Title: A Kind Of Destiny
Author: trustno1, aka trustno1987, aka me!
Spoilers: Anything up to and including Jack, if you've been living on Uranus ;-)
Rating: T (?)
Pairing: Nine/Rose
Disclaimer: Surprisingly enough, the Doctor, Rose, Jack and the general idea of Doctor Who does not belong to me. This story, however, does, as do any original characters within it, so © Lindsay.
CHAPTER 4 – QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
"Do you try to be annoying on purpose, or does it come naturally?" Jack asked irritably from behind the Doctor and Rose.
"Time Lords aren't annoying, we just have a superior humor that your human brains can't comprehend so think it's just annoying," the Doctor said nonchalantly, sneaking a smile at Rose who giggled despite him effectively insulting her at the same time.
"Where, precisely, has the TARDIS landed us? And if you say 'here' or 'where she wanted' or anything that isn't sector, vector and system specific, I'm gonna throttle you, I swear to God!" Jack said, pushing past Rose and the Doctor, into what looked like a cargo area, if the enormous room and various metal-looking boxes were any indication.
"Is he usually this tetchy?" Beth asked of Jack, joining them all in the weakly lit room.
"He's in withdrawal," Rose whispered conspiratorially, letting go of the Doctor's hand so he could wander around studying various panels on the walls.
"From what?" Beth whispered back, glancing at Jack with a nervous frown, which he returned with another annoyed frown.
"Sex."
"I am not!"
"He's from the 51st Century, when they have sex with anything if it stands still long enough," Rose said with a smirk.
"I resent that! And I've not slept with you… yet," Jack retorted, raising his eyebrows and grinning.
"Not for a lack of trying." Rose said at the same time as the Doctor shouted from the far end of the room:
"Should bloody well think not!"
"You're from the 51st Century?" Beth asked, still trying to process everything that everyone had said in a short amount of time.
"Yep! Met these two during the Second World War though…" Jack began, but was interrupted by the Doctor before he could elaborate and Beth could ask one of the hundred questions currently circulating her brain.
"I thought you wanted to know where we were?"
"Why, you figured it out yet?" He received a cold glare for that, and wisely decided to shut up and behave for the time being.
"We are currently about 90,000 light years from Earth, on a Space Station that is situated in the Cynus Arm of the Milky Way, and which belongs to the Alerik – a race from the planet Edymn which is about ten light years that way," the Doctor said smugly, pointing to the left of the TARDIS.
"We're the other side of the galaxy?" Beth asked, walking over to where the Doctor stood. He nodded, gauging her reaction. "Have we… gone back in time or anything?"
"Nope, it's still –" he consulted his watch " – 11:47 pm in Nevada, on October 2nd – the day we left."
"We're right at the end of the arm, aren't we? Near the edge of the galaxy?" Beth asked, trying to picture a map of the Milky Way in her head to overcome the knowledge that they were now 90,000 light years from where they were a few minutes ago, and to stop her brain from working out that if they could see their solar system (which was impossible with no instruments) they wouldn't see it as they left it, they'd see the light from 90,00 years ago. At least, she thought that was right.
"Yeah, how did you know that?" the Doctor asked, impressed.
"The Milky Way is about 100,000 light years across, we (as in Earth) are near one end, so 90,000 light years away must be near the edge," she reasoned, sticking a large arrow with 'you are here' written on it on her mental map at the point where she guessed they were, to stop her thinking too deeply about anything else.
Rose raised her eyebrows at the Doctor, who looked as impressed as she felt. Beth was taking all this in her stride, and Rose thought it had something to do with her just accepting things as they came.
The Doctor walked over to a large, white wall opposite where the TARDIS had landed. He whipped out the sonic screwdriver, and a few seconds and whirrs later, a faint, tinny, grinding could be heard throughout the room, as the wall parted to reveal one gigantic window.
Jack nodded appreciatively and uttered a small 'wow'; Rose gasped and joined the Doctor, who was smiling and watching Beth. She was walking towards the window, giving the impression of a person in a trance, such was the fluid movement as she moved and wide, unblinking eyes. She had waited her whole life to see a sight such as the one in front of her – the window was so big and so clear that it was as though there were nothing there at all, as if she were standing in the middle of space itself. The sky was a deep inky black, a perfect canvas for the billions of stars and planets to rest upon. They were the brightest Beth had ever seen in her life, and filled the sky to bursting – in some places she could hardly make out the black of space, so dense were the stars and nebulae and planets that made up the Milky Way galaxy. She was so completely captivated by the sheer beauty of the sky, that it was a few moments before she realised something was missing.
Rose was dividing her time between gazing out of the window and watching the emotions flash across Beth's face as she stared at the stars. She was looking in awe at the huge band of stars that was the rest of the Milky Way in a way Rose supposed she did when the Doctor took her to see Earth from above, when a sudden frown creased her forehead, and she stared more intently outside.
"I can't see Orion's Belt," Beth whispered after almost a minute of intense staring, during which time all three exchanged nervous glances. "Or Ursa Major. Or Pleiades, or Sirius, or Polaris, or Aquarius," she reeled off, swinging round to face them, a look of panic on her face that Rose recognised instantly. Leaving the Doctor's side she went to stand with Beth, placing a comforting hand on her arm as she returned her eyes to the window, frantically searching for something familiar.
"There's nothing. I can't see any of them. Nothing familiar at all. No maps, nothing – " she cut herself off mid-sentence and forced herself to take a deep breath and stop thinking and stop panicking. As long as she stopped thinking deeply about where she was, and what the hell she'd gotten herself into this time, then she'd be okay. Taking another breath, Beth began to feel calmer, and when she looked out of the window this time, she made her brain register the fact that there were billions of beautiful stars unlike anything she'd ever seen before, but didn't let it think about what that meant. It was incredibly pretty, and that was it.
Beth turned to Rose, the Doctor and Jack, smiling at them.
"That's one incredible view," she said calmly and as normally as she spoke to them on the TARDIS, giving away no suggestion that barely a minute ago she was panicking. Turning away quickly so as she didn't see the looks she knew the trio would share, Beth gazed contemplatively out at the galaxy beyond.
"Rose," the Doctor whispered, motioning for her to follow him. He silently asked Jack to go stand with Beth, who complied and made his way across the room.
"Did you see that?" Rose whispered back as they entered the TARDIS. The Doctor closed the door to and nodded.
"She's awfully good at pretending there's nothing wrong, isn't she? There's nothing wrong with panicking – we just whisked her across the entire Milky Way an hour after we materialised in front of her in a Police Box, she should be allowed to panic a little bit!" the Doctor said, sitting on a couch. Rose joined him, nodding her agreement.
"I did – I had a moment when I realised I'd just travelled five billion years into the future with an alien I'd met less than 24 hours before and thought 'what in God's name are you doing?' But I just yelled at you, got it out of my system." The Doctor smiled at the memory, but it didn't reach his eyes. "She did it before, when we were playing on the piano," Rose remembered suddenly.
"Oh?"
"Yeah. She started playing something – it was beautiful, she's a good pianist – and I could tell it was making her so sad. She just stopped, right in the middle of the piece, said she couldn't remember any more, but I think she was just afraid to keep going." Rose leant back on the couch with a sigh, her head resting casually on the Doctor's shoulder, as she thought about Beth. "And she seems lonely. I might be way off here, but she's not very old, she was in the middle of the Nevada desert, with a laptop and stuffed toy for company – either she loves solitude, or there's something else we aren't seeing," Rose decided. For some reason she felt protective of Bethany, despite having met her only a couple of hours ago. She knew that the Doctor felt similarly, and that he wasn't telling her something. She turned her head on his shoulder to look at him, and found he was staring into space, thinking hard about something.
"What is it, Doctor?"
"I didn't set the wrong co-ordinates when we landed in Nevada," he said eventually. Rose stared up at him, wondering where this was going, because he certainly hadn't brought her here to defend his piloting skills.
"So, what, the TARDIS took us there for a particular reason, like when we landed in Cardiff instead of Naples?" she asked.
"Yeah, like that," he replied, looking down at her affectionately.
"Why would the TARDIS want us there, and here? Why does she need Beth?" Rose asked, surprising the Doctor again with her astuteness.
"I recognised her when we landed. I couldn't put my finger on it at first," the Doctor said, not wanting to launch directly into a huge explanation at first. Rose nodded. She knew there was something vaguely wrong when they landed, not least because the Doctor hardly spoke a word whilst they were there.
"It was the name that threw me at first – her maiden name, Montgomery. That's not the first thing I remembered, if you call it remembering." Now Rose was beginning to get a little lost, and she swivelled in her seat so her head now rested on her arm that balanced on the back of the couch, and she could see the Doctor more clearly. This didn't help matters too much, as he continued to stare forwards, as if trying to look into Time itself, hoping that would help him explain what he wanted to.
"It's kind of like when we met Harriet Jones, and I kept asking if she was famous, 'cos I thought I recognised her." Rose nodded to show she recalled the memory. "Well, I didn't properly figure out why I knew her until then end of all that drama, just before we left, and I'm still fuzzy on some details with Beth." He turned to Rose now, eyes bright, face determined. "She's supposed to save Earth," he said simply. Rose stared back, feeling confused with his explanation – they were on a Space Station at the other side of the Milky Way, how was she supposed to save Earth from here? Or did that come later; was she supposed to travel with them for a while first?
"Um, I don't quite get you – when's she supposed to save Earth? And what from? Why can't you do it?" Rose asked, apprehension creeping into her heart.
"I'm not sure, that part's a little unclear – I have the past, present and future of everything inside of my head, it can get a little crowded at times," he almost snapped, and Rose frowned, silencing the question that was on her lips. "All I can… see, I suppose is the best way to put it, is that Beth saves Earth from being destroyed and…" He paused, trying to grasp the thought that was floating just out of reach. "First Contact!" he cried suddenly, grabbing the whisper of recollection with both hands. "First Contact on Earth – Beth is the reason that happens, which is incredibly important for the human race."
00
Jack was gazing out of the window, wondering what to talk to Beth about. Since the Doctor and Rose had retreated to the TARDIS a few minutes ago, no doubt for the Doctor to tell Rose about why they were here, Beth hadn't spoken a word, but continued to stare out of the window. She appeared calmer now though, and instead of looking out with a mixture of fear and apprehension, she was more relaxed and interested in studying what was outside.
After another minute or so of silence, Beth saved Jack from thinking of a conversation starter.
"I've always loved the stars y'know," she said, her voice steady and warm. "I never close the curtains in my bedroom, or wherever I'm sleeping so I can see them when I go to sleep; they're beautiful aren't they?"
Jack returned his eyes to the window, and looked out at the stars. Despite living among them for most of his life, he'd rarely taken the time to properly appreciate the beauty of the Universe – he'd usually been more interested in other kinds of beauty that the Universe had to offer.
"Yeah, they are," he replied genuinely.
"I always wanted to go into space," she continued, still looking forwards. "Only I wanted it to be like Star Trek or Farscape or some other sci-fi programme that I'm obsessed with," she said with a small, embarrassed laugh, glancing at Jack to see he had a rather blank look on his face. "Oh, course, I forgot, you're from the future! Well, they're just T.V. programmes – Star Trek's about the crew of a spaceship, set in the future… well, ours anyway. There's five different series' though, so it's a bit confusing. And Farscape is kinda the same thing, but about an astronaut from my time getting pulled into a wormhole and pushed out in a completely different part of the Universe," she reeled off quickly, much to the amusement of Jack who still didn't have a clue what either of the programmes were. "Anyway, I wanted to do something like that, go somewhere totally different. I always knew there were aliens, and when you three landed in front of me…" She broke off, grinning, and Jack smiled back.
"Bet it was still a shock though, us landing there, then bringing you here?" Jack prodded gently.
"A little, yeah, but like I told Rose, I've gotten used to just accepting things I have no hope of understanding – like that ship being bigger on the inside," she replied nonchalantly, but Jack could swear there was more to it than that.
"What kinda things?"
"Y'know, usual things; the Universe, life in general, higher maths…" she finished with a laugh that she hoped didn't sound too forced.
"Well, you're getting to do something different now," Jack said after an uncomfortable silence where Beth didn't seem to want to meet his eyes.
"Yeah, this is just fantastic. I keep expecting myself to wake up or something, 'cos I haven't been this happy in ages…" she broke off with a grimace, scalding herself for letting that slip. The last thing she wanted to do right now was bring all that up, and complain to Jack, Rose and the Doctor. However, Jack didn't look as though he wanted to leave that alone.
"Why? Does it have something to do with why you were in the middle of the desert?" he asked, knowing he was prying but wanting to find out what was wrong.
"I'm on a kind of vacation," Beth said evasively. "Travelling around America, working where I can get it – I have been for about a year now."
"'A kind of vacation'?" Jack questioned, as Beth squirmed under his gaze, squaring her shoulders again.
"A vacation from life in general. I finished Uni about sixteen, eighteen months ago, found a job here but it didn't start for a year, which suited me fine, and I travelled around," she said, deciding she would refuse to answer any more questions – it was nothing to do with him anyway, she thought angrily.
"Okay," Jack said, knowing he was getting very close to crossing a line here. Giving his luck one final push, he asked, almost timidly, something that had been bothering him for a while. "Why did you look scared when I was flirting with you?"
"Bad experience," she replied simply and sharply, and he knew the conversation was over.
After another long silence, during which Beth wandered around the cargo bay and Jack stood at the window watching her, she returned to stand next to Jack, looking as if she desperately wanted to ask him a question.
"So, you're from the 51st Century?" she asked. Jack nodded, smiling. "Have all the continents shifted yet?" Jack looked blank, and Beth blushed.
"The continents? You're meeting a human from 3000 years in the future, who has travelled all over space and time, had hundreds of death-defying adventures, and you want to know if the continents have moved!" he asked incredulously. Beth laughed, and shrugged.
"I was a Geography student, sorry," though she didn't sound remotely apologetic. "How about you tell me what Earth looks like in your time, then you can tell me some of your favorite adventures?" she said sweetly, sitting on the ledge next to the window and patting a space next to her. Theatrically rolling his eyes, Jack sat down, and began relating some of his best missions to his captive audience.
00
Rose was still confused. Okay, so Beth was – is – supposed to save the Earth from destruction and instigate First Contact for the human race. But why her? She knew she'd known Beth for a ridiculously short amount of time, but she seemed, well, normal; no strange mind-reading gift, no ability to predict the future, no reason to think she isn't exactly as she appeared – a young woman travelling alone in the middle of Nevada. And the protectiveness Rose had felt earlier returned. This girl had been minding her own business when they'd materialised in front of her – true, she'd responded far better than any of them would have expected – and then, within a couple of hours had been taken around a ship that defied all logical laws of physics and taken to the other end of the Galaxy. Beth hadn't asked for any of this, and now the Doctor was expecting her to save Earth and bring about First Contact in a mission that, knowing them, would probably be highly dangerous.
The Doctor turned his head and saw Rose staring at a point over his shoulder, and hard, thoughtful expression on her face. It reminded him of an argument in Cardiff, 1869, about whether Gwyneth should be the one to save Earth from the Gelth – she had been fiercely protective of the girl then, and he thought he'd known why at the time. But if she was going to be this defensive about a girl who was most certainly her equal, he wondered if he wasn't wrong about Cardiff. Or if he just didn't understand Rose as well as he thought at times.
"So, why is it Beth that's supposed to save Earth? What has she done that means she has to be the one to do this?" Rose asked eventually, her voice harder than she knew it should have been.
"I don't know, she just is. We can't change history, Rose, she's meant to do this," he explained patiently.
"But it hasn't happened yet! We wouldn't be changing anything!" Rose cried, anger beginning to bubble up inside for no apparent reason.
"Rose, whether you like it or not, she is meant to do this – you can't make decisions on her behalf, especially if she doesn't know about this," he said pointedly, and Rose turned fully in her seat to face him, her eyes bright and angry.
"You aren't gonna tell her this!" she practically shouted. "If she's gonna be saving the world doesn't she have a right to know what she's letting herself in for?"
The Doctor sighed, knowing what Rose was referring to. It seemed that almost all their efforts to prevent the untimely destruction of Earth, or protection of another planet or race, ended in death – except maybe the incident in World War Two with Nancy. He hated it, but that was the way the Universe worked, most unfortunately – innocent people sacrificed their lives to the greater good, and none knew this more than the Doctor.
"I don't think it would make any difference; she's strong, determined – she's like you in many ways," he replied calmly, hoping Rose would try to understand.
"It's just, I've only just met her, and we get on so well, and now you're telling me she's got to go be a hero and probably die because of it," Rose said bitterly, even though a part of her knew that the Doctor was right, and Beth would likely want to help anyway.
The Doctor decided not to say anything, instead letting Rose mull over her thoughts, and come to the conclusion on her own. He did take her hand, almost gingerly, still worried she might yell at him further, but she just sighed and settled back into the chair, albeit closer to him than before.
"You must think I'm so selfish," she said eventually, in a small voice. When he didn't reply she elaborated: "I almost destroyed Earth and killed you when I tried to save my dad, and now I don't want Beth to save Earth because I've just met her and think it's unfair to her."
The Doctor squeezed her hand, feeling a twinge of guilt. At first, he might have agreed with her – human emotions, especially Rose's, were so completely different to his; to him, though it was upsetting that a person or persons died, he had to think of the greater good, how many people that one person could save. Deep down, he knew this detachment was only partly to do with the fact he was an alien. Destroying Gallifrey, the Daleks, and countless other worlds and races to save the others was the biggest sacrifice of all, incomprehensible to anyone other than him. Whilst he hated that not everyone lives all of the time, he sometimes felt that they paled into insignificance beside what he had done, and usually regretted the thought afterwards. But with Rose travelling with him, her humanity seemed to have rubbed off on him, and he felt himself feeling more sympathetic towards her feelings, and understood why she had more difficulty accepting people had to make sacrifices.
"You are one of the most selfless people I've met," the Doctor said gently. "You care so much about others, even if they don't deserve it," he said, casting his mind back to when she first saw the Dalek. "I know I yelled at you when you saved your dad, but I shouldn't have; I should've known you'd do that, because you're just like that; you see someone to save and you save them. It's what makes you the best, and why I wouldn't settle for anyone else." He chanced a glance down at her then, and found her gazing back up at him with a shy smile.
"Thanks," she said sincerely, resting her head against his arm again as she gave him a half-hug. "And I'm sorry for yelling." The Doctor brushed it off and stood up, with Rose following suit.
"Think we should go rescue Beth from Jack?" he asked as they made their way towards the door. Rose chuckled and agreed, as they stepped back into the cargo bay to hear laughter coming from the direction of the window. Beth was almost bent double laughing at some story Jack was retelling, with much gesticulation and enthusiasm. The Doctor and Rose grinned to each other, and went over to join them, both hoping that this would prove to be one of the few times when no-one need die in their quest to save Earth yet again.
