Disclaimer: I do not own DW or any of it's characters unless they are OCs.
Chapter Eleven - Deadline Approaches
Sometime in the near future
In a quiet village on a peaceful little world somewhere in the solar system, not a peep could be heard as all of the locals were tucked up cosy and warm in their small wooden cabins. Therefore nobody was around to see the sudden burst of golden light that appeared in the forest that was located just on the outskirts of the village nor did anyone see the beaten woman that appeared from it, her face bloodied and clothes torn and ripped apart. Her long blonde hair was matted and she was barely conscious as the light faded from view. Rose Tyler opened her eyes and let out a painful groan with one thought in her mind "why was it always a forest?"
Meanwhile present Rose woke up curled up in the thick and warm covers of the bed in her hotel room. She squinted and saw that River was still tinkering with the sonic screwdriver. She hoped that since she had drifted off again that the darker blonde woman had managed to make some headway on the beacon. As she sat up, Rose's movement caught River's attention and the older woman mustered up a warm smile for the other blonde."Morning sleepy beauty"
Rose let out a sleepy yawn before looking over at River confusedly for a moment."Is it Morning already?"
"Yes, you've slept for fourteen hours straight" River informed her as she continued to tinker with some small pieces of technology. Rose glanced over at the floor and saw that River had already built a large device with several different blinking lights set out on it and some buttons that Rose would never understand were for what. She left the technology science to the Doctor and her team back at Torchwood. While she had definitely improved on her physics and tech back in Pete's World (gaining herself a few A-levels and a degree) she was still not an expert on a lot of the more advanced things.
"That means we have seven hours before the Daleks will attempt to pull me through"
"Plenty of time, darling, and if you manage to keep that stabiliser safe it should give them hell while they're trying" River smiled at her."And on the much more positive side, I have completed the beacon now. All we are waiting for is the Doctor and we're all set"
As cheerful as River sounded, Rose still had a feeling of forbearance that she just couldn't seem to shake. She had felt it the previous day as well but had managed to ignore it then with everything that was going on "Why then do I have the feeling something is gonna go wrong?"
"Whatever happens I'm sure will work out for the best in the end" River responded vaguely, not even giving her a hint about her future something that frustrated her greatly. She could use at least a small hint so she could sort of prepare herself for whatever storm was coming now. Rose shuddered at her mental use of 'storm'. The Doctor had used that word so long ago and then the Cybermen and the Daleks came all at once before she ended up trapped in a parallel universe. She never wanted to even hear about that word ever again let alone use it herself.
She frowned at the other woman as she slipped out of the covers. During the night, River had obviously taken off her jacket and shoes before tucking her into the sheets. The younger time traveller wasn't sure how she felt about the Doctor's possible future girlfriend or wife taking care of her like that even thought she already decided not to be jealous about her since she was doing as much as she could to help her and she wasn't a jealous nineteen year old anymore, she was a twenty something, grown woman. "I'm not sure I like the sound of that to be honest" and some inward part of her wondered very briefly if it worked out for the best for Rose or for River. If Rose was gone, River would have no competition for the Doctor's attention but Rose shoved that ugly thought to the back of her mind. River didn't come across as that sort of woman at all.
"If it's any consolation, the Doctor would probably die before he allowed something to happen to you" River told her as she shoved the little device that she had been tinkering on with the sonic away in her leather trousers."He doesn't talk about you or your relationship at all to me"
"That's supposed to be a good thing?" Rose stared at her with raised eyebrows.
"If the Doctor finds something too difficult to talk about then it usual means it meant something very important to him or he feels deeply about it" River explained with a sad smile."To this day I don't think I've ever heard him talk about his family"
"Neither have I" Rose admitted."It's just I'm so tired of everything with me and the Doctor ending in tragedy...can't we for once just be able to travel through time and space without the universe turning against us?"
River quirked an eyebrow up at Rose and smiled wryly "The universe isn't against you. If it was you would probably be dead right now. You have to be a special person to absorb the time vortex and survive that because even if the Doctor took it out of you, you still had it inside of you for more than ten minutes without burning instantly like you should have" at her words, the blonde former Torchwood agent winced. She had not really been thinking it through when she came up with that reckless plan to rescue the Doctor. Sure it had all turned out alright in the end but it could have ended in tragedy. It was bad enough that Rose was stuck jumping all over time and space unless she was wearing the stabilizing device clipped to her pants plus had a target painted on her back courtesy of the Daleks.
"So what do you do for a living, River?" Rose decided to turn the conversation around onto the older woman, deciding that she wanted to at least try to learn a bit about her mystery future friend.
"I'm a Doctor of archaeology" River replied much to the other woman's surprise."The Doctor knows that much so I figure you may as well know too although apparently in the future I will be a professor" she then proceeded to give Rose a saucy wink that was obviously in character for the flirtatiously sweet time traveller."I kind of like the sound of that. Professor Song? Sounds good hmm?"
"The Doctor doesn't really like archaeologists" Rose laughed."But he must have made an exception for you"
"Not really. While I'm sure the Doctor trusts me enough, we don't always have the easiest relationship" the future professor confessed with a sad look in her eyes."Not like you and him"
"Whatever my relationship is with the Doctor" Rose gave River a humourless smile "It's anything but easy"
"I suppose not. You crossed universes to get back here several times in fact and absorbed the time and space vortex to save him. I would say that was definitely not easy" the older woman laughed in agreement as she fiddled with the sonic screwdriver and the spare pieces of tech that she was experimenting with.
"What are you making?" Rose asked her as she joined her on the floor beside the devices laid out on the ground.
River shrugged and responded coolly "Nothing special" Rose stared at her hand as it waved the sonic over the pieces of tech that she was holding in her other one before grinning slightly.
"I can see why the Doctor chose you to travel with him. You love tinkering as much as he does"
"Thank you but he didn't exactly choose me to travel with him. It's a long story that I'm sure you'll know all about someday, sweetie" River winked at her as she put the pieces of technology together and made it into something Rose didn't even want to begin guessing was what.
"You seem kind of sad sometimes" Rose remarked, looking at River closely."Mostly you seem adventurous and keen on helping me but I get the impression that you're sad...lonely even"
"I'm not lonely" River gave the blonde a tight lipped smile and kept her emotions under guard."I've just not had the easiest life since as you can imagine the life of a time traveller isn't always the most peaceful or trauma free"
"I'm sorry" Rose said quietly, as she gazed at the other woman.
River seemed surprised by her words as she asked "What for?"
"For whatever it was that has happened in your life to you to make you the way you are" River didn't say anything else after that. They fell into a companionable silence as Rose watched River continue to tinker with the screwdriver.
Meanwhile on board the Tardis
"Doctor, what's taking so long?" Amy huffed with folded arms as she stood next to the Doctor at the control panel as he continued driving his ship.
"The old girl seems to be having some trouble...Tardis equivalent of a headache but she should be fine once she manages to get through this huge trail of time residue that Rose's presence in this particular time and place has left behind. You may want to grab hold of something since she'll probably start moving any moment now and you may not want to be standing around when that happens" the Doctor replied as he himself grabbed onto part of the railing.
"Well you better make sure that the Tardis makes it to the right time because I can't imagine our girl being too happy with you, Doc, if you turn up a year too late" Jack smirked and the Doctor scowled at him.
"Rose is not 'OUR' girl, Jack and what did I say about calling me Doc?"
The dark haired man blinked back at the Doctor innocently."I forgot?"
"Jack you-"the Doctor was cut off from whatever he was about to say (or from the threat he was possibly about to make) when the ship suddenly started moving towards their destination. Amy, who had ignored the Doctor's warning, fell to the ground while her husband (who had sat on the floor in anticipation) crawled towards her to make sure she was okay. Jack remained standing and held onto a chair.
"Do you think you could possibly get your ship to stop doing that?" Amy demanded once the ship began to calm down and the Doctor looked at her incredulously.
"I did just warn you Pond but you didn't listen. Nobody ever listens to me and they wonder why it ends badly for them!"
"Well she's stopped. So are we gonna stand here all day bickering or are we gonna go look for Rose?" Jack piped up, earning himself another glare from the other immortal (or mostly at least) man in the room.
At that, Rory decided it was time to speak up, pointing out "Anything could be out there. Don't you think we should check first? Make sure we are not about walk head first into a trap?"
In response, Jack shot him a charming smile that had Amy's eyebrows shooting up "aw, you're sweet. I think I like this one, Doctor"
"Now, now that's enough of that" the Doctor huffed heading towards the doors."We have no time to spare, we need to get to Rose right now if we have any hope of keeping her with us and the deadline is quickly approaching..." he paused just as he had put one foot out of the door and turned back to look at his companions "in case Rory's right though I suggest you get ready to run for your lives"
With that said, the Doctor disappeared out of the ship and was soon followed by three slightly nervous companions.
Thanks for those that are still reading and reviewing, it's so motivating to read your reviews even if I've not been the fastest updater lately. Anyway we're drawing closer to the climax of this story now. I don't like dragging things out longer than necessary because if I do the plot starts to quickly fall apart, lol. I know this from past experience from stories 15 year old me attempted to write :)
Next up: The Doctor manages to finally track down Rose but things may not be as easy as they seem as the 24 hours are almost up.
