It's not a resolution, but it is an explanation. Hopefully that's enough for you all not to murder me over that last cliffhanger.
One of the soldiers raised their gun high above the Doctor's head. Rose could see his eyes following it as he struggled to get free. The man in charge nodded again, and the soldier brought their gun down on the Doctor's head with a loud, sickening crack. The Doctor's eyes rolled and his eyelids closed. All the guards holding him released their grip, and the Doctor tumbled down towards the tiled floor, unconscious and completely helpless.
The Doctor hit the floor hard and crumpled into an unnatural position. Rose's hand flew to her mouth, but she quickly forced it down to her side before the terror and panic could take hold of her. She couldn't let these people see what she was feeling – she had to be strong. She had to keep the Doctor safe. A moment of strange relief surged through her at how fortunate it was that the Doctor had asked her to bring Jenny out with her. Had he been holding her as was so often the case, she would now be in the clutches of these people. As it was, she was still on the jump seat, safe inside the TARDIS.
"What are you doing!?" Rose said furiously, all of her energy going into not allowing her voice to wobble, not allowing herself to feel fear for the man lying unconscious on the floor in front of her. "Who are you? Why did you do that to him?"
"We've heard that he can be... difficult to deal with. We needed to bring him here without any fuss." The man who spoke was tall and gaunt, his skin white. His hair was black and greasy, and he had an air about him of deceit and cruelty. He was the slimiest person Rose had ever seen, and his face was contorted in a look that she assumed was self satisfaction. He was like a cross between the Child Catcher and Severus Snape, and Rose had to put a lot of effort into not being scared of him.
"And why do you need him?" she said, nodding towards the Doctor's unmoving body.
"Oh we don't," the man said, smiling a smile that made Rose want to run in the opposite direction. "It's not him we want at all – it's the child that you're keeping in that wondrous travel machine he possesses."
"Jenny? What do you want with her?" Rose felt horribly exposed standing here. All she wanted was to be back inside the TARDIS, but she couldn't go, not yet. She needed to know what these people wanted, and she could not let the Doctor out of her sight.
The man sighed, folding his arms as though taking the time to explain to her was beneath him. "You see, Miss Tyler, we've been watching the Doctor for a long time now. We know how powerful and how dangerous he is, and we wanted a way to capture that power. So when we were informed that he had an offspring – one that was completely Gallifreyan, rather than part human as we might have suspected of him judging by his apparent, ahem, fondness for his companion," – here he smirked at Rose, clearly insinuating something, and she had to resist to urge to slap him – "we knew that we had to obtain it."
"Jenny's not an it," Rose interrupted hotly, the sting of the jibe at her and the Doctor's relationship still smarting, "she's a little girl, and you can't just 'obtain' her."
"We must," the slimy man said simply, not at all taken aback by Rose's argument. "That child is the only Time Lord apart from your Doctor, here," – he kicked the Doctor with his boot and Rose practically snarled – "who exists. She has the potential for immense power. Any Time Lord child would be ideal for our plans, but a child of the Doctor? A child that possesses any of his DNA is one that we should like very much to have in our care. We will raise her as we wish, she will be the ultimate weapon. We can use her to take over the universe if we wish to – she will be unstoppable, we will make sure of that."
Rose felt sick. They wanted to steal Jenny, take her away and lock her up and turn her into a weapon, use her for their own ends.
Just as the slimy man finished his little speech, and just as Rose was staring with shock and horror at his face, the Doctor began to stir slightly, his eyelids fluttering as his consciousness attempted to reassert itself. The slimy man gave the slightest nod, and one of the soldiers struck the Doctor hard in the side of the head with the butt of her gun. His head fell back to the floor once again, a trickle of blood oozing across the white tiles. Rose bit her lip.
"You won't be getting her," she said as confidently as she could, "there is no way in hell that I would ever hand Jenny over to you, you must be mad!"
The slimy man smiled again. "Oh, not mad, Miss Tyler, just very determined. You seem to be forgetting that the Doctor, the most feared man in the universe, is in my custody. I can do whatever is necessary to... persuade you to see things my way. He can give us valuable insight and knowledge. Why do you think we targeted him? We knew nothing in the world could make him give up his daughter to us, but if we threatened you with his torture? We know you are far more likely to give us what we want than him."
Rose felt almost calm, as though everything had slowed down and she could see things very clearly all of a sudden. It wasn't the first time she had been accused of being weaker than the Doctor, and she wasn't fazed by these people or the fact that they had underestimated her. "I see. Well I've got a couple of things to tell you. One – the Doctor is not going to take too kindly to being held hostage. I almost feel sorry for you when he wakes up. Two – the Doctor is not going to go easily on the people who are trying to take his daughter and who are threatening me to do it. And three - choosing me because you think I'm weaker than the Doctor or something like that is never gonna work. I've seen a lot of things you could never understand, and I am telling you now that you will wish you'd never done this. I don't know what you know about me, or how, but I do know that I am not going to rest until I have taken you down, and neither will the Doctor." She paused, wondering if there was anything else she needed to say. Of course, there was one more thing. "And if you hurt the Doctor again, then you will not believe what will happen to you."
The slimy man glared at her, before turning to the guards just behind him. "Take him away," he ordered, and two of the guards grabbed the Doctor's arms and dragged him roughly towards the door.
Rose realised there was nothing she could do, not with all those guns trained on her and the Doctor, but she held the slimy man's eyes, staring at him with a look like ice as she stepped backwards and into the TARDIS, locking the door behind her and resting her head against it. It had all been talk, and she knew it. Against all those people armed with guns, threatening the Doctor, she had been just about as defenceless as it was possible to be.
Concentrating on the fact that the TARDIS was a safe place, and that it would give her somewhere to come up with her next move, Rose moved over to the jump seat where Jenny was sitting with her shoes on, ready for a trip out onto an alien world. Rose looked at the tiny converse trainers on the little girl's feet and felt sick to the stomach. She picked up Jenny and hugged her close, cradling her head in one hand. Jenny's hair had been getting longer, and just that morning Rose had brushed it and tied it up so that it stuck up from her head like an aerial.
"They're not going to get near you," Rose murmured so softly that Jenny would not be able to make out the words, "I am not going to let them hurt you."
She settled Jenny on her hip, but the toddler was looking a bit worried now – she seemed to have sensed that Rose was not her usual self. "Daddy?" she said.
Rose smiled, though her lips trembled as though they could not stand the weight of the pretence she was putting up for Jenny's sake. "Daddy's just gone out for a bit, he'll be back soon."
Apparently Rose's attempt to console Jenny had not done any good. Although she was tiny, she had better senses and a much better understanding of people than a human child of her age, coupled with the fact that her Time Lord telepathy was beginning to assert itself. It was possible she could sense that the Doctor was in trouble through their telepathic link, but Rose didn't know how those things worked. "Daddy," Jenny moaned, her voice getting louder and higher pitched with each repetition of the word. "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!"
Hugging Jenny tight, Rose tried to soothe her, but she was properly crying now, great big sobs that made her shake. "Shh, it's OK, he'll be back soon, it's OK sweetie, he'll be alright."
It was a downright lie, and Rose knew that whether or not the Doctor would be alright rested solely on her shoulders. Jenny cried for a long time and for a while it seemed that Rose would be unable to stop her, but she stroked Jenny's hair and kept murmuring to her until the toddler was finally fast asleep. She wished someone was there to stroke her hair and make her feel better. Saving the Doctor was one thing, but him being held ransom until she handed Jenny over? She was too involved with all of this, too aware of the risk that at least one of them was not going to make it home this time, and she could not distance herself enough to think objectively just yet.
She lay Jenny on the jump seat and watched her sleep for a few minutes.
One thing was clear – Jenny was being kept out of this. Whatever they were doing to the Doctor, whatever they threatened him with, there was no way she was ever even going to consider letting Jenny near those people.
Standing in the console room, Rose knew she should come up with a plan, but no plan was coming to her. She could not think – her brain seemed to have been filled up with dust. She was still watching Jenny sleep, biting her fingernails and frowning, when the entire floor jolted and Rose lurched to the side, desperately trying to retain her balance.
The TARDIS was moving, and all of a sudden Rose was having a flashback to another time when she had been alone in the TARDIS and it had begun to fly without her telling it to. A flashback that was made suddenly more vivid by the appearance of a hologram of the Doctor in the middle of the console room. Rose stopped looking around frantically for a way to stop the TARDIS moving and focussed on the hologram. Just like before it was facing slightly away from her, and beginning to speak.
"This is Emergency Programme Five. I've made two of these messages, one in case you aren't here, Rose, and another one in case you are, which is this one of course, because if you weren't here then the other one would be playing, and I wouldn't be saying this to you." He stopped for a moment, brow furrowing as he backtracked to see if what he'd said made any sense, before shrugging and continuing. His hands were in his pockets, but his air of nonchalance seemed strained."I sorted this out a while ago, but re-recorded it the other day so I could add in a few things for you. Rose, listen to me. If you're there and I'm not, and the TARDIS had activated this programme, then it means I'm danger. Real, proper danger. The TARDIS is taking you back to Martha and Mickey's. And before you starting losing it and throwing things at me – and I'm a hologram, so that's not going to help – you need to know that this isn't me sending you away. This is me doing what we talked about – keeping Jenny safe so I won't be alone out there. Once you get to Martha, you'll have 15 minutes before the TARDIS dematerialises and comes back to wherever you were before. You'll be able to come and rescue me, and keep Jenny safe." The hologram smiled, a little sadly, Rose thought. "See, I told you I could listen. In the case of both of us not returning, the TARDIS will go back to Martha's. I've made her one of these messages, and a few for Jenny, so she can understand what's going on. So you go now, go save my life, and we'll all laugh about this later. See you soon. And Rose, I-" He cut off, looking down at his feet. "I hope you know how much you mean to me. Bye." He smiled a big smile, and the image flickered and died.
Rose nearly slumped down onto the floor, her head was spinning so much. The Doctor had sorted this out – to protect Jenny, to keep them all safe, to let her know he understood that he needed her. She could not believe he had done this. Blinking back tears, Rose shook her head from side to side, as though hoping the physical movement would stop the frantic whirring of her brain. She could thank the Doctor for the message later, when they were back safe and sound on the TARDIS.
She let her brain believe that this was the only option for how this was all going to end, just for a little while.
The TARDIS bumped and shook before stilling, and Rose knew they must be there. She picked up Jenny, who barely noticed that anything was happening at all, and walked towards the doors when she spotted a rucksack lying on the floor. Picking it up, she realised it was full of the things Martha would need to take care of Jenny while they were gone. Wondering what she would do without the TARDIS, Rose slung one of the straps over her shoulder and exited the ship. Fifteen minutes, the Doctor's hologram had said.
Rose stepped out of the TARDIS with Jenny in her arms to find Martha waiting for her. One look at the expression on Martha's face, all happiness and excitement and a little bit of slyness because she clearly knew what the Doctor and Rose should have been doing while she was looking after Jenny, and Rose felt tears in her eyes.
Martha immediately looked concerned. She stepped forward and gave Rose a hug, with slightly more difficulty than usual due to Jenny and the fact that Martha's bump was now very visible.
"What happened?" she asked urgently as Rose fought to keep control.
Rose sniffed and tried to keep her voice even. "We were going on a trip before we came to see you, to this planet with snow and stuff, all safe, but then the Doctor went out the doors and he started shouting so I ran down to see and they hit him on the head and they want—they want Jenny and they're going to hurt him if I don't give her to them and I've got fifteen minutes before the TARDIS takes me back to save him." Her speech had gotten faster and faster, her voice climbing upwards in pitch and wobbling as she began to lose her calm.
After Rose's explanation, Martha looked appalled. "But what could they want with Jenny?"
"She a Time Lord," Rose explained, "they want to use her as a weapon, keep her and raise her for their own ends. They know how dangerous the Doctor is, they've been following him, I don't know how, and they want to use Jenny against him. She's only a baby, they can't-" She broke off, holding Jenny tightly to her chest. She breathed in and out very slowly, clearing her head and foccussing on what was scaring her. "They could be doing anything to him, Martha," she whispered, "anything at all, and I can't stop them because there's no way I would ever give Jenny to them. I've got to go back to get him out."
"You can't go alone," Martha told her, "I'll come with you, I'll-"
Rose interrupted her. "No, please. I don't want to put you in danger, especially not with the baby coming, and I need to know that Jenny is safe if... if anything happens to me or the Doctor. He said he talked to you about it."
The other woman nodded. "He did. He said he was setting up an emergency something or other that would bring Jenny to us if you were in danger."
"He did. This is it. I've got to go, I've only got fifteen minutes and they're probably nearly up. If I'm not in the TARDIS when it goes then—well I don't really want to think about it."
As Rose handed over the rucksack and then the infant who was barely awake in her arms – it was so hard to let go of the toddler when it might be the last time she ever held her - Martha scrutinised her. Rose knew Martha was worried that she was going to pieces worrying about the Doctor's safety, but whatever Martha thought, Rose was going back for the Doctor, and she was going alone. Martha seemed to sense that nothing she could say would make a difference, so she merely hugged Rose tightly and wished her luck. Rose stroked Jenny's cheek and smiled, telling her to be a good girl. Jenny's sleepy little hand grasped at Rose's, and Rose knew she had to leave now or she'd never be able to go. Martha waved Jenny's hand for her as Rose strode back to the TARDIS, the combination of love and fierce determination an energising fizz through her veins.
She smiled and gave Jenny a final wave before closing the TARDIS doors. Almost immediately the ship began to dematerialise, the central column pulsing up and down as it made its return trip to wherever it was they had ended up, where the Doctor was now being held prisoner.
Rose went back to her bedroom to get herself ready. She needed to be prepared for what she was about to do – bargain for the Doctor's life, essentially.
She took a quick shower, then dragged on a pair of black trousers and the boots she had worn when she had been using the Dimension Cannon. They were sturdy and comfortable, and also very good for running. When looking for a top to wear, Rose spied some dark green lurking in the back of her wardrobe. She reached in and pulled out the garment, staring at it in shocked disbelief.
It was one of the Doctor's jumpers.
One of the ones he had worn before he looked like he did now. Had the TARDIS put it there for her? She held it to her nose and inhaled, taking in the Doctor's scent. He still smelled the same now – it was one of those few precious things that had not changed with regeneration. Pulling it on, she looked at herself in the mirror. It was baggy, but not enough that it would be a problem. It was comforting, wearing something of the Doctor's, like having him close to her. She silently thanked the TARDIS before pulling on her jacket. With no other options and rescue to attempt, someone had to be the Doctor.
Today it was going to be Rose.