Starting Over 26: Revelations

Yeah, I know it's been ages since I updated this. It's the busy time of year for my work (I'm self employed and this month and next make half my income for the year), so updates are a bit slow right now. I promise to keep with it, though!

XxXxXxXx

The Doctor went straight to the lift from Rose's room and right up to the top floor of the Tower. He walked right past Chelsea's empty desk and straight into Peter Tyler's office, where the man himself sat at his desk with Owen, Chelsea and Melissa standing behind him. All were focused on a screen which the Doctor couldn't see yet. He heard some scuffling sounds coming from it.

Pete stopped the video they were watching as soon as he saw the Doctor striding up to his desk. "Louis Fletcher said you were the one to talk to to find out about what's happening with Rose."

"How is she?" Chelsea asked worriedly.

"In a coma," he answered quickly. "Which is why I'm wondering why Rose's bruises are healing so fast. Her body isn't ready for any of the myriad of techniques for healing bruising. Louis said they weren't doing anything, but something's happening."

Pete sighed, leaned back, and said, "I told her to tell you. She didn't tell you anything?"

"Tell me what, exactly?" the Doctor hedged, not knowing how much Pete or anyone else in the room knew.

"I didn't think so," Pete confirmed and sighed. "The thing is, something happened to her when she was traveling with you. At least that's when she thinks it happened. She's capable of knowing-"

"He knows about the telepathy," Melissa informed him suddenly.

"What does Rose being telepathic have to do with anything?" the Doctor wondered impatiently.

"Because it was the first thing she found out about," she told him.

"I wish someone would just spit it out already! All this bloody hinting at things, but never telling me is making me bonkers!" he nearly yelled.

The others all glanced at each other before Pete finally answered him. "Rose heals fast."

"What?" the Doctor blurted out. Rose healed fast? No, that couldn't be. There were so many ways that wasn't good. The rapid healing could be using up her life faster, and he'd lose her. Earth in this time period was xenophobic in the extreme. He could handle it if he was caught, but he couldn't handle it if something happened to Rose. The worst case scenario was something he didn't want to think about, but not wanting to think about it didn't stop it from crossing his mind.

She attributed the changes in her to the few minutes that she was Bad Wolf. What if she were the one to live centuries past him?

He was getting ahead of himself. He needed answers first before he let his mind go off on a tangent.

"We don't understand it," Chelsea said, only a second after his exclamation. "Rose won't let anyone conduct tests. There have been a few done on her, of course, but only when she was unconscious, and-"

"You've been testing her without her knowing?" the Doctor shouted, suddenly very afraid for Rose.

"No, not against her will. Just the other time she was in a coma," Melissa calmly replied.

"Oh, the news just gets better and better. When the hell was she in a coma?!" he blurted out.

"It was a couple years ago," Pete explained. "She was hit by a car."

"Hit by a car, kidnapped, shot-" he started listing angrily, getting louder with each word before he felt a calming sensation. She took a step forward, and the Doctor backed up. "I know what you're doing, Melissa. I can feel you," he told her coldly. "Stop it." He gave her a mental push and Melissa's eyes widened. The telepathic presence at the edge of his mind disappeared immediately.

"Sorry. It's a reaction. I-I," she stuttered and apologized.

"You never use telepathy on someone without their permission," he snapped at her. He noticed she was scared. A part of him was satisfied with her reaction, but a larger part of him was horrified at scaring someone who was apologizing and had apparently done it accidentally.

The thought calmed him more than her ability could have. He closed his eyes for a moment and concentrated on the fact that Rose was alive and Jake was with her. "That should have been the first thing you learned when you were learning how to use your abilities. You never use them unless permission is given or there's an emergency," he explained. Melissa nodded and he turned his attention to Pete. "So, she can heal fast. How fast?"

"I don't know how to explain it," he answered. "The best way I can explain it is to give you her records. You need to know all of it anyway."

"Good," the Doctor replied. That was what he wanted anyway. He turned around and made to leave.

"That's not why I called you here, Doctor," Pete called out before he could get to the door. The Doctor stopped and spun around. It had slipped his mind that he had been called to the top floor. "You're going to want to sit down for this."

Pete had turned the monitor around so that the Doctor could see it. On, it, a video of Rose tied up was paused. She looked angry and was puling on the ropes that bound her.

"I am human," she told the woman standing right by her. She was smacked hard, causing her hand to snap to the side.

"These are the rules," the woman told her. "I ask you a question, you answer me. If you tell me a lie, something bad happens to you."

"I have been telling the truth," Rose said with her teeth bared.

"Where were you born?"

"London, England, Earth." She was hit again.

"What species are you?"

"Human."

"Oops, that's the wrong time stamp," Chelsea said and quickly moved the video forward eight and a half minutes.

Rose's head was dropped as if she were knocked out. They tried to get her awake, but quickly gave up on it and left the room. As soon as they left, she lifted her head, pulled on her bonds, and then closed her eyes, breathing in deeply. He saw her mouth make the word, "Doctor," but no sound came out. This was when she contacted him. The video was then fast forwarded through her freeing herself, pulling a knife out of her shoe. (He'd had no clue she was armed), and making it look like she was bound just in time for someone to check on her. She'd pretended to be still knocked out until they were gone, then got her feet unbound.

He was torn between pride that she released herself so quickly and shame that she had to have that skill set in the first place. It was all his fault. He wished he'd never had come back and asked her again.

He watched Rose taunt the woman who'd been torturing her in fascination. She got her to stop hitting her and start asking the right questions. The shot Jake had made was heard, and the man he'd put to sleep had left to check it out. Rose goaded the woman until she got right in her face before she revealed that she wasn't bound.

Rose's attack on her captor was vicious, efficient, and brutal. The video was stopped at a moment just before she was shot. The Doctor sat in his seat, speechless. His fingers were digging into the leather, and he was sure there would be permanent marks in it, if not outright holes.

The knowledge that she was tortured wasn't the worst part of the video, Neither was knowing what came next. Not even the efficiency with which Rose knocked out the woman who'd tortured her while she was in great pain. They all scared him, but not as bad as what he saw when the video was paused. Rose's eyes were looking right at the video camera.

And they were gold.

XxXxXxXx

Peter Tyler didn't usually deal with a case-any case directly, but considering who was at the center of this one and the highly classified nature of the case, he wouldn't let anyone else at the helm, except maybe for the man in front of him. That was a big maybe. The man was on the edge of truly snapping. Pete didn't blame him. It'd been a hard day, and he hadn't had his finger in the chest of the woman he loved after watching her get shot.

Pete watched the Doctor watching the video of his stepdaughter being tortured, knowing he didn't need this right now, but they needed to deal with the problem at hand. When it finished, the mostly alien man was frozen, staring at the screen in wide eyed horror and looked like he was about to be sick.

"As you can see, we've got a bit of a problem," he told the Time Lord. "None of the kidnappers captured tonight have ever actually worked for Torchwood, but they know things and had equipment. Someone knows far too much about Rose, and it might come back to Tony, Jackie, you, me, and anyone else she's close to." He still looked in shock and Pete wondered if he shouldn't have given him a summary of what was said in the video instead. "We need to find out who else was involved. Have you seen or heard anything from anyone wanting to know more about her?" he asked.

"Her eyes," the Doctor finally croaked out. "Her eyes are gold."

Pete turned the monitor to him to see, and sure enough, Rose's eyes looked gold in the frame the video was paused at. "Looks like light reflecting off her eyes," Pete denied. Why was the man fixated on her eyes after everything else on that video? The Doctor looked exasperated for a moment, then seemed to snap back to reality.

"I don't know, Pete. I've only been in this bloody universe for a couple weeks. There's been some gossip, but nothing more than the rumours and such you'd expect in a place like this with someone with her public profile." The Doctor leaned forward and ran his fingers through his hair, tugging at the strands for a minute. "Liam," he said suddenly. "Just this morning, I was talking to Liam when Rose came by and he said something about rumour being she was with a bloke that wasn't human. Well, that part was true, but no one could know that. Not saying he's part of it. I doubt it, but the rumour could have had someone looking into Rose deeper."

"Liam?" Chelsea asked writing his name down. "What's his last name?"

"I can't remember. Not sure it ever actually came up, but I worked with him this week. But, like I said, I don't think he's anything but a normal guy. I think he's just misinformed." The Doctor stood up and started pacing. "Wait a minute, we found her because of the list of people who had access to the Stings," he realized.

Pete nodded. "The flat Rose was found in belonged to-" He picked up a piece of paper on his desk and looked it over. "Alec Sullivan, who was found in the other bedroom. We don't yet know why Doctor Sullivan was targeted."

The Doctor grimaced. "Alec. I met him two days ago, we figured out how to stabilize nucleoli in a suspension. Good man. Vocal about alien rights. Very vocal. Very vehemently vocal. Went on a rant about it, actually." The Doctor started bouncing around nervously. Pete knew this behavior from Rose and knew he was feeling trapped and had to leave.

"Go in, Doctor. I'll have Dr. Fletcher release her full records," he told the nervous Time Lord, who immediately darted to the door.

"If you find out anything, let me know," he said just before he left the room so fast that Pete couldn't even acknowledge he'd said anything.

"You up for watching an interrogation?" he asked Melissa Saroyan. It was close to two in the morning, and it was her friend who'd these people had kidnapped and tortured.

XxXxXxXx

The Doctor went back to the lift and took it straight down to the level Rose was on. On the way down, he leaned against the wall with his eyes closed. He was so tired. Tired, scared, and extremely angry. So many thoughts were running through his head.

He should have killed the bastard that he'd shot. He wanted to. Oh, how he wanted to. The thought didn't even make him sick, not at that moment.

Rose's eyes glowed. That wasn't a trick of the light, that was luminous from within. Come to think of it, he'd seen that in the hotel in Norway, too. He'd thought that it was the yellowish light at the time and it was gone as quickly as he'd seen it.

Who knew about her? Who would have her interrogated her like that? Why was it filmed?

Where the hell did Rose learn to dispatch an enemy that quickly?

What the hell was going on with her? She obviously knew about the healing before they'd been brought back to this universe. Why hadn't she said anything?

The doors opened before he could go much further with his long list of questions without any answers. He went directly to the room where Rose was being held and discovered that Jake was just outside of the room, while Owen Harper was inside, looking her over.

"Hi, Owen," he greeted the man who'd saved Rose's life. "I didn't know you were still in the building."

"Yeah, well. What sort of doctor would I be to leave my patient after a surgery?" he replied. "Besides, Fletcher's alright, but she doesn't know him as well as she does me."

"What do you mean?" the Doctor asked.

"She woke up," Owen told him. "Tried to pull the IV out and get away, but I got her calmed down. Anyway, she's alright now. We're just waitin' on her to wake up on her own."

The Doctor damned near kissed the doctor with the too-round head and horrible bedside manner. He knew he wanted him in that operating room. After a bit of back and forth with the man, who he actually liked a little, because of his candor, Owen left and he was alone with Rose again.

He stroked her face. "Oh, Rose. I'm sorry."

XxXxXxXx

Rose Tyler was fighting through a thick sludge, trying to get out, but the more she struggled, the more she sunk. She finally touched bottom and stopped sinking, but her vision was turning black.

XxXx

Suddenly, the world was bright and white. A beeping sound was heard and Rose was ready to smash the alarm clock. Except it wasn't an alarm. She hurt everywhere.

"She's waking up," a female voice called.

In a panic, Rose tried to pull out a wire. "No, no, no, no! Get off me!" she screamed, but couldn't make much noise. "Get away! I'm warning you!" Suddenly, the face of Owen Harper showed up right in front of her.

"Rose, Rose, calm down or you're going to die!" he shouted at her.

"Wha-? What the hell, Owen?" she asked. Oh, she hurt.

"You were shot. We're trying to fix you up, but to do that, you've got to stay calm, Tyler."

"I hurt," she complained.

"Suck it up Tyler. Won't be long and you'll be out again," he snapped. Owen's usual attitude calmed her.

"Anyone ever tell you you're bedside manner's horrible?" she joked.

"Yeah, at least twice a day. I'm the best at fixin' you up though, so-" She didn't hear the rest, because she was out again.

XxXx

She heard the Doctor's voice speaking softly. "Hey, you, Miss Jeopardy Friendly. You keep fighting, 'cause I need you, and we need to finish our big date. I love you, and I always will, so you'd better come back to me like always."

"I'm trying, but I don't know where I am," she called out, but he disappeared. She was left alone in the white room, or she thought it was a white room. She was almost blind with how white everything was.

XxXx

Rose and the Doctor sat in a field of red grass. Two suns hung over them, and she could see a domed city off in the distance above the silver leaved trees.

The Doctor was telling her about places they were going to go and things they were going to do. It sounded wonderful.

"...and we won't have to hide who we are from them, they're a very open minded and welcoming culture, Rose." He disappeared slowly.

"No, Doctor, don't go!" she shouted.

XxXx

She was pounding at the TARDIS doors. "Let me in!" she yelled. "I can't stay here!"

"Stop being selfish. Your family is here. You have to stay. I need someone to take care of him," the Doctor said from inside.

"I can't!" she screamed. "Please. They'll kill me!" The TARDIS faded out of the universe, leaving her behind.

The Doctor walked up behind her. "I've got you, Love," he whispered in her ear. "I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere."

"Only 'cause you can't."

XxXx

Rose was in back streets, running from a mob of people who wanted to burn her for being a witch. Her heart pounded and she couldn't catch her breath. She needed somewhere to hide, now.

She rounded a corner and was pulled through a door. She tried to fight off her attacker, but he held her too tight. Her kicking wound up slamming the door she'd been pulled through and a moment later, the crowd passed by, shouting, "Witch!"

She became aware of the man behind her shushing her. "It's okay, Rose, I've got you," he said in a Northern burr. Her eyes widened, and she stopped struggling. As soon as she did so, he released her and she spun around to face him. He was incongruous in the seventeenth century surroundings with his leather jacket, close cropped hair, and boots.

"Doctor?" Rose asked. He didn't look like that anymore, she was sure of it.

"You've got to get out of here, Rose," he said.

"How?" Rose questioned. "They want me dead!"

"Well, you did turn one of them into dust," he told her, rolling his eyes. "Tends to make some people angry."

"Only after she accused me of bein' a witch!" Rose defended herself. Suddenly, she remembered. "Hold on. How comes you know about turnin' things to dust?"

"Because 'm not real, Rose Tyler," he answered.

"Not, real? No! Of course your real," she denied.

"Think about it, Rose." He rapped on her forehead twice with his knuckles. "Use that brain of yours. For a human, it's pretty good. Now, what's the last thing you remember before we were here?"

"We were on a beach and there were two of you. Were you crossing your own timeline?"

"Wrong, Rose. Try again." He crossed his arms and looked at her sternly.

"I don't know!" Rose shouted.

"Yes, you do," he snapped back.

"I-I don't. Where are we?" Rose started hyperventilating and the Doctor grabbed her by her shoulders.

"Rose, you can do this. You're here and you have to pull yourself out." His voice was gentle. That version of the Doctor rarely had a properly gentle voice. "That's it, Rose. I'm not real, none of this is real. This daft face is gone now. Where are you, Rose?" he prodded.

"I'm, I- I was shot, I was shot and being fixed up," she spoke automatically. As soon as she did, she became more aware of the incongruities in her reality. The Doctor was in the wrong body. She'd turned a villager into dust, though she no longer could. She'd resorted to causing death for no real reason.

"There you go, Rose," the Doctor encouraged.

"None of this is real. It's just my imagination," she continued. "We're trapped in my own mind, aren't we?"

"Give the girl a medal!" the Doctor exclaimed. He hugged her, but when he pulled back, he was all sort of brown again and wearing blue. "Ah, well that's one way of doing it, I suppose. You're really rather good at conjuring up versions of me, aren't you?"

"How do I get out of here?" she questioned him.

"Ah, well, that's the question, isn't it?" The seventeenth century room they were in changed, and Rose could see herself lying on a hospital bed with an IV and a nasal canola in. The Doctor, the same one she was standing next to, was sitting there next to her wearing hospital scrubs. He had a tablet in hand and she could see what was obviously her medical records.

He looked so worn down. She'd never seen her Doctor look properly worn out before. There were dark circles under his reddened eyes. Had he been crying? Herself in the bed looked so pale.

"This is the real world," the Doctor beside her said. "Well, I say the real world, more like what's happening in the real world, 'cause we're still in your head. You're in a coma."

"That explains a lot," Rose said. "Do all people who go into a coma have this kind of experience?" she asked.

"How should I know?" the Doctor replied. "I'm a figment of your imagination. The point here is that's what's real. Real me only left your side once since you came out of surgery, and that was just to get your records."

"He's learning everything," Rose realized. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. Oh, how are you going to take it?" Her heart rate went up in her chest, and she noticed that the monitors were beeping in time. The real Doctor looked up from his tablet with wide eyes, put it down, and went to her.

"Rose?" he asked.

"That's how you get out of here," the imaginary Doctor in the blue suit said before he disappeared in a blink.

Rose closed her eyes, blocking out the very weird vision of the real world.

Then she opened them and looked up into the worried face of her Doctor.