A/N: Look how much I love you guys, I give you two updates in one day! :D Also, I really want to get to The Stolen Earth/Journey's End.
Chapter Forty-Nine: A Holiday
Rose let the Doctor find her a few hours later, after she'd had a shower and a good cry, and she'd documented the instance in her journal. She supposed she'd have to keep one now that River mentioned it. Apparently the Doctor wasn't good with documentation. As he relied on the psychic paper practically everywhere they went, she could appreciate the advice. She was sitting in the kitchen at the breakfast nook with a mug of tea and her copy of Sense and Sensibility when he wandered into the room. She'd been meaning to ask him to take her back to meet Jane Austen. Marianne reminded her of Shareen, although she was no sensible Elinor.
He slid onto the bench across from her. "Hello," he said softly.
"Hello," she replied.
He nodded at her book. "Good choice. The movie wasn't the best, but then I'm not a Hugh Grant fan." She smiled and shrugged, but said nothing. The silence stretched out between them. The Doctor sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Look, Rose—" he began, but she cut him off.
"Don't, Doctor," she told him firmly. The steel was back in her voice and her eyes. "Don't sit there and list all the reasons why you supposedly sent me back. I disagreed with your plan, so you got me out of the way. And you did so by sabotaging my equipment. You didn't even bother to listen to me; you just shut me out again."
"It was the only way," he tried again.
"Fèihuà!*" she snapped. "You were going to die, Doctor. And there are fixed points ahead in your future."
"Who told you that?" he demanded. She looked at him levelly. "River." He sighed. "Rose, we don't know who or what she is in the future. How could you trust her?"
Rose cocked an eyebrow at him. "She told you her name—that made you pretty sure you could trust her. And anyway, I remember what happened the last time we tried to save someone who should have died. Or have you forgotten my father?" She looked away. "I killed you once," she told him, her voice rough. "I'm not going to do it again. And I'm not going to let you do it either. The universe needs you. Regeneration is one thing, but she was right. You would have been gone. And then what am I supposed to do?" The tears were threatening to break through and she took a moment to breathe, to remember who she was. "I'm going to live for a very long time, Doctor," she said eventually. "I want to spend the rest of my life with you, but I can't do that if you're going to insist on treating me like a child."
He was staring at her. He couldn't look away. She was sitting across from him, back straight and head unbowed, and when the tears spilled over her eyelids she made no move to wipe them. She was a contradiction—filled with a sort of fragile strength that stole his breath. She was so much braver than he was in some ways, in many ways really. He told the Dalek Emperor that he was a coward every time, and he hadn't been lying. He was terrified of losing her again because she threw herself into whatever situation they found themselves in. They'd had so many close calls even when she first traveled with him. He didn't want to bring her broken body back to the TARDIS. He didn't want to be responsible for her death.
But he didn't want her to go. He didn't think he'd be able to stand knowing that she was out there in the same universe, alive, but not with him. The thought of anyone else holding her hand, kissing her, loving her made his hearts stop. Or at least, it felt like they did.
"I'm sorry," he said finally.
She sighed. "You say those words so often, Doctor." Her voice was quiet, tired. "Do they mean anything at all?"
"Yes," he said abruptly. "Every single time." He reached across the table and took her hand. She didn't pull away from him, but she didn't encourage him either. "I don't want to lose you," he admitted, his voice raw with pent-up emotion. "There are so many ways you could die, Rose, and you've only got this one life."
"I meant what I said after Pompeii," she reminded him. "You can't keep me safe. I wouldn't want you to keep me safe—to wrap me up in cotton wool and hide me from the universe." She set down her book and reached across the table, cupping her hand around his cheek. "Be brave, Doctor," she murmured.
Something in her eyes gave him pause, something that called to mind a song half-remembered, and River's voice echoed in his head. How long did you last with the Vortex in you, Doctor? And how long did she? It's no coincidence. But then she gave him a smile and the flicker of gold was forgotten. "I'll try," he promised. "Just—be patient with me, Rose. I'm no good at this relationship stuff."
"I'll hold you to that," she told him.
"I thought we could use a bit of a holiday," he said after a while. "And Donna requested a spa."
She pursed her lips. "And what, you're looking for my suggestions?"
He shrugged. "I had a place in mind, actually. It's called Midnight, and it's made entirely of diamonds."
Rose laughed. "Good thing mum isn't here to hear you say that," she commented. "She'd want to take the whole bloody planet with us."
He grinned. "Well, she could probably figure out a way. I wouldn't put anything past Jackie Tyler."
"Midnight," Rose continued, trying out the name. "Sure, why not. Could do with a bit of a rest after the trips we've had."
The planet of Midnight was gorgeous. The Doctor let Donna and Rose take a look at it from above, shielded, of course, by the TARDIS's impressive force fields. It sparkled in the light of the star it orbited, a jewel in the starry sky. "The star is Xtonic," the Doctor explained. "Super high levels of radiation make it impossible for life to exist on Midnight, and you can't bring any of the gems offworld—they've been poisoned, would kill you in the space of a few minutes."
"But it is beautiful," Rose commented.
Donna sighed. "All I need is a spa, thanks. It'll be nice to put my feet up for a bit."
The Doctor frowned. "You're not going to see any of the sights?" he asked. "They've got a sapphire waterfall, literally, a glacier of sapphire that pushes its way over the Cliffs of Oblivion, shatters into a million pieces, and then falls into a crystal ravine below!"
She shook her head. "That's all well and good, but I'd rather swim in the pool and catch a few rays."
"We've got a pool on the TARDIS," he reminded her.
She cocked an eyebrow at him. "You got a sun on here too? And a pool boy? And a masseuse and a girl who does facials?"
He scratched the back of his neck. "Well, no, not as such, but the point is valid!"
Rose giggled. Watching the two of them argue was frankly hilarious. She knew that they both cared about the other quite a bit, but played it off by going at it like cats and dogs. "Come on, you two. Let's land already and have a bit of fun."
"You can wear your nice shoes, if you'd like," the Doctor told her as he closed the doors and they moved back to the console. "No running for your life this time, I guarantee it."
Rose considered. "Maybe, as long as you promise to land us accurately and not in the middle of a strike or a rebellion."
"Cross my hearts," he told her, and sealed the bargain with a kiss.
Donna was lounging pool-side when a young man dressed in livery brought her a phone on a tray. She had to give it to the Doctor, his psychic paper was dead useful, and when he went to a spa, he went to a spa. She took the phone with a smile for the worker, and put it to her ear.
"I said no," she reminded him sternly.
"Just thought I'd check back and see if you changed your mind," he told her.
She sighed. "Look, spaceman, this is for you and Rose. Have a good time, show her a little romance. Show her that you can take her on a date without getting caught in the middle of an invasion or an assassination plot or whatever."
"They're boarding now," he continued, as if he hadn't heard her.
"No!" she barked.
"Alright, alright." He was sulking. "No need to take out my ears."
"If you'd listened to me the first time," she began.
"Yes, yes." He cut her off. "When we get back Rose wants to try that antigravity restaurant I was telling you about—the one with bibs."
"Have fun," she said sweetly, "and you be careful."
"Nah," he said confidently. "Taking a big space truck with a bunch of strangers across a diamond planet called Midnight, what could go wrong?"
"You say that," she shot back, "and then something will." They rang off and she laid back on the chair. Time for a nap and a bit of her time. She loved traveling with the two of them, she really did, but lately she felt like the universe was playing a big joke on her. She'd been in love twice, and it had ended badly both times. Lance had been lying to her and cheated on her with a giant spider woman, and Lee, the man of her dreams, wasn't real. He felt real, though. That life felt real, and she just couldn't watch the Doctor and Rose be so happy together. She didn't begrudge them anything. She meant what she told Agatha—they deserved to be happy after everything they did for the universe and everything they'd had to overcome, but she couldn't help feeling like she deserved to be happy too.
The Doctor flashed the psychic paper and got them two tickets for the next shuttle to see the Sapphire Waterfall. They slid into the plush seats and Rose looked about. The inside of the vehicle resembled a posh airplane, or maybe a coach bus. There were two columns of seats on either side of a wide aisle that ran the length of the shuttle. The cabin was up front, and housed the pilot and a mechanic. The final crew member was a hostess. They were the first passengers onboard, and the Doctor watched the others file on with great interest.
"So," Rose asked him. "How long 'till we get there?"
"Four hours," he replied, "and then four back."
She smiled. "Well, that's a change, having to wait for an adventure. Are you sure you'll be able to last four hours, Doctor?"
"Oi!" he protested in mock-offense. "Cheeky thing you are, Miss Tyler." She smiled at him, her tongue caught between her teeth, and something released in his chest. She'd been cheerful, but not herself. She was watching him, he presumed, to see if he was serious about what he'd said on the TARDIS. His earlier incarnations would probably have teased him relentlessly about the degree to which he was attuned to her, but he didn't care. He loved her, and when she wasn't herself he wasn't himself.
The hostess arrived before she could come up with a witty rejoinder, and began handing them things. "That's the headphones for channel 1 through 36, modem link for 3D vidgames, complimentary earplugs, complimentary slippers, complimentary juice pack, and complimentary peanuts." She handed the same to Rose, who took the items with a smile and a polite 'thanks.' "I must warn you that some products contain nuts," she recited as she was about to leave.
"That would be the peanuts," the Doctor stated, a bit confused. Wasn't it obvious?
She simpered at them. "Enjoy your trip."
"I can't wait!" he said, gleeful. "Allons-y!"
The hostess turned back towards them. "Excuse me?"
Rose elbowed him, and he looked properly chastened. "It means 'let's go' in French."
"Fascinating," the hostess replied sarcastically and then moved on to the next passenger.
There weren't many people going to see the Sapphire Waterfall—the shuttle was barely half-full. An old man and a young black woman sat behind Rose and the Doctor. On the other side of the aisle partway down a middle-aged white couple were debating the pros and cons of saving the juice box while their teenage son sat across from them—as far away as he could possibly get. An older woman—mid forties, early fifties maybe, sat across from Rose and the Doctor. She glanced at them, but appeared mostly occupied with a paperback book.
"They call it the 'Sapphire Waterfall,' the old man behind them was telling the young black girl, "but it's no such thing. Sapphire is an aluminum oxide, but the glacier is just compound silica with iron pigmentation."
The Doctor, sensing a potentially interesting conversation, turned around to face them. The old man seemed to think the same, and leaned forward. "Hobbes," he said and held out his hand. "Professor Winfold Hobbes."
The Doctor took his hand with a grin. "I'm the Doctor, hello, and this is Rose." She smiled at him and waved.
"It's my fourteenth time," the professor confided.
"Oh," the Doctor replied. "It's our first." He smiled at Rose, who nodded.
"And I'm Dee Dee," the young black woman said. "Dee Dee Blasco."
"Nice to meet you both," Rose replied.
The professor frowned at Dee Dee. "Don't bother the man," he admonished her. "Where's my waterbottle?" She dug around in her oversized purse until she procured the treasured object and passed it over. The professor, Rose noted, was a bit overbearing.
They settled back in their seats, and Rose flashed a smile at the woman across from them. She nodded, but did not return the smile, and redirected her attention to the book in front of her.
"Don't be silly," the wife of the middle aged couple was saying to their son. "Come and sit with us." She held up one of the plastic packages. "Look, we get slippers!" The boy looked mortified.
"Oh, we embarrass him," the husband noted, "but he doesn't mind us paying!"
"Leave him alone," his wife scolded.
When everyone was settled and all of the various packaged goods had been distributed, the hostess made her way to the front of the shuttle. "Ladies and gentlemen and variations thereupon, welcome onboard the Crusader 50. If you could please fasten your seatbelts we'll be leaving any moment." The doors hissed as they slid closed and thick plating covered the windows. "I'm afraid the view is shielded," the hostess informed them with a plastered-on smile, "until we reach the waterfall palace. Also, a reminder: Midnight has no air, so please stay away from the exterior door seals." She continued with the obligatory safety speech before bringing in the captain, who gave them a rundown of their route. They were making a slight detour, as the equivalent of an avalanche had cut off their original route.
The hostess went to turn on the entertainment system, which apparently included a music channel that was played on individual screens that dropped from the ceiling, cartoons from the 1950's, and some sort of swirling mass of lights that was supposed to be an artistic installation. Rose covered her ears. It was sensory overload.
The Doctor pulled the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket, and activated it with an air of extreme nonchalance. All of the multitudinous screens flickered and then went black. Rose sighed with relief and let her hands fall. "Thanks," she murmured. "That was awful—worse than when Tony threw a tantrum."
"Well, that's a mercy," the professor declared.
"I do apologize," the hostess told them as she messed with the remote, trying to bring the systems back up. "Ladies and gentlemen and variations thereupon, we seem to have had a failure of the entertainment system."
"Oh," the Doctor replied, looking not at all sorry.
"But what do we do?" the middle-aged woman asked.
"We've got four hours of this?" her husband agreed. "Four hours of just—sitting here?"
Rose kneeled in her seat and poked her head over the top. "I guess we'll have to talk to each other," she said with a coy smile.
"Exactly!" the Doctor proclaimed with a grin.
For all of Rose's jokes about him being rude and not ginger, and for all that he could, in fact, be quite rude, when the Doctor wanted to be charming, he was very charming. He had a charisma that drew people to him. He seemed to listen with such enthusiastic energy that almost anyone found him or herself liking the chattering young man in the pinstriped suit. It helped that his companion was a beautiful young woman who seemed to share his enthusiastic interest in their lives.
Ninety-Eight clicks after his sabotage of the so-called 'entertainment systems,' the Doctor found himself talking to the middle-aged couple: a man named Biff and his wife Val. Their son's name was Jethro, and he seemed content to let them waffle on whilst he sat in the corner. Val and Biff were relating an apparently frequently-told anecdote involving a misunderstanding, an abstract swimming pool, and a nose plug.
"So I went up the lifeguard," Biff was saying. "He was a Shamboni, you know, big foreheads." The Doctor nodded, grinning. Val tittered. "And I said 'where's the pool?' And he said—'the pool's abstract!'" Across the aisle Dee Dee and the professor laughed.
"It wasn't a real pool," Val went on, talking through her laughter.
"It was a concept," Biff agreed.
"An' you were wearing a nose plug?" Rose asked, eyes dancing.
Biff nodded, holding his nose. "I was all—'where's the pool?"" he asked in a congested voice. The passengers, barring Jethro who looked disgusted and rather embarrassed, dissolved into laughter.
One hundred and fifty clicks later the Doctor was talking to Dee Dee about her position with the professor while Rose sat next to Jethro. "I'm only a second year student," the young woman told him, "but I wrote a paper on the Lost Moon of Poosh. The professor liked it and took me on as his research assistant." She sighed. "Of course, he's had me mostly lifting and carrying, but it's good experience."
"Did they ever find it?" the Doctor inquired. She looked at him blankly. "The Lost Moon of Poosh," he clarified.
"Oh," she laughed. "Not yet, no."
He grinned. "Maybe that'll be your big discovery."
Two hundred and nine clicks later they were eating dinner. The Doctor sat on the outside and struck up a conversation with the woman across from them. Rose was talking to Donna on her superphone. Apparently the food at the spa was delicious. Rose glanced down at her in-flight meal and pursed her lips. She was pretty sure it was meat—of some kind.
"I'm traveling with Rose, of course," the Doctor told the woman—Sky. "And then there's our friend Donna. She stayed back at the resort. And you?"
"Ah," Sky replied as she pushed a chunk of something brown around with her spoon. "It's just me."
The Doctor nodded knowingly. "I've done a bit of that. To tell you the truth, I miss it sometimes. Rose and Donna have this overwhelming fondness for shoes." He said the word like it left a dirty taste in his mouth. "Can't see the point of having more than two, myself. When you're on your own you can go anywhere you want, do anything. No mandatory shopping trips or visits to their mums."
Sky sighed. "I'm still getting used to it. I found myself single rather recently—not by choice."
The corners of his mouth tugged down in a sympathetic frown. "What happened?" he asked gently.
"Oh, the usual." She tried to make light of the situation, but her smile was forced. "She needed her space. A different galaxy, in fact. I reckon that's enough space, don't you?"
He nodded knowingly. "I'd say so. Rose ended up in a different universe once—not exactly by choice either."
She picked at the food in front of her. "What do you think this is, chicken, or beef?"
He held up a chunk impaled on his spork. "Both, I think."
Two hundred and fifty-one clicks later the professor was giving a presentation on the planet they were visiting as the hostess made more coffee in the tiny kitchen at the back. Jethro had finally given up his sulking and leaned against the top of the chair in front of him, intrigued. Rose and the Doctor had reunited and were perched on the edges of their seats, hands entwined. "It's almost as good as listening to you ramble," she murmured.
"Thinking of leaving me for a younger man?" he asked, eyes twinkling.
She bumped his shoulder with her own. "Nah," she told him. "Experience counts for something. Besides, I've always had a thing for older men."
"This is Midnight," the professor began, motioning to the image that covered the projector screen that was previously occupied by cartoons from the 1950's. Rose thought that it was being put to much better use. "It is constantly bombarded by the sun—Xtonic rays, raw Galvanic radiation." He glanced to his assistant, who was working the slide show machine. "Next slide please, Dee Dee. It's my pet project," he told them. "I'm the first person to research this, because you see, the history is fascinating—because there is no history. There's no life in this entire system—couldn't be. Before the leisure palace company moved in no one had come here in all eternity—no living thing." His words sent shivers up Rose's spine. It was so lonely, the idea of an eternity in isolation. Of course, there was nothing to be lonely, as there was no life on the planet.
"But how do you know?" Jethro asked. "I mean, if you can't go outside?"
His mother sighed. "Oh, his imagination, here we go."
Rose frowned. She'd had enough people dismiss her ideas, and her experiences as fantasies to prickle when someone did the same to another. "I think it's a great question," she spoke up. "You can't prove a negative."
"He's got a point," the Doctor agreed.
"Exactly!" the professor acknowledged. "We look upon this world through glass, safe inside our metal box. Even the leisure palace was lowered down from orbit, and here we are now, crossing Midnight but never touching it."
An eerie sort of chill spread through the room at his words, and then the shuttle shook and ground to a halt.
Something was wrong. Rose could tell when the Doctor returned from the cabin. He'd bullied his way in with the psychic paper, and although he assured everyone that it was fine, they were only stabilizing the engines, there was something off about his expression. Her fears were confirmed when Dee Dee noted that the engines were micropetrol, and thus did not, in fact, stabilize.
The situation was starting to get out of hand. Rose was trying her hardest to reassure the people around her. Panic never helped anyone, and frequently it made the situation worse.
"What happened?" she murmured.
"Not sure," he whispered back. "Engine feeds are fine. One of them—Claude—thought he saw something on the planet's surface, something moving towards us."
"That's impossible, isn't it?" she asked.
He pursed his lips. "So was you coming back from Pete's world, but it still happened." He raised his voice so the others could hear. "A rescue ship is on its way and it will be here in an hour. We just need to sit tight until then."
"How much air have we got?" the professor demanded.
Val's eyes widened. "Oh god, are we going to suffocate?" she asked, her voice strained.
The conversation degenerated from there, until the Doctor finally shouted, "Quiet!" The others fell silent and stared at him. "Thank you," he continued at a normal volume. "Now, we're all going to listen to my friend Dee Dee."
The girl stood. "My dad was a mechanic, and I know a little bit about machines," she told them. "The air's on a circular filter—we could be breathing for ten years with that."
"There," Rose said. "See? We're fine. We just have to wait for them to pick us up."
Something banged against the wall of the shuttle twice.
*bullshit
