The Unquiet Dead
"Hold that one down!"cried out the Doctor, happily, as the TARDIS rocked back in forth in a rather turbulent flight.
She struggled with her nineteen year old (feeble) strength to reach the lever the Doctor had pointed out, struggling because of the lever she currently had down, and stopped trying altogether, knowing she couldn't possible reach across the console. Rose wondered if the TARDIS needed a tune up or an energy boast, as she was jerked to the left violently, and then to the right, since, while she remembered this flight to be jerky, she never remembered it to be quite this strong or violent.
The exhausted hum in her mind told her so, and she thanked the TARDIS for her effort, for she was really this tired because she had projected a bit of herself to get back Rose's consciousness before it could pass on... Or, well, that was what Rose guessed is what tired out the old girl. Couldn't really tell, since hums could only portray so much, and she had a feeling that the TARDIS wouldn't tell even if she could. She sighed, and clutched as a very violent tug nearly set her off her feet...
From the little she seen, the TARDIS could only send her fuzzy, chaotic colored images, and hums(way more than before, where it had been limited to flickering of lights, and maybe, just maybe, a soft hum in the furthest reaches of her mind), so whatever she had really done to bring her here was only known to the beautiful ship she so loved. She nearly laughed as the Doctor was almost sent off his feet at another violent lurch. That was a rare sight, a bewildered Doctor as he tried to yell and bribe the ship into behaving.
"I'm already holding this one down."she hissed at the Doctor instead,and gestured to the lever on the other side of the console that he had so flippantly pointed out.
"Well, hold them both down."he said plainly, rolling his eyes, fluttering about wacking at things on the console. She huffed, knowing how much the TARDIS hated that, but chose to ignore it because she couldn't really well say that, could she?
"Do my arms really that long to you?"she asked, perplexed, and didn't even try to reach over.
"Oi! I promised you a time machine and that's what you're getting. So stretch! Now, you've seen the future, let's have a look at the past. 1860. How does 1860 sound?"he asked, indignant, and she laughed.
"What's so grand about 1860?"she asked, and with a slight unpracticed gymnastic stretch that made her wince, slammed her foot to push the lever down.
She instantly regretted it, and made a mental note to start working on her body the second she had the chance, because she was used to being, well, a bit of a badass, to quote an American that had worked at Torchwood with her. The whole being nineteen again was getting old quick, and she longed for her twenty-second year old body, but tried to squash it down. Time would get back everything she had gained before easily enough, she just have to have enough patience to get it. If she had had the patience with her body dying in Pete's World, she could have patience now. He beamed, icy eyes warming up slightly, reminding her once again how much she had longed to see this particular Doctor.
"I don't know, let's find out. Hold on, here we go!"
She grunted at each violent turn of the TARDIS as the rest of the journey pulled them to and fro, and honestly, she felt queasy as they were knocked about. The normal lights flickered dangerously on and off, the room filled with a thick smoke that made her cough, and the green emergency lights flashed into her eyes, trying to blind her. The TARDIS hummed her apologies, alarm, and even frustration as Rose was knocked clear off the console with a final, screaming bump.
She stared at the ceiling for half a beat, before she turned around, laughter escaping her unwillingly, images of so many landings that had occurred the same way flooding her mind in a happy haze. The Doctor laughed out loud with her, an honest to goodness laugh that she hardly ever heard from this version of the Doctor, only for a second, but it was there. He seemed overall pleased at her reaction, and she couldn't keep the bloody smile off her face even if she tired. They locked eyes, his ice warmed over, her's, if she had seen them, green and flashing gold.
"Blimey!"she laughed again, rolling around to look at the blinking ceiling lights.
He gave out a small, startled laugh himself, jumping to his feet, easily with a simple flip of his legs, for a second, Rose stared at his bum(she did love a good bum), appreciating it until he turned back to her.
"You're telling me. Somethings off about the TARDIS, seems exhausted... Are you all right?"he asked, holding out a hand to help her up.
She took it readily enough, trying to get past the dizziness she felt.
"I'm fine, nothing too terribly broken. Did we make it? When and where are we?"she asked, rolling her shoulder where she had hit against the grating of the console room.
"I did it. Give the man a medal. Earth, Naples, December 24th, 1860."he said, drawing himself proudly when he had set her on her feet, eyes flickering to the small screen.
"So it's Christmas eve. How o-odd."she said, stumbling upon odd, since the incident with a little black hole she had gotten into the habit of saying ood, and she figured that little inside joke would only be met with curiosity, or downright hostility at that moment.
The Doctor looked at her for a second, obviously catching her stumble(really couldn't the man miss one thing?!), and smiled a soft smile that made that 'daft' old face look ten years younger, and all around softer.
"All yours."
Rose nearly melted right then and there at the soft tone, hidden behind his usual enthusiasm, and instead smiled brightly, as if her stumble had been only a moment of nervousness. Tugging at her earring absently, she looked around the console room, heart light and airy at the repeat of her second temporal adventure with the Doctor. She, with as much casualness as she could, reached out and squeezed his upper arm in a show of affection. She let her hand linger, because she couldn't find it in herself to let him go to soon.
"Christmas. 1860. Happens once, just once and it's gone, it's finished, it'll never happen again. A singular event lost forever in the wake of time, forgotten readily enough as the next one happens. Except for you, you remember everything don't you? And to remind yourself, you can go back and see days that are dead and gone a hundred thousand sunsets ago. No wonder you never stay still."she said, repeating as best she could what she had said the first time, and watched as he watched her with unreadable blue eyes.
"Not a bad life."he said it with a dopey grin, sincere enough, but there was a tell tell bit of darkness of the Oncoming Storm in his eyes, and she wondered what memories brought the darkness there.
She hated seeing it there, it made her ache, and though she knew that darkness was part of him, probably always be part of the nine hundred year old man, she couldn't resist the urge to help him move away from it. It made him stronger, but at the same moment if he lingered to long, he would lose himself and forget the good parts, the hero inside him. She sighed, and squeezed his arm again.
"Better with two."she said this firmly, and looked down at herself, shrugged, and made it to look as if she was going outside, slapping him playfully on the back as she had done all that time ago.
"Hey, where do you think you're going?"
Rose looked over her shoulder, raising a brow.
"1860."
"Go out there dressed like that, you'll start a riot, Barbarella. There's a wardrobe through there. First left, second right, third on the left, go straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on your left. Hurry up!"he said, waving her away.
"What are you going to do, change your jumper?"she asked, because sure, she had loved the reaction he had given through her dressing up, but was curious what he would look like in period dress, because she remember faintly seeing and opera cape and frilly cuffs the first time around...
Rose just sighed at his simple raise brow, and turned toward the wardrobe room, knowing she wouldn't get to see him in the opera cape. She sent a message to the TARDIS that though she loved the shoes she had gotten last time, that she really needed a pair that were far more worn in. The TARDIS only chuckled weakly in response, and Rose trailed her fingertips gratefully along the walls for her efforts, knowing that she needed a trip to an energy source as soon as the thing with the Gleth was resolved. Being on the crux of the soon to open rift seemed to help slightly she thought, because the as soon she mentioned returning to Cardiff in the future aloud to the lovely old girl, she simply huffed, and brought her closer to the wardrobe room like a wayward child that was being scolded or who didn't know better.
She laughed aloud, stripping with ease and no discomfort as she had the first time around, and placed her clothes in a little cleared shelf that she knew would take her clothes to the automatic wash a few doors down. The dress she had worn, along with all she would need to doll herself up were already set out, and she hummed gratefully at the TARDIS for her efforts once again.
"You spoil me."she whispered to her, and she got a short, hummed dismiss-able, a happy note hitting the beautiful song in the back of her head.
She slipped on the dress, and the more fitting shoes, built in Fortieth-century technology to mold to her foot perfectly, and worked on her makeup, keeping it soft and natural. Her hair she noted, was slightly dry, no doubt from product treatment, and made a mental note to buy a better dye at an alien market place as soon as she could, before she pinned it up, as she had done last time. She shook her head at the use of bleach, what had she been thinking back then? Or, well, now she suppose.
"What do you think? Beautiful for a human, or overall gorgeous?"she asked the ship, and got another happy hum in response as she spread her soft lipstick.
She took that as gorgeous in general and made to leave, but then she spotted something that made her heart constrict. Trembling, and hating herself for doing so, she let herself touch the coat, Janis Joplin given if she remembered correctly. Its tweed was rough beneath her fingertips, foreign to her body, but her mind and soul or whatever had been sent back remembered its feel for it, had been burned into memory like his smile or the soft far away song of the TARDIS that had nestled in the furthest reaches of her head before she had been flung to Pete's World.
The TARDIS gave a soft, easing hum at the back of her head, comforting, and Rose unhooked the coat and brought it to her chest. The scent was that strange mixture of age and whatever TARDIS used as detergent, clean and fresh. All it was missing was the scent of the New New Doctor's... Tears filled her eyes much to her displeasure and frustration, and she wished she had a better control of herself.
Rose Tyler, Defender of the Earth did not cry for silly things such as memories, even of the Doctor, or at least, she didn't anymore, having grown past that. But Rose Tyler, hurled back into her nineteen year old self, and a mixture of the Defender, the Bad Wolf, the Valiant child, and that girl from the estate and shop seemed unable to hold back the tears that leaked down her cheeks.
"Part of me wants him here, and part of me wants to keep this version of the Doctor forever. He's the same man, put so different all at once."
The TARDIS only gave her a sigh, and Rose thought she saw a flicker of eight hazy faces pass through her mind, and she softened slightly, her own pain seemed so petty and dull in the wake of the TARDIS's. Her heart ached for the old eleventh dimensional being.
"Oh, old girl, you miss the other hims, don't you?"she cooed, and reluctantly placed the coat back, carefully, her fingertips lingering and trying to burn the familiarity of her old self's body, trying to engrave its texture into her skin once again.
She looked toward another section of the wardrobe, suddenly highlighted in the otherwise dim room. From what the TARDIS was giving her, this was what the Doctor had worn in the wake of his other forms, and she allowed her hands to hover over along each of the outfits, humming along with the TARDIS, it was a happy, but somehow mournful hum, and it had nothing to do with Rose's discomfort or pain, but the TARDIS's, because she had lost every single personality that had worn all of the eight outfits in front of her, and while TARDIS seemed to accept the whole trick of a Time Lord far more easily and readily, Rose could hear the sorrow at each lost nonetheless.
Because as wonderful it was that the creature that was the Doctor continued each time he reinvented himself, a part of him was lost, forever in the wake of stars and dust, and a new, but same man took his place. Same memories, same man at the core, but a different face and personality that was enough to cause him to become something other, if the same. Rose both hated and loved the process, because it had cost her this Doctor, the wonderful, daft face with the icy blue eyes and a tough, jaded ex-solider, but firm sense of justice that had drawn her in like a moth to flame.
But it had also given her the New New Doctor(many more news than that really if the TARDIS was correct, and she most likely was), brown eyes and easy smile, grabby hands and big gob that ran for hours(a trait that seemed to linger in whatever form of him), that had made her realize how utterly and stupidly she had fallen in love with the daft alien that had gone and changed his face, and showed her all of time and space.
She reached out to touch the clothes, but stopped herself because it wasn't her's to touch, the TARDIS had shared it and she was grateful to see a glimpse into the Doctor's past, but they were the clothing of parts of the Doctor that she hadn't ever met. They weren't her pain, not until or if the Doctor ever shared it with her. Part of her wanted to touch it anyway, that selfish part of her that wanted to know of all of him, no matter if he was willing to share or not. But Rose didn't dare, because she respected him and loved him too much to take away his choices. That had happened far too often in his life, or, at least, that was what she could gather from what he had told her.
She swallowed, looking into the past that he had never let her see too closely. She compromised and touched the shelf that they were stashed in, and found herself hoping she would one day understand the long scarf, or the stark, red question mark umbrella hanging on a hook. She hoped she would understand it all, because if there was one thing that she had regretted most about her lost of the Doctor, is that she had never learned enough of him...
She whipped her eyes, thankful for advance makeup that didn't run, before she left the wardrobe room. As soon as she could, she kissed one of the walls of the TARDIS, and trailed her fingertips against the walls, thankful for the narrow passage so she could touch as much as she could and hummed a happy song to the ship. Her efforts were met with a happier song, and a thankful one. For what, she could not be sure, but Rose could only think is because she and the TARDIS shared the same pain over what had occurred(even if Rose had no idea what had) and what would happen in the wake of risking a constant paradox and utter devastation and destruction of the universe. Kinda a lot to put on the shoulders of a twenty-two year old woman... Or, was it a nineteen year old woman?
She pushed away such confusing thoughts that would even give the Doctor a migraine, and found the him muttering to himself trying to help the TARDIS along in her internal repairs. The old girl of course kept sparking, telling 'her Thief' to back off, and Rose held back a chuckle at his swears and little jumps as he tried and tried again to help the TARDIS.
His jumper was already changed, and she smiled, hoping that he wouldn't notice the remains of tears in her eyes. He looked up absently, obviously impatient for her, and stilled. Mentally, she patted herself on the back for getting such a reaction out of the more stoic version of the Timelord after so little time.
"Blimey!"he said, eyes wide.
Rose laughed.
"I hope that's a good blimey."she said as he looked her up in down, mockingly thoughtful hand coming to rest on his chin, the fact that he was joking with her, if mildly, made her glow.
"You look beautiful, considering."
"Considering what? That I'm a silly ape?"she asked, amused as he raised a brow.
"That you're human."he said, as if to correct her and she smiled, tongue in teeth.
Sweet progress!
"Same as a silly ape, I suppose. But, I'll take it that I look gorgeous. I see you've changed your jumper, lovely color."
"Why, thank you."
She gave a small smile at his beaming one, and carefully walked forward, twining her arm with his like she saw proper gentlemen and ladies do in this era.
"Shall we?"she asked, amused at the tension he had at her nearness before he relaxed, if only a little.
She saw no reason to make Christmas 1869 'her's' as she had the first time around, because she had had it once, and wished to share with the Doctor so to speak. And she wanted to do that this time, share all the more...
"We shall."
She opened the door, with her free hand, saying goodbye to the TARDIS with a mild hum, and smiled at the fond one she got in return. The snow was crisp and pure, and as she stepped onto it, she was glad for the use her TARDIS given shoes. Her feet weren't cold at least, and she curled her toes in them, marveling at the self heating system.
She smiled lightly as she took in the past for the first time with her nineteen year old body, marveling at every detail as she looked around, a slow, burning warmth entering her. Doctor on arm, she could nearly forget the events that were in the making. She sighed slightly, memories of Gwyneth and the Gleth swirling in her mind, and tried to ignore what was to come for just a moment, trying to savor the fact that she was right there with the Doctor, cuddling against the onslaught of the cold, fierce wind that whipped at her skirt and hair.
Or well, that was her excuse, the slightly thicker shawl than last time across her shoulders worked just fine to keep her warm, but well, the Doctor was humorous at this point over contact, and she craved to touch him more than she could say. She understood the fact that she was in the past(in more ways than one), but at moments she felt as if she needed to hold something solid and living to confirm when and where she was, and who she was with.
And he was there, and holding onto him, touching his arm or tugging at his earlobe was the only thing from keeping her from falling to her knees and finding this was an elaborate, terribly, wonderful dream. On reflex, she tighten her hold on his arm, relishing the realness and softness of the worn leather against her hands. Familiar yet not, it was a conflicting comfort to her.
"Ready for this? Here we go. History."he said it pleasantly and like a little school boy wanting a treat, and she had to smile again, and push aside her concerns, if for a moment.
They walked comfortably, despite the overall stiffness on the Doctor's part, but Rose ignored it, telling herself in reality she was a new companion, and not to show her disheartening feelings at his reaction to her. She sighed despite herself, viciously scowling as she pushed down her illogical feelings, but she smiled when the he looked over to her.
"It's just been a long time since I've seen snow. It's strange, it was so hot when we left!"she told him, nudging the snow piling up on the side of the sidewalk with her foot.
"I could take you somewhere warm if you want?"he asked sounding mildly put out, and she laughed, shaking her head as she adjusted her thick shawl.
"Nah, this is brilliant! I mean, its Christmas, 1860s! You never know what's going to happen!"
The fact that she knew exactly what was going to happen was beside the point. He grinned at her, and they walked along, Rose humming along to the singing choir, and eyeing the hearse that drove past them, knowing who was inside it, and their deaths... The people of 1869 walked about their lives, the two time travelers ignored in the wake of their confident strides and in Rose's case, appropriate dress. The Doctor grabbed a newspaper, buying it with a casual air, and she rolled her eyes at the fact that he did have money and could have paid for their chips, but didn't point it out. He could be a right cheapskate in this Northern version of himself she thought with a raised brow.
"I got the flight a bit wrong."he said it somewhat dejectedly, frowning as he flipped through the pages of the paper.
"I don't care."she reassured him, and was mildly amused and annoyed when he didn't listen.
For she really gave no flying flip at where or when they were, just as long as they were together. But of course, the Doctor never could listen to such logic, even implied, as smart as he was.
"It's not 1860, it's 1869."
"I don't care."
"And it's not Naples."he went on, and she rolled her eyes, glad he wasn't looking at her.
"I don't care."
"It's Cardiff."
"It's something new. Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get, right?" except when you do she thought mildly, holding back a chuckle.
She then shrugged, counting one, two three... And then the screams started, and she jerked her head towards the theater, flinching slightly. The Doctor straighten out of his slight slouch, icy eyes gleaming, and tightening his hold on the crook of her elbow.
"Now that's better! We just got banana chocolate! Come on!"he exclaimed, and he ran, Rose trying the best she could with her unpracticed body to follow next to him.
"Banana?"she asked, trying to look confused instead of completely amused.
"Bananas are good."and there's the Doctor and his banana mania she thought, and allowed herself a grin then.
"You're a completely daft alien."she told him, grin tongue-in-teeth and something she couldn't prevent.
He looked down at her raised a brow, and smiled.
"Isn't it fantastic?!"
Then he rushed ahead, Rose right at his heals, laughing in agreement. The theater was in complete chaos, and she nearly glared at the display on the Gleth's part, something in her twisting in both disgust and no small amount of fear. The blue 'angel' rushed around the theater, and she felt a scream threaten to rip out of her at the display. She manged a gasp instead, clutching as the Doctor raised his brow, his own smile manic and large.
"Stay in your seats, I beg you. It is a lantern show. It's trickery."called out the old man, Charlies Dickens, and Rose felt a slight sigh of exasperation, remembering his stubbornness. But in the same breathe she felt a sense of lightness, because he had gotten a new outlook on life.
She watched as Sneed and Gwyneth went rushing for the corpse, and she walked forward, trying to push away from the crowd.
"Fantastic."breathed out the Doctor, clear glee on his face.
She found herself committing that face to her memory, even as she tried to not get trampled by the frightened Victorian crowd. It was a rare look on this Doctor's face, and she found herself conflicted at leaving him as she watched Sneed and Gwyneth. On the one hand, if she did not follow them, the possibility of going to the funeral home significantly decreased, and her existence was rather nice even if a little bizarre at the moment, and she rather not have the Gleth go invader of the body snatchers on Victorian era Earth and make her fade from existence. On the other hand, she could experience the adventure in a different perspective, as she had the last ... She had about fifteen seconds to decided, and Rose wished that she had thought to bring a coin.
The old woman collapsed, and Rose let out a breathe of disgust and resolve, and the Doctor hopped onto the stage, while she strove toward the running Sneed and Gwyneth. They picked up the corpse and started to run off, and Rose, automatically regretting what was going to happen, and slipped into an ease mind set she had developed at Torchwood. She squared her shoulders, back ram rod straight as she stalked closer to the fleeing girl and man. Pursuit she could handle, even if it ended up for her being knocked out and felt up. It may have been the first time in a physical sense(for both occurrences), but not the last time that would ever occur, and she would know.
"Oi! Leave her alone! Doctor, I'll get them."she cried out, hopefully convincingly as she stopped her stalking and began to run in earnest after them.
"Be careful!"cried out the Doctor, and she ignored the emotions those two words caused in favor of the chase. Because that was much more easier, and familiar to handle than the fact that the Doctor had not said that to her in far too long and it struck her as heart-breaking and heart-lifting.
She ran with a clumsy, unpracticed gait, grateful of the new shoes the TARDIS had provided, and chased after the girl who saved the world and the man that died before with much determination, rushing out of the theater and catching them as they stuffed the corpse into the hearse. Apparently even her nineteen year old body could handle Victorian Englishmen and women well enough.
"What're you doing?!"
Gwyneth was the first to react, babbling out a convincing speech that Rose had to applaud her for:
"Oh, it's a tragedy, miss. Don't worry yourself. Me and the master will deal with it. The fact is, this poor lady's been taken with the brain fever and ..."
Gwyneth then took her in, eyes widening, freezing in the middle of her convincing explanation. Her mouth opened in horror, the girl took a step back, scrambling really, to get away from her. She tripped, falling on her bum in the process. She looked up at her, still scrambling away, seemingly not to care for the state of her coat or dress against the slick ground. Rose flinched unconsciously at the expression on her face, terrified and pale, but lifted her chin in defiance against the obvious fear on the physic's face. She wondered faintly what she saw... Purposely, she touched the dead woman, feeling the cool, and horrifyingly familiar stiffness of a dead body.
"She's cold. She's dead..."she braced herself for what was to come, and had to stop herself from struggling and actually getting out of Sneed's grip as he put a soaked cloth over her mouth, she allowed the chemicals to affect her, falling into darkness...
~BW~DW~BW~DW~BW~
The Doctor was many things. He was a murder, he was a monster, an unwilling solider, he was a savior, he was a rebel, he was a genius, at one point he had been a poet and a romantic but he was not a forgiving man, or at least, not in this regeneration. He had seen Rose take off, called out a 'be careful' after the young human, but he hadn't register that the girl could be in any real danger. After all, the phenomenon of ghost had been within the theater. But be damn if that girl got herself kidnapped anyway. He was angry, yes, furious, but mostly with himself for letting her go. Jeopardy friendly, that was that girl was, he thought as his old eyes followed the hearse that she had been forced into. He made a mental note to never let her leave his sight, if she made it through this mess of course.
"Rose! "
The Doctor felt his fists clench, his walking enigma, the yellow and pink girl with the quirky smile was gone. Taken! He would not let that stand. He registered faintly as an old man came running to him, his short, soon to be ending time-line swirling around him, a vivid and deep forest green, around his shoulders like a shroud. and while part of him registered the fact that he should be address the fact that a silly ape was following him, the pale, limp form of Rose Tyler being stuffed into a hearse made him only grimace and ignore it.
"You're not escaping me, sir. What do you know about that hobgoblin, hmm? Projection on glass, I suppose. Who put you up to it?"
"Yeah, mate. Not now, thanks. Oi, you! Follow that hearse!"he called out to a driver of a carriage as he pulled up, lunging for it and diving into the back.
Much to his frustration, the carriage did not move an inch.
"I can't do that, sir." said the driver.
"Why not?!"
"I'll tell you why not. I'll give you a very good reason why not. Because this is my coach."said the old man, affronted no doubt by his behavior. The Doctor rolled his eyes.
"Well, get in, then. Move!"
The driver cracked out his whip, and while the Doctor cringed slight at the loud whiny that the horse gave out, he most felt himself growl at the slow, almost leisurely trot.
"Come on, you're losing them!"he said, watching the hearse, as it raced down the streets of Cardiff, gaining more and more distance.
It was his fault for letting her run awry, this was only her second voyage. He had lost other companions through the carelessness of trusting them too quickly on their judgment, or even some foolish action on their part. And this girl, no matter how odd, how bloody fantastic she had behaved in their two adventures together, was still a novice at the wonders and dangers of time and space ...
It was his fault for putting a nineteen year old girl in such danger, for forgetting her age and experience in the wake of her attitude and maturity ... She wasn't the youngest of his companions, but she was nearly there, and he felt his hearts beat at an alarming speed at the thought of the harm that might come to her. The Doctor was many things, but if he was anything, he was a fighter, and a right stubborn bastard, because he refused to let that girl die...
He refused.
~BW~DW~BW~DW~BW~
Rose woke with the biggest type of migraine, the one that you could only get through drugs, something her old body had been used to, but of course her nineteen year old body had yet to gather a resistance to. She swore and groaned as she swung herself up, ignoring the light-headedness the gesture brought and rubbed her eyes. Even the incredibly dim light of the gas lamps made her wince and squint as she kneaded her temples. The slow, stumbling movement to her right made her jerk her head towards the noise, and realize fully just were she was. She hissed as she watched the Gleth controlled corpse of the young man knock off the top of his coffin, and stumble out of it.
"Oh bloody hell."she cried out softly, getting off the table and moving backwards towards the door, careful to keep her gaze on the damn thing.
The the corpse of the man moved determinedly towards her, no doubt wanting to make another meat-sack for one of its buddies.
"This is better than dying, this is better than dying... Back off you gaseous, demonic body snatchers."she hissed out in a whisper, her back hitting the locked door.
The Gleth paused, tilting its head to the side. The old woman's body joining its son's body. Both stood side by side, and both their gaseous forms flickering within the stiff, fridged flesh of the dead, blue, soft and gentle. Beautiful like the an aura borealis that ghosted over their skin. It sent shivers up her spine.
"Pity the Gleth. Help the Gleth. Be the Gelth."they cried, before they stalked forward once again.
"Let me out! LET ME OUT! DOCTOR! DOCTOR!"she screamed half turning to slam her fists repeatedly against the door, knowing that at this point the Doctor should hear her.
She waited for five seconds, before the corpses reached for her shoulders, and she moved to the side, launching herself that way really, the Doctor having the best timing as always, kicked down the door at the same moment. Her hero she thought fondly as she unclenched her fists, and felt her body relax automatically at seeing his face.
"I think this is my dance."he said, and she grinned as she reached for the hand he had extended to her.
It was calloused and slightly cool, perfectly so, and so much better than the feel of dead skin against her's.
"Well, fox trot, waltz, samba, I'm up for it. Just need a less dead partner to dance with."she said he pulled her away from the corpse.
"It's a prank. It must be. We're under some mesmeric influence."said Charles Dickens, and Rose resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
Skeptics.
"No, we're not. The dead are walking. Hi."said the Doctor, excitement in his voice as he gathered her close to him, she settled easily at his side, clutching at his arm.
"Hi. Who's your friend?"she asked, amused by his tight grip on her waist, his large hand easily spanning the length of her waist, despite the fact that she was not the fittest(at that moment) nor the smallest of girls.
It made her feel refreshingly feminine in a way that she hadn't felt since she had become Rose Tyler, code-name Valiant.
"Charles Dickens."he said mater of factually.
She laughed despite herself, finding irony lost before quickly and not in a delayed way.
"Hello there Charlie! Lovely, ghosts at Christmas with Dickens. I do hope we get to solve a murder mystery with Agatha Christie or maybe Witches with Shakespeare?"
The Doctor grinned, and part of her hoped that maybe one day, when the two years were over, he would take her up on that. If he would forgive her for going through this mess that is.
"Grand idea, I'll have to keep that in mind. My name's the Doctor. Who are you, then? What do you want?"he said, directing his voice towards the gaseous dead thing from across the stars.
"Failing. Open the rift. We're dying. Trapped in this form. Cannot sustain. Help us. Argh!" voices as soft and high as a collection of dozens of children. It was sweet and pitying.
Rose felt her skin crawl at it as the blue, soft near angelical light left the corpses and into the gas lamps. She shivered, and tightened her grip on the leather clad arm of the Doctor. A stunned silence settled over the lot of them, and beyond the distant song of the TARDIS in her head, she heard the faint whispers of the Gleth within the walls, most likely ripping, snapping, growling and biting to come to this side of the rift she thought with anger, shaking her head. Wanting to murder every child, every man, woman and creature to live in a stolen body. She felt sick.
"We'll I think I need tea."she said into the quiet of the room, and felt the sharp gaze Doctor, and the bewildered gaze of the majority of the people of the past turn to her.
She raised a brow, but allowed herself to put some of her weight into the Doctor, as if she couldn't keep herself up completely on her own... And also have an excuse to press into him.
"I almost got murdered by a zombie. I deserve tea. Anyone else want tea?"
Gwyneth smiled, hesitantly, seemingly not able to look at her as she tentatively stepped forward.
"I just put a pot on. There should be enough for all of us."
"Right. Fantastic, tea for all. Come on." said the Doctor, nodding and taking her to the parlor.
Gwyneth had suggested it last time, but, well, Rose wanted tea now not after twenty minutes of awkward silence and the Doctor jumping up and down, sonicking everyone, whispering to the gas lamps and kicking at coffins. She prevented him by doing so by dragging to the parlor. Sitting down easily on the couch, Rose turned to the meek looking older man that died so cowardly.
"First of all you drug me, then you kidnap me, and don't think I didn't feel your hands having a quick wander, you dirty old man. Then you stick me in the room of the dead, hoping they'd make quick work of me."she said it far more calmly than before, years spent keeping her temper in the wake of diplomatic situations handy in that moment.
It took all her self control not to deck the man, but considering he could possibly die in the next few hours, she felt as if she could resist the temptation.
"I won't be spoken to like this!"cried Sneed, as if dignity was needed to a man that had most likely allowed the deaths of dozens of people.
Rose felt her lip curl in a snarl.
"I believe leaving me to bleedin' die grants me the right to speak to you anyway I like. So talk!"
Something in her expression most have scared the man into compliance, for he coward in his own home, huddling within his chair of velvet and a deep sigh escaping him.
"It's not my fault. It's this house. It always had a reputation. Haunted. But I never had much bother until a few months back, and then the stiffs, the er, dear departed started getting restless."said Sneed, nervously, looking down at his twisting his hands.
Rose raised her brows.
"Tommyrot."said Dickens, sniffing.
"You witnessed it. Can't keep the beggars down, sir. They walk. And it's the queerest thing, but they hang on to scraps."cried out Sneed, scowling at the author.
Gwyneth placed the Doctor's cup on the mantle beside him, and smiled at him.
"Two sugars, sir, just how you like it."
Rose smiled as the girl came over and gave her own cup. Gwyneth's hands trembled slightly as she held out her steaming, wonderfully aromatic tea.
"Honey."she said simply, and Rose reached out to the soon to be dead girl, heart aching, garbing the cup as gently as she could.
"Thank you."
The girl smiled, something soft and gentle in her expression despite the tension in her neck and clenching fists. She bowed her head, inclining it in a way that kept her light, strong eyes trained on Rose, as if she couldn't leave her out of her sight. As if Rose would reach up and attack her. She sighed, and inclined her head back the same way.
"One old fellow who used to be a sexton almost walked into his own memorial service. Just like the old lady going to your performance, sir, just as she planned."said Sneed, and Rose turned back to him.
"Morbid fancy."sniffed Dickens.
"Oh, Charles, you were there."argued the Doctor, brows raised. She could see the beginnings of his temper leaking through that stiff smile on his face.
"I saw nothing but an illusion."scoffed the author, and Rose snapped, letting out a strained laugh that made Dickens turn to her.
"One so willing to create things of grandeur, fantasy, and impossibility within the written page, and reject the very idea of its actual existence? What type of author are you?"
"Do not speak to me in that manner, my lady!"
"I am no lady of yours. Look at the things right in front of you Charles Dickens. The universe, as I'm just beginning to discover, is both large and small if you simply look with open eyes. Ghosts of another world have spoken, right in front of your eyes..."
Dickens made a small noise in the back of his throat, eyes narrowing into slits as he opened his mouth to retaliate.
"And if if you're going to deny it, don't waste our time. Just shut up. What about the gas?"said the Doctor, turning away from one of his favorite authors and to Sneed.
With that, Dickens huffed, leaving irritated and clutching a little too tightly at his hat as he slammed the door behind him shit. Rose stared after him, knowing he had not left until a little more of Sneed's explanation, clenching her fists and hoping she hadn't mucked up everything and gotten her and the Doctor killed. She doubted it, Dickens was a good man, and he had written the way he had for a reason, and she didn't think he would abandon them. Or at least, not satisfy his curiosity over the whole manner. She sipped her tea, trying to ignore how it had soured in her loose tongue.
"That's new, sir. Never seen anything like that."said Sneed, wiping his brow with a spare handkerchief.
The Doctor was quiet, and Rose counted off in her mind as he pieced it together.
"Means it's getting stronger, the rift's getting wider and something's sneaking through."said the Doctor, rubbing his chin.
"The rift?"and Rose was generally curious and startled, remembering its actual description, too vaguely.
The thought of the vague memory was terrifying. What if like with the Steward, she remembered too late and got someone killed again?! A small, but sharp intake of breathe directed her towards Gwyneth who was looking at her pale as death. Rose swallowed, and inclined her head at the mind reader, who ducked her head and went about gathering up the empty cups.
Neither men looked at her as she did it, and Rose felt a slight irritation at the whole set up as she had back then, if more so. She was only glad that she would go back to a point in time that was more than two years away than the first female vote in Great Britain.
"A weak point in time and space. A connection between this place and another. That's the cause of ghost stories, most of the time."said the Doctor, making her look away from Gwyneth and to him.
"That's how I got the house so cheap. Stories going back generations... Echoes in the dark, queer songs in the air, and this feeling like a shadow passing over your soul. Mind you, truth be told, it's been good for business. Just what people expect from a gloomy old trade like mine."Sneed said this almost smugly, but with obvious stress in his voice.
Rose felt herself sigh again and stood, walking after Gwyneth as she finished her tea. The pantry seemed far too small with the both of them inside, thought Rose, and she quickly set to washing the tea cups with quick, measured strokes. It was easy and automatic and it was soothing and familiar. Gwyneth looked up, startled no doubt by her presence. Their was a sense of stillness and fragility to her gaze, almost like an injured animal trapped in a corner.
"Please, Dame Tyler, you shouldn't be helping. It's not right."said the young woman, polite, but a tension to her.
Rose smiled slightly at her insistence to treat her right despite her obvious fear.
"Don't be daft. I dirtied some of it, why can't I clean it?"she replied, scrubbing at a cup.
"Because of your standing."
With that, she dipped her head again, and Rose sighed.
"Rubbish and you know it Gwyneth. I'm not even a Dame yet."
The girl gave a slight, and very strained smile.
"I suppose so... I can't hide what you already know about me."she said it with a tired, sad voice that made Rose ache.
"And I can't change what you see. What did you see when you saw me first?"she asked curiously, watching as the girl stilled.
Clear, wide eyes were direct for once, and the girl sighed.
"My death. You have an extraordinary, clear, and responsive memory, and you saw me... And, well, it came to mind."she said it almost wryly, a rueful smile appearing on her lips.
Rose sighed, reaching up to knead at the headache forming in her left temple.
"I'm so sorry that I couldn't save you before."
"Do not think that Dame Tyler... The Doctor is a hard man to convince being wrong, especially when he thinks he can help someone else. You tried to save a girl from the demons that sang to her all her life, and I thank you."Gwyneth was looking at the floor as she said this, her fists clenched.
"What else do you see about me that made you so afraid? It wasn't your death that frightened you so much."
Gwyneth looked to her again, a frown on her lips. She stalked forward, leaning forward and whispering as if she was telling a great, terrible secret, and in a way, she really was:
"You're from London. I've seen London in drawings, but never like that. Brash and as wild as your heart. And there's two London's in your mind, one with the face of a long dead man and the other lost in the wake of your first death... You've flown so far Dame Tyler. Further than anyone. Even more than the Doctor... The things you've seen.. What has been done to you..."it was said soft and deadly, with a deep fear in her hushed tone that sent a shiver down Rose's spine.
"Gwyneth..."
The woman continued, as if in a trance, clutching at her dress, wrinkling the apron there:
"You died in the wake of pressure so great, snuffed out like a bright flame. There's a darkness to you Rose Tyler. The Big Bad Wolf, howling inside of you, just on the edge of coming back, of blooming again and living beyond death..."
Rose shuddered again at the mention of that name that was so utterly her's, but reached out to touch the frightened young woman. She grabbed her shoulder's, pulling her forward.
"It's not a darkness! It was born in the wake of great darkness, of desperation. It's a golden, fierce light and its all of time and space singing out in a chorus, ringing in its own head... It's a creature of strung together by two hearts reaching out for the sake of love... And it is me. I create myself. Or I did. Or I will. That what the Bad Wolf is. It isn't-"
"It's a dangerous power. An unknown power that you know cost you the man outside. You don't even remember what you did, what the Bad Wolf did!"accused Gwyneth, her expression aghast, she slapped away Rose's hands and took a step back.
The fright and tension in her was apparent and Rose wished she wouldn't be afraid of something she couldn't control.
"I remember a song and light and love and TARDIS. I remember desperation and the world and him. And I remember feeling... Grateful and pain and hot and death. Then, a softness and a sadness. Nothing concrete. It's all twisted and turned inside my head..." Rose whispered, trailing off, her mind chaotic and whirling at the speed of the Earth around the sun.
And Rose felt a deep pain pierce her as she tried to remember what she had done, a strong trill and shouted warning on the TARDIS's part, and she shook her head ... Even from this distance the TARDIS was soothing and warm, hums smoothing away both pain and fright. Rose took a deep breathe, and felt as Gwyneth took her hand. Her's was clammy and trembled as it gripped Rose's but the fact that she reached for her despite her fear lightened something in Rose.
"It scares you. I can feel it, deep in you there's a fear and a desire to see it never be real."said Gwyneth, looking at their joint hands.
Rose looked at them too, gripping tighter at Gwyneth as she sighed.
"Everyone is scared of themselves. You frighten yourself with you gift."she reminded the girl.
She got a deep, quiet look in return, all age and something Rose couldn't place.
"I can't help it. Ever since I was a little girl, my mam said I had the sight. I see what's in your head Rose. I see everything in everyone's head... She told me to hide it... But..."
"But it's getting stronger, more powerful, is that right?"asked the Doctor, and both of them jumped, Gwyneth pulling her hand out of Rose's grip.
She stared at the Doctor, those strong, wide eyes of her's hesitate and afraid, before she squared her shoulder's and tilted her head up. Rose swallowed thickly.
"All the time, sir. Every night, voices in my head."
"You grew up on top of the rift. You're part of it. You're the key."he said, and Rose felt her heart constrict.
"I've tried to make sense of it, sir. Consulted with spiritualists, table rappers, all sorts."Gwyneth said it softly, whispering, as if she was reciting it from a script, and Rose knew she was just saying the words in her head, and she tried to make the memories stop to try and stop her.
Gwyneth gave her a sad smile at that thought, but it was also a smile that showed defiance and a stubbornness that got her killed the first time around.
"Well, that should help. You can show us what to do."mused the Doctor, icy eyes bright and serious.
"What to do where, sir?"
The Doctor smiled, eyes wide and manic now. Rose felt her heart constrict.
"We're going to have a séance."
With that, he left, and Gwyenth turned to her, eyes firm and urgent.
"You can't prevent me without relieving yourself."said the girl from the past, and there was a grime certainty to her. Rose clenched her fists.
"You don't have to die."
"I think I do."she said that with an air of wisdom that Rose had missed in her first treatment of the girl.
She could see it now, the soft, quiet strength and the old nature to her wide, clear eyes. There was an age that most come with hearing the darkest thoughts and most painful memories of all those around them thought Rose, and she felt a sort of sorrow enter her at the young woman in front of her. It wasn't just her death, but the things she had endured in her life to get to this point.
"Dame Tyler I ask only one thing. Would you prevent yourself from becoming that wild, howling thing that's thrashing and burning at the very edge of your mind? No. You will do it. And I will open the rift and die."again, there was an air of finality.
It scared Rose, to see someone so sure of their fate. Because that was what she was at this point. And if anyone could see her now, see her mind as clearly as Gwyneth could, would they be scared by her own determination and the finality of her mind?
"Gwyneth!"she said, unable to help herself.
The young woman smiled, wry and gently.
"Hush. You will not bend, and nor will I. The Doctor will try to save the Gelth in any manner, and it seems to me that the one you remember only kills two. That is better than what could happen, the whole world falling in their greed."
"The Doctor always finds a way."and Rose said this with a certainty and honesty because the Doctor always did. But even her strong belief in the Doctor seemed to be a weak protest in wake of Gwyneth's determination.
But Rose still had to try, if only for Gwyneth's sake and her own conscious. The smile she got at that thought was all soft and tenderness.
"And this is me finding mine. And... I want these voices to stop, I've heard them all my life, singing, calling, crying, and I will not allow them to die with the facade of innocence and in the wake of my cowardice. I refuse."and Gwyneth was strong and the meek girl hidden by the guise and restriction of the manners of the time shown through, old-age wisdom and strength.
To that, Rose could say nothing.
~BW~DW~BW~DW~BW~
The Doctor always did enjoyed a good séance. It had been a few decades since he had the pleasure, but, well, at least he was having one now. Rose Tyler was frowning slight as she sat down, in between him and Gwyneth, and he couldn't tell whether it was a thoughtful one or one of displeasure. She looked the picture of a lady he thought, as he glanced at her from the corner of his eyes. She even sat up straight, her hands folded together in her lap, all dainty like. Strange girl he thought absently. One second she could be all soft and smiling with her tongue in her teeth, and the next she could be grimacing and furrowed brows, looking tough and making a sexist man like Sneed back down and talk. Full of contradictions, his walking enigma, she was. It was great, it had been so long since he had someone like her around(anyone around really, but that was beside the point).
He watched as Sneed sat as well, on the other side of Gwyneth, a frown on his bitter face. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he caught Dickens standing on the fringe, a frown on his lips and crushing his hat between his hands. Yet of course, he didn't leave, part of him, no doubt, unable to leave something that could be this sensational, this fantastic. Skeptics, he thought, so ready to show the world how wrong everyone else was, yet part of them always had that voice that whispered; 'what if'.
"This is how Madam Mortlock summons those from the Land of Mists, down in big town. Come, we must all join hands."said the psyche girl, extending her palms out.
She did so hesitantly when it came to Rose's side, as if she was afraid to touch her. Rose touched her gently, giving the girl a firm stare. Their grip was suddenly tight on both their parts, a look of something passing between them before they turned to look straight ahead. The Doctor raised his brow and wondered what had transpired before he had entered the pantry. Both of them seemed wary of the other, but at the same moment he saw a sense of... Kinship between the girls. He had no idea if they had bonded, if it was a girl thing, or if it was a Rose thing. It had been similar with Jabe, the Face of Boe...
Rose's hand in his was startlingly warm, soft, yet slightly calloused for her gymnastics as a child, he noticed as she calmly placed her palm atop of his. Her grip was firm and also surprisingly strong in contrast to her appearance, which was all softness and youth. He did not miss the slight trembling of her small hand, and found himself squeezing it on a reflex that he did not know he have. She smiled slightly, quickly, her eyes sliding to him before she looked back in front of her.
"I can't take part in this."said Dickens, yet of course, the Doctor thought with an internal smirk, the man made no move to leave.
"Humbug? Come on, open mind."he said grinning, and of course the man simply huffed, lifting his head as if he was above all this. He stared at them all, as if he thought them mad.
His eyes flickered to Rose, and the Doctor followed his gaze, watching as the girl simply lifted both her brows, then smiled, charmingly and challenging. And then Dickens gave her a slight frown himself, before he sat down, right between Sneed and Gwyneth, a thoughtful, but uneasy look on the old author's face.
"This is precisely the sort of cheap mummery I strive to unmask... Séances? Nothing but luminous tambourines and a squeeze box concealed between the knees. This girl knows nothing."said Dickens with a sniff, but he didn't make a move to stand up.
"Shut it. You shouldn't antagonise her. I love a happy medium."he said, and was pleased at the laugh that he got out of Rose.
Gwyneth, the medium herself, gave a small smile, before she took a deep breath, closing her eyes, her grip on Rose's hand tightening, knuckles actually turning white before she eased her hand.
"Reach out Gwyneth. Reach out."
She opened her eyes then, eyes strong and with a fire of determination.
"Speak to us. Are you there? Spirits, come. Speak to us that we may relieve your burden."she said it loudly, the tremble to her voice disappearing as she said each word. With each word, he heard an...
Anger. Betrayal... He felt it, as if she was projecting it, growing and with her reaching out to the surly terrified creatures on the other side, he felt concern. He opened his mouth to tell her to be gentle with the Gelth. However, it seemed to work, the slight whisper he had heard through the walls the second he had come within ten feet of the house suddenly grew, loud and fiercer by the second.
So he shut his mouth. He couldn't exactly understand what the Gelths' whispers said even as they grew louder, but he felt a sense of a rush, a presence that any telepath worth their salt would feel. Even in this regeneration, with his slightly weaker(damaged no doubt in his rather... violent change) abilities, could sense them. The air grew cold, their breathe was white as it had been outside, even his, despite his lower body temperature. Rose's grip tightened on his hand, and he heard as her breathe quickened, her pulse jumping beneath her skin.
"This is sheer folly."said Dickens, voice raspy and loud as he tried to keep his believes real. Yet his voice trembled, his own senses no doubt seeming to betray the aging man.
"Look at her."whispered Rose, and her breathe was getting faster by the second and her face looked a mixture of anger and fear.
Gwyneth glowed with the presence of the Gelth, they swirled around her, soft and gentle. Their luminescent, clear bodies reaching out, above them as the two human males gaping as the two human females simply looked above them with a sort of frighten, furious faces. The blue light of the Gelth washed over the lot of them, casting everyone in an ethereal light.
"I see them. I feel them. Come on, get through, you've been waiting for this!"said Gwyneth, and she was gasping, snarling at the Gelth in a way that made the Doctor blink. Where was such hostility coming from?
He pushed away the feelings and thoughts away as they appeared, floating like a glowing nebula within the room of 1969 Cardiff, soft and gentle and their bodies reaching, as if they tried to grasp on them even if they were nothing but gas and light hardly bleeding through the rift. They were gentle and pitiful, beautiful and sorrowful. They looked like children. He felt himself swallow, and on another reflex he didn't know he have, felt his own permanent grip tighten on Rose's hand.
"Great God! Spirits from the other side."breathed Sneed, shrinking into his seat, his grip on the Doctor's hand growing slack in fright.
The Doctor shook his head.
"The other side of the universe."he corrected softly, eyeing the gentle, sad figures in front of him.
"Pity us. Pity the Gelth. There is so little time. Help us."they spoke, and just as before it was sweet and soft as a child, a thousand children all at once, Gwyneth's voice joining the chorus this time.
"What do you want us to do?"he asked.
Rose's hand was near crushing at this point, and if there wasn't ghosts in front of him, he would have glanced at her. Of course, ghosts now.
"The rift. Take the girl to the rift. Make the bridge."
"What for?"he asked.
They reached to him, ghostly limbs, reaching and reaching.
"We are so very few. The last of our kind. We face extinction."
"Why, what happened?"
They seemed to shiver, their forms rippling.
"Once we had a physical form like you, but then the war came."
"War? What war?"asked Dickens, confused, and seemingly despite himself, talking to what he thought to be a trick.
Rose gasped, and he felt his brows furrow. A shiver went down his spine. Surly not...
"The Time War. The whole universe convulsed. The Time War raged. Invisible to smaller species but devastating to higher forms. Our bodies wasted away. We're trapped in this gaseous state."
The Doctor felt his hearts stop. And then they picked up speed, galloping ahead of him. Oh. Oh, of course, he thought, clenching his hand even tighter, Sneed cried out, but Rose did not. But he felt his hearts pick up as he looked at the creatures in front of him. Everywhere he went the consequences of his actions, the pain he had caused, along with his race and the damn Daleks slapped him in the face. He knew, he knew that he had done it to save more life than he could ever destroy, but at the same moment with these poor creatures in front of him he felt the fact that he had caused this... He felt... Unbearable, useless, he could hardly stand it.
"So that's why you need the corpses." he muttered to himself.
"We want to stand tall, to feel the sunlight, to live again. We need a physical form, and your dead are abandoned. They're going to waste. Give them to us."
"But we can't."cried out Rose.
He looked at her, expecting for her to look afraid or aghast. But no, of course she had to looked righteously... Well, furious.
"Why not?"
She shook her head, her eyes narrowed as she looked to the Gelth, a frown on her lips.
"It could save them. It might be odd, it might be taboo to you, but if it helps them..."he told her, and she just shook her head again. Her eyes pleading, trying to tell him something with an urgency that was so utterly human.
Again, he thought as he sighed, he got a reminder that though the girl was generally fantastic at this, she was still new. Still didn't understand how different things could be, how generally you had to make choices that made you uncomfortable. Made you hate yourself. Made you wish that you could hide away or die and be lost... But he made them anyway. Because of another similar choice, he was the only one left. He was the only who could. She would understand that eventually. She would understand and then... Then this fantastic girl would leave of course. Someone this good, this brilliant couldn't stay by him for too long.
"Open the rift. Let the Gelth through. We're dying. Help us. Pity the Gelth."
With that last cry they left, slipping back into the gas lamps, Gwyneth collapsing onto to the table with a large gasp. Rose let go of his hand, jumping up, going to the girl and placing a hand on her back. She shook her gently, a frown on her face.
"Gwyneth?"she whispered.
"All true."said Dickens, and he looked stricken.
Sneed only made a noise from the back of his throat, his grip slack.
"Come on Gwyn, wake up, you can do it. You're not done yet."she said, and slowly, she carefully grabbed the girl's shoulders, attempting to lift her up. There was a slight tremble to her, but it eased as she took deep, even breathes, centering herself.
The Doctor stood and lifted her up himself, pushing back the twenty first century girl gently, and followed as she walked back to the parlor. He laid the girl on a chaise lounge, eyeing as the Rose kneeled next to the lounge, placing her hand on the girl's, a sigh escaping her. Sneed and Dickens stood at the fringes of the room, seemingly struck dumb. Rose meanwhile was whispering to Gwyneth, softly, shaking her shoulder gently. Trying to wake her, a frown on her lips, and a worried, furrowed brow. The girl from the past woke slowly, eyes fluttering open, a small gasp escaping her. Her hand reached out and grabbed Rose's and both them looked at each other, something seemingly passing between the both of them.
"I have to open the rift."said Gwyneth, and there was something sad in her expression.
"No you don't."said Rose, but she was sad, eyes teary.
Gwyneth sighed, lifting her free hand to rub her temple.
"The Gelth need you, Gwyneth. You're they're only chance of survival."he told her, and the girl nodded, firm and determined.
"Well, what did you say, Doctor? Explain it again. What are they?"asked Sneed, finally finding his voice, though it was weak and frightened.
"Aliens."he said, absently, focusing on the girls, who seemed to be glaring at each other.
They gazes were locked, and both seemed to be trying to say something. Gwyneth was determined and steady, Rose, on the other hand, was firm but somehow almost weak. As if she knew she had no say in what was going to happen.
"I have to."said the girl again, and Rose frowned.
"Like foreigners, you mean?"said Sneed.
The Doctor kept his gaze on the girl, but shrugged in answer to Sneed. Multitasking, Timelord specialty that was.
"Pretty foreign, yeah. From up there."he said gesturing up, vaguely.
"Brecon?"
"Close. And they've been trying to get through from Brecon to Cardiff but the road's blocked. Only a few can get through and even then they're weak. They can only test drive the bodies for so long, then they have to revert to gas and hide in the pipes."he said.
"Which is why they need the girl."said Dickens, eyes wide.
Rose made a noise, something that seemed part muffled scream and hiss.
"They're not having her."said Rose, and any weakness on her part was gone, gone in the wake of how furious she was.
She was right livid she was, he noted as he watched her, her gaze was still locked on Gwyneth. Gwyneth herself simply sighed and took Rose's hand again, pleading with her clear eyes for the girl from the Twenty-first century. For what, he didn't understand.
"But she can help. Living on the rift, she's become part of it. She can open it up, make a bridge and let them through. Save a dying race, what's wrong with that?"
Rose only glared at him, seemingly no able to answer him. She looked away, sighing in frustration.
"Incredible. Ghosts that are not ghosts but beings from another world, who can only exist in our world by inhabiting cadavers." said Dickens, rubbing his chin absently.
Part of him seemed to take this in stride, yet he seemed a little conflicted. The old man was however, accepting it. That was good. Very good thought the Doctor, grinning at him, rubbing his own chin thoughtfully.
"Good system. It might work."he noted, nodding at the old man.
"You can't let them run around inside of dead people. They were alive, they deserve some respect at least. And there is something wrong here!"hissed Rose, and he turned to her raising a brow.
"What possibly could be wrong? Besides, it's like recycling. Simple, easy, and it would save them."
"Doctor, corpses aside, I think that there's something wrong here. Their plan for the living that concerns me."she said this and he could hear it then, not fury, but fear in her voice.
Immediately he laughed, silly ape, so prone to fright. Maybe ghosts were her weak spot? She had seemed fine so far...
"Rose you worrying for nothing, they want nothing with the living. They're passive beings!"he chuckled out, and she glared at him.
"They tried to attack me! How are they just passive?"she cried out, moving to stand in front of him, lifting her chin up, glare at him straight in his eyes.
Hazel eyes, both brown and green, strange, flashing flecks of gold within the iris. Not backing down, spine straight, fists at her side. Odd to have that intensity that the pink and yellow human seemed to have in spades directed at him. Not all that bad though, he grabbed her hands, unrolling her fingertips from her fists. She seemed to relax slightly at his action, definitely very into physical contact he thought with a sigh.
"They're scared. They're dying at the edge of the universe. They were trying to get attention to themselves."he told her soothingly, grinning at her to put her at ease.
"NO! That doesn't justify what it was trying to do to me, it went for my neck! They can't even get through without opening the bloody rift, why would they lash out like that? Something's wrong. How can we even know if they're what they claim to be?!"she asked, and part of him found a reason to her logic.
But most of him saw their soft, scared faces and their voices, that of a children, screaming in the dark to reach a place of safety. The Time War raged on his conscious, raged on him. No one person, no matter how much he found that he liked them, would make him shirk his duty to cleaning up the mess he had made by ending the War.
"Rose, they were just trying to get your attention, they scare you, I get that. But if you can't handle being scared then go home. There's a lot of scary things in all of the universe. Time's short. I can't worry about your feelings when the last of the Gelth could be dying."he hated to be firm with her, but well, she had to learn.
The sooner she learned, the sooner she would leave, the least he would become attached to her. And now, with only two adventures with him under her belt, he was finding himself... Liking her. More than he thought possible in such a short time. Well, of course he liked her, he had asked her to come. Twice! But it was strange for her to be so well, likable! She made friends with scores of aliens, and past people, laughed at his joke, and had a wide, open mind(for the most part) how could he not like her?
Besides, part of him, as a Time Lord, couldn't help but notice the screaming, gorgeous, golden time-line that surrounded her. It was hard not to look at her the entire time he had met her(Autons and all that kept him a bit busy), with all its twists and curves, knots and endless possibilities, he had hardly seen a time-line so complex on a human being.
Nor could the fact that he couldn't find nor rhyme nor reason to the thing decrease his attention to her. He had a rule of looking to deeply into anyone's time-line, it was so rude after all, equivalent of going through someone's school's records or opening their mouth to check their teeth, but part of him wanted to keep her around just to see were all those lines would lead to.
"Can't you see that something's not right? None of this makes sense, you're making a rash judgment!"
"Rose, enough. I have to do this. You know I do. We can't delay."said Gwyneth, and it was firm, and Rose looked to the girl, seemingly stricken.
Both the young woman looked at each other with such intensity that he expected one of them to be set on fire. Then, Rose visibly slumped, her brow furrowed and a heavy frown on her plump mouth.
"You're too good Gwyn."she said, finally, giving it up it seemed, and their was a light to her eye that seemed to dim.
Gwyneth sighed, inclining her head to the young woman from the future.
"I can say the same thing to you Rose Tyler. All in your head, I can see it, all that you are. And its wonderful as it frightening and strange."she said this with real conviction, and she smiled.
It wasn't a timid smile, this time. It was large and full and the Doctor would bet his TARDIS that she hardly ever smiled like that. Rose smiled as well, just as large and full, though it seemed to be such a sad smile, inclining her own head in clear respect. The Doctor grinned in response, glad that some agreement had been reached.
"Fantastic! We need to find the rift. This house is on a weak spot, so there must be a spot that's weaker than any other. Mister Sneed, what's the weakest part of this house? The place where most of the ghosts have been seen?"he asked, turning to the man 'in charge'.
The younger man sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"That would be the morgue."Sneed said, and he sounded almost sheepish.
"Of course its the morgue. Can't be the kitchen, or nice open sun room. Come on, let's go get this over with."groaned out Rose, huffing, and quite abruptly, turned to Gwyneth, and linked her arms with her.
She gestured with her free arm, giving him a small, grim smile, but he took it readily enough.
"Lead on!"he told the telepathic girl, and indeed, she did.
They walked down a rickety old staircase, because of course it always had to be rickety and old, somehow not tripping over themselves and still side by side. The two younger gentlemen brought up the rear, and at the foot of the stairs the Doctor caught himself in a large, gloomy(of course it was), room that most likely extended to the majority of the house upstairs, corpse after corpse were laid out as per custom to the time, sheet over their heads, and the distinctively stilling, stiffing smell of death and chemicals lingered in the dim room.
"Urgh. Talk about Bleak House."he muttered, grinning, and earning a snort from Rose.
"Can I ask a question?"said Rose quietly, glancing around, her eyes flickering back and fro with vague interest.
At his nod, she continued:
"How concrete is time if I haven't heard of the time where the corpses of the Victorian era were being used as storage? I mean, I never paid much mind to history, but zombies I would notice."
Clever girl.
"Time's in flux, changing every second. Your cozy little world can be rewritten like that. Nothing is safe. Remember that. Nothing."he told her firmly, and she merely narrowed her eyes.
"There isn't anything that has to be? Not a certain step in history, like the American Revolution, or the failure of the Mongols attacking Japan, or the eruption of Mt. Saint Helens?"
He grinned, and nodded his head.
"There are such things as fixed points; certain disastrous, deaths or war. The only exception, rare really. And only about one of those you've listed was a fixed point."he said, surprised at her insight, but pleased nonetheless.
She nodded, and looked to Gwyneth. There was something in her youthful face that he couldn't read, a certain resignation, a certain... Something that seemed off on the features of a Twenty-first shop girl.
"Doctor, I think the room is getting colder."said Dickens, nervously, lingering the closest to the door.
And he could see that it was, a deep chill drifting over him like an arctic wind on Woman Wept, their collective breathes a soft mist in the damp, sour air.
"Here they come."chorused both Gwyneth and Rose, they locked gazes, and again, a secret passing between them before they turned to the coming Gelth.
They stood before an archway, the center point of the rift, all soft and beautiful as nebulas, reaching out for them.
"You've come to help. Praise the Doctor. Praise him. Hurry! Please, so little time. Pity the Gelth."they cried, and their angelic, child voice of thousands rang in his ears.
"I'll take you somewhere else after the transfer. Somewhere you can build proper bodies. This isn't a permanent solution, all right?"he told them firmly, smiling, trying to ease the creatures that were surly terrified.
"It'll be over soon."said Gwyneth, walking forward, looking at the Gelth with a soft, deep wisdom that near all strong, untrained telepaths had.
"Okay, where's the weak point?"
"Here, beneath the arch."they sang out, rushed and urgent.
Gwyneth walked forward, taking a deep breathe, before she turned to Rose, racing back to kiss the girl on the cheek. Rose herself blinked, looking completely taken aback, and Gwyneth smiled again, that simple, true smile that seemed almost foreign on the girl's face. It was slightly sad, but there was a joy, a peace to that smile.
"Thank you."she said, and then she ran back to the arch, stepping forward with a purpose.
"Establish the bridge. Reach out to the void. Let us through!"
"Yes, I can see you. I can see you. Come!"said Gwyneth, and she was fierce as she said it, like a woman leading someone into battle.
"Bridgehead establishing."
And the Gelth swirled, massive streaks of their blue light circling, faster and faster around the young woman. The room grew colder, colder and colder, a rush of the presence of the Gelth growing stronger and stronger...
"Come to me. Come to this world."
"It is begun. The bridge is made."
Gwyneth opened her mouth, the light of the Gelth escaping, rushing pushing, nearly crawling it way out of her. She was the bridge, her body, and he blinked.
"She has given herself to the Gelth. The bridge is open. We descend."
It was then that it all went wrong. The soft, angelic looks of the Gelth disappeared in a wave and rush of hellish light, like flames licking away the guise of innocence the Gelth glowed like fire. Their mouths opened in wide, gaping smiles of black pointed fangs. And they laughed, a deep, dark sound, echoing against the walls of the morgue, circling back. They swarmed, circling like sharks on the hunt.
"The Gelth will come through in force."they sang out, and the voice of children was gone in the wake of deep, raspy voice, like that of nightmares.
They laughed again. And dozens, hundreds, thousands, of Gelths were trying to rush through the bridge, through Gwyneth, just on the brink, clawing and drifting over each other in an attempt to come through. He felt them, all they way here from the other side of the universe, and he felt what Rose had saw. A wrongness that couldn't be denied.
"You said that you were few in number."accused Dickens, and he sounded just as stricken as the Doctor felt.
"A few billion. And all of us in need of corpses."
With that the dead were swarmed, being given another, twisted, chance at life. They glowed with the influence of the Gelth, raising from their resting places, reaching, stumbling towards them.
"Gwyneth, stop this. Listen to your master. This has gone far enough. Stop dabbling, child, and leave these things alone, I beg of you."cried out Sneed, moving closer to his employee.
"Mister Sneed, get back!"Rose cried out.
She reached out, dragging the man back through the back of his collar, flinging him with surprising force to the doorway, just out of the reach of a Gelth that had been aiming for grab him in a surly deadly embrace. Add good reflexes to the list that made up the facts of Rose Tyler he thought absently.
"I think it's gone a little bit wrong."he muttered, and got a chocked out laugh from Rose.
"A bit!? Oh, I think you're overreacting!"she hissed, backing up slowly, fists extended in front of her, walking with him as the dead lumbered towards them. Sarcastic as well.
"We need bodies. All of you. Dead. The human race. Dead."
"No!"screamed Dickens.
"Gwyneth, stop them! Send them back now!"the Doctor called, and felt his hearts constrict as she shook her head, her face helpless and crumpled as she allowed the Gelth through her.
"Four more bodies. Convert them. Make them vessels for the Gelth."
The Doctor let out a hiss as he felt something behind him, his eyes flickering slightly to see a metal gate.
"Doctor, I can't. I'm sorry. This new world of yours is too much for me. I'm sorry-"said Dickens, and he
and Sneed ran out, as if the hounds of Hell themselves were on their heels. Only in this case, it was the
Gelth, the phantoms of the universe.
He had no choice, he grabbed Rose from 'round her waist, pulling her to him and through the gate as he opened it. He slammed it shut, watching, something inside him screaming at him for his stupidity as the Gelth came closer and closer. Their hands, or well, the hands of the dead they inhabited reached for them, swinging wildly, and the Doctor felt Rose suck in a breathe as she automatically reached for him, her hand fisted in his jumper.
"Give yourself to glory. Sacrifice your lives for the Gelth."
"I trusted you. I pitied you!"he cried out, and he felt furious and disappointed and like such a bloody fool.
"We don't want your pity. We want this world and all it's flesh."
He glared at the lot of them.
"Not while I'm alive."he snarled.
They hissed, they snarled. They laughed.
"Then live no more."
He stared at them, and he felt the hand in his jumper tighten.
"Time flux. That means I going to die or fade now right, because I hardly think I'm going to be born if they spread to the whole world. Right?"she asked, and it was just a whisper as she stared fixedly at the Gelth.
His hearts, already galloping, picked up speed. She was just nineteen. Nineteen years old, hardly older than a child.
"I'm sorry. Time isn't a straight line. It can twist into any shape. You can be born in the
Twentieth century and disappear if something happens in the Ninetieth. I brought you here."he said, and he turned to the girl he would cause to disappear.
She only laughed, soft, and shook her head.
"It's not your fault. I wanted to come, and anyway, I would've faded anyway, here or there."she said, and she looked at him, her large hazel eyes just as intense as before. He hardly resisted screaming.
"What about me?! I saw the fall of Troy, World War Five. I pushed boxes at the Boston Tea Party. Now I'm going to die in a dungeon. In Cardiff!"he cried out, frustrated, to put it mildly.
He had wanted to show her things like that, history, the wonders, the beauty that could be found in all of time and space, and all he had showed her was the bloody destruction of her world and zombies. He had wanted to see it all with her, see the universe without the pain and the fantastic things that could be found everywhere. The things he couldn't see quite right as he could after the War. And of course it was all going to end now, no Woman Wept, nor the birth a star or a spacial storm, or meeting Madame de Pompadour...
"But it's not just dying. You'll become one of them. And I'll will too or fade... But, we'll go down fighting, yeah?"she said softly, her eyes trained on his face. He nodded.
"Yeah."
"Together?"she asked, and something in her eyes made the beating of his hearts ease.
"Yeah."
At this, he felt her hand move away from his jumper, instead, reaching for his hand, hesitantly, asking for permission with her eyes. He scooped up her hand, his fingertips tangling with her's, squeezing them, no doubt nearly crushing it in his haste to have her close. He felt her pulse through her hand, fast and thumping against his and her skin. She squeezed back, nearly as tightly.
"I'm so glad I met you."he told her, and he was honest, smiling and ignoring the rueful turn to his lips as he looked at the girl he had essentially killed. Because he was glad.
So bloody glad that he met this strange, walking enigma with her silly yellow hair and her pinkness. And she smiled, this brilliant, startling smile that didn't fit in with the mist of tears he saw in her eyes.
"Me too, really, it's been... Fantastic."she said, and he smiled at her use of mimicry. They both gave a small laugh.
Then, they both turned, ready to face their makers, ready to punch and claw and fight until death, together, hand in hand. And of course Dickens came storming in, huffing and puffing, his eyes wide and wild.
"Doctor! Doctor! Turn off the flame, turn up the gas! Now, fill the room, all of it, now!"he cried out, grinning and jumping up and down like a mad man.
"What're you doing?"he called out, curious as the man ran to a lamp, switching down the lamp.
"Turn it all on. Flood the place!"
"Brilliant. Gas."he said, and indeed, he grinned as he quickly followed Dickens' thought process.
Why had he had been so thick not to see that?!
"Oh thank, God! Smiling is good right?"breathed Rose, catching on to his sudden happier mood.
"Damn straight it's good! Fill the room with gas, it'll draw them out of the host. Suck them into the air like poison from a wound!"he cried out, positively giddy as he looked at the equally growing giddy look on Rose's face.
They grinned at each other. Their smiles however, looking at the restless dead turned to the unprotected Dickens, faded.
"I hope, oh Lord, I hope that this theory will be validated soon, if not immediately."muttered Dickens, backing up in the wake of the dead.
"Plenty more!"cried out the Doctor, thinking on his feet as he wretched a gas pipe off the wall.
The dead dropped, the Gelth, screeching left them, launching themselves away from the gas. They circled like sharks in a frenzy.
"It's working."said Dickens, flustered.
Without another word both of them rushed out of their would-be death places, wrenching open the gate and running to the still, stiff girl underneath the arch.
"Gwyneth, send them back. They lied."
"I know. I saw. I had to prove it... Had to see for myself... And I can't."said the girl, and the Doctor felt a feeling of dread enter him again as he heard the flat, weak voice of the girl.
He moved forward, noting faintly that Rose flanked him still clutching at his hand.
"Look at me. If your mother and father could look down and see this, they'd tell you the same. They'd give you the strength. Now send them back!"he told Gwyneth urgently.
"You can do this Gwyn, you know you can."said Rose.
Her flat, dark eyes turned to Rose, and then back to him.
"Charles, get her out."
The grip she had on his hand suddenly tightened, and she tugged at him, nearly sending him crashing into him if he hadn't been stronger.
"I'm not leaving her. I'm not leaving you!"she hissed, and he heard her cough slightly, from the gas no doubt.
"They're strong... I couldn't see before how strong."said the girl from the past faintly, dimly. There was not a move or infliction in her voice, it was flat, dull as her suddenly darker eyes.
"Remember that world you saw? Rose's world? All those people. None of it will exist unless you send them back through the rift."
"I can't send them back. But I can hold them. Hold them in this place, hold them here. Get out."she said it slowly, shaking her head with only the smallest of effort and movement. Slowly, as if it took a great effort, she took out a small box of matches.
"Gwyn!"said Rose, launching herself forward as if to stop the girl, he held her fast, pulling her to him to prevent her from crossing the archway,
"Leave this place. Thank you, Rose Tyler. And may you be happy. Both you and the Doctor... Go."said the girl, still flat and dull.
"Rose, get out. Go now. I won't leave her while she's still in danger. Now go!"he hissed, pushing her off and towards Dickens.
The look she gave him was one he would be hard pressed to forget, just as before, intense and unyielding. Odd to get from a Twenty-first century shop girl.
"I'm not leaving, Dickens, scram, I'm staying with you both. Together, yeah?"she said and again she reached out her hand, as if to take his hand, just as before.
And Dickens took off running, reassured by the strong, determined look she had shoot him no doubt. And in her eyes he saw it. She knew, she knew he didn't plan to leave. He pushed her away, towards the door, refusing to allow her, or the other girl she had pulled into this mess die. He turned to Gwyneth, hating to reject her hand, but knowing that he had no choice.
"Come on, leave, give that to me."he told her urgently, hand reaching out.
But she didn't move, didn't say a word, just looked at him with dead, cold stare of her's. Dark eyes (weren't they lighter?), body stiff... He reached out to take her pulse, praying to any deity that would listen to him that she wasn't what he thought she was; no steady thump against his fingertips, he thought watching her flat eyes watch him.
"I'm sorry."he told her, and her expression did not change as he reached out to kiss her forehead.
Rose reached out, gripping the woman's still hands and kissing her firmly on the cheek, before she walked backwards, her back hitting his chest.
"Thank you."they chorused together.
He reached out, grabbing at Rose's hand, their fingers intertwining.
"Run."he told her, echoing himself for the first time he had ever spoken to her.
And they did, together, her surprisingly quickly in her large skirt. They bolted through the house, through the street, and just as they had cleared around twenty or so feet from the old funeral parlor, the house had to go and explode on them. On reflex, he hurled himself at her, making sure his back took the brunt of the blast, curling around her smaller frame.
Vaguely, over the damn ringing in his ears, he could hear both Sneed and Dickens running up to them, but mostly he focused on the soft, rapid breathing bellow him. Rolling away, he jumped to his feet, turning to the fallen girl, offering his hand. She looked a little frazzled he noticed, as he helped her up, eyes misty as she stood, shaking her head as if to push away the bad memories... Or the ring in her ears. Either or he thought, blinking and shaking his head himself.
"She was dead, wasn't she? The way she looked at me... She looked so... Wrong. And she was stiff like that old woman, even if she was still warm."asked Rose, loudly, rubbing her ears.
He nodded grimly.
"I'm sorry. She closed the rift. I think she was dead from the minute she stood in that arch."
"She helped us. She saved us. Even in death."
"There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Even for
you, Doctor."said Dickens with an wise old air.
"Foolish, silly, brave girl."said Sneed sadly, an ounce of affection clear in his voice.
"She saved the world. She was just a girl. No one will ever know."said Rose softly looking towards the burning, smoldering mass of the house.
The fact that she had done the same, with the Autons didn't seem to occur to her, and the Doctor smiled, grinning really, at the thought. Because oddly enough, he had the distinct feeling that would happen a lot with her around. Jeopardy friendly she was. And he was glad to have her as long as she could stand him.
~BW~DW~BW~DW~BW~
"Right then, Charlie boy, Sneed, I've just got to go into my, er, shed. Won't be long."said the Doctor with a distinctively cheery air, and Rose felt herself smile on reflex.
"What are you going to do now?"she asked, because the soon to be dying man that was Charles Dickens deserved to express his desire, his epiphany in his last leg of life aloud, fresh in his mind.
Dickens did not disappoint, grinning like a mad man as he turned to her. His eyes sparkled and his hands were a flutter like an impatient yet eager insect; twisting this way and that in an animated manner. There was an air of giddiness to him, of a lightness akin to a school boy that was rare, but delightful to see in any man his age.
"I shall take the mail coach back to London, quite literally post-haste. This is no time for me
to be on my own. I shall spend Christmas with my family and make amends to them. After all I've learned tonight, there can be nothing more vital."he said, and he sounded glad and eager for it.
"You've cheered up."noted the Doctor, and she rolled her eyes at the understatement.
The man was hanging around a burning building and twittering around like a school boy, instead of the bitter, dried old, disillusioned Scrooge he had been before.
"Exceedingly! This morning, I thought I knew everything in the world. Now I know I've just started. All these huge and wonderful notions, Doctor. I'm inspired. I must write about them."he cried out, and even grim old Sneed, cracked a smile at that.
"That's brilliant."she told him.
"I shall be subtle at first, of course! The Mystery of Edwin Drood still lacks an ending. Perhaps the killer was not the boy's uncle. Perhaps he was not of this Earth. The Mystery of Edwin Drood and the Blue Elementals. I can spread the word, tell the truth."
"Good luck with it. Nice to meet you. Fantastic."said the Doctor, and this time around she heard the reluctance and honest sadness in his force cheer. He knew the end for Charles Dickens, and that wonderful story, the truth, would never be.
Pity that. Sneed cleared his throat, a rueful, nervous smile on his lips.
"And I shall get away from the funeral service. No more dreadful ghosts for me. Instead, I shall go to the country-side, live my days out away from such fantastical things. After I give Gwyneth a proper resting place, I shall never seen nor hid nor hair of this place."he said it with his typical tone, superior but still saddening somehow.
The fact that he would give Gwyneth a burial, a proper one that a girl like her usually could never afford, made Rose almost forgive him for the man-handling and the allowance of death in his home, because in the end, at least the man had cared for that special serving girl that had saved them all. Even, if just a little.
"Thanks Charlie, have a wonderful life. You too Sneed, and give Gwyn some flowers from me."she told them softly.
She gave Charles Dickens a kiss on the cheek as before, but gave the living Sneed a firm shake of the hand. Part of her wish that Sneed was not the person standing in front of her. He was a coward, and frankly he had most likely let a lot of people die in the wake of the Gelth... And if she had chosen, Gwyneth would be in front of her in his stead.
But Rose knew she couldn't chose who she got to save, if she save anyone at any given time. She was lucky that she could save the old man, she had been lucky to save Jabe and Moxy and whoever else would have died in the past few moments of her reliving her life with the Doctor. And no reapers had come about to destroy everything, so there was that, so she knew that she be useful and proactive in this second chance at life.
Time wasn't linear, it was twisting and turning at every moment, save for those rare, still, unchangeable moments. She had known this even before the Doctor had explained it to her(after all some version of him had done it before), and she planned to use this to her advantage.
"Oh, my dear. How modern. Thank you, but, I don't understand. In what way is this goodbye? Where are you going?"asked Dickens, just as flustered as before. She grinned, and stepped back to stand by the Doctor.
"You'll see. In the shed."said the Doctor, and his eyes were surly twinkling in delight at the show he was about to give.
"Upon my soul, Doctor, it's one riddle after another with you. But after all these revelations,
there's one mystery you still haven't explained. Answer me this. Who are you?"he asked Dickens.
"Yes, who are you, both of you?"asked Sneed, coming to stand by Dickens, a frown on his face.
"Just a friend passing through."said the Doctor softly.
Both Victorian men looked on disbelieving. Rose herself couldn't help the smile on her face, because at one point she had been that dumb-struck person staring at the odd blue box standing in the grassy filed by her mum's flat. Now, so much time later she was the person looking on at the dumbfounded people, knowledge surly swimming in her eyes. And, if she was lucky, it would be that way for a long time.
"But you have such knowledge of future times. I don't wish to impose on you, but I must ask you. My books. Doctor, do they last?"
"Oh, yes!"
'"For how long?"asked Dickens, timidly.
She felt herself grin at the answer she knew would come.
"Forever. Right. Shed. Come on, Rose."said the Doctor, grabbing her hand in his to pull her into the TARDIS.
"Both of you, in that tiny shed?! My word Doctor, your common clothing may suit you!"said Sneed, wiggling his expressive brows.
Despite herself, Rose flushed, before laughing aloud at Dickens flustered face.
"Down boys. See you."said the Doctor, opening the TARDIS and slipping inside.
She walked after him, about to shut the doors before she turned around and peeked out at the two men.
"Goodbye, gentleman!"she called out, winking, as she slammed the door.
The TARDIS gave a soft, pleased hum in greeting, something Rose returned with much gusto. Then, she sighed, turning to look at the man at the console.
"Dickens dies June of next year."she noted absently, fiddling with her earring.
The Doctor nodded, a found smile on his face.
"Yeah, but he's happy, even if his newest work never gets finished."he noted, turning to the controls.
"He looked like a little boy, running around like he did."she said softly, coming to rest in the captain's chair.
The Doctor grinned, gaze flickering to her.
"Let's give the boys a treat."
"Yeah?"she asked, and grinned, jumping up to look at the monitor.
"Yeah."
And then he got the TARDIS working, all the while both men outside laughed and grinned in wonder as the ship slowly disappeared from their sight. It was fitting to a long day she thought, watching the two old men that had gained a second outlook on their life(really fitting for her), to go on to their journey about the time and space.
"Now where?"asked the Doctor, his fingertips itching over the random lever that would rocket them anywhere and any-when in the universe. Not that she was suppose to know that at that moment.
She smiled, eyeing the lever with a sense of rightness and ease. Just as before, she said:
"Anywhere."
"Fantastic!"he cried, and her grin grew.
"After we visit my mother."she said, and he blinked at her, seemingly stupefied.
"Your what?"
She could only laugh at that brilliant response. That was the Doctor she knew.
AN: I do not, in any shape or form, own Doctor Who that belongs to its various writers, actors, and BBC. This is me and shipping to the extreme.
Holy cow this chapter was 34 pages long, 17, 631 words. The most difficult part was writing the Doctor, and a majority of the chapter was from his point of view... Difficult man... Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and any question, comments, feel free to PM or review.
Those who do, thank you =).
~Peace,
Moon Witch '96
P.S. I've been working the majority of the summer, and only ever really have time to write now that I was sick.
