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Despite her best efforts to stay asleep, the shrill beeping of Rose Tyler’s alarm clock couldn’t be ignored. Not that she didn’t want to, but she couldn’t. Rose rolled over and swung her arm out wildly, fumbling along her nightstand for a moment. She found the alarm clock and finally managed to turn it off.
Rose took a deep breath and sat up, letting her blankets fall off herself. She shivered but resisted the urge to curl back up in them. Instead she stood up and started getting ready for work. Once dressed and more or less awake, Rose was ready to leave.
As she walked through the flat she passed her mother, who was lounging in the front room watching some show or other. Jackie hadn’t even had to get dressed yet, instead just able to get away with lounging around in her dressing gown. Lucky.
Rose didn’t say anything about that, though. Instead she just leaned down to kiss her on the cheek. “Bye.”
“See you later!” Jackie responded.
From there, Rose’s morning seemed to pass by in a blur. The bus to the shop, helping customers find what they were looking for, arranging the racks and tables of clothes, putting up with the rude customers, it was all as menial as it could have possibly been. It was even worse than normal. With the sale that had just begun, they had even more customers in than usual. At least some of them had been nice enough.
Still though, when it came time for Rose to leave for lunch she was more than ready to get out of there. Fortunately, she wasn’t just getting out of there. After a ten minute walk she arrived at the fountain where her boyfriend, Mickey Smith, was waiting for her.
Lunch with him was exactly what she needed. Sitting on the edge of the fountain, talking, laughing, and just all around having fun was the perfect way to destress from the morning she’d had. Unfortunately, they’d barely even begun when Mickey’s phone began to ring. He groaned and muttered a quick apology to Rose before stepping away to answer. A minute later he snapped his phone shut and let out another groan before walking back to Rose’s side.
“Do you have to go?” Rose asked.
Mickey grimaced. “It’s an emergency,” he explained. “There was an accident and they need me at work to help fix it.”
“Right.”
“I’m sorry.”
Rose shook her head. “It’s fine, really.” It wasn’t his fault, after all. Rose knew that. But that didn’t make it much easier to hear.
Rose packed the remains of her lunch away and stood up. She bent over to grab her bag. Right as she did, Mickey grabbed her arm. She paused to look up at him.
“Tell you what, I’ll pick you up when you get off work,” Mickey declared. “Take you out to dinner. My treat?” His face was so earnest that Rose could feel herself softening right then and there.
“I work until close,” Rose said. “Don’t you dare be late.”
“I’ll be early,” Mickey promised.
Sarah Jane Smith sat in her favorite armchair at the back of her attic. A few books were scattered around her, as well as some older articles and other newspaper clippings. She hummed and underlined a sentence in one of the books and circled a headline. Sarah Jane compared the two for a moment before shaking her head. She crumpled up the newspaper clipping and threw it away.
She sighed and grabbed a cup of tea resting on the table beside her. She’d just taken a sip when a slight beep came from across the room. She looked up, focusing her attention on the supercomputer built into the wall.
“Sarah Jane.”
“Mr. Smith?” she prompted.
“I have found something that I believe would interest you.”
Sarah Jane frowned and pushed the books to the side. She stood up and crossed the attic, her tea still in her hand. She stopped in front of Mr. Smith and looked at the screen, which still showed a completed progress bar. “Well, let’s see it,” she prompted. “What have you found?”
The screen flickered to show an aerial map of London. Lines drew themselves across the map, covering London in a nearly incomprehensible grid. “A series of signals transmitting across London. Scans indicate the signals to be of Nestene origin.”
“Nestene…” Sarah Jane repeated. She leaned closer to the map, examining it intently. “Where are these signals coming from?”
Mr. Smith zoomed in on the map, showing a cluster of lines all converging on one spot. “The signals are localized on the roof of a Henrik’s Department Store.”
Martha Jones walked out of the building and breathed a sigh of relief. If she’d known before she applied that medical school would be so exhausting, she’d have… well, done the exact same thing. She really wanted to be a doctor. And, to be honest, she’d known it would be exhausting and she’d done it anyway, so really it was a moot point.
Still, it was good to be done with another day of classes. With every step down the sidewalk Martha took, she could feel herself getting more and more relaxed. She could just go home and… well, study. She was pretty sure they had a test coming up. And an essay due in just a couple more days. Martha kept walking, no longer feeling more relaxed. She could really go for distraction right now.
Just as she walked past a trash can, a car whizzed by on Martha’s other side. The driver threw a cup of something out the window. Instead of the trash can, it hit Martha instead. The lid popped off and splashed the contents all over Martha.
“Hey, watch it!” Martha shouted, spinning to face the retreating car. It was already gone.
Martha groaned and looked down at herself. The… smoothie, she was going to tell herself it was a smoothie, had soaked through her jacket and was making a sizable dent in her shirt. She shifted and tried to wipe it off, but it was far too late for that. Martha sighed again, though this time there was no relief to be found. She couldn’t go home like this. She didn’t want to go home like this. But she didn’t have anything to change into.
Martha glanced up and noticed a small flyer hung on the wall of a nearby building. She wouldn’t have noticed it at all if it weren’t printed on bright pink paper. She idly read the words once, then read them again with a more keen eye. A nearby Henrik’s Department Store was having a massive sale at that very moment.
Well, wasn’t that lucky?
Donna Noble slouched beside a bus stop, doing her best to glare at anyone who tried approaching her. Not that anyone actually did. Oh, sure, there were plenty of people around, but none of them paid Donna more than a pitying glance. All because of the stupid box in her arms.
There wasn’t even anything that special in the box. A stapler, a plastic plant, and a water bottle that she’s sure didn’t used to be hers just to name a few. Donna hadn’t really paid much attention to what she’d thrown into it. She’d been too busy shouting at her ex-boss at the time to really notice what she’d grabbed. Not that she regretted any of it. It had felt good, and the guy had absolutely deserved it. But it didn’t make the indignity of having to go home with ‘clearly just fired!’ written all over her any better.
Donna’s phone started ringing. She rolled her eyes and balanced her box in one arm so she could pull out her phone. She flipped it open and lifted it to her head. Almost immediately she slumped back against the wall of the bus stop.
“Hey, Mum,” Donna said. She pulled her phone back and considered hanging up, but in the end just settled it against her ear again. She glanced down at the box. “Well, about that-”
Sylvia interrupted Donna before she could finish. She pulled her phone away to let out a sigh and rolled her eyes again. She lifted it back up and felt her eye twitching.
“Actually, you don’t have to worry about that,” Donna said firmly. “I’m going out with friends tonight.”
With a screech the bus pulled to a stop in front of Donna. The doors swung open to let the others climb in.
“Of course I have friends! Look, I have to go. I’ll talk to you later.”
Donna snapped her phone shut and looked at the bus driver. She just shook her head at him. The driver shrugged, closed the doors, and drove off again. Without the bus in the way, Donna could see directly across the street, giving her an unimpeded view of a Henrik’s Department Store.
Donna hefted the box in her hands and dropped it into the nearest trash can. She marched across the street, intense gaze locked on the store.
The sun had long since gone down, though that had done barely anything to the roof of Henrik’s Department Store. Lights from the building and nearby buildings illuminated the roof. Small blinking lights on a nearby satellite dish added to the mix, resulting in the roof only having a single dark spot on it. And then a brief flash of light illuminated that single spot.
Captain Jack Harkness landed on the roof with barely a sound. His coat fluttered behind him despite the fact there wasn’t any wind. Jack spun around, facing the innocuous satellite in the center of the roof. He walked in a circle around it, letting out a whistle as his eyes ran all over the device.
“Well, aren’t you a pretty little thing?”
He kept circling the satellite, but this time he lifted his wrist and pressed a button on his Vortex Manipulator. It blinked to life and began scanning the satellite. Jack looked between the readouts and the satellite before nodding. He lowered his arm and stopped walking, instead crouching beside the satellite and its base.
“What say you and I get out of here, get to know each other?” Jack offered. He tried to wrap his arms around the base of the machine, but it was too big for him to do so. Then he tried to tilt it over so he could get under it. It didn’t budge. A closer examination showed the entire machine bolted to the ground.
“Playing hard to get, huh?” Jack cooed. “Well, give me a bit of time and I’ll be able to get through those walls you’ve built up.”
Sarah Jane wasn’t exactly surprised to see nothing unusual about Henrik’s. As nice as it would be, she’d never actually seen someone just hang up a sign that said “ALIEN ACTIVITY THROUGH THIS DOOR” coupled with a convenient arrow. But it would be nice. One day…
Instead of following a convenient arrow, Sarah Jane would have to go about this the old fashioned way. That, at least, was something she had plenty of experience with.
Sarah Jane approached one of the employees. A young woman with striking blonde hair. “Excuse me?”
“Yes?” the employee responded automatically, turning to focus on Sarah Jane. “How can I help you?”
“I’m a journalist,” Sarah Jane began easily. “And I’m doing a bit of a story about this area. Would you mind if I took a look around?”
The employee took a moment to register Sarah Jane’s words. “Blimey,” she laughed. “Must be a slow news day if you’re writing about us.”
“Something like that.” The employee didn’t say anything in response. Sarah Jane let the silence continue a bit longer before continuing. “So, would that be okay?”
“Right, yes!” the employee said quickly. She cleared her throat. “I think it should be fine. You should probably double check with my manager, but so long as you don’t disturb any shoppers you should be fine.”
Sarah Jane nodded in gratitude. “Thank you, Miss…”
The employee picked up on Sarah Jane’s prompt. “Rose,” she answered. “Rose Tyler.”
Sarah Jane nodded once more. “Thank you, Miss Tyler.”
Sarah Jane walked away from Rose, casually making her way to the back of the store. She stopped just short of a door marked “staff only.” It wasn’t quite a sign for alien activity, but it was the next best thing. She glanced around to make sure no one was watching and slipped through the door.
Martha dropped her jacket to the floor beside her. She wasn’t just going to leave it there, she was going to pick it up, but she didn’t want to have to touch it any longer than necessary. It was still a mess, after all. Besides, she’d need both hands to sort through the rack of clothes to find a new jacket.
She pulled some of the clothes apart to get a proper look. At the same time, a woman with red hair on the other side of the rack did the same, leaving the two face to face. She and Martha blinked and stared at each other for a moment, neither clearly having expected that.
Donna stared at Martha, taking in the mess that was her shirt, and grimaced.
“Rough day?”
Martha let out a soft groan. “You have no idea. What about you?”
Donna let out an identical groan. “You have no idea.”
Martha grabbed the jacket that caught her eye and held it up. It was a simple red leather jacket. “What do you think?” she asked Donna. “Think this is me?”
Donna stared at Martha and the jacket with a critical eye. “Looks good,” she concluded. She grabbed a brown leather coat of her own and held it up in front of her. “Thoughts?”
Martha examined the coat. It was longer than Martha’s jacket was, and would extend down past Donna’s waist easily. “It suits you,” she decided. Donna groaned and slumped immediately. “Do you not like it?”
“I do. That’s the problem.” Donna flipped up the price tag and winced. “I really shouldn’t be spending money right now.”
“Ah,” Martha breathed out sympathetically. She glanced at the price tag of her own jacket. “Yeah, I know what you mean.”
“I could really use a sign not to buy this.”
At that moment, a faint buzzing echoed throughout the building. With a click, the intercom blared to life. “This is a customer announcement. The store will be closing in five minutes. Thank you.”
“Well, that does it,” Donna decided. She folded the coat over her arm. “I’m getting it.”
“I thought you wanted a sign not to get it?”
“And I got a sign to get it.”
Martha looked at her jacket one last time then shrugged. “Fair enough.” She pulled it off the hanger and slung it over her arm.
Donna smirked and tilted her head toward the front of the store. “Come on, the checkout is this way.”
Rose moved as fast as she could while still technically walking to the front door. Her shift was finally over and she could get out of here. And no one really batted an eye at the speed at which she was moving, either. Half the other employees were with her, just as eager to get out as she was.
She was just about to go through the door when the security guard stepped in front of her. He held up a plastic bag of money for her to see, shaking it slightly for emphasis. Rose withheld a sigh and took the bag. She turned to follow the unspoken instruction.
Rose walked past a couple straggling shoppers and climbed into a lift. She pressed a button and the doors slid shut. The lift creaked and groaned, taking her down to the basement.
At first Mickey waited outside, but Rose didn’t come out. Thinking back to their conversation at lunch, he realized that they didn’t actually decide on where they’d meet. He’d just assumed outside, but it looked as though Rose had assumed they’d meet inside. Not too big a deal.
Mickey ducked and weaved past a crowd of people walking out of Henrik’s. He prayed that the door hadn’t been locked yet, and thankfully it slid open as he approached. He took one step into the building when his path was blocked by a burly security guard.
“We’re about to close,” he said with a gruff voice.
Mickey started shaking his head at the guard. “No, I’m not a shopper,” he said quickly. “I’m just here to pick up my girlfriend.” The guard stared down at Mickey, his face unmoving. “Rose Tyler?” There was still no response. “She works here.”
The guard stared at Mickey for a few moments longer. Finally he let out a grunt and shrugged, taking a step to the side. Mickey stumbled past him.
Jack grumbled under his breath as he worked on the transmitter. He was kneeling beside it, practically underneath the dish, with his hands furiously straining to pull one of the bolts out of place. It didn’t budge at all. He released the bolt and banged his fist against the base of the transmitter. It buzzed and shocked his hand.
Jack yelped and stumbled back, scrambling up to his feet. “Oh, come on!” he shouted, glaring down at the transmitter. “I’ve tried slipping you out of your casing, dragging you through the vortex with me, even unscrewing you, but you won’t move from this spot. What do I gotta do, buy you a drink?”
The transmitter didn’t answer.
“You know, last I checked no still meant no.”
Jack spun around at the sound of the voice, his hand instinctively sliding into the pocket of his coat. As soon as he saw the woman who spoke, it stopped.
Sarah Jane stood in front of the door to the stairs. It squeaked and swung shut behind her, sending a soft clang around the rooftop.
“Hi,” Jack said, stepping forward and offering the woman his hand. “Captain Jack Harkness.”
Sarah Jane shook his hand. “Captain?” she repeated.
Jack shot her his most dazzling smile and inclined his head. “At your service, ma’am.”
Sarah Jane ignored Jack’s words and looked past him. “What are you doing with that?” she asked, gesturing to the transmitter.
“What, this old thing?”
Jack stepped back to stand beside the transmitter. He gently patted the top of the transmitter. It shocked him again. He hissed and pulled his hand away.
“Just a bit of routine maintenance,” he explained. “These new experimental satellite dishes need round the clock attention. Something that I think you’ll find I’m quite adept at,” he added with a wink.
“I’m sure,” Sarah Jane said flatly. She walked around the transmitter, eying it critically. Jack jumped forward and fell into step beside her, keeping his body between her and the transmitter. “I’ve never seen a satellite dish like this before,” she idly admitted while walking around.
Jack shrugged. “Well, it’s like I said. New. Experimental-”
“And round the clock attention, yes,” Sarah Jane finished.
“Exactly!”
“Still, it is an interesting design,” Sarah Jane mused. She stopped walking. She stared at the transmitter around Jack as best she could. “What brand is it? Nestene?”
Sarah Jane finally looked up, staring at Jack with a raised eyebrow.
“Okay,” Jack said slowly. “I know this looks bad.”
Rose cautiously made her way through the dark basement. It wasn’t that she didn’t know where everything was. She’d made this same trip more times than she could count. But the basement also doubled as one giant storage area, and every time she came down here it seemed like everything was moved around. Coupled with the poor lighting? Yeah, she’d learned early on not to just barrel on through.
“Wilson?”
Another thing Rose had learned was to call out for Wilson, because he was almost never where you’d expect him to be.
“Wilson, I’ve got the lottery money.”
Not that Rose could blame him, considering the state of his office.
“Wilson, are you there?”
Rose reached a door at the back of the basement. It was covered in large danger and high voltage stickers, warning everyone away from entering the room. A much smaller sticker announced it to be the office of H P Wilson.
Rose knocked on the door, banging hard enough for the sound to carry throughout the basement.
“I can't hang about 'cos they're closing the shop.”
Rose stopped knocking and waited expectantly for an answer. One didn’t come. It was just eerily silent, now that the echoes of her voice and knocking had faded away.
“Wilson!”
Usually Wilson would’ve shown up by now. He was hard to find, sure, but never seemed to have trouble finding anyone.
“Oh, come on.”
As Rose’s voice faded, again, she finally got a response. Kinda. It was just a clattering sound from the other room, but it was better than she’d gotten yet. Rose started making her way to the room.
“Hello?”
The room wasn’t as dark as the others, though the lights were flickering. It was full of unopened boxes and dusty shop dummies. Rose really didn’t want to have to navigate around them all.
“Hello, Wilson, it's Rose. Hello? Wilson?”
There was still no response. Not even another clatter to guide her. Rose stopped in the doorway. Rose was starting to get annoyed.
“Wilson? Wilson! Look, whatever you’re trying, knock it off! I have a date and I’m running late!”
The door behind Rose started creaking. Before she could turn, it slammed shut, smacking Rose in the back.
Mickey randomly wandered around the store. Rose wasn’t anywhere to be seen. At least, not that he could see. But he wouldn’t stop looking. He knew she hadn’t left the building, so she had to be in here. Somewhere.
Mickey had just rounded another rack of clothes when he heard it. It was faint, but clearly audible. A scream.
“Rose!” Mickey shouted, sprinting in the direction he’d heard the scream.
Martha leaned over the checkout counter, straining to look around in every direction. The jacket was still draped over her shoulder. She gave up on finding anyone and dropped back to stand beside Donna.
“Don’t tell me we’re too late,” she muttered.
“No,” Donna said firmly. “We got here before they closed, they can’t just abandon us here.” She transferred the coat to her other hand and knocked on the counter as if it were a door.
Donna paused to let someone respond. Instead of words, they heard a faint yet clear scream. Martha and Donna looked at each other for a split second and then ran toward the back of the store.
Mickey skidded to a halt in front of the lift. He very nearly slammed into the doors, only just stopping himself. At the same time, Martha and Donna burst out of another aisle and came to a stop beside Mickey. They still had the jackets bundled up in their arms.
“Where’s Rose?!” Mickey demanded hysterically, pressing the button to call the lift.
“Who’s Rose?” Donna asked.
“My girlfriend!” Mickey shouted. He glanced at the still closed lift doors and pressed the button again.
“Is she the one who screamed?” Martha asked.
Mickey blinked. “I… I don’t… maybe?” he stuttered out. He hadn’t actually heard the scream very well. And he didn’t know if he’d ever heard Rose scream. But even still… who else could it have been? Mickey slammed his hand against the button.
The lift dinged.
He ran through the doors. Martha and Donna piled in with him. “Whoever it was, it came from downstairs,” Donna rationalized. Mickey nodded and pressed the button for the basement. With a faint grinding, the lift began to lower down.
Martha shifted and glanced down at the red jacket. She shook it out and swung it around her body, guiding her arms through the sleeves.
“What are you doing?” Donna hissed. “We haven’t paid yet!”
“Someone could be hurt,” Martha said. “Or there could be danger. And I’d like both my hands available.”
“Oh, right, good point.” Donna pulled her coat on, straightening out the collar as she focused on a bouncing Mickey. “You.” He glanced at her. “What’s this Rose look like?”
“She’s blonde,” Mickey began. “And-”
The lift dinged again. Before the doors could finish squeaking open, Mickey rushed through them and ran deeper into the basement, Martha and Donna hot on his heels.
Rose rubbed her back where the door had hit her. “I hope no one heard that,” she muttered. She turned and tried to push the door open. It didn’t budge. She tried to twist the doorknob, but it didn’t budge either. It was locked. Or maybe even rusted shut. Rose sighed and looked around the room. She’d have to track down one of the side doors, wouldn’t she?
Something deeper in the room rustled. Rose’s head snapped to the side. She strained her eyes, but couldn’t find any traces of movement. “Is someone mucking about?” she called out. No answer, though she could have sworn she heard movement again. “Who is it!?”
Finally, finally, Rose saw what was rustling around. One of the heads on a nearby shop dummy slowly spun around on its neck, blank face pointing directly at Rose. She blinked and looked around. Had there been a breeze or something?
The shop dummy jolted and lifted its leg, taking a step toward Rose. She gasped and stumbled back. Then Rose shook her head. She couldn’t believe she’d just gotten scared by that.
“Yeah, you got me,” she conceded. “Very funny.”
The shop dummy didn’t stop. It kept walking towards Rose. Its movements were stiff and it nearly stumbled. Behind it a second dummy climbed up and began approaching as well. It wore a hat at first, but it soon fell off its head. A third dummy began making the trek over, kicking boxes out of its way.
Rose took another few steps back, not stopping until her body pressed against the door. “Right, I’ve got the joke!” she called out, her voice pitching up slightly. Her hand scrabbled along the door, finding and failing to twist the knob again.
The dummies kept approaching. They’d crossed half the room by now, and were showing no signs of slowing down. More and more dummies began moving, staring at Rose and joining their comrades in approaching her.
“Rose!”
At the shout, the dummies faltered and stopped moving for a moment. They and Rose all turned in the direction the voice had come from. A side door creaked and Mickey ran up to Rose. He immediately pulled her into a hug. Rose stiffened and froze, her arms hanging at her side.
“Mickey?” she squeaked, unsure what else to say. She looked behind him to see Martha and Donna running over as well.
Mickey pulled back from the hug, but kept his arms on Rose’s shoulders. “Are you okay?! I heard a scream! What’s going on?!”
Martha and Donna looked around the room, seeing all the dummies littered around them. The dummies seemed to get over their surprise and started approaching again, moving faster this time.
“These things…” Martha began. “How are they moving?”
Rose shrugged helplessly. “It’s a prank,” she said weakly. “Someone’s playing a prank on us.”
Mickey released her shoulders and spun around. He finally registered the dummies and squeaked back. “Some prank!”
Rose gulped and guided Mickey to the side so she could step forward again. “Whose idea was this?” she demanded. “Is it Derek's? Is it?” None of the dummies responded. “Derek, is this you?”
Donna narrowed her eyes and marched forward, stopping right in front of the nearest dummy. “Do you have any idea how ridiculous you look?” she asked, bending up toward the dummy. When it didn’t respond she reached up and knocked her hand against its forehead.
The dummy’s head spun around immediately, twisting so it was facing backward. Donna cried out in shock and stumbled back. She tripped over an abandoned box and fell back. She stumbled backward, falling between Mickey and Martha and slamming against the door.
Rose, Mickey, and Martha all backed away as well. Within moments the four of them were pressed against the wall, trying to stay away from the shop dummies. Not that it did them any good. They all kept approaching. The one at the lead, the one with the backwards head, raised its arm. It began reaching out to grab one of them.
A red blur appeared out of nowhere. A fire extinguisher swung down and slammed against the dummy’s arm. The arm cracked and popped off the dummy, clattering to the ground. The man dropped the fire extinguisher and looked at the four of them.
“Run!”
No one took much time to really mull over the man’s words. They were being attacked by the dummies, they were told to run, so there was really only one thing to do. They ran.
The shop dummies were just slow and distracted enough to let them all slip through. The five of them rushed past the shop dummies. They ducked and weaved past the grasping hands, yelping and screaming all the while. The service lift sat open at the end of the basement. Donne sprinted through the open doors first, running straight into the back wall. She bounced back and was hit by a running Martha. The two of them stumbled to the side, nearly falling against Mickey. Fortunately, Rose grabbed him and pulled him out of the way, spinning toward the other wall.
Finally, the man slipped into the lift and slammed his fist against one of the buttons. The doors started sliding closed. The shop dummies kept running toward them, led by the one with the missing arm. The doors shut and immediately afterward a thud echoed through the lift.
The lift creaked and started moving upward. The man crossed his arms and straightened up, staring at the doors.
“You knocked his arm off,” Rose muttered.
“Yep,” the man agreed. “Plastic.”
“You call those things plastic?!”
The man shrugged and answered without looking away from the doors. “Easier than giving them all names.”
Rose closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to will herself to calm down. It didn’t really work. “Very clever,” she said, sharper than she’d intended. Not that she particularly minded. “Nice trick! Who were they then, students?” The man didn’t respond.
“Well?” Mickey demanded.
“Is this a student thing or what?” Rose added.
“Why would they be students?” the man asked. He sounded genuinely baffled for a moment. He even glanced back at Rose.
Rose just shrugged. “I don't know.”
“Well, you said it. Why students?”
Rose blinked. “Cause… cause to get that many people dressed up and being silly, they got to be students.”
“Students are idiots,” Donna pointed out.
“That makes sense,” the man agreed. “Well done.”
“Thanks,” Rose muttered absently.
The man turned back to the door. “They're not students.”
Martha inhaled sharply, perking up slightly. “Remote control,” she said quickly. “They… they turned that one’s head around, and you took off its arm… they’re remote controlled?”
The man shook his head. “It’s a lot more complicated than that. I wouldn’t expect you to understand.”
“Excuse me?” Martha snapped.
“Alright, you’re excused,” the man said easily.
Martha blinked and stared at the man, her mouth dropping open.
Mickey’s entire body was shaking by this point, but he still managed to formulate a few words. “Those… those things, those monsters, why did they attack us?!”
“Well, you guys were there. Who else are they gonna attack?”
“They shouldn’t have attacked anyone!” Mickey shouted.
“And who are you to tell them what to do?” the man challenged. Like Martha, Mickey’s mouth dropped open and he didn’t have a response. The man nodded in satisfaction and kept staring at the door.
Rose shook herself slightly. “Whoever they are, when Wilson finds them, he's going to call the police,” she said quickly. She couldn’t entirely tell if she meant that as a warning or a threat.
“Who's Wilson?” the man asked.
“Chief electrician.”
The doors to the lift slid open, revealing the loading bay behind Henrik’s. The man took one look back at Rose. “Wilson's dead.” Without elaborating, the man exited the lift and walked briskly around the building.
Those left in the lift stood in a daze for a moment. Then, without needing to speak about it, they all rushed out to follow the man.
“They killed him?!” Mickey squeaked.
Rose marched forward, reaching the of the group, though she still wound up behind the man. “That's just not funny. That's sick!”
The man stopped at a double door leading back into the department store. “Hold on.” He slipped something from his pocket. Some kind of silver cylinder with a blue lens on the end. “Mind your eyes.”
“Oi!” Donna snapped. “Stop telling us what to do!”
The man shrugged. “Well, if you want your eyes burnt out…”
He leveled the device at the door and pressed the button. A buzzing sound echoed around them. The lens flared to life with a blue light. The light wasn’t bright enough to hurt, but the four of them held their hands up anyway. There was no telling what the man was going to do next.
“This is mental!” Donna hissed.
“We have to get out of here,” Martha agreed.
Mickey gulped and nodded so quickly it was almost audible. “Wait til he’s not looking, then make a run for it.”
“Or you could just go now,” the man suggested. “We’re outside. Not like there’s anything stopping you.”
Donna scoffed. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
“Yeah, I would.”
The lock on the doors sparked. The man let out a triumphant hum. He pocketed his device and pulled the doors open.
Rose couldn’t stop herself from taking a step closer. There was no way she would be following the man back into the store. If she wanted to get any actual answers, it had to be now.
“Who are you, then? Who's that lot down there?” The man didn’t answer. “I said, who are they?”
The man sighed and spun around. “They're made of plastic. Living plastic creatures. They're being controlled by a relay device in the roof, which would be a great big problem if I didn't have this.” He held up another device. This one he seemed to just pull out of thin air. “So, I'm going to go up there and blow them up, and I might well die in the process, but don't worry about me. No, you go home. Go on. Go and have your lovely beans on toast. Don't tell anyone about this, because if you do, you'll get them killed.”
The man vanished back into the store, the doors swinging shut behind him. Almost immediately they creaked open again. The man stuck his head out.
“I'm the Doctor, by the way. What're your names?”
Perhaps they shouldn’t have answered. Definitely not with the truth. But it had been a long day.
“Rose.”
“Mickey.”
“Donna.”
“Martha.”
“Nice to meet you all. Run for your lives!”
The Doctor disappeared back into the store.
Jack rapidly shook his head, swinging his arms in front of him in a vague cross. “Look, I just want the transmitter. Whatever the Nestene are up to, it’s nothing to do with me.”
“I believe you,” Sarah Jane decided.
Jack let out a triumphant laugh. “Knew you would.”
Sarah Jane continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “You definitely don’t look like an auton.”
“Ugh, I’d hope so,” Jack groaned. He closed his eyes and shivered at the thought. “I would not be good with a plastic body, let me tell you.”
Sarah Jane hummed. “I see,” she said flatly. “Now, if you could just step aside and let me disable that machine.” She started to walk around Jack to approach the transmitter.
“Ah.” Jack stepped aside alright, but he followed Sarah Jane and remained between her and the transmitter. “Well, see, that’s where we’re gonna have a problem.”
“Yes, I thought we might.”
“It’s nothing personal,” Jack assured. “I just need the transmitter, and I need it active. The power’s isomorphic. Only a Nestene can turn it on, so if I let you turn it off, well…” He tilted his head to glance at the transmitter, though he kept one eye on Sarah Jane. “It’s gonna stay off.”
“That is rather the point.”
“The problem, you mean.”
Sarah Jane sighed and rubbed her forehead. “Captain Harkness-”
“Please, call me Jack.”
“Captain Harkness. Do you know the kind of danger a Nestene transmitter can cause?”
“Intimately,” Jack said, giving Sarah Jane an easy nod. “Which is exactly why I want it. Plant an active Nestene transmitter in the right spot, and the right people will know exactly what it means.”
Sarah Jane’s posture stiffened subtly. “You’re planning an invasion.”
Jack snorted out a laugh. He chuckled and shook his head. “Nah, of course not. I just want people to think there’s an invasion. Then they’ll pay whatever fee to whatever dashing rogue can take care of it.” He patted himself on the chest. “That’s me, by the way. But that would only work with an active transmitter.”
Sarah Jane groaned, her stiff posture slumping and sagging. She felt her admittedly low estimation of Jack start to drop down several pegs. “It’s a con,” she deadpanned. “You’re planning on faking a Nestene invasion for a con.”
“Emphasis on faking,” Jack emphasized. He sighed and pointed back to the dish behind him. “Look, this transmitter? It’s more of a relay than anything. On its own, sure, it looks dangerous, but it’s perfectly safe. No one will be in any danger.”
“That doesn’t make it right.”
Jack shrugged. “Better than an actual Nestene invasion.” He hummed thoughtfully, looking Sarah Jane up and down. “You seem like you know what you’re doing. How about you help me figure out how to move this thing? I’ll cut you in on the next transaction. I’m sure we’d make quite the team.”
Sarah Jane huffed indignantly. “I would never-”
A loud and wrenching squeak drowned out the rest of Sarah Jane’s words. She and Jack looked back across the roof to see the door swing open. A short-haired man in a leather jacket waltzed out.
The man waved at Sarah Jane and Jack. “Hello! Don’t mind me, just have to take care of something. Won’t be a minute.” The man started sauntering across the roof. He slipped past Jack and approached the transmitter.
With a squawk Jack jumped and tried to grab the man. Sarah Jane acted quickly. She grabbed Jack by the wrist and pulled him back. Jack let out another squawk and tried to pull himself from Sarah Jane’s grip.
The man ignored the struggle and pressed something to the side of the transmitter. It beeped and a small bulb lit up with light.
“There we go!” The man spun to Jack and Sarah Jane. “You two can carry on. Though I wouldn’t recommend carrying on here. This place is about to explode.”
Jack finally froze in Sarah Jane’s grip. “You planted a bomb on that thing?!”
“Yes, I did.”
Sarah Jane narrowed her eyes and examined the man. “Who are you?”
The man turned and locked eyes with Sarah Jane. For a moment something seemed to flicker across his face. Then, as soon as it was there, it was gone. Sarah Jane couldn’t be sure she hadn’t imagined it.
“No one important,” the man declared. “Run for your lives!”
Without giving either of them a chance to respond, the man started running toward the stairwell. A moment later Sarah Jane and Jack rushed after him in a flurry of movement.
In the stairwell Sarah Jane released Jack and focused entirely on running after the man. At some point Jack peeled off and ran in a different direction, but Sarah Jane barely noticed nor cared. She just kept running after, running with, the strange and wonderful man.
At some point everyone wound up running hand in hand. Mickey stood between Rose and Martha, with Donna on Rose’s other side. None of them really knew who had been the first to reach out, nor did they really care. They just ran away from the building, desperate to get away and equally desperate to stay together.
It wasn’t until they got across the sleep that they started to slow down. The four of them stopped running, though they were still somewhere between a walk and a jog. After a few moments of that, they even released their grips on each other.
The instant later, their world was bathed in sound and light and heat. The roar was so loud that they couldn’t hear anything beyond the ringing in their ears. It was night, but for a single moment the light shining from behind them made that impossible to tell. The heat grazed their backs, almost burning them even from this distance.
They didn’t have to look back to know what had happened.
The building had exploded.
The madman, the Doctor, had actually done what he’d said he’d do.
Rose, Mickey, Martha, and Donna grabbed each other and began running again. They ran away from the exploding building. They ran without really thinking of where they were going. The others just followed Rose and Mickey’s lead. They ran past a side alley between two buildings.
Not a single one of them noticed the blue police box standing within.
The man may have had a head start, but he was far from the first person Sarah Jane had had to chase, and she was pretty sure he wouldn’t be the last. She couldn’t close the distance between them, but she didn’t fall very far behind.
Sarah Jane followed the man down the stairs and out of an emergency exit. Some distant part of her mind registered that this probably did count as an emergency, but the rest of her mind was focused completely on chasing the man across the street.
He disappeared around a corner into an alley. Sarah Jane rounded that same corner. She took one look into the alley and stumbled to a stop.
The man was retreating through the door of a blue police box.
“Doctor,” Sarah Jane whispered.
The light on top of the Tardis began to flash and pulse, keeping rhythm with a wheezing and groaning sound. Sarah Jane jolted and ran forward again. “Wait!”
Sarah Jane tried to push the door open, but it simply rattled slightly and refused to open. Undeterred, she started pounding her fist against the door. “Doctor!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. “Open up! It’s-”
The Tardis faded from view, leaving Sarah Jane all alone.
Jack slumped against the wall of a back alley. His entire body shook as he released a breath of relief. Whoever that crackpot had been, his bomb was good. Jack chanced a glance back across the street. The department store was blazing and crackling with fire. He doubted there’d be anything left soon. There definitely wasn’t anything left of the transmitter.
He didn’t know how or why, but things had gotten crazy. He’d gotten in too deep. And when Jack Harkness gets in too deep, the only thing to do is to pull out.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible this time. He stared at his bare wrist, completely devoid of even a trace of his vortex manipulator. It didn’t take long to figure out what happened to it. When he’d tried to stop that crackpot, Sarah Jane had grabbed his wrist. The wrist he wore the vortex manipulator on.
Despite himself, Jack huffed out a laugh.
“Clever little vixen.”
“The whole of Central London has been closed off as police investigate the fire. Early reports indicate-”
Rose had slumped onto the settee, absently watching the television in front of her. Not that she really absorbed any of what it was saying. She just watched with a vacant expression.
Mickey was beside her, one arm absently draped over Rose’s shoulder. His head was tilted back, his eyes clamped shut, and he was taking almost constant deep and measured breaths.
Martha sat on Mickey’s other side. She had her legs bent up to her chest, her arms wrapped around them, and her chin resting on her knees. She was absently fiddling with the sleeves of her jacket.
Donna had claimed a nearby chair for herself. She was repeatedly tapping her foot, her leg occasionally jerking and nearly bumping the coffee table. She’d picked up a magazine at one point, but it stayed unopened on her lap.
Jackie paced into the room, a phone held up to her ear. “I know!” she hissed. “It’s on the telly. It’s everywhere. She’s lucky to be alive.” She glanced around the people in the front room. “Honestly, it's really shaken her. She and himself came stumbling through the door leading these two girls I’ve never even seen. I don’t think they’ve spoken a word since it happened.”
Jackie wandered into the kitchen, still talking on the phone. The four were all left in the front room, sitting in silence. None of them were really paying attention to what time it was.
“We stole the jackets.”
Rose tilted her head up. She looked around Mickey to focus on Martha. “What?”
Martha was still fiddling with her sleeves. “The jackets.” Martha held up one arm. A price tag dangled from her sleeve. “Donna and I, we were gonna pay for them, but…” Martha trailed off and shrugged helplessly.
“Don’t think it matters much now,” Donna muttered. “It’s gone. I mean, suppose we could take money there, but what are we gonna do? Shove it in the ashes we think used to be a till?”
The resulting visual was so absurd that Rose couldn’t help but let out a short laugh. She glanced at the television and laughed again, though there was very little humor in this one. “It’s funny. I’d always imagine that place going up in smoke. This is not how I thought I’d feel, though.”
Mickey finally opened his eyes. He really blew the place up. That man. He said he would, but… he really did it.” He shook his head.
Martha jolted and sat up properly. “Who does that?!” she hissed.
“No one in their right mind,” Mickey said firmly. His voice took on a slightly hysterical edge. “He was mad. Mad, I tell you.”
“Living plastic,” Donna repeated. “That’s what he said. Living plastic. How could he be anything but mad?”
Rose shrugged awkwardly. “You all saw what those things were doing. They moved around. They were going to hurt me. Hurt us. Until the Doctor stopped them.”
“What kind of name even is that?” Martha demanded. “The Doctor. That’s not a name, that’s a title.”
Donna nodded her agreement. “Sounds pretentious if you ask me.”
“He stopped those things,” Rose pointed out.
Mickey scoffed and crossed his arms. “He probably set them off in the first place.”
“You really think so? Think he’d do that?”
“He blew up a department store. I think he’d do just about anything.”
“But why?” Martha stressed. “Why would he do that?”
None of them had an answer. They just sat there, once again letting the sound of the news wash over them. Until Jackie walked back into the room. She marched straight up to Rose, holding the phone to her shoulder.
“It's Debbie on the end,” she said crisply. “She knows a man on the Mirror. Five hundred quid for an interview.”
“Oh that's brilliant!” Rose held out her hand. “Give it here.”
Mickey suppressed a small smile as he watched Rose take the phone from Jackie. Rose didn’t even look at it. She just hung up on Debbie and dropped the phone onto the table.
“Well, you've got to find some way of making money,” Jackie chided. “Your job's kaput and I'm not bailing you out.”
The phone started ringing again. Jackie snatched it up and started to walk away again.
“Bev! She's alive. I've told her, sue for compensation. She was within seconds of death!”
Once Jackie left the room, Mickey let out a sigh. “Maybe she’s right. We should talk to someone about this.”
“You heard what the Doctor said!” Martha countered. “If we tell anyone, we’ll get them killed.”
“And you believe that?”
Martha didn’t have a response.
“Besides,” Rose added softly. “What would we even say?”
“We were attacked by living plastic and some mad doctor set up a bomb to stop them?” Donna suggested. She scowled and shook her head. “We’d sound insane.”
Martha slumped and curled her arms around her legs again. “Who would even believe us?”
A sharp knock echoed through the front room. At first no one reacted to it. Then another knock came through, louder and more insistent.
Martha cracked one eye open. She had slept slumped over one arm of the sofa. Her neck was twinging. Bad enough for her to stretch herself out a bit, though she didn’t bother to get up.
An even louder knock echoed from the front door. Donna jolted and rolled right out of her chair. She fell to the floor. Donna groaned and lifted her head, her hair a disheveled mess over her face.
“Whasgoinon?”
“Door,” Mickey muttered, not bothering to open his eyes. He had an arm wrapped around Rose, who just groaned and buried her face in his chest.
Finally, the knocking stopped, replaced by the creak of the door being opened. Jackie and some other woman spoke in hushed tones.
Donna stifled a yawn and reached up to her chair. She blindly ran her hand over it for a few moments. She found a blanket and pulled it over, wrapping it around herself and rolling over on the floor.
After a moment Jackie walked into the front room. Behind her another woman walked.
“Rose?” Jackie gestured to the other woman. “This is Sarah Jane Smith. She’s a journalist here to talk to you about last night.”
Rose finally glanced up for a moment. She stared at Sarah Jane unseeingly. She blinked and rubbed her eyes. She looked at Sarah Jane again.
Rose gasped and jolted, swiftly sitting up on the sofa. The sudden movement sent Mickey flying away from her. He crashed against Martha and the two of them went tumbling to the floor.
Sarah Jane quirked her lips in an amused smile. “Miss Tyler. I was hoping I could ask you a few questions about last night. Unless this is a bad time?”
Rose blinked and looked around, taking in everyone sprawled over the floor. “Uh…”
“This is a perfect time,” Jackie asserted firmly, shooting a stern look at her daughter. “Rose’s friends were all with her at the shop last night.”
Sarah Jane raised a single eyebrow. “Really now?”
“Yes, really. And they deserve compensation. Don’t forget to put that in your article.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Sarah Jane promised.
Jackie nodded in satisfaction, sent one more pointed look to her daughter, and marched out of the room. Martha and Mickey finally managed to extricate themselves from each other and crawl back onto the sofa. Sarah Jane sat down on a chair to the side and pulled a pad of paper from her bag.
“So much for a slow news day, right?”
Rose chuckled at Sarah Jane’s comment. “You could say that.”
Donna and Martha looked at Mickey, but he just shook his head. He didn’t really get the joke either.
“Can I get you anything?” Rose offered. “Coffee? Tea?”
“Some tea would be lovely, if it’s no trouble.”
“No, it’s not. I’ll be back in a minute.”
Rose stood up and walked toward the kitchen. Mickey slid to his feet and jogged after her.
“I thought we weren’t gonna tell anyone about last night?”
Rose looked up from the kettle. “Mum let her in!” she whispered, though her voice was still very loud. “What am I supposed to do?”
Sarah Jane pressed a pen to her notepad. “Could I get your names for the record?”
“Martha Jones.”
“Donna. Noble.”
Sarah Jane nodded and wrote the names down. “And did you two work at Henrik’s too?”
Martha shook her head. “No. I was just there shopping. I needed a new jacket.”
“Same here. Just shopping.”
Sarah Jane casually examined Martha and Donna. Indeed, the jackets the two women wore were very obviously brand new. “I see. And what do you do for a living?”
Before she got a response, Rose and Mickey returned. They were balancing a number of cups between them. They began passing them out.
“Thank you,” Sarah Jane said when Rose passed a cup of tea to her.
“Don’t mention it.”
While Rose sat down, Mickey stayed standing. “What did you want?”
“I just want to get to the bottom of what happened last night,” Sarah Jane promised. “Mister…”
“Smith. Mickey Smith.”
“Mister Smith. And what were you doing at the store last night?”
“I was there to pick up Rose, wasn’t I? Gonna take her out to dinner.”
“So you didn’t work there?” Sarah Jane pressed.
“No.”
“Just me,” Rose volunteered. “Well, I did.” She blinked and looked up as she processed her own statement. “Blimey, I’m gonna have to get a new job.”
Sarah Jane hummed, deciding to give Rose a moment. “And may I ask what the three of you do for a living?”
“I’m a mechanic,” Mickey said after a moment.
“I’m an entrepreneur,” Donna said easily. “Has nothing to do with why I was at the store, though. I don’t quite get why you’re asking.”
“Just trying to get a background for my article. And you, Miss Jones?”
“Oh!” Martha perked up at being addressed properly. “I’m a student. Medical student.”
Sarah Jane hummed and wrote down their answer. “That must have been useful last night,” came her idle reply.
“What do you mean?”
“Were any of you injured last night?”
“No, not at all,” Martha said quickly.
“No,” Mickey said firmly.
“I’m fine,” Donna added.
“We were already across the street when it happened,” Rose explained.
“That’s good,” Sarah Jane responded. “Still, an explosion across the street, surely you all wanted to make sure.”
Donna scoffed. “We weren’t exactly gonna stick around next to a massive fireball.”
“No, of course not.”
“Besides, we’re all fine,” Martha assured.
“I’m sure you are.” Sarah Jane looked up from her notes, keeping all four of them in her gaze. “Even so, just for the record, last night did you see a Doctor?”
Everyone had a different reaction to Sarah Jane’s question. Rose and Martha stiffened. Rose looked away from Sarah Jane while Martha narrowed her gaze. Mickey’s mouth tightened and he crossed his arms. The only one who didn’t seem to react was Donna, who just kept staring at Sarah Jane with the same vaguely suspicious look as before.
It was Mickey who answered. “Not at all.”
Sarah Jane nodded and noted that down on her pad.
A faint rattling echoed from the front door. Rose jumped to her feet. “I should go check on that.”
“I’ll come with you,” Martha offered, scrambling off the sofa.
Once they were in the hallway, Martha turned to whisper to Rose. “Does she know about the Doctor?”
Rose shrugged awkwardly. “I dunno. Maybe?”
“What do we do?”
Rose gave another shrug. “I dunno. Just ignore it?”
“You think that’s even possible?”
“I dunno,” Rose said with one last shrug.
Another rattle cut off their conversation. Rose and Martha looked down. The cat flap on the flat’s front door jumped and swayed. Rose sighed and knelt down.
“Mum was supposed to nail that down.”
Rose caught the flap and pulled it up, fully expecting to have to shoo away a cat. Instead, the hole in the door was filled with the Doctor’s face.
Rose dropped the flap and jumped to her feet, practically yanking the door open. The Doctor jumped to his feet and looked between Rose and Martha.
“What're you doing here?”
“I live here,” Rose answered.
The Doctor just frowned. “Well, what do you do that for?”
“Because I do.”
Martha squeezed herself beside Rose and pointed out at the Doctor. “You blew up the store last night!”
“I must have got the wrong signal,” the Doctor muttered. “You're not plastic, are you?” He didn’t give Rose or Martha a chance to respond. Just reached through the door and tapped his knuckles against their foreheads. “Nope, boneheads. Bye, then.”
The Doctor started to pull away. Rose and Martha lunged in tandem. They caught his wrists and yanked him into the flat. Rose kept her hold on the Doctor while Martha squeezed by him to shut the door. The Doctor raised an eyebrow, but obligingly let them guide him further into the flat.
When they passed the open door to Jackie’s bedroom, she looked up from her vanity. “Who is it?”
“It's about last night,” Rose said vaguely, gesturing to the Doctor.
“He’s a doctor,” Martha blurted out. “He wants to know if any of us were injured.”
Jackie sat up straighter, her eyes latching onto the Doctor. “If they were, would they get more compensation?”
“Millions more,” the Doctor said casually.
Jackie paused and examined the Doctor. “I'm in my dressing gown.”
“Yes, you are.”
“There's a strange man in my bedroom.”
“Yes, there is.”
“Well, anything could happen.”
The Doctor shook his head. “No.”
Rose and Martha started pulling and pushing the Doctor again. He followed their guide. “We’ve got other company right now,” Rose said as they approached the front room. “Don’t mind that. Do you want something to drink? Coffee? We’ve got some tea ready as well.”
“Might as well, thanks. Tea. Just milk.”
Rose and Martha finally managed to get the Doctor into the front room. He glanced up and almost immediately his eyes fell on Sarah Jane. The Doctor froze completely. Rose and Martha stumbled and nearly lost their grip on him.
Sarah Jane stared up at the Doctor. He stared right back. Neither moved or made a sound.
Rose and Martha started to push the Doctor again. He stumbled and the two of them managed to push him onto the sofa. Rose nodded once and retreated into the kitchen.
Sarah Jane sat up a bit straighter. “Well, who’s this, then?”
“John,” the Doctor muttered. “Smith.”
Donna rolled her eyes. “Yeah, cause that sounds real,” she scoffed.
Sarah Jane just kept staring at the Doctor. “Doctor John Smith, I assume.”
The Doctor didn’t answer. He looked away from Sarah Jane and grabbed a magazine from the coffee table. He looked at the couple on the front cover. “That won't last,” he mused. “He's gay and she's an alien.”
Martha settled herself beside the hallway, leaning casually against the wall. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
The Doctor ignored her and grabbed a book. He ran his thumb across the edge, letting the pages flip over rapidly. He hummed and tossed the book onto the table. “Sad ending.”
“They found a body in the wreckage,” Mickey said. “Did you kill him?”
The Doctor glanced up at Mickey. “Now why would I do that?” Before Mickey could respond, the Doctor’s eyes landed on a mirror hanging beside him. He tilted his head this way and that, examining his reflection. “Could've been worse,” he decided. “Look at the ears.” He absently flicked his own ears.
Sarah Jane let out a soft gasp. Her hand shot up and covered her mouth, and her eyes seemed to shine in the light. “You didn’t know what you look like,” she said softly. The Doctor glanced at Sarah Jane for a very brief moment. He looked away and grabbed a deck of cards from the coffee table.
Donna cleared her throat. “Feel free to stop ignoring us at any time,” she said pointedly.
The Doctor tilted his head in thought. “Nah.” He focused back on the cards. “Luck be a lady.”
“Excuse me?!”
The Doctor started shuffling the cards. They shot out of his hand and went flying across the table. “Maybe not.”
“Stop it!” Martha shouted. The Doctor, and everyone else for that matter, looked up at her. She wilted slightly. “Just… help us figure out what’s going on, because right now I’m really freaking out.”
“Oh, Martha…” Sarah Jane began softly.
The Doctor shrugged. “Just stop thinking about it, then. Problem solved.”
Mickey rolled his eyes. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
“Yeah, I would.”
Rose returned from the kitchen, holding a cup of tea for the Doctor. She passed it to his hand. The moment she released it the Doctor lifted the cup to his mouth, drinking it all in one movement. Rose paused and stared at him, but forced herself to move on and sit down.
“Your name is really Doctor John Smith?”
“That’s what I said,” he agreed. “Have you seen any plastic since last night? And I don’t mean the usual plastic stuff like bottles or bread ties. Stuff like last night?”
Rose blinked. “What?” She shook her head. “No.”
“I’m still convinced you had something to do with all that,” Donna muttered.
The Doctor clapped his hands. “Well, that’s all then.” He stood up. “I’ll be off now.”
Martha shifted to the side to block the hallway. Mickey and Donna jumped to stand on either side of her.
“We didn’t say you could go!” Mickey snapped.
“You didn’t tell me to stay either,” the Doctor pointed out.
Rose, Mickey, Martha, Donna, and Sarah Jane all spoke in tandem. “Stay.”
“It doesn’t work like that.”
Sarah Jane chuckled to herself. “I think it does,” she said fondly.
“I’m sure you do,” came the Doctor’s dismissive reply.
Martha met the Doctor’s gaze. “I don’t know what you think this is, but you owe us an explanation,” she declared.
“Do I? How do you figure that?”
“Miss Smith?” Donna asked, never once taking her eyes off the Doctor.
“Yes?”
“Is this still on the record?”
“Oh, it never was,” Sarah Jane assured.
“Right,” Donna said firmly. She marched toward the Doctor, extending one finger and pointing it at him as if it were a weapon. “Listen here, Doctor. You show up with a bomb, tell us we’re being attacked by living plastic, and think you can get away without any explanation?”
The Doctor actually nodded. “That was the thought process, yeah.”
“That never works,” Sarah Jane said, shaking her head slightly.
“You never know, it might do. One day.” The Doctor glanced at Sarah Jane and away before she could even notice. “I’m an optimist.”
Rose carefully raised her hand. “You said if we told anyone about this we’d get them killed.”
“And you will,” the Doctor agreed.
“Alright, then.” Rose took a deep breath and stood up. “If you don’t explain, I’ll go to the police. I'll tell everyone. You said, if I did that, I'd get people killed. So, your choice. Tell us, or I'll start talking.”
The Doctor didn’t respond right away. Silence stretched over the group, going on for several seconds. “Is that supposed to sound tough?”
Rose looked away. “Sort of.”
“Doesn't work.”
Mickey released a soft whistle. “Mate, she’s not bluffing. Trust me on that.”
“We have a journalist right here,” Martha added, pointing to Sarah Jane.
“She’d never write that article,” the Doctor declared firmly.
“You sure about that?” Sarah Jane asked. “I don’t care what people think of me. Never have.”
“But you care about life,” the Doctor countered. “Anyone reads that article, you’d be painting a target on their back.”
“Because the Nestene need to stay hidden.”
“Exactly.” The Doctor froze, running over the exchange again in his mind.
“Nestene?” Martha asked.
“That’s who’s behind this,” Rose realized.
“Did I say that?”
“Might as well have,” Mickey agreed.
Rose carefully approached the Doctor. Donna shifted to let Rose stand beside her. “Come on, then. You can tell us. We’ve seen enough.” The Doctor didn’t respond. “Are you the police?”
“No, I was just passing through,” the Doctor finally said. “I'm a long way from home.” At his words, Sarah Jane’s mouth quirked up into a small smile.
“Why did the Nestene attack us last night?” Donna demanded. “Why try to kill us? What makes us so special?”
“Oh, suddenly the entire world revolves around you,” the Doctor mocked. “You four were just an accident. You got in their way, that's all.”
“They tried to kill us,” Rose protested.
“They were just doing their thing,” the Doctor corrected. “They’d been hiding out in the shop for a while, planning and building up their numbers. Then you blundered in, could’ve ruined the whole thing. They had to silence you. You’re just lucky I was there to stop them.”
“So what you're saying is, the entire world revolves around you.”
“Sort of, yeah.”
“Is this guy for real?” Mickey whispered, looking around at the others in the room.
“I’m never sure of that myself,” Sarah Jane admitted. She still had a very soft smile.
“Who are you with?” Martha asked. “Because something this big, you can’t be working on your own. You have to be part of some agency or organization or something.”
“Nope, just me,” the Doctor said brightly. “One man show.”
“What, you're on your own?” Rose asked.
“Well, who else is there?”
Sarah Jane’s smile disappeared. She stared at the Doctor, her eyes seeming to wilt with sadness. “Oh, Doctor…”
The Doctor ignored Sarah Jane and gestured around the room. “I mean, you lot, all you do is eat chips, go to bed, and watch telly, while all the time, underneath you, there's a war going on.”
Rose sighed and shook her head. “Okay. Start from the beginning. I mean, if we're going to go with the living plastic, and I don't even know if I believe that, but if we do, how did you kill it?”
“The thing controlling it projected life into the dummies,” the Doctor answered. “I destroyed the relay, cut off the signal, and dead.”
“The remote control,” Martha muttered.
“Thought control,” the Doctor corrected. “Still want to know?”
“Oh, you’re not stopping now,” Donna declared. “Who’s behind this thought control? Who are the Nestene?”
“Long story.”
“How do you know about it?” Mickey asked.
“Longer story.”
“But what's it all for?” Rose pressed. “I mean, shop window dummies, what's that about? Is someone trying to take over Britain's shops?”
“No.” The Doctor didn’t elaborate.
“Now’s the part where you explain,” Sarah Jane prompted.
“It's not a price war,” the Doctor said flatly. “They want to overthrow the human race and destroy you. Do you believe me?”
“No.”
“You’re joking.”
“It can’t be.”
“You think I’m an idiot?”
“Of course I believe you.”
The Doctor’s gaze ran around the room. “Varying answers, but you’re all still listening.”
Rose caught his gaze and stared right into the Doctor’s eyes. “Really, though, Doctor. Who are you?”
“Do you know like we were saying about the Earth revolving? It's like when you were a kid. The first time they tell you the world's turning and you just can't quite believe it because everything looks like it's standing still. I can feel it. The turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, and the entire planet is hurtling round the sun at sixty seven thousand miles an hour, and I can feel it. We're falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go… That's who I am. Now, forget me, all of you.”
The Doctor moved to leave the flat. No one stopped him. They just let him leave the flat. The only one to follow him was Sarah Jane. The rest just stayed frozen in place, unsure what to say.
Sarah Jane jogged after the Doctor. Either he was a fast walker now, or she’d gotten slower over the years. Or both. She didn’t catch up to the Doctor until he’d reached the Tardis. At the sound of her footsteps, he froze in the open doorway. Sarah Jane slowed to a stop.
“You’ve regenerated,” she said softly.
The Doctor didn’t respond. He didn’t even look back. He just stood there, one foot inside the Tardis, and his back to Sarah Jane.
“You look good,” she added. “You were right about the ears, but I think they have a certain charm to them.”
The Doctor still didn’t respond.
“You left me,” Sarah Jane said. “I thought you’d died! I waited for you and you didn’t come back, and I thought you must have died. And then last night you left again. I don’t…” Sarah Jane took a deep, rattling breath. “Did I do something wrong?”
“You never could,” the Doctor said softly.
“Doctor…”
“Sarah Jane.”
The Doctor still didn’t turn back to look at Sarah Jane.
“Why did you try to act like you don’t know me?” Sarah Jane asked.
The Doctor sighed, his shoulder slumping. “Do yourself a favor. Forget you ever met me.”
Sarah Jane faltered, even taking a step back. “What?”
“That man you remember. He’s gone. Don’t let me taint his memory.”
The Doctor finally walked into the Tardis. The door swung shut behind him. A moment later, the groaning and wheezing picked up, and the box disappeared before Sarah Jane’s eyes.
Back in the flat, Martha dropped down onto the sofa. “So, what’s the verdict?”
“What do you mean,” Rose asked from her position beside Mickey. He had an arm casually wrapped around her shoulder.
“The Doctor told us to forget about him. Will we?”
“Should we?” Donna added.
“Yes,” Mickey said instantly. “Yes, absolutely. Ever since last night things have been mental. We should definitely forget about it. Move on.”
“Could do,” Rose said slowly. She nodded thoughtfully. “Could forget about it, move on, go our separate ways and live our lives. Have… what was it he said? Beans on toast?”
“Not a chance,” Donna decided.
“I’m not dropping this now,” Martha added.
Rose slipped out of Mickey’s arm and leaned forward. “Good. But how do we find him?”
“This is insane!” Mickey squeaked. “You’re all acting insane!”
Martha looked around the flat. “That Sarah Jane woman,” she muttered. She perked up. “She knew him! She came looking for him.”
“Can you not hear yourself?!”
“So if we find her,” Donna began.
“Can you not hear me?”
“We find the Doctor,” Rose finished.
“Hellooo.”
Rose glanced back at Mickey. “Yes, hello”
“How are you doing?” Martha asked.
Donna raised an eyebrow. “Something to say?”
Mickey looked between the three women surrounding him. He flopped back against the sofa and let out a defeated groan. “We can use my computer.”
It didn’t take Mickey very long to find what they were looking for. It wasn’t hard. If anything, it was easy. Just a single search led the group to learning about Sarah Jane Smith, a journalist who lived at thirteen Bannerman Road.
Donna examined the screen over Mickey’s shoulder. “That’s not too far from here,” she mused.
Indeed it wasn’t. After a cramped car ride, the four of them found Bannerman Road easily enough. They piled out of the car and began walking down the street, each one with their eyes peeled for the right house. Halfway down the street, Rose glanced ahead. A man was walking in their direction, his head buried in a map. He wasn’t watching where he was going, and Donna with her gaze still on the houses wasn’t seeing him approach.
Rose grabbed Donna and pulled her back. The man heard the scuffle and stopped in place. “Sorry,” he muttered, gaze still locked on his map.
“It’s fine,” Rose murmured.
Donna huffed. “Probably shouldn’t have your head buried in that thing if you’re gonna be moving.”
“Right, sorry again. Just looking for someone. Say, you wouldn’t happen to be able to help me, would you?” He looked up from his map and focused on the group of four. Jack immediately lowered his map. “Well, hello there. Captain Jack Harkness.” He offered one hand with a wink.
Rose and Martha froze up at the sight of him. Donna jumped forward to take Jack’s hand. “Donna Noble,” she said quickly, not bothering to release his hand. “Nice to meet you.”
If Jack was bothered by Donna’s grip on his hand, he didn’t show it. “And you as well.”
“So, what exactly are you a captain of?”
“Oh, all kinds of things,” Jack promised.
Donna smirked up at him. “Guess you could say you’re a Jack of all trades?”
Jack let out a soft laugh. “You’d be surprised.”
Mickey raised his hand and let out a pointed cough. Donna flushed and finally released Jack’s hand. Jack smoothly lowered his arm and turned an assessing gaze to Mickey.
“That’s great, but we’re kinda in the middle of something right now.”
Jack nodded easily. “Right, of course.”
“You said you were looking for someone?” Martha said quickly.
“Yes,” Jack said quickly, turning his attention to Martha. “Think you could help me out?”
“Depends who you’re looking for.”
“A woman,” Jack prompted.
“Any woman in particular?” Donna asked. “Or just a woman?”
Jack smirked. “Who said it’s either or?”
Mickey rolled his eyes and cleared his throat again. Jack winked, though who it was directed at was unclear. “Dark hair, about five-three, five-four, has an air of distinguished maturity that catches your attention, fox-like in every sense of the word,” he listed off.
Rose exchanged a glance with Donna, while Martha did the same with Mickey. The description was vague, all things considered. But it was vague in just the right way to match Sarah Jane. And with everything else that had happened…
“What’s her name?” Rose asked, her voice carefully casual.
“Ah. I don’t exactly know.” Jack awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ve never met this woman before. She was an old friend of my father’s. I found some pictures of the two of them in his attic. The problem is he was never very good at keeping an address book. I know she lives on this street, but…” Jack trailed off and shrugged, as if to say ‘what can you do?’
No one bothered to answer.
“That’s not flying, is it?”
“You couldn’t be more suspicious if you tried,” Mickey answered.
“Don’t underestimate me,” Jack countered.
Martha crossed her arms. “What do you actually want?”
Jack stared at Martha, then at Rose, Donna, and even Mickey. He released a sigh. “Fine, she stole something of mine, and I want it back. I was able to track it to this general area, but no further.”
“What did she take?” Rose asked.
Jack shrugged again. “I can’t really explain it.”
Rose felt her eye twitch. “You know, I am getting really tired of people saying that.”
“Look, I know you guys know who I’m talking about, so could you just help me out?”
Martha rolled her eyes and looked to the side. Her gaze absently trailed up the path to the house beside the group. “Uh, guys?”
Everyone followed Martha’s gaze, looking up at the house. Sarah Jane sat on the front porch. She had a cup of tea balanced in her hand as she watched the group in front of her house.
“Don’t mind me.” Sarah Jane took a sip of her tea. “Please, do go on.”
Jackie was in the middle of pulling on her jacket when she heard something rattling against the front door. “Hello?” she called out. When there was no answer, she added a louder “Rose, sweetie?” Still no answer.
Jackie poked her head out of her bedroom door. The cat flap was swinging back and forth. “I nailed you shut,” she chided. The flap didn’t respond. Something in the front room began scuffling around.
Jackie couldn’t believe that another cat had snuck into the flat. Not even snuck in, but apparently broke in. “I haven’t got anything for you,” she called out, beginning the trek to the front room. “So you might as well leave now.”
When Jackie got into the front, she didn’t see anything at first. After a few seconds a flicker of movement caught the corner of her eye. She turned as the cat disappeared behind the sofa. Jackie grabbed the edge of the sofa and pulled it away from the wall. There was no cat down there. She did, however, find a plastic arm. Like the ones from those mannequins.
Jackie knelt down to grab the arm. “Did Rose bring this thing home?” She turned it over, examining the arm. It was burned and melted. From a fire. “Well, maybe I ought to bring it with me. Proof she was at the store, should come in handy.”
Jackie started laughing to herself. The arm shook in her hand. She stopped and stared at it. The arm jolted and lunged up, fingers moving and wrapping around her throat. Jackie screamed and stumbled back, trying to yank the arm from her neck. It didn’t budge.
Jackie bumped against the wall, knocking a picture to the floor. The glass in the frame shattered.
The arm began melting in Jackie’s hands. The liquid plastic started to flow up over her hands and arms. More liquid plastic flowed up from her neck. She screamed louder. And then the plastic covered her mouth, cutting off her scream completely.
Everyone sat in a circle in the middle of Sarah Jane’s living room. Rose and Mickey shared an oversized armchair while Jack sat between Martha and Donna on a sofa. Sarah Jane had claimed another armchair for herself. “I was wondering when you’d show up,” she admitted.
Jack leaned forward. “I’d have been here sooner, but someone stole my manipulator,” he admitted. “I had to use an off brand scanner to even track down the street. There are easier ways to get me to visit, you know,” he added with a wink.
“Easier for you, perhaps.”
“I resent that.”
Donna elbowed Jack out of the way. “Oh, boohoo,” she scoffed. She leaned forward and stared intently at Sarah Jane. “Listen here, I don’t know what Captain Beefcake wants with you, but we need to talk.”
“About the Doctor,” Sarah Jane clarified.
“You know about him,” Martha said. It wasn’t a question, and Sarah Jane didn’t treat it like one.
“I know all about him.”
“Could you tell us?” Rose requested.
The door of Mickey’s flat rattled. The hinges squeaked and tore in half. The door toppled over, cracking on the floor.
Jackie stepped over the broken door and strode straight to the computer. She turned it on. The screen still showed all there was to know about Sarah Jane Smith of thirteen Bannerman Road.
“I met the Doctor a long time ago,” Sarah Jane began. She lowered her gaze, examining the cup of tea cradled in her hands. Her voice took on a wistful tone. “A long time.”
Sarah Jane trailed off, lost in her own memories. Everyone gave her a few moments, but she didn’t continue. “And who is he?” Donna asked.
Sarah Jane’s gaze snapped back up. “The Doctor is… wonderful,” she decided. “And impossible. And-” Mickey cut her off before she could continue.
“That doesn’t tell us anything.”
“I’m getting to it,” Sarah Jane said easily. “It’s not exactly an easy thing to explain.”
“Because it’s bad?” Martha asked softly.
Sarah Jane shook her head. “Because it’s unbelievable.”
“Yeah, well, so is walking mannequins,” Martha pointed out. “After that, I’ll believe just about anything.”
“And I don’t care,” Jack added irritably. “I just want my Manipulator back.” He pointedly held out his hand. Sarah Jane just as pointedly took a sip of her tea.
“The Doctor isn’t human,” she finally said.
Mickey snorted out a laugh. “Yeah, right.”
Martha rolled her eyes. “Pull the other one.”
Donna and Rose exchanged glances. Already, they could tell that this whole trip was going to be a waste of time. Sarah Jane was clearly crazy.
Sarah Jane surveyed their reactions. She didn’t seem offended. “I told you it was unbelievable.”
Donna shook her head. “Oh, no, he’s not human,” she repeated. “Very believable. What is he, then? An alien? And let me guess, he’s also a robot?”
“Alien, yes. Robot?” Sarah Jane tilted her head thoughtfully. “Not last I checked. Though with him I can’t say it’s impossible.”
“An alien,” Rose said flatly.
“An alien.”
“As in extraterrestrial?” Martha checked.
“As in extraterrestrial.”
“You’re mad,” Mickey decided.
“You’re mad.”
“As much fun as repeating things is,” Jack drawled out, effectively ending that portion of the conversation. “I don’t have time for this. Give me back my manipulator.” Again he held out his hand.
Sarah Jane glanced at his outstretched hand. “I think you do,” she decided. “Have time.”
“Why?”
“Your… manipulator, you called it?” She waited for Jack to nod before continuing. “It’s coated with Artron Energy. You’ve got time. Enough that I can deal with you later.”
“You asking me to stick around?” Jack’s voice seemed to have dropped an octave.
“If you must.”
“Could you stop flirting?” Rose demanded, glaring up at Jack with her most stern gaze.
“Not a chance.”
Even so, Jack did drop back down onto the sofa. Donna absently reached over to grab his arm. Purely to make sure he didn’t try anything, of course. “The Doctor’s an alien,” she repeated dubiously.
“And a time traveler,” Sarah Jane added.
Mickey nodded and clapped his hands against his knees. “I think we’re about done here,” he decided. He started to stand up.
“It’s true,” Sarah Jane insisted. She looked down at her tea once more. “I met him years ago. He invited me to travel with him. We went all over the universe. All over time and space, helping out whenever we could. Because that’s who the Doctor is. He helps people. Whatever their problem, big or small, he’ll do everything he can to help them. Then he’ll give them that mad smile of his and saunter back into his box and leave again.”
“His box?” Martha asked.
Sarah Jane looked up at Martha. “That’s just the disguise, of course. It looks like a humble blue police box on the outside.”
“What’s a police box?” Donna whispered around Jack. Jack didn’t respond, and Martha could only shrug.
“But on the inside,” Sarah Jane whispered. Despite how low and quiet her voice was, how reverent, no one had trouble hearing her. “Oh, that box is the most wonderful thing you could imagine. Bigger on the inside-”
“What?!” Jack yelped, yanking his arm free of Donna’s grip.
“Bigger on the inside,” Sarah Jane said again.
Jack paled and reared back against the cushions of the sofa. “That sounds like… the box is a… he’s a… nope. Nope, I am not doing this.” Jack stood up, jostling Martha and Donna. Not that he seemed to care or even notice. “I don’t get paid enough to be in any time when a Time Lord is running around.” Jack reached into the pocket of his coat. “I’ve tried to play nice, and you’ve got a lovely house.” Jack pulled a blaster and levelled it at Sarah Jane. “But I need my manipulator now.”
Martha flinched back at the sight of what was clearly a gun, her hand scrambling around to grab a nearby pillow as if to use as a weapon. Rose squeaked and looked rapidly between Jack and Sarah Jane. Mickey, though his eyes were wide and his body was shaking, leaned forward and set himself up between Rose and Jack.
“What are you doing?!” Donna demanded.
Sarah Jane just stared up at Jack. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“No,” Jack admitted. “Frankly, there’s a lot of things I’d rather be doing with you. But I’ve run out of options right now, and I have to leave. And if this is the way to do it, then so be it.”
“So be it,” Sarah Jane agreed.
Under Jack’s watchful eye, she started to stand up. “Slowly,” Jack snapped. Sarah Jane slowed down and started walking to the table beside the stairs.
Martha started to shift on the sofa. “Don’t even think about it,” Jack said suddenly. “This thing’s got plenty of charge.”
“Best do as he says,” Sarah Jane said softly.
Martha shivered. “R-right.” She sank back down.
Sarah Jane picked up her bag and started to unzip it.
“Careful!”
“If you insist,” Sarah Jane nodded. She reached into her bag.
A heavy knock landed on the door. Everyone in the room froze and glanced back. Even Jack, though he kept his blaster aimed at Sarah Jane. Another knock thudded against the door. It rattled and shook in the frame.
“It’s open,” Sarah Jane called out. “You might as well come in.”
This time came a great, booming knock. The door rattled and fell down, the hinges ripping and tearing with a squealing wrench. It wobbled and slammed to the ground, revealing who was on the other side.
“Mum?!” Rose squeaked.
Jackie walked into the house, stepping on the fallen door as if she hadn’t just knocked it over. She ignored most of the scene before her, and focused purely on her daughter. “Rose, sweetie, I’m glad I found you.”
“Mum?” Rose repeated. She pushed Mickey out of her way and stood up
“Rose, sweetie, I’ve been looking all over for you.”
Jackie and Rose started to walk toward each other.
“Mum? What?”
“Jackie?” Mickey all but shouted hysterically. “What’s going on?!”
Jackie didn’t so much as glance at Mickey. She only had eyes for her daughter. “Rose, sweetie, I’ve figured it out.”
“Something’s not right,” Sarah Jane whispered. Jack hesitated and then slowly nodded, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. He kept his blaster pointed at Sarah Jane.
Rose looked up and down, staring at Jackie and the fallen door. The door had an unmistakable footprint in the wood. Right where Jackie had stepped on it. “What are you… how did you… Mum?!”
Jackie finally stopped moving, coming to a halt in front of her daughter. “Rose, sweetie, I found a way to get compensation.”
“Compensation?” Rose repeated.
“You really want to do that now?” Martha asked incredulously. She jumped to her feet, the pillow still held limply in her hand. “How did you even know we were here?”
Most of Jackie’s body remained completely immobile. Her head, however, twisted atop her neck. She looked at Martha, her gaze almost seeming to drill through the other woman. She smiled softly, though it didn’t reach her eyes. “Rose, sweetie, you just need to tell them about the Doctor.”
“Auton?” Jack hissed.
“I think so,” Sarah Jane muttered back.
“Mum,” Rose said slowly. Jackie’s head swiveled back to her. “What’s gotten into you?”
“Rose, sweetie, why don’t you practice with me?”
“Lady,” Donna downright snarled. “I don’t know what your game is, but you need to back off.”
Jackie’s head spun around to Donna. “Rose, sweetie, just tell me all about how you met the Doctor.”
Jack shook his blaster, creating an audible click. “Seriously, give me my Manipulator, now!”
Sarah Jane dropped her bag. “It’s in the attic!”
Jack groaned in frustration and turned his blaster on Jackie. Martha was the only one to see him move. Jackie was acting weird and it creeped Martha out. But she couldn’t just sit back and do nothing while some random and dangerous stranger pointed a gun at her.
Martha lashed out, swinging her arm around and down at Jack. The pillow was still clutched in her tight grip. It knocked against Jack’s wrist. The gun jerked out of his hand and clattered to the floor. It bounced and slid under one of the armchairs.
“You idiot!” Jack shrieked, turning on Martha.
“You can’t just shoot her!” Martha shouted back.
“That’s not a her! That is an Auton duplicate! An it!”
“That’s my Mum!” Rose screamed.
“Not anymore!”
“I’m sorry,” Sarah Jane said softly. “But it just looks like her.”
“Did anyone see where my gun went?” Jack growled, spinning around and examining the floor.
Jackie’s arm snapped out. She grabbed Mickey by the neck, slowly starting to squeeze. Mickey gagged and began squirming in an attempt to pull himself free. Jackie tightened her grip. Mickey started choking in earnest. He writhed and thrashed, trying in vain to push Jackie off him. She just watched him. Mickey’s struggles and the screams from Rose were ignored.
Martha grabbed a lamp from a nearby table. When she started to creep closer, Jackie looked right at her and squeezed even harder. Martha froze.
“Rose, sweetie, you just have to tell me all about the Doctor.”
One final knock echoed throughout the house. This one was far softer than any before, though somehow just as imposing. Jackie’s head spun around, sitting backwards on her body.
The Doctor stood in the entrance, one fist raised to the doorframe.
“Looking for someone?”
“Rose, sweetie, Doctor!”
“Sorry, I don’t do autographs.”
With Jackie’s head spun around, she didn’t see Martha approaching this time. She swung the lamp and crashed it against Jackie’s arm. Her hand was yanked free of Mickey’s neck. He gasped and coughed, stumbling back. Rose and Donna caught Mickey and helped him to steady himself.
Jackie crumpled and bent over. Jack rushed in and grabbed her, pulling Jackie away from anyone else. He kicked her legs and sent her falling to her knees.
“Come on!” Sarah Jane shouted, guiding everyone to the exit. “This way!” Martha stumbled past Sarah Jane and the Doctor. Rose and Donna followed, carrying Mickey between them.
“Cheekbones!” the Doctor shouted. “The head!”
Jack nodded and wrapped one arm around Jackie’s head. He yanked it from her shoulders with a soft pop. Jack kicked Jackie’s body away and threw the head to the Doctor. He caught it, and the two ran out of the house with Sarah Jane.
The group all congregated on the front lawn, standing in front of a police box parked beside the sidewalk.
The sound of wood splintering has everyone looking back up. Jackie’s body stumbled over the beaten and broken door. It walked outside and began striding straight to the head in the Doctor’s hands.
“That thing’s following us!” Donna screeched.
The Doctor nodded. “Right, I can see that.”
“We should run!” Martha said, tensing up and ready to start already.
“Nah,” the Doctor decided. “Tell you what, let's go in here.”
The Doctor pushed a key into the lock of the police box. He pushed the door open and slipped inside. The door stayed open. Despite this, the inside of the box was pitch black.
Martha looked at the box incredulously. “We’d never be able to fit in that thing.”
“You can't hide inside a wooden box,” Rose yelled at the Doctor. She glanced back at the headless Jackie. She was still walking toward them. With every step, she created craters in the pavement. “It's going to get us! Doctor!”
Jack froze and stared at the box. He shook his head and started to back away. “Oh, no!”
“Oh, yes,” Sarah Jane snapped. “Come on!” She grabbed Jack and Martha by the wrists and dragged them after her. The three of them squeezed through the door and disappeared into the darkness of the box.
Donna shook and watched the box. “You are mad!” she shouted. “Mad, you hear me?!” When there was no response, Donna scowled and grumbled, but ran into the box.
Jackie was close enough that she started to lift her hand. Her outstretched fingers nearly brushed against Mickey. With no other options, Rose grabbed him and they ran into the box.
The door swung shut behind them.
“That thing’s about to catch up!” Mickey screamed.
Rose opened her mouth to add in her own warning, but stumbled to a stop behind Donna and Martha. They were frozen and staring around. Rose couldn’t blame them. The box had been just that, a battered blue police box. On the outside. Inside was a completely different story.
The inside of the box was a large circular room. The walls curved upward, absolutely coated in large dots. Support beams branched upward. They were rough and textured like pillars of coral. On a raised platform in the center of the room the Doctor bent over a console of some kind. A glowing green pipe extended up from the center of the console.
The Doctor had set the head onto the console, and was flipping switches and adjusting dials. “The assembled hordes of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door,” he said casually. “And believe me, they've tried. Now, shut up a minute.”
“Who are you to-”
Before Donna could even get started, the Doctor cut her off with a harsh “Shush!” Donna stopped talking, though it was clearly more from shock than anything else.
The Doctor bent over to examine a screen. “The head's perfect,” he decided. “I can use it to trace the signal back to the original source.” He stepped away from the console and turned around, taking a moment to examine everyone.
Rose, Martha, and Mickey were all frozen as they examined the console room. Donna had her hands on her hips and an indignant glare on her face. Jack was wary and glancing back at the door, clearly weighing his chances if he made a run for it. Sarah Jane was also examining the room, though with a far more critical eye.
“Right,” the Doctor said with a nod. “Don’t normally do this with so many, so let’s keep to one question per. Who wants to go first?”
When no one else volunteered, Rose slowly raised her hand. “The inside's bigger than the outside?”
“Yes,” the Doctor agreed.
“It's extraterrestrial,” Martha breathed out.
“Yeah.”
“Does that mean you really are an alien?” Mickey squeaked.
“Yes. Is that all right?”
Donna shrugged. “Yeah, sure, why not.” She gestured around the room. “What is this thing? This is the box Sarah Jane told us about?”
The Doctor leaned back against the console. “It's called the Tardis, this thing. T A R D I S. That's Time And Relative Dimension In Space.”
Sarah Jane gulped and stared up at the Doctor, a desperate hope written all over her face. “It’s really you?”
The Doctor ducked his head and looked away. “It’s really me.”
“You really are a Time Lord?” Jack asked.
“Yes.”
“You guys are supposed to be extinct.”
Sarah Jane swiveled to stare at Jack. “What?”
The Doctor shifted and turned back to the console, ignoring Jack and Sarah Jane. When he moved, Rose caught a glimpse of the head on his console. She didn’t know what exactly that thing had been, why it wanted to know about the Doctor, why it had attacked everyone, why it had looked like her mother. But she did know one thing.
It had looked like her mother.
That was her mother’s head, just sitting on a console with wires sticking out of it.
A sob broke out of Rose’s throat. Tears spilled down her face. Her knees buckled and she fell. Or she started to. Mickey caught her and held her to his chest.
“That's okay,” the Doctor said quickly. “Culture shock. Happens to the best of us.”
Rose sobbed and cried, grabbing Mickey’s shirt and holding him tight. He wrapped his arms around her and gently rubbed her back. “Rose?” She opened her mouth and let out another wail. “Sh, it’s okay, that thing can’t get us.”
Rose shook and whimpered. “M-Mum!” she cried. “They… that thing… why did it look like her?!”
“That’s what Autons do,” the Doctor explained. “They take someone, take their place to gather information.”
Rose pushed away from Mickey to stare at the Doctor. Her arms shook and her mouth fell open. “Th-they took her?!”
“Probably.”
“Did they kill her? Mum? Did they kill her? Is she dead?” Rose babbled.
The Doctor stopped and just kinda stared for a moment. “Oh. I didn't think of that.”
“Doctor!” Sarah Jane chided.
“She’s my mother!” Rose screamed. She shook and collapsed against Mickey again.
Donna rushed to Rose’s other side. She grabbed her arm to help hold her up. “She’s gotta be fine,” Donna said firmly. “That’s how pod people work, isn’t it? They keep the original alive?”
“Yeah,” Martha agreed. “Yeah, I’m sure she’s fine.”
Jack shrugged. “Unlikely,” he said carelessly. “That signal was pretty weak. They were probably just working with whatever residual imprints they could pull from her brain.”
Rose immediately began squirming and writhing in Mickey’s grasp, snarling and trying to get at Jack. Mickey held her back, though he too glared at Jack over her head.
Martha had no one holding her back, and she took advantage of that. She cuffed Jack over the head. “Shut up.”
“I’m sure she’s fine,” Sarah Jane promised. “The Nestene would be keeping your mother alive in case they need to make another duplicate.”
“Jackie’s tough,” Mickey promised. “She wouldn’t let them hurt her.”
“Didn’t stop her from being kidnapped,” the Doctor pointed out.
“Doctor!” Sarah Jane shouted.
“Sorry.”
Rose rounded on Sarah Jane. “Was he always like this?” she asked. “Unthinking, letting people’s heads melt?”
“Melt?” the Doctor and Sarah Jane repeated.
The Doctor spun around back to the console. Jackie’s head was melting and starting to slide to the ground. “Oh, no, no, no, no, no!” The Doctor started whizzing around the console, setting the controls in no observable order. The Tardis shook and the light in the central column began bouncing up and down. A groaning and wheezing noise echoed around the room.
In an instant, the Tardis began shaking and rattling. Sarah Jane grabbed one of the coral pillars to stay upright. Rose and Mickey leaned against each other to do the same. Jack wobbled but managed to stay on his feet. Donna and Martha, unfortunately, were sent crashing to the ground.
“What're you doing?” Donna shouted.
“Following the signal!” the Doctor shouted back. “It's fading. Wait a minute, I've got it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no!” He continued running around the console and pumping different nozzles and switches. “Almost there. Almost there. Here we go!”
The Tardis jolted and stopped moving in an instant. Jack, Rose, and Mickey all fell down from the sudden impact. The Doctor ran past everyone and toward the door.
Martha had managed to sit up, and had a perfect view of the Doctor reaching for the door. “Wait!” She reached out to stop him, but he was too far. “You’ll let that thing in!”
The Doctor pulled the door open and ran out. The Auton didn’t enter. The Doctor didn’t start screaming from being attacked. And what they could see through the door definitely wasn’t Bannerman Road. Instead, if they weren’t mistaken, that was the London Eye that they could see.
Everyone filed out of the Tardis. The Doctor was standing at a railing overlooking the bank of a river. He had a silver device in his hand. The tip was a glowing blue bulb and it let out a soft buzzing sound. He was waving it around, scowling deeper and deeper with each second.
Donna stared out at the river. “That’s the Thames,” she muttered. “We’re on the Thames!”
The Doctor lowered his device. “I lost the signal,” he grumbled. “I got so close.”
“We’re on the Thames!” Donna said again.
“Does it fly?” Rose asked, glancing back at the Tardis.
“Disappears there and reappears here,” the Doctor dismissed. “You wouldn't understand.”
“So it teleports?” Donna asked.
“Pretty much,” Sarah Jane agreed.
“At least we’re away from the Auton,” Jack muttered, his hands buried in his coat pocket.
“But isn’t she still out there?” Martha asked. “We can’t just leave her to run around!”
“Gone,” the Doctor corrected. “It melted with the head. Are you all going to witter on all night?”
“I’m sorry, were we talking about mus for a second?” Rose asked. “My mother might be dead, and you just went and forgot her! Again!”
The Doctor sighed and rubbed his head. “Look, if I did forget some mother.”
“She’s more than just some mother!” Mickey shouted.
The Doctor ignored Mickey’s outburst and kept going. “It's because I'm trying to save the life of every stupid ape blundering on top of this planet! All right?”
Sarah Jane stared up at the Doctor. “Stupid ape?” she repeated softly. “Doctor, what…” She trailed off, unsure how to respond.
“If you’re not human, why do you look like one?” Martha challenged.
“You look Time Lord.”
“And the blue box? Why is your ship like…” Donna gestured up and down the Tardis. “That?”
“It's a telephone box from the fifties,” the Doctor answered. “It's a disguise.”
“That sticks out like a sore thumb, mate,” Mickey said.
“Oi!”
Jack shook his head. “I shouldn’t be here,” he complained. “I really shouldn’t be here.”
“You’re free to go.” The Doctor stared at Jack expectantly. Jack didn’t leave. “Thought so.”
“If you are an alien, how come you sound like you're from the North?” Rose asked.
“Lots of planets have a north!” the Doctor snapped.
“Okay. And this, this living plastic. What's it got against us?”
“Nothing. It loves you. You've got such a good planet. Lots of smoke and oil, plenty of toxins and dioxins in the air, perfect. Just what the Nestene Consciousness needs. Its food stock was destroyed in the war, all its protein plants rotted, so Earth, dinner!”
Martha gulped and clenched her hands into fists. “Please tell me there’s a way to stop it.”
The Doctor pulled a vial of blue liquid from his pocket and held it up. “Anti-plastic,” he said proudly.
“Anti-plastic,” Rose repeated.
“That’s your big plan?” Donna scoffed.
“Anti-plastic,” the Doctor repeated. “But first I've got to find it. How can you hide something that big in a city this small?”
Mickey gulped. “The Nestene are really that big?”
“No,” Sarah Jane said quickly. “They’re quite small.”
Jack nodded thoughtfully. “You’re talking about the transmitter, aren’t you?”
“The transmitter,” the Doctor agreed. “The Consciousness is controlling every single piece of plastic, so it needs a transmitter to boost the signal.”
“What's it look like?” Rose asked.
“Like a transmitter. Round and massive, slap bang in the middle of London. A huge circular metal structure like a dish, like a wheel. Radial. Close to where we're standing. Must be completely invisible.”
No one responded. They just stared past the Doctor. “What?” When they didn’t respond, he turned to follow their gaze. The London Eye stood on the opposite bank, but nothing about it was amiss. The Doctor turned back to them. “What?”
Martha gestured back at the London Eye. The Doctor glanced at it then turned back. “What? What is it? What?”
“He can’t be this dense,” Donna muttered.
“You’ll get used to it,” Sarah Jane promised.
The Doctor turned back and looked across the Thames. He finally seemed to realize what everyone else was staring at. He craned his neck to examine the London Eye. “Oh.”
The Doctor spun back around, shooting everyone a mad and wild grin. “Fantastic!”
Everyone ran across a nearby bridge, crossing over the Thames and toward the London Eye. Most of them were running as fast as they could and were clearly out of breath. The Doctor was barely winded. In fact, he was able to monologue as he did. “Think of it, plastic all over the world, every artificial thing waiting to come alive.” They reached the London Eye and skidded to a halt, though the Doctor didn’t stop talking. “The shop window dummies, the phones, the wires, the cables-”
“The breast implants,” Rose said between breaths.
Jack snorted out a laugh. “Oh, I like the way you think.”
The Doctor nodded and pulled out the whirring device again. “Still, we've found the transmitter.” He pressed the button and the bulb lit up. “The Consciousness must be somewhere underneath.”
“I could run a scan with my Vortex Manipulator,” Jack offered. “You know, if I had it.” He shot a pointed look at Sarah Jane.
“Are you still on that?” she asked mildly.
“Hey!” Donna called out. “How about this?”
She pointed to a nearby staircase. A manhole was set up at the bottom.
“Looks good to me,” the Doctor agreed. He ran over and pulled up the hatch. A red light spilled out from inside.
The rest of the group jogged over to join him. “Are we sure this is the best idea?” Martha asked.
Rose looked at Sarah Jane and the Doctor. “You said Mum might still be alive?”
Sarah Jane nodded. “Yes.”
“Maybe,” the Doctor allowed.
“Then I’m going,” Rose declared. She didn’t wait for a response, just climbed down into the manhole.
Mickey hopped in after her. He waved for the others to follow. “Come on!”
“Hang on,” Jack began. The Doctor and Sarah Jane ignored him and filed down the manhole.
Martha and Donna moved to go in next. Jack grabbed their arms.
Donna glared back at him. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“What do you think you’re doing?”
Martha yanked her arm out of Jack’s grip. “Following them.”
“Exactly,” Jack hissed. He huffed. “Look. Nestene are bad news. If we’re really going to do this, we should at least try to find another way in. A thing this big? A control room that’s as big as it likely is? There’s gotta be more than one entrance. So we flank them, divide their attention.”
“Divide and conquer,” Martha finished.
The ladder led to a staircase, which itself led to a large chamber. Grated catwalks encircled the chamber. The chamber was lit by a series of emergency lights hanging above the catwalks. The only other light came from the very center of the center of the chamber.
A large vat was set up between the catwalks. An orange liquid bubbled inside the vat, filling the room with a soft orange light.
“The Nestene Consciousness,” Sarah Jane breathed out.
“That's it,” the Doctor agreed. “Inside the vat. A living plastic creature.”
Rose stared at the vat. The way it bubbled and shifted certainly didn’t look natural. “Well, then. Get them to tell us where Mum is.”
“Then throw that plastic killer in!” Mickey added.
The Doctor shook his head. “I'm not here to kill it. I've got to give it a chance.” The Doctor walked to the edge of the top catwalk. He looked over at the vat. “I seek audience with the Nestene Consciousness under peaceful contract according to convention fifteen of the Shadow Proclamation.”
The Nestene Consciousness bubbled up, then calmed down.
Sarah Jane waved to get Rose and Mickey’s attention. She gestured to the catwalks around the edge of the room. Rose and Mickey nodded and started exploring, sneaking around where the Nestene Consciousness wasn’t looking.
“Thank you,” the Doctor said. “If I might have permission to approach?”
Mickey glanced down over the edge of his catwalk. There, in a corner on the lowest floor, sat Jackie. She was slumped against a pipe. Ropes bound her wrists and tied her to the pipe.
“Rose!” Mickey hissed as loud as he dared. Rose looked over at Mickey, then followed his gaze down.
“Oh, God, Mum!”
Rose ran down the stairs at the end of her catwalk. She vaulted over a railing and dropped down to the level with Jackie. She sprinted over to her mother, crouching down in front of her. “Mum, it's me!” she cried out. She grabbed the ropes and started pulling on them. “It's okay. It's all right.”
Jackie stared at her daughter. “Rose?” She asked softly. “What are you… you shouldn’t be here!”
“Neither should you.”
Mickey caught up to the two of them. He grabbed the ropes and started pulling as well. He and Rose pulled as hard as they could, but it wouldn’t pull free. The knot was too complicated to even think of untying.
“Get out of here!” Jackie hissed, awkwardly pushing them away. “That liquid, that vat, Rose, it was talking!” She shivered and looked away from the vat. “They… they made…. they made me! Another me! You have to go!”
“Not without you,” Rose snapped.
Mickey looked around. He spotted something and stood up. “I’ll be right back.”
Even without Mickey there, Rose kept trying to pull Jackie free of the ropes. They budged only enough for Rose to see that her mother’s wrists were raw and red. Rose looked up at the catwalks above.
“Doctor!” she cried out. “Sarah Jane! Mum’s tied up down here!”
The Doctor glanced down at them. “Yeah, that was always a possibility. Keep her alive to maintain the copy.”
“Oh, now you acknowledge that?”
“Can we keep the domestics outside, thank you?” The Doctor ignored any response and kept making his way to the catwalk closest to the Nestene Consciousness. He kept his movements slow and deliberate. The Nestene Consciousness bubbled and broiled, but didn’t stop him.
Mickey reached the far wall. He reached up and grabbed an axe that had been hanging in a broken case. He carefully held it with both hands and jogged back to where Rose and Jackie were. Jackie saw him over Rose’s shoulder.
“Woah, wait, Mickey!” she protested, squirming and trying to slide away from Mickey and the axe.
Mickey lifted the axe. “Do you trust me?”
“Yeah, of course I do,” Jackie responded. “But that’s an axe!”
“I know.”
Jackie leaned away from the pipe. Mickey swung the axe down as hard as he could. It fell between Jackie and the pipe, cleanly slicing through the rope. Rose grabbed her mother and pulled her into a hug. Jackie scrambled and desperately clung to her daughter.
The Doctor stopped on the innermost catwalk. “Am I addressing the Consciousness?” The bar gurgled and brightened. “Thank you. If I might observe, you infiltrated this civilization by means of warp shunt technology. So, may I suggest, with the greatest respect, that you shunt off?”
The vat of the Nestene Consciousness gurgled and flowed around, forming a face. The face shifted to glare at the Doctor. He just scoffed.
“Oh, don't give me that. It's an invasion, plain and simple. Don't talk about constitutional rights.” Bubbles formed and popped in the mouth of the vat. “I am talking! This planet is just starting. These stupid little people have only just learnt how to walk, but they're capable of so much more. I'm asking you on their behalf. Please, just go.”
Sarah Jane heard different catwalks creaking. She looked up and saw a pair of Auton mannequins approaching the Doctor. She opened her mouth to call out to him.
Another mannequin grabbed Sarah Jane from behind, squeezing one hand over her mouth. She tried to pull herself free. The mannequin squeezed her tighter, digging into her skin.
The mannequins behind the Doctor lashed out. One of them grabbed his arms and yanked them behind his back. The Doctor began thrashing when the other mannequin reached into his pocket. It pulled out the anti-plastic.
“That was just insurance,” the Doctor said frantically. “I wasn't going to use it. I was not attacking you. I’m here to help. I'm not your enemy. I swear, I'm not.” The vat boiled violently, a single bubble popping up across the entire pool. “What do you mean?”
A door at the back end of the control room slid open. The Tardis was set up inside.
“No!” the Doctor shouted. “Oh, no. Honestly, no. Yes, that's my ship.”
Unbeknownst to everyone in the room, there was more than just the Tardis in the alcove. Two figures were hidden behind it, pressing themselves against the box.
“Do we go now?” Donna whispered.
Martha shook her head. “Jack told us to wait for the signal.”
“He didn’t tell us what the signal was!”
The cat bubbles up. A few drops spilled over the side, though they quickly bounced back up to rejoin the Nestene Consciousness.
“That's not true. I should know, I was there. I fought in the war. It wasn't my fault. I couldn't save your world! I couldn't save any of them!”
Bolts of energy and lightning began crackling over the surface of the vat. A stray bolt narrowly missed Rose, Mickey, and Jackie.
“What's it doing?!” Rose called out. The room was so full of noise she was barely audible to her own ears. Still, the Doctor seemed to hear her. Or at least he knew what her question had been.
“It's the Tardis!” he explained. “The Nestene's identified its superior technology. It's terrified. It's going to the final phase. It's starting the invasion!” He thrashed and yanked against the mannequins, but they didn’t budge. “Get out, all of you! Just leg it now!”
The lightning crackling over the Nestene Consciousness shot up. It hit a wire and flowed up, lighting up the London Eye with their energy.
“It's the activation signal,” the Doctor cried out. “It's transmitting!”
“What’s happening?!” Jackie demanded, clutching Rose’s hand with both of her own.
“It's the end of the world.”
More and more bolts of lightning blew out of the vat. They flashed and blasted around the room, scorching through catwalks and breaking away the walls. Rose and Mickey each grabbed one of Jackie’s hands and started running back the way they came from. They ducked under an approaching blast, came to an abrupt stop to let one hit the wall in front of them, and then jolted back into movement to dodge another.
The Autons started to pull the Doctor and Sarah Jane toward the vat. They struggled and tried to pull themselves free. “Get out!” the Doctor shouted. “Just get out! Run!”
“What do you think we’re trying to do?!” Jackie shouted back at him.
They got to the staircase only to find that it wasn’t there. Instead there was just a gooey mess of molten metal. “The stairs have melted,” Mickey squeaked. Rose looked around and spotted the Tardis. She pulled Jackie who pulled Mickey and the three of them ran toward the box. Rose grabbed the handle and shoved her body against it. The door didn’t budge.
“I haven’t got the key!”
“What good’s hiding in a box gonna do?!” Jackie demanded.
Mickey glanced back. More Autons were making their way up toward them. “We're going to die!”
The Autons got the Doctor and Sarah Jane to the edge of the central catwalk, the two of them positioned on either side of the Nestene Consciousness. They shoved the two of them against the guardrail. It bent in the center. “No!” the Doctor shouted. The Autons pulled him and Sarah Jane back, ready to push them again.
The mouth in the center of the vat opened up. “Time Lord.”
The emergency lights blinked out. Every light shut off with an almost audible click. The column that the Nestene Consciousness was transmitting power through fell dark. The only thing lighting up the room was the dim glow from the vat. In the distance a faint clanking sound signified that the London Eye had stopped turning. Every single Auton in the room froze.
A door in the back of the room swung open, revealing itself to lead into a control booth. Jack sauntered out, his hands stuck into his pockets. “Sorry about that!” he called out. “I saw a big red button here, and I thought: what the hell?”
At that moment, Martha and Donna appeared from behind the Tardis. They ran past Rose, Mickey, and Jackie.
“Well, don’t just stand there!” Donna chided.
Martha pointed at the immobile Auton holding the Doctor. “Get the Doctor!”
Martha and Donna ran to Sarah Jane. Rose and Mickey nodded and started to run toward the Doctor. They left Jackie standing by the Tardis. “What are you doing?!”
They didn’t really know how to respond.
The Doctor was no longer trying to pull himself free. He just stared around the dimly lit room. “He cut the power to the transmitter,” he realized. “Ha! That’s brilliant!”
Rose and Mickey grabbed the Autons holding him and started to pull. They fell apart easily, releasing the Doctor. Mickey stumbled back, a plastic arm held in his hands. “Will it stop them?”
“Nope!” the Doctor said brightly. “The Nestene’ll have short range relays, but it’ll take a minute to get those up and running. Long enough for me to-” He pushed his hand into his pocket. He froze and dug around for a moment. “The anti-plastic!”
“You lost it?!” Rose demanded.
“They took it!” The Doctor spun around, looking at the frozen Autons littering the room. “Which one of these guys has it?!”
Donna and Martha reached Sarah Jane and pulled the Auton off of her. As soon as its hand was off of her mouth she shouted. “Doctor!” She ran to one of the nearby Autons as she did so. The Doctor looked at Sarah Jane just in time to see her pull a blue vial out of the Auton’s hand. She spun and threw it over to the Doctor.
The vial spun and arced across the room. The Doctor held up his hand, ready to catch it and drop it into the vat.
Sparks fizzled across the vat. The Autons in the room whirred back to life. One situated between the Doctor and Sarah Jane reached up and plucked the vial out of the air.
“No!” the Doctor shouted.
The fallen Auton beside Donna and Martha whirred and began to stand up. They stumbled away from it, backing up as the Auton turned on them. As a mannequin it didn’t have a face, and yet it looked angry. Donna and Martha backed away until they could back no more. Their backs pressed against the wall. They shivered and glanced at each other. When they did, they both caught a flash of red.
A fire extinguisher hung on the wall between the two of them.
They looked at the extinguisher, then back up at each other. They didn’t speak, they just nodded and jumped into action. Martha tackled the Auton and sent them both crashing to the ground. Donna hefted the fire extinguisher from the wall. “Doctor!” She dropped and kicked the extinguisher. It rolled along the catwalk, gently bumping the Doctor’s leg.
He scooped it up and spun it around in his hand. He turned on the Auton holding the anti-plastic. The fire extinguisher slammed against the Auton’s arm, knocking it clean off the mannequin’s shoulder. Rose swept in and caught the arm. She yanked the anti-plastic free of the fingers and tossed the arm away. She turned to the vat, but Autons blocked her path.
Mickey waved his arms. “Rose!”
Rose pitched the anti-plastic in his direction. “Don’t drop it!”
Mickey wrapped his hands around the little vial. The Autons started in on Mickey, but they were too late. He leaned over the edge of the catwalk and threw the vial into the vat.
The Nestene Consciousness let out a scream. It started to bubble and boil, splashing over the sides of the vat. The orange liquid rapidly started turning the same blue as the anti-plastic.
The Doctor rushed to the Tardis. He pushed the door open and stepped to the side. “Come on!” He waved the fire extinguisher at the open door, ushering everyone into the box. Everyone ran across the room and filed into the box, one by one. Jackie watched as they all disappeared inside of it. Rose grabbed her hand and pulled her inside.
The Doctor glanced back to the screaming and writhing Nestene Consciousness. “Now we're in trouble.” He went into the Tardis and shoved the door shut. It let out a wheezing and groaning, and disappeared.
The Tardis materialized in the middle of a back alley. As soon as it appeared, the door swung open. Jackie stumbled out, frantically pulling Rose behind her. Mickey jogged out after them. Jackie stumbled to a halt beside a pile of crates. She leaned over the crates, one hand still tightly clenched around Rose’s hand.
“Rose, Rose, that’s… I don’t… what was… I don’t…”
Rose pulled her hand free of her mother’s grip and knelt in front of her. “Mum, Mum, it’s okay,” she whispered. “It’s okay. It’s called the Tardis.”
“It’s bigger on the inside!” Jackie exclaimed, pointing one shaky finger at the Tardis. “It’s… it’s… we were there… and now… we’re here! It’s… it’s…”
“Alien,” Rose finished. “Yeah.”
“Alien?!”
Rose glanced at the Doctor. He and the rest were all standing around in front of the Tardis. “He’s an alien.”
Jackie squeaked and scrambled to hide behind the crates. She pulled Rose and Mickey behind them with her.
Back in front of the Tardis, the Doctor held up his fire extinguisher. “You know, these things are dead useful,” he mused. “Maybe I should get one for the Tardis?”
Martha raised an eyebrow. “Oh, you think?”
“I do.”
Donna crossed her arms. “You’re welcome, by the way,” she said idly. “We saved your butt back there. You do have one, right? That’s not some weird alien biology?”
“Yeah, I do,” the Doctor said. “And you’re right. Thank you.”
Sarah Jane shook her head fondly. “I’m glad to see some things are still the same.”
“Oi, what’s that supposed to mean?”
Sarah Jane shook her head again. It was heavier and faster, but still just as fond. “Nothing, nothing.”
Jack took a step away from the Doctor and the Tardis, looking at them both warily. “Right,” he decided. “Well, that’s my good deed for the day. I’m done here. Later.” He turned and began walking away.
The Doctor nodded. “Yes, I suppose you have a point. Right then, I'll be off myself.” He trailed off. He looked between the Tardis and everyone in the alley. “Unless, I don't know, you guys could come with me,” he offered. Almost froze and stared at the Doctor. Even Jack stopped moving, though he didn’t look back.
“This box isn't just a London hopper, you know,” the Doctor continued. “It goes anywhere in the universe free of charge.”
“Yes,” Sarah Jane said instantly. She took a step closer to the Tardis.
“You’re inviting us along with you?” Martha asked.
The Doctor nodded. “If you like.”
“Let me get this straight.” Donna clapped her hands together. “You want us to get in that box and go all over the world?”
“All over the universe,” the Doctor corrected. “All of time and space is through those doors. What do you say?”
Martha took a step closer to the Tardis. Then she froze and shook her head. “I… I can’t. I have… I have things to do. Classes. I have an essay due in a few days!”
“Did you not hear me say all of time?” The Doctor gently patted the side of the Tardis. “She can get us back before your essay. She’s clever like that.”
Sarah Jane snickered to herself. “Someone has to be.”
The Doctor glanced over to Sarah Jane. “You know, I don’t remember you being this snarky.”
“Oh, you don’t?”
Jack slowly turned around. He hesitated, still giving the Doctor and the Tardis a wary look. “I must be crazy for even considering this.”
“Ugh, you and me both,” Donna agreed. “But… well, not like I’ve got anything going on here. And if you guys are going…”
“I am,” Sarah Jane said firmly.
Martha hesitated, looked between the Doctor and the Tardis and Sarah Jane, then slowly started nodding. “I… I think so, yes. I… yes, yes, I am. Is it always this dangerous?”
“Yeah,” the Doctor said.
“You get used to it,” Sarah Jane added. “And it’s worth it. It’s so worth it.”
Jack sighed. “Well, how can I say no to that?” He and Donna started walking toward the Tardis. The Doctor stepped aside and pushed the door open, inviting them all in. None entered just yet, though. Everyone turned back to look back at Rose and Mickey.
“You coming?” the Doctor asked.
Rose started to stand up, stepping out from behind the crates. Jackie jumped up and grabbed her arm with both hands
“Don’t!” she shrieked. “Rose, you can’t! I forbid it!”
“She's not invited,” the Doctor decided. He focused on Rose and Mickey. “What do you think? The two of you could stay here, fill your life with work and food and sleep, or you could go anywhere.”
Rose hesitated and looked away. Mickey stood on Rose’s other side and gently grabbed her hand. “Jackie,” he said softly. Jackie breathed a sigh of relief and let go of Rose’s arm. “I promise, I’ll take care of her,” Mickey continued.
“What?! No, no! You can’t just-”
Rose turned to look at her mother. “Mum.” Something in Rose’s eyes had Jackie faltering. “I’m sorry.”
Rose and Mickey ran toward the Tardis, climbing inside with the Doctor and the rest of their companions.