The Doctor had just gone to look in on Rose and Oswin, he hadn't planned on eavesdropping; but he'd seen that the curtain was open and couldn't help himself from taking a quick listen to see what they were talking about. As it was, he was glad he had. Oswin had talked Rose out of doing something stupid and he'd have to thank her for that. Even then, he wouldn't have interrupted them, but Rose had specifically mentioned his name. He'd had his suspicions about her for a while, about who she'd been traveling with in the other universe. Jack had filled him in on all of their conversations so far, and he could draw his own conclusions. And so, it seemed, could she. She'd asked the other woman questions that were obvious clues, if you knew what you were looking for.
Now he was carrying an unconscious Rose out the door and through the halls to the medbay. He wasn't sure if it was shock, fear, or the alcohol that had made her pass out, but she couldn't have picked a worse time to do it. He hated communing with the humans enough as it was, now he'd have to take care of her and make sure she was sober enough to have the conversation they needed to have. He could have just waited until she'd slept it off, but now he'd gone and tipped his hand by entering the room.
He inserted an IV to help speed up the sobriety, but figured he was probably in for at least a few hours' wait. He strapped the arm that didn't have the IV to the rails of the bed, in case she woke up while he was gone. With his luck, she'd wake before he got back and try to explore the ship on her own. And he wasn't sure what kind of mood his ship was in, or where it would lead her if she did. So it was better to play it safe.
Rose woke up a few hours later, her head pounding and stomach churning. She immediately regretted the last two or three drinks she'd had. As it was, she couldn't even remember going to bed. She attempted to roll over, but her arm jerked her back. She sat up quickly and realized her left arm was strapped to a gurney, the other had an IV inserted. She tried to reach across to take it out, but her secured arm wouldn't allow for it. She groaned and lay back down, shutting her eyes. She attempted to think of the last thing she could remember, and quickly sat up again in shock. "Doctor," she murmured.
"You rang?" his voice replied, entering the room. "So, Rose Tyler. Seems we're overdue for a chat."
"Seems we are," Rose agreed. "First, can you undo these?" she asked, lifting her wrists.
"Nah. The IV will do you good, and I don't want you getting the bright idea to try and run off and explore my ship."
Rose sighed, "All right then. Well, since you're the one who brought me here, what did you want to talk about?"
"Oh, now she doesn't have questions," he said, rolling his eyes. "Been hounding Jack for days to see me, and suddenly you've changed your mind?"
"It's not that. It's just...well, I dunno where to start, really."
"How about we start with the part where you tell me how you know my name?" he suggested, taking a seat on a stool near her bed.
"How much has Jack told you? Of what we've talked about, I mean. Or have you been listening in on all my conversations?"
"Rude!" he admonished, "I've not been listening on all your conversations. Just the ones Jack's not there for. He's told me the rest," he finished, with a manic grin, so very reminiscent of her own Doctor that it gave her a pang of sadness.
"Right, well, as you've no doubt pieced together, the person that Jack and I traveled with in my universe was, well, you. That universe's version of you, anyway."
"That's odd. There shouldn't be Time Lords in other universes," he said, frowning.
Rose laughed, "Yeah, that's what he said when we ended up here the first time."
He just shrugged his shoulders, "Shows what I know, then. All right, so you traveled with this other me. Was it this version? Musta been, since you recognized me."
"Yeah. This one, and the next," she answered, softly.
"Huh. Well, doesn't really change anything. You're still stuck here. You may think you know me cuz you've traveled with that one, but I can tell you straightaway that he's not me. For one, I'd never travel with humans, if I could help it. No offense, of course. You seem intelligent enough, for a human. And brave, and decent enough to look at, but you lot bore me to tears. Jack's pretty much the only exception, and that's only because he was a Time Agent, so he's seen a lot more than the rest of you. And he's handy to have around. But even with that, I don't have a choice. Got to keep him here, so might as well put him to work. But the rest of you, no thank you. Wouldn't catch me spending time with you if you paid me."
"That why you're so keen to keep tabs on us all?" she asked, offense evident in her features.
He laughed, "Nah, don't keep tabs on all of you. That's Jack's job. I was just checking in on you because I had a weird sense about you, like you were lying to me, or covering something up. I couldn't let that stand. And look, I was right! So, that's my curiosity quelled. Thanks for playing. I'll be getting back to work now and I'll have Jack come take you back."
"Wait! Just, I dunno, give me a minute to process, yeah? I still have questions for you, but my head's a bit fuzzy still," she said, attempting to lift her hand to her forehead.
The Doctor sighed, then got up and began mixing a powder into a glass of water to give to her. "Here, this'll help."
"Ta," she said, gulping it down quickly. She hadn't realized how thirsty she'd been. "Right. Okay. So..."
"Any decade now, thanks," he interjected, voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Blimey, you're impatient! That's one thing you've got in common with him, that's for sure," she muttered, rolling her eyes. "All right. So, I dunno, there's a lot I want to ask you, but I don't know how much is different and how much is the same and I don't want to tell you anything that might be from your future, since I traveled with the next you, too. Can you tell me how you got into doing this? This intergalactic policing thing you've got going on here? It's a bit weird, yeah? Here you've got this amazing ship, can go anywhere and anywhen; you don't want to travel with humans, yet you've got a ship full of them. What's that about? Why do it, if you don't want to?"
He eyed her contemplatively for long moment, "What did your version tell you about his people?"
"He said that they were all gone, dead in the Time War," she answered, quietly.
He gave a dry laugh, "I see some things stay the same across universes. Did he say how? Don't give me specifics, just...did he know how, at least?"
She broke his gaze, looking down at the gurney. "Yeah," she replied.
He nodded, "Well, that makes one of us. I wasn't there. I was here; well, on Earth. I knew the war was happening, and I knew it was bad. I had been sent to Earth to return a group of prisoners. That's what we did, see. My people. Policed the galaxy. Only we didn't have time to deal with the ones we had once the war started, and I was sent to return them somewhere suitable until we could get back to it. When I tried to return, nothing was there. It was just gone. But, like I said, don't tell me what yours told you. Don't wanna know. Might be the same, might not be. Either way, what's done is done and I made my peace with it a long time ago. Anyway, I kept on with it. Nothing else I could do. Only I don't have the resources I used to, so I keep everyone here."
Rose considered this for a moment. "Yeah, but aren't there other places you could take some of them? The violent ones, I mean. Like real prisons, on their own planets."
"Nah. Some of 'em never actually did what they're being held for. My people can see timelines, which you probably already knew. Some of them were picked up before they could commit their crimes. Can't really give 'em a trial if they never got to do what they're on trial for."
"That doesn't seem right, though. I mean, they haven't done anything, yeah? How can you punish someone for something they never got the chance to do?"
"But they would have done it. And I'm not talking about jaywalking, here. I'm talking about genocide. Did your universe have an Adolph Hitler?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at her.
"Yeah, of course it did. But...oh, that's right. No World War II here," she finished, eyes wide. "That was you?"
"Well, I dunno about World War II, but if he did anything like what we saw him doing here, then I suppose it could have gotten there. My people stopped him before it could become an issue. Are you tellin' me you think we should have let him do it? Suppose you know best, having seen it play out on your side. What do you say?"
Rose gulped, thinking over the enormity of that question. "I...I dunno. I mean, it was bad, yeah? But my Doctor always said you couldn't change stuff like that. That you just had to let history take its course."
"And maybe that's how things were in your universe. But here, my people have been patrolling since most of the other species were still in their evolutionary diapers. Kept that sort of thing from happening, right from the start. I bet that's not the only difference you noticed when you got here, smart girl like you."
"I dunno," she said, gobsmacked, "I never really got a chance to study up on all of it, didn't think I needed to. I was so busy training with Torchwood and tryin' to find a way back to my universe. I just kinda picked up on whatever would come up day to day."
"Right, well, most people here wouldn't know there was anything odd about it at all, either. It's just the way things have always been."
Rose sat in silence, unable to think of how to respond to that.
He huffed in frustration. "This is why you humans are so difficult to travel with. You take forever to accept anything different from what you're used to."
"Hey! That's not fair! Alternate universes, and aliens, and time travel – no problem for me, even though I didn't know they existed for most of my life. But you're telling me everything I know about my planet's history is different here. I'm gonna need a minute to process that," she shot back, indignantly.
"Fair enough. It's a lot to take in, I'll give you that. So how about we get you back to your room. I haven't got time to sit around here all day while you adjust. But you're not the least interesting person on board, so I think I can make time for you again in a couple of days. How's that?"
"Yeah. All right. Oh, and before I forget, I still want to see the medical reports you have on me."
He rolled his eyes, "Yeah, I didn't forget. But today's not the day for it. Got bigger things to deal with, you have. Now, lay back down. I'm going to put you back in stasis and have Jack come get you. And no arguments, you got your chat with me. And I'm agreeing to another one. But patience is a virtue much appreciated on my ship, so you can deal with it."
Rose clenched her jaw, but opted not to say anything and did as he asked. She hoped to get more information out of him, and the only way to do that was to stay in his good graces. She'd get another chance at that in a couple of days. So for now, she just needed to bide her time be cooperative.
