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, 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.

A/N 4: What? I said sometime 'before Halloween'? It is before Halloween boys and girls. The end of the half season encouraged me to write. I will not be updating daily like before. It will probably be every Saturday or so. At least once a weekend. And please, if you match the criteria below, I do need someone to talk to. If you are worried about spoilers, don't be. It's all theoretical.

NEEDED:

Someone familiar with the early Who. Preferably Doctors 3-5. And someone with knowledge of Gallifrey. It's for another story, but I don't want to make things up, and I don't want to screw everything up. TARDIS files only has so much.

Part 2: Relearning Life and Death

Chapter 11: Christmas at the Powell Estates

He didn't look so good, and his piloting was worse than normal. We did land (that was a given), but not before I gained a dozen or so new bruises.

The Doctor rushes to the doors, throws them open, and starts babbling. I run up behind him, but he's collapsed into Mickey and Jackie's arms.

"What happened? Is he alright?" I ask, looking at the two of them. This was not going to be fun explaining.

Mickey frowned. "I dunno, he just keeled right over. But who is he? Where's the Doctor?"

I swallow. "That's him, right in front of you. That's the Doctor."

"What do you mean, that's the Doctor? Doctor who?" Jackie questioned, confused.

It took some time, but we did finally get the Doctor up to the flat. With a quick spell, I changed him, and hovered him into bed. Jackie comes in with a stethoscope, but I wave her off. A few more spells, and I can see that most of his systems are starting to slow.

Why? Why is he starting to die, and how can I save him?

I tried a few spells, but nothing worked.

Jackie and I walk out of the room, and I go to the fridge, her following me.

"How can he go changing his face? Is that a different face or is he a different person?" Jackie asked. Good question.

I take a deep breath before answering. "Well, S'like this. He changes his face and his personality, but at the very essence, he's still the Doctor."

She frowns. "And what happened to you?

"It's only been a few hours or so since I saw you last. Since then, I've done something kind of dangerous and mildly stupid, changed my DNA, and changed my face too."

"But you still look like Rose." Jackie said, frowning.

I sigh. "Exactly. I haven't taken the potion again, and I look like Rose Tyler."

"How does that work?"

I swallow, trying to understand it myself. "What I can figure is this, regeneration changes your body. My body was already used to changing to look like this. So it changed the way it normally did. I'm not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth." I smile. "I can do magic again. It feels bloody amazing." I frown, looking at her. "The big question though is, where'd you get a pair of men's pyjamas from?"

"Howard's been staying over." Jackie said, looking down.

I think, trying to place a face with the name. "What, Howard from the market? How long's that been going on?"

"A month or so. First of all, he starts delivering to the door, and I thought, that's odd. Next thing you know, it's a bag of oranges..." I glance at the telly to see Harriet Jones on the news.

"Is that Harriet Jones?" I run into the living room. At Jackie's words I feel a pang of guilt, but I ignore it. There are more pressing issues. "Why's she on the telly?"

Jackie laughed a little. "She's Prime Minister now. I'm eighteen quid a week better off. They're calling it Britain's Golden Age. I keep on saying my Rose has met her."

I smile. "Did more than that. Stopped World War Three with her. Harriet Jones."

Mickey and I run to the shops, looking for wrapping paper. I didn't even know it was Christmas.

"So, what's Christmas like, where you're from?" Mickey asked.

I smile, "You mean like in the wizarding world?" He nods. "Well, I usually celebrated it at boarding school. It was magical, to use the clichéd term. The Great Hall, the one we ate in, had tons of floating candles, and there were tons of Christmas trees, and it was beautiful. When I got out of Hogwarts, I spent the day at the Weasley's house. I always got a Weasley jumper and some fudge. Mrs. Weasley would cook for a small army, and that's really what we were. We'd somehow manage to get all of the family around the table. And that is over twenty people. It was loud, and it was amazing."

I swallow, trying to stop the tears forming in my eyes. I missed them, badly. "Um, Rose. There's an owl, with somethin' on it's leg staring at you." Mickey said, staring at the owl. I look up, seeing it was a pure white owl.

"Hedwig." I called, running over to the tree. She flutters down a few branches, so that she's within arm's reach. I dig around my bag, seeing if I had any owl treats. I did, and held out my hand, offering them to her. She flew down to my arm, landing and eating the treats. I untied the package from her foot, and smiled to her. "Tell Harry I said Happy Christmas." She flies off, leaving me with a confused Mickey.

"What was that?"

I laugh. "Owls deliver post in my world. That was a dear friend's owl." I glance down at the package, tempted to open it. "Come on, lets go find wrapping paper. Gotta wrap everyone's presents." Mickey laughed.

We talk for a while, entering the market. I glance at the Santa's only to see them following us. I swallow. They stop playing and I immediately duck, dragging Mickey down with me.

A burst of fire goes over our heads, and I turn, firing off spells rapidly. They were robotic, but that never stopped me. They were all toast, and I could feel the magic hovering in the air, like a few people were going to apparate.

"What's going on? What've we done? Why are they after us?" I sigh.

"Hang on. Don't let go." I said, looking at him. He frowns, but nods. I took his arm and apparated us to the alleyway in front of the apartment. "They're after the Doctor."

Mickey rolls his eyes. "I can't even go shopping with you. We get attacked by a brass band." I take out my phone, checking to make sure the magic didn't kill it, before dialling Jackie's number.

Jackie's on the line right now. I swear.

"Who were those Santa things?"

"I don't know. I've never seen them before. But think about it. They were after us. What's important about us? Well, outside of the fact that I'm a witch, nothing, except the one thing we've got tucked up in bed. The Doctor."

We run into the flat, and Jackie's still talking on the phone.

"Get off the phone."

She blinks at me. "It's only Bev. She says hello."

"Bev? Yeah. Look, it'll have to wait." I grab the phone from her, hanging it up. "Right, it's not safe. We've got to get out. Where can we go?"

"My man Stan, he'll put us up."

I shake my head. "That's only two streets away." I swear. "Think, think. Harry would most likely be at the Burrow, we can go to Grimmauld." I nod, satisfied with the answer.

"No, it's Christmas Eve! We're not going anywhere! What're you babbling about?"

I don't answer, my eyes drawing to the Christmas tree in the room. I swallow. The Doctor's written book (A Journal of Impossible Things) always had warnings about killer Christmas trees. "Jackie, where'd you get the that tree?"

"I thought it was you."

I frown. "How can it be me?"

"Well, you went shopping. There was a ring at the door, and there it was!"

I shake my head, watching the tree warily. "No, that wasn't me." The tree lights up, and Jingle Bells stars playing.

"Really? Of all things that could attack?!" I cried out, rolling my eyes.

Chunks of the tree begin to rotate in different directions. That creates a strong wind. And then it moves, taking out the coffee table.

"Get out!" Mickey yelled, trying to push Jackie and I back. I glare at him, stepping in front and casting an explosion spell at the tree. Nothing happened.

"Alright, I'm leaving." I turn, going into the Doctor's make-shift room. "We've got to save the Doctor."

Jackie yells at me, but tries to help. And then Mickey joins us. They shut the door, and push a wardrobe in front of it.

"Doctor wake up!" I try and give him the sonic.

Jackie looks terrified. "I'm going to get killed by a Christmas tree!"

The tree makes it through the wardrobe, and I have an idea. I whisper in his ear. "Help me."

He suddenly sits up, and aims the screwdriver at the tree. It explodes. "Remote control. But who's controlling it?"

The Doctor gets up, puts on a housecoat, and walks outside in slippers.

Mickey points them out, and I shush him. The Doctor aims the screwdriver at them, and they back off before being beamed away.

"They've just gone. What kind of rubbish were they? I mean, no offence, but they're not much cop if a sonic screwdriver's going to scare them off." Mickey commented.

"Pilot fish." I frown.

"What?"

"They were just pilot fish." He doubles over in pain.

"What's wrong?" I look at him, concerned.

He gives me a look. "You woke me up too soon. I'm still regenerating. I'm bursting with energy." He exhales, giving a burst of golden energy. Jackie looks about to comment, but I elbow her. "You see? The pilot fish could smell it a million miles away. So they eliminate the defence, that's you lot, and they carry me off. They could run their batteries on my for a couple of ow!"

Jackie tries helping him by guessing at what he needs. "I need you to shut up." He says finally.

"Oh, he hasn't changed that much, has he?"

"We haven't got much time. If there's pilot fish, then... Why's there an apple in my dressing gown?"

"Oh, that's Howard. Sorry."

He blinks. "He keeps apples in his dressing gown?"

"He gets hungry."

"What-"

"Focus!" I yell, glaring at the two of them.

"Argh! Brain collapsing. The pilot fish. The pilot fish mean that something, something, something is coming." And with that lovely thought, he passes out.

I swallow, intent on hovering him back to the bedroom. I do so, and when he's back, I check his vitals. Only one heart's working. I swallow again.

Mickey updates me on pilot fish, and I frown.

The doorbell goes. We all share a look. I really hope there isn't another Christmas tree coming. I quickly cast a few charms to repair the hall, and glance at the door, cautious.

A voice calls through it. "Hermione Jean Granger, or Rose Marion Tyler, which ever you prefer, open up."

I blink. I open the door, seeing another Doctor standing there, attempting to looks sauve. He raises his eyebrows, and goes to kiss me. I hold him back.

I give him a glare. "You're crossing your own timeline. That's a big no-no."

"Who is it?" Jackie called, coming up behind us.

I open my mouth, then shut it. How to explain this?

The Doctor answers for me. "Hello, good to see you again Jackie. I'm the Doctor." She blinks.

"Now there are two of them?"

I sigh. "He seems to be rubbish at explaining things. He's from the future, coming back in time to give me things, that I apparently need." I turned to him. "How's Maria?" I ask, cross.

He blinks, surprise jumping across his face. "She's well. Haven't seen her in a little bit. She keeps jumping in and out of my timeline."

"You have kids together."

He frowns. "How do you..." He trails off, thinking. "Ah yes, you met Rio with Big-Ears. I forgot."

I glare at him. "And where do I fit into all of this? You've got kids, and Maria, who I'm guessing is your wife." I'm angry.

"You are still a huge part of my life." I swallow, blinking. Tears formed, and I whipped them away.

Jackie, unfortunately caught all of this. "You're married. To someone else. And leading my Rose on."

He smiles weakly. "It's complicated." She slaps him. "I really don't think I deserved that." She slaps him again.

"Mum, go sit, make sure Mickey doesn't hack into the government again."

She glares at the Doctor before walking away.

I sigh. "So why are you here now?"

He looks at me. "You've regenerated, and are now part Time Lord. He can't know." The Doctor said, jerking a thumb to the other room, where the other Doctor was. "You need to wear the locket at all times. It's going to make you appear human."

I swallow. "Another one of the things the locket does?"

He nods. He's about to speak, but gets cut off by Mickey, yelling "Rose. Take a look. I've got access to the military. They're tracking a spaceship. It's big, it's fast and it's coming this way."

I look at the Doctor. "That's all I have to say. You can walk away still, you know that, right?"

I frown. "Look, I'm tired of you telling me I can still walk away. I've stuck with you for more than two years, waited for you for a year and a half. If you think something you've got to say can make me walk away, you've got another thing coming."

He smiles, kisses me, and then disappears. I swallow, going into the living room.

"Mickey, what'd I tell you about hacking into the military? And coming for what, though? The Doctor?"

Mickey shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe it's coming for all of us." He frowns. "Have you seen them before?"

"No."

Jackie goes to check on the Doctor, and Mickey and I watch the news. When she doesn't come back for a little bit, I go and check on her.

She's asleep on part of the bed. I swallow. Mickey comes up behind me. "I don't know what's wrong. I've seen him change his DNA so he's human before, I've seen him do all sorts of things. But he's never been so still."

"You really love him, don't you?" He hugs me, and I try not to sob.

The night is long and quiet. I try to take my mind off things by wrapping presents, but it doesn't work, when dawn breaks, there is a huge commotion.

One of the women living in another flat comes out. I call to her.

She's following her husband, who seems to be walking all on his own. "He won't listen. He's just walking. He won't stop walking! There's this sort of light thing. Jason? Stop it right now! Please, Jason, just stop."

Mickey and I glance over the balcony, and see tons of people all walking. We follow everyone to the roof.

"What do we do?" Mickey asked me quietly.

I swallow. "Nothing. I don't know. I've never seen mind control on this scale, at this scale."

"What do you mean by that?"

"It's a long story."

We end up back in front of the telly. Harriet Jones is speaking to the nation. She ends with this: "But I have one request. Doctor, if you're out there, we need you. I don't know what to do. If you can hear me, Doctor. If anyone knows the Doctor, if anyone can find him, the situation has never been more desperate. Help us. Please, Doctor. Help us. God help us."

I struggle not to cry. "He can't be gone. He just can't." Jackie and Mickey try to comfort me, but all I can do is stare.

The glass in the flat shatters, and we all run to the room. "They're here. Mum, get your stuff, and get some food. We're going."

"Where to?"

I swallow, making an executive decision. "The TARDIS. I can ward it a bit more, but she doesn't need it in the first place."

"What're we going to do in there?"

I sigh. "Hide."

Jackie looks outraged. "Is that it?"

"Look, Mum, I can only do so much. You've just got to trust me. Please." She nods and runs off. Mickey helps her. I levitate the Doctor, casting a notice-me-not charm on us. I get into the TARDIS, and go back to help Mum and Mickey. We run with a few bags.

"No chance you could fly this thing?" Mickey asked, frowning.

"Not anymore, no."

"Well, you did it before."

I sigh. "That was different. And besides, I didn't do the flying, I just told her where to go. Try it again though, and I think the Universe rips in half."

"Ah, better not then."

I give him a grin. Jackie runs in with food, only to run back out again. Mickey goes to the scanner, which has got an odd pattern on it, I've never seen.

"Maybe it's a distress signal."

I sigh. "Not much that can do."

"Well, hopefully you can cook better than Jackie." I laugh.

"Speaking of her, she should have been back. I'll go check and see if she needs help."

I get outside, and get grabbed by a alien. We're in a space ship. I elbow him, fighting him off.

"Alright wise guy, nice try. I won't go anywhere, and you don't get grabby? Agreed?"

Mickey runs out, and thankfully closes the door. My last glance in the room is a thermos of tea emptying out on the floor. She won't like that much.

A woman calls out. "Rose!" I turn and see Harriet coming. She hugs me. "Oh, my precious thing. The Doctor, is he with you?"

"No. We're on out own for now." I glance at everyone else, noticing Percy.

"Of course, aliens show up, you're not that far behind." I laugh, and Percy hugs me.

I give him a glare. "What are you doing here? It's Christmas."

He gives me a smile, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Well, I figure you'd be here eventually. And then I'd be home in time for supper."

"Can't depend on me all the time."

The uglies start talking, and the TARDIS doesn't translate. The other man, who's reading off a hand-held device, translates, "The yellow girl. She has the clever blue box. Therefore, she speaks for your planet."

"But she can't." Harriet said, trying to protect me.

I shake my head. "I can."

"Don't you dare." Mickey said.

"Someone's got to be the Doctor."

Harriet tried to reason with me. "They'll kill you."

"Never stopped him." I step forward, trying to remember everything the Doctor had said. "What are they called?" I ask, turning to her.

"Sycorax." She hissed. I nodded.

"I seek audience with the Sycorax under peaceful contract according to convention 15 of the Shadow Proclamation." When no answer was given. "I demand you leave here at once. You are invading, plain and simple."

The Sycorax laugh. The guy translating says, "You are very, very funny. And now you're going to die."

I give them a look. "I don't think you really want to do that. The Daleks have a name for me. The Abomination. The Time Lords have legend about me. Balfowd. Do you really want to piss me off?"

The guy, Alex, translated the Sycorax's response. "Did you think you were clever with your stolen words? We are the Sycorax, we stride the darkness. Next to us, you are but a wailing child. If you are the best your planet can offer as a champion then your world will be gutted."

Only the Sycorax said the last half of the sentence first. I swallow.

"Any your people enslaved."

"Hold on, that's English." Alex said, frowning.

"He's talking English." Harriet said, in awe.

"The TARDIS is translating again, which means..." I turn to the TARDIS. The doors open, and out steps the Doctor.

"Did you miss me?" The Sycorax in charge cracks his whip, and the Doctor catches it, and pulls it out of his hand. "You could have someone's eye out with that."

"How dare!" He reaches over and takes a club out of someone else's hands. He breaks it across his knee.

"You just can't get the staff. Now, you, just wait. I'm busy." He said, condescending. The Sycorax blinks. The Doctor ignores him and turns to the humans and I who were waiting for him. "Mickey, hello! And Harriet Jones MP for Flydale North. Percy, good to see you. Blimey, it's like This Is Your Life." He turns to me. "Tea! That's all I needed, a good cup of tea! Superheated infusion of free radicals and tannin. Just the thing for healing the synapses. Now, first thing's first. Be honest, how do I look?"

I blink, thinking for a moment he was crazy. And then all my memories of his came back, and I decided he was always strange in with this face. "Er, different." It's really the only response I've got.

"Good different or bad different?"

I swallow. "Just different."

He gets close, and serious. "Am I ginger?" Percy snorts.

I glance up. "No, you're just sort of brown."

He frowns, and then has a tantrum. "I wanted to be ginger. I've never been ginger." He rounds on me. "And you, Rose Tyler, fat lot of good you were. You gave up on me." He blinks, frowning. "Oh, that's rude. That's the sort of man I am now, am I? Rude." He sighs. "Rude and not ginger."

Harriet frowns. "I'm sorry. Who is this?"

"I'm the Doctor."

I nod, restating it. Harriet frowns, protesting. And the Doctor tells her something only he would know.

"Oh, my God."

"Did you win the election?"

She grins. "Landslide majority."

The Sycorax have gathered their wits. "If I might interrupt."

The Doctor turns, hands in his pockets. "Yes, sorry. Hello, big fellow."

"Who exactly are you?"

"Well, that's the question."

"I demand to know who you are!"

The Doctor mocks him, "I don't know!" Continuing in a normal voice, he says: "See, there's the thing. I'm the Doctor, but beyond that, I just don't know. I literally do not know who I am. It's all untested. Am I funny? Am I sarcastic?" He gives me a look, "Sexy?" Turning back to the Sycorax, "Right old misery? Life and soul? Right handed? Left handed? A gambler? A fighter? A coward? A traitor? A liar? A nervous wreck? I mean, judging by the evidence, I've certainly got a gob." He turns a corner, and spots something. We all follow him. "And how am I going to react when I see this, a great big threatening button. A great big threatening button which must not be pressed under any circumstances, am I right? Let me guess. It's some sort of control matrix, hmm? Hold on, what's feeding it?" He crouches down and opens the pillar.

"And what have we got here? Blood?" He sticks his finger in it and tastes. "Yeah, definitely blood. Human blood. A Positive, with just a dash of iron." He rolls his tongue, trying to get rid of the taste. "Ah, but that means..." he grins, "Blood control. Blood control! Oh, I haven't seen blood control for years. You're controlling all the A Positives. Which leaves us with a great big stinking problem. Because I really don't know who I am. I don't know when to stop. SO if I see a great big threatening button which should never, ever, ever be pressed, then I just want to do this." He pounds the button hard.

Harriet yells, "No!"

Alex cries out, "You killed them!"

"What do you think, big fellow? Are they dead?"

The Sycorax growled. "We allow them to live."

"Allow? You've no choice. I mean, that's all blood control is. A cheap bit of voodoo. Scares the pants off you, but that's as far as it goes. It's like hypnosis. You can hypnotise someone to walk like a chicken or sing like Elvis. You can't hypnotise them to death. Survival instinct's too strong." He explains.

The Sycorax glares at the Doctor. "Blood control was only one form of conquest. I can summon the armada and take this world by force."

The Doctor frowns. "Well, yeah, you could, yeah, you could do that, of course you could. But why? Look at these people. These human beings. Consider their potential. From the day they arrive on the planet and blinking step into the sun, there is more to see than can ever been seen. More to do than." He blinks, frowning. "No, hold on. Sorry, that's The Lion King. But the point still stands. Leave them alone!"

"Or what?"

"Or..." He grabs a sword from one of the Sycorax, and runs down to the TARDIS. "I challenge you."

I swallow, grabbing a sword. "We challenge you."

There is laughter. "Rose, no. I can do this."

"Fat lot of good that is. I'm an Earthling. I deserve to fight for my planet too." He frowns, but shrugs.

"Well, that stuck a cord." He comments, glancing around the room. "Am I right that the sanctified rules of combat still apply?"

"You both stand as this world's champion."

The Doctor grins. "Thank you. I've no idea who I am, but you just summed me up." He removes his dressing gown, and throws it at Mickey, who looks terrified.

"I always stand as a champion." I say. The leader frowns.

"So you accept our challenge? Or are you just a cranak pel casacree salvak?" The Doctor said. I frown at the words, assuming they were an insult.

He gets into an appropriate stance, and I mimic it.

The Sycorax leader gestures for another to aid him. "For the planet?"

"For the planet." I agreed. We sat for a moment, before leaping into action.

I could tell that the Doctor might have been a little out of his league. And I was rusty. The Doctor retreats up a tunnel, opening a door. "Bit of fresh air?" I manage to get back into the swing of things, vowing to practice later, and move the second Sycorax up the tunnel too.

I glance for a second to see how the Doctor is doing, and he's been driven back to the edge, and hit in the nose. I growl. A quick chop, and I cripple the Sycorax that I am fighting. I run to the Doctor, but he's been knocked over. The leader slashes, and the sword and the hand fall down to Earth. I swallow.

"You cut my hand off." He says, blinking.

The Sycorax seems to think this a victory.

The Doctor disagrees. "And now I know what sort of man I am. I'm lucky. Because quite by chance, I'm still within the first fifteen hours of my regeneration cycle, which means I've got just enough residual cellular energy to do this." He grows a new hand.

The Sycorax chops that one off too. The Doctor frowns, and another hand grows back. On instinct, the Sycorax chops that hand off too.

"Would you stop doing that?!" He yells. He ducks out of the way of the sword coming for that hand.

The Sycorax frowns. "Witchcraft."

"Time Lord." He says, grinning a little condescendingly.

I yell for him, and he turns. I throw him my sword.

"Oh, so I'm still the Doctor, then?"

I laugh. "No arguments from me!"

He grins and turns to the Sycorax. "Want to know the best bit? This new hand? It's a fighting hand!" They fight again. The Doctor manages to disarm the Sycorax after the first few swings. The Sycorax falls on the edge, over looking London. "I win."

"Then kill me."

He looks at him. "I'll spare your life if you'll take this Champion's command. Leave this planet, and never return. What do you say?"

"Yes."

"Swear on the blood of your species."

"I swear."

He grins. "There we are, then. Thanks for that. Cheers, big fellow!" I run to him. "Not bad for a man in his jim-jams." Mickey throws us the dressing gown, and I help him put it on. "Very Arthur Dent. Now, there was a nice man." He reaches into his pocket. "Hold on, what have I got here?" He pulls out an orange. "A satsuma. Ah, that friend of your mothers. He does like his snacks, doesn't he? But doesn't that just sum up Christmas? You go through all those presents, and right at the end, tucked away at the bottom, there's always one stupid old satsuma. Who wants a satsuma?"

I hear the Sycorax leader get up. The Doctor throws the orange at the exterior control panel. I see out of the corner of my eye, a piece of wing falls off, bringing the Sycorax with it.

"No second chances. I'm that sort of a man."

I walk into the spaceship, holding the Doctor's hand. He addresses the Sycorax population.

"By the ancient rites of combat, we forbid you to scavenge here for the rest of time."

I speak up, cutting him off. "And when you go back to the stars and tell others of this planet, when you tell them of it's riches, it's people, it's potential. When you talk of the Earth, then make sure you tell them this. It is defended."

We get beamed back down.

We celebrate. Until there is a big KaBOOM!

"What's that? What's happening?"

The Doctor rounds on Harriet. "That was murder."

"That was defence. It's adapted from alien technology. A ship that fell to Earth ten years ago."

I look at her. "But they were leaving."

"You said it yourself, Doctor. They'd go back to the stars and tell others about Earth. I'm sorry, Doctor, Rose, but you're not here all the time. You come and go. It happened today. Mister Llewellym and the Major, they were murdered. They died right in front of me while you were sleeping. In which case we have to defend ourselves." She held her head up high.

"Britain's Golden Age." I grumbled.

She swallowed. "It comes with a price."

"We gave them the wrong warning. I should've told them to run as fast as they can, run and hide because the monsters are coming. The human race." The Doctor looked angrier than I'd ever seen him.

"Those are the people I represent. I did it on their behalf."

I swallowed. "Then we should have stopped you."

"What does that make you two, Doctor, Rose? Another alien threat?"

The Doctor sneered. "Don't challenge me Harriet Jones, because I'm a completely new man. I could bring down your Government with a single word."

She gave him a look. "You're the most remarkable man I've ever met, but I don't think you're quite capable of that."

"No, you're right. Not a single word, just six."

"I don't think so."

"Six words."

"Stop it!"

"Six." He walks up to Alex and Percy, and whispers in their ear.

Harriet freaked out. We walked away.

We ended up back at mum's flat. Mum worked on Christmas dinner, and I finished wrapping presents.

Christmas dinner came and went, and we began opening up presents, watching the Sycorax ash fall down.

"Here Rose, this one's the one..." Mickey trailed off, handing me the present I got from Hedwig yesterday.

I open it, seeing two sweaters. And two packs of fudge. One flavoured like... I sniff it. Bananas. I almost choke on my laughter, handing that pack to the Doctor, who immediately dives into it. I laugh.

The sweaters are hilarious. They match, and one's obviously for the Doctor. I throw it at him, and he slips it on. His has got a image of the TARDIS, while mine's got a wolf howling on it. His is brown, mine is TARDIS blue.

"Who's this from?"

I laugh, holding back sobs. "Old friends."

"And you mentioned me?"

"Who knows. Time travel, right?"

He grins. We end up going outside, watching the ash fall.

"This is a brand new Earth. No denying the existence of aliens now. Everyone saw it. Everything's new." The Doctor said, looking up.

I swallow, asking my question. "And what about you? What are you going to do next?"

"Well, back to the TARDIS. Same old life."

"On your own?"

He frowns, looking at me. "Why, don't you want to come?"

"Well, yeah."

"Do you, though?"

"Yeah!"

"I just thought, because I changed."

I smile. "Yeah, I thought, because you changed you might not want me anymore."

"Oh, I'd love you to come."

"Okay." I grinned. Mickey looked put out.

"You're never going to stay, are you?"

I give him a watery smile. "There's just so much out there. So much to see. I've got to."

"Yeah."

"Well, I reckon you're mad, the pair of you. It's like you go looking for trouble." Mum said, looking at us like we were crazy.

The Doctor grinned. "Trouble's just the bits in-between. It's all waiting out there, Jackie, and it's brand new to me. All those planets, and creatures and horizons. I haven't seen them yet! Not with these eyes. And it's going to be..." He looks at me, "Fantastic."

He offers me his hand. "That hand of yours still gives me the creeps." But I take it anyway. "So where're we going to go first?"

He looks around. "Er, that way. No, hold on. That way." He points up.

I point with him. "That way?"

He smiles, nodding.

"Yeah, that way."