Part One

Melody Rose Tyler woke with her hands bound and restrained above her head. Just by the grating sound of cooling metal around her, she could tell that she was aboard a moving spaceship, or perhaps a station of some sort. She wasn't sure how long she'd been out, but judging by the stiffness in her arms and the fogginess in her brain, it had been a while. Added to that, she felt panic rising in her when she tried and failed to locate the Doctor.

She pulled on her restraints and tried to sit up. It didn't take her long to twist around to a sitting position so she could have a better view of her surroundings. Blearily looking around, she noticed the cell next to her was occupied.

"Where are we?" Rose asked. "A cell obviously, but, what type of kidnappers are these and where are they taking us?"

"You're remarkably coherent for someone who was unconscious an hour ago," the older woman said. "And you don't know why you were taken?"

"As you said, unconscious an hour ago. Who are they and what do they want with us?" Rose looked the other woman up and down. "Not for the pleasure trade, obviously. Then what? Think, think, think, think, think." The younger woman's (in all apparent aspects) eyes widened in shock as she reached out for the bond that linked her to her husband and could only feel a minor pull from it at the back of her mind. It wasn't enough for her to establish a link with him; it was just enough to know that he was still alive – as was the TARDIS.

The older woman noticed the fear, worry and shock play across Rose's face and she brushed it off as the imprisonment settling in her new cell mate. Rose turned her attention to the older woman, as if she could hear her thoughts. (In reality, Rose could only pick up the surface thoughts of the people around her).

"Oh, please! Imprisonment doesn't shock me. I spent 320 years in Storm Cage."

The greying woman looked at her in surprise, and then horror. "I didn't say that aloud."

Rose frowned and thought back over what she said. She felt herself flush with embarrassment. She couldn't believe she could have been so stupid to let slip she could 'read' people's surface thoughts. "'m sorry."

"You're a telepath. Like my people. I'm Susan, by the way."

"Melody."

Susan frowned and asked. "Did you really spend 320 years in Storm Cage?" Rose nodded. "What did you do? Only the serious offenders get sent there."

"I killed a good man. A great man, actually." Rose allowed her lower lip to quiver. "He's going to come for me. He has to come for me."

"Who?"

"My husband. This is the first time we've been separated since our bonding."

Susan looked around their cells and felt a sense of dread. She had been trapped with the space traders for two years – long enough to feel the despair that no one was coming for her. And long enough to know that if this mysterious 'Melody' had a bond with another living person, then whatever their plans were for Rose were a moot point. Any telepath they kidnapped and sold needed to be free of any bond or link to be useful to them. Unlike her – but having age on her side, Susan had managed to convince the traders that she would be useful to them in caring for their new 'stock'.

"You've got a bond with your husband? How long?"

"Two years, for the permanent bond." Rose grew silent. Susan let her. "Where's home?" the younger woman asked suddenly.

The older woman (in appearance, not age) smiled sadly. She hadn't been 'home' for nearly 35 years, and she missed her children and grandchildren dearly. "Earth isn't my home, but has been the closest thing to it since my grandfather and I left our home planet many years ago. It's where my husband and children are from."

"I'm sorry," Rose said quietly.

"Where's your home?" Susan asked in return.

"Oh, I'm never quite sure. All over the place, really. Wherever my husband and our amazing ship is, probably." Their conversation was interrupted when the guards came by and found Rose awake.

"Looks like our new stock is awake," they laughed. One of them entered the cell and cut Rose's bonds before they dragged the young woman out and away from the cells. Susan followed their movements, wishing that she could do something to help the woman she'd only barely started to get to know.

NTLNTL

The Doctor did not panic. If anyone asked him, he was merely worried: very worried. Rose meant the universe to him, and to lose her was the end of happiness as he knew it. She was his life, his bond mate, and without her, he felt hollow.

He sat at a coffee shop in London somewhere, without ordering anything, trying to decide what to do. Normally, if he and Rose got separated for any length of time, they would always be able to find each other through their bond. But that was the first thing he tried when he realized that she was gone. He had followed their bond as far as he could until he had felt Rose being transported off Olympus and to a ship orbiting the planet. He returned to the TARDIS and had tried to follow the weak connection he still had with his Rose before it had vanished into deep space.

Oh, he knew she wasn't dead – not yet – but if he didn't find her soon, then he would really lose it all. Much more than he already had. He ran his hands over his tired and weary face. It was only then that he noticed that he was no longer alone. A man he recognized well had slid into the chair opposite his.

"I thought you could use a coffee," Jack said.

"Thank you," the Doctor whispered.

"You look like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders."

The Doctor reached over and picked up the coffee mug Jack had bought for him. "More like the universe."

"What happened, Doctor? Where's Rose?" Jack looked in the aging face of the 'Scotsman' in front of him, and he felt his face drain. "What happed to Rosie, Doc?"

The Doctor shifted and didn't answer for a long time. He opened his mouth to answer and then closed it again. Where was he to begin? "Rose was kidnapped. Two months ago."

Jack set his jaw. "Why?" The captain was trying not to get emotional, and yet when it came to his 'little sister', he was anything but rational. "Why target our Rosie? From what I've heard, she hasn't made as many enemies as you. Yet."

The Doctor's gaze darkened. "Oh, this wasn't about enemies. This was about something far more sinister. There is a high demand out there for telepathic beings."

"Oh, shite, Rose is telepathic. She just told me when I left her at the bar. Doctor, we've got to do something." When the Doctor wasn't about to say anything, Jack bought the Time Lord's attention back to him. "Doctor, what do we do? We need to find Rose and get her back. If we don't do something to get her out, so help me I'm going to kill you."

"Don't you think I know that already? I can't feel her, and that is very, very bad for me. And her." The Doctor frowned and looked his impossibly wrong friend over. "How did you get here? How did you know this was me?"

Jack pulled out the faded letter and envelope he'd had in his possession since he'd been stuck living through the 20th century. "I got this envelope and message back when I was working out of Cardiff during the late 70s. During the time you worked at UNIT. It came from Rose." The Doctor reached out to take the letter off his beloved wife's brother. Before Jack released it, he added, "I know it's from Rose, because I recognize her handwriting anywhere, but until last week, I never knew what the message meant."

"What message?"

Jack held up the note. "This message, Doctor. She wrote: 'Dearest brother, I won't warn you about reading this before a certain time, because I know you'll just ignore it. But please, keep the envelope sealed until you catch up with the grumpy 'Scotsman' known as my husband in a coffeehouse just outside the Royal Albert Hall. You'll know him by his dour expression – and the fact he always draws attention to himself even though he tries not to. Go to him after our discussions on respective ages and mighty superior Mr I-Don't-Need-Anyone swans off. 17-1-2015, 13:58. P.S. if you ignore this letter and try to change fate, you won't be able to help the Doctor, and, as a result, me. Give the package to the Doctor when you find him.'"

The Doctor snatched the letter out of Jack's hand and looked it over. "Me? Dour? Is that how she really sees me?"

Jack shook his head and took hold of the other package he'd been holding onto for centuries.

NTLNTL

If there was one thing that Rose held onto, it was the hope that though the Doctor didn't know where she was, she knew that he would be coming for her. It didn't matter how often they came for her or beat her or tortured her while trying to get her to use her telepathic gifts, Rose never let go of the hope that one day, her husband would find her and rescue her. Susan had long since given into her despair that no one would be coming to rescue her, and had told Rose not long after she'd arrived to stop thinking of a rescue.

Rose had looked at her new friend with determination and disappointment. "I am not one for giving up." Even though she was black and blue from all the beatings the guards had given her, she would not give up. And they had yet to confirm she was a telepath at all.

"You have been here for nearly eight weeks, and no one has come yet," Susan said, trying to be gentle, and wanting Rose to let go of her 'silly, childish' hopes. "And face it, no one will come."

"My husband is going to come. If my parents were still alive and traveling with him, then I would warn these traders twice over who is about to come." Rose took in a deep breath. "A good man is coming for me and the Last Centurion would."

"You know of the last centurion myth from Earth?"

"He wasn't a myth because his name was Rory and he was my father. He waited 2,000 years for my mother, protecting her and the Pandorica. The good man is my husband."

"But you're human."

"No, I'm not, but my parents were. They traveled with the Doctor, and long story, they had me."

Susan's jaw dropped. This was the first time she'd met anyone with so much faith in one person, and to know that they had faith in her grandfather was astounding. The last time she had seen her grandfather, she'd lost a son and had sworn never to see or talk to him ever again. "So you know the Doctor." She couldn't really keep the spite out of her voice.

Rose narrowed her eyes and looked Susan hard in the eye. Susan shifted slightly and looked away from the stony expression sent her way by the younger woman. "I take it you know him too, from the way you're reacting."

"Yes. I lost a son because of him."

"And you still haven't forgiven him for that?" Susan was silent. "And are you telling me not to put my faith in him? I hate to break it to ya, that's not going to happen."

Susan looked up at Rose with a question in her eyes.

"Without him, I would not be here, and who I am today. Oh, there would be another Melody Pond out there somewhere that grew up with her parents in Leadworth, but that wouldn't be me. I wasn't raised by them. And, without me, the Doctor would have recklessly died trying to save Earth one last time."

"What?" Susan asked quietly.

Rose suddenly stopped and took a deep breath. It wouldn't do for her to lose her temper at the only other person she'd be seeing for the foreseeable future. "Look, I'm sorry. It's just been very stressful for me. This is the longest time I've been apart from him since I got trapped in a parallel world the first time. And I'm sure you don't take kindly to people berating your husband in front of you."

"He's your husband? You're bonded to him?"

"For better or worse. I know he's not perfect, but at least he tries for me."

"And he wanted the bond?"

Rose narrowed her eyes again, this time in question. "You sound like that's something your Doctor would not do."

"And you said your parents are human, which makes you also human… Why would Grandfather bind himself to the lifespan of a human child?"

"Please just stop there. I am not human and do not have a human lifespan." The younger woman stopped. "Wait, you said grandfather." Rose closed her eyes. "Oh, you're Susan Campbell, you used to be Susan Foreman. You lost Alex."

"You know me, and you know what happened?"

Rose nodded, knowing that there was nothing she could really say to really comfort Susan in her grief. The only thing that could help the both of them now (for Susan to be able to move on and for Rose to be able to really live again) was the Doctor. And then, something happened that made Rose freeze.

Susan noticed. "What is it?"

Rose placed a hand flat on her stomach and tried to work out the fluttering touches she felt in her mind. And tried to work out if it was possible for her to be what she thought. "Oh, bugger."

"What?" Susan echoed.

Rose looked fully at the other woman. "I haven't had my monthly cycle since I arrived."