Rose took a deep breath, trying to calm herself as she held The Doctor's hand, and followed him out of their TARDIS. She didn't technically have enough facts to jump to conclusions, but she couldn't lie to herself. From, from what it looked like. It really looked like that was her daughter. Their daughter.
She had a daughter with The Doctor.
Or would-have a daughter. She stole a sideways glance at the man beside her, he hadn't said one word since they landed. She knew that The Doctor was a huge commitment-phobic, and knew that inside his mind he was probably racing through the six thousand other possibilities of what could be happening right now. She knew The Doctor wasn't stupid, and could easily see what was happening in front of him, but she also knew that until he knew the facts, he wouldn't jump to conclusions.
"I have to go." River suddenly said, as they reached the doors of the other TARDIS "I can only stay out of stormcage for so long."
She walked forwards, and hugged Rose tightly, sighing a little. Rose hugged her back, and wondered why River was so sad. "I'll see you around, sweeties. I've got somewhere to be." Was all she said, before zapping out on her vortex manipulator.
The Doctor still didn't say anything, just pushed open the doors of his apparent future TARDIS. The interior was the same, and his future counterpart and future Rose were standing before them, with the girl. The future Rose wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her jacket, and smiled at the group. "Let's have a cuppa tea, yeah?"
Present Rose didn't really know what to say, faced with a future version of herself. Her hair was a little longer, and her eyes seemed a little harder- but her face had not changed at all. Perplexed, she followed the future version of herself through the winding TARDIS corridors, into the kitchen.
"New kitchen." Amy noted, as they walked in and the future Rose put the kettle on.
"Yeah, we fancied a remodel, a couple years ago." The future Rose said, pouring into cups. "Amy two sugars, Rory one, right?" she asked
"How did you know that?" Rory asked
Future Rose rolled her eyes affectionately "Come on Rory, keep up! Future- of course I know how you like your tea, I've only made it one thousand times."
"So we're still around then? You haven't just got rid of us?" Amy asked, folding her arms.
"Hey, we could never get rid of the ponds. You're on holiday at the moment, Barcelona- the planet not the city. A little anniversary gift from us." The future Doctor smiled, walkiNg over to Rose to take his tea. The little girl walked over to the table, sitting on a chair in the corner, swinging her legs. "hey," the future doctor said, leaning down to be at eye level with his daughter "How about, you go and explore the TARDIS, whilst we have the boring grown up chat, yeah?"
The girl smiled and nodded, before running off into the vast interior of the TARDIS. "Are you sure that's safe?" the present Doctor asked, speaking for the first time.
"Yes, yes, the TARDIS will look after her," the older doctor said "Now you, me- whatever. Come on. We need to have a chat."
The present Doctor turned to his Rose, and gave her hand a squeeze before standing up and following his twin out of the kitchen, through the hallway and into a room he didn't recognise. When the older doctor opened the door, they stepped into a beautiful garden. Flowers grew everywhere, there was a swinging bench, and a glass outdoor table.
"This is new" the present Doctor said, looking around and raising his eyebrow.
"Rose created it, I'll take no credit. But it is a beautiful place."
"indeed."
They walked through the vast garden, trailing through the grass and flowers. "Doctor, say something. I know your probably panicking inside now. I do remember what it was like to be you." The older doctor said, smiling a little.
"Sorry, it's just… well. She's you're daughter, isn't she?"
The older doctor just nodded, "I'm going to tell you everything doctor, and then me and my Rose will wipe all of your memories afterwards. You won't remember this until… well, a few days ago for me. It was good reassurance that she would come back."
"Yes, the spacesuit. The silence, why was she there?"
The older doctor sighed, and looked somewhat defeated. "Yes, the silence. That was a while ago for me. Back then I thought they were just those slimy looking fella's, and I defeated them- as you know."
"Well, I helped." The younger doctor joked, but his elder didn't even crack a smile, and his face remained serious. "The Silence, they were much bigger. A whole organisation, a religion, even an army. All with one mission, to kill me.
"We managed to give them the slip, me and Rose, but then Rose got pregnant, and it got harder to run away. They took her, from right under my nose and I didn't even notice. They replaced her with a duplicate of sorts, made out of this… stuff, called flesh. Then they transmitted the signal from where they were keeping her, to the duplicate running around time and space with me. But with a catch… the duplicate, she wasn't pregnant. Told me that it was a false alarm and not to worry, and like- an idiot I believed it. It was only when I noticed things were getting… weird. Rose she wasn't the same, rarely slept, rarely ate. Eventually I figured out she wasn't even there at all, but it was too late. The flesh duplicate started having contractions, god you should've seem Amy and Rory's faces. I had to melt her, stopping the signal."
"What happened next?"
"I rallied my forces, of course, I wasn't just going to give up. I got everyone, Amy, Rory, River, Jack- all of them, all of my friends. And we went to where they were holding Rose, and we went in fighting. We had won, really. The base was under our command, and I got to hold her, my little girl. You'll never know how that feels until you're me, doctor, never. Its unimaginable. Indescribable.
"We checked what they had been running tests for, once I had gotten my Rose back, and found out that the baby wasn't exactly human. And that neither was Rose. TARDIS DNA was in both of them, it was insane. I was so happy, you know? Just imagine it doctor, being able to live the rest of your life with the woman you love, and your child. In the TARDIS, travelling the stars, but then it all went wrong. Kovarian, the woman in charge, she'd given us the slip. She took my child, my daughter and swapped her with flesh. The flesh duplicate melted in Rose's arms, just as they sent the monks after us. Kovarian took my daughter, and fled the stars."
"How long ago was that"
"For us, three years. For our daughter? I don't know, she looks about five or six. She was a month old when they took her."
"I'm so sorry."
"We had almost given up looking for her, but then suddenly the memories came through. The impossible astronaut, the day of the moon. We knew you would be coming, soon, to bring her home to us. But it isn't going to be easy." He sat down one of the benches, his face in his hands. The younger doctor sat beside him. "Tell me about her, about Rose. She's not human, granted, but what's she like now?"
The Doctor smiled "She's happy. For the first time in a long time, she's happy. When you leave here, you won't remember today, but she will still be there. I'll feed you all a false memory, of course, its only courtesy, I'll say she built a dimension canon and came back to you- which isn't exactly a lie."
"Thank you. But god, how am I supposed to… romance her?"
The Doctor just chuckled at his younger counterpart "Doctor, trust me. She'll be the one 'romancing' you. Just make sure you talk to her, and don't avoid or ignore her. She hates that, and she'll make you sorry for it."
This was the younger doctors time to laugh "That sounds like my Rose alright, stubborn as hell. But I do love her, all the same. Even though I never told her."
"Hey, you will. When it feels right, you will. That's all I can promise you."
"Any other advice?"
"Do not, I can't stress this enough, do not ever tell her she's put on weight. Even if she has. She'll slap you, hard."
"Noted."
Rose was exploring the future TARDIS, something that both the present and future doctors had strongly advised her not to do. But since when did she do what The Doctor told her anyway? She hadn't even had a chance to look through the present doctor's TARDIS yet, what with the whole astronaut thing. She wondered about the whole fiasco. Was that the little girl, in the space suit at the lake? Was The Doctor killed by his own daughter? She hoped not, and they had rescued the girl in time. She didn't know if he'd be able to face that.
She didn't know if she'd be able to face it either. She had given this whole, daughter thing, a lot of thought, to be honest. She hadn't even spoken to The Doctor properly since her return. She loved him, still of course, but she didn't know if he felt the same way, not truly. What if he had just shacked up with her in the future because they were stuck together? Maybe he was happy with his new life, and she had just come and caused unnecessary hassle to him. He was happy with Amy and Rory and River. Maybe she should just leave.
"I know what you're thinking." A familiar voice called out. Rose turned, to be faced with her future self, leaning against the walls. "I'm you, remember. I remember this, and I remember what you're thinking. Its not like that."
"Really? How can you be sure?"
"Because I love him, and trust him enough not to lie to me when he tells me he loves me to."
"He said it? For real this time? No 'quite right too' or 'Rose Tyler- I'" Rose scoffed. The older Rose laughed a little, a soft musical laugh. "Oh, you'll get plenty of them coming in the near future, but he'll get over his commitment issues soon enough. Just know that he does love you, even if he doesn't say it. He'll show you."
Rose nodded at her future self's wise words, and dared to move a little closer to herself. "I'm not going to remember this when I step off this TARDIS am I?" she said
"No. we'll wipe your memories, but you will get them back once you're me, don't worry."
"Right okay," Rose said, nodding again "I'm sorry. I didn't even ask, is she okay. Your-your daughter?"
Older Rose nodded, a sad smile on her face "She'll be okay. She's been through a lot, I'm sure she's tough."
"Why was she in that warehouse?"
"The Silence, led by this… awful woman. Kovarian. They kidnapped me when I was pregnant, and fed my consciousness through a… copy. So I travelled through time and space with my doctor, not even knowing I wasn't real. And then once he figured it out, he severed the link. I woke up, nine months pregnant in this… awful place. The Doctor, of course came to rescue me, and we won. But we also lost, because they took my baby."
Rose's hand flew to her mouth, almost as if she was trying to feed the question back inside. She wasn't expecting that. That wasn't something she wanted to know was in her future.
"I-I'm so sorry."
"It's not your fault. You brought her back, and I'm greatfull for that. But, it's just- Kovarian, she took my baby. My whole world packed inside this little tiny person, and she took her. And now, she's back and she's all grown up and she's fin. But I'll never see my baby again."
"I'm sorry, Rose, I really am."
"I know. I remember. You're thinking 'god I don't want this to be my future' but Rose, believe me when I say you do. Because yes there are bad bits, but there are so many good bits too. Adventures, like we always dreamed of. New planets, new times, new friends. Everything you could ever imagine. And you know it gets dangerous, there's always a risk of dying, every day."
"But the doctor is worth the monsters." Rose finished.
"Always."
They all met back in the kitchen the cups of tea long drained and left in the sink. Older Rose had left, to put her daughter to bed, and Rose felt a pang of jealousy for a moment. Rose watched as she kissed her doctor, the way he looked at her, the way she said, quietly so nobody could hear, 'I love you' and he said it back.
She kicked herself, metaphorically, for being jealous. That was her after all, something that would happen in her future. She would be happy, with the man she loved, and he loved her back. The fairy-tale ending she had always dreamed of. But she didn't know how exactly far in the future this was. She turned to her doctor, the man she had just met, and he smiled reassuringly. Both their hands reached out and clasped together, and Rose knew she had nothing to worry about.
Hehe sorry, I know it's shorter than the last few. Not many chapters to go in this story really, just got a few more lose ends to tie up in relation to River and Jack, please review! Also It Started At The Asylum, next chapter should be up soon!
