They were standing in the living room.
„What are you doing here?" asked the man in the leather jacket, confusion visible on his face.
„I live here." Rose answered, just as confused.
„Well, what do you do that for?" the man asked again, now looking like he was almost offended.
„Because I do! And I'm only at home because someone blew up where I work at!" Rose was now just as exasperated.
Steven was quietly working on the TV from the back, stealing glances as the two were arguing. You didn't get to watch drama like this very often, so he let himself watch. Apparently Jackie had the same idea; as she was half-hidden behind the kitchen wall, peeking out while sipping her tea.
„I must have got the wrong signal" the man was looking at a device in his hand. „You're not plastic, are you?" Then he knocked on Rose's head. „No, bonehead. Bye then." He grinned and turned to leave, but was interrupted by Jackie, who was now standing behind him.
„Who is it?" Jackie asked.
„He was just leaving." Answered Rose for him, clearly wanting to usher the man out.
„Well he's already here, might as well offer him coffee?"
„Might as well, thanks!" The man stopped in his place with a smile on his face, „Just milk."
While Rose, annoyed, went to the kitchen with Jackie, the man stayed in the living room, taking a look around. That was when he noticed Steven, who just stood up from behind the TV.
„Jackie" he shouted to the kitchen, although it was unnecessary in such a small flat, „The TV is done!"
„Thank you, you're an angel, do you want to stay for breakfast?"
„No, thank you! I should be going now."
Steven nodded and then turned to say goodbye to the stranger, who was silently staring at him with a look that could say a thousand words.
„Yes, quite right. Bye!"
Was the only thing the man could muster, his hand between his back and a smile so obviously fake even to Steven, who didn't even know the man, could see it.
Steven went to the kitchen to say his goodbyes, while the man stayed where he was, still staring at Steven's back, deep in thought when he heard something rattle.
Startled, he turned and looked toward the sound. Unseen by anyone else, a plastic arm on the sofa suddenly sprang to life and grabbed him by the throat.
Rose came in from the kitchen with two mugs in her hands and noticed the man thrashing on the sofa, apparently wrestling with a mannequin hand that was choking him.
„I told Mickey to chuck that out," Rose said as she put the mugs down on the table. „You're all the same. Give a man a plastic hand… Anyway, I don't even know your name. Doctor, was it?"
Doctor?
Steven was still in the kitchen, talking with Jackie, when he heard Rose call the man Doctor. Doctor, huh? Why did that feel… familiar? Like a déjà vu that wouldn't quite surface.
He decided to go back to the living room, and just as he did, he saw this Doctor manage to throw the arm off. But instead of falling down, it defied physics, stopped mid-air, and grabbed Rose's face instead.
For a second Steven froze. But for some unknown reason, a strong instinct rushed through him, as if he suddenly knew exactly what to do to fix this. He glanced at the Doctor, who was still clutching his own throat and gasping for air while staring at Rose in alarm. Then the Doctor's eyes flicked to Steven, who was already reaching for the sonic scredriver lying on the floor, where it had landed when it was knocked from the Doctor's hand.
Steven picked up the sonic screwdriver, pointed it at Rose's head, and gave a mental instruction to the screwdriver to execute. The device whirred, the tip glowed blue, and he managed to get it off Rose. The plastic hand releasing her, Steven then jabbed the device into the palm of the hand. The fingers soon stopped flexing, then went limp.
„What was that?" Rose also gasping and leaning against the wall asked the two.
The Doctor, looking between Rose, Steven, and the arm, decided to de-escalate.
„It's all right. Your pal stopped it." He then picked up the arm. „There you go, you see? Armless."
„Oh, do you think?" Rose took the arm from the Doctor and smacked him with it. „Ow!"
While the two of them argued, Steven stood frozen. He was still holding the sonic srewdriver, staring at it. No words came out, but his brain was running at a hundred miles an hour.
He then, as if coming to a realization, suddenly looked at the Doctor and then Rose, and then back at the screwdriver and said,
„Ah, my apologies. I should take my leave now!"
Both the Doctor and Rose turned to look at Steven. Rose clearly wanted to ask Steven how he had done what he did, while the Doctor stayed silent, his expression saying he understood more than he was letting on.
Steven turned toward the door, then hesitated, turned back, and carefully set the sonic srewdriver down on the coffee table. He looked at the Doctor again, who still didn't say anything. Steven had no idea what was going on in the man's head—only that something about all of this was wrong, and that the answer was sitting right at the tip of his tounge, stubbornly refusing to come.
He then heard a bell ringing in the distance. So did the Doctor, who also took notice and glanced in the same direction.
Steven turned to leave the flat, only to find Jackie blocking the doorway, phone in hand, clearly halfway to calling for help but frozen by the sight in front of her. Steven quickly apologised, nodded, and slipped past her, running out of the apartment.
The remaining three stayed in the living room, Jackie and Rose each glancing between the other two, waiting for answers. The Doctor now had a faint smile on his face, arms crossed over his chest, with a look that said he understood the situation.
Realising she wasn't going to get any explanation from him, Rose rushed out of the flat, shouting after Steven. By the time she reached the landing, she saw over the railing that Steven was already downstairs, running in that same funny way he always did when he was in a hurry.
„Haha." Rose only chuckled. „Like a penguin that has his arse set on fire."
As she watched Steven's figure grow smaller in the distance, she felt a breeze behind her and saw the Doctor also heading out.
„Hold on a minute! You can't just go swanning off!"
„Yes, yes I can." The Doctor chuckled without turning around. „Here I am. This is me, swanning off. See ya!"
Rose started running after him, leaving Jackie in the door as she also came out and was staring at them.
„But that arm was moving. It tried to kill me!"
***
Steven was running.
He didn't know where he was going; he just kept running, his thoughts in overdrive. He could hear whispering, but couldn't tell from where.
He finally stopped in the middle of the small yard, where the garages were.
Panting, he reached into his pocket and took something out. As his fingers brushed the metal, a jolt running up his arm.
The watch was warm. Not hot enough to burn, but unmistakably warm, like somebody left it out in the sun while on a beach somewhere.
For the first time since he'd owned this fob watch—however long that actually was—he heard something from within. The whispering he'd been hearing all this time was coming from the watch.
„You're late again!"
The voice was he heard was dry and amused.
„Sorry!" Steven heard his own voice albeit younger and sharper. „Had to recalibrate the dimensional anchor on Bay Thirteen. Some idiot tried to park a Type 79 without the safety protocols."
The other voice snorted. „Oh, you mechanics and your anchors. One day, you'll realise the universe isn't meant to be tidy!"
The voices then laughed.
As Steven listened, visions rose to match the conversation. He saw the place where it had happened.
He saw a metal balcony overlooking a vast, sunlit city. Towers in every direction. Lights, twisting and curling like frozen flames in a huge dome that dominated the horizon, catching that light and scattering it in shards.
Above him, the sky burned orange. Two suns hung low—one of them bright white, while the other softer and orange-coloured.
He knew this place. The memory sat inside him like something carved into his bones.
Home.
He looked back down at the watch sitting in his open palm. The mechanism, which had never budged no matter how hard he'd tried, now seemed almost inviting, as if waiting for him to try again.
Steven repositioned the fob watch in his hand, his thumb on the button, then he clicked the watch open.