Police? What Police?
Hi! ... um, i'm so sorry for being absent for so long. two months, apparently. i am
so sorry but for reasons that include but are not limited to: loss of muse, uni work,
illness and work. i'm so sorry. but here i am! it's shorter than usual, i know. but it
felt right to stop it here and so i have. please don't kill me for not updating. thanks!
Thud.
"It isn't going to work if you keep hitting it like that."
The Doctor scowled at her, before hitting it again for lack of ideas about what to do.
The time travelling duo - well, they were a trio for a short period, but in a rather lengthy story that would take a while to explain their companion, Martha, had been kidnapped by people that didn't really seem like the kidnapping kind. And that left the Doctor and Rose in a car. Now, this car wasn't stopping (or moving, as the case may be) for what seemed to be another six months, and with the fact that Rose was due to give birth in approximately a week or so (well really it could be anytime), it was down to the Doctor to get them out of this car, out of this planet, and back home to Earth so he wouldn't be murdered by Jackie. Or a hitman Jackie hired to kill him.
The thought that he didn't have any regenerations to rely on now was frightening. Even though he couldn't die at all, he held Jackie Tyler as an exception. She could kill him with her pinkie finger and a Eastenders box set. If there was such a thing as an Eastenders box set.
Rose had suggested trying the police, to ask for them to help find Martha, and the Doctor had been trying for the past half-hour to get through, only to get the same answer every time.
"Thank you for your call, you have been placed on hold."
"You're the police!" he yelled into the transmitter, not hitting it for fear of a Rose Tyler slap. She'd become oddly gifted with her hand, and not in a good way, since becoming pregnant. Obviously the Jackie was coming out in her hormones; so the Doctor was doing everything he could to keep the Jackie side of Rose dormant. Which, in this case, meant not hitting the screen in pure frustration.
He picked up the sonic screwdriver again, for the third time, and buzzing it once more against the screen, but the same words came up with the same tinny voice.
"Thank you for your call, you have been placed on hold."
The Doctor sighed, rubbing a hand over his eyes. He turned his back on the screen and approached Brannigan, who Rose had been chatting to with Valerie. "Is there anyone else we could call? We once met the Duke of Manhattan, is there any way of getting through to him?" the Doctor asked desperately, hoping that the Duke was the same Duke he had met in the hospital.
"Oh, now, ain't ya lordly?" Brannigan commented, and Rose smirked. Her and Valerie shared a look.
"I've got to find my friend."
"You can't!" Valerie said, throwing her arms up in the air. "You can't make outside calls. It's impossible; the motorway is completely enclosed."
"What about other cars, can you contact them? Maybe we could contact Martha's kidnappers," Rose said, clicking her fingers as the idea came to her.
The Doctor beamed at her. "Genius."
"Oh, we've got contact with them, all right," Brannigan said, and the Doctor and Rose's smiles got wider, "But they've got to be on your friends list."
Their smiles dimmed; it was unlikely Brannigan was going to be 'friends' with the young couple who had kidnapped Martha.
"Right … who have we got … ah, here they are, the Cassini sisters!" Brannigan said, picking up the receiver.
"Car-spotters," Valerie explained to the Doctor and Rose. "They might be able to pick up the number of the car that took her."
The Doctor smiled. At last, this might actually get them somewhere. He felt Rose's small, warm hand slip into his and squeeze; he gave her a squeeze back, silently reassuring her that if he had anything to do with it she would not be giving birth in this car.
"Still your hearts, my handsome girls. It's Brannigan here," the cat said into the receiver. Rose laughed and the Doctor's mouth quirked upwards; Valerie rolled her eyes, apparently used to this talk from her husband.
"Get off the line, Brannigan," a woman's voice came through the receiver. It sounded as if she was smiling, though. "You're a pest and a menace."
The Doctor smiled, nudging Rose who grinned back; both of them could imagine Brannigan phoning them up, bored after not moving for several days, and basically annoying the hell out of them.
"Oh, come on now sisters, that's no way to talk to an old friend."
There was a huff on the end of the phone, and they could almost hear the woman rolling her eyes. "You know full well we're not sisters. We're married."
Brannigan sat up straight. "Oooh, stop all this modern talk! I'm an old-fashioned cat!"
Rose could see him as a grandfather, from her time, baffled by the prospect of technology and new ways. She leaned into the Doctor and spoke in a whisper so only he could hear her. "He'd fit right in with the early nineties," she said, smiling.
"Oh, he'd have to lose the fur, I think."
Both started giggling and Brannigan shot them a look that clearly said 'one minute you were upset about losing your friend and now you're giggling so quite obviously you are mental'. Well, it was clear if you could read minds.
" ... they call themselves the Doctor and Rose," Brannigan finished, and the two looked up and stopping giggling at the sound of their names.
The Doctor reached forward, silently asking for the transmitter. Brannigan handed it to him immediately.
"Hello. Sorry. I'm looking for someone called Martha Jones. She's been carjacked. She's in one of these vehicles, but I don't know which one."
"Wait a minute," the voice of the woman (May, apparently) floated through the transmitter followed by a flicking noise that sounded like turning the pages of a book. "Could I ask what entrance they used?"
The Doctor turned to Brannigan. "Where did we get on about?"
"Pharmacy Town," he replied.
"Explains the drugs," Rose muttered to herself.
"Pharmacy Town, about twenty minutes ago," the Doctor said into the transmitter.
"Let's have a look … " she said, turning the page slowly. The Doctor's fingers drummed out an impatient rhythm on the side of the transmitter. Eventually the transmitter crackled into life and May's voice floated out again. "In the last half-hour, fifty-three new cars joined from the Pharmacy Town junction."
The Doctor groaned. "Have you got anything more specific?"
"All in good time, Doctor," May said. "Was she car-jacked by two people?"
"Yes, she was, yeah."
"There we are!" May exclaimed, and the Doctor and Rose both sat up straight. "Just one of those cars was destined for the fast lane - four six five diamond six."
"That's it! So how do we find them?"
"Ah. There, I'm afraid I can't help." The Doctor sighed, but turned to Brannigan.
"Call them on this thing," he said, waving the transmitter about. "We've got their car number. Diamond six."
Brannigan looked at him apologetically. "Not if they're designated fast lane. It's a different class."
The Doctor sighed, Rose looked down, their last hope diminishing.
"You could try the police?" May's voice crackled.
"They put me on hold."
"I'm sorry, you'll have to keep trying."
"Thank you," the Doctor said, handing the transmitter back to Brannigan; he took Rose in his arms and kissed her head softly, determined to find a way out of here for all of them.
After a while, it became clear to the Doctor that there was no plan. They - well, they meaning he and Rose, although he had done most of the talking, Rose just sitting there nodding - had sat for the last half-hour to try and come up with a plan, but to no avail.
Eventually, the Doctor found a plan. Well, he had thought of it originally, but had dismissed it. Now, it seemed to only thing left to try. And after a brief discussion with Rose, who of course went along with the idea with no hesitation, like she always did, he approached Brannigan and Valerie at the front of the vehicle.
"We've got to go into the fast lane. Take me down."
"Not in a million years." Brannigan's answer was short, snappy and well out of character for the soft, kind cat that the Doctor had met.
"But you've got three passengers!" Rose said, faintly, speaking for the first time in the conversation. She'd been awfully quiet during this whole adventure and the Doctor was slightly worried - it wasn't like Rose, usually she was vocal and as involved as she could be. She'd been involved, don't get him wrong, but she was much more reserved than she usually was. The Doctor didn't know what was wrong - maybe she still had a grudge with cat people?
"I'm still not going."
"She's alone, and she's lost. She doesn't belong on this planet, and it's my fault. I'm asking you, Brannigan - take me down," the Doctor said, almost pleading.
"No! And it's final!" Valerie got involved, and was quite adamant she wasn't going down. "I'm not risking the children down there."
The Doctor fell silent immediately, knowing that it was wrong to press them.
"Why not?" he said quietly, his voice holding none of the force it had done half a minute ago. "What's the risk? What happens down there?"
"We are not discussing it!" Valerie's voice was getting higher and verging on hysterical. "This conversation is closed!"
Eventually, the Doctor sighed. "So we keep on driving."
"Yes, we do," Brannigan said, barely audible.
"For how long?"
"Till the journey's end."
Something seemed to snap inside the Doctor and he reached over and snatched the transmitter out of Brannigan's hand. Or paw, whatever. "Mrs Cassini, this is the Doctor. Tell me, please, how long have you been driving on the motorway?"
"Oh!" Alice exclaimed. "We were amongst the first. It's been, what, twenty-three years now?"
"And in all that time have you ever seen a police car?"
You could cut the tension in the cramped car with a knife. The Doctor's question left them stumped, because it was true. They hadn't seen a police car in all that time. But they didn't want to admit that. It was like losing hope, losing any kind of spark that they would one day get out of this death lane.
"I'm not sure." May's voice was quiet and unsure.
"Look at your notes." The Doctor didn't hesitate. "Any police?"
When May's voice came back through it sounded upset, as if she was holding back tears. Rose wondered if Alice and May were people or cats like Brannigan. Could cats cry? She was trying to keep her mind off their situation.
"Anything official? Ambulance, rescue service? Ever?"
"I can't keep a note of everything." May's voice changed, was now sharp and clipped.
"What if there is no-one out there? What If - "
The Doctor was cut off by Brannigan snatching the transmitter from the Doctor's hands.
"Stop it," he said, angrily. "The Cassini's were doing you a favour."
"Someone's got to ask, because you guys might now talk about it, but I can see it in your eyes. Fear. You know - or at least, you've thought about it."
Rose looked at Brannigan. It was in his eyes, unmistakeable. Rose noticed the same look in Valerie's eyes, before she glanced down.
"What if the traffic jam never stops?" the Doctor continued, and had his mouth open to speak again when Brannigan cut in.
"There's a whole city above us. The mighty state of New New York," he said, raising his fist the the roof of the car. "They wouldn't just leave us."
Brannigan's voice had started out strong, but had ended on something akin to a whimper.
"In that case, where are they? What if you just keep going on and on, forever?"
"STOP IT NOW!"
Everyone is the small car jumped as Valerie yelled. Judging by Brannigan's shocked face, Rose could tell Valerie didn't have outbursts like this often.
The screen in front of them buzzing into life, the face of Sally Calypso came into focus. "This is Sally Calypso, and it's that time again. The sun is blazing high in the sky, across the New Atlantic, the perfect setting for the daily contemplation."
Rose watched with fascination as Brannigan and Valerie started to sing. It took a moment to realise they were singing along with Sally. It was a hymn of some kind, and it brought tears to Rose's eyes. It was beautiful. Rose felt a hand grasp hers and she looked up, seeing the Doctor smile at her with a funny look in his eye and he squeezed her hand in silent reassurance. She knew that look, though, and she sighed.
"You have a plan," she said, quietly. There was no chance Brannigan and Valerie could hear, they were still singing.
"Yes," he said, equally as quietly. "If they won't take me down into the fast lane, I'll go down myself."
"How?" Rose said. "There's no layby or anything, on for six months, apparently."
"I'm not using the layby," the Doctor said, and smiled a little at Rose's frown. "Look down."
Rose did as she was told and saw what seemed to be a trapdoor. She voiced this thought aloud.
"Yes, I think so," he said. "There's one above us, as well." He was pointed above their heads and Rose glanced up casually to see there was one, parallel to the one of the floor.
"What are you going to do, climb down to the fast lane?"
The Doctor smiled and squeezed her hand again. "Yes."
"I'm staying here." Rose's voice held both resentment and relief.
"Of course," he said, staring at her eight-month-gone bump.
"I didn't want to go anyway. Worse than smoking, that is out there," she said, nodding to the door.
The Doctor laughed, and Rose was aware that the song had ended and Brannigan was looking at them. His expression was funny and rather hard to decipher.
The Doctor turned to Brannigan and Valerie. "If you won't take me down, I'll go down myself."
He let go of Rose's hand, the other automatically diving inside the lining of his coat to retrieve the sonic screwdriver. He ran it along the bottom of the trapdoor, and after a few seconds it clicked and swung open.
Brannigan and Valerie both had shocked faces on. "What do you think you are doing?"
"Finding my own way. I usually do."
"Capsule open." the electronic voice chimed. Looking down, Rose could see hundreds of cars. One pulled up right underneath.
"Here we go," he said, pulling off his overcoat and handing it to Rose. He grabbed her and kissed her long and hard, as best he could with a eight-month bump in the way. After they broke up, breathing heavily, he gestured to his coat. "Look after this. I love that coat. Janis Joplin gave me that coat."
"I know," Rose smiled. "See you soon."
"Not if I see you first," the Doctor said, and slid down into the hole in the floor so he was propped upright on his hands.
"But you can't jump!" Valerie said, both of her hands over her mouth in horror.
The Doctor smiled. "I am. And if it's any consolation, Valerie, right now, I'm having kittens!"
Rose laughed, tossing her head back in mirth. Valerie giggled warily, wondering how the woman was able to laugh like that when her partner was apparently sending himself to his death.
Brannigan cleared his throat. "This Martha - she must mean an awful lot to you."
"Hardly know her," the Doctor said, smiling. Rose knew he would do the same for anyone, no matter who it was - whether it was her, or Martha, or even someone he didn't know, he'd risk life and limb to save them.
"Bye then!" the Doctor said, one final time, smiling as Rose waved.
"Bye," she said softly.
And then he fell.