A/N: OtherMeWriter, lovely review. Where does Rose fit? Well you see, nothing is simple or easy in the Doctor's life. Not even love. So, just hang in there and watch what happens. Nope not Simon… Simon's going to end up with someone else. And Jack B. Badd is not Jack Harkness, I swear (can you imagine our young green-eyed Jack preggers? Oh, have you caught that bit from Torchwood? Yeah ol' Capt Jack has been. Weird, huh? That's the risk of 51st century genes for you.).
BalrogsBreath, Good point about the dialogue. Actually I am changing it, slightly. Err, even more as time goes on, really. Tossing some lines to other mouths, for one. But things will get rolling and the words will change. Besides… Verity wants them to keep Rose, even if Rich is a bit threatened by her.
mirth513, sorry about your feeling – sick. Nice to see a review from you, anyhow. Hope you feel better soon.
Huggabledog,welcome to the second act of my AU 'Verse. Yes I am writing the Doctor as a more powerful individual than he appears in the show, but I have my reasons. I'm glad you like. I have made him needy, because of the parasite, but for a bit here he's going to be slightly stand-offish, as Rose is thrust upon him.
Hands over Jelly Babies to my reviewers. Thank you all.
PS: The scene with Mal and Kaylee is based on a flashback scene from "Out of Gas" as seen on the show Firefly.

Summary: The Doctor, reeling from the effects of the TimeWar as the last surviving TimeLord, stumbled into a situation he could not ignore when the TARDIS landed him inside a ship that was clearly in trouble. After the rescue, he's left with eight survivors that he must somehow get to safety. But the situation is not as cut and dry as he might like. His people may be gone, but the stamp he's made on the universe is still there, and he finds himself caught in a web spun of the choices he's made in the past…

Something in history has prompted humanity to explode out from their home world. Could the events of 2164 be responsible? Was Earth a myth or was it real? In fleeing Earth-that-Was, humanity scattered to the stars across the galactic arm. Initial survey teams targeted likely planets and systems for habitation and not all of them ended up on the same side of the sector. Blue Sun exists on one side, separated by a patch of 'wild space' filled with exotic binary and triple star systems, from the rest of civilized space. Few ships brave the route. But luck had it that one ship did. Risking a ghost run, the only contact that the two sides have, the Hunter-Gratzner crashed midway through the journey. Original Port of Departure: Eavesdown Docks, Persephone. Mixed Sino-Anglo culture. Original Port of Call: Tangiers-5. Darkside. Mixed Islamic-Anglo culture. Crew complement: Four. Passengers: Forty. Living 'Cargo': Two. Survivors: Eight plus One

So what happens in 2517 to Dr. Simon Tam, his brilliant but damaged sister, a convicted murder by the name of Richard B. Riddick, and Jack B. Badd now that they are on their way home? They end up slightly out of their own Time, on a ship filled with living sculptures and then a 'quiet' trip to 2005 London brings them face to face with living sculptures of another kind… And just how is this related to the TimeWar?

A Doctor Who / Firefly / Riddick crossover.

Features Doctor 9, companion Rose Tyler; The cast of Firefly; 'Jack B. Badd' and Richard B. Riddick…

Doctor Who and the Ties that Bind.

Part Twenty-Three

Sympathetic

After the exploding things episode was over and they regrouped at the TARDIS the Doctor pointed out that they had not located the cause of the problem, only the symptom of it. As if to prove it, the blip, much fainter, popped up on the screen. Really, Rich thinks, they should have tried to find the real problem not just the first wave of the invasion force. But he knows how Thete operates and nipping the alien's plans in the bud probably bought them some time. Now, what do they do about the actual invader? The only course of action is to find the source of the blip.

"The arm?" River suggests.

Oh, well, yes. The Doctor supposes that might do it. Which means that he's given away his advantage, and really he could have tried to keep a head, but they'll need to find the overlooked dummie arm if they are to stop this. So he fiddles with the signal detectors and they head out on foot to try to find the bit of living plastic before it finds them. By morning they've narrowed it down to a project called 'Powell Estate' which means it could be anyplace within a very large block. Jack locates a trace from the dumpster and they converge on the spot. The Doctor's got more sensitive gear. After hearing about the arm trying to kill him the night before no one wants to let him go wondering off by himself. They all follow him as he tracks the path of the arm as it apparently crawled across the lawn, up the stairs and into the buildings proper.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Mal must admit that he's a man of great patience, unless he not. Right now, he's not. He's gonna kill that mechanic when he finds him, "Bester!" He scans the engine room trying to see if the idiot is even aboard, "What's this I hear 'bout yet another delay?" There he is, Mal sees his boots. He too mad to notice the moans. "You were supposed to have that engine fixed and us up and --" He stops short when he notices the man is half undressed and there's a lot of sex going on. Shocked, Mal turns and looks away, "What in the name of suo-yo duh doh shr-dang --" He gives the man a moment to realize and notices that subtle is not working, "Bester." Direct isn't working either. The man is single-minded. Pulling out his 'captain-y' voice Mal tries again, "Bester." No go. Yelling? "Bester!"

The sounds of sex stop and change to head clanging on metal and scuffling. She's listening to the conversation, as Bester scrambles out. While he's not overly happy about the interruption, but not willing to jack off Mal, she's curious and studying the turbine. Um, really a very clean design, nice lines, good build, but that part there is blown, and really what is it doing there anyhow? Really it's very tempting to just rip the offending part out and put the engine back together just so she can feel how it runs. She hears the man respond with a, "What?" asked rather innocently as if he wasn't just caught with his pants down. So this ain't his daddy because if it was he'd be getting' his hide tanned.

"You do realize we been parked on this rock a week longer than we planned?" Mal now looks at the tattooed man.

Bester says, "Yeah, but... uh, there's stuff to do." She begins getting dressed, because the new fella sounds like he's at the end of his rope, and really someone is gonna get whipped here. She'd rather it not be her.

"As for example that job we got waitin' for us on Paquin. When we landed here you said you needed a few days to get space worthy again and is there somethin' wrong with your bunk?" Mal just wants to know… before he kicks the man's rear out the airlock the next time they are in space.

Puzzled Bester asks, "What?" But Mal's not in a very explainin' mood so he just stares at the fellow wondering why he thought he was a genius in the first place. Then it clicks and the mechanic laughs. "Oh! No, Captain." He leans forward like; "She likes engines. They make her hot."

Mal keeps himself from twitching, just barely. "Bester. Get your prairie harpy off my boat, and put us back in the air." Prairie harpy? She ain't no – forget the over-the shoulder-bolder-holder, she's getting up and giving him a what-for.

"Okay. But... can't."

"Whaddya mean 'can't.'" Mal says with narrowed eyes.

"No can do, Cap. Secondary grav boot's shot."

Grav Boot shot? What the hell? No, it's the reg couple. This jack-ass calls himself a mechanic? Putting on a smile she, the 'prairie harpy', pipes up with, "No it ain't." before she bounces up from under the engine extremely cheerful like, ignoring Mal totally and looking right at Bester, "Ain't nothing wrong with your grav boot. Grav boot's just fine." Then she sees Mal, "Hello," before she ducks back to retrieve her sweater.

Mal raises and eyebrow at his mechanic and notices that he's looking quite at a loss, "She doesn't... that's not what..." Bester turns to the girl, "No it ain't!"

Now she pauses to look at the grav boot again just to make sure, and it's a clean as a whistle. Looks like it could take another billion miles at least. There's not a thing wrong with it. She pops back up like a cork, "Sure it is. Grav boot ain't your trouble. I seen the trouble plain as day when I was down there on my back before. Your reg couple's bad."

"The... red... what?" Now this is interesting, his mechanic is clueless. Not a good sign.

Gees! He's not a mechanic. How did he ever get his hands on an engine like this? She deserves better, this fine ship. She might as well give him a good turn because he's not half bad a lay, "Reg couple. Right here. See?" the young lady points and even Mal can see what she is pointing at, not that he would know how it works or what it does.

To give him credit, Bester does look, "No."

Now she's losing patience with this clown. Really she should just fix it. "This," her hand gives a little shake to get his attention, "I'm pointin' right at it." When Bester still looks clueless she rolls her eyes, sighs, reaches in, and breaks off a part of the engine. She's fixing it.

"Hey!" Bester goes to stop her and Mal just puts his hand out stopping him. He wants to see this.

"Here." The part is placed in the mechanic's hand before the gal turns back and starts tinkering, "Hand me that, will ya?" Mal hands her the requested wrench. "Don't really serve much of a purpose, anyway. Just tends to gum up the works when it gets tacked. So I figure, why even have one? Better to just take your g-line, plug it straight into the port-pin-lock, and that should, uh..." The turbine starts moving, "There." All fixed. And wow, she sounds right pretty. Wonder how she'd feel in space?

"What'd you do?" Bester's still mystified.

Mal however is not; "She fixed it."

She looks at the captain, thinking that he does appear to be the captain-y type, "Well, it wasn't really broke." Beside her Mal's soon to be ex-mechanic is looking at the part in his hand.

"Where'd you learn to do that, miss?" Mal asks her.

With a shrug she answers, "Just do it, that's all. My daddy says I got natural talent." Don't think, don't feel… don't hope. Just answer him and let things flow.

"I'll say you do at that." Mal really thinks that he could do fine to have her as his engineer.

Ignored Bester asks, "Don't we need this?" about the part.

Mal focuses on the young woman; "You work for your daddy, do you?"

"Well, when he got work, which ain't been too often lately." Her face falls as she remembers how tight things are back on the homestead.

"You got much experience with a vessel like this?"

"I ain't never even been up in one before." And that's the honest truth, but she knows her engines, all kinds. They ain't so different than one another, and if you can make a hover-mule go you can keep an ship running.

"Wanna?" Mal's going to risk it. He has to be able to do better than Bester.

"You mean...?" the gal is surprised, but really she shouldn't be.

"Sure."

"For how long?"

"Long as you like. Long as you can keep her in the sky." Mal is certain. He doesn't even know her name or anything about her, but she belongs here on his ship.

She blinking, and almost to the point of bouncing off the walls happy, and damn this has turned out really very well. She likes this ship, better than most anything she's ever seen, "You offering me a job?"

Still ignored, Bester is alarmed by the turn of events, "What?"

"Believe I just did."

The young lady goes all smiles; "I just gotta ask my folks!" She doesn't even pause to dress all the way, in her excitement. In her wake she leaves an amused Mal and a stunned Bester, "Don't leave without me!"

"Mal. Whaddya need two mechanics for?"

The captain of Serenity looks at Bester, his very ex-mechanic, "I really don't."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

It's a normal day. Oh wait, it's not. Her job got blown up last night. Nothin' normal about this day. She sits among her pink bedding, surrounded by pink knickknacks, lampshades, clothing, and stuff, one hand on the alarm clock, frozen as she remembers those strange people with their strange devices and the plastic store dummies come to life. He mum's voice floats down the hall, "There's no point in getting up, sweetheart. You've got no job to go to." Well ain't that the kicker? She lets herself fall back into the bed. She blinks. A shadow crosses her window and she opens her eyes to catch the motion of a shape across the thin frilly pink curtains that reminds her of the tall, broad, tanned man with the voice like liquid sex and his sleek sunglasses – Richard, she remembers. Rose throws herself back up and flies to the window. There's nothing there. Ok… that's strange.

Well, she's up now so she might as well get dressed and face the day. Rose tosses on a pair of old jeans and a comfy top and heads to the kitchen. She's not really in the mood to eat, or move, or anything. Neither she nor her mum notices that the cat flap is ajar or that the nails are sitting loose. Rose plops into her place at the table and sits there, feeling numb. Her mum goes about her normal morning, dressed in her normal dressing gown. "There's Finch's. You could try them. They've always got jobs," she says as she sits at the table with her coffee.

No, anyplace but Finch's. She groans out, "Oh great, the butcher's." Her head settles on the table, but out of the corner of her eye she spots the flash of black sunglasses through the kitchen window. She blinks. That was Richard. Her world grinds to a halt.

Unaware that something is going on, Jackie sits for just a second, and then starts talking again, "Well it might do you good. That shop was giving you airs and graces. And I'm not joking about compensation." In motion again, her mum stands, turns, pauses, "You've had genuine shock and trauma. Arianna got two-thousand quid off the council just 'cause the old man behind the desk said she looked Greek. I know she is Greek, but that's not the point." Then she heads off to get ready for the day, still talking, "It was a valid claim."

She waits until Jackie has cleared the hall and then sneaks into the kitchen so she can look at the window. And there, out on the landing is River and the Doctor, and the trendy nice dressed lad from the bus and the green-eyed boy besides. And when she looks the other way Richard is standing by her front door. Now, what is going on?

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

They come together on a landing, open air, facing the square with its narrow walls and cement patterned tiles. The Doctor's device is pinging that it came this way, the plastic arm, and really there's only on way to go here. Rich sets off to scout, making sure that the thing isn't waiting in ambush someplace behind a planter or something, but the Doctor isn't feeling very much like waiting. So River, Simon, and Jack all follow him, as Rich walks around the corner, while the Time Lord narrows down the apartment where the signal is coming from. They trace it to a door with a little flap cut into it. Rich walks back up, indicating that he didn't find anything. That, of course, is because what they are after has got to be inside this domicile. A female voice floats through the door, "-- down. We're gonna get strays." There's a pause, "No, you thought about it."

Thete drops to his hands and knees and pokes the flap. Something, or someone, pokes it back out at him, lets it flap close, then opens it all the way. It's the girl from the shop, Rose. He blinks, quite surprised to see her again. Suddenly the door opens. Simon helps him up as he asks the bottle blonde, "What are you doing here?"

She looks flabbergasted, and more than a bit irritated, "I live here." She looks at the matched pair of dark headed individuals, about her age, River and – must be her twin – a the young man with eyes as deep a blue as the strange pale gent in front of them. Then she spots the honey-haired boy and the tanned man who is still wearing sunglasses. They are, all five, looking back at her.

"Well what do you do that for?" the pale man says. He must be the leader, or captain, or something…

"Because I do. And I'm only at home because someone blew up my job."

Behind him River tests something with a clearly altered PDA, "Wrong signal?"

Rose blinks at her, as the Doctor pulls out his funny blue tipped device that she recalls him blowing up elevator controls with the night before, "You're not plastic, are you?" He's testing too, now, still picking up something and somewhat unwilling to let it go. But he raps a knuckle against her forehead as if that is the ultimate test. "Nope, bone. Must be, River."

The lot of them turns to leave. Oh, no. She's not letting them get away until she finds out what on earth is going on. She grabs the youngest boy and tugs him inside while saying, "You. All. Inside. Right now." Richard steps in, clearly unwilling to let anyone he doesn't know do anything to the kid. The bronze man coming inside seems to make the pale one decide to follow, and of course the twins do too. Rose firmly closes the door.

Another female voice comes from down the hall, "Who is it?"

Rose turns to sorta explain to her mum, "It's about last night. They're part of the inquiry. Give us ten minutes." Please stay in your room. Meanwhile the dark headed pair move into the living room, ahead of Rose, scanners out.

The other voice comes again, "She deserves compensation!"

Rose bustles into the living room, darting past River and her twin, picking up scattered magazines and trying to tidy up as she goes. Neither of them pays her any mind, carefully scanning every nook and cranny in the room. Behind her Richard rumbles, "Yeah, millions," somewhat sarcastically as the Doctor glances around the place trying to spot the living plastic they are after.

Jack squeaks as Rose's mum reappears in the hall and clears her throat. Upon seeing that there are two very handsome, unknown men in her foyer she blinks flirtatiously and says, "I'm in my dressing gown."

The darker one snags the boy and pushes him into the living room, "Yeah." His voice sends shivers over her spine, but he doesn't stick around. The other fellow has blue eyes to kill for, and currently is staring right at her.

"And there are strange men in my apartment… Anything could happen," she flirts, openly now at the remaining fellow.

"Oh, -- no." says the blue-eyed gent in the leather jacket. He backs up a step, clearly disturbed by her advances.

Rose reappears, "Mum!" She shoos Jackie back into her room and tugs the other man into the living room where the twins are still scanning, "Don't mind the mess. Does anyone want a coffee?" She doesn't really wait, choosing to head into the kitchen. Richard pulls the sofa away from the wall as Simon's scanner beeps. "We should go to the police. Seriously, all of us," Rose says from the kitchen. The plastic arm leaps up at Richard and River catches it. Determined to kill something, it turns on her, becoming rather snake like as it twists around her hands with near crushing force. "I'm not blaming any of you even if it was some sort of joke that just went wrong," the blonde continues. River lets out a pained gasp. The Doctor pulls his sonic screwdriver and tries to turn the receiver off only to have the thing jump from River's arms to his throat slipping right out of her grip. She falls back on the sofa suppressing the anguished scream from the assault down to a hiss while blinking tears and holding her not quite injured hands in the air. "It said on the news they found a body. I'm guessing that was Wilson -- Just saying -- he was nice. He was a nice bloke. You know?"

"Sure, yeah." Richard says, as he and the others try to pry the plastic arm off the Time Lord. It is inhumanly strong, and very single minded. Even when Riddick manages to get the arm snapped off at the wrist they are left with a hand still trying to choke the life out of the Doctor. Simon and Jack both try to pry their fingers under the thing, while Rich flings the bulk of arm away, across the room, and into the hall where it lands on carpet before rolling back against the front door.

"Anyway, if we are gonna go to the police, I want to know what I'm saying. I want you all to explain everything." Rose walks in with a tray of mugs, slightly mismatched, as the hand comes loose. It bounces once, makes a funny twist, and then flies right at her. Forgetting the coffee, Rose throws her hands up as the plastic palm lands on her face. River catches the tray, saving the carpet, although her face contorts from the tender state of her hands. She quickly puts it down on the dining table and shakes them out. Rose lets off a muffled scream as she falls back into the wall; plastic palm firmly attached to her face.

"We need to get it off her, Doc," says the bronze complexioned man.

Down the hall the sound of a hair dryer starts up.

"Your mother doesn't care if you are suffocating to death?" the dark haired young man inquires as he manages to get a finger lifted enough for Rose to breathe. The thumb is trying to claw its way into her mouth. She can't exactly reply to him. But her mum's actions do seem slightly bothersome enough so that she focuses on that over the panic of the plastic hand trying to cut off her air.

"Hang on." There's a whirling sound and the thing becomes weak enough for Richard and Simon to pry it off. It keeps twitching, unable to get a solid grip, although it is trying.

Rose gulps down air as she stares at the thing. "I told Mickey to throw that away!"

"Might be that he did, 'Cuz we traced it here from the gorram garbage," says the honey-haired boy.

The Doctor keeps trying to shut the signal off, "Language, Jack." The boy looks sorry. After a few more moments he jabs the twitching thing in the palm and it goes still. "There, see. Stopped it. Perfectly 'armless."

"D'you think?" Rose says, eyeing the hand over. He flashes her his glowing smile while Simon tries to not groan from his horrible humor. Having gotten what they were after, the group retrieves the bulk of the arm from the foyer. It's not really in their best interests to hang around, and the older blonde's seduction attempts have made both the Doctor and Richard eager to leave. But even as the five head back across the estate grounds to the TARDIS, Rose follows. "Hold on, a minute. You can't just go swanning off."

"Actually, we're not 'swanning off', there's work to be done," says the Doctor. He's got the hand and the dark haired young man whose name she's not been told is carrying the rest of it.

"That hand was moving. It tried to kill me," she says.

"You know, she's pretty sharp," Richard comments. "Not as much as Billy, but still."

"Um, yes. I'd say she scores a ten out of ten on observation," the Doctor says to him.

"You can't just walk away! That's not fair! You've got to tell me what's going on," Rose demands.

River says to her, "No, we don't. But we might, if you just wait."

"Mei-Mei," Simon warns.

"Verity says it's important, Simon." River looks as Rose, "Come with us."

Rose blinks, What? She is already in the middle of their group, trying to keep up with the Doctor and get some, any, information about what is going on, and River's mention of Verity, whoever that might be, seems to make them all just accept that she's supposed to be there. Wait, she doesn't even know anything about them, "Who are you?"

"Oh, sorry. I haven't made full introductions, have I?" Says the pale gent, the Doctor. He points at the dark headed young man, "Dr. Simon Tam," then he indicates the boy, "Jack, and you've met Simon's sister, River, and Richard already. Everyone, this is Rose, Rose Tyler, I believe." She gets a chorus of 'hellos'. "And me, I'm the Doctor."

She shakes her head, "Yeah, but, doctor what?"

Jack says, "Just, 'The Doctor', really."

Rose looks at the boy, " 'The Doctor'?"

The pale gent grins again, turning so he's walking backwards, waves and says, "Hello, Rose Tyler." He then wiggles his eyebrows with fair humor, making Rose, Jack, and River laugh.

"But, who are you? I mean, are you the police?"

Richard frowns, "Do we look like police to you?"

Rose shakes her head. Honestly they don't. Not anymore than the shop dummies looked like students anyhow. She tries to put the pieces together, "Last night, River said that you were dealing with living plastic. And that arm apparently crawled back from the trash into my flat, Why?"

"It was looking for the Doctor, and the last person it knew of that had contact with him was you," Simon told her. "Lucky for you, we were already trying to locate it when it decided to attack."

"Why was it looking for the Doctor?" she says. None of them answer her. "So, who else knows about this?"

"Just us," says Jack.

"What, you're on your own?"

"That's the way it's always been," the Doctor says. "You modern humans are tied up in your lives, your everyday concerns, and right under your noses there's a war going on. So easy for you all to forget what happened yesterday, much less thirty years ago."

"Okay. Start from the beginning..." And amazingly enough, they do.