Authors Note: SORRY! Sorry it took so long, but frankly, I get way too many story ideas. And only 1% of them get more then 500 words written before I move on, so be lucky that I was this far into this one. Also, the like-doctor thing is intentional. Also, I keep getting ideas for "The Second Wolf", if you will (End of Time regen onward.) but nothing 'stable', aka its all over the place and I can't settle to even write a single scene of them. Now. This has sat on my computer since 2009. I'll proof-edit-finalise the next one tonight and post that tomorrow after work... maybe.
Chapter 3
Series 3, "I'm a Time Lady."
Smith and Jones
Sarah Jane Smith, her son Luke, and their neighbour, Maria Jackson were all stood in her secluded back garden, waiting. After a minute the distinctive sound of the TARDIS became audible and as it appeared, even the not-quite-new-to-aliens-anymore Maria Jackson, watched in amazement as the TARDIS faded into view, slowly going from transparant to opaque.
When it finished and the sound cut off Sarah Jane grinned widely as the door opened. Rose stepped out, a grin on her own face, which changed to confusion when she saw Luke and Maria.
"Hey. Who're the kids?"
Sarah Jane's smile faded, and she defended, "These kids have helped save this planet several times already!"
Rose backed up a bit, and held her hands up. "Alright, I didn't mean it like that. Seriously, though, who're you lot?"
"Maria." Maria answered, and waved slightly. "Are you an alien?" She asked, and Sarah Jane almost began to chide her when both of them noticed the sort-of-blank expression on Luke's face. Maria waved a hand in front of his face, and got no reaction. Looking at his mum, she asked, "Why do I get the feeling that any moment he'd be either drooling or going 'hubba hubba'?"
Sarah Jane chuckled, and told the amused Rose, "This is Luke. My son."
Rose raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment on his absence when she lived with Sarah Jane. Instead, she said to him, "Hello."
He stopped staring, and blushing, mumbled back, "Hello."
"Now, come on inside." Sarah Jane said, "I'll make a cup of tea."
Rose sat down in the attic room that Sarah Jane had set up to be her sort of, 'headquarters'. To the corner of the room, she greeted, "Hello Mr Smith."
Without activating, the computer replied, "It is good to see you Rose, you are well?"
Rose nodded.
"You know about Mr Smith?" Maria asked as she sat next to her.
She nodded again, and asked quietly, "Does he still play that fanfare when he opens up?"
Maria chuckled and nodded. Then she asked a little more directly, "So what species are you then?"
"So you've met some then." Rose dodged.
"C'mon? Tell me. Please?" Maria said, begging a little.
Rose chuckled and answered, "Human. From Earth."
"No, really? Are you a good er- Slitheen?"
Rose shook her head, and corrected, "I think you mean Raxacoricofallapatorian, and no. Nor am I an Absorbaloff from their twin world, Clom."
Maria just stared for a moment, before she had to ask, "Absorbaloff?"
Rose shrugged, and said, "Hey, I'm not the one that chooses the names for their species."
Sarah Jane appeared from the doorway with a tray, and Luke was following her, rather shyly.
Maria leaned in and whispered, "I think Luke has a crush on you."
Rose chuckled quietly and nodded in agreement. To Sarah Jane, as she was passed a cup of tea, she asked, "So this Hospital. H20 Scoop, you think?"
"Oh, you're getting good at this." Sarah Jane said. "It took me and Luke several days to come up with that idea. Yes, I'm afraid it likely is. I don't know how long it will be before U.N.I.T. steps in. I told Jack I was going to call you. Told me that he'll keep an eye out but not butt-in unless you ask for help."
"How long before it's ready to be transported?" She asked.
"Mr Smith?" Sarah Jane asked.
Mr Smith activated, and Rose rolled her eyes at the fanfare. "My scans over the last few days confirm that in the next 48 to 72 hours, the hospital would be receptive to the H20 Scoop transport."
"And after that, the built-up static within those plasma coils would be too much and normal storm lightning could discharge it all." Rose finished.
"That is correct." Mr Smith confirmed.
"So, what's your plan?" Sarah Jane asked. "If you need my-"
Rose interrupted, "Actually, if you don't mind, I might try tackling this on my own? I don't want you and your friends possibly getting into a situation where simple location could kill you."
"What do you mean?" Maria asked, "What's a 'H20 Scoop'?"
Sarah Jane answered for them, "It's where lots of water and static electricity essentially surrounds a large place or object, becoming something for transporters of certain types to lock onto. To anyone within that space, they simply feel like they've been 'scooped' from one place and dropped another."
Rose finished, "And I doubt that an Alien would have the target location be, say, Hawaii. Possibly Mars - if its the Phurians, they're the only race I know of capable of H20 Scoops with that far a range, then we won't have much trouble. Peaceful race, the Phurians, despite their furious name. Most likely though is the Moon."
"What could possibly be gained from doing that though? And wouldn't everyone die?" Maria pointed out.
Rose nodded, and smiled. She turned slightly to Sarah Jane and said, "Oh, I like her. You certainly pick the best, bright and early, Sarah Jane." Maria frowned at the age thing, but smiled slightly at the rest of the compliment. To Maria, she answered, "If they just want to invade us and they do this as part of the plan, they'd be targetting, say, 10 Downing Street here, the White House in America-"
"Make us leaderless." Maria summed up.
"Exactly. Invasion ruled out, what else is there?" Rose asked, curious to see if they could work it out.
"Searching for someone?" Luke asked.
Rose looked at him, and he blushed. "What makes you think that?" Rose asked, curious as to his reasoning.
"Well, as you said, invasion is ruled out. Why would they transport a hospital to the moon? not to kill them, there's got to be something else; so they put up an air shield. So they need the inhabitants alive. Why? Slaves? Not the ill and elderly. And the Royal Hope isn't much of a high-society hospital, despite it's location across the thames from Big Ben. So it can't be any important humans they're after. They're looking for an Alien, and possibly know enough to know where he or she will be in 2 or 3 days' time."
"Why not some equipment?" Rose asked.
"They could just scoop it from a warehouse." Luke explained.
Rose smiled and nodded to him, and said to the others, "Luke's right. Pretty smart kid. Anyway, they'll be after an alien. Question is, why? That can wait though. After they've got the alien though, that's the bad part. Would they leave the hospital there? Or long enough that the air runs out and everyone is dead when it is returned? Or will whoever is doing this return the hospital before anyone dies of suffocation? If I can find out the why, I can see if they're receptive to returning the hospital in time."
Sarah Jane rolled her eyes, and asked, "How do you expect to get in and stay there for awhile, and avoid suspicion from the staff? I mean, you'll need to be there awhile."
Rose grinned, and said, "I can be patient. I'll get myself in as a patient."
Sarah Jane groaned at the bad pun.
The next morning, Sarah Jane walked down into the kitchen to make herself and Luke their breakfast and found Rose already up and reading a book.
"Don't you ever sleep?" She asked as she opened a cupboard and pulled out a box of cereal.
Rose shrugged. "Time travel kinda makes me not need as much. Used to get terrible time-lag though."
Sarah Jane had to say, "Well, when I travelled with the Doctor, I still needed a full 8 hours every day, even after all the years I spent with him."
Rose nodded. Sarah Jane smiled slightly to see that Rose no-longer winced at the mention of the Doctor, even though each time she would pause and get a distant look for just a moment, then it would be gone and she'd speak or do things as if she hadn't paused at all.
Rose told her, "I'll get some overnight at the Hospital. Tomorrow they're likely to transport it to the moon."
"Whoever 'they' are." Sarah Jane added, and Rose nodded.
While waiting for Luke to wake up, Sarah Jane and Rose talked, a little about each others' travels, and a little about what Sarah Jane was up to lately.
"K-9 still dealing with that Black Hole?" Rose asked.
Sarah Jane was about to respond, but Luke came in then. He caught sight of Rose, who now just wore her shirt, her jacket and coat laid over the back of her chair. While he did trip, he recovered nicely, and as he passed him mum, Rose swore she heard Sarah Jane mutter to him, "Nice save!" Luke just ate his breakfast with a severe blush.
Rose decided to get a move on, and said, "Unless you have any ideas for a better 'illness' for me to be admitted with, I'm off." She picked up her Jacket and put it on, but just put her coat on over her arm.
Sarah Jane just nodded, and didn't notice that, as Rose left, Rose turned green for a moment. Luke did though, and he frowned at that.
To his mum, he asked, "So who's turn is it to check the scanner equipment near the Hospital?"
Sarah Jane looked at him, and said, "Mine, but I also have to head over to-"
"Oh yeah, I heard." Luke interrupted shortly, and finished, "It's alright, I can check them for you."
Sarah Jane smiled, and when Luke left, she didn't notice that he had swiped her wristwatch/scanner.
Rose stepped away from the console, and said to the TARDIS, 'You going to go into stealth mode?'
She got a nodding impression back.
With that Rose stepped out of the TARDIS, and once more, the Wolf appeared on the outside world. For a small moment, she thought she heard the TARDIS chuckling at something, but the moment was gone and she continued on.
She made her way to the Hospital A+E section, and clutched her stomache. She was about to walk in when her hand touched a bit of the metal doorframe of the sliding doors and static jumped from it to her. She felt as if it had gone into her head and chest, suddenly she felt as if she was moving in several directions at once. The severe sense of movement and vertigo overwhelmed her and her sense of balance, causing her to faint. She had not noticed the slight double-thrumb of her chest that had started so long ago, become momentarily unsynchronised and more obvious.
The TARDIS, travelling through time, flies into the distance of the blue tunnel. It reappears, only for the tunnel to stop and reverse, suddenly turning the tunnel red with hints of green.
Overlaid, the two names fly up and past the camera,
Billie Piper
Freema Agyeman
Followed by a spining eye-shaped plaque with the words,
The Wolf
Then words fade in.
SMITH AND JONES
By Russell T Davies
Adapted for The Wolf by Alex F Mcpherson
Beta: Natasha Hosie
When she woke, she realised she was in the hospital, and had been admitted after fainting right outside the doors. The sensation that had flooded her mind was there, and she struggled to push it away. When she had, she realised that a Doctor was waiting, to ask her who she was. She gave a fake name supported by fake drivers license on the psychic paper, which, apparently could mimic those too, although the Doctor never said.
It was the day after, when something curious happened. It was morning, and the freak weather was going on as Sarah Jane had described. She occasionally got a static shock from metal bits when she went to the loo.
She was laid up in bed reading one of her gallifreyan books, the translation from the TARDIS switched off at her request. She was doing well, she understood most of it, though the numbering system had gotten her a bit cross-eyed while she tried to understand something that didn't run on Base-10 like the human numerical system.
A Doctor leading students walked up, and she neatly put the book down, hiding the front cover from sight. She could have groaned at her interrupted reading time, but one of the students seemed to recognise her, while she did not recognise the student.
"Ah, Mrs Smith-"
"Miss." She interrupted.
"I beg your pardon?" The Doctor asked, wondering what she meant by 'miss'.
"I'm not a Mrs. Just a Miss."
"Ah, I see. Well, Miss Smith, a very good morning to you. How are you today?" He asked.
"Oh, you know." She paused, and after that small moment, Rose was gone and it was the Wolf speaking. Seemingly no-one but the student and perhaps the Doctor could tell, although the latter seemed to get the wrong impression. "Not so bad, still a bit, you know. Blagh."
To the students, the Doctor said, "Donna Smith, admitted yesterday after fainting outside and complaints of severe admoninal pains and lightheadedness" The Doctor turned to the student who both caught the change of Rose to the Wolf, and seemed to recognise her. "Jones, why don't you see what you can find? Amaze me."
Jones nodded. The Wolf looked at her, almost assessing her. And then her almost-assessing was derailed by what Jonas said, as she went up to the left side of her bed.
"Wasn't really clever that running around outside this morning, was it?"
"Sorry?"
"Chancellor Street, this morning. You walked up to me and, well. Anyway wasn't very clever."
"Really? and what did I do?" The Wolf asked, curious.
The blush on Jones' face seemed to answer the question.
"What did I do that for?"
"I dunno, you just did."
The Wolf shook her head slightly, "Not me. I was here, in bed. Ask the nurses."
"Well that's weird, cuz she looked like you. Even that mo-"
The Wolf coughed.
"You got a twin sister?"
The Wolf shook her head, and commented, "Maybe it's me from after I'm release, gone back in time?"
The group all chuckled, although they too seemed to find the events curious, although the Doctor said, "As time passes and I grow ever more infirm and weary Miss Jones."
"Sorry." Jones apologised slightly, and put her stethoscope in her ears, and put the end up against the Wolf's chest on the left. Jones frowned, and put it on the other side, and raised her eyebrows slightly.
The Wolf was curious and wanted a listen.
The Doctor interrupted, "By chance, are you unable to locate the heart, Miss Jones?"
Jones kind of shrugged, and said, "I dunno. Stomach cramps?"
"That is a sympton, Miss Jones, not a diagnosis, and would certainly not explain Miss Smith fainting yesterday morning. And you rather failed basic technique," The Doctor continued prattling on, as he went to the foot of the bed and picked up what he then mentioned, "by not consulting first with the patients' chart." He went to touch the metal part, and got a static shock. He dropped it in surprise.
Jonas said, "That happened to me this morning."
Another student said, "I had the same thingon the door handle."
"And me in the lift." another, a woman, inserted.
The Doctor explained, "It's only to be expected. There's a thunder-storm moving in, and lightning is a form of static electricity. As first proven by… anyone?"
The Wolf smiled. "Benjamin Franklin."
"Correct." The Doctor said, impressed; probably at someone of her age knowing that.
The Wolf winked at Jones and as though to continue her 'joke' about time travel, said, "Good man, Ben. Shame about the first declaration of independence he wrote, burnt my hands trying to put the fire out."
As though to show that this was true, She raised her palms, and sure enough, there appeared to be faint scarring.
"Quite."
Joking though, the Wolf added, "Then I got electrocuted."
"Moving on…" The Doctor said, taking the comments in good humor.
Shortly after, the Wolf got up and prowled through the corridors. She could feel that the H20 Scoop was ready to be activated. As she passed a staff kitchen, she saw that Jones student on the phone staring at her. She passed on by, and then she saw a window. The rain started within a second of her looking, to go up.
"Oh. Crap." She mumbled. She didn't like it sometimes, when she was right. Such as this time.
She held on tightly as the hospital was transported. When it was over, she went to her bed and as she got there, noticed that Jones girl and another student go up to the window. She got her things and quickly dressed in her now-typical green shirt pink jumper and red jacket with the Wolf patch on its back, as she listened to Jones speak
"It's real. It's really real. Hold on."
She heard a light scuffle as the friend sobbingly spoke, "Don't, we'll loose all the air."
"But, they're not exactly air-tight. If the air was gonna get sucked out, it would have happened straight away but it didn't. So how come."
She groaned silently when she realised she had left her coat - with the numerous books inside it - in the TARDIS. She had wondered what the TARDIS snickered about before that sensation had overwhelmed her. But she was going to be busy so, to business.
She pulled the curtain aside, and, trying to mimic the Doctor at his most annoyingly confident, spoke, "Very good point. Brilliant in fact. What was your name?"
"Martha."
"And it was, Jones wasn't it?" The Wolf asked. Martha nodded. "Alright then, Martha Jones. Question is, how are we still breathing."
"But we can't be." Martha's friend said.
The Wolf stopped and grabbed the womans' shoulders. "We are. The air would have been sucked through what windows in this hospital were open at the time it was transported, as well as through the gaps beneath doors and the like. Come on, get a grip. There's a situation and we can all go barmy and raise the price of stock for Kleenex together afterwards." Martha choked a laugh. The Wolf let go and turned to Martha, "Martha, is there a, veranda or balcony?"
"By the patients' lounge, yeah." Martha answered.
The Wolf quite seriously asked, "Fancy a moon walk? Well, not a walk, just a moon-stand."
Martha held her next laugh in and answered, "Okay."
"We might die."
"We might not."
The Wolf looked her in the eye, and Martha felt small for a second, before she was off, following the Wolf, her friend following rather hesitantly.
The three neared the doors to the balcony, and the Wolf gave a slight grin to Martha, and opened the doors. Martha's friend held back the gasp that air hadn't rushed out.
After a moment, the three went out onto the balcony, and Martha gasped, "We've got air." After a moment, she pondered, "How does that work?"
The Wolf grinned and said, "A small lecture on advanced physics not known to Earth proper until the 25th century can wait till after. Just be glad it does."
The Wolf stepped up to the side and planted her hands on it, with her grin fading to a smile.
Martha followed, and rambled, "I've got a party tonight. It's my brothers' 21st. My Mothers' going to be really…" Martha stopped, as though she was on the verge on crying.
"Alright there? C'mon. Kleenex time later yeah?"
Martha chuckled.
"Want to go back inside?"
"No way. I mean we could die any minute, but all the same. It's beautiful."
"Sure is." The Wolf inserted quietly.
"I mean, how many people get to go to the moon? And here we are."
The Wolf closed her eyes, and for a moment, thought that the light reflected from Earth felt different as the light reflected off the moon did. A flash of the Werewolf and she mused that it did.
"Standing in the Earth light." She said after a moment.
"What do you think happened?" Martha asked.
"Oh, I'm bristling with ideas, but let's see what you got." The Wolf winked at her. "Doing well so far. C'mon, Miss Jones, Amaze me." The Wolf said.
Martha thought for a moment, and said, "Extra-terrestrial. Got to be. A few years ago that would have sounded mad, but these days? Space ship flying into big ben, Christmas, those cybermen things." Martha stopped, and after a few seconds, solemnly added, "I had a cousin Adeola. She worked at Canary Wharf, I guess at that Torchwood I'd heard some people banging on about afterwards. She never came home." Martha was quiet, and after a second, mused, "She was always secretive about what she did. Said she hated her boss though, like somert chronic."
"Yvonne by any chance?" The Wolf asked. Martha nodded and looked at her. "I was there. In the middle of it." The Wolf finished.
Martha drew herself up, and said, "I promise you, Miss Smith, we will find a way out. If we can travel to the moon, we can travel back. There's got to be a way."
The Wolf stood up straight, and as she looked around the surface of the moon, told Martha, "It's not Smith. That's not my real name."
"Who are you then?"
The Wolf turned her back on Martha for a moment, looking down the side of the Balcony, although that was so Martha would get a look at the back of her jacket properly. When she did turn to Martha, she answered, "I'm the Wolf, Doctor Jones."
"Not yet, but if I pass my exams then yeah Doctor Jones. Anyway, Wolf What? That a last name? like Masters?"
The Wolf grinned at her wolfishly, and said, "Just the Wolf."
"What, people call you the Wolf?"
The Wolf nodded, her wolfish grin fading. "Anyway. The air is being held in. Lets have a look how." With that, the Wolf pulled something out of her pocket, saw it was just a bit of rubbish - a sweet wrapper from one of the planets she had been to, she wincingly noticed, and mentally made a note to wash her jacket, and threw the wrapper away from the hospital. "Must be like a.-" a blue ripple appeared mid-air for a moment. "-Forcefield. Okay. Atmospheric forcefield, keeping the air in."
"If that's like a bubble sealing the air in, that means this is the only air that we've got." Martha realised. The Wolf smiled slightly at the quick-thinking. "What happens when it runs out?" Martha asked.
"There's what, a thousand people in this hospital?" The Wolf asked. Martha nodded. "One thousand people, suffocating."
"Why would anyone do that?" Martha asked hotly.
The Wolf looked over her shoulder and up the side of the hospital, to see the source of a lot of noise that suddenly started.
"Okay, what, class… 67, 68 military transport?" The Wolf mumbled. To Martha, she inserted, "Ask them yourself."
The trio watched as the three space transports that appeared overhead moved away to the side of the hospital quite a ways before landing. Then as troops began to march out.
The Wolf focused on a group, and as the troops approached and she heard Martha mumble, "Aliens. That's aliens."
She growled. Then said, "Of all the- stupid bloody-" She stopped, and said, "They're Judoon." She growled again, and Martha almost backed away. "C'mon. There's a reason those lot are here, and I want to find out."
The Wolf and Martha walked from the 1st floor as the Judoon catalogued people on the ground floor.
"What are Judoon?" Martha asked.
"Interplanetary thugs calling themselves Police. Well, Police for hire."
"And they brought us here to the moon." Martha said. "Why?"
"Neutral territory, they've got no jurisdiction on Earth, since it's a class 5 planet according to galactic law. That rain and lightning, that was them. H20 Scoop."
Martha smiled and said, "What you onabout, 'Galactic Law'? Where do you get that from?" The Wolf didn't answer, and moved around the corner away from the bushes. "If they're police, are we under arrest? Are we, trespassing on the moon or something?"
"No. Good theory, but no. They're cataloguing them, which means they're after something non-human," The Wolf paused as a thought and memories cropped up, and she groaned. "Which is very bad news for me."
"Why?" Martha asked. The Wolf looked at her. "Oh, you're kidding me." The Wolf smiled slightly. "Don't be ridiculous." The Wolf just kept gazing at her. "Stop looking at me like that."
"Let's go." The Wolf said, and pulled her lightly away from the foyer. She then ran on ahead, and up several floors before entering an office and got to work on the computer, she needed her Sonic Screwdriver for it.
Luke gulped, as he saw the crater where the Royal Hope Hospital used to be. He pulled out his mobile and rang his mum.
"Luke?" Sarah Jane asked as she picked up.
"Mum, it's the hospital." Luke began, "It's dis-"
Sarah Jane interrupted. "I know, it's on the news."
"I-" Luke paused as he saw someone familiar walking up to him. "Hold on, that Captain Jack guy you introduced me to last week's here."
"Alright, come home soon, Luke. I don't like you out on your own. Tell him to ring me, and that I've tried to phone Rose but it's not getting through."
Luke sighed, said his love and goodbye, and put the phone away. When he approached Jack, the guy seemed to have not seen him until then, as he did a double take.
"Captain Harkness," Luke greeted, and saw that he wasn't alone.
"Luke. This is Gwen Cooper. Gwen, this is Luke Smith, son of a very good friend of mine."
Gwen said hi, and then Luke got straight to it. "It's a H20 scoop, just like we guessed. I had just left after planting the tracker-"
Gwen interrupted, "Hold on,"
Jack sighed as he gave a short introduction of who and what Luke was to Gwen, and how involved in aliens he and his mum were.
The Wolf frowned as Martha entered. "The Judoon have reached the third floor. What's that thing?"
The Wolf sighed, and changed setting on her Sonic Screwdriver as she told Martha, "Sonic Screwdriver."
"Well if you're not gonna answer me properly-"
The Wolf chuckled, and still looking at the screen as she used the Screwdriver on it, she said, "No really, It's a Screwdriver, and it's sonic."
"Really? What else have you got, Laser Spanner?"
The Wolf paused and looked at her. "Good idea actually, although, their success with deadbolts tends to be 50/50. Too bad the tech manuals I've got for them are in Swahili of all languages - Cor, god sake I said they were dumb! How bloody stupid are they! They've locked the computers and wiped the bloody files."
The Wolf sat back.
"I was just going to admit myself with abdominal pains that I aint got. I would have accessed the patient files before, but as that Doctor said, I fainted out front." She sighed again. "Friends of mine noticed the plasma coils over the last few weeks building up slowly, otherwise unnoticed, and they called me. I wasn't looking for trouble." The Wolf growled. "Turns out that no, it's not the Phurians like I'd hoped - although they would have transported us to Mars, set up oxygen replenishment systems at the edge of their version of atmospheric forcefields, and just scanned the whole building in one go, not one-at-a-time. Stupid bloody Judoon Platoon up on the Moon."
"But what are they looking for?" Martha asked, ignoring the other comments.
"Something that looks human, but isn't."
"What, like you, apparently?"
The Wolf turned to Martha, and in short said, "Up until about a year and half ago, I registered human on scanners like the Judoons'. But then something happened, and ever since, scanners to classify races have just gone, well, wonky, around me." She sighed.
Martha pointed out, "But, I heard you before, you've got two-"
"Anyway, whoever they're looking for, they were really stupid to lock the system and erase the records."
"Haven't they got a photo?"
"Could be a shape changer, shifter, morpher - although morphers are kinder, can't think of anyone putting a bounty on a shape morpher." The Wolf babbled. "God I can not overestimate how bloody thick those Judoon are. They're probably looking for someone who was admitted in the last week with strange symptoms, but they've wiped the records."
Martha nodded, "I'll go ask Mr Stoker, he might know."
"Alright."
"And you, keep doing… whatever."
The Wolf looked at her with a smile, and mock saluted. "Yes Ma'am."
Luke smiled as he sat in the back of the new Range Rover that Jack got for Torchwood 3. On the screen in front of him was his Mum, as he and Jack linked with Mr Smith and the Torchwood computers to locate the hospital.
At the hub, Ianto Jones was speaking to them, "It's very faint, It could be from the Moon, Venus or Mars, sir. I can try to boost the scanners' sensitivity, but this isn't my area."
Jack hummed for a second, and then said, "Yes, well, Tosh and Owen are dealing with that little problem down near Cornwall. Just do your best."
"Yes sir."
Gwen, in the passanger seat, asked, "Do they know we're doing this, Jack?"
Jack shook his head. "Need-to-know." He muttered.
Luke smiled, as the link reported to them all that it had narrowed it down to the Moon.
In her house' attic, Sarah Jane spoke, "Mr Smith, reposition our satellites to take images of the moon."
Jack had to ask, "You've got satellites?"
"Yes I have, Captain. Problem?"
Jack pouted. "We've not got satellites. How did you afford them anyway?"
Sarah Jane shrugged, and said, "Anonymous donation. There's been a spate of them recently to others. You've not had any?"
Jack shook his head, "No. Who else got donations?"
"U.N.I.T. for one." Sarah Jane muttered, then smiled. "Mr Smith has located it. It's-Oh Dear."
Sarah Jane paled as images came in. High resolution. Very high.
"Mr Smith, are those, Judoon?" Sarah Jane asked.
Luke wondered why Jack paled at the name too. Gwen worried he was going to pass out, while Jack was driving. When Luke thought about that, he thought he'd be glad once Jack reached his mums' house.
The Wolf groaned as the slab chased them.
As they ran, Martha panted out, "I found her, it's Mrs Finnegan."
When the Wolf pulled her into the radiology department, and into a room with an X-Ray machine, she used the Sonic Screwdriver to lock the door, and strengthen the frame slightly.
"That should keep it out for a few minutes. Now Martha, tell me, what do you mean, 'It's Mrs Finnegan'?"
"The one they're after, I saw her drinking Doctor Stoker's blood!"
The Wolf paced for a moment, "Think, think think think. I can do this. Blood. Drinking, like a vampire… no not like a vampire-"
"Nevermind her, what about that!" Martha pointed at the door.
The Wolf grinned slightly, looked at the X-ray machine, the door, then between them a few more times.
"Slab, basic slave drone." She mumbled as she opened up the X-ray machine. "Lets see, modify what… ah that's it, increase…
"What are you doing?" Martha asked.
The Wolf waved at her, "Go behind there and find the on switch. When I tell you, flip it."
Martha rushed as the doorframe and the hinge began to weaken. The Wolf jammed her Sonic Screwdriver in, winced slightly, and increased the possible output many times over. She gulped as she thought that it would perhaps kill her too. She aimed it at the door, and was about to pull her Screwdriver out, when the door came off and fell over. She dove for the screen, but she was too late, and pushed the Slab back as she shouted, "NOW!"
Seconds later, the Slab fell dead, and the Wolf stood there, wondering why she wasn't. Then the itching started, and some instinct kicked in.
When she got rid of her boots - boots she loved to wear, "You're absolutely mad." Martha commented, then asked, "What did you do?"
"Increased the output by a thousand percent." The Wolf answered.
"But, shouldn't that kill you?" Martha asked.
The Wolf had paused. Then said, "Evidently, no. Just expelled it all into one spot - my boots. Odd. I guess I'm immune to Runtgen radiation. You can come out now, I absorbed it all."
"So what is that thing? Slab you said? What planet is it from, planet Zovirex?"
The Wolf chuckled. "Oh, you got a nice sense of humor. No, It's just a slave drone. Created by whoever needs them. See, leather, all the way through. I guess that Miss Finnegan has some fetish."
The Wolf stood and got her Sonic Screwdriver out, as Martha said, "It was working for her."
"No. My Sonic Screwdriver."
Martha saw it was burnt, but continued on, "She's one of the patients."
"It burnt out my Sonic Screwdriver. I love my Sonic Screwdriver. Only one I had."
"Wolf." Martha said.
The Wolf turned back to her, put her burnt screwdriver in a pocket, and said, "Sorry." She smiled. "You called me Wolf."
"Anyway. Mrs Finnegan?"
"She should be hiding. But… Hold on, I'll get it. She's hiding but she does so with blood… no… Yes! Internal shape changer. Using blood to recognfigure her anatomy for a short time, enough…" The Wolf looked at the doorway. "Enough to fool basic species identification scans. We've got to get the Judoon to up the scan detail." The Wolf wondered, but pulled Martha along.
They didn't get far when they had to hide around a corner and wait for another Slab to go past.
"I thought it was Krates that travel in pairs, not slabs." The Wolf mumbled.
"What about you?" Martha asked.
"What about me what?"
"Haven't you got, backup? You must have a partner, or something?" Martha said.
The Wolf thought about it for a second, before she sighed. "No time for personal questions, come on. Humans." The Wolf added with a sigh, which she didn't notice
As they moved off, Martha chuckled quietly, "'Humans' I like that. And you're not convinced your an alien."
At that moment, the Wolf stepped out in front of some of the Judoon, the lead scanned the Wolf, and reported, "Not Human."
The Wolf's eyes widened and she ran off. Martha followed closely, thinking that the Wolf was finally convinced. Maybe.
The Wolf closed her eyes as she stood up from Mr Stokers' body.
"She drained him dry." The Wolf muttered.
"What is she?" Martha asked. "What's she doing on Earth?"
The Wolf turned to Martha and said, "I think, she's a plasmavore. Internal shape-changers. She was probably on the run, and chose Earth to hide. Like Ronald biggs in Rio."
The Wolf stepped away, and looked at Martha. Martha understood, and knelt beside Mr Stoker, and closed his eyes.
When she stood back up, the Wolf led her out, saying, "She's still not safe. If the Judoon don't find her, they could execute us all. She's got to have a backup plan, otherwise she wouldn't even have brought her slabs here. Think. Something to kill the Judoon, but…" The Wolf paused, seeing the flicking lights and the sign, 'MRI'.
"What is it?" Martha asked.
"She's almost as clever as me." The Wolf commented, "She's-"
She stopped when Judoon appeared down the hall. Quickly, the Wolf came up with a plan, and considered, 'Well, she did say I-' Her thought was cut off when the Judoon passed by some of the humans in the hallway, getting ever closer. "Right Martha, I need time, you've got to hold them up."
"How do I do that?"
"Er, You could save a thousand lives. It means nothing, I don't swing that way, honestly." With that, the Wolf kissed her, and ran off.
She didn't notice the slight grin and breathless whisper of, "That was nothing?"
In Sarah Janes house, Jack smiled as he looked at a photo of Rose, Sarah Jane and Mickey. When he put it down, he saw Gwen come in.
"Jack, Harriet Jones is on the phone-" She stopped noticing something.
Jack nodded and said goodbye to Sarah Jane and Luke. When he and Gwen got back into the Range Rover, Gwen asked, "Jack, who's Rose? Was she the girl in that picture you were holding?"
Jack sighed, and nodded. "Rose Tyler. Even though she dropped out of High school, she was one of the smartest people I had ever met, aside from-"
He was cut off when the phone rang. He answered, "Captain Jack Harkness."
"Captain, It's Harriet."
"Ma'am." Jack greeted.
"I'm told you've located the Hospital."
"Yes ma'am, I've already sent the details to U.N.I.T. London, but until the Valiant is fitted with atmospheric forcefields-"
"I understand, they're on their own. Do you know if-"
"Yes, She's there." Jack answered quickly. "She should have the situation well in hand."
The Wolf's eyes widened as the Slab's grip tightened and pulled her down to her knees, and bent her head to the side, making the vein in her neck quite accessible.
"Oh come on, you behave like you're a vampire? having a bite to eat?" She joked.
"Oh, you're quite the funny girl, and yet I think, laughing on purpose," She faded down to a whisper, "At the darkness. I'm afraid this is going to hurt."
The Wolf gulped, and murmured, "Yeah. Ow!"
The Plasmavore began to suck, and that sensation of movement she had barely noticed increased as her hold lessened. When she faded into unconsciousness, she had a thought.
'If I'm not human, point behind all this - what am I?'
Martha growled, unconsciously mimicing' the Wolf, and ran back to the MRI room, where the Wolf lay. She began to give CPR, when a thought occured to her.
"Two hearts…" With that, she began CPR again, but pressed on both sides of the Wolf's chest, instead of just one side. Which was awkward, she had to admit, given that the Wolf was, well, female, and so had breasts.
The Wolf quickly revived, and coughed as she tried to draw breathe. Martha collapsed, and gasped out, "Scanner. She did something."
The Wolf looked around at the controls where several wires were, but she was too weak to get up, or even crawl. She hoped she did have the strength, however, for something else.
With all her concentration she extended her right hand towards the controls and tried to use her tiny telekinesis ability to break apart a power connector.
Unnoticed to both, the glow around her, caused by her accessing those abilities, faded with each second she used them to slowly pry the two connectors apart.
After a second, she fainted dead when she succeeded.
She came-to a moment later, and she carried Martha to one room with beds in, and as she laid Martha on one, the Judoon reversed the H20 Scoop, sending the Hospital back to Earth.
After a few minutes, Martha woke and accepted a cup of tea from the Wolf.
"So."
"So."
"The Moon?" Martha asked. and looked out the window with a smile.
"Earth now."
"You're an alien." Martha said, and the Wolf nodded her head.
"Yeah."
"You have two hearts." Martha commented as she sipped her tea. The Wolf would have said something, but people around them woke up as well.
Instead, the Wolf said, "Best if I'm not here when certain people come in asking questions." With that, she stood up and pulled out her burnt Sonic Screwdriver. "Got to go learn how to make another one of these too."
Martha smiled, and nodded at her. "Will I ever see you again?" She asked just before the Wolf could move away.
The Wolf thought for a second, before she asked, "Brothers' Birthday? How about that, I might pop round for a drink."
Martha nodded, and shook her hand. "You're on."
The Wolf stared incredulously at the readout in the TARDIS medical bay.
"I'm a what?" She asked.
The TARDIS told her what the readout said.
Louder, she asked, "I'm a what?!"
The TARDIS repeated herself again.
And even more confused and a tad bit louder, Rose Tyler asked, "I'M A WHAT?!"
The TARDIS didn't answer.
"You have got to be joking."
'Nope. Congratulations, Rose Tyler, or should I say, Wolf?'
"Oh. Sarcasm from a blue box-OW!" Rose rubbed her nose and glared at the instrument that had suddenly gone flying from the counter at the other side of the room, and hit her on the nose.
Rose smiled to Sarah Jane and Luke when they stepped out of the house, having heard the TARDIS arrive.
Her smile disappeared, when both hugged the life out of her. Sort of.
"I'm fine, really. I'm fine." She pried their hands loose, and Sarah Jane chuckled. "So what did your friend in U.N.I.T. say?" She asked.
Sarah Jane tried to look innocent, but failed. "What friend?"
Luke instead, said, "Oh, she didn't call him. I met Jack in London just after the Hospital disappeared."
Sarah Jane rolled her eyes at her son, but didn't say anything. Rose just grinned, and linked arms with him, and as she pulled him into the house, she asked, "So, what did Jack say?"
Sarah Jane followed them up into the attic, but paused when she saw Luke trying to subtly scan Rose with her wristwatch-scanner, while Rose stood in the little corner with the various allien books.
"Anyway, I found out something strange today." Rose began.
Luke nodded, and said, "You're an alien."
Rose paused, and asked, "How did you know?"
Sarah Jane looked between them, and asked, "What's going on?"
Together, they both said, "She's/I'm a Time Lady."
That, Sarah Jane was not prepared for that.
Rose grinned to herself as she finished work on her very own design of a Sonic Screwdriver. Not quite like Sarah Janes' Sonic Lipstick, - in that it wasn't disguised as makeup - in fact, it wasn't disguised at all - but it was small. When closed.
She rather liked the lesson the TARDIS quite happily gave on creating things with an internal volume larger than the external size would suggest. Although for the Sonic Screwdriver, it didn't need a whole tower block of volume inside the small casing. But enough that she could adapt it in the future for more and more things.
'So are you going to go ahead and make a Laser Spanner, like you said you wanted to?'
Rose shook her head, and said, "No, as much as I'd like to, my technical skills aren't up to par enough. I burnt myself loads of times just creating the Screwdriver."
She smiled a little and added, "But in future, perhaps. Anyway. I said I'd drop by Martha's brothers' party for a drink. Still tracking where she is?"
The TARDIS confirmed it, and Rose left the workshop, and returned to the console room to take the TARDIS to an alley off from the pub where the TARDIS said Martha was.
She went out, but paused at the entrance of the alley when she noticed people - and considering Martha watched them aswell, she thought they were her family - arguing. A lad who looked 20-odd, a younger-looking sister, the Mum, and the Dad - who seemed to be with someone else.
Rose frowned, but shook it off. When Martha noticed her she smiled, and Rose smiled back as she leant against the wall slightly, hands in her cleaned-up red jacket, pushing the coat open.
Slowly, Martha approached her, and with an idea, Rose went back into the alley, around a corner, and stood, leaning slightly against the TARDIS' closed doors. When Martha appeared, she smiled at her a little more.
"I went to the moon today." Martha started.
"Still wish you were there?" Rose joked, "bit quieter dontcha think?"
Martha chuckled, but continued, "You never even told me who you are."
"The Wolf." Rose answered. Even after the months of travelling since loosing him and her mum, she still wanted to distance herself from her real name, and so vowed to not tell anyone that name. Only Jack, Sarah Jane and Luke knew her by it. She conveniently forgot, for the moment, about Donna knowing her real name.
"But, what Species? And It's not every day I get to ask that. You said you were human, but no Human has the sort of knowledge you do, no human has two hearts."
Rose smiled slightly, but it was a bittersweet one. Martha tried not to notice that it was. Rose took a breath, and for the first time, said truthfully - knowing-truthfully - "I'm a Time Lady."
"Right." Martha started, and as she slowly moved closer, slightly sarcasticly said, "Not, pompous at all then."
Rose chuckled slightly, and pulled out her new Sonic Screwdriver, and opened it to show the familiar blue-end in the unfamiliar shaft and casing. "Now that I've got a new Sonic Screwdriver, which I'd like to field-test, and you saved my life, want to go for a trip?"
"What, into space?" Martha asked. Rose shook her head to the side, and nodded. Martha answered sadly, "But I've got exams, I've got things to do, I've got to go into town first thing and pay the rent-"
"I can also travel in Time." Rose interrupted with a smile.
Martha paused, and said, "Get out of here, that jokes' a bit old. I mean, Benjamin Franklin? Please."
Rose chuckled, and added, "Elvis?"
"Come on now, that is going too far."
"Oh, I'll prove it." With that, Rose pulled her coat and jacket off, asked Martha to hold onto them, stepped into the TARDIS and after it disappeared and reappeared, Rose stepped out of the doors, buttoning her shirt back up.
Martha was blushing furiously, but said, "No, that was this morning. But… did you… oh my god, you can travel in time."
Rose, blushing too, buttoned the top button of her shirt - which she previously left unbuttoned before - and gratefully put her jacket and coat back on.
"But hold on, if you could see me this morning, why didn't you tell me not to go into work?" Martha asked.
Rose sighed and shut her eyes at the pain her own lesson with what she was about to say had been driven home. "Crossing into established events is strictly forbidden. Except for cheap tricks."
"Or for-" Martha started, but was interrupted.
"Yes I know, or for that." Rose rolled her eyes but was blushing again.
Martha pointed at the TARDIS. "And that's your space ship?"
"She's called the TARDIS. Time and Relative Dimension in Space."
Martha had been sort of stroking the outside, and said to her, "Your starships' made of wood. But there's not much room, It'll be a bit, intimate."
Rose chuckled, and since she never closed the door properly, she could just push it back open.
Martha went in, and Rose followed. Knowing what the Doctor - her Doctor - would have done had she met him as the 10th Doctor and not the 9th, and done this with the inside-is-bigger, She decided to do what he would do, and mimed the words as Martha gasped, "Oh my God, It's bigger on the inside."
Rose closed the door and stepped up to the console as she inserted, "Really? Never noticed. Anyway, let's get going." With that, she began to use the console controls.
Martha stepped up and asked, "But, is there a crew? Like a navigator and stuff? Where is everyone?"
Absorbed in what she was doing, she only idly replied, "Just me."
"All on your own?"
Rose faded and in her place was the Wolf. Martha noticed it, and wondered what it was about, how she could seem like a whole new person. And why. The Wolf replied, "Well, when I first started out, I wasn't on my own. There was this man, great guy, called the Doctor. The TARDIS was his, actually. He was a Time Lord. He had done it for ages on his own, occassionally he'd have friends with him, travelling alongside him, and, we were together. Anyway."
"Where is he now?" Martha asked.
"With my family, actually. He's fine. He's... fine. Not that you're replacing him." She inserted, and paused, and corrected, "Or would that be taking my place as the travelling companion? Anyway."
"Never said I was." Martha replied.
"One trip, to say thanks. One trip and then back home. Right? I'd rather be on my own." The Wolf finished, and continued with manipulating the controls.
Martha had to joke, "You're the one that showed me your-"
"Oi." Rose inserted, back, in place of the Wolf.
"And the one who kissed me."
Rose looked at her, and rolling her eyes, said, "That was a genetic transfer, as my friend would have said."
"You're the one wearing the tight Librarian outfit." Martha continued.
"Don't." Rose inserted.
"And travelling right across the universe just to ask me out on a date." Martha finished.
"Stop it." Rose inserted again, this time with firm look - that failed because of the blush.
"For the record?" Martha said, "I'm not remotely interested. I only go for humans."
Rose nodded. "Good." She noticed Martha didn't say 'Guys'. "Now then, The thingimajigibob down full, Watchamakalits on…" Rose winked at her, intentionally sounding like she had no clue what she was doing, and in between several such ones, she inserted the actual device, "Fire up the Helmet Regulator," and so on, until, "And now, the Handbrake." Rose held onto the handbrake and looked at Martha. "Are you ready?"
Martha nodded, and Rose let off the handbrake.
Everything shaked like mad, and across the console, Martha complained, "A b-b-bit bumpy!"
"Welcome Aboard, Miss Jones!" Rose was laughing.
"You're Welcome, Miss Smith!"
"Oh, Smith and Jones, I like that!" Rose commented before an especially hard bump had thrown her onto the floor, causing her to go into a fit of giggles.