Doctor Who Fan Fiction ❯ Rose and Nine The Inbetweens and backstories ❯ Chapter One ( Chapter 1 )

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"By the way, did I mention? It also travels in time" the Doctor said to Rose and she went with him, thinking she'd be back in a few hours. The people she left behind had a different view.

Non Anime: Doctor Who Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Sci-fi | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 03.13.2016 | Pages: 12 | Words: 4.7K | Visits: 347 | Status: Completed

`By the way,' he said. `Did I mention? It also travels in time.'

The Doctor stepped back inside the magical, blue box, leaving the door open. Was it enough? Rose wasn't the type to fall for a hard sell, but had he undersold it? He reckoned that after all she'd been through in her nineteen years, if she knew she could come back to this point in time and space, and pick up where she had left off, and then she might just go for it.

From the shadows behind the open door he spied on her. Watched her turn to Mickey and say something, kiss him, and then she was running towards the TARDIS, her hair flying, and he knew that everything was going to be all right.

She ran up the slope to the console, and he closed the door behind her. `Right then, Rose Tyler, you tell me. Where do you want to go? Backwards or forwards in time. It's your choice. What's it going to be?'

She had that incredible smile on her face, like she had that Christmas, when she saw that red bike. `Forwards.'

`How far?'

Wow, she'd never thought about that before, how far should she go? `One hundred years.'

He set the temporal coordinates for one hundred years, and powered up the systems, activating the materialise/de-materialise function, and gradually increasing the space-time throttle, causing the Time Rotor to pump up and down. After a couple of seconds, the Time Rotor stopped.

`There you go. Step outside those doors, it's the twenty second century.'

She felt like Marty McFly in Back To The Future. `You're kidding.' If she opened those doors, she would be in her own future. Would she have any children? Grandchildren even?

The Doctor brought her out of her musing. `That's a bit boring, though. Do you want to go further?'

`Fine by me,' she said with a grin.

`Ten thousand years in the future. Step outside, it's the year 12005, the new Roman Empire,' he said with pompous pride, Ali would be clicking her mandibles at him if she were here.

`You think you're so impressive,' she said teasingly.

`I am so impressive.' He was confident now, she'd come aboard, and he could feel her excitement.

`You wish.'

That sounded like a challenge. `Right then, you asked for it. I know exactly where to go. Hold on!' The Time Rotor pumped up and down again, and after a couple of seconds, it stopped. He had a mischievous grin on his face.

Where are we? What's out there?

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Thames Embankment, London

Sunday 6th March 2005

Mickey just stood there in the alley, looking at the spot where that impossible blue box had just stood. He was trying to make sense of his day that had started off the same as any other Sunday. A lie in, get up and watch a bit of kids TV while he had his breakfast and a cup of tea.

It had got a bit weird when Rose came over to use his internet connection, and then asked him to drive her to meet someone who she had contacted online. He'd seen all the warnings about doing that, and knew that no good would come of it. The warnings never said anything about being kidnapped by dustbins and being held in an underground bunker near the Thames by plastic robots!

And then there was that northern git, all ears, leather jacket, and an ego the size of a planet. Had he dreamt it, or was that box really bigger on the inside? Rose just seemed to accept the fact and then ran into it and disappeared. It would be Jimmy Stone all over again, and she could kiss his arse if she thought he would go running back to her when it all ended in tears.

At least that's what he tried to tell himself, but he knew deep down that if Rose needed him, he would be there in a shot. With that thought came the knowledge that it was he that needed Rose, that Rose didn't need anyone, she was strong and independent.

He walked back to the bus stop on the main road to wait for the bus that would take him back to the Powell Estate. As he waited, his thoughts kept going back to his last conversation with Rose.

"Thanks", she had said to him. He wasn't sure what particular thing she was thanking him for; was it for being there for her when that two timing git Jimmy dumped her and ran off to Amsterdam? Was it for driving her about like a personal taxi when she needed to go somewhere? Or was it for the great sex that they had in his bed, well, he thought it was great anyway.

"Thanks for what?" he had asked her, and the way she said "exactly", sounded like she was saying "thanks for nothing". Okay, he hadn't been much good against those plastic dummies, but come on; it's not every day you get eaten by a dustbin. He was a mechanic for God's sake, not some sort of futuristic commando.

The bus eventually came and he climbed aboard, sitting on one of the back seats. He should make it back in time to have a couple of pints in the local before heading back to his flat, and God knows, he needed a drink.

The main topic of conversation in the pub was the shop mannequins that had come to life and attacked people. There had been a lot of casualties, and a number of deaths. There were plenty of theories already posted on the conspiracy websites; military attack robots that ran amok, foreign terrorists, the secretive Torchwood.

Mickey told them it was aliens, which got a laugh and a chorus of “oh yeah, that's a thought”, or “nah, ain't no such thing as aliens”. He realised that apart from the Doctor and Rose, he was the only one who knew what had happened, and no one believed him.

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Jackie shuffled out of the toilet, where she had had her morning pee and headed for the kitchen to make a brew. She looked at the clock as she filled the kettle, five past eight on a Monday morning and Rose was still in bed. She must have been out late, because she hadn't heard her come in last night. They'd probably been talking about all the hullabaloo of those shop window dummies coming to life and attacking everyone.

Jackie had been watching the news when she got back to the flat, and they had advised everyone to stay in doors while UNIT and the military sorted it out. There was no mention of what had caused it though, and no explanation of why they had suddenly stopped. For no particular reason, Jackie wondered if it had something to do with Henrick's being blown up.

She remembered Rose phoning her and telling her to go home straight away, and she'd sounded frightened. While she waited for the kettle to boil, she went to Rose's room and gently knocked on the door before popping her head inside.

`Rose . . .? You awake?' she whispered. In the dim gloom of the messy room, she could see her bed was empty. That wasn't unusual; she often had a sleep over at Mickey's or Shareen's. This morning though, something niggled, it was how concerned she'd sounded on the phone.

`She could have at least phoned to let me know she was stayin' out,' Jackie mumbled to herself. Never mind, she would pop around to the garage later and have a chat with Mickey.

She went back to the kitchen and made her mug of tea, which she took through to the living room and curled up on the sofa to watch the morning news. It was full of reports about the plastic robot things that had terrorised London last night.

They had interviews with eye witnesses and government officials who were clueless as to what had occurred, but were trying to assure the public that everything was fine and under control.

`That'll be a first if that bunch have anythin' under control,' Jackie told the TV, `and nobody tried to interview me, I was very nearly killed by one of those things. Whoever's responsible, owes me compensation.'

In the garage, Mickey had his head under the bonnet of a Renault Clio, looking at the distributor.

`Oi, Mickey, have you seen Rose this mornin'? Did she stay at yours last night?' Jackie shouted across the small workshop, that made him bang his head on the bonnet, much to the amusement of his co-workers. He looked from around the raised bonnet and saw Jackie standing there with her hands on her hips.

Oh God, what was he going to tell her? That her daughter had run off with an alien in a time machine that was bigger on the inside? He'd tried that last night at the pub, the laughter and derision from Jackie would be even worse.

`No, the last I saw of her, she was goin' off with that bloke with the ears and the leather jacket,' he said, sounding slightly miffed.

Jackie couldn't help but notice his tone of voice. The poor lad, he was hopelessly in love with Rose, and, although Rose did love him, she had other plans for her life. She wanted to make something of herself, to make a difference, whereas all Mickey wanted to do was earn enough money to buy one of those flash cars that he saw on Top Gear.

`What, the investigator from the insurance company?' Jackie said, looking all confused, why would she go anywhere with him?

`Eh?' Now it was Mickey's turn to be confused. What the hell was the alien doing working for an insurance company?

`He came around to the flat on Saturday to see Rose about the explosion at Henrick's,' she told him.

Ah, now he understood, Jackie had jumped to the conclusion, and missed.

`Yeah, that's him,' Mickey said. `It was probably about the compensation or somethin'.'

`Have you two had a fight? You sound sort of . . . resentful or somethin'.'

`Nah, it's just the way she goes off on a whim without givin' me a second thought.'

`Maybe she'd gotten a job offer or somethin',' Jackie suggested, trying to think the best of her daughter, and make Mickey feel less rejected.

`Yeah, maybe,' he said, appreciating her effort to make him feel better.

Later that afternoon, Jackie returned to the flat with some carrier bags of shopping from the local supermarket. `Rose, are you back?' She called out down the hallway, the silence was deafening. She went through to the kitchen and put the bags on the table. She took her phone out of her pocket and selected Rose's number from the contacts menu.

Enough was enough, and like many teenagers, Rose had always been bad at keeping in touch. But after the events of the last few days, she wanted to know that she was all right. She waited for the connection to ring, but instead she heard the polite recorded message, `it has not been possible to connect your call, please try again'.

She did try again, and got the same polite message that told her that she was unable to contact her missing daughter. Now she was starting to worry. She selected Mickey's number and tried that instead.

After a few rings, he answered the call. `Hi Jackie, what can I do for ya?'

`Mickey, I still haven't heard from Rose, and I can't get through to her phone. I've got to be honest Mickey, I'm gettin' worried.'

Maybe she was right to be worried, Mickey thought, after all, those Autons and that Nestene thing had nearly killed them. But that Doctor bloke, with all his ego and attitude, had looked after Rose, and Mickey felt that he would do whatever was needed to keep her safe.

`I wouldn't worry about her Jackie, I'm sure she'll be fine. Remember what it was like when she ran off with that wanker Jimmy? You didn't hear from her for ages.'

`Yeah, I know, but I knew where she was then, she was in that grotty bed-sit,' Jackie replied. Mickey was taking this all rather well, to say his girlfriend had gone missing. Did he know something he wasn't telling her? `Maybe Shareen's seen her, have you got her number?'

Mickey hesitated; he knew Shareen hadn't seen her. `Er, I don't think she has.'

Jackie was getting suspicious. `Well, maybe Shareen knows somethin'; Rose should have her number somewhere in her room.'

Mickey realised that Jackie would contact Shareen whatever. `Hang on; I've got her number here.'

`Thanks Mickey, I'll speak to you later,' Jackie said as she wrote down the number. She disconnected the call and then dialled Shareen's number.

`Hello?' A young woman's voice said.

`Shareen? It's Rose's mum, have you seen anythin' of Rose the last couple of days?'

`Oh, hello Mrs. Tyler, I spoke to Rose on the phone Saturday night after I saw the news about Henrick's, but I haven't heard from her since. Is there a problem?'

`It's probably nothin', Mickey thinks it might be a new job offer or somethin', it's just that she's gone off somewhere and hasn't been in touch.'

`Nothin' new there then,' Shareen laughed.

Jackie relaxed a little and laughed with her. `Yeah, yer right there Love.'

A week later, Shareen phoned Jackie to see if she had heard from Rose. They were best mates, and regularly kept in touch to gossip about anything and everything.

It was at this point that Jackie phoned the police.