Part Three
Instead of going home, we go to Mickeys place, cuz Rose wants to see Mickey, and I want to use his computer.
"Hey hey, there's my woman!" Mickey welcomes Rose as he open the door, then he sees me, "And um, glad you're here too Lil." He jokes as he hugs me.
"Shut up!" Both Rose and I yell at him, making he laugh at us before he offers us coffee.
"Yeah, and only if you wash the mug. And I do mean wash, not rinse." Rose teases him.
"No thanks, can I use your computer though?" I ask him.
"Yeah, any excuse to make me pay for something." He only half teases as he and Rose head into the kitchen. "Don't read my emails!" He yells at me as I close his bedroom door.
I try to ignore his dirty room, but it's harder to ignore the dirty boy smell.
I sit down at the computer and try to think about what I'm doing. I really want to know what's going on here, but I'm not sure I really believe what the Doctor was saying. And even if I did believe it, I wasn't sure I totally understood it.
Living plastic, controlled with thought control. What's controlling the thought control, and how do they do it? How are they going to take control of the Earth, with plastic?
The first thing I type into the search box is Doctor, Living Plastic.
Plastic surgeons? Not exactly what I was going for.
The next thing I type in is Doctor, Blue Box. Having seen the blue box thing each time we've run into the Doctor, I figure it's somehow connected to him.
And the very first result says, 'Who is the Doctor? Do you know this man? Contact Clive here.'
That's seems more likely.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"You're not coming in! Rose if you want, you can come, but Mickey, wait in the car. Alright?"
After looking through the website and stumbling across some interesting things, I finally convinced Rose, and Mickey, to drive to this guy Clive's, house. I had contacted him letting him know that I wanted some more information on the Doctor, and he immediately agreed, but said the information was too delicate to discuss over the telephone. And after some not-so-delicate prodding, Rose agreed to go, and Mickey designated himself driver, and protector.
"He's totally safe Mick, he's got a wife and kids." I'm trying to convince Mickey to stay in the car, it's what's best for all of us really.
Mickey counters with, "Yeah, and who told you that, he did! That's exactly what an internet murderer would say!" I smack him on the back of the head, making him jerk forward before he turns to face me in the backseat with a scowl on his face. Rose opens the door and gets out and I clamber over the front seat, making sure my feet are in Mickeys face the entire time. When I'm finally released from metal confines of the car, and Mickey, I smirk at Rose, proud of my 'Pissing of Mickey' skills. She simply rolls her eyes at me and I grab her hand to pull her behind me as we cross the street to get to Clive's house.
After knocking on the door, it opens to reveal a young boy, not what I was expecting, but continue on none the less.
"Hello, I- we've come to see Clive." I let the kid know, gesturing to include Rose as well. "I've been emailing him."
The kid just rolls his eyes at me before he yells out, "Dad, it's some of your nutters!" In shock I gasp at him, making Rose laugh from behind me.
"He included you too you know." I whisper at her, making her pause before she makes an offended face.
A man walks up and gently moves the boy out of the way, "Oh sorry, hello. You must be Lily, I'm Clive, obviously." He shakes my hand and I introduce him to Rose.
"Nice to meet you, this is my sister Rose, and uh, I feel obliged to tell you that her boyfriend is in the car waiting for us." I let him know, only slightly joking, warning him that people would notice if we didn't come back out of the house.
He just chuckles good naturally, "Go point, no murders." He waves a Mickey, when someone, I'm guessing his wife, calls out asking who's at the door.
"Oh, it's something to do with the Doctor, she's been reading the website!" He calls back to her before letting the both of us in saying, "Please, come through, I'm in the shed."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Rose and I stand in the shed, looking around at all the information this man seems to have collected, as he begins explaining things to us.
"A lot of the stuff's quite sensitive; I couldn't just send it to you. People might intercept it, if you know what I mean. If you dig deep enough and keep a lively mind, this Doctor keeps cropping up all over the place. Political diaries, conspiracy theories, even ghost stories. No first name, no last name, just, the Doctor. Always the Doctor. And the title seems to be passed down from father to son. It appears to be an inheritance. That's your Doctor there, isn't it.?" He asks me, pointing to a computer screen that has a picture of him up.
"yeah." Rose and I say at the same time.
"I tracked it down to the Washington public archive just last year. The online photo's enhanced, but uh," he pauses in his explanation as he turns around to pull out a photo from a protector, and shows it to us, "if we look at the original," he pauses again, to let us take in what it is we're actually seeing, and I'm socked. "November the 22nd, 1963, the assassination of president Kennedy."
He has a careful hold of it, and I'm too lost in my own thoughts to say anything, but Rose isn't, "It must be his father."
He drops the picture down on the table in front us before as we walks over to something else as he says, "Going further back, April 1912. This is a photo of the Daniels family of Southampton, and friend." He hands me a picture of a family, and what looks to be the Doctor, and I hold it so Rose can see it also. "This was taken the day before they were due to sail to the New World on the Titanic. And for some unknown reason, they cancelled the trip and survived."
He seems to get more excited and turns grab something else to show us. I set the picture down on top of the previous one, as we walks over to us again. "Here, 1883, another Doctor." It's a roughly done sketch, but it's still clearly of the Doctor. "Look, the same lineage. Identical. This one washed up on the coast of Sumatra on the very day the Krakatoa exploded. The Doctor is woven through history. When disaster comes, he's there. He brings a storm in his wake, with his one constant companion."
"Who's that?" Rose and I question at the same time.
"Death." He replies with a grim look on his face. "If you've seen him Lily, Rose, if the Doctor is back, then one thing's for certain. We're all in danger. If he's singled you out, if the Doctor's making house calls, then God help you." He turns away and starts putting some of the pictures back in place.
"But who is he?" Rose asks, but I don't know if he truly knows, so I clarify the question, "Who do you think he is?" I ask.
"I think he's the same man. I think he's immortal." He leans over the table towards us, with his hands on the table top, close to our faces, "I think he's an alien from another world."
Again with that word, alien.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Back at the car, Rose opens the door for me and I climb in the backseat as she tells Mickey, "All right, he's a nutter. Off his head, a complete online conspiracy freak. You win." I'm not sure I believe Clive, but I also don't think he was totally off the mark. I'm not really sure what's happening here, but I do know, it's not normal. So I don't comment on Roses' jabs.
"What are we doing tonight?" She asks him, "I fancy a pizza."
"Pizza." He agrees, but then he starts to stutter. "P-p-p- pizza."
I just look at him sideways, coz even for Mickey, that was strange. But Rose doesn't seem to notice, and keeps talking. "Or Chinese." She questions.
"Pizza." He says again, and begins to drive off. Mickey's never been a great driver, but this is a bit ridiculous. I tighten my seatbelt around me and hold on to my seat the entire way to the pizzeria.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Rose, Mickey and I are at a table, Rose continues talking as if she doesn't notice that Mickey is smiling at me like a freak, and actually looks really pale. I don't know why, but I don't seem to be able to say anything, and Mickey is really creeping me out.
"Do you think I should try at the hospital?" She wonders, "Suki says they have jobs going in the canteen. Is that it then? Dishing out chips? I could do A levels." She sighs at the thought of it, "I don't know, it's all Jimmy Stones fault. I only left school cuz of him." She says, and if I was able, I would admonish her again for making that stupid choice, but I'm too hypnotized by the freaky Mickey in front of me. "What do you think?" She asks us, and I don't understand how she hasn't picked up anything weird about this. Mickey is, well I don't even know what Mickey is. But she knows I'm never quite and the fact that I didn't start lecturing her about Jimmy Stone really should have set her off that something was wrong.
"So where did you meet this Doctor?" Mickey asks me, with that scary ass smile on his face.
"Oh, I'm sorry, was I talking about me for second?" Rose huffs at the both of us.
"Because I reckon, it started back at the shop am I right? Did he have something to do with that?" He questions me about the Doctor, causing me to find my voice again.
"No." I say strongly, ignoring Rose's annoyed scoff.
"Come on." He presses me with a smirk.
"No." I say again, I don't know what he's doing, or what's happened to him, but right now, I don't trust him.
"I'm not going on about it Mickey. Really I'm not because, I don't trust you right now. I don't know what you did, but somethings wrong." I tell him, maybe it wasn't a smart move to let him know I'm on to whatever's happening here, but I don't know what else to do. I look over at Rose and she seems to be questioning my sanity.
"But you can trust me sweetheart. Babe, sugar, babe, sugar." He stutters over his words, and I pointedly look over at Rose again. She's looking over at Mickey worriedly. Finally we're getting somewhere!
"You can tell me anything. Tell me about the Doctor, about what he's planning Lily and I can help you. Because that's all I really want to do sweetheart, babe, babe, sugar."
"What are you doing that for Mickey?" Rose asks him, and I get the feeling she asking more so about the pet names than anything else, and I can't keep myself from rolling my eyes at her.
"Your champagne." A voice says, that I know isn't our waitress. I look up and smile at him when I see who it is. He winks, and shushes me, telling me not to let Rose in on it.
"We didn't order any champagne." Mickey snaps at him, then grips my hand tight making me wince, "where's the Doctor." He demands an answer from me.
"Madame, your champagne." The Doctor tries Rose next, and she just shoos him away saying, "It's not ours." Before all her attention goes back to Mickey. "Mickey what's wrong what it is?"
I try to get my hand out from under Mickey's grip, but it's surprisingly strong. He's still looking at me with his intense, but kind of glazed over eyes, as he says, "I need to find out how much you know, so where is he?"
I scoff at him before saying, "You always were an idiot, Mickey."
"Doesn't anyone want this champagne?" I can hear the laughter behind the Doctor's question, probably at my calling Mickey and idiot.
Mickey rolls his eyes and exasperatedly says, "Look, we didn't order," but stops when he finally looks up and notices the Doctor.
"Finally. Idiot." I mumble, but the Doctor seems to heard me and laughs at me.
"Gotcha." Mickey smiles and finally let's go of my hand. I flex my fingers, trying to gain my feeling back. I look up at the Doctor, who's standing behind me, shaking up the bottle of champagne. I lean back in my seat, not sure what he's planning on doing, but I know what happens when you shake up the bubbly. And I don't plan on getting soaked.
"Don't mind me," he smiles, "just toasting to the happy group of friends. On the house." He says as he finally pops off the cork, aiming it straight at Mickeys head. And he absorbs it! Through his forehead, before spitting it out.
"Cool!" I say in awe, not able to keep it in. Rose looks appalled, but the Doctor looks proud of himself.
"Anyway." Mickey smirks at us before standing up, throwing his chair back, and ... transforming his hand into some kind of mallet. And he smashes the table, trying to get to the Doctor, I guess.
The Doctor runs over to Mickey, grabbing him in a headlock, before yanking on his head. When finally Mickeys head pops off!
The Doctor just smirks as Mickeys' head says, "Don't think that's gonna stop me." And his headless body starts running around smashing everything in its way.
"Okay, not so cool." I mutter to myself as everyone in the restaurant starts screaming and trying to get out of the way.
Looking around at the chaos, I see the fire alarm. I pull, setting it off, telling everyone to get out of the building.
The Doctor leads us threw the kitchens, and we find ourselves in the back alley behind the restaurant. The Doctor closes the door behind us just as headless Mickey starts slamming up against the door. He pulls the light up device out of his jacket pocket and aims it at the door.
Rose runs over to the gate, that seems to be chained up with a padlock. The Doctor just trolls over to the blue box that always seems to be around him, with Mickeys head under him arm.
"Open the gate!" Rose shout at the Doctor, "Use that tube thing!"
I hear the Doctor scoff, as he continues walking, so I take a stab a guessing, "New-age light saber?" Cuz really, how freaking cool would that be.
This time he laughs, but still says "Nah," I sigh, a little bummed. "Tell you what, lets go in here." He pulls out a key and walks in, I hear Rose yell from the gate, "You can't hid inside a wooden box!"
As Rose pointlessly continues to struggle with the chain, I walk up to the box. My curiosity is screaming at me, so I walk in. I leave the door open for when Rose finally comes round.
When I get a look around, I'm frozen in place, its, it's massive. I'm totally speechless.
It's a huge room that has domed ceilings, of, I couldn't even tell you how tall. The walls have these, weird circles on them that actually look really cool. In the middle of the room, is a slightly raised platform. It has a, control panel, I guess it's called. In the middle is a huge, clear column that has a moving part in it, that goes up and down. Constructed around the column, is the massive control panel. With all different kinds of buttons, and levers and doodads, that light up and change color.
It totally awe-inspiring.
I'm still standing there with my jaw on the ground when Rose finally runs in. She looks around and seems just as star struck as I feel. But she runs out, and normally I would follow her, but I don't want to leave this. I slowly walk up to the console and walk around it, just trying to take everything in.
"Wow." My voice cracks, but I don't even care. "This is incredible. And impossible, yet it's here. And it's massive, especially compared to the outside! How?!"
The Doctor stops whatever he's doing to Mickey, to face me as he laughs, his face lighting up. I start to feel slightly light headed and then he starts to get kind of blurry. He must be able to feel himself getting fuzzy around the edges because he comes over to me and gently sits me in a seat I didn't even know was there.
"Easy does it, there you go." I close my eyes to hopefully rid myself of the slight nauseous feeling, but I can hear the smile behind his voice. When I feel like I won't puke, I open my eyes, to see the Doctor still in front of me, making sure I'll be okay, and still smiling. I nod to let him know I'm fine and he turns back to the head.
I'm not sure what Rose has been doing, but when she finally comes back in, I'm still sitting on the little jump seat that's on the platform, next to the control panel. I'm still in amazement that this is real. The Doctor's doing something with Mickeys head, but continuously looks over his should at me with a smile. And every time I give him one back, probably with a bit of a dumbstruck look on my face causing him to chuckle every so often.
"It's gonna follow us!" Rose yells, finally saying something.
The Doctor shakes his head as he let her know that, "The assembled hordes of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door. And believe me they've tried. Now shut up a minute." I roll my eyes at him, but when I see Rose freaking out, I head over to her and take her hand.
The Doctor, not noticing, starts explain, and while I'm worried about Rose, I'm really interested understanding everything, so while I hold her hand, I'm listening to the Doctor talk.
"You see, the arm was too simple. The head however, perfect! I can use it to trace the signal back to the original source."
"Guess that makes sense, though it is still Mickeys' head, so simple kind of applies to everything." I mutter, Rose drops my hand and gives me a disgusted look, while the Doctor laughs, then says, "While that may be true, it's still holds a stronger connection to the source of the Autons."
The Doctor turns back to face us and asks us, "Right, where do you want to start?"
Rose has taken a couple of steps away from me, but she answers with, "Uhm... the insides' bigger than the outside?"
"Yes."
"It's alien." My head snaps up at the word again, alien. For some reason, I hadn't connected that.
"Yep."
And Rose asks another, "Are you alien?" I look up at him, at this box, thinking over the last two days, he has to be an alien. How cool!
"Yes." He states before aiming the next question at the both of us, "That alright?"
I automatically, nod my head, and say, "Yep." I answer the same as him. He smiles at me before turning to Rose, waiting for her answer.
"Yes."
He takes our affirmatives and start explaining things a bit more, "She called the TARDIS, the ship. That T-A-R-D-I-S, Time And Relative Dimension In Space."
Rose starts crying and I take her hand again, not letting her pull away from me.
"That's okay, culture shock." The Doctor attempts at comforting her. "It happens to the best of us."
"Did they kill him? Mickey, is he dead?" Rose demands, I scrunch my eyebrows at her question. I hope for the best, but I honestly don't know. I look at the Doctor and he seems confused, or shocked, and he says "Oh, I don't think of that."
I scoff a bit, but Rose seems pissed. I mean she should be, he's her boyfriend.
"He's my boyfriend. You pulled off his head, they copied him and you didn't even think!?"
I can't help but think, he didn't pull of Mickeys' head, he pulled off the copy of Mickeys' head. But I don't say anything cuz angry Rose is kind of scary, she gets it from Jackie.
"And now you're just going to let him melt!" She yells as she look over the Doctors shoulder at the melting copy of Mickeys face.
"Oh no, no, no ,no ,no!" the Doctor yells at the face, as if it's his fault, then continues running around the console pushing buttons and levers, and things.
I walk up onto the platform and hold onto the railing, trying to stay out of his way as he runs around, and ask him what he's trying to do.
"Following the signal, it's fading!"
The weird wheezing noise goes off, and the room starts to tilt and shift, the Doctor yells again, "No, no, no!" He starts to, coax? The machine, "Come on, we're almost there, you can do it! Here we go!" He's holding onto the console now, as the rooms pitches a bit more.
Everything stops, and he runs past us to the door, Rose yells at him. "You can't go out there!" I roll my eyes at her before following out after him. "Lily it's not safe!"
I totally ignore her as I take in the change of scenery outside the bo- TARDIS. I'm listening to the Doctor rant, but I can keep the smile off my face, this day just keeps getting better!
"I've lost the signal. I got so close!" The Doctor says as he looks around.
"We've moved. Does it fly?" Roses asks.
"Duh, come on Rosie!" I mock her but she doesn't even seem to care.
The Doctor on the other hand, smirks, before getting serious again, "Disappears here, reappears there. You wouldn't understand."
"Rude." I roll my eyes at him, scoffing a bit, even though I know he's right.
"If we're somewhere else, what about that headless thing, is it still on the loose?" Rose questions.
The Doctor pushes away from the wall he was leaning against to walk towards us as he says, "Melted with the head. Are you gonna witter on all night?"
"Oi, rude! I think it's understandable that we've got some questions and concerns here!" I quip back at him, and I can see that he's trying really hard not to smile.
"I'll have to tell his mother." Rose mutters, instantly the smile is wiped of both the Doctors and my faces'. The Doctor looks confused again.
"Mickey!" I yell at him again.
"I'll have to tell his mother he's dead!" Rose yells, "And you just went and forgot him. AGAIN! You were right, you are alien."
The Doctor seems to be a bit impatient and scoffs at her accusations before defending himself, "Look, if I did forget some kid named Rickey,"
"Mickey! And he's not a kid!" She yells, and I mutter to myself, "He's older than me."
"It's because I'm trying to save the life of every stupid ape blundering about on top of this planet, all right!" He yells back at her. And normally I would have made a comment about the 'stupid ape' thing, but I don't think now's the time.
"All right!?" Rose mocks him, "Yes it is!" He answers the non-question, and I can't stop the little giggle that escapes my lips.
They both stop their yelling to look at me, and I just smile back at them. To diffuse the tension a bit, I ask a different question, "Since you're an alien, how come you sound like you're from the north?"
"You'd be surprised, lots of planets have a north." He says proudly.
"Then ah, what's a 'Police Public Call Box'"? I ask as I read the sign on the TARDIS.
The Doctor pats the side of the box fondly while saying, "It's a telephone box, from the 1960's. It's a disguise." He beams at me.
"But it's not the 1960's." I inform him.
He frowns and goes to say something else, when Rose interrupts him, "What's the living plastic got against us?"
He looks over at her, shocked, probably that she's not yelling at him anymore, but answers her all the same, "Nothing. It loves you. You've got such a good planet. Lots of smoke and oil, and plenty of toxins and dioxins in the air. Perfect. Just what the Nestene Consciousness needs." He walks over to us, Rose scoots closer to me and the Doctor stops right in front of us, "It's food stock was lost in the war. All it's protein planets rotted, so Earth, dinner." He mimes eating with his hands.
"Any way of stopping it?" Rose asks.
He pulls a little vial of blue liquid out of his seemingly never ending pockets. "Anti-plastic."
"Anti-plastic?" I question him.
"Anti-plastic." He confirms, "But first, I've got to find it. How can you hide something that big in a city this small?" He questions himself as he walks back over the short wall he was leaning against earlier, and looks out over the city.
"What's been hidden?" I ask, feeling like I missed a piece of the conversation.
"The transmitter," The Doctor says it as if it should have been obvious, "The Consciousness is controlling every single piece of plastic, so it needs a transmitter to boost the signal."
"Oh, of course, how could I have possibly forgotten about the transmitter!" I question dramatically, causing both of them to roll their eyes at me, but the Doctor did it with a smirk, Rose, not so much.
Rose, ever practical, asks, "Well, what's it look like?"
The Doctor starts paseing a bit, looking round for what he's describing, "Like a transmitter. Round and massive, somewhere slap-band in the middle of London, a huge metal circular, structure." He absentmindedly leads us around to the other side of the TARDIS, he leans against the waist high wall, and faces us. "Like a dish, like a wheel- radial. Close to where we're standing, must be completely invisible."
The laugh I've been trying to hold back, bursts out of my chest, and Rose holds on to my shoulder to keep me from falling over, which has happened before.
The Doctor looks totally lost as to the seemingly random laughter outburst, but he smiles at me still.
Rose pointedly looks behind him at the London Eye, and when he turns around, he doesn't understand what she's getting at. They do this a few times, prolonging my laughter till I have tears running down my cheeks.
He finally catches on when my laughter has subsides to small giggles. He walks over to us and grabs my face in his hands, wiping my tears with his thumbs and says, "Fanstastic." He lets go of my face, leaving me surprised and blushing, he smiles at both Rose and I before darting off.
Rose gives me, 'the look' as she smirks at me, "Don't even." Is all I need to tell her, as she lifts her hands in an imitation of innocence. I grab one of her hands and pull her along after me as I follow the Doctor. As I catch up to him, he grabs my hand, and I haven't let go of Roses' yet so I feel it when she squeezes my hand and I shoot her a look over my shoulder.
When we finally make it to the base of the London Eye, we all let go of each other's hands, and the Doctor says, "Think of it, plastic, all over the world, every artificial thing waiting to come to life. The shop window dummies, the phones, the wires, the cables." Rose looks around at all the things that could possibly kill us, while what popped into my mind was, "the breast implants." I whisper so only Rose can hear me, and she giggles.
"Still, we found the transmitter," The Doctor ignores our snickering, "the Consciousness must be somewhere underneath."
Rose and I run in different directions, looking for a way underground, when I find some kind of hatch, "What about here?" I say, letting them know I might be on to something.
"Looks good to me." The Doctor smirks before he runs off towards the door.
He twists open the door, and descends down the ladder, I go next, and when I get close to the bottom, the Doctor puts one hand on my back to help me jump off. And when Rose come down, he does the same. We follow him off to the side and go threw another door onto a ledge, with a bunch of metal stair to get down lower. In the middle of the floor, is a vat of, glowing, stuff.
"The Nestene Consciousness," The Doctor explains, "that's it. A living plastic creature."
"Well than, tip in your anti-plastic and lets go." Rose says nervously.
"Wait, will that kill it?" I wonder out loud. The Doctor glances at Rose before turning his attention to me, "I'm not here to kill it, I've to give it a chance." He looks over at Rose quickly before making his way down the stairs, with me right behind him.
We don't make all the way to the ground before he starts talking to it, "I seek audience with the Nestene Consciousness under peaceful contract according to Convention 15 under The Shadow Proclamation." The thing rumbles a bit, and the Doctor answers, "Thank you, if I might have permission to approach?"
I stay standing next to the Doctor as Rose notices Mickey over in the corner, "Doctor, it's Mickey! He's alive!" she shouts as runs to him. She tries to sooth him but Mickey shushes her, "That thing down there, the liquid. It talks, Rose." He whispers to her.
The Doctor and I roll our eyes, he leads me down to where they are and he tells her, "Yeah that was always a possibility." He says as he keeps walking down towards ground level, "Keep him alive to maintain the copy." He explains, and I send Rose an apologetic look, but keep following him down.
"You knew that and you never said?" she accuses him his actions.
"Can we keep the domestics outside? Thank you." I smile at the thought of keeping Mickey outside, maybe on a leash.
I continue following the Doctor as we end up on a platform right above the vat. He walks up to the edge, looking down at it. I stay right behind him, not to keen on standing too close to the edge. The Doctor looks over at me, seeming surprised that I followed him all the way down here, he quickly glances up at where Rose is standing before looking back at me again with a smile. He reaches out and squeezes my hand before letting go and facing the vat again and starts talking.
"Am I addressing the Consciousness?" He asks the glowing blob of goop, and surprisingly, it seems as though he got an answer, though all I heard was rumbling.
"Thank you. If I might observe, you infiltrated this civilization by means of warp shunt technology. So, might I suggest, with the greatest respect, that you shunt off?" I cover my mouth with both my hands, trying to keep the giggles from escaping; thinking now may not be the best time.
The thing growls at him and he rolls his eyes, "Oh don't give me that, it's an invasion. Plain and simple, don't talk about constitutional rights."
Constitutional rights? I take a quick glance up at Rose and she has the same questioning look on her face.
The growling and rumbling gets louder until the Doctor shouts, "I AM TALKING!"
He pauses to gather his thoughts, "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."
Rose shouts both our names just as I feel something grab hold of both my arms. I look around and see that two shop dummies have hold of me, same with the Doctor. We try to struggle out of their grasp, but they are surprisingly strong.
One of the mannequins reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out the vial of anti-plastic, making the thing below us screech.
"That was just insurance!" he shouts, "I wasn't going to use it!"
It growls back at him, he answers a bit panicked, "I was not attacking you, I'm here to help. I'm not your enemy, I'm not, I swear."
It screams and growls, shocking the Doctor, "What do you mean?" A door opens up behind us and the TARDIS comes into view.
"Oh, oh no, honestly no!" He yells, trying even harder to get loose. "Yes, that's my ship."
The goop seems to form a face and it continues to talk to the Doctor.
"That's not true! I should know, I was there, I fought in the war. It wasn't my fault-" His voice breaks as he pleads with it.
It starts to get louder, "I couldn't save your world! I couldn't save any of them!" His face breaks my heart, and it takes all I have to not start crying.
Rose yells from behind us, gripping onto Mickey still, "What's it doing?" The sad look is instantly wiped off his face, like he forgot he wasn't alone in the room.
"It's the TARDIS," He answers, "the Nestene's identified it as superior technology, it's terrified! It's going into the final phase, the invasion! Get out Rose, just leg it, now!"
"I'm not going without Lily!" She screams at us.
He turns to me and his face softens, "I'm so sorry Lily, I-" I cut him off, "It's okay, Doctor, I don't blame you. Today has been.. fantastic!" I smile at him to let him know that I'm okay, and he smiles back at me.
I can hear Rose talking, but it's too loud in here to understand what she's saying, and the grip the mannequins have on me, is too tight that I can't turn and see what she's doing.
Suddenly what looks like lightning starts shooting out from the vat, the Doctor explains that, it's the activation signal, and it's started transmitting. He continues to try to free himself, but it's no use.
The thing lifts up out of the vat as it screeches so loud, I wish I could cover my ears. I know this isn't going to end well, I may have to stay here, but Rose doesn't. "Get out Rosie, just go, run!"
She looks at me sadly, but before she can do anything, part of the ceiling collapses, "The stairs are gone!" She tells us before she takes Mickeys hand and pulls him over to where the TARDIS is.
I hear her say she hasn't go the key, and Mickey say that we're all going to die.
I look back over at the Doctor, and he's already looking at me. He opens his mouth to say something, but I stop him, "I'm okay." I try to reassure him, but the tears on my cheeks, seem to prove otherwise.
I watch as the Doctor tears his eyes away from mine, and sees the Auton next to him is still holding the vial of anti-plastic. He struggles against the one holding him, trying to reach it. It's terrible to watch, he's so close, yet still so far away from it.
I hear Mickey shout, "Just leave them, I'm sorry Rose but we can't help her!" I look up to see Mickey fall on his face a Rose races over to the wall. She grabs an axe that's hanging there, and lifts it up, I can't hear what she's saying, but it looks like she's giving herself a pep talk. She brings the axe down, releasing a chain. She grabs hold of it, meeting my eyes, before she jumps off the ledge, swinging towards the Doctor and I. She slams into the Autons holding on to us, one that was holding onto me falls in to the vat. The other falls on the floor, and before it can stand up, I kick it into the vat as well, just in time to see the Doctor to the same to his, making sure the vial goes in with them, and then helps Rose down.
She runs over to me and grabs me into a hug, knocking my breath away, "I love you." I whisper in her ear, "I love you too." She answers back, she lets go and smiles at me quickly before we turn to the Doctor to see what to do next.
"Oh, now we're in trouble." He smirks at us before quickly looking down at the vat as it's writhing around. He takes my hand, and I grab Roses as we run up to the TARDIS. Mickey's gripping onto it, "Idiot." I mutter, not sure if I'll ever get over the fact that he told Rose to leave me for dead. The Doctor hears me and just squeezes my hand before letting me go, to push Mickey out of the way.
We all ran into the TARDIS, I went straight to the jump seat and pulled my knees up under my chin, wrapping my arms around my legs.
The Doctor starts working on the console to get us out of there before everything blows up.
Mickey is standing by the door in shock, and I thought Rose would to stay over there to comfort him, but instead, she walks over and sits next to me in the seat, putting her arms round me, and I lean my head on her should, exhausted.
When the Doctor lands the TARDIS, Mickeys pulls open the door, and runs out. I lift my head off Rose's shoulder as I feel her grip loosen around me. I look up at her pleading expression and nod, letting her know she can go after him, she kisses my forehead before running out the doors.
I relax my legs to sit criss-cross, but don't make any move to leave. The Doctor walks over, and kneels in front of where I'm sitting on the seat. He puts one hand on my knee and takes hold one of my hands with the other.
Without saying anything, I squeeze his hand. To let him know I'm okay, that I don't blame him in any way, that I'm not upset, or mad, and to let him know that I don't want to leave.
So much can be said by such a simple gesture.
And because the Doctor is the Doctor, he understands everything I've put into that simple squeeze of a hand.
He squeezes my hand back, before standing up and squeezing my shoulder instead, still holding onto one of my hands.
I stand up and grab the Doctor in a bone crushing hug, seeking some kind of comfort. Maybe not one hundred percent okay, it was a scary day. He hugs back, tightly, before pulling away and taking my hand again, leading me towards the doors.
He opens both doors to the TARDIS and simultaneously, we lean on either door jam.
"Nestene Consciousness, easy." The Doctor boasts, snapping his fingers in explanation, making me scoff.
"You'd be useless in there," Rose tells him, before she looks at me, pleading with me almost, "you'd be dead in there if it wasn't for me."
"Yes, we would." The Doctor answers for the both of us, looking at the ground. He faces Rose again saying, "Thank you."
"Right then, I'll be off." He looks over at me first, already knowing my answer. I smile and nod at him anyway, to reaffirm my decision to him. He beams back at me, before turning back to face Rose, but lets me talk, "Come with us Rose." I get straight to the point, not wanting to drag it out any longer than needs be. I'm not sure what I'd do if she says no, so I want to get it over with quickly.
"What are you talking about Lily?"
I look over at the Doctor, letting him take over, "This box isn't just a London hopper you know. It goes anywhere in the universe, free of charge."
"Don't!" Mickey yells as he wraps himself around Roses' legs, "He's an alien, he's a thing!" I roll my eye at him as I ask, "What about me Mick?"
"You're different, Lil, you've always been different." I flinch back at his words, not entirely sure what to make of what he says. The Doctor stands up straight, on edge, and takes my hand in his.
"He's not invited." He says, very harshly, making it known how he feels about Mickey.
I know it's true, to some extent. I've always been more of a loner, than a social butterfly. I never had many friends, I had acquaintances, people I'd talk to if I saw them, but not people I would voluntarily hang out with. I only became friends with Mickey because my mom is friends with his mom. But my lack of companionship was has always been what I wanted, always of my own choice. I was four when my dad died, and with Rose only being a couple months old, I took on the duty of taking care of my mum, and baby sister. Rose became my best and only friend, she became my everything. I did and do everything I can for her, I became dad, when he died, and I was mom, when she couldn't be there because she had to work. Rose was always more sociable than me, when she started going to school, she made lots of friends. I became less necessary. When she met Mickey, they stuck together like glue, practically attached at the hip. I wasn't bitter about it, I was glad that they became close, glad that Rose was getting what she needed, glad she was happy. Mickey and I have always teased each other, painless joking, but hearing Mickey tell Rose to leave me with the Nestene, knowing that he's always thought me different.
It hurts.
Rose glares at him, stepping out of his grip, but doesn't move any closer to us. She looks over at us, apologetically, before asking, "Is it always this dangerous?"
"Yeah." The Doctor say, but he's smiling also.
Mickey clings back onto her legs, but she pushes him off again. "I don't think I can, I should get him back." She looks down at Mickey sadly, before continuing, "Plus if you're going Lil," she pauses and I nod at her, "than someone should stay and take care of mum." She says this, but I'm not sure I believe what she's saying, and honestly, I'm not sure she believes it either.
I want to get of the sad look off Roses' face, but I also want to go with the Doctor. I want to finally do something for me, something I want, that will make me happy. Finally.
"We won't be gone for good, I mean, we'll come back all the time, right?" I try to reassure her, while simultaneously asking the Doctors' permission.
He immediately says that, yes, we will always come back and visit. But something in his eyes, seems sad, and gives me some cause for worry.
But not enough to make me change my mind about leaving with the Doctor.
The Doctor takes my hand and pulls me into the TARDIS and leads me over to the jumps seat. He starts working on the console and I can feel the take off, making heart feel heavy. When suddenly the Doctor turns around and asks, "Do you think I should have told her the TARDIS can travel in time?" I laugh at him as I say, "Well, let's find out if it makes a difference!" He beams back at me, a huge smile across his face.
The second the TARDIS lands, I rush to the doors and throw them open to see Roses' startled face, "Hey Rosie, did he forget to mention that it also travels in time?" I laugh as I see her kiss Mickey on the cheek and take off running towards me.
I pull her into a bone crushing hug as I close the door to the TARDIS.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Phew! That's the end of episode one! Holy hell, part three, has a 7582 word count!!!
And uh, sorry I was a little hard on Mickey, if there are any Mickey lovers out there... I personally was never partcial to him, so I apologize if he's a favorite of yours.
I'll get started on episode two soon, and I'll post it when I finish writing it out, so I know where to chop it up. Unless someon tells me they want the whole episode in one chapter, which I'll do if you want, let me know.
Thank y'all for reading!
IThriveAtNight