Fic Repost: The Next Christmas Invasion (Ten II/Rose) (1/2)
Title: The Next Christmas Invasion (1/2)
Authors: goldy_dollar, mrv3000 and shinyopals
Rating: PG
Summary: The Doctor and Rose are looking forward to a completely ordinary first Christmas in Pete's World. Unfortunately, their version of ordinary involves an alien invasion.
Pairing: Ten II/Rose
Disclaimer: We are RTD. Really we are. All three of us.
Beta: Thank you, rynne!
Original post here.
It was never going to work, but Rose didn't have the heart to tell the Doctor that. Besides, it would be a great laugh, she thought with a smirk.
The Doctor juggled the stack of presents in his arms as they walked up to the front door.
"You're sure I can't carry--" Rose offered.
"Nope! Got it!" the Doctor quickly interrupted.
It took real effort for Rose not to laugh at what she knew would fail - a present blockade would be no match for her mother. The door flung open before they even had a chance to ring the bell or use a key.
"Merry Christmas, sweetheart!" Jackie pulled her inside, flinging her arms around Rose's neck. Rose squeezed back.
"Merry Christmas, Mum! Mmmm, something smells good in here."
"Turkey with all the trimmings is just what this family needs! All together on Christmas," Jackie said, letting go and turning to the Doctor.
"Merry Christmas, Jackie!" The Doctor positioned the presents between them with a very satisfied look on his face. "I'd, you know, give you a hug but I've got these. Probably should put them down somewhere, eh? The living room?"
"Oh no you don't! Give me those!" Jackie pulled the presents out of the Doctor's hands and plunked them on a nearby table. "Come here, you!"
She grabbed the Doctor by the lapels and gave him a big snog, and his arms immediately started to flap. Rose burst out laughing, kicking herself for not having her camera.
Tony ran in the room and Rose scooped him up in a hug. "Merry Christmas, Tony!"
Tony wiggled to look at his mother who was now crushing the Doctor in a bear hug. "Why's Mummy jumping on the Doctor? Is he gonna give her a piggy-back ride?"
Rose wiped away tears from laughing so hard at the image, and the Doctor's glare had her practically gasping for breath.
Before the Doctor had a chance to say anything further, Jackie grabbed the pile of presents and marched into the living room, leaving Rose and the Doctor in the hall. The Doctor seemed to take this as a cue to hunt for an escape route - his eyes darted back to the front door and took in the locks, before considering the windows, the doors to other rooms and the stairs. He patted his pocket, presumably checking for the sonic screwdriver.
Rose giggled again, holding her hand over her mouth as she tried to stop herself. He sent her another sulky glare.
"She only does it because she knows you hate it," she said. "Maybe next time, you should kiss her. You'll put her right off if she thinks you don't mind."
"I am not-" he began, a look of horror on his face, but he snapped his mouth shut when Jackie appeared again.
"Come on, you two," she said. "Don't think you're standing here and talking all day. There's potatoes to be peeled!"
The Doctor's eyes widened, and he glanced back at the door like he was considering running away. Jackie cleared her throat and the Doctor looked back at her. "But- but- you're millionaires!" he said. "You have a cook! I know you do!"
"Doctor," said Rose, rolling her eyes. "If they'd asked her to work today, she wouldn't get to spend Christmas with her kids."
He frowned, apparently having forgotten about that. "Oh, yes. I suppose so."
Jackie bustled them both into the kitchen, the Doctor lurking behind Rose as though he might be able to hide. Pete sat at the kitchen table, a glass of wine next to him, with a Santa hat on his head and some parsnips on a chopping board in front of him.
"Green beans need the ends cutting off," Jackie instructed, grabbing the Doctor's arm and plunking him down in a seat at the kitchen table. "Think you can manage it?"
"Jackie, I'm nine hundred years old," he replied. "I have cooked before."
Jackie raised an eyebrow. "I don't want any funny alien stuff in my Christmas dinner, thank you very much."
Pete stood up. "Anyone want a drink?"
The Doctor glanced up hopefully. "Yes please!" Pete chuckled quietly and reached back to get him a glass.
Rose also eyed the wine as Jackie thrust the potato peeler at her and pushed her into a seat next to the Doctor. "Turkey needs to be taken out in an hour," said Jackie. "Make sure you don't overdo it. No one likes a dry turkey. Come on, Tony, let's go see what's on the box." She swept out of the room, leaving the other three with their tasks.
The Doctor looked at the potatoes with renewed wariness like a domestic afternoon of peeling and chopping was an insurmountable challenge. Rose took pity on him, catching him off-guard with a kiss that he returned until the sound of Pete clearing his throat loudly made them stop. The Doctor grinned at her with an expression that... well, it was probably good that Rose didn't have any thoughts of world domination since that look on his face said he'd probably lay out a plan for her if she asked.
He really was an adorable nutter. Her adorable nutter.
A thought of the other Doctor flitted through Rose's mind, along with that now-familiar pang. It might not be Christmas where he was right at that moment, but she hoped... she hoped he had someone. Lots of someones.
As the Doctor launched into a history of beans and how they were brought to Earth by aliens eight thousand years ago, the improbability of the situation suddenly hit Rose. Here were two men who should be impossible, both now in her life. Fixing potatoes and beans under the command of her mum, no less. And on Christmas too. She smiled to herself.
--------------------
Despite the Doctor's best attempts to "accidentally" set the microwave on fire after an unfortunate incident with the potatoes and Jackie's best set of china, they eventually managed to sit down to eat Christmas dinner.
The Doctor leaned casually back in his chair as Rose brought out the stuffing. "Want some help, Jackie?"
"You stay out of my kitchen!"
Rose narrowed her eyes at the Doctor who, in his I'm-so-innocent tone, said, "Well I can hardly help it if all this strange and human cooking equipment confuses me."
"You're never going in my kitchen again!"
"Because that wasn't the result he wanted at all," Rose muttered to herself, pushing open the door to see Pete carving the turkey.
"What's that?" he asked.
"Mum banned the Doctor from the kitchen."
Pete shook his head. "Years, I've been trying. And he swans in here for the first time and manages it."
"That's the Doctor," said Rose fondly, grabbing the bread sauce, cranberry sauce and ketchup before heading back into the dining room.
Eventually all five of them were seated and had their food. Rose tucked in eagerly, half listening to the Doctor explaining to Tony about how much easier it would be to save the world if he ate his greens. Apparently the Doctor was trying to stop Jackie shooting death glares at him over the mess he'd (purposefully) made of cooking.
The Doctor grinned at Rose and then, when Jackie was busy praising Tony and not paying attention to him, dumped a couple of his own sprouts on Rose's plate, looking hopeful. Pete turned his laugh into a cough and Rose rolled her eyes, rotating her plate around so the Doctor had no way of easily stealing one of her potatoes.
He pulled a mock offended look, as though he would never even consider it, then tried to nick some of her turkey.
Jackie's head snapped around and she glared at him. The Doctor stopped, caught with Rose's turkey hovering in mid-air in front of his mouth before sheepishly withdrawing back to his own food. Rose sniggered and took another bite of turkey, when Jackie's mobile rang and she pulled it out of her pocket.
"Jacks, we're eating," said Pete. "Can't it wait?" But Jackie frowned at the screen.
"It's Di," she said. "She's in Miami for Christmas. What's she doing phoning my mobile?" She brought the phone to her ear. "Hello?"
The Doctor glanced at Rose, who shrugged. She'd met Diana Marshall a few times, but wasn't familiar enough with her to know what this could be about. Pete opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by a sharp and official sounding bleeping. He jumped to his feet and dashed out the room without a word.
"What-?"
"Dad's work phone," explained Rose.
"Is it aliens?" asked Tony hopefully.
The Doctor and Rose exchanged glances.
"You know, all things considered," said the Doctor, "we should probably have expected this."
Rose smiled. "Sycorax?"
"And the Racnoss. And the Titanic."
Jackie looked up from her phone and pulled open one of the wooden cupboards against the wall of the dining room, revealing a TV.
"Di says we're to turn on the telly," she said, reaching forward to flick the switch. The screen showed white noise, but Rose thought she could just about make out some fuzzy shapes in the background. "What on Earth's-?"
"Shh!" hissed the Doctor, standing up and moving around the table, Rose following. He pulled out his glasses and slid them on, moving the screen forward to peer behind it.
Pete returned to the room. "Major Wright says we've got to turn on the t-" He broke off, seeing they already had. "How the hell did Di know before Major Wright?"
Jackie tapped her nose. "Bet you wish you knew."
"Yes, I do, actually, given I'm supposed to be the one who's in the loop for this sort of thing."
"Would you two shush?" demanded the Doctor, who was now aiming the sonic screwdriver at the screen. "Seems to be a problem with the signal, not the TV itself-"
"Should think not, the amount we paid for it," said Jackie, with a sniff.
"I wanna see!" demanded Tony.
"There's nothing to see," said the Doctor, thumping the side of the screen, whether in frustration or to try and make it work Rose wasn't sure. "Stupid, rubbishy signal."
"Watch it!" said Jackie. "I don't want you breaking anything else in here!"
The Doctor shot Rose a look to express exactly what he thought about Jackie and she bit her lip, amused.
"Can you boost the signal or something?" she asked. "Could Torchwood...?"
He shook his head. "Not from here," he answered, pushing the television back into place again with a sigh. "Whoever's broadcasting needs to fix it themselves. Unless we can... ooh, hello."
The picture on the screen suddenly jumped into focus, showing an empty looking room with a few screens and flashing lights in the background. Rose stared, wondering what was going on, before someone swept back around in front of the camera and into view.
"Piece of advice, people of Earth," he said. "Insectoid species are all well and good for your army of darkness, but don't bother asking them to broadcast a TV signal because they haven't got a clue!"
Rose stared. He seemed very familiar. He looked human and wore a green suit with a Santa hat and had some tinsel around his neck.
"Hang on," said Jackie. "Isn't that the host of Eggs in your Basket?"
"The what?" asked the Doctor.
"Kids' TV game show," said Rose. "Tony watches it."
"Anyway," the man continued, grabbing a chair from just off camera and dropping into it. "All these technical difficulties are messing up my plans." He dug into his pocket and pulled out some index cards, making a show of scanning them. "And I had such a lovely speech written as well." He sent an over dramatic pout at the camera. "I was going to be all 'Citizens of Earth, this is the end of days' and now I feel the moment's ruined!" He tore the index cards and tossed them behind him, with a chirpy grin at the camera. "Looks like I'll have to improvise!"
Rose turned to glance at the Doctor, who was staring open mouthed through his glasses.
"What's going on?" she said. "You don't recognise him, do you? Is he human? Or just disguised as one?"
"Not a clue," said the Doctor, with a shrug.
"Fat lot of good you are," muttered Jackie from behind them and the Doctor waved his hand to shush her.
"So where was I?" said the man on the screen. "Ah yes, I probably should introduce myself, since this'll be the last thing any of you ever get to see." He paused. "Apart from each other's screaming faces, of course, but I'm certainly the last intelligent thing you'll see."
The Doctor snorted derisively, apparently more insulted by what the man was implying about who was more intelligent than by the threat to the country (or was it the planet?). Rose nudged him with an elbow and he turned to look at her, mouthing "What?"
"My name is... well, simple human brains can't understand it, so call me Kevin. I'm from a nice little place ooh... about fifty thousand light years that way-" He pointed. "But anyway, enough about me and my planet. You wouldn't like it there much - too much carbon dioxide for you."
"Carbon dioxide?" murmured the Doctor, rubbing his nose and frowning. "And half way across the galaxy."
"Well he's not the host of Eggs, then," muttered Jackie darkly. "Should think so too. If they'd been hiring aliens, I'd have something to say."
"Doctor, any idea where he's from?" asked Pete hopefully, behind them, choosing to ignore Jackie.
"Not a clue!" he chirped, grinning and shooting a wink at Rose as though this was a good thing.
"What about-?" she began, about to remind the Doctor that Kevin looked like a human. But Kevin started talking again and she turned back to the screen, deciding to wait in case this was important.
"But I'm afraid to tell you, citizens of Earth, that I quite like this planet of yours. Lots of water, nice temperature, atmosphere mostly still there. Pity about the people, really." He broke off and wrinkled his nose in disgust. Rose half expected him to pull out a cigarette to fully express his disdain.
"What's wrong with the people?" muttered the Doctor sulkily, reaching out to take Rose's hand. Rose smiled to herself, unsure whether the Doctor was more offended on behalf of the human race in general, or because he was part one himself these days.
"The thing is," continued Kevin, "I had a really great idea. So great, even the people from my own planet weren't so keen on it, the boring tossers." He sat up straighter, shoving two fingers in his mouth and whistled.
An alien appeared on the screen from the right hand side. Unlike Kevin, it was obviously alien: perhaps seven foot tall but it more closely resembled an insect than a human.
"What the hell is that?" demanded Jackie.
"Is it an alien?" asked Tony enthusiastically. Rose kept her attention focused on the TV screen, but she was vaguely aware of her mother suddenly bundling Tony out the room.
The bug creature walked on the back two of its six limbs, the remaining two sets seeming to be more like arms. The middle set were the thinnest and spindliest of all the limbs, with small hand-like claws on the ends. The top set were thicker in size, ending with larger claws which looked far too strong for Rose's liking. Even on the small and low quality picture, she could see the deep, greenish colours of the carapace and the way it shone in the light.
"Isn't that beautiful?" breathed the Doctor, reaching towards the screen as though he could touch it, before remembering himself and dropping his hand.
"I dunno," said Rose, "looks a bit too much like a big green ant to me. What is it?"
"A lk'ljk," said the Doctor simply, as though that explained everything.
"A look-le-what now?"
"Lk'ljk," he repeated. "From this galaxy, but then so's our mate Kevin. They're not very- Shh!"
The lk'ljk hissed at the screen and the Doctor listened intently. Rose rolled her eyes, resisting the temptation to tell him off for shushing her when he'd been the one talking.
"This is the leader of the lk'ljks," explained Kevin, when it had finished hissing. "He just said hello-"
"He just said 'is this necessary? can we get on with it?'" murmured the Doctor.
"-And how much he's looking forward to living on this planet."
"That doesn't sound so good," said Rose.
"Not really, no," agreed the Doctor.
"Problem is, the lk'ljks need a nice planet like this one to breed on, but they don't really fancy sharing it. I'm sure you all understand. And if you don't, well... I'm not sure there's a lot you can do about it." He paused and inspected his fingernails for a second before looking up suddenly. "Oh wait, I didn't get to that bit yet, did I? Silly me, forgetting like that."
The Doctor still watched intently and Rose turned around and glanced at her dad, who'd got out a laptop and was reading through something. He saw Rose's glance and shrugged, nodding back towards the Doctor, clearly hoping that he'd ge. Apparently he didn't have any more answers than she did.
"Anyway, the plan is, in about an hour's time things are about to get a bit... fun." Kevin's grin widened and he licked his lips. "I suppose you lot might call it a bomb, but there's not really an explosion as such. Explosions are all well and good and have their purpose, but you'd need a really big one to take out a planet this size. This bomb is more... biological." He stretched his arms behind his head and relaxed back into the chair. "I'd give it three months, maybe four, and the poisons in the bomb will have spread around the entire planet, with no antidote." He sat up straighter again and waved at the camera. "Bye bye people of Earth."
"Is that possible?" demanded Pete.
"Oh yes," said the Doctor grimly. "Not only possible, but not even all that difficult."
"But you know the technology?" said Rose urgently. "You can disarm it?"
He nodded slowly, scratching his temple. "Should be able to, yes. If we can find it."
Rose swallowed nervously, biting her lip. Of course the Doctor would know how to stop Kevin and the lk'ljks, but finding where they were first would be a problem. Torchwood had all sorts of scanners but this bloke was broadcasting to the world. He had to be pretty sure of himself and his success. It wasn't as though they hadn't been in worse situations before and come out on top, but it only took one wrong move and that would be it. The end. Already, she itched to be out there, running to find him, but where would they run?
The Doctor squeezed her hand and shot her a quick smile, understanding as well as she did.
"Oh, and one last thing," said Kevin. "For all of you environmentalists out there: don't worry. The bomb's genetically encoded. Humans are done for, and possibly certain species of chimp, but polar bears are safe. So is anything sufficiently genetically different from a human, for that matter, including myself and the lk'ljks."
With that, he jumped to his feet and disappeared out of the picture. A second later, the camera shut off, leaving white noise again. Rose sprang to her feet and flipped off the television.
"Have you got anything for me, Pete?" asked the Doctor, whirling around and jumping over to stare over her dad's shoulder.
"Torchwood detected some funny signals this morning," said Pete. "Nothing too interesting, so nobody made a fuss. Aside from that, we've only got this broadcast, and we think we can trace it to a factory just outside of London."
The Doctor peered at the screen, frowning slightly, before whipping off his glasses and pocketing them.
"Well, best get to it then, hadn't you? Probably not worth it, but you've got to do something."
"Hadn't we?" asked Pete. "Aren't you going to-?"
"Not the time!" shouted the Doctor, running for the door and grabbing Rose's hand as he did. "I need to check something! Shelter as best you can from the bomb!"
"What on Earth-?" began Rose.
"I'll explain in a sec!" he said, pulling the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket. "You've got a computer in your car, haven't you? I can get access to the Torchwood system from there?"
Rose nodded, digging in her pocket for her car keys a little awkwardly as they ran out of the house and down the steps to where her car was waiting. She scrambled into the driver's seat and started the engine, before turning expectantly to the Doctor, who had the screwdriver pointed at the computer as he furiously bypassed the Torchwood security systems and let himself in.
"Where to?" she asked, shifting the car into gear and heading down the driveway and away from the house, shooting one last nervous glance over her shoulder as she did so. She'd be back, of course she would, but she couldn't help but wish she hadn't had to sprint out of the door with no goodbyes.
"Into the city," said the Doctor, glaring at the screen.
"How'd you know?"
"I don't, I'm guessing."
Her stomach did a nasty somersault. The Doctor's intuition was good, but this was pushing it.
"Why?"
"I think Kevin's using a technique to scatter the signal by hijacking other people's televisions," replied the Doctor, tugging off part of the car's dashboard to expose some of the wires. "Easiest to do from a central location."
Rose nodded and turned left out of the driveway, into the city, putting her foot down and shifting up a gear. The message had caused a flood of people, both in cars and just walking, to empty out of houses and into the street, but years of practice (and several hazardous driving courses with Torchwood) allowed her to weave in and out of the traffic and people more safely than most. A red light ahead reminded her, and she thumped a button on the dashboard that changed any traffic lights to green as they sensed the car approaching. Now she just had to hope that people were still obeying the traffic lights.
"What about what Dad said?" she asked, swerving around a corner, squeezing in between a couple of cars as she did so and causing them both to sound their horns at her.
"False signal," replied the Doctor, fiddling with the wires. "Easy to do, easy to recognise. Scattering it is the first defence. Then people like Torchwood fight back against that and get a fake location, which is the second defence. But they won't have expected me!" He thumped the side of the screen. "Come on, you stupid machine, come on! Yes! Ha!"
"What is it? Have you got something?" demanded Rose, feeling a flood of relief.
"I was right!" he said. "Just south of the river. An old, abandoned building that used to belong to... Cybus Industries. Lovely."
"Makes sense," said Rose. "They owned so much and nobody knows what to do with most of their buildings."
"Knock 'em down and build something pretty," said the Doctor, as though it was obvious.
Rose smiled. "Don't think it's that simple."
"Don't see why not."
"You can add that to your list of things to tell the President if you ever get to meet her," she said, smiling despite the situation. So far, most likely due to careful planning on her dad's part, the Doctor hadn't had a chance to meet Harriet Jones.
"I think I shall," said the Doctor.
"What's the address, then?" asked Rose, glancing over to the Doctor. "And for God's sake put your seat belt on!"
Grumbling a little, apparently of the mind that going at fifty miles an hour in London was perfectly safe, he complied.
"Next left," he added, forcing her to slam on the breaks and swerve.
This, she remembered, was the main reason she never let the Doctor navigate these days.
--------------------
The building itself was nondescript. Grey and dull, with few windows, Rose guessed it had been a factory or a warehouse. Lumic, with all his connections and power, had found it remarkably easy to get land closer to the centre of London (and other cities) than most normal businessmen might. Still, the only clue that it had once been owned by Cybus Industries was the logo on the double doors at the front, which Rose drove straight past.
"Fire escape might be better, right?" she said. "Got any idea where they are?"
"Not marked online," said the Doctor, shrugging. "Just keep going until we find one." He turned off the computer and pocketed his glasses and screwdriver as she drew the car to a halt in a grubby looking alley. He was out of the car before she'd even got the keys out of the ignition. Rose reached inside the glove compartment and pulled out the small gun she kept, attaching it to her belt just underneath her jacket. Just because the Doctor accepted that part of her life these days didn't mean she had to advertise it.
She opened the door and hurried after him.
"Come on, haven't got all day!" he said, holding open the fire door he'd unlocked just enough for her to slip inside. Before she could get a look at the room, the door shut behind her, leaving them completely in the dark.
A hand found hers. Well, more accurately, a hand smacked into her waist and then groped around a bit until it found her hand and gave it a squeeze.
“Hello,” said the Doctor. “Bit dark in here, isn't it?”
“I've got a torch in the car,” she said. “Want me to-?”
“No need!” She could hear him scrabbling around in his pockets with his other hand until: “A-ha!” He clicked on a torch and she blinked furiously in the bright light. He turned it away from his face and to the walls, apparently unfazed by the sudden light.
They were in a small vestibule with a flight of stairs running both up onto the other floors and down into the basement on their right, and a door out to the rest of the building straight ahead. The Doctor shoved his torch into his mouth and pulled out the sonic screwdriver, listening to the beeps. Rose rolled her eyes and reached up to grab the torch for him.
“I've got a spare pair of hands, you know,” she said, with a laugh.
The Doctor beamed at her. “So you do!” he said, turning around as he listened to the beeping. To Rose, there appeared to be no difference at all in the sounds. The Doctor, of course, had no problem working out what it meant and he pointed to the floor.
“Down we go,” he said. “Into the basement. I hope Cybus Industries haven't left any nasty surprises.”
“I'm sure Kevin and his bugs'll have cleared them all out if there were,” muttered Rose, leading him down the stairs, keeping her hand in his. “But Torchwood did a pretty good clean up op, so I doubt we need to worry.”
“Hmm,” muttered the Doctor sceptically. Rose ignored him, knowing he'd needed Torchwood's help more than once since ending up here, no matter how much he pretended he didn't.
At the bottom of the stairs was another vestibule and Rose lowered the torch to ease the door open, peering out into a darkened corridor with a few exposed pipes and doors leading off at various intervals. Some of the electric lights were working and she clicked off the torch and shoved it into the Doctor's pocket as she crept into the corridor.
“That's the wrong pocket,” complained the Doctor. “Now I'll never be able to find it! And it's squashing Malcolm.” Rose stared at him. “The giraffe,” he explained patiently.
Rose snorted with amusement. “The one Tony gave you?” she said, remembering a couple of months previously when, to the Doctor's disgust and horror, Jackie had made him visit the dentist for a check up. Tony had given him small, cuddly giraffe saying it was less scary if he had a friend. She felt a sudden burst of fondness for the Doctor. Nobody from Torchwood took small, cuddly giraffes called Malcolm with them when they dealt with alien invasions.
“You never know when-” He froze, mid step and Rose stopped too, drawing in a breath and listening. The corridor was silent, except... she could just barely catch an odd scratching and hissing.
Before she had time to think, the Doctor grabbed her and pulled her backwards and through a door in the side of the corridor. Years of travelling with him made her force her lips shut and not call out in shock. Inside, she quickly glanced around and determined they were in a cupboard. A second later, the Doctor flicked off the sonic screwdriver, plunging the room into darkness.
Cautiously, she stood a little straighter to make herself more comfortable, wobbling a bit as she tried not to move her feet for fear of kicking something. She reached forward to grab the Doctor to steady herself, as well as to try and work out what he was doing. He reached inside his pocket and pulled out... she felt along his arm to his hand and found a stethoscope.
He leaned forward, cheek pressing against hers and lips brushing her ear as he whispered, “Lk'ljks, outside.” She nodded, shivering a little at the feeling of his breath on her ear and wishing that, just once, they could end up stuck in a pitch black cupboard when the world wasn't at stake.
The Doctor moved away, leaning to the side and listening through the door. Rose couldn't hear a thing - not that she would have been able to understand anything. That had been one of the biggest differences about working for Torchwood - not having the TARDIS to translate. Even after all the strange and wonderful things she'd seen with the Doctor, the creatures she faced at Torchwood were infinitely more alien because she rarely understood a word they were saying. In that respect, Kevin was unusual.
Wanting to have some idea of what was going on, she reached up and gently placed her hand on the Doctor's face. She felt him frown as he listened and the edge of his tongue poked out of his mouth. Then his lips twitched into a smile, the tongue disappeared and he kissed the palm of her hand. She smiled too, appreciating it, even if it didn't give her much clue what he could hear.
But then the frown returned. “No...” he muttered. “You're not-” He froze. “Oops.”
Rose found herself being pushed backwards suddenly, and she staggered and nearly fell to the floor. The door flung open and the small amount of light from the corridor flooded in around the outline of two lk'ljks. They hissed in surprise.
The Doctor hissed in reply, raising his hands in the air. Rose stepped forward cautiously, looking over his shoulder and up at the lk'ljks.
“I've told them we'll come quietly,” the Doctor murmured. “They should know where Kevin is, after all.”
But then one of the lk'ljks hissed again, angrily this time, and raised one of its top limbs, claw ready to strike. The Doctor stumbled backwards, eyes widening in fear and surprise and Rose felt an all-too-familiar rush of panic. Before the bug could strike, she grabbed her gun and shot.
The first bullet cracked the hard exoskeleton of the lk'ljk and caused it to stagger backwards, limbs flailing. The second hit home - right through the head - and the creature collapsed against the wall.
“Tell the other one to-”
But it was too late. Enraged and shrieking, the second lk'ljk moved towards the cupboard door, limbs outstretched. The Doctor staggered back once more, but Rose ducked under his arm as he did so, allowing herself an unobstructed view of the creature. This time, her first shot hit the softer eye area and the lk'ljk fell forwards, still trying to reach her even as it died.
The Doctor grabbed her arm and pulled and she fell into him, crushed right against the back wall of the cupboard, the floor completely blocked by the corpse. It was only then, in the following silence as she leaned into the Doctor's arm, that she realised how quickly she was breathing. The adrenaline began to fade in the almost silence and her fear was replaced with relief.
“Well,” said the Doctor tightly, “there goes our chances of sneaking in, I suppose.”
“Sorry, I-” She broke off, shaking her head slightly. Was she sorry? She didn't think so. There'd been no alternative and a creature that size could easily have killed the Doctor.
The Doctor sucked in a breath. “I- You-” He stopped and turned to Rose with a shrug and a helpless look, as though he didn't quite know what to say. A moment's silence passed before he continued, admiration at war with disapproval in his gaze, “You saved us both. They were going to kill us on the spot. And now I definitely need a chance to talk to Kevin!”
Before Rose could say anything else or push him and try to find out if he was saying what he was really thinking, he grabbed her hand and leapt over the body of the lk'ljk, turning left into the corridor and running down it. He skidded to a halt when another corridor branched off, pulling out the screwdriver and turning it on again, listening to the beeps before taking off down the corridor.
Barely seconds later, he stopped again, this time in front of a door, causing Rose to crash into him with a soft grunt.
“Might want to put that away,” he said, nodding to the gun she still held. “We want to look friendly, after all. And you can draw it fast enough, if need be.” She did as he suggested, clipping the safety on. The only reason she hadn't done it before was the speed at which he'd taken off. She felt like she was going to get a stitch and found herself vaguely wishing she'd not had so much turkey.
Christmas dinner seemed ages ago, though, she thought, as the Doctor pushed open the doors and strode into a large room. How quickly a normal, boring day could turn into this sort of thing still amazed her sometimes.
One corner had the chair and an old fashioned looking video recorder from the broadcast earlier, but thick cables ran from the camera to some complicated looking computers in the wall. The Doctor dropped Rose's hand and hurried over to them only to be interrupted by a voice on the other side of the room.
“Well aren't you two interesting?”
Rose turned sharply to see Kevin. He was alone, which surprised her. She'd expected him to be flanked by a few lk'ljks for protection. After all, he was an inch or two shorter than the Doctor and he didn't seem to be armed. Still, waving a gun at people and threatening them wasn't really a good idea to try as first resort, so instead she glanced around for any lk'ljks that might be hiding in the room.
“Interesting?” said the Doctor, with a smile. “Us? Nah, not at all. Just a bit clever. We're not the interesting ones in this room.”
“You still managed to find me, and remarkably quickly, too,” said Kevin. “A planet with this technology? You're way off! Tracking down the signal and following it here was more than I expected of anyone.”
Rose snorted derisively and Kevin turned and raised an eyebrow at her. “Just for once,” she said, “it'd be nice if the super-intelligent alien invader of the month didn't spend half an hour going on about how... how... primitive this planet is.”
Kevin's grin widened. “I'll spare you that, then. Since this is your last half hour or so, it hardly seems fair to bore you. But tell me, though, who are you?”
“I'm the Doctor and this is Rose,” said the Doctor. “And who are you, Kevvy-boy?”
“It's not worth telling you.”
“Try me.”
Kevin spat out a long string of syllables which Rose's mind refused to remember but merely caused the Doctor to raise an eyebrow.
“Ooh, watch out, Rose,” he said. “He's got six foot long tentacles under that disguise!”
Rose stared at Kevin, who waved innocently.
“Is he like the Slitheen?” she asked at last, stepping backwards further away from Kevin and turning to the Doctor.
“Nope, it's a bit more complicated than that. Closer to a sort of biological Chameleon Circuit, oddly enough. Although not nearly as good, of course.”
Kevin folded his arms. “And who are you, who knows so much?” he said. “I did a quick scan, when you got here. Nice wheels by the way. Very... primitive-” He winked at Rose, who glared, deciding she rather wanted to smack him, tentacles or not. “She's human, but you're not. You're something else. Well, you're half human, anyway. Bet your mum and dad were an odd couple.”
“Oh, you don't know the half of it,” replied the Doctor, with a shrug. “I'm the Doctor, and for the purposes of this argument, you might as well consider me human because this planet's my home and I'm not going to let you destroy it.”
“Oh yes?” said Kevin, sounding amused. “You planning to disable the bomb, then?”
“That was the general plan,” said the Doctor, scratching one of his sideburns. “Unless you want to do it for me?”
Kevin laughed. “Ooh, this I have to see,” he said. “It's not like I left it lying around here, did I?”
The Doctor blinked and Rose felt her heart sink. She supposed the idea that the bomb was in the same place Kevin was, since he wouldn't be affected, had been too much to hope for.
“I had to put a few layers of deception on the signal,” continued Kevin, “then you'd think you were onto something good, and come and find me, instead of chasing down where the bomb actually is. Only people smart enough to disarm the bomb would be smart enough to work out where I was broadcasting from, after all. So you came right here, just where I want you. Now you can't stop the bomb and I get the joy of meeting you and killing you! And just the two of you! I don't know whether to be disappointed that this is going to be so easy or not.”
“What's in it for you?” demanded Rose. “Why are you doing this?” She could feel the slightly comforting weight of the gun strapped to her belt, but she had the feeling it would be no use against someone who could apparently change shape and hide tentacles like he could.
“Oh, you know, the usual,” he said, with a shrug. “A nice army of lk'ljks to call my own. I can take a bunch of them back home and deal with the... problems there.”
“So it's not just my planet you want to destroy, then?” muttered Rose darkly. “At least it's not personal.”
Kevin chuckled. “I like you,” he said. “For a primitive, hairless monkey type, anyway,” he added with a wrinkle of his nose. “How do you live like this?”
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the Doctor easing his way towards the computer, making use of the fact that Kevin's attention was on her. Better keep it that way, then, she decided.
“And now a tentacle monster's calling me ugly,” she said. “This is not my day.”
“Don't knock the tentacles,” said Kevin, brushing imaginary lint off one of his shoulders. “They're useful. Oh, and you might want to remember how many eyes I've got, Doctor,” he added. “I can see what you're doing without turning to look.”
“Yup!” said the Doctor, cheerily. “I know. But I can still see the screen from here and if I just do this-” He pointed the sonic at it and Rose saw a flurry of images cross the screens, far too quickly for her to read. “Now I know where the bomb is!” He pulled a face. “Did you have to? There are nicer places to hide things!”
“Doesn't matter,” said Kevin. “There's no way you can escape. I'll just kill you and you know it. Although-” He glanced at the sonic screwdriver in the Doctor's hand. “I admit it, I'm impressed. I didn't anticipate that. I've not see one of them before.”
“You won't have done,” said the Doctor, with a disarming smile. “Can we go now? I've got a bomb to disarm, after all.”
Kevin was at the Doctor's side in the time it took Rose to blink, twisting his arm behind his back to hold him in place. Instinctively, Rose stepped forward, but the Doctor shook his head, grimacing a little in pain. She forced herself to stop, glancing around the room for something that could help her. Kevin had moved far too quickly to shoot and even if she tried, she could easily end up shooting the Doctor instead.
But he was caught. And from the look on his face, Kevin was hurting him. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she stared resolutely forward, trying to look impassive and wishing she didn't feel quite so helpless.
“The interesting thing about my disguises,” said Kevin, addressing Rose, “is just how much strength is maintained, even if it looks as though this arm of mine could snap under no force at all.” He turned back to the Doctor and smiled again, this time more cruelly. “Want me to demonstrate just how easily breakable a human arm should be?”
“No!” She spoke and took a step forward without thinking.
“Well you could do that,” reasoned the Doctor, keeping his voice level, “and I'm sure you'd enjoy it a lot. But that won't really help you stay alive.” Rose could hear it was hurting him but he was pretending it wasn't, same as always.
Kevin hesitated and Rose let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. “Are you threatening me?”
Perhaps he thought the Doctor was disguised as something the same way he was? She wasn't sure.
“Me? Threaten? Don't be daft,” said the Doctor pleasantly. “Do I look threatening? I'm too skinny to threaten anyone.” He broke off and frowned. “I think I can blame Donna for saying that,” he added. “Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, your life.”
“Get on with it,” snapped Kevin, clearly feeling wrong-footed.
Was the Doctor bluffing and playing for time? Rose didn't think so, but she never knew with him. But what could she do?
“Out there in the corridor,” said the Doctor. “You must have been following on the CCTV cameras. You saw Rose shoot the lk'ljks, but you couldn't hear the conversation they were having before they died, could you?”
Kevin narrowed his eyes. “You're lying.”
The Doctor hissed something in the same language as the lk'ljks. “You're smarter than them, aren't you?” he said. “This stupid bomb is your work, nothing they're capable of. So they keep quiet for now and let you help them take over the world and gain another planet. Then they get rid of you. They coded the bomb to your DNA as well as any human as soon as they worked out how. And even if that doesn't work, they've got back up plans.”
“Why should I believe that?” snarled Kevin.
But he looked like he just might. Rose didn't even know if what the Doctor said was true or not (although she was beginning to think it probably was) but all he really needed was to plant some doubts. That could be enough to turn this in their favour.
"Go on," wheedled the Doctor. "You believe me, you know you do. You're not stupid. A race like the lk'ljks? Submit to someone? You know it's too good to be true."
"How does that help you? I might just as well kill you both now and deal with the bomb myself."
The Doctor winced as Kevin twisted his arm even further and something inside Rose snapped. If this Kevin was planning on trying to kill the Doctor, there was no way she was just going to stand there and watch. She strode up to the Doctor and Kevin, drew back her arm and punched Kevin in the face.
Kevin stared at her, mouth open. He hadn't been at all affected by being thumped (the sudden pain in her arm suggested it had hurt her more than him) but he hadn't been expecting that at all. It had really been quite satisfying. And Kevin seemed to have loosened his grip on the Doctor since he was no longer wincing in pain. The Doctor looked at Rose with wide eyes, clearly impressed.
"You hit me," said Kevin, still looking boggled. "Nobody hits me!" He seemed to shake himself out of it. "That's still not going to save you, you know."
Before he could do anything further, the door to the room burst open and five lk'ljks entered, spreading out and circling Kevin, hissing at each other. Kevin's surprise allowed the Doctor to shrug out of his hold.
"Whoops, they must have heard me telling you," he said cheerily to Kevin.
Kevin glared at him and turned to address the leader of the lk'ljks in the same hissing language.
"Ooh, now everyone's getting annoyed," muttered the Doctor.
"Never mind that!" said Rose. "Let's get out of here!"
She grabbed his hand, sprinting for the door, swerving away from the closest lk'ljk as she did so, the Doctor right behind her. The lk'ljk hissed at her and made to move towards her, but the Doctor put on an extra burst of speed, forcing both of them forwards and under the sharp claw.
"They like us about as much as they like Kev," he explained as they slipped out of the door and sprinted down the corridor. "Two of their mates are dead down there, after all. Better put some distance in between us and them!"
Instead of turning back the way they came, he veered off down another corridor.
"The bomb's in the sewers," he said. "There's a way through down here. We should be able to get there in time if we run!"
Rose sighed. "Why can't they put it in, I don't know, Hyde Park or something? Somewhere pretty?"
The Doctor laughed. "Come on," he said, grinning. "Quick trip down the sewers. Should be marvellous fun."
He pulled out the sonic screwdriver and used it to unlock a large grate in the floor, down which Rose could see a grimy looking ladder and a tunnel at the bottom. The Doctor perched on the edge and lowered himself down, letting go of the edges and jumping down without using the ladder, landing with a splash.
Mentally saying goodbye to her boots, Rose copied him, splashing him as well as herself when she landed, and wrinkled her nose.
He grabbed her hand again. "Onwards?" he said, shooting a winning smile at her.
"Hurry up then," she said, grinning back despite it all. "But you're doing the washing this week."
Part 2
Authors: goldy_dollar, mrv3000 and shinyopals
Rating: PG
Summary: The Doctor and Rose are looking forward to a completely ordinary first Christmas in Pete's World. Unfortunately, their version of ordinary involves an alien invasion.
Pairing: Ten II/Rose
Disclaimer: We are RTD. Really we are. All three of us.
Beta: Thank you, rynne!
Original post here.
It was never going to work, but Rose didn't have the heart to tell the Doctor that. Besides, it would be a great laugh, she thought with a smirk.
The Doctor juggled the stack of presents in his arms as they walked up to the front door.
"You're sure I can't carry--" Rose offered.
"Nope! Got it!" the Doctor quickly interrupted.
It took real effort for Rose not to laugh at what she knew would fail - a present blockade would be no match for her mother. The door flung open before they even had a chance to ring the bell or use a key.
"Merry Christmas, sweetheart!" Jackie pulled her inside, flinging her arms around Rose's neck. Rose squeezed back.
"Merry Christmas, Mum! Mmmm, something smells good in here."
"Turkey with all the trimmings is just what this family needs! All together on Christmas," Jackie said, letting go and turning to the Doctor.
"Merry Christmas, Jackie!" The Doctor positioned the presents between them with a very satisfied look on his face. "I'd, you know, give you a hug but I've got these. Probably should put them down somewhere, eh? The living room?"
"Oh no you don't! Give me those!" Jackie pulled the presents out of the Doctor's hands and plunked them on a nearby table. "Come here, you!"
She grabbed the Doctor by the lapels and gave him a big snog, and his arms immediately started to flap. Rose burst out laughing, kicking herself for not having her camera.
Tony ran in the room and Rose scooped him up in a hug. "Merry Christmas, Tony!"
Tony wiggled to look at his mother who was now crushing the Doctor in a bear hug. "Why's Mummy jumping on the Doctor? Is he gonna give her a piggy-back ride?"
Rose wiped away tears from laughing so hard at the image, and the Doctor's glare had her practically gasping for breath.
Before the Doctor had a chance to say anything further, Jackie grabbed the pile of presents and marched into the living room, leaving Rose and the Doctor in the hall. The Doctor seemed to take this as a cue to hunt for an escape route - his eyes darted back to the front door and took in the locks, before considering the windows, the doors to other rooms and the stairs. He patted his pocket, presumably checking for the sonic screwdriver.
Rose giggled again, holding her hand over her mouth as she tried to stop herself. He sent her another sulky glare.
"She only does it because she knows you hate it," she said. "Maybe next time, you should kiss her. You'll put her right off if she thinks you don't mind."
"I am not-" he began, a look of horror on his face, but he snapped his mouth shut when Jackie appeared again.
"Come on, you two," she said. "Don't think you're standing here and talking all day. There's potatoes to be peeled!"
The Doctor's eyes widened, and he glanced back at the door like he was considering running away. Jackie cleared her throat and the Doctor looked back at her. "But- but- you're millionaires!" he said. "You have a cook! I know you do!"
"Doctor," said Rose, rolling her eyes. "If they'd asked her to work today, she wouldn't get to spend Christmas with her kids."
He frowned, apparently having forgotten about that. "Oh, yes. I suppose so."
Jackie bustled them both into the kitchen, the Doctor lurking behind Rose as though he might be able to hide. Pete sat at the kitchen table, a glass of wine next to him, with a Santa hat on his head and some parsnips on a chopping board in front of him.
"Green beans need the ends cutting off," Jackie instructed, grabbing the Doctor's arm and plunking him down in a seat at the kitchen table. "Think you can manage it?"
"Jackie, I'm nine hundred years old," he replied. "I have cooked before."
Jackie raised an eyebrow. "I don't want any funny alien stuff in my Christmas dinner, thank you very much."
Pete stood up. "Anyone want a drink?"
The Doctor glanced up hopefully. "Yes please!" Pete chuckled quietly and reached back to get him a glass.
Rose also eyed the wine as Jackie thrust the potato peeler at her and pushed her into a seat next to the Doctor. "Turkey needs to be taken out in an hour," said Jackie. "Make sure you don't overdo it. No one likes a dry turkey. Come on, Tony, let's go see what's on the box." She swept out of the room, leaving the other three with their tasks.
The Doctor looked at the potatoes with renewed wariness like a domestic afternoon of peeling and chopping was an insurmountable challenge. Rose took pity on him, catching him off-guard with a kiss that he returned until the sound of Pete clearing his throat loudly made them stop. The Doctor grinned at her with an expression that... well, it was probably good that Rose didn't have any thoughts of world domination since that look on his face said he'd probably lay out a plan for her if she asked.
He really was an adorable nutter. Her adorable nutter.
A thought of the other Doctor flitted through Rose's mind, along with that now-familiar pang. It might not be Christmas where he was right at that moment, but she hoped... she hoped he had someone. Lots of someones.
As the Doctor launched into a history of beans and how they were brought to Earth by aliens eight thousand years ago, the improbability of the situation suddenly hit Rose. Here were two men who should be impossible, both now in her life. Fixing potatoes and beans under the command of her mum, no less. And on Christmas too. She smiled to herself.
--------------------
Despite the Doctor's best attempts to "accidentally" set the microwave on fire after an unfortunate incident with the potatoes and Jackie's best set of china, they eventually managed to sit down to eat Christmas dinner.
The Doctor leaned casually back in his chair as Rose brought out the stuffing. "Want some help, Jackie?"
"You stay out of my kitchen!"
Rose narrowed her eyes at the Doctor who, in his I'm-so-innocent tone, said, "Well I can hardly help it if all this strange and human cooking equipment confuses me."
"You're never going in my kitchen again!"
"Because that wasn't the result he wanted at all," Rose muttered to herself, pushing open the door to see Pete carving the turkey.
"What's that?" he asked.
"Mum banned the Doctor from the kitchen."
Pete shook his head. "Years, I've been trying. And he swans in here for the first time and manages it."
"That's the Doctor," said Rose fondly, grabbing the bread sauce, cranberry sauce and ketchup before heading back into the dining room.
Eventually all five of them were seated and had their food. Rose tucked in eagerly, half listening to the Doctor explaining to Tony about how much easier it would be to save the world if he ate his greens. Apparently the Doctor was trying to stop Jackie shooting death glares at him over the mess he'd (purposefully) made of cooking.
The Doctor grinned at Rose and then, when Jackie was busy praising Tony and not paying attention to him, dumped a couple of his own sprouts on Rose's plate, looking hopeful. Pete turned his laugh into a cough and Rose rolled her eyes, rotating her plate around so the Doctor had no way of easily stealing one of her potatoes.
He pulled a mock offended look, as though he would never even consider it, then tried to nick some of her turkey.
Jackie's head snapped around and she glared at him. The Doctor stopped, caught with Rose's turkey hovering in mid-air in front of his mouth before sheepishly withdrawing back to his own food. Rose sniggered and took another bite of turkey, when Jackie's mobile rang and she pulled it out of her pocket.
"Jacks, we're eating," said Pete. "Can't it wait?" But Jackie frowned at the screen.
"It's Di," she said. "She's in Miami for Christmas. What's she doing phoning my mobile?" She brought the phone to her ear. "Hello?"
The Doctor glanced at Rose, who shrugged. She'd met Diana Marshall a few times, but wasn't familiar enough with her to know what this could be about. Pete opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by a sharp and official sounding bleeping. He jumped to his feet and dashed out the room without a word.
"What-?"
"Dad's work phone," explained Rose.
"Is it aliens?" asked Tony hopefully.
The Doctor and Rose exchanged glances.
"You know, all things considered," said the Doctor, "we should probably have expected this."
Rose smiled. "Sycorax?"
"And the Racnoss. And the Titanic."
Jackie looked up from her phone and pulled open one of the wooden cupboards against the wall of the dining room, revealing a TV.
"Di says we're to turn on the telly," she said, reaching forward to flick the switch. The screen showed white noise, but Rose thought she could just about make out some fuzzy shapes in the background. "What on Earth's-?"
"Shh!" hissed the Doctor, standing up and moving around the table, Rose following. He pulled out his glasses and slid them on, moving the screen forward to peer behind it.
Pete returned to the room. "Major Wright says we've got to turn on the t-" He broke off, seeing they already had. "How the hell did Di know before Major Wright?"
Jackie tapped her nose. "Bet you wish you knew."
"Yes, I do, actually, given I'm supposed to be the one who's in the loop for this sort of thing."
"Would you two shush?" demanded the Doctor, who was now aiming the sonic screwdriver at the screen. "Seems to be a problem with the signal, not the TV itself-"
"Should think not, the amount we paid for it," said Jackie, with a sniff.
"I wanna see!" demanded Tony.
"There's nothing to see," said the Doctor, thumping the side of the screen, whether in frustration or to try and make it work Rose wasn't sure. "Stupid, rubbishy signal."
"Watch it!" said Jackie. "I don't want you breaking anything else in here!"
The Doctor shot Rose a look to express exactly what he thought about Jackie and she bit her lip, amused.
"Can you boost the signal or something?" she asked. "Could Torchwood...?"
He shook his head. "Not from here," he answered, pushing the television back into place again with a sigh. "Whoever's broadcasting needs to fix it themselves. Unless we can... ooh, hello."
The picture on the screen suddenly jumped into focus, showing an empty looking room with a few screens and flashing lights in the background. Rose stared, wondering what was going on, before someone swept back around in front of the camera and into view.
"Piece of advice, people of Earth," he said. "Insectoid species are all well and good for your army of darkness, but don't bother asking them to broadcast a TV signal because they haven't got a clue!"
Rose stared. He seemed very familiar. He looked human and wore a green suit with a Santa hat and had some tinsel around his neck.
"Hang on," said Jackie. "Isn't that the host of Eggs in your Basket?"
"The what?" asked the Doctor.
"Kids' TV game show," said Rose. "Tony watches it."
"Anyway," the man continued, grabbing a chair from just off camera and dropping into it. "All these technical difficulties are messing up my plans." He dug into his pocket and pulled out some index cards, making a show of scanning them. "And I had such a lovely speech written as well." He sent an over dramatic pout at the camera. "I was going to be all 'Citizens of Earth, this is the end of days' and now I feel the moment's ruined!" He tore the index cards and tossed them behind him, with a chirpy grin at the camera. "Looks like I'll have to improvise!"
Rose turned to glance at the Doctor, who was staring open mouthed through his glasses.
"What's going on?" she said. "You don't recognise him, do you? Is he human? Or just disguised as one?"
"Not a clue," said the Doctor, with a shrug.
"Fat lot of good you are," muttered Jackie from behind them and the Doctor waved his hand to shush her.
"So where was I?" said the man on the screen. "Ah yes, I probably should introduce myself, since this'll be the last thing any of you ever get to see." He paused. "Apart from each other's screaming faces, of course, but I'm certainly the last intelligent thing you'll see."
The Doctor snorted derisively, apparently more insulted by what the man was implying about who was more intelligent than by the threat to the country (or was it the planet?). Rose nudged him with an elbow and he turned to look at her, mouthing "What?"
"My name is... well, simple human brains can't understand it, so call me Kevin. I'm from a nice little place ooh... about fifty thousand light years that way-" He pointed. "But anyway, enough about me and my planet. You wouldn't like it there much - too much carbon dioxide for you."
"Carbon dioxide?" murmured the Doctor, rubbing his nose and frowning. "And half way across the galaxy."
"Well he's not the host of Eggs, then," muttered Jackie darkly. "Should think so too. If they'd been hiring aliens, I'd have something to say."
"Doctor, any idea where he's from?" asked Pete hopefully, behind them, choosing to ignore Jackie.
"Not a clue!" he chirped, grinning and shooting a wink at Rose as though this was a good thing.
"What about-?" she began, about to remind the Doctor that Kevin looked like a human. But Kevin started talking again and she turned back to the screen, deciding to wait in case this was important.
"But I'm afraid to tell you, citizens of Earth, that I quite like this planet of yours. Lots of water, nice temperature, atmosphere mostly still there. Pity about the people, really." He broke off and wrinkled his nose in disgust. Rose half expected him to pull out a cigarette to fully express his disdain.
"What's wrong with the people?" muttered the Doctor sulkily, reaching out to take Rose's hand. Rose smiled to herself, unsure whether the Doctor was more offended on behalf of the human race in general, or because he was part one himself these days.
"The thing is," continued Kevin, "I had a really great idea. So great, even the people from my own planet weren't so keen on it, the boring tossers." He sat up straighter, shoving two fingers in his mouth and whistled.
An alien appeared on the screen from the right hand side. Unlike Kevin, it was obviously alien: perhaps seven foot tall but it more closely resembled an insect than a human.
"What the hell is that?" demanded Jackie.
"Is it an alien?" asked Tony enthusiastically. Rose kept her attention focused on the TV screen, but she was vaguely aware of her mother suddenly bundling Tony out the room.
The bug creature walked on the back two of its six limbs, the remaining two sets seeming to be more like arms. The middle set were the thinnest and spindliest of all the limbs, with small hand-like claws on the ends. The top set were thicker in size, ending with larger claws which looked far too strong for Rose's liking. Even on the small and low quality picture, she could see the deep, greenish colours of the carapace and the way it shone in the light.
"Isn't that beautiful?" breathed the Doctor, reaching towards the screen as though he could touch it, before remembering himself and dropping his hand.
"I dunno," said Rose, "looks a bit too much like a big green ant to me. What is it?"
"A lk'ljk," said the Doctor simply, as though that explained everything.
"A look-le-what now?"
"Lk'ljk," he repeated. "From this galaxy, but then so's our mate Kevin. They're not very- Shh!"
The lk'ljk hissed at the screen and the Doctor listened intently. Rose rolled her eyes, resisting the temptation to tell him off for shushing her when he'd been the one talking.
"This is the leader of the lk'ljks," explained Kevin, when it had finished hissing. "He just said hello-"
"He just said 'is this necessary? can we get on with it?'" murmured the Doctor.
"-And how much he's looking forward to living on this planet."
"That doesn't sound so good," said Rose.
"Not really, no," agreed the Doctor.
"Problem is, the lk'ljks need a nice planet like this one to breed on, but they don't really fancy sharing it. I'm sure you all understand. And if you don't, well... I'm not sure there's a lot you can do about it." He paused and inspected his fingernails for a second before looking up suddenly. "Oh wait, I didn't get to that bit yet, did I? Silly me, forgetting like that."
The Doctor still watched intently and Rose turned around and glanced at her dad, who'd got out a laptop and was reading through something. He saw Rose's glance and shrugged, nodding back towards the Doctor, clearly hoping that he'd ge. Apparently he didn't have any more answers than she did.
"Anyway, the plan is, in about an hour's time things are about to get a bit... fun." Kevin's grin widened and he licked his lips. "I suppose you lot might call it a bomb, but there's not really an explosion as such. Explosions are all well and good and have their purpose, but you'd need a really big one to take out a planet this size. This bomb is more... biological." He stretched his arms behind his head and relaxed back into the chair. "I'd give it three months, maybe four, and the poisons in the bomb will have spread around the entire planet, with no antidote." He sat up straighter again and waved at the camera. "Bye bye people of Earth."
"Is that possible?" demanded Pete.
"Oh yes," said the Doctor grimly. "Not only possible, but not even all that difficult."
"But you know the technology?" said Rose urgently. "You can disarm it?"
He nodded slowly, scratching his temple. "Should be able to, yes. If we can find it."
Rose swallowed nervously, biting her lip. Of course the Doctor would know how to stop Kevin and the lk'ljks, but finding where they were first would be a problem. Torchwood had all sorts of scanners but this bloke was broadcasting to the world. He had to be pretty sure of himself and his success. It wasn't as though they hadn't been in worse situations before and come out on top, but it only took one wrong move and that would be it. The end. Already, she itched to be out there, running to find him, but where would they run?
The Doctor squeezed her hand and shot her a quick smile, understanding as well as she did.
"Oh, and one last thing," said Kevin. "For all of you environmentalists out there: don't worry. The bomb's genetically encoded. Humans are done for, and possibly certain species of chimp, but polar bears are safe. So is anything sufficiently genetically different from a human, for that matter, including myself and the lk'ljks."
With that, he jumped to his feet and disappeared out of the picture. A second later, the camera shut off, leaving white noise again. Rose sprang to her feet and flipped off the television.
"Have you got anything for me, Pete?" asked the Doctor, whirling around and jumping over to stare over her dad's shoulder.
"Torchwood detected some funny signals this morning," said Pete. "Nothing too interesting, so nobody made a fuss. Aside from that, we've only got this broadcast, and we think we can trace it to a factory just outside of London."
The Doctor peered at the screen, frowning slightly, before whipping off his glasses and pocketing them.
"Well, best get to it then, hadn't you? Probably not worth it, but you've got to do something."
"Hadn't we?" asked Pete. "Aren't you going to-?"
"Not the time!" shouted the Doctor, running for the door and grabbing Rose's hand as he did. "I need to check something! Shelter as best you can from the bomb!"
"What on Earth-?" began Rose.
"I'll explain in a sec!" he said, pulling the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket. "You've got a computer in your car, haven't you? I can get access to the Torchwood system from there?"
Rose nodded, digging in her pocket for her car keys a little awkwardly as they ran out of the house and down the steps to where her car was waiting. She scrambled into the driver's seat and started the engine, before turning expectantly to the Doctor, who had the screwdriver pointed at the computer as he furiously bypassed the Torchwood security systems and let himself in.
"Where to?" she asked, shifting the car into gear and heading down the driveway and away from the house, shooting one last nervous glance over her shoulder as she did so. She'd be back, of course she would, but she couldn't help but wish she hadn't had to sprint out of the door with no goodbyes.
"Into the city," said the Doctor, glaring at the screen.
"How'd you know?"
"I don't, I'm guessing."
Her stomach did a nasty somersault. The Doctor's intuition was good, but this was pushing it.
"Why?"
"I think Kevin's using a technique to scatter the signal by hijacking other people's televisions," replied the Doctor, tugging off part of the car's dashboard to expose some of the wires. "Easiest to do from a central location."
Rose nodded and turned left out of the driveway, into the city, putting her foot down and shifting up a gear. The message had caused a flood of people, both in cars and just walking, to empty out of houses and into the street, but years of practice (and several hazardous driving courses with Torchwood) allowed her to weave in and out of the traffic and people more safely than most. A red light ahead reminded her, and she thumped a button on the dashboard that changed any traffic lights to green as they sensed the car approaching. Now she just had to hope that people were still obeying the traffic lights.
"What about what Dad said?" she asked, swerving around a corner, squeezing in between a couple of cars as she did so and causing them both to sound their horns at her.
"False signal," replied the Doctor, fiddling with the wires. "Easy to do, easy to recognise. Scattering it is the first defence. Then people like Torchwood fight back against that and get a fake location, which is the second defence. But they won't have expected me!" He thumped the side of the screen. "Come on, you stupid machine, come on! Yes! Ha!"
"What is it? Have you got something?" demanded Rose, feeling a flood of relief.
"I was right!" he said. "Just south of the river. An old, abandoned building that used to belong to... Cybus Industries. Lovely."
"Makes sense," said Rose. "They owned so much and nobody knows what to do with most of their buildings."
"Knock 'em down and build something pretty," said the Doctor, as though it was obvious.
Rose smiled. "Don't think it's that simple."
"Don't see why not."
"You can add that to your list of things to tell the President if you ever get to meet her," she said, smiling despite the situation. So far, most likely due to careful planning on her dad's part, the Doctor hadn't had a chance to meet Harriet Jones.
"I think I shall," said the Doctor.
"What's the address, then?" asked Rose, glancing over to the Doctor. "And for God's sake put your seat belt on!"
Grumbling a little, apparently of the mind that going at fifty miles an hour in London was perfectly safe, he complied.
"Next left," he added, forcing her to slam on the breaks and swerve.
This, she remembered, was the main reason she never let the Doctor navigate these days.
--------------------
The building itself was nondescript. Grey and dull, with few windows, Rose guessed it had been a factory or a warehouse. Lumic, with all his connections and power, had found it remarkably easy to get land closer to the centre of London (and other cities) than most normal businessmen might. Still, the only clue that it had once been owned by Cybus Industries was the logo on the double doors at the front, which Rose drove straight past.
"Fire escape might be better, right?" she said. "Got any idea where they are?"
"Not marked online," said the Doctor, shrugging. "Just keep going until we find one." He turned off the computer and pocketed his glasses and screwdriver as she drew the car to a halt in a grubby looking alley. He was out of the car before she'd even got the keys out of the ignition. Rose reached inside the glove compartment and pulled out the small gun she kept, attaching it to her belt just underneath her jacket. Just because the Doctor accepted that part of her life these days didn't mean she had to advertise it.
She opened the door and hurried after him.
"Come on, haven't got all day!" he said, holding open the fire door he'd unlocked just enough for her to slip inside. Before she could get a look at the room, the door shut behind her, leaving them completely in the dark.
A hand found hers. Well, more accurately, a hand smacked into her waist and then groped around a bit until it found her hand and gave it a squeeze.
“Hello,” said the Doctor. “Bit dark in here, isn't it?”
“I've got a torch in the car,” she said. “Want me to-?”
“No need!” She could hear him scrabbling around in his pockets with his other hand until: “A-ha!” He clicked on a torch and she blinked furiously in the bright light. He turned it away from his face and to the walls, apparently unfazed by the sudden light.
They were in a small vestibule with a flight of stairs running both up onto the other floors and down into the basement on their right, and a door out to the rest of the building straight ahead. The Doctor shoved his torch into his mouth and pulled out the sonic screwdriver, listening to the beeps. Rose rolled her eyes and reached up to grab the torch for him.
“I've got a spare pair of hands, you know,” she said, with a laugh.
The Doctor beamed at her. “So you do!” he said, turning around as he listened to the beeping. To Rose, there appeared to be no difference at all in the sounds. The Doctor, of course, had no problem working out what it meant and he pointed to the floor.
“Down we go,” he said. “Into the basement. I hope Cybus Industries haven't left any nasty surprises.”
“I'm sure Kevin and his bugs'll have cleared them all out if there were,” muttered Rose, leading him down the stairs, keeping her hand in his. “But Torchwood did a pretty good clean up op, so I doubt we need to worry.”
“Hmm,” muttered the Doctor sceptically. Rose ignored him, knowing he'd needed Torchwood's help more than once since ending up here, no matter how much he pretended he didn't.
At the bottom of the stairs was another vestibule and Rose lowered the torch to ease the door open, peering out into a darkened corridor with a few exposed pipes and doors leading off at various intervals. Some of the electric lights were working and she clicked off the torch and shoved it into the Doctor's pocket as she crept into the corridor.
“That's the wrong pocket,” complained the Doctor. “Now I'll never be able to find it! And it's squashing Malcolm.” Rose stared at him. “The giraffe,” he explained patiently.
Rose snorted with amusement. “The one Tony gave you?” she said, remembering a couple of months previously when, to the Doctor's disgust and horror, Jackie had made him visit the dentist for a check up. Tony had given him small, cuddly giraffe saying it was less scary if he had a friend. She felt a sudden burst of fondness for the Doctor. Nobody from Torchwood took small, cuddly giraffes called Malcolm with them when they dealt with alien invasions.
“You never know when-” He froze, mid step and Rose stopped too, drawing in a breath and listening. The corridor was silent, except... she could just barely catch an odd scratching and hissing.
Before she had time to think, the Doctor grabbed her and pulled her backwards and through a door in the side of the corridor. Years of travelling with him made her force her lips shut and not call out in shock. Inside, she quickly glanced around and determined they were in a cupboard. A second later, the Doctor flicked off the sonic screwdriver, plunging the room into darkness.
Cautiously, she stood a little straighter to make herself more comfortable, wobbling a bit as she tried not to move her feet for fear of kicking something. She reached forward to grab the Doctor to steady herself, as well as to try and work out what he was doing. He reached inside his pocket and pulled out... she felt along his arm to his hand and found a stethoscope.
He leaned forward, cheek pressing against hers and lips brushing her ear as he whispered, “Lk'ljks, outside.” She nodded, shivering a little at the feeling of his breath on her ear and wishing that, just once, they could end up stuck in a pitch black cupboard when the world wasn't at stake.
The Doctor moved away, leaning to the side and listening through the door. Rose couldn't hear a thing - not that she would have been able to understand anything. That had been one of the biggest differences about working for Torchwood - not having the TARDIS to translate. Even after all the strange and wonderful things she'd seen with the Doctor, the creatures she faced at Torchwood were infinitely more alien because she rarely understood a word they were saying. In that respect, Kevin was unusual.
Wanting to have some idea of what was going on, she reached up and gently placed her hand on the Doctor's face. She felt him frown as he listened and the edge of his tongue poked out of his mouth. Then his lips twitched into a smile, the tongue disappeared and he kissed the palm of her hand. She smiled too, appreciating it, even if it didn't give her much clue what he could hear.
But then the frown returned. “No...” he muttered. “You're not-” He froze. “Oops.”
Rose found herself being pushed backwards suddenly, and she staggered and nearly fell to the floor. The door flung open and the small amount of light from the corridor flooded in around the outline of two lk'ljks. They hissed in surprise.
The Doctor hissed in reply, raising his hands in the air. Rose stepped forward cautiously, looking over his shoulder and up at the lk'ljks.
“I've told them we'll come quietly,” the Doctor murmured. “They should know where Kevin is, after all.”
But then one of the lk'ljks hissed again, angrily this time, and raised one of its top limbs, claw ready to strike. The Doctor stumbled backwards, eyes widening in fear and surprise and Rose felt an all-too-familiar rush of panic. Before the bug could strike, she grabbed her gun and shot.
The first bullet cracked the hard exoskeleton of the lk'ljk and caused it to stagger backwards, limbs flailing. The second hit home - right through the head - and the creature collapsed against the wall.
“Tell the other one to-”
But it was too late. Enraged and shrieking, the second lk'ljk moved towards the cupboard door, limbs outstretched. The Doctor staggered back once more, but Rose ducked under his arm as he did so, allowing herself an unobstructed view of the creature. This time, her first shot hit the softer eye area and the lk'ljk fell forwards, still trying to reach her even as it died.
The Doctor grabbed her arm and pulled and she fell into him, crushed right against the back wall of the cupboard, the floor completely blocked by the corpse. It was only then, in the following silence as she leaned into the Doctor's arm, that she realised how quickly she was breathing. The adrenaline began to fade in the almost silence and her fear was replaced with relief.
“Well,” said the Doctor tightly, “there goes our chances of sneaking in, I suppose.”
“Sorry, I-” She broke off, shaking her head slightly. Was she sorry? She didn't think so. There'd been no alternative and a creature that size could easily have killed the Doctor.
The Doctor sucked in a breath. “I- You-” He stopped and turned to Rose with a shrug and a helpless look, as though he didn't quite know what to say. A moment's silence passed before he continued, admiration at war with disapproval in his gaze, “You saved us both. They were going to kill us on the spot. And now I definitely need a chance to talk to Kevin!”
Before Rose could say anything else or push him and try to find out if he was saying what he was really thinking, he grabbed her hand and leapt over the body of the lk'ljk, turning left into the corridor and running down it. He skidded to a halt when another corridor branched off, pulling out the screwdriver and turning it on again, listening to the beeps before taking off down the corridor.
Barely seconds later, he stopped again, this time in front of a door, causing Rose to crash into him with a soft grunt.
“Might want to put that away,” he said, nodding to the gun she still held. “We want to look friendly, after all. And you can draw it fast enough, if need be.” She did as he suggested, clipping the safety on. The only reason she hadn't done it before was the speed at which he'd taken off. She felt like she was going to get a stitch and found herself vaguely wishing she'd not had so much turkey.
Christmas dinner seemed ages ago, though, she thought, as the Doctor pushed open the doors and strode into a large room. How quickly a normal, boring day could turn into this sort of thing still amazed her sometimes.
One corner had the chair and an old fashioned looking video recorder from the broadcast earlier, but thick cables ran from the camera to some complicated looking computers in the wall. The Doctor dropped Rose's hand and hurried over to them only to be interrupted by a voice on the other side of the room.
“Well aren't you two interesting?”
Rose turned sharply to see Kevin. He was alone, which surprised her. She'd expected him to be flanked by a few lk'ljks for protection. After all, he was an inch or two shorter than the Doctor and he didn't seem to be armed. Still, waving a gun at people and threatening them wasn't really a good idea to try as first resort, so instead she glanced around for any lk'ljks that might be hiding in the room.
“Interesting?” said the Doctor, with a smile. “Us? Nah, not at all. Just a bit clever. We're not the interesting ones in this room.”
“You still managed to find me, and remarkably quickly, too,” said Kevin. “A planet with this technology? You're way off! Tracking down the signal and following it here was more than I expected of anyone.”
Rose snorted derisively and Kevin turned and raised an eyebrow at her. “Just for once,” she said, “it'd be nice if the super-intelligent alien invader of the month didn't spend half an hour going on about how... how... primitive this planet is.”
Kevin's grin widened. “I'll spare you that, then. Since this is your last half hour or so, it hardly seems fair to bore you. But tell me, though, who are you?”
“I'm the Doctor and this is Rose,” said the Doctor. “And who are you, Kevvy-boy?”
“It's not worth telling you.”
“Try me.”
Kevin spat out a long string of syllables which Rose's mind refused to remember but merely caused the Doctor to raise an eyebrow.
“Ooh, watch out, Rose,” he said. “He's got six foot long tentacles under that disguise!”
Rose stared at Kevin, who waved innocently.
“Is he like the Slitheen?” she asked at last, stepping backwards further away from Kevin and turning to the Doctor.
“Nope, it's a bit more complicated than that. Closer to a sort of biological Chameleon Circuit, oddly enough. Although not nearly as good, of course.”
Kevin folded his arms. “And who are you, who knows so much?” he said. “I did a quick scan, when you got here. Nice wheels by the way. Very... primitive-” He winked at Rose, who glared, deciding she rather wanted to smack him, tentacles or not. “She's human, but you're not. You're something else. Well, you're half human, anyway. Bet your mum and dad were an odd couple.”
“Oh, you don't know the half of it,” replied the Doctor, with a shrug. “I'm the Doctor, and for the purposes of this argument, you might as well consider me human because this planet's my home and I'm not going to let you destroy it.”
“Oh yes?” said Kevin, sounding amused. “You planning to disable the bomb, then?”
“That was the general plan,” said the Doctor, scratching one of his sideburns. “Unless you want to do it for me?”
Kevin laughed. “Ooh, this I have to see,” he said. “It's not like I left it lying around here, did I?”
The Doctor blinked and Rose felt her heart sink. She supposed the idea that the bomb was in the same place Kevin was, since he wouldn't be affected, had been too much to hope for.
“I had to put a few layers of deception on the signal,” continued Kevin, “then you'd think you were onto something good, and come and find me, instead of chasing down where the bomb actually is. Only people smart enough to disarm the bomb would be smart enough to work out where I was broadcasting from, after all. So you came right here, just where I want you. Now you can't stop the bomb and I get the joy of meeting you and killing you! And just the two of you! I don't know whether to be disappointed that this is going to be so easy or not.”
“What's in it for you?” demanded Rose. “Why are you doing this?” She could feel the slightly comforting weight of the gun strapped to her belt, but she had the feeling it would be no use against someone who could apparently change shape and hide tentacles like he could.
“Oh, you know, the usual,” he said, with a shrug. “A nice army of lk'ljks to call my own. I can take a bunch of them back home and deal with the... problems there.”
“So it's not just my planet you want to destroy, then?” muttered Rose darkly. “At least it's not personal.”
Kevin chuckled. “I like you,” he said. “For a primitive, hairless monkey type, anyway,” he added with a wrinkle of his nose. “How do you live like this?”
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the Doctor easing his way towards the computer, making use of the fact that Kevin's attention was on her. Better keep it that way, then, she decided.
“And now a tentacle monster's calling me ugly,” she said. “This is not my day.”
“Don't knock the tentacles,” said Kevin, brushing imaginary lint off one of his shoulders. “They're useful. Oh, and you might want to remember how many eyes I've got, Doctor,” he added. “I can see what you're doing without turning to look.”
“Yup!” said the Doctor, cheerily. “I know. But I can still see the screen from here and if I just do this-” He pointed the sonic at it and Rose saw a flurry of images cross the screens, far too quickly for her to read. “Now I know where the bomb is!” He pulled a face. “Did you have to? There are nicer places to hide things!”
“Doesn't matter,” said Kevin. “There's no way you can escape. I'll just kill you and you know it. Although-” He glanced at the sonic screwdriver in the Doctor's hand. “I admit it, I'm impressed. I didn't anticipate that. I've not see one of them before.”
“You won't have done,” said the Doctor, with a disarming smile. “Can we go now? I've got a bomb to disarm, after all.”
Kevin was at the Doctor's side in the time it took Rose to blink, twisting his arm behind his back to hold him in place. Instinctively, Rose stepped forward, but the Doctor shook his head, grimacing a little in pain. She forced herself to stop, glancing around the room for something that could help her. Kevin had moved far too quickly to shoot and even if she tried, she could easily end up shooting the Doctor instead.
But he was caught. And from the look on his face, Kevin was hurting him. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she stared resolutely forward, trying to look impassive and wishing she didn't feel quite so helpless.
“The interesting thing about my disguises,” said Kevin, addressing Rose, “is just how much strength is maintained, even if it looks as though this arm of mine could snap under no force at all.” He turned back to the Doctor and smiled again, this time more cruelly. “Want me to demonstrate just how easily breakable a human arm should be?”
“No!” She spoke and took a step forward without thinking.
“Well you could do that,” reasoned the Doctor, keeping his voice level, “and I'm sure you'd enjoy it a lot. But that won't really help you stay alive.” Rose could hear it was hurting him but he was pretending it wasn't, same as always.
Kevin hesitated and Rose let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. “Are you threatening me?”
Perhaps he thought the Doctor was disguised as something the same way he was? She wasn't sure.
“Me? Threaten? Don't be daft,” said the Doctor pleasantly. “Do I look threatening? I'm too skinny to threaten anyone.” He broke off and frowned. “I think I can blame Donna for saying that,” he added. “Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, your life.”
“Get on with it,” snapped Kevin, clearly feeling wrong-footed.
Was the Doctor bluffing and playing for time? Rose didn't think so, but she never knew with him. But what could she do?
“Out there in the corridor,” said the Doctor. “You must have been following on the CCTV cameras. You saw Rose shoot the lk'ljks, but you couldn't hear the conversation they were having before they died, could you?”
Kevin narrowed his eyes. “You're lying.”
The Doctor hissed something in the same language as the lk'ljks. “You're smarter than them, aren't you?” he said. “This stupid bomb is your work, nothing they're capable of. So they keep quiet for now and let you help them take over the world and gain another planet. Then they get rid of you. They coded the bomb to your DNA as well as any human as soon as they worked out how. And even if that doesn't work, they've got back up plans.”
“Why should I believe that?” snarled Kevin.
But he looked like he just might. Rose didn't even know if what the Doctor said was true or not (although she was beginning to think it probably was) but all he really needed was to plant some doubts. That could be enough to turn this in their favour.
"Go on," wheedled the Doctor. "You believe me, you know you do. You're not stupid. A race like the lk'ljks? Submit to someone? You know it's too good to be true."
"How does that help you? I might just as well kill you both now and deal with the bomb myself."
The Doctor winced as Kevin twisted his arm even further and something inside Rose snapped. If this Kevin was planning on trying to kill the Doctor, there was no way she was just going to stand there and watch. She strode up to the Doctor and Kevin, drew back her arm and punched Kevin in the face.
Kevin stared at her, mouth open. He hadn't been at all affected by being thumped (the sudden pain in her arm suggested it had hurt her more than him) but he hadn't been expecting that at all. It had really been quite satisfying. And Kevin seemed to have loosened his grip on the Doctor since he was no longer wincing in pain. The Doctor looked at Rose with wide eyes, clearly impressed.
"You hit me," said Kevin, still looking boggled. "Nobody hits me!" He seemed to shake himself out of it. "That's still not going to save you, you know."
Before he could do anything further, the door to the room burst open and five lk'ljks entered, spreading out and circling Kevin, hissing at each other. Kevin's surprise allowed the Doctor to shrug out of his hold.
"Whoops, they must have heard me telling you," he said cheerily to Kevin.
Kevin glared at him and turned to address the leader of the lk'ljks in the same hissing language.
"Ooh, now everyone's getting annoyed," muttered the Doctor.
"Never mind that!" said Rose. "Let's get out of here!"
She grabbed his hand, sprinting for the door, swerving away from the closest lk'ljk as she did so, the Doctor right behind her. The lk'ljk hissed at her and made to move towards her, but the Doctor put on an extra burst of speed, forcing both of them forwards and under the sharp claw.
"They like us about as much as they like Kev," he explained as they slipped out of the door and sprinted down the corridor. "Two of their mates are dead down there, after all. Better put some distance in between us and them!"
Instead of turning back the way they came, he veered off down another corridor.
"The bomb's in the sewers," he said. "There's a way through down here. We should be able to get there in time if we run!"
Rose sighed. "Why can't they put it in, I don't know, Hyde Park or something? Somewhere pretty?"
The Doctor laughed. "Come on," he said, grinning. "Quick trip down the sewers. Should be marvellous fun."
He pulled out the sonic screwdriver and used it to unlock a large grate in the floor, down which Rose could see a grimy looking ladder and a tunnel at the bottom. The Doctor perched on the edge and lowered himself down, letting go of the edges and jumping down without using the ladder, landing with a splash.
Mentally saying goodbye to her boots, Rose copied him, splashing him as well as herself when she landed, and wrinkled her nose.
He grabbed her hand again. "Onwards?" he said, shooting a winning smile at her.
"Hurry up then," she said, grinning back despite it all. "But you're doing the washing this week."
Part 2