Gold.
Part six: Top Hat and Dreams.
Dedicated to London, the greatest city in the world and one which I am proud to belong to, and to everyone who was caught up in Thursday's events.
"Oh," Rose lets out a contented sigh as THE END appears on the wall opposite them, held there by an old fashioned Earth projector. "That was so lovely."
"Are you serious?" The Doctor's incredulous face, usually directed at stupid humans, is almost the same as his old one, Rose realises. The same scornful eyes, the same unattractively contorted features, somehow wonderfully endearing.
"Yeah…" she suppresses a smile as he rolls his eyes. "Why?"
"It was totally predictable! I mean, in real life no one would be that lucky. 'Oh whoops, not married after all, smiles all round.' Happy ending."
"But it's got to have a happy ending," she protests, giving Jack, who is sitting on the floor and leaning back against the sofa, a shove. "Back me up Jack. Fred and Ginger have to have a happy ending!"
He turns his head and grins up at the Doctor, eyes gleaming in the darkness of the room. "The girl's right. It's old school romance, Doc. There're rules!"
The Doctor does his best to glower, but the fact that this 'flexible' 51st century ex-conman and permanent playboy still believes in "old school romance" makes him smile in spite of himself. He leans back and folds his arms. "Never liked rules much."
Wouldn't have it any other way.
He looks over at Rose, who is sprawled at the other end of the sofa, in surprise. But her attention is fixed on Jack, who is animatedly describing some incident involving Gene Kelly and a wardrobe mix up which he accidentally orchestrated.
"Let's watch him now! That one where he's in Paris!" Rose grins at him eagerly.
"Are you kidding? Come here." Jack jumps up, far too energetically for the Doctor's liking, and pulls Rose to her feet. He sweeps her into his arms and twirls her around the room dramatically; she complies laughingly, but the Doctor can sense a faint air of patronizing in her smile. Still, they make a nice pair, and he evenfinds that his old jealousy is gone, lost in the absolute surety of whatever it is that lies between he and Rose.
As always wanting to be part of the fun, the TARDIS brings the lights up to a soft glow, scattering spots of golden light over the walls as though from non-existent disco balls. The Doctor laughs softly and Rose looks over Jack's shoulder at him, the smile on her lips un-echoed by the look in her eyes.
"Hey." Jack nudges her leg with his knee and introduces a more complicated step. "You can't be my Ginger if you're gonna give all your attention to Mr Cynical over there."
"Sorry Jack," she laughs, and he grins at her.
She feels rather than sees the Doctor rolling his eyes.
Couple of saps, you two.
She catches Jack's eye and they grin, and he twirls her around gracefully, humming under his breath. It is not long before words accompany the tune and the Doctor looks on, eyebrows raised as the makeshift Fred and Ginger before him continue to sway. Jack's singing Cheek to Cheek with a wide and happy smile and Rose lays her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes and letting him guide her around the room.
"You're not a bad singer."
"My great great great great… well, my ancestor anyway, someone's uncle, was a singer," he tells them in between phrases.
"Really? When?" Rose looks at him now, her interest piqued.
"Around your time actually. He did musicals and things. Bit of a TV star, actually."
"Anything I've seen?"
"Nah, just some old sci-fi show and then things that were aired after you left, I think."
"Right you two." The Doctor drags himself up from the sofa, stuffing his hands into his jean pockets. "D'you wanna land now and go do something? 'Cause if not I'm off to bed."
"Thought you never slept." Rose wrinkles her nose and looks at him. "Thought it was just for human weaklings."
Jack snorts. The Doctor shrugs.
"Better than watching you two."
"He's going to his room to sulk and listen to early Stones records," Jack decides, and then yawns. "Maybe I'll go, too."
"Still trying to get into my bedroom, Jack," the Doctor sighs, shaking his head with mock sadness as he leans against the doorframe.
"You know what I meant, old man." He kisses Rose on the cheek and walks out of the room, blowing a kiss at the Doctor as he passes.
The TARDIS keeps the gold lights sparkling, but there is a change in the atmosphere. Rose holds her arms out to the Doctor silently and he goes to her, sliding his arms around her waist and laying his head down on her shoulder. They are happy just to stand there wrapped in each other, though they move slightly, keeping up the pretence of dancing. It is only a pretence.
xXx
She sleeps. In her room at the end of countless dark ways through the TARDIS, darkness where time is not quite itself, she sleeps in the dim light that the great time ship keeps floating around her. She dreams of daleks and death and a light so bright that she cannot even think straight, let alone see her way through it. And yet she must, she must… something is pressing down on her mind, screaming at her to look harder, run further, think faster. The light fades from her dreams and she is left in darkness.
Further on through the still and silent corridors the Doctor wakes at the same time that Rose does, her name lingering on his lips. He half sits, forcing himself to calm down, and then turns as he lies back down and buries his face in his pillow. His hands are in fists, clutching at sheets and blankets as he tries to remember, to make sense of his dreams. There was Rose, and she wasn't talking, wasn't even looking at him. And he had to tell her something but there was light, so much light getting in the way and he can't remember…
Where are you?Here.
He gets out of bed and leaves his room, following the sound of her in his mind, feeling for her. He finds himself in the console room and smiles. He wouldn't have picked this as somewhere she'd go for comfort in the middle of the night, yet he knows she must be there for the same reason he is. He finds her standing over the main console, staring down at the panel that would lead to the heart of the TARDIS.
"Dreams?"
She nods.
"I had to tell you something." He walks over to her and leans back against the next panel along, waiting for her to look at him.
"And I had to find out something." She looks, and sees her own unease mirrored in his eyes.
"So what is it?"
"You're asking me?"
"You held the Vortex for a lot longer than I did. What do you remember?"
She is silent for a long time.
"I-I can't… there's too much light…" she frowns and looks so lost all of a sudden that the Doctor doesn't know what to do. In the old days he'd have been able to explain away her fears, take her hand and buy her chips and end it all with a laugh. But there's nothing he can do now, and it hurts. He reaches out to her and she leans in to him, so he kisses her lightly and then gently pulls her into his arms.
"I don't know what this is," he says softly, "but I'm not sure it's just us and Jack that the Vortex affected."
"Then we'll sort it out. We always do."
Her words are strong but there's no mistaking, to him at least, the note of fear in her voice. He hugs her tighter.
Yes, I have been watching Top Hat, and I couldn't resist sticking a little domestic section into this, though it's hardly relevant to the story. I like it though; I really enjoyed writing this chapter. Thanks for reading xxxx.