Beta: Miral-Romanov

For the fabulous bubblygal92

Chapter 1

Alliances

Throughout most of the Doctor's life, there were periods in between where the emptiness of the TARDIS became familiar, when the only noise made throughout the ship was from the TARDIS's ambient hum and his own movements. Normally such occurrences came about after he was forced to admit he was better off on his own— or, more rarely, after some of his regenerations discovered he was equally content travelling alone as he was with companions.

In this case, the former rang true in his mind as the Doctor walked towards the console room, listening to the quiet thuds of his boots as they echoed through the empty ship. His bored sigh echoed off the walls; lately, he'd settled into a kind of lull, doing the same routine of returning to the TARDIS after a long adventure, making himself some tea and reading for a bit before retiring to bed, waking up, hitting the randomiser and repeating the cycle. The idea of looking for a new companion occasionally occurred to him but he always brushed it off. Ever since Grace turned him down — after he kissed her for reasons he still wasn't sure about… and after she accidentally killed him — he figured it was for the best, once again convincing himself he didn't need a companion.

On the other hand, he was bored to tears. This incarnation seemed to be more of a people person than his last handful, meant to charm and socialise rather than stay cooped up by himself.

The TARDIS's low groan jolted the Doctor out of his thoughts, making him realise that he'd been standing still with his hand on the randomiser for ten straight minutes. Then the tone of his ship's noise caught his attention, and he frowned, asking her, "Are you feeling all right?"

She let out another slightly pained noise in response, and he felt his face burn in shame— the last adventure had been particularly tolling for the both of them, where he'd been forced to pilot her straight through a barrage of asteroids to catch a ship full of renegades. He'd been so caught up in the bore that was his life, he hadn't even stopped to consider her well-being. Maybe he should take her to Gallifrey; she was a few decades overdue for a bi-centennial check-up anyway. His stomach turned slightly at the prospect of returning home, but he supposed he could stop in to visit Romana, see how her Presidency was going— maybe he could even stop in on Leela and her husband.

Determined to make up for his selfish thoughts, he gave the console a regretful pat before saying kindly, "How about we make a quick pit-stop to Gallifrey, eh girl? See if we can't get you a full maintenance check."

She let out a grateful hum but still let out a violent shudder when he piloted her out of the Vortex and tried to land her as gently as possible into the holding bay. Strolling out and wincing at the sudden brightness of the two suns, the Doctor ignored the scattered looks of confusion and disapproval from the other Time Lords walking through the hangar, strolling away from the ship with his gaze forward.

On the way up to the Citadel the Doctor frowned, noticing far more Time Lords walking through the halls than there should be at this time of day. He shrugged it off, heading up towards the Panopticon anyway. Unfortunately, to his surprise he found the gigantic doors to the Panopticon closed and two Time Lords standing guard on either end of the hall.

"What's going on in there?" the Doctor asked curiously, approaching the one closest to him, a young black-haired initiate.

The man cocked an eyebrow at him in apparent recognition but didn't comment, saying instead, "The Lady President and the High Council are convening."

"Why? What's happened?"

"I am not at liberty to say," the young Time Lord said, though he wrinkled his nose unpleasantly.

At first the Doctor thought it was about him, but just as he was about to demand more information the doors swung open with a loud bang behind him. When he whirled around, a flash of bottle blonde hair met his eyes before he managed to properly take in the incredibly young human girl dressed in what looked to be tight, black military attire circa the early fifty-first century. Her shoulders were squared, her chin was tilted up in the midst of the two other Time Lords wrinkling their noses at her like they'd smelled something foul, and her face held an expression of slight annoyance— something, he could tell, was rare for her, judging by the faint laugh lines around her mouth. Several other humans followed behind her, but for some reason the Doctor was transfixed on her and her alone, sensing her timelines stir around his the longer he looked at her and feeling the desire to take a quick peek, to see what was so fascinating about them.

Before he could indulge his curiosity, the girl's eyes locked with his, making him flush slightly at being caught gawping like a fool. He found himself unable to tear his eyes away, however, when her irritation seemed to melt away at the sight of him, her amber gaze taking a sweeping look over his form. He felt a quiet thrill in the pit of his stomach when he recognised the look in her eyes, knowing full well that now she was just as curious about him as he was about her.

As quickly as it had happened, it was over, the girl being ushered forward by a spiky-haired blonde man behind her when her gait slowed. She tore her gaze away, a contemplative look on her face as though she too had sensed a fascination about him. The Doctor felt an urge to run up to her and ask her questions, the foremost being why — and how — she was here. Instead, he turned towards the opened doors of the Panopticon and walked through them.

It was all ridiculous, really.

Anybody who was anybody knew about the Time Lords, almighty time travellers self-elected to watch over the universe as silent protectors. And since Torchwood was Earth's biggest (and only) organisation dedicated to alien relations — and, subsequently, the subject of time travel — Rose Tyler knew all about the robe wearing, arrogant arseholes of Gallifrey.

Pete Tyler had been the Director of Torchwood back when she was a child— and, being the slightly eccentric inventor he was, seemed determined to perfect the notion of time travel. They'd known for years the science behind it and the existence of the Time Vortex, but Pete Tyler had been the only one to truly shove all that aside and say, "Hell, let's give the damn thing a try," and, therefore, Rose Tyler had grown up in a household that was practically a time machine in itself. From age five, thanks to her father's teachings (and the occasional times he left his notebooks lying around) Rose could quote every temporal paradox that had been given a name— and, being as some of them were hard for a child to remember, she had helpfully supplied her own names. Even to this day, her father, long since retired, still called the Grandfather Paradox the 'Don't Kill Hitler', mostly to tease her.

Taking over her father's pet project after his retirement was Rose's goal and, after ages of meticulous planning and work from her team, managed to perfect the vortex manipulator. She had practically squealed herself hoarse the day she took the thing for a test run and landed herself in twenty-first century England. The ancient architecture, total lack of shuttles and all transportation and traffic being on the ground instead of in the air was a sight to behold— and, to her utter amazement, the moon hadn't even been colonised yet.

Barely twenty-four hours after the project was considered a smashing success, Rose and her team had received a summons from Gallifrey, by way of a stasis cube. It was an almost snappish, "The Lady President of Gallifrey requests your presence in the Capitol at once," from a deep-voiced male. Upon receiving their (grudging) acceptance, they had sent one of their state-of-the-art time capsules to give them a lift along with two snotty-faced, golden-robed Time Lords who looked at them like they were nothing but a nuisance.

Rose had been momentarily stunned at the sheer awe of Gallifrey as they were led from the capsule's console room into a gigantic glass-domed area, which sparkled under the light of the two suns. The awe quickly evaporated when Rose and her team received a series of uncensored looks from passing Time Lords, some going so far as to loudly exclaim, "What in Rassilon's name are these humans doing here?" She had to quickly shush Jake when the hot-tempered blonde turned his head and opened his mouth to angrily retort.

"In here," said the black-haired youth that was leading them, gesturing towards a set of giant stone doors.

The Time Lord pushed it open for them but stepped in ahead of them, announcing loudly, "May I present, Lady President and Council, our… esteemed guests."

Not a single person missed his slight pause, but nobody commented, allowing him to duck behind them and shut the doors with a loud banging noise. Rose allowed herself a full look into the room and the people in it, who all sat around an immense stone table. The room itself was almost awe-inspiring; it seemed entirely made of a dark-coloured marble that seemed to glow turquoise, but she suspected that was due to the sunlight. The ceiling arched upwards into towering heights, so high Rose was sure she could faintly see a gathering of clouds clinging like sticky spider webs to the ceiling, and on each end of the room was a towering statue of various people made in a darker material like black stone.

The people themselves, on the other hand, retained the same gold theme as the rest of the planet and truly looked like they wished to appear as ornaments in the room. A brown-haired woman with an absurd gold-lined headdress sat in the exact centre of the room on the largest chair — clearly the Lady President — but while the rest of the Time Lords in the room looked at Rose and her team with stony or annoyed expressions, she smiled down at them almost warmly.

"Welcome to Gallifrey, Director Rose Tyler of Torchwood," she said. "I trust you've been treated well."

Jake snorted quite audibly, earning a steady glare from each and every Council member, but Rose didn't reprimand him for it. "Quite," she said instead, going heavy on the sarcasm.

Romana looked slightly exasperated, but gestured to the empty seats across from her. "Please, do sit. We have much to discuss."

"Do we?" Rose said in irritation, but obediently plunked into the seat directly across from the Lady President. "'Cos from where I stand, you lot just sent us a demand for a meeting without actually tellin' us why."

Romana's eyebrow quirked up and she said in an airy tone, "Something tells me, Miss Tyler, that you know exactly why you're here."

A few of the more naïve members of the team looked to Rose in confusion, but the rest mimicked her cool expression. "I have a few thoughts." When Romana merely watched her, eyes studying her intently as though trying to read her mind, Rose felt the need to break the silence. "Well? Are you gonna tell us?"

"It's been reported that you've recently perfected temporal travel without the use of a capsule," said the older-looking man at her left side, in the stony voice Rose recognised as the one from the stasis cube.

The corner of Rose's mouth twitched upward— bingo. "So that is why we're here. What do you plan to do, take it from us?"

The man looked thoroughly annoyed for a moment, but when Romana shot him a look and a warning murmur of, "Borusa," he instead settled back into his seat, looking like he was doing his best not to glare at her. "On the contrary, Director," Romana said airily. "We'd like to propose an alliance."

There was an incredibly long pause, in which several Torchwood members, including Rose, had to take a moment to pick their jaws up from the ground. "You want to make an alliance," Rose stated blankly, as though saying it herself would cause it to make more sense. "With Torchwood."

"Of sorts," Romana said, looking pleased at her reaction. "Of course, I am aware that, while you have in fact perfected the technology, it's still in its infancy. We are prepared to offer you a bit of our knowledge regarding the subject of time travel— certain anomalies, naturally occurring or otherwise; the existence and importance of time-dwelling life forms, that sort of thing."

Rose felt her heart stutter at the mention of time-dwelling life forms, wondering what they were like almost at once. She had a chance to learn even more about the complicated organism that was time, straight from the time experts themselves. But…

"What exactly d'you expect in return for that?" Rose asked, thinking surely they'd ask for the technology itself.

"Full and unsolicited disclosure into your progress," said Borusa before Romana could speak. "Whatever breakthroughs you make, whatever events you become a part of, you will report it to us."

A shadow flickered over Rose's face that every single person in the room caught. "Why?" she said, her voice deathly quiet.

"Informational purposes, of course," Borusa said, in an almost practised tone. "Your species has developed such a technology far earlier in your evolutionary stage than most, without any outside influence."

"No, that's not why you want to monitor our progress," Rose said bluntly, making a few of her team members look confused. "If that were the case, you would've done what you've always done and silently observed our progress. Bet if I checked, I'd find you hadn't even spoken to the other species that have developed time travel." Borusa flushed a furious crimson, spluttering out nonsense, but she cut him off before he could formulate a response. "I know exactly what you really want— you want to loom over our shoulders like a cloud, making sure we know who the real experts are and that if we make one wrong move, you can send us back into the dark ages just by blinking."

"Do be reasonable, Miss Tyler," said Romana a bit pleadingly, but Rose talked over her.

"And you do all this and pretend it's for our own benefit, that we're creating a friendship with your planet," she continued, eyes blazing. A few team members looked uncomfortable at her fury, as it was clearly pissing off the rest of the High Council as well. "Because we're actually onto something here and that's jeopardising your monopoly over time travel, isn't it? The fact that we're such an 'underdeveloped species'—" She mimed air quotes around the words as she spoke,"— and yet we still managed to invent something you lot've controlled for ages."

"Now see here, girl—" spat one of the Council members who, up until that point, had remained silent.

"No, you see here," Rose snapped, glaring daggers at him. "We may be underdeveloped but we're not stupid apes. You can't bully us into compliance."

"Miss Tyler, I can assure you that that is decidedly not why we proposed an alliance," said Romana, calmly but surely. Truth be told, she seemed to be the only calm person in the entire room.

"If that's true, then change the terms of the alliance," Rose said, with a look of disbelief. "We'll gladly be allies with Gallifrey, but not if an alliance means you lot butting into our work. You're gonna have to revamp the contract before we agree to anything."

There was another long, much more tense silence throughout the room. Romana, looking deep in thought and slightly strained, broke the silence with a quiet, "We will consider your request." The entire Council looked shocked for a moment, before regaining their stony composure. Romana stood up, saying firmly, "In the meantime, I would be delighted if you would stay the night in the Citadel, as it is growing quite late." The Torchwood team sent confused glances at each other, while Rose merely frowned at Romana, having been certain they'd be sent home as soon as possible. "I shall have one of our initiates show you and your team to their respective quarters in the west wing."

The idea of enduring another five seconds of constant condescending looks, never mind an entire night, was unappealing, but Rose nodded curtly, not wanting to press her luck by refusing. She turned back towards the doors and pushed them open, wanting to get away from Borusa and his angry glare as soon as possible, and the team followed her at once.

Her annoyed pace slowed when she felt yet another piercing stare on her, but this time when Rose turned her gaze met the silver-blue eyes of a man who, peculiarly, was dressed in a velvet frock and cravat instead of the usual stiff robes. What really caught her attention, however, was the fact that unlike everyone else, he was staring at her with a mix of astonishment and genuine curiosity instead of disapproval. He was also ridiculously fit.

The man started slightly when their eyes met, looking slightly embarrassed at being caught staring, but his gaze remained unwavering, like he was trying to figure her out. The idea of a Time Lord who found her presence on Gallifrey fascinating instead of insulting piqued her interest, but before she could consider approaching him Jake laid a hand on her shoulder, whispering to her, "Keep it going, Director; don't want them to change their minds about lynching us."

She ignored his humourless joke but obediently tore her eyes away from the strange Mr. Darcy-esque man, a contemplative expression on her face.

When the Doctor entered the Panopticon, he found the Council stomping out already muttering to themselves about 'insolent, ungrateful degenerates' and Romana still sitting in the President's seat, massaging her temple with a frown on her face and her eyes closed. "What on Earth was all that about?"

Her eyes opened and she immediately perked up, smiling brightly. "Doctor! What a lovely surprise."

"Yes, well, the TARDIS needed a good tune-up," the Doctor said, unable to help from smiling back— it'd been too long since he'd seen anyone familiar. Sobering almost at once, he added, "You didn't answer my question."

Romana scoffed, letting her head fall back onto her hand. "Truth be told, Earth is precisely the problem."

"That human girl…" Wait, weren't there others? He'd almost forgotten, "… and her colleagues. What were they doing here?"

"That human girl and her colleagues just perfected time travel," Romana said a bit wearily, not noticing the Doctor's look of half-astonishment, half-delight. No wonder her timelines had seemed so interesting. "And, what's more, she saw right through Borusa's plan and in doing so shattered my own."

"Whatever do you mean, Romana?"

Gesturing for the Doctor to sit, which he obliged, Romana told him, "The Council and I have foreseen this event for several months, and have made preparations to ally ourselves with them. Share our knowledge so they don't go flitting about time and space mucking things up."

"Whatever happened to silently observing, my friend?" the Doctor asked a bit cheekily, only to be stunned when Romana laughed.

"She said almost the exact same thing!" the Lady President said, sounding pleased. "However, you and I both know that Earth is the only other species that will touch every star in the sky one day, as we have. You've said so yourself, many times." The Doctor smiled, glad to know Romana had in fact taken his advice about his favourite little blue planet. "Borusa, on the other hand, saw fit to include a fine print, so to speak. He wanted in exchange total monitoring of the humans' progress. Sufficed to say, the girl saw right through it and chewed him out rather well for it."

Oh, now he desperately needed to meet this girl. A human child who couldn't be older that thirty years old, taking on old Borusa? He almost wished he could take the TARDIS and go back in time just so he could be a fly on the wall.

Not noticing the Doctor's glee, Romana continued wearily, "Unfortunately, she's now entirely refused an alliance until we 'revamp the contract', to quote her own words."

"Well, I don't doubt thanks to Borusa's paranoia that she's lost any trust in the Council, if she had any to begin with," the Doctor pointed out.

Romana scoffed again, saying dryly, "I daresay it's broader than that, Doctor— I doubt she came to Gallifrey with any trust in the Time Lords as a whole."

The Doctor frowned, remembering their earlier stare-down; he hadn't garnered any hostility from her whatsoever, only blatant curiosity. "Are you sure? I didn't sense that from her."

"You met her?"

No, I just stared at her like a rude human male ogling a girl from across the pub. "Er," he said in response, blushing slightly at his own uncensored thought. "Not as such. We just sort of… looked at each other." Romana cocked an eyebrow, but didn't comment. "I rather think she was more inquisitive about me, if anything."

Romana's face suddenly lit up, looking at him with a brilliant smile like his words had given her the answer. "Why in Omega's name didn't I think of this before?" she exclaimed.

"Er, what?" he said, confused by the sudden mood change.

"Doctor, maybe you should speak with her," Romana suggested, eyes wide and excited.

"Why me?"

"Well you are our resident human expert, aren't you? And I don't mean in the factual sense," she added. "I do believe you'd relate to her far more than I of the Council could, Doctor."

The Doctor shifted a bit, his excitement at truly getting to meet the girl whose timelines danced shamelessly around his getting squashed by his general discomfort of doing the Time Lords' bidding. Odds are, whatever plans they had for this human girl, it would favour them much more than it would her.

"What is it I'm to speak with her about?" he said finally, after a quiet moment of mulling it over.

Romana looked at him with a reassuring expression, as though sensing his tribulations. "Just… show her the dangers of being careless with time. Try to make her see time through our eyes, instead of a human's. Truly, I think she means well; her biggest flaw is that she has too much faith in her species to see the potential risks involved." He nodded while looking down at his clasped hands, a contemplative look on his face. "I think you'll like her, Doctor," Romana added with an innocent grin.

"Whatever makes you say that?" the Doctor frowned, blushing slightly at the implications.

Romana merely shrugged, remarking, "She's headstrong. These issues aside, I'm sure you'll find her to be companion material."

The Doctor's frown deepened, and he told Romana shortly, "I'm not looking for a companion, Romana. I'm better off on my own."

"Of course you are," she said ironically, before waving her hand in a dismissive gesture. "Now shoo. You have work to do." He scowled at her and barely resisted the urge to stick his tongue out like a child before standing up from his seat. Before he could storm off, Romana called after him, "Don't you want to know her name before marching in like a soldier, Doctor?"

Embarrassed and a bit annoyed that he couldn't make a dramatic exit as he'd intended, the Doctor paused in his steps before nodding curtly.

"Her name is Rose Tyler."

Rose Tyler couldn't rest.

At first it was just because she was still seething over the events of the day. Never mind the slightly disgusted and superior looks from every Time Lord she passed on the way up to her chambers, those bastards had actually had the audacity to try and worm their way into her project and then pretend she was being unreasonable and paranoid. She huffed around the ridiculously luxurious room, only slightly calmed when she found the room's marble balcony provided a beautiful view of the land. Snow-capped mountains were highly defined in the suns' light, the wind lazily rippled the fields of red grass and shook the leaves of the silver trees, and there seemed to be a pond of golden liquid some yards away— although Rose surmised that could just be a trick of the light.

Honestly, it was almost too beautiful, and in any other circumstance Rose wouldn't even believe it was real, convinced she had walked into some madman's fantasy simulation he'd created for peace of mind. Later on, however, when the bottom of the first sun began to touch the horizon, she witness from the balcony the sky suddenly erupt in a wave of orange, like the clouds had been set on fire. Rose had shamelessly gaped like an idiot as she watched the first sun set, practically hanging off her balcony.

When the second sun began to creep towards the horizon as well, she felt her legs twitch towards the door, wanting to fully witness whatever came next. Rose hesitated for a moment, uncertain if she should leave her team behind, but eventually she reasoned they'd be able to do without her for an hour or two. Grabbing her jacket, she opened the door a crack and peeked outside, anger simmering in preparation of finding that the Lady President and her lackeys had sent guards to watch over them. Thankfully the hallway was clear, so she was able to slip into the hall silently and hurry through the Citadel into open air.

The terrain was bumpier than Rose had expected, having been covered up by the tall, untamed grass that rose to knee-level, but eventually she managed to stumble her way up to a cluster of those silver trees. The trunks were twisted and gnarled, and the ground around them was clear of grass to make way for their tapering roots. She stepped into the clear area, reached up and caught one of the leaves in her hand, rubbing it between her fingers as though expecting to rub off silver paint. Instead the cold, textured leaf warmed slightly, as any other leaf would. She tried not to squeal like an excited child, letting go of the leaf and watching it drop like a stone instead of flutter down like she'd expected.

Rose was just starting to consider heading over to the pond she'd seen earlier, just to check out if the water really was gold, but the sounds of footsteps rustling through the grass behind her put her on red alert instantly. She whirled around, already lowering herself into a defensive stance, only to spot the strange, smartly dressed man from earlier with his hands up in surrender.

"Relax," he said at once, in a posh, gentle tone. "I won't hurt you."

She raised a curious eyebrow, straightening up slightly. "Who are you?"

"I am the Doctor," the man said, with a polite smile.

Rose frowned, all wariness lost to confusion. "Doctor what?"

"Just the Doctor."

"Okay," Rose responded blankly, blowing out a puff of air. "I assume that's a Time Lord thing?"

"It is," the man affirmed. "May I ask your name?"

There was something about the way he said it — his tone, his phrasing, or maybe the carefully crafted expression on his face — that made Rose cross her arms and remark a bit coolly, "I think you already know it."

He looked utterly taken aback. "What makes you say that?"

"Well, for one thing you were outside the meeting I had with the President, and for another you followed me here," Rose pointed out. "So, what? Are you part of the Council or something?"

The Doctor scoffed, looking so disgusted by the idea that it stunned Rose for a moment. "Do I look like one of those stuffy old gits?"

"Suppose not," she said with a grin, before admitting, "You look more like Mr. Darcy than a Time Lord, actually."

"Mr. Darcy?" he repeated, looking horrified. "Are you saying I look like a grumpy fop?"

"Well…" At his intense stare, she cut him some slack and said, "No. Just… different." When the Doctor grumbled incoherently, tugging at his waistcoat's lapels, she raised an eyebrow and said, "Well?"

"Well what?" the Doctor asked, looking up from his primping.

"Aren't you gonna try to make me see reason?" Rose said, with a bit of annoyance in her tone. "Try to tell me that the Time Lords have the best of intentions and that the President's contract is innocent and for our benefit?"

"Why on Earth would I tell you that?" he said lightly, causing her to frown at him.

"Isn't that why you're here?"

"Not at all," the Doctor said. "And besides, telling you such a thing would be a lie. Old Borusa's footnote about 'monitoring your progress' isn't in your favour at all, now is it?"

"Borusa did that?"

"Yes, I'm afraid it's the sort of person he is. Romana was unable to sway him or the Council away from it, unfortunately."

"You're friends with the President?" Rose said curiously, noticing he, unlike the rest of the Time Lords she'd met, didn't refer to Romana as 'the Lady President'. Then again, this 'Doctor' seemed as un-Time Lord as it got.

"I am."

"Did she send you to talk to me?"

His gaze steadily met hers, and the same unwavering, stunning connection that had passed between the two of them earlier hit her again. "She did."

Rose tore her eyes away, frowning at the ground and plunking herself down on a clear patch of grass. "Well, if you're not here to convince me to accept the alliance, why did she send you then?"

The Doctor hesitated, before making a silent request with a hand gesture to sit next to her. She nodded, and he sat down on a large tree root beside her, leaning against the tree trunk. "Well, before I tell you that, Miss Tyler—" Knew it, she mentally remarked to herself, "— I'd have to clarify a few things about myself first."

"All right," Rose said, settling comfortably in the grass.

When she glanced at him after he failed to begin talking, she found him wearing a contemplative and slightly shadowed expression on his face, which was outlined by the light of the gradually setting second sun. It hit her for the second time that this man — the Doctor, as he called himself — was almost unreasonably gorgeous. It couldn't just be because he was a Time Lord— although they seemed to take pride in having the most beautiful, perfect structures and technology, appearance-wise they seemed as diverse as any human. Romana was lovely, of course, but the rest of the Council members (more so Borusa) were purse-lipped and lined with age. Maybe Time Lords took on the appearances of their personalities? It was a silly theory but, she surmised with an internal smirk, it would definitely explain Borusa.

"I don't live on Gallifrey," the Doctor began slowly, making Rose jump as it wrenched her out of her thoughts. "I travel indefinitely, all throughout time and space."

He didn't seem to know how to continue, so Rose broke the silence and asked, "In those time capsules you lot have?"

He smiled, equal parts grateful and delighted when he said, "Yes, although mine is far superior than those shiny newones they have in stock." At her questioning look, he elaborated, looking very excited to tell the tale. "She was a type-40 scheduled for decommission some centuries back. I sto— er, I mean, I acquired her before they could."

Rose frowned at his faux pas (and his slight flush) wondering what he'd been about to say, before something occurred to her. "Wait, her?"

"She's a she," the Doctor explained. "All the time capsules Gallifrey has are sentient, to a degree."

"Sentient time machines," Rose said aloud, trying to wrap her mind around the idea and finding herself failing miserably. When he looked at her, clearly amused by her shock, she pushed aside and urged him to continue with a not so subtle, "So… you travel the universe with this… sentient time machine?"

"I do," the Doctor said, sobering quickly.

"All on your own?"

He looked at her curiously, and she wondered if perhaps any melancholy had shone through her voice; it did seem awfully lonely, that sort of life. "Not always," he admitted, which made her feel a bit better for him. "Occasionally I pick up some companions, show them the universe as well." A grin started on her mouth as she imagined whizzing through time and space with this sweet (and attractive) madman. It was why she dedicated her life to perfecting time travel back on Earth, and Rose felt herself deeply envying those faceless people that had gotten the privilege of travelling with the Doctor. "Most of the time, they're human."

"What, really?" Rose said in shock. When he glanced at her, she felt herself flush crimson and immediately felt the need to justify herself. "Sorry. S'just that… my team and I haven't exactly gotten a welcoming party here on Gallifrey. I just assumed it was 'cos we're human." Maybe that was a bit presumptuous of her.

"It is," the Doctor said regretfully.

She frowned, confused. "Then why do you…?"

"I'm different, remember?" he pointed out, sounding a bit forlorn until his voice brightened. "I quite appreciate humans."

"You do?"

He nodded enthusiastically, smiling at her like an idiot. "Of course!"

Rose grinned back, his enthusiasm contagious, and said, "Think I like you, Doctor." He beamed, if possible, even wider, making her laugh for a moment before she eventually sobered again. "But why do you like humans and the rest of your species doesn't?"

"Because you're our biggest competitor," the Doctor admitted. At Rose's disbelieving look, he insisted, "It's true. Earth is the only other species in history to eventually reach every corner of the universe. And, on an evolutionary level, you've far beaten our record for inventing safe, time-travelling devices," he added, with a bit of a smirk. "We were around far longer than Earth was, and at the point your people are at the moment relative to Gallifrey's history, we were still living in your equivalent of the Dark Ages. Change does not come quickly for Gallifrey— but for Earth, things change so quickly the Time Lords themselves can barely keep up."

Rose snorted and remarked, "Blimey, no wonder Borusa looked so angry." The Doctor grinned in amusement. "Okay, so that explains why he tried to sneak in that stupid monitoring thing. Is that also why Gallifrey's breaking their 'silently observe' policy?"

"Well no, not entirely," the Doctor said, looking a bit nervous. "That was Romana's idea."

"Why'd she want it, then?"

The Doctor paused for a moment, fiddling with a loose thread on his cuff. "There is a reason why we call ourselves Time Lords," he said after a bit, very carefully, as though trying not to offend her. "We are time-sensitive beings. It's sort of hard to explain," he added, when Rose looked confused. "One example is being able to see timelines."

"What are timelines?" she asked.

"They're… the possibilities that surround a person," he tried to explain, feeling as though his words were falling flat. "What paths they could take in the future, what decisions they could make and how that would affect them, that sort of thing."

"So you can, what, see the future?" Rose said, a bit shocked.

"Not exactly," the Doctor shrugged. "Just glimpses of several different possibilities, and the most likely scenario is the clearest. What could happen if, say, I choose to cut the blue wire instead of the red."

Rose took a moment of silence to process this, trying to imagine what it would be like to look at a crowd of people and see the millions of choices they could make. Then she suddenly realised what his point was, and said aloud, "You lot want to make sure we don't start mucking about through space and time without knowing what we're doing, and accidentally changin' history." He looked a bit guilty, confirming her theory, which made a stab of annoyance sear in her chest. "Doctor, we're not stupid," she said shortly. "We've done extensive simulations, researched as many paradoxes as we could think of."

"I know you're not stupid," the Doctor said, but his words were warm, and she glanced over to him to see that he was smiling fondly at her. "The problem is you can't think of everything. And not everyone is as kind-hearted as you are, Rose." She blushed a little, whether it was over his compliment or the use of her name, she wasn't sure. "There are many humans out there who would attempt to take advantage of such technology, regardless of the risks." Rose frowned, feeling a bit forlorn when she realised that was definitely true. "That is why, since Time Lords have long since had the knowledge and the technology to safely manoeuvre the Time Vortex, we would wish to share it with you."

"So we don't collapse the universe," Rose muttered.

"Yes, in fact. I don't suppose you've ever heard of the Reapers?" Rose shook her head, and he continued. "What about what the Time Vortex actually is? What it's comprised of? How our capsules are able to travel through it, or how we're able to actually live in it?" She shook her head again, chin sticking out in a bit of a scowl. "I am not trying to patronise you, Rose. I am merely asking that you open your mind to the possibility that perhaps you are not ready to use this technology, and that you'd do well to learn a bit from us first."

Rose stayed silent, feeling a bit dejected at the prospect of putting such an important project on hold, even for a few years. The idea of learning even more about time travel did appeal to her, but not if her teachers were going to be self-entitled gits jealous of their evolutionary progress.

"I could show you a bit of what I mean, of course," the Doctor said, as though he'd read her mind. "My ship is in the hangar."

She looked at him, studying him as best she could in the waning sunlight. Was he lying, like Borusa had, only doing a better job of it because of his sweet demeanour and gentle voice? Somehow, it seemed impossible. It was with this in mind that she said, with a half-smile and a shrug, "All right."

A/N: Hope you all had a happy holiday season! This fic is a gift for bubblygal92, who is the greatest person ever, in response to her writing a fic for me (check out Angel of Mine, a fic of Twelve/Rose awesomeness) because I'm privileged enough to be her beta. This fic's plot kind of reminds me of something she'd come up with; very Gallifrey-oriented, though with A LOT more canon mistakes (probably) than what she'd do. I researched like crazy, but I've never touched the audio adventures so things could be wrong; please forgive me in advance and let me know so I can change it :) Also, I literally have no clue how long this is going to be- I was aiming for 3-5 chapters, but it's looking like it's turning into something else. So, yeah. Enjoy!