She hasn't slept in days, but when she does sleep she's plagued by nightmares. She remembers the demon from Krop Tor and what he said to her. She remembers The Doctor's face when she asked him what it meant. Of course he would tell her it meant nothing, but it doesn't feel like nothing.
The air tastes different when she wakes up from her 2 hour nap. Even on the TARDIS it tastes like there's a storm coming. But she gets up and gets ready like normal. She showers, puts on make-up and fashions her hair into a cute but practical up-do.
With all the running she and The Doctor do, she had grown to rely on putting her hair up often. Especially after that nightmare planet where her hair had gotten caught in the branches of the living trees. She had cut her hair short after that and wore it up much more often.
She pulled on some black trousers, a yellow shirt and a denim jacket before making her way to the console room. The Doctor stood waiting for her when she arrived, practically vibrating with excitement.
She smiled at him, albeit a bit halfheartedly, but when he flashed her his gorgeous lopsided grin in return, she broke out in a full tongue-touched smile. His enthusiasm was infectious, despite the anxious feeling growing in her stomach and blurring her vision.
He dances around the console and she hears the tell-tale wheezing noise of the TARDIS materializing. When she finally lands, he's off with a flash to the door, opening it just slightly. She smiles to herself when she hears the thunk of the TARDIS door hitting something.
"Ah," The Doctor says, turning to see if she was watching. Rose pretends to be very interested in the console, trying to hide her smile and keep from shaking with laughter. The Doctor returns to the console, but says nothing. She's a little surprised. The first time something like that happened he told her they were on a planet where humans couldn't breathe the air.
She feels the TARDIS move again, jerking just slightly as The Doctor turns her around. He goes back down the ramp and exits the TARDIS with ease. She grins and follows after him, breathing in the London air.
"Ah!" The Doctor says once they're both outside, the TARDIS doors closing behind them. Rose looks around, noticing a poster with Shane Ward's Greatest Hits plastered all over it.
"So, near future yeah?" She asks and The Doctor nods at her with another of his adorable grins.
"I had a passing fancy," he says, "only it didn't pass. It stopped." She chuckles a bit at that and she can't help the thought that enters her mind about how he would make an excellent father.
They continue walking, looking around and well, for trouble she supposes. Though trouble usually finds them without them having to look too far. And if this ever-growing feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach is any indication, they should find themselves up to their necks in it soon enough.
"Thirtieth Olympiad," The Doctor drones on and she realizes she's been lost in her own thoughts for who knows how long and missing out on what he's been saying, "Only seems like yesterday a few naked Greek blokes were passing a discus about, wrestling around in the sand while crowds stood about baying...no...wait, that was Club Med…" He continues rambling and Rose smirks up at him, but her main focus is still on the growing sensation of fear overtaking her. Something is coming.
"Just in time for the opening doo dah, ceremony, tonight, I thought you'd like that," The Doctor continues, seemingly oblivious to Rose's internal suffering, "Last one they had in London was dynamite. Wembley, 1948. I loved it so much, I went back and watched it all over again. Fella carrying the torch. Lovely chap, what was his name?"
Rose takes in a sharp breath when she notices a man putting up missing child posters on the lampposts. The Doctor doesn't seem to notice anything is amiss, but Rose knows better. When he gets like this he's trying to avoid talking about something else. She has a good feeling its about Krop Tor, but she can't think about that right now.
"Mark? John? Mark?" He continues, not looking at her or the missing posters, "Legs like pipe cleaners, but strong as a whippet." She clears her throat next to him.
"Doctor," she says pointedly, looking at the posters. She could practically feel the fear and contempt coming off the people's houses in waves.
"And in those days, everybody has a tea party to go to," he continued, ignoring her.
"Doctor!" She shouted.
"Did you ever have one of those little cakes with the crunchy ball bearings on top?" He asks and Rose stops walking, standing pointedly in front of one of the missing child posters.
"You should really look at this," she says from behind him. He turns towards her, but continues to ramble about the small cakes with the ball bearings.
"Do you know those things? Nobody else in this entire galaxy's ever even bothered to make edible ball bearings. Genius." He stops talking then, standing beside her and looking down at the missing posters.
"What's taking them, do you think?" He asks after a few moments of silence, Rose looks up at him as he continues, "Snatching children from a thoroughly ordinary street like this."
"It says they all went missing this week," Rose begins, continuing where he left off, "Why would a person do something like this?" The Doctor grimaces, eyes crinkling.
"What makes you think it's a person?" Silence settles over the two of them as a woman comes to the street to put out her rubbish and go straight back inside, a little too quickly. Rose watches her, looking around again and noticing the street is eerily empty aside from men fixing the road.
"Whatever it is, it's got the whole street scared to death, Doctor. What…" Rose begins, but trails off when she notices The Doctor has run up the street to investigate one of the front lawns with a football goal. She watches him hold his hand out over the grass as a man drives onto the road. The engine on his car promptly gives out and Rose narrows her eyes in confusion. One of the men working on the road goes over to help the man with his car.
"That's the fifth today. Not natural, is it?" The road mender asks as the man gets out of his car, frustration evident on his features.
"I don't know what happened, I had it serviced less than a month ago!" The man walks around to the front of his car and stares at it.
"Nah, don't even try to explain it, mate," The road mender says with a sigh, "All the cars are doing it. And do you know what? It's bonkers." He moves to stand at the back of the car.
"Come on then, pal. I'll help you shift it. Quicker you're on the way, happier you'll be." The man nods and moves to the driver's side of the car to help push. Rose watches from a short distance away, wondering why all the cars on the street seem to be stopping. Only one way to find out.
"Do you want a hand?" She asks, moving to join the two men in pushing the car. The road mender glances at her, looking her up and down.
"We're alright, love," he says, continuing to push. Rose smiles at him.
"I can tell you're not. I'm tougher than I look, honest," she says, joining him at the back of the car to help push.
"I'm Rose," she says as the car's engine suddenly bursts back into life. She has to hold back a laugh when the road mender falls over. The car's driver gets back in and drives off, in a hurry to make it home.
"Kel," he says from the ground, grimacing at where the car has disappeared down the lane.
"Does this happen a lot?" Rose asks, offering a hand to Kel and helping him back up.
"Been doing it all week," he says, dusting the gravel off of his shirt and pants. Rose purses her lips.
"Since those children started going missing?" She asks.
"Yeah, I 'spose so," Kel responds, forehead crinkling as he continues, "Every car cuts out. The council are going nuts. I mean, they've given this street the works. Renamed it even. I've been tarmacking every pot hole. Look at that," he says pointing at the pothole he's just filled in, "Beauty, init? Yeah! And all that is because the Olympic Torch comes right by the end of this Close. Just down there," he points again to a different part of the street, "Everything's got to be perfect, ain't it? Only it ain't." Kel sighs and shakes his head, crossing his arms over his chest.
Rose watches him, a dozen questions going through her head.
"It takes them when they're playing," A woman says from behind her just as she opens her mouth to speak. Rose turns, the dread in her stomach returning with full force.
"What takes them?" She asks, swallowing down the lump in her throat. The woman didn't meet her eyes, instead staring off into space behind her. The hair on the back of Rose's neck stood on end.
"Danny, Jane, Dale," the woman continues sadly, "Snatched in the blink of an eye."
When the ginger cat disappeared in front of her, Rose was on high alert. The smell was nearly unbearable and the same smell she and The Doctor had encountered in the back alley.
"Ion residue!" The Doctor says from beside her, "Blimey. I'm having some of that. I'm impressed."
"So the cat...he's been transported?" Rose asks, still staring at the empty cardboard box in awe. The Doctor nods.
"Whatever is doing this, it can harness huge reserves of ionic power. We need to find the source of that power. We find that, we can find whatever has taken to stealing children and animals. See what you can see. Keep them peeled, Lewis." At her nickname, The Doctor gives her a wide grin and Rose's heart beats just a little bit faster.
"Name yourself!" The Doctor bellows at the creature inhabiting Chloe's body, the creature who has been trapping the neighborhood children in drawing. Rose tenses at the anger in his voice.
"Isolus," the creature explains.
"You're isolus. Of course," The Doctor says as if it were obvious. Rose chews on her bottom lip.
"Our journey began in the Deep Realms when we were a family," the Isolus continues, drawing as she speaks. Chloe's mother, Trish looks over her daughter's shoulder, watching silently as the creature draws. Rose thinks Trish is taking this all very well, considering.
"What is that?" Trish asks The Doctor, motioning to the drawing. He looks up at her.
"The Isolus Mother," he explains, looking back down at the drawing before continuing, "drifting in deep space. See, she jettisons millions of fledgling spores. Her children," he explains further, "The Isolus are empathetic beings with intense emotions, but when they're cast off from their mother, their empathetic link, their need for each other, is what sustains them. They need to be together. They cannot be alone." He sounds choked up at the word alone and Rose watches him carefully. There's something bothering him, she can tell, but she is afraid to address what. His eyes lock with hers for a moment and she swallows when she sees the sadness there.
"Our journey is long," the Isolus says, snapping Rose and The Doctor back to the situation at hand. When Trish's brow furrows in confusion, The Doctor continues his explanation.
"The Isolus children travel, each inside a pod. They ride the heat and energy of solar tides. It takes thousands and thousands of years for them to grow up," he explains both to her and Trish.
"Thousands of years just floating through space," Rose says, her voice a bit hoarse, "Poor things. Don't they go mad with boredom?" The Doctor opens his mouth to respond, but the Isolus beats him to it.
"We play," it says.
"You play?" Rose asks. This time The Doctor answers.
"While they travel, they play games. They use their ionic power to literally create make believe worlds in which to play."
"In flight entertainment," Rose responds and The Doctor smiles at her sadly.
"It helps keep them happy. While they're happy, they can feed off each other's love," he says, almost in a whisper, speaking directly to her, "Without it, they're lost." He searches her face for a moment, and she can feel her heart speed up. She bites her lip.
"Why did you come to Earth," The Doctor says, turning back to the Isolus and breaking his connection with Rose. The Isolus begins her story, her separation from her family, falling to Earth and being unable to go back to her family again.
"Your pod crashed," The Doctor began, "Where is it?"
"My pod was drawn to heat," The Isolus explained, "and I was drawn to Chloe Webber. She was like me, alone. She needed me and I needed her."
"You empathized with her. You wanted to be with her because she was alone like you," The Doctor continued.
"I want my family," The Isolus said, becoming increasingly agitated, "It's not fair."
"I understand. You want to make a family. But you can't stay in this child. It's wrong. You can't steal any more friends for yourself," The Doctor says, trying to remain calm but still be firm.
"I am alone," The Isolus says. From behind her, Rose hears a crash from the wardrobe and she jumps, moving to stand beside The Doctor. The father from hell has returned in full force. The Doctor straightens up, placing himself in front of Rose as Chloe begins to shake on the bed. The door glows red.
"I'm coming to hurt you, Chloe," A loud booming voice says from the closet. Rose grips The Doctor's arm, heart racing.
"Trish," The Doctor says, voice urgent, "How do you calm her?"
"What?" Trish asks, reluctantly tearing her eyes away from the closet. She looks terrified. Rose emphasizes with her.
"When she has nightmares, what do you do?" He asks, eyes glued to the shaking red door.
"I...I…" Trish says, looking distressed.
"What do you do?" The Doctor asks again. Rose is very nearly trembling behind him.
"I sing to her," She says.
"Then start singing," The Doctor commands. Trish nods, beginning to sing. She gets through two verses before the door stops shaking and Chloe falls asleep.
Once they had taken all of the pencils and made certain things were alright with Trish, Rose and The Doctor returned to the TARDIS. Rose watched him as he worked on making some sort of machine.
"You knew the Isolus was lonely before it told you," she says softly before she could stop herself. She didn't want to bring this up with him. She already knew why and how he knew. She remembered when she had met him. He had been lonely too.
"I know what it's like to travel a long way on your own," The Doctor says, reaching for the tool in her left hand. Rose sighs and looks at him. She understands what he's saying, but there's one thing she can't seem to overlook.
"The Isolus has caused a lot of pain for these people," she says, watching his face. The Doctor shrugs his shoulders.
"It's a child, Rose," he says, still staring at the bundle of metal and wires in his hands, "That's why it went to Chloe. Two lonely mixed up kids."
"Feels to me like a temper tantrum because it can't get its own way," she responds, still watching him. He frowns.
"It's scared. Come on, you were a kid once."
"Yes, and I know what kids can be like. Right little terrors." The Doctor looks up at her then, a sly grin in his face.
"Were you a right terror Rose Tyler?" He asks and she swallows, squaring her shoulders.
"Kids can't have it all their own way, Doctor," she says, ignoring his questions, "That's part of being a family."
"You've got to try and understand them," He says, finishing his project and looking up at her.
"Easy for you to say. You don't have kids."
"I was a father once," he says and she stares at him in disbelief. It made sense, didn't it? It wasn't as if he had gone 900 years without having some sort of family. After all, she had very nearly had a family once. She wants to know more, but she bites her tongue and tries to focus on the task at hand. He watches her for a few moments, as if willing her to pry for more information, but when she doesn't they both move on.
"I think we're there. Fear, loneliness. They're the big ones, Rose. Some of the most terrible acts ever committed have been inspired by them. Think about it. We're not dealing with something that wants to conquer or destroy. There's a lot of things you need to get across this universe. Warp drive, wormhole refractors. You know the thing you need most of all?" He asks, meeting her eyes, "You need a hand to hold."
Rose smiles at him sadly, catching a reading on the scanner out of the corner of her eye. She holds out her hand, pointing. The Doctor grins at her, reaching his own hand out to grasp hers. Rose laughs and The Doctor looks at her, confused.
"No look, I'm pointing."
"Ah…" The Doctor says, glancing at where she's pointing, "Ah! It's the pod. It's in the street. Everything's coming up Doctor."
Now Rose is the one who is alone. Her stomach twists in fear as she pounds on the door to Trish and Chloe's house.
"Rose," Trish says in surprise as Rose rushes in and up the stairs, "I've taken all the pencils off her!" Trish calls after her, following her up the stairs to Chloe's room.
Rose's heart is pounding, the feeling of dread in her stomach has increased ten fold as she snatches the drawing of the TARDIS and The Doctor out of The Isolus' hands. She very nearly screams in frustration.
"Leave me alone!" The Isolus shrieks, "I want to be with Chloe Webber. I love Chloe Webber."
"Bring him back, now," Rose says, her voice sounding strange in her ears. The Isolus falters for a second, watching Rose with wide eyes.
"No," the child responds, petulant. Rose bites her tongue and clenches her fists.
"Don't you realize what you've done?" She asks, her voice sounding layered and far away, she doesn't think she has ever been this angry before, "He was the only one who could help you! Now bring him back," she feels disconnected from her body as the child shouts back at her. She looks down at the drawing, fear and dread and power overtaking her.
"I know you can hear me," she says to the paper, "and I will bring you back, my doctor."
The air is cold and biting despite being mid-summer while she waits for The Doctor to reappear from his paper prison. The feeling in the pit of her stomach keeps getting worse and she can still smell a storm coming even though the sky is so clear she can see every star.
She watches the sky for a moment, The Doctor forgotten, looking for any sign of something coming on the horizon. The longer she watches it's like she can almost see it. She can almost see what's coming for her, for them. But maybe she's looking too much into what that demon said on Krop Tor. The lack of sleep probably doesn't help.
"Rose!" She hears The Doctor exclaim from behind her and she looks away from the sky, vision blurring as she breaks into a huge smile and runs towards him. Once she's in his arms she holds onto him tight, breathing him in, feeling the fabric of his pinstripe suit beneath her fingertips.
"They keep trying to keep us apart but they never ever will," she says despite the feeling in her stomach. The Doctor pulls back and looks at her, a brief, unreadable emotion flashing over his face before he hides it with a smile.
"Never say never," he whispers so quietly she shouldn't have heard. She takes in a sharp breath and releases him, trying to keep her smile in place despite the still-growing feeling of dread.
"There's a storm coming," she says in response, not meeting his eyes and he watches her, but says nothing. She can't even look at him, soft smile still on her lips as they both turn up to look at the stars. He reaches for her hand, grasping it tightly. It feels like good-bye.