Return To Memory
Chapter 15: Forget Me Not
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. Sadness.
They ran through the streets as the sun began to go down, far too quickly. Just an hour ago it had been noon.
"Something is messing with time here. The rips are supposed to repair themselves, but whoever made them has no idea what they are doing. Or they don't care. Either way, we have to stop them now." The Doctor shouted as they raced down the final few blocks to the Hub, where the TARDIS was still parked. Rose tried to extend her senses to see if she could feel the rips as she had earlier, this time without the pain. She felt three rips nearby, but they were getting smaller. A frown grew on her face as they raced through the doors and up to the console. The Doctor started whirling about the console, frantically pushing buttons and turning levers. A familiar haze began to grow over Rose's eyes.
He flew around the console, all manic smiles and mad laughter. She felt her single heart skip a beat.
"Where are we going?"
He grinned and wiggled his fingers for her to take his hand. She did and there was no telepathic tingle, only cool skin and butterflies in her stomach.
"Further than we've ever gone before."
She laughed with him, following her mad alien out of the ship, the smell of apples wafting in through the open doors.
There was a theme to these visions. They were memories, she was sure of it now. She glanced at her own timelines and saw extra loops and swirls, more than that of anyone she had ever met. Why had she never noticed that before? Who was she, then? Was she the human in her visions or the Gallifreyan she was now? And why did everything she was seem to center on the Doctor?
"Aha!" The Doctor's shout of discovery brought her out of her thoughts and to the present. She could ponder her visions later. For now she trusted her courting partner with all of her being and she would ask him later what all these visions were. There were lives at stake here.
"What is it, Doc?" Jack asked, walking up behind him and glancing at the monitor as if he could read the complicated Gallifreyan script that scrolled across the screen.
"There are distortions- rips in time-space all over Cardiff. From here I can count exactly seven of them. There may be more. Something is using them somehow, probably as an energy source."
Rose came up behind him, glancing at the monitor herself. "They're shrinking, too. The holes. They are trying to close up." she said, placing her hand on the Doctor's sleeve. The tingle of the touch calmed her nerves, let her know that he was still the same man she trusted so much- the same man that saved a Balbox for her and let her name it Mickey. These visions were really starting to unnerve her.
He looked at her in surprise. "How can you tell they are shrinking?"
She blinked at him in surprise. "I can feel it. Just look at them behind your eyes. They are closing in on themselves."
He nodded and closed his eyes. Jack looked at them in curiosity. Behind his eyes, the Doctor searched for the gaps with his time sense. Sure enough, he felt each gap sucking itself in. It wasn't the gap itself, though. Something was feeding off of the energy. His eyes popped open and he ran over to the access panel to his storage under the grating.
"You're right, Rose. Something is feeding off of these rips in time. If people are disappearing into them, maybe the thing that is creating the gaps is taking the people out of their timelines and feeding off the energy of all the existence they would have had." He paused and looked up at Rose, who continued to astound him with her untrained yet developed senses. Their eyes met and he felt his heart wrench at the thought of one of the rips taking her. "It's erasing people from time. Their friends, families, everything about the lives they led is simply erased. Their loved ones don't know they are gone, don't even remember they existed. They simply vanish from time." He saw her shiver from across the room and ripped his eyes from hers to dig through his gadgets. He knew he had something in here to track down the source of these timey-wimey thieves.
Rose's voice drifted down to him. "And if the gaps close all the way? What will happen then, to the people?"
He found the gadget he was looking for and hopped back up onto the grating, sliding the panel shut. He pulled the sonic out of his pocket and started making adjustments to the device. He didn't want to think about what would happen if they failed. He had Rose by his side. As long as they were together, they would never fail.
She went up to the Doctor, her hand rested on his shoulder and she felt his muscles relax at her touch. "Doctor? What happens if the gaps close?" She asked, though she was pretty sure she already knew the answer.
The Doctor stopped his sonicking and met her eyes. A shiver ran down his spine at the depth of them, but he tamped down his response to her. Now was not the time. "If the gaps close all the way, the people will be lost forever. Their timelines will be erased from the universe. They may still exist, but it will be in a timeless prison. It's like throwing someone into the void, but they still think they are in the real world. They exist, but nobody knows they are there. They'll be forced to be ghosts in their own world, with no afterlife to pass on to and nobody to remember them."
Tears formed in Rose's eyes and she grabbed the sonic from his hands, continuing the adjustments he had just been making. Funny, he didn't think she had even known what the device was. "Then let's save them before that happens, Doctor." she looked up at him from her work and he grinned back at her.
"Yes, let's."
Jack stood by watching the exchange. Rose was a lot more impressive than he had ever given her credit for. He grinned as the Doctor looked at her, completely and obviously smitten. He'd always known that his favorite Time Lord had been head over heels for his companion, but never before had he seen the emotion so openly written on his face. Rose's necklace glittered brilliantly against her skin, a piece far too fancy for the simple earth outfit she was wearing.
Jack smiled widely at the couple as the Doctor murmured instructions to her and wove his hand into her hair. The way they fit together was completely right, and he desperately hoped that Rose's memories would return soon. The second they did, he knew there would be fireworks. Hell, there was already a fire there. He could see it in the possessive hunch of the Doctor's shoulders, the softness in the corners of his eyes and the gentle upturn of his lips as he looked at Rose.
And Rose, whose memories were completely hidden from her, truly loved him back. It was in the way she pressed closer to him, tilted her head into his hand and stood far closer to him than was probably appropriate for such a prudish race as the Time Lords. He grinned. Oh, yes. These two were headed for something amazing.
What fit the two of them so tightly together, though, was the determination in their eyes. They worked flawlessly as a team and Jack stood contentedly on the sidelines and watched. The Doctor and Rose, the Oncoming Storm and the Valiant Child, would soon save the world again. And they would do it thanklessly, but with glee and pride in a job well done. They would celebrate with a trip in which they would likely save another world, and then they would go for chips. Before long, Rose's memories would return and they would receive their reward.
Jack was brought out of his slightly gooey musings when the Doctor once again sprang into action.
"All-right then, allons-y! Let's go save the world!" he said, laughing as he grabbed his coat off the railing. Rose held on to the gadget they had been working so intently on and followed him out the door. Jack followed them, shutting the doors behind him and running up the stairs.
The cool night air greeted them. Rose closed her eyes and tried to feel what time it was here.
"Doctor, It's only two in the afternoon. Why is it dark?"
He frowned. "Whatever is creating the rips is messing with the time flow. It's moving too fast. Look at the people around us."
She glanced around the square. Everyone was moving in hyper-speed. It was as if time had sped around them and they weren't moving at all.
"Come on, guys." Jack said, starting toward the location of the first rip on the map the Doctor had given him.
Rose began to follow, but suddenly a deafening roar surrounded them. She turned to her right, where the Doctor was standing, and saw one of the terrible rips opening up before her.
The Doctor looked at her, terror in his eyes. She felt his hands push her away from him before he was sucked violently into the swirling winds of the vortex. She screamed for him, wanting to follow him through if only to stay with him, but the gap closed. Only a wave-like distortion was left before her, and when she reached out to touch it she felt cold.
A pain like she had never known before ripped through her head. The distortion was so strong, it hurt to look at. It felt as though something was trying to reach into her mind. She felt all of her memories of the Doctor begin to waver and she screamed out at the force. She felt her mind rear up in defense against the force and it began to back away. Her memories were safe, and she locked them deep inside of her as she blacked out from the pain.
OoO-OoO-OoO-OoO-OoO-OoO-OoO-OoO-OoO-OoO-OoO-OoO-Oo O-OoO-OoO
The Doctor was in an endless void, the swirl of the colors around him blinding his eyes. He felt a desperation to find a way out of the place he was stuck in, thought only of Rose and how much he loved her and needed to get back to her. The look in her eyes as he was pulled away from her- he couldn't bear it. He tried to reach for his sonic screwdriver in his pocket, but he couldn't move at all.
It had been going too well. Rose was starting to remember, was falling in love with him even without remembering. He was going to find the key to unlock her memories. He was going to live forever with Rose by his side as his wife, on his newly resurrected planet. They were going to have a family, a home, a life. It couldn't end like this.
The swirling stop and he landed with a harsh thud on a hard floor. He breathed in the scent of fear and engine oil. There was quiet and noise all at once. His exhausted body sagged in relief. Wherever he was, he was somewhere. He could make it back to Rose.
A boot slammed into his head, and everything went black.
OoO-OoO-OoO-OoO-OoO-OoO-OoO-OoO-OoO-OoO-OoO-OoO-Oo O-OoO-OoO-OoO
A cool hand on her forehead brought her up from the darkness.
"Rose! Rose, what's wrong? Rose!"
Jack? That was definitely Jack's voice. She opened her eyes to his worried face.
"Oh, thank God. I was worried, Rosie! Why did you just faint like that? Have you eaten today? I've been telling you for ages, you have to eat breakfast every day."
She sat up, looking around frantically for the Doctor. He had just been here.
"Where's the Doctor?" she asked softly. Jack didn't seem to hear her. It was daylight now, and the people weren't moving in hyper speed anymore. A few had stopped to look at her there on the ground, seemingly concerned. Jack continued on.
"Rose, come on, let's go get you some water. I think that's what you need." he said, trying to pull her up to her feet. She wrenched her bare wrist from his grip, offended that he would dare touch her so familiarly.
Her hand closed around something cold and cylindrical. She glanced down. The sonic! She stood and frantically began scanning the area, the wavy distortion next to her still painful to glance at.
"Jack! Where is the Doctor?" she asked, suddenly remembering the rip that had sucked him in. Her hearts dropped to her stomach and she felt sick at his reply.
"Doctor? Doctor who?"
A/N: It's been far too long since I've posted a chapter to this, I know! I have it all mapped out now. I've just got to find the time to write all of it! I don't have a beta so it takes a while of editing to really get everything fleshed out. Thank you all for your patience (I realize this story has been in the works for almost two years!) and for continuing to read. Your reviews definitely encourage me to continue!
With love,
doctorrosetyler