The many Daleks on the ship seemed to be in a panic. The one closest to their hostage got even closer and put their eyestalk right in her face. "You know the Doctor. You understand him. You will predict his actions."
Rose looked at the Dalek incredulous. She was being held captive, and they expected her to tattle on the one person she had faith in that could rescue her? No dice. Not even that, the Doctor is so very unpredictable sometimes and as much as Rose knew him, even she couldn't tell how he would get her out of this situation. "I don't know! And even if I did, I wouldn't tell you."
"Predict! Predict! Predict!" Her Dalek was screeching in her ear.
"Tardis detected in flight." Another Dalek warned the rest inside the ship.
"Launch the missiles. Exterminate." Her Dalek said, satisfied that they have dealt with the Doctor at last.
Rose looked at the Dalek in panic, her heart was in her throat. "You can't! The Tardis hasn't got any defenses. You're going to kill him." It didn't even cross her mind that she was only concerned about the Doctor, and not about Layla and Jack. She should have known that they wouldn't let the Doctor leave them behind when it came to rescuing her.
"You have predicted correctly." Her Dalek was smug.
Xxxxxx
Jack was looking at a monitor when he sees the missiles on the radar. "We've got incoming!" They all hold on to something as the missiles strike the Tardis and there is a big fireball in the vacuum of space, but doesn't damage the ship.
Jack looks gives them a satisfied smile. "The extrapolator's working. We've got a fully functional forcefield. Try saying that when you're drunk."
"And for my next trick." The Doctor works around the console and materializes around Rose and her Dalek. "Rose, get down! Get down, Rose!"
Rose quickly notices the change of scenery and that there is a Dalek next to her, she quickly drops to the ground and rolls away from it as the Dalek screeches. "Exterminate!"
The Dalek fires towards the Doctor and Jack, but it misses and Jack uses his Defabricator gun and shoots the Dalek, destroying it. Rose gets up and looks at the now dead Dalek and leaps towards the Doctor, giving him a hug. "You did it! Feels like I haven't seen you in years."
The Doctor knows that she is happy to be saved and excited, but he is uncomfortable with her hug and pulls out of it as quick as he can without her noticing and hurting her feelings. "Well, I told you we were coming to get you."
"Never doubted it." Rose gives him a smile that is only directed at him, she doesn't seem to even notice the other two people in the console room with them.
The Doctor seems to notice this and clears his throat awkwardly. He rubs the back of his neck. "We did for a bit. You alright?" The Doctor walks away to put some space between them and over towards Layla and Jack.
"Yeah. You?"
"We are fine." The Doctor slightly stressed the we, trying to get her to see that Layla and Jack were here. He didn't know why Rose was being oblivious to Layla, and he could see that Layla was hurt that Rose seemed to be ignoring her.
"Hey, don't I get a hug?" Jack cuts in drawing Rose's attention away from the Doctor. He had also noticed how focused Rose was on the Doctor and how he was uncomfortable with it and wanted to help him out.
"Oh, come here!" Rose walks towards Jack to give him a hug.
"I was talking to her." He points to Layla to show that she too, was there, but he gives Rose her hug. "Welcome home."
Rose realizes that she had been so happy to see the Doctor that she had indeed been ignoring her friend and looked at her. She had seen the hurt on her face and could see the tear track on her cheeks and remembered that Layla had seen her vanish and had thought she died. Rose runs to Layla and engulfs her in a tight hug. "Oh, Layla. I'm sorry."
Layla grips her tightly as her eyes burn with restrained tears. She is happy that her best friend is safe and alive. "I thought I had lost you, Rose."
"It's alright. I'm here. I'm safe." Rose rubs her on the back gently knowing that her friend has not had a lot of people in her life that has stuck around and she, her mum, and Mickey have been the most consistent ones.
Layla pulls back and blinks her eyes rapidly to clear them and the guys look back towards them, having looked away to give them some privacy. Jack tossed the Defabricator gun to the floor. "You were lucky. That was just a one-shot wonder. Drained the gun of all its power supply. Now it's just a piece of junk."
Rose looked towards the Doctor as he was just leaning back against the console, his arms across his chest as he broods. "You said they were extinct. How comes they're still alive?"
"One minute they're the greatest threat in the universe, the next minute they vanished out of time and space." Jack informs them.
"They went off to fight a bigger war. The Time War." The Doctor told him quietly.
Jack looked at him shocked. "I thought that was just a legend."
He shook his head. "I was there. The war between the Daleks and the Time Lords, with the whole of creation at stake. My people were destroyed, but they took the Daleks with them. I almost thought it was worth it. Now it turns out they died for nothing." He drops his arms to his sides and slumps his shoulders at the pain.
Layla can hear the devastation in his voice. Can just imagine him asking himself why do the Daleks continue to survive and there are none of his people left. She reaches over and grips his hand and doesn't make any sound of complaint when he tightens his grip so tight it feels like her bones are creaking. She knows that he isn't with them all the way right now. A mixture of here and in his memories. Rose looks at him worried and then towards the Tardis doors. "There's thousands of them now. We could hardly stop one. What're we going to do?"
The Doctor doesn't answer her, not having one to give her. His grips on Layla's hand loosens and then he squeezes it once more in gratitude before letting go. "No good standing round here chin wagging. Human race, you'd gossip all day. The Daleks have got the answers. Let's go and meet the neighbors." He strides towards the door at a fast pace and opens the door with no hesitation, with Jack and Layla following already knowing that they would be okay.
Rose sprints after him. "You can't go out there!"
"Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!" The Daleks are shooting at them but they are not hitting their intended targets due to a forcefield that is extending a few meters out from the Tardis.
The Doctor was leaning against the Tardis with a bored look on his face. He raises his eyebrow and looks at them mockingly. "Is that it? Useless! Null points. It's alright, come on out. That forcefield can hold back anything."
"Almost anything." Jack corrects him, unnecessarily.
"Yes, but I wasn't going to tell them that. Thanks." The Doctor huffs.
"Sorry."
The girls step out, but stay close to the Tardis when Jack holds out his arm. He wants them to be able to run in quickly if they need to make a strategic retreat. Layla looks at the Doctor a little worried, she can see the tenseness in his shoulders and hear the pain, anger, and hatred in his voice. She wishes there was something she could do to help.
"Do you know what they call me in the ancient legends of the Dalek Home World? The Oncoming Storm. You might've removed all of your emotions, but I reckon right down deep in your DNA, there's one little spark left, and that's fear. Doesn't it just burn when you face me? So, tell me. How did you survive the Time War?"
"They survived through me." The lights turn on and it reveals a large apparatus, which shows an exploded Dalek that was huge. It was blue-skinned and had one eye, which was staring at them as, sitting as if it were upon a throne like a king.
"Layla, Rose, Captain, this is the Emperor of the Daleks."
"You destroyed us, Doctor. The Dalek Race died in your inferno, but my ship survived, falling through time, crippled but alive."
The Doctor tensed at the reminder and at the fact that while he had mentioned the war and that both sides had lost with him being the last survivor, he never told Layla and their companions how the war ended. He was worried to turn around and see if they made the connection and what expression would be on their faces. He knew that Layla would make the connection with how observant she was, and Jack might too, but he wasn't sure about Rose. "I get it."
Jack had understood what was being said, and from what he knows of these Daleks, if the Doctor ended it and both races were gone, or at least supposed to be gone, then it was the only choice he had. He has seen how the Doctor operates after having been with him and the girls for a while, and he knows that committing genocide would be the last thing the Doctor would ever want to do. He knows the Doctor is a good man, and will stand by him. Rose doesn't really make the connection. She knows that both races were supposed to be gone, but not making the connection that the Doctor, her Doctor was the one who killed them all. She knows that the Doctor only kills when he has too though.
Layla also made the connection and her heart hurt for him. Like Jack, she knew the Doctor, and she likes to think, because she traveled longer with him, and they talked more, that she knew him a little better. She has observed him many times over and can hear and see the pain in his eyes and voice when something reminds him of the war. Whether it be memories or something similar on an adventure. She also knows that he is suffering from PTSD. It's not hard to see that. But there isn't really anyone he can talk to about it. He bottles things up and hides behind a mask of cheeriness. She is glad, that when it is just the two of them, he hides behind that mask less and less. Even if he is not in a good mood, he doesn't pretend to be, and she just gives him silent support, waiting for him to open up to her.
"Do not interrupt."
"Do not interrupt."
"Do not interrupt."
"I think you're forgetting something. I'm the Doctor, and if there's one thing I can do, it's talk. I've got five billion languages, and you haven't got one way of stopping me. So, if anybody's going to shut up, it's you!" He spits out a bit annoyed, I love to talk. How dare they tell me to shut up. He is glad to hear Layla snort in amusement though, must not hate me too much about the whole genocide thing if she can be amused with me. "Okie doke. So, where were we?"
"We waited here in the dark space, damaged but rebuilding. Centuries passed, and we quietly infiltrated the systems of earth, harvesting the waste of humanity. The prisoners, the refugees, the dispossessed. They all came to us. The bodies were filtered, pulped, sifted. The seed of the human race is perverted. Only one cell in a billion was fit to be nurtured."
The Doctor looks at them with his eyebrows raised high. "So, you created an army of Daleks out of the dead."
"That makes them half human." Rose points out. Good point, Layla thinks.
"Do not blaspheme."
"Do not blaspheme."
"Do not blaspheme."
"Everything human has been purged. I cultivated pure and blessed Dalek."
The Doctor scrunched up his face. "Since when did the Daleks have a concept of blasphemy?"
"If it walks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck." Layla said in defense to what Rose was saying about them being half human. If you used something from a human, then you are part human.
"I reached into the dirt and made new life. I am the god of all Daleks!"
"Worship him. Worship him. Worship him."
The Doctor slowly backed away from the Daleks to the Tardis with wide eyes. "They're insane. Hiding in silence for hundreds of years, that's enough to drive anyone mad. But it's worse than that. Driven mad by your own flesh. The stink of humanity. You hate your own existence. And that makes them more deadly than ever." He reaches behind him and feels for Layla, the bond helping as it lets him know that he is close to her, he puts his hand on her hip and starts to push her to go inside the Tardis, never taking his eyes off the Daleks. "We're going."
"You may not leave my presence."
"Stay where you are." The four travelers ignore them and go inside the Tardis and the Daleks start shooting at them again.
"Exterminate!"
"Exterminate! Exterminate!"
"Exterminate! Exterminate! Worship him! You will be exterminated!"
Xxxxxx
The Doctor works on getting the Tardis back to Game Station with the help from the others. As they materialize he comes barreling out immediately giving orders. "Turn everything up, all transmitters full power, wide open. Now! Do it!"
"What does this do?" Davitch asks as he does what he is told.
"Stops the Daleks from transmatting on board. How did you get on? Did you contact earth?"
"Well, we tried to warn them, but all they did was suspend our license because we stopped the programs."
The Doctor huffed at the ignorance of humans, no matter what era, and how much they advance, they will always be ignorant unfortunately. "And the planet's just sitting there, defenseless." He does a double take as he notices someone who should not still be here. "Lynda, what're you still doing on board? I told you to evacuate everyone."
"She wouldn't go." Davitch quickly explained, he didn't want to get on this man's bad side.
Lynda gives him a smile. "Didn't want to leave you." It makes the Doctor uncomfortable that she stayed behind for him, it appears. He misses Rose giving Lynda a dirty look, but Layla doesn't and it makes her feel uncomfortable that both Rose and Lynda are wanting to be a little more than friendly with the Doctor. The jealousy and possessiveness from earlier rise again and she swallows hard as she turns her head to try to push it away.
"There weren't enough shuttles anyway, or I wouldn't be here. We've got about a hundred people stranded on Floor Zero." The woman from earlier informed him sourly.
Davitch was looking at the monitor and paled. "Oh, my god. The Fleet is moving. They're on their way."
The Doctor starts working on pulling bits out of the conduits, yanking wires out, this time intentionally. "Dalek plan. Big mistake, because what have they left me with? Anyone? Anyone? Oh, come on, it's obvious. A great big transmitter. This station. If I can change the signal, fold it back, sequence it, anyone?"
Jack's eyebrows rise up. "You've got to be kidding."
The Doctor just pointed a finger at him and then kept working with the wires. "Give the man a medal."
"A Delta Wave?" Layla couldn't tell if Jack was excited or incredulous, maybe both?
"A Delta Wave!" The Doctor was definitely excited.
"What's a Delta Wave?" Rose asked Jack.
"A wave of Van Cassadyne energy. It fries your brain. Stand in the way of a Delta Wave and your head gets barbecued."
Layla's face scrunches up. "Mmm tasty."
"And this place can transmit a massive wave. Wipe out the Daleks!" The Doctor was definitely giddy. Or at least appeared to be, but Layla could see that some of it was a show, he was worried. She could see it in the tightening around his eyes.
Rose opens her mouth to say something when Lynda cuts in before she could. "Well, get started and do it then." Rose turns her head, crosses her arms over her chest and pouts. Layla puts her hand over her mouth to hide her grin and quietly snickers.
"Trouble is, wave this size, building this big, brain as clever as mine, should take about, oh, three days? How long till the Fleet arrive?"
Davitch looks at the numbers. "Twenty-two minutes."
They work on rerouting the wires and other bits and pieces for a while. Jack is working on gathering things ready for the fight that he knows is about to happen. "We've now got a forcefield so they can't blast us out of the sky, but that doesn't stop the Dalek's from physically invading."
Davitch looked at him. "Do they know about the Delta Wave?"
Jack nodded. "They'll have worked it out at the same time. So, they want to stop the Doctor. That means they've got to get this level, five hundred. Now, I can concentrate the extrapolator around the top six levels, five hundred to four-nine-five. So, they'll penetrate the station below that at level four-nine-four and fight their way up."
"Who are they fighting?" Davitch asks, but he has a feeling that he knows exactly who will be fighting the Daleks.
"Us." Was the grim reply. Knew it, Davitch thought.
"There is six of us." The woman complained. I don't know her name, but she sounds like a negative Nancy to me, Layla thought to herself.
"Layla, Rose, you can help me. I need all these wires stripped bare." The Doctor heard the woman and wanted his Promised One and friend nowhere near the Daleks or fighting. He was working on an idea. One that would hurt him to do, but it would keep them safe, but he needed their help to finish the Delta Wave first.
"Right, now there's four of us."
Jack shrugs. "Then let's move it. Into the lift isolate the lift controls." Davitch and the woman run off and Jack stays so he can say his goodbyes knowing that he won't be coming out of this alive.
Lynda walks over to the Doctor and he stands up so they can say good bye. "I just want to say, er, thanks, I suppose, and I'll do my best."
The Doctor gives her a smile. "Me too." He hesitates and then holds his hand out for a shake and quickly let's go of her hand.
Jack walks over to them and the girls stand, wanting to give a proper good bye. Jack looks at them all with a bittersweet smile. "It's been fun, but I guess this is goodbye."
Rose tries to give him a smile. "Don't talk like that. The Doctor's going to do it. You just watch him."
Jack gives her a slight look of pity that she believes that he will survive, he walks up to her and gently grasps her cheeks, he leans in and kisses her on the lips. "Rose, you are worth fighting for."
He then walks over to the Doctor and stands in front of him. "Wish I'd never met you, Doctor. I was much better off as a coward." He grabs his cheeks as well, ignoring the minute flinch from him and leans in giving him a kiss on the lips.
Lastly, he walks over to Layla. He looks into her eyes and there is a sheen of tears in them and sorrow because she knows. She knows that he is going to die. "You made me better person. Thank you. You Sweetheart, you are most definitely worth fighting for." He whispers to her and with that he cups her cheeks, noticing that, she too, flinched slightly and gives her a tender kiss. He pulls back and her tears spill over and he gently wipes them away. He backs away from her and faces all three of them. "See you in hell." He leaves without looking back.
Rose watches his back as he walks away. "He's going to be alright, isn't he?"
Layla and the Doctor don't answer her. They keep working on the Delta Wave. The Doctor sneak's glances at Layla checking on her. The bond had flared up with Jack and her, but he ignored it because he knew it was the last time, they would be seeing Jack and it was Jack's way of saying goodbye and getting closure. The Doctor also knew that Jack grew close to Layla and they were good friends, both bonding over making him and Rose embarrassed by their obscene humor. Plus, a part of him, that wasn't affected by the bond, was intrigued with the idea.
Xxxxxx
Jack and the others had gone all the way down to floor zero to try to get more volunteers to help with the attack. There were a hundred people on this floor. He had been hoping to get at least a few courageous people, but it wasn't looking good. He jumps up and stands on a pile of crates and fires his machine gun in the air to get everyone's attention. "One last time! Any more volunteers? There's an army about to invade this station. I need every last citizen to mount a defense."
Roderick sneered at him and then looked back towards everyone else. "Don't listen to him. There aren't any Daleks. They disappeared thousands of years ago."
Luckily, for Jack he gets one more volunteer, not as many as he was hoping, but he will take what he can get. "Thanks. As for the rest of you, the Daleks will enter the station at floor four-nine-four and as far as I can tell, they'll head up, not down. But that's not a promise. So, here's a few words of advice. Keep quiet, and if you hear fighting up above, if you hear us dying." He pauses and looks at Roderick. "Then tell me that the Daleks aren't real. Don't make a sound. Let's go." Jack, Lynda, and the few volunteers they were able to get all get in the lift.
Xxxxxx
"Suppose…" Rose trails off gathering the Doctor and Layla's attention.
"What?" He asked.
She shakes her head. "Nothing."
"You said suppose?" He handed over more wires to Layla when she signaled that she needed more, not wanting to interrupt Rose.
"No, I was just thinking. I mean, obviously you can't, but you've got a time machine. Why can't you just go back to last week and warn them?"
"That would create a paradox, wouldn't it? We wouldn't be able to go back a week because had we not been here, we wouldn't know to go back a week." Layla asks and points out.
The Doctor nods. "As soon as the Tardis lands in that second, I become part of the events, stuck in the timeline."
Rose's shoulders slump. "Yeah, thought it'd be something like that."
He is quiet for a second before he speaks again. "There's another thing the Tardis could do. It could take us away. We could leave. Let history take its course. We go to Marbella 1989." It is somewhat similar to what his plan is anyways, but he knows they won't go just like he wouldn't, besides, his plan is the best idea he has right now to ensure their safety.
"Yeah, but you'd never do that." Rose said in a matter-of-fact way.
"And we would never ask that of you anyways, we know you Doctor, you never run away because of fear." The Doctor has to smile at how well they knew him in such a short amount of time.
"No, but you could ask. Never even occurred to either of you, did it?"
"Well, I'm just too good." Rose preened.
Layla scoffed. "Of course not, we've never run before, why start now?"
"The Delta Wave's started building. How long does it need?" They run over to the console and the Doctor's head drops as he reads the monitor. He can't look at Layla, because if he does, she will know something is wrong, that he is lying and she will fight him on what he is about to do. He has to do it. He needs her safe.
Rose takes that as a bad sign. "Is that bad? Okay, it's bad. How bad is it?"
"Rose Tyler, you're a genius! We can do it. If I use the Tardis to cross my old timeline. Yes!" He takes off to the Tardis with the girls following him. But Layla is looking at him in suspicion. He has been very adamant that you can't cross the streams, that is what happened with the time Rose saved her father. What is he up to?
"Hold that down and keep position." The Doctor directs Rose.
"Layla, hold this one, and this one, don't let go until I say so." He physically directs her to the buttons wanting one last opportunity to touch her knowing that it will be the last time he gets to do so. He gently skims his hands along her skin and grins as he feels her shiver.
"What do these do?" Rose asked, stretched out over the console.
"Cancels the buffers. If I'm clever and I'm more than clever, I'm brilliant, I might just save the world. Or rip it apart."
"I'd go for the first one." Rose hoped.
"Yeah, we already had a reaper issue, we don't need a universe ending issue."
"Me too. Now, I've just got to go and power up the Game Station. Hold on!" The Doctor runs out and stops in the midst of his nest of cables and wires. He looks back at the Tardis with sorrow. He points his sonic screwdriver at it and the engines start up.
The girls look at each other in panic. "Doctor, what're you doing? Can I take my hand off? It's moving?" Rose shouts towards the door.
Layla doesn't even bother and let's go, she thought that he was acting dodgy and now she knows why. "Doctor! Let us out! We can help! Doctor! Don't do this. Please!" She is banging on the door and is soon joined by Rose.
"Doctor, let me out! Let me out! Doctor what've you done?"
They can feel the shaking of the Tardis and know that she is in the process of traveling somewhere. Where? They don't know. They walk away from the doors and go towards the middle when a hologram appears right in front of them.
This is Emergency Program One. Layla, Rose, now listen, this is important. If this message is activated, then it can only mean one thing. We must be in danger. And I mean fatal. I'm dead or about to die any second with no chance to escape.
"No!" Rose shouts and walks to the side of the hologram while Layla chokes on a sob and walks to the other side.
And that's okay. Hope it's a good death. But I promised to look after you two, and that's what I'm doing. The Tardis is taking you both home.
"I won't let you!" Rose was determined to get back to him. She will find a way to fly the Tardis. Layla is just looking at the hologram listlessly feeling a pit in her stomach and her heart is clenching in pain.
And I bet you two are fussing and moaning now. Typical. But hold on and just listen a bit more. The Tardis can never return for me. Emergency Program One means I'm facing an enemy that should never get their hands on this machine. So, this is what should happen. Let the Tardis die. Just let this old box gather dust. No one can open it. No one will even notice it. Let it become a strange little thing standing on a street corner. And over the years, do one thing. That's all, one thing. Have good lives. Do that for me, Layla, Rose. Have a fantastic life.
The hologram flickers out and Rose runs over to the console. "You can't do this to me. You can't take me back! Take me back! No!" The engines stop showing that they have arrived at their destination. Rose runs out and then comes back in. "Come on, fly. How do you fly? Come on, help me!" She leaves again and doesn't come back in.
Mickey comes running down the road. "I knew it! I was all the way down Clifton Parade, and I heard the engines. I thought there's only one thing that makes a noise like that. What is it?"
Rose just hugs him. "He sent us home." He hugs her tight as she cries.
Inside the Tardis, Layla was still standing in the same spot. She wasn't sure why but she felt as if she had been abandoned. It was a soft hum from the Tardis that brought her out of her thoughts. It was calm and understanding. Lights leading to the hall were lighting up indicating that she wanted Layla to follow. Layla sighs softly but picks up her feet and shuffles down the hall following the twists and turns. The Tardis had ended up leading her towards her room and she opened her door for her. Layla goes in and on her bed sees an outfit already picked out, just a simple pair of gray skinny jeans that are ripped up, a black and white striped shirt and her combat boots. There is also a towel and a jar of something and a packet? Curious Layla picks the jar up and reads the label, then she picks up the packet and reads that. She sends a soft grin to the ceiling. "Thanks, love." She opens the packet and dumps the two little pills in her hand and puts them under her tongue like the instructions said. She waits for them to dissolve and is happy that the flavor is grape. It would be like the Doctor to have banana flavored medicine.
She picks up her towel and goes to the bathroom. It will be the first time she will have seen herself since this morning and what she sees makes her eyes widen. It was no wonder why the Doctor was so angry. She is basically one giant bruise, and she does ache all over. She gets in the shower and takes a long hot one washing the grim and misery of the day off of her. When she gets out, she notices that the pills she took and the shower has already helped ease the soreness in her body. She goes back into her room and sits on her bed. Opening the jar, she scoops some out and rubs it all over her body. Now she smells like coconut and she can see some of her bruises already fading from a dark purple to a yellow color.
When she is done, she flops back and huffs. She wonders why she isn't crying, but she just feels numb. She knows, that based on how she was as a child, that the numbness will fade, but there is no telling of when that will happen. Can we go back? Can we save him? The answer she gets from the Tardis is conflicting. It seems like there is a way to go back and save him, but she can't say what it is. Is it because of that Program One? She hums back in confirmation. Layla huffs, he knew we would try to go back.
Layla's phone beep letting her know she has a message and sluggishly gets up and goes to read it. Sees that it is from Mickey asking where she was at and that they were going to a restaurant to eat and they wanted her to come and eat with them. She really didn't want to go, but she knew that with Rose being upset, if they didn't see her, they would think something was wrong with her. She tells him she will meet them and goes to get dressed. She doesn't even bother with her hair and makeup and leaves to go to eat. I'll be back, love. I'm not going to abandon you. We will find a way to get your pilot back.
Xxxxxx
The Doctor had been wallowing as he worked on the Delta Wave since the moment he sent the girl's home. His hearts were hurting, they felt like they were in a vice and being squeezed. He knew it was the right decision to send them home, but it doesn't make the pain go away. Now, he is actually glad that Layla was a human and not a Time Lord, because with the bond being delayed, it means that she won't be dying here with him. She can go on to live a long and happy life, even if it hurts that he won't be a part of it. It's devastating to think of her being in a relationship with someone else, but he doesn't want her to be alone the rest of her life either. He knows what it is like to be alone for years. So, he crushes the brief moment of agony and continues to work diligently on the Delta Wave with his hearts torn into pieces and tears burning in his eyes.
"Rose, I've called up the internal laser codes. There should be a different number on every screen. Can you read them out to me?"
The Doctor doesn't look at the monitor where Jack could be seen. "She's not here."
"Okay, no problem. Sweetheart, can you, do it?"
His eyes tighten at the reminder. "She isn't here either."
Jack snickers and in his voice you can hear the humor. "Of all the time to take a leak. When either of them gets back, tell them to read me the codes."
"They aren't coming back." He tells Jack stiffly.
"What do you mean? Where did they go?"
The Doctor ignored the question. "Just get on with your work."
Jack sighed as he realized what happened and he looked at the Doctor who hadn't looked at him once. He sees the slumped shoulders and bowed head. "You took them home, didn't you?"
His lip tremble slightly, wishing more than anything that it didn't have to end this way, he finally looks at Jack. "Yeah." He tells him softly.
"The Delta Wave. Is it ever going to be ready?"
"Tell him the truth, Doctor. There is every possibility the Delta Wave could be complete, but with no possibility of refining it. The Delta Wave must kill every living thing in its path, with no distinction between human and Dalek. All things will die. By your hand."
Jack could see the Doctor's shoulders tense at the emperor's taunt. "Doctor, the range of this transmitter covers the entire earth."
"You would destroy Daleks and Humans together. If I am God, the creator of all things, then what does that make you, Doctor?"
"There are colonies out there. The human race would survive in some shape or form, but you're the only Daleks in existence. The whole universe is in danger if I let you live. Don't you see, Jack? That's the decision I've got to make for every living thing. Die as a human or live as a Dalek. What would you do?" The Doctor defended himself and his decision and pleaded with Jack to understand.
"You sent them home. They're safe. Keep working."
"But he will exterminate you!"
"Never doubted him. Never will"
The Doctor smiled at Jack in appreciation and stood up and turned towards the screen with the emperor on it. "Now, you tell me, God of all Daleks, because there's one thing I never worked out. The words Bad Wolf, spread across time and space, everywhere, drawing me in. how'd you manage that?"
"I did nothing." The emperor denied.
"Oh, come on, there's no secrets now, your worship."
"They are not part of my design. This is the truth of God."
Xxxxxx
Layla had met up with Jackie, Rose, and Mickey at a restaurant, but she wasn't interested in eating and neither was Rose. Jackie knew that the girls were upset, hell she was upset when she saw Layla's face! The Doctor was lucky he wasn't around or she would slap him again. Sure, Layla said that she was in a mixed martial arts tournament, but she's been in those before and never been beaten up that bad. She was trying to keep things normal, normal conversation, normal day. "And it's gone up market, this place. They're doing little tubs of coleslaw, now. It's not very nice. It tastes a bit sort of clinical."
Mickey was also trying to ignore the gloomy atmosphere. "Have you tried that new pizza place down Minto Road?"
"What's it selling?"
"…Pizza."
Jackie nodded her head. "That's nice. Do they deliver."
"Yeah." He cringed inwardly, oh god, this conversation is worse than the gloomy atmosphere.
Jackie turns to the girls and sees that they aren't eating, just playing with the food. "Oh, girls, have something to eat."
Rose tosses the chip back into the basket. "Two hundred thousand years in the future, he's dying, and there's nothing we can do."
After one bite of food, Layla gave up all pretenses of even trying to eat. It only tasted like ash, and while her stomach was protesting and wanting food, she couldn't eat. "He saved us. He is always saving us humans. Who is going to be the one to save him?"
"Well, like you said two hundred thousand years. It's way off." Jackie tried to be optimistic.
"That's not how time works Jackie." Layla says shaking her head.
"Yeah, it's not. It's now. That fight is happening right now, and he's fighting for us, for the whole planet, and we're just sitting here eating chips." Rose looks down in disgust.
Jackie grabs a hand from both girls. "Listen to me. God knows I have hated that man, but right now, I love him and do you know why? Because he did the right thing. He sent you two back to me."
Rose looks at her mum with tears in her eyes. "But what do I do every day, mum? What do I do? Get up, catch the bus, go to work, come back home, eat chips and go to bed? Is that it?"
"It's what the rest of us do." Mickey said bitterly.
"But I can't!"
"Why, because you're better than us?" Layla knew that Mickey was still hurt over how Rose had been treating him. Hell, she didn't even know if any of them knew if they were still together or not. I don't think Rose considers them together, but I think Mickey does. It was such a mess, and now she is unintentionally hurting him more because she is hurting.
"No, I didn't mean that. But it was. It was a better life. And I don't mean all the traveling and seeing aliens and spaceships and things. That don't matter. The Doctor showed me a better way of living your life. You know he showed you too. That you don't just give up. You don't just let things happen. You make a stand. You say no. You have the guts to do what's right when everyone else just runs away, and I just can't." Rose gets up and runs away from them unable to be around people right now.
Jackie and Mickey look at Layla and see the dead look in her eyes. "She doesn't mean anything bad by it, what she says. She is just very… attached to him. I think that the life we were living, the adventures, the danger, it formed a bond that was hard to break. He took care of us, always protected us, and if we did get hurt, always healed us. Besides, you know how Rose gets when she is upset, she is pretty irrational and blurts things out without thinking about what she is saying. Go on Mickey. Go see how she is doing. I am going to go back to the Tardis and talk to her for a bit. See if there is anything we could do to save him."
Xxxxxx
"Right, Lynda, you are my eyes and ears. When the Daleks get in, you can follow it on that screen and report it to me." Jack moved her in front of said screen.
"Understood."
"They'll detect you but the door's made of Hydra Combination. It should keep them out."
Lynda swallowed harshly. "Should?"
Jack looked at her softly. "It's the best I can do." He turns to Davitch. "How long till the Fleet arrives?"
"They've accelerated."
Jack claps his hands together. "This is it, ladies and gentlemen. We are at war!"
Xxxxxx
Mickey found Rose sitting on a bench and sat next to her. "You can't spend the rest of your life thinking about the Doctor." Why can't it go back to how it was before you met him?
She sniffled. "But how do I forget him?"
"You've got to start living your own life. You know, a proper life, like the kind he's never had. The sort of life you could have with me." Mickey decided to throw it out there in hope that she would come back to him and move past the Doctor.
Rose wasn't paying attention to him though. "Over here. It's all over here as well!" She was referring to the large letters that were painted on the tarmac of the play area.
"That's been there for years. It's just a phrase. It's just words." Mickey didn't see what the big deal was.
"I thought it was a warning. Maybe it's the opposite. Maybe it's a message. The same words written down now and two hundred thousand years in the future. It's a link between me and the Doctor. Bad Wolf here, Bad Wolf there." Rose was getting really excited. This had to be the way back to him, but what was she missing?
"But if it's a message, what's it saying?"
"It's telling me I can get back. The least I can do is help him escape."
Xxxxxx
Rose and Mickey make it back to the Tardis and Rose goes inside to see Layla leaning against the console and she stopped talking and turned to look at them. "Rose? What's got you so excited?"
"Layla! Bad Wolf! It's here, it's there. It's everywhere we have been! It has to be important! I think it means we can get back to him. To save him." Rose goes to her and pulls her into a hug.
Layla hugs her back tightly. "I was just talking to the Tardis, trying to get any information I could, trying to find a way to save him. She hinted that there was a way to save him, but couldn't tell me anymore than that. She kinda seemed a little hesitate to even say that, but I think she only did tell me because she wants her pilot back too."
"Perfect, so there is something we can do. All the Tardis needs to do is make a return trip. Just reverse."
"Yeah, but we still can't do it." Mickey pointed out.
"The Doctor and Layla are always talking about how the Tardis is telepathic. This thing is alive. It can listen."
"It's not listening now, is it?" He looked around shiftily like the Tardis was going to smite him for what he said.
"But she is, there just isn't much she can do. I think it has something to do with that Program One thing that the Doctor set up. I think that he knew we would try to reverse it and come back, so with that program in place, we can't reverse it. And the Tardis herself can't remove it."
Rose nodded in agreement to what Layla was saying. "We need to get inside it. Last time we saw you, with the Slitheen, this middle bit opened, and there was this light, and the Doctor said it was the heart of the Tardis. If we can open it, I can make contact. I can tell it what to do."
"Rose…" Mickey grabs her hand and holds it gently.
"Mmm?"
"If you go back, you're going to die." It pained him to say it and to even think about. He didn't want her or Layla to go.
Rose shook her head. "That's a risk I've got to take, because there's nothing left for me here." Layla looked at Rose in shock at what she just said. She knew that Rose had developed feelings for the Doctor and moved on from Mickey, but Layla also knew that she hadn't sat down and officially ended it with him either and that was a cruel thing to say. She wasn't even thinking about her mum.
He looked at her so heartbroken. "Nothing?"
"No."
He takes a deep breath, even if she isn't happy with him, he does love her and wants her to be happy. Even if it is with the big eared alien. "Okay, if that's what you think, let's get this thing open."
Xxxxxx
Jack and the volunteers are set up and waiting for the Daleks. "Okay, activate internal lasers, slice them up." The floor manager does as Jack says.
"Defenses have gone offline. The Dalek's have overridden the lot." Lynda warned them.
The floor manager and other volunteers start shooting at the approaching Daleks but they aren't having any success, the forcefield around the Daleks are absorbing the bullets. The floor manager continues to shoot and screams. "You lied to me! The bullets don't work!" She was the first to die.
"Advance guard have made it to four-nine-five." Came Lynda's next warning.
"Jack, how are we doing?" The Doctor was working as fast as he could to get the Delta Wave done, but he was by himself and he was hurting.
"Four-nine-five should be good. I like four-nine-five."
"Identify yourself!"
"You are the weakest link. Goodbye!" The Anne Droid vaporizes three Daleks in quick succession.
Jack jumps up in excitement. "Yes!"
"You are the weakest link." Before she could continue the Dalek blows her head off. "Goodbye."
"Proceed to next level."
"They are flying up the ventilation shafts. No, wait a minute. Oh, my god. Why're they doing that? They're going down." Lynda looked at the monitor in horror as she sees several Daleks head down to floor zero where she knows there are almost a hundred people there. She can hear the Daleks entering and the people screaming. The Daleks screeching their 'exterminates', and people dying. She can't take it anymore and turns the sound off on the console. "Floor zero, they killed them all."
"Lynda! What's happening on Earth?" The Doctor hoped that they weren't suffering too much.
"The Fleet's descending. They're bombing whole continents. Europa, Pacifica, the New American Alliance. Australasia's just gone."
"This is perfection. I have created heaven on earth."
Jack sighs as he looks at the last handful of humans left alive on this station. "Floor four-nine-nine, we're the last defense. The bullets should work if you concentrate them on the Dalek's eyestalk. I've got the forcefield at maximum so Dalek fire power should be at its weakest." Jack had a feeling that even at its weakest, it wouldn't make a difference, but as long as he stalled long enough for the Doctor to finish, he would die happy. He hears Davitch and the woman whose name he never learned flirt and he smiles bitterly because they will never be able to go for that drink.
The Dalek's make it to floor four-nine-nine and Jack cocks his gun. "Open fire!" The Doctor can hear the gunfire and rushes to plug in the massive power cable. The Doctor can hear the last of the humans scream as they die, but he doesn't let it affect him.
"I've got a problem." Lynda says over the com. "They've found me."
"You'll be alright, Lynda. That side of the station's reinforced against meteors." The Doctor tries to soothe her panic, reinforced against meteors, but what about Daleks?
"Hope so! You know what they say about earth workmanship." The Doctor hears her quick laugh before he hears the sound of glass shattering and her screaming before silence. He closes his eyes in grief. I promised her.
Jack is the last human alive on the station and he is running out of ammo, and time. "Last man standing! For god's sake, Doctor, finish that thing and kill them!"
"Finish that thing and kill mankind." The emperor taunts him.
Jack is backing down a corridor and shooting his last bit of ammo. "Doctor, you've got twenty seconds maximum!" His gun runs out so he throws it to the side and takes out his pistol and shoots that before it too runs out.
"Exterminate."
"I kind of figured that." They shoot him and he is thrown into the wall, slumped over, dead.
"It's ready!" The Doctor looks down at it in surprised that he actually finished it. He looks up as he hears and then see Daleks enter from all sides of the room. "You really want to think about this, because if I activate the signal, every living creature dies."
"I am immortal."
"Do you want to put that to the test?"
"I want to see you become like me. Hail the Doctor the Great Exterminator."
The Doctor holds onto the device and tries to hide how much his hand is shaking. He doesn't know if he can do this. He has done it once and it nearly killed him with the crushing guilt, could he do it again?
"Then prove yourself, Doctor. What are you, coward or killer?"
He sighs heavily. He can't do it. He can't kill them, even knowing what the Daleks would do to them. He lets go of the lever. "Coward. Any day."
"Mankind will be harvested because of your weakness."
"What about me? Am I becoming one of your angels?" He was curious about that. The idea was really disturbing.
"You are the heathen. You will be exterminated."
Oh, thank God. I won't be like them. "Maybe it's time. He closes his eyes waiting for the beam of energy to hit him, but it never does.
"Alert! Tardis materializing!"
"You will not escape!"
Xxxxxx
Mickey went to go get his little mini car and some chains while Layla and Rose waited for him to come back. Rose was super excited. She just knew that this was the way to get back. Layla was worried, but hopeful at the same time.
It isn't long before Mickey's back and they are attaching chains to the grate where the heart of the Tardis is and to his car and he drives trying to pull it open. "Faster!" Rose shouts out to him.
"Come on!" Mickey is giving it as much gas as he can safely and it won't budge.
"It's not moving!" The chain breaks and Rose kicks the console in frustration.
Why can't you open up? Can you not do it on your own or do you have to have help to open it? Like with Margaret and the rift? Layla wondered why the Tardis wouldn't just open, but she wasn't really saying much on why. She didn't know if it was because she couldn't without help or wouldn't without reason or maybe meeting a certain standard.
Rose's shoulders are slumped and Layla has her arm around her shoulders and Rose's arm around her waist. Both giving each other comfort as they try to think of another way to get it open. Jackie walks over to them. "It was never going to work Sweethearts. And the Doctor knew that. He just wanted you two to be safe."
"We can't give up." Rose just wanted her mum to understand. This man meant a lot to her. He wouldn't give up on them, on her, how could she give up on him.
"Lock the door. Walk away." She pleaded with them.
"Dad wouldn't give up." Rose looked her mum in the eye with determination.
Jackie was slightly startled that she was bringing up her dad, especially since she didn't even know him. "Well, he's not here, is her? And even if he was, he'd say the same."
"No, he wouldn't. He'd tell me to try anything. If I could save the Doctor's life, try anything."
Jackie shrugged. "Well, we're never going to know."
"Well, I know because I met him. I met dad."
Jackie paled slightly. "Don't be ridiculous."
"The Doctor took us back in time, and I met dad."
Jackie looked at Rose upset. "Don't say that."
"Remember when dad died? There was someone with him, a girl, a blonde girl. She held his hand. You saw her from a distance, mum. You saw her! Think about it. That was me. You saw me."
Jackie looked at Layla to see if she could spot a lie and Layla was looking at her sadly, but she nodded letting her know that what Rose said was the truth. Jackie's breath hitched. "Stop it."
Rose grabbed her mum's hands. "That's how good the Doctor is."
"Stop it! Just stop it!" Jackie couldn't take it anymore and ran off.
They all lean against the Tardis and Layla can feel her trying to comfort them. She doesn't know if Mickey and Rose can feel her like she can, but she is grateful for it. She is helping with the numbness, keeping her from breaking down.
"There's got to be something else we can do." Mickey was surprisingly trying to stay positive.
"Mum was right. Maybe we should just lock the door and walk away." Rose was surprisingly giving up.
"I'm not having that. I'm not having you just, just give up now. No way. We just need something stronger than my car. Something bigger. Something like that." Mickey points to a big yellow recovery truck that comes around the corner and stops by the Tardis. The door opens and Jackie steps out.
"Right, you've only got this until six o'clock, so get on with it." Jackie may not agree with this, but she was going to support her girls. She wanted them to be happy, and will do anything she can to make them happy. And Rose was right, Pete would tell her to try anything.
"Mum, where the hell did you get that from?"
"Rodrigo. He owes me a favor. Never mind why, but you were right about your dad, Sweetheart. He was full of mad ideas, and it's exactly what he would've done. Now, get on with it before I change my mind." She tosses the keys to Mickey and the three friends smile at each other.
"Are you sure you want to do this Rose? We don't know how it will affect you, it could kill you, and you have a family, I don't. Your body might not be able to take the damage." Layla pulls her to the side and asks her quietly not wanting Jackie to hear.
"Yeah, I'm sure. I know you had it tough at the Game Station, if this is tough on the body, it will be worse for you, because yours already took a beating. Mines fresh. I want to do this."
Layla looks at her intently before giving her a nod. "Alright, I'll stand over here out of the way when you work on trying to get the grate open so I am not near it when it does open and it doesn't go into me by mistake. And before you say anything, I am going with you to make sure you are alright. You are going to have this vortex in you, we have no idea what that will do, you might need me."
Rose nods and gives her a grin. She walks over to the door and sees that Mickey has just finished hooking up the chain and is getting into the truck. He starts it up and starts to drive and meets resistance.
"Keep going!" Rose shouts to him.
"Put your foot down!" Jackie surprisingly helps.
"Faster!"
They both keep shouting at him telling him to keep going it isn't long before the console finally bursts open. Rose steps up to it and looks inside and golden energy streams into her eyes. The last thing she hears is Mickey shouting her name before the Tardis doors slam shut on him and the Tardis dematerializes. The Tardis is hurtling through time, at the same time sending energy into Rose. Layla stands away from her and holds onto a railing to keep from falling, but also to stay away from the energy. She doesn't know that it won't hurt her as much as it would Rose. It would be needed for hers and the Doctors bonding.
The Tardis stops shaking and Rose opens the doors without touching them and steps outside, she is outlined in a blinding golden light. Energy vines snake outwards all around her. The Doctor looks at her in horror. "What have you done?" Where is Layla, is she alright?
"I looked into the Tardis, and the Tardis looked into me."
"You looked into the Time Vortex. Rose, only certain people can do that and you're not one of them and even then, they can't take the entire vortex inside themselves!"
"This is the abomination!"
"Exterminate!"
The Dalek shoots at her, but Rose just raises her hand and stops the energy from hitting her. "I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself. I take the words. I scatter them in time and space. A message to lead myself here."
"Rose, you've got to stop this. You've got to stop this now. You've got the entire vortex running through your head. You're going to burn." Only certain species could handle some of the vortex and that is only if they are a Time Lord's Promised One and that is because it is used in the bonding with the Time Lord. And it is only a little bit of the vortex not the whole thing.
"I want you safe. My Doctor." Here he cringed at that. "Protected from the false god."
"You cannot hurt me. I am immortal."
Rose or Bad Wolf, sneered. "You are tiny. I can see the whole of time and space. Every single atom of your existence, and I divide them." She waves her hand and a Dalek disintegrates. "Everything must come to dust. All things. Everything dies. The Time War ends." She continues and the rest of the Daleks disintegrates as well.
"I will not die. I cannot die!" But even as the emperor is shouting that, he and his ship disappears in a golden wave.
The Doctor looks at Rose wary. "Rose, you've done it. Now stop. Just let go."
"How can I let go of this? I bring life." She thinks about Jack and brings him back to life, not wanting him to die.
He can tell what she did, because now Jack feels…wrong. His timeline is messed up now. "But this is wrong! You can't control life and death."
"But I can. The sun and the moon, the day and the night." She grabs her head in pain. "But why do they hurt?"
"The power's going to kill you." Why won't she just let it go! Of course, it is a human thing to want to control things.
"I can see everything. All that is, all that was, all that ever could be."
The Doctor looked at her surprised. "That's what I see. All the time. And doesn't it drive you mad?" Layla, who had been standing close by, but out of the way to not be close to the golden energy heard him and snorted, so that's what he is blaming his madness on?
Rose starts crying and grips her head with both hands now. "My head."
The Doctor gets up and sighs, he knows what he has to do and feels extremely queasy about it. The bond already slightly punishing him and he hasn't even done it yet. "Come here."
"It's killing me."
Yes, well you should have let it go when you had the chance, now I'm going to have to fight against my bond and it is not going to make me feel pleasant. "I think you need a Doctor." He scrunches up his face but reluctantly leans down and hesitantly presses his lips to her and grunts as he feels the bond rage at him for kissing another who is not his Promised One. Before he met Layla, kissing others had never bothered him, but the idea of even kissing someone other than her now, is…icky. And it isn't even because the bond will make him feel unpleasant, it's because after meeting her and getting to know her, he doesn't want anyone but her. He would like to think that had Promised Ones not been a thing for Time Lords, and he had meet her, he thinks he still would have fallen for her.
The golden energy leaves Rose and transfers from her eyes to his and he catches her as she faints. When he releases all of the vortex, the doors close and they start to dematerialize. He goes to check on Rose and he sees that Layla is already there and his hearts drop. He had wondered where she was, but trying to get Rose to let go of the vortex took all of his focus and he didn't see her, but he has a feeling that she seen him and that means she most likely seen him kiss Rose. He looks at her face, but it has a blank look. She is checking on Rose's pulse and breathing, but she isn't showing any emotion, she looks like she is numb and he wonders what is wrong.
After a few minutes Rose wakes up and rubs her head. "What happened?"
The Doctor has stayed away from both girls, he is shivering and hurting. His skin in tingling painfully. "Don't you remember?"
Layla helps Rose sit up before pulling her up to stand. "It's like there was this singing."
"That's right. I sang a song and the Daleks ran away." He said sarcastically. He was a bit upset with her. While he was grateful that she saved him, he didn't want to regenerate and maybe lose Layla's interest in him, and if Rose had just let go of the vortex, he wouldn't be hurting like this.
"We were at home. No, we weren't, we were in the Tardis, and there was this light. I can't remember anything else." Rose is trying to remember what happened and isn't really paying attention, but Layla is looking at the Doctor and sees his skin darkening, the tremors racking his body and she worries for him.
"Layla Stevenson and Rose Tyler. I was going to take you to so many places. Barcelona. Not the city Barcelona, the planet Barcelona. You'd love it. Fantastic place. They've got dogs with no noses. Imagine how many times a day you end up saying that joke, and it's still funny."
The Doctor is rambling and his face contorts more in pain. Rose looks at him confused. "Then, why can't we go?"
Layla didn't care about that right now. "Doctor, what's wrong with you?"
"Maybe you will, and maybe I will. But not like this." He continues to ramble.
"You're not making any sense."
"When does he ever really?" Was Layla's worried snarky remark.
The Doctor laughed. "I might never make sense again. I might have two heads, or no head. Imagine me with no head. And don't say that's an improvement. But it's a bit dodgy, this process. You never know what you're going to end up with." He bends over clutching his stomach and grunts in pain.
"Doctor!" Rose starts to run to him along with Layla, both wanting to help with whatever is causing him to hurt.
"Stay away!"
"Doctor, tell us what's going on." Rose demanded softly. Layla had a feeling it had to do with the vortex. He was fine until he took it out of Rose and she, herself, said that it was burning her, so the vortex must be doing something to his body.
"I absorbed all the energy of the Time Vortex, and no one's meant to absorb all of it. Every cell in my body's dying."
"Can't you do something." Rose pleaded with him. This is my fault. I did this to him.
"Yeah. I'm doing it now. Time Lords have this little trick, it's sort of a way of cheating death. Except it means I'm going to change, and I'm not going to see you again. Not like this. Not with this daft old face. And before I go."
Rose started to cry softly. "Don't say that."
Layla was somewhat piecing together what he was trying to explain. He was explaining it badly, and he probably shouldn't have waited until it was about to happen to tell us, but she thought she was understanding. From what he first said 'might have two heads or no head', 'cheat death', 'going to change', 'not with this daft old face', it seems like something will change with him physically, something that his species can do.
"Layla, Rose, before I go, I just want to tell you two, you two were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And do you know what? So was I." He looked at Layla wanting her image to be the last that this regeneration gets to see. Golden light bursts out of the Doctor's body and when the light fades, a new man is standing there in the Doctor's clothes.
"Hello. Okay. Ooh, new teeth. That's weird. So, where was I? Oh, that's right. Barcelona."
The girls look at him with different reactions. Rose looks scared and shocked while Layla looks at him curiously. She walks up to him and he stops playing with his teeth when he sees her standing in front of him and smiles at her. She frowns slightly as she looks into his eyes; they were a warm brown color. And while they were a different color from the lovely blue she was used to, she knew those eyes, the emotions, the timelessness, the loneliness. She can see him looking at her with a look of anticipation and at the same time worry. He wonders if she believes that he is still the Doctor. That him changing wouldn't have changed any feelings she might have developed for him and he doesn't like the frown on her face. He is just looking for any sign that she is taking this change okay and he isn't disappointed with what he gets.
She smiles.
xxxxxx
I hope you enjoyed my version of season one. I will be posting chapter one of season two right after this.
