Fic: The Doctor and His Time Ladies (Chapter 8)
Title: The Doctor and His Time Ladies
Author: country_who
Rating: PG
Word Count (This chapter): 4956
Genre: AU, Action/Adventure
Characters/Pairings: Ten/Rose, Tenth Doctor, Human Doctor, Rose, Jenny, Jack
Summary: AU Journey's End. Rose gets trapped in the TARDIS instead of Donna and now holds the mind of a Time Lord protected by the Bad Wolf, but what happens when the human Doctor dies, and the Time Lord tries to take her to a planet to get her mind off of him, and fulfill a promise? Does the Doctor have more to lose than gain?
Author's Note: Thanks to othermewriter who solidified the main ideas swimming in the soup I call my brain.
Author's Note 2: Woohoo! Special surprise in this chapter! ;D
Prologue| Chapter 1| Chapter 2| Chapter 3| Chapter 4| Chapter 5| Chapter 6| Chapter 7
One of the dark figures surrounding Rose tore the child from her arms despite her protestations and futile attempts to hold the crying infant. These men were using the child for bait, and she couldn’t let that happen. How many more people would they lure towards them with his pitiful screams?
Rose reached out for the child, clawing against the man restraining her, but the man behind her only pressed the unforgiving metal of the gun’s barrel further into her head. She ceased, when the pressure at the base of her skull turned painful and she felt the grip the man had around her left arm begin to draw blood to the surface.
“Hold still,” the man grated.
Anger bubbled up from within her, as she saw one of the figures who was holding the child begin to walk away from her.
“No!” Rose shouted and tried to run again. This time the man let her arm go, and she got two steps off before he cocked his gun audibly in the nearly silent forest. She stopped in her tracks and turned back around to face the shadowy figure of the man.
“I wouldn’t if I were you,” he said lowly. A silent promise was hidden in those words, telling Rose that whatever she decided to try would have massive repercussions on her life and possibly others.
She stared in his direction for a moment. The only part of his visage that was visible was bright amber eyes that seemed to reflect every ounce of light back at her. They were far from being human; Rose would even go so far as to say they were far from being alive. The way they overflowed with pure hatred and evil struck fear into Rose’s very existence. No creature no matter how brutal could ever hold that much hate within themselves. It had to drive them mad.
That’s what made these creatures so dangerous, Rose decided. The Doctor had told her once that the Daleks were the most dangerous when they were desperate. When they had no sense of self preservation anymore, they couldn’t even find it in their cold metal casing to even like themselves.
If Daleks had true eyes, Rose knew this would be what they looked like.
There were only about five pairs of the glowing, amber eyes surrounding Rose. Her first instinct of running having been knocked away, Rose turned to trying to talk her way out of this. The eyes all stared at her as she swallowed hard, and wished she could see their faces to judge their reactions.
“What are you gonna do to him?” Rose asked, gathering her up her remaining confidence and forcing it into her tone of voice.
“The child is unnecessary,” the figure holding Rose replied. “He will be returned to his family. You on the other hand are necessary, and will be taken to the Saigan camp.” He gave her a sharp jab in the back with his pointed claws. “Move.”
“Wait,” Rose said, stopping them and taking a half step back in defiance.
Briefly, she closed her eyes and focused on how to carry this out. She just had to drag this out a bit longer so she could think. She could play the clueless card, and they might think of her as less of a threat, leave her unguarded, and then she could run. Or, maybe, if she waited long enough, the Doctor would find her. He was out there looking for her right now, and she knew it. She just needed to buy him the time. They weren’t going to run out of time again-never ever.
“What?” the voice snapped, while he reestablished his grip on her shoulder.
“Why are you taking me?” Rose asked, rocking back and forth on her feet slightly.
“Saigans do not answer human questions,” the man shot back. There was a hint of smugness to his tone, while Rose watched his amber eyes narrow in the darkness. She knew he could see her perfectly well in the dim light, so she kept her face passive.
“Oh come on. Who am I gonna tell?” Rose challenged. “I’m here guarded, by who I’m assuming are your best soldiers. And, it’s been made awfully clear that if I make to escape you’ll shot me dead, right?”
Rose placed her palm against her chin and rapped her fingers against her teeth, pretending to be deep in thought.
“Yes,” he replied in a cold voice, and a brief flare of white caught Rose’s eye as he flashed his teeth in a sneer.
“Then what’s to lose? I’m human you said so yourself. Surely, little ol’ me isn’t a threat to a big scary Saragan,” Rose said with an air of contempt.
“Saigan,” he grated.
“Right, sorry,” Rose apologized with an insincere lilt. “So, you gonna tell me or what? ‘Cause let me let you onto a little something about humans.” Rose’s voice dropped to become dangerously low. “We don’t take very kindly to our questions being ignored. Just ask my friend.”
“Your friend the ‘Doctor’?” the figure asked, cutting off whatever she was going to say next.
Rose didn’t hesitate. “Who?” Rose asked. “I don’t know any doctors around here. My friend’s name is John Tyler. He’s a doctor, but he’s certainly not called ‘doctor.’ That’s a bit pretentious isn’t it? What sort of fool has that for name?”
“You liar,” the man spat.
Rose stopped herself from biting her lip.
“I honestly have no idea what or who you’re talking about,” Rose said boldly.
“You do,” He said with steadfast conviction, as he took Rose around by the shoulders and slammed her against the nearest tree.
Rose remained stubbornly silent, as the man released his grip, and she leaned against the tree coolly and brushed herself off. She took a bunch of her hair at the back of her head and began gathering them into a ponytail before letting them fall down her shoulders, in a bored motion.
“You know what you’re problem is?” Rose asked, picking at her nails before looking at the Saigan.
“Do tell,” the man replied snidely.
“You haven’t got any idea who you’re dealing with,” Rose stated as-a-matter-of-factly. “You’ve spent your whole life fighting humans, but you haven’t learned anything from them.”
The man gave a hardy laugh.
“Humans are such loyal creatures,” the man said, as he moved in closer to whisper harshly in her face. “That’s you’re species greatest downfall.”
It was Rose’s turn to laugh.
“I’d say it was our biggest strength,” Rose shot back. “It might be a downfall for you, considering nothing ever breaks that loyal bond.”
“Silence,” the man shot back, clearly trying to regain some form of control over the situation.
“What’s this Doctor man to you anyway?” Rose asked, ignoring the man. “Surely you Saigans have plenty of quality physicians in your mix. There shouldn’t be any need for you to steal a substandard human.”
“The Doctor is the greatest enemy of the Saigans,” the leader said, taking Rose roughly by her shoulders again and pushing her in the direction of a vehicle’s outline. “He’s not human, and he must be stopped.”
“What does that have to do with me?” Rose asked, refusing to move.
“You will lure him here. Once he discovers what is happening to you he will give himself up immediately to our custody and be sentenced to death for his crimes.”
“Yeah, well, too bad, because if you think that this man is going to give up his life for mine you’re wrong, because I doubt he’s gonna save someone he doesn’t know,” Rose proclaimed, while two Saigans stepped forward and pushed her roughly into the back of the van with their combined strength.
She slouched against the metal siding of the van and crossed her arms defiantly.
“You can lay off the act, Ms. Tyler,” the man said, while he stepped into the light of the back of the van, exposing his grotesque raccoon face, and curling fingers as he leaned against the side of the van doors. “We saw you walking with him, the way you hung on him and then how you let him hang on you. We laid all the traps for the Doctor to fall right into our grip and he has set off every single one of them. We don’t miss. We could have killed your precious Doctor with one shot, but we chose to make him realize the pain that this will cause you and lead him to a more formal form of execution.”
Rose bit her lip consciously this time, knowing that the charade was up. She wrung her hands repeatedly together while she tried to maintain her superior demeanor.
Another Saigan, stockier than the one that Rose decided must have been the leader but with less bulk than the two that shoved her in the van, showed up in the light holding out a needle. He sneered at Rose, but didn’t say a word as he reached out, grabbed her arm and plunged the needle into her bicep before she could protest. The pain was immediate, spreading from the injection sight and sending waves of pain down her arm and to her fingers like a wasp’s sting.
The lead Saigan could see the question forming on her lips before she could get it out.
“That was filled with the same chemical the bullet that shot the Doctor was laced with,” the leader explained as the other withdrew. “He’ll come running for his precious love.”
“What did he do to you?” Rose asked, rubbing furiously at her arm, trying to get the pins and needle sensation to stop and the pain to subside.
“He destroyed out home world,” the leader said, while Rose listened to the other Saigans pile into the front of the van and rev the engine. “He did it out of a selfish attempt to end a war that we didn’t even participate in. He killed countless numbers of my people, innocent women and children falling by his hand.”
“He must have meant well,” Rose nearly shouted. “He was trying to save the rest of the universe. He was trying to stop the Daleks.”
“I thought you didn’t know him?” the man sneered, as he pushed Rose roughly and she nearly tumbled backwards. A hateful smile spread across his lips. “Feeling a bit woozy?
Rose shook her head from side to side defiantly, but she knew it was true. “’M fine,” she mumbled trying to catch her breath as an unseen weight began to bear down on her chest.
“We’ll see,” the Saigan said, as he shut the doors to the van and left Rose alone in the darkness to slowly slip into unconsciousness and dream about her Doctor.
~o~
The Doctor slowly made another lap around the camp, keeping his eyes peeled for any sign of Rose. Thoughts circled his brain frantically, trying to compile some logical reason as to where Rose might be.
“Rose!” He shouted for umpteenth time this night.
He listened intently for her reply, but there wasn’t one. He thought about praying to some unknown deity to guide him to his Rose, but he knew it was fruitless as the only deity worth believing in was Rose. He ran another failed scan with the sonic screwdriver, before shoving it back into his pocket with more force than was necessary.
He kept telling himself five more minutes, five more feet, five more steps, five more shouts and she would be there, but even he was beginning to lose hope. He needed to hear her voice so desperately that there was a physical pain beginning to eat its way through his chest.
Rose needed him, that’s all he needed to know to keep searching. He wouldn’t stop, not for anyone.
A soft moan from the distance met his ears and the Doctor immediately filled to the brim with hope, as he sprinted in its direction. His sneakers kicked up dirt behind him, as he pressed on.
“Rose,” he shouted again, and the moan came to his ears again. “Speak up!”
The moan was louder this time, as he ran faster into the brush and pulled some branches aside, once he had finally determined the voice was coming from behind a bush. He knelt down and brushed the branches aside only to find an injured woman with auburn hair and olive skin.
The Doctor squeezed his eyes shut and forced himself to focus on the woman, as knelt down and turned her over to see her face.
“Nala,” the Doctor whispered gently in recognition. “Nala, look at me.”
“K-Kevin,” Nala stuttered. “Where’s Kevin?”
She reached out blindly trying to feel for the baby that wasn’t there. The Doctor caught her hands and held them firmly at her sides. Images of Rose being in the same position briefly passed through his mind’s eye, but he pushed them away fiercely.
“Who’s Kevin,” the Doctor asked her softly, while he helped her to her feet so that she was leaning against him, with her right arm around his neck.
“My son,” Nala whimpered tearfully. “I was t-taking him for a walk around, and I-I don’t remember…”
Nala trailed off in sobs, as the Doctor steadied her quickly when she almost fell over. He took more of her weight by wrapping his arm around her waist and holding her so that she leaned against his hip.
“It’ll be fine,” the Doctor assured her. “Let me take you to Herman, okay?”
Nala shook her head. “I need to find Kevin.” Her words seemed to grow more desperate as time passed and he tried to soothe her.
“Let me get you somewhere safe first, okay?” the Doctor asked, scooping her into his arms, after she almost fell forwards again.
Nala nodded reluctantly after she had been put in a position, where she knew she couldn’t argue from. He shifted her in his arms slightly and held her against his chest, inadvertently pressing her face against his chest and muffling her words as she tried to speak.
“What?” the Doctor whispered, as he began walking deeper into camp.
“I said, ‘Rose is lucky to have you’,” Nala repeated, more clearly this time.
The Doctor didn’t reply, just sighed and kept walking, knowing that he was truly the lucky one.
~o~
Rose was finally escaping, running faster than she had ever run before as she pounded her way through the dense vegetation and kept her eyes peeled for the Doctor. The sun was just beginning to peak over the horizon as Rose pressed on. She instinctively knew where the Doctor must be, she felt it in every inch of her body, as she surged forward.
Her heart beat frantically in her chest, as she pushed herself harder, forcing her burning lungs and aching extremities to fight beyond what even she thought were possible for herself.
Her mind thought back to her Doctor, his face, his essence, his every lineament filled her mind’s eye, as she continued to race through the forest. She saw his face everywhere, floating like a ghostly image on the ground or in the treetops.
She cried out his name, but each time she did so the image she had started to chase vanished. She screamed as the Doctor’s images disappeared completely, but then reappeared all around her. Every single one of them sneered at her, their faces elongating, their perfect smiles gaining teeth with points and their big brown eyes turned amber as she watched her love turn into her latest fear.
The images of the Saigans were even more fleeting than the ones of the Doctor, however. The sharp edges and colors began to run and bleed into one swirl of color, while she tried to reach out and touch it.
The ground seemed to come out of nowhere as she landed face first in the dirt and felt blood drip from her nose. A whimper escaped from the base of her throat, as she rolled over and tried to focus on the flurry of images circling her.
“Doctor,” she whispered trying to regain her hope in the only man left believing in. “Help me, Doctor.”
Those words were the only ones the Doctor could never turn down, especially with Rose and she knew it. She smiled when he was suddenly standing there in front of her. His brown suit, billowing brown coat and everything else that made him the Doctor was all laid out in front of her. Her hand reached out instinctively, but drew away, fearing that he was only an image.
“Hello, Rose Tyler,” he said softly, as he stepped through the last of the ruined colors. “I’m here now. I’m here.”
He took her hand in his and brought it up to his cheek. He felt solid. He really was here.
“Doctor,” Rose muttered, holding him more closely to her. “I thought I’d never see you again.”
He grunted a pained reply and caused Rose to pull away with worry. “Doctor?”
She looked down at her front side and saw it stained with blood and then up at the Doctor to see a gaping wound trickling blood down his chest and abdomen. Color drained from both their faces as the Doctor fell forward into Rose’s arms. She held his head in her lap, while he looked at her with soulful brown eyes.
“Rose, I…” His sentence was cut off as a spasm of pain went through him and threw him into a coughing fit.
“Shh, relax Doctor,” Rose coaxed him. “You’re gonna be just fine, yeah? Shiver and Shake remember? Just you and me. We’ve got all that to look forward to.”
“Rose, I…” He tried for the words again, but still found then vacating him, as he gasped for more air and tried to get a grip on whatever he could to stay alive.
“I know, Doctor,” Rose whispered against him, while he fought to keep his eyes from slipping closed. “I know.”
“Lo-”
“Hush now,” Rose whispered, running her hand down his face and brushing his hair out of his eyes.
He complied this time, but not by choice. Rose watched helplessly as the life drained from his eyes, and left them cloudy and soulless. She held him tightly and sobbed, rocking him backing forth willing him to come back to life-to come back to her.
“No, my Doctor,” Rose yelled, her screams being muffled by his suit. “Not my Doctor.”
~o~
Herman held his youngest son in his arms while he bounced him up and down, trying to get him to calm down without Nala there. The boy had seemingly appeared outside the door of his home, wrapped in a blanket and lying in a basket. While relieved to have his son back, Herman couldn’t stop the pang of worry that ate away at his gut.
Nala would never abandon either of their children unless she was either forced to or she thought that it was the only way to save their lives. The thoughts that he had previously about having regrets about living here were beginning to move in on him again. He tried to keep himself from abandoning their two children in the questionable safety of the tent so that he could find Nala.
“Where’s Mummy, eh Kevin?” Herman asked in a sing-song voice, but the true disparity within the words leaked out from under the tones. “Eh?”
He shook his head when the child stared blankly at him and whimpered while he pulled handfuls of his father’s shirt into his tiny fists. Herman cupped his son’s head against his chest with the back of his hand and whispered nonsense to him, as he made another lap around the tent.
A knock at the door, stopped him in his tracks as he rushed over to the door, praying it was Nala.
It was.
She hung limply in the Doctor’s arms while he ran rushed past him without a word and laid Nala down on a cot across from where Jet lay stirring. Herman immediately adjusted Kevin’s placement so that he was resting in just one of his arms, while he approached his wife.
“John, what?” Herman stuttered out.
“I don’t know,” the Doctor told him honestly, while he moved aside for Herman to wrap his arms around his shaking wife and kiss her cheek.
“Hello,” Nala whispered, reaching past Herman and touching their son. “He’s fine?”
“Yep,” Herman said softly, while he cupped her cheek. “He’s perfect.”
He gave a strained smile in Nala’s direction and kissed his son’s forehead before placing him gently in a bassinet next to the cot that Nala rested on.
Herman sat down on the floor, took her hand and brushed his thumb over her knuckles in a constant fluid motion, while she tried to reorient herself. The Doctor was seeing to a gash that had become visible once he had pushed her thick locks of hair away from her face. The area was swelling considerably, as the Doctor pulled a handkerchief from his jacket pocket and pressed it into her forehead gently.
“What happened to you, Nala?” the Doctor asked lowly.
“I-I dunno it was dark and… I just don’t know,” Nala explained quietly.
“But, don’t you remember anything?” the Doctor asked with a bit more bite to his voice.
“John, I hardly think this is the time,” Herman protested.
“Oh, it is the time,” the Doctor told him steadfastly. “Someone took Rose, and I need all the information I can get.”
Herman looked sympathetically from the Doctor to his wife.
“But…” Herman started, but he was cut off.
“He’s right,” Nala said, perking up. “John, I didn’t see anyone, but I’m sure it was the Saigans. It had to be. I remember sort of… they were talking about taking, Rose. I didn’t think they did it. I thought she must be safe with you.”
“She should be,” the Doctor muttered, before stepping towards the door of the tent.
“Where are you going?” Herman asked.
“To get my Rose,” he replied fiercely.
~o~
Waking with a start, Jenny shot bolt upright with a cry, waking Mr. Anderson in the process. He screeched and clambered out from under the covers in the backpack before falling backward on his stumpy tail. Jenny helped the worried creature into her lap, while she stroked his head back and forth while she tried to process what had happened.
“Jenny scared?” Mr. Anderson asked.
“A bit, yeah,” Jenny said airily with a forced smile.
“Why, Jenny?” Mr. Anderson asked, running his paws over his sleep weary eyes.
Jenny got to her feet and looked around on the floor of the small tent.
“Call it a bad dream,” Jenny replied, as she tugged on her boots and started out the door, with Mr. Anderson and the backpack in her hands.
“Where Rose and Jenny’s Dad?” Mr. Anderson asked, looking around, when Jenny stepped out the door.
“Dad’s looking for Rose, and Rose is in trouble,” Jenny replied. She took Mr. Anderson and gently slipped him into the backpack, still filled with the blankets that Rose had placed there a few hours previously. He leaned out over the edge staring at his surroundings with wide and curious eyes. “Sorry, Anderson, but I’m gonna need both my hands for this.”
“Anderson okay,” he replied simply.
“Thanks,” Jenny replied to him, while she reached back and stroked his head instinctively.
He made a soft purring noise, before slipping beneath the backpack and zipping himself in and drifting back to sleep. Jenny didn’t need any distractions at the moment, but he would be there for her when she needed him most.
Jenny caught sight of her father approaching hurriedly from the center of the compound. His face was screwed up in anger as Jenny got her first glimpse of the Oncoming Storm that usually resided below his cheerful surface. His sonic screwdriver was clutched in his hands with a vice grip until his knuckles turned white.
“Dad!” Jenny shouted, running up to her father and catching his shoulders. “It’s Rose she’s in trouble…”
“I know, I know,” the Doctor said angrily, waving Jenny aside and walking towards the General’s tent. “I’m gonna find her though.”
Jenny heard the conviction in her father’s voice while he tried to push past her, but she gripped his shoulders, and forced him into a stop. Her blue eyes, which burned in the dim light of the compound under the stars, were reflected back at her through his brown ones.
“Wait, Dad,” Jenny begged in a frantic voice. “I felt her in my mind. She was taken by these shadowy things, and she was afraid. I don’t know exactly. It was hazy, but there was this child to, she thought he was being used as bait.”
The Doctor was peering intently at Jenny now, listening to her every word and running what she said over repeatedly in her head. He just stared for a few minutes before he nodded.
“That must have been Kevin, he was separated from Nala, so they wanted Rose to take Kevin as bait, but why?” the Doctor asked himself, while he started circling Jenny.
“Does it matter?” Jenny asked. “We know where to go now. It’s obvious that they took her to their camp. We just have to go there and get her back.”
Jenny started to sprint away, but this time it was the Doctor who was holding her in place.
“We need to get transport and directions,” the Doctor told her. Jenny had grounded him and was forcing him to reevaluate his lack of a plan and begin to think one through. His hands ran frantically through his hair while he paced in a circle around Jenny, calling out random words in both English and Gallifrean.
“Well then get a map, and I’ll get a jeep,” Jenny replied shortly, while she shook herself free of the Doctor’s grasp and started running towards the motor-pool.
“Jenny,” the Doctor called after her again, his eyes suddenly laden with emotions, not only for his lost Rose, but with worry for his daughter.
She stopped and looked at him with an aggravated look.
“We’re wasting time,” Jenny shouted.
“Just, be careful,” the Doctor said, taking her shoulders and looking deeply into her eyes. “Neither of us knows what’s out there.”
“Rose is out there,” Jenny replied, “that’s all I need to know.”
The Doctor couldn’t help but give her a weak smile in response to her commitment towards his companion. He waved her off after a second and found himself once again sprinting to the general’s office, where a light still shone.
~o~
Rose’s heart pounded in her chest, while she recovered from the dream. She tried to assure herself that the Doctor was fine, that dream wasn’t real, and it was just the affects of what they had injected into her arm. She knew there was a fever running through her body, by the way her face burned and her body shivered. She wasn’t thinking clearly.
The Doctor was safe; he wasn’t here, so she was fine.
She groaned as she tried to get the heaviness in her limbs and eyelids to abandon her and leave her. In an attempt to lift her arm and rub the sleep from her eyes, she ended up with her arm falling limply over her face and sliding uselessly to the ground.
A distant shuffling met her ears and a hand encased itself around hers. For a split second, she imagined it was the Doctor’s offering her comfort, but she knew it wasn’t. The hand was worn down, and though her brain told her it was impossible, it was somehow older than the Doctor’s as well. She tried to pull her hand from the person’s grip, but they were unyielding, as another hand went to her face and tried to coax her awake.
Slowly, Rose finally found it in herself to come through as the familiar voice of a man she couldn’t place yet rang through her ears. She licked her parched lips and groaned a soft reply she hoped the man would find satisfactory.
“Hello, Rosie,” he said, while the fingers stroked her cheek.
Rose tried to say something to the effect of ‘Rose not Rosie,’ but instead the words surfaced as a mumbled protestation, that she knew no one would have been able to make out.
The voice still tried to silence her though.
“Hush,” it whispered again. “Don’t try to talk just yet, just open your eyes, okay, Rose Tyler.”
Rose ignored the voice and shook her head from side to side, her eyes staying stubbornly shut.
“Who are you,” Rose rasped, finding her voice at last.
“Rose Tyler, I’m hurt,” the voice said in an admonishing tone. “After all that time and you can’t remember your best friend?”
“Mickey?” Rose mumbled, knowing it wasn’t, but she liked the way this bloke’s voice sounded when he got worked up.
“Nope not Mickey Mouse,” the voice said, turning to a teasing tone. “Would you like another guess?”
The hand was moving from her cheek to her temple now as she tried to lift her head up and open her eyes again. The man whispered encouragement again and she finally opened her eyes, looking blankly at the man beaming at her, before her own face broke into a grin and caught the man in a hug.
“Jack?” She breathed, as he pulled her up and had her sit up against the wall.
“In the flesh,” he agreed with a charismatic smile.
Author: country_who
Rating: PG
Word Count (This chapter): 4956
Genre: AU, Action/Adventure
Characters/Pairings: Ten/Rose, Tenth Doctor, Human Doctor, Rose, Jenny, Jack
Summary: AU Journey's End. Rose gets trapped in the TARDIS instead of Donna and now holds the mind of a Time Lord protected by the Bad Wolf, but what happens when the human Doctor dies, and the Time Lord tries to take her to a planet to get her mind off of him, and fulfill a promise? Does the Doctor have more to lose than gain?
Author's Note: Thanks to othermewriter who solidified the main ideas swimming in the soup I call my brain.
Author's Note 2: Woohoo! Special surprise in this chapter! ;D
Prologue| Chapter 1| Chapter 2| Chapter 3| Chapter 4| Chapter 5| Chapter 6| Chapter 7
One of the dark figures surrounding Rose tore the child from her arms despite her protestations and futile attempts to hold the crying infant. These men were using the child for bait, and she couldn’t let that happen. How many more people would they lure towards them with his pitiful screams?
Rose reached out for the child, clawing against the man restraining her, but the man behind her only pressed the unforgiving metal of the gun’s barrel further into her head. She ceased, when the pressure at the base of her skull turned painful and she felt the grip the man had around her left arm begin to draw blood to the surface.
“Hold still,” the man grated.
Anger bubbled up from within her, as she saw one of the figures who was holding the child begin to walk away from her.
“No!” Rose shouted and tried to run again. This time the man let her arm go, and she got two steps off before he cocked his gun audibly in the nearly silent forest. She stopped in her tracks and turned back around to face the shadowy figure of the man.
“I wouldn’t if I were you,” he said lowly. A silent promise was hidden in those words, telling Rose that whatever she decided to try would have massive repercussions on her life and possibly others.
She stared in his direction for a moment. The only part of his visage that was visible was bright amber eyes that seemed to reflect every ounce of light back at her. They were far from being human; Rose would even go so far as to say they were far from being alive. The way they overflowed with pure hatred and evil struck fear into Rose’s very existence. No creature no matter how brutal could ever hold that much hate within themselves. It had to drive them mad.
That’s what made these creatures so dangerous, Rose decided. The Doctor had told her once that the Daleks were the most dangerous when they were desperate. When they had no sense of self preservation anymore, they couldn’t even find it in their cold metal casing to even like themselves.
If Daleks had true eyes, Rose knew this would be what they looked like.
There were only about five pairs of the glowing, amber eyes surrounding Rose. Her first instinct of running having been knocked away, Rose turned to trying to talk her way out of this. The eyes all stared at her as she swallowed hard, and wished she could see their faces to judge their reactions.
“What are you gonna do to him?” Rose asked, gathering her up her remaining confidence and forcing it into her tone of voice.
“The child is unnecessary,” the figure holding Rose replied. “He will be returned to his family. You on the other hand are necessary, and will be taken to the Saigan camp.” He gave her a sharp jab in the back with his pointed claws. “Move.”
“Wait,” Rose said, stopping them and taking a half step back in defiance.
Briefly, she closed her eyes and focused on how to carry this out. She just had to drag this out a bit longer so she could think. She could play the clueless card, and they might think of her as less of a threat, leave her unguarded, and then she could run. Or, maybe, if she waited long enough, the Doctor would find her. He was out there looking for her right now, and she knew it. She just needed to buy him the time. They weren’t going to run out of time again-never ever.
“What?” the voice snapped, while he reestablished his grip on her shoulder.
“Why are you taking me?” Rose asked, rocking back and forth on her feet slightly.
“Saigans do not answer human questions,” the man shot back. There was a hint of smugness to his tone, while Rose watched his amber eyes narrow in the darkness. She knew he could see her perfectly well in the dim light, so she kept her face passive.
“Oh come on. Who am I gonna tell?” Rose challenged. “I’m here guarded, by who I’m assuming are your best soldiers. And, it’s been made awfully clear that if I make to escape you’ll shot me dead, right?”
Rose placed her palm against her chin and rapped her fingers against her teeth, pretending to be deep in thought.
“Yes,” he replied in a cold voice, and a brief flare of white caught Rose’s eye as he flashed his teeth in a sneer.
“Then what’s to lose? I’m human you said so yourself. Surely, little ol’ me isn’t a threat to a big scary Saragan,” Rose said with an air of contempt.
“Saigan,” he grated.
“Right, sorry,” Rose apologized with an insincere lilt. “So, you gonna tell me or what? ‘Cause let me let you onto a little something about humans.” Rose’s voice dropped to become dangerously low. “We don’t take very kindly to our questions being ignored. Just ask my friend.”
“Your friend the ‘Doctor’?” the figure asked, cutting off whatever she was going to say next.
Rose didn’t hesitate. “Who?” Rose asked. “I don’t know any doctors around here. My friend’s name is John Tyler. He’s a doctor, but he’s certainly not called ‘doctor.’ That’s a bit pretentious isn’t it? What sort of fool has that for name?”
“You liar,” the man spat.
Rose stopped herself from biting her lip.
“I honestly have no idea what or who you’re talking about,” Rose said boldly.
“You do,” He said with steadfast conviction, as he took Rose around by the shoulders and slammed her against the nearest tree.
Rose remained stubbornly silent, as the man released his grip, and she leaned against the tree coolly and brushed herself off. She took a bunch of her hair at the back of her head and began gathering them into a ponytail before letting them fall down her shoulders, in a bored motion.
“You know what you’re problem is?” Rose asked, picking at her nails before looking at the Saigan.
“Do tell,” the man replied snidely.
“You haven’t got any idea who you’re dealing with,” Rose stated as-a-matter-of-factly. “You’ve spent your whole life fighting humans, but you haven’t learned anything from them.”
The man gave a hardy laugh.
“Humans are such loyal creatures,” the man said, as he moved in closer to whisper harshly in her face. “That’s you’re species greatest downfall.”
It was Rose’s turn to laugh.
“I’d say it was our biggest strength,” Rose shot back. “It might be a downfall for you, considering nothing ever breaks that loyal bond.”
“Silence,” the man shot back, clearly trying to regain some form of control over the situation.
“What’s this Doctor man to you anyway?” Rose asked, ignoring the man. “Surely you Saigans have plenty of quality physicians in your mix. There shouldn’t be any need for you to steal a substandard human.”
“The Doctor is the greatest enemy of the Saigans,” the leader said, taking Rose roughly by her shoulders again and pushing her in the direction of a vehicle’s outline. “He’s not human, and he must be stopped.”
“What does that have to do with me?” Rose asked, refusing to move.
“You will lure him here. Once he discovers what is happening to you he will give himself up immediately to our custody and be sentenced to death for his crimes.”
“Yeah, well, too bad, because if you think that this man is going to give up his life for mine you’re wrong, because I doubt he’s gonna save someone he doesn’t know,” Rose proclaimed, while two Saigans stepped forward and pushed her roughly into the back of the van with their combined strength.
She slouched against the metal siding of the van and crossed her arms defiantly.
“You can lay off the act, Ms. Tyler,” the man said, while he stepped into the light of the back of the van, exposing his grotesque raccoon face, and curling fingers as he leaned against the side of the van doors. “We saw you walking with him, the way you hung on him and then how you let him hang on you. We laid all the traps for the Doctor to fall right into our grip and he has set off every single one of them. We don’t miss. We could have killed your precious Doctor with one shot, but we chose to make him realize the pain that this will cause you and lead him to a more formal form of execution.”
Rose bit her lip consciously this time, knowing that the charade was up. She wrung her hands repeatedly together while she tried to maintain her superior demeanor.
Another Saigan, stockier than the one that Rose decided must have been the leader but with less bulk than the two that shoved her in the van, showed up in the light holding out a needle. He sneered at Rose, but didn’t say a word as he reached out, grabbed her arm and plunged the needle into her bicep before she could protest. The pain was immediate, spreading from the injection sight and sending waves of pain down her arm and to her fingers like a wasp’s sting.
The lead Saigan could see the question forming on her lips before she could get it out.
“That was filled with the same chemical the bullet that shot the Doctor was laced with,” the leader explained as the other withdrew. “He’ll come running for his precious love.”
“What did he do to you?” Rose asked, rubbing furiously at her arm, trying to get the pins and needle sensation to stop and the pain to subside.
“He destroyed out home world,” the leader said, while Rose listened to the other Saigans pile into the front of the van and rev the engine. “He did it out of a selfish attempt to end a war that we didn’t even participate in. He killed countless numbers of my people, innocent women and children falling by his hand.”
“He must have meant well,” Rose nearly shouted. “He was trying to save the rest of the universe. He was trying to stop the Daleks.”
“I thought you didn’t know him?” the man sneered, as he pushed Rose roughly and she nearly tumbled backwards. A hateful smile spread across his lips. “Feeling a bit woozy?
Rose shook her head from side to side defiantly, but she knew it was true. “’M fine,” she mumbled trying to catch her breath as an unseen weight began to bear down on her chest.
“We’ll see,” the Saigan said, as he shut the doors to the van and left Rose alone in the darkness to slowly slip into unconsciousness and dream about her Doctor.
~o~
The Doctor slowly made another lap around the camp, keeping his eyes peeled for any sign of Rose. Thoughts circled his brain frantically, trying to compile some logical reason as to where Rose might be.
“Rose!” He shouted for umpteenth time this night.
He listened intently for her reply, but there wasn’t one. He thought about praying to some unknown deity to guide him to his Rose, but he knew it was fruitless as the only deity worth believing in was Rose. He ran another failed scan with the sonic screwdriver, before shoving it back into his pocket with more force than was necessary.
He kept telling himself five more minutes, five more feet, five more steps, five more shouts and she would be there, but even he was beginning to lose hope. He needed to hear her voice so desperately that there was a physical pain beginning to eat its way through his chest.
Rose needed him, that’s all he needed to know to keep searching. He wouldn’t stop, not for anyone.
A soft moan from the distance met his ears and the Doctor immediately filled to the brim with hope, as he sprinted in its direction. His sneakers kicked up dirt behind him, as he pressed on.
“Rose,” he shouted again, and the moan came to his ears again. “Speak up!”
The moan was louder this time, as he ran faster into the brush and pulled some branches aside, once he had finally determined the voice was coming from behind a bush. He knelt down and brushed the branches aside only to find an injured woman with auburn hair and olive skin.
The Doctor squeezed his eyes shut and forced himself to focus on the woman, as knelt down and turned her over to see her face.
“Nala,” the Doctor whispered gently in recognition. “Nala, look at me.”
“K-Kevin,” Nala stuttered. “Where’s Kevin?”
She reached out blindly trying to feel for the baby that wasn’t there. The Doctor caught her hands and held them firmly at her sides. Images of Rose being in the same position briefly passed through his mind’s eye, but he pushed them away fiercely.
“Who’s Kevin,” the Doctor asked her softly, while he helped her to her feet so that she was leaning against him, with her right arm around his neck.
“My son,” Nala whimpered tearfully. “I was t-taking him for a walk around, and I-I don’t remember…”
Nala trailed off in sobs, as the Doctor steadied her quickly when she almost fell over. He took more of her weight by wrapping his arm around her waist and holding her so that she leaned against his hip.
“It’ll be fine,” the Doctor assured her. “Let me take you to Herman, okay?”
Nala shook her head. “I need to find Kevin.” Her words seemed to grow more desperate as time passed and he tried to soothe her.
“Let me get you somewhere safe first, okay?” the Doctor asked, scooping her into his arms, after she almost fell forwards again.
Nala nodded reluctantly after she had been put in a position, where she knew she couldn’t argue from. He shifted her in his arms slightly and held her against his chest, inadvertently pressing her face against his chest and muffling her words as she tried to speak.
“What?” the Doctor whispered, as he began walking deeper into camp.
“I said, ‘Rose is lucky to have you’,” Nala repeated, more clearly this time.
The Doctor didn’t reply, just sighed and kept walking, knowing that he was truly the lucky one.
~o~
Rose was finally escaping, running faster than she had ever run before as she pounded her way through the dense vegetation and kept her eyes peeled for the Doctor. The sun was just beginning to peak over the horizon as Rose pressed on. She instinctively knew where the Doctor must be, she felt it in every inch of her body, as she surged forward.
Her heart beat frantically in her chest, as she pushed herself harder, forcing her burning lungs and aching extremities to fight beyond what even she thought were possible for herself.
Her mind thought back to her Doctor, his face, his essence, his every lineament filled her mind’s eye, as she continued to race through the forest. She saw his face everywhere, floating like a ghostly image on the ground or in the treetops.
She cried out his name, but each time she did so the image she had started to chase vanished. She screamed as the Doctor’s images disappeared completely, but then reappeared all around her. Every single one of them sneered at her, their faces elongating, their perfect smiles gaining teeth with points and their big brown eyes turned amber as she watched her love turn into her latest fear.
The images of the Saigans were even more fleeting than the ones of the Doctor, however. The sharp edges and colors began to run and bleed into one swirl of color, while she tried to reach out and touch it.
The ground seemed to come out of nowhere as she landed face first in the dirt and felt blood drip from her nose. A whimper escaped from the base of her throat, as she rolled over and tried to focus on the flurry of images circling her.
“Doctor,” she whispered trying to regain her hope in the only man left believing in. “Help me, Doctor.”
Those words were the only ones the Doctor could never turn down, especially with Rose and she knew it. She smiled when he was suddenly standing there in front of her. His brown suit, billowing brown coat and everything else that made him the Doctor was all laid out in front of her. Her hand reached out instinctively, but drew away, fearing that he was only an image.
“Hello, Rose Tyler,” he said softly, as he stepped through the last of the ruined colors. “I’m here now. I’m here.”
He took her hand in his and brought it up to his cheek. He felt solid. He really was here.
“Doctor,” Rose muttered, holding him more closely to her. “I thought I’d never see you again.”
He grunted a pained reply and caused Rose to pull away with worry. “Doctor?”
She looked down at her front side and saw it stained with blood and then up at the Doctor to see a gaping wound trickling blood down his chest and abdomen. Color drained from both their faces as the Doctor fell forward into Rose’s arms. She held his head in her lap, while he looked at her with soulful brown eyes.
“Rose, I…” His sentence was cut off as a spasm of pain went through him and threw him into a coughing fit.
“Shh, relax Doctor,” Rose coaxed him. “You’re gonna be just fine, yeah? Shiver and Shake remember? Just you and me. We’ve got all that to look forward to.”
“Rose, I…” He tried for the words again, but still found then vacating him, as he gasped for more air and tried to get a grip on whatever he could to stay alive.
“I know, Doctor,” Rose whispered against him, while he fought to keep his eyes from slipping closed. “I know.”
“Lo-”
“Hush now,” Rose whispered, running her hand down his face and brushing his hair out of his eyes.
He complied this time, but not by choice. Rose watched helplessly as the life drained from his eyes, and left them cloudy and soulless. She held him tightly and sobbed, rocking him backing forth willing him to come back to life-to come back to her.
“No, my Doctor,” Rose yelled, her screams being muffled by his suit. “Not my Doctor.”
~o~
Herman held his youngest son in his arms while he bounced him up and down, trying to get him to calm down without Nala there. The boy had seemingly appeared outside the door of his home, wrapped in a blanket and lying in a basket. While relieved to have his son back, Herman couldn’t stop the pang of worry that ate away at his gut.
Nala would never abandon either of their children unless she was either forced to or she thought that it was the only way to save their lives. The thoughts that he had previously about having regrets about living here were beginning to move in on him again. He tried to keep himself from abandoning their two children in the questionable safety of the tent so that he could find Nala.
“Where’s Mummy, eh Kevin?” Herman asked in a sing-song voice, but the true disparity within the words leaked out from under the tones. “Eh?”
He shook his head when the child stared blankly at him and whimpered while he pulled handfuls of his father’s shirt into his tiny fists. Herman cupped his son’s head against his chest with the back of his hand and whispered nonsense to him, as he made another lap around the tent.
A knock at the door, stopped him in his tracks as he rushed over to the door, praying it was Nala.
It was.
She hung limply in the Doctor’s arms while he ran rushed past him without a word and laid Nala down on a cot across from where Jet lay stirring. Herman immediately adjusted Kevin’s placement so that he was resting in just one of his arms, while he approached his wife.
“John, what?” Herman stuttered out.
“I don’t know,” the Doctor told him honestly, while he moved aside for Herman to wrap his arms around his shaking wife and kiss her cheek.
“Hello,” Nala whispered, reaching past Herman and touching their son. “He’s fine?”
“Yep,” Herman said softly, while he cupped her cheek. “He’s perfect.”
He gave a strained smile in Nala’s direction and kissed his son’s forehead before placing him gently in a bassinet next to the cot that Nala rested on.
Herman sat down on the floor, took her hand and brushed his thumb over her knuckles in a constant fluid motion, while she tried to reorient herself. The Doctor was seeing to a gash that had become visible once he had pushed her thick locks of hair away from her face. The area was swelling considerably, as the Doctor pulled a handkerchief from his jacket pocket and pressed it into her forehead gently.
“What happened to you, Nala?” the Doctor asked lowly.
“I-I dunno it was dark and… I just don’t know,” Nala explained quietly.
“But, don’t you remember anything?” the Doctor asked with a bit more bite to his voice.
“John, I hardly think this is the time,” Herman protested.
“Oh, it is the time,” the Doctor told him steadfastly. “Someone took Rose, and I need all the information I can get.”
Herman looked sympathetically from the Doctor to his wife.
“But…” Herman started, but he was cut off.
“He’s right,” Nala said, perking up. “John, I didn’t see anyone, but I’m sure it was the Saigans. It had to be. I remember sort of… they were talking about taking, Rose. I didn’t think they did it. I thought she must be safe with you.”
“She should be,” the Doctor muttered, before stepping towards the door of the tent.
“Where are you going?” Herman asked.
“To get my Rose,” he replied fiercely.
~o~
Waking with a start, Jenny shot bolt upright with a cry, waking Mr. Anderson in the process. He screeched and clambered out from under the covers in the backpack before falling backward on his stumpy tail. Jenny helped the worried creature into her lap, while she stroked his head back and forth while she tried to process what had happened.
“Jenny scared?” Mr. Anderson asked.
“A bit, yeah,” Jenny said airily with a forced smile.
“Why, Jenny?” Mr. Anderson asked, running his paws over his sleep weary eyes.
Jenny got to her feet and looked around on the floor of the small tent.
“Call it a bad dream,” Jenny replied, as she tugged on her boots and started out the door, with Mr. Anderson and the backpack in her hands.
“Where Rose and Jenny’s Dad?” Mr. Anderson asked, looking around, when Jenny stepped out the door.
“Dad’s looking for Rose, and Rose is in trouble,” Jenny replied. She took Mr. Anderson and gently slipped him into the backpack, still filled with the blankets that Rose had placed there a few hours previously. He leaned out over the edge staring at his surroundings with wide and curious eyes. “Sorry, Anderson, but I’m gonna need both my hands for this.”
“Anderson okay,” he replied simply.
“Thanks,” Jenny replied to him, while she reached back and stroked his head instinctively.
He made a soft purring noise, before slipping beneath the backpack and zipping himself in and drifting back to sleep. Jenny didn’t need any distractions at the moment, but he would be there for her when she needed him most.
Jenny caught sight of her father approaching hurriedly from the center of the compound. His face was screwed up in anger as Jenny got her first glimpse of the Oncoming Storm that usually resided below his cheerful surface. His sonic screwdriver was clutched in his hands with a vice grip until his knuckles turned white.
“Dad!” Jenny shouted, running up to her father and catching his shoulders. “It’s Rose she’s in trouble…”
“I know, I know,” the Doctor said angrily, waving Jenny aside and walking towards the General’s tent. “I’m gonna find her though.”
Jenny heard the conviction in her father’s voice while he tried to push past her, but she gripped his shoulders, and forced him into a stop. Her blue eyes, which burned in the dim light of the compound under the stars, were reflected back at her through his brown ones.
“Wait, Dad,” Jenny begged in a frantic voice. “I felt her in my mind. She was taken by these shadowy things, and she was afraid. I don’t know exactly. It was hazy, but there was this child to, she thought he was being used as bait.”
The Doctor was peering intently at Jenny now, listening to her every word and running what she said over repeatedly in her head. He just stared for a few minutes before he nodded.
“That must have been Kevin, he was separated from Nala, so they wanted Rose to take Kevin as bait, but why?” the Doctor asked himself, while he started circling Jenny.
“Does it matter?” Jenny asked. “We know where to go now. It’s obvious that they took her to their camp. We just have to go there and get her back.”
Jenny started to sprint away, but this time it was the Doctor who was holding her in place.
“We need to get transport and directions,” the Doctor told her. Jenny had grounded him and was forcing him to reevaluate his lack of a plan and begin to think one through. His hands ran frantically through his hair while he paced in a circle around Jenny, calling out random words in both English and Gallifrean.
“Well then get a map, and I’ll get a jeep,” Jenny replied shortly, while she shook herself free of the Doctor’s grasp and started running towards the motor-pool.
“Jenny,” the Doctor called after her again, his eyes suddenly laden with emotions, not only for his lost Rose, but with worry for his daughter.
She stopped and looked at him with an aggravated look.
“We’re wasting time,” Jenny shouted.
“Just, be careful,” the Doctor said, taking her shoulders and looking deeply into her eyes. “Neither of us knows what’s out there.”
“Rose is out there,” Jenny replied, “that’s all I need to know.”
The Doctor couldn’t help but give her a weak smile in response to her commitment towards his companion. He waved her off after a second and found himself once again sprinting to the general’s office, where a light still shone.
~o~
Rose’s heart pounded in her chest, while she recovered from the dream. She tried to assure herself that the Doctor was fine, that dream wasn’t real, and it was just the affects of what they had injected into her arm. She knew there was a fever running through her body, by the way her face burned and her body shivered. She wasn’t thinking clearly.
The Doctor was safe; he wasn’t here, so she was fine.
She groaned as she tried to get the heaviness in her limbs and eyelids to abandon her and leave her. In an attempt to lift her arm and rub the sleep from her eyes, she ended up with her arm falling limply over her face and sliding uselessly to the ground.
A distant shuffling met her ears and a hand encased itself around hers. For a split second, she imagined it was the Doctor’s offering her comfort, but she knew it wasn’t. The hand was worn down, and though her brain told her it was impossible, it was somehow older than the Doctor’s as well. She tried to pull her hand from the person’s grip, but they were unyielding, as another hand went to her face and tried to coax her awake.
Slowly, Rose finally found it in herself to come through as the familiar voice of a man she couldn’t place yet rang through her ears. She licked her parched lips and groaned a soft reply she hoped the man would find satisfactory.
“Hello, Rosie,” he said, while the fingers stroked her cheek.
Rose tried to say something to the effect of ‘Rose not Rosie,’ but instead the words surfaced as a mumbled protestation, that she knew no one would have been able to make out.
The voice still tried to silence her though.
“Hush,” it whispered again. “Don’t try to talk just yet, just open your eyes, okay, Rose Tyler.”
Rose ignored the voice and shook her head from side to side, her eyes staying stubbornly shut.
“Who are you,” Rose rasped, finding her voice at last.
“Rose Tyler, I’m hurt,” the voice said in an admonishing tone. “After all that time and you can’t remember your best friend?”
“Mickey?” Rose mumbled, knowing it wasn’t, but she liked the way this bloke’s voice sounded when he got worked up.
“Nope not Mickey Mouse,” the voice said, turning to a teasing tone. “Would you like another guess?”
The hand was moving from her cheek to her temple now as she tried to lift her head up and open her eyes again. The man whispered encouragement again and she finally opened her eyes, looking blankly at the man beaming at her, before her own face broke into a grin and caught the man in a hug.
“Jack?” She breathed, as he pulled her up and had her sit up against the wall.
“In the flesh,” he agreed with a charismatic smile.