Hello people!
Thanks for reading, and thanks to TheDoctor'sBiggestFanStarrojas for reviewing =)
Reviews are always appreciated. I know I haven't updated in a while, but it would really help me write more if I knew that people were reading and enjoying this story.
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who.
Silence had fallen on the roof of the Lazarus Laboratories building.
Two identical women, one Time Lord, and the body of an old man were the only things up there. The three sentient beings sat quietly, able to but not willing to speak. Their minds were bursting with thoughts and questions and possibilities, and yet not a word was uttered. All three simply stared into space, barely aware of what was around them.
The Doctor's gaze went down. He looked at the mass of people below, and vaguely realized that Tish had followed his instructions to get everyone out. But that thought was only in the back of his mind; his conscious thoughts revolved more around his own life than those of the people below. His mind wandered, as it always did, but it kept coming back to one central idea: Now that Rose knows that I'm destined to die at Canary Wharf, when that time rolls around, how do I stop her from preventing it?
Rose, the Doctor's Rose, the one readers would call the original Rose, or the canon Rose, was alternating between staring at the Doctor and at her doppelganger. As she looked at her Time Lord, her mind was working at its maximum to figure out ways to prevent his death. Her logical side said that even if she formulated a plan to save his life, he wouldn't go along with it. But her emotional side told her without a doubt that she would not fail him, not give up on him, and not let him go. As she stared at her duplicate, though, she only felt sorry, and one thought ran through her head: No one should have to lose their Doctor.
The parallel Rose concentrated her gaze on the tall man in pinstripes. She couldn't put words to what she was feeling; if she had to explain, she would call it a mixture of mind-numbing sadness, extreme happiness, and utter confusion. She felt like crying and laughing at the same time, but for the same reasons. The Doctor was back, but he wasn't hers. And she knew he would have to leave eventually, to preserve the natural balance of the universe or whatever. As soon as the Tardis was recharged, he would go back to his own universe, and travel on, leaving Rose here alone. But she was still glad for the chance to see him again, even if he wasn't her original Doctor.
Being Rose, though, she wasn't about to give up so easily. If given the chance, she would take any Doctor she was given, whether it be a parallel one, another regeneration, or any combination of the two. She would love him whoever he was. And so the only thing Rose was thinking was, How can I get him to take me with him when he leaves?
But no one voiced their thoughts.
"Where'd you get a sonic blaster from?"
The Doctor's spoke in a rather soft voice, but the question still destroyed the silence of the previous moments. His tone sounded uncaring, though he clearly had much more important questions to ask.
"Jack left in on the Tardis after the incident in 1941. He never took it back." Parallel Rose's reply was as nonchalant as the question, although, as with the Doctor, it was clear that she was dying to change the conversational topic to one more meaningful than the acquisition of sonic weaponry.
"How is the Tardis? Have you seen her since -" he stopped, not wanting to elicit a reaction from either Rose.
"Um, I've been traveling with her since. And she's fine, yeah, she's good."
"You travel? In the Tardis? Really? How'd you learn to fly her?" The Doctor's tone had lost all elements of apathy as he rattled off question after question concerning Rose's travels and her knowledge of Tardises. He even turned to look at her; something he had been deliberately avoiding up until this point.
"You left the instruction manual," Rose explained.
The Doctor looked slightly crestfallen. The answer had seemed rather anticlimactic; he had been expecting something a little more strange. His feelings soon changed from let-down to confused, however, when he realized an important fact. "That's impossible! I threw the instruction manual into a supernova!" He exclaimed. "There's no coming back from that. That manual was gone."
"Well maybe he didn't," the original Rose jumped in. Both of the others turned to face her.
The Doctor reluctantly nodded. He had momentarily forgotten that Rose's Tardis had belonged to another man, not him.
Parallel Rose had also forgotten for a minute. But the other Rose coming into the conversation reminded her once again that this wasn't her Doctor.
Both of them adopted a saddened expression. Rose (original Rose) looked kind of apologetic at this. "Sorry, you can go back to your private conversation if you want," she said.
"No, no, it's not you," the Doctor protested. But Parallel Rose made no such claim.
Whether it was Rose's intervention or a lack of things to say, the conversation stopped there, and the three sat in silence once more.
Minutes passed, again in silence, as each of them tried to find a way to bring up what they wanted to say. Even for the talkative Doctor this was difficult. He was indeed the one to spark a new conversation, but the only thing he could say was, "We should let the police know about Lazarus. Come on, let's go down."
The Roses followed him through the door, down the stairs, and through the empty building. And with each echoing footstep, they were reminded of all the things they had left unsaid.