THE RUN FOR ROSE
CHAPTER 5: Daleks in the Morning
Leaning her elbows on the table, Rose sipped her coffee and waited for Jane to elaborate. “What I’m about to tell you must go no further than this room.” Rose nodded her assent. “I won’t tell a soul, promise.” She smiled. “Besides, who’d believe me?” Sighing, Jane pushed back her chair and crossed her legs. “About twenty years ago, I was in the Air Force–military intelligence. I was working at a top secret base known publicly, as Area 51.” Rose almost choked on her coffee. Mickey was forever going on about that place, but until now she wasn’t sure she believed it. “Really?” She said. “You mean it, there really is a place like that?”
Jane smiled grimly. “Oh believe me, it’s very real. Your friend the Doctor can attest to that.” She added cryptically. “Tell me, does he still carry that silly umbrella with the question mark handle?” Rose gave her a puzzled look. “What, him? The Doctor? With a funny umbrella?” She wrinkled her forehead, trying to picture the beefy Doctor in his leather jacket and close cropped hair, walking about with a crazy umbrella…She shook her head. “Nahh–not him. He’s too….straight up manly, he is.” She smiled playfully, “At least, I think so.” Jane eyed Rose over her coffee cup. “Ah, okay–to each her own, I suppose.” She took a sip of coffee and continued. “Anyway, I was assigned to a British alien task force known as U.N.I.T. and it was while I was with them that I met the Doctor.”
“It was hushed up rather quickly, but the truth is, England was being invaded by an alien force known as the Daleks.” Rose gasped, and Jane raised an eyebrow. “Ah. I see you’ve heard of them. Very nasty pieces of work, aren’t they?” Without waiting for an answer, she continued, “To make a long story short, neither of us would be here now, if it weren’t for the Doctor.”
Giving Rose a tight smile, she added, “He saved my life, you know.” Rose returned the smile. “Mine too..more than once.” Jane sighed. “So, now you know how I know the Doctor. Now, what about you, Rose?” She asked, her features narrowing. “Because if there’s nothing else I know about the Doctor, it’s that wherever he goes, trouble always seems to follow him. Where do you fit into all this? And how the hell did you wind up in my stable at the crack of dawn?”
The Doctor Placed a strand of hair on the Tardis console, muttering. “Come on, come on you dodgy old thing, work!” Just then, the voice boomed into the console room. “You have less then thirty minutes Doctor. I hope you’re not trying something foolish, like locating your companion. If you do that…well, then, I’ll just have to kill her straight off. The voice assumed a false pout. “And that would ruin our little game, and we wouldn’t want that, would we?”
Without bothering to turn around the Doctor yelled, “I could care less about your stupid little games. Why don’t you find something else to do? Go shopping, visit the thousandth annual intergalactic carnival on Baylor, remove the lint between your toes–assuming you have toes. Why are you bothering me for? You know what? You bore me! I find you very, very boring! Why don’t you go away and bother somebody else?”
With that, the Doctor bent to his task and ignored the voice, which assumed a hollow mocking laugh that slowly faded to nothingness. The Doctor pressed his forehead against the Tardis console and sighed.
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