Put It Right
By RoseFire
Quantum Leap/Doctor Who crossover.
Not too many of these and it's just so worth doing. Don't own either show. Leave me alone. This takes place obviously during Doomsday, but in the Quantum Leap universe, it's long before Mirror Image.
Not what I'd call my best work. I wrote it so fast, but it was bugging me to get this down. Let me hear from you. If I get a better vision in my head, maybe I'll fix the story. For right now, enjoy!
First time around…
"Rose, hold on!" the Doctor screamed out.
Rose held on for dear life, desperately trying to keep her fingers hooked over the lever. She kept looking across to the Doctor, who was reaching madly out toward her. She knew he couldn't do anything to help her.
"Hold on!"
Rose gasped with the effort. Her fingers were slipping away and she glanced back at the Doctor. His eyes went wide in horror as Rose lost her grip with a scream. It seemed to happen in slow motion. Rose falling away toward the open space on the wall, the Doctor reaching out futilely and screaming in anguish. Suddenly, she felt the arms of her father, Pete Tyler, catch her and hold her close. In that brief second, she looked back at the Doctor before she vanished away and the void closed in on itself, crumpling like used tissue paper...
The Doctor looked on in shock and fear. Finally, a sad feeling of relief seemed to settle on him. He approached the wall and leaned silently against it. He could almost sense Rose on the other side, hear her beating the wall and sobbing. He could somehow feel her hand against his from that other world. But he could never reach her again. It was painful, even more so for Rose, he knew. But he'd find a way to see her, if only for one last time.
3 months later…
"Am I ever gonna see you again?" Rose wept out. The Doctor stared sadly at her, trying to force a smile, but it came out crooked and tight.
"You can't." the Doctor said softly.
"Then what are you gonna do?" Rose cried.
"I've got the TARDIS." the Doctor said. "Same old life, last of the Time Lords."
"On your own?"
The Doctor nodded. Could he honestly take anyone else with him now?
Rose gulped. She had to say it. Did it matter if he felt the same way? He needed to know.
"I-" Rose said and swallowed another sob. "I love you."
The Doctor smiled. He knew. He'd always known.
"Quite right too." Rose nodded and smiled fondly at her Doctor.
"And I suppose, if it's my last chance to say it," the Doctor inwardly took a deep breath. "Rose Tyler."
And he faded from sight, leaving Rose weeping on the beach and stood in the TARDIS with tears coursing down his own face.
But he did not go unobserved.
Second time around…
"Rose, hold on!" the Doctor screamed out.
He watched in shock as Rose seemed to vanish away in a blue-white electric light and was replaced by a young man. The young man collapsed to the ground but still felt the pull of the void against the body he occupied. The Doctor could do nothing but watch as the young man tightened his grip on the lever.
Sam Beckett looked around in surprise. He felt a terrible wind pulling at him and clung to the lever tightly. Where was he? Where was Al?
"Sam, don't let go of that lever!" Al's voice suddenly barked out. "Hold on tight."
"Hold on!" another voice screamed out. Sam looked up and saw another man, seemingly both young and old at the same time. His wide brown eyes stared in shock and fear and confusion.
"There's not a whole lot of time, Sam!" Al said again. "You're name is Rose Tyler. This is London, sometime in the 21st century, Ziggy doesn't know for sure. You're at a place called Torchwood. We don't know all the facts, but a Rose Tyler was on the list of the dead after today. Best we can guess is that you're here to change that.
"What's pulling at me?" Sam shouted over the howling wind.
"It's the void!" the man shouted. "Don't let go!"
Sam did as he was told, arching himself back behind the lever. With a last roar, the wind died down and Sam watched as the wall seemed to crumple like used tissue. He sank to the floor and shook his head.
"Ziggy's pulling up more data, Sam." Al was saying. "The void is something between dimensions."
"Dimensions." Sam was instantly in quantum physics mode. "Parallel dimensions based on preconceived ideas that trigger alternate realities in space and time?"
"That about sums it up." The other man was walking toward him and extended a hand out to help him up. He was incredibly thin and freckled. He spoke with a London accent that tinged slightly with a Scottish brogue.
"No data at all on who this man is, Sam." Al said.
"I'm the Doctor."
Al and Sam both jumped. The Doctor seemed to be looking at both of them, although there was no possible way to see Al.
"Quantum time travel." the Doctor was saying. "Crude method, not too mention incredibly unstable, but you seem to be holding out just fine. Probably comes from occupying hosts each time you jump in."
Sam stared in dumb shock. "You can see me?"
"I can see you both." said the Doctor. He slipped on a pair of 3-D glasses and walked around Sam a moment or two.
"Subatomic patterns and quantum energy in the brain nerve endings, no wonder your body couldn't take it. Mind you, quantum leaping was outlawed on my planet for that very reason. Shortened the regeneration life cycle."
"I think this guy's a few cards short of a deck." Al said. The Doctor turned to fix his dark eyes on Al. Sam tried to keep his face straight.
"This from a man who isn't all there himself?" the Doctor said with a quirky smile. Al fixed his own dark eyes on him.
"He can see me!" Al said. "That proves it, he's gotta be mentally absent."
"Oh, not really." said the Doctor. "The impossibly clever and brilliant can too. At least, those minds familiar with neurological holograms can."
Al was speechless. Sam found himself liking the man.
"You're not human, are you." Sam said. The Doctor nodded cheekily.
"But you are. And completely mad to think you can get away with frying your brain continually by jumping around in other people's brains."
The Doctor couldn't stop smiling as he pulled Sam into a fierce hug. "But you humans are amazing. "Go where no man has gone before" and all that."
Sam wasn't sure whether to feel shocked at being hugged by an alien or relieved at being embraced by someone who respected him so much, even after a few moments.
"I assume Rose Tyler is quite safe? Wherever she is?" the Doctor asked.
"Probably safer that if she'd stayed with you." Al grumbled. "What were you two thinking?"
"Well, not exactly our choice, really." the Doctor said. "Came home and found London overrun with ghosts that turned out to be not ghosts but Cybermen trying to cross over the void. Enter Torchwood, who was controlling the whole mess. Human arrogance in action, genius alien lifeform enters and saves the world."
"And all it would have cost you was one young woman." Sam said, trying not to lose his temper.
"Not true." the Doctor said. "She was supposed to have gone to the other world. But stubborn girl that she is wouldn't leave me." The Doctor got quiet, looking sad. "Before, she ended up staying and nearly getting killed. But her dad, Pete, from the other world, jumped in to save her."
"What?"
"She spent 3 months in the other world before I found a way to say goodbye." the Doctor continued. "Cost a star, but worth it."
The Doctor looked back at Sam. "Then you come in and change all that. Just like always."
Sam was startled. Al ran scenarios on the handlink.
"That's exactly what would have happened, Sam." Al said.
"How do you know all that?" Sam asked.
The Doctor smiled and Sam at once felt at though he was really quite ancient.
"I'm a Time Lord." he said. "I'm the last of the Time Lords. My people have always been able to see time lines and how they change before they ever happen. We saw you coming before you set foot in that accelerator."
Sam sank to his knees.
"Are you the ones who've been leaping me around?"
"No." said the Doctor. "You might say, you've become something of a Time Lord, if only an inexperienced one and pretender. But whatever is controlling you is beyond even my understanding. And that's saying something."
Al glanced over the handlink readout again.
"Sam, Ziggy says to get ready to leap. Keeping Rose with the Doctor is apparently what had to change."
Sam looked back at the Doctor. He had so many questions for him.
"Will I ever see you again?" Sam asked. He felt like crying.
"You never know." the Doctor grinned at him. "But trust me when I say you won't go unobserved."
Sam wiped his eyes.
"I feel so cut off." Sam said. "Can you imagine what that's like?"
"I can do more than imagine." the Doctor said and Sam heard a deep seriousness in his voice. "I live it."
"On your own?" Sam asked.
The Doctor nodded. Sam knew this Doctor understood. They were alike. Both cursed to travel through time, never really getting to be close to someone before they had to go. Sam smiled that the Doctor had a chance to be given back a friend.
"But you should have the right to a moment of your own." the Doctor said. He pulled out a silver object and pointed it toward Al. Al watched in amazement at the blue light coming from the end of the stick.
"Easy enough to pull in a neurological hologram, if only for a second." the Doctor said. Sam watched as Al seemed to solidify. The Doctor grinned and held the rod up triumphantly.
"Sonic screwdriver." he said. "Forget American Express. Never leave home without one of these babies."
Sam stared at Al. What had happened? The Doctor gave him a push and Sam connected with flesh and blood. Al stared wildly at Sam.
"You're here?" Sam asked. He didn't wait for an answer but threw his arms around Al in a hug that nearly crushed the older man. Al couldn't care less if he was being smothered. It felt so wonderful to embrace his dear young friend. Sam felt the quantum energy surround him and looked up at the Doctor's warm smile. Then both Al and the Doctor vanished.
Rose opened her eyes as she fell hard against something soft but firm. She'd been swallowed up in a bright light and ended up…someplace she couldn't remember. Had she been pulled into the void?
"Welcome back."
Rose looked up and grinned at the Doctor's tear-stained cheeks as he pulled her into a warm embrace.
"What happened?" Rose asked.
"Something got put right that once went wrong." the Doctor answered. He pulled away and grinned at the young woman. She smiled back. She looked back at the wall.
"I'll never see them again, will I?" Rose asked.
"You can't." the Doctor said. "So, what are you gonna do?"
Rose looked back and grinned shyly.
"We've got the TARDIS, haven't we?" Rose said. "I'll travel through time with the last of the Time Lords."
The Doctor smiled. In his mind, he focused on the point of time slowly fading from reality where a sobbing woman choked out three simple words.
"Rose Tyler." the Doctor said. "I love you."
Rose's eyes filled with tears and she threw her arms around the Doctor in a hug.
"Quite right too." Rose chuckled and the Doctor joined her.
Somewhere in time, the TARDIS weaved and danced through the vortex loop, finally on its way to Barcelona. Somewhere in time, a young man traveled as energy through the same vortex loop. In the quietness of the night, the Doctor flipped on the scanner at his console and focused on the energy of the young man. The young man seemed to know he was being watched and smiled.
"Be magnificent, Sam Beckett." the Doctor whispered. "Be absolutely…fantastic."
Sam smiled back warmly and raced on toward his next calling. The TARDIS engines purred and slid up and down in frequency as they traveled on.
The End.
How'd you like it? Crappy? Pointless? I thought it would be a unique take on Doomsday. I almost thought of having Rose get sucked into the void the first time around and having Sam save her, but decided to go with this story so Sam could meet the Doctor. Maybe I can turn this into something more, but I've got so much to do. Don't forget the reviews.
Stay cool! From here on in, this will be fun!