Al and The Doctor found Rose inside one of the side rooms and she was looking out of the window.
"Rose? Are you in there?" They entered the room. "What do you think, then?"
"Great. Yeah, fine. Once you get past the slightly psychic paper. They're just so alien. The aliens are so alien. You look at 'em and they're alien." Rose was slightly freaked out again.
"Good thing I didn't take you to the Deep South." The Doctor joked and AL smacked him in the head again. "You know that's getting old." He warned her and she just smiled at him innocently.
"Where are you from? I know where AL is from already how about you?" Rose asked curiously and AL looked at him now.
"All over the place." The Doctor dodged the question.
"They all speak English." Rose stated petulantly.
"No, you just hear English. It's a gift of the TARDIS. The telepathic field, gets inside your brain and translates." The Doctor explained.
"It's inside my brain?" Rose asked with wide eyes.
"Well, in a good way." The Doctor tried to calm her down.
"Your machine gets inside my head. It gets inside and it changes my mind, and you didn't even ask?" Rose asked worriedly and AL frowned.
"I didn't think about it like that." The Doctor bit his lip.
*She doesn't change your mind, but she does like to talk.* AL admitted and Rose looked at her.
"The TARDIS talks?"
*Yes she is sentient.* AL saw the confused expression on Rose's face. *She is alive.*
"Okay so now I know about AL, and about the TARDIS. So who are you, then, Doctor? What are you called? What sort of alien are you?"
"I'm just the Doctor." The Doctor muttered darkly.
*Time Lord he said one time.*
"You shush…" The Doctor scolded her and she pouted. "Not working this time, take the pout off."
"From what planet?" Rose asked and The Doctor was getting fidgety.
"Well, it's not as if you'll know where it is!" The Doctor dodged it again.
"Where are you from?" Rose questioned once more.
"What does it matter?!" The Doctor shouted getting more annoyed.
"Tell me who you are!" Rose shouted back at him.
*He doesn't like talking about it. I don't know why but he doesn't.*
"Look, this is who I am, right here, right now, all right? All that counts is here and now, and this is me." The Doctor stated quietly.
"Earth Death in twenty minutes. Earth Death in twenty minutes." The computer informed the craft.
"All right. As my mate Shareen says, don't argue with the designated driver." Rose pulled out her cell phone. "Can't exactly call for a taxi. There's no signal. We're out of range. Just a bit." Rose admitted with a sad smile.
"Tell you what. With a little bit of jiggery pokery." The Doctor fiddled with her phone.
"Is that a technical term, jiggery pokery?" Rose teased him making AL smirk happy the argument was over.
"Yeah, I came first in jiggery pokery. What about you?" The Doctor looked at her.
"No, I failed hullabaloo." Rose shrugged and The Doctor grinned.
"There you go." He handed her back her cell phone and Rose called a number.
"Mum? Nothing. You all right, though? What day is it? Yeah, er, I was just calling 'cos
I might be late home. No. I'm fine. Top of the world." Rose hung up the phone with a sad expression.
"Think that's amazing, you want to see the bill?" The Doctor grinned and Rose frowned now.
"That was five billion years ago. So, she's dead now. Five billion years later, my mum's dead." Rose admitted sadly.
"Bundle of laughs, you are." The Doctor stated simply and saw AL's confused expression. "You okay AL?" Rose looked over at AL who was frowning.
*I have heard that word before.* AL started confusing them both. *What is mum?*
"It's my mother." Rose explained and AL still looked confused.
*What is that?* AL asked curiously.
"She is my mother, she had me. My father and mother had me…"
*What are those words?* AL asked getting more confused.
The Doctor closed his eyes knowing where this was going.
"My mother and father created me." Rose offered worriedly not understanding why The Doctor looked so upset.
*Do you have a mother and father?* AL turned asking The Doctor who nodded.
"I did at one time, they are gone now." The Doctor offered brokenly, he knew what the next question was going to be, and he had hoped he could've put this off until a later time.
*Do "I" have a mother and father?* AL asked them both and Rose's eyes went wide when she realized what was happening and she put a hand to her mouth while tears started to fill her eyes.
"AL." The Doctor started softly and swallowed before he grabbed her shoulders. "You were 'created' in a lab. The other subjects and yourself…"
*So that would be a no?* AL asked sadly and The Doctor nodded. *Does everything else have a mother and father?* She asked and Rose sighed sadly.
"Some creatures, yes. Some creatures only need one." The Doctor offered calmly and AL swallowed nervously.
*The TARDIS told me when we first met that I shouldn't have existed at all. Despite the odds I still existed. I need some time…* AL turned away and ran out of the room.
"Good work Rose Tyler…" The Doctor looked at her and Rose shot him an acerbic look.
"You cannot blame 'that' on me…"
AL ran into the TARDIS and she heard the sad sigh from the ship.
(I'm sorry you found out like that little cub.)
*I need some time…* AL repeated quietly and started punching in coordinates for the year 1949 and heard the ship groan.
(You need a friend, I will not say anything this time. Just be careful little cub.)
AL grabbed her notepad and put the goggles on and waited at her usual spot. AL felt something fall from her eye and it burned when it slipped near her eye. She lifted the goggle lens slightly and something wet fell onto her finger. The TARDIS once said that water that comes from ones eyes were tears. AL sat against the wall and let the tears leak past the goggle lenses and just sat there.
"Right on time." Richard Lazarus looked at his friend and frowned seeing she was crying. "What's all this then?" He sat beside her worriedly and touched her shoulder.
She wrote something and handed it to him and he sighed sadly. She could barely tell he was a year older she was so upset.
"I just found out I have no mother, or father."
"That's tough news. I'm also an orphan…never met my parents. They shoved me off to an orphanage when I was a baby." Richard admitted quietly. "You must be freezing, ran off without any outer clothes!" Richard chided her and shrugged out of his coat and put it on her shoulders.
AL's eyes widened when she realized that she was still wearing her overalls and a t shirt and she blushed at what she must look like right now.
"Sorry I forgot." AL wrote down and Richard huffed in laughter and kissed her cheek.
"It seems you weren't expecting that kind of news, it can rattle the calmest person."
"I should probably get back." AL started to take the coat off to hand it back to him and he put his hand up.
"No keep it…this way you can stay warm even 'if' you forget outer wear next time." He lightly teased her and she kissed his cheek this time. She saw the pink tinge to his cheeks and smiled shyly at her.
AL was back in the year she had been but was still wearing the coat. She was about to leave to go converse with Boe some more when the TARDIS mentioned something.
(Probably should lose the coat little cub…my thief will wonder where it came from.)
*Oh thanks!* AL shrugged out of Richard's coat but left it on the railing and the TARDIS sighed in defeat.
(Well that's going to be an interesting discussion when they see the coat right there…) The TARDIS admitted to herself after AL had left.