The Bits in Between

Chapter Five: The Fate of the Wedding Dress

By Lumendea

AN: Takes place after The Wedding of Rose Tyler, the final episode of Time and the Trickster.

…..

It was a Friday night when the phone rang in Rose's university flat. A half-finished paper was up on the screen of her laptop, but boredom was setting in. Grabbing her mobile, Rose answered it without even looking away from her computer screen.

"Hello."

"Hey Rose," Sharon's voice greeted. She sounded a bit nervous, and Rose instantly straightened up, alert and ready for anything. "Quick question, you don't have any actual desire to hold onto the wedding dress, do you?"

"What?" Rose hissed. Her whole body tensing at the mere memory. The face of Richard Beckett, aka the Silver Lord, flashed in front of her eyes, and her stomach turned over. "No! Of course not!"

"Oh, good!" Sharon giggled happily, almost evilly. "Then you won't mind if Shireen and I destroy it?"

"Destroy it?" Rose repeated dumbly.

"Yeah, we took it after you and the Doctor ran off before Jackie could try to preserve it or something. It is really beautiful and suited you and all, but we were hoping that we could ritually slice it apart."

"Ritually…" Rose trailed off for a moment and then began to laugh. "Are you serious?"

"Honey, we spent four hellish months aware that you were under the mental control of a monster with very little we could do about it." Sharon's voice echoed with lingering anger and frustration. Rose felt a jolt of guilt. "You've already destroyed the ring, so we need the dress to take our frustrations out on." Sharon paused for a moment. "Shireen insisted that we ask you first."

"Have at it then!" Rose cheered before she stopped. "No, wait, don't. Not yet!"

"But why?" Sharon demanded, her voice shifting into a whine. Rose could almost see the way that Sharon's nose curled when she was unhappy.

"Because I will be at your place in an hour," Rose promised. She was already jumping to her feet and grabbing her boots. Rose half hoped across the room, holding the phone to her shoulder as she pulled the boots on. "We will open some wine, shred that thing and then burn the scraps!"

"Not sure where we'll do this bonfire, but I love how you think!" Sharon agreed, and Rose could hear the smile. "Call us when you get close, and we'll order pizza."

"You two really are the best friends this girl could ever have," Rose said.

She grabbed her jacket and bag with a wide grin. Honestly, she was probably about to break more than a few speed limits. Rose paused as she locked her doors and inwards conceded that she was probably going to get drunk too. She didn't let that happen often, but hopefully, the universe wouldn't surprise her with an alien invasion mid-hangover. It better not.