Bad Wolf: Chapter Two
Despite Rose's determined pretending that everything was normal, there were some reminders that felt like a punch to her stomach. One of these painful reminders was the TARDIS. Of course, when the Timelord version of the Doctor had disappeared from Bad Wolf Bay, he had taken the TARDIS with him – he would need it for many more billions of years than Rose and the Human-Doctor would. But neither Rose or the Human-Doctor were ready to give up their adventures or their TARDIS, so when they had discovered an old minivan abandoned on the side of the road, it was the perfect opportunity. They had spray-painted it a dark blue colour which matched a 1960s police box, and hopped in, only to find the petrol tank was empty. After some heavy exercise – "One heart and pushing a van? How do you humans manage?" the Doctor had complained. "Well, we don't usually find ourselves in these situations," Rose had huffed, "There's just something about you!" – they had ended up with a rundown, blue minivan outside their house. Then, Jackie had spotted it – "I will not have that ugly blue monstrosity parked outside my house, clear as day!" – and the van ended up banished to the garage, which was where Rose and the Doctor were now. "Doctor, where are we going?" Rose asked. She felt kind of scared because she hadn't really been on any adventures with the Doctor since… Since… Since Bad Wolf Bay… Sure, she had saved a third of the human race from the Sycorax, lived through the Earth dying and faced aliens of all shapes and sizes, but there was something even more daunting about saving Tony… It felt much more heart-wrenching. Rose shook her head. She'd only just coped with being trapped in the parallel universe; she wasn't sure she could stand it if Tony was taken away from her permanently. Heaving in a deep breath, she stood more upright. She would get through this.
"Hmmmm…" the Doctor hmmmmed. "Not sure – I didn't really think this far ahead to be honest. When I usually do this sort of thing something sort of just happens, y'know, an alien chases us, we find a clue, that kind of thing. Oh dear – looks like we're going to have to go back inside the house."
Rose suppressed a grin – she'd missed this. The look on the Doctor's face was like a disappointed schoolboy. The adrenaline pumping around her body was like fuel for all the running she'd need to do. But it was true, Tony being involved drained some of the excitement; there was more pressure on Rose's shoulders. And of course, there was the ever-present heartache, always throbbing in Rose's chest. Sometimes it ebbed away to little more than a gentle pang, but sometimes it threatened to swallow her whole. The worst was at night, when she lay awake and her mind imagined all the possibilities, the could-have-beens. In those hours, Rose would try to ignore the sadness weighing her down and focus on the good things instead. At least she had a Doctor to ease the pain a little. True, he wasn't the alien Doctor she was used to, but he was a Doctor, and that was better than no Doctor. In some ways, it was better and in some it was worse – but, Rose reasoned – that's just the way life is. You get the ups and the downs and the in-betweens, and life keeps on rolling.
"To the house's quite fashionably decorated but atrocious colour schemed interior!" the Doctor proclaimed, then ran out of the junk-filled garage. Rose rolled her eyes and followed him, as she always did.