The flight went smoothly, there was no rocking or sparks at the console. Rose was smirking and the Doctor was glaring at the TARDIS ceiling.
"Out there should be New York in early 1930's, shall we go and see" Rose said looking smug.
The Doctor glared at Rose before going to the door he opened it and….
"GODDAMNIT I OWE YOU ANOTHER TENNER"
Martha and Rose leaned on each other giggling. "You know I should keep gambling with him I always win" Rose said
"Trying to steal my fortune" the Doctor grumbled
"What fortune? I always had to pay for chips" Rose said linking her arm with his staring out at the city. The cool breeze blew into her hair and she snuggled into his shoulder "now where's my tenner?"
Before the Doctor could retort, Martha held up a newspaper with the heading of: HOOSERVILLE MYSTERY DEEPENS.
"I need men!" Diagoras called. "Volunteers. I got a little work for you. And you sure look like you could use the money," he said in a jovial way that even offended Rose, and she wasn't in the same position as all the Hooverville residents.
"Yeah, what is the money?" the young man who'd alerted Solomon piped up.
"A dollar a day," Mr Diagoras replied.
Rose's eyes flickered to the Doctor. Was that good money, in this time?
"What's the work?" Solomon called out gruffly.
"A little trip down the sewers," Mr Diagoras continued, an edge beginning to sound in his tone, as though he couldn't believe people were questioning work when they so desperately were in need of it. "A tunnel collapsed, needs clearing and fixing. Any takers?"
"A dollar a day is slave wage," Solomon growled. "And men don't always come back up. It's foolish," he turned away, as though he'd heard enough.
"Accidents happen!" Diagoras stressed.
"What do you mean, what sort of accidents?" the Doctor asked shrewdly.
"If you don't need the work, that's fine," Diagoras shook his head at the Doctor, and then addressed the crowd again. "Any body else?"
The Doctor raised his hand.
"Another question?" Diagoras said looking annoyed
"Nope this time I'm volunteering" the Doctor said Rose and Martha exchanged uneasy looks before they raised their hands up together.
Space pigs. Evil space pig aliens, that chased them throughout the sewers, and then when they climbed up to escape only to have a blonde woman holding a gun at them.
"Who are you and what did you do to Lazlo?" she demanded.
"Who the hell is Lazlo?" Rose gasped leaning on the Doctor.
"My boyfriend and your captive" the woman said
"Huh? Never heard of a Lazlo let alone kidnapped one" the Doctor said "are you sure he didn't just leave?"
"With out leaving a letter? Without saying goodbye? I'm not stupid, I know guys are pigs but not my Lazlo" she was waving the gun around everyone took a step back in case she accidentally shot them "I mean what kinda guy asks you to meet their mother before they vamoose"
"Could you put that down Miss…?" the Doctor asked
"Tallulah with three l's and an h, oh and this it's just a prop it was either this or a spear" Tallulah threw the gun down on the basket of props and sat down. Rose sat down and rubbed Tallulah's back soothingly, the Doctor set off to dissect the alien brain. Martha stood there looking unsure what to do.
"Tell us about Lazlo, Tallulah" Rose said
"He's a sweetie, what can I say?" Tallulah said pulling some tissues out to wipe the tears on her face away. "He used to leave a rose on my vanity table every night just before I went on stage…and you know what? Every night still someone leaves a rose on my vanity table" she held up a white rose.
"But couldn't you kick up a fuss and get them to search for him?" Martha asked "I mean you're the star"
Tallulah gave a bitter laugh "if I kicked up a fuss they would fire me without a thought, why would they care? There are loads of people out there looking for a job"
"That's awful" Rose said
"That's the depression sweetie" Tallulah said, she gave a sad smile "now tell me about you and the hot potato in the sharp suit"
"We're…" Rose sat there trying to come up with something appropriate…dating? Lovers? Friends with benefits? Dating wasn't the word to describe it, friends with benefits were completely wrong…lovers however…were they lovers? She never really thought of it.
"They're like you and Lazlo" Martha said smiling warmly "can't keep their hands off of each other, a bit annoying but romantic in a way"
Tallulah grinned "loads of amazing sex right?"
Rose blushed, she wasn't used to talking about her sex life to strangers, hell she and Gwen never shared much about their bedroom lives. "Yeah loads" she mumbled.
"You wouldn't have guessed" Martha said "that the Doctor would be the type to be a passionate lover"
"How come?" Rose asked curiosity getting the better of her
"Because one minute he's a hyperactive kid, the next he's a geek and then he's a moody whatist that snaps at you for the smallest thing" Martha said
"He's…got multiple faces….you just never seen him in his passionate lover face" Rose said
"Don't want to" Martha muttered "probably stop halfway and talk about something scientific and then make a childish comment"
Rose didn't argue…mostly because he had done that several times, not that she was going to tell anyone that.
"Have you ever seen a show?" Tallulah said changing the subject swiftly
"Once, Shakespeare" Martha said "Rose was in Romeo and Juliet with her guy in the sharp suit"
Rose groaned and glared at Martha, realising she was never going to live any of this down.
"Shakespeare? God that's boring, I meant a real show"
And once again Martha and Rose were kidnapped. This time round though the kidnappers weren't nice people wanting to hijack the motorway but evil space pig aliens.
"The whole getting kidnapped thing is getting old" Martha muttered
"Imagine how I feel? Every time I exit that time ship I get kidnapped, once I got kidnapped by my own mother…though actually can't blame her, it was after Christmas and the Christmas tree went on a rampage and mum wanted to get out of the flat while the Doctor fixed the wall"
"The Christmas tree went on a rampage?" Martha said in a disbelieving voice
"Don't ask, it's a long story and I don't think we got time to go through it"
And then the most horrifying thing came through the tunnel…a dalek.
"Daleks!" Rose called out. Simply saying the word fired Rose up. The three Daleks turned back to her, the closest gliding a little nearer, Martha clutched at Rose's jacket as if to make sure Rose wouldn't do anything stupid. "I demand to be told," Rose continued. "What is this final experiment? Report!" she ordered.
"You will bear witness," the Dalek told her.
Rose couldn't believe that had worked. "To what?" she fired.
"This is the dawn of a new age," the same Dalek swivelled a little on the spot, and if Rose didn't know better, she would have thought it was excited. This didn't make any sense.
"Explain!" Rose commanded.
"We are the only four Daleks in existence, so the species must evolve. A life outside the shell. The children of Scaro must walk again," it explained.
Rose wished she could clang it. Walk over and just give it a good whack, because it wasn't making any sense, still. Before she could demand any more answers from it, Dalek Sec, at the back of the room, cracked open like an Easter egg. Smoke poured out as the Dalek shell opened, and something hideous stepped out onto a pair of shiny black shoes, clothed in black pin stripe pants.
It wasn't human. It wasn't a Dalek, either. Rose unconsciously stepped back, moving Martha backwards as well and the Doctor took Rose's shoulder tightly.
The monster unfolded in front of them, lifting its head, sighing the air with its first breath. "I am a human Dalek," it rasped. "I am your future."
Martha summed the situation up nicely in one word "fuck"
"The humans here" Sec said waving a hand to the crowd "will become like me, the others will be pig slaves" the pigs came nearer practically leering if it was possible. One reached out for Rose when some music came on.
"What is that sound?" Sec demanded.
"Ah well, now, that would be me," the Doctor stepped out from behind some gold screens. "Hello, surprise, boo, etcetera," the Doctor stuffed his hands into his pockets, coming to a stop in the middle of the room.
"Doctor!" Sec gasped.
"The enemy of the Daleks!"
"Exterminate!"
"Wait," Sec held up a hand swiftly.
The Daleks swivelled nervously as the Doctor gave the prisoners behind him, Rose included, a sideways look, and then strolled forward. Checking they were all right? The pig slaves had certainly stopped hassling them, watching for orders.
"Well then, a new form of Dalek, fascinating, and very clever," he punctuated.
"The Cult of Scaro escaped your slaughter!" Sec grated.
"How did you end up in nineteen thirty?" the Doctor fired quickly
"Emergency temporal shift" Sec said coolly
What does it feel like?" the Doctor raised his eyebrows. "You can talk to me Dalek Sec," he spat. "It is Dalek Sec isn't it, that's your name?" he scrunched his nose. "You've got a name and a mind of your own," he stepped up to stare down the one eye. "Tell me what you're thinking right now."
"I feel…humanity," he considered, his one-eye looking startled.
"Good, that's good," the Doctor nodded quietly.
"I feel everything he wanted for mankind…" Sec continued, holding his hands out, marvelling at himself. "Which is…ambition? Hatred. Aggression."
Rose shook her head, a fire beginning to burn in her belly, travelling up her spine.
"And war. Such a genius for war," Sec continued.
"That's not what humans are!" Rose cried from the back of the room.
"I think it is," Sec fired back quickly. "At the heart, this species is so very…Dalek."
"No--!" Rose started.
Sec was distracted by her a moment and the Doctor cut her off very quickly, drawing Sec's attention back to him. "Oh right, so what have you achieved then with this final experiment, hey? Nothing!" he bellowed. "'Cause I can show what you're missing – this," he pointed to his left, at the small, red radio he'd interrupted everyone with earlier. "A simple little radio," he tapped it fondly.
The other Daleks in the room were still uneasy, almost jittery. "What is the purpose of that device?" one called.
"Well exactly, it plays music what's the point of that?" the Doctor turned to the other three Daleks, staring them all down angrily. Then sobered. "Oh, with music, you can dance to it," he turned around, winking at Rose, "sing with it. Fall in love to it," he smiled tenderly.
Rose stared back at him, unfaltering. Watching. Waiting. She nodded.
He spun back around. "Unless you're a Dalek of course, then its all – just - noise!"
With a zap of the sonic screwdriver, an ear-shattering buzz and squeal rang out in the basement. The Daleks started to shake, as though the sound was ripping them apart.
"Run!" the Doctor yelled at the people huddled at the back of the room, dashing to meet them.
"The Doctor will come with us" one of the daleks said
"Ok" the Doctor said about to move towards them
"No" Rose said grabbing at him "don't leave it could be a trap or something"
"I got to go Rose…daleks don't stop killing randomly…they need us, and they have sworn not to harm these people"
"And if you die" Rose said tears building up in her eyes "I won't be able to live without you"
"You would cope, you'd have the TARDIS" the Doctor said
"I would rather die than live without you" Rose hissed
"it's been good" the Doctor said "you're fantastic, fantastic Rose don't forget that" he leaned in and kissed her tenderly pressing something in her hand before pulling away "it was good knowing you Miss Jones" he said to Martha, and then he followed the daleks.
Rose opened her hand to see the psychic paper….all she had to do was work out his plan.
It worked, instead of creating evil dalek humans, the Doctor slipped in Time Lord DNA, for one brief moment Rose felt more than one prescence in her mind…it was soothing. But then the daleks killed them…the dalek human Time Lord hybrids killed two of them off before they died. Poor Sec was dead…he was good in the end.
Cann was still alive though and he had escaped.
Lazlo was saved…a pig slave but alive and well and in the arms of his love Tallulah.
Nearly everyone got their happy ending.
"I think it's time you went home Martha" the Doctor said "it was supposed to be one trip, and you got three, come on"
"But I want to stay" Martha said "I love travelling with you and Rose, and I never want to stop"
"Let us take you home, take a break, really think about it" the Doctor said "do you really want to miss becoming a doctor? Do you want to leave your family behind?"
Martha was silent.
"It's not for long" Rose said "I'll give you my phone number so you can reach us"
"Yeah…whatever…let's go then" Martha said in dejected tone of voice.
"I'm driving this time" the Doctor said quickly
"Oh no you're not, we're not having this poor girl miss a year like I did" Rose snapped "I will drive"