When I awoke, everything was in a haze.
Colors were brighter than they should be, and they were all smudged together. Nothing had a definite outline. It was making me feel sick.
Stumbling over to the TARDIS console, I pressed a few buttons (rather slowly I might add, as they all seemed to be connected) and tried to figure out how long I had been unconscious. While the records were being pulled up from the last time the door was opened, I thought back to the gas that had caused all this trouble.
I would recognize that sickly sweet smell anywhere. Chloroform. Simple, not very dramatic, yet effective. Small doses could rend the effected person's body to lose consciousness for several hours. And yet I had been exposed to a whole planet whose air was oxygen laced with it. That was not good. Not good at all; what if I had missed the time crack?
You might be thinking, "Oh, time machine, you could just travel back in time and go through the crack and it'll be all good!" But here's the thing about cracks in time. They have their own standard timeline. They aren't fun and a big ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey.
No. They are boring and their time is a straight line.
Does that make any sense? Okay… I'll put it another way.
Say this is standard time:
{~~~~~~} {~~~~~~}
Well, this is time crack time (in between standard time):
{~~~~~~} — {~~~~~~}
Standard time and time crack time run parallel, but standard time can be travelled through and changed, etc. I really hope that makes sense….
Point is, the crack in time will only be there for a certain amount of time, and a million TARDIS's couldn't change that, unfortunately.
Okay, back on track now. If I had missed the time crack I would never be able to get back to Rose. I hissed through my teeth and ran my hands through my hair, knowing that that rip in the fabric of time could be my last chance to get back to the woman I loved.
"Stupid chloroform-atmosphere planet. Stupid time vortex. Stupid time cracks. Stupid galaxy. Stupid universe! It always seems like everything is against us old girl! Gah! We have to get back there before it's too late,"
My unspoken words seemed to thicken the atmosphere. If it isn't already too late. Shrugging the morbid thought aside, I threw myself into my work with a fervor.
I knew that the coordinates to the crack in time landed in the very center of London, close to Canary Wharf, yet not quite there. Probably on the other side of the Thames. The TARDIS had already programmed the coordinates into herself and was preparing for me to help throw her into action. My only hope was that whatever had caused them to land on the planet in the first place wouldn't interfere again.
Normally I would be out there (with protection of course) to investigate and figure out what could possibly live there and the molecular structure of the atmosphere, but for once in my life I had a higher purpose than to discover life and protect it. I had one specific life form to rescue. One that had attached itself to my hearts. One that, if not saved, would kill me as well.
The fact was, I wasn't me without Rose. She was my other half, my better half. I knew without a steady companion I would become lonely and bitter; like I was before I had travelled with Rose in my past regeneration. So, it was with sudden burst of enthusiasm that I rushed around the console once more, thrusting and pulling levers and pushing buttons. The familiar whooshing sound of the TARDIS whirring to life was music to my ears.
To my surprise and joy, whatever (or whoever) had caused us to land in 'Chloroform Land', as I had named it, left us alone and we once more were spinning through the time vortex, once again on our mission to Earth.
"We're on our way, Rose. Don't you fear. I'll get you back if I regenerate a thousand times over trying," I murmured under my breath. A small thud and the quieting of the TARDIS alerted me that we had landed. Without a second thought, I ran out the front doors and straight into an abandoned-looking home.
I whipped around, desperately searching for rip in the fabric of time. Finally, I felt my breath hitch and a broad grin spread across my I saw it. It was still there. A small tear in the wall, through which you could see whole galaxies, signaled the happiest moment in my life.
I sprinted back inside the TARDIS and snatched up the small dimension cannon, paper, and pencil and ran back outside, eyeing the crack suspiciously, making sure it hadn't closed up yet.
After quickly scrawling a note onto the piece of paper, I folded it and started up the dimension cannon. And then I fired it on through, to where I knew Rose Tyler would receive it the very next day.
OK I think I fixed it! Thank you for reading and please review!
~United-Whovians