Rose Tyler woke to the sound of her alarm clock blaring. A hand snuck out of the covers, hitting the snooze button, before its owner bolted upright in alarm.
Rose glanced around, alarmed to find herself in her old bedroom at the Powell Estates. This wasn't right.
Rose searched her mind, trying to remember how she got here. Last thing she could remember, she was drowning, and now she was here, in her old bedroom, in her original universe.
But how was such a thing possible?
Rose caught a glimpse of the calendar out of the corner of her eye, and realized, with a jolt of excitement, that today was the day when she first met her first Doctor. Whether this was some crazy dream or reality, Rose had no intentions of letting this meeting pass by.
Rose quickly dressed and hurried to Henrik's, the department store which she worked out, or had worked at. It was confusing, trying to figure out which tense to use.
Rose fell back into her old routine easily, folding and putting away clothes with an air of boredom.
The day passed by slowly, but in a blur all the same, until, finally, the security guard handed Rose the envelope of lottery money as she pretended to make her way out.
Rose hid a grin as she rode the lift down into the basement, knowing she would be meeting the Doctor shortly.
"Wilson!" She called out as she walked down the hallway, despite knowing the man was dead.
Rose entered the storage room, noticing out of the corner of her eye how the mannequins swiveled their heads to watch her walk through the room, until, finally, the attacked.
A hand grabbed hers as Rose pressed herself against the wall, adrenaline running through her veins, owner of said hand saying one word. "Run!"
Rose followed the man who had yet to introduce himself as the Doctor, though she knew it was him, she would never fail to recognize those daft old ears.
"So, what are those things?" Rose asked casually once the Doctor had finished wrestling the arm off one of the Autons, which had managed to stick its arm through the door of the lift before it had fully closed, before throwing said arm to Rose, who caught it easily.
The Doctor glanced at her, shocked by how calm and collected she appeared to be, despite the fact most humans would be terrified by what they had just experienced. "Autons. Controlled by the Nestene Conscious. I'm the Doctor, by the way."
"Rose. Rose Tyler. I work at this shop."
"And how is it that a shop girl manages to keep calm in the face of danger?"
"Oh, Doctor," Rose laughed as the lift dinged as they reached the top floor. "You wouldn't believe me even if I told you."
"Yeah? Try me," The Doctor offered, staring down as Rose.
Rose shrugged, enjoying messing with the Doctor. She was certain that this wasn't how their first meeting went, but she was over a hundred years old, she was entitled to her fun. "Sorry, can't do that. Timelines and such. You know how that is, don't you?"
The Doctor gaped, before forcing himself to regain his composure. "Right. Well, Rose Tyler, obviously you're not going to forget about me, so might as well run, because this place is about to blow up."
"See you around, Doctor," Rose said before disappearing from the Doctor's view as she fled the building, hurrying to a safe distance to watch it explode.
"You don't do things halfway, do you, Doctor?" Rose muttered to herself as she watched the burning building for a moment, before turning and making her way back home.
Mickey and her mother were waiting for her at the flat, ready to pounce on her.
"Rose, are you alright?" Jackie fussed over her daughter.
"I'm fine, Mum," Rose assured her mother.
Mickey stepped forward, grinning at Rose. "No, you're not. You're in shock. You need a drink, you do. Come on, let's go to the pub."
Rose laughed. "There's a match on, isn't there?"
Mickey, dear, sweet, Mickey, always loyal, who met a doom that he didn't deserve, pouted. "Babe, I'm thinking about you!" He protested.
"There's a match on," Rose repeated, getting a shrug from the dark skinned man. "Go! I'm fine."
And she was. She was better than fine. Weird dream or not, she was getting a second chance with her Doctor, and nothing could ruin that for her.
"Don't know why you're up so earlier," Jackie commented the next morning after Rose slammed her hand against the alarm clock. "It's not like you have a job to go to."
Rose ignored her mother, instead focusing on getting dressed. "I just feel like this is a good day for me," Rose answered cheerfully.
"You could get compensation, you know," Jackie prattled on, ignoring Rose's words, before finally, once she realized Rose wasn't paying attention to her, the old girl in the young body choosing to stare absentmindedly at the wall with a small smile on her face, a plastic arm gripped tightly in her hands, Jackie returned to her room to dry her hair.
Rose waited, and waited, until finally, she heard the sound of the cat flap moving. She tossed the plastic arm on the sofa, and made her way to the door which she flung open, grinning down at a surprised Doctor.
"Oh, hello," the Time Lord said. "What are you doing here?"
Rose rolled her eyes. For someone so old, he sure was a bit daft. "I live here," she informed him.
"Well, what do you do that for?"
Rose ignored him. "Want some tea?" She offered, dragging him in by the sleeve of his leather jacket, dragging him past Jackie's room, who didn't even look up as the strange man passed her open door.
Rose went about making the Doctor and herself some tea, barely resisting the urge to make the Doctor's exactly as he liked it. "How do you take your tea?"
"Just a dash of milk," the Doctor replied, scanning the room with his sonic screwdriver.
Rose already knew the answer, and handed him his tea. "Sonic screwdriver?" She asked, nodding at the tool.
The Doctor's head swiveled so quickly Rose thought he might break his neck. "How did you know?"
"It's a screwdriver, and it's sonic?" Rose ventured a guess.
"You're human," the Doctor said. "So what's the signal coming from?"
Rose watched as the plastic arm threw itself through the air at the Doctor, wrapping its fingers around his neck.
Rose abandoned her tea, hurrying forward to tug vainly at the plastic limb, trying to remember how the Doctor had disabled the Auton arm the first time, before the memory floated through the front of her mind. The sonic screwdriver!
Rose scooped the sonic screwdriver off the ground where the Doctor had accidentally dropped it upon being attacked by a plastic limb, pointing it at the arm, which dropped to the ground, finally dead.
"Well, that was interesting," Rose commented lightly, the Doctor staring in disbelief.