a/n: Time to learn the next task and for the Doctor and Rose to visit Torchwood. Okay I may make a cheeky reference to a particular popular genre in modern fiction but it is done with love. I have been known to read this particular genre while sitting around at the Laundromat.
Disclaimer: I do not own or profit from Doctor Who or Star Trek
Hydras, Hadrys and Back to Torchwood
"Roooosssee," a very annoying voice called. Then the bed shook. Rose burrowed down under the warm and cozy covers hoping the annoying voice would go away. The bed shook harder as if someone where sitting on the edge bouncing. Rose squirmed her way further into the pillows and blankets as if to escape the bed bouncing menace. The shaking became massive bouncing as someone jumped up and down on the bed and then fell down next to her and that's when the tickling started.
The blankets slowly but surely fell away from a very naked, sleepy and giggling Rose Tyler as a Time Lord Metacrisis with a fetish for tickling and bouncing on the bed continued his assault. Finally, Rose giggled out, "Stop! You win!"
"Oh I win do I, and what do I win," the Doctor asked with a waggle of his eyebrows.
Rose smiled a special naughty smile reserved just for the Doctor. "Well maybe if you were to a bit less dressed you'd find out," she replied cheekily as she tugged him down to her by the lapels. As the snogging commenced, it quickly metamorphosed into caressing and moaning. Rose rolled him over until she was straddling him and her hands wandered to that special spot that left him gasping. Just as she untucked his dress shirt and was lightly kissing her way down his jaw line while her hands wandered to hidden territories, he decided to strike up a conversation.
"Rose we have to go down to the garden."
Rose paused in her lascivious pursuit and looked at him, "What? Now?"
"Well you are awake aren't you?" he asked his eyebrows raised.
"Yeah sort of but wouldn't you rather, I don't know, do something here?" she asked looking down at him and biting her bottom lip.
His response was to pout. "But Roooose we can copulate anytime. This is important and you have to come see," he told her rolling her off of him and bouncing off the bed. "Here get dressed and let's go," he told her tossing her a pair of jeans that were thrown over a chair.
Rose sat up groaning and looked at the jeans he'd thrown at her. She ran a hand through her bed tousled hair and stared at him. "Seriously, you'd rather we go down to the garden then play a little slap and tickle?" she asked as she watched him whip on his glasses peering at the wall covered in parchment and notes about the eleven quests they had yet to complete.
He turned around his glasses slipping down his nose slightly, "Did you say something?"
Rose sighed as she took in his suit which she had just had the pleasure of rumpling, and his soulful brown eyes enhanced by those luscious lenses that seem to have the power to make her just…
"Rose, come on let's go!" he interrupted her steamy thoughts.
"Right. I'll be just a mo," she told him as she dragged herself out of bed to the shower to get ready to start another day of adventure in the madcap world that was her life. Rose stepped into the hot shower and thought about how nice it was to get back from Cleone. It felt like a lifetime ago and yet, it was only a few days. Her leg was practically healed much to her amazement and the Doctor's gloating over his superior healing skills. Even the Doctor's ribs seemed better or he was just getting better at hiding the pain from her.
Rose dressed in jeans and a lavender jumper with new lavender trainers that just mysteriously appeared in her closet. She pulled her hair back in a pony tail and headed to the garden to find out what had the Doctor so wound up this morning that he had to disturb her lie in. As she stepped into the garden, she marveled at the bright sky and cool fresh air.
"Good Morning Perry, lovely day isn't it?" Rose told him as she walked further into the garden running her hand over some shrubbery glistening with fresh morning due.
"Good day to you Rose. You look refreshed and at peace. The Doctor is in the greenhouse eagerly awaiting your arrival," Perry told her with a very pleased smile on his face.
"Thanks Perry. You know I swear I can see an improvement out here every day. Just listen to the birds singing. Even they sound pleased to be here. You've made this place so welcoming and mmmm something smells lovely. What is it?"
"The garden was always fruitful and full of life. I am merely guiding and encouraging the growth of a variety and proliferation of species. I believe the scent enticing your olfactory senses is honeysuckle. Its scent is particularly vivid in the morning."
"It's lovely! Well done Perry," Rose complimented him as she wandered over to the greenhouse. She opened the door and stepped into the warm, humid environment which smelled earthy with a tinge of something she could only identify as Doctor. The light in the greenhouse was tinted an orange color due to the Doctor's manipulation of the greenhouse glass and the environmental systems the Doctor and Perry had been working on while she recovered. She was truly amazed at the progress. Of course, the Doctor had been babbling about it over dinner every night but she hadn't really absorbed how much progress had been made.
"Rose! There you are!" the Doctor enthusiastically called to her. "Come over here!"
Rose made her way through tables filled with a variety of bags, boxes and bottles of organic liquids, dirt and granular substances until she reached the center of the greenhouse. What she saw amazed her.
"Doctor I can't believe it!"
In this portion of the greenhouse, the Doctor had carved away part of the floor and filled the carved out space with a mixture of organic liquid and an orange granular substance. Protruding from this mixture, were pieces of coral in various stages of development. There were three rows of coral and in the center was one very impressive bit that was bigger than all the rest, about 1 meter in height to be exact.
"Beautiful!" Rose gasped.
"Isn't it just," the Doctor responded with a huge grin on his face. "The one in the middle will be our Tardis Rose. Yours and mine. It was Perry's idea to dig through the floor so that the baby coral could be closer to the ground and the source of the TCB. They're thriving Rose," he whispered with amazement and joy.
Rose walked over and looped her arm through his and rested her cheek on his shoulder. "I can't believe how far they've come. Do you think Perry had something to do with this?"
"Well, he is the gardener. Of course, he has a way with living things. He has a natural empathic ability to learn what a living creature needs to grow and even encourage it to thrive. But Rose, I have to confess, this wasn't all Perry." The Doctor stopped and took a step back looking at Rose nervously running a hand through his hair before taking her hand in his. "You see you also had a hand in this. Remember how you told me about the dreams you've been having? Well when you were having some of those dreams, the good ones, you were humming in your sleep. Quite lovely it was. The night before we left for Cleone, you must have been having an especially lovely dream, at least by the sound of it. I decided to go for a bit of walk in the garden when you started signing in your sleep and when I wandered into the greenhouse, I could see the coral reacting. You were singing to them Rose and they were singing back to you!" the Doctor told her getting more and more excited as he explained how she had enhanced the coral's growing cycle. "Remember in the basement when we first found the TCB, I told you that you would be important. You Rose Tyler are full of life and connected to the vortex. I don't understand it exactly but you are a bit of a mother or nursemaid to these gorgeous infants," he finished explaining looking down lovingly at the coral.
Rose was gob smacked. "Why don't I remember any of this in the morning?"
The Doctor smiled and took her in his arms, "You mustn't worry. I told you, your still acclimating to the changes within you. When your mind feels your ready, you will remember. Besides, since we talked about these dreams, I don't think you've had any nightmares have you?"
"Well no, come to think of it, I haven't. Why do you think that is?"
"Could be the TCB is protecting you. She could have sensed your distress and my concern and decided to take some action to buffer your connection to her."
Rose looked at him and then down at the Tardis coral, "I spose that makes sense. I'll have to thank her for watchin' over me." Rose knelt down near the baby coral and smiled. "So how long before the first one is mature enough for you to go inside?"
The Doctor knelt next to her grinning with glee at her question, "Oh maybe a year or two. Could be sooner though."
Rose looked at him as he began crooning and singing in some alien language she thought might be Gallifreyan. All she could think was how right this all felt and how good it was for him.
Later that day, she wandered into the study and found the Doctor reading at his desk. His white trainers were propped up on the desk while he leaned back in his chair caught up in some thick tomb. "Doctor, you haven't told me about our next task."
"Oh we'll we have plenty of time for that," he answered mysteriously.
"Doctor, tell me," Rose demanded crossing her arms and glaring at him.
The book he was reading snapped shut and he stared at her. She stared back and raised an eyebrow at him. Finally, she broke him.
"Fine, it's the Hydra," he told her.
"Hydra, isn't that the snake like thing with lots of heads?"
The Doctor smiled, jumped up out of the chair and started walking around the desk. He definitely looked like he was going to enjoy educating Rose all about the Hydra. "You see Hercules was tasked to kill the Hydra which lived in a cave in a swamp filled with deadly gas. Now there is some disagreement as to exactly what happened or even how many heads the Hydra had but generally, Hercules covered his mouth with cloth and entered the swamp where he shot flaming arrows into the cave where the Hydra dwelt. The Hydra was sort of a lizard like creature with either five or nine heads that was terrorizing the villages, eating cattle, people, causing mayhem you know the usual. So Hercules flushes out the good old Hydra and starts hacking off heads. Unfortunately for him, when he chopped off a head, two grew back in its place." The Doctor pulled a book off a shelf and flipped it open to a page to show Rose a drawing of a Hydra. He then continued with his lecture.
"So the only way to kill it is to hack of it's head but two more grow in it's place. What's a hero to do? Well as it turns out, one of the heads was the mortal one and if he lopped off that one, it died. Lucky for him, he had a brilliant nephew by the name of Iolus who came up with the idea to cauterize the stump for every head he chopped so it couldn't grow back. So basically, he hacked them all off until he got to the mortal head and bingo, dead Hydra. He then used the blood of the Hydra which was deadly poison and dipped his arrows in it which would help him on another task later on. So any questions?" he asked her as he stopped pacing and picked up a banana out of his fruit bowl and started peeling it.
"Tell me we're not gonna have to have to kill this thing for real."
"Wellll not exactly. Our task is involving a mysterious lake by the name of Lake Faol and a mythological creature called the Hadry which is oddly enough right here on Earth. Oh and not just on Earth but the Scottish Highlands. So you see, we don't even have to go very far!" the Doctor told her with excitement and began to eat his banana.
"Right so what is a Hadry and what does it have to do with this mysterious Lake Faol?"
"Oh well the Hadry is described in one particular old Earth legend as sort of a dragon with multiple heads. No fire breathing mind you, but rather lizard-like, scales, five heads, no flying but your basic eating cattle, terrorizing villages and causing mayhem. Disappeared as mysteriously as it appeared. Legend has it that if the Hadry is destroyed the dry lake near its cave will fill with water and the barren land will become fertile. Our task is to find a way to replenish the lake and bring life back to the surrounding area by the next full moon or in other words, we might have to sort of killthehadry," the Doctor told her quickly hoping the quick explanation confused her.
Of course, this was Rose and she was used to Doctor speak. "We have to kill this thing. This thing that can only be killed if you hack off the right head cause if you hack off the wrong head, you get a bonus head," Rose told stated matter of factly. "Right. Doctor I'm not likin' this one. It's not just dangerous, its well bloody and we have to kill a living thing. Can't we find another way?"
The Doctor sighed, "Rose I've tried. I've pulled every bit of research I can find on the area including all the geological records, weather history and nothing has pointed to a reason that lake is dry. We only have sixteen more days before the full moon so we don't exactly have time to research this further."
All of sudden, Rose grinned that smile that could light up the entire manor, "Doctor, I think it's time we took a trip to Torchwood."
"Torchwood! Why do we have to go there," he whined.
"Cause nothing's better on supernatural stuff than the Torchwood archives in London. Let's pack up tonight and we can head out in the morning. Besides, Mum and Pete would love for us to visit. You know how Mum's been getting on me about family time."
"Torchwood and Jackie!" he gasped.
"Oh it won't kill ya and besides don't think I don't know your itchin' to get down to the Torchwood archives. You can also pay a visit to Malcolm and ask him about his research into that stone scraping he took from the well. Malcolm will be pleased to see you ya know." Rose left the Doctor muttering about Torchwood and domestics with a half eaten banana still in his hand.
The next morning they packed up the car and drove to London arriving mid morning at Canary Wharf.
"Rose, Doctor what are you doin' here!" Jake shouted out at them.
"Oh the Doctor found some stuff about a dragon that might be livin' in Scotland so we came in to do some research on it. Is Pete around?"
"A Dragon, seriously? How come I haven't heard about it?"
"Well Jakey my boy, it lives in a bit of a remote area and only shows up periodically. Rose and I thought we might head into the mountains and check it out. You never know when the next dragon apocalypse might happen," the Doctor told him slapping him on the back.
Jake stared at him as he started having visions of fire breathing dragons swooping down over London. "Riiiight. Maybe I should give you hand?"
"Thanks Jake. We'll let you know. We're gonna spend some time in the archives first and see what we can find out. But first, I thought we might pop in and visit Pete and let him know we're here," Rose told him a bit amused at the worried expression on his face.
"Well let me know before the apocalypse happens," Jake told them as they entered the elevator with a group of horrified Torchwood employees on their way to see Pete.
Of course, Pete had already heard they were in the building and told his assistant to wave them in. It was practically impossible for the Doctor and Rose to be at Torchwood without a wave of gossip spreading like wildfire throughout the building. It was sort of given that if they were in the vicinity, trouble would no doubt follow.
Rose greeted Pete's assistant, Mary by name and was told to go on into his office. Rose took the Doctor's hand and practically dragged him in with her only to find Pete in a meeting with Minister Elliot Tibbs who was head of the Republic's security council.
"Rose, Doctor, please join us. You remember Minister Tibbs."
"Yes, of course, it's nice to see you again. Everything all right Minister?" Rose asked shaking hands with them. The Doctor had wandered off examining items in Pete's office.
"Ms. Tyler, a pleasure seeing you again. I trust there are no emergencies of which I should be made aware," Minister Tibbs responded raising an eyebrow at her.
Rose smiled, "Not to my knowledge. We're just here doing some research."
"I see. Well Pete, do be sure to keep me apprised if anything crops up." Minister Tibbs turned and looked at the Doctor. "With Rose and the Doctor in town, no doubt nerves will be frayed."
"Uh yes Minister, I'll be sure to keep you informed if any concerns should arise," Pete told him walking him to the door.
Pete returned and hugged Rose. "All right you two, spill."
"Oh Pete, I'm hurt. What makes you think anything's wrong. Maybe we're just here to visit you, Jackie and Tony," the Doctor responded.
Pete sighed, "Come off it you two. Everyone at Torchwood knows if you're here, something's bound to happen. So what is it, alien invasion, gremlins running amok at St. Paul's Cathedral?" Pete asked sitting down at his large cherry desk which sat before massive windows overlooking the London skyline.
"Dragons or I should say a dragon. You see no big deal!" the Doctor told him sitting down in front of his desk and playing with a meditation cube.
"Dragons oh is that all," Pete answered sarcastically.
"Relax Pete. We're just here researching this legend. It's suppose to live in Scotland but only shows up periodically. We want to go investigate and thought we'd check the Torchwood archives first. Besides, I thought it might be nice if we spent some time with you, Mum and Tony tonight," Rose explained trying to calm him down.
Pete shook his head smiling. "You two! I swear you're not happy unless you're up to your eyeballs in aliens, monsters and mysteries. All right. Just let me know what you find and if you need help. Jackie mentioned you'd be joining us for tea this evening. Just promise me you won't mention any of this to her, would you?"
"Us, upset Jackie. Would we do that?" the Doctor asked him looking innocent.
"Rose, I'm counting on you," Pete told her ignoring the Doctor.
"Don't worry Pete. The Doctor doesn't want a slappin' so he'll behave!" Rose told him smiling. "Come on Doctor let's head down to the archives. I'll introduce you to Mandy."
The Doctor put the meditation cube that he had been toying with back on Pete's desk and hopped up to follow Rose. "So where is this archive and whose Mandy?"
As the elevator doors opened to the basement where the Torchwood archives were located, Rose explained to the Doctor that the Torchwood basement consisted of several levels, was massive and required four archivists to keep it organized and retrieve research requests. Rose easily made her way through the dark, cool maze of floor to ceiling shelves filled with everything from books, scrolls, tapes, records and electronic recording devices of every sort imaginable. Finally, she reached her destination. Before them among the maze of shelves, was an old fashioned wooden desk that looked like it was made in the 1950s with tall stacks of papers and books laying on it in a haphazard fashion. Sitting at the desk with her black boot clad feet propped up on an overturned trash bin, was a twenty six year old girl with long curly brown hair dressed in black tights, a green plaid skirt that looked like it was held together with safety pins, a matching green jumper, a yellow and orange scarf wrapped around her neck, chunky colored crystal bracelets around her writs and black horn rimmed glasses perched her nose examining a crystal ball.
"Mandy what you doing?" Rose asked.
Mandy appeared startled but quickly jumped up a bright grin on her face and threw herself at Rose. "Rose! It's so good to see you! Oh I missed you. This place has been so boring since you left! Whose this? Wholly Jagrafess! You're him aren't you!" Mandy shouted out bouncing up and down.
"Uh Mandy, this is the Doctor. Doctor, this is my friend Mandy Booker."
"Oh I am so pleased to meet you!" Mandy gushed pumping the Doctors hand up and down. "Rose told me all about you while we were researching the void and dimension hopping."
"Really. You have books on the void and Trans dimensional travel?" the Doctor asked a bit worried.
"Well not really, but we have the physics department which contains every book, paper and theory ever written or discussed. Oh and then there's the Star Trek archive! Love the Star Trek archive. There's really amazing stuff in there! There's even stuff that wasn't ever released to the public you know," she told him winking at him.
The Doctor looked at Rose who was biting her lip and staring off into another direction fidgeting.
"So Mandy, you Rose and was Mickey in on this too?" the Doctor asked.
"Oh Mickey, what a sweetheart. We all really miss him. You know he could quote almost more Star Trek episodes than me. He gave me all his trekkie stuff before he left," she said with a tears in her eyes.
The Doctor rolled his eyes and stared at Rose. "Uh Mandy, the Doctor and I have a new project and need your help with some research."
"Sure Rose anything for you. What's this one on? Some new alien threat," she asked with just a bit too much excitement.
"Naw, just a dragon," Rose told her.
Mandy's eyes lit up like it was Christmas morning. "So what kind of dragon and any particular habitat?"
"What kind of dragon and habitat. Oh Mandy, I think maybe you and I are going to be great friends!" the Doctor said warming up to her.
The Doctor quickly summarized the Hadry story to Mandy and she pulled up a hologram of the archives and began tracking down any resources regarding the area of Lake Faol. While Mandy and the Doctor reviewed the results of her search, Rose walked around her desk and picked up a book and started reading it.
"Rose, what do you have there?" the Doctor asked when he turned around and Rose was gone.
"A book."
"I can see that but what book? Here let me see," he said grabbing it out of her hand and walking around the desk. He scrunched up his face and turned to Mandy and read the back of the book, "Starlight Journey. Jasmine is Earth's last hope for salvation from the tyranny of the Aleusion Confederation as she makes her way to the Orion Nebulae seeking alliance with the Aleusion's feared enemy with Castor a mysterious mercenary who has vowed to help her. Will the steamy telepathic Castor assure her success or seduce her with his alien wiles." He dropped the book on the desk with a thud. "Oh you have got to be kidding me! Who writes this rubbish?" he asked looking from Mandy to Rose.
"Oi! It's not rubbish. It's a paranormal romance. This is latest most trendy genre in romantic fiction," Mandy defended as she grabbed the book and held it to her chest protectively.
The Doctor shook his head, "Oh Mandy. We really have to get you out more. If you want romantic fiction, I'll give you romantic fiction. I mean, Jane Austen, Lord Byron or John Keats even Margaret Mitchell wrote something more romantic and more worthy of reading than this rubbish,"
"This is not rubbish. This is romantic science fiction," Mandy emphatically declared to him.
"All right everyone let's settle down and agree to disagree. Now Mandy, let's start goin' over the stuff about the lake and the Hadry, yeah." Rose said to end the debate.
The three of them spent all afternoon reading articles and accounts of the Hadry and the lake from hundreds of years ago to the present. Roses mobile rang and she looked down and winced. "Uh Doctor, it's Mum. She want's to know when we'll be home for tea. It's getting late and I'm starving. Do you think we have everything we need."
The Doctor sighed, "I suppose so. Mandy can we get copies of everything I listed on this tablet?"
"Sure! No problem. So are you going after this thing?"
Rose giggled, "Mandy, it's a dragon and it's us. Of course, we're goin'. Right Doctor?"
He looked over at her with a grin on his face, "A dragon and a mysterious lake. Well Lewis sounds like we'll be heading to the Scottish Highlands."
Rose smiled, "After we visit my Mum."
"Oh you had to go and spoil it," the Doctor pouted.