Worlds Collide

Chapter 2: The Things I've Seen

It's ironic how loud background noise becomes when there's nothing else around to mask it. The low humming of fluorescent lights overhead, the repetitious beeping of monitors and machines, even the spattering of a light rain on a window pain, broken only by the occasional tapping of heeled shoes against the gleaming tiled floors. All can be deafening under the right circumstances. These were the sounds Jackie Tyler heard in and out each passing day, and they made her want to scream.

Pete's wealth had bought the best care for Rose since her breakdown on the beach, but a hospital, however cheerily decorated and friendly-staffed, will start to drive anyone mad after three weeks. All three that had been present that day, Jackie, Pete and Mickey, had refused to leave Rose's side for days after she was admitted, unresponsive, to the London hospital. Pete had to return to work, but he still visited almost every day. Mickey's duties at Torchwood had called him away, but he phoned Jackie for updates as often as he could.

That left Jackie, nearly seven months pregnant, to sit and wait. At first, she had passed the time talking to her unconscious daughter about anything and everything, but that had grown tired. Now, there was just background noise. Nobody wanted to admit it, but hope that Rose would ever come to was fading.

She thought back to when they first brought Rose to the hospital in Norway, immediately after her collapse. Doctor after doctor had poured over her, but the only conclusion they could reach was that she was unconscious, unresponsive, and they had no idea how to snap her out of it.

Now it had been three weeks since transferring her to London, and not a single sign of waking. She was breathing on her own, and wasn't in a coma, but her brain wasn't really active either. All that could be done was to wait and hope.

And so Jackie Tyler wanted to scream. She wanted to yell at her daughter, to tell her to wake up, it couldn't be that bad, she would get over it. But she couldn't. She knew how much The Doctor meant to Rose, so she sat and waited, helplessly watching one life grow as the other dwindled.

Whereas her physical body had felt both fire and ice run through it, Rose's mind only shivered in its own prison.

The representation of her conscious self was barren – a dark space with no walls, and only the tiniest bit of light filtered in from above. She sat huddled with her knees up to her chin, filthy and dressed in rags, trying to shield herself from the voices that haunted her every moment.

"Rose…Rose…" voices of varying pitch called to her, but no one was there.

She gritted her teeth and buried her face in her knees.

"Go away." She half-sobbed.

"Let us in, Rose."

"We can fix you, Rose."

"You're lying." She muttered "Leave me alone!"

The voices continued their pleas. They scared her, made her shake, but there was no way to stop them, nowhere to go to get away. She was trapped.

Rose's mind used to be bright, beautiful, and creative. Now, it had been reduced to a broken haunting ground. If The Doctor could see her into it now…

"No…" She crackled, the thought giving off a mixture of pain and embarrassment. For her Doctor to see her like this would be the ultimate blow. There would be no coming back from that.

"The Doctor…" One of the voices crooned.

"Stay out of my head!"

The other voices joined in a furious chorus. They sounded excited.

"The Doctor!"

"Find the Doctor!"

"Let us in…fix you…the Doctor!"

They shouted at her and Rose threw her hands over her ears.

"Leave me alone, just leave me alone. Leave me be." She whimpered. And then another voice, a familiar, painful voice.

"Rose Tyler….she's gone." It was faraway-sounding, but it was unmistakably him.

"Do you hear that? I'm gone!" She half-laughed through tears of anguish.

"Not gone. Lost, different." The voices replied.

Rose jumped to her feet for the first time, rage boiling inside her.

"Gone, lost, what's it matter? Why don't you just end it already?" She shouted into the darkness. "Put me out of my misery."

"Absolutely not! What would the Doctor think of that idea?"

It was strange; it was his voice, but somehow not.

"The Doctor? The Doctor….doesn't…matter anymore," she choked the words. "I'm trapped in space, and he can't help. I'm on my own." She roared defiantly.

There was a buzzing sound, almost like hundreds of low murmurs converging on one another in an echo-filled room.

"This is not space." A single, low voice replied after a few seconds.

"Well if it's not space, where I am? Where have you taken me?" She shouted in disbelief.

"You have not been taken anywhere, Rose Tyler." The same low voice replied, almost indignantly.

"Bullshit! I'm trapped, and I sure as hell don't remember ever coming here."

"Let us in, and you will be free. You are ready now, Rose Tyler."

"Why d'ya keep repeating my name?" She was clearly annoyed, one of the many emotions she had not felt in what seemed like eons.

"Rose Tyler is who you are. Where you are."

"Hold on. Rose Tyler is where I am?"

"Yes. Let us fix you. Free you. Let us in."

This whole time Rose had assumed she had been trapped in some strange space-related prison. Now, to hear that she was residing inside her own mind was a bit of a shock. But it almost made sense.

"Can't be," She fenced. "My mind isn't this big. This place goes on forever. And it's so dark…."

"We had to protect you. Now it is time." The voices were calm, but there was a slight undertone of excitement.

Rose stood, no longer shaking, weighing her options for a moment.

"Fine. Let's do it, then." She gulped a nasty lump down her throat.

"Clever girl!" The Doctor's faraway voice swirled around her as the voices started buzzing again.

Suddenly, a strong wind started to pummel Rose from all directions. It felt as though she might be pressed in on herself. It wasn't just wind, though. It was a golden wind, glittering, even in the areas where there was no light.

"Wait…I know this…this is…this is…" she stuttered, trying to fully understand what was going on.

The golden wind dipped and swirled, glittered and glowed, swooshing faster and faster around her.

"This is time!"

Sorry, this chapter is a bit heavy on the psychological…almost past it, though. Thanks for reading