Doctor Who Fan Fiction ❯ Dr Who - What If ❯ Evolution of the Daleks in Manhatten ( Chapter 7 )

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'Where are we?' Rose asked with a smile as she stepped out of the TARDIS, looking out over a bay, with skyscrapers in the distance.

The Doctor stepped out after her, and took a few steps forward. 'Hah, smell that Atlantic breeze . . . nice and cold, lovely.' He turned to face her and then looked up. 'Rose, have you met my friend?'

She turned around and looked up also. 'Is that . . . ? Oh my God! That's the Statue of Liberty!'

'Gateway to the New World,' he said. 'Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to break free . . .'

'That's so brilliant. I've always wanted to go to New York. I mean the real New York, not the new, new, new, new, new . . .'

'Well,' he said turning back to look over the Hudson River towards Manhattan. 'There's the genuine article. So good, they named it twice. Mind you, it was New Amsterdam originally, harder to say twice. No wonder it didn't catch on. New Amsterdam, New Amsterdam.'

'I wonder what year it is `cos look, the Empire State Building's not even finished yet.'

'Work in progress. Still got a couple floors to go, and if I know my history, that makes the date somewhere around . . .'

Rose picked up a discarded newspaper while he was talking. 'November 1, 1930,' she said.

'You're getting good at this.' He turned around, and realised that she'd been cheating.

'Eighty years ago,' she said, as the Doctor took the newspaper and started to read the lead story. 'Come on, you. Where do we go first?'

She looked at him, and realised that he was frowning at the story. 'I think our little sightseeing tour just got longer,' he said, as he showed her the headline.

'Hooverville Mystery Deepens,' she read. 'What's Hooverville?'

'I think I'd better show you. Come on; let's get the ferry over to Manhattan Island.'

They wandered down onto the jetty that led to the “Old Ferry Dock”, and boarded the Battery Park - Liberty Island paddle steamer ferry. As they made their way across the Hudson, Rose looked on in wonder at the steam ships powering their way through the water, along with Clippers and Schooners in full sail, making their way in from the Atlantic and heading for the Ellis Island Immigration Station.

The ferry docked at Battery Park, and they caught a bus which took them the four miles to Central Park. At the Museum of Art, on Fifth Avenue, they hopped off the bus and strolled through the park towards the shanty town on the Central Lawn.

'Herbert Hoover, Thirty First President of the USA, came to power a year ago. Up till then New York was a boom town, the Roaring Twenties, and then . . .'

'The Wall Street Crash, yeah? When was that?' Rose asked.

'October 24, 1929. Whole economy wiped out overnight. Thousands of people unemployed. Suddenly the huddled masses doubled in number with nowhere to go. So they ended up here in Central Park.'

'What? They actually live in the park? In the middle of the city?' The Doctor didn't answer; he just gave her a look that said “you'd better believe it”.

'Ordinary people . . . lost their jobs,' he told her as they walked through the cobbled together shacks. 'Couldn't pay the rent and they lost everything.' It reminded Rose of the Pharmacy shanty town that they'd visited in New New York, only a few hours earlier and five billion years in the future. 'There are places like this all over America . . . You only come to Hooverville when there's nowhere else to go.'

They came across some men fighting in a clearing between the tents. A big, dark skinned man, who they'd called Solomon was pulling them apart. He was wearing a long brown coat similar to the Doctors and a brown trilby hat.

`No stealing and no fighting. You know the rules. Thirteen years ago I fought in the Great War. A lot of us did. And the only reason we got through was because we stuck together. No matter how bad things get, we still act like human beings. It's all we got.'

The two fighters walked away as the Doctor nudged Rose's arm. `Come on.' He went over to Solomon. `I suppose that makes you the boss around here.'

`And, er, who might you be?'

`He's the Doctor. I'm Rose.'

`A doctor. Huh. Well, we got stockbrokers, we got a lawyer, but you're the first doctor. Neighbourhood gets classier by the day.'

`How many people live here?' Rose asked.

`At any one time, hundreds. No place else to go. But I will say this about Hooverville. We are a truly equal society. Black, white, all the same. All starving. So you're welcome, both of you. But tell me. Doctor, you're a man of learning, right? Explain this to me. That there's going to be the tallest building in the world. How come they can do that, when we got people starving in the heart of Manhattan?' Solomon walked off without waiting for an answer.

They followed him through the ramshackle camp until he stopped outside a tent, where he picked up a coffee pot and threw out the dregs.

The Doctor held up the newspaper and showed him the headline about the deepening mystery in Hooverville. `So, men are going missing. Is this true?'

`It's true all right,' Solomon said.

`But what does missing mean? Men must come and go here all the time. It's not like anyone's keeping a register,' the Doctor said.

Solomon nodded to his tent. `Come on in. This is different.'

`In what way?' asked Rose.

Solomon sat on his cot and beckoned them inside. `Someone takes them, at night. We hear something, someone calls out for help. By the time we get there, they're gone like they vanished into thin air.'

`And you're sure someone's taking them?' the Doctor asked.

`Doctor, when you got next to nothing, you hold on to the little you got. Your knife, blanket, you take it with you. You don't leave bread uneaten, fire still burning.'

`Have you been to the police?' Rose enquired.

`Yeah, we tried that. Another deadbeat goes missing, big deal.'

`So the question is, who's taking them and what for?'

They heard a voice call from outside. `Solomon!' A young man appeared at the opening of the tent. `Solomon, Mister Diagoras is here.'

Solomon stood and followed the young man out of the tent. The Doctor and Rose followed. In the clearing were three men in expensive suits.

`I need men. Volunteers. I've got a little work for you and you sure look like you can use the money.' The Doctor and Rose assumed that he was Diagoras.

`Yeah. What is the money?' the young man asked.

`A dollar a day.'

`What's the work?' Solomon asked.

`A little trip down the sewers. Got a tunnel collapsed needs clearing and fixing. Any takers?'

`A dollar a day? That's slave wage. And men don't always come back up, do they,' Solomon said.

`Accidents happen,' Diagoras said casually.

The Doctor's interest was piqued. `What do you mean? What sort of accidents?'

`You don't need the work? That's fine. Anybody else?'

Diagoras's reluctance to answer his question sealed it. The Doctor was hooked. He raised his hand.

`Enough with the questions,' Diagoras said irritably.

`Oh, no, no, no. I'm volunteering. I'll go.'

Rose looked at him and raised her hand as well. `I'll kill you for this.'

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The Doctor left Rose with the showgirl Tallulah in her dressing room, while he went back to the props room of the theatre, to build a gadget that would analyse some green gunk he'd found in the sewer. They had climbed a ladder to escape some pig faced mutants, and ended up in a theatre, where a showgirl called Tallulah had held them at bay with an imitation revolver.

Tallulah was getting ready for her next show, and had put on her skimpy angel costume. Rose had immediately taken a liking to Tallulah, when she'd had the nerve to threaten them with a gun that wasn't even real. That took guts.

Tallulah was telling her about her boyfriend who had gone missing. `Laszlo. He'd wait for me after the show. Walk me home like I was a lady. He'd leave a flower for me on my dressing table. Every day, just a single rose bud.'

`Haven't you reported him missing?'

`Sure. He's just a stagehand. Who cares? The management certainly don't.'

Rose remembered that Solomon had said something similar about the missing people in Hooverville. `Can't you kick up a fuss or something?'

`Okay, so then they fire me.'

`But they'd listen to you. You're one of the stars.'

`Oh, Honey, I got one song in a back street revue and that's only because Heidi Chicane broke her ankle. Which had nothing to do with me whatever anybody says. I can't afford to make a fuss. If I don't make this month's rent, then before you know it, I'm in Hooverville.'

Rose remembered her mum having to do hairdressing on the estate to make ends meet, and that was with housing benefits. People here had no such support. `Okay, I get it.'

That set Rose thinking about her mum. How was she getting on? She certainly wouldn't have to worry about money ever again. She wondered how the pregnancy was progressing and whether she would have a brother or a sister. It didn't really matter, she would never know.

`It's the Depression, Sweetie,' Tallulah said, bringing her out of her melancholy thoughts. `Your heart might break, but the show goes on. Because if it stops, you starve. Every night I have to go out there, sing, dance, keep going.' Her bottom lip trembled as she started to cry. `Hoping he's going to come back.'

Rose instinctively pulled her into a comforting hug and rubbed her back. `I'm sorry.'

`Hey, you're lucky, though. You got yourself a forward thinking guy with that hot potato in the sharp suit.'

`Hot potato? More like a bag of chips in newspaper,' Rose said with a lopsided smile. `I don't think he's ready to commit to a relationship just yet.'

`Oh, sure he is. I've seen the looks you two give each other. It's obvious.'

`Not to him.'

`Oh, I should have realised. He's into musical theatre, huh?' said Tallulah. `What a waste. Still, you got to live in hope.'

Rose was trying to work out what she was talking about, when the penny finally dropped, along with her jaw. `Musical theatre, you think he's gay. Oh he is SO not gay,' she laughed.

`No Honey. I wasn't saying whether he was happy or sad, I was saying whether he was a . . . you know . . . a homosexual.'

It dawned on Rose that in the 1930's, gay just meant happy. She started to laugh, and thought about what she had just said. “He is SO not happy,” is how it sounded to Tallulah, and she laughed even more.

Tallulah was completely baffled by Rose's amusement. `Are you okay Sweetie?'

Rose was going to tell her that she found something funny but said, `it's okay, I'm just gay,' and collapsed into fits of laughter again. When she had recovered from her laughing fit, she tried to explain. `It's just that he's had a lot of trauma in his life, what with the war an' everythin' . . . he just needs time.'

`Oh, he saw action in the trenches did he?' Tallulah asked, thinking Rose was talking about the Great War in Europe, rather than a Time War on Gallifrey. `You just got to hold on to your hope Honey. It's the only thing that's kept me going because, well, look.' She picked up a single white rose and handed it to Rose. `On my dressing table every day still.'

`You think it's Laszlo?'

`I don't know. If he's still around, why is he being all secret like he doesn't want me to see him?'

Rose was reminded of the time her mum took her to see “Phantom of the Opera” in the West End. Mickey had gone to a football match that evening, so they had a girls night out. She remembered the plot was about a disfigured man who lurked in the theatre, and was in love with the female lead.

Maybe Laszlo had been disfigured in an accident and didn't want Tallulah to think she had to stay with him out of pity. Or, maybe he was in trouble and lying low, getting one of the stage hands to put a rose on her dressing table on his behalf.

Before she could voice these theories, Tallulah hurried out into the corridor. `Girls, its show time!'

`Lois, you spoil my chasse tonight, I'm going to punch you,' one of the scantily clad dancers said.

`Aw, quit complaining, Myrna. Go buy yourself some glasses,' Lois replied.

Tallulah turned back to Rose. `Come on, Honey. Take a look. Ever been on stage before?'

`Oh, a little bit. You know, Shakespeare,' Rose said trying to sound all high brow and impressive.

`How dull is that?' Tallulah howled. `Come and see a real show.'

“Dull!” Rose thought to herself. “If you only knew”.

The Doctor was up in the lighting gallery, using the heat from one of the spot lamps to warm up the green gunk, and scanning it with the gadget he'd cobbled together.

`This is artificial.'

From the stage below, the Master of Ceremonies introduced the performers. `Ladies and gentlemen. The Laurenzi.'

`Genetically engineered. Whoever this is, oh, you're clever,' he said to himself.

`Dancing devils, with Heaven and Hell!' the voice announced from below.

Rose watched from the wings as the curtains opened to show the chorus line in their skimpy red devil dresses, who pulled back their red feather fans to reveal Tallulah, the angel in white.

Across the stage, in the wings opposite, Rose spotted a pig-man watching the performance. He seemed to be paying particular attention to Tallulah. She tried to sneak across the back of the stage unnoticed, which didn't go well.

In the lighting gallery above, oblivious to the chaos Rose was causing on stage, the Doctor was listening to the jellyfish with a stethoscope. `Fundamental DNA type four six seven dash nine eight nine . . . Nine eight nine.' He pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to think. `Hold on, that means planet of origin . . .' A cold chill ran down his spine. `Skaro!'

`Get off the stage. You're spoiling it!' Tallulah told Rose.

`But look. Over there!' Rose pointed to the wings where the pig-man was standing. Tallulah screamed and it ran away.

`Hey!' Rose called out and set off after it. `Wait!'

It ran into the prop room where they had first entered the theatre. `But you're different to the others! Just wait!' There was a clang from within the room, and when she entered, she was alone.

The Doctor ran into the corridor where all the dancers were standing around, busily discussing what had happened and what they thought they had seen. He saw Tallulah and hurried over to her.

`Where is she? Where's Rose?'

`I don't know. She ran off the stage.'

They heard a scream echo along the corridor from the direction of the props room. The Doctor recognised it at once.

`ROSE!' He ran down the corridor, with Tallulah following.

The props room was empty when he got there, and he could see the manhole cover was lifted slightly. He knew where Rose had gone. He slid the cover off the entrance and started to climb down.

`Where are you going?' Tallulah asked as she entered the room.

`They've taken her.'

`Who's taken her? What're you doing?'

Without answering, he disappeared down into the sewer.

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`Look at this place. Top of the world,' Tallulah said as she walked into the works office at the top of the Empire State building with Rose, and a young Tennessee man from Hooverville called Frank.

Rose was sure the Doctor had given her the psychic paper to get in there, but wasn't sure why. She made her way over to a drawing board with the building blueprints on it.

`Okay, now this looks good,' she said.

Frank looked over her shoulder. `Hey, look at the date. These designs were issued today. They must've changed something last minute.'

`You mean the Daleks changed somethin'?'

`Yeah, could be.'

Rose lifted the drawing and looked at the earlier revisions. `The ones underneath, they're from before. That means that whatever they changed must be on this top sheet but not on this one. We need to check one against the other.'

Tallulah was looking around the untidy office. `The height of this place! This is amazing.'

`Careful,' Rose called to her. `we're a hundred floors up. Don't go wandering off.'

`I just want to see.' She went over to an open area and looked out towards the Chrysler Building. `New York City. If aliens had to come to Earth, oh, no wonder they came here.'

When Tallulah came back in, Rose and Frank had the blueprints spread out on the floor.

`I'll go and keep an eye out. Make sure we're safe up here. Don't want nobody butting in,' Frank said, and headed for the lift.

`There's a hell of a storm moving in,' Tallulah told them.

`I wish the Doctor was here. He'd know what we're looking for.'

Tallulah knelt down beside Rose. `So tell me, where did you and him first hook up?'

Rose looked off into the distance. `I was workin' in a shop . . . a department store in London. He sort of blew it up.

`What the hell kind of doctor blows things up?' Tallulah asked with a laugh

`Actually, he's not a medical doctor, he's a kinda scientist.'

`If only he wasn't so different. You know what I mean?' Tallulah said sympathetically, knowing how Rose felt about him.

`Oh, you have no idea how different he really is.'

`Yeah, he's a man, sweetheart. That's different enough.'

`I recently gave up everything to stay with him, to travel with him, and it's brilliant! He's my best friend and we look out for each other, and I trust him with my life.'

Rose hesitated before continuing. Should she be telling her this? After all she'd only just met her, but Tallulah was so easy to talk to. `There are times when he looks at me with those beautiful dark eyes of his, and I just melt. But it's as if there's somethin' holdin' him back, as though he can't take that next step.'

`Oh. Listen, sweetheart. You want to get all sad? You want to have a contest with me and Laszlo?'

`No. But listen, if the Doctor's with Laszlo now, there's every chance that he could get him out.'

`And then what? Don't talk crazy. There's no future for me and him. Those Dalek things took that away. The one good thing I had in my life and they destroyed it.' She stood up and walked back over to the opening to gaze out over the city.

Rose suddenly spotted the difference between the blueprints. `Gotcha. Look. There, on the mast. Those little lines? They're new. They've added something, see?'

`Added what?' Tallulah asked, coming back to Rose and looking at the blueprints.

They thought about it and said it together. `Dalekanium!'

While Rose and Tallulah were putting the blueprints back on the drawing board and showing Frank what they had found, they didn't notice the lift arrive. The doors opened, and the Doctor was standing there with the mutated Laszlo.

`Doctor!' Rose cried out with joy.

`First floor, perfumery,' he joked.

`I never thought I'd see you again,' Tallulah said tearfully.

`No stopping me,' Laszlo said, and they fell into a romantic embrace.

`We've worked it out,' Rose said with a certain amount of pride. `We know what they've done. There's Dalekanium on the mast . . . And it's good to see you too, by thy way.'

`Oh, come here,' he said and swept her off her feet in an enthusiastic hug. It was at that point that the lift doors closed.

`No, no, no. See, never waste time with a hug.' He ran over to the lift control and took out his sonic screwdriver. `Deadlock seal. I can't stop it.'

`Where's it going?' Rose asked with concern.

`Right down to the Daleks. And they're not going to leave us alone up here. What's the time?'

`Er, eleven fifteen,' Frank told him.

;Six minutes to go. I've got to remove the Dalekanium before the gamma radiation hits.'

`Gammon radiation? What the heck is that?' asked Tallulah.

They ran to the open area and looked out. `Oh, that's high. That's very . . . Blimey, that's high,' the Doctor said.

`And we've got to go even higher. That's the mast up there, look. There's three pieces of Dalekanium on the base. We've got to get them off,' Rose said as they looked up the wooden ladder leading to the base of the mast.

`That's not we, that's just me,' he told her.

`I won't just stand here and watch you,' she replied.

`No, you're going to have your hands full anyway.' She saw that look of guilt and regret in his eyes. `I'm sorry, Rose, but you've got to fight.'

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The Doctor had given up trying to pull the Dalek panel off and looked at the top of the mast. Lightning struck the top of the mast which lit up the Doctor and caused him to scream. The electricity flowed down the conductor, and along the scaffolding poles that Rose and Frank had linked to the doors of the lift. The rest of it arced down the outside of the building and into the Dalek laboratory.

The pig-men in the lift that had come to kill them were all dead.

`You did it, Rose,' Tallulah said as they looked at the dead mutants.

Rose had a look on her face that she would have recognised if she'd seen it on the Doctor's. It was a mixture of guilt and regret. `They used to be like Laszlo. They were people, and I killed them.'

`No,' Laszlo said. `The Daleks killed them. Long ago.'

Rose suddenly realised that someone was missing. `What about the Doctor?' She turned and ran to the open area outside.

They climbed the wooden ladder and found The Doctor lying by the mast, very still. Rose knelt beside him, while Frank held onto the mast and on to her.

`Doctor! Doctor? Look what we found halfway down.' She held up his sonic screwdriver. `You're gettin' careless in your old age,' she tried to joke. She carefully, and oh so tenderly brushed the hair out of his eyes and kissed his forehead. `C'mon, don't make me have to pinch your nose and kiss ya again.'

`Oh my head,' he groaned. His eyes flickered open and he smiled when he saw her worried face.

She smiled back at him and held his hand, hugging it to her chest. `Hiya.'

`Hi. You survived, then.'

`So did you, just about.'

His smile turned to a frown. `Why do you want to pinch my nose when you kiss me? Have you got oral hygiene issues?' He waggled his eyebrows and stroked her cheek in invitation.

`Hah!' Rose laughed and held his face as their lips found one another's.

After a brief but passionate kiss, their mouths separated. `Mmmm. Yep, definitely becoming a habit,' he said.

Rose glanced at the base of the mast. `I can't help noticing . . . there's Dalekanium still attached.'

The Doctor suddenly sat upright, looking at the base of the mast. `Come on. Can't lie about here all night, there's work to be done.'

He led them back down to the open area, and they looked out over the city. `The Daleks will have gone straight to a war footing. They'll be using the sewers, spreading the soldiers out underneath Manhattan.'

`How do we stop them?' Laszlo asked.

`There's only one chance. I got in the way. That gamma strike went zapping through me first.'

`Yeah, but what does that mean?' Rose asked, as he strode away into the works office, too busy thinking to answer.

`We need to draw fire. Before they can attack New York, I need to face them. Where can I draw them out? Think, think, think, think, think. We need some sort of space. Somewhere safe. Somewhere out of the way . . .' He turned suddenly and shouted. `TALLULAH!'

`That's me. Three Ls and an H.'

`The theatre! It's right above them, and, what, it's gone midnight? Can you get us inside?'

`Don't see why not.'

`Is there another lift?' he asked. the main one had been fried.

`We came up in the service elevator,' Rose told him.

`That'll do. Allons-y!'

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There was a major battle going on in the theatre, between two Daleks, and the Dalek-Human hybrids. They were questioning the Daleks orders, because they had something extra in their DNA. Something unexpected, and just a bit brilliant.

When the lightning had struck the mast and energised the Darlekanium, it also energised the Artron energy inside a certain Time Lord who was hugging the mast. The Dalek-Human hybrids, were in fact Dalek-Human-Gallifreyan hybrids, and if there was one thing their Gallifreyan donor had in spades, it was an ability to question everything, that bordered on the rebellious.

`Exterminate!' the Daleks were declaring as beams of green energy passed to and fro between the stage and the stalls.

One of the Daleks exploded as a number of beams concentrated on it.

`Extermi . . .' the other Dalek soon followed suit as its head was blown off.

The Doctor stood up from between the seats where they had been taking cover. `It's all right, it's all right, it's all right. You did it. You're free,' he told the Dalek-Human-Gallifreyan hybrids.

There was a high-pitched sound, and the mutants suddenly clutched their heads in agony before dropping to the ground. The Doctor knelt down by the nearest hybrid. `No! They can't! They can't! They can't! They can't!'

`What happened? What was that?' Rose asked as she joined him.

`They killed them, rather than let them live. An entire species . . . Genocide.' He was outraged, and Rose could see the oncoming storm rising inside him.

`Only two of the Daleks have been destroyed. One of the Dalek masters must still be alive,' Laszlo said.

The Doctor stood. `Oh, yes . . . In the whole universe . . . just one.'

The Doctor left the stalls, and made his way to the Dalek laboratory to find that last one Dalek. And he found it, wired into the computer that controlled the laboratory.

`Now what?' he asked from the doorway.

`You will be exterminated.'

`Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just think about it, Dalek, what was your name?'

`Dalek Caan.'

He put his hands in his pockets and walked forward. `Dalek Caan.' He knew that name from the battle of Canary Wharf. `Your entire species has been wiped out . . . And now the Cult of Skaro has been eradicated, leaving only you. Right now you're facing the only man in the universe who might show you some compassion.'

The Dalek remained silent. `Because I've just seen one genocide. I won't cause another . . . Caan, let me help you . . . What do you say?'

`Emergency temporal shift!' The cables fell off and Caan disappeared in a flash of light.

`Garrrgh!' The Doctor ran forward, but it was too late, the Dalek had gone.

He heard Rose call from the corridor outside. `Doctor! Doctor! He's sick.' Rose and Tallulah were supporting Laszlo as they came into the laboratory. He collapsed on the floor. `It's okay. You're all right.'

Tallulah was cradling him in her arms. `What is it, Doctor? What's the matter with him? He says he can't breathe? What is it?'

`It's time, sweetheart.'

`What do you mean, time?' she cried. `What are you talking about?'

`None of the slaves survive for long. Most of them only live for a few weeks. I was lucky. I held on because I had you. But now, I'm dying, Tallulah.'

`No, you're not. Not now, after all this.' She looked up imploringly. `Doctor, can't you do something?'

`Oh, Tallulah with three Ls and an H,' he said quietly, `just you watch me.' He sprang to his feet, took off his long coat, and looked around. `What do I need? Oh, I don't know. How about a great big genetic laboratory? Oh look, I've got one. Laszlo, just you hold on. There's been too many deaths today.'

He started running around the laboratory gathering ingredients as he went. `Way too many people have died. Brand new creatures and wise old men and age old enemies. And I'm telling you, I'm telling you right now, I am not having one more death! You got that? Not one.' He took out his stethoscope and put it around his neck. `Tallulah, out of the way. The Doctor is in!'

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The rag-tag group of misfits were standing around a bench in Central Park. Frank, who had become the spokesman for the inhabitants of Hooverville, since Solomon had been killed by the Daleks, had returned from the shanty town.

'Well I talked to `em and I told `em what Solomon would've said and I reckon I shamed one or two of `em,' he told Laszlo and Tallulah.

'What did they say?' the Doctor asked.

'They said yes,' Frank said with a smile. Tallulah hugged Laszlo around his neck.

'They'll give you a home, Laszlo . . . I mean, uh . . . don't imagine people ain't gonna stare. I can't promise you'll be at peace but, in the end, that is what Hooverville is for . . . people who ain't got nowhere else.'

'Thank you. I . . . I can't thank you enough,' Laszlo said.

'Well Rose, I reckon that we need to get moving if we're going to catch the ferry over to Liberty Island,' the Doctor said.

He turned to Laszlo, Tallulah and Frank. 'Good luck, and don't be too despondent, this depression doesn't last forever . . . in a few years time, I think America will recover, and over the next few decades will become a force to be reckoned with.' They all shook hands and hugged, and the Doctor and Rose walked out of Central Park, to catch a bus to Battery Park.

On Liberty Island, they walked up from the jetty. 'Do you reckon it's gonna work, those two?' Rose asked.

The Doctor turned and looked out over the bay. 'I don't know, anywhere else in the universe, I might worry about them, but New York, that's what this city's good at . . . Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, and maybe the odd pig-slave-Dalek-mutant-hybrid too.'

Rose laughed at that last bit. 'The pig and the showgirl.'

He smiled at that himself. 'The pig and the showgirl.'

'Just proves it, I suppose,' she stated. 'There's someone for everyone.' She reached down and held his hand, their fingers intertwined. `I mean, look at us. The Time Lord and the shop girl.'

'Rose Tyler, you were never just a shop girl,' he said with authority.

`I was till you blew my shop up.' She looked up and saw him smile, but there was a haunted sadness in his eyes. 'Meant to say . . . sorry.'

'What for?' he asked.

'Just `cos Dalek Caan got away again. I know what that means to you. Think you'll ever see it again?'

He unlocked the TARDIS door and thought about her question. While there was just one Dalek alive in the universe, then all life was in danger.

'Oh yes,' he said, that one Dalek would find a way of cloning itself and producing an army. He held the door open, and she walked past him. He paused in the doorway and gazed out into the distance.

'One day,' he said quietly, before going inside and closing the door.