The world ends not with a bang, but with a mirror shattering.
As soon as the thought entered Rose's mind, she immediately felt ashamed of herself. She understood, perhaps more than anyone, the importance of keeping history and timelines in tact. With a little shiver, she remembered the chaos of the Reapers. The time traveller in her understood this completely.
Rose, the woman in love with a 900 year old alien, however, couldn't help but feel hurt and a little betrayed. She knew something was changing between them.
Certainly his new body was more physically affectionate than her first Doctor. He was more willing to hold hands, open his arms for bone crushing hugs, and he always had a smile ready for her. Rose thought it meant a change in direction for them. Perhaps he was finally going to do something about this rolling tension between them.
But then Sarah Jane happened. And then Mickey joined them. And now Reinette.
Well, Rose could take a hint. He didn't want her. She was a Tyler woman and she wasn't going to pine away. If friendship and adventure was all he was going to offer, then she would take it. It wasn't the first time she had been rejected by a bloke. Although, this was certainly the first time she'd been abandoned 3000 years in the future on an abandoned spaceship.
"He's gone. I didn't think he would really do it. I didn't think he'd leave you-us-behind. But he did. Rose, what are we gonna do? How are we gonna get home?"
Mickey sounded panicked. Poor Mickey. On his first adventure into space and callously abandoned. A surge of anger coursed through her. How could the Doctor do this to Mickey? To her? Right. Reinette, French history, all that jazz.
She turned to face Mickey and flashed him a reassuring smile.
"Mickey. Don't worry. He's gonna come back, yeah? He wouldn't just leave us here. Just give him some time. We'll wait a while and then..."
She let the sentence trailed off. Yeah, Rose. Then what? I can't fly the TARDIS. Maybe with a little jiggery pokery I can find the Emergency Programme One switch. Or, she thought with a tight swallow, I could always open up the TARDIS once more. Desperate times, desperate measures.
As if Mickey could read her thoughts, he spoke up.
"Then what, Rose? In case you haven't noticed, we don't exactly have a bulldozer to open up the TARDIS again. What happens if we die on this ship? What then?"
Right, Rose thought, time to take charge before he really loses it.
She strode forward and took Mickey's face between her hands, effectively stopping his progressing panic attack.
"Mickey! Stop. I promise you, I will take care of you, yeah? It's gonna be okay because the Doctor is coming back. He won't leave us here. We aren't going to die. We are going to wait right here, together. We're not gonna die. Okay? Breathe with me, Mick."
Mickey closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them, he gave Rose a winning smile and a nod.
"Alright. Together. Right. Well, no offense to your boyfriend, but I don't wanna wait here for god knows how long. Can we go explore?"
Rose had to smile at him. Trust Mickey to go from completely useless to daringly adventurous.
"Yeah. C'mon. The Doctor took care of the last of those Clockwork Droids, so we should be clear. Let's see what this ships all about, 'kay?"
With grins, they scampered off to explore the empty corridors of the ship.
They found numerous doors which led to boring things like electrical wires, a boiler room of some sort, and what appeared to be the engine. Knowing what exactly was powering the ship, they hastily shut the door and didn't speak of it.
What they did squeal over, however, was the kitchen. Touch screens and automatic food dispensers seemed so futuristic and other worldly.
Rose looked on fondly as Mickey found a type of tea cupboard which housed every brand of tea imaginable and was dispensed via a robotic arm.
"Rose! Look at this! 3000 years in the feature and they still have Tetley! Blimey, this is surreal. It's like a weird mash of our time and some alien future. Is this what you see everyday?"
Rose laughed. Trust Mickey to get excited over a tea dispenser and not the fact that they were on a spaceship with windows connected to 18th century France.
"Yeah, Mickey. All this and so much more. Just wait til you see your first alien alien. It's..it's something."
Mickey looked up at her and tilted his head.
"Rose. I know you don't wanna think about it. And I know you have this unshakable faith in him. But he left us. He didn't even think about what would happen to you, to me. All he could think about was his French tart."
"Mickey, we're not like that. And the Doctor didn't got back for her because he fancied her or anything. He had to save her because if he didn't the timelines of our future could get screwed up. And when that happens...well, it's not pretty and people die. He had to. He would never leave us if it wasn't necessary."
Mickey looked doubtful and opened his mouth again.
"Rose. You don't have to act tough for me, yeah? I know you love him. I know you're hurtin' right now. But, Rose, you deserve so much better than him. If he's tempted by some French floozy, then he doesn't know how good he has it."
Rose was shaking her head.
"Mick, I'm not stupid. He's a 900 year old Time Lord. It would take a lot more than a London shopgirl with no A-levels to tempt him. He deserves someone like Reinette. She's beautiful and talented and clever. I read up on her in the TARDIS library. She's the kind of woman he needs, and that's okay. I always sorta knew that in the back of my head."
Mickey looked like he was about to hit something. He took her hand and spoke softy, "Rose, listen to me. You may not have your A-levels and you might have been a shopgirl. But you make such a difference to people. Do you think your Mum would have survived without you? As I recall, more importantly, it was you who saved Old Big Ears from that goo monster, yeah? So, don't ever think you aren't good enough for him."
He reached out and wiped away a few tears that had slipped down Rose's face. She let out a sound that was half sob and half laugh.
"Oh Mickey. I'm so sorry. What did I do to deserve someone like you?"
Mickey puffed his chest out in a mock 'macho man' stance.
"Yeah, well, not a tin dog, me. I'm actually Mickey The Wise and Powerful."
They giggled together and embraced. It felt good to finally talk about some of her fears out loud. Even more importantly, she was glad Mickey and she could still talk and be real mates.
"C'mon you lump, let's go see if there's another horse lurking around here."
They turned to leave the kitchen when a horrible sound reached their ears.
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
With wide, fearful eyes, she turned to Mickey and mimed for him to keep quiet. He shakily nodded and looked around for the source of the ticking.
Rose swallowed and hoped that the wild pounding of her heart wasn't loud enough to give away their place in the kitchen.
Stepping carefully, as to not disturb any of the debris on the floor, Rose found herself with her ear pressed against the galley door. She gave a little start as she realized the source of the ticking was close enough to the door for her to hear.
It seemed as if the Doctor had not taken care of all the Clockwork Droids.
She stepped back and whispered harshly, "Find a weapon, anything that you can use to defend yourself. A pipe, a metal spoon, something! Quick!"
The urgency in her command seemed to get through to the stunned Mickey and he scrambled, as quietly as one can scramble, for a weapon.
He found a metal spoon and a long metal table leg. He passed the table leg to Rose, who had come to stand next to him.
Mickey gripped his pathetic weapon tightly. He was going to go down fighting. He chanced a glance over to Rose. Her face was tight and her body tense. Not her first rodeo, then. Well, he wasn't the useless lump she once called him.
However, at the sound of the galley door creaking open, he had to put his attention back onto the enemy.
For her part, Rose couldn't help but snap into companion mode. This certainly wasn't her first time out. She put any fear behind her. She beat werewolves, Slitheen, and Gelth. She could handle some overgrown clocks.
Besides, she had to survive. If not for her, than for Mickey.
But as the Clockwork Droids wandered into the galley, Rose couldn't help the traitorous thought that flashed across her mind. I wish the Doctor was here.
"You are compatible. You will be used. You are compatible."
The droid advanced towards them, his (if the droid could have a gender) arm was raised. The hand flicked open and a saw like appendage appeared.
"I don't much fancy becoming a chop shop, do you, Rose?"
With a grin, relieved that Mickey wasn't panicking too badly, Rose couldn't help but get wrapped up in the danger of the moment. One more beast, one more adventure.
"Let's do it!"
And with an inhuman battle cry, the two launched themselves at their foe.
Look at us go, Doctor. We don't need you.
