a/n: Thank you for all the follows, favorites and reviews. I always, always appreciate them. A couple of people had some questions about the artron energy I mentioned in the last chapter, specifically how much is canon. Actually almost all of it is. Artron energy was mentioned in Classic Who, New Who, the Sarah Jane Adventures and in some of the books. I mostly summarized what was out there, although I extrapolated a bit from there.
As always, thanks to bittie752 for beta-reading. I changed this chapter a little bit after she looked at it, so all mistakes are mine.
Chapter Twenty-One
Pete Tyler sat on the long sofa in his study, a whiskey in one hand, staring at the television on the far wall which was currently broadcasting the national news. The government's decision to register everyone's DNA had sparked riots all over the country, particularly in London. Stores had been vandalized, cars had been firebombed, and the interaction between the rioters and the new UNIT troops had become deadly with at least a score of people killed. President Greene had gone on television to announce even more strict security measures to put an end to the violence. There were now to be curfews for everyone from ten at night until five in the morning. The only people allowed on the street during those hours were the police, medical personnel, and members of UNIT.
Although Torchwood was to be brought into the fold, it hadn't officially happened yet. Becoming a part of UNIT was scheduled to happen at the end of the week, and Pete wondered if that meant he'd be out of a job. Worse things could happen for him personally, but if he were fired, he felt that it would signal even worse changes for the country politically. It wasn't hubris; he didn't believe he was the only one who could lead Torchwood. Jake could easily do it, or Rose. No, Pete just believed that Greene would likely put someone in charge of the organization who would go along with all of the current administration's policies. Frighteningly dangerous policies.
This whole situation harkened back to the state Great Britain was in just prior to John Lumic's introduction of the Cybermen: the registrations, the curfews, the riots. Through some anonymous sources, he had begun to hear rumors of random police searches on the horizon and even the possibility of labor camps.
His long experience with Torchwood, and the Preachers before it, had his instincts on high alert. This business with the government coming on the heels of the break-in of the mansion and the planting of alien surveillance equipment in his study… he was certain it was related but he didn't know how.
Pete was grateful for the heads up he had received from Harriet Jones on some of Greene's plans before she had left office. She hadn't known everything that was going on, but she had told him everything she had heard. And it was enough; it had given him time to prepare for what was happening now. He had planned on making Rose the head of Torchwood Three regardless of the current political situation, but with the warnings President Jones had given him he had been able to take measures to hide her at the same time. And the information had led him to place Jake in Torchwood Two as well.
Thank goodness Jake and Rose were already out of London, he thought. With them heading separate branches of Torchwood, UNIT wouldn't be able to take complete control of the organization. And no one outside of Cardiff knew that Rose was heading Torchwood Three. The staff records still showed Gwen Williams as the head of Torchwood in Cardiff.
He drained the rest of his drink and got up to pour himself another one. He was torn. On the one hand, with the increasingly dangerous situation in London, he wanted Jackie and Tony out of here. On the other, would they truly be safe anywhere else? He wasn't sure. Their safety was his highest priority.
He had to think of something.
~oOo~
Over the course of the next several days, the Doctor spent almost all his waking hours working on the TARDIS coral.
Rose had experimented with holding it and concentrating on feeding it energy, and it had responded better than either of them had hoped. Within an hour the Doctor had begun to sense it telepathically, and within three it had grown too large for its tank.
"It's growing even faster than Donna predicted," the Doctor had told her. "The direct infusion of energy from you has given it a bit of a jumpstart. Go ahead and hold her if you like. I want her to bond with you as much as with me. But from here on out you need to be careful not to allow her to take any more of your artron energy; we don't know what it could do to you."
Overnight the small branch shot up to be as tall and thin as a sapling, somewhat resembling one of the coral struts from the control room of the original TARDIS. They took it out to the woods behind the house and planted it in the middle of a clearing that was surrounded by a stand of oak trees.
Despite the Doctor's initial excitement over the baby TARDIS, Rose knew that something was still wrong. They were both still studying the problems in London, all the Torchwood staff were, and they weren't making any progress on it, but Rose suspected it was more than that. Occasionally his eyes would get a haunted look, one he quickly hid if he realized she was looking at him. And his nightmares had returned in full force. He began to mutter in his sleep, and occasionally cry out in anguish, but when she questioned him about it, he always told her he didn't remember the dreams. She couldn't call him on it though; after all, she hadn't told him the subject of her nightmares either.
She didn't know how to help him with them directly, so she did the only thing she could think of. Every morning while he was showering and dressing, she snuck out to the woods and visited the coral. She would talk to it and touch it to try and bond with it as the Doctor had suggested, but primarily she went to try and give it more energy. If she concentrated while she touched it, it would begin to glow. She knew she was taking a risk and that the Doctor would be angry if he knew, but it was a risk she was willing to take if it meant that he could get back to the stars sooner.
With her feeding it energy, every morning the new TARDIS would be significantly bigger; the day after they had planted it, it had towered over her head. Shortly after that it had sent up secondary shoots around the main branch. This morning, almost a week after they had discovered the coral was still alive, she expected to see it larger still, perhaps with more secondary shoots, but essentially looking the same.
As always, she followed the path that led to the baby TARDIS. Even after only a few short days of them walking back and forth, the path had already become well worn. In fact, she had traveled it so often by now that she thought she'd be able to make the short journey with her eyes closed. But this time, when she got to the end of the path, all she could find was trees. She couldn't find the TARDIS at all.
For a moment she thought she had become lost. The area looked right but somehow different at the same time, and she couldn't put her finger on what exactly seemed different. Perhaps she had accidently strayed off the path and ended up in a different part of the woods. But that made no sense, she told herself. All the grass in the clearing where she now stood had been trampled from them walking back and forth.
"Where could it be?" she muttered under her breath.
Rose spent a few minutes searching the surrounding area, but to no avail. The baby TARDIS didn't appear to be anywhere. She widened her search, eventually covering almost an acre of ground before she gave up. Hurrying back to the house, she burst into the kitchen to find the Doctor was sitting at the table, eating a banana muffin and drinking a mug of tea, still in his striped pyjamas and dark blue dressing gown. He looked up at her in surprise.
"Where were you?" he asked. "I came down to have breakfast with you, and you were gone. I thought you had already left for work."
"It's not there!" she said urgently, as if he hadn't spoken.
"What's not there?"
"The TARDIS. I went out to check on her this morning, and I couldn't find her."
His face split into a delighted grin, and he stood up so quickly that he almost knocked his chair over. "Oh, she's ahead of schedule. That energy you gave her the other day must have given her a real boost. She shouldn't be able to do this for at least another month. Two even."
"Do what?" Rose asked.
"Come on," he said, ignoring her question. He grabbed her hand and pulled her outside.
They rushed down the path to the clearing where she had been only minutes before. His grin widened, with his tongue curling to touch the back of his teeth, as he gazed in wonder at a tall oak tree in the center of the clearing.
"Oh, you clever thing," he said. "Oh, you beautiful, beautiful girl. You knew right what to do, didn't you?"
"Doctor, what are you talking about?" Rose asked. "Who are you talking to?"
"The TARDIS," he replied.
"The TARDIS? Where is she?"
"Right there in front of you!" The Doctor gestured at the tree in front of them. Letting go of Rose, he walked around and around it, touching its bark, looking up into its branches, examining its roots. He pulled a leaf off the tree, smelled it and licked it. "Oh, you are clever, old girl. But I can't call you old girl, can I? Young girl? Nah, that doesn't sound right. We'll think of something," he said, patting the trunk affectionately. "Now where's the door…"
"Doctor, this is the TARDIS?" Rose asked in disbelief. "She's not a police box."
"When TARDISes first grow, they take on a shape that blends them into their surroundings," he told her without taking his eyes off the trunk of the tree in front of him. "Normally on Gallifrey, it would be in the shape of a simple grey cabinet, but it could be other things depending on where they were when they gained the ability to change shape. They'd stay that way forever, in whatever form they initially took, unless they had a chameleon circuit put in. Then they'd be able to alter their appearance every time they moved. Now where would you have hidden it?"
He ran his hands along the bark at chest level. It felt exactly like the bark of a mature oak tree, dry and a bit rough, until it didn't. "Oh, there it is." His eyes widened when he saw what was under his fingertips. "Oh, you clever, clever thing. C'mere, Rose."
She walked up to stand next to him.
"Look at that," he said proudly, and she stared at where he was pointing. There was a heart carved into the trunk of the tree, and in the center of the heart were the words The Doctor and Rose Tyler. They looked at each other and giggled. When he reached out and touched the center of the heart, the door swung open.
They glanced at each other.
"Do we go in?" she asked with a grin.
"Oh yes!" he said emphatically. "Ready?"
Rose bit her lower lip and nodded.
They walked in and gaped, turning to stare around them. It was only a fraction of the size of the old console room. In fact, it was smaller than the kitchen in the farmhouse. The ceiling didn't tower overhead, it didn't have different levels, and there was no central console.
They turned to each other, wide smiles on their faces.
"It's bigger on the inside!" they shouted together. He grabbed her in a tight hug as they laughed.
After he let go of her, he wandered around gently touching the yellowish-orange coral that made up the TARDIS's interior walls. "Reminds me a bit of the first console room I used, size-wise at any rate. Wasn't anything like this, though. It was all modern and white, with flashing lights and a big screen on the wall. The TARDIS was originally in for repairs, and the powers that be decided to decommission her rather than fix her."
Rose smiled. "And so you nicked her."
"I borrowed her," he corrected.
The Doctor traced the edge of a roundel with a fingertip. "I nicked her," he admitted quietly, glancing at her over his shoulder. He smiled at the memory. He turned away from her again before he continued.
"Y'know," he said without looking at her, "when I walked out of the TARDIS, when we were on the beach in Norway, I thought that's it. No more traveling, no more stars. I didn't think I'd ever be in a TARDIS again. And even when he gave me the coral, I wasn't sure it would work. And now…." His voice wavered slightly and he sniffed.
He was silent for several long moments. She crossed over to him, wrapped her arms around his waist from behind and rested her head against his back.
"And now?" she asked softly.
He turned in her arms. Cupping her chin, he tilted her face up to his and looked deeply into her eyes. His eyes crinkled at the corners as he smiled at her.
"Now, it's the Doctor in the TARDIS with Rose Tyler," he said. "As it should be."