Heatwaves, part four.
In an instant, everything came rushing back to Rose; she felt it almost physically. She was up at once, one leg kicking out to de-balance her assailant, arms grabbing his and twisting and pushing violently so that they both fell with a thud onto the dry grass beneath them. It was actually a relief to her; her reaction being more in character for her these days than her strange behaviour just now.
This is more like it, she thought as she straddled the man, pinning him to the ground and leaning right down to get a look at his face in the gloom, a snarl on her lips.
A pair of big blue eyes blinked at her, patiently amused, deeply… alien. Painfully familiar hands came to rest on her arms and she gasped slightly as his rough palms met her burning skin.
"You know Rose, if you wanted me like this all you had to do was ask. I mean, I could think of better places, but…"
Nice one. No really, well done, excellent work.
She was sure she was blushing. She was also sure that if he cared to look he could see directly down her top. Neither of them made any attempts to move however, and neither broke eye contact. Rose bit her lip, frowning, unsure whether to hug him or punch him. For a moment, she couldn't quite remember what was going on, oblivious to everything beyond the two of them lying there, staring at each other.
"What are you doing here?" He reached a hand up to her face. "You've been crying."
She shivered as he touched her, and shook her head minutely.
"No. Just… didn't know where else to look."
And then she hit him suddenly, bringing her fist down hard onto his chest. It surprised her as much as it did him; she hadn't planned to do it. She couldn't think of anything else to do. But it made her angry, all the same.
"Where were you?" she hissed.
No hugging, then…"I was… I'm sorry. I need to talk to you."
"Something's wrong, isn't it?"
He nodded and then pulled her down into a tight hug, stroking her hair lightly as he did so. Her head on his chest, she could hear both his hearts beating their strange rhythm; could smell the familiar musky scent of him, and she felt safe again. She was unsettled, though, by her reaction to the situation. She'd been travelling with the Doctor for a long time now and she was used to handling herself; she'd proved that just now, so why the hysterics? Maybe the Doctor would be able to tell her. Maybe she was just going mad.
She closed her eyes and they lay there a few moments more, each knowing, though neither spoke, that they wouldn't get another moment like this for some time. The air was heavy, as if there was a storm brewing, and Rose realised that the TARDIS must have put them off course on purpose; they were needed here.
After a while they stood, and the Doctor wordlessly took Rose's hand as he led her out of the deserted field and towards the other side of the festival. The campsite that they'd passed through earlier was less empty, with tents dotted around that were glowing in isolation, campfires and electric torches making them stand out in the darkness.
"So what's going on?"
"I don't know."
"But you said –"
"People are going missing; I don't know why. Yet."
"Missing?"
He stopped and held his arm out into the night. "Look around."
"I know, I just… I thought they'd all be over there watching."
"They are, a lot of them. But a lot of them have disappeared."
"Like you did," she muttered, more to herself than to him.
He squeezed her hand gently. "We won't split up again, I promise."
"But it's not normally… I mean, I'm usually fine on my own. I dunno what came over me…"
He was frowning; Rose could almost see the thoughts forming and spinning around his mind.
"Possibly…" He walked off in the direction of one of the lit tents, muttering to himself distractedly. Then he turned suddenly and marched back up to Rose. "Are you still hot?"
She blinked. "Pardon?"
He stuck his hand out and laid it over her forehead. "Yes. And it's nine o'clock at night. How do you feel?"
"Fine… a bit dizzy…"
He nodded and set off again, leaving Rose with a somewhat bewildered expression on her face. She called out to him as she followed. "What is it?"
"No idea," he returned brightly.
He bent down and peered inside the tent, grunted, and straightened up, turning to face the expectant Rose.
"Empty," he told her, taking her arm and steering her back out to the path. "They were here thirty minutes ago…"
"Who?"
"Just some people I've been talking to. Everyone's missing someone Rose. Everyone's walking around like it's the Sahara desert or something, but the first aid area is empty. There's something…" he waved his hand in the air again, as if to convey his thoughts to Rose. She grinned.
"You're loving this, aren't you? It's…"
He turned to her, the grin on his face mirroring her own. "Fantastic."
They linked hands, and set off.
"Rose?"
They'd just passed back through the meeting area, towards the main stage, when they heard him. The Doctor made to keep going, but Rose detangled her hand from his and turned towards Alex with a smile.
"Hi!" There was silence. She gestured towards the Doctor somewhat awkwardly. "Found him."
"Right." His gaze flickered up to the Doctor nervously and then he took a step towards Rose. "So, um, I kind of lost my friends. I was wondering if you wanted to hang out some more, but I guess if you two…" he looked at her hopefully.
The teenager in her wanted to tell the Doctor not to wait up and go off with Alex, and only partly because she wanted to get him back for forgetting about her earlier. She could feel his eyes on her, though, could sense that he wasn't exactly the happiest Time Lord anymore. She ought not to cause more problems.
But he's so pretty...
"I… well, I kind of have to stick with this one," she laughed breathily and nodded towards the Doctor. "Maybe you could come with us…"
"Rose…" the deep voice coming from just over her shoulder sounded vaguely ominous.
"What?" She turned. "This is Alex by the way. He's my friend, and I don't want him going missing as well after all this."
He snorted. "'Friend'? You and your b –"
"Doctor!"
"This isn't the time for –"
"For what? Looking out for your friends?"
"You only met him this afternoon!"
"And I went with you when I'd only just met you. You'd be dead if I hadn't."
He folded his arms and looked at Alex doubtfully. "Well what am I supposed to do with him? Doesn't look very useful…"
The young man in question went bright red, although whether from embarrassment or anger was unclear.
Rose grinned evilly, winking at him. "Oh, I don't know. I could think of at least one use for him…"
She could have sworn she heard the Doctor growl. She met his eyes confidently; willing herself not to be intimidated by the anger she saw in his face. She stood up a little straighter; wasn't any of his business, anyway, if she wanted to… socialise a bit.
But we're in the middle of a weird twilight zone crisis thing here.
Whose side are you on?
Two of us now, are there?
She scowled and linked her arm through Alex's. "Come on, you're coming with us."
The Doctor stared at her for a moment and then turned abruptly and started walking again, apparently not caring whether his companion and her friend could keep up or not. After a few minutes of half running behind him Rose rolled her eyes, sighing, and ran fully to his side, tossing a "be right back" over her shoulder at Alex. They were getting nearer to the stage now, and he barely heard her over the music and the noise of the crowd.
"Doctor," she gasped when she caught up with him.
He glanced down at her. "Yes Rose?" he said smugly. "You alright? You look a bit warm."
"Stop using your bloody alien biology to outrun us mere mortal humans! Where are we going? Why are you being so difficult?"
She had raised her voice over the music, but he obviously took it as an aggressive tone and decided to match it. He stopped and turned fully to look at her.
"I don't know where we're going, Rose, because I haven't worked it out yet. I'm just looking for anything that's gonna narrow it down, and you're not helping by dragging your new pet along with us." He scowled. "This is no time for hormones!"
"Hormones? My pet? What is wrong with you? You're the one who buggered off to do a bit of detective work when I was half unconscious on the floor, what was I supposed to do?"
"You could try not fainting in the first place; dancing around with the rest of the apes in there, you should know your own limits, you kn –"
"You weren't exactly standing on the sidelines, were you, Doctor," she almost spat his name, prodding a finger into his chest to emphasise her annoyance. "And anyway, it's not like you weren't enjoying the show; you seemed encouraging enough at the time. Or was all that just a figment of my imagination?"
She tilted her head a little, challenging him, trying to ignore the fact that they were standing oppressively close, ignoring it as he grabbed her shoulders and shook her slightly, anger sparking in his eyes. He stared at her, then seemed to falter. No words came. She relaxed under his hands a little. So he had his weaknesses too; she wasn't the only one who felt lost and found all at once whenever they touched. She pushed her arms against his chest gently, shaking her head.
"Just because you're not human," she chastised softly. He opened his mouth to reply, but Rose cut him off. "You always do this, every time I so much as talk to anyone else. And then you attack me in the middle of a deserted field…" she felt the rumble of laughter in his chest, and looked up to see this mirrored in his eyes. She grinned. "Could've done you some serious damage you know…"
She laughed as he hugged her to him affectionately. It was brief, but it set everything right again between them.
"Oh." Pulling away, Rose turned to look for Alex. He was nowhere to be seen. "But… he was just there…"
Turning back to the Doctor, she saw him calmly scanning the crowds nearest them, eyes narrowed. She felt a jolt of relief as his expression cleared and he nodded in a direction to the left, and grabbed her hand.
"There."
Following the direction in which he was pointing, she just saw Alex's slim form as he disappeared, engulfed by the crowd. They took off, the Doctor pulling her along as they jogged after him.
The beat of the music was loud and insistent; Rose could feel it pounding in her head. She could have sworn it was getting faster. She could feel her heartbeat in her throat, had to run to keep up with the Doctor's long stride, was sure she'd fall if he let go of her hand even for just a second. She could feel wind rushing past her face and yet the heat was still unbearable. Faces flashed past in a blur and, when she looked down, the yellowing grass at their feet was distorted and hazy. She closed her eyes and let the Doctor steer her, trusting him completely.
There was a tent up ahead, housing one of the many smaller stages at the festival. There was no sign of where Alex had gone, but Doctor led her towards it anyway, perhaps sensing something that she could not.
He entered first and Rose followed cautiously, sensing his unease. She half expected, all the same, to see an audience packed inside the tent watching some obscure band. It was empty. She heard the tent flap fall back into place and shivered; the air in here was freezing, a stark contrast to outside. It rushed over her skin and she felt goosebumps rise on her arms. She stepped a little closer to the Doctor, linking her arm through his. It was dark and damp inside the large tent, and there was a deserted stage at the other end of the structure. The Doctor reached a hand up to his chest absently and then looked down in surprise as he realised he wasn't wearing his leather jacket. He muttered something unintelligible to Rose under his breath as he flattened his palms against his jeans pockets. He located the sonic screwdriver and held it up in front of them, its blue light casting an eerie glow over their surroundings.
He frowned as the light showed up a strangely shaped dark object resting in the centre of the space, about the size of a TV, Rose thought. He strode towards it, leaving Rose standing by the entrance to the tent, and promptly vanished from her sight.
Please review. This is my first long fic – I usually give up much sooner; I'm determined to finish this – and I'd really appreciate any advice and criticism you have. I probably won't be able to even start the next part until the end of next week due to exams, but I'll do my best.