A/N: Okay! This is the fourth and final chapter of The Christmas Invasion, then the Tenth Doctor begins his adventures!
So, let's get going!
I do not own Doctor Who. All I own is this story and my OC.
Positive and constructive reviews are appreciated, flaming comments are not tolerated!
Enjoy :)
HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL
"Oh, all that I know, there's nothing here to run from.
'Cause yeah, everybody here's got somebody to lean on."
– Coldplay: 'Don't Panic' (Parachutes [2000])
The TARDIS
Katy, Rose, and Mickey, who were supporting the still unconscious Doctor approached the TARDIS, and Katy was about to hip-check the door open when it opens automatically by itself.
"Thank you." She says to the TARDIS who hums in reply. She, Rose, and Mickey carefully lay the Doctor down on the metal grated floor and take a breather against the console or on the jump seat. Mickey looks curiously at the console before looking at the sisters.
"No chance you could fly this thing?" He asks, and Rose shook her head.
"Not anymore, no." She replied, and Mickey just looked at her with a frown.
"But you didn't fly it, Katy did." He reminds Rose, whose face falls in annoyance with the reminder that she hadn't been the one to save the day at the last minute. Rose turns and looks snidely at Katy.
"Well, can you?" She asks, and Katy shook her head.
"It's sort of been wiped out of my head, like it's forbidden." She lied to Rose but looks meaningfully at Mickey who gets up and comes over to perch beside Katy on the jump seat. "Try that again and I think the universe rips in half." Rose looks irritated by this fact and walks over to check on the Doctor, while Katy leans over and whispers into Mickey's ear. "If I were a Time Lady, I probably might be able to fly her."
"So why don't you become a Time Lady again then?" Mickey asked, and Katy's shoulders sagged as she looked a little frustrated.
"The TARDIS says I'm not ready yet. Or it's not time to release my essence yet." She explains, and Mickey's face falls.
"Well, that's a lot of help." He grumbles, and the TARDIS growls in response making Mickey jump in shock. "What was that?"
"I'd be careful what you say. She doesn't take too lightly to being criticised or grumped at." Katy explains, causing Rose to look over at her.
"And how would you know?"
"The Doctor explained the different hums, groans and growls at me for future reference." Katy once again lied. Mickey gets back up from the jump seat and leans against the console, rubbernecking about the expansive room.
"So, what do we do? Just sit here?" Mickey questioned.
"That's as good as it gets." Rose stated, miserably. Jackie comes in carrying one of the shopping bags and pulls out a flask of hot freshly made tea.
"Right, here we go. Nice cup of tea." She announces, unscrewing the cup-lid from the canister and pouring out some steaming hot tea.
Rose rolled her eyes.
"Mmm, the solution to everything." She drawled sarcastically and Jackie scowls at her for the comment.
"Now, stop your moaning. I'll get the rest of the food." Jackie states, before turning on her heel and leaving the TARDIS to fetch the rest of the shopping bags. Rose walks around to where Mickey was standing at the console, while Katy goes and crouches down beside the Doctor, who was now looking a little more peaceful. Katy hoped it was a sign that he was almost done with his regeneration.
Mickey was grinning light-heartedly.
"Tea. Like we're having a picnic while the world comes to an end. Very British." He starts tapping at random buttons on the console. "How does this thing work?" He asks, frowning curiously. "If it picks up TV, maybe we could see what's going on out there. Maybe we've surrendered." He looks over at Rose. "What do you do to it?"
"I don't know." Rose shrugged, also pushing random buttons to try and switch on the console screen. "It sort of tunes itself."
Spaceship
On the Sycorax Spaceship, a loud, warning-like bleeping noise instantly started, and echoed all around them like a fire alarm. The Sycorax leader immediately started shouting in his alien language, sounding extremely agitated. Alex instantly looks down at the translator in his hand and reads out the words that came up on the small screen.
"The noise. The bleeping. They say it's machinery. Foreign machinery. They're accusing us of hiding it. Conspiring." Alex then frowns at what he reads next. "Bring it on board."
As this was happening on the spaceship; down on the Powell Estate, Jackie was emerging from the stairwell with the last of the shopping bags she had hastily packed food in and was making her way towards the TARDIS. A weird noise stops her in her tracks, and Jackie looks around for the source.
"Katy? Rose?" She looks over at the TARDIS, expecting to see her daughters and Mickey emerging themselves to locate the noise too. But instead she saw the TARDIS being beamed up into the sky.
Jackie drops the shopping bags in her arms in horror. "Katy! Rose!"
TARDIS
Rose and Mickey were still checking out the console that they had somehow managed to turn on. But not necessarily so they could see what was happening outside the ship. Instead, all they could see was an odd pattern on the monitor.
"Maybe it's a distress signal." Mickey suggests, as Rose lets out a disbelieving snort and scowls at the screen as though it had done her a personal wrong.
"A fat lot of good that's going to do." Rose bitched and both Mickey and Katy roll their eyes and look at the petulant, sulky blonde in annoyance. Katy takes a seat beside the Doctor on the metal grating.
"Are you going to be a misery all the time?" She asks her sister.
"Yes." Rose shot back, as Mickey smirked and tried to make light of the unusual situation they all found themselves in.
"You should look at it from my point of view, stuck in here with your mum's cooking." He jokes, as Rose returns the smirk but then frowns with concern at the TARDIS's double doors, a bit worried that Jackie hadn't returned with the remainder of the shopping bags she had gone to retrieve earlier.
"Where is she, anyway?" She pondered, before sighing and moving out from behind the console and headed for the doors. "I'd better give her a hand. It might start raining missiles out there."
"Just tell her anything from a tin, that's fine." Mickey jokingly suggests to Rose who makes a face at him.
"Why don't you tell her yourself?" Katy questions him with a raised eyebrow. Mickey wonders over to where Jackie had set down the flask of tea and starts to pour a cup for himself.
"I'm not that brave." He admits, looking a bit sheepish.
"Oh, I don't know." Rose looks at him with affection, which makes Mickey grin back. But the grin falls when Rose suddenly yells out in fright the second she steps from the TARDIS. Both Mickey and Katy stare at each other in alarm.
"Rose?" Mickey, in his haste to go and investigate what was wrong with Rose, accidentally drops the flask on the floor beside the Doctor's head. Katy gets up and goes to follow.
Spaceship
Rose had been immediately snatched up by a couple of Sycorax the very second she had stepped from the TARDIS.
"Get off! Get off me!" She yells, in both anger and alarm, which was what caused Mickey to come running out to her rescue. Rose's eyes widen with alarm when she sees Mickey and Katy running to help her and starts shouting at them. "The door! Close the door!" Rose shouts, and Mickey turns to Katy who was almost outside, when the TARDIS doors suddenly slam shut in front of her by themselves.
"Hey! What's going on!" Katy demanded, urgently. "Let me out!" She grabs the door handle and starts yanking on it trying to get the door open, but it won't budge. She doesn't notice the tea dripping from the open flask beside the Doctor's head down onto the TARDIS's workings underneath the time console, but she could hear the Sycorax cheering triumphantly behind the closed doors. "Seriously! Why won't you let me out!" Katy demands to the TARDIS, who doesn't answer her.
Outside, Harriet spots Rose and immediately grabs her up into a hug, both relieved and scared to see the blonde on the Sycorax spaceship of all places.
"Rose. Rose! I've got you." Rose clings to Harriet, thankful to see another familiar face apart from Mickey trapped up here on the strange spaceship with her. "My Lord. Oh, my precious thing." Harriet babbles, before pulling away and looking very seriously at Rose. "Where's your sister? And the Doctor, is he with you?"
"Katy's locked inside the TARDIS." She indicates to the blue box which Harriet blinks quizzically at. "But no, the Doctor's not here. We're on our own." She admits solemnly, missing the incredulous expression on Mickey's face when Rose mentioned that the Doctor wasn't there.
The TARDIS
Inside, the tea vapour, which was dripping on the TARDIS's workings, rises like steam through the floor grating, grabbing Katy's attention and causing her alarm; thinking that it could be short-circuiting something.
"Oh, God..." And she quickly snatches up the fallen thermos and looks around for something to soak up the tea spill. However, her attention turns towards the Doctor when he suddenly takes in a deep breath, breathing in the vapour and then exhaling more of the golden energy.
"Doctor?" Katy calls out to him cautiously, setting aside the thermos and approaching him. She jumps back in surprise when he slowly sits up and yawns like he had just awakened from a pleasant sleep. His head swivels in Katy's direction and he beams with delight.
"Katy! Hello!" He gets to his feet and Katy nearly bowls him over when she runs at him and flings her arms around his neck when she pulls him into a relieved bear hug. "Oof! I take it you're glad to see me, then?" The Doctor chuckles affectionately at her.
"You have absolutely no idea." Katy mumbles into his shoulder. "We are in so much trouble right now." The Doctor sighs heavily as he cards his hand through Katy's hair and squeezing her just as tightly as she was with him.
"I know." He replies, solemnly. Katy pulls back and looks at him with surprise.
"You do? How? You were out cold the entire time." She pointed out, and the Doctor smooths some of her hair behind her ear.
"I could hear everything that was going on around me."
"You could, huh?" Katy's face pales, looking both terrified and sheepish about what he might've heard, and the Doctor gives her a knowing look which causes her to avoid his eyes and step away from him. He hooks a finger underneath her chin and makes her look at him.
"Yep. You'd be surprised what you can pick up when you think nobody knows you're listening." The Doctor stated, sagely. "And don't worry, I'm not angry that you told Jackie everything about you being a Time Lady."
"You're not?"
"Of course not. It just means that there is one more person on our side who understands." The Doctor then makes an uncomfortable face. "Especially when it comes to Rose. I'm getting the impression she is going to be a handful in the future." Katy grimaced, earning a raised eyebrow from the Doctor as she turns away from him and walks towards one of the coral support posts holding up the console room.
"I hate to break it to you, Doctor. But when Rose sets her mind on something; in this case, getting into a relationship with you, then nothing will dissuade her otherwise, unless somebody sets her straight." The Doctor looks slightly horrified at the thought. But before he could question Katy further, she hooks her thumb in the direction of the TARDIS double doors. "We'd better get out there before it gets worse." He frowns at the obvious avoidance of the topic, and nods as he goes towards the doors.
But he leans over to whisper firmly into her ear.
"We're going to talk more about this later on. You can't avoid me or the topic forever." The Doctor warns her pointedly, before opening the double doors and plastering on a fake smile as he steps out.
Spaceship
"Did you miss me?" The Doctor addressed Rose, Mickey, Harriet, and everyone else, while Katy frowns at the back of his head; partly in annoyance and partly in surprise. She then has to duck when the Sycorax cracks his whip at them; aiming dangerously close to her head. However, the Doctor catches the end of the whip and pulls it out of the leader's hand. "You could have someone's eye out with that." The Doctor admonishes the Sycorax leader, firmly.
"How dare...!" The leader protests in outrage, while another Sycorax runs at the Doctor, aiming to club him over the head with his staff. However, the Doctor snatches it from him and breaks it across his knee.
"You just can't get the staff." He mutters, and Katy winces at the bad dad joke. "Now, you, just wait. I'm busy." The Doctor scolds the Sycorax before taking Katy's hand and pulling her along with him to greet everyone else; taking note of Rose's jealous possessive glare at their joined hands and realising that what Katy had said before was entirely correct. He mentally groans in his head before replacing the fake smile on his face. "Mickey, hello!" He greets a bemused looking Mickey, who blinks at him in surprise. "And Harriet Jones; MP for Flydale North." The Doctor beams at an equally confused Harriet. "Blimey, it's just like This is Your Life." He comments before addressing Katy, Rose, and Mickey. "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."
"Of course it is." Katy drawled, sarcastically. The Doctor smirked at her words and squeezed her hand in his before turning back towards Rose and Mickey.
"Now, first thing's first. Be honest, how do I look?" He asks all three of them. Rose was the first one to answer.
"Er, different." She replies, scanning his face curiously. The Doctor raises an eyebrow at her answer.
"Good different or bad different?"
"Just different." Rose shrugged, unhelpfully. Dissatisfied with Rose's answer he turns back to Katy for her reply.
"You look younger. Thinner…" She trails off and blushes in embarrassment as she stops herself from revealing what she really thought, earning a flirty, knowing grin from the Doctor, much to Rose's irritation.
"Am I ginger?" The Doctor asks seriously.
"Sorry. You're brown." Katy looks apologetic, and the Doctor's face falls in disappointment.
"Aw, I wanted to be ginger." He whines, earning a bemused look from both sisters and Mickey. "I've never been ginger." He then turns and points rudely at Rose, scowling with disappointment and hurt. "And you, Rose Tyler, fat lot of good you were. You gave up on me!" Rose looks taken aback, and Katy squeezes his hand, causing the Doctor to back track in surprise. "Oh, that's rude." He realises. "That's the sort of man I am now, am I? Rude. Rude and not ginger." The Doctor sounded fascinated by this, just as Harriet steps forward to address him.
"I'm sorry. Who is this?"
"I'm the Doctor." He responded, matter-of-factly.
"He's the Doctor." Katy and Rose spoke up in unison. Harriet frowns in confusion.
"But what happened to my Doctor? Or is it a title that's just passed on?" She demands, and the Doctor smiles gently at her, understanding her confusion.
"I'm him. I'm literally him. Same man, new face." He looked pointedly at Rose, who flushes with embarrassment. "Well, new everything."
"But you can't be." Harriet protests.
"Harriet Jones," The Doctor decides to try a new tactic to help her understand. "We were trapped in Downing Street and the one thing that scared you wasn't the aliens, it wasn't the war, it was the thought of your mother being on her own." Harriet's eyes widen with shock.
"Oh, my God."
"Did you win the election?" The Doctor grins at her.
"Landslide majority." Harriet confirmed, looking proud. The Sycorax leader decides at that moment to interject.
"If I might interrupt?" He demands, impatiently. The Doctor blinks at him as though remembering that he was still there and turns to address him, pulling Katy along beside him as they were still holding hands … and the Doctor was not letting go anytime soon.
"Yes, sorry." He apologises to the Sycorax. "Hello, big fellow."
"Who exactly are you?" The Sycorax leader demanded.
"Well, that's the question." The Doctor shrugged.
"I demand to know who you are!" The Sycorax leader roared, fiercely.
The Doctor frowned at his tone.
"I don't know!" He imitated the Sycorax, mockingly. "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." Katy studies him curiously, filing away this observation for later when she was going to question him about regeneration. "Am I funny? Am I sarcastic? Sexy?" He winks and clicks his tongue at Katy who laughs, rolls her eyes, and shakes her head. "Right old misery? Life and soul? Right-handed? Left-handed? A gambler? A fighter? A coward? A traitor? A liar? A nervous wreak?" Everyone is looking at him with bemusement. "I mean, judging by the evidence, I've certainly got a gob." The Doctor then spots something interesting up a flight of nearby stairs and nudges Katy who looks over also. A slightly manic grin passes over the Doctor's face. "And how am I going to react when I see this, a great big threatening button." He bounds up the stairs, pulling Katy along with him. "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 let's go of Katy's hand momentarily and opens up the base of the matrix. "And what've we got here?" Inside the matrix was a small basin of what looked uncomfortably like… "Blood?" The Doctor dabs a finger into the liquid and smears it on his tongue for a sample.
"Ugh, seriously?" Katy grimaced, as the Doctor makes a face at the taste.
"Yeah, definitely blood. Human blood. A-Positive, with just a dash of iron." Katy's stomach rolled slightly at the discovery. "Ah, but that means blood control. Blood control! Oh, I haven't seen blood control for years." He looks over at the Sycorax leader. "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 slams down his hand on the large red button.
Katy's eyes widen in alarm.
"NO!" Rose and Harriet shout.
"You killed them!" Alex sounded outraged, but the Doctor didn't look worried. In fact, he looked a little bit smug as he eyes the Sycorax leader, who looked a bit … sheepish?
"What do you think, big fellow? Are they dead?" The Doctor questioned him, and the Sycorax leader now looked a bit resentful.
"We allow them to live." He stated, begrudgingly.
"Allow?" The Doctor snorted. "You've got 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."
"Blood control was just one form of conquest. I can summon the armada and take this world by force." The leader threatens. The Doctor doesn't look entirely convinced or threatened in the least.
"Well, yeah, you could. Yeah, you could do that, of course you could. But why?" He asks. "Look at these people." He gestures around at Katy, Rose, Mickey, Harriet, and Alex for example. "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 be seen. More to do than … No, hold on." Katy looked at him with amusement. "Sorry, that's The Lion King." He grimaces a little at his slight mistake. "But the point still stands. Leave them alone!" The Doctor requests sternly.
"Or what?" The leader taunts.
"Or…" The Doctor drops Katy's hand and grabs a sword from a nearby Sycorax aide, before running back to the TARDIS. "I challenge you!" All the Sycorax laugh, while the small group of humans watch him worriedly. "Oh, that struck a chord." The Doctor observes with mild amusement. "Am I right that the sanctified rules of combat still apply?" He asks the leader who straightens up when he realises the Doctor is serious.
"You stand as this world's champion?"
"Thank you," The Doctor smirks. "I've no idea who I am, but you just summed me up." He takes off his borrowed dressing gown and tosses it towards Katy, who catches it and drapes it over her arm. "So, you accept my challenge? Or are you just a cranak pel casacree salvak?" The Doctor insults him in Sycoraxic, causing the leader to roar in outrage and make his mind up for him.
Both of them kneel.
"For the planet?" The leader questions.
"For the planet." The Doctor agrees, looking deadly serious. They swing and clash swords, causing Katy to jump and step instinctively back into Mickey's arms as he pulls her behind him protectively. The leader takes a swipe at the Doctor who ducks as it nearly takes his head off with its sword.
"Look out!" Rose warns him a little too late, and the Doctor just looks at her with sarcasm.
"Oh, yeah, that helps. Wouldn't have thought of that otherwise, thanks." Rose makes a face at the reprimand. It becomes obvious after a few seconds that the Sycorax leader is the more experienced swordsman, forcing the Doctor to retreat up a nearby tunnel. "Bit of fresh air?" The Doctor quips, as he hits a random button, which opens up the spaceship hull to direct daylight. Katy, Rose, Mickey, Harriet, Alex, and a handful of Sycorax follow them outside. They watch with horror when the Doctor is driven back to the edge and hit on the nose with the hilt of the leader's sword. Rose goes to run to the Doctor's aid but is immediately stopped by both Katy and Mickey. The Doctor notices this also and raises a hand to stop her.
"Stay back!" He snaps. "Invalidate the challenge and he wins the planet." The leader uses the Doctor's distraction as an opportunity to knock him down and then slashes down with his sword, severing the Doctor's hand and the sword he was using from his wrist. Both of them fall to the Earth. The Doctor looks at the leader with disbelief. "You cut my hand off."
"Ya! Sycorax!" The leader crows triumphantly, egging the rest of the Sycorax to cheer along with him. However, the Doctor gets to his feet; still smirking.
"And now I know what sort of man I am. I'm lucky." The leader stops cheering and looks at the Doctor suspiciously. "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:" The Doctor's severed hand grows back, astonishing everyone.
"Wow!" Katy exclaims. 'So Time Lords are like lizards, then?'
"Witchcraft." The leader almost looks afraid.
"Time Lord." The Doctor corrects, looking almost smug.
"Doctor!" Rose snatches another Sycorax's sword from him and tosses it to the Doctor who suddenly demonstrates impressive swordsman-like skills when he catches it.
"Oh, so I'm still the Doctor, then?" The Doctor questions Rose, who grins at him.
"No arguments from me!" However, instead of being pleased, the Doctor rolls his eyes at Rose's hypocrisy before refocusing on the leader.
"Want to know the best bit? This new hand? It's a fightin' hand!" The Doctor explains, going into a slight southern-American accent, before blocking another attack from the leader. The Doctor quickly disarms the Sycorax and thumps both hilts into the leader's abdomen, twice. The leader falls towards the edge of the spaceship, which overlooks London from above. "I win!" The Doctor declares triumphantly.
"Then kill me." The leader lowers his head, resentfully. The Doctor grimaces at the idea, and instead offers an alternative.
"I'll spare your life if you'll take this Champion's command. Leave this planet, and never return." The Doctor advises, fiercely. "What do you say?"
"Yes." The leader agrees, reluctantly.
"Swear on the blood of your species." The Doctor insists.
"I swear." The leader confirms, and then the Doctor does a complete 360-degree personality shift from fierce to cheerful and friendly.
"There we are, then. Thanks for that. Cheers, big fellow." The Doctor grins and stabs the sword into the spaceship hull, before turning and walking back to the small group of humans who were applauding him on his victory.
"Bravo!" Harriet cheers, beaming from ear to ear.
"That says it all. Bravo!" Rose agrees, running and hugging the Doctor's arm to her in her excitement.
"Ah, not bad for a man in his jim-jams." The Doctor shrugs modestly, as he pats and rubs Rose's shoulder before gently extracting his arm from Rose's grip; much to the blonde's hurt and surprise. Katy helps him on with Howard's dressing gown. "Very Arthur Dent. Now, there was a nice man." The Doctor commented, retaking Katy's hand after tying the dressing gown sash together, much to Rose's fury when she notices. The Doctor shoves his hand into the other dressing gown pocket and frowns when he feels something inside it. "Hold on, what have I got in here?" He pulls out a satsuma (or Mandarin) and grins at it in amusement. "A satsuma. Ah, that friend of your mother's. He does like his snacks, doesn't he?" He tosses the fruit up and down in the air in his hand, like a ball. "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?" The Doctor jokes casually.
However, during the entire conversation, the leader gets up from the ground and grabs his sword. He runs at the Doctor's back, but the Doctor immediately throws the satsuma at a control on the spaceship hull, which opens up a piece of the wing. It causes the leader to fall backwards, and he plummets to his death.
"I guess that concludes negotiations?" Katy comments, a little uneasily.
"No second chances. I'm that sort of man." The Doctor states, darkly, squeezing Katy's hand in comfort when he senses her alarm at his ruthlessness.
Spaceship
The Doctor leads the small group of humans back inside the spaceship, before addressing the remaining Sycorax, sternly.
"By the ancient rites of combat, I forbid you to scavenge here for the rest of time. And when you go back to the stars and tell others of this planet, when you tell them of its riches, its people, its potential. When you talk of the Earth, then make sure that you tell them this: It. Is. Defended."
Then he, the TARDIS, Katy, Rose, Mickey, Harriet, and Alex are beamed away back to the surface of the Earth.
Road near Powell Estate
"Where are we?" Rose asked the very second the six of them regained their senses after being teleported back to Earth. Everyone, except for the Doctor who was still staring at the Sycorax spaceship still hovering above them in the sky, looked around for something familiar to pinpoint their current location.
"We're just off Bloxom Road." Mickey confirmed. "We're just 'round the corner, we did it!" He grins triumphantly and fist bumps the air. The Doctor raises his hand in the air, indicating for them to stop.
"Wait a minute, wait a minute." He instructs, still staring at the spaceship. They all watch as it immediately flies away, obviously heeding the Doctor's warning from before.
"Go on, my son! Oh yeah!" Mickey shouts at the spaceship. Rose takes a running jump and piggybacks Mickey.
"Yeah! Don't come back!" Rose cheers, holding onto Mickey's shoulders as he hooks his arms around her thighs. After the spaceship finally disappears, Rose hops down from Mickey's back and hugs him tightly, before turning and hugging a surprised Alex, who pats her politely on the back. Harriet approaches the Doctor with a proud, affectionate smile on her face.
"My Doctor." She greets him with a warm hug.
"Prime Minister." The Doctor grins, reciprocating the hug. Harriet then takes notice of Katy who smiles warmly at her.
"Katy! Lovely to see you again!" She pulls the brunette into a hug also.
"Hello, Harriet."
"Absolutely the same man." Harriet chirps at the Doctor with relief, then looks slightly concerned. "Are there many more out there?" She indicates to space and the Doctor nods his head in response to her question.
"Oh, not just Sycorax. Hundreds of species. Thousands of them." He confirms. "And the human race is drawing attention to itself. Every day you're sending out probes and messages and signals. This planet's so noisy. You're getting noticed more and more. You'd better get used to it." The Doctor suggests, and Harriet's face falls a little.
"Katy! Rose!" Both girls turn to see Jackie running up the street towards them, looking worried.
"Mum!" They shout at her in unison, as Katy breaks away from the Doctor and runs to embrace her mother with Rose.
The Doctor rolls his eyes.
"Oh, talking of trouble." He mutters, but with affection rather than exasperation like his previous body would have. Jackie embraces both Katy and Rose in a tight hug.
"Oh, my God! You did it! Oh!" Jackie cheered, looking amazed. Alex's business phone starts ringing and he turns away discreetly to answer it.
"You did it too!" Rose tells Jackie, who looks slightly confused about what she had supposedly done right. "It was the tea. It fixed his head." Rose elaborated indicating to the Doctor who was grinning cheerfully at Jackie.
"That's all I needed, cup of tea." He confirmed.
"I said so." Jackie pointed out. "But is it him, though?" She questioned, looking warily at the Doctor. "Is it really the Doctor?"
"Yes, mum. It's really the Doctor." Katy confirmed, feeling like a broken record when it came to both her mother and Rose. Jackie then takes notice of Harriet, and her mouth drops open in awe.
"Oh, my God, it's the bleeding Prime Minister!" Jackie exclaims. The Doctor shakes his head and spreads his arms wide, inviting Jackie in for a hug.
"Come here, you." He requested, and Jackie doesn't hesitate to come over and hug him tightly. It's not long before Katy, Rose, and Mickey are brought into the hug also. Jackie looks up at the Doctor with concern.
"Are you better?" She asks him, and the Doctor nodded without hesitation.
"I am, yeah." He grinned, and everyone finishes the hug and steps back, except for Katy; whom the Doctor had wrapped an arm around her waist, keeping her close to him. Alex approaches a solemn faced Harriet, revealing to her what the phone conversation he had just received was.
"It's a message from Torchwood." Alex reveals, and Harriet's eyes widen slightly, having forgotten that she had requested assistance from the top-secret organisation. "They say they're ready." Harriet doesn't respond for a moment, still observing the Doctor, his companions and their mother still joyfully having a conversation amongst themselves.
"You left me!" Jackie scolds her daughters, who both look slightly shamefaced.
"I'm sorry." Rose apologised.
"In our defence, the Sycorax were the one's who pulled us away." Katy pointed out, and Jackie rolled her eyes at the flimsy excuse.
"Well, that's beside the point. I had all the food." Jackie complained. Harriet makes a silent decision and lets out a shaky breath.
"Tell them to fire." Harriet gives Alex the order, and he nods and speaks discreetly into the phone to the person on the other side.
"Fire at will." He orders.
Suddenly, five green beams streak up into the sky; stopping the conversation between the Tylers, Mickey, and the Doctor as they watch with horror when the beams meet and fire out into space, causing the retreating Sycorax spaceship to go KABOOM! Rose's mouth falls open with shock, while Jackie covers hers with her hands, and Mickey looks appalled.
But it was the Doctor and Katy's reactions that had the most volume.
"What the fuck was that?!" Katy shouted angrily at an unrepentant Harriet. The Doctor, who wasn't a fan of cussing, didn't even bother to correct Katy for her language. It was obvious that he had been thinking the same thing too. He glares furiously at Harriet.
"What is that? What's happening?" Rose wanted to know.
"That was murder!" The Doctor pointed out, angrily.
Harriet frowns at the Doctor, unapologetically.
"That was defense," She responded. "It's adapted from alien technology. A ship that fell to Earth ten years ago."
"But they were leaving." Katy pointed out.
"You said it yourself, Doctor, they'd go back to the stars and tell others about the Earth." Harriet retorted. "I'm sorry, Doctor, but you're not here all the time. You come and go. It happened today. Mister Llewellyn 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."
"By shooting them, while their backs are turned. Very brave." Katy sneers with disgust.
"Britain's Golden Age." The Doctor confirms, very sarcastically.
"It comes with a price." Harriet stated. The Doctor drops his arm from around Katy's waist and comes striding over, ready to rain down hell over Harriet for her cowardly actions.
"I 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." He growls.
"Those are the people I represent. I did it on their behalf." Harriet explained.
"Then I should have stopped you." The Doctor realised.
"What does that make you, Doctor? Another alien threat?" Harriet's eyes narrowed, sternly. Katy strides forward to stand beside the Doctor.
"Try: 'last line of defence'. It's what he's good at." Katy defends the Doctor's actions, earning a scowl from Harriet.
"This is not a conversation for a child. You should remain quiet." Harriet shuts Katy down and the brunette's eyes flash with anger.
"I believe you've underestimated me, Prime Minister. For I am far from being a child." Katy mutters in a very calm, very low and articulated voice as she corrects Harriet, almost revealing her true identity in her anger. The Doctor puts a restraining hand on Katy's shoulder and gives her a stern, warning look before taking over the conversation with Harriet.
"You do not talk to her in that way," The Doctor growls, protectively. "And do not challenge me, Harriet Jones, because I am a completely new man. I could bring down your government with a single word." He warns Harriet, whose hard face softens a little. She looks at him with a pitying expression.
"You're the most remarkable man I've ever met, but I don't think you're quite capable of that." She tells him, and the Doctor's eyes harden.
"No, you're right. Not a single word, just six."
"I don't think so." Harriet disagrees.
"Six words."
"Stop it!" Harriet snaps.
"Six." The Doctor was adamant, before striding over to Alex, and pulling the earpiece from his ear so he could whisper into it. "Don't you think she looks tired?" He looks pointedly at Harriet, causing Alex to look at him with confusion. The Doctor then walks back over to Katy, takes her hand, and continues walking down the street. Rose, Mickey, and Jackie follow them without another word. Harriet looks at the retreating Doctor in alarm, before turning towards Alex.
"What did he say?" She demanded. Alex looked bewildered.
"Oh, well, nothing, really."
"What did he say?" Harriet didn't believe what Alex said.
"Nothing. I don't know." Alex insists.
"Doctor!" Harriet goes to run after him, but the Doctor and his friends were almost out of sight. "Doctor, what did you say? What was that? What did he say? What did you say, Doctor? Doctor!" The Doctor never looks back, and Harriet immediately realises that she has made a serious mistake when it came to overestimating the Doctor and what he was truly capable of.
"I'm sorry."
The TARDIS & the Tyler's Flat
The Tylers and Mickey headed back to the Tyler's Flat while the Doctor took a detour back into the TARDIS's infinite wardrobe to get dressed. Because this was a new body, it meant a new personality and therefore a new preference for the type of clothing this incarnation wanted to wear. The Doctor pulled out an outfit that was circa the late 1700s and looks it over with interest. Around his neck was the impossibly long multicoloured scarf his fourth body had once worn.
Meanwhile, back in the Tyler's Flat, Katy, Rose, Mickey, and Jackie were making preparations for Christmas dinner; with Jackie making the finishing touches, while Katy and Rose set the table and decorated it with Christmas Crackers, and Mickey carved up the turkey they would be soon feasting upon. The Doctor eventually comes across a brown pinstriped suit and a long, heavy looking brown coat. He grins approvingly and takes off the ridiculously long multicoloured scarf and replaces it on an old hat stand, before leaving the wardrobe with his new clothing selection.
After a quick shower and shave, the Doctor stands before his full-length mirror and inspects his appearance. He smooths a hand across his freshly shaven jaw and smiles at himself before turning and leaving the wardrobe, hands buried deep in the pockets of his brown coat. The Tylers and Mickey had only just sat down to begin eating their dinner, when the Doctor lets himself in and strolls down the hallway towards the dining room. Katy, feeling like somebody was staring at her, turns and looks, and her eyes widen in shock when she takes in the Doctor's appearance.
'Son of a bitch. He was the strange man Rose and I saw at the beginning of this year!' Katy confirms in disbelief, as the Doctor beams at Katy with deep affection, and she immediately gets to her feet and rushes over to engulf the Doctor in a tight hug.
"Don't you look dapper." Katy mutters into his ear, resisting the urge to interrogate him about something that probably hasn't happened for him just yet, as she pulled back to peck him on his cheek.
The Doctor chuckles.
"Thank you." He kisses Katy on the forehead in return.
Neither notice the jealous, resentful glare they were receiving from Rose who was observing them from where she was sitting at the dining room table. She grunts in slight pain when somebody kicks her shin underneath the table and she looks over at the culprit, only to react with shock when she spots Jackie looking at her warningly. Katy grabs the Doctor's hand and pulls him towards the table.
"C'mon. We've saved you a seat." She tells him, ready to argue with him about this all being 'too domesticated' for him and refuse to sit with them. Instead, the Doctor grins and takes an appreciative sniff of freshly cooked turkey.
"Smells wonderful. Let's eat!" The Doctor chirps with enthusiasm, earning a look of complete surprise from both Katy and Rose; since he had refused point blank to eat with them last time. The dinner eventually progresses to the traditional tug-of-war competition with the Christmas Crackers. The Doctor faces off with Rose with her cracker. He ultimately wins and fishes out the coloured paper hat with his fingers, before grimacing at the colour and handing it to Rose. "Oh, that's yours." He grins, and Rose beams at the colour and unwraps it.
"It's pink!" She exclaims. "Mum, it should be yours." Rose jokes and turns towards the Doctor, only to frown when she sees that he had turned back to Katy and was facing off with Katy and her cracker. Something out the corner of her eye catches her attention and she turns and blinks in disbelief when she sees Harriet on the TV. "Look, it's Harriet Jones." The Doctor's face immediately becomes stony as he turns his attention to the TV which was on BBC24 doing a breaking news story on Harriet of all people.
"Prime Minister, is it true that you are no longer fit to be in position?" A reporter was questioning a very flustered looking Harriet.
"No. Now, can we talk about other things?" Harriet responds firmly. But the reporters were clearly fixated on Harriet's supposed Vote of No Confidence newsflash.
"Is it true you're unfit for office?" Another reporter insisted. The Doctor pulls a pair of glasses from his suit jacket pocket as he continues to watch the interview with interest.
Katy raises an eyebrow.
"Look, there is nothing wrong with my health. I don't know where these stories are coming from." Harriet was trying to defuse the situation and failing miserably. Katy immediately cottons on to what might've happened and looked at the Doctor shrewdly.
"This was your doing, wasn't it?" She asks the Doctor, who looks back at her with a 'who me?' expression on his face, that he ruins when he smirks and winks conspiratorially at her before turning his attention back on the TV.
"A Vote of No Confidence is completely unjustified." Harriet insists, frustratedly.
"Are you going to resign?" Yet another reporter thrusts their microphone in Harriet's face, she sighs irritably. The landline rings, and Jackie goes to answer it as Harriet answers the question.
"On today of all days, I'm fine. Look at me, I'm fine. I look fine, I feel fine."
"On the contrary, love. You look a bit harassed to me." Katy comments in amusement, as the Doctor replaces his glasses back into his pocket and turns back to face the dining table. Jackie strides back into the dining room.
"It's Beth." She tells Katy and Rose who look at their mother with surprise. "She says go and look outside."
"Why?" Rose asks.
"I don't know, just go outside and look." She puts the landline on the table and starts ushering everybody to the front door. "Come on, shift!"
Powell Estate Courtyard
The first thing that Katy notices when she gets outside in the cold night air is that the ground is rapidly being covered with white flakes that were falling gracefully from the sky. Streaks of light are cris-crossing the night sky.
"Oh, wow!" Katy gushes in delight, clutching at the Doctor's hand when he came up beside her, looking up at the sky also. Although, he didn't exactly have the same childlike awe on his face that Katy or Rose had on theirs. On the contrary, he looked rather solemn.
"That's beautiful," Rose agreed. "What are they, meteors?"
"It's the spaceship breaking up in the atmosphere." The Doctor explains, and the delighted smile falls from the sisters' faces almost immediately. "This isn't snow, it's ash."
"Oh, not so beautiful, then." Rose amends her comment, dejectedly.
"This is a brand-new planet Earth." The Doctor reminds both girls. "No denying the existence of aliens now. Everyone saw it. Everything's new."
"Good." Katy smiled approvingly.
The Doctor glances at her with deep affection in his eyes and laces his fingers with Katy's in their handhold. Katy glances down at their linked hands and then at him before smiling and leaning her head on his shoulder and continuing to watch the 'meteors' creating shooting stars in the sky. Rose sidles up on the Doctor's other side and frowns at him questioningly.
"What about you? What are you going to do next?"
"Well, back to the TARDIS. Same old life." The Doctor replied with a shrug.
'But with one big difference…' He thought gratefully, remembering that he wasn't the last Time Lord left in the world as he squeezes Katy's hand. The smile on his face faded a little when he remembered he still needed to have a conversation with her about their newfound relationship, and any questions she might have about 'regeneration' that she was bound to have.
"On your own?" Rose sounded concerned, and the Doctor blinked.
"Why, don't you want to come?" He sounded vulnerable, and Rose was quick to answer him.
"Well, yeah."
"Do you, though?" The Doctor prodded, and Rose beamed happily.
"Yeah!"
"I just thought, because I changed…" the Doctor trailed off, and Rose bit her bottom lip looking a little sheepish.
"Yeah, I thought, because you changed you might not want me anymore." Rose assumed, and the Doctor looked horrified by the thought that the girl he thought of as his little sister wouldn't be around to experience time and space with him and Katy.
"Oh, I'd love you to come." The Doctor stated, enthusiastically.
"Okay!" Rose grinned.
"It'll be just like old times: you, me, and Katy." The grin faded a little on Rose's face. "The three of us, traveling through time and space." The Doctor looked positively excited by this, and Rose tried not to look irritated and disappointed that she wasn't going to get the Doctor to herself.
"Of course. Can't wait." Rose muttered, dully.
The Doctor wasn't a fool, he knew what Rose's intentions were, and he was determined to make it clear that any potential relationship between them was never going to happen. He already had Katy. That was enough for him. Mickey walks up to Rose, looking disappointed.
"You're never going to stay, are you?"
"There's just so much out there. So much to see. I've got to." Rose explained to him.
"Yeah."
"You know, you could always come with us, Mick." Katy pointed out. "It is up to the Doctor, of course. But I'm sure he wouldn't mind you coming along." Mickey looks over at the Doctor, who hadn't forgotten the conversation he and Mickey had had months ago after the Slitheen invaded London. But he hadn't objected back then, and the invitation was still there for the boy to take up if he wanted to. The Doctor nodded in confirmation.
Mickey cracked an almost smile.
"We'll see. No promises though." Mickey answered Katy, who shrugged. Good enough, she supposed.
"Well, I reckon you're mad, all of you. It's like you go looking for trouble." Jackie objected, still looking a bit anxious about the concept of her daughters travelling around with the Doctor.
"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 is going to be fantastic." The Doctor quoted his old catchphrase, which made Katy grin at him and laugh nostalgically.
"That hand of yours still gives me the creeps." Rose points out, pointing towards the Doctor's regrown hand. But still takes it, nevertheless. "So, where're we going to go first?" The Doctor pauses for a moment. He lets go of Rose's hand to point in a random direction in the night sky.
"Er, that way." Then he pauses and backtracks. "No, hold on." He points at a different direction. "That way."
"That way?" Rose confirms.
"Hmm?" the Doctor pauses, waiting.
"Yeah, that way looks like a good place to start." Katy comments, earning an affectionate grin from the Doctor as he, Katy, and Rose continue watching the light show above their heads.
A/N: Let the adventures with Ten begin! I hope you're all enjoying this sequel so far. I'm still putting the finishing touches on the next chapter, but I'll get it out soon! TTFN!