Among the pedestrians walking along the busy streets, a redheaded woman dressed formally strutted confidently towards Adipose Industries. She could barely contain her excitement at what she was doing, what she was hoping to accomplish.
***
On the street just opposite, a man with messy brown hair in a pinstripe brown suit separated from his wife and headed towards the back of the same building, heading for the fire escape.
***
A blonde, blue-eyed - not that anyone would notice with the black sunglasses she was wearing - woman smiled charmingly at pedestrians, greeting them with an Australian accent, simply wearing a sapphire button down blouse and a short, pencil black skirt and matching flats. She headed for the north entrance, the less taken reception route.
***
The redhead held her ID up to the guard when she reached the main entrance. "Donna Noble, Health and Safety," she reported.
He nodded and let her by.
***
The man used his sonic screwdriver to get into the fire escape and walked through the basement, flashing a wallet with blank paper at the guard passing by. "John Smith," he said. "Health and Safety."
He was waved by as well.
***
The blonde smiled at the guard she met as well and flashed her own wallet at him. "Johanna Smith, Health and Safety."
She, like the other two, was waved by. She smirked as she walked. "I'm in."
"Me, too," the Doctor told her. "Are you going to sit in at the presentation?"
"I might stand in the back. Where are you going to be?"
"Projection room."
She smiled to herself, keeping her glasses on. "Yeah, I'll sit in the meeting."
***
"Adipose Industries, the twenty first century way to lose weight," Miss Foster, the woman in charge of Adipose Industries, began, and Donna sat back in her chair to listen. "No exercise, no diet, no pain. Just lifelong freedom from fat. The Holy Grail of the modern age. And here it is." She held up a pill, and Donna leaned closer to look at it, not noticing a blonde in the back of the room do the same. "You just take one capsule. One capsule, once a day for three weeks, and the fat, as they say . . . "
"The fat just walks away," the narrator on the film finished.
"Excuse me, Miss Foster?" a dark-skinned reporter asked, raising her hand. "If I could? I'm Penny Carter, science correspondent for The Observer. There are a thousand diet pills on the market, a thousand con men stealing people's money. How do we know the fat isn't going straight into your bank account?"
"Oh, Penny," Foster sighed, "if cynicism burnt up calories, we'd all be as thin as rakes. But, if you want the science, I can oblige."
***
The Doctor watched from the projection room as the film began to play. "Adipose Industries. The Adipose capsule is composed of a synthesized mobilizing lipase, bound to a large protein molecule." He saw Jessie down below, writing away on a notepad, and he smiled. "The mobilizing lipase breaks up the triglycerides stored in the Adipose cells, which then enter - "
The Doctor caught the film controller staring at him, and he nodded. "Health and Safety." He paused. "Film department."
"Film department?" Jessie asked. "Film department?!"
YOU ARE READING
Ending of the Hours (Book Four of the Bad Wolf Chronicles)
FanfictionThe Master is dead. The Year That Never Was is just that. The Year That Never Was. Martha is gone, and so is Jack, and the Doctor and Jessie are still alive. But they're not out of the woods yet. As they begin their married life, they're led back to...
