TITLE: Distantly in Love
AUTHORS: Gillian Taylor(Dark Aegis) & NNWest
DISCLAIMER: Don't own them. We just like playing with them...a lot.
Chapter Twenty-eight
She lifted her head from the Doctor's shoulder, using her free hand to smooth out the crease in the leather jacket. Once she was satisfied that the fold would no longer dig into the side of her face, she snuggled against his shoulder and closed her eyes. She felt like she could stay like this forever, though she knew it could never last. With her eyes closed she could easily imagine that they had moved beyond 'we don't do this.' It was a beautiful fantasy that she had no intention of letting go, because behind her eyelids she had more.
"Since when am I a pillow?" the Doctor asked, amusement colouring his tone.
"Since now," Rose replied, squeezing his hand even as she kept her eyes closed. "That alright?"
"Yeah." He smiled, using his free hand to brush a strand of blonde hair out of her face. He felt like he could remain in this position with her curled next to him until the end of the world. He voiced none of his thoughts, requiring himself to be content merely with her physical presence. If only he could indulge his desires and concede to Rose's longing to change the way things were. If only he dared.
"Good," Rose said and snuggled closer to the Doctor.
"You're kidding! Fifteen of you naked, running through the snow? Honestly, Jack, you tell taller tales than Dad ever did." Emily's incredulous voice intruded upon their solitude.
"It's the truth!" Jack protested as they came closer to the fire. He smiled when he noticed the Doctor and Rose's poses; they truly were cute together.
"Yeah, and I'm a Mandaloorian Cuxori." Emily rolled her eyes.
"So, you're into feathers now." Jack grinned as he came up behind his companions. He was startled when Rose stirred from her relaxed position against the Time Lord to grab his hand and tug him down next to her. Once the former Time Agent was somewhat settled, she immediately placed her feet on his lap and leaned back against the Doctor.
"Much better." Rose smiled contentedly and closed her eyes again. Over her head, the two men exchanged amused looks.
The anthropologist in her was writing a dissertation on 'Love: When Intelligent People are Blind.' The sister in her wanted to threaten both the Doctor and Rose with bodily harm should they hurt Johnny. The woman in her wanted to dance for joy; love was too precious a commodity to waste, especially in the life that Jack and his friends led. Emily Harkness smiled enigmatically at the trio and turned her attention to Rose. It was obvious, at least to her, that Rose was not the type of woman to toy with men's emotions. She was too innocent for that.
What she was seeing before her was nothing less than love. Which inevitably led to weddings, cakes, and horrible dresses with heels that would cause her to twist her ankle. There really was only one course of action that she - loving sister that she was - could take. Her smile turned into a grin. "Rose?" she asked sweetly.
Jack knew that tone. Nothing good had ever come out of his sister when she talked like that, and he shot her a quelling glance. Emily, of course, overlooked it.
"Hmm?" the tousled blonde asked, opening her eyes to look at Emily across the fire.
"Can I ask what your intentions are toward my brother?"
"Em!" There was a warning in Jack's voice.
"I'm not sure I follow." Rose tried to chase away the cobwebs in her brain in an attempt to understand what the dark haired woman was saying.
"Well, are we talking eventual marriage contract? Because if I have to wear a hideous dress, I'd like to know well in advance," Emily said, indicating her disdain for the dress idea by wrinkling her nose.
"Emmy!" This time Jack blushed a bright red as did Rose.
The Doctor smirked at his companions' embarrassment. The straight-talking anthropologist reminded him more than a little of a certain archaeologist he knew during his seventh and eighth lives.
Catching him in his smugness, Emily aimed her scrutiny at him. "Don't think for a second you're not part of this too, Doctor. They aren't the only ones involved in this relationship and I expect you to make honest people of them both."
He wasn't sure, but in that moment the Doctor thought it might be preferable to be staring down Jackie Tyler.
"Okay, that's enough." Jack admonished firmly.
"Hey, I'm just looking out for my little brother," Emily protested, holding her hands out in mock surrender.
"You're only older by a minute!"
"Still older." She shrugged. "Besides, that doesn't answer my question."
"Emmy!"
"What?" Emily's expression was one of pure innocence.
"Right," the Doctor interrupted Jack before he could even open his mouth. "I think it's time we all got to bed."
"I didn't realise you were into four-ways, Doctor," Emily commented, delighting in the hint of red she spotted on the tips of the Time Lord's ears.
The loud sound of a smack against a forehead forestalled any reaction on Rose's part as she spotted Jack with his head braced against the palm of his hand. Suddenly, Rose Tyler was rather glad that she was an only child.
Chapter Twenty-nine
In the faint light that heralded a false dawn, hidden by the morning fog, figures ghosted through the forests of Ampelle moving toward the Sevateem camp. One of the men paused, holding up a hand to signal a halt as his head turned to catch a faint sound. Once he was satisfied that the lone guard atop the hillock had not spotted them, he smiled. He slowly circled his hand, punctuating the movement by holding up three of his fingers.
'Move in,' he thought and slowly the other Time Agents fanned out through the woods.
"It is time." Leela's voice intruded upon Rose's slumber and she groaned softly in protest. Her pillow was far too comfortable; the odd thum-da-de-thrum noise that echoed in her ear was too comforting to move.
"G'way," she murmured.
"Rose, it's time to get up." The Doctor's voice rumbled through her pillow and her eyes flew open in shock. Somehow during the night, she had ended up with her head on his chest, his arm holding her secure against him.
"Oh." Her cheeks turned faintly pink as she gently extracted herself from his embrace. "Sorry," Rose mumbled.
"Nah, it's alright. When I decide to give up saving the universe, I know I have a future as a Gallifreyan pillow." He grinned cheekily.
"Do you mind?" Jack's voice complained from the other side of the Doctor. "Some of us were trying to sleep."
Rose craned her head over the Time Lord's chest. Jack Harkness, his hair disheveled, had just begun to stir from his position curled against the Doctor's side.
"He never was a morning person," Emily confided from the other side of the tent, stretching out the kinks in her back after the short night.
"And you always were," Jack grumbled as he sat up, blinking the sleep out of his eyes.
"Oh, quit your grousing, Johnny. We've got things to do, people to see, and quite possibly planets to save." Jack's sister, Rose decided, was definitely far too chipper for this time of the morning.
"No," he corrected, mumbling, "I've got a sister to kill."
"What's that? I didn't hear you."
"Nothing." Jack smiled innocently.
"What's the plan then?" Rose asked through her yawn, belatedly lifting her hand to cover her mouth.
"Andred will take the Doctor to the Matrix. I will be joining the warriors around the artifact's hillock. It is up to you to decide where you would like to go," Leela replied.
"Emmy, you go with the Doc and Andred," Jack said. "I'll go with Leela."
Emily looked somewhat taken aback by the announcement. "No, I'm going with you."
"Em, I need you someplace safe."
"Yeah, but seeing as your last idea of a safe place was a frozen planet little brother, I'll stick with you."
Jack's expression was worried as he looked at her. "I don't want to lose you again."
She smiled reassuringly. "Hey, Johnny, you won't. You're stuck with me. Besides, if I'm not around who's going to knock you down a few notches when your ego gets too big for your head?"
"Hey!"
Before the sibling rivalry could go much further, the Doctor stood. Offering Rose a hand up, he turned towards the others. "Andred, Rose, and I will deal with the Matrix. You lot sort out what you're going to do. We're running out of time."
Jack and Emily watched as the Doctor lead the way out, followed by Rose and Andred, with dumbfounded expressions upon their faces.
Leela nodded. "The Doctor speaks the truth. We are running out of time. The warriors are prepared, but we must arrange our strategies."
"There's no time like the present," the anthropologist announced and they proceeded to do just that.
Rose was not certain what she had been expecting to see when she had first passed through the temporal shield after the Doctor and Andred. However, she was fairly positive that her idea had been nothing like reality. The artifact was a large orb that glowed faintly blue in the dim light shed by the torches on the walls. She vaguely wondered if it was somehow blasphemous to think the repository of all Time Lord knowledge looked like something her mother would pick up at a flea market as a 'bargain.' The rooms of their flat had been filled with various knickknacks that had been 'bargains' and 'steals.'
Andred stopped just before reaching the globe and turned to face the Doctor. "Romana told me that the Matrix would resist us moving it unless we somehow convinced its guardians that it was in danger."
The Doctor had never enjoyed his previous experiences inside the Matrix. It was a surreal world that could change its shape and feel upon a whim. To learn that he would have to journey inside, somehow manage to convince the Guardians - the combined memories and experiences of Time Lords past - that they were in danger, and get out again did not please him. "No time like the present." He smiled, but there was no mirth in it.
"Doctor?" Her tone asked if she could go with him, but he shook his head.
"No, Rose, this is too dangerous for you. It could burn out your mind," he tried to explain. "Stay here with Andred."
He could tell that she was not happy with his decision, but she nodded sullenly. "Be careful."
"It's me." He grinned and turned to face the orb. As he placed his hands upon its glowing surface, he thought he heard her say, "Exactly." Just then, a powerful grip seized his mind and reality bled away.
Rose's eyes widened as the Doctor's body stiffened, his face contorted in agony.
The universe exploded.
Thousands of voices, thousands of worlds, thousands of thoughts, and thousands of years combined into a tumultuous cacophony of sensation. He closed his eyes against the onslaught, but it did not matter. It was in his mind and in his hearts. There was no escape from the screams of those who were, are, and will be. Inside the Matrix, all that was, is, and could be existed at the same time. The way in which he experienced the universe was but a pale shadow to the feelings that swamped him.
The universe expanded.
Visions of the past, present, and future danced before his eyes and in his head. Rose danced in his arms across a wind swept beach, starlight twinkling overhead. Jack, grinning cheekily, held out his hand for him to take, Rose just a step behind. He saw the three of them, tumbled together and sated, upon a bed. He saw an adolescent boy with Rose's brown eyes, a hint of his own manic grin, and inkling of Jack's stance in his posture. The Doctor saw life as it could be if he could move past 'we don't do this.' He reached for it...
"Doctor."
The universe ends, not with a bang, but a whimper.
"Doctor!"
He turned, roses falling around him as cheers echoed through the stadium. Reality set in the Time Lord's mind as he reminded himself where he was - the Matrix. "You've done some redecorating," he greeted his old friend. A pang of sorrow struck him as he looked at her smiling face. She was but a memory - Romana, the real Romana, was gone.
"When Gallifrey was destroyed, ripples of that event echoed even here. It is not as it once was, Doctor. Why are you here?"
"You're, or rather the Matrix, is in danger. The Time Agency..."
Romana snorted. "Those insufferable fools!"
"The Time Agency knows the Matrix is here, but I don't think they know what it does. I can't let them get their hands on it," he explained, willing her to believe him.
"So you want to move it elsewhere. When I entrusted Leela and Andred with the task of protecting the Matrix, I did not think that it would eventually draw you here. It is good to see you again, Doctor, though it may not be in reality. You may move this place, but do not destroy it. The future is fluid and you will have need of our wisdom." The figure of Romanadvoratrelundar dissipated into a rising mist, leaving the Doctor alone in a sea of stars.
"Nice of you to show me the way out!" the Time Lord called out after her, but as he expected, she did not reply.
"Doctor!" The voice was faint, but familiar, a tether to the world he had left behind.
"Rose?" He moved toward the sound, his steps quickening as her voice seemed to grow panicked.
"Doctor!"
"I'm coming!"
The curtains fell, the play was done, and the actors were sent home carrying their accolades. Exit Doctor, stage right.
Chapter Thirty
"Doctor!"
Rose's worried voice penetrated the fog surrounding his mind as he extracted himself from the Matrix. He blinked slowly as the cave came into focus around him, his companion's familiar features carrying a measure of panic as she hovered over him. "Oh," he murmured in shock as he realised he had somehow fallen to the ground, the cold of the stone floor leaching away his body heat. The Doctor offered Rose a lopsided smile as he forced himself to his feet, amazed by the weakness he felt in his limbs. "Was I gone long?"
"Ten minutes, give or take thirty seconds," Rose replied. "Not that I was counting or anythin'. Doctor, what happened? You collapsed about five minutes ago, but I couldn't wake you up."
"Nothing much." He shrugged, struggling to keep his balance without worrying her any more than necessary. "Just had my brain swirled around by a mixer 'fore having to convince the Guardian to let me move the Matrix. The usual."
She looked at him skeptically. "Right. And the not being able to wake you up part was just an added bonus?"
"Exactly!" He grinned.
Rose sighed the sigh of the long suffering and shook her head. That was when she realised that Andred was no longer with them. She vaguely remembered him muttering 'Leela' just as the Doctor collapsed, but her attention had been on the fallen Time Lord rather than on him. "Andred's gone."
The Doctor's brow furrowed in concern, but he shook it off with a brief shrug. "Must've left the gas on back home. We need to get the Matrix out of here. And to do that, we need to get back to the TARDIS."
"Great," she replied with a weak smile. She suspected that they would find themselves in a war zone once they left the relative security of the cave. Steeling herself for the inevitable, she walked towards the door, pausing only when she noticed the Doctor was not with her. Holding out her hand, palm upwards, she smiled. "Coming?"
He grinned and walked across the room to grab her hand, giving it a slight squeeze. "Always." The two walked out of the cavern and onto a battlefield.
The high pitched whine of blasters and the quieter thump and swish of arrows filled the forest with unaccustomed noise. Screams of pain, shouts of victory, and muttered curses provided a harsh counterpoint to the weapons fire. The Doctor and Rose dodged from bush to tree to bush in the attempt to avoid getting caught in the crossfire between the battling groups. Rose thought she had seen Leela snaking through the trees, following a grey haired man that was barely visible through the foliage. Her attention was brought back to the present as a bolt of energy fizzled past, far too close for comfort.
"Come on!" the Time Lord urged, pulling her after him as they hurried towards their destination. The distance between the Matrix chamber and the TARDIS seemed infinite, a feeling that was only augmented by the fight around them. Ducking another close shot, he raced towards the safety of the ship, now visible as a flicker of blue through the foliage.
She stumbled on an overgrown root, pulling her hand from his grasp in an attempt to regain her balance.
"Rose! Are you alright?" He paused in his headlong rush once he had felt her rip her hand from his.
"I'm fine, keep going! I'm right behind you!" She regained her footing and hurried after him, just a few steps behind.
He was more concerned with making sure she was still behind him than on where he was going. When he turned back towards the TARDIS, he pulled to a skidding stop in front of a young blaster-wielding Time Agent, a man that he recognised as the first one he had met in Cancun. "Is that a blaster you're holding, or are you just happy to see me?" The Doctor grinned cheekily, hoping that his movements hid Rose. 'Run,' he urged her mentally.
"I'm ecstatic to see you," the Agent returned dryly. "Keep your hands where I can see them."
"Where's the fun in that?" he muttered, but he gamely raised his hands.
In the brush behind the Time Lord, Rose slowly moved away from the clearing. She knew what the Doctor was doing and that he hoped she would run, but she had no intention of doing anything of the sort. She was going to add another notch to the list of times she had saved his life. Provided, of course, that the Agent in the clearing didn't have any friends nearby.
The brittle crack of a twig on the opposite side of the clearing, just beyond the TARDIS, caused her to wince. She suspected that the situation had just become a lot more complicated.
The surrounding wood was silent except for the soft whisper of the leaves as one by one they fell on a slow spiral to the ground. The forest floor was hidden under a blanket of gold, burnt orange, and mauve. Though autumn's full splendour was around her, Leela's attention was not upon the beauty of her forest. Instead, the leather-clad warrior faced the Time Agent in the deadly patterns of war.
The slow dance began as it always did with the two partners circling about each other before moving in closer, closer, until they connected in the one dance that needed no true name. On one world it was called Jujitsu, another martial arts, another the Endless Game. To Leela there was only one term for it that mattered - battle.
Klein, though older, was in good shape. His movements were fluid and powerful, which to her eyes was the true measure of a warrior. Though he had a blaster in a holster, he refused to draw it. She could only assume that he felt confident that he could take her due to her pregnancy.
Her lips stretched into a predatory smile. He was more the fool for making assumptions. Leela struck with her fist, catching Klein's shoulder as he dodged out of the way of her blow. They were well matched, she decided; however, she could not allow him to win. He was an evil man. It was written in his eyes, the wrinkles on his face, and the feral smile on his lips.
The tumble of rocks down the side of the hillock distracted her, causing her attention to shift from the fight to the familiar form of her lover making his way down the slope. Klein took advantage of her distraction, pulling her into a headlock. It was a manoeuvre that Leela should have been able to break easily, however the unexpected pressure against her abdomen directed her eyes to the blaster jammed against the form of her unborn child. She immediately stilled.
"No!" The cry was torn from Andred's throat as he skidded down the hill, his eyes wide in protest and his staser dangling uselessly from his belt. He had known Leela was in danger, but he did not know that he was to be the cause. "Let her go!" he demanded as he came to a stop at the bottom, a few metres from the two.
"Why should I?" Klein laughed, increasing the pressure against the woman's stomach.
Andred's gaze darted from the blaster to Leela's face. In her eyes, anger was an inferno threatening to be unleashed. In his heart, he knew she and his child would die if he did nothing. "I can help you."
"You?" The Director's voice was incredulous. "Help me? What can you offer me for this poor Fräulein?" Klein rubbed his nose in the woman's hair, enjoying the anger in Andred's expression and the shudder of revulsion in his captive.
"Me. I can offer you me."
"No! Do not-" Leela protested, but the rest of her words were choked off by Klein.
"Why would I accept this offer? I have a pregnant woman as a hostage. You are just a man."
"I'm not 'just a man.' I am Gallifreyan."
"Andred!" She attempted to struggle out of Klein's grip, but he would not release her.
"A Gallifreyan?" the Director repeated, his expression thoughtful. "They are a myth!"
"I'm not a myth and I can access the artifact for you. Though, I will do nothing if you don't let her go."
"You are a Time Lord?" the German asked. His mind spun with the possibilities of having one of that mythical ilk at his command. The Time Agency would have infinite power over the time-space vortex. He, not Danninger, would be the true power in the Agency.
"I'm not a Time Lord...the Doctor..." Andred realised his mistake when Klein's expression grew harder.
"He's a Time Lord!" Klein's laughter grew menacing. "You fool! Now that I know, the Doctor will be mine." The Time Agent's hold loosened slightly as he gloated. Using the distraction, the Sevateem woman knocked the blaster out of his hand by hitting the pressure point on his wrist and slipped out of his grip.
Leela's eyes burned with anger and hatred as she pulled the Janus thorn from her sheath. Before the Time Agent could react, she stabbed the weapon into his side. "No one threatens my family and lives."
She dispassionately watched Director Klein's body slide to the ground. The poison caused the man's muscles to twitch as his extremities died off. His face was contorted in agony and malice as he tried to catch Leela's eyes with his own. "This is not over."
"It is for you." She waited until his spasms ended before she knelt at his side and searched through his pockets. She extracted the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, some credits, an identification badge, and a knife. She placed the screwdriver into her pouch, before weighing the balance of Klein's knife in her hand. She grunted. "An inferior weapon," she said as she dropped it beside the body. Standing, she faced Andred.
For a long moment, neither stirred. They simply stared at one another, their eyes drinking in each other's forms. Neither could tell who moved first, but in an instant they were in each other's arms. "Leela, Leela, Leela," he chanted her name into her hair, tears of thanksgiving in his eyes.
"I am well. You were foolish in your actions. He should not have learned of Gallifrey and the Doctor," she admonished.
"I could not allow you to be hurt," Andred tried to explain. "I'm sorry."
"It is the past." In those words, she forgave him. Leela closed her eyes and allowed herself to relax for a moment in his grip before reality intruded once more. "Andred, where is the Doctor?"
"I left him in the Matrix with Rose."
"And Emily and her brother?"
"I don't know," he confessed.
"Then we cannot stay here. We are needed elsewhere." She stepped out of his arms and led him back up the hillside, leaving Klein's body to the scavengers.