Hi everyone. Did people still read this story? If yes sorry for the delay. The snow is to blame on this one!

Chapter 10:

"I don't want to talk about it." Rose stood firm while repeating her answer for what had to have been the fifth time. Because he could never know the truth. Ever. "Like I said, I just lost my cool. That's all."

The Doctor's agitation grew as he paced the middle of the prison cell they had been put into. "And like I said, your reaction was not normal! You threatened a man Rose! Two times!" He stopped in front of her. "Talk to me," he sighed, "please." But only silence was his response.

"More numbers," Donna observed while trying to break the tension. "They've got to mean something."

"Makes as much sense as the Breath of Life story," the Doctor mumbled, still bothered by Rose's stillness.

Rose stared curiously at the Doctor. "What?"

"You think it's not true," Tony asked from his seat on the ground. He was still staring at the wall vacantly, as a startled Doctor looked at him having momentarily forgotten that he was with them. "You think it's a joke, when it's the fate of two civilizations at stake." An ominous silence was his response before Donna gave a nervous laugh, making Tony jump like he had been deep in through.

"Okay, what's he's talking about?" Donna asked while looking at the Doctor, who was still frowning at Tony as if he were trying to find the response to a very difficult enigma. The only person not visibly bothered by that comment was Rose, who was too busy throwing Tony a sad look.

The Doctor scratched his chin, briefly considering Donna's question and if there was time to get into it before waving his hand in a sort of dismissal. "Just some myth. You know the 'and then there was life' kind of things." He started to path again. "Regardless, I think there could still be something important in that temple. Maybe a piece of technology, or a weapon. Lost in time and became a myth."

Donna looked at him offended. "So the Source you're talking about could be a weapon, and we've just given directions to Captain Nutjob?" She threw her hands in the air. "Good job, really!" She turned to Rose who was still sulking in a corner. "Back me up please!"

Rose shrugged, still a little perturbed by Tony's behavior and her own loss of self control. But one thing at the time. "Hey no objection from me, remember I was the one who wanted to stop him." Her sentence gained only a worrying look from the Doctor. She also realized that Tony was looking her way with a curious gaze. "What?"

"You are not like the others. Are you a soldier like me?" he asked with interest.

She smiled at him, still cannot believing she had a son. A son who looked so much like herself that her mother would have probably smothered him to death by now. "Technically an officer really. I'm generally the one who gives the orders rather than the one who follows them." But then her smile faltered as she remembered her life before the Doctor, a time when everything was so still and motionless. That life she had wanted to run from so bad. Sometimes she wondered how that life would have been without the Doctor.

"So, you are like the colonel Cobb?" Tony continued, totally oblivious to the change of mood in Rose.

She flinched, turning her head to the wall. She recalled the multiple times she had people under her command, counting on her in battle to bring them home alive. She always tried to do her best and incur the bare minimum of loss possible. But sometimes it's too easy to lose yourself in the blood and rage of the battle. Humanity is such a fleeting thing... "No, I'm not. Life is something precious." She turned her head again, making sure that Tony was looking directly in her eyes. "You should never waste it. If I had to teach you one thing, it's that you never take a life when you have other means."

The Doctor and Donna were looking at them, but she had eyes only for her son. Tony was solemn and subdued, like he was pondering what she just had said. But she knew how that moment was important, because he was literally born to fight and kill. She remembered a time when it was a choice that she had to make, and she didn't want him to suffer like she had. Trial by fire is never without consequence. She wanted something different for him, an alternative choice like she had herself. Even if she had to drag him kicking and screaming.

"Can you teach me? I mean being a soldier like you," he asked after a long moment of silence with a shy look. He was clearly expecting to be turned down, but he asked anyway.

She beamed, so proud she almost burst. "Yes, if it's something you want," she replied with the hint of emotions she was feeling herself. Maybe something good could come from all this.

Donna fell beside her, punching her lightly in the shoulder, making Rose jump almost a foot in the air. She had totally forgotten they were there. "Well good job mom," Donna praised with a fond smile. Rose tensed almost immediately at the moniker, as she was still not at ease with the idea of instant motherhood. The love for her son was already here, she was not denying it, but the shock had clearly not settled out.

The Doctor sensed her sudden panic, and diverted the attention to himself. "Well, we still need to get out of here, find Martha, and stop Cobb from slaughtering the Hath."

"Oh right!" said Donna with suddenness, before getting back on her feet. She offered her hand to Rose who hesitated for a second before taking it and getting up herself. "Do you have a plan?"

"I need your phone Donna. Time for an upgrade." He turned to Rose with a smile. "What happened to yours by the way? You know the one we lost the first time?"

She laughed, remembering the fate of her poor phone. "An unfortunate incident involving my mom, two mentors hell bent on invading east London and a washing machine. He sadly didn't survive."

He chuckled as Donna looked at her. "What's a mentor?"

She shrugged and she walked in direction of Tony who still didn't have moved from in position against the wall. It was time for her to have a real one to one with her son. "Let's say if you don't like slugs, then they're not going to be your favorite aliens."

The redhead shuddered at the visual as the Doctor was sniggering in the background. "Ok. Got it."

Rose sat beside Tony who was still looking at the ground. Probably still thinking about what she said. She bumped him with a smile. "You know I'm sure my mom would have loved you."

He looked at her with wide eyes, almost childlike their appearance. Making her realize that even if he was fully grown, he was still only a few hours old. It was not his fault if he was there now. He didn't ask to be born from some machine. For better or for worse he was family, and like her mother always said: you don't abandon family. You stick with it and you try your best. If she turned her back on him, she was sure that her mom would have crossed over just to give her the smack of a lifetime.

"You have a mother? That means I have...That I have a family?" Tony was starting to be excited. At that moment she was only seeing the Tyler in him, the one who could have been really hers if her life had been different.

"Yes and I have a dad. And like I said before, a brother named Tony just like you. And even friends!"

"Could I meet them?" he asked as the excitement seemed to radiate from him, just like she used to do when she was a child. She had lost it somewhere during her adolescence but she was so happy to see it was a trait so ingrained in her that she passed it on to him.

She had a sad smile full a sorrow and pain. "No I lost them a long time ago." She patted his shoulder as he started to look saddened. "But I'm sure they would have loved you. My mom would have probably adored you to death."

"Martha, you're alive!" She heard from the other side of the cage, as the Doctor was looking ecstatic, smiling like a madman. She crossed his eyes and realized as his stare softened that he had deliberately let her have a moment with Tony, even if his burning envy to know answers was eating at him. She had a soft smile, thanking him wordlessly.

"I'm so glad you're alive!" Donna shouted into the phone, making the Doctor wince under the volume, and breaking the moment without realizing it.

"Yes, we're all here together. Donna, Rose and Tony too. Yes, that's what she called him!" He nodded after being handed the phone, mostly for himself rather than Martha. "We're fine. What about you?" He smiled at her response as she began to fill him in, making Rose relax, who become conscious that she had been tense since their separation with the companion. "Anyway, where are you?" He then frowned at what she was saying before his eyebrow almost jumped to his hairline. He was entertaining to watch she thought. That was a thing she didn't remember and it almost saddened her. Because what else has she forgotten?

"Oh, that was me," continued the Doctor, not seeing the turmoil in Rose. "If both armies are heading that way, there's going to be a bloodbath... Just stay where you are. If you're safe there, don't move, do you hear me?" He stayed silent for a few seconds, waiting for an answer before looking at his phone with surprise. "Well she hung up."

Donna sniggered. "Maybe she was tired of hearing your voice!" They started to bicker, making Rose roll her eyes as Tony looked at them with interest. "Are they always like this?"

"Unfortunately I think so," Rose replied with amusement. She was glad to see that everything had not been bleak for the Doctor. It was good for him.

But her fleeting moment of peace was shattered by the sudden and distant screams of dozens of soldiers. "To war!" They shouted over and over again, triggering in Rose a flashback of a few memories that she tried her hardest to forget or bury deep into herself.

As the screams grew louder and louder, she felt herself shutting down, gasping for breath while realizing helplessly that she was having an episode in a middle of a group less than equipped to manage it. And if the Doctor realized...Well she was clearly not ready to face that storm of questioning anytime soon.

She started to recite the names of her teammates while taking slow deep breaths, then repeating to herself over and over that it was not real and nothing was happening, just like how she had been taught after the last few disastrous event when she had a flashback without warning. But her control of herself was still wavering, making it harder for her to come back to herself without anyone realizing it.

"Hey are you okay?" Tony asked in a worried voice, encircling her with his arms, as the Doctor was fortunately too busy looking looking for a way to escape to see her state.

And just like that, she felt like she was back into her own body, grappling back to the reality and grateful beyond words that Tony had seemed to know how to do the right thing at the perfect moment. She was still shaken, and a little afraid to see how everything had gone to hell so fast since the return of the Doctor. But she knew that now was not the time to be vulnerable or emotional. People were counting on her, and she would have to wait to be back on Earth to fall apart if needed. So, she faked a smile to her son, as she let herself relax into the hug, and played that moment as just a fluke. "Yeah, yeah just some memories. No worry." She diverted his attention to the other topic at hand, and hoped that Tony would be too distracted to talk about what just happened. "So! We need a means to escape before they start to kill everyone. I'm open to any ideas." Donna and the Doctor turned their heads in a synchronized movement, making it almost comical. She shrugged. "Just saying."

"Rose? Can I talk to you for a second?" asked the Doctor, visibly troubled by something.

She exchanged a smile with Tony, patting him on the knee to indicate him that they were good and started to stand up. With a little difficulty she realized with humor. Maybe she getting too old for this sort of thing. As she joined the Doctor, who was walking along the door nervously, she heard Donna take her place, starting a discussion with Tony.

"So tell me what do you know about this place?" She bumped the Doctor's shoulder with a smile, trying to stop him from stressing too much while grounding herself at the same time. She knew that the more she had contact with people after an episode, the easier it was for her to grasp the fact it was not real and that she was now well and good. "What do you wanted to talk about?"

He sent a nervous look in Tony's direct, who was smiling at Donna. "Are you sure it's a good idea to trust him like that?"

She bristled at his tone of voice. "You seemed to like him well enough before. What changed?"

The Doctor's eyes softened as she called him out, and it was the look that said he knew that she was emotional and just needed a pep talk. The one she already wanted to smack down when they were travelling together and now was even more infuriating. Especially in that instant.

"Rose, he is a man of war. If he had not been thrown in here with us, he would have been chanting just like them."

She came nose to nose with the Doctor, furious at his insinuation. "And what? He doesn't deserve a second chance? Just because he was created to fight a war?"

He started to back down, his position as non threatening as possible. "I didn't say that. Just I'm not sure he should follow us when we get out of here. We cannot be sure he's not a spy or someone here to stop us."

"Hey!" called Tony in an indigned voice in the background.

But neither the Doctor or Rose were looking at him. "I trust him. That's more than enough for me," Rose declared. Tony had literally saved her from herself less than a minute before, how could the Doctor be that dense? But he was still looking at her with a patronizing look in his eyes, making her want to hurt him. "And you know what?" she sneered, her tone helped by the residual anger that an episode tended to leave behind. "If you make me choose, don't be so confident about my response."

He took a step back, a pained expression on his face at what she implied, that she would leave him again without a second thought. Making her regret instantly what she just said. She started to open her mouth to apologize but the Doctor beat her to it.

"He is a soldier. Literally born to kill!" the Doctor shouted, angry and hurt beyond reason. Touching a weak point of Rose without realizing it.

"So I am!" she shouted back. "And you know what? I've killed people! I've sacrificed men just in hope than more would live! I fought in wars! I'm just like him. Are you going to sacrifice me as well?"

She was meet with a choked silence and sad eyes. "Rose I didn't mean..."

But it was too late now. They both said things that could not be taken back, no matter how much they wanted to. Rose realised with sadness that maybe the boat had sailed a long time ago, and now too much has changed. That she was too broken to be someone of any worth to him. The Rose he knew was long gone, and she was deeply sad to see she could not measure up. She sighed and turned her head, too tired and wired to fight.

She just wanted to go home. Get her emotions under lock once again and move on. "No you didn't probably mean it but that's a reality. I've changed, Doctor. I will not let you vilify a man just because he could have been..."

"Maybe we can ask Tony what he thinks?" Donna intervened while trying to calm them down before the situation spiraled out of control.

"Well, you are a tad too much emotional, and I would really prefer not being sacrificed. But I can still be the diversion if you want," Tony said with so much sarcasm that Rose snorted. Sarcasm was obviously in his genes as well.

"At least he has a sense of humor. And that's clearly something that came from you, Rose, because that lot of soldiers are clearly not a comedy troupe," continued Donna while smiling ear to ear at Tony who looked pleased with himself.

"No, don't worry, if a diversion is needed I can do it," said Rose with a fond look to her son. She had decided then and there that if she could, she would take him back with her.

"Why you? Why not me or Donna?" asked the Doctor with indignation, still mulling over his spat with Rose. It had been very childish of him to be this petty, but seeing her so open with someone else had made him envious, so his mouth had run on autopilot as usual. And the worst thing about his behavior is that he really liked Tony. He was so much like Rose.

"Because knowing you, you will probably annoy them to death and make them kill you," Donna teased with a satisfied smile as the Doctor puffed. "And well I'm not against doing the diversion, but I'm curious to see what Rose will do."

Rose smiled at Tony, who was waiting for his cue to do something. "Ok Tony, watch and learn." She glanced to the Doctor, still hurt by what he said. "And you could also learn a thing or two..." Then without another word she walked to the door, realizing as she leaned against it that the guard had changed. Now it was Cline, the one who moved them here. This could work in their favor as perhaps he will have her weapon with him.

"Cline right?" she asked with a hint of flirting in her voice.

"I'm not supposed to talk to you. I'm on duty," Cline replied without moving his eyes from the opposite wall.

"Well, I imagine that colonel Cobb would not be an happy man if you fail at your duty…" She bent a little, waiting for the right moment to move then smiled. "And you know what?"

By reflex, he turned his head at the question. "What?"

"He was right." Before he had the time to think about what she just said, she moved her arms around him and knocked him out, muffling his brief scream with her hand, squatting with the body to let him down gently without a sound. A few seconds later she turned around and with a big smile, showed a key in one hand and her gun in the other one. Making Donna laugh big time.

"No way in hell you would have done that!" she said to the Doctor, who was looking at Rose with astonishment.

"Wow that was awesome!" cried out Tony, jumping to his feet with excitement and smiling like a little kid. "I'm really, really impressed!" He turned to the Doctor, hitting him in the shoulder with enthusiasm, his previous issue with Tony already forgotten. "Isn't she cool?"

The Doctor could only nod numbly at Tony. He was completely overwhelmed by the contradiction in him. Because while he was fundamentally against violence, especially when an alternative existed, but in that moment he could only be awed by what he just saw.

At least if Rose was leaving him after this, he could still bond with Tony over the fact she was in a league way out of their own.