Chapter 3
I skipped out of the TARDIS whistling the Doctor Who theme song getting a couple of weird look from the few people that were passing by. Like if it wasn't normal to skip out of a small blue box. Ugh.. normal people with normal lives, who could understand them. What must it be like in that funny little brain of theirs? It must be so boring.
"Anyways... I wonder where the Doctor is. How do I find him now?" I spoke softly to myself or at least what this body considered talking softly. I took out my sonic screwdriver to see if I could do something to find him when something in my bag started beeping nonstop.
"What's that?" I said as I reached into my bag. My eyes immediately went wide as more of my arm fit in the bag than was originally supposed to and I couldn't even feel the bottom of the bag yet.
"Oh." I breathed. "You clever girl." The old girl had fit in bigger on the inside technology on the bag. I let out a chuckle. A TARDIS slouch backpack that was bigger on the inside. The beeping continued, reminding me why I was searching the bag in the first place.
Reaching down until I found the source of the noise I found a weird looking thing that looked like the device the Doctor had in the "Partners in Crime episode". On the screen there was an outline of a body with two hearts and an arrow in the corner that kept changing directions as I twirled in place.
"Oooh, this is going to be so useful in the near future!" I said giggling. "Watch out Doctor. There is no way you're going to escape me now!" I spoke in a low tone, drumming my fingers together. I let out a burst of laughter.
God, I didn't mean for that to sound so creepy. I wouldn't blame the Doctor from running away from me when he saw me. I would say it's a pretty decent reaction taking in mind the situation at hand. I let out a smile at my weirdness as it seemed like this body didn't stop adding things on the weird list.
Looking around, I noticed that about a block away was Hendrick's. The place where Rose worked at. If it was still here it meant that the Doctor hadn't gone through here yet.
"Never mind." I grumbled as I saw the Doctor, in his ninth regeneration, approaching the building. I never liked how some people back in my world, started watching Doctor Who just because the actor was attractive and then stopped watching it when they changed the actor but I guess they were a fan of the show in their own way.
I jogged toward the entrance of the store and went inside trying not to draw much attention. I headed straight for the bathroom and locked myself in one of the free stalls.
Hours later I heard voices coming in my direction. I quickly looked everywhere for a hiding place when a thought popped into my head. Over the seat there was a vent big enough for me to fit through where I could hide while they checked the bathroom to see that no one was left. I got out my sonic and soniced the screws in the corners and popped the lid off. I quickly got in and placed the lid when I heard someone entering the bathroom.
"All clear." A female voice said. I let out a breath. That was close. Too close. I pushed the lid of and caught it before it hit the ground. Seemed like this body had fast reflexes. I stored that information away in my mind for later use as I quickly ran out of the bathroom and into the lift which would take me to the basement.
I twirled my fingers and began humming, impatiently tapping my foot waiting for the lift's doors to open.
"Finally!" I scolded the lift wagging my finger at the doors. Now I was talking to inanimate objects but I guess if I was going to be with the Doctor, stuff was going to get weird. Just in other ways though.
Turning a couple of corners I spotted blonde hair and a leather jacket sprinting away from some manikins. I raced after them shoving some of the manikins out of the way and even going as far as pushing them onto the floor. I raced into the lift where Rose and the Doctor were, right before a manikin reached for me. Instead of grabbing me though, the manikin got it's arm stuck in between the lift's doors.
"Lovely to meet you!" I let out a dazzling smile as I quickly bowed before I reached for the arm of the manikin that was still stuck between the doors and tugged a couple of times. Once the Doctor seemed to snap out of his shocked dazed he helped me and after a couple of tugs the arm came right off and the lift quickly closed.
"You pulled his arm off." Rose said.
"Yep. Plastic. Now who are you?" The Doctor asked as he turned toward me. I kept my mouth shut as Rose kept on blabbering.
"Very clever. Nice trick! Who are they then, students? Is this a student thing or what?" Rose asked, intent on getting answers.
"Why would they be students?" He asked her still looking straight at me. I didn't know where to look so I settled on looking at the scratches on the wall that were most likely made over the years.
"I don't know." Rose replied.
"Well, you said it. Why students?" He asked nonchalantly still focused on trying to figure me out. This was going to get tiring easily if he kept it up.
" 'Cos to get that many people dressed up and being silly, they got to be students." Rose said trying to seem like she knew what was going on.
The Doctor threw me a look as if to say 'is she for reals?'. I stifled a giggle that was threatening to escape my lips.
"That makes sense. Well done." The Doctor told Rose sarcastically sending a smirk my way.
"Thanks." Rose smiled proudly. Wow. The lift's slowness seemed to pass onto Rose. What a coincidence.
"There're not students." I interjected drawing the Doctor and Rose's attention toward me.
"Whoever they are, when Wilson finds them, he's going to call the police." Rose told the Doctor completely ignoring me. I rolled my now blue-green eyes at her.
"Who's Wilson?" The Doctor asked, not really caring.
"Chief electrician." Rose replied.
"Wilson's dead" The Doctor said as he hurriedly ran out of the lift.
"That's not funny. That's sick!"
"Hold on. Mind your eyes" The Doctor said more to me than to Rose when I approached where they were standing. He disabled the lift's mechanism with his sonic screwdriver.
"Who are you then? Who's that lot down there? I said, who are they?" God. Did Rose ever just shut up? The Doctor led us outside as he shot me a weird look when he saw me skipping with my hands behind my back.
"They're made of plastic. Living plastic 're being controlled by a relay device in the roof, which would be a great problem if I didn't have this." He held up a small bomb."So, I'm going to go up there and blow them up, and I might as well die in the process, but don't worry about me. No, you go home. Go on. Go and have your lovely beans on toast. Don't tell anyone about this, because if you do, you'll get them killed." He said before shutting the door in our faces when he went back inside. Not even a minute later he opened the door again.
"I'm the Doctor, by the 's your name?" He asked looking at me.
"Rose" Rose said from behind me. He gave her a quick look and looked back at me with a questioning look.
I immediately thought about my brother, Alex. He would always give me a look like the one the Doctor was currently giving me.
"Alex and just so you know, I don't particularly like beans on toast." My brother's name had instantly slipped out of my mouth. Why had I said my name was Alex? It just seemed right. The Doctor's thoughts instantly interrupted my thoughts.
"Nice to meet you Alex, Rose. Run for your life!" He yelled before he ran back inside. As Rose turned around to leave, I slipped back inside the building and ran toward the Doctor.
"Hey wait up!" I yelled. He turned with a surprised look on his face.
"What are you doing?" He asked as I grabbed his arm and pulled him forward.
I let out a grin and replied "I couldn't just stand there and let you have all the fun now could I?" I asked.
"Well?" I continued. He broke out into a grin.
We ran out of the building, hand in hand, laughing as it blew up. Slowing our pace as we closer to the TARDIS.
"That was a close call."I giggled letting go of his hand and leaning on the TARDIS as he stood in front of me smiling fondly.
"Well? Are you going to introduce me to her?" As soon as I asked, I knew I had said something wrong. The once fond look turned into the beginnings of the oncoming storm.
"How do you know about her?" He growled at me as he held my shoulders and pushed me roughly against the TARDIS. I let out a shaky breath.
"Let me explain but inside the TARDIS, please?" I begged him.
"So you can steal the TARDIS? I don't think so!" His eyes narrowed.
"People are staring." I simply responded with my shoulders hunched while looking at the ground. He let out growl and opened the doors without letting go of my elbow as he dragged me toward an area farthest away from the console.
I gave him a sad smile and began. "Back in my universe, you're life is basically a t.v. show and I love it." I let out a small smile before continuing. "One day I thought I heard the TARDIS and being the fan I was I ran toward the noise and climbed a tree to see if I could see her when I slipped and fell. I broke almost all the bones in my body and I woke up to a voice. Open the watch. Become who you were meant to be. The Protector. Those exact words and I listened." I paused to look at him. The oncoming storm look had faded and now was replaced by a look of wanting to believe me. Like he couldn't make up his mind. I continued. "I absorbed the time lord biology and regenerated into who you see now. Still me but now, I have two hearts and I know I'm just an echo of a time lord and not a real one but..." I was interrupted as the Doctor placed his finger on my lips. His eyes held hope as he trailed his hand down to where my hearts were and there he was greeted with four heart beats, He let out a soft smile.
"I'm not alone." Was all he said as a lone tear slipped out of the corner of his eye. "But I'm not really one. I look like one and have your make up of cells but it's more than that. It's a shared suffering, it's …." I tried to continue but once again he had interrupted me. I hope it didn't become a habit.
"No, don't say that Alex." He said as he gave me a big hug. I leaned into the hug as a tear slipped out of the corner of my eye. He seemed to have accepted me very fast. It made me really confused.
"Come on, enough crying." I said slipping a small smile out. "Don't you have to find out where they are controlling the manikins from?"
He slowly let out a grin as he grabbed my hand and dragged me toward the console.He looked at the screen that had coordinates then after pressing a bunch of buttons and flipping a lot of switches, we landed. I threw the Doctor a grin and skipped toward the doors pausing once I opened them. We were parked a few blocks away from where Rose lived.
I felt the Doctor slip his hand into mine as he closed the door behind him. I patted the TARDIS softly before we left, not missing the amused look the Doctor threw me. " What?" I asked with a smile.
"Not much. Just noting how you seem to like her." He grinned. Leading me toward Rose's building.
"I do. She's great." I skipped forward to the stairs pulling him behind me.
Once at Rose's door, we took out or sonics at the same time. He let out a grin when he saw it.
"Handy aren't they?" I asked him. He simply nodded with a smile before both of us bent down and set on working on the cat flap on the door.
Once we could open the cat flap, both of us still crouched down, the Doctor slightly pushed the flap inward and we were met by Rose's face peeking out at us. She quickly pulled open the door.
"What are you doing here?" The Doctor asked with a confused look.
"I live here." Rose said.
"Well, what do you do that for?"I let out a burst of laughter because the Doctor seriously looked confused as to why Rose lived here. Suddenly I felt fingers dig into my sides, making me let out a squeal. "Hush you." The Doctor whispered in my ear. I let out an involuntary shiver.
"Because I do. I'm only at home because someone blew up my job." Rose answered but not before shooting me an annoyed look. God, I could tell me and her wouldn't get along at all or at least not very often.
"We must have gotten the wrong signal. You're not plastic, are you? No, bonehead. Bye, then." The Doctor said knocking his knuckles against her forehead before turning and trying to walk away.
"You. Inside. Right now." Rose said before pulling the Doctor into the flat but not before he grabbed my hand and pulled me inside with him. I was still thinking about how he had said 'we' not 'I'. Letting out a smile, I allowed myself to be pulled inside.
"Who is it?" Jackie yelled from her room.
"It's about last night. He's part of the inquiry. Give us ten minutes." Rose answered.
"She deserves compensation." Jackie said as the Doctor approached her bedroom.
"Oh, we're talking millions." I stood off to the side of the door, wanting to stay for the show where Jackie couldn't see me, while Rose went toward the kitchen.
"I'm in my dressing gown."
"Yes, you are."
"There's a strange man in my bedroom."
"Yes, there is."
"Well, anything could happen."
"No." The Doctor answered, hurriedly pulling me away while trying to stifle the giggles that were escaping my lips.
"Hush now." He said as he poked my side. I let out another stifled laugh before composing myself. I walked with Doctor toward the living room blocking out everything that was being said while I looked at some of the pictures on the stand.
The Doctor's voice brought me out of my thoughts. "Ah, could've been worse. Look at the ears." He said as he flicked his ears. I walked toward him and linked my arm through his as I looked in the mirror too. "I happen to like those ears. I think they have a certain charm to them." I told him as I heard Rose still talking in the background. He sent me a grin before turning toward the coffee table and picking a stack of cards, trying to shuffle them but making a mess instead. I stuck my tongue out and let a laugh at his goofiness.
"What's that, then? You got a cat?" The Doctor asks. "She doesn't." I said without looking at him. Instead my attention was focused on the cat flap waiting for the manikin's arm to come through and just on time too because as soon as I looked, the Auton arm appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the Doctor by the neck.
I immediately leaped into action and tugged on the arm trying to get it off the Doctor. Rose comes into the room still blabbing and rolling her eyes as she sees us.
"I told Mickey to chuck that out. You're all the same. Give a man a plastic arm. Anyway, I don't even know your name. Doctor, was it?" She questioned. At another time I would pissed of that she ignored me but now I was slightly more worried about the Doctor, who's face was rapidly turning purple.
As the Doctor and me manage to get the arm of his throat but it freezes mid air and grabs onto the closest person who just happened to be Rose. I take out my sonic as the Doctor fell onto the coffee table, with Rose on top of him when he tried to take the Auton arm off of her. Both the Doctor and I sonic the arm at the same time and throw each other a grin.
"Well, we've got to do that more often!" I exclaimed while letting out a stream of giggles.
"It's alright, we've stopped it. There you go, you see? Armless." The Doctor said winking at me.
"Do you think?" Rose asks him mad before she smacks him with the arm. "Ow!" The Doctor complained.
I grabbed his hand as we headed toward the staircase we had come up from a couple of minutes ago.
"Hold on a minute. You can't just go swanning off." She complained.
"Yes we can. Here we are. Swanning off. See you!" I cheerfully cut in.
"But the arm was moving. It tried to kill me." She argued.
"Ten out of ten for observation." The Doctor and I said at the same time giving each other a look.
"You can't just walk away. That's not fair. You've got to tell me what's going on."
"No he doesn't!" I yelled back at her, skipping forward as I pulled the Doctor with me.
"Alright then. I'll go to the police. I'll tell everyone. You said, if I did that, I'd get people killed. So, your choice. Tell me or I'll start talking." Rose said trying to find ways for him to tell her.
"Humans! Ugh, I was never like this was I? I hope not. That would be a great disappointment." I grumbled as I headed toward the TARDIS already tired of Rose's questions. I had liked her in the show but now seeing her in real life, she seemed like a jerk. Like she was used to getting everything her way.
Opening the doors I let out a huff of air. "Hello Sexy!" I greeted. I suppose that not everything would be the same here in comparison to the t.v. show back home.
When the Doctor entered the TARDIS, he looked sad.
"What's the matter?" I asked skipping up to him. His expression quickly changed from surprised to relieved as soon as he saw me. He immediately pulled me into a hug and let out a shaky breath. "Don't do that to me. I thought you had gotten tired of me and ran off."
I let out a smile. "Tired of you? How could I, just know that I wont ever leave you. Unless you tell me to leave, I'll stay with you until you're sick and tired of me." I softly squeezed his arm.
He smiled affectionately down at me as he released me. I was small compared to his height, I reached to just a little above his shoulder. I pulled a frown. "Why are you so tall?" I questioned, trying to get him back to a good mood. He let out a chuckle and ruffled my hair as he headed to the console.
"You are on the small side." He argued. I stuck my tongue out in his direction as he was pressing buttons.
Once we landed I ran toward the doors but was stopped as the Doctor pulled me back from the collar of my jumper. I let out an annoyed protest with my arms still reaching toward the doors.
"No, you're going to stay here." The Doctor wagged his finger at me but since it was really close to my nose, I crossed my eyes to try and focus on his finger.
"Why!?" I protested. "I need you to guard the TARDIS." He argued. I was about to tell him off when I saw the look he threw me. He was trying to protect me, in his own special way.
I crinkled my eyebrows in defeat. "Fine! You better get back here in one piece, you hear me?" I told him with narrowed eyes while fixing his jumper.
"Yes mum." He spoke sarcastically puling away and going toward the TARDIS doors. He threw me a wave and a wink on his way out.
"How do you deal with him!?" I questioned the old girl with my arms extended upwards. An amused hum rang throughout the whole room.
Twenty minutes later and he still hadn't come back. I was missing out on all the good stuff!
"He's so mean!" I exclaimed looking at the ceiling. I was laying upside down on the captain's chair with my feet in the air and my hair hanging off the seat looking toward the ceiling.
Bang! A loud sound was heard. I didn't bother to move though, I knew it was just the Doctor and Rose coming inside.
The Doctor came inside striding toward the console with purpose, Auton head under his arm. He looked toward me but them did a double take. "What are you doing?"
"Bored!" I yelled, pointing a finger toward the air as I saw Rose come inside but quickly run back outside. He let out a chuckle when he patted my stomach as he passed by me to hook up the head to the console.
"It's going to follow us!" Rose yelled as she ran back inside. "The assembled hoards of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door, and believe me, they tried. Now, shut up a minute." The Doctor rambled on as I straightened from the position I was in and headed toward him blocking out the next few sentences as I studied the head. I was fascinated by it to tell the truth.
"Are you alien?"
"Yes. Is that all right?"
"Yeah"
"She's called the TARDIS. S. That's Time And Relative Dimensions In Space and she's the best." I rambled letting out a disappointed huff when Rose just ignored me and burst out crying. "Why does no one listen!" I whined to the Doctor, just noticing the proud look he wore before it disappeared.
"That's okay. Culture shock. Happens to the best of us. Well, everyone except Alex here." He commented not really paying attention to her.
"Did they kill him? Mickey? Did they kill Mickey? Is he dead?"
"Oh. I didn't think of that."
"He's my boyfriend. You pulled of his head. They copied him and you didn't even think? And now you're just going to let him melt?"
"Melt?" The Doctor asked confused before he turns toward the console where the head was attached by cables.
"Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no!" He yelled frustrated.
"What are you doing?" I asked him, since Rose needed to say that bit but seemed too out of it to say anything.
"Following the signal. It's fading. Wait a minute, I've got it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Almost there. almost there. Here we go!" The Doctor says as the TARDIS lands and he grabs my hand, dragging me off toward the door.
"You can't go out there. It's not safe." Rose yelled from inside the TARDIS.
I took in a big breath, hurting my lungs with all the air that had entered. Kale would have loved to have been here or at least before his girlfriend came along. Alex and Kale, left in the other world. I had already taken Alex's name as my own but had made no move to correct it. Alex Kale. I liked the ring it had to it. Two of the most important people to me and by having their names it would be my way of remembering them since it didn't look like I could go back to them.I'd say my name was Alex Kale if anybody asked. I wouldn't go back even if I could. I always knew it was the wrong place for me. It felt superficial.
"Oh. Fantastic!" I was pulled out of my thoughts by the Doctor as he pulled me down toward a hatch that was close by. I really needed to stop spacing out, I was missing out a lot of some conversations.
We climbed down a short ladder into a brick-built area with lots of chains. From there we went through a door and down a flight of stairs into a multi-level chamber.
"The Nestene Consciousness. That's it, inside the vat. A living plastic creature." He explained.
" Well, then. Tip in your anti-plastic and let's go."
I threw Rose a horrified look. "We can't just kill it. We have to give it a chance. God. You're so violent!" I turned toward the Doctor to see him giving me a proud look before he got up and headed toward the Nestene Consciousness.
It growled making the room shake from the loudness of it. My eardrums felt like they were going to burst. I guess with barely getting used to having time lord hearing, it was really put on strain on my hearing. I couldn't move. My hands were shaking and I was grabbing my head with tears leaking out of my eyes. I barely noticed that I was being picked up bridal style, too focused on my the pain I felt. I knew we had entered the TARDIS when a concerned hummed sounded. I was placed down in a seat and I instantly curled up with my knees to my chest and my arms over my head. I felt the TARDIS moving and finally landing as the Doctor rushed toward me. His concerned face appeared right in my line of vision along with the sound of the sonic screwdriver.
"Shh..."I tried to shush it but it wasn't listening. Of course not, it was an inanimate object.
"I'm okay. Please stop." I pleaded. The noise instantly stopped. I slowly opened my eyes finally recovering from the pain.
"You all right?" The Doctor asked extremely concerned, "Yeah. Just getting used to my time lord hearing." I let out a shaky smile.
He made a relieved sound from the back of his throat. He looked at me like he was thinking about something. "I want to invite Rose to come along with us, is that alright?" He asked me. I gave him a surprised look.
"Of course it is. It's your TARDIS." I responded. "No, it's ours now." He softly said. I let out a grin. "Bring her on board then!" I laughed at him. Even though I didn't particularly like Rose, I did respect her to a certain point. She helped him heal after the Time War and looked after him in her own way so she deserved some credit. I would try to get along with her if the Doctor wanted me to.
He broke out into a grin and ruffled my hair before going outside to ask Rose to come with us. I smiled at the door and headed toward the hallway.
"Sexy! Mind making me a room please?" As soon as I asked, just like with the wardrobe, a door appeared next to me. On the door, Alex Kale was engraved into the wood of the door, in gallifreyan.
I slowly pushed opened the door and was greeted with a huge bed. I took no time to jump into it. "Sorry old girl. I'll check out the room when I wake up, promise." I barely grumbled this sentence before I fell into a deep sleep, dreaming about a lonely man in a blue box.
A/N- Sorry guys, i'm posting when I can but I get tons of homework and the chapters take me a long time to write. Hopefully I can upload a chapter every other day but i'll see how that works out. Hopefully you'll like the new chapter:)