"How did you…?" The Doctor stuttered. Rose winked at him and fished the screwdriver out of her pocket.
"Figured it out, I did!" She grinned. She flipped the screwdriver over in her hand. The Doctor looked at her in amazement.
"How?" He asked.
Rose shrugged her shoulders.
"Dunno. Just flick it to a random setting and it always happens to be right." She smiled.
"Glad to see you're in one piece. Now, I've had enough of these guys, would you like to accompany me back to the TARDIS?" Rose held out her arm for the Doctor to grab.
He looked at her utterly bemused. She had changed so much since that day in Canary Wharf. He grinned and looped his arm through hers. He held out the other arm for the sonic screwdriver.
"Can I do the honours?" He asked. She grinned and winked at him. Instead of giving him the screwdriver though, she walked up to the door and opened it herself.
Staring at her in amazement, the Doctor couldn't help but smile. Rose he thought. There was none like her. Looking past Rose into the corridor behind her, he suddenly noticed two bewildered guards staring into the cell.
"Rose look out!" He shouted in alarm, pointing at the guards.
Rose spun around, and acting on instincts, proceeded to knock them senseless with two well aimed punches to the head. The Doctor stared at her dumbfounded as she streched her fingers to make sure nothing had broken. Turning and noticing the Doctor's expression, she smiled sheepishly.
"Sorry, instinct. As part of my new job, I had to learn self defence." She giggled.
The Doctor shook his head in amazement.
"There is definitely more to you than meets the eye, Rose Tyler."
Taking Rose's hand, The Doctor crept out into the corridor. Looking around for any signs of activity, they slowly walked down towards what they hoped was the door that would lead them into the garden where the TARDIS was. Several times that had to dart into a side room in order to avoid catching a guard's attention.
"The guards at my cell told me this place was called the United Kingdom Experimental Station. What do you think that means?" Whispered Rose to the Doctor. He looked at her.
"This is how I got to your world. They are switching realities inside this chamber they've built." He replied in a hushed tone.
"What's the point of that?" She asked.
"Stealing energy particles from parallel universes. But that's very risky. It could mean the formation of exotic particles in either of the universes."
"And that's bad…?"
"Very." The Doctor looked grim.
"But, according to history, this type of technology was experimented with, but nothing ever came of it. It was abandoned. So, with enough luck we should get out of here without changing history, and make sure they abandon the technology." The Doctor glanced sideways down the corridor, before grabbing Rose's hand and leading her silently down it.
"But, apart from the exotic particles, why should they? I mean, the possibility of unlimited energy is very tempting." Rose whispered, as she crept closer to the Doctor. He sighed and looked back at the girl he loved.
"Yeah, I guess they just realised the risk was too great. Exotic particles are WAY bad. Trust me, risk versus reward, risk would win." The Doctor replied, turning back to look down the corridor.
They stopped at a corner, and peered around it. Lucky for them, it was empty. Looking around to check that no one was near, they slowly crept around. Suddenly, loud footsteps echoed behind them, making them jump. Looking around, the Doctor spotted another ventilation shaft, and dashed over to it. They scrambled inside, closing the door just in time for a squadron of soldiers to march by. Sighing in relief, they crawled up the shaft.
"I hate these shafts," mumbled Rose.
OO
"Ouch Doctor! That's my foot!" cried Rose.
The Doctor retracted his hand.
"Sorry!"
Rose paused to rub her foot before moving on up another section of the shaft.
"Ok, where do we go now?" She asked.
"Towards the TARDIS,"
"Very specific Doctor,"
The Doctor eyed her off.
"You know these shafts better than me."
Rose looked at him with a surprised expression.
"What?" He asked in that sheepish expression.
"Oh it's nothing…"
The Doctor frowned at her. Rose's smile spread to a grin.
"It's just I've never heard you use the phrase better than me before."
Rose suddenly burst out laughing at the look of complete annoyance the Doctor shot at her. She quickly fastened her lips together when he shook his head in disbelief. Rose smiled and turned back towards the shaft they were heading through.
"Ok," She clasped her hands together. "This way!" Rose slowly crept through the small opening into another part of the ventilation shaft system, occasionally letting out a few giggles along the way.
OO
"Ok, I think we go down..." started Rose, her hand pointing towards a shaft extending downwards in front of them.
The Doctor held up his hand to silence her.
"What is it?" She asked.
"I can hear something…" The Doctor turned around and crawled back the way they came.
"Where are you…?" Protested Rose, as she crawled rather uncomfortably to his side.
"Shh!"
The Doctor leaned in close to the wall of the shaft. Rose sighed and followed his lead.
"How could this happen?"
It was the commander's rough voice.
"We found the security outside the cell had been knocked unconscious." Trembled a quiet voice in return.
"Oh; great! We already have the council on our case when we stopped the tests to interrogate the intruders, but now we've lost them! What next?"
"Now he doesn't sound too happy!" Rose smirked. Once again the Doctor held up a hand to quiet her.
BEEP BEEP
"Dammit, that's probably the council now…You're excused soldier!"
The sound of footsteps hurrying away could be heard, as well as the slamming of a door. Rose suddenly wished she could see into the room, purely to laugh at the commander's face, so that for once he was the one in trouble.
"Commander Watson here. Yes sir, we had to stop because… No sir we have not learned…But sir! We need to find them, find out how…Yes sir I understand completely the amount of money has been invested into…Yes sir, right away."
The Doctor and Rose met eyes and exchanged looks of interest.
"Soldier!"
Rose heard the door open once again, and more hurried footsteps.
"Sir?"
"I need the chamber scientists ready to go. We have our orders to continue tests immediately."
"But what about the intruders?"
"The council decrees that although the matter of the intruders is of serious concern, they feel that the tests take higher priority." His words were strained, as if he didn't want to say them.
"Yes sir! I will inform the scientists immediately."
This time two sets of footsteps could be heard leaving the room. Rose sighed and leaned back against the other side of the shaft. She turned to head to the Doctor and smiled.
"What now Doctor?" She asked.
The Doctor turned to face her, with that all too familiar grin on his face.
"We are going to find those scientists!"
OO
This time, the Doctor led the way down the shafts, stopping every so often to check where they were. Rose kept close; she had forgotten how exciting it was, travelling with the Doctor.
The Doctor reached a section of the shaft and stopped. He turned to the left and put his ear to the wall of the shaft. Rose followed his example.
"Start tests, stop tests, start tests, stop tests…have they made up their mind yet?" A grumbling voice said.
"Oi! Professor! Start em up!"
"The tests? For real this time? No more interruptions? Can I finish my work now? Can I be allowed to do what I moved here for? Can I…?"
"YES Doc!"
"Thank you." The scientist muttered.
The whirring of machines and the flicking of buttons could be heard. The constant mutterings of the scientist could also be heard every so often.
Rose didn't know how long they stayed there, not talking to eachother, but listening to the scientists. The scribbling of pen on paper, the whirring of machines, and the chattering in the distance. The Doctor was listening intently. Rose copied his example.
After what seemed like hours, a new voice could be heard inside the room.
"Professors! How are we coming?" It was the commander's rough voice.
"Fine. Just finished preliminary tests. The potential for energy sources is exponential but…"
"But what doctor?"
"There is a rather high risk of exotic particles…"
"Risk on reward doctor? What is valued more highly?"
"Risk, risk, risk, risk…" The Doctor muttered under his breath. Rose saw him furrow his eyebrows in frustration.
"Come on you idiots! Exotic particles are extremely dangerous things…" He muttered.
"I think reward is higher sir."
The Doctor swore under his breath, cursing the scientists for their ignorance.
"Good. The council wants you to up your experiments to the next level."
"But sir! We still haven't completed our tests on this level…"
"You said it yourself, reward is higher. Now, you have lots of work to do, I suggest you get to it."
"What does this mean Doctor?" Whispered Rose.
The Doctor turned to her.
"If they don't stop those tests soon, and they take one experiment to far, we could end up with dozens, possibly hundreds of exotic particles in our universe. That's something I plan to stop." The Doctor's expression was full of grim determination.
OO
"That's it, set that dial there to six…Good, now that one to eight…"
For several minutes the scientists had been setting dials. Rose didn't have a clue what they were going on about, but the Doctor listened with a keen interest. Occasionally he would mutter corrections in their actions, in frustration. Rose did her best to understand, but so far, the only thing she knew was that if these scientists went one too far, the Doctor would step in himself and stop them.