A/N: Thanks for your patience. I recently tested positive for COVID so updating and doing other tasks was put on the backburner momentarily. I'm feeling a bit better so I'm attempting to get back into the swing of things.
I don't own Doctor Who. All I own is my OC Katy and this story.
Please review and no flaming will be tolerated.
Enjoy x
FAR FROM OVER
"Wait, I know it's not too late. Even though the innocence is scarred. There's still tomorrow (what if I could see). I could just escape. Close my eyes and dream about, a sentimental vision. A vision I could feel." – Rev Theory: 'Far From Over' (Light it Up [2008])
The Briefing Room
10 Downing Street
Central London
The Doctor and the other alien experts are under the effects of dangerous electric currents. However, the Doctor manages to reach up and rip off his ID card. The gleeful expressions on Green and the other Slitheen instantly drop and turn into looks of horror. The Doctor's face was hard, angry and full of determination.
"Deadly to humans, maybe." He thrusts the ID card against the collar of the revealed Slitheen, and the electric current envelops it and Green, causing them to convulse painfully. The Doctor uses this opportunity to escape from the room.
The Cabinet Room
At the same moment that the Doctor uses the electrified ID card on the Slitheen he was face-to-face with, the electric current seemed to be having the same effect on Margaret as well. Rose sees the opportunity like the Doctor did and immediately seizes Katy's hand, pulling her towards the door.
"Go! Run!" She urges, making a run for it, with Harriet following both girls swiftly.
The Tyler's Flat
Likewise, Jackie was watching the Slitheen she was trapped with starting to convulse underneath the same electric current that was incapacitating the others. But unlike Katy and Rose, and the Doctor who were able to get out of there safely; Jackie was still trapped and in immediate danger. But then help, in the form of Mickey came rushing into the flat, and copped an eyeful of the very large, puke green alien suffering under the effects of electricity.
"Jackie!" Mickey yells, grabbing her attention. He reaches for a nearby chair and smashes it across the back of the alien, then grabs Jackie's hand and pulls her out of the kitchen. Jackie keeps running out of the flat, but Mickey stops for a moment in the kitchen doorway to snap a picture of the convulsing Slitheen with his phone, before running after Jackie.
The Entrance Hall
The Doctor runs full pelt into a group of armed police, who become alert when he runs into the room.
"Oi! If you want aliens, you've got them." The Doctor announces. "They're inside Downing Street. Come on!" He turns and runs back the way he came from, with the armed police officers running after him.
The Briefing Room
Green manages to pull off the ID card the Doctor had slapped onto 'Asquith's' collar, and the electricity stops.
"Reinstate my disguise. Hurry up! Hurry! Hurry!" 'Asquith' orders frantically, and Green helps his fellow Slitheen shimmy back inside the General's skin suit.
Corridor
Katy, Rose and Harriet are fleeing for their lives with Margaret the Slitheen chasing after them in a fury. They are about halfway down the corridor when Harriet stops, realising something crucial.
"No, wait. They're still in there!" She yells, frantically.
"What is?" Katy yells back impatiently as she and Rose look over their shoulders trying to see if the Slitheen was gaining up on them.
"The emergency protocols. We need them." Harriet insists, and both Katy and Rose groan in frustration when they realised that they needed to go back where they came from to collect the important documents Harriet was talking about. The Slitheen manages to find them, and as they take off, continues to chase them through a series of rooms, smashing through the oak doors in its way.
The Briefing Room
The Doctor returns to the briefing room with the police in tow, just as Green finishes getting Asquith back into his skin suit. His face falls in frustration just as Green uses this to his advantage and addresses the police standing behind him looking confused, then serious when they see the rows of dead alien experts all around them, slumped over in their chairs or sprawled out on the floor.
"Where have you been?" Green glowers at the officers. "I called for help. I sounded the alarm." He flounders for an explanation that would put him and the other Slitheen in the clear. "There was this lightening, this kind of, er, electricity, and they all collapsed." The policemen check the bodies, but all come to the same conclusion.
"I think they're all dead." The Welsh Sergeant declares. Green inwardly grinned in triumph; things were going their way.
"That's what I'm saying." He points a fat, sausage-like finger at the Doctor who glowers at him. "He did it! That man there." All eyes swivel to the Doctor, who attempts to correct them.
"I think you will find the Prime Minister is an alien in disguise." There was silence and a lot of disbelieving looks thrown at him, and that was when the Doctor realised how crazy that sounded without the evidence to back it up. "That's never going to work, is it?" His face falls, and one of the policemen shake their head.
"No."
"Fair enough," the Doctor shrugs before turning and running for it.
Corridor
But just as quickly becomes trapped between two lots of armed police. Asquith shoulders his way through the crowd of police officers and points the finger at the Doctor.
"Under the jurisdiction of the Emergency Protocols, I authorise you to execute this man." He orders the surrounding officers. The Doctor sighs in frustration and turns to run in the other direction but finds his path blocked by more police.
"Well, now, yes, you see, er, the thing is…" the Doctor stammers before he realises where he is standing. A smile spreads across his face, which throws off the police. "If I was you, if I was going to execute someone by backing them against the wall, between you and me, little word of advice…" The wall the Doctor was standing in front of suddenly dings! "Don't stand them against the lift!"
He backs straight into it, and the lift goes up.
First Floor
The game of cat and mouse is still going on between Margaret the Slitheen and Katy, Rose and Harriet, as they search for a place to hide from the murderous alien. The lift opens randomly, revealing the Doctor who spots her searching for her prey.
"Hello!" The Doctor grins and waves at her cheerfully, throwing Margaret off a little; which gives Katy, Rose and Harriet the opportunity to sneak past her and out of sight, as the lift doors closes and ascends with the Doctor still inside, and he dismounts on the second floor. Margaret just as quickly dismisses the weird occurrence and goes off in search of Katy, Rose, and Harriet.
Sitting Room
The three women eventually come across a sitting room, which had a large settee, a large drinks cabinet, and a folding screen by the window to keep out the draughts. This place is as good as any to find a suitable hiding space, so Rose turns to her sister and Harriet.
"Hide!" She urges, and takes cover behind the cabinet, while Harriet hides behind the screen and Katy hides behind the large settee, just before Margaret in her Slitheen body walks in.
"Oh, such fun. Little human children, where are you? Sweet little humeykins, come to me. Let me kiss you better." She coos, searching every nook and cranny for her prey. She comes dangerously close to the settee, making Katy start to panic. "Let me kiss you better. Kiss you with my big, green lips." Margaret turns her back for a few minutes, giving Katy and Rose ample opportunity to quickly move from their current hiding place to hide behind the heavy curtains by the window. Harriet breathes out a sigh of relief when they go unnoticed, and all three of them try to keep quiet just as Green and Asquith, both without their 'human skins' walk into the sitting room. "My brothers."
'Brothers?' Katy exchanges surprised looks with Rose from their hiding spot.
"Happy hunting?" Green questions Margaret, who giggles happily at her brother's question.
"It's wonderful," She admits. "The more you prolong it, the more they stink." The three women immediately stiffen.
"Sweat and fear." Asquith comments, sniffing the air with interest.
"I can smell an old girl. Stale bird and brittle bones." Green scents the air also, and Harriet shuts her eyes in fear.
"And two ripe youngsters, all hormones and adrenaline." Margaret follows the smell towards the heavy curtains, and neither sister is aware of the danger they are currently in. "Fresh enough to bend before they snap." Margaret snatches back one of the curtains revealing Katy, who screams. Harriet reveals herself, waving her arms frantically in the air.
"No! Take me first! Take me!" She insists. The Doctor then suddenly appears, brandishing a fire extinguisher, which he uses on the male Slitheen and sprays CO2 on them. As they stumble about, momentarily disoriented, the Doctor beckons to all three of them.
"Out, with me!" Rose charges forward, managing to rip down the curtain she was hiding behind and flings it over Margaret to give her sister the opportunity to move out of the female alien's reach and run in the direction of the Doctor. Harriet joins them, causing the Doctor to frown at her, forgetting that he had already met Harriet downstairs before he walked into the trap in the Briefing room. "Who the hell are you?" He demands.
"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North." She responds without blinking an eye. The Doctor instantly smiles at her.
"Nice to meet you!"
"Likewise." Harriet returns the smile, as the Doctor uses up the CO2, tosses the cannister aside and they run for it.
Corridor
"We need to head to the Cabinet Room." The Doctor instructs, and Harriet nods in agreement.
"The Emergency Protocols are in there. They give instructions for aliens." She explains and earns an impressed smile from the Doctor.
"Harriet Jones, I like you." He complements her.
"And I like you too." Harriet smiles warmly back. The Slitheen dash out from the sitting room and gives chase, causing the four of them to run faster.
The Cabinet Room
Katy, Rose, the Doctor and Harriet make it to the Cabinet Room within the nick of time, with the Slitheen on their heels. The very second they make it past the threshold into the Cabinet Room, the Doctor snatches up a nearby decanter from a side table and stands in the doorway, holding his sonic screwdriver to the glass bottle.
"One more move and my sonic device will triplicate the flammability of this alcohol. Whoof, we all go up." The Slitheen hesitated, and the Doctor grins in triumph. "So back off." The Slitheen take one step back into the outer office. "Alright then. Question time. Who exactly are the Slitheen?" He demands.
"They're aliens." Harriet states the obvious, earning sarcastic looks from the Doctor, Katy and Rose.
"Yes, I got that, thanks." The Doctor retorts, flatly.
"Who are you, if not human?" Green retorts with another question. Harriet frowns in confusion.
"Who's not human?" She asks.
"He's not human." Katy responds, pointing towards the Doctor. Harriet blinks at her in astonishment.
"He's not human?" Harriet echoes, and the Doctor spins and aims an annoyed glare at them both.
"Can I get a little hush?" He requests, acerbically.
"Sorry." Harriet looks a little shamefaced, while Katy nods at him, used to his grumpy attitude; especially when he was under pressure and trying to ensure the safety of his companions and another innocent person against the current threat.
"So, what's the plan?" He demands of Green. Harriet leans over to whisper to Katy and Rose, frowning in confusion.
"But he's got a Northern accent."
"Lots of planets have a north." Rose points out, echoing the same explanation the Doctor had given her when she asked the very same question, back when she and her sister had first met the Doctor. The Doctor let out an irritated huff.
"I said hush," He repeats himself, then returns his focus on the Slitheen in front of him, looking very amused by the conversation in front of them, and the Doctor's obvious agitation. "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 the government. What for, invasion?"
"Why would we invade this God-forsaken rock?" Asquith scoffed in disgust.
"Then something's brought the Slitheen race here. What is it?" the Doctor insisted.
"The Slitheen race?" Asquith parroted.
"Slitheen is not our species." Green corrected the Doctor looking a combination of amused and insulted. "Slitheen is our surname. Jocrassa Fel Fotch Pasameer-Day-Slitheen at your service." Green introduces himself, with a smug little smirk on his huge face. The Doctor blinked in surprise.
"So, you're family."
"A Family business." Green confirms, and the Doctor frowns when he suddenly manages to put two and two together, and he forms a look of disgust on his face.
"Then you're out to make a profit. How can you do that on a God-forsaken rock?" He wonders, as Asquith eyes the decanter of brandy the Doctor still had in his hand. His mind ticking over curiously.
"Ah, excuse me? Your device will do that?" The Doctor raises an eyebrow, looking blank, and causing Asquith to elaborate his question. "Triplicate the flammability?"
"Isn't that what I said?" the Doctor stated.
"You're making it up." Asquith calls the Doctor's bluff, and the Time Lord deflates a little, before offering a sheepish smile.
"Ah, well! Nice try." The Doctor acknowledges that before passing the decanter to Harriet. "Harriet, have a drink. I think you're gonna need it." Harriet is clutching the Red Box and is unable to take the decanter from him.
"You pass it to the left first." She reminds him, and the Doctor nods.
"Sorry." And he passes it to Katy who was standing to his left. She automatically takes the decanter from him.
"Thanks." She said. The Slitheen, knowing that the Doctor appears to not have anything else up his sleeve, begin to get cocky again and takes a step forward.
"Now we can end this hunt with a slaughter." Asquith declares, making Rose, Katy and Harriet pale at the thought of the gruesome death they were likely to suffer, having already witnessed a couple earlier.
"Don't you think we should run?" Rose asked, nervously. The sisters look at their designated driver for ideas on what to do next, only to frown when they see the confident smile already on the Time Lord's face.
"Fascinating history, Downing Street. Two thousand years ago, this was marsh land." Despite the fact that they were facing a current crisis, that could mean their deaths if they weren't careful; Katy couldn't help but pay attention to the Doctor's random history lesson, the history geek that she was. "1730, it was occupied by a Mister Chicken. He was a nice man." Katy made a face; that was a weird bit of information, and she privately wondered if the Doctor was taking the mickey out of them. "1796, this was the Cabinet Room. If the Cabinet's in session and in danger, these are about the four safest walls in the whole of Great Britain." The smug smirks on the Slitheen's faces instantly fell. "End of lesson." The Doctor lifts a small panel by the door and presses a button, which causes metal shutters to crash shut across the windows and doors. He turns to the three women, looking pretty proud of himself. "Installed in 1991." He explains, grinning. "Three inches of steel lining every single wall. They'll never get in." He promises.
"Uh-huh. And how do we get out?" Katy asks dryly, somehow already knowing the answer to her question before the Doctor would say it.
The Doctor froze.
"Ah…"
Outside the Cabinet Room
Green blinked hatefully at the sealed room containing the Doctor, Katy, Rose and Harriet, put out that the opportunity to slaughter them all had been temporarily taken away from them for the time being. He turns to his brother and sister, determined to continue with their plans for the future of planet Earth.
"He's safely contained," Green declares. "Now, cut off communications inside that room, then summon the family. It's time we finished with this insane planet for good."
Outside Downing Street
The media were still crowded around the front door of the Prime Minister's residence, still eager for more material for their articles so they could meet their deadlines. Andrew Marr turns back towards the TV cameras, still attempting to keep the rest of the world in the loop in what's currently happening … even if he had scarcely any idea himself what the hell was going on. He frowns gravely into the camera.
"And there's still no word from inside Downing Street, though we are getting even more new arrivals." And even they were not as he was expecting either for a potential alien invasion situation. He frowns in bemusement with each new arrival. "That's group Captain Tennant James of the RAF, though why he's been summoned we've no idea. And that's Ewan McAllister, Deputy Secretary for the Scottish Parliament. And this is most unusual. I'm told that is Sylvia Dillane, Chairman of the North Sea Boating Club." Marr shakes his head in obvious bewilderment. "Quite what connects these people, we have no idea." He remarks.
True, they have no idea what connection these seemingly random people have with this current crisis … except the fact that all of them were morbidly obese.
Entrance Hall
Green, Asquith and Margaret have put their 'human skin suits' back on, and Margaret is greeting the rest of their family in the Entrance Hall.
"Group Captain. Delighted you could make it." She shakes hands with him, just for appearance's sake for the media still lingering outside. "We're meeting upstairs." The group Captain lets out a loud fart that barely fazes Margaret who smiles and claps him on the shoulder. "That's the spirit. Off you go." She waves him through and turns to greet the next person waiting to be acknowledged. "Good to see you. Come on through." Asquith walks over to one of the sergeants watching all of this with a completely bewildered expression on his face and grabs his attention.
"Ah, Sergeant. Now that the Doctor's been neutralised, the upper levels are out of bounds to everyone." He instructs, earning even more confusion from the poor Sergeant, who indicates towards the large group of obese people walking towards the staircase.
"Then who are they?" He asks, cautiously. Asquith smiles mysteriously.
"Need to know, Sergeant. Need to know." Asquith responds vaguely. "I want you to liaise with Communications. The acting Prime Minister will be making a public address. He will speak to the nations of the world."
Cloak Room
Once she had finished greeting the rest of her family, and they were completely in private, Margaret follows them all towards the Cloak Room, where the obese family members immediately begin shedding their 'human skin suits'. 'Sylvia' walks into the blue lit toilets, while Margaret gets a coat hanger from a rack and hands it to her.
"There you are. If you'd just like to go through and get changed." Margaret turns towards an emerging Slitheen and takes a skin suit off who used to be, Group Captain James. "Now, if you'd like to head down to the end of the corridor, it's first on the left."
"Thank you." James croaks, before heading off in that direction.
Mickey's Flat
The whole day had finally taken its toll on poor Jackie's nerves, and now that it was finally night-time, she believed she earned a stiff drink. Too bad Mickey didn't have any good stuff...
"Got anything stronger?" Jackie questioned after looking inside his refrigerator and finding only cans of Heineken chilling in there. But Mickey instantly shook his head.
"No chance. I've seen you when you've had a few." He stated, and Jackie made a slightly insulted face and pouted at him. "This ain't time for a conga."
"We've got to tell someone."
"Who do we trust?" Mickey countered. "For all we know, they've all got big bog monsters inside of them." He stated, indicating to the very large alien he had fended off for Jackie earlier back in her flat. "I mean, this is what he does, Jacks, that Doctor bloke. Everywhere he goes, death and destruction, and he's got both Rose and Katy in the middle of it." He ranted, causing Jackie to pale when she remembered the Slitheen who was about to attack her back at her flat. Mickey shrugged.
"I wouldn't put it past him. But like it or not, he's the only person who knows how to fight these things." He admits almost reluctantly.
"I thought I was going to die." Jackie shuddered, then begins crying. Mickey gives her a quick, awkward hug.
"Come on, yeah? If anyone's going to cry, it's gonna be me." He reassures his girlfriend's mother, before sighing heavily. "Now, you're safe in my flat, Jacks. No one's going to look for you here, especially since you hate me so much." Jackie immediately looks guilty that she had accused Mickey of her daughters' disappearance in the first place.
"You saved my life. God, that's embarrassing." She whimpered.
"You're telling me." Mickey muttered in agreement.
"He wanted me dead. And he's still out there, Mickey. That policeman. That thing." Jackie was positively horrified that the alien that attacked her could still be out there, and more importantly, she hoped that Katy and Rose were safe. Even with that Doctor. But little did Jackie or Mickey know; Strickland had recovered from being hit from behind with the chair Mickey had used as a weapon against him and was back in his 'human skin suit'. He was immediately on his radio to his 'associates'.
"Right, you head off. Inform Control I have got one or two things that still need doing. I still haven't quite finished with Mrs. Tyler yet."
10 Downing Street
Cabinet Room
Meanwhile, back at Downing Street, the Slitheens were making themselves at home, while the Doctor, Katy, Rose and Harriet were trying to plan their next move, while being stuck inside the sealed-up Cabinet Room. Ganesh's dead body had been unceremoniously dumped on the ground when Margaret had grabbed him violently by the throat, during her attempt to eliminate not only him, but also Katy, Rose and Harriet. The Doctor drags the poor man's body into a small storeroom, where the late Prime Minister's body is also laid out.
"What was his name?" The Doctor questioned, looking grimly down at Ganesh's body.
"Who?" Harriet asked, and the Doctor indicated to the body he had just moved out of the way.
"This one. The secretary or whatever he was called."
"I don't know." Harriet replied, sadly. "I talked to him. I brought him a cup of coffee. But I never asked his name." She admitted, regretfully. The Doctor sighed in both regret and frustration before getting down to the business of getting out of there safely. They could mourn these two men later.
"Sorry. Right, what have we got?" He asked, somewhat hastily. "Any terminals, anything?"
"Nope. This place is ancient." Katy revealed.
"What I don't get is, when they killed the Prime Minister, why didn't they use him as a disguise?" Rose asked.
"He's too slim," the Doctor replied matter of fact. "They're big old beasts. They need to fit inside big humans." He pointed out, vaguely indicating the width of the aliens they were currently facing off with.
"But the Slitheen are about eight feet. How do they fit inside?" Katy stated, puzzled.
"That's the device around their necks. A compression field. Literally shrinks them down a bit." The Doctor explained. "That's why there's all that gas. It's a big exchange."
"Wish I had a compression field." Rose joked. "I could fit a size smaller." And then winced when Katy slapped her on the arm. "Ow, what was that for?"
"Your tasteless joke, sis. There's a time and a place for that, and this is not it." Katy scolded.
"Agreed. People have died because of these aliens." Harriet scowled disapprovingly, looking up from the Emergency Protocols she was flipping through to help them figure out their next move.
"Sorry," Rose looked ashamed. "It's just that you get used to this stuff when you're friends with him." She indicates to the Doctor, who had also looked at the blonde disapprovingly for the tactless joke.
"Well, that's a strange friendship." Harriet decided, as the Doctor turned his attention back onto Harriet and frowned at her quizzically.
"Harriet Jones. I've heard that name before." He mused curiously. "Harriet Jones. You're not famous or anything, are you?"
"Oh, hardly." Harriet scoffed, a little disbelievingly.
"It just rings a bell," The Doctor mutters to himself. "Harriet Jones?" Katy was about to open her mouth and ask exactly why Harriet's name was so important at this moment, when the woman herself beat her to it. Unfortunately, not to ask the same question as her, but to give an explanation.
"Lifelong backbencher I'm afraid, and a fat lot of use I'm being right now." Harriet sighed, tiredly. "The protocols are redundant. They list the people who could help and they're all dead downstairs."
"Hasn't it got, like, defense codes and things?" Rose piped up. "Couldn't we just launch a nuclear bomb at them?" Harriet looks at Rose in complete shock.
"You're a very violent young woman."
"But she's got a point, though. We could." Katy backed her sister up, much to Harriet's disbelief.
"Well, there's nothing like that in here." Harriet stated. "Nuclear strikes do need a release code, yes, but it's kept secret by the United Nations." She explained, which promptly made the Doctor look up.
"Say that again." He ordered, and Harriet looked at him blankly.
"What, about the codes?"
"Anything. All of it." He asked, impatiently.
"Well, the British Isles can't gain access to atomic weapons without a Special Resolution from the UN." Harriet explained.
"Like that's ever stopped them." Katy scoffed, and Rose nodded in agreement.
"Exactly, given our past record. And I voted against that, thank you very much." Harriet stated, frowning with disapproval. "The codes have been taken out of the government's hand and given to the UN. Is it important?" She asks the Doctor, who hadn't taken his eyes off the table he was leaning against, deep in thought.
"Everything's important."
"If we only knew what the Slitheen wanted." Harriet mused, then looked rather appalled with herself. "Listen to me. I'm saying Slitheen as if it's normal."
"What exactly is normal nowadays?" Katy pointed out, and Harriet shrugged conceding her point.
"What do they want, though?" Rose frowned.
"Well, they're just one family, so it's not an invasion." The Doctor listed the facts. "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."
"You mean like gold, oil, or water?" Katy suggested, earning an impressed look from the Doctor.
"Exactly. You're getting good at this." He complemented her, and Katy blushed.
"Thanks." Then suddenly, somebody's phone starts beeping, making everyone jump because they weren't expecting it.
"Oh, that's me." Rose realises and gropes around in her pocket for her phone.
"But we're sealed off. How did you get a signal?" Harriet questioned.
"The Doctor zapped it." Katy gave Harriet the explanation.
"Super phone." Rose grinned, as she answers her phone. Hope appeared in Harriet's eyes.
"Then we can phone for help. You must have contacts."
"Dead downstairs, yeah." The Doctor pointed out, and Harriet's face fell in disappointment. Rose checked her text messages.
"It's Mickey." Rose reported, and the Doctor groaned in frustration.
"Oh, tell your stupid boyfriend we're busy." He snapped, ignoring the slap and glare he got from Katy. There was only so much he was willing to do for her, and this time his patience was all but gone.
"Yeah, he's not so stupid after all." Rose stated, looking pale as she turned her phone in the Doctor's direction so that he, and Katy who happened to be standing next to him, could see.
"Oh, shit!" Katy muttered, as she took in the image of the Slitheen writhing in agony from being electrocuted. "Mum!"
"No, no, no, no, no. Not just alien, but like, proper alien. All stinking, and wet, and disgusting." Mickey's crackling voice was explaining through the bad connection to Rose, sounding less than impressed. "And more to the point, it wanted to kill us!"
"I could've died!" Jackie yelled in the background, sounding frightened.
"Is Mum okay, though?" Katy asked worriedly.
"Don't put her on, just tell us." Rose added. The very last thing the sisters wanted to hear was their mother going on and on about how she nearly died, and then precious minutes would go by that they would need to fix the whole situation. However, before Mickey could reply to Rose's question, the Doctor jumps in impatiently, snatching the phone from Rose.
"Ricky? Don't talk, just shut up and go to your computer." The Doctor barked, coldly.
"It's Mickey, and why should I?" He retorted, resentfully. The Doctor sighed heavily, as though bracing himself to say something he really might regret in the long run.
"Mickey the Idiot, I might just choke before I finish this sentence, but, er, I need you." The Doctor admitted reluctantly. He then proceeds to give Mickey instructions about how to hack into UNIT's website.
"It says password." Mickey eventually reveals. The Doctor plugs Rose's phone into the conference phone speaker.
"Say again?" the Doctor requests.
"It's asking for the password." Mickey repeats.
"Buffalo. Two Fs, one L." the Doctor quickly responds. The four people in the Cabinet Room immediately hear frantic typing in the background of the phone call.
"So, what's that website?" Jackie pipes up, talking to Mickey on their end.
"All the secret information known to mankind." Mickey explains, somewhat distractedly because he was focused on the task he was doing. "See, they've known about aliens for years. They just kept us in the dark."
"Mickey, you were born in the dark." The Doctor states, sarcastically.
"Oh, leave him alone." Rose bites back, also getting fed up with her friend continuously giving her boyfriend a hard time.
"Thank you. Password again." Mickey says.
"Just repeat it every time." The Doctor instructs, and Katy makes a concerned face.
"Bit of a security risk, isn't it? Having the same password every time?" She points out, and the Doctor shrugs nonchalantly.
"It's their system. Their problem." He mutters to Katy indifferently before moving on to his next train of thought. "Big Ben – why did the Slitheen go and hit Big Ben?" He pondered.
"You said to gather the experts, to kill them." Harriet reminded him, but the Doctor shook his head, not looking entirely convinced that that was the real reason why a famous landmark had been partially destroyed.
"That lot would've gathered for a weather balloon," He pointed out. "You don't need to crash land in the middle of London."
"The Slitheen are hiding, but then they put the entire planet on red alert." Katy muses, trying to help the Doctor figure it out. "Why would they do that for?"
"Oh, listen to her." Jackie speaks up, sounding scathing.
"Well, at least she's trying to help, Mum!" Rose defended Katy.
"Well, I've got a question, if you don't mind." Jackie retorted, angrily. "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 daughters disappear off the face of the Earth!"
"Mum, we told you what happened." Katy explained with surprising patience. But Jackie wasn't finished with her rant.
"I'm talking to him." Jackie corrected her daughter, and both sisters turned to look apologetically at the Doctor for once again being on the receiving end of their mother's ire … only to react in surprise when they saw him staring off into space, with a look on his face, best reserved for a man who was full of deep sorrow, and deep regret. "'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." Jackie's angry voice turned pleading. "Just answer me this: are my daughters safe?"
"I'm fine." Rose insisted, bewildered by her mother's question.
"It's not like he's going to put us in deliberate danger, mum." Katy also insists but looks nervously at the Doctor when he didn't immediately reassure Jackie. Something that their mother also picked up on.
"Will they always be safe? Can you promise me that?" Again, the Doctor doesn't respond. The feeling of dread forms in the pit of Katy's stomach. "Well, what's the answer?" Jackie presses him but is immediately cut off when Mickey commandeers his phone again.
"We're in." He announces, and the Doctor takes the easy way out of answering Jackie's question by focusing on that.
"Now then, on the left at the top, there's a tab, an icon. Little concentric circles. Click on that." The Doctor instructs, and Mickey does so; the screen revealing an oscilloscope reading, with sound.
"What is it?" Mickey frowns.
"The Slitheen have got a spaceship in the North Sea and its transmitting that signal." The Doctor explains, hastily. "Now hush, let me work out what it's saying."
"He'll have to answer me one day." Jackie points out.
"Hush!" They all hear Mickey shush Jackie, impatiently. Eventually, the Doctor opens his eyes, frowning at what was translated in his head.
"It's some sort of message." He explains, looking confused.
"What's it say?" asks Rose.
"Don't know. It's on a loop, keeps repeating." The doorbell on Mickey and Jackie's side of the phone conversation rings. "Hush!" the Doctor growls, sternly.
"That's not me." Mickey protests, before obviously addressing Jackie. "Go and see who that is."
"It's three o'clock in the morning." Jackie protests, exasperatedly.
"Well, go and tell them that." Mickey retorts, and they hear Jackie sigh in frustration before presumably going and doing just that. The Doctor finally realises what the message is doing.
"It's beaming out into space, who's it for?" He wonders. Mickey's visitor continues ringing the doorbell in the background, irritating Jackie.
"All right!" She snaps and opens the door. Both Katy and Rose stiffen when they hear their mother gasp in fear.
"Mrs. Tyler." A gleeful man's voice greets Jackie, who immediately slams the door in the unknown man's face. Her frantic footsteps run back to Mickey.
"It's him! It's the thing, the Slipeen!" Jackie shouts frantically into the phone, causing (nearly) everyone to panic.
"They've found us." Mickey announces unnecessarily, as nearly everything had been overheard on the phone. The Doctor immediately springs into action.
"Mickey, I need that signal."
"Forget the bloody signal, get out of there, Mum!" Katy hollers, fearful for both her mum and Mickey.
"Just get out! Get out!" Rose urges frantically.
"We can't. It's by the front door!" Mickey points out, causing Katy's heartrate to skyrocket. "Oh, my God, it's unmasking. It's going to kill us."
"There's got to be some way of stopping them!" Harriet protests, looking at the extremely worried faces of the two girls who were staring at the conference phone speaker with horror and dread. "You're supposed to be the expert, think of something!" she snaps at the Doctor, on behalf of Katy and Rose.
"I'm trying!" the Doctor growls back.
"I'll take it on, Jackie. You just run. Don't look back!" Mickey bravely tells Jackie, causing both Katy and Rose to shake their heads in protest.
"No! Don't be a hero, Mick!" shouts Katy. But Mickey ignores his best friend's objections.
"Just run!" Mickey's front door starts splintering, and Rose looks at the Doctor pleadingly, worried for their safety.
"That's our mother." She reminds him. The Doctor looks at the desperate expressions on Katy and Rose's faces before he grits his teeth and focuses his mind.
"Right, if we're going to find their weakness, we need to find out where they're from. Which planet." He theorises hurriedly. "So, judging by their basic shape, that narrows it down to five thousand planets within travelling distance." Katy, Rose, and Harriet's mouths fall open in horror, which the Doctor ignores. "What else do we know about them? Information." He gestures to the three women urgently.
"They're green," Rose kicks off.
"Yep. Narrows it down."
"Good sense of smell," Katy adds.
"Narrows it down."
"They can smell adrenalin," Rose states.
"Narrows it down."
"The pig technology," Harriet joins in.
"Narrows it down."
"The spaceship in the Thames, you said 'slipstream engine'?" Katy remembers.
"Narrows it down." The Doctor still frustratingly repeats, and the three women look at him as if to say: 'well, what else can we add?' and continue wracking their brains for more clues.
"It's getting in!" Mickey shouts down the line.
"They hunt like it's a ritual," Rose continues listing.
"Narrows it down." The Doctor looks frustrated. But then Harriet has an 'ah-ha!' moment, and excitedly turns to the Doctor, eager to reveal her theory.
"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—" She trails off, sounding desperate, before Katy and Rose suddenly understand.
"Bad breath!" they shout in unison.
"That's it!" Harriet beams, and so does the Doctor.
"Calcium decay! Now, that narrows it down!" He shouts triumphantly. Rose leans over the table to give the good news to Jackie and Mickey.
"We're getting there, Mum!" She promises. But Mickey lets out a scoff.
"Too late!" He reveals, but the Doctor refuses to be defeated now that he was on a roll. He starts revealing the information that he had about calcium decay, and which alien this information was linked to.
"Calcium phosphate. Organic calcium. Living calcium. Creatures made out of living calcium." He lists out loud. "What else, what else? Hyphenated surname. Yes! That narrows it down to one planet. Raxacoricofallapatorius!" He yells, triumphantly.
"What?" Katy frowns at the strange, long sounding name as Mickey sneers down the line, unimpressed.
"Oh, yeah, great! We could write 'em a letter." They hear the front door finally fall apart. The Doctor practically launches himself at the speaker system.
"Get into the kitchen!" He orders, and Jackie and Mickey obey without hesitation.
"My God, it's going to rip us apart!" Jackie shrieks.
"Calcium, weakened by the compression field." The Doctor lectures. "Acetic acid. Vinegar!"
"Just like Hannibal!" Harriet cottons on to what the Doctor is getting at, and he beams at her triumphantly.
"Just like Hannibal," He agrees. "Mickey, have you got any vinegar?"
"How should I know?!" He snaps back.
"It's your kitchen." The Doctor points out, flatly.
"Cupboard by the sink!" Rose reminds him.
"Oh, give it here!" Jackie groans impatiently, probably taking the phone from Mickey and heading in the direction of Mickey's cupboard. "What do you need?" She demands.
"Anything with vinegar!" the Doctor instructs, and they hear Jackie pulling things off the shelf in the background.
"Gherkins. Yeah, pickled onions. Pickled eggs." She lists, and the Doctor makes a revolted face and looks over at Rose incredulously.
"And you kiss this man?" Rose just glowers at him, as the Slitheen finally breaks into the kitchen. A quick splash sound was heard, followed by the sound of a loud, wet fart, then an explosion noise that closely resembled a balloon bursting after being pricked. Katy grimaces: that didn't sound at all pleasant.
"Hannibal?" Rose questions Harriet, curiously.
"Hannibal crossed the Alps by dissolving boulders, with vinegar." Harriet explains, with a tired, but triumphant smile on her face. Katy and Rose hi-five each other for a job well done before all four of them toast the moment with each other with glasses of port from the decanter.
TTFN xx