amberfocus | This Alien of London--Part Two (Reply)

Title: This Alien of London (pt. 2)
Author: Amberfocus
Characters/Pairings: Nine/Rose, Jackie Tyler, Mickey Smith
Genre: Romance
Betas:

amyo67
Rating: Teen, this part
Summary: Rose and Nine return to London after their first few adventures and get caught up in the Slitheen invasion.
A/N: This fic was written for the Time in Flux ficathon over at

doctor_rose_fic. The goal was to take your assigned episode and rewrite it, or part of it, having the Doctor and Rose get together in it without totally skewing canon so much that the next episode couldn't happen. I got Aliens of London. Recognizable dialogue is from that episode.

Previous chapter:
1. http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/283238.html

Chapter Two

They couldn’t even make it into the city center. They stopped at the edge of the traffic jam and tried to see what was going on. “It’s blocked off,” the Doctor said.

Rose made a moue of disappointment with her mouth. “We’re miles from the center. The city must be gridlocked. All of London must be closing down.”

“I know. I can’t believe I’m here to see this. This is fantastic!” He laughed.

Rose turned to him with suspicion and started firing questions at him. “Did you know this was going to happen?”

“Nope.”

“Do you recognize the ship?”

“Nope.”

“Do you know why it crashed?”

“Nope.”

“I’m so glad I’ve got you,” she said thinking that for an all-knowing Time Lord he was being particularly useless at the moment.

“I bet you are. This is why I travel for Rose. To see history happening right in front of us,” he said gleefully.

“Well, let’s go and see it. Never mind the traffic. We’ve got the TARDIS,” she suggested, impatient to be off.

“Better not. They’ve already got one space ship in the center of London. I don’t want to shove another one on top,” he said.

“Yeah, but yours looks like a big blue box. No one’s going to notice,” she protested.

“You’d be surprised, in an emergency like this there’ll be all sorts of people watching. Trust me. The TARDIS stays where it is,” he insisted.

Rose frowned. There was something more going on than he was letting on. She watched him as his eyes continually flicked over to the military blockade. Someone in the crowd mentioned UNIT. She’d heard vague rumors about the organization and she wondered now if they could be true. No one she knew seriously believed in aliens, but there was always that hint in the tabloids her mum constantly scattered across the flat about conspiracy theories and government organizations and aliens. Maybe this one was real. Maybe the Doctor had had experiences with them before. He certainly didn’t seem to want to bring his ship anywhere near what was going on.

Fine. If that was the way he wanted to do things, who was she to argue? Well, about something like this, anyway. If it was important enough, she’d bloody well argue. “So history’s happening and we’re stuck here.”

“Yes we are.”

“We could always do what everyone else does,” she said turning to him. He looked down at her in confusion. “Go and watch it on TV.”

It hadn’t been the best idea. Jackie had obviously been on the phone non-stop and the flat was full of people who had come by to see the prodigal daughter returned from her mysterious doings. And the looks he was getting were a mix of downright hunger from some of the women Jackie’s age, to extreme disapproval from those who thought he was corrupting young Rose. He wouldn’t have minded the latter so much if he’d actually had a chance to corrupt her yet, he thought with a smirk. But the former scared him. It had been bad enough when Jackie had come on to him the day he’d met her. He hoped desperately that it didn’t run in the family. Outside of Rose, of course.

He tried to focus on the news but somehow or other he’d ended up with a child in his lap who was fighting him for control of the remote. The squirming, wiggling toddler managed to change the channel on him twice before he finally deposited him on the floor with a stern, “Go on,” and a light push towards the child’s mum. The baby wandered away.

They’d found a body in the wreckage and had taken it to Albion Hospital. That was where he needed to be, not in this nest of…family and friends that belonged to Rose. At the very least he needed to get out of that flat before he was completely overrun by the lot of them. His sanity was close to the end of his rope. He’d do a lot for Rose Tyler, but he’d about hit his breaking point on the domestics front.

He stood up and slipped towards the door, breathing a sigh of relief as he stepped out into the cool night air. He began to stride down the walkway when he heard the door open behind him. His shoulders tensed, ready for Jackie to have decided this was the perfect moment to get him alone and start berating him again. If she did, he might not be a gentleman in his response this time.

“And where do you think you’re going?” It was Rose’s voice instead, full of accusation and a bit of hurt. He turned quickly to face her.

“Nowhere,” he said contritely. He nodded towards the flat. “It’s just a bit human in there for me.”

“I’m a bit human,” she said. “More than a bit. Am I too much for you, too, then?”

“No, not you. Just them,” he said closing the distance between them. “History just happened and they’re talking about where you can buy dodgy chop up cars for half price.” His voice was disparaging.

She eyed him steadily, as if she didn’t believe him. “I’m off on a wander, that’s all,” he said trying to reassure her.

“Right,” she said, seeing right through him. “There’s a space ship on the Thames and you’re just wandering.”

“Nothing to do with me. It’s not an invasion. That was a genuine crash-landing. Angle of descent, color of the smoke, everything.”

“So?”

“So maybe this is it. First contact! The day mankind officially comes into contact with an alien race. I’m not interfering. You can handle this on your own. That’s when the human race finally grows up. Just this morning you’re all tiny and small and made of clay.” He formed a ball with his hand and Rose smiled at his glee as he flung his hands apart. “Now you can expand!” he laughed. “You don’t need me. Go and celebrate history. Spend some time with your mum.” He smiled again and turned to go, taking a few steps before he heard her move to catch up.

“Promise you won’t disappear?” she asked.

He turned back around. “You can’t honestly think that, Rose. Not after…on the roof.”

Rose bit her lip. “I…don’t know. It was just…one kiss. It isn’t like we’re…” She made a rather crude gesture with her hands indicating sex.

He tried not to roll his eyes. Humans and their issues. Well, maybe he could help her deal with the one that had her thinking he might leave her behind. He patted himself down until he found what he was looking for, a small piece of metal on a long silver chain, a key to the TARDIS. He held it up in front of her eyes.

“Tell you what. TARDIS key. About time you had one.” He took a step toward her and she almost imperceptibly backed away, like she was almost afraid of it, but the smile that wreathed her face was enormous. He pressed it into her hand and his fingers lingered, closing her hand over it and stroking the knuckles gently. He felt the smile on his own face answering hers. “See you later.”

He turned to go again and began to walk away but he felt a hand on his shoulder and he turned about. Rose reached up for the back of his head and pulled it down, placing her mouth firmly on his. The kiss was demanding and made him almost lose control right there on the walkway. When she finally released him he staggered back a bit. His knees were weak and he had to steady himself against the rail. “I’m coming back,” he told her.

“I’m just making sure of it,” she said with a smug grin at her effect on him.

“I’m coming back,” he repeated softly, tracing her lower lip with his thumb like he’d done before the first time he’d kissed her. This time she let him walk away and when he glanced back at the head of the stairs she was smiling just a little bit goofily at the key in her hand.

Rose went back inside the flat. The Doctor had done a lot to assuage her fears that he would up and leave her. She knew he’d been freaking out about being surrounded by so much of her family, of her life that didn’t include him; that he was desperate to get away. If he couldn’t cope with it all, maybe he’d decide he couldn’t cope with her, either.

Her heart shouldn’t be this fragile, she hadn’t even known the man that long, a couple of weeks but she’d fallen for him so hard. The key was firm evidence in her hands that he wasn’t just in this to steal a couple of kisses or have the possibility of shagging her sweet, young self. Her whole body flushed at the idea of that and she leaned hard against the front door as it took a moment for her imagination to stop running away from her, but she knew it was going to be more than a possibility if she had anything to say about it.

She supposed it was Jimmy Stone’s fault that she had abandonment issues. She’d thought for a long time when she’d first started dating Mickey that he was going to leave her, too. It had taken him a long time to convince her he was in this for the long haul. Rose groaned. Mickey. She hadn’t even thought about him in all of this, hadn’t really thought of him since she’d kissed him good-bye, more of a kiss off than anything else, and run off with the Doctor. In her own mind, she’d definitely been dumping him that day, but now she wondered how ambiguous it might have felt to him at first.

For him it would have been a year ago and it would have been an obvious break up after she hadn’t contacted him for twelve long months. She wished now she’d handled that moment better. She still would have left him, but maybe she’d have done it with a bit more grace. She really ought to make the time to talk to him before she left. In person and not just over the phone. There were things that needed saying, things he probably needed to hear. She hoped that he hadn’t pined for her while she’d been gone. That was the last thing she wanted. Especially since she hadn’t even had enough time to miss him even as a friend.

“Rose? Rose, where are you?” her mother called.

“Just here,” she answered back and made her way back to the crowd and dropped herself down into one of the chairs. It was going to be a long night and every ounce of her being was wishing she was out there spending it with the Doctor. Especially when the door to the flat was flung open and Mickey came rushing in. She had thought she’d have a bit more time. The room fell into total silence and Rose sat up straight in her chair as he stared at her in shocked disbelief.

“I was gonna come see you,” she said.

“Someone owes Mickey an apology,” one of her mother’s friends said shaking her finger.

“I’m sorry,” she said immediately.

“Not you.” The woman turned to glare at Jackie.

Jackie got a defensive look on her face, hugging her drink to her chest. “Well, it’s not my fault. Be fair, what was I supposed to think?” she asked walking into the kitchen. Mickey followed her and Rose got up to follow him. He turned on her the minute she walked through the entryway.

“You disappear and who do they turn to? Your boyfriend! Five times I was taken in for questioning. Five times!” Mickey said waving his fingers in front of her face as she leaned back against the sink. “No evidence. Of course, there couldn’t be, could there?”

Rose looked down at her feet. She felt bad for Mickey, she really did, but there was nothing she could do to change it. He turned and threw his arm in Jackie’s direction. “And then I get her, your mother, whispering around the estate, pointing a finger. Stuff in my letter box. And all cause of you,” he said angrily.

Jackie shifted on the chair behind Mickey. She didn’t look guilty at all for her part in things. What she did look was justified in the fact that someone else was yelling at Rose. Rose was beginning to feel extremely guilty. When she’d run off she didn’t think anything about those she’d left behind. Of course she’d never meant it to be for so long. It hadn’t been for her and how could she even begin to explain that? She couldn’t. She couldn’t explain any of it.

“I didn’t think I’d be gone so long,” was the only thing she could think of to say.

“And I waited for you, Rose. Twelve months!” he said in frustration, getting in her face now, his big, brown eyes wide and upset. Waiting for you and the Doctor to come back.”

Jackie unfolded from the chair and leaned forward. “You knew about the Doctor? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Mickey turned to her in annoyance. “Yeah. Yeah, why not, Rose? How could I tell her where you went?”

“Tell me now.”

“Might as well cause you’re stuck here. The Doctor’s gone. Just now…that box thing just faded away.”

“What do you mean?” Rose asked in sudden concern. He’d promised! Please, no. If he’d left her…left her with her life in this kind of shambles… She closed her eyes tightly. She didn’t even want to think it possible.

“He’s left you!” Mickey said with glee leaning forward and bouncing back in his eagerness to hurt her as badly as she’d hurt him.

Rose felt a mix of disbelief, anger and pride wash through her. She was desperate to prove Mickey wrong. She leapt to her feet, pushed past her ex-boyfriend, grabbed her jacket and ran for the front door.

Ch. 3: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/284716.html