Dance With Me
"Everybody lives, Rose. Just this once, everybody lives!" Headcannon continuation of "The Doctor Dances" ending. Jack takes a hint, Rose has a moment, Nine goes along with it, and the meddling TARDIS gets what she wants. I don't own anything or anyone mentioned in this piece of writing.
"Everybody lives, Rose. Just this once, everybody lives!"
Rose stared on in disbelief as the Doctor, arms spread wide, surrounded in the golden, swirling cloud of a million-trillion microscopic nano genes, beamed maniacally at her, face filled with pride, relief, and sheer joy. Never before had she noticed the tiny, laughing crinkles at the corners of his eyes, or the way that his smile seemed to light up his entire face, from his slightly-crooked ears to his slightly-crooked teeth. In that shining moment of exaltation, she saw something indescribably human about him; she felt something that transcended the gruff, leather-clad, war-torn alien who had stolen her away from a life of work, sleep, chips, and telly. She saw boundless kindness and bravery. As suddenly as the moment had come, it passed, and the Doctor was at Constantine's side, helping him to his feet, explaining the nano genes in human-friendly terms, and patting him on the back before bounding back to the Chula ambulance. The next few minutes passed in a blur of that beaming smile, sprinting away hand-in-hand, and witty comebacks that Rose was sure the Doctor would tease her about later. Until she brought up Jack.
"What about Jack? Why'd he say goodbye?" She asked, watching the Doctor's face fall, manic grin replaced by an expression of… annoyance? Disappointment? Still, after a few seconds quick fingers flashed over knobs and levers, and the TARDIS lurched gently as she docked with the Chula warship. The manic grin was back on the Doctor's face as he opened the whitewashed TARDIS doors, and Rose could swear she heard him chuckle over the lulling strains of "Midnight Serenade" as they heard Jack toast his ship farewell and begin telling a story about executioners to nobody in particular. Or perhaps she had felt the Doctor chuckle, seeing how she was now so close to him, half leading and half following him as they trundled awkwardly around the console. The soon-to-be-former Captain downed his drink with a smile and strode through the wooden doors, leaving his old ship to burn. The next few minutes blurred together as the TARDIS dimmed her lights, Jack looked on with a mixture of jealousy and appreciation, and the worn leather of the Doctor's coat swished around Rose as they boogied around the control room, suddenly animated and completely in sync. It was only when her hair brushed the grating of the floor as the Doctor dipped her ever-so-far backwards that Rose Tyler remembered how inhumanly strong he was.
"Well, I'll just be going… where, exactly?" Jack said, having met the Doctor's meaningful look when he had held Rose mere inches off the floor by her waist with one hand, as if she were light as a feather. Surely there were other quarters in the ship…
"Through there," the Doctor said, waving a hand towards a corridor, "You'll find a bedroom eventually. TARDIS'll take care of you. Off you go." and as the Doctor turned back to Rose, Jack began his journey down the time ship's corridors. He didn't expect every door he opened to lead to the Security room, but eventually he got the hint. From the comfort of a cushy leather recliner, he was able to watch every other room in the TARDIS on the many screens haphazardly crowded above the control panel. The Captain supposed he might as well enjoy the view - the Doctor and Rose seemed to have gone back to swaying slowly in the console room - while he sifted through terabyte after terabyte of the galaxy's most romantic music. The TARDIS hummed appreciatively as Jack selected an Old Earth recording, hit Play, and reclined before the monitor banks. In the TARDIS console room, the opening guitar riffs of a new song swelled into life. The Doctor drew Rose closer to him, hand settling on her back just below her shoulder blades, and they both grinned at each other like complete idiots while the music reverberated through the console room.
Dance with me
I want to be your partner
Can't you see, the music is just starting
Night is calling, and I am falling
Dance with me
The background humming of the TARDIS faded away as the Time Ship sang to her Thief and his Companion, filling in lost nuances in the old Earth recording to boost the quality. They were, are, and will always be brilliant to her. She reached out just the tiniest bit to taste the golden spark of each synapse that fired in their fragile mortal brains while they danced within her, hand-in-hand. Incrementally, she dialed down her gravity a bit. The little blonde human seemed to light right up when her Thief put on a show; he was strong, but even his body had limits.
Fantasy could never be so thrilling
I feel free I hope that you are willing
Pick the beat up and kick your feet up
Dance with me
Cool, calloused fingers slid back and forth over shorter, warmer ones as the Time Lord and the human girl danced to the soaring melody in the console room. To Rose, it seemed as though the Doctor must surely have danced to this song a thousand times, with a thousand different partners - the practiced grace of his movements as he led her through the steps could not possibly just be natural talent. She grew dizzy as they spun round and round, now back-to-back, then back-to-front, and again facing each other. The TARDIS hummed happily to herself as the human's brain lit up like a distant supernova at the sensation of her Thief's hand inching a bit lower down her back every time they swirled around each other.
Let it lift you off the ground
Starry eyes and love is all around us
Rose let out an involuntary gasp as the Doctor twirled her yet again, and this time swept her effortlessly up off her feet. It was only as her tennis shoes touched back to the metal grating that she realized his eyes had been closed for the past few seconds, a look of pure concentration on his face as he mouthed the words of the song. His eyes opened, and seemed to blaze with the same joy she had seen earlier as he remembered the next line, mouth splitting into a wide grin.
"I can take you where you want to go" The crinkles at the edges of his eyes softened as he whispered the words of the song to Rose, one hand finding her waist, the other now cupped gently around her face as the coolness of his palm made her shiver just a bit. In that moment, her heart soared along with the notes of the song, a golden glow licking at the edges of her mind. And then they were back in motion, whirling back and forth again, just that little bit closer together. That tiny, infinitesimal spark was all it took, all it takes, all it would ever take to bind them.
Dance with me
I want to be your partner
Can't you see the music is just starting
Night is calling and I am falling
Dance with me
Former Captain Jack Harkness sat in the Security room, eyes glued to the grainy screen before him as a twenty-first century girl in a Union Jack t-shirt and an ageless alien in a leather jacket fell in love to the strains of Orleans. As the bass riff climbed higher and higher throughout the musical bridge, a gentle nudge in his mind told him to flip a little blue lever on the panel in front of him. He did so just as the Doctor dipped Rose again, this time facing her towards the TARDIS doors, which flew open to reveal the majesty of deep space. Rose let her head fall back so her hair brushed the floor grate again, and marveled at the sight of a billion stars shining like diamonds scattered over black velvet. The Doctor still had her held securely by the waist, and brought his own gaze down to see the cosmos reflected in Rose's eyes before bringing her back up and lifting her clean off her feet.
Let it lift you off the ground
Starry eyes and love is all around us
I can take you where you want to go
Oh oh
This must be what it's like to feel the turn of the Earth beneath your feet, Rose thought as the Doctor whirled her effortlessly through the air around him. As though he had heard her speak aloud, a deep laugh rose from within his chest, and he put her down for a second before he bent to whisper the same words as before into her ear. This time, Rose understood what he meant, and where she wanted to go: anywhere, so long as she was with the Doctor.
Dance with me
I want to be your partner
Can't you see the music is just starting
Night is calling and I am falling
Dance with me
The music kicked up again, and they resumed their dance, showing off their moves to the entire universe through the open door of the TARDIS as the song drew to a close. This time, when the cool roughness of his thumb brushed her cheek, she reached out to the golden glow on the edges of her vision and welcomed the Doctor into her mind as she snuck her own hand around the back of his head, feeling the velvety softness of his cropped hair. They stood, foreheads pressed together. She heard herself breathing hard, and him seemingly not at all as their eyes locked for long seconds while the final notes of the song faded into silence. The TARDIS hummed appreciatively as hundreds of tangled strands of future-time withered and went dark around her Thief and his Companion, burned away by the golden blossoming of dozens more. The universe did not implode.
When Jack played back the recording weeks later, it would show that it was Rose who looked down first, and who closed her eyes first as her lips brushed, then pressed gently onto the Doctor's. In that moment, neither of them could tell, and neither of them cared. It just seemed right, and the universe flowed around them in a blinding cascade of past, present, and possibility as the last Time Lord's heartbeats answered the thundering question of Rose's single, human heart. Seconds, weeks, centuries seemed to pass before their lips finally parted.
"Rose Tyler…" This time it was the Doctor's brilliant blue eyes that reflected the glittering blackness of space. They crinkled at the corners and he held her out, hands on her shoulders, searching her face for what he had seen in her mind, and finding everything he had hoped in her warm, whiskey-colored gaze.
"Yeah, I know." Rose replied as she answered the Doctor's smile with her own. The moment passed when they both felt a smugly pleased humming around them, and the Doctor looked up at the struts framing the console room roof for a second before letting out a loud bark of laughter.
"Hah, meddling machine! Are you happy?" the Doctor said, before turning back to Rose and pulling her into a quick hug. The TARDIS hummed in satisfaction as her Thief and his human looked at each other yet again, and the Doctor pulled the lever that sent her hurtling into the void.