Chapter 3
"Are you sure you have the authority to do this?" Rose repeated, following Mickey down the long corridor. "I don't want you to get into trouble."
Mickey sighed, looking at her as they walked. "I'll be honest, Rose- I probably don't. But I don't particularly want Torchwood to dissect the Doctor's doppelganger, even if we do work for them."
"But they wouldn't do that to him."
"No, they wouldn't, I'm sorry. Vivisection."
"Mickey!" The very idea filled Rose with horror. Her feelings were threatening to overwhelm her, that much she could see. There was a pause as they continued on walking. "What will they do when they find out he's gone?"
"You filled out the form, didn't you?"
"Yes."
"Do you know where it would be?"
"Well- Kenny's office, if he hasn't submitted it already. But Mickey, you can't just steal it- Pete would go crazy if he found out. You could lose your job."
Mickey looked at Rose seriously. "It's better than losing this version of the Doctor. I'm as curious as you, Rose, and I won't let them keep him in a cell for an indefinite period of time. It's not fair; he hasn't done anything wrong."
Rose smiled and linked her arm through Mickey's. "Have I ever told you I love you?"
"Not nearly enough, Rose." Mickey stopped, opening a door to their left and stepping inside. Rose released him and Mickey consulted his pocket computer. "Right, he's in room number thirty-three, so search for box number thirty-three."
It didn't take too long for the two of them to find it. Inside was this Doctor's version of the sonic screwdriver, psychic paper, and various other pointless items which made Rose giggle slightly. Mickey rolled his eyes and gathered this Doctor's possessions up in his arms.
"Onto room number thirty-three," Mickey announced, leaving the room and following the corridor once more, Rose trotting along in his wake.
"See, Mickey, I've been thinking… surely Pete won't be that angry at us if we let this Doctor go? I mean, he knows how much the Doctor meant- means to me. Wouldn't he understand?"
"I don't know, Rose," Mickey answered honestly. "I mean, I know Pete's your dad but he's very strict when it comes to prisoners. I think this Doctor would interest Torchwood a lot, especially if he's the last of his kind like the Doctor was. It's just not a good idea to let them keep him here, and if we approach Pete about this then he might get angry. If he doesn't know about this Doctor's imprisonment at all, then we'll be fine."
Rose sighed. "I just don't like doing things behind his back. He got me the job, after all."
"It's fine, babe. I'll take the blame."
"Mickey, I couldn't ask you to do that-"
"Could you get my key card out of my pocket? I'm a bit weighed down with all his junk."
Giggling, Rose fished in Mickey's trouser pocket and brought out said item, touching it to the sensor on the side of the door. She shoved the key card into her pocket and quickly took this Doctor's memorabilia from Mickey, considering herself lucky to have something to hide behind.
The door slid open automatically to reveal this Doctor, pacing in a somewhat frustrated manner. Both she and Mickey stepped inside, and this Doctor looked up at them confusedly.
"Mickey Smith, Doctor, nice to meet you," Mickey said, strolling forward and reaching out a hand, which this Doctor took. The two men shook hands, Mickey leading, before they broke away. Rose was glad that Mickey, at least, could be normal with this man. "We're really sorry about this. Just paperwork, you know how it is."
This Doctor's face broke into a grin. "Of course. No problem."
"You're free to go. We've discovered you're not going to blow up the world."
This Doctor looked to the ceiling and shrugged. "Well."
"You'd better not, anyway- we have you on record now."
"This is yours," Rose said, coming forward and handing the items she held in her hand over to him. This Doctor took them, stowing them in assorted places about his person. (She had missed that brown pinstriped suit, with pockets that were bigger on the inside.)
The three of them left the room and went back the way they had come in relative silence. Rose brought up the rear, and watched the back of this Doctor's head for pretty much the whole journey.
Luckily, they weren't confronted at all. That was the thing about having Mickey on your side- he was of a high rank and wasn't often challenged, if ever. Even though they were breaking the rules at six o' clock in the evening- prime time for Torchwood- no one seemed to care.
There was an awkward pause when they reached the entrance to the building, and this Doctor shifted in his Converse just like the Doctor always did. "Well," he said.
"Just-" Rose hesitated, looking over at Mickey who nodded gently. "Just one question, um, Doctor. You're an alien, yeah? So did you come from the rift, or… do you have a… sort of… space… ship?" The sentence had started badly and, clearly, it finished badly too. She cleared her throat and stepped from foot to foot anxiously.
"I have a sort of spaceship," this Doctor said, smiling at her kindly. Her heart began to beat faster as she met his eyes, and she looked away quickly.
"Could we see it?" Mickey asked quickly, before affecting a slightly deeper voice, "You know… standard procedure, and that."
This Doctor slipped his hands into his pockets and rocked backwards and forwards on his heels, his expression extremely curious. "Or… you know… you must be hungry," Rose interjected, swallowing loudly with her voice a little higher than usual (a trait, possibly, that she'd picked up from the Doctor). "Would you like to…" She trailed off at the look in his eyes and tucked her hair behind her ear.
Right. Distance. That's what she needed- a nice bit of distance. She was being affected deeply by this Doctor, and it needed to stop here. She'd done it before and she'd do it again.
"Would you like to come back and have dinner with us?" she asked, her voice returning to its normal pitch.
This Doctor's mouth quirked and he smiled. "Love to."
"Well, tuck in everyone!" Jackie announced, her eyes glowing. "You'll be pleased to know that Pete helped me cook a lot of it," she said, looking pointedly at this Doctor.
Rose only just prevented herself from smacking herself on the forehead. Luckily, she was sitting next to Mickey as well as this Doctor, and her best friend kept her sane.
This Doctor had gone back to the TARDIS to collect a few things before coming back to their house, so there had been a window of opportunity in which Rose had informed her family about the situation. Mickey had groaned angrily at her for inviting the Time Lord, because it was going to be very difficult to explain if Pete ever found out about this Doctor's imprisonment, but Rose brushed his fears aside.
She had told her family that she and Mickey had found him wandering the streets and had invited him for dinner. Jackie missed the Doctor, more than Rose knew she would admit, although she had exclaimed, "There's another one of him?", her tone one of horror.
Luckily, Pete had stepped in and helped to cook a huge meal- in fact, pretty much everybody had pitched in.
Currently sitting around the table were Rose, Mickey, Jackie, Pete, June, Rose's little sister, and this Doctor. So far it had been not too awkward, with Rose's family chatting away happily in an attempt to disguise their disbelief at how there was an alternate version of the Doctor.
"Sorry, um, could you pass the, er-" Rose gestured feebly with her hand.
"Potatoes?" this Doctor asked, his eyebrow quirked. Rose shook her head, gesturing more wildly. "Leeks. Spinach. Carrots. Chicken. Wat- chicken!" This Doctor leant over and picked up the bowl, passing it over to Rose. She giggled as she took it from him, and he grinned.
Pete cleared his throat, and Rose could tell that the situation was about to become a little more awkward. "So, what species did you say you were, Doctor?"
That was the thing about Pete. So long as this Doctor hadn't been officially arrested, he wasn't going to arrest him. Pete didn't need to know that actually, he had been officially arrested and should still be in a cell rather than taking the bowl of chicken back from Rose and placing it in its original place.
"I didn't. Um… I'm a Time Lord."
"A Time Lord?" Pete asked, feigning surprise. There was a little silence. "Care to expand on that?"
"Um, not particularly."
"Fair enough," Pete said, nodding and eating a little more of his meal. "How was your day, Mickey?"
Mickey looked up. "Eh? Oh, yeah- good. It was mostly paperwork, though. Um… yeah, paperwork."
Pete laughed slightly. "Yes, well- I must say, you and Alex make a very good team. You both keep everybody up to date with paperwork."
"Yeah, I suppose."
Rose cleared her throat. "I think I might get some more, um…" She cast her eyes about the table, and they fell on the half empty carrot bowl. "…carrots."
She stood up, took the bowl in her hands, and went into the kitchen. Hurriedly she began to refill the bowl, before setting it down (quite loudly) and sitting on the kitchen bench. She put her head in her hands, and began to cry.
This was a little too much. She didn't know what had possessed her to ask this Doctor to come back for dinner. It's not like she'd expected him to say yes- after all, what happened to the 'I don't do domestic' approach that her Doctor had lovingly adopted? She supposed he must be really curious about what was going on and why she had reacted in the way she did upon meeting him. Then again, he might just not want to cook for himself, or go out and buy some chips. After all, her Doctor had always been a bit vague about money.
But maybe, just maybe, if he didn't see her as a threat, now she'd imprisoned him- he would ask her to come with him. Her stomach squirmed at the thought and fresh tears fell down her face. It was like a dream come true- her second chance. Just the thought of being on the TARDIS again…
"Are you all right?"
Rose leapt off the bench and quickly turned away from the intruder, pretending to fill the bowl with carrots. "Yeah, yeah, fine," she said, subtly, she hoped, wiping away her tears. "Couldn't find the carrots, so I had to have a search-"
"I just came to get more water."
Rose turned to look at this Doctor, and there was a short silence whilst they looked at each other. Then she reached out her hand. "Pass me the jug, then."
This Doctor handed it over and she filled it at the sink, glad that she was drowning out any sound with the splashing of the water. When she turned off the tap and turned to face him, he asked, "Are you sure you're all right?"
"What? Oh, I must have splashed myself with the water." Hastily setting down the jug, she headed for the towel and wiped her face on it, paying particular attention to her eyes. She grasped the water jug, said, "Get the carrots, then", and then walked as calmly as she could from the room.
After the meal had ended, this Doctor had taken them outside to see the TARDIS, due to the 'standard procedure' that Mickey had made up on the spot. As soon as they stepped from the mansion, Rose looked around desperately for the police box that she knew and loved.
This Doctor headed straight to a black car parked slightly on the pavement. He used a key on the door and climbed inside. "In here," he called, once he'd disappeared. Rose stepped forward, but Mickey caught her arm.
"This isn't the TARDIS," he said. Rose looked at him with doleful eyes, and he sighed. "This could be a trap, Rose."
"Mickey-"
"Let me go first."
Regretfully, she stepped back. Mickey climbed into the car and desperately, Rose followed.
Since the entrance was different to what she was used to, and she had tried to sit on a non-existent chair, Rose ended up sitting on the floor of TARDIS. From the looks of Mickey brushing himself off and looking disgruntled, he had tried to do the same and it had resulted in slightly more painful contact with the ground.
Rose stood up, and looked around. She heard this Doctor say, "Yes- that happens to me, too. The chameleon circuit ensures that the TARDIS blends in, so it's a different entrance every time. They can be hard to work out." The layout hadn't changed from what she could see, but since the chameleon circuit of this TARDIS was working, Rose knew that this Doctor wasn't her Doctor.
She blinked away expected tears. She had raised her hopes only to have them dashed. But then, she thought, of course this wasn't her Doctor. He was in the other universe. He hadn't even told her… he hadn't even said-
"All right. Thanks, Doctor. We'll be heading off now." With a purposeful nod towards Rose, Mickey stepped from the TARDIS. Rose looked at this Doctor, who was facing her, leaning against the console, his arms resting on it behind him.
She turned away regretfully, trying not to allow her tears to fall. She was more than a little surprised to see this Doctor in front of her. "Or," he said softly, "you could… I don't know… come with me."
"Come with you?"
"Yeah. Come with me. You can see a bit of the universe. See a bit of history, time, space, anything you want to see. The TARDIS- she can take you anywhere you want to go."
"I…" Her eyes were brimming. She had to get rid of him, somehow. "Okay."
"Okay?" he repeated, his face lighting up.
"Okay."
"Okay!" He ran around her, to the console, pressing buttons, pulling levers and slamming switches. He danced on the balls of his Converse, and she headed towards him as she heard the familiar thrumming of the TARDIS' engines.
"ROSE!" she heard Mickey shout, and she got halfway in a turn to the door- but she made eye contact with this Doctor and forgot everything but her Doctor as she lost herself in identical eyes.
