you. He's wiped your kind out to the point of extinction, and you've even got a name for him. The Daleks in his universe call him The Oncoming Storm." She paused to let that sink in. "And I can promise you that if you so much as think of harming me, he'll come for you. And he'll show you no mercy when he finds you. So you better be scared, because that might be the only thing that can save you now."
The Dalek that seemed to be in charge turned to face the other one. "YOU WILL FIND THIS 'DOCTOR' AND YOU WILL MAKE CONTACT WITH HIM. WE SHALL SEE IF HE IS ALL THE HUMAN SAYS HE IS!" Silently rejoicing that the Daleks had listened and not incinerated her on the spot, Rose followed the lead Dalek as he said, "COME. YOU WILL HELP US FIND THE DOCTOR. IF YOU REFUSE YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"
The Doctor sprinted through the front door and out into the night. Teddy sat, parked innocently at the side of the drive. While he was still a good 10 yards away, the Doctor pointed the sonic screwdriver at the Bug and the driver's side door popped open. Skidding to a halt before he crashed into it, the Doctor used his momentum to swing into the driver's seat and yanked the door shut.
"Ah Teddy. Good old Teddy. What have you got for me," the Doctor said quietly with his eyes closed. He then inhaled deeply through his nose, and when his eyes popped open again, they had a new light in them.
"Brilliant! Transportation matrix residue. Very specific, very nice, oh, that's lovely. Managed to only get Rose but nothing else inside the car. And with a matrix that complex, it's gotta leave scars…"
The Doctor began slowly running his sonic screwdriver around the edges of the car frame, passing over the door, and the seat he was sitting in, then moving over to the passenger seat on his left and back up to the roof. Everywhere his screwdriver went, something shimmered in the air, a web of shining threads connecting that very specific location to another location, far off. Just as the Doctor was finishing his scan, his screwdriver began a high-pitched whine. Light streamed out of the end and a hologram formed before him.
It was Rose. She was alive. She stood in his field of vision with her hair draped across her face, her head down. But then she looked up, and her eyes met with the Doctor, and his elation at seeing her unharmed vanished. Her eyes were full of pleading and terror. The Doctor felt a fury such as he hadn't felt since the day of his creation explode in his chest. She had been through so much. They both had. Across universes they had travelled together, and now when they were finally finding a home and a life together, something was trying to break them apart again. But not this time. The Doctor opened his mouth to speak when he heard a voice. Not the chime of Rose's lilting voice, not even a human voice at all. But he knew that voice. He would know it anywhere.
"DOCTOR. WE HAVE THE HUMAN ROSE TYLER-"
"Yes, I can see that thank you very much! But what are you doing with her? What are you even doing here?"
"WE KNOW YOU ARE THE LEADER OF THIS HUMAN PLOT. YOU WILL SURRENDER OR THEY WILL BE THE FIRST TO BE EXTERMINATED."
"They? They who? Who's they? What're you talking about? Who else've you got hidden away there?"
"WE HAVE ROSE TYLER AND HER CHILD. IF YOU DO NOT SURRENDER, THEN WE WILL DESTROY THE EARTH, AND WE WILL BE ALL-POWERFUL! WE WILL BE THE ULTIMATE EXTERMINATORS- THE DALEKS WILL CONQUER AND RULE THE UNIVERSE!"