Echoes, Past and Future

The thunder of the single rifle shot rolled through the tiny clearing, seeming to echo back from the trees and the open pit and their own nerve endings and eardrums over and over, long past any reasonable time period. Without looking, without thinking, Jared and Rose each knew instinctively that shot would echo in their separate psyches until their deaths.

On her stomach, trembling, her face in the dirt, Rose finally pushed herself up and rolled over again, looking first at the German whose pistol she'd been staring down just moments before. He was sprawled sideways where the bullet's impact had flung him, arms and legs akimbo, unmoving. Something about his very stillness made it seem like he'd never moved, never breathed, never threatened rape and mayhem on another. She couldn't see his face, and didn't want to.

The puppy was still tugging on his arm, growling, but she didn't have the heart or wit to call him off yet. Instead, she slowly turned her head to look at Jared, afraid of what might meet her eyes.

He hadn't moved a millimeter, the rifle still clutched to his shoulder, his wide brown eyes locked onto the soldier's cooling corpse. The creeping realization of what he'd done showed in his shocked, haunted expression – the same expression, Rose realized, that had been on the Doctor's face on the Crucible as Davros taunted him. At least this time, she understood why. With that comprehension, cold, primal fear flooded through her frame. What have I done? Will he turn away from me now, too? I won't survive losing him again. It'll destroy me. It'll destroy both of us.

Knowing instinctively that the next few minutes were as crucial to them as to him, she stiffly picked herself up off the ground and went to his side. "Jared?" she whispered. He didn't move, didn't blink, even as she stretched the watch's expandable strap to turn it over on his wrist, stripping off the disguise so she could see his real face. His shell-shocked expression didn't change – and seeing it sink and cement itself deep into those so-familiar features sent the ice zinging through her veins again. "Jared? … Look at me." She moved in front of him, blocking his view of the body, and put a hand on his cheek. "Look at me."

His eyes slowly refocused on hers, and he took a quick, gasping breath. "Rose..." His hands moved convulsively, as if reaching for her, before he suddenly remembered what he already held, and he looked down at the rifle in horror. She quickly reached with both hands and gently plucked it out of his, then twisted around and hurled it into the open mine shaft. Then she turned back, and without a word they went into each other's arms and held on tight. For several endless, silent minutes they simply stood there, and she tried to will some warmth into his heart as well as his body.

It was the puppy who broke them up again. It finally penetrated his teenage canine mind that his prey was out of action, and he trotted proudly over and sat beside his chosen new humans, patting their legs with one paw and whimpering for attention. They turned simultaneously and looked down at him, then Rose melted down beside the dog to hug and pet him – awkwardly, for both his size and his enthusiastic licking of her face. Jared knelt down on his other side a beat later, and they both (hoarsely and haltingly) lavished praise on their little black furry guardian.

The act of petting the dog seemed to finish the job of restoring some semblance of equilibrium inside both of their minds, and after a bit they were able to push them into a forward gear again. Rose looked at Jared first, "We need to get going."

"Do you think we should..." Jared gestured vaguely at the two remaining bodies and then the hole in the ground. She hesitated, then nodded. Taking a pair of deep, fortifying breaths, they made as short a job of it as they could, taking each by turn by the arms and legs and swinging them over the side while trying not to think, look, or hear. Then Jared quickly collected the other guns and threw them in, as well, as hard as he could fling them. He stood staring into the inky blackness a moment longer. An odd sensation on his wrist drew his attention, and he focused in on the upturned watch, realizing only then that he was back to himself. He ripped the watch off his arm and flung it in after the rest, then finally turned to Rose. "I don't think that's quite what he meant by 'making me better'." His voice was quiet, bitter – but she knew from his face that the bitterness wasn't directed at her.

An echo of pain washed over her again, pain for both of them, with tired fury on its heels. "Well, he shouldn't have left us in this cesspit then, should he?" she shot back wearily, then immediately stepped closer, putting her arms around his neck again and forcing him to look at her. "Jared... I never wanted either of us to be in a situation like this. Never. But I can't condemn you, or me, either. And I don't think any rational person could." She shut her mouth on the obvious corollary, of whether the Doctor was entirely rational on this or any other subject, or whether it even mattered any more.

He probably followed her thoughts, anyway, but wasn't willing to open that can of worms himself. Instead, he pulled her close and hugged her tightly, then released her, turning together and moving at last towards the gap back down to their former path again. Her hand slid down his arm and clasped his hand, their fingers intertwining automatically.

The puppy gave a short, happy bark and fell in at their heels.

As they scrambled back over the stone wall to the path, Rose called to him, "Come on, wolf cub!" She grimaced. "We definitely need to find a better name than that."

"How about Tock?" suggested Jared.

"Tock?" She put a world of question into the name.

He gave her a twisted, sideways grin-turned-grimace. "Well, I broke my other promise back there, about your watch. You lost the tick. But at least you came out with a Tock!"

She stopped, staring, then burst out laughing – only slightly hysterical; Jared joining in a beat later. And so Tock got his name.

^..^

Half an hour later, the three of them were cautiously picking their way up the back side of the hill towards the Knolls Monument, a gleaming obelisk of polished local granite stabbing twenty feet into the Cornish sky. It had been there for centuries, a self-erected stone paean to one man's hubris. In Rose's imagination, it had become a gigantic pushpin, holding the worlds together at that spot.

She was leading them not towards the spire, however, but towards the end of a small, oft-neglected side path that wound around from the front of the monument to a partially-hidden entryway into the back side of the hill itself: the burial crypt. It had been used over the centuries as a temporary cache for smugglers, illicit worship of various out-of-official-favor gods or sects, clandestine trysts, secret meetings of all types, and today would see another, as the two approaching hoped desperately to find the other three already there.

They were only one-third disappointed.

As Rose reached the doorless entry, Jared stopped her with a silent hand, pulling her back and taking the lead himself, slipping almost noiselessly along one wall and peering into the gloom. He paused for a moment and concentrated on forcing his eyes to adjust to the darkness, then crept to the end of the entry tunnel and peeked inside. Almost immediately, he sighed quickly in relief, then called out softly before stepping into the chamber, "Pete! It's us!"

"Thank God!" came the reply, as Pete and Jackie stepped out of the corner to greet them – Jackie and Rose rushing past the two men to clutch each other close.

Pete held his hand out to Jared, who took it gratefully, then looked sharply around the twenty-foot-square chamber. "Where's Rose?"

His question broke the women apart, Rose pulling sharply back to add her own quick inspection before staring at Pete. The redhead shook his head, his pain and fear for his daughter showing clearly. "We were separated. Our disk died and we were trapped. She led a patrol off of us."

Jaws dropping, Jared and Rose glanced at each other – one quick look was all it took. They started to whirl towards the entrance again. "Then let's go find her!" Rose began – but Pete was already holding both hands up, stopping them.

"No. You three need to get home while you still can. Go on, get Jackie home safe. I will find her – I will find her. Don't worry about that." He stepped over to Rose. "Please, Ulva. Take your Mum home. Get her home safe, before..." Before she suffers the same fate as my Jackie, his eyes added. "I'll find my daughter. The entire Reich won't stop me." No one doubted that quiet, solemn vow.

Rose finally nodded, unwilling but accepting the situation. She pulled out her mobile phone again, checked the signal – strong now – and pushed the combo to call up Control back in Beta Universe. As Pete slipped an arm around his late wife's double and led her to one side for a final goodbye, Rose turned away, not wanting to watch the scene, and took a few steps away towards the front corner next to the entryway. "Control? Are you there? Danny? John? Control, come in!" Still no response. "Come on... where are you guys?" She started going through the process again, checking the mobile, the signal, punching in the combo.

"Gotcha."

All four whirled towards the entrance as the new voice insinuated itself into the air. A lanky, disheveled figure detached from the tunnel's shadow and stepped into the chamber, preceded by a pistol aimed directly at Rose's head.

Her eyes grew round, then hard as steel, and she hissed out his name with supreme disdain. There was no mistaking this slimeball, the young Rose's bane in any universe.

"Jimmy Stones..."