Disclaimer: I don't own it and doubt I ever will, although if anyone is up for a take-over of the BBC I definitely wouldn't be averse to it…
Rating: T, for now anyway. It might change depending on how gory/smutty/foul-languaged it gets.
Genre(s): action/adventure, humour, suspense, romance, angst, drama… pretty much all the ones you can think of although they might not appear in each chapter.
Summary: At school you were taught that A is for Apple, B is for Bed, C is for Cat and so on, right? Not anymore! A whole new take on the alphabet with stories involving the Doctor (10) and Rose. Expect to see action, adventure, romance and angst. Some chapters will have more of a plot than others whereas some might be quiet little character studies… But we'll see where the mood takes us with this one!
Author's note: I'm sure this kind of thing has been done to death in the past, but this is the start of my mad idea to take a random word out the dictionary for every letter of the alphabet and then write a short story based on/inspired by that word. In the interests of fairness, I got my friend to pick the words for me so I can't just do the easy ones! Although some of her suggestions, such as H is for Hara-kiri (look it up), were a bit too gross for me to contemplate… Any way, here it is! A is for Agent Provocateur… (No, not the underwear!) Enjoy!
As found in Collins Gem English Dictionary.
Agent Provocateur azh-on prov-vok-at-tur: n person employed by the authorities to tempt people to commit illegal acts and so be discredited or punished.
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The Doctor pulled Rose away from the place where a large crowd was gathering, a gaggle of angry aliens all accusing each other of murder and mutilation and the desecration of a much beloved monument. He tugged her across the square that housed all the planet's government buildings, intent on being far away from here very, very soon.
The eruption of violence and disturbance had happened before they even knew what was going on; one minute the Doctor had been explaining about the significance of a decorative fountain that was thousands of years old, and the next they were being swarmed by aliens intent on maiming each other and destroying everything they could find.
'Thought you said this was a peaceful place!' she yelled to him breathlessly as they navigated the large open area, dodging between sculptures and natives of the planet.
'It is!' he yelled back. 'Or at least it was. Come to think of it, there is a revolution due…'
Typical. Trust him to remember when it was too late to do anything about it. And oh, even more typical. A swarm of large alien guards emerged from the building that the Doctor had said was kind of like the Ministry of Defence, kind of like a rogue militia. Somewhere between the two, he had told her. The silver-skinned beings charged towards them, apparently not noticing that they were there. They all carried weapons of some kind, and had symbols sewn onto their clothes. 'Doctor!' Rose shouted out as her hand was wrenched from his and she was jostled around in the middle of the crowd. 'Doctor!' The tide of aliens was too strong for her, especially as they were all at least seven feet tall and extremely well-muscled and naturally, they were all going in the opposite direction to her. She felt herself being dragged backwards, back towards the fighting aliens near the fountain as she was pushed from guard to guard. She screamed as she felt herself begin to fall, grabbing onto the arm of one of the aliens to pull herself up so she wouldn't be trampled.
'Rose!' The Doctor called for her from the other side of the mass of people, jumping up and down to try and see her. He heard her calling for him, her voice sounding further away the second time she spoke. Then he heard her scream and he couldn't stop the sudden double thud of his hearts or the dark sinking feeling in his stomach. 'Rose!' He shouted again as he started moving back towards the skirmishing aliens, intent on finding her before she was crushed in the crowd.
A line of guards in uniform materialised in front of him, holding their weapons trained on his chest as a being that the Doctor vaguely recognised as this planet's equivalent of a defence minister strode towards him, his chest puffed out as he did his best to look important and in control of the situation. He stopped directly in front of the Doctor, holding up some identification. 'Jemgrus Maxicad,' he said. 'Representative for the Internal Military and Interplanetary Defence.'
The Doctor made a show of studying the identification. 'Hello, Jemgrus Maxicad,' he said. 'I'm the Doctor, and you're in my way.' He made to step forwards but was stopped by twelve guards simultaneously cocking their weapons and resting their fingers on the triggers. 'Ah,' he said.
'You should not be here,' the alien called Maxicad told him.
'Yes, I know,' agreed the Doctor, getting impatient as the seconds ticked by and, in all likelihood, Rose probably got farther and farther away from him. 'I should be over there,' he said, nodding at the aliens who were fighting like it was judgement day. 'I have to find my friend.'
'Your… friend is involved in this?' Maxicad asked.
'Only by accident. But I doubt that this incident will do much for your interplanetary reputation for peace,' he challenged. 'In fact, I'd say that this is setting a rather bad example.' He raised his eyes to scan the crowd by the fountain, looking for any sign of Rose. He thought he heard her scream again, but he couldn't be sure.
'Then perhaps you will be better impressed with our reputation for discipline,' the alien promised.
'What-' The Doctor didn't have time to finish his question before two of the guards had moved forward to grasp his arms and twist them up behind his back whilst a third went through his pockets, retrieving both the psychic paper and his sonic screwdriver. 'Oh dear,' he muttered under his breath.
The guards looked expectantly at Representative Maxicad. 'Take him to the cells,' he told them.
The Doctor swore under his breath, twisting to try and escape from the guards' iron grip. He kicked out to try and trip them up, yelling out, 'You don't understand! You can't do this; I swear you'll live to regret it. I have to find my friend!'
'We'll take care of your friend,' said Maxicad, coming up to walk alongside the guards as the Doctor struggled in their grip. 'Don't you worry, Doctor.'
Something bumped against him, and then the Doctor's mind began to go fuzzy as they reached the entrance to the building. He made a last ditch attempt to pull away as his head swam and the guards propelled him forwards down a ramp. He could barely tell which way was up and which was down as they walked on, his thoughts losing coherence and his vision fast losing clarity. 'Rose,' he said dreamily, seriously. 'I have to find Rose.'
The guards ignored him as they opened a door to a cell, thrusting him inside. Perhaps they hadn't heard him? He stumbled forwards, colliding with the wall and sliding down it as his vision went black. 'Rose,' he said, slightly worried at how quiet his voice was even though he was trying to shout. 'Where is she? I have to…' He slumped to the floor, unconscious, and the guards slammed the cell door shut.
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OhGodOhGodOhGod. Rose stumbled and pushed her way through the crowd as gunshots broke out from the area where she had been parted from the Doctor. She toyed with the idea that it was him they were shooting at but pushed that thought from her mind, unwilling to accept that he might be in trouble. He was the Doctor, and he always found a way out. Right? She hissed with pain as she was shoved against a wall of the fountain and she tumbled over. Her hand shot out to support her fall, instead colliding with a pile of broken stones and scraping her skin. She pulled herself up, only vaguely aware of the fact that water from the fountain had spurted out and soaked her through to the skin. She barely even noticed the cold of the day as she spun around, frantically searching for the Doctor as the sounds of the gunshots intensified.
A flurry of activity suddenly erupted off to her right and she found herself caught up in a press of bodies all shoving and pushing for supremacy. 'Oi, d'you mind?' she exclaimed, shoving back as hard as she could. There was a roar of anger as one of the alien's launched himself at her and she squeezed her eyes shut, bracing herself for the blow…
It never came. A hand grabbed her arm and pulled her backwards, dragging her round to the other side of the fountain, behind a wall and then down a small alley. Doctor? She could hear the shouting and the gunshots continuing on and on and on back in the square but there was nobody in this alley apart from her and the… No, not the Doctor. She looked at the man who held her by the arm, taking in his outfit and his stance. She judged him to be some sort of government official. He held up a wallet of identification. Hang on a minute, she thought. That looks like the Doctor's psych…
'Jemgrus Maxicad,' he said, cutting into her train of thought. 'Secret Army for the Liberation of the People. Are you okay?'
She nodded. 'Yeah, yeah fine. Listen, I'm looking for a man called the Doctor. Have you seen him?'
Jemgrus Maxicad frowned, apparently lost in thought. After a moment, he shook his head. 'No, haven't seen him or heard anything about him. Sorry.'
'Right.' Her shoulders slumped and she leaned against the wall, letting her head rest against the rough brickwork. Where the hell was he? And, come to that, where the hell was she? And what was the Secret Army for the Liberation of…
'Miss?' The alien spoke again. 'We have to move. It's not safe here.'
'But I have to find the Doctor.'
There was (relative) silence for a moment as they stared at each other, both determined not to back down.
'Look, you're with the Liberation Army, yeah?' Rose said, sighing as she tried to reason with this alien. 'I want to liberate the Doctor.'
'You're a Liberator?' Maxicad said, raising his eyebrows
'Yeah, yeah if that's what you want to call it.'
He nodded, deep in thought. This could all work so nicely, he knew. Especially now he had this girl on record as saying she was a Liberator, even though she wasn't technically…Well, technicalities could be dealt with, he knew. As soon as he got her back to the ministry, he could pin the blame for today's unrest on her and that Doctor and nobody would ever have to know any different. The revolution would pass unnoticed, most certainly putting him in line for promotion and leaving his party's government intact. 'Okay, we'll find your Doctor,' he said. 'Follow me.'
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When the Doctor came round, the first thing he did was groan loudly. He pressed his hands against his head in a bid to stop the throbbing, feeling like he had a hangover. He opened his eyes slowly, squinting in the dim light. He was glad he had his vision back; he didn't really fancy fighting his way out of here blind. Rose. The memories of what had happened rushed back to him all at once and he groaned again, the pressure on his brain making it feel like someone was physically pushing him down.
He blinked a few times, adjusting to the surroundings and the fuzzy feeling in his head. He looked around the cell, somewhat amused but not at all surprised that it looked pretty much like any cell he'd ever been in. Well, except that one on planet A46000B. That one had been triangular, with a weird hook hanging from a rope attached to the ceiling that was used for… He shivered with the memory of that.
He shuffled quietly to the bars that were designed to keep the prisoners in, knowing full well he could bust out of here in seconds if he only had his sonic screwdriver. Frustrated, he banged his head against the bars. He was glad Rose wasn't here to see this; she'd only worry. Except, she was probably worrying wherever she was at the moment anyway, he knew. That was, if she was still conscious. Anything could have happened to her since they had been separated; he shook with disgust at the thought, unwilling to believe that anyone would hurt her and unwilling to accept that she was probably in just as much trouble as he was right now, if not more.
Looking across the corridor, he could see a passageway with a slight incline. His intuition told him that that was the way he had come in and that it was also the best way to get out of here. Craning his neck to see as far as he could, he took in the other cells that were exactly like his but empty, and something that looked like it might be a guard station off to the right. He'd have to watch out for that when he made a run for it.
But, the question was, how was he going to make a run for it? He could hear gunshots and fighting outside and he hoped to whatever God or deities may exist that Rose wasn't caught up in that. An innocent little human girl would never stand a chance caught in the middle of a load of revolutionising aliens and a rather angry government. If only I had a weapon, he thought.
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'Where are we going?' Rose asked as Jemgrus Maxicad led her down a maze of small back alleys and side streets, his hand still wrapped around her arm as though she were a prisoner.
He looked at her, knowing what she meant. 'We cannot walk back through the square,' he told her. 'Not unless you want to die. We have to go the long way round.'
'Right.'
They fell back into silence as they rounded another corner and continued on down a dark and dank little road. Muffled screams and the whistle of bullets could be heard over to the right and Rose shuddered, petrified that the Doctor might be hurt, stuck in the middle of the crowd somewhere. He might need her help, and here she was picking her way through rubbish and rubble with some liberating alien she wasn't even sure she trusted. 'Why do you want to liberate the people?' she blurted out, realising that wasn't perhaps the best way to phrase the question. 'I mean,' she corrected. 'Why do the people need liberating?'
'We suffer under an oppressive government,' he told her, lying through his teeth but confident that he could convince her he meant everything he said. He was secretly smug that he was part of said oppressive government; it was much better to be the oppressor rather than the oppressed. 'The Army for the Liberation is today staging the first part of the revolution designed to give power and control back to the people.'
'That's why everyone's… fighting in the square and stuff.'
'Yes,' he said. 'Plus, there is safety in numbers. A few citizens staging a protest would result in them all being thrown in jail and suffering the consequences. However, the whole army is out in force all over the planet of Magis Strater and the government cannot possibly prosecute everybody. Although,' he looked at her gravely even though inside he was grinning with glee and malice. 'If the government were to catch those responsible for the organisation of this revolution, they would suffer the consequences very badly indeed. An example would be made of them to the entire population. That is why we must act together, fight as one. It is also why we must succeed.'
Rose nodded, looking like she was mulling something over. 'I see,' she said. 'So the Doctor's in trouble out there on his own. We have to help him!'
Maxicad could've jumped up and down he was so happy. This girl was so stupid that she didn't even recognise the danger she was in by being away from the crowd, by being here… with him. Either that or she was so blind and in love with the Doctor that she didn't care. He suspected that it was a mixture of both. He looked at her to find her staring back at him, an expression of unease written over her pretty face. He raised his eyebrows enquiringly, obligingly.
'How can I trust you?' she asked. 'If there's all this trouble going on, how do I know you're who you say you are?'
'Because I am going to help you find your Doctor,' he said as sincerely as he could. 'And then I am going to help you get to safety. You are an outsider here; you would be the first to alert suspicion to the authorities. I do not think they would be kind with you.' He looked at her sternly, knowing full well what would happen to her once he got her back to the cells. He wondered how her Doctor would react when he showed up with her and shoved her inside the cell with him. He sighed in pleasure at the thought of tormenting them both, of torturing them until they begged for it to end. He would make an example of them to the entire population, as he had said to her only moments before. Show them how strong his government really was.
'But doesn't being an outsider make it obvious that I have no idea what's going on?' she asked. He wished she would shut up and stop asking questions.
'To the Liberators, yes. To the government it makes you more dangerous.'
She nodded, thoughtfully. There was something about this man… something she couldn't quite put her finger on. He seemed a little too sure about what would happen as a consequence of the revolution, a little bit too confident about finding the Doctor. Surely, if he was being realistic, he'd be trying to prepare her for the possibility that the Doctor might be dead? Especially as he didn't know he could regenerate. As far as this alien knew, one bullet or one wrong punch and the Doctor would be dead as a doornail…
The sounds of the fighting began to grow louder as they came full circle to the other side of the fountain. The road narrowed slightly and Rose fell into step behind Maxicad. Something poking out of his pocket caught her eye. Was that…? Yes, it was. She stopped walking. And then, in the same breath she wrenched her arm out of his grasp and grabbed the object from his pocket. Maxicad whirled around, making to grab her but she jumped back and held up her hand. She showed him the Doctor's sonic screwdriver that she had taken from his pocket as she quickly adjusted the settings, suddenly glad that he had taken it upon himself to teach her all she would need to know to defend herself with it in an emergency. She pointed it at his chest. 'Where's the Doctor?' she said, startling herself slightly with the malice she heard in her own voice. 'You've been lying to me.' This was a statement, not a question. 'What've you done with him!' she yelled.
'Oh sweetheart,' the alien said, shaking his head at her, feigning sadness. 'And now I have you on theft and assault of a government official. That won't look good at your trial… if you even get a trial, that is.'
Rose frowned, confused but trying not to show it. She moved her thumb to the button on the sonic screwdriver, ready to do some serious damage if she had to. 'Who are you?' she challenged, glad that she sounded more threatening than afraid.
Maxicad held up his hands, showing her that they were empty before holding his jacket out to the side and reaching into it to extract a leather folder. He opened it and showed it to her. 'Jemgrus Maxicad,' he said. 'Representative for the Internal Military and Interplanetary Defence. At your service.' He smirked at her.
Rose nodded thoughtfully. 'Right, well that's good to know,' she told him. 'I wonder what the punishment is for lying around here. I bet you crack down on those Liberators pretty hard?'
'And what are you implying by that?' he asked, trying to keep his tone light.
'Maybe it's time you had a taste of your own justice system.' She took a step forward, repressing the urge to laugh in delight as Maxicad took a step back, looking warily at the glowing sonic screwdriver in her hand. 'What've you done with the Doctor?'
Maxicad said nothing, his mouth set in a thin line.
'Where'd you get his sonic screwdriver and his psychic paper? You don't just find those lying around!' She lurched forward and the alien jumped backwards into the wall, breathing hard. Rose held the screwdriver to his chest as she reached into his pocket and pulled out the psychic paper. She opened it and held it up in his face. 'You're not stupid, I'll give you that,' she said. 'You knew what this was and how it works. And that makes me think you know the Doctor might be dangerous if you got on the wrong side of him. So,' she continued, making her tone sound light and inconsequential, as if she had all day for this kind of thing. 'I'll ask you again.' She raised her voice slightly now. 'What've you done with the Doctor?'
The alien still didn't answer, but Rose was pleased to see a thin line of sweat breaking out on his forehead. A new plan began to form in her head.
'Is he in that building where all those guards came from?' she asked.
Maxicad didn't say anything but the slight rise of his chin and the widening of his eyes confirmed her suspicions.
'Is he in that building, sir?' she said.
The alien hesitated half-way through a nod. Rose nodded slowly, encouraging him. She smiled when Maxicad copied her gesture.
'So he is in the building,' she said. She paused, waiting for the contradiction. It didn't come and so she continued. 'Have you locked him up?' she inquired, trying to stop the images of the Doctor locked up in some pokey cell from flooding through her head. 'Have you shut him away somewhere so he can't get out?'
Maxicad laughed nervously. 'What do you think we did, sweetheart? Let him roam around wherever he liked? Can't have that happening to our prize prisoner now, can we? Especially as he was so… determined that he had to find his friend.' He raised his eyebrows at her. 'I guess that friend is you?'
Rose straightened up and pushed the screwdriver harder against his chest. 'What exactly was your plan?' she demanded. 'Arrest the outsiders and then blame all this violence on us? Pretend that the revolution never happened?'
He shrugged. 'Something like that, yes.'
Rose laughed. 'Well that's not gonna work, is it? Not when the outsiders end up holding you to ransom!' She smirked as Maxicad looked round nervously, trying to peer around the edge of the wall as the fighting escalated on the other side of it. The sound of sloshing water could be heard as the fountain was obviously being destroyed. 'Don't think the cavalry's coming for you now, is it?' she said. 'That was stupid; coming here with no back up. Rookie mistake!' She laughed again, before straightening her face and nodding in the direction of the square where a massacre was currently taking place. 'The Doctor said that fountain was built as a symbol of triumph by the winning regime after the last revolution. How many thousands of years ago was that?' She thought back, trying to remember what he had said. She shook her head. 'Obviously quite a lot anyway. Back then,' she said. 'You were the good guys. But now what've you become? You're oppressive and murderous just like those before you and you're putting innocent people in prison!'
She stepped back slightly and Maxicad visibly relaxed. 'But now you're faltering,' she told him. 'People don't accept you anymore. They're challenging you!' She took a deep breath and shifted the sonic screwdriver in her hand. 'And I'm challenging you now. Take me to the Doctor and let us go, or I'll do something I imagine we'll both live to regret.'
Maxicad didn't reply, slightly curious as to what this girl thought she would do if he refused to take her to her Doctor. What damage could she do with a glowing tube anyway? To agree to her request was to submit and admit defeat and he knew he could never allow that to happen. He couldn't let this revolution succeed, and he refused to accept that his government had become like that horrific old regime of all those years ago.
'So what's it to be?' Rose asked. She wished that he would say something or do something that could justify her using the sonic screwdriver on him. She wasn't entirely sure she wanted him to agree to let the Doctor go; she'd be too afraid it was a trick of some kind.
The alien opened his mouth to say something but no sound came out. Rose looked at him expectantly, eyebrows raised as she bit the inside of her cheek. She shivered as the adrenaline eased off slightly and the chill in the air caught her unexpectedly. She waited a few seconds more, giving the alien time to respond to her question.
'Maxicad,' she said. 'Representative for the Internal Military and Interplanetary Defence. Seems like your military's failing slightly. That won't look good. So what's it to be?'
When he didn't reply this time, she knew she couldn't falter any longer. She had to get to the Doctor before something happened to him, before Maxicad had time to come up with a plan. She raised the screwdriver to his head and watched as the alien's eyes went wide. She knew that this wouldn't kill him, that it would merely knock him out and then leave him dazed for a while but still… She'd never done anything like this before. She took a deep breath and pushed the button. 'Sorry,' she whispered as the alien slumped to the ground, his eyes slipping closed and his breathing slowing as though he was asleep. Rose bent down and dragged him slightly further back into the alley, arranging some rubble around him to make it look as though he'd fallen and bumped his head. Then she turned and left him there, not looking back as she strode purposefully back through the square ignoring the bodies and the aliens still fighting as she made her way to the building where the Doctor was being held. She didn't even notice the sharp brick that flew through the air and hit her in the arm, tearing her skin as she clutched the sonic screwdriver in her hand and prepared to do a little breaking and entering on government property.
----------
The Doctor was bored. There was nothing to do in this cell and there wasn't even anyone to talk to since all the other cells were empty and all of the guards seemed to be caught up in the revolution currently taking place outside. Having managed to use his glasses as a very poor mirror by holding them out between the bars and tilting them slightly, he'd established that he was one-hundred-percent, completely and utterly alone down here. And he knew that he hadn't been this bored in a very, very long time.
He was also worried. He knew that the longer he was away from Rose, the more danger she was likely to be in. He hoped that she'd found somewhere to hide until the fighting stopped. He even briefly prayed that the guards had caught her and that they were holding her elsewhere in the building. But no, he decided pretty quickly, he would much prefer her to be lost and scared and alone outside than stuck with those guards. He knelt down in front of the bars, pulling at them for the millionth time in two hours. Sighing as they still refused to give, he stood up and yanked off his tie. He tied it around the bar that served as the edge of the door, guessing that that would be the weakest point. He made sure it was secure and then he pulled, determined that this would work. The doors couldn't be that strong after all. They were some kind of iron compound and he knew that it would have to warp at some point.
He thought of Rose, knowing that thoughts of her would spur him on and make him put in that little bit of extra effort. He thought of her smile, her hair and her laughter, the way her voice shook when she was scared and the way she always slipped her hand into his as they were walking. He had to get out of here; he had to find her. Although, that said, he was glad she wasn't here right now. She'd probably be in fits of laughter watching him straining and grunting as he tugged on his tie to try and pull the door off its hinges. He imagined he could hear her giggles. 'What the hell are you doing?' she'd probably say.
But wait… He hadn't imagined that. He dropped the tie and spun round to face the door and his jaw dropped, partly in surprise, partly in mortification at having been caught. Rose stood there looking at him like he was a maniac, the sonic screwdriver and the psychic paper clutched in her hand. She held them up to him. 'Looking for these?' she teased him, although he noticed the slight waver in her voice. She looked stressed and slightly worried, he thought. But then, given the circumstances, that was hardly surprising.
'Rose, what…? I mean, how did you…? What did you…?' He stood staring at her, opening and closing his mouth like a fish as she passed him the sonic screwdriver through the bars. He looked down at it, studying the setting it had been left on. Had she really…? He looked back up at Rose as he fiddled with the settings and then held it to the door. 'Rose, what happened?' he asked quietly.
She stared at him for a moment, stepping back as the iron door swung open. 'I met Jemgrus Maxicad,' she said simply.
'Ah.' He frowned as he looked down at her, checking her over for signs of damage. 'You're hurt,' he said, reaching out to her and pulling her towards him so he could study the gash on her arm. Anger flashed in his eyes. 'Did he do this to you?'
She shook her head. 'It was an accident.'
He pulled back to look into her face. 'Are you sure?'
'Yes.'
'Good.' He took a handkerchief out of his pocket and tied it around her wound, soothing her as she gasped in pain. 'Sorry, I'm sorry,' he said. He pulled her into his arms then, holding her tightly against his body as he cradled her head to his chest. He knew she was crying; her tears were soaking into his shirt.
'Doctor, I had to…' she trailed off, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist and squeezing him slightly to increase the contact. 'I had to use the screwdriver on him,' she said guiltily. 'I didn't know what he'd do if I didn't! First he said he was with the Liberation Army but then he went all weird and he had your sonic screwdriver. So he admitted that he was with the government but he didn't seem to care at all and he was gonna blame this whole thing on us because we're outsiders and I didn't know what to do so I zapped him,' she told him, speaking at a million miles an hour.
'Good girl,' he said, kissing the top of her head. He pulled back slightly and looked down at her. 'And then you broke in here?'
She smiled. 'Yeah, it was pretty easy. There was nobody around 'cause they're all… revolutionising and stuff.'
He grinned at her and reached down to take her hand. 'We have to go,' he said.
'But aren't you gonna stop the fighting?' she asked.
He shook his head. 'No. I can't argue with history now, can I? And history says there was a revolution here so I can't stop that.'
They walked out of the cell and followed the passageway back outside before turning away from the square and walking back to where they had left the TARDIS in a street only a hundred metres away. They were both silent as they walked inside it and the Doctor set them into flight, both mulling over what had happened, neither really knowing what to say about it. It was just another one of those things that happened sometimes; history happening as they managed to get themselves caught up in the middle of it.
Once they were back drifting through the time vortex, the Doctor walked back over to Rose as she sat in the chair next to the console. He sat next to her and touched her arm near where he had tied the handkerchief. 'Let me fix you up now,' he said, smiling as she let her head come to rest on his shoulder.
She nodded. 'Yeah, okay. Are you okay?'
He grinned. 'I'm fine. My pride is slightly wounded that I couldn't find a way out of that cell by myself, but other than that I'm great!'
'Good,' she said, slipping an arm around his waist.
He put his arm around her shoulders and held her close. He was about to help her up and into the med bay when something occurred to him. 'Rose,' he said amusedly. 'I read somewhere once…'
She looked at him. 'Yeah?'
'In the Revolution of the People by the Army for the Liberation of the People on the planet of Magis Strater, there was an incident…' He laughed slightly as everything clicked into place before continuing on in what Rose had come to know as his "educational lecture" voice. 'Two days after the initial uprising the Representative for the Internal Military and Interplanetary Defence, Jemgrus Maxicad, was found wandering a load of back alleys with no idea who he was or what the revolution was about or even what year it was. He remembered absolutely nothing and yet there was no sign of trauma to him and it's remained a mystery for all of time. But maybe it's not such a mystery anymore!' He grinned widely.
Rose pulled away, horrified. 'What, you mean I…? I wiped his memory?' she shrieked.
The Doctor tried to calm his laughter when he saw the expression on her face. 'Um, sort of, yes. You must've done. It probably happened if you held the button down for too long. But Rose!' he said as she bought her hands to her face, looking like she was about to cry. 'He deserved it. He was a criminal. In two years time, the new government will find a load of papers detailing all the torture and inhumane acts he inflicted on the Liberators, all because they wanted freedom. Loss of memory of his life is a small price to pay.'
Rose stood up. 'That doesn't change anything Doctor. In fact it makes it worse! He'll never be able to realise what a monster he is now. He won't understand why he's being punished!'
The Doctor stood next to her and grasped her shoulders gently. 'Quite the opposite actually,' he said. 'Unable to remember a thing that had happened, he was enrolled to work for the Liberation Army. Imagine that! His worst nightmare and he ended up staying with them until he died. Good sense of humour, those Liberators.' He smiled softly. 'Someone bad turned good, and it's all thanks to you,' he said, sincerely, proudly.
She smiled back, still unsure, still guilty. 'I guess,' she said.
'I know so,' he told her. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her temple, smiling as he felt her arms come up to tentatively grasp his waist. 'You have so much potential, Rose,' he said, loving the feel of her so close to him. 'Think about it; that revolution ends up succeeding because you took the guy trying to stop it out of the picture.' He pulled back and looked into her eyes, letting her see that he was telling the truth. Letting her see his sincerity and his affection and the tears shining brightly at the corner of his eyes as he looked at the woman before him who meant so much to him it was untrue. 'So don't feel guilty, Rose. All of those people are free because of something you did. And that's… that's pretty amazing.'
She shook her head. 'Nah, they're free because they want to be free. Good fought evil and won. What I did, that was just an accident.'
The Doctor smiled, seeing the slight blush of modest pride spread across her cheeks even as she tried to deny it. He kissed her forehead. 'Well, in that case,' he said seriously. 'I think that makes it even more amazing.'
She looked up at him, searching his face for something. 'You think?' she asked.
He nodded. 'Yeah.' He paused, frowning for a moment. 'An accident you say?'
She nodded and he grinned madly.
'Well, in that case,' he said again. 'I think "amazing" goes out of the window completely.' He laughed, pleased when she joined in. 'Bloody miracle more like!'
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A/N: Hope you enjoyed it and look out for B is for Bound coming sometime soon! (So. Many. Dodgy. Images. And. Ideas. Help. Gah!)