After awhile, sitting in the back of the truck on Hale Avenue, while UNIT troops occupied themselves with the alien pod, The Doctor made a decision. Hoping off the truck, she clapped her hands together as she took a quick visual scout round. Soldier boys and girls down the alley, being all shouty and marchy. Quite distracting, really. So, alternatives would be..Ah ha! Obviously, plenty of houses along Bachelor Road, pretty sure they had yards that ran along that very alley. So, vault a few fences, being all stealthy as she did so, and then—-
A yell split the stillness of the night, interrupting her thoughts and shifting the Doctor's plans. Well, to be honest, it was more a bellow.
'Get out of my garden!" the voice shouted, followed by an even angrier, "You monster!"
Now, it would be perfectly acceptable to assume an overzealous UNIT soldier had gotten themselves spotted by a rather stroppy neighbor, who has taken it upon themselves to give said soldier a good telling off. It was night time, after all.
But no, that voice, that voice the Doctor would know anywhere. No one bellowed like one Donna Noble when her dander was up. Which meant, that kismet was being a mischievous little thing right now, fiddling with coincidence and such, because Donna had actually found a real-life, honest to goodness monster in her garden.
And she did not sound happy about it, at all, really. Well, Can't blame her for that. Any other day, The Doctor would have been thrilled, but only if it has been someone's else garden. Right, here we go again.
With that, The Doctor dashed off down the street towards Donna, and possibly destiny…
,
While Sylvia had no doubts that the little white chubby rabbit/cat thing in their kitchen was an alien, the only thing she found she could focus on was Donna, her daughter. Her daughter. Her daughter who, if she learned that aliens and spaceships were real again, would die as her brain burned up.
She was about to go out and physically drag Donna away from that fuzzy alien when there was a loud hammering on the door.
And a voice urgently yelling, "Let me in! Fammi entrare! Oi! Hello?"
That didn't sound like Shaun. Besides, he had a key and—
That was a woman's voice. Who the blazes could that be?
Fear, resentment, and a real need to wallop something spurred her on as she she ran up the hallway to the front door as the letterbox was poked open. As she bent down to see who it was at their door, she half expected to see a pair of familiar large, dark brown eyes, but instead was greeted by a pair of beautiful blue eyes looking through the letterbox. Women's eyes. Pity, Sylvia had partially hoped it was the Doctor, because she really wanted to give him a big wallop right about now.
"Hiya," said the woman kneeling on the other side of the door. "I don't suppose you could be a dear, and let me in?"
"Who are you?", demanded Sylvia. "Are you with that UNIT lot? Is that why that..that thing was in our garden?"
"Sort of, to answer the second question. No, to the third, and the first is abit more complicated. So, if you wouldn't..hang on, I know you, don't I?"
"Look whoever you are," demanded Sylvia sternly, "I don't care who you are with, but you need to leave and take that alien fuzzball with you!"
"Blimey, very edgy, aren't we?", said the woman, who to Sylvia's mounting annoyance was neither leaving or, in anyway, getting rid of the alien that Donna should really not be seeing. "Then again, you were always edgy. Granted, I would be edgy too if I were in…" The eyes peering looking through the letterbox widened, as the woman exclaimed excitedly, "Oh, I do know you! Sylvia! Oh, Sylvia, hiya! How ya been? Feels like ages, hasn't it?"
"What?", stammered Sylvia, totally bewildered by the erratic antics of this strange woman who had turned up their door, and frustrated by the continuing situation in the kitchen involving a fuzzy white alien, her daughter, and granddaughter.
"It's me!", declared the woman happily. "Don't you..oooooohhh right! Yeah, guess you wouldn't, huh? Changed a few times. Really changed this last time.."
As the woman rambled on, something felt strangely familiar about all this. Then it dawned her.."No! No, it can't be…"
"Guilty as charged!", said the Doctor. "Now, could you please let me in?"
Fifteen years of bottled up emotions came out in one hissed, acidic word. "You!"
"Yeah, thought we covered that already. Bit of a retread, don't you think? Now, how about we get back to that whole letting me in thingie.."
Quieter and calmer than Silvia ever thought she would be in all the scenarios that have run through her head over the years, since the Doctor was last here. Things may have changed, The Doctor apparently being a woman now, for one. But, one thing had not changed. Bending in closer, she spoke calmly, yet firmly to her. "You said if she sees you again, she will die!"
The Doctor's eyes wrinkled as she said in a baffled tone, "Wwwweeeellll. I think what I actually said was, if she remembers me. And let's be honest, shall we? Seriously doubt that will happen. I mean, she's hardly going to recognize me now, anyway. So, now that we've crossed the i's and dotted the t's. Wait, flip it, moving on. Now, how about this door and its opening, hmm?"
While this was going on, behind them, Donna and Rose were in the kitchen. Donna was furious. Not with Rose. Or the white fluffy thing, but with her. With Sylvia.
"No such things as spaceships? We've got a bloody Martian in the shed."
"Why does she always assume every flippin' alien she meets are Martians?", mused The Doctor aloud. "They aren't even furry!"
Rose was trying to calm her down. "Stop panicking, Mum!"
"Get away from here!" Sylvia hissed through the letterbox. "Now!" She then turned around to give Donna another concerned look. She had spent years dreading a day like this coming, and now it was here! Fuzzy aliens and a now lady Doctor!
The alien in question was now hanging on Donna's leg, rather like a baby, while Donna vigorously tried to shake it off. "Get off me, space rat!"
"Awwww, isn't that cute?", said The Doctor in an amused tone. "Not often I run into one of those. Ooooo, newness. Love newness! and look at that! It's all fuzzy wuzzy and white. An alien puffball!"
Sylvia ignored the Doctor as she moved urgently towards Donna, frantically waving her arms. "Don't look at it, Donna, don't look, don't look. It's not real!"
Behind her, she dimly heard a strange whirring sound. Then, suddenly, the front door opened behind her, just as she reached the kitchen. Donna was still trying to shake the alien off her leg; Rose was nearly beside herself with frustration.
The Doctor dashed up to join them all, and Sylvia tried to slap her, but The Doctor ducked and spun quickly before springing past a startled and annoyed Sylvia. "Ah ha ha!"
As she sprung into the kitchen, The Doctor found Rose staring at her again. 'Always with the staring', she thought to herself. 'Didn't get stared like that, when I was a bloke.'
"It's that woman!", Rose exclaimed.
Sylvia was horrified. They'd already seen him, or rather her before?
"It's the skinny woman from Camden," Donna said.
"Is that like 'The Girl from Ipanema'?," murmured The Doctor, then mouthed "oh" as she realized what Rose had meant, before continuing, "Oh right, I suppose I am then."
"No, it isn't," declared Sylvia, who was having none of it, and had placed herself between the Doctor and her family, holding her arms out as if she could block her from view. The Doctor, of course, wasn't helping, trying to duck under her outstretched, moving arms. Sylvia rolled her eyes as she heard the Doctor saying, "This is no time for Keep-Away-Doctor." Once again trying to ignore the Doctor's antics, she fixed Donna with a firm stare as she stated, "She's not there. You can't see her. There's no monster on your leg. None of this is happening, none of it. For the love of god, none of this is real!"
And everything went silent. Donna's eyes weren't looking at Sylvia, but beyond her. So was Rose. Even the alien thing was staring too. Sylvia's head turned in time with the Doctor's.
Standing in the hallway, smiling at the insanity he'd just walked into, was Shaun Temple.
"Eh-eh, Dad's home."
Nobody said anything.
It was obvious that Shaun could see the Doctor. And Rose. And Donna. And Sylvia. And most importantly, he could see the furry white alien clinging to his wife's leg.
Before he could react, The Doctor had sprung forward with a bright smile on her face as she shook his hand with both of her own. "Hiyas! Nice seeing you again." Noticing where Shaun's attention was focused, she glanced over her shoulder, then back at Shaun. Letting go of Shaun's hand with one hand, she gestured back toward the kitchen. "Oh, that's an alien. Rather cuddly, right?"
Shaun, just kept smiling, first looking at a rather excitable Doctor, then he turned his attention to his family, looking at each one in turn before settling on Sylvia. "Something smells nice," he said, nodding his head towards the cooktop.
"Tuna madras," squeaked Sylvia.
The Meep simply let go of Donna's leg and looked at them all with huge almond eyes.
"Meep meep."
A short while later, Sylvia, Donna, Rose, and Shaun, the whole Noble family, found themselves standing silently in the front living room of their quaint home, as a strange tableau played out before their eyes. One unexpected houseguest, The Doctor, her beautiful orange coat chucked over a chair with her hat folded up and tucked in one of its pockets, was casually bandaging up the paw of another unexpected guest, a furry alien, the Meep.
It most certainly wasn't something that one would ever expect to happen in one's home but for fifteen years, Sylvia had done her best to make sure that it never ever happened here.
Sylvia wished she could tell Donna, or Rose, or even Shaun why so was anxious and agitated, or why she was so hostile towards The Doctor. Then again, Sylvia was finding herself conflicted by that herself. For one thing, it wasn't even the same Doctor! The one she'd known had been a handsome man with a tall, slim frame, and thick brown hair swept up into a quiffy spiky modern style. The Doctor that was here now was a tall, slender woman with long, red hair. Of course, both were infuriating flippant, acting as if they were an authority on everything, but this new Lady Doctor seemed to be more openly empathic than Donna's Doctor. Maybe she was being abit harsh, she was trying to help after all. Maybe she should be nicer…
Instead, she tugged Donna aside, into the hall, hoping with all her heart to distract her, shield her from all of this as she tried to move her into the kitchen. "I..I'm worried about infection," she lied. "From that…that thing. Let that woman handle it all. We should leave her to it, and oh, let's go to my house and —"
But Donna was already pulling away and moving further into the room at a determined pace.
Right towards the Doctor.
The Doctor was watching as Donna began to that familiar old head-wobble-while-barking-at-you thing. Oh, how she'd missed that.
"Never mind the ferret from Mars, who the hell are you?"
"Ferret?" The Doctor looked up, another warm smile on her face, ready with another witty retort, when, as she saw Donna standing there, her mind flashed back to the last time she had seen Donna. She could see and hear in her mind's eye, Donna…breaking. In the Tardis. Looking so sad as she realized her own fate.
Binary, binary, binary…
"Oh, I'm…I'm a.."
Shaun answered for her, "She said she was a friend of Nerys's."
The Doctor clicked her fingers. "Yeah, that! A friend.." She beamed as if it explained everything, but when she saw Sylvia's frosty glare, that smile faded. 'Oi, tough room," the Doctor thought to herself.
Donna, however, got it. "Nerys!" she seethed. "Well, now it all makes sense. That viper in the nest!"
'Whoopsie,' thought the Doctor. She had forgotten about how Donna had felt about Nerys.
Meanwhile, Sylvia tried again to ease Donna away, but Donna, of course, was not having any of it. "I'm not going anywhere, Mum! Look we could all sell Mad Paddington here for a million quid!"
Rose was aghast. Shaun was appalled. The Doctor had quickly turned to reassure the Meep, who clearly had realized who Donna had been referring to. "Meep meep?"
Donna looked at Shaun and Rose. 'Well, you find the money to fill the fridge then!"
While Shaun and Rose were occupied with trying to calm down an irate Donna, Sylvia was pleased to see the Doctor gently pat the Meep's bandaged paw, as the little furry creature settled on the floor. All of this was so much for her. After all this time, aliens! And the Doctor was here, but of course, not exactly the same Doctor, but the Doctor, nonetheless. Either way, she and that fuzzy alien both needed to go away now. A long, long way away.
The Doctor then looked up at Donna, as she sat cross-legged on the floor, her head cocked quizzically like an inquisitive child. "What did happen to your money anyway?"
In typical Donna fashion, she answered a question with a question. "Why are you so interested in us? Everywhere we go, there you are."
Sylvia held her breath, staring pleadingly at the Doctor, after of what she might say. But a photo had caught her eye - a picture of her dad, smiling, in a red bobble hat, up at his allotment.
"I was wondering.." The Doctor kept staring fondly at the picture. "Someone's missing, aren't they? Feels like they are. Ah, granddad. Knew your granddad, Wilf. Grandad Wilf. Is he…?"
Donna was suddenly quieter. "No, he's not with us anymore."
Sylvia was astonished to see that the Doctor looked like been hit by a three-ton weight; all the air seemed to leave her, as she sagged down against a chair. Sylvia could swear there were tears welling up in the Doctor's eyes! "Oh, right. Suppose he was somewhat long in the tooth. Sorry, such an absurd phrase, isn't it?" The Doctor composed herself before continuing. "I was always rather fond of ole Wilfsie, dear Brill Wilf. I'm sorry for your loss."
Donna frowned. "He's not dead."
'You idiot," Sylvia added.
"He's in sheltered accommodation," Donna explained. "He's ninety-four, couldn't manage the stairs."
The Doctor gave a facial shrug, as she murmured, "Makes sense."
"We were lucky," Shaun chipped in. "We couldn't afford it, then this offer came along."
Rose nodded enthusiastically, as she added, "It's amazing! He's got this room, like a cottage, with a garden, and its almost free."
"Run by that lot in the middle of London, UNIT," Shaun said, "Kate something, she said he's an old soldier and that she would take care of him."
The Doctor leaped to her feet, her face lit up by a beaming smile. "Awwww Kate. Eccellente! I know her, you know. Her and her dad. Love 'em. So, she's looking after Wilf, eh? Brill! Total Brill!" Noticing the Meep, still sitting there on the floor, staring at them all with its wide almond eyes. "Ah, Meep. Meepity Meep. I haven't forgotten you." The Doctor began to pace now, as if she had so much energy that she couldn't stay still anymore, as she began speaking in her typically rapid-fire way. "Right, well, I can certainly give the Meepster here a lift home again. Wherever home is, but we can get that sorted along the way, now can't we?"
"You're assuming "he" as a pronoun," said Rose, abit primly.
"Hmm? Oh, did I?", said the Doctor. "Ah, I did. Quite the grammatical faux pas. Apologies all around. Talk about embarrassing." She then crouched back down to the Meep again, while behind her, Donna automatically sat on the arm of the sofa near her. "Sorry about that. Stupid pronouns. Still, adjusting to them myself. So, are you a he, a she," The Doctor inquired gently, "or they…"
The Meep's eyes narrowed fractionally. "My chosen pronoun is the definite article. I am always the Meep."
"Oh, I love that!" exclaimed the Doctor happily, flashing a quick smile at everyone in the room. Leaning towards the Meep, she stage whispered, "I do that too." Leaning back again, she continued on again. "Was that your ship back there? Rather lovely. Bit dinged up, though. Nothing a good buffing won't sort out, though. So, laser fire, plasma torpedoes?" Before the Meep could respond, the Doctor waved it off with her hand as she continued on, speaking rapidly almost to herself. "Doesn't matter. What inquiring minds really want to know is who shot you down, why did they shoot you down, and what for, right ?"
The Meep's eyes started to fill with tears, as it said mournfully. "The Wrarth warriors."
Sylvia found her maternal instincts sudenly kicking in again, as she felt an overwhelming urge to hug the poor lost soul.
"They cultivate Meepkind for our beautiful fur. The galaxy said, 'No more fur, it's wrong,'" but the Wrarth Warriors' reaction was to slaughter the Meep. Now they will hunt me down til there are no Meepkind left."
"Huh, talk about a fashion victim." murmured The Doctor, as everyone else in the room groaned at her bad pun. "Right, sorry. Couldn't resist."
The Meep reached out with its wounded paw to touch the back of the Doctor's hand. "It breaks both of my hearts."
The Doctor gave another facial shrug, as she said, "Huh, what a small cosmos, so do I! Ooooo, we could start a club or something!"
"You've got what?" Donna also stood up, dangerously close to the Doctor.
Oh no, thought Sylvia, quite enough of that. "No," she snapped, "They didn't mean that literally. More like a metaphor, like in two minds." She then threw the Doctor the filthiest look she could muster. "Don't you?"
"Metaphorically, literally, spiritually, physically." murmured The Doctor, earning her a very, very frosty glare from a thoroughly fed up Sylvia. The tenseness between them was not helped by what the Doctor said next. "Touchy, touchy."
By this point, Sylvia was sorely tempted to wallop the Doctor one. This new Doctor was worse than the last one. But, for now, she needed her help getting the alien away from Donna. Both of them could go far, far away. Before she could give the Doctor a piece of her mind, though, there was a massively loud hammering on the front door.
"All right," Shaun yelled. "We're coming."
"Open up," shouted an authoritative voice.
The Doctor was already heading toward the front door, leaving Donna looking at Shaun and Rose. "What the hell is it now?"
Leaving Donna, Shaun, and Rose with the Meep thing, Sylvia went out into the hall with the Doctor, who had slipped her coat back on.
"It's all good," The Doctor told her cheerfully, reaching out to open the door. "My lift's here. Some nice soldier girls and boys to take me and the Meep outcha hair, and on our way. Easy peasy, Sylvie."
For the first time, in what felt like awhile, Sylvia let out a sigh of relief. Perfect, sooner they were gone the better.
The Doctor pulled opened the door, saying, "Hiyas!"
The two soldiers standing there in the doorway certainly didn't look friendly to Sylvia. They were clad in black, armed, and wearing helmets with visors hiding their faces. There was something about them that sent a chill down her spine. She couldn't put a finger on why, but this just felt wrong.
"We demand to search the house," said one of them. "This has been declared a military zone."
"I know she's a bit hostile," said The Doctor, nodding at Sylvia "but that's much, don't you think?" Behind her, Sylvia huffed indignantly as the Doctor drew out her sonic screwdriver, and aimed it at the helmet of one of the soldiers. Sylvia gasped when the visor lifted up by itself to reveal the soldier had no eyes, just a psychedelic sort of light.
"Hey, fantastic. Psychedelic," exclaimed the Doctor, her sonic whirred again, and the visor lowered again. "Sorry, I'm a trifle deaf in this ear." The Doctor indicated her right ear. "Could you say that again? Maybe speak a little louder this time?"
The soldier hadn't even reacted, carrying on as if nothing had happened. It struck Sylvia that it was if he was in some sort of trance. "We demand to search the house," he repeated. "This has been declared a military zone."
"Not today, thanks." The Doctor closed the door on the soldiers, then looked back at Sylvia, "Right, We may be trapped."
Sylvia was about to tell her off for getting Donna and her family involved in this madness, because she knew somehow it just had to have been the Doctor's fault, but, before she could, she felt a wave of heat against her back and heard a colossal explosion.
She swung round, looking down the hall to the kitchen to see that a large part of the rear wall and the back door were no longer there.
Instead, two large bug-like aliens filled the space, aiming blasters their way. These must be the Wrarth the Meep had mentioned.
"Surrender the Meep!" one of them demanded in a loud, guttural voice.
The Doctor grabbed Sylvia by the hand and hauled her back into the living room, ignoring the astonished looks of the rest of the Noble family.
Before anyone could say or do anything, another huge explosion rocked the house, this time coming from the direction of the front door. Peering tentatively around the corner of the doorway, The Doctor saw that the front door had crashed down onto the floor of the way.
"I'll huff, and I'll puff, and blow your house in, indeed.", murmured the Doctor. She then yelped, and ducked back into the living room again as bullets flew past, presumably fired by the soldiers outside the front door with the trippy swirly eyes. This was followed by blue beams of sizzling light fired by, she assumed, the Wrarth Warriors in the kitchen.
As the Noble family, the Doctor, and the Meep cowered in the living room, Number 23 Bachelor Road was turned into the center of a pitched battle between two different armies, with the house getting the worst out the situation. The hallway was strewn with blasted plaster, wood chips, crumbled bricks, and broken glass, as a result of the ongoing gunplay between UNIT and the Wrarth.
"Right. Not good. Seriously not good." The Doctor began to pace, her hands raised towards her head and her fingers curled. "So wasn't expecting this. Then again, why would have expected this. Arghhh!"
"What the hell is going on?", bellowed Donna, as Shaun shouted, "There's children in here!"
"Well, looks like we have got UNIT soldiers and some buggy aliens currently preoccupied with a rather disruptive fire fight."
"Thank you very much, Captain Obvious," said Donna acidly.
"Oh quite welcome," said The Doctor absentmindedly. "Now hush, a bit busy trying to be brilliant here."
"Why did you bring them here?" hissed Sylvia. "Why did you involve us?"
"They're not here for me!", snapped The Doctor, her til-now seemingly carefree demeanor shifting to a more frustrated and annoyed one. "Or you! There here for the Meep! Fortunately, so am I!"
"Do something!", demanded Sylvia, the battle din from the hallway getting louder.
"Well, I'm trying." explained the Doctor hurriedly, her pacing increasing as she spoke aloud. "It's a bit of a work in progress. Getting there. Possibly.." Suddenly, the Doctor's head snapped up, as she murmured to herself. "Of course." Spinning round to face the Nobles, she asked randomly, "This terrace, when was it built?", she asked randomly.
"1910, I think", replied Shaun automatically.
"Right, okay. Plan coalescing." The Doctor snapped her fingers and pointed at Shaun. "Ah, cabbie. Cabbie with a cab," The Doctor leapt toward the living room window, peering out to not only see what was going outside but for a certain black cab. Dropping back from the window, she turned toward Shaun again. "Where is your cab, by the way?"
"Down the street. Opposite number 15, Billy's place."
"Billy? I've got a Billy too. American, though." The Doctor looked from left to right. "Right, which way is that?"
Shaun pointed to the right.
"My old car's nearer," Sylvia shouted. "Blue Kia Picanto. Parked right outside the front door."
"Yeah, hemmed in by barricades. Oh, not to mention the quite angry shooty soldier types and trigger-happy aliens between us and it," said the Doctor, "Thanks, though. 3 out of five for effort." The Doctor added with a smile, which, most certainly, was not returned by Sylvia. "Okay okay okay, hold on..hold on.." As the Nobles and the Meep watched, she began pulling out all sorts of mundane and strange objects from her pockets, such as a variety of alien coinage, one of which looked like a small mechanical crab."Don't need those." A battered, scrawl-covered manuscript. "Off script?" An old yellow yo-yo. "Oh, been looking for that." A small strange looking tan toy head with a goofy expression on its face and a wacky tuft of feathery black hair that made a grating screeching noise when The Doctor accidentally squeezed it as she hastily stuffed it back into her pocket. "Uhm, you know what? Forget you saw that."
"Uhm, Doctor, what was.." Rose tried to inquire, but was cut off by Doctor exclaiming in an excited sing-song voice, "Ah ha ha ha!" The Doctor then pulled two oval shaped grey metal devices from her pockets. "There they are!"
"What are those?"
"MPS, Mobile Personal Shield generators," explained the Doctor. "Very experimental. Nicked 'em from a squad of Sontarans." She then dashed over to the doorway, leaning against it as she began counting down to herself. Sylvia watched as the Doctor pressed glowing buttons on the side of the devices, before tossing them towards either end of the hallway.
Almost immediately, the flying bullets and zapping death rays stopped. The Doctor peered tentatively beyond the door, and what she saw lit up her face with an excited smile. "Zookers! It actually worked." Stepping back into the room, she added, "Brill! Love that! Although, if plan A had failed, at least there's 25 more letters in the alphabet." With that, she grabbed Sylvia and Rose by the hand, and pulled them into the hall. Shaun quickly grabbed his wife's hand and followed them out…into a battlezone that had been their hallway.
Sylvia looked around in astonishment, and she had to admit, reluctantly, admiration. At either end of the hallway were tall, shimmering fields of teal green energy blocking the fireplay. However, they weren't perfect; as she watched, she saw bullets chip away at the energy wall nearest the front door, while blue energy blasts scorched the other shimmering wall. But, they were actually safe…for now.
"Right, upstairs," ordered the Doctor from the living room doorway. "Up you pop. Uppity up up. Quick march." She then gave Sylvia stern look of her own. "Now!"
Sylvia followed Shaun up after Rose and Donna.
The Doctor then turned and yelled over the pitched battle din back into the room. "Oi, Meep, get a hop on!"
With a high-pitched scream, the Meep scuttled out and bundled up the stairs like an oversized rabbit. Sylvia found herself cringing as it brushed past her, scrambling to catch up to Rose. That was odd, she thought, previously, she'd had almost overwhelming maternal feelings toward the Meep. So, what made her cringe now?
She heard a kind of electronic warble, then the volume of flying bullets and sizzling blue rays rose once again, followed by the Doctor's startled yelp. "Wait, where was the Doctor?" Glancing back, Sylvia saw the Doctor had just made it across the hall in time. Pressed against the wall, at the base of the stairs, she could hear the Doctor grumbling to herself. "Blimey! Talk about experimental! Flippin' flippity Sontarans and their knackered tech. Then again, beggars can't be choosers."
The Doctor glanced up, and noticed Sylvia standing on the stairs, staring down at her. What was it with this family and the staring? No wonder Rose bought Googly Eyes! The Doctor launched herself off the wall, dashing up the stairs, and snatching Sylvia's hand along the way. "Right. Up, up we go. Quick now."
The Doctor noticed that the Nobles had reached the second floor now. Joining them, she gave them a reassuring smile. "Everyone here. Yes? Good. On we go. Onwards and upwards." she added, pointed at a hatchway in the ceiling that lead up to the attic.
Shaun and Donna looked at one another. "They just blew our house up," Donna wailed. The Meep was adding to the noise; they hadn't stop their own kind of wailing for abit now.
"Call the Home Office," suggested the Doctor. Responding to Shaun's quizzical look and Donna's narrow-eyed glare, she said, "What? they're wrecking your home." Before anyone could respond to that, she turned toward Rose, who had yanked on a string dangling from the ceiling. The ceiling hatch lowered, and a ladder dropped down.
The Doctor beamed her approval. "Gold stars, Rose." she said, "Now, off you pop, fast as you can, please."
Rose smiled back and started to climb.
Sylvia had noticed the look, and wasn't happy about it, one bit. So, as Shaun and Donna scaled the ladder after their daughter, she grabbed the Doctor's arm. "That's my only granddaughter'," she hissed. "Don't you dare do to her what you did to Donna. You understand me?"
The Doctor gave her a snarky salute. "Yes, ma'am." Before Sylvia could retort, the Doctor carried on. "Oh, FYI, for your consideration, etc etc..I am actually trying to save your granddaughter. Her, you, everyone. So, as fun as this has been, can we just crack on?"
With a final poisonous glare, Sylvia followed the others.
Rose appeared at the hatch now, holding out her arms. With some effort, The Doctor picked up the Meep - who felt surprisingly muscular under its coat of fur - and hefted them above her head into Rose's outstretched arms. Then the Doctor nipped up the ladder herself, pulled it up behind her and slammed the hatch shut.
The Doctor now found herself standing in the attic with The Nobles and The Meep. The Doctor then dashed over to the breeze-wall that separated the Nobles' attic from their neighbor's. Kneeling, she quickly ran a finger along the mortar and brick, then lifted her finger to her lips and licked it tentatively. Satisfied, she reached into her coat and drew her sonic. To the others, she said "This is a sonic screwdriver. Well, screwdriver might be a slight exaggeration. Kept the name, though. Nostalgia and all that. Now, this," The Doctor raised her sonic for them all to see, "is rather good at a good many things. One of them, happily, happens to be resonating concrete." The Doctor then leapt to her feet again, took a few steps back, and then, she flourished her sonic again with a large overhead arc, aiming it at the wall. "Right, now, cover your ears, gonna turn it up to eleven." As everyone quickly covered their ears, the Doctor switched the sonic on. This time, the sonic's familiar whine was much louder and focused, and before their eyes, the wall shook and all the dust between the blocks began pouring down onto the floor. After what was probably a few seconds, but felt far longer, the Doctor switched the sonic off, tucked it away, and took a step toward the wall. Looking at it briefly with a critic eye, she lifted her foot and kicked the wall. Sure enough, part of the wall crumbled away. Stepping closer, The Doctor gave the rest of the wall a good shove and pushed the rest of it down. "As my good friend, Archie, once said," said the Doctor with a satisfied sigh, "'Give me a lever and a place to stand, and I will move the world.'"
"Archie?" asked Shaun, while Rose said, "Wait, didn't Archimedes say that?"
"Yeah," said the Doctor nonchalantly, "Clever Archie. Works on concrete too."
"That's not actually concrete," said Shaun. "It's mortar and…"
"Yes, thank you, Bob the Builder," said Donna, before tapping the Doctor's shoulder. "Annie Hall, you're not bad."
Caught up in-the moment, the Doctor beamed with pride. "Awww, d'you think?"
Before Donna could say anything else, Sylvia charged right between them, nearly dragging Donna with her. "No, she doesn't," she snapped, leading the group into next door's attic. The Doctor followed, humming to herself "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch."
This space had actually been converted into a bedroom, complete with its own bathroom and a skylight.
Shaun looked around. "We should do this to ours."
"Before or after they knock down the rest of our house?" asked Donna as the Doctor had nimbly slipped by her and Silvia. "Perdono," she quipped with a mischievous wink at Sylvia. The Doctor then used the sonic again to all but disintegrate the wall into the adjacent flat's attic. In no time, down came another wall on the other side to allow them to slip into yet another attic.
Glancing back at Shaun, the Doctor asked, "Billy's?"
"Billy's," confirmed Shaun.
They tiptoed through the attic, this one was just an attic, and dropped down. They then carefully made their way down the stairs. This house was nearly identical to Shaun and Donna's, except it hadn't been wrecked in the crossfire between glowy eyes possessed soldiers and bug-eyed aliens.
As they passed a living room, The Doctor looked in.
A man sat alone in a huge armchair, fast asleep with headphones on. Presumably he was listening to music, while a muted black-and-white Lassie film ran on a television. "Billy?," quiried The Doctor, looking at Shaun. "Billy," he confirmed, "Billy MacPherson."
"Hmm, multi-tasking, even while sleeping," mused the Doctor snarkily. "Over-achiever. Right, come on, then!" She then opened the front door and peered out.
It seemed that the Wrarth and UNIT were still caught up in their pitched battle. As The Doctor watched, blue bolts of energy and flying bullets flew back and forth as the mysterious aliens fired at UNIT soldiers who returned fire from behind their vehicles, which were parked some way away. The Doctor noted that some of the visored ones lay crumpled on the ground, like discarded toys.
Past them, The Doctor saw a black taxicab parked, just as Shaun he said, opposite Billy's place.
"Right," said the Doctor, holding an open hand toward Shaun, "Keys, please."
"I drive that."
The Doctor gave Shaun a quizzical look, then made a point of looking around, then turning back to Shaun as she said incredulously, "Through a battlefield? Talk about racking up danger pay!"
"That cab's our livelihood!"
"Let her do it," said Donna from behind Shaun, her voice softer.
Shaun wasn't looking convinced. "She's insane."
"Maybe." Donna pointed at the carnage everywhere. "And maybe that's just what we need."
With a frustrated sigh, Shaun passed the keys to the Doctor.
"Cheers!", she said, clutching them. The Doctor then turned and darted across the road, opened the doors, and waved them across one by one.
Rose dragged the Meep in first. They both clambered into the back of the cab but stayed down on the floor, leaving room for Shaun and Sylvia. Donna pulled down the little extra seat and perched on it, her back to the glass partition.
Before the Doctor got in, she stopped in the street, ducking as a blue bolt zoomed by her head. She saw one of the visored soldiers lying there, seemingly having been struck down by one of the energy bolts. Strangely, though, there were no scorch marks on the soldier's chestplate, nor were there any other obvious signs of harm. Once again, curiouser and curiouser.
Kneeling by the prone soldier, she felt for a pulse.
Noticing another soldier nearby, in same prone position, The Doctor dashed over and did the same.
"Curiouser and curiouser, for sure." she muttered.
The Doctor had thought she was being all stealthy and silent, but clearly not, as half a street away, one of the green alien warriors swung round and fired at her.
"Whoa, Jimminy!", she exclaimed. For a moment the warrior's unblinking red eyes and the Doctor's startled blue eyes locked.
"Meep located," shouted the Wrarth Warrior. "Meep within vehicle. Stop the Meep!"
The Doctor scrambled into the driver's seat and started the cab's engines.
"Get us out of here," yelled Donna as the Wrarth Warriors turned as one to face the vehicle, guns raised.
"Right! Keep your hands, arms, legs, feet, and paws inside the vehicle at all times!" The Doctor sped towards the Warriors, ignoring Sylvia and the Meep's yelling as she did so.
Forced into evasive action, The Wrarth Warriors scattered and took flight, their wings carrying them a few meters in the air as the taxi roared past them. Blue beams bounced off its rear window as it zoomed away. The Wrarth Warriors tried to give chase, but The Doctor managed to lose them by taking a number of back streets and alleyways. It wasn't long til they were away from the battle of Bachelor Road.
"Oh. My. God." Donna finally breathed out. "That was bad."
"You did it," Shaun said, his voice full of admiration and disbelief."You really do have the Knowledge."
"We're alive," Rose said, hugging the Meep.
"Meep, meep," the Meep agreed.
The Doctor looked in the rear-view mirror and saw Sylvia staring at her.
She readied herself for a good telling off, but instead Sylvia silently mouthed, "Thank you," and smiled.
But the Doctor wasn't smiling. Something was too off for smiling. She was thinking about the soldiers that had been lying in the street. She pondered on the fact that it seemed to have been rather easy to get past the Wrarth Warriors. Of a pitched battle in the hallway of the Noble's house that went on and on with no side winning or losing.
She glanced in the rear-view again, and saw Rose hugging the Meep.
And her eyes met the Meep's. Big, round eyes meeting Azure eyes.
Yeah, The Doctor thought. Something was definitely rotten in Denmark. Well, Camden.