Disclaimer: See previous chapter.
A/N: Thanks so much for the response, you guys! I hope you like the second part. Only one more chapter after this!
Chapter 2
Olivia Dunham was not quite sure what it was that Rose Tyler expected to find as they set about in a futile inspection of the walls. As Olivia had stated before, she had been there a long time (four months, a defeated portion of her mind lamented), and she had scoured and pounded at the walls until her knuckles and palms were raw and bleeding. But, maybe Rose Tyler would know a trick that she herself didn't, she reasoned, so she quietly set about assisting. It was no use. All Olivia could feel beneath her hands were the now familiar crescents between blocks of sturdy foam that were a blinding white in shade when the lights were on (which was only twice a day). She got to the sturdy metal feel of the lone entrance to the room and felt beneath her hand where the slat for the viewing window in the door would be. It was much smaller than the viewing window that the Secretary used to look in on her every night before he left the Statue of Liberty, but it held something more for Olivia. Occasionally, a guard would open that tiny viewing window and she could see beyond it to the window that showed the outside world. Granted, all that she could really see was ocean, but it served to remind Olivia that there was something beyond the mere hallways and interrogation chambers of which she was becoming all too accustomed.
Olivia turned quickly when she heard a weird thunk. She would have described it as dull if it weren't so loud.
"What's this?" she head Rose Tyler ask.
"It's the observation window. There's a chord of thick metal blinds on the other side. Once a day, those blinds open, but they always quickly close again. The window is triple-thick reinforced bulletproof glass. When the blinds close, it becomes soundproof as well."
"Why do they open the window?" Rose asked gently, as though she knew that despite the apparently innocuous question, it was in truth a very personal inquiry.
"To remind me just how powerless I really am here, I suppose."
Rose made no comment to this, seeming to know without asking that it was a subject Olivia would feel uncomfortable broaching with a person she had known for a mere hour. Olivia could not help but feel that Rose was very familiar with having to decide which subjects to push and which ones to let slide. Olivia smiled slightly. Rose and Peter would get along well. Her smile dropped quickly however, when she thought of why it was that the Secretary opened those blinds once a day.
The first time he had done it, she had banged on the glass, crying and begging in a way that she would never have done previously. But she and Peter and Walter had been so close to getting home safely, and before getting knocked out, her mind had already been set on finding the nearest bar and decompressing with Peter over a few shots before she went home to Rachel and hugged her and Ella as hard as she possibly could without inciting their worry. But instead, she had woken up in the godawful cell that she was beginning to think of as home, to see a face that looked like Walter's staring at her in absolute hatred. Despite the obvious difference, her exhausted mind had merely thought "Walter Bishop" and had hoped (despite having no evidence to do so) that if she simply begged and allowed her emotion to shine through, that he would open the door and let her out. For the briefest of moments, he had not been the Secretary of Defense, or even Walternate, he had simply been Dr. Walter Bishop-the father of her best friend and a man who, in her universe, cared about her to a degree that could be potentially dangerous.
But time had worn on, and she had stopped begging for the Secretary to let her out, and she stopped hoping that Peter or her universe's version of Walter would miraculously turn up to save her. Part of her was convinced that the Secretary had won, and Peter and Walter were dead, and so she quietly accepted what she knew would be a lifelong punishment. But, while the Secretary may have won the battle, he would never win the war. She had vowed on her second day in confinement that he would never break her, neither by torture nor neglect. During the succeeding "interrogations," she never answered any questions of importance, and only in intense circumstances did she ever scream. Sadly, these shows of strength left little for her to brag about. She came away from the interrogations with dark bruises and cuts and burns, but very little gained pride. In a way, the Secretary had still won. For while she was not dead, she was by no means alive either. Now when the Secretary opened the blinds, they merely shared a short staring game of which she was always the winner, but of which she never gained a prize.
Olivia had never been an optimistic person. She preferred to deal in facts and hoped that the facts would deal her way. Optimism was more Astrid and Peter's way of seeing things, and she had always stood in wonder of their ability to see the bright side (and she was rather envious, despite the skeptic looks she often gave them in response). But, despite the dire situation and her previous lack of luck, she felt the now unfamiliar feelings of hope spring forth in her chest. While she was no stranger to the feeling-even pessimists and realists cannot squash the feeling entirely-it had been a long time since she had felt them, and she sucked in a deep breath and closed her eyes, savouring the sensation. If Rose's claims were to be believed (and for reasons Olivia would never be able to explain, she did believe them) then she may be home with her friends and family before too much longer, and Olivia's skin practically hummed in excitement.
She knew little to nothing of this 'Doctor' Rose was best friends with, but if a woman with Rose's fighting spirit could stand in such awe of him, then he must have a trick or two up his sleeve. Plus, he was an alien and probably had quite a few gadgets that Olivia couldn't fathom. (Possibly even some that Walter and Peter had not thought of; Olivia's mind gave a weird hiccough at trying to conjure that image). Yes, Olivia felt hopeful with Rose Tyler and this yet unseen Doctor at her side, and she felt that maybe-just this once-optimism wasn't entirely outside the realm of reason.
Upon convincing herself (somewhat dejectedly) that she had indeed scoured this wall as well as she could in the previous four months, Olivia felt her way back towards the bench. Before she could reach it, however, she heard a distinct buzzing sound. Before she could ask Rose if she heard it too, she heard a lock click and the door at the side of the cell opened, letting in with it a bright ray of light that made Olivia quickly close her eyes and put her hands over her face. Unlike prior times, she did not rush out at the man opening the door, and she did not fear any sudden shocks from a cattle prod. Without even having to look at him to see him (for her eyes were still unadjusted), she could tell that the man's silhouette standing in the doorway was none other than the Doctor of which Rose had spoken so highly.
By the time Olivia's eyes had adjusted and she could look around without blinking every half a second, Rose had launched herself into the man's arms. The two of them were laughing as though the whole thing was just one large, exciting adventure (and Olivia reminded herself that, to them, it was), and the Doctor was smiling wide, his teeth on display as he buried his face in the space between Rose's shoulder and neck. He squeezed Rose so hard that she squeaked and her feet were raised from the ground, kicking slightly behind her. Olivia just stood awkwardly behind them, taking in the picture of the two of them together. The Doctor, as previously described to her by Rose, was wearing his white plimsoll shoes and his brown pinstriped suit that showed just how thin he was, his hair a mess atop his head and a sonic screwdriver with blue light shining held tightly in his fist. When he released Rose, Rose turned around and Olivia took in her cell mate's face for the first time. Rose was a few years younger than Olivia, with dark brown eyes under obviously dyed blonde hair. She was of medium height and had a smile as equally wide as the Doctor's, though Rose's tongue seemed to slip out between her teeth in a cheeky manner, which the Doctor's did not.
"Are you alright?" the Doctor asked Rose quietly, his hand still resting lightly on the elbow nearest to him, and his head tilted down slightly. Olivia was struck with how familiar the situation seemed-if one just replaced the Doctor's face with Peter's-and once again felt the longing to be home. Olivia was not one for breaking down often, if ever, but she suddenly ached to be around the few people with whom she felt comfortable enough to let her guard down in even the slightest sense. For the first time in weeks, she thought of Peter and Rachel and actually allowed herself to miss them, hoping that the belief that she would see them soon would not prove to unfounded. She shoved her emotions away again and set herself back on mission. Her sentimentality for home could come later, when she had proof that there was even a home to which she could return.
"Olivia," she heard Rose's voice say, and realized that she had spaced completely, blocking out the Doctor and Rose's greetings. She looked up at them both and tried not to acknowledge their facial expressions to her appearance. She knew she must look a fright. After months of intense interrogations and sensory deprivation, she knew her skin would have taken on a pallid colour, the bruises showing up even darker than they would on a normal person. Her hair hung limply around her face, half its dyed red colour and half its natural blonde. Olivia found herself thankful that the guards at least allowed her to bathe a few times a week, for while full of split ends and somewhat ragged in appearance, at least her hair wasn't oily.
Olivia cleared her throat. "So, are we going to stand here and chat or are we going to find our way out of this building?" Now that Olivia had some assistance, she had every intention of succeeding in her escape. She had tried before, many times, as some of the burn scars from cattle prods would testify, but one unarmed agent was entirely too easy to take down. It would be harder with two agents and an alien genius. Or so she reasoned at any rate.
"Oh, right, sorry!" the Doctor proclaimed, bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet, and putting up his right index finger as though asking her for a moment of her time. "I just want to check something really quick," he continued, moving dials on the sonic screwdriver and taking a pair of spectacles out of the breast pocket of his suit, placing them on his face ("They make him look smarter," Olivia saw Rose mouth silently from beside him). "You see, I came into this room because I was checking all the rooms for Rose and my screwdriver started bleeping and reacting to a special frequency that it's set to acknowledge when it comes into contact with Void Stuff or when it senses a rift in space and time." He looked up and noticed Olivia staring stoically at him, following only half of the jargon coming out his mouth. "Basically, it goes ding when there's stuff from another dimension."
Olivia nodded silently, finally understanding. The Doctor began moving about the room, taking readings on his sonic screwdriver and muttering quietly to himself, occasionally switching the dials and quietly listening to the fluctuating frequencies. Rose came and stood next to Olivia, watching with an amused yet fond look as the Doctor continued his investigation. "You know, when he starts going off like that, it's best if you just smile and pretend to follow what he's saying. Otherwise, he'll at you like you're stupid and then his ego just gets huge. And trust me, when his ego enters the room, there's no breathing room for anybody else," Rose advised to her conspiratorially.
"Don't worry. The Walter Bishop in my world is very much the same. The only difference being that usually Peter or our lab assistant Astrid is there to explain everything to me in lay men's terms. Would it frighten you if I told you that I actually think I followed the majority of what the Doctor said and didn't think he was crazy?"
"No, not really. Once I found myself talking like him, back when we were separated. The frightening thing was that I wasn't even exactly sure what it was I was talking about. It just sounded...right, and it was like I could understand it without really understanding. It was like there was a comfort in the half baked idea more than the fully fleshed out idea."
"I think I know what you mean," Olivia admitted quietly. The two women stood in quiet camaraderie while the Doctor continued to look around.
"You!" the Doctor exclaimed, pointing his finger at Olivia as he half bounced, half ran at her in excitement. "There's something very special about you, isn't there?" he asked, towering over her and looking deeply into her eyes as though the answer would be found there. He pointed the blue light of the sonic screwdriver in Olivia's face and Olivia tried not to go cross-eyed staring at the Doctor in her confusion. She definitely would need to have a word with him about personal space.
"Well, I am from an alternate dimension. Same as you guys," Olivia floundered, wondering if that was the cause of the beeping he had been worrying over.
"No! Well, yes, I mean you are from an alternate dimension. But, that's not what makes you special. No, there is something very, very distinct about you," he muttered, taking yet another pair of spectacles out of his breast pocket. Olivia blinked twice when she saw that they were not really spectacles, but 3D glasses. She then raised her eyebrows when he put them on his face, giving out a cry that sounded like both excitement and dismay. He quickly took the 3D glasses off and put them on Rose's face, and Rose's face quickly changed expressions from confusion to understanding to intrigue to worry.
"Void stuff?" Rose questioned. "But she's never traveled through time, and merely traveling once through dimensions shouldn't give her that much!"
"Normally, I would say you were right. But, oh is she special," the Doctor gushed, once again invading Olivia's personal space and inspecting her face as though she were a fascinating science project he was curious to understand. He backed away from Olivia to explain. "When you travel through space and time, and especially dimensions, in a space ship such as Rose and I did, you acquire what we call Void Stuff. It's just a bit of background radiation-harmless, really-it accumulates as you cross what we call the Void. It's this space between dimensions where literally NOTHING exists. There's no up, no down, no light, no dark, no colour, no sepia tone. Catch my drift?" He paused in his narrative while Olivia nodded silently, taking it all in. "Any time you pass through a dimension, you cross this Void, and it is very unpleasant place to be, and it leaves its mark. Void Stuff. Now, for you to have as much of it surrounding you as my technology detects, then you managed to travel here without a space or time ship."
Olivia stared at him silently, answering his challenging expression with one of her own. He was looking at her, obviously expecting some sort of explanation for her abilities. Unfortunately for him (and for herself), her abilities were one portion of many in her life that she did not understand.
"I have a gift," she said simply. "I don't understand how it works. I just know that the Walter from my world could find these weak spots in the universe and by combining my powers with those of some others with similar talents, we were open to open a crack and travel over here. But they're all dead now and I don't know how to do it on my own."
"Well, one problem at a time, yeah?" Rose inserted. "Doctor, Olivia knows who that machine is for. It's the Secretary's son, Peter Bishop. Olivia said that he planned to return to Olivia's universe with her and that universe's Walter, but she got separated from them."
"Well, that explains this image then," the Doctor said, taking the familiar sketch of Peter standing on Walternate's device from inside his breast pocket.
"Where did you get that?" Rose asked, watching the Doctor as he carefully unfolded the paper.
"I found it in the Secretary's desk in his office before I came searching for you," he stated nonchalantly, taking the spectacles once again out of his pocket. At Rose's questioning glance, he went on to further explain that most of the facility had been called down to deal with the mess Rose had left behind on her run through the building, and the Secretary had left his office to make sure she had not succeeded in stealing any important documents. The Doctor had been hiding around the corner when the Secretary left his office and took the opportunity to peruse without the red tape of getting a search warrant. (Olivia's inner cop bristled a little at this, while the part that was tempered by hanging with John and Peter for so long merely smiled at his audacity). He had found the drawing in a locked drawer in the Secretary's desk and had pocketed it after a quick glance.
As he was talking, he moved the sonic screwdriver over the paper, checking for readings. Olivia noted the odd whirring sound it made, and wondered if it did that because it was technically from an alternate dimension than the one in which they were standing.
"How do you fit all that stuff in there?" Olivia couldn't help but ask, gesturing to the Doctor's suit breast pocket. He had pulled two pairs of spectacles and a drawing out from his pocket, and was about to place his sonic screwdriver in there as well, and as far as Olivia could tell, the breast pocket did not look as though there were actually anything in it.
"Bigger on the inside," the Doctor answered with a cheeky wink. Rose simply rolled her eyes as though the saying were an old and worn-out joke.
Rose and Olivia crowded around the Doctor and stared down at the sketch that the Observers had given Olivia in her original reality. Olivia felt the familiar trickle of dread spread down her spine as she looked at the images of fire sprouting from Peter's eyes. "My god," Rose muttered. "The Secretary would do that to his own son?"
"Some things go deeper than grief," the Doctor muttered darkly, staring down at the drawing and studying it with what Olivia would classify as a sick fascination. If the Doctor's perusal could save Peter, however, she was more than willing to let him be as fascinated as he liked. "Vengeance is a powerful motivator. And vengeance mixed with power? That's absolute. And anything that is absolute corrupts. 25 plus years being bent on vengeance? The Secretary's mind is incapable of seeing anything else. I doubt he would even recognize any other emotion if he felt it."
The Doctor sounded almost as though he felt pity and sympathy for the Secretary. Olivia did not. She saw only the man who had threatened her universe and who had ordered the death of Charlie Francis, and who had plans to kill her best friend, and she was gripped with a sudden urge to face him. She wanted to look him in the eye and destroy that machine, and she wanted to do it now.
"I don't know what the two of you have planned, but before I get out of here, I am going to destroy that machine."
Her announcement caused the Doctor to stop perusing the drawings, and he looked at her with a small smirk. He quickly folded the drawing and stuck it back in his breast pocket and Rose stood herself up straight and put on what Olivia concluded to be her fighting face.
"I like the way you think, Olivia Dunham," the Doctor said. "Let's see what we can do about saving your universe."
They stepped out of the door to the cell, only to find armed guards at both sides with guns pointed straight at their heads. The Secretary of Defense was standing directly in front of them, barring their view of the window to the ocean water in the New York Harbor, a hard-lined expression his face. Olivia could tell that however much the Doctor and Rose had thought they had been covert in their infiltration of the Department of Defense, the Secretary had been more than ready for them. He also was apparently aware of the fact that either of them would never leave the building without the other. Olivia felt the balloon of hope she had been feeling rise up begin to deflate. The Secretary had planned this-he knew the Doctor would try to save Rose Tyler and had placed her in a cell with Olivia. Olivia knew with a cold certainty that whatever the Secretary had planned for all of them that it would be more painful than the hours of interrogation she had already been subjected to endure.
She looked at Rose out of the corner of her eye. Rose did not really seem to be concerned at all about the guns pointed at her, but was merely looking at the Doctor in question. The Doctor, for his part, did not look particularly worried either. He merely gave a small smile and put his hands up in surrender, and Olivia felt herself do the same (though she looked nowhere near as cheerful as the Doctor when she did so). "Well," the Doctor said, an unconcerned tone in his voice that made Olivia raise her eyebrows and stare at him, "I think we may have to adjust our plan just slightly."
There were many parts of the current situation that the Doctor very much did not like. For one, he did not like being strapped to a chair with metal arm restraints. They tended to snag the fabric of his suit jacket and, despite the fact that his suits always looked well worn, the suits were expensive. (The Doctor was briefly very thankful that he no longer wore the long brown coat Janis Joplin had given him. He hated having to stitch up one-of-a-kind coats with cheap threads). Secondly, he did not like the fact that the Secretary had been so confident as to restrain them in chairs in the middle of the room with the very machine that he, Olivia, and Rose had been planning to destroy. It reeked of egotism, and the Doctor couldn't stand aliens with large egos, much less humans (who were at the bottom of the rung as far as intelligence goes, in most cases). But mostly, the Doctor really disliked having guns pointed at him, especially at his now-very-much-human head. He no longer had the ability to regenerate (so far as he knew) and he rather liked the head he currently sported-it had deep dark eyes and a nice smile, and really great hair. Rose rather seemed to like it, and he was rather fond of it himself. Even more than disliking the guns pointed at his own head, he disliked the guns that were pointed at Rose's. He was an unstable man at the best of times, only seconds away from genocidal anger, and if a bullet so much as grazed Rose Tyler, the Oncoming Storm would make its appearance. He just wished that there was some way he could warn the Secretary about that and have the Secretary feel the least bit threatened.
The Doctor quickly went through his assets and pros. Rose and Olivia were still alive and in the same room with him. That was good. The Secretary wasn't shooting at them (yet), and that was also good. The Doctor recognized where he was in the Department of Defense and knew the way to the main exit. This was VERY, VERY good. The Doctor still had his sonic screwdriver, which was good, but not useful given that it was in his breast pocket and he was restrained. Still, it was nice to know his dimensionally transcendental pockets worked and could fool the guards enough that they didn't notice the screwdriver when they frisked him.
The Secretary did not appear to be too concerned with the group of them at the moment, merely leaving the guards to look after them. The Secretary was instead talking with his scientists, gesturing towards different parts of the controls and shouting at the scientists for good measure. Apparently, the Secretary planned to use that machine soon, which intrigued the Doctor as its main power source was still currently in another dimension. He looked to his right and briefly watched the profile of Olivia Dunham. She was staring at the movement of the Secretary, her jaw set tight and a "no surrender" attitude emanating from her very image. The Doctor felt a small surge of pride, despite knowing he had no influence on this woman's strength. She would have made a good companion, back in his traveling days-smart, resourceful, compassionate, and reasonable. But, she was had such a strong sense of responsibility that he knew she would have been one of the few to turn down his offer of seeing the universe. He respected her a lot for that. She lifted her head slightly when she saw Walter Bishop look at her and the Doctor couldn't help but feel that she was mentally sticking her tongue out at the Secretary. He almost laughed, and as he looked at Olivia, her head straight and her hair falling in a curtain next to her face, he was seized with a moment of nostalgia. Looking at her from the side, he thought that if he was to put a straw hat on her head and dress her in the appropriate outfit, she would look just like the second incarnation of his Time Lord friend Romana. It had been years since he had allowed himself to think of the friend he had inevitably killed when he destroyed his own planet at the end of the Time War, and as always, the memory was an all-consuming one. He felt Rose's stare coming to him from his left side and he spared her a small smile to assure her that he was okay, before returning to his musings. Yes, Olivia had the look of Romana and the soul of Leela of the Sevateem. An interesting combination to be sure, but one that he could not help but feel fond of and want to protect. He bet she probably even had a bit of the Donna Noble slap in that palm of hers. A perfect companion. Too bad she was too responsible and he was without a TARDIS. He was sure Rose would have enjoyed her company.
He was broken from his musings once again by a familiar, educated London voice speaking to the Secretary. "In order for the energy to be amassed correctly, the body must maintain a steady heartbeat rhythm of120 beats per minute and a blood pressure of 130 over 80. Minor fluctuation and margin of error are accounted for. Anything outside the boundary of twenty over or under and the universes will lose syncopation," the voice reported. The Doctor looked at the bearer of the voice and felt his lone heart plummet into the vicinity of his stomach. He looked at Rose to see her staring at the voice too, a broken-hearted, disappointed look on her face. The voice belonged to Dr. Martha Jones-beautiful, brilliant, brave Martha Jones, who had faced the Daleks, walked the world alone for a year, and who had laughed in the Master's face as he threatened to kill her. In one universe, she had done all those amazing things, and in the universe he was stuck in, she was happily taking orders from the Secretary. For the first time since he had been stranded in the universe with Rose, staring at the spot the TARDIS had been moments before, he felt a strong desire to go back to his home universe. For the briefest of seconds, being stuck in a universe where the world was askew enough that any version of Martha was willing to work for a man like that, was too much to handle. He took a deep breath, reminded himself that he and Rose were happy and that the only Martha that mattered was happy and saving the world in his original universe, and set his mind to finding a way out of that hellish room and getting Olivia back to her own dimension.
Step 1) Get the Secretary to talk.
"So, Dr. Bishop! Mr. Secretary...Can I can you Walter? You see, Walter, there's one thing I can't understand. I mean, I get why you're angry at the other universe. They stole your son, they made the dimensions unstable. Wanting to make them pay? That's natural. Wrong and rude, of course, yes. But natural. What I don't understand is why you would kill your own son to do it. That's seems rather counterproductive in the grand scheme of things, and you're a genius, so surely you wouldn't do such a stupid move as all that."
"You're assuming that my son is the most important part of this whole equation, Doctor," the Secretary announced, abandoning his mission of terrorizing his poor scientists and instead leaning against the controls facing the Doctor and his companions. He was leaning quite casually, and gesticulated as he spoke, as though he were merely lecturing to a room of students, and not holding them all at gunpoint. "Rather, you have to ask yourself the big question. What good can be gained from the sacrifice? Bigger pictures, Doctor. That's what I'm looking at-the safety of my world from more rifts caused by that woman's," (Dr. Bishop sneered in Olivia's direction), "world. I didn't design the machine to require my son's DNA. That just happened to be the case. I'm afraid it is something of an Abraham and Isaac situation. There is a mission that must be done, but don't you dare insinuate that it does not hurt every inch of me that the mission involves the killing of my own son."
The Secretary turned away, indicating that he had answered the Doctor's question and the conversation was over. The Doctor had never been very good at taking hints and merely pressed on.
"But why the big trap? Why work so hard to get Rose and me here in the same room with Olivia? What good could we possibly do for this whole plan of yours? Surely you knew we would only try and stop you."
The Secretary chuckled. "Yes, it was quite amusing to watch you try. You had some good ideas. Sadly, Doctor, I'm afraid for once you were not my ultimate game plan. You see, I merely need you for the technical support. My son was supposed to figure out the wiring on the device, but someone," (the Doctor saw Olivia give a self-satisfied smirk to his right), "had to convince my son to leave before it was finished. And my staff is too imbecilic to figure it out themselves!" Walter ended on a yell. The scientists all looked sheepishly at one another and continued working as though they had not heard his outburst.
"Why don't you put it together yourself then?" the Doctor asked, hoping this would tip the Secretary into an enraged mood. Megalomaniacs never paid as much attention to their surroundings and what their prisoners were doing if they got angry. It was a fatal flaw. But, no such luck. The Secretary did not seem offended at all.
"Sadly, I was never the mechanical type. Give me a formula or a corpse and I can do anything. Electrical wiring and currents were always much more the thing of the generation under mine. But you, Doctor. You have doctorates in every field of science I've ever heard of, and some I'm sure you created off the top of your head. You're going to fix the device for me."
The question came out of the Doctor's mouth before he could stop it. "And what if I refuse?"
"Then I will have my guard put a bullet through Rose Tyler's head," the Secretary ordered, looking at a guard who proceeded to place the muzzle of his gun against Rose's temple for good measure. The Doctor clenched his fists together.
"Even if I could fix it, that still doesn't explain how you plan to get Peter Bishop here. You said he traveled back to the other universe, correct? How do you plan to get him back?"
The Doctor glanced at Olivia, taking note of the obvious relief she felt at knowing that Peter (and most likely her version of Walter) had survived. That only begged the question of why they had left without her. From the look crossing Olivia's face-the confusion, the hurt, followed by the understanding and the anger-the brilliant woman was figuring it out almost as quickly as he had. Peter and the rest had never come to get her back because they hadn't realized she had been missing. He watched as Olivia's hands fisted in anger at the knowledge that she had been replaced. The Doctor noted his clenched fists, and Rose's clenched fists, and Olivia's, and then noted the sheer number of guns pointed at them all. If a fight broke out, the place would quickly become a powder keg. The Doctor inwardly smiled as an idea began to form inside his head.
"Why, I'm going to use the one thing my son could never turn down. The chance to help a pretty girl in distress. You see, he always was a bit too open with his emotions; it's what made Olivia as a switch-out so easy. All my Agent Dunham has to do is flirt a bit and be his friend and he'll never notice the difference."
"He's smart," Olivia cut in, her voice coming out hoarse in the large room. "He'll figure it out."
"I know," the Secretary said with a smile. "I'm counting on it. When he realizes that he has the wrong Olivia Dunham, you and I both know that he'll do anything he can to get the real you back. It may take him a while (it has taken him four months already, in fact), but the machine is waking up, which means he's about to be on his way."
"You know nothing about your son. He would never get on that machine, not even for me. He knows that the universe I come from is so much bigger than me."
"...Does he?"
And the Doctor knew that the seed of doubt had been planted in Olivia Dunham. He knew that Olivia believed with her whole heart that Peter would never get on that machine of his own free will, but he also knew that "belief" did not necessarily mean that one could not doubt. Luckily for Olivia Dunham, her faith in Peter would never have to be put to the test, for he had the perfect plan for getting them out of that place.
Step 2) Destroy the Machine.
Two hours later saw the Doctor on his back underneath the device's controls, his hands covered in black oils and his fingers sporting burns from crisscrossed electrical lines. His Ninth incarnation had always been much more adept at the maintenance of the TARDIS than his current (and now, only) form was and he was suddenly remembering why in the last few years of traveling he had merely banged on the TARDIS controls with a mallet instead of climbing inside his ship's inner workings. Except for the few times when he had no choice...like the current situation for example.
"Rassilon," he muttered, sticking yet another singed fingertip into his mouth and sucking on it. "The bloody particle accelerator is as antiquated as a butter churner at a disco club," he muttered darkly to himself, continuing on to insulting Americans, followed by North Americans, followed by the whole of NATO, followed by the UN, to just insulting humanity in general. When people were holding Rose and him hostage at gunpoint, with the whole of a universe at stake, the Doctor tended to get rather testy. He just kept reminding himself to be patient for five more minutes.
"I think it's finished," he announced with flourish. For despite hating having to work on the evil contraption, he saw no reason why he shouldn't be proud of his genius. "You simply needed to attach the particle accelerator to the rotating power cufflink and allow the excess energy to fizzle out through the stabilizers and use a laser beam to focus the energy into a specific point in space and time. Easy-peasey."
"Good," said the Secretary. "Then you won't mind testing it for us."
"Testing it?" the Doctor asked. "The machine only works with your son's DNA. It would be pointless to-"
"To focus the energy on the other world, it is true that I would require my son. But to simply see if the machine functions properly, I'll be content with just having enough energy to tear a small hole. Any volunteers?" the Secretary asked, looking around the room with a large smile and raised eyebrows, as though anyone in their right mind would volunteer to get on that death trap.
"How about you, Rose Tyler?" the Secretary proposed, stepping too close in Rose's direction for the Doctor's comfort. The Doctor, embracing the freedom his work on the controls had required, stepped to Rose's side in defense.
"You won't touch her," he said, giving the Secretary his best glare.
"I suppose you'll volunteer in her place."
"If it means that you'll leave her alone, then yes."
The Secretary only smiled and made no promises, not that the Doctor had expected him to do. The Doctor quickly leaned down and embraced Rose in a hug, pulling away and stroking her face and gripping her hands in his. "You know what to do, Rose Tyler," he told her, staring her in the eyes briefly before quickly kissing her forehead and backing away. The guards grabbed his arms and started to pull him towards the machine while the Secretary began to mess with the controls. Rose began pulling at her restraints in futile gestures, screaming at the Secretary and begging the guards to stop. She was so stressed there were tears dripping down her face and her blonde hair was sticking to her cheeks. The Doctor felt his heart stop slightly at the gesture, remembering the last time he had seen her sob so-on Bad Wolf Bay five years before when he saw her from the opposite side of the Void-and just like that day he could do nothing to comfort her. He glanced briefly at Olivia to see that her jaw was clenched tight and she was pulling at her restraints as well, though her emotions were well in check.
The Doctor struggled briefly and managed to deck one of the soldiers as they went to tie his right hand to the post. The Doctor had never had particularly strong fists in this incarnation, however, and the man merely wiped the blood from his lip and pulled the Doctor's other arm behind his back in a very uncomfortable position until one hand was secured. Upon securing the Doctor, the men quickly retreated off the platform of the device, and the Doctor was stuck hearing the ever increasing pitch of the device as it warmed up and the crescent shaped obelisks above his head began to spin. The Doctor watched in fascination as a weird film developed between where he stood and the world off the platform. Rose's face became nothing more than a distorted, fuchsia bubble and all he could hear was a faint ringing sound getting louder and louder and making his head ache.
The last coherent statement the Doctor made was, "This...is gonna hurt."
After that, all the Doctor heard was screaming and it was a few moments before he realized that the screaming was coming from him.
Rose stopped her hysterical crying outburst the moment she realized everyone's attention was focused completely on the ball of energy developing around the Doctor. She smiled at the thought that no one had suspected a thing. It was one of the perks of being the Vitex heiress-the gossip magazines always made you out to be a whingey brat if you were female and rich, and times like these were great for exploiting that commonly held belief. Everyone had focused on her crying and had not even paid attention to what she had quietly hidden in her hand-the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. When he leaned over her to hug her, he deftly slid one hand up to his breast pocket and pawned the screwdriver out of his pocket and into her lap. He had proceeded to caress her face, keeping his body steadfast between her front and the rest of the room that was morbidly watching their 'goodbye.' The last portion of her he had grabbed before kissing her forehead was her hand, in which he placed the screwdriver with his well chosen words. "You know what to do." And indeed she did.
Setting 4747-rotates the power cuff link in the opposite direction, reversing the energy in the particle accelerator and causing an explosion. Not quite as big a bang as an explosive would do, but it would destroy the machine and ensure enough of a distraction for all of them to get out.
She set the screwdriver against the restraint next to her arm and breathed a sigh of relief when her arm was made free. She quickly did the same to the other and quickly rearranged the settings on the screwdriver to 4747. (The fact that she had memorized the setting for reversing something's polarity was beyond ridiculous in her mind, but she had told her original Doctor that she wanted some Spock. Apparently, this setting was what he thought she meant). She then pointed the sonic screwdriver at the device in flourish, trying to ignore the sound of the Doctor's screaming. She watched in awe as the device's hanging obelisks began to slow down and start spinning in the opposite direction, gaining speed fast. The Doctor collapsed to the ground in a dead faint, his arms still attached the poles, and the Secretary cursed as he went to the controls to try and re-work the system to its original purpose. But it was too late, the obelisks were gaining momentum and beginning to swing outwards the wrong way, the machine making a noise that gave an indication that something was very wrong.
Rose heard Dr. Martha Jones' voice yell for everyone to get down just seconds before one of the obelisks swung off completely, hitting one soldier and swinging him into the wall, crushing him with its force with a disgusting crunch. The room broke out in panic and confusion as more pieces of the machine started to break off, and the Secretary merely stood at the controls, trying to salvage as much of his operation as he could. Rose ran to Olivia's chair and quickly began setting her free from her restraints. The second that was done, she ran towards the machine, thanking whatever higher powers existed for her years of gymnastics training as she ducked and dodged random bits of flying debris (though she did have one rather size-able chunk of machine hit her in the arm, and then later felt a piece of shrapnel dig its way into her thigh). With her cuts and bruises, she made her way quickly to the Doctor, untying his hands with the skill of a person way too used to rescuing her comrade from similar situations, and, pulling most of his weight onto her shoulder that hadn't been hit by half-a-tonne debris, she ran down the side of the machine and threw herself into Olivia, knocking all three of them to the ground. Rose heard one last final chink and quickly covered hers and the Doctor's heads as the machine exploded in a rather unimpressive fireball (considering its size).
In the silence of the aftermath, the room mostly deserted from the previously fleeing guards and scientists, the Doctor (whom Rose had quickly smacked awake for fear of him having a concussion should he stay asleep) and Rose watched as Olivia approached the Secretary. She had a gun in her hand, most likely from one of the guards who had been running around in fear, and as she approached the man she cocked it, pulling back the hammer. "You almost destroyed my universe," she said, her voice harsh and steady.
"Yes."
"It's because of you that my Agent Charlie Francis is dead."
Olivia aimed the gun steadily at the Secretary's head.
"Yes, though that was not part of the overall agenda, I must confess. He was an unfortunate casualty."
"You were going to kill my best friend."
Rose watched as Olivia's hand began to shake slightly.
"Yes, I am."
Rose watched as the Secretary and Olivia began a staring contest. Olivia's hand was shaking and her finger was trembling on the trigger, ready to squeeze it at any second and Rose felt the Doctor tense beside her, his hatred of guns strong even in the face of Olivia's troubles. Suddenly, there was a loud crack and Walter Bishop fell to the floor in a crumbled heap. Rose watched in disbelief as Olivia quietly holstered the gun in the waistline of her pants and turned to them both with a stony face.
"Let's run," she said. And they did.
It wasn't until they were back on the mainland, using the hidden boat that the Doctor and Rose had used to sneak onto Liberty Island in the first place, that Rose spoke with Olivia about what had happened. They were walking aimlessly down the streets of New York City, trying not to garner attention, when Rose broached the subject. She was breathing a bit labouriously, trying to keep up with Olivia's quick pace.
"So, why did you do it?"
"Do what?" Olivia asked, her breathing not quite as laboured as Rose's (Olivia's strides were longer), but with an exhausted wheeze to it. Rose couldn't help but feel that the sooner the Doctor got Olivia home, the better it would be for her.
"Why did you let him live? I mean, he said that he would come after Peter again. You had your gun trained him and you were so angry. I was certain you were going to shoot him."
Olivia stopped walking suddenly and turned to face Rose. The Doctor continued on for a few paces before he realized he was alone and turned around to rejoin them. For once, he said nothing and listened to hear what Olivia would say, his curiosity getting the better of him.
"I wanted to kill him. I can think of a million reasons why it's the best thing to do, and that's just for my world. Who knows how many more there could be for yours if we discussed them. But he's Peter's father. And no matter what he does, that's what he'll always be. And I can't take that away from my friend. He'd never forgive me." She took off walking again. "I'd never forgive myself," she added, so quietly that Rose almost didn't hear her.
"Well, good on you, Olivia Dunham," the Doctor proclaimed, barely breathing hard as the women next to him laboured to keep up with his long strides. "I never have liked guns. You have an amazing right hook though! Even I had to admire that."
"You say you don't like guns, but you had set the screwdriver to make the device explode..." Olivia left the implication to her words hang in the air.
"Well, guns are bad. People die everyday by guns. That's the easy way of fighting. But explosives? That's entirely different!"
There was no credence to his argument, and all three of them knew it. For some reason that none of them knew of, they let him get away with it.
"So, Olivia," the Doctor began, turning around to face her as he walked backwards, engaging her in conversation as though the possibility that he might collide with something behind him were as infinitesimal as getting struck by lightning. "What do you say that we get you home, eh?"
"You can do that?" Olivia asked, the hope she had suppressed earlier in the day (had it really only been a few hours? Rose wondered) blooming on her face again.
"Oh, yes," the Doctor said, a wide smile gracing his face and the bounce in his step returning. "I can have you home faster than you can say Raxacoricofallapatorious."
"Then, yes. I want to go home," Olivia said, her voice getting breathless with anticipation.
"Well, then," the Doctor said, turning to face the proper direction again and maintaining his stride with the two women, "Allons-y."