Chapter 2:
When Rose came into the Tardis I knew there was something going on.
Normally she'd be a box of chatter; alive with the gossip and events of the night. Instead she had almost snuck in to the Tardis and slunked in the shadows down the corridor that lead to her room. Worried about this sudden change in behaviour that was setting off all the alarm bells in my head, I followed. Cautiously, giving her a wide enough berth to hopefully avoid detection I drifted through the hall after her.
I categorized everything I could from a distance which, unfortunately, wasn't much from my current vantage. She'd had two, no three, fruity cocktails and was unsteady on her feet.
There was the scent of a man, I didn't recognize drifting off of her, which wasn't necessarily a new thing. She'd been out with her friends before and had come home with stories of men from the club asking her to dance and subsequently leaving their scent all over her. What had really caught me off guard was that there was a scent I didn't recognize on her. I couldn't exactly place it, but I had a physical reaction to whatever it was. I had become extremely bothered and frustrated that I couldn't place it, which made me frown and clench my fists repeatedly as I walked.
Rose moved through the hallway until she ran into a dead end, an unmarked door placed by the Tardis. She opened the door and went inside. I slowly crept up to the door in case she was planning to leave whatever room the Tardis had sent her to.
Pressing my ear to the door I could hear some sort of mechanism working, but couldn't tell what. I tried the door, but found it locked. I sent a quick request to the Tardis to open the door, but was promptly closed off from her mentally.
The Tardis shielding herself wasn't a new concept to me. I'd upset her plenty of times during her upkeep and maintenance. However, her retracting from me when Rose was concerned was new, which only heightened my alarm to the unknown.
I waited with my back against the door until I heard the mechanism click off 6 hours, 24 minutes and 16 seconds later. I could hear foot steps again and then another door.
Almost as soon as I had heard the other door close, the door and wall behind me vanished. I fell onto my bum. I turned around and looked behind me at the normal corridor. I stood up and looked at Rose's room on the left. I walked to the door and pressed my head against the door again, searching for entry only to be told that entry was, once again, not going to be provided.
I was about to walk away when I heard sounds of movement. Rustling of covers as if she'd sat down and then the unnatural sound of her laboured breaths. It sounded like Rose was gasping for air.
I grabbed my sonic and tried to unlock the door, deadlock sealed. I scanned through the door and read Rose's vitals. Her adrenaline level had doubled from her normal rate and she had enough epinephrine flowing through her system to kill a small dog.
Whatever Rose had seen or endured this night had caused enough distress to result in a panic attack.
That alone made me panic as I pressed my head again against the cold door. I begged the Tardis for entry, Please old girl. I can't just sit here. She needs me. I can help.
My mind was filled with the sadness of the Tardis who simply hinted that my presence would cause more harm then good.
I continued to beg and plead with my mind until Rose's panic attack was waning. I scanned her through the door again and watched as her levels dropped. They stabilized after about half and hour, but were still elevated compared to usual. I could hear her weeping quietly, which broke both of my hearts. I hated to leave her in that state, but I needed to know what was going on. What Rose had gone through.
Once I was far enough away from her room I took off running towards the console. My shoes scuffing against the floor roughly. Determination etched into my features.
I raced around the console to the Tardis phone. My hearts beating as I hit the keys typing out Mickey's number. After what felt like ages Mickey picked up the phone.
"For a timelord you really don't have any concept of the time", he groaned groggily through the phone, "Do you even have any idea what time it-".
I cut him off in a demanding tone, "What happened to Rose?"
I could hear him sit up in bed then asking urgently, now wide awake, "What do you mean 'what happened to Rose?'If she okay? What's going on?".
"That's why I am calling. I don't know! Something is wrong and I would assume since you were with her all night you'd have some sort of idea, but given your confusion I am starting to think you weren't with her. Which lead me to wonder where you were", I said angrily through the phone.
"Trisha's Grandmum fell, we left to go help last night. Rose was on the rooftop at the time but I told the others to let her know. Now, what is going on with Rose?", He demanded.
I could tell that he was moving about his room trying to get dressed as fast as possible. There was another voice, feminine, in the background asking what was going on, but Mickey seemed to wave her off.
"I don't know Mickey. All I know is that something is very wrong. The Tardis won't even let me see her. I am going to call Shareen next then Keshia. See if they know anything", I paused, "How fast can you get here?"
"Give me 5 minutes tops", he said.
"Good. Get here", I said then hung up.
I dialled Shareen then Keisha.
Luckily for Mickey he was faster than five minutes. I practically ran into him on my way out of the Tardis.
"Shareen had been the last to see her as she exited the club. After that there is nothing to go on", I filled him in, "I have the address for the club and we going to canvas the entire area between here and there".
As I walked forward towards the direction of the club I stopped as suddenly as I was hit by three smells. The first was Rose, the next was that of the unknown man, the final was the unknown smell from before. I grabbed Mickey by the shirt and pulled him along for a moment, letting him know that I was on to something, before dropping the article of cloth.
The trail ended rather abruptly behind a nearby dumpster, just hidden from view from the Tardis. As I stepped around the dumpster, I was met with a forth smell: Iron. I inspected the wall behind the dumpster and saw a bloody impact mark with the trails of a few drops running down the wall.
At this point Mickey had taken position behind me, keeping watch and glancing over his shoulder at me, "What have you got?"
"Blood, there was an impact, likely the back or side of the head. I'd like to say it isn't Rose's, but I'd be lying. The height matches perfectly", I said as calmly as possible, but I could tell that Mickey knew better; the calm before the storm.
He didn't say anything as I continued my search of the scene. Looking to the ground I saw the mostly dried remnants of bile, blood, and a clear coagulated substance of some sort. Bending down to get a closer look I was able to clearly identify what the substance was. It was the third, previously unknown substance: male ejaculate.
Hoping that the two instances were not related, but probability telling me otherwise, even for a council estate, I went to stand. However, as I rose something caught my eye; poking out from under the dumpster's edge was a tuft of frayed fabric. I fished the torn scrap of cloth out from under the dumpster and in a sickening moment realized that I recognized it.
It was the same type of fabric I had caught stolen glances of on rare occasions. The fabric of her knickers. The same fabric that made the briefest appearance from under her jim-jams as she moved in her sleep after falling asleep to a movie or reading in the library. The same kind that I'd seen on Renuoa when they'd confiscated all of our outer garments for not abiding by their ceremonial dress code during the Kealneud holiday. The fabric was from the exact same pair as the ones she wore on the first night we had shared a bed because there weren't any others available.
I couldn't contain it any longer as I felt bile rise in my throat. I turned towards Mickey and gagged, falling to my knees. Shocked, Mickey back-pedalled a bit to avoid getting my sick all over his shoes.
"What the hell?, he asked in alarm.
After I had thoroughly expelled the contents of my stomach I rasped out a single word as loudly as I could, which was little more than a whisper, "Rape".
"What?", he asked, not quiet able to hear me clearly thorough the rawness of my voice.
"Rape", I said louder, my voice breaking.
My simple statement seemed to sink in.
After a few moments Mickey, seemingly driven on instinct asked the most basic of questions, "How do we find this Bastard?".