The Dread of Tomorrow and Yesterday – Chapter 33
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, unfortunately, just Sunehri and anyone related to her that doesn't exist in the Doctor Who universe.
A/N: Here's the last part of The Doctor Dances. I hope everyone liked the last chapter, especially with the kiss and the jealous Doctor. In this chapter, we will see how Rhea reacts when she thinks Jack's about to die. Maybe even a little fight between the two? Oh, and now that she's met Jack, what would you think about Rhea in episodes outside of Doctor Who, like Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures?
Notes on Reviews:
Grapejuice101: Jealous Doctor is so fun to write. We've got more in this chapter, don't worry :)
Princess-Amon-Rae: I think everyone's for me updating whenever I possibly can. Anyway, thanks so much for the review!
Rhian. Morgan. 1806: No problem :) I can't wait for River either!
Aka-Baka Hoshi: Thanks for your review. Actually I do plan on Rhea getting at least a bit tortured by the Master, to be honest. I think it would suit his character if I did that. But their relationship is very complex.
YingWhiteyWolf: I'm fine, thanks for asking, really enjoying my holidays, but dreading the last day and going back to university. I'm glad I'm still able to keep up the suspense after 30 chapters. I hope I can keep it up. No problem. I'm glad you still like the story so far. Thanks for your opinion, I think I might just update whenever I finish a chapter because I get really antsy if I finish it ahead of time, waiting for the posting date. But, I may not even be able to update as frequent once uni starts, so, it's probably all moot in the end.
Warnings: Swearing, sexual innuendo.
The Doctor Dances: Volcano Day
"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?"
The Doctor, Rhea, Rose and Jack walked over the rail lines near the bomb site. They peered over the barbed wire.
"There it is." Jack spotted a soldier pacing up and down. "Ay, they've got Algy on duty. Must be important."
"We've gotta get past." Rhea pointed out.
Rose sighed. "The words 'distract the guard' head in our general direction." Rose said, looking at Rhea, who cracked a smile.
Jack hesitated. "I don't think that'd be such a good idea."
Rose raised an eyebrow. "Don't worry… we can handle it."
"I've got to know Algy quite well since I've been in town. Trust me. You're not his type." Jack said, looking at Rhea and Rose. "Either of you. Trust me. I'll distract him." Jack claimed and walked away. "Don't wait up."
The smile on Rhea's face turned into a full-blown grin, as she beamed at Jack's back.
Rose looked at the Doctor, questioningly.
"Relax, he's a 51st century guy. He's just a bit more flexible when it comes to dancing." The Doctor said, a smirk playing on his lips.
Rose frowned. "How flexible?"
"Well, by his time, you lot have spread out across half the galaxy."
Rose waved her hand at him, when he didn't continue. "Meaning?"
The Doctor grinned. "So many species, so little time..."
Rose's eyes widened. "What, that's what we do when we get out there? That's our mission? We seek new life, and... and..." She flustered when trying to find the ending to that sentence.
"Dance." Rhea cackled.
Rose paused. "So, that's what Jack meant when you two-"
The Doctor cut her off. "We were talking about dancing." The Doctor said, sternly, meaning the innocent connotation of the term.
Rhea laughed. "I certainly wasn't." Rhea said, winking at him and smirking at the consequential flush on his cheeks.
Jack jumped down onto the rail track on the bomb site, where Algy was pacing outside the fence.
"Hey, tiger! How's it hanging?" Jack called out.
Algy turned to Jack, looking at him inquisitively. "Mummy?"
Jack paused and smiled a little uncertainly. "Algy, old sport, it's me."
"Mummy?" Algy repeated.
Jack's smile faded as he realised what was happening to the soldier. "It's me, Jack."
"Jack?" Algy cocked his head to one side, observing Jack with childlike curiousity. "Are you my... mummy?"
And he coughed, falling to his knees. Before the very eyes of the Doctor, Rhea, Jack and Rose, his face started to transform into a gas mask, leaving Jack horror-struck. The other soldiers began to hurry over.
"Stay back!" The Doctor shouted at the soldiers.
"You men! Stay away!" Jack warned them as well.
Rhea, Rose and the Doctor rushed over to Jack, and Algy, who was lying on the floor, lifeless. Rose stared down at him in shock.
"The effect's become air-borne. Accelerating." The Doctor explained, looking up.
Rhea tensed. "What's keeping us safe?"
"Nothing." The Doctor said, grimly.
The air-raid siren sounded through the air.
"Ah, here they come again." Jack said, looking up at the sky.
"All we need. Didn't you say a bomb was gonna land... here?" Rose asked Jack, nervously.
Jack nodded.
Rhea frowned when she heard singing coming from the background.
"Never mind about that. If the contaminants air-borne now, there's hours left." The Doctor said.
"For what?" Jack asked.
"'Til nothing. 'Til forever. For the entire human race. And can anyone else hear singing?" The Doctor asked, suddenly, looking around.
They went back to the site where the bomb had crashed, and the Doctor and Jack removed the tarpaulin covering the Chula med-ship, hiding it from plain sight, as Rhea, Rose and Nancy watched.
"You see? Just an ambulance." Jack said, smugly.
Nancy frowned. "That's an ambulance?"
Rose wrapped a reassuring arm around Nancy. "It's hard to explain, it's... it's from another world."
Jack looked at the controls. "They've been trying to get in."
"Of course they have." The Doctor and Rhea snapped at the same time.
Rhea rolled her eyes. "The human race is incapable of letting things go which don't concern them." She said, dryly.
The Doctor nodded. "They think they've got their hands on Hitler's latest secret weapon. What're you doing?"
"Well, the sooner you see this thing is empty, the sooner you'll see I had nothing to do with it." Jack said.
Suddenly, the controls exploded with sparks and they all reared back, as an alarm went off.
Jack paused. "Didn't happen last time."
The Doctor glared at him. "It hadn't crashed last time. They're the emergency protocols."
Rhea frowned when she saw a red light on the control panel start to flicker. "Doctor, what is that?" She asked, flatly.
"Doctor! Rhea!" Rose shouted, and they all watched as the gates at the other end of the bomb site started to shake and swing open.
"Captain, secure those gates!" The Doctor ordered.
"Why?" Jack asked, bewildered.
The Doctor let out a low growl. I don't have time for this. "Just do it!"
Surprisingly, Jack obeyed and ran off. The Doctor turned to Nancy.
"Nancy, how'd you get in here?" The Doctor asked the young woman.
"I cut the wire." Nancy replied.
"Show Rhea and Rose." The Doctor tossed his sonic screwdriver to Rhea, who caught it. "Setting two thousand four hundred and twenty eight D."
"Got it." Rhea said, quickly, before following Nancy.
"Wait, what?" Rose asked, confused, looking between the Doctor and Rhea.
"Reattaches barbed wire. Go!" The Doctor said, sharply, as Jack slammed the gate shut.
Rhea reached behind her and gripped Rose's hand, pulling her along in the right direction. "Time to go, blondie."
Rhea kneeled down in front of the gaping hole in the fence and got to work on reattaching the wire, as Rose held the two ends together for her to fuse them. Nancy stood behind them, watching as they finished one and started on the next.
"Who are you? Who are any of you?" Nancy asked, bewildered.
Rose cracked a smile, which only Rhea could see. "You'd never believe us if we told ya."
"You just told me that was an ambulance from another world. There are people running around with gas-mask heads calling for their mummies, and the sky's full of Germans dropping bombs on me. Tell me. Do you think there's anything left I couldn't believe?" Nancy asked, bluntly.
Rhea looked behind her, stopping for a moment, and shrugged. "Good point." She pursed her lips. "We're time travellers from the future."
"Mad, you are." Nancy sighed.
"We have a time travel machine, seriously!" Rose protested.
Nancy shook her head. "It's not that. All right, you've got a time travel machine. I believe ya. Believe anything, me." Nancy looked up at the sky, watching the explosions in mid-air and planes soaring around, dropping bombs. "But what future?"
Rhea and Rose looked up as well. "Nancy, this isn't the end. I know how it looks. But it's not the end of the world or anything..." Rose said.
"How can you say that? Look at it." Nancy whispered.
"Listen to me. I was born in this city. I'm from here, in like, 50 years time." Rose reassured her, placing an arm on the young woman's shoulder.
"From here?"
Rose smiled, encouragingly. "I'm a Londoner. From your future."
"But... but you're not..." Nancy trailed off.
Rose frowned. "What?"
"German." Nancy finished.
Rhea looked up at Nancy. "Nancy, the Germans don't win the war, I promise you." Nancy furrowed her brow and Rhea sighed. "Don't tell the Doctor I told you this, because he'd kill me, but you win." Rhea said, smiling softly at her.
Nancy's eyes widened. "We win?"
Rose nodded, smiling as well. Nancy let out a low laugh and swallowed hard.
Rhea sighed and stood up once all of the wires were reattached. "Come on!"
The three jumped to their feet and headed back over to the Doctor and Jack.
Jack opened the hatch of the med-ship. "It's empty. Look at it." Jack told the Doctor.
Rhea, Rose and Nancy joined them.
"What do you expect in a Chula medical transporter? Bandages? Cough drops? Rhea? Rose?" The Doctor looked at the two.
Rose shrugged. "I dunno."
Rhea paled. "Oh, fuck, Nanogenes." She whispered.
The Doctor nodded, then, he turned to Jack. "It wasn't empty, Captain. There was enough Nanogenes in there to rebuild a species." The Doctor crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Jack.
Jack's face turned to ash and he shook. "Oh, God." He whispered, finally getting it.
"Getting it now, are we?" The Doctor raised an eyebrow.
Rhea shook her head. "Good job." Rhea said, with a fake smile on her face and giving him the thumbs-up sign at the same time.
The Doctor smirked at Rhea's sarcasm before continuing with his explanation. "When the ship crashes, the nanogenes escape. Billions upon billions of them, ready to fix all the cuts and bruises in the whole world. But what they find first is a dead child, probably killed earlier that night and wearing a gasmask." The Doctor said, grimly.
"And they brought him back to life? They can do that?" Rose asked, gripping onto Rhea's hand.
The Doctor snorted. "What's life? Life's easy. A quirk of matter. Nature's way of keeping meat fresh. Nothing to a nanogene." The Doctor's face turned hard. "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 being's supposed to look like." Jack, Rhea, Rose and Nancy were listening to him, intently, processing what he was trying to say. "All they've got to go on is one little body, and there's not a lot left. But they carry right on. They do what they're programmed to do, they patch it up. Can't tell what's gasmask and what's skull, but they do their best. Then off they fly, off they go, work to be done." His hand reached out to the side, mimicking the Nanogene's flight. "'Cos you see now they think they know what people should look like and it's time to fix all the rest. And they won't ever stop. They won't ever, ever stop." The Doctor's voice started to get louder and louder. "The entire Human Race is gonna be torn down and rebuilt in the form of one terrified child looking for its mother, and nothing in the world can stop it!"
Jack remained abashed and shaken. "I didn't know." He said, defiantly.
The Doctor fixed him with a cold stare for a few seconds, and then returned to examining the med-ship, starting work with his sonic screwdriver. Nancy stared into the distance, beyond the fence, watching in horror as the gas-mask people arrived, still calling out "mummy" in a chant.
"Rhea? Rose?" Nancy called out behind her, scared.
Rhea and Rose rushed to Nancy's side, following her gaze. The gasmask people stumbled towards them over the rail-track. They were quite a distance away, but still too close for comfort. Rhea grimaced and rushed back to the med-ship, frowning again at the red light flashing on the control panel.
"I assume that," Rhea gestured to the light. "Is the reason why they're coming here?"
The Doctor looked up at her and instantly she knew that she was correct. "The ship thinks it's under attack. It's calling up the troops. Standard protocol."
Rhea tensed. "They aren't soldiers."
"They are now." The Doctor said, grimly. "This is a battle-field ambulance. The nanogenes don't just fix you up, they get you ready for the front line. Equip you, programme you."
Rhea paled. "That's why the Child's so strong. Why it could do that Om-Com thing."
The Doctor nodded. "It's a fully equipped Chula warrior, yes. All that weapons tech in the hands of a hysterical four year old, looking for his mummy. And now there's an army of them."
Rhea looked around and saw that the gas-mask people had surrounded the barbed wire fence, all four of them looking at the army with anxiety.
"Why don't they attack?" Jack asked.
"They're waiting for the commander." Rhea said, looking around for the Child.
"The child?" Jack frowned.
"Jamie." Nancy corrected.
Jack narrowed his eyes at Nancy. "What?"
Nancy glared at him. "Not 'the child'. Jamie."
The Doctor and Rhea looked at her, speculatively.
"So, how long until the bomb falls?" Rose asked Jack.
"Any second." Jack replied, looking up at the sky for any sign.
The Doctor stood up and fixed Jack with a look. "What's the matter, Captain? Bit close to the volcano for you?" He said, mockingly.
"He's just a little boy." Nancy whispered, mournfully.
Rhea moved down the hill, towards Nancy, and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, offering comfort.
"I know." The Doctor murmured.
"He's just a little boy who wants his mummy." Nancy said, upset.
Rhea smiled, sadly, rubbing Nancy's shoulder. "I know. There isn't a little boy born who wouldn't tear the world apart to save his mommy."
"And this little boy can." The Doctor finished, grimly.
"So what're we gonna do?" Rose asked, loudly.
The Doctor paused. "I don't know."
Rose sighed and tears welled in Nancy's eyes, as she hung her head. "It's my fault." Nancy whispered.
Rhea shook her head, furiously. "No." She protested.
"It is. It's all my fault." Nancy nodded.
"How can it be your-" The Doctor began, gently, before suddenly breaking off. The Doctor spun around, looking at all the gasmask people positioned behind the fence, calling for their mummy, and then back at Nancy, who was sobbing uncontrollably in Rhea's arms. "Nancy, what age are you? Twenty? Twenty-one? Older than you look, yes?" The Doctor asked, quickly.
A bomb landed nearby, making Rose and Jack flinch, but Rhea's attention was focused on the Doctor, wondering where he was going with this, when she started to realise. Oh… Jamie was the first victim and he's looking for his mummy. Rhea's shoulders slumped. Nancy…
"Doctor, that bomb. We've got seconds." Jack protested.
Another landed.
"You can teleport us out." Rose said, hurriedly, to Jack.
The Doctor and Rhea were paying their exchange no attention, eyes fixed on the crying Nancy as they worked out what the Child was searching for.
Jack shook his head. "Not you guys. The nav-com's back online. Gonna take too long to override the protocols."
The Doctor didn't move his eyes from Nancy. "So it's volcano day. Do what you've got to do." He said, addressing Jack.
Something changed in Rose's eyes, as she stared at the handsome man with something akin to betrayal. "Jack?"
Jack looked at her, almost apologetically, making his decision, and teleported himself out of the bomb site, making Rose recoil.
"How old were you five years ago? Fifteen? Sixteen? Old enough to give birth, anyway." The Doctor said to Nancy.
Nancy, who was still crying her eyes out, glanced up at his gentle blue eyes and looked away from him, burying her face in Rhea's shoulder in what she believed to be shame.
Rhea bit her lip and looked down at Nancy. "He's not your brother, is he?" Rhea asked, softly.
Nancy shook her head, the tears dampening her cheeks.
"A teenage single mother in 1941. So you hid. You lied." The Doctor guessed.
Nancy nodded in agreement.
"You even lied to him." Rhea murmured. She pulled Nancy's away from her and gripped her by the shoulders, looking her in the eye, earnestly. "It's not wrong, Nancy, to love your son. Sometimes, it's the best thing in the world." She said. "Don't ever think it's wrong. It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. Do you love your son?" Rhea demanded.
The Doctor watched Rhea and Nancy talk, an odd expression hidden in his eyes, knowing exactly why Rhea had just turned forceful in Nancy's encouragement. Watching Sunehri's teasing and humour and generally sexual self on a constant basis sometimes made him forget how broken she really was inside, especially when she was kissing him like that in the hospital. Of course, kissing never has much meaning or many consequences for Rhea. The Doctor thought, snidely. In the span of a few hours, she kissed Captain Jack like that and then threw herself in my arms. It was times like this where he was reminded quite sharply of how she thought and how she dealt with what had happened to her in her short life. It was a strange concept for him, being faced with such a young Sunehri, one that held all of that baggage so close to her chest, who never let anyone see just the slightest bit of weakness. It was always a battle with her. He had never experienced this side of her, not this often at least. The Sunehri he had known for so long had always been one with her trauma. Not that this Sunehri let it get to her, but she was so much more hardened by it. Nowadays, he was almost always blindsided every time she appeared in the TARDIS in blazing white light, never knowing which Sunehri he was going to get. It always reminded him how maddening she truly was.
The gates swung open. The Child, Jamie, stood at the forefront of an army of gasmask people, ready to charge."
"Are you my mummy?" The Child called out.
"He's gonna keep asking, Nancy. He's never gonna stop. Tell him." The Doctor said, encouragingly.
Nancy didn't say a thing. The gasmask people started to walk forwards in their direction.
"Nancy... the future of the human race is in your hands. Trust me... and tell him." The Doctor said, with a final tone.
Nancy sniffed, the tears still in her system. The child approached them, slowly, and stopped when he was only a few feet away from them.
"Are you my mummy?" The Child asked.
Rhea gave Nancy a gentle push in the direction of her son.
"Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy?" The Child asked.
"Yes." She whispered. "Yes. I am your mummy." Nancy said, strongly.
She faced him and the Child walked slowly forward.
"Mummy?"
"I'm here."
"Are you my mummy?"
Nancy knelt in front of him, stretching out her fingers towards him. "I'm here."
"Are you my mummy?" The Child asked again.
"Yes." Nancy whispered again.
The Doctor's fists clenched. "He doesn't understand. There's not enough of him left." The Doctor told Rhea.
"Don't." Rhea said, sharply, glaring at him, quickly. "Just wait." She murmured, her voice much softer as she reached for his arm, curling her long fingers around his leather clad bicep and tightening.
Nancy looked at her little, biting her lip, briefly. "I am your mummy. I will always be your mummy. I'm so sorry." Nancy said, sincerely, as the tears streamed down her face. And she took him into her arms, no longer caring about what the effects might be. The Nanogenes bathed them in a yellow light as they surrounded the mother and son. "I am so, so sorry." Nancy mumbled into Jamie's shoulder.
"What's happening?" Rose asked Rhea and the Doctor.
Nancy, still hugging her little boy, closed her eyes and began to stroke his hair, not knowing whether she was offering him comfort or herself.
"Doctor, it's changing her, we should-" Rose began to take a step towards the two.
The Doctor held out an arm to block her from moving forwards. "Shh!" The Doctor hissed, silencing her. He stared intently at the two of them surrounded by the Nanogenes, apprehensive, hopeful and excited. "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!" The Doctor practically trembled as he said these words.
"What's happening?" Rhea mouthed to him.
"See?" The Doctor pointed at Nancy and Jamie. "Recognizing the same DNA."
Nancy fell away from her sound, crumbling to the ground a foot away from the little boy, as the Nanogenes disappeared from them. The Doctor, Rhea and Rose rushed over, the latter two helping Nancy to her feet, while the former stared down at the child wearing the gas mask, hardly daring to hope.
"Oh, come on. Give me a day like this. Give me this one." The Doctor breathed. He reached out to the gas mask and exhaled in relief when he managed to remove it, revealing a perfectly ordinary, very sweet, very adorable little blonde boy underneath. Nancy stared in delighted wonder and the Doctor laughed, ecstatically. He lifted the little boy into the air, swinging him around in his excitement. "Ah-ha-ha! Welcome back!" The Doctor cheered. "Twenty years 'til pop music, you're gonna love it." He said, as he hugged Jamie tightly, laughing.
"What happened?" Nancy asked them in wonder.
"The Nanogenes recognised the superior information, the parent DNA." He turned to Nancy. "They didn't change you because you changed them! Haha!" He plonked Jamie down in front of her. "Mother knows best!"
"Jamie." Nancy sobbed out, reaching out and pulling her son into her arms.
Another bomb landed nearby, making everyone flinch.
"Doctor, that bomb..." Rose began, worriedly.
"Taken care of it." The Doctor said, abruptly.
"How?" Rhea frowned, looking up at him.
"Psychology!" The Doctor crowed, gesturing to Nancy and Jamie.
Rhea watched in horror as the bomb plummeted towards them and was suddenly snatched out of the air by a familiar blue force field. A moment later, Jack appeared, sitting on the bomb, hovering in the tunnel of light.
"Doctor!" He called down to them.
"Good lad!" The Doctor cheered, wrapping an arm around Rhea's waist.
"The bomb's already commenced detonation. I've put it in stasis but it won't last long." Jack explained.
"Change of plan, don't need the bomb. Can you get rid of it? Safely as you can?" The Doctor asked.
Jack looked at Rhea. "Hey, beautiful."
"Yeah, Captain?" Rhea raised an eyebrow and gave him a beaming smile, happy to know that he hadn't ran out on them in the end.
"Goodbye." And he disappeared.
Rose looked slightly let down that she hadn't received even a goodbye from him, when he reappeared.
"By the way, Rose…" Rose looked at him. "Love the t-shirt." Jack said, giving her a meaningful wink as he grinned.
Rose returned the grin, blushing slightly as she tugged the shirt down embarrassedly, smacking Rhea's arm when she nudged Rose playfully. Jack disappeared again and his ship zoomed off into the night sky. The Doctor let go of Rhea and walked a few paces away, staring intently at his hands for some reason. Suddenly, the Nanogenes seemed to surround the Doctor's hands, fluttering around.
"What are you doing?" Rhea asked.
"Software patch. Gonna email the upgrade. You want moves, Rhea? I'll give you moves." The Doctor said, smugly, his eyes bright with triumph. And he threw his hands out towards the crowds of gas mask people, the Nanogenes flying away from him and in that general direction, towards the people who were still milling around on the train track. The Doctor gave his widest grin as the gas mask people fell to the floor, the Nanogenes surrounding them as the healed them. "Everybody lives, Rhea. Just this once. Everybody lives!" The Doctor crowed, reaching for Rhea and pulling her into a tight hug, burying his face in her hair as she laughed happily in his arms.
The gas mask people got to their feet, restored to normal human beings. The Doctor bounded over to Doctor Constantine, helping the old man to his feet. "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 former gas mask people milling around. "These are your patients. All better, now!"
Doctor Constantine looked around, confused. "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, not at all bothered by the question. "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?" And he rushed back over to Rhea and Rose.
An old lady hobbled towards Doctor Constantine. "Doctor Constantine."
Doctor Constantine looked her over. "Mrs Harcourt, how much better you are looking!"
"My leg's grown back!" Mrs Harcourt said, bewildered. "When I come to the hospital, I had one leg."
Doctor Constantine looked down to see that she did, indeed, have two legs now. "Well, there is a war on. Is it possible you miscounted?" He tried.
"Right, you lot!" The Doctor called out to the crowd from on top of the Chula med-ship. "Lots to do! Beat the Germans, save the world, don't forget the Welfare State!"
Doctor Constantine smiled at the Doctor, thankfully, and he and his patients began to walk away. The Doctor bent down to the controls.
"Setting this to self-destruct, soon as everybody's clear. History says there was an explosion here. Who am I to argue with history?" He said, innocently, to Rhea.
Rhea snorted. "You're usually the first in line." She said, dryly.
The Doctor looked over at her, grinning, before he reached down and pressed his lips to hers quickly. She grinned back as they parted.
The Doctor, Rhea and Rose entered the TARDIS, the Doctor still chatting away, happily, as Rhea watched him in fond amusement.
"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!" The Doctor crowed, a pleased and triumphant smile on his face.
Rhea and Rose smiled at his enthusiasm.
"Look at you, beaming away like you're Father Christmas!" Rose teased.
"Who says I'm not, red-bicycle-when-you-were-twelve and princess-tiara-when-you-were-four?" The Doctor winked at both Rose and Rhea.
Both Rose and Rhea looked startled. Rhea shook her head in disbelief. "Sometimes, I think you're absolutely nuts." She sighed.
The Doctor threw his arms out, wide. "And everybody lives, Rhea! Everybody lives!" He sighed, pinging a switch on the console. "I need more days like this."
Rhea took a hesitant step forward when she realised something. "Doctor…" She started.
"Go on, ask me anything. I'm on fire!" He exclaimed, not hearing her.
"What about Jack?" Rose asked, slowly.
The Doctor's smile faded and he carried on working, either as if he hadn't heard her or he didn't want to answer her question.
"Why did he say goodbye?" Rhea asked, softly, walking up to the console.
The Doctor still didn't say the word and he was about to pull down the lever that would start the time rotor, when Rhea's hand clamped tightly around his wrist. "What are you doing?" The Doctor asked, through gritted teeth.
"You have to help him." Rhea murmured, earnestly, realising with horror what was going to happen to Jack when he decided to dispose of the bomb himself.
"He brought it on himself." The Doctor argued, glaring daggers at his feet. Why is she so bloody protective of him? Jealousy stabbed through him
Rhea recoiled and let go of the Doctor's wrist, abruptly. The Doctor let go of the lever and stormed around the console. The force of his glare was enough to set the time rotor on fire if he wanted to.
"How can you of all people say that?" Rhea growled. "The whole 'everybody lives' shtick. Does that only apply to people you like?" Rhea asked, incredulously.
"Rhea…" The Doctor trailed off, his eyes softening as he reached for her with one hand.
"No." Rhea said, sharply, pulling away. "Since when do you get to choose who lives and who dies?" She lowered her voice to a pleading tone. This time, she reached for him, taking his large, callused hands in her own, twisting her slender fingers in his. She leaned forward, standing right in front of him now. "We can't let him die." She said, flatly. "He saved us." She reached up and cupped his cheek in her hand, pressing her lips to the corner of his mouth, sweetly. "He's reckless and full of himself and I'm sure he'd hit on anything that breathed…" Rhea sighed, exasperatedly. "But he saved our lives, even though you may not want to admit it. Just this once, honey, everybody lives." She whispered, repeating his own words back to him.
The Doctor sighed. If he's here, I'll keep an eye on him. I won't let him too close to her. He pulled away from her and walked back over to the lever. He entered the coordinates for Jack's ship, smirking when he was allowed to hack into the navigation sequence. His eyes softened in affection as Rhea beamed at him, beautifully, and Moonlight Serenade started to sound through the console room. The doors of the TARDIS swung open and Rhea rushed down the ramp, as Rose tried to get the Doctor to dance with her.
Jack clambered into the pilot seat.
"Okay, computer, how long can we keep the bomb in stasis?" Jack said.
"Stasis decaying at ninety percent per cycle. Detonation in three minutes." The computer intoned.
Jack shifted in his chair, tensing slightly. "Can we jettison it?"
"Any attempt to jettison the device will precipitate detonation. One hundred percent probability."
Jack closed his eyes for a second. "We could stick it in an escape pod." He tried.
"There is no escape pod on board."
Jack grimaced. "I see the flaw in that. I'll get in the escape pod!"
"There is no escape pod on board." The computer repeated.
"Did you check everywhere?" Jack asked, his voice rising.
"Affirmative."
"Under the sink!" He shouted in his rapidly growing agitation.
"Affirmative."
Jack nodded, reluctantly, beginning to resign himself to his situation. "Okay." He sighed. "Out of one hundred... exactly how dead am I?"
"Termination of Captain Jack Harkness in under two minutes. One hundred percent probability."
Jack sighed again. "Lovely. Thanks. Good to know the numbers." He said, dryly.
"You're welcome."
"Okay then." Jack growled. "Think we'd better initiate emergency protocol four-one-seven." He ordered, calming down slightly.
"Affirmative."
A cocktail glass filled to the brim with hyper vodka and a small green olive appeared on his dashboard.
Jack reached out to take it, smiling, taking a sip of the heady drink. His eyes widened. "Ooh, a little too much vermouth. See if I come here again!" He laughed. "Funny thing... last time I was sentenced to death," He smiled, reminiscing. "I ordered four hyper vodkas for my breakfast. All a bit of a blur after that. Woke up in bed with both my executioners. Hmm, lovely couple. They stayed in touch!" He remarked, pondering this. "Can't say that about most executioners." He chuckled, lowly. "Anyway. Thanks for everything, computer. It's been great."
Suddenly, a slim hand reached from above and plucked the glass straight out of his fingers. Jack sank back in his chair and watched in wonder, as Rhea rested her hips on the edge of the control panel, her back to the window and facing him. She took a slow sip of the vodka, eyes closing in bliss as the familiar burn coursed down her throat, as Moonlight Serenade played through the ship, coming from the direction of the TARDIS.
"Hmm," Rhea hummed. "Hyper vodka. Haven't had this in awhile." Rhea mused, remembering the last time she had gotten completely wasted with the Doctor and Donna, shoving down the blush that threatened to creep into her cheeks when she remembered how exactly the end of that night had gone. Seduction attempt gone wrong. "And I'd love to hear that story in much more detail." She purred at Jack.
Jack simply laughed, more out of shock and amazement than anything. The chair spun around and his eyes widened, comically, when he saw the open doors of a blue police box sitting in his spaceship and Rose and the Doctor standing very close to each other inside.
"Well, hurry up then!" Rose called out to Jack and Rhea.
"She's so pushy." Rhea muttered, putting the glass down on the panel and pulling Jack out of the captain's chair in the direction of the TARDIS, the two dashing to the TARDIS.
Rose and the Doctor were waltzing around to Moonlight Serenade. Rose was attempting to teach the Doctor how to dance, making half-hearted agreeing noises as they moved around. Jack looked around at the sheer size of the place, compared with the outside, Rhea pursing her lips in anticipation as she watched his reaction.
"Right, and turn..." Rose ordered and the Doctor spun her around, getting her arm all twisted up her back. "Okay, okay, try and spin me again, but this time, don't get my arm up my back!"The Doctor looked sheepish. "No extra points for a half-nelson. I feel bad for you." Rose told Rhea, who smirked at the Doctor.
"I'm sure I used to know this stuff." The Doctor muttered, coming up to Rhea, rather put out that he couldn't showcase his dancing skills near her.
"I'm sure you did." Rhea said, patting the Doctor, condescendingly, on the shoulder.
"Close the door, will you. Your ship's about to blow up, there's gonna be a draft." The Doctor said to Jack.
Rhea grinned and leant against one of the coral struts, watching the interaction with ill-advised excitement.
The Doctor flicked a switch and the engines started up, the time rotor beginning to rise and fall.
"Welcome to the TARDIS." The Doctor said, magnanimously, throwing his arms out wide.
"Much bigger on the inside..." Jack commented, rather weakly, a little overwhelmed by what was in front of him.
"You'd better be." The Doctor said, darkly, giving Jack a meaningful look with his narrowed eyes. I don't like you. Only reason I'm doing this is because Rhea wants me to.
Rhea rolled her eyes at the show of machismo between the two men and stepped forward in Jack's direction. "I think what the Doctor's trying to say is..."Rhea leveled a quick glare at the Doctor before smiling, winningly, at Jack. "You may have this dance." She said, conspiratorially.
They grinned at each other and she took his hand, ready to dance with him.
"Rhea! I've just remembered!" The Doctor crowed, drawing her attention.
"What?" Rhea raised an eyebrow, smiling at him with fond affection.
In the Mood started to blare out of the speakers, echoing throughout the console room. The Doctor moved towards Rhea in time to the music, his feet swaying and his fingers snapping.
"I can dance!" The Doctor said.
Rhea pursed her lips. It's definitely a hard choice to make. "Actually, Doctor..." She began, slowly, not wanting to offend the Doctor. "I thought Jack might like this dance."
But the Doctor remained unfazed. I'll be damned if I'm gonna let this pretty boy get a leg over my Rhea. "I'm sure he would, Dimples. But he's going to have to find his own partner." With those words, the Doctor reached out a hand and grabbed hers, tugging Rhea into an embrace, sliding his arms around her waist. Rhea, with her back to Jack, missed the Doctor's silent but serious warning to the ex-Time Agent. Hands and eyes off the brunette. She's mine.
Rhea laughed as they moved around the console, her hands clutched in his. It only seemed like a few seconds before that he was pretending he didn't know how to dance. It looks like his skills came at the perfect time. Moron. She thought, fondly. They did some complicated swing moves and the Doctor spun her, perfectly. Jack and Rose hopped up onto the steps as well, the former taking the latter in his arms and twirling her around to the music. But the two of them watched the Doctor and Rhea dance, absolutely perfect dance partners, with matching big smiles on their faces.
The Doctor suddenly threw Rhea backwards over his arm, dipping her low, earning a shriek of delight and surprise from her. Jack and Rose averted their eyes from the private, romantic display, looking each other in the eye as they swayed. Rhea pulled herself up, sagging onto his shoulder, and nuzzling into his embrace, giggling madly.
Rhea was sitting on her bed, filling out the chronology of her jumps, moving it from her computer onto her phone for the ease of portability. She realised that she had been very lax in adding in all of her adventures, seeing as she hadn't typed anything since the Racnoss incident with Donna. She had been kidnapped by a face-stealing alien in 1953, got drunk in a bar in the 92nd century, caused the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, almost killed by witches in Shakespearean London, experienced a Time Lord regeneration, was witness to an almost incineration of the planet by the Atraxi, solved a murder mystery with Agatha Christie and almost turned into a gas-mask zombie in the middle of the London Blitz. All in all, she was definitely having a good couple of weeks. She looked up when she heard a knock on the door.
"Come in." She called out and looked at the door, expectantly. She smiled when the Doctor walked, slowly, into the room, closing the door behind him. For a brief, terrified second, she wondered if he had come to her room tonight expecting something of her after those kisses they had shared today. But then, she watched him look around, intensely, and smirked at his attempt at subtlety. "Hi, honey. What can I do for you?"
The Doctor looked around, searching for something that would alert him to the evidence that Jack had come to her room. It wasn't that he didn't trust Rhea. He didn't trust that playboy pretty boy not to come onto her. "I just wanted to see how you were." The Doctor said, lamely, shuffling his feet, his hands shoved into his pockets. She still marvelled at that sometimes. The great Time Lord, the Oncoming Storm, wore blue jeans.
Rhea patted the space next to her on the bed, asking him silently to sit down. The Doctor took a seat, sitting stiffly, his back straight and unbent.
"Why are you sitting like that?" Rhea asked, confused. She pushed the laptop onto her bedside table and grabbed a handful of his leather jacket, pulling him closer. With a yelp, the Doctor fell, unceremoniously into her lap. She grinned and pushed down on his shoulders with her palms, pinning him to her lap. She laughed when he gifted her with a withering glare. "What can I do for you?" Rhea asked, waggling her eyebrows in a suggestive manner.
The Doctor flushed and sat up once her grip loosened. "I just wanted to… I was just seeing-"
"If Jack was in my room." Rhea finished, fixing him with an annoyed stare. "I feel kinda insulted that you think I'm that easy." She said, dryly.
"I don't." The Doctor said, sharply. His eyes softened. "I just thought you might…"
"What?" Rhea raised an eyebrow. "Invite him into my bed after he almost got us all turned into gas-mask zombies?" She asked, incredulously. "My standards are not that flexible."
"I know." The Doctor said, gruffly. "I was just…"
"Feeling a bit jealous." Rhea finished. The Doctor opened his mouth to disagree with her, when Rhea continued. "Silly man," She whispered. "Sometimes a kiss is just a kiss. It doesn't have to mean anything."
The Doctor flinched and Rhea actually ached, a long, drawn out, sharp pain in her chest. She bit her lip and resisted the urge to take the man into her arms, realising the way he had taken what she had just said. But she didn't say a word in the contrary. She didn't dare. If she did, she'd fall under his spell and she refused to get her hopes up about a possible fling with him, she wasn't even sure if she could manage a fling. She had been wrong about her feelings before and she didn't dare risk it another time. Plus, there was a good chance he could just be playing with her. Nine hundred years, he probably hadn't had a decent lay in ages. She refused to be a notch in another guy's bedpost. She couldn't take the chance of falling head over fucking heels for him and be all the more wrecked when he broke her heart. She shoved any possible reaction to his pain down into her heart, locking it behind fucking bars.
Watch yourself, Sunehri. This could get ugly.
A/N: Ugh, I'm getting frustrated with Rhea now. She's so annoying! I want to write the chapter where they get together and it's so irritating every time Rhea has to distance herself. She is getting better. She's empathising with the Doctor. She has feelings for him, but it's not very clear what the extent of those feelings is. She's definitely attracted to him but she's not willing to get into anything short-term, let alone long-term. She really is broken inside, unfortunately. She's forcing herself to see the kiss as just a kiss, nothing more. So, sorry, folks, no relationship yet.
And just a warning everyone, the next chapter might be the last to be updated fairly quick because I do go back to uni next week. Updates might be a little slow after that, maybe once or twice at the week, because I am trying to write Dream Weaver at the same time.
Oh, and I had a question for all of you, what would you think about me doing an interlude soon, where the Doctor has an adventure with a future Rhea, who pretty much knows the same information as the Doctor, at least in regards to their relationship?
Oh, and another question, any ideas what to do with the Metacrisis Doctor?
Anyway, Read and Review! And the scene from The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky is up on my Tumblr!