*Rosy Paradox*

~WhiteGloves~

~Doctor in Rage so watch out!

*These... these amazing otp... Doctor Who classic tandem!*

-Enjoy Reading!-

Chapter 2: White & Grey

The Galleon smoothly glided on its way with white blinking lights on each side, signaling to any other space craft on its way in the middle of the darkened, star-filled space. Metallic claws were suspended on both sides of the ship ready to snatch whatever it could find lying about for it was its purpose: to take what others lost, what others don't need and what others seemed to have forgotten and give it value. The grand-sized, beat-up spaceship known for its hauling functions went on with only the humming sound of its machinery at work, ready to do its trade of crossing orbits.

And everything was in proper order in the galaxy, silent and at peace.

Except when you go inside of the ship where the Doctor was at the limit of his temperament and rage and when the Doctor was like that those who know him know better to stay away as far as possible, especially the ones who were on his bad side. It was no feat getting the Doctor angry for there were few things that could make the peaceful Time Lord all genuinely bad and moody. Only few. And on top of those was just the slightest notion of a threat to her name.

What now that he find her—or her doppelganger— sitting there on the cold display of a merchant's ship like she was some sort of product to sell? The Doctor could barely contain his anger. It was taking him a toll not to disdain the master behind her image of all white and grey; otherwise the good fella Galleon Captain would be receiving his wrath.

Ruffold, the ship's captain, was in for some bombshell.

The Doctor did not wait for any invitation as he strode his way on the corridor to the other side of the room where the door of this Rose-look-alike could be found. Ruffold was right behind him looking unusually surprised at the Doctor's agitation to open the door without waiting for any permission but the Captain supposed it was alright, especially when he get to see that sonic-screwdriver again. He always had a penchant for Time Lord inventions that had always been rare since millennia.

"I suppose he won't be in the mood to show me that again." He told himself as he followed the seemingly rampant alien.

And the first door opened, the Doctor bolted in right away but almost automatically—halted in confusion—Ruffold knew why—there was another door standing on the Doctor's way as if to challenge his patience.

"Two doors?" he said, quite incensed as he threw himself on the control panel to open it.

"Three." The Captain shrugged when the Doctor glared at him briefly.

"Why d'you lock her up with three security measures for?"

"There's been a case of attempted robbery. You know that I take pride on not getting 'stealed' from by anyone— no matter what or how my object is—"

"She is not an object. Definitely not yours." The Doctor said through gritted teeth as he jumped away automatically when the door opened and nearly jammed his sonic device on the last door, "I don't want you to say that about her anymore… 'friend'."

"Again, define it." Ruffold made a snorting sound as the opening of the sensor door took time and all the while the captain had been wondering quietly to himself. "I understand she is a friend of yours?"

The door slid open and the Doctor was gone in a heartbeat, leaving Ruffold sighing to himself and remaining still, planning to wait for them outside the room. It wasn't the first time the Doctor made himself feel so at home and so in charge of the ship with him bouncing up and about the first time he set foot in there. It was also useless to initiate warning for the Doctor never heeds especially when you say stop. There was no stopping him when he looked like an overexcited bee circling from on one room to another. No stopping him ever when he looked like he was about to explode in anger either so best, as Ruffold had learned long time ago, to let him. Let the mad Doctor get the lady and let them leave as soon as possible before his ship topples over.

Because the Doctor is just capable of doing that— just now be it friend or whatnot, especially when it came to this particular lady Time Lord, it seemed. How relieved the Captain was he didn't sell her to his best customer. He didn't want the customer to land into trouble, is all. Let him take her, payment unnecessary but peace, and continue his Galleon's silent cruising.

Because peace was not on the Doctor's strong points even though he claims it, everyone in the Universe knows that. Still, he was trustworthy—much more than any other aliens Ruffold has met. Everyone in the Universe also knows that. He is one whole package you either keep or throw and still be there, there goes the saying.

When minutes passed and the Doctor still didn't come out did Ruffold decided to step in.

"Have you frozen in time now, Time Lord?" He found the Doctor only just standing there, feet from him, not moving an inch and just staring at the blonde lady who did not give any sign that she noticed her room just got infiltrated. The room was shadowy with only one light at the top of her head that made her look like one of those mannequin displays you see, unmoving, too white and beautiful, except there were heartbeats. The Fuotar could just hear it with his sensitive three-hole ears. He knows the Doctor could hear it too.

"Do you believe me now, Doctor? She's as good as any Time Lord you'll ever see."

But the Doctor was only half listening as his eyes drank in her appearance with his own face defeating the straight look. She looks like her. She is her? He has to know… Yet he could not brave himself to get closer, afraid that his fears may get confirmed. He wanted to call her but the name wouldn't escape his lips.

It couldn't be her, no.

Yet it is her.

Ruffold bowed his head, shook his mane and without another word, reached his furry hand on the Doctor's pinstriped back and gave him a violent push—to which the Doctor responded by almost running towards her bed and slowly kneeling in front of her so he could see her eyes. He forgot time and space when he looked at her familiar face despite its weariness and pallor which he so abhor— the face that was distinctively her.

What in all Peladonian happened to her? Why is she…?

The Doctor gulped hard and wanted to reach his palms on her face, to make her look at him because she wasn't. Her eyes were dead and unresponsive and that was what he was most afraid of.

Not to be recognized by her eyes.

Call her, a voice at the back of his mind said.

It had been awhile—a long while since he mentioned her name which was already hidden in the same vault of secrets as his real name, hidden and protected from others. There he kept it close to his hearts, there he kept it without anyone needing to know except him for all eternity. Until now.

"Rose?" the Doctor whispered as he found his voice and it broke him to say it aloud as memories flooded his vision that nearly sent him cold. The memories were all there, never forgotten—from the first time they met with the explosion of her work place, to her jumping and saving him from the nestling consciousness, the expanding of the sun, the time they spent under the snow, under the shooting Daleks up to her getting taken as the Bad Wolf… saying their goodbye… meeting again under the threat of the Bad Wolf… having her close to him… and saying their goodbye again he never really thought 'for good'. All of it crashed at that moment's notice till there was nothing left but for him to clutch her cold hands when she didn't answer. "Rose, it's me."

He looked down at their hands and realized his grip was shaking it made him grin wide.

"Look at me, all fidgety when meeting Rose Tyler… as usual. You still have the same charms on me whenever I see you… All excitedly blue with whitely star sparks… and rainbow except its all yellow…"

He looked up at her with his stupid grin, his eyes watering and wishing her same bright smile was there to meet his. It wasn't. She remained as immobile as he had found her outside the glass window, cold and empty. The Doctor's lips thinned because then— he did confirm something as he touched her hand and it made him angrier rather than happier.

Because this was the real Rose.

His Rose Tyler with two hearts, cold as ice, captured and put in a glass window for other creatures to ogle at and lost for how long in the Universe? Oh the Doctor was so angry he wanted to lash out to the responsible creatures and let them have the taste of the Zygons!

He gritted his teeth and there were those unknown malevolent look in his eyes. But all of the turbulence he was feeling instantly vanished when out of nowhere, Rose' eyes turned to his as if to feel his tension.

"Rose?" he whispered, his chest getting crushed by something so heavy that both his hearts seemed to have stopped functioning and for a moment, all was lost once again as the Doctor waited for her to speak and call out his name.

Then he realized he wanted her to remember. More than anything in this world, for her to remember…

But Rose continued looking at a distant, unseeing, contained and lifeless.

The Doctor's jaw tightened and he embraced her tight with one swift hand on her head and the other around her shoulder, pulling her close.

"I'm sorry."

It didn't take long to get Rose in a warm room after the Doctor swept her off her feet and carried her to the guest room that Ruffold offered himself. A blanket was next wrapped around her with the Doctor sitting next to her on the cushioned settee, warming her up with his arms around her shoulder, after having asked to turn on the room's temperature too.

When she was settled with her attention still the span of a fish, the Doctor looked up at the ship's captain who was glad the dark ambiance around him had slowly settled but knew the flame was nowhere near dead.

"I told you she is a Time Lord. You were the one who didn't believe it in the first place." Ruffold said in defense.

"Where did you find her?" the Doctor's grim tone suggested no time be wasted.

"Ophiuchus Cluster, about 0.15 outside. She was inside one of those emergency capsules you see floating around every turn of the orbit. Obviously to us it appeared like it was sucked up by a black hole and went on tumbling across space for weeks outside the Milky Way. We found her there unconscious and when she came into she wouldn't speak."

"Where's her capsule?"

"It's empty, I assure you."

"I want to see it."

"I'll lead you to it—"

"I don't want to leave her." The Doctor looked not so modest in asking that made the Fuotar frown a little.

"What do you propose to happen?" he nearly snarled if not for the fact that he really liked this Time Lord.

Minutes next the capsule was brought there in the room by some crew members. It was small, almost the size of a door with its grey linings and white coat where the numbers 1915185 was written, almost unseen because of the damage sustained on one side.

"We found her unconscious. We also do not know how long she has been there," Ruffold watched as the Doctor inspected the inside with eyes narrowing. The inside was like sitting on an enclosed comfortable zone of white cushion, sturdy as metal but soft as a cloud.

"It got broken on impact… was she injured?" he moved around the capsule with hands on his pocket.

"No, there were no detected broken parts or any damage on her when she was scanned."

"It's like the TARDIS." The Doctor then went on while the Fuotar gave him the most surprised look.

"You mean small in the outside—"

"Bigger on the inside, yeah," the Time Lord found himself moving back beside Rose and instinctively wrapping an arm around her motionless form before looking up the captain. "But it had collapsed. I don't think the damaged was caused by anything from here… I think it was already broken before Rose used it."

"You mean… she came out of battle?"

"Possibly." The Doctor looked down the lady with a press of his lips. "Are you sure there was nothing inside when you opened the capsule?"

"We've looked high and low and there's nothing but… well, there was that but…" the Captain looked hesitant as the Doctor's forehead crinkled, his bright eyes suspicious. Then as if understanding what happened in the next beat, Doctor spoke quietly it defeated the meaning of calm.

"What did you sell that was with her?"

"We didn't think it was of any importance… the customer wanted it—I couldn't say no twice. Let's just say it was her payment for getting towed—"

"What was it?"

"A pocket watch."

The Doctor's hand was quick inside his pocket without blinking away from Ruffold. His theory of why Rose was back without his human replica version was slowly getting some light. The Doctor raised his hand and let his own pocket watch dangle in its string. "You mean this pocket watch?"

The captain blinked at the watch and nodded.

"A facsimile that is."

"You said you couldn't say 'no twice'—but you never say no if you can help it unless it's a fair price." the Doctor went on, his eyes burning on the Captain again, "What did your customer ask in the first place?"

Ruffold turned to the lady beside the Doctor and nodded again. "Her. It was her or the pocket watch."

The Doctor was silent for awhile, his eyes looking faraway than it intended and as his understanding deepened, there were only few more questions that needed to be asked.

"Who were they and where were they headed? Did they start asking for her the moment you found her?"

"Humanoids from Ten Galaxies calling themselves High Echelon, but they don't return there anymore they have this flat spaceship with solar band in the middle, you'll easily recognize it."

"I've heard of Echelon but not 'high'. New nomenclature I see…" The Doctor whispered mostly to himself as he looked away, "Must be the same species but with different authorities on front lines. But how would they know where she'd be coming from… were they actually looking for her… and the pocket watch us Time Lords would know…"

"I see your hands are full but I cannot help you more." The Fuotar caught the Doctor's eyes. "These Echelons are good purchasers of mine…"

"Yet you still did not give her in when you recognize her as a Time Lord?" the Doctor raised his eyebrows to heaven.

Ruffold scowled. "I said I wanted you to confirm her existence and now that you did—how do I benefit from it?"

"My trust." The Time Lord wasn't looking away as he addressed the Captain. "I owe you one."

"That makes us equal."

"Yes, and no… you still sold her only means of getting herself back, you know."

"I really didn't…" Ruffold's eyes fell on Rose for a moment, "What is she doing?"

For then Rose had suddenly reached her hand on the pocket watch dangling in front of her—the second notable movement—and had slowly touched the circular object her eyes had recognized and had focused on. The Doctor watched her every move with concern and interest as he moved down the floor to face her again.

"Do you recognize it?" he whispered softly as he saw her eyes begin to give life a little, "Rose, do you know what this is?" His hearts raced when she opened her lips to answer, her thin fingers enclosing on the watch and the Doctor let her have it, watching her every expression with a stab on his own hearts as she held the watch close to her lips.

"Rose?" his voice quivered at how silent the tears were streaming down her face, "It's alright, you don't have to hold it back… cry, Rose…" but she wouldn't. She kept her lips tightly closed and her eyes unblinking, the blanket on her shoulder falling.

The Doctor didn't know what to do except to stare at her looking defeated himself. He didn't know whether to cry with her or held her close. So instead he raised a hand and touched her hair, then slowly slid it down her neck where he clasped her. She was still cold and trembling. She was so weak but her grasp on the pocket watch was firm.

And the flame on the Doctor's eyes returned.

"You wrenched the pocket watch out of her hands…" he said in dead whisper. "She'd never let it go…"

The receiving end didn't like the sound of it and immediately went on defense. "Why would I do that to a helpless lady? It was given to me by one of my crew by the time I got to the pit to take a look. Calm down now."

The Doctor blinked down several times, gave a sigh and looked up at her face again. She tears had stopped but her damp cheeks didn't add colour to her already ashen face. How he wanted to bring her back to the sun…

"Right, I'm sorry, Captain." He said after a long look on her face. "We ought to be going."

"You know what to do with her?" he inquired as he watched her pull the blanket on her shoulder again, wrapped her up on his arms and carried her again off her feet, "She going to be alright?"

"She will be." The Doctor looked the Fuotar and his serious features softened. "I ought to be thanking you for saving her. I'm sorry."

Ruffold shook his head. "She must be very important."

The Doctor eyed him very intensely, before looking down at her still body.

"She is." He began walking out of the room with Ruffold watching him curiously.

"What will you do about the pocket watch?" he called as he followed the pinstriped Time Lord out of the room into the corridor. "They wanted her the moment they laid eyes on her and the pocket watch. Now that I think of it you don't think it coincidence, do you—?"

"Nope." Was the quick answer, "They know something and if I find out they are the reason she is here like this then they'll pay. Humanoids are plenty smart materials in the race and I wouldn't waste a breath not suspecting them. They ought to know. I'm going after them."

"What— you will raid them with only you and the TARDIS?"

"We've done more than enough, yet not too many." The Doctor remembered the pathway towards the dock where the TARDIS is and went on with the Captain of the ship trotting behind him. "By the way, I noticed the other show room did not have the same three locked-door security as hers. Why is that?"

"I told you there was an attempted robbery."

"Isn't that just strange. And the attempt was on her room, suppose?"

"Yes."

Ruffold saw the Doctor's back tensed and knew the Time Lord just about found another reason to be angry.

"I know what you're thinking, Doctor… but wouldn't it be dangerous for her? Rose, you say?"

They were nearly at the dock pit of the ship where the TARDIS was located but when the Doctor heard the name, he stopped in full with his chin turning up. Instinct or not, that name would always make him stop.

The Captain watched him turn back with serious eyes.

"For her safety, don't tell anyone about this, Ruffold… and no, I will be taking care of her health issues first… After all, when it comes to my own kind, I'm the best Doctor she can ever have."

The Fuotar watched as the Doctor carried her to the door of the blue box with mixed feelings.

The Doctor stopped in front of the TARDIS with no intention of letting her go. He didn't want to let Rose down mostly because she didn't have any slippers on, but the fact that she had already mustered some of her strength, and was now clinging her right hand on his clothes, while the other still holding on the pocket watch was making him more hesitant to part away even for a second.

All the same, the Doctor only needed two fingers for this and he did so by little effort—and snapped his fingers—rendering the TARDIS open its door, before smiling down on the lady companion he dearly loved and missed.

"Come on, Rose. Let's make you all pink and yellow again. Let's take you home."

*TBD*

A/N: I'm also crappy with feelings so is the Doctors...?

Rose Tyler you...sweet! :)

~Thanks for Reading~