If Walls Could Talk
Disclaimer: I do not own… Doctor Who? Oh MY GOSH! I ASKED THE QUESTION! SILENCE IS GONNA FALL!
Chapter one: The Light
Rose Tyler made the task of navigating through the TARDIS look so easy a toddler could do it. Once again she was walking the constantly changing hallways without a destination in mind. However, this time she walked swiftly to a destination she no longer had to think about because her feet already knew the way. Unlike her previous trips down these never ending hallways, she paid no attention to the multitude of locked doors that she passed or which hallways had moved. Her focus was completely set on the papers she held firmly in her hands.
Rose had been travelling with the Doctor for several months now… or so she assumed. You could never really be certain while travelling through all of time and space.
In the earlier days of Rose's time aboard the magnificent spaceship, she had been mystified by the infinite amount of space within the walls of the tiny blue box. On her first official day as a time traveler, she had explored and learned the position of every corner, door, and hallway by heart before going to bed, but the next morning she discovered the hallways had shifted, the corners turned a different way, and there were many more doors than the day before. It fascinated her to no end, and she could never keep her imagination from wondering past the locked doors and into the unknown rooms of who knows what. She saw each door as a birthday present, waiting for her to open it. Much to her dismay, however, the Doctor had declared most of the doors restricted… to her, and when she had asked why? He had said because and that was the end of it. Rose often liked to fantasize about the many possibilities behind each door, the fantastic and very possibly… most probably dangerous things they must contain. What could the Doctor possibly be 'iding from me? She often thought, before reminding herself of one simple fact. He is a 900 year old alien from the planet Gallifrey, who I barely know. He could be 'iding anyfin' …or maybe… everyfin'. Alright maybe simple is a little bit of an understatement. If only walls could talk…..
Rose found herself one step closer to finding the truth about what was inside the mystery rooms, closer to finding the truth about whatever the Doctor was definitely hiding. If walls could talk… she thought, reminding herself about the start of the brilliant plan she had crafted, as she continued to scan the papers. She had spent as much time as she could in the library room without the Doctor noticing her being too absent or becoming suspicious of her motives for going to the library. The Doctor now thought Rose was a bibliophile, oh but how wrong he was.
The library room was the most fantastic of all the rooms Rose had been allowed to see. It was not a regular library, (he had one of those too.) It was a room several stories high with tons of these future books. Each book had a topic and a button. If the button was pressed it would read aloud and project a page onto a huge screen in the middle that had all the information that it read aloud on it. It was like the internet in book form. There were a few computers from the year 2115 in it too. The Doctor said he understood my fascination with that room in particular, oh but how wrong he is…
Rose had been doing research on the TARDIS. It…she was alive. The Doctor was always talking to her and stroking the walls like you would a pet. Plus, she could hear a constant bum bum…bum bum… like a heartbeat but only if she put her ear up to the control panel in the main control room. In her research she had been hoping to discover some kind of way to communicate with the TARDIS like the Doctor did when he talked to her. I really hope he can actually talk to 'er and he isn't just goin' crazy…who am I kidding, he's already crazy! She thought to herself as she headed back to the control room with the papers that she had printed off the day before.
When Rose arrived in the control room the Doctor was nowhere to be found, causing her to involuntarily let out a loud sigh of relief. She had been dreading having to lie to him to get him out of the room if he was in there… which he usually was, so where is he now? She wondered, before brushing the thought off and getting back to the task at hand. She sat down on the Doctor's chair and quickly began her work on finding the correct buttons out of the masses of weird looking switches and knobs and things, to push so that she could communicate with the TARDIS. Rose believed that if she could get figure out how to talk to her then she could ask her what is in those rooms. They are the TARDIS's rooms. Either she knows because she saw it or she knows because she made it. I don't even wanna see it… well I do… I really do, but I don't need to see it. I just want to know what's inside of those doors! She thought while fumbling with a chord that had come unplugged from who knows where, among the chaos that was his control panel.
Little did she know, the Doctor had known what she was doing all along and had been watching her do it. He stood in his control room and looked at her longingly with the fresh cuppa tea that he had just made for Rose.
The Doctor crept up behind Rose and then said really loud, "Care for a cuppa tea, young lady?" This caused Rose to jump out of her seat and onto the floor, startled.
"Doctor!" She yelped in a high pitched "this is my innocent" kind of voice, clearly surprised to see him.
"So… what are you doing?" He said with a teeth-y grin, while wiggling his eyebrows up and down.
"Nothin'… why?" She asked tentatively and a bit too quickly for someone telling the "truth."
"Oh…I don't know…Weeell I do know a bit…weeeell maybe a bit more than a bit… YOU!" He had slowly been turning away but when he said the word "you" he had spun around dramatically and pointed his finger at Rose making her jump again and squeal, which made him start to laugh manically. "You shoulda seen your face!" He said and continued to laugh.
"Stop laughing! It's not funny! Doctor! Doctor! DOCTOR!" Rose yelled his name and he looked up with tears in his eyes.
Slowly, while wiping a tear away from his cheek, he said, "Rose, you can't talk to the TARDIS…most of the time." He said the last part under his breath. "At least I've never done it. Weeell, I mean you can talk to her but she isn't going to talk back to you. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Now tell me…Why did you want to talk to her? What about?... More importantly, why couldn't you talk to me about it? Why did you have to go to my spaceship instead of me? You can tell me anything Rose."
Rose found herself staring into his eyes, his beautiful brown eyes, and as she snapped herself out of the trance she had fallen under, she couldn't help but agree to everything he said.
So when he says, "So tell me what's on your mind!" She figured she had been caught anyway, so why the not?
"I just wanted to know what's in the rooms." She answered quietly.
"Which ones? There are more than just a few, I'm afraid."
"Exactly! I wanna be able to go into all of them! Why can't I go in there? Is there something your hiding from me? Why can't I know anything about you, Doctor? Why are you so… so secretive?" Oh crap, word vomit! I did not just say that! She thought before sighing. After a minute or two of silence she said with resolve, "I'm going to bed." She began to walk off, but then the Doctor caught her arm. His head was down in a defeated kind of look. He whispered something not quite audible, and then began to drag her to the door. The first door she had ever tried to open, that was locked. The door where he had told her that all the rest of the locked doors were off limits to her. Slowly he cracked open the door and stepped in. She followed tentatively.
Rose looked around the small room with wide eyes. There were writings on the walls, all in Gallifrean, which she couldn't read, but she knew what they meant. She knew what they meant because each one had a picture above it. The pictures depicted a family. There was a man, a woman and 3 children. They were laughing and playing and they were…happy.
"Doctor? Who are these people?" She asked quietly.
"It's me…with… them." He replied sadly. Elaborating, he said, "I mean… it's my family, before the Time War."
"I'm sorry, Doctor. I'm so sorry. If I would have known I never would have…" Rose was cut off by the Doctor's shivers. He dropped to his knees and began to sob. He had been staring at the largest photo of them all, right in the middle of the wall with a single lit candle underneath it. The photo was of all of them together in the hospital. The man was holding a newborn baby in his arms. Rose rushed over to the Doctor as soon s he had fallen to his knees and let him sob onto her shoulder. They held onto each other for an hour until the Doctor rose to his feet. He helped Rose up, and then tried to walk off.
Rose clung to his hand. "Wait! Doctor!" Rose cried out. "Where are you going?"
"To bed." He answered the light had left his eyes about an hour and a half ago.
"Ummm… What about… What about the other rooms? I'll make you a cuppa tea and…" Rose began but then the Doctor grinned and said, "Rose, thank you, and … Where's the excitement and … anticipation, which looks quite nice on you by the way, if we look at them all at the same time? Maybe we will tomorrow…or maybe not. Goodnight Rose." As he turned around Rose could see the light seeping back into his eyes slowly. She would help him get the light back.
A/N: Hey Guys! I am happy to be posting this! I intended this to be a one shot but now I'm thinking about making it into a series, where I go into detail about more of the rooms that I know everyone is dying to see. I know I am!
