The End Of The World:
An Old Friend
Rose Tyler had felt happiness in her short life.
Often, she had wondered, as she felt her life slip away in Pete's World, drain out of her bit by bit, whether the amount of happiness she had gained with the Doctor was enough. Did a few moments with a mad man, an alien and his wonderful alien box warrant what she suspected would lead to the end of her life? Whether the burn of her body was worth it. Whether the aching hollowness that her mind had become had been worth it.
Twenty-two, not a very good point in your life to die. When I was sixteen and had so much hope, I had thought I was so grown up already. Who would have thought just six years later I would be dying? It was like something out of a Soap, something you heard about from a friend fo a friend. Twenty-Two and dying because of aliens.
She had always reached a startling conclusion, no matter how long she thought, how dark her mind became in the wake of her increasing weakness: yes, every damn minute he gave me was worth it. Nothing could take away the fact that I was so blindingly happy, having a purpose to save the universe at the cost of myself. All the good I had done, the feeling of worth that came to me because of it, was so damn worth it. Never mind the man that was there with me, holding my hand and making it all bloody possible.
It wasn't as if pessimism had ever been a part of her nature, not really, or that she questioned the Doctor's impact of her life. It was more of a natural fear of a coming end that she had felt. Feelings that she could not prevent. Ugly feelings that had made the last year of her life miserable; resentment, fear, denial, anger. They had all cycled in a winding spiral that had made her question what her life had meant, what her time living had meant. But she had always come back to an understanding, every single time she had really paused and thought of it... An understanding that she did not regret what had to lead up to what was ultimately premature death.
And that in itself was almost more frightening, to know the end was coming and not regret a single thing of the events that lead me there. Maybe regret over some of my lesser actions, of how I had treated mum when the Doctor came into my life, and Micks. How neither the Doctor or I had ever dared to take our relationship further than that dance around our deeper feelings- But no true regrets.
But, as understanding as she had been there over her death, she feels, it is the present moment, with her hands gripped at the edge of the control console in the TARDIS, feeling the hummed happiness of the old girl and the Doctor, 'daft' old face and all, grinning at her from across the console...
Well.
Rose was no psychologist, nor any sort of expert that had to do with the trauma and understanding of feeling death at such a young age, but hope, where there was none before, was welcomed. Is surely much healthier and honestly felt so damn fantastic, that she cannot help but beam right back at the man across from her.
To be home, with the beings she had dearly missed the most. Yes, the adventures had been wonderful, and the sights of the universe, both the good and the bad were so amazing that it had left her speechless more often than not. But she had seen that all in Pete's world, her family never really had understood that it wasn't just the adventures, no matter how amazing they had been. I had been Rose Tyler, the Valient of Torchwood, the Defender of the Earth but it had not been enough with the empty space between my fingertips, never been enough with the missing song in the back of my head. She had never felt better, more whole than with him and the TARDIS, and she nearly cried at the sensation of being with the Doctor again, the warm heat of tears stinging her eyes slightly, but she pushed that back. It was missing this that would have killed her if Pete's World hadn't done it first … Or, well, she would have been hell-bent to get back. She would have worked herself to the bone to reach him.
His smile was steady, and as he looked at her with his piercing blue eyes, ones that made Rose feel a shiver of pleasure crawl down her spine. It was electrifying to have all of his attention again. And if anyone would have told her that she would be in this position again just two days before, she would have decked them flat, and then tried to steady the dull feeling of wondering if it could possibly be true. But not before giving them a quick kick for good measure in whichever place was appropriate to give the most pain for their gender and species... But, well, here she was.
And it was marvelous, lovely, fantastic!
"Right then, Rose Tyler, you tell me. Where do you want to go? Backwards or forwards in time. It's your choice. What's it going to be? " asked the Doctor, his grin growing.
Rose felt her own grin grow automatically in response. Even on repeat, this whole experience was brilliant. Her heart was pounding like mad, and a flush heated her face. She thought her face would break at how hard she was smiling.
"Forwards," she said echoing her past. She was somewhat tempted to say backward, because what was so tempting as changing the entire course of her life? She could see new places, steer the course of events to be so foreign that she would not recognize them. Even out the uneven nature of knowing times that were to come.
But she wasn't as so thick to ruin her life as it had been, she would steer the course, keep to the events she knew best she could. Besides we have a group of fairly wealthy people to save from giving out a ransom to a rather bitchy trampoline.
"How far?"
"How far can you take me?" she challenged, leaning forward and the Doctor beamed at her challenge.
Without another word, he imputed some coordinates, with quick practiced movements on his part and she felt the TARDIS jolt forward in time, through the vortex. It was then that she could honestly say that the Doctor wasn't as bad as a driver in this body. She wondered faintly if his nonexistent driving skills were like his sexy specs, a show because he thought it made him that more dashing. She shook off that thought. No focusing on the New-New Doctor, it was all about the man across from me. She would get to him eventually, and she had to make the most of this Doctor for whatever amount of time she had. She had missed this version so much when he had 'died'.
It wasn't as if she hadn't loved the New-New Doctor- I mean, that bloody hair alone- he had been the same man, after all. The same man she was stupidly, madly in love with and Rose had quickly come to terms with it. But there were some things, some gestures, and ticks that had been forever set aside. Gone away in a shower of golden regeneration energy. Sometimes even when she had been with the New New Doctor she had found herself thinking of this Doctor. Of how his blue eyes could look like chips of eyes that were so cold that it burned you, or how they could look warm to something liquid and longing. How his ears would sometimes wiggle in odd moments, seemingly having life of their own. Or how he had smiled, daftly, a comical edge to him that would temper the hard plains of his face into something that had made Rose young as she had been, look twice. Look twice and linger to learn him...
She would enjoy this him while she could, mourn him when he changed, but enjoy him as long as she had him.
"Ten thousand years in the future. Step outside, it's the year 12005, the new Roman Empire," he said with a grand gesture of his arms. It was obviously meant to impress her, and oh, before it had been more than enough, she remembers awe and disbelief in his words, at the thought of Rome rebuilt as it had been in her textbooks.
She very nearly snorts at his attempt now, keeping her gaze steady. Not much would be a surprise to me this time around, or at least not for 'two' years. You're going to have give me your best, my Doctor. She hoped the Doctor wouldn't mind too badly, show-off that he was, having someone so much harder to truly impress. She felt her eyes gleam with humor instead, and she smiled, the tongue-in-teeth one that made her feel a little reckless. Made her want to reach over and tug at the lapels of his leather jacket-
Down girl, flirt a bit if you so want, but remember that the Doctor will soak up the attention but dismiss it in the same moment. It's just his mode of operation, and your feelings are so unaligned right now.
"You think you're so impressive."
"I am so impressive!" he countered, for a moment it looked like he was going to pout, but he wasn't really one to pout... Yet, she supposed.
"Prove it."
He gave her a long look, seemingly trying to gauge something in her and for a moment she thought she had done something wrong. And then his icy blue eyes gave off a gleam of a challenge, and his mouth curled into a smile. A true one, the type of smile that eased the harsh lines of his fiercely sculpted face, gave an ease to it that was hard to find. It wasn't one of his many easy, fake smiles that this form of him was prone to give. No, it was one of those rare smiles that had sent her heart pounding so easily before. Even now, knowing him as she did, her heart fluttered in her ears as he spoke:
"Right then, you asked for it. I know exactly where to go. Hold on!"
She did hold on, bracing her legs firmly and gripping the console as the TARDIS landed with a soft jolt. Her body may have not been prepared, but for her mind it was instinct. She braced herself way before the Doctor had finished inputting the date and place in the coordinates. She, however, did not have the exact firmness that came with living full time on the TARDIS or could not quite remember how to hold herself correctly after so long, and she stumbled despite her best efforts. Her hair flopped into her face, and she was forced into the console, nearly bending over it completely.
Shaking her head to remove her hair, she turned to look at the Doctor again, giving him a laugh at the rocky landing. The Doctor, still smiling, had something in his eyes, an intent that she had learned to recognize, something not quite dark, no that was when he was angry, that was when someone foul and cruel had gone and pissed off the man that held the rage of grief and guilt of something so vast she could hardly comprehend it, the Oncoming Storm born in war, but something not quite pleasant either.
Something assessing, calculating.
For a second, she worried he had brought her someplace other than the end of the world when he did nothing but a wordless gesture towards the doors. Could I have mucked this up already? The thought came sudden, came viciously at her. It spoke of old insecurities that she had thought she had left behind long ago. It spoke of a girl who wasn't an Agent of Torchwood nor a friend to the Oncoming Storm, not the girl who took the Heart of a Tardis and looked into it as it looked back- not the Bad Wolf. But instead, Rose Tyler girl from the Estate. The shop girl. The little girl who dreamed of the stars but could never reach them.
Then, the TARDIS gave a reassuring hum, as if to say, all is well and she took that as her cue to run to the doors. The lobby of the viewing platform of the end of the world(her's at least) greeted her, and she let out a breath she had not realized she had been holding. Her insecurities left her in the same moment. It was gleaming metal and elegant in design, filled with large windows that would become deadly, but at the moment simply filled with stars that were starkly different from the arrangement of stars from her home-time period. Some she could name from the Doctor's ramblings, but most of them foreign and different from the ones she knew. Her heart settled in her chest. Haven't mucked it up quite yet, Valient. She stepped out when she felt the Doctor behind her. He moved ahead in a quick, purposeful way. Rose watched as he extended his arms in a grand gesture, arms wide as if to embrace the whole time and destination.
She could feel the lecture coming on, and she glanced at him with a flash of warmth and nostalgic affection. She then looked to the window and watched as the barren 'classic' Earth so prominently displayed. Emotions swelled, as Rose carefully let out a breath and placed her hand against the viewing glass. It was all a mix of regret and nostalgia that overtook her in that moment. The Earth, the place she was born, would be gone so soon after this but it would be somewhat brought back in New Earth. Conflicting to think the place I was born could be rendered to ash and dust, to see something I thought immortal gone. It was beautiful nonetheless, and for a second she thought back to when she was very small, trying to catch a glimpse of the stars from the Powell Estate, on the roof, trying to escape problems she had long forgotten by this point. But... She had always tried.
Tried reaching up to take one of those faded stars in her small hands.
To think that all these years later that she would be so close to stars she had felt their burn, or had watched them being born from the wild spacial storms of a far off nebula, years in the future. Even the sight of the doomed Earth in the nearing sunlight's yellow haze was beautiful, in a strange way, and she was grateful for everything the Doctor had shown her, even though it had led to her death. Maybe even because of it. She had lived more in the 'two' years by his side, and the near year away from him than the nineteen she had spent on her Earth, eating her beans on toast and watching the telly with disinterest and knowledge that she would not go anywhere but the places she had known all her life.
"You lot, you spend all your time thinking about dying, like you're going to get killed by eggs or beef or global warming or asteroids. But you never take time to imagine the impossible, that maybe you survive. This is the year five point five slash apple slash twenty-six. Five billion years in your future and this is the day," he said softly, and then he glanced at his watch.
Rose nearly snorted at his dramatic pause. The greatest showman indeed. But she held it back as she simply stared at the earth spin lazily, the satellites holding back the sun spinning rapidly.
"Hold on," he continued, gleefully.
The sun flared, pulsing and quivering as it turned from its soft pulsating yellow into a brilliant shade of crimson. Rose, knowing that even at this distance the shields were working, couldn't help but think: I can feel the heat at the star's expansion from a yellow star into a red giant. She flinched away from the glass, automatically, even if it wasn't possible. Only in her head and partly from her memory. The Platform was the height of the Alpha Class, and while it wasn't bloody immune to internal sabotage, it was built to withstand various spacial conditions for the safety of its passengers. The walls of the Platform could withstand the sun at this distance if it came down to it, as long as its shields were up. It was a daunting thought, nonetheless, however, with Rose's knowledge of what was to come. After all, in less than an hour, they would be that close to being burned alive. She forced herself to take a deep breath.
"This is the day the Sun expands. Welcome to the end of the world," The Doctor finished dramatically. He said it softly, but almost gleefully.
"The end of the world," murmured Rose, watching from the corner of her eye as the Doctor looked at her, eyes slightly narrowed.
It was quite obvious, to her with her hindsight, that this was a test.
She could honestly say that this moment had been terrifying the first time, how could it not be? She was nineteen, just nineteen, seen aliens as a blob of what looked like lava, and then this man, this man with the Northern accent with a funny smile on his face and who needed to be saved by a shop-girl of all things. Part of her had doubted, scoffed at the thought, even if she had understood to some extent. She had run off with him, runoff and he took her forwards in time to watch the Earth be blown up. A man, a man that was blue and tree people and big head in jars. And then Cassandra. How small she had felt in that moment, just coming off of the adrenaline in saving her world and running off from her life.
Again. Rose Tyler the runaway, off with a man to what she thinks is big and better things. Then, of course, nearly getting killed a second time. Then understanding that no one had been watching the Earth become nothing but dust and ash, that all that history and life had faded into nothingness without a single witness.
And trying to understand it all with the Doctor looking on at her with these eyes that spoke of pain and something... Well, alien.
When the Doctor had later confessed to taking her on their first date as a test of her will and tolerance to alien species, she remembered being quite put out with him for days after that. Because she had read between the lines and also seen how he wanted her to feel something like what he had felt about his own home planet. My world burning. Just as his had. He wants me to know what it felt like. It's not fair. It's not a pretty feeling. But his world was gone, his people were gone. Humans lived on. Humans went across the stars, away from the little rock they had come from and more or less conquered the universe in sheer mass. It was why she understood why he brought her here, even if it wasn't nearly the same in any sense. Even if it was a little horrible and... Well, alien of him to do to someone.
But the Doctor wasn't human, wasn't exactly like her and that was something she had come to terms with a long time ago. Even if bits of it did piss her off, she couldn't fault him for certain things. Just like I can't change him more than he can change me from being an ape from Sol 3.
"Shuttles five and six now docking. Guests are reminded that Platform One forbids the use of weapons, teleportation, and religion. Earth Death is scheduled for fifteen thirty-nine. Followed by drinks in the Manchester Suite," called out the ship, and Rose felt herself shiver at the calm computer voice that would narrate this adventure.
She walked down the corridor with the Doctor, who for once wasn't running his gob. He just lead her calmly down the corridor, letting her soak everything and observing her all at the same time. It was abnormal for the Doctor to be so quiet. But Rose struggled to find what to say, her mind hazy in the details, in the words spoken so long ago.
"Guests? As in other people?" she asked, her mind locking on the vague mission parameters she had set for this adventure. Part of her was somewhat unsettled at his silence, long used to the Doctor chatting away to fill all silences between them. But he wasn't that man quite yet, she reminded herself sternly.
He was more solemn, hide it behind a goofy smile and large ears. But he couldn't hide it completely. The man just out of war. It showed in this body, painfully to Rose: the closed shorn hair, his leather jacket and dark jumper, practical boots, the body that moved with a closed off precision that reminded her vividly of the older squads at Torchwood. The ones that had fought the longest against the Cybermen. The same jaded horror linger in their eyes- in the Doctor's icy blue eyes.
"Depends on your definition of people," he said, looking at her from the corner of his eyes. Ah, there was that testing thing again.
"There's more aliens, isn't there?" she asked, allowing herself to frown. If she had still been that once estate girl she would have(as she once had) freaked out. As it was she made a point of shuffling closer to the Doctor, as if the thought of aliens made her nervous.
He nodded in response, lifting his brow as if he expected more.
"Blimey are there proper ones that don't look human?" she asked, more teasing than anything, but she hoped to set some wariness in her tone. Furrowing her brows slightly above her smile, as if uneasy despite her teasing.
The Doctor gave a huff, his mouth curling slightly in a smirk.
"Oi! My species came first, so your lot are the ones that look like Time Lords," he said smartly. The fact that he let Time Lord slip did not pass her notice.
"Is that what you are, a Time Lord?" she asked quietly, not really being able to help herself. She cringed internally as the Doctor looked over at her sharply, he didn't say a word but shrugged as if the question meant nothing.
She frowned at her idiocy. If she got any more intrusive, she was going to get dropped on her arse on the Powell Estate, and that would ruin the time-line she was trying to protect in the first place. Rose Tyler's Unofficial Guide To Time-Travel and Space Hopping, Rule Number Forty-Five: Don't appear too terribly interested or knowledgeable in people you know, but don't know you. Unless, of course, you're the Doctor and want to seem clever. She froze and made herself look confused as if she hadn't noticed the tense, if brief silence that her last question had brought.
"Hang on, why are there aliens on a space ship watching the destruction of the Earth like its a big show that needs cocktails afterward?" she asked swiftly, trying to distract him. Asking questions a mile a minute and pretending to forget the previous questions seemed typical to do.
"More of like an observation deck really, and it's obvious. The great and powerful want to get one last fun sight of Earth before the barbeque," he said, seemingly happy again as he let out a smile.
He quickly tugged her along the long, elegant corridors. Then he let go of her hand as soon as they reached the area outside of the main viewing platform, and soniced at a wall panel.
She grimaced and made her best to look horrified. Furrowed brows, wide conflicted eyes.
"You're not saving it, are you?" she said this as quietly as she could manage.
She knew tactically that a whisper was the best level of sound to keep her voice from sounding false and gave an added source of drama and levity to her words.
"Nah, your planet's had a good run, besides, not like anyone is down there to feel the sun. Any living organisms were ordered to leave the planet once the funding for it was lost … The planet's now property of the National Trust by the way. They've been keeping it preserved, classic earth down there, notice the continents still look like your time's? Remember those things spinning 'round the Earth? Gravity satellites holding back the sun," he said pleasantly. His voice was calm and almost cheerful.
"So, let me get's this straight, rich aliens are paying to watch the now barren Earth burn. For entertainment," she said flatly.
Even after all this time, she found the idea faintly wrong. It may be empty, and it may no longer be interesting to keep it around, but that Earth had been the birthplace of humanity. To watch it reduced to nothing simply on the fact of it no longer valuable in a great fancy dress party with all the rich to do of the year Apple Dash Six, felt wrong somehow. It was right in the sense that the Earth had far outlived its natural life, everything dies in the end, but the whole display of the Earth's death was what really bothered her. And showed her, despite how far in the future they were, some things remained the same. All that time, all that history, gone in a whimper without a person looking at it. If the Universe had truly been a just and fair place, everyone with even some human connection would have watched it go into the space dust.
"Yup," he said popping the 'p' with enthusiasm as the door opened and they entered the main observation deck. Rose rolled her eyes at his back, not wanting him to see her mixture of fondness and annoyance at his attitude.
The next regeneration may have been rude and not ginger, but this one was just frankly a little well... Flippant and not ginger either. She glanced around her with mild interest, only remembering this room faintly as she had been more concern in remembering the room where she had been nearly scorched via expanding sun. It was pretty, she supposed, made of a martial that looked somewhat similar to marble and large glass windows... That wouldn't be very pleasant at all when Cassandra's plan went down at all, she thought, looking around for places that would be protected against the soon to be deadly rays.
She immediately dismissed the sight of the very blue and very alien steward when she caught sight of him, forgetting for a moment that she was not supposed to take his appearance in stride. Her eyes flickered back to the spaces between columns, held in shadow, more or less safe. The very blue steward caught sight of them, and marched over, looking very upset. She blinked as he towered over her, and scowled down at her, hands on his hips.
"Who the hell are you?" he snapped, voice irate.
It was right of him to do so, she thought dryly, after all, they were technically crashing his... Planet roasting?
"Oh, that's nice, thanks," said the Doctor, a grin firmly in place.
Rose fought the grin that threatened to appear at that. She managed to only let her lips twitch upwards before she suppressed the urge. Instead, she blinked rapidly, parting her mouth slightly as he turned to the Doctor.
"But how did you get in? This is a maximum hospitality zone. The guests have disembarked. They're on their way any second now," asked the Steward, looking flustered.
The Doctor whipped out his handy dandy and multipurpose psychic paper, and she wondered how many people he had duped with that thing. She had never gotten around to asking. She bet herself right then ten quid that he had lost count. Even the Doctor lost count of such things... Eventually.
"That's me. I'm a guest. Look, I've got an invitation. Look. There, you see? It's fine, you see? The Doctor plus one. I'm the Doctor, this is Rose Tyler. She's my plus one. Is that all right?" said the Doctor, as he gestured to her happily.
Part of her warmed, at the mention of being his plus one, at the verbal confirmation of being included like that. God, I'm like a little girl sometimes. It's so bloody embarrassing how I act in the face of this man. The Steward blinked before he plastered a smile to his face. It was a rather false but hurried gesture. He was under a lot of pressure, no doubt.
"Well, obviously. Apologies, et cetera. If you're on board, we'd better start. Enjoy."
The Steward hurried over to a podium, getting ready to welcome his very wealthy guests no doubt. He cleared his throat, fussing with his info-pad and looking as if he was searching to calm himself.
"The paper's slightly psychic. It shows them whatever I want them to see. Saves a lot of time," said the Doctor, tucking away the paper.
Rose hummed, absently, keeping her eyes on the Steward.
"So that's what a proper alien looks like ... Very blue," she snarked and tried to will herself to look a little more startled. God, I wish I was a better actress. That's what a startled human would do... Right? Act a little awestruck?
She hadn't been a truly startled human for a long time, and so her reactions would have to be a bit improvised. One of the great things about living on Terra in Pete's World, was the fact that the majority of the plant was aware of the Universe then here in the Doctor's World, as this Universe had been classified. Most of the human population had seen aliens or at the very least the aftermath of their interactions on Terra. The Cybermen had signaled to the Universe at large that the planet was beyond a primitive world, no longer apes playing in the mud, as the Doctor had once so helpfully told her. It had been incredibly refreshing walking about without having to pretend or temper herself at all.
For the sake of the time-line, however, she would play the naive human, but she wouldn't really be so ridiculous as she had been when she was nineteen the first time. She may have to repeat the time-line, but she didn't have to necessarily repeat stupidity.
"Yeah," said the Doctor slowly, his eyes rolling at her slight barb.
She hummed again in return and braced herself to act a little more 'culture shocked' as the Doctor had once put it.
The Steward announced them to the crowd, and she felt herself frown slightly as she watched the various attendants scurry around. The lower class, not even allowed to talk to someone without permission, another thing that upset her about this supposedly advance time period.
"Hurry, now, thank you. Quick as we can. Come along, come along. And now, might I introduce the next honored guest? Representing the Forest of Cheam, we have trees, namely, Jabe, Lute, and Coffa," stated the Steward, primly in a loud firm voice.
Rose remembered being a little to shell shocked to register the different species coming their way, and she marveled at the fact that she knew what they were. In Pete's World 2012, they had just begun to give out the genetic material to the research facilities that would cause the start of the species of the Trees in front of her. Vaguely, she remembers reading up on them just after this adventure, out of a mixture of curiosity, boredom and wanting to better understand the world that the Doctor had dragged her into. More like the Universe at large that I had sprinted into without a care for the consequences. She watched with faint fascination as the rich trees came in, and made a large show of grabbing the Doctor's sleeve as if she needed him to steady her, taking in a sharp breath as if in shock or disbelief. She curled her arm around that leather-covered arm, relishing the coolness of his lower body temperature that was felt even through the thick leather. She plastered herself against his steady, cool side, trapping their joined arms between them. As if she was anchoring herself to the one being that was familiar to a shell-shocked shop girl from the Twenty-first century.
The added bonus of being this close to the Doctor was neither here nor there. God, he is fitter than I remeber. He was lean, compact muscle beneath his leather jacket and jumper. The fact that his body turned stiff and slightly awkward against her as if he didn't know what to do of the situation, nearly made her nearly snicker. Him and domestics(comfort in this case) were funny to put together. A little part of her was hurt, and while she knew logically the Doctor was a relative stranger to her at this point, she found that she could not help the feeling. Nor the fact that she missed the easy affection that the New-New Doctor had so frequently given to her. He would have leaned back into her. He would have pressed his head into her hair and whispered a babble of a lecture into her ear, proably told her the history of the trees himself.
But that was not here. That was not now. He was her first Doctor and all the stilted grief and mess that entitled.
"There will be an exchange of gifts representing peace. If you could keep the room circulating, thank you. Next, from the solicitors Jolco and Jolco, we have the Moxx of Balhoon."
Another blue alien, this time mostly head and body, sitting on a transport pod came in, and Rose nearly scowled in his direction. He had spat in her face and while culturally it wasn't insulting for him, she had not really appreciated it. She made a mental note to dodge behind the Doctor when he came to give her the 'gift' of peace.
"And next, from Financial Family Seven, we have the Adherents of the Repeated Meme."
When the hooded figures came in, Rose did not have to fake the tightening of her hand around the Doctor's sleeve. Those things had knocked her out and nearly got her barbequed. Even if they were just an idea, Cassandra's idea, in this case, they were still dangerous, as all ideas could be if there were held for the wrong person. Bloody trampoline. She felt his eyes on her out of the corner of her eyes, and she pressed her lips together in a firm line, so hard that the pressure made them tremble. It was meant to keep her from looking too calm in this type of situation, and keeping her from bursting out laughing at the insanity that was her life at the moment. Though maybe hysteric laughter would be seen as normal to the Doctor.
"The inventors of Hypo-slip Travel Systems, the brothers Hop Pyleen. Thank you. Cal Spark Plug. Mister and Mrs Pakoo. The Ambassadors from the City State of Binding Light," continued the Steward, and she watched the various aliens disembarked into the large room. She made a mental list of the ones she recognized, and the ones she didn't remeber from her first go-around.
Jabe, the tree she remembered remorsefully, walked up with her companions, a smile on her wooden lips and an elegant gait to her flora self. Rose forced herself to smile at the woman. She was lovely, and the plasticity of the living wood of her face was startling and fascinating to see. She did, however, make the hand on the Doctor's sleeve tighten to the point of actually aching on her part. The Doctor for his part shifted slightly away from her but kept a firm smile as he leaned forward. He didn't pull away from her completely, a fact that Rose appreciated.
"The Gift of Peace. I bring you a cutting of my Grandfather," said the wooden woman, offering said cutting with a flourish to the Doctor. The Doctor stepped another step forward, and Rose followed, taking the cutting from Jabe's grandfather with careful consideration. She made a point of being the one to receive it, instead of allowing the Doctor to pass it to her like a servant holding the shopping.
She gave the three people a smile, before replying in a slightly shakey voice, "Thank you for the gift of peace."
She inclined her head, and the Doctor followed suit with a bemused sort of look thrown in her direction.
"Thank you. Yes, gifts. Er, we give you in return air from my lungs," the Doctor fumbled for a moment before breathed heavily upon the wooden woman. He was, however, beaming by the end of his less than graceful gift.
"How intimate," said Jabe, obliviously flustered, but with sparkling eyes that made Rose both amused and annoyed at how easily the Doctor could charm a woman.
Even with his 'daft' face, you manage to make your attractiveness known, you charming prat.
"There's more where that came from," said the Doctor, only furthering her annoyance.
And of course, my jealously is plain, I feel it eating at myself. I have no right to feel it. The Doctor doesn't even know me, feels nothing but distant fondness and the affection he feels for all clever humans. I am just a new friend to ease the ache of emptiness left to you from the Time War.
Jabe, unknowing of Rose's inner turmoil, or too amused and impressed by the Doctor's brazen words, ignored the way Rose clung to his arm. The only indication that she was aware of her was the slight flicker of her brown eyes to Rose's hand on the Doctor's arm. And the way they tightened before she focused entirely onto the Doctor.
"I bet there is," she said breathlessly.
She left, her eyes flickering back as she offered more cuttings to the rest of the guests.
"From the Silver Devastation, the sponsor of the main event, please welcome the Face of Boe," called out the Steward, and Rose looked over as their host entered with a surprising amount of dignity for being on what looked to be a futuristic skateboard, being carted in by two tall male looking beings in fancy suits.
True interest sparked in her because this was the first of a couple of times she and the Doctor encountered the Face of Boe. A large head in a jar, she thought with faint amusement, One of the richest and most influential beings in the Universe since his appearance a few thousand years ago. She blinked when his eyes swiveled over to her and the Doctor, in a movement that was clearly meant to be swift. She stared back, and the Face of Boe hardly seemed to blink as their eyes locked. He hadn't expected her to look back at him she suddenly realized and she felt her brows furrow. His eyes, his eyes were like the Doctor's. Old, beyond tired, and it struck a chord within her. There was something in those old, tired eyes that felt...
Familiar to her.
She took half a step toward him, her grip slipping away from the Doctor's sleeve. A familiar hand snatched at her wrist before she had made even half a step away. She looked up to see the Doctor's eyes watching her intently, no longer smiling. He wasn't quite frowning, but there was an unhappy pull to his mouth that most would have missed.
"The Moxx of Balhoon," said the Doctor, making her turn to look at the approaching alien.
"My felicitations on this historical happenstance. I give you the gift of bodily salivas," said Moxx happily, coughing to gather said salivas.
Rose dodged behind the Doctor and was pleased to see the spit hit the Doctor in the eye this time. She grinned as he blinked.
"Thank you for the gift of peace," she said cheerfully, freezing as the Adherents of the Repeated Meme came closer, she eyed the metal balls holding the metal pets of Cassandra.
Automatically, she returned her grip to the Doctor's arm. Surprisingly, he also shifted closer to her. He was still stiff at their closeness, and it was just a fraction of an inch, but he did move toward her, instead of away.
"Ah! The Adherents of the Repeated Meme. I bring you air from my lungs," said the Doctor cheerfully, whipping away the spit from his eye without missing a beat.
He breathed deeply on them as he had done with the other guests, and Rose eyed the ideas before her warily.
"A gift of peace in all good faith," said the head one in a deep gravely voice.
Rose could not help her frown. Cassandra was not subtle when it came to trying to pin it on someone. After all, if the anything screamed evil on this ship(platform), it was the large cloaked and scary aliens with metal claws.
"And last but not least, our very special guest. Ladies and gentlemen, and trees and multiforms consider the Earth below. In memory of this dying world, we call forth the last Human. The Lady Cassandra O'Brien Dot Delta Seventeen!" announced the Steward, a smile on his usually flustered face.
And in comes the bitchy trampoline, thought Rose, feeling all the blood rush out of her face, despite all that she had seen in her short life. She watched with faint rage and disgust as the last remnant of 'pure' humanity was wheeled in by her moisturizing attendants. She was horrendously horrible to look at. This mixture of human features, vivid and dark blue eyes, slits for a nose, wide, flat lips across a thin membrane that was faintly translucent, blood vessels visibly pumping. How the hell does she talk without vocal cords or lungs? Rose tightened her grip on the Doctor's arm, sucking in a trembling breath, not at all faked. She felt the Doctor's eyes on her face, but she couldn't look away from how monstrous Cassandra was. Her memories didn't give justice to what Cassandra was.
It wasn't the fact that Cassandra's appearance that made her feel shocked (though she had forgotten that the woman had looked quite like that), it was the fact that the woman before her was so warped and inhuman.
It was the fact that this is what some of humanity would turn to, would always turn into in the wake of change and diversification of our culture. That fact that Cassandra had later learned her lesson had nothing to do with her horror nor disgust because this was what she was now. An evil, prejudice, racists, ugly and small-minded creature that wanted money. Her hand clamped down on the Doctor's arm even tighter, digging her fingers into the supple leather with a crushing grip. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw his eyes flicker over to her, and she fought the frown threatening to cross her face, and stayed mainly toward the slack-jawed look.
"Oh, now, don't stare. I know, I know it's shocking, isn't it? I've had my chin completely taken away and look at the difference. Look how thin I am. Thin and dainty. I don't look a day over two thousand. Moisturize me. Moisturize me," cried out Cassandra, a smile on her skin flap. One of her attendants used the pump spray on her skin, and the 'last' human gave a breath of relief. She continued in her fluttery, falsely sweet voice, "Truly, I am the last Human. My father was a Texan, my mother was from the Arctic Desert. They were born on the Earth and were the last to be buried in its soil. I have come to honor them and say goodbye. Oh, no tears, no tears. I'm sorry. But behold, I bring gifts. From Earth itself, the last remaining ostrich egg. Legend says it had a wingspan of fifty feet and blew fire from its nostrils. Or was that my third husband? Oh, no. Oh, don't laugh. I'll get laughter lines. And here, another rarity."
Rose kept her gaze on the sheet of skin, somewhat transfixed as she had been back then. She ignored the thought of tipping over the ostrich egg and preventing the trampoline from beaming out at all. Can't change that much, Tyler. You know better than anyone that some things must play out. Cassandra has to make her bloody plan, and your mission is to maneuver it so fewer people die at her hands.
"According to the archives, this was called an iPod. It stores classical music from humanity's greatest composers. Play on!"
Tainted Love by Soft Cell rang out. Rose stared, let out a loud and hopefully hysterical sounding giggle, and ignored the looks that were sent over to her. She tightened her hold on the Doctor and turned to face him, looking up at his face with parted lips.
"Refreshments will now be served. Earth Death in thirty minutes."
She squeezed his arm again. Not faking the way she was trembling. Not in fear, but in true disgust. She saw as he turned his grinning face to her and understood that if she had known what he was doing at nineteen, without the understanding of the man in front of her, she would have hated him. Would have actually rethought this running off with a man she didn't know across Time and Space.
She let out a breath she hadn't known she had been holding.
"Humanity turns into that," she said, softly, faintly as she could as she carefully gave him the gifts of peace that he had passed off to her.
He stuffed them into his pockets, bigger on the inside, she noticed without a doubt as they disappeared completely, not a single bulge of their shapes showing.
"Yes," he said, grinning at Cassandra as if it the most normal thing in the world, though she didn't miss the slight furrow of his brow, and she just knew how much he hated what Cassandra was.
Rose resisted the urge to squint at him as she looked up at him, just turning her head and gripping his arm tighter with her own.
The steady, measuring look he had hidden beneath the smile was almost invisible to even her(she who knew him so well at this point), and she found herself easing her hold off of the Doctor as if his reaction bothered her.
"That's the last of all of us," she said bluntly. She blinked rapidly at him, eyes wide.
"Yes- Well, no. Humanity had a little fun with the other species of the galaxy. What you're looking at is the last 'pure' human in the galaxy, the rest of you are spreading across the stars. "
"In more ways the one I'm guessing," she blurted, thinking of the ever promiscuous Jack.
Her hand released his jacket altogether. Blue eyes, icy, assessing and calm, looked down at her. He was smiling, but it was stiff, practice and so bloody fake.
"Frequently," said the Doctor, once again with some much bloody fake cheer that it made Rose want to scream at him. If she hadn't been used to this, she would have. If she hadn't had a role to play, she would have wacked his chest at his attitude.
"Okay," she said, carefully and slowly.
With that, she bolted.
Not from the room, after all, she really didn't want to. And she really saw no point to it. No, she ran to the windows and stayed huddled in the corner where the aliens did not seem too interested in going to quite yet. The Doctor made a move to follow until Jabe intercepted him. Rose made a show of turning her back to everyone and took deep, evening breaths that made her shoulders heave.
Rose looked out of the windows and drew breath after breath. Her hands, trembling, not steady in rage and unease at the reminder of the horrors she would see with the Doctor. She slammed her eyes shut. This was her life she thought, just like before she had run off with a mad man in a blue box. I have to live through all of this again. All the horrible ugliness that this Universe has to offer, across space and time. And I have to do it all so apart from the man I love, so close I could snog him right into his next regeneration, but I can't. I have to watch him from a distance and watch him slowly get used to me, with no assurance that he will feel anything close to what he once did... And I have to do it all while the Universe reminds me how unfair it is, with people like Cassa-
She let out a slight huff of surprise as the trill of the TARDIS sounded in the back of her mind. The faint background song in the back of her mind that she had been ignoring, so used to ignoring up until that point, became louder, much louder. It blocked the sounds of the guests around the room and became so loud that it took away even the sound of Rose's own thoughts.
Then, the black inkiness of space and the barren Earth was taken from her as well. Flashes of images blocked her sight. The beauty of a nebula as the Doctor held her by the ankles out of the TARDIS, her own breathless laughter ringing in her ears. The terrible sad kindness in poor Gweynth's smile as she held Rose's hand. Brilliantly warm brown eyes that would occupy the Doctor's next face, shinning with adoration, laughter and what she had strongly suspected was love. The assurance from her father in that stupid paradox, the determination and esteem that she had longed for all her life. So many things blurred together in a steady succession, some only glimpses of memories that had been seared into Rose's heart. All good, all the wonders of the beauty of the Universe and Time, and moments in between.
All the moments that had assured her of her capabilities and made her feel as if Rose Tyler of the Powel Estate was worth something.
They warmed her as the song became a trill of comfort. Then the same image that the TARDIS had given her once before, the one of herself within what she suspected was the Web of Time appeared in her mind. It didn't change this time to that putrid mass of decay and rot. Just stayed the same stunning, complex web of lines, and the golden one touched with a pale pink that represented her gleamed brilliantly, healthy and whole. It was connected to several other strings she could see more clearly as the TARDIS kept the image static: that crystalline string she suspected was the Doctor, a dark blue wound with gold that was obviously the TARDIS, a soft green that might have been her mother, a darker green one for her father, a vivid purple one that could only be Mickey and red and gold that made her think of Jack. Several other strings touched her, complex and spread in a strange, massive collection of connection that made her breath catch.
The TARDIS sang beautiful and perfect, warm and as a reminder within her mind, a harmony that resonated with the Web of Time around her. Rose gave a sigh and barely suppressed the self-deprecating laughter at the obvious reprimand on the TARDIS's part.
I get it. Stop with the woe is me attitude? I should be grateful instead. I am a brat that is being too pessimistic.
Rose felt herself smile as the second dip in the TARDIS's song as if in reply, a superior nuance to the music that was almost smug. In the brilliance of the TARDIS's scolding, she was reminded that with all of the ugly and cruel, she would see the beautiful and kind. She sang back in her mind, without words to the TARDIS, clumsily expanding her mind in a weak attempt to respond. Her gratitude, her feeling of awe and amazement to where she was again. The TARDIS gave one final rise in her song, a warm one that hummed in acceptance and that further lifted Rose's heart.
She blinked as the inky blackness of space came back in front of her, the projected image leaving her mind and the TARDIS's song fading to the very back of her mind. Present, but not obtrusive, a reminder of the TARDIS's presence that used to feel invasive. Now, it felt like a comfort. She allowed herself to appreciate the fact that she was where she was and smiled again at the wonder of being alive, suppressing tears.
Sorry old Girl, she sent to the TARDIS, this time verbably, You must know I am also so happy to be back with you both. It's just people like Cassandra, they make me feel so sick of the Universe at large.
A forgiving trill was her answer, and Rose hummed aloud along with the song of the TARDIS in a peace offering.
"Rose Tyler."
Rose's back straightened at the sound of her name vibrating through her mind, soft and impossibly warm. It was not the TARDIS's familiar song, but a new male voice altogether. She turned slowly and automatically toward the direction the voice had come from, eyes wide.
She was met with the blue eyes of the Face of Boe.
He stared right back at her without censure or subtlety. No, those old eyes just pierced straight through her, unwavering, unrepentant. She blinked rapidly, heart pounding in her chest. Like before, she took a step forward, and this time the Doctor couldn't stop her from going. His attendants seemed about to stop her when she got really close, and she froze automatically. Her hands came up in a sign of truly universal peace, showing no harm nor weapons within them.
"You can't just approach the Face of Boe," said one of his attendants, sharp and full of obvious warning.
"Sorry, mate," she said, calmly as the men squinted at her. She tried for a small, charming smile, "I was just called to have a little chat with the Face."
She touched her forehead carefully with two fingertips, once, twice, in a sign of the telepathic message she had just received. The man frowned at her, lifting an obvious skeptical brow, he looked from her trainer wearing feat to the tip of her obviously dyed hair.
"Right. The Face just called out for you-"
"Let her pass, Mr. Joub, I did indeed call Miss Tyler to come to have a nice little chat. And give us some breathing room," said Boe, in the same, calm tone as his mental voice. The two attendants, Mr. Joub and the unnamed one, stepped aside and backed away until they were out of earshot.
Rose hesitated for a fraction of second, before coming up to the tank, automatically sitting cross-legged in front of the alien head in a show of respect by getting to his eye level. He smiled, and she blinked on how tired that small movement looked. She smiled back if a little hesitantly for the unknown that the Face of Boe presented. Never talked to him directly, at least not on the Platform, this is new. And he knows me. He always seemed to be on the friendlier side the few times she and the Doctor had encountered him, and that was what kept true panic from setting in at this point, distortion of the timeline or not. Distant, otherworldly as a giant head in a jar could be, he had always been friendly to her and the Doctor the few times they've crossed paths. The fact that they crossed paths multiple times in the first place had always made her speculate of the true nature of the Face of Boe, for it was rare indeed that they met anyone twice in their impossible journies. The Doctor had always waved away her curiosity, and she wondered now if it had been another way for him to unnecessarily protect her.
The Face of Boe's eyes moved around her face, searching, and taking in her features with an intensity that should have made her uncomfortable. The fact that it didn't assured without really knowing why he knew her already. He knew her, plain and simple.
"You know my name," she said simply, voice calm. The Doctor was busy with Jabe, on the other side of the very large room and the other guests were talking at a steady mummer that would obscure the conversation to some extent. But she kept a mind to be quiet, to be more subbed than normal to try and keep the Doctor from overhearing.
She had only ever seen the Face of Boe a handful of times in her life, and he should not know her at this point. Because this should be their first encounter. Though, she supposed, as the New-New Doctor liked to say, time-whimey and all that. It was evident the Face of Boe in his many years of life had taken note of the Doctor and his friends or had met her in a way she did not remember. That should have reassured her that she and the Doctor would eventually have a new adventure. But something told her the Face of Boe knowing her name was something else.
Boe gave a raspy chuckle.
"I know a lot of things about you," he said it with affection and honesty in his tired voice. Whimsically, his voice was accented in what she knew was the American way of speaking, and she found it odd that she had never heard him speak before, even on New Earth.
"Yeah, I figured."
Rose shifted a little under his intense stare. It seemed as if he couldn't stop looking at her. His eyes were soft, and the turn of his large mouth was wistful.
"Hello," he said softly.
Rose blinked.
"Hello," she responded back, automatically.
"Hello," he repeated, intently, smiling slightly. It was impossibly charming.
"Right, let's not start that get aga-," Rose stopped mid-word, eyes wide.
No.
Without really meaning to, she had sent him that word mentally it seemed, for Boe simply smiled, great big eyes glittering. Even in this different form, a small hint of his old confident swagger was there, buried underneath the strangeness of his features, bellow that old, timeless look in his large eyes. Her heart froze, and part of it broke.
"Jack?" she thought to him. Her disbelief was etched in her mental voice, but somehow, she knew it was true.
Her hand reached out, and she touched the glass of his tank, tentatively, as if it might shatter. The Face of Boe's eyes closed, and his entire self shuddered.
"Rosie," he rasped back in her mind. And she knew it was really true.
Captain Jack Harkness is the bloody Face of Boe.
"What the hell happened to you?"
His eyes opened slowly as if each lid weighed too much. She supposed, after living so long, the weight of time itself had been added to his form.
"You," The voice still vibrated in her head, soft and secret.
"What?" she was confused enough that she spoke aloud.
How could I have caused this?
And then she froze again, breath catching. Something in her mind, not the TARDIS, not Jack, seemed to give out a faint but firm howl.
This hadn't been caused by her interference, it couldn't have been, Boe existed in the original time-line. This... This... This was...
"Bad Wolf?"
Even now, after all the time that had passed, the name made her shiver. She didn't know, however, if it was a pleasant one or one of fear, or one of anticipation. Jack simply did not respond verbally or mentally, his eyes looking at her sadly in answer. Rose slumped down with her hand over mouth, feeling a great stirring of guilt coming into her.
I will do this to him... He's a great head in a jar for Pete's sake! Oh, bloody hell Valient what-
"I don't regret it. I encourage you to let it happen, this can't be one of the things that you change in your meddling with time."
Rose sat up straight up at that. His giant orbs looked amused at her probably stricken expression. Some part of Jack would always like to wind her up and that had not changed it seemed, even with him losing his body. She sighed, and looked at him, squinting in faint disbelief and both hope.
"I tell you about that?" She sent to him, sheepishly.
"Not until much later. You will know when the time is right. Wait for when we are with the lovely Doctor Jones," he answered cryptically, still speaking solely in her mind.
She wondered if it was the same Doctor Jones that came to her mind. She knew her in passing from Pete's World and remembered faintly that she had usually patched up her team whenever they got into any mess. There had been an attraction between her and Mickey, but the lovely female Doctor had been married to some bloke named Tom and she had never done more than gently flirt with Micks. She had liked Pete's World Martha Jones well enough, but she had never had the urge to speak to Rose or her team beyond the most professional courtesy and light flirting. She had been an all work and no play kind of woman. It could be someone else, of course, Jones was a common enough surname.
The kinds words she had spoken to Rose during her death, she suspected, would always linger in her mind, however. She made a mental note to thank the woman that had thought so well of her in the last moments if she ever stumbled across Pete's World Martha Jones once again, despite how odd such an encounter would be for her.
"Well, Bugger," she said, humorously, out loud.
Boe, Jack, chuckled at her response.
"I think you mean oh fuck, sweetheart. Finding out the repercussions of your actions before you even do them must be a head trip and a half. Sorry to crash your date, but when I saw you acting as you were, I realized you were already re-living your timeline. I didn't know you had gone this far back and I couldn't resist talking to you, Rosie."
She looked at him and squinted.
"You set up my first date with the Doctor," she said, both accusingly and fondly.
Because of course, Jack set up my first date with the Doctor. He had been our loudest, and most obnoxious cheerleader.
"I've done a lot of things, for both you and the Doctor," he said it cheekily, winking slowly, "How could I not do this much?"
She snorted.
Silly, bloody meddling American...
"God-damn it, you bloody enabler-"
"I have to support my Girl don't I?"
She laughed, pushing her hair away from her face and simply staring at him in both amusement and true, honest affection.
"I'm my own girl."
He gave her another swagger filled grin, eyes sparkling with life that pained her. Pained her because behind his inhuman features, a very human person was within and it was because of her. And she couldn't change it.
"You have always been my Girl. Even with the Doctor telling me hands off the blonde, you were my Girl. Gotta make things right for you and that man."
"You're an idiot. A real proper idiot... I did this to you, and here you go make key moments of my life happen," she projected, frowning at him.
I don't remember exactly what I done to him in the first place! She only remembered bits and pieces from her experience, at the most, and after long hours of trying to, except for those strange moments of vivid recollection, the emotions that had swarmed through her at the time(other than the TARDIS' song, one couldn't quite forget that). When it came to what had had happened to Jack, she remembered faint desperation, and pain and something within her howling no. The Doctor had told her that he had stayed back to rebuild the earth, and she had accepted that with the thought she would nag him to go visit him. Not this. And he was telling her to leave it be.
She frowned.
She was going to have to leave it be. Rule number sixty-seven of Rose Tyler's unofficial guide of Time Travel and Space Hopping, trust those you know(and trust) that know better than you. It was a sort of slap of reality that reminded her that not everything could be changed. That was a lesson she had learned the hard way once, and she was not very eager to repeat that lesson.
"Rosie, the Doctor's right behind you and I have to tell you something about the future," he rasped urgently. Rose leaned in, eyes wide.
A hand touched gently on her shoulder, and she jumped, swiveling and looking up to find the Doctor hovering above her, half crouched, but still more than a foot taller than her. He gave her a smile, large and somewhat crooked. She marveled at his ability to move so quickly.
"Rose Tyler, making friends?" asked the Doctor, cheerfully. His brows were pressed tightly together, and the hand on her shoulder was not quite squeezing, but nonetheless firm.
She looked back at Jack, blinking. She stood up slowly, gingerly, accepting the Doctor's aid as he clasped her hand carefully pulled her to her feet. The power in being able to pull her up was not a lot, but the sheer ease that he did it with made something in Rose nearly purr. He did have a superior Time-Lord Biology, as he so often had lorded over her.
"Yeah. You could say that" she whispered, a frown on her face, pushing down less than safe for work thoughts.
Part of her blamed unfulfilled love, and another part of her wondered if her hormones were at play. Nineteen was by no means in the height of puberty, but she was physically a teen nonetheless and no longer nearing the end of her maturation into a full adult.
Jack smiled at her, a soft, tired old thing that made her heart-ache.
"Rose Tyler, remember... Let it go."
Rose reached out, pressing her fingertips to his glass, and he closed his eyes for a single second, and so did she.
"I'll miss you."
"You'll see me soon, Rosie."
"But will you see me soon?"
Jack chuckled aloud.
"Does it matter, Miss Tyler?" he said aloud, voice soft and warm.
She gave him a smile, warm and without censure. It was Jack, after all.
"Yes," she told him, old eyes looked at her with more affection and she looked back with worry, "No one should be alone, Face of Boe."
Jack wiggled his brows.
"Whoever said I was alone?" he said simply, voice cheerful.
"Oh, I should have known better."
Jack winked at her and she could not help a giggle.
"Face of Boe, I'm the Doctor," said the Doctor, interrupting their moment of course. He wiggled the fingers of his spare hand, while at the same time the one holding her's tightened.
Jack simply looked at him and raised his brows. He chuckled.
"I remembered his ears being bigger,"he thought to her, and she giggled again.
The Doctor looked between them, a frown on his face. His ears twitched as if they had known they were being thought about. Both she and Jack let out a snort of laughter.
"Yes, you are. Goodbye for now," with that, and with another large wink to Rose, he was wheeled off by his returning assistants, who she suspected he had called out telepathically to retrieve him.
She looked after him, a slight smile on her face. Her heart felt a lot lighter with the scolding from the TARDIS and the talk with Jack. Let it go, Rose Tyler. Somehow I think that is an adventure that I have yet to experience. I have a future, is that what you mean to say, Captain Jack Harkness? What a wonderful, wonderful thought.
"Earth death in twenty-five minutes," called out the computer overhead.
Jack turns into a giant head in a jar. That there was one of the surly many reasons why this universe is so much stranger than Pete's World.
The Doctor turned to her, raising his brow.
"You get scared over a few aliens and then you make friends with him," he said, and he sounded both puzzled and impressed. He jerked his thumb at Jack's retreating form.
She sighed, a big huff of breath that seemed to come from the deepest part of her.
"I wasn't scared," she protested, mildly, voice quiet. She gave another sigh, trying to explain what she had felt when she had been truly nineteen with the retrospective of being much older, "It was more like culture shock. All these different people look so strange. You look like any bloke I can see walking down the street... But there are walking trees and terrifying flaps of skin that can somehow talk- But, well, Boe helped me put things into perspective. He's surprisingly normal. And the biggest flirt. Just like any bloke would do with a pretty girl. And he's a great big head in a jar that can talk inside your head."
The Doctor squeezed her hand and she turned to him with a soft smile.
"Really?"
She gave him a firm look and lifted an arched brow.
"Maybe a lot of culture shock," she laughed uneasily.
When he turned to look at her with a smile, brows raised, she laughed a little more.
"What? Come on, tell me at least Cassandra is strange looking, even to you! I don't even know how she talks without lungs or visible vocal cords!"
The Doctor gave a non-committal shrug a large grin coming to his face.
"Fantastic! You're taking this better than I thought you would."
Rose gave the Doctor a wry smile.
"Is that what you think is happening right now? Me taking it well that is?" she asked, looking out the observation window, looking at the empty earth. She fidgeted with the buttons on her jean jacket, running her fingers across the texture of the metal.
"I suppose. You don't look very alarmed. Just a bit out of sorts."
"I am. The Universe is such a strange place, and I was just reassured of how normal that is by a great big head in a jar. I'm not calm, Doctor, just... Understanding of this now."
She smiled, chuckled, shaking her head, and whipping away the tears that had gathered there in her conversation with Jack. Reluctantly, she parted their hands. She needed to give him space, and stop being clingy. And she at nineteen had needed space as well, so she would try to portray that as she carefully fixed her hair. She patted at her make-up with the make-up wipes she had packed, swiping expertly to remove traces of makeup that had run in her emotional state, using the compact mirror to reply it. She deposed of the wipes in a plastic baggy she had in her back-pack and took a small sip of water in a delicate way so as not to ruin her freshly applied lip gloss. After that was done, she placed her back-pack firmly on her back and her hands went into her pockets. Deliberately, she took out the lump of plastic in her pockets. Her old mobile was produced, and she nearly laughed aloud at the outdated model.
Just as she hoped, it was snatched out of her hands.
"Wait a tic, going to give an instant form of comfort in this culturally shocking experience, with a little jiggery-pokery, everything will be lovely," said the Doctor, happily.
He began to poke and prod at it, and she mentally checked off a super-phone made by the Doctor to events that had to occur during this adventure. The sheer amount of times that had saved her and the Doctor's arses were too much to count. While part of her lamented the limited and outdated base the Doctor was using to make a mass communication device capable of adapting to any Network across Time, Space and Parallel Universes, she had no reasonable way to ask him to supe up a smartphone in its stead. She would have to use her brick of a phone for now, and when the events of Ghosts came to past, to give it to Pete for the good of Pete's World.
One major event that needed to pass is done. Now only seven billion to go.
"Is that the technical term, jiggery pokery?" she teased, lightly.
He gave her a sardonic look, before returning at his jiggery pokering.
"Oh, yeah. Came first in it. What about you?"
"Failed in my first course of hullabaloo, unfortunately," she said, proudly and as serious as can be.
The Doctor rewarded her effort with a snort, and then straightened, and gave her the pink little paperweight with a flourish. She accepted it and looked at it curiously. She could see no visible changes, but she thought perhaps the phone itself felt heavier, so slight it had slipped her notice the first time around. Added components? Micks and Jack were the tinkerers and would probably know.
"Go on then, call someone."
For a second, she scrolled down the contacts, looking for Pete's number. It was an automatic reaction, and she meant to tell her father and the commanding officer all of her experiences. And then she stopped, her thumb hovering over the scroll button, before she shook herself, and scrolled up back to her mother's number.
He knows nothing of you. The man who had come to call you daughter is gone in the effort of the TARDIS and a twist of time.
It rang for a beat, and she felt her palms sweat.
"Hullo?" asked her mum, voice cheerful and distracted as she went about, folding laundry if Rose remembered correctly.
"Mum," she said softly, her grip tightening around her phone.
"Oh, what is it? What's wrong? What have I done now? Oh, this red top's falling to bits... You should get your money back... Go on. There must be something, you never phone in the middle of the day."
Rose let out a small laugh.
"I know. I'm sorry about that. I never call you enough," she said, and with a great beaming smile to the Doctor, she walked away from him for the sake of privacy.
She leaned against a column and pondered what to say to her mum, as she watched the Doctor get swamped by the guests of the Platform. He as always, he made himself the center of attention, talking boisterously and with the others with ease.
What do I say to reassure someone I won't see for a whole year?
"What's so funny?" asked her mum.
"Nothing, just an inside joke with my friend."
Her mother hummed, softly.
"That's nice sweetheart. Mickey was asking after you. He seemed right upset. You break it off with him? I thought it was going alright with you two," her voice was not concerned, thankfully, but instead confused.
"It was just alright. I nearly blew up in the shop, and I realized I wasn't in love with him, Mum. I know how much I mucked up my life, but I deserve to properly love someone don't I? I love Micks, but I'm not in love with him. It isn't fair to him. I know how he feels about me and it's tearing me to bits."
Her mum stayed quiet for a second before she gave a sigh.
"Sweetheart, of course, you deserve that. I just thought you had that with Mickey. Was he making unhappy?"
She sighed.
"No. He just wasn't making me happy."
"Well, if that's what you think is best, sweetheart. Make your peace with him because you were friends before all of this as well. Have you given any thought of what you're going to do for money? I heard Bev mention that there was a position open at her office for a cleaner. It's good money, Rose, if you put back your pride-"
Rose took a deep breath.
"Mum, you have to listen to me very carefully," she said urgently.
There was a brief silence on the phone, and she counted two whole minutes until her mother would speak.
"Rose? What's wrong?"
"Mum, I don't want you to worry about me, or the money thing. I found something, something good. Bit like charity work, but the pay is really good and I'll be traveling a lot, to real remote places. I'm not sure I'll be able to call a lot, but I know I can send a text as much as I can. I won't be home for a while."
That's the best I can give her. I wish I could say more, but I already sound like a nutter that got conned, even if it is a relatively reasonable explanation for my time away and my lack of contact.
"WHAT?!" screeched her mother, so loud that Rose had to move the phone away from her ear.
She winced at the various swears she heard emitted from the phone, smiling slightly when her mother lost her breath, and quickly put the phone back to her ear to respond.
"I'll be fine. Just trust me, Mum. This is such a good opportunity for me."
"Rose? What's going on? Is it Jimmy again, has he come to bother you? Oh God, it is Jimmy."
She sighed at the genuinely panicked tone her mum had.
She had really forgotten how 'delicate' she had become over that boy. She was way past the point of caring, she had suffered much more than anything he could have done to her. It was both novel and annoying to have it brought up by her loved ones as if it was still a concern for her. The Doctor had been her point of grief as of late after all.
"Mum, no, of course not. The stupid wanker's locked up. I just got a job offer from a sympathetic person from the inquiry, and it was just too good for me to pass up. Tell Mickey I'm sorry again and just trust me. I'll call when I can, just never call me, not even a text. I don't want to be charged for some crazy roaming thing, alright?"
"But, Rose..."
"Please, I have enough debt as it is," she begged, knowing that without a verbal promise her mother would dog her until no end. She took an even breath and said as coaxing as she could, "I'll try to call as much as I can, but you can not call me, mum."
Her mother said nothing for all of two seconds, and she could almost feel the tension here, five billion years in the future.
"Alright. I won't call," her mum said it slowly as if she were promising to do something outrageous.
Rose couldn't help but smile at her tone.
"I have to go. I'm about to board my plane, to Africa if you can believe it," she said with great enthusiasm.
"Africa?" her mother said faintly, disbelief in her tone.
"Isn't it grand? We go to South America next!" she said cheerfully, "I love you, mum."
"I love you, sweetheart."
They hung up, with great reluctance on her mother's end, no doubt. Rose breathed deeply through her nose, staring at the pink plastic in her hand.
She gave some warning to mother for her sake and did not regret the decision. She had been ambiguous over time, if not exact location, which would give her some wiggle room if the Doctor asked questions over her 'cover story'. As it was, she was going to tell him that she had wanted to give her mother some explanation over her disappearance, nor she had no idea how long the Doctor would have taken her away for. Giving her mum some peace of mind also made Rose feel a lot better.
Already doing some things a lot better than I had the first time around. Mickey no longer has false hope that we will be together as I slowly fall in love with another person, I have a reasonable alibi with Mum...
Mickey would have a better life if he wasn't accused of her murder. That had really fucked up his life on Earth, and part of her wondered if it was another reason why Mickey decided to stay in Pete's World in the first place, not just for a parallel version of his gran, but for making his life better than what it had been... If everything went according to plan, in two years time to her mother's calendar then both Mickey and her mum would get the chance to choose if they wanted to live the rest of their lives in Pete's World. Rose strongly predicted both would choose to stay there. They were happier there. A lot happier than I had been, Rose reasoned to herself as she acknowledged how hard it would be too lose both of them.
Her mum would be with the only man she had ever really loved, with a baby on the way. Mickey, on the other hand, would be in a place of purpose and respect at Torchwood. They might not have Rose anymore, but they would want for nothing and Rose would be where she would wished to be the most. The place she had been ready to be that day her life was truly, utterly, ruined. The day I started to die. She would still lose her mother and her dearest friend. It was a price she was willing to pay, knowing they would be happy, and still being with the Doctor.
It's better with two.
"Think that's amazing, you want to see the bill," said the Doctor, suddenly appearing behind her shoulder.
Rose jumped and laughed.
"That was five billion years ago. So, she's dead now. Five billion years later, my mum's dead," she said it simply and shook her head.
"Bundle of laughs, you are," said the Doctor with a roll of his eyes.
Suddenly remembering what was suppose to happen after those words. Rose tensed her leg muscles for what was coming and felt the entire station shake. She stumbled, her legs muscles not quite strong enough to brace her, and watched as the Doctor was nearly knocked off his feet, and she bit her lip to keep from laughing at his put out face, which quickly shifted into a soft glee at the sign of trouble.
"That's not supposed to happen," said the Doctor slowly, a little too happily, in her opinion.
He beamed at her, some bright thing that made her stomach flip... Bloody hormones.
"Honoured guests may be reassured that gravity pockets may cause slight turbulence, thanking you," said the Steward, over the intercom.
Rose gave a shaky laugh and turned over to the Doctor.
"That wasn't a gravity pocket was it?"
"No, it was not. I've felt plenty of those," he said, and it was obvious that he was getting excited. Like a cheery little schoolboy about to receive a sweet.
Without a thought, he gripped at her hand again and started to tug her along. Rose followed quickly enough, cursing her nineteen-year-old body's slowness.
"Indubitably, this is the Bad Wolf scenario. I find the inherent laxity of the on-going multiverse," said Moxx the alien as they hurried past him.
Rose, despite herself, flattered in her steps, stumbling, and looking back at the blue alien for a fraction of second. Every time she would hear or see that name, the name that belonged to her, it was going to trip me up, she thought with a grimace. And she just knew that she had plastered it everywhere... I should start a bloody tally.
"Hullo there Jabe, care to listen to the engines? They've pitched up about thirty Hertz. That dodgy or what?" asked pleasantly to the tree woman, a giant grin on his gob.
Rose frowned, his flirt of an attitude was one of the things she had not missed when in her time away from him or at least when it wasn't directed at her. Still, it was somewhat amusing though, to see the women and men and everything in between of the universe fall prey to his charms so easily. Even when he didn't have his 'foxy' body. It was charisma and some dangerous edge that people sensed. Or perhaps it was his air of mystery...
Either way, it worked on me. Only my charms worked on him as well, which I think was what set me apart, she thought, part humor, part reassurance.
"It's the sound of metal. It doesn't make any sense to me," said Jabe with a shrug of her wooden shoulders.
It was a very elegant movement for one made of such a fibrous material, thought Rose. She remembered, she remembered the first time around how Rose had been jealous of this woman. Not for the casual flirting she had seen the Doctor engage in. Though even as early as this second adventure, Rose could admit she had felt a bit jealous in that department. No, what had made her the most insecure and jealous had been the casual wealth this woman had displayed, the casual super-intelligence and the way she had never directly talked to Rose. It was amazingly dehumanizing, being talked about but not talked too. It was what had really pissed her off, once upon a time, so used to people in Hendricks coming in with their noses in the air and not looking her in the eye as they went about- talking above her and not to her.
But that's my personal hang-up, of being an Estate girl surrounded by all these posh people who barely look in my direction.
"Where's the engine room?" asked the Doctor, still grinning, still keeping an eye on the woman in front of them.
"I don't know, but the maintenance duct is just behind our guest suite, I could show you and your wife," said the tree woman, slowly, eying Rose.
Wouldn't I wish I was. The thought is unbidden, a stray one that Rose had thought every once in a while, with increasing frequency as she had gotten to know the Doctor. But it wasn't really something that had mattered to her.
Just a word. We were better than that. Something more than paper and rings and kisses and all of that. Would've been nice to have something like that, a good snog would have been fantastic. I would have loved to have more than simple hand holding... But we were both too scared. Both too attached to the relationship we had to try and make it something more than good friends that were both insanely in love and denial.
"She's not my wife," said the Doctor, grinning daftly and without a real understanding of what Jabe was tiring to uncover.
Same thick man with the social grace of a spoon.
"Partner?" replied Jabe.
"No, "said the Doctor.
"Concubine?"
The Doctor kept smiling, but his brows furrowed, his grip on her hand tightened, and his eyes flickered worriedly to her's at the word that implied something that could be dirty or sordid.
"Nope."
"Prostitute?"
"Whatever I am, it must be invisible... I'm the Doctor's friend, if you must know, and isn't it a little rude, no matter what culture you're from to call someone a prostitute?" It was hard to keep the frustration out of her voice, and in this case, Rose felt that she didn't really need to. Because Jabe was being a snob and Rose was never going to let anyone look down at her because of her relationship with a man.
She ignored the slight jump the Doctor did on the word 'friend' but she did squeeze his hand as he squeezed her's. He gave a slight smile, eyes still on her before they slid back to Jabe.
"Don't start a fight," said the Doctor, grinning again after he had recovered from the obvious shock.
Rose rolled her eyes. She gave Jabe a firm stare and a tight smile.
"As long I'm not insulted. Let's go, you two can pollinate another day," with that, she linked her arms with the wooden woman, and with the Doctor, part of her reluctantly letting go of his hand again.
But it was a necessary step of dominance over the situation that Rose needed. It showed Rose taking the lead over the Doctor. And it also showed Jabe that there was no true hostility over her less than polite inquiry. And it showed that the three of them, despite their difference in species, were equals in this endeavor that needed to treat each other with respect. Also, in a selfish aside, it gave some distance between Jabe and the Doctor that was unnecessary but made Rose feel better.
Classic Power Move 101, as Pete would say with a grin that could cut glass.
She was taking a bit of risk going with the Doctor for the sake of future events- Cassandra wouldn't know she was human. Wouldn't know her body was as 'pure' as you got, and it would reduce any tension between Cassandra and her. But Rose really had no need to get stuck and nearly burned to death, and away from the Doctor or Jabe. Nor be a potential body for Cassandra down the line.
"Lead the way Jabe," said the Doctor, cheerfully, hand curling slightly over Rose's arm. Rose tried not to read into it.
Try to squish down the surge of affection and hope the move brought. But Rose couldn't really. Not completely.
God, I'm a mess. And a bit looney over him.
"Earth Death in fifteen minutes. Earth Death in fifteen minutes," said the computer overhead, without a change in inflection its tone and Rose flinched.
~BW~DW~BW~DW~BW~
"Who's in charge of Platform One? Is there a Captain or what?" asked the Doctor as they walked, calmly, following Jabe's slight lead.
He eyed the botanical woman on the other side of the strange pink and yellow human he had picked up. She was a fascinating example of how much mankind affected the Universe at large for such primate species. A sister species of humans and different variations to plant life, a beautiful example of a symbiotic relationship between flora and fauna. Brown eyes, a little strangely structured, oddly flat for eyes turned to him. Jabe leaned forward slightly around Rose as well, a tightness in her brown eyes as she looked at him, a lingering effect of the heated conversation that had just passed through her and Rose.
"There's just the Steward and the staff. All the rest is controlled by the metal mind," said Jabe promptly. Her tone was strangely formal, in comparison to her light-hearted and somewhat breathless banter of before.
The Doctor wondered at the change and wondered how Rose Tyler had managed to make her that uncomfortable with a few choice words. Sort of scary, to see that sweetness and insight turn to something slightly darker. Her reprimand had come a little strong, but not unreasonable considering how Jabe had called her a prostitute. Most people of the twenty-first-century Sol 3 took offense to the term and the Doctor had not failed to notice how throughout Jabe's inquiry, she had not spared a look to the human. The way Rose's eyes had flashed, the way her jaw had clenched had made him reconsider her temperament. She had become violent at a drop of a hat when it came to the Plastic-boyfriend. And her hostility towards Jabe had been acute... But she had used her words in this instant.
The girl hadn't swung a fist or something equally violent. With the Plastic-boyfriend, the Autons had done the first violent move. Rose Tyler had responded in kind. Jabe had ignored her acutely and implied her to be less than for something as idiotic as a possible profession. Again, Rose Tyler had responded in kind.
She had used her words.
The Doctor liked that. Liked that a lot.
"Computer? But who controls that?" asked Rose, tilting her head to the side as she looked over to the woman next to her.
"The Corporation. They move Platform One from one artistic event to another."
He noticed immediately that Rose had narrowed her eyes at the word 'artistic' but did not say a contrary word.
"But there's no one from the Corporation on board," he asked slowly, narrowing his own eyes.
"They're not needed. This facility is purely automatic. It's the height of the Alpha class. Nothing can go wrong."
The phrase almost made him chuckle, as it brought another to mind.
"Unsinkable?" he asked, a sense of both dread and excitement entering him at the phrase when he spoke it aloud.
"If you like. The nautical metaphor is appropriate," said Jabe, with a serious and unknowing air.
"Oh my God, that is such a jinxing phrase," groaned Rose, closing her eyes and shaking her head.
"You're telling me. I was on board another ship once. They said that was unsinkable. I ended up clinging to an iceberg. It wasn't half cold. So, what you're saying is, if we get in trouble there's no one to help us out?" he asked, almost giddy at the prospect.
Rose blinked at him, mouth slightly agape, it seemed as if the girl had made the connection. He grinned back at her.
"I'm afraid not," responded Jabe, confusion evident.
"Fantastic."
"I don't understand. In what way is that fantastic?"
"Personally, I feel as if his measure of fantastic is skewed," quipped
Rose, grinning slightly.
The Doctor rolled his eyes. And she simply kept grinning, squeezing his arm. Hmm. It seemed that this girl was very physical when she sought for comfort or to give out reassurance. Even though he had his arm looped in her's now, he still remembered when she had clutched at him when she had discovered, are really, let it sink in, the fact that other life was out there. Alien and looking so different from what she was used to seeing in sentient beings. It was a way for him to see if she was really up to this sort of life. Facing an alien without true form was one thing, off-handling guessing he was an alien despite his human-esque appearance was one thing. But truly seeing a foreign alien and accepting them as a person? Apes had enough trouble doing that with their own species, let alone another. He wanted to see if Rose Tyler could be the sort of person to look at an alien and see a person looking back.
Not to mention, see what humanity was capable of. The 'last' human a blown up, dried out slab of flesh that had no respect for the finality of time...
Rose Tyler was frightened but curious. Cautious, but open-minded enough to look at the facts of the universe with an accepting mind. That was brilliant really, curious companions always asked the best questions. The Doctor found that he liked the strange girl, even if she reacted so oddly at the most miscellaneous things. The Face of Boe, flirting with her and her taking it in stride!
"How long have you know him?" asked Jabe, looking curiously between the two. Her dark eyes were narrowed and the Doctor had to resist from grinning too widely at the interaction between the two alien women.
Rose turned to the tree woman, lifting a darker than the hair on her head. It was obvious to the Doctor that the girl bleached her hair and he wondered at the odd forms of aesthetics that caused humans to do such strange things.
"Me? I'm thinking... What, twenty-four hours? A little over?" responded Rose, blinking.
"Thiry-Nine hours, forty-four minutes, 35 seconds, and counting," said the Doctor, winking when Rose turned over to blink at him. He had completely made that up, but, well, no one could be the wiser.
"You just made that up off the top of your head!" accused the yellow and pink human, in a quick volley. Despite this, she smiled, a laugh in her voice.
The Doctor merely grinned at her correct guess.
"You don't know that," he said smartly in response.
For a second, the human girl opened her mouth, then snapped it shut. She seemed to be doing the actual math in her head, a frown twisting her lips downwards. He could see the gears turning in her head, a mile a minute.
"You've known him for this long, and yet here you are?" asked Jabe, she looked clearly confused.
Hazel-green eyes sparkled, the gold flecks flashing and for a second, the Doctor got the impression that he had often around the girl, that she left some things unsaid, or perhaps tempered her reactions. It didn't seem as if she was laughing at everyone and everything per se, nor was it malicious sort of hesitation, as if she was holding back unkind words. It was as if the girl was unsure of what to say in the situation. It was almost the direct opposite on how he reacted to the universe, so ready to give his opinion to anyone who would truly listen. Rose Tyler seemed to be the sort of person who listened, to anyone who needed it. He thought for a second to the moment she had had with the Face of Boe. Once this whole mess got sorted, he was going to have to ask her about it, the faint feeling that it was all connected lingering in the back of his mind.
"Call it curiosity. Some strange man comes in and blows up my job, plastic moving about trying to wipe out life as I know it, I save his arse... I just have to see what kinda of a mess he'll be in next," she said, grinning at the tree woman, that tongue in teeth smile appearing again.
The Doctor felt his lips twitch at that.
"Seems vaguely dangerous, what if following leads to physical harm?"
The Doctor did not miss the small jump that the woman gave and felt himself blinking at her stiff posture. But she smiled, and again, there was something in her eyes that spoke of something he couldn't quite place.
"From what I've seen, it might be worth it," she said softly.
They walked in silence for a beat. For the Doctor, the silence let him analyze Rose Tyler a little further. Part of him felt alarmed how much his mind was being pulled towards the young girl. But most of him was too curious to cease his wondering.
"So, tell me, Jabe. What's a tree like you doing in a place like this?" Rose asked, seemingly no wanting to be left in silence for too long.
"Respect for the Earth," said the woman, demurely, smiling for the first time at the human.
"Oh, come on. Everyone on this platform's worth zillions," he interjected, not quite believing her.
"Well... perhaps it's a case of having to be seen at the right occasions," admitted the tree a little slyly.
Rose gave out a little snort, and a wry smile appearing on her face. She didn't say a word, and the Doctor took that as his cue to keep on his inquiry.
"In case your share prices drop? I know you lot. You've got massive forests everywhere, roots everywhere, and there's always money in land," he said simply, raising a brow with a wry smile of his own on his face.
Jabe nodded slightly, but she sighed as well, in a slight wistful way that made her seem a lot younger.
"All the same. You respect the Earth as family. So many species evolved from that planet. Mankind is only one. I'm another. My ancestors were transplanted from the planet down below. And I'm a direct descendant of the tropical rainforest."
The Doctor was satisfied with that answer, and he then pointed to a control panel that looked promising.
"Excuse me," he told the women, and he got out his sonic.
"That means we're related, kinda... Hullo, Rose Tyler a human from Earth," reintroduced the human, reaching out a hand.
Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw the tree woman reach over, pull at the outstretched hand to move Rose closer, and instead kiss the girl on both of her cheeks. Rose Tyler blinked at the gesture, looking taken aback, but then quickly smiled and returned the quick kisses, hardly missing a beat.
Quick on her feet, this Rose Tyler.
"Oh! It is a pleasure to meet you then," responded the tree, seemingly pleased by the turn of the events, "I had no idea another human was invited to the event! And from Earth, truly?"
"Don't exactly advertise it, really. What with people like Cassandra being all snobbish about it, seems silly to me. And yeah, from Earth, born and raised by my mum. Lived in this place called the Powell Estates."
"So you are fully human? How curious, I had thought that most full humans had been mostly bred out of existence."
"Don't really consider it that much of a difference between me and someone who has alien DNA, really. As I said, I don't go around telling everyone about it."
The Doctor grinned, grateful that at least his latest companion would be able to get along with people. Even after being insulted by a person. And could make herself fit in the situation instead of calling herself a time-traveler. It wasn't strictly illegal, in this year, but after the whole collapse of the Time-Travel Agency, most of Earth had looked down at the practice. So much to the point that most of the technology had been banned or lost in the upheaval afterward.
For a second, the sonic in his wall captured most of is attention, and he listened to their conversation on reflex more than anything. They talked about mundane things regarding their history, Rose Tyler looking fascinated as Jabe explained her literal family tree...
He didn't really expect the next words.
"And what about your ancestry, Doctor? Rose and I have told our story, perhaps you could tell a story or two...Perhaps a man only enjoys trouble when there's nothing else left," started the tree, and he tensed.
Rose stiffened, eyes going wide at the implications.
"I scanned you earlier. The metal machine had trouble identifying your species, refused to admit your existence," continued the tree woman.
The Doctor pretended to be concentrating on the scan.
But he felt something shift inside him at what he knew what was coming. Rose was silent, eyes measuring. He felt himself stiffen at the train of Jabe's inquiry.
"And even when it named you, I wouldn't believe it. But it was right... I know where you're from. Forgive me for intruding, but it's remarkable that you even exist. I just want to say... How sorry I am," said Jabe softly, tenderly, putting a comforting hand on his arm.
The Doctor felt the tears in his eyes, it was reflex really, he couldn't help it. He did not let them fall. What right did he have to cry over the Time-Lords? It's all my fault, after all. He jumped when he felt another hand on his arm, as the clearly curious, but silent Rose Tyler offered him comfort. Wordlessly. Without any real reason, only looking at him with furrowed brows and those fantastic hazel eyes, touched with green and gold flecks.
It wasn't as if she knew what was happening, or what Jabe was referring too.
But the fact that she offered it to a near stranger, even without knowing what bothered him, made him respect her a little more. His hand covered her's, and he marveled at how warm she was. Time-Lords ran cooler, more efficiently- but there was something to be said about her warm hand under his. His hearts beat faster, in sorrow and aching at the casual comfort offered by both women.
"There was a war. We lost," he said quietly, earnestly to the probably confused human.
She squeezed his arm a little more, eyes wide. She didn't say a word, and the Doctor was glad of it. I don't think any words could help me right now. The hand, on his arm, his own hand over it. It helped. Just a little. But it helped.
With that, the door opened, and he lead the two woman inside. The room was full of giant fans, and he thought it must be the ventilation room. Large fans blade nearly twenty meters across. Bit old-fashioned for the time period, but very serviceable and meant to cut costs. Rose Tyler visibly shook with the amount of cool circulating air, leaning against him as she looked about with interest.
"Blimey it's freezing in here," said Rose, huddling slightly within her jean jacket.
The Doctor rolled his eyes at the obvious attempt to change the subject but felt kinder towards her for her it.
"Fair do's, though, that's a great bit of air conditioning. Sort of, nice and old fashioned. Bet they call it 'retro'. Gotcha," he responded to Rose, moving forward to scan another panel.
The panel fell off with barely a buzz from his sonic, and a metal-spider thing scuttled out of the wall. It then scurried across the floor and up the wall, trying to get as far away as possible.
"What the hell's that?" he said in unison with Rose, who was gaping at the thing.
"Is it part of the "retro"?" asked Jabe, tentatively.
"I don't think so. Hold on."
He pointed his sonic at the spider and growled as he missed. It was a quick bugger, he would admit, trying again and again. However, Jabe fired something up at the spider, long and thin, green, disabling it. The Doctor reached out and snatched it from the air as it fell.
"Hey! Nice liana!" he complimented, grinning.
"Thank you! We're not supposed to show them in public," said Jabe, a slightly dark hue of green appearing on her brown cheeks. The mixture of plasma and chlorophyll acting as her blood obviously rushing in her embarrassment.
"Don't worry we won't tell," said Rose with a grin, linking her arm with the wooden woman. Jabe beamed in response.
"Now then. Who's been bringing the pets on board?" mused the Doctor as he peered at the metal-spider.
It was basic in construction- elegantly made really. It was also the height of this time-period's technology, but not made of the best materials, he noted quickly, a furrow on his brow. A compact, small thing that was meant for one purpose only.
"What does it do?"
"Sabotage," he responded grimly, hands clenching around the spider for a second.
Rose grimaced as Jabe gave a startled gasp.
"Someone wants to sabotage the station full of very wealthy people? Near an expanding star? I claim hostage situation. Ten quid for that," pipped up the human, lifting her hand dramatically.
The Doctor nodded, eyes narrowing slightly as his grin grew.
"Earth Death in 10 minutes."
"The temperature's about to rocket. Come on," he told the two woman, grabbing each of their hands and pulling them out of the room.
The Doctor raced through the hallways, intent on reaching the Steward's and to sort out this mess, dragging the two women behind him. He was dismayed to see the corridor filled with smoke and the staff coughing squeaky little coughs, obviously trying to get into the room.
"Come on! Get back!"
He moves his sonic screwdriver over yet another control panel. There seemed to be many of them on this trip.
"Sunfilter rising. Sunfilter rising."
"Was the Steward in there?!" asked the tree woman in alarm. The Doctor narrowed his eyes further.
He stepped back without bothering to open the door. It was too dangerous if the sunfliters kept rising and falling. Besides, the smell enough was to confirm it.
"Yes," he snapped back.
"He's the only one that could do anything about anything, wasn't he?" asked Rose, eyes wide, "Jabe said that the majority of this place was automated-"
"Yes," he repeated grimly, and watched as her eyes went wide in horror.
Then they narrowed, her firm jaw tightening in determination. Her hands curled into tight fists.
"Let's go have a chat with the other guests. No way in hell is the sabotage coming from any other place but from the people on board, this place is isolated, yeah?"
"I really like the way you think Rose Tyler." he responded, grasping her hand.
"Agreed," said Jabe, grabbing her other hand.
~BW~DW~BW~DW~BW~
"The metal machine confirms. The spider devices have infiltrated the whole of Platform One," said Jabe, a frown, and urgent look on her lovely face.
This has to be fixed. I couldn't save his life. I couldn't. If the Steward had been alive, Cassandra would have turned to more drastic measures to ensure a hostage situation. More people would have died if I had went off to save him.
This was the mantra that Rose kept steadily in her head. She had planed the Auton Adventure, the End of the World, and Christmas in Cardif carefully. She had acknowledged with painful logic who she could and couldn't save. As far as she knew, no one had died in the Auton Adventure after Wilson, with only some injuries in the greater part of London were mannequins had been heaviest. In the End of the World, however, at least twenty people had died, including Raffalo the poor Plumber she had briefly chatted with, and the ornery Steward. Eighteen guests had died including Jabe, and several had been grievously injured. As much as it had pained her to admit when she had been planning this, she knew she could not save the Steward without greatly diverging events. Neither could she save Raffalo the plumber for the same reasons. Both were too crucial when it came to circumventing Cassandra's plan and there were over a hundred different people, staff and guests that Rose had to take into account. As much as she bloody hated it, two lives did not out value over a hundred.
It was fixed. I couldn't change it without risking everyone. It was fixed.
It did not ease her guilt to keep this chant up. But it did let her breath enough to asses the situation and keep going for the sake of the rest of the lives on the Platform. So far, she had managed to get her super-phone, not have anyone die other than the Steward and Raffalo the plumber. She had not botched up anything really major. Cassandra still thought she was going to get her way. No one was in immediate danger until they finished alerting the other guests. And she had Jack as support.
It had to have been fixed.
She couldn't rewrite it anymore, and she had to believe if she couldn't save someone, then they were meant to die other wise. She couldn't really do anything to stop them from doing so. Some things couldn't be changed, and as the TARDIS had said, not everyone could be saved. She sighed, clenching her hands into fists.
"How's that possible? Our private rooms are protected by a code wall. Moisturise me, moisturize me," cried out Cassandra in her sweetly panicked voice, and Rose grimaced.
Lying fucking flab of skin.
"Summon the Steward," cried out Moxx, and Rose made a mental note to save his arse too, she really hoped she didn't screw that up.
"I'm afraid the Steward is dead," said Jabe gently, and Rose felt herself flinch.
"Who killed him?" cried out the Moxx.
"This whole event was sponsored by the Face of Boe. He invited us. Talk to the Face. Talk to the Face," hissed Cassandra. Begining to point metaphorical fingers.
Rose felt her temper flare, and she glared at what would remain of 'pure' humanity.
"OI, Michel Jackson! Leave him alone, he's as much as a victim as the rest of us!" she snapped at her, wanting nothing more than to go over and slap the trampoline silly, "It's bloody obvious that the Platform has been sabotaged and with the Steward gone, we have no clear way of fixing it!"
The glare sent back to her was nothing less than venomous, and Rose, thinking on how that bint would possess her, couldn't help but sneer. They stayed in a heated eye lock and it took all of Rose's will power not to stomp over, push her assistants aside and tip the stupid trampoline over.
See if she can monologue on her nonexistent back!
"We must assume that the sabotage was done internally. Nothing short of superior technology could enter the secure zone of an Alpha Class Platform," said Jack, calmly.
He looked at her and gave the smallest of nods in acknowledgment. The Doctor, taking it as his cue, spoke up, "Easy way of finding out. Someone bought their little pet on board. Let's send him back to master."
The Doctor grabbed the metal-spider from Jabe's hand. With the greatest flare, he placed it onto the ground. It moved to Cassandra first and then crawled in a quick scurry towards her constructs of thought. Rose's eyes narrowed and she had to force off the grin that was coming to her face at what would happen next.
"The Adherents of the Repeated Meme. J'accuse!" cried the trampoline dramatically, and if she had had a proper body, she most likely would have pointed in glee.
You think yourself so clever, so much more superior to us because of your 'human' status. But the best in this room is so beyond you it's ridiculous.
"That's all very well, and really kind of obvious, but if you stop and think about it," started the Doctor slowly, going over to the Adherents. He latched onto the hand of the 'leader' when he made a swiped at him, catching the claw in mid-swing with hardly batting an eyelash.
He cheerfully pulled off its arm with the biggest grin, as if he was a cat that had just caught the canary.
"A Repeated Meme is just an idea. And that's all they are, an idea," with that, he pulled on a wire from the arm, and the rest of the constructs collapsed.
Rose couldn't help the grin that came to her in response to his brilliance.
"In other words, someone else here has caused this mess," she pipped, up, watching as the Doctor's eyes glittered, "Made the Memes theirs and had them bring their gift of peace beyond any security."
He was in his element, and he shot her a brief, but very there, smile that all but glowed.
"Quite right, these are nothing but remote-controlled Droids. Nice little cover for the real troublemaker. Go on, Jimbo. Go home," he told the metal spider, nudging it away with his foot.
It made a bee-line for Cassandra, and Rose walked forward so that she stood next to the Doctor with crossed arms. His arm pressed carefully into her shoulder and they stood side by side in a clear accusation as the spider kept itself at the bottom of Cassandra's frame.
"I bet you were the school swots and never got kissed. At arms!" she cried out, her attendants raised their nozzles.
Rose eyed them warily all too aware of that the vats that Cassandra kept at her side were filed with an acidic medical substance that would melt the skin off of most people. She knew with certainty that they wouldn't shoot without Cassandra's say so. She strongly suspected that the assistants were a type of Slab, and could only go so far as far as functions.
"What are you going to do, moisturise us?" taunted the Doctor, but Rose reached out to grip on his leather sleeve to tug him back, just in case.
"With acid. Oh, you're too late, anyway. My spiders have control of the mainframe. Oh, you all carried them as gifts, tax-free, past every code wall. I'm not just as pretty face," she said snidely, and Rose tightened her grip on the Doctor's sleeve.
"Sabotaging a ship while you're still inside it? How stupid's that?"
stated the Doctor, shaking his head.
"I'd hoped to manufacture a hostage situation with myself as one of the victims. The compensation would have been enormous," said the trampoline, dreamily, and with a slight tone of remorse at the loss of control of the situation.
Rose seethed.
"Five billion years and it still comes down to money," growled Rose, recalling the words that the Doctor had said, because it was just so true. Disgustingly a constant in the universe.
"Do you think it's cheap, looking like this? Flatness costs a fortune. I am the last human, Rose, a testament of all things beautiful and pure!"
"You're not human! Anything that was human was tossed into the bin, squeezed out so that you become nothing but a bitchy trampoline. Humanity is still alive Cassandra, out there amongst the stars and prospering. You're nothing but a lost thing that stuck her bloody head in the ground as humanity prospered around you!"
"Oh, shut it! You Rose can never understand my struggle... Besides, I've still got my final option."
"Earth Death in three minutes," said the computer on the intercom.
"And here it comes. You're just as useful dead, all of you. I have shares in your rival companies and they'll triple in price as soon as you're dead. My spiders are primed and ready to destroy the safety systems. How did that old Earth song go? Burn, baby, burn," hissed out Cassandra. The glee in her plan twisted something in Rose's stomach.
"Then you'll burn with us," pointed out Jabe, her dark eyes intense.
The skin flap let out a small giggle.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. I know the use of teleportation is strictly forbidden, but I'm such a naughty thing. Spiders, activate."
Rose clutched at the Doctor's sleeve as the station rocked slightly at the force of the expanding sun outside. She narrowed her eyes at Cassandra as she gave a cruel, sweet laugh.
"Forcefields gone with the planet about to explode. At least it'll be quick. Just like my fifth husband. Oh, shame on me," she giggled out, obviously amused.
At that moment Rose felt nothing but disgust towards the older... Trampoline, a feeling that echoed from her past.
"Safety systems failing," stated the computer, and her grip tightened on her the Doctor's sleeve.
To the point that her entire arm was shaking at the force.
"Bye, bye, darlings. Bye, bye, my darlings."
Rose watched as she beamed out, Spock style. She scowled, and she turned to the Doctor. He looked worried, but mad as well, his eyes were both molten fury and chipped from ice.
She swallowed.
"Heat levels rising."
"Reset the computer," cried out Moxx, eagerly.
"Only the Steward would know how."
Rose shook her head, eyes firm.
"There must be a way. There's always a way to do it manually," she interrupted. It wasn't until she noticed the strange look on the Doctor's face did she register what she said.
Bugger. That man could make her so relaxed and unaware of what she said!
"I mean, that's how it is in films right? Humans didn't botch that much up did they?" she said quickly, her voice high in what she hoped was believable panic.
The Doctor's tension eased slightly, and he nodded slowly.
"Yes, we can do it by hand. There must be a system restore switch. Jabe, Rose, come on. You lot, just chill," he said, turning to the rest in the room.
He lead both her and Jabe out. Rose turned to the room and looked directly at Jack in the far corner.
"Try to find a room without any windows, "she said, evenly, nodding to him, "This room is fucking oven and we need to have everyone away from weak points like this."
Her beloved friend nodded back, his great eyes narrowing.
He directed his attendants to start moving people, and Rose knew she could leave these people in his good metaphorical hands as she rushed after the Doctor and Jabe.
"Heat rising. Earth Death in two minutes. Earth Death in two minutes. Heat levels critical."
The trip to the engine room was spent an intense sprint that took less than forty seconds. Rose puffed and huffed, hating how so pitifully out of shape she was. Hopefully running(and maybe hopping sometimes) for her life, along with rewiring her body for self-defense would get her up to shape soon enough. I hate being so damn useless. I could run triple this distance, twice as fast! Unfortunately, the heat of the ever closer expanding sun was not helping her at all. She licked her dried lips, cracked with the heat and starting to bleed.
"Oh. And guess where the switch is." said the Doctor, sounding truly put out as he pointed across the room.
Rose let out a faint wheeze of disapproval, still trying to get her breath back.
The 'retro' fans that had so interested the Doctor before were working at full capacity, and she saw the switch on the other side. Of the bloody room, the fucking walkway leading to them directly in the path of the swirling blades. Rose frowned. She remembered the Doctor telling her of this. Jabe had burned to hold the fans at a slower pace, and while she wasn't made of wood herself, she knew that her own very fragile human body wouldn't fare any better against the hate of the sun.
"Heat levels rising. Heat levels rising."
The Doctor pulled at a lever and the fans slowed down, and he grinned, moving forward as he let go of the switch. The second he let go it snapped back up, and he had to jump back from getting silenced. Jabe, walked forward and pushed down the lever.
"Rose, I advice you leave."
"You can't. The heat's going to vent through this place," cried the Doctor, eyes growing wide.
"I know," responded the tree solemnly.
"She won't, budge up," said Rose firmly, in a tight voice, taking out the multitool she had nicked from Mickey.
She reached for Jabe's beautiful red dress and without a mind to the probable expense, tore the long skirt into long even strips with the small scissors.
Both Jabe and the Doctor stared.
She tied the long piece of fabric firmly around the lever and forced it down. She dragged the long surprisingly strong fabric towards the grated floor and tied it there was well. It held, but she knew it wouldn't for much longer. She turned to the two aliens in front of her.
"What?" asked the Doctor, and Rose felt a jolt.
She smiled at the man she loved though, and gave him a somewhat honest, if evading answer, "It'll only hold for so long Doctor, so you Lara Croft your way past those fans and flip the switch. Jabe and I need to get out. It's too hot here for us."
Impulsively, without a mind of the space she should be giving him, she jumped forward and hugged him around the neck, dragging him down to her level. She pressed her lips against his ear.
"You save these people, Time-Lord."
With that, she jumped back, flushing violently at her own boldness before she gave him a tongue-in-teeth smile. She grabbed Jabe's hand, and began to pull her out.
"Heat levels rising. Heat levels rising. Shields malfunction. Shields malfunction. Shields malfunction. Heat levels critical. Heat levels critical."
Jabe and Rose ran out with those words blaring. Rose, trying to get as far away as the death trap, knowing that she was no Time Lord(lady?) and that she was in no mood to become a Rose-chip. She was sure that her tree friend was on the same page, judging by the way that she was quickly dragging her along.
"Planet explodes in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one."
The station jolted violently as it one and Rose and Jabe fell to their knees on the windowless service corridor. Jabe, shaking, more than likely completely terrified, turned to hug Rose, pressing her face into her neck with a wild sob. Rose returned the embrace easily, closing her eyes as the station shook out the waves of the expanding sun and the exploding planet.
Goodbye, Earth.
As the famous poem said, the Earth left in a whimper, no sound carrying through despite the implosion.
"Exoglass repair. Exoglass repair. Exoglass repair."
"He did it," cried Jabe in a breathless whisper, laughing with a more than a hysterical note to her voice, "He activated it manually. It's over. Cassandra lost!"
Rose gave a breathless laugh herself.
"Take that you bloody trampoline," she said to the air, pulling back from Jabe to pump her fist.
The tree woman gave another laugh.
"You were so clever to use my dress. I was so ready-"
Rose took that opportunity to swat at the woman's shoulder with her hand. The startled look was beautiful to Rose, as she smiled at Jabe, holding both of her hands tightly.
"You were so brave to think to sacrifice yourself, but it was so bloody stupid for you to do so."
"The needs of the many, outweigh the few."
Rose laughed again.
"Did you just Spock at me?"
Jabe gave a smile.
"I have a love for old Earth media, they are so hard to find!"
Rose laughed again, and so did Jabe. That was how the Doctor found them, laughing, on the ground, hands tightly clasped together. He, looking no worse for wear if with a slightly singed leather jacket and jumper, raised a brow.
"You lot are cheery."
"We aren't dead, so yeah," replied Rose, grinning at him, "I'm sorry about the jumper, I liked that one."
He grinned as well, hand reaching out for both of them. They took his outstretched hands and like before, the Doctor pulled Rose up. The fact that he did so with Jabe, effortlessly made her want to swoon.
"Let's go find everyone else. Probably they're all heading to the Observation Deck now that the sunfilters are in place."
In the Observation Deck, Rose was relieved to see neither Jack or any of the other guests missing, with a tone of the staff going about among them, checking to make sure they were all as comfortable as they could be in the circumstances. She breathed out a sigh of relief and felt a giddiness enter her at the fact that no one else had been killed... I did it! I saved people! The two trees that had accompanied Jabe here rushed over, slightly charred but happy to embrace the elegant tree. Rose stepped aside and smiled, remembering the devastated looks on the two before.
This is a much better thing to remember, she thought.
She grinned at the lack of devastation. She closed her eyes, grateful that her first date with the Doctor had gone so well so far.
"Miss Tyler," called out Jack, voice firm, "With a guest and crew manifest, I was able to determine that there were only two deaths overall. Two crewmembers, the Steward Ballafo and the Plumber Raffalo. "
She swallowed thickly and nodded to Jack.
"Thank you, Face of Boe," she said and she let the sorrow into her voice, "You kept everyone else safe."
"On your orders, Rosie. You can't blame yourself. Only blame Cassandra."
"I'm sorry," said the Doctor's voice suddenly to her right.
How quiet is he that he can sneak up on me so easily?
Rose opened her eyes and locked them with the icy blue that she loved. She smiled gently then, reaching out automatically and pressing her hand against his shoulder, ignoring the tears in her eyes. The guilt in his face was intense and she wondered what he was apologizing for. For the deaths? They weren't his fault. For the horrors, he had accidentally shown her? The trips on the TARDIS were always a toss-up, so he couldn't blame himself for that either.
"You all right?" she asked, watching as his face darken. Hints of the Oncoming Storm swirling in the depths of his eyes.
He stepped forward, movements slightly frantic.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm full of ideas, I'm bristling with them. Idea number one, teleportation through five thousand degrees needs some kind of feed. Idea number two, this feed must be hidden nearby..." he trailed off, looking around.
Rose watched as he smashed the ostrich egg that Cassandra had so kindly left out in the open. Inside the feed box was as bold as brash and she grinned viciously in response.
"Idea number three, if you're as clever as me, then a teleportation feed can be reversed," he said smartly and did just that.
Cassandra beamed through, oblivious to her surroundings.
"Oh, you should have seen their little alien faces. Oh," she said, eyes widening.
"The last human," sneered out the Doctor, voice hard and the storm still filtering slightly through. Rose stood beside him again, her arms crossed and fury in her heart.
"So, you passed my little test. Bravo. This makes you eligible to join, er, the Human Club."
"People have died, Cassandra. You murdered them," cut in the Doctor, not buying the trip she was selling. Rose's eyes narrowed at the sneer that appeared on Cassandra's horrible face.
"It depends on your definition of people, and that's enough of a technicality to keep your lawyers dizzy for centuries. Take me to court, then, Doctor, and watch me smile and cry and flutter," she laughed, loud and proud.
Rose, despite her dislike, couldn't help but flinch as she began to crack. She'll survive this. She'll survive this.
"And creak?" she asked softly, watching as the lines grew.
"And what?" snapped Cassandra, still not feeling what was to come.
"Creak. You're creaking," said the Doctor, eyes growing even more icy.
Rose tightened her fists in her crossed arms, feeling her nails, blunt as they were dug into her skin. She knew this was not the end of Cassandra, and she hated the bloody woman for what she had tried to do to her before... Later... But she still felt a twinge of pity. She could understand her, on some level. Cassandra couldn't let go of her life nor her 'purity' nor her life and Rose could not let go of the Doctor. They were in a sense the same, on that front. But at least Rose understood the consequences of her actions and knew that morally what could and couldn't be done. It was what made her different form the soon to exploding woman in front of her.
"What? Ah! I'm drying out! Oh, sweet heavens. Moisturise me, moisturise me! Where are my surgeons? My lovely boys! It's too hot!"
"You raised the temperature," said the Doctor, eyes narrowed, hard, and Rose shook at the pitiful sight in front of her.
"Doctor, can't you do something?" she asked, desperately, "Isn't it better she serve justice than die-"
"She was right about the court system. She'll live for decades without consequences, without serving the Justice these people deserve. The Steward and that plumber aren't even considered people on several worlds."
"Have pity! Moisturise me! Oh, oh, Doctor. I'm sorry. I'll do anything," begged the woman.
But the Doctor looked at her with the fury of the Oncoming Storm, the morality of a soldier and the justice of one.
"Everything has its time and everything dies."
Her hand reached out, and grasped the Doctor's sleeve, and felt her heart tug at the sight of the dried lines and what would happen next.
"I'm too young!" cried out the woman, desperately, pitifully.
And then she blew up.
It was a horrific shower of blood and various fluids that she couldn't identify. But for her thinness, Cassandra's body made little mess beyond the visceral shock of the explosion. Rose pulled back in disgust and pity, trying to find comfort in the fact that the bitchy trampoline wasn't dead quite yet.
Then the clean up began and Rose watched with an impression of pleasure as Jack took charge of the cleanup, directing people to shuttles and promising the staff positions in the aftermath of the Platform's obvious shut down after this event. The Doctor followed suit and she was left watching the aftermath as guests and staff alike clung to each other in what was obviously a traumatizing series of events.
"Rose Tyler," called Jack, his assistants rolling him over to her.
She gave him a smile.
"Alright there, Face of Boe?"
"Peachy keen, Miss Tyler."
She snorted.
"Rose is fine, Boe."
"You look more like a Rosie, to be honest."
She gave him a tongue-in-teeth grin.
"I'll see you, ya? And you'll be seeing me?"
"Yes."
"Love you, Rosie."
"I love you, Jack."
He left with her pressing forward to kiss the glass near his cheek, feeling the gesture would at least cheer him up slightly. Jabe and the two male trees came up to her, and gave her a careful, but affectionate embrace.
"It was a pleasure to know you, Rose Tyler the Human of the Powell Estates," she said as she pulled away.
Rose smiled warmly.
"It was nice to meet you as well, Jabe the Tree of the Tropical Rainforests."
"My brothers and I will seek justice for the sake of everyone here. A joint suit against Cassandra's assets and the Company's negligence."
Rose felt her heart warm at the obvious determination in Jabe's face.
"You gonna shake things up?"
Jabe gave a firm nod.
"Good on you, Jabe."
Anxiously, Jabe looked over to the Doctor, the clear attraction on her face making Rose nearly sigh. The tree woman looked at him, lingered on him before she looked to Rose.
"You'll take care of him? He has lost so much."
I know that so much more clearly than you can possibly know.
"I'll do my best."
Jabe a smile, and liked before walked forward to kiss both of Rose's cheeks in that posh way. Without missing a beat, Rose returned the gesture.
"Farewell, Rose Tyler."
"Farwell, Jabe."
With that, Rose moved, walking towards one of the great observation windows as the guests and staff alike made their way to start evacuating the Platform.
"Shuttles four and six departing. This unit now closing down for maintenance."
Rose watched the remains of her home planet with a lot of emotions running through her at once. Mainly, she felt as if they were bittersweet. Letting the Steward and Raffalo die, and saving Jabe, Moxx, seeing what she would lead Jack to turn into, made her feel impossibly drained. She felt exhausted, even if she felt lighter for seeing Jack so much earlier than she expected, and saving most of the lives on the Platform that would have been snuffed out. The warning the TARDIS had given had seemed like such an obvious thing, something that was inescapable, logical.
But seeing it come to pass made her throat close and the heat of stupid tears gather in her eyes.
I can't feel guilty. If I do it will just eat me alive completely.
When the Doctor walked up beside her, staring at her, she sniffed, patting at her makeup again with tissues and trying to suppress true tears. At his concerned look, she shook her head. She tried to give him a placating smile, but it came out of grimace. To think that she would have to do this until the Battle for Canary Wharf...
"The end of the Earth. It's gone. We were too busy saving ourselves. No one saw it go. All those years, all that history, and no one was even looking. It's just gone," she said, looking out at the remains of the earth again, thinking about her own life, and how easily it had been erased.
How easily and how unnoticed her own declining health in Pete's World. She had purposefully hidden it from everyone of course, but that had not lessened the feeling of isolation that had occurred during that period.
"Come with me," he said, softly, grasping her hand. A familiar and comforting thing that she could not help but let out a sigh of contentment, her stiff shoulders relaxing as he gave her hand a careful squeeze.
She simply followed him to the TARDIS, responding mentally at the comforting song that caressed her mind in both greeting and in comfort. The Doctor reluctantly let go of her hands with one more squeeze and she watched him fiddle with the controls. She gripped at the edge of the TARDIS console as it rocked back and forth through the Vortex, leaving the End of the World behind.
The Doctor was here, and that, despite my misgivings, that was what mattered.
She followed him silently after they'd landed, his hand gripping her's as she watched the twenty-first century around her appear. People walked the streets unaware, a baby cried out as its mother soothed it, a man whistled a tune, and they went on. Ignorant of the universe's intensity and vastness, open to them if they just looked at the strange blue box that had appeared amongst them.
"You think it'll last forever, people and cars and concrete, but it won't. One day it's all gone. Even the sky. My planet's gone. It's dead. It burned like the Earth. It's just rocks and dust before it's time," the Doctor said, a faint smile on his face, fondness evident to even those who didn't know him as she did.
She gazed at his face, his blue eyes, so hard usually, shinned with the complexity of whatever he was feeling, burning bright with a fire that made her heartache. She reached for him again and squeezed his hand, stepping as close as she dared with the man that thought her to be a near stranger.
"What happened to you, Doctor?" she whispered, watching his face closely.
"I'm the last of the Time Lords. They're all gone, ash and dust in the wake of the war. I'm the only survivor. I'm left traveling on my own 'cos there's no one else," he said, and Rose's grip turned so tight that it hurt her to keep up the pressure.
"There's me," she whispered, knowing if she could make it happen, there would always be her, there, forever, just as she had promised.
The Doctor smiled. Slightly, but she could tell in his mind he was already thinking of when she would leave him behind.
"You've seen how dangerous it is. Do you want to go home?"
Rose laughed at the thought and shook her head. Because she was home already.
"What I want is to see more... Explore more and try to understand...Oh, can you smell chips?"
"Yeah. Yeah," he said, looking bemused at her eager voice.
It wasn't as if she could help it, she hadn't had chips in forever... There were no potatoes in Pete's world. If she hadn't been dying, she would have been devastated on a deeper level than she had.
"I want chips," She said firmly, already tugging at his hand to make him move. He grinned.
"Me too."
She beamed at his answer, delighted that their first 'date' would end the same. That was one of the many things that she wouldn't dare change.
"Right then, before you get me back in that box, chips it is, and you can pay. You owe me ten quid for being right about the hostage attempt," she said brightly.
"I never agree to that. Besides, no money," protested the Doctor, nearly pouting.
She scowled.
"What sort of date are you? Come on then, tightwad, chips are on me. We've only got five billion years till the shops close," she said softly, pulling him along, knowing that maybe, just maybe, if what today was any indication, that things could be alright.
It was all she could hope for.
AN: Welp. Another chapter done C':
I have noticed as I write that now, a lot of the edited chapters will not completely match up with the unedited chapters. I apologize for this temporary confusion to any new readers and for anyone re-reading this. Just bear with me until I get through everything, and we will have a better, more fleshed out story in the end. I do not want to take this story down completely, as my edits are generally just additional dialogue and descriptions, cleaned up syntax and working a few more shaky plot points that I had. It will mostly match with a few discrepancies here and there. The majority of the text is the same and I would hate to erase the reviews that had been sent to me over the years. I hope you can bear with me and thank you so much for all your patience.
EDIT: 9 October 2019
