Author's Note: Sorry about skipping a couple days of posting. Got a nasty cold, needed to make sure the stuff I wrote while I was sick was actually good when I had a clear head. Onwards!
Chapter 2 – Utter Indignity
"You know, sometimes, when they say you're ahead of your time, it's just a polite way of saying you have a real bad sense of timing." - George McGovern
Rose looked from the Doctor to Ace and back again, keeping her mug full of tea half raised in front of her like a shield. It had been obvious from the Doctor's reaction when she had first come in that he did not recognize her, and she was fairly sure that the Time War had not occurred for him yet. Her heart ached that she was being dishonest with him by omission, but at even the barest inkling of a thought of telling him what was coming caused her head to fill with visions of Reapers and universes collapsing. She may have been that reckless once, but she knew that there was no way she could take that risk now.
She had been shocked when the Doctor had attempted to touch her mind. She couldn't figure out how he had, though. Both of her Doctors from before had needed to touch her to gain access to her thoughts, and even then it was with reluctance. Whether he was simply a stronger telepath during this regeneration, or the difficulty her other Doctors had was a result of the trauma of the Time War, she couldn't tell.
She felt Ace shake her elbow, and realized that she hadn't heard the last several minutes of conversation. "Sorry, Ace, my mind wandered off for a bit."
"That's alright. Like I was asking, Zed, you said something earlier about when you were my age, like you were so much older. You don't look it. How old are you, anyway?"
Rose felt a lead weight drop in her stomach, even as she gave Ace a small smile. "I can see why he picked you to travel with. How old do you think I am, Ace?"
"I dunno. Twenty, twenty-two?"
Rose gave a derisive snort in spite of herself, and didn't make eye contact as she answered. "Try adding a century, and you'll be closer to the mark," she said, immediately taking a large gulp of her tea to cover her dread at having given them that clue to what she was. I'mnotgoingtobeabletokeepeverythingIneedtofromthem ,thiskeepsup.
Ace's eyes went wide in realization. "You're not human!"
Rose shook her head. "No, no I'm not. But I used to be, if you find that comforting."
The Doctor narrowed his eyes at her words, his interest piqued. "Used to be human? In my experience, changing species goes wrong more often than not."
Rose winced, and kept her eyes lowered. "It wasn't something that could be helped. The process was gradual. It was years before anyone even noticed what was happening to me, and by then it was far too late to stop it. Not that I wanted to. Not exactly meant to be Earth-bound, me."
The Doctor gave a wry half smile, and nodded in acknowledgment. "And yet you're here in Wales, mucking about in my old post."
Rose snorted in amusement. "One thing never changes about you, Doctor; you rarely end up where you mean to be, and when you do land in the right place, there's trouble. You were supposed to drop me off in London, 2006, and instead I got Cardiff, 1978. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to get a job when you technically haven't been born yet?"
As the Doctor began sputtering denials, Rose gave Ace a conspiratorial grin. "First time I made him take me home so I could pick up some clothes, he told me we'd only been gone 12 hours. Mum was hangin' on to me for dear life. I had just seen the missing posters when himself bursts through the door and tells me it had been 12 months. Twelve bloody months! Mum slapped him so hard I thought his head would spin clear 'round."
Ace started laughing at Rose's story, head thrown back, and Rose herself offered up a conspiratorial chuckle while inwardly relaxing at her deflection from the topic of her current situation. She heard the Doctor mutter something along the lines of, "… idiotic, being laughed at for the actions of my future selves. Completely ignominious…" and joined Ace in outright laughter.
In the face of the Doctor's insincere outrage, Rose smiled, and nudged Ace in the arm. "Remind me to tell you what happened when I met up with Sarah Jane Smith."
"You know Sarah Jane?" The Doctor asked, voice rising momentarily before he composed himself. "How is she?"
Rose shot the Doctor a warning look. "Not nearly old enough yet, all things considered. I'd advise against casually dropping in for tea."
He had the good sense to look abashed at the implications in her tone. "She would chuck a teapot at my head right now, wouldn't she?"
"Most likely," replied Rose, raising an eyebrow at him with just a hint of indignation at how he treated a woman who wouldn't technically be her friend for a couple more decades. Upon hearing the door behind her crack open, she raised her voice a bit while winking at Ace. "But I'm sure Mr. Benton is looking Ms. Smith up quite often during his off-duty hours."
"I most certainly do not, Ms. Wilk," Benton said while stepping up behind her chair, causing Rose to tip her head back to look up at him. "Not any more than is polite for old acquaintances. And has anyone told you that your ability to drag someone into a conversation like that is unsettling?"
Rose smiled up at him. "Bollocks, on both counts. You love it."
"Language, Ms. Wilk," chided Benton.
"Is merely words, Mr. Benton, and I've found over the years that it's not the words but the intentions behind them that matter. Now," Rose said, turning in her seat to face Lieutenant Benton properly, "you wouldn't be here unless you had a reason."
Sgt. Benton nodded. "Mrs. Delaney's body is ready for your examination. I'm here to escort you."
Rose nodded and stood, depositing her mug on the table. "Lead the way, Lieutenant," she said, gesturing for the Doctor and Ace to follow.
~.o0o.~
In spite of her eccentric wardrobe and youthful face, the Doctor observed, Ms. Wilk was the embodiment of professionalism once moving on the case in front of her. Just outside of the entrance to the examination room, she paused long enough to take into account her unexpected guests. "Ace," she asked, "we're going in to examine a dead body. I know the Doctor will be okay with it, but will you? You can stay out here, if you'd rather."
Ace looked carefully from the Doctor to Zły and back, visibly pulling the brash personality he'd come to be fond of about herself like a cloak, before nodding once and stepping forward to lead the way in. Zły put up an arm to stop her, pointing at the stack of gowns and masks on a table next to the door before reaching over to grab one of each for herself. "Gown, mask, and gloves, Ace. You too, Doctor. While I'm fairly certain from the initial reports that her condition wasn't communicable, I'd just as soon not take chances."
"Ms. Wilk, as a Time Lord, I'm sure I'm...," began the Doctor, only to be cut off.
"Doctor, two of the missing aren't human. Whoever or whatever is taking them can obviously affect more than one species, and the key element seems to be time travel – the more, the better," stated Zły, with a hint of anger in her tone. "Which makes you a prime target. It would be prudent, until we know what is causing the disappearances and have a cause of death for Mrs. Delaney, not to take unnecessary chances."
The Doctor opened his mouth to argue further, but was cut off. "You can put the mask and gloves on, Doctor," Zły stated forcefully, thrusting the items into his chest and pushing him back slightly in the process, "or you can stay out here. I would prefer to have you in there giving me your opinions, but I will not risk a paradox if this is, in fact, contagious, by allowing you to die before I've properly met you."
The Doctor nodded slightly, taking the mask and gloves from Zły's hands and donning them before grabbing a gown and following his companions into the room.
Mrs. Delaney's body had been laid out on the examination table of the village's GP's office, and covered with a sheet to her shoulders. At first glance, as Ms. Wilk and Lt. Benton had indicated, she had the same sad, almost shrunken stature that seemed common to the most aged humans the Doctor had met in the past. The only thing that indicated that Mrs. Delaney was not, in fact, elderly, was her hair style – long, flowing, and still the dark tones of her youth instead of whitened by age. Just looking at her hair, the Doctor could tell that this was a woman who was not meant to be old.
"I'd like to avoid doing a full autopsy if I can help it," Zły said in a quieter voice than she had used outside, out of an unconscious respect for the body of the woman on the table. "These aren't the proper facilities for it, and to be frank, I haven't the proper training either."
"Then why ask to see her body at all?" Ace asked, averting her eyes from the table as Zły gently moved Mrs. Delaney's arm from beneath the sheet for a closer look.
"Because reports and photographs can only tell me so much, Ace," Zły replied slowly, leaning in to peer closely at the wrist of the arm in front of her. "The people who did the initial examination may have missed something, either because it's alien and they have no experience of it, or because they don't want to acknowledge the evidence presented to them. Humans live in a state of denial, it's how we manage to get on with our lives in the face of everything that's out there. Think of all you've seen with the Doctor. How much of it would you believe had happened if you hadn't seen it with your own eyes?"
Before Ace could respond to her, though, Zły leaned in and deeply sniffed at the wrist in front of her. "Doctor, come smell this," she waved the Doctor towards the body and lifted Mrs. Delaney's arm towards him. The Doctor raised a skeptical eyebrow, but leaned in and took a deep breath through the mask.
"Ionization. This woman was held in an energy restraint," the Doctor confirmed what Zły had obviously suspected.
"The question is, why?" Zły paused, and puzzled for a moment. "Doctor, can you use the sonic screwdriver to scan her for energy readings?"
The Doctor shot her a look of confusion.
Zły winced, and mumbled, "You haven't programmed it to do that yet."
"No, I have not." The Doctor would have found her discomfort amusing under other circumstances, but at the moment he couldn't find the hearts for it.
"Only one thing for it, then," Zły said while leading the way out of the room, stripping off her gown, mask, and gloves. "We need to get ourselves caught."