Watch Us Run |1| The Ascension | A Doctor Who/MCU Fanfiction

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Love And Monsters

Around five hundred lightyears away, a young man named Elton Pope was returning to the Powell Estate with two pizzas. But when he got there, Jackie Tyler was waiting for him outside, his coat in her arms. 

"Right, let's get inside then," he said, confused. "The pizza's getting cold." 

Jackie glared at him. "I went in your coat," she admitted. "For once in my life, I thought I'll pay. I thought he's such a nice man, he won't accept anything, so I'll just slip a tenner in his pocket. And look what I found. A photograph of my daughters." She brandished the image, a black and white photo of the girls as they had been on Christmas Day, when the Sycorax had come to Earth. 

Elton's eyes widened, recognising the image he had found. "No, no, no, no, no, it's not like that! I can explain!" 

"Of course you can," Jackie sneered at him. 

"I wasn't being pervy or anything," he tried. "I wasn't after them, I was looking for the Doctor." 

"Oh, I know that," she scoffed. "I worked that out. 'Cause it's never me, is it?" 

Elton bit his lip. "No, but that's how it started, but I changed my mind!" 

"Let me tell you something about those who get left behind," Jackie snapped. "Because it's hard. And that's what you become, hard. But if there's one thing I've learnt, it's that I will never let them down. And I'll protect them all—my Rose and my Alex and her Doctor—until the end of my life! So whatever you want, I'm warning you. Back off!"

Elton wilted. "But Jackie, I only wanted to meet him." 

Jackie shook her head, her anger melting into hurt. "I thought you liked me." 

"I do," Elton tried. 

She shook her head. "Just get out of here. I said, get out! And leave me alone!" She turned and ran into the flat, and as Elton walked away outside, Jackie picked up her mobile phone. 

***

It had become clear to Alex that her phone was destined to ring only at the most inopportune of moments. Last week, it had been partway the coronation of Victoria—which had been a difficult one to explain to the new Queen. This time, she was being chased by a Hoix. A snarling, vicious, flesh-eating Hoix. 

Naturally. 

And even more naturally, she had just been doused in a lovely blue bucket of chemicals. She was freezing. But still, she answered the call, and she tried to sound as normal as possible, hoping against hope that the Hoix's growls weren't transmitting. "Hello?" 

Behind her, the Doctor and Rose were dealing with the Hoix in an escapade that would have reminded her of Scooby Doo had she not been concentrating fully on her mother's frantically recounted tale. "He had a picture of us? What's his name?" 

With the Hoix subdued, the Doctor and Rose came over, alerted by Alex's concerned expression. "No, no, no, don't worry about it," she was saying, waving a hand redundantly. "We'll sort it. Love you too." She ended the call, biting her lip. 

"What's happened?" Rose asked. 

Alex looked up at them both, her expression grim. "A man named Elton Pope." She turned her gaze on the Doctor. "And he was looking for you."

*** 

Later, the TARDIS landed in a small alleyway in the backstreets of London. The Doctor was the first to step out, his eyes skirting the landscape and the grotesque half-naked alien before landing on Elton Pope. He raised an eyebrow. "Someone wants a word with you."