The Little Street Girl

by MyLadyOfStories

Jace is a street girl, and has been for 2 years. She ran from her foster parents when she was 12, and never looked back. Jace was doing well, living anonymously as a boy until the spaceship crashed into Big Ben. And then everything changed when the Doctor found her. He gave her a home.

2. Saving the World

Jace:

Before the creature, or Slitheen, or whatever the hell it wanted to call itself, could get me, I ducked, ripping off the Doctor's ID card before it killed him along with the rest of the people in the room. He grinned at me. "Never under estimate a little smart girl." Then I pushed it around the neck of the big green thing, enveloping it in the electricity.

The Doctor pulled me back out, looking at all the armed police, including the one I threatened, still without a gun. I thought I left it where he could find it. "Oi! If you want aliens, you've got them. They're inside Downing Street. Come on!"

They all followed us, but by the time we got back into the room, they were already ready for us, the alien covered up. Man, this was pretty weird, a few hours ago I was trying to sleep in an alley way again, and now I was helping another alien stop mean aliens taking over the planet. "Where have you been? I called for help. I sounded the alarm. There was this lightening, this kind of, er, electricity, and they all collapsed."

The policemen checked the bodies and the one I threatened, the Welsh Sergeant spoke. "I think they're all dead."

Green nodded emphatically, pointing at me. "That's what I'm saying. She did it! That girl there with the man's help." Juvie it was then, I guessed.

"I think you will find the Prime Minister is an alien in disguise." The Doctor tried, still holding my good hand carefully before sighing. "That's never going to work, is it?" The policemen shook their heads. "Fair enough."

And then we were running again, before we got trapped in the corridor, the General, or whatever was wearing his suit, pointed at us both. "Under the jurisdiction of the Emergency Protocols, I authorise you to execute this man and take the girl prisoner to pay for the lives of those we've just lost."

Oh, hell no. But the Doctor had an exit plan. "Well, now, yes, you see, er, the thing is, if I was you, if I was going to execute someone by backing them against the wall, between you, Jace and me, little word of advice." The wall behind us dinged and it opened to show a lift. "Don't stand them against the lift!"

We went back into it and went up a floor, seeing another of the big green aliens trapping the other woman and Rose. So I smiled, getting it's attention. "Hello!" They ran in behind it and the Doctor closed the doors, going up again. Then we reached the top floor, seeing a large settee, that the new lady ran behind and I went behind the cabinet with Rose while the Doctor left the lift on the second floor.

But another Slitheen came in, taunting us as Rose pulled me with her behind the curtains. And then two more came in, and I guessed they were the ones from downstairs. "My brothers."

"Happy hunting?"

The female one smiled at them, I could hear it in her voice. "It's wonderful. The more you prolong it, the more they stink."

"Sweat and fear."

"I can smell an old girl. Stale bird and brittle bones."

The female spoke again. "And two ripe youngsters, all hormones and adrenalin, one too small for much meet, though fresh enough to bend before she snaps." She pulled back the curtain, and Rose screamed, putting me behind her as the other woman, trying to get in front of us.

"No! Take me first! Take me!"

Then the Doctor burst in with a fire extinguisher, spraying the male Slitheen with CO2, shouting to us. "Out, with me!" I saw a cord for the curtains and yanked at it with my good hand, the other still held tight around my middle as the curtain fell down over Margaret. "Who the hell are you?" He asked the woman, and she still found the time to pull out her ID card, showing her photo.

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North."

I smiled a little, knowing that the extinguisher was quickly running out of CO2. "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise." And then we ran out as the Doctor dropped the red can, trying to get away from the aliens.

"We need to head to the Cabinet Room." The Doctor told us, as we were like connecting monkeys, the Doctor pulling Harriet, who was pulling Rose who was pulling me. Well, I only had one working hand.

Harry had a good point to say then, the Doctor beaming back at her. "The Emergency Protocols are in there. They give instructions for aliens."

"Harriet Jones, I like you."

"And I like you too."

The Slitheen were still chasing us through the corridors and rooms until we managed to get to the Cabinet room where he grabbed a decanter of what looked like whiskey from the side table. I hated that stuff, it always made him... It just made him 10 times worse. "One more move and my sonic device will triplicate the flammability of this alcohol. Whoof, we all go up. So back off." They all took a step back into the outer office. "Right then. Question time. Who exactly are the Slitheen?"

"They're aliens." Harriet said, making me sigh a little.

"Yes. We got that, thanks."

The front Slitheen looked at us then, as I stood closest to the Doctor, my innate curiosity stopping any fear from getting the better of me. "Who are you, Doctor, if not human? Yet you play so easily with this human girl."

"Who's not human?"

"He's not human." Rose replied. "But Jace is, she's just his Ward apparently."

"He's not human?"

"Can I have a bit of hush?"

"Sorry."

The Doctor nodded a little while I was smiling to myself. This was so weird and scary, but it was so fun at the same time. "So, what's the plan?"

"But he's got a Northern accent."

Rose was getting a little frustrated now. "Lots of planets have a north."

"I said hush." They were silent, Harriet looking really sheepish. "Come on. You've got a spaceship hidden in the North Sea. It's transmitting a signal. You've murdered your way to the top of government. What for, invasion?"

The one that used to be General Asquith frowned a little. "Why would we invade this God-forsaken rock?"

"Then something's brought the Slitheen race here. What is it?"

And this confused them further. "The Slitheen race?"

"Slitheen is not our species. Slitheen is our surname. Jocrassa Fel Fotch Pasameer-Day-Slitheen at your service."

That made sense, the female called them her brothers. "So, you're family. A family business." I nodded, starting to understand. "Then you're out to make a profit. How can you do that on a God-forsaken rock?" Rose and Harriet were both looking at me. "Hi, Jaclyn Monroe, my intelligence is 4 times greater than that of your typical 14 year old, got a problem?" They shook their heads. "Thanks."

"Ah, excuse me?" The General pointed to the weird torch thing in the Doctor's hand and the whiskey. "Your device will do what? Triplicate the flammability?"

Oh, right. Whiskey wasn't that flammable, at least it wasn't the most volatile. "Is that what I said?"

"You're making it up."

He gave a grin, passing it back to Harriet, who was clutching the Red Box. "Ah, well! Nice try. Harriet, have a drink. I think you're gonna need it."

"You pass it to the left first."

I was to the Doctor's left. "Harriet, I'm 14, not old enough to drink."

"Good point." She took the bottle instead. "Thanks."

The Slitheen smiled a little. "Now we can end this hunt with a slaughter."

"Don't you think we should run?" Rose asked us, while I was examining the wall.

"Fascinating history, Downing Street." I muttered. "It was raining too hard to sit outside last year, so I sat in a library and it was the interesting book in there. Stupid cutbacks. Two thousand years ago, this was marsh land. 1730, it was occupied by a Mister Chicken. He was a nice man. 1796, this was the Cabinet Room. If the Cabinet's in session and in danger, these are about the four most safest walls in the whole of Great Britain. End of lesson." I found the small panel and pressed a button, causing metal shutters to crash shut across the windows and doors.

The Doctor beamed at me, and then held up his hand for a high five. I held up my bad wrist and he hugged me instead. "You're brilliant. Installed in 1991. Three inches of steel lining every single wall. They'll never get in."

"And how do we get out?" Rose asked, which made us look at each other, the door, and then back at them.

"Ah."

We didn't know what to do then, and the Doctor grimly saw the man who didn't let Rose into the meeting before hand, dead on the floor and dragged him into a small store room where the also deceased Prime Minister was also laid out. "What was his name?" I asked softly, unable to take my eyes off him. He was dead, and I'd spoken to him, just before it happened. It was just like mum, dad and Katie all over again...

"Who?"

"This one." The Doctor asked, while Rose took my hand giving it a squeeze. "The secretary or whatever he was called."

Harriet thought for a moment. "I don't know. I talked to him. I brought him a cup of coffee. I never asked his name."

This seemed to upset her, so he changed the subject. "Sorry. Right, what have we got? Any terminals, anything?"

"No." Rose sighed a little. "This place is antique. What I don't get is, when they killed the Prime Minister, why didn't they use him as a disguise?"

"He's too slim. They're big old beasts. They need to fit inside big humans." The Doctor explained to her, and I remembered the weird looking things around their necks. That must be how they did it.

She still didn't understand much. "But the Slitheen are about eight feet. How do they fit inside?"

"That's the device around their necks." I told her, getting her to look at me. "It must be some sort of compression field. Literally shrinks them down a bit. That's why there's all that gas. It's a big exchange."

"Wish I had a compression field. I could fit a size smaller." She smiled a little, then looked at how skinny I was. "Actually, I think I like myself how I am." Yeah, most people thought that.

Harriet got a little annoyed them. "Excuse me, people are dead! This is not the time for making jokes."

"Sorry." She smiled a little. "You get used to this stuff when you're friends with him. You wait, Jace'll be the same in a few weeks."

"Well, that's a strange friendship."

"Harriet Jones." The Doctor said, and she looked at him while he had a thoughtful expression. "I've heard that name before. Harriet Jones. You're not famous for anything, are you?"

"Oh, hardly."

But he didn't drop it, desperate to know. "Rings a bell. Harriet Jones?"

Harriet just shook her head. "Lifelong backbencher I'm afraid, and a fat lot of use I'm being now. The Protocols are redundant. They list the people who could help and they're all dead downstairs." No one was ever unimportant though.

"Hasn't it got, like, defence codes and things? Couldn't we just launch a nuclear bomb at them?" Rose asked, and we both looked at her. That would kill a lot more people than just the Slitheen, did she not remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

The elder woman frowned at her. "You're a very violent young woman."

"I'm serious. We could." I'd rather not be a mass murder, at least not at 14.

"Well, there would be nothing like that in there. Nuclear strikes do need a release code, yeah, but it's kept secret by the United Nations."

She smiled a little at me. "What Jace said."

The Doctor, who'd been pretty silent for a while, frowned a little. "Say that again."

"What, about the codes?"

"Anything. All of it."

Um, OK... "Well, the British Isles can't gain access to atomic weapons without a Special Resolution from the UN. I read about that not long ago, when I got snowed into another library overnight." That had been my best nights sleep for a while.

Rose scoffed a little. "Like that's ever stopped them." Good point.

"Exactly, given our past record." Harriet agreed, while I sat on the table, swinging my legs absently. This was definitely the weirdest day of my life, and possibly the best since the accident. "And I voted against that, thank you very much. The codes have been taken out of the government's hands and given to the UN. Is it important?"

"Everything's important." The Doctor and I said together. We were pretty well matched, and I was glad I trusted him and let him take me into his bizarre and wonderful ship.

The eldest woman sighed again, pacing slightly, her long skirt swishing across the posh carpet. Poshest place I'd ever been and probably ever would go. "If we only knew what the Slitheen wanted. Listen to me. I'm saying Slitheen as if it's normal." I guessed this was normal for the Doctor and Rose.

"What do they want, though?"

I paused for a moment, thinking of the main reasons humans invaded other place. "Well, they're just one family, so it's not an invasion. They don't want Slitheen World. They're out to make money. That means they want to use something. Something here on Earth. Some kind of asset."

"Like what, gold? Oil? Water?" Harriet listed and the Doctor looked impressed.

"You're very good at this."

She smiled a little. "Thank you."

"Harriet Jones." He said again, looking really annoyed that he couldn't place her name. "Why do I know that name?"

There was a beep and Rose looked shocked before pulling out her small mobile phone. "Oh, that's me."

"But we're sealed off. How did you get a signal?"

She shrugged, indicating to the Doctor. "He zapped it. Super phone."

"Then we can phone for help." Harry realised, pointing to it. "You must have contacts."

The Doctor nodded, looking grim. "Dead downstairs, yeah."

"It's Mickey."

He sighed exasperatedly. "Oh, tell your stupid boyfriend we're busy."

"Yeah, he's not so stupid after all." She smiled proudly, showing us a photo of the Slitheen that he'd sent us. Well, nice one.

She dialled him and we got to work on trying to determine exactly what had happened there. "No, no, no, no, no. Not just alien, but like, proper alien. All stinking, and wet, and disgusting. And more to the point, it wanted to kill us!"

We heard Jackie in the background. "I could've died!" Yeah, we still could, thanks.

"Is she all right, though?" Rose asked worriedly. "Don't put her on, just tell me." Yeah, Jackie on the phone, you could always hear her, like she was never going to shut up. Her phone bill must be through the roof.

The Doctor took Rose's phone, and got right to the point. "Is that Ricky? Don't talk, just shut up and go to your computer."

"It's Mickey, and why should I?"

He sighed again, looking really pained to say what he was about to. "Mickey the Idiot, I might just choke before I finish this sentence, but, er, I need you."

There was a pause before he came back through as the Doctor put the phone through the speaker on the table. "It says password."

"Say again."

"It's asking for the password."

"Buffalo. Two Fs, one L." I was so memorising that for future use.

Jackie came back through again, sounding curious. "So, what's that website?"

"All the secret information known to mankind." Well, some of it. "See, they've known about aliens for years. They just kept us in the dark."

The Doctor decided to be mean again. "Mickey, you were born in the dark."

Rose sighed a little. "Oh, leave him alone."

"Thank you." Mickey replied, sounding a little smug at that. "Password again."

"Just repeat it every time."

I started thinking a little then, wondering bout things. "Big Ben - why did the Slitheen go and hit Big Ben?"

Harriet frowned a little. "You said to gather the experts, to kill them."

"That lot would've gathered for a weather balloon." The Doctor scoffed, shaking his head a little. "You don't need to crash land in the middle of London. Nicely though, Jace." I liked this, I had people taking me seriously.

"The Slitheen are hiding, but then they put the entire planet on Red alert." Rose added, making another good point. "What would they do that for?"

"Oh, listen to her." Jackie sneered a little, and I felt a little pang of anger. She was being really good, how many other people could still think straight while under attack like this?

"At least I'm trying."

"Well, I've got a question, if you don't mind." She said haughtily, and I could hear how scared she really was for her daughter then. "Since that man walked into our lives, I have been attacked in the streets. I have had creatures from the pits of hell in my own living room, and my daughter disappear off the face of the Earth."

Rose interjected then, trying to defend him. "I told you what happened."

"I'm talking to him." Jacks snapped, sending us all into silence. "'Cos I've seen this life of yours, Doctor. And maybe you get off on it, and maybe you think it's all clever and smart, but you tell me. Just answer me this. Is my daughter safe?"

"I'm fine."

"Is she safe?" She asked again. "Will she always be safe? Can you promise me that? Well, what's the answer? Because you've just brought another kid into this, and this is not what she needs." No, this was exactly what I needed. To get away from this planet.

The Doctor didn't answer, but was staring silently between Rose and I for a moment until Mickey came back through and the topic was dropped. For now. "We're in."

"Now then, on the left at the top, there's a tab, an icon. Little concentric circles. Click on that."

There was a little noise as he did so, and he sounded confused. "What is it?"

"The Slitheen have got a spaceship in the North Sea and it's transmitting that signal. Now hush, let me work out what it's saying." There was a small blip from Jackie, who was still complaining, but then there was silence. "It's some sort of message."

"What's it say?"

He shook his head a little. "Don't know. It's on a loop, keeps repeating." Something dinged on the other end. "Hush!"

"That's not me. Go and see who that is." Mickey told Jackie in the background, who complained a little, saying about the time. "Well, go and tell them that."

"It's beaming out into space, who's it for?"

But then there was a slam as the door shut again, and Jackie came back, screeching to high heaven. "It's him! It's the thing, it's the Slipeen!" Slitheen, if it's going to kill you you may as well call it by it's proper name.

"They've found us."

"Mickey, I need that signal." Uh, I'd rather they lived, and so would everyone else. Mickey gave me food from time to time.

"Never mind the signal, get out! Mum, just get out! Get out!"

"We can't. It's by the front door." Mickey told us, sounding scared now. "Oh, my God, it's unmasking. It's going to kill us."

Harriet looked at the Doctor and I. "There's got to be some way of stopping them! You're supposed to be the expert and 4 times smarter than your average 14 year old, think of something!"

What did she think we were doing?! "We're trying!"

"That's my mother." Rose told him softly, while they were making a plan to get out on the other end.

That seemed to snap him into focus. "Right, If we're going to find their weakness, we need to find out where they're from. Which planet. So, judging by their basic shape, that narrows it down to five thousand planets within travelling distance. What else do we know about them? Information!"

"They're green." Obviously.

"Yep, narrows it down."

"Good sense of smell."

"Narrows it down."

"They can smell adrenalin and age, as well as body fat."

"Narrows it down."

"The pig technology."

"Narrows it down."

"The spaceship in the Thames, you said slipstream engine?" Must have been before he found me then.

"Narrows it down."

Mickey came back through. "It's getting in!"

"They hunt like it's a ritual."

"Narrows it down."

And then Harriet came through. "Wait a minute. Did you notice? When they fart, if you'll pardon the word, it doesn't just smell like a fart, if you'll pardon the word, it's something else. What is it? It's more like, er-"

"Bad breath!"

"That's it!"

"Calcium decay!" I realised, looking at the Doctor who was grinning even bigger now.

"Now, that narrows it down! Calcium phosphate. Organic calcium. Living calcium. Creatures made out of living calcium. What else? What else? Hyphenated surname. Yes! That narrows it down to one planet. Raxacoricofallapatorius!"

"Oh, yeah, great. We could write 'em a letter." Mickey scoffed, and we heard the door break apart.

"Get into the kitchen! Calcium, weakened by the compression field. Acetic acid. Vinegar!" I shouted, hoping that they heard and knew what to grab.

"Just like Hannibal!" Harriet shouted and I frowned. "You're too young, dear, but it's a film." Um, OK...

"Just like Hannibal." The Doctor agreed though. "Mickey, have you got any vinegar?"

"How should I know?"

Well, that was rather obvious. "It's your kitchen."

"Cupboard by the sink, middle shelf." Rose told him, making me laugh. She knew his place better than he did.

Jackie came through then, sounding frustrated. "What do you need?"

"Anything with vinegar!"

There was a pause as Jackie got to work mixing things together. "Gherkins. Yeah, pickled onions. Pickled eggs."

The Doctor and I grimaced at Rose. "And you kiss this man?" All those smells mixed together...

There was a pause then and there was a large farting noise before a popping squelch that sounded vile. "Hannibal?" Rose questioned after a moment. I was curious myself to be honest.

"Hannibal crossed the Alps by dissolving boulders with vinegar." Harriet explained, which made sense but it would have taken him years.

I laughed a little. "Oh. Well, there you go then." The adults all toasted a glass from the decanter while I went without. I didn't mind. I knew what alcohol could do to someone.

And then Mickey came back through, sounding terrified. "Listen to this."

Whatever we were listening to was crackly through the speaker but the voice of one of the Slitheen was unmistakable. "Our inspectors have searched the sky above our heads, and they have found massive weapons of destruction capable of being deployed within forty five seconds."

That did not sound good. "What?"

"Our technicians can baffle the alien probes, but not for long. We are facing extinction, unless we strike first. The United Kingdom stands directly beneath the belly of the mother ship. I beg of the United Nations, pass an emergency resolution. Give us the access codes. A nuclear strike at the Heart of the beast is our only chance of survival because from this moment on it is my solemn duty to inform you planet Earth is at war."

The Doctor looked alcohol round the 3 of us with a stony expression on his face. "He's making it up. There's no weapons up there, there's no threat. He just invented it."

Harriet was the first to speak. "Do you think they'll believe him?"

"They did last time. They believe he really is the prime minister. That's why the Slitheen went for spectacle. They want the whole world panicking, because us, you us get scared, we lash out." I'd never done that. I'd been too scared to even move when, when he... Stop it Jace! Just stop it!

Rose nodded a little as the Doctor came over and wrapped an arm around me, letting me rest into him. I was so tired... "They release the defence code."

"And the Slitheen go nuclear."

"But why?" Harriet asked, before the Doctor pulled me over to the shutters and opened them.

"You get the codes, release the missiles, but not into space because there's nothing there. You attack every other country on Earth." He said, his voice devoid of emotion. "They retaliate, fight back. World War Three. Whole planet gets nuked."

The female, the only one back in her skin suit, smiled at us from the front. "And we can sit through it safe in our spaceship waiting in the Thames. Not crashed, just parked. Only two minutes away."

Harriet was horrified at the prospect, staring at them. "But you'll destroy the planet, this beautiful place. What for?"

"Profit." I sniffed, understanding now. "That's what the signal is beaming into space. An advert."

The female, who I think used the human name Margaret, nodded again. "The sale of the century. We reduce the Earth to molten slag, then sell it piece by piece. Radioactive chucks, capable of powering every cut-price star liner and budget cargo ship. There's a recession out there, Doctor, Street Girl. People are buying cheap. This rock becomes raw fuel."

"At the cost of five billion lives."

"Bargain."

"I give you a choice. Leave this planet or I'll stop you." The Doctor warned her, and I looked at his face, at how serious he was. He was so protective over us, the whole human race and he had everyone to choose from. Why did he choose to help me over everyone else? Because I was smart? I was hurt? Why?

"What, you? Trapped in your box? With your daughter is she? Jace Smith, the little street girl?"

"Yes. Me. And Jace." And then he closed the shutters again, on Margaret's laughing face, just as she started to worry.

We waited until morning, or at least Jackie and Mickey told us it was morning. We were in complete artificial light because of the shutters. "All right, Doctor. I'm not saying I trust you, but there must be something you can do."

"If we could ferment the port, we could make acetic acid." Harriet suggested, but we didn't have enough time for that. It was only a couple of days old, that took weeks.

Rose was still on phone duty. Well, it was her boyfriend and mum. "Mickey, any luck?"

"There's loads of emergency numbers." OK, that sounded promising. "They're all on voicemail." Maybe not then.

"Voicemail dooms us all."

"If we could just get out of here." I muttered, picking at the cast. My wrist was feeling a lot better right now. Alien tech I supposed.

The Doctor sighed a little. "There's a way out."

"What?" We all looked at him sharply.

"There's always been a way out."

I frowned a little, getting to my feet again. "Then why don't we use it?"

"Because I can't guarantee your daughter will be safe. Or that Jace will be."

Jackie came right back through sounding terrified at the idea and we hadn't even heard it. "Don't you dare. Whatever it is, don't you dare."

He sighed a little, shaking his head. "That's the thing. If I don't dare, everyone dies."

"Do it." I told him, making him look at me.

"You don't even know what it is. You'd just let me? You met me yesterday, and you'd already put your life in my hands?"

"Yeah. I was dead with or without you." I admitted, knowing that it was getting too cold for me again, and that I had no where I could hide that was warm. A fire was a give away that someone was there, and I was trying to stay hidden.

"Please, Doctor." Jackie was pleading now. "Please. She's my daughter. She's just a kid, they both are."

[Cabinet Room]

"Do you think I don't know that?" He told her, staring at the phone. "Because this is my life, Jackie. It's not fun, it's not smart, it's just standing up and making a decision because nobody else will."

Rose and I were both looking at him. "Then what're you waiting for?"

His gaze was hard and unyielding, fixed on the both of us. "I could save the world but lose you two." That looked like it was going to be so hard on him, when like he said, he'd only known me for a day.

"Except it's not your decision, Doctor. It's mine."

There was silence at that until Jackie spoke up from the other end of the phone. "And who the hell are you?!

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North." Well, at least she didn't get the ID card out. "The only elected representative in this room, chosen by the people for the people. And on behalf of the people, I command you. Do it."

"How do we get out?" Rose asked, but I looked at the door, knowing the Slitheen were still outside it.

"We don't." I said softly. "We stay here."

Then the Doctor grabbed the Emergency Protocols from the Red Box, as Mickey got to work hacking the Navy. "Use the buffalo password. It overrides everything."

"We're in. Here it is. HMS Taurean, Trafalgar Class submarine, ten miles off the coast of Plymouth."

He nodded a little, though Mickey wouldn't be able to see it. "Right, we need to select a missile."

"We can't go nuclear." I reminded him. "We don't have the defence codes. And I don't want a repeat of Hiroshima, that was horrific."

The Doctor gave me a small smile for that, which told me he approved of my thinking. "We don't need it. All we need's an ordinary missile. What's the first category?"

"Sub Harpoon, UGM-A4A" I didn't know anything about missiles, seeing as books on those were rarely in libraries.

"That's the one. Select." There was a pause. "You ready for this?" Mickey agreed quietly. "Mickey the idiot, the world is in your hands. Fire."

Jackie took in a big breath on the other end. "Oh, my God."

"How solid are these?" Harriet asked, pointing to the walls.

"Not solid enough. Built for short range attack, nothing this big." I replied, looking at the other three people in the room. "All right, now I'm making the decision. I'm not going to die, I've survived enough on the streets, and this isn't how I'm going. We're going to ride this one out. Earthquakes. You can survive them by standing under a door frame. Now, this cupboard's small so it's strong. Come and help me. Come on."

Harriet started helping me, as did Rose, and I knew the missile was heading up the channel as we went. "It's on radar." Mickey told us, once it was nearly empty. "Counter defence five five six."

"Stop them intercepting it."

"I'm doing it now."

"Good boy." I shouted, wondering what the hell was in half this stuff to make it this heavy. Well, politicians, they liked meaningless paper work and alcohol.

"Five five six neutralised." Mickey shouted, as the Doctor grabbed Rose's phone and ran into the cupboard with us.

"Here we go. Nice knowing you both." Harriet shouted as the sound of the missile was getting closer. "Hannibal!" OK, it was official, I was going to have to watch that film.

The Doctor quickly wrapped his arms around me, pulling me to the ground as the cupboard shook and rolled around in what must have been the remains of the building before we fell still. I was still in the Doctors arms, my face pressed close into him as I breathed hard, expecting us to suddenly explode again and be cooked inside the metal box.

But then the Doctor stood up, pulling me at the same time, wiping my hair off my face and checking me over before pushing the steel door off. Harriet went out fist, looking at it with a small smile. "Made in Britain."

"Oh, my God. Are you all right?" A soldier asked, the one I'd threatened again, running up. Well, I didn't get him killed at least.

"Harriet Jones. MP, Flydale North." She showed the ID again. This was getting ridiculous, people should know who she is by now. "I want you to contact UN immediately. Tell the ambassadors the crisis is over. They can step down. Go on, tell the news."

The man nodded, looking at her and then warily at me. I waved cheerily with my broken wrist, showing him that I was in fact hurt. "Yes, ma'am."

"Someone's got a hell of a job sorting this lot out." She sighed, and then put her hand to her mouth. "Oh, Lord. We haven't even got a Prime Minister."

"Maybe you should have a go." The Doctor suggested, still holding my good hand lightly as we manoeuvred the rubble of the most famous political home in the UK. I was definitely an anarchist, I helped blow it up.

She stared at him for a moment. "Me? Huh. I'm only a back-bencher."

"I'd vote for you." Rose smiled.

"I would too, if a, I was old enough, and b, I wasn't legally missing and presumed dead."

Harriet gave me a look at that, as she looked at the massive crowds in front of us. "l Now, don't be silly. Look, I'd better go and see if I can help. Hang on! We're safe! The Earth is safe!"

"I thought I knew the name." The Doctor smiled at us, following her at a slower pace. "Harriet Jones, future Prime Minister. Elected for three successive terms. The architect of Britain's Golden Age."

DW

A little while later, Rose was with her mum and Mickey, and I'd been taken with the Doctor to the TARDIS, where he changed the cast on my wrist, scanning it to show how quickly the break had started fusing back together. "You're a fast healer, even with the technology." He commented, putting a TARDIS blue sleeve over it and quickly scribbling a doodle on it, saying get well soon..

"Really?" I laughed, grabbing the pen and doing a squiggle on his hand before ducking away. "Why did you help me? Out of everyone out there, why me?"

The Doctor gave me a warm smile, then walked forward and hugged me a little. "Because you needed to get away. You're limited here. You could be smarter than Einstein, Jace, and you were just living on the street instead on maximising your potential."

"So you wanted to make me smarter?"

"No, well, yes, but I also want to make sure you never end up on the streets again. You really don't deserve to end up back there, with them. I've been on the social listing, and Jaclyn Monroe isn't here any longer, she was found dead in the rubble of 10 Downing Street. I've given you a new identity. Jace Smith. I hope you don't mind, I had to put you down as my daughter, means it's easier to keep you tied to me if you get lost."

H, he got me out... No matter what, I'd never be taken back to them... I was free and just... I could do anything. "Thank you. Oh my God, thank you do much..." I hugged him again, smiling more than I had in 7 years because I really just didn't have anything since then. Being carted from foster home to foster home because no one could handle me, and then being adopted by a family that from day one hit me, just without ever getting it to show.

"You're welcome, Jace. Now, we need to call Rose and let her know how long we're going to be."

I nodded and followed him back through to the console room, where he called Rose's mobile, putting it on speaker. "Hello?" She answered hesitantly.

"Right, we'll be a couple of hours, then we can go. Jace is coming with us, no matter what your mother says."

"You've got a phone?" Well, obviously.

"You think I can travel through space and time, as well as hack into the social records to kill someone yet recreate them as someone completely different and I haven't got a phone? Like I said, couple of hours. I've just got to send out this dispersal. There you go. That's cancelling out the Slitheen's advert in case any bargain hunters turn up."

There was an awkward silence before she came back through. "Er, my mother's cooking."

"Good." He grinned, making me laugh. "Put her on a slow heat and let her simmer."

"She's cooking tea. For us. Including Jace."

"I don't do that. And Jace already doesn't eat much we don't need her being poisoned."

Rose took offence to that. "My mums cooking is not that bad, thank you very much. She wants to get to know you."

The Doctor just shrugged. "Tough. I've got better things to do. Which includes not having food poisoning."

"It's just tea"

"Not to me it isn't. And Jace doesn't want to do anything with people." Actually, I didn't mind so much, Jackie seemed to have warmed up to me now. A mother figure would be quite nice.

"She's my mother."

"Well she's not mine, or Jace's."

She sighed a little. "That's not fair."

"Well, you can stay there if you want, but right now there's this plasma storm brewing in the Horsehead Nebula." Wow, and I thought the Comets every August were amazing. "Fires are burning ten million miles wide. I could fly the Tardis right into the heart of it then ride the shock wave all the way out. Hurtle right across the sky and end up anywhere. Your choice."

DW

Mickey was sitting on the rubbish bin reading the newspaper while the young boy, who was constantly throwing things at me, finishing cleaning off the Bad Wolf tag he'd written off the side of it. That tag was written everywhere, I'd seen it ever since I ran away. "Good lad. Graffiti that again, or throw things at Jace and I'll have you. Now, beat it."

He ran off and Mickey spoke up from the bin behind us. "I just went down the shop, and I was thinking, you know, like the whole world's changed. Aliens and spaceships all in public. And here it is." They said it was all a hoax. "How could they do that? They saw it."

"They're just not ready. You're happy to believe in something that's invisible, but if it's staring you in the face, nope, can't see it. There's a scientific explanation for that. You're thick."

I shrugged, smiling a little. "We're just idiots."

"Well, not all of you." The Doctor grinned at me and then Mickey. Who grinned back. "Present for you, Mickey." He handed him a CD. "That's a virus. Put it online. It'll destroy every mention of me, besides being Jace's father legally. I'll cease to exist."

He frowned a little, looking at it like it was about to blow up. "What do you want to do that for?"

"Because you're right, I am dangerous. I don't want anybody following me."

Jackie and Rose came out then, looking like her mum was begging her to stay. "How can you say that and then take her with you? You're taking a kid, a proper, actual kid. Jace is 14."

"You could look after them. Come with us. Be Jace's big brother."

Mickey considered it for a moment. "I can't. This life of yours, it's just too much. I couldn't do it. Don't tell her I said that. But I'll always be a big brother to you if you want, Jacey." Then I hugged him, smiling at the idea of that. "You're an alright kid, you are, Jace."

"Got enough stuff?" The Doctor asked, looking at Rose's massive bag. That was more than I had when I got adopted, more than I'd ever had.

She gave him a big grin. "Last time I stepped in there, it was spur of the moment. Now I'm signing up. You're stuck with me. And you're definitely going to need me when Jace has girl related problems."

The Doctor considered that, and then nodded. "Definitely, you can definitely take that job." Really? I can sort myself out you know.

Rose gave the Doctor her rucksack and went to Mickey, giving him a bigger smile. "Come with us. There's plenty of room."

"No chance." The Doctor said quickly, defending him. He chose not to come and he didn't want him to be embarrassed. He could be nice sometimes. "He's a liability, I'm not having him on board."

Rose folded her arms at him. "We'd be dead without him."

"My decision is final."

She sighed, giving him a goodbye kiss. "Sorry."

"Good luck, yeah. Make sure he doesn't make Jace into a mini him."

There was a bigger grin, and the Doctor look offended. "What's wrong with me? I'd make her amazing."

And then Jackie spoke up. "You still can't promise me. What if she gets lost? What if something happens to you, Doctor, and Rose and Jace's left all alone standing on some moon a million light years away. How long do I wait then?"

"Mum, you're forgetting. It's a time machine." Rose tried to comfort, her, giving her a tight hug. "I could go travelling around suns and planets and all the way out to the edge of the universe, and by the time I get back, yeah, ten seconds would have passed. Just ten seconds. So stop worrying. See you in ten seconds' time, yeah?"

And then we got into TARDIS, and disappeared wherever we were going. This was my new life...