The Doctor, DI Biship, and I hurried back to the Connelly's house on the morning of the coronation, specifically to search for Tommy. If anyone knew what happened to his grandmother, it would be him.
Luckily, he was the one who opened the door.
"Tommy, talk to me. I need to know exactly what happened inside your house." The Doctor said, wasting no time.
Tommy stepped out, attempting to pull the door closed behind him when it was yanked out of his hand, and a very angry looking Mr. Connolly came bursting outside.
"What the blazes do you think you're doing?!" He asked, getting in his son's face.
"I wanna help, Dad!"
"Mr. Connolly-" The Doctor started.
"Shut your face, you," He spat, moving towards the Doctor, "Whoever you are, we can handle this ourselves!"
I shook my head, stepping forward to confront him, when the Doctor stopped me, putting his arm out in front of me as Mr. Connolly moved back to Tommy.
"Listen, you little twerp-"
"Doctor..." I said, urging him to let me go.
"Wait." He said.
"You're hardly out of the blooming cradle, so I don't expect you to understand, but I've got a position to maintain! People round here respect me! It matters what people think!"
"Is that why you did it, Dad?" Tommy asked.
"What you mean? Did what?"
I settled back into my place beside the Doctor, and he took his arm away.
"You ratted on Gran," He continued, "How else would the police know where to look? Unless some coward told them."
"How dare you?!" He stepped up to Tommy again, and the boy looked between us and his dad with fear in his eyes. I desperately wanted to get this man as far away from Tommy as possible, but I knew why the Doctor had stopped me from doing so.
For everyone, no matter the age, sex, or position of power, there comes a point in our lives where we must decide to stand up to the bullies and be our own person. This was Tommy's moment, and if I were to step in and intervene now, I would be robbing him of the opportunity to step into his own, and become the young man that he was destined to be.
So, I stayed where I was and bit the inside of my cheek, and when the Doctor offered me his hand I took it, if for no other reason than to assure I would stay where I was.
"You think I fought a war just so a mouthy little scum like you could call me a coward!" Mr. Connolly continued.
"You don't get it, do you?" Tommy asked. "You fought against fascism, remember? People telling you how to live. Who you could be friends with, who you could fall in love with. Who could live, and who had to die. Don't you get it?! You were fighting so that little twerps like me could do what we want, say what we want. Now, you've become just like them, haven't you? You've been informing on everyone, haven't you!? Even Gran! All to protect your precious reputation!"
"Eddie..." Rita appeared at the door, a heartbroken look on her face, "Is that true?"
"I did it for us, RIta." He answered. "SHE WAS FILTHY! A FILTHY, DISGUSTING THING!"
"She's my mother," She reasoned, "All the others your informed on, all the people on our street, our friends..."
"I had to," He said, looking around at all of us, "I-I did the right thing."
"The right thing for us or for you, Eddie?" Rita questioned. She turned toward her son. "You go, Tommy. You go with Mary, and the Doctor and do some good. Get away from this house, its poison. We've had a ruddy monster under our roof alright, but it weren't my mother!"
She slammed the door shut behind her, leaving Tommy and Mr. Connelly outside.
"Rita!" He began banging on the door and I stepped forward holding a hand out to Tommy.
"Come on." I said gently.
He did as I said, letting me wrap my arms around him and lead him down the street, while his father watched on helplessly.
The street was full of children running around while several of the neighbors set up tables for the block party that was to come directly after the coronation.
"Tommy, tell me about that night, the night she changed." The Doctor said.
"She was just watching the telly." He answered. The Doctor and I shared a look over his head.
"Its coronation day," I pointed out, "Everyone glued to the television, everyone Doctor!"
"Come on!"
He grabbed my hand again, pulling me as we all took off sprinting down the street towards Magpie's shop.
"Rose said it," He called as we ran, "She guessed it straight away, of course she did!"
I nodded, trying to ignore the fact that it was my theory too as he dragged me towards the shop.
"Here!" Bishop said as we reached the shop. We skidded to a stop and the Doctor tried the door, only to find that it was locked.
"Hold on." I put a hand on his arm, reaching down and pulling my heel off of my foot. I walked over to the door, using my shoe to smash the window closest to the doorknob.
"You can't do that-" Bishop tried as the Doctor reached inside and unlocked the door. I put my shoe back on just as he went storming in, violently hitting the bell on the front desk.
"IF YOU'RE HERE, COME OUT AND TALK TO ME! MAGPIE!" He shouted. I bit my lip, unable to stop the thoughts that formed once I saw the terrifying expression that twisted his usually serene features.
This was a side of the Doctor that I had never seen before. He was angry...violent even, and It didn't really take much to understand why. I don't think I really had understood until this moment, but I suppose it all made sense.
Its Rose.
Rose is the one he chases after when she escapes into a parallel world. Mickey said it himself, its just the Doctor and Rose, together, and when they're together, nothing else matters, and when they're apart...
The man I was looking at was a man who would burn the world down for the sake of Rose Tyler. He needs her whether he'll admit it or not, he loves her and I...
I'm just a beautiful mystery. A puzzle to solve, someone the Doctor claims that he needs while in all reality...
I am the Doctor's Mickey Smith.
"Maybe he's out." Tommy suggested.
"Looks like it." Bishop agreed.
The Doctor walked around the desk, pulling drawers open, and I wrapped my arms around myself as I tried to focus on the task at hand, rather than the, quite frankly heart-breaking epiphany I'd just had.
"Oh, hello." He reached into a drawer, pulling out what looked to be a handmade, handheld, portable television monitor. "This isn't right. This is very much not right, Mary, take a look."
He handed it off to me and I took it, turning it over in my hands. He leaned down, licking it, causing me to furrow my eyebrows.
"Tastes like iron. Bakelite. Knocked together with human hands, but the design itself..." I gently pushed him aside setting it down on the desk and grabbing the sonic from his pocket so I could scan it and get a look inside. "Oh, beautiful work. That is so simple."
"That's incredible, its like a television, but portable." Biship observed. "A portable television."
I paused furrowing my eyebrows as the frequency of the sonic buzz changed.
"Doctor..." I said, glancing at him.
"Its not the only power source in this room." He explained, taking the sonic back and moving it higher into the air.
Suddenly, all of the TV screens in the room changed from the standby logo to a black screen with a face in the very center...the stolen faces of the Florizel Street residents.
All of them were screaming silently, begging for help.
"Gran..." Tommy said staring in horror as he spotted her on one of the TVs. I rushed over, dropping to my knees as I spotted a familiar face on the bottom row.
All the other faces mouthed things like 'help me', but this face...Rose's face...called out for the Doctor.
The Doctor crouched down beside me as I rested a hand on the wooden frame of the television.
"I'm on my way." He whispered. I nodded swallowing. He's on his way. Him and him alone.
"What do you think you're doing?" We both looked up as Magpie came bursting through the bead curtain and into the front room. The Doctor stood up, speeding towards him. Magpie backed up into the wall as the Doctor got in his face.
"I want my friend restored, and I think that's beyond a little backstreet electrician, so tell me, who's really in charge here?!" He demanded.
"Yoohoo! I think that might be me." A voice said. I slowly stood up as one of the TV's, which now stood directly in front of my face, changed to contain a black and white image of a classic 50's housewife. "Ooh, this one's smart as paint."
"Is she talking to us?" Bishop asked, looking at Magpie as the Doctor came to stand beside me.
"I'm sorry gentlemen, but I'm afraid you've brought this on yourselves." Magpie answered. "May I introduce you to my new...friend."
I turned to look at him.
"We can help you," I urged, "I promise, we can help you, just-"
"Jolly nice to meet you." She interrupted, turning my gaze back to her.
"Oh my gosh, its her. That woman off the telly!' Bishop exclaimed.
"No, its just using her image." The Doctor explained.
"What?" Tommy asked. "What are you?"
"I'm The Wire. And I will gobble you up, pretty boy. Every last morsel," Suddenly the screen shifted to color, "And when I have feasted, I shall regain the corporeal body, which my fellow kind denied me."
"Good lord," Biship said, "Color television."
"You're talking to a sentient television program whose stealing faces, maybe reserve your amazement." I said, crossing my arms. "Your own people tried to stop you, then?"
"They executed me, but I escaped, in this form and I fled across the stars."
"And now, you're trapped in the television." The Doctor pointed out. Her smile fell as the screen faded to black and white again.
"Not for much longer." She said.
"Doctor, is this what got my Gran?"
"Yes Tommy," He answered, "It feeds off the electrical activity of the brain, but it gorges itself like a great, over-fed pig. Taking people's faces, their essence as it stuffs itself."
"And you let her do it, Magpie." Bishop said accusingly.
"I had to. She allowed me my face," Magpie answered, "She's promised to release me at the time of manifestation."
"What does that mean?" Tommy wondered.
"The appointed time," The Wire clarified, "My crowning glory."
"The coronation," I said, reiterating my earlier thoughts, "The first time in history that there will be millions of people gathered around their television sets."
"But you're not strong enough yet, are you?" The Doctor asked, leaning down to look at The Wire directly. "You can't do it all from here. That's why you need this."
He tossed the handheld TV to me, and I put the strap over my shoulder.
"You need something more powerful," I continued, as she shook her head, "something that will turn a giant transmitter into a giant receiver."
"What clever things the two of you are." She quipped. "But why fret about it? Why not just relax? Kick off your shoes and enjoy the coronation. Believe me, you'll be glued to the screen."
"Mary, get back-" The Doctor put a hand on my arm, as I was standing directly in front of the TV. Before he could move me through, beams of electricity were shooting out of the screen and latching itself onto our faces.
"Doctor!"
"Hold on."
All of a sudden, it felt as through I couldn't move. I could feel the electricity being drained from my body, but there was nothing I could do to stop it.
"Hungry! hungry! The wire is hungry! Oh, these two are tasty! Oh, I'll have lashings of them! Delicious! Armed? Oh, he's armed and clever! Withdraw! Withdraw!"
For a moment...just a moment...everything went black.
And then, I was watching through a TV screen as the Doctor, Tommy, Bishop, and my now faceless body collapsed to the floor.
"The box Magpie the box!" The Wire commanded.
Magpie ran across the room, grabbing the device from my body and stepping up in front of the TV where I had previously been standing.
"Hold tight."
My eyes widened as red electricity filtered out of the set and into the device in Magpie's hands. I tried to reach up and pound on the glass, but I found that I didn't have any hands. My brain and my consciousness were trapped in the TV, but my physical body still remained in the outside world...just like the others.
"Doctor, get up!" I shouted, to no avail. "WAKE UP, DOCTOR!"
"Conduct me to my victory, Magpie."
I had no choice but to watch as Magpie walked out of the store, carrying the Wire with him.
Finally, the Doctor sat up, his eyes combing over the bodies around him. Tommy was alright, but Bishop and I lay still, our hands clenching and our faces gone.
The Doctor crouched beside me, pushing my hair out of my face.
"I'm sorry...I'll get you out too, I'm so sorry." He whispered. "Tommy, wake up! Tommy! Come on!"
The boy sat up, looking around the store.
"What happened?" He asked.
"Where's Magpie?" The Doctor asked. He stood up, running out the shop door with Tommy not far behind him. I sighed, looking down at my body on the floor.
I furrowed my eyebrows, my eyes trailing down to my locket. The Pendant sat on my chest, but for some reason, it appeared bright in the black and white view of the TV as if it were...glowing.
"What are you doing?" I whispered.
All of a sudden, the pendant flew open, and I was being sucked out of the TV just as quickly as I'd been placed. inside.
I woke up with a gasp, sitting up and looking down at my necklace. It snapped closed immediately and I looked down, feeling along my body.
"I'm back..." i realized, crawling to my feet, "How am I back?!"