Every time she thought nothing about this second trip of bouncing around dimensions could surprise her, something did. Rose was rapidly reaching the
conclusion that somewhere in the vast expanses of the multiverse, everything existed and nothing was held to be an impossibility: Not even these four.
12
Variations in Time and Space
Impossible, But Not
Rose Tyler sighed, this kid and his friends should have been impossible, but there you go. But she knew their history from the books and this reality's end to that whole story was...not good.
"Stick your hands, one each, to my arms, get a good grip first, then Stick'em on good. This is going to be a rough trip, you're looking for a blue police box, of the sort tourists like to have pictures taken with in London. Only it's gonna look a bit well-used. It should have a flashing or at least lit, light on top. It's not really a police-box, it's...well, Hermione, have you ever heard of the Doctor?"
"He's real? I love him on the telly! And you look a lot like Billie Piper!"
"Where we're going?" She was grinning. "Yes. You kids want out of here? Fine, but you have to be willing to go where I'm going. I'm Rose Tyler."
"Shite!" The girl squealed. "That's the girl Piper played!"
Rose just laughed. "Thing is you're all probably going to be living on the TARDIS...it's either the Doctor or Jack, maybe UNIT, but probably the Doctor."
"Jack we don't really need, for reasons I really don't feel like discussing." Hermione sighed, lips quirking at Rose's laughter. "Hey, I'm fourteen and I don't know if he knows the difference...idiot that he is. But, anyway, UNIT is a good second choice, but you're right, I'd way rather be with him and her...given the choice. Besides, I'm curious to see how well a good Sticking charm can slow down things like, oh...Daleks. Or I could just transfigure them into something else. I think their buddies would take care of it after that."
"So you know I'm dimension hopping at the moment...that's good, less to explain." Rose sighed. "Still trying to locate the right one."
"Yeah, but that bit never made any sense. Any version could fix that problem...just collar one of the baby versions and let him what he does best...and really, which of you is the Time Lord? Let him get you back to the right him on his own. The TARDIS can track herself, you know. Besides, I don't think he's going to be too terribly happy with you poking new holes in the wall like this."
Rose blinked at her. "Ooookay. Good point, I lost my Doctor, Pete's world was about to get hit by a huge asteriod, and without a TARDIS...so, yeah, I'll jumpstart the stars thing early, but I'm not going back. He sent me back with an 'adjusted' hopper for a reason...it could only take one and he wanted me out of there. I'm not going to dishonor him by not doing as he asked."
"He can forget things he shouldn't know, right?"
"Yeah."
"So, tag one of the infants." She sighed. "As for the not going back bit, I can understand that. If I were you, I'd aim at BowTie after the Library. River's gone, after that. She died. He's loads more dependable and a lot less shaky, the bow-tied one. Besides, after 27 Planets, maybe a couple months linear, the striped one regenerated...spontaneously. Natural events, those."
"So, I'm unlikely to get back that him anyway, then. So, just tag one of the infant selves to deal with the Silence and stars and things and just aim at Eleven."
"Twelve." Hermione corrected. "there's one you don't know about, and he tried so hard to hide the memory of the one that fought the war, which was not Eight, by the way, he lost track of his bodycount, so he's off by one."
"Sounds like him." She thought about it, shrugged it off and nodded sharply.
"Doesn't just?"
"Right then, come on kids. Let's you lot out of here."
They made two pops, once to alert Four about the Stars going out and the next to get back to her him via the coordinates programmed into the hopper for her: He had insisted that he had no patience for kids in this body and the youngsters could go pester him in the Later...the him they were aiming for could deal with them.
She landed nearly on top of him, missing by a hair...and Hermione did land on him.
"Oh, Doctor, I'm so sorry. Are you hurt?" Hermione looked ready to cry.
He shook his head, half catching her and got them both back on their feet. Unlike Jack, he recognized the girl for being a young teen.
"How did you do that?" The Northern version she'd first known asked the girl, then looked around, saw Rose and froze. "Wait..."
"Tell me you haven't met me yet?" She was tense and pale.
"Rose?"
"At least tell me that younger me isn't with you?"
He just looked at her. "You're at your mum's for a week. Just dropped you off, too, can't be more than ten minutes linear." And he watched all the tension drain out of her and make her wobble. "How much trouble are you in?" He asked as he caught her by the elbow and steadied her.
"Tryin' to find next you after getting trapped in a parallel universe, with mum and a part-human metacrisis of next you, which was going to get hit by a massive asteroid and vapourized so metacrisis you sent me off back to fullblood you with this?" She took off the hopper and held it up, then handed it to him. "Disable it so I don't get yanked back, which would be a bad thing since there's nothing there but a nebula by now, just in case, yeah, and just keep it. She's right, I should've just grabbed the first you I saw and plopped it all down in your lap to start with."
He soniced it, whistled to show he was impressed as hel, then did as she asked and soniced it again, this time, to disable it. "Who was right," He asked, looking back at Granger, then behind her. There was a distinct pause as he realized who the kids were. "Oh...yeah, just got really complicated, really fast, didn't it...fantastic..."
"Hermione, of course. The reality where I found them was postwar...that Earth was burning. I think it would have recovered...eventually...but there wasn't any food and they're the only people the hopper's scanners could detect."
"The scanners on it are decent, even by my standards. Programmed to scan Earth globally locate my TARDIS first and then me, any me at all...and to do that, it had to weed out the Time Lord look-a-likes, aka, humans, first. I'm going to give it to the TARDIS and see if she wants the software from it, it's that good." He told her softly. "If the scanners on that thing didn't detect more humans, there weren't any. Ergo, no harm to that universe. All you did was merge them with our timeline, that's fine...you didn't actually change anything since they would have lived out their lives...miserable. Without more females, there would be no ability to continue the species. No need for that."
He couldn't help it, he was already wearing that stupid looking grin. "So, four transplanted humans of the magical variety, one time lost much older Rose Tyler and so as to not change your past they, along with this you, will be joining next me, or possibly, the one after."
"You said you just dropped me off."
"Yeah."
"Any chance I can have that week...TARDIS time. This me, I mean. Cuz I really, really miss the personality on this you. And the fact you actually use your brain."
"What's wrong?"
"If it's okay, skip next you and find the one after, after an incident called 'The Library...features, what was her name? Oh yes, River Song dies there. She was married to the you after next you and I think that you will likely need me at time like that."
"Parallel, not here...so, I can ask...so we will be discussing it. Not how or when you got there, but how you got back. Okay? As for staying for week of TARDIS time, I'll ask her. And yes, I do think you can have the week younger you is at Jackie's. It might take that long to find older me, still asking though. She's irritated with me and I'm not keen on making it worse." The expression on his face told her that he knew something was very wrong with his next self...even if she was being a very good girl about not giving the details...or rather, her usual sweet self, in not mentioning it.
Oh, she gave a good excuse, but...no Doctor wanted to know that a companion to his prior self found herself with that him again and bluntly stated a preference for the first one, much less a request to skip him and head on to the next. This was going to drive next him spare. Because this version would tell him once it was settled...he had no business doing something that hurt Rose that much.
He ushered the rest into the ship, putting his arm around her waist as soon as they had also entered and told the boys not to use magic until the ship got a good look at the energy field they generated while outdoors. Then, the ship could and would make the allowances needed, adjust things a bit and then they'd be fine to use it without harming her electronics. Hermione knew better without being told and she nodded to Harry, Ron and Neville.
"Are you sure, Hermione?"
"Yeah, he won't attack people unless its for the same kinds of reasons we would. He doesn't harm people he doesn't have to."
The Doctor snorted, handing her a stack of seven books. "That's how Rose and I know you lot. How do you know us?"
Hermione grinned, dug into her bag of holding, then pulled out and handed him several seasons worth of DVDs by way of reply. He saw four or five different 'hims' on the covers of more she didn't give him...that he knew he hadn't been yet and he sighed.
"Fantastic." He muttered in a long suffering tone. "I got reset in your universe, didn't I? That's way too many bodies."
Hermione's grin, if anything, just got bigger.
"Oi." He growled. "I'm going to here, too, now. Even though it's just DVDs, you still remember those mes...so I will. TARDIS just said so."
"Cool." Hermione squealed excitedly at decibels that hurt his sensitive hearing and made the boys and Rose clap their hands over their ears.
"Oi!" They all yelled.
"Shut it, Hermione!" Ron complained.
"Sorry." She ducked her head. "I just really, really like the Doctor, is all." She looked up at him through her lashes, flushed a bit, but still grinning at him.
What could he do, really, when faced with a brilliant youngster who clearly did like him a great deal? He knew a fan-girl yell when he had one aimed at him, after all.
"I like you too, but I can't keep you with this me."
"It's okay, the one after the one after this you is really good with kids. Seriously good with kids. Goes looking for them, actually." Neville told him, a little smirk on his mouth at this one's grimace. Muggle DVDs were addicting, he'd found.
"Really? Sounds domestic."
"Yeah, but for someone who complains about domestic as much as you do," Harry broke in, having also watched those DVDs, "You're the first one to go mother hen on someone."
"OI! Did you have to point that out?"
"Well, Harry has a point, you know." Rose put in, grinning at him.
"Well, yeah, but he didn't have to say it out loud, did he?"
Rose just put her arms around his waist under the jacket and settled in for a snuggle. As expected, he enfolded her in his own, accepting her affection easily.
"You know, " Ron added thoughtfully. "That was so natural they might as well be an OMC."
"Exactly." Hermione nodded.
"Yeah." Harry agreed.
"OMC?"
"Nevermind, Doctor, it will only upset you. I wouldn't mind, personally, but I can't see you doing it willingly."
"I can." Harry told her, the others nodding vigorously.
"Just promise you won't hesitate to accept it if he does, cuz I think that was next him's problem...thought you were too good for him. Bet that's this one's problem too." Hermione told her.
"Doctor? Surely not?"
"Erm..."
"She adores you, you idiot." Hermione snapped. "Why go to all this effort trying to find you if she didn't?"
"Seriously." Ron sounded disgusted with the Doctor's blindness. "Dude, you had her from 'run', everybody knows that."
"Hang on, wait...I thought he was supposed to be intelligent?" Harry said slowly. "He sure doesn't sound like it."
"Really." Neville said thoughtfully. "I think Lockhart had it more together than this...guy."
"OI!"
"Wait...Hermione...is he at least a real male?" Ron, always the rude one, wanted to know. "A fully intact, functioning one, I mean."
"Oi, that's rather rude, isn't it?" The Doctor protested.
"Hermione?"
"Um...I don't know, I don't think anyone is actually sure."
"Of course I'm male! Why would you even ask a thing like that?"
"Cuz that might be the problem right there, if you're some sort of overgrown pixie or something that has to pollinate instead." Neville pointed out reasonably. "Like the TARDIS."
"OI!" The Doctor yelped. "I am not a pixie...or a plant!" Behind the Doctor, Rose was trying to not laugh as the teens deftly tag-teamed her beloved and successfully cornered him. With words...him.
"Unless you're unable to, um...you know...at your age." Harry added in an understanding tone that had Ron and Neville grinning.
"I AM NOT THAT OLD MISTER POTTER!"
"Or uninterested in the interested party." Ron raised an eyebrow at him.
"OI! OF COURSE I'm interested! She's Rose." He denied hotly, pausing as he remembered she was standing two feet behind him and realized exactly what the young magicals had done...along with why.
"Well, if that's the case, I'm pretty sure that Rose might want some serious physical proof of that." Hermione suggested slyly. "If I were she, I know I would. It's a girl thing."
Oh shit. "Oi." He moaned in a tired tone, knowing exactly what was expected now. "Teenagers..."
"Sounds good to me..." Rose put in with a hopeful, if somewhat dirty grin.
~tbc~
Preview:
He glanced up when Rose spoke, saw that grin...and froze. Well, now...wasn't that something?
"Rose?"
"Your move." Was all she said, turning down the corridor toward the kitchen with the kids in tow. "Team Rose seems to have done the hard bit already."
"Unless he's lying again." Neville put a damper on it cautiously.
"He wouldn't hurt her like that, not this one anyway." Hermione dismissed that out of hand. "Next one would...has, actually."
"Yeah. It's why this older Rose wanted the bowtied one instead." Ron said sourly. "I mean, yeah, it shocked her, but she stayed, damnit."
"Can't blame her there." Harry added, "Next one's such an arsehole. And rather stupid on top of it."
~ Okay, that's enough of a teaser. ~
