A/N- I don't own any of these charters, they all belong to the BBC.
Happy reading!
Chapter One -o- Don't wander off
The 'don't wander off' rule had always been in place for her, not that it was something she followed, or that he really expected her to follow. Neither of them had ever really thought the rule should apply to him, after all, he knew what he was doing, where they were, who the people (or aliens) were, and how to get out of (almost) any bad situation. When they walked out the door of their safe haven, into the wide open world, or moon, or space station, it was always with the acceptance that something bad was going to happen, and that they'd fix it. It was just how their luck worked. But when he got that look in his eyes and told her to stay put because he had to look into something, they both knew she wouldn't. He'd wandered one way and she wandered another, and eventually, they both met in the middle with a solution. And that was how it worked, it was a good system, she always came back, and so did he, until he didn't.
-o-o-
Rose pushed open the doors to the TARDIS, a huge smile on her face, her arms loaded down with bags. They had stopped here, on her request, for a relaxing day of shopping. Of course the Doctor wanted nothing to do with her shopping, seeing as, when she got started she could be at it for hours.
'I'm sure there are a few things that need a little-
'Jiggery-pokery?' Rose had interrupted him and he'd smiled nodding his head.
'Exactly,' he'd said reaching into his jacket and pulling out a small think metal card. 'It's a...well, a credit card, for the most part.' He'd handed over to her and she'd held back the sequel of excitement as she took it form him. 'Don't be gone to long, yeah?'
'I won't,' she'd told him smiling happily thinking of all the very neat things she was going to find at the alien street market. She hugged him and then ran down the ramp and out the doors.
She set all her bags down next to the console and looked around the room. No sign of the Doctor, in fact it didn't even look as though he'd been working on anything. She rolled her eyes and wondered just what had taking him off track, because there was always something. She started towards the door to the hall and thought about the best place to start looking.
An hour later and she still hadn't found him; she was beginning to worry a little. She had been all over the known ship, though she was sure it went on forever. She'd been everywhere he went, the library, the wardrobe, the kitchen, the med-bay, his room, her room, a funny little white room that she didn't recognize, he was no where. She'd even asked the TARDIS for help, seeing as they were such good friends after...everything that had happened, but she didn't know any more then Rose. And the TARDIS couldn't just speak, she had no real words, she communicated in...emotions in a way, hard to understand unless you'd had her in your head for a while.
Finally she sat down at the kitchen table and sighed as she tried to pull in her worry. Perhaps he'd decided he needed something after all and just hadn't thought to leave her a note, to 'domestic' for him. Well if that was the case they would have words about it, and she was sure they would be loud words. Or maybe he was holed up in some room she'd never seen and didn't know how to get to. He'd walk into the kitchen any moment asking about dinner and her shopping. She looked up at the door and sighed, she didn't think that was the case.
She looked at her watch, she'd left three hours ago to go shopping, she'd been searching for an hour now, so...two and a half hours left then. She sat back in her chair and tried to work out some kind of a plan.
'Five and a half hours, always wait five and a half hours,' He'd told her that once, so she'd wait. She'd give him his five and a half hours, and then she was doing what she always did, find him and fix what ever had gone wrong.
-o-o-
She was practically bouncing off the walls two hours and 24 minutes later. She was walking around the console, looking down at the switches, running her hands over them, hating that she was starting to feel a little helpless. She looked down at her watch again took a deep breath then looked at the TARDIS doors. He still had five minutes, but Rose was done waiting. She grabbed her jacket and her credit card from the jump chair and fingered the key that hung around her neck. She walked over to the door and stopped for just a moment.
"He'll be fine," She said not sure if she was reassuring herself or talking to the TARDIS. "He'll be fine and we'll be back soon." She opened the door and stepped into the bright sunny day, ready to find her wayward Doctor.
-o-o-
Cold
It was so cold. That was the first thing to enter his mind as he finally fought back the darkness enough to think. It was cold, and when he finally managed to open his eyes, he could see it was dark too, very, very dark. He rolled onto his back, very slowly and with great effort and much pain, groaning when he was finally looking up, at nothing. There were no stars, and no moons or clouds, he was inside. He pushed himself up slowly as he took inventory of his body; everything seemed to be working, if a little sore. His head hurt like he'd been run over by a car, and he should know, having been run over before. When he reached up and ran his hand through his hair he could feel the goose egg on his temple, and could feel the warm stickiness that was his blood, well, that never boded well.
He looked around the room as he tried to figure out what the last thing he remembered was. He remembered giving Rose the- Rose!
"Rose!" he called hoarsely his voice oddly weak. When no one answered he was not relieved, not yet anyway. He remembered giving her the credit card, watching her leave to go shopping, so was she here (Where ever 'here' was) trapped with him or was she safe on the TARDIS. He sat up farther and tried to stand, figure out just how trapped he was.
"Rose?" He asked again feeling around in his pocket for his sonic screwdriver. He tried not to worry too much when he came up empty, of everything. His pockets, his pockets, were empty.
"No rose's here," A dry, unconcerned voice said to his right and he turned quickly as a light suddenly filled the room. "Subject 23-43 seems unaffected as of yet, and has shown no signs of infection. We have never worked with a subject quite as...unusual, as this one."
"I'm sorry, what?!" The Doctor shouted as he looked around the small room he was in. There were no doors, no windows, nothing but four white walls and a small cot in the corner.
"We will up its dosage," The disembodied voice said and then everything went dark again.
-o-o-o-
Rose stood, just outside the TARDIS, not really sure just where to start. She'd never really been on this end of the search before. For the most part, and though she was loath to admit it, it was usually her being rescued by the Doctor. And sometimes of course, they saved each other, but she'd never had to search for him, rescue him, save him. She took a deep breath and then stepped towards the market, the best place to start, was probably the one place she might get answers.
She hurried to the small parts shop she'd passed on her way into the street market. It had made her think of the Doctor when she passed. Huge unfamiliar piece of machines, and filthy oil covered parts sat in the window. She was sure, if the Doctor decided he needed something for the TARDIS he would have come here. She pushed the door open and looked around. The shop was small, hardly the size of her mum's living room. Shelves lined all the walls covered in parts. She recognized nothing, but that didn't surprise her. She navigated her way around the odds and ends that littered the walk way as she made her way over to the front desk.
There was a tall dark skinned man; at least she was pretty sure it was a man, sitting behind the desk, some kind of a hologram thing sitting in front of him, the pages changing when he waved his hand over it. She walked over and cleared her throat to get his attention. He looked up and Rose blinked in shock for only a moment at the man's third eye, right above his other two, sitting in the middle. He sighed deeply and waved his hand over the hologram and it went blank.
"Yes?" He demanded, his voice irritated.
"Um...well," She fumbled for the right words, she really didn't know how to do this. He glared at her and she nodded. "I was wondering if you've seen my friend, he may have come in here a few hours ago. He's about this tall," He held her hand a little above her head. "Brown hair, huge smile, pinstriped suit?" The man looked bored as he stared at her for a moment.
"He was here," He said nodding his head, looking slightly less then bored. "He looked around, found something, bought it, and then he left."
"Oh good," Rose said nodding her head, a starting point. "Did he-
"He was here, then he left," he said again glaring at her again. "He's not here any more and if he's gone missing best you left it alone and got on with things. People don't go missing then come back." He stood up taking his hologram thing with him. "Not 'round here." He said before he walked through a door to his back, slamming it behind him.
Rose stood there staring at the door for a long minute. What the hell did that mean? Did people go missing a lot around here? Finally she shook herself out of her shock and walked out the door. She needed a few answers, and, planet earth or alien moon, the best place to get answers, was a pub.
-o-o-
Rose had stayed away from the small little pub when she'd been shopping. It looked like one of those pubs you found at the end of a dark creepy ally back home. Not a place you go to grab some chips that was for sure. She took a deep breath then put on her best intimidation face and pushed open the door. She stepped inside and it felt like she'd stepped into one of those old westerns, where everyone in the place looks up at the new comer. She glared at everyone as she stepped farther into the room; she went over to the bar and sat down. She was hoping bar tenders all over the universe were as chatty as the ones back home.
"What'd'ya want?" A young man asked walking up to her from behind the bar. He looked human, for the most part, and that was a little comfort.
"I'm looking for someone," She told him, keeping her voice mildly low. "A friend of mine's gone missing."
"Oh yeah?" He asked, sounding bored, just like the last guy, almost like they'd heard this all before.
"Yeah," Rose said nodding her head. "I was hoping, well someone told me it was common around here, for people to up and disappear?"
"'S common alright," He said nodding his head as he leaned onto the bar. "Folks come from all over the place to see the street market, some of'em never find their way home again."
"Never?" Rose asked not liking the sound of that. Well obviously these people don't look hard enough for their friends.
"No one knows where they go, no one." He told her and Rose got the impression he was trying to scare her. "And none of'em ever come back."
"Well," Rose said shaking her head. "None of them ever had me lookin' for them." She told him as she stood. "Do you know...that is, have they all disappeared from the same place?"
"All over, up and down the market street. One second there, next second not. Magic," he told her and Rose nodded her head. While this place wasn't medieval by any means, it was still a decade or so behind earth, so it may very well seem like magic to them. Of course what they thought of as magic, she knew had to be some kind of teleport, transmit beam maybe. She walked over to a kind of cash machine thing slipped in the card and then took the coins that dropped out.
"Thanks," She told the bar tender as she set down a few coins.
-o-o-
Sitting on the edge of the bed the Doctor was trying to formulate a plan of action, but his mind felt, odd. Ideas kept slipping through his fingers, he couldn't hold on to a single thought for more then a few seconds and he felt light headed whenever he tried to stand up and pace a little. Something was going on; someone was doing something to him. He couldn't figure out where he was, or who these people were. What did they want with him? Did they have Rose here somewhere? Even the thoughts of Rose passed through his mind quickly, when normally he would have been more worried over her then himself.
He sat up and looked around the room when the lights flashed on again. The lights kept coming on, then going out, and it was always the same voice speaking when the lights came on.
"Subject 23-43 is pale and shaky on its feet. It's seems confused and disorientated. These are the fist side affects, it seems to be working." The Doctor stood up and then had to place his hand on the wall to keep from falling.
"What's going on? Where am I? Answer me!" He demanded, though his voice was hardly louder then a whisper. He collapsed onto his cot again hardly able to hold himself up. The lights went out all around him again and, just as before, he felt his mind quickly shutting down as he lost consciousness.
-o-o-
Rose was back on the TARDIS, trying to figure out if there was a way to scan for alien technology. She tried to get answers from the TARDIS, but it was a very limited conversation and neither of them spoke the others language. She had been at it for almost two hours now and she didn't know what else to do. She knew he'd been scooped up by some kind of transport beam, or some such thing. She didn't know why or by whom, but she did know that it happened here a lot, and that people never came back from it. She growled in frustration and she stomped her foot and stepped away from the console.
"Why did he never show me how to do any of this?!" She demanded to the ship at large. He had been missing now for almost ten hours, and she was no where closer to finding him then she had been when she'd started. Finally she shook her head snatched up her jacket and her card and stomped out the door again. An 'on foot' search would get her farther then standing in there was.
The door closed behind her and she looked around the street. It had gone quiet while she'd been inside. She walked out down the small ally they had landed in and saw that all the street venders had closed up and the night had fallen. Rose took a few steps into the street and looked around. Everything was so quiet, so serine now that it wasn't filled with hundreds of humans and aliens. As she was walking down the street, not really sure what she was looking for, she saw a glimmer of light on the ground. She bent over to get a better look and all the air went out of her when she saw what it was. Slowly she reached out and picked up the Doctor's sonic screwdriver.
She stood back up with it in her hand, staring at it. This was very disheartening because if the Doctor didn't have this, he was without his main weapon.
-o-o-
When he came to again he was still in his cot, only his arm and neck were sore, like he'd slept on them wrong, but he never slept on something wrong, he was to 'aware' even when he was sleeping to do something like that. He reached down and felt along his arm, there was a bump in the skin, a miniscule one, but he could feel it. They had injected something into him.
'Side affects' that was what the voice had been talking about. They were testing something on him, and probably others. They were lab rats. He looked up sharply and his head swam with the movement. He looked slower this time to the wall where a latch opened and a tray slid into his room, a spotlight on the floor where it stopped. It had food on it, or something of the kind. He stood slowly, keeping his hand on the wall, and looked the food over. He didn't suppose there was any reason to poison them, and if he was going to get out of here, he'd need to keep up what ever strength he could. He sat down in front of it and ate slowly trying to hold onto the thoughts of escape.
-o-o-
Rose sat down in the jump seat and started at the sonic screwdriver. She hated that he didn't have it. Had he dropped it before he got beamed away? But that would seem to say he'd down it on purpose. Why would he purposely give up his only tool? Unless he didn't want who ever had him to get their hands on the technology, wouldn't be the first time he'd done something like that. Rose sighed and then she sat the screwdriver onto the center console. She jumped up when the screwdriver glowed green for a moment then a green laser light shoot out of it.
"Emergency Program A" Rose flinched at the words as the Doctor's figure appeared in front of her.
"Know you must hate these things," The Doctor said and Rose nodded her head hoping he could shed some kind light on what was going on. "If this has been activated something has happened to me." Rose looked up and around to make sure that the TARDIS hadn't started to more, that he wasn't sending her home again.
"You're not going anywhere," He said shaking his head as though reading her mind. "Only need to learn that lesson once." Rose grinned and nodded her head once. "But I'm either lost or have been kidnapped," Rose smirked and shook her head at the thought of him being 'kid' napped. "Well there's always a first for everything. There's a setting on the sonic screwdriver that will pin point my location. All you'll have to do is feed in the coordinates and TARDIS will take care of the rest. I'll be seeing you soon Rose." The figure of him disappeared and Rose jumped up from her seat.
"Wait, you didn't tell me the setting!" She yelled at the not there Doctor. She was growing close to tears when the light flashed back on and the Doctor appeared in front of her again, smirking.
"Embarrassing that, yeah? Setting 235-3. I have complete faith in you Rose." He shimmered and disappeared again. Rose ran over to the screwdriver and got to work.
A/N- So, what do we think so far? Any good? Let me know. I love reviews!