Time Can Be Rewritten
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
OoOoOoOo
The Doctor Dances
Rose felt the Doctor grab her hand tightly as the three of them were backed against the wall as the gasmask zombies encircled them chanting the same question over and over.
Suddenly, the Doctor stepped forwards staring at them sternly, "Go to your room." The gasmask zombies hesitated as he repeated, "Go to your room!" They cocked their heads to the side, Rose and Jack shared a bemused look, Rose's lips twitching as the Doctor continued, "I mean it! I am very, very angry with you. I am very, VERY cross! Go – to – your – ROOM!" The Doctor pointed violently in no particular direction and all the gasmask zombies turned away meekly.
The Doctor sighed with relief as the gasmask zombies climbed back into their beds, he turned back to Rose and Jack, "I'm really glad that worked, those would have been terrible last words."
OoOoOoOo
Jack settled into one of the chairs whilst Rose leaned over the back of the Doctor's chair, "So, how was your con supposed to work, exactly?" she asked as the Doctor looked at the conman curiously.
Simple enough, really." Jack answered, looking between them, "Find some harmless piece of space-junk… let the nearest Time Agent track it back to Earth. Convince him it's valuable, name a price. When he's put 50% up front – oops! A German bomb falls on it, destroys it forever. He never gets to see what he's paid for. Never knows he's been had. I buy him a drink with his own money, and we discuss dumb luck. The perfect self-cleaning con."
"Yeah. Perfect." The Doctor responded dryly.
"The London Blitz is great for self-cleaners – Pompeii's nice if you want to make a vacation of it though, but you've got to set your alarm for volcano day." Jack laughed at his own joke, his laughter faded away as the Doctor just stared at him, "Getting a hint of disapproval."
"Take a look around the room. This is what your 'harmless piece of space-junk' did."
"It was a burnt-out medical transporter – it was empty!"
The Doctor looked at him darkly before walking away, grabbing Rose's hand gently as he led her out of the room.
"Where're we going?" She asked curiously.
"We're going upstairs."
Jack called after them, "I even programmed the flight computer so it wouldn't land on anything living – I harmed no one! I don't know what's happening here, but believe me – I had nothing to do with it!"
The Doctor stopped and turned to look at Jack, "I'll tell you what's happening. You forgot to set your alarm clock. It's volcano day."
A siren went off in the distance.
"What's that?" Rose asked, looking at Jack.
"The all-clear."
The Doctor glared at him, "I wish."
He took off running down a corridor, Rose's hand grasped tightly in his.
"Doctor?" They heard Jack's voice from somewhere behind them.
He popped his head back around a banister, "Have you got a blaster?"
Jack skidded to a halt, running back to where they were stood as he grinned at them, "Sure!"
They ran up the stairs, stopping outside a door, the Doctor explained, "The night your space-junk landed, someone was hurt. This was where they were taken."
"What happened?"
The Doctor grinned at her, "Let's find out!" he turned to Jack, "Get it open."
Jack smirked at them both and pointed his blaster at the door as Rose whispered to her Doctor, "Something wrong with your sonic?"
"Nope." Jack's blaster cut a perfect square hole around the lock of the door, and it squeaked open, "Sonic blaster, 51st century. Weapon factories of Villengard?"
Jack looked at him curiously, "You've been to the factories?"
The Doctor examined the blaster as he answered, "Once."
"Well, they're gone now. Destroyed. The main reactor went critical. Vaporized the lot."
He handed the blaster back, "Like I said – once. There's a banana grove there now. I like bananas. Bananas are good!"
Rose giggled as the Doctor smiled pleasantly at Jack before he entered the room, Rose glanced at Jack, "Nice blast pattern."
He smirked, "Digital."
"Squareness gun."
"Yeah."
"I like it." Rose winked at him playfully, it was easy to fall back in the habit of flirting with her Captain.
Jack laughed, following them both into the room. The Doctor switched the light on and the three of them looked around the room which looked vandalised with a broken window and stuff all over the floor.
"What d'you think?" The Doctor asked.
Jack looked around warily, "SOMETHING got out of here."
"Yeah, and?" The Doctor pressed with a pointed look.
"Something powerful. And angry."
He nodded, "Powerful and angry."
"Or powerful and scared." Rose added, remembering the child.
The Doctor glanced down at her as Jack entered a room to the side, the floors and walls were covered with a child's drawing with a few toys on the floor and a little bed in the corner. He turned back to the Doctor and Rose, "A child?" His voice was incredulous, "I suppose this explains 'mummy'."
"How could a child do this?"
The Doctor played a tape of Doctor Constantine talking to the child.
"Do you know where you are?", "Are you, my mummy?", "Are you aware of what's around you? Can you… see?", "Are you, my mummy?", "What do you want? Do you know-", "I want my mummy. Are you, my mummy? I want my mummy! Are you, my mummy?"
Rose's heart ached as the child's voice seemed to get more desperate. She looked around and saw all the drawings were of the child's mother.
"Are you, my mummy? Mummy? Mummy?"
Rose looked at the Doctor, "I've heard this voice before."
He stared at her, his eyes soft as he replied, "Me too."
"Mummy?"
"Always asking 'are you, my mummy?', like he doesn't know."
"Mummy?"
"Why doesn't he know?"
"Are you there, mummy? Mummy?"
Rose listened as the reels of the tape spun.
"Mummy? Please, mummy? Mummy?"
She remembered how panicked she'd been the last time she had been here, in this room. She turned and looked where the child was standing, his head tilted to the side curiously.
"Doctor?" She heard Jack's voice ask, her own gaze locked on the child.
"Can you sense it?" The Doctor paced around the room.
"Sense what?" Jack's voice was laced with confusion.
"Coming out of the walls, can you feel it?"
The tape reel continued to spin in the background, it sounded deafening to Rose as she stared at the gasmask child.
"Mummy?"
The Doctor paused, "Funny little human brains, how do you get around in those things?" He started pacing again.
"When he's stressed, he likes to insult species."
"Rose, I'm thinking."
She smirked, "Cuts himself shaving, does half an hour on life forms he's cleverer than…"
"There are these children living rough around the bomb site. They come out during air raids looking for food."
"Mummy, please?"
"Suppose they were there when this thing – whatever it was – landed?" He looked at Jack.
"It was a med-ship. It was harmless."
"Yes, you keep saying." The Doctor responded curtly, "'Harmless'. Suppose one of them was affected – altered?"
"Altered how?"
"I'm here!"
"It's scared as you said, Rose. Terribly scared, and powerful. It doesn't know it yet, but it will do." The Doctor laughed mirthlessly, "It's got the power of a god, and I just sent it to it's room."
A loud crackling noise filled the room.
"Doctor…" Rose breathed out.
"I'm here. Can't you see me?"
"The tape ran out a while back, Doctor." He turned to look at her and followed her gaze.
"I sent it to it's room. THIS is it's room."
The child cocked his head to the side, watching Rose curiously, "Are you, my mummy? Mummy?"
"Doctor?"
"Okay…" Jack stepped forward, "On my signal… make for the door. NOW!" He violently produced a banana and pointed it threateningly at the child.
Rose sniggered at the look on Jack's face as the Doctor grinned and took out Jack's sonic blaster and blasted a square hole in the wall, "Go! Now!" He shouted as the three of them made for the newly created 'door' before he added, "Don't drop the banana!"
Jack hopped through the wall after Rose and the Doctor, "Why not?!"
"Good source of potassium!" Rose snorted at the Doctor's response.
Jack grabbed his sonic blaster back as he snapped, "Give me that!"
"Are you, my mummy?"
Jack pointed the blaster at the wall, and it rebuilt itself, blocking the child out.
"Digital rewind." Jack tossed the banana back to the Doctor, "Nice switch."
The Doctor grinned, "It's from the Groves of Villengard. I thought it was appropriate."
"There's really a banana grove in the heart of Villengard, and you did that?" The conman asked incredulously.
"Bananas are good."
"And you apparently keep them in your pockets." Rose muttered with an arched eyebrow; Jack snorted as the Doctor merely shrugged happily.
They were broken out of their conversation as the child starting thumping on the wall, cracking it.
"Doctor!"
"Come on!" He grabbed Rose's hand as he led them down a short flight of stairs and down another corridor before they encountered all the patients bursting out of the ward, chanting 'mummy'. They quickly backtracked, finding more gasmask zombies coming from the other direction as well. The Doctor pulled Rose closer to him as they found themselves back where the child was breaking through the wall. "It's keeping us here, so it can get at us."
Jack pointed the blaster in both directions, "It's controlling them?"
"It IS them. It's every living thing in this hospital."
"Okay," Jack said, "This can function as a sonic blaster, a sonic cannon, and a triple-enfolded sonic disrupter. Doc, what you got?"
The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver as Jack brandished his sonic blaster at the gasmask zombies on one side, the Doctor facing the others.
"A sonic, er…" He paused, glancing down at his screwdriver, "Oh, never mind."
Rose rolled her eyes.
"What?" Jack pressed him.
The Doctor switched on his sonic screwdriver, "It's sonic, okay? Let's leave it at that."
Jack continued, "Disrupter? Cannon? What?"
"It's sonic! Totally sonic! I am sonic-ed up!" His voice rose in irritation.
"A sonic WHAT?"
The Doctor turned around to face Jack as he snapped, "SCREWDRIVER!"
Jack spun around incredulously as the child finally managed to punch through the wall. He began to climb through as Rose grabbed Jack's wrist and pointed the blaster at the floor, "Going down!" She warned as she blasted a hole in the floor.
The three of them fell in a heap in the ward below. Jack hurriedly activated the digital rewind, closing the hole so they couldn't be followed.
"You okay, Doctor?" She asked, helping him up.
"Could've used a warning!"
"Ugh, the gratitude." Rose started looking around for a light switch as her boys continued their argument.
"Who has a sonic screwdriver?" Jack's voice was incredulous.
The Doctor replied defensively, "I do!"
"Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks 'oohoo, this could be a little more sonic'?"
He responded indignantly, "What, you've never been bored?"
"Boys and their toys," Rose muttered with an eyeroll as she felt around for the switch.
"Never had a long night? Never had a lot of cabinets to put up?"
Rose finally felt the switch and prepared to run as she turned the lights on, and on cue all the gasmask zombies sat up in unison and started calling 'mummy'.
"Door." Jack said, stepping back so the Doctor could use his sonic screwdriver. He whacked the sonic blaster angrily, "It's the special features, they really drain the battery."
"The battery," Rose arched an eyebrow, "That's so LAME."
The Doctor opened the door, holding it open as they dashed through it, slamming it shut behind them as he locked it again. Jack ran to the window as he responded, "I was gonna send for another one, but SOMEBODY'S gonna blow up the factory." He glared at the Doctor.
Rose snorted, "Tell me about it, first day I met him, he blew my job up. That's practically how he communicates."
Jack chuckled as the Doctor rolled his eyes at them, "Okay, that door should hold it off for a bit."
"The door?!" Jack shouted incredulously, "The WALL didn't stop it!"
"Well, it's gotta FIND us first! Come on, we're not done yet! Assets, assets!"
Jack replied sarcastically, "Well, I've got a banana, and at a pinch you could put up some shelves."
The Doctor ignored him, walking over to the window, "Window-"
"Barred, sheer drop outside. Seven stories."
"And no other exits." Rose added.
Jack settled into a chair, "Well, the assets conversation went in a flash, didn't it?"
The Doctor eyed Jack for a moment, turning to Rose, "So, where'd you pick this one up, then?"
"You make him sound like a stray."
Jack cut in, "She was hanging from a barrage balloon, I had an invisible spaceship. I never stood a CHANCE."
Rose smirked as the Doctor turned back to the window, "Okay, one, we want to get out of here. Two, we CAN'T get out of here. Have I missed anything?"
"Jack's disappeared."
The Doctor spun around and saw Jack's empty chair, he rolled his eyes, sitting down as he pointedly refused to look at Rose. She smiled softly, settling on his lap, he jumped at the unexpected move and finally met her eyes, "Jack's really not my type, Doctor."
"Hmm."
She grinned at him, "Besides, I have a feeling he'd much rather both of us, than just one." He snorted, "We spoke on top of his spaceship, he's gotten to know one of the soldiers quite well, though knowing Jack, they'll be more than one of 'em."
He smirked at her, wrapping his arms around her firmly, claiming her lips in a possessive kiss. Jack's voice broke them apart, "Rose? Doctor? Can you hear me?"
They stood up and hurried over to the radio, the Doctor picked it up as Jack informed them, "I'm back on my ship. Used the emergency teleport. Sorry I couldn't take you." The Doctor looked confused as he held up the wires that had been ripped out of the radio, "It's security keyed to my molecular structure. I'm working on it – hang in there."
"How're you speaking to us?"
"Om-Com. I can call anything with a speaker grille."
"Now there's a coincidence."
"What is?" Confusion laced Jack's voice.
"The child can Om-Com too."
"It can?"
"Anything with a speaker grille. Even the Tardis phone."
Rose looked at the Doctor, "You mean the child can phone us?"
They heard a sing song voice through the radio as the child spoke, "And I can hear you. Coming to find you. Coming to fiiiind you."
"Doctor, can you hear that?" Jack asked over the child.
"Loud and clear."
"I'll try to block out the signal. Least I can do."
"Coming to find you, mummy!" The child's voice was haunting as it echoed around the room.
"Remember this one, Rose?" Jack asked as 'Moonlight Serenade' played through the radio.
Rose grinned as the Doctor raised his eyebrows, questioningly.
"Our song."
"Of course." The Doctor responded curtly.
She rolled her eyes, "I told him about me and you before we danced, he said he just wanted the one seeing as you'd stolen my heart."
He relaxed a little then, even as he started to 'resonate concrete' which Rose still didn't believe he was actually doing. She sat down in a wheelchair and shuffled around a little, bored.
"So, you gonna explain what you're doing, or am I gonna have to guess?"
The Doctor glanced at her, "Trying to set up a resonation pattern in the concrete."
"And in English?" She teased.
He rolled his eyes, his lips twitching, "I'm trying to loosen the bars."
"Ah." Rose stood and walked over to him, "You don't think he's coming back."
"Wouldn't bet my life."
"Why don't you trust him?"
"Why do you?" He countered.
"He saved my life." She shot back, hesitating slightly, "And honestly, he reminds me of you… he might put on the façade of a conman, but he's a good man."
The Doctor stared at her, before he sighed, stepping away from the wall, "Fine, if you feel he can be trusted, I'll give him a chance." Rose nearly gaped at him in shock, and he frowned at her, "I DO listen when you tell me things, Rose, no need to look so shocked." Her mouth snapped shut, knowing if he had been her pinstriped Doctor, he'd be pouting right now instead of looking all broody.
She grinned then as she looked at him, "Dance with me!" He looked completely bewildered. She turned up the radio, still playing 'Moonlight Serenade', "Come on, dance with me." She rolled her eyes, "The universe won't implode because the Doctor dances." She held out her hands to him.
He gained an odd look on his face then as he stared at her hands, "Barrage balloon?"
"Gonna need more to go on?"
He rolled his eyes, "You were hanging from a barrage balloon."
She grinned up at him, "Yup. 'Bout two minutes after you went swanning off, thousands of feet above London – middle of a German air raid – Union Jack ALL over my chest."
The Doctor snorted, "I've travelled with a lot of people, but you're setting new records for jeopardy-friendly."
"Is this you dancing? Because I've got notes."
He ignored her, examining her hands, "Hanging from a rope, thousands of feet above London, not a cut, not a bruise."
"Captain Jack fixed me up."
"Of course, he did." He muttered, his jaw clenched before he added, "We're calling him Captain Jack now, are we?"
She smiled slightly at the blatant jealousy in his voice, and couldn't resist teasing, "Well, his name's Jack and he's a Captain."
"He's not really a Captain, Rose."
"Do you know what I think?" Rose smirked, stepping closer to him, "I think you're experiencing Captain envy. You'll find your feet at the end of your legs; you may care to move them."
"If he was ever a Captain, he's been defrocked."
"Shame we missed that." His eyebrows raised as she included him.
"Actually, I quit. Nobody takes my frock." Jack grinned at them, winking at Rose as she beamed at him, "Most people notice when they've been teleported. You guys are so sweet. Sorry about the delay. I had to take the nav-com offline to override the teleport security."
"You can spend ten minutes overriding your own protocols? Maybe you should remember whose ship it is." The Doctor shot back derisively.
Jack smirked, "Oh, I do. She was GORGEOUS." Rose grinned as the Doctor glowered at the Captain, "Like I told her – be back in five minutes." Jack ducked into a compartment underneath the console.
"Doctor, you promised to play nice." Rose whispered, poking his side.
"Fine, fine," He held his hands up and looked around, "This is a Chula ship."
Jack called up from beneath the console, "Yeah, just like that medical transporter. Only this one IS dangerous."
The Doctor snapped his fingers, and his hand was surrounded by the golden Nanogenes, Rose grinned, "They're what fixed my hand up! Jack called 'em, Nano-Nanogenes!"
He nodded, "Sub-atomic robots. There's millions of them in here, see? Burned my hand on the console when we landed. All better now. They activate when the bulkhead's sealed. Check you out for damage, fix any physical flaws." He banished the Nanogenes with a wave of his hand and turned to Jack, "Take us to the crash site. I need to see your space-junk."
Jack rolled his eyes, "As soon as I get the nav-com back online." The Doctor glared at him, Jack smirked raising his eyebrows suggestively, "Make yourself comfortable. Carry on with what it was that you were… doing."
The Doctor shifted, "We were talking about dancing."
"It didn't look like talking."
"It didn't feel like dancing." Rose smirked at him, "More like foreplay."
Her Doctor looked like a deer in headlights, his ears going red as Jack grinned, "I'd never turn down a free show."
"Hands off the blonde." He finally spoke.
"Oh," Jack purred, "I'm more than happy to watch."
OoOoOoOo
Rose sat next to Jack as he rambled on about the Time Agency whilst the Doctor glared silently at him. She tilted her head to the side, curiously, "So, you used to be a Time Agent – now you're trying to con them?"
Jack fiddled with the controls as he glanced at her, "If it makes me sound any better, it's not for the money."
"For what?" Rose leaned forward.
"Woke up one day when I was working for them – found they'd stolen two years of my memories. I'd like them back."
Rose frowned, "Do you think you'll be able to get them back?"
Jack shrugged, "No idea, I hope so, two years of my life and I have no idea what I did."
"Two years can be a long time," Rose said softly, thinking of her time with both of her Doctors, 'but it can be no time at all', she thought sadly, knowing how short the time truly was to her Doctor, what was 2 years in 900. She shook herself out of it, she couldn't think of the past, not when she was currently in the middle of rewriting it, not when she was fixing it. She would make Jack happier and stay with her Doctor for as long as he would have her.
"Yeah." Jack's voice brought her back to the present, he nodded to the Doctor, "Your partner over there doesn't trust me. And for all I know, he's right not to."
"I trust you, Jack." She placed her hand on his arm as he frowned at her, "You are a good man, no matter what you may have done in the past, I mean you saved my life, you teleported us outta that hospital when you could have cut and run! It's the choices you make now that count, not then and definitely not in two years you can't even remember."
He gaped at her, utterly shocked.
Jack jumped then as the computer bleeped, he pulled his arm away and said, "Okay, we're good to go."
The Doctor threw Rose an odd look before he faced Jack, "Crash site?"
OoOoOoOo
Jack led them over to the rail station near the bomb site, he pointed to something, "There it is." His voice lightened as he added, "They've got Algy on duty. Must be important."
The Doctor frowned, "We've got to get past him."
"The words 'distract the guard' are heading your way, Jack."
"It would be my absolute pleasure," He winked at her, walking over to Algy he shouted over his shoulder, "Don't wait up!"
The Doctor smirked as Rose joked, "So many species, so little time."
"Hey, tiger! How's it hanging?" They heard Jack greet the soldier.
He turned to Jack, "Mummy?"
"Oh, no." Rose muttered as she rushed out, "Jack, don't touch him."
The Doctor followed her quickly as she reached Jack and pulled him away from Algy who stumbled forward, "Mummy?"
Jack looked between them before he said, "Algy, old sport, it's me."
"Mummy?"
"It's me, Jack."
"Jack?" His head cocked to the side, observing them with childlike curiosity, "Are you my… mummy?"
The Doctor pulled them both back as Algy coughed, falling to his knees as his face transformed into a gasmask. Other soldiers started to hurry over, "Stay back!" The Doctor yelled, they ignored him as Jack stared horror-struck at his lover.
"Jack," Rose hissed at him, "Get them away."
He snapped out of it, looking towards the other soldiers, "You men! Stay away!"
"It's becoming airborne. Accelerating." The Doctor said grimly, staring at Algy.
The air raid siren sounded, Jack looked up, "Ah, here they come again."
Rose looked around as she heard Nancy singing, she wandered towards the tent she remembered the girl being in as she asked, "Can you hear singing?"
She heard the Doctor yell, "Rose?"
"Over 'ere!" She shouted back about to enter the tent, Nancy looked up at her sharply but kept singing as the Doctor and Jack followed her in. She reached into the Doctor's pocket and pulled out his sonic screwdriver, quickly unlocking Nancy's handcuffs. Jack and Nancy smirked at the Doctor's utterly bewildered expression.
Rose teasingly blew him a kiss making him roll his eyes as she motioned for the pair of them to stop blocking the exit. Jack sniggered, Nancy's lips twitching as Rose put the sonic screwdriver back in the Doctor's pockets with a whispered, "Thanks."
He just shook his head at her, amused despite himself at the strange golden-haired human girl who had worked her way into his hearts.
Nancy looked at Rose amused, "So this is the blonde you were askin' about?"
"Yup."
"You were askin' about me?"
"You were missing!" He answered defensively.
"Aww!" Rose glanced at Jack.
Jack smirked, "He's adorable."
"So sweet."
The Doctor scowled at them both as they grinned at him before stalking back to the bomb site. As they uncovered the med-ship, Jack defended, "You, see? Just an ambulance."
Nancy looked incredulous, "That's an ambulance?"
"Yup!" Rose grinned at her, "From another world."
"They've been trying to get in." Jack said looking at the controls.
The Doctor snorted, "Of course they have!" Jack entered a code, ignoring the Doctor, "They think they've got their hands on Hitler's latest secret weapon. What're you doing?"
Jack glanced at him, "Well, the sooner you see this thing is empty, the sooner you'll see I had nothing to do with it." The controls exploded with sparks, and they all jumped back as an alarm went off, "Didn't happen last time."
The Doctor rolled his eyes, "It hadn't crashed last time. They're the emergency protocols."
A red light on the control panel flashed and the Doctor started yelling out orders for them all, throwing Rose his sonic screwdriver. Rose grabbed Nancy's hand and led her over to fix the barbed wire.
"Who are you?" Nancy asked curiously, "Who are any of you?"
"We're time travellers from the future."
Nancy stared at her in disbelief, "Mad, you are!"
"It's true, we have a time travelling machine!"
Nancy chuckled, "It's not that. Alright – you've got a time travelling machine. I believe ya. Believe anything, me." She looked up at the sky, "But what future?"
"This isn't the end, you know."
"How can you say that? Look at it."
Rose smiled at her, "You just said that you believe I'm a time traveller, how can that be true if there's no future." Nancy looked at her, "I was born here, in this city… in like 50 years time."
"From here?"
"I'm a Londoner. From your future."
"But-but you're not-"
"What?"
"German."
"Nope, they don't win." Rose grinned at her, "YOU win."
Hope entered Nancy's expression, "We win?"
Rose nodded, "Besides, no German would wear a Union Jack across their chest during an air raid." Nancy snorted, Rose held out her hand and led her back over to Jack and the Doctor.
Jack was on top of the med-ship speaking to the Doctor as they approached.
"What do you expect in a Chula medical transporter? Bandages? Cough drops? Rose?" The Doctor turned to her expectantly.
"You expect me in a Chula medical transporter?" Rose asked innocently, Jack snorted, and the Doctor rolled his eyes as Rose grinned cheekily at them, "I dunno… Nanogenes?"
He grinned at her, "It wasn't empty, Captain. There was enough Nanogenes in there to rebuild a species."
"Oh, God." Jack paled.
"Getting it now, are we? When the ship crashes, the Nanogenes escape. Billions upon billions of them, ready to fix all the cuts and bruises in the world. But what they find first is a dead child, probably killed earlier that night and wearing a gasmask."
Nancy cut in, "They can bring things to life?"
"What's life? Life's easy. A quirk of matter. Nature's way of keeping meat fresh. Nothing to a Nanogene. One problem though – these Nanogenes – they're not like the ones on your ship. This lot have never seen a human being before. Don't know what a human beings supposed to look like."
"So, they go off the dead child." Rose said softly.
The Doctor nodded, "And there's not a lot left to go on. But they carry on-"
"And fix him up the best they can and fix up everyone else who doesn't match the child."
"Yup, and now NOTHING in the world can stop that child!"
"Jamie." Nancy whispered, "Not the child, Jamie."
Jack looked completely shaken as he said, "I didn't know."
The Doctor stared at him coldly before examining the med-ship.
"Rose?" Nancy cut in, scared. Rose walked over to her and saw the gasmask zombies approached, still asking the same question over and over.
"Doctor!" Rose shouted over, he turned to her, "What if, what if the child found it's mother? I mean you said nothing can stop it, but what if it found what it was looking for?"
"Rose, that's brilliant!" He paused, "Only we don't know the mother."
She turned to look at Nancy who had tears in her eyes, the Doctor following her eyes.
"It's all my fault." Nancy said, Rose wrapped her arms around the distraught girl, "He's just a little boy who wants his mummy."
"So, tell him." Rose said gently.
"Doctor, that bomb." Jack interrupted, "We've got seconds."
"So, it's volcano day, do what you've got to do."
Rose smiled at him as Jack looked conflicted before he disappeared.
"Are you, my mummy?" They heard the child, Jamie, ask as the gates swung open.
"Nancy," Rose said softly, "He's gonna keep asking, you've gotta tell 'im."
The Doctor added, "Nancy, the future of the human race is in your hands, Rose's future."
Nancy sniffed tearfully, pulling herself together before she approached her son.
"Are you, my mummy? Are you, my mummy?"
Rose grabbed the Doctor's hand tightly, he squeezed back.
"Yes," Nancy whispered, "Yes, I AM your mummy."
The boy walked towards her, "Mummy?"
"I'm here."
"Are you, my mummy?"
Nancy knelt in front of him, "I'm here."
"Are you, my mummy?"
"Yes."
The Doctor whispered sadly, "He doesn't understand. There's not enough of him left."
"I am your mummy." Nancy pulled her little boy into her arms, "I will always be your mummy, I'm so sorry." The golden light of the Nanogenes surrounded them, "I am so, so sorry."
The Doctor's face lit up with hope as Rose grinned at him, "Come on, please. Come on, you CLEVER little Nanogenes – figure it out! The mother. She's the mother! There's gotta be enough information, figure it out!" He let out a laugh, "The Nanogenes are recognising the same DNA."
Nancy fell away from Jamie as the Nanogenes disappeared. Rose and the Doctor rushed over to them, "Oh, come on. Give me a day like this. Give me this one." He reached out to the gasmask and removed it, a smile lighting up his face as the face of Nancy's little boy was revealed.
Nancy stared in delighted wonder as the Doctor lifted the little boy in the air and swung him around, "Ah-ha-ha! Welcome back! Twenty years 'til pop music – you're gonna love it!"
"What happened?" She asked, awestruck.
"The Nanogenes recognised the superior information – the parent DNA. They didn't change YOU because YOU changed them! Haha!" He plonked Jamie down in front of her, "Mother knows best!"
Nancy threw her arms around her son, "Jamie!"
Rose looked at the Doctor as a bomb landed nearby, she looked back and saw a bomb plummeting towards them before it was caught by a blue force field. Jack appeared, hovering above the bomb, "Doctor!"
Rose grinned up at him as the Doctor responded, "Good lad!"
"The bombs already commenced detonation. I've put it in stasis, but it won't last long."
"Change of plan – don't need the bomb. Can you get rid of it? Safely as you can?"
He nodded, "Rose?"
"Yeah."
"Goodbye." She waited for a few moments and sure enough he reappeared, "By the way – love the t-shirt!" He winked at her before disappearing with his ship and the bomb.
Rose straightened out her t-shirt proudly as the Doctor moved away and summoned the Nanogenes.
"What're you doing?"
"Software patch. Gonna email the upgrade." He threw the Nanogenes away from him and towards the gasmask zombies, watching ecstatically as they were surrounded by the golden light of the Nanogenes. He beamed at her, "Everybody lives Rose. Just this one. Everybody lives!"
Rose was surprised, when suddenly, the Doctor grabbed her and kissed her passionately, his joy radiating from him as she wrapped her arms around his neck, his own hands resting on her waist. He broke the kiss, grinning wildly as Rose stood there utterly dazed. He bounded over to Doctor Constantine as she stared after him breathlessly.
"Doctor Constantine. Who never left his patients. Back on your feet, constant doctor! World doesn't wanna get by without you just yet, and I don't blame it one bit." He gestured to the other people milling about, "These are your patients. All better now!"
Doctor Constantine looked completely baffled as he stared around himself, "Yes, yes… so it seems. They also seem to be standing around in a disused railway station. Is there any particular reason for that?"
The Doctor beamed at him, "Yeah, well, you know – cutbacks. Listen, whatever was wrong with them in the past, you're probably gonna find that they're cured. Just tell them what a great doctor you are. Don't make a big thing of it. Okay?" He rushed back over to Rose as an old lady hobbled over to Doctor Constantine.
He climbed on top of the Chula med-ship and called back over to the cured people, "Right, you lot! Lots to do! Beat the Germans, save the world – don't forget the Welfare State!" Doctor Constantine smiled at them before beginning to direct his patients away along with his nurses.
The Doctor bent down to the control panel, "Setting this to self-destruct, soon as everybody's clear. History says there was an explosion here. Who am I to argue with history?"
Rose grinned at him, her tongue poking out between her teeth, "Usually the first in line."
He beamed back at her.
OoOoOoOo
"The Nanogenes will clean up the mess and switch themselves off – because I just told them to. Nancy and Jamie will go to Doctor Constantine for help – ditto – all in all, all things considered – fantastic!"
"Look at you!" Rose teased, "Beaming away like you're Father Christmas!"
The Doctor smirked at her, "Who says I'm not, red-bicycle-when-you-were-twelve?"
"What?"
He grinned at her, "And everybody lives, Rose!" He stretched his arms wide, "Everybody lives!" He pinged a switch on the console, "I need more days like this." She giggled, wrapping her arms around his and resting her head on his shoulder, "Now, Captain Jack."
Rose opened the doors as the Tardis materialised and saw Jack on his chair, completely oblivious. She walked back over to the Doctor as 'Moonlight Serenade' began to play in the console room, echoing through to Jack's ship. He turned and gaped at them before Rose shouted, "Hurry up, pretty boy!"
Jack grinned at her and leapt to his feet, dashing into the Tardis.
The Doctor complained, "I'm sure I used to know this stuff," He turned to Jack, "Close the door, will you? Your ship's about to blow up. There's going to be a draft." Jack shut the door as the Doctor started up the engine, "Welcome to the Tardis."
"Much bigger on the inside." His voice filled with awe as he looked around.
The Doctor grinned, "You'd better be."
"I think what the Doctor's trying to say is you may cut in."
"Rose!" He caught her hand, "I've just remembered."
She smiled at him, "What?"
The music changed to 'In the Mood'.
"I can dance! I can dance!"
Rose couldn't help but tease, "Actually, Doctor, I thought Jack might like this dance."
He smirked and teased back, "I'm sure he would, Rose. I'm absolutely certain. But who with?"
She laughed in delight as he dipped her. Jack grinned from the doorway knowing it was gonna be one hell of a trip with these two.