Jackie Tyler picked up a red bauble and hung it on her white Christmas tree which stood in the corner of her living room. Without turning around, she picked up two presents to put under her tree when she paused, one of the labels catching her eye. Suddenly weary, she sat down slowly, rereading the label she had written.

To Rose. Merry Christmas. Lots of love, Mum x.

Jackie sighed deeply. It had been almost a month since she last saw Rose. Each day made her more worried, and even angrier at that Doctor for taking her girl away. Where was she?

Mickey was working in the shop, his fellow work-mates had the radio blaring the usual "Marry Christmas" song, and then he heard the sound he had made his ears listen for.

"Hey, turn that down. Hey, Stevo, turn that off! Turn it off!" He commanded, wanting to make sure. Obediently, Stevo turned the radio off, letting the TARDIS engines play around the room. Mickey stood still in shock before he regain movement and ran out of the shop.

Jackie had gathered some energy and was hanging up some Christmas cards on a length of string that was attached on the wall. She defiantly wasn't thinking about how Rose had made all of them, and she wasn't thinking about that Doctor…even though she could hear the engines, but that must have been her mind acting up.

She froze when she realized that the sound was very real. "Rose!"

Jackie had never run faster in her life. She exited the block flats when Mickey joined her. They had made a plan to meet when they heard the TARDIS, but the plan had gone out the window due to Jackie's joy.

"Mickey!" She shouted out as she ran towards him.

"Jackie, it's the TARDIS!" Mickey yelled, still in shock.

They had realized that the Doctor probably wouldn't come back if Rose was dead-he'd have no reason to-but when three weeks had passed, Mickey had started to worry that there worse fear had happened, Rose was dead.

"I know! I know, I heard it! She's alive, Mickey! I said so, didn't I? She's alive!" Jackie cried out. As Rose's mother, she had never given up hope that her daughter was alive.

Mickey would have rolled his eyes but instead he barked out, "Shush! Shut up a minute!" Causing Jackie to look around frantically for the police box.

"Well, where is it then?" She finally asked, growing frustrated. As if to answer her, the TARDIS appeared 20 feet above their heads, and then started to crash into buildings as it plummeted. Jackie screamed at the sight and grabbed onto Mickey as they watched the TARDIS skid to a halt aided by a post van, and some dustbins. The doors were thrown open by a man in a leather jacket, burgundy jumper, and black pants. His mouth was open wide and he had brown slightly spikey hair and sideburns.

"Here we are, then! London! Earth! The Solar System! We did it!" He exclaimed, stumbling out of the TARDIS. Looking around, he suddenly noticed Mickey and Jackie staring at him. "Jackie! Mickey! Blimey! No, no, no, no, hold on." He stumbled backwards a few steps, almost tripping over the knocked over dustbins. "Wait there, I've got something to say. There was something I had to tell you. Something important, what was it? No, hold on, hold on..." He lurched towards the two, placing one hand on each of their shoulders, thinking hard. "Hold on, shush, shush, shush, shush... OH!" At the sudden volume of his voice, Jackie and Mickey jumped, trading glances as they did so.

"I know!" the man cheered, looking at the two, beaming despite his heavy panting, "Merry Christmas!" The man grinned one more time and the collapsed onto the ground, unconscious.

Kayla had been trying to keep an eye on the Doctor, but when she hadn't been watching him, he stumbled out of the TARDIS like a drunk man. Rose had backed herself against the wall, taking slow breaths.

"Rose?" Kayla called to her after a few minutes with the Doctor being gone.

"Wh-what?" the blond asked.

"The Doctor just collapsed." Kayla told her before she dashed off and stepped outside.

Mickey and Jackie were staring at the man when Kayla stepped out.

"What happened? Is he all right?" Kayla asked quickly, kneeling beside him.

"I don't know, he just keeled over! But who is he? Where's the Doctor?" Mickey answered, staring down at the man and Kayla.

"He's the Doctor…just with a face change." Kayla rubbed the Doctor's back as she spoke.

"What d'you mean? Doctor who?" Jackie question.

Rose stepped out of the TARDIS and stared down at the Doctor, who was lying on the ground looking like he was dead.

Moving the Doctor had been hard, but the worse part was changing him into "jimjams" because Jackie had thought he would be comfortable and Rose was too quick to agree. So instead of the old Doctor's cloths, the Doctor was now wearing blue and white striped jimjams. Kayla sat on the edge of the Doctor's bed, her hand holding his while Rose sat in a chair she had drawn to his bed. The door opened and Jackie walked in with a stethoscope.

"Here we go. Tina the Cleaner's got this lodger, medical student. And she was fast asleep, so I just took it." Jackie hand the stethoscope to Kayla as she spoke.

"Thanks." Kayla muttered as she put it in her ears.

"Though, I still say we should take him to hospital." Jackie pressed.

"We can't. They'd lock him up. They'd dissect him. One bottle of his blood could change the future of the human race." Rose answered back.

"That's great, now both of you shush or leave the room." Kayla commanded as she leaned over to listen to the Doctor's hearts. "Good, they're both working." She muttered after a few seconds?

"What d'you mean 'both?'" Jackie asked, glancing in between her daughter and the ex-Time Agent.

"He has too hearts Jackie." Kayla said softly, standing up as she spoke.

Jackie blinked, "Oh." Getting up she turned to look at her daughter and asked, "Anything else he's got two of?"

"Leave him alone." Rose sighed, standing up and following her mother and Kayla out of the room.

The room was empty, that the Doctor knew. Despite being in a coma like state, he could hear the whole flat and the people in it. With a gusty sigh, a wisp of golden Time Vortex left him and out of an open into. It flew into the sky, a whispering voice repeating, "You will pay for your chances. These are ours."

In the kitchen, Rose opened the fridge and pulled out two pork pies, handing one to Kayla.

"How can he go changing his face?" Jackie asked, earning no answer from Rose, who shut the fridge door, or Kayla, who had started to eat the pie. "Is that a different face or is he a different person?" she continued.

"Both." Kayla muttered, still eating. Glancing up at the pause in conversation, she noticed the stares she was receiving from both blonds. "What?" She asked.

"Who is he?" Rose asked simply, gesturing towards the Doctor's closed door.

"Rose, I'm not an expert, but what I do know about regeneration is basically the same information the Doctor told you. He still has the same memories, but he's a different person physically and slightly mentally." At the end of Kayla's explanation, Rose and Jackie were both staring at her in wonder, causing her to sigh in frustration. "I'm gonna go for walk."

Kayla walked through the crowded streets of London when she paused, hearing a familiar name voiced on a telly in a shop window.

"Harriet Jones - what about those calling the Guinevere One Space Probe a waste of money?" A man asked a woman with brown hair.

"Now, that's where you're wrong. I completely disagree if you don't mind. The Guinevere One Space Probe represents this country's limitless ambition. British workmanship sailing up there among the stars." The video changed to a man smiling broadly at the camera as he spoke.

"This is the spirit of Christmas, birth and rejoicing, and the dawn of a new age, and that is what we're achieving fifteen million miles away. Our very own miracle."

The video changed to the newsreader who stared at the camera. "The unmanned probe Guinevere One is about to make its final descent. Photographs of the Martian Landscape should be received by midnight tonight."

The probe stopped in front of what appeared to be a very large rock. A door opened on the "rock," and the probe was sucked in.

Kayla had returned back to the flat and had taken up a silent vigil next to the Doctor, staring at him as he slept.

Rose and Mickey walked the streets of London at night, trying to make their way through the mass of late Christmas shoppers.

"So, er, what d'you need? Twenty quid?" Mickey held out the said bill in his hand.

"Do you mind? I'll pay you back." Rose questioned as she took the bill.

"Call it a Christmas present." Mickey joked, laughing by himself.

"God, I'm all out of synch. You just forget about Christmas and things in the TARDIS. They don't exist. You get sort of...timeless." Rose said, cutting off Mickey's laughter.

"Oh, yeah, that's fascinating, 'cos I love hearing stories about the TARDIS. Oh, go on Rose, tell us another one 'cos I - wow, I could listen to it all day. TARDIS this, TARDIS that..."

Rose smiled at Mickey. "Shut up!" She joked along.

"Oh! One time, in a biiiig yellow garden, full of balloons." Mickey continued.

"I'm not like that!" Rose protested, smiling as she did.

"Oh, you so are." Mickey smiled fondly at the banter between the two of them. He had missed Rose, missed her smile and the way they bantered before that Doctor came. Sure, he knew that they would never be the same, but that didn't stop him from trying or wanting that.

"Hmm, must drive you mad. I'm surprised you don't give up on me." Rose said suddenly, all banter gone.

"Oh, that's the thing, isn't it? You can rely on me. I don't go changing my face." Mickey said, trying to bring their previous banter back.

"Yeah. What if he's dying?" Mickey stopped suddenly at Rose's words.

"Okay—" He started.

"Sorry!" She apologized quickly.

Mickey sighed mentally and took Rose's heads. "Just let it be Christmas! Could you do that? Just for a bit. You and me, and Christmas. No...no Doctor - no...no bog-monsters...no life or death."

"Okay." Rose agreed, offering Mickey a soft smile.

"Promise?" Mickey pressed, also starting to smile.

"Yes!" Rose said, both of them smiling at each other.

"Right! What're you gonna get for your mum?" Mickey asked suddenly as they started to walk again, but the attention they had been giving each other was gone and Rose kept glancing behind them. "I'm round there all the time now, you know. She does my dinner on a Sunday...talks about you all afternoon, yap yap yap yap yap..."

Rose wasn't listening to Mickey but instead she kept looking at the brass band of masked Santas playing 'Good Tidings of Comfort and Joy.' They felt…wrong, and she was right, because only a few seconds later did they stop playing and pointed their trumpets like guns at the shoppers, revealing them to be flame throwers…which shot at the crowd. Horrified, the shoppers screamed and ran about, some getting hit and some not. Either way, Mickey reacted well and pushed Rose to a stall, throwing both of their bodies behind it.

"It's us! They're after us!" Rose yelled over the screams. As if they heard Rose, a Santa blasted the stall Mickey and Rose were hiding behind, forcing them to flee with the Santas coming after them. As they blasted behind them, a Santa got hit by a giant Christmas tree, sending it's mask flying.

"What's going on? What've we done? Why are they after us?" Mickey cried out frantically.

Rose opened her mouth to reply when a taxi pulled up to the curb. "Taxi!" She called to him, making them clamber in.

Kayla stared at the Doctor intently, worried about him.

"I miss you Doctor." She whispered softly, rubbing his hand with hers.

"They're after the Doctor." Rose stated once they were in the taxi.

"I can't even go shopping with you. We get attacked by a brass band." Mickey complained as the taxi drove off.

Rose didn't listen to his complaint, instead she took out her mobile and started to tap in a number.

"Who're you phoning?" Mickey asked.

"My mum." Rose said sourly as she put the phone to her ear.

"She turns up - no warning. I've got nothing in. I said, "'Rose - if you want a Christmas dinner of meat paste, then so be it'" Jackie talked as she walked around the flat, the phone to her ear. While listening to the reply, she picked up a cup of tea.

"Mum, get off the phone!" Rose hissed in the taxi. Police sirens had started to wail behind them.

"Who were... those Santa things?" Mickey asked softly.

"I dunno. But think about it - they were after us. What's important about us? Well, nothing. Except the one thing we've got tucked up in bed. The Doctor."

Jackie walked into the Doctor's room, holding a cup of tea for Kayla which she handed to the brunet, talking into the phone as she did. "Oh, no. Don't come round, darling. No, flat's all topsy turvy. Yeah, she just barges in and litters the place. Yeah, no - I'll come round and see you on boxing day."

When Jackie left the room, Kayla sighed and placed the mug of tea on a bedside table and leaned against a pillow next to the Doctor, curling up against him. "Get well soon Doctor." She whispered in his ear before closing her eyes and falling asleep.

The Doctor had felt Kayla curl up against him, had heard her plea of wellness in his ear, and had felt her fall asleep next to him. Besides her, there was no one in the room, it was time again. He sighed softly, careful not to wake the woman beside him. Vortex energy seeped from his mouth, once again escaping from out of the window. He settled back down, only for Kayla to throw one arm over him, drawing her sleeping form closer to his. Without meaning to, he pulled her slightly closer.

The taxi pulled up at the Powell Estate, causing Mickey and Rose to get out and run to the flat.

"So, save us a chipolata..." Jackie was saying when Rose and Mickey dashed in.

"Get off the phone!" Rose screeched.

"It's only Bev! She says hello." Jackie protested, not understanding why her daughter would come in such a manner.

Rose snatched the phone away from her mother and talked into it quickly, "Bev? Yeah- look, it'll have to wait." With that, she hung up on Bev and stared at Mickey and her mother.

"Right, it's not safe, we've gotta get out - where can we go?" Rose asked them quickly.

"My mate Stan, he'll put us up." Mickey offered.

"That's only two streets away." Rose down voted and then turned to her mother. "What about Mo? Where's she living now?" She questioned, speaking about their cousin who often moved.

"I dunno! Peak District!" Jackie guessed, flinging out the last home she had heard about.

"It's Christmas Eve! We're not going anywhere! What're you babbling about?" Jackie protested, completely clueless.

"Mum…" Rose started to explain when she saw a large green Christmas tree in the corner, replacing the white one. "Where'd you get that tree?" Jackie glanced over at it. "That's a new tree. Where'd you get it?" Rose pressed, growing worried.

"Well, I thought it was you!" Jackie answered, very confused now. First Mickey and Rose banging in, talking about leaving, and now getting upset over a tree that, up until now, Jackie had thought was sent from Rose…she really needed to help her daughter.

"How can it be me?" Rose asked suddenly.

"Well, you went shopping, there was a ring at the door, and there it was!" Jackie explained, giving a perfectly good reason.

Rose shook her head while she answered, "No, that wasn't me."

"Then who was it...?" Jackie wondered, voicing the question that they all had in their head. As if she sensed something wrong, Rose pulled her mother behind her.

Nearby, the door to the Doctor's room opened and a slightly sleepy Kayla stepped out just to see the Christmas tree light up. "That isn't good." She muttered just as Rose stepped back some.

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me." The younger blond complained.

But the faith wasn't, and instead the tree started to spin, picking up speed each turn. Jackie let out an earsplitting scream as the tree started to move, reducing the wooden coffee table to splinters within seconds.

"In here now!" Kayla yelled, opening up the Doctor's room. Instantly, Jackie raced in with Rose hot on her tail. "Where's Mickey?" She asked the younger blond, who pointed near the tree where the man in question was holding a chair, pointing its legs towards the tree.

"Mickey, what are you doing?" Kayla barked out to him.

"Go, go, go! Get out!" Mickey yelled back to her, standing his ground.

"Mickey! Get out of there!" Jackie cried, leaving the safety of the room to join Kayla in getting Mickey to safety. With the tree seconds to killing the chair, he gave up and ran into the room with Kayla, Jackie glaring at the two.

"Just leave him!" Jackie whined, her gaze switching from the room to the tree – which was growing closer and closer to a large pane of glass.

"Get in here!" Kayla yelled, causing Jackie to snap her mouth shut and race into the Doctor's room, slamming the door to the sound of the glass pane getting killed.

Once they were all in, Mickey and Jackie started to move a wardrobe onto the door and then leaned on it, watching as Kayla whirled around the room, taking the sonic screwdriver out of the Doctor's leather pocket and placing it in his lifeless hand, ignoring the shaking wardrobe and Rose's glare as she joined her mother and Mickey, but it was too little too late and the door was shredded, throwing the three back and into a corner.

"I'm gonna get killed by a Christmas tree!" Jackie squeaked out in terror, watching the spinning death machine.

Growing desperate, Kayla leaned onto the bed, holding the Doctor's hand and breathed into his ear, "Help me." A second passed, and nothing happened, making Kayla draw back slightly…and then the Doctor sat straight up and pointed his screwdriver at the tree, causing it to explode. Pleased, the Doctor lowered his sonic, a small smirk on his face.

"Remote control. But who's controlling it?" He wondered, starting to get up as she spoke.

The Doctor walked out onto the balcony, securing his dressing gown around him. Kayla walked next to him leaving Rose, Mickey, and Jackie to follow. Outside, staring up at the balcony, stood three of the Santas.

"That's them. What are they?" Mickey stated, glancing at Rose who gave him a sharp shush, pointing towards the Doctor.

"Doctor, hand me your sonic." Kayla commanded, causing the Time Lord to shrug and hand her the object which she pointed threateningly at the Santas. At the glowering Time Lord beside her and the sonic screwdriver pointed threateningly at them, the Santas did the smart thing and walked backwards and stood closer to each other before teleporting away.

"They've just gone! What kind of rubbish were they? I mean, no offence, but they're not much cop if a sonic screwdriver and a glare's gonna scare them off." Mickey pointed out.

"Pilot Fish." The Doctor muttered, staring at the spot where the Santas had disappeared.

"What" Rose asked, causing them all to stare at the Doctor.

"They were just Pilot Fish, noting special." Kayla elaborated. Before anyone could comment, the Doctor coughed and threw himself backwards into the wall, clearly in pain. They all knelt beside him, Kayla grabbing one of his hands with Rose clinging to the other.

"What's wrong?!" Rose asked quickly.

"We woke him up to soon." Kayla breathed, earning a weak nod from the Doctor.

"I'm still regenerating. I'm bursting with energy." The vortex flew out of his mouth.

"You see? The Pilot Fish could smell it. A million miles away. So they eliminate the defence - that's you lot - and they carry me off. They could run their batteries on me for a couple of year—" He lurched forwards, groaning pain.

"Doctor, stop talking." Kayla ordered.

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" Jackie cried out.

"My head!" the Doctor gritted his teeth together as he spoke. Jackie and Kayla glanced at each other and both held the Doctor up, supporting his weight as he groaned weekly in pain.

"I'm having a neuron implosion. I need—" the Doctor started, speaking quickly.

"What do you need?" Jackie asked frantically.

"I need—" the Doctor tried again.

"Say it, tell me, tell me—"

"I need—"

"Painkillers?"

"I need—"

"Do you need aspirin?"

"Well he doesn't need that." Kayla muttered, holding back a laugh at Jackie's rapid questions.

"I—"

"Codeine? Paracetamol? Oh, I dunno- Pepto-Bismol?"

"I need—"

"Liquid paraffin. Vitamin C? Vitamin D? Vitamin E?"

"I need—"

"Is it food? Something simple? Uh- a bowl of soup? A nice bowl of soup? Soup and a sandwich? Soup and a little ham sandwich?" Jackie's voice rose hysterically as she spoke, making the three watching bite their lips to hold back their laughter.

"I need you to shut up." The Doctor finally managed to end a full sentence, causing Jackie to stare at the three.

"Oh, he hasn't changed that much, has he?" Kayla chuckled slightly, only to stop when the Doctor lurched forwards again, his panting and groans overriding Jackie's 'oo' of sympathy.

"We haven't got much time. If there's Pilot Fish, then—" He moved one of his hands from his pocket and stared at an apple. "Why's there an apple in my dressing gown?"

"Oh, that's Howard, sorry." Jackie answered promptly.

"He keeps apples in his dressing gown?" the Doctor wondered, staring at her.

"He gets hungry." Kayla turned to look at her.

"He gets hungry in his sleep, really?

"Sometimes." The Doctor stared at the apple curiously for a second only to stop and shout in pain, sinking to the floor with a grimace.

"Brain- collapsing—" the Doctor stuttered out, grabbing Kayla's arms tightly before he spoke. "P- the Pilot Fish. The Pilot Fish mean... that something- something—" the Doctor paused, managing some deep breaths. "Something's coming." He breathed out, and then he collapsed into Kayla's lap, his breathing labored.

Kayla knelt down next to the now restless and sweaty Doctor that was tucked into bed, his head being mopped to try and bring down his fever. Rose watched for a second and then left, it was just too painful to watch.

Mickey sat down and turned on his laptop. "Jackie, I'm using the phone line. Is that all right?"

Jackie glanced over at him. "Yeah. Keep a count of it." She walked over and put one of the two cups of tea she held in front of him.

"It's midnight, Christmas day." Rose muttered, sitting on a chair arm.

"Any change?" Jackie wondered, handing her daughter the other cup of tea before going back to the kitchen to get one for Kayla.

"He's worse. Just one heart beating." Jackie nodded and left the room for a brief second and then sat down on a chair while Rose turned on the TV.

"Scientists in charge of Britain's mission to Mars have re-established contact with the Guinevere One space probe. They're expecting the first transmission from the planet's surface in the next few minutes." A reported announced.

"Yes, we are. We're - we're back on schedule. We've received the signal from Guinevere One. The Mars landing would seem to be an unqualified success." Llewellyn rushed to say.

"But is it true that you completely lost contact earlier tonight?" A reported at the live press conference asked.

"Yes, we had a bit of a scare. Guinevere seemed to fall off the scope, but it - it was just a blip. Only disappeared for a few seconds. She's fine now, absolutely fine. We - we're getting the first pictures transmitted live any minute now. I'd better get back to it, thanks." Llewellyn hurriedly got up and left the conference, not at all the same state of joy he was in earlier.

"Here we go, Pilot Fish." Mickey muttered, staring at his laptop. Rose got up and looked at his screen. "Scavengers, like the Doctor said. Harmless - they're tiny, but the point is, the little fish swim alongside the big fish." He started to explain, a video of small fish appearing on his screen.

"Do you mean like sharks?" Rose cut in.

"Great big sharks. So, what the Doctor means is, we had them... now we get that." A large shark snapped its jaws viciously.

"Something is coming..." the TV went slightly static, going unnoticed by Mickey and Rose. "How close?" She wondered.

"There's no way of telling, but the Pilot Fish don't swim far from their daddy." Mickey answered back, both not seeing the distorted image on the TV screen.

"So, it's close?" Rose pointed out, getting a tense nod from Mickey.

"Funny sort of rocks." Jackie said suddenly, watching the TV screen which was getting more and more static.

At the sound of Jackie speaking, Rose also looked at the TV, "That's not rocks..." She stated, starting to edge closer with Mickey trailing behind, the image on the screen getting clearer and clearer.

"... coming live from the depths of space on Christmas morning." A reporter said on the TV just as the image appeared perfectly as an alien that roared viciously at Jackie, Mickey, and Rose, causing them to gasp and jump back.

Kayla sighed, sipping on some of Jackie's tea as she watched the Doctor shiver in his sleep. Biting back a yawn, Kayla crawled onto the bed and curled up next to her Doctor, almost instantly falling asleep.

"The face of an alien life form was transmitted live tonight on BBC1." A BBC News Reader stated.

"On the 25th of December, the human race has been shown absolute proof that alien life exists." An American Reader reported.

"These remarkable images have been relayed right across the world." A News Reader said.

Three cars drove through the gates of the famed Tower of London, drawing up outside of it. One of the drivers got out and opened the door for Llewellyn as Major Blake came out of the doors of the tower to greet him.

"This way, sir." He said, indicating for him to step through the doors, leaving Llewellyn with no choice but to do as the Major said.

The door that led into UNIT Base opened for Llyewellyn and the two flanking him. Ignoring the chaos inside, Major Blake just pointed to the current Prime Minister. "Mr Llewellyn." With a slightly heavy heart, Llewellyn headed towards the Harriet Jones.

"Mr Llewellyn, ma'am." He said upon arrival.

"Harriet Jones. Prime Minister." Harriet said, holding up her idea card.

"Oh, well, yes. I know who you are. I suppose I've ruined your Christmas." Llewellyn sighed.

"Never off duty. Now, we've put out a cover story. Alex has been handling it." A young man with a Bluetooth in his ear stepped forwards.

"We've said it was a hoax. Some sort of mask or prosthetics." Llewellyn nodded. "Students hi-jacking the signal, that sort of thing." Alex continued.

"Alex is my right-hand man. I'm not used to having a right-hand man. I quite like it, though." Harriet said.

"Quite like it myself." Alex grinned at the Prime Minister fondly, his grin echoed on her face.

"I - I don't suppose there's any chance it was a hoax?" Llewellyn asked, instantly feeling sory that he had interrupted the moment between the two.

"That would be nice. Then we could all go home. I don't suppose anyone's offered you a coffee...?" Harriet trailed off, waiting for the man's answer.

"No." He answered.

Harriet went over to a coffee maker and started to pour some, speaking as she did so, "But, no - the transmission was genuine. And this seems to be a new species of alien." She handed him his coffee, "At least, not one we've encountered before."

"You seem to be talking about aliens as a matter of fact." Llewellyn pointed out, still shocked that the transmission wasn't, in fact, a hoax.

"There's an act of parliament banning my autobiography." Harriet stated, answering Llewellyn's question.

"Prime Minister?" Blake asked, joining the three.

"I'm with you." Harriet said, following the Major deeper into the busy room.

"Miss Jacobs can explain." A blond woman at her computer stood up quickly at her name.

"I don't think we've been introduced. Harriet Jones, Prime Minister." Jacobs blinked at the introduction.

"Yes, I - I know who you are. The transmission didn't come from the surface of Mars. Guinevere One was broadcasting from a point 5 thousand miles above the planet." She explained.

"In other words, they've got a ship and the probe is on board." Blake elaborated.

"But if they're not from the surface, then... they might not be from Mars itself. Maybe they're not actual Martians." Llewellyn said hopefully.

"Of course not, Martians look completely different." Major Blake dismissed and then turned his attention away from Llewellyn, leaving the man speechless. "We think the ship was in flight when they just came across the probe." Blake continued, his back to the gaping Llewellyn.

"And they're moving. The ship's still in flight now. We've got it on the Hubble array." Jacobs added in, turning back to her computer to pull a live image of the spaceship moving towards them at a rapid speed.

"Moving in which direction?" Harriet asked, watching the screen.

"Towards us." She replied.

"How fast?" Harriet stepped forwards as she spoke, still staring at the screen.

Jacobs watched the screen along with the Prime Minister as she answered, "Very fast."

The large screen on the wall continued to show the spaceship getting closer and closer to them.

"What was your name, again?" Harriet Jones asked, her intense gaze not leaving the screen as she spoke.

"Sally." Sally Jacobs, growing nervous by the weariness that hid underneath the Prime Minister tone.

Inwardly, Harriet was panicking, yet when she spoke she covered that panic with the fatigue she had been feeling lately. "Thank you, Sally."

Sally nodded, a motion not seen by the pervious speaker who was too busy watching the screen.

Rose sat on the couch, trying to ignore the sleeping Kayla next to her, which was proving to be a more than a challenge than she wanted at the moment. Every five minutes she would shift, her legs going onto the blond's lap or her feet would just graze Rose's legs, or she would curl up into a ball.

"Rose." Mickey said suddenly, causing the blond to get up quickly from the couch and perch on the edge of his chair, looking at his screen. "Take a look, I've got access to the military. They're tracking a spaceship. It's big, it's fast, and it's coming this way." Rose did what he asked and saw, without her knowledge, the same live image that was being shown at UNIT.

"Well, I don't know about you, but that looks pretty bad." Kayla said, suddenly standing next to the two. At her voice, Mickey flinched and Rose let out a small shout.

"I thought you were asleep." Rose said accusingly.

Kayla shrugged before answering, "I was, and then I woke up."

Rose sighed softly and then turned her attention back to the computer screen. "Coming for what, though? The Doctor?" She asked.

"I don't know. Maybe it's coming for all of us." As if his words were a cue, four aliens appeared on screen, speaking in language that could only be described as alien.

"Have you seen them before?" At his question, Kayla and Rose both shook their heads.

"I don't even understand their language." Kayla muttered, her brow ceasing as she stared at the screen.

"But we should." Rose pressed, making Kayla shrug, utterly at lost for what's going on.

At UNIT, the same video was playing.

"Translation software." Major Blake commanded.

"Yes, sir." Alex said, leaving as the aliens speak more passionately as they were before.

"The TARDIS translates alien languages inside my head, all the time, wherever I am." Rose explained to Mickey while Kayla made tea in the kitchen.

"So, why isn't it doing it now?" Mickey asked.

"I don't know. Must be the Doctor. Like he's part of the circuit, and he's...he's broken." The blond theorized, her voice sounding lost and upset.

"The TARDIS is bonded to the Doctor, and now the Doctor is deathly ill, so the TARDIS is too." Kayla agreed, merely elaborating what Rose had said. As she passed out the tea, she continued. "The Doctor needs something, but what?" Kayla took a sip of her tea once she was done speaking.

The Doctor breathed heavily in his sleep, hearing Kayla speaking about him in the other room.

Harriet Jones went up to Major Blake, knowing that he was just as worried as she was despite his seemingly calm composer. "I'm getting demands from Washington, ma'am. The President's insisting that he take control of the situation."

"You can tell the President - and please use these exact words - he's not my boss, and he's certainly not turning this into a war." Harriet replied stonily.

The Prime Minister had already met the President when an alien ship appeared in the sky over Britain and America. While Harriet had wanted to kill the aliens, the President just wanted them gone. In the end, Torchwood had taken care of the threat, but since then, the Prime Minister had been wary to let thatman near any alien threat.

Seeing that Alex was waiting for her, Harriet walked over to him. "What've we got?"

"Nothing yet. Translating an alien language is going to take time." Alex answered, hiding his worry.

"How far off is the ship?" Blake asked, announcing his sudden arrival.

"About 5 hours." The boy answered promptly, but no reply came. For the two others were now staring at the screen, wondering what the faith of the world would be in five hours. Oh, what a happy Christmas.

"Despite claims of an alien hoax, it's been reported that NATO forces are on red alert." An American News Reader reported to Jackie Tyler, who was sitting in the Doctor's bedroom, holding his head.

"Oh, come on, sweetheart. What do you need? What is it you need, tell me..." Unusually for Jackie, her voice was soft and gentle.

"Speaking strictly off the record, government sources are calling this our longest night." The newsreader continued.

Major Blake sat in a chair, deep in thought. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Harriet Jones come up to him. He stood up wearily, automatically clasping his hands behind his back as he waited for the Prime Minister to speak.

"I don't suppose we've had a Code 9? No sign of the Doctor?"

"Nothing yet." Blake told her, watching as her eyes closed in disappointment. "You've met him, haven't you?" Harriet nodded softly. "More like the stuff of legend."

The Doctor was a legend in UNIT, a story passed down from the older officers that had been there for years, some claiming to work with the recently retired Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. He was old, and powerful. An alien that could kill the whole Earth if he wanted to, and Major Blake never forgot that.

"He is that. Failing him..." Harriet sighed and dreaded the next words out of her mouth. "What about Torchwood?"

Major Blake stared at the Prime Minister, shocked. "I—" He started, unsure of what to say.

"I know I'm not supposed to know about it, I realize that. Not even the United Nations knows. But if ever there was a need for Torchwood, it's now." Harriet rushed.

"I can't take responsibility." He tried.

"I can. See to it. Get them ready." At the sudden commanding tone in her voice, Major Blake nodded and left, ready to contact an organization that the Doctor would hate, that Major Blake hated.

"Prime Minister..." Alex said softly, announcing his approach.

"Has it worked?" Harriet asked, motioning to the laptop he carried.

"Just about." Alex reported, placing the laptop onto a desk to show her. Llewellyn and Jacobs joined them. "'People...' that could be cattle...'you belong to us. To the Sycorax'- they seem to be called Sycorax, not Martians. 'We own you. We now possess your land, your minerals, your precious stones. You will surrender or they will die. Sycorax strong, Sycorax mighty, Sycorax rock'- as in the modern sense, they rock."

"'They will die?' Not 'you will die,' 'they will die?' Who's they?" Llewellyn asked, staring at the words on screen.

"I don't know, but it is the right personal pronoun, it's they." Alex told him, checking to make sure as he spoke.

Harriet listened to the two and then sighed before she commanded what she dreaded. "Send them our reply. Tell them...'this is a day of peace on planet Earth.' Tell them...'we extend that peace to the Sycorax.'" She started her voice slightly weak as Alex took notes. "And then tell them...'this planet is armed and we do not surrender.'" Jacobs nodded her approval at the statement, and then three left the Prime Minister.

"Come on." She whispered to Llewellyn, who seemed stunned when he realized just how close the aliens were.

Kayla had joined Jackie in sitting next to the Doctor, and that had somehow ended up with Kayla curled up next to him on his bed and Jackie's head resting on a pillow she had put next to him. All three were sleeping and also being watched by Rose and Mickey in the doorway.

"The Doctor wouldn't do this. The old Doctor. The proper Doctor. He'd wake up. He'd save us." Rose said to Mickey softly, her voice shaking with suppressed tears.

"You really love him, don't you?" Mickey sighed.

At this, Rose paused for a second. "I-I thought I did," She glanced at Kayla, who was curled into the Doctor, "but he loves someone else." As she felt her heart break over the Doctor, Rose wrapped her arms around Mickey, holding back her tears for another time.

As the sun rose, UNIT was still hard at work.

"They got the message. Here comes the response." Jacobs reported, causing them all to look up at the screen to see the same group of Sycorax as before. The leader held out his hand, and around it a blue light appeared.

"What was that? Was that a reply?" Harriet asked quickly, staring at the screen.

"I don't know. Looked like some sort of energy, or...static?" Alex guessed.

"Almost like someone casting a spell." At Llewellyn's words, the blue light surrounded Jacobs and a few others head, but no one noticed. "Maybe it's a different form of language, some sort of ideogram or pictogram." At this, the members of UNIT effected by the blue light all turned on their heels and began to march from the room stiffly.

"What the hell? It's the light! It's the same light! Sally? What're you doing? Sally?" Llewellyn cried out when he saw the blond walked away. He tried to grab her, but she paid him no heed, continuing in her stiff walk.

"Oh, leave her! You'll hurt her!" Harriet commanded, as the security guards raised their guns, prepared to fire at the people.

"Let them pass!" Major Blake commanded sternly, making the guards drop their guns.

"Where are they going?" Llewellyn asked, voicing the question that was on everyone's mind.

Rose and Mickey were sitting silently as they thought about their Christmas so far, when a familiar female voice reached their ears.

"What is wrong with you? Jason? Jason?" Rose jumped up with Mickey behind her.

"Sandra?" Rose called once the door was open, stepping out to face the short brunette.

"He won't listen! He's just walking, he won't stop walking!" Sandra cried to Rose, her voice slightly hysteric. "There's this sort of... light, thing. Jason? Stop it!" Rose started to follow Sandra and after some hesitation, Mickey followed the other two. "Right now!" Sandra added. On a whim, Rose and Mickey leaned over the edge only to see dozens of people just like Jason, all walking stiffly.

Harriet Jones and the others at UNIT walk with the hypnotized people, watching them as they did so.

"They're all heading in the same direction." Harriet noted.

"It's only certain people. Why isn't it affecting us?" Llewellyn pointed out worriedly.

"Prime Minister? It's happening all over the country." Alex called over to her.

Crowds of people headed down a normal English street.

"Anna, come on, now stop this. It's not funny anymore. Come on, Anna. Come back inside the house. Katherine...Katherine, now listen to me - you come back inside now." A woman cried, trying to stop her two daughters, but they just kept on walking. "And you, Jonathan - you come back in with mummy. Jonathan, come on back in with mummy! You're scaring me now! Come on!" the woman cried out, trying to stop her son. Close to tears, she turned to her husband. "Alan, help me out here! Please!"

All around the family, others that were affected by the lights walked stiffly with the unaffected people just as hysteric as the woman was.

"As far as I can tell, they're heading for any sort of high-rise building. Anything with stairs... anything with steps..." A policeman reported into his walkie-talkie, watching as the hypnotized people walked up the stairs on the side of a building.

Llewellyn spoke urgently to Blake after several minutes of walking up stairs. "They've gone all the way up. They've gone into the roof." Blake nodded, deep in thought as they stood to the sides of the stairwell.

The crowd of hypnotized people continued their stiff way up the flight of stairs.

"Just making my way to the front of the building now. There's hundreds of them." The policeman raised his head to look up and gasped at the sight. "Oh, God. They've gone right to the edge. They're gonna jump. They're all gonna jump!"

After hearing the report from the hysteric policeman, Llewellyn raced up the stairs, his heart beating wildly in protest as only one thought ran through his mind, he had to save her, he had to save Sally Jacobs. "Sally, stop it." Llewellyn called to her, finally catching up and then walking backwards in front of her despite being on a rooftop. "It's Danny Llewellyn. Daniel Llewellyn. Sally, just concentrate. Listen to me - you're being controlled. We need you!" Sally continued on, unable to hear or respond to her. "Stop it, Sally!" Llewellyn cried out.

At the Powell Estate, Sandra was still trying to stop Jason as they stood on the rooftop. "Jason, I'm talking to you! Just stop!" She cried out as she saw him walk until he stood right on the edge. Around them, others who were hypnotized stood on the edge of the roof while their loved ones pleaded with them, terrified to pull them too much and have them fall. Instead, they could only watch in horror as they just stood there, not moving.

"It's not just the whole country. It's the whole world." Alex stated, horrified.

People stood on the edge of high-rise buildings all over the world, not twitching or blinking, just standing right on the edge.

"They've stopped. They've all stopped. They're just...standing there. Right on the edge." The hysterical policeman said into his walkie-talkie.

"According to reports, it's like a third. One third of the world's population. That's two billion people ready to jump." Alex told Harriet Jones as they both sat at his laptop.

"'Surrender or they will die...'" Llewellyn said to Major Blake, his eyes growing wide as he repeated the sentence.

"What do we do?" Mickey asked Rose, staring around at the frantic and stiff people on the roof.

Rose answered in a dead voice. "Nothing. There's no-one to save us. Not anymore."

WELCOME TO DANCING WITH THE DOCTOR!

Yeah, so ending with a happy note and all.

Also, thank you so much for all the reviews, favorites, and followers of Dark Beauty-Sweet Evil. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

A word regarding the second part...it's over 9 thousand words, sorry, so get ready for your eyes to hurt.

Review answering time (from the last chapter):

TeamTHEFT: Thanks!

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helenamaimi: Here it is!