Hi everyone. Okay this is a bit of a rush job due to having under a week to complete it and for once having a lot on outside of work! Anyway, even though I KNOW this isn't going to be the explanation for the events in the show, thought I'd quick sneak this in before we found out exactly who the Doctor's Daughter is. It's a oneshot and I've tried to keep it short so expect jumps whenever you reach a -- Italics are present events and normal text is for the past events. Hope you enjoy :)
"Where did she come from?" Martha asked as she clasped the Doctor's hand.
The Doctor's eyes never left the woman fight her way to get to them though. "From me."
"From you? How?" Donna asked, raising a brow.
"Well..."
"Er, could you leave it open?" the Doctor asked Ida, looking at her imploringly. "Just for a bit. I won't go mad, I promise."
"How would you know?" she asked.
The Doctor smiled, aware of Rose biting her lip, and knowing she wanted to ask Ida knew he wasn't already.
But his smile worked, as it usually did, as Ida turned to the younger officer. "Scooti, check the lockdown," she instructed, watching as Scooti nodded and left before turning to the other man. " Jefferson, sign off the airlock seals for me." And with that the pair left out of opposite doors, leaving him alone with Rose once more.
" I've seen films and things, yeah - they say black holes are like gateways to another universe," Rose said softly as she looked between the black hole and the Doctor, trying desperately not to think of Mickey.
"Not that one. It just eats," he told her, hoping she wasn't thinking of Mickey.
" Long way from home," she continued, keeping her eyes on the black hole now, thinking she'd seen enough for it not to make her mad.
He glanced at her before taking a breath and leaning closer toward her. " Go that way," he began, using the pencil he'd being correcting one of the books with as his pointer, "turn right, keep going for um... about umm five hundred years... then you'll reach the Earth."
She looked down, under the pretence of getting her phone, but really so he couldn't see her face. He had no idea the home she was referring to was the one buried somewhere below them. Or maybe he did and he was trying to remind her that that wasn't her home. " No signal," she told him, having finally retrieved her phone. "That's the first time we've gone out of range. Mind you, even if I could... what would I tell her?" That I'm stuck with a man I'm desperately in love with, who doesn't look at me twice...well not like that anyway. "Can you build another TARDIS?" she asked, hoping to somehow lighten the mood.
" They were grown, not built. And with my own planet gone... we're kind of stuck."
A home planet she still didn't know the name of. "Well, it could be worse," she began, hoping to cheer them both up. "This lot said they'd give us a lift."
"And then what?"
She turned back to face him, his frown making her feel even worse, and she quickly dropped her gaze. " I dunno... find a planet... get a job... live a life, same as the rest of the universe."
He let out a ragged breath. "I'd have to settle down. In a house or something, a proper house with... with... with... with doors and things. Carpets! Me! Living in a house!"
She couldn't help but laugh, there was the Doctor she knew and loved.
" Now that!... that, that is terrifying," he said, nodding throughout.
" You'd have to get a mortgage," she sung teasingly.
He stared at her in horror for a moment. "No."
"Oh yes," she replied, turning back to the black hole.
" I am dying. That's it. I am dying, it is all over," he said, shaking his head once more.
Rose laughed at his over dramatic state. " What about me? I'd have to get one too!" she told him, looking back as something occurred to her, and she quickly faced upwards again. "I dunno, could... could be the same one, we could both..." she looks back at him, but at his look that she could only classify as unwillingness, she quickly looked up again, " I dunno... share. Or not, you know," she added, quickly backing down, missing his gentle nodding. "Whatever. I dunno, we'll sort something out," she hastily added, hating the awkwardness that had descended upon them
" Anyway," the Doctor spoke, looking down at his Protein One with a dash of Protein Three.
" We'll see!" she replied, trying to laugh it off, cringing at how childish she must seem to him. Sitting there, hating the silence eve more than the awkward babbling.
" I promised Jackie I'd always take you back home," he said gently.
"Everyone leaves home in the end," she replied, not meeting his gaze. Didn't he realise she'd really left home months, years ago now? From the moment she first ran into the TARDIS, possibly even further back to when she followed him out the flat for answers, or maybe even that very first time she took his hand.
" Not to end up stuck here," he argued.
She shrugged, still keeping her gaze upwards. " Yeah, but stuck with you - that's not so bad."
He looked at her, disbelievingly. "Yeah?"
She finally met his gaze once more. " Yes," she answered emphatically. He smiles at her, and she smiles back. And maybe, just maybe she thinks, maybe he understands how she feels.
But the moment is broken as her phone rings, and she frowns as she answers it, certain she had no signal just moments ago.
"He is awake."
Something about the voice terrifies her, and she finds she's thrown her phone to the floor before she can even thing about it, staring at it in horror as it lies still on the ground, despite her half expecting it to to move to attack her.
The Doctor, having watched the object fly from her hand, raises a brow at it before turning back to his companion. "What was it?" he asked, forcing his voice to stay calm as he saw pure terror register on her face, though she quickly hid it.
"N-n-nuffing," she quickly stammered, standing up. "Feel like some more Protein 4?" she cringed. "One with a dash of three," she corrected as she quickly got to her feet and headed to the dispensers. "Pity you don't carry tea bags around with ya, could just be milky teas."
"Rose," he said softly as he stood, making his way slowly towards her.
"Yeah, you're right," she went on, keeping her back to him. "Who likes milky tea? Well, completely milky anyway, sort of milky's not so bad."
He took a few steps closer. "Rose, who was on the phone?"
"Oh just some prank call," she shrugged, wishing her heart would stop racing so, she could barely pour the drinks her hands were shaking so badly. "Shoot, put Protein 2 instead of Protein 3...what was Protein 2 again?"
He was almost directly behind her now. "Rose, you didn't have signal. Who was on the phone?" he asked more firmly this time.
"Salt!" she answered her own question. "Ugh, salty milk, not a good combination," she continued, darting out from between him and the counter under the pretence of going to pour the liquid into the sink. "Right, Ida said laundry needed doing...should go see about that...though best not tell her mum does all mine," she continued, hating how her voice hitched as she mentioned her mum. God she could do with her mum about now, just a hug, just to hold her and tell her that deep sinking feeling in her stomach was just the food or something stupid like that.
She was almost at the door when his hands gripped her shoulders. "Rose."
"It's fine Doctor, I'm sure with the futuristic laundry equipment--"
"You know you babble worse than me when you're scared? And that's saying something!" he told her firmly, using some force to turn her round to face him.
"Tell me about it! I can't think of anyone who babbles as much as you do! Never babbled before your regeneration. But then you did point out you had a bit of a gob on your first day after--"
"See normally you give me this look," he cut her off once again. "As soon as I start babbling or being rude, you just give me this look and I know I'm doing something I shouldn't be. But you, you babble on and on, despite me giving you the look, and you just keep going!"
"The look? There's no..." she trailed off as the Doctor raised a brow, still giving her the look.
When he was certain she was going to keep silent, he continued. "Now who was on the phone? And if you say it was a prank call one more time, I'll be forced to...do...something...unpleasant..." he trailed off weakly.
"Almost came out threatening," she quipped.
"Oi! I'm very threatening!" he whined.
She nodded. "Yes Doctor."
"Don't take that tone with me!"
"No Doctor."
He couldn't resist. "How many bags you got?"
"Three bags full Doctor," she replied, before they both cracked up.
He was just glad he'd gotten her back to normal...well closer to normal. Though he doubted repeating questions was about to keep her in that state. "So?" he asked gently.
She was suddenly aware his hands hand never left her upper arms, having dropped slightly when he turned her. "Just...some voice," she waved it off, trying to wave off his hands too, to no avail.
"And what did the voice say?" he asked, tightening his grip on her ever so slightly.
"He is awake," she told him, looking at the floor.
The Doctor couldn't help it, he let out a laugh. "That all?" he asked, regretting it as she looked back up at him.
"No that's not all...well yes it's all he said, but not all it felt like," she growled, pulling away from him and pacing across the room. "It was like he was telling me I'd never make it home, and before you start rabbitting on about Earth being 500 years that way," she waved her arm upwards, "I don't mean back to the damn Powell Estate," she told him, anger bubbling up inside her, more at herself than at him, but it was easier to release it towards him. "I meant your stupid blue box. And yeah that might make me a stupid ape, but you're a – a two-hearted...no sense of time Time Lord," she growled before turning away, knowing the insult was far from insulting.
She crossed her arms across her chest as she went back to the drink dispenser, reluctantly dropping them so she could pour herself a drink.
"You consider the TARDIS home?" he asked gently, not even hoping to believe what that could mean.
She growled deep in her throat before swallowing the entire contents of her cup in one go. "No, your other blue box," she retorted, glaring over at him as he came closer.
"Rose, you might never see your mother again," he began, but it was her turn to cut him off.
"Doctor, I lost my face yesterday. Couldn't see anything! But do you know who I was thinking of the entire time I was stuck in that telly?"
He didn't need her to say it. He'd seen it, seen what she'd been mouthing, or saying, or possibly even screaming. Without sound it was impossible to tell, but he knew what it had done to him.
And she could tell he knew that it was him. "That's right. And I'm sorry if it scares me that I might never see the TARDIS again. And I'm sorry that I feel like I could survive without it as long as you and I were still together, 'cause clearly that's not enough for you Mr I'd-rather-die-than--"
And then he was kissing her. He couldn't exactly explain why he was kissing her. He knew it wasn't just to shut her up, though apparently it was having that affect. But it was wasn't something as simple as that that had caused him to do it. Or was it? Really the fact that just being with him was enough for her was somewhat simple...in a very, very, cataclysmicly complex way. A cataclysmicly complex way which he was compounding, or squaring, or making more complex or just generally buggering up...but then her tongue was massaging his and he suddenly thought it might not be so complex.
Of course then her hands were trailing under his shirt and up his back and he thought it might be even more complex than he'd originally thought. How long had it been since he'd done anything like this? He was sure he must have at some stage, after all you couldn't live for nearly a century without doing something like this. And yet this felt completely unique.
"May I suggest Habitation Unit 03," an Ood spoke from behind them. "It is the nearest and currently empty," it continued.
The pair pulled away from each other, not quite meeting the other's gaze their cheeks flushed not only with embarrassment.
Did he dare? He looked down at her, the way her tongue peaked out to lick her bottom lip, almost as if she were savouring his taste that might still be on it. Oh he definitely dared! "Lead away," he told the Ood, keeping Rose neatly in front of him.
Having reached the confines of the room though, the Ood having closed the door after they'd entered, he suddenly found his confidence waning.
"Right so uhh..." What was one meant to say in a situation like this? Should he compliment her on her kissing technique? Was there a particular way of requesting to continue the activities that had being happening prior to interruption? Or was he supposed to just...go for it? No, that couldn't be right! She'd think he was mauling her or...
Or she might just go for it instead, and he would find it didn't feel like he was being mauled. On the contrary it was more like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders, and another forming a lot lower.
The desire to taste her was overwhelming him. He'd explored her mouth thoroughly, but was certain different parts of her body would taste distinctly different, though all a part of that uniquely Rose taste.
Exploration and fulfilling desires. No, more than fulfilling them. Creating them, filling them and then destroying their boundaries. To say the next few hours were good was a bit of an understatement to about the same degree as saying the Doctor was alright at math. Brilliant, excellent, superb, marvellous, multa bene, very very good, fantastic, none of them did it justice.
"Shut up," Rose murmured.
He frowned as he looked down at her, curled into his side. "What?"
"You're doing that thing where your talking in her head, only you mumble slightly," she told him.
"Do I?" he asked, genuinely intrigued.
She couldn't help but giggle. "Yeah. Like you babble more in your head more than you do aloud."
"How do you know I don't?" he asked, raising a bemused brow.
She laughed as she snuggled closer into him. "It's too scary to consider."
"How's that then?"
"If you babble half as much in your head as you do aloud then I think you manipulate time just to fit all your babbling in!"
"Oi! This from Miss Babblelot out in the kitchen?"
"Learnt from the best didn't I?" she asked, poking her tongue between her teeth.
"And how does that explain your...expertise in other areas?" he asked, raising a suggestive smile.
She grinned as she leaned in closer. "Maybe Mickey wasn't as much of an idiot as you think," she whispered in his ear, before giggling and moving to hop off the bed.
"Oi, careful, you might bruise my ego!" he told her, wrapping his arms around her waist and drawing her back to him.
She giggled more as she pretended to pull away. "And with an ego that size it might not handle it," she countered.
"What is it, pick on Doctor day?" he asked, drawing her nearer.
"Thought it was night,"she replied as she finally settled beside him once more, idly playing with the hairs on his chest.
"Na, we arrived first thing in the morning. Hard to tell when you've got a black hole where the sun should be," he mused. He felt her stiffen slightly and knew her mind had once again returned to the phone call. He tilted her head up gently so she met his gaze once more. "It's all right, I'm still here," he told her reassuringly.
She smiled softly and nodded, but quickly let her gaze drop down away from his again.
He sighed, lifting her chin once more. Rather than say anything though, he kissed her softly once more. It was meant to only be a short kiss, followed by a reassuring smile, but of course, when you're trying to convince someone that you're still there with them, a longer kiss is slightly more convincing.
A few hours later he bounded down the stairs to the Ood Habitation, Rose hot on his heals. "Evening," he said cheerily to Danny.
" Only us!" Rose spoke as they reached the bottom.
" The mysterious couple," he replied, trying to keep his gaze on his computer but finding he couldn't stop glancing at Rose. "How are you, then?" he asked, wondering why she had seemed almost flirtatious earlier if she was really with the Doctor. "Settling in?" he added, with just a wee bit of annoyance, having discovered the two were more than just friends when he'd found he was locked out of his own room...all day!
--
" Right, onwards, upwards - Ida - see you again, maybe!" he declared over the TARDIS unit hours later.
"I hope so," Ida's voice came through somewhat crackly.
Never one to be forgotten, Rose yelled, "And thanks, boy!" and the Doctor somehow knew the pair would be smiling on the other end having been remembered.
" Hang on though, Doctor. You never really said... you two... who are you?" Ida's voice came once more.
" Oh..." he paused, grinning down at Rose. His Rose. His wonderful, amazing, sweet Rose. "The stuff of legend," he finished before setting the TARDIS going once more.
And she was, she truly was. She'd been traumatised and yet still went to comfort Toby, she'd seen death, and still went on to help as best she could, and she was terrified, but still she wished him luck on his mission.
What would he have done if he hadn't gotten back? He couldn't help staring at her lip gloss imprint on his mask as he had tried to find the words for a message that Ida could give to her, but he couldn't. There was just too much to say. Nothing one person could pass on to another. And yet as he stood with him before her, with all of it welling up so close to the surface, and he still couldn't find the right way of expressing it.
"Doctor?" she said ever so gently, dragging him from his thoughts as he hummed in response. "I think I'm gonna be sick!" she declared, bolting from the control room.
"Well...not quite the effect I like to have," he said softly, frowning at the closed bathroom door across the hall, thankful the TARDIS had put it there fast enough.
He tried to convince himself it was a delayed reaction to all the horror of the day, after all there had been. She was still scared. The lost girl, so far away from home. The valiant child who will die in battle so very soon. It was easy enough to dismiss the words as the Beast's way of scaring them. After all, as he'd said, it had been praying on basic fears.
The killer of his own kind.
But that, that wasn't an easy one to just pull out of thin air. And he felt his own stomach tighten at the thought the Beast might not have been lying. Might have known a truth he couldn't see, wouldn't see just yet. He stared at the bathroom door once more, pulling on a smile as she came out, feeling it become more genuine as she smiled back. She believed him of course. Or if she couldn't completely believe him, she felt safe enough with him to put it out of her mind. Now if only he could manage to do the same.
--
"Rose darling, can't talk right now," her mum answered her phone a couple weeks later.
Rose couldn't help the little laugh, despite her tears. "Who are you and what've you done to my mum?" she asked, getting a growl in response. "You got company?"
"Yeah, you know that man, Elton that I was telling you about?" Jackie asked excitedly.
"No," Rose murmured.
Whether she realised she hadn't talked to her daughter since meeting Elton or not, she went on. "He's the lovely man that's been helping round the house so much lately. He's come over, just spilt some wine on his shirt..." Jackie paused at the sniffle from the other end of the line. "You alright?"
"Yeah, fine," Rose chirped out, rubbing her nose with a tissue.
Jackie's frown was almost audible. "What's wrong?"
"Nuffing," Rose lied.
"What's he gone and done now?" Jackie asked, just as upset about him hurting her daughter as she was that this one was turning out to be just as bad as the last despite the new appearance.
"You're right, it is a bit hot. But it's about to get hotter!" a voice spoke in the background and Rose couldn't help but giggle.
"It's fine mum, and looks like your man Elton is ready and waiting," she grinned, not surprised at her mother's sigh. "Don't worry, just wanted to catch up...gotta go now though," she added, brushing her hand over the phone so almost as to pass as she was talking to the Doctor in the background.
"I'll see you soon," Jackie said slightly more forcefully than usual, if somewhat quietly.
"Course, we'll come visit first chance we get," Rose replied, looking down at her stomach.
"Alright, be careful," Jackie told her, and Rose knew her mother knew there was more to it than what was being said. "Bye."
Hanging up her phone, Rose leant her head back on the bathroom wall which was was currently sitting next to. Of all the explanations she'd expected from the TARDIS for her current nausea and other symptoms, being pregnant had never occurred to her. Yes she'd done sex ed at school, knew all about the birds and the bees, and had even had a pregnancy scare years ago...it just had never occurred to her that during the events of that one day with the Doctor, this might happen.
Wasn't he meant to be alien? Weren't their meant to be things in biology that prevented inter-species breeding?
"Relax, he's a 51st century guy. He's just a bit more flexible when it comes to dancing," the old Doctor's words came back to haunt her.
"How flexible?" she remembered herself asking in astonishment.
" Well, by his time, you lot have spread out across half the galaxy."
"Meaning?"
He'd given his famous grin then. " So many species, so little time..."
"Sorry Jacky boy, looks like I started before you...well...based on...century of birth anyway," she frowned. There was a knock on the door.
"Rose, you alright?" came the Doctor's voice.
"Yeah, fine," she repeated her earlier words as she forced herself to stand and look cheerful once more before heading out once more.
--
"Rose...is there anything you want to tell me?" the Doctor asked when he found Rose in the library a week later, the selection of books in front of her quite daunting.
Rose looked up at him guiltily. "Oh you know...just...some light reading," she mumbled.
The Doctor snorted. "Rose 'Being an Alien Nanny in 16 Galaxies'is possibly the largest book in the whole library!"
"And why exactly do you have it in your library?" she asked, hoping to distract him from why she might be reading it.
The Doctor tugged his ear. "Well, you know me. If I had to choose between saving Earth or babysitting, I'd take babysiting any day of the week...unfortunately it doesn't come up that often."
"I wonder why," she chuckled.
"Oy! Your mum trusted me with you when you were baby!" he reminded her.
"Yeah, and you wonder why she didn't trust you taking me later on?" she quipped, laughing at his glare.
He plopped down in the seat opposite her. "So, the books? I take it the TARDIS has told you about...your condition?"
"You knew?" she asked, somewhat pissed off by the discovery.
"Well...wasn't hard to guess..." he trailed off at her death glare.
"You knew, and you didn't tell me?" she raised a brow at him now.
He was tugging his ear again. "I thought that maybe it would...cancel itself...you know, being a mixed species and all...if it's any consolation it won't take nearly as long as a human one," he told her, hoping to talk his way out of that glare...and fast!
She frowned at him. "How d'you mean?"
"Well, human-Time-Lord mix, looking at two months before due date, three tops!" he told her cheerfully.
"You mean I've only got like five weeks left?" she asked, looking horrified.
"Or nine," he quickly told her, not sure how this was a bad thing considering how much the pregnant humans he'd encountered complained about the duration.
Rose's head flopped into her hands. "How'm I going to tell mum?"
Suddenly the Doctor knew why sooner was, for once, worse than later.
--
"Here, boy! Eat the food! C'mon, look at the lovely food! Isn't' that nice? Isn't it? Yes it is!" the Doctor turned his gaze from the Hoix to the man standing just behind it. "Get out of here, quickly!" he told him, before turning back to the Hoix. " Have some, boy! Wouldn't you like a porky-choppy then?" He shook the chop in his hand as though it were a bag of jelly babies before turning back to the man who seemed to still be in shock, and yelled, "I said run!"
As the man ran down the passage, Rose came running up it towards him giving what could almost pass as a D&D war cry as she went, tipping the bag of steaming water over the Hoix, and a fair portion of it splashing back onto the Doctor who looked on in disdain.
" Wrong one! You made it worse! " he told her, eyeing the bucket in her hand.
Seeming to know what he was referring to, she immediately protested, " You said blue!"
" I said "not blue"!" he replied, cringing as her angry face sombred and tears welled up in her eyes. If this was what the mood swings were like now, imagine them in a week's time!!
Thankfully there was a Hoix to rescue him as it turned it's gaze to Rose, who quickly bolted. "Oh...hold on!" he called after her, giving chase a moment later. He went from being the rescuer to needing rescue a moment later as the Hoix started chasing him.
Between trying running for his life, fending off a groping Rose and getting her to go after the Hoix with the red bucket rather than slapping him, he decided he was definitely going to have to find some way of evening out the swings!
--
With the TARDIS landed, the Doctor raced for the door, knowing that if he didn't get out the way soon, that rage in Rose's eyes would soon be turned from where it was meant to be going to him. He closed the door just in case she yelled at him, deciding to at least try make a confidant entrance...or exit as the case may be. "Someone wants a word with you," he told the man kneeling before him.
A moment later Rose stormed out, the glare that petrified the Doctor all focused on Elton. " You upset my mum!"
Elton stares, and then glances at Victor, the Absorbaloff - which the Doctor and Rose have completely ignored, much to his bewilderment. "Great big absorbing creature from outer space, and you're having a go at me?" he asked, stunned.
" No one upsets my mum," Rose told him, as though he'd been trying to make an excuse for his actions.
"At last. The greatest feast of all. The Doctor!" Victorsaid with glee.
Finally noticing the creature, he frowned slightly. "Interesting, a sort Absorbatrix? Absorba...clon? Absorbaloff?"
"Absorbaloff, yes!" Victor pointed at him as though he'd just guessed their charades clue.
In a swing that the Doctor had become scarily accustomed to, Rose leant into him, her anger replaced with curiosity as she asked, " Is it me or is he a bit... Slitheen?"
The Doctor turned back Victor, "Not from Raxacorricofallapatorius, are you?"
Victor pulled up his nose. " No! I'm not the swine! I spit on them! I was born on their twin planet."
"Really?" the Doctor asked, fascinated. "What's the twin planet of Raxacorricofallapatorius?"
"Clom."
" Clom?" the Doctor asked, as though unsure he'd heard right.
" Clom. Yes. And I'll return there victorious, whilst I possess your travelling machine," he replied, gesturing to the TARDIS.
"Well, that's never gonna happen," the Doctor told him, his fascination going to an almost pitying look.
"Oh, it will. You'll surrender yourself to me, Doctor, or this one dies. (gestures Elton) You see, I've read about you, Doctor. I've studied you. So passionate, so sweet. You wouldn't let an innocent man die. And I'll absorb him - unless you give yourself to me!"
He could feel Rose's eyes on him, the looks she'd be giving as she tried to supress her laughter at Victor's choice of words. " Sweet... maybe. Passionate... I suppose," he told him as he scratched his neck, knowing Rose's gaze would now have a very different meaning. "But don't ever mistake that for nice."
It didn't take long for Elton's friends to save the day, and even though he'd known Rose to always be forgiving in the past, her different reactions to Elton were an impressive change from one emotion to the next. He'd ask her to try not project her emotions quite so much since they were giving him a telepathic battering, but was pretty sure it wouldn't be worth it after the physical battering he'd receive for having made the suggestion!
--
"Do you think mum suspected?" she asked as they returned into the TARDIS.
"Na, you're hardly showing," he told her as he looked over the purple sweater and black jacket she wore once more. Definitely didn't accentuate her...chest as much as that flannel and denim combination earlier.
Rose glared at him. "You saying I always look this big?"
The Doctor gulped, knowing full well he was unlikely to get out of this unscathed. "No...I'm saying you look beautiful...and that our mum was probably too distraught about that whole thing with Elton to notice...remember evil Elton, upset your mum?" he coaxed, hoping to get the attention off himself once more. And then he noticed the damp patch forming on her jeans. "Oh boy."
Rose looked down. "This can't be good."
--
The Doctor had wanted to tell her that it was a good sign for the water to break and all, but as his hand was now in a vice like grip in the medbay, he decided he could definitely see why it might be seen as a bad omen as well.
"I hate you! Never gonna let you touch me again!" Rose was screaming as she pushed.
Really, what was he meant to say to that? Course she was going to let him touch her, if she really wasn't she wouldn't be gripping onto his hand so tightly. Though focusing on her rage at him was by far easier than the pain she was clearly in. Watching her go through this amount of pain, pain he'd inadvertently caused her, was tearing his hearts to pieces. And it was only made worse during her screams that sounded like she was being tortured or worse.
And then he felt it. The softest touch of the baby girl's mind. And looking at Rose, he knew she had felt it too. It didn't take long after that, both of them were too absorbed in this curious mind reaching out to theirs. With expert skill he completed the delivery and had her swandled up in a blanket ready to pass to the awaiting mother, who was positively glowing at this point.
"She's gorgeous," Rose murmured.
"Just like her mother," he replied, wiping the damp hair from her forehead before placing a loving kiss in their place.
Rose smiled up at her. "She's in my mind," she told him.
He just grinned. "My hearts too," he replied.
--
"It's just for a couple hours Rose," he tried to reassure her as they passed the bundle to the nurse.
Rose glared up at him. "Remember what happened last time we were in a hospital?" she asked accusingly.
"Yes, but we'll keep in contact the entire time. They've just got to run the usual checks and then we can pick her up." He allowed her to kiss his little angel's forehead before guiding her away.
"What are the normal checks then?" Rose asked huffily, looking over her shoulder as she allowed him to lead her away.
"Just a few imunisations, check that her hearts are both working," he grinned at her look of shock. "What, you didn't expect her to live with just the one did you?"
She shook her head. "No, course not...just...didn't think about it'sall."
He kissed the top of her head as they walked back into the TARDIS. "How bout a quick spin to keep your mind off it?"
--
"So, near future, yeah?" Rose asked as they walked out the TARDIS, letting him off needed to park twice to get it right. Least it showed she wasn't the only one with her mind elsewhere.
" I had a passing fancy. Only it didn't pass, it stopped," he told her before heading down the road. "Thirtieth Olympia," he told her as they walked under the 'LONDON 2012' banner.
" No way! Why didn't I think of this, that's great! Ah!" she grinned at him, wrapping her arms around his.
He beamed down at her. "Only seems like yesterday a few naked Greek blokes were tossing a discus about... wrestling each other in the sand with crowds stood about, begging... no, wait a minute... that was Club Med," nudging her as he laughed at his own joke, despite her sceptical look.
" Just in time for the opening doo dah - ceremony... tonight, I thought you'd like that. Last one they had in London was dynamite. Wembley, 1948. I loved it so much, I went back and watched it all over again. Fella carrying the torch... lovely chap, what was his...? Mark...? John..? Mark...? Legs like pipe cleaners, but strong as a whippet," he continued as he walked along.
"Doctor," Rose called from behind him.
" And in those days, everybody had a tea party to go to," he continued.
" Doctor?" she called again.
" Did you ever have one of those little cakes with the crunchy ball bearings on top?" he asked.
" You should really look," she called out to him.
He finally turned round to find her a few metres behind her standing by a lamp post. "Do you know those - those things?" he asked as he sauntered over. " Nobody else in this entire galaxy's ever even bothered to make edible ball bearings. Genius!" He's finally silent, but only for a couple seconds as he scans the posters. "What's taking them, do you think?" he asks before scanning the street. " Snatching children from a thoroughly ordinary street like this. Why's it so cold? Is something reducing the temperature?" he wonders aloud as he watches his breath.
" It says they all went missing this week. Why would a person do something like this?" Rose asked, looking at each of the picture's in turn once more.
" What makes you think it's a person?" he asks without thinking.
She glances at him for only a moment before her gaze turns to a woman dumping a recycling sack on the pavement outside her house and hurries back inside. "Whatever it is, it's got the whole street scared to death."
Course, the Doctor berates himself inwardly. If it were just a person it would mean our child would be safe off on another planet with aliens. Aliens that Rose is now thinking might be kidnapping her. Without even thinking he was already running down the road. There was nothing for it, they had to solve this mystery, and fast! If only to not worry Rose further!
--
" Aren't you a beautiful boy?" Rose asked as they walked back into the close to continue investigating.
The Doctor beamed. " Thanks! I'm experimenting with back-combing," he spoke before turning back to face her, his smile fading as he noticed she was talking to a cat. "Oh," he sighed, disappointed.
" I used to have one like you," she told the cat stroking it, before turning back to the Doctor. "What?" she asked at his look of disgust.
" No, I'm not really a cat person. Once you've been threatened by one in a nun's wimple, it kind of takes the joy out of it," he replied, looking away as he remembered that particular adventure. He still hadn't found out exactly what Rose remembered about that day. Did she remember the kiss? That was their second. Not quite so good as the first, but that was no where near as spectacular as the fourth, and if he continued on this train of thoughts his darling new daughter would have a sibling in a matter of weeks!
--
The Doctor walks down and into the kitchen. Spotting the jam jar on the counter, he automatically goes to it and opens it, dipping to fingers in. Rose clears her throat, and when he meets her gaze, she shakes her head ever so gently as she mouths the word 'No' to him. He looks over to find Trish staring at him, and looks for all the world as though he was just a little boy having been caught as he closes the jam jar, returning it to it's place on the counter.
Although she finds his actions adorable, Rose makes a mental note to teach their daughter how to behave in other people's houses. Their daughter. She's about to grin when she realises Chloe is Trish's daughter, and her frown returns as she wonders what she would do if this happened to their daughter in years to come. "Those pictures – they're alive," she begins.
--
Rose burst into Chloe's bedroom. She crosses the room to the desk, swiping away the paper Chloe is drawing on to find the TARDIS and the Doctor drawn onto it.
" Leave me alone! I want to be with Chloe Webber! I love Chloe Webber!" the Isolus' declares from within Chloe.
" Bring him back, now," Rose says calmly.
"No," the Isolus replies defiantly.
Rose turns away for a second, putting her hand to her head, before spinning around and grabbing Chloe's shoulders.
" Don't you realise what you've done?" she asks, her voice low and vicious. "He was the only one who could help you, now bring him back!" she practically yells in her face.
" Leave me alone! I love Chloe Webber!" the Isolus says again.
Rose's face softens, not able to meet the Isolus' gaze. " I know," she says gently standing up, though she knows she's never had the guts to admit her own feelings the way the child before her has. "I know," she murmurs again before turning back to the paper in her hands. " Doctor, if you can hear me, I'm gonna get you out of there."
--
Despite him scaring her to death with the thought that he might have really just up and left her, gone off on other adventures, even the idea that it being near her own time crossing her mind as she realises she could just catch the Tube home, she knew she'd forgiven him for it all the moment she saw him on that TV screen. And by complete chance the woman next door had cupcakes with edible ball bearings ready made, so it was with a sly smile that she stalked him. She'd been hiding between some houses, but as she starts walking behind him, his pace slows and she knows he knows she's there, just as she had known just before he walked down the road that he'd be coming down it soon.
" Cake?" she calls out, watching him as he spins around to face her, her own smile growing as his does.
He laughs at the sight of it, making his way over to her. "Top banana!" he declares as he takes it from her hand.
She watches him take a bite, grinning from ear to ear.
He doesn't even finish his mouthful before he speaks again. "I can't stress this enough - ball bearings you can eat – masterpiece!"
Rose watches him for a moment longer before she can't hold it in any more and flings her arms around him in a fierce hug, finally feeling back to normal as his arms wrap around her just as tightly. "I thought I'd lost you," she sighs into his neck.
" Nah! Not on a night like this!" he tells her as he pulls away. "This is a night for lost things being found. Come on!" he tells her, guiding her down the road once more.
" What now?" she asks, pretty sure she's had more than enough adventure for one day.
" I wanna go to the games! What we came for!" he declares, as though it were the most obvious thing in the universe.
Rose can't help but smile. " Go on - give us a clue - which events do we do well in?" she asks, nudging him with her shoulder.
" Well, I will tell you this; Papua New Guinea surprises everyone in the shot put," he tells her, face serious.
"Really? You're joking, aren't you?" she asks, giggling. "Doctor, are you serious or are you joking?" she asks when no answer is forthcoming, a surprise in itself when the Doctor is concerned!
" Wait and see!" he tells her, just before fireworks explode above them and the pair find themselves having gone from walking with hands just brushing to held firmly together.
" You know what; they keep on trying to split us up, but they never ever will," she tells him, admiring the display.
The Doctor looks at her, his expression growing serious once more as he draws them to a halt. "Never say never ever."
" Nah. We'll always be okay, you and me," she says confidently, feeling his gaze on her as she looks up. When he looks up, still having said nothing, she turns to face him. "Don't you reckon, Doctor?" she asks, the confidence from moments earlier having disappeared.
He doesn't say anything for a moment as he continues to stare up at the sky. " Something in the air. Something coming," he says so quietly she barely hears him.
" What?" she asks.
" A storm's approaching," he says, his eyes never leaving the sky.
She glances at him, before following his gaze, trying to see what he might see. Though she can't, there's suddenly a feeling of dread building up in her stomach and she finds herself nestling closer to him.
--
Rose wiped the tears from her eyes as she pressed the final buttons on the TARDIS controls. How she'd seen the future she'd never know. It hadn't been how she'd expected to see it either. She'd always thought it would be like watching a movie, only seeing yourself in it older, or from your own perspective. But it wasn't. It was just feelings, a few glimpses, and a painful rock hard certainty in her gut that she hadn't just nodded off.
She wouldn't see her daughter grow up. The small child that was curled on the Doctor's chest sleeping peacefully, just as her father was, in the comfy chair in the library. This was how she'd always remember her. And the next time, if there was a next time, that baby would be a full grown woman.
The Doctor had called it a Storm, but she now knew it was a war and a wall. Both unavoidable and both with devastating effects. But everything she could do was ready. The recordings, locked away in the small necklace, would hopefully be enough. She knew she'd have to drop her baby girl off for safe keeping, but knowing what she now did, the thought terrified her. But thankfully the TARDIS was there to help.
She took a deep breath and nodded. "Hide the memories for me TARDIS," she said softly, knowing when she next awoke she wouldn't remember the horrible future that lay ahead for all of them.
--
She pulled on her large backpack as she waited for him to come outside. Just a quick trip home to get all her washing done before back to pick up her little angel. She wasn't too sure why she'd chosen the carer she had, but the Doctor assured her she'd gone through the entire list at least three times before picking them, so they must be pretty good.
She took the Doctor's hand as he came out and the skipped out of the playground together, discussing how quickly their little angel was growing, and whether or not Jackie would appreciate the Bezoolium weather predictor or not.
--
"How long have we got?" Rose asked as she watched his hologram, desperate to reach out and touch him, even though she knew they couldn't.
"About two minutes," he answered gently.
She almost laughed at the absurdity of having spent months thinking of all the things she would have told him if she'd had the chance, but none coming to her mind now. " I can't think of what to say!" she told him as she pulled her hands through her hair.
The Doctor laughs too, then glances over at where Jackie, Pete and Mickey are waiting by the Jeep. " You've still got Mr. Mickey, then?" he asks, trying not to show his jealousy at the fact she might have returned once more to her on again off again boyfriend.
" There's five of us now. Mum, dad, Mickey... and the baby," she told him.
He's clearly taken aback. You're not..." he finds he can't even finish the sentence.
" No," she replies laughing, thinking Once is more than enough, and somehow knowing he heard her, hoping with all her might that her baby girl would be alright. "It's mum," she adds, realising he wouldn't know who the new baby was.
The Doctor laughs with some relief and looks over at Jackie.
" She's three months gone. More Tylers on the way."
He looks back at her. " And what about you? Are you..." he doesn't even know what he wants to ask. About her life, her job, her love life?
" Yeah, I'm-- I'm back working in the shop," she tells him.
He nods slowly, not what he'd expected, but he should be happy for her whatever she's decided " Oh...good for you."
Rose laughs and for a moment it's just like old times. "Shut up!" she tells him glaring "No, I'm not. There's still a Torchwood on this planet, it's open for business." Tears well up in her eyes as she continues. "I think I know a thing or two about aliens."
He beams at her, knowing he could never be prouder of anyone. " Rose Tyler. Defender of the Earth." The gaze at each other and he finds an uncomfortable lump forming in his throat. "You're dead," he says, breaking the moment. "Officially, back home. So many people died that day and you've gone missing. You're on a list of the dead."
Rose begins to cry quietly at the thought of home. Not the other universe, but the TARDIS which she'll never see again.
" Here you are," he continues, forcing a smile. "Living a life day after day. The one adventure I can never have."
She's sobbing in earnest as she speaks now. "Am I ever gonna see you again?"
Ever so quietly and completely mournfully he replies, " You can't."
"What're you gonna do?" she asks through her tears, though she's trying desperately to force them down.
He shrugs. " Oh, I've got the TARDIS. Same old life. Last of the Time Lords," he tells her, as though it's a merry old life to go back to.
" On your own?" she asks in disbelief.
The Doctor nods silently, still watching her with compassion. Rose surveys him, hopelessly heartbroken, tears falling thick and fast. " I lo--" She chokes with tears before she can finish her sentence. She takes a moment to regain her composure, and then - " I love you," before another shuddering sob escapes her.
The Doctor gazes at her with heart-rending tenderness and devotion. "Quite right, too," he says with a small, if devlish smile.
Rose nods, smiling at him through her tears.
" And I suppose... if it's one last chance to say it..." He pauses a moment, eyes locked with hers. " Rose Tyler..."
--
"She's my daughter," the Doctor finishes, not surprised when Martha drops his hand and takes a small step back.
The woman had finally fought her to them, looking none the worse for her efforts, as she cocked the rifle in her hand and gave a broad smile. "Hello dad," she told him. Mum is so going to kill you, she thought to herself, wondering if her parents had seen each other again yet, though by the feel of his mind it was unlikely.
She could feel his surprise at her mind's touch, and grinned further, before a thought occurred to her – Why was her farther travelling around with two women when he apparently still loved her mother? Maybe it was time she tested that Tyler slap her mother had mentioned...
So what'd you guys think? Please let me know, would love to hear from y'all, I've had review-withdrawl last couple weeks :(
Yes I'm aware this is my fault due to many other updates that should have gone up last week...and the week before that haven't gone up as yet, but I've had a super duper person distracting me with goodies bags of Dr Who stuff! Completely not my fault that I suddenly have all this cool stuff to play with!! Anyway, will try make up for the missed updates tomorrow or Sunday...bearing in mind I'm working tomorrow (shock horrors I know :p) and have training in the afternoon, and possibly need to catch up on some sleep at some point too...
