64. ''Don't let go'' hug
65: I thought we'd never see each other again hug
44: Then there's tongue
34: Hot, Steamy kiss
Daleks swarmed like locusts in the skies above London. Watching them pulled painfully at the Doctor's time senses, and he finally understood. The ghosts—the Cybermen—were only the harbingers of the storm. With Daleks in the sky and Cybermen on the ground, both threatening the extinction of the human race, a temporal storm had broken. The paradox that would result if Earth were destroyed was unthinkable.
"How many Daleks?" Rose slipped her hand into his, and he clung to her.
"Millions."
She stepped closer to him and ran her hand over his arm. "But you know how to stop it, yeah?"
The Doctor smirked when he overheard Pete Tyler trying to convince Jackie to leave this universe and go back with him. For a man who claims she's not your wife, you're awfully determined to stay with her.
He glanced over at his own wife, who had her bottom lip between her teeth and was staring at him with wide, worried eyes. "Maybe," he said in answer to her question. "I hope. But you could…"
She was already shaking her head. "I told you—I'm never going to leave you."
The Doctor sighed, then pulled his hand away and put his 3D glasses on again. His whole plan hinged on the presence of Void stuff, and he grinned victoriously when he discovered the Daleks were coated in the stuff.
"Doctor?"
He spun around at Pete's call. "Oh, I'm ready." He ran to the nearest terminal and started the reboot protocol. "I've got the equipment right here. Thank you, Torchwood. Slam it down and close off both universes."
The computers acknowledged they were being rebooted, and he watched for a moment to make sure it was rebooting the entire network, not just the one terminal.
"But we can't just leave," Rose protested. "What about the Daleks? And the Cybermen?"
"They're part of the problem, and that makes them part of the solution." He pointed his finger in her face for a moment, then swung it through the air triumphantly. "Oh yes!"
Rose was grinning along with him, but everyone else stared at him with little furrows in their foreheads, like he was some sort of lunatic.
"Well?" The Doctor pointed at his paper shades, surprised not one of the humans had asked why he was wearing the cheap cardboard toy. "Isn't anyone going to ask what is it with the glasses?"
Rose bounced on her toes and chuckled. "What is it with the glasses?"
"I can see, that's what." The Doctor pointed at the ceiling, then nodded once for emphasis. "Because we've got two separate worlds, but in between the two separate worlds, we've got the Void."
As he laid out the plan, he couldn't ignore the inherent danger any longer, and he talked faster and faster, trying to distract himself.
"That's where the Daleks were hiding. And the Cybermen travelled through the Void to get here. And you lot, one world to another, via the Void." He rocked back on his heels and looked up at the ceiling. "Oh, I like that. Via the Void. Look." He took the glasses off and clumsily set them on Rose's face. "I've been through it. Do you see?"
The computer kept counting down to the reboot while he danced in place, getting the particles to buzz around him so Rose could see them easily.
Rose's eyes widened when she saw the halo of dancing red and green particles surrounding the Doctor. "What is it?"
"Void stuff."
His grin was bright, but Rose recognised the tightness in his jaw and knew he was terrified. Still, he'd gone to a lot of effort to keep that from everyone else, so she continued to play along with his manic act.
She stared at her own hand, covered in the same particles. "Like um, background radiation," she suggested, remembering how she'd explained artron energy earlier to Mickey.
Genuine pride flickered in the Doctor's eyes. "That's it. Look at the others. And the only one who hasn't been through the Void, your mother."
Rose stared at the solid outline around her mum, so different from the floating particles that surrounded everyone else.
"First time she's looked normal all in her life," the Doctor added, not quite as under his breath as he maybe thought he had.
"Oi!"
The Doctor ignored Jackie's cry of protest and ran for the high wall that rested right against the breach in the Void. "But the Daleks lived inside the Void. They're bristling with it. Cybermen, all of them." He stretched his arms out over the invisible tear, then turned around and looked back at his captive audience. "I just open the Void and reverse. The Void stuff gets sucked back inside."
"Pulling them all in!" Rose cried.
The Doctor grinned at her. "Pulling them all in!"
"Sorry, what's the Void?"
The Doctor blinked and looked at Mickey. For a moment, he'd almost forgotten he and Rose weren't alone. "The dead space. Some people call it Hell."
Mickey draped his hopper over his head with a small smile on his face. "So you're sending the Daleks and Cybermen to Hell." He looked over at Jake, one eyebrow raised. "Man, I told you he was good."
Rose shook her head, and the Doctor knew she'd figured out what no one else had even considered. "But it's like you said. We've all got Void stuff. Even you and me, because we went to that parallel world."
The Doctor picked up one of the magnaclamps while she stared at her hand.
"We're all contaminated," she murmured, taking the glasses off to look at him properly. "We'll get pulled in."
In answer, he held up the magnaclamp. "That's why I got us these." He dropped the heavy magnet to the floor and the clang made everyone flinch. "Everyone else will go back to Pete's World." He looked at Pete, Mickey, and Jake. "Hey, we should call it that: Pete's World." Rose rested her hand on his wrist and he looked back at her. "Meanwhile, you and I will hang on tight, watching the Cybermen and Daleks fall into the Void."
His stomach twisted at the thought of Rose in that much danger, but as if she knew what he was thinking, she lifted her jaw and met his pleading gaze head-on. The Doctor nodded; message received.
"And then you close it, for good?" Pete pressed.
The Doctor shook his head. "The breach itself is soaked in Void stuff. In the end it'll close itself. And that's it. Kaput." He clicked his tongue slightly to emphasise the t.
Jackie suddenly pulled the hopper off. "Hold on a minute!" She planted her hands on her hips and glared at Pete. "Is this thing what you use to get to that other world you're all talking about?"
Pete pressed his lips into a thin line and nodded. "Yes, and we're going. The Doctor's plan will work."
Jackie snorted and tossed the button on the floor. "Well, I'm not going without Rose."
Something hit the building, reminding them all of the imminent danger. "Oh, my God. We're going!" Pete grabbed her hand but she pulled away from him.
"I've had twenty years without you, so button it. I'm not leaving her."
Rose felt her throat close up. She knew she should convince her mum to go—this was the second chance she'd been wanting for years. But if she went to that parallel universe, Rose would never see her again.
She put a hand on Jackie's shoulder. "Mum… this is your last chance to be with him," she whispered.
"An' apparently my last chance to see you, if I decide to go with him," Jackie retorted. "If I leave, what will there to be to bring you home? And don't tell me that box is your home—you need something to keep you grounded, Rose. You know you do."
Rose hugged her mum tight. She'd never said anything about how much she appreciated having the touchstone of an ordinary life in the middle of the extraordinary one she shared with the Doctor, but somehow, her mum had figured that out anyway.
"I love you, sweetheart." Jackie squeezed her once, then turned to Pete, who was running his hand over his balding head, looking dejected. "I'm sorry, Pete. I really am. I'd come with you if it didn't mean I'd never see my daughter again, but I can't do that."
Pete swallowed, and Rose remembered what he'd told her the first time they'd met, about how his Jackie had never wanted to have kids. Seeing a Jackie so fiercely devoted to her daughter must be odd, and painful at the same time.
"Of course you can't," he said, his voice even. "But we can't stay here, either. Mickey, Jake—are you ready?" The two men nodded, and Pete Tyler hit the button his chest, taking them all home to Pete's World.
The shifting timelines momentarily made the Doctor dizzy, and he had to blink twice before he could focus on Jackie Tyler.
"Right, that still leaves us with the question of how to keep you safe, Jackie. Because even if you aren't covered in Void stuff, this room is going to be full of Cybermen and Daleks in less than five minutes, and I think Rose and I would both rather you weren't here for that."
"Reboot in one minute."
Rose jumped at the computer's announcement. "Too bad there are hundreds of Cybermen between here and the TARDIS," she mused. "She'd be safe there."
The Doctor started to agree, then he remembered one more resource they had. "That's it!" He pulled out the hopper Jake had given him and pointed the sonic screwdriver at it. "If I can just find a way to reverse the polarity, make this a teleport instead of dimension hopper…" He pressed his tongue to the back of his teeth, hoping against hope this would work. The sonic always had the coordinates of the TARDIS, so it would be easy enough to get the device to lock onto the ship, if he could just make this switch…
"I don't know what you're going on about," Jackie complained while he worked. "Reversing the polarity? Bunch of science fiction rubbish, if you ask me."
"I didn't." The faint hum the device emitted changed pitch, and the Doctor cheered. "Got it! Are you ready, Jackie?"
She crossed her arms over her chest. "How do I know you aren't tricking me into leaving Rose behind?"
Rose wrapped an arm around her mother's shoulders. "Because he wouldn't do that to me," she said.
The simple trust in her words hit the Doctor hard. He wouldn't, now. But that was only because he wanted to be the man she thought he was—not because he was that man on his own.
Rose took the button from him and pressed it into her mother's hands. "Please, Mum. I need to know you're going to be safe."
Jackie blinked back tears, and the Doctor could only imagine what it must feel like to be protected by your child, rather than the other way around.
"All right." She took the button and sniffed. "But don't think I've forgotten about that our conversation from before." She pointed at the Doctor. "You and me are gonna have a talk about your intentions, Doctor."
It was probably a good thing she pressed the button before the Doctor could respond to that. "Did she… was… I…"
To his surprise, Rose threw herself at him and locked her arms tight around his waist. "Thank you for not sending me away again," she mumbled, the words muffled by his chest.
The Doctor almost asked what she meant by again, then he realised she was referring to his trickery with emergency programme one, sending her back to Earth alone. He sighed and held her close, the way he'd wanted to all those months ago.
Then he dared to look at the timelines surrounding her, hoping they'd settled into the array of possibilities that were typically present for a human time traveller. Instead, he saw one event looming ahead, so important it overshadowed almost everything else in her life. He moved around it, trying to get a better angle so he could tell what exactly happened, but the outcome remained opaque.
"Systems rebooted. Open access."
The computer's voice broke into the Doctor's daze, bringing him back to the moment. He pointed at the closest terminal that had the right program open. "Those coordinates over there, set them all at six." Rose nodded and walked towards the computers, and they worked quietly for a few seconds.
Then Rose called out to him. "We've got Cybermen on the way up."
The Doctor jogged over to her side and looked at the video image over her shoulder. "How many floors down?"
"Just one."
He ran back to his own work station where he was trying to get the levers to turn back on, but he knew they were in a race against time that they were bound to lose. There was no way they could have the Void open in the time it would take the Cybermen to reach them.
"Hang on!" Rose said. "One of the Cybermen has stopped them in the stairs… she's shot them all down. We can still do this, Doctor," she said.
The Doctor grinned and entered the final command. "Levers operational," the computer announced.
"Are you ready for this, Doctor?" Rose asked. "The old team."
He hefted a magnaclamp and jogged towards her. "Hope and Glory, Mutt and Jeff, Shiver and Shake."
"Which one's Shiver?"
"Oh, I'm Shake." The Doctor dropped the clamp into Rose's arms. "Be careful; it's heavy," he told her as he turned around to pick up his own.
"Bit late for a warning, Doctor," she muttered.
"Sorry." He pressed his clamp to the wall by the lever on the left side of the room. On the other side, Rose had copied him and was waiting for instructions. "Press the red button." The clamps attached to the wall, giving them an anchor to hold onto when the breach was open.
The Doctor took a deep breath, then looked across the room into Rose's wide eyes. "When we push these levers up, the breach will open. Then we'll grab onto the clamps." They moved into position in front of the levers while he finished explaining. "When it starts, just hold on tight. Shouldn't be too bad for us but the Daleks and the Cybermen are steeped in Void stuff. Are you ready?"
Rose nodded, then gestured towards the window. "So are they."
The Doctor ground his teeth together. Daleks were converging on the window. "Let's do it!"
Rose pushed her lever up, then ran to the clamp. Wind was already whipping through the room, blowing her hair in her face and trying to suck her into the Void. Bright white light entered the room through the breach, and she stared into it as she hooked her elbow around the clamp.
Behind her, she heard glass shatter, and a moment later, three Daleks shrieked as they soared through the air, into the open breach.
The force tugging them towards the breach was more powerful than Rose had expected, and she looked across the room to see how the Doctor was doing. A fierce smile stretched across his face as he watched more Daleks fall into the Void.
"The breach is open!" he crowed. "Into the Void!"
Rose laughed along with him, but a minute later, the universe reminded her that it was always best to save your laughter until the day was won. Something electrical crackled, and she watched her lever move just slightly, so it wasn't in the upright and locked position.
"Offline." The computer's unemotional voice didn't hint at the unwelcome news it imparted. Rose's heart sank when the stream of Daleks and Cybermen flying overhead slowed. She bit her lip, and without looking at the Doctor, she stretched for the lever, hoping she could pull it back into position.
I can't reach it! But the tug of the Void on her own body had lessened too, which gave her an idea. Letting go of the clamp, she threw herself at the lever. If she could push it upright and then get back to the clamp before the Void opened fully again…
"What are you doing?" the Doctor yelled.
She looked over at him. Terror was drawn in stark lines on his face, and somehow, that helped calm her own fear. "I've got to get it upright!"
The lever kept moving towards the off position, but Rose got in front of it and planted her feet firmly on the floor. A few Daleks moved slowly through the room as she pushed, grunting from the exertion. Finally, she felt it click into place.
And immediately, the current pulling her to the Void picked up again. Rose held onto the lever, but as her body was lifted off the ground, she could feel her fingers slipping.
"Rose, hold on! Hold on, love!" The Doctor let go of his clamp with one hand, reaching out for her.
Rose clenched her jaw; she couldn't leave her Doctor like this, but the Void was stronger than she could resist. Every second it tugged her closer…
Every second.
Timelines snapped into place. This was the reason she'd wanted the Doctor to teach her how to slow down the flow of time.
Rose adjusted her grip on the lever, then closed her eyes and reached out the way the Doctor had taught her. She could feel time moving around her, and if she concentrated hard enough, she could see her place in the current. Once she'd homed in on her presence in time, it was easy enough to create a bubble of calm around herself, so time would continue to move around her, but not affect her.
She knew the moment she succeeded, because suddenly, she could move on her own again. Being outside of time also meant the suction from the Void disappeared. Rose scrambled for her clamp, knowing she could only hold back time for a few moments before she lost her grip on time.
With the temporal storm raging around them, the Doctor's hearts had stopped when his brave, brilliant Rose had let go of her lever. Then he'd felt her reach out and create an eye in the storm, just like he'd taught her. This was it—the event he'd seen in her timelines just a few minutes ago. He watched in astonishment as she let go of the lever and grabbed onto the clamp.
A second later, time in the lever room started flowing properly again. The Doctor sucked in a huge breath when the timelines around Rose settled into a long, golden cord twined with his own.
Her laughter caught his attention, and he met her gaze. "I told you that would come in handy one day," she hollered at him over the din of Cybermen and Daleks whooshing into the open Void.
The Doctor laughed breathlessly as the wind pushing them towards the Void slowed, then dissipated altogether. For just a moment, he could see the walls between the worlds as the breach mended itself, then disappeared.
The moment his feet touched the ground, he ran for Rose, meeting her in the middle of the room. "Rose!" he cried as he clutched her to him, bending down slightly so he could nuzzle into her hair.
He felt her fingers in his hair and her lips brushing kisses along his forehead and temple. "You said it, remember Doctor?" she whispered in his ear. "They keep trying to split us up, but they never, ever will."
A glimmer of an aborted timeline tugged at his senses, but the Doctor looked away. He didn't want to see what his world would be like without Rose in it, didn't want to know how much different this moment could have been.
Instead, he threaded his fingers through her hair and tilted her head back so he could press his lips to hers. He channeled all his desperate fears of the last hour into the kiss, sucking and nipping at her lips and then finally, sweeping his tongue into her mouth.
The Doctor felt Rose's groan when he swiped his tongue against the roof of her mouth. Before he could feel too cocky about her reactions to him, she scraped her nails over his scalp, making his whole body tingle with pleasure.
"You're here," he mumbled against her skin as he trailed kisses down her neck to her clavicle. "We made it through the storm, and you're still here."
Rose arched her back when he found her clavicle and laved at the sensitive spot. The Doctor pulled her close, but when he realised he was ten seconds away from pressing her against the wall and making love to her right there, he loosened his hold with a regretful groan.
Her impatient whine tempted him, but he pressed a gentle kiss to her lips to soothe her instead. "Come on, love. Let's go home." Rose blinked a few times, and he couldn't deny the surge of pride he felt when he saw her passion-glazed eyes.
Three words were on the tip of the Doctor's tongue, but he knew if he said them now, her response would break what was remained of his restraint. Later, he promised himself. He'd almost lost Rose today; he wouldn't hold back any longer. But for now, he simply took her hand and led her home.