New Earth Part 1
Rose woke up in her bed, her face thrown in her fluffy feather pillow, her devout lovely and warm from a nights worth of her body heat. This was a normal morning for Rose on the TARDIS. It was like she had an automatic clock in her head.
Any second now, Rose thought. Eliza is going to hammer on my door, asking what I want for breakfast.
And damn it be true, there was a knocking on the door. "Rose," a voice whispered.
"Just do me a bacon bap, I'll be out in a minute…" Rose muttered back, sleep evident in her voice. There was a rustling in the background, indicating that Eliza was walking across the room, probably with a jug full of ice cold water, waiting for Rose to look up so she could pour it, like she did last time. Instead, she was met with a cold hand on her shoulder, the voice whispering again, "Rose? Rose, wake up, darlin'," she opened her eyes to see her mother looking down on her, shaking to get her to wake up. "It's nearly ten, sweetheart. I aint letting you sleep all day, you know."
Rose frowned at her mother. What the hell's she doing on the TARDIS? She thought. Sitting up in her bed, Rose looked around, coming to a conclusion. Ahh, ok… Looking around, she found she was in her room, back on the Powell Estate. Slowly, she began to recall the memories of the previous day, making the thought of her being in her old bed much more understandable.
Rose reached up, stretching her arms and legs before casting the blanket away, swinging her legs over the side of the bed and standing up. She looked out the window to see the TARDIS just outside the Estate, the door opening as the Doctor came out, locking the door behind him. Rose smiled at him. Yesterday, she thought that her Doctor, all big ears and leather, was dead, and by the way her was talking to her and Eliza, he might as well had been, for all she knew.
Eliza… Rose thought sadly, sitting back down on her bed. Not only was this an adjustment for the Doctor, but also for her, in more ways than one. Eliza had left the previous day, to go home, the Doctor had told her. Rose was happy for her friend, really, she was. But at the same time, Rose knew she'd miss her dearly. She was the only one on the ship that she could have her 'Girl talks' with, the only one who knew most of her secrets, the only one she could ever have her daily custard and Swiss role with. Eliza was practically her sister after the year they'd known each other, and now she was gone.
"But don't worry," The Doctor had told her after Eliza's departure, which was seen by most of London, astronomers wondering was what it was and getting to work immediately. "We'll be seeing her around."
Taking a breath, Rose decided she'd see her when the time came, not a lot more she could do about it. She nodded her head and struggled out of her grave.
Soon, both she and the Doctor were spinning through the Time Vortex, Rose running to her room, dumping her massive bag of clothes in there, even though the Doctor had insisted she didn't need it as the TARDIS had a whole wide range of clothes to choose from.
Walking out of the TARDIS, Rose took in her surroundings. "It's the year five billion and twenty three. We're in the Galaxy M87 and this," The Doctor gestured to the area. "This is New Earth." Just as he said that, two flying vehicles swooped over their heads, running towards the silver, mighty city, which stood as an island in the middle of the water.
"That's amazing!" Rose exclaimed in wonder. "God, I will never get used to this. Never. Different ground beneath my feet, different sky…" She wrinkled her nose. "What's that smell?"
The Doctor grinned and bent down, picking a few strands of grass from the ground. "Apple grass."
Rose laughed, then sighed as if he was stating the obvious. "Apple grass," she nodded. She looked back to the city, watching as more of the vehicles ran across the sky. "Oh, I love this. Can I just say," Rose starting, taking the Doctor's arm. "travelling with you, I love it."
"Me too," the Doctor grinned. "C'mon!" He grabbed her by the hand, encouraging her to run across the grass with him. Finding a nice spot, the Doctor took on his jacket, placing it on the ground, lying down upon it, Rose following suit. "So the year Five Billion, the sun expands and the Earth gets roasted-"
"Our first date," Rose teased fondly.
"We had chips," the Doctor replied happily. "Anyway, planet's gone, rocks and dust, but the Human Race lives on, spreading out amongst the stars. As soon as the Earth burns up, people get all nostalgic, big revival movement, but they find this place," he said, propping himself up on his elbows to look around. "Same size as the Earth, same air, same orbit- lovely! Call goes out, the humans move in."
"What's the city called?" Rose asked.
The Doctor smirked. "New New York."
"Oh, c'mon," Rose said sceptically.
"It is!" the Doctor laughed. "It's the city of New New York!" he looked towards the city and continued, "Strictly speaking, it's the fifteenth New York since the original. So that makes it New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York."
Rose looked down at him and chuckled, just imagining that the big ears were about to pop back at any moment, the brown suit about to turn into a leather jacket and jeans. However, she wasn't going to complain; a lot of the changes were good. "What?" he asked when he noticed her staring.
Rose shook her head. "You're so different."
The Doctor smiled as he joked, "New New Doctor," the pair of them laughed at his cheesy joke, the Doctor unable to shake the feeling of being watched.
"So, can we go and visit New New york, so good they named it twice?" Rose asked at she ascended from the ground.
"Well, actually, I thought we'd go there first," the Doctor denied, looking away from the city and towards a lone building, standing just off the edge of the water. "It's some sort of Hospital. The green moon on the side, that's the Universal symbol for Hospitals," he put his coat back on as he stood up with Rose, putting his hand in his pocket and bringing out his physic paper. "I got a message on this," he explained, opening it up, showing 'Ward 26'. He closed it, returning the paper to his pocket. "Someone wants to see me."
"And I thought we were just sightseeing," Rose sighed. "Come on then!" she said enthusiastically, taking his arm again. "Let's go buy some grapes."
They walked into the Hospital, the Doctor muttering something under his breath. "That's a bit rich, coming from you," she commented, teasing him about his choice of name.
"I can't help it," the Doctor defended himself. "I don't like hospitals. They give me the creeps." As they walked, Rose looked around the white room, a few glass pillars spreading from the ground to the ceiling. "Very smart," She noted. "Not exactly NHS."
"No shop, I like the little shop," the Doctor complained.
"You would have thought, this far in the future, they'd have cured everything," Rose said.
The Doctor shook his head. "The Human Race moves on, but so does the viruses. It's an ongoing war," the Doctor began to ramble,Rose's attention being taken away by a woman walking passed her. Sorry- not a woman- a cat woman. Wide eyed, Rose watched her walk by, catching up to the Doctor. "They're cats," she whispered.
"Don't stare," the Doctor chastised. "Think about what you look like to them," he looked her up and down. "All pink and yellow," he looked over to a small, vacant area of the hallway. "That's where I'd put the shop!" Seeing an open lift as Rose looked to see where he was pointing, he walked in. "Ward 26, thanks," he said to the lift, turning to see that Rose was not in the lift with him. The doors closed just as she was running towards them. "Too late, I'm going up! Ward 26, and watch out for the disinfectant!"
"The what?" the Doctor heard her reply.
"The disinfe- oh, you'll find out." the Doctor muttered. The Doctor knew what was going to happen. Shoving him hands in his pocket, he listened, then smiled slightly when he heard, "Commencing stage one- disinfectant." From the top and sides of the lift, three sprays of disinfectant wash over him, soaking him to the bone. As soon as the shower was finished, he was puffed in a snow white powder. When the blow dryer came on, her spread his coat, making sure he got dry, smiling immensely as the wind blew through his hair.
The wind stopped, the doors opened and the Doctor strode out. However, as soon as his foot hit the marble flooring, he felt something tingle at the back of his mind, something he hadn't felt since yesterday, when Eliza left the Estate. In fact, this tingling was very similar to when she was talking to him through Telepathy. "Eliza?" he called. He was expecting to see her soon, but not the day after she'd left.
Receiving no reply, he noted to keep a close eye on the tingling. After a while of standing around, one of the nurses approached him. "Do you have an appointment?"
"Me?" he asked. "I'm just looking," he winced inwardly, hating the fact that he sounded like a tourist snooping around a shop.
He followed the cat-nurse around the Ward, commenting, "Nice place. By the way, there wasn't a shop downstairs. I'd put a shop down there. Not a big one, just a place where people can… shop."
"The Hospital is a place of healing," the Nurse said patiently.
"Well, shopping does some people a world of good," the Doctor countered. "Not me, just other people."
"The Sister of Plentitude take a life long vow to help and to mend," the Nurse replied. They passed a very large man lying on a bed, who sounded as if he was having difficulty breathing. The Doctor stepped closer to have a look, seeing that half his neck was literally stone. Taking another step foreword, a woman hissed, "Excuse me. Members of the public may only gaze upon the Duke of Manhattan with written permission from the Senate of New New York."
The Doctor nodded, acting as if he cared, but his expression told the truth. He gestured to the Duke. "That's Petrifold Regression, right?"
"I'm dying, Sir," the Duke struggled. "A life time of charity and abstinence, and it ends like this," the woman turned back to the Doctor, an evil look in her eye. "Any statement made by the Duke of Manhattan may not be made public without official clearance."
The Duke gasped, reaching foreword. "Flue Clovis!" he gasped. The woman returned to the man, clasping his hand to comfort him. "I'm so weak…" he whispered.
The woman turned around to the Nurse and the Doctor, spitting, "Sister Jatt, some privacy, if you please."
The Nurse nodded, gesturing to the Doctor to keep walking. When they were out of earshot, she claimed, "He'll be up and about in no time."
"I doubt it," the Doctor replied sceptically. "Petrifold Regression, he's turning into stone. There won't be a cure for him for about… ohhh… a thousand years. He might be up and about, but only as a stature."
"Have faith in the Sisterhood," the Nurse replied. "But is there no-one here you recognise? It's very odd for a person to visit without knowing the patient."
The Doctor looked around the room, his eyes resting on a familiar face. "No," he smiled. "I think I found him." The Nurse followed his gaze, her own eyes met with the glass dome of the Face of Boe.
"Novice Hame, if I can leave this gentleman in your care," Jatt said to another Cat-Nurse as she approached.
"Oh, and I think my friend got lost," the Doctor rushed. "Her name's Rose Tyler, could you ask at reception?"
Jatt nodded, then walked away. He turned his attention back to the Face of Boe, smiling at his old friend. "I'm afraid the Face of Boe is asleep," said Hame. "It's all he tends to do these days. Are you a friend?"
"We met just the once on Platform One," the Doctor replied. "What's wrong with him?"
Hame looked shocked, then recovered. "I'm so sorry, I thought you knew," she stumbled. "The Face of Boe is dying."
"Of what?"
"Old age," she replied mournfully. "One thing we can't cure. He's thousands of years old, some people say millions- although that's impossible."
"Oh, no," the Doctor smiled. "I like impossible," he turned back to the Face of Boe, crouching in front of the glass. "I'm here," he muttered. "I know I look a bit different, but it's me. It's the Doctor," the Face of Boe looked like he was about to stir, but gave out a long sigh instead.
"He doesn't often get visitors," Hame told him. "Today he's had two."
"Who else came to visit him?" the Doctor replied, standing up but continuing to look down at the glass.
"She didn't say," Hame shook her head. "She said she was a very old friend of the Face of Boe. He was awake then. They talked for such a long time," Hame frowned in confusion, then added, "She left not long before you came in, actually."
The Doctor frowned also, running a hand through his hair. "What was she wearing?"
"Excuse me?"
"Her clothes, what was she wearing?"
Hame thought back to only fifteen minutes before. "Well, she wore a black coat. I didn't see anything else, Sir." The Doctor smiled. So she was here, after all, he thought.
"There's not much to do," Hame continued. "Just maintain his smoke. And I suppose I'm company. I can hear him singing sometimes, in my mind," she mused. "Such ancient songs. The rest of Boe-kind became extinct long ago. He's the only one left. Legend says that the Face of Boe has watched the Universe grow old. There are all sorts of superstitions around him. One story says that just before his death, the Face of Boe will impart his great secret. He will speak these words only to ones like himself. It is said he'll talk to wonderers. To the man without a home, and to the woman without a place; The Lonely God and The Protector of the Universe."
The Doctor nodded, wondering who this 'woman without a place' was. He had his suspicions, being as the Face of Boe only had one other visitor that day, but Eliza had a place in the Universe, she had a home, so it couldn't be her.
Running his hands through his hair again, he wondered where Rose had wondered to. Surly it didn't take this long to ride a lift up 26 floors? Noticing a phone by the wall, he punched in her number and waited for her to answer. "…Watcher."
"Where've you been?" the Doctor asked. "How long does it take to get to Ward 26?"
"I'm on my way, Governor!" replied Rose. "I shall proceed up the apples and pairs!"
Casting her new strange accent aside, he smiled. "You'll never guess. I'm with the Face of Boe. Do you remember him?"
Rose laughed on the other end of the phone. "'course I do. That big old… boat race…" Before he could correct her, the Doctor heard a mighty chuckle, coming from the Duke of Manhattan. "I've got to go, see you in a minute," he put the phone back on the wall and strode to the Duke, who was laughing happily.
Soon after finding that the Duke had been completely cured of his Petrifold Regression- and being told he was the Duke's good luck charm- he began looking over some of the other patients, amazed at the quick recoveries they were making for life time illnesses. Noticing Rose walk into the room, he greeted, "There you are! Come look at this patient!" he took her by the arm, walking her over to one of the patients, who was floating in mind air. "Marconi's disease. Should take years to recover- two days. I've never seen anything like it. They've invented a cell washing cascade, it's amazing. Their medical science is way advanced." he turned to another patient, who was complete white, blending into the bed. "And this one. Pallidome Pancosis. Kills you in ten minutes, and he's fine," he waved to the man, then turned back to Rose. "I've got to see a terminal, I've got to see how they do this." They walked through a door, the Doctor continuing to ramble. "Because if they've got the best medicine in the world, then why is it such a secret?"
Rose stopped and turned to him, casting her voice out and talking as if she were the Queen of England. "I can't Adam and Eve it," she said poshly.
The Doctor looked at her with a confused look. "Wh- what's with the voice?"
"Oh, I don't know," Rose mumbled. "Just larking about in New Earth… New me…" she looked him up and down, him taking notice that most of her shirt buttons were undone, showing things he never thought he'd see. Although he'd never admit it out loud, he could feel himself getting hotter, a small amount of blood rushing to his cheeks. You're a Time Lord, for Rassilon's sake! Superior biology… Okay, I'm fine… I think…
"Well, I can talk," the Doctor joked, amazed how his voice sounded relatively normal. "New New Doctor." He grinned at her, then found that she was looked very intently at his lips.
"Hmm… aren't you just," Rose whispered just enough for him to hear. Before he could even blink, she grabbed him by the face and pulled him in, smacking a kiss straight on his lips. Although it was quick, it seemed to have lasted a lot longer for the Doctor. In his old body, he might have pulled away, but this one was more… reluctant to stop such things. Especially when she was running her hand through his hair like that.
"Superior biology, my ass," he heard from the back of his mind, but was too distracted to think on it properly.
She pulled away, in his opinion too quickly, a red blush on her face that made her look… adorable? She pushed the hair in front of her face back behind her ear, stuttering, "T… Terminal's this way…" she walked towards her pointed direction, breathing heavily as she went. The Doctor watched he go, looking extremely dazed, his hair slightly tousled. "Yeah," he said in a high pitched voice. He ran his hand over his ruffled hair, flattening it out. "Still got it," he ended, walking to follow her.
Knowing she was about to say something, he beat her to it. "Shut up," the Doctor hissed at the voice. He looked back to see Eliza, leaning cockily on one of the glass pillars. She smiled widely and winked cheekily at him, blowing him a kiss. She chuckled, stuck her hands in her pocket and skipped off.
The Doctor and Rose soon found a computer screen, the Doctor walking straight to it, flicking buttons and touching part of the screen. "Nothing," the Doctor shook his head. "Nothing odd, surgery, post-op, and no sign of a shop… there should be a shop…" he pouted.
"No, it's missing something else," Rose insisted, taking much interest, much more interest than she usually would have, the Doctor noted. "When I was downstairs, those Nurse-Cat-Nun's were talking about intensive care, but where is it?"
"You're right," the Doctor agreed. "Well done."
"Why would they hide a whole department?" Rose continued, mainly to herself rather than the Doctor. "It's gotta be there somewhere. Search the Sub-Frame."
Something's not right here… Since when did she know what a Search-Frame was?
"What if the Search-Frame's locked?" the Doctor tested.
"Then try the Installation Protocol." Rose huffed impatiently.
"Yeah, 'course." the Doctor replied, taking out his Sonic Screwdriver and pressing it to the screen. Quickly, he felt a spark of anger heat him up. Something was wrong with his Rose- Something was wrong with Rose, he corrected- and it'd started when they got separated. He wasn't one hundred percent, but he was quite sure that the Nurses had something to do with it, and if that were the case… well, he was positive the Nurses wouldn't be having a good time answering to him.
A few moments later, the screen gave an unlocking sound. Backing away, they watched as the wall the screen was on descended into the ground, revealing a hallway. Smiling, Rose was the first to stride in, when usually she let the Doctor go first. "Intensive care… well, it looks intensive…" the Doctor said as he followed her in.
