Journey Amongst the Stars

By Lumendea

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Doctor Dances: Locked in

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any of the spinoff material and I gain no income off of this story, just the satisfaction of playing with the characters.

…

The voices were all one as the horde of gas mask zombies approached. They moved slowly, calling for their mother as the wall cracked more and more with each passing moment.

"It's keeping us here till it can get at us," the Doctor said. His voice was breathy with fear, and the three of them huddled close together with Rose in the middle.

"It's controlling them?" Jack asked, frantically.

"It is them," the Doctor said. "It's every living thing in this hospital."

"Okay. This can function as a sonic blaster, a sonic cannon, and as a triple-enfolded sonic disrupter." Jack had his blaster at the ready, but couldn't decide which group to point it at. "Doc, what you got?"

"I've got a sonic, er. Oh, never mind."

"What?" Jack asked.

Rose was eyeing the wall behind them, trying to remember which floor they were on. At least third. She was scared enough that she could probably cut through the wall, but the child would just follow them down when they jumped. It would likely survive better than them.

"What?" Jack demanded in response to the Doctor.

"It's sonic, okay? Let's leave it at that."

"Disrupter? Cannon? What?" Jack pressed.

"It's sonic! Totally sonic! I am soniced up!"

"A sonic what?!"

"Screwdriver!" the Doctor finally answered in a huff.

The wall gave way ahead of them, revealing the child. Down, Rose's mind stayed fixed on that thought, but she had a better idea now. Rose grabbed Jack's arm and pulled it down. As soon as his blaster was aimed at the ground, Rose hit his finger on the trigger. It went off, and the floor beneath them vanished. They hit the floor below. Jack scrambled to his feet and thankfully didn't need Rose's prompting to use the rewind feature to seal the floor. Rose stood up, grateful to still be herself and reviewed the feeling of her body. She was going to feel that escape tomorrow, but no broken bones immediately caught her attention.

The room was dark, almost pitch black despite the raid being over and she started searching for the edges of the room to find a light switch. Her legs bumped into something, but thankfully it didn't make much noise.

"Doctor, are you okay?" Rose asked.

"Could've used a warning."

"I'll keep that in mind next time I save your life."

"Who has a sonic screwdriver?" Jack asked.

"I do."

"Lights," Rose said as she kept searching. It was a also a not so subtle hint to the men to look.

"Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks, ooo, this could be a little more sonic?" Jack asked.

"What, you've never been bored?"

Rose moved over to the small desk at the side of the room. It at least had a small table lamp on it. "There's got to be a light switch."

"Never had a long night? Never had a lot of cabinets to put up?" the Doctor huffed.

Rose finally found the switch and flipped it on. As the light filled the room, it revealed rows of beds with even more patients with gas mask facings resting. They sat up as one.

"Mummy," they chanted. "Mummy."

"Door." Jack gestured to a nearby doorway.

They tried to open it, but it was locked. Jack pointed his blaster at the door, but nothing happened. The patients were rising from their beds.

"Damn it!"

"Mummy."

"It's the special features. They really drain the battery," Jack explained.

Rose was reaching for her sonic pen, but the Doctor was ahead of her. There was a soft whirl from the sonic screwdriver, and the door opened. The Doctor held it open, ushering her and Jack inside. It was a small room, dark and filled with cabinets and shelves, but it didn't seem like a true storeroom. It was filled with random odds and ends, and nothing was labeled. Rose found a light and switched in on, revealing a window on the far side of the room, but it was barred.

"Battery?" Rose asked. That surprised her, the sonic pen and sonic screwdriver never ran out of a charge. The one time she'd asked about it, the Doctor had given her a lecture about ambient energy harvesting and sound to energy conversion cells. "Just a battery?"

Jack leapt onto a large built-in seat below the small barred window. "I was going to send for another one, but somebody's got to blow up the factory." He glared at the Doctor.

"He does that," Rose said cheerfully. The tension was getting to be a bit much. "And he's very good at it."

"Okay," the Doctor said, coming over to join Rose. "That door should hold it for a bit."

"The door?" Jack stared at the Doctor. "The wall didn't stop it!"

"Well, it's got to find us first!" The Doctor gestured around the room. "Come on; we're not done yet! Assets, assets!"

Jack came down from the window and dropped himself into an old rocking chair. "Well, I've got a banana, and in a pinch, you could put up some shelves."

"Window," the Doctor said.

"Barred. Sheer drop outside. Seven stories."

Rose grimaced at that. Apparently not cutting through the wall had been the right call after all. "No other exits," Rose said. She nodded towards the walls. "Not unless we want to risk exposing ourselves. I don't know the layout of the building."

"Emergency exit only then," the Doctor said.

"Well, the assets conversation went in a flash, didn't it?" Jack said. He was looking at Rose curiously.

"So, where'd you pick this one up, then?" the Doctor asked Rose in a huff. "Another bridge fight?"

It really was Sherwood all over again. "Doctor," Rose scolded.

"She was hanging from a barrage balloon; I had an invisible spaceship. I never stood a chance."

Rose felt her cheeks warm while Jack smirked at her, and the Doctor seemed to struggle for what to say.

"We need to get out of here," the Doctor said. "Rose, let's checks the walls-"

"Doctor," Rose interrupted. Jack was gone, he'd vanished in a small flash of light. "Jack's gone."

….

Nancy had to keep moving. Her tears had all dried up, but the memory of the dining room and Jamie taunted her. The bag of food and tools that she'd taken from the Lloyds weighed heavily on her back. Blackmailing the man about his relationship had left a bitter taste in her mouth despite how vile the man had acted. Children starving in London and living in the rough and his family eating like kings. Shaking her head, Nancy pushed the thought away. There were more important things to worry about than that bully.

She made her way to the empty house that the children had used last night. It was a mess, but better than being outside. Nancy didn't know where the folks who lived here were; they'd probably run off. As she approached, she heard soft voices inside and scowled. Jim was playing with a typewriter when she entered.

"Thought as much. What are all of you doing here? Different house every night, I told you," Nancy scolded.

"We thought you were dead, or you'd run off," Jim said.

"I didn't," Ernie chimed in. "I knew you'd come back for us."

Nancy emptied her sake of loot and started handing it out. Jim stayed at the typewriter, pressing the keys randomly.

"Found that old thing in the junk," Ernie said. "Thinks he can write now-"

"I'm writing a letter to me dad."

"You don't even know where your dad is," Ernie argued. "And how're you going to send it?"

"I don't know, stick it in an envelope?" Jim said.

"You can't even read or write."

"I don't need to. I've got a machine." Jim started hitting the keys at rapid speed, and Nancy flinched.

"Will you stop making that noise!" Everyone in the stopped, looking at her in shock and alarm. "I'm sorry, Jim," Nancy said more gently. "On you go. You write a letter to your dad if you want to."

"I know we should've went somewhere else, but we need you, see, for the thinking," Ernie told her. He wasn't exactly smiling, but looking up at her hopefully.

"And what if I wasn't here? What if one night, I didn't come back for you?" Nancy pulled the tool from the bag. Jim slipped out of the chair to sit beside Ernie. "There's a war on. People go out they don't always come back. It happens. What would you do then?"

"They're wire cutters," Ernie said.

"I need you to think about that," Nancy insisted. To her right, the typing continued softly. "Someone's got to look after this lot."

"Why? Are you going somewhere?" Ernie asked.

"The bomb site. The one at the railway station."

"Why?"

"The child. That's where he was killed. That's where it all started. And I'm going to find out how." Nancy was amazed that her voice didn't shake.

"He'll get you, and then he'll come for us," Ernie protested. "He always comes for us."

"No. Ernie, he doesn't. He always comes after me." Nancy looked down at the boys, sadly. "There are things I haven't told you. Things I can't tell you. As long as you're with me, you're in danger. Even now, sitting here, you're in danger because of me."

"You're the one what keeps us safe."

"You think so, Ernie? Then answer this. Jim is sitting there right next to you. So who's typing?"

There was a collective gasp. Nancy reached over and snatched the paper out.

"Is he coming?" Ernie asked softly.

"Ernie, as long as you're with me, he's always coming." She tossed down the paper, letting it drift to the ground. "Plenty of greens. And chew your food."

With that, Nancy left the house. The children stared after her until Ernie finally picked up the paper. Below Jim's gibberish was Are You My Mummy. Mummy. It was typed over and over.

…

The Doctor turned around and glared at the empty chair. Then he moved to the wall and started carefully tapping on it. Rose was guessing he was trying to determine if there were occupied rooms on the other side. She flexed her wrist, ready to call her sword if necessary while her mind spun. Jack leaving them didn't fit, it didn't make sense-

A nearby old radio crackled to life. "Rose? Doctor? Can you hear me? I'm back on my ship." The Doctor grabbed the radio and turned it, revealing a severed cord and gave Rose a thoughtful look that she didn't know how to respond to. "Used the emergency teleport. Sorry I couldn't take you," Jack added. "It's security-keyed to my molecular structure."

"Right," Rose sighed. "Right, of course."

"I'm working on it," Jack promised. He sounded truly sincere and worried. "Hang in there."

"How're you speaking to us?" the Doctor asked.

"Om-Com," Jack answered through the radio. "I can call anything with a speaker grill."

"Now there's a coincidence," the Doctor said.

"What is?" Jack asked.

"The child can Om-Com, too."

"He can?" Rose frowned.

"Anything with a speaker grill. Even the Tardis phone."

"What, you mean the child can phone us?"

"And I can hear you," the child said, their voice coming through the radio. "Coming to find you. Coming to find you."

"Doctor, can you hear that?" Jack asked.

"Loud and clear."

"I'll try to block out the signal," Jack said. "Least I can do."

"Coming to find you, mummy."

"Remember this one, Rose?" Jack asked his tone a bit teasing.

Moonlight Serenade began to play, and Rose couldn't help but smile a little. The Doctor turned to her with a slight frown. Shrugging, Rose leaned against the wall.

"Our song," she said. "Apparently."

The Doctor's expression closed, and Rose sighed. There was too much going on for this. "Rose, we need to get out of here."

"I'm not cutting through the walls," Rose said. "We don't know if there are more wards. The last thing we need is even more of them swarming us."

"What about the bars? You could cut them?"

"And scale down with what?" Rose patted her shoulder bag. "I'm afraid that I don't have a grappling hook in here." She reached in and pulled out a small packet of Jammie Dodger biscuits. "If I start carrying much more, I'm going to need you to upgrade it to transdimensional."

"Gets hard to find stuff," the Doctor replied. He still sounded unhappy, but he took a biscuit. "We can't just sit here."

"Look I know Jack can be a bit…" Rose trailed off and sighed. "Okay actually he's a bit more irritating than he will be, but I promise you that at his core he's a good man. He's loyal, intelligent, adaptable, and funny."

"You didn't just meet him, did you?" the Doctor asked.

His face darkened, and Rose could sense the rising jealousy. He was always so possessive and yet wouldn't do a damn thing about it. Reminding herself that this wasn't the time, Rose pushed aside her frustration. She'd decided that their relationship had to wait until he was ready.

"No," Rose admitted softly. "You're not the only person I have a temporally complex relationship with. The first time I met Jack, he saved my life from one of the Silver Lord's plots. I didn't trust him at first, but he knew me. He knew all sorts of things about me and proceeded to put himself at risk to keep me safe." Rose shrugged a little and chuckled. "And he pops up here and there sometimes just to have lunch and joke around and sometimes to help me in a crisis." Giving the Doctor a wide smile she added, "Like I said he's a good man, but sometimes it's a lot easier to believe in yourself if someone else believes in you first."

She could see the wheels turning in his head. Understanding took over his face followed by closed off pained resignation. Feeling alarm at the change, Rose straightened up. Something closed off in the Doctor's eyes.

"Fine," the Doctor sighed, but the tension in his shoulders was obvious. "I'll give the future Mr. Rose Tyler a chance."

"Wait, what?" Rose asked, half reeling back at the Doctor's jealous grumble as she tried not to laugh. "Eww," Rose squeaked, rolling up her nose which made the Doctor's expression soften. "Uh yeah no, never gonna happen. Flirting with a guy who is sort of like my big brother is weird, but hey he isn't actually my brother, and that's just what Jack is like, but shagging him?" Rose allowed a full-body shudder to pass over her, which made the Doctor relax further. "Oh god, don't even go there. Ewww ewww ewww." She shuddered again, and this time the Doctor did laugh, and Rose started to giggle. "Besides, I know his future significant other," Rose whispered as if sharing a secret as she leaned closer to him. "Or others I suppose and wow do I not want to go there." She gave him a tongue touched smile, watching happily as he smiled at her. "Someday you'll find this conversation very funny." Rose gave the Doctor a sheepish smile. "Jack flirts, and I've sorta just gotten in the habit of flirting back."

"That's a strange friendship." The Doctor sounded amused now, his jealously having faded away.

"You and I really aren't ones to talk about strange friendships," Rose reminded him. "Anyway try to relax. Jack will get us out."

The music filled the small room, providing a distraction from the knowledge that there were being hunted. The Doctor had climbed up on the ledge and was poking at the bars with the sonic screwdriver. She chuckled. It was telling that he hadn't asked her to cut them.

"Trying to stay busy."

"Have to do something," the Doctor grumbled.

"So… let's dance." The idea sprang to her mind, and Rose held out her hand.

"Dance?" The Doctor's tone was strange and didn't turn to look at her.

"Come on, Doctor," Rose chuckled. "Jack will get us out, and this will probably be the only time you and I dance to this song. He has a habit of cutting in whenever it plays. Or he will at least."

"Rose," the Doctor sighed, sounding a bit flustered. "This really isn't the time."

"What are you afraid of dancing with me?" Rose challenged, tilting her head up. "Afraid you'll step on my toes, Doctor?"

"I think it's safe to assume that I can dance, Rose," the Doctor retorted. Rose thought he sounded a bit flustered and inwardly grinned. "I'm over 900 years old, you know."

"Oh, I know you dance," Rose sighed happily. "Sleeping Beauty Waltz in Prague. You were in your eighth body then. Remember?"

He froze, and the sonic screwdriver stopped whirling. Then the Doctor turned back to her with a dazed expression that made Rose's heart jump. It was all she could do to keep from grinning like a loon or jumping around excitedly. Instead, she gave him a teasing smile. His eyes widened further, and emotion flared across the sharp blue irises. The Doctor almost stumbled down from the window, still staring at her in shock.

"Temporally complex relationship," Rose reminded him, holding out her hand. "Come on, Doctor, dance with me." She might have hooded her eyes a bit. "And yes, that is a challenge."

He shifted a little closer, his whole body taut. "Haven't danced with this body yet," the Doctor murmured to her as their eyes met and held.

"Doesn't matter Doctor," Rose assured him, a little breathlessly. "It's me. It's us; we'll be fine."

There was a lot more to the words than just dancing, and Rose could tell that the Doctor knew that as much as she did. His Adam's apple bobbed, and he swayed a little closer. Rose's heart jumped. For a moment she thought- she hoped that he'd kiss her, but then he stopped. A shaky exhaled escaped him, but he took her hand, and they started to sway.

"I'm a bit rusty."

"That's fine," Rose assured him. "It's us. It'll be fine."