The Doctor, Martha, and Rose stood over the now unconscious inventor, Orville Toms. Through the freshly made hole in the wall they could see the car speeding with reckless abandon into buildings and people getting further and further away. As screams filled the air it was Martha that took action. She shouted desperately at the Doctor, not wanting an argument, "You two stop the car! I'll make sure he's okay!"
The Doctor nodded in silent agreement at Martha and grabbed Rose's hand while yelling, "Run!" The two promptly let go of each other's hands to be quicker and took off running after the car hoping they might be able to catch it. All around them it looked as if a tornado, or certainly some type of weather disturbance, had run havoc in central London which made them run with more intensity.
They both grinned between breathes as they were gaining ground. In fact they had gotten so close that with a well timed jump one of them could get on the back of the car. Whatever had happened was a malfunction and if one of them could climb in and reach the steering wheel than they could turn it off. Rose was beginning to really tire but she kept on trying to keep up with the Doctor.
The Doctor realized he was close enough and made a lunge for the vehicle. On his way down he grabbed for the car's bumper and was successful, unfortunately his legs were flaring in the air because the car was getting even faster. The Doctor reached his hand out to bring Rose with him but she couldn't reach and began to slow. Rose stopped once she knew she couldn't go farther as the Doctor tried to grab onto the hood of the car so he could slip into the exposed window that was still open from the presentation.
Suddenly, the car made a sharp turn and the Doctor lost his grip, sending him flying right into a carton of melons. The car sped away and the Doctor's dilemma gave Rose a new sense of energy, so she ran to him.
The Doctor stared a little groggily at first as Rose, who was breathing heavily, pushed a now crushed melon off of him. She than gave her a hand to help him up as he told her. "Thanks."
"Doctor, there's gotta be another way, it's too fast for us…" The Doctor looked like he agreed as he looked madly trying to find a solution. Rose offered one suddenly and just as excitedly. "We should use the TARDIS!"
The Doctor smiled like a million-watt bulb at his companion. "Brilliant! We can head off its path!"
They immediately took off running the opposite direction, leaving the car still wreaking havoc going the other direction. They knew that every second wasted meant more destruction and more death. Rose was tired and so was the Doctor, whether he admitted it or not, but neither would rest till they made it inside their ship.
The Doctor and Rose made it to the TARDIS, opened the doors, closed them, and didn't stop till they reached the console. They both fell against the console quickly catching their breaths as the Doctor talked between his. "If I guess how fast it's accelerating then we should transport to…" With faster than usual reflexes he set the controls and the TARDIS' engines started to pulsate.
Rose hung on desperately to the console during the rougher than usual transport. While still catching her breath she asked, "How are we gonna stop it?"
The Doctor explained as he turned dials and pressed buttons having already caught his breath. "The lifter is part of a Dalek. Apparently the car is acting like it too. We need to inhibit the lifter by using some kind of wave. You know when you have a radio, and you sit next to it while you're still on the phone?"
"Yeah!"
"Exactly! Big loud annoying piercing sound!" The TARDIS came to a halt as the Doctor rushed to the door with Rose trailing to find the car heading straight for them. "We need a radio!"
"Use my phone!" She promptly threw him her phone.
"Who do you want me to call?"
"I don't care. Doesn't matter!"
"Ok." The Doctor dialed the last number called, listed as "Mum," as the car zoomed closer to a collision with the TARDIS. The phone began to dial the aforementioned number as he put his sonic screwdriver close to the phone and turned it on.
A loud, irritating, high-pitched buzzing commenced making Rose in the TARDIS cover her ears along with anyone a couple blocks from the melee. It worked, as the car's engines stopped with a loud bang and it began to slow down abruptly. The Doctor grinned a winning smile as he ran back into the TARDIS as the car crept to a stop with a sputtering sound just shy of hitting the ship. If it went just a meter more it would have struck it.
Yelling and screaming in joy and relief filled the streets and was joined by the Doctor and Rose, who jumped into each other's arms in pure celebration, hugging.
The Doctor broke the hug and made his way to stand in the doorway of the TARDIS as Rose looked on. The car had stopped close enough where he had to stand there to even open the hood. He unfastened the offending hood and withdrew his sonic screwdriver. The Doctor pointed it at the Dalek-inspired lifting mechanism and turned it on. A huge spark emitted as it fizzled with smoke rising from it.
People began to gather witnessing the smoke to congratulate them but neither of the time travelers had time to be thanked. They shut the doors behind them leaving the car sitting now unusable. As they made their way back to the console to return the TARDIS back to the meeting hall to return to Martha, Rose causally asked, "Who'd you call, Doctor?"
"It's nobody, don't worry about it." Rose had noticed that the Doctor had said that so nonchalantly that she knew he was hiding something from her. "Right, now we need to go back, get Martha, and see if Orville is ok." The Doctor handed the phone back to Rose and set the controls on the TARDIS with a cheerful yet slightly quicker cadence than usual. He wasn't sure why he felt the need to get there quickly but something within him told that something wrong was still happening and Martha or Orville could be in danger.
While standing there in transit, Rose took a look at who he had called wondering why he had withheld telling her. Her heart caught in her chest as she read who it was; her mother. Seeing the name, knowing that the call could never be completed ever again, made her remember her decision that she had made. Never again would she see her mum or even talk to her. It had hurt before on the TARDIS but here was a simple communication she had relied on even back when she traveled with the Doctor before being separated from him. She couldn't even call her mum anymore and the world fell down on her as she silently cried.
The Doctor's face was grinning in transit until he met hers. She was crying but was pretending not to, which soured his mood because he knew why. He had hoped to prevent reality from hitting home by not sharing who he had dialed when his thoughts turned inward, blaming himself for having letting her choose. The Doctor had let Rose down by being selfish because deep down he had wanted her here. Unfortunately, he could not go back in time to force her hand to make the right choice for her.
The TARDIS landed right behind the exhibition hall where they had left Martha in with a thud that shook both of them out of their own thoughts and emotions quickly. The Doctor and Rose walked out, closing the doors behind them, before using the back door that was unlocked to gain the closest entry back into the building.
They made their way through the meeting hall kitchen and opened the doors to the main hall. They were ready to greet Martha happily, but what they found chilled them both to the bone, freezing them in place.
Martha stood there, terrified, looking at them with Orville Toms, fully conscious, holding one of her arms and with the other pressing a gun to her head…