Chapter 3
Somewhere in the middle of space, 51st Century spaceship
Oh she was brilliant that Reinette, getting her fireplace transported to Versailles and as a result allowing him to get back to Rose and the idiot. As he went to the TARDIS he wondered what star Reinette would pick out for her first trip, whatever she picked it was bound to be just as brilliant. Entering the TARDIS the Doctor saw only the idiot standing there, oh well, the Doctor guessed that Rose was doing her usually cup of tea fix for one and all after an adventure.
"Mickey, be good chap and go find something useful to do. I'll be back in a second." The Doctor told him not noticing the look of horrified shock on his new companion's face.
"Doctor?" Mickey spoke, his voice tense as he tried to control his rage.
But the Doctor completely ignored as he began to press buttons and wondering where he would be taking Reinette first.
"Oi! Where the HELL is Rose?" Mickey barked at the Doctor, causing the Doctor's head to snap up sharply.
"What? What do you mean? She's here in the TARDIS, isn't she?" The Doctor shot off questions in quick succession. His own hearts seizing in fear he hadn't felt since the Daleks had effectively held Rose captive.
The fist came out of nowhere and the Doctor found himself hunched over the console.
"OW!" Mickey and the Doctor both screamed at the same time.
"NO! Didn't you notice that robot thing had...you didn't did you? Getting your dick sucked by a French Whore was so important to you that didn't even notice that Rose had been kidnapped!" Mickey snarled at him.
The Doctor staggered back feeling incredibly ill and rather faint. Rose had been kidnapped and he was so eager to try and protect himself from his feelings for her that he hadn't even...oh Rassolin...Mickey meanwhile now looked ready to be sick himself.
"You...you don't even know if she's dead do you. Those robot things probably killed Rose the second they took her there and you don't even know..." Mickey gasped out in shock...
"No!" The Doctor whispered in horror. "No, no, no, no, no...what...no that isn't..." The Doctor rambled out panicked until the TARDIS decided to put her two cents in and sent a rather vicious bolt of electrical current at the Doctor.
The Doctor launched himself at the controls and started looking for signs of Rose throughout 18th century France by using the key he had given her as a GPS.
"Mickey you idiot! This says that Rose is just outside." The Doctor snarled and headed towards the doors but Mickey was faster. He would gladly suffer the fool for the rest of his life if it meant Rose had somehow gotten back but whatever the Doctor had said, Mickey knew what he saw. Rose had been kidnapped.
The two of them stumbled out of the TARDIS and began to look around.
"Rose!" They both yelled together but their call was met with silence.
"I don't understand this, the TARDIS says that she's here." The Doctor muttered as he ran a hand through his hair.
Mickey was searching everything, the chairs, the controls and the spot where Rose had been taken and then he found it. The reason why the Doctor thought, why he himself had believed, that Rose was back on the spaceship.
"D...Doctor...it's not Rose..." He chocked out as he straightened up to stare at the Doctor. His hand in a fist, Mickey walked over to the Doctor and opened his hand.
"It's her TARDIS key..." Mickey gasped in despair.
France
New Year's Day 1765
There have been many times during the Doctor's long life where he had arrived too late, and every time the Doctor had felt positively wretched when he learned that fact. His reasons for being late now however, well, it was selfish idiocy pure and simple. That and the fact that he was trying to defy the impossible by using his sonic screwdriver to track Rose's energy and the search had left the Doctor feeling completely void of any emotions, and was still refusing to admit the reason why he felt that way.
He had managed to track Rose from the nearest village of Versailles to the second nearest, and the Doctor was relieved to find that Rose's energy was stronger here at the convent. He found out from the Mother Superior that Rose had left abruptly at some point on New Year's Day 1764 before anyone else had woken up. Which is how he came to be sitting in what had once been Rose's bedroom. As he stared around the room that Rose had once called home, the Doctor caught himself expecting Rose to just appear out of nowhere.
But to his chagrin, she didn't appear.
"Why her?" Rose's voice suddenly came to his mind, and startled him for a brief second.
Of all the things to remember why would he recall Rose asking him that question?
He was just about to get off of the bed and leave when something caught his attention. When he would think about it later the Doctor would find himself wondering if he had imagine the gold mist that swirled just above Rose's old pillow, but for now it didn't even seem to register with the Doctor.
Frowning slightly the Doctor turned to his right, pulling his spectacles out of his inner jacket pocket and putting them on as he went. Leaning across the bed, the Doctor squinted as his fingers traced the outer rim of the engraving. It didn't take him long to recognize the outer rim of the pattern. Yet when his brain began to process the facts – especially the fact that it was on Rose's wall – the Doctor's breath caught in his throat while his hearts seized.
"What...How?" the Doctor uttered as his fingers frantically gripped the pillow and threw it carelessly aside.
The Doctor shot off of the bed and all but slammed into the opposite wall, his back rigid as he stared at the wall, for there in the weathered stone of the bare room was engraved one word.
Doctor
"Rose," the Doctor chocked out before hurrying back over to the inscription and with a feather light touch he began to trace the engraving with his fingers. The Doctor was astounded to find that Rose had not only engraved his self picked name into the wall, but that she had engraved it in his native language. A language that the TARDIS never translated for anyone.
How could Rose know what his name looked like in Gallifreyan? He had never told her, the only other way she could know was if the TARDIS told her. But then there is the question of why the TARDIS would tell Rose. Or was there something else at play here? Had Rose decided to try and learn his language without telling him?
But then another possibility came to mind, and it was one that gripped the Doctor's very soul with fear.
Bad Wolf.
The Doctor shook his head quickly dismissing the idea, there was no way that Bad Wolf had anything to do with this... Right?
No! Impossible, Bad Wolf was gone. There had to be other ways that Rose would know how to write his name in Gallifreyan, he just couldn't think of any others right now.
Truthfully, the Doctor had no idea how Rose knew how to spell out his name in Gallifreyan and it scared him. The Doctor knew he needed to find Rose, and he needed to find her quickly. Not only because he ached to see her again, but he needed answers that only she could provide.
France
April 1766, Somewhere near Paris
He knew it wouldn't be easy to find Rose. But the Doctor had at least hoped he would have learned something...Anything to tell him where Rose might have been, and where she would be going. For Rose's lingering energy seemed be getting fainter and fainter with each passing day. How old was she now? It had been...oh Rassolin...thirty-six years for Rose now which would put her in her fifties. His hearts sank with the realisation that she was most likely married by now. Married with children and grandchildren. No. That didn't matter, he was going to find her and take her home to Jackie, he'd even take her husband, children, grandchildren with to the 21st century. Yes, at the very least she deserved to live what was left of her life, and her family's lives, in the comforts of modern day England. Get her a nice big house with an impressive garden for Rose's grandchildren to run around and play in. So he would search, sadly the search in this village had once again proven to be not as productive. Everybody he had spoken to had neither seen her nor spoken with her in passing. It was as if Rose Tyler had vanished. Lost to time as some might say which sent a chill down the Doctor's spine.
His blood turned stone cold as another terrifying thought crossed his brain, if nobody had seen Rose than maybe it meant that she was...
"NO!" the Doctor thought to himself viciously, he would not think that. Oh, why did she have to leave the Palace?
Rose was alive. She was alive and he just wasn't looking hard enough for her.
Yes, that was it. The Doctor just needed to double his efforts, and if he had to, the Doctor would go back to the Convent where he knew for a fact that Rose had stayed and start all over again. But from now on, the Doctor was going to search everything: every home, barn, church, he would search every tree, cave and anything and everything where Rose could find shelter even if only for a night.
He didn't care how long it took, the Doctor vowed to find Rose Tyler.
"Even if all I end up finding is her grave..." the Doctor thought and it was a thought that made the Doctor feel like he was enduring a thousand regenerations at once.
Paris
September 1766
When you are a Time Lord there is one thing you are unquestionably very good at and that is knowing how much time had passed. But for the Doctor, time was no longer relative. Oh sure, he had spent the last several months searching for Rose, but that wasn't extremely relevant to his thought process in that moment. The only thing that mattered to him was finding Rose. However, despite his determination, the Doctor still found himself in situations where he had to once again stop some alien incursion bent on taking Earth for their nefarious plans.
It just wasn't fun any more. In fact he could barely recall any of it. Well, perhaps with the exception of people running, screaming and dying; which was eventually followed by the sounds of the aliens in question either surrendering to the Doctor's offer or dying themselves. Then lastly there were the relieved thanks of the people he saved. But with every alien he met and subsequently stopped, the Doctor only had one thought running through his mind.
"Rose would have loved this." He would think.
There were even times where the Doctor would catch himself turning to talk to her, it was starting to drive him mad. He knew that. Well, madder than he already was.
"...she was an angel. Saved my youngest son from loosing his hand, the fault of course was and shall always be mine. Had I not been recovering from the fever there would have been no need for my youngest to do what he did. It was wrong, he knew that true enough. Yet this complete stranger saved him in so many ways. Paid for what he took and even got the owner of the shop to give my boy a job," a man's voice broke through the Doctor's thoughts.
The man's words seemed to have jogged the Doctor's memory, he was sitting at a table at an inn with a goblet of wine in front of him. Not that the Doctor had been drinking it of course, he had been too lost in his thoughts.
The Doctor found a melancholic smile come to his lips, that was the sort of thing Rose would have done.
"And she refused an offer of repayment for the food she paid for. I insisted that I had to repay her in some way, but still she refused until that is my wife told her I make wood carvings. She asked me to make the strangest of things." He continued "Though I must confess myself rather proud of my work, these items were the smallest wood carvings I've ever achieved" He added with a prideful after thought.
Despite himself, the Doctor was now very interested in hearing what the man was saying. The Doctor got to his feet, goblet of wine in hand, and walked over to the bar where the story was being told.
"What did she ask for Francis?" The bar maid asked him.
"Well, the first thing was not strange by any means, asked for a wolf she did," the man now known as Francis said.
CLANG!
The goblet of wine slipped from the Doctor's hand and hit the floor, the clanging sound brought the inn to a stand still. Francis and his audience turned to look at him in shock.
"This woman...did she ask for a box?" The Doctor asked him.
Francis looked at him in surprise.
"She did, yes. Wanted to know if I had any blue paint too, unfortunately I do not have that paint in my possession but she was not too troubled about it. Said she would get it painted another time," Francis finished before adding "do you know her?" he asked eagerly.
The Doctor had to keep himself from running at the wood carver as he closed the distance between them hope now filing his hearts for the first time in months, he frantically pulled out a sketch he made of Rose, he remembered to age Rose accordingly, though it was a guess as to what she would look like now and showed it to Francis.
"Is this her?" the Doctor asked, he felt his hearts racing and his body now felt the same hope that rested in his hearts.
"No, the woman whom helped my son was younger. Is this her mother by any chance?" Francis asked.
"Younger?" The Doctor repeated, that wasn't possible. Rose would be in her fifties by now how could she look young? Pulling out another piece of paper the Doctor drew another sketch, exactly how he remembered Rose and showed the second drawing to Francis.
Francis looked at the second sketch before his eyes widened with excitement.
"Yes, that is the Lady that saved my young Leo, Where is she?" Francis asked eagerly as he looked around, believing that he was now being given another chance to repay his debt to the mysterious woman. At the man's question, the Doctor felt the life drain out of him – feeling as if the room were spinning beneath his feet.
The Doctor lost his balance and two men - whom had come up behind him out of curiosity - grabbed the Doctor his arms to keep him from hitting the ground.
"I...I don't know. I lost her..." the Doctor choked out.
Francis and his audience now looked at a loss as to what to do for the now obviously crushed man before them.
The Doctor had went back into his own mind as he tried to wrap his mind around what he had just learned. Rose had been here, in Paris, she had been in Paris and saved a young boy from facing an unknown punishment. Saved her and hadn't aged a single day...that meant...Bad Wolf had most definitely done something to Rose. So wrapped up in his mind with fear and grief that had slowly been growing with each passing day, the Doctor didn't notice that Francis was telling the two men holding the Doctor up that he would be staying with Francis and his family. If the Doctor had his senses, he would have thanked Francis for his kindness, but right now all he could think about was Rose had spoken to this man.
Spoken to him, saved his little boy and most importantly hadn't aged a single day. Oh, Rose...she must be so afraid right now.
Thanks to a new customer entering the inn, the cold autumn night air hit the Doctor's face and snapped him out of his daze. Allowing for a very important question to come rushing to the surface.
"How long ago has it been? Since you saw Rose?" the Doctor asked, now back under his own steam.
Francis turned to look at the Doctor.
"Is that her name? Rose, suits her, I am sorry to have tell you this but it has been 7 months now since she saved my Leo," Francis told him sadly.
Seven months...
If Rose had been here seven months ago, the Doctor couldn't stop the small fame of hope that erupted in his hearts. Perhaps it wouldn't be so impossible to find her after all. But why wasn't she ageing?
Outside walking along the quiet village street the Doctor was going over everything that he had just learned in his mind. Rose had been living in the past now for a few decades by now and yet, if Francis was to be taken at his word, she hadn't aged. Not a single day.
"I bring life..." Rose's voice echoed in his mind when she was Bad Wolf and suddenly it dawned on him. That was why she survived for so long...Bad Wolf had somehow extended Rose's life cycle phenomenally. But why hadn't he sensed it? He sensed the wrongness of one Jack Harkness, then again the Doctor had always thought that there was something wrong with Jack Harkness. He was getting off track again because the fact of the matter was, Rose's life would now go on for only the universe knew how long. The Doctor ran a hand over his face as a sinking, horrible feeling came over him. Rose was probably terrified, she was out here in this world of the past all alone and it was entirely his fault.
His crimes towards one Rose Tyler just kept growing and growing.
