AU!Doctor Who fanfic: First Impressions 2/?
Title: First Impressions (previously Greetings)
Fandom: Doctor Who, specifically NewWho
Characters: Rose Tyler, the Doctor, Jackie Tyler, Mickey Smith, some OCs
Pairing: Eventual Rose/Doctor
Disclaimer: I don’t own any part of Doctor Who.
Summary: Rose Tyler wakes up, goes to work and returns home at the end of a normal day. She doesn’t meet the Doctor, the Living Plastic or see the TARDIS. From that day onwards the world she knows shifts forever, and another universe is born.
Part 1.
“What…what the hell was all that!?’’
The Doctor turned around to face the accusing finger that was directed at him. Obviously this one was going to be difficult to explain to. He smiled at the frightened man before him as if it could defuse his anxiety.
“That was the Nestene Consciousness, and I just dealt with it. And I guess you helped a little bit as well.”
He only received more goldfish-like gaping motions in response. The Doctor could see that the man was in a terrible state, if the knee shaking and the panicked position of his eyebrows on the top of his face were anything to go by. Trying a gentler approach he put a firm hand on the young man’s shoulder and shook it a little.
“You alright in there?”
“Yeah, yeah… I just… they were plastic, and that thing was…”
“Yep, all plastic and all alien.”
“And then I…”
“Threw a spanner at the plastic alien. Mind you, for a second I thought you were aiming for me.”
Wilson finally looked up at the Doctor’s face with a look of scepticism. Glad that he’d gotten the human back to his senses the Doctor gave a large grin and slapped him on both cheeks before turning back to the TARDIS. This action seemed to remind the electrician of how they escaped from below the London Eye, and his face froze once again in a state of disbelief.
“T-That’s…that’s a…”
“That’s my TARDIS, my all magnificent spaceship that can go anywhere, everywhere and anytime! But I can’t stay and tell you about every single wonderful thing it’s done, I gotta be off.”
The conversation was obviously too much for the human, and he found he could only shut his mouth and give a single absent nod in the face of such a bizarre situation. Having entered his ship and poked his head out the door, the Doctor gave his little helper a sympathetic smile.
“You sure you gonna be alright?”
Another pause and another nod. The Doctor knew that it was the best he was going to get and said his goodbyes to Wilson the electrician from the department store. He shut the door behind him and, in a rare occurrence, shrugged off his large weather-beaten jacket onto the rails of the console room. He’d faced quite a pelting of unexpected rain on his way to the Eye, with that bewildered human stumbling behind him ever since he’d saved him at Henrik’s. Good thing they’d been the only ones there. The Doctor strode over to the main console and fiddled with a couple of odd gears, initiating the TARDIS’ start-up, as he pushed himself onto a nearby chair.
The comforting groans of his spaceship prompted him to rest his eyes for a moment. He could easily be lulled into sleep by the sound, and could never understand the complaints from previous companions of the level of odd noises she produced. And he could sleep, he definitely could. The day’s mission hadn’t been anything out of the ordinary in his extraordinary travels, and in fact it had been fairly straightforward. But the Doctor had been forced to pull an elbow jab and a sneaky kick to get himself free of his plastic jailer in the midst of the battle. He could feel an odd muscle twinge in his left arm and knew it had been too long, and many regenerations ago, when he’d used that move. His new body hadn’t been ready for such activity.
But nevertheless the Doctor had had a full day of running around and felt entitled to at least a few hours of shuteye. Except, he couldn’t. There was something wrong. The Doctor opened his eyes and released a heavy sigh. Something was calling out to him at the back of his enormous Time Lord consciousness. Something that had begun ever since he’d arrived on Earth that afternoon to track down the Living Plastic. No, actually it had been a little earlier than that. He remembered that it had caught his attention for just a small second, right after he flipped the switch and set the coordinates for that day’s trip. Somehow the Doctor knew that he’d done something wrong. It hadn’t been a fixed point in time which he’d messed with, or he would have seen it coming a mile away. But all the same when he closed his eyes and focused he saw the once clean tendrils of Time shivering and cowering, almost in fright.
Something had happened, and it gave him an unsettled feeling right down to his bones. Unfortunately the Doctor hadn’t a clue what it was as he pushed the final lever for take-off.
---
The next morning she’s late. Abandoning her cold breakfast Rose mumbled a quick apology to Jackie just as she slammed the door shut behind her. She arrived at work half an hour late, but luckily enough the latest store manager wasn’t on that day, and so Rose slipped in without more than a tap on the wrist.
It must have been her day because the luck continued well after her lunch break. After the cleaning the manager told Rose that she could leave half an hour early, since it had been a quiet night and most people had cleared off at that point. Without hesitation she took this much needed opportunity to go out for dinner with work friends Sherry and Lucy. They head to their usual restaurant and spend a couple hours just giggling about their boyfriends and throwing chips at each other. Rose returned home well fed and too exhausted to pay attention to what her mother was babbling on about. Unfortunately for her, Jackie didn’t let up and followed her into her bedroom.
“Rose, Rose! Are you listening to what I said? I heard that Henrik’s had a fire a couple of hours ago and I was so worried, you weren’t picking up your phone and I didn’t know where you were for ages! God, you could have been killed!”
Having finally heard what her mother was going on about, Rose stopped in the middle of taking off her socks and stared back.
“Really?”
Her mother gave her an incredulous look. “Yes, god didn’t you hear what I said? I thought you’d died Rose! I was so worried!”
Realising the great distress that her mother had put herself into, Rose launched into her arms and gave her a tight hug. She thought back to when Susie had let her off half an hour early, despite having come in late that morning, and was struck by the coincidence of her situation. If she’d stayed the full time perhaps she would have been caught in the fire. It had definitely been a lucky day for her.
After another hour of consoling Jackie and dissuading her from trying to claim all sorts of ridiculous compensations, Rose finally retired to bed. She found herself resting her hand on her alarm clock once again, just as she’d done every night. But with a smile she withdrew it without setting the time. That night she drifted to sleep feeling just a touch better about the world than she did before.
But the next day, and the following weeks after that, proved to be trying at best. As Jackie would remind her every morning, she no longer had a job and had to go out and search for one. Mickey came over in the morning, stealing the donut she’d saved for last to eat and spouted more exaggerated worries for her safety. She didn’t mind too much, and quickly assured him that everything was fine. What she did mind though was going job hunting. As respectful and understanding as Rose was, she was fed up by the end of the second week of resumes and small talk. She was especially tired of the sleazy stares of old store managers, who she knew kept their eyes trained on her as she walked away.
Mickey and some of her mates from Henrik’s offered to help her, but she politely declined. Somehow, despite the means in which she became unemployed, Rose felt that it was an opportunity for change. She didn’t want to work in a shop or serve burgers, she wanted something more. There wasn’t much point mentioning it to her mother, who told her to get her head out of the clouds and go back to the fish and chips shop to beg for a position. Even she couldn’t explain what she wanted. But Rose didn’t give up. She still did rounds in the city for jobs, but she knew it was not where her heart belonged.
Despite her new aspirations Rose knew she needed money, and so when she got an opportunity she jumped on it. It wasn’t what she’d hoped for and probably worse than Henrik’s, but at least she wasn’t chasing naughty kids around the dressing rooms anymore. Working as a waitress at the corner café had its downsides, but Rose soon learnt how to steer clear of unwanted attention and still manage to appear courteous and unfazed. She’d always been a fast learner, and determined to get things done. This behaviour earned her a couple more burns and welts from handling the deep fryer than had she been more careful, but she figured it out in the end. And besides, the food turned out not half bad.
Rose usually brought back leftovers from work, but had stopped recently after Jackie complained about eating the same burger and chips for dinner every night. Nothing else had come her way for a couple of days, until that night. A large order and an attempt at skipping the bill had left a couple of fish and pork pies to be shared with the staff, and Rose had nabbed the pumpkin soup before anyone else had noticed. Feeling content with her spoils she agreed to help close up, and was the last out the back door.
As she passed the café entrance she thought she heard a sound behind the brick fence. Pausing and surveying the area she felt a little ridiculous to be scared of noises, and continued on the sidewalk. But the second movement, now much closer to her, could not be mistaken. Rose moved to stand underneath a streetlamp, looking around at the heavy darkness before her.
“Hello? Is anybody there?”
She hadn’t expected an answer, let alone a string of strange syllables, to come from a hedge nearby. Rose jumped and spun to face the speaker, but found she couldn’t see anything. In fact the light she stood under did almost nothing to clear the nightfall. Without warning she found her feet being yanked out from underneath her, her hip landing hard on the pavement. Rose could see two hooded figures, about the height of pre-schoolers, standing over her body.
She opened her mouth to scream and one of her attackers shoved a bundled cloth into it, turning her scream into nothing more than a grumble in her throat. But what truly silenced her was the glimpse of her attacker’s face. The short figures soon began to bring her arms and legs together in order to bind them, until something interrupted them. Someone further away was shouting something at them.