Hello!

Yet another dark one. Kind of.

This fic was inspired by an episode that was scrapped. The idea of it was that 9 was manipulating Rose's timeline and trying to turn her into the perfect companion. We kind of made our own take on this one.

Enjoy the angst!

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Betrayal

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Rose giggled as she bumped into the Doctor. The force was enough to send him stumbling out to the side. When he veered back, instead of bumping into her too, he threw out an arm and pulled her in closer. He grinned and leaned his head into hers.

It had been a brilliant few days. They had stayed in London to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. It was quite brilliant, and she had loved the parts with Voldemort, Mary Poppins, and the Queen Bond girl. And the Mr Bean part was the icing on the cake. Not to mention that the lights were amazing.

After that, they had jumped back and fourth in time to watch certain events. And then they went to a planet called Appaleeza to see their version of the games... Which was a lot more fun, since the games were quite ridiculous.

Now they were back in London, some time a few years in her past. The London Eye was glittering up on the other side of the Thames. And the TARDIS was parked right where it had been that first time almost two years ago... or... was it longer. It was hard to tell.

"Well, it's certainly been an exciting few days," the Doctor said, taking another lick of his ice cream. "In a quiet sort of way."

"I loved it!" Rose laughed.

"You love everything," he grinned. He stepped in front of her, stopping their path. She looked up at him with a smile.

"Course I do. Travelling with you is brilliant. Always learning something new, seeing something amazing."

"Eye's of wonder, you have, Rose Tyler."

"Well, I get them from you."

"Nah! You've had them your whole life. I just... helped out a little."

Her eyes softened. "You helped a lot more than you'll ever know."

"Well..."

"Travelling with you is the best thing that ever happened to me."

"Me too... but, you know... with you. Never been so glad about asking twice."

"Why did you come back and ask again, anyway?" she said curiously. By now they were so close that their bodies were practically pressed against each other.

"Because you're special," she said, his voice low. "I saw it right from the start. And I couldn't let someone absolutely as incredible as you not have something amazing happen. Couldn't let you stay here where you'd just carry on the same way day after day."

"Is that right?" she said with a smile. Their lips were so close that if she just leant forward that tiny bit...

"Yes," he replied softly. She felt his nose brush against hers. Her breathing became heavy as she waited in anticipation. Each millisecond seemed to last for an age.

Suddenly something slammed into her shoulder, shoving her roughly into the Doctor. Noses bumped, teeth clashed, and ice cream was mushed down their fronts.

"Hey!" she cried indignantly at the figure running away from them. She stopped short when she realised she knew this man.

She knew him from the way he ran, down to the short cropped hair, and leather jacket flying out behind him. It was the Doctor. The Doctor in his previous body.

If he was running somewhere, something must be happening. She looked ahead of him to see a little girl leaning over the rails of the river, trying to reach a bag that was hooked just below. Anyone could see that if she reached any further, she would fall.

But the biggest shock was that she recognised the little girl. It was her! The little girl was her when she was seven years old.

Her eyes widened and she looked at her Doctor, completely perplexed. He didn't seem to be overly shocked, but his face certainly said that something was wrong.

A shriek from her younger self drew her attention back over. She let out a breath of relief when she saw that the other Doctor had grabbed her ankles, just as she had fallen. She now had the bag clutched in her hands, and the Doctor was was hoisting her up over the rails. She saw him lifting her up till their faces were level, say something to her, then flip her back up the right way and put her on the ground. He then knelt down and spoke to her.

But... she... she didn't remember this... Oh, she remembered what was happening. This was the time when Jackie wouldn't let her go on a school trip because they couldn't afford it and thinking she was being punished for something, she had run away. But having nowhere to go she had gone back home by midnight. But she didn't remember him. She didn't remember almost falling into the Thames... and that seemed like something that would be a little hard to forget.

"That's me," she said to her Doctor.

"Ugh! Look at us," he said, looking down at the ice cream smeared down their fronts. She knew him well enough to know that he was pretending he hadn't heard her. "Come on, let's go get cleaned up." He turned on his heel and strode off back towards the TARDIS.

"Doctor!" She ran after him. "That was you. That was the last you!"

"Yeah, happens occasionally. Best not to let him see us. Timelines and all. We're crossing time-streams. Don't want to cause a paradox."

"But that was me! That was me that he saved!"

"Well then, we really should get out of here. Can't have two of both of us in one place." He unlocked the TARDIS and went in ahead of her.

"But I can't remember it! I can't remember any of that just happening, and I can't remember seeing you."

"Aww, this better come off," he complained, looking down at the ice cream. He wasn't even trying to think up good avoidance tactics.

"Doctor!"

"We better go get changed. Can't walk around with ice cream on our clothes." He continued walking through the console room and was heading out down the halls.

"No! God damn it, Doctor! Tell me what the hell just happened. You know something and you are going to-"

"Don't!" he said rounding on her.

"You are keeping something from me. And I am not going to stand around and let you do that again. Why can't you just tell me what happened? What are you so afraid of me-"

"Because I did a bad thing!" he cut her off. The both stopped silent, and he sighed, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "I did a bad thing for a very long time. But this is not how we're talking about it." He gestured to their soiled clothes.

"But-"

"Go get changed, have a shower, calm down, then we can meet in the den and I will tell you everything. I promise." He had a very resigned look on his face that made her stomach sink. How bad was it?

"Okay..." she said hesitantly. Anger was still burning through her, but his expression was really making her worry. "But if you hold anything back I am going to find out."

"Wasn't planning on it," he said almost mournfully as she walked past him on the way to her room. She didn't spare him a glance back, but she heard the soft thump and knew that he had slumped against the wall. Why did he suddenly seem so broken? Was what he'd done really so bad? And what was he doing in her past? ...Why did she have no memory of it?

.oO DW Oo.

After her shower, Rose felt much better. She was refreshed, and the hot water had calmed her down and relaxed her... Sort of. The anger and annoyance was gone, but it just left a slowly building anxiousness inside her.

She found herself biting her lip as she walked to the den. She almost found herself dreading what she would find here. The den had always been a safe haven for her. A place where she and the Doctor would sit by the fire. It didn't matter what they did, it was a place where they could relax and be happy.

And she knew the sorts of things that the Doctor could do. His 'talents'. And this reasoning of how they had met before without her knowing had the potential to be terrifying. She didn't want what he had to say ruining her safe place... or their relationship... or the way she saw him and the regard she held him in. She didn't want to even entertain the notion that the man she trusted most in the entire multi-verse had betrayed her in some way.

When she entered the room that usually gave her such peace, she found that the Doctor was already there. He was sitting on the couch with his elbows resting on his knees, and his hands griping his hair so tight she could see the knuckles turn white. He looked stressed and quite honestly terrified. That did not put her mind at ease any.

When the sound of the door registered in his mind – albeit a little slow – the Doctor quickly stood up and turned to her. She saw the fear in his eyes, even though he immediately tied to cover it up with a forced grin.

She leaned against the door, her arms wrapped around herself as if she were cold. "Because this isn't worrying at all," she muttered.

He sighed and seemed to visibly relax. She could tell that he was still panicking on the inside, but sensing her distress, he was attempting to calm her slightly.

"Well, I'm not going to lie, it's not the best news you'll ever get. But I promise you, I'm not going to hold anything back. Not anything." He sat back down on the couch, looking up at her with honest eyes. She followed him and sat at the other end of the couch, on a bit of an angle so she was facing him. "Look, Rose... a while back I did something... something I really shouldn't. And the worst thing is that I did it more than once. I, ah, I actually did it quite often. At first it was rather innocent, but slowly what I did had ulterior motives. I've always felt guilty about it... but it was one of those things that could never be changed, and I kind of just hoped it would fade away into the past." He paused and rubbed at his face. The after a moment, he brought his head up and looked her in the eye. "You aren't going to like what you hear, But I need you to listen the whole way through, alright? I need to... well, explain. And I mean... properly."

"Okay," she said cautiously. "I'm listening. What did you do?" He took a deep breath. She could see that he wasn't quite ready for this, and neither was she.

"I have been back in your timeline quite often. I've changed it... manipulated it to make sure that you were here... on the TARDIS with me. And the worst part, the reason you don't remember any of this... I removed your memories."