A/N: Hey y'all sorry this took SOOOOO long to do, I have been having some inspiration trouble lately, and not just on this. On my other fanfic AND my novel (which is something I hope one day in the near future will be a source of income soo that's not good, lol). Luckily this week the writers block has finally decided to banish itself from my brain so here is the beginning of my S4 rewrite. This is part one of S4 Ep2 Partners in Crime. As always, leave a kudos or a review, preferably both, and if you like it and want to be notified when I post a new chapter don't forget to subscribe.
Sadly I do not own Doctor Who (even if it was my birthday wish (stupid faulty candles)) I own a Doctor who tea pot and a set of TARDIS string light (among other things), but sadly this gives me no rights to the show. All recognizable dialogue is the property of the BBC.
Chapter 17- Teething and Trouble
Rose POV
I'm sitting at the table, trying to feed a very cranky Gallifreyan infant his breakfast. I'm lucky I didn't need as much sleep as I used to and that my husband only slept about twice in a week. Oliver is teething, making a six month old who has never been ill or had a fever suddenly spike in temperature and be put in obvious pain. I give up and put the lid back on the baby food container I had been trying to feed him and went to the freezer pulling out the frozen baby food popsicles I had made last night, we had been at a store on Earth and I saw this little thing to make perfect baby sized popsicles. They all seemed to be holding together quite nicely, so I popped one out of the container and took it over to him.
I sat down in my chair and held the popsicle in front of his lips, he slowly leaned forward and put his mouth around it, then pushed it away with his tongue, sat back and grabbed it out of my hand. He wrapped his little lips around it and sent me a telepathic 'cold' as he gummed at the frozen banana baby food.
"Yes baby boy, it is cold, does that feel better," I said smoothing down the mess of hair on the top of his head 'good' was what I received in response. He continued to gnaw on the frozen food with his gums and I got up to make my own breakfast as well as some for the Doctor. I could feel as Oliver's mood improved, since he was still too young to put up shields, his telepathic abilities amazed me, but we had to be careful to not go to any planets with other telepathic species until he was old enough to put up his shields.
I had grabbed out all the ingredients and started the pan to warm up while I prepped and was whisking eggs in a mixing bowl. I grabbed a slice of bread and after soaking it in egg plopped it into the warm pan. I grabbed a banana and peeled it and began slicing it, halfway through I stopped to flip over the French toast then finished slicing it. I continued on until I had made six pieces just as I heard footsteps entering the kitchen.
"I made French toast," I said as I grabbed two slices, covering them in the sliced banana and went to sit down. I looked over at Oliver who was now playing with the melted baby food on his highchair tray. I thought about how odd it was as I put syrup on my banana covered French toast, how even though I was no longer pregnant I still craved bananas; and no I'm not pregnant now, after Oliver was born the Doctor had put an implant in his arm that made him infertile for as long as he had it in. The Doctor chuckled and went to the counter to get his own plate of breakfast and sat down next to me.
"It's so good to see him not completely stressed and distraught," the Doctor said nodding toward Oliver, who still had relief coming off of him in waves. "What did you do to help him?" He asked me after a moment.
"It is nice, I froze some baby food into little popsicles, I just hope when he's done with this he won't expect that all the time," I said then put a large forkful into my mouth.
"See, you're always thinking of clever things like that I didn't think you would actually use that little thing we bought. He hated the teething rings, that boy has an arm by the way that you need to watch out for," he told me pointing to Oliver with his fork, who looked up and smiled wide at him.
"Dada," he said holding his arms out wide above his head, then 'nana cold' came into my head from him. Oliver had apparently tossed a frozen teething ring across his room at the Doctor when his fever and pain had first started.
"Hi Oli, did you like the cold banana," he cooed at him and smiled as Oliver slapped his hands down on the tray.
"Ya," was his response before he went back to drawing through the mess with his fingers.
"So, did you have some repairs to do on the TARDIS?" I asked wondering what he had been up to.
"No actually Jack called, said there was something weird going on with a company in London, he wants to know if we can investigate and figure out what it is. He and his team are caught up in Cardiff and since there's no proof of alien involvement there's not much he can do." He said as we continued eating.
"Well what's the company do?" I ask not wanting to do anything dangerous.
"It makes diet pills, and apparently they're working, he said they're currently only available in the greater London area but they're going nationwide soon. The woman who runs it, she came out of thin air and didn't even attempt to make a decent backstory," he explained thoughtfully.
"So she's probably an alien, and why would they want to help make humans thinner?" I asked furrowing my brow in thought as I shoved the last bite of French toast in my mouth.
"Exactly, so what are these pills really doing and why is she doing it on Earth," the Doctor said as I stood up and put my plate in the sink then wet a flannel with warm water to clean off the messy time tot.
"Okay, so what's the plan?" I asked as I wiped down Oliver's hands, arms, and face. Then I wiped the mess on the tray all into one spot.
"Well I figured I'd go in, stay as far away from the boss lady as possible, act like I'm from health and safety ask some questions maybe get a customer list," he said while I unsnapped the bib and put it on the tray.
"Muma," Oliver said the second his bib was off, putting his arms up in the air reaching for me.
"Okay, I'll stay here with him, and do some research on the company. If you get caught and in a tight spot I'll come rescue you." I told him grinning at him as I pulled the highchair tray away then picked our son up. I rested Oliver on my hip and turned around facing the Doctor again, "keep your shields down so I can sort of hear what's going on," I told him and he nodded. "Whatever you do, don't let the boss woman see you." I warned before leaving the kitchen and heading toward Oliver's room. I entered his room and grabbed a set of clothes before setting him down on the changing table to remove his jim-jams. I dressed him in a long sleeve onesie and a tiny pair of denims. Once I had put his onesie on his hands went straight into his hair messing it up and making it stick straight out.
After he was dressed I took him with me into my room and set him on the floor in the corner where he had a small collection of toys. I walked into my wardrobe and grabbed a set of clothes, a pair of jeans and a jumper, before heading to the bathroom to put them on. I dressed quickly and washed my face and brushed my hair before heading back out into the room to my vanity to apply some mascara and eyeliner. As I finished up my mascara and wiped away smudges under my eyes I suddenly felt something pushing down on the cushion of my stool, I turn to see my messy brown haired time tot pulling himself up using my stool, I watch as he gets himself upright before looking at me with a big drooly grin. I just watched with a smile as he lets go of his support on the stool and wobbles a bit before falling down onto his bum, I just chuckle silently as I stand up.
"Come on Ollie, what do you want to do today?" I ask reaching down and picking him up. "We have to be ready to go, in case daddy needs us to come get him out of trouble." I tell him bouncing him on my hip a bit, as we turn into the corridor and almost smack straight into the Doctor.
"Oh, hello alright I'm off. I promise to try and stay out of trouble," he said leaning down and kissing me softly before pulling back and trying to kiss Oliver on the forehead but he kept squirming away. "You said you're going to do some research on the company, and listen in on what I'm doing?" The Doctor asked awkwardly shoving his hands in his pockets.
"Yeah, well that and entertain him," I told him untangling Oliver's hand from my earing.
"Well let me know if you find anything interesting or life and death," he tells me as he starts walking backwards.
"Don't those normally go hand in hand with us?" I ask with a teasing smile.
"Welll," he drawled with a smile.
"Alright, see you later," I say turning to go to the media room. Once in the media room I flipped on the telly before setting Oliver down with his favorite toys, in my mind I could see the Doctor approaching a tall glass building before going around to the back and sonicing open a back door. It seemed to be some sort of maintenance hallway so nothing important. Hands on my knees brought me back to the TARDIS, where Oliver was now standing with his hands braced on my knees, with a large plastic ring gripped in each one.
"Hi baby boy you want some help?" I asked with a grin.
"Ya," he replied lifting his arms up and nearly falling backwards before I grabbed him and pulled him up onto the sofa with me. He scooted into the spot next to me then began playing with the two rings in his hands. I tuned back into what the Doctor was up to just in time to see him work his way into a film booth. Out the small window he could see and hear a woman talking, who I was guessing was Miss Foster. She was talking up the pill saying it was the 21 century way to lose weight. No dieting, no exercise, sounds just like every other diet pill I've ever heard about.
"And the fat as they say," she said then, and the screen behind her began changing before the speakers said the fat just walks away.
"Seriously," I thought to the Doctor, "is that really their slogan?" That had to be some sort of clue I just wasn't sure what yet. She started showing a film about the science of the pill and, it sounded completely made up honestly, then a tech came into the booth wondering what the Doctor was doing there.
"Health and Safety, film department," he told the man flashing the psychic paper at him.
"Oh yeah that's a totally real thing," I teased laughing at his made up title. When he tuned back into the presentation she was informing them they already had one million sales just in the greater London area. That's a lot of people, we needed to figure this out and fast. There was a loud noise bringing me back to the media room this time from Oliver tossing one of the plastic rings he had been playing with at the console table.
"Alright," I said taking the other one out of his hand before it went to the T.V. this time. "Lets go find something else to do, I think daddy's got it handled today, its during business hours. He was right too, you do have quite the arm. How about we go for a swim, eh Ollie?" I asked as I put the rings back in the toy chest and he clapped his hands together with a giggle as I grabbed him from the sofa to get ready to go for a swim in the TARDIS pool.
I had us both changed into out swimwear and we made our way to the pool room. I set Oliver down in a chair and opened a cupboard to grab his floaty chair. I plopped it on the water at the steps and turned back to grab the excited time tot. I stepped into the warmed water with him before struggling to get his squirming legs into the leg holes of his floaty. Oliver loved the pool, especially when the Doctor was with us since he could swim the entire perimeter of the enormous pool before he needed to come up for air. I pushed him along out into the middle of the pool while he reached his hands out and smacked the surface of the water, sending up tiny splashes.
I floated next to him watching as he played with the water toys along the edge of his floaty, still half paying attention to what the Doctor was projecting through our link. He was in the lifts now possibly headed up to the call center. Drops of water splashed onto my face as Oliver splashed his hands on the water, giggling at the result. I floated around on my back watching Oliver play for about 5 minutes until he started to cry, from the feelings rolling into my mind I already knew what was happening. I'd figured our pool time wouldn't last long with him not feeling well but it was one of his favorite activities and it always cheered him up.
I pulled him along to the steps before lifting him out of the floaty and grabbing the towel on the pool chair then wrapping him up in it. I set him down in the chair before wrapping myself in the other towel and sitting down before putting Oliver in my lap. The Doctor was headed down a corridor now toward a large open room of cubicles. He reached into his pocket and plucked out the psychic paper before entering one of the first ones that happened to have an extra chair sitting in it.
"John Smith, Health and Safety don't mind me," he whispered to the young woman talking to a customer on her headset. For a second she does just that sparing him a quick glance before turning back to her computer, but only for a moment before she does a double take and turns her rolling chair to face him as she continues talking. He probably didn't even notice how she was looking at him, but I sure did.
"It comes with 21 days worth of pills, our information pack and our special free gift," she says half into the headset and half to him, then cuts her eyes to her desk where there's a small black box. The Doctor grabs it pulling out the jewelry from inside, "an Adipose Industries pendant. It's made of 18 karat gold and it's yours for free," she tells her customer with the most obvious flirting toward the Doctor I have ever seen. She's listening to the customer on the other end but couldn't be paying less attention to them. "No, we don't give away pens, sorry. I can't make an exception there." She was telling the customer.
"I need to keep this for testing," the Doctor told her dropping it into the breast pocket of his suit. "Can I also get a list of your customers as well?" He asked.
"Alright let me just print that off for you," she responded and turned back to her computer. I came back to the pool room on the TARDIS then for a moment and stood putting Oliver on my hip to make my way down to our rooms. I walked the short distance down the corridor while the Doctor stood up and down asking the girl questions about the printer. I laid Oliver on the changing table to put him back into his normal clothes and listened in as I did.
"Excuse me everyone, if I could have your attention," a voice I remembered was Miss Foster's said. The Doctor had been standing and turned toward the voice to see Miss Foster approaching with two armed guards behind her, he ducked down just as everyone else stood, peaking the top of his head over the edge of the cubicle to watch. "On average you're each selling 40 Adipose packs per day," she began looking back and forth so she could look at everyone, causing the Doctor to duck down and pop back up, over and over. "It's not enough, I want 100 sales per person per day, and if not, you'll be replaced," she went on, looking around and the Doctor still going up and down. I picked Oliver up off the changing table and headed over to our room as the Doctor continued his little dance around Miss Foster, "cause if anyone's good at trimming the fat it's me." She finished with a smirk before turning away slowly and leaving the way she came. I don't think the Doctor noticed, but there was someone else doing the same exact thing while Miss Foster was in there.
"Anyway, if you could print that off, thanks," he told her sitting back down in the chair.
"Alright it should be at the printer," the young woman told him with a bright smile.
"Thanks then," he told her standing, before she grabbed his hand and pulled him back down and handing him a piece of paper. "What's that?" He asked and I rolled my eyes as I pulled my jumper back over my head.
"My telephone number," she said in a voice that was trying too hard to sound innocent.
"What for?" He asked confused and clueless as always.
"Health and safety," she said her voice turning from innocent to flirty in a second. I just picked up Oliver and headed to the kitchen to get him some food. "You'll be health, I'll be safety," she told him putting her hand on his knee and I wished I was there to slap her.
"Ah-uhh-ah," the Doctor started awkwardly as he tried to get up, practically knocking the chair he was in over. "That breaks um paragraph 5, sub-" he began and I decided to save him you're married, Doctor, remember us, I told him telepathically. He held up his left hand then, pointing to the band she'd hopefully not seen, "I'm married," he stammered before rushing over to the printer. I just grabbed one of the baby food pops from the freezer and carried it with me to the console room.
When I entered I saw the old girl had set up Ollies pack and play with a few different toys and his TARDIS plushie. I set him in and gave him the pop which he took and shoved in his mouth before pulling it back out and frowning at it. This one was squash and I'm sure he had been expecting another banana one. He looked up at me still frowning and holding the pop up to me.
"No you need to eat that one, you can't just have bananas all the time," I told him giggling and going over to the console. I pulled the screen over to the typewriter the Doctor had wired into the console and an internet browser popped up on the screen. I began researching Adipose industries, reading through anything I could find. Also reading up on Miss Foster, or what I could find on her, she had definitely come out of nowhere and there was not even a story about her before Adipose industries.
The door to the TARDIS opened and the Doctor strolled in, his hands shoved in his pockets and a bright smile on his face when he saw us both in the console room. He came up the ramp picking up Oliver, who had been holding two toys and staring at them, probably wondering which one to play with and which one to throw. When he saw the Doctor he'd dropped both and squealed putting his arms up wanting to be picked up. He plucked him out of the pack and play before continuing on towards me.
"Hello love," the Doctor said leaning forward and kissing me. "Find anything interesting?" He asked leaning forward toward the screen.
"Well, all the testing on the Adipose capsules is faked and Miss Foster literally came out of nowhere, but I guess when someone is selling something to make you lose weight and it actually works people don't really care about that kinda stuff." I said going over what I'd found online.
"Well we're going to figure this out and figure out what she wants," the Doctor said before reaching into his breast pocket and pulling out the capsule pendant. "How about I start running a test on this then we go get some dinner," he suggested walking around the console and inserting the pendant in a small slot the TARDIS beeped and he turned back to smile at me. "Ready?" He asked, I turned toward the door and spotted two jackets hanging over one of the coral struts. I grabbed the larger one and pulled it on zipping it halfway and grabbing the smaller one before heading over to where the Doctor was standing holding Oliver on his hip. I wrestled his arms into the sleeves before adjusting it over his shoulders.
I grabbed the Doctors free hand as we walked down the ramp and out the door into a London alley. We stepped out onto the sidewalk and headed down the street looking for a chippy. We walked a few blocks before finally coming across one and entering. We went up to the counter and ordered then I took Oliver to a booth and sat down while the Doctor waited for the food. I handed Ollie the toy the Doctor had handed me from his pocket and it went straight into his mouth. The Doctor sat down and placed the food on the table and we began eating in silence. I thought about everything I'd heard from the Doctor's investigating today and kept coming back to one thing, the companies slogan 'The fat just walks away' it was too weird to be a coincidence.
"Doctor, what about their slogan, the fat just walks away," I said looking down at my chips while I thought about it.
"What about it Rose?" He asked confused.
"What if that's exactly what it does, what if the fat literally walks away," I said looking up at him before feeling plastic whack against my arm. I looked and smiled at Oliver who was standing on the booth and shaking the plastic ring around in his hand.
"Well it is possible, some races reproduce that way, and it's outlawed by the shadow proclamation to seed a planet without their knowledge. How would we find out if it is just walking away though?" He asked. I thought for a moment at that and the answer came to me.
"Burglar alarms," I told him making him confused again. "Most of them have motion sensors, so if the fat is just walking away it would catch it." I explained.
"Alright, lets go for a walk when we're finished then," He said pulling out a few pages folded together from his suit pocket.
"Customer list?" I asked raising an eyebrow.
"Yep, let's see how many are nearby," he said with a smile popping the 'p'. We looked through the lists of customers and picked some within walking distance and finished out food. I picked Oliver up from the bench and we headed out the door onto the sidewalk in the evening chill. We headed in the direction of the houses we were looking for and passes a few of them before I spotted the box above ones door.
"Doctor," I said tapping his arm, "that's one of the houses." He nodded and pulled out the list looking for the name of the person the house belonged to. I spotted the address on the paper and pointed at it with my free hand, "there, Roger Davie. So what are you gonna do?" I asked looking up at him.
"Act like I'm from Adipose Industries, see what I can find out. What are you going to do?" He asked looking between me and Oliver.
"We'll head back to the TARDIS, see if that test is done." I told him and he leaned in placing a gentle kiss on my lips before kissing the top of Oliver's head. Oliver and I headed back toward the city where the TARDIS was parked in an alley near the Adipose Industries building.
We made our way there quickly while I half listened in on the Doctor through our bond and as we approached the Adipose building a black van suddenly pulled out of an alley, nearly running me over. It headed the way I had just come and I could see in my mind the Doctor was running.
Doctor a van just sped out of Adipose Industries, it's headed your way, must be something they need to hide cause they practically ran us over, I told him.
Yeah I'm already on it, was what I received in response as I continued on to the alley the TARDIS was parked in. I saw the Doctor round a corner and see the dark colored van and two men with nets closing the back. He chased after them and even tried taking a short cut to stop them but he was too late.
Lost them he told me. I entered the TARDIS and made my way up the ramp to the console where the screen was flashing analysis finished.
We'll get them, now come on back cause that test is done I responded. I sat down in the jump seat with Oliver on my lap to wait for the Doctor to return, I played peekaboo with him and he giggled while we did. The Doctor finally entered a few minutes later, his hair sticking up from running, I smiled at him and he grinned back before striding up to the console and grabbing the pendant. He grabbed it before looking over the results then looking over the pendant with a magnifying glass.
"Fascinating," he murmured under his breath still examining the pendant, "It's a bio flip digital stitch."
"What exactly does that mean?" I asked raising one eyebrow.
"It means one touch and the capsule bio-tunes itself to the owner, and when it's activated it induces parcinogenesis," he explained, "which means you were right. The fat just walks away."
"Alright, so what sort of creature is created when it does that?" I asked.
"No idea, it's not that specific. But it's still against galactic laws and any planet with this sort of technology knows that," he went on tucking the pendant back into his breast pocket.
"So what are we gonna do?" I asked running a hand through my hair. The Doctor scrubbed at his own with both hands as he thought of his answer.
"I'll sneak in tomorrow, a couple hours before quitting time. In that back corridor I went in today there was a supply cupboard. Once everyone's gone for the day I'll go figure out how to put a stop to it." He said leaning back on the console.
"If you get into trouble you'll call out to me?" I asked him quietly.
"Yeah, I will," he agreed before pushing himself off the console and turning to, flipping the lever to send us into the vortex. "For now though," he continued coming over to me and plucking Oliver off my lap, "let's go give this little trouble maker a bath, and then watch a movie." I smiled at him and stood from the jump seat.
"That sounds wonderful," I told him with a smile my tongue resting between my teeth.
Half an hour later we were all in our jim-jams and Ollie was sitting in between us on the sofa in the media room staring at the T.V. where The Lion King was playing. The Doctor had his arm draped across the back of the sofa, his hand resting on my arm. I leaned my head against his forearm and closed my eyes with a small sigh. Today had been a bit difficult for me, knowing the Doctor was out there investigating without me. I know I'd still been able to help, but it wasn't the same. I missed our adventures I missed wandering off and somehow figuring out what the answer to our problem was, and wandering off to unexpectedly find trouble. I know we had to wait to start saving planets again till Oliver was big enough to run and keep up but there had to be some safe adventures we could go on to explore new places and not get into trouble.
"Don't worry love, I've already got some ideas for that," the Doctor murmured and I froze. Had I projected all that to him? "Yes you did," he mumbled again. I turned my head and looked at him and he gave me a little half smile. "He's going to start walking any day now, and I'm sure within a few weeks he'll be running around and getting into all sorts of trouble. We can still go on adventures, especially now where if things go south and we have to run, I can carry him and run without worrying about hurting him." The Doctor explained and I smiled.
"I love you," I whispered and leaned over the fixated time tot to kiss his father, the Doctor leaned over as well and we met in the middle for a slow, sweet kiss. It was a long short kiss and we parted quickly, I looked down at my little boy who was still fixated on the movie and kissed his soft hair, he grunted a bit but didn't stop watching his movie. I just chuckled and sat back with my family ready to relax for the rest of the night.
