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orangeoctopi7 · 4 years

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Walking Like a One-Man Army

I guess this chapter is kinda for @soosly ? It does prominently feature Soos being a BA.

: Part 1 : Part 2 : Part 3 :

The three of them piled into Soos’s truck. Ford elected to slide into the back of the cab with Mabel rather than sit shotgun. He needed to tell his niece what Debbs had decided.

“Mabel, I, uh…” He said slowly, “I spoke with your mother earlier this morning…”

The colorful girl tensed and pulled the collar of her sweater up a bit. Had all their ill-fated conversations over the last couple of days left her apprehensive to even speak with him?

“...I told her I wanted to keep Dipper on as my apprentice, and that you were welcome to stay here as well. Unfortunately, she, uh, declined to grant her permission.”

“Oh!” Mabel smiled with relief, letting her collar drop. “That’s ok! Me and Dipper already talked about it and decided not to stay here anyway, so everything works out!”

Ford’s heart sank. So Stan was wrong. The children had indeed come to realize the old researcher was a toxic influence in their lives. He tried to tell himself it was for the best, to focus on his intellect and control his emotions, but controlling anguish was a lot harder than controlling fear. He at least was able to keep his expression neutral as he found something else to distract him: nitpicking grammar.

“Dipper and I.” He corrected her mechanically. “In any case, we need to come up with a plan to confront Bill and find Fiddleford.”

“He’s got this little shelter next to one of the telephone poles.” Soos commented from the driver’s seat. “It’s actually surprisingly nice for something in the middle of the dump made completely out of scrap material.”

“If Bill’s expecting us, that’s probably where he’ll be.” Ford said gravely. “I imagine he’ll keep Fiddleford close-by, to keep a close eye on his bargaining chip. We’ll need a distraction. Bill may be an all-seeing eye, but even he has trouble splitting his attention.”

“Oooh, I’m super amazing at being a distraction!” Mabel piped up.

“I don’t doubt that.” Ford nodded, fondness somehow managing to slip past all the other emotions he was repressing. “But I promised your brother and Stan that I’d keep you safe, so I need you to stay close to me. Soos, do you think you could be a good distraction?”

“Oh yeah, totally.” Soos said nonchalantly. “Mr. Pines asks me to be the distraction all the time! When the taxman comes, or the safety inspector, or the police….”

“Of course he does.” Ford muttered. “What I need you to do is keep Bill’s attention while Mabel and I look for Fiddleford and get him to safety. Bill should still be possessing that time travel agent, so while he won’t be able to access any of the reality-warping powers he wields in the mindscape, he will have access to any weapon from Gravity Falls’ history or future. You’ll need to be ready for anything.”

“Well, they did teach me how to disarm an opponent with a gun or knife in my karate class, so I’ll probably be ok.”

* * *

It was quieter that Mabel was used to when they reached the dump. Normally, you could hear the sound of power tools and banjo strings even from the dump’s entrance, but not today. Today was deceptively peaceful.

The peace was broken by an eerie, high-pitched laugh. It was coming from the center of the dump, but as they looked around frantically, they couldn’t see their enemy anywhere. Ford fired his blaster, obliterating a board in the fence with a one-eyed triangle carved into it.

“Well, he knows we’re here.” He said gravely.

“What should we do?” Mabel asked.

“Proceed with the plan. Soos, you head straight for the center of the dump, we’ll go around the long way. Mabel, do you think you’ll be able to lead me to Fiddleford’s shelter if we don’t take a direct route?”

Mabel nodded with determination, even though she was only about 50% sure she’d be able to find the place, considering she’d only been there once.

They split up, Mabel leading Ford towards the east wall of the dump. She was pretty sure if she climbed up the pile of wrecked cars there, she’d be able to look out over the dump and figure out a way to get to McGucket’s shelter, and maybe even see where Bill was at.

While running through the dump, they heard the occasional scurry of a racoon or possum through the trash. It was clear that Ford’s already twitchy nerves were on high alert, and he leveled his blaster at every single one. Luckily, he hadn’t been startled enough to fire it yet, which was good because they were trying to sneak around while Soos was distracting Bill.

The stack of cars was within sight when they noticed more scurrying around the corner. Only unlike all the other scurries they’d heard, it seemed to be running towards them instead of away from them. Ford pointed his blaster yet again, and pulled Mabel behind him.

“PEEKABOO!” Blendin’s face wearing a contorted grin popped out from around the corner. “WOW, SIXER, YOU REALLY EXPECTED ME TO TAKE THE BAIT AND GO AFTER QUESTION MARK? PPPPFT, PLEASE! HE’S NOWHERE NEAR AS FUN TO MESS WITH AS YOU! OR SHOOTING STAR, FOR THAT MATTER.”

Bill took a few menacing steps towards them and leaned down so he was closer to Mabel’s eye-level. “WHADDAYA SAY KID? HOW WOULD YOU LIKE A NEVER-ENDING PARTY FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY? I’LL MAKE SURE ALL YOUR LITTLE FRIENDS ARE THERE, AND YOU’LL NEVER HAVE TO GO TO HIGHSCHOOL! IN FACT, YOU’LL BE ABLE TO DO WHATEVER YOU WANT! ALL YOU GOTTA DO IS GIVE ME THAT RIFT!”

“Don’t you dare speak to her.” Ford growled.

“You’re a butt-brain!” Mabel shouted, flinging out the worst insult she could think of.

Bill shrugged Blendin’s shoulders smugly. “OH WELL. I WAS GONNA LET YOU HAVE YOUR OWN PERSONAL PARADISE BUBBLE FOR YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS, BUT IF YOU’RE NOT GONNA COOPERATE WITH ME, I GUESS YOU’LL JUST HAVE TO SUFFER UNIMAGINABLE PAIN AND DESTRUCTION LIKE THE REST OF YOUR MISERABLE DIMENSION.” He pulled out a large rusty pipe and hefted it threateningly in his hands. “SO, WHERE’S THAT RIFT, IQ?”

“You really think I was stupid enough to bring it here with me?” Ford scoffed.

“WELL, I MEAN, YOU WERE STUPID ENOUGH TO TRUST ME.” Bill counted on his fingers. “AND TO THINK YOUR BROTHER WOULD ACTUALLY LISTEN TO YOU WHEN YOU CALLED FOR HELP. AND TO USE TOO MUCH GLUE WHEN YOU TRIED TO SEAL THE RIFT. SO YEAH. I DO THINK YOU’RE THAT STUPID.”

“Well I’m not.”

“OH, LEMME GUESS. YOU LEFT IT WITH PINETREE?”

“And with Grukle Stan!” Mabel added defiantly.

Bill snorted. “YEAH, ‘CUZ I’M REAL SCARED OF HIM!”

The possessed time traveler didn’t even get a derisive chuckle out before Soos barreled into him with a flying kick.

“Hey dude, I need you to pay attention to me for the next, I dunno, five to ten minutes?” He looked over at Ford. “D’you think that’s enough time?”

Ford just nodded mutely, unsure of how else to react to the handyman’s sudden entrance.

Bill picked his possessed body up off the ground. “YOU WANT ME TO PAY ATTENTION TO YOU, QUESTION MARK? HOW DO YOU LIKE THIS ATTENTION?” He pulled out a time tape and disappeared in a flash, only to reappear a second later with a large carpenter’s hammer in his hand. He threw it at Soos, who dodged it with skills honed from ten years of karate sparring.

As Bill continued to pursue Soos, pulling out weapons from random time periods as he went, Ford pulled Mabel away, back towards the center of the dump. This was just the distraction they needed, it just happened in a different order than they’d been expecting.

So, her original plan to look for McGucket’s shelter from the top of a trash mountain wasn’t going to work now, but she could still find it, right? She remembered that a telephone pole had been one of the main support beams in the little hut, so she just needed to follow the telephone lines! Spotting one above, she rushed ahead, now pulling Ford instead of the other way around.

Sure enough, they came upon McGucket’s hovel nearby. Too nearby. They could still hear Soos doing his best to lead Bill on a wild goose-chase on the opposite side of a pile of discarded furniture and tires. But they could also hear a low, animal-like moan from inside the shelter. The two of them rushed across the clearing, hoping to reach the fox skin that acted as a door before Bill rounded the trash pile.

Before they could reach it, two things happened.

First of all, a loud, up-beat pop song started blaring out of Mabel’s pocket.

“Girl, oh girl, you got it all, you know.”

“But girl, oh girl, you don’t got me, no!”

Mabel slapped her forehead and pulled out her phone, trying to silence it. “Ugh, Pacifica! Bad timing!”

Second, Bill blew away the trash pile with a shot from a cannon, sending chunks of broken wood and plastic everywhere and clearing a path between him and the shelter.

“THERE YOU ARE!”

Mabel just barely managed to hold onto her phone as Ford grabbed her by the arm and practically threw her into the door. He hurtled in after her, but no second shot came. Instead, they heard a loud, frustrated groan.

“UUUGH, WHY DO YOU HUMANS MAKE WEAPONS THAT ARE SUCH A WASTE OF TIME? WHO THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO HAVE TO REPACK THE GUNPOWDER AND ROLL IN ANOTHER BALL EVERY TIME YOU WANT TO SHOOT SOMETHING?”

“Well, it’s not that they thought it was a good idea, it’s just that they hadn’t developed the technology--” Ford started to explain when Mabel reached up and covered his mouth. He really couldn’t help himself sometimes, could he?

That same moan they’d heard before came again, louder, from under a pile of newspapers. Many of them had frantic calculations scribbled all over them. Ford reached down and brushed them aside, revealing a shivering, hyperventilating McGucket.

Mabel had seen McGucket be pretty crazy this summer. He’d jigged on an unplugged videogame for a week, ate his way out of a dinosaur, and claimed he preferred to walk backwards when she gave him a makeover. But she’d never seen him look so terrified and broken. His eyes were wide and unfocused, like he didn’t even notice they were there, and his breaths were coming in short, sharp whines. It was especially sad compared to the last time she’d seen him, when his mind really seemed like it was beginning to clear.

Ford looked down on his friend, absolutely devastated. If McGucket was looking bad compared to the last time Mabel had seen him, she could only imagine how he looked compared to the last time Ford saw him.

“Y’KNOW WHAT, I’M JUST GONNA GO BACK AND GET ANOTHER ONE THAT’S ALREADY LOADED.” They heard Bill whine, followed by the zap of the time tape being used.

McGucket moaned again at the sound of Bill’s voice, shutting his eyes tightly and clutching his head. That seemed to snap Ford out of his shock, and he reached down and scooped the old inventor into his arms.

“Let’s get out of here.” He told Mabel.

Just as they ran out the door, Bill reappeared in front of them with another cannon.

“UH-UH-UH! FOUR-EYES ISN’T GOING ANYWHERE UNTIL I GET WHAT I WANT, SIXER!”

“Just keep running!” Ford shouted to Mabel. They picked up the pace and just barely got out of the way in time to avoid the cannonball that ripped through McGucket’s shelter.

“Dudes, over here!” Soos called to them, where he was trying to finish reloading the other cannon Bill had abandoned after less than a minute of trying. “We can fight cannon with cannon!”

“There’s no time!” Ford barked. “We need to either get out of here or find cover!”

“Cover, huh?” Soos said thoughtfully, scratching his chin, until an idea popped into his head. “Oh! You’ve seen that old timey video of the dude who takes a cannonball to the stomach and it just bounces off of him? I’ve always wanted to try that!”

Ford and Mabel stared at him for a beat, dumbstruck.

“I say follow your dreams, Soos!” Mabel encouraged him.

“Yes, if you believe you’re capable, I see no reason not to give it a shot.” Ford agreed.

When Bill reappeared with another cannon, Soos stood squarely in front of it while Ford and Mabel made a run for the truck.

“OH, THIS OUGHTA BE GOOD!” Bill smirked as he fired.

Soos braced himself just as the cannonball collided with his stomach. While the iron ball did bounce off his gut and drop to the ground, Soos was also thrown back almost three feet. He landed on his back but the wind was already knocked out of him. As soon as he could move again, he rolled over and threw up.

“Ohhoho… dude…” the handyman muttered. “I knew that was probably gonna hurt, but it still hurt way worse than I was expecting. Ugh, I think I might’ve cracked a rib.”

No answer. Not even a mocking remark from Bill.

“Dudes?” He slowly got up to his feet and looked around. Ford and Mabel had run away, and Bill had chased after them. Oh well, at least Soos had bought them some time. He reached into his pocket to call his abuelita for a ride home, but alongside his phone, he felt another object. His truck keys. “Uh-oh.”

* * *

Despite Soos’s best efforts, Bill was still hot on their tail. Fiddleford squirmed weakly in Ford’s arms as they passed another mountain of garbage. His eyes seemed to briefly focus on Ford, but they looked far, far away.

“I’m jus’ barely gettin’ my mind back now, I don’t wanna lose it again...” The old inventor murmured feebly before resuming his catatonic state. It felt like someone had just stabbed Ford in the heart with an icy dagger, and he picked up the pace.

The sign above the dump’s exit soon came into view, but there were still several more piles of junk between here and there. As they fled, Mabel turned and fired her grappling hook at an old kitchen sink sticking half-way out the bottom of one of the larger junk piles behind them. The hook caught on the faucet and Mabel yanked back on the line hard, dislodging the kitchen sink and collapsing the garbage mountain in a landslide.

“Let’s see Bill blast his way through that!” She cheered.

Ford knew it was too soon to relax. As long as Bill was possessing this time travel agent, he had access to any weapon in human history, or humankind’s future, for that matter. Although, come to think of it, why hadn’t Bill used a weapon from the future on them yet? Perhaps that would draw the attention of the Time Paradox Avoidment Enforcement Squadron?

“There’s the truck!” Mabel exclaimed, bringing Ford out of his speculations. They skidded to a stop as they finally reached the vehicle and Ford tried to open the door.

It was locked.

Soos still had the keys.

Ford swore under his breath as he searched for something to pry the door open with. Yes, he could break into the truck, and yes, he could hotwire it, but that all took time! Time they didn’t have!

He was expecting Bill to step out of the dump any second now, but he didn’t appear. Instead, what at first glance appeared to be a flock of ravens rose out of the nearby woods. At the same time, Fiddleford thrashed in his arms and began to yell incoherently. Stanford tried to lay him in the back of the truck gently, so he wouldn’t drop him. The old researcher’s blood ran cold. It sounded almost identical to the gibberish his friend had spouted immediately after the failed first portal test.

As the mysterious flock drew near, Ford began searching for a rock, a golf club, anything he could use to break open the truck’s windows and get inside, all while keeping a close eye on the approaching swarm. As they came closer, he could see they weren’t birds, they were bats! But why would a swarm of bats take flight in the middle of the day? They were close enough to start blocking out the sun when Ford realized they weren’t bats. They were Eye-bats!

He pulled out his blaster and started firing into the swarm. “Mabel, find something to break into the truck with!”

She nodded and took a step back towards the dump, when Bill finally made his leisurely way to the exit. Ford couldn’t help but notice that Fiddleford’s cries stopped almost as soon as the possessed time traveler appeared.

“YOU FLESH-SACKS AREN’T GOING ANYWHERE!” Bill crowed. “NOT UNTIL I GET THAT RIFT! AFTER THAT, I HONESTLY COULDN’T CARE LESS.”

Just as Bill took another menacing step towards Mabel, Soos appeared, sledding down a trash mountain on a car door. He crashed into Bill and kept going until colliding into the side of his truck.

“Uh… I got the keys.” The handyman said in a daze, holding them up triumphantly.

Ford grabbed the keys and helped him up and into the shotgun seat. “I think I’d better drive.”

“Thanks dude, I appreciate it.” Soos said with a chuckle, then clutched his stomach. “Ooof, ugh, that’s… that’s definitely bruised.”

The truck zoomed away just as Bill rushed for the truck bed where Fiddleford was still laying. The swarm of Eye-bats descended on them, and Ford rolled down his window, steering with one hand and firing his blaster into the flock with the other. He knew it wasn’t exactly the safest position for his friend to be in, nearly unconscious in the bed of a speeding, reckless pickup truck, but he couldn’t exactly pull over and buckle him in next to Mabel. Not if they didn’t want to be overtaken by Eye-bats. The old researcher just had to hope that his old friend would be able to hold out until they reached the shield spell.

* * *

Stan was just sitting and watching tv like this was a perfectly normal day. Dipper wondered how he could possibly do it, just push all the danger and worry aside and vegg out like that. Sure, Stan wasn’t really invested in McGucket’s safety, but he had to care what might happen to Mabel, Ford, and Soos, right?

Of course, Dipper had known Stan long enough that he knew the old conman tended to express his emotions in a weird way. He teased and noogied to show affection, loaded on chores instead of compliments, and lied to the people he loved to try and keep them safe. Not to mention he’d spent the last thirty years trying to bring his lost brother home with an incredibly dangerous machine, while also pretending everything was normal. Maybe Stan was just really good at ignoring danger and worry by this point. And wow, that was a depressing thought.

Dipper kept vigilant watch out the front window, searching for any suspicious activity while also waiting anxiously for the return of Soos’s truck. He’d been sitting there for maybe fifteen minutes when the phone rang. It rang two more times, and Stan made no move to answer it. Dipper was unwilling to leave his post himself, but Stan was just watching old reruns of Baby Fights!

“Uh, Grunkle Stan?” Dipper called out after the fourth ring. Maybe he’d turned down his hearing aide?

“I hear it kid.” Stan grunted.

“Well, aren’t you going to get it!?”

“It’s probably just that triangular jerk, tryin’ to distract us. And if not, whoever it is can just leave a message.”

“But what if it’s Mabel or Soos?”

Dipper was distracted from his complaining when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. A car was coming down the dirt road towards the Mystery Shack. The boy seriously doubted the rescue mission would be back already.

Stan got up with a grunt from his chair to see what had caught Dipper’s attention. “There, see? What’d I tell ya? Wouldn’t’ve noticed whoever this yahoo is if you’d been trying to listen in on me while I was on the phone. When you know somebody’s after ya, you gotta keep distractions to a minimum.”

“You were just watching TV!” the boy gestured back to the flickering CRT.

“Eh, it’s a rerun, I’m not really payin’ attention to it, just need something to calm my nerves.”

The mystery car drove out of the trees. It wasn’t a car at all, it was a limo. One Dipper recognized from the Northwest’s fleet.

“Well, this ain’t gonna be good.” Stan grimace.

“M-maybe it’s just Pacifica coming to ask for help again?” The boy said hopefully, although his heart wasn’t really in it.

Sure enough, the Northwest stepping out of the limo was Preston. He looked around like everything about the Shack was a personal insult to him before stepping up to the door and knocking with a gloved hand.

Stan grabbed the taxidermied fake dodo sitting on a small table in the corner and reached under its wing, pulling out a small handgun, which he held behind his back as he opened the door. Dipper wasn’t quite sure how to feel about the fact that his uncle was answering the door with a loaded gun in his hand. Sure, they were all in danger from Bill at the moment, but he really didn’t want Stan to go to jail for shooting one of the most important people in Gravity Falls, even if Preston probably deserved it.

“Whaddya want?” Stan asked gruffly.

Preston’s small, forced smile seemed painful. “Aheh, yes, well, I suppose I’ll get right to the point then. I’m here to purchase your… I suppose this qualifies as a business on some level? My opening offer is two million dollars for the building and the land it occupies.”

“Hah! Yeah, right!” Stan barked. “I wouldn’t sell this place to a scumbag like you for twenty million!”

“Well, how about fifty million?” Preston asked coolly.

Stan froze, his eyes wide. He stared the billionaire down, trying to decide if he was bluffing. It sure didn’t seem like a bluff to Dipper. The boy knew the Northwests threw that kind of money around like it was nothing, because to them, it was.

“Not for a hundred million.” Stan said, although it was less of a defiant denial and more of a fishing offer, trying to gauge how high Preston was willing to go.

“How about a hundred and fifty million?” Preston offered.

“Higher.” Stan shook his head.

“Grunkle Stan!?” Dipper cried indignantly.

“Ah-ah!” Stan pushed him back without even turning to look. “Not now kid, the grownups are talking.”

“Two hundred million?” Preston asked, his cool smile starting to slip.

Stan shook his head. “Uh-uh. Higher.”

“Three hundred million?” Mr. Northwest ventured again through clenched teeth.

“Higher!”

“F-five hundred million?”

“I’m thinking twice that much.”

“Seriously!?” Preston finally exploded. “You want a billion dollars for this--this hovel!?”

“Y’know what, you’re right.” Stan shook his head. “I’m not askin’ enough. Two billion!”

The Northwest patriarch looked like he very much wanted to strangle Stan.

“C’mon Northwest, I know you’re good for it!” Stan smirked.

“Absolutely not! Seven hundred and fifty million, and that’s my final offer!”

“Welp, my final offer’s still two billion, so you can either pony up or get off my porch.”

“....Fine.” Preston hissed, the veins in his forehead popping.

Stan stuck out his hand for Preston to shake, but as soon as the billionaire reached for it, the conman yanked it away.

“Psych!” Stan chortled. “Hah! I just wanted to see how far I could go before you chickened out! You couldn’t give me your whole dirty fortune for this place!”

It took Preston a moment to regain his composure. “I beg you to reconsider, Mr. Pines.” He said with a dangerous edge to his voice. “Take it from someone in the real estate business, property can lose value so quickly.”

“Yeah, the answer’s still no.” Stan said flatly. “Now get outta here. Don’t think I won’t call the cops!”

“I’m afraid you’ll find they’re busy at the moment. I just made a rather large donation so they’re holding a banquet. Even if you could pry them away from it, I doubt they’d be willing to arrest the man that just doubled their salary.”

“Oh, well, if you’re so sure the cops won’t be coming.” Stan pulled the gun out from behind his back.

Mr. Northwest finally backed off, although he shared a long glare with Stan before getting back into his limo. “This isn’t over, Pines!”

“Tell it to someone who cares!” Stan shouted after him.

Dipper looked up at his uncle with awe as he shut the door. “Grunkle Stan, that was awesome!”

Stan rolled his eyes. “Yeah yeah, don’t think I didn’t notice you actually thought I was gonna take his offer.”

Dipper blushed and laughed sheepishly.

The old conman sighed as he sat back down in his recliner. “Eh, guess I can’t blame you. I was actually tempted for half a second. Then I remembered that guy’s a lying cheating crook, and he wasn’t gonna actually pay anything for this place. Still, two billion dollars, wouldn’t that be somethin’!”

“Grunkle Stan, no amount of money is worth the end of the world as we know it.” Dipper reminded him sharply.

“I know that!” Stan retorted, insulted. “I’m just sayin’, if I’d been able to trick him outta that much, heh, that would’ve been the con of a lifetime.”

“I-I’m sorry,” Dipper stammered, taking up his watch at the window again. “I shouldn’t doubt you. I’m just… I’m just really worried, y’know. Bill’s using more and more people to try and get at the rift. The Northwests are the most powerful people in town. You got him to leave for now, but he’s probably gonna hire thugs or something.”

“I know you’re worried, kid.” Stan said sadly. “I wish you didn’t have to worry about all this junk, but at the very least, you don’t gotta worry about this. I’ve had to hole up against hired thugs in this Shack before. ‘Course, this time I’m not gonna be able to fake my death to get ‘em to give up and go home.”

Dipper grimaced. This conversation wasn’t really reassuring him.

Stan sighed again. “Look, bud, I know Bill’s got a lot of people in his pocket, but time’s on our side, right? Eventually, that glue you found is gonna set, and then what’s he gonna do? Besides, you and your sister are going home next weekend anyway, and then you won’t have to worry about a thing.”

Dipper turned to look back at his uncle. “I’ll still worry about you. And Ford. And everyone else left here in Gravity Falls.”

Stan felt his heart swell when he realized how much the boy cared about him. It didn’t matter if he was safe, if his family was still in danger. Stan was all too familiar with that feeling, and he didn’t like the thought of this twelve-year-old kid being burdened with it.

“Well then, we’re just gonna have to figure something out then, aren’t we?”

#Gravity Falls #Fanfiction #Stanford Pines #Mabel Pines #soos ramirez #Stanley pines #Dipper Pines #My Writing

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natural--blues · 6 years

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Hey @megabadbunny ! I am your @dwsecretsanta! I hope you like it <3 Happy Holidays, beautiful! You did ask for some angst and fluff, so I did try to capture that. I’ll try to write a sequel for some resolution, if you’d like. ------------------------ “Off for a date with the wife?” Graham asked, cheerfully, while glancing through a newspaper from Xylon 44 (the best of all 8,000 Xylons). She had smiled, brushing off her blue button down shirt. It had flowers on it, making her think of her beloved. It was the little things that she could do during her day. She flushed a bit as she slid her leather jacket on over her shirt, adding a pair of boots that was reminiscent of her Ninth form. “Leather? S’a bit new for ya, yeah?” Ryan asked. “Wait a tick -- Wife?!” The Doctor steadily ignored the second question, ever the side-stepper. “In my Ninth body, I was a bloke from Manchester. Fresh out of the Time War. I wore my leather like armor. It’s the first time I’ve donned a leather jacket in this body.” “Did you wear it in your last?” Graham asked, casually, while Ryan and Yaz were whispering to each other about the W-word. “I did. Fancied myself a bit of a rocker. Oh... Rose gave me such a ration over that.” She chuckled a bit, adjusting her appearance in the mirror for the millionth time. “You look great. Go on, then. She’ll be knocked off her socks.” “Rose who?” “Thank you, Graham. It’s a special night, you know.” “Wife? I’m still stuck on wife. Is Rose the wife? You’re married?” Yaz chimed in. “I know it, Doc. Do you have the present?” “Hello?! Are either of you listening to us?!” Ryan demanded, waving his arms. “I do. Thank you for helping me pick it out.” “They’re ignoring us on purpose, they are.” Yaz muttered, shaking her head a bit with a raised eyebrow. “This must be good if that’s the case then” “You think?” “Oh, I know it.” “Any time, Doc. Go to her.” She walked down the hall, holding a wrapped present in her hands, chewing her lip a bit nervously. She could hear Ryan and Yaz pumping Graham for information. He caught her eye, and she shook her head. Not now. ------------------------------------------ Rose walked slowly, with her wife covering her eyes, her back against the Doctor’s chest as they were heading to a surprise. She nearly tripped, but the her wife’s grip was iron. Rose squealed, hearing the laugh from behind her. “I’ve got you, my love. We are almost there.” “We’ve been walking forever!” “Oi! Trying to surprise you, here! Thoughtful spouse, anyone?” “Haha, all right, all right, I’ll give you this one...” The Doctor came to a stop, and breathed softly against Rose’s ear, making her shiver softly. “All right, love. Go ahead and open.” Hands removed, Rose blinked a few times to get used to the light before seeing the most gorgeous garden... and one she recognised. “Oh, Doctor... Barcelona!”

“Right in the park where we got married...” She whispered. “Do you remember, love?” “I do! Jack married us... I still have the ribbon in my room from our binding.” “Yes, yes you do. Do you remember anything else?” “It was after mum... after I’d come back with the Dimension Cannon.” “That’s right, love.” The Doctor walked with her across the bridge, watching her take in all of the scenery. She smiled, loving to see the sense of wonder on her face before.... best not to think of that. Not now. “Did you set up a picnic?!” “I did. Chips and I brought you a present, too.” “You shouldn’t have! I didn’t get you anything...”

“You have, a thousand times over, when you gave me you, Rose Tyler. I mean that. I will love you for the rest of my lives. I’m so fortunate to have you.” “I’m so fortunate to be with you...” So the afternoon commenced -- peals of laughter, soft kisses, a few stories. It was mostly the Doctor describing different times to her. It was always the Doctor describing different things to her. She would do anything to keep Rose in the moment -- in the now of things. She needed to stay there. They ended up laying down on the blanket and looking at the 5 moons setting, Rose’s head on her stomach while she ran her fingers through her hair. “So then I said ‘He’s not a real captain, Rose.’ and you accused me of having Captain Envy! Me! I was offended to my very toes, I was, but mostly because you’d hit the nail right on the head there. I had severe envy... not of him being a captain, that’s ridiculous. I could be a captain if I wanted to--”

Rose began giggling, shaking the Doctor’s belly with it. “Uh huh, sure Doctor....”

“You know, some people’s wives don’t laugh so much at them.”

“Mhm. Sing me another.”

The Doctor wrinkled her nose at Rose playfully, then continued on. “I was jealous, thinking he’d caught your eye. A stream of pretty boys, and I have never really been that pretty, Rose.”

“That’s not true!” Rose sat up a bit, looking down at her love. “Not even a little bit!”

“Well, I suppose I was a bit pretty in my Tenth form, but I made such a mess of things out of being too frightened of the depths of my feelings for you. I made a total tit of myself, and messed things up so badly...” “You made mistakes. You’ve mended them, haven’t you?”

She smiled at her pink and yellow girl. “I have...”

“See? You’re doing brilliant. But I disagreed because you are pretty in every form. I’m attracted to every single form you take. Your Ninth form was unconventionally handsome, but gods... I wanted you to kiss me so badly. In that leather and those jumpers, that smile. In those specs and those plimsolls. In that bow-tie with that fez. In that suit with that guitar. In these braces with that top. I love all of you. Every you that you have been, every you that you will become.” The Doctor held her, pressing their foreheads together and just breathed in her essence. She loved her, oh how she did. Hearing that was a balm to her soul. “I love you so much, Rose Tyler. I love you everything that you can imagine, multiplied by infinity, taken into the depths of forever, and still you will have barely a glimpse of what I am talking about.” “You think you’re so impressive with all that lovey science babble!” She pouted in mock offence. “I am so impressive.”

“Prove it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

The Doctor handed her the present, and as soon as she opened it, she realised it was both the best and worst decision she could have made. It was the best, because for a few moments, her darling girl’s eyes lit up into that beautiful cognac that she loved so much. For a few moments, she looked like she truly understood. She took the beautiful bracelet much like she’d taken the Yale key... with all of the love and excitement that she once exuded.

Unfortunately, all good things must end.

“Wh.... where am I?”

“Shh, Rose, darling, it’s all right...”

“Where are we?” Tears welled up in her eyes. “I don’t know this place...”

“You do, precious girl. You do. You just told me where we were, I need you to stay. Stay with me, love.”

“We’re not in Barcelona. I can’t feel the breeze...”

“It was just here, love, please. Stay with me, Rose. We have to maintain a common vision...”

The world around them began to darken, and Rose wrapped her arms protectively around her middle. The Doctor tried to comfort her, but there was nothing to be done. She could only hold her, watching as things slowly disintegrated around her.

“I’m so cold...” Rose whispered, and the Doctor nodded. “Why am I so cold?” The Doctor watched for the inevitable panic to spread across Rose’s face. Once it hit, she just responded the same way she had every time, for centuries. She just spread soft kisses on her face: cheekbones, chin, lips, eyelids, eyebrows, temples. She gave as much comfort as she could.

“I... I want out. Help me. Doctor, help me! Help me!” “I am helping you. I am doing everything possible. Don’t worry. We’ll get past this...” ----------------------------------------------------

The Doctor walked back into the console room, looking quite a bit defeated. She refused to stop trying, no matter what. It would happen. It would happen with her help, or she would find something.

“I’m so sorry, Doc...” Graham whispered, opening his arms for a hug. She took it, then sniffed a bit.

“What’s going on?” Yaz spoke up, seriously concerned.

“In case you hadn’t figured it out, Fam, I’m married.” “I thought we’d decided not to go with Fa--” “Ryan!” Yaz hissed, elbowing him in the side. “Right, right. Carry on.”

“I fell in love with Rose Tyler... almost immediately. She was my soulmate. I was hers, although I was too much in my own head to realise it. I almost lost her over it. You know, she took the entire time vortex into her head to save me, once? Our first kiss. I lost her... in the original timeline. Some woman named River Song had made sure that I would lose her, so that she could have me instead.”

She grit her teeth a bit at the thought. She hated remembering.

But her Fam deserved to know.

“So my original Thirteenth body went back in time to stop Rose from being lost to Pete’s World. Created a clone of her, kept her original human form with myself and left the clone of myself and the clone of her on Pete’s World’s Bad Wolf Bay. They’re off, living a human life. Rose and I made a wish, on the Time Vortex. Made a wish, and she became a Time Lady, same as me. So we could be together forever.”

“That’s amazing! I’m so happy for you, Doctor. Why haven’t we met her?” Yaz asked, smiling softly.

Ryan frowned, looking at his granddad. “It didn’t end well, did it?”

“No, it did not. A woman from my travels... she was obsessed with me, you see. I made excuses for her behaviour for years -- terrible upbringing, losing her family, the reprogramming, the terror her mother experienced while pregnant with her... but all in all, I was just blaming myself for things that were River’s fault. She was an adult. She’d made a choice. Many adults come from terrifying means and find ways to be the exact opposite of that every single day. She chose.”

They nodded along, but they obviously didn’t fully understand, following the Doctor as she lead them down multiple hallways. “She’d created a paradox to force me to be with her. I had broken that paradox to be with Rose. In revenge, she held the Universe hostage to force me to marry her. I went along with it very begrudgingly, but my wife and I knew it was a farce. We were snarking with each other mentally the entire time. Wasn’t my first time marrying someone on an adventure without it meaning anything. Wouldn’t be the last.”

Yaz laughed a bit. “That’s great. Some spouses can talk to each other with faces, and you lot of telepaths get that.”

“Oh yes... Time Lords are touch telepaths, but when we are a bonded pair, we are telepathically connected forever. We cannot survive the death of the other, which is something that River knew. But she could keep Rose away from me while keeping her alive. If not by another universe, then by this... she injected her with a sleeping death poison. Disconnects mind from body, so the body sleeps. No known cure across too many galaxies to count. Most patients’ bodies either die of natural aging, or... they eventually remember who and where they are, and that memory snaps the connection from mind and body back into place. They become able to wake up.” “Rose wouldn’t age, though, because Time Lords don’t?” “They can, of course they can... but Rose is special. She cannot. She will never regenerate into another person. She will always look the same.” “Doc, where are we?” Graham spoke up, as they stopped in front of her door. “This is my bedroom. I’d like you all to meet my wife...” She opened the door, and the room was done in dark Tardis blues, with pinks and yellows throughout. But that was not the big thing they were looking at. They were looking at the large tube in the back of the room, holding a floating woman who was connected by multiple tubes. A feeding tube, IVs, some cables for a heart monitor, floating in what looked to be thick water. Her previously golden hair had a blue tint to it due to the lighting, swaying gently in the water. Her soft white dress looked like a classic white linen nightgown from a romance novel. The Yale key around her neck and the ring on her finger glistened gently.

She looked like a beautiful angel in a snow globe. “This is my wife... Rose Marion Tyler.” Graham looked at the Doctor. They’d bonded, because they knew how it was to lose a wife. He was jealous, at first, of how the Doctor could speak to her every single night. But he’d realised that he shouldn’t be -- the Doctor had to lose Rose again, every single night. “How long has it been? Since you.... since this?” Ryan asked in amazement. “Over a thousand years. She’ll wake up, one day. I know it in my bones.” Yaz walked up, and touched the glass. “Hello, Rose. We’re so glad to meet you. We’re new members of the Doctor’s family. That means you’re our family too. So you have to wake up, you have to meet your family soon. We adore you already.” Ryan made an affirmation to that, and Graham touched the glass as well, repeating the same. They stayed for a few respectful minutes, then the Doctor ushered them out, starting to leave. Family. “We’re gonna help you, Doctor. We’ll help you look. You tell us places that you haven’t been to look for a cure, and we’ll all go there. Let’s get your wife all better, so we can meet her.” Everyone cheered around her, and the Doctor felt tears prick her eyes. Hope. Genuine hope, for the first time in a long time. “Where should we go, Doc?” “Farther than we’ve ever gone before. I have an idea.”

#dwss #Doctor x Rose #ficandchips #thirteen x rose

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paigenotblank · 6 years

Text

The Age of the Wolf (8/9)

Rating: Mature overall, this chapter is teen

Pairing: Eighth Doctor x Rose Tyler; Eleventh x Rose; Ten x Rose

Written for @doctorroseprompts and Eight x Rose August. Prompt: Dimension hopping!Rose meets Eight / What if Rose was with Eight or met Eight during the Time War? 50th Anniversary Re-Write/Fix-It

Read it on Tumblr: Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7 / Chapter 8 / Chapter 9

AO3 TSP

An Elizabethan jailer pushed the three Doctors and Rose into a cell. “Come on, you lot, get in there.” When all four were in, he slammed the door closed.

The bowtied Doctor bent down and picked a small metal rod off the floor. He immediately set about scratching into a stone support. “Three of us in one cell? That's going to cause some nasty anomalies if we don't get out soon.”

The pinstriped Doctor’s gazed bounced from his older self to Rose and back again. He asked the other man somewhat curtly, “What are you doing?”

“Getting us out.”

“That’s gonna help?”

“I’m sending a message to a friend. She’ll know what to do with it.”

The wartime Doctor wandered over to the door and began examining it with his sonic.

Rose kicked at the ground while nervously stealing looks at her second Doctor. He had his hands in his pockets and was looking at her with desperate need while trying to appear not to.

The oldest Doctor momentarily stopped his scratching. “Oh, would you both just talk to each other.” He grumbled under his breath as he went back to his task. “Never thought I’d ever say it, but bloody Harkness was right.”

The Doctor and Rose looked at each other, surprised at being called out by one of his selves, before Rose broke out in giggles. The Doctor, not realizing how starved he’d been for the sound of her laughter, walked up and gave her an exuberant hug. He lifted her from her feet and spun her around, making her laugh harder. When he settled her back on the ground, he couldn’t bring himself to pull away. The Doctor had his face buried in her shoulder, breathing in her scent. Rose ran her hands in circles over his back.

“How...how are you here? You’re...I tried everything...I couldn’t...it’s impossible.”

“Back in Pete’s World, the stars were going out. An’ we built this, er, this travel machine. Called it, um, a dimension cannon...so that I, well, so I could…”

The Doctor pulled back enough so that he could see her face while gently asking, “What?”

“So I could come back.” The Doctor grinned brilliantly. “Shut up. Anyway, it didn’t work at first, but then suddenly the Void was dying and the walls between dimensions started to collapse. An’ that’s when it began to work. It was completely random, where I’d land. So many different dimensions. I stumbled across parallel versions of just about everyone I know. But never myself or you. Well, except in this one pocket universe, were you...”

“Pocket universe?”

She took a deep breath and plastered on a smile. “Nevermind. ‘S not important right now. Anyway, it was Mickey who thought of using my TARDIS key to lock us on to the right dimension. Had a couple of near misses after that, showin’ up jus’ after you’d left an’ the like, before finally runnin’ into you.” Rose pointed at the youngest of the Doctors. “That you.”

“Why didn’t you have him bring you to me?” His voice held a little bit of hurt, no matter how hard he tried to hide it.

Rose ran her thumb up and down his sideburns. “He needed me.”

His hand covered hers as he leaned into her palm, his eyes fluttering shut. “I need you.”

“Doctor, you know what he’s goin’ through, I couldn’t leave him. But I’m coming back to you...before you know it. I still need help with the stars goin’ out, an’ then I have a promise to keep. Forever, yeah?”

For one shining moment, the Doctor put aside his fears of their disparate lifespans, and allowed the idea of forever with Rose Tyler to wash over him. He closed his eyes and captured her lips in a desperate kiss.

They parted briefly. “Rose, I-” She crushed her mouth against his.

When she next gasped for breath, she assured him, “I know. Me too.” She dragged him back into their kiss.

Rose vaguely heard the other two Doctors arguing about the door and molecules and sub-atomic harmonic resonance, but she let their voices wash over her as she reacquainted herself with the Doctor in her arms.

Rose was brought back to reality by the need to breathe. The Doctor’s grip around her waist had gotten tighter and tighter the longer she stood in his arms. “Too tight.”

“Oh! Sorry!” He loosened his hold but kept his arms encircling her.

The pinging of the metal rod hitting the floor and the oldest Doctor arguing with his youngest self drew their attention.

“Oi! Chinny?”

The Doctor holding Rose nodded. “Yeah, you do have a bit of a chin.”

Before the eldest Doctor could let loose against his wartime self, Clara barged through the door nearly stumbling and clutching at the vortex manipulator around her wrist.

The eldest Doctor asked, “How’d you get in here?”

“It wasn't locked.”

He wrung his hands. “Right.”

Clara gestured at the other men in the room. “So they’re both you, then, yeah?”

“Yes.”

She grinned wickedly at the Doctor who still had his arms wrapped around Rose’s waist. “Nice suit.”

He beamed at her and adjusted his tie. “Thanks.” Rose rolled her eyes, but slipped her hand into his with a smile.

“And Rose.” Clara waved that the other woman. “You were totally right about the way it makes his bum look.”

The Doctor preened at the compliment and waggled his eyebrows at Rose.

Rose looked between the Doctor and the young woman. “You...I’m sorry do we know each other?”

Clara shot a panicked look at her Doctor, whose own eyes had gone wide. He shook his head as discreetly as possible. Clara plastered a big smile on her face. “Oh, uh, no. Just, er, you know. He’s the Doctor. You’re...blonde. Must be Rose. And I am gonna stop talking now.”

“Right and you know my thoughts on his arse in these trousers how?”

Clara swallowed hard. “Erm, lucky guess?”

Rose narrowed her eyes at the oldest Doctor. He tapped the end of his nose and winked at her. Rose nodded and let it drop.

Clara spun around and looked back at her Doctor. “Hang on. Three of you and one Rose in the cell, and none of you thought to try the door?”

Rose blushed.

The wartime Doctor tapped his chin. “It should have been locked.”

The oldest Doctor agreed. “Yes. Exactly. Why wasn't it locked?”

Queen Elizabeth, at that moment, pushed the door open and entered the holding cell. “Because I was fascinated to see what you would do upon escaping. I understand you're rather fond of this world. It's time I think you saw what's going to happen to it.”

The sight of an alien planet headed straight for Earth caused massive panic both on the streets and in the Naismith Mansion.

A technician was banging on the door of a locked, glass booth. “Help me, please. Somebody, please.”

Wilf slipped unobserved through the doors amid the chaos and into the room. He made his way over to the glass booth. “All right! I've got you, mate. I've got you.” Wilf went into the the open half of the booth and closed his door which unlocked the technician’s side. “Come on. Go on.” The man ran without a backward glance, leaving Wilfred trapped on his own.

Queen Elizabeth escorted the Doctors, Rose, and Clara to the Zygon lair hidden in the dungeons. “The Zygons lost their own world. It burnt in the first days of the Time War…” The wartime Doctor’s steps faltered. Rose slipped her arm through his and rested her head on his shoulder. “...A new home is required.”

The Doctor quietly murmured to Rose, “Will the effects of this war never be behind us?”

She lifted her head and kissed him softly. “They survived, that’s something.”

Clara surveyed the activity of the Zygons from entrance at the top of the chamber. “So they want this one?”

“Not yet. It's far too primitive. Zygons are used to a certain level of comfort.”

Clara leaned over to her Doctor and whispered, “Kate turned into one of these creatures right before I came here and found you.”

The Doctor put his fingers to his lips, and glanced around the room, eyes catching sight of a glass cube.

A Zygon walked up to the Queen and asked, “Commander, why are these creatures here?”

“Because I say they should be. It is time you too were translated. Observe this. I believe you will find it fascinating.”

The Zygon marched over to the the glass cube and placed his hand on top of it. He vanished in a glow of blue light, just as a figure appeared one of the 3D landscapes Clara and her Doctor had seen in the Under Gallery earlier.

Clara and Rose went up to the painting to inspect it more closely.

Rose turned to her husband. “That's him! That Zygon’s in the picture now.”

The wartime Doctor walked up beside the two women and reached for Rose’s hand. “It's not a picture, it's a stasis cube. Time Lord art. Frozen instants in time, bigger on the inside, but could be deployed as…”

The pinstriped Doctor walked up on the other side of Rose. “...Suspended animation. Oh, that's very good. The Zygons all pop inside the pictures, wait a few centuries till the planet's a bit more interesting, and then out they come.”

The oldest Doctor joined the group and stood beside Clara. “You see, Clara, they're stored in the paintings in the Under Gallery, like cup-a-soups. Except you add time, if you can picture that. Nobody could picture that. Forget I said cup-a-soups.”

Rose smiled fondly at her future Doctor.

Clara turned back to him. “And now the world is worth conquering. So the Zygons are invading the future from the past.”

He smiled proudly at her deductions. “Exactly.”

The Doctor in pinstripes cocked his head and spun to face the Queen. “And do you know why I know that you're a fake? Because you're such a bad copy. It's not just the smell, or the unconvincing hair, or the atrocious teeth, or the eyes just a bit too close together, or the breath that could stun a horse. It's because Elizabeth, the real Elizabeth, would never be stupid enough to reveal her own plan. Honestly, why would you do that?”

“Because it's not my plan. And I am the real Elizabeth.”

“Okay. So...backtracking a moment just to lend context to my earlier remarks…”

“My twin is dead in the forest. I am accustomed to taking precautions.” The Queen raised the hem of her skirt and removed a dagger from its sheath tucked into her garter. The Doctor took a discreet step back from the blade. “These Zygon creatures never even considered that it was me who survived rather than their own commander. The arrogance that typifies their kind.”

Rose asked, “Zygons?”

“Men.”

The two women shared a knowing grin.

Clara leaned forward in interest. “And you actually killed one of them?”

“I may have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but at the time, so did the Zygon. The future of my kingdom is imperilled. Doctor, can I rely on your service?” She turned to the pinstriped Doctor.

“Well, I'm going to need my TARDIS.”

“It has been procured already.”

“Ah. Well...”

Rose stepped forward. “If there is anything I know about the Doctor, it’s that he will always defend the Earth against its enemies.”

“She’s right, this is like a second home to me and I pledge to keep your kingdom safe, my Queen.”

“Excellent. Now, my love, you have another promise to keep.”

Rose crossed her arms over her chest and raised a brow the pinstriped Doctor. “‘My love?’”

The Doctor with great hair and a big gob stood gaping like a fish, unable to find the words for an explanation.

Rose narrowed her eyes. “Wha’ kind of promise did ya make?”

“Er…”

The bowtied Doctor swung his arm across Rose’s shoulder. “Your Majesty, about that. He’s actually already married.”

The pinstriped Doctor’s eyes widened in shock. “What?”

His older self glared meaningfully.

“Oh! Right, yeah, sorry, so sorry about that. Misunderstanding...thought I was proposing to a Zygon.”

The Queen turned to him in fury. “Doctor!”

The Doctor raised his hands. “Don’t worry, I won’t let it affect my solemn vow to your kingdom. I’m still your man for that.” He ran toward his TARDIS and yelled over his shoulder, “In fact, I’ll just go take care that now shall I? No time like the present...or the future as it is may be.”

He opened the door and hurried inside. The others smiled nervously at the Queen as they backed toward the TARDIS.

“Right, we should really be helping with that. Ta.”

They followed behind the other Doctor and entered the TARDIS. The oldest Doctor popped his head out surprising the queen. “You might want to write him a letter just to remind him of his promise. Erm, just a thought. He seems a bit scatty.”

When he re-entered the TARDIS, the wartime Doctor was contemplating the console room. “You've let this place go a bit.”

“Ah, it's his grunge phase. He grows out of it.”

“Oi!”

Rose leaned against a coral strut and cooed, “Don't you listen to them, darling. You’re gorgeous.” All three Doctors looked at her with the same mix of pride and amusement.

An alarm blared and the pinstriped Doctor at the controls got a shock. “Ow!” The console room flared and the grating was replaced by metal plating and stone. The walls shone with light coming from deep set roundels. “The desktop is glitching.”

The youngest Doctor took in the changing console room. “Three of us from different time zones. It's trying to compensate.”

“Hey, look. The round things.”

“I love the round things.”

“What are the round things?”

The pinstriped Doctor shook his head. “No idea.”

“Oh dear, the friction contrafibulator.” The bowtied Doctor reached over and flipped a switch which completely replaced the mixed era decor with his own console room. “Ha! There, stabilised.”

The pinstriped Doctor regarded it in awe. “Oh, you've redecorated.” He face dropped into a pout. “I don't like it.”

“Oh. Oh yeah? Oh, you never do. Listen, we're going to the National Gallery. The Zygons are underneath it.”

Clara snapped her fingers. “No, U.N.I.T. HQ. They followed us there to the Black Archive.” The three men all turned to her with identical glowers. “Okay, so you've heard of that, then?”

Inside the Black Archive, Kate Stewart and her team arrived to find a set of Zygons cloned in their images. Kate walked over to a conference table and sat down. The Zygon clone of Kate took the seat across from her. “You'll realise there are protocols protecting this place. Osgood?”

“In the event of any alien incursion, the contents of this room are deemed so dangerous, it will self-destruct in-”

“Five minutes.” Kate lifted a remote and set the timer. Each second counted down with a beep. “There's a nuclear warhead twenty feet beneath us. Are you sitting comfortably?”

“You would destroy London?”

“To save the world, yes, I would.”

“You're bluffing.”

“You really think so? Somewhere in your memory is a man called Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. I am his daughter.”

“One word from you would cancel the countdown.”

“Quite so.”

“It's keyed to your voiceprint.”

Kate nodded. “And mine alone.”

The Zygon Kate smiled and yelled over her shoulder. “Cancel the detonation!”

The timer stopped at 2:50.

“Countermanded!”

“Cancel the detonation!”

“Countermanded!”

“We only have to agree to live.”

“Sadly, we can only agree to die.”

The pinstriped Doctor was fighting against the controls. “I’m trying to bring the TARDIS in. Why can't we land?”

“The Tower of London is totally TARDIS-proofed.” The two older Doctors gaped at Clara. She shrugged. “That’s what the Zygon Kate told me earlier.”

Rose questioned, “How can they do that?”

“Alien technology plus human stupidity. Trust me, it's unbeatable.”

Both women exclaimed, “Oi!”

The wartime Doctor blurted, “We don't need to land.”

“Yeah, we do. A tiny bit. Try and keep up.”

“No, we don't. We don't. There’s another way.” He glanced at Rose.

With a nod, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the Eye of Discord. She held it in her hands and focused inward.

The pinstriped Doctor’s eyes practically bulged out of their sockets. “Rose, is that…? What are you doing with...?”

The wartime Doctor moved to stop his older self from pulling the device from Rose’s hands. “Leave her. She knows what she’s doing.”

Rose’s eyes flashed gold and a swirling pathway opened from the TARDIS to the Black Archive. She gave the others a manic smile before jumping through the newest time fissure.

The group of five appeared in the Black Archive to a very surprised set of U.N.I.T. employees in duplicate.

The youngest Doctor greeted, “Hello.”

“I'm the Doctor,” added the pinstriped Doctor.

“Sorry to just pop in.”

Clara shook her head at the trio. “Also the showing off.”

The oldest Doctor shook his outward calm off and stormed over to one of the Kates. “Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, what in the name of sanity are you doing? Please tell me you’re not about to do something unbelievably stupid.”

The other Kate replied, “The countdown can only be halted at my personal command. There's nothing you can do. I’m sorry.”

The Doctor in pinstripes attempted to get her to see reason. “Not as sorry as you will be. This is not a decision you will ever be able to live with.”

The bowtied Doctor promised, “I’ll make you both agree to halt it.”

She scoffed. “Not even the three of you.”

The Doctor freshly from the war shook his head. “You're about to murder millions of people.”

Rose walked over to the youngest version of her husband and took his hand.

“To save billions. How many times have you made that calculation?” She looked each of the incarnations in the eye.

The oldest Doctor glanced at Rose and his other self. “Once. Turned me into the man I am now.”

The pinstriped Doctor sighed. “You tell yourself it's justified, but it's a lie so you can sleep at night. Because what I did that day was...it will never feel right.”

The youngest Doctor closed his eyes against the love and understanding in Rose’s.

The oldest Doctor turned back to Kate. “And, because I got it wrong, I'm going to make you get it right.”

“How?”

The middle Doctor glanced at the countdown clock. “Any second now, you're going to stop that countdown. Both of you, together.”

“Then you're going to negotiate the most perfect treaty of all time.”

“Safeguards all round, completely fair on both sides.”

“And the key to perfect negotiation?” The Doctor queried his previous self.

“Not knowing what side you're on.”

“So, for the next few hours, until we decide to let you out…”

“...No one in this room will be able to remember if they're human…”

“...Or Zygon.”

The oldest Doctor jumped on the conference table and pointed his sonic upward. He nodded to the two other Doctors, who both raised their sonics. They activated a memory filter in the ceiling causing both the humans and Zygon clones to blink and shake their heads in confusion.

The two Kates glanced at the countdown clock and as it dropped under 0:07, together they yelled, “Cancel the detonation!”

As the countdown stopped at 0:05, the Doctor fiddled with his bowtie and smiled at Clara. “Peace in our time.”

The two Kates retook their seats at the conference table and began negotiations.

The Doctor remained on his knees breathing heavily. The Master looked in confusion at his oldest friend and bitterest enemy. “But this is fantastic, isn't it? The Time Lords restored.”

“You weren't there in the final days of the War. You never saw what was born. But if the Time Lock's broken, then everything's coming through. Not just the Daleks, but the Skaro Degradations, the Horde of Travesties, the Nightmare Child, the Could-Have-Been King with his army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres. The War turned into hell. And that's what you've opened, right above the Earth. Hell is descending.”

The Master’s eyes lit with glee. “My kind of world.”

“Just listen! Because even the Time Lords can't survive that.”

“We will initiate the Final Sanction. The end of time will come at my hand. The rupture will continue until it rips the Time Vortex apart.”

The Master was incredulous. “That's suicide.”

“We will ascend to become creatures of consciousness alone. Free of these bodies, free of time, and cause and effect, while creation itself ceases to be.”

The Doctor pleaded with the Master. “You see now? That's what they were planning in the final days of the War. I had to stop them.”

The Master stepped forward, arms spread wide. “Then, take me with you, Lord President. Let me ascend into glory.”

“You are diseased, albeit a disease of our own making. No more.” Rassilon raised his gauntlet covered hand toward the Master and slowly opened his fist. The Doctor pushed himself to his feet and stepped between the two. He aimed the revolver he still held at Rassilon.

“Choose your enemy well. We are many. The Master is but one.”

From behind, the Doctor heard the Master cajole, “But he's the President. Kill him, and Gallifrey could be yours.”

The Doctor spun around to point the revolver at the Master.

“He's to blame, not me! Oh...the link is inside my head. Kill me, the link gets broken, they go back. You never would, you coward. Go on then. Do it.”

The Doctor flipped around to point the gun at Rassilon.

The Master egged the Doctor on, “Exactly. It's not just me, it's him. He's the link. Kill him!”

Rose slipped through the door without any notice as the Lord President addressed the Doctor. “The final act of your life is murder. But which one of us?”

Behind Rassilon, one of the dissenters lowered her hands and caught Rose’s eye. Rose fought back tears as she met the gaze of her mother-in-law for the first time in years - and likely, the last.

The older woman inclined her head, just barely perceptible. And Rose, after taking a bracing breath, did the same and mouthed, “Goodbye.” The corners of the older woman’s lips twitched upward.

The Doctor’s mother moved her eyes to her son. He stood frozen, unable to even pull air into his lungs. She too remained unmoving, though he noticed her eyes flicker to a place over his shoulder. His mind raced as it recalled the layout of the space. His eyes flared for a moment and he turned once again back to the Master.

The Master closed his eyes waiting for the inevitable.

“Get out of the way.”

The Master’s eyes popped open. He jumped out of the way just before the Doctor fired at the apparatus holding the White Point Star. A flare of light heralded a gale that blew through the area. The Doctor dropped the arm holding the pistol as the Time Lords fought against the winds pushing them back into the Time Lock.

“The link is broken. Back into the Time War, Rassilon. Back into hell.”

The Visionary looked up from her scribing and chanted to the heavens, “Gallifrey falling! Gallifrey falls! The Wolf rises! The Age of the Wolf begins!”

Rassilon screamed, spittle flying from his mouth, “You'll die with me, Doctor.”

“I know.” The Doctor’s head dropped.

Rassilon took aim at the Doctor with his gauntlet. The Doctor’s mother lowered her eyes as a tear fell and she re-covered her face. Rose was about to make her move, when the Master clambered to his feet and yelled, “Get out of the way!”

The Doctor jumped back as the Master sent an energy blast at Rassilon using up his unstable life force. He raged at the Time Lords, “You did this to me! All of my life! You made me! One! Two! Three! Four!”

The Doctor and Rose stood transfixed, watching as the Master hit the Lord President over and over with energy bursts until he collapsed to his knees. The Master stepped closer and closer, energy pouring from him unrelentingly. It intensified until, in a brilliant eruption of light, all Time Lords, save the Doctor, disappeared from Earth.

The Doctor stumbled to the window and noticed Gallifrey gone from the sky and people celebrating in the streets. He backed up and leaned against the wall, feeling every painful twinge of his battered body. “I'm alive. I've…there was...I'm still alive.”

Rose ran up to him and, although she wanted to throw herself into his arms, she feared hurting him. He crushed her into a hug, not caring.

Clara walked over to the photo board containing pictures of the Doctor’s known companions. She played with the push pin stuck into a black and white photo of a teenage girl with a pixie cut. She glanced to the corner of the room and noticed the wartime Doctor sitting alone, staring into a steaming cup of tea.

She strolled over and perched on the arm of his chair. “Hello.”

“Hello.”

“I'm Clara. We haven't properly met yet.”

“I look forward to it.” The Doctor took a sip of his tea while Clara sat quietly studying him. “Is there a problem?”

“No, I just noticed you here all alone.”

The Doctor let his eyes drift over to where Rose was laughing and joking with the other Doctors. She met his gaze and her smile widened.

The Doctor sighed. “The way they both look at me. I'm trying to think of a better word than dread.”

“It must be really recent for you.”

“Recent?”

“The Time War. The last day. The day you…”

“The day I had to kill them all?”

“The Doctor, my Doctor, he never wants to talk about the day he did it. The day he wiped out the Time Lords to stop the war.”

“I don’t imagine one would.”

Clara scrutinized the Doctor’s face and appeared to be making a decision. “You wouldn't...Because you haven't done it yet. It's still in your future.”

“You're very sure of yourself.”

“He regrets it. I see it in his eyes every day. He'd do anything to change it.”

The Doctor gestured over to the negotiating table. “Including saving all these people? How many worlds has his regret saved, do you think? Look over there. Humans and Zygons working together for peace.”

Rose appeared and sat on the Doctor’s lap. He wrapped his arms around her waist.

The Doctor considered Clara. “How did you know?”

Rose watched as Clara struggled with how to answer the Doctor’s question.

Finally, she sighed. “Your eyes. They...they’re haunted, but not filled with the same self loathing that I sometimes see in him.” She gestured to her Doctor.

“Is he...does he...do I-”

Clara leaned over and touched his knee. “I don’t think you’ve ever really gotten over it, but you always say that Rose made you better.”

He said low enough for Rose’s ears only, “I've seen all I need to.”

“I know.” Rose smiled gratefully at Clara, before kissing the Doctor’s crown.

“Clara!”

Clara turned to her Doctor and called out, “I’ll be right there, I’m just talking to-” She turned back to the cuddling couple to find them gone. She glanced left and right, but they’d vanished. “Doctors!”

Rose and the Doctor found themselves back where they started - in the Doctor’s childhood barn. Rose was holding the Eye of Discord in her hands, and sticking straight out of the top was a shaft tipped with a bright red ruby. It was reminiscent of a long stemmed rose. He quirked his brow at her.

“You wanted a big red button.” Her hands started to shake. “One big bang, no more Time Lords. No more Daleks. Are you sure?”

“I was sure when we left, but that doesn’t make it any easier. It’s just there’s no other way to save at least a portion of the universe...all those worlds, their people. The Zygons...when I first heard they’d lost their homeworld. I...I thought maybe it was a sign that the universe was better off dead. All the suffering that’s already been caused. That can never be erased. But to see them and the humans working together...together, Rose! I realized that the universe can, no, does survive.”

“In no small part due to you.”

The Doctor placed his hand just above the button. He closed his eyes.

Rose tilted her head as if she was listening to something only she could hear. “You know the sound the TARDIS makes?” The Doctor opened his eyes and turned his attention to Rose whose eyes had just began to take on a low glow. “That wheezing, groaning? That sound brings hope wherever it goes.”

The Doctor released a long held breath. “Yes. Yes, I like to think it does.”

“To anyone who hears it, Doctor. Anyone…” A slight breeze began to blow around them, the unmistakable sound of the TARDIS filling the space. Rose smiled. “...even you.”

Two TARDISes materialize at the far end of the barn. The pinstriped Doctor exited one, Clara and the bowtied Doctor the other.

Clara appeared relieved to find Rose and the younger Doctor. “I told you. He hasn't done it yet.”

“Go away now, all of you. This is for me to do.”

The pinstriped Doctor eyed his next self. “These events should be time-locked. We shouldn't even be able to get here.”

“So something let us through.” The bowtied Doctor eyed Rose.

Her eyes flashed gold. “My clever boys.”

“Oh!” The pinstriped Doctor bent over and grabbed his head, it was as if a jolt had gone through his body. His eyes fell on Rose in shock. “The Moment. You...my...you’re the Moment? My Lady Moment. Bad Wolf! And we’re...” His jaw dropped open.

The bowtied Doctor reacted a little less dramatically with a simple cringe as the memory unfurled in his mind.

“Go back. Go back to your lives. Go and be the Doctor that I could never be. Make it worthwhile.”

“All those years, burying you in my memory, and it wasn’t even a real memory. You made me forget Rose completely!”

“What would you have me do? She insisted on staying, before we had ever even met her. I can’t forget the whole bloody war, no matter how appealing the thought. We came up with the idea of creating a false memory based on an alternate timeline and to bury it at the bottom of all the memories that you’d never want to remember anyway.” He mumbled to himself, “Glad to know it works.”

“I pretended that the Doctor...you...didn't exist during the Time War. Keeping you a secret, even from myself. A false Doctor...”

“Thinking you weren't the Doctor, when you were the Doctor more than anybody else.”

“You were the Doctor on the day it wasn't possible to get it right.”

“But this time…”

“You don't have to do it alone.”

The two older Doctors placed their hands, one on top of the other, hovering over the sparkling red ruby.

The younger Doctor looked at his two successors with gratitude. “Thank you.”

“What we do today is not out of fear or hatred. It is done because there is no other way.”

“And it is done in the name of the many lives we are failing to save.” The oldest Doctor caught sight of Clara whose eyes were full of tears. “What? What is it? What?”

She shook her head. “Nothing.”

“No, it's something. Tell me.”

“When you told me you wiped out your own people. I just...I never pictured this you doing it, that's all.”

“If you like, you can wait for me in the TARDIS.”

“‘Cos there isn't anything we can do.”

“He's right. There isn't another way. There never was. Either I destroy my own people or let the universe burn. And if I have to be the one to make the decision, then the very least I can do is support myself in it.”

Clara wiped her tears. “If Rose can stay here for you then so can I. That’s what friends do. Support each other even when it’s hard.”

“Rose, you don’t have to stay here for this. Neither one of you does.”

Rose’s lips tightened with anger. “You should know better by now, Doctor, sendin’ me away is never gonna happen.”

The younger Doctor blurted out, “She can’t leave.”

The two older Doctors boggled at the younger Doctor. “What?”

“Bad Wolf. The Moment. She’s the interface of the Galaxy Eater. We need her to make it work.”

The two older Doctors stared at her in dawning horror. “What?”

“This...Roppen...it was always meant for us. It’s conscience is Rose.”

“Rose, I...”

“This is wrong. You shouldn’t-”

“Me here. Does it change the way you feel about me? Ruin me in your eyes?”

“No!” “Of course not!” The two older Doctors yelled simultaneously.

“Then why would you think this would ever change how I feel about you?”

Both men had their mouths open, clearly surprised, and unsure how to answer.

“I love you. You.” She glanced at all three versions of the man she loved. “No matter the face, no matter the fears, no matter what you’ve done in the past, present, or future...I will love you. Forever.”

Rose’s pinstriped Doctor was the first to act. He leaned forward and captured her lips in a fervent kiss.

She pulled back and the bowtied Doctor kissed her on the forehead. She looked at him in confusion. He shrugged. “I...you don’t really know me yet. I didn’t want you to feel-” She stopped his ramble with a quick kiss on his mouth.

“I always know you. My Doctor.”

He blushed and she faced the man she had married. The man she’d shared a lifetime with.

“Doctor.”

“Rose.”

“Thank you.”

“Me? I should be thanking you. You’re the one who saved me...over and over. In so many ways.”

“You let me. You let me into your life and shared it with me. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. Better with two remember.”

“How could I not? You had me at, ‘Run.’”

She smiled her tongue touched grin, eyes sparkling mischievously. “Guess we’re even then.”

“Oh?”

The bowtied Doctor injected, “Spoilers.”

The younger Doctor addressed his eldest self. “Take care of her...afterwards. Make sure she gets to where she needs to go, since…” He swallowed thickly. “...I most likely won’t be able to fulfil that promise to her.”

Rose cried, “Doctor, don’t say that!”

“Rose, we both know where today leads. I’ve been wearing a bit thin for years. The Time Lock around Gallifrey is the only thing that’s staved off my regeneration as it is. When it breaks… Please...just know that I love you and will for the rest of my lives.” He gestured to his elder selves. “Not that I doubted it, but it’s still nice to know I’m right.”

Her smile wobbled. “Git.”

He closed his eyes, he never could stand to see her crying, and pressed his lips to hers. For a moment he simply savored the feeling of her soft lips caressing his, remembering each little instance of domesticity he’d shared with this woman. How could he ever want such a life if it wasn’t with her? It filled his hearts with hope for his future and gave him the courage to do what was needed at present. The thought ran through his head that if this was his last chance to snog Rose Tyler with these lips, he was going to make it count. He deepened the kiss until his wife moaned her need.

A subtle throat clearing had the two breaking apart, eyes unfocused, breathing stilted. Rose’s slight blush had the Doctor grinning widely.

He clapped his hands. “Right, er, where were we?”

The bowtied Doctor stepped forward. “You asked me to take Rose where she needs to go next, and on that account you have nothing to worry about. I may be remembering today as it happens, but if there is one thing burned in my memory, it’s the day Rose came back.”

“Thank you.” The youngest Doctor wiped at his eyes. “Well, gentlemen, it has been an honor and a privilege.”

The pinstriped Doctor nodded. “Likewise.”

The eldest Doctor saluted his youngest self. “Doctor.”

The three men placed their fingers around the edge of the ruby red button of the Eye of Discord. The youngest of them raised his eyes and met those of his wife. “I’m sorry.”

He pressed down and the world around them burned.

#eight x rose #ten x rose #eleven x rose #doctorroseprompts #50th re-write/fix it #time war #clara oswald #queen elizabeth #kate lethbridge-stewart #rassilon #Wilfred mott #the master (simm)#zygons

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blueboxesandtrafficcones · 7 years

Text

A Blonde Walks into A Bar

Haha! Made it with (checks time) five minutes to spare! Day 22 of 31 Days of Ficmas @doctorroseprompts (Shiver)

@timepetalsprompts - bingo - Piper, Badass. All Doctors in love with Rose (duh). Probably others.

Also for the nonny who requested: A prompt: 12 x Rose; Clean; Shiver (Dimension Hopping Rose). Thank you! This has been sitting in my WIPs for almost two months, mostly finished. When you sent your prompt, it seemed meant to be! Thanks, friend! (Can you believe I met ALL the parts? Me neither!)

Ficmas Masterlist 2017, Day 22

AO3

Sitting at the end of the table, the Doctor allowed the voices of Bill’s friends/temporary roommates to wash over him.

She had vanished to the bar to procure the next round, and he sat in silence listening to the kids talk about their adventure. He was just grateful that they’d all survived to tell the tale; thinking about how easily it could have been different made him shiver.

He’d just raised his beer for a sip when Bill returned, another woman trailing behind her. “Hope you don’t mind, but she was alone at the bar and I thought she could use some company, so I invited her to join us. This is everyone. Everyone, this is Rose.”

Despite knowing logically that it wasn’t his Rose, his hearts still gave a painful thump at the name and he looked up to reassure them.

He promptly choked on his beer, spitting half of it out as he coughed and spluttered.

“All right there, mate?” Bill’s new friend asked and his eyes watered in response, though not because of his fit.

“Yeah,” he muttered in a daze, too busy staring at her.

At Rose.

At his Rose.

She gave him a small smile, but it wasn’t right. Her tongue was firmly locked away behind closed lips and teeth and more importantly, it didn’t reach her eyes.

She looked exhausted. World weary.

As he began to recover from his shock and process that this moment was real, he saw more. She was wearing that same outfit she’d been in when they’d been reunited. She also looked pale and thin.

And she was staring back at him, eyebrow raised.

“Oi!” Bill snapped her fingers in his face. “You’re being a pervy old man. I didn’t invite her over here to be eye candy for you. Quit staring, it’s rude.”

And out it came, as if Pavlov himself had rung the cloister bell.

“Rude and not ginger, that’s me.”

The comment made Bill frown but in contrast as her expression darkened, Rose’s lightened until she was giving him that smile he’d missed so much.

“Still the sort of man you are, then?” she teased, and his hearts stopped for a beat before taking off again at double time.

“Rose,” was all he could manage around the lump in his throat, her name circling on a loop as it hadn’t for a millennia.

Ignoring the rest of the table and focused solely on him, Rose gingerly settled onto the seat next to him.

“Hi,” she offered hesitantly, and he gave her a brilliant smile in return. It felt strange, unnatural on this face, but her answering grin made it worth it.

“Hi,” he managed to breathe back, and she scooted her chair a little closer.

They watched each other for several long moments before she asked, “I don’t suppose I need to explain where I am or what I’m doing, do I?”

The Doctor shook his head slowly. “No. You’re doing the impossible. You’re being Rose Tyler.” Unable to help himself, her name came out almost as a prayer, as it always had.

Unable to help herself any longer Rose carefully laid her hand flat on the table before inching it closer to him. Almost immediately he reached out his own, placing it atop hers. It wasn’t until she’d flipped her palm up and laced their fingers that he realized it was her left in his right – just as it always had been, from Run.

The moment their skin touched, every feeling for her he’d so carefully and painfully locked away came rushing back with all the force of a tsunami. Long-buried memories flickered through his mind, filling his very soul until all he could see was her.

“Uh, excuse me, what the hell?” Bill burst their bubble, and Rose immediately tried to withdraw her hand. The Doctor, however, recognizing this precious gift of the universe for the fleeting moment it was, only gripped tighter, refusing to let go.

“This is Rose. Lo- Rose, this is Bill, she travels with me sometimes.”

The two women sized each other up, Rose ultimately making the first move by holding out her other hand.

“Nice to meet you.”

“Yeah, you too.” Bill shook her hand, still obviously confused.

“I used to travel with him,” Rose explained, and the Doctor squeezed her hand at the understatement.

“Ah.” Bill looked distinctly uncomfortable; she was used to the Doctor being cold and aloof, but watching him watch Rose, stars in his eyes, she thought that this might be the first time she was really seeing the person inside the alien.

“Why did you stop?” She thought to ask, curious.

The two scowled in tandem, but Rose answered.

“It’s a long story, but I’m stuck in a parallel universe.” Seeing Bill’s raised eyebrow at the present tense, she added, “I’ve built a device that’s supposed to bring me home. I usually hit either the right universe, the right time, or the right planet. Sometimes I get two of the three, but never all of them.”

“You will,” the Doctor reassured her, and she let out a sigh of relief.

“Good. You have no idea how badly I want to get home.”

Feeling guilty, knowing how that was going to end, he tore his gaze away from her to focus on Bill, who didn’t look satisfied. “It’s been over fifteen hundred years since I last saw her,” he explained shortly, the Oncoming Storm on his face successfully discouraging both women from asking any further questions.

His eyes softened, though, when he turned back to his Rose. “And you have no idea how badly that me wants you to come home,” he murmured.

Rose bit her lip before checking her watch. “I’ve still got fifteen minutes before the cannon’s charged enough to go back. Want to take a walk?”

The Doctor immediately stood up, making her smile at his eagerness.

“Let me talk to Bill for a second, and I’ll meet you outside.”

He frowned and Rose, knowing him as she did, understood. “I’ll send Control a message that I’ll jump back manually – I’ll have a few hours then.”

Still not looking convinced the Doctor nonetheless capitulated, stalking away from the table and out the door.

As soon as he was out of earshot Rose turned to Bill, speaking quickly.

“Promise me you’ll take care of him,” she begged.

“Well, yeah, but-” Bill started, but Rose kept going.

“No, really. He’s going to be too busy trying to save everyone else to think of himself. It’s your job to keep him safe. Sometimes that means doing what he’s explicitly told you not to. At the end of the say, he needs someone to remind him he can’t save everyone, and that’s okay,” she explained, shooting anxious glances towards the door.

“I will,” Bill agreed, bewildered.

“Great, thank you.” Giving her new friend a quick hug, Rose dashed out the door.

Rose burst out into the cool night air, taking a deep breath as the Doctor appeared silently at her shoulder. Without discussion their hands came together as they set off down the road.

“Am I going to remember this?” Rose wondered eventually, breaking the comfortable silence.

The Doctor shrugged, so close she could feel the movement against her jacket.

“I will,” he told her softly.

She nodded before asking, “Fifteen hundred years?”

“Roughly.” He exhaled sharply, squeezing her hand, and she momentarily rested her head on his shoulder in response.

“You look good,” she managed to tease, making him chuckle.

“I miss you.” The raw honesty in his voice made her tear up, just as the cannon strapped to her wrist beeped.

“Oh!” She quickly dropped his hand to page Control.

“Control, this is Rose. I’ve found something interesting. I’ll jump back manually. Over.”

“Roger that. Say ‘hi’ for me. Over,” Mickey replied, and she rolled her eyes as she retook the Doctor’s hand.

“Mickey says ‘hi’,” Rose reported dutifully.

“Well, if you remember, say ‘hi’ back,” he deadpanned.

They walked again in silence for several minutes before she started giggling.

“What? What’s so funny?”

“I don’t know what to say!” She cried, wiping away tears. “I’m working so hard to get home, and now we’re here, and I can’t think of anything to say!”

“Rose,” he said gently, pulling her to a stop. You know, don’t you?”

She nodded. Despite not having ever heard the words, she’d long since understood his actions which spoke louder than anything. The way he said her name, Rose Tyler, was their As you wish.

“And so do I.” He stooped a little to meet her eyeline. “Everything else is just noise.”

She gave him that sad, understanding smile she did so well, and his resolve broke.

Bringing his palm up to gently cradle her cheek, he slowly lowered his head to hers. Pausing scant centimeters away, giving her time to pull back, he waited. As he’d hoped, she fisted his lapels and pulled him to her.

The noise stopped.

“These are gorgeous!” Rose enthused, happily munching on a chip. “I mean, we’ve got decent chips in Pete’s World, but not like this!”

Content to just watch her the Doctor teased, “Oh, now the truth comes out. It’s the chips you’re really working to get back to, not me.”

She looked up from her spoils to consider him, before shrugging. “Well, it’s certainly a bonus.”

“I honestly can’t tell if I’m the bonus or the chips are.” He smirked before stealing a chip.

“You know home is you,” she told him, glaring over the theft.

“Any advice?” she asked when he didn’t reply.

He leaned back in his seat, considering her for several long moments. “Do you know about Donna?” The non-sequitur made her blink, but she rolled with it.

“No. Who’s Donna?”

“A friend. She was traveling with me when you found me. Brash, opinionated. Ginger.” He couldn’t hide his jealous scowl.

Rose started to shake her head before a memory niggled. “D’you have a picture?”

“Actually-” It took a minute for him to dig through his pockets, but eventually he pulled out an envelope with a triumphant cry, quickly sorting through it before finding what he was looking for. “Here.”

Rose took it, unsurprised to see the redhead she’d encountered the week before. After everything she’d seen on her jumps, it took quite a bit to get a reaction.

“I hope Sylvia got her keys,” she muttered, staring at the picture. The Doctor’s head jerked.

“What?”

“Yeah, I met her last week. Well, last week for me. I jumped, landed on the right planet and universe, only to see all these little fat babies or something floating towards a ship in the sky. I was waiting out the timer standing at a police barrier when she came running up. Told me to tell ‘Sylvia’ which rubbish bin she’d thrown her keys into,” Rose explained, amused at his incredulous expression.

He shook his head in disbelief. “What are the odds…” he asked softly. “Yeah, that’s Donna. Brilliant, she was.”

“I’ll tell her you said that,” Rose joked.

“I know.” His voice held a bit of a smirk, making her suspect there was now a circular paradox in play.

“So, what do I need to know then?”

The Doctor snapped out of his memories, focusing instead on the precious girl in front of him and the little time he had with her. “I assume you’re trying to track me?” Rose nodded. “Don’t. Focus on finding Donna – she’s the key.”

“Really?” She asked skeptically.

“Donna Noble’s the most important person in the whole of creation. At least then. And, you know, big picture.”

“Okay.” Not trusting her memory, Rose typed a note to herself in her phone. “Anything else?”

His mouth opened and closed several times without making a sound, and she knew his hearts were at war with his Time Lord instincts. Eventually they won, and he shook his head. “Finished?”

She popped the last fry into her mouth, amused at how he stared with unabashed jealousy. Taking care to slowly lick her lips, she rose. “Yep.”

They made their way out of the chippy, back to wandering the streets. A cold gust of wind blew through, making her shiver violently.

“Come here,” he offered, holding out one arm. She happily burrowed under it, nuzzling her face into his shoulder as he wrapped his coat around her.

“It’s summer for us,” Rose felt the need to explain.

“Ah,” he replied, biting his lip to keep his first reaction to himself.

But Rose knew. “Got any suggestions how to warm me up?” She asked cheekily, smiling that smile again.

“Exactly how long do you have?” He replied, leering down at her.

“Long enough,” she grinned.

He appeared to seriously consider it, before slumping slightly. “Best not, I think.”

She pressed a kiss to his shoulder, squeezing his hand in sympathy. “Probably.”

“Anything you do want to do? Other than that?”

“Can I see your office?” The device strapped to her wrist beeped, and she looked down at it with a frown. “What the-”

“Something wrong?” There was a deep dread in his gut, and he knew his time with her was quickly running out. Funny how often that could happen to a Time Lord.

“It says I’ve got five minutes before it dies,” she reported, biting her lip as she looked up at him.

“So we’ve only got five minutes.” He was desperate to accept her implied offer, but he knew he couldn’t; his entire history could unravel without her saving Donna from that parallel world and then being there on the Crucible. Not that that was necessarily a bad thing, but the whole of reality would collapse and he’d been through that enough times.

“Yeah.” They just stared at each other, both painfully aware of the seconds ticking away.

“I miss you so much,” he whispered when they were down to three and a half minutes.

“I’m right here,” she said simply, laying her hand between his hearts. “I miss you too, desperately, but I close my eyes and think of what you’d do if you were there. Or I think about somewhere we’ve been, or done. I think about Christmas, you so new and adorable in your paper crown. I think on the good, not dwell on the bad. And that’s hard, and sometimes the only way I get through the day is remembering how badly you’d piss me off sometimes. But you, thinking of you, keeps me fighting.”

“I’m proud of you,” he blurted. “Everything you’re doing – you’ve ever done. You’re incredible, Rose Tyler, and you’re doing so much good.”

She gave a shaky laugh. “Doesn’t always feel it. But so do you. You’re so strong, and brave. You keep going, no matter how bad it gets.”

The Doctor shook his head, panic clawing at his throat as he thought of how soon she would disappear. “You’re gonna be happy, okay? I promise, he’s going to fight like hell to make you happy every day of your lives. He wants you desperately, no matter how cool he tries to play it.”

One sob escaped, and she gripped his lapels. “Can’t wait.”

As they neared thirty seconds, it occurred to him that he had an advantage over the last two times they said goodbye was in his arms, and there was no second him to steal his moment.

Leaning down he kissed her hard, both arms wrapping around her waist and anchoring her to him as they mouths met. She wrapped one arm around his shoulders, the other coming up to run her fingers through his hair.

“Great hair,” she muttered between kisses. He would have laughed if he wasn’t so busy chasing her tongue.

“Don’t forget me,” he pleaded softly, feeling the seconds tick down.

“Never.”

At three seconds, he wrenched himself away so as to not accidentally go with her, much as he’d like to.

“Bye,” Rose sobbed, and he gave in.

“Love you.”

Her face lit up, smile growing as she blinked out of view, cannon shooting her back to Pete’s Universe.

He stood staring at the spot where she’d been for long moments before slowly falling to his knees.

Kazran’s words from so long ago echoed through his mind.

One last day with your beloved. What day would you choose?

He’d finally gotten his last day.

It had been perfect.

Finally feeling the cold, he shivered.

#bbatcfic #doctorroseprompts #timepetalscollective #ficandchips #Doctor Who #12xrose #12th doctor #rose tyler #shiver #A Blonde Walks into A Bar #demension-hopping rose #31 Days of Ficmas #31 Days of Ficmas 2017

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ofstormsandwolves · 7 years

Text

Confessions of a Disabled Dimension Hopper

Part 3 of nevertheless, she persisted

Metacrisis 10, Rose Tyler, Jackie Tyler, Pete Tyler.

Amputation/ injury tw (actual injury/amputation takes place in a previous story, but obviously it still applies here)

Now Rose has got her Doctor, and she's back in Pete's World, she has a few confessions to make in regards to just what happened to her while in Pete's World. And the Doctor might not be too pleased with what he has to hear.

AO3 (account needed) | Whofic

Travelling by zeppelin was a slow and arduous journey. While the flight itself was peaceful and smooth enough, it was also almost horrifically slow in the Doctor’s newly-human eyes, and the way Rose kept shifting uncomfortably opposite him wasn’t helping.

There’d been a short trek from Bad Wolf Bay, up to a small nearby village where Jackie got them a taxi to Bergen, where they then headed for the zeppelin port. Pete had already booked them onto the earliest available flight after Jackie phoned him, and they were being treated to first-class service in the first class area of the zeppelin.

But something was still off.

Rose had been looking increasingly tired and uncomfortable since Bad Wolf Bay, and Jackie had asked her several times on the walk to the nearest village if she was alright. Rose had always responded with a tight-lipped smile and a nod, but the Doctor could tell something wasn’t right. Rose had been pleasant enough with him in the taxi ride to the zeppelin port, though; holding his hand in the back of the car and leaning against him comfortably, smiling up at him with the smile she only ever reserved for him.

Now, though, in the zeppelin, he couldn’t help but think something was wrong. Jackie kept giving Rose worried glances from across the aisle, Rose kept reaching for her right leg before catching his gaze and pulling her hand away. Had she maybe been injured before she’d reached him and Donna in the street?

“Rose?” he finally managed, voice sounding surprisingly broken and vulnerable even to himself.

Her head shot up, and Jackie’s head swivelled to stare at him.

“I’m fine,” Rose told him, forcing a smile that didn’t reach her eyes as she pre-empted his question.

“Are you?” he countered.

Across the aisle, Jackie looked away uncomfortably. The Doctor’s eyes narrowed. They were hiding something from him.

“Yeah,” Rose said, and she sounded a little more certain, a little more confident. “Just a little tired, ‘s all. Achy. It’s been a long day.”

The Doctor, however, wasn’t convinced. “Is that it?” he asked, sparing another brief glance at Jackie, who was pointedly ignoring them.

Rose, instead of answering, shifted uncomfortably in her chair. There was a long silence, before suddenly Jackie pushed herself to her feet, muttering something about needing tea, before rushing off towards the bar at the back of the first class area. The Doctor and Rose watched her go, both a little perplexed, before the Doctor turned his attention back to Rose.

“Rose? Are you sure there’s nothing else?”

Rose blinked at him, maintaining his gaze for several long moments before she glanced away.

“No,” she said at last. “There’s... There’s something I need to tell you. I have a confession.”

~0~0~

The Doctor blinked.

“Doctor?” Rose prompted worriedly from her seat opposite him.

He blinked again, pulling his gaze from her leg to her face. “You were hurt.”

Rose smiled gently at him. “Yeah,” she agreed quietly. “But I’m alright. I survived. Dad was hurt too, but we both made full recoveries.” She stared down at her prosthetic leg, the leg of her trousers still pushed up to reveal the carbon fibre prosthetic beneath. “Well, almost.”

She gave him another smile, but instead the Doctor’s face darkened.

“Did Pete know that you would be injured?” he asked, and his voice was suddenly low and as dark as his face. The Oncoming Storm, Rose knew. “Did he know that he could have killed you?”

Rose’s face dropped. “He... He knew that it was a risk,” she admitted slowly. “Torchwood had a one person per hopper policy, it’s why Mickey hadn’t taken me away when we were trapped in the lever room. He... He suggested sending me to Pete’s World, but said it could only carry one. When Dad came back for me, he didn’t realise just how bad it would be, though. He thought it was some health and safety thing the tech guys had insisted on; that it was just a precaution and would mean it would just be a bit rougher than usual. It wasn’t... It wasn’t until we were back here and the breach was closed that he realised just how dangerous it was.”

The Doctor’s jaw clenched. “So he could have killed you because he wouldn’t listen to instructions.” He scoffed. “I thought he was supposed to be the head of Torchwood? What kind of leadership is that?”

Rose frowned at him then, taking in the tense body language and angry eyes of the man opposite her. “Doctor, if Dad hadn’t done anything, I’d have fallen into the Void. Yeah, I was hurt, but at least I’m here! At least I’m alive!”

Her words seemed to soften him somewhat, the anger giving way to worry in his eyes, but Rose still watched him carefully.

“He still left you physically disabled, Rose. Don’t get me wrong, I’m so glad he was there to stop you from falling into the Void, but you were still hurt.”

“Yeah,” Rose nodded, “and so was Dad. Not quite as badly as me, but still bad. And he regrets what he thinks he did to me every day, Doctor. So don’t you dare take it out on him when we get back to London. If you’d been in his position, if it had been a choice between losing me forever, or saving me and possibly hurting me, which would you choose?”

The Doctor hung his head then, and his response was so quiet that Rose barely heard it. But she did, just about. “I’d save you.”

After another long moment, Rose sighed, pushing herself to her feet to instead take up the seat beside the Doctor. When they’d boarded the zeppelin, Rose had wanted to be able to see him at all times, had been wanting to be sure he was really there, so she’d chosen to sit opposite him. But now she wanted to be as close as possible to him, to be able to hold his hand, cuddle into his side.

He seemed to want the same thing, as he immediately put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer.

“I’m alright, Doctor, I promise,” she told him softly, angling herself so she could look up at him. “I still built the Dimension Cannon, and found you, and work for Torchwood. I still did all those things, an’ it didn’t hold me back.” She paused. “It hurts sometimes, like now. Bit of an ache. And it’s rubbed a bit. I probably overdid it, with all the runnin’ and the fighting Daleks an’ everything.” She gave him a smile. “But I’m fine.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked quietly, brow furrowed slightly. “When I said goodbye to you on the beach, years ago. Why didn’t you say anything?”

Rose shrugged. “Because it wouldn’t have done any good. I mean, telling you what had happened would’ve just made you feel bad, an’ I’m alright. I mean, I’ve come to terms with it, an’ I knew pretty much immediately that amputation was the only option. So telling you wouldn’t have done anything but upset you.”

The Doctor had no response.

~0~0~

By the time they’d reached London, Jackie had somewhat sheepishly returned to her seat after spending an unreasonable amount of time ‘getting tea’ at the bar. The Doctor and Rose remained sat next to each other, and disembarked the zeppelin hand in hand upon arrival.

Pete was waiting beside a sleek black Lexus to take them back to the mansion, a blonde-haired toddler in his arms who couldn’t be much more than one blinking at them with big brown eyes.

“Doctor,” Pete greeted, holding his hand out to the other man as he drew near.

The Doctor glanced at Pete’s outstretched hand, before glancing at Rose, who nudged him. After a somewhat awkward pause, the Doctor shook the other man’s hand, but said nothing.

Pete shifted awkwardly. “Rose, uh, told you then.” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement. It was the only possible reason why the Doctor would be acting so cold towards him.

“I did,” Rose agreed quietly, watching as Jackie took her baby brother in her arms, cooing gently to him. “I explained everything, Dad.”

Pete nodded then, watching the other man carefully. “You know I wouldn’t willingly put Rose in danger, Doctor?”

There was another long pause, and the Doctor gave him a hard stare. “I’d hope not.”

Suddenly, Jackie was forcing a big smile, herding everyone towards the car. “You know what I could do with, Pete? A nice hot meal! Feels like ages since I’ve had a hot meal. How does takeaway sound? Doctor? What about Chinese?”

Before any of them really knew what had happened, Jackie had somehow herded them into the car, Tony was strapped into his car seat, and Rose was wedged between her baby brother and the Doctor in the backseat while Jackie and Pete were in the front.

“Don’t you have your own place?” the Doctor whispered to Rose, looking a little desperate.

She gave him a sympathetic smile. “No. I still live with Mum and Dad. Was thinking of maybe getting my own place, but Mum liked me being nearby, what with my leg and all. Even after working on Project Nova and the Dimension Cannon, she preferred me to stay at home.” She paused, glanced over at her little brother, who was babbling to himself in his car seat. “And then I wasn’t expecting to come back here after the Dimension Cannon started up, and, well...” She shrugged, trailing off.

“So I’ve got to spend the night at your parents’ place,” the Doctor murmured, looking a little worried at the thought.

Rose grinned then, the tongue-touched smile reserved only for him. Oh, how he’d missed that smile.

“Afraid so,” she told him softly, stealing a glance at her parents and accidentally catching her mum’s eye in the rear view mirror. The two Tyler women shared a smile. “But if you want, we’ll start looking for somewhere for the two of us, yeah? I get enough working for Torchwood, even when they had me stuck behind a desk.”

“You on a desk job?” the Doctor echoed, smiling for the first time possibly since the beach. “I’d have liked to see that.”

“Oh, shut up!” Rose snorted. “I wasn’t any worse than you’d have been!”

The Doctor tilted his head to the side at that. “Well,” he said after a long moment, “maybe not. But I’d still have liked to see it.”

~0~0~

“I thought I was doing the right thing.”

The Doctor blinked, and looked down at Rose, who was leaning against his chest. Jackie and Pete were upstairs putting Tony to bed, and he and Rose were alone in the sitting room. The telly was on, but neither of them were really watching it, and Rose had instead leaned back against the Doctor’s chest and closed her eyes. She’d taken her prosthetic off after dinner, and the Doctor had assumed she’d fallen asleep. But apparently not.

“By not telling you,” she clarified at his pause. “I thought I was doing the right thing not telling you about the accident. And, I suppose, I didn’t want to admit it. That admitting it to you would be admitting it to myself.”

“But you said you’d come to terms with it,” the Doctor reminded her in confusion. “You said you were alright with it.”

“Yeah,” Rose nodded, “but that doesn’t mean that in my head I wasn’t expecting to return to you and everything be how it was before. And telling you about my leg would mean things would change, and that maybe you’d think I couldn’t travel with you anymore, that I wouldn’t be able to keep up, or that I’d... I dunno, that I’d be a liability.”

The Doctor watched as she picked at a loose thread on her t-shirt rather than look round at him. She didn’t want to see his reaction, he realised. She was scared of what he might say.

“Rose,” he said finally, “I’d never think you’re a liability. And yes, things would change; they’d have to change, at least a bit. But that wouldn’t have meant I wouldn’t want you travelling with me. Besides, you’ve worked for Torchwood, you travelled dimensions. You more than proved yourself.”

She made a small noise, but he couldn’t tell if she was agreeing or not.

“Dad didn’t want me on a field team,” she told him quietly, suddenly. “Was worried I’d get hurt, or that it would be too much and my prosthetic would constantly rub, or something. He only put me on Project Nova because they needed the help. If the stars hadn’t started going out, he’d have left me on my desk job.” She paused. “He wouldn’t even give me the chance to prove I was still capable, that I could still cope and that I could handle being on a field team. By the time I did the first dimension jump, I was terrified. I’d been out of action for so long, an’ I was worried it would all go wrong.”

The Doctor sighed at that, rubbing her arm gently. “You needed to prove your capabilities to yourself, as well as Pete and Jackie,” he said knowingly. “You needed to take the risk, take a leap of faith and see if you were still the same person as you were before.”

Rose nodded, turning her head slightly but still not fully looking at him. “I’m not, though, Doctor. I’m not the same person. The previous me, the old me, wouldn’t have been scared about doing those dimension jumps. I’d have just done it. But every time I landed, I was terrified of where I was, of what might happen. And every time I jumped I had this... This panic that it was going to go wrong, an’ that I was going to get hurt again.”

He pressed a kiss to her cheek. “But you didn’t.”

“No,” she agreed quietly. “But I could have.” She turned fully then, twisting her legs round and beneath her so she could turn and look at him, kneeling on her knees. “Are we actually doing this?”

The Doctor frowned in confusion, a portion of his mind taken up more with concern about whether or not the position she was in was good for her stump or not. She seemed comfortable enough, but he couldn’t be certain her sitting like that was a good idea, and desperately tried to recall distant medical training. A larger portion of his brain eventually latched onto Rose’s words and processed them.

“Doing what?” he asked.

“Us,” Rose told him. “Me and you. Being together. Getting a place together. Being a couple.”

“Oh,” he blinked. “Don’t you want to?” His heart sank.

“I do!” Rose responded quickly, wide-eyed. “I really do! It’s just... I don’t know. If we’re actually doing this, being together and in a relationship, I need to talk to you about my job.”

The Doctor blinked again.

“I don’t know if I want to carry it on. I mean, I love it, don’t get me wrong, but the dimension jumps. They, well, they really scared me. Not the places I ended up, not really, but the actual physical jumps. Actually having to do them scared me.”

“Well, they would,” the Doctor agreed slowly. “You were injured, doing a dimension jump. It’s only reasonable that you’d be anxious about them after that.” He paused, studied her carefully. “But do you really want to give up Torchwood for that reason? You won’t ever have to do another dimension jump again, Rose. Your dimension hopping days are over. And I don’t want you to give up a job you love because of something you won’t ever have to go through again. Being on a field team won’t require you to do anything like that. And if you don’t even want to do field work, then go back to your desk job. If you don’t feel like you can do field work, and you don’t want to do desk work, then I fully support you leaving that job. But don’t quit because of something you never have to do again, alright?”

At some point while he was speaking, he belatedly realised, Rose had begun to cry. But she was smiling too, and looking so relieved, and he realised that it was something that had clearly been weighing heavily on her mind since she’d realised she would remain in Pete’s World. The anxieties had scared her so much about the dimension jumps had clearly left their mark, and they would remain for some time, whether she worked for Torchwood or not. But, hopefully, Rose wouldn’t make any rash decisions solely on those anxieties now that he was with her and more than willing to help.

“I’ll think about it,” she said at last, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “I’ve not even said anything to Dad. I mean, I don’t really know what I wanna do, I don’t think. Today’s been... A lot to take in.”

“It has,” the Doctor agreed gently, pulling her closer. “But take your time, and think it through. I’m sure your dad can wait a few days while you make your decision.”

Rose nodded, and twisted back round to sit down again, before letting her head fall back against his chest.

~0~0~

It was quarter to three in the morning and the Doctor couldn’t sleep. It wasn’t that he wasn’t tired, he just couldn’t seem to manage it.

Maybe it was his newly-human body. Maybe it was his still-Time Lord brain, unaccustomed with needing so much rest. Maybe it was everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, still whirring about in his bigger-on-the-inside brain. Being created by Donna, telling Rose how he felt about her on the beach, the zeppelin ride home when Rose had confessed she’d kept a monumental secret from him. The first meeting with Pete after finding out he had (accidentally) caused Rose’s injuries, the tense dinner that had subsequently followed, and Rose’s wide-eyed baby brother staring curiously at him before bursting into tears the moment the Doctor tried to speak to him. Then, the conversation in the sitting room with Rose, where she confessed to being so scared her disability would mean he would no longer see her as the same person, that he might not want her, and that her injuries had changed her. That the dimension jumps she’d performed while searching for him had all been their own unique kind of hell for Rose, still terrified of history repeating itself and her being injured on another jump. Of Rose confessing that the initial jump to Pete’s World just over two years previously had left her questioning if she wanted to work for Torchwood at all.

Lying in bed was doing him no good, so he quietly and carefully extracted himself from Rose’s bed and headed downstairs. Perhaps a glass of water, or cup of tea was needed. Or, worst came to worst, he’d read yesterday’s newspaper.

But when he reached the kitchen, the Doctor found someone else was already there. Sat in the dark room, at the breakfast table, was the silhouette of a man.

“Hello, Doctor,” Pete said in the dark. “Couldn’t sleep?”

“No,” the Doctor responded, his newly-human eyes taking a little longer to adjust to the lack of light. But then they did, and he could just make out Pete’s voice as his feet carried him across the room to the table.

Pete gestured for him to pull out a chair, and he did. The two men sat opposite each other, just staring.

“I know you probably hate me right now,” Pete said after a long moment. “And I can’t say I blame you.”

The Doctor said nothing.

“You know I’d have never deliberately endangered Rose’s life, Doctor? I would never have risked her life. But Jackie was distraught, and I’ve seen what those Cybermen can do. You know that. I watched them take my wife, and turn her into one of them. And all I could think was, if your plan failed, if for whatever reason it didn’t work, the same would happen to Rose. And I couldn’t let that happen. So I made a decision, in the heat of the moment, and I didn’t think it through, and Rose was hurt because of it. And I regret that every day, Doctor. But she’s alive. She’s alive, and she’s safe, and she’s been so amazing. She’s worked so hard at everything. At Torchwood, at her physio to get herself back on her feet, at everything.”

The Doctor sniffed, and sat back in his chair. “But you were aware there were risks.”

Pete’s jaw clenched. “Yes. But as I said, I couldn’t just do nothing. Wouldn’t you have done the same, Doctor? If it was a choice between knowingly endangering Rose but ultimately getting her out alive, or doing nothing and seeing her die, wouldn’t you have done the same?”

The Doctor swallowed at that. Pete was unknowingly echoing Rose’s question on the zeppelin the day before, and his answer was the same as he’d told Rose.

But he wouldn’t tell Pete. Not yet.

“I would have had a plan,” he managed through grit teeth. “I wouldn’t have just used a hopper knowing that there were explicit instructions that it could only carry one person. Everyone with you had a hopper- Mickey, Jackie, Jake! Why not take one of theirs?” His voice had risen as he spoke, rising almost to a shout, and he was vaguely aware that he was breathing heavily, the anger building up inside him, but he didn’t care. He wanted Pete’s answers.

“There wasn’t time,” Pete responded, and he was calm. Calculated. “Don’t you think I’ve asked myself the same questions these past two years or so? Don’t you think I’ve gone through every little thing I’d done wrong, every little step I’d taken that resulted in Rose losing a leg? Don’t you think that I’ve thought about all this? About how if I hadn’t panicked so much, I could have grabbed another hopper? That if I’d taken another hopper, I could have grabbed Rose, thrust it into her hands, and pulled us both back across the Void safely? Don’t you think I sometimes lay awake at night and watch Jaqs asleep next to me, wondering how she could possibly love me after I did that to our daughter?” He paused, looked away for a moment, before looking back and meeting the Doctor’s eyes. “There’s nothing you can say to me that I haven’t already thought of, Doctor. And I’m not surprised that you hate me for the choices I made. Sometimes I hate me too.”

There was a heavy silence then, the two men at some sort of stalemate, and eventually the Doctor got to his feet. There was nothing more to say. Everything that could be said had been said, and anything else would just have them going round in circles.

But as he reached the kitchen door, the Doctor realised that there was one last thing left to be said, one that Pete had possibly heard before, from Jackie, and Rose, and Mickey, and Jake. But not from him. And he had a feeling that Pete needed to hear it from him.

“Pete?”

The other man looked up. “Yes?”

The Doctor looked away for a brief moment, taking a breath. It needed to be said. He met Pete’s gaze in the dark of the room. “You did the right thing.”

#ficandchips #amputation tw #injury tw #rose tyler #meta!10 #meta!ten #Jackie Tyler #Pete Tyler #nevertheless she persisted verse #Otp: One heart

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