Character/Pairing: Ten/Rose
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: The BBC owns all, I am merely borrowing.
Spoilers: Through Season Three.
"Did you know? When you took us away from Satellite Five, did you know?"
The Doctor sat up to lean against the headboard. "I never specifically said he was dead, mind you. Just...busy."
"Busy? Busy?!" Rose leaped off the bed. "We left 'im behind! Alone on that ship."
Tentatively, Jack took a step inside the room. "Rose, sweetheart, the Doctor and I have been through this already. It's fine."
Rose whirled to face Jack and insisted, "It is not fine! We were a team." She turned back to the Doctor, fists clenched. "We should of gone back for him."
"Rose, we couldn't," the Doctor said, slowly shaking his head.
"Why? 'Cause you never go back?" she countered bitterly.
"No! No. The timeline was set. He had to stay behind."
"Would we have returned for him? Ever?"
"It's just..." The Doctor mussed his hair as he struggled for the right words. Ones that wouldn't give Rose more reasons to be hostile. "He goes against everything I...He's wrong." He winced and heard Rose suck in a sharp breath.
When she responded, her tone was carefully even. "Just like us. You got over that, didn't you?"
His eyes snapped back to her and he replied softly, "That happened later, after I'd changed and..."
"Jack had to chase you down! You should've..." She groaned in exasperation and pointed at Jack. "He can't die!"
"Technically, that's not my fault," the Doctor stated sharply, bristling. "You brought him back to life."
"Oh, this better not be 'cause you were jealous."
"What?"
"'Cause I saved both of you. That would be so typical."
"I don't get jealous," the Doctor protested.
"Oh, don't you?"
"Rose..." he began, but she turned on her heel and stormed past Jack and out of the room.
The Doctor yanked the sheets aside and hastened out of bed. He couldn't allow this argument go unresolved. On his feet at last, he swayed but quickly regained his equilibrium. He was halfway to the door when Jack stopped him with a firm hand in the middle of his chest.
"Jack..."
Jack shook his head and indicated a door on the opposite side of the room. "Shower in there. And you can borrow some of my clothes." He turned to leave. "I'll make sure she doesn't wander off."
"But..."
Without looking back, Jack cut him off. "She needs to cool her head and so do you."
In the midst of their second attempt at playing a game that roughly resembled Monopoly, there was a loud bang as something collided with the door of the TARDIS. The entire ship shook with the impact and Hope grabbed Herbert before he could tumble away.
"That wasn't very nice," Hope commented, frowning at the multi-colored coins now scattered across the grates. "I think we've lost some pieces." She sighed and crouched to peer through the holes in the floor. "And I was just getting the hang of which flag went where."
Another loud bang reverberated through the ship and the lights flickered as Hope clutched the edge of the console to remain upright.
"Are you all right?" she asked, gazing up at the glowing central column. She got what felt like a reassuring hum in response. "There's got to be a way to escape." She tilted her head as she regarded the device that had caused their situation. "What about that thing? Can't we get rid of it?"
Something glinted in her peripheral vision and she squinted at the location. "Oh, look! That's my space cruiser there," she exclaimed, eagerly dashing to the other side of the room and kneeling to lift the grate. "Maybe we'll be able to play again after all." She gritted her teeth, struggling to raise the metal panel. The TARDIS gave her a hand and abruptly she was able to lift the panel away. "Thanks!"
She hopped down into the crawl space and her eyes widened in awe as she took in the piles of objects. "Wow. Lotsa stuff down here." The TARDIS made another lurching motion and Hope slipped, landing hard on a something sharp. "Oof!" Grimacing, she reached behind for the offending object. It turned out to be a small wooden box with a golden latch. She tucked it under her arm and retrieved the board game piece, before lifting herself out of the crawl space.
Hope set the game piece on the console and climbed onto the jumpseat, settling the box in her lap. She lifted the lid to find a collection of mementos. Among them was a satin ribbon, a carefully folded crepe paper hat and what looked like dried grass. Her attention shifted to a handful of photos with well-worn edges. Her mum wasn't the only one who had squirreled away photos. The settings varied from strange foreign landscapes to an average looking cluttered home, but all of the photos showed her mother, younger and immensely happy. The Doctor was there too, grinning foolishly even as he posed awkwardly for the camera.
Smiling, Hope closed the box but held onto the photos. A day ago she had known close to nothing about her father. Only that he traveled and he'd be with them if he could. If it wasn't so very impossible. When she asked why, her mum had always sighed and carefully explained it wasn't safe for her to know. It turned out he traveled just as far as she'd always imagined. But there was still so much she didn't know. And she wouldn't get to find out either, if she couldn't get back to them. The TARDIS give her a comforting nudge and Hope rose from the jumpseat to take a closer look at the device resting at the foot of the console.