THE DOCTOR AND LINDSEY RAN DOWN THE STREET, he held her hand tightly in his grip basically dragging her behind him in their effort to reach Rose in time. The Doctor had hoped that they wouldn't come but the empty TARDIS told him otherwise.
"Rose." the Doctor shouted as they drew closer to the building, they saw the blonde in the distance, she turns towards them with a smug smile as she sees the Doctor run towards her before she noticed him pulling Lindsey behind him. "Get in the church!"
Her smile fades hearing the sudden urgency in his voice. Lindsey gasps as her gaze shifts to Rose's left seeing some sort of disruption in the sky, The Doctor follows her gaze which in turn caused Rose to turn her head in the direction the two were looking at. Her eyes widen seeing a Reaper appear out of the disruption, eyeing her hungrily.
Rose screams as it hisses and starts to swoop down towards her. Thankfully the Time Lord managed to tackle her out of the way just in time to avoid the creature's talons, sending them both to the ground. The Doctor grabbed her arm and hauled her up off the ground, ushering her towards the church, he takes Lindsey's hand before running towards the gates of the church.
"Get in the church!" the Doctor, ushering everyone inside the church. He slams the doors shut locking the creatures out and them in.
"They can't get in. Old windows and doors. Okay. The older something is, the stronger it is" the Doctor explains as the shadows of the reapers pass over the church's windows.
"What else?" Lindsey asked him, as she stood by him.
His eyes widen, "Go and check the other door! Move!" he ordered, taking Lindsey's hand rushing over towards a doorway with Rose's past mother following
"What's happening? What are they?" she asks them grabbing the Doctor's arm, "What are they?"
The Doctor halts in his tracks, turning towards Jackie Tyler, "There's been an accident in time. A wound in time. They're like bacteria, taking advantage.
"What do you mean, time? What're you jabbering on about, time?" Lindsey notices the Doctor began to get annoyed with the blonde, like mother, like daughter. Lindsey thought
"Oh, I might've known you'd argue. Jackie, I'm sick of you complaining."
"How do you know my name?" She rambled, annoying him more and more.
"I haven't got time for this," he said aggravated
"I've never met you in my life!"
"No, and you never will unless I sort this out. Now, if you don't mind, I've waited a long time to say this." He took a breathe standing above her, "Jackie Tyler, do as I say. Go and check the doors."
Jackie blinked, "Yes, sir." she answered before scurrying off.
Lindsey raised an eyebrow at the Doctor, "You enjoyed that didn't you?"
He grins at her, "I should have done that ages ago." a man walks up to them
"My dad was out there." the groom said, mournfully
"You can mourn him later. Right now we've got to concentrate on keeping ourselves alive."
"My dad had-"
"There's nothing I can do for him." the Doctor cut him off.
"No, but he had this phone thing" the man showed the Doctor and Lindsey the phone he was holding, "I can't get it to work. I keep getting this voice."
The Doctor grabbed the phone from his hands, dialing a few numbers bringing it up to his ear.
"Watson, come here. I need you. Watson, come here. I need you." the Doctor looks surprised, "That's the very first phone call. Alexander Graham Bell." he laughed, hanging up the phone, "I don't think the telephone's going to be much use."
"But someone must have called the police." Stuart, the groom, protested.
"Police can't help you now. No one can." he snapped, "Nothing in this universe can harm those things. Time's been damaged and they've come to sterilize the wound" the Doctor walked up to Rose glaring at her, "By consuming everything inside."
"Is this because?" she started, hating the fact that the Doctor was glaring at her, "Is this my fault?" he didn't answer, his glare hardened as he leads Lindsey whose hand was wrapped around his away from the blonde.
· ━━━━━ ·⚘· ━━━━━ ·
The Doctor walked into a room, Lindsey followed behind him. Pete was shutting the windows, "There's smoke coming up from the city but no sirens." Pete noted, "I don't think it's just us. I think these things are all over the place. Maybe the whole world." He stood beside the Doctor as they stared out the window.
The Doctor saw the beige car, the same car that was meant to kill Pete drove past then disappeared. Lindsey shared a look with the Doctor.
"Was that a car?" Pete questioned, looking out the window.
"It's not important. Don't worry about it." the Time Lord told him.
· ━━━━━ ·⚘· ━━━━━ ·
Rose was standing by the altar, as one of the Reapers latched itself onto the wall, screeching before flying off when Pete comes out of the vestry.
"This mate of yours. What did he mean, this is your fault?" Pete asks.
"Don't know. Just everything." Rose sighed, tears threatening to spill from her eyes
"I gave you my car keys." Pete spoke after a moment, "You don't give your keys to a complete stranger. It's, it's like I trusted you. The moment I met you, I just did. You called me Dad. I can see it. My eyes, Jackie's attitude. You sound like her when you shout." He placed a hand on her cheek. She closed her eyes, leaning against his hand.
"You are. You are. You're my Rose. You're my Rose grown up." He smiles, wrapping his arms around his daughter, tears spilling from their eyes as Rose latched onto him, really relieved that she got to have this moment with her father, for a moment she didn't care about the creatures' flying around the church or the Doctor being mad at her.
"Dad. My Dad. My Daddy."
Meanwhile, a creature is head-butting a side door. The Doctor gets out his screwdriver, pulling the curtain aside
"Excuse me, Mister, Miss-" Stuart began
"Doctor."
"Lindsey."
"You seem to know what's going on."
"I give that impression, yeah."
Lindsey raised an eyebrow, "It seems like it doesn't it."
"Oi." he playfully glared at her, despite the situation they were in.
"I just wanted to ask-"
"Can you save us?" the bride cut in, her voice cracking as she steps next to her husband-to-be.
The Doctor walks over to them, "Who are you two, then?"
"Stuart Hoskins."
"Sarah Clark."
"And one extra." the Doctor commented, noticing her baby bump.
"Boy or girl?" Lindsey asks, smiling.
"I don't know." she replies, placing her hands on her bump, "I don't want to know, really." she smiles at Lindsey.
"How did all this get started?" the Doctor asks.
"Outside the Beatbox Club, two in the morning." Stuart starts, looking at his wife-to-be lovingly.
"Street corner. I'd lost my purse, didn't have money for a taxi." Sarah laughs.
"I took her home."
"Then what? Asked her for a date?"
"Wrote his number on the back of my hand," she recalled.
"Never got rid of her since. My dad said." Stuart froze, remembering what happened to his father.
Sarah "I don't know what this is all about," Sarah began. "and I know we're not important-"
Lindsey steps towards her, placing her hand on Sarah's arm, "Whatever said you're not important." she protested.
"Lindsey's right, I've traveled to all sorts of places, done things you couldn't even imagine, but you two. Street corner, two in the morning, getting a taxi home. I've never had a life like that. Yes. I'll try and save you."
· ━━━━━ ·⚘· ━━━━━ ·
Rose and Pete sat in the vestry. "I'm a dad." he gawked, "I mean, I'm already a dad, but Rose grows up and she's you. That's wonderful. I mean, I suppose I thought that you'd be a bit useless, what with my useless genes and all, but. Well, I mean, how did you get here?"
"Do you really want to know?" Rose asks him with a smile
"Yeah."
"A time machine."
"Time machine."
"Cross my heart."
"What, do you all have time machines where you come from?"
"No, just the Doctor."
"Did you know these things were coming?"
"No," she said truthfully
"God, I don't know, my head's spinning. What's the future like?" he asks
"It's not so different."
"What am I like? Have I gone grey?" he asks making Rose's heart sink. "Have I gone bald? Don't tell me I've gone bald." he chuckles, Rose bit her lip she didn't want to tell her father that he was dead in the future.
"So, if this mate of yours isn't your boyfriend and I have to say, I'm glad, because being your dad and all, I think he's a bit old for you." Rose laughed as he changed the subject, "He seems more into that redhead girl."
Rose turned away, glaring at the floor, "Why do you think he isn't mine?" she scoffed, causing Pete to eye her curiously, "I mean he could as well be my boyfriend."
"I have noticed the way he looks at the other girl and the constant hand-holding." He told her, "I know that look when I see it."
Rose shakes her head, "He's only just met her, we've only been on one trip with her. You can't have feelings for someone you just met." she snaps.
"So you don't have a bloke?" he asks
"No, I did have."
"Mickey!" Jackie calls as a young boy came running up to Rose, hugging her around the waist.
"Do you know him?" Pete asks
"I just didn't recognize him in a suit." she said to her dad, "You have to let go of me, sweetheart."
The younger version of her mother grabs Mickey away from Rose, she wraps her arms around him.
"He just grabs hold of what's passing and holds on for dear life." Jackie sighs, walking in, "God help his poor girlfriend if he ever gets one." Rose raises an eyebrow, 'Thanks mum.' she thought sarcastically.
"Rose and I were just talking," Pete said
"Oh, yeah? Talking." Jackie scoffs, "While the world comes to an end, what do you do? Cling to the youngest blonde. Come on, Mick." She snaps, talking a young Mickey's hand dragging him out of the room.
Pete was about to go after his wife when Rose pulls him back, "You can't tell her."
"Why?" he questioned
"I mean, I really don't want you to tell her," she begs him.
"What, you don't want people to know?"
"Where I come from, Jackie doesn't know how to work the timer on the video recorder."
"I showed her that last week." she raised an eyebrow as Pete paused, "Point taken."
· ━━━━━ ·⚘· ━━━━━ ·
Lindsey sat next to the Doctor by the choir stalls, baby Rose was playing with her fingers. Jackie had given baby Rose for us to look after. She was giggling as Lindsey tried to pull her finger away, bringing it to her mouth like a pacifier. The Doctor was amused yet he had a longing look as she watched her play with the baby.
"Your good at that." he broke the silence between them, expect a giggle coming from baby Rose.
"Good at what," she asks him, looking away from the baby who was trying to nibble on her finger as she pulled it away.
"Looking after the youngling," he says, pointing to the giggling baby.
Lindsey shrugs, "I guess I've always loved kids." she smiles down at baby Rose. The Doctor smiles at her before turning to baby Rose.
"Now, Rose you're not going to bring about the end of the world, are you? Are you?" he scolded, baby Rose just looks at him. Lindsey shakes her head amused as she scolds baby Rose. Adult Rose walks up it looks like she had been crying as tear stains were running down her cheeks.
The Doctor looks up as Rose walks up to him, she ignores Lindsey who was sitting beside the Doctor. "Jackie gave her to me to look after. How times change." he scoffs.
"I'd better be careful. I think I just imprinted myself on Mickey like a mother chicken." She said, trying to get the Doctor to laugh and forget what happened back at the flat.
She smiles as she looks at her younger self, she reaches down to pick her up when Lindsey grabs her arm stopping her. "You can't touch the baby," Lindsey said, having a feeling that something bad would happen if she did. Rose glared at her wrenching her arm out of her grip.
"Don't tell me what to do." she hisses.
"You're both the same person. That's a paradox, and we don't want a paradox happening, not with these things outside. Anything new, any disturbance in time makes them stronger. Their paradox might let them in." he told her.
"I can't do anything right, can I?" Rose said miserably
"Since you ask, no." the Doctor snaps, "So, don't touch the baby."
"I'm not stupid." Rose glares at him.
"You could have fooled me." she turned away from his gaze. "All right, I'm sorry. We weren't really going to leave you on your own."
"I know," she responded immediately.
"But between you and me, I haven't got a plan. No idea. No way out."
Lindsey reached over placing her hand over his hand, "Hey, you'll think of something. There's always a way out." She squeezed his hand reassuringly.
"The entire Earth's been sterilized. This, and other places like it, are all that's left of the human race. We might hold out for a while, but nothing can stop those creatures. They'll get through in the end. The walls aren't that old. And there's nothing I can do to stop them. There used to be laws stopping this kind of thing from happening. My people would have stopped this. But they're all gone. And now I'm going the same way." The Doctor glanced over at Lindsey squeezing her hand back.
"If I'd realized-" she began.
"Just tell me you're sorry."
"I am. I'm sorry."
After a moment the Doctor smiled, letting go of Lindsey's hand to bring Rose into a hug, Rose cast a smug look to Lindsey before wrapping her arms tightly around the Doctor before she jumped away.
"Have you got something hot?" she asks. Reaching inside his jacket pocket, taking out a key.
"Ah." Rose cries, she drops the key as it heats up in her hand. Lindsey pulls her sleeve wrapping it around her hand as she picks up the key.
"It's the TARDIS key!" the Doctor grins, leaning down next to Lindsey. "It's telling me it's still connected to the TARDIS." He takes off his jacket taking the key from Lindsey's hand.
· ━━━━━ ·⚘· ━━━━━ ·
The Doctor stood behind the pulpit, with Lindsey. "The inside of my ship was thrown out of the wound but we can use this to bring it back." he announced to the wedding party, "And once I've got my ship back, then I can mend everything. Now, I just need a bit of power. Had anybody got a battery?"
The groom, Stuart picks up the mobile phone that was laying on the chair in front of him, "This one big enough."
"Fantastic," the Doctor said, taking the phone out of Stuart's hand, wiping out his Sonic Screwdriver, "Just need to do a bit of charging up, and then we can bring everyone back."
He uses the ever-versatile sonic screwdriver while the creatures batter at the doors. Lindsey casts a concerned look as creatures try to break down the front doors of the church.
Rose sat on one of the chairs at the back of the church watching the Doctor. "You, er, you never said why you came here in the first place," Pete says as he walks up to Rose, sitting next to her. "If I had a time machine, I wouldn't have thought 1987 was anything special. Not round here, anyway."
"We just ended up here." she lied.
"Lucky for me, eh? If you hadn't been there to save me." Pete smiled.
"That was just a coincidence." Rose rambled, "That was just really good luck. It's amazing."
"So, in the future, are me and her indoors still together?"
"Yeah."
"Are you still living with us?"
"Yep."
"Am I a good dad?"
"You, you told me a bedtime story every night when I was small. You were always there. You never missed one. And er, you took us for picnics in the country every Saturday. You never let us down. You were there for us all the time. Someone I could really rely on."
"That's not me." Pete laughs sadly.
The TARDIS slowly materializes around Rose's key. Lindsey and the Doctor share a look smiling as he runs up to the pulpit. "Right, no one touches that key. Have you got that? Don't touch it. Anyone touches that key, it'll be, well, zap. Just leave it be and everything will be fine. We'll get out of here. All of us. Stuart, Sarah you're going to get married, just like I said." he told them as the TARDIS faded in and out.
· ━━━━━ ·⚘· ━━━━━ ·
Lindsey walks over to where Rose and her father were seated. Rose catches sight of the red-head, glaring up at her. "What do you want." she sneered, "Can't you just leave."
"I just wanted to see if you were alright, how is that a problem." Lindsey frowns.
"Well, I don't want you here. Can't you get that through your head?"
"Rose, love, that's enough," Pete told her, seeing the hurt look on Lindsey's face. He places his hand on his daughter's shoulder before she shrugged it off.
"It's not enough with her around. She's not meant with us."
"That's enough," the Doctor glared at the blonde as he walks up to them, "I've had enough of you taking out your anger towards Lindsey, she has done nothing to you."
Lindsey sighs, looking away from the blonde's hardened glare to the Doctor's concerned one, "When time gets sorted out."
"Everybody here forgets what happened. And don't worry, the thing that you changed will stay changed." the Doctor told them. Rose froze, knowing that her father would have to... she shook her head thinking about it.
"You mean I'll still be alive, though I'm meant to be dead." Pete said, turning towards them, he looks over to his daughter who had tears threatening to spill, "That's why I haven't done anything with my life, why I didn't mean anything."
"It doesn't work like that." the Doctor protested.
"Rubbish. I'm so useless I couldn't even die properly. Now it's my fault all of this has happened."
"This is my fault," Rose told him, grabbing his hand.
"No, love. I'm your dad. It's my job for it to be my fault."
"Her dad? How are you her dad?" Rose froze as Jackie walked up to them with baby Rose in her arms, looking at her husband disgusted, "How old were you, twelve? Oh, that's disgusting." the Doctor shakes his head, annoyed before standing up.
"Jacks, listen. This is Rose." he introduced, which only made Jackie angrier.
"Rose? How sick is that? You give my daughter a second-hand name? How many are there? Do you call them all Rose?"
"Oh, for God's sake, look. It's the same Rose!" Pete grabs baby Rose from Jackie's arms handing her to Rose.
"Rose! No!" the Doctor shouts, as he snatches baby Rose away too late, giving her back to Jackie. The damage had been done and a creature appears inside the Church.
"Everyone, behind me!" the Doctor yelled, "I'm the oldest thing in here."
"Doctor!" Rose screams, but before he could be taken by the creature and before anyone could process, the Doctor was abruptly shoved out the way as Lindsey had taken his place. The Doctor stared at the spot where he was meant to be taken in shock as the creature flew around the room before knocking into the TARDIS, vanishing.
Rose rushes over to the key that had fallen to the floor. She hesitantly reached down to pick it up, "It's cold."
The Doctor stood up from he where was pushed, glaring at the spot where Lindsey once was. "Oh, my God, she's dead." Rose whispered, "This is all my fault. Both of you. All of you. The whole world..."
"This is it. There's nothing we can do. It's the end."
The creatures start scraping at the stonework outside. Pete watches the car drive around the corner again and again from the vestry window. He stood looking out the window processing what he needed to do. He walks back into the church and over to Rose who was sitting on her own she looked to her left, seeing the Doctor sitting at the front of the walkway with his head in his head. She frowns wondering why Lindsey's death affected him so much.
Pete grabs his jacket, "The Doctor cares about you. He didn't want you to go through it again, not if there was another way. Now there isn't." he looks over to the Doctor.
Rose stood up, "What are you talking about?" she sniffed.
"The car that should have killed me, love. It's here." he informed her, "The Doctor worked it out way back, but he, er, he tried to protect me. Still, he's not in charge anymore. I am."
"But you can't." she cried, knowing what her father was about to do.
"Who am I, love?" He asks, placing his hand on her cheek.
"My daddy," she says, tearfully.
Jackie walks up to them eyeing Rose curiously, "Jackie, look at her. She's ours."
"Oh, of course," Jackie whispers, taking her weeping daughter in her arms.
Jackie pulls away, "I'm meant to be dead, Jackie. You're going to get rid of me at last." Pete chuckles, tears threatening to fall.
"Don't say that." Jackie cried.
"For once in your life, trust me." he tells her, "It's got be done. You've got to survive because you've got to bring up our daughter." he shares a kiss with his wife, "I never read you those bedtime stories. I never took you on those picnics. I was never there for you."
"You would have been." Rose cries, thinking that it wasn't fair that her father has to leave her.
"But I can do this for you. I can be a proper dad to you now."
"But it's not fair-"
"I've had all these extra hours. No one else in the world has ever had that. And on top of that, I got to see you. And you're beautiful. How lucky am I, eh? So, come on, do as your dad says." Rose grabs the vase and hands it to him crying, "You going to be there for me, love? Thanks for saving me."
· ━━━━━ ·⚘· ━━━━━ ·
Pete runs out of the church, clutching the vase. A creature spots him. He runs to the corner, where the car appears. The driver flings his arm across his face.
"Goodbye, love."
He closes his eyes as the beige car hits him, the vase falls onto the ground, shattering.
· ━━━━━ ·⚘· ━━━━━ ·
The Doctor heard a gasp as he looks up to see Lindsey standing in the middle of the aisle where she was taken, she was confused before she turned her head meeting the Doctor's shocked gaze. He quickly stood up and rushed over toward her. He pulls her into his arms, shocking the red-head.
The Doctor took her hand and they walked towards the exit where Rose was standing. "Go to him. Quick." Rose looks over at him, she then saw Lindsey standing next to him. Despite feeling jealous of Lindsey she took off running towards her dying father. She stays with him as he dies gazing into Rose's eyes.
The wedding party came out of the Church eyeing the scene, wondering what was going on. . Rose cries, leaning down placing a kiss on his forehead as a final farewell then she stands up, looking at the Doctor and Lindsey who were standing around the beige car.
Rose walked up to them, reaching for the Doctor's hand but he pulled away as he and Lindsey walked towards the TARDIS that had relocated outside the Tandoori across the road. Rose follows the Doctor with a saddened look.