Chapter two

A death and a decision


Looking back on the events of that afternoon, Rose could remember Gary being shot as clearly as if she were back there again, watching it all happen once more. The events afterwards, however, were all confused and jumbled, a blur of vague impressions.

She had tried to use the basic first aid from that course she had been sent on at Henriks, tried to tie a simple tourniquet around Gary's bleeding arm and bandage the wound. Was that before or after she had called the ambulance from her mobile? At least she knew what the Doctor had been doing. He had seized the helm and turned the boat round back towards Fulworth in a wide curve to keep away from the cliffs.

The ambulance had been waiting for them at the quay, and the paramedics had seemed relieved. Gary's injury looked like it was just a flesh wound, even if it was a nasty one.

And now Rose and the Doctor were in a small grey room in the Eastgate Cottage Hospital ("A Centre of Excellence" according to the signs plastered everywhere) with Inspector Vesper of the East Sussex Police. Whatever he had seen on the Doctor's psychic paper had certainly impressed him. (Rose was more impressed that the Doctor brought the psychic paper on a simple boat trip in the first place! "Talk about being crazy prepared," she thought.)

"Just one more thing sir," said the lean, fair haired Inspector. "Do you or Ms Tyler have any enemies that you know of? Anyone who might do something like that to you?"

"Well," said Rose, "there's one guy." She described the creepy man who had followed her into Marnie's shop.

"Thank you," said Vesper "We'll keep an eye out for him, don't you worry. And you Doctor? Can you think of anyone?"

"No," said the Doctor, with a perfectly straight face. "No-one."

Once the Inspector had left, Rose finally let out the giggle she'd been holding back. "How did you manage that? No enemies!"

"None that would do anything like that," said the Doctor, grinning. "Shoot me with an ultrasonic death-ray, yes, or a Dalek disintegrator gun. But not a plain old rifle or shotgun. My enemies have more style."

"You can judge a Time Lord by the quality of his enemies, can you?"

"Of course." The Doctor jumped to his feet and struck a mock noble pose, one hand raised to his brow, the other on his breast. "See?"

"Yeah, very good." Rose was glad of the distraction, and got up to curtsey to him. A nurse entered while she was in the middle of it.

"Uh, not interrupting anything am I?"

Rose and the Doctor both said "No."

"Right. I just thought you'd like to know, Mr Roberts doesn't have any broken bones. He'll have to stay overnight for observation, but we'll probably be letting him go in the morning."


Gary was indeed released the next morning, with just some stitches on his upper arm. Although the doctors had advised him to take things easy, the following day he was back fishing in his boat again.

Once the police had finished searching Easthead Point and found nothing, the Doctor and Rose made their own search and also found nothing. The Doctor even tried sweeping the area with his sonic screwdriver for traces of advanced technology, but the sound just disturbed the nesting birds and he was forced to give up before his jacket got ruined, and return to attempting to fix the TARDIS.

And so the days passed. At least there was no sign of the creepy man any more. Rose should have been relieved, but the fact that he had disappeared after the shooting didn't give her any comfort.


"Where are the Zeus plugs?"

"The what?" asked Rose.

"The Zeus plugs." The Doctor didn't even look up. He remained sitting cross-legged in the centre of the room, giving all his attention to what looked like a blob of pale-blue slime with silicon chips sticking out of it.

Rose glanced down at the alien components scattered around the living room, hoping to see a box or packet with a helpful little label saying "Zeus plugs." Of course there wasn't anything like that.

"What do they look like?" she asked.

The Doctor sighed. "Like plugs that fit into Hera sockets, of course. You know, sort of -" A loud knock at the front door interrupted him before he could explain. "I'll get that!" he said, jumping to his feet and dropping the pale-blue blob to the floor. "You keep looking for those plugs."

Rose watched him dash into the hallway. He must be going stir-crazy, she reflected, to want to talk to a 'stupid ape' like that. The sooner the TARDIS was fixed the better.

"Doctor Smith." It was Inspector Vespar's voice. The Doctor hadn't closed the living room door properly. It was still open a crack, and voices could drift through from the hall.

"What is it, Inspector?"

"Nothing really, just a courtesy call. Er, how well did you know Gary Roberts?"

"Not well. I've only met him once. Although that was an interesting time." She could hear the smile spreading across the Doctor's face. "Wouldn't've missed it for anything. Rose knows him better. Why?"

"Well, she might be interested to know, something happened this morning."

Something was happening right now. The pale-blue slime had grown thin, metal, spider-like legs and was crawling towards the partly open door. Rose quickly grabbed it before it made its way into the hall, then returned her attention to what the Inspector was saying.

"Roberts and a man called 'Lobster' Potts were walking along the cliff when they came across a hiker whose dog had fallen onto a ledge a couple of yards down. Roberts offered to climb down and get it for her, but it looks as though his injured arm wasn't strong enough. He lost his grip and fell. To his death."

When she heard that, Rose almost lost her grip on the slime thing and it started wriggling in an attempt to break free.

"Dead?" asked the Doctor. "Are you sure it was an accident?"

Rose quickly shoved the blob into a large urn that was part of the cottage's original decoration, then edged closer to the door.

"Well, I had my doubts, after what happened to you a couple of weeks ago, but we've got the statements of Potts and the woman. There'll be an inquest of course, but there's no sign of foul play. It was just one of those things."

Rose slumped down, her back to the wall. "Not again," she muttered under her breath. "Not again."

Images of her dying father flashed before her eyes. Even though she had tried to save him, Pete Tyler had sacrificed himself, an innocent man giving up his life to save others, to save her, the way Gary had done to save that dog. The TARDIS had been injured in that incident, and even though it seemed all right when they left, it only managed to take them a short way before breaking down again.

Ironically they were now stuck in Rose's own time. But she hadn't been back home. Knowing she was now responsible for her dad's death meant she didn't want to face her mother. Instead she stayed here with the Doctor, hiding, trying to pretend it never happened. And now this, almost as if the universe was conspiring to remind her. But that was silly. It couldn't do that, could it?

"Did you hear?" The Doctor was standing over her.

"Yes." She forced the word out, then took a deep breath. Rising to he feet, she said, "Doctor, I've changed my mind. I can't keep hiding here. I've got to see my home."

He placed a friendly hand on her arm. "Are you sure you aren't just hiding from this."

"No. I mean, I've got to come back here for the TARDIS anyway. Even if I wanted to hide, I couldn't do it forever."

"Fantastic!" His grin reappeared. "I'll come with you. I could do with a change of scene."

"OK, but on one condition. I phone mum to warn her first. The last thing she needs is you turning up on her doorstep without warning."