Chapter 7

Ten rubbed the side of his jaw and looked up surprised at Rose and Nine.

Ten: "How did you two get here?"

Nine crossed his arms defensively across his chest and sighed, "Really? You think you're the only one who's slightly psychic? You should see you two, standing about like a bunch of statues. Giving Rose a fright."

However, Rose ignored the two Time Lords and walked up to Red and smacked him on the shoulder.

"Ouch! Rose!"

"No! You big dummy. How come you never said anything? I never knew you didn't like it when I talked about the Doctor. You could've pointed it out."

"It wouldn't have stopped you from thinking of him. I'm not a fool, Rose I know he was a big part of your life and telling you stop thinking of him is like telling you to stop thinking about your friends."

"But, it hurt you! I didn't want to hurt you."

Red looked at Rose with his mysterious eyes and touched her cheek. "It's ok. I know you didn't mean it. You couldn't help it and I couldn't help reading your mind."

"Yeah, but you could have told me you were planning on bring them here. Why didn't you tell me?"

Ten: "Yeah! Why didn't you tell her? Is that taking away her choices? Aren't you being a hypocrite? What were afraid of? Did you think that once Rose heard about the possibility of me coming back she'd want to come back with me? That you'd be high and dry all by your lonesome without a second thought? You know it's happened before, it can happen again."

Rose: "Doctor, knock it off! Richard isn't like that. And why would you think I'd want to go back?"

Ten: "What?"

Nine: "Rose, don't listen to him, he's just being insecure. And from the looks of things you're doing alright in Pete's world. You've got your dad, your mum—practically you're whole family. You live in a mansion and you've got a career. And—Rassilion help me, I can't believe I'm saying this, but Richy here is a good guy. You've got a fantastic life. Asking you to drop it all and take off with me would be damn selfish. I can't offer you anything like this. I don't even have a TARDIS. So, do yourself a favor and just forget about me."

Nine then pointed to Ten and said, "And you! If you know what's good for you, you'd do like me and leave Rose Tyler alone."

Ten groaned and replied to Nine, "Oh, please. For someone so grumpy you're awfully gullible. Do you really think Rose is going to be happy with a Tellic?"

Red smiled confidently, "Oh, I see. You don't think I'm good enough—in fact, you probably think no one's good enough for Rose. You only want her for yourself and if you can't have her, than no one can. Is that why you left her with John?"

Ten: "No! I've never been that possessive."

Red laughed and replied, "You're lying. You won't get anything passed me, Doctor. You are all inside my mind and I can tell if you're telling the truth. In fact, I think we should all be telling the truth for now on."

Rose: "What? You can do that? Make everyone say the truth no matter what?"

Red: "Yes. It was my specialty as a spy. I can even make people remember things or forget."

Rose turned to face the two Time Lords and smiled coyly with her tongue over her teeth and said, "Really? This is going to be good. Ok, the two of you, do you love me?"

"Yes" answered both Doctors against their will.

The wild-haired Doctor covered his hand over his mouth totally shocked at what just came out. While, Nine shouted, "This is coercion!"

Rose laughed and clapped her hands like a schoolgirl.

Rose: "This is fantastic! Oh, you should have told me you could do this earlier. It would have saved us loads of time at Torchwood. It's like—truth or dare without the dare."

Though, Red liked seeing Rose happy, it did unnerve him to force people to do things against their will. Sure it made things easy, but having that sort of power was a slippery slope. It was so easy to open door after door inside a person's mind until before you knew it you've become something dark leaving a person's soul bare. He remembered how he used to take demonic pleasure peeling back the layers of a person's psyche like a ripe fruit.

He placed a hand on her shoulder and said, "Look, Rose you should be careful. Sometimes it's hard to hear the truth. You might not like it."

Rose patted Red's arm and replied, "It's ok. I'll be all right. So—argh-Ten—what were you going to tell me that day on the beach?"

Ten: "No. Rose—don't."

Rose: "Tell me."

The tenth Doctor wove his hands into his hair in a sad attempt to stop the urge to tell the truth, but it was no use. Apparently, Red had been holding back and he couldn't fight the words from spilling out.

"I—I was going to tell you I l-love you."

Rose walked up to the tenth Doctor and gently placed her hand on his cheek. She looked so sad and her eyes shone with unshed tears. She quietly whispered, "Why—why is it so hard for you to tell me?"

"Because, if I say it, it makes it real and I'll never be able to let you go, but I can't keep you, Rose. Forever isn't something I can give you. We'll never be able to have forever. And I so wanted to be able to have my forever with you. Gah—Rassilion, please! Red make it stop! I-I don't want to hurt you! I couldn't bear having to watch you wither and die. Not you! Never you, Rose Tyler! You are my golden goddess, I only wanted to remember you as you were—young, vibrant and alive—forever."

Suddenly, the leather-clad man shoved Ten away from Rose's reach. He shouted, "Pathetic! You lousy sod! You just wanted a porcelain idol, not a woman. I can't believe I actually died and turned into you."

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Thanks for your reveiws to the following:

Sunny angel -- I personally, like 9 better than 10 too because I felt he was way more attached to Rose. Plus, I like bad-boys. Macho-men are like a good piece of candy, hard outside and a sweet middle. Lizzel09 -- Thanks for your support. Sunfall E -- Thanks for the close reading. I didn't even know I did a double negative. That's an English no-no.

I think this chapter is kind of short, but I ran out of steam. I want to flush out all the drama and give everyone some time in the spotlight. However, I plan on a twist. Moohaha!

Please, review. Thanks.