AN: this is a major rewrite of The Pickpocket.
Chapter 1 — Somebody Else's Problem
Mermaid Quay, Cardiff
10, 20, 25, 35, 37 quid. I love Saturdays. 65 degrees, sunny, tourists. It's perfect. Now I just need to dump these wallets.
Living on my own isn't so bad really. It's definitely better than foster care. I've a nice set up in an unused storage room in the basement of a shop. Pay the caretaker a few quid a week to look the other way. He even covered the door with a shelf. Stand up guy. I bet no one even remembers it's there. I've got power, it stays warm enough, and who needs a mattress when I've got a comfy nest of pillows and blankets. Oh, and books, lots of books. Libraries are easy to steal from an I bring them back... I just can't risk using my old library card.
Sometimes wonder why no one notices me coming and going through the window. But they don't, and that's good enough for me.
Not having to go to school is a big plus. Having to make money somehow, not so much. Lucky for me, I've gotten pretty good at lifting wallets out of pockets and purses.
It's easier than I thought it would be. The first time I just acted without really thinking. I saw a wallet sort of sticking out of a back pocket, bumped into the guy a bit and ran off with it. After that I just started noticing things, like how a woman would put her wallet back into her purse. Follow them around for a bit waiting for the right moment and bam, got it. A week in and I could pick out a good target after a couple of seconds. Then it's just a matter of visualizing how it's going to go down, concentrating on being super quick, and executing the grab.
Easy money.
Too bad it's exhausting. I don't know why, maybe it's just that I'm concentrating so hard, but after I've grabbed a few I'm done for the day. I start feeling nauseous and get a headache. Just like after the fire...
Whatever, there's a distracted looking businessman, chatting away on his phone. One more wont hurt too bad.
—
I've never been so wrong in my life. Ughh. I'm sitting in a grassy spot leaned up against a tree trying to not look like I'm about to pass out. That one was rough. He just wasn't being cooperative.
What the hell, one of those old school police boxes is sitting in the Plaza. That wasn't there yesterday. How did I not notice that earlier? And why is no one paying any attention to it? Plenty of tourists around who should be snapping pictures.
Hmmm, weird, just popped up, and completely ignored, this box deserves a name. The Box. That's what I'm going to call it. Give it some gravitas. It's not just a box, it's The Box. And I really want to go check it out but, totally not ready to stand up yet. Guess I'll just watch for a bit.
Alright, finally some action. A black man, 20's?, jeans, coat with some fur around the hood, is walking up to The Box. Yep definitely headed straight for The Box. I need to move over to some stairs that are a little closer. I can do it. Slow and steady.
I'm almost there when a see the guy knock on the door. A tall white guy, handsome I guess, wearing a blue tee-shirt, opens the door and lets him in after a brief conversation. So weird. Two people will definitely fit; It's probably 5ft by 5ft. But… why? Maybe it's over a manhole and they're headed into a secret base. That'd be cool. Shit disguise for the entry though. And why did it just suddenly appear?
Yay. Made it to the steps without fainting or puking. What are they doing in there? Gotta be a secret base.
"Should take another twenty four hours, which means we've got time to kill." Shit. A tall guy wearing a black leather jacket has just stepped out of The Box. There were three people in there? He sounds northern.
I grab a book out of my bag and pretend to be reading instead of eavesdropping. Just another invisible kid.
"That old lady's staring" Fur Hood Guy says as he steps out.
"Probably wondering what four people could do inside a small wooden box." Handsome Dude says. Four?
"What are you captain of, the Innuendo Squad?" Fur Collar Guy asks. The what squad? "Wait, the Tardis, we can't just leave it. Doesn't it get noticed?" He continues. Tardis? Is that what The Box is actually called?
"Yeah, what's with the police box? Why does it look like that?" Handsome Dude is talking to someone still inside The Box. No wait, the Tardis.
"It's a cloaking device." A woman says as she exits. Okay, so there really were at least four people in there.
"It's called a chameleon circuit. The Tardis is meant to disguise itself wherever it lands, like if this was Ancient Rome, it'd be a statue on a plinth or something. But I landed in the 1960s, it disguised itself as a police box, and the circuit got stuck." Leather Jacket explains.
So the Tardis is a ship. I can't, I can't quite wrap my mind around all this. A 5x5 ship that four people just walked out of. And that once landed in the 1960's and could go to Ancient Rome! Nope. Brain imploding. No way this thing can time travel. That's impossible right? Holy shit! A tiny time machine. I've got to keep an eye on these guys. I wonder if they're aliens.
"So it copied a real thing? There actually were police boxes?" Fur Hood Guy asks.
"Yeah, on street corners. Phone for help before they had radios and mobiles. If they arrested someone, they could shove them inside till help came, like a little prison cell." Leather Jacket explains. He's got to be the leader.
"Why don't you just fix the circuit?" Handsome Dude asks.
"I like it, don't you?" Leather Jacket says with a big grin, like seriously big.
"I love it." the Woman says looking at Leather Jacket. She is crushing so hard!
"But that's what I meant. There's no police boxes anymore, so doesn't it get noticed?" Fur Hood Guys continues.
Leather Jacket replies, "Ricky, let me tell you something about the human race. You put a mysterious blue box slap bang in the middle of town, what do they do? Walk past it. Now, stop your nagging. We've got a pickpocket who creates time distortions to go talk to."
Oh shit. Great. That's got to be me right? Don't know what time distortions he's talking about but I haven't see any of the other usual pickpockets around this afternoon.
Okay. Breathe. Make a plan. Crowd to the left... possible. The shops around here are all too small to get lost in. But if I can get out of sight in the crowd for a second I can slip down between some buildings. No way they know the alleys and backways as well as I do.
Book in hand. Bag over shoulder. Get up and walk. Shouldn't have picked that last pocket. Still feeling sick.
I'm not going to make it; the angles are wrong. Okay... Okay... can't make a scene, the police will get involved and I'm hiding for a reason. Run it is. This is going to suck.
I turn and start running directly away from them as fast as I can, but it's bloody hopeless. My head hurts so bad, I can barely open my eyes to see where I'm going. I can hear at least one of them behind me. How did he get so close so fast?
I stumble and someone grabs my collar. Unfortunately they're not stupid enough to go for the backpack. I visualize him letting go, and me just disappearing down the street but can't make it happen. Instead my palms and right knee hit the ground, hard.
My nabber, funny word that, nabber, jerks me up and spins me around so that we are face to, well, chest. It's the tall Leather Jacket guy.
He's got one hand holding my shoulder just a little too tightly, and the other sort of wrapped around the back of my head with his thumb on my temple tilting my head back. He's staring into my eyes like he's looking for something and he's frowning and looks pretty annoyed. It feels really weird, uncomfortable. Just breathe. Don't squirm around. don't let him know you're afraid.
It takes way to long but, he finally releases my head and says, "Hello. I'm The Doctor." with a little wave and a huge and almost creepy grin. Wow mood swing.
"THE Doctor?" I say.
"Yep. The Doctor. The definite article you might say." the Doctor says, releasing my shoulder and looking extremely pleased with himself.
"Whatever." I say. I wiping my hand under my nose and finding blood. Great.
Handsome dude pulls a handkerchief from his pocket and hands it to me, introducing himself "I'm Jack. Jack Harkness-"
"Is this the girl we saw on the scanner?" the Woman interrupts as she catches up. Ricky is a little further behind, out of breath.
"Yep." the Doctor replies, rocking back onto his heels. Wait what?
"You were scanning me? Why?" I ask. I can do this. I can manage to not throw up. Just concentrate.
"Was passing the time waiting for Mickey here to arrive. Thought I'd run some scans. Noticed some small time distortions in the area. Not big enough to be a problem really, but unusual. And you came up." the Doctor says.
"Me? How? What are you talking about?"
"You're creating the time distortions."
"Me? You're mad."
"Yep, but I'm right." He says, flashing his crazy grin again
He inclines his head towards the Woman, "This is Rose, the idiot over there is Ricky, and Jack's already introduced himself. So who are…"
He pauses, taking a closer look at me. Eye's widening, he lets go and takes a step back. I manage to take a knee, ugh, that hurt. I think I might have a rock or two embedded in there. At least I managed to empty my stomach without getting it all over anybody.
Jack's rubbing my back while the Doctor has a hold of the side of my neck, thumb against my cheek. He tilts my head up and waves a noisy pen light or something in my face. I open my mouth to tell him to get lost but he sticks something in my mouth. It melts almost instantly.
"That should help with the headache and nausea." He says, slowly rubbing circles on my cheek with his thumb. I catch myself leaning into the contact a little before abruptly standing up. "Thanks." I mumble.
"So, who are you then?" He asks softly, hand dropping to his side. I shrug, "I'm nobody." He straightens up, crossing his arms, giving me a very unamused look. I look up and just glare at him for a bit.
Eventually I concede the staring contest. Not because he's won though. I just, well, whatever, "I'm Sep, Sep Fields." I stick my hand out to shake his. "So very nice to be chased down and tackled by you, THE Doctor."
"Oi! I didn't tackle you, you tripped." He says, and instead of shaking my hand, he just grabs it and starts walking, dragging me along. I tried not to wince at the contact, but must have failed because he's stopped and is looking at my torn up palm.
"Ah. Got just the thing." He says pulling out his little penlight and somehow using it to get rid of the couple of little rocks that had embedded themselves.
I look up at him, "What is that?"
"Sonic screwdriver."
"Seriously?"
"Yep."
"But how...?"
"It's sonic." he says, looking at me like I'm an idiot.
"So it just vibrated the rocks out of my hand?" I ask, skeptical.
"Yep" he answers before putting a plaster over the abrasion and grabbing my other hand.
I try to tug it away, but he just raises his eyebrows and frowns and keeps messing with it. And then my knee.
"I'm not a toddler you know."
But he just looks at me again with his frowny face and keeps working.
"Alright then Sep, how about some lunch?" the Doctor asks grabbing my hand again and starting to walk away. Jack pats me on the back, and I can see he's grabbed my bag and picked up the book I dropped. Rose and Mickey are just behind us, whispering, probably about me.
Who are these people? I mean, the Tardis has got to be a time machine, making them time travelers. This Doctor guy says I'm creating 'time distortions' whatever that means. He's definitely the leader of the group. And if he's a time traveler he probably knows what he's talking about, but… how could I be doing that? I'm just a stupid street kid. It doesn't make any sense. And what was happening while he was holding my head? He was doing something... telepathic? And he's got a magic wand he says is 'sonic'. And whatever he stuck in my mouth worked basically instantly and didn't even taste bad. And he's got these ears. So big! Gotta be aliens.
Mickey, or maybe Rickey interrupted my thoughts, "What are you doing out here by yourself anyway? How old are you, 10?"
"Nice one Rickey. I'm 13 I'll have you know."
"It's Mickey." He says before shouldering past me. Instinct kicks in, I'd already noticed the bulge in his back pocket, and with a little twist to the right... yes. Perfect.
But the Doctor grabs my wrist almost immediately after. He is fast! How did he even see that? The angle was all wrong.
"Don't do that." He tells me. He looks really angry for some reason, lips pursed, jaw clenched, and his grip on my wrist is tight enough it hurts. He knows I'm a pickpocket. What's the big deal?
"I wasn't going to keep it." I say with a shrug. Keep breathing evenly, never let them know you're afraid. Find an escape. He just needs to get distracted and loosen his grip on my wrist. Mickey is pretty pissed. Turn and focus on Mickey. Come on... Deal with Mickey first... release my wrist...
But my visualization is interrupted by the word STOP resonating in my head. It's really weird, like it's a whole orchestra saying 'stop', so layered and odd and hard to ignore. And when did he get my head in his hands? Why is my nose bleeding again? What's happening? I just want to go home. Let me go! I try to struggle but... I can't think. Everything is fuzzy. I don't understand. I don't know what's going on. I... my stomach hurts and I'm tired and I just want to go home.
Memories keep popping up. Is my life flashing before my eyes? Being alone, different families, the tree, school, the fire... NO! Breathe, just breathe... it's gone... life on the streets... my little storage closet home... and then it's all gone, just dark.
"...shhhh, shhhhh. You're safe. I'm going to hurt you. I've got you. Good. Now breathe with me. In… Out… In… Out…" the Doctor says. He's hugging me, rubbing the back of my head. We move over to a bench and he sits me down, then crouches down in front of me.
"I'm sorry. I had to know. You're a strong telepath. But you really are just a kid. A kid who has no idea what they're doing." He says as I pull my legs up and wrap my arms around them.
"I just want to go home."
"You can't. One, you're not entirely human. You don't belong here. Two, you create time distortions without even trying. Three, you can control people's minds. Four, doing those things is making you very sick. And five, all of that makes you very dangerous and someone a lot of people would kill to get their hands on. I can keep you safe."
"But I don't, I-"
"Tell me exactly what happens from your point of view when you pick someone's pocket."
"Ummm, someone just sort of sticks out to me. I visualize how it's going to go down and then I walk by them and make the grab."
"Ah."
"What?"
"What you call visualizing what's going to happen, is actually you programming your target to do what you want."
"I don't… I… I just want to go home."
"Like I said, you can't. Let's go eat." he says offering me his hand.
Just before we go inside he stops and turns to me to say, "It's going to be okay. You're not alone anymore." But he doesn't understand, that's the problem, alone is… safer.
—
We've been at the restaurant for a while now. I'm picking at a stack of chips and nibble on a bit of chicken strip whenever the Doctor waves one in my face.
They've been telling each other stories about their travels. It sounds like Mickey doesn't travel with them. And Jack has had some adventures without Rose or the Doctor. These guys are definitely not boring. But what are they going to do with me? He said I'm dangerous. And if I'm not human, what am I?
I watch the Doctor stand up and grab a paper from a man at the next table.
Jack, oblivious, continuessome story he's been telling, "No, I just picked him up, went right for the ship, full throttle. Didn't stop until I hit the spacelanes. I was shaking. It was unbelievable. It freaked me out, and by the time I got fifteen light years away I realized I'm like this." he finishes, miming shaking hands.
Turning the paper towards us, the Doctor says, "And I was having such a nice day." I don't understand what he's getting at, it's just a picture of the Mayor and yet another article about the nuclear power station that's being built.
Rose nudges me. "She's an alien. A Slitheen from Raxa… Raxacor… Wait a minute! Raxa…"
"Raxacoricofallapatorius." The Doctor says.
"Raxacorico…"
"... fallapatorius." the Doctor finishes.
"Raxacoricofallapatorius. That's it! I did it!" Rose says, finally getting it right. The Doctor smiles, Jack pats her on the back, and Mickey looks a little awkward. Feels like he's a bit of an add on and the Doctor, Rose and Jack are the friends.
"So, you want to go meet an alien?" The Doctor asks me.
"Sure." I answer pretty indifferently. I'm just so tired.
"Fantastic!" He says, grabbing my hand, again. What is it with him and holding hands.
"So why are we going to talk to the Mayor?" I ask the Doctor.
He looks over at me and says, "Her and her family tried to destroy the earth not too long ago. Had to blow up Downing Street to stop them."
I look up at him, incredulous. And he says I'm dangerous! Change topic.
"So the Tardis, it travels in time and space?" I ask.
"How'd you figure that one?"
"I was listening when you guys first left the Tardis. You said it camouflaged itself when you landed in the 60's and that you could have been in Ancient Rome. Doesn't take a genius to figure it out." I explain, making Jack laugh.
"Tardis, stands for Time And Relative Dimension in Space. She's my ship." The Doctor confirms.
Oh.
"How are we even going to get in to talk to the Mayor? You can't just stroll up for a chat, can you?" I ask.
"With this." The Doctor says pulling something out of his pocket that looks like a leather badge holder and handing it to me. I open it but it's just a blank piece of paper.
"Psychic paper." he explains, not-explains.
As I'm wondering what psychic paper could be, the words "What is psychic paper?" appear. "Woah. How? What?" I say as I look up at the Doctor.
"Fantastic!" he replies, his huge and slightly creepy grin back.
"That's so cool." I say as I go to put it in my pocket. It's the kind of thing that would be REALLY useful to have. But he manages to snatch it back before I can. I'm definitely getting my hands on that later.
—
"According to intelligence, the target is the last surviving member of the Slitheen family, a criminal sect from the planet Raxacoricofallapatorius, masquerading as a human being, zipped inside a skin suit." Jack says as we enter City Hall.
She's wearing a disguise? A skin suit? Gross. "What does she actually look like? Is she a lizard? Something with a bunch of tentacles? An insect?" I ask.
"More like a huge green gerber baby with claws, very big claws." Rose explains.
Jack looks over at us. "Done?" I shrug. "Okay, plan of attack, we assume a basic fifty seven fifty six strategy, covering all available exits on the ground floor. Doctor, you go face to face. That'll designate Exit One, I'll cover Exit Two with Sep. Rose, Exit Three. Mickey Smith, you take Exit Four. Have you got that?"
"Excuse me. Who's in charge?" the Doctor asks.
"Sorry. Awaiting orders, sir." Jack replies, standing at attention.
"Right, here's the plan," he pauses, looks at me like he's considering whether I should go with him instead. "Like he said. Nice plan. Anything else?" I guess he figures he can track me down if I run. Or he's worried meeting the alien could be dangerous?
Jack pulls out his phone, "Present arms."
"Ready." "Ready.", "Ready.", "Ready.", "Speed dial?", "Yup.", "Ready.", "Check." They go around. It seems they've done this before.
"See you in hell." Jack says as he makes eye contact with me and heads off.
—
"Slitheen heading north." I hear the Doctor say over the phone. Along with "On my way." from Rose and "Oh my God." from Mickey before Jack answers, "Over and out."
Jack and I are sprinting down a hallway. "Watch out!" I call out just before a tea trolley moves into our path. Jack manages to leap over it, while I slip around the side. This is kind of fun. As we exit the building I can see the Mayor running away, fiddling with something.
"Who's on exit four?" asks Jack.
Rose answers, "That was Mickey!"
"Here I am." Mickey says.
The Doctor says, "Mickey the idiot." making me snort.
"Oh, be fair. She's not exactly going to outrun us, is she?" Rose says as the Mayor disappears.
"She's got a teleport! That's cheating! Now we're never going to get her." Jack complains but Rose smiles, saying, "Oh, the Doctor's very good at teleports."
I'm laughing my ass off watching the Doctor and the Mayor play a strange game of tag. She runs away and teleports, then the Doctor reverses it with his sonic screwdriver and she's running towards us. Over and over. She's like Grover. This is near…THIS IS FAAAAAAAR!
"I could do this all day." The Doctor says.
"This is persecution. Why can't you leave me alone? What did I ever do to you?" the Mayor complains, coming to a stop in front of us, out of breath.
"You tried to kill me and destroy this entire planet."
"Apart from that."
Killer Aliens, teleports, magic wands, time machines, psychic paper, what have I gotten myself into?