A/N: I hope that there aren't too many typos. I have graduation tonight, and my mind is on that so there might be a few grammatical errors here and there. I read over it so it should be okay. Thanks for the reviews and suggestions for the first chapter, it keeps me going and writing more. I have a plot all figured out now, but I'm mostly the type who does better just to wing it, like the Doctor
Rose stood with her hand on the cool metal doorknob. She had been in that position for about five minutes, staring straight into the woodworking. Getting her thoughts together over the past six hours had been a challenge, but it was nothing Rose Tyler could not do. After all, she had a few years of practice on controlling her emotions. Only when she came into contact with something surprising that connected her to the Doctor did she truly panic. Like the first time she had encountered bananas since saying farewell to him. She knew she appeared foolish, but she would not eat the fruit for months. Slowly, she had gotten over these little occurrences and lived her life with him just a shadow in her mind. But now that there was another Time Lord thrown into that mix, she was not so sure she could put her past behind her now.
Taking a deep breath, Rose turned the doorknob and entered the room. There was the faint beeps of monitors and machines, but Jenny seemed to be doing fine. She was propped up on numerous pillows, reading a home and gardening magazine with interest. She glanced up as Rose entered, giving a smile.
Rose sat down in a chair beside the bed. "How are you feeling?"
"Much better. That tea worked miracles on my headache."
Rose nodded. A few hours previously, as Jenny was being loaded into the ambulance, one of her hearts stopped beating. Something clicked in Rose's mind and she commanded the medics to give her tea, much to their confused looks. Soon enough the heart started beating again and everything had moved on to the situation that was currently happening. Something about re-aligning the synapses.
"I'm glad you're better," Rose said. "Now, I have a few questions that—"
"You too?" interjected Jenny, "not that I mind, it's just that—well—everyone keeps asking me about this Time Lord business."
"I'm sorry," Rose apologized, "but we—I really need to know."
"Okay," said Jenny, smiling once again. "I don't know much about the universe yet. Dad said I had so much to learn."
Rose laughed. "Yes, even though I've been through a lot there's still a lot out there that needs to be seen. So, how does a Time Lord not know much about the universe?"
"You know about Time Lords?" questioned Jenny, sitting up and moving closer to Rose. "Tell me everything."
Rose was taken aback. "But…don't you know…what do you mean?" she asked, hesitating and confused.
"I don't know much," she explained, "Dad told me so little." Her face fell, a frown forming as she looked blankly at the magazine. "He probably thinks I'm dead."
Rose frowned, and then turned as the door opened. Mickey entered, smiling as he carried two Styrofoam glasses in.
"Two milkshakes, as ordered," he said, sitting down in the last empty chair. Rose reached out and took both, giving one to Jenny.
"Ever had one of these before?" she asked
Jenny shook her head, reaching out and taking it.
"What flavor did you get?" Rose questioned.
"They were out of strawberry so I got the next best thing, banana." He looked up as Rose's face momentarily fell for a split second. "I mean, of course there was vanilla but I thought you didn't—"
Rose's face smoothed over into another smile. "Nah it's fine, I'm over that stage now, I like it." She turned and saw Jenny was tentatively sniffing the contents, swirling the thick liquid with her straw.
"Go ahead, try it."
Jenny hesitantly took a sip. Her eyes widened in surprise. "This tastes amazing," she exclaimed.
Mickey leaned over to Rose. "Do all Time Lords get this worked up over bananas?" he murmured. Rose giggled and hit him playfully on the shoulder. Jenny continued to slurp the banana milkshake up. Soon they were finished and the room grew quiet again.
"So what was it that you need to know?" asked Jenny.
"I dunno," started Rose, fiddling with the top of her empty milkshake, "I guess everything. How you came to be here, where you came from, what happened to you in the Time War, et cetra."
"A few of those I don't know anything about," stated Jenny, "I can tell you a few things though about my past, the past few days have been really…exciting." She grinned.
"Then let's start at the beginning," said Rose.
The Doctor leaned against the control center of the TARDIS, busy messing with the broken lenses of his glasses. Donna had fallen on them after the bizarre Lord Cryshlyhnkha of the planet Creeleek, an odd water planet, had knocked them off of his face. He had sixteen tentacles and was rather an odd land squid. There was a territorial dispute between his species and the land octopi. Eventually the Doctor settled the disagreement, but not before Lord Cryshlyhnkha had given him a good clobbering with his tentacles. There were still suction-cup welts on his cheek.
He was still fiddling with his glasses when Donna entered the control center. After the incident on Creeleek she noticed that the Doctor had been drawn into silence once again, a rarity. But his quiet, brooding moments had occurred very frequently since Jenny's death. Donna had been careful not to mention anything about that past even, or anything remotely related to Jenny or Time Lords—it caused him to withdraw even further into his extremely uncharacteristic shell.
Trying to bring light to things, Donna patted him on the back. "There, there. You can always make yourself look smarter than with just those glasses. I mean, c'mon you're geeky enough as is, what with the trainers and your gangly self."
He gave one small chuckle, but did not look up from his non-progressive handiwork.
His depression irritated Donna greatly. She stomped over, reaching out and grabbing his chin, yanking it up so that his eyes were in line with hers.
"Now here's the Doctor, Time Lord and savior of our universe, and here he is acting like some angst-ridden, moody teenager," she thundered, glaring at him. "Where's my Doctor?" she added softly, the edge coming off her voice, "the adventurous, smiling, danger-seeking one who never ever shuts up."
He placed his hand on hers, and this time gave a heartfelt laugh. Donna smiled, relieved that he had not exploded at her comment or withdraw even more into himself.
He put his hands in his pockets, looking up. "I'm sorry about that. It's just, I don't know how to explain it." He looked at her. His eyes were full of sorrow, and something else. They were so…old and tired, as if he had seen too much and was exhausted. "I had just opened myself up," he continued on, "I thought that perhaps some things would come back. The part of me that died long ago with my—my family was opening back up to her again. And that feeling, that thought, that dream of normality was literally shot."
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."
He chuckled again, "Oi, that's my line." He then moved to the control panel of the TARDIS, typing in commands with newfound gusto.
"So where are we off to?" asked Donna, grinning as she sat in the pilot chair.
"Wherever the TARDIS wants to take us," he said with a wide smile, pulling down on a lever. With a jerk, the TARDIS flew through the Vortex of Time and Space.
The Doctor sighed, leaning against the mainframe. "I need someone like you to give me a good talking to every now and then, put me back on my senses."
"Not growing all sentimental and mushy are we?" said Donna in a reproachful tone.
He looked up, silent for a moment. "No."
Donna was about to say something cheeky, when all of a sudden the TARDIS threw them around, jerking through the Vortex. Donna clung to the control panel, hanging on for dear life. It was just like any other time she and the Doctor got pulled on some damn-fool expedition where nothing was expected, they just had to wait until the TARDIS decided to stop.
And that is just what happened. It stopped. The Doctor and Donna looked at each other, motionless and hardly daring to breath.
"Where are we?"
"Welp, let's find out," said the Doctor, springing up and running to the doors, pulling them open.
Only to find himself staring at a dumpster right in front of him. Easy enough to fix. He backed inside, only to turn and see Donna spraying the sizzling controls of the TARDIS with a fire extinguisher. The Doctor groaned, opening the doors again. He drew in a breath and shimmied through the tiny space between the dumpster and the ship. His mind went back to the time he was in an almost similar situation back on Earth in 2012 with…He stopped that memory from coming to the surface before it got to his already stretched emotions.
He turned around. "Well come on Donna, we haven't got all day to find out what's…what…" He faded off as he looked around him.
"Cardiff. Huh. That's where we are then. I guess the TARDIS needed a little bit of refueling or something." He stepped out on to the main area, looking around.
And was immediately approached by a number of policemen. They all raised their guns, pointing them at his chest.
"How skinny does he think I am?" muttered Donna, squeezing herself out from behind the dumpster, "unhealthy like him, a long bit of alien….nothing." She raised her hands up as she stepped beside the Doctor, looking around at the policemen who were moving in closer.
"This area is for authorized personnel and Torchwood only," stated the chief at the front, lowering his firearm. "We have no idea how you got here, only that you should leave if you know what's good for you."
"Sorry, we're just a bit curious that's all," said the Doctor quickly, stepping out of the tight circle. The policemen followed him closely, as did Donna. "And ah, is that what you are all investigating?" He walked over to a smoldering pile of metal, crouching beside it.
"Now hold on before you do that, we warned—" started the chief, but he faded off as the Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver, scanning one of the wing pieces. His lips had tightened into a thin line, his expression hard and cold as he took in the readings.
"It's Messaline in origin," he stated, turning the piece of wing over in his hand.
"Messaline…" replied Donna. She gasped in revelation. "You don't think it's…her do you?"
The Doctor was silent
"What the hell are you—" began the chief again, but his voice was again interrupted and drained out by a huge zeppelin flying overhead.
The Doctor's head jerked up, his eyes locked on the flying object and his face extremely pale.
"Doctor are you okay?" asked Donna tentatively, coming to crouch beside him and laying a hand on his arm. He gave no acknowledgment to her; he just continued to stare at the zeppelin. As it flew further away he started into action.
"Donna, give me your phone," he commanded in a low hurried voice, holding out his hand. Confused, Donna took it out and placed it in his palm. He immediately flipped it open and rapidly dialed in a phone number. Running a hand through his hair, he jumped up, pacing around. The policemen were still staring at him, weapons lowered as they watched his crazed pacing. The chief leaned over and whispered something to a subordinate. He nodded once and ran off.
"C'mon c'mon c'mon…" muttered the Doctor, still pacing wildly, "Answer!" he screamed.
"I just remembered the name. Messaline. Messaline is where—" Jenny was cut off by the loud ringing of a phone.
Rose looked down, leaning over to take her mobile phone out of her pocket. Her eyebrows creased in confusion as she opened the phone. Giving a frustrated sigh, she muttered "sales call." Without hesitation she pressed the red button, refusing the incoming call.
She bent forward to Jenny. "Sorry 'bout that, it's a solicitor. Go on."