The holidays are over (sadly) but that mean a new chapter! I worked hard on this one so I hope you will like it! Next one is almost finished so promise he is going to be published in two weeks. Three at most if I cannot have access to internet (I hope not lol). I really hope you will have fun reading it and for this one I really want to know what you think of it. So please let a review!
Also congratulations to my beta penandpaper who is getting married today! Wooohoo!
Chapter 20
The atmosphere of the room was definitely melancholic, and solemn as everyone swallowed the news that was delivered to them a few minutes ago. Miss Eddison more than any other, as she had almost collapsed when she realized that her long life friend was now gone.
"My faithful companion, this is terrible," mourned Clemency with sadness written all over her face, a tissue crumpled in her trembling hands. She looked at her son with big sad eyes, trying to find the strength to stay upright and proper, but found it extremely difficult as she was sniffing into her handkerchief. Rose could only sympathize at her pain. She had known the housekeeper for only a few minutes, barely enough time to talk to her, but she had held her hand as she had slipped away. And she could not help but feel that things were now more personal.
She had lost a lot of people in her life. Had been witness to the last moments of more than one soldier. But poor Chandrakala had just been an innocent woman. A victim of something beyond her grasp. But as she realized that the sadness was taking her toll on her, Rose pressed her head further into the Doctor's chest, in search of a comfort only he had been able to give in the past. Without a second thought, he tightened his hold on her.
"Excuse me, my lady," Davenport offered as he approached Miss Eddison. "But she was on her way to tell you something."
That made Clemency clearly more somber by the second. "She never found me. She had an appointment in death instead," she finished in a dramatic exclamation. After a last wistful look in the direction of the garden, she took her glass of wine and drowned it in a matter of seconds. Before she could ask for a second, Donna grabbed it away and dropped it off smoothly on the coffee table. She exchanged a quick smirk with the Doctor before turning her attention to the discussion at hand.
"She said 'the poor little child'," interjected the Doctor, trying his best to come closer to the conversation without moving from Rose, who was practically molded again his side. "Does that mean anything to anyone?"
Curbishley shrugged, his eyes looking in the distance. "No children in this house for years. Highly unlikely there ever will be."
Rose stiffened, suddenly remembering something, making the Doctor softly whine as she moved away from him. "When I asked her questions about him earlier, she said something about a book written by the professor. Could that be linked?"
They all looked at each other for a few seconds before the lady of the house turned to Agatha, eagerness written all over her face. "Mrs. Christie, you must have twigged something. You've written simply the best detective stories."
"Yes, tell us. What would Poirot do?" continued Golightly with curiosity, as Agatha looked more and more like she wanted to be anywhere but here.
"Heaven's sake. Cards on the table, woman. You should be helping us!" Curbishley roared with temper when Agatha didn't magically produce a solution. He was visibly frustrated but Rose was having none of that.
"Hey calm down!" Rose said with authority, as the Doctor was gripping her shoulder with force so she was not tempted to confront one of them directly. "Everyone needs to take a step down and relax ok?" But the damage was already done.
"I'm merely a writer" Said Agatha as she looked to the ground, shame creeping from her voice.
Robina put one of her hands on Agatha side, a soft smile on her face. "But surely you can crack it. These events, they're exactly like one of your plots."
Donna nodded with vigor. "That's what I've been saying. Agatha, that's gotta mean something" The intentions were commendable, as they were trying their best to shore up her confidence. But the blonde woman was having none of that.
"But what?" Said Agatha with a haunted look. Looking back and forth between Donna and the Doctor. "I've no answers. None. I'm sorry, all of you. I'm truly sorry, but I've failed. If anyone can help us, then it's the Doctor, not me." And then she stood up and disappeared out of the door, leaving the rest of the group in a stunned silence.
Lady Eddison turned to her husband. "What should we do?"
Before anyone had time to respond, Donna was already up and marching in the direction of the garden. "Let me talk to her."
As they watched her retreating back, they all jumped when the Doctor suddenly clapped his hands. "Well!" he said with cheerfulness, as Rose was throwing him a black look. "I think it's time everyone goes back to their chambers. Let the police do their pursuit like we said!"
"Do their job…" she whispered to him as everyone looked at him like he was starting to lose it. So not something really different for him.
He turned to her with a bewildered face. "What?"
She sighed. Sometimes she was forgetting how alien he was. "Nevermind…" She patted him on the forearm as he was still completely oblivious and turned to the rest of the group with the most friendly smile she could muster. "What my friend was trying to say is that we need to conduct some additional investigations, and we will call you when you will be further needed. After all this, a little rest would be good for the nerves. Right Doctor?" When he didn't react, she poked him in the ribs, making him yelp.
"Right!" said the Doctor, massaging his side with a slight grimace. When he realized they were still unsure about what to do, he motioned at the butler. "Could you...?"
Greeves nodded and opened the door. "Right this way ladies and gentlemen."
Curbishley looked at them dubiously, clearly not convicted but clearly too english to tell anything. "Well if you say so, Doctor…" he said while rolling out of the room, his son and wife on his heels. A few seconds later, the reverend and Robina followed pace and with a last nod Greeves closed the door behind him.
After a few seconds of silence the Doctor turned to Rose, outrage comically written all over his face, making her smile at the exaggeration. "What did I do this time?"
"Just you being you." She said affectionately, bumping him with her shoulder, making him beam like a mad man. Sometimes she swore he was like a puppy on a sugar rush. "So what should we do now?" She finally asked we he made no movement to move from beside her. Not that she was complaining at the moment. After Chandrakala's death, she was still a little shaken and having him as a support was really helpful for her.
"Well first I think we need to let Donna do her magic, and then I'd say find the Vespiform and then live happily ever after!" he winced. "Well, except for poor Professor and miss Chandrakala…" He looked at her with big sad eyes. "Sorry."
As a response, she put down her head on his shoulder and sighed. It was in moments like this that she missed UNIT. At least half of the time, a report was a false alarm and everyone could go home. However, when it involves the Doctor; you had more of a chance for things to start as an innocent and peaceful celebration to the Sun, and finish in the middle of a revolution to overthrow a bloodthirsty tyrant bent on ruining the moment.
But, it's not like she didn't know all this when she decided to come back. But at least she was doing it with her best friend, and she wouldn't trade it for the world. Even if it was not meant to last forever.
The Doctor tensed briefly as he felt Rose head on him. So sure that if he started to move even so slightly she will realize what she was doing and move away. Like she did so many times. He knew they were supposed to take their time. Learn to know each other all over again. But he was missing her so fiercely that sometimes he was longing to just touch her, and the fact she was approaching him not once but two times in a span of ten minutes made him think it really was his lucky day. That maybe the old Rose and the old Doctor were there somewhere just waiting to get back to where things were when they were separated. As his embrace tightened around Rose, Donna and Agatha entered with a clatter into the room.
"Look what we found!" Donna said with excitement as she put down a small case near the Doctor.
Rose was the first one to move, looking curiously at their findings. "Where did you find this?"
"Just outside by the wall. Right in the flowerbeds," exclaimed Agatha, her demeanor reflecting the excitation she was feeling.
"That means someone was probably wanting to urgently get rid of it." Rose turned to the Doctor with a grin. "You know what that means?"
He looked at her in surprise, his eyebrows almost disappearing into his hairline. He was clearly not following her. "Uh no?"
Her grin moved to a full smile as the twinkle in her eyes intensified. "Someone is hiding something. And you know who generally hides that kind of stuff?" As he looked around, seeing Donna laughing behind Agatha, he realized she was probably making fun of him somehow. But as he started to open his mouth he realized he had missed this.
He greatly missed the banter, along with the teasing, and of course that oh so special smile of hers. She could probably start to make fun of him openly, and he would still be desperately in need of her. Somewhere in his mind he could hear all his previous incarnations laugh at him, and he could not blame them for one second.
He sighed, more tired of his own reaction than anything else. "No?"
"The house staff!" Rose and Donna said in unison, beaming like they had the response to the universe's biggest mysteries. They high fived each other as Agatha Christie was clearly bewildered by the attitude of her new friends. "I'm going to interrogate them, you..." She pointed to him with a wink. "Search for clues in that thing."
The Doctor was positively glowing, his energy renewed as he asked, "Shiver and Shake?"
She smiled that special smile of hers, making him feeling like he was the most luckiest gallifreyan in the universe. "Hope and Glory."
As Rose looked at her friends, momentarily forgetting that the world beside them existed, Donna felt her eyes rolls so hard she was afraid for a second they would get stuck in the wrong place. "Oh for God sake get a room you two!" she grumbled, a little uncomfortable to be in the middle of their love parade.
They jumped and Rose felt herself blush. As the Doctor was blubbering something, she realized that she had totally lost her focus for a minute. She had let herself be swept away by her memories of her past with the Doctor, and for a moment she had been the naive Rose Tyler of long ago. "I'm going to interrogate them. See you later," Rose mumbled, fully embarrassed with herself.
And before they could say anything, she was out of the door. But not without hearing Donna talk one last time. "Sometimes I wonder if I should just lock you two in a cupboard, and throw away the key."
Fortunately for her though, she closed the door before she could hear the Doctor response. She was mortified.
She almost collided with Greeves in her haste to leave the room, where she could faintly hear what she supposed was banter between Donna and the Doctor. He avoided her at the last second, nearly topping over the tray he had in hands. "Madam!" he said with alarm, checking in at the same time that he had not spilled anything on her.
"Oh sorry, Greeves." She had been too preoccupied to see him. She debated for a second to ask him a question then and there, but she needed to be as far from the Doctor as possible at the moment. And the middle of a corridor was not the best of places. Especially with a tray full of glass. "Can you come to the kitchen when you have finished your task please?" Rose asked politely while taking a drink in a swift movement. "I need to ask you a few questions if you don't mind."
He bowed. "Certainly madam."
She smiled briefly one last time and walked with a decided step in the direction of the kitchen, letting Greeves get on with his task. And especially as far as possible from the Doctor and her own shame.
"So Davenport, what can you tell me about those people?" She had been right. When she had entered the kitchen she had heard them discussing the guest, but unfortunately they all quieted down when she had made her presence known. She was now trying to convince them to open up again, but she was having no luck at the moment.
"Well…" He started before being interrupted by a frantic crash noise and scream in the distance. They all turned their heads as they realized that the noise was coming in their direction, getting louder and louder with each second. Like someone was intentionally hitting on every corner and furniture in their passage. Davenport frowned. "What the...?!" But before he could finish his sentence, the Doctor crashed through the door, staggered around the place like he was drunk, soon followed by a distraught Donna and Agatha.
"Ginger Beer!" the Doctor screamed out, almost colliding with Rose in his haste to reach the bottle that was on the table near her.
The cook looked at him, horrified by his erratic movement. "The gentleman's gone mad!"
"What's happening?" Rose almost yelled at Donna as she intercepted the Doctor, trying her best to make him stop moving, as he was almost drenching himself with the beer.
"He is been poisoned by cyanide. Alas," Agatha answered with a wince, "no cure I'm afraid."
She turned to the Doctor with fright. "What? How?"
"Not for me." He nearly spat out the ginger beer on her as he tried to smile reassuringly to her, but it only worried her more. " I can stimulate the inhibited enzymes into reversal." He turned to Donna. "Protein. I need protein."
Donna grabbed a jar and handed him over. "Walnut?"
He snatched it almost violently from her while smiling maniacally. "Brillant!"
As he started to gorge himself with the nuts, Rose grabbed Donna by the shoulder, who was going back and forth between the pantry and the Doctor in her haste to find something - anything - that could work on her friend. She needed to ground the redhead enough so she could get her answers. "Donna, what happened?" she asked urgently. Her best friend was possibly dying, and if she didn't want to lose it on everyone right there, she needed facts. Right now.
"I don't know! He drank from his glass and then he started to scream about being poisoned before making a dash to the kitchen!" Donna for once didn't know what to do and the panic was starting to eat away her composure. What if her best friend was really dying? What if she was losing him?
Rose saw the dread and confusion in Donna eyes, and let the soldier in her took over. It was no time for alarm. Not with the life of the Doctor at stake.
"Donna! I need you to focus!" she commanded, forcing her friend to look at her and focus. "We will find a solution ok? But not if you let hysteria take over. Understand?" Donna nodded, somewhat calmed by the self control that Rose was showing.
Rose nodded too, trying her best to not show she was also in complete shambles inside, merely seconds away from losing herself and doing something extremely regretful. Because for now she needed to save the Doctor. By any means possible. She would have time to collapse when everything was over and well. Alone in her room.
"Salt!" called the Doctor from behind them, making them turn around in one move. "I need salt!"
Rose was the first one to see the container with the salt and quickly held it out to him, trying her best to not drop anything with her shaking. "There!"
He grabbed it, but made a face when he realized what was inside. "No too salty."
"He asks for salt, and then he complains that's too salty." Donna rolled her eyes at the dramatics of her friend. But Rose was too worried at the moment to see the humor of the situation. She was almost knocking over the shelf in search of something less salty but still enough for the Doctor.
"Anchovy?" Agatha offered in the background, as she was looking over a few containers.
"Yes!" the Doctor exclaimed, his face illuminated with an almost glee as Donna passed him the jar that Agatha had found. He downed it almost in one go, making Donna recoil in disgust. But when he looked over to Rose, she knew right at that instant that he didn't work. The painful stare they exchanged was response enough.
He tried to say something, but his erratic behavior was making it difficult. "What is it? What else? It's a song? Mammy? I don't know. Camptown Races?" Donna desperately tried in a last effort to find a solution. Any solution at this point would be welcome.
He stopped his unpredictable and confusing gesture that he was trying to use as communication. "Camptown Races?" he asked, genuinely confused by the questions.
Donna shrugged. At least she had tried. "Well, all right then, Towering Inferno."
But before they could continue their bantering, Rose seized the Doctor by the ribs and forced him to look at her eyes to eyes. "Doctor, what do you need?" She didn't have time to let them fumble around for a solution. Time was critical and they already lost enough as it is. She was not ready to say goodbye to this Doctor. Not in this time, and definitely not in this condition.
As she asked him that question, she realized by looking into his eyes that he was trying everything he could to think of what he would propose as his last chance. If what he said right at that moment didn't work, it was over. She saw the spark of fear in his eyes but she was not ready to let that win. Not if she had a say. "Tell me. What do you need… Please," she asked again, trying her best to show faith in him with her eyes and smile.
"Shock. I need a shock," he answered.
Donna nodded and started to walk towards the Doctor with purpose. "Right then. Big shock coming up." But she was stopped by Rose who halted her with her arm, her eyes still locked to the Doctor.
Rose knew that her friend would have found something shocking enough to shake the Doctor out of any poison known to men. Most probably something hilarious and memorable knowing Donna. Like slapping the future regenerations clear out of him. Or something else just as outrageous. But she wanted to be the one to do it.
She wanted to prove to the Doctor that Rose Tyler was still to be trusted. That even in the midst of them trying to find their footing that was once the Doctor and Rose, the stuff of legend, they were still that man and that woman who had promised the universe to each other. She had traveled the world, the universe and even the multiverse for him. So she smiled at him and did what she had promised herself a long time ago not to do.
Because she decided then and there that he was worth the heartbreak.
"Doctor. I'm immortal."