This work of fiction was inspired by 'The Wolf and The Storm' by Major-Fangirl-333
Chapter One-
Rose knew she was dreaming. Had to be. There was no other reason for her to be standing in the TARDIS. Rose let her eyes roam over the coral walls and the captain's chair before letting her eyes fall on the control station. She blinked in shock when, instead of the doctor, she found a beautiful woman with long dark brown hair that was half up in a messy updo. Rose knew she had never met this woman before, and yet something in her eyes seemed strangely familiar.
"I know you." Rose told the woman who smiled at her.
"Yes, you do." The woman told her and Rose stared at her. How did she know this woman? She was so familiar and yet, at the same time, a stranger. Looking in the woman's eyes Rose could see she was a lot older than she looked and had seen her far share of things. She was instantly reminded of the Doctor and, without thought, took a step forward.
"Are you the Doctor?" Rose asked uncertainly.
"No, I am not." The woman told her and Rose took a step away from her. If this woman wasn't the Doctor, who was she? What did she want from Rose? Even though this was a dream, Rose felt a wave a fear was over her. The Doctor wasn't here to save her, would never be there to save her any more.
"One the breach collapses, that's it, you won't ever be able to see her again!" The Doctor's voice rang through out the TARDIS, his voice desperate that she understood him.
"Where are you?" She hear herself ask looking around to try and find him. His voice had been so clear and loud, as if he had been right beside her.
"Inside the TARDIS." He told her, suddenly she was no longer standing inside the TARDIS, now she was standing on Bad Wolf bay. The woman was now next to her, her eyes taking everything in. The Doctor was standing across from them, faint and see through. This was a memory. A memory that Rose wanted to both forget and remember. Tears filled her eyes. This was a memory of the last time she would ever see her Doctor.
"There's one tiny little gap in the universe left. Just about to close. And it takes a lot of power to send this projection. I'm in orbit around a supernova. I'm burning up a sun just to say goodbye." The Doctor sounded so sad that Rose wanted to reach out and touch him, even though she knew he wasn't really there, he was just a fragment of her imagination now.
"You look like a ghost." She told him, repeating exactly what she had told him that day.
"Hold on." He told her before beginning to fiddle with his screwdriver, and seconds later, his form became more solid. Rose chocked back a sob, he wasn't there, he would never be there! And yet, even though she knew that this Doctor wasn't real, she couldn't stop herself from walking closer to him. It hurt so much to see him, to know that he would never be there beside her. Would never grab her hand. Would never sneak into her room on the TARDIS late at night and watch her sleep. Would never hug her ever again.
"Can I...?" She asked knowing the answer already. Had he looked that sad during that day? Or was her imagination tampering with her memory? Right now, the Doctor looked as broken as she felt. It broke her heart even more, she couldn't stand seeing him look like that.
"Do you want to go back?" The woman asked dissolving the memory. Rose blinked and once again they were inside the TARDIS.
"Of course." Rose told her without hesitation. "But it can never happen. The gap is closed."
"There is away." The woman told her and Rose shook her head.
"Impossible." Rose told her causing the woman to smirk at her.
"But don't we just love impossible things, My Wolf?" The woman asked shocking Rose. The was only one being that called her that.
"You cant... How can..." Rose stumbled, her eyes taking in the woman seeing everything that she hadn't seen before... no, not hadn't seen before, but rather refused to see. "But you are. You're the TARDIS." The woman smiled at her. "But how come you look like that?"
"This is just a projection of a form I have taken once before. Not not have, will. This is a projection of a form I will take." The TARDIS told her in confusion. "As you know it's all, what does he say? Wibbily-Wobbily Timey-Wimey. No, not does, will. He will say." The TARDIS looked off into the distance before shaking her head. "No time for that now. We must focus on getting you home." Excitement swelled inside her, before Rose remembered that this was just a dream.
"I'm dreaming." She muttered to herself sadly.
"But, My Wolf, this isn't just any old dream. I am the TARDIS. I get inside your head. And once I've been inside your head, I can enter it at any time I please, no matter how far you are. And since we are connected, it's so much easier to enter your mind than most." The TARDIS informed her.
"You mean, you're really here? I'm really talking to you?" Rose asked daring to let herself hope.
"Of course, My Wolf. I know your mind can be cruel to you, but I would never let it be that cruel." The TARDIS told her softly and Rose threw her arms around the woman.
"So, there really is a way to get me home?" Rose asked.
"Of course. Mind you, what we're about to do is breaking every rule. And if we are not careful we could cause a paradox. A powerful paradox, one strong enough to rip both our universe and this universe to shreds." The TARDIS informed her and Rose dropped her arms from around the TARDIS to look at her in shocked terror. "But I am desperate. I've already tried everything I can think of with out breaking the laws of time and space. But My Theif is refusing to listen, refusing my help. He has shut himself off from the world. My Theif is drowning himself in the pain and loss he is feeling at losing you, My Wolf. And I am afraid that if we don't do something soon, then My Theif will kill himself."
Rose gasped. The Doctor was going to kill himself! It was just like the Game Station all over again. Rose couldn't let the Doctor kill himself! Not if there was away that she could save him.
"How do we save him?" Rose asked.
"The only way to safely get you back to him is to have you relive your life with him. That is the only way to safely do this with out him suspecting anything. If My Theif were to find out what we are doing, he will stop us, he will force us to put things right, no matter how much it would kill him to loose you again." The TARDIS explained.
"But, if he were to have just met me, he wouldn't be able to tell if I knew too much or not. If I were to play the cards right, I could just appear to be a very clever human to him." Rose said catching on to the plan.
"Correctomundo." The TARDIS said before wincing. "Oh, now I see why he never says that." Rose couldn't stop herself from laughing. "My Wolf, it is time, obviously you know not to let the Doctor know of this, and I must ask you to get him to ask you twice. This is important because this is the first time he has ever come back for someone." The TARDIS told her sternly.
"Right, don't be too suspicious and get him to ask twice." Rose nodded.
"Close your eyes." The TARDIS told her, and Rose did as she was told. For a split-second she felt light as a feather before a tingling sensation flew thew her body. Gold light shined bright behind her eyelids, and Rose had to force herself not to open her eyes when she heard the Wolf in her howl. And then, her body was heavy once more and her back was pressed tightly up against the wall. The sound of plastic rubbing against itself flew through her ears and she knew that she was her 19 year old shop-girl self, down in the basement of Henriks with the lottery money to give to Wilson, now dead.
Rose gasped in delighted shock when a rough, calloused hand gripped hers. Her heart jumped in her chest, she knew this hand. And though it had been years since she had last held it, she would never forget the feeling of it. This was the hand of her first Doctor. She allowed herself to open her eyes and look at the man in shock. He was there, standing in front of her. Her eyes took in his short brown hair, his steel-blue eyes, his large ears, and his leather jacket.
"Run!" He told her in his Northern Accent. Her grip on his hand tightened as she pushed off the wall and allowed him to lead her away from the living plastic. And just in time too, as one of the living plastic swung and cut a steam pipe in half.
As Rose and the Doctor burst though a set of blue metal doors to run down the corridor to the lift, Rose allowed herself to smile. She had missed this. Running with the Doctor by her side, hand in hand. That was their thing, hand in hand. She glanced behind them to find the living plastic following them. Rose remembered being terrified and confused when this had happened the first time. Now Rose found it thrilling and fun, but that was probably because now she knew that she wasn't in danger. She knew that the Doctor would keep her safe.
They burst through another set of blue metal doors and to the lift. The Doctor quickly pressed the button to call the lift and the doors opened instantly. The Doctor pulled her into the lift while glancing behind them at the living plastic. Rose quickly began pressing the button to get the doors to close as one of the living plastic reached in and tried to grab the Doctor. Rose watched the Doctor struggle with the living plastic before she quickly dove in and separated the arm from the body.
"Living plastic. Never start your day without them." She joked tossing the plastic arm at the Doctor, who easily caught it. He gave her a strange look.
"You deal with this often?" He asked tossing the arm back at her.
"Yeah, everyday that ends in '-y'." She told him sarcastically moving to stand at the back of the lift and watch him as he nervously watched the numbers on the lift go up. He paused in his nervous swaying to look at her incredulously.
"Seriously?!" He asked with barely hidden concern.
"No!" She told him with a slight laugh. "I was being sarcastic. Of course I don't deal with this often! But you certainly seem used to it." She added with her smile that was only for him. His eyes roamed her face, trying to see if she was telling the truth or not before sighing and rolling his eyes.
"You humans and your sarcasm. I swear you live off it." He said with a shake of his head.
"It's only because it's tasty." She told him jokingly. Her smile widened when she heard him give out a huff of a laugh before glancing at her again. He looked as if he were waiting for her to do something. "What?" She asked.
"You seem to be accepting this well." He told her. It finally dawned on Rose what he was waiting for, he was expecting her to start panicking.
"Well, what'd you expect? For me to scream? Cry? Demand to know if this was a trick with students dressed up as plastic dummies?" Rose asked with a laugh.
"Why would they be students?" The Doctor asked causing Rose to pause, of course that's what he would pick up on.
"I don't know." Rose told him, her mind flashing back to the first time. He had picked up on the student thing then too.
"Well, you said it. Why students?" The Doctor asked turning away from the lift doors to give her his full attention. She racked her brain, what had she said the first time?
"Cause... to get that many people dressed up and being silly, they got to be students. But, we already know they're not students It's living plastic." Rose told him motioning to the plastic arm in her hand.
"You're right." He told her turning back to the lift doors. "About the plastic." Rose smiled at his back before she remembered why she had originally gone down there.
"What about Wilson?" She asked confusing the Doctor enough to have him look at her.
"Who's Wilson?" He asked.
"Chief Electician." She informed him as he turned back towards the lift doors, his curiosity sated.
"Wilson's dead." The Doctor told her as the lift doors finally opened. And though Rose had already known that, she couldn't stop pain at the loss of an innocent man. Rose sighed and followed the Doctor out of the lift. "Mind your eyes." He told her before he soniced the button for the lift, causing it to spark and break, keeping the lift doors open and trapping the living plastic down in the basement.
"What is your plan?" Rose asked quickly following the Doctor when he turned and began to speed walk away from the now broken lift.
"As you've already figured out, those lot down there are made of plastic. Living plastic creatures. And they're being controlled by a relay device on the roof." The Doctor explained to her as he began to lead her towards the back door. "Which would be a great big problem if I didn't have this." He pulled out a crudely made bomb out of the inside pocket of his leather jacket and showed it to her as they came to the back door.
"So, I'm going upstairs and blow it up. And I might well die in the process, but don't worry about me." The Doctor told her, and Rose had to stop herself from demanding he take her too so she could keep him safe. And knowing that he would live helped her. The Doctor opened the back door and Rose stepped through it, turning to look at him. "No, you go home. Go on, go and have your lovely beans on toast." He ordered her with a forced smile. "Don't tell anyone about this, 'cause if you do, you'll get them killed." With that said he shut the door. Rose stayed where she was watching the door while counting down the seconds, knowing he would be back.
"I'm the Doctor, by the way." The Doctor told her as he opened the door again. "What's your name?"
"Rose. Rose Tyler." Rose told him with a small smile.
"Nice to meet you, Rose. Rose Tyler. Run for your life!" The Doctor told her smiling back at her while waving his bomb. Rose laughed after he shut the door again while shaking her head. God she had missed this. She quickly spun on the balls of her feet and ran as fast as she could, passing by the TARDIS. Rose had to force herself not to run into the TARDIS and forced her feet to take her back to her flat she shared with her mum. She had some planning to do.