Chapter 2 – Most Haunted

Breakfast seemed quiet without him. Usually he'd be running around the kitchen barely dressed cooking up everything he could find into strange inedible combinations – but today there was only silence as Don and Rose ate together.

"Were you playing the Doctor's music last night?" Don asked suddenly, breaking the ten minute silence that had reigned between them.

She froze. "No... Why?"

Don shrugged. "I heard it playing. Must be broken or something."

Rose didn't answer, for a moment just staring at the wall as what had happened the night before flashbacked in her mind. "Don.. do you believe in ghosts?"

Don gazed at her for a moment, considering. "I believe there's a logical, scientific explanation for everything, and what we can't understand we try to by classifying it into something we can identify with."

Rose blinked. "No, then?"

Don grinned. "No, I don't. Why?"

It was Rose's turn to shrug now. "No reason."

Don gazed at her again. "If you're sure."

There was a long pause before Rose spoke again, her voice dropped to a whisper, "what do we do?"

There was another long pause before he answered, just as quiet, "I don't know. What do you want to do?"

"I thought..." Rose paused, her gaze dropping to the table as she shifted uncomfortably in her chair. "... Could we get back to the parallel universe?"

"What?"

"... Is there a way we can?" She looked up at him, but his expression almost broke her heart.

"You want to go back to your Mum," he said shortly, disbelievingly. Rose didn't answer, looking back down at the table again. "Rose..."

"You can come too," she said quickly, interrupting him. "Stay in the mansion."

"No."

Rose blinked. "What?"

"We can't travel to the parallel universe without ripping them both apart, you know that," Don explained, almost angrily.

"I just thought..."

"Well you didn't think!" Don retorted, getting up onto both feet and almost sending his chair flying backwards. "He's gone, Rose! And now it's just us! We have to move on!"

"Sorry," Rose said quietly.

"Yeah, you'd better be, sister!" Don shouted back, waggling a finger. Then he realised what he'd done, freezing in mid-waggle and staring at his finger. "Donna?" he tried tentatively.

Rose burst into laughter as Don stared at his finger, perplexed. He couldn't help laughing with her until they were both out of breath, chests hurting, double over.

"Ah, we don't need him," Don said boisterously as their laughter died. "We'll be just fine."

Rose nodded, still unable to wipe her smile off of her face. "Yeah, we will."

"What do you want to do today?" Don asked, helping her to her feet.

"Maybe we can just stay in?"

"We can marathon Desperate Housewives!" Don said happily, beaming.

Rose sniggered. "Donna, again."

He paused, frowning. "No, pretty sure that was the Doctor."

Rose laughed again, linking her arm in his. "Okay girlfriend, I'll get the nail varnish out and we can have a proper girl's day together."

"... That actually sounds kind of appealing," Don admitted, frowning again.

"I really hope that's Donna talking..."

"Me too..."

Rose was asleep the moment her head hit the pillow that night. It had been one long day of spending time with Don, laughing together and having fun together, never forgetting what they were trying to move on from but very much towards the back of their minds.

Rose jerked awake, eyes snapping open as she launched up to sitting position, not quite knowing what had awoken her.

She could hear the Doctor's alien music playing quietly from a distant room, and she went completely rigid. Don had said it was probably broken. It was just broken.

She forced herself to take a few calming breaths – this was ridiculous. A broken music player was putting her on edge. Slowly she lowered herself back down to lie on the pillows, turning her head right, towards the doorway.

And came face-to-face with a pure black shadowed figure of the Doctor.

She screamed, and the figure shimmered out of existence. Seconds later the door flew open and Rose only calmed down when she saw it was Don, his hair all over the place in the sure signs that he'd just woken up. He ran over to her, hugging her tightly.

"What? Was it a nightmare?"

Rose held onto him tightly, her head buried into his shoulder. "It was real... I thought I saw..."

"What?" he asked, rubbing her back gently.

"It was him," Rose whispered, drawing back and pointing at the doorway. "He was standing there... He was a black shadow... He..." Her voice cracked. "His expression... He was going to kill me."

Don didn't know what to say. "... Are you sure?"

She nodded into his chest. A few silent minutes passed before he let go, pushing her gently to lay back down.

"Go to sleep," he said.

"You don't believe me," Rose said flatly, staring up at him.

He shrugged. "I haven't seen it."

"The music's playing again," Rose whispered.

"It's just broken," Don replied. "I'll fix it tomorrow."

"You really think I was imagining it?"

"You've been through a lot, Rose. It's normal for your mind to play tricks on you."

Rose could only nod. Maybe she was imagining things. Trick of the light, nothing more. Don gave her one last hug before he got up and left, leaving Rose to sleep.

But she didn't sleep a wink for the rest of the night.

Breakfast felt a lot lighter than it had yesterday. Don already had coffee and cereal ready for her when she walked into the Kitchen.

"Did it happen again?" Don asked, pushing the bowl of Cheerios towards her. She shook her head. "Just your imagination."

"Maybe," Rose replied, downing the coffee in the space of two seconds, and very quickly got rid of her Cheerios after that. "That first night... I was wishing I could hear him in the background, hitting stuff and playing his music like he always did..."

Don got to his feet stacking the plates and leaving them on the side for the TARDIS to deal with, washing his hands in the sink. "It's just coincidence."

"I know... it's just..." she paused, sighing. "It started playing a little after that. Then... I felt someone touching me... I heard a voice."

"This isn't Most Haunted, Rose."

"You really don't believe me," Rose said flatly, staring at him.

"No, I don't," he answered straight. "Ghosts don't exist, they're just what we file our unexplained experiences under to try and make sense out of chaos."

Just as he was speaking there came the sound of something rumbling next to the sink. They both looked over to the source – it was a knife holder, vibrating violently on the worktop as though it were in an earthquake. Don's eyes widened in surprise, staring at the knife holder as the knives inside began to somehow lift out of it, slowly but surely...

Don began to stumbled backwards, never moving his eyes off of the knives as all six of them were finally out, turning now in the air on their own to point directly towards him.

There was a slight pause.

"RUN!" Don yelled, ducking as the knives jumped forward towards him, narrowly missing his head and implanting themselves in a cupboard door. He ran over to Rose, grabbing her hand and wrenching her out of her seat, pushing her towards the door. "GET OUT!" he yelled, turning back to check where the knives were...

But the entire kitchen was now alive. Cutlery, saucepans, plates, knives, even the toaster was joining in, flying around the room in a whirlwind waiting for the opportune moment to strike. The knives pulled themselves out of the cupboard door and turned quickly back around towards him. Everyone other piece of flying appliance seemed to stop throwing itself around the room, and now just turned towards Don.

He gulped.

The cooker suddenly and unexpectedly lurched forward, pinning him to the wall within metres of the door he could hear Rose calling through – he couldn't escape – the flying utensils were now all lined up in a row, pointing towards him, ready to strike...

They began to hurtle forward.

Suddenly the fridge slid across the floor, placing itself in front of him. Several loud thunks followed, signifying the attacking Kitchen implements hitting the fridge. Seeing his opportunity Don pushed the cooker away from him, slipping out from behind it and using the table for cover to get towards the door. The assaulting cutlery had bounced back now, hurling itself towards him but he was too quick, scrambling for the Kitchen door and throwing it open, slamming it shut again behind him and grabbing Rose, pushing her to lean against the wall as more thunks hammered against the Kitchen door where he had been moments before... then all was silent.

For a minute Don just panted, staring at Rose in disbelief.

"Okay," he gasped, chest heaving. "Now I'm a believer."