The Doctor continued on his course, pulling Winnie along who tried to stop him but failed, "Where are we going? What about Rosie?"
"We're following Rose", he caught her up to speed, "She ran out."
"What? Why did she do that?"
"I don't know", he shrugged, now continuing on their way normally, holding hands, "Too many aliens."
"I don't think I had descendants in there", she told him as they wandered around.
"Yeah, none of them looked much like you", he shrugged.
She giggled and he grinned at her, happy to hear the sound.
"But, then again", he continued, "Not all of them had human ancestors."
"Cool", Winnie tilted her head, "So, I'm actually in space, with actual aliens. Who have telepathy. Whoa."
"Telepathy?", the Doctor furrowed his brows at her.
"Yeah. I think it was the Face of Boe? It knew my name and said it was lovely to see me", she grinned.
"Ha", he grinned in the same manner, "So, you'll be friends in the future. I hate it when that happens."
Willow chuckled, "Why?"
"'Cause they always know a little bit about you that you don't", he narrowed his eyes playfully.
"That's fun, though. Besides, this way I just learned I'll travel at least a little bit longer with you. Because how else am I going to meet a giant head in a tank?", she squeezed his hand with a grin.
They arrived where they'd parked the Tardis which the staff was now wheeling away. The Doctor let go of her hand to walk ahead towards them, "Oi, now, careful with that! Park it properly. No scratches."
One of them scurried up to him and handed him a ticket. He sighed and Winnie stepped up to see 'Have A Nice Day' written on it. She giggled, "Did you just get a parking ticket on a space station?"
He took a breath and pushed it out with his lips pursed, putting the ticket in his pocket and walked up to the door to their left, "Rose? Are you in there?"
He opened the door and they stepped through to see Rose sitting at the top of steps watching what was happening outside.
"Aye, aye", the Doctor greeted her as the two sat down with her, "What do you think, then?"
"Great. Yeah, fine", Rose's reply sounded sarcastic, "Once you get past the slightly psychic paper. They're just so alien. The aliens are so alien. You look at them and they're alien."
Winnie tilted her head and squinted her eyes, "Good summary. Missing some adjectives and I didn't quite get what your essay is about but still, I think you were talking about aliens."
The Doctor reached over to tap her knee with the back of his hand scoldingly, "Good thing I didn't take you to the Deep South."
Winnie snorted but Rose seemed to get a bit angry, "Where are you from?"
The Doctor's mood dropped, "All over the place."
"They all speak English", Rose continued unfazed.
"No, you just hear English", the Doctor got excited again, happy to explain something new, "It's a gift of the Tardis. The telepathic field gets inside your brain and translates."
Winnie's jaw dropped in wonder but Rose didn't seem to like it as much, "It's inside my brain?"
The Doctor was taken aback by the rude reaction, "Well, in a good way."
"Your machine gets inside my head. Both our heads", Rose got up and pointed between herself and Winnie to get her point across, "It gets inside and it changes my mind, and you didn't even ask?"
Winnie pulled a face, kind of seeing Rose's point. She hadn't thought anything bad of it. But she had taken four years of French in school and never got past 'bonjour, je m'appelle Winnie, ça va?' So to have something in her head that translates everything, plus lets other people understand her - brilliant.
"I didn't think about it like that", the Doctor seemed timid now.
"No, you were too busy thinking up cheap shots about the Deep South. Who are you, then, Doctor? What are you called? What sort of alien are you?", Rose asked accusingly.
"I'm just the Doctor", he shrugged.
"Where are you from?", she continued, annoyed, shrieking.
"Rose, that's enough", Winnie jumped up, noticing the Doctor's changed demeanour, "You were the one who wanted to join him in the Tardis, you made that choice without knowing him. He's proven himself all right and if you want that to continue I'm sure he'll tell us more about himself on his own time. Now stop fighting with the designated driver or you'll stay five billion years in the future on a space station next to an expanding sun! Because this is not how friendships start."
She stood between the two, with her back towards the Doctor. Then, over the speakers, "Earth Death in twenty minutes. Earth Death in twenty minutes."
Winnie sighed and decided to walk to the glass front and watch Earth, leaving her fellow travellers behind herself as the sun flared further and further towards the big blue planet.
"Sorry", Rose muttered and took out her mobile, "She's right. Can't exactly call for a taxi. There's no signal. We're out of range. Just a bit."
The Doctor got up and took her phone, "Tell you what", he took the back off of her phone and used the blue light on it, "With a little bit of jiggery pokery."
Rose giggled, "Is that a technical term, jiggery pokery?"
"Yeah, I came first in jiggery pokery", he chuckled, "What about you?"
"No, I failed hullabaloo."
The Doctor smiled and closed her phone back up, "Oh, there you go."
Rose looked up at him hopefully and dialled home. The Doctor walked up to Winnie as Rose talked to Jackie.
"Thank you", he muttered, "You don't want to phone home?"
"Nah", Winnie shrugged, "Me out of the house? Gone travelling for a bit, maybe had a late shift at a bar or, hopefully, met a nice guy. Rose out of the house? Met a rockstar and ran away from home. Mum and I are fine with not hearing from each other for a bit. We've slept in the same place my whole life but there have been actual days where I didn't hear anything from her."
The Doctor chuckled, "Honestly, that's your mum. You should cherish her."
"I do", she chuckled, "I would still bring home the shopping and she would still do my laundry. We're a team, you know. Just sometimes we don't see each other and that's okay. Sometimes she stays elsewhere."
"Sometimes you do", he chuckled.
"That is none of your business", she laughed, "I have a question."
"Ask away."
"What's the blue light-tube-thing and must I worry about radiation poisoning?"
"That's two questions. And I can't answer the second, because I've never thought about it", he narrowed his eyes away from her like she'd just made a life changing discovery.
"And you aim it at people?", she feigned shock.
"I do. Is that bad?", he looked at her with his lips pursed.
She chuckled, "Probably. What is it?"
"It's a sonic screwdriver", he showed it to her and let her take and observe it, "It helps me do stuff."
"Ooo, stuff", she wondered sarcastically, dissatisfied with the answer. She turned some parts of it, pressed the button on the side, aimed it at his chest and suddenly she heard a double heartbeat, "What the-?"
"Cool, huh?"
"Was that our hearts?", she furrowed her brows.
"No, just mine", he took the screwdriver back.
"You have two hearts?", her eyes widened.
"Yeah", he smiled, "That all right?"
She shrugged, "Sure. Pretty cool if you ask me. Obviously your anatomy wouldn't be exactly the same as ours, you're an alien. Just hadn't thought about it."
Rose returned in awe of her phone.
The Doctor grinned, "Think that's amazing, you want to see the bill."
"That was five billion years ago", she realised, "So, she's dead now. Five billion years later, my mum's dead."
"Bundle of laughs you are", he commented, making Winnie snort.
The space station shook.
"That's not supposed to happen", he took Winnie's hand and ran back to the observation deck, Rose following closely behind them.
"Honoured guests may be reassured that gravity pockets may cause slight turbulence, thanking you", the Steward announced over the speakers.
The Doctor shook his head as they entered, "That wasn't a gravity pocket. I know gravity pockets and they don't feel like that", he pulled Winnie over to the trees, "What do you think, Jabe? Listened to the engines. They've pitched up about thirty Hertz. That dodgy or what?"
"It's the sound of metal", Jabe rebutted, "It doesn't make any sense to me."
"Where's the engine room?"
"I don't know, but the maintenance duct is just behind our guest suite, I could show you, your wife and her sister."
The Doctor and Winnie exchanged a wide-eyed look, then he told Jabe, "She's not my wife."
"The other one?", she pointed her chin towards Rose.
Rose squinted and removed herself from the situation, "No. I'm going to catch up with family. Quick word with Michael Jackson."
"Don't start a fight", the Doctor called after the blonde walking up to Cassandra.
"Partner?", Jabe continued.
"I don't think so?", Winnie squinted.
"Concubine?"
She widened her eyes again as the Doctor pressed, "Nope."
"Prostitute?"
Winnie started laughing from somewhere deep within, "At least I'd get paid for that, huh?", she took an arm of each of theirs, "Well, come on then, Jabe, show us to your room."
They walked into a maintenance duct and the Doctor continued talking to Jabe as he and Winnie walked after her, "Who's in charge of Platform One? Is there a Captain or what?"
"There's just the Steward and the staff", Jabe explained, "All the rest is controlled by the metal mind."
"You mean the computer? But who controls that?"
"The Corporation. They move Platform One from one artistic event to another."
"But there's no one from the Corporation on board", he guessed.
"They're not needed", Jabe shrugged, "This facility is purely automatic. It's the height of the Alpha class. Nothing can go wrong."
"Unsinkable?", the Doctor insinuated, giving Winnie a side-grin to get a reaction to his great joke. She snorted sarcastically.
"Not funny", she whispered.
"If you like", Jabe just replied, "The nautical metaphor is appropriate."
"You're telling me. I was on board another ship once. They said that was unsinkable. I ended up clinging to an iceberg. It wasn't half cold", he claimed, "So, what you're saying is, if we get in trouble there's no one to help us out?"
"I'm afraid not."
"Fantastic", he grinned.
"I don't understand", Jabe stopped and turned with furrowed 'brows', "In what way is that fantastic?"
"He was being sarcastic", Winnie squeezed his hand scoldingly. It had already become kind of a habit.
"So tell us, Jabe, what's a tree like you doing in a place like this?", he asked, but his attention stayed on Winnie. It was nice to hold hands like that. And the occasional squeeze from her gave him comfort.
"Respect for the Earth", Jabe reclaimed their attention.
"Oh, come on. Everyone on this platform's worth zillions", the Doctor raised a brow.
Jabe rolled her eyes defiantly, "Well, perhaps it's a case of having to be seen at the right occasions."
"In case your share prices drop?", the Doctor sounded quite rude now, "I know you lot. You've got massive forests everywhere, roots everywhere, and there's always money in land."
"All the same, we respect Earth as family", Jabe explained calmly, "So many species evolved from that planet. Mankind is only one. I'm another. My ancestors were transplanted from the planet down below, and I'm a direct descendant of the tropical rainforest."
"Excuse me", he let go of Winnie's hand to scan a panel with his sonic screwdriver. As he tried to crack it Jabe continued to talk.
"And what about your ancestry, Doctor? Perhaps you could tell a story or two. Perhaps a man only enjoys trouble when there's nothing else left. I scanned you earlier. The metal machine had trouble identifying your species. It refused to admit your existence. And even when it named you I wouldn't believe it. But it was right."
Jabe stepped closer and touched his arms, he put a hand over hers and his eyes seemed to get teary. Winnie felt out of place watching the scene.
"I know where you're from. Forgive me for intruding but it's remarkable that you even exist. I just wanted to say how sorry I am."
A tear dropped from his eyes and Winnie wanted to disappear into thin air. Her heart felt heavy over what was happening here. She had no idea what Jabe was even talking about and her polite ways prohibited her from asking. She suddenly felt that it was impossible to connect with him with such a barrier between them and it made her envy Jabe for it.
The door in the wall panel opened and everyone let go of what they were holding.