Disclaimer: Sadly, I have no claim on Doctor Who and make no profit from it.
Some plot points and bits of dialogue respectfully borrowed from the episode "Partners in Crime" by Russell T Davies. With apologies to Donna Noble, who I'm sure will find the Doctor someday, just not today.
Ten left out a chuff of frustration when he caught sight of Nine basking in the morning sunlight on a bench opposite Adipose Industries. Right, this is getting ridiculous. The night before, his signal triangulator had pulled him from his contemplation of an Adipose customer's cat flap and led him several streets away. But just when he had reached the source of the signal, the sight of Adam chasing a van down the street had forced him to back off. And now it was happening again. He had planned to hack into the Adipose mainframe today. That's going to be rather difficult if I have to dance around the Dream Team here, he thought sourly. Although, he noted, currently the Dream Team seemed to consist of only one member. Maybe he had time to try a bit of misdirection.
He made as if to walk on past the bench, then did an exaggerated double-take and dropped onto the seat next to Nine. "Wait, I've seen you before. You were at Adipose yesterday, yeah? Some sort of inspector or something?"
Nine opened one eye lazily, comtemplated him for a minute, then flipped open the psychic paper wallet. Ten made a show of peering at the blank paper. "John Smith, Health and Safety. And you are?"
Oh, right, time for a new alias. "Uh…Martin Jones, sales rep at Adipose. All alone, are you? You had some friends with you yesterday, yeah?"
"They'll be along in a bit. I think they overslept. They had a bit of an exciting night."
Ten's stomach did an unpleasant flip-flop at the thought of what kind of nocturnal excitement two pretty humans could get up to. But then he decided that the sunbather next to him didn't look nearly jealous enough for it to have been that exciting, and he relaxed. "Well, I for one am certainly glad Health and Safety is on the case. There is definitely something fishy going on here, and I'm glad someone is finally looking into it," he said emphatically.
At this, Nine deigned to open both eyes and sit up a little straighter. "What do you mean?"
The newly christened Martin lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "I don't know exactly, just that things aren't what they seem. Adipose is a front for something; there's a lot more happening here than weight loss. Strange goings-on." He pulled the customer list from his pocket. "Here are some names of our clients. Might be worth you taking a look, talking with them."
Nine waved dismissively. "We have a list. Spoke to several of them last night. You're not half right about the strange goings-on, I'll tell you that right now."
Well, that was not wholly unexpected, Ten thought. It at least explained how Adam had happened to be in the right place at the right time the night before. Although, come to think of it, the timing was rather puzzling. Ten had had to hide in the shadows until one o'clock before he had seen the little white creature exiting Roger Davey's cat flap. And surely that had to be the norm; if aliens were emerging from their hosts during waking hours, there would be massive panic. So why had this one been so early? He gave himself a mental shake. There would be time to puzzle that out later; right now, he had to stay focused, accomplish his purpose and scram before Rose arrived. "Well, that's good, good, I'm glad you're on top of that. And what about the pendants? Have you looked into those too?" He pulled his out and swung it in front of Nine.
Nine frowned at it. "It's just a trinket. What do you think it does?"
The Doctor, being the Doctor, was about to launch into an in-depth exposition of his analysis, but remembered just in time that the whole point of this conversation was to get Nine out of the way by sending him off to do his own analysis. So with an effort, he contained himself to: "I don't know exactly what they are for, but they are a part of whatever is going on. They're more than just ornaments, that's for sure. Have you seen one?"
"Yes," the other Doctor said slowly. "Rose got one yesterday. I think I remember her playing with it just before – " His mouth snapped shut, but Ten could fill in the blank. Just before the fat creature emerged. As he suspected, the hidden circuitry could activate the process. He guessed that normally it was controlled remotely, but Rose's fiddling had somehow triggered the signal early. He hoped the customer was all right, both for her sake and for Rose's. He knew his Rose, knew how devastated she would be if she had caused irreparable harm, however unintentionally.
He was distracted from this train of thought by Nine bounding to his feet. The younger Doctor had obviously made the same connection between pendant and alien. "If you'll excuse me, Mister Jones, I have something I need to take care of." Ten watched his counterpart rush off away from Adipose, and smiled smugly as he headed into the office building. Score one for the old man, you clever thing, you.
Many frustrating hours later, the Doctor was ready to reevaluate his self-assessment: maybe the clever thing would have been to walk away after all. He had spent all day trying to hack into the Adipose servers, but they were deadlocked, completely impervious to every trick in his very large repertoire.
Now that evening had arrived and the offices had emptied for the night, he decided to try another tack. He was willing to bet that the company president, a Miss Foster, was up to her eyeballs in the conspiracy. He made his way through the darkened corridors to her office, but found it deadlocked just as tightly as the computer. Frustrating again, but at least it went to confirm his theory.
He tried the roof next, and found a window washer's lift. Perfect – this could lower him to Foster's office. Hopefully she wouldn't have thought to deadlock the windows; even if she had, at least he would be able to see inside. More than one way to skin a cat, he thought, and then winced at the phrase. Honestly, humans could come up with some truly disgusting adages.
Rose wasn't an impatient person, really she wasn't. But she was so incredibly tired of just sitting there watching the Doctor work. They had spent all day in the TARDIS while he pulled apart the Adipose pendant. And once the business had closed for the evening, they had broken in – well, sonicked in, the Doctor had been careful to distinguish – and were currently crammed into a utility closet while he attempted to hack into the computer network. There was the occasional tool to be handed to him or wire to be held, but he had Adam for that, which left Rose twiddling her thumbs in utter boredom and exasperation. She agreed with him that their investigation of the alien plot had to take priority over the search for her Doctor, but that only made her more eager to do something, anything, to move things along. I'm not doing any good here. Maybe if I poke around a bit… She stood and stretched. "Listen, I'm just going to go stretch my legs for a bit, yeah?"
"Fine, just don't go wandering off," the Doctor mumbled around a mouthful of sonic screwdriver. Rose rolled her eyes and headed for the stairs.
She made her way to the executive offices. The door to the president's office was locked – what she wouldn't give for the Doctor's screwdriver – but she decided to try her luck rummaging through the secretary's desk right outside. She hadn't been there more than five minutes when the area flooded with light, and there stood the president herself, flanked by two heavily armed bodyguards.
"Well, if it isn't Miss Health and Safety. I'm afraid you won't find anything interesting in there. My secretary hasn't the imagination to understand the true nature of our operation. No, if you want dirt, dear, you'll need to step into my office. Boys?"
Almost before she could blink, Rose found herself inside the office and tied to a chair. "I should warn you, my friend will come looking for me very soon. Trust me when I say, you don't want to make him angry."
Miss Foster laughed. "Well, I dare say we will deal with him if he does arrive. Now, what is your name?"