Title: Slowly Losing You
Characters: Ninth Doctor, Rose Tyler, Jack Harkness, Jackie Tyler, others
Summary: AU. The Doctor never regenerated on the Game Station, and now he and Rose have continued traveling through time and space, their unspoken feelings growing stronger with each passing adventure. But lately Rose has been acting strange, and refuses to tell her best friend why. When her life is in danger, the Doctor with Jack's help must embark on a series of highly dangerous missions to save her.
Genre: Romance/Action/Drama/Friendship
Rated: T for minor violence, sensuality and other thematic elements.
A/N: Welcome to Slowly Losing You! I'm very very proud of this story, it took me over a year and a half to write. The chapters will be shorter, but since I've finished it already, there will be fast updates (about one chapter every other day). Nine and Rose are my favorites, so I hope you enjoy reading them as I much as I did writing them xD Title inspiration is from Skillet's song "Comatose".
"Slowly Losing You"
By Kathryn Hart
I hate feeling like this,
I'm so tired of trying to fight this.
I'm asleep and all I dream of
Is waking to you!
Tell me that you will listen,
Your touch is what I'm missing.
And the more I hide I realize
I'm slowly losing you!
Comatose...
I'll never wake up without
an overdose of you!
~Skillet
Chapter 1: Book Covers
"Yowch!" Rose winced as a stream of curses poured out from under the TARDIS console.
"If it weren't for those rotten Kalahaxi officials placing landing barriers everywhere, I wouldn't have had a need to fix this hunk a junk!" The console sparked angrily at his insult. The Doctor crawled out, rubbing his head frustratingly.
"Sorry old girl." He rubbed the console lovingly. Rose raised her eyebrows. Stranger still, the TARDIS seemed to purr to his touch.
The Doctor quickly removed his hand when he spied Rose sitting on the Captain's chair, trying not to laugh.
"Do you two need some privacy?" Her feet were resting on the console. The Doctor knocked her feet down and they fell to the floor.
"Very funny. Don't put your feet on the console. The TARDIS doesn't like it." His Northern accent was more apparent than usual.
"Apparently she doesn't like being called a 'hunk a junk' either. Besides, the TARDIS loves me." Rose grinned and put her feet back up. The TARDIS purred her agreement.
"Hmm. I guess she does." The Doctor muttered, staring at the rotor. Shaking his head, he began throwing levers and pressing buttons, and immediately Rose stood up.
"So, we all set then?"
"Yep, the TARDIS is working under fantastic conditions once again."
"Y'know, I think you're addicted to that word."
"What? No I'm not!"
"I bet you couldn't go without saying it once on our next adventure."
"Oh, Rose Tyler, you're on!" He grinned at her as the TARDIS shook in flight.
"It's set to random. Hang on Rose!" Nevertheless, on the last final bump, Rose tumbled to the floor, laughing.
"Oh...that never gets old." She said as the Doctor hauled her up.
"Any random time, any planet could be out there." He walked Rose to the door. As he opened it, he challenged her.
"Go on, let's see how much you've learned." Rose squinted in the bright sunlight as she stepped out.
"Earth." was the first thing she said. The Doctor, who was still inside, stuck his head out in annoyed surprise.
"What? Any random planet in the universe and you choose Earth, again?" He frowned as he spoke to the TARDIS. "Well, apparently you're right Rose. What else?"
"Umm, Germany...I'd say around 1910." The Doctor was impressed. He stepped out the door next to her.
"Very good. You're close. It's actually Germany in 1908."
"How can you know the exact year it is right now, but you couldn't warn me when you brought me home a year late?"
The Doctor turned and mock-glared at her. She just threw him her signature cheeky smile, the one with her tongue poking out between her teeth. The one that nearly made the Doctor's hearts stop.
"And that," He said, turning and refusing to acknowledge her question. "is the German Academy of Fine Arts." He pointed at a rather large building directly behind the TARDIS.
"Look." Rose said, gazing at the entry way. A young man about 18 years old stormed out the entrance, carrying a canvas. On the third step he stopped. Not noticing the time travelers watching him, he gazed at the canvas and ran his fingers down one side fondly. Then his eyes turned hard, and he threw the canvas onto the ground and took off without looking back.
Once he was gone Rose came over to the canvas and picked it up.
"It's a painting. It's beautiful." It truly was, a snow covered lightly populated street was depicted, obviously painted with great care and love.
"Wow...it's..." The Doctor struggled to find the right word. "Oh, there's no other word for it, it's fantastic."
"It really is." Rose was so entranced in the painting she didn't even notice him fail her challenge .
"Look here, there's the initials: AH. What does it stand for?" The Doctor realised it before Rose did.
"Rose think. 1908, Germany, AH...?" He waited for her to catch on. Suddenly and gradually her face turned to one of shock.
"No, you don't mean...?"
"Yes."
"Adolf Hitler?" The Doctor nodded. Rose nearly dropped the canvas, her breath catching in her throat.
"But...this is beautiful, how could...?"
"Even the evillest of creatures can create something gorgeous with a few simple tools."
"But that was just a boy, younger than I am. How could he turn into one of the worst dictators this world has ever known?"
"Well, so far I've made it a point never to meet him, but I do know what happened." He pointed to the building.
"All his life, Hitler believed he was a failure. His art was rejected, just minutes ago apparently, by men who said his work had no imagination or creativity." He paused for a moment, letting it sink in Rose's brain. "He tried and again failed to be an architect. He also failed to enlist in the army because of his health. Long story short, one of his only successes in life was his worst: the one of Germany's most evil dictator." He frowned. "And all because of a few blind art critics." Rose gripped the canvas tighter, her brow furrowing in righteous anger. She turned around and started walking up the steps towards the Fine Arts Academy.
"Well, then we need to show them just how good he is, how great his art is. We can change all this." The Doctor sped up after her and blocked her path forward.
"Rose, no, you can't!"
"But, we have to-"
"No!" He stopped her sharply. "You remember what happens when you try to change history?" Rose clenched her jaw as images of Reapers flashed in her mind. But even that didn't daunt her.
"Doctor, think of all the lives that could be saved, the broken hearts renewed, the British allies-" The Doctor held her shoulders, knowing he had to try a different tactic to make her understand. Especially when he saw tears forming in her sad brown eyes.
"My great grandfather died in World War two." She whimpered, the expression on her face nearly making the Doctor's heart break.
"Rose, remember Nancy, the children? The people in the hospital?" Rose nodded. "We never would have met them and made a difference in their lives." Rose sniffed, still looking unswayed at the thought of thousands of lives destroyed by the war. But the Doctor had one last thing to lay on the table.
"Remember Jack? We never would've met him." The Doctor was rewarded by the look of utter defeat in her eyes. She clutched the painting closer to her, unwilling to leave but knowing that it was the right thing to do.
"Come on." He gripped Rose's shoulder and guided her back to the TARDIS, hugging her close to his side. She leaned her head on his shoulder as two lonely tears made their way down her cheek and silently splashed to the ground.
I know it's not going to seem very exciting for the first couple chapters, I'm starting out with some fluff and gradually working up to the main plot.
I wrote a paper on Adolf Hitler, and it won first place in my town's newspaper contest. So all the information is correct, the parts with the Doctor and Rose are merely this artist's rendition.
Next: The Doctor takes Rose somewhere special to make it up to her, and there she finds something interesting that could completely change her relationship with him.
Please review, next chapter hopefully on Thursday! Happy 4th! :D
~BAD WOLF~