Car-Jumping is a Dangerous Sport, I Tell You
hello. :) i think you might like this one.
that's all i'm saying. :) a few naughty words.
consider yourselves warned!! :) and i know it's
MEGGAAAA LONG, but it was either that or another
chapter, and i didn't want that. so here it isssss! :)
"He's completely insane!" Valerie cried, as the Doctor disappeared down the hatch of the car below. Rose felt a part of her go with him. She felt slightly empty because of it, but brushed it off. He'd be back soon, no matter what.
"And a little bit magnificent!" Brannigan added, and Rose couldn't help but smile. That, he was.
And what stung slightly was that Brannigan and Valerie didn't know just how magnificent he actually was.
"Yeah, he is, that," she said, quietly. She accepted the seat Valerie offered to her and declined and 'cup of tea' that was actually some kind of light-pink goo, and waited for the Doctor to return. However long he took, she would be here, waiting.
Meanwhile, the Doctor was standing in his first car of the day, opposite a man that was very pale and wore all white. He looked ill, but maybe that was the fashion these days in New New York. How was he to know? The man questioned who he was, and for once, 'the Doctor' wasn't going to cut it. The Doctor thought quickly for a believable cover story.
"Sorry," he said, still thinking. "Motorway Foot Patrol," he blurted, his words not actually registering with his brain. But it sounded good. The man nodded, and seemed to buy the story. "I'm doing a survey, how are you enjoying your motorway?" the Doctor asked as he worked on the trapdoor on the floor.
After the man had gotten over his shock, a pissed-off expression replaced the emotion on his white face. "Well, not very much, actually," the man said - he had a pompous air about him the Doctor didn't take to. "Junction Five's been closed for three years!"
The Doctor's face was a picture - slightly shocked the man had answered, and midway through a cough as the fumes came up from the now-open trapdoor. "Uh … thank you! Your comments have been noted!" he said, rather like a computer that processed complaints. "Have a nice day!" was his final words as he jumped onto the roof of the next car, coughing at the intense fumes.
The door to the next car opened easily and he dropped through, startling the two girls that were seated. "Sorry! Don't mind me," the Doctor said, and dropped to his knees to trapdoor once more. He spotted a blue handkerchief dangling off the back of the seat. He grabbed it without a second thought.
"You don't mind if I take this, do you?" he said, already stringing around his face so it covered his mouth, and hopefully helped stop the fumes from trying to suffocate him. "Blue's not really my colour, but beggar's can't be choosers!" The girls didn't speak, instead just staring at him in shock. He took that as a yes, and thankfully the trapdoor opened with an electronic-sounded click, followed by a similar sounding voice. "Capsule open." it chimed cheerily, and the Doctor dropped through without a word.
He landed on the next car whilst it was moving forward an inch or two. He stumbled and his foot caught a handle-like thing, nearly sending him toppling to his death however many feet there was below the car. He regained his balance as quickly as he could, aiming the sonic at the door which opened as easily as the others did. He jumped in and heard the rustle of newspapers, and his eyes opened wide at the drivers, both of whom were completely naked and trying to cover their modesty with the newspaper.
"Sorry! Don't mind me," he said, ducking down and jumping smoothly into the next car, eager to be away for the nudists in the car. The next one was lit all in red, and a large man turned around.
"Oi!" the man said, pointing a finger. The Doctor just gave him a salute and opened the trapdoor.
The next (and last, at least the Doctor hoped so) car held a businessman as it's only occupant. As soon as the Doctor opened the hatch, the man had stood up and by the time the Doctor was on his feet he and the man were face-to-face.
"Excuse me, is that even legal?" the man said, incredulously, as if he couldn't believe a man had dropped through the ceiling of his car in the middle of a traffic jam.
"Sorry," the Doctor said, coughing severely, "Motorway Foot - oh, whatever, have you got any water?" he finished, unable to finished his now well-revised spiel about Motorway Foot Patrol surveys thanks to the intense fumes. It felt like someone had put his lungs in a vice.
The man nodded. "Certainly. Never let it be said that I've lost my manners," he replied, while he strode over to a water-cooler behind the Doctor and filled a cone-shaped cup with cool water. He handed it to the Doctor who drunk it all in one gulp, and got a refill and devoured that in a similar fashion.
"Is this the last layer?" the Doctor said, his throat cooled but still raw from all the coughing.
"Ah yes, we're right at the bottom. No-one below us but the fast lane!"
The Doctor nodded. "Can we drive down, then?"
The man shook his head apologetically. "No, we can't, I'm afraid. There's only two of us and you need three to access the fast lane."
"Couldn't we cheat?"
The man smirked slightly. "I'd love to," he admitted, and the Doctor could see a mischievous twinkle in the suited man's eye, "But it's an automated system. The wheel would lock." His voice was as disappointed as the Doctor felt.
"Right then," the Doctor replied, smirking back, feeling that he was glad that this man was on the last layer. It would have been harder to convince, say, the girls three layers above, or the nudists two layers above. This man seemed nice and the Doctor wanted to ask him his name, get to know him somewhat, but there was no time. Rose and Martha were in danger and he was their only hope of getting out alive. He kept himself focused on the job at hand.
He ran over to the trapdoor as the man exclaimed behind him. "You can't jump! It's a thousand feet down!"
"I don't want to jump," the Doctor explained, crouching down so he was peering down through the trapdoor, "I just want to look."
The man nodded in understanding and adopted a similar position on the other side of the trapdoor.
The fast lane was completely obscured with a thick, murky fog that was oppressive, swallowing up all the cars on the fast lane. It rose up and up into the man's car, trying in vain to saturate the small vehicle. Seemingly out of nowhere, a screeching, high-pitched roar came from the depths of the motorway.
"What's that noise?" the Doctor said, straining his ears for another sound of the noise.
The man looked worried. "I try not to think about it."
The Doctor tore his eyes away from the smoke and looked at the man. "What what is it? What's down there?" He bit his lip, thinking madly. "I just need to … see … " he jumped up suddenly, startling the man and little, and ran up to the front dashboard of the car. "There must be some kind of ventilation system," he said, a little manic, as he always was when ideas were flooding his head like they were now.
"I think so," the man said, one finger to his chin in thought. "But I don't know how it would operate ... "
The Doctor carried on like he hadn't heard him. "If I could just transmit a pulse through this thing, then maybe I could trip the system, give us a bit of a breeze."
He ran the sonic over the screen, praying madly that it would work.
Meanwhile, there was silence in Brannigan and Valerie's car. All three occupants were immersed in their own thoughts. Brannigan had one hand on the steering wheel, his other hand clasped tightly in Valerie's, who was staring out the window into the murky smoke. Rose was sitting on a small ledge near the back of the car, both hands on her womb while she looked at the floor, determined not to cry. That was the last thing the Doctor needed. She needed to be strong.
All of a sudden, golden sparks flew from the trapdoor above. Rose thought for one fleeting, amazing moment that it was the Doctor returning, but then realised that golden sparks weren't really his style. At all.
"Just what we need," Brannigan said angrily, jumping up. "Bloody pirates!"
Valerie was also as angry. "That's it, I'm calling the police!" she said, although she made no move to do the action.
Slowly, the spark went along three out of four sides of the hatch and the it swung open with a clatter and someone poked their head through, brandishing a gun that was glowing green. The person faced Brannigan and Valerie so Rose couldn't see it's face, only the white hood it wore over the back of it's head.
"The Doctor," a voice rasped. "Where is he?!"
Rose knew that voice.
Back in the businessman's car, the Doctor was knee-deep in wires.
Nothing new there, then.
He held the sonic screwdriver trapped between his teeth as he played with the wires, connecting them here and disconnecting them there with a zap from the sonic. Eventually a wire snapped in his fingers and a buzzing noise was heard. The Doctor beamed.
"That's it!" he said, running towards the trapdoor where the businessman was still crouching. "Might shift the fumes a bit, give us a good look."
The fumes were shifting, revealing something beneath.
"What are those shapes?" the man asked, as the fumes evaporated to show something with claws. Big, huge, snapping claws that were snapping loudly and dangerously close.
"It's alive," the Doctor whispered, as the fumes cleared that little bit more. The claws suddenly were attached to giant, red crabs. The businessman paled.
"What the hell are they!?" the man said, one shaking hand over his mouth.
The Doctor's voice took a while to come, and when it did, it was deadpan and deadly. "Macra."
"Novice Hame!" Rose exclaimed, and the cat turned around and smiled.
"Rose Tyler. Well, it's been a long time," she said.
"What do you want the Doctor for?" Rose said, crossing her arms over her chest. Last time she'd met Novice Hame they had been conducting illegal and inhumane tests on human beings. 'All in the name of medicine', they had said. A load of bollocks if you asked Rose.
"I don't have much time. He has to save him," Novice Hame said. "I only have power for two teleportation trips. I will take you to him," she said, and Rose shook her head.
"I can't teleport, I'm pregnant," she said.
"It will not harm you," Novice Hame said soothing. "We have to hurry!"
Rose turned to Brannigan and Valerie. "Thank you. For everything." After two quick hugs, Rose took Novice Hame's arm and they disappeared in a flash of green.
"What are Macra? And don't say 'giant crabs' because I can plainly see that."
The Doctor smiled grimly. At least he was with someone who didn't want to be bullshitted around, because quite frankly he didn't have the time or the energy to bullshit him around.
"Macra used to be the scourge of this galaxy. Gas," he said, looking at the businessman opposite him, "They fed of gas, the filthier the better. They built up a small empire using humans as slaves. They mined the gas for food."
The man frowned. "They don't exactly look like empire-builders to me," he said, squinting down at the giant crabs that certainly didn't look like they could build an empire.
"Well," the Doctor said, cocking his head to one side, "That was billions of years ago. Billions. They must have devolved down the years and now they are just beasts. But they're hungry."
Suddenly, gold sparks flew from the top of the trapdoor in the roof of the car. Both the man and the Doctor looked to the ceiling.
The man looked annoyed. "It's like New Times Square in here, for goodness's sake!"
A pair of feet dangled down through the hatch, and moments later Novice Hame fell gracefully through.
"I've invented a sport!" the Doctor beamed as Novice Hame straightened up.
Hame smiled. "You are a hard man to find, Doctor," she said.
The businessman, meanwhile, was staring at Hame's gun. "No guns!" he said, pointing at her green-glowing gun that looked rather menacing. I'm not having guns!"
The Doctor smiled, his respect for this man increasing.
Novice Hame rolled her eyes. "I only brought this," she waved the gun, causing the man and the Doctor to recoil, "in case of pirates. Doctor, you have to come with me!"
Her urgent tone caught the Doctor's attention. "Do I know you?" he asked, cocking one eyebrow.
Hame ducked her head. "You haven't aged at all," she noted, smiling, before it fell. "Time hasn't been so kind to me."
The Doctor looked at her for a few more seconds before it clicked. "Novice Hame!" he exclaimed in delight, taking the cat in a bear hug; that was, until he remembered what she had done last time they had met and he pulled back, a look of disgust on his face. "No, hold off, get off!" he said, frowning as he pulled away from the hug. "Last time we met, you were breeding humans for experimentation!"
Novice Hame looked ashamed. "I've sought forgiveness, Doctor, for so many years, under his guidance. And if you come with me, I may finally be able to redeem myself."
The Doctor shook his head forcefully. "I'm not going anywhere. You've got Macra living under this city. Macra! And my girlfriend's pregnant and stuck down there, as is our friend!"
Hame shook her head. "You've got to come with me right now!"
"No, no, no. You're coming with me. We have three passengers now."
The Doctor's comment seemed to fall on deaf ears. "I'm sorry Doctor, but the situation is even worse than you can imagine. I can take you to your female, I've transported her," Novice Hame said.
The Doctor frowned. "Which female? Rose or Martha?"
"Rose Tyler."
"Take me to her," the Doctor said immediately, and Novice Hame took his wrist, pressed a button, and they too were absorbed in a green light.
They landed roughly on a dusty floor. The Doctor lay there for a moment, his head spinning. He put one hand out to steady himself. A small, warm hand grasped his other, with the intent of pulling him to his feet. The Doctor's eyes flew open at the contact and he swallowed Rose up
in a massive hug, forgetting about his spinning head.
"Rose!" he said, nothing short of delighted at seeing her. She seemed as elated as he was, squeezing his back tightly. Both were aware of the gaze of Novice Hame behind them so they broke their hug quicker than they would have liked and turned around to face the cat.
"Rough transport, huh?" he said, pressing the heel of his palm to his temples. "You can go straight back down, right now, and transport Martha out now."
Novice Hame shook her head apologetically. "I only had the power for two trips."
The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Well, get some more!" Rose squeezed his waist, and he calmed down a fraction. "Where are we, anyway?"
"High above. We're in the over-city."
The Doctor smiled, but it was not one of warmth. "Good! 'Coz you can tell the Senate I'd like a word. You've got thousands of people trapped on that motorway! Millions!"
Novice Hame grasped her hands together in a pleading gesture, her gun now discarded on the floor. "But you are inside the Senate right now! Maybe the Goddess Santori bless them," she said, her voice falling into a whisper at the end, almost as if she was praying.
Rose frowned, but did not speak. It was the Doctor that spoke. "Pardon?"
Instead of answering, Novice Hame lead them through a door. Rose gasped, horrified, and the Doctor frowned deeply and swallowed. There was a beautiful, vast chamber, but the rows and rows of seats all held skeletons. Withered away, decomposed until there was nothing left but the bones.
"They died, Doctor," whispered Hame. "The entire city died."
"How long has it been like this?" Rose whispered as well.
"Twenty-four years," Hame said, and no-one spoke for a while after that. The silence was deafening to Rose, who now felt so terrible for the cat who had to live all alone for twenty-four years, watching her city dying. Rose wanted to ask her how she survived if the whole city had died, but held her tongue. Now was definitely not the time.
The Doctor loosened his hold on Rose, who dropped her arm from his waist. He walked over to a skeleton and knelt in the dust beside it, but did not touch it. His anger at Hame had dissipated, now deeply disturbed. Rose felt similar.
"All of them? Everyone?" the Doctor said, turning back to face Rose and Novice Hame. "What happened?"
Novice Hame started walking towards the Doctor. Rose followed her close behind. "A new chemical. A new mood. They called it 'Bliss'," she said. She had reached the Doctor and knelt beside him, peeling a sticker from the neck of the skeleton.
"It's like the one we saw earlier," Rose quietly noted. "That one was called 'Forget'."
"This one, everyone tried it. In the end they couldn't stop, became addicted so to speak. A virus mutated inside the compound and became airborne. Everything perished - even the virus, in the end. It killed the world in seven minutes flat."
"Seven minutes?" Rose said, shocked. "Just seven minutes to kill billions?"
Novice Hame nodded solemnly. "There was just enough time to seal off the walkways and flyovers, sealing off the undercity. The people down there, in the motorway aren't trapped, Doctor."
"They were saved," he breathed, standing up and taking Rose's small hand in his, tugging her close. "So the whole thing down there, is it running on automatic?"
"There's not enough power to get them out. We did everything we could to stop the system from choking."
"Who's we? How did you survive?"
Novice Hame seemed to brighten at this. "He protected me. And he has waited for you, these long years."
Suddenly, as if waiting for his cue, a deep, rumbling voice echoed from behind them, speaking a single word.
"Doctor."
The Doctor turned and was flying towards something (or someone, as the case may be) before Rose even had time to register the voice.
Novice Hame was following the Doctor at a much slower pace, one that suited heavily-pregnant Rose much better than an hundred-mile-an-hour sprint. They turned a corner to see the Doctor kneeling in the dust, once again (and Rose would bet a tenner that he'd moan about the dust on his suit once he got them out of here). He had one hand on glass, glass that protected a giant face that Rose had seen before.
"The Face of Boe!" she exclaimed, standing slightly behind the Doctor. If she knelt down, it would be three and a half years before she regained a standing position in her condition, so she opted to stay standing.
"Yes."
The Doctor's comment was rather stating the obvious, but Rose didn't mention it.
The Face of Boe smiled. "I knew you would come."
"Old friend, what happened to you?"
"Failing," Boe replied, seemingly out of breath. If a giant face could be out of breath.
"He protected me from the virus by shrouding me in his smoke," Novice Hame said, and three pairs of eyes swivelled to her. "But with on-one to maintain it, the city's power died. The undercity would have fallen into the sea."
"He saved them," Rose breathed.
"Yes," Novice Hame said. "The Face of Boe wired himself into the mainframe. He's giving his life force just to keep things running."
The Doctor turned to Novice Hame. "But there are planets out there - you could have called for help."
Hame shook her head. "The very last act of the Senate was to declare New Earth unsafe. The automatic quarantine lasts for one hundred years."
The Doctor turned back to the Face of Boe, laying one hand against the cool glass before standing up again. He turned to Novice Hame.
"You two stayed here, on your own, for all those years." The Doctor's voice was laced with something like sympathy.
It took a while for Hame to reply. "We had no choice, Doctor."
The Doctor walked forward and touched Novice Hame gently on the shoulder. "Yes, you did."
Rose frowned. Did he mean surrendering herself to the virus?
"Save them, Doctor. Save them," the Face of Boe rasped out.
The Doctor bit his lip, and then suddenly straightened out and turned away from Hame. Rose could see him taking in everything around them, a plan (not a very well formed one, but a plan nevertheless) taking form in his mind.
"Right," he said, rubbing his hands together, "First things first, we need to identify Martha's car."
"Here," Novice Hame, said, directing the Doctor and Rose to a set of screens opposite the Face of Boe. The Doctor whipped out his glasses and Rose leaned forward, both looking for the same thing.
"Car Four Six Five Diamond Six!" the Doctor said after a few minutes, pointing to the number of Martha's car. "It still registers! That's Martha."
"I knew she was good," Rose said, grinning at the screen. The Doctor, meanwhile, had grabbed a piece of thick tubing from nowhere and made to hand it to Rose, before he shook his head and handed it to Novice Hame instead. Rose rolled her eyes.
"It's heavy," the Doctor said, and Rose just sighed. The Doctor ran his hands through his hair, throwing it into disarray. "Think, think, think! Take the residual energy, feed it through the electricity beds!"
"There isn't enough power!" Hame stressed, still holding the tubing.
The Doctor turned back to Hame, a mega-watt grin suddenly in place. "Oh, you've got power! You've got me! And it just so happens I'm brilliant at computers, just you watch! Rose!" he said, and she jumped to attention, "Every switch on that bank, up to maximum!"
While she was doing that, the Doctor had dropped to his knees and was now pointing the sonic screwdriver at some sort on knob that was embedded in the floor.
"Doctor," Rose said, "Not that I don't think you're brilliant, but what exactly are you doing?"
"Something," the Doctor muttered. "You'll see."
Rose smiled. "You haven't got a clue, have you?"
"Yes I so do have a clue!" he said, jumping up and dusting his hands. "See, I can't power up the city, but all the city needs is people!"
"And so what are you going to do?" Rose asked, and the Doctor ran across the room to a giant lever that wasn't unlike the one at Torchwood.
"This!" he said dramatically, and flicked the switch.
All the lights went out.
"I'm guessing that wasn't what you wanted, because if it was, that wasn't very impressive," Rose said, looking at the Doctor. He threw her a look that clearly said 'Don't be a plum, of course I didn't want that to happen'. Or something along those lines.
"No, no, that wasn't what was supposed to happen!" he said, mainly for Novice Hame's benefit, because he felt he had conveyed his thoughts to Rose accurately with that look he had sent her.
He started running again, to another console in the floor. Rose didn't comment this time.
"The transformers blocked," he was saying. "The signal can't get through."
"Doctor … " the Face of Boe rasped once more.
"Yeah, hold on a minute, not now," the Doctor said, still sonicking the console.
The Face of Boe ignored this. "I give you my last," he wheezed, and let out a long, rasping breath; suddenly, all the lights came on again, including the one of the Doctor's face. Everything was working again.
"Hame!" the Doctor said, having jumped to his feet, "look after him!" Hame dropped the tubing and ran to the Face of Boe, laying on hand on the glass.
The Doctor ran over to the huge lever once again, and throwing a massive grin at Rose, threw it again. The lights didn't go off this time.
"The open road! Ha!" he said, and ran and scooped Rose up in a giant hug, twirling her around, both of them laughing like they'd won the lottery.
"Right," he said, putting her back down on her feet, "I think we have some explaining to do to those people in the cars! Just a minute … " he said, once again pointing the sonic at a screen. Suddenly, it flickered into life, the Doctor and Rose's faces swimming into view.
The Doctor picked up a microphone. "Sorry, no Sally Calypso today, she was just a hologram actually. My name's the Doctor," he said into it, and Rose knew he was addressing the cars just in the same way Sally had done earlier when they were in Brannigan's car. "This is an order," he was saying. "Everyone drive up. Now."
Rose smiled, walking over to a window where she could see the first layer of the motorway rising from the depths of the city. It was beautiful. The sun was high in the sky and it bathed New New York with a warm glow that seemed perfect for the outcome of the day.
"I've opened the roof of the motorway," she could hear the Doctor saying behind her. "Come on, throttle those engines, drive up! Drive up, fast! Coz we've got to clear that fast lane, pronto! So drive up and get out of the way!"
Rose could see more and more cars appearing from the motorway, all of them seemingly glowing under the sun's gaze.
"Oy!" the Doctor's voice caught Rose's attention and she turned away from the scene below her, but he wasn't talking to her. He was still staring at the screen. "Car Four Six Five Diamond Six! Martha! Drive up! You've got access above. Drive up!"
Suddenly, an intercom somewhere on the console beside the Doctor buzzed. "Did I ever tell you, Doctor?" A familiar Irish accent drawled out. Brannigan. "You're not bad at all, sir. Not bad at all!"
The Doctor laughed, and danced his way over to Rose, kissing her soundly on the lips and taking her hand as they looked out the window. "You keep driving, Brannigan, all the way up! Because it's here, just waiting for you - the city of New New York, and it's all yours." He paused for a minute, just looking at the scene. "And, oh, before I forget," he said once more into the microphone, "I want my coat back."
Rose laughed and nudged him in the ribs. The Doctor scowled playfully. "I love that coat."
"I know," she replied, turning her gaze back to the gorgeous scene below her.
"I think that's a fair bargain, Sir," Brannigan said, his voice crackly over the transmitter.
"Car Four Six Five Diamond Six. I've sent you a flight path; come to the Senate," the Doctor added into the microphone, before he hung up.
"Doctor!"
Martha Jones had had a difficult day. If we had documented her story as well, this part would have been at least another two chapters long and we didn't want that. You know it, anyway. We won't get into the details.
She was happy to get rid of that car. Not that Cheen and Milo weren't lovely people, but that car was cramped and claustrophobic, especially when the air had gotten tight.
So it was with a lot of lightness in her heart that she skipped into the Senate of New New York, expecting the Doctor and Rose ready and waiting to return to the TARDIS. But instead, she came face-to-face with a skeleton.
"Doctor? Rose?" she called, not taking her eyes off the skeleton.
"Over here," came the quiet voice of the Doctor, drifting over from the corner. He was on his knees, with a cat dressed in white, beside a giant face who was clearly dying; there was water and glass all around the face, and it was gasping for breath. Rose rushed towards and and grabbed her in a hug.
"What happened out there?" she said, to Rose, who didn't answer her. Martha changed the question; they would tell her later. "What's that?"
"The Face of Boe," Rose said quietly.
"It's all right," the Doctor said, turning around and smiling. "Come and say hello. He won't bite. And this is Hame. She's a cat. Don't worry."
Martha smiled uneasily, but accepted this anyway. She really was very considerate, thought Rose. Most would have gone screaming all the way home.
"He's the one the saved you. Not me."
Martha's eyes snapped to the Doctor.
Novice Hame sighed. "My Lord gave his life to save the city. And now he's dying."
The Doctor shook his head. "Don't say that. He's got plenty time left."
Martha could tell that this face - whoever he was - barely had five minutes left of life.
The Face of Boe sighed deeply. "It's good to breathe the air once more."
"Who is he?" Martha asked once more.
"I don't even know," the Doctor said quietly, subdued. "Rumour has it, the Face of Boe has lived for billions of years. Isn't that right? You aren't about to give up now!"
"Everything has it's time. You know that, old friend, better than most."
"The legend says more," Novice Hame said, leaning forward. The Doctor caught her arm.
"Don't. There's no need for that."
Hame ignored him. "It says that the Face of Boe will speak his final words to a traveller."
"Yeah," the Doctor said, "but not yet. Who needs secrets, eh?"
"I've seen so much," the Face of Boe wheezed, and Martha could see he was on his last sentence. "Perhaps too much. I am the last of my kind - as you are the last of yours, Doctor."
"That's why we have to survive," the Doctor said, desperately. "Both of us. Don't go."
"I must. It is my time," the Face of Boe spoke his last words. "But know this, Time Lord - you are not alone."
The Doctor watched, horrified, as the Face of Boe's eyes slipped close and his breath blew out. He had given up. The Face of Boe, who had lived for billions of years, was dead.
Novice Hame was the first. She put her head in her hands and sobbed, sobbed for the being who had saved her from a terrible death.
The Doctor stood up, and wrapped his arms around Rose, burying his face in her hair. Rose wasn't sure if he was crying or not, but nevertheless she rubbed his back and buried her own face in his chest, near tears herself. Although hers was from quite a different pain to the Doctor's.
Martha had gone and comforted Hame, who was howling desperately.
Later, once Hame was taken care of as was Boe's head, the Doctor, Rose and Martha were walking along the alley towards the TARDIS. The place was deserted. None of the vendors who were there appeared.
"All closed down," the Doctor said, smiling as he took Rose's hand.
"Happy?" said Martha, who was grinning.
"Happy happy!" he chimed in response, grinning madly. He felt his hand being squeezed and turned to Rose, and was shocked to see her face contorted in pain.
"Rose? Rose, what's wrong?" he said, frightened. They weren't in any danger and she hadn't hurt herself, so what on Earth was wrong?
"I don't want to alarm anyone … " she said, and Martha rushed over.
"What?" the Doctor's voice was impatient with worry and concern.
"I think I'm in labour."