The soldiers had escorted them to the highest level. They must have climbed over thirty flights of stairs. They had to stop for breaks many times over. Each time they did, the two soldiers glanced anxiously at each other, and each time, the Doctor stood stoically silent, almost to the point of abhorrence.
At last, they had reached the top. The top landing was incongruous to the previous landings they had passed along the way up. Awaiting them was a set of heavy double doors with a very intricate TARDIS blue wire box hanging by the side on the wall.
The Doctor pulled out an old fashion key and opened the small blue door to open the box. The lid swung outward, and as the rest of the crew was standing behind the Doctor, they were unable to see what was in the box or what the Doctor was doing.
A second later, the double doors opened by themselves, and the Doctor closed the box again and locked it with the key.
Without saying a word, the Doctor led them into a polished grand hallway. The ceilings were impossibly high, with chandeliers that hung what felt like half a mile down. Every few steps hung a second one encrusted with the brightest diamonds any of the earthlings had ever seen.
They gave the room a kind of sparkling light that seemed to make the hall come alive. It danced off the ten-foot windows and glittered off the elaborate golden picture frames that lined the walls in neat order.
The Doctor's cloak held the most noticeable difference. Instead of the dull simple brown, it was before, it lit up as if a sun spot had found him and him alone. It sparkled and shone as if he was a lone star in a dark galaxy. He literally became too bright and dazzling to look at. So instead Rose began to sleuth the rest of the place as they walked along the hallway.
The carpets were a deep rich red to match the long velvet curtains, standing at least ten feet high. There were small tables holding all types of art from grand fresco pottery to diamond statues of imperious looking men and women. The pictures on the wall seemed to be a timeline of some kind. It looked to Rose like it might have been a family timeline, although there was less and less resemblance as they walked on. Each picture showed a man or woman dressed in a crown of immaculate diamond and golden robes streaming with gems, that looked to be the same, almost alive, material as the Doctor's cloak.
At the end of the hall were two golden brown doors that stood as large as the ceiling. They looked possibly too heavy to open. The doors were engraved with narrow clockwork patterns and designs that nagged at something in Rose's consciousness.
The Doctor paused at the doors and turned around to face them at last. Their escorts bowed politely and veered to the side, but otherwise didn't move.
Rose raised her eyebrows at the Doctor, wondering who on earth they were going to see behind those gigantic glorious doors.
Normally on her travels with the Doctor, to get through a door, metaphorically speaking, he would rely on his trusty psychic paper or sonic screwdriver, but she hadn't seen him pull either out once. His words from only moments ago floated into her mind.
There are easier ways to open doors…
And just as Rose was thinking it, the Doctor simply touched the curly door hands made in the same design as the scripted doors, and they swung open fluidly.
Rose expected noise of some kind, any kind, to come with opening doors that large, but they opened as quickly and smoothly as if on ice.
They walked in slowly, the Doctor keeping his position in the lead.
It was transforming. They had gone from a jail cell to a building staircase to a grand hallway, to… this?
Even the entrance hall couldn't prepare their eyes for such splendor. The ceiling was half a mile above them. From the way it glittered and sparkled, it looked like it was crawling with diamond insects. Space alone was at least twenty times the size of Rose's old flat in her first universe. The carpet was a swirl of color and artistically complicated designs that, like so much else here, reminded Rose of the innards of a clock. A cherry wood desk stood glistening beyond a window almost as tall as the ceiling with the curtains that match the carpet. Curtains that were so long and thick, they could cover an entire house. Several sofas were arranged in a semi cercal around the desk, of all different sizes and all of them the same color and material of the Doctor's robes.
Other than the desk, sofas, and a few art stands, the massive room was almost painfully bare. Instead of walls, it seemed to be aligned with doors leading to who knows where? The style of the doors reminded Rose of the ones in the TARDIS.
In fact, many things here did…
None of what they saw in the room was anything compared to the view they saw through the split curtains.
The most breathtaking city awaited their eyes. It was so glorious; it was almost painful to look at. They must have been even higher up than Rose first thought. They must have climbed far more than around thirty flights of stairs to reach this level of height. Rose could see each building, each playground with attractions she had never seen before, each house with each yard. But she could also see behind that.
A mountain view greeted them. Twin mountains far off in the distance stood like a testament to the city itself. As if they were two great giants guarding the city. For all Rose knew, they were. She'd seen stranger things.
She could see trees with silvers leaves and grass that stretched for miles. Alien grass, the color of living crimson.
Everything from the building tops to the silvers leaves seemed alive and dancing with the most brilliant light Rose had ever seen. The sun here must have been something else. It seemed to almost be giving light from the east side and the west side at the same time. At least she finally received confirmation that they were no longer on Earth. It was just a likely possibility until this point.
The doors swung shut behind them softly. Rose, Jack, and Jackie looked around in astonishment as the Doctor casually crossed the room in long strides and sat down behind the immaculate desk. He steepled his hands on the desk, and stared at the standing humans, waiting.
It took a while for them to get over the royal aspect of it all, and to finally inch over to the Doctor.
They stood awkwardly around the desk, feeling extremely out of place in their tattered and filthy clothes. None of them had showered in maybe a week, nor eaten a proper meal for days. Rose had a strong sense of dis-attachment. She may have been rich in her second universe, but she could never feel comfortable in a place like this.
"Well, sit down." The Doctor announced suddenly.
Rose jumped breaking out of her trance. She was so absorbed in the majesty of it all that she didn't notice that Jack and her mother were looking at her in amusement from their seated positions on a brown sofa, which at a second glance, looked more golden brown.
Rose sat on the brown couch opposite them but still parallel to the Doctor sitting at a desk that was three times his size. She gently brushed her hand along the silky exterior of the sofa, reviling in the sheer softness after three days of hard and cold surfaces.
The desk was bare except for one thing. A glass box stood at its center, right in front of the Doctor. Rose stared at it. She found it hard to believe it wasn't the first thing that caught her eye about the desk.
Sitting peacefully in the glass…or was it crystal, box perched the most gorgeous crown in all of creation. Sure she had seen pictures of crowns in the past, and she had even met some royalty in her travels with the Doctor, but none of them carried their own presence. The closest thing to it would have to be the ones painted in the ornate pictures aligning the corridor to this room, but even that couldn't prepare her for the true beauty that nothing but the genuine article could do justice.
It was made of pure diamond! Instead of pointy edges, it was rounded at the top, forming that circular pattern again that was too bright to look at. It seemed to emanate its own light.
She didn't know how she knew, but the crystal encasing was somehow shielding the crown's true splendor, somehow dimming its light.
"I suppose it's nice?" The Doctor brushed offhandedly as if answering a question, instead of the understatement it obviously was.
Suppose? Suppose? What was he talking about?
Rose had never seen anything more beautiful in her life. It seemed that her mother and Jack were in agreement with her. They couldn't take their eyes off it as well.
Suddenly the crystal darkened dramatically and the crown's spell wore off.
She looked up in surprise to find the Doctor's hands atop the casing with a frown of annoyance on his face.
Rose shook her head, trying to clear it off. It was more than its beauty. The precious thing seemed to fill her head with wonder and a deep sense of awe.
"Doctor?" She said breathlessly, her mind spinning.
"Are you going to tell us what this place is then? And who's… room I guess, this is?" Jack asked, also a little breathless.
It seemed the crown affected him the same way. It made Rose feel a little less foolish.
"An' who the 'ell were thos' men out t'ere, I didn't like 'em, they kept starin' at me like I was some kinda alien," Jackie said with a shudder.
Rose only just noticed that their escort had not followed them beyond the double doors.
The Doctor looked long and hard at Jackie before sighing and answering.
That's cause you are aliens, aren't you?"
"Are we," Rose asked?
He nodded.
"My how roles reverse," he intoned mysteriously.
"What's that supposed to mean? Look Doc, can you please just tell us what the hell is going on here, no more riddles?"
The Doctor leaned back, and then to their surprised put his feet negligently upon the desk, nearly kicking the tinted crown encasement in the process.
On the one hand, to make himself so comfortable where ever he was, was so like him, but on the other, whoever's office this was if you can call it an office, wouldn't take to that very kindly at all.
He was also barefoot for some reason. Rose suspected that he wasn't wearing anything under that robe at all, and found it hard to shake the thought from her mind.
Jack was getting increasingly annoyed with the Doctor's apathy and silence. He was about to tell him so when the Doctor finally spoke.
"It's mine."
Jack stopped dead, mid breath. He turned and stared at the man too bright to be real.
"W'at?" Breathed Jackie.
"It's…yours…" Jack stammered. "Huh?"
The Doctor grinned. But it wasn't just any grin. It was his signature, I love it when… grin. His mouth opened wide, showing all his teeth and just a hint of tongue.
It filled Rose with a longing so old and familiar that it almost seemed like an old friend.
She missed him so SO much!
"Come on Jack, haven't you figured it out yet?" He said brightly.
Jack stood up so as to stare the Doctor down, and leaned over the desk to look directly into his eyes.
"You're joking?" He challenged, raising an eyebrow.
The Doctor's response was to laugh. His laugh changed from the one Rose knew so well. It was even lighter, airier, and less weighed down. What could possibly have changed him so much in only a few years?
"I'm not, I'm really not." He insisted, never losing his manic grin.
It was infectious, and Rose found herself smiling like an idiot along with him. Whatever was happening, she was reunited; something she thought would only be a dream.
"Okay, I give up, how is this all yours?" Jack smirked smugly. As if to say, ha, try and find a way out of that one?
He raised his eyebrows in a challenge, but the Doctor never lost faith. In fact, his grin somehow got even wider.
In one motion the Doctor swung his feet off the desk, stood up, walked over, and pulled Jack in a bear hug that almost lifted him above the ground.
Jack let out a cry of surprise, but it quickly morphed into laughter.
"Ahhh I missed you!" The Doctor said through being pressed against Jacks's chest.
"Uh, I missed you too, but can we please get to the explaining part of today?"
The Doctor let Jack go, and beamed proudly at them all.
"Of course, if you wanted to keep hugging me, or perhaps do even more, I won't say no," Jack winked.
And instead of the Doctor reprimanding him, he went over and gave Jack another hug. But it was broken quickly by a loud clanging sound that came from the front of the room.
Jackie looked apprehensively at the door, Jack, poised, ready for a fight. Rose, however, looked to the Doctor.
"Doctor, what's that? Should we run?"
It felt like a stupid thing to say after the way they so casually strutted around the place, but it was hard to feel like they belonged. A barefooted Doctor, and three prisoner companions in a ballroom filled with a clanging that rattled in their very skulls.
The Doctor rushed over to the desk and placed his hands on the encasing crystal. There was a sound of air being let out of a can, and then the box slid open on top. The Doctor quickly dug his hands in and adorned the crown.
Rose gasped. He treated the treasure like it was a hat. He thrust it quickly on his head, flattening the few stray hairs that had dried and began their relentless quest to defy gravity, and straightened his robes. She hadn't even noticed his hair had been wet. To be fair though, she reasoned with herself, he was wearing that hood for most of their time with him so far.
He pulled a small mirror out of one of the draws in the desk and checked to see if his crown was on straight. He smoothed his wet hair out of his eyes and tucked a loose strand behind the rim. Once satisfied, he started to walk over to the door.
Jack grabbed his arm to stop him though.
"Doctor, this isn't funny anymore. Who's ever that thing belongs to, they aren't going to let you get away with just putting it on."
Instead of him being cross with Jack, as Rose would have expected, he gave him a quizzical look. Then understanding dawned on him.
"Ohhh, you don't understand anything do you?!" He suddenly exclaimed, bouncing on the balls of his feet. Of course, of course! The TARDIS doesn't translate Gallifreyan, does it?"
Gallifreyan? Did he mean…
"Jack, do you mind, I'll have to physically insert the language into your head, won't hurt a bit, I promise!"
"Uh...I guess," Jack stammered.
The Doctor gently placed his forefingers from each hand on Jack's temples. He rested his forehead on Jack's and then closed his eyes.
Jack closed his as well. A second later, they both opened their eyes and wore reflecting stupid grins on their faces.
"There, all done!" The Doctor said clapping his hands together. "Who's next?"
"But I don't feel any different?"
"Why would you? It's like learning a new language, except minus all the tedious, boring parts."
He looked thoughtful for a moment.
"Although I did have to store it in your brain. Don't worry, it's in your prefrontal cortex as opposed to your hippocampus, and to access it, all you'll have to do is treat it like any other second language. You know, when you try to remember how to say something and you can almost feel your brain working… or do humans not do that, hard to say. Anyway, Rose?"
"Sure Doctor, I'll have a go."
She couldn't quite say she understood, but she knew enough to give it a go. She guessed Jack felt the same way because he still didn't seem to understand what was going on.
She only knew that she trusted him, and whatever he was going to do, she was sure it would only help.
He walked up to her and instead of going straight for her temples; he took her hands in his own. She felt the tingles again and stared up into his brown eyes.
"Rose Tyler," he whispered. "Oh, my sweet, beautiful, Rose Tyler."
And before she could comprehend that he just called her beautiful, he had pressed his lips gently over hers.
The kiss started out soft, gentle, and caressing. But it escalated fast, becoming more heated and intense.
Rose responded with equal passion. She felt his tongue trying to enter and she parted her lips eagerly. Their tongues danced around and around and she was suddenly aware that she had closed her eyes, and her hands were groping around wildly through his hair.
They pulled apart to breathe, both gasping for air with identical grins on their face. The Doctor licked his wet lips, and Rose was tempted to kiss him again. But before she could, he turned away.
"Jackie, your turn."
Rose flushed as darkly as the grass. She didn't mean to snog the Doctor like that in front of her mother.
"Oh no, I don't know w'at you're 'f'inking, but you ant snogging me with t'at mouth!"
The Doctor laughed. "Come on Jackie that was a preference. I'll do it just like I did it to Jack."
Jack snorted, Rose giggled, Jackie scoffed, and the Doctor rolled his eyes.
"What about my preferences?" Jack said and Rose could literally hear the wink in his voice.
Rose was trying her best not to look into the Doctor's kiss too much, nor that he had just said it was a preference to kiss her… and he had called her beautiful...
She shooed her thoughts away for later. It wouldn't do her any good to continue blushing like a mad school girl around him after just being reunited. Not to mention that her mother was still right there…
"You know what I mean." The Doctor said.
He walked over to her, and raised his hands but didn't make a move to touch her.
"I need to know first, do you trust me?"
Jackie took a long look at her daughter. Rose met her gaze, trying to convey the trust she herself placed in this man and willing her mother to do the same. Jack was right though, she didn't notice anything different. Whatever the Doctor was doing seemed virtually undetectable.
Jackie sighed and deflated slightly.
"Alright, but keep your tongue w'ere I can see't, and that includes out of my daugh'er!" She demanded.
The Doctor placed his hands on her temples, and within another second, pulled apart.
"Done," he smiled happily. "Now to deal with the racket."
What was before a loud din in her head, was now a dull knocking sound. Did it have something to do with what the Doctor did to them?
"Alright, alright, you can come in now."
When the Doctor spoke, he did it in that same language as before, the same smooth but loopy sounds flowed from his lips, almost like he was singing and talking at the same time.
When Rose focused on the sounds, however, they suddenly made sense. He was right though, it didn't feel like it normally did when the TARDIS automatically translated everything for them. It felt like this was her second language that she had struggled to learn, but in the end, completed.
So that was what he did to them.
The Doctor straightened his crown again, and glided across the room, glittering like an angel.
He placed his hands along the door handles but didn't pull. Instead, he walked backward, arms outstretched, allowing the doors to swing open.
The balding man from the dungeons stood there, twisting a corner of his robes in his hands nervously.
"My Lord," he said, "a thousand pardons, but I was told you wanted to see me?"
"Ah, yes, good, come in." The Doctor said in a serious tone that Rose only heard him use when there was trouble.
The man bowed deeply before walking into the room just enough that the door could close behind him, and then stopped.
"Avast, I know I haven't fully gotten around to fixing up the old prison system yet, but when you informed me that there were new prisoners, I never expected to find them in such a condition."
The Doctor spoke in a calm and collected voice, but each word made the man wince and roll his robes tighter. He hunched over even more than he was before, in his fear, like a small mountain collapsing in on itself.
"We had…had no idea, sir, no idea at …all that they were…erm…friends of-"
"That's of no matter to anyone." The Doctor snapped. "And you should know why. What did I say before? What are the new laws?"
"But sir, if I may?" The man squeaked, becoming more and more unsettled. He seemed to shrink under the towering and imposing form of the Doctor.
"Yes?"
"Well, sir, the other guards said that if the jail was too…too nice then it wouldn't be much of a…a prison would it? So they said we should starve them because that still wasn't against the law sir. But I shouldn't have let that happen, sir, I should have known better. And I am sorry."
Suddenly he stood to his full height. He wasn't short at all, just really bent over. In fact, he was just about as tall as Rose was.
"I take full responsibility, my Lord. It was my duty to look out for these kinds of things and I failed you."
The Doctors face softened.
"I want you to use your judgment to go fire whoever will not listen and reprimand who will."
Upon his words, the man's face lit up. "Sir?"
"Yes, Avast, I am giving you one more chance. Just one though, mess up again or you will be demoted."
"Oh, sir!" Avast cried out in joy. He looked like he was struggling not to run up and hug the Doctor.
The Doctor cocked his head, "oh, go on then", and he hugged the little man, bending over slightly to do so.
"Thank you, sir, thank you! You are truly merciful, and kind, and just and…and….thank you!"
Rose thought he would start kissing the hem of the Doctor's robes any second. The whole idea of it was completely ludicrous.
"That's what I like about you Avast. Always willing to be a bit less formal."
Avast hesitated. "Sir, can I… can I ask you something, tedious sir?"
"If you want to ask it, then it's already not tedious, is it? Maybe… curiosity?"
Avast nodded.
"Well, how can I say no to something like that, eh?"
Avast gave a large toothy grin. "Well sir, I was just wondering why you were out of your formal attire in the first place."
He flinched immediately as if about to be struck down. "I'm sorry, your highness, I'm so sorry. That was brass and –"
The Doctor's laughter cut him off. "Nonsense. It's a worthy question. I told you, I like that your one of the few people who would ask me something like that. Never stem your curiosity. Never!" The Doctor said gently, sounding every bit like an old professor giving a lecture.
Avast looked a little less frightened, but still very tense.
"To be honest," the Doctor said, rubbing the back of his neck. I just came out of the bath. Don't tell anyone, but this is my bathrobe."
Avast jumped and his face turned beat red. "I'm so sorry sir. I am so –"
"Oh it's all right, how were you to know. Besides, I haven't been interrupted by something so wonderful in ages!" He turned his head to wink back at them.
"Yes sir, if I may sir, I'll go take care of your wishes at once sir."
"Good idea, you can go now then."
The Doctor brushed his fingers gently over the doorknob and they opened on their own. Avast bowed and walked out, backward, keeping his face to the Doctor.
The Doctor's back was turned to her so Rose couldn't see his face, but she really wanted to. Especially if it would give her any clues as to what was going on.
At last, Avast was gone and the doors closed too softly for such large doors, behind him.
The Doctor chuckled and walked back to his desk.
"Sorry, I just wanted to make sure that no one else has to suffer like that." He regarded them very seriously, "I am truly sorry for what happened to you. I know I owe you explanations as I doubt you understood anything they said to you before. Another thing I have to take care of." He sighed again; a long deep sigh that made him look older than she had ever seen him.
"Well, sit down. I'll call us up some food and then I'll explain everything."