Doctor Who Fan Fiction ❯ Rose and Nine The Inbetweens and backstories ❯ Chapter Ten ( Chapter 10 )

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Rose was running after a blue hedgehog, seemingly dragged along by some invisible rope. It would hold out its arm and collect an impossible number of gold rings. She wanted to stop running. She wanted control of her body back, but she couldn't stop.

She was having a bad dream. Soon after the TARDIS took off, the effect of the tea started to wear off, and she couldn't stop yawning. The Doctor had told her to go to bed and have a power nap.

She felt a presence enter her dream, enter her mind, and she stopped running. She felt the presence stroke away her bad dream and give her back control. She knew the TARDIS had done that for her in the past. However, it wasn't the TARDIS this time, and what she didn't feel were the fingers gently stroking away the strands of hair over her face, and the lips that gently kissed her forehead.

She awoke with a start, not knowing how long she'd been sleeping. It must have been longer than she intended, because she felt refreshed and ready to face the universe again. She went through to the en suite and had a quick shower.

She found a hair dryer in one of the drawers, and quickly dried her hair before fixing her hair back off her face. She selected a tight fitting union jack T-shirt, which she felt made her look "hot".

While she was admiring herself in the mirror, she felt the TARDIS lurch slightly underfoot.

`Do they have turbulence in the Vortex?' she asked herself.

She quickly made her way to the console room, where she could hear the Doctor flying the TARDIS. When she entered the room, the Doctor was holding on to the console, looking intently at the view screen.

`Whatcha doin'?' she asked, feeling the TARDIS roll and shake.

`The TARDIS scanners have detected an object whistling past.'

`What's the emergency?' she asked him as she ran to the console and held on herself.

`It's mauve,' he said, as if that was enough for Rose to know what was going on.

`Mauve?' she asked. What the hell is mauve when it's at home?

`The universally recognised colour for danger.'

She ran around to stand by the side of him and look at the view screen. `What happened to red?'

`That's just humans. By everyone else's standards, red's camp,' he said with a smile. `Oh, the misunderstandings, all those red alerts, all that dancing.'

He made a few adjustments and tapped some controls. `It's got a very basic flight computer. I've hacked in, slaved the TARDIS. Where it goes, we go.'

`And that's safe, is it?'

`Totally,' he told her with confidence.

As if on cue, there was a bang and flash from the console to refute that statement and undermine his confidence.

`Okay, reasonably. Should have said reasonably there,' he conceded. He checked the view screen again; the object was initiating evasive manoeuvres. `No, no, no, no! It's jumping time tracks, getting away from us.'

`What exactly is this thing?' Rose was wondering if they should be chasing something that could jump time tracks (whatever they were) and give the TARDIS a run for its money.

`No idea.'

“Oh brilliant!” she thought. `Then why are we chasing it?'

`It's mauve and dangerous, and about thirty seconds from the centre of London.'

Ah, right, fair enough.

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The Doctor and Rose entered the TARDIS and walked up the ramp towards the console. The Doctor was elated by the events of the last few hours; it had gone some way to making amends for his part in ending the Time War.

`The nanogenes will clean up the mess and switch themselves off, because I just told them to. Nancy and Jamie will go to Doctor Constantine for help, ditto,' he said as he did a circuit of the console. `All in all, all things considered, fantastic!'

Rose was standing there with an enormous smile on her face. She had not seen him like this before, and it was a side of his character that she definitely wanted to see more of. `Look at you, beaming away like you're Father Christmas.'

`Who says I'm not, red bicycle when you were twelve?' he said mysteriously.

`What?' What did he know about that red bicycle? She remembered the Christmas when her best friend Shareen was having a bike, and she'd shown her mum the same bike as they were passing the shop. It would be brilliant if they both had bikes, just imagine the mischief they could get up to.

Her mum said that she couldn't afford it, what with all the bills to pay and everything, but when the bike mysteriously appeared outside the door of the flat on Christmas morning, she thought her mum had told her that so that it would be a surprise. Now she thought about it though, her mum seemed to be as surprised as she was.

`And everybody lives, Rose! Everybody lives!' he said spreading his arms wide. `I need more days like this.'

`Doctor,' Rose said hesitantly, there was something bothering her.

`Go on, ask me anything. I'm on fire.' He punched the air and started prepping the TARDIS for flight.

`What about Jack?'

He looked up from the console without answering.

`Why'd he say goodbye?'

He looked back at the console. `That'd be because the stasis field holding the bomb is decaying, when it fails, it explodes,' he said so quietly that she could hardly hear him.

`But he'll be able to dump the bomb won't he?' The look that he gave her made her doubt her assumption.

`Doctor? He will be able to get rid of the bomb,' she pressed.

He slammed home a lever and the Time Rotor started to pump up and down, before moving around to another section and pressing a button with a sideways arrow on it. The Glenn Miller Orchestra started playing Moonlight Serenade through the TARDIS speakers. The Doctor moved away from the console and held his hands out towards her.

`Are you ready to see my moves?' he asked her.

`But what about Jack?' she asked incredulously.

`Oh, he can see my moves later,' he said with a grin.

`No, I mean isn't he going to be blown up?'

The Doctor flicked a switch on the console and the Time Rotor stopped. He flicked another switch and the TARDIS doors opened.

`He will if he doesn't get in here in the next thirty seconds.' He took Rose's hand, grabbed her around the waist, and started trying to waltz.

Rose looked through the doors and saw Jack sitting in the pilot's seat of the Chula ship with a drink in his hand. `Well, hurry up then!' she shouted.

Jack leaped out of the chair and ran into the TARDIS where Rose was trying to show the Doctor the basics of the waltz.

`Okay. And right and turn.' She ended up with her arm held uncomfortably behind her. `Okay, okay, try and spin me again, but this time don't get my arm up my back. No extra points for a half-nelson.'

The Doctor looked disappointed. `I'm sure I used to know this stuff.' He turned and looked at Jack. `Close the door, will you? Your ship's about to blow up. There's going to be a draught.'

Jack turned and shut the door, while the Doctor started up the engine.

`Welcome to the TARDIS,' the Doctor said with a smile.

`Much bigger on the inside,' Jack observed.

`You'd better be,' the Doctor cheekily replied.

Rose took Jack's hand and led him up the ramp. `I think what the Doctor's trying to say is you may cut in.'

Whilst he was at the console, the Doctor selected another Glenn Miller track, In the Mood. `Rose! I've just remembered!' he announced as his feet started to move to the beat.

`What?'

`I can dance! I can dance!' He moved towards her, clicking his fingers and moving to the beat.

`Actually, Doctor, I thought Jack might like this dance.'

He stood dancing in front of her. `I'm sure he would, Rose, I'm absolutely certain, but who with?'

Rose smiled, shook her head, stepped forwards into his arms, and started to jive. Jack started to grin at them as they tripped the light fantastic around the console. These two were so sweet, because it was obvious to him that they were in love; in fact he thought it would probably be obvious to anyone . . . except them.

The Doctor finished the dance by dipping Rose backwards, which made her squeal with laughter, before pulling her back up into a hug.

Jack smirked and shook his head before speaking. `So what happens now,' he asked, expecting to be delivered to the Shadow Proclamation for processing and incarceration for fraud.

`Champagne!' the Doctor said, releasing Rose from the hug.

`Champagne?'

`A beer then? Or a Martini, you look like you might be a Martini man,' the Doctor said, as he and Rose started to head for the kitchen.

Jack set off after them. `No, champagne's fine, I was talking about punishment for my crimes.'

`We know this nice little penal colony you might like to stay at,' Rose said with a cheeky grin.

The Doctor reached a bottle of Dom Perignon from the wine rack, and opened a cupboard to take out three champagne flutes. `Well Jack, I could drop you off with the authorities, and let them dispense justice, but today is your lucky day, because today everybody lived, everybody got a second chance.'

`POP!' He pulled the cork out of the bottle and started to fill the glasses. He handed one to Rose and one to Jack before filling his own.

`Never been much for authority, me,' he started.

Rose snorted a laugh. `You're tellin' me.'

He glanced at her with a mock expression of hurt. `And everybody deserves a second chance. Anyway, let's look at the facts. You did actually look inside the Chula ambulance to see if it was dangerous, and you did save my jeopardy friendly Rose here from falling to her death.'

`Jeopardy friendly?' she said as she slapped his arm.

`And you did save us all from an exploding bomb, at great personal risk to yourself. So, all things considered, I think you've made amends for any past misdemeanours.'

He raised his glass in the air. `I propose a toast . . . to life; and to everybody living.'

`To life,' they echoed.

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`Oh God, it's beautiful,' Rose said, the reflected rainbow of light glistening in her eyes. The glass pyramid was acting like a prism and splitting the light of the sun into its component colours.

Both the Doctor and Jack looked down at her with grins on their faces, feeling her childlike wonder at the spectacle in front of them. The pyramid was over 500 feet high, and was made of blocks of fused silica glass, just as the Great Pyramid of Giza on Earth had been constructed of blocks of stone.

`Oh God is right,' the Doctor said. `The Sanclunian's built it as a tribute to their Sun God, the prism effect showing the multifaceted, omnipresence in all its glory.'

`Wow!' is all she could manage to breath, the effect was hypnotic.

`And not a prison warder in sight,' Jack said with a wicked grin.

They had told him an after dinner story of how the TARDIS had been dragged to the planet Justice Prime, and they'd been thrown in prison. This had made Rose a bit reluctant to visit another alien planet, only agreeing to visit Woman Wept, when the Doctor assured her that the only life was frozen plankton, waiting in stasis for when the planets star would start emitting more heat again.

Jack realised that she needed to build up her confidence by visiting some tourist destinations, which were officially safe. He suggested San Kaloon, and Rose looked dubious, so he used the TARDIS's universal Wi-Fi to show her `The Backpacker's Guide to the Galaxy', and the five star recommendations for a visit.

That got a raucous laugh from Rose. `You're tellin' me there's an actual `Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy'?'

`Of course,' the Doctor said with a deadpan expression. `Oh, hang on, you didn't know Douglas Adams wasn't from Earth, did you?' he said as he flew the TARDIS towards San Kaloon.

When the Doctor landed the TARDIS at the recommended destination, Rose was still non committal. The Doctor walked around the console and held her hand, his ancient, blue eyes looking into her warm, hazel orbs.

`You trust me don't you?'

`Of course,' she said without hesitation, but then added a proviso. `But I also trust you to find trouble, even when you're not deliberately lookin' for it.'

`Hah! She's got you there Doc,' Jack said with a laugh. `Here, let's see if I can put your mind at rest.'

Being from the fiftieth century, Jack was savvy with futuristic equipment, and, to the Doctor's surprise and admiration, he quickly worked out how to use the TARDIS scanner. That was a bit more `Spock' for Rose, and she accepted the reassurance that the planet was indeed tourist friendly.

The Doctor's usual method of scanning a landing site was to open the doors and go and have a look. Rose and Jack though were human, and had a healthy dose of paranoia mixed in with that curiosity that the Doctor found so charming. This gave them a very healthy survival instinct, and Rose wondered how the Doctor had survived for as long as he had.

Jack was right; there were no prison warders, no prisoners, just a multitude of alien species enjoying the view of this spectacular edifice, and the San Kaloon monks in their silvery white robes, going about their daily devotions.

`Does anyone need passports or travel visas out here among the stars?' Rose asked, finally feeling like a space tourist. There was something about having Jack there with them that made it feel more like an `18 - 30' holiday, than a bank holiday day out at the seaside.

`Nah, when a planet becomes a member of the stellar community, local planetary boundaries tend to become obsolete,' the Doctor told her.

`Oh.' That had got her thinking.

Jack took a photograph of the Doctor and Rose, his arm around her shoulders, hers around his waist, with the pyramid behind them, glowing in all its transparent glory. They visited the museum, which explained how they thought the ancient pyramid had been built and the glass blocks polished. Rose bought a little glass pyramid paper weight from the gift shop for her mum as a souvenir of her visit.

While the Doctor was busy looking at a diorama model of the pyramid and the surrounding terrain, reading the explanatory text about the various building phases of the edifice, Rose nipped back into the gift shop and bought him a gift. It was a mug with a transparent, triangular section seamlessly formed into the ceramic of the mug.

They had a very enjoyable meal in the rooftop restaurant of the hotel they were staying in, that overlooked the pyramid and the plain that it sat on. Jack regaled them with a tale of when he and a group of friends had taken off their clothes and run naked through a women's institute meeting that had been convened to protest at the decline in moral standards of the young people of today.

Rose had never met anyone like Jack before. He was totally relaxed, comfortable, and confident with his sexuality, in fact, most of his stories ended up with him being naked. That had got her wondering what he looked like under that RAF uniform, and she didn't have to wonder for long, as the next morning he had appeared out of one of the guest bedrooms wearing a tight fitting white T-shirt that showed off his muscular chest and arms.

After lunch, they went shopping in the alien bazaar, where Jack wanted to pick up some extra clothes. Everything he owned had been on the Chula ship when it exploded, so he needed to restock his wardrobe. Rose was also keen to add to her wardrobe, so they set off together.

Rose put her jeans, top and trainers into one of the bags, and wore the above knee, strappy, flower print dress that she had just bought, along with a short white jacket and sandals. Jack wore the white trousers and blue T-shirt he'd just bought as well.

The Doctor noticed them laughing and joking hand in hand, as they came out of the shop, and felt something strange, stirring in his chest. Jack was a handsome man, unlike him; he was human, unlike him; he was nearer to Rose's age, unlike him; and he wasn't scarred by a war that had killed billions, unlike him.

Rose looked for him as she came out of the shop and smiled at him, before her face fell. She had seen that look on his face before, in the van Statten bunker, facing the Dalek. She immediately released Jack's hand and walked over to him.

`Are you okay?' she asked him, and saw his automatic smile switch on, the one that didn't quite reach his ancient eyes.

`Yeah, I'm fine.'

Rose instinctively reached for his hand and their fingers intertwined, the smile finally reaching his eyes at that touch. She knew that simple gesture kept him grounded; let him know that whatever happened, she was there for him, just as he was there for her.

He looked down at her and raised his eyebrows. `You look nice, that outfit suits you. I take it you're not planning on running anywhere, or getting into trouble then.'

Jack came over and stood by the Doctor, and Rose smiled at them both. `Nah, I reckon you were both right, this place is fantastic.'

`Got your confidence back then?' Jack asked.

`Yeah, I suppose not everywhere is dangerous, and not everyone is tryin' to kill us or throw us in prison,' she said with a laugh. She linked arms with her two men and looked from one to the other. `C'mon then, let's see what other touristy things there are to do around here.'