Thank you for all the follows and favourites and bless the people who read through the story and reviewed every few chapters, you made my month! I'm quite excited for the direction of this episode, especially in the coming chapters. Sorry it's taken a few weeks, life has been busy and I haven't had much opportunity to write.
"Doctor, what did Shakespeare mean?" asked Rose quietly, once they'd taken off again.
"Hmm?"
"That 'alarmed by his sentinel, the wolf' thing."
"'Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf, whose howl's his watch'," the Doctor corrected.
"That's it. What does it mean?"
He rubbed a hand over his mouth, evidently considering how best to answer her.
"It's from Macbeth," he eventually replied. "Although he hasn't written it yet. In the play… he's talking about Murder personified. The wolf guards Murder, and when it howls he knows it's time to act."
"That's…" Rose swallowed. "Not what I was hoping for."
"Maybe he was talking about something else though," Martha suggested. "I mean think about it, he hasn't even written the play yet. They might be the same words but maybe they have a different meaning."
It was a very good point. In fact, Martha was always coming up with clever suggestions. She'd been brilliant these past few days, and it was nice having a female friend to talk to occasionally. Rose wondered if she could maybe convince the Doctor to let her stay a little longer, but a single look his way and she could tell that he was already on the same page.
"Just one trip, that's what we said. Just one trip, in the TARDIS, and then home," the Doctor hesitated and Rose gave him the thumbs up behind Martha's back. "Although, I suppose we could… stretch the definition. Take one trip into the past, one trip into the future. How'd you fancy that?"
"No complaints from me!" Martha laughed in delight.
"How about… a different planet?"
"Can we go to yours?" Martha asked excitedly. Instantly the Doctor's smile fell and Rose held her breath, unsure if she should say anything.
"Ah, there's plenty of other places!" He dodged the request, not meeting either one of the girls' eyes.
"Come on though," Martha insisted, getting off the jump seat next to Rose and walking around the console. "I mean planet of the Time Lords, that's gotta be worth a look! What's it like?"
"It's beautiful, yeah."
Rose bit her lip uncertainly. She'd never really heard him talk about his home, other than the fact that it had been destroyed in the Time War, leaving the Doctor as the sole survivor. He gave her bits and pieces now and then but never really told her much, and she seldom pressed him for more. Occasionally though, she couldn't help it.
So, what's it called then?She'd asked one night in the TARDIS library, back when the Doctor still had big ears and a leather jacket. Your planet?
The Doctor hadn't answered, he'd simply stared at the same page of his book for so long that Rose knew he couldn't possibly be reading it still. She'd let it slide, going back to her own book after a while.
It was a few days later, when the Doctor had taken her to a beautiful planet, completely deserted, that he had finally told her.
Gallifrey, he'd whispered as they gazed out across the sweeping landscape, all greens and blues and purples. His voice was full of pain that he normally kept well hidden, and Rose turned to him in surprise. He'd told her earlier that this planet was called Boye Gaskiya (which she could not pronounce for the life of her). He wasn't looking her way, though. His piercing blue eyes were gazing out at the horizon, and Rose had suddenly known he was no longer talking about the planet in front of them.
She hadn't spoken – what would she say anyway? – she just rested her head on his shoulder. He had wrapped an arm around her waist and they'd watched in silence as the sun dipped below the skyline.
Martha's voice brought her back to the present. "Is it like outer space cities, all spires and stuff?"
"Martha," Rose cut in quietly, but the other two didn't seem to hear her.
"Suppose it is."
"Great big temples and cathedrals?"
"Yeah."
"Martha," Rose said, a little louder. Martha ignored her, too caught up in the picturesque vision of what she imagined the planet must be like.
"Lots of planets in the sky?"
The Doctor paused and Rose thought that Martha had finally gone too far. He was going to have to tell her the truth now. Rose bit her thumbnail as she waited for the Doctor's answer.
When he did speak, though, it was not to explain the destruction of his people, as Rose had presumed. Instead, he described his lost home in a haunted tone that made her ache as though it was her loss too.
"The sky's a burnt orange, with the Citadel enclosed in a mighty glass dome, shining under the twin suns. Beyond that, the mountains go on forever. Slopes of deep red grass, capped with snow."
His eyes were focused on a point in the distance, and even once he'd stopped talking there was a light in his eyes that told Rose he hadn't yet come back to reality.
She hated it. Hated that he had to pretend, that he could see his home only in memory. It hurt him so much, even just thinking about it, and she wished there was some way she could help.
She was about to go to him when he seemed to snap out of his reverie. He shot Martha a quick look before ducking his head, avoiding Rose completely. She tried not to feel too hurt - he was just trying to protect himself after all - but it stung all the same. This body was so much more physically open than his previous incarnation but he was just as, if not more, reluctant to share his emotional burdens this time around. Rose trusted him with every fiber of her being and she knew he felt the same, but it had taken years to reach the point where he no longer hid himself from her. So for him to close himself off like this… it not only hurt, it worried her too.
"Can we go there?" Martha whispered, awed.
The Doctor's demeanor changed instantly and set the TARDIS to dematerialise.
"Nah. Where's the fun for me? I don't want to go home."
Rose winced, knowing how much that lie must've hurt him.
"Instead, this is much better. Year five billion and fifty-three, planet New Earth. Second hope of mankind. Fifty thousand light years from your old world and we're slap bang in the middle of New, New York. Remember this one Rose?"
He stillwasn't looking at her, busying himself by racing around the TARDIS, grabbing his coat, and sprinting to the door. "Technically it's the fifteenth New York from the original, so it's New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York. One of the most dazzling cities ever built."
He practically pushed Martha out the door, not stopping to check if Rose was following. Usually she would have made a teasing comment about reusing the New New York joke, but with the Doctor acting so strangely she let it slide.
"Oh, that's nice," she heard Martha say sarcastically from outside, and she joined them to discover that it was pouring rain. "Time Lord version of dazzling."
"Nah, bit of rain never hurt anyone," the Doctor dismissed, yanking the arrow that Queen Elizabeth the First's guards had shot at Rose out of the TARDIS door. "Come on, let's get under cover!"
They jogged through an empty back alleyway that was covered in trash and grime. Rose tried to take the Doctor's hand but he jerked away, covering the movement by scratching the back of his head, and she took a step away from him. If he was going to be a jerk, then fine. Two could play at that game.
"Well, it looks like the same old Earth to me," said Martha, oblivious to what was going on between her two friends. "On a Wednesday afternoon."
"Hold on, hold on. Let's have a look." The Doctor moved over to an old green booth with a screen attached, which was probably once an information centre, and sonicked it until an image appeared, obscured by a bunch of wavy lines.
The Doctor pounded the booth with a fist until the picture called into focus.
It was a blonde woman, and Rose judged from her professional clothes and the way she was sitting that she was some sort of newsreader.
"And the driving should be clear and easy, with fifteen extra lanes open for the New, New Jersey expressway," the woman was saying. The image changed to show a video of the city from a grassy meadow, just like from where the Doctor had taken her right after his regeneration.
"Oh, that's more like it. That's the view we had last time. This must be the lower levels, down in the base of the tower. Some sort of under-city."
"You've brought me to the slums?" Martha asked, unimpressed.
"Much more interesting," the Doctor assured her. "It's all cocktails and glitter up there."
As well as apple grass, cat nuns, and bitchy trampolines, Rose thought to herself. She didn't say anything though, with the Doctor like this.
"This is the real city," he informed Martha.
"You'd enjoy anything," their new friend smiled.
"That's me. Ah, the rain's stopping. Better and better," and he moved off without a backwards glance.
"Are you alright Rose?" Martha asked her quietly as he moved away. "You seem a bit…"
She didn't finish the sentence but Rose could guess. She combed her damp hair back from her face with her fingers and said, "Yeah, I'm fine. Great."
"What's taking you two so long?" The Doctor called, giving Rose the perfect excuse to move away from her unconvinced friend.
"Nothing," she said coolly, joining him in the middle of the alley. He didn't make any effort to hold her hand like he normally would, even though they were less than half a metre apart, and she swallowed back her disappointment. There was no time to dwell on it however, as it was that moment that a man opened up a large window to reveal a pop-up shop inside.
"Oh! You should have said. How long you been there? Happy. You want Happy."
On the other side of the street a woman opened her window to reveal the same set up. "Customers," she cried. "Customers! We've got customers!"
"We're in business," another woman announced, opening her own shop front. "Mother, open up the Mellow…"
The rest of her sentence was drowned out by the first vendor shouting, "Happy, Happy, lovely, happy Happy!"
"Anger. Buy some Anger!"
"Get some Mellow. Makes you feel all bendy and soft all day long."
"Don't go to them, they'll rip you off. Do you want some happy?"
"We're alright thanks mate," Rose told him.
"Are they selling drugs?" Martha wondered.
"I think they're selling moods," answered the Doctor grimly.
Martha frowned in disapproval. "Same thing, isn't it?"
A young woman wrapped in dark clothes appeared on the street and the dealers instantly tried to attract her attention.
"Over here, sweetheart! That's it, come on, I'll get you first."
"Oi! Oi, you! Over here! Over here! Buy some Happy!"
She made her way to the closest vendor.
"Come over here, yeah. And what can I get you, my love?"
"I want to buy Forget," she told the woman.
"I've got Forget, m'darling. What strength? How much you want forgetting?"
"It's my mother and father," the woman replied. "They went on the motorway."
"Oh, that's a swine," the vendor said sympathetically. "Try this. Forget Forty-three. That's two credits."
She passed the woman a small patch in exchange for the money.
"Sorry," interrupted the Doctor. "But hold on a minute. What happened to your parents?"
"They drove off," the woman answered simply.
"Yeah, but they might drive back."
"Everyone goes to the motorway in the end," she said forlornly. "I've lost them."
"But they can't have gone far. You could find them," he insisted.
"Do you not have a car? We could give you lift," Rose offered, but the woman was already shaking her head.
She stuck the patch into her neck before they could stop her.
"No. No, no, don't!" The Doctor cried, too late.
"I'm sorry," the woman said in a tranquil voice. "What were you saying?"
"Your parents. Your mother and father. They're on the motorway," the Doctor reminded her.
"Are they?" She said, the words clearly meaning nothing to her. "That's nice. I'm sorry, I won't keep you."
She walked off, staggering slightly, and Martha said bitterly, "So that's the human race five billion years in the future. Off their heads on chemicals."
Rose felt strong hands clamp around her without warning and she let out a shriek.
"Sorry," said a man's voice. Rose could tell even as she struggled that it was the same person who was holding her. "I'm really, really sorry. We just need three, that's all."
A woman rushed forward, aiming a gun at Martha and the Doctor.
"Let her go!" The Doctor roared as the vendors slammed their windows shut. "I'm warning you, let her go!"
Rose felt herself being dragged back, away from her friends, and she let out another cry of alarm. She struggled against her captor but he had her in a tight grip, even with one hand clutching a gun.
"Whatever you want," the Doctor shouted over Rose's cries, Martha's shouts, and the kidnappers' apologies. "I can help. All of us, we can help. But first you've got to let her go!"
"DOCTOR!" Rose screamed as they took her into a corridor.
"I'm sorry. I'm really sorry!" The woman kidnapper sobbed, slamming the door behind them and locking it. "Sorry!"
Rose continued to kick at the man holding her but it didn't do any good.
"ROSE!" She could hear the Doctor's desperate shouts through the heavy door. "ROSE!"
"Let me go," Rose shouted as they took her down a flight of stairs and towards a vehicle. "You don't need to do this, I can help you!"
"Give her some Sleep," the man demanded, twisting Rose so that her neck was exposed.
"NO DON'T!" Rose screamed as the woman tried to place one of the mood patches on her. "I don't want that stuff anywhere near me!"
"It's just Sleep Fourteen," the woman cried, pressing the patch onto Rose's neck. "Don't fight it! Stop it."
"No," Rose sobbed, her vision starting to fade black. "Stop, please. Please…"
x
"ROSE!" The Doctor screamed, slamming himself against the door. When it didn't budge he whipped out his sonic screwdriver and held it to the handle.
As soon as it opened he was running full tilt down the corridor behind it, Martha hot on his heels.
They reached the end of the hall and burst outside, just in time to see what appeared to be a space-age combie van lift off the road and fly down the street.
"ROSE!" The Doctor shouted again. Martha didn't think she'd ever heard a more desperate sound. "ROSE!"
"What do we Doctor? Can we follow them? Is there a way to track them?"
"I don't know," he snapped, gripping his hair. "I don't know! What do we do, what do we do?"
He took a deep breath before a thought occurred to him.
"The vendors!" He exclaimed. Without another word he was off, running back the way they'd came. When Martha caught up with him, panting heavily and clutching the stitch growing in her side, he was pounding on one of the vendor's closed windows.
"Thought you'd come back," the female dealer who'd served the other woman smiled. "Do you want some happy Happy?"
"Those people, who were they?" The Doctor demanded, in no mood to be nice. "Where did they take her?"
"They've taken her to the motorway," the male vendor called from across the street, opening up his shop again.
"Looked like carjackers to me," added the first woman.
"I'd give up now, darling," the third vendor chimed in. "You won't see her again."
"Used to be thriving, this place. You couldn't move. But they all go to the motorway in the end."
The Doctor was clearly growing impatient at the lack of information that could help him find Rose. "He kept on saying three, we need three. What did he mean, three?"
"It's the car-sharing policy, to save fuel," replied the closest vendor. "You get special access if you're carrying three adults."
"How do we get to the motorway?" Martha asked urgently.
"Straight down the alley, keep going to the end. You cannae miss it. Tell you what," she added as they moved off. They turned around, the Doctor looking absolutely livid, and she beamed at them. "How about some happy Happy? Then you'll be smiling, my loves."
"Word of advice, all of you," spat the Doctor. "Cash up, close down, and pack your bags."
"Why's that, then?"
"Because as soon as I've found her, alive and well – and I willfind her alive and well – then I'm coming back. And this street is closing, TONIGHT!"
He swept back down the alley, and Martha barely spared a glance for dealers as she hurried to his side.
"Rose'll be alright," Martha assured him, even though they both knew she had no idea what would happen to the girl.
"Don't," the Doctor said firmly, but his voice had lost all the venom that he'd had while shouting at the vendors. In fact, he sounded like he was having a hard time getting his next words out. "Please, just…don't."
x
Rose opened her eyes slowly, her vision swimming before her. She could hear faint voices in the background but couldn't really focus on them. All she could see was bright neon lights and the silhouettes of her two captors sitting in the front seats of some sort of caravan.
She stopped herself from groaning. This marked the third time she'd fallen unconscious in as many days. Surely that wasn't good for her health?
"..now you just settle back," the male voice was saying up ahead. "It's all going to be worth it."
Rose reached up and ripped off the Sleep patch from her neck.
"Yeah. The view from the windows. You can see all the way out to the flatlands. Clear blue sky. They say the air smells like apple grass. Can you imagine?"
"The houses are made of wood. There are jobs going in the foundries. Everyone says so."
Rose sat up and spied one of the guns they'd used to threaten Martha and the Doctor and she picked it up. Her time working for parallel Torchwood had given her a hatred of guns to rival the Doctor's, and she placed it carefully at the foot of her bed to make sure her kidnappers couldn't reach it without first getting past Rose.
"Who are you?" She demanded loudly, causing the pair from to jump in shock. She could see now that her kidnappers were young, possibly even younger than she was.
"Oh, you're awake!" The girl said, laughing slightly out of nerves. "What's your name?"
"Yeah, like I'm going to tell you that!" Rose snorted.
"Well I'm Cheen, and this is Milo. And I swear we're sorry. We're really, really sorry. We just needed access to the fast line, but I promise, as soon as we arrive, we'll drop you off and you can go back and find your friend."
Rose narrowed her eyes in suspicion.
"I swear!" Cheen insisted, brushing her hair aside to reveal a mood patch on the side of her neck. "Look. Honesty patch."
"If that's the case, why didn't you just let us help you instead of kidnapping me?"
"We couldn't risk it," Milo piped up. "We're going out to Brooklyn. Everyone says the air's so much cleaner, and we couldn't stay in Pharmacy Town, because…"
He broke off and placed one hand on Cheen's knee. Cheen smiled and said, "Well, because of me. I'm pregnant. We only discovered it last week. Scan says it's going to be a boy."
Rose softened somewhat. The couple didn't seem to be bad people, really. Just trying to make a better life for their future kid. But the Doctor must be going mad with worry by now and she needed to get back to him as soon as possible, preferably before he did something stupid in her absence.
"Look I get it, yeah? You don't want your kid growing up in the slums. But I really need to get back to my friends. Why don't you take me back to them and we'll figure out how to help you together?" Rose reasoned.
"We can't," Milo insisted. "We've gone past the exit."
"Right well how far away is this place anyway?"
"Only ten miles," said Cheen, and Rose gave a sigh of relief. Ten miles wasn't so bad, maybe she'd just stick it out with these two for an hour or so and then find Martha and the Doctor.
"This'll be as fast as we can," Milo added. "We'll take the motorway to the Brooklyn flyover, and then after that it's going to take awhile, because then there's no fast lane, just ordinary roads, but at least it's direct."
The thought of the Doctor going out of his mind with worry kept nagging at her. "How long do you reckon it'll take?"
"Oh, about six years."
It took a moment to register the offhand comment.
"Six years?!" She gasped.
"Be just in time for him to start school," Cheen said excitedly to Milo.
"What?! Ten miles in six years? How come?"
Cheen shrugged. "I don't know the whole story."
"Well you might as well tell me what you do know," Rose sighed, quickly realizing that getting back to the Doctor might be a bit more complicated than she originally thought. "And take off that bloody drug patch, you're pregnant for crying out loud!"
I hope it wasn't too similar but I needed to set the scene. I'll try and post again before Christmas but if I don't get a chance I hope you all have a wonderful holiday :)