Looking Over The Shoulder
by *JackHarnknessWouldLookGoodInFez
This was written for a big tumblr challenge. I am taking part in it with a bunch of other friends. I get sent a screenshot and a title, and I have to come up with a oneshot. We are all in the first phase of the story which is for NineRose. I hope you all like this, but understand that I don't think this is my best work cause I had some trouble coming up with something good. This is my first story for the challenge. It is also very short. (Sorry.) I am rating it K+ for some implications of sexual attraction.
Summary: There seems to be something lingering in the Tardis ...
Character Tags: [Nine, Rose]
Setting: Sometime between The Long Game and Father's Day
Rating: ~ K+ ~
There seems to be something lingering in the Tardis. Rose can't tell what exactly, but it's there and she can feel it. She can sense it. It's a prickle at the back of her neck, the funniest sensation of something there. She doesn't ask the Doctor about it, because knowing him, he'll probably just make some sarcastic comment and tease her about it later. Or, more likely, she thinks, he'll know that there is something in the Tardis and he'll tell her what it is - and it will be something either terrifying or confusing or both.
Anyways, Rose reasons, she's probably just being silly. Traveling with the Doctor, Rose thinks to herself, just gives you that sort of feeling, like there's something there. You always need to be on the edge of your toes. But Rose also thinks that there is something going on, more to it than meets the eye.
Rose knows, too, what it can feel like to feel like there are ghosts in your presence. She has lost someone too, that being her father, Pete Tyler. Even since she was little, Rose liked to think about being watched over by her father, not so much from heaven as opposed to a ghost. She's liked to think her father is a ghost, and that he's been watching her. She's almost felt like it. A few years ago she told herself that there were of course no ghosts. Now, she isn't so sure, and she's like a little girl again in a way.
Rose has been thinking about her father a lot more than usual these days. She realized she has been ever since Gwyneth told her so in Cardiff - and Rose realizes that the woman was right. She has been. It's because of the Tardis, and that she can always go back to see him if she wants to. She hasn't asked the Doctor. She's sure he won't let her. He's talked to her about the importance of fixed point in time, and whatnot. He's lectured her about history and not tainting it, yada yada yada. First time it came up, was a few weeks ago, after they left Adam. They'd stumbled into the French Revolution and Rose had asked if she couldn't save a certain wounded general they'd seen lying dead on the ground with his guts spilling out of a nasty bullet wound. The Doctor had explained to Rose she really couldn't ... how he'd known who that general was and that he had to die. Rose had almost cried then, being able to see a man suffering so much and yet not able to help him.
Right now, she has woken in the middle of the night from a strange dream with wolves in it. Wolves have been something Rose has always seen in her dreams actually - far back as she can remember. She knows she can't fall back asleep right now, so she gets up to fix herself some tea, and in the halls of the Tardis, quiet at night, she can definitely feel like something's there. There is a feeling at the back of her neck. Something is here.
She turns around and calls out softly, "Hello? Are you there? Hello?"
She doesn't get an answer - or at least, not from any ghosts. Instead she hears the creak of a door opening and she spins around quickly. It's not a ghost. It's the Doctor, his face shadowed in a lack of sleep and his eyes bloodshot. He is also shirtless, and it sets her heart beating with a feeling she can't explain. "Rose," he utters. "What're you doing up?"
Rose lifts her shoulders in a shrug. "Jus' ... got up to make some tea. Couldn't sleep."
The Doctor says in reply, "Mmm." He shuffles, and Rose watches him. Then she blurts out what she's been thinking with intensity:
"Are their ghosts on the Tardis, Doctor?"
She has never seen him looking so bewildered but then, she can't blame him either. It seems to be such a stupid, silly question, after all. She waits for him to say something sassy and scornful in return, and then they can laugh it off together and he can make fun of her later. So imagine Rose's surprise when he answers her: "I think so, yes. Maybe."
Her mouth opens and closes. "Seriously?"
The Doctor nods. "I've been feelin' that way too. Ever since, ah ... " he trails off awkwardly. "Like there's something here, y'know? You feel and see it, too?"
She nods, her hazel eyes are wide now. "Not see it, but feel it, yeah. Sorta like a prickle ... or jus' ... y'know, the feelin' that there's something there. An' an urge to ... "
"To look over your shoulder?"
She nods again. "It's jus' a feelin', but ... " She shakes her head in confusion and looks down, playing with the hem of her sleep-shirt. She still feel somewhat silly, and the sight of him shirtless still makes her feel strange inside. It makes her uncomfortable. "I don't get it. What is it? If there's anythin', I mean?"
The Doctor pauses, and then answers her. "Sometimes ... there's just a sort of presence. Of people, loved ones, we've lost. Sometimes they stay with us, somehow. Not ghosts. But ... " he trails off and he swallows hard, and suddenly she is reminded of the war that took his people, and she thinks she understands why his eyes are so bloodshot. "Echoes," the Doctor finishes. "Of those people. And I think the Tardis is full of them."
"Like my dad," Rose says quietly. "And I reckon that you've got some people close to you, too. As these ... echoes."
The Doctor gives a curt nod, "Yep." He deadpans it.
Rose hesitates, then she comes up to him. She's got an urge to kiss him, suddenly, for some reason, but she doesn't. Instead she rests her head against his shoulder and leans against him while the Doctor puts his arms around her and they stay that way for a long time.
End