A/N: A quick thanks for the review by MythStar Black Dragon and a story alert by BadWolfRising
Chapter 20 -Adjustments
"It says I'm fine, Doctor!"
"But it's not normal to have so much extra vortex energy in your system!"
"But I'm fine! Verity, tell him I'm fine!"
'You're both correct - it is not normal for a Time Lord or Lady to have the surplus energy you have in your system, but you do seem to be fine."
"Then why did her senses overload?" he demands with equal parts irritation and concern.
'I'm not sure,' is Verity's hesitant reply.
"That's why we need more tests!" he announces, as if vindicated in his assessment.
'She's hungry, Theta,' she states at the exact moment I say, "I'm hungry," and I can't help the amusement that this causes me at his sour expression at realizing he's out numbered.
I watch as he looks first to me then at the ceiling a moment before rolling his eyes and conceding reluctantly, "Fine, after you eat then."
Then it's my turn to glare, but I know it's the best I'm going to get right now.
As they head to the kitchen I try to reassure him, 'Theta, she really is fine, in fact better than fine...'
'What do you mean, better than fine?' comes his suspicious question.
I pause for a moment, double-checking the scans we did when she first had the problems with her regeneration. 'I mean that the damage that Cassandra did has been repaired, and it actually appears her mind has healed better than it was before. There are new connections that I suspect will give her better control of her psychic abilities and which take into account our three way bonding. Already she seems to be able to handle more of the sensory input than she has all week.'
'But that's impossible!' He stops cold in the hall, boggling at the ramifications.
"Doctor?" comes Rose's concerned question.
'What have I told you about that word?' I ask in exasperation. 'Now explain to Rose, you have worried her.'
It's been hours that he has been poking and prodding me, and not in a good way. I know he is trying to figure out what caused the episode in the library, but I really am getting tired of this. I feel fine now, other than a bit hungry because we missed lunch. I want to know what happened too but him running test after test isn't getting us anywhere. As he stops abruptly in the hall with a boggled expression on his face I have to wonder what it is that he has thought of that has him so concerned, and I wonder if Verity has told him something she didn't think she needed to share with me.
'Now Rose, don't be that way! I just realized it while I was trying to reassure him you were okay.'
'Well, what is it then?'
"Yes, fine," Comes the Doctor's reply to my concerned query. "Just Verity told me something…"
"Yeah, got it," I reply and he gives me the irritated look he gives whenever I interrupt him, "but what does it mean, other than that I won't be having any more of the headaches I've had since Cassandra's visit?"
"Besides it being impossible?"
"Seems to me a lot of impossible things tend to happen around you!" I state, bumping his shoulder. My stomach growls, interrupting our banter, and I head to the kitchen resolutely – I need food!
"Yes well, impossible or not Rose, most people's brains don't rewire themselves," He mumbled stubbornly, following in my wake.
"I thought we had kind of established I'm not most people," I retort over my shoulder. "Most people aren't born at 20 years old, or have their body built by a time ship/human hybrid and, most importantly, most people don't get to have a sexy Time Lord in their life."
With that I still his protests in the most effective way I have found to date; I swing round and kiss him soundly, snuggling into his arms as they come up to hold me to him.
I love the smell of him - cinnamon, honey, leather, and oil, they blend to make the indefinable scent that is purely his. Even if this body lives to be as old as Verity's is now, I don't think I will ever grow tired of cuddling next to him, breathing him in, and I can feel Verity's agreement.
When I release him and we enter the kitchen, I find on the table a few of the things that I have found, this week, that I like. I wonder how long it will be before I forget what so many of these foods used to taste like. I guess it really doesn't matter, as I will never be able to taste things that way again.
As I tuck in to the food Verity has provided I eventually notice that the Doctor is watching me as if he is afraid that I will vanish if he takes his eyes off me even for a moment. As he clocks my scrutiny, I see his eyes slide away guiltily and I have a feeling he is thinking about the Game Station and how I had just disappeared right in front of him from out of the main control room.
"You know I'm not going to disappear, don't you?" I ask conversationally as he moves away to make some tea. "It was the vortex storm that we got caught in before Japan that caused the shields to be damaged enough so that the Game Station could snatch us," I remind him.
"Yes."
Even without using Verity's senses and seeing the sober distressed expression he is wearing, I can see that he has gone very still and I know I have to do something to snap him out of this mood. I go to him, hugging him from behind for a moment before he turns and pulls me tight against him. For long moments, we stand together and I can feel the turmoil of his emotions boiling through the link we share. I don't push him to talk about it, though - we both know what he has lost and his fears of losing yet more. Some things cannot be helped by talking about them. I feel the exact second he stuffs those feelings away and I begin to draw back.
"So, you ready for those tests?" he asks with far more cheer than any of us are feeling right now.
"No, but I guess if I am going to keep being 'impossible' we should know what I'm doing," I reply, teasing him again about his fondness for describing the obviously possible with that word. I feel relief at his genuine smile.
"Well, come on then, you impossible beauty," he says as he holds out his hand, our fingers intertwining, in their usual manner, without a thought as I follow him from the room.
In reviewing the information, every test I ran kept coming up normal except for the one reoccurring theme, too much Vortex energy. It didn't seem to be hurting her, but the episode in the library has scared me far more than I wish to admit. Verity made it abundantly clear before she had cried out that Rose was not coping with the levels of information well and that she would need to be trained how to handle her new abilities. It's not exactly a mystery why; she has gone from having only five senses to that of a Time Lady and then beyond that to encompass Verity's TARDIS senses; she needs time to adjust. Time, which I have a horrible feeling we don't have in abundance, in spite of her changes.
When they finally call a halt for lunch I feel like I have not made any progress at all toward finding out what went wrong and then comes Verity's revelations in the hall and I don't know what to think.
I try to figure out what it all means as Rose eats. She looks so very young, and I remember all too clearly the expression of terror on her face as she was snatched from us by the Game Station. I don't know if I could take something like that happening again, not now, not after what they have given up to share a future with me. As she catches me staring, I know I need to think about something else, anything else, and I move to make some tea.
Her comment with regard to the Game Station has to be an educated guess. As she says it, I acknowledge that there was something about that storm, before Japan, that didn't feel right; it was too conveniently timed to ensure that Verity couldn't stop the transmat beam. As she slides her arms around me, I know I have to find a way to keep her safe, whatever the cause of these strange events, and I grip her tighter to me.
Her warmth against me lessens my fear and slowly sense returns and I realize that, before anything else, we must find out what is causing Rose to retain all of the extra energy.
Initially, I had figured that her problems were simply regeneration sickness and that the excess energy was residual and would fade with time. The readings, however, have barely changed at all since that last set of scans we did a week ago - if anything they have increased and that is very disturbing. Suddenly I have a suspicion and need to check it out.
"Rose, I need you do something for me."
"What?" The look of trust she gives me almost breaks my hearts.
"What were you were doing in the library right before you started to feel bad?"
"I was just sitting thinking about what I could sense now that I couldn't feel before."
I had a feeling that was what she had been doing as Verity and I had been examining the interface between the two of them. I wonder if this may be somehow planned, that this extra energy is to complete her change, a change that they have informed me I interrupted at the Game Station.
"I would like you to do the same thing now," I tell her, instantly feeling a sense of unease coming from her. "Both Verity and I will be right here in case you need us. I just want to see if what I am going to try can reduce the extra energy."
"Okay."
As she closes her eyes, I reach out with my own senses to see if I can detect anything unusual happening, as Verity watches the readings from the instruments and the psychic bridge between the two of them.
'Verity, I want you to, ever so slowly, unblock her extended senses one at a time.'
"Rose, you may feel something happening. I need you to try to relax." With that, I take her hands in mine. "If you start to feel overwhelmed I need you to squeeze my hands and we will stop."
"'kay"
With that, I close my eyes and concentrate on her and any sensations I can get without actually entering her mind. As I feel Verity start to shift the first of the mental blocks she had shown me earlier, I feel Rose's breath catch and Verity pause.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, just feels a bit weird - like a door opening, but I'm not sure to what."
"You know Verity has been shielding your mind since your run in with Cassandra, right?"
"Yes, something about neural overload."
"Well, we're going to see if, since your brain changed as it healed, it can handle the additional information now. As we do this, you're going to start feeling things you may not have ever felt before. You okay with that?"
"I guess."
"That's my girl. Just remember, we're both here and you just need to squeeze my hands if you need us to stop."
"'kay." I can hear the hesitancy in her voice but I can also feel her determination not to be a burden on Verity, and so we begin again.
As the first block slides away I can feel her breathing become more rapid and the beat of her hearts increase, but other than that, there are no indicators that something has changed. As we pause, both begin to return to normal.
As the Verity begins to move the next block, suddenly Rose is practically crushing my hands and has begun to shake. I feel Verity try to move it back even as my eyes snap open to check on and reassure Rose. What I come face to face with is her amber glowing eyes. "Verity, put it back!" I scream mentally, even as I reiterate it aloud. The voice that answers is not Verity's but what I instinctively know is my Bad Wolf. 'No,' is the message received from both of them. A moment longer her eyes continue to glow fiercely, then Rose is slumping forward into my arms and I feel a burst of terror as I realize how shallowly she is breathing.
"What did you do?" I ask, unsure which of them I expect to answer.
'What was necessary, she needed to move forward a bit more, but for now she needs to rest,' comes Verity's tired sounding reply.
"What do mean, needed to move forward?" I ask as fear makes my hearts pound like wild things in my chest. Verity's lack of response does nothing to reassure me and as the lights drop to subsistence power levels, I feel that she too is now unconscious, which is a very odd feeling as it happens so rarely.