The First Doctor

by ANGSWIN

Part 1 of my "Saving the Multiverse" series… The stars are going out and Rose needs the help of the Doctor – she just doesn't know which one! With the help of the TARDIS, she jumps into each of the Doctor's lives until she finds the one that she is looking for and forges an even stronger bond with him along the way… This series takes place after my "Torchwood Rose" series.

The First Doctor

Part 1 of my "Saving the Multiverse" series…

Takes place after the events of my "Torchwood Rose" series

The Dimension Cannon

Rose choked back a bitter laugh at the irony of it all. She had finally put her past behind her and had settled into a respected life as the director of Torchwood: Cardiff with a definite plan for her future when the stars started to go out. She had known that something was going to happen, though, ever since she had seen BAD WOLF on the sewer wall. It was a sign that her past was coming back.

Of course, the scientists from R&D and Mickey from the Tech department had brought the dimension cannon prototype to Cardiff first for testing and implementation. The rift was the perfect place to exploit the expanding weaknesses in the universal walls and it was decided that Rose was the perfect one to do the traveling. She had the experience and was the only one who knew enough to find the one "person" who could possibly help – the Doctor. However, only three of them: her Mum, Pete, and Mickey also knew the other reason why she was the best candidate. She was the one most likely to survive the dangerous crossings and the only one who would not mind not coming back if stuck on the other side. In fact, that was their plan! They all knew that she was going to have to leave her family and planet anyway in just couple of years before her secret was discovered by those who could possibly exploit it. This way she had a destination in mind and someone at the end of it who could actually help her. Even if he didn't want her "forever," (and she was certainly prepared for that possibility – after all, who knew how long it had been for him?) then he would be the most likely candidate for helping her to figure out what to do in the long run. Therefore, she put her affairs in order, knowing that one way or the other she would not be back, and started the tests. After some initial trial and error, where she landed in increasingly random locations, the dimension cannon team had discovered that they could calibrate the "trans-universal hopper" with Rose's TARDIS key. That would focus the jump on places where the TARDIS was located. She knew that wherever the TARDIS was, the Doctor would not be far behind. There was no fine tuning these locations, though, so there was no telling where or when she was going to find herself at the end of the jump – only that the Doctor, a Doctor, would be near. That was the other little hiccup in the plan. She knew that there would be no certainty of meeting her tousled haired pinstriped Doctor, or even if he was the one whom she actually needed. Therefore, she was going to have to approach any and every Doctor that she could find and try to convince him to help. What could possibly go wrong? She thought sarcastically.

The First Doctor

Rose popped into existence in front of what appeared to be a junkyard. She shook her head and placed her hands on her knees for a moment to try and dispel the nausea and fatigue that accompanied each transdimensional jump. She knew that she had been right to insist on jumping by herself. If she was affected this strongly, with her advanced self-healing properties, she honestly didn't believe that anyone else would have been able to survive the jumps. After fighting down those nasty side effects a bit, she consulted her wristcomp which gave the approximate date and location: 1963 / London. Despite herself, she felt a surge of excitement at being back "home" – even if she was about 40 years too early. Since the TARDIS didn't seem to be around in the immediate area, Rose decided to venture a little further to look for her. Before exploring further, however, she programmed her wristcomp for departure. That way all she would have to do would be to enter the exit code and she would return back to her starting place in the other universe. Doing it now, instead of later, provided some small amount of insurance (and a Get-Out-of-Jail Free card) in case she ran into hostiles of some sort. Knowing her Doctor (and her own reputation for being a bit jeopardy-friendly), she knew that this was a distinct possibility. Therefore, it was nice to know that her ticket out of there was just a five digit code away.

Still feeling a bit sick and disoriented, Rose walked slowly through the area thinking that this was unlike any junkyard that she had ever seen. It was too clean… too orderly… almost as if it were something just pretending to be a junkyard. While she mused upon this subject, she noticed a movement ahead of her. A petite brunette girl had just disappeared around the corner. Rose decided to follow her discreetly and see if she would lead somewhere interesting, and she did! As Rose rounded the corner, she saw the TARDIS standing there in all of her blue police box glory! Her heart jumped up in her throat and she reached up to knock on the door. It opened quickly in front of her and the brunette poked her head out.

"Yes, who are you?" She cried out in surprise.

"Just an old friend," replied Rose carefully not wanting to give away too much too soon. "I have come very far. May I see the Doctor, please?"

The girl eyed Rose speculatively – taking note of her hair and clothes and quickly realized that their visitor was out of time – and nodded. "I will go find Grandfather."

"Grandfather," thought Rose. Her first doctor had never talked about his family, but her pinstriped doctor had told her about his children and Susan, his granddaughter, during the Isolus incident. Therefore, she knew which Doctor she would see even before his white head and scowling face showed at the door.

"Hmm, what are you doing here? What do you want?" He all but shouted in annoyance.

With those words, Rose felt all of her carefully constructed control snap (after all, hopping across dimensions was physically and emotionally exhausting!) and she had just time to think one thing as her vision swam: {Why does he have to be so damn rude?}

She saw his eyes widen as he caught the thought and then the world wobbled and the ground tried to rush up to meet her.

She heard his exclamation of surprise and felt him catch her. He took her gently by the arms and led her into the console room where the TARDIS was humming a joyful welcome. She gratefully leaned against the nearest wall, stroked it gently, and whispered her affection to the ship. She had truly missed her. When her brain cleared, she looked up to see the Doctor and the girl staring at her in shock. "Just who are you and how do you know my TARDIS?" he demanded in a calmer and somewhat awed voice.

Taking heart at her cleared head, reassured by his subdued tone, and buoyed by the affection radiating from the ship, Rose grinned and replied cheekily, "It's a long story. How about some tea? All of those free radicals are good for the synapses, I hear." With that, she strolled to the galley (trusting that the Old Girl would show her the way) and smiled as she heard the Doctor sputtering (and Susan giggling) behind her.

She felt the Doctor's eyes follow her as she put on the kettle and opened the cupboard for the mugs. She grinned as she saw, against all odds, her favorite pink mug sitting right at the front. It was the same heavy, slightly shimmery, pink earthenware mug that that she had picked up years ago in a market place after Jack had accidently broken her previous one during a drinking game. She smiled at both the mug and the memory while she patted the wall again. "Thank you, Girl." She poured the tea into the three mugs: one pink and the other two white and sent an affectionate question towards the Doctor who was looking with surprise at the unfamiliar mug. {How does this you take it?}

{Just milk, dear.} He answered automatically before his eyes widened again at the mental contact, his unexpected affectionate response, and the implication that she knew more than one of him – especially since he had not experienced even his first regeneration yet.

"Who are you? How do you know me? How did you talk…" he managed to get out again before being completely dazzled into silence by the smile that she bestowed on him when she turned around to hand him his mug.

"My name is Rose and I am from your future," she replied. "You saved me. I saved you. Now I need your help to save the multiverse." With that cryptic remark, she handed Susan (who seemed to be torn between curiosity and amusement) her mug, as well, and suggested that they all adjourn to the library for the explanations. The Doctor paused for a moment to look into her eyes, but saw nothing but honesty and affection. Therefore, he released his grip on his doubts, chivalrously offered his arm to her, and gestured for Susan to lead the way to the library.

The Explanation

Once in the library, the Doctor settled into an armchair while Rose and Susan sat side by side on the sofa. The Doctor looked at Rose sipping her tea and was struck by how she suddenly seemed unsure about how to start the conversation. {Whenever you are ready, my dear.} The Doctor prompted her and he sent her a wave of reassurance as he noticed her insecurity. His former anger and rudeness had mellowed into curiosity, fascination, and … something else that he couldn't quite place: something "softer" – like what he felt when he thought about Susan. He had only known her for less than an hour, but through her thoughts, her smile, and the expression in her eyes, somehow he already knew that Rose was obviously important. He would do whatever he could to help her! That forceful thought came out of nowhere and surprised him greatly. He didn't normally go out of his way to help. That was not his way or the way of his people. Therefore, this should be an interesting situation.

Rose pondered about where to start. There was so much to tell! "First of all, Doctor, I feel that you should know that I travel in the TARDIS with you in your future – with your ninth and tenth selves to be exact." The Doctor started with surprise at this bit of news. She was from much farther in his future than he thought. He couldn't ever imagine changing enough to want to travel with anyone else other than Susan. Maybe he should consider it, though, considering how interesting that he already found Rose. This train of thought was interrupted, though, as she continued to explain quite seriously. "Therefore, I know that I have to be very careful with what I tell you. I don't want to cause a paradox, but there are things about the future that you have to know so that we can figure out what to do. I was not exaggerating when I said that we needed to save the multiverse! However, there are some things that you just absolutely cannot know right now. I don't exactly know what to do here, but I trust you, Doctor. This is your area of expertise and I need for you to help me know what is safe to tell you and what is not." She spat out the last bit almost desperately.

To his surprise, the Doctor found himself reaching over to take her hand reassuringly. "Don't worry, dear," he said. "Time Lords often find themselves in situations where foreknowledge is temporarily necessary. Therefore, we have determined a way to suppress memories that may be dangerous to our future timelines. Rest assured, dear, that anything you say to me will be appropriately handled." He was not sure whether he should be impressed or concerned that she knew the importance of maintaining timelines.

"That is good to know." Rose said with obvious relief in her voice. {However, there are things that I can't tell you. I won't tell you! I don't want to hurt you!} He was a bit surprised by the force of this thought because he could tell that she didn't mean for him to hear it. He was also amazed that she cared enough about him to try to protect him from painful knowledge of his future. He wondered exactly what their relationship was like in her personal timeline. Whatever it was, though, the sheer emotion behind it allowed the thoughts to leak around her mental shields. Wait a minute, he thought, mental shields… that brought up the question of her telepathic abilities. He looked at her closer. She appeared to be human – around the 21st century, if he wasn't mistaken, and young – early 20s, he thought, even though there was something in her eyes that made her seem much older. At any rate, abilities like hers were quite unusual in her species and time period – especially with the control that she seemed to have over it. She obviously had experienced some sort of psychic training. Maybe it had something to do with why they traveled together in the future. She certainly wasn't trying to hide the ability from him, though, and that was reassuring. In fact, it might make her explanations easier. Therefore, maybe that issue should be addressed first.

"Rose," he said. "I can see that you have telepathic abilities that are unusual for someone in your situation and that you have had training with it. Can you tell me about that first?"

"It would probably be easier to show you, Doctor," she replied thoughtfully. "In fact, it might be easier than trying to explain. Maybe you should just have a look at the whole story in my head first, and then ask any questions that you might have. That way I will not get sidetracked or forget anything important."

He agreed that it would be an efficient way to transfer the information. However, he needed to be absolutely certain that he had her permission first. {Are you sure, my dear?}

She nodded. {Do it, Doctor. I trust you.}

He just nodded, amazed again at the thought of what their relationship must be like in the future for her to trust him so implicitly now – when she didn't know him at all - not really. He glanced over at Susan to see what she thought. He noticed that she was looking between them, but that she showed no suspicion or amazement – just curiosity. He then realized that their last exchange had not been spoken aloud. Her last words of trust were meant for him only. That thought warmed his hearts for some reason and he leaned over to her to press his fingers against her temples. They looked deeply into each other's eyes for a moment and then both sets closed as the information and memories that she had directed him towards started flowing. They started in a department store basement, encompassed everything including the Gamestation and Bad Wolf Bay, and ended with a blue box in a junkyard …

After what could have been just a few minutes… or an eternity… the Doctor slowly lowered his hands to grasp hers as they lay quietly in her lap. They looked at each other and found that both set of eyes were moist with unshed tears. Without looking away from her, he whispered hoarsely, "Susan, dear, I think that we are going to need more tea." He felt, rather than saw, Susan's concern. She didn't question him, however, and went to make them all a fresh cup. She could tell that they needed a few minutes alone to deal with whatever had just happened. As she left the room, the Doctor leaned forward to rest his forehead on hers. "Oh, Rose, my dear," he whispered. "All you have gone through, for me…all of the pain you have experienced, by my hand… and yet you still feel that way for me...and I can tell that the … feeling… is returned. I don't know what to say. This is all highly…unusual…for my species." He took a deep breath and continued, noticing that tears were slipping down her cheeks now. "You have had to be so strong for so long now… I am so proud of you, what you have done…and what you are going to do. I can see it all in here." With that he gently tapped her forehead and smiled. She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly - content in the knowledge that he was her Doctor and would always be her Doctor – no matter what form he took. His arms hung loosely by his sides, but he allowed this contact from her, even though he normally did not engage in physical affection. However, with her it felt…nice. He remembered again the warmth and affection enveloping him when she welcomed him into her mind. He didn't remember emotions that strong being directed towards him from anyone – anywhere – ever. He also thought about the "doors" that she had thrown up in front of some of those memories - just to protect him. {Please don't look, Doctor.} Her mind had murmured to his softly as he had inspected those barriers. He shook his head and brought his thoughts back to the present and then he surprised himself when he brought his arms up and hugged her back gently. He then offered her his handkerchief to wipe her eyes. "Alright, my dear," he struggled to make his voice sound normal as Susan came back in carrying a tea tray. "We have work to do. The stars are going out and we have a multiverse to save!"

They all stayed in the library for the next few hours. The Doctor had explained the major problem of the stars to Susan, but didn't mention the more personal aspects of the relationship between Rose and Future Him. He just didn't think that she would understand. In fact, he wasn't sure that even he really understood, but that didn't matter right now. He had to focus on helping Rose…um… helping the multiverse. Together, they started working out a rough plan, but after a while he could feel the TARDIS humming concernedly – but not about him. He looked over at Rose, who was pale, and clearly physically and emotionally exhausted from all of the stresses of the day. He remembered how she had almost swooned hours earlier when entering the ship. If she had been that exhausted then, how must she feel now? He realized that, after seeing her memories, he had almost forgotten that she was just a human - a human who had been traveling across dimensions for weeks with very little rest. Regular unshielded travel difficult enough, unshielded travel across a dimensional void – that was unheard of – even for his people! She probably should not have been able to survive it. He wondered how she did? Perhaps the answer lay behind one of those closed doors in her mind. That probably was not important right now. What was important, was that the TARDIS recognized her distress, and had alerted him to it. After seeing her memories of the Gamestation and Bad Wolf, he was no longer surprised at her connection with the TARDIS – amazed, yes, but not surprised. However, it was still unusual to find the TARDIS concerned about someone else's welfare. Therefore, he paid attention to what she was trying to tell him. He stood up quickly, surprising both Rose and Susan, and said that it was time to call it a night.

The TARDIS directed Rose to an empty room near the library so that she didn't have far to travel in her exhausted state. Rose sent the ship a soft {Thank You} after seeing the comfortable, but generic, room that she had provided, as well as the cozy looking pajamas that were folded up on the bed. After finding her personal mug earlier, she was a bit afraid that she would find her old room and belongings, as well. She didn't know if she could have handled that on top of the other raw emotions that she had unexpectedly had to face today. She went into the bathroom, grateful again for the thoughtfulness of the TARDIS who had supplied her with all of the necessary nighttime toiletries, and went through the motions of a few basic bedtime preparations. As she slipped under the covers, she spared a thought for the kind old version of the Doctor whom she had found. He wasn't what she had expected after his harsh greeting when he first met her, but it was obvious now that he was her Doctor – especially after the link they had shared - along with the memories. Her feelings for him were certainly not as intense as they were for her later Doctors, she had been with them for a couple of years, after all. However, somehow she knew that she would love every version of her Doctor. She also knew that she would definitely think back on this one with warm fondness.

All of a sudden she swore and jumped out of bed. After all of the excitement of finding the Doctor, sharing the memories, and making plans, she had completely forgotten to get in touch with Control. She didn't know how much time had passed for them since she had jumped - because time flowed differently in all of the dimensions that she had been to. However, she had to let them know in Pete's World that she was okay and had reached her target. She grabbed her wristcomp and typed in a short message: "Made contact. Will take it from here. Give my love to all." That would let Mickey and the rest of the team know that she was alright and to not expect to hear from her again anytime soon.

She jumped back in bed, nestled under the covers, and fell asleep quickly – but not before unshielding slightly and sending out an almost subconscious wave of relief, happiness, gratitude, and affection at finding herself back at home in the TARDIS with the Doctor. The Doctor, who had decided to retire to his own bed, as well – even if it was just to ponder the events of the day…as well as a certain human down the hall… received the wave. His normally grumpy face broke out in a smile and he returned the wave back to her – even though he could tell that she was already asleep. The TARDIS just hummed back happily at both of them.

Rose didn't know how long she slept, but she awoke refreshed and happier than she had been in a long time. She patted the wall and sent a {Good Morning} to the TARDIS as she went into the bathroom. She desperately needed a shower after the events of the previous day. She handled that and then dressed in some comfortable clothes that the TARDIS had provided for her when she realized that her normal dimension hopping outfit was nowhere to be found. She then wandered out of her room and stumbled right into the Doctor.

The Doctor, much to his surprise, had slept deeply after falling asleep thinking about Rose. He still didn't understand the implications of his future relationship with her, but he thought fondly of her now, and was eager to see her and help her. Without even realizing it, he found himself passing by her door several times after awakening and wondering just how much sleep she needed. Then he remembered all she had been through the previous day and felt a little bit guilty about such a selfish thought. He had just decided to head to the console room to wait for her when her door suddenly opened and she tumbled right into his arms. "Good morning, my dear" he said, looking down at her brightly as he led her towards the galley. "Why don't we get some breakfast?"

After a light meal, they headed back to the library to work out the final details of the plan to save the multiverse.

The Plan

The Doctor had checked the star maps, ran scans, done some complicated mathematical calculations, and determined that, unfortunately, he was not the version of the Doctor who could help Rose the most. They needed to find the Doctor in the timeline that correlated with the disappearance of the stars in this universe. However, he couldn't determine exactly which Doctor that would be. It might be Rose's pinstriped Doctor, or a later one, or it could even be an earlier one who had suppressed his memory because of the subsequent time loop that would need to be closed. Therefore, they determined that Rose would need to visit each and every one of the versions of her Doctor until she reached the right one. That Doctor and his TARDIS would be able to confirm that she was in the right time period and would take it from there. This Doctor would reprogram her wristcomp to function like a Vortex manipulator to allow her to jump along his timeline and the TARDIS would direct each jump originating from the console room to insure that each version of the Doctor would be visited in order and to keep Rose as safe as possible.

The Doctor didn't know exactly how much time would pass between her visits to the different Doctors. Therefore, he realized that each Doctor, including himself, would have to suppress the memories of her visit, her mission, and their relationship between each visit until they were unlocked by the next Doctor. Her presence alone should be enough to trigger the memories, but Rose could also manually unlock them through mental contact, if necessary. Each Doctor would then collectively recall the memories of all of the previous interactions between Rose and each version of, well, himself. That would save Rose from the exhausting process of having to gain the trust of each Doctor and then having to relive all of the emotional memories of her past with each individual Doctor over and over again. He realized that he would be sorry to forget about the time he had spent with her, and these new fresh feelings that she inspired. However, this first Doctor knew it would be best for everyone involved if he did not remember her – until they met again. He would get to see her again. That is what counted.

Since they didn't know what kind of situation she would be jumping into, (Rose was very well aware that the Doctors weren't really known for quiet down time), they decided it would be best if she waited to jump in the morning after another good night's sleep. This suited both of them perfectly since they were not ready to part company quite yet. They decided to spend the evening in the library with Susan and, after a while, Rose asked the Doctor to read to them. She had always enjoyed it very much whenever her two future Doctors did so. After a while, Susan excused herself to go to her room (she was just a teenager after all), and the Doctor found himself alone in the library on the sofa with Rose. She leaned her head on his shoulder, enjoying the timbre of his voice (so different from her other Doctors), and sent thoughts of comfort and contentment to him. He returned these to her happily and continued to read to her until she peacefully drifted off to sleep. He felt it the moment her breathing changed and she fell asleep. He then debated whether he should wake her up and send her to her room (as he would for Susan) or carry her to her room and put her to bed. For some reason, he blushed at that particular thought and decided to just leave her where she was, but to make her more comfortable. He gave her a quick hug, slid out from underneath her, and covered her up with a fuzzy pink blanket that he had just realized was draped over the back of the couch. The TARDIS must have sent it because he felt sure that it had not been there earlier. He had never tucked anyone in like that before and just stood there for a minute not knowing what to do next. He was not tired since he had just slept the night before, so he decided to stay in the library and finish his book. He moved back to the armchair where he could keep an eye on her and settled in to enjoy her company while he could, even though she was asleep, since he knew that he would not be able to remember her after tomorrow.

Rose awoke the next morning to a cool hand on her cheek, sad eyes focused on her, and a soft voice in her mind. {Good morning, my dear. I hated to wake you, but it is time.} Rose reached up to stroke the back of the hand resting on her face gently and then quickly left the library to get dressed and ready for her jump. The white haired Doctor quietly watched her go and then left to find Susan.

They all met in the galley for a cup of tea and a quick bite to eat before shuffling reluctantly to the console room. Rose was wearing her "jumping" clothes that the TARDIS had apparently cleaned and pressed for her and she was ready to go. The Doctor had determined that the jumps should be made from the console room so that the TARDIS could exert greater control over the destination. This way, Rose should be able to appear close to wherever the next Doctor was located. Rose's white haired Doctor thought that this would be the safest way to get her to each subsequent Doctor and the TARDIS had hummed her agreement. Rose was eager to meet the next Doctor, and get closer to the end of her quest, but was very sad to leave this one behind. The past two days had been such a pleasant way to get used to the Doctor and the TARDIS again. Rose hugged Susan tightly as they said their goodbyes. Then she reached over to take the Doctor's hand. {This isn't goodbye. We are about to see each other again.} She said reassuringly to both herself and him. {Yes, my dear.} He agreed, lifting her hand to give it a gentle kiss. She reached up and surprised him by kissing his cheek. "Until then," she said out loud as he beamed at her. She then linked her mind to the TARDIS and hit the jump sequence on her modified wristcomp. The air shimmered around her and she was gone. The Doctor sighed and took a moment to modify Susan's memory before locking his own away - until Rose appeared the next time.