Disclaimer: Mostly not mine
"Goodbye, Mum. We'll come visit soon, I promise." Rose said.
"I know, sweetheart. You stay safe out there."
"I will. Keep in touch with Sarah Jane, if we come back after you've found a place it will be easier to get there if we know where you are."
"Yeah, 'course. Besides, Luke's the only babysitter we know."
Rose laughed. She hugged Sarah Jane and Luke, too, before trotting happily into the Tardis. She sighed softly and stroked the coral struts, feeling the Tardis change her hum as she did so. "Home," she said softly, "I'm home."
The Doctor rested his hand on her shoulder and she leaned into him. She looked up. "Where to, Doctah?" She emphasized the cockney accents, her eyes sparkling as she grinned at him.
"Allons-y!" He flew into motion, pulling levers and flying around the Tardis.
Rose and Donna whooped as they struggled to keep their balance.
"Where are we?" Donna asked as they landed.
"London. December 24th, 1851." The Doctor replied.
Rose groaned.
"What?" The Doctor said, "Perfectly good year. Bit boring, really."
"It's Christmas. Something always happens on Christmas."
The Doctor frowned. "Okay, fair point."
"C'mon Donna, let's go change." Rose towed the ginger woman back to the wardrobe.
They walked back out in period dress. The Doctor's mouth went dry. He was suddenly reminded of Rose's first trip into the past. Christmas in Cardiff with Charles Dickens and the gelth. She looked lovely then, too. "Right!" He said, forcing his mouth to move. "Shall we?" He offered his arms to the ladies.
Donna gave him a disapproving stare. "Once we're through the doors, spaceman." She pushed open the doors and stepped into the snowy London street. It was bustling with activity. People selling their wares, families walking through, business men in frock coats, they all walked straight past the Tardis.
"Doctor!" A voice shrieked from a nearby alleyway.
The Doctor looked at Rose with a grin. She grinned right back.
"I think that's some kinda record." Rose told him as she pulled up her skirts to run towards the voice. The Doctor laughed and took off after her. She'd worn trainers under the skirts.
"Obscene amount of running." Donna huffed behind him.
Something was off. Rose could feel it from the moment they met the woman calling out for the Doctor. It had nothing to do with the knot forming in her stomach when they saw the cyberman-dog-cat thing. It was definitely related to the appearance of the man calling himself the Doctor. The Real Doctor seemed to accept instantly that this was a future regeneration, but Rose didn't think so. It wasn't until Rose, Donna, and Rosita cut the two men down from where the creature had dragged them and the Real Doctor talked with his fake counterpart that Rose figured out what it was.
"Well, not as young as you were when you were me." The Real Doctor was saying.
"When I was who?" The Fake Doctor asked.
"Doctor," Rose said, pulling on his arm so he bent for her to whisper in his ear. "Whoever that man is, he isn't you."
The Doctor frowned at her as he straightened up again. "Why do you think that? I've had memory problems before." He said quietly.
"First off, where am I? I'm going to be with you for a long time"
"Rose, just because he doesn't remember you, it doesn't mean he isn't me. Maybe whatever caused the memory problems kidnapped you. Hence 'Rosita'."
Rose shook her head. "Can't you feel it?"
"We don't have time for this. There are Cybermen here." He turned back to the Fake Doctor and opened his mouth. "Don't you recognize me? Us?" He asked the puzzled man.
"Doctor!" Rose nearly shouted. "Shut up and listen!" She tapped her temple.
The Doctor frowned. "Oh." He said as he realized what she meant.
Rose sighed. Finally. The Fake Doctor wasn't telepathic and even if he was blocking the way Rose did, he wasn't hiding his mental signature which was very different from the Doctor's. No matter what regeneration, Rose was sure that would be the same.
The Doctor nodded to Rose. "Might I be correct in suggesting that you have lost some of your memories?" He asked the other man.
The Fake Doctor recoiled, shocked. "How do you know that?"
"I know a great many things." The Real Doctor said gravely.
"Great swathes of my life have been stolen away. When I turn my mind to the past, there's nothing." The Fake Doctor said sadly.
"Going back how far?" Donna said. She was never one to sit out of a conversation. Though whatever it was that Rose told the Doctor, she wasn't sure.
"Since the Cybermen. Masters of that hellish wall-scuttler and old enemies of mine, now at work in London town. You won't believe this, my good people, but they are creatures from another world."
"You're kidding." Donna said drily. Aliens were now getting old hat.
"It's said they fell onto London, out of the sky in a blaze of light. And they found me. Something was taken. And something was lost."
"When was that?" Rose said, "And where were you?"
"I- I don't know." He admitted. "It's all gone."
"Well," said the Real Doctor, "I suppose we could help you out while we're here. What's going on?"
"I say," blustered the Fake Doctor, "I tell you of memory loss and creatures from another world and you don't even blink. Who are you?"
"Oh right. Introductions. This is Donna, and Rose, and I'm... John, John Smith."
"Well, Mr. Smith. You and your friends should get away. This job is dangerous. Come, Rosita. We'll be late for the funeral." The strange man and his companion strode quickly off into the town.
"Follow 'em?" Donna suggested.
Rose nodded. "Definitely follow 'em."
The Doctor grinned at his companions. "Allons-y!" He jogged around the corner.
"Does he really say that now?" Rose asked Donna.
"What, Allons-y? All the bloody time. He didn't when you were with him?"
"I think... I think he came up with it the day I... got lost." Rose replied. "I didn't think it would last."
"Full of quirks, that one." Donna said sagely.
They arrived at a stately house just in time to see the Fake Doctor and Rosita sneak away up towards it and a solemn procession leaving.
"I'll go with them," the Doctor said, "You two follow the hearse and figure out why this is so important."
Rose and Donna nodded, but Donna caught his arm as he was leaving. "You be careful, Doctor. You have a lot more to live for now." She hissed, glancing back at Rose, whose whole focus was on the funeral. The Doctor nodded. A joyous light shone in his eyes belying the serious set of his mouth. Then he scurried away after the strangers.
Rose and Donna walked casually down the street, pretending they weren't too interested in the funeral procession. They cut through a few alleys so they weren't always following and arrived at a graveyard just behind the hearse. They crouched out of the way. There were no women amongst the mourners and they didn't want to stand out.
That is, until a young woman in a bright red dress made her way through the throngs. The funeral stopped.
"I can't hear." Rose muttered. The woman was talking and the men were responding, still agog, but neither Donna nor Rose could hear what they said.
Donna turned to a noise, only to find her companion statue-like, immobile, as the tramping noise of metal feet drew nearer. Rose's breathing was ragged and her eyes wide.
"Not again." She whispered. Then she took hold of herself and prepared for action.
"What are they?" Donna asked.
Rose looked at her blankly. "Cybermen? Infested the whole world as ghosts?"
"Oh. Right." Donna flapped a hand absently. That was back in the days where she paid about as little attention to the news as she could and still get the celebrity gossip.
Rose looked back at the scene. The Cybermen had converged and attacked the mourners, who screamed and scattered. Only four of the men were spared the slaughter. The woman in red, flanked by Cybermen, faced them, laughing before escorting them away from the cemetery.
"Come on." Rose muttered to Donna and slunk from marker to marker, staying out of sight.
Rose cast out her telepathic sense to find the Doctor and led them, unerringly, through the maze of streets and into a stable, empty of horses, where the Doctor, the fake Doctor, and the woman, Rosita, stood talking quietly.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." The Doctor said as the fake Doctor crumpled, his head in hands.
"Caroline. The killed my wife. They killed her." The man said.
The Doctor looked up. "Rose, Donna, I'd like to introduce you to Mr. Jackson Lake, a man who has been bravely defending good ol' London town."
Rose rested a hand on his shoulder. "You've done the work of heroes, Mr. Lake. I'm sorry for your loss."
He looked at her with wretched eyes. "There's something else." He cried, "Something lost and something missing. I'm still missing some of my memories."
"Well," Donna announced, "It's good then that we're here to help you. Doctor, there was this woman, at the funeral, working with the cybermen. She took four of the men and killed the rest."
The Doctor nodded, his face was grave. "We need to find out what's going on here."
"Doctor?" Rose interrupted, "What's that noise?" To her trained ears, she knew it wasn't the cacophonous tramp of metal boots, but it had the same rhythmic quality.
"Allons-y!" He grinned and rushed out, Rose and Donna close on his heels.
Lines of scruffy children marched past the alley where the trio stood.
"That's one of the men from the funeral." Rose said as Donna panted.
"But where are they going? What are they for?" Asked the Doctor.
"The all need a good whipping, if you ask me." A nearby man said, "There's tons of them. I've just seen another lot coming down from the Ingleby Workhouse down Broadback Lane."
"Workhouses." The Doctor murmured.
They followed the children through the cobbled streets to the gates of a large building.
"London Sewage Works." Donna read out loud and groaned, "You always take a girl the best places, Doctor."