Out There ✿ The Doctor [1]

3- Aliens of London (pt. 1)

One Year Later

Avery is sliding a cup of coffee across the counter to her current customer when she hears a sound she almost thought she had dreamt up. "Tom, I have a family emergency I have to attend to." She quickly tells her boss, "You don't mind if I head out for the day, right?"

Tom smiled, "Of course, Avery. We have things covered here."

She thanked him several times as she hung up her apron before grabbing her bag and rushing out the back door into the alley just in time to see Rose rounding the corner on her way to their apartment and the Doctor leaning against the Tardis. Avery stands frozen as she sees him leaning so nonchalantly against his time machine, as if he didn't drop her sister off a year late. "You know, for a man with a time machine, you seem to be running late." Avery calls out, her arms crossed as anger flows through her.

The Doctor looks towards her, eyes lighting up with joy as he smiles at her, "Only twelve hours, that's not too bad."

Avery blinks at him incredulously before storming towards him, grabbing him by the arm, and pulling him towards the nearby poster that she had put up for her mum. "Try twelve months." She tells him as he looks at the missing poster, stunned.

"Rose doesn't know." He says, causing Avery's eyes to widen before they both take off running towards the apartment.

Avery opens the door to find her mother hugging Rose tightly before the Doctor rushes in, quickly telling her sister, "It's not twelve hours, it's twelve months. You've been gone a whole year. Sorry."

Avery looks at him for a moment before crossing her arms and raises a brow, asking him, "She's been gone a whole year and all you've got to say is 'sorry'?"

The Doctor gives Avery a sheepish smile, "Sorry?" Avery pinches the bridge of her nose in irritation.

***

"The hours I've sat here, days and weeks and months, all on my own. I thought you were dead, and where were you? Traveling. What the hell does that mean, traveling? That's no sort of answer." Jackie yells before turning to the police officer, "You ask her. She won't tell me. That's all she says. Traveling."

"That's what I was doing." Rose replied sheepishly.

"When your passport's still in the drawer? It's just one lie after another."

"I meant to phone. I really did. I just... I forgot." Rose didn't know what else to say. There's no easy way to say that you ran off with a time traveler who screwed up when returning you home.

"What, for a year? You forgot for a year? And I am left sitting here. I just don't believe you. Why won't you tell me where you've been?"

Avery elbows the Doctor, gesturing for him to do something. With a small sigh, he steps in, telling Jackie, "Actually, it's my fault. I sort of... employed Rose as my companion."

"When you say companion, is this a sexual relationship?" The policeman asked.

Rose, Avery, and the Doctor all grimaced at the question, replying, "No."

"Then what is it?" Jackie turns to him angrily, "Because you, you waltz in here, all charm and smiles, and the next thing I know, she vanishes off the face of the Earth! How old are you then? Forty? Forty five? What, did you find her on the Internet? Did you go online and pretend you're a doctor?"

"I am a Doctor!"

"Prove it. Stitch this, mate!" Jackie slaps him hard across the face.

"Mum!" Avery exclaimed, surprised at the action.