A/N: Phew have I been busy lately!
I haven't had any time to get to anything lately! I found a couple of hours today and figured I'd have a go at another chapter of this fic. It's about time I cleaned up and finished my seemingly abandoned WIP's ... trust me, they aren't abandoned. I'll add to each and every one of them until they're finished.
I do hope you like this chapter... The next chapter is already started, and it's going to be ... uhm ... interesting...
Please enjoy!
~~oooOOOooo~~
Oh blimey her feet hurt.
She didn't know for just how long exactly she'd been running – well, actually she could – it had been approximately ten minutes, fifteen minutes and three seconds. Of course, the Doctor hadn't parked the TARDIS far away from the cottage, and despite the urgency to run directly toward her, Rose Tyler had taken an alternate route toward the mighty time ship.
She didn't quite know why. Something within her mind had warned her not to take the most direct route. If that was because of danger along the direct path, or because the ship herself wasn't so eager to see her, Rose wasn't sure, but she wasn't going to ignore that niggling sensation inside her mind to duck and weave along a more scenic route.
One thing was certain, though, she was looking forward to stepping her cut and grazed bare feet onto the TARDIS threshold and then rushing into the infirmary for a fast bit of dermal regeneration … and then a long and hot soak in the bath.
Ahead in the darkness, Rose heard the thundering footfalls of a large beast. She barely skidded to a halt on the road before the beast cried out in the night and there was a loud thump and the rustle of bushes. Whatever had been riding atop the beast had obviously fallen, and she had to chuckle to herself at the loud departure of the animal and the holler of its rider lamenting its escape.
Good. If there was a would-be attacker on his way toward her, at least he didn't have the speed of a wroddosk to aid in her capture….
…now to hope that this individual had lost his weapon in the fall as well.
Onward and forward, her mind decided sharply. She leaned forward in her run to pick up speed, and tried to ignore the sounds of someone scrabbling on the dusty road ahead of her.
She was surprised by the clarity of her sight as she ran deeper into the darkness. Shadows and figures ahead of her that would normally give her an array of terrifying pareidolian images seemed to appear with much more clarity than ever before. The brilliant flashes of hot lightning, that lit up the landscape with much more luminosity than even the sun itself, merely confirmed that every swaying and stationary image in her mind, truly was as she saw it. Gnarled and broken trees were simply aged and weather beaten trees, not moaning zombies or werewolves coming to get her. Bushes were leafy shrubs, not trolls or hunched monsters ready to gnaw off her kneecaps.
…Of course she wasn't on a very familiar planet, so they all could very well be something vicious…
Her musing levied much of her attention, and she didn't' see the long and lanky body of a humanoid giraffe hurtle out of the darkness and into the road directly ahead of her. Rose inhaled sharply in surprise that ended up caught inside her throat as the intruder curled both arms around her waist and spun them both 180 degrees to put them clearly onto their intended paths.
She wasn't sure if he mumbled any form of apology or even an "I gotcha!" in the span of microseconds that existed between him picking her up, spinning her around, and then setting her feet back onto the dusty road. She had no intention of asking him if he did. All she could think of was to escape his clutches, leap back onto the road, and return to the TARDIS to wait for the Doctor to return.
She wriggled and writhed for freedom in his hold with only a grunt of annoyance as her demand to be let go. She would have said more, but she froze when her captor shifted his nose in close, closed his eyes, and then inhaled a deep breath. Her eyes widened with disgust as he held her scent inside his lungs and then exhaled with a moan.
Her wriggling and writhing returned in earnest.
Oh, but he refused to release her. His arms tightened around her back and his expression filled with a soft and reverent awe, despite the litany of unfeminine sounds that were grunting and growling from between her lips. Her hands thumped hard against his chest, and her legs kicked to find freedom, and yet he didn't move an inch under her onslaught. If anything, he only held her closer.
"You," he breathed out with a longing breath. "You are magnificent."
She froze for a very brief moment at the infatuated glint in his eye and the aching expression of complete adoration in his youthful facade.
Rose felt that this was no time for questioning or contemplating such an expression, and so she resorted to shoving her hands against his chest to push herself to freedom. He finally relented his hold, and she stumbled backward from him back onto raw and torn feet. She slouched to let the pain of her cuts shoot through her teeth in a hiss and pointed a sharp finger of accusation toward him.
"What'dya think you're doin'?" she asked angrily as she struggled to steady her breath.
"I'm sorry," he pleaded, both hands held ahead of him in surrender. "It was either scoop you up into my arms, or ... " he stopped with a frown. "Was it a scoop, or was it a wrap and spin action?"
Rose noticed that his voice was not as broken with exhaustion as it should have been from running. She narrowed both of his eyes and tipped her head to one side to look at him warily. "It was a touch and feel is what it was," she corrected him sharply. "And I don't much appreciate you manhandling me like that."
He rolled his eyes and huffed lightly. "It was either I manhandle you," he amended with a huff in his voice. "Or I barrel straight through you. Which would you prefer?"
Rose pointed off toward the bushes at the side of the road. The solution was easy enough if he had a brain in his head and a chivalrous bone in his body. "You're tall and lanky enough, go over them and –" She stopped sharply when he expelled a grunt of annoyance. Her eyes narrowed in response. "You know what? I don't have time for this. I need to find my friend before he gets himself …" She swallowed in lieu of actually speaking the word that ended that sentence. She didn't want to say it. Oh, no she didn't want to say it.
The man inhaled a deep sniff through his nose and offered her a nod that Rose interpreted as one of agreement. "Quite right," he answered smoothly and with renewed vigour in his tone. "I have a friend of mine in peril as well."
Her eyes widened at that, and she took a closer look at him. Although it was dark with night, she could see the hold of his stance and the worry lines at his eyes. This poor fellow was clearly distressed, despite finding a moment to flirt with her … if she could so call it that.
She softly probed with a question she thought apt at that moment: "Girlfriend?"
His face fell. "Yes," he admitted with a croak in his voice. He quickly cleared his throat and thumbed at his nose in a gesture of faux nonchalance as he tried to overcorrect that answer. "That is to say a girl who is a friend. A good friend. A very special friend in fact." He looked back over his shoulder. "I should really get to her."
Rose understood what must be running through his entire body at that moment. Panic and worry weren't in any way a good combination of feelings. "I'm sorry," she breathed with empathy. "I hope you find her."
"And yours," he queried curiously. "A boyfriend?"
The question was asked in a way that seemed to plead for her to answer negative to that. She tipped her head to one side with curiosity and a pinch in her brow as she answered in a mirror and the one he'd given her. "You mean a friend who is a boy?" she said with sadness. "Yeah. Yeah. Something like that."
Never anything more at any rate.
She felt movement in the air between them, a movement that suggested to her that he was ready to take a step toward her and take her into his arms once more. Despite wanting a little bit of comfort right now, and halfway willing to accept a cuddle from a stranger, she backed away a full step. The Doctor would probably be worried about her by now, and she needed to return to the TARDIS.
She could get her hug from her Doctor the second he returned …. Right after she scolded him and let him know how very mad she was at him for running off and leaving her alone to fend for herself in a house of traitors and filthy scumbags.
She offered him a smile as she thumbed back over her shoulder. "Well. I should be off, you know." She smiled weakly. "He's useless without me."
The man smiled knowingly and donned a slow movement of his head. There was a hint of sadness in his voice. "Much as I'm useless without my friend."
"Men usually are," she shot back with a small smile. She looked to one side, and then to the other, and then looked back at him with a smile that split across her face. She hoped a big grin could lift his spirits; her mother did always say that she had a smile that would light the darkest heart…
…Jackie was very drunk at that precise time, but Rose had never forgotten it.
Her smile widened and she waggled her fingers in a wave. "Well. Gotto go. Good luck."
She spun away when she heard him mutter an affirmative under her breath. She took off running when she heard him with her luck and called her a lady.
She giggled at that. If only he knew her better, he'd never throw that title at her.
Any giggles quickly dissipated as she dove headlong back into the darkness ahead. She could sense the TARDIS' location in the distance – although just quite how she couldn't state for certain – and she knew that in no time at all, she'd be in the safety of the ship.
She felt a rumble on the floor beneath her feet, and then a thumping gasp from up ahead. Rose lifted her head and winced to see better in the darkness ahead, and found herself suddenly rattled from her gait with the impact of an invisible force. The force held like a field, and Rose pushed forward with difficulty, moving as though her entire body was caught in honey.
"What the hell?" she breathed out worriedly. "What's goin" - ?"
Her sentence cut painfully as a cacophony of sounds filled her mind and sucked out her breath. Rose staggered and then stumbled as she lifted her hands up her head to clutch handfuls of her hair and cover at her ears.
"What is this?" She ground out through her teeth even as she pushed forward. She had to get to the TARDIS, and she had to do it quickly. Whatever was going on around them was only getting worse. IF the Doctor was in trouble and needed her help, then she simply had to make sure that she was in far better physical condition, with better running clothes … and shoes … to go rescue her Doctor!
A bright light ahead of her drew Rose's attention away from the desperate cries and pain she was feeling inside her head. Still clutching at her ears and still in a hunch, Rose carefully lifted her head to look toward the light.
The sight ahead of her drew her breath deeply into her lungs and held it firm.
The TARDIS stood in her place at the edge of the small forest. She was unheard and silent, but was by no means still and subdued.
In fact it was quite the opposite.
The blue police box shook and shimmered in her place. Her materialisation warped and shifted, changing in hue and opacity. Her windows blared lights that Rose could swear bellowed out like sirens, bright flashes of yellow and white that tore across the grasses and the gravel like blades. Her single little light upon her room flickered and flashed violently and spun like the beam of a lighthouse, round and around, slitting the air with a sizzling slash of light.
It was as though the sentient ship was in pain, and Rose fell to her knees on the dirt, swearing to the heavens that she could feel that pain as vividly as the beloved ship.
Rose cried out to the ship as she struggled to get to her feet. The soupy air made her movements difficult, but she managed to haul herself to a stand and took a pair of strides closer to the TARDIS.
"What's wrong?" she hollered out with pain lancing her voice. "TARDIS? Tell me! Tell me what's wrong?"
She pushed herself forward and held out her hands ahead of her to reach out and touch the shimmering blue wooden doors. "How can I help you?" she implored desperately.
She wriggled her fingers urgently as she drew yet closer. "Let me help you," she pleaded softly. "Please, TARDIS, let me help."
As her fingers drew to less than an inch away from the ship, the TARDIS let out a loud screeching whine. The lights drew to a fever pitch, and then exploded from the windows of the ship with a force of energy that knocked Rose Tyler onto her ass on the sharp gravel road.
The TARDIS then let out a series of exhausted-sounding whines and groans that eked out and slowed to have her voice whining and wheezing in a manner much more typical to her. The lights died down, as did her shimmering shape, until she stood as a silent sentinel looming over Rose, who still sat heavily in the dirt only a metre or so away.
Rose cautiously rose to her feet and padded warily toward the now silent time ship. She licked at her lip and tipped her head unsurely to one side.
"Are you okay?" she asked softly as she carefully approached. "Am I okay to come to you now?"
The TARDIS huffed a pained wheeze as though nodding, and Rose stepped forward. Immediately she took notice of the TARDIS' new deeper blue tones. She paused at the sight of a St. John's Ambulance decal and smiled as she drew her finger along its perimeter. "Well," she sang lightly. "That's a bit new?"
She looked up to the windows and took her hand from the door to pull her key from between her breasts. The right-side door flew open with a bang, expelling a gust of white smoke. Rose Waved the smoke from her face and deliberately held back from coughing as it cleared. She winced in sympathy.
"I suppose you're as worried about the Doctor as I am, yeah?" She waited a second and then petted the doorframe like a supportive pat. "You and me though," she assured the ship firmly. "We'll find him, right? The TARDIS and Rose Tyler, protecting our Doctor, like it should be, yeah?"
There was an amused hum inside her mind, and Rose gave the Police Sign a wink. "First things first, dear," she cooed as she stepped across the threshold and into the ship. "My feet hurt so much. Do you mind scanning for the Doctor while I get my feet …." Rose's breath drew in as a gasp and she held that breath as she took a look around the console room.
"Oh my God," she breathed out worriedly. "What happened?"
What had happened indeed. Gone were the orange coral struts that welcomed Rose and the Doctor every time the entered the console room. Gone was the grated flooring and the cobbled-together mushroom centre console.
She was still lit with a bright orange, the TARDIS. Her walls – now cavernous - still had roundels in a uniform pattern on her walls – although now they were wide and deep and looked to be able to house all manner of trinkets and tinkering projects abandoned by the Doctor when something more interesting had captured his attention.
Grated metal floor was now polished glass and the Gallifreyan equivalent of steel. The console was larger and more well put together, and her rotor column, still lighted green, seemed to rise endlessly into the ceiling. Rose felt for sure that if she could look up along the glassy column that the rotor cylinder would rise for an eternity into the heavens.
Oh, but she looked magnificent, and Rose couldn't help but remark on that with a reverent sigh in her voice.
"You're beautiful," she said with awe. "Absolutely beautiful."
"And so are you…"
Rose stilled at the male voice she heard behind her. It was vaguely familiar, she deduced quickly, and very likely belonged to the man she'd met on the street moments ago. She was hesitant to turn, although she knew she had to. Having your back to an unknown enemy was more dangerous than facing them head-on, and so she took a deep breath for courage before spinning her cut and bleeding feet on the crystal clear glass floor of the TARDIS.
"Who are you?" She asked dangerously as she finally spun to face him. "I'm warning you," she growled. "If you take another step, then…"
"Then what?" he asked quietly. "If I step forward, what will you do?" He hadn't moved from the doorway of the TARDIS. His hands still clutched the doorframe wither side of him, and only his chest had breached the console room itself. His eyes fell to Rose's chest and he seemed to crumple inside his stand. "Oh, Rose…"
Her eyes widened with horrific speed at the sound of her name leaving his lips. She stalked a stride forward, and then took a step backward. She clutched onto the edge of the console and readied herself to run up the nearest set of stairs…
Wait? Stairs?
He remained in the doorway, with his eyes locked on the gaping reddened hole of her dress. A fearful, remorseful tear rolled down his cheek as he lifted his gaze to hers. "What did they do to you?"
"Who are you?" she demanded. "How do you know my name?"
He suddenly flexed his arms to push himself off the doorway and made a swift approach. He stumbled slightly in his gait as he moved up the ramp, and his arms flailed awkwardly as he struggled to maintain a dignified balance. "I didn't know, Rose. I shouldn't have left you there. I'm so sorry"
Rose stepped backward, and managed to catch herself on the railing. She held on tight and desperately denied the recognition that flew through her mind. She shook her head and inhaled a gulping sob as he drew closer to her. In the light she could see the colour of blood staining the front of his shirt and those doe-skinned pants that had fit him so snuggly. "No. No, please. Tell me you didn't…" Her eyes filled with tears as she lifted her hands to her mouth and shook her head. "You can't be … no … who … who are you?"
The Doctor stepped forward and then stopped suddenly exactly four feet away from her. He swallowed thickly and closed his eyes to let her presence wash over him, basking in the feeling for a moment before he could find the will to answer. All he could vocalise was a soft call of her name.
The air and time itself sifted to the front of him, and he knew without opening his eyes that she was cautiously stepping toward him. It was at her repeated request for him to confirm his identity that he finally opened his eyes once more. When he did, he was met with the most magnificent hazel-green eyes framed with thick jet-black lashes that were long enough to waver in the gentle swish of air that blinking created. He could see the swirl of time's vortex even through the black centre of those perfect hazel irises that held all of her frightened and confused questions.
"It's me," he pleaded with quiet urging for her to see him. "The Doctor. Your Doctor."
She shook her head and sniffed wetly. "No. Please no."
"I regenerated," he said with a swallow that suppressed the words: Just like you did.
Rose's face collapsed into sorrow as her tears escaped her lashes. She shook her head and whimpered. "But you can't," she pleaded. "You just can't. I – I don't believe you."
"Oh not again," he said with a whispered as his eyes lifted to the ceiling of the TARDIS. He let his eyes fall again to hers and smiled weakly. "I regenerated because I had to," he promised her as he took a step closer and opened his arms in an invitation for her to dive into them. "I was ambushed, Rose. Ambushed by very very bad men who .." He huffed and looked down. "Amend that to one very bad man controlling several very bad – but magnificently designed and constructed I must say - robots carrying several very dangerous weapons. I got away from them once. I used my sonic screwdriver to scramble their electronics, and boom crash opera, it took down the whole group… I wasn't so lucky with the second ambush, though…."
"Doctor? Is it really you?"
He stopped and lifted his eyes to hers and gave her a hopeful and desperate stare. "That's me," he answered with a croaked voice. "The Doctor."
"You look so different," she said with a wet giggle that was obviously forced.
"But I'm still me," he assured her with a smile of his own – only this one far more genuine than hers. He reached out for her fingers and slowly took them into his hold. He moved a step closer to her and looked down into her terrified eyes. "Like I was after the gamestation. Same man, just a different package."
She sniffed and nodded, lifting her hand so she could slide her fingertips along his jaw. "What's the first word you said to me," she asked softly, seeking the final clarification.
"Oh Rose," he pleaded sadly. "This isn't your first rodeo. We've been through this before. You should be getting used to it by now." He watched her open her mouth to argue and lifted his head higher to speak the word. "Run," he offered firmly. "The first word I ever said to you was Run. I took your hand in the basement on Henricks, and I told you to run."
She let out a single laugh. "Run," she repeated. She gave him a smile. "Hello Doctor."
"Hello," he repeated back with a smile.
"This is mental," she said with a quiet whisper as she stepped into the circle of his waiting arms and rested her forehead against the valley between his pecs. "You coming home with a different face and all and expecting me to immediately know who you are." She felt his inhale and lifted her head to look up into his face. "Now imagine how you'd feel, Doctor, if it was me who came home with a different face and I expected you to just believe I was … well .. me."
He stiffened a little. His jaw hung low a second. He then snapped it shut to swallow. He then inhaled deeply and cleared his throat.
"Yes, Rose. Uhm. About that…."
