Sorry this took a while to post, I've been in Washington D.C for three days on a field trip for school. Obviously, I didn't really have time to write what with the 6-7 mile walking we did every day. Although the Metro was fun to ride on, made me feel like Rose on the tube or something.

Disclaimer, yada yada, no one care's, let's get to the episode.

Chapter 5: The Blue Box

The contents of its glowing gold innards spilled out far past where they should, coral arms spiraling up to hold a domed roof and gave off a very organic feel. John paused a moment to wonder if, somehow, this box was alive. He shook his head to clear his mind of such stupid thoughts, and he was blinded by the lights that shone out everywhere. A desk, glowing sea green, surrounded a long clear tube that also glowed pulsing sea foam green, and a ramp led up to the grated metal floor that held up the desk.

If that was all that was in the room, John still would've, and rightfully so, been amazed. But if he scrutinized the room, he saw corridors branching off from this one, hidden in the shadowy corners of the large, circular room.

"It's gonna follow us!" John glanced back at the door. It was still wood on the outside, though, right? But it couldn't be, this was… this was a free-folding tesseract design. No way was this possible, how did she manage to make this, or find it, or steal it from some government agency? Where did she get this?

"The assembled 'ordes of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door," she bustled around the desk, oblivious to John's staring around. "'n believe me, they've tried. Now shut up a minute," never mind that John could hardly speak at all the impossibilities he had seen today. "Y'see the arm, is too simple, but a head's perfect. I can use it to trace the signal back to the original source." She put the head on the desk and attached cables to it, then turned to face John.

"Right," John turned his eyes back on her, where she stood at the end of the ramp, hands in her pockets, fighting a smirk off her face. "Where d'ya wanna start?"

"Um, the inside's bigger than the outside?" John mentally kicked himself, so much for studying so hard and being so brilliant, he manages to come up with the obvious in every situation.

"Yes,"

"It's, it's alien," John finally decided, knowing it was impossible for anyone on earth to have this sort of ability.

"Yup," she nodded, staring at him, hands in her pockets, as if making sure he got this point very accurate. John's heart skipped a little as he thought was this must mean.

"You're an alien," John stated, knowing he was right.

"Yes," she whispered, than voiced louder, "is that alright?"

"Yeah," John replied quickly, almost too fast, but he looked at her with honesty in his eyes.

"It's called the TARDIS, this thing," she gestured around with her eyes and head, twisting a little bit. "T-A-R-D-I-S, that's Time and Relative Dimension in Space."

"So, it's a time machine," John laughed a little, glancing around. "What with time and dimension in its name, I assume it can travel through time and space?"

"Yup," the Doctor nodded, than John's day began to catch up with him and he took another look at Mickey's head on the console.

"Wh-what happened to the real Mickey?" he shuddered, forcing back emotion from his voice. His eyes were mercifully dry, though. "I mean, is he… y'know… dead?"

"Oh," her brow furrowed over her eyes. "I didn't think of that."

"He's my mate," John bit out. "You… pulled off his head… they copied him, and you didn't even think?" A bubbling sound started behind the Doctor and John's fury worsened. "And now you're just gonna let him melt?"

"Melt?" The Doctor turned wildly, staring at the slowly melting features of the doll-Mickey. "Oh no, no, no, no, no, NO!" She pulled at her black hair before dashing about the consoles, grabbing levers and pushing buttons, cranking handles and pumping.

"What're you doing?" John stared at her antics as she tumbled between jumping with excitement and screaming in annoyance. The whole machine was thrumming, howling in a blustery sort of noise.

"Reviving the signal, its fading!" she glanced at the screen and groaned once more. "No, no, no, no, no, no, NO!" She yanked on something. "Almost there, almost there! Here we go!" And the whole machine faded its noise as the Doctor dashed past John on the ramp and threw open the doors.

"Wait, what're you doing?" John shouted, running down the ramp as well, quite forgetting he was in a time and space machine. "It's not sa-" He tripped and stumbled onto the sidewalk, glancing around the street in perplexed fear, which slowly devolved to confusion.

He stood outside the London Eye, near the Thames. Oh, right, time and space.

"I lost the signal, I got so close!" the Doctor fumed to herself, punching air with a moan of dissatisfaction. She glanced back and saw his confusion. "Disappears there, reappears here, y'wouldn't understand," she sneered a little, turning back to the embankment.

"But what about that headless thing? It's still on the loose…" John limply pointed over his shoulder, obviously meaning 'back there' when, technically, it wasn't.

"Melted with the head, are you gonna witter on all night?" she scathed, obviously past annoyed and now more ticked off than anything else.

"I'll have to tell his mother," John tilted his head to the side, still numb from the events, thinking how he was going to do that. How would he explain all this…? He noticed the Doctor looking at him confused. "Mickey. I'll have to tell his mother he's dead and you just went and forgot him, again!" She rolled her eyes and John straightened, angered. "You are right, you are an alien." He made to walk away when the Doctor spoke again, bitterness clouding her voice as well.

"Look, even if I did forget some kid called Mickey…"

"Yeah, he's not a kid!" John turned, furious.

"…it was because I was busy trying to save the life of every stupid ape blundering about on top of this planet, alright?"

"Alright?"

"Yes, it is!" John stared at her in bemusement and fading anger; she really didn't care, but if she was right, then one person for all the planet… but it was still Mickey, still John's best friend for the good part of his life.

Why was she trying to save this planet, John suddenly thought. She didn't have any attachment to it; she wasn't born here, obviously. John realized she must've picked up an accent, so she'd been here a while. She had become attached to this planet too, must have; it was the only reason she might risk her life for it and become so 'damn-everything' to save it. But he asked anyways.

"If you are an alien, why do you sound like you're from the North?"

"Lots of planets have a North!" she cried back defensively, crossing her arms and looking away embarrassedly.

"What's a police public call box?" John asked, staring up at the glowing words.

"It's a telephone box from the 1950's," she grinned a little, a real one, as she petted the machine fondly, stroking the corners lovingly. "It's a disguise."

"Whatever," but John grinned at the Doctor's love for this strange little-big machine, never mind that a box from the 1950's would stand out in pretty much everywhere except 1950's London. "And this, this living-plastic thing, what's it got against us?"

"Nothin', it loves ya," the Doctor stepped away from the TARDIS with a final pat to its side. "You've got such a good planet. Lots of smoke and oil, plenty of toxins and dioxins in the air... perfect. Just what the Nestene Consciousness needs. Its food stock was destroyed in the war, all its protein plants rotted, so Earth... dinner!" She mimed eating with a grin on her face as she stepped closer.

"Anyway of stopping it?" John asked, leaning against the TARDIS.

"Anti-plastic," she pulled a long, thin tube of dark blue liquid from her coat.

"Anti-plastic," John studied it, knowing for certain that it must be a rather silly nickname for some long complicated string of consonants of a scientific name, but the Doctor didn't supply one.

"Anti-plastic!" the Doctor delighted in showing off her tube, running a finger quickly along the side of it. Than she grew serious, staring out over the Thames. "But first I've got to find it. How could you hide something that big in city this small?" She walked away to the Thames again.

"Hold on, hide what?" John shook his head confusedly.

"The transmitter," the Doctor turned back to him, frowning slightly. "The Consciousness is controlling every single piece of plastic so it needs a transmitter to boost the signal."

"What's it look like?" The Doctor seemed little surprised he asked, but inside she was wondering if he really wanted to get involved.

"Like a transmitter," oh that helped a lot, John raised an eyebrow as he turned to follow the Doctor's rambling path. "Round, massive, somewhere slap bang in the middle a'London. A huge, metal circular structure, like a dish, like a wheel! Close to where we're standing. Must be completely invisible." John looked behind her, an amused smile creeping onto his lips. The Doctor noted his pleased expression.

"What?" John tilted his head to look over her shoulder. Nonplussed, she turned around, a strange look on her face as she turned back to him. "What?"

With a sigh, John turned her around by the shoulders and pointed at the London Eye very clearly. "Oh..." she grinned, a spark flying into her eyes. "Fantastic!" And she dashed off, leaving John to follow or not. John, of course, ran after her and grabbed her hand. Just so he didn't lose her. That's it.