Ok, so it's the first time Claire meets The Doctor, and it's time she made some things clear. I hope you enjoy!

After their legs gave way, their lungs heaved for fresh winter air and their cheeks blossomed red, the Doctor, Sasha, Alec and Claire stopped, panting as they rested on a quiet, shop lined street. Trees were billowed, bared and crystallising in the air in the park opposite where they had stopped, the cold splintering into them.

"Oh my God," Claire panted, stepping away from the rest of the group. "So this is what you do? The crazy lot of you! You chase the bad guys – you don't care how dangerous it is you just jump straight in and hope for a half-decent result?"

"Every day of the week," the Alec grinned.

"Well, that's just . . ." Claire cried, trailing of her sentence in pure confusion and uncertainty. "I don't know but you're mad! That's all I know! You should all be carted off to some institute. I nearly died then. We all did! And people saw! The police will've been called and an ambulance and reporters . . . They'll know I was there. I don't want to be involved. I could lose my job."

"Woah! Calm down," Alec insisted.

"For God's sake; you're only fifteen and already you've been in a motorbike chase. What is wrong with you?!" Claire gasped.

"Most things," Alec joked.

"Christ!" Claire heaved. "I need a coffee. I've not even had my breakfast yet."

"Come on," Sasha ushered then, walking along the street, "there's a café just over here. What could be more Christmassy than a full English for your lunch?"

The café was a typical, slightly grimy, slightly smelly, plastic tabled little place along the street with neon coloured post-its in the window advertising any friable form of breakfast. The table was a little sticky, but even still the Christmas-Pop music kept the atmosphere light, and even the scent of coffee covered whatever scent it was from the toilet.

"So what's going on? A CyberTech van – what's that about?" Alec asked.

"It's the Cybermen. You haven't met them before but they are bad – up there with the Daleks," the Doctor began.

"Yeah. There's this woman - Miss Rubens – who's heading CyberSocial. But she's not a woman. She's this metal, robot, man thing," Sasha explained.

"Oh, so just a bit of a nuisance then," Alec frowned.

"They've taken over CyberTech, that or made it, which I wouldn't be surprised by. They've got control over CyberSocial, and when it launches they're going to use it to control the minds and souls of anyone and everyone who has an account. They could cause havoc! If they wanted, they would have power to control the world, but it's worse than that."

"How could it be worse than that?" Alec asked.

The Doctor paused a moment. "They'll convert the entire planet into Cybermen. You saw Miss Rubens, Sasha – they'll turn everyone into copies of her. Metal men with no emotions, no hearts, no free thought. Just like humanity any other day but controlled by them."

"Thanks," Claire said, rolling her eyes.

"Excuse me?"

"No offence meant, but who exactly are you? You just appeared into the world one day – the same day that my best friend was laid down half-dead in my emergency department. And now you're back, out of the blue, and the world is turning to hell! Is that what you do, Doctor? Do you just drag around trouble like a bad smell? Well, answer me!"

The Doctor just frowned, then turned to Sasha. "I don't like your friend all too much and moreover I don't think I want to. It's all gob with her isn't it. Where did you find her? You should look somewhere else next time for better companions."

"Who are you?" Claire snapped. "Just a grumpy guy with a box that goes on dangerous adventures. And the way you act, with that laser pen sonic thing, I doubt you're even from here. Like you're not even human."

"Exactly. I'm not human. I'm a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey."

"And so? You may as well be Dave from the pet shop."

It was at that moment that the waitress stepped beside their table, a blob of gum wedged between her teeth and a filthy apron. She wore a large red Father Christmas hat, almost ironically with such a dull, non-festive expression. "I've got a full English and a club sandwich. I'll bring the rest soon," she mumbled, handing Sasha and the Doctor their meals before swaggering off.

Immediately, Claire snatched the Doctor's sandwich from under his eager eyes, pulled it to herself, and chewed it before the Doctor's irritated expression. "So, Time Lord, why should I trust you? Why should any of us trust you?"

Even Sasha and Alec were looking up now, no longer transfixed in the argument but now genuinely wondering what the Doctor had to say.

"Because you don't have a choice," the Doctor replied. "Everyone on this planet is in danger, and no-one but me can stop it falling into the hands of the Cybermen. I may disappear and reappear, off on another adventure, but for this Christmas I'm staying – I'm staying to save you. Got that, Claire?"

Claire took another chomp on the sandwich. "Just one last thing – why did you leave? The way I see it, you left your two best friends on their own – one fragile and the other barely alive. What kind of a trustful man does a thing like that?"

"Some salad thing and curry," the waitress grunted, reappearing somehow more sarcastic and grumpy than before. "Whose is whose then? I'm not flipping psychic."

Alec took the curry from the waitress, leaving the Doctor to take Claire's salad in disappointment.

"Who's paying?" the waitress snapped, handing out a receipt and credit card reader.

"One for the Time Lord, I think," Claire suggested with a grin.

"I don't carry money," the Doctor snapped.

"What a surprise?" Claire groaned, rolling her eyebrows.

"Ergh!" Sasha groaned, rummaging through her pocket. "I guess I'll pay then, if it's stops you two from killing each other," Sasha decided, forcing her money into the waitress' hand. "Keep the change."

"If it suits ya," she shrugged, wandering away to her magazine.

"And for what it's worth," Sasha began, "I can trust the Doctor. We can all trust the Doctor. What right do we have to say when he goes and when he stays? When I'm in danger, I know he'll be there. But now that we're on the subject: why did you leave? Why have you only just come back?"

The Doctor was shocked silent. ". . . Sorry, I'm confused. Did you want me to answer that?"

"Yes. Now. If you don't mind," Sasha grinned.

The Doctor groaned. "Trust that I hold the two of you dearly with every fibre in my body. But don't ask me to explain myself. It's not your place."

"Good recovery from the cringe," Alec joked.

"But I'm back. And I will be leaving again, but this time I'm taking you two with me. The old team back together. First, however, we need to defeat the Cybermen," the Doctor smiled.

"And how are we going to do that?" Sasha asked.

"You're talking about taking down the whole of CyberSocial. That's gonna take some work," Alec frowned.

"Do any of you have an account yet?" the Doctor wondered.

"No," Sasha and Alec replied. "I didn't like the sound of it. I've never really been into social media anyway," Sasha added.

"I have it," Claire answered. "It's here," she said, taking out her phone, unlocking it, then opening out the desktop to reveal a small grey icon with the CyberSocial logo. "When you get an account you get send the app, but you can't do anything with it until the Christmas Day launch. It saves the network from crashing with everyone downloading at once."

"Just what I need," the Doctor smiled, taking Claire's phone and inspecting the app. The Doctor removed his sonic screwdriver from his pocket and flourished it over the phone with an alien green light. "Aha!" he cried. "Just as I thought. Cyber codes hidden under your everyday computer code – indecipherable files and computer programs ready to be activated."

"But you can get past them, right? Like you did with Miss Rubens' door," Sasha recalled.

"Exactly. But I'll have to be careful. Trigger the app early and it might set them all off, let Miss Rubens find our location, I don't know. I'll give it a try," the Doctor said.

"Just be careful, alright," Claire pleaded, distrusting the Doctor's mad-scientist gleam to the phone.

"No promises," the Doctor mumbled, too occupied. "Aha! Got you now," he suddenly announced, grinning as he pulled the sonic away from the phone, watching alien symbols appear across the screen. "Just as I thought. As soon as the app is activated, the mind is effectively controlled by CyberTech."

"Where are they?" Miss Rubens snapped, snarling at one of her trembling guards in her office. She was scary enough on an ordinary day.

"There was a crash with a motorbike. They've escaped," the guard replied.

"Escaped to where?"

"We don't no. We've tried the CCTV but we've lost them."

"Well done! Never leave a human to do anything involving brain work I say," she snapped.

Then the beeping started – a repetitive hum. Miss Rubens' eyes sparked. "One moment," she insisted, rushing to her computer. A message flashed on her screen:

Unlicensed CyberSocial connection established.

"Is there a problem, Miss Rubens?" the guard inquired.

"Yes," Miss Rubens snapped, "but not for you. I can deal with this myself."

"So how do we stop that happening?" Sasha asked.

"We can use the programming against them. We need to make a virus"

"Yes, but how? Whatever you're going to do, you need to get it onto every phone with CyberTech downloaded."

"Ok, well in that case we'll have to change the programming of CyberSocial itself. Get the virus throughout the system."

"But how do you do that?" Alec inquired.

"Well, I've got a plan. But this launch, where's it taking place?"

"The BT Tower. They'll be launching CyberSocial in the morning at the top floor," Sasha reminded the Doctor, scooping up a fork-full of beans and hash brown.

"Good. That'll give me a whole night to work on the virus," the Doctor considered.

"To the TARDIS?" Alec grinned.

"Good plan," Sasha agreed, scooping the remnants of her meal into her mouth and jumping out of her seat, pulling Alec with her. "Come on."

"But I've not finished my sandwich," the Doctor grumbled, swiftly pulling his meal from under Claire's nose, swapping it with her salad. "Out paced by a thousand year old – do keep up."

"Well I've got a key."

"You don't know where I parked."

"It's parked on the road by the estate. I could see it from my window," Alec replied.

"Cool. We'll be on our way then," Sasha grinned, stepping to the door. "Come on, Claire!"

Claire didn't move. Sasha stopped before the door, then turned to her best friend. "No. No, I don't think I will," Claire frowned. "I'm sorry, Sasha, but I can't get involved any more. For God's sake, I just publicly smashing up my bike after crashing into a van, I'm not gonna break into the BT Tower at the biggest launch event of my lifetime!"

Sasha hesitated a moment, then pulled up a chair beside Claire. "This is what we do all day, everyday. I trust the Doctor, and you should, because we will have saved the world. Forget your job and the bike – this is a chance no-one else will ever get."

Claire raised her eyebrows and stiffened her lip. "I love my job, Sasha, so don't presume I'll give it up like you and your failed police career. And I don't think I'll ever trust the Doctor," Claire argued, giving Sasha a last smile before leaving the café.

"Claire!" Alec called, stepped out to stop Claire, but she was already down the street.

"Ergh!" Sasha groaned, collapsing her head against the table in frustration.

"To the TARDIS?" the Doctor suggested, chewing his sandwich.

"Definitely," Sasha sighed. "Merry Christmas."

I hope you enjoyed that! So, next time, the fight begins to defeat the Cybermen, and Alec has a present for The Doctor...