It's been a year since the attack. The world has managed to recover, but Willow was sure that she would never. Since that night, she had been grief-stricken but kept it hidden.

Rose was still missing, however, that call that Jackie got last year was the last she'd heard from her. The police investigation had been going for months though they were now losing hope, as was the others. The main suspect at the moment was Mickey but he wouldn't tell anyone what happened that night.

She slept in Rose's room as it was obvious that she wasn't returning anytime soon. But it was a good way to remember her by. Willow just held on to the hope that she wasn't dead.

"Wake up, sweetheart!" Jackie shouts through her door. "I'm making you a nice milky tea!"

She sat up and pointing a thumbs-up towards the door, even though she couldn't see. "Thanks Jacks!"

Willow lied back on the bed thinking about my dreams. She didn't get them much lately. Nowadays, they were usually repeats of ones she had before, but it didn't matter. The dreams meant no significance to her, they only scared her as she slept.

Finally, she got herself up and out, heading into the kitchen for her tea. She saw Jackie waiting for her while sipping her own tea.

"Morning, darling." She said as Willow wandered into the kitchen.

"Morning." She smiled. "How did your little date night go?"

"Better than expected!" Jackie said in a sarcastic manner. "Turns out he was cheating on his wife and had seven other mistresses. Perfect man right?"

Willow giggled. "Wow."

All of a sudden, the women were interrupted by the door being unlocked and slamming shut very quickly. No one else had a key to their door, so how did they get in?

Jackie walked out to see who it was as the stranger spoke. "I'm back! I was with Shareen. She was all upset again. Are you in?"

The person turned the corner, shocking both of them. It was Rose.

Jackie gasped as soon as she saw her, though Rose didn't notice yet. "So, what's been going on? How've you been? What? What's that face for? It's not the first time I've stayed out all night."

Willow wandered by Jackie's side and observed her mug of tea drop to the ground. Rose seemed surprised by her reaction. Then she glanced over at her cousin curiously, probably wondering what she was doing in their flat.

However, Willow's mind was occupied with so many questions, wanting to know what had happened to her and why Rose was acting like she had only left for a few days.

"It's you." She whispered as Jackie was starting to tear up a bit.

"Of course, it's me." Rose calmly replied.

"Oh, my God. It's you. Oh, my God." Jackie went in to hug Rose while she looked on in confusion. She then noticed the numerous amounts of 'missing person' posters on the table. Her eyes widened, eventually catching onto why her family was so surprised to see her.

Suddenly, the door swung open again as a man, dressed in a leather jacket and dark clothes, ran in. He had a shaved head and big ears; it was hard not to laugh at them. "It's not twelve hours, it's twelve months. You've been gone a whole year. Sorry."

He sounded northern like Willow's father. But why did he say twelve hours?

Jackie looked at him with astonishment as Rose's face shocked face contorted into one of anger. Meanwhile, Willow was processing what had just occurred in the span of a five minutes.

***

An hour later, they were all sitting in the living room with a policeman, talking about the situation at hand. Jackie was shouting at both Rose and the mysterious man. She explained that they were just travelling and didn't mean for it to last this long.

"The hours I've sat here, days and weeks and months, all on my own with Willow to only keep me company. I thought you were dead, and where were you? "Travelling"."

Willow could see Rose squirm awkwardly in her seat, she didn't know what to say to her. She was upset that Rose never told Jackie where she was, but Willow was also upset at Jackie for not being the one to call to try and call her in the first place.

"What the hell does that mean, "travelling"? That's no sort of answer. You ask her. She won't tell me. That's all she says. Travelling."

The word 'travelling' was growing increasingly infuriating to hear, Willow could just scream if she said it one last time.

"That's what I was doing." Rose said, growing annoyed.

Jackie stepped closer to her and shouted once more. "When your passport's still in the drawer? It's just one lie after another."

"I meant to phone. I really did. I just forgot."

"What, for a year? You forgot for a year? And I am left sitting here. I just don't believe you." Jackie was right though. Why not phone for a year? How could someone be so busy that they would forget to phone their family? "Why won't you tell me where you've been?" She cried.

"Actually, it's my fault." The man spoke up. "I sort of er, employed Rose as my companion."

Willow glared at Jackie and Rose curiously until the policeman finally spoke up. "When you say companion, is this a sexual relationship?"

As soon as he said it, both Rose and the man denied it. "No!"

She sniggered. Sadly, they all heard it, staring at her for a few embarrassing seconds.

"Then what is it?" All was quiet until Jackie edged towards the man, ready to question him. "Because you, you waltz in here all charm and smiles, and the next thing I know, she vanishes off the face of the Earth!"

This was all starting to become an episode of Coronation Street.

"How old are you then? Forty? Forty five?" Jackie continued her interrogation. "What, did you find her on the Internet? Did you go online and pretend you're a doctor?"

"I am a Doctor." He tried to assure her, but it didn't seem like it worked.

"Prove it. Stitch this, mate!" To end the anger-fuelled interrogation, Jackie slapped the Doctor on the cheek. He winced in pain, feeling a red mark appear on his cheek.

Rose looked on in disgust of her mother's actions, rolling her eyes. Willow tried hard to hold her laughter, but some still seeped through.

***

When the policeman had left and Rose and her mother were talking, the inquisitive young female decided to do some questioning of her own. "So," She approached him. "What's your name?"

"The Doctor." He answered.

Willow stared, confused. "No. What's your real name?"

He smiled. "The Doctor."

"The Doctor?" She questioned.

"Yes."

"Just the Doctor?"

"Hello!" He waved.

She glared at him for a while until Rose broke the awkward silence; taking the Doctor arm in arm and out the door.

"You know Rose was wearing the exact clothes she was wearing on the day of the attack." Jackie told her as she drunk her glass full of brandy.

Willow sighed, sitting on the sofa and beginning to watch television. After a little while, her phone started to ring in her pocket. She dug in, pulling it out and reading the Caller ID. Recently their relationship had exceeded immensely. He started coming over more and they went out on several dinner dates. It had been a bad but incredible year for her.

"Hey sweetheart." He said

She chuckled. "You don't always have to call me sweetheart."

"I know but still," He continued. "You need to look outside!"

"What?"

"Look outside! It'll be flying over you now!"

Willow put the phone down and ran outside to the balcony. All of a sudden, a loud horn went off and a huge spaceship flew over the flats. It was a tint of green with black smoke coming out of the engine. It was crashing. A crashing spaceship. She ran back inside and yelled for Jackie.

Jackie wandered out in a huff. "What is it? I was-" She froze, watching as, in the distance, the spaceship swiped through Big Ben. "Oh, my word!" She exclaimed in disbelief.

Willow glanced back at the television to see news reports about it. She grabbed the remote, checking every channel to see the same report on almost every channel.

The front door slammed open. "Gimme!" The Doctor tugged at the remote, snatching it from her hands and flicked through channels on the television. Jackie started calling people on the house phone as Willow sat there watching as people started walking in and out of the flat, making a squabble between Rose which annoyed the Doctor. It all became a 'Welcome Home' party and a 'Greetings ET' party at the same time.

However, the Doctor finally left later in the evening because he said it was too 'human' whatever that meant to her.

"Here's to the Martians!" cried Jackie. Everyone guffawed, downing their wine until the door slammed shut once more and out stepped Mickey Smith breathing heavily and looking at Rose.

She turned to him. "I was going to come and see you." She said awkwardly.

Ru, one of the women Jackie was friends with, broke the silence. "Someone owes Mickey an apology."

"I'm sorry-"

"Not you." Ru turned towards Jackie as did everyone else.

"Well, it's not my fault. Be fair. What was I supposed to think?"

She sighed and drank her wine, realising that this would be one awkward conversation.

***

"You disappear, who do they turn to? Your boyfriend. Five times I was taken in for questioning. Five times. No evidence. Course, there couldn't be, could there? And then I get her, your mother, whispering around the estate, pointing the finger. Stuff through my letterbox, and all 'cos of you."

Jackie, Rose and Willow were sitting in the kitchen, listening to Mickey's stupid words. Sometimes she had wished there was a zip on his mouth to make him shut up once in a while.

"I didn't think I'd be gone so long." replied Rose.

"And I waited for you, Rose. Twelve months, waiting for you and the Doctor to come back."

Jackie blinked and crossed her arms, surprised. "Hold on. You knew about the Doctor? Why didn't you tell me?"

Mickey was about to continue until he noticed people listening in on the conversation. He shut the serving hatch and the door to make sure nobody could hear them talking. "Yeah, yeah. Why not, Rose? Huh? How could I tell her where you went?" ordered Mickey.

Willow stood up from her seat. "Guys-"

"Tell me now." Jackie interrupted.

"Maybe we should calm down." She pleaded.

Mickey ignored her sentence and sustained his. "I might as well, 'cos you're stuck here. The Doctor's gone. Just now. That box thing just faded away."

She grew confused but before Willow could say anything else; Rose started to look concerned. "What do you mean?" She asked.

"He's left you. Some boyfriend he turned out to be." Mickey smiled as Rose pushed past him and bolted out the door. Willow followed her, as did Mickey and Jackie.

***

They ended up outside in the middle of the Powell Estate as Rose started looking around the area searching for the mystery box. Mickey still shouted remarks that meant nothing to her.

"He wouldn't just go, he promised me." She said, worried.

"Oh, he's dumped you, Rose. Sailed off into space. How does it feel, huh? Now you are left behind with the rest of us Earthlings. Get used to it." Willow knew that Mickey could get jealous but not like this.

"He would have said." She replied.

Jackie soon strolled down and caught up with them. "What're you two chimps going on about? What's going on? What's this Doctor done now?"

"Ho, ho, ho." Mickey says in glee. "He's vamoosed!"

Rose storms up to Mickey, holding an object in her hand. "He's not, because he gave me this." She opened her hand to reveal a key. "He's not my boyfriend, Mickey. He's better than that. He's much more important than-"

The three all looked down as the key started glowing brighter and brighter, however, Jackie did not notice it. Rose gazed up to a wall and watched the outline of something appear before their very eyes. Willow blinked unpredictably as she recognised that it was the same blue box she had seen a year ago.

She stood frozen as the same features reappeared with not even a scratch in its paintwork. Willow couldn't hear Rose try to usher her mother away as all she could focus on now was the beautiful blue box appearing, like it came from a dream.

"It can't be..." She muttered under her breath.

Almost immediately, Rose sprinted inside as the humming sound stopped and Mickey and Willow followed in her wake. They opened the doors to find the room bigger inside. There were round circles on the walls and in the middle was what looked like some sort of console. It was like a spaceship, unlike the one they had all seen this morning. Jackie soon walked in after, shocked by the interior. Willow wandered about in amazement.

How was this possible? Suddenly, the Doctor appeared from behind the console. "All right, so I lied. 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. Come on, so I thought let's go and have a look."

Rose glance back and saw her and Jackie staring inside in disbelief. "Willow and Mum are here."

"Oh, that's just what I need. Don't you dare make this place domestic." He ordered.

Mickey stormed up to him, yelling. "You ruined my life, Doctor. They thought she was dead. I was a murder suspect because of you."

He turned to Willow. "You see what I mean? Domestic."

She laughed but quickly put a hand around her mouth. Mickey's face grew into a form of anger before he stepped up to the Doctor again. "I bet you don't even remember my name."

"Ricky."

"It's Mickey."

"No, it's Ricky."

"I think I know my own name."

"You think you know your own name. How stupid are you?"

"Yeah it's definitely Ricky." Willow joked, the Doctor shone her a smile while Mickey watched on in frustration.

Meanwhile, Jackie had ran out of the TARDIS in terror, now realising who her daughter was consorting with. Rose quickly sprinted after her. "Mum, don't! Don't go anywhere. Don't start a fight!"

Knowing Jackie, shew would be talking non-stop about this situation. Before Willow could say anything, the Doctor jogged towards her. "What did you say?"

"What?" She asked.

"You said 'it can't be' outside."

She stared on in confusion, looking at Mickey and then back at the Doctor. "How did you hear that?"

He beamed again. "I'm very good at eavesdropping." He put his finger on her lips, saying. "Talk later." He ran back up to the console as soon as Rose came back in. Soon enough, she joined them, looking at a screen showing the spaceship.

"That was a real spaceship." Rose calmly affirmed as if she had seen this sort of thing before.

The Doctor crossed his arms. "Yep."

"So, it's all a pack of lies? What is it, then? Are they invading?" She queried as Willow remained in the background, still very curious about what exactly was happening.

Mickey crossed his arms like the Doctor, attempting to act like him in a sense. "Funny way to invade, putting the world on red alert."

He was right for once. "Why fake a crash just to grab the world's attention? So it'll take attention off the real plan?" Willow questioned.

The Doctor glanced back at her. "Good point! So, what're they up to?" He grinned at her.

The Doctor then ran down a few steps until he was underneath them. "So, what're you doing down there?" asked Mickey.

"Ricky-"

"Mickey."

"Ricky." The Doctor grew more annoyed by his presence. "If I was to tell you what I was doing to the controls of my frankly magnificent time ship, would you even begin to understand?"

Mickey shrugged. "I suppose not."

"Well, shut it, then." He bellowed.

He walked back towards Rose and whispered. "Some friend you've got."

"He's winding you up. I am sorry." Rose pleaded.

"Okay." Mickey relaxed a little but still kept a disapproving face.

"I am, though." She assured him.

Mickey grew back to his annoyed state "Every day, I looked. On every street corner, wherever I went, looking for a blue box for a whole year."

Rose shrugged and said "It's only been a few days for me. I don't know. It's, it's hard to tell inside this thing but I swear it's just a few days since I left you."

"Not enough time to miss me, then?" He questioned.

"I did miss you-"

"I missed you."

"So did I." Willow chimed in.

"Why are you here anyway, Willow?" She asked, stepping down to her level. "When did you move into the flat? What about your parents?"

She swallowed hard from sudden saliva build-up in her throat, startling her. "On the night the dummies attacked they... they..." Willow raised her hand up to her mouth, trying to hold back her cries. Upon realising what she meant; Rose immediately consoled her.

"I'm sorry, Willow." She said whilst stroking her hair. When Willow was younger, she used to do that with Rose when she was upset. She was three years older than her and, when her parents weren't able to look after her, Willow would cuddle up with Jackie, Pete and little baby Rose in their flat for the day or evening. Rose never cried when she was around her cousin.

She backed away from Willow, glancing back at Mickey. "So, er, in twelve months, have you been seeing anyone else?"

He scratched the back of his head, awkwardly. "No."

"Okay."

"Mainly because everyone thought I murdered you." He chuckled.

Rose nodded in agreement. "Right."

Willow could remember that many people, who knew and had been friends with him, walked past him in disgust. They all feared that Mickey had murdered Rose and dumped her body somewhere.

"So, now that you've come back, are you going to stay?" He queried.

She became silent, growing unsure. Of all the things she had seen, why would she stop travelling? Even for Mickey or her family?

"Got it!" The Doctor intercepted their awkward silence, joining them back at the console. "Ha, ha! Patched in the radar, looped it back twelve hours so we can follow the flight of that spaceship. Here we go. Hold on. Come on." They all observed the screen as it started to show the path of the spaceship before it had crashed. "That's the spaceship on its way to Earth, see? Except. Hold on. See? The spaceship did a sling shot round the Earth before it landed." He continued on, Willow's heart slowly racing from the adrenaline running through her blood, due to all of the excitement.

Rose became confused. "What does that mean?"

"It means it came from Earth in the first place. It went up and came back down. Whoever those aliens are, they haven't just arrived, they've been here for a while. The question is, what have they been doing?"

"Learning? Observing?" asked Willow, surprising the others. "Sorry, I was just guessing."

The Doctor looked at her with another smile until staring back at Rose. "We are keeping her!"

He started bouncing around flicking buttons, turning the screen into a basic television. "How many channels do you get?" wondered Mickey.

"All the basic packages." replied the Doctor.

"You get sports channels?"

"Yes, I get the football- Hold on, I know that lot." He pointed to a few soldiers walking past on the screen. "UNIT. United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. Good people."

"How do you know them?" Rose asked.

"Cos he's worked for them." Mickey answered for him, smirking. "Oh yeah, don't think I sat on my backside for twelve months, Doctor. I read up on you. You look deep enough on the Internet or in the history books, and there's his name, followed by a list of the dead."

Willow paused, unsure by what he meant. What did the Doctor do to earn a list of the dead?

"That's nice. Good boy, Ricky." The Doctor made a comeback, uncaring.

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

"They wouldn't recognise me. I've changed a lot since the old days. Besides, the world's on a knife-edge. There's aliens out there and fake aliens. We want to keep this alien out of the mix. I'm going undercover. And er, I'd better keep the TARDIS out of sight. Ricky, you've got a car. You can do some driving." He explained.

"Where to?" questioned Mickey.

"The roads are clearing. Let's go and have a look at that spaceship." He wandered towards the doors, calling the others to follow.

As they exited the blue box, the Doctor stopped under a bright spotlight shining over them. A man on speakerphone was ordering through a megaphone. "Do not move! Step away from the box and raise your hands above your heads."

They obeyed, although Mickey quickly sprinted off, not wanting to be associated with the group. "Mickey, you cow!" Willow yelled his way.

"Rose! Willow!" Jackie attempted to run up to her girls but was stopped by the police. What had she done?

"Take me to your leader!" The Doctor shouts with glee. She stared back at him with an annoyed face. Not the best comment of the night.

What had she gotten herself into?

***

They were ushered into a nearby car with leather seats and a cup holder. Upon being arrested, Willow thought that it wouldn't be this comfortable. Perhaps it was an effort made to make it seem like prison would be a nice place for criminals.

They climbed in from both sides, trying to remain calm. The Doctor sat on her left while Rose was on her right; she had to be the one to squeeze into the middle.

Rose smiled at the guard as he shut the door. "This is a bit posh. If I knew it was going to be like this, being arrested, I would have done it years ago."

"We're not being arrested, we're being escorted." The Doctor said, filled with excitement.

"Where to?" Willow queried.

"Where'd you think? Downing Street." He giggled.

The girls gasped, surprised. Rose stared in confusion. "You're kidding."

"I'm not!"

"10 Downing Street?" She asked.

"That's the one."

Rose couldn't laughing, amazed. "Oh, my God. I'm going to 10 Downing Street. How come?"

"I hate to say it, but Mickey was right. Over the years I've visited this planet a lot of times, and I've been, er, noticed."

Willow squinted at him, taking in what he had just said. "What do you mean?"

The two glared at each other for a moment before the Doctor glanced back at Willow. "I'm an alien." He bluntly stated.

"But you look human."

"I was born this way. Easy camouflage." Instead of being extremely shocked and slightly scared, she was calm and smiled at him. "You're not freaked out?"

"Why would I be? I've been freaked out most of the day. Nothing surprises me anymore." She sniggered. "I guess that's why they need you then."

"Like it said on the news. They're gathering experts in alien knowledge. And who's the biggest expert of the lot?" He grinned.

"Patrick Moore?"

"Apart from him."

Rose giggled. "Oh, don't you just love it."

"I'm telling you. Lloyd George, he used to drink under the table. Who's the Prime Minister now?"

"How should I know? I missed a year." They both glanced at Willow, expecting her to know.

She threw her hands up in defence. "Don't look at me, I don't pay that much attention to politics."

***

They stop in front of the legendary house on Downing Street as cameras flashed their way. As they stepped out of the vehicle, they were soon escorted out of the car by a few security men. The Doctor delightfully waved at the paparazzi like a child while the girls stood near the back in awe.

"Oh, my God." Rose muttered to her as they headed inside.

It was amazing, nothing like they ever imagined. Originally, Willow thought it would look boring but it certainly didn't look like it was. It was huge and had several staircases lined up.

They followed the Doctor into a room full of professionally dressed people. A few she recognised as UNIT, the people on the television, mingling with the other experts.

"Ladies and gentlemen, can we convene?" A man spoke up from the corner, pushing them into another room "Quick as we can, please. It's this way on the right, and can I remind you ID cards are to be worn at all times."

Willow could see him handing out ID cards to each person walking in, including the Doctor as they wandered up. "Here's your ID card. I'm sorry, your companions don't have clearance." The man said to the Doctor.

"I don't go anywhere without them." He responded.

The man still shook his head, denying them access. "You're the code nine, not them. I'm sorry, Doctor. It is the Doctor, isn't it? They'll have to stay outside."

"They're staying with me." The Doctor argued growing increasingly annoyed at him.

The man relaxed, taking a breath. "Look, even I don't have clearance to go in there. I can't let them in and that's a fact."

Rose stroked the Doctor's arm. "It's all right. You go."

Willow could tell from the look on her face that she liked the Doctor more than a friend; Mickey wasn't going to be happy.

"Excuse me," Someone spoke from behind. She turned to see a woman with short hair and a pale pink pinafore walk up. "Are you the Doctor?"

He nodded. "Sure."

"Not now. We're busy. Can't you go home?" It seemed that she was annoying him immensely.

"I just need a word in private." She said with a detection of worry in her voice.

"I suppose so. Don't get in any trouble." He pointed at the girls as he casually strode into the room with the rest of the experts.

"You haven't got clearance. Now leave it." His voice grew louder before returning to the girls. "I'm going to have to leave you with security."

She nodded, but the woman approached them. "It's all right. I'll look after them. Let me be of some use?"

He sighed and left; leaving them with the woman. She turned away and started walking; Willow felt her arms pushing them from behind.

"Walk with me. Just keep walking." They wandered back into the entrance hall, noticing the woman searching her surroundings as if she didn't want anyone to see. "That's right. Don't look round." They walked straight ahead as she suddenly pulled out an ID card. "Harriet Jones, MP Flydale North."

She pulled into a corner, checking that they weren't being watched before discussing. "This friend of yours, he's an expert, is that right?" Her voice cracked, sounding worried. "He knows about aliens?"

"Why do you want to know?" asked Rose.

Before Harriet could say anything more; her eyes filled up with water and soon poured down her face. Her voice was now muffled with cries. Rose and Willow tried to comfort her as she muttered a few more words.

***

Next thing they knew, they were in the Cabinet Room. Harriet quickly rushed into the cupboard and pulled something out. She laid it on the table, the girls soon realising that it was a skin suit. A human skin suit.

"They turned the body into a suit. A disguise for the thing inside!" Her worried cries soon returned.

Willow placed her hands on her arms, calmly stating. "It's all right. We believe you."

"It's, it's alien. They must have some serious technology behind this." Rose ran over to a cupboard and started searching. "If we could find it, we could use it-" She screamed as they watched a body fall out of the cupboard and onto the ground. It was a male body in a suit; not a human one at that.

"Oh, my God! Is that the-" Before Willow could finish her sentence, the door slammed open and the man handing out the ID cards came in.

"Harriet, for God's sake. This has gone beyond a joke. You cannot just wander-" Then he saw the body, knowing all too well. "Oh, my God. That's the Prime Minister!"

Abruptly, they were joined by a little blonde woman. "Oh! Has someone been naughty?" She giggled a little, an evil smirk perched upon her face.

"That's impossible." The man argued. "He left this afternoon. The Prime Minister left Downing Street. He was driven away!"

"And who told you that, hmm?" She walked closer to them with a huge grin on her face. "Me!"

She reached for her hairline and pulled some sort of zip across her head. A fluorescent blue light flooded the room. She pulled the woman's skin off revealing a yellowy-green alien with big, soulless black eyes and sharp claws.

Willow gasped, holding a hand up to her face in disbelief. It towered over them and, within a few seconds, the alien grabbed the man. She lifted him high off the ground, strangling him to death.

***

I am in love with this character! I have so many ideas! I have already planned up to Series 6. I'm also proud of this episode because I have written about 5000 words. I have sat here rewatching episodes of Doctor Who writing and writing and now I have written up to 5000 words. It's insane even for me!

I hope you enjoyed this episode! I can't wait for World War Three! See ya :)

- Alice ❤