Again, thank you for the comments and reviews :D They are what's keeping me thriving as I go through this. I have one more chapter to go after, tying things up and such. May I say that I've truly enjoyed writing this, and I dearly hope that you have all enjoyed reading.


"Pardon me, but what do you think you are doing?"

That was not Rose's voice, and that was not her mouth moving. He'd know, because his attention had locked firmly on it. Perturbed by the disruption, he turned his head. There, in black robes, stood the council, each with deep-set scowls on their swarthy faces. Their hair was bristled, thick, and surrounded their small round faces, and gave them an owlish expression that was increased by their wide brown eyes. Their propensity for looking dull explained so very much about their love for the splendid, shimmering beauty of the glowphoid beetles.

Rose gaped at them. "That's the council?"

The Doctor nodded. "They are. These are the true Rasiguli," he explained with a sweeping bow toward the panel of seven. So much for Rose keeping her silence in their presence until he'd gotten on board the TARDIS. By now, they were surely doubting her claim she was his representative. "Let me correct myself. These are the Rasiguli who truly run the curtains behind the show, to use a cliche. The originals, you might say. Their ancestors were the first to habitat on Rasigul centuries ago." The seven Rasiguli stared at the Doctor stiffly from their floating chairs, their long arms holding onto the curved table they sat along. No wonder the three of them had been unable to see the council. The darkness and their ability to blend into the shadows was intentional. How many foolish criminal had loosened their tongues as they waited for a council that was already sitting, and judging, in the darkness? "Right, then. I'll just be off, shall I?"

"Hold," One of the council boomed. "You are the Doctor, from Gallifrey, are you not?" He offered them a quick grin. "I am." His blood was already churning with anticipation, expecting trouble from them, though he kept a relaxed stance.

There was nothing more than that confirmation. He felt a sharp tug of disappointment as they began to rustle through papers, finally telling him, "You may leave." What was the point of being a brilliant and well known figure in time and history if people didn't make a fuss over it?

"Right then." He nodded at Rose as he moved toward the TARDIS, put out over the dismissal. "I wish you luck, Madame Representative."

The door slid shut once he was inside, leaving her to face the council, ignoring how flushed her skin had become. "Get the-"

"You might get her a glass of water," Rose interrupted them. They each looked from her to Reinette, who was turning red in the face from the weight of her skirts. "Unless you want her to pass out." None of them moved, however, until Rose set her hands on her hips. "That wasn't a suggestion. She has a corset and thick cloths on," she stated in her mother's no-nonsense tone. Reluctantly, one of the members saw to getting Reinette a glass of water. Another motioned to two chairs, which had risen from the floor, allowing each of them to sit. Reinette gladly swept into the wide seat, her skirts spread out in an attempt to cool her legs as she downed the water greedily. The lace around her shoulders and chest had dampened considerably by now, leaving Rose to fear the woman would faint.

Rose was too wary of the seat to lean back into it. Instead, she perched on the edge, ankles crossed in an attempt to look demure and professional at the same time. Hard to do in faded jeans and an old hoodie with paint streaks on it, but she reckoned she would have to make do. "You may begin," she told them, lifting her chin haughtily. She noticed that they rustled about, taken back by her demeanor.

"State your names," one of them demanded.

"Rose Tyler, representing Madame de Pompadour of France, Europe, of Earth."

Reinette offered in, "Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour of France, Europe, of Earth." She slanted Rose a terrified look, asking with her eyes if she had done the correct thing. Rose ignored her, fully focused on the council as they shifted papers about. If she could keep them from getting the electros, it was one less hurdle they would have to leap. One of them drew a page aside to read out, "Mistress of King Louis XV, of France, Earth. Known figure in French history." There was some muttering at that.

"You can see why it's imperative that she be returned to Earth, then," Rose said, leaning forward in her chair. "It would skew Earth's history timeline, and have critical effects on the whole."

"What do we care for Earth's history," bit out another of the council members. Some shifted, nodding in agreement with the question." Rose gave him a tight smile as she answered, "You should. It may draw a dark creature, one I came in contact with when I disrupted the timeline. They were trying to fix it, you see, eating time distortions. Do you really want to lure them here?" She had caught their attention, she knew. They'd all fallen silent. "No one was safe from the reapers. They devoured folks left and right until the time line was set right again. Rasigul has so many people, it would be a banquet for them if they came here."

"You have no proof that they would come here, Ms. Tyler."

She shrugged at the statement. "I don't," she agreed. "Then again, I don't have proof that they wouldn't come here, even after destroying Earth, deciding to do the same with Rasigul. They are drawn to the currents of time, and when there's a tear, they find it and they eat." She slowly swept her eyes along the council, her expression dark and demanding. "I ask again, do you really want to chance that?"

This time, it took them longer to respond to her. "R-right, well. The law says-"

"The law says that should a visitor intentionally destroy relic property of Rasigul, they will suffer punishment up to a year's time of punishment. Funny how people don't know the laws here, because they've been serving fifteen up to a lifetime. I wonder what they'd say if they ever found that law out. Because I met a Sontaran who said otherwise." She tapped a finger to her chin. "I wonder why a Sontaran would give the wrong information about a law, when they're all about being right on everything. Prideful people, the Sontarans are, wouldn't you say?"

The council was floundering now. They muttered and shifted in their chairs to the point that the seats dipped in the air, listing toward the ground to rise gradually, gracefully back up. "All the same, she did knowingly and intentionally destroy a glowphoid. They are delicate property, one we must protect. They are born beneath the ground and rise once a year to mate before they are destroyed. Their shells are precious to us."

To this, Rose nodded. "She did unknowingly destroy one, and she was immediately regretful of the action. It could be deemed an accident. After all, who is to say it wasn't?" She fixed the nearest one with a pointed smile. "I'm sure there are many who were given a sentence on an accidental crushing. After all, thick crowds during a festival, mixed in the parade. It's bound to happen often with others. Who is to say it was intentional? Witnesses could have mistaken her actions."

"Be that as it may, the witnesses and guardians in the vicinity all stated that she knowingly and willfully murdered a glowphoid beetle," the council member countered her comment, favoring her with his own grotesque smile. His teeth were needle sharp and as brown as his eyes. She had to suppress a shudder. The idea of their looking like owls was replaced by that of a deformed monkey.

"As I said, they could have been mistaken," she returned. "It happens... almost seems like it intentionally happens, doesn't it?"

They didn't like that. There was muttering amongst them. She leaned back, tapping her fingers against each other while they discussed. After nearly a minute's conjecturing, she interrupted with, "That man who just stepped into that big, blue box, he is a fierce one. You don't want to cross him. He will leave nothing behind if he has to come back to overturn your corrupt laws. Or we could take Madame de Pompadour off your hands, leave things as they are without investigating the amount of accidental arrests there are, and the neglectful abuse of the law turning a year's sentence into a fifteen year." She clicked her tongue at them in shame, giving them a mother's glare of disappointment.

Inside, however, she was frantic. Her heart was racing with a mixture of excitement and fear. Their quiet discussions had come to a halt, and they were all staring at her with ... well, she could only call it apprehension.

"You are either a great liar, Ms. Rose Tyler, or a crafty representative," the council member finally said. He or she turned their great head and murmured to each side. There were nods all about. "Very well." The council member seemed bored with the whole thing now. "We didn't even get to use the electros," the member muttered, irritated as they swept papers back together. "Go. Take her. If she returns to Rasigul, she will serve a lifetime imprisonment. This is the only warning you will receive. We do not wish to see her or you back in Rasigul. The same goes for your friend." The member pointed at the TARDIS with a wagging finger.

Rose dabbed at her face as she smiled at them. "Rest assured, we won't be coming back." She bowed her head respectfully to each of them. She waited only a fraction of a second before she tucked her arm beneath Reinette's to boost her from the chair. "Off we go. Quick now," she hissed to the other woman. "Before they find an excuse to keep us. They've turned over decisions before. The sooner we get out of here, the better."

As soon as they were inside the TARDIS, the cool of the room swept over each of them. They gasped in relief. Mickey grabbed hold of Rose to hug her fiercely. "You did it," he exclaimed in delight. "You sounded just like Jackie!"

"Yeah, well..." she extricated herself from his hug, her smile broad. She watched Reinette surge past them, rushing to her own room, likely to get out of the thick, damp garments. "It helped to read up on them. They talk big, but they get scared easy. I took over as soon as we got down to it, didn't give them a chance to start proceedings. They were bent on getting rid of us as soon as I started bringing up their laws. Didn't expect that, did they?" She tried for a discreet look around, but didn't see the Doctor. "We off already?"

"Soon as you stepped in and the doors shut," he assured her. "Doctor went off to tend to some'fing." He gave a moody look as he shifted her away from the door and down into the console room. "I thought we was going to run in there, guns blazing, to save you."

"Nah. Doctor doesn't use guns," she told him with a weak smile. The fact that he'd disappeared so soon threw her for a loop. She'd expected him to greet her with open arms, too. Where was he?


He was in Reinette's room, waiting for her, hands tucked into the pockets of his coat. When she hurried into the room, tears collecting with the sweat that still dewed her pretty face, he offered, "If you'd like, we can wait to do this until after you've had a bath." Reinette stiffened as she faced him, her delicate hands fisted at her sides. She gave him such an austere look, he could understand why the king of France had fallen so completely in love with her. He'd been a little infatuated himself. "Kindly remove yourself from my chambers, Doctor," she told him coolly.

"Reinette," he sighed out. He gazed at her guiltily as he approached. "I'm so, so sorry. I went about this the wrong way from the beginning, and I put you in greater danger than you were in before. Not for your life, but for your lifetime, because I didn't think. Rose is right. I go running off into things, and I don't think about those I lo-" he swallowed the word, and corrected himself, "care about getting hurt." Her icy expression wasn't shifting, as he'd hoped it would. "I can still show you the stars, if you want, but in a much safer means."

"I do not think you are capable of showing me what I desire, Doctor."

His head angled as he studied her tight features. She was angry at him, yes, and he hated to take her back to France with that anger festering in the short time she had left. "Please," he asked. "Give me one more chance to make this up to you. As a friend," he offered. There was a small flicker of doubt, enough to give him hope to offer, "We won't even leave the TARDIS this time."

She gave a regal nod finally. "As you like. Now I must ask you again, sir, to please leave my chambers. It isn't becoming of a man to enter a woman's room when they are not familiar with each other." His brows rose at the words, but he did as commanded. She was already putting walls between them. He had deeply wounded her pride, he realized, and felt a weak tug of humor. He was prone to do that, wasn't he?

He drew the door shut behind him and turned to find Rose staring at him. Who was more shocked, he couldn't say. But it was the hurt that he saw that had him moving swiftly toward her. She was quick, though, he had to give that to her. Her door was shut and locked within the seconds it took for him to hurry toward her, trying to stop her and make her understand he was saying goodbye. Too late, he rested his hand against the cool metal, cursing himself. "Rose," he called through to her. "Please, let me explain."

He knocked at the door relentlessly, but she never answered. "Ah, you ancient fool," he growled to himself, resting his head against the door. Human pride was so delicate, but not so delicate as the heart.


She'd soaked for nearly an hour to wash away the misery. Her skin now smelled of plumeria, one of her favorites, and her hair was soft and dark gold around her shoulders once dried. She took her time with adding a hint of perfume to her skin once she'd dressed in a simple periwinkle dress that fell in folds to her knees. Each layer darkened the hue of the dress, clinging nicely to her figure. She went easy on her makeup, just enough to bring her eyes out and make their color pop. With her hair drawn up in a neat chignon, she put on the locket that held a picture of her mum and dad. She looked simple. Pretty. She certainly wasn't competing against Reinette's elegant beauty. They would have dinner together, all of them. She'd then talk to Mickey about their leaving, and say her goodbyes to the Doctor and Reinette. She would not play ridiculous games. She had promised to travel with him as long as she could, and he'd agreed that she could. She'd thought it would mean forever. With a sweep of her hand along the dress to brush out any wrinkles, she decided that forever could be as short as a couple of years.

She wouldn't be angry with him. She wouldn't yell or scream, though she wanted to. She wouldn't beg. Most of all, she wouldn't cry. She'd fooled herself again into thinking he valued her more than he truly did. He saw her as a friend, and she came to realize that she had seen that moment in the chambers as something more, because she'd wanted him to kiss her. He had clearly been showing gratitude to her for saving Reinette.

Giving herself one last look over, Rose thought she'd never looked lovelier. This would bolster her confidence in what she wanted to say. She gave the reflection a tired smile. As soon as she stepped out, it was to find the Doctor beside her door, hands digging into his thick, spiked hair and his knees drawn up. He had rested his elbows against them so that he could support the heaviness that rested on his brilliant mind. He looked like a lost man. Rose could feel her heart trembling, wishing she could comfort him. "Have a fight with Reinette," she asked him, trying for a casual tone. The Doctor lifted his head to stare at her. He didn't say a word as he climbed to his feet, pulling her in for a hug. She stiffened at the touch, but tried to play it off with a laugh. "Come on, Doctor, it wasn't all that dire, you know. You'd have rescued her if I couldn't have."

"Rose Tyler," he said thickly. "How can I ever say ...?"

She tried to ignore the hard thud in her chest as she swallowed back her nerves. "If you're trying to say thank you, then you're welcome, and that's all that needs to be said, Doctor." She drew back, but found he'd firmly grasped her hands and refused to let them go. "Doctor, it's all right."

"It's not," he told her. "It's really not." Why did he look so miserable? "You look beautiful, by the way."

It wasn't like him to compliment her that way, to be so sincere, when he was often cocky and witty, only serious when angered. He was smiles and laughter. What had broken her Doctor's hearts? "Rose, I need you to come with me. I need to show you something." As deeply as she hurt, she couldn't refuse him, not when he was hurting as well. She allowed him to draw her along the different corridors, trying not to smile as he muttered to himself in distraction. "Ah, yes!" He pressed at a door, opening it, to lead her out to a dark ocean setting with stars strewn about. "It's a perfect copy of the Beach of Perth. Little planet from the Samiz Galaxy, ages away. Not much sunlight, but the stars were amazing." The sand was soft, and the lapping sounds of the water was tranquil. She could smell flowers again, but these flowers were almost comforting, like smelling home. He pulled her down the slow decline of a dune toward the water's edge. Dark and mysterious, she wondered what else lurked in this beautiful rendition of a lost planet.

"I was going to show Reinette this," he started carefully. "I wanted her to see the stars." She stared at him hard, wondering why he was telling her this. "She doesn't see them the same way you do, as an adventure. They were an escape for her, leaving behind a world where she was constantly watched. I led her into another world where she was enslaved." Turning to face her, he admitted, "I've messed all of this up so badly, Rose, when I'm usually the one who keeps it together. I'm sorry."

She was struggling to hold onto her resolve that she wouldn't cry. Why did he have to share his misery over Reinette with her, of all people? "Doctor, I'm sure if you went to her and explained everything, she would come around," she assured him. She tried for a friendly smile. Everything felt frozen, even the muscles in her face.

"I have told her already."

"She hasn't forgiven you?"

He stared at her with that dark expression that made her heart yearn. She fought to shut off the voice crying in the back of her mind, trying to tell it that he loved Reinette. But he swept his hands along her shoulders, down her arms, taking her hands in his. "I don't care about her forgiveness, Rose. I care about yours," he told her. She swallowed as she tried to keep herself from trembling. It hurt too much to yearn, even now.

"I forgive you," she told him, and this time succeeded in smiling. She couldn't help but do so when he looked so unhappy. "You have nothing to apologize for. We got out of there safe and sound, didn't we?"

"No thanks to me. I promised your mother I would protect you, and I didn't. I left you abandoned. If it weren't for you, there's no telling what might have happened."

"You'd have saved the day, as you always do," Rose answered with a staunch nod. "You're too clever to get caught on a silly moon with silly laws. You're the Doctor."

His smile finally answered hers, his throat bobbling as he took a closer step. "What would I do without you, Rose Tyler," he asked in a hoarse voice. "Don't ever let me take you for granted again, okay?" He wanted to kiss her again. He wanted to finally tell her what he'd been hoarding fearfully in her heart for so long. Her eyes dropped away from his just as he would have done so, making him hesitate. "About that, Doctor. Maybe it's time I headed home."

"You want to go home. Now?"

"Yeah. Maybe." It was hard to face him and say this. She had wanted time to figure out what it was she'd meant to say. She was off guard and fumbling, finding it difficult to stand resolute. "Maybe I've seen enough and it's time for me to head back," she tried to explain. It sounded pathetic now that the words were out of her mouth. "Mum has to be missing me by now, and Mickey ... well, he's not cut out for this life, either."

He shook his head adamantly, frustrated that she'd consider leaving now, of all times. "You've only seen the tip of the stars, and you want to go home now? Rose, I thought you wanted to travel forever with me. I have so much more I want to show you."

Did she have to spell it out for him? How could she endure being around him while Reinette hung on his every word, clinging to his arm, doting on him as he would on her. Sharing that smile of his with Madame de Pompadour. Kissing her. Hugging her. Rose pulled her hands free of his as jealousy and hurt balled tight in her stomach. "I can't," she told him. "I can't share you like that. I'm sorry."

"Like what? With who?" He gave her an incredulous look.

"With her," she answered, bringing her hands up when he'd reach for her again. "I'm sorry, Doctor. I'm trying so hard to be strong about this." His expression cleared almost immediately as he laughed in relief, which set her on edge. "Don't laugh at me, either."

"No, I would never laugh at you... Rose Tyler, my incredibly brave, amazing human. Do you think for one second I could face those stars without you beside me? Do you think it'd be the same without you there? I may be centuries old, but even I can make mistakes. I left you abandoned in the dark again and again, when I should have known better. I broke your trust when I needed your faith in me the most. You've kept by my side when others would have left me. You're stronger and more resilient than most people I've known." He wiped at her cheek when he saw the tears streaming down. It was hard to say the words, but he hoped she could read them in his eyes. "Rose Tyler...," he whispered, closing the distance between them. Their mouths met, eager and searching, finding the answers that each of them had sought from each other for too long.