Title: The Thousandth Clock
Characters: Tenth Doctor, Rose, Ace, and the Seventh Doctor
Summary: The Doctor and Rose land in a dark forest blanketed in thick fog. There is something odd here. No birds or beasts, not even the slightest breeze. The Doctor is cautious and wants to get back in the Tardis. Some mysteries are best left alone, but then out from the fog comes a voice calling for "the Professor…"
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Doctor Who and Company are the property of the BBC.
Notes:. Reviews are nice, they make my day, so please read and review. I've never written for any Doctor but Seven, so this is an interesting experiment. I wanted to write a Doctor Who story with a fairy tale feel. I hope I've succeeded.
Chapter One: In the Waiting Wood
The forest stretched from one corner of the globe to the other. Hardwood, pine, and oak all reached leafy branches towards a nameless sun. This was a primordial forest, silent and empty. There existed no force here to disturb a single blade of grass, or a green leaf upon the far most branch. Dust modes hung motionless in the air. There was nothing here save the bark, the branches, and the fog. Such fog, of a kind few have ever seen, thick gray fog, smothering the whole of the forest, like a pillow pressed tightly across a child's sleeping face. Into this waiting wood there came a sound, like that of a decrepit orchestra, and suddenly there was a blue box where before no such box had been. Shielded under the branches of a pine tree, the Tardis sat, flattening the grass upon which it had materialized. With a creak the door swung open.
"Here we are, the Spurzhiem Tower home of humanity's first space elevator," the Doctor said as he emerged from the Tardis. "Broke ground in spring of 2137 and didn't finish until…ah." He looked around.
"What's the matter Doctor," Rose called. Closing the doors behind her she glanced up at the canopy. "Great space elevator?"
"Well…" the Doctor ran a hand through his hair nervously.
"One of the Nine Wonders of the Modern World?"
"Might just be through that patch of forest."
"A space elevator? Couldn't you see it from like Australia or something."
"On a clear day…" the Doctor said.
"Admit it Doctor, you messed up…again."
"That's a little harsh don't you think," he started to say. Rose gave him a look. "Alright, alright I might have messed up a little." He looked around again. "Mind you, when I say a little…"
"You mean a whole lot. This was supposed to be a great big shopping mall in the sky, but it's," she trailed off.
"A charming, storybook, somewhat…creepy forest." He held out a hand. "Shall we explore?"
Grasping his outstretched hand, Rose grinned. "You betcha'," she said. Hand in hand they stepped into the fog. As they got farther and farther and farther from the Tardis, Rose experienced a vague uneasiness. There was something wrong, but she couldn't quite figure what it was. Her skin tingled warily, but as time went on it slowly got worse. She felt clammy and uncomfortable in her own skin. She tilted her head listening. What was wrong here? "Doctor," she said at last. "do you notice something a bit…I don't know, a bit off?"
"You mean like the fact that we've been here over an hour and haven't seen bird or beast or heard a single cricket chirp, or owl hoot, or bird call, or that not a single leaf has moved even the tiniest nanometer, or that the bark, the leaves, the grass, the flowers none of them have even a waft of smell? No I haven't noticed a thing."
Rose took a deep breath. "Should I be scared?"
The Doctor shrugged. "Probably." Suddenly he reached up and pulled a leaf from an oak. Putting on his glasses he peered at it curiously, before handing it to Rose. "What do you think?"
Rose examined it closely. She even briefly considered licking it. "I don't know. It seems like a normal leaf to me."
"That's because it is a perfectly ordinary leaf, in every respect save one…it's not alive."
"Come on Doctor look at it. It can't be dead."
"It's not dead, but it's not alive either. Like the rest of the forest it's somewhere in between."
"What, you mean this is a zombie wood?"
No," the Doctor glared at her. Then he closed his eyes and reached out with his mind. "This forest is old, very old…" he frowned. "…and young."
"How can it be young and old at the same time?"
The Doctor opened his eyes. "I don't know," he said. "but it's waiting. This whole forest is waiting for something."
"Waiting for what?"
"No idea." The Doctor slipped his glasses off and turned suddenly. "But we're leaving, now."
"Doctor?" Rose was shocked.
"There are some mysteries, Rose, that are best left alone."
"Like this one?"
"Yes, like this one. Now come on." He broke into a swift walk, and Rose had to scramble to keep up.
"You know what's going on here, don't you," she asked.
"I have a few ideas, none of them pleasant."
The Doctor was scared. That much was obvious, but Rose wasn't quite sure what he was scared of. Sure the forest was creepy, but there didn't seem to be anything in it. Then, maybe it was empty for a reason. Rose shivered as she considered what those reasons might be. Suddenly she caught something on the air. Was that a voice?
"Doctor," she said. "Doctor!" He stopped and turned. "Listen," she urged. "Can you hear that?" There was only silence.
"Rose…" he started, but then he caught it, a voice echoing in the silence, a cry for help. There was something familiar about that voice. It battered at his memory. Then he caught the word being shouted into the fog.
"Professor…" the voice called. "Professor!"
The Doctor couldn't help the smile that tugged at his lips. It had been lifetimes since he'd heard that voice, but he remembered it. He knew who was calling from the fog.
"Ace," he whispered. He smiled at Rose. "Come on," he said and they were off and running, deeper into the woods.
"Professor!" Ace cried into the mist. It'd been over a day since she'd last seen him. They'd been separated in the fog, whether by accident or design, she wasn't sure. She'd seen a lot these past few years in the Tardis. She could take things and bottle them up until later, when in the safety of her room the fear didn't matter anymore. This place, though, it got under your skin. Even the Professor had seemed uncomfortable. Now he was gone, lost in the woods, or was she the lost one? Her head jerked around. There, the sound of twigs snapping. Someone was running. "Professor?" She called happily, but it wasn't him that emerged from the haze. There were two of them, a man and women. He was young, barely older then her. He wore a pinstriped suit and a long beige trench coat. Behind him was a young woman about Ace's age. Where the hell had they sprung from?
"Ace," the Doctor grinned broadly. She looked exactly as he remembered, closer to the teenager he'd first met than the young woman she'd become. She was still wearing that old bomber jacket, badges and all. Yes, exactly as he remembered only…she wasn't smiling back. She was tensed ready for action, and her eyes were wary. He noticed the familiar hat and umbrella she held clutched in her hands. Closer to the teenager, that meant he hadn't explained about regeneration yet. Wonderful.
"Oi, who are you two, and how do you know my name?" Ace wasn't very happy.
"Listen Ace I know this is hard to believe, but I'm the Doctor."
"Try again mate. You look nothing like the Professor."
"Hello," Rose waved nervously. "I'm Rose. I understand because when I met the Doctor he looked completely different, but he changed right in front of me. There was this light and…"
"Stay out of this Goldilocks. I don't trust your friend here and I don't trust you."
"Listen to me Ace, we first met on Iceworld…"
"Cause Fenric sent me there," Ace took a step back, her body coiled and ready. Rose thought there was something vaguely feline about her.
"I told you that there were three rules. One, I'm in charge. Two I'm not the Professor. I'm the Doctor." The Doctor continued. He could see in her eyes that Ace was starting to believe.
"And the third," she asked her voice trembling.
"I said I'd think up the third by the time we reached Perivale."
"How? No, you could be some sort of mind reader."
"Very good, you're using your intelligence, but I am the Doctor. I told you once that 'exotic alien swords were easy to come by, but Aces are rare."
Ace stared at him for a long moment. There was something about the eyes. She could almost believe. She wanted to believe. "If you are the Doctor, then how did you," she gestured indicating his new appearance.
"I'll explain later," the Doctor replied.
Ace smiled. "Now I believe you."
The Doctor grinned in return. "Excellent, now it seems that I've crossed my own time field again, never a good sign. We need to find me as quickly as possible."
"You're from the future," Ace said.
"That's right, but I'm still your Professor."
Ace shook her head. "No," she said. "you maybe the Doctor, but you're not the Professor."
The Doctor met her eyes for a long moment, before smiling sadly. "Then let's go find him, wherever I am."
Next Chapter: By the Statue of Fallen Foes