Heading for Hell

Thank you for the reviews/follows/favourites so far. It really does mean a lot to me! As an answer to your request monkeymail, I'm sure I'll be able to add River to this somehow. I've also added Sarah-Jane and Jack to the character list seeing as though I had forgotten to add them in in the first place.

This chapter is shamelessly fluffy—besides the ending. I just wanted to give you a look into Rose and the Tenth Doctor Duplicate's relationship in Pete's World before the real 'action' begins. Also, this piece of 'space junk' will become a lot more significant in later chapters. I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1

Placing down the steaming hot teaspoon held previously in her hand, Rose Tyler let out a sigh of exhaustion. Turning her head slightly to view the clock stood proud over the kitchen sink, she gathered up the two mugs sat on the work surface in front of her and began her journey out of the kitchen, making her way down the garden path outside. It was just stretching onto eleven o'clock at night. The sky lay blanketed in a sheet of deep blue as stars twinkled far ahead in the distance. Rose wore her heavy, waterproof coat—red and identical to the Doctor's. Just the thought of them wearing matching His & Hers items like her mother and Pete caused Rose shudder. It was just coincidental that they were the same.

"Hot chocolate?"

The Doctor looked up from his lap, a large grin taking up the majority of his face.

"Yes, please. Thank you."

Rose held out one of the mugs to him. He graciously accepted it and took a generous sip, letting the brown, sweet liquid travel down his cold-ridden throat. At once, a wave of warmth washed over him. That was just what he had needed. He sat on one of the large garden chairs, his glasses (which, as a human, he actually needed in order to see things long distance and up close in a lot more detail) sat intelligently on the bridge of his nose.

"Did you find anything?" Rose asked before, she too, took a sip from her mug.

"No, not yet. It's hard to identify what this specific little piece of space junk is," replied the Doctor sceptically.

He placed his hot chocolate down onto the floor before lifting up the piece of metallic space debris from his lap up into his hands. Squinting, he continued to mentally analyse it; scrutinising it's every scratch, every colour and every detail. The only source of light—besides that shimmering from the stars—came from the shadow of their house and the few lights that were still switched on inside.

"Interesting," commented Rose as she took a seat beside the Doctor in the chair next to his. "Maybe that's just what it is though. Maybe it is just a piece of space junk?" she suggested.

The Doctor looked thoughtful for a second. Rose did have a point.

"It could be," he replied after a momentous pause. "But Torchwood wouldn't have asked me to give it a look-over if they weren't suspicious, would they?"

Rose nodded. Torchwood were quite stingy when it came to giving free handouts of what they believed to be alien technology out to their employees. Of course, they could trust the Doctor, and Rose for that matter. After all, he was part alien. And Rose's dad (well, step-dad if you want to get technical) was their boss.

"True. But anyway, remind me why we're outside again?"

Rose's voice was laced with a slight amount of frustration. Pulling the belt of her coat more securely around her to block out the cold breeze that seemed to have just picked up around them, she tightened her hands around the hot mug as a way of trying of preserve the warmth she so desperately needed. This however, was failing miserably. She could feel the temperature of the liquid dropping with each second. This was winter at its peak.

"Well," the Doctor began, and just from that one word, Rose could tell that a long, complicated, it's-just-because-you're-too-human-to-understand explanation was about to be told. "The starlight reflects off alien technology, you see. Ordinarily, this is because they both come from the same sort of place—miles and miles and miles away from the Earth's atmosphere. So, you see this spec here," The Doctor pointed to a small dab of green on the derby that contrasted greatly against the arrays of silver beneath it. You could barely miss it. "Well this is a reflection from the stars."

"Oh," said Rose in response, knowing that it was more than probable that he was right. He usually was. She hadn't saw this spec earlier that afternoon at work when they had picked the piece up, anyway. Although Rose would never show it, she felt a slight beam of self pride well up in her chest. She understood for once. "So that's significant then? It can help you tell where it's come from?"

The Doctor scrunched his brow up tightly, his glasses moving slightly upwards on his head out of place.

"It should," he replied. "But for some reason, I can't seem to trace where this specific little piece has come from. It's as though it doesn't even exist!"

Rose gave off a small scoff. "But it obviously does!"

"I can see that," the Doctor chuckled but not before he shot a playful glare in Rose's direction. Way to go Captain Obvious! "That's what makes this so... strange. I've never seen anything like it before."

Rose's eyes narrowed. The Doctor had seen a lot of things, even in his short four-year human lifetime alone. What made this so different?

"What're you gonna do then?" she asked before making her tone sound much more sterner. "And please don't tell me we're gonna stay out here till sunrise or some other ridiculous hour because really, that's never gonna happen. It's freezing!"

"No," the Doctor replied simply, smirking inwardly at how whiney Rose could be when she was cold. "We're not going to stay out here all night. That'd be completely unnecessary!"

"So..."

Rose was growing inpatient. She could feel her toes turning to ice; her ears burning up but not through heat. Reluctantly, the Doctor placed the 'space junk' onto the nearby garden wall, running his hands along it for one last time - until the morning, that is.

"We'll just leave it out here for tonight and tend back to it again in the morning," he reasoned a little bit more than unwillingly.

"Good!"

"Right, then!" he suddenly announced, smacking his hands together as a lapse of attention. "Back inside then Miss 'it's-too-cold-outside' Tyler!"

Rose folded her arms up in annoyance, smirking beneath her pouting bottom lip.

"I do not sound like that!" she protested. It seems the mimicking that had just took place was not to her liking. "Take it back, Doctor. Now."

He chuckled mercilessly, gathering up the two now half-empty (the Doctor was never one for optimism), lukewarm mugs of hot chocolate and began to walk inside.

"I thought you said you were cold!" he called out to Rose as he reached the kitchen.

Removing his coat and putting it on one of the dining chairs to the far corner of the room, he made a journey back towards the sink, dumping the two mugs into the bowl that awaited him. Listening closely for a response - probably one containing a lot of unnecessary swearing—the only sound the Doctor found himself able to hear was a faint shuffle in the background. However, it didn't take him long to realise that Rose was making her way back indoors.

"Oi!"

The Doctor opened his mouth in a form of shock as Rose stepped in the doorway of the kitchen, watching over him with glaring eyes. When she said she had felt cold, she really meant it. Her whole face and hands were pretty much a shade lighter than the deep red coat she was wearing. He hadn't saw it in the dark. He knew at once that Rose would not be taking to this lightly.

"Rose," he pretty much gasped. "I am so sorry. You look..."

"Cold? Freezing? Pathetic? Oh, I don't know... how about red!?"

This sudden change in attitude knocked the Doctor edge ways. He had not been expecting this.

"No, no, no," he assured her quickly. Almost a little too quickly. "You don't. Honestly. You just look... in need of a hug. If you ask me."

Rose turned her head, sensing where he was going with this. She wouldn't let him get away with it that easily; not if she could help it.

"Well I'm not asking you," she pointed out rather snootily. "And quite frankly, even if I was asking you, that answer—or, shall I say more fittingly, excuse—is completely and utterly lame. I mean, who do you - "

Before she had even noticed, the Doctor had crossed the room to stand in front of her because placing a kiss of silence to her lips. Unwillingly, Rose had responded to him with a lot more feeling than she had intended. She was supposed to be mad at him.

"Oh no you don't," she cursed as they pulled away from one another.

The Doctor grinned at her toothily. All forgotten. But, what he seemed to have forgotten was that this was Rose he was talking about. She was Jackie Tyler's daughter - when had he seen either of them give up at anything? He hadn't. Not ever.

"Rose."

The Doctor reached out to take her hand. But, before Rose could respond, the shrill of her mobile ringtone filled the room. The Doctor rolled his eyes incredulously, not quite believing that this caller could've picked a more fitting time. Routing around the pockets of her large coat, Rose finally found her phone hidden in the bottom of one as it continued to ring out regardless.

"Hello," said Rose as she accepted the call and put the receiver to her ear. Silence. "Hello?"

Heavy breathing filled the line. It was as though somebody was crying in the background. Rose felt her heart jerk in her chest as she realised who the caller was.

"Mum? Is that you? Are you okay?"

To this, the Doctor's ears quite literally pricked up with concern. Alarmed, he moved in closer towards Rose to try on catch onto the conversation that was about to take place.

"Rose..."

Jackie's breathless voice filled the line.

"Yes, Mum, it's me. Is everything okay?" Rose's desperate questions went on. Her mother hardly ever cried - not without a good reason.

"I... it's..." Rose heard a deep breath on the other side of the line. She and the Doctor shared a knowing look. "It's your dad, Rose. Pete... he's... he's gone."