"So, where've we landed now, then?" Rose asked brightly as she skipped up the console room steps towards the TARDIS doors.
"Should look a bit familiar," was the Doctor's only cryptic reply as he traced her footsteps at his own leisurely pace.
Rose smiled wide as she threw open the ship's doors, eagerly awaiting their next adventure, but her grin quickly faded as she gazed out in confusion at the nondescript, grassy plains that surrounded them. "You sure about that ...?" she asked curiously as she took a second skeptical look at their surroundings. It seemed that the Doctor had parked them at the very edge of a long country road without a single house or car in view for miles.
The Doctor grumbled as he came up beside her and furrowed his brow at the scene before him. "That's not right," he declared moodily. "We're supposed to be at Trafalgar Square ..."
"Doesn't really look like how I remember it," Rose muttered sarcastically as she scanned the great expanse of sky that stretched out above them.
"But I'm sure that I got the coordinates right ..." the Doctor murmured in bewildered confusion.
The TARDIS was making an odd, stuttering noise that hinted at bemused fondness as the Doctor leaned his forearm against the ship's doorway over Rose's head and glared out at the countryside with a sour expression.
"And why were you trying to take us to Trafalgar Square, anyway?" Rose asked as she crossed her arms against her chest and smiled up at him in amusement.
"I didn't try anything," the Doctor replied, casting her an irritated look that did nothing to dim the mischievous spark in his eyes, "I did ..."
But the rest of his prideful statement and a good portion of his ego were cut off as the TARDIS gave a great lurch, sending them both stumbling awkwardly against the edge of the doorway. Rose blinked and suddenly the ground was moving very quickly away from them as the ship ascended up into the air. They both cried out in surprise and the Doctor used both of his arms to pin Rose protectively against the doorframe as the ship rocked violently back and forth.
"Doctor, what's going on?" Rose shouted against the deafening sound of rushing wind that suddenly surrounded them.
"No idea!" he yelled back, not even attempting to hide his wide, excited smile as he glanced up and examined the helicopter that seemed to have picked up the TARDIS with some sort of crane-like mechanism.
The Doctor quickly ushered Rose back into the safety of the ship and then reached out to begin dialing the police box phone, bracing himself in the doorway with his free hand to keep from being jostled out. Rose couldn't hear the conversation that he was having over all of the noise, but the call was quickly cut short as the helicopter took a hard right and suddenly the Doctor went barreling out of the ship's open doors.
"Doctor!" Rose cried out in panic as she immediately rushed forward and grabbed his knees before he could slip away completely. You're enjoying this way too much, she chided him over their newly-formed bond, but the Doctor refused to be scolded as he swung back and forth through the open air with all of the joy of a child on their favorite rollercoaster ride.
When his wiggling became too much for her grip and Rose felt his legs slip through her fingers, she had one brief flash of absolute panic before she realized that the Doctor was now hanging on to the bottom of his ship by his hands. Rose spent the rest of their turbulent flight over London filling his mind with all of the curse words that she knew that he wouldn't be able to hear her shouting at him over the noise of the helicopter.
When they finally touched down onto solid land once more, the Doctor leapt forward excitedly, his adrenaline echoing through Rose's thoughts and making it difficult for her to maintain her irritated scowl as she watched him bound into action. "Trafalgar Square!" he shouted grandly as he swept his arms around and met her gaze eagerly. "Told you I'd get us there!'
"That was even worse piloting than normal," Rose groaned as she stumbled ungracefully out of the TARDIS, which was still swinging unevenly a few feet above the ground. She noticed belatedly that they now seemed to be surrounded by a small squad of soldiers dressed all in black and outfitted with helmets and guns. Standing in the center of them all were a middle-aged blonde woman in a long black coat and a young scientist wrapped up in a layered, multi-colored scarf.
"Doctor," the blonde woman greeted them, proving herself to be the one in charge as she quickly stepped forward and took control of the situation, "as Chief Scientific Officer, may I extend the official apologies of UNIT ..."
"Kate Lethbridge Stewart, a word to the wise," the Doctor cut her off heatedly, "as I'm sure your father would have told you - I don't like being picked up!"
"'Lethbridge Stewart'?" Rose repeated, glancing from the Doctor, to the woman, and back again in confusion. She recognized the name from stories that her husband had told her over the years. "'UNIT'?" she added, recognizing that name, as well.
"I'm acting on instructions direct from the throne," the woman - Kate, it seemed - replied evenly as though neither of them had spoken. "Sealed orders from her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the First."
"Oh, Doctor," Rose sighed with a sarcastic roll of her eyes. "You do get around, don't you? First Queen Victoria, now this. So what is it this time? Were you knighted or exiled? Or was it both, again?"
The Doctor's only response was a heaved sigh and a meek, apologetic tug to her thoughts over their mental bond, which instantly raised her suspicions and did nothing at all to reassure her.
Kate - ever the professional, it seemed - ignored their silent exchange and ushered the two of them forward with promises of credentials as she led them up the steps towards the National Gallery.
"Been working with UNIT again, then, have you?" Rose muttered quietly under her breath as she warily scanned the line of soldiers that seemed to follow them wherever they went. She had heard stories about when the Doctor had worked for UNIT, but she had a hard time picturing him being on the same payroll as this lot. However, Rose didn't know whether it was the organization that had changed over the years, or if it was the Doctor, himself, who had changed.
"We've run into each other a few times recently," the Doctor replied with a casual shrug. "They investigate alien stuff, after all. We're bound to cross paths every now and then."
"Only you would consider hanging from a helicopter 'crossing paths' with someone," Rose muttered sarcastically.
"They were just giving us a lift," the Doctor murmured, completely unrepentant and unruffled by their death-defying trip over London.
Rose opened her mouth to continue ribbing him, but her words were cut short as a pair of armed UNIT soldiers pulled back the large sheet that had been covering a single piece of art in the center of the room before them. The Doctor and Rose both instantly froze in place as they gazed up at the revealed oil painting in varying states of wonder.
Rose's own amazed awe was brought up short by the stab of fear that swept through the Doctor's thoughts and nearly took her breath away. Her gaze immediately snapped to his profile, all thoughts of the strange painting before them quickly disappearing as the Doctor's odd reaction instantly demanded her full attention.
"Elizabeth's credentials," Kate announced, seemingly unaware of the Doctor's sharp, visceral reaction.
"Doctor?" Rose asked in concern, her gaze never once leaving his face as she counted his quick, panicked breaths.
"No more ..." he muttered quietly.
"That's the title," Kate agreed matter-of-factly.
"I know the title," the Doctor hissed angrily.
"Also known as 'Gallifrey Falls'," the blonde woman continued simply, seeming unaffected by the Doctor's mercurial moods.
"This painting doesn't belong here, not in this time or place," the Doctor muttered quietly as though to himself. "It's the fall of Arcadia, Gallifrey's second city."
"Doctor, what is it?" Rose asked gently. "How is it doing that?" She finally dared a look back at the painting and eyed the depicted flames and smoke of the city that seemed to pop off of the canvas in stunning, impossible 3D.
She attempted to take a step closer to get a better look, but the Doctor's hand immediately reached for hers, quietly urging her back to his side. Rose could sense through his thoughts that he didn't want her anywhere near this painting and all that it portrayed. The urge to run was welling up within him, and it was taking all of his strength and willpower to remain standing there, blinking at the destruction that he had hoped he would never have to see again.
Rose called his name silently over their bond, attempting to ground him and offer him her own strength and confidence in order to ease his troubled mind.
"He was there ..." the Doctor breathed quietly, not taking his eyes off of the burning spires before them.
"Who was?" Rose asked gently.
"Me," he replied darkly. "The other me - the one I don't talk about. I've had many faces, many lives. I don't admit to all of them. There's one life I've tried very hard to forget. He was the Doctor who fought in the Time War, and that was the day he did it." The Doctor nodded his head pointedly towards the painting as he squeezed Rose's fingers just a little bit tighter and didn't try to hide from her the wave of guilt and shame that swept through his mind.
"The day I did it," he continued quietly. "The day he killed them all. The last day of the Time War - the war to end all wars, between my people and the daleks. And in that battle there was a man with more blood on his hands than any other - a man who would commit a crime that would silence the universe. And that man was me."
All of the UNIT agents throughout the room had gone completely, preternaturally silent as the Doctor finished his morose declaration. Rose had to fight the urge to pull on the Doctor's hand and force him back into the safety and comfort of the TARDIS where she knew that she would be able to protect him from these dark, unwelcome memories.
"Why have you brought him here?" Rose demanded quietly, her tone like ice as she narrowed her eyes on Kate and hugged the Doctor's arm protectively to herself as though she could somehow shield him from the pain with her body alone.
"The painting only serves as Elizabeth's credentials - proof that the letter is from her," Kate replied, her voice softening slightly for the first time since Rose had met her. "It's not why you're here."
The Doctor heaved another small sigh as he finally broke his gaze away from the painting before them and looked down at Rose with an expression of apprehension. She gave him one small nod of encouragement, then released her tight grip on his hand so that he could open the sealed envelope that Kate had placed in his hands upon their arrival.
The letter provided no real information, however, and Rose narrowed her eyes suspiciously on the words "gentle husband". After just having said goodbye to River, and then completing her own alien marriage ritual, Rose wasn't exactly eager to meet another one of the Doctor's wives.
"What happened?" the Doctor asked, ignoring Rose's sharp, annoyed thoughts and casting a curious look in Kate's direction as he and Rose finished reading the old letter.
"Easier to show you," the blonde woman replied, motioning for them both to follow her as she lead them towards the secret Under Gallery - a restricted area that just so happened to be sectioned off by another great oil painting, this one depicting Queen Elizabeth the First herself in all her regal glory sitting alongside a tall, skinny bloke wearing the face of Rose's dead husband.
"Oh, Doctor ..." Rose groaned in resignation as she looked up at the happy couple with a pained expression, "please tell me you didn't ..."
It ended up being one of the UNIT soldiers guarding the secret passageway alongside the old, secret painting that quietly muttered under his breath what they were all already thinking - "So much for the 'virgin queen' ..."