The Dread of Tomorrow and Yesterday – Chapter 32
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters, just Rhea and anyone related to her.
A/N: And here's The Doctor Dances. This should definitely be an interesting episode. We might get some Rhea-Doctor flirting, a lot of it actually, and maybe even a kiss, and some jealousy as well. Hope you enjoy it! And please do review guys, it makes me want to write faster and I love answering them. I only got three reviews last chapter :(
Replies to Reviews:
Grapejuice101: Oh, Rhea's in so much trouble. But it might just work in her favour. She'll probably get something out of it.
Rhian. Morgan. 1806: I'll be doing The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone in Chapter 39, so River's definitely coming up.
Princess-Amon-Rae: I know, I wish I could really write more. I have written 37 chapters, I'm just taking my time to post them. I'm so glad you like the story that much :) I'm glad you like Rhea too. Yes, she's definitely attracted to all three Doctors equally. Thank you so much for your review!
Warnings: Swearing, sexual innuendo.
The Doctor Dances: Resonating Concrete
"Doctor, please tell me you've got an idea." Rhea said, lightly, covering up her own panic as she looked up at the Doctor.
The Doctor gave her a quick look. "Nope, sorry."
"Sorry. Sorry." Rhea muttered. "Of course he's sorry."
The gas-mask people surrounded the Doctor, Rhea, Rose and Jack, still calling out for "mummy".
The Doctor stared at the crowd. "Go to your room." He said, sternly.
The gas-mask people hesitated.
"Go to your room!" The Doctor growled, as if he were addressing an errant child.
Rhea looked back at Rose and Jack, all three having a questioning look on their faces.
"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 for some strange reason, all the gas-mask turned and walked away from the four, meekly. They all climbed back into their respective beds and the Doctor sighed in relief, turned to three, who were gracing him with strange looks. "I'm really glad that worked. Those would've been terrible last words."
Rhea simply shook her head. "I have no idea what you just did, but it was pretty cool."
Rose was sitting by one of the beds, looking at the gas-mask people, curiously. Jack settled down in a chair, looking at the Doctor and Rhea, both who were giving him hard looks.
"Why are they all wearing gas masks?" Rose asked.
"They're not. Those masks are flesh and bone."
Rhea grimaced. "Well, isn't that a sight?"
The Doctor frowned at Jack. "How was your con supposed to work?"
"Simple enough, really." Jack replied, lightly, leaning back in the chair. "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!" Jack leaned forward. "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." Rhea narrowed her eyes.
"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, but the Doctor merely looked at him, his face blank of any humour. Jack's laughter died away. "Getting a hint of disapproval."
"Twenty-thousand people died in Pompeii. Show some respect." Rhea said, sharply, as she glared at him. She turned to face the Doctor. "I don't like him." Rhea whispered.
The Doctor snorted, softly. "Well, that's a change." The Doctor said, sarcastically, the jealousy creeping into his voice, making Rhea turned her glare to him. The Doctor turned his attention back to Jack. "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 stared, darkly, at him, before walking off.
Rhea pursed her lips and turned to the girl near one of the beds. "Rose." Rhea called out, drawing her attention.
"We getting out of here?" Rose asked.
"We're going upstairs." The Doctor said, before going towards the door, Rhea and Rose following him.
"I even programmed the flight computer so it wouldn't land on anything living. I harmed no-one!" Jack said, sharply, insistent. "I don't know what's happening here, but believe me… I had nothing to do with it."
Rhea lips quirked up in a cruel smile. "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, frowning.
"The all-clear." Jack replied.
The Doctor growled. "I wish." He said, before leaving the ward.
Rhea, Rose and Jack ran down a corridor looking for the Doctor.
"Doctor?" Rhea called out.
"Mr Spock?" Jack called out.
"Doctor?" Rose added.
They dashed past a flight of stairs and the Doctor popped his head around the banister.
"Rhea, gun." The Doctor ordered and Rhea pulled it from the holster, stopping immediately when she heard his voice, keeping it at her side and ready. He turned to Jack. "Have you got a blaster?"Rose and Jack skidded to a halt and backtracked.
"Sure!" Jack said.
They ran up the stairs and found themselves standing outside a door.
"The night your space-junk landed, someone was hurt. This was where they were taken." The Doctor explained.
"What happened?" Rose asked.
"Let's find out." He said. "Get it open." The Doctor told Jack.
Jack grinned and pointed a small blaster, sort of like a revolver, at the door, while the Doctor stood back, in between Rhea and Rose.
"Why didn't you just use your sonic screwdriver?" Rhea asked, quietly.
The Doctor looked shifty. "No reason."
Jack's blaster cut a perfectly square hold around the lock of the door and it squeaked, swinging open. The Doctor stepped through the doorway and turned to face Jack.
"Sonic blaster, 51st century. Weapon Factories of Villengard?" The Doctor asked, a knowing smile on his face.
Jack frowned. "You've been to the factories?"
The Doctor took the blaster from Jack, observing it for a moment, before handing it over to Rhea. "Once."
"Well, they're gone now. Destroyed. The main reactor went critical. Vaporised the lot." Jack explained.
Rhea held up her gun in one hand and Jack's in the other, staring at Jack's. "It's like a futuristic revolver." Rhea mused, feeling the weight. She held up her own ivory blaster. "I like mine better."
"Like I said, once. There's a banana grove there, now. I like bananas. Bananas are good." The Doctor smiled, pleasantly and innocently, before walking through the doorway.
Jack took her gun from her and whistled, turning it around in his hands. "Alpha meson blaster. Where'd you get this baby?" Jack asked Rhea, who had proceeded to walk through the doorway after the Doctor.
Rhea smirked, spinning around, her ponytail swinging around in an arc. "In a theme park." Rhea said, with a bright smile.
Jack raised an eyebrow. "A theme park?"
Rhea hummed in agreement, speeding up to match the Doctor's pace.
"Theme park?" The Doctor asked, the same scepticism in his voice.
Rhea nodded, innocently.
"Do I want to know?"
Rhea shook her head. "Probably not." She said, smiling.
Rose went up to Jack. "Nice blast pattern." She commented, looking at the perfectly square hole.
"Digital."
"Squareness gun." Rose remarked.
"Yeah."
Rose grinned at him. "I like it." She said, before following the Doctor and Rhea. Jack laughed and followed her.
The Doctor switched a light on. The room looked as though it had been vandalised. The window was broken and random objects littered the floor.
"What d'you think?" The Doctor asked.
"Something got out of here…" Jack mused, looking around with trepidation and dread.
"Yeah. And?"
"Something powerful." Jack paused. "And angry."
"Powerful and angry." Rhea repeated and turned around. "Well, isn't that comforting?" She muttered to herself.
Jack entered a room off to the side. The floors and the walls were covered with the scribbled drawings of a child. There were a few toys scattered across the floor and a little cot sat in the corner.
"A child? I suppose this explains 'mummy'." Jack mused.
Rose looked around the room. "How could a child do this?"
Rhea frowned at the sight of a cassette tape player sitting on the table. She pursed her lips and approached it, slowly, pressing the 'play' button. A recording of Doctor Constantine talking to the child started to sound through the room.
"Do you know where you are?" Doctor Constantine's voice came over the cassette.
"Are you my mummy?" The child asked.
"Are you aware of what's around you? Can you... see?" Doctor Constantine asked, hesitantly.
"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?" The child's voice grew louder and angrier.
Rhea looked around at the drawings, seeing the child's mother drawn on every piece of paper, paling as she took everything in. She exhaled.
"Are you my mummy? Mummy? Mummy?"
Rhea turned to the Doctor. "We heard this voice before. On the rooftop." Rhea murmured to the Doctor.
"Me too." The Doctor replied, quietly.
"Mummy?"
"Always, "are you my mummy?". Like he doesn't know." Rose commented.
"Mummy?"
"Why doesn't he know?" Rose asked, her voice hard.
Rhea bit her lip and swallowed hard, putting some of the pieces together. "Because he doesn't…know." She finished and closed her eyes.
"Are you there, mummy? Mummy?"
Rhea watched the reels of the cassette spin.
"Mummy? Please, mummy? Mummy?"
The Doctor started to pace around the room.
"Doctor?" Rhea said, frowning at the man.
"Can you sense it?"
"Sense what?" Jack asked.
"Coming out of the walls, can you feel it?"
"Mummy?" The child called out again.
The Doctor stopped to look around at Rhea, Rose and Jack. "Funny little human brains, how do you get around in those things?" The Doctor said, with a strange smile on his face.
Rhea let out a growl and glared at the Doctor. She turned to Jack and sighed. "When he gets frustrated, he likes to insult species." Rhea explained and Jack nodded.
"Rhea, I'm thinking." The Doctor said, still pacing.
"Yes, honey, I can see that." Rhea said, her attention drawn again towards the cassette, a strange clicking sound filling the air, making Rhea frown.
"Cuts himself shaving, does half an hour in life forms he's cleverer than..." Rose added.
"There are these children living rough around the bomb site. They come out during air-raids looking for food." The Doctor muttered.
Rhea narrowed her eyes at the cassette. Why has his words changed? If he was talking to the Doctor, why would he be speaking like he was… Rhea paled. In the room with us. The clicking sound. Oh, my god.
"Mummy, please?"
"Suppose they were there when this thing, whatever it was, landed?"
"It was a med-ship. It was harmless." Jack insisted.
The Doctor turned to Jack, sharply. "Yes, you keep saying. 'Harmless'. Suppose one of them was affected… altered?"
"Altered how?" Rose asked.
"I'm here!" The child's voice rang through the room, loud and clear.
Okay, that's definitely all manners of creepy. Rhea walked over to the Doctor, tugging his jacket to get his attention.
The Doctor batted her hands away. "Not now, Rhea." His fists clenched and unclenched as he frantically went through all the information he knew. "It's afraid. Terribly afraid, and powerful. It doesn't know it yet, but it will do." He let out a small laugh. "It's got the power of a god, and I just sent it to its room."
The loud, crackling voice filled the room.
"Doctor…" Rose began, scared.
"I'm here. Can't you see me?" Rhea swallowed hard and looked through the broken window at the little boy, gas mask plastered onto his face.
"What's that noise?" Rose asked, frowning.
Rhea pursed her lips, levelling a glare at the Doctor for not listening to her. "It's the end of the cassette." Rhea said, lightly. "It ended around thirty seconds ago."
The Doctor's smile faded.
"I'm here, now. Can't you see me?"
"I sent it to its room…" The Doctor trailed off.
Rhea nodded. "This is its room."
The Doctor, Rose and Jack spun around and stared, in the direction Rhea was looking, at the child, who was standing beside the cassette player.
"Are you my mummy?" The child asked, cocking his head to one side, considering Rhea and Rose through the gas mask. "Mummy?"
"Doctor?" Rhea said, softly.
"Okay... on my signal... make for the door." Jack said, stepping forwards so that he was right behind the Doctor's shoulder. "NOW!" He violently produced a banana from his jacket and pointed it, threateningly, at the child. The Doctor grinned and produced Jack's sonic blaster, making Rhea laugh, blasting a square hole in the wall.
"Go! Now! Don't drop the banana!" The Doctor shouted as he ran.
Jack hopped through the hole in the wall with Rhea, Rose and the Doctor. "Why not?!" Jack shouted, confused.
"Good source of potassium!" The Doctor replied, pulling Rhea along with him.
The four of them found themselves back in a corridor and the child approached them from inside the room.
"Give me that!" Jack hissed and grabbed his sonic blaster off the Doctor.
"Are you my mummy?"
Jack pointed the blaster at the wall and it rebuilded itself, blocking the child out.
"Digital rewind."Jack explained, tossing the banana back to the Doctor. "Nice switch."
The Doctor held up the fruit, a triumphant smile on his face. "It's from the Groves of Villengard. I thought it was appropriate."
Jack paused and frowned. "There's really a banana grove in the heart of Villengard and you did that?"
"Bananas are good." The Doctor said, simply.
A large smile spread across Rhea's face, as she beamed at the Doctor, showing her bright white teeth. "Oh, you, vigilante, you." She teased, nudging him in the side with her elbow.
The child thumped the wall from the other side, cracking the plaster.
"Doctor!" Rhea tapped on the Doctor's shoulder, urgently.
"Come on!" The Doctor said, grabbing Rhea's hand.
They rushed down a short flight of stairs and down another corridor, before they encountered all of the patients bursting out of the ward, calling out 'mummy'. They hastily backtracked, but they found more swarms of gas mask people coming from that direction too. They found themselves back at the point where they started, where the child was breaking through the wall.
"It's keeping us here so it can get at us." The Doctor said, frantically looking for an exit.
Jack started to point his blaster in each direction in turn. "It's controlling them?"
"It is them." Rhea narrowed her eyes and raised her blaster. "It's every living thing in this hospital."
"Okay. This can function as a sonic blaster, a sonic cannon, and a triple-enfolded sonic disrupter. Doc, what you got?" Jack said.
The Doctor took the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and looked at it, hesitating. Jack was not looking as he was too busy brandishing his sonic blaster at the gasmask people.
"A sonic, er..." The Doctor looked at Jack, nervously. "Oh, never mind."
"What?" Jack asked.
The Doctor turned to face the other group of gasmask people, switching on his sonic screwdriver, silently. "It's sonic, okay? Let's leave it at that."
"Disrupter? Cannon? What?"
Rhea stared at the Doctor, strangely, wondering why he wasn't telling Jack he had a sonic screwdriver. She shook her head, deciding to ask him later.
"It's sonic! Totally sonic! I am sonic-ed up!"
"A sonic what?!"
"SCREWDRIVER!" The Doctor shouted, showing Jack the item in question.
Jack spun around, thoroughly confused and amused. At that moment, the child finally managed to punch through the wall. He began to climb through the wall. Rhea rolled her eyes, watching the four of them come to a stand-still. So not the time for this. She looked at Rose, who nodded in understanding. Rhea pointed her blaster at the ground at the same as Rose grabbed Jack's blaster, pointing it at the ground.
"Going down." Rhea warned, before pulling the trigger. A beam of light shot out of both blasters and disintegrated the floor and they were falling.
Rhea landed in one her feet, her knees slightly bent, and straightened, quickly. The others had fallen in a messy heap on the floor of the ward below. Rhea rolled her eyes. "Pathetic." She muttered.
Jack hurriedly activated the digital rewind on her blaster, closing the hole so that the gas mask people couldn't follow them.
"Doctor, are you okay?" Rhea asked.
"Could've used a warning!" The Doctor muttered under his breath.
Rhea glared at him. "I did." She growled.
"Ugh, the gratitude." Rose said, sarcastically.
They all got to their feet and brushed themselves off.
"Who has a sonic screwdriver?" Jack asked.
"I do!" The Doctor said, defensively.
"Lights!" Rhea and Rose said at the same time, looking around.
"Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks "Ooh, this could be a little more sonic"?" Jack asked, mockingly.
Rhea had to snicker at that, making the Doctor glare at her, briefly.
"What, you've never been bored?" The Doctor asked, indignantly.
"There has to be a light switch somewhere." Rhea muttered as she and Rose poked around the dark room.
"Never had a long night? Never had a lot of cabinets to put up?"
Rhea growled in exasperation and firmly planted herself in between the two men, her hands on their chest, shoving them away from each other. She glared at them both, equally fierce. "Seriously? Boys, cut the Freudian bullshit drama…NOW!" She hissed.
Rose finally found a switch and turned the light on. All the gas-mask people, that were lying in beds, sat up, immediately, and started calling out "mummy".
"Door." Jack said.
They rushed to the door as the patients started to get out of their beds. Finding it locked, Jack tried to blast it open, but for some reason, his sonic blaster was not working.
"Damn it!" Jack cursed, glaring at the blaster, willing it to work.
He stepped back and Rhea moved forwards, pulling a bobby pin from her pocket and picking the lock quickly as possible. Jack whacked the sonic blaster, angrily.
"It's the special features, they really drain the battery." Jack explained.
"The battery?!" Rose scoffed.
Rhea shoved the doors open and they dashed through it.
"That's so lame." Rose said, making Rhea smirk. Goodbye, hero worship.
The Doctor and Rhea slammed the door shut behind them and the Doctor locked it with his sonic screwdriver. Jack ran to the window and jumped onto the ledge. "I was gonna send for another one, but somebody's gonna blow up the factory." He glared at the Doctor.
"Oh, I know, first day I met them, they blew my job up. That's practically how they communicate."
"Spoilers." Rhea said, through gritted teeth.
"Okay, that door should hold it for a bit." The Doctor said, walking in the direction of the window.
"The door?!" Jack said, outraged. "The wall didn't stop it!"
"Well, it's gotta find us first!" The Doctor said, encouragingly. "Come on, we're not done yet! Assets, assets!" The Doctor said, jumping up onto the ledge of the window.
"Well, I've got a banana, and at a pinch you could put up some shelves." Jack said, sarcastically.
"Window-"
"Barred, sheer drop outside. Seven stories." Rhea finished, bounding onto the ledge alongside the Doctor, staring down at the ground. She spun on her feet, observing the rest of the room. "And no other exits." Rhea sighed.
Jack settled comfortably into a chair. "Well, the assets conversation went in a flash, didn't it?"
The Doctor eyed him for a moment, before fixing Rhea with a disbelieving look. "So, where'd you pick this one up, then?" He asked, sarcastically, annoyance brimming in his voice.
"Doctor…" Rhea started, warningly, looking away from his gaze.
"She was hanging from a barrage balloon, I had an invisible spaceship. I never stood a chance." Jack joked.
Rhea pursed her lips, hiding a smile, looking away from both men and Rose's knowing look.
"Okay, one, we want to get out of here. Two, we can't get out of here. Have I missed anything?" The Doctor asked, sarcastically.
Rose looked in Jack's direction, taking a step forward. "Yeah... Jack just disappeared." Rose said, in wonder.
The Doctor and Rhea spun around to see Jack's empty chair.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me." Rhea groaned, sinking back against the wall.
Rose approached the Doctor and Rhea, who were now sitting down, and put her hand casually on the back of Rhea's chair.
"Okay, so he's vanished into thin air. Why is it always the great looking ones who do that?" Rose asked Rhea, mournfully.
Rhea shrugged and the Doctor peered up at her, giving her an offended look. "I'm making an effort not to be insulted."
Rose waved her hand, dismissively. "I mean... men."
Rhea bit her lip to hide her laughter. The Doctor smiled, sarcastically, and nodded. "Okay. Thanks. That really helped."
An old radio sprung to life and Jack's voice transmitted through it. "Rhea? Rose? Doctor? Can you hear me?"
The three hurried over to the radio, the Doctor picking it up.
"I'm back on my ship." Jack told them. "Used the emergency teleport. Sorry I couldn't take you."
The Doctor, in some confusion, held up the wires that had been ripped out of the radio. Rhea ran her hands over the damaged leads and frowned at the radio.
"It's security-keyed to my molecular structure. I'm working on it, hang in there."
The Doctor frowned. "How're you speaking to us?"
"Om-Com. I can call anything with a speaker grille."
The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Now there's a coincidence."
"What is?" Jack asked.
"The Child can Om-Com too."
Rhea frowned. "It can?"
The Doctor nodded. "Anything with a speaker grille. Even the TARDIS phone."
Rhea tensed. "You mean the Child can call us?"
"And I can hear you." The Child said, in a sing-song voice. "Coming to find you. Coming to find you."
There was a pause.
"Doctor, can you hear that?" Jack asked.
"Loud and clear." The Doctor said, flatly.
"I'll try to block out the signal. Least I can do."
"Coming to find you, mummy!"
"Remember this one, Rhea?" Jack said, and Glenn Miller's 'Moonlight Serenade' started to sound through the radio.
Rhea bit her lip, hiding a smile, her eyes shifting, uncomfortably, as the Doctor looked at her, questioningly. "Our song." She said, sheepishly.
The Doctor nodded, unhappy. "Oh, you have a song now." He grumbled.
Rose just watched the interaction between the two, with a sneaky smile on her face. Hello, jealousy.
Rose was curled up in a wheelchair, taking a nap, while Rhea walked around the small room, bored. The radio was still playing 'Moonlight Serenade' and Rhea chanced a look at the sleeping blonde girl. She could hear the buzzing of the sonic screwdriver in the background, as the Doctor stood up on the ledge in front of the window. Rhea turned to the Doctor.
"Am I interrupting?" Rhea asked, suddenly, startling the Doctor, who was incredibly focused on his task at hand.
The Doctor frowned but didn't turn his attention away from the wall. "Interrupting what?"
"You and Rose…" Rhea trailed off, not wanting to get into specifics. She didn't know why her heart dropped into her stomach and her skin felt prickly when she considered that things between the blonde and the Time Lord might be little more than just friends. Her mouth went dry and she swallowed hard, not wanting to actually finish the sentence, to let the words that insinuated themselves in her mind actually be voiced.
"Me and Rose what?" The Doctor's eyebrows furrowed, thoroughly confused by what she meant.
"Am I like the third wheel or something?" Rhea asked, uncomfortably. Why should she care? Because she and the Doctor had kissed. Not this Doctor. Rhea corrected herself, a future Doctor, and Rose was gone for that Doctor, both times they had kissed. Maybe she was the rebound in this situation. That was funny, she had never been the rebound before. She was the girl who left bite marks on a guy's hip and tossed him out the door in the morning.
The Doctor turned to her, abruptly. "What, me and Rose?"
Rhea rolled her eyes, exasperated. "Dear Lord, do I need to spell it out for you? Are you screwing?" She said, her voice slightly high-pitched.
The Doctor's eyes widened, as if he hadn't even considered the possibility in the first place. "Rhea!" He scolded. "What a stupid idea! Me and Rose, ha!" He chuckled.
"What?" Rhea was confused. "Why is that so funny?"
"Rhea, she's like a sister to me. Not to mention, a child by my standards." The Doctor smirked.
Rhea raised an eyebrow. "Well, I'm only nine years older than her, does that make me a child too?" Rhea's hands fell to her hips.
The Doctor ran dark, intense eyes up and down her body, stopping only when he returned to her eyes. "Oh, you are definitely not a child." The Doctor growled in her ear.
Rhea bit her lip, a whimper rising in her throat, which she forcibly quashed. Well, there goes my insecurity. Wonderful. A reason to distance myself gone out the window. "Good to know." Rhea masked her reaction to his leer and turned away for a brief moment, schooling her features. "What are you doing?" Rhea asked.
The Doctor turned back and continued to hold the sonic screwdriver up against the wall next to the window. "Trying to set up a resonation pattern in the concrete. Loosen the bars."
Rhea crossed her arms over her chest and smiled at him, knowingly. "You don't think he's coming back, do you?"
"Wouldn't bet my life." The Doctor said, dryly.
Rhea frowned. "What is your problem with him?"
"Why do you trust him?" The Doctor asked, a slight bit of annoyance creeping into his voice. "You certainly looked cosy."
Rhea's eyebrows furrowed. "I don't. Who said I did?" The Doctor turned to face her. "I don't." Rhea said, gently. "You know me, apparently better than anyone with the things you know about me, do I trust easily? It took me awhile to trust you, much shorter than most people, but still some time." Rhea felt heartened by the soft look the Doctor gave her. "He saved our lives, though. Got to give him the benefit of the doubt."
The Doctor looked like he wanted to say something, but didn't want to get the words out.
Rhea frowned. "What is it?" She asked, gently.
"Did you… something happen between you two?" The Doctor asked, hesitantly.
Rhea cocked her head. "Something?" She clarified.
The Doctor glared at her. "You know what I mean."
Rhea pursed her lips and jumped onto the ledge, so she could tell this to him, face to face. "We kissed." She said, flatly, closing her eyes, briefly, when she saw him flinch. She paused, not knowing whether she should continued, but realised she needed to get this out there. She may not be able to say anything in plain English or promise anything for the future, but she could give him this. She licked her lips and swallowed hard. "But it didn't feel as right." She said, softly.
The Doctor frowned. "As what?"
Rhea gave him a sad smile and ran her index finger from his hairline down to his strong jaw. "Spoilers, honey." She whispered. She pulled back, abruptly, realising the position they were in and stepped down from the ledge.
The Doctor cracked a smile. "Rose seems very taken with him."
Rhea grinned and looked at the sleeping Rose. "I think she figures he's like you, except with, you know, dating and dancing."
"Typical." The Doctor scoffed.
"What?" Rhea asked, playfully.
"You just assume I'm..." The Doctor trailed off.
"What?" Rhea asked, a smile playing on her lips.
"You just assume that I don't... dance." The Doctor finished, a little vulnerable by the confession.
"Do you… dance?" Rhea asked, her eyes bright and her tongue poking out of her teeth.
"Nine hundred years old, me. I've been around a bit. I think you can assume that at some point I've danced." The Doctor confessed, still not looking at her.
"Really?" Rhea bit her lip.
"Problem?" The Doctor asked, defensively.
Rhea threw her head back and laughed. The Doctor's eyes were immediately drawn to her sleek line of her throat. "Doesn't the universe, I don't know, cease to exist or something if you... dance?" Rhea teased, her eyes bright.
"Well, I've got the moves but I wouldn't want to boast." The Doctor said, offhandedly.
Rhea nodded, still grinning, and moved over to the edge of the room to turn the music louder, mindfully making sure it didn't disturb Rose's sleep. The Doctor looked around, once he heard the increase in sound, completely wrong-footed. Rhea, slowly, glided towards him, a flirtatious motive clear in her eyes. He looked determinedly at the wall. Rhea raised her hand and held it out towards him.
"You've got the moves?" Rhea started, smirking. The Doctor looked back at her, befuddled. "Show me your moves."
"Rose, I'm trying to resonate concrete." The Doctor said, slightly flustered.
Rhea shook her head, her hand not dropping from its position in the air. "Jack'll be back, he'll get us out. So come on," Rhea bit her lip and the invitation was clear in her eyes. "The world doesn't end 'cause the Doctor dances."
The Doctor snapped off his sonic screwdriver, putting it back in his jacket, and stepped down from the ledge, walking towards her, an odd expression on his face. He stood in front of Rhea for a second. Rhea frowned. Where exactly is this going? He took her hands in his much larger ones, Rhea staring up at him with apprehension and confusion. He turned her hands over, inspecting them.
"Barrage balloon?" The Doctor asked.
"What?" Rhea asked, completely lost by how the conversation had turned.
The Doctor turned her hands over again, staring at the unblemished palms. "You were hanging from a barrage balloon."
Rhea's eyes widened in realisation. "Oh, yeah. We followed the child up onto the rooftop of a building. Then, we sort of jumped onto a rope hanging from a barrage balloon. Thousands of feet in the air, Rose having the Union Jack splayed across her chest," Rhea rolled her eyes. "Middle of a German air raid, it's was lovely." Rhea sighed.
The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "I've travelled with a lot of people, but she's setting new records for jeopardy-friendly."
Rhea cocked her head. "And me?"
The Doctor chuckled. "Oh, Dimples, I don't think anyone could beat your record."
Rhea grimaced. "You have got to stop calling me that."
"Not a chance." The Doctor went back to examining her hands for any scrapes, bruises or burns.
"Is this you dancing? 'Cause I've got a few suggestions." Rhea said, dryly.
"Hanging from a rope a thousand feet above London. Not a cut, not a bruise." The Doctor said, sceptically, twisting her hands so that she could see them.
"Yeah, I know. Captain Jack fixed me up..." Rhea explained.
The Doctor paused and narrowed his eyes. "Oh, we're calling him 'Captain Jack' now, are we?"
Rhea raised an eyebrow. "Well, his name's Jack and he's a captain..." She whispered, conspiratorially, as if the Doctor were really slow.
"He's not really a captain, Rhea." The Doctor smiled, utterly satisfied with himself.
Rhea glared at him, fed up with his jealousy. "You know, just because you're hot doesn't mean you can treat people like crap!" She growled, then, silently cursed herself. That wasn't something she was willing to admit. There was no need to give him any more ammunition tonight. People, men, always had a way of using these things against her.
The Doctor paused. "You think I'm hot?" The Doctor asked, looking at her, strangely.
"Well, yes." Rhea admitted, grudgingly. She licked her lips, awkwardly, and changed the subject. "Do you know what I think?" Rhea asked, a smile playing on her lips. "I think you're experiencing Captain envy." She whispered, elated, patting him on the chest.
The Doctor half-nodded, not denying it completely. His hands slipped around her waist, bringing her into his body, as they began to sway.
"You'll find your feet at the end of your legs. You may care to move them. But it's totally optional." Rhea joked. Rhea bit her lip at their close proximity, and her hands, unbeknownst to her, dragging down his chest until they rested on the well-defined muscles on his stomach. "Oh, how Rose could ever think you weren't a man is beyond me." Rhea purred, her voice low and promising, her green eyes dark and burning with lust.
"If ever he was a captain, he's been defrocked." The Doctor murmured in her ear, his hands tightening around her slim waist.
Rhea smiled, pleased that she could have this sort of affect on him. She wondered how far she could take this. Her head tipped up of its own accord. "Yeah? Damn, can't believe I missed that."
The Doctor growled and slanted his mouth over hers, muffling her moan, his hands sliding from her waist and gripping her back, pulling her into his body so tightly that they weren't sure where she began and he ended. Rhea's arms slipped around her neck, her nails scraping against the short, cropped hairs on his head. She arched her body into his again, smiling against his lips when she heard him rumble against her.
Suddenly, they could hear someone clearing their throat. "Actually, I quit. Nobody takes my frock."
Rhea and the Doctor parted, abruptly, and looked around, surprised. Somehow, they were standing in the middle of Jack's spaceship. Rhea tensed and looked around, sighing in relief, when she saw Rose's groggy form rising from the wheelchair she had slept in. Rhea pushed herself away from the Doctor, moving closer to the wall, adamant in putting space, both physically and emotionally, between them. She licked her lips, appreciating the taste of him left on her tongue and the pleasant heat from the swollen skin. Rhea swallowed hard and attempted to get her emotions and hormones under control. Damn, how is he such a good kisser in every body? Suddenly, a wicked thought occurred to her. Oh, there's still nine more of them to go. Isn't that going to be fun?
"Most people notice when they've been teleported. But, I guess you both were too busy." The Doctor and Rhea flushed at that. "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 said, resting his elbow against the structure.
"Oh, I do. She was gorgeous." Jack purred, winking at Rhea, who smiled.
The Doctor glared at Jack and reached out, pulling Rhea into his side, who rolled her eyes, her fingers, subtly, stroking his back.
"Like I told her… be back in five minutes." Jack finished and ducked into a compartment underneath the console of the spaceship.
The Doctor looked around. "This is a Chula ship." The Doctor said, frowning.
"Yeah, just like that medical transporter." Jack called out. Then, he stuck his head out. "Only, this one is dangerous."
The Doctor snapped his fingers, suddenly, and his hand was surrounded immediately by the golden particles that healed Rhea's and Rose's burns earlier.
"They're what fixed my hands up!" Rose exclaimed. "Jack called 'em, um..." Rose closed her eyes, frantically trying to think of the name.
"Nanobots? Nanogenes." The Doctor answered.
Rhea snapped her fingers. "Nanogenes, yeah."
"Sub-atomic robots. There's millions of them in here, see? Burned my hand on the console when we landed," The Doctor showed them the side of his hand. "All better now. They activate when the bulk head's sealed. Check you out for damage, fix any physical flaws."
Rose beamed and the Doctor banished the Nanogenes with a wave of his hand, turning to Jack. "Take us to the crash site. I need to see your space junk." The Doctor ordered.
"As soon as I get the nav-com back online." Jack said, as if the Doctor were nagging him.
The Doctor looked mildly irritated.
"Make yourself comfortable. Carry on with whatever it was you were..." Jack gestured to the Doctor and Rhea. "… doing."
The Doctor shuffled his feet. "We were talking about dancing!" He said, defensively.
Jack chuckled. "That wasn't talking."
Rhea laughed. "That wasn't dancing." Rhea said, mischievously.
The Doctor sighed and looked at Rose. "Fantastic, they're exactly the same." The Doctor moaned.
Rose laughed.
Rose was sitting near Jack, talking to the man, while Rhea and the Doctor were sitting next to each off to the side, not taking part in the conversation, just listening.
"So, you used to be a Time Agent, now you're trying to con them?" Rose asked, confused.
Jack fiddled with the controls of the spaceship. "If it makes me sound any better, it's not for the money."
Rose frowned. "For what?"
Jack sighed, his eyes hardening and his jaw tensing for a moment. "Woke up one day when I was working for them, found they'd stolen two years of my memories. I'd like them back." Jack said, harshly.
Rhea smiled, wryly, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear and looking away in the direction of the Doctor., knowing exactly what is was like to have huge chunks of your memory completely and utterly blank. The Doctor, seeming to know exactly who and what she was thinking about, reached out with his large hand and covered hers in a show of solidarity and comfort. Rhea twisted in her seat, resting her chin on his shoulder, accepting the comfort, before pulling away, but maintaining the closeness in their bodies.
"They stole your memories?" Rose asked, aghast.
"Two years of my life. No idea what I did." The Doctor watched him, curiously. "Your friend over there doesn't trust me. And for all I know... he's right not to." The computer beeped. "Okay, we're good to go."
The Doctor looked up.
"Crash site?"
A/N: Ugh, Rhea is so frustrating, isn't she? It's like one step forward and two steps back with her all the time. She's very fond of the Doctor though. She doesn't want to hurt him and she accepts the fact that she will hurt him in the future. She's just trying to protect a guy who doesn't deserve that. I hope you like the start of Rhea and Jack's relationship. Their relationship will be very important to her in the future, especially in the episodes with the Master. And I thought I'd deal with the whole Doctor/Rose thing in this chapter. The Doctor made it very clear that there isn't anything going on between them, but will Rhea believe it? We'll have to see in the future. Can you guess what Rhea meant as "right"?
I hope you liked the interaction between the Doctor and Rhea amidst the whole Jack drama. They have become closer and Rhea did admit something very hard for her, but stick with her, she'll get there eventually. There is still a hell of a lot of episodes to go. I hope you liked the 'dancing' scene, I've been waiting a very long time to write that. I hope it was as flirty and fun as I hoped it would be. And they kissed! This was the first kiss between Rhea and the Ninth Doctor. How did you like it? I tried to make it as a sort of consequence of the Doctor's jealousy and Rhea teasing him. Don't worry, she didn't mean it. She's definitely letting down some of her walls around him. She's getting better at the emotional stuff, I promise. She'll definitely slip up now and again, but she is changing.
And another hint towards Rhea's past, why was she so affected by Jack telling Rose that the Time Agency had stolen his memories?
Oh, and I have a few questions for you guys. Would you like it if I posted on the same day/two days every week or would you like for me to post every time I finish a chapter? If I do it the second week, one week I might be able to update within two days and the next week, it may take me almost a week to update. Oh, and what do you think should happen to Rhea in Utopia/The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords?
Anyway, hope you all liked it and don't forget to review!