About this story: This takes place immediately after Journey's End. Rose Tyler, Jackie Tyler, and Tentoo (Ten Duplicate, Ten 2.0, etc.), are standing on the beach in Darlig Ulv Stranden, Norway. I welcome reviews and suggestions! This is just a story to fill the whole this sailing ship left in my fangirl heart. Hopefully you enjoy. I'll be adding new chapters sporadically, but often!
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. They belong to BBC and Doctor who.
I watch the blue box fade away, and my heart sinks to the pit of my stomach. He didn't even say goodbye, I think to myself, my eyes stinging, He couldn't even say that much.
The Doctor, the other Doctor, takes my hand. I turn to him, and his eyes are full of sincerity, and insecurity. He wants to be strong, for me, but he's just as lost as I am. I tighten my grip on his hand.
"Well, then," He glances at Jackie and back to me, "Allons-y?"
A laugh escapes me, and I can't help but give him a smile. I nod, not trusting my voice, and we walk the stretch of beach hand in hand. We reach Mum, who has pulled out her cell phone to call Pete.
"This is just perfect," Jackie begins, "Stuck in the middle of bloody Norway! That Doctor couldn't have put us just a few miles closer to home?"
"This happens to be where the whole through the universes ended up being, Jackie. There isn't any other place the TARDIS would've been able to land on this plane," The Doctor answered. "At least we're all together, eh? And all the trouble's behind us, we can just move forward."
"Forward to a warm hotel room," Jackie says, "After I'm done with Pete I'll call—Oh, hello sweetie! How's mommy's big boy? Is daddy there?" She plugs her free ear, the telephone having her full attention. Mum starts walking as she talks, and the Doctor and I follow.
"She must have caught Tony," I explain to the man beside me, although he hasn't asked. I feel weird not saying anything, but I like the feel of his hand in mine. His brown eyes find mine and they're full of questions that I don't want to answer yet. "Tony's four now. Very sweet, and full of the Tyler spunk. You know how little boys are," I stop talking as we begin climbing the bluff. Mum is ahead, still chattering away. Hopefully Pete will secure us some transport home.
The Doctor releases my hand as we reach the top and shoves his hands in his pockets. He says nothing, and I emulate his response. We all stand in a clearing at the top of the bluff, and I can see the road, with cars driving lazily past, just a few hundred meters ahead.
Mum steps closer to us and covers the phone for a moment, "We're going to be picked up right up here. Your father's got it all taken care of; two rooms at the hotel for tonight and a private zeppelin to fly us back early in the morning. Oh, sorry dear, what was that?" Her phone conversation grips her again, and she continues talking to Pete as she leads the way up to the road.
We follow her, the Doctor and I. We are silent, and separate, but as we walk our shoulders occasionally brush, and each time they do my heart skips a beat.
I'm trying very hard not to think too much about what has just happened to all of us. I'll have plenty of time to work it out when we get back, I'm sure. Plenty of time to scream, and cry, and curse the world. But I can't break down just yet. I still have a reason to be strong. I glance at the Doctor to read his expression. He is stoic and silent, ever the oncoming storm. We reach the road (Mum still chattering on the phone, now with Tony I suspect), and continue to stand in silence.
Until it is too much and I have to ask; "What're you thinking about?"
"I'm homeless."
I am taken aback at his train of thought. He doesn't look at me, but he elaborates; "For nine hundred years the TARDIS has been my…everything. Now I'll have to live like a regular human, I suppose, without any psychic paper or anything. I don't even have my screwdriver!" His eyes find mine, and he has a sad smile on his face, "What kind of a Doctor am I?"
Maybe I should say something, but my mind is a blank, but he's looking at me, so I make something up; "Maybe we'll be able to make you a new sonic? There's bound to be enough alien junk within Torchwood that we'll be able to scrap something together," His eyes wander to the road in thought, but I take his hand because something else has come to me, "That TARDIS choral will grow in no time, you'll see. This place, this world, it could be a kind of home."
A spark flares in his eyes, but before he can speak Mum interjects—"There's the car!"—and the Doctor shakes it off. The driver pulls up beside us, and Mum slides in first. I slide into the middle, and the Doctor sits beside me and shuts the door. Our driver heads to our hotel, and I sit with my arm linked with my Mum's. The Doctor's hand sits on the seat between us, but I don't reach for it. We ride in silence.
Mum plops down on her side of the bed closest to the window. "I'm just gonna sit down for a mo' sweetie, then we'll all go down for dinner," she claimed, but five minutes later not even a freight train could've woken her up.
I take a copy of our room key and head out into the hotel hall to fetch the Doctor. His room is just beside ours, and I give a few knocks to announce myself. He yells something intelligible before opening the door. His hair stands on end, and the blue suit looks a bit rumbled, but his smile is wide as he looks down at me, "Hello, there."
I grin back at him, "Hello yourself."
He glances down the hall and back to me, "Jackie isn't hungry?"
"She probably is, but she fell asleep," I say. We laugh and the Doctor rolls his eyes. "What is it?"
"Nothing, just," He steps out of his room and shuts the door, "Your Mum. Good old Jackie Tyler. Always reliable to be totally and completely unpredictable. And yet she still manages to do the thing you thought she would do all along; it's a gift really."
"Alright, enough of that," I start off walking and he follows. He reaches for my hand, but this time I don't let him take it, and cross my arms instead. We take the stairs down to the lobby, and from there enter the dining room. It is modest in size, and nowhere near maximum capacity. We are seated and left to contemplate our orders.
The Doctor reads the menu through, forwards and back, but I can't shake the sudden ill feeling I have in my stomach. Maybe it's all too much, but I can't even fathom eating a single thing. I stare around the room, and through the windows towards the dark evening sky instead of choosing an entrée.
"They serve chips."
"Wotcha?" I turn back to my guest. The Doctor. He's looking up from the menu with interest in his eyes, and maybe a tad bit of mischief in his gaze. "What was that?" I question.
"Chips." He sets the menu aside and folds his hands in front of him, "You remember the, uh, first time we had chips together?"
A tiny grin finds my lips. "Of course," I sigh, my eyes wandering from his, to the table, to the floor, back to his eyes, then they land on my hands. I feel wrong, and awkward. Things have never ever been like that with the Doctor, and yet here it was, happening. I remember quite vividly the first time we ate chips. He had a different face then, but the same knowing look in his eyes. His smile was just as bright, and his laugh just as contagious. Our first date, I remember calling it once. The very first.
He's waiting for me to say something, but I don't want to say anything. So I stay silent as the waiter comes back around for our orders.
"Just a glass of water for me, thanks," The Doctor hands over his menu and sits back, staring down at his lap.
"And for you, Miss?" The young boy asks gently.
I stare over at him for a moment; at the Doctor. I can see some of what I'm feeling echoed on his face. The same confused and lost and scared expression is present, and so I make a decision right then and there; "We're gonna have your finest serving of chips, if you would be so kind," I hand the waiter my menu and turn back to the Doctor with a small smile, "In memory of our first date."
"Very good. And would you like anything to drink?"
"Water for me, thanks," I say absently, but I'm not paying attention to the bloody waiter anymore. I'm in awe at the look of pure wonder on the Doctor's face. I can only imagine my face reflects the same look back at him.
He reaches across the table for my hand, and I grasp his extremely too tight. He doesn't seem to mind a bit.
"This next adventure is going to get a little domestic, isn't it?" He jokes, squeezing my hand. I nod and roll my eyes as he continues to say, "I don't mind being stuck here, you know. With you, it's not so bad."
I nod slowly and my smile grows to cover my face, "There's a lot we have to figure out, but I think you and me will do just fine. You reckon?"
"Oh, yes," His voice is rough but his smile is broad and inviting. I can't help but think that maybe, just maybe, the other Doctor, the fully Time Lord one, was doing us a favor. For both me and this human Doctor. I think that we might just be exactly what the other needed.
*This is the end of chapter one. I'll probably come back and edit this later, but until then this is it. I'll be updating this story with more chapters later on. Feel free to review!
** EDIT: Made Jackie talk about a private zeppelin instead of a private jet, because in Pete's world zeppelin's took off and are more common than airplanes! Next update will be a new chapter :D