A/N
Disclaimer: It isn't mine, mate! I don't own it, mate! I make no money from it, mate!
Hello! Here we go. This chapter- the Doctor is back. Oh, and if you get confused with the explanation the Doctor gives- it'll be explained at the end.
Forward!
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Rose couldn't stop the stupidly huge grin that spread around her visage as she followed the Doctor- well, not really followed- more like trying to keep up- and stared with delight at the view of her hand and the Doctor's hand clasped in a tight embrace.
"Back to the TARDIS?" Rose asked, the grin still there.
"Yep," the Doctor replied, just as exuberantly. "You missed out on a lot, Rose Tyler! Gotta catch up!"
Rose could do nothing but smile as he led her into- back to- her home- the TARDIS. Smile as he turned around upon entering the TARDIS, giving her another hug, warm and comforting. Smile as he grabbed her hand and led her to the controls.
And then he turned to her, wearing a cute pouting frown on his face. "What's with the clothes?" he asked.
She looked down, realising that she'd forgotten about wearing a different set of clothes- Martha's clothes. "These are Martha's," she told him.
The Doctor's face remained in that confused position. "Why? Why are you wearing Martha's clothes?"
"I got my clothes all bloody," Rose explained to him, showing him the row of stitches on her upper left arm, and almost grinning at the abrupt change on his face from confusion to concern. The Doctor touched the stitches gingerly, a fleeting touch that almost made Rose shiver.
"Well, we'll need to get that fixed, won't we?" the Doctor exclaimed suddenly, making Rose jump in surprise. "Allons-y!"
He grabbed her hand, the right hand, and led her through the maze of the TARDIS and into the medical lab. Here, the Doctor pushed her gently onto the med-table, and began rummaging through a drawer opposite said table.
"What're you doing?" Rose questioned, the smile still not leaving her face- it still hadn't fully sunk in yet.
"I'm looking for something to remove those stupid inventions of human doctors!" the Doctor told her. "Stupid stitches! Make it harder to let me at it!"
"I'm pretty sure the doctors will apologise when they realise their mistake," Rose replied, sarcastically.
The Doctor chose not to reply, instead, fumbling through his jacket, taking out his sonic screwdriver with a flourish. "There we go! Need some light!"
Rose's brows furrowed. "Why do you need a light?"
The Doctor grinned at her, a big, huge, wide grin, pulling open the drawer as far as it would go. "Bigger on the inside!" he stated happily as he, quite literally, dived in.
And, ironically, came to an abrupt halt when his body was only halfway in. Rose raised an eyebrow. It wasn't every day that you got to see the Doctor's legs sticking out of a drawer, wriggling strange, unusual patterns in midair.
Subsequently, the only thing Rose could think of was how cute an ass the Doctor had.
A muffled banging reached Rose's ears, and she watched as the Doctor wriggled, backwards, his way out of the drawer, managing somehow to land on his feet and shake the dizziness out of his head, before turning to her, hair puffed up, grinning widely, and clutching something that looked like a pen in his hand. "Got it!"
Rose grinned back at him. The Doctor's enthusiasm was contagious. "What'll it do?" Rose queried.
The Doctor walked over to her, placing the pen-thing against the stitches on her arm, and to her amazement, the stitches shrivelled up and vanished like some strange magic trick. Or, she mused, like a banana when the Doctor was around. "That's what it does," the Doctor told her. The cut on her arm hadn't changed positions- hadn't twinged with pain or anything like that, for which Rose was grateful.
The Doctor ran over to the other side of the room, dumping the pen-thing and replacing it with a small device, similar to a scanner in appearance, and racing back to Rose's side. He positioned the device above the cut, and pressed a button. Immediately, bluish-green light emanated from its tip onto Rose's arm, and, to Rose's delight, the cut began to fade- not fade… heal. And heal quickly, too.
Abruptly, the device made a beeping sound, and the Doctor placed it next to Rose. Rose stared at her left arm. The only thing that remained of the cut was a thin white line, about four centimetres long. She touched it, poked at it. Didn't hurt at all. "Thanks," she said to the Doctor, standing up. And that was when she noticed the familiar humming of the TARDIS- excitement a-plenty. It was almost melodic, gentle…welcoming.
She had returned.
And it was sinking in.
She grasped the Doctor's arm with trembling fingers, and the Doctor turned around in concern. "What's wrong?" the Doctor asked her.
She didn't reply, staring at the ground, and the Doctor tilted her face up in concern. "Rose? What's wrong?" the Doctor worried.
Rose looked up at him, tears in her eyes and running down her face. "You… me… I'm… and you… and me… and… I'm back!" she blurted out.
A smile began to spread slowly over the Doctor's face. "You are back! Hello!"
Rose grinned through her tears, sniffed, and plunged forwards into the Doctor's waiting arms. "I'm back," Rose exclaimed into his shirt. "I'm back!"
The Doctor pulled her closer. "Yes, you are."
They remained in that embrace before the Doctor pulled himself out, and stared at Rose with some emotion she couldn't decipher, cupping his hands against Rose's face. His eyes turned black, with sorrow, or guilt, or remembrance. "I missed you," he whispered to her.
She looked up at him, moving both of her hands over his own. "I missed you, too."
A deep understanding passed through their eyes. A journey passed from brown to brown- a tale of friendship, of loss, of grief, of misery, of determination, and finally, of happiness, of relief. A tale of return.
Then the Doctor jumped up, removing the link between them. "But how?"
"How?" Rose replied, confused.
"How, Rose Tyler, did you get back? It's impossible. Impossible, as in- impossible." The Doctor gestured wildly to get his point across.
"If there's anything you taught me," Rose told him, "It's that nothing is impossible."
The Doctor didn't reply, only continued to stare at her with judging eyes, trying to determine, if possible, how it was that Rose was able to cross an un-crossable void.
Rose told him. "Time Lords helped me," she explained.
The Doctor seemed to perk up and darken at the same time, if that was even possible. "Time Lords?" There was disbelief in his tone.
"Yeah." Rose knew here that she'd have to tread lightly; Martha had told her what had occurred with the Master in this universe- and how devastated the Doctor had been. If Rose said the wrong thing now…
"Five of them. They built a device-" Rose was interrupted.
"Time Lords don't help anybody," the Doctor said harshly.
"These ones do," Rose responded. "They built a device to get me back."
"Why?" the Doctor still obviously didn't believe her.
Rose stared into his eyes, opening herself up, showing complete honesty. "They told me that they wanted to help because they owed it to you."
The Doctor stepped back, surprise etched across his face. "Me?" he pointed at himself.
"Yeah," Rose nodded. "Well, the 'you' from the other universe."
The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Why would-"
Prepared for this question, Rose said, "Because you saved their lives."
"I did?"
"The other 'you'," Rose replied.
The Doctor's eyes darkened further. "That's new," he whispered to himself.
Rose overheard, but didn't dwell on it. Instead, she fumbled with the bag she was holding, pulling out the device that she had used to pass through the void. Upon seeing it, the Doctor snatched it out of her hands, a look of curious delight replacing the darkness on his face as he turned it over, peering closely at it.
"Did they tell you how it works?" the Doctor was still staring intently at the device.
Rose stared at the transporter. "They said… they said it worked by making me into a 'bubble' to transport me through the void."
"A bubble?"
"Yeah," Rose answered.
The Doctor shuffled through his coat pocket, withdrawing his so-called brainy-specs, put them on, and grinned widely at Rose. "So they used a protective and repelling bubble to get you through the void…but… the only things that are capable of travel through the void are the ones that match the atoms corresponding to each universe. Which means…"
"Means?"
The Doctor's grin spread further across his face, making him light up like a Christmas tree. He explained it to her at about three hundred miles per hour. "Which means… that they had to add a Tribophysical Waveform Macro-Kinetic Extrapolator!"
All Rose had time to do was look confused as the Doctor continued his fast-paced rant.
"Oh! And if they used a Tribophysical Waveform Macro-Kinetic Extrapolator, Rose Tyler, they must have used a Tribophysical Uni-Kinetic Molecular Transverser to maintain the disparities in the different universes! Because, of course, if you couldn't maintain the disparities of different universes, you're heading for a big, fat, boom!"
His exclamation of 'boom' was more than loud enough to make Rose jump half out of her skin.
"Brilliant!" the Doctor continued. "Brilliant! And so they used a Compression Field to form a negative loop back into the Tribophysical Uni-Kinetic Molecular Transverser to keep the stuff inside the Tribophysical Waveform Macro-Kinetic Extrapolator to allow molecular displacement to enable the universe's original molecules to be replaced with the destination's molecules!"
Rose nodded agreeably, having no knowledge of what the Doctor had just said.
"Excellent! Ha! Couldn't have done it better myself!" the Doctor said happily. "Just brilliant! Don't you agree?" this the Doctor directed at Rose.
There was a pause. Then, "Huh?"
The Doctor stared at Rose.
Rose stared back. How was she supposed to know? However, inwardly, all she was doing was carving his happy face permanently into her memory banks. Well, that and laughing at the expression on his face. She answered anyway. "Yeah… yeah, I agree."
The Doctor grinned again, still wearing his glasses, completely and utterly oblivious. "Knew you would!"
Rose nodded again, having another urge to hug him just to prove she was back, and laugh at the happy naivety on his face. She didn't get a chance to do or say anything as the Doctor abruptly changed the subject, yelling a "C'mon!" and grabbing her hand, leading her through the TARDIS' many corridors, before stopping just as abruptly in front of a door which Rose recognised all too well.
"Is this…?" Rose hardly dared to ask, reaching a hand out and touching the familiar frame of her room's doorway.
The Doctor glanced at her, understanding just how much it was to take in. "Why don't you get changed into something of yours?" he suggested gently, removing his glasses from his face and placing them back in one of his pockets.
Rose nodded dumbly. It wasn't that she didn't like the clothes Martha had given her… she just preferred her own. She entered her room, feeling nostalgia immediately.
When she had first arrived in the TARDIS and chosen a room for herself, the TARDIS had automatically changed the background colour and style of the room to suit Rose's preferences.
The room was a light shade of pink, with a slightly darker shade indicating her door. In one corner, a darker shade indicated her walk-in closet- huge- containing all her clothes, her shoes and all the stuff she had from expeditions to other planets. She walked over to the closet, opening it and staring with hunger at the sight of her clothes. Ignoring them for the time being, however, she chose instead to reach behind the messy pile of shoes and pulled out a small cardboard box.
She ran a finger along its dusted surface, relishing the comfort it presented to her. She took the lid off the box and peered inside. She picked up a small, brown, hardened flower which still smelt just as sweet as the first day she'd seen it. It had been the first alien planet she had ever visited, and the flower, according to the natives, was said to bloom only once every five thousand years, and only for a couple of seconds. And when it bloomed, it showed colours of unimaginable beauty. Even though the flower appeared withered and dead, it still smelt fresh and moist, as if to announce the fact that it was still alive.
She put the flower to one side, and picked up a dusty photograph of the Doctor, in the first regeneration she had seen him, smiling widely and hugging a younger Rose close to him. The younger Rose was grinning at her through the faded picture, showing pure, unadulterated happiness.
She placed the picture with the flower, and picked up the last remaining item in the box. It was a small, crystal orb that she had been presented to by the Doctor- the recent one- as a birthday present. When she had first seen it, she had almost been disappointed at the lack of 'alien' to it, but that had changed when the Doctor had told her what it could do.
She clasped her hand over it, and narrowed her eyes, concentrating hard. A flash of light emanated from the orb, and she let go of it, allowing it to float in midair. Another flash and a laser-like beam pointed out, forming into a black and white humanoid shape. The Doctor. Or, rather, memories of the Doctor.
When the Doctor had just regenerated, the moment when Rose realised that the Doctor would be okay… "Did you miss me?"
When the Doctor's hand had been cut off in his battle to save the world… "You wanna know the best bit? This new hand? It's a fightin' hand!"
When the Doctor and Rose had been sitting on the apple grass of New Earth… "It is! It's the city of New New York! 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 New York."
When Rose had met Sarah Jane, and she had gotten to see one side of the Doctor she hadn't before… "I don't age. I regenerate. But humans decay. You wither and you die. Imagine watching that happen to someone that you l-"
"You can spend the rest of your life with me... but I can't spend the rest of mine with you. I have to live on. Alone. That's the curse of the Time Lords."
When they had first travelled to the alternate universe… "Not in the real world... It used to be easy: when the Time Lords kept their eye on everything, you could pop between realities and be back in time for tea. Then they died, and took it all with them. The walls of reality closed, the world was sealed, and everything became that bit less kind."
When the Doctor had terrified her with the ominous statement after the opening of the Olympics in London… "Something in the air. Something's coming. A storm's approaching..."
When she said the last goodbye to the Doctor, standing on Bad Wolf Bay… "Inside the TARDIS. There's one tiny little gap in the universe left, just about to close. And it takes a lot of power to send this projection- I'm in orbit around a supernova. I'm burning up a sun just to say goodbye."
And when they had been reunited, just mere hours beforehand… "But… It's impossible…"
"Rose!"
The orb glowed brighter for a second, before returning to its crystal state. Rose sighed, memories reappearing freshly in her mind. She placed the crystal ball with the flower and the picture, then stood up and returned to her room, placing the three items on her huge, pillow-filled bed.
Realising she still had yet to get changed, she made her way back into the wardrobe, picking out the pair of jeans and sleeveless top that were the closest to her. Changing quickly, she placed the flower, the orb and the picture next to her bed- she had demanded of the Doctor long ago that she'd need a bedside table- and that's what she put the objects on, positioning them so all three could be seen on all angles of her room.
She turned to walk out, and then turned back. Should she take the bag with her? The bag with the communication device she had left on her bed- but the Doctor had the actual transportation device with him… so the Doctor could grin about it all he wanted. And that reminded her- she needed to tell the Doctor that the Time Lords wished to meet with him. Not sure of how he'd take it, she had decided not to mention anything about it earlier.
No. She would leave the bag where it was. She didn't need it right away.
She exited the room. The Doctor was waiting for her on the other side, having the transportation device still in his hand. "Ready?" he asked.
"For what?" it was her turn to ask a question.
"I'll show you," the Doctor offered. Well, sort of offered. Once again, Rose found herself running along with him to the control room of the TARDIS.
Once there, the Doctor went on ahead pressing buttons and anything else he could get his hands on. The TARDIS jolted into movement and Rose grinned happily at the Doctor, who promptly grinned back.
"First trip!" Rose called to him over the sounds of the engines.
"First trip!" the Doctor called back just as enthusiastically.
"Where are we going?" Rose yelled.
"Secret!" the Doctor winked at her from across the console.
The TARDIS jolted as it landed, and Rose was reminded of the smooth landings the Master was capable of. As the Doctor came to join her, she called to him, "Did you pass your TARDIS licence?"
The Doctor looked surprised at the question for a second, before grinning and responding with a "Nope!"
Rose shook her head ruefully, still smiling.
"Here," the Doctor said, pulling something out of his coat pocket. "You left it."
Rose reached out her hand to take her purple jacket off the Doctor; the one that she had been wearing when she had been trapped in the alternate universe. She shrugged it on; still fit. "I didn't leave it," she said to the Doctor, whose face became confused. "It stayed," she elaborated.
The Doctor nodded, a half-smile apparent on his face.
Rose began to walk out, but the Doctor blocked her. As she glanced at him in puzzlement, he strode over to the doors and opened both in a wide, swift movement.
She gasped.
They were on the same beautiful, rocky planet that they'd been on when she had told the Doctor that she'd remain with him forever. Looking up, a smile spread across her face. The stingrays, the flying stingrays, were slowly looping patterns around the eroded and shaped rocks, calling out to each other in a strange, musical language.
She glanced back at the Doctor, trying to find words to say what this meant to her. "Forever," she told him.
He seemed to get the message, and offered her one of his hands. She took it, and they both stared at the majestic singing life-forms above them.
She turned back to him.
"Wha…?" he turned towards her, the movement attracting his attention.
"The Time Lords." Rose paused for a second before continuing. "Don't you want to know their names?"
"Mm," the Doctor nodded, but still, Rose could tell he was wary.
"One's called the Officer."
"Don't know him," the Doctor stated.
"Another is called Jorax."
The Doctor's eyes widened. "As in… Jorax?! The best Time Lord Scientist ever?!"
Rose widened her eyebrows imperceptibly. "He's the best scientist?!" she exclaimed. But then, it made sense. The amount of knowledge he'd had regarding the application; enough so that he could replace it with an adequate metaphor- of course he had been a scientist- and of course he had been good. "That actually makes sense," Rose told him.
"Next?" the Doctor was impatient, for some strange reason.
"Loranos," Rose stated.
"Don't know."
"Phantom."
"Don't know."
Rose hesitated, slightly nervous of what kind of reaction she would get.
The Doctor narrowed his eyes at her, judging silently, and, probably, accurately. "Who's the last?"
Rose opened her mouth. "The Master."
The Doctor's reaction was instantaneous. He tensed noticeably, eyes wide, full of repressed guilt and sadness. "Rose… he's bad."
Rose met the Doctor's gaze squarely. "Not from that universe, he isn't."
The Doctor appeared to consider that, thinking quickly. "He's obsessed."
"He helped me."
"Why?"
"You saved him."
The Doctor snorted. "I couldn't save him."
Rose hated his self-deprecating tone. "You'd be surprised."
The Doctor furrowed his eyebrows. "You trust him?"
"I do," Rose responded, completely honest.
"Good enough!" the Doctor replied, convinced.
"Really?" she felt a glimmer of affection towards him; so willing to trust her.
"Yep."
There was a pause, not awkward, as they both stared out to the stingrays.
And then, a change of subject.
"Why do they look like stingrays?" Rose asked the Doctor, as one particularly big one passed over their heads.
The Doctor grinned at her, glad at her choice in subject matter. "Wrong. Stingrays look like these," he beckoned to the flying mantises.
"You mean?!" Rose caught this on fast.
"Yep."
"Stingrays originated from here?!"
"Yep."
The only thing Rose could respond with was a long, "Cool."
There was another pause as they both surveyed the ancestors of the marine stingrays. Rose shuffled closer to the Doctor, almost cuddling into his brown trench coat.
"They asked for one favour," Rose told him.
The Doctor looked at her with interest. "Yeah?"
"They wanted you to come back with me so you can see them," she said.
The Doctor's eyes widened again, but this time it was with memories of loss, of pain, of distrust. And then the flicker was gone, replaced with mere curiosity and excitement. "Ready for an adventure, Rose Tyler?"
Rose grinned in response.
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TBC…
A/N
G'day!
Hope you all liked this chapter- took me a while to write- I kept deleting heaps.
Alright, first of all, the stingray-planet. If you happened to forget about that part, I suggest re-watching 'Army of Ghosts'.
Second, the explanation of the Doctor's techno-babble. Yes, I made all of it up- except for the Tribophysical Waveform Macro-Kinetic Extrapolator and the Compression Field.
Okay. Consider the 'bubble' you were told the transportation was like. Now, this bubble repels and attracts. The attractive force allows pull to a particular universe, while the repelling force prevents anything from tagging along. The bubble is the Tribophysical Waveform Macro-Kinetic Extrapolator- like a shield.
Now, the Tribophysical Uni-Kinetic Molecular Transverser (let's call it TUMT for the sake of this conversation) disperses the special universal molecules (which we know as space-gunk, residue, or the green stuff the Doctor saw on each of them in Doomsday) and replaces these molecules with ones from the universe you are travelling to.
The Compression Field allows this process to happen by making the contents inside smaller- thus making the transfer process faster.
Yeah. That's about what happens.
So, without further ado, I present those who have my thanks.
First: To the magnificent people who reviewed the previous chapter (thank-you so much! It was quite hard to write a believable reunion, and I'm so happy you think I pulled it off!): gaiafreedom21, QuiteRightToo, caromac, MythStar Black Dragon, Rosie-Jess, White Purity, Talia-Taylor, M64, x-EmilyTennant-x, NewDoctorWhoFan (who reviewed chapter five as well), and The Chibi's Are Stalking Me.
Second: Thanks so much to the people who put this story on their favourites: Draco167DramaQueen1133, I'mTheMasterOfWhatever, JeMS7, Kaia-S, QuiteRightToo, Rosie-Jess, Sunny angel, Talia-Taylor, The Chibi's Are Stalking Me, Tigerprime, VampMistress, Wanabee, awesomepwincess123, caromac, gaiafreedom21 and jimmybeam.
Third: Thanks heaps (and a fully-functional TARDIS) to those who put me on their favourite author lists: Draco167, I'mTheMasterOfWhatever, johnny-B-reading, Mara Jade Snape, QuiteRightToo, Rosie-Jess, Talia-Taylor, VampMistress and Wanabee.
Lastly, thanks to all that put this story on story alerts and who put me on their author alerts.
Once again, I have to say, you guys make me so happy!
Oh, and on a slightly sour note, I won't be able to update this for around three weeks- circumstances beyond my control, believe me. I apologise in advance.
On a slightly higher note, I was wondering something. I had originally planned this to be just one story, but I had a dream which subsequently gave me inspiration to write a sequel. I'm not sure if I should… so… do you guys want me to have a sequel to this?
Anyway, I'll appear again after three weeks.
SnowFox3