A/N: This chapter is a complete and utter rewrite to the original "The Contingency Plan" (aside for the first two paragraphs, because I suck at openings and didn't want to have to try to think of another one). I was immensely unhappy with the way it originally went, and in writing the chapter that followed. It didn't feel right. It was jumpy. It was stupid. It was absolute garbage. And, quite frankly, Rose was a bitch. Rose Tyler is anything but that, so I needed to fix that rather desperately. Additionally, the TARDIS bit, I could have and should have slapped my own face for that effort.
So. Now that I have the Oncoming Storm in all his glory all set up and ready to go, I figured that I would bloody well use him for some fun and games. Because angry!protective!Doctor is a fine thing of beauty indeed.
Again, anything that was in "The Contingency Plan" previously has been completely obliterated (25 MSWord pages worth! Ouch!) and means nothing to anything that will follow. I'm not even going to cannibalize any of it for any other chapter .. it's done, and I apologise profusely for ever sharing anything so horrific!
~~oooOOOooo~~~
She licked at her lip and set her jaw and facial expression into a preemptive told you so countenance. "What's your name?"
The horrific speed by which the Doctor's expression shifted from victory to absolute seething fury made Rose gasp and immediately regret her challenge. She and he had never actually gotten into just why he withheld his birth name from her. Rose had simply assumed it was just some Time Lordy mandate that thou shalt not be referred to by the name from the mother or some other such ritualistic reasoning. Assumption being the mother of all screw-ups, of course, she had assumed that he would probably call her bluff and ante up with the info, or just shake it off and admit defeat. No big deal.
Obviously she was mistaken.
Before she could attempt to splutter some form of apologetic retraction of her challenge, however, the Doctor broke from his rigid stance. He raised a finger and worked his jaw as if to speak, but then abruptly turned and stalked out of the room.
Rose gasped at the sound of the Doctor yelling what Rose could only assume was a rather sensational swear word in Gallifreyan. She jumped when their bedroom door slammed hard enough that she could almost feel the shockwave hit into her chest.
"Oh," she whimpered behind her hand as her eyes began to sting. "I crossed the line."
Spencer was quickly around the breakfast counter and at her side. He touched at her arm. "Hell, Rose. What was that?"
She felt the ripple of upset move into her shoulders and shuddered. "Apparently I just committed blasphemy in the highest order."
"I know you're trying for sarcasm there, Rose," Spencer offered softly as he tugged her lightly to attempt to console her with a hug. "But it's not working."
She refused the gesture with a shake of her head and a light press of her hand against his chest. "I should go and apologise."
At the sound of what was likely the entire contents of the top of their dresser being thrown to the ground, Spencer shook his head. "I'm not letting you go anywhere near him right now."
"He'd never hurt me," she assured softly.
"Not intentionally, maybe. But Rose. He's pissed." He put his hand on her shoulder and spared a wary glance toward the top of the stairs. "Really pissed."
"I know," she hiccupped. "I've never seen him like this before." She wiped at her eyes to clear those insistent tears that wouldn't stop falling. "Never."
"And all because you asked him what his name was," Spencer grunted with unbidden incredulity. "Doesn't take much, does it?"
Rose closed her eyes with a shake of her head. "He's worried. Worse, he's worried about me, because he thinks something is happening with me and he doesn't know what it is. The Doctor doesn't handle not knowing very well." She sighed. "Me demanding that he tell me his name was just the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak."
"And I'm not going to pretend to know what that's about, but shit, Rose." He rubbed at her upper arm with soothing strokes. "Look. I'm not letting you go up there right now. Take a walk, a drive, anything. Just give him some time to cool down and then you two talk it out."
"I promise you, Spencer. He won't hurt me if I go up there right now."
"No, he won't, I don't doubt that," he said quickly. "But with tempers flared like they are, stuff might get said that can't be taken back." He gave her a pained look of begging. "The wrong words can hurt a Hell of a lot more than a punch across the face. Trust me, Rose. I grew up in that environment, I saw it every day before my parents finally called it quits."
"We'll be okay," she assured.
"Just, both of you cool down and think first, then talk, then make up, and then have incredible make up sex." He breathed deeply. "Just not right now, okay?"
"I'll apologise." She moved to the base of the stairs and looked up to the landing as she wrapped her hand cautiously around the spherical decoration at the end of the bannister. "I wonder, though, if me just saying I'm sorry will work in this regeneration, or if that was just a nine-thing. He's such a different man, now. Maybe he won't let it go unless I ante up and tell him all about her." Her eyes widened. "For sure he won't let it go. I have no choice."
"Tell him what?" Spencer was obviously confused. "Nine? Regeneration? Rose, what are you on about?"
"TARDIS," she whispered softly.
"Who's TARDIS," he queried with a high brow.
"She's the true love of the Doctor's life, his best friend." She hooked her hair behind her ear and took a single stride up. "And she's here. Well. Sort of."
"Oh no, don't tell me he's already married or something, Rose." He rubbed at his head to stave off a fast forming headache. "God. If I have to keep trying to follow you and your whacked out trains of thought, I'm going to request a pay grade increase."
"No, he's not currently married." she smiled. "At least not this particular regeneration. Who knows about the others?." She snapped her eyes suddenly to her cell phone, which was buzzing angrily on the counter. The Star Wars Imperial March tone began, and Rose drooped. "No. Not Torchwood. Not now."
Spencer snatched her phone from the table and looked at the message on the screen as he walked toward her. His face screwed up into a wince. "You're on, Rose," he muttered apologetically. "Torchwood's calling you in for contact with an Alien craft that breached UK airspace about five minutes ago." He looked up. "Sontaran, of course."
She slouched and shook her head. "Terrible bloody timing."
"Insensitive assholes these alien invaders, eh?"
"You have no idea." Rose rolled her eyes and snatched her phone from him. "The war of Tyler versus Doctor will have to call a ceasefire for now, I suppose." She leaned forward to press her hand on one of the steps to be able to call up. "Doctor!"
At the very distinct sound of the shower running upstairs, she winced. Before she could comment or move, however, Spencer let out a strangled sound. "Uh. You go, Rose," he managed. "You head on in to Torchwood, I'll drive the Doctor in when he's finished. No need to interrupt him right now"
Her look was one of suspicion. "If we're on move-out, then we don't exactly have time to wait for the Doctor to finish up."
"You do if he's been placed on stand-by." He took a step backward and nervously bit at his lip as though ready to receive a rant, slap, punch, or gunshot wound. "It looks like Marcus has separated the two of you and put you on different teams. Right now, you're on the team one, and the Doctor's on the second team."
She was incredibly silent for a long second. Her breath held in her chest for much longer than should have been anywhere near comfortable for a human to withstand. Finally, her voice shifted from between her lips in a very flat, bland, manner. "Oh. This day just keeps improving, doesn't it?"
"Sorry Rose. I heard grumbling about it a few days back," he admitted. "Intra-office relationships and all that bullshit. I should have mentioned it, but I didn't think he'd actually go through with it."
She rubbed tiredly at her eyes. "S'not your fault," she assured. "But if Marcus is looking for a fight, he's definitely found it." She indicated the upstairs with a jut of her chin. "If you think he's mad now, you just wait to see how he'll be when he finds out about this." She indicated an explosion by circling her arms and making a sound like a bomb going off. "Supernova."
"And you're leaving me to tell him. Nice boss you are." He rubbed at his head. "He doesn't often kill the messenger, does he?"
"Just give him a laptop to get started on trace and infiltration intelligence along the way to Torchwood, and he'll be fine." She patted his shoulder. "I promise." She grabbed her keys and handbag and ran to the door. "Oh," she added with a spin to face him. "And tell him that I love him, okay? And make sure that he knows that, yeah? You know. Just in case?"
"In case of what?"
She looked pained. "Sontarans don't take prisoners."
Spencer's face took on a lengthened and horrified expression as she door shut behind her. As he heard Rose's car squeal out of the driveway, the most horrific image of the Doctor and Rose not being able to see each other again appeared in his mind. He reminded himself that their last words to each other were harsh and angry, and his heart broke.
He ran up the stairs, two and three steps at a time and pounded hard on the bathroom door. He wasn't going to let that happen.
"Doctor!"
~~oooOOOooo~~
Rose stood in the centre of five people, back against the wall, deep within the invading Sontaran command ship. She held her weapon – a hand gun – in the space between her bent and parted legs and leaned forward in an attempt to see the pathway ahead of them.
She was completely out of sorts on this mission. This team was not comprised of any of her usual squad. She was not leading the team. She didn't agree with a single one of their mission parameters and movement plans.
What did Marcus think that five soldiers could possibly hope to achieve in a ship carrying quite possibly a few thousand ancient alien warriors? Not much. Not bloody much at all. At least if they were with the Doctor, he could find a way to disable their weapons, maybe decipher a Sontaran command or two to help them through, perhaps even find a way to quite literally smack their potato headed asses and send them off packing into another dimension to let the someone else more equipped to deal with them.
But. No. They were five men (okay, one woman) basically alone, with no intelligence that they could make any sense of, and not enough weaponry to make it out of this new brand level of Hell in one piece.
"Right," the leader of their group ordered in a low voice. "We've made it to their main engine room. Phillips, You, me and Wilson will go in and set the charges. Tyler and Andrews, you stand guard out here. Take out any Potato Head that comes anywhere near the place."
"You're kidding me, right?" Rose challenged. "You're leaving the two of us out here to face the troops alone?"
"That's the plan, Tyler. Got a problem with it?"
"Several, actually," she snarled at him; a petite blonde woman against a six-foot-four hulk of a man. "Where would you like me to start?" She looked around him to peer into the room. "We don't even know if we're in the right place. This is all guess work. We should just stand down and wait for Team Two," she advised. "Let the Doctor disable this thing properly, maybe we'll save some lives and get out of this in one piece."
He sneered down at her. "We've got orders from the top. We set the charges per Marcus' orders, and blow this place to Hell. I'm not gonna sit here and twiddle my thumbs waiting for your boyfriend geek in a pinstripe suit to screw around and get us all killed."
"You know," Andrews offered. "I'm more than okay to go with her option, man." He thumbed to Rose. "I've heard the stories. He might be a pretty boy geek, but he's got more balls than half of the entire Torchwood squad combined."
"Yeah," Wilson remarked in agreement. "He's the guy who put down the Cybermen."
Their Commander pointed a finger into Wilson's chest. "The Cybermen were a bunch of robots and he took them out with a cell-phone code." He thumbed over his shoulder. "We've got live soldiers here and that trick aint gonna work."
Rose shuddered with worry. "Please, can we just wait for the Doctor?"
Their commander curled a lip. "Bloody women. Yeah. You can wait here, grab one of your dolls and plait her hair while you wait for your precious Doctor to turn up and blab his way to a piss-poor resolution, meanwhile half the planet dies." He stood tall to loom down over her. "We, the men are going to follow orders and blow this place to smitherines." He flicked his fingers to Phillips and Wilson. "Set the charges with a ten minute ignition sequence and follow me."
"Ten minutes," Rose yelped. "But our jump pads won't reactivate for another twenty! You'll kill us all."
"For Queen and country," the Commander snaked in response. He stalked ahead of the trio into the room.
"Oh," Rose snarled as she pulled her phone from her pocket. "I don't bloody think so."
Andrews watched as Rose thumbed through her contacts. "What're you doing?"
"Calling for back-up," she answered as she thumbed the screen for a Facetime connection. "I'm not dying today – or any other day – on the orders of that wanker." She pressed her back heavily into the wall as she waited for the phones to connect. "C'mon, Doctor, Answer." Her voice softened to pleading. "Please help me."
No sooner had she requested help, and the Doctor's panicked face appeared on the screen. "Rose, thank Rassilon. Look. Wait for me, okay. Don't board that ship under any circumstances. I'm on my way."
She winced. "Uhm."
"Rose. Please. I mean it. If you've ever trusted me, then listen to me now. This isn't what Marcus thinks it is. Don't board that ship."
Her expression was pained as she let her head roll back against the wall and she scanned her phone's camera around to properly show him where she was. "I had no choice, Doctor. As soon as I arrived they put a jump pad on me and we leapt on board."
The Doctor cursed low in his native language and seemed to take a long and calming breath before he spoke again. When he did is was with even and level tones. "Okay. Can't change that I suppose. Can you show me where you are and maybe I can keep you alive until I get there."
She switched the camera so that she could continue to see his face as she scanned the area around her. She could see his locked concentration, the way he worked his jaw, and the suppressed anger slowly bubbling back to the surface. "The team leader - aka Ass Clown – and two other operatives have entered this room." She aimed the camera that way. "He says it's the engine room, but I'm not too sure about that."
"No," the Doctor confirmed. "That's not the engine room. Too small and there's no guards in place. It's more likely you're reached the laundry room or something else as innocuous."
Both Rose and Andrews gave a snort.
"That doesn't mean that you aren't in Danger, Rose," the Doctor warned sharply. "How many of you are there?"
"As in the group, or left out in the hallway on scout?"
"Right now. Right at this moment. How many?"
She took a breath and prepared herself. "Two."
"Two?" His voice was laced with disbelief.
"Out of five," Rose sighed.
"Get out of there," he demanded desperately. "I don't care who you leave behind, Rose. But, please, get out of there! There is no way that you can possibly hope to contain even a single Sontaran with just two of you."
She shook her head. "I can't. We can't." She raked her hand through her fringe. "We can only jump once every thirty minutes, Doctor. We have at least fifteen until our devices will have powered up again."
"Just hold on for me please, Rose," he begged in a stricken tone. "I'll think of something." His face was wrought with desperation. "Oh, what I would give to have my TARDIS right now."
"Doctor, please," Rose said softly. "Just in case we can't, you know. I just want you to know…"
"No," he barked. "I'm coming for you, Rose. I'm coming to get you, I promise." He smiled with encouragement. "My Rose Tyler doesn't give up now, does she?"
"Oh, I wouldn't…"
There was a loud clatter as the phone fell loudly to the floor. The Doctor let out a yell as he heard Rose scream his name in desperation and then the sound of gun fire.
"Rose!"
