Continuing from 'Aliens of London - Part III'

✧

LILY WAS THE FIRST TO ENTER THE BOX AND LEFT THE DOOR JARED. She started up the ramp to where the Doctor waited beside the console. "All right, so I lied." He admitted to her. "I went and had a look. But the whole crash landing's a fake. I thought so. Just too perfect. I mean, hitting Big Ben?"

"Too on the nose- like they wanted all the attention." She agreed.

"Right! So, I thought let's go and have a look." He started on the controls, probably putting in the coordinates.

"Lils?" Rose called from behind Lily. She turned and saw that her sister had stepped inside and lingered near the doors.

"Ah!" The Doctor beamed and paused his work." Welcome back, Rose Tyler! Full tour later- too much going on right now."

"Umm .." Lily ran a finger over the console and tried to think of the best way to bring this up to him. She quickly decided to treat it like ripping off a bandaid. "My mum's here."

"Oh, that's just what I need!" The Doctor responded the exact way Lily imagined him to with a groan and a roll of his eyes. "Don't you dare make this place domestic." When Rose made her way to Lily's side, he added. "Rose is the exception."

She watched a dismayed Jackie step inside the TARDIS, moving slightly to the side to let Mickey barrel past her right at the Doctor. "You ruined my life, Doctor. People thought she was dead. I was a murder suspect because of you."

"You see what I mean?" The Doctor pointed out. "Domestic."

"I bet you don't even remember my name." Mickey challenged him.

"Ricky." The Doctor replied with a smirk.

"It's Mickey." He corrected him.

"No, it's Ricky."

"I think I know my own name." Mickey retorted.

"You think you know your own name?" The Doctor scoffed and crossed his arms. "How stupid are you?"

Their argument went over Lily's head entirely. She was focused on how her mum's face went from bewildered to disturbed to completely horrified. When she started out the box in nearly a full sprint Lily was hurrying after her. "Mum, wait!" Lily exited, not bothering to close the doors, and tried to catch up with her mum. "Please don't do this, Mum!" She stopped running when Jackie disappeared around the building, probably going for the stairs.

She counted the second that passed with each breath she took- in her nose and out her mouth, trying to not let the emotions bubble over. Deciding that she should just leave her mum to take it all in, Lily turned around and walked back to the TARDIS.

When she stepped inside, closing the door this time, Rose was already in mid-conversation with the Doctor.  "That was a real spaceship. So it's all a pack of lies? What is it, then? Are they invading?"

"Funny way to invade," Mickey chuckled once Lily got back to the console. "Putting the world on red alert."

"Good point!" The Doctor said. "So, what're they up to?"

✧

The Doctor was now under the console, working on connecting some wires with his sonic. Mickey was observing him with a scrunched-up face- like the result of smelling something foul. "So, what're you doing down there?"

The Doctor started speaking with his sonic resting between his teeth, using his free hands to twist the wires. "Ricky-"

"Mickey." He swiftly corrected him.

He took the sonic out of his mouth, his voice clearer. "Ricky, if I was to tell you what I was doing to the controls of my frankly magnificent timeship, would you even begin to understand?
Ricky.

That made Mickey frown. "I suppose not."

"Well, shut it, then." The Doctor decided he was done speaking to Mickey (or 'Ricky') and put his sonic back in his mouth, turning away towards the wiring.

Lily watched Mickey take the three steps it took to get from the time lord to the sisters. "Some hero you've got, Lils." He told her. "Different from what you've written about."

In the time it took the Doctor to open the console and start his work, Lily had explained to Mickey (and reminded Rose) how she got her locket. How the dreams and her necklace had worked. Everything she explained to him was the conversation she planned out in her head on how to tell her mum. But that was before she returned to London to find out she was still grieving her disappearance, and that Rose was stuck in the middle of it all. He took it as well as she expected him to. She didn't even think of telling him about her aging- she couldn't even fathom what to tell her mum and Rose let alone Mickey.

"He's winding you up." Her frown lowered more when she could feel the distance between her and Mickey. "I am really sorry, Mickey.  It's only been a few days for me. It's really hard to tell inside this thing but I swear it's just a few days since I left you guys."

Mickey shook his head. "Every day, I looked. On every street corner, wherever I went, looking for a blue box for a whole year."

She tilted her head slightly. "Not with Rose?"

They both looked at Rose who was in the middle of scratching the back of her head. "I searched on my own time .. alone."

Lily recalled something Mickey had mentioned before. "Twelve months and you say you two haven't been speaking much?" She was worried her assumptions were right but she still asked. "How come?"

"Well," Mickey started. "For starters, your mum thought I murdered you so she's banned me from being with Rose outside of her supervision."

Lily blinked. "Oh."

"Yeah." Rose started gnawing on her lip and fiddled with the leave for her white jacket.

"Does sound like Mum," Lily noted the space between her sister and Mickey- the awkward body language. "And now?"

"Got it!" The Doctor's exclamation made all three heads turn to him. He laughed and got out of the hatch, closing it back up, and rushed to the monitor. "Patched in the radar, looped it back twelve hours so we can follow the flight of that spaceship. Here we go." Lily, Rose, and Mickey circled behind him while he worked on the monitor's controls. "Come on." He muttered, hitting the screen. "Yes!" The trajectory of the ship flashed onto the monitor in blue. He used his pointer finger to show them where the ship was in comparison to the Earth. "That's the spaceship on its way to Earth, see? Except- " The screen switched to the ship flying its path- starting from Earth and landing back on Earth. "See? The spaceship did a slingshot 'round the Earth before it landed."

"Hold on," Lily touched the Doctor's shoulder- he looked over at her. "Are you saying these aliens came from Earth?"

He confirmed it with a nod at her. "I am. Whoever those aliens are, they haven't just arrived, they've been here for a while. The question is, what have they been doing?"

✧

Lily began to switch through the channels on the monitor in search of any explanation on what was happening outside the blue box. "How many channels do you get?" Mickey asked the Doctor as Lily worked.

He was in his normal stance- arms were crossed. "All the basic packages.

Mickey's eyes brightened. "You get sports channels?"

The Doctor sighed. "Yes, I get the football." Lily stopped at a news channel that caught her eye and also the Doctor's. "Hold on, I know that lot." They watched a group of uniformed people walking past the camera down a corridor.

"It is looking likely that the Government's bringing in alien specialists - those people who have devoted their lives to studying outer space."

Lily looked at the Doctor, who was leaning over her shoulder, and stated why she stopped at this particular channel. "That's UNIT, isn't it?

He turned his head to the side at her with a proud look in his eyes. "That's right." When he smiled Lily noticed how close their faces were, but couldn't bring herself to lean back. "See, you still remember some things without your journals." He looked back to the monitor and leaned back to stand straight- Lily let out a breath. "UNIT. United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. Good people."

"If you know them, why don't you go and help?" Rose asked.

"They wouldn't recognize me. Different face," He said, knowing the three of the TARDIS passengers already knew of his regeneration process thanks to Lily. "Besides, the world's on a knife edge." Lily switched off the monitor. "There's aliens out there and fake aliens. We want to keep this alien out of the mix." He said, pointing at his face. I'm going undercover. And er, I'd better keep the Tardis out of sight." He worked on parking the TARDIS and then left the console, towards the doors. "Ricky, you've got a car." He patted his shoulder as he passed. "You can do some driving."

"Where to?" Mickey questioned, following along when Lily and Rose accompanied the time lord.

"The roads are clearing." The Doctor explained looking behind his shoulder to give them a cheeky smile.  Let's go and have a look at that spaceship."

When they all exited the TARDIS, doors closing on their open behind them, they were still in the same alleyway but this time a police helicopter spotlight blinded them from above. "Do not move!" They told them through its speakers. Several police cars and 'Saxon' armored personnel carriers in army gear surrounded them and the TARDIS- men rushed out with guns drawn. "Step away from the box and raise your hands above your heads."

It was complete chaos. Mickey didn't wait around and sprinted away. Lily and Rose stayed with the Doctor. "Lily! Rose!" They watched their mum run out of their flare building and be stopped by policemen who had to hold her back. She called for her daughters but Lily could hardly see past the light that blinded them and started to make her eyes sting.

"Raise your hands above your head." The helicopter repeated- all three decided to listen this time and followed their orders. "You are under arrest."

The Doctor looked up straight at the light and grinned from ear to ear. "Take me to your leader!"

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

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- Kayleigh