Gold.
Part three: Home.
AN: My exams are over! Yesss! So now I'll be able to update more often, this and my other ongoing fics.
AN2: Somebody, Katyana, I believe, pointed out that David Tennant is Scottish. Although I heard somewhere (anyone?)that something's actually going to happen with the accent, his few lines in The Parting Of The Ways were in a distinctly London sounding accent, so with that I will stick. On a more general note, thanks so much for the reviews, guys. It's really really encouraging and I'm getting a lot more confident with my writing. Having said that, this chapter'll probably be dodgy now, heh, but hopefully not. Enjoy!
The TARDIS lurches to a degree that would at any time before have had them both sprawling on the grilled floor, but they stand steady, unaffected, watching the monitor carefully as the ship lands.
They walk together to the doors and step outside without so much as glancing at each other. The control room on floor 500 is deserted, as they expected, but ripped out, tangled wires distort the scene, piles of dust are still scattered on the ground. Rose shivers and the Doctor takes her hand; she smiles faintlyat the simple familiarity of the act.
It is dark here but neither of them needs much light. Rose takes the lead; the Doctor may have channelled the Vortex as well but it was she who used it to search through every corner of the satellite and, without actively remembering, she can feel traces of the knowledge in her mind. They step over the debris and mess without paying it any attention; it is unimportant now.
They move down in silence through floor 499, 498 and so on until they reach the security deck where the Doctor and Jack were taken when they were arrested. When Rose was killed. This time it is the Doctor who shivers and she looks at him for the first time since they left the ship. She smiles warmly at him, the first real smile since he changed.
There is no dust here. Doors have been broken open and the floor is cluttered with parts of guns and machinery. There is a soft buzzing noise coming from somewhere hidden from view and they follow the sound.
He is hard at work. He is frantically welding various pieces of metal together, separating and stripping wires and fixing pieces together, muttering to himself under his breath.
The Doctor feels a painful twist in his chest at the sight, and he senses echoes of the same feeling in Rose, standing at his side.
We left him. Does he think we meant to?
The words come into his mind unbidden, as though they have been spoken aloud. Glancing at Rose, he sees the question in her eyes. He answers it only with the sadness in his own.
"Jack." Her voice is barely a whisper, but he hears her all the same.
He freezes, and the air in the room seems to turn to ice. The Doctor holds his breath, feeling the magnitude of this moment hanging in the air, weaving around them like time itself.
He turns, agonisingly slowly, and locks eyes with first the Doctor and then Rose.
"We thought you were –"
"I was. I'm sure that I w –"
"But then I remembered –"
"You brought me back." It isn't a question. He can see the truth in her eyes; the slightest, most minute of changes has occurred in her. Something dark lies behind the warmth of her eyes and he knows without asking what she has done.
"I'm sorry Jack, we –"
"I've heard about regeneration, but I never knew if it was true or not." He leans back against the table and folds his arms, expression completely guarded. Whatever emotions this new Doctor has stirred in him are expertly hidden. "So what happened?"
"I channelled the Time Vortex from the TARDIS," Rose tells him quietly. "It gave me control over everything. I could've…" she falters and touches her fingers to her forehead, frowning. The Doctor glances at her anxiously, understanding and yet fearing her struggle.
"You should be dead, in that case." Jack straightens and walks over to them, stopping in front of Rose. He reaches out to touch her face, staring at her.
"You are worth fighting for." The memory ripples through the Doctor's mind.
"I don't understand."
"I did," the Doctor now takes up the tale. "I saw that it was killing her and she couldn't stop, she couldn't let it go. So I dragged it out of her."
Don't. Don't say anymore. Her eyes are closed but he doesn't need to see them to understand her silent appeal.
The three of them stand facing each other in silence. Then a huge grin breaks out on Jack's face and he grabs his two friends, pulling them into a hug. Rose is startled at first, her eyebrows shoot up and a wry smile settles on her lips, but she melts into the hug as the Doctor laughs and presses a kiss into her hair, and Jack follows suit.
He pulls away after a while, scrutinising the Doctor with all his old sparkle.
"Not bad, you know," he drawls. "Think this one'll be a little more open to suggestion?" he asks Rose with a wink.
She laughs as she links her arm through his. "Come on, you." She leads him out of the door and towards floor 500, and the TARDIS. She doesn't need to look back at the Doctor; she knows that he's only a few paces behind.
We're going to have to explain this more to him at some point.
She hears the words in her mind, the Doctor's new and yet somehow familiar voice, and she's taken aback. There's only so far coincidence can go…
Is that you?
I think so…
What is this?
I don't know. But we're going to have to explain to him.
Just not yet. Not when we don't understand it all ourselves.
The TARDIS comes into view now, and Jack disentangles himself from Rose, running towards it with a happy cry. He throws his arms around the blue box, grinning.
"I thought I'd never see her again."
"Oi, and what about us?"
He shrugs, still leaning against the TARDIS. "Replaceable."
Rose feels the Doctor step up next to her and she turns to him. His arms are folded but his expression looks cheerful, and his eyes are shining. They smile at each other in reaction to Jack's childlike delight.
Let's just do this for now.
He stares at her for a moment, seeing the faintest glimmer of gold in her eyes, before grinning and taking her hand.
"Alright, come on."
And the three of them go home.
Next part up in the next few days. Thank you for reading.