A/N: Nothing to say today ... nothing to say at all ... I don't want to watch the news anymore...
Stay safe and stay well.
Thanks a tonne for your comments as always
~~oooOOOooo~~
It was an unfamiliar hum and acrid scent that roused Rose from unconsciousness. It was more of a static buzz than an actual hum, not as organic as the gentle hum of the TARDIS at the edge of her mind. The scent was of grease, rust, hot cement, and dirty oil – kind of like the garage where Mickey worked.
She blew out her breath with that realisation and, suddenly wondering if her entire life to now was simply a vivid dream and she was in fact in London, still a shop worker with a mechanic boyfriend, she opened her eyes and gasped.
Yellow. That was the first thing that registered in her murky and swimming mind. She was surrounded by filthy yellow steel covered in red dust and black grease. Her eyes pinched as she tried to focus and to remember what had brought her here … and just exactly where here was.
Where here was, she deduced, was not at ground level. Something insider her, internal equilibrium or something, suggested that she was up high somewhere. Up high, alone…
…And tired up, apparently.
Why she hadn't immediately realised that she was bound and tethered was alarming in itself, and so she tried wriggling her fingers and toes to figure out if she could move. Slowly and surely, she felt the pins and needles tingle of slowly returning sensations.
What the hell had she been hit with?
Oh, but the ties were becoming uncomfortably tight. As her cognizance grew, the feeling of thick hessian ropes roughly biting at her wrists, and the uncomfortable wet and sticky feel of tape across her mouth and cheeks began to become more prominent in her awareness. Fortunately, her wrists were tied to the front ofher. Her upper arms were secured tightly against her body, but her forearms had freedom. This gave her at least a little freedom to push her bangs from her face and wipe at her eyes. It also gave her the chance to pull at the tape over her mouth, when she got her cheeks free with a grunt of pain at the hard pull of adhesive against the peach-fuzz hair on her skin. She gasped in as deep a breath as she could with the ties around her chest that held her to a steel railing pole. It was enough, though, and much better than she could pull from a breath through a half-blocked nose.
She struggled against the ropes, testing to see just how much room she had to move. She rolled her shoulders hoping to be able to wriggle the ropes at least a little lower than they were on her shoulders, but to no avail. They were too tightly wrapped to offer too much in the way of shifting. She grit her teeth against the scrape of hessian against her bare arms to give it a much more concentrated effort. She could feel it graze at her skin, no doubt leaving raw angry marks in their wake. No real mind on that, she decided, a few scrapes was better to have to bear than death would be…
…And she had no doubt at all that the final outcome of this would be death. She wouldn't let that happen without a damn decent fight. She had a life to avenge before she'd let them take hers.
Tiallu. Her beloved companion. Cruelly and mercilessly murdered by these revolting cretins, and for what? For trying to protect her? She didn't deserve that.
A thick tear tumbled out of her eye, falling fast down her cheek and over her lip. She tasted the tear as her mouth opened to a gasp as she tried to breathe without sobbing. Her last image of her beautiful girl would always be of her beautiful blue-white fur being covered in blood, whimpering in pain and still trying to protect and defend her.
And the Doctor. Would he find their precious wolf? Did he know she was in danger right now; or did he think she was simply still walking off their argument? He'd have to figure out soon enough that something was wrong. Walking it off usually only took an hour or so before he'd head out to find her so they could make up, apologise, and spend the rest of the day or night in each other's arms – him buried deep insider her, she wrapped so tightly around him.
How long had it been already? Was he already on the hunt?
God, she hoped so.
She heard the rhythmic clank of boots atop grating, the sound of someone climbing a set of steel grate stairs, and her breath held. Although the room was lit by humming fluourescent lights, there were still plenty of dark nooks and crannies around her for the nefarious sorts to lurk ad hide in.
She considered calling out for whomever was lurking around to identify themselves, or to call out for help, but neither of these options seemed worth the waste of energy. Bad guys very rarely hid their victims in an area where there were passersby that could hear a plea for help. Instead, she kept her eyes toward the top of what she believed was a stairwell to her position. It didn't take too long for the weathered face of an older man to appear at the top of the stairs. She held her breath and waited for him to make his approach.
"Look who's awake," he purred as he made it to the top and walked across the diamond plate steel platform toward her. He lowered into a crouch and clicked his tongue as he cupped her chin in his hand with a hard squeeze of his thumb and forefinger. He held it firm as she tried to pull out of his grip. "I wouldn't struggle if I were you," he warned with a chuckle. "You'll only end up dying exhausted."
"What do you want from me?" she asked through gritted teeth.
He moved in close to her, maintaining his painful hold of her face. He spoke his answer in a whisper across her cheek toward her ear. "I want the Time Lord."
"What's a Time Lord?" she answered back petulantly, hoping that maybe by pleading ignorance, she could convince him she wasn't who he thought she was. "Never head of one of them."
He tutted with a shake of his head. "You know exactly what a Time Lord is," he corrected her. "Being that you're mated to one."
She puckered her lips, an easy task to do with her cheeks being squeezed in the maker that they were. She made a show of thinking about that. After a second she let her eyes shift to his. "Nope, not mated to anything or anyone. I'm married, though, but to a Human, not a Time King or whatever…"
"Time Lord," he sneered. "And don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about." He sniffed deeply, shuddering with a lick in his lip. "I can smell him on you." He exhaled through an open mouth against her cheek. "So delicious."
She shuddered uncomfortably. "Ahhh," she breathed out. "I get it. You're a perve." She sniffed deeply. "Well. Don't think I'll be givin' anything to ya. You're really not my type, and besides, I'm married."
He chuckled breathily, and released her jaw to stroke the backs of his fingers down her face. "Oh you can be assured that you're not my type, either."
"But apparently Time Lords or whatever are," she snarled in reply, shifting her jaw to stretch it after being held. "Not that I want to judge or anythin', because hey, what floats your boat is your business. Dunno how this involves me, though."
"You're the one who will bring him to me," he answered with a wink and a sneer. "Best way to track a Time Lord is to capture his mate. Unfeeling lot for the most part, these Time Lords, don't much care for anyone other than themselves." He smirked. "Until they find their mate. Then they are so pitifully devoted to them that they'll give up all of their lives to save them."
Her brows lifted. "All of their lives? What are they? Cats?"
He grabbed at her jaw again, this time holding her heard enough that it would definitely leave bruising. "Don't keep pretending you don't know what I'm talking about," he snarled in a low dangerous tone. "You are the mate of the Time Lord we're searching for. He will come for you, and we will kill him."
Her eyes flashed with anger. "I wouldn't be too sure of that," she growled. "As I've already said: I have a husband…"
"Who doesn't seem to be with you or your child," he snapped, squeezing hard enough at her jaw that she felt a tingle in her tendons. "Do you think it wouldn't be noticed, Rose, that you're here with child, but not with your husband?"
"He's travellin'," Rose struggled to say with hew jaw being so tightly held. "He's a Doctor. He travels a lot."
"If that's really true," he warned darkly. "And that you are as useless to me as you claim you are – then what reason do I have to keep you alive?" His head tilted to one side. "My daughter needs a new form, the one she has is basically torn apart and not likely to heal." He huffed and shook his head. "Gravely inured the moment she took that form, foolish girl." He moved forward to snarl against her cheek. "Perhaps you're better as a vessel to carry her."
Her breath caught deep. "I'm warnin' ya," she hissed out through pain more than threat. "My husband, he's not someone you wanna mess with. If you hurt me, he'll hunt you to the ends of the Universe."
He laughed as he finally released her jaw, smirking at the whimper she gave when she was finally able to work her jaw and drop her head. "I'm counting on it," he said victoriously. "Although, we're really not making him look all that far for us. We're right here."
Her eyes were dark as she slowly lifted her head. "And so is he," she warned him. "And in enough of a foul mood that I doubt he'll have any form of mercy for you." She smirked. "You really don't know how big a mistake you're making right now."
"The only mistake made, my foolish girl, was him leaving you all alone where we could find you," he snorted. "With nothing but a pathetic animal to protect you. Such a shame she couldn't handle herself around my son."
At that, Rose tried to lunge forward, tugging against her binds with a snarl. "You'll be sorry you hurt her," she growled. "She was an innocent animal only protecting me."
"And such was her downfall," he replied with faux feeling. "She should have protected herself," his lips curled. "Not her pathetic mistress."
"If I get out of here," she warned with a growl. "Or if the Doctor finds you, you'd better watch out."
A chuckle rumbled deep inside his chest. "The Doctor," he sang out on a low tone. "Is that the one we've found?" He started to laugh, his head rolling back. "Oh brilliant! Not only do we get our Time Lord feast, and live forever, we will have the respect of the entire universe for bringing down the Doctor himself!"
"Entire armies haven't been able to stop him," she growled out, tired of the pretense. "What makes you think you can defeat him?"
He moved close to her, dropping his voice to a whisper. "Because I have you," he replied with humour. "Because I have his mate, the woman his hearts beat for."
"Which will only make him more dangerous," she managed meekly after a swallow. "Because if I fall, he catches me. Every single time."
He hummed a laugh. "Well you had better hope you're right." He looked over the edge of the railing behind her. "When I push you over, it's a fall of almost 25 feet onto solid concrete. Head-first? You'll die."
"Or at least have a really bad headache," she mused to herself with a wince.
He laughed. "You won't survive it," he said to her. "I'll make sure of it." He chuckled. "A distraught Time Lord is much easier to handle than one who thinks he has hope."
She blinked. "You'd better hope so. In my experience I've found that a distraught Time Lord is much less controllable than one who has hope."
There was a clamour down below, the sound of people walking into what Rose assumed was a large shed. The man looked down with a smile. "Well. Let's find out, shall we?"
Rose turned her head as best she could to try and look over the edge of whatever machine she was on. It took a decent levering of her head atop her neck, a painful effort of twisting and stretching the tendons of her neck, but she could see movement below. She saw Steve walk in, alongside John, who looked uncomfortable, but not necessarily in any peril.
"I don't know why you and Mary were playing about up here," John said in a voice both annoyance and worry. "And why you chose to bring me here instead of calling for an ambulance."
"Volunteer service," Steve answered with a forced huff. "And they're off looking after someone else. You seem to know what you're doing, figure you can help out till they get here."
"Yeah, sure," he muttered as he rubbed the back of his head. "Though I'm not sure what much help I'm going to be. You're covered in an awful lot of blood."
"Not mine."
"No," he breathed out. "Which is what worries me."
Rose's face creased into a wince, and she spoke the man's name inside a worried breath. At her side, the man who held her chuckled deeply. "So I see we chose correctly."
Rose flicked her head to him. She deliberately kept her voice quiet so as not to be heard. "No. You've got the wrong man. John, he's innocent. He isn't my husband."
"Not in his current form he isn't," the man agreed. "Not as a Human."
"No," she corrected urgently. 'I mean not at all. This man is not my husband – you have the wrong man."
He hummed with a mile. "Well then, I guess that mean's he's no good to me, either, is he?" He let out a fax disappointed huff. "I guess I'll just have to order him killed as well."
"No!" she gasped. "You can't."
He looked down at her. "Yes. Yes I can, actually." He leaned down to her. "So you'd better tell me, Rose. Is he the Time Lord in hiding; or just a plain ordinary Human who shouldn't be left alive, anyway?"
"Please don't do this," she pleaded softly. "Please?"
"If I don't," he answered her simply. "Then my family and I will die."
"Father of Mine!" Steve called from down below. "Are you up there?"
He stood up and leaned his arm on the railing to look down at his child. "Up here, Son of Mine."
Steve grinned as he looked upward. He put a hand on John's back, clothing a fistful of his shirt at the base of his neck. "Look who I brought along." He gave John a shove, who yelped in surprise as he stumbled forward.
"Steve. What the Hell?" he said with a yelp.
"Oh shut up," Steve said with an irritated growl as he shoved him again. "I've really had about enough of you."
John frowned with confusion, looking over his shoulder as he stumbled forward. "I'm sorry, what?"
"I wonder if you're as annoying as a Time Lord as you are a Human."
Now John stumbled all on his own. He turned to walk sideways, and rolled awkwardly on his foot. He fell with a grunt into his hip against the hard concrete floor below. 'What are you talking about?"
"You," he accused with a point of his finger. "Pretending to be human."
John didn't get up. He was too dumfounded to even think about getting up. His face contorted into an expression of absolute incredulity and disbelief. "I'll ask again: What are you talking about?"
Steve leaned back and loudly breathed out a groan of annoyance. "Ugh. A Human brain, so thick and dull, and very very boring."
"Dull, and boring mean pretty much the same thing," John gruffed out petulantly. "And quite frankly, Steve, as a Physics teacher, I'm going to say that my brain is far less thick and dull than a Phys-ed teacher's mind."
Steve flashed him a glare. He held up a gun. He held it high and slightly moved it around, left and right, and then pointed it in his direction. "Have you had fun, John Smith," he said with distaste, "being Human? What did you learn about that insignificant species?"
John's eyes pinched. "What are you talking about?"
He leaned down. "Come out, Time Lord." He clicked his tongue like someone might call an animal. "Come out come out wherever you are."
John rolled his eyes and drew himself to a stand. He pointed his finger at Steve and turned as though to leave. "You're an idiot," he growled. "And I'm not playing your game."
A large woman stepped out of the shadow behind Steve. "This isn't a game, Time Lord."
John's eyes flicked into her direction. "I'm not a Time-Whatever," he corrected. His eyes flashed wide to see that his woman supported Mary, who looked as though she was hovering close to death's door. She was covered in ripped flesh and blood. Already it appeared she'd been swarmed by the local fly population. There were black swarming creatures walking all over the gruesome wounds. He felt as though he would retch on the spot, but was able to control his gag reflex by turning back to Steve. "What happened to her?"
"Wolf attack," he answered with a shrug. "She will be fine."
"She won't be," he corrected. "She needs to go to hospital."
"A taste of Time Lord, and she'll be fine," he said with a smile. "One little taste and she'll heal almost instantly, a regeneration if you will."
John's eyes were wide with horror. He shook his head slowly. "I'm not entirely sure that you know what you're talking abut, Steve." He looked back at Mary with an expression of utter disgust. "I don't know that anything will heal her in several months, let alone instantly."
"The power of the Time Lord," Steve said with a sniff and a shudder.
"What the bloody hell are you talking about?" He growled again.
"You are a Time Lord," Steve demanded with wide eyes of anger and frustration. "There's no use to keep hiding. We found you." He leaned in. "Tag, you're it!"
"I'm Human," John corrected him. "Born on Earth, raised on Earth, just like you, like Mary, like … like whoever that lady is," he said with a flippant wave toward Mother.
"My mother," Steve advised with a sneer. "Have some respect."
"Hard to have it," John huffed. "When you're raving on like an idiot."
Steve huffed and look upward. "Father of Mine," he called out. "Time to bring out his mate…"
"My what?"
"Your mate," Steve clarified as he pointed up to the cab of a three-tonne haulpak truck. "Rose Tyler. You remember her, don't you? Your beloved one, your mate."
John's head lifted high. His eyes were wide with horror. "Rose?"
Father of Mine undid her ties only enough that he was able to untether her from the pole that held her secure. He laughed against her hair as he hauled her to her feet and led her toward the edge of the platform beside the truck's cab, three storeys from the hard concrete below. Weakened from being inactive for such a long period, Rose needed his help to remain on her feet, and so when he pushed her forward, she stumbled and whimpered.
John's expression was one of horror. Rose was bound by ropes from her shoulders down to her elbows, her hands were tied together in front of her. He could see the bruising of her jaw.
…His eye twitched. A dimple appeared in his cheek as his teeth ground together.
"Oh look," Father of Mine said with a laugh. "He knows who she is, doesn't he? Not just a friend, is she, Time Lord.
"I don't know what you're talking about," John seethed out, frustration and annoyance now being replaced by sheer fury.
"John," Rose called down to him. "You need to get out of here. Please, John. Run."
His head slowly began to tilt to one side. Low. His shoulders stiffened and set back to straighten him up.
Steve laughed. "Oh he already ran," he called back up to her. "Hid like a coward. "But we found him, didn't we?"
"Leave her alone," John warned quietly.
"Come out and play, Time Lord, and maybe we will," he taunted.
His eyes hardened. "I am not a Time Lord."
Rose still urgently warned him to run. "You heard me, John," she yelled. "Run!"
"Run," he breathed out long. "One word," he said as he lifted his head to look toward her with all of the fierceness of his Ninth self. "Just one…"
Father of Mine growled with frustration. "Oh for the love of … I've had enough of this." He gave Rose a shove in the back. "You won't come out voluntarily, so how about we force it." He grinned as he released his hold on the rope and let her fall off the edge of the platform.
As her feet struggled and then fell from the platform to have her fall fast to the concrete below, Rose cried out loud to her husband in a long and desperate cry.
"Doctor!"
