Okay, here's part two. I'm so please with how quickly I'm getting this finished. Hopefully I'll have it finished today.
The Doctor and Rose ran out of the flat, down the stairs and out of a side door. They stopped and looked around "They're everywhere!" the Doctor said, confused. Sure enough, the ghosts were everywhere standing around like ordinary people. No one seemed to be remotely alarmed by their presence. A group of boys carry on with their ball game, just as normal. Rose turned
"Doctor, look out!" she said as a ghost walked right through the Doctor, causing him discomfort but no pain.
Jackie joined the "They haven't got long." she said announcing her presence "Midday shift only lasts a couple of minutes. They're about to fade."
"What do you mean, Shift?" the Doctor asked "Since when did ghosts have shifts? Since when did shifts have ghosts? What's going on?"
"Oh, he's not happy when I know more than him, is he?" she said happily as though annoying the Doctor was her favourite thing to do.
"But no one's running or screaming or freaking out or--" he said sounding completely baffled
"Wy should we?" Jackie asked as she checked her watch again "Here we go. Twelve minutes past." Jackie smiled at Rose as she bit her lip with anticipation.
The ghosts disappeared. The Doctor looked around, looking even more confused than he did before. The three of them went back inside.
--
The Doctor was sitting on the floor in front of Jackie's television, Jackie was sitting on the sofa and Rose was perched on the arm. They were all watching a programme called 'Ghostwatch'
"On today's Ghostwatch, claims that some of the ghosts are starting to talk, and there seems to be a regular formation gathering around Westminster Bridge." footage of ghosts on Westminster bridge is shown " It's almost like a military display..."
"What the hell's going on?" the Doctor asked his brow furrowed. He changed the channel to what appeared to be a weather report but instead of the weather, it was about the ghosts. He changed the channel again, this time it was the Trisha Goddard chat show. The caption at the bottom of the screen proclaimed 'I married a dead man!'
The Doctor changed the channel again after watching this for a few minutes. The next programme showed Derek Acora "Well, no one needs me anymore!" he said
The Doctor changed channel again, this time it was a cheesy advert. After watching it for a moment the Doctor changed the channel with an expression of complete bewilderment on his face. This time it was a French news channel. He changed channel again, this time it was an Indian news report, he changed channel again to an enthusiastic Japanese Newsreader. The Doctor put his head in his hands.
"Oh, yes!" Jackie said
The Doctor changed the channel again "It's all over the world." This time it was an episode of Eastenders. Peggy Mitchell was behind the bar in the Vic, having a go at a ghost.
"Listen to me, Denn Watts. I don't care if you have come back from the grave. Get out of my pub! The only spirits I'm serving in this place are gin, whisky and vodka. So, you heard me - GET OUT!"
The Doctor had had enough. He switched off the TV and turned to Jackie. "When did it start?" he asked his mother in law
"Well first of all, Peggy heard this noise in the cellar, so she goes down--" she started, but the Doctor interrupted
"No, I mean worldwide." he said and Rose smirked.
"Oh!" she said "That was about two months ago. Just happened. Woke up one morning, and there they all were - ghosts, everywhere." she explained "We all ran round screaming and that, whole planet was panicking... no sign of you, thank you very much... then it sort of sank in. Took us time to realise that... we're lucky."
"What makes you think it's grandad?" Rose asked her mother, speaking for the first time since this conversation had started
"Just feels like him." she said "There's that smell, those old cigarettes. Can't you smell it?"
"I wish I could, mum, but I can't." Rose said gently
"You've got to make an effort." she said "You've got to want it, sweetheart."
"The more you want it, the stronger it gets?" the Doctor asked
"Sort of, yeah." Jackie answered
"Like a psychic link." he explained "Course you want your old dad to be alive, but you're wishing him into existence. The ghosts are using that to pull themselves in."
"You're spoiling it." Jackie complained
"I'm sorry, Jackie, but there's no smell, there's no cigarettes." he said "Just a memory."
"But if they're not ghosts, what are they, then?" Rose asked her husband
"Yeah, but they're human!" Jackie said "You can see them - they LOOK human!"
"She's got a point." Rose said "I mean, they're all sort of blurred, but they're definitely people."
"Maybe not." the Doctor said thoughtfully "They're pressing themselves into the surface of the world. But a footprint doesn't look like a boot." With that he stood up and headed out of the flat, and down to the Tardis.
--
Rose walked towards the Tardis carrying a newspaper, she went inside to find her husband wedged under the console "According to the paper, they've elected a ghost as MP for Leeds." she said, looking down at him "Now don't tell me you're gonna sit back and do nothing."
The Doctor suddenly came out from underneath the grilling, bopping insanely as the Tardis began to play the tune from Ghostbusters. He held an odd looking device in one hand and was carrying a rucksack on his back "Who're you gonna call?" he asked
"Ghostbusters!" Rose said, trying not to laugh
"I ain't afraid of no ghosts." he said as he left the Tardis, followed by Rose who was laughing
Jackie was waiting for them outside. She shook her head at them as they came out.
She stood beside Rose as the Doctor arranged three cone devices in a triangle shape "When's the next shift?" he asked Jackie.
She checked her watch "Quarter to." she answered "But don't go causing trouble. What's that lot do?"
"Triangulates their point of origin." he answered
"I don't suppose it's the Gelth?" Rose asked thoughtfully
"Nah." Rose shook her head as though that was the answer she had been expecting "They were just coming through one little rift. This lot are transposing themselves over the whole planet. Like tracing paper."
Jackie looked cross "You're always doing this. Reducing it to science. Why can't it be real?" she asked, but he ignored her "Just think of it, though... all the people we've lost - our families coming back home. Don't you think it's beautiful?" she asked. The Doctor paused and met her eyes for the first time.
"I think it's horrific." he told her honestly, she looked shocked "Rose, give us a hand." she nodded and he started to unwind a cable and led it through into the Tardis, with Rose following. Once inside he plugged it into the console. Unnoticed by the Doctor Jackie entered the Tardis and closed the door behind her. "As soon as it becomes activated, if that line goes into the red, press that button there." he said talking fast "If it doesn't stop..." He brandished the sonic screwdriver under Rose's nose causing his wife to go cross eyed trying to focus on it "Setting 15B, hold it against the port, eight seconds and stop."
"15B, eight seconds."
"If it goes into the blue, activate the deep scan on the left." the Doctor continued
"Hang on a minute, I know..." she leaned over the console and pointed out a button "It's that one."
"Mm, close." the Doctor said, flirting a bit
"That one?" she asked pointing to another one, flirting back. She loved it when they were like this and she knew that he did too
"Nnnnow you've just killed us." he said, causing her to laugh. Jackie looked at the pair of them wondering what exactly was going on between them
"Eh... that one." Rose said pointing to a third
"Yeah!" the Doctor said "Now, what've we got? Two minutes to go?" He looked at Jackie, who checked her watch. Jackie nodded and the Doctor ran outside. When it activated it did go into the red, so Rose pressed the button, but it didn't stop, so she set the screwdriver and held it against the port for eight seconds
--
At that same moment, outside the doors, the Doctor pressed the device he was holding earlier onto one of the cones. He proceeded to do the same to the other two, shouting through the open doors to Rose. "What's the line doing?"
"It's all right, it's holding!" she shouted back
"You even look like him?" Jackie said after watching her daughter
"How d'you mean?" she asked. then she realised and smiled "I s'pose I do, yeah."
"You've changed so much." Jackie said
"For the better..." Rose told her
"I s'pose." Jackie whispered, causing her daughter to turn to face her
"Mum, I used to work in a shop!"
"I've worked in shops." Jackie said defensively "What's wrong with that?"
"No, I didn't mean that." Rose said
"I know what you meant." Jackie said "What happens when I'm gone?"
"Don't talk like that!"
"No, but really." Jackie said seriously "When I'm dead and buried, you won't have any reason to come back home. What happens then?"
"I don't know." Rose admitted quietly
"Do you think you'll ever settle down?" Jackie asked
"The Doctor never will, so I can't." Rose said "I'll just keep on travelling."
"And you'll keep on changing." Jackie told her "And in forty years time, fifty, there'll be this woman - this strange woman... walking through the marketplace on some planet a billion miles from Earth. She's not Rose Tyler. Not anymore. She's not even human..." The Doctor's voice broke the moment
"The scanner's working - it says "delta one six"." she shouted back
--
The Doctor stood, facing the centre of the triangle. "Come on you beauty!" He laughed, positively jiggling with anticipation. As the Doctor watched the triangle, a ghost materialised in it's centre. As it did so, the cones were connected with blue electricity, which in turn connected over the top of the ghost, encompassing it in a kind of electric blue pyramid.
--
Rose and Jackie watched what was going on outside the Tardis on the monitor with amazement.
--
The Doctor put on a pair of what looks like 3D spectacles and watched the ghost. He then bent down and adjusted a setting on his equipment - a green light blipped, which seems to cause the ghost to shudder. The Doctor continued to adjust the knob. The ghost shuddered and groaned "Don't like that much, do you?" he asked as he laughed "Who are you? Where are you coming from?" he asked under his breath "WHOA!" he had just gotten what seemed like an electric shock from the ghost and he stumbled backwards "That's more like it!" he said triumphantly "Not so friendly now, are you?" The ghost continued to shudder and jerk within in the Doctor's triangle. After a few minutes of that the ghost disappeared and the Doctor darted forward and began gathering up his equipment. He ran into the Tardis, not noticing the security camera turning towards him.
He banged his way into the Tardis and put down the equipment down and threw his coat over a support beam "I said so!" he said excitedly "Those ghosts have been FORCED into existence from one specific point! And I can track down the source. Allons-Y!" He pulled down a lever. The Tardis shuddered and he and Rose fell backwards onto the chair.
They got up and the Doctor twiddled knobs on the console, nattering away to himself "I like that. 'Allons-y'." he said "I should say 'allons-y' more often. 'Allons-y'. Watch out, Rose Tyler! Allons-y! And THEN, it would be really brilliant if I met someone called Allonzo. Because then I could say, 'allons-y, Allonzo'! Every time! You're staring at me." Rose had been listening to her husband prattling on with a strange smile on her face
"My mum's still on board." she said quietly. The Doctor looked up and sure enough, Jackie's sitting up in the gantries, legs dangling.
"If we end up on Mars, I'm gonna kill you." she warned and folded her arms. The Doctor looked horrified and Rose smirked at his discomfort. As much as she loved him, it was difficult not to laugh at the fact that he was scared of her own mother rather than the Daleks. The Tardis stopped and the Doctor, Rose and Jackie watch soldiers entering the room "Oh, well there goes the advantage of surprise." the Doctor said "Still! Cuts to the chase. Stay in here, look after Jackie." He walked towards the doors.
"I'm not looking after my mum!" Rose said, trailing after him
"Well, you brought her!" he said
"I was kidnapped!" Jackie said indignantly as Rose pushed past the Doctor and blocked the doorway so he couldn't get past
"Doctor, they've got guns." she said warningly
"And I haven't." he said "Which makes me the better person, don't you think?" He grabbed her round the waist and moved her out of the way "They can shoot me dead, but the moral high-ground is mine." he told her and with that he opened the door and walked out. He raised his hands and the soldiers released the safety catches on their gun- every single one was pointed at the Doctor.
--
Inside the Tardis, Rose and Jackie watch through a crack in the door, unseen. They watched as a woman hurried into the room, running towards the Doctor
--
"Oh...! Oh, how marvellous." she said excitedly and then began to clap "Oh, very good. Superb. Happy day!" The soldiers followed suit, applauding him. The Doctor didn't quite know what to make of this reception. He lowered his hands tentatively
"Um. Thanks." he said "Nice to meet you. I'm... the Doctor." And that set them all off clapping again
"Oh, I should say!" the woman said "Hurray!"
Right, then that's the second part, I've got the chapters split by using the transcripts. It originally worked out at ten pages for these three chapters, but I kind of deleted the happenings at Torchwood one because they are of no consequence to this story. Anyway, while the parents are having coffee. I'm going to write the next chapter.
TTFN
Julie.