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The reception was back in motion. Alice smiled joyfully as she watched her older sister, present on the dance floor and with Lance. Her eyes wandered to the bar, glimpsing the mysterious man called 'the Doctor' who had shown up with Donna. He also seemed to be interested in her big sister for a moment. Alice couldn't make the man out; He was strange but not bad. He didn't look harmful, yet there was just something else nagging at her about him, but for her life, she couldn't figure it out. Finally, she noticed that he'd suffered a lot in his life. His eyes appeared wiser for a man his age, who has witnessed too much, which made Alice's heart go out to him a little.

Alice was still gazing at the man, who hadn't noticed somebody was watching him, thankful for not being caught out just yet. It wasn't that surprising to hear he hadn't, honestly. But because her staring at him was apparent, she continued to do so. As he now asked a man beside him if he could borrow his mobile phone, they gave it to him, and he slid on a pair of square-framed glasses that made him look a lot more attractive, or Alice could even say a little foxy. 'For goodness' sake, girl, control yourself,' Alice thought and shook her head as she saw him browsing through the mobile.

Already finished, he returned the phone to its owner and now just realised somebody's eyes were on him, the eyes of a young woman with flaming red intricately done up hair. Of course, when a person gets often caught staring at another person, the reaction would occasionally blush with embarrassment. Still, this young woman was facing him head-on with determination, not breaking eye contact as she offered a friendly smile.

Only for him to return it rather strenuously. It immediately dissipated from his features when he turned away and overcame sadness. Alice followed the trail of his eyes to a dark-haired man and a blonde woman dancing. She's thrown backwards somewhat over the man's arm. Then, with a harsh swallow, becoming much more unhappy than he was, he promptly turned away.

Before she knew it, Alice's legs were guiding her, "I'm going to tell you a few things," she now leaned against the bar beside him with a somewhat misleading grin, "The whole point of a party is to let your hair down and have some fun and not look like they've got the weight of the entire world on their shoulders."

He looked back at her, lost for words to respond to her.

"But, I will not judge you for it," she carelessly responded with a shrug. "Some people like to party, and some people don't. Well, in your case, maybe it's something you're not bothered about. So, maybe it wouldn't kill you to pretend you're enjoying yourself for Donna's sake; she's your friend, after all."

"She's not my friend," he returned, a little more bitterly than he meant to. Yet the way she looked at him, she had just received the best news of her life today.

With another harsh swallow, he turned away, wanting to ignore her. He sees a man with a camcorder in the room's corner, filming the reception.

"Finally, he speaks!" she laughed, noticing the look on his face.

"Uh... well," he cleared his throat stiffly before speaking, "I've just met Donna."

"Can I ask you something? Is 'the Doctor' your actual proper name?" she asked with air quotes.

"Yes, it is."

"Oh, come on, you can't be serious?"

"That's my name. End of the discussion," he bit back moodily.

"Hey, alright, no need to get all defensive," the young redhead retorted, her eyes narrowing into slits, "Whatever personal issues you're dealing with right now, don't start taking them out on somebody you've just met."

"Sorry," he responded with a slight flinch.

Her emotional state changed with a flick of a switch, now offering a beaming smile. "I'm Alice," she held out her hand. Still, he stared back uncertainly, "Alice Noble, the bride's sister... of course. Most people call me Ally, but I'm not bothered either way," He just continued staring at her hand. "Ya know, when somebody offers their hand, you're supposed to shake it. My hands are clean, so don't worry about germs."

Shaking his head, a look of embarrassment spread across his features, giving her hand a shake. Then, quickly letting go, he gazed at the redhead for a couple of seconds before muttering, "Uh, excuse me."

Alice watched him, wandering towards the cameraman. She asked what the Doctor was doing over there. There was no younger man around her age. Now attending the bar with a flirtatious smile, she ordered another fruity cocktail. Having got her drink, Alice took a long sip, savouring the taste, once downing it thoroughly and putting it down.

"Thanks, handsome," she thanked him with a playful smile. He returned the smile, and she offered an amorous wink back. After that, she searched for her older sister but couldn't find her anywhere.

Alice exhaled with a sigh of disbelief. Then, spotting her mum to ask if she'd seen her big sis, "Mum, do you know where Donna has got to?"

"The last time was when she was dancing with Lance," she replied before leaning in to whiff the alcohol on her daughter's breath. "Are you drunk, young lady?"

"God, mum! I'm a grown woman. I can drink what I want. It's a party."

"Well, don't drink too much more. Do you know what happened last Christmas? You were hungover in bed all day and had your Christmas dinner in bed."

"You're a real help sometimes, mum," the young woman returned sarcastically.

"Of course, dear," she gives her daughter's cheek a loving pat with her hand, not having noticed the manner of her response. It made Alice sometimes wonder if she was their daughter.

The Doctor burst through the crowd abruptly, yelling, "Get away from the tree!"

Donna dashes in after him, shouting, "Don't touch the trees!"

Alice frowned, trying to understand what the hell was going on.

"Get away from the Christmas trees; everyone gets away from them!" the Doctor insisted as he continued to shout at everyone, trying his best to move the crowd away.

Alice went to approach her sister. "Donna, what the hell is going on?"

"No time to answer that right now. Just try to get people away from the Christmas trees!" Donna pleaded to her little sister, who saw the fear in her eyes as her hand grasped her arm.

Even though she still didn't have the foggiest of what was going on, she could understand her sister's anxious expression, so with a quick nod, Alice insisted she help her.

"Thanks, sis!" she dragged Alice towards a group of little children and helped her move them away from a Christmas tree, "Oi, Lance, don't just stand there!" Donna screamed at her fiancé, "Tell everyone to get away from the trees!"

"Stay away from the trees!" Alice heard the Doctor yelling once again.

She could practically hear her mother mumbling in utter frustration about the strange man in question, "Oh, for God's sake, the man's an idiot! Why? What's a Christmas tree going to..." At that moment, her voice trailed off in surprise, "Oh!"

Alice didn't know if what her eyes saw was real or just a figment of her drunken stupor. Trying to find it in her disbelief that the baubles from the Christmas trees were dancing.

The entire room chattered wildly before abruptly diving around the room and making tiny explosions.

"Fuck!" Alice cursed under her breath, throwing herself to the floor, barely missing one that almost got her.

"Ally! Ally, where are you?!" she hears Donna screaming madly at her. The young woman popped her head up to witness her older sister and Lance hiding beneath a table to protect themselves from the minor explosions.

Everyone frantically chatters until they start dive-bombing around the room and causing minor explosions. Everyone screams and runs for cover. Donna pulls Lance down to hide under a table with her. The Doctor runs over to the DJ's stand. The Santas line up opposite everyone. Having seen Alice, she gestured for her to join her and Lance. Charging over, she catches the Doctor out of the corner of her eye, running towards the DJ booth. Eventually reaching them, she squashed between them; Donna held on to Alice like a vice.

"Are you going to tell me what the hell is going on?" the young Noble shouted over the explosions to get interrupted by the Doctor before her sister could even reply.

"Oi! Santa! Word of advice: if you're attacking a man with a sonic screwdriver..." he spoke through a microphone, "...don't let him near the sound system."

She sees him pointing a small silver stick in his hand with a shining blue light on its end and holds it against the amplifiers, emitting the most horrendous screeching noise-making. Everyone covers their ears. Then, she finally pauses, and Alice gets pulled up onto her feet by Donna, who keeps a tight hold on her hand.

Glancing about the room, Alice sees everyone now getting to their feet. Donna has now let go of her sister to assist two children called Connie and Michael. The young redhead stormed towards the Doctor, who she found gathering things from the strange-looking Santas that had blown to pieces.

"You will tell me what the hell is going on?!" Alice vehemently contended, glaring daggers at him with arms folded across her chest. But it seemed he was ignoring her, and she snarled softly. One of Alice's pet peeves was others blanking her. "Excuse me! It's rude not to answer someone when they're talking to you!" she hollered.

But again, she got no response from him and was on the verge of swearing when he eventually looked her way and spoke, "Look at that - remote control for the decorations," that's when she realised it wasn't her he was talking to as Alice followed his gaze towards her older sister letting out a slight noise of aggravation. That man was heading for a slap. "But there's a second remote control for the robots." he was examining the head of one. "They're not scavengers anymore. I think someone's taken possession."

"Never mind all that, you're a doctor - help someone." Alice and Donna scanned the room with concern for those around them.

Before the young Noble spoke up, "Sorry, but as far as I'm concerned, you need to earn that title," she glared questionably at him, "But maybe he's not that kind of Doctor."

"Nah, they wanted you alive, look," he threw a bauble at her, but she instantaneously batted it away, sending it back in his direction, earning a glare from him in return after avoiding it, "Hey, will you be careful!"

All she did was offer a glare moodily at him, "Oh, I apologise! Maybe it was because you tried throwing a bomb at my sister!"

"Well, they aren't active now!"

"Then maybe warn somebody next time you do it!"

"Maybe if you let me explain myself, I could have!"

"Oi! Will, both of you, shut up!"

Alice and the Doctor both almost jumped out of their skins from Donna as both turned to meet her with narrowed eyes.

"Sorry, Donna," the two apologised to her.

With a shake of her head, Donna continued, "All I'm saying - you could help."

But the Doctor wasn't paying the slightest attention, holding the robot's head against his ear before murmuring aloud, "Gotta think of the bigger picture... there's still a signal!" he quickly exclaimed, almost making Alice jump before running off.

Donna, about to follow him, gets stopped by her mother, "Donna..." Alice could hear how frightened she was, "Who is he? Who is that man?"

But it seemed Donna couldn't answer it for her as she went chasing after the Doctor as Alice, her mother and Lance stared after her.

Donna doesn't have an answer for her. So, instead, she follows the Doctor, leaving Sylvia and Lance staring after her.

Alice debated whether to follow them, but she had to follow them and get those answers if she wanted answers.

But what annoyed her most was that Lance had followed along with her and eventually reached the Doctor and her sister to hear him say, "I've lost the signal - Donna, we've got to get to your office, H C Clements.

I think that's where it all started," the Doctor quickly noticed Lance, turning to beg him, "Lance - is it, Lance? Can you give me a lift?" he darts off before he's even answered. Making Alice think he likes to do a lot of running.

She followed them, only for Donna to pull her back by the arm, "Alice, stay here and keep a close watch on mum...you'll be much better off here."

"If you think I'm staying here, then you're wrong," Alice pressed earnestly, "And you can't convince me to either."

Donna stared at her sister for a moment, letting out a sigh of defeat, and nodded. The young Noble returned a grin before the sisters followed the Doctor and Lance. Soon, they arrived at HC Clements, darting inside the building and into Donna's department. Alice hadn't visited her sister's office before as she'd been too busy with her studies to become a Doctor. They followed him to a computer.

"This might just be locksmiths, but H C Clements was brought twenty-three years ago by the Torchwood Institute."

Alice thinks she's heard or seen that name before but can't recall where for her life, so she might as well ask instead, "Who's Torchwood?"

"They were behind the battle of Canary Wharf," the Doctor informed the young redhead woman and her sister, who stared back at him, "... Cyberman invasion," the younger frowned. The older tilted her head in confusion. "Skies over London full of Daleks?"

"Oh, we were in Spain," Donna responded, as Alice nodded, recalling going there during her break from University with her family.

"They had Cybermen in Spain."

"We were out scuba diving," the young Noble told him.

"That big picture, Donna - you keep on missing it," he goes to another computer, "Torchwood no longer exists, but H C Clements stayed in business. I think... someone else came in and took over," he tried to explain, giving the monitor a whack. Still, it does nothing, "The operation."

"But what do they want with me?"

Stepping away, he turned to give Donna his full attention, looking straight into his questioning eyes, "Somehow, you've got dosed with Huon energy. And that's a problem because Huon energy hasn't existed since the Dark Times. So the only place you'd find a Huon particle now is a remnant in the heart of the TARDIS."

Alice frowned at just hearing the word TARDIS, wondering what in God's name it could be.

"See? That's what happened. Say that's the TARDIS," the Doctor grabbed a mug from nearby, showing Donna, "And that's you," he now gets a pencil with his other hand, "The particles inside you activated. The two sets of particles magnetised and WHAP!" he swiftly yells, making the sisters jump as he dropped throws the pencil inside the mug, "You got pulled inside the TARDIS!"

"Hang on a second; you're not an alien, are you?" The Doctor looked at the young woman. Off from the look in his brown eyes, he gave her the answer she wanted without him having to say it. With that, she just nodded, "Okay...uh, we've got that out the way. Also, another thing," she took the mug from him, her fingers accidentally grazing his hand, waving it about before him, "Why telling are you telling my sister she's a pencil in a mug?"

"Yes, a 4H pencil pretty much sums her up."

Alice scoffed, putting down the mug and shaking her head, "My, you must be a right charmer when it comes to the ladies, Doctor," she offered jokingly.

He stared at the young woman with his mouth somewhat ajar before shaking the insult off and continued by changing the subject, "Lance?" the Doctor turned to ask the man, "What have H C Clements been doing? Anything top secret? Special operations? Do not enter?"

"I don't know. I'm in charge of personnel," Lance returned, getting all defensive; Alice could say he took it too directly for her liking. "I wasn't project manager."

But the Doctor had seemed to ignore it as he held the silver thing Alice had seen earlier on, aiming at the monitor immediately showing what he needed, which were 3D plans of the building. But Alice couldn't help but be interested and have a closer look.

"What is that thing you're using?" Alice nodded to the sliver object in the Doctor's hand.

"It's called a sonic screwdriver," he responded with a grin, flipping it up in the air and then catching it.

She raised an eyebrow at him and asked, "Who are you trying to impress with that exactly?" he only responded with a shrug, turning back to the computer; it was entertaining for Alice as she watched him.

"Why am I even explaining myself?" Lance asked as he paced behind the sisters and the Doctor. Alice rolled her eyes. "What the hell are we talking about?"

"They make keys; that's the point. And look at this..." the Doctor pointed at the screen as they gathered around him "... we're on the third floor."

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To say Alice was a patient person, you'd be wrong as she tapped her heeled shoes against the floor as they waited for the lift to show up. Another thing she also hated was waiting.

"Where's this lift supposed to be taking us?" she asked the Doctor out of interest.

"Underneath reception, there's a basement, yes?" he replied, directing the question to either Lance or Donna. The lift had now arrived, and the doors pinged open. They stepped inside and inspected the controls. "Then how come when you look on the lift, there's a button marked 'lower basement'?"

"Oh, come on, that's easy!" Alice voiced vehemently, making her sister and Lance jump, and the Doctor stared back at her. Then, without even bothering if the Doctor gave her any sign, "It's like in one of those spy movies where they have to press a mysterious button that takes them to a secret hidden floor. Am I right, Doc?"

"Uh..." he was a little stunned by this before shaking his head and continuing, "Okay, as I was saying, there's a secret floor."

"I love it when I'm right," Alice offered with a smug grin, "I'm exceptionally clever," She tapped her temple as Donna rolled her eyes at her little sister, showing off, "So if there's a whole secret floor. Why isn't it on the plans?"

The Doctor did nothing but stare at her for a few seconds before agreeing with a nod. "I didn't see it on the official plans," he turned back, frowning at the buttons, "So what's down there, then?"

"Maybe there's a reason it's called a secret floor," Alice offered with a roll of her eyes.

"Are you telling me this building's got a secret floor?" Alice looked at Lance and wondered if he was serious.

"No, I'm showing you this building's got a secret floor," the Doctor looked at him in the same manner she just had.

"It needs a key," Donna pointed out.

"I don't," the Doctor shrugged without care and pointed his sonic at the lock, "Right then, thank you three. I can handle this. - see you later."

"No chance, Martian," Donna instructs him rather firmly, "You're the man who keeps saving my life. I ain't letting you out of my sight," she gets in the lift with him.

"And wherever my sister goes, I go," Alice adds, joining them inside the lift with a smile between them, sliding her arms into theirs.

"Going down," the Doctor offered with a sigh and pressed the button.

"Lance?" Donna requested her fiancé.

"Maybe I should go to the police."

"Inside."

He was about to protest but didn't get the chance to as he peered down at the floor and lightly dragged his feet inside the lift to stand beside Donna.

"To honour and obey?" the Doctor tells Lance.

"Tell me about it, mate."

"Oi!" Donna glared at the Doctor just as Alice went to give him a hard slap on the arm.

"Ow!" he moaned, wincing from pain, "Why did you hit me for?" he glanced over at the young Noble, somewhat taken aback for having her hit him.

Just as the lift doors closed, she retorted coolly with a shrug, "Not sure. Maybe because I felt like you deserved it."

"That's Ally for you, Doctor," Donna tried her best to laugh, "Right, little firecracker she is."