CHAPTER TWO
I SHOULD'VE STAYED IN BED

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Mei and Rose ran all the way home, only stopping at the bottom of the stairs that led up to the floor their flats were on, collapsing onto the bottom steps and panting as they struggled to catch their breath. It had been ages since they'd run so far and so fast. Mei leaned back against the wall, sliding down a little so she could rest her head back against the wall instead of awkwardly against the railing, her chest rising and falling as she took deep breaths.

She thought back over everything they'd been through already, struggling to come to terms with everything.

"Did that all... really happen?" she asked Rose.

Rose shook her head in disbelief. "I can't believe it but I think it did."

"Wilson's really dead?"

"I guess so... I mean, no one would joke about that. Or they shouldn't," Rose said.

"And the store? What are we supposed to do now?"

"Right now, all I know is I want a cup of tea," Rose said, standing up and offering Mei a hand. "I'll make you some if you come over..."

Mei took Rose's hand and let her friend pull her to her feet. She considered her friend's offer. It was a tempting one, to go spend time with Rose and her mother, Jackie, relax with a cup of tea and the comfort of her friend rather than going home where her own mother wouldn't even be relieved to see her home safe. If only because she wouldn't even be aware of what was happening. But her mom wouldn't be the only one at home.

"No," Mei finally said as they started making their way up the stairs. "My brother's waiting for me and he'll be worried I'm this late as it is. Let alone if he knows about the store..."

"All right, your loss," Rose said.

With a sigh, Mei looked down and noticed Rose was still carrying the plastic arm the Doctor had pulled off the mannequin who'd been chasing them. She wondered what they were supposed to do with it now.

"What are you gonna do with that?" Mei asked.

"Oh, uh..." Rose looked down at the arm she was still carrying. "Hadn't thought about it yet, to be honest. But I'll figure it out, don't worry."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Just get home to your brother."

They finally reached their floor and went their separate ways at their doors. As soon as the door closed behind her, Meilin was ambushed in a hug from her brother. He hugged her tightly, telling her instantly that he knew about what had happened at the store, making her stomach tie up in knots again, feeling bad about worrying her brother. She wrapped her arms around him in return, cradling his head with one hand. As she muttered assurances she was okay, she backed them out of the hallway slowly, letting Jianyu hold onto her for as long as he needed to be sure she was really okay.

Entirely as expected, her mother was sitting on the couch where Mei had last seen her, completely unbothered and most likely totally unaware of what her daughter had been through since seeing her last.

Mei repeated her assurances to her brother as she led him into the kitchen and shut the door. She put the kettle on and lifted Jianyu up to sit on the edge of the counter while she prepared the rest of her tea.

"What happened?" Jianyu asked again.

"I... don't know," she said. "I was outside the shop when it blew. Rose and I were across the street."

It was a lie, of course. But how could she explain what really happened? She didn't even fully understand what had happened herself, how could she explain it to her brother? Perhaps he would understand better than her, he always was so creative with such a vivid imagination but... that man, the Doctor, his words echoed in her mind. 'Don't tell anyone about this, 'cause if you do, you'll get them killed.' She couldn't risk her brother's life, she just couldn't. He was her whole world. Even if some of what that man had said wasn't true, she still couldn't risk him. Not Jianyu.

"So the whole shop just blew up?" he asked, eyes wide in excitement.

"Well part of it did, at least," she said. "I don't think we'll know for sure until the firemen finish up with the place."

"Where are you gonna work now?"

"It just happened, Jianyu," Mei told him with a laugh. "And I can't find a new job in the middle of the night, anyways. I'll start looking in the morning."

With her tea finally prepared, Mei clutched the warm mug in her hands and turned to face her brother, leaning against the counter as they continued talking. Jianyu didn't look worried the same way Mei felt and she guessed his question about where she'd work now was more out of curiosity than worry about their financial situation. While Jianyu understood a lot of things most boys his age didn't, it was clear he didn't know how much they depended on Mei's income.

"What about Rose? Where's she gonna work?" Jianyu asked.

"Believe it or not, I don't think she's thought about it yet either, buddy."

"Well, no, but are you gonna work together again?" he asked.

"We won't know until we apply to jobs, that's kind of how it works."

He rolled his eyes at her comment but didn't get down from the counter or walk away like he would have if he was truly annoyed at her. Mei found it sweet how he was worried about Rose as well as his own sister. She'd been friends with Rose for so long, she was like another big sister to Jianyu.

"Did you finish your homework?" she asked after a beat of silence, taking a sip of her tea.

"Yeah, I finished it after dinner. And I finished my chores already," he told her proudly.

Mei gave him an impressed look. "Wow. It sounds like you're ready for bed, then."

"Aw, Mei... can't I stay up a little longer?"

"You still have school in the morning," she insisted. "It's late as it is, you need your rest. I'll be right behind you."

Jianyu sighed dramatically as he hopped down from the counter, leaving the kitchen and heading to his bedroom. Mei remained there for a little while, drinking her tea and trying to get her heart and mind to relax after the evening she'd had. After drinking half her tea, she set it on the counter and went out into the living room where she found her mother still sitting in front of the tv. In front of Liena was a tv dinner Jianyu had likely made for her, a few bites taken out of it before it was abandoned. Sighing, Mei took it and brought it into the kitchen where she cleaned it up. She took her tea with her to her room, finishing it as she got herself ready for bed.

"Hell of a day..." she muttered to herself as she tucked herself into bed.

✷ ✩ ✷ ✩ ✷

Like a reflex, Mei followed her morning routine when her alarm went off in the morning. She prepared herself and Jianyu breakfast, even setting some aside for her mother. She saw her brother off to school and got herself ready for the day ahead. Then, instead of preparing for work, Mei went next door and was greeted by Rose at the front door.

"Didn't know what to do either?" Rose asked.

"Well it was either sit in silence next to my mother or come here," Mei answered. "Not a hard decision."

Rose nodded in understanding and ushered her inside. They sat down at the small dining table together and Mei caught sight of Rose's mother, Jackie, in the kitchen and gave her a smile.

"Oh, Meilin, hello," Jackie said with a smile.

"Hi, Jackie," Mei said.

"How are you, darling? How's the family?" Jackie asked.

"I'm all right, a little shaken up still. Jianyu's good, he's at school. And Mum's the same as she always is," she explained.

"Do you want some tea?"

"I'd love some."

Jackie busied herself preparing the tea while Mei made herself more comfortable. Rose picked up an apple from the bowl in the centre of the table and started rolling it between her hands.

"There's Finch's," Jackie said, bringing two cups of tea into the room and handing one to Mei as she sat down across from her. "You could try them. They've always got jobs."

"Oh, great, the butcher's," Rose said sarcastically.

"It might do you good," Jackie told her daughter. "That shop was giving you airs and graces."

Rose gave her mother an offended look at her comment so Mei looked down at her tea, not wanting to get in the middle of an argument between the two. She'd witnessed enough fights between them over the years, she knew it was best to stay out of it. While they had a better relationship now then they had a few years ago or even several more years before that, the few fights they did have didn't get nicer.

"And I'm not joking about compensation," Jackie continued as she got up and started heading towards the bedrooms. "You've had genuine shock and trauma. Ariana got two thousand quid off the council just because the old man behind the desk said she looked Greek."

Mei and Rose exchanged a confused look.

"I know she is Greek, but that's not the point," Jackie said. "It was a valid claim."

Looking at each other again, Mei and Rose both devolved into silent laughter. Mei didn't think she'd ever get used to Jackie's antics, but she wouldn't have it any other way. It was nice to be able to come over here and see a family acting normally when her own was so far from it.

When a rattling sound reached their ears, the two girls once again shared a confused look before looking towards the front door where the sound had come from. Rose seemed to know exactly what it was as the sound continued, immediately getting up and heading towards the door. Mei followed behind, wondering what was going on.

"Mum, you're such a liar! I said to nail that cat-flap down. We're gonna get strays!" Rose said.

"I did it weeks back," Jackie called back as they reached the front door.

"No, you thought about it," Rose said, kneeling down next to the door.

The cat-flap in the bottom of the door looked normal as far as Mei could tell, but as Rose got closer, she picked something up off the floor and she realized it was the nails meant to keep the flap from opening. How could they be just laying on the floor in front of the cat-flap and no one have noticed?

Both of them startled, Rose even dropping the nail she'd been holding, as the flap moved like something was pushing on it. Rose looked back at Mei once before getting down lower on the floor and nudging the flap apprehensively a few times. Finally, when nothing pushed back on the door, she pushed it all the way open and gasped at what she saw.

"What? What is it?" Mei asked.

Rose stood up quickly and immediately pulled the door open, revealing someone on the other side of the door she thought she'd never see again. It was the man they'd met the night before, the one who said he was going to blow up the shop before it had actually blown up. What was the Doctor doing here?

"What are you doing here?" he asked Rose.

"I live here," Rose said.

"Well, what'd you do that for?"

"Cause I do! I'm only home 'cause someone blew up my job!" she accused.

The Doctor pulled something out of the pocket of his jacket with a blue light on the end like she'd seen on the elevator panel the night before. He looked at it in confusion before looking back at Rose.

"Must have got the wrong signal. You're not plastic, are you?" he asked, reaching forward to knock Rose on the forehead. "Nope, bonehead. Bye, then!"

Rose wasn't going to let him get away that easily. She reached forward instantly and grabbed the arm of his jacket, pulling him inside.

"You, inside, right now."

"Who is it?" Jackie called out.

"It's about last night," Rose told her mother, leaning on the doorframe of her bedroom. "He's part of the inquiry. Give us ten minutes."

With that dealt with, Rose came back towards Mei, pushing past her and going into the kitchen, even as Jackie started talking to the Doctor. Mei didn't have any interest in what they were talking about so she followed after Rose into the living room where she started tidying things up a little bit before the Doctor finally came into the room.

"Don't mind the mess," Rose told him. "Do you want a coffee?"

"Might as well, thanks, just milk," he said before he finally caught sight of Mei. "Oh, you. You're here, too. What are you doing here? You don't live here, too, do you?"

"No, I live next door."

He gave her a funny look at her response so she turned away from him, setting her mug down on the dining table. When she looked back, he had picked up a magazine from the coffee table and was flipping through it. She didn't know why, but the sight of him reading the girly magazine was slightly amusing to her. Maybe it was because he looked like the last person who would ever pick up a magazine like that or just because of all the bizarre things which had happened around him already made such a normal thing look strange as well.

"We should go to the police," Rose was saying from the kitchen. "Seriously. All three of us."

"That won't last," the Doctor said, looking at a couple in the magazine. Mei wondered if he was listening to Rose at all. "He's gay and she's an alien."

"I'm not blaming you," Rose continued, "even if it was some sort of joke that just went wrong..."

While Rose had been speaking, the Doctor had picked up a book the Tyler's had left laying out and flipped through it before putting down while commenting how it had a sad ending. That's that, Mei decided as she picked up her tea again, he's definitely not hearing a word Rose is saying.

"It said on the news they found a body..." Rose said.

Mei didn't want to think about that fact. Part of her hoped it was Wilson they'd found because it meant he was already dead when the explosion happened and however he had died must have been better than being burnt alive. But another part of her didn't want to hope it was anyone at all. And, of course, there was the possibility it was someone else entirely who hadn't made it out in time, which was another option she hated.

When a playing card hit her in the face, Mei was startled out of her thoughts, seeing the Doctor holding a few cards in his hand still, looking apologetic. She could tell by the way he was holding the cards that he'd attempted some kind of trick with the cards and failed. Mei opened her mouth to say something to him about it when the sound of the cat flap echoed through the flat again.

"What's that, then?" the Doctor asked, crossing over to the couch. "You got a cat?"

"No," Rose answered as the Doctor leaned to look over the back of the couch. "We did have, but... we used to get strays. They come in off the estate."

While Rose had been talking, she was completely oblivious to what was happening in the living room.

From behind the couch, the plastic arm from the night before had launched out from behind the couch and grabbed the Doctor by the neck. He'd stumbled around for a minute, Mei trying to get close enough to help as he continued to struggle, before he'd fallen backwards into a chair just as Rose came out of the kitchen with two mugs of tea.

"I told Mickey to chuck that out," Rose said.

"No, Rose, it's—"

"You're all the same," Rose continued, setting the mugs down on the coffee table. "Give a man a plastic hand..."

Oh, Mei realized, Rose thinks he's pretending to be choked by the hand.

"Anyway, I don't even know your name. Doctor what was it?" Rose asked.

The Doctor finally got the plastic arm off from around his neck, throwing it forward into the air. As if it wasn't detached from a body and, you know, plastic, the arm stopped midair and changed direction, immediately flying towards Rose. It launched forward and grabbed her face, pushing her back into the wall.

Mei exclaimed her friend's name and the Doctor jumped up just as the sound of the blow dryer echoed out from Jackie's bedroom. The Doctor grabbed onto the arm, trying to pull it away from Rose's face, but the plastic hand held tighter. Mei immediately jumped in, not caring if another pair of hands in the mix would make it more difficult. Rose was her best friend, she wasn't just going to stand by.

With a particularly strong yank, they all fell away from the wall, toppling back onto the coffee table and shattering the glass top. Mei jumped away as the hot tea scalded her skin, looking up in time to see that Rose had fallen back onto the couch and the Doctor was reaching for something in his jacket.

Not wanting to wait for her friend to suffocate, Mei ignored the burning sensation on her skin from the hot tea and reached for the plastic arm again. Finally, when the Doctor reached for the arm again, it came off of Rose's face and he held it away from her, holding some strange device with a blue light on the end in his hand that was making weird electronic sounds.

When he pressed the device to the palm of the plastic arm, it slowly stopped moving until it looked like just any other mannequin arm. Mei breathed a sigh of relief and sat back on her legs, pressing a hand to her side where the tea had scalded her.

"It's all right, I've stopped it," the Doctor told them. "There you go, you see, armless!"

He tossed the arm at Rose who caught it with a gasp. Rose seemed unimpressed.

"Do you think?" she asked and hit him in the arm with it.

Mei couldn't help a little chuckle as he exclaimed in pain at getting hit. It was a good moment of brevity after the terror of what had just happened. She had expected the moment to last at least a little bit longer but just like that, the Doctor jumped up and headed towards the door again with the plastic arm. Rose and Mei exchanged a look and both immediately ran after him, catching up to him in the stairwell.

"Hold on a minute, you can't just go swanning off!" Rose told him.

"Yes I can," he replied, easy as anything. "Here I am. This is me, swanning off, see ya!"

"That arm was moving, it tried to kill Rose!" Mei said.

"Ten out of ten for observation."

"Don't be an arse!"

"You can't just walk away," Rose said. "That's not fair. You've got to tell us what's going on."

"No, I don't."

They passed out through the doors at the bottom of the stairwell. Mei was beginning to wonder if they were wasting their time trying to get answers from him, but Rose was undeterred.

"All right, then. I'll go to the police. I'll tell everyone," she told him confidently. You said if I did that, I'd get people killed, so, your choice. Tell us or I'll start talking."

Mei smiled and leaned into her friend. "Have I ever told you how much I love you?"

"Not nearly enough," Rose told her with a smile.

"Was that supposed to sound tough?" the Doctor asked, referring to Rose's threat.

"Sort of," Rose said.

"Doesn't work."

"Oh, but why not?" Mei asked.

"Who are you?" Rose finally asked, fed up.

"Told you, the Doctor."

Mei rolled her eyes. "That's not an answer. Doctor what?"

"Just the Doctor."

"The Doctor?"

"Hello!"

This time, Rose rolled her eyes. "Is that supposed to sound impressive?"

"Sort of."

Still not getting any answers, Rose decided to change tactics and sidled up next to the Doctor, grabbing his arm. "Come on then, you can tell us. We've seen enough. Are you the police?"

"No! I was just passing through," he told them. "I'm a long way from home..."

"But what have we done wrong?" Rose asked. "How come those plastic things keep coming after us?"

"Oh, suddenly the entire world revolves around you," the Doctor said. "You were just an accident. You got in the way, that's all."

"It tried to kill Rose!"

"It was after me, not her! Last night, in the shop, I was there, you two blundered in, almost ruined the whole thing. This morning, I was tracking it down, it was tracking me down... the only reason it fixed on you is because you met me."

"So, what you're saying is the entire world revolves around you?" Rose asked.

"Sort of, yeah."

"You're full of it!" Mei said.

"Sort of, yeah," the Doctor agreed.

"All this plastic stuff, who else knows about it?" Rose asked.

"No one," he said.

"What, so you're on your own?" Mei asked sadly.

"Well, who else is there?" he asked. "I mean, you lot, all you do is eat chips, go to bed and watch telly, while all the time underneath you, there's a war going on."

"Okay," Rose said, reaching across the Doctor to take the plastic arm from him. "Start from the beginning."

And so he did. The Doctor explained it to them patiently, starting from the beginning just as Rose had said, all the way up until he made it to the Tyler's flat. If he'd told Mei all this yesterday, she wouldn't have believed him, but today? After everything they'd gone through the night before and this morning? Well, it was starting to be more and more believable.

"I mean, if we're going with the living plastic," Rose said once the Doctor had finished, "and I don't even believe that, but if we do... How do you kill it?"

"The thing controlling it projects life into the arm," the Doctor explained, just as patiently as he'd explained everything else. "I cut off the signal. Dead."

"So, that's radio control?" Mei asked.

"Thought control," the Doctor said. When neither Rose nor Mei said anything else, he looked over at them. "You all right?"

"Yeah," they answered at the same time.

"So who's controlling it, then?" Rose asked.

"Long story," the Doctor said.

"What's it all for?" Mei asked.

"I mean, show window dummies, what's that about?" Rose said. "Is someone trying to take over Britain's shops?"

The Doctor laughed and it made Rose and Mei laugh as well, the anxiety and confusion and terror at the things he'd told her easing away with the sound of his laugh. She couldn't help the feeling in her chest as they kept walking, laughing as they did, as if they were just normal people walking down the street.

"No!" the Doctor said after a moment of laughter.

"Well, no," Rose agreed, their laughter dying down.

"It's not a price war," the Doctor said suddenly.

Just like that, they were all laughing again, that feeling in her chest growing stronger. She couldn't help thinking how she liked the sound of his laugh and how natural it felt to be laughing with him.

"They want to overthrow the human race and destroy you," the Doctor said, suddenly serious. "Do you believe me?"

"No," Rose said.

"But you're still listening."

He wasn't wrong and they both knew it. Perhaps that was why they both stopped on the sidewalk.

"Really, though, Doctor," Rose said. "Tell me, who are you?"

The Doctor had kept walking when they'd stopped and turned back towards them. He didn't look at them at first, his gaze unfocused. A small smile pulled on his features before it faded away.

"Do you know like we were saying?" he asked them, looking at them now. "About the Earth revolving?"

Mei nodded, understanding. The Doctor walked back towards them.

"It's like when you're a kid. The first time they tell you that the world's turning and you just can't quite believe it 'cause everything looks like it's standing still," he explained. He reached out and took one of Mei and Rose's hands in his. "I can feel it. The turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour. And the entire planet is hurtling 'round the sun at sixty-seven thousand miles an hour and I can feel it, we're falling through space, you and me. Clinging to the skin of this tiny world and if we let go..."

He dropped their hands suddenly, letting them fall back to their sides. Mei couldn't explain it, but her chest was all of a sudden very tight and she felt like she hadn't taken a breath since he'd taken her hand.

"That's who I am. Now forget me, Rose Tyler, Meilin Ren," he told them, looking at them intensely as he said each of their names. He took the arm from Rose and made it wave at them. "Go home."

Just like that, he turned and walked away from them. They watched him for a moment, Mei thinking to herself that she could never forget him, not now. Then Rose tugged on her hand and she tore her eyes away, letting Rose pull her up the path back towards home. They walked in silence for a while, neither of them knowing what to say now.

Suddenly the wind kicked up around them and a strange whirring noise reached their ears. Rose and Mei looked around before at each other and without another thought, they sprinted back the way they'd come until they reached the sidewalk where they had parted ways with the Doctor. Here, they finally skidded to a stop just as the wind died down and the whirring sound faded away.

There, across the street where the Doctor had been heading, the parking lot was now empty. She didn't know how she hadn't noticed the strange blue box there initially, but now it was gone. And so was the Doctor.