They are working on the project to fix Donna, and end up needing to take a trip for more parts.
Oh my people, thank you so much for all the reviews and support. You guys just leave me utter floored, and keep me encouraged to keep writing. Thanks to Elensari for keeping me encouraged, and to my beta and grammar goddess veritascara. Veritascara keeps me in line, and writing a better story!
-0-
The burst of words that came from Doctor's mouth sounded both musical and somehow harsh as the offending bit of machinery hurtled across the room, colliding with the basement wall with a small spray of sparks. His gaze snapped up when Rose's voice distracted him from glaring at the smashed remains.
"I'll just add that to my alien curse word collection."
The basement had become the default gathering place as the project for Donna took shape. Really, people moved in and out of the basement, the TARDIS, and the rest of the house fairly equally. Not everyone had the qualifications to work on the project, but frequently, at least one member, if not half of Torchwood's small staff, was there at any given time. An unspoken decision among the group concluded that working out of the Hub may not be beneficial for the Doctor, so they kept the project at Rose and John's house. However, just about everyone wanted to help with it or help keep an eye on the Doctor, making for a rather full and busy household.
John thrived on it. He loved having people around and rarely lost the smile on his face. The half-human Time Lord practically bounced about the house, getting into everything and getting along with everyone. Rose threatened twice daily to reduce his sugar and caffeine intake to nothing, but it didn't stop him. Instead, he would just smile and make her laugh, and it was forgotten–at least until the next time Rose had to settle him down.
The Doctor, for the most part, remained quiet. Rarely did he venture further than the basement. It took an act of coaxing, usually by Rose, or bananas, to get him to go further. Sometimes it took both–like when Rose made banana bread. But too long upstairs in the cozy domesticity of their home set him on edge, practically twitching. Scathing comments about curtains, carpets (of which there weren't any), and general domestic insults would commence if he had been upstairs too long. That always preceded a retreat into the TARDIS, where he would disappear for hours at a minimum, and when he came back out, he'd single-mindedly focus on the project, not offering any explanations. Once in a while, one of the team drew a smile out of him, but that was rare. The majority of the time, he gave the impression of leashed intensity.
Rose swung back and forth between the moods of the two Doctors–all smiles one moment, and then quiet concentration, the next. Often, she was quite content to sit and work on the project or her course work, yet other moments she acted like her skin was too tight–that sitting still would make her explode. This disturbed Jack and Martha–these moments when they could see her façade cracking, a tired, worn-down look creeping in, before she would spring back up and onto her next task or mood.
"Rose Tyler, when did you get a list of alien curse words?" John inquired from across the room.
With an eye roll, she called back to him, "I started it when I overheard some alien doing repairs under the TARDIS' console and swearing when she shocked him."
"I told you not to bring more pretty boys on board. It's hardly my fault they taught you horrible language," he sniffed.
"Not my fault you regenerated into a pretty boy. You did that all on your own," Rose shot back.
"So you think I'm pretty, do you?" John waggled his eyebrows at her.
"Shut up," Rose replied with a laugh.
Martha couldn't help the grin that snuck on her face watching the two of them banter, and when Rose looked over at her, the two of them burst into laughter.
"See, this is why it's bad for you all to be interacting. That is what happened when Rose met Sarah Jane." To everyone's surprise, the Doctor, not John, had offered the half-playful, half-exasperated comment.
John sat up, poker-faced, "It's going to be even worse when Donna joins in."
A faint look of alarm crossed the Doctor's face. "Do you think it's too late to call this whole thing off?"
"Oh, you love it, and you know it." Rose twisted to look at the Doctor, a bright smile on her face.
"Weeeeeeeell–" he started to answer her, a shadow of a smile on his face. But then it faded, and he shrugged. He kept his tone light, even though his expression regressed to sullen. "Anyways, we have to get this thing finished before we can even get Donna here, right?"
Martha gave the still-sparking part a pointed look. "Depends. Was that bit important?"
The Doctor scowled at the remains of his handiwork. "Yes," he replied, his voice short. "We'll have to get more parts."
John mused, "Don't have any more of those. We'll have to go pick some up. What do you think, Rose? The market on Grighton Six? I think the 2340s should net us something there."
Biting her lower lip, Rose thought about it and then nodded. "Yeah, that'll do. We can take a quick hop with the vortex manipulator and be back."
"Oh, no! Not without me, you don't. I have been sitting here in this house with curtains and neighbors, and, and barbeques for days! You are not leaving me behind while you two gallivant off to have all the fun. I am sick of being stuck here." The Doctor's eyes blazed with pent up frustration.
"Well, we can't take the TARDIS. She's in the middle of that diagnostic cycle, and it will take her a while to finish it. Unless you really want us to put all this work behind by another day," John pointed out.
"How about this?" Martha's soothing voice chimed in. "I'll give Jack a call, and the four of you can go. I can work a bit–or Mickey. Or it can wait until you get back." The unspoken statement was that no one, except for the Doctor, wanted him to go off alone, or even with just one person.
Rose frowned, "But what about you? Don't you want to go?"
"Oh, no. Two Doctors together on an alien planet? If that's not a magnet for trouble, I don't know what is. I think that's the best possible combination to deal with any trouble that comes up," Martha answered seriously; however, a teasing smile graced her face.
"Oh, come on, Martha. We're really not that bad." When both women turned to look at John with raised eyebrows, he amended, "Well, not most of the time?"
Rose shook her head. "Right. You call Jack. I'm about done with this. Might as well test it out on Martha while we wait for him to get here." She moved back towards her work, her back now to both Doctors.
"Me?" the human physician asked with a bemused expression. "Why do I get to be the human guinea pig?"
"Because you are the only full human here at the moment," Rose responded absentmindedly as she focused on the delicate work under her hands. "I don't count, what with the boosted healing and mental stuff. I think Jake called me 'human with a bit extra.' He liked to joke that I was their terrestrial superhuman."
Both men's heads turned to focus on Rose. The Doctor opened his mouth to speak, but John stopped him, reaching across to lightly grab his arm. Wide-eyed, he turned towards his brother, only to see John give a slight shake of his head. To his surprise, he heard a mental whisper in his head. ~ Don't. If we say anything, she'll stop talking. Rose is now good at keeping things bottled up inside because she's worried about how we'll react. Sound familiar? ~
The mental touch startled him but felt very, very welcome. For far too long, the Doctor had been alone in his head, and, for a member of a telepathic species used to being connected to a small degree to his entire race, the emptiness weighed down on him. Allowing this small mental touch from his metacrisis helped ease the pain. The Doctor's head dipped down, and his hand reached to cover John's to facilitate a tight mental communication, lessening the chance that Rose would overhear them. ~ Alright. I want to know more, but getting her to talk about this is difficult. ~ His mental voice turned bitter. ~ One of the things I wish she hadn't learned from us. ~
Ruthlessly, John tamped down the small thrill he felt when the full Time Lord not only accepted his mental communication, but returned it. ~ I know. One of the things I have found that has helped: when I am open with her, she's more likely to be open with me, ~ John sent back to him.
The Doctor's silence lasted long enough that John feared he may have pushed just a bit too much. He felt relieved when the Doctor finally admitted, ~ I'm not sure if I can be that open. ~ ~ It takes practice. It's easier for me, I think, because of Donna's influence. She never was one to keep what she thought to herself. ~
~ We'll get her back. ~ This determination came from them both.
The Doctor dropped his hand after that. That kind of communication was very . . . intimate. He had a hard time allowing anyone that close to him, even another version of himself. But what he didn't do was more significant than the fact he had pulled back; this time, he didn't block out that tiny little connection left open there. The Doctor allowed himself to feel the presence of another Time Lord mind. John, concluding that the Doctor was done communicating, took out his phone to give Jack a quick call, but he kept his gaze, and part of his focus, on Rose.
Rose, intent on her project, missed the small byplay. Martha noted it, but did her best to keep from drawing attention to it. She kept her focus on Rose, trying to gently coax out more information. Those with Time Lord brains may be able to keep track of multiple things, but the human mind had different limitations. "That Jake sounds like he was a good friend."
A smile lit Rose's expression as she worked. "Yeah, after every trip with the dimension cannon, he'd be there to help. First few trips were rough, but after that it got easier. At least for me–no one else could quite manage it."
"Have to be made of tough stuff to travel with the Doctor. Lord, the number of times I ended up running for my life. You would think he could manage to land somewhere peaceful once in a while, but no, not him. I started to think we were a magnet for trouble. We show up and boom everything happens." Martha's playful comments made the smile on Rose's face widen.
"Tell me about it; though part of that, I think, comes from the TARDIS. Sometimes she'd give me little warnings. I think she knew where we needed to be better than the Doctor did." Rose finished linking everything together as she talked. "There. Time for a little bit of testing. You up for it?"
Martha observed Rose's raised eyebrows and nodded. "Sure. This is what you are going to use to help monitor Donna, right?"
"Yep."
Rose picked up the thin half circle, and moved to put it on Martha's head. "Since I'm going to do the monitoring myself, makes sense for me to test it. You okay with me doing that, though? I remember the first time the Doctor told me about the TARDIS getting into my head to translate for me I freaked out a bit. But this isn't going to be anything like that. It's kinda like I'm looking through a window, and not like I'm coming in a door."
After she gave Rose's face a searching glance, Martha nodded, "Yes, I trust you."
The half circle gently slid into place on Martha's forehead. Once Rose appeared satisfied it was secure, she moved to turn on several monitors. As they lit up with information, she waved Martha over. "There. See a scan of your brain showing activity and vitals. We have a couple of backups for this. We aren't taking any chances with Donna."
Martha peered at the screens with a warm smile. "This will also come in handy back at the Hub." As she spoke, colors flickered across the interface displaying neurological activity. "Well, that definitely works."
Rose grinned, "Human technology is a few years off from having it quite this simple and expressive. They will get there, but this is safer. Now I just need to make sure that what I can observe and the readings here are in sync. We can't test the actual transfer, but I'd like you to think about childhood events. Nothing you don't mind sharing, alright?"
Martha nodded, and Rose guided the other woman to sit in a chair. Lightly, the blonde placed her fingertips on the sides of Martha's face, just under the metal band. Both women closed their eyes to better concentrate. "Okay, Martha, this is probably going to feel a bit different. Stay relaxed for me, if you can. Just concentrate on memories from when you were a kid."
The sensation of a warm breeze flowed around Martha, and it took a moment for her to realize that had to be Rose. The brush did feel a little odd, but it also felt warm and comforting. She stayed relaxed easily, as she consciously brought up memories of playing games with her siblings–quite a few where they pretended to be sick, and she made them better. A multitude of memories flicked by: taking a test in school, laughing at lunch with friends, even one of her parents arguing. She tried to keep focused on the memories, but something in the background distracted her. She didn't recognize it. "Is someone singing?"
"That would be th' Tardis," Rose replied calmly. "You're sort of hearin' her through me."
"Do you hear her all the time?" Martha tried to puzzle out the implications.
"Right now I'm actin' like a bridge of sorts. So she could act through me in an emergency without hurtin' you. Translating for you is one thing. That only touches the surface of your thoughts. M'not going deeper now, but I could if needed. You're not at telepath, so havin' her in your head might be a bit too much because she's a non-linear being." Rose neatly sidestepped the question. "Should help if need be with Donna."
"It doesn't bother you, her being non-linear?" It was a decidedly odd feeling, now that Martha realized the gentle brushes were inside her head, rather than across her skin–slightly disorienting when combined with talking out loud–so she kept her eyes shut.
On Rose's part, it was absolutely fascinating. Though she remained on the outside, the human physician's mind gave the impression of orderliness. Rose opened her eyes, and, while difficult to hold on to the mental and visual images, it was important that she could do both. The machines told her precise details, like temperature, and recorded energy output. Plus, Rose enjoyed watching the screen filled with beautiful shifting colors, indicating Martha's thought processes.
"Nope. She an' I've been friends a while now. It bothers me more not t'hear her. Back in Pete's World, I'd play the radio a lot for background noise. It just felt so empty and quiet." After a few more moments, Rose closed her eyes again. "I think that's enough for now. I'm going to withdraw, and we'll take the band off, okay?"
"Sure." Martha kept her eyes closed until she felt Rose remove the band. "So, did everything work?"
The blonde smiled. "Like a treat. Come check the readings for yourself."
After she opened her eyes, Martha moved over towards the monitors. "This is incredible, Rose. You've got a setup to monitor all the physical reactions while you can watch the mental ones."
John came up behind Rose, pressing a kiss to her temple. "Martha's right. This is brilliant." He smiled and wrapped his arms around her from behind. She leaned back against him. "Jack's on his way. He sounded a little too eager for the field trip. So we may need to keep an eye on him."
Rose laughed and tipped her head back to look up at him. "When do we not need to keep an eye on him?"
"You know, I don't know why we let him keep that vortex manipulator of his." The Doctor wandered over, carefully keeping his gaze fixed to the monitors. "This really is brilliant, Rose."
"Because it's his, and Jack can be a pretty responsible guy? An' thanks, Doctor. Martha helped quite a bit," Rose answered softly.
"Oh, no. This was all you, Rose. Sure, I helped, but not to this extent. I can really believe that you built that dimension cannon almost entirely on your own after seeing all this." Martha shook her head in admiration.
"I had a lot of help," Rose shrugged, "and a lot of motivation. The stars were going out. Someone needed to be, and find, the Doctor." Both men moved so they could look at her face at that. If the Doctor's smile held touches of sadness, John's held threads of pride.
"Well, if Jack's on his way, I better get ready." She pulled away from John and headed towards the stairs. "You guys coming?"
"In a minute, love. You go ahead. I'm going to check to make sure we don't need anything else." John's smile stayed in place as Rose nodded and moved up the stairs. When she was out of sight and earshot he turned back towards the other two, folding his arms across his chest. "That was interesting."
"Interesting. I suppose that's one way to put it. I mean, look at what she's accomplished." The Doctor waved his hand in the direction of the monitors.
"Is it significant that she can always hear the TARDIS?"
Both men answered Martha at once, in one voice, "Yes."
They exchanged a look, and John motioned for the Doctor to continue. "She's probably bonded to it, but a human's not supposed to be able to do that."
"She already said she's not just human any more; she's something else." Martha pointed out.
The Doctor's shoulders slumped. "What did I do to her?"
"No." John's voice was low, quiet. "It's 'what has she chosen for herself?'"
The Doctor's head jerked up, starting to protest. John shook his head to stop him. "That's exactly what it is, and what she has told me time and time again. She'd be furious with you if you tried to take responsibility for that. I should know. She's yelled at me a time or two."
"What could have caused this all this, anyways? When she looked into the Time Vortex? I heard you talk to Jack about it before, Doctor–how she brought him back to life, and she couldn't control the power."
"There is that." John leaned against the doorframe of the stairs. "Not everything was under her control, so there were consequences to her actions."
"You can't tell me you blame her for that. She saved our life!" The Doctor replied indignantly, giving John an angry look.
"Of course not. What do you take me for? All I am saying is what she did has consequences that no one was prepared for–least of all her. So we do our best to try and help her. I mean, look at all that." John waved a hand at the monitors. "That's advanced. Way more advanced than most humans could think up. I'm not entirely sure why she's bothering to go to the university at all."
"Because it's important to her," Martha told them. "I get it; it was the same with me making sure I passed my boards. No matter how much experience I had when I was with you, I needed that piece of paper to say I did it. Rose was what, nineteen, when she ran off with you? A shop girl with no A-levels? She's doing this to prove to herself that's she's worth something."
"Rose was always so much more than some shop girl," the Doctor glared.
"What she was to you is not the point. It's about what she is to herself. That's what matters. Now she's going to wonder where we are if we stay down here too long. So you two, get your act together. Stay calm, or she'll pick up on it. She's better than a barometer when it comes to you." Martha started to head upstairs.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Confused, the Doctor looked between Martha's retreating form and John.
"If you can't figure that one out, then you're just in denial, and I can't help you," John shrugged and turned to follow Martha.
The Doctor watched them go, dark confusion drawing down his features.
-0-
Grighton Six had excellent weather that day as they meandered through the marketplace. John, in his blue jacket and jeans, firmly gripped Rose's hand. She laughed as he dragged her from stall to stall, pointing out various things like an over excited puppy. The Doctor on the other hand, brooded as he walked along, Jack walking with him. "You know, Doctor, for someone that insisted on coming along, you are sure trying to suck the fun out of it."
His head snapped in Jack's direction, staring at the handsome captain. "What do you mean by that?"
"Well, look at Rose and the Doc; they are having a great time. You, on the other hand, look like a thunderstorm in a trench coat. Relax. Live a little."
The Doctor went from brooding to scowling, and he stuffed his hands into his pockets. "I've been meaning to ask, I get that you need different names to keep us straight, but he puts up with you calling him Doc?"
Jack shrugged, a lazy smile on his face. "His idea. Said he knew who he was, and Rose knew who he was, and that was all that mattered. She knows that he's still the Doctor, so to him, the name is no big deal."
A bleak expression flashed across the full Time Lord's face before the mask slid back into place. It wasn't there long, but Jack spotted it anyways. "Just like she knows you are still the Doctor, as well."
He stiffened at Jack's words, looking straight ahead. "She has him; she doesn't need me."
"That's crap, and you know it, Doctor. She'll always need you." When the Doctor didn't respond, Jack rolled his eyes. "Look. Normally, I try to stay out of other people's relationships, unless they are both inviting me into bed." That got an amused snort out of the Doctor. "In this case, I love all of you, and you are driving me crazy. You three need to sit down and talk about this."
Hunching his shoulders, the words just popped out of his mouth. "Time Lords don't share."
"Time Lords also don't have a metacrisis of themselves running around," Jack pointed out. "Maybe it's time to change things a little."
"It doesn't matter. She chose him, and they have each other." The Doctor snapped back, his tone defensive–and he knew it–but he couldn't seem to help himself, either.
"Of course, she did. He told her that he loved her–what she's been waiting for for a very long time. Rose told me all about it. You can't tell me you didn't know what not telling her was going to do to her." The Doctor had no reply. He simply kept walking, moving straight ahead. Jack sighed, "Look, Doctor, just get the stick out of your arse, and try to relax and have fun." Jack waited a beat and added, "I have no problem helping you out with that."
"Stop it, Jack." The Doctor's answer was almost a reflex, but the corners of his lips twitched.
"You know you love me, Doctor." Unrepentant, Jack grinned at him.
The Doctor opened his mouth to reply, but John picked that moment to dash back to them, dragging Rose behind him. "Doctor, you would not believe what I found. There's this guy, and he has thermal reticulated couplings."
"Not only that. They have inverted transfer links. I think they can be adapted to an oscillating power flow." Both Doctors turned and stared at Rose. She merely returned an innocent look, "What?"
John's voice dropped low. "You are drop dead sexy."
Rose snorted a laugh and reached out with her free hand towards the Doctor. "Come on. You'll love it."
Her smile faltered when he just looked at her hand. But then, before she could pull it back, he reached out and enfolded it in his. Her smile brightened, and John impatiently tugged on her other hand. "Come on, and Jack, you might even find something you like in there."
As they started off, Rose looked back over her shoulder at Jack and mouthed the words "giant junk pile." He started laughing, strolling along behind them and enjoying the view.