Chapter four
It took a while for her to calm down. But when she finally did, she noticed two things. Firstly, she was completely knackered. And secondly, the Doctor had left again and she couldn't remember how long ago.
Her mom was holding her tightly, rocking her gently, and making small sounds of comfort. When Rose's cries transitioned gently into light hiccups, her mother finally let her go, and Jack handed her a glass of water, which she downed gratefully.
"I'm... I'm sorry." She mumbled, turning away from their concerned gaze. She blushed from her display of crippling consternation.
She hiccupped again then went to refill her glass but the pitcher was empty.
Jack gave her an amicable smile. And Rose returned it weakly.
"I'm okay, really," she insisted. To their credit, Jack and her mother did not exchange any dubious glances.
She stood up and stretched. She had been crouched down for too long and her back gave a pleasant pop to reward her movements.
She glanced around for some clue as to where the Doc- where that man had gone. She swallowed a lump that had just formed in her throat.
Don't think like that, she chagrined at herself.
Rose took a deep shuddering breath and forced herself to be calm and aloof about everything. Everything was a big word.
At least for the moment, she would try.
In her most controlled calm and collected voice she asked, "so, where has...er...where has." She stopped, unable to say his name, but equally unable to call him anything else.
Jack shrugged. "Said he was upsetting you and just left quickly."
Jack looked to the double doors and if expecting the Doctor to come sauntering right back in at the mere mention of him.
Rose wiped her face with her disheveled sleeve. She felt a flicker of jealousy at that man. He was able to shower and get dressed in... Well, that. But honestly, she was more envious of the shower prospect at the given time.
"I'm sorry," she mumbled again. Rubbing the back of her head. A trait she had picked up from the Doctor. Once she realized she was doing it, she stopped rather abruptly, giving off a deliberate sheepishness.
There was a palpable silence. Rose was contented to stay that way for a while. And to her sympathies, they did. The three of them squashed together on the smaller sofa, the one that was parallel to the desk instead of pressed against it.
They sat in silence just thinking, and in Rose's case, trying not to feel. She could break down later.
She would break down later, but she wanted, no, needed to hold off, just until they were freed from this place.
She wondered what would happen if they just walked out.
Then she stood rather suddenly, surprised that she hadn't considered it before.
If the Doctor impostor had indeed freed them, then they should be able to leave at their own will, right?
Rose expressed her plan to Jack and her mother.
Her mum looked eager to leave, but Jack, ever the voice of reason, had to buttin his two sense.
"Even if we aren't chucked right back into prison," he gestured to their obvious incongruously disheveled clothing, "then how would we get back? From everything the Doctor said," Rose winced, Jack dolefully didn't comment, "we are sometime in the very distant future, and on Gallifrey. How would we just "get back"? I'm sorry Rose, but I think the best course of action is to wait here and when the Doc-"
"Would you stop calling him that!?" Rose barked.
Jack started, taken aback.
"Sorry, sorry! It's just, how can that be him ya know?" She said in a small voice, trying, and failing dismally, to sound nonchalant.
"I thought it was something like that." Came a quiet voice from behind them all.
Rose flinched and looked guiltily over her shoulder at the man who just entered. The doors closed silently behind him, too silently to hear, and his footsteps didn't make a sound on the carpeted floor. He held a look of intense longing on his handsome, transcendent features.
For a moment, Rose could do no more than stare at him; he was so bright before she was able to finally tear her eyes away in shame.
"Rose," he whispered so gently she almost didn't catch it. "Rose, can I, can I come closer to you?"
It was such an odd thing to ask. It was made downright impossible by their scenery and his attire.
She nodded mutely, wondering why she was agreeing but not able to stop herself all the same.
He approached slowly, taking careful and precise steps. The whole thing made Rose feel silly. As if she was a child who might go off into a temper tantrum at any second.
Her Doctor would never see her that way.
She arduously pushed that thought from her mind and focused on the approaching man.
Why did the word king come so strongly to mind?
She gulped.
He was a vision. A vision of royalty and splendor and he was walking over to comfort her? Everything about that seemed wrong.
They used to make fun of royalty. Back when everything was right. When everything was simple.
When he finally reached them, he stood over them awkwardly but didn't ask them to stand up from the sofa.
Then he did something completely unexpected.
He plopped down onto the floor.
His robes wrinkled, and crown tilted, but his face grew into a wide, dopey grin.
"Haven't done this in ages." He exclaimed in delight. His seriousness temporarily forgotten in place of an apparent rare humility.
"Mind you, can't let anyone else see me like this, but, we're all mates here. And I'll be daft if I ever present myself as superior to the great Dame Rose of the Powell Estate."
His toothy smirk told her he was joking, but it sent a spark of unwanted hope through Rose. That joke, that memory, it was exactly something her Doctor would say.
Was there somehow a chance he was still in there?
His grin widened when his words and actions had the desired effect.
Rose found she was finally able to meet his gaze.
"There we are," he chided. She was glad he wasn't treating her like she would go off any moment anymore.
"That's better now!" He chirped. "Be honest though, please." He asked, his voice taking on a much more serious tone.
"What caused that, just now? Because I don't think it was just my uniform was it?"
Rose's retort was lost on the way out of her mouth.
"I'm sorry!" Jack cried, voicing what they all were thinking. "But you did not just call THAT a uniform!"
The Doctor blinked. "But is it. Why else would I wear such a ridiculous thing? Although, I can't really say that to anyone. If you haven't noticed, it's a really big deal when I am not dressed formally. I mean, how is it that I am supposed to always be perfectly dressed, perfectly presented, wear this...thing, on my head, I mean, I'd walk around in my brown coat and suit all the time if I could… And my trainers."
A low seductive growl escaped from the back of his throat. "Oh my do I miss those!"
"Hang on," Jack gasped, comprehension downing on his face. "Is that why you had your hood up? Because you weren't wearing the crown or something?"
The Doctor looked less than bemused. "Yup!" He said simply, popping the P.
"'Hat's silly," Jackie piped up. "You 'ave to 'ide your face just because you 'ant downstairs' an didn't wan' to wear your crown?"
The Doctor jerked a single eyebrow at her. "You honestly think that down the stairs from where I live, is a dungeon?"
"No?"
"Oh wow, Jackie, come on, work with me here! You didn't feel it? None of you?"
He was doing it again. That thing he would do where he would talk down to humans. The way he would when he was explaining something extremely complex and then would stare perplexedly at you, baffled as to why you didn't understand.
The whole act, the very concept was just so...Doctor... That it finally allowed Rose to find her grin, and maybe, return some of her wavering faith in him back into its solidarity.
"So, what was it? We didn't go through any transporters, teleports, or anything like it or I would have..." He trailed off, eyes falling to rest on his exposed, naked wrist.
"You would... What? Detect it on your imaginary vortex manipulator?"
Jack shot him a glare. But it faded at once when he blurted, "Wait! You can get it back for me, right? They took it away when they arrested us and brought us here. I couldn't imagine why they would want it anyway. What they used to bring us here made my model look prehistoric."
"That's because it is."
Jack, in mock affront, put his hand over his heart. "Well, I never."
Then for a moment, both men just smiled stupidly at each other, Jack for once looking down at him.
As if that thought was heard by Jack, he slowly slid down from the sofa, back resting against it, now level with the Doctor.
"Far be it from me to ever pretend to be superior to the great Doctor of Gallifrey." Jack quipped, mimicking the Doctor's previous jest about Rose.
"Actually, the official name is High Lord President. But presidency doesn't work here like you know it. The politics are all completely different. I am…" he sighed, steeling himself. "In all sense of the job, I am in fact, an elected...well...King."
He looked away then, suddenly unable to meet their eyes, as if shamed by this rather large confession.
Not that they all hadn't suspected as much, but it was another thing to hear him say it.
While never exactly being right out for power, Rose knew the Doctor was never exactly powerless. After all, he always had the ability to travel throughout time and space, his super-brain, and he did always act superior to humans. Although Rose suspected that the last was didn't come out of actual emotion, rather he had no idea how offhanded he tended to come off. There had always been some aspect of power in him. Powerless people didn't have nicknames like The On Coming Storm.
His power oozed off him, more so now than ever before. But still, Rose was surprised to find herself thinking... well really, who else would be King of Gallifrey?
She didn't know what people were like here. Maybe all Time Lords were as clever as he was. Or maybe he was the cleverest of the bunch. Maybe they all traveled the universe, or maybe even his regeneration was a power to himself.
Rose rubbed her temples. It was all too confusing and stressful. She was still so emotionally and physically drained
With enormous effort, she decided to stop thinking and just listen. She tried to channel the numbness and shock she felt when the Doctor first took them into the office. It was easier than she expected. Her exhaustion carried her into the all too willing unfeeling bubble.
She was startled to realize, that must have already been at least over 2 hours ago. It was hard to tell. Judging from the sun outside the window, it was still the same time as before. Maybe time worked differently here. It would make sense, being Time Lords and all.
Rose closed her eyes for a brief moment, took a deep breath, and waited for the Doctor to explain, uninterrupted, by her at last.
She did her best imitation of patience, folding her hands together and crossing one leg over the other, looking, what she hoped was, calmly down at the Doctor and Jack.
Both of which gave her a bemused smile, as if they knew exactly what she was thinking.
Jackie didn't seem to pick up on it though.
"So are you goin' to tell us w'at the 'ell 'appened then, cause we didin' move, I mean, wouldn't we notice teleportin' of somein't?"
She looked to Rose and Jack for support, but they just turned to the Doctor, both having decided that everything would go a lot faster if they stayed silent.
The Doctor shot them a grateful smile and then turned to frown thoughtfully at Jackie. "I guess you can think of it this way. Have you ever had a dreamless sleep?"
Jackie nodded. "Of course!"
"Right, well, it just feels like you're in bed one second, and then up the next. But what if you didn't know that you were asleep at all? You would just wonder what happened to the time and why you can't remember. But the human brain can usually tell you when you're asleep because you know and understand what sleep is, and feels like. So when you wake up, even from a dreamless sleep, well, you know you were sleeping."
She nodded slowly, but seemed expectant, waiting for him to go on.
He sighed, exasperatedly. "Your brain doesn't know or recognize the mild teleport that I used at the top of the stairs."
Jackie blinked, slowly taking it in.
"You were sleeping, so to speak, without knowing it. I would never have a jail under where I live, that's just weird. Only I can access that teleport though. It works through a combination of my DNA and thought patterns. Which is basically thought DNA."
Before Jackie could protest again, the Doctor added, "and this will go a lot faster if you don't interrupt me."
Jackie shut her mouth, looking a cross between affronted and sheepish.
The Doctor took a deep steadying breath, and finally properly began his tale.