I do not own Doctor Who.
I make no money from Doctor Who, or the fanfiction I write about Doctor Who. If I did, I wouldnt be almost 30, living off of food bank rice and hamburger most months.
Being a grown up sucks.
This has not been Brit-picked, or beta read. This is the story I wrote for NaNoWriMo 2013, and all mistakes and oddness is mine.
PART ONE
Chapter One
Rose awoke, in the same bed, in the same position as she had for the last year. Tears running down her face, reaching for a man who no longer slept beside her. When the meta-crisis had said he had one life, and he would spend it with her, neither of them imagined it would be so short. So, less than a year after their wedding, she had held his hand as he lay in a hospice bed, giving his last breaths. Something in Pete's Worlds atmosphere turned out to be carcinogenic to people from their world. They had lived there for 4 years before David began feeling unwell. Soon after, Jackie fell sick as well. David used their baby TARDIS to whip up a concoction to heal Jackie, but try as he may, a cure for himself was just out of their reach. He died on the fifth anniversary of his arrival.
Rose had held it together through out her mother's and his illness, but as his casket was lowered into the ground, the young woman had lost it. She has collapsed in a heap on the ground, screaming, unable to stop herself. Little Tony began wailing, scared by his sister's actions. Rose had to be sedated, and removed from the graveyard by ambulance. Their private doctor was shocked when she began bleeding shortly after they got her into the house. Not only did Rose lose her husband, she lost his child as well. Slowly but surely, she dragged herself out of oblivion, and tried to heal. She took time away from work, playing with Tony, and her new sister Abby. Abby was the spitting image of Rose at the same age. She tried not to think about the fact her own child would have only been a few months older than her baby sister. After a bit, Rose went back to Torchwood. She took the most dangerous missions, did the most daredevil things. Eventually, Pete removed her from active duty to protect her from herself. She had put up a fuss, but when threatened with being institutionalized she backed down. To avoid the drama of being committed, she agreed to therapy. It didn't help. There was too much she couldn't talk about without endangering her entire family. She quit going. Jackie made some noise about it, but since Rose seemed better, she dropped it. And so life continued on. Or so they thought.
This morning was different. Rose was tired, and angry, and sad. She missed her husband, and she missed the original doctor. She knew he had regenerated, as David had woken up with green eyes one morning. The only reason they could figure out was that Himself had changed his face again. They chalked it up to residual regeneration energy in the hand and left it at that. So, she made a decision. She got up, and dressed in dark blue jeans and a soft pink shirt, one of the very few she had in the color. After she ended up here, pink just didn't seem right anymore. She pulled on a pair of black, soft leather fl at boots over the jeans. She loved these boots. They were supple, but strong. Perfect for combat and running, but could easily be worn in public without too many looks. She smiled as she ran a hand down one of them, smoothing it over her calf. She remembered walking into the shop and staring up at them, wishing she had the funds for them, when it had suddenly dawned on her that she did. She had bought them and two others and walked out, still a little shell shocked. In her head, she was still the estate girl who worked in a shop. Rose sighed and shrugged into a purple leather jacket. It looked quite like the one she left with the Doctor, but this one was reinforced, and had multiple hidden pockets for a vast array of weaponry. She slid a single sharp knife into her pocket. She quietly went down the stairs, into the sunroom where her mother and the two little ones spent most of their day. She scooped up Toby and peppered his face with kisses, laughing when he made a face and said 'eww'. She set him down and picked up little Abby from her swing, embracing the little girl made a few cooing noises, and focused on Rose's face for a moment. Rose grinned at the little girl, remembering when David had claimed to speak baby, and declared that the tiny being in the stroller liked Rose's golden glow. She had laughed it off at the time. She settled the little girl back into her swing, and walked over to her mum.
"Going somewhere dear?" Her mother had never lost her cockney, giving the words an odd lilt in comparison with the other women in their neighborhood.
"Just to tinker in the TARDIS, mum." She leaned down and gave the older woman a kiss on the cheek. "I just have to go grab something first." She left, and went back upstairs, through her room, straight into the bathroom attached to her room. She put the plug in the tub drain, and started the water, pouring a little bit of red dye into the water. She then left the bathroom, locking the door. She went over to the vanity, and placed her TARDIS key on it. She put the necklace holding David's around her neck. It was the same key the Doctor had turned into a perception filter at some point. David had found it in the suit pocket when he cleaned it out for the first time. She ran a single finger over the key, and left the room, making sure the door locked behind her. She quietly walked down the stairs, noting that the staff she passed didn't even notice her. Good. It meant the filter was working. Hopefully the ruse she built upstairs would buy her time.
She slipped out of the house, into the greenhouse that housed their, no, her TARDIS disguised as an old fountain, with large cracks in the base, and odd moss growing on the statue. She slipped into the console room, and walked over to the controls. She ran a hand over the metal. The TARDIS had never woken properly in this universe. David said it had something to do with the difference in temporal fluctuation, then babbled on, finally muttering the word 'physics' about a dozen times. So, she now had a fully grown TARDIS, complete with never ending rooms, but it had no real sentience. It could bring her things she asked for, but it was nothing like old Blue. She took the knife out of her pocket, and laid her coat on the jump seat. She settled herself on the floor, leaning against the console, then reached up and grabbed her knife. She took a couple of deep breaths, than ran the blade lengthwise down her left arm. The blood welled immediately. She transferred the blade into her left hand shakily, and made a matching cut on her right. This one wasn't quite as deep, but the blood flowed well enough for her aims. She dropped the knife on the metal grating floor, and it made a dull clatter. She gave a rough laugh as she let her arms slide to the floor, each second making her feel a little bit weaker as the blood ran from her body. She watched it flow across the solid piece of floor she was on, over to the grating on her right. She could hear it dripping onto the floor below. A steady, small sound. She closed her eyes as enough blood dripped down to start flowing towards the hatch hiding the space the heart would be if the ship had awakened. Rose began to lose consciousness as the blood slid under the panels, as if it were sentient, and searching for something. A slight glitter of gold light flared from the panels, and then, the whole world shook.
The dust cleared, and one of the maids noticed the water running under the door and yelled for help. She shook the door, and finally gave it a good kick. A stout girl, the kick did the knob in. The door to Rose's bedroom smashed open, and the woman saw the red stained water running from the bathroom door. She screamed for help, and ran in, not caring her sensible shoes and pants were getting soaked in what could very well be bloody water. She slammed into the door a few times, trying to get it open. One of the male servants ran in and helped her with the door. A few sharp jabs of his shoulder, and the door was open. They looked into the bathroom in fear, only to be baffled by the tub full of red tinged water, with a single dye packet floating at the edge. The young woman spun and ran down the stairs to the sun room.
"Miss Jackie! We got a problem!"
"You're a bright'n aint ya? What the hell was that shaking?"
"I dunno Miss, but that isn't what I mean. Your daughter… her bathroom is flooded with dark red water, but she is nowhere to be seen…" Jackie froze, wide eyed.
"Riley!" a young blonde girl ran into the room. "Ma'am?" "Watch the babies. Penny, come with me." Jackie spun and ran thorugh the house, coming out close to the greenhouses. She be-lined for the one she knew her daughter was in. The young servant followed, confused as to why they were heading into an obviously empty building. Jackie headed straight for the fountain at the back, and shoved at thin air. Penny gasped as an invisible door swung open, revealing a glowing room. Jackie rushed in, ignoring the lingering gold sparks in the air. She rushed towards the unnaturally still body of her daughter leaning on the console, surrounded by blood.
"Rose!" the older women cried, sliding to her knees, gathering her daughter to her. Penny cautiously followed. Jackie wept into Rose's hair, unsure if her baby was still living. Penny reached over and felt for a pulse. She found one beating hard and strong… and strangely out of time.
"Ma'am. She's okay. Well, alive I mean. All this blood, I'm not sure she's okay…" Penny picked up the other girl's arms, looking for cuts of any kind. She saw only very pale scars on Rose's forearms. She let Rose's arms drop. Amazingly, though they were surrounded by it, there was not a drop of blood on Rose herself. Penny gently nudged Jackie into helping her move Rose into the greenhouse proper; guessing rightly that the family wanted to keep this… whatever it is secret. She went to close the door, and realized that all the blood was gone, as if the floor had drank it down. Penny shuddered at the thought, and returned to the women, handing Jackie a key that had fallen into her hand when she shut the door. She then left the greenhouse, and went for assistance. She watched them carry Rose up the stairs into one of the guest rooms, as her room was flooded. Penny went to Rose's room and grabbed a photo and that odd pen off her nightstand, dropping them in the guest room so Rose would see them when she woke. She vaguely remembered Rose's late husband, and knew the objects would sooth the woman. After that, she went about her business, cleaning all the water and dye out of Rose's floors.
Jackie sat vigil next to Rose's bed, waiting for her daughter to wake up. She had called their private physician in, after making sure Pete was okay down in his basement workshop. He had made some reassuring noise upon hearing the situation, and taking charge of the littles, leaving Jackie free to sit with her eldest daughter. A few hours after the shake, Pete had come upstairs, putting the little ones down to nap, and come in to speak to his wife.
"Jacks… I've just noticed something."
"What Pete? It better not be one of your stupid little things, because this family has some bigger worries right now!"
"No, Jacks… I've just noticed… There are no zeppelins… At all. And no docking stations. I've got this strange contraption on a very flat piece of lawn with a white circle on it, but the zeppelins are gone…"
"What?" Jackie stood and rushed to the window. Right where their personal zephyr had been tied, there was now a landing pad, and a…
"Helicopter!" Jackie whispered.
"A what?"
"A helicopter!" She whirled around, laughing, giddy. "Were home Pete! My home! Good god! What did that man do? He brought us here, and none of the staff even really noticed a change! They have been talking about an earthquake out there!" She grabbed him and shook his arms excitedly. "Pete, we are where he is! The Doctor!" Pete looked over at the still figure of Rose on the bed.
"Your world… But, I'm dead here, am I not?"
"Yeah, but something has changed… I don't know how to explain it…. Its like the air tastes… sweeter somehow. Like something big changed, and in a good way. No dragon monsters eating the world, or the universe falling apart. We are here, and it is going to be fine." A giggle escaped the woman, and she rushed back to her chair. She leaned over the bed, brushing her daughter's hair from her face.
"Oh honey, when you wake up, you are going to be so happy…"
"Hold on, Ponds!" The Doctor shouted, spinning a whirligig on the console. They had been back in the air for a few days since the wedding. He had quite enjoyed dancing with the children. Amy and Rory had jumped right back into life on the TARDIS with full enthusiasm. Well, Amy had at least. Rory just groused about the bunk beds.
"Where are we going Doctor?"
"I'm not sure Pond! The old girl has detected an interesting energy signature, and we are off to see it!" Rory rolled his eyes, and headed down the hall towards their room, probably to grab his backpack with the first aid kit the TARDIS had given him. With a last groan, the TARDIS landed, and Rory rejoined them. The Doctor threw open the doors to the box, and stepped out… into a thicket. They were surrounded by brambles two foot high. Amy sighed, and looked down at her skirt and tights clad legs. Another pair going in the trash. At least the TARDIS was nice enough to provide plenty of them. The Doctor forged ahead, pushing branches out of the way, while Amy and Rory picked their way through. They tromped through this wooded stretch until stumbling out onto somebody's back lawn. The Doctor skirted the edge, followed by his two companions, until he found the front door. He then proceeded to climb the steps and knock. Amy gaped at her friend. This wasn't just a friendly neighbor's house. This was a manor house. Old, intimidating, and posh, and the man knocked like she would on her next door neighbor's door. A young woman with dark hair opened the door.
"Um, Can I help you Sir?"
"Ah yes." He flashed the psychic paper at her. "We are from health and safety; we got a report of some odd readings and are here to check if everything is all normal.
"Um. Alright sir. Follow me." Amy noted that she was wearing normal jeans and a plain white button down blouse, kind of like a uniform. She led them into a small sitting room. "If you will just wait here, I'll get the Misses." She gestured them in, and then disappeared down the hall. That would explain the uniform. An employee, not a resident. They sat in relative quiet for a moment, and then heard something coming. Amy and Rory rose, ready to bolt, but the doctor sat, frozen by the sound.
"Tony dear, Mummy can't carry you and Abby at the same time. I don't know why you couldn't just stay with your Dad." Jackie bounce Abby while she walked, trying to soothe her fussy, teething child. She was looking down at her son when she entered, so she completely missed the look of horror that crossed the seated man's face. Tony giggled when he saw the company. He ran right up to the man standing and tugged on his hand.
"You! Tell me a story!"
"Tony! That is not how we treat company. Use your manners." The little boy made a face at his mother as she turned away.
"Story, please?" He tried again. Rory, unsure of what to do, just nodded and sat, letting the little boy climb onto the sofa with him. Jackie crossed the room to Amy, and gave her a big smile.
"Now, what's this about Health and Safety? Are you guys investigating private residences now?" She laughed. Amy managed a grin, and gestured at the Doctor who was still seated, staring at Jackie like she was a ghost. She patted the baby and turned towards the seated man.
"Well, what do you have to say for yourself?" She paused when she caught the expression on his face. "Are you okay?" Amy watched the Doctor do his best imitation of a fish.
"Doctor?" Amy finally prompted, eliciting a gasp from the woman of the house.
"No!"
"Jackie, I…."
"Well! That took no time at all, now did it?" The blonde blurted, sinking in a chair. "Rose tries to bleed herself dry, wakes up her TARDIS, shakes the world so hard we end up here, and you go and find us in a matter of days!" Amy stared at the woman, noticing the Doctor's near violent jerk at the mention of someone bleeding themselves. He surged to his feet, and Rory tried to copy, only to be hindered by the lapful of boy he had.
"She did what? Where is he? He let her do that!?" The old man with an impossibly young face did his best beast impression.
"Oh, sit down Doctor." Jackie ordered. "I'm too tired to deal with that. I'll tell you what happened, at least what I know." She flapped her hand at his chair.
"Tony, go get Daddy, there's a good boy." The boy, having lost the attention of his victim scrambled down and toddled down the hallway towards the main part of the house.
"David's dead, Doctor." Jackie started without preamble. "He died on the fifth anniversary of you leaving us all there. He got cancer. Something in Pete's World made him and I sick. David was able to heal me using some ingenuity and tech from the TARDIS, but no matter what he tried for himself, he just got worse. We even tried chemo and radiation. Eventually, he just wasted away…"
"And Rose?"
"Oh, she stayed healthy as a horse through it all. No trace of pre-cancer, nothing off in her body. Except that she seemed to heal quicker than expected of course. Anyways, after David died, Rose kind of… lost it. She collapsed at the funeral, and couldn't stop screaming. Gave Toby quite a fright. We had to have her sedated to get her home… and well, she wasn't well when we got home. She mourned for awhile, and finally got herself back together when I found out we were going to have Abby here." She looked down at her daughter. "She went back to work, but something still wasn't right. She took dangerous risks, stupid ones. She nearly got herself killed a dozen times. Finally, Pete had to pull her off of active duty. She threw a fit, but we told her that it was either take the time, and see a therapist, or we would take her in as a danger to herself. She chose therapy. She went for a few months, but then quit. She seemed a little better, so I didn't push it. She went back to work, did desk duty, came home, helped me with the littles. But then, the other morning. It was the anniversary." The Doctor nodded, he remembered. He made a painstaking effort to get Amy and Rory out of his hair for the day so he could mourn. It may have only been a few years for the Tyler family, but for him, it had been nearly 200. And he still took time every year to mourn the loss of his love. "She woke up chipper, came down dressed casually, and greeted us. Told me she was going to spend the day tinkering in her TARDIS. It never woke up properly, so David and her used to just retreat out there to spend time alone, or to fiddle with tech they brought home from Torchwood. Anyways, she said she left something upstairs, and went for it. That was the last time I saw her awake. Apparently while she was up there, she plugged the tub, and poured some creepy dye into it to keep us distracted. She then managed to get out of the house without anyone seeing her. She got into her TARDIS, got comfortable, and cut her arms open from elbow to wrist. She was looking to die, Doctor. I don't know what happened next, but the whole world seemed to shake for a minute, and when the dust cleared, one of the cleaning girls came running down to tell me about the state of Rose's rooms. I had one of the kitchen girls watch the kids, and dragged poor Penny out to the greenhouses with me. She saw me open the door in thin air, and I found Rose, lying in a puddle of blood, golden sparks falling around her, without a single hair out of place. The only difference between when I saw her, and when I found her was that she had taken off her jacket, and that she now sported matching thin scar lines running down her arms. Penny found her pulse, and we moved her out of there. Penny said that when she went back to close the door, the puddle of blood was gone… like the floor had sipped it down. We got help, and brought Rose up to the house, and put her in a room. She hasn't woken. Odder yet, we can't seem to change her clothes. Every time we get a piece off and turn to set it down, by the time we turn back, it's on her body again." Jackie sighed. "We have been trying to figure out how to find you, to see if you could help her." Amy, who had stayed uncharacteristically quiet during the whole thing, finally spoke up.
"Doctor, we have to help… I mean, they know you…" He jerked his head towards her, and she was struck by the dark swirl of emotions in his eyes. He stood and ran a hand over his face.
"So, the Meta-crisis-" "David" "David then, dies, after promising her a lifetime, and she breaks, and tries to kill herself. Something happens in her TARDIS and you all end up here… and no one outside of the family noticed?" Jackie nodded. "Just me and Pete. I'm sure Rose would have if she was awake though. Even the staff just seems to think that they belong here…. And as far as we can tell, they do. It's like something picked us up, and brought our lives here, grabbing everyone and putting them where they would have been if things had been the same here." The Doctor stopped his pacing and looked at Amy as a thought struck him.
"Amy, what were you thinking of when you brought it back? Who were you thinking of?" Amy squirmed as everyone in the room looked at her. "Well… I was thinking about you Doctor, and how happy it would make you if the world was back the way it should be." He lunged forward and hugged his friend. "Amelia Pond, you brilliant, brilliant girl! You really did it. You fixed our entire universe! You even brought back the people I thought I had lost forever! Oh, Pond!" He wheeled around to Jackie, who gave him a small smile.
"So, Rose."
"Ah, yes. Lead the way, Mrs. Tyler." He gestured, and they moved into the hall, met by Pete, who looked at his wife.
"Ah, I'm guessing he found us then. Like the new face." Pete said, falling into line with his wife. Rory looked at Amy with an odd expression. "What does he mean, new face?" Amy shrugged at her bewildered husband, and followed the older couple and the Doctor up the stairs.
The Doctor sat on the edge of Rose's bed, scanning her with his sonic, as her family stood around behind him looking anxious, Amy and Rory had stuck their heads in, wisely choosing to stay in the hall. The Doctor finished his scan, and checked his readings.
"Well?" Jackie asked, handing the baby off to Pete. Toby climbed up on the bed, and snuggled up to his unconscious sister.
"All the scans suggest she is just… asleep. How long has she been like this?"
"Six days."
"Six days?" Amy asked from the hallway.
"Yes, is that important?"
"Our wedding was six days ago…" The Doctor looked over at his friends. He turned back to Jackie.
"She doesn't appear to be in any distress, and her body seems to be functioning normally. I honestly don't know what to do from here."
"Ma'am?" Rory piped up.
"Yeah?" Jackie responded, sinking down on the foot of the bed.
"Didn't you say you found her in her TARDIS?"
"We did." Pete answered for her.
"Maybe the Doctor should take a look." They all started a little when the Doctor jumped to his feet.
"Brilliant Idea Rory! Where is it?" Jackie stood, and gestured to them.
"I'll show ya." They followed her out of the house, into the back yard, where she made her way to the oldest, most beat up greenhouse on the land. She shoved the door open, revealing crumbling water gardens, and some scraggly looking roses.
"Oh, my."
"Rose banned the gardeners from coming in her when David got sick." She led them through the lanes, turning a corner, and then freezing. The Doctor ran into her back.
"What is it Jackie?"
"It's gone." Her voice cracked, and he moved around her.
"What did it look like?"
"An old fountain, of a winged girl pouring water. It was covered in old moss, and one of the wings had a chunk taken out of it."
"Well, I think I know the source of the odd signal I received then. Come along Ponds, we have a TARDIS to find." Jackie watched the trio leave the greenhouse, feeling hopeless, and helpless. The Doctor took his companions back to his TARDIS, and set the sensors to scan.
