Thank you to everyone who alerted, favourited and reviewed the first chapter! It was way more than I was expecting, and I'm so glad you all like it! You're going to have to bare with me for the next week or so, my school does November exams instead of Christmas exams so I'm supposed to be studying... it's not going so well! I've stared the third chapter so hopefully you'll have it soon!
This chapter and the next are really just easing you into this version, but don't worry the actual series re-write will start soon :)
The four of them walked slowly back to the TARDIS, they were silent as they moved through the empty corridors. As they entered the main storage room where the TARDIS was Rose and Jackie let out shocked, horrified cries. Surrounding them were the lifeless bodies of Torchwood personnel that had been either too slow, or too brave, or had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The Doctor closed his eyes to the death and destruction around him, breathing deeply. This was only a fraction of the destruction the Daleks and Cybermen had caused. If this many were dead inside Torchwood how many were dead outside? He longed for the days where everybody lived.
He felt Rose take his hand and give it a tight squeeze. He opened his eyes and looked sadly down at her. She had tears in her eyes and seemed as adamant as he was not to look at the bodies surrounding them. This wasn't why he travelled; he never wanted to show her sights like these. He pulled her into a tight hug, once again relishing in the steady heartbeat beneath her skin.
Rose buried her face in the Doctor's chest letting the double heartbeat remind her once again that they were alive, and together. When his arms tightened around her she knew that he was doing the same thing. She let the tears fall for the people lost, for the people who had children, cousins, girlfriends, boyfriends, husbands, wives, friends, who would never come home. Her tears soaked his jacket, but she knew he didn't mind.
"Come on," he whispered, kissing the top of her head and letting her go but once again taking her hand, not willing to break contact with her just yet. She looked over to her parents and saw that Jackie too was seeking comfort from Pete; her face was buried in his neck while he rubbed circles on her back. Wiping her eyes with her free hand Rose allowed the Doctor to lead her forward.
The Doctor led them through the maze of lifeless bodies and broken artefacts to the TARDIS. He stopped outside his wonderful ship, taking one last look at the destruction surrounding them before stepping inside. Rose followed him without a backwards glance, keeping her eyes trained on the back of his suit. Jackie and Pete followed after still not having spoken a word.
"Oh my God," Pete said as he shut the door, breaking the silence that had settled around them. Three heads whipped around to see what had startled him, "It's bigger on the inside!"
The Doctor's lip twitched but he said nothing as he moved around the controls, setting the destination for Jackie's living room. The TARDIS shook as they were sent into the vortex and Rose fell against him, her hand still clutched in his. He steadied her by her shoulder before looking into her eyes, afraid that she would be traumatised from the death they had seen.
When she came running into the TARDIS with her blonde hair flowing behind her all those years ago with promises of adventure and 'did I mention, it also travels in time?' had she had any idea that life would be like this? He should have forced her to leave with Jackie and Pete; at least she would be safe from the inevitable destruction that was life with him.
Rose refused to back away from the intense eyes of the Doctor, knowing that he was probably searching for doubt in her eyes, and certain that if he were to find any that he would never forgive himself.
Jackie and Pete were standing silently by the rails as the TARDIS flew them to their destination. It wasn't long before the familiar jolt of landing shook them all out of their reveries and forced the Doctor to break eye contact with Rose. He would have to talk to her later, find out just how much he had mentally damaged her.
"Where are we?" Jackie asked, as the Doctor sat down on the jump seat. The Doctor nodded to the door, in invitation. Shaking her head Jackie pulled the doors open, sighing in relief at the sight of her living room. "Oh thank heavens for that! I'll make us all a cuppa, least I can do." She exited and moved towards the kitchen, leaving the doors open behind her.
Pete took one look at Rose, who was staring, fixated at the Doctor who was looking back at her with equal intention, and decided that it was time to leave them alone, to let the traumatic event sink in.
"I'll just, er, go have a chat with Jacks..." he said, but he might as well have been talking to the wall for all the notice he got. Shutting the doors behind him he strode into the familiar but totally new living room of Jackie Tyler.
He could hear Jackie filling the tea pot with water and he smiled as he heard the metallic bang of her placing it on the hob. It was such a homey sound in such a homey place but it wasn't his home. Then why did it feel like it was? He once had this house, but he had never had this home. Yet, he had. This was all so bizarre.
Yesterday he woke up alone, rich, head of Torchwood, a widowed, tired man with the weight of an entire universe upon his shoulders, now, he was standing in his old living room in a different universe with a brand new Jackie Tyler, well brand new to him, a daughter, no job, no money and, by the looks of it, a brand new life stretching out before him. Talk about turning full circle.
He made his way to the kitchen and leant against the door frame as Jackie worked in the kitchen.
She was so achingly familiar, but so different at the same time. Her kindness, her quirks and the way she was constantly eager to have a cup of tea – they were so... just... Jackie. But the way she held herself, her clothes, her attitude towards the people around her were so different to what he knew, to what he had grown accustomed to. This was not the woman he married, this wasn't the Jackie Tyler who had died inside that factory, this was the Jackie he fell in love with. This was the woman that he gave up his universe for. This was his Jackie and he would do it all again in a heartbeat.
Jackie turned to face him then, having caught his shadow looming on the wall. She gave him a winning smile before the tears spilled onto her cheeks.
"Hey!" he whispered, "Hey Jackie, hey! None of that! We're alive aren't we? We're together again, yeah?" Jackie nodded silently and allowed herself to be pulled into his warm embrace. She breathed deeply, trying to stifle her tears, but ending up with a nose full of the most remarkable smell in her life. He smelled like Pete, her Pete, the Pete that she lost so many years ago, the Pete that should have been a father to Rose, and it only made her cry harder.
She cried for herself, for the Pete who died, for Rose, for the Doctor, for everyone who had died today, for the things she had seen and those she wished she hadn't. She cried until her knees went weak and Pete had to carry her to the sofa and hold her close, rocking her like a baby as he too shed a tear for this lamentable day, the day he lost everything but gained it all in the exact same instant.
Rose and the Doctor emerged from the TARDIS hand in hand just as Jackie stopped sobbing; their knuckles were pale white with the ferocity of their grasp on each other. They took a seat on the sofa opposite Pete and Jackie. Jackie wiped her eyes and sat up off Pete's shoulder, after a few moments of silence she spoke.
"Right then," She said, "What are we going to do? I mean we can't have Pete walking around 'ere when he's been dead for nearly 20 years!"
"Exactly," The Doctor agreed leaning forward to survey the pair and accidentally pulling Rose forward as well, "The TARDIS can take you both somewhere else, we can find you a year or a planet and you can build a life there, if that's what you want."
"Oh, I'm not gunna have to live on some alien planet am I? I mean Martians with three ears and ten eyes may be the life for you two but it sure ain't the one for me!"
"Mum," Rose warned.
"What? I'm just sayin'!"
"Jackie, there are plenty of human colonies living out there and I'm sure I could find you one to your liking," Look at me, the Doctor thought to himself, picking a home out for the mother in law. If only the Time Lords cou- Mother in law? When did I start thinking of Jackie as my mother in law?
Shaking himself out of his reverie he heard Rose and Jackie discussing where they could go. Pete was silently observing. The Doctor caught his eye and Pete gave him a knowing smile, they were both way in over their heads when it came to the Tyler girls.
"When do we have to go?" Jackie asked him.
"Well I'd say sometime tomorrow morning, maybe early afternoon. Authorities will by trying to calculate how many died by then and we don't want them to start asking questions about Petey-boy over there," Jackie nodded and leaned into Pete for support.
"Don't call me that," said Pete, rubbing soothing circles on Jackie's back.
"Sorry," The Doctor sighed before continuing, "But you have to be sure, Jackie, absolutely sure, because once we leave we can't ever come back. If they don't find you when they come looking they will assume that you're dead. Too many people have died and you'll have gone missing."
"What? Never?"
"Never," Jackie's shoulders slumped visibly and her eyes widened as, for the first time, she realised the enormity of what she would have to do. Pete looked like he was about to say something when their conversation was cut off by the whistle from the kettle. Jackie shot up and raced to the kitchen but not before the Doctor saw a tear escape her eye.
"I better go talk to her," Rose said, releasing his hand at long last and following her mother into the small kitchen.
When Rose entered the room she found Jackie staring at a photo on the fridge, her fingers pressed against the two figures captured. It was taken in the April of 2005, on Rose's nineteenth birthday. In the picture there was a laughing Jackie and Rose with their arms wrapped around each other, their eyes were fixed on something above and unseen by the camera and they had often joked that they were seeing into their happy future.
"Never expected this did we?" Jackie asked, her fingers falling from the captured moment, "How could we have? Of all the things we could have guessed for us..." she trailed off and Rose rushed forward, enveloping her mother in a bone-crushing, Doctor-like hug.
"It'll be okay mum, you just wait and see. The Doctor will fix it, don't you worry," Rose whispered softly into her ear, rubbing her arms up and down her back. She felt Jackie relax and hug her back.
"You really have that much faith in him?" Jackie asked against Rose's shoulder. Rose pulled back and looked into her mother's eyes.
"I really do."
By 10am the next morning Jackie had packed up any belongings she had wanted and was ready to leave. She was currently sleeping in the TARDIS with Pete while Rose said goodbye to the flat, the Doctor was gone to report them missing.
Rose looked around the flat, letting memories of her 19 years there sink in. She had kissed Mickey for the first time in this room, had argued with her mum too many times to count, had argued with the Doctor. One they left, she would have no reason to come home, she'd have nothing to keep her grounded. Her mother's words echoed in her ears 'and in forty years, fifty, there'll be this woman, this strange woman, walking through the market fifty on some planet a billion miles from earth, but she's not Rose Tyler, not anymore, she's not even human,'
The door clicked open and the Doctor was standing there, much like he had that Christmas, except there was no warm smile this time, only the haunted eyes of a man who had seen enough destruction to last him a lifetime.
She tried to smile at him, let him know once again that everything was fine, that they were together, that they would get through this, but it came out as more of a grimace than a smile. He strode over to her, coming to a stop less than a foot away from her. She looked up at him through glassy eyes, the events of the last few hours finally taking their toll.
"Rose..." he whispered, his voice strained, "I'm sorry."
She tried to respond, tell him to stop apologizing but she could barely even breathe. She took a deep shuddering breath before collapsing into his arms.
"Rose!" he cried, clutching her to him. Her head lolled to the side, she was asleep, collapsed from exhaustion, and the Doctor couldn't blame her, he felt like he could sleep for a week – and that was saying something. He picked her up gently, carrying her bridal style through the TARDIS doors and to her bedroom.
He lay her down softly on the covers, watching as her eyes flickered underneath her eyelids. For the umpteenth time that day he realised just how close they had come to separation. If he had only managed to get that disk around her neck, she would have been safe - gone, but safe. He pushed a loose piece of hair away from her face and let his fingers trail down the side of her face, allowing himself to show the affection that he hid from her, as best as he could, anyway, in her waking-hours. His mind wandered back to their conversation in the console room earlier...
'I'll just, er, go have a chat with Jacks..."Pete shut the doors behind him, leaving the Doctor and Rose alone for the first time since they had left the TARDIS that morning. They were silent for a long time, Rose leaning against the console and the Doctor sitting on the jump seat, neither knowing where to begin.
"Rose, I'm sorry," The Doctor began at the same time Rose said, "Doctor, I'm sorry,"
"Why are you sorry?" They both said.
"It was my fault I-" started the Doctor but he was cut off by Rose saying "If I hadn't let go of-"
"It wasn't your fault," Rose stated, stepping in front of him and forcing him to look at her, "Doctor, I was the one who let go of the handle, it was stupid, you couldn't have known."
"But Rose," his voice was low and full of self-hatred, "I should have convinced you to leave! You would have been safer on that side of the wall. I was the one who let go of you. What if Jackie hadn't have caught you? What if a Dalek had hit you? I should have sent you away."
"So you'd prefer for me to be locked away in a parallel world, is that what you're trying to say?" Rose was starting to get angry.
"No!" he yelled, shooting to his feet and towering over her. There wasn't so much as an inch between them, and chest pressed against her with every breath. "I just want you safe, and today was proof of the impossibility of that. No matter what I do, I can't keep you safe. Jeopardy friendly doesn't even begin to cover it. Everywhere and everywhen I take you something always happens, what happens if one day nobody catches you when you fall, Rose?"
His breathing was erratic, and Rose watched wide eyed as he tried to calm himself. When his breathing was somewhat slower, she raised a hand to his cheek.
"I trust you to always catch me, Doctor," she whispered fiercely, "And if for some unlikely reason that you can't, then I will always find my way back to you. I meant it when I said forever."
"Yeah?" he breathed, taking her in his arms and holding her close,
"Yes." She answered, holding him as tight as possible.
They hugged for a long time, but this was more than their usual 'we're-alive-and-together' hug, this was a 'we're-alive-and-together-and-nothing-is-ever-going-to-separate-us-ever- again' hug. They'd only had this once before, after Krop-Tor, and, as nice as it was, the Doctor didn't ever want to have another one.
His hand came to rest on the back of her head; he ran his fingers through her soft hair and bent his head to press his lips to her forehead.
"Doctor?" came her sleepy voice, and he pulled back immediately, embarrassed at being caught doing something so intimate.
"I'm here, go back to sleep Rose,"
"Stay with me, please," It wasn't so much of a question but a request. His eyes searched hers for a moment, and could see the fear that was there and God help him if he didn't need her as much as she needed him right then. He nodded and she rolled over, making space for him on her single-bed. He pulled off his converse and suit jacket before lying down behind her, spooning up against her back and placing an arm over her waist. She took his hand in her two where it rested on her stomach, and together they drifted off into a dreamless sleep, safe and together, forever.
I hope you liked it, and that it wasn't too boring! Happy Belated Halloween :) Reviews are much appreciated x