I HAVE A PLACE I WANT THIS TO GO BUT IT'S NOT GETTING THERE FAST ENOUGH AND I HATE THAT BUT EXPECT RAPID UPDATES mainly because tomorrow is my day off so between packing and sleeping I'll be writing. Also because I have such a good idea for something that's been exciting me all night. I should get to start it or at last touch base with it in the next chapter.
Rose followed the Doctor into the TARDIS where he was tapping away at the keyboard below the monitor. "What'd she find?"
"Welll," he muttered, sliding his glasses onto his face and squinting at the screen. "It saysit's coming from a distress beacon on the other side of the void. It takes generally no effort to project across the void, but to get the signal to one specific person, oh, well, that'd take some power." He leaned back and touched a few more keys. "The interesting part is this. It's from River Song."
"So River is the one sending the messages—is the Doctor really dying?" Rose asked quietly.
The Doctor just shrugged but she could see it was bothering him. "Amy, Rory, and River were in the TARDIS with him when I joined them. He was getting irritated. They're hiding something from him—but what?" The Doctor began to pace, hands running through his hair.
Rose cautiously stepped up to the monitor and tapped a few keys of her own. "Doctor," she said, confused by the date stamp on the transmission displayed on the screen. She cast a glance over her shoulder to see him deep in thought, pacing a hole in the floor. "Doctor. Come look at this."
"What?" he perked up and rejoined her.
"The date and time for the whole transmission is the same. But it lasted a lot longer than one second," she told him, pointing to the date and time. "April 22, 5:02 PM."
"Ah," he breathed. The Doctor grabbed Rose and kissed her on the forehead. "You're brilliant!" She laughed at his enthusiasm as he began running around the TARDIS, collecting metal pieces and wires.
"What are you doing, Doctor?"
He paused long enough to throw a grin at her and say, "I'm building a beacon of my own, of course!" She just grinned and skipped after him to help.
They had been sitting in the TARDIS for a good while building a beacon strong enough to get through the void and to one person when Pete stepped into the room and just stared at them.
"How long have you two been here?" he demanded.
"I've lost track of time, to be honest," the Doctor replied, not even looking up from the metal contraption in front of him.
"Well, it's almost six in the afternoon," he informed them. "What has even been going on?" He walked over and looked down at what they were building, then at the wires running out of the TARDIS and into Torchwood. "What is that and what do you have hooked up to my computers?"
"It's a long story," the Doctor muttered, distracted.
"We got a message at home," Rose explained where the Doctor had failed. "Said 'the Doctor is dying, please help.' So we came here to trace the source. We ran some…tests and the Doctor had another dream about the other universe." She gestured to the beacon. "Now we're building this to return a signal."
"We're actually done with your computers, thanks for the loan," the Doctor added.
Pete looked around at the interior, not even surprised at this point. "You built a TARDIS?"
"Grew," the Doctor corrected, finally looking away from his project. "TARDIS's are grown, not built. The other Doctor gave me a piece of TARDIS coral on Bad Wolf Bay about a year ago."
"Well, I really think you shouldn't park your TARDIS in the middle of the analysis room of Torchwood, if you don't mind," Pete told them. "Staff members are starting to ask questions they don't need to know the answers to and frankly I really don't want Torchwood to feel like they have to…confiscate—impound it."
Rose stood and offered her hand out to the Doctor. "Why don't we pack up and take it home, for now," Rose suggested, helping him off the floor. "We got all the readings we need from Torchwood. Let's go get dinner and head home."
"Jackie's making alfredo-something tonight if you'd like to join us. I know Tony'd be happy to see you both," Pete offered as he walked towards the door. "I was just about to head home myself."
"Right," Rose smiled. "We'll be there in a bit."
Pete nodded and walked off. A silence fell between the two of them for a moment.
"Do we have to?" the Doctor asked, making a face. "Your mother's cooking—"
"Is fine. Quit being a baby. Let's unhook all this and take the TARDIS back to the apartment." She grabbed his hand and led him back out into Torchwood where they disassembled all their equipment.
The Doctor stood over his papers, trying to sort them all back out now that he could read the actual notes. He'd tried to place them into separate stacks based on where he remembered each page having been in the kitchen and then how he'd stacked them in the laptop bag. He'd gotten them close, but they were still a bit unorganized.
While he'd been staying up late lately, writing his book, he figured that tonight he ought to try and get some sleep. He felt closer to the answer now—the answer to the question that started all of this. How could he disconnect himself from the Doctor in the other universe? He only had one life now, and he wanted to spend it with Rose—not stuck in a dream watching the life he would never have as the Doctor.
"Ready to go then?" a voice snapped him out of his thoughts and her hung his bag over his shoulder and smiled.
"I guess."
"Oh, just think of how happy Tony will be to see you," Rose laughed, nudging him.
"We haven't seen him in—what? Two weeks?" The Doctor thought out loud.
"Three—almost four actually," Rose clarified.
"Well, Allons-y, I suppose!" The Doctor flipped some switches and soon they were back at the apartment, just as they had left it.
The Doctor fell back onto the bed with a sigh. "Your mother wears me out," he sighed.
Rose dropped her jacket onto the desk chair and headed into the bathroom. "Nah, I think that was Tony, actually."
He took off his jeans and rolled onto his stomach. "Either one—I think I'll sleep well tonight, at least."
"Think you'll dream?" Rose came back into the bedroom, dressed in a t-shirt of her own and cotton shorts.
"Too tired," he muttered into his pillow. She found her place beneath the blankets next to him, book in her hand, and he shifted so that he was on his side facing her. "What's your day tomorrow look like?"
"Work," she replied. "You can work on the beacon tomorrow. When do you suppose it'll be done?"
"Just need a coupla more hours," he told her. "Should be done tomorrow."
"And what about your book?"
"Been working on that for a coupla months. Tried to finish last night. Still needs a read through, if you wanna do that." He opened an eye to find her looking down at him.
"You really offering for me to read it?" she asked with skepticism. "Or are you just teasing?"
"I mean, it's about my travels as the Doctor. About, oh, nine hundred years or so ago?"
"Yeah," she said quietly after some consideration. "Yeah, I'd love to give it a read."
"I'll print it out tomorrow," he concluded, eyes falling shut once again. Rose smiled at him and waited until she was sure he'd fallen asleep. She watched him for a few minutes, but he seemed to be sleeping soundly—no signs of obvious distress, at least.