The one in which Reinette is at least bisexual. This is gonna be a bit gay and I'm not sorry at all.
Enjoy!
The Girl In The Fireplace
The Doctor wasn't scared. He didn't get scared. Well, he did. Daleks and balloon animals and Rassilon scared him. Feelings didn't. They shouldn't! They were just feelings. Inconvenient at times, sure, but nothing to be afraid of.
Until.
Until he met the brilliant blonde woman on earth and blew up her job.
Until she wormed her way into his hearts.
Until she somehow became a Time Lady, the only other Time Lord in existence at the time.
Until she got to know him so well that she clearly knew how afraid he was.
Until she respected that and backed off.
So, yes, he'd admit to himself that he was afraid of his feelings at the moment.
It happened slowly, but all at once. At first, he'd just admired her brilliance and how open minded she was to everything. He'd admired how she dealt with things, the way her mind worked. He'd even managed to put the Dalek in Utah out of his mind, as well as its words.
But then the Game Station had happened.
It was there that he, for the first time ever, confronted his feelings for her. He'd used a horrible, cheesy line to kiss her - which wasn't necessary for what he was doing. The kiss felt like an explosion. He had no control over his mind in that moment, no control over the feelings that he'd just realized had long since been ignited.
His plan had been to get some space from her. To think, he convinced himself. So of course the first thing he did was take her to a beautiful city on a beautiful planet with the idea that her friend would stay behind.
He hadn't.
In the end, it hadn't been exactly a happy trip. Her best friend was dying and in love with her. He figured she had a right to be overwhelmed.
After that, they'd gone to the Torchwood estate. That one was an accident and showed to him exactly how little space he wanted. He'd been terrified for her and upon finding her in the basement, locked up, he had been prepared to give her just about anything she wanted so long as he could just get her out of trouble.
The nail in the coffin, though, was the school trip. He'd heard it for the second time. She'd nearly told him how she felt about him when they were talking at Sarah Jane's house and it scared him because he felt the same. So when Sarah Jane had suggested he allow Mickey to come along, he'd wanted to kiss the woman… or give her a nice hug.
Rose wasn't happy about it. It was clear that she didn't want Mickey there. She had done her best to avoid her old friend and had even made the Doctor help Mickey learn his way around. The Doctor had done it with few complaints as he was the one that had agreed to let him stay.
The issue with ignoring their feelings, though, was that it was impossible. They still felt those feelings and more than that, the other person felt them as well.
So all in all, they were essentially just ignoring everything really hard together.
A traitorous part of his brain suggested that he didn't want to ignore everything. He wanted to confront his feelings with her and tell her how much he lo-
The Doctor shook himself almost aggressively, so much so that he nearly fell out of his chair.
He didn't… feel that way about her. He hadn't done that in so long. In fact, it had been so long that he wasn't sure he knew how anymore.
Except he did, didn't he?
Because he certainly felt it when he looked at her or heard her voice or smelled her perfume. And after all, just about anything made him think of her, didn't it? That was why he'd nearly crashed the TARDIS into the refugee ship from Altoona. She was just so… distracting.
Distracting was a problem, though. Distracting got people killed. Distracting changed his priorities, though he thought maybe that had happened a long time ago. The day he'd considered letting the Slitheen destroy earth just to keep Rose alive, he'd known his priorities had changed. While that was a bit of an issue, he wasn't sure what he could do to change it. Something in him said to protect her! no matter how hard he tried to ignore it, in the end, he couldn't.
So really, his only options were to either confront his feelings for her or… continue putting it off by putting as much space between them as possible. With two companions on board, he figured they'd help. He just had a feeling it still wouldn't be enough.
OoOoOoOoOoOo
The TARDIS was quiet that day. Mickey had found his favorite room in the place where he could watch sporting events from all over history, as well as play video games from years ahead of him. Considering it was right next to the kitchen, he spent a lot of his time in there while everyone prepared for their next trip.
Rose had, the night she got back on the TARDIS, gone to her room and not come out for hours. She hadn't exactly told anyone what had killed Jack, and she was clearly unwilling to do so. Whatever it was, the Doctor had muttered that it had upset her and put her on edge.
The Doctor was oddly willing to stay away from Rose. He'd gotten himself a cup of tea and left to his study, which he also hadn't come out of in hours.
With everyone busy, it left Ross to fend for himself.
He was troubled, that much was true. He'd found himself quite liking Rose. The Doctor was the same as always, but she was even better at managing him than Romanadvoratrelundar had been. He actually listened to her and typically backed off when she told him to.
Aside from that, Rose was the Goddess of Time.
He hadn't actually managed to discuss it much with her because she got a look in her eyes every time he tried that suggested she was curious to meet his next regeneration. The issue was, he'd grown up hearing and telling the legends about her and what she'd done, or would do. He remembered the stories well.
The Goddess was said to have had a hand in creating everything - including herself. Her power was taken from the power which she created. Knowing Rose, he knew that part was certainly true, especially after the issue with the Skasis Paradigm.
The Goddess had taken a child of Gallifrey as her partner, and they traveled to fix the wrongs in the universe. One day, she would come back to Gallifrey to save them, but only in the direst of times.
Those were the core facts. Other versions of the story were made, of course. Some people said that she would one day come back to condemn them for their gravest mistake. Some said that she kept a careful watch on the people and the planet and if she disagreed with their actions, she would pick them apart, atom by atom.
Truthfully, Ross had always been enamoured by the story, as well as the statues they'd built in the Citadel for her. He'd never been sure if he truly believed that she was real. Some of the elders were adamant that she had been there and would someday return, while the younger Gallifreyans and Time Lords cared more about facts they could prove.
But Ross knew the truth. He knew her, who she was, and more than that, he knew who her partner was.
It was him.
Originally, he guessed it was the Doctor just as anyone else would've. The issue with that theory was that she didn't steal him off Gallifrey - he took her from earth. She did, however, take Ross.
It was the only thing that made sense in his eyes. And he did care for her, so he didn't think he minded. It was a bit of a childhood dream come true - every child wished they could be the one the Goddess would take and it was him.
But he didn't need to tell her that, not yet. She had enough on her plate trying to finish up rewriting her timeline. Once that was done, they could go from there, of course. Besides, if he brought it up to her yet, she was bound to hurt him.
No, he'd leave it. They had very long lives ahead of them, and he wasn't concerned with rushing her along. He had some things to figure out of his own, of course. Things that had been bothering him since they'd been with the Doctor who put Rose's mind back together - things that just did not make sense to him no matter how he looked at it.
They both had things to do and then they could get to it.
OoOoOoOoOoOo
Rose had barely landed the TARDIS when the Doctor poked his head out of the door. They followed him and she tensed at the sight around her. The Doctor had gotten distant again, the same as last time, and now… they were there.
"It's a spaceship," Mickey said in surprise with a grin on his face. "Brilliant! I got a spaceship on my first go."
Rose pulled out her sonic and scanned the ship. "No one's here. I wonder where they went."
"There's no one here?" Mickey blinked.
"Nah, nothing here," the Doctor confirmed before pausing at the look Rose gave him. "Well, nothing dangerous. Well… not that dangerous."
"I'll just scan it," Rose shook her head, walking over to the nearby computer. "In case of anything dangerous."
"It's about 3,000 years into your future," the Doctor informed Mickey happily. "Give or take."
Rose lifted up a lever and the lights flashed on, startling everyone. The ceiling parted to reveal a beautiful sky.
"Fifty-first century," the Doctor continued. "Dagmar Cluster. You're a long way from home, Mickey! Two and a half galaxies."
"Mickey Smith, meet the universe," Rose said without looking up from what she was doing as the Doctor came to help her. "See anything you like?"
"It's so realistic," Mickey said in awe.
"Because it's real," Ross told him dryly.
"Dear me, had some cowboys in here," the Doctor muttered, grabbing at some loose wiring.
"A lot of repair work," Rose agreed absently, trying to control her nerves.
"Why are the warp engines going?" Ross questioned, tapping a screen.
"Full capacity," Rose agreed with a frown.
The Doctor leaned down to stare at it as if it would help him understand better. "There's enough power running through this ship to punch a hole in the universe and we're not moving."
"Then where's the power going?"
"Yeah, where's the crew?" Mickey added.
Rose shrugged, pocketing her sonic again. "Good question. There aren't any life readings on board aside from ours."
"I checked all the smoking pods," the Doctor joked before pausing. "You smell that?"
"Like someone's cooking," she agreed.
"Sunday roast, definitely!" Mickey looked at them, wide-eyed with excitement. When Ross hit a button, a door behind them opened up to reveal a French fireplace with a fire raging inside of it.
"Odd," Rose muttered. "That's French, right?"
"Eighteenth century," the Doctor agreed as she rushed toward it. She'd made a plan for that adventure when she was talking with Jack, but it was dependent on the Doctor allowing her to cross over first. Luckily, he let her investigate it while he stood back to admire it. "Nice mantel."
"Not a hologram," Rose said with her sonic back in her hand.
"Doesn't even look like a reproduction - this actually is an eighteenth century French fireplace," the Doctor said in surprise.
"There's another room through here," she muttered.
"That's not possible!" Mickey exclaimed. "That's the outside of the ship."
"Hi there," Rose smiled, kneeling down to look through the fireplace.
"Hello?" the young girl replied.
"What's your name?"
"Reinette," she answered.
"That's a beautiful name," she smiled. "I'm Rose. Can you tell me where you are, Reinette?"
"In my bedroom," Reinette told her, lost.
"Where do you live?" Rose clarified, still smiling kindly.
"Paris, of course."
"Of course," Rose said with a small laugh.
"Mademoiselle, what are you doing in my fireplace?"
Rose glanced at her friends for a moment before looking back at her. "I'm just making sure you're okay, Reinette. I'm a… fireplace fairy."
The Doctor and Mickey both covered their laughter.
"Another question," Rose said. "Can you tell me what year it is?"
"Of course, I can," Reinette smiled sweetly. "1727."
"Very helpful," she told the young girl. "Thank you. I think that's all. Have a good night, Reinette."
"You as well, Mademoiselle."
Rose stood up and turned around to look at them, and Mickey was the first to ask questions, lost.
"You said this was the fifty-first century," he said in an accusing tone.
"Sure, and the ship is generating enough power to punch a hole through the universe," the Doctor cut in. "I think Rose just found the hole. Must be a spatio-temporal hyperlink."
Rose snorted and rolled her eyes. "He's got no clue."
The Doctor shrugged. "Didn't wanna say 'magic door.'"
"But that's France in 1727?"
"She was speaking French," Rose confirmed, leaning against the fireplace.
"Right period French, too," the Doctor added.
"She was speaking English, I heard her!" Mickey denied.
"The TARDIS translates for you," the Doctor explained, watching Rose pass her jacket to Ross and walk back over to the fireplace.
"Even French?"
"Even French."
Rose glanced down at the fireplace for a moment before she grabbed at a small lever and the thing turned, taking her to the other side. When it stopped moving, she was in a girl's bedroom. Reinette was sleeping on the bed. Out the window was snow and the sound of horses. Reinette gasped awake when the floorboards creaked.
"It's okay!" Rose promised. "It's just me, don't scream. Remember? I'm the fireplace fairy." She hurried over and lit the candle near the girl's bed. "See? We were just speaking."
"Mademoiselle, that was weeks ago," Reinette disagreed. "Months ago."
Rose hummed and walked back over to the fireplace to scan it again. This time, she could tell there was a loose connection. "I wonder what happened to it."
"Who are you?" Reinette questioned her nervously. "And what are you doing here?"
Rose glanced at the broken clock. The Doctor had explained everything to her a couple of adventures after that one, so she knew what was happening. She turned around to look at the young girl. "Reinette, I don't want to alarm you, but this clock is broken."
"Yes, it has been for quite some time. Why would that alarm me?"
"Because this is the only clock in the room," she explained. "And it's broken. So… what is that noise?" She paused to let Reinette listen and when she could tell she heard it, she spoke again and slowly made her way over. "It isn't a clock. This is too big to be a clock."
"What is it?"
"It's smart," she warned her as she tried not to scare her. She knew the Doctor had probably spoken aloud as he worked through figuring out what was going on, which had likely frightened the poor girl. "It broke the clock so you wouldn't notice it… stay on the bed, right in the middle," she told Reinette as she leaned down to pull up the blankets. When she looked under it, she felt her chest tighten at the sight of the robot. Despite that, she tried to use her sonic on it, but when she did, it reached out to hit her and she flew back from it. She jumped to her feet and spotted it standing next to Reinette's bed.
"Mademoiselle?"
"Reinette, just look at me," Rose told her, eyeing the robot. "Stay where you are. You've been scanning her brain, haven't you? What could be in a little girl's mind that's worth crossing two galaxies and thousands of years?"
"I don't understand," Reinette told her, clearly afraid. "It wants me?"
"Reinette, don't-,"
Ignoring her, the girl looked back at the robot. "You want me?"
"Not yet," the robot replied. "You are incomplete."
"Incomplete," Rose repeated. "She's incomplete?"
The robot just stared at her. Frustrated, she pulled her sonic again. The robot started making its way to her, so she backed up toward the fireplace to keep Reinette safe. When it met her there, a knife came from its hand.
"Mademoiselle, be careful!"
"I'm fine," she assured her, backing up further until she hit the fireplace. It tried to cut at her but she ducked and its knife was stuck in the wood of the fireplace. "I'll be seeing you, Reinette!"
With that, she hit the lever and sent them back to the spaceship. Ross, being closest to the fire extinguisher, grabbed it and tossed it to the Doctor, who used it to freeze up the robot. When he'd done that, he grabbed Rose's face and looked her over closely to make sure she was okay. It took her a moment before she managed to shake him off.
"Excellent, ice gun!" Mickey grinned excitedly.
"Fire extinguisher," Ross disagreed as the Doctor tossed it to the amazed man.
"It was hiding under her bed," Rose told them, irritated. "It tried to kill me! I've had enough of killer robots, Doctor. And they look just like the ones River and I fought, do you see it?"
"Probably the same kind," the Doctor muttered, throwing the mask and wig off of it. His eyes widened. "Oh, you are beautiful!" He put on his glasses and looked more closely at it. "No, really, you are. You're gorgeous! Look at that! Spaceage clockwork, I love it! I've got chills!"
"Have I ever told you he's weird?" Mickey asked Rose. She just rolled her eyes back at him.
"Listen, seriously, I mean this from the heart - and by the way, count those - it would be a crime, it would be an act of vandalism, to disassemble you…. But that won't stop me."
"Doctor, I don't really think it cares," Rose laughed shortly. Unfortunately for the excited Doctor, it had finally defrosted enough that it shifted and then disappeared from the spot.
"Short-range teleport," the Doctor told them in a rush. "Can't have gone far. Could still be on board."
"Go find it," Rose told him, heading back to the fireplace. With that, she sent herself back to Paris, 1727. The room she found herself in was much brighter than before. The curtains on the windows were open and lit the space up well. "Reinette? Are you here?"
A young woman in a large, period appropriate gown entered the room as she strummed the harp curiously. She cleared her throat, catching her attention.
"Hi! I was looking for- oh. Oh."
"Reinette," a woman's voice called from down the hall.
"Go to the carriage, Mother," Reinette instructed without looking away. "I will join you there."
Rose could admit to herself that the woman was very pretty. More than that, she was looking at Rose in wonder and admiration.
"It is customary, I think, to have an imaginary friend only during one's childhood," Reinette commented. "You are to be congratulated on your persistence."
"Well, I did say I'm a fireplace fairy," Rose laughed, smiling brightly. "Not an imaginary friend… you're definitely older than the young girl I found before."
"You do not appear to have aged a single day," Reinette said, walking over and holding her skirts up. She met Rose just before the steps up to the fireplace and looked at her eyes curiously. "That is tremendously impolite of you. Do all fireplace fairies have glowing eyes, Rose?"
"No, just me," Rose answered softly. "You, ah, don't believe in fairies, do you?"
"Fairies are for children," Reinette confirmed. "I am no child."
Rose glanced back at the fireplace nervously. She'd sent them after the robots, sure, but could they handle them? "I'm glad you're okay, Reinette, but I'd better be going before my friends get in trouble. Besides, you shouldn't keep your Mum waiting. I know if my Mum found a strange person in my bedroom, she'd lose it."
"Strange?" Reinette questioned. "How could you be a stranger to me? I have known you since I was seven years old."
Rose realized that she was right. It probably wasn't fair that it had been only minutes to her since she'd seen the young girl in the fireplace, but there wasn't anything they could do about it. "I guess you're right."
Reinette raised her hand to Rose's cheek, stroking it gently as she looked into her eyes. "You seem to be flesh and blood at any rate, but this is absurd. Reason tells me you cannot be real."
Rose couldn't help but laugh softly. "That sounds a lot like you're saying I'm impossible, and I hate that word. Nothing is impossible, Reinette."
"Mademoiselle? Your mother grows impatient!"
"A moment!" Reinette said sharply, loud enough for the man to hear. She turned back to Rose. "So many questions, so little time."
And then, before Rose could process what was happening, the woman stepped forward and pressed their lips together. The kiss was gentle but firm and lasted until a door slammed nearby. Having pushed Rose back into the fireplace, Reinette kissed her a bit more deeply.
"Mademoiselle Poisson!"
Finally, Reinette released her and ran from the room without another word. Rose stood there, blinking in confusion and her lips just a bit chapped. Soon, a man walked into the room looking for the woman that had just left.
"Who the hell are you?"
Rose let out a laugh, completely caught off guard, and pulled the lever once more. When she got back to the ship, only Ross was waiting there and he eyed her curiously.
"What exactly happened there? You look…"
"I just snogged Reinette Poisson!"
OoOoOoOoOoOo
While Rose didn't mind the horse, Ross did. The animal led them to a pair of doors that opened into a beautiful garden and a beautiful estate. In front of them and walking away from them was Reinette and another woman.
"Oh, Katherine, you are too wicked," Reinette was laughing. When she glanced back, Rose offered her a small smile but waved for her to move on. She did seem to consider it for a moment before she turned back to her conversation.
"Oh, speaking of wicked," Katherine said. "I hear Madame de Chatearoux is ill and close to death."
"Yes, I am devastated," Reinette lied, pretending to be sad. Her friend saw through it and chuckled.
"Oh, indeed." The pair laughed together, clearly uncaring. "I, myself, am frequently inconsolable. The king will therefore be requiring a new mistress. You love the king, of course."
"He is the king and I love him with all my heart," Reinette confirmed. "And I look forward to meeting him."
"Every woman in Paris knows your ambitions," Katherine said calmly.
"Every woman in Paris shares them," Reinette corrected.
"You know, of course, that the king is to attend the Yew Tree Ball…"
OoOoOoOoOoOo
"Who does he think he is?" Mickey snarked.
"King of France," the Doctor answered easily.
"That's the man she's to be with?" Ross asked Rose as they approached them. Rose nodded easily.
"She'll become his Mistress, no problem."
"Unless she continues to go around snogging you," Ross joked.
"What?" the Doctor and Mickey asked together. Rose rolled her eyes.
"Anyway!" she exclaimed, watching the king and his men. "What've you been up to?"
"Oh, this and that," the Doctor replied. "Found a human heart and eye in the ship connected to machinery."
The horse behind them made some noise and Rose rolled her eyes. "We met a horse."
"What's a horse doing on a spaceship?" Mickey asked, startled.
"Mickey, what is pre-revolutionary France doing on a spaceship?" The Doctor snarked back. "Get a little perspective."
"These windows are all over the place," Ross told them before Mickey could snark back. "Every deck. Gateways to history."
"To her history," Rose corrected, spotting Reinette enter the room. "This is about Reinette. They would only answer her, not me."
"A spaceship from the fifty-first century stalking a woman from the eighteenth," the Doctor hummed thoughtfully.
"Who is she?" Mickey wondered.
"Jean-Antoinette Poisson," Rose answered. "Or Reinette."
"She's one of the most accomplished women who ever lived," the Doctor agreed, getting excited at the identity of the woman. "She kissed you? Really?"
"More like… deeply snogged," Rose shrugged.
"I think this is the night they met," the Doctor said, putting that aside in his mind for the moment, as well as the uncomfortable jealousy he felt. "The night of the Yew Tree Ball. In no time flat, she'll get herself established as his official mistress with her own rooms at the palace, even her own title - Madame de Pompadour."
"So the woman the king was cheating on the queen with got her own rooms?" Mickey scoffed. "Queen must've known what was happening."
"Oh, she did," the Doctor confirmed. "She loved Reinette. It was France."
"Polyamory," Rose summarized easily. Her eyes caught on the broken clock in the room before them just as Reinette noticed the robot in the room. She shoved the mirror open and ran through with her sonic out - it was the Doctor that brought the fire extinguisher. "Hello, Reinette! Sorry to interrupt."
"Rose!"
The Doctor stepped past the girls and Rose grabbed Reinette to keep her out of the way as the Doctor sprayed the robot once more with the fire extinguisher. Once he was done, he tossed the gun looking thing back to Mickey.
"Are you both alright?" Ross asked, touching Rose's shoulder. She nodded her confirmation and let Reinette squeeze her hand, holding it tightly within her own. The robot across from them began creaking, a rather unsettling noise.
"It's resetting," Rose told Reinette carefully. "Melting the ice the Doctor sprayed at it."
"Yeah," Mickey frowned. "And what then?"
"Well, it'll probably kill us all," Ross reasoned, earning a look from Rose that suggested his comment was very much not appreciated. When the robot's arm reached out abruptly, the Doctor stepped back.
"Who are you? Identify yourself."
"Doctor, I told you," Rose frowned. "It only answers Reinette."
"Why is that?" Reinette asked her, still holding onto her. "Why should it listen to me and not my… fireplace fairy?"
"Because they're interested in you, Reinette. Try ordering it to answer me, okay?"
Reinette looked between the robot and Rose once before she regained her composure and stared at the robot. "Answer her. Answer any and all questions put to you by her."
"Who are you?" Rose tried. The robot let its arm fall to its side.
"I am repair droid 7," the robot told them.
"What happened to the ship?" she tried.
"Ion storm," it told her. "82% systems failure."
"That ship hasn't moved in over a year," the Doctor frowned, confused. "What's taken so long?"
"Why haven't you moved in over a year?" Rose asked so that it would answer the Doctor's question.
"We did not have the parts."
Mickey chuckled. "Always comes down to that, doesn't it? The parts."
"What happened to the crew?" the Doctor wondered. Rose looked at him hesitantly and he met her gaze, feeling her unease. "Rose, what is it?"
"Doctor… they didn't have the parts," she winced. She glanced at the people around her.
Didn't you say you found a human heart and eye?
The Doctor understood abruptly. "I see… it's just doing what it was programmed to. Repairing the ship any way it can with whatever it can find. No one told it the crew wasn't on the menu."
"You're not suggesting-,"
"Never mind that," Rose cut off Mickey's horrified question. "Why are you so obsessed with Reinette? You've opened time windows that take colossal energy. There had to be a better way. There's a repair yard not too far from here, you could've sent out a call for a tow and fixed it up there. Eighteenth century France is… an odd choice."
"One more part is required."
And then its head turned toward Reinette.
"And why haven't you taken it?" the Doctor asked, waiting for Rose to repeat it for him. She hesitated, feeling Reinette grip her hand tighter in fear.
"Doctor-,"
"Rose, this is important."
Reluctantly, she repeated it for him.
"She is incomplete," the robot informed them.
"If they have all of history, give or take a few millennia, to choose from," Ross spoke up. "Why her?" Rose sighed and repeated that as well.
"We are the same."
Reinette's eyes flashed angrily. "We're not the same. We are in no sense the same!"
"We are the same."
"Get out of here! Get out of here this instant!"
"Reinette, no-,"
But it was useless. The robot listened to her and left right away, leaving them alone in the room.
"It's back on the ship," the Doctor said, running toward the mirror. "Mickey, Ross, come with me, we have to follow it! Rose, figure out what they want!"
Rose watched as they filed from the room. She'd expected the Doctor to stay back and do it himself, but he seemed more intent on avoiding her than handling the situation.
"I do not understand," Reinette told her tensely. "Help me to understand, Rose. What do they want from me?"
Rose wavered. Telling her wouldn't help things, but she was also a firm believer in the idea that everyone deserved to know about themselves. "It's a bit hard to explain. There's a ship that they're trying to repair, but they're… wrong. They think that you are the key to repairing the ship, but only when you reach thirty-seven. Right now you're… how old are you, Reinette?"
"So impertinent a question so early in the conversation," Reinette commented, eyeing her flirtily. "How promising."
Rose scanned her quickly with her sonic. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, Reinette, but I already know your age. They want to know how old you are. They need you at thirty-seven and you're twenty-three now."
"And how old are you, Rose?" Reinette wondered. "Who are you to know these things? To be… angelic?"
Rose smiled softly. "My age depends on what you know about me. To the Doctor, I'm about twenty-one. Truthfully, I'm about twenty-five. As for my eyes… it's a story. A long one."
"Perhaps with enough persistence, you will tell me one day."
"Perhaps."
"Dance with me," she requested. Rose looked at her in surprise.
"I can't, Reinette," she shook her head.
"Dance with me," she said, this time more firmly.
"You're supposed to dance with the king," Rose insisted.
"Then first I shall make him jealous," Reinette declared, taking her hand once more. She placed it on her hip and pulled her out for a dance. "Moments with me won't kill anyone, Rose. I get so few of them while I long for so many."
Rose glanced back at the mirror for a moment before she nodded and allowed the other woman to pull her into a dance.
OoOoOoOoOoOo
The Doctor peeked around the corner. Mickey and Ross were lying on two metal tables with robots around them. Ross woke much sooner than Mickey did and was, in general, much calmer about the situation.
"They're gonna chop us up," Mickey moaned to Ross. "Just like the crew! They're gonna chop us up and stick us all over their stupid spaceship! And where's the bloody Doctor now? He's been gone for flipping hours, that's where he is!"
"That- that isn't a place," Ross muttered, already annoyed. "Just shut up while I think."
"I don't get it," Mickey continued despite Ross's sharp words. "She loves him so much and he leaves us here to die!"
The Doctor hated the way his hearts skipped a couple of beats at the words. Rose wasn't likely to tell Mickey, of all people, how she felt. He used that thought to tamper his excitement and tuned back into what was happening.
"-don't know if I'd bloody regenerate if they cut my entire heart out," Ross snapped, clearly stressed.
Just when the Doctor was about to step forward, Rose slipped her hand into his. He glanced back at her with great relief and found her smiling up at him.
Where were you?
They want to know how old she is. That's why she's not ready yet, she's got fourteen years to go. And you know why? Because this stupid ship is thirty-seven, so they assume she needs to be as well.
With that knowledge in mind, the Doctor straightened and pulled her forward with him.
"Hello!" he waved at them with a bright smile on his face. "We're here to join the party. To answer your question, Ross, you could not regenerate should they remove your heart. You'd be dead dead."
"But they won't be cutting out your heart," Rose added quickly, pointing her sonic at his restraints and then at Mickey's. They were both swiftly released and the Doctor moved forward and dumped the vial of multi-grade anti-oil into the robot's head. The robot halted and then slumped over.
"Multi-grade anti-oil," the Doctor explained to them. "If it moves, it doesn't."
While the other robots around them began moving closer, Rose jumped over the console behind them and pushed down a lever. "All good. Really, Doctor, you only planned to stop one of them?"
"It worked out!" he defended. He winked at her. "You were here."
As she moved to talk to their friends, he frowned to himself. He was trying to discourage the romantic feelings, right? If so, why the hell was he winking at her?
"Okay, we can work on shutting down all of the windows," Rose told them, beginning to flip switches with Ross. "But there- we can't."
"Can't what?" the Doctor asked as he searched for his zeus plugs.
"We can't close them," she explained in frustration. "There's a message, one of the robots is still out there!"
A ticking noise began behind the Doctor and the robot closest to him straightened and tipped the anti-oil onto his shoe, likely staining it. The Doctor refrained from complaining about that when Rose raised her sonic to the panel in front of her to continue working on it. "Right. Many things about this is not good." Chiming continued, indicating the message was being received. "Message from one of your friends? Anything interesting?"
"What's that message?" Rose tried, aware they'd only answer her.
"She is complete," one of them answered her. "It begins."
And then they all disappeared.
"What happened?" Mickey questioned hesitantly. "Are they gone, then?"
"They've gone after her," Rose exclaimed. "Keep working on this, I'm going to another window to warn her."
"Rose-,"
It was no use. Rose sped away and down the hall. She picked a random window that led her into a hallway right in front of the room Reinette was in. She knocked on the door quietly and offered the woman a small smile. "I don't have much time, Reinette. I'm just here to give you a message and then I have to go… a warning, really. They'll be here in five years. After your thirty-seventh birthday, they'll come for you. I promise you, I'll be there when you need me, okay? I'll come to help. I can't give you an exact date, but I'll be there."
"How can you expect to come when you don't even know when I will need your assistance?" she questioned, stepping forward. "My entire life, you've come and gone and yet you never change. Tell me how."
Rose grimaced. "It's difficult. Time is so much more and so much less than you expect it to be… do you see my eyes? How golden they are?"
"Angelic," Reinette said softly, touching her cheek. "Of course, Rose."
"Inside my eyes… is time," Rose told the woman. "If time can have a physical form, it is in my eyes. Inside me. I'm not a fireplace fairy, that's true, and I'm not an angel, either."
"A Goddess of Time, then."
Rose shook her head with a smile, though the words made her somewhat uncomfortable. "It doesn't matter. Time can bend and move and be shaped- it's not a straight line. That's how I get from meeting to meeting."
"You travel through time?"
"Yes, exactly. But the robots, Reinette, they do it as well through crude means. They're from far into your future, far past even when I was born. For whatever reason, they think you're the answer to their broken ship. I'm going to stop them, okay, but it'll be five years."
"In your world… you can step between the days of my life as if they are pressed together like chapters of a book without increase of age while I, weary traveller, must always take the slower path?"
"I don't know if this will help, but I wouldn't age the way you do anyways," Rose offered. "I'm… different."
Reinette took in a deep breath and straightened with a nod. "These creatures- robots, you call them, will return in five years. What can be done?"
Rose was more than certain that the woman wouldn't take being told to sit and wait very well. "Learn to fight any way you can. With your hands, with weapons, however you can. Try to keep weapons on you if you go that route. Know how to protect yourself, Reinette. You're smart and beautiful and brave and while I will come to help you, I don't want you in danger while you wait."
"I can do that," Reinette confirmed easily. "I will hire a trainer."
"Aside from that, you can keep them talking," Rose suggested thoughtfully. "They have to answer you, so ask them questions, give them orders to not hurt anyone. You won't be able to stop them, but you might be able to delay them a bit."
"Until?"
"Until I come," Rose promised.
"Can you not come without these monsters?" Reinette questioned after a quiet moment. "It has always been this way- the monsters and Rose, but I would quite like to have you on my own."
"I don't belong in your life," Rose said slowly, frowning down at the hand that the blonde woman had grabbed. "I think you're incredible, I do, but… I was never meant to meet you or be a part of your life. You were supposed to live without the monsters or I."
"I would take the monsters every day if I also had you every day. One may tolerate a world of demons for the sake of an angel."
"I should go," Rose said softly, getting to her feet. "I promise, five years, Reinette. The monsters and I will be back."
"And I will look forward to it every day."
Rose walked quietly back to the ship where she found the Doctor standing at the tapestry she'd come from. He met her eyes and she was shocked by the sadness in them. Before she could question him, he glanced past her to see Reinette following her.
"The time window, we found it," the Doctor told Rose softly. "We should go."
Reinette stepped forward until she spied the ship. She stood between Rose and the Doctor, leaning slightly toward Rose as she looked at the metal and blinking lights. "This is your world, then, my Rose."
"It varies," Rose hummed. "You shouldn't be out here, Reinette."
Rose and the Doctor stiffened at the sound of screams.
"What was that?"
"Okay," the Doctor spoke up, putting his hands on Reinette's shoulders. "We have to go. Go on."
As he led her back into the past, Reinette's voice called out, causing Rose to tense. "Are you there? Can you hear me? I need you now. You promised! The clock on the mantel is broken. It is time! Rose! Rose!"
She sped down the hall toward the room where the robots disappeared from to find Ross and Mickey working together on… something. "You found it, then?"
"They knew we were coming, they blocked it off," Ross told her.
"I don't get how they got in there," Mickey told them as the Doctor ran past Rose to work with Ross.
"They teleported," the Doctor answered quickly. "As long as the ship and the ballroom are linked, their short-range teleports will do the trick."
"Let's just use the TARDIS," Mickey suggested as if it were obvious.
"We can't," Rose snapped, standing back. She knew nothing they did would work. "We're part of events. It'd be near impossible to get the timing just right and if we messed it up… it wouldn't be good."
"You think you're so smart," he scoffed at her. "You didn't even graduate, remember that?"
"And yet your mind is the size of an ant," Ross shot back for her as she just rolled her eyes.
"Can't we just smash through?" Mickey asked eventually.
"Hyperplex this side, plate glass the other," the Doctor replied. "We'd need a truck."
"We don't have a truck!"
"I know we don't have a truck!"
Rose turned away from them and walked toward the horse, which was finally meandering close to the commotion. Getting on the horse was a bit of an issue, but using a chain coming down from the ceiling, she managed it. She and Arthur made their way over to them. The Doctor froze at the sight of her.
"Rose, there's no way back!"
"You can come get me," she disagreed. "We'll meet at my mother's in 2007, yeah?"
"You could get stuck, there's a lot of robots and-,"
"I'll see you in a few minutes," she promised. Their eyes met for a moment before Arthur sped toward the mirror on the wall and broke through it.
OoOoOoOoOoOo
"You think I fear you, but I do not fear you even now," Reinette told them, her voice steady despite the monsters surrounding her with their weapons pointed at her - the same weapons that had put a mark in her fireplace. "You are merely the nightmare of my childhood - the monster from under my bed. And if my nightmare can return to plague me, then rest assured, so will yours."
The sound of a horse interrupted everyone and they all looked around in confusion trying to figure out where it was coming from. Suddenly, the mirror on the wall broke outward, sending pieces of it flying everywhere. From inside came Rose on a horse, and they landed in the middle of the ballroom. Screams were heard and people jumped back in fright.
Rose carefully jumped off of the horse and grinned at Reinette. "Madame de Pompadour, beautiful as always."
"What the hell is going on?" King Louis asked Reinette sharply. She looked between a smiling Rose and the king.
"Oh… this is my lover, the king of France," Reinette introduced. Rose gave him a quick curtsey.
"Wonderful to meet you, King Louis," she told him honestly. She made her way over to a nearby robot and ripped its wig off of its head. "I'm Rose. I'm here for your broken clocks." The robot raised its weapon at her and she rolled her eyes. "Stop that. You can't get back- you're done, okay? Give up."
The robot began hitting the button on its arm that would usually take it back to the spaceship. It didn't work.
"Your link with the ship is broken," she explained. "You can't get back. It's over. Accept that."
Slowly, it began to stop. Soon after, all of the other robots drooped down as well, shutting off with their inability to return to their ship. Rose stepped over to Reinette and helped her to her feet, squeezing her hand. "Okay there?"
Reinette nodded, looking around. "What's happened to them?"
"You remember that tapestry you walked through to get to the ship we were on?" Rose wondered. When the blonde woman nodded, she shrugged. "There was another one, the very last one, which was a mirror. We'd closed all of the others except for that, because they were all here already. Closing it would mean destroying it, which I did by going through it with Arthur- the horse, that is. They're stuck here. Taking the part - you - would be useless because they can't get back to install it."
"They've stopped?"
"They've stopped."
OoOoOoOoOoOo
The Doctor groaned when he felt the bond tighten painfully. He sped over to the TARDIS, not even bothering to ensure that Mickey and Ross were behind him. Luckily, they were there when he landed the TARDIS in Powell Estate in 2007. He ran out just in time to spot Rose - or the Bad Wolf - appearing in front of the building, just near where he'd landed. He ran to her and wrapped her up in a tight hug. "I thought I'd lost you."
"Never," she promised, breathing in deeply. "Never."
OoOoOoOoOoOo