All right everyone, so I thought that I was done writing the story of Rose Tyler and her Doctor in Pete's world, but this idea keeps niggling at me, so I'm going to go for it.
Just so everyone knows, this story is taking place probably a week to a month after the events that I wrote about in my story "The Little Red Hood". I hope that you enjoy.
Chapter One
"No, I'm already on my way, and I have Red with me."
Rose leaned against the police cruiser and put the hand that wasn't holding her phone up to her eyes.
"Seriously Doctor, I'm fine." She glanced over at the practically demolished double decker bus landed awkwardly across several lanes of highway, and tried for a smile. "We're all fine, and the wormhole has closed up. There's no need for Red to move if she's not ready."
The Doctor's voice was matter-a-fact when he spoke, but Rose could tell that he was still tense.
"I've already isolated her core matrix, and made sure that her grounding mechanisms are secure, so she's stabilized to travel." He blew out a little breath that made Rose pull away from the phone for a second "…And frankly, I think that she is even more anxious than me to see you."
Rose chewed on her lip. Elation at the thought of having the Doctor and Red with her was warring with a sense of worry that Red wouldn't be able to handle moving from her home of eleven centuries in Norway to the craziness of London.
"I'm sorry, I just figured that it would be a quick trip home for some clothes and a look in at Torchwood…" She shrugged, her eyes following a tank as it trundled past and into the highway tunnel. Over the line she heard the Doctor chuckle.
"I always said that you set the record for jeopardy friendly." He paused. "Though how you managed to get on the one bus that was going to head through a wormhole portal to another planet is beyond even me."
She had to laugh at that, which attracted the confused attention of a few soldiers in red berets. She turned away to hide her smile from the professionals.
"Oi, just watch out for trouble yourself." She ignored his snort of protest. "And tell Red that I love her and can't wait to see her."
"Well that's nice; what about me?" The voice at the other end held a note of mock peevishness.
"I'll get you a cake." She promised, feeling her smile widen. "…and it will have plenty of ball bearings on top."
"They are actually called 'Dragees'…" Rose heard the faints sound of a girl's pedantic voice in the background, but the Doctor said.
"Lovely. It will be a proper old reunion."
There were more sounds in the background.
"Gotta dash now, we're boarding." The Doctor sounded a little breathless. "See you in a bit."
The phone connection shut off, and Rose slid it into her pocket.
"Sweet; but can we get out of here now?" From the police cruiser a dark haired young woman stuck her head out and gave Rose an impatient look.
"Keep you knickers on, your ladyship." Rose pushed off the side of the car and strolled around to the driver side. "I told you, this will be no trouble. Torchwood has jurisdiction on Alien affairs, and as an agent, after what just happened, I can take you in for debriefing and there is nothing that detective inspector can do about it."
"Yes, well let's get on with it then. It smells like sick back here." The Lady Christina wrinkled her nose dramatically, so that Rose could see her in the rearview mirror and then settled back into the seat. Rose shook her head and smiled.
As she went past the barricade and inched into traffic, she made sure to wave at the red faced detective inspector in his long brown trench coat.
"What is London like, Doctor?"
The Doctor pulled out of his own thoughts to look over at the source of the question. Red, or Red Tyler as he liked to think of her, was sitting, buckled into the Zeppelin passenger seat as tangibly real as any child could hope to look. She wore scuffed looking red converse shoes, purple jeans, and a bright red hoody, and she held a fluffy blue bunny on her lap. To anyone who didn't know better, she could be just an ordinary nine or ten year old, and not a thousand of years old trans dimensional, energy creature.
The Doctor took a breath, and focused on the question.
"Well, it a sight bigger than your village."
The little girl face was focused on him intently, so he cleared his throat and continued.
"There's lots of big buildings, and people.. Blimey, there's people all over, and they are all busy doing this and that." He smiled to himself. "Brilliant, people."
"Are we going to live in London now?" Red's face had a thoughtful expression on it.
The Doctor shrugged.
"Probably for a while at least. Why do you ask?" The Doctor shifted in his seat, and one foot bumped against the old fashioned leather briefcase laying at his feet. He shot a glance over at Red, but she didn't seem to notice the movement. She mostly seemed to be thinking about his question.
"I have never been away from Darlig Uve Straden. I wonder how I will take care of people if I am away." She looked over at him, still clutching the blue Bunny that Rose had given to her right before she headed back to London. ("It's cute. She'll love it." Rose had defended.) The Doctor considered her.
When Rose sees her, all she sees is a little girl. I wish it was that easy for me.
"Your still there, just as much as you are here, Red." He tried to speak gently, aware that the Zeppelin was nearing its destination. "Remember how we talked about the dimensions, and time tracks?"
A very familiar, very ten year old, look flitted over Red's face as she seemed to recall that conversation, and the Doctor suddenly, vividly, remembered his short experience as a teacher, and why he had been glad it was so short.
All of time and space, with the consciousness of a ten year old. He sighed. Allonsey.
"Mum said that we would get real, proper, chips when I came to London. Do you like chips, Doctor?"
The Doctor recognized the diversionary tactic, but smiled and let the subject go, for now.
"Chips are good, though it mostly depends on what their frying them with." He hadn't much cared for the Krylotane brand of them.
"What would you have done if Mum couldn't get back from that other planet?"
Like lightening out of a clear blue sky, the question hit the Doctor and knocked the breath out of him. He shuddered and looked over at the girl sitting beside him with her fingers turning white on her blue bunny, and shook his head. A yawning cavern of fear opened up in his mind, at the thought that he had purposely kept out of his head all through the hours as he'd tried to give Rose instructions over the phone, and paced helplessly through the Norwegian Bed and Breakfast.
The Doctor made an effort of will to shove all the thoughts of what could have happened aside, focusing on the rapidly approaching London skyline.
"Doctor?" Red's voice was small, but insistent. He felt a muscle twitch in his jaw, but forced himself to smile.
"I would have got her back." He sniffed and looked away. "One way or another, I would have got her back."
From beside him Red made a tiny little sound of satisfaction, and suddenly he felt her hand in his, as warm and real and human as anything, and turned to look over at her. The little girl face under its bright, blond curls was smiling happily.
"I want chips and ice cream."