A year later…

Jackie walked out of her bedroom rubbing her face tiredly. She stopped when she saw Raelyn fast asleep at the table, missing posters scattered around. She had really appreciated all that the young woman had done this past year. She had been in many ways her rock through this very stressful and trying time.

She had actually been surprised when Raelyn had shown up on her doorstep all those months ago. She knew that she and her daughter weren't friends. From what Rose had told her, she wasn't a very nice person. But this past year, the brunette proved over and over that her daughter was wrong. Raelyn Smith was in fact someone who cared deeply for others. It was the only reason why she let her stay in her home.

Jackie slipped into the kitchen to make herself a cuppa and one for Raelyn as well. When she placed the mug in front of the 20 year old, it was like an automatic wake up call. The brunette slowly opened her eyes and sat up, a missing poster stuck to her cheek. The older Tyler let out soft laugh and carefully removed it from her face. Raelyn couldn't help but giggle too. "Thanks for the tea, Jackie", she said after she finally calmed down.

"You're welcome sweetheart. And you know that you don't have to sleep at the table or on the sofa", Jackie said "you're more than welcome to Rose's room".

"Oh, I couldn't do that, it wouldn't be right", Raelyn said. While she did miss sleeping in a bed, she knew the blonde wouldn't appreciate if she slept in her room. She probably would hate the fact that she'd spent all this time with her mother. Raelyn didn't really care though. All she knew was that she had to be here. She didn't know why, she just…had to. The 20 year old hadn't seen a glimpse of the W shaped crack nor heard any whispers in over a year. It wasn't like Naiyah had been around to tell her to go to Jackie's flat. No, it was none of those things. But something was telling her this was where she needed to be. "It needs to be free for when Rose comes home".

Jackie smiled at her again. That was another reason she was glad that Raelyn was here. The unwavering faith that brunette had for her daughter's safe return, kept her hopeful too. Which was more than she could say for her so called 'friends'. They constantly tried to tell her that she should accept the fact that Rose was dead. But she refused to listen to them. Raelyn had faith in Rose being alive and so would she.

"You're such an optimist", she remarked.

"That's me Miss Optimist", Raelyn said taking a sip of her tea "mmm…that's good", she hummed. The flat door opened and Rose walked in. Jackie's mug slipped from her hands, shattering on the floor.

"Hey mum!" she greeted. Her smile dropped when she saw Raelyn sitting at her kitchen table. "What the hell are you doing here?" she demanded "Mum, what is she doing in our flat?!" the irate blonde pointed the violet eyed young woman. Her mother didn't say a word, she just stared at her in shock.

"I've been keeping your mother company through this difficulty time" Raelyn replied.

"What difficult time? I've only been gone 12 hours!" Rose cried "but clearly that's enough time for you to use some kind of…of magic to trick my mother into letting you stay in our home!"

"One: I'm not a witch. Two: you've been missing a whole year", the brunette gently told her. Before the younger Tyler could retort, the Doctor rushed in, looking rather out of breath.

"It's not twelve hours, it's twelve months. You've been gone a whole year", he said apologetically "Sorry". With the Time Lord's admittance, Rose couldn't pass it off as a poor 'joke' on Raelyn's part. It still didn't explain what the brunette did or even said made her mother agree to let her stay all this time. She'd told her repeatedly how Raelyn was an awful person…how she shouldn't trust a word she said.

"You…you're the reason my daughter has been missing for the past year", Jackie accused, going from shocked to angry as she eyed the Doctor "just who the hell do you think you are?"

"I'm the Doctor", Time Lord replied "Rose and I have been travelling together".

"You waltz in here all charm and smiles, and the next thing I know, my little girl vanishes off the face of the Earth!" Jackie exclaimed angrily. She glanced at her daughter "For a whole year I've been waiting and worrying, wondering if I was ever going to see you again. I thank my lucky stars that Raelyn was here to help me through it" she turned back to the Doctor "and how old are you then? Forty? Forty five? What, did you find her on the Internet? Did you go online and pretend you're a doctor?"

"I am a Doctor!" the Doctor insisted.

"Prove it. Stitch this, mate!" Jackie slapped the Time Lord hard. The Doctor reeled back, clutching his face, groaning. Raelyn winced at the action, that had to hurt! After seeing the Doctor get slapped though, she opted to take him up to the roof to allow Jackie and Rose to reconcile.

"She got you good", Raelyn remarked.

"900 years of time and space, and I've never been slapped by someone's mother", the Doctor complained, rubbing his cheek.

The brunette blinked "you're 900?" she asked, utterly surprised. Over this past year her mother had told her all about the regenerations of the Time Lord she'd been travelling with...but she never expected the person….sorry...alien...to be several centuries older than she was.

"I am", he confirmed.

"You look really good for it", Raelyn softly commented.

"Thanks, I moisturise", the Time Lord joked and the young woman giggled. The Doctor grinned, he missed seeing her laugh and smile. Heck he missed her altogether. So much so that he'd sworn he'd seen her around the TARDIS. It was just glimpses though. But he had to admit that there was one time he'd seen her in the reflection of the time rotor.

It was truly what did him in. The real reason for coming back. It wasn't so Rose could see her mother. It was he could see Raelyn Smith, the violet eyed enigma. If the spectral version of his best friend had been around he would've been fine for a while but since she hadn't…he had to see Sarah Jane's daughter. He HAD to.

He only hoped that he would be able to convince her to travel with him. Properly this time. The Doctor prayed that she would say yes. Though...she was still wearing Naiyah's locket which could work in his favour. "How have you been?" he questioned.

"Fine", Raelyn replied "aside from worrying about Rose, this past year had been great". It was more that she was concerned about Jackie's health and wellbeing than the wayward blonde. "Celebrated my 20th in style…well…Mels version of it anyway" the brunette shook her head, smiling "she's gonna be the death of me one day".

For some reason the Doctor's twin hearts seized at her throwaway comment. He was literally filled with dread at the thought of someone or something ending the life of an extraordinary young woman such as Raelyn. "Who's the lucky fella?" he enquired, noticing the ring on her finger.

"Oh, its not that kind of ring", the brunette replied "its a promise ring from my girlfriend. We always said that if we were still together by the time we're 20…" she held up her hand.

"Congratulations. What's her name?" the Time Lord enquired.

"Valerie", Raelyn answered "my valiant sun", she added, softly smiling down at her ring "been together since we were 16 years old". The Doctor could see that the brunette was clearly in love with this Valerie person.

"I see you're still wearing that locket", the Time Lord remarked, noticing it around her neck.

Raelyn touched it "Yeah I am", she said "just didn't feel right taking it off". She climbed onto the wall that the Doctor was leaning against. "You know…I've missed you", she admitted.

"Really?" the Time Lord asked, interested.

The brunette opened her mouth to respond when a horn blared above them. The Doctor pulled her off the wall, holding her protectively as a spaceship zoomed overhead, leaving behind a trail of smoke. "Well…didn't see that coming", Raelyn commented as it collided with Big Ben and crash landed in the Thames.

"Fancy taking a look?" the Time Lord offered.

"Course I would!" 20 year old replied. The Doctor jumped up, grabbing her hand and led her down to the courtyard.

"What exactly are we running toward?" Rose questioned, chasing after them. She and Jackie had heard the noise but by the time they'd come out to investigate, they had missed the spaceship.

"Spaceship has crashed into the Thames", Raelyn answered.

A shocked look appeared on Rose's face "You're kidding!" she cried.

"That's me, I'm a kidder", the young woman drawled and the Doctor smirked.


When the three of them eventually arrive at the scene, the roads had been blocked off by the army and a crowd of people had started to gather. "It's blocked off", Rose commented looking at the roadblock "We're miles from the centre. The city must be grid locked. The whole of London must be closing down", she continued.

"What do you expect would happen?" Raelyn asked, bouncing on her toes trying to see over the crowd "things would go on as normal?"

"I can't believe I'm here to see this. This is fantastic!" the Doctor said, happily.

"Did you know this was going to happen?" Rose questioned.

"Nope!" the Time Lord replied, with a grin on his face.

"What about that ship?" the blonde pressed.

"Nope!" the Doctor repeated.

"Well… do you know why…" Rose was broken off by Raelyn pipping up with

"Will you stop with the 20 questions! If the Doctor says he doesn't know, then he doesn't know" she continued bouncing on her feet "ugh why do I have to so short!"

Rose snickered, making a show to look down on her despite them being the same size "guess that's the question of the hour, isn't it pint size?"

The Time Lord opened his mouth to response when Raelyn stepped closer to the blonde "you really need your eyes checked cos we. Are. The. Same. Bloody. Height", she said in a low, dangerous tone "so how about you stow the height crap and focus on the bigger issue at hand…the ship that crashed into Big Ben".

Rose huffed in annoyance "Ok, well we can use the TARDIS. That'll get us past the roadblock".

"Uh…there's one spaceship in the middle of London, it wouldn't be wise to add another", the violet eyed young woman told her.

"Yeah, but it looks like a big blue box. No one's going to notice", the blonde pointed out.

"You'd be surprised" the Doctor said "Emergency like this, there'll be all kinds of people watching. Trust me. The TARDIS stays where it is".

Rose was rather disgruntled about that, she wanted to go investigate the spaceship. "So history's happening and we're stuck here", she said, bitterly.

"Yes, we are", the Time Lord agreed.

"We could always do what everybody else does", the Doctor looked at Rose questioningly "We could watch it on TV".

"Watch it on TV?" the Time Lord repeated giving the blonde an 'are you serious' look.

"Unless you have a teleport in those bottomless pockets, the TV is our only alternative", Raelyn told him.


"That's so much better", Raelyn muttered stepping outside of the flat. It had just gotten far too crowded for her liking. She rubbed her temples trying to ease her headache from Jackie and her friends nattering about dodgy top-up cards. She pushed away from the railing and wandered away from the front door of the Tyler Flat. She needed to go for a walk, clear her head.

The 20 year old walked along the courtyard, hands in her pockets. She stopped when she saw Naiyah standing by the TARDIS. The little Time Lady turned and moved through the doors like a ghost. As soon as she'd done that, one of the doors creaked open. Raelyn entered the TARDIS where young blonde led her through varying twists and turns until they reached the door that had the engraving of the Time Lady's name in Gallifreyan. "Why are we here?" the brunette asked.

"There's something you need to see", the young Time Lady answered. Raelyn pushed open the door and stepped inside, stopping dead when she saw two words written over and over all around the room.

Bad Wolf

"Bad Wolf?" the 20 year old questioned, walking to the nearest wall, tracing the lettering "what does it mean?"

"What do you think it means?" Naiyah countered, moving to stand beside her.

"I think it's a message", the brunette murmured, still running her fingers over the words "to me". Naiyah's face held an anxious expression as she spoke. The Time Lady really wished she didn't have to show Raelyn all this but she the brunette had to know…this was the path she had to go down…even if she didn't know it yet. Raelyn closed her eyes, this time pressing her hand fully against the wall. "It's to lead me to…" her eyes flew open "Jackie!"

She darted out of the room, making her way through TARDIS and out of the double doors. "Whoa? Where's the fire?!" Mickey Smith exclaimed from his hiding spot behind the dumpster. The 20 year old had the pleasure or the displeasure…depending on your point of view…on meeting Rose's boyfriend.

"Jackie…she's in trouble!" Raelyn cried, not even slowing down as she approached the block of flats. She bounded up the stairs as fast as she could with Mickey following.

Inside the Tyler flat, Jackie is staring in horror at the large alien in her home. As it advanced, she screamed and backed up against a wall.

Raelyn panted, pushing herself to go faster…

The alien raised its claw ready to strike Jackie down. The woman screamed again.