Chapter 10 - Rise of the Cybermen and The Age of Steel
Slowly, the Doctor gathered each book and returned them to their proper place, a small corner of a shelf at the end of all of his other Gallifreyan books. There were only five books about imprinting, and none of them specialized on the subject. Anything on it was either a small section, a footnote, or a thin, inconsequential chapter.
He flicked the switch on the lamp to turn it off, and faced the door. He buried his fingers through his hair, more nervous than he cared to admit. What Rose Tyler didn't need right now was a skittish Time Lord. No, he needed to be confident and inform her of the new information that he now had, to be able to reassure her of his odd behavior that she had noticed. He snorted. She probably noticed all of this from the start of his regeneration, observant and nosy as she was. She would have questions the more they talked, and as much as he wanted to answer all of them, the books left much to be desired in terms of detail.
"Right," the Doctor said to himself with a slight nod. Squaring his shoulders in an attempt at collectedness, he exited the library, the TARDIS shutting off the rest of the lights as he went. Once he talked to Rose they could go back to the library together, to reopen the books for her sake, and to make sure he didn't miss anything.
As the Doctor rounded a corridor, laughter filtered through the halls. He could hear Mickey, but, of course, Rose's laughter was the clearest. So clear that it soothed his buzzing brain and the uncertainty in his chest. At the sound of her voice, his shoulders dropped a little, his posture gradually relaxing while he walked.
The TARDIS had him navigate to the console room, where Mickey was leaning up against the console and Rose was sitting in the jump seat. Mickey asked her something. Rose gave a reply, then giggled. At Mickey's raised eyebrow, Rose had probably made an inside joke, but the Doctor wasn't paying much attention to their conversation. He was just glad to hear and feel Rose's happiness. She had made herself scarce since the argument about the mirror, seventeen-and-a-half hours ago.
Even though they were all still in the TARDIS during that time, he'd still missed her. Rose's emotions had been so tumultuous, making him take longer with the reading than it should have. At some point, with almost painful effort, he had to tune her out to concentrate. Every time he paused his reading, the link would involuntarily reach out for her, desperate to feel her emotions and presence. But he had to continue ignoring it, had to continue reading. It would do neither of them any good to stop in the middle of his research, and Rose probably wouldn't have been up for seeing him just yet.
Now, she was in the console room. Despite her laughter, the Doctor knew that Rose hadn't forgotten their argument. All he needed to do now was talk to her, but Mickey was still standing there.
The Doctor sprinted up to the console. "Hope you're not making fun of me," he said. "All that giggling and smirking, I'd have thought you'd be talking to Sarah Jane, not Mickey."
"What, am I not allowed to smile, either," Mickey scoffed. He turned back to Rose. "I'm not allowed to do anything 'round here. Can't even explore this ship, and I might as well live here at this point."
The Doctor gave the ceiling a mischievous grin. He had asked the TARDIS to lock and block off most of the rooms when Mickey did some exploring without him or Rose. The Doctor certainly didn't want the idiot accidentally sticking his nose where it didn't belong.
"You don't live here. You-" He pointed to Mickey. "are just a passenger. And we-" He pointed to himself and Rose. "are your tour guides." He paused to look at Rose again. "Rose…I was wondering if we might talk about something."
"Actually," she said, leaning back. "Mickey said he was ready to go somewhere else."
"Yeah, that's fine." The Doctor crossed his arms. "But before we do that, can we-"
"Doctor," she interrupted, slowly shaking her head. "Not now, just…not now."
"Rose, this isn't about what happened…" He glanced irately at Mickey, not really wanting to talk about anything in front of him. "…after France. I mean, it's sort of about that. And by sort of, I mean-"
The TARDIS gave a small jostle, and the Doctor thought he saw the lights blink around them. "What's this, then," he asked aloud as he began circling the console. He might have to wait to talk to Rose after all. "What'd you do that for," he said to the time rotor while giving the console an affectionate stroke.
"Is there something wrong with her," Rose asked, standing up, but not moving away from the jump seat.
"Could be nothing, could be something," the Doctor shrugged. "The time vortex is full of energy. Maybe something just caused a bit of turbulence." After glancing at the monitors, he resumed his circling, flipping some levers as he went. "Whatever it was, it only lasted for that short second. Still, couldn't hurt to activate some old stabilizers I haven't used."
"Is that why we almost break our necks every time we land," Rose chuckled.
"Cheeky, and no," the Doctor said with a grin. He paused when he saw Rose slump back onto the jump seat. "Everything all right?" As he asked this, he probed his connection to her, searching for any abnormalities, but the link was silent.
"I'm fine," she said after seeing his look of worry. "Just…didn't get much sleep last night." After she said that, she avoided his eyes.
The Doctor looked down at the lever he was holding, and then he pushed it and moved on to the next one. Clearly, she wasn't ready to do any talking at all yet. And now the TARDIS seemed to be acting up. What was he to do?
"Is there anything I can do," Mickey asked, coming up beside him.
The Doctor shook his head. "Not really. Bit complicated. Leave it to me."
Rose rolled her eyes. "Don't mind him, Mickey. He's only just started to let me help with the console." At Mickey's disappointed half-smile, she turned back towards the Doctor. "Isn't there anything he could do? He's always been good with computers. Maybe he could do something with the monitors?"
Mickey nodded hopefully. "Whatever you need me to do, boss."
The protest died on the Doctor's lips when he made eye contact with Rose. Blimey, those hazel orbs were gorgeous. He flexed his jaw before setting back to his task. "Well, come to think of it, there's a button near the monitors that needs to be held down."
Mickey dashed to where he was indicating. "This one?" At the Doctor's curt nod, Mickey pushed a finger down on the button and held it there. "Let me know when you want me to let go."
The Doctor pushed the last lever down. "All right, then," the Doctor said as he moved to sit down next to Rose. "That should do it for now. Give it a bit, and then we can go wherever. So, what were you ladies so tickled about earlier?"
Ignoring Mickey's grumble of annoyance, Rose said, "I was just telling him about some of the things we've seen."
They reminisced for a long while, smirking cleverly and teasing each other with each story. Well, they were Rose and the Doctor's stories. Mickey didn't have much to contribute to conversation since he hadn't seen what they saw. At times, Mickey even struggled to make sense of some of the things they said, especially the intricate names of planets and people. Still, he nodded and grinned every now and then, trying to stay in the loop.
"Oh," Rose gasped, smiling nostalgically. "Do you remember that one asteroid thing, where everything was, like, half the size of Earth?"
The Doctor's eyes lit up and he chuckled as he spoke. "And that weird munchkin lady with the big eyes? And then the way she looked at you! And then she opens her mouth and fire comes out!"
"I thought I was gonna get frazzled!" Rose shook her head with mirth, but the movement made the dizziness she'd been feeling more pronounced. She put her fingertips gingerly to her forehead.
"Yeah, one minute she's standing there, and the next minute-" The Doctor opened his mouth wide to roar dramatically.
"So, where was that, then," Mickey asked. "What happened?"
The Doctor's focus was now completely on Rose, who was standing up and rubbing her eyes. "Rose, what is it," he asked, pushing off the jump seat.
"It's nothing," she shook her head, holding her hand out to indicate that he didn't need to follow her. "I told you, I didn't sleep much. Just gonna get some tea, then I should be good."
"Actually," Mickey spoke up. "I could use some, too, please." He chuckled jokingly. "Who knew holding a button down could be thirsty work, eh?" Rose only nodded and slowly started to walk away.
"Hang on." The Doctor's eyebrows came together. "What are you doing that for," he asked, pointing to the button under Mickey's finger.
Mickey gave him an odd look. "Because you told me to."
"Ah," he nodded. "And when was that?"
"About half an hour ago," Mickey replied. The Doctor nodded more slowly, and told him to let go. "Wait, how long's it been since I could've stopped?"
The Doctor scratched his ear. "Ten minutes? Twenty minutes...Twenty-nine?"
Mickey went slack-jawed. "You just forgot about me!"
"No, no, no," the Doctor said, shaking his head rapidly. "I was just-just calibrating. I know exactly what I'm-" The Doctor was cut off by the sound of thudding on the grating. He spun around.
Rose's unconscious form was lying on the floor in front of the hallway entrance.
"Rose!" the Doctor shouted.
Neither him nor Mickey got a chance to run towards her before they were doused in a sea of sparks that sprayed from the console. The TARDIS hissed sharply and groaned, and the room began spinning and tumbling wildly, throwing her passengers against the floor and rails.
The Doctor only vaguely heard Mickey's cries over the distress of his ship, he was too focused on trying to locate Rose, but the room was still whirling and he couldn't make sense of anything. With every fiber of his being, he willed his subconscious to latch onto her presence so he could start to make his way to where she was. The link gave him nothing. It was so unresponsive that it seemed almost lifeless, and it made the Doctor feel dreadfully cold.
Not being able to do much else, the Doctor dragged himself to kneel against the console. Straining upright, he read the monitors, and he stopped breathing. Slamming his eyes shut, he clung to the console to brace himself, but it did no good as he was slammed back onto the floor as the TARDIS crashed.
Just like that, everything came to a halt. No more madness.
Still disoriented, the Doctor struggled to his feet, and stumbled to where Rose was laying. He dropped to his knees beside her. She didn't appear injured. In fact, she looked like she hadn't moved at all during the crash landing. He took her face in his hands and winced. She felt far too cold for his liking, and her skin had turned pale.
The Doctor shifted to let Rose's head rest on his thighs instead of the metal floor of the TARDIS. Normally, touch brought on a different clarity to his bond to her, but he still couldn't feel anything. The link was ever there and intact, but incredibly silent and listless. Swallowing roughly, he put his fingers to the side of her neck.
Mickey was up and about at this point, and was sprinting over to them on shaky legs. "What the hell just happened," he hollered.
"Not now, Mickey," the Doctor growled, unable to concentrate over the sound of Mickey's voice and heavy footfalls.
Mickey stopped beside them and crouched down. "But what was it? And what's going on with Rose?"
"Just shut up, damn it!"
Mickey's eyes widened and his mouth slowly parted, as if he were suddenly being yelled at by a stranger. The Doctor realized that while Rose had seen many sides of his personality, Mickey hadn't. He had known the Doctor to be fun-loving, courageous, and mad as a hatter. He had never seen him this upset or angry, almost as if he was losing control of something.
The Doctor blew out a puff of air and avoided eye contact with the other man. "Just stop…everything….for a minute."
The Doctor placed his fingers back on Rose's neck. She felt so cold, so limp, and it terrified the Doctor like nothing else. Everything in the darkening console room was absolutely still, and the Doctor could feel a tear threatening to spill.
Mickey jumped sharply when the Doctor suddenly laughed in relief. "She gonna be okay," Mickey asked hopefully.
The Doctor bent down and sighed against Rose's hair briefly before reaching into a pocket. "There's a pulse," he explained. "It's faint, very faint, but it's there. Same thing with her breathing." He took out the sonic and waved it over Rose. Mickey watched with interest. The Doctor always handled the sonic screwdriver with quick, practiced precision. However, as he used it to scan Rose, he was slow, methodical, and detailed.
As he waited for the Doctor to finish, Mickey looked around. The TARDIS's lights were beginning to fade, one after the other, and the ship itself was no longer humming. The console room was deathly silent.
"I've never seen your ship like this," Mickey said quietly, so as not to disturb the Doctor. He was surprised when he responded.
"That's because she's not supposed to be like this," the Doctor murmured solemnly. "She's dead. The last TARDIS in the universe. Extinct."
"But how? What happened?"
"The time vortex disappeared. It's gone. And we fell."
Mickey looked at the TARDIS doors. "I wonder where we've landed?"
"We fell out of the vortex, through the void, into nothingness," the Doctor said, pausing every now and then to inspect the sonic. "We're in some sort of no-place. The silent realm. The lost dimension." The Doctor stopped, studied the sonic once more, and put it back in his pocket. "No injuries, and she's stable," he said. "For the most part. It's like she's in a deep sleep, but how?"
"Like a coma," Mickey asked.
He shook his head. "No, this feels…seems different."
The Doctor stroked his thumbs over Rose's cheeks. He paused to look around at the unsettling darkness of the console room, of his ship. The corner of his mind that was reserved for his connection to the TARDIS felt hollow. He inhaled to hold back a small sob and stood up, taking Rose in his arms as he did so.
"I need to get her to the med bay," the Doctor said. "Something in there is bound to help her." He took one more glance around before looking at Mickey. "Keep an eye on things in here. If anything changes, if you see anything weird, make note of it."
Mickey smiled. "You got it, boss."
With haste, the Doctor left the console room to go through the halls. He was disturbed to find there was only one hall. Given that the TARDIS had perished, she couldn't grant access to the rest of her infinite corridors. The console room, kitchen, a closet, the library, and their bedrooms were all that was left.
The Doctor huffed in frustration. Awkwardly shifting the arm that was supporting Rose's upper body, he felt for her pulse again. It was the same as before, no change whatsoever. He leaned his back against a wall and pondered. No med bay, no destination outside the TARDIS doors, no way of figuring out how to cure Rose, not to mention no way of figuring out what caused all of this.
With no other options, the Doctor opened the door to one of the most protected rooms in the TARDIS. Given the state of things, this room was now no more protected than any other room, but the Doctor still felt the instinctual need to take her inside. He placed her on the king-sized bed and tucked the thick blankets around her.
The Doctor joined her, sitting cross-legged on top of the blankets beside her. He buried his face in his hands and allowed only one tear to drip down his face. His TARDIS was dead, they were stranded somewhere unknown, Rose was unconscious, and he had no idea what the hell to do.
Before anymore tears of frustration and sadness could fall, the Doctor heard Mickey's voice. "Hey, Doctor! Where are you? You better come see this!"
The Doctor jumped off the bed. Before sprinting out the door, he kneeled to whisper in Rose's ear.
"I'll be back," he promised. "Whatever's going on, keep fighting it, don't give up. I've already lost the TARDIS, I can't lose you. I'll figure this out." Then, he remembered something, a sentence. A string of words from his home planet that he thought he'd never use. The Doctor moved to press his lips to her forehead, then spoke those ancient words against her skin. "Ei mel ee. Ez ah valiz. Ei mel eez Prozast."
Before pulling a way, he couldn't help but look at her lips. He considered placing another kiss there, but decided against it. He wanted Rose to be aware the first time he properly kissed her, to get her permission for such intimacy.
He stood up, took one more look at her, and left the room. When he closed the door behind him, he didn't hear the click of the lock.
He jogged to the console room to find Mickey. Upon entering it, his toe accidentally kicked something small. Bending down, he picked up Rose's phone and slid it into one of his pockets. He'd give it back to her when he checked on her again.
He felt a draft against his face. Running around the console, the Doctor saw that Mickey was sticking his head out the door. "Did you not hear what I said earlier," the Doctor groaned, moving to stand behind Mickey. "We fell out of the void. We could be anywhere. Who knows how dangerous it is out there?"
"Look, no offense, mate," Mickey said with an arrogant grin. "But I'm pretty certain I know how to navigate London." Snickering at the Doctor's look of astonishment, Mickey walked outside. Reluctantly, the Doctor picked up his coat, which had fallen off a coral strut during the ordeal, and put it on. With one last look in the direction of the hallway, he followed Mickey.
They had landed on a pier next to the Thames. The Doctor inhaled the breeze, and hummed thoughtfully. Something wasn't right.
"London, England, Earth." Mickey gazed around assuredly. "Hold on," he said, taking a newspaper from a bin. "First of February this year. Not exactly far-flung, is it?"
"So this is London." The Doctor looked out over the water, then to the buildings, then to the sky.
"Yep."
"Just as we left it?"
"Bang on."
The Doctor's face went stoic. "And that includes the zeppelins?"
Upon further inspection, Mickey finally saw all of the zeppelins that dominated the skies over London. "Okay," Mickey shrugged, trying to bring about some logic. "So it's London with a big international zeppelin festival."
The Doctor shook his head stiffly. "This is not your world."
Mickey looked back down at the paper, and then back up at the sky. "But the date's the same. Wait, it's parallel, right? Am I right? Like a parallel Earth where they've got zeppelins? Right?"
"Must be," the Doctor muttered. Sighing through his teeth, he took his time to pace around.
They were in a parallel world. Somehow. Now what? They could explore, sure, but it was highly doubtful there was anything in any universe that could get them back to their universe. He supposed he could wander around and search for something that might help Rose, but he didn't even know why she was in such a state. He only knew that she was stable, but not looking close to waking up.
"A parallel world where he still exists," he heard Mickey say. When he saw what Mickey was looking at, he groaned heavily.
Next to the pier stood an advert for a drink called 'Vitex Lite', and an unmistakable image of Pete Tyler was holding up said drink. "Trust me on this," said the audio recording of Pete as the picture moved to show him holding a thumbs-up.
"Look at that," Mickey said with a slight grin. "He's a success. Jackie always told me about all of his schemes and designs for healthy stuff. Apparently, everyone thought they were useless. But here, he's done it. God, Rose would love to see this." Thank Rassilon Rose wasn't here to see this. No good could come of it. "If Rose's dad's alive here," Mickey said, his voice low, but hopeful. "Then, maybe-"
"No," the Doctor said firmly. "This isn't Rose's Pete, this a Pete. For all we know, he's got his own Jackie, his own Rose. We shouldn't even be here. This isn't our world. Come on." The Doctor walked past him back to the TARDIS. Mickey cast a lingering look down a familiar main road before following.
"So, what's the plan," Mickey asked as the Doctor circled the console. "You gonna try and get her working?" The Doctor made a growling noise and kicked the side of the console. "Did that help?"
"Yes," the Doctor huffed through gritted teeth.
"Did it hurt?"
"Yes," he repeated. With a pained moan, he fell onto the jump seat to rub his foot. Mickey sat down on the space beside him. "We're not meant to be here. The TARDIS draws its power from the universe. It's like diesel in a petrol engine."
"But I've seen it in comics," Mickey said. "People go hopping from one alternative world to another. Easy."
"Not in the real world. It used to be easy. When the Time Lords kept their eye on everything, you could hop between realities, and be home in time for tea." He sighed. "Then they died, and took it all with them. The walls of reality closed, the worlds were sealed. Everything became that bit less kind."
"Then, how did we get here," Mickey asked. "Was it because of the button thing?"
"No. This is all an accident, should've been impossible. Now we're trapped."
After a moment, Mickey spoke again. "And you can't figure out what's wrong with Rose, can you?" The Doctor opened his mouth, but Mickey quickly continued. "'Cause I've never seen you so agitated before, so…not talkative."
The Doctor merely shrugged at this. Then, he stood up. "I'm gonna go check on her. See if there's any change." He stopped when he saw something flash beneath the grating. "What's that?" He crouched down as Mickey also took a closer look. "Is that a reflection?" The Doctor looked up to make sure the TARDIS doors were closed. "No, it's a light! I think that's a light! That's all we need. We've got power, Mickey!"
Laughing exuberantly, he pulled out a section of the grating and jumped down to a lower level to get closer. From above, Mickey helped pull handfuls of wires out of his way. "What is it?"
"It's nothing. It's tiny. One of those insignificant little power cells that no one ever bothers about," the Doctor explained as he delicately pried the cell off its mount. "And it's clinging onto life, with one little ounce of reality tucked away inside." He only paused when he heard Rose's phone beeping in his pocket. Without looking at it, the Doctor tossed the phone up to Mickey. "Here, see what that's all about." He prayed to whatever gods existed that it wasn't Jackie trying to call.
"Is it enough power to get us home," Mickey asked as he hit a couple buttons on the phone.
"Not yet," the Doctor said, his head popping up out of the grating gap, holding a small green capsule of light. "I need to charge it up."
"We could go outside and lash it up to the National Grid," Mickey mused.
"Wrong sort of energy. It's got to come from our universe." He held the power cell up to his face and blew a long puff of air at it. The light brightened, illuminating the wide smile on the Doctor's face. "I just gave away ten years of my life," he said with zero remorse. "Worth every second."
The cell started to blink slowly. "It's going out," Mickey observed, looking away from the phone, but not putting it away. "Is that okay?"
The Doctor nodded. "It's on a recharging cycle." He repositioned all the wires they had moved, jumped up and out, and put the grating section back into place. "It'll power back up and be ready to take us home in, oh, twenty-four hours. I'm hoping the med bay will be accessible by that time, too." He pocketed the power cell.
"So you really have no idea what's going on with Rose, do you," Mickey asked, but he didn't wait for an answer. "Is there anything we can do?"
The Doctor closed his eyes and shook his head. "Without the med bay-"
"But we're in a different universe," Mickey said, moving to the TARDIS doors. "And you just said we have twenty-four hours. Plenty of time to look for something that might work."
The Doctor grimaced, bolting to his feet. "And you just said different universe. Whatever we find in this universe, we can't guarantee it would work on Rose."
Mickey opened the door. "It's better than sitting around here doing nothing." He walked out.
The Doctor gritted his teeth and ran after him. "We wouldn't even know where to start," he said. He ran up beside him when Mickey stopped to look at Rose's phone. "We know nothing about this world."
"We could always use this," Mickey said, showing him the phone. "It's called Cybus Network." He started to arrow through some options. "It gave her phone internet access. We could us it like Google. I wonder if it did the same to mine?" He passed the phone to the Doctor to take out his own. "I already looked to see if a Rose Tyler exists in this world." Mickey saw the Doctor raise his eyebrow at him. "Well, I don't know," Mickey said defensively. "She might've been able to help us or something. Besides, it doesn't matter. There's no Rose Tyler in this universe."
The Doctor frowned as he scrolled through the search history. In the short time Mickey had the phone he'd looked up Rose Tyler, an elderly lady by the name of Rita-Anne Smith, and Peter and Jackie Tyler. He clapped the phone shut.
Mickey did the same. "I've got nothing," he grimaced. "The search engine is giving me everything from seizures, to comas, to forms of cancers that I think only exist here. Looks like we'll have to wait for the med bay after all." He looked at the Doctor. "Do you think she'll be okay?" The Doctor looked out over the pier, saying nothing. Mickey exhaled and put his phone back in his pocket. "Still couldn't hurt to have a look around," he said, once again staring down a main road.
"Oh, yes, it could," the Doctor grumbled. That's when he noticed Mickey walking away. "Where're you going?!"
"I just told you. I'm gonna go have a look around."
"What? For twenty-four hours?!"
Mickey rolled his eyes. "Oh, suddenly you care about what I'm doing? You usually ignore me most of the time."
He rolled his eyes, too. "Mickey, get back here!"
For dramatic effect, Mickey donned a thoughtful expression. "Nah, I've things to see and all."
The Doctor blinked incredulously. "Like what?"
"You don't know anything about me, do you," Mickey yelled. "It's always about Rose. I'm just a spare part." Without waiting for a response, Mickey turned down another street out of sight.
With a snarl, the Doctor whipped out Rose's phone, ready to call Mickey and give him even more of a piece of his mind, but he stopped himself. The Doctor hated to admit it, but he was being a little irrational. They did have a buffer time of twenty-four hours. If Mickey wanted to go traipsing about this London, then who was he to stop him.
The Doctor put the phone back in a pocket and spun around to walk back to the TARDIS. The Doctor hadn't been in a parallel world for many years, but he didn't have a reason to explore, especially with Rose being unable to join him. His plan was to keep an eye on Rose, on the power cell, and do frequent checks for the med bay.
That was no longer the plan when the Doctor found that the doors were shut tight, keeping him outside. He got out his key, but it wouldn't budge in the lock. The Doctor tilted his head curiously. His ship only ever locked him out when she was cross with him. He rarely ever had to use his own key, but even rarer did the key never work for him.
On the one hand, this was good. The fact that the TARDIS had locked her own doors further confirmed that she was going to be okay. On the other hand, it meant he couldn't get to Rose.
The Doctor stroked one of the doors. "Come on, old girl," he coaxed. "I can't take care of our Rose from out here."
The Doctor closed his eyes, trying to communicate telepathically. There was no longer a large hollow in his mind, but the TARDIS was also not awake. And she shouldn't be, as she needed time to recuperate. Perhaps she locked her doors as a defense mechanism while the power cell recharged.
Keeping his eyes closed, he reached out for Rose. The link was a little more relaxed, as if she were just asleep now, which was encouraging, but also infuriating given that the TARDIS wouldn't let him go to her.
The Doctor turned and leaned his back against the doors. He had only just found and revived the power cell. Perhaps he should wait a while before trying the doors again. While he waited, his restlessness and curiosity got the better of him and he once again took out the phone.
Apparently, Jackie and Pete were two of the richest people in London due to Vitex. Even more interesting that Cybus Industries owned almost every company in Britain, including Vitex. No wonder Pete became so successful. 'Cybus'…Why did that word sound so familiar.
The Doctor's finger hovered over the button that would give him the address to the Tyler household. He reached behind him and jiggled the door. Still locked. He looked back at the phone's screen, and pushed the button, telling him where they lived. Because something didn't feel right, something that felt worthy of investigating.
The Doctor turned, and placed his hands on the door. "I think Rose is rubbing off on me, old girl," he said with a small chuckle. He cleared his throat. "Promise me you'll keep her safe?"
He didn't expect an answer, but was delighted when he felt a weak nudge against his mind. He smiled at his ship, patted one of the doors, and jogged down the street, in the opposite direction of where Mickey went.
The Doctor didn't know whether it was truly worth investigating or not, but the TARDIS refused to open her doors and he didn't think they were going to open anytime soon. So, he asked himself, 'What would Rose Tyler do?' The answer was simple.
Wander off and have an adventure.