Hello again, everyone! Thank you for sticking with this, and also thank you for all the wonderful reviews! Like all other writers on here, I absolutely LOVE getting reviews, so by all means, don't be shy with what you have to say.
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, or anything that you recognize from the show. However, the Kripnallene do come from my imagination, and any resemblance they may have to anything preexisting is not intentional.
Rose grinned as the Doctor straightened up and glanced back at her in confusion. The hand that had been frozen in the air now reached back as he ruffled his hair, then scratched behind his ear. He cleared his throat, mumbling to himself. "Right. Um, yeah. That's. . . . Right." He looked around blankly at the console room until his gaze fixated on the sonic screwdriver that had been abandoned in the midst of their conversation. "Right!" he exclaimed, suddenly seeming to remember what he was doing. Rose giggled to herself. He grabbed his screwdriver and pocketed it, patting the pocket happily.
"So! Where should we go? Clearly not back to Earth's past, with those clothes," he stated factually, gesturing at her outfit. "So then, future, or another planet?"
"Both?" Rose suggested.
"Brilliant!" he shouted. "Yes! Both! Wonderful idea!"
Rose watched, as she had done thousands of times before, as he ran madly around the console, pulling levers and flipping switches and pressing buttons. Once or twice he grabbed the large hammer he left sitting by the side of the console and bashed a section of machinery, then flung the hammer aside and moved on to the next lever that required his attention. Rose had been trying to figure out a method to this madness ever since she had first come on board, but she still hadn't the foggiest idea of what any of the multitude of buttons, levers, switches, and gauges did or how to use them.
Finally, she felt the TARDIS settle and the Doctor grinned over at her. Rose sprang to her feet – which were steadily becoming numb from the heels – and ran to the door. She glanced behind her. "So, anything I should know before going out?"
"Nope," he said, grinning at her. She made to pull open the door. "Wait!" he said urgently. "Just, whatever you do, don't say the word bounce. Or any form of the word. Or any words relating to that word."
"Bounce," she repeated, turning to face him. "Why? What's wrong with that word?"
"It's incredibly rude. It'd be like combining all of your swear words into one word, then multiplying the rudeness of that by about . . . 5,904."
"Oh, about?"
"Yeah, thereabouts."
"So instead of saying "bloody" they would say "bouncin'? As in, 'That makes me so bouncin' mad'?" she asked dubiously. Honestly, she wasn't sure if she should take him seriously. It sounded as if he were pulling her leg a bit.
"Yeah, but they wouldn't say that at all. It's all but forbidden."
"Right. Duly noted." Rose turned back to the door.
"Oh, one more thing!" she shouted.
Rose spun back around. "Now what?"
"Just . . . when you see how they get around, you're really going to want to say it. Just trust me. Don't."
"Got it."
"I told you."
Rose glared at the Doctor from her cell, which just happened to be across from his own. He was lying on the small cot provided to them, stretched out on his back, his legs hanging off the edge of the cot at his knees. The inhabitants of this planet, the Kripnallene, were a bit shorter on average than humans, and it didn't help that the Doctor was taller than most humans.
Rose was sitting on the edge of her own cot, her elbows on her knees and her head resting on her hands. Her blue dress had torn down the side and there was green mud splattered all over her front and back. Her poor shoes were completely coated in the green mud they had treaded through to try to get back to the TARDIS, and the heel of her left shoe had broken off.
In hindsight, the heels really weren't the best shoes for running in, but she had been true to her word. She did know how to maneuver in them. They hadn't been the reason they had gotten caught.
"Well, maybe if you hadn't tripped on your sensible trench coat, we would have made it back to the TARDIS. If I remember correctly, I was ahead of you. In a dress. And heels. Even after they broke."
"Well now, there's no need to start being rude."
Rose snorted. "This coming from the guy who told Queen Victoria that her husband's work on a telescope was shoddy."
"Oi, that wasn't my fault! I was still getting used to having such a big mouth! I couldn't control it."
Rose sighed and kicked off her ruined shoes. No need for them anymore. Might as well go barefoot from here on out. "Alright, then, Doctor. Whatever you say. Now how about we get outta here."
"Already tried," he called glumly. "The lock's made out of wood. Sonic screwdriver won't work. Should've upgraded it while it was getting fixed today. Maybe it would've worked then. . . ." he added, almost as an afterthought.
Rose felt a spike of irritation. Really, those shoes were quite lovely, and now because of him they were ruined. And he wasn't even going to try to get them out of here? "So that's it, then? We're trapped for good, all because your bloody screwdriver doesn't work on wooden locks?" The Doctor glanced over, nodding. "Well, bollocks on that." She sprang to her feet, grinning madly. "Watch and learn, Doctor." Rose reached up into her hair, pulling out two bobby pins. "I'm gonna get us out of here," she announced proudly.
Ten minutes later, Rose and the Doctor were running madly down the hallway, hand in hand and grinning. They turned a corner and nearly ran straight into another locked door, which Rose set to work on with her two bobby pins.
"Where'd you learn that?" the Doctor asked as he watched her work, her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth as she concentrated on picking the lock.
"Mickey taught me, years ago. I kept locking my keys inside the flat, and Mum got sick of having to call the landlord to let us in. I always stick a few bobby pins in my hair, just in case."
The door swung open in front of her, and she peered around the room it opened into. "No guards?" she asked curiously.
"None needed, not in the actual prison, anyway. The Kripnallene can't touch wood. It's like acid to them. That's why all the guards wear such thick gloves. Skin protection. Well, that, and no skin to skin contact is allowed in public, save for immediate families." The Doctor grinned at her and took her hand in his pointedly.
Something clicked in Rose's memory. "So they thought we were. . . ." Rose drifted off, unsure what to make of that. Surely the Doctor had known about that custom. And yet he hadn't mentioned it or seemed at all worried by the way the Kripnallene had looked at them, especially when he had pulled her in for a hug. Not even the married couples had shown that much affection publicly. Could that mean. . . ?
Of course, he had shown plenty of interest earlier that day in the TARDIS. She'd had him in the palm of her hand then. She'd already known the Doctor was attracted to her, and that had provided the evidence she needed. But the question was, did his feelings for her go any deeper than attraction? She was sure they did, but what she was looking for was proof. He was attracted to her, but attraction didn't necessarily equate to love.
Was it possible that they were together? Just without the actual label? The Doctor had denied loving her vehemently, but would he have broken the customs of another species so easily for just a friend? Or was it that he just didn't care what the Kripnallene had made of their relationship? Honestly, why did he have to be so bouncin' confusing?
Rose sighed as the Doctor strode into the room, pulling her behind him. They were in a small room just off the main room of the prison. Judging by the furniture, it was a break room for the guards. There was a couch and what looked to be some type of television, but based off of a different type of technology. Kripnallene technology, obviously. There were cabinets and what looked to be the Kripnallene equivalent of a sink and a fridge stuffed into one of the corners.
The Doctor pulled her around the couch towards the door on the other side of the room. He jiggled the door handle, grinning as it opened. He peeked through the crack in the door, then swung the door open widely. "All clear," he announced, pulling Rose into the room with him.
Rose glanced around, confused. "Where is everyone?" They were in the entrance to the prison, which surely should have had at least one guard . . . well . . . guarding. However there was no one behind the large desk that covered the back wall and the waiting area was completely empty. Rose peered out the clear front doors. "There isn't even anyone outside."
The Doctor clapped his hands together, grinning. "Then let's not stand around waiting for them to arrest us again. Allons-y!" He began pulling Rose through the doors, then paused, as if considering something.
"Doctor?" Rose asked, concerned. Usually when he got that distant look in his eye it meant he was thinking up a plan, considering their options, or calculating the probability of their death. Usually. Sometimes, though. . . .
Sometimes he got distracted by the most random, unhelpful things. This was one of those times, Rose realized, as he mumbled, "Allons-y. I should say that more often."
Rose groaned, rolling her eyes. "Alright, then, come on!" She hauled him through the doors, out into the open air.
As they wandered through the deserted streets, Rose grew more and more confused at the lack of people. "A'right, seriously, where is everyone?"
"That . . . really is a good question," the Doctor muttered, gazing around.
"Don't get me wrong, it's nice not being chased by a hoard of people who, to be totally honest, might as well be carrying pitchforks and torches, but this is just . . . weird."
"You're right, Rose. There's something not right here." The Doctor paused to peer into the windows of one of the shops that lined the road, then turned back to Rose. "I think," he began, his voice so quiet that he was nearly whispering, "that we should get back to the TARDIS. Now."
They took off at a run down the street. Rose glanced back over her shoulder, expecting to see a mob of people chasing them, but still the street remained empty. A chill ran up her spine. Normally, when things seemed strange, the Doctor wanted to stick around, try and sort things out. But this time, for whatever reason, something was different. Something had him spooked. She reached her hand out to her side, searching for the Doctor's, and found it already grasping for her own. "What's going on?" she panted, as he picked up speed, pulling her along with him.
The Doctor was silent for a moment. "I have no idea," he finally said, "but whatever it is, we don't want to be a part of it."
Finally, they reached the swamp they'd been caught in earlier that day. They ploughed through, Rose not even noticing the disgusting feel of the mud on her bare feet. They were through the mud within minutes and were off and running again into a small wood. The clearing they had parked the TARDIS in was in sight and within minutes they had burst out of the trees, ready to barrel into the TARDIS and get off this planet, but what they saw – or rather, didn't see – made them stop dead in their tracks.
The TARDIS was gone.
Rose's mouth gaped open as the Doctor took a few steps forward, reaching his hand out to the exact spot he had parked her. "Impossible," he breathed, his hand waving through the empty air.
Rose felt sick, her stomach sinking. "Doctor. . . . What . . . what do we do?"
He turned back to her, his face grim and eyes fiery. "We do what we always do. We find out what's going on here. We stop them, whoever they are. And we get the TARDIS back."