Summary: A plan of action is made. 'I'm sure it'll all make complete sense once it's almost too late to be useful...'

Notes: Tried to throw a few references to the earlier canon in this chapter. Given that I've seen, oh, fewer than ten episodes of the original canon, I'm not entirely certain I've got it all right. Sorry. Um, Tom Baker rocks?

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I had to find the passage back to the place I was before

"Now. Fact number one. Future me has clearly lost his mind."

"I wouldn't say it's that obvious," Rose protested. "I mean, just 'cos he... well... yeah, he flipped 'is lid."

The Doctor grinned. "Fact number two. Future me has clearly gotten himself in trouble."

"Why d'you say that?"

"Simple. If I hadn't gotten myself into something seriously stupid, the TARDIS wouldn't've put 'Hotel California' on loop in your head." He frowned. "Though, I'm not sure how she's managed to hold on to such a strong telepathic connection with you. After that long, and who even knows how many places he's been since then... Odd." He fiddled with some controls.

"But why did she put that song in my head? Why didn't she just, I dunno, say, 'Rose! The Doctor's gotten 'imself in trouble again! Help!'?"

"First off, the telepathic connection we've all got with the TARDIS isn't strong enough for that. It's harder to create an entirely new message than it is to bring up something from memory. Since you're so far removed from her, I'm amazed she's been managing even that." He went to another section of the panel, doing something to a dial. "Also, it's probably a clue of some sort."

"A clue? How?"

"Dunno. Have to find out the hard way. I'm sure it'll all make complete sense once it's almost too late for it to be useful. You read the lyrics to it?"

"Yeah." She fished out a printout. "I still don't understand what it has to do with... well... anything, really."

"Let's see." The Doctor pulled out a pen. "Starts off on the road; there's a clue for you. 'Head grew heavy and my sight grew dim'... something happened to make me detour into idiocy. 'There she stood in the doorway'... you said the trouble started with this Reinette. 'Mission bell'... You've never heard the Cloister Bell, have you?"

Rose shook her head. "There's a bell in here?"

"Long story. Count yourself lucky. 'This could be heaven or this could be hell'. Might be trouble there. Et cetera, et cetera... it'd be stupid to overanalyze it, line by line... God, I hope 'In the Master's chamber' isn't a clue... The song's about bein' trapped, isn't it?"

"Seems like a normal ghost story to me," Rose said, looking down at the lyrics. Wake you up in the middle of the night... "I mean, it all sounds right, but it's so hard to tell!"

"She did the best she could, I'm sure." There was a beep from the console. "Also, being the incredibly clever timeship she is, she's left a wonderfully clear path and a homing beacon for us to follow! Fantastic!"

"Great," said Rose, with only slightly less feeling. "Where are we going, then?"

"The TARDIS. Control room. Have I changed it any?" He started to pull levers.

"Hang on, you're going to put the TARDIS down... inside the TARDIS?"

"Bit tricky, but we should be fine. One of the lovely things about dimensional transendence. I could try to explain it to you."

"No, thanks," Rose said, holding up her hands. "I've had a headache for two weeks now, it's only just now going away."

"Right." He pulled another lever, then looked up at her. "It's been going on that long?"

"Yeah."

"We're in trouble."

For some reason, when he grinned at her like that, she could never bring herself to mind.

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