Entry Twenty-eight- Bolomo (3)

I never really thought that I'd ever get to the point my life where I had to go back to work at Henrick's Department Store. I mean, it wasn't so bad, at a time. Mum even thought it was a bit posh, but I'm a different person now, and going back to work in a shop after travelling and helping people and saving things and all that stuff that I'd done with the Doctor... it was the worst thing that I could imagine.


But I didn't have any other choice. I could have grieved for myself but I had much more important grieving to do. And I missed time and space, obviously, it'd become my life. and I missed every minuted of it. But I missed the Doctor more. Some nights I'd go back to the TARDIS and with a torch, the lights were never on anymore. I couldn't really stay away. I'd wander the halls, exploring rooms I'd never seen before, play dress up in the wardrobe, just like we'd done sometimes, when I begged. I slept in my bed sometimes. I never moved anything, it was all the way it had been when we'd been travelling.

I spent the majority of my time in the console room. It was bleak, depressing really. After Christmas, with the Sycorax, when the TARDIS hadn't been able to translate the language into my head, I'd asked the Doctor what the TARDIS would ever do without him. I knew they were connected, I don't know... physically or something. He said that she probably wouldn't. Time Lords are connected with their TARDISes and if the Time Lord dies the TARDIS has no purpose anymore, and will just... die of grief. Now, standing in the console room, I believed it.


Sometimes I would run my hand over her controls or against the coral columns and sometimes I'd feel a faint hum in my head that was either very faint or wishful thinking, but most of the time I felt nothing. She might've been even more hollow than me.

And life went on. As it must.

I wasn't happy, I wasn't content, I wasn't even myself anymore. And I could tell that people were concerned. Mum could hardly concentrate on anything else and Shareen would come by to watch EastEnders and Hollyoaks, but I couldn't figure out what was going on anymore. They were just actors doing... acting things on a screen. It wasn't important. We'd go out for drinks with Keisha, and they'd try on flirting with boys, but I couldn't react.

I knew that I had to snap out of it, and I tried. I didn't know when would be too long, when everyone would get tired to feeling sorry for me and start feeling annoyed. I didn't think it could be much longer. And I tried I really did, but I couldn't... I just couldn't move on.

And then one night, not any different than any other night, I was tucked up into my bed sleeping and I heard my name. Just once, and not loudly, not alarming, not anything except that it was obviously his voice.

I figured that I had to have been dreaming. But then the next night it was the same. He was calling me again, only this time slightly more urgently. And when I awoke from it, I forced myself back into sleep. He never said anything besides my name, and I knew that it was just my imagination, my mind hearing what it wanted to hear, but I started spending as much time as possible asleep. I called into work sick, I told mum I had a headache one day, a stomach ache the next. I knew that she was concerned, but I didn't care because as long as I was asleep, he'd be talking to me.

And then it wasn't just when I was asleep. One night when Shareen was over for EastEnders I was sitting on the couch eating chips when I heard my name again, clear as day. I stopped mid-chip.

"You okay?" Shareen asked me, and I just nodded. What was I supposed to say. 'My best friend, the most important person in the entire universe, you know the dead one? He was just talking to me in my head'? Hardly.

And then it wasn't just my name. It was "Rose, can you hear me?" or "You can do this, Rose, just..." or "Come on, Rose".

And then really weird things started happening. One day I walked into my bedroom in the Powell Estate and it was my bedroom in the TARDIS. I stared for a moment then went out and went back in again. It was my Powell Estate bedroom again. For an hour another day mum's hair was curly like it had been at day I'd saved and then lost Dad. Another the manager of Henrick's was the one that'd been manager when it'd been blown up rather than the one I had now.

And then Mickey came over. Mickey who'd been living in a parallel universe just the day before. And he acted like I was the mental one, like I was confused, didn't know what was going on. Which... I was starting to think was true.

Then finally, the inevitable. The sky filled with ships. Harriet Jones was Prime Minister again. Mickey had a gigantic gun I'd never seen him with before. Shareen had a baby she'd never given birth to. The Jagrafess was living in my ceiling, I screamed as a Gelth took over mum's body, Mickey was deleted and Keisha turned into a gold statue golem type thing. My head felt like it was going to explode.

So when the door to the flat burst open with choruses of "ex-ter-min-ate" I was hardly surprised. In fact, when they started speaking to me, I was annoyed. I didn't want to hear the ultimatums, I didn't care. Everything had been taken, and it was time.

"Daleks!" I yelled and they all stopped their chorus. "Remember your emperor? You wanna know how he died? That was me. Some stupid little human girl took all of the Time Vortex and turned him into dust! Now what do you have to say about that?"

Predictably, what they had to say was exterminate. Which had been the goal afterall. Because this wasn't right, there was something wrong, and if there was anything that could fix it I had a fairly good idea that this was it. I am not sure how many of them took aim at me. I closed my eyes, bracing myself for pain, cause I was fairly sure that it hurt like hell anyway. It did. My whole body seared and boiled and just before I hit the floor in a heap my eyes flew open.

I was lying in that room full of mirrors back on that planet with the factory and the Doctor was hovering over me, and he grinned when he saw my eyes open and said, "Bout time!"

My mouth fell open and I tried to sit but there was something around my head preventing me. The Doctor soniced it off and I flew into his arms. I couldn't quite believe that he was here, and he was fine and just... not dead. But he was there sort of laughing at me because I was sobbing into his lapel.


"Oh, Rose... it's okay now. All the equipment's off now and look you're back!"

I knew I must look a wreck, but I mean... I was well happy! It was only then that I sort of looked around and said, "What. the. Hell?"

"This," he said waving his arms around the room, "was the Dream Factory on the planet Bolomo. It was built so that people could come here for holidays or whatever and they'd go into dreams which the neurological enhancer would propigate into well... the best thing they could dream up. Cheaper than a real holiday and takes about .2 percent the time it would be if all that was acted out in real time. Bet it felt like months, nah, was just about ten minutes.
"
I shook my head, "That was no dream." I said, hooking a thumb at the equipment I'd just been attached to.

"No, it wouldn't be," the Doctor said, nodding, "no cause it all went wrong, didn't it. Like it always goes wrong when you try to take the easy way of things. They realised there was no way to block out the nightmares. People'd pay good money to come for a lovely holiday and they'd end up in their worst fears. Pretty soon the whole thing was overrun with nightmares, there was no stopping it. They tried to cut back on costs by using robotic workers who'd hone in on live humanoid creatures and hook them into the machines, there's feeding tubes and of course the neuroplastic helmet."

"Of course."

"Yeah. But eventually the corporation was given a red card and every living thing moved out, everyone knows now to go to Bolomo now. Well, there's nothing here but the Dream Factory, and that's what you're keen to avoid. Bit of bad lucky for us, I'd say. I thought for awhile you were going to be in there for hours and hours. I might've gotten awfully bored."

I rolled my eyes and then got indignant, "Well why didn't they take you?"

"Don't be silly, course they did. Hooked me in same as you, just got myself out sooner. All you've got to do is die. Of course... you have to realise you're in a dream first, I suppose. That's the trick really. But then again, I'm very clever."

"What did you see?" I asked him.

"Oh, you know, but what about you? Did the world end? Earth, I mean, Earth."

I shook my head, "The Earth was there. It was- well anyway, can we get out of here first. Please?"

He nodded, used his sonic on the helmety thing again, zapping it so that smoke rose. I figured he'd just knackered it. I supposed the whole place was safe now. Then he stood, took my hand and off we trundled to the TARDIS.

"Probably best," he said, "battling your head does work up an appetite and I've just remember the most fantastic nut sugar loaf you can only get at this tiny stop on this tiny planet in the Zolgi System. What do you say?"

I nodded, fiddling with my hoop earring and pretending to think about. "Yeah, nut sugar loaf sounds about right."

Until next time.

Entry Twenty-seven- Bolomo (2)

It's funny cause I always figured that dying would be the worst thing that could ever happen to me. The worst thing that could happen to anyone. Obviously, my lifestyle is a bit conductive towards the dangerous and there've been many instances where death seemed to be staring me in the face. But it'd always been worth it. I would never regret going with the Doctor, not ever, and there are some things that are just more important than me. Plenty of things I'd be willing to give my life for.

I was wrong. Death is merciful.

I could hear the whiring of wheels and the Daleks talking amongst themselves and was fairly sure that I had only moments left but I couldn't hear what they were saying and I didn't care. I was lying on the ground curled up in a ball, my hand still tangled up in the Doctor's, and my face resting on his chest. I kept thinking that if I just waited... I am very attached to this current regeneration of the Doctor's (as you probably know) but I'd prefer any regeneration to him just... lying there.

I waited for a long time, my face pressed against the Doctor's pinstriped suit jacket, until I realised that it was quiet. Too quiet. And when I turned my face to look towards where the Daleks had been they were just gone. I sat up then, looked around, couldn't quite believe it, considering it made no sense. They were supposed to kill me, instead they'd just left me there, which was about six million times worse.

For a long time I just stared, and then I started to cry. And I am not sure that I have ever cried like that before. There'd been times, back when everything went wrong with Jimmy especially, when I realised I'd never know my dad, when I lost him the second time those had been tears. I'd cried, and cried hard, but this was different this was like losing everything. I could sit here and try to explain what I was feeling, hallow, sick, chest compressions, all that stuff that is just words, there's just no way.

I don't remember pulling the Doctor back into the TARDIS and I don't remember activating Emergency Protocol One, but the next thing I knew I was in the same position I'd been in, only now the Doctor's suit jacket was covered in tears and Mum was knocking on the TARDIS door from the outside and calling my name. Maybe she could hear my sobs from outside, I couldn't tell, but she sounded worried.

And then somehow I must've opened the door cause she was rushing in, holding me and asking what had happened. I stayed where I was, sobs racking through my body, she stayed with me and hours later when my tears dried up but I still refused to move, she brought me tea that went untouched and then finally she put a blanket over me when I fell asleep.

I don't know how long I was there, but it was a long time. Even I could tell that it was a long time, but I couldn't get myself to move. The TARDIS got dimmer and dimmer until the lights went out all together and I could no longer feel her humming in my mind. And I still couldn't move. I think it was days. Mum kept bringing in tea and sandwiches, a pizza once, and I ate some but not enough, and she'd sit with me some and try to talk but I didn't respond, I couldn't say anything.

And then one day I got up. My legs would hardly move and my heart felt like it weighed about five tonnes but I got up and I got myself out of the TARDIS. It was parked down the street from the Estate, just where it'd landed when he'd sent me back from the Daleks that first time.


Then I went home. Mum was happy to see me out, obviously. She had a client when I went in, and I was sure I looked a complete wreck, but she hurried up to finish and then we sat down with a cup of tea and I told her everything. The tears came back then. She held me and we talked.

"But, I thought that when he was hurt he just changed his face," she said, genuinely confused so that I didn't fault her for asking even though it hurt.

I wiped tears off my face and shrugged a bit. We'd talked about it, the Doctor and me, after Christmas, when he'd been getting all his strength back, and we all exchanged gifts and did the domestic thing until he felt one hundred percent and we couldn't get out of there fast enough. He told me all about it, regeneration, and I thought I understood. Time Lords could repair themselves, change their whole bodies, twelve times, thirteen different bodies, so long as they were dying. Not dead. All those times he'd been scared, ready to die for the rest of the world, he wasn't being glib, he would die and not regenerate if it was fast enough.

She drew me a bath and I changed my clothes, ones that I'd left behind, old clothes, too big but comfortable. And then I went back into the living room.

"Mum, will you cut my hair?" I asked. And she didn't seem happy about it but she nodded and cut my hair into a short crop that went just below my ears, and gave me fringe, into kind of a twenties bob.

I wasn't sure how it looked. I didn't care how it looked. That wasn't the point, I just needed to change.

When it was time to go to bed I left the flat, took a torch with me, and went to sleep on the TARDIS. I knew it was a bit bleak, but I couldn't help it. I wanted to be near him, and I cried myself to sleep again.

This went on for about a week before I went back to the Powell Estate one morning and Shareen and Keisha were there. Mum had obviously spun them some story, probably near the truth but something involving South America which is where I was meant to be. We chatted and I might've smiled once or twice even.

Finally Shareen put both her hands on the table and smiled at me sympathetically. "Rose, they're hiring at Henrick's again. And I talked to Susan, down there and she said that cause you were on the premises during that explosion you'd be guarnteed a job," she looked between Keisha and mum then, probably for fortitude and then spoke again, "We all discussed it and we thought it might be best for you to start working again."

More later...

Entry Nineteen - Vesper

We stayed at the Powell Estate for two days. Mum was ecstatic and I am not sure Mickey left for the entire time. There was plenty of room with the TARDIS which the Doctor moved into my bedroom, mum wasn’t entirely happy about that but it was better than the living room and with everyone sleeping there it was impossible not to leave it in the courtyard. So in my bedroom it stayed and it was sort of like a big sleepover for two days. But then we all start to get antsy and we all knew it was time to shove off. The Doctor moved the TARDIS to downstairs and I collected up my laundry, kissed mum goodbye, hugged Mickey (knowing this would be the last time I’d probably ever see him), and then went down to the TARDIS.

Ariella was staring at the sky, well, the sun to be exact, and the Doctor was probably inside. I paused in front of her, about to ask if she was going in, but she spoke first.

“It’s mine, you know. That’s my star, the one I was born with and the one I will die with.” I hadn’t ever really thought of that. Each Nyklus was born at the same time as a star, Ariella’s was our sun. It seemed like such an expansive lifetime I couldn’t even fathom it.

Also, I’d seen it die. My first trip with the Doctor, I’d seen the sun expand and engulf the Earth with it, I’d been thinking of my planet, all the things left on it, even if there weren’t people. It had been hard to watch, but now all I could think was that I had been standing on Platform 5, and across the universe, on Jacowitz, Queen Ariella was dying.

But then she’d seen her fill and we both walked back into the TARDIS.

We decided that we’d had a bad enough time of it lately so the three of us, The Doctor, Ariella, and I, thought it’d be nice to have a bit of a fun day. Not that we’re not all big fans of trouble, because we obviously are, and the running, that can be brilliant too. But after everything that’d happened lately the Doctor set course for the planet Vesper which is a little bit like what Las Vegas looked like in films and stuff. It was like walking onto the set of Ocean’s Eleven complete with good looking blokes and high rolling casinos. And this apparently covered the whole planet.

The Doctor landed the TARDIS in an alleyway off of the high street and immediately after exiting we were engulfed by people. I know that Ariella had done her fair share of travelling at this point, with us and probably in her past and all that, but Jacowitz is such a docile place I am always convinced that Ari’s going to be overwhelmed with places like this.

Instead she nearly jumped up and down clapping her hands. The Doctor looked ridiculously chuffed, and I couldn’t help laughing with glee at the whole thing.

“Well, then,” he said after several moments of us all looking around at the all the people and tall buildings of neon and bright colours and everything, “to the casino?”

Ari and I exchanged glances then looked back at the Doctor, “Yeah!”

Ariella had plenty of money and insisted that she use her credits instead of the Doctor using jiggery pokery on an Instacredit machine, which, well we all knew was all kinds of wrong anyway. It seemed that the Doctor was very good at a game that very closely resembled poker and I wasn’t so bad with the slots. They both seemed to think it was very amusing that whenever I won a game I’d scream shrilly and jump up and down. I couldn’t quite help it though! It was fun!

A bloke that very closely seemed to resemble Brad Pitt seemed very taken with Ariella and had her blow on his dice every time he’d throw down at the table. He ended up winning quite a bit and gave Ari a million credit chip as a reward. She wasn’t going to take it but I told her that she should because the bloke was good looking and he seemed to like her without knowing that she was the Queen of the Nyklus, which was pretty impressive in my book. Then again, I’ve always been a sucker for a pretty boy. And this one was pretty.

But Ariella didn’t seemed entirely interested so instead of pushing it I leaned my hip against the gaming table in the same fashion that I leaned it against the TARDIS console and bit my bottom lip. “Any chance for a drink?” I asked.

And the next thing that I knew we were in the casino bar, the classy one with no strippers or dancers gyrating on the tables, with a bottle of something called Argo Tequila which the Doctor assured me tasted nothing like Earth tequila. He was right on that account. He poured us all tiny glasses of the stuff, I was a bit wary of drinking it without mixing it with something but he assured me it wasn’t necessary, and we toasted to Vesper. It tasted nothing like Earth tequila, if anything it tasted like a strawberry sundae. It didn’t look like Earth tequila either, it was a sort of misty purpley pink colour that looked much like Jacowitz’s sky at sunset. I immediately held out my glass for another go, and he poured three more glasses. This time we toasted to Antalusians. Then we toasted to being alive, and to spaceships, and to Kit, and to mum, and aspirin, and the TARDIS, and Ariella, and me, and the Doctor and by the time we finished our second bottle of the stuff and had moved on to Maugini liqueur we were, all three of us, well pissed. Superior physiology or not.

I would have thought that the different physiologies of the three of us would give us different the liquor different effects in our systems, but as it was explained to me the next day over a full on fry up (which, I don’t care where or when you’re from, is the only cure for a hangover) the distillation process and added something or other, it was a very long and confusing explanation which I was only half listening to, had properties which would react similarly with physiologies. Still, I maintain that I was much more pissed than either of them. But, that, apparently, was the reason that he’d chosen that particular kind of liquor (which earned a raised eyebrow from me, as I had the distinct impression that he’d wanted to get pissed).

Anyway, Ariella started talking about one of her advisors who she considered to be particularly slimey (her words). We all giggled like school children because it’s a very un-Ari like thing to do, speak poorly of anyone. I teased her for being almost human after all, she scoffed and I pretended to be offended. This advisor apparently thought Ari was too young to rule Jacowitz, which I could understand to be a valid concern seeing as though she’d taken the throne at an extremely young age, but that was ages ago. Now she was well into her thousands, maybe millions, I hadn’t asked it seemed rude.

The Doctor, of course, had no problem. “How old are you now, Ari?” I shoot him a glare and Ariella giggled a bit. He actually did look a bit sheepish, “Right. Women. I’m not meant to ask that, am I?”

We both laughed and then Ari answered him anyway.

Then we started reminiscing about all the adventures we’d been on together when she travelled with us before. The sea of space mines we’d gotten stuck in when we’d popped out of the Vortex to check a bearing. The spice factory on Guarentula, which I remembered smelling exactly like curry, and the star fields in the Lex Sphere. But then the Doctor started in about the aquarium on Bellalux Five and we both stared at him blankly.

(this was when Ari travelled with us the first time, she was apparently the only one aware the TARDIS was taking photos)

He blinked several times. “No really?! I’ve never taken either of you to Bellalux Five?! Oh that’s it, we’re going to Bellalux Five!” he tried to get up then but ended up tripping on his own two feet and falling back into the plush seat he’s been sitting on. Both Ariella and I laughed into hysterics.

“I think I’ve sat on my spectacles,” he said. He hadn’t. It was a shot glass.

The Doctor poured a few more drinks of the Mauguini and then engaged into a conversation with Ariella about something which I could not focus on so I got up, glass in hand, and went to investigate the rest of the bar, especially since I could now hear some sort of… frankly, horrible music coming from the just opposite the bar. I moment later I went running back, “They’ve got karaoke!” I practically yelled.

Ariella looked slightly horrified but the Doctor’s face lit up like a child on Christmas and we both hightailed it towards the little stage. Ariella trailed behind us, Maugini bottle in hand and watched in horror as I did a, probably, very poor rendition of a Spice Girls song (they didn’t have much 21^st century Earth music to choose from), and when the Doctor decided to take the stage she nearly keeled over shouting “Oh don’t!” and “You must be joking!”. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t help and he got a standing ovation from a group of little blue aliens in the corner. He said it didn’t mean much since that race was known for its tone deafness, but I still thought it was hilarious. We went back to the bar and ordered something that I can not pronounce (not even sure my tongue could make those movements), and toasted to embarrassing Ariella. I remember my head going a bit fuzzy then, and then the next thing I remember is waking up in the TARDIS console room.

I was curled up on the jumpseat in a very awkward angle and was, for some reason, wearing the Doctor’s coat. I found him tucked up in the bathtub and Ariella was drinking a very large cup of tea in the galley. Without a word the Doctor set course for a greasy spoon in 1960’s New York City.

We figured we’d nurse our hangovers before Bellalux Five.

Entry Eighteen - Earth

After a very eventful trip to a space station with time windows and Madame de Pompadour the Doctor figured there was a need to show me how to get the TARDIS home. The programme had always been there, of course, and he’d activated it one time but it wasn’t something that I knew how to do myself. He showed me which buttons to press and which lever to crank. I listened and I demonstrated when he asked me to do it for him but my heart wasn’t really in it. I sort of always figured that if he couldn’t be driving the TARDIS than I wouldn’t really be either.

At this precise moment, I was very glad that I’d paid attention. Up popped his holographic image of himself speaking to me and whir when the time rotor but I was already back towards the door where Ariella had stayed with the Doctor. He was breathing normal and his one heartbeat was steady, but that didn’t stop me from worrying about the lack of the second. I wondered if Time Lords could survive with one heart, and… uh, I hate to write this down because I think that probably he will read it and not be very happy, but I didn’t want him to have to regenerate. I mean, I know that he’s the same but… it’s not.

But anyway, the TARDIS seemed to understand the urgency of the matter and so we went hurtling through the Time Vortex faster than I had in a long while. It was an exceedingly bumpy ride, which I couldn’t tell if it was good or not, I had two thoughts, keep the Doctor safe, and land somewhere quickly, the two were hardly mutually exclusive. And then suddenly the whole TARDIS sort of tipped and it felt very much like we’d just crashed into something. Everything in the console room shifted, the three of us were thrown, and then it was still.

Ariella picked herself up, and looked at me with wide eyes, “Where are we?” she asked, and I bit my lip.

“Home.”

Ariella visibly blanched and I had to stifle a laugh that was hardly appropriate. “Home?” she asked, “As in, Earth, as in…” her voice got very low, “Jackie Tyler?”

“Don’t believe a word he’s said,” I told her and then looped an arm around the Doctor and indicated to Ariella to do the same on the other side. We opened the door and went out.

And there, quite to my surprise, was Mickey running down the road to meet me. I blinked, “Mickey?!” I said and he grinned.

“Yeah it’s me, what’s happened? I didn’t expect you back so soon and then I heard the TARDIS. What’s happened to him?” he looked a bit wide eyed, and then helped.

“Mickey,” I was a bit dumbfounded. It wasn’t so long ago that I’d seen him. Of course I’d seen him last when we left him behind on a parallel universe never expecting to see him again. If I hadn’t been supporting the Doctor I would’ve hugged him. “When is it?”

“February 3^rd.”

Oh. So… well, he didn’t seem to not recognise the Doctor so it was clearly after that Christmas, just after it would seem. That was a bit weird. We’d never done that before. All trips home were done linearly, time-wise. The Doctor said it was easily on mum that way, which made sense to me, but this was different, the Doctor wasn’t piloting the TARDIS and now we’d, well… I supposed that it didn’t matter all that much really. And it was quite a help that Mickey was there to help with the Doctor, actually. I wondered if the TARDIS had done that on purpose.

Between the three of us it wasn’t too hard to get the Doctor upstairs. Mum was just sitting there reading a magazine on the couch watching telly and apparently hadn’t heard all the ruckus of us coming up the stairs. She jumped up, ran over, and helped us get him to the couch. I explained what had happened, leaving out the bits where I was about to be a slave and had, well, willingly sacrificed myself. She got all mother hen in the way that she does. She got a cold flannel and pressed it to his forehead and everything before switching on the kettle for the rest of us.

“I don’t reckon he can drink any tea in that condition,” she said, coming back into the room and adjusting her hoodie, “but do you think it’d help?” Then, “This isn’t gonna become a habit with this one, is it?”

I was collecting the mugs for the tea and paused for a moment, yeah, well if this was February then it meant that the last time they’d seen us the Doctor’d been all laid up too. I peered around into the hall and noticed the nearly repaired doorway into mum’s room. “Mum,” I said, “we’ve been here, in between Christmas and now, that was ages ago.”

Mum looked confused for a moment, and then just said, “Oh.” And I felt badly because I could tell she was thinking about all the things in my life that she’d never know and probably never understand. But then she turned her attention to Ariella whose eyes got very wide at mum’s attentions. Previously she’d only asked briefly who she was and I’d practically barked “Ariella!”, but now she was giving the Nyklus Queen a proper once over. “So, who’s this then, properly?” she said, forcing on a cheery smile and changing the subject completely. I returned to the room.

“Mum, Mickey, this is Ariella Lavizsia, she’s Queen of a planet called Jacowitz, Ariella, mum – Jackie, and Mickey,” I said with a gesture of my hand.

Ariella smiled, quite demurely and politely but looked a bit like she wanted, more than anything to flee to the TARDIS for safety. “It’s lovely to meet you, I’ve heard a lot about-”

Mum’s eyes sort of bugged out, “Queen?! You’re telling me we’ve got royalty in our home? No warning, just popping in, nothing in the cupboards and the place not even tidied!”

I nearly laughed, but didn’t. “Mum, it’s not like we had time to phone ahead or anything.”

“Well I know, sweetheart, but-”

“Really,” Ariella broke in with her calming voice, and even though she spoke softly we all turned towards her, “I don’t need anything special, I-”

“But, your majesty,” I almost cringed as mum spoke, “I can send Rose out, or Mickey, I’ll send Mickey I wouldn’t want to leave you all alone without someone you know, and he’s…” she guestured towards the Doctor, “well, he’s well knackered it’d seem, we can get some cakes or something. And the good tea in the boxes, you know the ones Mickey, slides open? And you’ll have to get something I can cook, we’ve just got leftover Chinese in and I couldn’t possibly serve takeaway to royalty, and-”

“Blimey, Jackie, don’t you ever shut up?”

All four of our heads spun around back towards the Doctor who was still lying on the couch, but now his eyes were open and he was his spectacles which were hanging a bit funny.

“Doctor!” Ariella cried and nearly flung herself on the side of the couch in a very good impersonation of Florence Nightingale.

“Hello,” he said smiling at her, and I went round to the end of the couch, he made a show out of looking round, “Well I see you paid attention to the Emergency Protocol One tutorial,” he said to me in a voice far too cheery for the fact that he’d just been unconscious for the greater part of an hour. Then again, he was the Doctor, and he tended to do that.

I grinned back, “I did,” I said, “how are you? Your heart wasn’t working, is it better now?” I almost reached forward and rested my hand on his chest to see but didn’t.

“Oh, fine, you know, just a bit sore.” And then he went on talking about everything and nothing at the same time. Remarking on mum’s hairstyle, the presence of Mickey (he shot me a glance at that but seemed satisfied that I’d not told him anything about his future), apologising to Ariella for having to meet my mum (Mum and I ‘Oi!’ed at the same time). And his heart was back to normal. I could have cried from relief. But I didn’t.

Then mum came back with the tea and passed it round to everyone. Ariella seemed to have gotten a bit more comfortable and mum had stopped falling all over her (maybe it was the way the Doctor and I were treating her like we always treated her, like a normal person) and the Doctor was happily sipping his tea while we all listened to Ariella recount the last Sontaran invasion. For about ten minutes it looked like all the drama was over for the day.

“Rose,” the Doctor said and I looked at him all smiles until I caught the expression on his face. “Rose, what did you give me, when I was out, you gave me some sort of medicine or something, what was it?”

Nothing so far as I knew. I racked my brain, Ariella gave me a concerned look, again. I shook my head, “No, nothing.”

“Oh, yeah, well that was me,” Mum said seemingly just catching wise to the conversation. All three of us whipped our heads round to her. “Well it was just a bit of children’s stuff, he said he was sore and Suze left a bit of stuff over when she was here last with little Terese.” We all continued to stare. “All right I’ll go and get it!” she said and then got up to the kitchen. By the time she got back the Doctor was practically purple and had already activated his respiratory bypass. “My god! What’s happened to him!?” she cried holding up the bottle, “it’s just Acetylsalicylic Acid!”

Mickey was on his feet crossing his arms and looking very confused, he made a face and half shrugged, “That’s just aspirin.”

The Doctor’s eyes got very wide and Ariella and I gaped at mum and Mickey. “Aspirin?!” we said at the same time. Then I finished, “Mum, he’s allergic to aspirin!”

Her hands flew to her mouth and I could tell how apologetic she was, I shouldn’t have been cross cause she was just trying to help but I could hardly help it. This whole thing was really bending my nerves and my stomach sort of churned with worry, actually I was starting to feel nauseous. But the Doctor sort of launched himself off the couch and grabbed the bottle from mum at a full pounce and examined the label. Then he made some sort of noise that sounded like he was being strangled. Mickey ran and got him a sheet of A4 and an old nibby pencil from my room, and I had to give him props for understanding what it was that the Doctor needed.

“Epi Pen!” Mum shouted.

“Have we got an epi pen?” I asked, confused, not thinking it would do much good anyway.

“Hospital?!” she said once she realised we did not have an epi pen.

“Mum!” She was quiet after that and the Doctor scribbled on the paper holding it out for us to read. “Potassium, sugar, Vitamin C, zinc… we’re supposed to find these things?” He nodded vigorously. “Mum! Have we got bananas?” She shook her head. I gaped, even the Doctor was still, he grabbed the paper back, flipped it over and wrote in large letters; ‘NO?!’

“Well, I said, we’ve nothing in!”

Ariella jumped up from the couch and ran, out the door, slamming it behind her. I hardly noticed, “Okay, orange juice then?” Mum ran into the kitchen and came back with an almost full container, which the Doctor hastily drank, and then actually looked a bit better. I checked the list, “Have we got zinc mum?” she had already brought in the sugar.

“Zinc?! Why would we have zinc?”

“For colds and stuff, you know, it’s meant to make you better!” She looked a little helpless, I turned back to the Doctor, “What has zinc?!”

He seemed to be able to push a bit of air through his throat, at last, and managed some words. “It’s in a lot of metal things, I don’t know, oysters!” I looked at mum, she shook her head, “They use it too coat pills in the future, Rose, you know what I’m talking about!”

“Pills,” I said, wracking my brain, wondering if we had any of that stuff in the TARDIS, probably, I wondered- “And food supplement pills?” he nodded, and I fished in my pockets. “Like desert pellets?!” I asked extracting the large amount of them that I’d pilfered from the Antalusian ship. Apparently, yes, cause he grabbed them and downed about ten in eight seconds.

This time when he spoke it was a little more clearly, “Sugar, and potassium, where’s my coat?”

I started towards the door. As far as I knew his coat was in the TARDIS, he hadn’t been wearing it before and I could see it in my minds eye thrown over the coral columns, but before I even had a chance to open the door Ariella bust in toting a huge box of banana donuts. “Potassium and sugar!” she said, breathlessly, she’d obviously run. The Doctor waved her over and grabbed a donut, and shoved it in his face. By the time he’d finished his third he was quite back to normal, but no one begrudged him a fourth.

Then, he, quite calmly, picked up his tea cup and washed the contents down the kitchen sink. Before grabbing the children’s aspirin bottle, walking to the balcony and tossing it down into the courtyard below. He didn’t tell me at the time, but thank god it was children’s aspirin. When he came back he smiled, hands tucked into his pockets and started rocking on the balls of his feet and said, “Right then, who wants tea?”

Entry Seven - Earth (Still)

Couple of things today, no photos as it's a long one.

First, the Doctor is clearly insane. I understand that eighty years is not a long time to someone who's already lived for over nine hundred and is nowhere near slowing down, but to gripe on about something so absurd is ludicrous. All day he followed me around with glasses of water telling me that I should keep my skin hydrated so that I wouldn't feel the need to slather on anti-wrinkle cream any time soon. I'm 20 years old, I am unconcerned about the 'human aging process' as he calls it. And I really don't need him hacking into my blog and posting photos of me and my mum side by side!

But anyway! We're still on Earth, London, Powell Estate, Flat 48 of Bucknall House... okay maybe I shouldn't be broadcasting my address on the internet? Oh well, I doubt anyone reads this anyway, except maybe a few. I know HelenW does, yay HelenW.

So, as the Doctor already informed everyone I went out last night when a couple of my mates, Shareen and Keisha, I ran into Keisha's cousin last night at the chippy and she told the two of them that I was home. So just as soon as me and the Doctor and mum were finished with our chips they came knocking on the door begging me to go out with them (the Doctor had conveniently hidden himself in my bedroom at this point). I was going to beg off, but I got to thinking that it'd be nice to have a pint with my mates again. They invited the Doctor along too, of course (Keisha's met him, they got on okay I think even though there were weird happenings at the time and all), but I couldn't even get him to come out of the bedroom to meet Shareen, which I thought was just a bit rude.

We went down to the pub down the street and had a couple of pints, caught up. They're both dating blokes who I haven't met, but everything's working out great. Vicky broke up with Kyle after he threw a brick through Chris's car window when he caught them talking. Marie got a job as a waitress at some posh new place up near Bond Street. It was all the gossip I used to not be able to wait to hear, but for some reason it sounded completely mundane. I sat there and chewed on my nails though, cause I knew eventually there were going to ask about me and I hadn't the slightest idea of what to tell them.

And then the worst thing that I could possibly imagine happened.

Shareen got a sort of queer look on her face and I could see her nudge Keisha under the table so I laughed and turned to see what it was that they were looking at, and there, standing by the door to the pub with some slapper with fuck me heels and the most hideous colour of bottle blonde, was Jimmy Stone.

The ex of exes.

I will not get into the whole story about Jimmy and me but I will say that I moved out of my mum's flat to live with him instead of finishing school and getting my A Levels. I was completely blinded by my stupid infatuation for the git and had the stupidity to believe that he actually loved me. It ended badly. And with tears. And me in debt I finished paying off just before my job blew up. Needless to say I never wanted to see him again, as he is a complete wanker.

And despite all this, I was frozen to the spot and couldn't speak, even when he was standing right in front of me waiting for a response.

He was all smirky, thinking he had it better with his whore of a girlfriend, ripped band tee shirt, and second hand leather jacket that he never took off, even in our flat. He stared waiting for me to speak, I stared unable to speak (cursing myself for being so affected), and Whore had the audacity of giggle!

Finally, he spoke again; "Out with the girls, I see," he said. "Guess you're not with that Mickey Smith anymore, I heard he moved away. Shame."

I opened my mouth but nothing came out. What was I meant to say?! Yeah, Mickey decided to go live in a Parallel Universe which is now sealed off so that I'll never see him again? Obviously not. And I knew that Jimmy was just trying to needle me, the frustrating bit was that it was working!

Luckily, Shareen and Keisha could always be depended upon to say something, though what they picked wouldn't have been my first choice. "She's got a new bloke now," Shareen said, all defiantly. "He's some sort of doctor and they travel," Keisha added. All I could do was nod.

Jimmy did not seem all that impressed. Actually, he didn't seem like he believed them. I suppose it would be rather hard to believe that I could land a doctor, in the sense that he was thinking doctor, not that... Anyway, I didn't feel like I could rightly lie and call the Doctor 'my bloke' anyway. Jimmy left clearly feeling like he'd gotten the upper hand. Which depressed me to no end. So we got more pints. And more pints. Many pints in I was well pissed and we all trudged back to the Powell Estate to collapse on the sofas like we used to do.

Though when we passed the play park Keisha decided she wanted to swing, and Shareen immediately went to the slide. I think they might've been a bit confused, if they hadn't been so pissed, as to why I went for the police box. I had my key like always but my head was a bit everywhere, so I knocked, not really sure why because I was fairly sure that the Doctor would've been tucked up in the flat, watching telly or something, but he answered the door, very confused looking and I just laughed and pulled him out of the TARDIS by his tie.

He looked a bit bug eyed and Shareen came down the slide and goes: "Oi! Who are you and where'd you come from?!" To which I said something which came out sort of like this "Sissssducktuh." And Keisha fell of the swing and said: "Doctor! We don't have chips with newsprint!"

Shareen then got up, poked the Doctor in the chest, and said "You! You are stole my Rosie! Mickey said all about you, but he said you had big ears. Your ears are normal size." I laughed and said "His ears used to be big!" and then lost my footing and tripped. The Doctor had to hold me up so that I didn't fall.

"Okay," he said after a few more moments of being poked by Shareen, and drooled upon by me, "let's get you girls up and to bed, you've obviously consumed a higher level of liquor than the 0.08% blood alcohol count stipulated by the United Kingdom. In which you live. Judging by your reaction time, over-expression, and all around boisterousness, you're probably on the scale at around 0.11–0.20 %. Best sleep it off."

Shareen squinted at him and Keisha giggled, I came dangerously close to saying something incredibly stupid.

He was very good though, for the anti-domestic that he is, he tucked them both up on the couch and me in my bed and was very good about it when I wouldn't let go of his hand. He stayed until I fell asleep but when I woke up he was, unsurprisingly, gone.

But mum made breakfast for everyone. Real proper breakfast. Gorgeous. And we all gorged ourselves until the effects of the ciders were well buried under toast, beans, eggs, and sausages. The girls asked about our travels and we gave some mumbo jumbo about South America, while mum shot me glances out the side of her eye. The girls left after breakfast and I promised them I'd call and visit back again soon, even though I sort of knew that I wouldn't.

Mum handed over my clean laundry and we exchanged hugs again. And it was time to go. Back into time and space, spinning throughout the universe.

Until next time.

Hacking Part 3

Rose went out with her friends and left me all alone with her mum. I understand the human need to... I don't know, shall we say group? Yes, group sounds quite good. Someone called Shareen who I've heard about and Keisha who I've met. I don't think she was entirely planning on going out but now she has, they've gone to some pub or another and I had nothing better to do than eat digestive biscuits and watch telly with Jackie while she talked about how it was like 'the good old days'. I suppose the good old days are before I came into the picture, but I always did get the impression that Rose enjoyed time and space and visiting places and running and trouble and everything that comes along. In fact she's said several times, usually when we're about to die, but still she's said!

But anyway, I got bored of whatever soap it was that Jackie had on and decided to poke around a bit, she was none too happy when she found me going through the bathroom cupboard, but it was fascinating! I've never seen so many creams and lotions and things! It seems remarkable that humans are so obsessed with staying hydrated when they're seventy percent water to begin with. If they actually kept themselves hydrated then they wouldn't have dehydrated skin! But Jackie caught me sticking my finger in a pot of something called 'Under Eye Anti-wrinkle Cream' and was very displeased.

But all this got me thinking that I'd like to scientifically look at the human aging process. It's not as if I am unaware of how it works or anything, I've been around enough human beings to know that, but it never really seemed all that important before. So I told Jackie I was going to do repairs and went to the TARDIS to begin my observations.

Humans have an average life expectancy of approximately 66.12 Earth years, though to be fair that factors in all sorts of places on Earth, being technically European, Rose can expect probably about 77 years, average. But then again, seeing as though she has access to medicine, foods, and technology from the future she might have a good 100 years in her, maybe more. That leaves 80 more of them left for adventures.

Eighty years.

Eighty years!

That is a dismally small number. I don't quite like the sound of it. And that doesn't even take into account the aging process.

So, I took a photo of Jackie and a photo of Rose and put them together:


Well, I suppose Jackie doesn't look too bad for... I don't know, how old is Jackie now? 55? 58? I suppose she's not so bad for human years. But I think maybe I should tell Rose not to cake on the makeup so well, sometimes Jackie looks like she's stuck the White Cliffs of Dover under her eyes. This might require more research.

Oh. ....There is knocking on the TARDIS door. Why is there knocking on the TARDIS door? Well, one way to find out I suppose.

Cheerio! I should say that more often, cheerio!

This is the Doctor by the way.

Entry Six - Earth

After much cajoling and my best puppy dog face:


(the Doctor simply can not resist) we landed the TARDIS outside the Powell Estate. I am fairly convinced that the Doctor doesn't really mind visiting my mum, but he does like to complain an awful jag. With his last self he was definitely much less domestic and wouldn't even have tea, but new new Doctor (admittedly not so new anymore) had the most domestic of domestic meals with us (Christmas). Plus I know he loves my mum, even if he'll never say. Sometimes I think he thinks of her as his mum too, which is a little strange when you think that linearly he'd have been about 862 when she was born. But still, even 900+ year old Time Lords need a little TLC. So, I am not convinced that he really dislikes the idea of visiting home as much as he pretends to.

We landed the TARDIS in the play park where I used to run around with Mickey when I was a girl or swing on the swings, flirting with boys when I was older.


The Doctor said it was his favourite place to park the ship because mum always yelled at him when he parked in the living room (she works from home and has clients over so it would look a bit freakish to have a police box sitting in the middle of the room. I always thought it'd be hilarious if we landed in the living room while mum had a client. I am sure it will happen someday. But it's not in too obvious a place.

Anyway we went out and there was mum standing in the play park staring at us with a couple big bags full of shopping in her arms.

"I was going back to the flat and I heard that thing," she said, "thank goodness, you can help me carry all this." And with that she dumped both overstuffed bags into the Doctor's arms. He didn't look well pleased. But I laughed.

I didn't ask mum how long it'd been for her since we'd been back. The Doctor does try to keep the visits rather close to each other, but he's not the best TARDIS pilot. He does tend to overshoot sometimes, or undershoot. We often end up at different places than we expect, which is usually fine because there's some other brilliant adventure just waiting for us, but it does have a habit of me standing in the wrong century dressed in VERY wrong clothes. But all that's besides the point. When it comes to mum I find it's best just not to ask. So long as I'm not visible older, I have nightmares about travelling for thirty years and then dropping in for a visit.

Anyway, once we got back into the flat it was all hugs:


Mum made us all tea, immediately, as she tends to do. If you asked her you'd think tea could save the universe, though, to be fair, it has.


So we drank our tea and me and the Doctor told her all about everything that'd happened lately (leaving out some of the more life threatening things), and mum told us all about what she'd been up to (not much, just work, telly, and she'd been seeing some of this man called Charlie who worked at the pizza place that opened up last year). Then she put in my washing and and the Doctor and I had a poking fight until she came back (it was a draw).

Then of course she started in on how I never call and I apologised and told her I would do more often, like I always say. And every time I mean it, but every time I manage to get distracted immediately. I often wonder how she can't be curious about what takes me away, but see's never asked to come. I doubt she ever will. I think the Doctor would probably take her along, even though they'd be needling each other the whole time.

But then we got hungry and I said I needed chips immediately and to stock up on Cadbury's (still the best chocolate in the universe, I maintain. The Doctor says it's better on Bellalux 5 but I disagree). I let mum and the Doctor to go down to the chippy around the corner. They'd started watching some sort of quiz show and competing, I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to be around to see how that went down.

When I came back, chips in tow, the Doctor was going on and on about how it was unfair to ask question about EastEnders on a quiz show, and mum was saying that was just cause it was the only question she beat him on. I thought it was hilarious but neither mum nor the Doctor seemed all that amused. I told them both to just eat their chips and stop glowering.

We, or rather I decided we'd stay the night. The Doctor complained cause he had to sleep on the couch since mum wouldn't let him bring the TARDIS in the flat.

Until next time.