Rose was worried. Mei hadn't spoken since introducing them to Adam, and was now pacing around a small work desk in the boy's office, her jacket tossed over the back of a chair. She knew her big sister was annoyed with the Doctor, but she knew Mei was also scared. Scared for him, scared for them, scared for what might come of them being separated yet again.
Of course, she couldn't blame her. Mei had never been one to get close to people, and when she did, they always seemed to either leave her, or break her. The last person did both, in a way Rose thought her sister would never recover.
Mei had gone from a rising star in a classy company, heading for partner of the firm all the way down to selling her house, her car and moving back in with Rose and her mother. She had been depressed and near suicidal for a full year before Rose managed to convince her to get that job at the shop to keep her company.
And then the Doctor had come along, and Mei was starting to back to her usual self. Rose could practically see the chemistry between them, hell she'd even go as far as to call it 'Love'. If anything happened to send Mei back to that place, Rose would be on a war path. And nothing would stand in her way.
A lump of metal appeared in front of the blonde's face, suddenly reminding her Adam had been talking the whole time she had been observing her sister and thinking about the past.
"What do you think that is?"
"Er," Rose squinted, taking it from him, she tossed it up and down a couple of times just to see the panic on his face, "A lump of metal?"
"Yeah. Yeah," he agreed readily, taking it back, "But I think, well, I'm almost certain, it's from the hull of a spacecraft."
Rose raised her eyebrows mockingly, slowly nodding to show she was paying attention. Even though she wasn't, not really.
"The thing is, it's all true. Everything the United Nations tries to keep quiet, spacecraft, aliens, visitors to Earth. They really exist."
"That's amazing," she drawled, pulling at her ear so she didn't laugh.
How stupid was this guy? Couldn't he tell that the Doctor wasn't exactly human, after all he knew a hell of a lot about that artefact in Van Statten's office. Wasn't that a big sign? Not to mention she, Mei and the Doctor had appeared out of no where, or was that normal for him?
Not catching the sarcasm, Adam beamed at her, "I know it sounds incredible, but I honestly believe the whole universe is just teeming with life."
"I'm gobsmacked, yeah," Rose said, her eyes sliding back to her sister who had picked up a packet of papers only to toss them back down, "And you do what, sit here and catalogue it?"
"Best job in the world."
Feeling a bit smug, Rose thought of her own 'job', a companion to the Doctor. Now THAT was the best job in the world. Getting to travel all of time and space, learning new things and watching her sister find happiness, nothing could beat that.
"Imagine if you could get out there," she taunted, "Travel amongst the stars and see it for real."
"Yeah, I'd give anything. I don't think it's ever going to happen. Not in our lifetimes."
"Oh, you never know," Rose grinned like the Cheshire cat, "What about all those people who say they've been inside of spaceships and things and talked to aliens?"
In a blunt tone, Adam stated, "I think they're nutters."
The blonde laughed, seeing as that had been her opinion before meeting the Doctor, "Yeah, me too. So, how'd you end up here?"
"Van Statten has agents all over the world looking for geniuses to recruit," Adam bragged
"Oh so you're supposed to be a genius?" Mei spoke up, finally joining the pair.
Her blue eyes scrutinised Adam, looking for a hint that he was a supposed Genius. As far as she was concerned, she saw a slightly smart boy trying to ruffle up his feathers to impress her little sister.
Completely un-offended, Adam replied, "Sorry, but yeah. I can't help it. I was born clever. When I was eight, I logged onto the US Defence System. Nearly caused World War Three."
Rose and Mei shared unimpressed looks, their minds immediately going back to the previous alien encounter, and the brunette asked, "How stupid are you? You think that's funny? People could have died!"
"Well, you should've been there just to see them running about. Fantastic!"
Mei cringed, hearing the Doctor's catchphrase come out of the idiot boy's mouth. Rose didn't like it much either.
"You sound like the Doctor," she muttered.
Suddenly becoming nervous, Adam asked, "Are you and him?"
"What's it matter to you?" Mei interrupted with narrowed eyes and the boy shuffled on his feet.
Despite him having a slight fear of Van Statten, he'd never wanted to cower away from him like he did under her gaze. He'd felt intimidated as soon as she introduced herself, but he thought she was just protective of her sister. Maybe she just didn't like him?
Smiling a little at her sister, Rose turned to Adam, "The Doctor is my big brother, not that it's any of your business. But i don't want anyone getting the wrong idea."
"Good," Adam beamed.
"Why is it good?" the blonde asked, digging her elbow into Mei's side when she saw the older Tyler roll her eyes and pretend to throw up.
Blushing as he looked toward the ground, Adam murmured, "It just is."
Getting a sickly feeling from watching her sister and the idiot make eyes at each other, Mei gave a very deliberate cough to interrupt the moment. She DEFINITELY did not like this boy.
"What's the living one downstairs?" she asked, and Rose seemed to perk up as well, "If you're trying to impress my little sister, you need to do better than lumps of metal."
Adam's face turned downward in disappointment, "Yeah, Yeah, well, I did ask, but he keeps it to himself." There was a pause and then a sly grin appeared on his face, "Although, if you're a genius, it doesn't take long to patch through on the comm. system."
Rose beamed at him, "Let's have a look, then."
The three of them moved over to a work space where he had a computer system set up and Adam quickly got to work. Mei almost scoffed at the patterns he was using, how basic, how slow.
"It doesn't do much, the alien," he told them, "It's weird. It's kind of useless. It's just like this great big pepper pot."
A corner-camera view of a dark room popped up on screen showing a man in a radioactive suit standing over the "pepper pot" and from what the girls could tell, the alien was screaming.
"Hold on, is he torturing it?!" Mei demanded, turning an angry pair of eyes on Adam who backed up quickly, "Where is the Doctor, he was supposed to be down there?!"
"I-I don't know," Adam stuttered.
"Take us down there, now!" Rose said, just as angry.
As they reached the monitoring station outside the creature's cage, a man in uniform with a gun stepped in front of Adam and the two girls, holding up a hand.
"Hold it right there," he ordered.
"Level three access. Special clearance from Mister Van Statten," Came Adam's swift reply.
Mei had to give him credit, he was a good liar, although she wasn't sure that was a good thing in general. She crossed her arms as the cage door opened, then followed her sister and Adam inside. The creature was chained up in a corner under a bright light, with a blue glowing eye-like bulb at the end of a stalk. Now that she could see it properly, she noted the whisk and plunger it had for arms and the lack of legs or feet or wheels of any sort.
"Don't get too close," Adam warned as the door closed behind them.
Rose and Mei shared a worried look before cautiously approaching the creature. For once, Mei hung back and let Rose take the lead, she wasn't all too sure about this creature. Her mind was more focused on where the Doctor had disappeared to. But she couldn't help the anger she felt when she saw it chained up and being tortured.
"Hello," the blonde tried softly, looking into the eye stalk, "Are you in pain? My name's Rose Tyler. This is my sister Mei," she gestured to the brunette who gave a brief wave, "We've got a friend, he can help. He's called the Doctor. What's your name?"
"Yes," the creature replied in a very electronic voice, the lights on the top of the dome-shaped head lighting up.
"What?" Mei asked, "Yes what? You're in pain?"
"I am in pain," the creature agreed, lifting its eye stalk to look at her, "They torture me, but still they fear me. Do you fear me?"
Mei gulped, feeling her heart give a tug toward the bottom of her stomach. The creature seemed so sad, so alone. She glanced at her sister, who seemed to feel the same way.
"No," they responded together.
Pausing as if surprised, the creature said, "I am dying."
Rose stepped forward quickly, "No, we can help."
The creature however, didn't want help, "I welcome death. But I am glad that before I die I have met humans who were not afraid."
"Isn't there anything I can do?"
Mei bit her lip, watching her sister and the creature interact. Then frowned when it said, "My race is dead, and I shall die alone."
Obviously feeling the same pity as her sister, Rose reached out and laid her hand on the creature's head. However as Adam yelled at her, the blonde hissed in pain and yanked her hand back. Mei reached for her sister, eyes flickering from the golden hand print that had appeared on the creature's head to the blonde's hand.
The creature immediately reacted, light's flashing, "Genetic material extrapolated. Initiate cellular reconstruction! "
Rose and Mei backed away quickly as the creature forced itself out of the chains. The man who had been torturing it rushed in, looking furious.
"What the hell have you done?" he demanded, approaching the creature with a drill in hand. He paused though, when the creature raised its plunger, "What are you going to do? Sucker me to death?"
Rose let out a startled shriek as the creature proceeded to do just that. Mei wrapped an arm around her shoulder and quickly led her from the cage, trying to block out the man's screams. Adam followed them out, ordering the guards to close the door and they did so quickly, pulling guns and ammo from armoury cupboards.
"It's killing him! Do something!" Rose cried, rushing to one of the guards by a computer.
"Condition red! Condition red!" the man called over the speaker system, an alarm blaring. "I repeat, this is not a drill!"
Mei stood by her sister, chewing on her thumbnail as she watched the guards line up outside the cage door, ready to fire when ordered.
"You've got to keep it in that cell," the Doctor's voice came through the computer and Mei scowled, turning toward it.
"YOU," she growled, slamming her hands down on the desk in front of the screen, and she saw the on-screen Doctor flinch back, "I WARNED you this would happen, I TOLD you! And you've put my little sister in danger AGAIN because you were too stubborn to listen to me!"
"Mei, I know, i know, and i'm sorry, Mei i really-"
"Tell me that when we get out of here safe you stupid face!"
A guard nudged Mei out of the way to speak to the Doctor, "I've sealed the compartment. It can't get out, that lock's got a billion combinations."
"A Dalek's a genius. It can calculate a thousand billion combinations in one second flat," the Doctor replied as if the guard was stupid.
"Dalek?" Mei questioned, anger forgotten for a moment, "It's called a Dalek?"
She jumped round however when she heard the cage doors unlock, and quickly grabbed hold of Rose's hand, pulling her sister to her side.
"Open fire!" the guard ordered, and bullets rained down on the Dalek with absolutely no affect.
"Don't shoot it! I want it unharmed!" Van Statten yelled over the computer.
"Oh sod that, Rose, run!" Mei ordered, dragging her sister toward the corridor they had previously come down. "We're getting the hell out of here."
"How the hell can you run in those heels?!"