Sorry, I got distracted by Christmas fics for like a week. (And I'm definitely not planning a DW Love Actually AU, nope, not at all.) Thanks for all the feedback so far!
Here we have the Closing Time AU, with a weird mix of angst and fluff that hopefully works. Enjoy!
Even though your words hurt the most
I still want to hear them every day
You say let it go, but I can't let it go
I wanna believe every word that you say
For I'm so scared of losing you
and I don't know what I can do about it, about it
So tell me how long, love, before you go and leave me here on my own
I know it, I don't want to know who I am without you
Agape - Bear's Den
"So why is this Craig Owens our last stop before Exedor? Why not see him before Jenny?"
The Doctor shrugged as he pulled on his long coat that he had begun to wearing partway through their farewell tour. Aliya wasn't sure if she liked it as much as the tweed. She missed the rougher texture under her skin when she hugged him.
"Because if we'd ended it on Jenny, you'd have cried and given it away," he said, and she couldn't deny that he was right, "It was bad enough you almost did as it was. She's suspicious."
"With good reason," she retorted, "So you met Craig when you were travelling with Amy?"
"Yes! Fantastic bloke, you'll love him. And Sophie. Just a quick pop in though, say hello, introductions, maybe a few pleasantries, then Exedor."
"I don't know why you're in such a rush," Aliya muttered as she got off the jump seat.
This close to Silencio, with no alternative in sight, devastation had hit her fairly hard. She knew the Doctor was dreading it almost as much as she was, because whenever their minds touched he couldn't hide it from her, but at any other time he was smiling through it in a way that was slowly killing her.
It made it impossible for her to not be cross with him. Unlike him, she couldn't just smile and pretend everything was okay when their whole world was about to fall apart.
Still, it didn't stop her from following him through it all. In this case, out onto an English street with stars shining overhead. They walked along the path, up the drive, and to the door of a house.
They hadn't even had the chance to knock when the door opened.
"I'm coping on my own!" A large man shouted with exasperation, only to stop short upon seeing them standing there.
The Doctor just beamed at him. "Hello, Craig! I'm back!"
The man, who had to be Craig, gaped. "She didn't. How could she phone you?"
"How could who phone me?" The Doctor asked. "Nobody phoned me, I'm just here. Oh, you've redecorated." He took a proper look at the house and frowned. "I don't like it."
Craig gave him an odd look. "It's a different house. We moved."
"Yes, that's it."
"Doctor, what are you doing here?" The human asked him, seeming more distressed than he should have been at any form of social call. "And who's this?"
His gaze had moved to Aliya, and the Doctor's followed. The Time Lord grinned. "This is Aliya. Aliya, Craig. Craig, Aliya."
"It's nice to meet you," Aliya said, smiling at him.
"Yeah, you too," Craig said, rather absently, like his mind was somewhere else, "Doctor, really, why are you here?"
"Social call," the Doctor answered, "Thought it was about time I tried one out. How are you?"
"I'm fine."
There was an awkward pause. "This is the bit where I say I'm fine too, isn't it? I'm fine too." At his words, Aliya had to hold back a bitter snort. "Good. Love to Sophie. Bye." He turned to leave, but then the lights flickered. "Something's wrong."
He ran inside the house, sonic out, giving Craig and Aliya no choice but to rush after him up the stairs.
"On your own, you said," he was saying, "But you're not. You're not on your own."
"Just shush," Craig told him, strangely desperate.
Unsurprisingly, the Doctor paid him absolutely no attention. "Increased sulphur emissions. And look at the state of this place. What are you not telling me?"
"Doctor, please."
"Shhh."
"No, you shhh."
"Shhh!"
"Shhh!"
"No, you shhh!" The Doctor got to a door and sonicked it open before bursting through it, Craig and Aliya right behind him.
"Doctor!"
"Whatever you are, get off this planet," the Doctor said, but he hadn't come face to face with some kind of alien or monster. Instead, the occupant of the room, a baby in a crib, started crying loudly.
"You've woken him!" Craig exclaimed with dismay.
"Ah. Er, sorry."
"Yeah, well, fat lot of good that does now." Craig picked the baby up and they headed back downstairs. "So, Aliya, was it?"
Aliya couldn't be too surprised that he was slightly annoyed with the Doctor and in this moment more interested in talking to her. She was experiencing something similar.
"Yes."
"So, you're one of those mates of his, yeah? That travel with him? What's the word he uses?"
"Companion," Aliya said, and shrugged, "I suppose, technically, yes. I'm his friend and I travel with him."
"Cool, neat," he replied, half focused on the baby in his arms as he spoke, "So where are you from originally, then? And how'd you get mixed with up with him? Some big alien mess, like his usual thing?"
"Not quite," the Doctor told him as he followed them into the kitchen. "But that's not important. When you say on your own-"
"Yes, I meant on my own with the baby, yes," Craig finished as the other man sat down and started flicking through magazines, "Because no one thinks I can cope on my own. Which is so unfair because-" His shoulders dropped, and annoyance turned to panic. "I can't cope on my own with him. I can't. He just cries all the time. I mean, do they have off switches?"
"Human beings?" The Doctor shook his head. "No. Believe me, I've checked."
"No, babies!"
Aliya tilted her head. "Do you want me to take him?" It was obvious that he wasn't quite sure what to do with him, and with any luck she might be able to make him stop crying.
Craig blinked, took a second to probably consider if it was strange to hand his baby to a near stranger, and then held the baby out to her. "Sure, here."
Aliya propped the tiny human up against her shoulder and sat down in the chair opposite the Doctor. "Hey there, little man," she said, smiling, "My name's Aliya."
Even if it quietened a little, the crying continued.
"Sometimes this works," the Doctor mused, and caught the baby's eye before bringing his fingers to his lips. "Shhh." Sure enough, silence filled the kitchen.
"Impressive," Aliya remarked.
Craig's eyes widened. "Can you teach me to do that?"
"Probably not."
"Oh, please. Come on, I need something. I'm rubbish at this," the other man pleaded.
"At what?"
"Being a dad. You read all the books, and they tell you you'll know what to do if you follow your instincts. I have no instinct. That's what this weekend's about, trying to prove to people I can do this one thing well."
"You know, failing instincts, I would say the key to childcare is common sense," Aliya said to the frantic human before glancing down at his baby who was happily nestled in her arms. "Is that the problem, little one? Is your dad just overthinking all this?"
The Doctor laughed at a children's book he had picked up before his gaze returned to Craig. "So, what did you call him? Will I blush?"
Craig gave him an odd look. "No, we didn't call him the Doctor."
"No, I didn't think you would."
"He's called Alfie. What are you doing here anyway?"
The Doctor regarded Alfie with curiosity. "Yes, he likes that, Alfie, though personally he prefers to be called Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All."
"Sorry, what?" Craig and Aliya said at the same time.
"That's what he calls himself."
"And how do you know that?" Craig asked.
"I speak baby."
The fair haired man threw his hands in the air. "Of course you do. I don't even know when his nappy needs changing, and I'm the one supposed to be his dad."
"Yeah, he's wondering where his mum is," the Doctor told him, getting out of the chair, "Where is Sophie?"
"She's gone away with Melina for the weekend," Craig sighed, collapsing into the chair that his friend had just vacated. The Doctor immediately started massaging his shoulders. "She needs a rest."
"No, he's your dad!" The Time Lord exclaimed, looking at Alfie. "You can't just call him Not Mum."
"Not Mum?"
"That's you. Also Not Mum, that's me and Aliya." He crossed over near Aliya to lean closer to Alfie for a moment. "And everyone else is...peasants." He made a face. "That's a bit unfortunate."
Aliya had to laugh. His interpretation of babies wasn't something she understood or likely ever would, but these days she knew it wasn't a pretense.
"What are you here for?" Craig asked them. "What's happening?"
"Just popped in to say hello."
"You don't do that," he said, frowning, "I checked upstairs when we moved, it's real. And next door, both sides, they're humans. Is it the fridge? Are there aliens in my fridge?"
The Doctor, who had been peering into said fridge, quickly shut it and spun around. "I just want to see you, Craig! Cross my hearts. We've been knocking out, bit of a farewell tour. One last thing, popping in to see you, then we're off to the Alignment of Exedor."
"The Alignment of Exedor?" Craig asked. His eyes went to Aliya, who had heard one last thing and held Alfie just a little bit tighter. She knew her despair was showing, but she just couldn't hide it.
The Doctor, who couldn't see Aliya's expression, just beamed. "Seventeen galaxies in perfect unison. Meant to be spectacular. We can't miss it. Literally can't. It's locked in a time stasis field. We get one crack at flying the TARDIS straight into it, if I got my dates right." He checked the newspaper. "Which I have."
"Sounds nice," Craig said, casually, before addressing Aliya, "So why don't you seem to think so?"
Aliya bit her lip, not really knowing how to answer. The Doctor, meanwhile, had turned a disapproving gaze onto her.
"Aliya-"
"Look, you can smile and pretend everything's all well and good as much as you like, but I'm under no obligation to do the same," she said quietly, not looking at him.
"No, but it can be a real downer on the social calls." He started flipping through the local paper which was in front of him. "We're just popping in and popping out again. Try to be social and have a laugh."
She shook her head with utter disbelief. "You have some nerve."
He ignored her, focusing on the newspaper. "Never mind that."
"Never mind what?" Craig asked.
"Nothing."
"No, you've noticed something, you've got your noticing face on," the human said, frowning deeply at him, "I have nightmares about that face!"
"Ooh, nope, given up all that," the Doctor said adamantly, moving around the table when Craig tried to come around it to get closer to him, "Done noticing things." The kitchen light flickered. "I didn't even notice that, for example. Well, got to go. Come on, Aliya."
"Really?" Aliya got up from her seat but didn't yet let go of Alfie.
"Yes, really. Good seeing you, Craig. Goodbye, Stormageddon." He waved in the face of the baby, who Aliya reluctantly put into his high chair.
"No, no, wait, wait," Craig said quickly, as they made to leave, "Can you do the shushing thing?"
"No, it only works once, and only one life forms with underdeveloped brains."
"Hang on. You said farewell tour." He looked at Aliya with that same suspicion and curiosity as before. "What does he mean, farewell?"
"Shhh," the Doctor said, silencing him.
Aliya just looked at the Doctor with exasperation, even though when she spoke she was answering Craig. "It means he's giving up, but being pretentious about it. As if dressing it up will make it any-" The Doctor, irritated, grabbed her hand and started pulling her towards the door. "It was nice to meet you, Craig!"
They shut the door behind them and walked back out to the street where the TARDIS lay only a few metres away.
"Just go," the Doctor said to himself, "Stop noticing. Just go. Stop noticing, just go. Stop noticing, just go." His eyes opened. "Stop it. Am I noticing? No. No, I am not." The sonic came out and he extended around him as he slowly stepped towards the TARDIS and Aliya followed, watching him with great scepticism. "And what I'm not doing is scanning for electrical fluctuations."
"Your determination to go to your own death and not get remotely distracted has reached levels of incomprehensible stupidity," Aliya told him scathingly.
"Oh, shut up, you," he said to her, barely glancing her way, "I'm just dropping in on a friend. The last thing I need right now is a patina of teleport energy."
They reached the TARDIS and he rested his head on the panels tiredly.
"I'm going. Do you hear me?" It was clear he was still talking to himself. "Going. Not staying, going. I am through saving them. I am going away now."
Aliya's annoyance faded upon hearing the strange desperation and melancholy in his voice. She came up behind him and let her hand rest on his back.
"Hey," she whispered.
He hesitated, and then turned around to look at her, almost sheepishly. "Hey."
The quietness of him gave away so much more than anything else had up until this point. Aliya, despite seeing into his mind with semi-regularity over the last century and a half, remembered and understood for the first time in too long just how much the thought of his impending death was taking its toll on him.
He has to be determined to go, or else he's afraid he won't. And for the sake of time, he knows he has to. Hell, even she knew that at this point. She hadn't quite managed to accept it and knew she never would, but deep down after all this time she knew it to be true. Silencio was a fixed point. There was no getting around it.
"I'm sorry," she exhaled.
He blinked at her, seeing the genuine repentance in her and taking a moment to process it. "It's okay." There was a pause. "I'm going," he said again, but it was obvious he was saying it for both of them now.
Aliya knew it was time to give him the thing he would always need the most. Something to do. A distraction. "Yes, you are," she replied, smiling at him, "But first, we're staying, aren't we?"
"Of course we're not staying, we're going, right now," the Doctor said automatically, frowning at her.
"Are we?"
He groaned with frustration. "Of course we're not!"
"Of course we're not," she laughed, finally able to break her composure, "Once you start noticing things, we're screwed."
He gave her a funny smile. "I really wish you didn't know me so well."
Due to the apparent string of disappearances in the area, the timings of which fit with the power fluctuations, and teleport energy that was mostly concentrated in a local shopping centre, there was only one course of action left to them as far as the Doctor was concerned.
He got a job in the shop.
He tried to make Aliya get one too, but she was having none of it, and figured that if they were investigating it couldn't hurt to work an employee and customer angle. Unsurprisingly, the Doctor was allocated to the toy section, where he spent hours showing off to and playing with hordes of children.
Later in the day, Aliya was returning to check on him after investigating the domestic appliance section. (And, alright, maybe she'd just been curious about the 21st century mechanics of such things.) When she found him, he was talking to Craig, who had Alfie with him in a pram.
"You were leaving," Craig was saying to the Doctor, "The Alignment of Exedor, what about that? One chance to see it, you said."
"Well, I was on my way, you know. Saw a shop, got a job. You've got to live in the moment." He tried to walk away, and upon trying to follow Craig nearly stepped on a toy. "Craig, mind Yappy."
"What?"
"Yappy," the Doctor said, holding up the plastic dog, "The robot dog. Not as much fun as I remember. You look awful."
"I haven't slept, have I?" Craig lamented. "I still can't stop him crying. I even tried singing to him last night."
"Yeah," the Doctor muttered, making a face, "He did mention that. He thought you were crying too. He didn't get a wink." He finally spotted her approaching and his face lit up. "Aliya! There you are. You remember Craig, of course."
She gave him a funny look. "Of course. It was literally yesterday." Something whizzed past them at the end of the aisle. It barely caught her attention, but a miniscule shift in the Doctor's focus told her that he was more interested.
Sure enough, he raced off down the aisle and crouched on the floor, seeking something out with new urgency.
"You're here for a reason, aren't you?" Craig guessed. "You noticed something, and you're investigating it. And because it's you, it's going to be dangerous and alien."
The Doctor sniffed as he got back to his feet. "Might not be."
"Doctor, I live here, I need to know."
"No, you don't."
"My baby lives here. My son."
That was enough for Aliya, who had until that point been more than half distracted by said baby. "Shelia Clark. Went missing Tuesday," she said, "Atif Ghosh. Last seen Friday. Tom Luker. Last seen Sunday."
Craig dug a newspaper out of the pram and peered at it. "Why is none of this on the front page?"
"Oh, page one has an exclusive on Nina," the Doctor told him, pointing to the picture, "A local girl who got kicked off Britain's Got Talent. These people are on pages seven, nineteen, twenty two. Because no one's noticed yet." He took Alfie's pram and started wheeling it out of the toy section. "They're far too excited about Nina's emotional journey, which in fairness, is quite inspiring."
Craig and Aliya had little choice but to follow him. "And what else?" The former asked as they came into the children's clothing section.
"The power fluctuations you're having coincide with the disappearances," Aliya said.
"That's just the council putting in new cables, isn't it?"
The Doctor, having stopped outside a broken lift, rolled his eyes. "Oh yes, that's it. Mystery solved, wasting our time. Now, you can go home and we can go to Exedor. Goodbye." He sonicked the lift. "And here's the lift."
"It says it's out of order."
"Not any more. See? Here to help."
"It says danger."
"Oh, rubbish. Lifts aren't dangerous."
"Do I look like I'm stupid?"
Alfie gurgled and the Doctor laughed before stopping himself and shooting a reprimanding look at the baby. "Quiet, Stormy." Aliya had to grin at the strange rapport he had with the child. It was ridiculous and adorable and bringing out a side in him that she hadn't seen in months.
Craig narrowed his eyes at her. "See, I know there's more because you're smiling at him, and last night there's no way you would've done that."
"Of course there's more," she said, shaking her head, "But my smiling at him isn't massively relevant. When we were deciding to look into it, I just…" Her gaze went to the Doctor, softer. "Had a change of hearts."
Craig's expression shifted into one of enlightenment. "Oh my god. You're not just his friend, you're his girlfriend, aren't you?" He turned to the Doctor. "Why did you never tell me you had a girlfriend?!"
"I don't!" The Doctor retorted defensively. "I mean, I do, she's my friend and she's a girl but she's not my girlfriend." The other man just frowned at him. "Girlfriend is an overly human word that is in itself inherently misleading, and since we're not human, that would just be silly, and besides, last time I saw you I wasn't even aware that she was alive, let alone-"
"For all the mundanity of the word, Craig," Aliya interrupted, shooting the Doctor an exasperated look, "Your meaning was correct. Ignore the rambling moron here. I'm not his girlfriend, but I am what you think."
"Right, thanks," Craig said, nodding, "What was that about him not knowing you were alive? And are you an alien too?"
"Yes, but as for the rest, now really isn't the time." She ushered them into the lift. "In terms of the strange goings-on here, a teleport relay has been used in this shop multiple times, and it's the same area that the missing people were last seen in."
The Doctor put a finger over Craig's lips when he opened his mouth to ask a question. "Before you ask, CCTV's been wiped."
"A teleport?" Craig asked incredulously. "A teleport? A teleport like, a beam me up-" He made emphatic gestures upwards with his hands, "-teleport, like you see in Star Trek?"
"Star Trek?" Aliya echoed. "Is that that old programme with the man with the pointy ears?"
"Not the time, Aliya," the Doctor said, sighing, keeping his focus on Craig, "Yes, Craig. Someone's been using a beam me up Star Trek teleport. Could be disguised as anything."
"But a teleport in a shop? That's ridiculous." As Craig spoke, the lights around them changed. Aliya bit her lip at their abruptly different surroundings that were very obviously non-terrestrial. "What was that? Was that the lights again?"
"Yes, that's it." The Doctor's voice was high-pitched in its panic. "That's all, it's the lights."
"Why did you say that like that?"
"Like what?" His tone dropped halfway through as he realised what he was doing, but his lying was third rate at best.
"Like that, in that high pitched voice."
The Doctor grabbed his shoulders and looked him right in the eye. "Just keep looking at me, Craig. Right at me. Just keep looking."
"Why?"
"Well, because, because, I'm going to tell you a secret," he said quickly.
"A secret?"
"Yes, a big secrety secret that I've never told anyone before. And do you know what it is?"
"What?"
"Um - if you tickle Aliya to wake her up, she smiles for the rest of the day but she doesn't even know that she's doing it," the Doctor blurted, "She doesn't know that's why I do it, I told her that I just like annoying her."
"Well, she knows now," Craig said, frowning at him.
The Doctor laughed through his badly hidden panic, his eyes going to the Cyberman that had just come into view. "Have I mentioned I'm really rubbish at secrets?!"
"That's why you do it?" Aliya asked, staring at him. Problem was, her speaking made Craig look over his shoulder since she was partially standing behind him. The moment he did so, he let out a yell of shock at seeing where they had ended up.
"Oh my god!"
"Yes, Aliya, of course that's why I do it," the Doctor answered while fiddling with the sonic screwdriver, "Except it's stopped working because you're so cross with me at the moment and frankly I've been worried that it's never going to work again before-"
The polarity reversed and they were back in the lift.
"Quick reverse," the Doctor said, dropping the previous topic of conversation without even blinking.
"What the hell just happened?" Craig demanded as they hurried out of the lift and back into children's clothing before moving on to the next section.
"They must have linked the teleport relay to the lift, but I've fused it. They can't use that again. Stuck up there on their spaceship."
"What were those things?"
"Cybermen," Aliya answered. "I've not had a lot of experience with them myself, but they're not nice."
"Ship," Craig said instead of replying to her, it all hitting him properly, "A spaceship. We were in space?" They continued on through the store until they reached the exit. The sun had set and the dim light of the street lamps all but hid the stars from view.
"It's got to be up there somewhere," the Doctor said as he pointed the sonic to the sky, "Can't get a fix. It must be shielded."
"But you fused the teleport, you sorted it," Craig told him, confused, "They can't come back."
"No, no, no, I've just bought myself a little time. Still got to work out what they're doing before Aliya and I can stop it."
"But if they've got the teleport and they're that evil, why haven't they invaded already?"
The Doctor gave him a long, solemn look. "Craig, take Alfie and go."
"No."
"No?"
"No," Craig said adamantly, "I remember from last time, people got killed. People that didn't know you. I know where it's safest for me and Alfie, and that's right next to you."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah, you always win. You always survive."
The Doctor smiled, sadly. "Those were the days." Aliya bit her lip and slipped her hand into his. He didn't look around, but he did give her hand a tiny squeeze.
"I can help you," Craig insisted. "I'm staying."
"Craig, Craig," the Time Lord said with exasperation, "All right. All right, maybe those days aren't quite over yet. Let's go and investigate. I mean, there's no immediate danger now." He dropped Aliya's hand to take charge of the pram, but Craig soon took it back off him.
When they went past cosmetics, the Doctor greeted the woman at the counter enthusiastically as they went past. Aliya remembered him telling her that her name was Val and that she was one of the ones who had taken to him the most, though this was her first time actually seeing her properly.
Craig stopped them before they went much further. "Where am I investigating?"
"Well, look round," the Doctor told him, putting an arm around his shoulders, "Ask questions. People like it when you're with a baby. Babies are sweet. People talk to you." He lowered his voice. "That's why I usually take a human with me."
Aliya hid a snort.
"So, I'm your baby?" Craig asked him, skeptically.
The Doctor beamed. "You're my baby." He hugged him enthusiastically, while Craig just patted him on the back because he seemed unsure of what else to do.
As Craig headed off, Aliya made to do the same. "I'll go this way too," she told the Doctor, who just nodded and was already more focused on going to talk to Val.
She followed Craig to a section that was entirely devoted to women's underwear, but let him take his own path and do some investigating of his own, instead choosing to take a look around.
The underwear section intrigued her, albeit in an odd sort of way. Given that it almost entirely seemed to be of a decorative, lacy variety, she felt her cheeks turn pink, especially when her eyes fell on the pictures of models wearing the underwear sets, and the mannequins doing the same.
It occurred to her that it really was for one purpose, and that purpose wasn't practicality.
Bloody oversexed humans, do they think of nothing else? She wondered, reaching out to touch a lacy red bra near her, feeling her face burn a colour likely to match. I don't think I even own a matching pair of underwear, let alone a matching lacy pair.
A shout from nearby had her abandoning her thoughts and dashing to see what had done wrong.
The Doctor watched Aliya and Craig head off.
"Hope you don't mind me saying, Doctor," Val said from behind the counter, prompting him to head towards her, "But I think you look ever so sweet, you and your partner and the baby. And your friend."
"Partner, yes, I've been wondering, is it better than companion?" He asked her curiously. Aliya had suggested its use a long time ago, but he was still much more prone to just calling her his friend, and she to calling herself his companion. Never hurt to get another opinion.
"Companion," Val repeated, shrugging and shaking her head, "Sounds old-fashioned. There's no need to be coy these days."
He didn't personally mind old-fashioned things, but it wasn't really the time to be mulling over this sort of semantic. "You've not noticed anything unusual around here lately, Val?"
Her face lit up. "Well-"
"Yes, yes?"
She leaned in to whisper conspiratorially, "Mary Warnock saw Don Pethridge snogging Andrea Groom outside the Conservative Club on his so-called day off golfing!"
The Doctor sighed. "Yeah. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all." He gave her air kisses on both cheeks and made to leave.
"And then there's that silver rat thing," she called after him, bringing him to a complete halt.
He turned on his heel. "What?"
She explained it was something she'd seen in the toy department, and offered to show him. Once there, the Doctor got out the sonic and started scanning everywhere.
"A silver rat, glowing red eyes," he said, repeating the description she had given him as they walked.
"Yes. Then it zizzled off. I wanted to get one for my nephew, but stockroom say there's no such item."
"I bet they do."
"Well, what was it then, answer me that."
A shout of surprise that definitely had come from Craig, along with a crash, could be heard from the direction of the ladieswear. Immediately followed by some indignant exclamations that sounded like Aliya telling the humans to 'leave him alone'.
"What's all that hullabaloo?" Val asked, frowning in the direction of the noise.
"Er, that'll be my partner," the Doctor said, not really noticing how Val smiled at him before he dashed off to make sure that Aliya didn't do anything stupid and that Craig was okay.
By the time he got to ladieswear, there was something definitely going on.
"He's a pervert, look at him!" The girl called Kelly was saying.
"That's one hell of an assumption you're making," Aliya snapped at her, and the two females glared at each other just before the Doctor rocked up.
"Hello, everyone, here to help," he said quickly, smiling at all of them in turn. Thankfully, the cross shopworkers brightened at the sight of him, and Craig let out a sigh of relief.
"Hello, Doctor," Kelly said, smiling while Aliya just blinked with confusion.
"Hello, Doctor," George the security man echoed, also smiling.
"Hello." He beamed at them. "Has anyone seen a silver rat? No? Okay, long shot. I see you've met my friends Craig and Aliya. Nice uniform, George."
George relaxed. "Thank you, Doctor. If he's with you, that's all right then."
After that everything calmed down, but Kelly's stressed rambling revealed that her supervisor was missing, and the trio went with the baby to the changing rooms to investigate. The Doctor explained about the cybermat on the way. Once that was done, Craig accused the Doctor of excreting some sort of gas that made people love him, which Aliya found very funny and said she had wondered about that before too.
"I've never excreted any weird alien gases at Aliya," he said defensively. "Although if they had one for neutralising anger, I might consider it."
"You bloody would not," the blonde in question retorted, scowling at him.
One flash of the Master's face in his mind was enough for the Doctor to frown as well. "No, I wouldn't, you're right." He gave her a silly grin. "As I say, your anger is one of the things I like about you."
"You must like her a lot right now, then," Craig remarked, looking between them. "Seriously, what is it with you two? Are you always like this?"
"Like what?"
"...distant," the human said, after thinking over his word choice. "I mean, I know you're aliens, but you're all touchy feely with everyone, except her, and she's your girlfriend. Or is that an alien thing that-"
"Craig, with respect, I really don't think this is the time to be asking personal questions-" The sonic finally gave off the right signal. "Here. Right here. Last night. A Cyberman took Shona."
"A Cyberman? I thought it was a little silver rat."
"Cybermat," Aliya corrected.
"All right, don't have a go at me just because I don't know the names," Craig muttered.
They left the changing rooms and headed back to ground floor through ladies clothing. The Doctor explained the purpose of Cybermats to Craig and Aliya, as the latter knew very little about them and the former absolutely nothing. Then he proposed the plan to steal a cybermat in order to gain information, only for Craig to divert the conversation by asking about whether it was a coincidence that aliens happened to turn up in his life, at the same time as the Doctor did.
The Doctor didn't like the accusing tone in his voice. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, this is not my fault, Craig," he said, a little more forcefully than necessary. Alfie started crying.
"Oh, shhh. Look what you've done now," Craig said.
"It's his nappy, he's mentioned it twice."
"Well sorry, I don't speak baby, do I?"
"There's a changing station over by Electrical Goods."
"And of course you'd know that," Craig said irritably, grabbing the pram and turning to go, "Come on, Alfie."
The Doctor sighed and called after him with exasperation. "Craig! It's a coincidence! It happens! It's what the universe does for-" He spotted Amy and Rory in the distance, being stopped by a little girl. Amy had a newborn baby Vincent in her arms. "Fun."
"We should go and say hello," Aliya whispered, having followed his gaze.
"Can't," he replied, "Too risky, given we've seen them in their personal future."
"I suppose you're right. It just would have been nice to talk to them."
They ducked behind a clothing rack and watched while Amy handed Vincent to Rory so that Amy could sign something for the girl. The girl's pointing for her mother's sake had the Time Lords turning and seeing the billboard with Amy's face on it, advertising perfume.
Once on the ground floor, they met up with Craig before hiding amongst - funnily enough - perfume and waiting for the shop to close so that they could explore without having to worry about security. The Doctor gave Craig a papoose, and the human man was surprised to learn about how Alfie supposed kept grading him on her fatherly performance.
Catching the cybermat was fun, in the way that such things weren't actually fun at all, but not overly difficult despite the physical struggle involved.
But when screams came from the basement, the Doctor ran on ahead, finding the flashlight and then George down there, dead. Due to being near the ground as he crept, he didn't see the cyberman coming out of the doorway until it had knocked him unconscious.
He woke to someone shaking him.
"Doctor!" Aliya was saying incessantly, and he opened his eyes to see hers full of worry as she leant over him. "What happened?"
He groaned. "Oh, I've been chipped, chapped, chopped," he said as she and Craig helped pull him to his feet. His balance was off and he leaned against the wall. "The Cyberman, it killed George, took him back to the ship."
"The cybermen are here? But you said-"
"Yeah, I know what I said," the Doctor told him, staggering from side to side. Aliya rushed in to support him, letting his arm come around her shoulder and taking most of his weight. "I say a lot of things. But I fused the teleport. It should have taken them days to repair."
"Are you okay?" Craig asked, his eyes taking in Aliya's quick response to his requiring help and the concerned way she was looking at him now.
"Oh, I should be dead, but the arm it chopped me with, it was damaged. Old spare parts. Must have changed those missing people."
"They've changed the missing into Cybermen? Why didn't they change you?"
"Long story, I'm not exactly compatible, neither is Aliya," he murmured, "But why are they using spare parts? Why? Everything I find out makes less sense."
"I wish I could be more help," Aliya said, giving him an apologetic look, "But cybermen are something I've somehow managed to avoid all this time. I'd always thought it was a blessing, but right now-"
"You're fine," the Doctor said softly, using the fact that he was already leaning on her to easily rest his head on hers. Their close proximity meant he was able to sense how the small gesture reassured both her mind and emotions.
"Doctor, both of you, listen to me, if the cybermen are here, then we're not safe," Craig reminded him, "We've got to go, we've got to go back to base."
The Doctor perked up, lifting his head abruptly. "We've got a base? When did we get a base?"
The base, it turned out, was Craig's kitchen. The Doctor got to work mixing something in a bowl, explaining his process to Aliya who he was fairly sure was only half-listening anyway.
"I'm going down the shop," Craig called out, "We've run out of milk." He threw a mobile phone to the Doctor and headed for the door. "You know what to do if he cries."
"No," the Doctor replied, quickly.
"Me neither!"
Sure enough, the moment the door slammed, Alfie started crying.
"Come on," Aliya said, getting up from her chair, "I'm sure between the two of us, we can get him to settle down again."
He didn't want to argue with her and so wordlessly followed her upstairs. They came into the baby's bedroom, which was dimly lit by a lamp.
"Hello, Stormageddon," the Doctor whispered as they came closer. "It's the Doctor, and Aliya. Here to help. Shh." They got to the crib and looked down at Alfie, who was staring up at them. The Doctor leaned over him. "Hey, there there, be quiet. Go to sleep. Really, stop crying. You've got a lot to look forward to, you know. A normal human life on Earth. Mortgage repayments, the nine to five, a persistent nagging sense of spiritual emptiness...save the tears for later, boy-o."
"Doctor," Aliya said, sounding like she was frowning.
"Oh, no, that was crabby," he muttered, rubbing his forehead and shutting his eyes, "No, that was old. But I am old, Stormy, I am so old. So near the end."
The Doctor picked up Alfie gingerly.
"But you, Alfie Owens, you are so young, aren't you?" He held the baby close to his chest, so that he could talk directly to him. "And, you know, right now, everything's ahead of you. You could be anything." Alfie gurgled. "Yes, I know. You could walk among the stars." He looked up at the plastic ones on the ceiling. "They don't actually look like that, you know. They are rather more impressive."
He used the sonic to bring up a holographic starscape above their heads. Aliya - who had been surprisingly quiet for someone who had intended for a team effort - blinked up at it while Alfie just gurgled again.
"Yeah. You know, when I was little like you, I dreamt of the stars," he told the baby, though his eyes went to Aliya who was watching him with a melancholy he completely understood. It was the same one he felt whenever he saw her with a baby, that remembrance of how they had been with Mari for that brief instant before they lost that part of parenthood forever.
But to her credit, she swallowed and gave him a brave smile. "I think little Theta would have been happy with how you did."
He smiled back, but with the sadness that was taking him over more surely with every minute closer he got to Silencio. "She's right, Alfie. I think it's fair to say in the language of your age, that I lived my dream. I owned the stage, gave it a hundred and ten percent." He kissed Alfie's head. "I hope you have as much fun as I did, Alfie."
Aliya had tears shining on her cheeks, and she reached out a hand to rest on the arm that was holding Alfie to him. He gave her another smile before turning his attention back to Alfie. After all, the baby he could still help. There wasn't anything he could do for his best friend at the moment.
"Your dad's trying his best, you know," he told Alfie, who was quick to respond, "Yes, I know, it's not his fault he doesn't have mammary glands. No, neither do me and Aliya." He kissed his head again, right before his ears picked up on something out of place. "Alfie, why is there a sinister beeping coming from behind me?"
"Cybermat!" Aliya shouted, and he whirled around to see the tiny silver creature gnashing its teeth at them.
"Oh, no you don't." He sent a sonic pulse at the cybermat to stun it. "Come on, run! It's only stunned!" He and Aliya ran down the stairs. "It's going to be okay. Good Alfie, yes. Don't worry about anything. We're going to go outside."
They went through the patio doors, only for the Doctor to realise he'd dropped his sonic in the kitchen.
"Oops."
"No shit," Aliya retorted. "Call Craig, he could be home any second."
The Doctor grabbed the phone from his pocket and made the call. "Come on, Craig, pick up, pick up, pick up, pick up." Of course, he didn't, as was their luck. He left a message. "Craig? Don't worry, Alfie is fine, but on no account enter the house."
"Doctor!" Aliya hit him on the arm and he whirled around to see Craig on the kitchen floor wrestling with the Cybermat.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!"
"Help me!" Craig called from inside.
The Doctor hurriedly handed Alfie to Aliya, who held him tight and stepped back once she realised what he was about to do. He crashed through the glass door, fragments shattering around him.
Craig started asking about where Alfie was despite his own precarious situation, and the Doctor quickly reassured him before using the sonic to get the cybermat off Craig. With his help, a baking tray, and a quick use of his app for metastatic energy, it was zapped. Well and truly this time.
"That was amazing," the Doctor told Craig, clapping him on the shoulder, "You must be really, really strong, that thing should have had you easily."
"Is it definitely dead?"
"Inactive, yes. Technically never been alive. It was playing possum before, to take us by surprise. Bravo." He applauded his friend's fantastic effort in the cybermat's defeat.
"Phew," Craig said, laughing before straightening up again, "Alfie!"
"He's fine," Aliya assured him through the shattered door, which he was quick to unlock and open so that she could step through and hand him his son back. "We would never have let anything happen to him."
They relocated to the lounge, where the Doctor got to work taking the cybermat apart, while Craig walked up and down with Alfie. The older human was yawning.
"I'm knackered. That thing was eating up the electricity?"
"And transmitting it up to the cybership," the Doctor said, nodding, "But why? Why do they need power? Why are those conversions not complete yet, and what are they doing up there?"
"You said you were going to look at its brain."
"No, I had to wipe its brain. Now I can reprogram it and use it as a weapon against them."
"The cybermat came after us?"
"No, after me and Aliya," the Doctor corrected, nodding to the Time Lady who was sitting on the floor between him and the coffee table, her head lightly resting on his knee.
"They sent it after us," Craig repeated, sitting down next to him.
"After me. Because of me, you and Alfie nearly died." The Doctor turned his head to look at his drowsy friend. "Do you still feel safe with me, Craig?"
"You can't help who your mates are."
"No," the Doctor disagreed, "I am a stupid, selfish man. Always have been. I should have made you go. I should never have come here."
"What would have happened if you hadn't come? Who else knows about the cybermen and teleports?"
"I put people in danger."
"Stop beating yourself up. If it weren't for you, this whole planet would be an absolute ruin," Craig said firmly.
Aliya lifted her head to smile at him. "Exactly. Thank you, Craig. He's stopped listening to me when I tell him things like that, even though it's true of over half the planets in the universe, not just this one."
"Craig, very soon I won't be here," the Doctor said, leaning forward and staring straight ahead, "My time is running out. I don't mean Exedor. Silence will fall when the question is asked. Don't even know what the question is. I always knew I'd die still asking. Thing is, Craig, it's tomorrow. Can't put it off any more. Tomorrow is the day I-"
He glanced over to see that Craig and Alfie were both asleep.
"Ah."
Aliya, with a hard look on her face that he knew was disguising her anguish at what he had been saying, got to her feet and moved away from him. He also got up, but so that he could put a blanket over Alfie and Craig.
"Can you decide if you're cross with me or not?" The Doctor asked Aliya afterwards. She looked at him curiously, her arms crossed and face impossible to read. "Because you keep going from sad to cross and it's very taxing and I think it would be much easier on the both of us if you just picked one and stuck with it."
"Right, because I have such great control over my emotions and I would definitely not have just done that if I could," she said with a level of sarcasm that was downright impressive.
He sighed. "I'm sorry. Permission to hug?"
That made something in her face shift, and soften. "Since when did you need to ask?"
"Since I started being the worst best friend ever," he replied, hugging her tightly and letting his chin rest on her head.
"I'm pretty sure I get that title, not you."
"No, you're the best best friend ever, just in the worst way."
"I know, it must be so pesky, me not wanting you to die," she mumbled into his shirt, laughing oddly, but he could feel moisture seeping through the fabric to his skin.
"It is, but it could be worse. You could be a Dalek. Or wear pear lip gloss."
She laughed again. "That's true."
Very early the next morning, they left the house to head back to the shopping centre, leaving Craig asleep with Alfie. They had put him in enough danger already. Or so the Doctor kept saying while he had been writing the note they left on the fridge about where they had gone.
Aliya had done her best to do as the Doctor asked of her and had chosen to try and stop being cross with him. She kept telling herself that being cross with him would only spoil their last day together. Not that she wasn't going to push for a couple more days yet, but still.
"Morning!" Val said to them as they ran into her at the shop.
"Morning," the Doctor said pleasantly, his mind elsewhere, "Teleport's still fused. They didn't repair it. So, the Cybermen last night. How did it get down here, how did I get out? And why, why am I asking you?"
"You found the silver rat?"
"But where are the silver men?" He looked to Aliya. "Take another look at the basement."
"Sure thing." She headed back there, tried to ignore the dead body of George that was still on the floor, and did a thorough sweep. Unfortunately, she found nothing, and headed back to where she'd left the Doctor. She could hear Craig's voice shouting his name, and followed it to where he had run into Val.
"Another row?" She was asking him. "He went in the changing rooms. Something about silver men."
"Oh, god, no," he said, and then jumped upon seeing Aliya approaching them, "Aliya! I need you to look after Alfie for me, okay?"
"Me?!" She protested as he handed over the baby, automatically holding onto him but frowning at his father. "You're not going on your own, Craig-"
"I need Alfie with someone I trust-"
"Then let me go and you can keep him! He's in trouble, I can tell, and I'm the one who knows how to help him when he's like this-"
"You think I don't know that your brain is all over the place at the moment? Trust me, I've noticed. You're better off staying here."
Aliya wasn't convinced, but he was already starting to head for the changing rooms and dumping the baby on Val to join him didn't seem like an option. "You bring him back to me in one piece, alright?" She told him firmly. "And yourself, too."
Craig nodded earnestly. "I promise. Don't follow me!"
"Wasn't intending to," Val murmured, a strange look of bewilderment on her face as her eyes went from him to Aliya and Alfie. "Well, I didn't quite have this pegged right, did I?"
"What?" Aliya asked, only half hearing her because she was too busy staring after Craig.
"Well, the three of you."
"What about the three of us?"
"Well you're all-"
"Half out of our minds but too damn stubborn and sentimental to be sensible? Yeah," Aliya said, busying herself with putting on the papoose so that she could wrap her arms around Alfie and kiss the top of his head.
Val considered her words and then gave her a smile. "There are worse things to be, dear. We all lose our sense when it comes to love."
"Yes, we do."
With every second that passed, Aliya could only feel more and more dread creeping in. The little she could sense from the Doctor was the opposite of reassuring, and then it plummeted even further.
"I hope they're okay," she whispered to Alfie, holding him tighter.
"Oh, they'll be fine," Val told her gently.
Aliya stared. "Without being rude, what the hell would you know about any of this? You don't even know what's going on."
"No, but I'm hardly blind."
Aliya couldn't be sure if Val had actually picked up on the cybermen issue or if they were on two entirely different pages. But when the lights started flickering, it became unimportant, and Alfie started to cry again.
"No no no," Aliya whispered, both out of fear and to the baby, kissing his head again, "It's okay, Alfie, it's going to be okay, even without me they're a good team, they'll work it out…"
After a few more minutes of fretting and Val being worried but unsure of what to say, the lift behind them pinged and the Doctor and Craig rushed out of it.
"How did you get in there?" Val asked them with bemusement.
"Alfie!" Craig cried, running to them.
Aliya beamed, so relieved that she had to laugh. "Here's daddy," she said to Alfie as she handed him to Craig. The baby gurgled.
"That was another review," the Doctor said to Craig, "Ten out of ten."
"The cybermen," Craig breathed, clutching Alfie tightly, "They blew up. I blew them up with love."
Aliya lifted an eyebrow at the Doctor, who just put his arm around her shoulders so that he could hug her to his side.
"No, that's impossible," he said adamantly, "And also grossly sentimental and overly simplistic. You destroyed them because of the deeply ingrained heredity human trait to protect one's own genes, which in turn triggers a-" Upon getting weird looks from Craig and Val, he gave them all a funny smile. "Yeah. Love. You blew them up with love."
"If only that worked all the time," Aliya said, making a face, and the Doctor just chuckled and kissed the top of her head while Val smiled at them.
Craig put Alfie in a spare shop pram near Val's counter while going off to look for a new shirt, and Aliya stayed nearby while the Doctor disappeared off to who knew where.
"It suits you," Val told Craig once he found a nice new shirt.
"Thanks."
"Discount applies to partners," she said, glancing between him and Aliya.
"Great," Craig said, smiling.
"Are you married then? Or them?" Val asked curiously, and Craig shook his head.
"No, no," he said, shrugging, "We talked about it, but it's just a piece of paper, isn't it?" The Doctor returned at that moment to clap Craig on the shoulder and beam at them all.
"Thank you for your help, Val," he said, "Good noticing. Keep them peeled."
Val smiled. "I will." Her gaze went over the three of them but came to rest on Craig and the Doctor. "I'm glad you two made up, for baby's sake." Craig frowned, and for the first time, Aliya started to understand all of Val's previously bizarre sounding comments.
"How do you mean?" The former asked.
"It's nice for baby to have three parents who all love each other," Val said, smiling widely at them and nodding as if she was speaking a beautiful but obvious truth.
"Wait, hang on a sec," Craig said, "Three parents? You think we're-"
"A team," Val replied, innocently.
Craig started to laugh, but Aliya found herself being tugged away by the Doctor at an incredible speed. They ran off back towards Craig's street, to the TARDIS.
"We're not just leaving like that, are we?" She asked him, concerned.
"No," he laughed, "I'm a bit mad, I'm not rude."
"Debatable!"
The plan was going back a few hours so that they could clean Craig's house from top to bottom so that he wouldn't be in trouble with Sophie when she got home. After all, a fair amount of it was their mess. Aliya hadn't done a lot of domestic labour before, but the Doctor somehow knew all there was to know - she was past being surprised at his random knowledge of such things - and was all too happy to direct her.
When they came in from tidying up the garden, Craig was standing in the kitchen, Alfie in the papoose.
"See, I do come back," the Doctor told him, smiling.
"How did you-"
"Time machine. But even with time travel, getting glaziers on a Sunday, tricky."
Craig gaped at them. "You went back in time? That means you used up your hours. What about Exedor?" His gaze drifted to Aliya, but she just shook her head and smiled at him as best she could.
"What about you being in trouble with Sophie when she comes back?" The Doctor countered. "I couldn't let that happen."
"You used up your time for me?"
The Doctor smiled at him warmly. "Course I did. You're my mate." He looked at Alfie, who was sitting contently in the papoose. "I notice Stormageddon's very quiet and happy." Alfie gurgled. "Oh, he prefers the name Alfie now. And he's very proud of his dad."
"He calls me dad?" Craig asked, awed.
"Yes, of course he does now." Another gurgle, and the Doctor laughed. "Yeah, I know. He's a bit thick, isn't he?"
Craig and Aliya laughed too. "Oi, shut up, you two," the former scolded.
The Doctor quietened. "Well, now it's time." He lifted his chin. "I have to go."
Craig sighed. "Doctor, I know that something's wrong. I can help you." Aliya felt Craig become even more endeared to her than he already was. It never ceased to amaze her how the Doctor's human friends were always so ready to tackle things they didn't know or understand just for him.
"Nobody can help me," the Doctor said flatly, before grabbing a set of very familiar TARDIS blue envelopes off the fridge. "I hope Sophie won't mind. I need these."
It's actually happening, this is it, we're going, oh god, Aliya thought to herself, eyeing the envelopes and doing her best to stave off a panic attack by taking some very deep breaths.
"Where are you going to go?" Craig asked the Doctor.
The Doctor beamed, and Aliya wanted to be sick. "America."
"Sophie'll be home any second," Craig told him quickly, "Are you sure-"
"I can't miss this appointment, Craig," the Doctor insisted, shaking his head. Aliya thought she could see one of his hands shaking but a moment later was sure she had imagined it. "Goodbye, mate."
"Wait there, one second," Craig demanded, dashing off around the corner and returning with a stetson that only deepened Aliya's nausea. "From Sean's stag."
"Wow."
"You ride 'em, partner."
"Oh, thanks," the Doctor said, delighted.
"Bye."
There was a knock on the door, and again when Craig turned around, the Doctor took Aliya's hand and dashed out the back. She knew goodbyes were hard for him - for all his comments about her almost crying when they had last seen Jenny, he had barely held it together himself - and so didn't fight him.
They walked back to the TARDIS. When they got there, the Doctor turned to look at Aliya.
"Is this how I looked?" He asked her, spreading his arms as if that would help her see it better.
She swallowed a lump in her throat. "Yeah."
"Guess it's time, then. One last trip. Then she's all yours." The Doctor did his best to give her a brave smile, but his eyes were watery and she wasted no time in launching herself at him in a hug so tight that she was sure they both had to switch to respiratory bypass.
"I'll take good care of her, I promise," she whispered.
"I know."
They stayed like that for a while, until Aliya found herself very abruptly released. The Doctor's entire demeanour had shifted when she got a look at his face.
"Actually, no," he said, voice firm.
"No?"
"Well, no about the last trip," he said, shrugging, "Silencio is still happening, and when it does the TARDIS will still be yours until Jenny wants it, like we agreed, but, I'm not just going to lie down and take this."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning I want to know why I have to die. I want to know what the question is, and why it means my death. I deserve that. And so do you, and Jenny, and anyone else who has ever been mad enough to care about me."
Aliya was surprised, but relieved. She was going to get her extra days, and also hopefully some answers. "Sounds good to me," she said, beaming at him.
He held out his hand. "Come on then. One last mission. Together."
She took it, and they grinned at each other before dashing into the police box.
Just in case it wasn't clear, Val did still think that Craig and the Doctor were a couple (and that Aliya was just their friend) initially. But she then changed her mind and thought that they were a poly trio. Credit to OptimisticLady for the Doctor's tickling secret, that was her idea.
And next we have the AU of the finale, which for obvious reasons is not going to be The Wedding of River Song but instead..A Daughter's Refusal!
Expect a lot of emotions. That's all I'll say.
Thanks for reading, let me know what you thought! (Seriously, I do treasure each review, because not as many people are reading this as they once were, so even if it's only a few words it really means a lot.)
-MayFairy :)
p.s. The Husbands of River Song emotionally compromised me pretty badly.