Part Two: Paper Crowns
by The Valiant Child
Well I woke up today
And the world was a restless place
It could have been that way for me
And I wandered around
And I thought of your face
That Christmas looking back at me
I wish today was just like every other day
'Cause today has been the best day
Everything I ever dreamed
And I started to walk
Pretty soon I will run
And I'll come running back to you
'Cause I followed my star
And that's what you are
I've had a merry time with you
He thinks that she's all he has.
Then, on a Christmas day, surrounded by unexpected friends with a red paper crown on his head, he realises that he may be wrong. She's given him a family; made him a part of hers.
His grin doesn't falter once that day. Only stretches whenever she's close.
When he kisses her under the mistletoe, he's surprised that Jackie doesn't slap him but is smiling instead. Rose is blushing. He likes that so he kisses her again. Her pink paper crown slides off to the floor. He's never had a better day than this.
He takes her to New Earth and ends up developing a dislike for cats. So they go to Barcelona next. The planet, not the city. They have noseless dogs there. Noseless dogs are cool.
But of course, them being the Doctor and Rose, they find trouble there as well. It would be unnatural otherwise. There's even more trouble at the next stop, and the next, and the next. In fact, their quietest day in the entire month is the accidental visit to 1879, instead of 1979 where they meet Queen Victoria and a werewolf instead of Ian Dury and the Blockheads. Or at least, they think it's the quietest day, being unaware of the repercussions of their actions.
He gets sick once. It's like the Common Cold but directed at two-hearted races. He insists that he's fine and dandy; all the while sneezing and coughing so violently that she's afraid that he'll blow his head off.
She demands that they go to her mum's and stay there until he's better. He firmly refuses, convinced Jackie will try to poison his broth while he's weak and out of it. Rose wants to roll her eyes but gives him her best pleading look instead, knowing full well that he has trouble saying no to that.
Sure enough, he ends up being mothered by Jackie Tyler for a full week. He complains but he doesn't mean any of it. When they're about to leave, after having fussed over Rose, Jackie moves on to the Doctor, mussing his hair and telling him to wear clean underwear.
Rose thinks that the Doctor might just die then and there but he doesn't. Only squirms away and turns beet red. Rose can tell that her mother does it purposely when she sees the sly, satisfied smirk on Jackie's face as she closes the door behind them.
They're off on more adventures after that.
Once, they end up in a parallel world by mistake. Rose finds that she and her family are dead in it. They plan on leaving just as soon as the TARDIS is fully functional again but there's an alien threat and they just can't help themselves.
They end up running back to the TARDIS and as they hurtle past the London Eye, she thinks that there's a strange man in pinstripes staring at them in shock. But being stared at is nothing new for them and she's not surprised and doesn't think about it twice.
They're back on their own world in a few minutes.
In one unexpected turn of events, they meet Jack again. The Doctor tries to run but is unsuccessful. Rose, who'd previously been under the misconception that Jack was dead, demands all kinds of explanations that the Doctor refuses to give. They fight and she walks off to clear her head.
He runs after her and finds her at a chip shop, sitting alone. He slides into the seat across from her.
"I'm sorry," he says.
She spares him a glance and goes back to picking at her chips.
"I'm sorry too," she mumbles.
He sighs, runs his hands across his face and decides that she deserves to know what happened to Jack. He tells her how the Daleks had them all surrounded and how Jack had been killed along with everyone else in the Game Station and that he'd been the only one left. He tells her how the delta wave couldn't be modified and that if he were to activate it, they'd all die; everyone within the wave's reaches. He tells her that he just couldn't do that in the end.
A coward every time.
And just when he had thought that everything was lost, he tells her how she came for him and for Jack. Bathed in gold and shining brighter than a supernova. When she asks how she became, or will become that way, he lies that he doesn't know. Only that she'd possessed far too much power for a human to handle and that whatever it is that her future self has done is very, very dangerous.
He tells her about Jack then, and how she brought him back. He'd sensed that something was wrong back in the Game Station but it was only when they'd met Jack again that he realised what had happened to him. He tells her that she couldn't control all that power; that she brought her friend back, but she brought him back forever.
And now he can't ever die. He's a fixed point in time.
She listens silently and when they go back to the TARDIS, where Jack is waiting, she hugs him as tightly as she can and apologises over and over again in between sobs.
Jack travels with them again, and the Doctor finds that staying around him gets easier by the day. Soon, they're almost back to their old routine.
They end up in 1953 (where Rose gets her face taken and the Doctor almost ends up in hysterics), then they go to see the Alignment of Exidor after which it's 18th century Venice where he almost blows up the entire city while trying to keep Giacomo Girolamo Casanova away from his Rose. In the end it's a simple matter of letting Jack loose that solves the Doctor's troubles. Or not...
It is only after a while that they realise that the combination of Jack Harkness and Giacomo Casanova is the stuff of nightmares and that no one is safe. Jack has the time of his life, Rose gets a stitch laughing, and the Doctor develops a severe migraine. Also, they end up owing Casanova a chicken. The Doctor has no idea how that happened but he's sure that it definitely involved Jack.
It's fun for the next month, and the next, and the next, especially on Rose's birthday when the Doctor and Jack try to bake a cake for her which thankfully doesn't end up splattered on the walls like the Doctor's last attempt but is only mildly edible. None of them can get past the first slice.
So, the Doctor takes them to Vish-Vish in the Falke Galaxy in the year 993232 and finds Rose the very best cake there is to find. It mostly ends up being the victim of a food fight (which Jack starts) but whatever bit of it is left is simply delicious. Rose gives him the longest, most passionate snog of his life as a thank you. He splutters something about not really getting a proper gift but she snogs him again to shut him up.
He gets her a hairclip he finds in the bazaar of Klaf'alch a few days later. It is pink and white with hints of teal colouring the edges and she simply loves it. That gets him another snog.
They buy some bits and bobs for the TARDIS and when Rose asks him if there's something to be found in this bazaar that might make a good gift for her mum, he directs her towards the Bazooliums.
"They grow hot when it's sunny," he explains, "and cold when it's about to rain."
They have a limitless credit stick so they buy it.
Next stop: Earth, London, the Powell Estates.
They'd been so happy together that the Doctor had forgotten for a while what it is always like for him. That in the end, no matter what, there comes a time when they all leave, whether by choice or not, and then he's left all alone. Again.
But that's what happens. A storm comes and Rose is gone... and all he's left with is a white wall and two broken hearts.
He searches like a madman for a crack in the universe so that he can get her back again but when he finds the crack, he realises that it's too small and all he can do is burn up a sun to say goodbye.
She tells him that she loves him. He has always known and he can bet that she knows that he feels the same way, but he can't say it before the time runs out, and he's left with the words still in his throat.
He stumbles into her room and in a fit smashes every object he can lay his hands on until there isn't anything left to break, after which he tries to fix everything back to the way it was. Jack finds him there, trying to restore the room to the state in which Rose had left it. His hands are shaking and it is with a wobbly voice that he tells Jack to go away. He wants to be alone with his Rose, he says.
Jack tries to gently steer him away but the Doctor refuses and starts yelling and slams the door on his friend's face, locking it. He breaks down and cries after that.
The Doctor lives in a cloud in the sky now. He's sulking there because the Universe is being mean. He wants his Rose back but the Universe doesn't seem to care so he stops caring as well. There are no daring adventures for him now. No saving planets and getting into trouble. All that is in the past.
Sulking is his present.
Jack tries to call once in a while to check up on him. So do a few of his other friends. He never picks up the phone.
The only time he gets down from his cloud is on Christmas. He buys two paper crowns. One pink, the other red. He puts on the red one and lays the pink one on the jump seat by Rose's jacket; the one she'd forgotten in the console room.
"Merry Christmas, Rose Tyler," he mumbles.
Well I woke up today and you're on the other side
Our time will never come again
But if you can still dream
Close your eyes it will seem
That you can see me now and then
I wish today was just like every other day
'Cause today has been the best day
Everything I ever dreamed
~ Murray Gold: Song For Ten
A/N: A great many thanks to eveyone who left a review, added this fic to their favouries and are following it: Arella1, keepcalmandcoldplayon, SittingOnTheEdgeOfTheUnivers e, vannadear, Inka Clover, FloraFaveXNara-Wire, BooksAreMyVideogames, shannon. matthews. 338, ceese, Mia Bronte, Laikayanel, BADWOLF127, talkstoangels77, mary. norland. 5, aquarius15, gred18850, Inka Clover and Primcartoons.
Special thanks to Valerie E. Mackin for helping me edit this chapter.
So, what do you think? Was it any good? Did I do the characters justice? And who liked the special little cameo I put there?
I couldn't help put Jack in there as well. I just love him so very much.
Two more parts to go. I would love your feedback, so please don't forget to review. It's the knowledge that there're people who are reading this and want me to continue spurs me to write faster and you do want the next chapter soon, don't you?