A/N: Thank you to all the people who followed and faved recently! I still beg you for reviews, since those keep me writing and inspired. :) Even if it's a bad review, it'll help me get better!

Also, I have several epsiodes planned in certain orders (obviously) but if there's any that you want me to do or special bad guys to put in, let me know! :D I'll tell you if your eps are already on my list or not. Still, I'd love some ideas.

In any case, let me know if you have any more questions. And each episode I do will take up two or three chapters so it won't be so long to read. . Thanks!

P.S. Sorry it's taken a while to get this up. A huge wildfire sprouted not far from my house (80k acres) and things have been getting crazy. Sorry about the delay!

Aliens of London

Part 2

As if London on a normal day didn't push my mental barriers to the limits, the excitement of the alien ship sent it into over drive. It felt like I'd been trapped in a room that was slowly filling with water without a way to escape. It grew even worse as people began filing into the Tylers' appartment. The Grand Central Station of the apartment building.

I ended up curled on the couch at one end with the Doctor perched on the edge of the seat on the other. He'd been unable to get to the crash site on foot, so he'd resorted to the old-fashioned human way: TV. Although he flipped through channels at such a pace that I wondered if he understood any of it. For me, I became just a tad more stable just by focusing on him, as creepy as that sounded. He still remained a void among the chaos around me. A sort of anchor to my sanity.

I just prayed that nobody touched me. If I had another brain storm like I'd had with Jack so long ago, I knew that would do me in. My mind's eye filled with the image of the prescription I kept in my pocket. Taunting me. Daring me to go ahead and take it. I couldn't. Not with the Doctor nearby. I became an emotional zombie when the drugs took effect and I knew he'd notice.

But try as I might to resist the temptation, the urge to swallow one grew with each passing minute. Every new spike of emotion caused another chip in my barriers to form. Ready to crack and fracture like a windshield at any moment.

Eventually I gave up and excused myself, slipping outside as quickly as I could without drawing too much attention. The cool air slapped my face as I leaned heavily against the railing. It eased the ache somewhat, but I could feel the cracks in my barriers slowly connecting, widening. Almost beyond my ability to control. Biting my lip, I drew the accusing orange bottle out of my pocket and glared at the little white pills crammed inside. Were they addicting? I'd begun thinking that they were, since I had to renew my prescription every two weeks instead of the one month like the doctor suggested.

"Why, why, why can't I do this right?" I sighed, allowing myself to whine for a little bit. No one could hear me anyway. "Keep up my barriers. Should be simple. Just keep them up and I won't have everyone else's bloody emotions out of my bloody ..." I stopped myself and almost did a face-palm. Artie was really rubbing off on me. Or the city was. "Or I just can't think straight."

Another spark of excitement somewhere in the complex splintered my barriers even more, causing me to flinch. The cap was off the bottle before I realized what I was doing. I could hardly tell which emotions were mine and which were everyone else's. Just one pill and I'd have some relief. Just ... one ...

A hand snatched the bottle out of mine before I could even blink. "What do you think you're doing, Jessica Gale?" The Doctor. Of course. The only one who could sneak up on me at that moment. "What are these? What are they for?"

His dissapointment hurt far more than anything else.

"I'm ... they ..." I floundered. How did I explain without whining or looking like a lost cause? I buried my face in my hands. "I ... I tried, Doctor. I tried following your suggestion about keeping my barriers up. They worked in Small Town, USA, but ... once I transfered school to London ..." I shuddered, the memory of the move almost driving me under.

The Doctor made a noise. I didn't care to turn my head and decipher it. "Jessica, these things won't help you control yourself."

"Tell me something I don't know."

"How long have you been taking these?" When I didn't reply, the Doctor took my shoulder and spun me around, forcing me to face him. "How long?"

"Two and a half years!" I snapped. Not because I wanted to. It took an effort to keep track of which thoughts were completely mine. I ran a hand through my hair, which had become a bit frazzled. "It's been almost four years since you helped me, Doctor. Believe me, I tried to keep myself in one piece when I moved here. I really did, but ..."

Several things darkened the Doctor's face and lit up his eyes. So many confusing things I didn't have the capacity to try and name. "I don't get it. It should've worked. Should've been a walk in the park. I ..." A hand reached up to my face, but he paused, bringing himself up short. "May I?"

He wanted to go inside my head again. Not that I could keep him out even if I wanted to. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I nodded mutely. Anything that could make it stop.

"I'll be as gentle as I can, I promise."

The sentence had been said so quietly, I couldn't be sure if I'd actually heard it. His fingers pressed against my head. Just the feel of his mind stepping into my own was enough to shatter what little control I had left. I gasped, weaving on my feet as the emotions of an entire city poured into me. The Doctor swore and the sensation that followed was something akin to someone putting a dam back in place. Piece by piece, layer by layer. Until once again, it was only my mind and his.

I sighed in relief, sagging in his grip. "Thank you," I breathed. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have let it get to me. I'm sorry, I just ... What do I do?'

The Doctor still rooted around in my head. I let him. As far as I knew, I didn't know anything he shouldn't. "Tell me why you're such a strong empath, for starters. You're not supposed to have this skill for thousands of years. Humans aren't, anyway. Why aren't your own barriers enough? Why ..."

"And where do you think you're going?"

Rose's voice shot us apart so quickly, I was left standing there with my eyes closed for several seconds. Then fear spurred me to glance at the Doctor. Would he tell Rose about me? Had he even explained why they'd found me in the first place? I didn't want her to know. So many people thought I was crazy as is, one more wouldn't hurt.

A minute shake of the Doctor's head was all the reassurance he could give me before plastering on a smile. One of the dorky ones that should've screamed false. "Nowhere. It's just a bit human in there for me. History just happened and they're talking about where you can buy dodgy top-up cards for half price. I'm off on a wander, that's all."

A half-truth. Coming from him with such ease. Did he ever tell the full truth?

"Right. There's a spaceship on the Thames and you're just wandering. Is he really 'just wandering', Jess?"

Well, at least Rose wasn't as clueless as she sounded.

My eyes met the Doctor's for a few seconds. Any guilt I felt at lying to Rose disintegrated. "Of course. I might not be an alien like he is, but being an American in London is as alien as I'm going to get. Even I need a break once in a while." A smirk played on my lips. "I might just join him."

"No you're not."

"Why not?" I countered, raising an eyebrow. "It's just a walk. What's wrong with a walk?"

"Why are you going for a walk? Aliens on Earth and you're not doing anything?" Rose teamed up with me, grilling the Doctor for all her worth.

"Oi!" The Doctor's hands flew up in defense. "Nothing to do with me. It's not an invasion. That was a genuine crash landing. Angle of descent, colour of smoke, everything. It's perfect." He didn't lower his hands until we hadn't thrown a question at him for a few seconds.

"It's perfect, so?"

"So maybe this is it. First contact. The day mankind officially comes into contact with an alien race. I'm not interfering because you've got to handle this on your own. That's when the human race finally grows up. Just this morning you were all tiny and small and made of clay. Now you can expand."

As the Doctor kept talking, I could see him almost glow with each word. It made a grin start growing on my face. He might put up a fuss about it being too human for him, but his surprise at our species glowed like a sun. It didn't change his wierdness at all, but I felt that nothing could change that.

"You don't need me. Go and celebrate history. Spend some time with your mum."

As the Doctor took a couple steps away, Rose's anxiety practically screamed out at me. "Promise you won't dissapear?"

The Doctor hesitated for a few seconds, telling me everything I needed. He fished around in his pockets before holding something out. "Tell you what. TARDIS key. It's about time you had one. See you later." Just like earlier that day, the Doctor took off without warning, forcing me to trot to keep up with him.

"So, where are we really going?" I ventured, eyeing him as we tromped down the stairs. "You might be able to fool Rose, but I can tell you're not the 'wandering' type."

"You aren't going anywhere," the Doctor corrected sternly, with none of the playfulness he'd used with Rose. "I get into enough trouble by myself, I don't need you tagging along after me. You'd slow me down."

Such curt refusal made me blink. I frowned and grabbed his arm, making him stop in the middle of the aley. The look he shot me almost made me wish I hadn't. Almost. "Slow you down? Is that why you lied to Rose?"

The look in the Doctor's eyes grew a little dangerous. "Don't."

"Sorry," I muttered, though I really wasn't. I still didn't let go of his arm, no matter how frightening his eyes had become. "But if you're going to check on that alien, won't you need some sort of backup? I mean, it's probably surrounded by soldiers with itchy trigger fingers and you're not exactly subtle. You might need help."

"No, I don't." The Doctor's hand removed mine in a grip that was almost painful. "I manage just fine on my own, thank you. Better that way. Now, Jessica Gale, go home. I've done enough to your life as it is. Go home, pull yourself together, watch the teley. Do whatever you do on a night like this. Anything but come after me."

"But ..."

"Now."

My jaw hurt from how hard I clenched it. Leaving the Doctor on his own just felt ... wrong. Like a thing that shouldn't be done. There was nothing I could come up with at the moment to further argue the point, however. "Fine," I sighed, fixing him with a look of my own. "Don't do something stupid that can get you hurt." Before I could see his reaction, I turned and marched back to the top floor, my lonely apartment calling my name.

An Idea had started to form by the time I reached my door.

There was no way I was going to be left behind again.