Notes: Rose is despairing that time has run out and she'll never see her husband and son ever again. But maybe an old, and some new friends can help save the day. (This chapter has had several rewrites. I wanted to get the characterisations and 'Human social interaction' just right. I hope I have.)
Chapter 7
"So is it always that scary and dangerous," Rory asked as the Time Rotor pumped up and down.
"Oh no," the Doctor said. "It's usually much worse than that."
"Wha?"
Amy came over and bumped his shoulder with hers, grinning at him. "He's kiddin' you. Most of the time we have a laugh and run about a lot."
Rory didn't seem convinced. Amy tried another approach.
"Come on Rory, how often is it that you get to go to a romantic city like Venice and have a sword fight with a vampire?"
"Firstly, I don't find running for my life romantic. And secondly, I wasn't in a sword fight. A vampire with a sword was attacking me and I had a broom. Remember?"
She rolled her eyes. "Well if you're going to quibble over the details…."
"Quibble over the details?" he said incredulously. "Amy that man…." He looked across the control room and saw the Doctor pretending not to listen. He turned his back to him and whispered.
"He's dangerous. He does things, and reacts to things without considering the effect on bystanders." Rory didn't realise that a Time Lord could hear a whisper in a hurricane.
"It isn't the Doctor who's dangerous," she whispered back. "It's the situations he finds himself in. He doesn't turn his back on anyone who needs help." She was trying to think of an example that he could relate to.
"Right. Okay, so let's say there's a mad gunman on the loose and a man gets shot and needs first aid to save his life. You, nurse Williams are the only person around. What would you do? Run for cover, or run to help and take your chances?"
"That's not fair Amy, this is different."
"How so? You have a skill and you use it, regardless of the risks to yourself. I know you do, that's why I love you."
The Doctor looked up from the console. She was good, but she was also wrong. He WAS dangerous, more dangerous than either of them could ever imagine. He had made, and would make, decisions that no one person should have to make.
He had an example of his own. A car crash, two cars burst into flames. Two people trapped, screaming at you to help them as they burn alive. Which one do you save before the petrol tank explodes?
He walked over to them and put his arms around their shoulders.
"So, that date didn't quite go as planned. Let me make it up to you. How about Niagara Falls, that's supposed to be romantic isn't it? We could go on October 24th 1901," he suggested.
"What's so romantic about that date?" Amy asked him.
"Well, nothing really. It's just that Annie Taylor went over the Falls in a barrel. She was a game girl that one."
"You see!" Rory said to her. "He's so alien that he thinks watching a woman trying to kill herself is romantic."
"Alright then, what about a journey on the Orient Express or a trip down the Nile?"
"He's been reading Agatha Christie," Rory said. "I bet he's expecting someone to get murdered."
The Doctor was about to protest, when the TARDIS lurched sideways and started to hum, whistle and beep in what could only be called excitement. He ran to the console to see what was happening.
"What's happened?" Amy asked.
"What's wrong?" Rory asked, looking decidedly nervous.
"The TARDIS has changed course." He inspected the display screen. "Mmmm, that's interesting. It seems the old girl has detected someone with residual artron energy."
"What's he on about?" Rory asked Amy.
"Isn't it obvious?" she replied.
"No."
"Oh."
"You two will have artron energy," he explained. "It's a kind of background radiation you get when you travel through the time vortex."
"See!" Amy said to Rory as if it was obvious.
"The question is, who is it? Why have you got so worked up Old Girl?" He gradually decreased the space-time throttle, activated the harmonic generator and activated the materialise/dematerialise function. The Time Rotor stopped pumping.
"Well, we've arrived," he told them as he headed for the door.
"Where are we?" Amy asked as he opened the door and stepped out.
"Oh no, not here," he said.
Amy and Rory stepped outside into a dusty, deserted, dimly lit room. It looked like at one time it was at the cutting edge of advanced technology, but had since fallen into disuse and been abandoned.
"What is this place Doctor?" Rory asked him.
The Doctor didn't answer, he had wandered over to a large lever that was set into the floor and was gently caressing the handle. It had been the last thing 'She' had touched before being taken from him.
"Doctor, are you alright?" Amy asked, standing beside him. She saw the melancholy look on his face and was concerned for him.
"What? Oh, yes. I'm alright. I'm always alright." He took out his sonic screwdriver and started waving it about, occasionally stopping to inspect the readout on the holographic display.
He got down on his hands and knees and looked across the floor. He then sonicked it and again looked at the results. He stood up and looked around the room.
"Well?" Amy asked.
"Someone has been here recently. Within the last hour, the computers have been used and are still warm," he informed them.
"And the arkon energy?" Rory asked.
"Artron," he corrected. "Gone, with whoever had it on them."
From inside the TARDIS, they heard the urgent beeping and whistling noises again. The light on top flashed once and they heard the Time Rotor 'pump' once.
"It sounds like your ship is getting impatient Doctor," Rory said.
"I don't know what's got into the Old Girl today."
They stepped into the TARDIS and the doors closed behind them as the Time Rotor pumped and she disappeared.
The doors of the TARDIS were facing away from the three Torchwood agents, towards the end of the Lever Room. They heard the door click as it opened and they could hear voices.
"So we are in the same place, but six years earlier?" a female with a Scottish accent asked.
"Yes, that's correct. For some reason the TARDIS is very insistent on coming here," an authoritative male voice said.
"Why, what's so special about this room?" another man's voice asked.
There was a pause, or was it hesitation?
"I lost a very dear friend in this room," the first man said quietly.
"Oh... Sorry," the Scottish lady said, her voice full of sympathy.
"Oh no, she's not dead. It's just that she's in a different universe and I'll never see her again."
Mickey and Jack were looking at Rose, who had a look of disbelief on her face.
"Your voice is…. different," she called out, after regaining her composure.
They heard gasps of breath from behind the TARDIS and hurried shuffling of feet. A head popped out at an angle from the side of the TARDIS. He had floppy hair, prominent eyebrow ridges and a large chin. They could see he was wearing a tweed jacket and a blue bowtie.
A pretty young redhead popped her head out at an angle under his and looked at them with large, round eyes. A young man casually wandered out from behind the TARDIS on the other side and froze in horror at the sight of three combat ready soldiers.
"Who are they?" the woman asked, casting a glance up at the floppy haired man.
"It can't be who I think it is, that's impossible," he replied.
"Yeah, you keep sayin' this is impossible, but this is the third time I've done it," Rose said, walking forward and removing her helmet. Her blonde hair fell down over her shoulders.
She let the helmet drop to the floor as she started to run. The floppy haired man scooped her up into a rib cracking embrace. Rose buried her face in his shoulder.
"Rose?" he whispered.
"Doctor!" she whispered back, her voice breaking with emotion.
They just stood there for minute after long minute, holding each other in silence. Jack and Mickey removed their helmets and came to stand next to them. Both men were smiling, happy for two friends who were once lost but now reunited.
"I think they know each other," the man whispered to the woman.
"Der!" the woman said to emphasise that he was stating the obvious.
The Doctor and Rose separated slightly; he had his hands on her shoulders. Rose wiped tears off her cheeks and put her hands around his waist.
"I've got your jacket wet," she said with a crying laugh.
"That's alright. It's tweed. It'll take more than a few tears to get through a tweed jacket."
"That's a new look for you," she said looking him up and down. "Jack said you'd regenerated."
"Yes. Do you like it? I think the bowtie is rather cool."
"Hmmm," she said uncertainly. "Your face is different," she said, hoping he would remember a previous conversation.
"Yessss," he said, knowing how he should respond. "Good different, or bad different?" He was smiling at her.
Rose gave him her best smile as she remembered that conversation. "Just different," she laughed. They stood there, just looking at each other before she slapped his shoulder.
"You never even said goodbye on that beach," she admonished him.
"I was a projection. The time ran out before I could tell you…. Well, you know."
"Not the first time, the second," she told him.
"What second time?" he asked with a frown. There hadn't been a second time on that beach. He had never seen her again until today. He was about to clarify this when he was interrupted.
"Er, Doctor. There are other people here you know," the young woman told him.
Rose assessed the woman and felt she reminded her of herself when she had first met the Doctor all those years ago. Young, naive and full of the spirit of adventure.
She was wearing a light blue vest top with a brown leather jacket. She wore a short black denim skirt, really short. 'How the hell does she run in a skirt that short'? Rose thought to herself.
At least she had sensible footwear, knee high boots with the tops turned down. She had a red scarf around her neck and Rose wondered if it was hiding the evidence of romance rather than just keeping warm.
"What? Yes! Of course there are. Jack! How are you?" The Doctor grabbed him into a hug and slapped his back. "And Ricky! Are you still defending 'Pete's World'?"
"Yeah," Mickey said with his lopsided smile. "And it's still Mickey."
"What have you done to your face?" Jack asked him.
"What do you mean?" the Doctor asked, pulling at his cheeks and his hair.
"Let's just say 'foxy you ain't'," Jack said with a grin.
The young woman rolled her eyes and 'huffed' as she stepped forward. "When I said there were other people here, I meant us, you numpty. Hi, I'm Amy."
"Ah, Human social interaction. Sorry. Amelia Pond and Rory Williams, may I introduce Rose Tyler, Jack Harkness and Mickey Smith. They're old friends of mine."
Rory appeared the complete opposite to Amy. He was quiet and nervous. He did not look comfortable with travelling with the Doctor, just like Mickey was when he first went into the TARDIS. And why was he wearing a red sweatshirt with a picture of him and Amy in the shape of a heart.
Everyone said hello and shook hands, eyeing up and evaluating one another.
"It's not Tyler anymore Doctor," Rose said, holding up her left hand and flashing her wedding ring. "It's Smith."
The Doctor raised his eyebrows in surprise. "What? You and Mickey?"
Rose grinned at him. "No, not me an' Mickey. Me an' John, y'know the Metacrisis Doctor from the Crucible?"
The Doctor's eyebrows went from raised to furrowed. "I can understand how you know about the Dalek Crucible, Jack probably told you. But there's no way you could have met him while you were stuck in 'Pete's World'?"
Rose hesitated as she tried to compose her thoughts.
"That's the reason we are here Doctor," her voice started to waver. "It's all gone wrong an' I'm runnin' out of time to fix it."
"Well then Rose Smith. If it's time you need, you'd better come aboard and tell me all about it."
Rose stroked the outside of the TARDIS before going in. She felt the familiar welcoming 'hum' from her old friend.
["Hello old thing. How have you been?"] she thought to the TARDIS.
She felt the TARDIS's pleasure at seeing her again. ["Hello my little cub, it is wonderful to see you again,"] she felt in her head.
["You've redecorated yourself, it seems lighter somehow."]
["I match my love's mood."]
"Rose Tyler! Are you talking telepathically?" the Doctor asked with a questioning look.
She grinned at him. ["Yep. And I told you it's Smith,"] she thought to him in Gallifreyan.
"Right, first things first. If time is so short, let's get into the vortex where time stands still." He set the controls and started the Time Rotor.
["Now then Mrs. Smith, I'll show you my timeline if you'll show me yours,"] he thought to her with a grin.
They stood facing one another and put their index and middle fingers on each other's temples. The rest of the passengers watched as they closed their eyes and just stood there in silence, like a couple of living statues.
Rose showed him everything from the worst day of her life, when she was trapped in the other universe. The grieving for a lost love and lost life, and then working for Torchwood to distract herself. That day on 'THAT' beach and how it had accentuated her feelings of loss.
Then there were the stars going out and the Dimension Cannon Project that brought her renewed hope. The correcting of Donna's timeline, and their eventual reunion. The creation of the Human Biological Metacrisis and his decision to strand them on Pete's World.
She showed him their house and how John did domestic. He saw her wedding and the birth of her son. He saw the arrival of 'alternate' Jack, the adventures they'd had working for Torchwood and the growth of their very own TARDIS.
"Er, what's going on?" Amy asked.
Jack gave her his perfect white toothed smile. "It's a kind of telepathy. They're catching up on old times."
The people watching them saw the Doctor's face soften into a warm, proud smile as he received the feelings of love for her husband and her son. Finally, she showed him the incident in the Cambodian pyramid and how everything had changed around her, and how she planned to fix it.
The Doctor in turn, showed Rose his version of the now altered timeline. She easily spotted the differences. He had been asking Donna about the mysterious blonde woman who had given her the message about the stars going out and the phrase Bad Wolf. While he was looking up at the sky and the 26 planets that were there, he had been shot by a Dalek that had come around the corner.
Jack had appeared and blasted the Dalek, before carrying him to the TARDIS where he performed his partial regeneration. When they had been taken to the Crucible, only Jack had stepped out with him before the TARDIS locked Donna inside.
Jack had sacrificed himself so that he could escape and rig a self destruct on the Z-Neutrino core. The Daleks teleported him away before he could pull the lever. The Doctor, Jack and Martha ended up in the vault in front of Davros, when the TARDIS appeared and the Metacrisis Doctor and Donna saved the day.
When he dropped everyone off back on Earth, Martha had agreed to look after the Metacrisis Doctor. All the time, Rose could sense that the Doctor was waiting for her to appear so that they could be reunited. But he was disappointed, and now both he and the Metacrisis Doctor were missing her.
Sadly, he had found out that the body of Sarah Jane had been found by her car, killed by a massive energy discharge through her body. It had all the hallmarks of a Dalek execution.
It had only been a few seconds, but they had managed to share year's worth of experiences. They opened their eyes and smiled at each other. The Doctor took her face in his hands and gently placed a kiss on her forehead.
"That plan of yours is very risky," the Doctor told her. "Do you remember what can happen when two of the same person occupy the same timeline?"
She did. He was referring to the time when she had gone back to see her own father before he died. That had been disastrous.
"Yeah, but what choice did I have? I had to do somethin'," she said.
"Well don't you worry yourself about it; I've got it all under control."
"What are you goin' to do?"
"Just sit back and watch the master at work," he said with a smile.
Amy had been thinking about something Rose had said when she first saw him. "Doctor?" she asked. "Why did she say you had a different face?"
"Ah! That's a long story, and a bit complicated. I'll explain it all later."
He went over to the console and started setting the coordinates. "Right, off we go then," he said.
The Time Rotor started pumping. "Do you remember that alley you jumped into at the bottom of those steps, when you were carrying that big gun?" He had gotten that image from their shared thoughts.
"Yeah?"
"Ever wondered why you ended up there, close to where I would land the TARDIS and not, say back at the Noble household?"
"I did actually, yeah."
"Well wonder no more." He materialised the TARDIS on that street, but kept the Time Rotor running for a quick getaway. He went around to the monitor and checked the readings.
"Ah-ha! Here they are. Torchwood are locking the Dimension Cannon on the TARDIS energy. Lock established and... time to go." He activated the controls with his old flourish and the TARDIS dematerialised just before Rose Tyler appeared.
"So it was you all along! You led me to that street so that I could find... well you."
"That's right. It was a fixed point in time," he told her.
"Can we have a 'time out' here while one of you explains what the hell's going on," Amy said.
Rose smiled at her; she was starting to like this woman. "Amelia isn't it?"
"Amy," she corrected her. "And are you the woman he gets all moody about when he's left to his own thoughts?"
Rose gave a single laugh. "Yeah, that'd be me. We had a bit of history before events conspired to separate us."
Rory came and stood awkwardly next to Amy. Rose could tell that he was hopelessly devoted to her. Amy looked at him and smiled, before turning back to Rose.
"And his face?" Amy asked.
"Ah, yes. That's a bit more complicated. You know he's a Time Lord?"
Amy nodded. "Yes, he does sort of use that to justify himself sometimes."
Rose laughed again, she definitely liked Amy. "Time Lords have the ability to regenerate; they can renew all the cells in their body if they are mortally wounded."
"So what did he used to look like then?"
Rose took out her phone and found a photo of John and showed it to Amy.
"Blimey! I think you got the better deal there Rose. He must have banged his face against the console when he crash landed in my garden," Amy laughed.
"He crash landed?" Rose asked.
Amy proceeded to tell her about her first encounter with the newly regenerated Doctor when she was six, and how she waited for him to return.
Jack and Mickey joined them and started to reminisce about some of their old adventures with Rose and the Doctor.
Rose went over to the Doctor and put her arm around his waist while he was standing at the console. He looked down at her and smiled, putting his arm around her shoulder.
"Amy says you crash landed."
"What? Oh, when I first met her. Yes, it was a particularly rough regeneration. I'd been poisoned by radiation; I very nearly didn't make it."
Rose had tears stinging her eyes. "And you were all alone with no one to help you?"
He rubbed her shoulder affectionately. "I was alright, I'm…."
"Don't you dare tell me that you're always alright, because I know different."
He chuckled at her and raised his eyebrows. "And yet here I am. And here you are, my brilliant Rose Tyler." She raised her eyebrows.
"Okay, I know, Smith. And here you are, living that fantastic life, day after day."
"Until it all went wrong," she said.
