Author: Gillian Taylor
Characters: Ninth Doctor, Rose Tyler, Jackie Tyler
Rated: PG
Disclaimer: Sadly, it doesn't matter how many times I ask for Doctor Who at Christmas, I never get it.
Summary: When all hope is lost, who else can they turn to?
A/N: As always, thanks must go to my fabulous betas NNWest, ChloeAz and Ponygirl. Additional thanks to NNWest for helping with the title :) This fic was written for WMR's unclaimed prompt in the Ninth Doctor ficathon. The prompt is listed at the end of this fic. I hope you like this!
by Gillian Taylor
The sky is falling.
Rose can see it through the gap of the TARDIS's doors, left ajar when they were forced inside. Fire and ash are turning the once-pristine world into a devil's playground, and there's nothing she can do to stop it. She clenches her hands and glares at the man who caused this, the man who would destroy Lixap because of his own greed.
"Get us out of here," the man commands, gesturing wildly with his weapon.
She wishes that she could risk attacking him, but she doubts she'd be able to do anything before he pressed the trigger and hit the centre console. Or, far worse, the Doctor.
"Where do you want her to go?" the Doctor asks, maddeningly calm. She long ago learned that this is the best way to deal with a man like Yulcir. Perplex them and then outwit them. It's apparently worked for the Doctor for at least nine centuries.
"Your home," Yulcir says with an oily smile. "If all your people's technologies are like this, I must have more." He caresses one of the struts with the hand that isn't holding the blaster and she suppresses a shudder at that violation.
If she hadn't been facing the Doctor, she never would've seen the almost-imperceptible flinch at the reminder. He's flipping switches and twisting knobs, something that seems to be taking him far longer than usual.
"Of all the daft-" Yulcir aims the blaster towards her. "Stop delaying, Doctor. Activate your ship or the girl dies."
She freezes and, for a timeless moment, she meets the Doctor's gaze. Is that apology in his eyes? No matter, she wouldn't've missed it for the world.
The Doctor grins as he flips a switch, sending the TARDIS roaring to life around them. "All right, then. Home it is."
She braces herself, expecting a bump or something to cause Yulcir to lose his balance. Instead, the unexpected happens. The TARDIS is becoming insubstantial.
The storm outside is suddenly around them and she coughs as the smoke tickles her lungs.
"What've you done?" Yulcir demands as the TARDIS disappears with one final pulse of sound. "What the frell have you done?"
The Doctor's grin widens. "Sent her home. Just like you asked. You should really learn to be more specific."
"Bring her back, Doctor! Now!"
She shifts her feet, trying to gauge her chances of reaching the Doctor before Yulcir completely loses control. There's a part of her that wants to join in Yulcir's demands. The consequences of being stuck on this dying planet aren't worth consideration.
"Can't do that," the Doctor replies. "She's a stubborn old thing, my TARDIS. Might take her weeks to work up the nerve to come back. Then again, maybe she won't be back. An' isn't that a tragedy?"
The first crack of thunder echoes ominously through the courtyard, but Jackie Tyler pays it no mind. It's just a storm, and by now she and storms are old friends. No, her attention is riveted on the blue box. She didn't hear the TARDIS arrive, but that didn't mean anything. It could've arrived while she was at the shops easily enough. Though the sound's loud enough to wake the dead, it certainly can't drown out the mayhem around the centre of London.
A smile stretches her lips as she hurries towards that box. Rose hadn't called her to tell her she'd be home, but that doesn't matter. The lazy sod she's travelling with probably hadn't told her. Just dropped Rose off and told her to go have tea or something while he did whatever it was he did inside the TARDIS.
Once, just once, she wants to have a proper sit-down with the bloke who swept her daughter off her feet. Well, that's easily sorted. Shifting her shopping onto one arm, she marches across to the TARDIS and knocks on the door. "I know you're in there, Doctor! You can't hide in there for ever, y'know! You're coming to tea an' that's final."
Nothing. Not even an indication that there's anyone inside. Maybe Rose and the Doctor went up to the flat? She glances upwards, wishing that she could see past the landing to tell whether the lights were on in her flat. "Rose? Sweetheart, are you in there?"
Minutes pass and nothing happens. The TARDIS seems almost lifeless. She shivers in the cool air and flinches as the first raindrops start to fall. "Oi! Anyone in there? I'm gettin' wet out here!"
Knowing the Doctor, the bloody bastard's probably laughing at her right now. Fine, then. She fishes in her purse for her mobile, pulls it out and dials Rose's number. She lets it ring and go to voicemail before she ends the call.
Frowning, she stares at the closed doors to the TARDIS. If Rose is home, she should be answering her mobile. Unless…
Visions of adventures gone horribly wrong dance through her head as she hits redial. Holding the mobile away from her ear, she listens intently. Is that-?
Yes. Ringing. From inside the TARDIS.
"That's it! I know you're in there! Rose! Doctor! Let me in!" She reaches for the handle and pushes it hard, knowing that it's probably nothing more than an exercise in futility.
Much to her surprise, the door opens without much effort to reveal the impossible. There's no way something that large can fit inside this tiny box. Rose has reassured her that there's plenty of room inside the TARDIS for the two of them, but she's had her doubts. She's seen the way that man looks at Rose. But this?
No, she definitely never expected this. How can he fit all this inside this tiny box? She steps inside, but keeps the door open behind her. It's a reassuring bit of familiarity while she's surrounded by something so alien.
She wraps her arms around herself, chilled despite the warmth of the interior. Besides the humming of machinery, she doesn't hear anything to indicate that someone's inside. There is another door across the room – maybe there's more to this place than this one room?
She shakes her head. Of course there's more to this place than just this room. Where's the kitchen? The bedrooms? The bathroom? The Doctor might not need to sleep, but Rose certainly does. Preferably alone. Without alien company.
"Rose? Doctor?" Her voice is a bit more tentative than she likes, so she tries again, putting some volume into it. "Rose! Doctor!"
Something on the console begins to flash and she jumps backwards as an image flickers to life before her. It's grainy and lined, like someone forgot to adjust the controls on an old telly. It's also unmistakeably the Doctor.
He turns his flickering gaze towards her. Eerie, that is. Definitely not right. If he's an image, really an image, how can he know where she's standing? "Jackie Tyler. Only you would blunder in here without a key. Good on you. Fantastic. Now shut up and listen."
Of all the nerve! "But-?" she starts to say, but is cut off immediately by the Doctor's next words.
"I said shut up an' listen. Not that hard, is it? Right. There's a problem an', Rassilon help me, we need your help to sort it…"
He's lost it. Gone completely around the bend, he has. That's the only explanation for it. At the time, it seemed like the logical choice. Send the TARDIS away to safety and put in a little extra insurance should a certain someone muster up the nerve to go inside. Good plan. Fantastic plan. Perfect, even.
In hindsight, it was a daft plan. One of his worst. He thought it'd work. Get Jackie inside, she listens to his instructions, she hits the fast-return switch, she does a bit of acting and they'd be rescued. No need to worry about Yulcir, after all. He'd be too busy fawning over Jackie to realise that he's been tricked. Then, thanks to that delay, he'd end up being too busy dealing with angry locals to bother with them.
Simplest of plans. Got the TARDIS away, safe and sound, and then Jackie would get them out of this particular mess.
Simple. Easy.
Except for the fact that he's entrusting their lives – his life – to the hands of one Jackie Tyler.
He draws in a deep breath and promptly starts coughing. The soot gets everywhere, even inside this dilapidated building, but this is the only shelter available to them. Anything else is too far to travel to in this muck.
Yulcir has played with forces beyond his control, and now he is reaping those rewards. The planet is dying, bit by bit, all because Yulcir wanted to try out his latest toy – confiscated from an alien whom he later killed because she wasn't worth his time – without heed of the consequences.
He brought Rose into this, all because Illnrashe – that same ill-fated alien – had sent out a distress signal. He tried to save a life and ended up endangering theirs instead.
He feels Rose's gaze resting upon him, but he doesn't turn towards her, not wanting to see her expression. This is dangerous and quite possibly something that she won't be able to forgive him for. He's putting her mum in danger. No matter that he puts himself in danger every time he takes Rose back to the Powell Estates. He can still feel that slap.
There's no guarantee that it'll even work. Stupid plan, really. Doesn't matter that Yulcir believes them to be nothing more than messengers or that no-one will miss them if they suddenly disappear. Or the whole bit where he wants their technology for himself because he thinks that they're weak in comparison.
Weak! He's a Time Lord. And that's a rather insulting insinuation.
"Bring back your ship, Doctor," Yulcir demands for the umpteenth time.
"Already told you. She's a stubborn old thing. Might decide to take things up with a higher authority. An' trust me, Yulcir, you wouldn't want that."
"Your ship is sentient?" Yulcir asks, his eyes wide with astonishment.
He grins smugly. "Isn't everyone's?" He's simplifying it, of course. The TARDIS is so much more than simply a sentient being in her own right. She's freedom. And she will never, ever belong to Yulcir. He won't allow it.
Yulcir crosses the distance between them in an instant and he can feel every imperfection in the metal of the weapon pressed against his forehead. "Don't try me, Doctor. You're lying."
"Am I?" He doesn't let his grin waver. It's one of the best known truths about dealing with people like Yulcir. Best way to annoy them is to act like you know something they don't. Given that it's him, he invariably does.
The weapon swings away from him and now it's aimed at Rose. "Bring back your ship, Doctor. This is your last chance."
Above the wind and the raining ash, he can hear the roar of the TARDIS's engines. His grin widens as the ship begins to materialise inside the building. All it took was a bit of jiggery-pokery with the fast return switch to arrange this particular display. Perfect timing.
It is a brilliant plan, isn't it? "No, Yulcir," he corrects. "It's yours."
Sometimes, she feels like she's missed the punch-line of a joke that only a Time Lord can understand. She knows that there wasn't enough time to conspire with the Doctor outside of Yulcir's watchful gaze. However, that doesn't help to reassure her with these latest events.
Out of her peripheral vision, Rose sees the Doctor continue to grin while Yulcir seems to have troubles deciding where to point his weapon. It's shifting now. Her. The Doctor. The TARDIS. Back, to and forth. Back, to and forth in a strange three-player tennis match.
She understands why the Doctor sent the TARDIS away. The damage would be unimaginable should Yulcir get his hands on a time machine. They can't let that happen. Why is the TARDIS back? What's the Doctor planning?
Again with the missing punch-line.
She's almost blinded as the TARDIS doors swing open, revealing the too-bright interior. After being stuck in the semi-darkness of this building, this is too much like looking into a well-lit room. She blinks rapidly, trying to clear her vision.
It looks like someone is being framed by the light, just over the threshold, but that's impossible. No-one should be in the TARDIS.
That's when she hears the voice, that all-too familiar voice, say in a haughty tone worthy of someone on Footballers' Wives, "Those belong to me."
She just gapes as her mum – her mum – walks out of the TARDIS wearing something that looks like it, too, goes well with her current impression of Eva De Wolffe. And are those diamonds in her hair?
"Ex-excuse me?" Yulric stutters.
"Those," Jackie – she can barely think of her as Mum like this – enunciates, pointing at herself and the Doctor, "belong to me. You do not have my permission to hold them captive when they're on my business."
"Who are you?" Yulric asks.
Jackie smiles. "If you have to ask that, young man, you do not deserve to know. Now release them and we will be on our way-"
Beside her, she sees the Doctor gesturing wildly behind Yulric's back.
"-But not before you shut off your latest toy. I have designs on this world, Yulric, and I do not appreciate anyone interfering with my plans. Is that clear?"
Yulric seems to straighten his posture, attempting to mimic her mum. "This is my world," he declares, though there seems to be a bit of uncertainty in his tone.
When her mum smiles, she doesn't even recognise her. "Not any more. You're only here because I let you, Yulric. And, right now, I do not want you here. You will leave after you shut off your device. I will know if you don't. Is that understood?"
"You don't have the authority."
Jackie reaches into her pocket, seemingly uncaring of the fact that Yulric is loosely pointing his weapon at her, and pulls out what looks like a toy laser gun. "This says I do."
Apparently toy laser guns are very scary. At least they are judging by Yulric's reaction. "As you wish," he grates out, lowering his weapon.
"Yes," Jackie agrees. "As I wish. Go on, then. You know the consequences if you fail me." She regally nods her head in the direction of the doorway.
Yulric practically runs for the door, not giving any of them a second glance.
She's about to ask how her mum got here, say that was fantastic, but Jackie beats her to it – with the sharp sound of the palm of her hand striking the Doctor's cheek.
The ruddy bastard.
He bloody well deserved that slap. She'll give him another one, too, if he gives her any cheek. He got her daughter into this mess and it was up to her to get them out of it again.
"Ouch! What was that for?" the Doctor asks, cradling his injured cheek with one of his hands.
"That is for gettin' my daughter into trouble, Doctor. An' this-" She makes to raise her hand again, but her wrist is caught by the Doctor's hand.
"Don't. Really don't," he says. His eyes go all dark and threatening, but she isn't moved by it. She saw how he cowered before her – as well he should. She has her suspicions about what he gets up to with Rose in that blue box of his.
"You asked me to help," she reminds him. "Said I was your last hope. Well? Where's my thanks, eh? I ought to slap you again for darin' to put my daughter in danger."
"You want her to come home?" His voice is low and dangerous. If it wasn't obvious he was hung up over Rose, she'd find that particularly thrilling.
"Are you daft?" she asks. "Of course I do! This isn't safe! You're out here, facin' villains with guns an' who knows what else an' she could die. Any second out here, she could die, and I'd never know."
"Mum!" Rose exclaims. "I could die in London, too. Nothing's safe. If I wanted safe, I'd lock myself in the flat an' never go out. I want to do this, yeah? Doing this is important!"
She doesn't address her daughter. No, she addresses the alien that got both of them into this mess. "I want a promise from you, Doctor. Just one promise, yeah?"
"I can't promise I can always keep her safe," he warns her.
She shakes her head, already knowing that's impossible. "Promise me that you won't hurt her."
The Doctor blinks at her. "I won't hurt her. I can't."
"There're plenty of ways of hurtin', Doctor. Jus' keep that in mind." She frees herself from his grasp and turns towards the TARDIS. "Now take me home."
With as much decorum as she can muster, she walks back inside, knowing that she's leaving both Rose and the Doctor gaping behind her.
In the end, they don't go straight back to London. Instead, he jumps them forward a few years, after the damages wrought by Yulcir's device have started to heal. Lixap is slowly regaining its earlier beauty. There are still visible scars on the surface, but he's been told that they are to remain as a reminder of what Yulcir and people like him have done to this world.
It'd be almost peaceful if it wasn't for the heavy presence of Jackie Tyler beside him. She's strangely quiet as they look out over one of the more obvious damages to the planet surface – the aptly named Scar Canyon.
"Why'd he do it, then?" Jackie asks.
"Yulcir?" He doesn't have to look at her to know that she's nodding. "Greed. He thought that if he gathered as much technology as he could and used it, it'd give him the power that he craved. The power that he thought you had. He wanted to change the world."
Rose stirs beside him, moving closer. Despite Jackie, he slips an arm around her shoulders and holds her close.
"He did," Rose says.
He can't disagree with that. Giving the Scar Canyon one last look, he gestures towards the TARDIS. "Let's get your mum home, then."
It's only later, after Jackie is dropped off in London and his ears are still ringing with her insistence that they come back the next day for a proper sit-down, that he finds Rose outside the TARDIS, staring at the sky. Sensing her contemplative mood, he contents himself to stand beside her, knowing that she'll speak when she's ready.
"Those Lixapans are like us humans, y'know? They jus' lived their lives completely uncarin' about what was happening around them. It was only when the sky started fallin' that anyone tried to do something to stop it. An' that scares me. I've seen so much out there an' it just comes back to this. In the end, even the aliens are only human."
He looks at her and gives her a look, even as his lips are curving upwards into a smile. "I'm makin' an effort not to be insulted."
"Even you, you git," she says, smacking his arm.
"Ow! That's startin' to be a habit with you lot, y'know. Slapping an' hitting. That's alien abuse, that is."
Her eyes are practically dancing with her mirth. "All right, then. There is one way that you're exactly like a human."
"Thanks, that helps," he grouses.
She bumps her shoulder against his. "When you got into trouble, you went straight to Mum. An' that's completely human."
WMR's prompt:
Ninth Doctor Pairing/Other characters you'd like to see on the story: Rose, Jackie
Up to three things you want in your fic: Jackie travelling in the TARDIS, a Nine and Jackie argument, Jackie taking on a villain
Up to three things you don't want in your fic: Nine/Jackie smut! ;) Character death or separation