Starlight

Mary & Rose - IX

Continuation of Mary & Rose - VIII

It hadn't been long since the Doctor had dashed outside of the TARDIS but when he returned it startled Mary, causing her to jump back away from the TARDIS's console, the Doctor walked inside calmly, with an amused smile on his face, holding what seemed to be a plastic head.

"Are you ready for an adventure?" he teased, his smile widening the second his blue eyes locked with Mary's figure, "Depends is it dangerous?" she frowned, quickly brushing her hands on her thighs, "It's always dangerous." he smirks at her. "What have you got there?" the brunette quizzed as she motioned to the plastic head with her chin, "A plastic head." he replied in a sassy tone, walking around the console.

He grabbed things and pressed it to the head's forehead, stopping slightly when he saw something white, shiny and powdery, his brows rising in utter confusion, Mary took this chance that he had stopped near her to take a peek at the said plastic head, gasping in shock when she recognized Mickey's features.

"You beheaded Rose's boyfriend?!" she screeched, grabbing the head from him and glaring at the Doctor, "I beheaded Auton Rose's boyfriend." he corrected, attempting and failing to get the head back. "Auton?!" Mary echoed, ignoring the trillion images that flashed through her mind when she said that word.

Unnoticed by either of them Rose had ran inside the TARDIS, slamming the door and taking a few steps inside, stopping when she sees the strange and much larger inside of what she assumed would be a small police box. "Auton." The Doctor confirmed as Rose ran back outside in confusion, the man walked away from the brunette that now stared down at the head in her arms, and pressed a few buttons.

Rose returned to the TARDIS and says breathlessly "It's gonna follow us!" her worried words make the Doctor chuckle and reply "The assembled hoards of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door, and believe me, they've tried." quickly turning to the brunette and adding "Put the head there." motioning to the location with his hand, his blue eyes never leaving her figure as she does so, his hands expertly pressing buttons and pushing levers.

"You see, the arm is too simple, but the head's perfect." The Doctor says to no one in particular as Rose is too overwhelmed and Mary is already wrapping her arms around the blonde, holding her close, knowing fully well that she must be sad about Mickey. "I can use it to trace the signal back to the original source." he finished.

Upon turning to the two women, a small frown settled on his face, the sight of Mary hugging someone stirring something in him, something he couldn't quite put his finger on. "Where do you want to start?" he questioned, interrupting the moment that the women were having. Mary stepped back and allowed Rose to wipe away her tears as she looked around once more, "Um... the inside's bigger than the outside?" the blonde began hesitantly.

"It's alien." She asked skeptically once she had seen the Doctor nod to the previous question, and upon hearing him say "Yup." she continued "Are you alien?" the Doctor nodded and without the other two picking up on it so did Mary, barely noticeable, "Is that alright?" The Doctor frowns to which the blonde breaths out quickly "Yeah."

Satisfied with the answer the Doctor continued "It's called the TARDIS, this thing. T-A-R-D-I-S, that's Time And Relative Dimension In Space." he was interrupted by Rose releasing a small sob that was had been stuck in her throat for a few minutes, "That's okay. Culture shock. Happens to the best of us." The Doctor said without a second thought, not missing the shooting glare she sent his way.

"Did they kill him? Mickey? Did they kill Mickey? Is he dead?" Rose whimpers, the Doctor's eyes widen as he realizes the reason behind her sob, and although he isn't fast enough, Mary is, quickly turning Rose around to face her and say "No, Autons copy people but need the original alive to be able to create more. It's not as bad as it sounds, he only needs to touch plastic to be copied."

Her words seemed to soothe Rose completely and made the Doctor stare at her with a frown while an unreadable emotion flashed across his face.  "Why did he take the Atoms..." Rose started, both the Doctor and Mary lowly correcting her "Autons." "head if he's just going to let it melt?" At the word melt the Doctor whirled around to the console so fast that he could have broken either his back of his knees with the speed.

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no, NO!" he vocalized, frantically running around the console, pressing buttons and pulling levers, much like he had done previously,  he vocalized those exact words several times as Mary once more pulled Rose, this time to the railing as the whole spaceship began to shake tremendously, even more than when the Doctor and Mary were halfway across another galaxy. 

"Almost there! Almost there! Here we go!" The Doctor said once more to no one in particular before running outside as the engines came to a halt on their own. "You can't go out there, it's not safe!" Rose snapped, running after the Doctor leaving Mary to sigh in exasperation before calmly walking outside. Outside was not what Rose had seen before, it wasn't the back alley that she had previously seen, it was the Thames Embankment, the opposite side to the London Eye.

"We've moved! Does it fly?" The blonde questions in astonishment, any worry regarding their safety and the plastic dummy gone from her mind, the Doctor blew out a breath through his nose and peered back at the two women, his blue eyes doing a one over of Rose before, once again, locking on Mary's figure as he replied "Disappears there, reappears here, you wouldn't understand."