A/N: This is my first Doctor Who fic, so I hope you like it. I have only seen the first half of "The Runaway Bride," so I didn't go into detail with that. There is an OC in this oneshot, but not one that plays a particularly major role, but is still important. It's based after Doomsday. Also, this was made in a hurry, so feel free to point out mistakes.
I might make a follow-up chapter, but it would have a twist in it involving my own characters, so maybe I won't. It depends on how this one plays out.
Well, on with the story.
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, nor do I own LeAnn Rimes' song.
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Prob'ly Wouldn't Be This Way
Got a date a week from Friday with the preacher's son
Everybody says he's crazy
I'll have to see.
Rose walked into the white room that used to be used for the Ghost Watch in our dimension, but the dimension she lived in now used it for pretty much nothing. She held a brown paper bag loosely in her hand, and her head was down. She walked straight to the white-washed wall on the far end, and sat down in front of a gray, medium-sized stone. 'The Doctor,' it said. 'Not dead and not forgotten.' Rose found it ironic that a tombstone said 'not dead' on it, but it was true.
"Hello, then," she said at an attempt of cheerfulness, pulling an apple out of the paper bag. She bit into it. "I've been busy this week, would you believe it? I'm getting back into a routine. Even thinking about joining up with this dimension's Torchwood, 'cuz it's so much nicer than the one you and I knew." Her voice had faltered at 'you,' but she had continued.
"There's a boy that I'm supposed to meet," she said, leaning closer to the stone. "He's a teenager, about fourteen, yeah? And he's the preacher's son at Mum's church. Mum says he's been acting strange lately, and she knows how good I am with kids. I'm going to go talk to him a week from Friday, to see what's wrong with him. Everybody says he's crazy, you see."
She looked from the stone to the white-washed wall, and her eyes expectedly filled with tears. She was actually surprised that she had made it this long without crying, since usually she didn't even get through her daily thoughts before breaking down. Thoughts of the Doctor ran through her mind, and she pulled her knees up to her chest, trying to stop the flood of sadness. Rose was furious with herself for being so weak, but she couldn't help it. She just missed the Doctor so much. She had thought she might be able to move on, but it was proving to be harder than she had expected.
"Doctor," she whispered hoarsely into her knees, dashing away her tears. She heard voices outside the door, but they didn't come in. They never did, or at least, they never did when she was in that room. It was her room, or Rose's Room, as some employees had taken to calling it. It was where she came to remember the Doctor.
I finally moved to Jackson when the summer came
I won't have to pay that boy to rake my leaves.
I'm probably going on and on
It seems I'm doing more of that these days.
With a supreme effort, Rose put her knees down and wiped her eyes, attempting a watery smile. "Sorry about that," she said to the tombstone, letting out a choking, sobbing laugh. After a few minutes she had composed herself, and began speaking again.
"I finally moved out of Mum and Dad's place, and I've got my own apartment," she said. "It's summertime now, and it's good I moved now, 'cuz that means I won't have to pay that boy to rake my leaves when fall comes." She began chattering, describing her new apartment.
"Oh, I'm just going on and on, what's happened to the time?" she exclaimed, looking at her watch. Rose stood up, her unfinished lunch in her hand. "I seem to be doing more of that these days," she said, a tremble in her voice.
As she walked away, she recalled how the Doctor had taken to rambling after he'd regenerated. He would spend hours just talking to her about everything under the sun, and she would sit at him and smile and shake her head at his enthusiasm for this that and the other.
Rose bit her lip and looked away from the wall, any trace of a smile gone. She left the room quickly, shutting the door behind her, before she could cry again.
I probably wouldn't be this way,
I probably wouldn't hurt so bad,
I never pictured every minute without you in it,
Oh you left so fast.
Sometimes I see you standing there,
Sometimes it's like I'm losing touch,
Sometimes I feel that I'm so lucky to have had the chance to
Love this much.
God gave me a moment's grace,
'Cause if I'd never seen your face
I probably wouldn't be this way.
Rose shut the door to her new apartment and put her backpack on the bed. She had done as she'd told the Doctor, and she'd joined up with Torchwood on the very same day, after lunch.
She felt her throat close up as she remembered the very last time she had seen the Doctor, and shook herself impatiently. Turning on the radio, she almost jumped when she heard a lonely, saddened voice singing the words in her soul. It was LeAnn Rimes, singing "Probably Wouldn't Be This Way." Rose took a sharp breath; it described her too perfectly to be coincidence.
She felt dizzy for a moment, and the table lurched. She hit her knee on the table's corner and let out a sharp cry, falling to the ground. The Doctor's face swam into her watering view, and she let out another cry, this one of sadness, not pain.
"Love hurts," she said through clenched teeth to herself, listening to LeAnn Rimes' chorus. "You're not the only one with pain." Still, it felt that way sometimes.
Mama says that I just shouldn't speak to you,
Susan says that I should just move on.
You oughta see the way these people look at me
When they see me 'round here talking to this stone,
Everybody thinks I've lost my mind
But I just take it day by day.
Rose walked into the house she used to live in cautiously. It had been two months since she had joined Torchwood, but her mom seemed to think she was still mourning. Probably because she still went to the room every day. Her mother had taken to ambushing her and pouncing on her with kind words and a baked cake. Rose didn't want her mom's sympathy; she wanted to feel normal again.
"Hello?" Rose called. "Mum?" She walked through Pete's mansion with some trepidation, wondering what wide-smiling wonder lay in wait around the next corner.
"Oh, hi, dearie!" Jackie called cheerfully. "I'm in the kitchen!"
Rose made her way to the kitchen, smiling in spite of herself. Jackie had settled in pretty quickly to this dimension, and was living with her once dead husband, a relationship that had started out as very odd and ended up as very right.
Jackie was rolling some dough, up to her elbows in flour. Flour was spotting her face, and her loosely tied hair. "Well, there you are," she said, smiling. "I was thinkin' you maybe got lost!"
Rose chuckled. "It is a big place," she admitted.
They exchanged some small talk, but Rose could tell that Jackie wanted to get to the main point. Sure enough, about ten minutes in, Jackie brought up what she had wanted to talk about.
"I don't know why you're still talking to that tombstone," she commented. "It's just not healthy."
Rose stiffened. "Mum," she sighed, recognizing the beginning of the argument.
"Now, just hear me out, hon," Jackie said, pulling her hands out of the dough. "You've been mooning over that man long enough, and it's time you got over him. Mickey's still here, and he's been waiting for you to come to your senses. I know you loved him, but it's time to see common sense, and -,"
"I know, Mum," Rose interrupted. "Susan says the same thing." Susan was a friend Rose had made at Torchwood, and she, along with Mickey, often accompanied Rose on missions. Rose had no idea what Jackie was talking about, because Mickey had shown no interest in being her boyfriend again, or anything more than a friend. They had become good friends again, and Rose appreciated that.
"Yes, but still -," Jackie began again, only to be interrupted for a second time.
"Jackie, I think you should let Rose decide for herself," Pete said, walking into the kitchen.
"But -," Jackie protested.
"Mum, I'm getting by, honest," Rose insisted. "Actually, I have to go do some paperwork for work, and it's due tomorrow. I'd best get to it, seeing as I haven't even started and it's as thick as a textbook." She hugged her mother, being careful of the flour, and gave Pete a hug as well.
As she left, Rose caught that glance that Pete and Jackie exchanged. She had seen that glance before, from people that knew what had really happened. It was a glance that said, 'She's lost her mind, she's not with it. We need to help her.' She remembered the hours in the room, listening to people whisper behind the door. She remembered someone telling a newcomer, "That's Rose's Room. You don't go in there. Ever." She had seen the way people looked at her.
Everybody thought she'd lost her mind, but she was just adjusting. Remembering a line from LeAnn Rimes' song, she smiled and sang out loud, "I just take it day by day."
She skipped down the sidewalk for a while, and looked into the brilliant blue sky, knowing fully well that a hundred thousand million other planets existed out there, and twice as many with life on them. She wondered what the Doctor was doing now, and if he even missed her.
I probably wouldn't be this way,
I probably wouldn't hurt so bad,
I never pictured every minute without you in it,
Oh you left so fast.
Sometimes I see you standing there,
Sometimes I feel an angel's touch,
Sometimes I feel that I'm so lucky to have had the chance to
Love this much.
God gave me a moment's grace,
'Cause if I'd never seen your face,
I probably wouldn't be this way.
The Doctor sat with his feet up, glancing at the jacket Rose had left behind. Donna had picked it up and mentioned it before, and hadn't so much as noticed the pain in his eyes. At least, not at first. The Doctor was glad to have helped her, but now that it was through he was back to drifting through space, his heart aching and breaking a million times over.
The Tardis groaned worriedly, concerned for the Time Lord. The Doctor opened his eyes, not having noticed he closed them in the first place. He gave her a reassuring pat and set the time and place for 2096 on a far-away planet. Far from Earth, far from the temptation to try and get Rose back, though he knew that making such a big change in the past would not work.
He opened the door and walked into a busy spacecraft market. People, not just humans, but people of every shape and size, were shouting out bargains and haggling prices. The Doctor smiled. This was perfect to take him away from his pain.
As he walked along, he bumped into a young boy. "I'm sorry," he said automatically.
"It's all right," the boy started to say, but he froze mid-sentence, staring at the Doctor's face. His golden-hazel eyes grew wide, and he stopped walking.
"What?" the Doctor asked. "Is there something in my teeth?" He bared his teeth, scratching at them with a fingernail.
"Why are you hiding your sorrow?" the boy asked flatly, his eyes flashing to a brighter gold hue, with less hazel and more yellow.
The Doctor looked at the boy. "You're a psychic, aren't you?" he asked quietly, looking the boy over.
He shrugged. "You could say that," the boy said evasively.
The Doctor stared at his face for a while longer, his eyes searching. "Well, it's none of your business anyway," he finally said, his voice brisk.
"You think you're the only one with sadness in your heart?" the boy asked raggedly, his voice raw with withheld emotion. "You think you're the only one with a piece of your heart missing?"
The Doctor blinked, and looked closer. Though the boy's eyes were now one hundred percent gold, they were not bright. In fact, they had the same dead, empty look that the Doctor saw in his eyes more and more these days.
"But we can't give up hope," the boy said quietly, looking the Doctor in the eye. "No, giving up isn't even an option. What do we do? We keep looking. No matter what."
The boy turned to leave. Then he turned back. "You'll find her," he said, and then he left.
The Doctor stared after the young boy, whose name he didn't even know. The boy had said it with such conviction, he found himself half-believing it. It would be so easy to fall into despair, to never get out of bed. But then Rose would stay gone forever.
Feeling better than he had in weeks, the Doctor headed back to the Tardis with a smile on his face and a bounce in his step.
I'll find her.
I probably wouldn't be this way.
Got a date a week from Friday with a preacher's son
Everybody says I'm crazy
Guess I'll have to see.
Rose knocked on the preacher's door hesitantly. It opened almost immediately, and Rose was face to face with the preacher. He looked different than he did at church, without all of his fancy clothes. He looked relieved and gave Rose a big smile.
"Please, come in," he said.
Rose walked through the door and let him lead her into the kitchen. "Your boy, his name is Jason, right?" she asked, looking at the nice furnishings with a slight interest.
"Yes," the preacher replied. "I'll just call him, I don't think he was expecting you." He turned and hollered up the stairs, "Jason!"
He turned back to Rose. "I'll just leave you two," he said hastily, leaving before Rose could react.
"The nerve," she said to no one in particular, waiting for Jason to appear.
He did show up, hopping down the stairs. Literally hopping, bouncing on both feet like a rabbit. He bounced across the floor and stopped a few feet from Rose, bouncing very high a few times before moving down to bouncing on one foot, then the other, and finally he was standing still.
"Hello," he said.
"Hello," Rose said. "My name is Rose."
"My name is Jason," he replied. "My friend wants to meet you."
Rose looked confused. "Who's your friend?" she asked, trying to be friendly.
"She sees in the darkness between dimensions," he said vaguely, walking to the back door. Rose followed, her brow furrowed. What did this boy mean?
He led her into the woods. "Where are we going, Jason?" Rose asked cautiously.
"To the place where the sidewalk ends," he said. Rose was beginning to see why people said he was crazy. But then, people said she was crazy, too.
They reached a clearing in the woods. Jason spun on the spot, hopping on one foot in a circle. "Little bunny foo-foo," he crooned, raising his hands into the air.
A girl's laugh was heard. Rose turned and saw a girl who seemed to be about fifteen, with long black hair and green and hazel eyes. "Jason, you're a unique comedian," the girl giggled. She looked at Rose, and her eyes flashed a brighter green, with less hazel and more vividness.
"You are searching for the missing piece of your heart," the girl accused.
"What are you, psychic or something?" Rose retorted, scrambling at her defenses. With so few words, the girl had broken down her tentative happiness.
"So am I," the girl said, sighing quietly. "Boys," she said, making the word accusatory, "boys are always running off, and leaving us behind." The girl's eyes grew brighter, now completely without hazel.
Rose held her breath, hardly daring to hope. "We'll find them," the girl said, with absolute certainty. Rose felt hope surge dizzily in her chest. Dare she . . .?
"Yes," she said firmly, fully aware that she was condemning herself to a lifetime of searching and wandering.
I'll find him.