Rose watched, slightly horrified, as the Doctor began to fight the Sycorax leader. With a sword, for Christ's sake. She didn't even know if the Doctor knew how to fight with a sword. She glanced at Jack, but he looked like he was enjoying watching the fight. Men, she thought.
For a moment, the Sycorax leader seemed to have the upper hand as the Doctor staggered backwards. Just as he straightened up, the Sycorax swung his sword around in a wide arc.
"Look out!" she shouted.
The Doctor ducked, and then looked over at her. "Oh yeah, that helped!" he exclaimed. "Wouldn't have thought of that otherwise, thanks!"
Rose was slightly taken aback. Rude and he hadn't lost of all of his previous face's sarcasm, apparently. The Doctor and the Sycorax re-engaged in their swordfight, their footwork carrying them up a staircase which, judging from the light that was streaming in from the top, led to the exterior of the ship.
"Bit of fresh air?" the Doctor said brightly. With that, he turned on his heel and raced up the stairs ahead of his opponent, who followed with swiftness that was unexpected given his size.
Rose waited for about half a second, and then with a shrug she jogged after them. The others followed after her, only a few of the Sycorax who had been guarding them coming along. Apparently they were less curious than humans.
They emerged from the staircase onto a platform. London stretched out underneath them, and Rose glanced at the edge of the platform. Of course there isn't a railing, she thought to herself. Why would there be a railing? She sighed and continued to watch the Doctor fight. The Sycorax leader caught the Doctor in the face with the pommel of his sword, or else his fist, Rose wasn't sure. Instinctively, she jogged a few steps towards the Doctor, wanting to help him.
"Stay back!" he cried out, holding up his free hand. "If you don't, you'll invalidate the challenge, and he'd win the planet!"
Rose skidded to a halt as the Doctor swiped the back of his free hand over his face. She felt a warm hand at the small of her back and looked over her shoulder to see that Jack had come to stand behind her. "Can't we do anything?" she whispered.
"Just let him do his thing," Jack replied. "If he says we can't interfere, then we don't interfere and start thinking about what to do once we can."
Rose nodded. "Any ideas?"
"Fresh out," Jack admitted. "I'm really hoping he wins this swordfight."
Rose shook her head. "Swordfights. In pajamas."
"Whatever works," Jack muttered. "Uh-oh," he said as the Sycorax leader maneuvered the Doctor towards the edge of the platform.
The Doctor lost his footing and stumbled, falling onto his back with his head and shoulders hanging over the edge. Without pausing, the Sycorax leader sliced down with his sword, and Rose watched in horror as the Doctor's sword hand, along with the sword it was holding, fell to the earth after being severed from his wrist.
The Doctor stared at the space where his hand used to be and then looked up at the Sycorax. "You cut my hand off," he said, and Rose wondered why the Doctor sounded annoyed rather than upset.
The Sycorax leader had thrust his arms in the air and was shouting triumphantly, but Rose was focused on the Doctor, who was getting to his feet. He didn't appear to be in pain at all.
"Well, now I know what sort of man I am," the Doctor said, getting the Sycorax's attention more from the dark, even tone than the volume of the words. "I'm lucky," he added with a quick smirk. "'Cos, quite by chance, I'm still within the first fifteen hours of my regeneration cycle."
At this, Jack's hand, which had tightened on Rose's waist, relaxed. "Lucky," he muttered. "Ridiculous man."
"Which means," the Doctor was saying, "that I've got just enough residual cellular energy to do this."
He held up the stump of his wrist for all to see. Rose gasped when she realized that his hand was growing back. Right down to the nails on the tips of his long, tapered fingers, which he wiggled for extra emphasis.
"Witchcraft," the Sycorax leader said, shocked into stillness.
"Time Lord," the Doctor corrected with a small smile.
Thinking quickly and taking a page from the Doctor's book, Rose reached out to the nearest armed Sycorax and grabbed his sword. "Doctor!" she shouted.
He looked up at the sound of his name, and she tossed him the sword. He caught it smoothly and spun it around before assuming the ready position again. "Oh," he called out cheerily, "so I'm still the Doctor, then?"
Rose grinned widely. "No arguments from me!" she yelled, although she was still going to sit him - and Jack, for that matter - down in the library and refuse to let them leave until they'd explained everything to her. That being said, now that she'd seen him in action, she no longer found it difficult to believe or accept that this was still the Doctor she knew and loved.
With a smile, the Doctor looked back at the Sycorax leader. "Wanna know the best bit?" he asked, mischief that was almost childlike coloring his tone. "This new hand?" He wiggled his fingers for emphasis before re-gripping his sword. "It's a fightin' hand!" he finished, in an exaggeratedly terrible American spaghetti Western accent that made Rose giggle and Jack stifle a groan.
He charged the Sycorax leader, and after a few clashes of steel, the Doctor managed to catch the Sycorax in the solar plexus with the butt of his sword. He groaned and clutched at his stomach, giving the Doctor room to hit him a couple more times with his sword's non-pointy end. Finally the Sycorax leader fell to the ground, ending up lying on his back looking up at the Doctor, loathing clear on his face even to Rose, who had no experience reading the faces of Sycorax.
"I win," the Doctor said, voice low and fierce.
"Then kill me," the Sycorax ground out.
A muscle ticked in the Doctor's jaw. "I'll spare your life," he said, "if you take this champion's command: leave this planet, and never return. What do you say?"
After a moment's hesitation, the Sycorax leader let out a gruff, "Yes."
The Doctor pushed the blade closer to the Sycorax's neck, so that the tip of the sword was pressed against his throat without breaking the skin. "Swear on the blood of your species!" the Doctor said angrily, his voice tight.
"I swear," the Sycorax leader said.
As if someone had flipped a switch, the Doctor immediately brightened, pulled back the sword, and looked for all the world as if he were having a picnic as opposed to engaging in a swordfight. "Well there we are then," he said, grinning. "Thanks for that. Cheers, big fella!" With that, he thrust the tip of his sword into the ground and left it there, wiggling a little.
He strolled towards his waiting friends, grinning broadly.
"Bravo!" said Harriet, clapping.
A slight skip in her step, Rose hurried to meet the Doctor. "That says it all," she said happily. "Bravo!"
Jack was right beside her. "I do love a man who knows how to handle his sword," he said, reaching out and shaking the Doctor's hand in both of his own. "It certainly appears that you do," he added, winking.
"Not bad for a man in his jim-jams," the Doctor agreed after sparing a good-natured eye-roll for Jack's characteristic innuendo. "Very Arthur Dent."
Rose helped the Doctor put his dressing gown back on, and he stuck his hands into his pockets. "Now there was a nice man," he started to say. "Hold on," he said, interrupting himself, "what have I got here?"
Amused, Rose watched him pull a satsuma out of his pocket. She giggled at the brief look of confusion on the Doctor's face.
"A satsuma," the Doctor continued. "Ah, that friend of your mother's," he said, face clearing as he remembered the apple from earlier. "I guess he really does like his snacks, doesn't he?" He circled Rose and Jack as he spoke, and Rose spun in place so she was facing him as he did so, enchanted by how animated his face was as he talked, at how there seemed to be less sadness in his eyes than there had been the day before.
"Doesn't that just sum up Christmas?" he was saying, tossing the satsuma up and down. He stopped circling Rose and Jack and began to head towards the staircase back down into the ship, where the TARDIS was waiting. "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?" he asked indignantly.
Suddenly, from behind them, Rose heard a roar. She stopped in her tracks and whirled around to see what was happening. It was the Sycorax leader, back on his feet and clearly ready to charge at them and kill them all. Rose looked back over at the Doctor, but he hadn't even stopped walking. She was about to call out to him when with a swift, economical movement, he threw the satsuma at a button on the side of the door to the staircase. It caused a section of the platform where the Sycorax leader was standing to retract. In the blink of an eye, the Sycorax leader was plummeting to the ground, yelling as he went.
"No second chances," the Doctor said coldly. "I'm that sort of man."
Rose jogged to catch up with him and saw that his earlier bouncy happiness had left his face without a trace. His face was cold and angry, and the blankness in it definitely reminded her of his previous self. Rose wondered if the Doctor was always a no second chances sort of man, or if that was something that came after the Time War and his being forced to destroy his own people and his own planet. Rose shivered at the thought. They'd made their way back into the ship and had stopped, gathered in a small group in front of the TARDIS. Rose slipped her hand into Jack's.
"Told you everything would work out," he whispered, leaning down to speak into her ear.
"I never doubted you for a minute," Rose whispered back with a small smile.
"Liar, liar, pants on fire," Jack said, his whisper going sing-song.
"Shh," Rose scolded. "The Doctor's about to say something."
Jack grinned rakishly and squeezed her hand, but he didn't say anything.
The Doctor, for his part, was looking out over the vast assembly of Sycorax. Raising his voice so he would be heard throughout the huge chamber, he spoke authoritatively. "By the ancient rites of combat, I forbid you to scavenge here for the rest of time. And when you go 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." He paused for effect and then, enunciating each word for full potency, said, "It… is… defended."
There was no audible response from the Sycorax, but when Rose suddenly found herself standing hand-in-hand with Jack not on the Sycorax ship, but in a courtyard a few streets away from the Powell Estate, she figured that was their way of saying that they agreed to the Doctor's terms.
"Where are we?" Jack asked, looking around curiously.
"We're just off Bloxom Road," Mickey said excitedly. "We're just round the corner, we did it!" He began to jump up and down in celebration.
The Doctor held up his hand, listening as the engines in the spaceship above their heads kicked into high gear. "Wait a minute," he said, eyes fixed on the ship.
Seconds later, the ship began to ascend higher and higher. Once it had reached a high enough altitude, it shot away. They watched until it was too far for them to see. Rose looked over at the Doctor to see him grinning once again. Mickey, for his part, was once again jumping up and down and had now started shouting in the general direction of the sky.
With a delighted grin, Rose dropped Jack's hand and jumped onto Mickey's back, shaking her fist at the heavens. "Yeah!" she shouted. "And don't come back!"
"It is defended!" Mickey yelled gleefully.
Rose jumped off of his back and gave him a quick hug. Then she ran over to Harriet's bemused assistant and threw her arms around his neck, kissing him noisily on the cheek. When she released him, she turned around and saw the Doctor hugging Harriet Jones while Jack and Mickey shadowboxed like children.
"Absolutely the same man," she heard Harriet say. Rose looked at the Doctor and smiled fondly. Yes, he was absolutely the same man, and she was quite relieved to find it was so.
Harriet and the Doctor both looked back up at the sky. "Are there many more out there?" Harriet asked.
"Oh, not just Sycorax," the Doctor answered. "Hundreds of species. Thousands of them. And the human race is drawing attention to itself," he added, sounding strangely proud of them. "Every day you're sending out probes and messages and signals… this planet's so noisy." He grinned. "You're getting noticed, more and more." He looked down at Harriet, who was now watching him with a serious look on her face. "You better get used to it," he finished.
Rose couldn't help finding the words slightly ominous, and judging from Harriet's face, she found them ominous as well. She tried to think of something to say to soften the words, but she was distracted by the sound of her mother calling her name.
"Rose!"
"Mum!" Rose said, whirling around to find her mum racing toward them from the direction of the Powell Estate. She rushed over to her and enfolded her in a bear hug.
"Speaking of trouble," she heard the Doctor say. She rolled her eyes good-naturedly.
"Oh my God," Jackie was saying. She pulled back and held Rose by the shoulders. "You did it, Rose!"
"You did it too," Rose said with a pointed glance at the Doctor. "It was the tea! Fixed him right up."
Jackie's eyes flew to the Doctor in disbelief. He smiled and nodded. "That was all I needed," he said. "Good cup o' tea."
"I said so!" Jackie exclaimed.
"And you were absolutely correct," Jack said, his usual flirty twinkle in his eye. "We should have listened to you from the start."
"Oh, you do go on," Jackie muttered. She glanced at the Doctor, then back to Rose. "Is it really him, though? Is it really the Doctor?"
"It's really him," Rose said happily.
"Oh my God," Jackie said suddenly, gaze fixed a few feet past the Doctor. "It's the bleedin' Prime Minister!"
Rose dissolved into giggles and the Doctor grinned. "Come here, you," he said to Jackie, holding out his arms for a hug.
Jackie goggled at him, which given that he'd never voluntarily touched her, let alone hugged her, was a completely appropriate and understandable reaction as far as Rose was concerned. Jackie looked at Rose as if to verify that the Doctor was really offering to hug her, and Rose gave her an encouraging nod. Still looking slightly flummoxed, Jackie threw her arms around the Doctor's neck and enfolded him in an enthusiastic hug. Grinning, Rose joined in and was quickly joined by Jack and Mickey. The Doctor made a noise that seemed perilously close to a giggle, which in turn made Rose giggle.
"Are you really better?" Jackie asked as the five of them separated.
"Right as rain," the Doctor said. "And in the nick of time, which was entirely due to your tea."
"You better not give me grief about my tea-making in a crisis again," she said, aiming the words mostly at Mickey but sparing a glance for Jack as well. "And you!" she said, rounding on Rose. "You left me!"
"It wasn't my fault!" Rose said indignantly, before adding, somewhat apologetically, "Sorry, though."
They chatted amicably for another minute or so and then suddenly their chatter was interrupted by the loud buzz of a giant laser beam of some kind shooting up from the ground somewhere reasonably close by. The first beam was swiftly joined by another four beams of green light, and they met at a point high above the earth. A single beam shot into space from that point.
"What is that?" Rose gasped, though she had some idea. "What's happening?"
The Doctor's face had gone dark and cold again, and he walked angrily over to Harriet Jones and her assistant. "That was murder!" he exclaimed.
"That was defense," Harriet returned, calmly. "It's adapted from alien technology," she added, voice still calm. "A ship that fell to Earth ten years ago."
"But they were leaving!" the Doctor yelled, unmoved by Harriet's excuse.
"You said yourself, Doctor… They'd go back to the stars and tell others about the Earth." She shrugged, and a hint of an apology crept into her eyes. "I'm sorry, Doctor, but you're not here all the time. You can't protect us all the time, because you come and you go and it's not like you leave a phone number where we can reach you. It happened today - people died, good men who were only trying to do good for their country and their planet. They were murdered, right in front of me, while you were sleeping." She shook her head. "When you're not here, Doctor… we have to defend ourselves."
Rose thought that actually sounded rather reasonable, although she did think in this particular case the Doctor was more in the right than Harriet was. After all, the Sycorax had been leaving.
"Britain's Golden Age," the Doctor spat out, voice bitter.
"It comes with a price," Harriet said solemnly.
"I gave them the wrong warning," the Doctor said, clearly warming up to a good tirade. Rose glanced worriedly at Jack. His face was carefully blank. Knowing him as she did, she thought his line of thinking was probably somewhat closer to Harriet's than the Doctor's. He definitely did not share the Doctor's aversion to using firepower to solve problems.
"I should have told them to run," the Doctor continued. "Run as fast as they can, run and hide, because the monsters are coming. The human race," he snarled.
"Those are the people I represent," Harriet returned, holding her ground. "I did it on their behalf."
"Then I should have stopped you," the Doctor said, tone menacing.
"Whoa, whoa," Jack said, finally stepping in. "Let's not come to blows here." Rose was relieved that he'd done it; she would have except she wasn't sure what to say, wasn't sure either of them would have listened to her.
The Doctor turned on Jack, eyes hard with fury. "Don't tell me you think what she did was right."
Jack held up his hands, palms out. "I can honestly say that I don't know what I would have done if I were in her position. And with all due respect, Doctor, she has something of a point about you not being here all the time."
Harriet gave Jack a small, tight smile. "If you don't like my methods, Doctor, perhaps you'd like to suggest different ones," she said, arching one eyebrow. "I'm all ears."
"I just told you," he said flatly. "You should have let them go."
"And what exactly should we do the next time an alien race decides to try to take over the planet?"
"Wait for me to show up!" the Doctor yelled.
"And if you don't!" Harriet answered, voice rising.
"Just stop!" Rose finally said, looking back and forth between the two of them. The words she'd been groping for had found their way to her tongue. "Jack is right! You're both a little bit right and a little bit wrong, and everyone - especially the people who live on this planet - will be better off if you'd stop fighting each other and worked out your differences. Five minutes ago you thought Harriet was brilliant!" Rose added, jabbing her finger in the Doctor's direction for emphasis. She turned to Harriet. "And you, you were hugging him and thinking he's brilliant."
Rose went over to where Jack was standing and stood next to him, shoulder to shoulder, a united front. "We did something great today, no matter how any of us feel about that laser thing," she said.
"Exactly," Jack agreed, picking up the thread. "We've seen what we can do when we're not at odds. Why fall apart now?"
"You're not suggesting that we just… stay here, just in case something happens?" the Doctor asked incredulously.
"Of course not," Rose said. "But you know," she added, turning to Harriet, "he might not have a phone, but I do." She gestured at Jackie and Mickey, who were watching the proceedings with trepidation. "They can always reach me, no matter where I am."
"Maybe you could put measures like that laser beam further down the list of possible contingency plans if you could call us before things got that far," Jack said.
Harriet nodded slowly. "I probably could." She looked over at the Doctor. "You know I only ever do what I think is the best option. For the greater good." She gave the Doctor a knowing stare. "I'm guessing you know a little something about that kind of choice."
The Doctor clenched his jaw, and Rose worried that he wasn't going to relent. He ran his fingers through his messy hair and then rubbed his chin. "I do," he finally said. "Yes. I do." He seemed to deflate a little, some of righteous anger and indignation draining out of him. He smiled wryly at Jack and Rose. "Completely new man, and my friends are still the best part of me."
He turned back to Harriet and gave her a stern glare. "Don't let me down again, Harriet Jones. No second chances," he added, echoing his earlier words on the Sycorax spaceship.
She nodded. "You're a remarkable man, Doctor. I'll do my best. It's all I can do."
They gazed at each other intently for a few seconds, as if sizing each other up in case of future conflict. Rose felt simultaneously as if a great disaster had been avoided and as if some new disaster were waiting in the wings.
"Until we meet again, Harriet Jones," the Doctor said formally.
She gave him a sad smile. "Until then," she said. She looked over at Rose. "It was wonderful seeing you, my dear," she said. "Even if the circumstances left something to be desired."
Rose nodded. "Same to you."
"Goodbye," Harriet said, looking at each of them in turn. Then she motioned to her assistant, and the two of them headed off in the opposite direction of the Powell Estate.
The Doctor silently watched them go until they rounded a corner and went out of sight. Then he took a deep breath and looked down at his clothes. "I need to change," he announced. "New man, new clothes. Not jim-jams, even if it is very Arthur Dent."
Author's Note: Sorry for the delay in getting this chapter up. I just started a new job, and settling in to that has got me a bit distracted. Just one more chapter to go after this one, and I promise I will make every effort to get it up in a timely manner. I do work Wednesday nights now, though, so it might be Thursday instead of Wednesday. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!