A/N: OMG, yes, a chapter at long last! I made this extra-long because I don't know when I'll be able to get another done. The quality may suck more, too, but I tried. School takes away a lot of my inspiration.
That's all I can think of for now. Hopefully this lives up to your patience and expectations! Thanks again for all the likes and faves and follows! And reviews, of course!
The Long Game
Part Four
Rose finally caught up with us as we left the newsroom. Well, the Doctor all but charged through whoever got in his way and Cathica scrambled to keep up with him.
Adam, surprise, surprise, was nowhere in sight.
"What's going on," she blurted, trying to keep up with the frantic pace.
I shrugged, trying to hide my suspicion about Adam where she couldn't see. "Oh you know: someone's been controlling the human race for almost a hundred years and they haven't noticed." Not to mention that the Doctor's irritation and near-anger at the whole situation left little eddies in his wake. "How's Adam?"
"He just needed some time to let it all … sink in."
"So he's on his own?"
Rose's scowl gave me plenty of warning to back off. "He's fine, Jessie. I made him promise not to do anything stupid."
I wanted to tell her that we barely knew him. That his promises might mean diddly squat.
"Oi! Come on, you two, stop lagging."
That could all wait until we figured out what had gone wrong with the human race. I squashed the urge to smash Rose into a bloody pulp and jogged to catch up with the Doctor. Just because I'd managed to score a couple points so far didn't mean I had enough credits to tell Rose what to do.
"We are so going to get into trouble," Cathica muttered as the Doctor pulled out his screwdriver and began working on the nearest wall panel. "You're not allowed to touch the mainframe. You're going to get told off."
The Doctor made a noise somewhere between a grunt and a snort. "Rose, Jessica, anyone, tell her to button it." On and off his screwdriver flashed as he tore into the wires.
"I could tell you the same thing," I retorted, wincing in apology at Cathica. The Doctor never had a clue as to when he pushed the borders of rude. I sucked at my own inter-personal wrinkles, but at least I could try and work at easing his own.
Thankfully Cathica had become too flustered to even notice. "You can't just vandalize the place! Someone's going to notice! This has nothing to do with me. I'm going back to work." She ended up spluttering when the Doctor showed no signs of listening to her.
The Doctor tossed some wires at Rose, which she caught with only a minimum of fumbling. His fingers gave a little sarcastic wave. "Go on, then. See you! Hold this for me, would you?" A couple of wires were thrust into my hands before I could say anything.
Well at least he didn't discriminate when doling out "hold this" duties. I wiped some of the sweat that tingled on my skin off my forehead then started acting like the helpful object-holder that he seemed to think I'd become.
Cathica almost started to head away, but skidded to a stop and pivoted around. "But I can't just leave you, can I?"
I could feel all three of us roll our eyes at her.
Rose flipped her hair out of the way. "If you want to be useful, get them to turn the heating down. It's boiling. What's wrong with this place? Can't they do something about it?" Fluffing her shirt, she handed the Doctor something he beckoned for.
"I don't know," Cathica sighed with a shake of her head. "We keep asking. Something to do with the turbine."
"Oh, something to do with the turbine," the Doctor mocked. I could almost hear the sneer that had to be on his face.
"Well I don't know!"
The Doctor's heavy sigh and heave of his shoulders paled in comparison to what I could feel buzzing off of him. "Exactly. I give up on you, Cathica." He turned and snatched the wires from my grasp, shaking one of them at said woman. "Now Rose—look at Rose—she's asking the right kinds of questions."
Rose beamed at him. "Thank you."
Of course, no more thanks were directed towards me. He'd already praised me once. Perhaps he'd reached his limit for the day. I shrugged, tucking my arms into my jeans. "Why is it so hot, anyway?" I could barely notice it, probably from growing up in lovely California, but it felt warm enough to make it feel just sticky enough.
Cathica's confusion rolled off of her in waves. "One minute you're worried about the Empire and now you're worried about central heating?"
"Well never underestimate plumbing." The Doctor turned and winked at me. Actually winked. "Plumbing's very important."
I just gaped at him. What?
Minutes passed while he fiddled with wiring and codes and whatever he needed to fix whatever he planned on fixing. Or less than a few minutes. I kind of zoned out for a bit. One of the side-effects of the growing feeling of being a third wheel. The Doctor and Rose had been on dozens of adventures already, they had a system. I could see it in the way they just … worked together.
How long would the feeling last?
"Here we go," the Doctor's voice brought me out of my semi-jealous state of mine. "Override two one five point nine."
"How come it's given you the code?"
A queasy feeling came over me as I refocused on the three in front of me. Who would just hand out something like a code to a guy who'd been poking around in the system?
The Doctor glanced over his shoulder and towards the ceiling. "Someone up there likes me."
"Or wants to kill you," I protested. "That's the bait of all baits if ever there was one." The way he looked at me almost made me wish I hadn't thought of saying those words. Almost but not enough.
"Of course someone wants to kill me," the Doctor snorted. "I've had loads try to and yet I'm still here." With a very self-satisfied smirk, the Doctor jogged away, forcing me to follow him and shut up.
I added that topic to the growing list of conversations he owed me.
The Doctor ended up heading for the nearest elevator back in the now-deserted food court. Already open and waiting in addition to having the code just handed over to us. I could taste the trap with something like a road-kill stench that made my stomach refuse to settle down. Going against the Slitheen in Downing Street had been one thing; we kinda knew what we were getting into then. Letting ourselves be led into a trap by something or someone even the Doctor didn't know about had taken everything to a whole new level.
"Come with us," the Doctor offered, turning around with an honest inviting expression.
Cathica shook her head violently. "No way."
The Doctor shrugged and held up a hand. "Bye, then!"
"Well, don't mention my name. When you get in trouble, just don't involve me."
As soon as Cathica left, the Doctor and Rose tromped towards the elevator. I followed, but at a slower pace, unsure as to if they'd appreciate my presence.
"Oi, American. You coming?"
The Doctor's voice snapped me out of my own head. Working a grin onto my face, I managed to squeeze into the elevator with them. With two, it would've been fine, but with me in there, three definitely made a crowd.
Of course the Doctor seemed quite oblivious to the situation. "Well, that's her gone. Adam's run off. Looks like it's just us chickens."
Rose's grin bled of her feelings for him. Feelings I tried to ignore. "Yup!"
"Good."
The Doctor's hand reached down and snatched mine up. No warning or prompting. Just a genuine reach for my hand as the door closed.
Even so, it left me flustered. So much so that I could barely even squeak. "Uh …." Very clever, Jess. Good job keeping your cool.
The whole ride up, I couldn't shake the increased feeling of dread as we neared the all-important Floor Five Hundred. I couldn't help but hear Cathica's words that no one came back over and over in my mind. I could only think of one option that would make people go one way and never return. I didn't want to say it to the Doctor or Rose, though. For one, the Doctor probably already knew that and just didn't want to say. Second, I had the feeling that Rose wouldn't be much use if she knew ahead of time.
As soon as the elevator doors slid open and assaulted us with freezing cold air, I cursed my emotional intuitions. After the heat wave downstairs, the temperature change made me wince, instantly wrapping my arms around myself. The walls, floors, everything had been covered in several inches of ice and frost. Everything felt just … dead. Unnaturally quiet for being the top floor of a huge space station.
I could faintly hear the Doctor's sigh. "The walls are made of gold," he murmured, the bitterness and disappointment radiating from him in waves so strong that I couldn't hold back a shudder. "You two should go back downstairs."
"Yeah?" Rose stepped out, feet crunching on the frost below. "Tough."
"Jessica?" Came the Doctor's query when I didn't say anything.
Massaging my forehead, I joined the two of them. "Nope. And don't even try ordering me back. I'm not listening."
The Doctor made a noise in the back of his throat, but said nothing, leading us into the frozen tomb. I stuck close to him, my skin prickling like I had a dozen eyes watching me from the shadows. I didn't dare look left or right. Not with the taste of road-kill souring my mouth. If I could taste something like death, I didn't even want to know what hid behind some of the draped plastic.
Such a wuss. Such a wuss.
Pinching the bridge of my nose, I let my feet drag a bit. I just knew I wouldn't be able to eat anything for a long time let alone get that taste out of my mouth. Did anything come out exactly as planned with the Doctor or would that be asking too much?
A hand roughly pushed me backwards before I could come out of my thoughts. I grunted, stumbling over some debris and falling not so gracefully onto the floor. My eyes snapped back upwards towards the Doctor's retreating back. He'd pushed me! Indignation pushed aside any nerves as I scrambled to my feet.
[Don't.] Came the Doctor's firm warning, resounding in my head over my own thoughts. [It's too dangerous.]
I started hearing voices coming from around a corner and froze. [Three's better than two!] I protested, though my racing mind made it difficult to actually think the words towards him.
[Two's good enough if there's a third for back up, now shut it.] With that, his mind closed itself off again. In real time, I over heard him say, "I think she's dead," which confirmed the dead-animal taste and dread I'd been feeling.
Crouched behind a thick wall of plastic curtains, I desperately felt my pockets for something that could prove useful. How could I not have my bag at a time like this? How could I even help or how? At the moment, all that I could do would be to yell and make them look my way or ….
My hand froze on my side pocket. Something long and slim rested near the seam when I could've sworn my pockets had been empty earlier. I didn't dare breathe as I pulled out the Doctor's screwdriver. My heart danced in my throat. It sat solid and with a heavier weight than I expected, but it could've been nitroglycerine. I didn't know how to use it! Why would the Doctor give it to me? How? When?
I didn't have time to stare at it like an idiot any longer as vicious snarls and growls filled the room. A real alien, not just a human-looking one. Swallowing down the nerves that had started growing even more intense, I dared to move from my cover to another set of sheets that gave me a better look at where the Doctor and Rose had moved to. My eyes almost bugged out of my skull and I had to struggle to keep myself from rushing in.
Zombie-looking people had snatched Rose and the Doctor while I'd been an idiot and stared at the screwdriver. As I watched, they all but shoved them into some sort of stand with manacles attached. What to do? What to do?
A man who seemed the very definition of vampire paleness smirked at them. "Create a climate of fear and it's easy to keep the borders closed. It's just a matter of emphasis. The right word in the right broadcast repeated often enough can destabilize an economy, invent an enemy, change a vote." His casual blasé sent chills down my spine. Did he have no sympathy for the human race at all?
"So the people on earth are all slaves?" Rose protested. She gave the manacles a tug, but they didn't show any signs of budging.
"Well, now, there's an interesting point. Is a slave a slave if he doesn't know he's enslaved?"
"Yes." The Doctor's instant and very firm reply caused my lips to turn up a little. I'd recognize that tone anywhere.
The man's face wrinkled in keen disappointment. "Oh. I was hoping for a philosophical debate. Is that all I'm going to get? Yes?"
Now the Doctor's face had started getting that smug look back again. "Yes."
A hand brushed my arm, causing me to jump. Cathica. Her mouth opened to say something, but I made some sort of shushing gesture that I didn't keep track of. If she spoke when we were so close to them, we'd be caught and up a creek with definitely no paddle.
"Oh, you're no fun."
"Let me out of these manacles. You'll find out how much fun I am."
My head snapped back around and found the Doctor staring at the guy with a look in his eyes that I'd never seen before. No matter what kind of careless attitude he gave off, a dangerous man lay beneath the surface. Just a glimpse of that made my gut twist and go cold.
Cathica tugged on my arm again. "What's going on?" She mouthed, eyes wider than my own.
"Shut up and try to help them," I hissed back. Seriously, that woman had no concept of danger or silence in the face of it.
"…but you couldn't have done this all on your own," Rose pried. At least she could use her brain even if she'd been chained up.
"No. I represent a consortium of banks. Money prefers a long-term investment. Also, the Jagrafess needed a little hand to install himself."
The Doctor snorted, looking upwards at the ceiling. "No wonder, creature that size. What's his life span?"
The man's smirk made me want to wipe it off his face and into the ice around him. "Three thousand years."
"That's one hell of a metabolism generating all that heat. That's why Satellite Five's so hot. You pump it out of the creature, channel it downstairs. Jagrafess stays cool, it stays alive. Satellite Five is one great big life support system." By the time he finished talking, the Doctor had turned his head enough to stare straight at us. Well, at Cathica, but he could see us. He knew we were there.
Even I knew a hint when phrased that openly. I nudged Cathica with my elbow, giving in and bending my head close to her ear. "He's talking to you. Use your head like he said. Trust him and for once in your life, think."
Cathica had already started shaking her head. The fear and the habits so deeply ingrained inside her that just the thought of stepping outside those bounds had her frozen in place.
I sighed and refocused on the Doctor. I could only do so much to help her when the Doctor's and Rose's lives were on the line. A surge went through the manacles in wavering lines of electricity. Pain I could actually sense spiked off of the both of them. My hand snapped to my face as my hand convulsed around the screwdriver.
"Leave her alone. I'm the Doctor, she's Rose Tyler. We're nothing, we're just wandering." The Doctor blurted when the sparks vanished.
I had to do something … soon. But I didn't know what.
"Tell me who you are!"
"I just said!"
"Yes, but who do you work for? Who sent you? Who knows about us? Who exactly …." The alien above started growling and hissing at him. "Time Lord."
Shit.
"Oh yes," came the man's growing excitement. "The last of the Time Lords in his traveling machine. Oh, and with his little humans from long ago. Hang on, where's the other one?"
I could see a muscle twitch in the Doctor's jaw. "You don't know what you're talking about."
With my heart inches from bursting out of my mouth, I turned the screwdriver around and around in my hand. There didn't seem to be any buttons or dials or anything. I couldn't sit around for too much longer.
"No, no, no. I know there's another girl who's traveling with you. Where'd she run off to?"
"Someone's been telling you lies." The Doctor's eyes flew in my direction for only a split second, but I could read the warning in them. I had to stay hidden. He wanted me to stay hidden.
Well, he'd have to learn to live with disappointment. The Doctor and Rose were in trouble and he didn't have his screwdriver, I did.
The man's smirk set my skin prickling. "You mean young master Adam Mitchell?"
When a monitor lit up with Adam almost getting his brain sucked out, I finally had a use for one of the vicious swear words I picked up at work. A cold, terrifying dread settled in me. Like the whole space station had imploded and sat squarely across my shoulders. Why hadn't Rose kept an eye on him?
"What the hell's he done?" The Doctor blurted, his unflappable calm disappearing in undisguised horror and shock. "What the hell's he gone and done? They're reading his mind. He's telling them everything."
"And through him, I know everything about you. Every piece of information in his head is now mine. And you have infinite knowledge, Doctor. The Human Empire is tiny compared to what you've seen in you …."
I had to stop him. Distract him until the Doctor could think of a way to get out of this. I smacked the screwdriver against my knee. "Come on you stupid little …." The blue end whirred to life, though I could've sworn I hadn't hit anything different. Half a second later, the lights overhead—the ones that still worked—sputtered and threw sparks. It didn't affect the computers, sadly, but it sent the guy ducking away with a very satisfying yelp.
"What? Who's doing that?"
Well, I'd wanted a distraction. Tucking the screwdriver into my pocket again, I stood and poked my head out of the corner. "Sorry! That was me, I'm afraid!" I winced, stuffing my hands behind my back. More to keep their shaking out of sight. How could the Doctor keep his cool all the time?
"What the hell are you doing?"
I clenched my jaw against the anger that assaulted me and kept a grin on my face similar to one I'd seen him wear. "Honestly? I have no idea. Any advice would be appreciated, actually." I only came a couple of feet closer before my nerves completely failed and ruined the whole thing.
Of course, that didn't assume that I'd ruined it already just by being me.
The guy didn't take me seriously. I didn't blame him when he started chuckling. "So you're the other woman, aren't you? Well, well, Doctor, you have quite the eye for female companionship. Both stunners and quite the troublemakers."
"She's got nothing to do with this!" The Doctor snapped. "I don't even know what she's doing up here. She won't be trouble, she's useless. Worse than useless. Emotions all over the place. I don't think you'll get anything …."
Computer screens suddenly began spazzing out, snapping the guy's head and attention away from me. "Someone's disengaged the safety!" One screen flipped to a shot that remained clear. "Who's that?"
My arm nearly vibrated out of its socket. I glanced down as the room started to shake.
SETTING 2381.23/b.
A setting? The screwdriver! With my pulse skyrocketing into overdrive, I turned the blasted thing over and over, finally discovering an almost invisible set of dials. I didn't know which way to turn them since there were no notches to tell me otherwise. Instinct had me flipping them one way and the other until I just … felt … that I'd found the right one. How I'd gotten that setting or even how I knew didn't matter at the moment. Perhaps the TARDIS had done more to my head than I realized.
The consoles exploded, sending the man even further away and giving me the chance I needed. Rushing across the distance, I aimed the screwdriver at the Doctor's manacle-things and hoped for the best.
"What?" Rose yelped, eyes wide. "What are you doing with that?"
"Exactly what I hoped she'd do," the Doctor grinned as he popped free. He snatched the screwdriver from my hand. "Took your time, though," he added before turning towards the man. "Oi, mate, want to bank on a certainty? Massive heat in a massive body, massive bang. See you in the headlines!"
Before I could protest, I found my arm almost yanked out of its socket as the Doctor took both my hand and Rose's and scrambled from the room. I flinched as something … or someone exploded behind me, almost tripping me over my own feet. The Doctor's firm grip kept me on my feet, though, so I didn't complain about it or how rude he'd been.
The Doctor hurried over to where Cathica still lay in the chair with the light streaming into her head. Releasing Rose's hand, he snapped loud enough to make me wince. The portal in Cathica's head closed and her eyelids fluttered open.
The nerves I felt coming off of her had me freeing myself from the Doctor's grip so I could reach over to touch her arm. "Are you okay?"
"Uh … yeah." Cathica frowned, dazed and confused as her brain no doubt put itself back together.
I smiled a little, then glanced back at the Doctor and Rose, who hadn't said anything.
The anger and hurt I glanced in the Doctor's eyes echoed in ever line of his tense form. Rose couldn't look at him, hunched over her crossed arms in an effort to not be noticed.
They'd been close friends, but now … it would take some serious butt-kicking to get them to mend the fence Rose had seriously smashed to pieces.