Disclaimer: Nothing related to Doctor Who or the Harry Potter Series is mine. I swear. I wish I owned them, cuz then I might have a bit more money, but I don't.
Warnings: Book Two of Three (Main books anyway). Swearing. Sarcasm. I have only watched the new series, no knowledge of early Doctor Who. EWE, kind of...
Dedication: To the Writers and Producers of Doctor Who, thank you for giving me something else to obsess over, now that Harry Potter is long gone. And to the lovely people who encourage me to continue writing in their reviews. To the lovely people who encouraged me to post the next chunk. To my lovely reviewers, GryffinPuffGirl and Emaelin, thank you for everything you've said.
Book 2: Stories of A Shop Girl
Summary: A Death too soon. A woman who steps up to save the world.
Rating: Dark T
Genre: Adventure/Drama
A/N: So the chapter after this is where canon starts being deviated from. Just a little bit.
A/N 2: Please, someone tell me what they think of Maria. I'm not asking for my health. I'd like to know so that I know about my skills as a writer. Because I really can't tell, given as I know all of the characters secrets, and every little thing I say about a character feels like 'everyone is going to know the secret'.
A/N 3: I am currently in university, and my studies are a priority. Knowing that, please be forgiving when I don't post as often.
Part 1: Just a Replacement?
Chapter 9: The Doctor Dances
The Doctor swallowed, looking around. They were almost at arms length from us. He stepped forward, not enough for them to touch him, and pointed to his right. "Go to your room."
The patients stop, and Rio fidgets behind me.
"Go to your room. I mean it. I'm very, very angry with you. I am very, very cross. Go to your room!"
The patients hang their heads and shuffle away.
I blinked. "I'm really glad that worked. Those would have been terrible last words."
I turned to Rio. "Alright, who are you? How'd you get here? Why are you here?"
He blinks, frowning. "In reverse order, I'm here to avoid a crack in the space time continuum. I got here by travelling through time. And I already said, my name is Rio."
"Rio what?" I asked looking at him. He frowns, before sighing. "Cesario Jack Smith, at your service."
I looked at him, nodded, accepting his answers and turned to the Doctor. "Why are they all wearing gas masks?"
Jack answered, still looking at the kid. "They're not. Those masks are flesh and bone."
The Doctor looked at Jack. "How was your con supposed to work?"
Rio blinked. "You're a con man?" Rio looked almost hurt at the thought.
"Yeah, kid." Jack said, before turning to the Doctor. "Simple enough, really. Find some harmless piece of space junk, let the nearest Time Agent track it back to Earth, convince him it's valuable, name a price. When he's put fifty percent up front, oops! A German bomb falls on it, destroys it forever. He never gets to see what he's paid for, never knows he's been had. I buy him a drink with his own money, and we discuss dumb luck. The perfect self-cleaning con."
The Doctor frowned, looking around. "Yeah. Perfect."
Jack continued, "The London Blitz is great for self-cleaners. Pompeii's nice if you want to make a vacation of it though, but you've got to set your alarm for volcano day." I look at Rio, who's eyes are wide, and he looks horribly young. A lot younger than he was before. I go to hug him, giving Jack a glare. "Getting a hint of disapproval."
The Doctor frowns, pinning Jack with an angry gaze. "Take a look around the room. This is what your harmless piece of space-junk did."
Jack frowned, going on the defensive again. "It was a burnt-out medical transporter. It was empty."
"Rose." The Doctor said, looking at me. I swallow.
"Are we getting out of here?"
He shakes his head. "We're going upstairs."
Jack frowned, following the Doctor out of the room. I grabbed Rio's hand and followed them. "I even programmed the flight computer so it wouldn't land on anything living. I harmed no-one. I don't know what's happening here, but believe me, I had nothing to do with it."
The Doctor turned, a thunderous expression on his face. "I'll tell you what's happening. You forgot to set your alarm clock. It's volcano day."
A siren sounds in the distance.
"What's that?" Rio asked, looking concerned.
"The all clear." Jack answered looking back at Rio.
I sigh. "I wish."
The Doctor takes off, and Jack, Rio and I follow him.
"Mister Spock?" Jack calls running past a set of stairs. Rio snorts, and stops, laughing.
I glance up the stairs. "Doctor?"
"Have you got a sonic blaster?" The Doctor calls down, his head popping up from the staircase, a floor above.
"Sure!" Jack said. He turned around and hightailed it up the stairs. Rio and I follow. We stop in front of a secure metal door.
"Actually, fellows, I've got this." Rio said, waving his hand. The door clicked and slid open. I swallowed. Magic.
The Doctor turned to Jack. "The night your space-junk landed, someone was hurt. This was where they were taken."
"What happened?"
The Doctor grinned. "Let's find out."
Jack takes out his sonic blaster, just in case.
The Doctor examines it. "Sonic blaster, fifty first century. Weapon Factories of Villengard?"
Jack blinks. "You've been to the factories?"
"Once."
Jack signed. "Well, they're gone now. Destroyed. The main reactor went critical. Vaporized the lot."
"Like I said. Once." He grins. "There's a banana grove there, now. I like bananas. Bananas are good."
Rio laughed. "And you hate pears."
"How did you..." The Doctor said, looking at Rio with curiousity.
He smiled. "Can't tell you. Mum always said you and her were wibbly-wobbly time-whimy." The Doctor blinks a second, and then smiles.
"Your mother is Maria, isn't she?" Rio nods. "Why'd she send you here?"
"To avoid cracking the space-time continuum. But mainly just to get out of her hair for a little bit. I may have blown up the west wing of headquarters before I left."
"How'd you do that?"
Rio blushed. "It's dad's fault. Mum told him she didn't want me to learn how to fly until I was sixteen. I'm fifteen now, which is close enough. Anyway, da and I waited until mum went to go visit Vee's godparents who live at headquarters-"
"Vee?" I ask, blinking.
"My younger sister. Anyway, once mum was gone, da tried to teach me how to pilot, but I ended up crashing Auntie Idy into Auntie H."
"Auntie Idy?" Jack asked, confused.
Rio sighed. "My family contains some sentient ships. It's just confusing. I've given up trying to understand it. But Auntie Idy's mum's sister? Or kind of mother? Or some cross between."
"Right. Back to the matter at hand." The Doctor said. We enter the room, and look around. There are filing cabinets overturned, electronic equipment broken, and a big mess of papers strewn about. The observation window in the room is broken.
I frown. "What do you think?"
"Something got out of here." Jack said, looking around. He entered the other room.
"And?" The Doctor questioned.
"Something powerful. Angry." Jack muttered looking around.
"Powerful and Angry." Rio said.
In the other room there are child's drawings scattered on the walls and floors, all of them depicting some version of 'mummy'. There's a teddy bear on the bed.
"A child?" I frown.
Jack looks around too. "I suppose this explains Mummy."
I swallow. "How could a child do this?"
I glance at the Doctor who's switched on a tape machine.
An old man's voice starts: "Do you know where you are?"
"Are you my mummy?" I flinch. That was the voice of the child. The one I tried to rescue off of the roof.
"Are you aware of what's around you? Can you see?"
"Are you my mummy?"
"What do you want? Do you know-"
"I want my mummy. Are you my mummy? I want my mummy! Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy? Mummy? Mummy?"
"Doctor, I've heard this voice before."
"Me too." He answered.
"Mummy?"
I swallow. "Always are you my mummy? Like he doesn't know."
"Mummy?"
"Why doesn't he know?"
"Are you there mummy? Mummy?"
The Doctor looks around the room, and suddenly I can feel something. Just the faintest hints of something, at the edge of my senses. Damn the potion.
"Can you sense it?" The Doctor asked.
"Sense what?" Jack asked, concerned.
The Doctor swallowed, staring at the walls. "Coming out of the walls. Can you feel it?"
"Mummy?"
"Funny little human brains. How do you get around in those things?" I sigh looking at Jack and Rio.
"When he's stressed, he likes to insult species."
The Doctor glared at me. "Rose, I'm thinking."
I roll my eyes. "He cuts himself shaving, he does half an hour on life forms he's cleverer than." Rio laughs.
He decides to ignore me. "There are these children living rough round the bomb sites. They come out during air-raids looking for food."
"Mummy please?"
"Suppose they were there when this thing, whatever it was, landed?"
Jack sighed, "It was a med-ship. It was harmless."
"Yes, you keep saying harmless. Suppose one of them was affected, altered?"
I frown. "Altered how?"
A tapping noise begins, but I barely hear it. "I'm here."
The Doctor continued. "It's afraid. Terribly afraid and powerful. It doesn't know it yet, but it will do. It's got the power of a god, and I just sent it to it's room."
"Doctor." I said, frowning. He's got a funny expression on his face.
"I'm here. Can't you see me?"
I frown, listening to the tapping. "What's that noise?" Judging by the look on his face, I really didn't want to know.
Rio's eyes were riveted on something in the main room. "End of the tape. It ran out thirty seconds ago."
"I'm here, now. Can't you see me?
I swallow, turning to the voice. The child in the gas mask was there.
"I sent it to it's room. This is it's room."
"Are you my mummy? Mummy?"
Rio tried to grin. "I think I want my mummy too."
"Don't we all kid." Jack said, staring at the child.
"Doctor?"
Jack leapt in front of us. "Okay, on my signal make for the door."
"Mummy?" He aims something at the child and I'm about to slap him. I glance down, seeing it was yellow. A banana.
"Now!"
"Mummy?"
The Doctor pulls out Jack's blaster from his belt and makes a square hole in the wall. "Go now!" Glancing at Jack, he yells "Don't drop the banana!"
Jack frowns. We begin jumping through the hole. "Why not?!"
"Good source of potassium!" We're all through the hole, and Jack snatches back his blaster.
"Mummy. I want my mummy." Jack points his blaster at the hole and repairs it.
I sigh. "Digital rewind." Jack explains before turning to the Doctor. "Nice switch."
The Doctor shrugged. "It's from the groves of Villengard. I thought it was appropriate."
I sighed. Jack looked amazed, or thought the Doctor was crazy. "There's really a banana grove in the heart of Villengard and you did that?"
"Bananas are good." Was the only reply. The wall starts to crack.
Rio yelped. "Come on!" He tries dragging us down one hall, only to see that patients are coming down that way. We go back and try the other way, with the same results.
In the end, there are gas mask zombies coming from all sides, and a window behind us. I swallow.
"It's keeping us here till it can get at us." The Doctor called, facing one side. Jack faced the other. And Rio faced the front, watching the wall. I ended up behind them, glaring at them all for assuming I was helpless.
"It's controlling them?"
The Doctor replied: "It is them. It's every living thing in this hospital."
Jack squared his shoulders. "Okay. This can function as a sonic blaster, a sonic cannon, and as a triple-enfolded sonic disrupter. Doc, Rio, what've you got?"
The Doctor answered, flustered, "I've got a sonic, er. Oh, never mind."
"What?"
"It's sonic, okay? Let's leave it at that."
Rio removed something from his pocket, pointing it at the wall. "I've got a sonic device too."
"Disrupter? Cannon? What?" Jack said, impatiently.
"It's sonic! Totally sonic! I am soniced up!" The Doctor said.
Jack turned. "A sonic what?!"
The Doctor turned too. "Screwdriver!" I held my head in my hands. The child breaks through the wall.
"Alright, please tell me someone has an idea." Rio said, turning.
I take Jack's blaster and point it at the floor. "Going down!" I shoot the floor and we all fall. Jack immediately repairs it. I grimace, pain shooting up my ankles, through my knees, into my spine. Why did I want to feel pain again? "Everyone alright?"
"Could've used a warning." The Doctor mumbles.
I sigh, getting up, my knees protesting. "Oh, the gratitude."
Jack turns to the Doctor. "Who has a sonic screwdriver?"
"I do." The Doctor said.
Rio got up and joined in the conversation. I tried to be practical about the situation and when to look for lights.
"Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks, ooo, this could be a little more sonic?"
"What, you've never been bored?"
I sigh. "There's got to be a light switch." I reach and my hands find one. I flick it to find we're in the middle of another patient bay.
"Mummy. Mummy."
"Door." Jack said, pointing. We all run. He tries making a door, but his blaster doesn't work anymore. "Damn it!"
"Mummy."
"It's the special features. They really drain the battery."
I gape at him. "The battery?"
Rio rolls his eyes and waves his hand again. It gets us inside and the Doctor sonics the door closed.
"That's so lame!"
"I was going to send for another one, but somebody's got to blow up the factory." He said, giving the Doctor a pointed look.
I grin. "Oh, I know. First day we met, he blew up my job. That's practically how he communicates."
The Doctor grinned. "That door should hold it for a bit."
Jack looks angry. "The door? The wall didn't stop it!"
"Well, it's got to find us first! Come on, we're not done yet! Assets, assets!"
Jack answers sarcastically. "Well, I've got a banana, and in a pinch you could put up some shelves." He turns to Rio. "What did you say you've got kid?"
"Screwdriver and well, something you're not ready to believe in. And a com. link!" He said, grinning at the thought. He grabbed something else from his pocket, this time a walkie-talkie.
"Uncle Ricky, do you read?" He tried. All he got was static.
The Doctor continued to look around. "Window."
Jack sighed. "Barred. Sheer drop outside. Seven stories."
"And no other exits."
"Rio? S'that you? Are you in storage now? You're mum wants you home ASAP. And she's not one for waitin'." A voice came over the radio. Rio paled.
"Right. I've got to go. I can't take you with me, cos mum'd kill me. Sorry." He glowed gold for a moment, and then disappeared.
"Well, the assets conversation went in a flash, didn't it?" Jack said, growling it out. He sat in a wheelchair.
The Doctor turned to me. "Where'd you pick up this one then?"
I give him a look. "Doctor."
"She was hanging from a barrage balloon, I had an invisible spaceship. I never stood a chance." Jack said grinning. I sigh.
"Okay. One, we've got to get out of here. Two, we can't get out of here. Three, Rio disappeared, going home to mummy. Have I missed anything?" I glance behind me, where Jack should be, only to find him gone.
"Yeah. Jack just disappeared." I sighed.
"Great bloke he is." The Doctor commented.
"Okay, so he's vanished into thin air. Why is it always the great looking ones who do that?" I comment.
The Doctor almost growls. "I'm making an effort not to be insulted."
"You've disappeared on me too. Remember?" He blinks, not having thought of that.
The radio on the shelf crackles to life, and I frown. "Rose? Doctor? Can you hear me? I'm back on my ship. Used the emergency teleport. Sorry I couldn't take you. It's security-keyed to my molecular structure. I'm working on it. Hang in there."
The Doctor walks over to the radio and plays with the controls. "How are you speaking to us?"
"Om-Com. I can call anything with a speaker grill."
The Doctor's eyebrows go up. "Now there's a coincidence."
"What is?"
"The child can Om-Com, too." The Doctor said, thoughtfully, giving a glance in my direction.
I swallowed. "He can?"
"Anything with a speaker grill. Even the TARDIS phone." My eyebrows went up.
I almost laugh, and I would have, if this wasn't so serious. "What, you mean the child can phone us?"
"And I can hear you. Coming to find you. Coming to find you." And this is where I wish I had my magic. Being a muggle was no fun.
"Doctor, can you hear that?" Jack's voice came from the radio.
"Loud and clear."
"I'll try to block out the signal. Least I can do."
The child spoke again, "Coming to find you mummy."
"Remember this one, Rose?" The song he'd tried to get me to dance to before came on. I rolled my eyes.
A little while later, I was fiddling with my purse, trying to remember if I had anything useful in it. In the end, I took out a book (The Tales of the Beetle Bard) and tried focusing on that. Only it was completely hard to, when the sonic was going constantly.
I sigh. "What are you doing?"
He doesn't even glance back. "Trying to set up a resonation pattern in the concrete, loosen the bars."
I purse my lips. "You don't think he's coming back, do you?"
"Wouldn't bet my life."
I give him a look, which he doesn't see. "Why don't you trust him?"
"Why do you?"
I swallow. The real answer to that is complicated and I can't answer 'Because you do in the future' without opening another can of worms. So I settle for, "He saved my life. Bloke-wise, that's right up there with flossing. I trust him because he's like you. Except with dating and dancing." The Doctor does turn at that and he gives me a look of derision. "What?"
"You assume I'm..." He seems to search for a word.
"What?"
He sighs. "You just assume that I don't dance." He put some special emphasis on dance.
"What, are you telling me you do dance?" I asked, grinning. I got up from my seat, putting the book back in my bag.
He turns back to his resonating concrete. "Nine hundred years old, me. I've been around a bit. I think you can assume at some point I've danced." Again with the emphasis. I grin.
"You?"
He turns and looks at me. And actually walks up to me. Stands tall over me, in all his U-Boat captain-like glory. "Problem?"
I give him another grin. "Doesn't the universe implode or something if you dance?"
He grins. "Well, I've got the moves, but I wouldn't want to boast." I smile. I reach for the radio dial, which is still playing that music.
"You've got the moves?" He turns back to the concrete wall. And starts back up again. I roll my eyes. "Show me your moves."
"Rose, I'm trying to resonate concrete." He sounded exasperated.
I grin, turning him around. "Jack'll be back. He'll get us out. So come on. The world doesn't end because the Doctor dances." I hold out my hands, and the Doctor takes them, but looks at my palms.
He looks at me, and raises an eyebrow. "Barrage Balloon?"
"What?"
"You were hanging from a barrage balloon."
I frown. "Oh, yeah. About two minutes after you left me. Thousands of feet above London, middle of a German air-raid, Union Flag all over my chest." What's he on about?
"I've travelled with a lot of people, but you're setting new records for jeopardy friendly."
I give him a grin. "It's just my brand of luck." He pauses, his hands still holding mine. "Is this you dancing? Because I've got notes."
"Hanging from a rope thousands of feet above London. Not a cut, not a bruise." He frowned, watching me carefully.
"Yeah, I know. Captain Jack fixed me up."
Both eyebrows go up. "Oh, we're calling him Captain Jack now, are we?"
"Well, his name's Jack and he's a Captain."
He gives me a look. "He's not really a Captain, Rose."
"Do you know what I think?" I got closer to him. "I think you're experiencing Captain envy." I give him a look. "You'll find your feet at the end of your legs. You may care to move them."
"If ever he was a Captain, he's been defrocked."
I give him a look. "Yeah? Shame I missed that."
"Actually, I quit. Nobody takes my frock." Jack said. I almost screamed, finding I was in his ship. He was grinning. "Most people notice when they've been teleported. You guys are so sweet." His smile disappears somewhat, and he gets serious. "Sorry about the delay. I had to take the nav-com offline to override the teleport security."
The Doctor gave him a look, leaning against the support beam. "You can spend ten minutes overriding your own protocols? Maybe you should remember whose ship it is."
Jack grins. "Oh, I do. She was gorgeous. Like I told her, be back in five minutes."
"This is a Chula ship." The Doctor said, giving Jack a glance.
Jack nodded. "Just like that medical transporter. Only this one is dangerous."
The Doctor gives Jack a look, and then snaps his fingers. The golden glow of nanogenes enveloped his hand, and he grinned a little. "They're what fixed my hands up. Jack called them, er..." I tried to remember the name.
"Nanobots?" I shake my head. "Nanogenes." The Doctor said.
"Nanogenes, yeah."
"Sub-atomic robots. There's millions of them in here, see? Burned my hand on the console when we landed. All better now. They activate when the bulk head's sealed. Check you out for damage, fix any physical flaws. Take us to the crash site. I need to see your space junk." The Doctor explained.
Jack gave us a look. "As soon as I get the nav-com back online. Make yourself comfortable. Carry on with whatever it was you were doing."
"We were talking about dancing." The Doctor glared.
Jack gave him a look, clearly amused. "It didn't look like talking."
I sigh. "It didn't feel like dancing."
Jack continued working. "So, you used to be a Time Agent, now you're trying to con them?"
"If it makes me sound any better, it's not for the money."
I frown. "For what?"
He comes out from under the console. "Woke up one day when I was still working for them, found they'd stolen two years of my memories. I'd like them back."
I swallow. "They stole your memories?" A quick flash back of my parents.
Jack just looked away, not noticing my reaction. "Two years of my life. No idea what I did. Your friend over there doesn't trust me, and for all I know, he's right not to. Okay, we're good to go." He said, crawling completely from under the console. He glances at the Doctor. "Crash site?"
We end up looking onto the crash site when Jack recognizes one of the men on duty. "Hey, they've got Algy on duty. It must be important."
"We've got to get past him."
I sigh. "Are the words distract the guard heading in my general direction?"
Jack shakes his head. "I don't think that'd be such a good idea."
"Don't worry, I can handle it." I gave him a look.
Jack smiles. "I've gotten to know Algy quite well since I've been in town." His voice gets low, like he's telling me a secret. "Trust me, you're not his type." He goes back to normal volume. "I'll distract him. Don't wait up."
I gape, almost ready to smack him, when the Doctor mistakes my reaction. "Relax, he's a fifty first century guy. He's just a bit more flexible when it comes to dancing." I gasp, realizing just what the Doctor was talking about in the storage room earlier.
"How flexible?" I ask, playing the part of the twenty-first century girl, who hadn't known Jack before.
"Well, by his time, you lot have spread out across half the galaxy."
I give him a look. "Meaning?"
He gives me a fake smile. "So many species, so little time."
I swallow. "What, that's what we do when we get out there? That's our mission? We seek new life and, and..."
"Dance."
I look back at Jack who's looking concerned. The Doctor runs past me, yelling "Stay back!"
Jack looks back at him. "You men, stay away!"
"The effect's become air-borne, accelerating." The Doctor said. The air raid siren starts.
I gave the Doctor a panicked look. "What's keeping us safe?"
"Nothing."
Jack sighs. "Ah, here they come again."
"All we need." I roll my eyes before thinking. "Didn't you say a bomb was going to land here?"
"Never mind about that. If the contaminants airborne now, there's hours left." The Doctor said, looking at Jack and I.
Jack frowns. "For what?"
"Till nothing, forever. For the entire human race." He pauses, cocking his head, like a dog that's heard something. "And can anyone else hear singing?"
It was quiet, but I could definitely hear Rock-a-bye baby.
The Doctor ducks into a barn, and comes out a few minutes later, with a girl. She looks older than her age.
Jack runs over to the ambulance, and the Doctor follows. "You see? Just an ambulance."
"That's an ambulance?" The girl asked. I try to explain it, while the Doctor and Jack argue a little. And then I hear something.
"Doctor, what is that?" He looks up. There are patients going at the gates. "Doctor!"
The Doctor looks a little panicked himself. "Captain, secure those gates!"
"Why?"
"Just do it!" He turns to the girl. "Nancy, how'd you get in here?"
Nancy frowned. "I cut the wire."
"Show Rose." He tosses me the screwdriver and tells me a setting. Nancy leads me over to a patch of barbed wire.
"Who are you? Who are any of you?" She asked, eyes wide. She held the wire, while I re-attached it.
I smile. "You'd never believe me if I told you."
"You just told me that was an ambulance from another world. There are people running around with gas mask heads calling for their mummies, and the sky's full of Germans dropping bombs on me. Tell me, do you think there's anything left I couldn't believe?"
I smile at her. I felt like her once. Doing everything I could for my family, my friends. "We're time travellers from the future."
"Mad, you are."
I smile. "We have a time travel machine. Seriously!"
"It's not that. Alright, you've got a time travel machine. I believe you. Believe anything, me. But what future?" She asked, looking around.
I smile sadly. "I know how you feel. I've been through a war myself. It's so hard to see the end of it. But there is an end. And it's not the end of the world, or anything."
"How can you say that? Look at it."
I give her a look. "Listen to me. I was born in this city. I'm from here, in like fifty years time."
"From here?"
"I'm a Londoner. From your future."
"But, but you're not..."
"What?"
"German."
I give her a reassuring smile. "Nancy, the Germans don't come here. They don't win. Don't tell anyone I told you so, but you know what? You win."
"We win?" She looks shocked. I finish the last wire, and tell her to move.
"It's empty. Look at it." Jack said. Apparently the boys were still arguing about the ship.
"What do you expect in a Chula medical transporter? Bandages? Cough drops?" He turns to me, trying to give me a significant look, but it's lost on me. "Rose?"
I blink and think. "Nanogenes!"
"It wasn't empty, Captain. There was enough nanogenes in there to rebuild a species." The Doctor said, giving Jack a hard look.
Jack's face exploded in shock. "Oh, God."
"Getting it now, are we? When the ship crashes, the nanogenes escape. Billions upon billions of them, ready to fix all the cuts and bruises in the world. But what they find first is a dead child, probably killed earlier that night, and wearing a gas mask." The Doctor explained, his voice hard. Nancy shook beside me.
I swallowed. "And they brought him back to life? They can do that?"
"What's life? Life's easy. A quirk of matter. Nature's way of keeping meat fresh. Nothing to a nanogene. One problem, though. These nanogenes, they're not like the ones on your ship. This lot have never seen a human being before. Don't know what a human being's supposed to look like. All they've got to go on is one little body, and there's not a lot left. But they carry right on. They do what they're programmed to do. They patch it up. Can't tell what's a gas mask and what's skull, but they do their best. Then off they fly, off they go, work to be done. Because, you see, now they think they know what people should look like, and it's time to fix all the rest. And they won't stop. They won't ever, ever stop. The entire human race is going to be torn down and rebuilt in the form of one terrified child looking for its mother, and nothing in the world can stop it!" I swallow that thought, feeling nauseated.
Jack looks heart-broken. "I didn't know." The Doctor ignores him and works on the ambulance, until the patients arrive at the gates. It's Nancy who notices them first. She calls me, and I turn to the Doctor.
"It's bringing the gas mask people here, isn't it?"
The Doctor gave a brief nod. "The ship thinks it's under attack. It's calling up the troops. Standard protocol."
"But the gas mask people aren't troops."
The Doctor sighed. "They are now. This is a battle-field ambulance. The nanogenes don't just fix you up, they get you ready for the front line. Equip you, programme you."
I nodded, understanding. "That's why the child is so strong. Why it could do that phoning thing."
"It's a fully equipped Chula warrior, yes. All that weapons tech in the hands of a hysterical four year old looking for his mommy. And now there's an army of them." I glance around, and the patients and the old soldiers are just standing there.
"Why don't they attack?" Jack muttered.
"Good little soldiers, waiting for their commander."
"The child?"
Nancy frowned. "Jamie."
"What?"
She glared at Jack. "Not the child. Jamie."
"So how long until the bomb falls?" I asked, morbidly curious.
Jack glanced at his watch. "Any second."
The Doctor growled. "What's the matter, Captain? A bit close to the volcano for you?"
"He's just a little boy." Nancy said, trying not to cry.
"I know."
"He's just a little boy who wants his mummy."
The Doctor got on her level. "I know. There isn't a little boy born who wouldn't tear the world apart to save his mummy. And this little boy can."
And then Rio reappeared out of nowhere. "Hi, everyone. I'm here to give something to Rose." He slipped me my purse, which hadn't gone up with us in the transport beam. I swallowed. I was wondering if I would be able to get it back.
"Thank you." I said, nodding. And then I gave him a hug.
He nodded, and then disappeared. I swallowed, again.
"So what're we going to do?"
The Doctor looked lost. "I don't know."
"It's my fault."
I give her a look. "No."
"It is. It's all my fault." She starts crying.
I frown. "How can it be all your-"
The patients all start up yelling out Mummy again. The Doctor has a look that he's just figured out something.
"Nancy, what age are you? Twenty? Twenty-one? Older than you look yes?"
Bombs are getting closer, and Jack tries to warn us.
"You can teleport us out." I said, wishing I could aparate us out.
He shakes his head. "Not you guys. The nav-com's back online. Going to take too long to override the protocols."
The Doctor almost growled. "So, it's volcano day. Do what you've got to do."
Jack gets a determined look on his face. He disappears. The Doctor turns back to Nancy.
"How old were you five years ago? Fifteen? Sixteen? Old enough to give birth, anyway. He's not your brother, is he? A teenage single mother in 1941. So you hid. You lied. You even lied to him."
The gate opens, and Jamie is standing there. "Are you my mummy?"
"He's going to keep asking, Nancy. He's never going to stop."
"Mummy?"
"Tell him. Nancy, the future of the human race is in your hands. Trust me and tell him."
Nancy walks towards him, gets down on her knees.
"Are you my mummy?" Jamie asks repetitively.
Nancy swallows. "Yes. Yes, I am your mummy."
"Mummy?"
"I'm here."
They cycle around. The Doctor grows concerned. "He doesn't understand. There's not enough of him left."
"I am your mummy. I will always be your mummy. I'm so sorry. I am so, so sorry."
She reaches out to hug him, and barely conscious of doing it, I clutch my stomach. A cloud of nanogenes surround them.
"What's happening? Doctor, it's changing her, we should..."
"Shush! Come on, please. Come on, you clever little nanogenes. Figure it out! The mother, she's the mother. It's got to be enough information. Figure it out." The Doctor muttered.
"What's happening?"
"See? Recognizing the same DNA."
Jamie lets go of the hug, and Nancy falls. The Doctor walks over to Jamie.
"Oh, come on. Give me a day like this. Give me this one." He whispered. He removed the gas mask, and the child blinked back at him, confused. "Ha-ha! Welcome back!" He picks up Jamie and swings him around. "Twenty years till pop music – you're gonna love it."
Nancy frowned. "What happened?"
"The nanogenes recognized the superior information, the parent DNA. They didn't change you because you changed them! Ha-ha! Mother knows best!" His smile is so wide, and I can't help but grin back at him.
Nancy hugs Jamie, and I remember a crucial thought. "Doctor, that bomb."
"Taken care of it."
"How?"
"Psychology." And then I can see the bomb coming down, about to hit us, and then... It stops. A blue beam of energy surrounds it. And Jack appears on the bomb.
"Doctor!" Jack calls out.
He grins. "Good lad!"
"The bomb's already commenced detonation. I've put it in stasis, but it won't last long."
The Doctor grins. "Change of plan. Don't need the bomb. Can you get rid of it, safely as you can?" Jack nods, and looks at me.
"Rose?"
"Yeah?"
"Goodbye." He and the bomb vanish, but reappear a second later. "By the way, love the tee-shirt." He vanishes again, and I hear the spaceship go off.
I turn to the Doctor, who's glowing gold, surrounded by nanogenes.
"What are you doing?"
He grins. "Software patch. Going to email the upgrade." He gives me a wider grin. "You want moves, Rose? I'll give you moves." He throws the nanogenes at the waiting patients, all of whom fall to the ground. "Everybody lives, Rose. Just this once, everybody lives!"
The patients stand up, and the Doctor goes over to one of the men in a labcoat. He comes back to me a few minutes later, grin still wide across his face. "Right, you lot. Lots to do. Beat the Germans, save the world. Don't forget the welfare state!" He goes to the ambulance. "Setting this to self-destruct, soon as everybody's clear. History says there was an explosion here. Who am I to argue with history?"
I give him a smile. "Usually the first in line." He throws me a wicked grin, which I can't help but return.
We (and I mean the Doctor too this time) practically skip back to the TARDIS. Entering, he's still explaining everything that's happened.
"Look at you, beaming away like you're Father Christmas."
He grins at me from across the console. "Who says I'm not, red bicycle when you were twelve?" I blink.
"What?" I call out, pretty sure that Hermione Granger was the one to receive the red bicycle. That never ever got used again.
"And everybody lives, Rose! Everybody lives! I need more days like this."
I stop and frown. "Doctor."
"Go on, ask me anything. I'm on fire."
"What about Jack? Why'd he say goodbye?"
It was a bit of an argument, which I won, even without having to pull the 'I know the future, we need to bring him' card.
While we're waiting for Jack to realize that we're waiting for him, the Doctor has somehow convinced me to dance.
When I notice that Jack's looking at us, I smile. "Well, hurry up then!" He runs in. I'm trying to guide the Doctor in some form of dance, but he's not doing so well. "Okay. And right and turn. Okay, okay, try and spin me again, bu this time, don't get my arm up my back. No extra points for a half-nelson."
He frowns. "I'm sure I used to know this stuff." He turns to Jack. "Close the door, will you? Your ship's about to blow up. There's going to be a draught."
Jack shuts the door, and the Doctor starts the engines, enough to get us into space.
"Welcome to the TARDIS."
Jack blinks. "Much bigger on the inside."
I laugh. The Doctor sighs. "I liked your first line better."
"I think, what the Doctor's trying to say is you may cut in."
The Doctor lights up. "Rose! I've just remembered!"
I look a little concerned. "What?"
He changes the music, from waltz to swing. "I can dance. I can dance." He grins, starting to dance a little. I laugh.
"Actually Doctor, I thought Jack might like this dance." I said, grinning.
The Doctor grins back. "I'm sure he would, Rose. I'm absolutely certain. But who with?" He steals my hands and we do some ridiculous moves, all of which I've never done before. I'm laughing the whole time, and my favourite of his moves is when he dipped me.
He pulls me back up, and I'm breathless from laughing so hard.
"Yes. You have moves Doctor." I said, grinning.
Jack interrupted. "Well, I'm quite enjoying the show, but if you're going to continue, I'd like to know where my room is."
I give the Doctor a smile, and pull out of his arms a little. "I'll show Jack where he can sleep." The Doctor doesn't looked pleased with this turn of events.
He turns to Jack and says, "Go in that hall, look for a bedroom that hasn't been taken yet." He says sharply. I sigh, rolling my eyes.
Jack seems to take the Doctor's not so subtle hint, and exits the room quickly.
I look at the Doctor, who's seemed to quiet down some. "Who's Maria?"
The Doctor frowns a moment. "Honestly, no idea. She's from the future. Wouldn't tell me anything."
"But you knew that Rio was Maria's?" I asked, feeling a little cheated.
He frowns. "It sounds like... it sounds like Maria and I, are well together. It stands to reason that he could be my son."
I swallow the bile rising in my throat. He's going to move on. Far past me and Rose Tyler, no matter what I do. He moves on with this Maria woman. And then I stop, thinking. "Are you okay with suddenly knowing you're going to have a son. And apparently more than one daughter." I think back to Rio's comments on Vee.
He stiffens. "It's not like I've got much of a choice."
"There's always a choice. And that's not my question."
He turns to me. "Then what is it?"
"Do you want kids or not?!" I all but scream, and then sigh. "Nevermind. It's none of my business." I storm away, going to my room. Quite possibly to cry, for me, and for the frozen foetus in my womb.