A/N: Sorry this took so long to upload, I was on holiday last week and I've had limited Internet acsess! I promise another update of this story should be written by September, and I will be posting anotheTen/Rose one-shot this week as well as updating my Sherlock Xover, The Mad Girl With A Suitcase. Anyhow, I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I've enjoyed writing it!
Also, I've just realised, I've never finished a multi-chapter fic! What sort of an author am I? So, as my mid-years resolution, I'm going to try and finish a multi-chapter fic by Christmas. I was planning on finishing one by my 15th birthday (which is in October) but I doubt that, so I've moved it to Christmas. If I don't, you can steal my cookies! *le gasp*
And, yeah, eleven reviews and thirty-nine followers for one chapter? What the hell? I am SO happy that this many people are taking interest in my work (even though I don't know why, I am not in anyway a talented writer). Reviews would be lovely again, if you can! Hannah x
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who.
When Rose awoke (was she ever asleep? She couldn't remember) her head was filled with such a blinding pain that she couldn't open her eyes for a good few minutes. She felt as if she had drunk way too much alcohol and then this was the morning after, with a hangover to end all hangovers. She could even taste the bile which was lurking round the back of her throat; even though she knew she hadn't had a drop of alcohol for, well, ages. Literally, in her case.
So what had just happened?
After a few moments of getting air into her lungs and clearing the fog that had settled in her mind, the pain began to dissipate into a gentle throb she was sure would disappear not long from now. She managed to crack open one of her eyelids and scan the immediate vicinity. Her brain didn't implode due to the sudden blast of sunlight, to her surprise. Nope, her vision was still blurred, but she didn't violently vomit all over her shoes like her teenage-party-goer days.
She turned her head to face the right side of her. Sure enough, she spotted a familiar outline amongst the alien- well, maybe that wasn't the best phrase to use, perhaps. She spotted a familiar outline amongst the unfamiliar environment.
"Doctor?" Rose just about managed to rasp, before choking and going into a miniature coughing fit.
The Doctor immediately immediately stood up from his position beside her, seemingly totally unaffected by… Whatever just happened. Oh, the envy. She didn't appreciate his sudden bout of scanning with the sonic screwdriver, though. The shining blue light seemed brighter than usual and moving it around in her face was making her feel even queasier.
"Good!" he announced after several seconds of intense scanning. "You're fine. A bit of motion sickness but all in all, you'll live. For many more years, in fact. Probably a lot longer…"
Rose rubbed her eyes in attempt to get rid of some of the blurriness. She ignored the Doctor's pointless ramble, as per, and got to the important stuff. "How long have I been unconscious for?"
"Not long," the Doctor responded, sitting down in front of her. "Just came round myself, you just a few seconds after me. Time displacement teleport, Rose. It's quick, compact, effective; but it makes your whole body feel like scrambled…"
"Egg?" Rose suggested, then groaned afterwards. How come every single conversation she had with the Doctor came back to them recently?
"Egg. Exactly. Speaking of eggs…" the Doctor fumbled to his feet and started madly dashing about, wherever they were, until he came across a pile of things that Rose could only assume as junk. He leaned down next to the pile with a desperate look on his face. "No! No no no no no!"
"What is it?" Rose asked, slowly and steadily getting to her feet.
"My timey wimey detector!" the Doctor whined, "It must've got caught in the teleport! The energy's ended up frying the circuits and caused it to fall apart! No!"
Rose blinked rapidly and walked over to where the Doctor was mourning his late device- bits and pieces of the once bleeping happily machine scattered across the tarmac. Rose couldn't help but feel a little upset too. She was growing quite attached to the detector's incessant noise.
She decided to make a joke to lighten the situation. "How are we supposed to boil eggs now, then?"
The Doctor gave her a look. "How would you like it if your chip pan broke into a thousand pieces, Rose? A bit of respect, please."
Rose was about to apologise, but that was before she assessed the Doctor's retort. "Hey! What is that implying, mister?"
The Doctor ignored her. It was moments like this that the Jackie within Rose shone through, and that wasn't great for him. Not in the slightest. "We were just getting to know each other, too. You know that feeling when a friend is torn away from you before you get to know them?"
Rose narrowed her eyes.
The Doctor sighed. "No, I don't suppose you would. Ah, well. Life goes on."
Rose kneeled down next to the Doctor with a bemused look on her face. She sifted through the seemingly useless junk which once made up the Doctor's retro looking timey-wimey detector. "And we're still talking about a pile of wires and plastic and a clock face, right?"
"Hey! Don't knock the detector! It served its purpose. Well, its purposes, I should say. Its shame that it got destroyed before I could use it for time-displacing purposes. Which, I have to admit, we kind of need right now. Because I have no idea…" he glanced back at Rose, who was looking around her with a small smile on her face. "You've got that face on. The face which means you're going to say something that's just a little bit brilliant."
Rose snorted with disbelief. "Yeah. Whatever. But I was thinking… This stuff, it's all found on Earth, right? Couldn't you just build another one?"
"Build another one?" the Doctor scoffed in a tone which Rose labelled I can't believe you said that, it's so stupid! Then he looked at her in revelation, evaluating her decision before he spoke again. That's when his tone switched from figure one to why didn't I think of that? He grinned at her, his brown eyes dancing, throwing his hands up in the air. "Build another one! Rose Tyler, you are brilliant!"
Rose blushed modestly, tucking a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. "We better get started then!"
"Yeah, but first… I need to figure out just about where in time we are right now." the Doctor wondered aloud, picking up the pieces he could salvage from the pile of remnants round his feet.
"Wait a second…" Rose frowned, "You don't know where we are?"
The Doctor screwed his face up in concentration before grinning. "Haven't the faintest."
He started to walk down the road (they seemed to be under a bridge or something, as it seemed to be very dark and damp) and Rose paused for a second to think things through, before catching up with him. "But, hang on, that's not good, is it? And where's the TARDIS? Did that get displaced too?" when the Doctor looked grave, Rose groaned. "Where is the TARDIS? Come on, Doctor, tell me its close."
The Doctor grimaced. "Well, its sort of… Put it this way, Rose, it could be a lot further away."
Rose wasn't entirely satisfied with that answer. "How further is further?"
"Two centuries. Ago." the Doctor replied a little reluctantly, "But you know what? It could be-"
"So, where is it then?" Rose interrogated.
The Doctor sighed. "Talk about the Spanish Inquisition. They could've really used you back in 1300s. Nice bunch, the Spanish. Except when they tried to get me burnt for blaspheming against…" he noticed Rose's face, "Save that one for another day, eh? And… Oh, yeah, the TARDIS. It's stuck where we left it. The 1850s."
Rose's eyes widened to an unnatural extent. How? How were they going to get back? "At the churchyard? But… What? What are we going to do?"
The Doctor stopped walking, grabbing Rose by the shoulders. "Rose, you trust me?"
Rose just stared back at him, unblinkingly, slightly insulted. "Are you seriously asking me that?"
The Doctor pressed his eyes closed, letting his forehead rest against her forehead. "Rose, this is serious. Do you trust me?"
"Of course I do!" she snapped back at him, "I trust you more than anything in the universe! Don't you dare ask me that again, Doctor."
"Ok, ok! I get it! I was just double checking," the Doctor muttered, "Because I really need your trust more than ever. Because I will get the TARDIS back, Rose. Don't you doubt that for a second. I will get you home. It's going to take a bit of time, but I will do it- all I need to do is find out what the creatures that zapped us here are and that should lead us back. Because if the teleport can send people forwards in time, it must be able to send them back, too."
"Back at the churchyard, you told me not to blink, like you knew what was happening," Rose stated, "But it's hazy from there. What happened?"
"Well, it's hazy for me too." the Doctor grinned, "But doesn't that make things more exciting? This is the reason I travel, Rose. To find things I don't know about. Granted, it make things a billion times more dangerous if I don't know what's going on, but there's nothing quite like the element of surprise."
"Oh yes!" Rose grinned in a gruff voice which vaguely mimicked the Doctors.
He pressed a light kiss on her forehead then repeated, beaming back at her. "Oh yes!"
Rose let her arm lace through the Doctor's, and they began to walk into the daylight. "Do you know where we are, yet?"
The Doctor stuck his tongue out and winced, making Rose giggle. "Due to the outrageous levels of carbon dioxide in the air, I'm guessing the 21st century. 2011, 2012, maybe."
"That's not too far from my time…" Rose suddenly looked a little frightened. "What if I bump into myself? I'll be, what, twenty-six?"
The Doctor dismissed her worries. "Nah, we're not in London. Miles away. I'd know if we were in London. It's too… Quiet. If we were in London, there would be happy-slapping hoodies with ASBO's and ringtones here. See? See? I didn't forget all that stuff!"
"I think they would have a lot more than just an ASBO and a ringtone down here," Rose murmured, "So if we're not in London, where are we? We always seem to end up in London. Or Cardiff."
"Well…" he pulled her fast round the corner, "Let's just see, shall we?"
Rose was quite surprised to see a small village in front of her, surrounded by fields and trees and quaint little cottages. There were patches of grass scattered round her feet as well as a pond (where were the ducks?) and a post office.
They'd seen New Earth, parallel Earth and the end of the Earth. It kind of put little places like this in perspective. They were so dull. And they were stuck. In a village.
The Doctor was going to go mad. He didn't say anything for a while.
Rose smiled a little to brighten the situation. "Why would aliens send us here? This place is definitley not worth invading."
The Doctor looked very serious as he scanned the area. "I don't know, Rose… Something about this area isn't right. It's like…"
But Rose wasn't listening. She was busy, squinting into the distance. She could see something blue. A blue box.
"They don't have police boxes in 2012, do they?" Rose queried, still squinting, gripping tighter onto the Doctor's arm.
"No," the Doctor confirmed certainly, "Why?"
Rose pointed to where she was looking. "I might be wrong, but that looks like a police box to me. Hang on. Could that…"
When Rose noticed the Doctor look more grave than joyous, she realised that this wasn't good news for either of them. "If that's not the TARDIS, why the hell is there a police box there? Why would they need one in a place like this?"
"No, Rose, that is the TARDIS," he said, just loud enough for her to hear, "It's just not my TARDIS."
Rose looked at him, confused. "Wha-"
The pair were distracted from their conversation by three people talking behind them, just coming from around the corner. This struck them as there were no other people about the village apart from themselves, and they were talking pretty loudly.
"Come along, Pond!" one of the men said, tugging on a redheads arm. The redhead shook him away and shared a look with the other man on her left.
Then the man stopped when he saw both the Doctor and Rose. The man with the scruffy brown hair and wicked green eyes and the bizarre tweed-and-bowtie combo.
The big grin that was once on his face evaporated when he took in the pairs features.
The redhead and the other man exchanged confused glances.
"Rose?"