Return To Memory
Chapter 14: Time Sense
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who!
Rose licked the last of the salt and vinegar from her fingers, deciding that was the best lunch she had had since beginning her relationship with the Doctor. Walking down the streets of Cardiff with Jack, who she had decided was quite nice if she didn't try to look straight at his timelines, and the Doctor she enjoyed the cool air and the strangely familiar sounds of the 21st century city. The Doctor and Jack were absorbed in a conversation about transdimensional whoosa-whatsits, the Doctor's hand gently threaded through her hair and resting on her upper back as they walked.
It was then that she noticed it. A ripple appeared in her sight, but when she looked it was gone. There was nothing unusual on the street. People were walking about, not having seen anything out of the ordinary. Then was it just her imagination?
Five more minutes passed and just as she was beginning to believe she had imagined the whole thing, the ripple appeared again. She watched as a young boy was taken up in the ripple, his mother releasing his hand and walking along as if nothing at all had happened. The ripple disappeared again and nobody seemed to have noticed anything was amiss.
"Doctor! Did you see that?" she asked in a hushed tone, making the two men stop their conversation and look around, concerned.
"See what, Rose?" he asked, glancing in the direction she was looking.
"Yeah, I didn't see anything." Said Jack, suddenly absorbed with poking buttons on his watch.
"That boy over there. He disappeared and his mum didn't even seem to notice." she said, pointing.
The Doctor looked and saw a woman walking, but no child beside her. "That woman?" he asked.
Rose closed her eyes, trying to remember where the boy had disappeared exactly. She could see it then, the ripple. It wasn't in real space, then. It was...in time?
"Wait, Doctor. You can't see it unless you close your eyes. It's like...I can see it but I can't."
He closed his eyes as she said and could instantly see the ripple. The woman had a complete rip in time and space right next to her. Something that should be there, that had been, was no longer there and she should know. Wait...how did Rose know? She was using a time sense, something that was carefully cultivated and developed over the fifty years of training that Time Lords received at the Academy. Rose had never attended, even as a Gallifreyan. She had been rejected, he had checked the records. How did she use such a developed skill without even knowing it?
There was no time to mull over these things right now. "Come on, let's follow her."
The three of them crossed the street and began following the woman, hoping to gain a bit of insight as to what was going on. Before long the woman got on a bus, which they also boarded (thanks to the use of the Doctor's psychic paper). They watched as she sat down near the back and began to read the paper as if nothing was wrong. The gash in time space next to her was pulsing and almost red, if a color could be ascribed to something one could not truly see. It began to hurt Rose's head. She turned to the Doctor and whispered to him, "Why does it hurt?"
He looked down at her. "What hurts?" he asked, concerned.
She leaned closer to him, seeking comfort as her head started to pound. "The rip. It hurts to look at."
The Doctor frowned. She shouldn't have such a developed time sense. The rip hurt his head too, but it wasn't nearly as painful as it seemed to be for Rose. He could help, but it would be quite improper to do so. He wasn't supposed to come even close to touching her mind. A mental salve would certainly be out of the question. But as tears began to gather in the corner of her eyes, he started to sense her mental distress like a broadcast from her head.
"Rose, I can help you, but it would be a bit...inappropriate." he whispered.
She nodded. "Whatever you can do, just make it stop. It's like there's something in the back of my mind trying to push through and it just...it hurts, Doctor. I've never felt anything like it." Her voice began to rise in pitch and the people on the bus began to look their direction. He gently placed his hand on the small of her back and led her to the stairs of the bus, hoping there wouldn't be an audience on the top deck. Jack followed behind, making a note of the woman they were still attempting to follow. When they got to the top deck he positioned himself at the front window with a view of the door so they would know when the woman got off.
The Doctor led Rose to a nearby seat, glad that there was nobody on the top deck.
"Rose, look at me. You have to look at me, I know it hurts but please try." he said, gently stroking her hair.
She looked up at him through eyes now filling over with tears. "Whatever you have to do, please do it. I don't care if it's inappropriate. We can't help that little boy if I'm like this." she said, trying to keep her voice from breaking. Why was this so painful all of a sudden? She wasn't even looking at the rip anymore.
He was astounded for a moment. She didn't want him to stop the pain just because of the hurt...she was willing to sacrifice part of herself to save the little boy only she had seen. He smiled. His Rose was making her way back to him with every moment.
He took a deep breath. "I have to get into your mind a bit. Just close any doors you don't want me to go through. I'll only go as far as I need to in order to alleviate the pain." he said softly, wishing he didn't have to sacrifice the so far perfect courting. He had done well, for the most part, in following his planet's laws and manners of courtship. This was way beyond what they should be doing at the moment, and despite his guilt, he could not bear to see his Rose in pain.
She nodded at his words and closed her eyes. His fingers gently brushed against her temple, that first touch of his fingers against her bare skin sent a spark through her that, if it weren't for the pain, would have been an immensely pleasurable feeling. She then felt his presence in her mind, like a soft and cool breeze on a hot day. His touch began to soothe the pain wherever it went and she was so overwhelmed with his presence and her very love for him that she couldn't help herself. She opened every single door in her head, wanting to show him, as he healed her, that she trusted him completely.
He could feel his hearts beginning to beat out of his chest. He had to squelch his overwhelming desire to roam around in her now wide open mind. Never in his lives had anyone placed themselves so vulnerably before him, and his physical eyes could see the gentle smile on her face as she did so. How amazing this woman was, to give herself to him so completely when she didn't even know the full extent of what she had already done for him.
He continued to venture carefully through open doors, averting his eyes from what was inside and only trying to find the source of her discomfort. He saw, through the corner of his eye, a large, misty object. It moved about in her head, shining and silver with time. He followed its shadow and was astounded at what he found when he got a good look.
It was a huge, silver wolf. Its eyes blazed with the time vortex itself and where it walked it left a glowing trail of energy.
Bad Wolf.
She was alive and well, and she was protecting a small silver box in the center of a vast, marble room. It was glowing and he could hear whispers of words long ago spoken, his past self and Rose running through a museum with a Dalek on their heels. These were her memories. He approached carefully, but as soon as his foot moved the wolf began to growl.
"It's ok, It's just me. It's the Doctor." he said softly. The wolf calmed and sat carefully beside the box. It looked at him with understanding, but when he took another step it barked a warning. He was not to approach.
There was a lock on the box. There would be no other way to open it but to find the key. But which words were the key? His concentration was interrupted when he heard Jack holler at them.
"Hey Doc, you may want to hurry it up. The last stop is coming up and our lady is probably going to get off."
He had completely forgotten about finding her time sense! He looked around frantically, feeling Rose's forehead begin to sweat under his fingers. She was still in pain while he was exploring about in her head. What a terrible courting partner he was turning out to be! How was he to find her time sense and soothe it in time? He looked to the wolf.
"You know her mind. Please, help me. She hurts and I have to stop it fast."
The wolf stood and walked toward him warily, still keeping in between him and the box. He led the way out and the creature relaxed. It began to run, and the Doctor followed in its glowing trail. They came to a long corridor, at the end of which was a large, red stone. It glowed viciously and he could feel the agitation that came from it. The wolf whined and placed a paw on the surface, as if trying to alleviate the pain. The Doctor followed suit and placed his hand gently on top of the stone. He could feel the pain she was in and it was enormous. Her time sense was well developed but she had no control over how much she sensed. He breathed in deeply and concentrated on soothing the pain. It soon dissipated and he felt her take a deep breath.
The wolf whined gently and placed its ghostly head under his hand. The Doctor glanced down at it while preparing to pull gently out of Rose's mind. "Thank you, friend." he said softly.
He then found himself back on the bus with Rose's head in his hand and the electricity sparking his fingers where he still touched her. She opened her eyes and smiled in relief. He found his own lips curling up too.
"Hey guys. We need to get off. Like, now." Jack said hurriedly.
The Doctor looked to Rose and regretfully removed his fingers from her temple. He instantly missed the connection and part of his mind railed against the loss. "Are you ok to stand?" he asked.
She nodded. "Yeah, let's go!"
They hurried down the stairs after Jack and out the doors just as they were closing behind them. The woman was already halfway down the street by the time they spotted her. Jack glanced down at his watch as they fell into step a ways behind her.
"Guys, I'm picking up some weird signals. It looks almost like a Hycina projection, but they went extinct millennia ago." he tapped his watch to be sure it was reading correctly.
The Doctor looked down. "Hmm...that's odd. So they rip apart time and the rips then emit a projected reality to stabilize the gaps. Perhaps..." he continued on, but Rose tuned him out. They were entering a residential area. Greenwich, she thought. The buildings were a bit run down, but they were approaching some decent flats. The woman entered the gate to a small building and went inside, seemingly unaffected by the events the trio had recently witnessed. The Doctor had his sonic screwdriver out and was buzzing away, trying to figure out where the strange readings were coming from.
Rose realized the boys had no interest in actually asking the woman what was going on. She decided to go ahead and do so herself. As she had learned on the last few lunch dates gone awry, it was best to find out first hand what the affected people experienced. They boys, immersed as they were in their technology and mutterings over various alien species, didn't take notice as she approached the door. She knocked and quickly assumed an official pose.
The woman came to the door, with a tall and somewhat handsome man behind her. "May I help you?" she asked, clearly hesitant.
Rose smiled kindly. "Hello, I'm Rose Tyler and I would like to ask you a few questions about your son."
The woman frowned. "Son? We don't have a son."
Perhaps she had jumped to conclusions then. "Nephew, perhaps? Little brother?" She probed.
The man stepped closer to her. "I'm afraid you are mistaken. We are both only children and we have never had a child." He moved to close the door.
"Wait, sir! I saw your wife with a young boy, and he just disappeared into thin air!" she said, hoping to spark some sort of memory. The woman only became angry.
"Excuse me! You mean to tell me you have been following me? I have seen no such boy today, nor do I know any children." she said, sternly.
"But-"
"Please leave! If you and your strange fellows don't leave immediately, I will call the police!" she shouted, slamming the door in her face.
Rose blinked, confused and more than a little embarrassed as she turned to face her two companions. Jack seemed to be holding back a laugh, while the Doctor appeared to be in deep thought. He turned to leave and she and Jack followed him as he began to babble again.
"Hmm...so what have we got? An alien that steals people, erases them from time, quite messily I may add, and then erases that person from everyone's memories. It's got to be either a Phtalotroch or a Hylin. Or maybe a Utranophile. If only I had thought to grab my new scanner this morning." he grumbled.
Rose took another glance at the house, and then stopped in her tracks.
"Doctor." she said.
"Not now, I'm scanning." he said, once again whipping the sonic about.
"Doctor, you need to look at this."
He sighed and turned to her, his mouth dropping open at what he saw.
"What the hell is that?" asked Jack.
The Doctor placed his hand in Rose's hair once more, the most reassurance of her presence that was proper. "I don't know. But whatever it is, we have to find it soon. Or things will get very, very bad."
They turned and began to run back to the TARDIS, away from the house that was now twisted and distorted like a funhouse mirror. People passed it by, never giving it a second glance. Some noticed it and as soon as the thought crossed their mind that it was strange, they no longer had any recollection that they had seen anything at all.
A/N: So, what do you all think? I'm going to try and finish this story up if I can. There are only about five or six chapters left, and I have new stories I want to work on too. I have a week until school starts back, so wish me luck in writing (and all my other projects to complete before my life goes all to hell again!) Thank you so much for reading, and thank you to those of you that review my story. It is wonderful encouragement to come on and see so many faithful readers and reviewers. It makes me feel loved :)
With love,
doctorrosetyler