A/N:
Summary: Rose Tyler wakes up on Gallifrey.
Notes: What can I say about this chapter except: I have reasons for everything that I do... I have a plan. Yes I do...
As for Narvin: Know that I lay blame on Lady Inari for this ... she is the owner of a wicked and magnificent creative mind. I couldn't shake the potential that she whispered into my mind via email yesterday. So I ran with it. My own twist on the new norm in Who and what I believe is a little more likely to happen with it if it were to suddenly happen out of the blue ...
I'm certainly looking forward to writing the next chapter... heh ...
I sinceriously hope you enjoy ... it's a longer chappy than normal... Lots to read. Sorry about that.
~~oooOOOoooo~~
Painful awareness returned to Rose before the darkness had managed to take full hold of her aching body. It came with a piercing, stab of something hot and sharp through her chest plate. The knife, or whatever it was, was thrust into her with such force that she could feel the arms that held it collide hard with her chest either side of it. She gasped out a strangled cry at the sting of it but slumped back to lifelessness on the hard ground almost immediately afterward. She was unable to move or to open her eyes. Even the sounds around her were thick and muffled as though she had stuffed her ears with fluffy cotton balls…
"Dammit, it's not enough… what in the name of the Goddess was she hit with?"
"Looks like it was a Drinconian weapon blast. Fuck."
"I did not plan for that!"
"Got another plan, then?"
"Ehm…"
"Well think of something and be quick about it. She's not dying on my watch."
"Nor mine. Look. I'll keep her as stable as I can with a hit of my own. Get me a stretcher. At least let me make her a little bit comfortable while we transport her back to Gallifrey."
"I'll notify the medical teams to be on standby for materialisation."
"My surgical team only. Call them in if they're off. Anyone who doesn't answer the call to come in is fired."
"Sounds good. I'll have the President exile them off planet as well while we're at it."
"Chancellor, if you're done gossiping over there, I need a little help here if you wouldn't mind!"
"On my way, Coordinator. Keep her alive."
"You say that like I'd actually let her die. Go help round up that lot of degenerates. I've got her."
There was a hard pressure of a hand pressed down into her chest. She could see hot light through her closed eyelids and felt an intense heat spread across her chest. She could hear the continued sizzling, buzzing sounds of staser fire and scuffling feet in the near distance … and the soft pleading chants of the man leaning over her assuring her she'd be okay and to hold on.
"I'm tryin'," she drawled inside her mind as darkness took hold again.
~~oooOOOOooo~~
Awareness arrived again with the movement of lights over her face. It was a rhythmic pattern of brightness then dim. Flash, flash, flash. Her back and shoulders were pressed into a soft mattress and she could hear the annoying squeak of swivelling caster wheels fighting against an unusual speed of travel. She could only assume she was on a gurney and being hurriedly wheeled somewhere. There was still a hand pressed against her chest, and she could still feel a powerful heat inside her chest.
God, she hurt.
Muffled voices still surrounded her, but she couldn't make out the owners of any of the voices. All she knew was that they were fighting hard for her survival and that the President was going to be incandescent when they found out what was going on.
"How is she?"
"Unable to support vital respiratory and circulatory systems on her own. I'm running low on my ability to continue to be her life support system. But if I stop, she'll go into full organ failure within moments. I won't be able to do anything then. As it is, I can't even do the prep I need to do to help her now… Rock and a hard place."
"Then let me take over. Go and do what you need to do to help her. I've got her."
"Yeah. Thanks."
"Just don't take too long."
"I'll do my best."
In a brief moment when the heat that was burning into her chest disappeared. The deep breath of relief she wanted to take wouldn't come, and she felt her face flame into redness and discomfort as her mind registered her being unable to breathe. She wanted to gape her mouth to try and suck in a breath but found herself unable to move.
Another hand pressed down heavily in the centre of her bosom and within a short second she felt the heat of a new flame fire against her chest. Immediately her open mouth gaped in a deep and ragged breath. A full rush of oxygen into her brain, and darkness fell once again.
~~oooOOOooo~~
There were a pair of tender hands on both cheeks when her mind stirred again. Muttered, soft apologies filled her ears as a tight and constrictive vice like device was slipped over her head. Her eyes shot open with an amber swirl as an incredible pain filled her mind and tore across her body. She was sure she screamed, although whether or not it was heard by anyone, she couldn't be sure. Darkness was welcomed when it enveloped her again.
~~oooOOOooo~~
"Did it work?"
"I really don't know. I think so, but until she regains consciousness, I can't say for sure."
"She's breathing on her own, now and the scan readings seem positive. Everything is within range and all that."
"You say that as though you can actually read and understand the readings and reports, which I know you can't." Sniff. "But I really don't know. I mean, well, she's stable for now. I've done what I can to repair the damage her shoulder. By the Gods, that was a mess."
"It took an 18-hour surgery to get it fixed, yeah, I'd say it being a mess is an understatement."
"Good thing I like puzzles, I suppose, to piece that back together" Sigh. "It's still going to need to be braced for at least a couple of weeks to make sure the bone fragments knit together properly, but she should make a full recovery on that particular injury."
"Anything else? The President's asking."
"Tell the President …" Gulp. "Tell the President that the current readings are positive. That I believe it was successful. I'll forward a more comprehensive report when I have time to actually complete it. Gods, what did I have to do to her?"
"You've never had a problem with this part of her before today. For all intents, it came as a welcome relief to you when it came to light – Stars, it was a relief to all of us. Why is it now that you're reacting like this; like it's the worst possible outcome?"
"Because until today, I didn't know that it was me who had to do it to her."
"You've done far worse than this before today."
"I really don't know that I have."
~~oooOOOooo~~
There was a mild beeping sound in the room, and the hum of an Air conditioner that blew cool air down on top of her lightly clad body. Her mouth was dry and sticky as she slapped her tongue to the roof of her mouth in search of moisture. With a slap of her lips and a dry swallow, she finally felt moisture underneath her tongue. She quickly worked her tongue inside her mouth to fill it with moisture and swallowed a couple of times to spread that moisture down toward the back of her throat.
Her eyes fluttered underneath the bright overhead light and when she tried to lift her arm to cover her eyes, she found it bound and braced across her chest. The slight shift she made to try and free it sent a bolt of pain inside her shoulder, which released a sharp cry from the back of her throat. She sucked that cry back into her throat to bite at the pain with a grit of her teeth.
She maintained the grit of her teeth and hissed out her breaths through them as she fisted the bedsheet with her other hand. It took a long moment for the pain to finally subside, and when it did, she allowed her eyes to open to a slit. Slightly blinded from the light above she blinked rapidly to try and get her vision to cooperate and give her at least a small idea of where she was right now. Obviously, she was in a hospital of sorts, the smell of antiseptic and beeping of monitors gave that away pretty quickly. Just which hospital she was in was another question, of course. Her last real clear memory was that she was in the rather unpleasant company of rogue CIA operatives face-down on a damp London street. The sound of a travel capsule had been one of the last truly coherent sounds she'd heard – that and the panicked cry that it was a Presidential Capsule and that Rassilon was materialising.
Her eyes flashed open wide at that remembrance and she turned her head quickly to one side. Through blurred vision that was slowly drawing into focus, she let her eyes trail over the room in search of something – anything – that could offer her any confirmation of just which hospital she'd ended up in. Was it an Earth medical centre, or was it on Gallifrey? She certainly wasn't in Phiroi's capsule, nor the TARDIS. She knew those medbays quite well….
Speaking of the TARDIS, she sent out a plea to the old girl praying for confirmation that she was still on Earth. Please tell her that the Doctor and Braxiatel were able to intercept and sweep her off to safety.
Swirling glyphs drawn in thick black marker on the side of a plastic spray bottle told her that she'd ended up on Gallifrey. She searched for something else, something written in English that could counter her initial observation. Perhaps the Doctor was doodling on things while he was waiting for her to wake up? Not completely out of the realm of possibility, he was prone to scrawling his thoughts on pretty much anything he could get his hands on when inspiration hit. It was why his console monitor was peppered with sticky post-it notes…
She looked to the machinery beside her bed and let out a defeated sigh. The manufacturing markings, and the data reads she could see on the monitors confirmed beyond all doubt that she was in a Gallifreyan hospital. Her heart immediately sank. This meant she was now in the hands of Rassilon. What that meant for her husband and brother in law, she didn't want to know.
She gave an exploratory movement of her arms and legs in wonder as to whether or not she had been secured on the bed with cuffs and ties. She half expected to be. If Rassilon was waiting for her to wake, she expected he'd have every form of security in place to make sure she had no way of escape. Consider her somewhat pleasantly surprised to find that aside from her left arm being secured by brace across her chest, there was no other form of tie to hold her down.
For the first time in what felt like an eon she allowed herself to smile.
Foolish Time Lord.
She hitched her breath in deep and prepared herself for the fire and ache that would no doubt come when she dared move. It was a pleasant surprise, then, to find that aside from a lightly swimming head that protested her sudden movement, and the pain in her shoulder, she was otherwise quite okay. She winced as though it might clear her mind and let the tip of her tongue drag across her lip as she looked to the doorway to see if the coast was in any way clear for her to attempt an escape.
She was connected to a couple of rather awkward tubes placed in areas she would never be able to recount to anyone without turning completely red. So with a tug, a pull, and a wince of discomfort at their extractions, she freed herself of those ties and slipped off the bed.
Immediately, her state of attire became apparent. A paper-thin cotton gown big enough only to cover off the front of her. It would be okay if anyone saw her from the front. A rear view would leave nothing at all to the imagination. Not wishing to moon the entire hospital, she made a quick search for something, anything, that could cover off her bottom and provide her with the dignity she'd lost when she was unconscious and tubes needed to be inserted….
Folded on a thick and comfortable looking square leather armchair were the laundered yoga pants and t-shirt she'd been wearing back in London. Her runners were set neatly beside the folded pile. She held back her squeak of excitement and quickly set about putting on the trousers and runners. Her shoulder brace disallowed her putting on a bra and T-shirt, so she made do with the gown covering up that part of her. Creatively, she lifted the bottom of the gown and twisted it around her waist in such a way that it covered up her back and made it less obvious that she was bra-less. She tucked it into the waistband of her trousers to keep it secure, then padded quietly to the door to look into the hallway.
Clear!
Yes!
She tried to bite her smile, but only managed to scrape her teeth across her lip as it stretched wide with thrill and building excitement. Oh how fun: a scarper through the hospital in search of a transport – or at the very least a phone – so she could get home. She stepped quietly into the hallway and paused when she saw the slow approach of one of the hospital's doctors. Judging by the thick and quite luscious salt and pepper facial hair on his cheeks and chin, this doctor was obviously male. He was tall and lean and dressed in the Dark yellow labcoat, scarlet scrubs and surgery cap of a doctor from the Prydonian chapter. His black-rimmed glasses balanced low on his nose and his chin was low as he focused on the information held on a glowing tablet in his hand. The other hand was buried deep inside his trouser pocket. He walked without real purpose or urgency, and while his gait was familiar to her, she wasn't of the mindset to wait around to see if he was the friendly sort or not. Instead, she drew in a deep breath, held it, and bit at her lip to keep herself quiet as she quickly spun to run herself in the opposite direction to him.
She rounded the corner and pressed her back up against the wall to take a very quick peek back at the doctor and the nurse who had quickly jogged to his side with urgency in her posture. Whatever the nurse said to him had the doctor in an immediate state of panic. He dropped the tablet to the ground with a loud clatter, which had Rose pull back and look away from the pair of them. No doubt her curiosity would get her caught, so she'd best scarper while the scarpering was good.
The squeak of the doctor's shoes on the linoleum flooring as he ran to the room matched perfectly with the squeak of hers as she took off along the corridor. In very short time the light in the corridor shifted from yellow to mauve and an alarm blared loudly throughout the facility.
Rose let out a peppering of both Earth and Gallifreyan swears as she ducked and weaved around trash receptables and cleaning carts. She uttered apologies toward startled patients and cleaning staff as she shot by them, but didn't slow in her attempt to escape. She needed to separate herself completely from the facility and as quickly as possible. There was no telling just how many security guards they had posted around all ready to make the big grab of the day to haul her up in front of Rassilon.
Each new hallway she fled though quickly flashed from yellow to mauve. The alarms were spreading faster than she could run, and with her still recovering, her ability to maintain such a hurried escape was waning quickly. The pain in her shoulder was on the increase, and in no time at all it would shift to a blinding pain that would probably drop her where she stood. She prayed for her brain to just put up with it a little bit longer, maybe release a bit of Oxytocin, a wash of endorphins, and a hit of Adrenalin to help her along.
While a lovely prospect, her brain wasn't anteing up any such assistance. She was well and truly on her painful own for this scarper and escape. At some point she'd have to reach the end of it. Despite feeling like it was, there was no way this hospital spread entirely across Gallifrey. It had to have an end at some point.
Please, Sweet TARDIS of Gallifrey let it have an end.
She skidded to a halt when she heard the heavy thunder of multiple boots on tile at either end of the corridor she was running through. There was no connecting corridor or hallway that she'd be able to reach in time. She took a quick look around at the doorways that were spread rather liberally along the corridor and, finding one that had no real distinguishing markings to say the room beyond was occupied in any way, she quickly opened the door and stepped inside. She spun to press her back into the door and closed it with a quiet snick of the lock. She inhaled and exhaled with slow and controlled breaths that held as she heard the thundering footfalls move past the doorway.
"Rose?"
Rose's eyes flashed open wide at the softly spoken question of her name. She looked deeper into the room, toward a tall and ridiculously beautiful woman standing behind a large ornate wood desk.
Rose's hand shook as she reached for the door handle. "Who. Who are you?" she asked with a stammer. "I'm warnin' you, I'm not going to be taken easy. I … I'm not…"
"It's okay," she assured with a smile as she held both hands upward in a gesture of surrender. "I'm not trying to take you anywhere. You're safe with me, I assure you." She slowly lowered one of her hands to the desk, and a black corded phone on her desk. "Just give me a moment to let them know you're okay."
"Let who know?" she demanded hotly as she unlatched the door and prepared to run again.
"Braxiatel and Thet … ehm .. the Doctor," she answered. "You've given the both of them a scare by running off like you did." She looked her over. "You're still not entirely well as is my understanding."
"Brax and the Doctor? They're here?" She panted and pressed her back up against the door again to push it shut. "Here on Gallifrey? But Rassilon? What if he finds them?"
"No chance of that, I assure you," she vowed as she released the guarded hold of her own body and fell into a more relaxed posture. "He was neutralised in the civil uprising almost three centuries ago." She held up a finger to her as she pressed down on the intercom button on her phone. "Freya, this is Coordinator Narvin. Can you please send an immediate and urgent communication Lords Braxiatel and Sigma to let them know that their escapee is safe and sequestered in my office with me?"
Rose's eyes widened and she shifted her chest forward to take a closer look at the woman. "N-Narvin?" she asked with genuine surprise. "It's you? But. But you … you're a …"
"I'm a what?" she queried with a rise in her brow.
"Oh, err," she answered after a swallow and a shrug. Should hardly have been surprising to her. She'd witnessed more than one regeneration that switched the gender of the regenerating Time Lord during the Time War. If she recalled correctly, they didn't enjoy having attention brought to it, so she opted to splutter out something else instead. "You're gorgeous?"
Narvin looked to her with an expression that was fairly neutral, but her voice was flat. "Spoken as a question, and one I am reluctant to answer lest I appear to be self-centred or self loathing in any way." She pushed her hair back behind her ear with obvious discomfort. "I'm quite sure your mate and Braxiatel will be here shortly. In the meantime, please take a seat and get off your feet." She gestured toward a very well-used Nespresso machine. "Coffee?"
Rose's eyes flicked to the coffee maker and then back to Narvin. She shook her head lightly. "Already pretty wired, thanks."
"I imagine you are," she agreed with a light huff in her tone. "There is something to be said about the buzz within one's entire musculoskeletal structure when the fight or flight instinct rises within. It's been a long time since I've had that rush, myself."
"Yeah, it's that alright." Rose was slow to move as she crossed the floor and gingerly lowered into a chair across the desk. "The crash afterward isn't all that pleasant."
"I wish I could remember," she said with a smile and a lift in her shoulders as she pressed her hands into the desktop and slowly lowered herself into a chair. She did so with fairly little smoothness nor grace, and when she leaned back in her chair there was no polite cross in her legs. She slouched instead with a deep rock back in her chair and a part in her knees that would have Buzzfeed subscribers crying out an accusation of manspreading. The posture was a direct contradiction to the tall façade of pride and royalty that Narvin's new form projected … and Rose absolutely loved it. She slouched, herself, in as much of a similar manner as she could manage in her current physical condition.
"So?" she began with a purse in her lips as she searched for a potential discussion point to eliminate the uncomfortable silence that would carry them until the Doctor and Brax showed up. "You regenerated?"
"A century or so ago," Narvin answered as she slipped her hands underneath the long black vest that draped over her knee-length tunic to cradle her hands on her belly. "Small mishap during an operation with Leela."
"Friendly knife strike, then?"
"I wouldn't exactly refer to it as being friendly," she said with a sigh. "But yes, it was at Leela's blade." She held up her hand to ask for pause before Rose commented on that. "In Leela's defense, the both of us were under the rather potent influence of an airborne hallucinogen. She thought I was someone I wasn't."
"Oh," Rose said with a wince. "I bet she feels awful about that."
"Surprisingly no," she admitted. "she considered it a true kill given the circumstances. The fact it ended up being me, well. Not highly relevant in her mind at that time." She lifted her eyes to the ceiling. "I suppose it was time to wear a new face. Got to almost a millennium on the old one."
"Well. I like the new look," she said with a smile.
"I've been told it's imperative that I take a compliment with a smile and gratitude," she said with a one sided smile. "So, thank you. Though I must remark on the fact that when I walk Gallifrey as a male, people are much less likely to make comment on my appearance."
"Well, I thought you were a bit fit," she said with a wink.
Narvin offered little more than a neutral expression in reply. Then, after a moment a rather puzzled expression tickled the very corner of his mouth down into a frown. "I really don't know what that means." She held up a hand. "And in saying that, don't mistake me wanting an explanation for it. The more I know about the ways of the humans, the less I know them. You are a very confusing species."
"Funny, I say the same about Gallifreyans," Rose countered with a shrug that brought about a wince of pain from her shoulder. "Right. Got to remember that…"
"Or get some adequate pain medication for it," she suggested. "I'm sure if you ask your mate, he'll procure you something effective."
The Doctor's voice filtered in with slight displeasure from a doorway at the rear of the office. "I already had several prescriptions filled for that very thing."
Rose lifted her eyes with the full expectation of seeing brown and blue pinstripes, a cleanly shaven face, artfully touselled hair, and the cheeky smile of her husband. Instead she watched a much less cheeky version of him wander toward her. Underneath a dark yellow lab coat, he wore quite fitted scarlet hospital scrubs with red Converse chucks on his feet. He wore a thick but short carpet of lightly greying facial hair across his chin and cheeks. One look at the black rimmed glasses that sat high on the bridge of his nose and Rose winced just slightly. This was the doctor that she ran from in the corridor. He was obviously on his way to check on her. Another five minutes of patience and she'd have known she was safe from harm.
Her eyes followed him as he slowly dropped into a crouch in front her of chair and set hit his hand on her knee. "Hello Doctor," she said with a smile of apology.
"I haven't been called that in a long while," he said with a forced smile as he leaned to one side to slip his hand into his coat pocket to retrieve a small tubular container filled with medication. "You really should take one of these."
She chased his eyes with hers and a light movement of her head. "What do you mean you haven't been called that in a long time? But that's who you are; the Doctor. My Doctor."
He lifted his eyes to hers and an expression of adoration crossed his face, instantly making him look years younger. "Oh Rose," he breathed out appreciatively. "My beautiful Rose." He lifted from his crouch just enough that he could lean over her chair and press his mouth to hers in a tender, yet very passionate kiss. He had one hand gripping at the arm of the chair whilst his other cupped her face and then slipped to hold the back of her head to deepen their connection.
Narvin let out a long moan. "I wondered how long it would take for this to start. Congratulations Lord Sigma, you managed a while 73 seconds." She leaned forward to drop an elbow on the table to hold her forehead in her palm. "What's the bet this connection will last much longer than that?"
Rose quickly broke off their connection upon hearing her husband called by that name. She sucked in her bottom lip to keep the taste of him on her tongue and smiled up at him. She then looked to Narvin with a pinch in her brow. "Why do you call him that?"
"Call him what?"
"Lord Sigma."
She looked over her fingers at her. "Because that's what he's called. Theta Sigma."
Rose huffed out a long breath. "Tell me I haven't ended up in a parallel world or something," she said with a whine as her hand came up to cover her face.
"You haven't," the Doctor answered with amusement in his voice. "Although I understand how it might seem that way."
"You do, do you?" She dropped her hand from her face and rolled her head on her neck to try and find comfort with one hand secured up to her neck in a firm sling. "Just how far ahead of me are you right now?"
"A little under three hundred years," Narvin answered as she leaned back in her chair again with a slouch.
The Doctor nodded slowly. "And in three hundred years, a lot has changed. For all of us." He smiled toward Narvin. "Some more than others."
She whimpered and offered the Doctor an apologetic look. "Which means…" She gulped. "I'm gone, aren't I?"
The Doctor flicked her a look. For a moment there was an expression of confused question in his eyes, but they quickly widened and a smile spread across his face. "Oh no. No, Rose. Not at all. You are alive. So very much alive."
"But how?" she asked with genuine confusion. "That'd make me more than 300 years old." She shook her head. "Humans don't live that long."
"On Gallifrey they do," he answered with a falter in his wide smile. The small falter evaporated quickly to further increase that smile. "Here on Gallifrey, you don't age. Barring accidents, you could live for millennia. In fact, Leela's already crossed into her second millennia."
"Barring accidents, Rose repeated. "You've met me, right?" She gestured toward her current state. "Case in point."
"You get less jeopardy friendly here on Gallifrey."
Narvin spat out a laugh at that comment. It was a chesty, raucous laugh that echoed throughout the room. She started to choke and swatted over her desk in search of a drink to quench her throat. "Oh, Sigma. That's the funniest thing I've heard in my entire lives. Really it is."
Braxiatel's voice muttered in from the same entrance that the Doctor had used to get into the office. "What's so funny?" He swept his eyes with urgency across the room. His expression softened to relief when he saw Rose being tended to by her husband. "Oh thank the Gods you're okay." He looked to Narvin. "Anyway, what's so amusing to you that I can hear you cackling from the hallway?"
"Him," she replied with the thrust of both hands across the desk in a gesture toward the Doctor. "Suggesting that Rose is less jeopardy friendly here on Gallifrey than she was on Earth."
Braxiatel's laugh began much like Narvin's did, with a spit through his lips that quickly erupted into a full belly laugh. "Oh, that's a good one, that is," he managed out in between laughing breaths. "The only reason you're not on your eighth or ninth life right now is because you married a Doctor."
Rose looked slightly confused by that. "Eighth or Ninth what?" she shook her head. "I don't regenerate, Brax, remember? Not one of you."
"Yeah," he drawled long with a questioning look toward his brother. He looked to Narvin. "Looks like we're safe to step up the schedule a little. You up for a quick jaunt to Earth?"
"Quick for you," she answered with a tired moan. "I'm there for a bit longer than you are. And violating a vast number of temporal laws in doing do I'll add."
"With the permission of your Lady President," he reminded her.
"Which didn't help you out much when it was you who violated temporal law, did it?" she countered with a gruff grunt of annoyance.
"And if I recall, it was you who betrayed the confidence I'd put in you at the time regarding my breaking of laws." He sniffed with derision. "You were very much part of the push for the punishment I received as a result of that."
"Which worked out for the best in the end didn't it?" she answered with a smug smile. "And they say that it's a woman's mind that never forgets. Brax, that was centuries ago, and before I could even hope to consider you a friend."
"Not entirely sure you should be making that consideration right now."
She pressed her temple into her fist with a slouch and looked toward Rose and the Doctor, who watched the exchange with small smiles. "Would the two of you be entirely upset if I held a staser to his gut and fired off a shot. Just one. That's all I ask. One life. He's got plenty of them left."
"You know that you're threatening not only a Chancellor of the Supreme High Council, but also the mate of a sitting President," Braxiatel reminded him. "That's treason…"
"Not quite," she answered with a huff. "But I'll certainly arrest and send myself to Shada if you so desire." She blew out a breath through pursed lips. "Really, it would be an easier life than chasing after all of you and keeping you in one piece." She then sat herself up straight. "But. Yes. As it happens I am prepared for the task you've set forth. Can't say it will be all thrills and wonderful times, but such is my life where the four of you are concerned."
Braxiatel watched Narvin rise from her chair using the knuckles of her fists on the tabletop to support her light lean. "Do you have everything you need?"
"I do," she answered. "I can give Narvin and Braxiatel the information they require to get things moving on their end to minimise any potential collateral damage when this all blows up. Other than that, not all that much else is required except a time ring to escort myself back here to Gallifrey when I'm done."
The Doctor rose to a stand himself. Both his hands slipped into his trouser pockets. "I think we should wait a little while longer. I don't think Rose is quite ready for travel just yet."
"She might not be if you were piloting the capsule, Thete," he muttered with a shrug. "But as I'll be the one in control, and will be at the helm of Romana's presidential capsule, I can guarantee a smooth ride free of your usual bucking and pitching method of TARDIS flight."
His face tightened up slightly. "I don't want to send her back to the two of us in this condition, Brax. You know full well how the both of us are going to react when we see that."
"I was there, remember," he countered. "Don't you think for a second that the memory of how badly the two of us screwed up isn't still crystal clear in my mind. How badly I wanted to destroy Rassilon and the entire damn planet for what they did to her."
"As it is in mine," he growled out. "And I'd much rather not put any of us through that, thank you. Give her another couple of weeks here on Gallifrey to recover properly and then we can take her home. It won't do any damage at all to the timeline for us to do that."
"Mine, too," Narvin added quietly with a small lift in her finger. "I was there, too, remember." The finger dropped quick when Braxiatel launched into an angry tirade.
"And sending her home a little later is going to change that, you think? Don't pretend to me that you're that monumentally stupid." He pointed toward Rose with a wave of his hand. "Sending her home tomorrow versus two weeks from now isn't going to make any difference at all. Why? Because we will find out, and we'll be the worse for it knowing she had to be holed up here for so long recovering." He huffed out and lowered his voice to a more calm timbre. "Don't think I don't know what you're up to, Thete. You're trying really hard to think of all the possible ways we can get to where we are right now without her or any of us having to go through what we did. I don't blame you. I want the same. So, call me the bearer of bad news if you want, but we have zero choice in the matter. This has to happen in the way it happened in the original timeline. Like it or not, things are going to get hard for all of us. There's nothing you can do about that."
"I can think of something," he seethed in reply. "I just need time."
"Best you don't," Narvin interrupted flatly. "Braxiatel is right. We've all been through this over and over again. We've done temporal simulations over and over again. Each time, and with each tiny little aberration from the original path of time, we end up worse because of it." She exhaled apologetically. "I'm sorry, Lord Sigma, but this is the way it has to happen. We've done what we can…" She looked to Rose with a weak smile. "Made the necessary fortifications." She looked back to him. "Now it's up to them to finish the job."
"And you have to admit it," Braxiatel added with a wry smile. "Back then we really were the very best of us. Young guns if you will."
"I hate guns," the Doctor muttered with a roll in his eyes.
Rose had listened to the exchange with uncharacteristic silence. It was tempting to jump in and remind them that she/her was standing right here, so how about they talk to her about it, but it was clear that jumping in right now was the exact opposite course of action to take. Watching the vehemence inside Braxiatel and Narvin, however, she knew that the only decision that needed to be made right now was for them to take her home to London and face whatever was to come with all the strength and power she could possibly manage…
…and with her Time Lord family at her side, they'd overcome anything. That she knew without a single doubt.
"Doctor," she said softly after a shared angry silence between Time Lords. She held her hand out to him. "Come here?"
He lifted his head to the ceiling wanting to draw in a deep breath, and with resignation walked into her arms. He was gentle when he held her against his chest, wary of her injury. He rested his cheek against her hair. "You're going to side with the two of them, aren't you?"
"You know I am," she said softly. "Can't mess with the timelines, Doctor. Isn't that what you told me?"
"Easy to say when it's not you in the crosshairs of Time's wrath," he admitted and shifted his head to put his chin atop her head. "Or in the sights of Rassilon."
"I'm still here," she offered without the shake in her voice she'd expected herself to have. 'With you." She shifted to lift her chin to look up at him. "You and me, right now. We're still together, yeah? We survived it all, you and me."
He drew the pads of his thumbs along her cheekbones. "Yeah."
It was a single syllable word, and not one that was spoken in anything less than a whisper, but that one word was able to convey so very much of his fear and concern for her. She swallowed thickly. "And so the you I'm with now. Me and him, we'll do what we need to do – together – and we'll get right here, where you and your me are now. Happy, yeah? Safe and happy"
"Very safe," he confirmed. "Very happy. And very very much the beat of each other's hearts."
She sighed out. There was a pinch of longing in her brows. "That's incentive enough for me, then." She rolled up onto her toes and lightly pressed her lips to his.
Immediately, he tilted his head low to one side and deepened the kiss. His mouth opened to cover hers completely. There was a desperate sound of something indecipherable in the back of his throat as he claimed her with a hard and fierce passion of the likes she'd never felt from him before. It curled her toes and drove himself directly into her very soul. It left her panting and dazed when he finally released her and she staggered back just slightly from him unsure of where to walk or even look after a kiss like that.
"My hearts beat for you," he vowed with the same fierceness that was inside his kiss. "They beat for you now, as they beat for you back then. Don't forget that. Don't ever doubt it."
"If that you ever kisses me like that," she said over a dry tongue. "Then I'll never doubt it ever again."
He cupped her cheek in his hand and whispered against her ear. It was a series of sensual syllables that send a shudder down her spine with each puff of sound against her ear. He pulled back from her ear and looked down to her with a smile. "Say that to me, and I guarantee you I will." He winked and his mouth stretched wider. "And I'll more than likely take it much further than this me ever could with this you."
"Good to know," she said with a smile that held her tongue cheekily in between her teeth. He whimpered at the sight of it. "Go home to me right now, and maybe you can take it further…"
"If I wasn't in the middle of a double shift…."
"And on that delightfully awkward for everyone else in the room note," Narvin said with a light growl and purr in her voice. "We should get going." She held her hand to Rose. "I'll escort you to the capsule dock. I imagine these two need a quick prep talk before we actually head back." She looked to Braxiatel. "We'll see you at the Presidential Capsule in no more than ten microspans?"
"About that," he answered with a shrug.
"No more than that or I leave without you," she threatened. She looked to Rose. "Well, come on, then. Best we get the nuclear detonation of Lunbbarrow over and done with, yeah?"
Rose followed behind Narvin, gracing Braxiatel and the Doctor with a small smile and a wave before she disappeared through the door. Braxiatel only have it a further ten seconds before turning to his brother.
"You didn't tell her, did you?"
"Nope," he answered. His eyes were still on the doorway where he'd watched the younger version of his wife disappear. "I didn't."
"Why on Gallifrey not?"
He let out a breath. "Because she never knew." He finally took his eyes from the door and shifted them toward his brother. "Right up until it happened, she had no clue at all."
"Are you sure about that?"
He nodded. "I asked her last night. My Rose, I mean. I asked if I told her about what happened here this week." He exhaled. "She said she never knew." He swallowed. "And she told me that I shouldn't under any circumstances tell her, either." He snorted a rueful laugh through his nose. "Told me to just add it to the closet of secrets I already keep from her."
Braxiatel merely huffed. For some reason, he very much doubted that. "If you say so."
"What you can do, though for me," he asked as he pulled a thick yellow envelope from his pocket. He handed it toward Braxiatel without actually looking at him. "Is make sure that Phiroi get this. It's my full medical report on her. Her most recent scans. All of her biological … and telepathic data." He swallowed. "Someone needs this information, and best it's him at this juncture."
He took the envelope and stuffed it into the pocket of his charcoal-coloured blazer. "I'll see that he gets it."
The Doctor exhaled a worried breath. "This was the most terrifying time of our lives, Brax. And I'm sending the woman my hearts beat for straight back into the front line of it. I may as well be sending her into the heart of the Time War."
"Yeah, but remember one thing, Brother. She's got all of us standing in front and behind her."
"I know."
"And by all of us, Thete. I mean all of us."
A smile formed at the edges of his mouth. It shifted into a stretch that just lightly bared his teeth. "That she does, Brax. That, we all do. Rassilon doesn't know what he's up against…"
~~oooOOOOooo~~