Chapter Twenty-Six -
Rose had just gotten out of the bath and wrapped in a towel when the first alarm went off. It had gone off so unexpectedly and so loud, that for a split second, Rose was sure she had done something to cause it. That thought caused the TARDIS to giggle at her before she started to rock dangerously as Rose quickly got dressed in the outfit that the TARDIS had laid out for her. As Rose ran from their room to the console room, she threw her hair up into a messy pony-tail.
"What's the emergency?" Rose asked as she stumbled into the console room, grabbing onto the wall to keep herself from falling, as the TARDIS tilted dangerously,
"It's mauve." The Doctor alerted her as he flew around the console, hands flying along it pushing buttons and pulling levers and turning nobs.
"Mauve?" Rose asked as she ran to help when the Doctor was nearly thrown off his feet.
"Universally recognized color for danger." The Doctor told her as he steadied himself by grabbing the console during a particularly nasty shake.
"What happened to red?" Rose asked as she flew around the console pushing buttons and flipping switches.
"That's just humans." The Doctor informed her. "By everyone else's standards, red's camp. Oh, the misunderstanding. All those red alerts, all that dancing." The Doctor joked as he ran to the screen and began typing away as Rose made her way to him, there was no more buttons to be pushed or switches to be flipped or levers to be pulled or even nobs to turn at the moment. The Doctor pulled up the image of whatever he was chasing, it was the Chula ambulance. Rose's heart lept in both fear and happiness. Fear because of everything that was about to happen, and happiness because they were about to meet Captain Jack Harkness. Team TARDIS was about to be complete. "It's got a very basic flight computer, I've hacked it, slaved the TARDIS. Wherever it goes, we go." The Doctor explained.
"And that's safe, is is?" Rose asked.
"Totally." The Doctor told her excitedly. The TARDIS disagreed with him and showed it by causing the console to spark wildly when the Doctor moved to pull a lever. Rose gasped in shock as the Doctor hissed out a curse when a few sparks landed on his hand, burning him. "Okay, reasonably. Should have said 'reasonably' there." The Doctor cried out holding his hand to his chest. The screen began beeping loudly at them. The Doctor looked back at the screen and muttered out another curse before his fingers began to fly over the keys.
"What's happening, Doctor? What's going on?" Rose asked although she was pretty sure she knew the answer.
"It's jumping time tracks, it's getting away from us." The Doctor told her.
"What exactly is that thing?" Rose heard herself ask.
"No idea." The Doctor hissed out in pain.
"Then why are we chasing it?" She heard herself ask, Bad Wolf making sure she asked certain questions to keep from looking too suspicious.
"It's mauve and dangerous and about 30 seconds from the center of London." The Doctor told her. Had it been that close to the center of London the last time? "Hold on, this is gonna be a bumpy landing." The Doctor warned seconds before they were tossed to the ground as they landed. "You okay?"
"I'm not the one who just got their hand burnt by the TARDIS." Rose told him as she quickly got to her feet and made her way to the Doctor, holding out a hand to help him up. Once he was on his feet, Rose gently took the hand that had been burnt and looked at it. Blisters were already forming. "We really should take care of this."
"I'm fine, Rose. I heal quickly." The Doctor told her taking her face in his uninjured hand. "Tell you what, if it's not healed by the time we find this capsule, then I'll let you play nursemaid for me." He told her with a wink. Rose rolled her eyes while giving him a smile.
"Fine, then lets get out there and find this thing as quick as we can." Rose said as she began to lead them around the console towards the door. "So do we know how come this thing was headed to Earth?"
"It wasn't headed to Earth, it was just knocking around space, probably had been for awhile." The Doctor told her and received and eyebrow raise. "Do you know how long you can knock around space without happening to bump into Earth?" He asked as he opened the door for her.
"Five days." Rose said stepping out into an alley way. "Or is that when we're out of milk?"
"Of all the species in all the universe and it has to come out of a cow." The Doctor crumbled as they looked around the alley way.
"Hey, we tried that one milk that came from that one creature with all those tentacles and eyes." Rose shivered at the memory of the creature. "You said it didn't have the right texture." The Doctor laughed and shook his head before looking over as half wall that was in front of them.
"Must've come down somewhere quite close. Within a mile anyway." The Doctor told her, getting her back to the problem at hand. "And it can't have been more than a few weeks ago. Maybe a month."
"A month? We were right behind it." Rose said as the Doctor took her hand and lead her out of the alley into another.
"It was jumping time tracks all over the place. We're bound to be a little bit out." The Doctor defended. "Do you want to drive?"
"I would love to drive." Rose said with a wide smile, knowing that the Doctor would never just let her drive, at least not without his help. And she knew it wasn't because he didn't trust her, it was just that both she and the TARDIS were important to him and he didn't want either of them to hurt each other, even accidentally. "So how much is a little?"
"A bit." The Doctor told her vaguely. Rose tensed up when she felt the same unnerving feeling that she had last time, it was only thanks to Bad Wolf that she truly understood what that feeling was. Something was watching her. The picture of Jamie in his gas mask appeared in her mind standing on the rooftop above them watching them, watching her. Rose had to fight the urge to look at Jamie and growl threateningly.
"Is that exactly a bit?" Rose forced herself to say.
"-Ish." The Doctor told her sheepishly. Bad Wolf's hackles continued to rise as Jamie continued to watch her. Her fight or flight response kicked in, and her body shook as it tried to do both at the same time.
"So, we've got a plan, then?" Rose said trying to sound as normal and unaffected by Jamie watching her as she could, it wasn't time for the Doctor to know about Jamie. "You going to do a scan for alien tech or something?" The Doctor gave her strange look.
"Rose, it hit the middle of London with a very loud bang. I'm going to ask." The Doctor told her. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, of course." Rose told him a little too quickly gaining a raised eyebrow, the longer Jamie watched her the harder it was to ignore him. "I'm just worried about your hand and want to quickly find this thing so that I can check over your hand. Besides, just asking isn't very 'Spock' is it?"
"Rose, love, I'm fine." The Doctor told her as they came to a door, giving her a small smile as he laid his ear on the door. "Door, music, people. What do you think?"
"I think you should scan for alien tech." Rose snapped at him, Jamie's stare on her having gotten Bad Wolf to begin to pace in the back of her mine, putting Rose more on edge. "Give me some Spock, for once. Would it kill you? I already know how smart and impressive you are, you don't need to constantly prove it."
"You sure about that T-shirt?" The Doctor asked, obviously accounting her snapping at him for her worry for him, as he pulled out his screw driver to unlock the door and Rose looked down at her shirt. She was wearing her Union Flag shirt.
"It's was the first thing that I grabbed, I'd just gotten out of the shower when we ran into this thing." Rose told him hiding the fact that the TARDIS had chosen this for her to wear.
"Mummy." Rose heard Jamie call. Her head snapped towards the end of the alley, where the sound had come from, eyes flashing gold in a silent warning for the boy not to come near her. But Jamie was no where to be seen. "Mummy." Jamie called again, his voice bouncing off the alley walls, making it impossible for Rose to locate where the sound had come from unnerving both her and Bad Wolf.
"Got it, come one Rose. This shouldn't take more than a minute." The Doctor called back as he got the door open. Rose turned to follow him into the building his time, not wanting to be alone with Jamie is she didn't have to, only to have Bad Wolf force her body to stop walking. The memory of her hanging on to the rope of the barrage balloon flashed through her mind before the memory of her and Jack in his Chula warship followed it. She mentally groaned. For them to get to Jack, it would seem she would have to travel to him via barrage balloon.
"Mummy?" Jamie called and Rose began to walk over to where she knew the staircase that would lead her to the rooftop that had the barrage balloon on it. She spotted Jamie watching her from the top the the staircase.
"Right, I'm not climbing those stairs for you, buddy, I'm doing it for Jack." She muttered as she began to climb the stairs as quick as she could. When Rose got to the roof top and spotted the rope to the barrage balloon she hesitated. This had not been a very fun experience the first time when she had grabbed onto the rope the first time, not realizing it was attached to the balloon, and her she was doing it again, willingly, knowing it was attached to the balloon.
"Gymnastics, don't fail me now." She muttered to herself before running over to the rope and grabbed it, making sure to wrap it tightly around her wrist. It wouldn't do any of them good if she slipped and fell before she made it to Jack.
"Mummy. Balloon." Jamie told her seconds before the wind shifted sending her and the balloon away. Rose grunted and bit back the urge to scream and faint when she glanced down and saw the ground a ways below her.
"Jack, you so owe me for this." Rose muttered forcing her eyes to look up at the balloon instead of the ground getting farther from her as she wrapped the rope around her leg to get a better grip. Her grip tightened on the rope as planes and bombs flew past her. "You owe me big time for this. A month of foot massages! No, two months!"
~Replay~
The Doctor bolted through the door. He had been so stupid not pay attention to the time period that they had landed in. That would have saved him a lot of embarrassment that he had just went through. "Rose?" He called noticing she wasn't there. Fear shot through him. Hadn't she been right behind him when he had entered the building? "Rose!" He yelled hoping that she was somewhere near by.
His eyes shot to the TARDIS waiting above him. Had Rose gone back to the TARDIS to try and start a search for alien tech? The Doctor raced back up to the TARDIS. "Rose! You in here? Please tell me you are in here!" The Doctor cried as he ran through the TARDIS door. His hearts dropped when he didn't see her in the console room.
"Maybe she's changing her shirt." The Doctor told himself. With a nod, he raced to their room. "Rose, I think maybe we should scan for alien tech!" He said running into their room. Only to come to a stop when he saw that it was empty. "Rose?" He called running in to the door of their en suite. He poked his head into it and found it empty. Fear gripped him and he ran to the walk in closet, but she wasn't there either.
"Rose!" He yelled running back to the console room and out the TARDIS doors. He ran around the alley way looking for any signs where his love could have gone. Had she been taken? Had she wandered off? If she had been taken, who had taken her and where had they taken her? And they people responsible for taking her better hope that he found her unharmed or their punishment would be worse than if she wasn't.
And if Rose had just wandered off, she was going to get an ear full once he had found her. She needed to learn not to wander off. Especially not during WW2 while wearing the Union Flag on her chest!
When the Doctor couldn't pick up his Rose's scent, he leaned against the wall and slammed his head back against it. He had been so stupid to not make sure that she had followed him into the room. Why hadn't he taken her hand, like he normally did? Why hadn't she screamed for him if she needed his help? Why had she left him?
The Doctor's eyes teared up. He had promised to protect her. How could he do that if she wasn't with him? How could he protect her if she wasn't always by his side? The Doctor jumped in shock when a phone began to ring. He looked over at the TARDIS's outside phone that was more for show than anything. The sound was coming from that phone. Cautiously he walked over to the TARDIS and opened the compartment that held the outside phone.
"How can you be ringing?" The Doctor asked it, not expecting it to actually answer him. First he lost Rose and now this decorative phone was ringing. What else was going to happen to him tonight? "What's that about, ringing?" The Doctor glared at the ringing decorative phone before pulling out his screwdriver. "What am I supposed to do with a ringing phone?"
"Don't answer it." A young woman told him suddenly. The Doctor looked at her. Something about this young woman was pulling him to her. Was she the cause of Rose's disappearance? Would she be able to lead him to where Rose was? He could sense that this young woman was involved some how, but he couldn't tell how. "It's not for you."
"And how do you know that?" The Doctor asked suspiciously.
"'Cause I do. And I'm telling ya. Don't answer it." The young woman told him.
"Well, if you know so much, tell me this, how can it be ringing?" The Doctor asked looking back that the decorative phone. "It's not even a real phone, it's not connected, it's not..." He looked up to see the young woman had left. Why was everyone suddenly leaving him? The Doctor looked back at the ringing phone. Who ever was on the other end either knew what was going on or was causing what was happening. They knew where Rose was. He answered the phone.
"Hello?" The Doctor asked keeping himself from demanding to know what the hell was going on and here his Rose was. "This is the Doctor speaking. How may I help you?"
"Mummy?" A child asked causing fear to flood the Doctor. How was this child able to call him? What did this child have to do with what was going on? What did they do to Rose? "Mummy?"
"Who is this? Who's speaking?" The Doctor demanded.
"Are you my mummy?" The child asked. Had this child mistaken his Rose as their mother? Had they taken his Rose? If they were still asking for a mother, what had happened to his Rose?
"Who is this?" The Doctor growled out.
"Mummy." The child cried out.
"How did you ring it? This isn't a real phone, it's not wired up to..." The child hung up on him. The Doctor quickly hung up the phone and closed the compartment that held it before taking off after that young woman. She was his only clue to finding his Rose and figuring out what was going on.
~Replay~
Rose screamed as a plan got too close to the balloon and nearly hit her with its wing. It was one thing to joke about her time traveling by barrage balloon with Jack and the Doctor it was an entirely different thing to actually relive it. Where the hell was Jack? How much longer until she got to Jack? Rose's heart sank as her hands began to slip.
"No! No! No!" Rose cried as she quickly tried to get a better grip on the rope. Her flailing caused her to slip even more. "Damn it, Jack. Where the hell are ya?" She muttered, tears in her eyes. Rose was able to hold on a few minutes longer before she lost grip completely. She screamed as she plummeted to the ground.
"Oh thank god!" She cried when she was caught in the blue beam of Jack's Chula warship tractor beam.
"Okay, okay, I got you." Jack's voice called out to her.
"Who's got me?" Rose cried out, trying to calm her racing heart, knowing that she wasn't supposed to know who he was right now. "Who's got me and how?"
"I'm just programming your descent pattern." Jack informed her as she finally got her breath back. "Stay as still as you can and keep your hands and feet inside the light field."
"Right, stay in the light, got it." Rose told him pulling her arms to her chest and stopped kicking her legs.
"And can you switch off your cell phone?" Jack asked causing Rose to laugh. "No, seriously, it interferes with my instruments."
"Oh right, sorry." Rose said forgetting that her mobile really had interfered with him trying to safely get her down, the Chula warship not designed to handle and overcome the waves being transmitted by her era's version of the mobile phone. "You know, no one ever believes that." She told him as she quickly pulled out her mobile and turned it off.
"Thank you, that's much better." Jack told her as a plane flew by. And, though Rose knew she was safe (Jack and the Doctor having explained last time how the tractor beam had hidden her from view), Rose was still very uncomfortable and unnerved to just be floating in the air with nothing to hold on to.
"Yeah, that's a real load off, that is. I'm hanging in the sky in the middle of a German air raid with a Union Flag across my chest! But, hey, my mobile phone's off!" She snapped at him wishing he would hurry up.
"Be with you in a moment." Jack told her tightly before going silent for what felt like forever, but was less than a minute. "Ready for you. Hold on tight." He told her.
"To what? My arse?" Rose asked.
"Fair point." Jack told her with a laugh and then, without much warning, Rose was suddenly being sucking down the beam of light and into the Chula Warship with a scream.
"I got you. You're fine, you're just fine." Jack whispered in her ear when he caught her. Rose, her mind slightly disoriented and not realizing that this wasn't her Jack just yet, buried her head into his chest. "The tractor beam, it can scramble your head just a little."
Rose took a few deep breaths as Bad Wolf made quick work of unscrambling her head. Once her mind was clear, she pulled her head away from Jack's chest to see him smirking at her. Right, first things first, make sure Jack understood where he stood for her. He was her best friend, and older brother, someone who would be there to protect her should the Doctor some how not be able to. He was not a love interest for her, but they would joke that he was her eye-candy. The flirting they would do was only be friendly and nothing more.
"Sorry, thought you were someone else for a moment." Rose told him before giving him a weak smile. "Hello."
"Hello." He told her, his smirk widening. She might need the Doctor's help in helping Jack know where he stood in Team TARDIS.
"Hello." Rose repeated, wanting to create their inside joke. She loved that inside joke. "Sorry. There was 'hello' twice there. Dull but, you know, thorough." She joked.
"Are you all right?" Jack asked.
"I'm fine." Rose said and shifted, silently asking to be put down. The second her feet touch the ground the room began to spin, alerting Rose that Jack had done something to the tractor beam to cause her to pass out. "Why, you expecting me to faint or something?" She asked as she began to fight the effect as long as she could without Bad Wolf's help, it would seem she was destined to pass out right about now.
"You look a little dizzy." Jack said using his concern that she wouldn't be effected by whatever he did to pass a concern for her.
"A smart con-artist doesn't fake emotions, they just manipulate the emotions they are feeling to help with the con." She heard Jack's voice explain to her.
"What about you? You're not even in focus." Rose told him before she passed out.