Somehow, as a Christmas present, Alex and Rose had persuaded the Doctor to stay at the flat for a whole seven days. They'd even got him to sit still for the duration of some Christmas movies, even if it was under the stern threat that Alex would kill him if he talked over the good bits.
But now, it was 2:30 in the morning on the 2nd of January. They would be leaving tomorrow, but for now, most of the household was sleeping.
Well, half.
Alex and the Doctor were back in her bedroom, sitting against the headboard of her bed. And Alex had something on her mind.
"Did we kiss? On the Game Station, I mean," she said. "You know, while I was all shiny and awesome."
"Yeah," he replied. "Don't you remember?"
"I remember the worst pick up line in the whole of human history," she said pointedly, raising an eyebrow at him. "'I think you need a Doctor'? Seriously?"
"Hey!" he complained. "I was a little more focused on the saving your life bit, actually."
She grinned. "Yeah. Thanks, by the way."
"No probs." He hesitated. "I might have run some scans with the TARDIS."
"Scans?"
"To see what's happening to you," he clarified. "It's kind of a big one."
She sat up, tense. "Tell me."
"Okay, don't freak out, but... you're sort of mutating into an entirely new species. Doesn't even have a name." He watched as she froze for a second, then sat back, relaxing. "You okay?"
"I think so," she said, but her voice was shaking a bit. "It's actually slightly less terrifying than literally losing my head... So when you say a new species, you mean like... you know, an alien."
The Doctor smiled. "Technically, I think you're an Earthlien."
"But, but you mean not human," she realised. "Christ, that's... How can you tell?"
"Well, you're growing a second heart, for starters." He scanned her up and down with the sonic. "Regenerative cycle, some psychic oddities..."
Alex stared. "Two hearts? Like you?"
"Well, sort of, but you're definitely not a Time Lord. There are way too many discrepancies, different blood composition, different synaptic networking, really really different metabolic processing," he explained. "Er, you might find you're faster than usual. Like, really fast. Super fast."
"Well shit," she said quietly, which seemed to sum it up nicely. "What am I gonna tell the others?"
"You don't have to tell them anything yet," the Doctor told her, putting his arm around her shoulders. "How about we wait until we know exactly what this all means, eh?"
She met his eyes, smiling. "Always the voice of reason. Thanks for being here."
He shrugged softly, careful not to jolt her. "Anytime."
***
And when Rose checked in on them the next morning, she grinned, seeing them curled up asleep together. Like before, Alex was snuggled in close to him, her head on his chest.
This time, though, the Doctor was smiling.
~~~
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Watch Us Run |1| The Ascension | A Doctor Who/MCU Fanfiction
Science Fiction✅ approx 185,000 words. It's March 2005, and Alex Tyler is barely recovering from recent trauma. Living with her mum and older sister, she has good friends, and she's doing what she loves at work. But sometimes, she thinks, there has to be somethin...
