Erm...you should be used to my month-plus absences by now? xD Anyhoo, I hope you're all having good holidays :3
Just a note that this will get darker (but if you've been following me for somewhile now, do I even need to say? lol). As in DarkTen. But not necessarily as a wolf...;)
Sorry if this is out of place or there are loads of errors. I've been really ill lately and am still recovering. I have a headcold as I write this...
For once, the Doctor's hand in hers was alien. Funny, that. Normally his slighter cooler skin was a soothing comfort, especially in hot weather, the weight reassuring. His long fingers -surprisingly elegant for a man's-curled around her hand like a lifeline.
The world seemed to to shrink around her, the weird and wonderful passerbys milling around faster than usual. She seemed to have zoned out, because everything had gone quiet.
It wasn't because of her that she might be leaving. It was him.
Anxiety and the beginnings of cold, harsh fear began to trickle into her limbic system, and despite wanting to let go, for God's sake! she remained anchored to the Doctor.
Damn him.
Damn him and his preposterous infallibility and ridiculous charm. Pinstriped idiot.
Would she ever be able to make decisions again?
The Wolf.
Not just a dream now.
He could sense It, gently growling beside him.
The Doctor's brow creased. He sensed a hesitance in Rose. He could see it. Smell it on her (only that bit he wouldn't admit, too 'weird' for a human').
He'd experienced it enough to know it. The steady increase in heart rate. The release of acetylcholine, norepinephrine and epinephrine. Mydriasis. And above all the underscoring tang of sweat. Fear. Fight-or-flight.
But why? Rose knew she was safe with him...
but is she? Really? After all you've done?
The Doctor grit his teeth at the nagging voice -which for some reason donned a Northern accent and leather- and swatted it away, like an annoying insect.
Right. Now or never. He drew in a breath, looked around the dusty market as though it might present something.
"...Rose?"
She made a small, non-committal noise beside him. Her grip slackened. There was no eye contact.
She didn't even raise her head to look at him. Not to, well, look kind of look.
Words faltered, flailing in his throat. Threads of nothing.
A quiet, terse, "Yes, Doctor?" He inhaled deeply again -and then, realized he hadn't let the previous one go. Air escaped him in a rush of syllables. His hearts clenched -not for her- but the fact he probably sounded like a rambling lunatic. A ursine passerby gave them a odd look beneath furry brows as they stopped in the middle of the small street.
Rose turned to him, just slightly. And the look in her eyes...well, it was something no human should experience.
He saw himself echoed.
"Doctor...I think..."
"What?" He almost tripped over her faint words in his eagerness to hear her, for it to be something...good.
He wasn't sure what. Or why he needed it.
"I think...we need to go visit my mum."
The Doctor looked stumped. More than usual. He had looked rather expectant, like she was some kind of figure revealing a long-awaited a truth or something.
Oh, and how his face fell. It nearly made her laugh. Nearly.
"What? Now? Why? Is it something to do with unmentionables again? 'Cos -as I told you before, " he blathered with a cocky swagger and an inclination of the head, "that launderette on Malos is amazing! You can wash all your stuff in more scents than Earth! And its sorted by colour! Imagine that, Rose! You can smell the colours! Genius! Ha!"
His charisma and rambling was infectious- Rose felt a grin creeping up, the urge to laugh at his silliness that she was so fond of. She found herself joining in. Just playing along. It this...thing was sorted.
"Doctor, I don't think you understand...I can't just give my unmentionables (she almost said underwear, or something, loved seeing him embarrassed with mundane 'human things'- it was adorable!) to a public place!"
"But...colours- and, all the..." He looked like a young boy who'd just been denied a favourite toy.
"Sorry, Doctor," she teased. "Mum's. Now."
"But I-"
"I thiiiink she has extra Jammy Dodgers..."
The Doctor sighed. The things he did for this girl...
Whispers. Whispers. The Doctor had been exiled from the flat and told to 'tinker' after demolishing a whole packet of Jammy Dodgers and second mug of sweet tea.
His inevitable sugar rush was latent, quelled by the anxiety roiling in his system. The whispers weren't the mundane, mother-to-daughter ones they had (some he'd previously wished he'd never heard), no, not this time. There was a virtual elephant in the room.
Funny that. Elephants. Pink! He should take Rose to New Earth again, where animal genetics took a funny turn and he recalled there being some oddly coloured animals, like mixed colour washes...
And at this point he was with his ear to the wall. He was going to take the stethoscope out, but...Jackie might suspect something weird and alien if he was caught. He mentally shuddered at the possibilities of her suggestions.
The creak of the aged sofa alerted him and he jumped back from the door, tripping over his coat (he'd been crouching for ten minutes solid) and falling inelegantly onto the carpet. And it was not a comfy carpet.
Rose's head peered from a gap in the door. He just caught her rolling her eyes.
"Doctor, please."
"What? I thought I heard something in your wall. You never know, you might have an infestation of -of-"
Jackie joined the fray, appearing in the gap beside her slightly miffed-looking daughter. He felt ganged up on. By women.
"You 'eard her! Shift! Go and play with your box, or whatever it is you do to your ship when we're not looking."
The Doctor spluttered. Jackie was making his relationship with the TARDIS sound obscene. "I don't-"
Rose's mouth was now a thin line of disapproval. His heart sank with the sickening realization she wasn't teasing anymore.
"Yeah...sure. I'll just...go." The Doctor left it at that, and an awkward silence cloaked them as he tried to leave, hoisting himself off of the ground in as dignified a way as Time Lord that had just tripped over his own coat could.
"Fine." His voice was clipped and had a grating tone that wasn't there before. He felt jumpy, and her evident displeasure, it was, well...
Not having the usual reaction.
The thing inside...it liked the disfunction. Clawed for more.
The Doctor ran.
"I don't know, Mum. It's not the first time he's been...weird..."
"Well, sweetheart, like I said, it's up to you. I'd say come back home -been saying it from the start- but...I can see the way he looks at you..."
"What?" Rose almost jarred her neck as she turned to look at her mum. Her expression was soft, but serious.
"Oh, come one, he would n't- I mean he- after all the-"
"Rose." Her hand -rougher than she remembered- clasped hers.
"I won't get in the middle of the two of ya, I mean, goodness knows what goes on. Can't even begin to understand it. But he promised. And if you so much as get hurt...well. I think he knows what's comin."
She relented. Maybe...there was hope.
"I s'pose. Thanks, mum."
A hug was shared, and Jackie watched with a slightly sinking heart as her daughter left, not for the first time. Into who knew what.