Tomato Soup 4
Up-date-last words: The teasing voice could only belong to one person in any dimension or galaxy that he had ever known better than he knew himself. The Doctor could even see her teasing smile, tongue between her teeth.
"Rose!" he choked out.
"Took you long enough!" cried Rose, running out from behind the TARDIS at full-speed into his arms.
"But-how is this possible?" the Doctor squeezed her close, afraid to let go. There seemed to be something different about her, but he took no notice what-so-ever.
"That little girl over was born in the-well, she can only remember the-"
"Inside the stupid spaceship if your going to tell my life story, Zeta. Can I still call you Zeta?" the little girl smiled nervously.
"Sure, Harm." Rose giggled. She tried to get out of the Doctor's embrace, but he just held her tighter. Whether because he suspected something or he missed her that much, she didn't care. "Doooooctooor!" she said in a sing-song voice.
"Hmmm?" he hummed, totally intoxicated by Rose-everything about her, the aroma of her strawberry smelling hair, the feel of her in his arms, absolutely everything about Rose is perfect.
"You goin' to let me go soon?" she giggled, oh how he missed that giggle.
"Aww, I guess so." he grumbled. After he let go, she grabbed his hand and dragged him into the TARDIS where the little girl had already disappeared.
Inside, the TARDIS hummed happily at her favorite girl being back where she belonged. The little girl was laying on the captain's chair, holding her hand in front of her eyes. "What's wrong, sweetie?" Rose asked cautiously.
"The concentration's taking a... lot of energy, I'm trying. Not sure how long I can hold it." the little girl grunted, then layed flat on her back with her eyes squeezed shut. She concentrated on breathing slowly and blocking out the pounding in her head.
"What's wrong with her? Rose?" the Doctor loved the sound of her name on his lips, but remembered fiercely that there were... more important (not as important) things to do.
"This little girl was born from the Void-at least, we think so-and please don't interupt." she smiled teasingly when he opened his mouth. "She told me that she had appeared outside theTARDIS and knocked. At the same time, I appeared on the chair over there, even though I had been at home with Mickey. I was impossibly confused, but I opened the door and found a little girl-she looked about two-standing there with big brown eyes and was staring at me."
"She asked if she could come in, and I had a feeling you weren't here and wouldn't care anyway, so I let her in and told her she was officially in the TARDIS." she looked away from his semi-angry gaze.
He suddenly smiled, "So-to recap-you let a strange little girl you had never seen before into my TARDIS without my permission... I'm fully convinced it's you, now keep going." he glanced at the girl, now breathing deeply, but otherwise looked fine. She kept muttering something so low the Doctor's superior Time Lord biology couldn't pick it up like he should have been able to.
"The little girl asked me if I had any tomato soup, as if a bigger-on-the-inside spaceship was the best place in London to find tomato soup. I took her to the kitchen and started the soup while she hoisted herself up onto the chair. I asked her who she was and she gave me a really odd expression."
"Let me take it from here, Zeta. I feel a little bit more under control now." Rose looked as if she was going to intervene when the girl shook her head. "I'm okay now, and if I wasn't you wouldn't be here, now would you?" Rose nodded reluctantly.
"So I told Zeta I had no idea who I was, only that I was from a dark place, that we figured was the Void-where I saw everything. Mind you, I couldn't see the future, but I saw your adventures together-that stretched throughout all of time and space-and how you got taken away from each other at the wrong time. Don't ask me how I know that, I just do." she shrugged. "Anyway, I wanted to help you two so bad I popped in front of the TARDIS and the camouflage disguised me as a two year old. I couldn't hold both of us here that long, that might be the reason you had a dirty bowl in the sink when you got back." Harm giggled.
"Of course, now that makes sense! And you mean you don't actually look like this?" the Doctor asked. Rose gave him a wry look, he was always asking questions about someone's personal life. Are you made of plastic? That was a personal question, what if I was?
"Yeah-well, no. I mean, I don't know what I look like, I could possibly look like this. So Zeta gave me some soup and I asked her what her name was. She looked around the kitchen with a weird look-like envy almost-before she picked up a book that was lying there, flipped to a random page and said the first word there-"
"Zeta." the Doctor finished. "Wait, what's the book called? Oh, right! Forgotten Past, what an odd title, totally gave away the ending." at the girl's questioning looks he sighed. "It's a childs book from Gallifrey about a girl who meets a Time Lord and figures out she's a Time Lord. Like I said, gives away the ending." he smiled.
"Then she asked me what my name was, and I told her I didn't have one. Zeta looked at me and started mumbling. It kind of sounded like, 'Little space between the universes, the Void. Little space would be harmony.' So she smiled at me and said that my name was from then on, Harmony, Harm for short." the little girl now named Harmony smiled cheekily, something she must have picked up from Rose.
"So how are you here?" he aimed the question-that had been on his mind since they got in here-at Rose. "The universes are pretty mush shut, bam, poof if anyone even attempts to step through!"
"Doctor," Rose giggled, "We weren't done yet, be patient." she looked at Harm for permission and she nodded, but as soon as Rose looked away, she clutched at her head. It was throbbing again. "I gave her the soup and asked if she was the one who brought me through the Void and she looked up at me and smiled, then nodded and ate her soup. Harm has no idea how it works, but she looked so adorable, just sitting there and eatin' soup." Rose whispered the last part in the Doctor's ear.
"How long have you been trying to get in contact with me and get here?" the Doctor thought there was something suspisous going on, he just needed the right words and thought process.
"About two and a half months. We had to take a few days after each time so Harm could rest, she's never been out of the Void this long before." Rose subconciously reached out and stroked Harmony's hair, and Harm looked physically more stable because of it.
The Doctor gasped. "You tried this long... just for me?" that wasn't what the gasp was for, but he had to cover for it as he finally figured it out; what was so odd about the pair of them.
"Of course, I promised you forever, didn't I? Everytime we came through we were just late by a few minutes. Then, it was just a few seconds, and on New Years Eve, I got there in time to see the TARDIS disappearing. We were so close, and in Pete's world it's been about a week, not a day since we tried last. Harm!" Rose had glanced over at Harmony to see her fading in and out of existence.
"I'm sorry.. Zeta, I can't hold this. I can... let you go back, but I'll... be stuck here. Can't go back with you, Zeta. Bye." Harmony whispered, closing her eyes.
"Harm, no-" Rose exclaimed, but it was too late. Harmony stopped fading as Rose moved to hug her. The Doctor could just stand there and watch as Rose got close to Harm, but as soon as she got close, Rose disappeared and Harmony was asleep.
I know the chapters aren't very long. In my defence, it looks impossibly long on my iPod, but the computer screen is A LOT bigger than my iPod screen.