CHAPTER TWO — THE DOCTOR TO THE RESCUE
juniper and rose — part two

"I think you mean, it's been disarmed." — juniper holloway

AFTER THE NIGHT SHE HAD HAD, JUNIPER BARELY GOT A WINK OF SLEEP. Her mind kept drifting back to what the mystery man had called 'living plastic' because she knew they weren't from Earth. As Sherlock Holmes famously said 'When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth' so in Juniper's case, this meant aliens. She had managed to get a hold of some of her Astronomy friends that were studying the possibility of alien life, but they were a brick wall. And their silence spoke volumes.

The blonde stared at her clock, watching as the second hand ticked by. She then decided to check up on Rose considering they had both been through the same bizarre experience. It wasn't that far to Powell Estate where the Tyler family lived so Juniper grabbed her bag and walked.

People strolled past, all in their own little worlds, and they had no idea of strange events that occurred the night before. Juniper just sighed, her eyes trained on the pavement beneath her feet as she continued on her path towards her best friend's flat. It didn't take her long until she was at the door to the Tyler residence and instead of banging on the wood and waking them up, she took the key they had given her and let herself in.

The ex-manager headed straight for the kitchen where she removed three mugs from the cupboard and switched on the kettle. "Oh, good morning to you too June." The familiar voice of Jackie Tyler said sarcastically. Juniper spun around to face her and then smiled at the woman.

"Good morning Jackie, I just wanted to check up on Rose and then decided to make you guys some tea." Juniper said softly.

Jackie smiled gratefully. "June, you're so sweet, thank you." She told the girl. "Rose said you were with her when it happened." Juniper raised her eyebrow. What exactly had Rose told her Mother? "You should sue, get some money off of it." The woman suggested and Juniper couldn't help but laugh.

Before Juniper could say anything else, Rose entered the room. The two girls exchanged a knowing look before she sat down next to her friend whilst Jackie finished up making the tea Juniper had started.

"There's Finch's. You could try them." The woman — who Juniper saw as her Mother/Aunt figure — recommended as she headed towards the blonde girls with steaming mugs in hand. "They've always got jobs." Jackie sat down, handing Rose and Juniper their hot beverages.

Rose groaned and rolled her eyes. "Oh, great, the butcher's."

"It might do you good. That shop was giving you airs and graces." She said and Juniper's jaw dropped slightly, not knowing how to respond. "I'm not joking about compensation, you two have had a genuine shock and trauma." The Tyler woman got up from her seat and started to head for her room before rambling. "Arianna got two thousand quid off the council, just because the old man behind the desk said she looked Greek!"

Juniper's eyebrows scrunched up in confusion, she knew Arianna and Arianna was Greek. "Jackie, Arianna is Greek." She reminded the woman.

"Yeah she is, but that's not the point. It was a valid claim." Jackie countered and then disappeared into her bedroom.

The two girls looked at each other before bursting into a small fit of giggles that was suddenly interrupted by a rattling at the front door.

"Mum, you're such a liar!" Exclaimed Rose as her and Juniper got up to investigate the source of the noise. "I told you to nail the cat-flap down. We'll get strays!"

"I did it weeks back." Jackie replied from her room as Juniper crouched down to examine the cat-flap.

Exasperatedly, Rose sighed, her eyes trained on the small door. "Na... you thought about it."

Juniper's eyes widened when she noticed that the screws that had once held the cat-flap in place were on the floor next to them. Cautiously, she plucked it from the floor and held it between her thumb and forefinger, then raised it to eye-level. "What the hell." She mumbled, handing the screw to Rose who seemed to be just as confused as she was.

Suddenly, the cat-flap moved once again as a finger poked through from outside. This startled the two girls who jumped back slightly, not expecting that to have happened. Juniper lowered her head so she level with the cat-flap and pushed it open only to be met with a familiar and unwelcome face.

Raising her eyebrow at the uncanny, blue eyed man as if to ask if he was being serious or not. The man, who had introduced himself as 'The Doctor' right before her store went up in flames, gave her a dubious look. Juniper sighed and got up from the floor, her hand reaching out to unlock the door in front of her.

"So, we meet again." The Doctor smiled down at the wavy haired blonde and now that there were now longer running from living plastic, he could look at her properly. Even the Doctor had to admit, she was rather pretty with her soft blonde and kind hazel eyes that he knew were hiding something, but that wasn't what caught his main attention, no. It was the gold locket around her neck, the one she had worn everyday for the past decade. Shaking himself from his thoughts, he turned to the girls and asked. "What are you doing here?"

"I live here." Rose replied, not happy about the fact the strange man from the night before was at her front door.

"What do you do that for?"

"Cos I do!" She shook her head with irritation. "We're only here because someone blew up our jobs!" The Tyler girl glared at him angrily.

Ignoring her entirely, the Doctor stared down at his device, which he had used the night before, with a look of confusion on his face. In Juniper's opinion, it looked rather like a metal magic wand with the blue light at the end and the strange noise it was emitting. "I must have the wrong signal." He mumbled to himself before turning to the girls and rapping his knuckles against Rose's forehead the same way you would do with a door. "You're not plastic, are you?" Just as he was about to test Juniper, she swatted his hand away and glared at him harshly causing him to back off. "Nope, boneheads. Bye then."

Rose grabbed the leave of his jacket to stop him from escaping and then pulled him into the flat. "You, inside, right now."

"Who is it?" Jackie called out after hearing the front door close.

As the Doctor placed the strange device back inside his pocket, he quickly scanned the room, taking in his surroundings. Juniper narrowed her eyes at the man, trying to figure out exactly who he was as Rose stepped into her Mother's room. "It's about last night. He's part of the inquiry. Give me and June ten minutes." The Tyler girl lied with ease.

Jackie looked at the Doctor who was leaning against the door frame to her room. "They deserve compensation." She told him and he smiled.

"Oh, we're talking millions." He said, sending a soft smile to Juniper who was watching the scene unfold in amusement. Knowing what Jackie was like, Juniper walked up to the Doctor, grabbed his sleeve and took him away from the single mother to save him before she could start flirting. The young woman turned to look over her shoulder at the gown-clad blonde who wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, glancing between Juniper and the mysterious Doctor.

Juniper rolled her eyes.

When they entered the living room, they were greeted with a nervous Rose quickly attempting to tidy up. She faced he Doctor and asked. "Don't mind the mess. Do you want a coffee?"

The Doctor nodded and Juniper could tell that his attention was divided. "Might as well, thanks, just milk." The young girl went into the kitchen as the man picked up a magazine from the table, staring at the cover with slight interest.

"We should go to the police." Rose told them and Juniper had to resist the urge to roll her eyes at her best friend. Did she really think that the police would believe their story? If they turned up at the Police Station rambling on about living plastics they would probably be admitted to a psychiatric hospital. "Seriously." She insisted.

"That won't last." He sighed, looking down at the open magazine in his hands. Curiously, Juniper glanced over the pages he was reading, unsure of what he meant. "He's gay and she's an alien."

Juniper snorted which resulted in the Doctor looking down at her. "Really?" She queried with a raised eyebrow and an inquisitive smile lining her face.

"Really." He deadpanned. Rose continued on but Juniper wasn't focused on her, she was more intrigued by the Doctor who was strolling around the living room as if he owned it. She watched as he plucked a book from one of the shelves and flicked through the entirety of it. "Sad ending." He murmured, placing the book down onto the wooden table. At this, Juniper's jaw dropped in both shock and curiosity. Had he just read a whole book in a few seconds? That was impossible, wasn't it?

"It said on the news that they found a body." Rose's voice met her ears from the other room and Juniper's heart clenched at the thought of Winston, his body left to burn in the fire.

The Doctor hummed quietly to himself, redirecting Juniper's attention back to him as he picked up one of the letters from the day's post. "Rose Tyler." He turned to look at Juniper and asked her nosily with a soft and friendly smile. "What's your full name?"

"Juniper Holloway."

His smile broadened before he turned around to look into the mirror next to him. The strange thing was was that the Doctor appeared to be scrutinising himself as if he was staring into an unfamiliar face. Juniper was confused to say the least; every new thing she learnt about the man who had saved them the night before just made it all make even less sense. The Doctor really was a puzzle, but what was even stranger than the unfamiliarity with his own face, was the fact that some part of knew that name, some part of her had heard of 'The Doctor' before. But she didn't know how.

"Ah, could've been worse." He admitted before frowning and raising his fingers to flick the lobes of his large sticky-out ears. "Look at the ears!" Juniper quickly raised her hand to cover her mouth, muffling the sniggers that were escaping. At the sound of her laughs, he whipped around to give her a look of fake hurt. "Stop laughing." It just made her laugh harder.

Rose kept on rambling about going to the Police so Juniper blocked her out. She wasn't trying to be mean to her friend, it was just that she was more focused on the peculiar man in the Tyler family's living room who was doing nothing but confuse her. Besides, it wasn't as if the Police could help, she doubted that they even knew about aliens.

Unable to stop fiddling, the Doctor grabbed a stack of cards and went to shuffle them, but he missed his other hand and they ended up flying all over the place. Juniper stifled her giggles as he looked around at the mess he made, unclear as to how he had caused it. "Maybe not." He mumbled with an irritated expression on his face. Picking up one of the discarded cards, Juniper twirled it around her fingers, winking at the Doctor when she spotted the impressed and surprised look on his face.

Suddenly there was a strange flapping sound coming from within the living room and both the Doctor and Juniper whipped around to the direction it came from. She exchanged a worried and curious look with him, taking a step towards the source of the noise. "What's that?"

He shrugged before turning back to look over at Rose in the kitchen, but she was preoccupied with making the coffee. "Have you got a cat?" He inquired, his eyes darting between the two girls.

Juniper felt her heart speed up, she knew that Rose didn't have a cat, so what was making the noise?

"No." Rose replied making Juniper panic even more. "We did have, but we just get strays."

Not thinking of the possible danger ahead, the Doctor peered over the back of the sofa to find the source of the sound. Juniper watched helplessly as the plastic arm from the previous night shot up and latched itself around the strange man's throat. Acting on instinct, Juniper reached out to remove the plastic but then a sudden and unbearable pain shot through her skull. The blonde fell to the floor, her hands clutching the sides of her head as her worst headache yet ripped through her.

"They come in off the estate." Rose continued making the coffee, completely unaware of what was happening. A pain filled gasp left her lips as she stood up and made her way towards the Doctor to try and help him. Her knees threatened to buckle underneath her, the pain in her head increasing to the point she was starting to hear voices. Muffled, mind you, but they were still voices all the same. "I told Mickey to chuck that out." Rose said as she entered the room, spying the plastic arm that was attempting to strangle the Doctor. "You're all the same. Give a man a plastic hand..."

The teen placed the two scolding hot mugs down onto the coffee table, still completely oblivious to the danger of the situation. She had still not noticed Juniper who was sat on the floor, still cradling her aching skull in her jittery hands.

"Anyway, we don't even know your name. Doctor what was it?" As soon as the question fell from her lips, the Doctor managed to release the plastic's grip on his neck and it soared through the air, heading for it's next target: Rose. Seeing her friend in distress gave her the motivation she needed to push the voices and pain as far back as she could. Juniper then got to her feet and dashed over to Rose.

Luckily for them, the Doctor was already trying to remove the plastic from the young blonde's face and continued to tug at it. Juniper jumped slightly, startled by the sudden crashing sound made as both the Doctor and Rose tumbled into the coffee table. Somehow she managed to get her friend onto the sofa and turned to the Doctor with a pleading look on her face. The Doctor reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew the strange device from before, pointing it at the arm that let go of Rose at his command. He pressed the buttons on the small device, watching intently as the fingers moved before he pressed the metal stick into the plastic palm, killing it.

Juniper had no idea whether or not you could kill a piece of plastic but it certainly did appear that way.

"It's all right, I've stopped it." He reassured the two, his eyes glancing between them. "There. See... armless!" Joked the Doctor, throwing the arm back at Rose who caught it, still slightly in shock after what had just happened.

Juniper laughed softly, a bright and hopeful grin spread across her face. "I think you mean, it's been disarmed." She quipped, causing the lightest of chuckles to come from the strange man who had saved her friend.

Clearly not even a tad amused by the situation, Rose looked at the Doctor and then her best friend. "Do you think?!" She asked sarcastically and then hit the Doctor's arm with the plastic one. He groaned in pain and turned back to Rose with a hurt look on his face. Juniper simply laughed.

There may have been nothing to laugh about: there were living plastics capable of killing people, a strange man who they knew nothing about and the pains in her head were getting increasingly worse, but she couldn't help it. It was all so ridiculous and she just knew that this wasn't the worst of it.

Hi there wonderful readers and thank you for reading the second chapter of Until the Stars Burn.

So, the Doctor is back, no surprise there and him and Juniper are starting to bond a bit. Her headaches are getting worse and the Doctor noticed her necklace. I wonder what he's thinking.

Thank you for reading, see you in the next chapter.

Sincerely, Rosie aka Winter326