“He’s not my dad,” Rose kept reminding herself whenever she thought about Pete Tyler. Her phone had connected to this world’s network and she had done a quick Internet search. Her mother and father had married and were rich. But Rose herself had never been born. Every time she thought about it, it made her shiver. She wasn’t supposed to be here. She didn’t exist here. She and Mickey were the aliens in this world.
But she still wanted to see them. Even if they weren’t her parents, she wanted to see them. Had her real dad’s plans always failed because he’d had her? Had she been the cause of all of her family’s misfortunes? The thought nagged at her, making her feel even smaller and more unwanted than she had after the Doctor ran off to save Reinette.
“If we’re in a parallel world,” Mickey was saying, “I wonder…I wonder if my gran is still around.”
“Mickey, no,” Rose said firmly. “She’s not your gran. We need to just keep our heads down for a few days until the TARDIS recovers and then we can go back home.”
“Well, I don’t know about you, Rose Tyler, but I’m going to go explore,” he growled before he let go of her hand and ran off into the crowd. Rose tried to run after him but the press of people kept her from reaching him. By the time she’d shoved her way through, Mickey was gone.
Rose sighed. The TARDIS was too weak to do anything and Mickey had run off. She had no way of finding him. She could go back to the ship – part of her mind told her this would be the wisest course of action – and wait. But her dad was alive. Or rather Peter Tyler was alive. If she didn’t say anything to him…if she just looked at her parents in this world…that would be all right, wouldn’t it?
She continued to walk through the crowds, trying to figure out where Mickey might have run off to. “His gran, of course,” she muttered to herself. “She was a really great lady. Raised him up after his mom left him. Died about five years ago – tripped on a rug and fell down the stairs. I was still in school, then.”
Turning on her heel, she headed towards where Mickey’s gran had lived. Then the crowd stopped dead. Everything seemed to have stopped. Her phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out and glanced at it. “A daily update? News, international news, sports, weather, lottery numbers, joke…”
The crowd burst into laughter and then began moving again. Rose stared at them. They all had earpods – like Bluetooth devices – plugged into both ears. “They must be getting that update straight into their heads,” she grimaced. That kind of technology would be hailed as a success back on her world. She frowned and walked over to an alleyway where she could search her phone in peace. The network was the Cybus network. Scanning through the information she saw that they owned just about everything – including Vitex. “Looks like Dad is pretty well connected here,” she muttered.
“If I don’t say anything…” she sighed. Temptation loomed too large for her to resist. She thought only the Doctor standing in front of her asking for a snog would make her pause. “I’ll just go…check this out,” she told herself firmly, masking pain with action.
~*~*~*~
Mickey strode down the road with the calm self-assurance of one who belonged there. That was the trick to being invisible – act like you belonged there and people wouldn’t notice you at all. As he headed down a hill, he saw a barricade manned by several army guards. They carried rifles and were dressed in camouflage.
“Is this open?” he asked as he approached them.
“Of course it is,” one of them replied. “Curfew doesn’t start until sundown.”
“Curfew?” Mickey wondered as he was let through the barricade. “What the hell kind of place is this?”
Walking down the streets, he found the one where he and his gran had lived. He walked up to the door of their home and knocked on it. His heart pounded when he heard her calling. She pulled the door open, her cane letting her find her way.
“Who is it?” she demanded. Mickey’s heart lurched in his chest. This was his grandmother! Alive and well here on this parallel Earth. Just seeing her made his heart gallop with joy. She had the same soft and wrinkled brown skin, the same dark glasses, and the same salt-and-pepper hair. “I know you’re there. Shame on you tricking an old lady,” she scolded, “I’ve got nothing worth stealing! And don’t think I’m going to disappear. You’re not going to take me!”
“Aye,” Mickey said breathlessly.
“Is that you?” his gran asked, a hopeful smile on her face.
“It’s me,” he answered happily. “I came home.”
“Ricky?” she asked, reaching out a hand to pat his head.
“It’s Mickey,” he smiled.
“I know my own grandson’s name. It’s Ricky. Now, come here,” she said as she folded her arms around Mickey, hugging him tightly.
“Okay, I’m Ricky,” Mickey said. “Of course I am. Ricky, that’s me.”
His gran began slapping at him. “You stupid boy! Where have you been? It’s been days and days! I keep hearing all these stories. People disappearing off the streets. There’s nothing official on the download but there are all these rumors and whispers and I thought they’d gone and disappeared you!”
Mickey looked into the house. He saw the carpet on the stairs – the one his gran had tripped on. “That carpet on the stairs. I told you to get it fixed. You’re gonna fall and break your neck,” he chided.
“Well, you get it fixed for me,” his gran retorted.
“I should’ve done way back,” he agreed. “I guess I’m just kinda useless.”
“Now,” he gran grinned. “I never said that.”
“I am, though. And I’m sorry, Gran. I’m so sorry,” he wept.
“Don’t talk like that. Do you know what you need? A nice sit-down and a cup of tea. You got time?”
“For you I’ve got all the time in the world,” Mickey said, waves of joy and relief washing over him.
“Oh,” his gran laughed self-deprecatingly, “you say that but it’s all talk. It’s those new friends of yours. I don’t trust them.”
“What friends are they?” Mickey asked.
“Don’t pretend you don’t know,” she said angrily. “You’ve been seen Mrs. Chan told me. Driving about all helter-skelter in that van.”
“What van’s that then?” he protested.
“You know full well! Don’t play games with me! Get inside!” she ordered, turning to enter the flat. Mickey moved to follow her but just then a blue van drove up the road and fishtailed, spinning about. A white man with spiky blond hair leapt out and grabbed Mickey.
“We’ve been looking for you everywhere!” he shouted as he pushed Mickey into the van. They drove off, leaving his gran behind. “Ricky, you were the one who told us. You don’t contact your family because it puts them in danger.”
“Yeah, Ricky said that,” Mickey agreed quickly, uncertain of what to do. “Of course I did. Just testin’.”
“I saw them,” the blond man said excitedly. “I taped them. They went around Black Fries gathering up the homeless like a child catcher. They must have took four dozen.”
“The vans were hired out to a company called International Electromagnetics,” the driver, a woman, said. “But I did a protocol search. Turns out that’s a dummy company established by – guess who?”
“I dunno, who?” Mickey asked.
“Cybus Industries!” the driver and the blond bloke shouted in disbelief.
“Well now we’ve got evidence,” the bloke said to the driver.
“Bad news is they’ve arrested Thin Jimmy. So that just leaves you,” the driver continued.
“Leaves me what?” Mickey asked.
“The number one,” the blond bloke nodded, his eyebrows raised. “Top of the list. London’s Most Wanted.”
“Haha,” Mickey laughed. “Okay, cool. Say that again?” he demanded, confused. London’s Most Wanted? What the hell had his counterpart on this parallel world been up to?
~*~*~*~
The van finally stopped after nightfall. It pulled up to an old, decrepit-looking building. The blond bloke hopped out of the back doors and Mickey followed him.
“There’s a light on,” he remarked. “There should be someone inside the base. Mrs. Moore,” he said, speaking to the driver. “We’ve got visitors!”
The trio headed into the base. The hallways were cold and dark. They crouched, moving through the shadows. The blond bloke had a pistol out. Mickey had never seen a proper pistol up close before. He’d kind of wanted one when Rose had told him about Jimmy Stone beating her bloody but guns were illegal in Britain. At least they were in his Britain. Blond-spike hair sidled up to a door and then counted to three before busting it down, his pistol pointed, searching for a target.
“What the hell are you doing?” a rough but familiar voice demanded. Mickey shuddered. That was his voice!
“What are you doing there?” the blond bloke responded, sounding confused.
“What am I doing here?” Mickey’s alter ego muttered as he walked across the room. “What am I doing there?” he asked, pointing at Mickey. The driver and the blond bloke turned on Mickey, pointing their guns at his face. He raised his hands in surrender. Surely he could come up with a half-way believable explanation before they shot him…
~*~*~*~
Rose hid in the shadows along her parents – no, her parents’ alter egos’ – driveway. Many cars – most of them limousines – had come up the drive. Her mind raced. Her parents – no, they weren’t her parents – had a lot of visitors.
“February 1st,” she whispered to herself. “Mum’s birthday. Even in a parallel universe, she still loves a party.” She watched the people entering the house. They looked very posh. “Only one thing to do then,” she muttered to herself. “God, I just hope they don’t dress me like a French maid.”