Chapter Seven

In Which Rose Is Annoyed for Many Reasons

Rose leaned against the doors, wincing every time she heard clanking and clattering. She was as anxious to find out what was going on as anyone, and that clearly wouldn't happen while they were stuck here, but she was not of the opinion that the Doctor was ready to fix the TARDIS just yet.

But of course, no sooner had she wrapped a makeshift plaster around his head than he was under that console, hunting for the problem. Rose had asked Jackie to go find anything to use so he didn't bleed to death. Jackie had gotten the first thing she found, which happened to be a sheet. Which now had one end cut off. Not that it mattered.

And of course, the second she'd finished tying the strip of bedsheet around his head, he'd jumped up, pulled up part of the floor, and dove under the console.

"I think I found it," called the voice of the Doctor, echoing up from under the console.

"Great," said Rose. "And?"

"And what?"

"What is it?"

"Er..." He didn't speak for a moment.

"What's wrong?"

"Well, the, ah, electrocerinalical disterilationizer..."

"In English, please."

"She's broken," he said in a small voice.

Rose sighed. "We know. What's wrong?"

"Er...the...uh...the thing that does...some stuff...to some electric stuff...isn't working."

She had to laugh at that. "Right. How can you fix it?"

"Well, ah, there's a slight difficulty, due to the fact that the, er, electric stuff is, um, a signal...to the rest of the ship...and, er, there could be some severe damage to the, ah, well. There could be severe damage."

"Which means?" she asked, getting impatient.

His voice was, if possible, even smaller. "I can't fix it. Which," he added hastily as he climbed up from the underside of the console, "does not mean we're trapped here forever. Of course not. The TARDIS just has to...fix herself."

"Oh," she said. "How long will that take?"

"Er...couple of days," he said in a trying-too-hard-to-be-casual sort of way.

She fixed him with her best imitation of Jackie's death glare, which was not something to be scoffed at. "How long will it take?"

He took a deep breath. "Upsideofsevenytwohoursbutlessenahundredtwenny."

"Sorry?" she asked, caught off guard.

"Somewhere between three and five days."

"Oh." She frowned, scuffing the toe of her trainer on the floor. "Can we have some lights?"

"No," he said. "She has to focus all her energy and attention on repairs."

"Oh."

He grinned. "Haven't you got anything better to say, Rose Tyler?"

She frowned. "Not when you're talking TARDIS-techno-talk. It's easier to respond when I have a clue what you're talking about."

"I wasn't."

"You weren't what?"

"Talking TARDIS-techno-talk."

"Oh."

"There, you're doing it again! All you can say is "oh." It's like you haven't got anything to say. I know they say "if you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say anything at all," but you always have something nice to say, because you're a very nice person, well, when you're in a good mood, and when you're happy, or at least not particularly annoyed at me, you get that from your mother—being nice when you're not annoyed with me, that is, at least I'd guess so, it's hard to tell, with her being annoyed at me twenty-five hours of the day and everything..."

Rose stared at him, grinning, and shook her head slowly.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"What?" he persisted, his eyes wide. "Why are you looking at me like that? What did I do? What is it?"

She laughed. "You're just so—you."

"What, did you expect something else?"

"He's mad," commented Mickey.

"Course he is," said Rose, beaming. "Wouldn't have him any other way." Half a second too late, she realized what she'd said, and glanced apprehensively at Jackie to see her mother's reaction. But Jackie was only watching with a curious expression on her face: vaguely happy, but also rather sad, shadowed by longing and with a certain understanding.

Rose wondered what it meant.

Four days later (by her watch, at least), the lights came back on. The Doctor sprang to his feet immediately. "Ah, brilliant! We'll be off, then?"

"Set the course," said Rose, becoming immensely more cheerful.

"Alright," he said. "First stop, London. England. Earth. Briefly. To get rid of you two." As he said the last, he pointed at Jackie and Mickey.

He set the course. Rose leaned on the console. "Tired of them already?" she asked, teasing.

"I could have never met them and I'd have had too much of them," he retorted. "I don't need any stupid apes on my ship, thanks."

"You have a stupid ape on your ship," she pointed out. "I'm a human."

"Ah, no, you're mistaken. An ape you may be, but you're a very clever ape."

She laughed. Over the back of his head, she saw Jackie roll her eyes and look at Mickey. But she caught a flicker of that expression again, that muted joy, that hidden sorrow.

She moved to stand next to Jackie. "What're you thinking about, Mum?"

For a moment, Jackie didn't reply. Then, she said, quietly "Oh...nothing. We've got to be nearly there."

"It'll be a moment," said the Doctor. "Maybe...five minutes? Taking it slowly—fixing such a major problem requires a lot of energy, you know. We'll be stopping in Cardiff, and the pair of you intruders can take a train back to London."

"Oh, that's nice," said Jackie indignantly.

"Yeah, don't even drop us off at the door," Mickey agreed.

"Well, no real reason to make more than one stop on Earth," was the Doctor's reply.

Rose sighed. "Honestly." She took her mum's sleeve and pulled her aside. Very, very quietly, she murmured, "Really what's on your mind, Mum?"

"Private conversations should be publicly announced to be private," the Doctor told her before Jackie could answer.

"Doctor! We're trying to talk! It'd be great if you'd please stop sticking your nose in where it doesn't belong, yeah?"

"Done."

"Mum," Rose insisted. "Tell me."

Jackie looked away. "It's nothing, Rose." She paused, then said, "I may not like it, but it's not a bad life, is it?"

"No," Rose whispered. "It's not a bad life at all."

"I can see that you're happy," said Jackie. She almost smiled, but not quite. "I still worry about you. It's dangerous, this life of yours. But in the end, I don't think there's a safer place in the universe. I'd like to see anything try to hurt you when he's here to protect you."

Rose was touched. Her mum had once despised the Doctor with all her being. Now...Jackie had changed. She opened her mouth to say something, but the Doctor's voice interrupted her.

"Something's wrong," he said. As he did, the TARDIS shuddered and moaned.

"You mean she's not better yet?" said Rose, alarmed. "We're not going to crash again?"

"No, the TARDIS is fine," he said. "It's the vortex that's wrong..."

"What do you mean, the vortex is wrong?"

"Something's wrong with it! It's all...off. The TARDIS doesn't like, it, and neither do I." He frowned. "It makes her hurt, and when she hurts, it gives me a headache."

"Are we not going back to Earth, then?" asked Jackie, sounding dismayed.

"No, we're going to Earth," he replied grimly. "It's not just one spot that's off—it's a whole trail, and it leads straight to London."

A/N: Oooh! Something wrong with the time vortex—and in a trail that leads to London? Mysteriouser and mysteriouser! What's going to happen now? Well, you know the drill—review and I'll update! Or don't, and I'll probably still update, but it'll be sooner if you do...maybe...