a/n: I am not an expert on geysers but it was fun reading about them. If you squint, the sciencey geyser part is sort of based on how a cold geyser works. Not really sure about this chapter, please let me know what you think.

Disclaimer: Nope still don't own Doctor Who.

The Doctor was gradually lowered into the deep blackness of the old well. He looked up once briefly, to see Perry and Malcolm who smiled and nodded wishing him luck, before darkness engulfed him. He was lowered at a slow but steady pace which gave him time to study the interior of the well. There was very little evidence of water and the walls appeared to be coated with dirt and a gray green lichen. He could see nothing beneath him but the inky abyss. The only sound was the rope and pulley that lowered him down and occasionally Malcolm asking him if he was okay. Deeper and deeper he descended and still he could not see any sign of water or the bottom of the well. As the obsidian silence of the well swallowed him he could not help but think of another pit he was once lowered into. He only hoped for his and Rose's sake that anything encountered in this place would be of a kinder, more terrestrial nature.

After being lowered for ten minutes he stopped. He still could see nothing below him. He yelled up to Malcolm and Perry to keep going but they didn't respond. Suddenly he felt the rope jerked upward once and stop. Without warning, he felt himself falling down faster and faster until he felt wind rushing past him. If this had been any other time, the feeling would have exhilarated him but with his need to find Rose so urgent, he felt tiny pin pricks of fear clawing their way into his mind.

Just as quickly as he started his free falling journey, it abruptly ended. He adjusted the head lamp and pulled out his sonic. The walls of this part of the well were damp and shined with wetness on the ebony like stones. There was a musty, earthy smell all about him. The sonic was identifying large quantities of rift energy so he knew he was close to his ultimate destination. He looked down into the depths and suddenly, he could see something beneath him. A thick, viscous black fluid sparkling with some type of lights was pooled beneath him.

"Oh come on! It's hardly fair for you lot to get me down here and stop me now just out of reach! Really, and while were talking about it, seriously what is that muck down their, that smell's disgusting. Blimey, couldn't a bunch of Eternals come up with something a bit more creative then a dark, dingy well," the Doctor shouted at the darkened space.

He scanned the fluid with his sonic and determined it was a mixture of water, mud and plant life intermixed with rift energy. This did not, however, account for the sparkling lights which seemed to move about in the murky pool. There was also the dilemma of how he would get down there since the rope was no longer lowering. The Doctor carefully started swinging back and forth until he was able to grip the side of the well. Unfortunately, the walls were slippery and he lost his grip. He reached into his pocket and just past the small pebbles Perry had given to him, he found a pocket knife. He opened the blade and the next time he swung to the wall he embedded the blade into a crevice between the stones so he could maintain a grip. He slid his trainer clad feet across the wall trying to find purchase to see if he could climb down the side. Unfortunately, the wall was slick and smooth and he could find no grooved notches to use to grip it.

"Right, so I have to get down there preferably without falling. Think think think. Eternals like to play games, like symbols. Oh, this is like a fairy tale, like Rose and I have been thrust into old earth myths and tales. Water, wells, mythology oh Norse mythology! Mimir's Well, a well of knowledge, of course Odin had to give up an eye for the knowledge."

The Doctor looked down at the dark water beneath him and winced, "but I like my eye, I'm very attached to my eye. Maybe not Mimir's Well then. Hmmm. Germanic and Celtic people often threw coins or armor into a well in hopes of gaining favor or wishes from the water deities. Where's a water deity when you need one! Caolainn, Celtic Goddess of Wishing Wells, you down there? Well I suppose it couldn't hurt to give it a go."

The Doctor reached into his pocket but could find no coins. He did however find, Perry's good luck stones. He took a few of the colored stones in his hand and soniced them just for scientific research. They were not typical Earth stones.

"Perry you gorgeous gardener you!"

Perry's stones were imbued with a quality which was similar to his empathic abilities with the flora of the garden. The Doctor focused his psychic abilities on the stones to try and further embed them with his "wish" and dropped them into the pool beneath him. He closed his eyes and concentrated as hard as he could. The pool beneath him began to ripple with movement the lights flashed across the water faster and faster as a solid surface formed along the edges of the pool as the plant life surfaced and formed a thick mat of black green moss. The Doctor smiled.

"Thank you ," he whispered to Perry, the sentient plant life beneath him and just for luck any water deity who may have been listening. The Doctor pointed the sonic at the rope and he dropped a bit more until finally the latch holding his harness to the rope released him. He dropped easily onto the spongy moss surface around the dark pool. He knelt down and gazed into the water and studied it further. It was then that he realized what it looked like. He was staring at constellations of stars in the dark depths. The glow from the stars in the pitch black pool shined an eerie light in the darkness of the well.

The Doctor could not resist his curiosity. He could feel that little imp of inquisitiveness in the back of his mind pushing him to learn and find out more; What is this place? What is in the pool? With great care and deliberation he gently lowered his had to the murky fluid. Millimeters from touching it, he stopped and closed his eyes. Deep in his mind, in a place, he wasn't used accessing, he felt what he could only describe as the pulse of the universe. In his prior form, he had done his best to block out that feeling. It had been too painful to sense things as they became after the Time War, after so many had died. Now, it wasn't painful but almost a revelation. He didn't know if it was because the pain of the Time War had dulled, if it was being in another universe or if it was due to now being part human.

"Well, look at you," he whispered with wonder.

As he stared at the stars in the pool, he was disturbed to realize he was looking at the Kasterborous system, right where Gallifrey used to be located.

"But why there? Why are you showing me this? What does this have to do with Rose?" he asked with the slightest bit of agitation. Curiosity had metamorphosed into irritation. He sat back at the edge and brought his hand away from the pool. Soon the stars in the pool moved into a new formation, one he did not recognize.

As he gazed at the new formation, he heard it. Whispers, echoing around the deep well, in a softly spoken voice, whispering one word "Doctor." He knew immediately who it was.

"Rose," he shouted, his echoing voice intermingling with hers forming a melody of vowels and consonants reverberating in this confined dark world. He looked up, still unable to see the light from the top of the well and realized he was cocooned in darkness with only the small island of plant life and the pool of stars before him.

"Rose, can you hear me? I'm here Rose. Please, please come home Rose." he pleaded with her, his voicing cracking. He looked back into the pool and noticed the surface was rippling.

"Whoever you are, I know you have her. I've seen you. I won't ever stop, do you hear me, Never! Not until my Rose is here, back home," he shouted, his anger increasing at the thought that Rose was being kept from him. He remembered the dream and Rose kneeling close to the water and being pulled into the pond. Once again, he knelt near the black pool and stared into its depths. The stars in the water swirled and shimmered until they filled the pool with light. As the light increased, it revealed one of the wall's of the well had the same hieroglyphics that were on the obelisks located near the top of the well. The Doctor also noticed that he could hear Rose's voice again only this time much clearer. He looked at that hieroglyphs on the wall and realized they were not random and were actually ancient earth alchemy symbols but it was more than that. The alchemy symbols were layered on something else which is why he didn't realize what they were at first. Someone had layered old earth alchemy symbols on top of old High Gallifreyan writing.

"I know you," he whispered. "But why are you here? How did you even get here? Oh, oh that is clever! My Old High Gallifreyan may be a bit rubbish but I am clever!" he shouted to whatever or whoever was listening.

He quickly pulled up some bits of the moss and created a patch of it in almost a nest. Into the moss nest, he placed some of Perry's empathic stones, the MST he created when they first found the TCB and a small piece of coral the other Doctor had given to him at Bad Wolf Bay. He reconfigured the MST to manipulate the energy produced by the combination of the coral, stones and water saturated moss and activated it. This would cause a natural interaction with the rift energy creating a stable gateway. This gateway could be used to access different realities, one of which, if he was very very lucky would be the one into which Rose had fallen. He looked back at the pool and immediately noticed a difference. The liquid looked less murky, a bit clearer but the viscosity was still definitely thicker than standard earth water. He removed his head lamp and positioned himself directly over the pool, his face as close as he could get to it without touching and whispered her name with an emotion that came from deep within himself. His eyes widened as he could see Rose's face in the pool. He kept calling to her and watched as she ventured closer and was so close he could see her hair floating just beneath the surface of the pool. He called to her one more time and knew what he had to do. He closed his eyes and whispered, "please." He opened his eyes, called her name and submersed himself into the pool up to his waste reaching out to grab her.

The fluid was thick and cold and almost numbed him from the chill of it, but he wouldn't stop until he reached her. He struggled to make his way through the thick substance which warped his time senses and his relative spacial perception so he had no idea how long it took him to reach her. Grasping her, was like standing in the light of a star warming him against the cold chill of this strange inner space he now fought his way through. He gripped her tight and tried to find his way back to the other half of his body, pulling and battling to make his way from whence he came, never letting go of her. Fear and exhilaration filled him as well as a concern that they would both suffocate in his this conduit between realities. Quickly he started to feel them move faster and faster almost as if being pulled by some force, like a magnet pulling iron to it. Just when he thought they would die in each other's arms, they burst forth from the pool.

He fell backwards with Rose landing on top of him. Oddly, even after being submersed in the thick fluid of the strange pool, neither had a drop of water anywhere on them. The Doctor opened his eyes and gazed at Rose lying on top of him trembling slightly. He smiled wondrously at her. When she opened her eyes and saw him, her expression softened and tears fell down her face. Before he could say one word, her mouth was on his, her soft lips caressing his gently sucking his bottom lip into her mouth, tasting and branding him with such love and passion. He breathed her in, moaning into her, holding her tightly against him like she was the sustenance he could not live without. When she finally parted from him, she smiled and held him tightly, running her hands through his unkempt hair and across his rough unshaven face.

"Hello," she said softly against his chest.

"Long time no see," he barely croaked out, holding her tight.

"Well, been a bit busy," she replied remembering this same conversation oh so long ago and letting go long enough to look lovingly at him but still holding him to her tightly. "Let's never do that again, okay," she said tears still glistening in her eyes.

"Nope, never," he replied as he sat them both up.

They grinned at each other in a way that only they could. Surviving the impossible was just so them.

"Right, so where are we and I swear if you answer me with a riddle or philosophical rubbish, I'm gonna slap you," Rose teased.

"A bit out of sorts are we? Must have been some trip for you?"

"You have no idea. Let's just say, I never want to play croquet ever again," she answered as she rose to her knees and looked around running a hand through her hair.

"Croquet? What's wrong with Croquet, its such a civilized, gentile game."

"Doctor, there was nothin civilized about this game or the loonies who were playin it. Can we talk about this later? I just want to go home and have a hot shower."

"Easy peasy!" the Doctor said snapping his fingers as he stood up feeling a bit more bubbly and joyous now that Rose was back.

"Doctor, are we in some sort of cave and what is that?" Rose asked pointing at the rope which appeared to be hanging from the black nothingness.

"Oh, we're at the bottom of an impossible old well in the middle of the garden which as it turns out is a gateway between dimensions, filled with rift energy and with some truly impossible symbols written on the wall. I sort of had Perry and Malcolm lower me down but then got caught up in some cosmic eddy which dropped me down here. A bit odd that, wasn't expecting it; the ride down was a bit fun though." the Doctor answered her as he practically bounced to the solid ground beneath the rope.

Rose just stared at him. "Oh is that all. Don't suppose anything else happened while I was in nether world filled with nutters?" she asked staring at him.

"Nether world?"

"Yep, they may have mentioned you were gettin a visitor, did you?"

"Um well yes, actually I did. Who are they?" he asked in a curious tone.

"Oh ya know Eternals, bored lot of ancients" she answered sort of waiving her hand in the air as if it was nothing.

The Doctors eyes grew large and round. "You played a game of croquet with Eternals!" he shouted at her. "Rose, what did I tell you about how dangerous they are!"

Rose stood up in front of him crossing her arms. "Well it wasn't like I had a choice! I had to play their games, wasn't like I enjoyed it. You didn't answer my question, which one came to see you?"

The Doctor deflated a bit, looked up at the rope, "Ya know, your right we should talk about this later. We need to get topside before Malcolm calls Pete. Somehow I think if Jackie hears about this, there'll be a slapping." he said neatly avoiding answering her question.

Rose looked at him and knew it must have been bad. She walked over and put her hand on his arm. "Doctor, you look awful, like you haven't slept. It's just, I'm worried about you. When we get out of here, we have a lot to talk about."

"Hmm, yes, talk," he answered while looking around sonicing the walls and whatever was above them.

Rose saw that she wasn't going to get anywhere with him so she walked across the mossy surface over to the symbols on the wall that looked like they were written in chalk of some kind. She gently touched them and then turned toward the Doctor who appeared to be muttering in some strange alien dialect while slapping the sonic against his hand.

"Doctor, if we reach the rope, how we gonna get out?"

"Well, we need to trigger the energy that whisked me down here," he said while staring upward.

"What if we were to trigger the energy in the pool that pushed us out? Couldn't we get it to work like I dunno know, a geyser?"

The Doctor stopped and looked at Rose, a huge manic grin on his face. "Oh I missed you!"

The Doctor pulled the remainder of Perry's stones from his pocket and knelt by the MST. Rose knelt down beside him.

"Doctor, what's this? How can I help?"

"Well when you were a wee little Rose, did ya ever make a wish and throw a coin into a fountain?"

"Yeah sure but what does that have to do with this?"

"Well there might be a way to use a wish and when I say wish I mean a really strong psychic message imbued in one of these stones to cause a reaction in the pool," he said showing her the stones in his hand.

"You've got magic stones, sort of like the beans in Jack and the beanstalk?" Rose asked skeptically.

"Not magic Rose, there's no such thing as magic and they weren't magic beans. They were genetically mutated seed pods from the planet Crescere that happened to find a suitable soil on Earth," lectured the Doctor while gently laying the stones down on the moss near the MST.

"Right, next thing you're gonna tell me you were Jack and the Brothers Grimm got it all wrong," Rose said looking at him expectantly.

He looked up at her a bit indignantly, "Well they did! Honestly, magic beans! At least they got the giant part right. Jack was really Jacey, a brilliant young girl, she saved the world too. The whole beanstalk thing was a complete accident, I mean one little trip and before you know it there's a huge, insidious vine popping up and it's all giants and chaos," he said gesturing with his hands, face animated while he worked with the MST. He paused and looked up, "Sort of brilliant now I think about it. Jacey and her Mum did well though, a few lumps of gold sorted them."

Rose just stared at him and then smiled brightly "You know Doctor, you could write a book just out of describing how the Brothers Grimm got it all wrong," she laughed.

He looked up at her and grinned. "So you think I should keep writing then?"

"Oh but you have to, it would be brilliant! Besides, I love hearing about your adventures, especially all the stuff that's wrong in the history books."

"Welll, we'll see once we get out of here. Speaking of which, I'm just about done."

"So what's gonna happen with the stones and how's it gonna get us out?" Rose asked.

"Well the stones are going to pass on an psychic message to the sentient plant life beneath us and it's gonna sink down into the pool, creating two distinct layers. The lower layer of the water will become suffused with CO2, the pressure will build as the CO2 bubbles expand and it will shoot upwards to release the pressure and guided by rift energy, shoot us up back to the proper well where Perry and Malcolm are waiting to pull us up. All we need to do is get up the rope, drop the stones into the pool and use the MST to activate everything."

"Doctor, how we gonna get up to the rope," Rose asked nervously.

"Wellll, you're gonna climb up on my shoulders and reach the rope. Then, you're gonna fuse my belt to the end of it with the sonic. You shimmy up the rope and I'll use the belt to climb up after you and we'll use your um undergarments to tie you into my harness."

"Hold on. You mean you want to use my brazier to somehow tie me into the harness thingy? Doctor, um I don't see…"

"Just trust me Rose it will be fine. Now about that undergarment?

Rose quickly shimmied out of her violet blue brazier in a move that any gymnast would envy without ever lifting any other article of clothing. The Doctor was amazed by this feat and pulled his belt off as well. The Doctor stuffed the blue undergarment into one of his pockets and handed his belt to Rose. Next, he put the mst, coral, sonic and imbued stones in his other pocket. Rose climbed up on his shoulders and he boosted her up to the rope and handed her the sonic so she could fuse the belt to the rope.

"Doctor its done and feels secure."

"Okay Rose, I need you to shimmy up the rope to the harness latch."

Rose climbed her way up with minimal rope burns to her hands. Once she was secure, the Doctor jumped up and grabbed the end of the rope and swung to the wall where the knife was still embedded.. Rose grabbed the knife to try and steady the rope so the Doctor could use the wall as leverage and climb and shimmy his way up the rope. Once he reached her, they settled into a comfortable position, he pulled out her brazier and she handed him the sonic.

"You gonna stare at it or use it?" Rose asked giggling a bit as the brazier dangled in front of the Doctor.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "I think later on I should describe to you the many uses for this handy little item. Rose Tyler you would be stunned and amazed at all the things you can do with a brazier, aside from the obvious of course," he said as he soniced it.

Rose laughed at the thought of the Doctor with his sexy specs on lecturing her on the many uses of a brazier. She could just see him in full professor mode with diagrams on chalkboards as well as pointing out the elasticity and scientific theory about braziers using some little pieces of lacy lingerie as examples. This thought made her giggle uncontrollably not to mention blush all the way down to her tippy toes which were curling at the thought."

"What?" he asked just looking at her with that "I don't know what I've done but she's smiling so it must be good look."

"Nothin. How we coming, you ready to strap me in?"

"Yep, hang on," he said as he stretched the bra in a manner it was clearly not designed for and would never work without Time Lord tweaking.

"Right, now hang on tight, this may get a bit tetchy," he told her as he gripped her firmly to him. He put his sonic in his pocket and pulled out the stones which he gave one more psychic push to before dropping them into the pool beneath them. He then reached in to retrieve the MST and activated it holding it in his hand while he wrapped both arms around Rose.

There was a wet, rumbling noise beneath them and the walls of the well started to vibrate.

"Is it suppose to do that?" Rose asked.

"Umm maybe," he answered. "Rose close your eyes and hang tight, don't let go no matter what."

Rose shut her eyes tight, wrapping her arms and legs around him and whispered "I love you" into his ear. Seconds later there was a whoosh and they were hurtling upwards. The air pressure changed slightly and they were jerked once to the side and then thrust upward, winds howling around them as the gained momentum. Soon the wind was dying down and Rose heard someone yell "Doctor." The next thing she knew she was laying on a stone surface looking up into a dark sky filled with stars and feeling the damp chill of the night air.

She felt a warm blanket and looked up to see Malcolm fussing over her.

"Malcolm! She shouted with joy and wrapped him in a big hug. Thank you for helping the Doctor. Where is he, is he okay?"

"Oh yes, he's fine, better than fine. He just wanted to assure the well was capped and everything was secure so we didn't have a multidimensional implosion," Malcolm recited as if that was the most normal thing in the world.

"Of course," Rose responded. She looked over and saw the Doctor fussing with some equipment near what she assumed with the top of the well. "Malcolm what happened, did the geyser shoot us out of the well?"

"Geyser? Really, how extraordinary. The Doctor never mentioned a geyser. There is certainly no indication in the geological records of anything that would produce a geyser. I must re-check the readings and the geologic surveys of this area," Malcolm said as he walked back over to the Doctor.

After Malcolm left, Perry came over and handed Rose a cup of hot tea.

"Oh Perry! Thank you, just what I needed. Don't suppose you can tell me how we got the rest of the way out of the well?"

"I am pleased you are home Rose. Your emergence from the well was quite spectacular. Malcolm and I were enjoying a cup of tea when there was an unusual sound emanating from the well. We called to the Doctor and he answered followed by a prodigious amount of wind rushing out of the well. We immediately, began the process of pulling up the rope. Unfortunately, you were swept up in the concussion of the wind and I'm afraid you took a fall off the side of the well. The Doctor was most concerned but deemed you undamaged."

"Oh well that's good," she said taking a sip of tea. "Thanks for bein here for him Perry. I know he needed help."

"The plants in the garden require the light of the sun for photosynthesis, to grow and thrive, so is it with the Doctor. He requires his Rose. You should rest, when the sun rises, its light shall reveal the wonders of the garden as well as all that transpired during its absence," Perry said while patting Rose softly on the shoulder.

Rose settled down and looked over to the well watching Perry and the Doctor work. She watched Malcolm packing up the equipment. When Malcolm picked up the rope and harness, she burst out laughing. Rose would never forget the look on Malcolm's face as he delicately lifted up the violet blue Time Lord altered brazier modified harness.

a/n: Oh I hope all that made sense. Was in a bit of a dilemma with how they were going to get out of the well. Crescere is Latin for grow