Disney Planet (Doctor Who)
Type: Fanfiction
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: K+/PG at most
Status: Complete
Title: Disney Planet
Pairings, Characters: Doctor/Rose (though just barely more than you get in canon), OC
Spoiler Warnings: This is meant to be slightly AU in that it takes place after a [post-Doomsday]reunion which is undisclosed within the fanfiction itself. The main reason I wrote it that way is because the end implies a sort of future Doomsday didn't allow for... and I just like it. This really isn't the best think I've ever written and was for the time_and_chips Anywhere But Cardiff ficathon and therefore was based on a prompt and I'm not sure I did it justice but I tried...
Summary/Public Notes: The Doctor and Rose decide to visit the Disney Planet where they meet a troubled little boy and find something lurking beneath the surface of the neon lights.
Prompts: Disney Planet, Nov. 22, 1998 (though it changes after using that date)
Beta'd by: larielromeniel
Disney Planet
By: BohemianNeko
The Doctor was walking down a street holding Rose Tyler's hand- something that wasn't out of the ordinary but something he hadn't done in a very long time. Neither of them said anything, both thinking about everything that had led to them standing here, walking through the bustling city street like two strangers who hadn't been through anywhere near as much. Occasionally he thought of something to say but as he opened his mouth to say it and looked at her it just faded into a smile, which she returned. The sad thing was that though they were overjoyed to be together again and that both Universes had stayed intact in spite of it, now that the dust had settled there was just something tangible in the air that was different. So many things to say but neither of them knew how. It would come with time both of them hoped but it was difficult to talk about anything that hurt so much...
Finally, Rose looked up at the Doctor and slowed her walk a little, not being able to bear even the momentary silence. "When are we?" she asked, looking round at everything that was familiar but somehow different from the time she'd just left- her time.
"I don't know," the Doctor replied, excited at the chance to talk about something that didn't feel so heavy on the tongue. He let go of her hand and dashed over to a news paper stand and picked up The Sunday Telegraph and looked for the date.
The man behind the stand gave the Doctor a look. "Oi, you going to pay for that?"
Rose stepped forward, smiling as she gave the man the money. "He's not too clear on money," she explained as she gently gripped the Doctor's long brown coat and pulled him away.
"1998," the Doctor said as he put his glasses on with one hand. "Twenty-second, November, 1998."
"Not exciting, then?" Rose said with a mock sigh.
"Oh, well you never know," the Doctor insisted. "I remember this!" he exclaimed as he found something colourful in the paper and immediately found the nearest bench and plopped himself down.
Rose sat down next to him and looked over his shoulder at the paper. "Remember what?"
"Disney Planet."
Rose looked at him blankly and shook her head a bit.
"Disney Planet. It was a comic strip that ran in this newspaper from 1998 to 2000. This is the first issue, actually."
"Oh," Rose said simply as she scanned her eyes over the comic.
"We could go, you know."
"Go where?"
"Disney Planet."
"I thought you said it was a comic strip... this comic strip."
"It is," the Doctor said as he refolded the newspaper and lowered it into his lap and looked at her. "I meant we could go to the Disney Planet."
Rose looked at him incredulously and laughed a little. "The what?"
"The Disney Planet. About... five hundred years from now, give or take, the Disney Corporation's theme parks combined and moved off-world to cater to the growing number of humans that lived away from home."
"So it's actually... a planet?"
"Yes, Disney Planet."
"All right..." she looked down for a moment experimentally, seeing if she even could look away from the Doctor's eyes- the eyes she'd missed so much.”Yeah, I guess we could go."
"Come on!" The Doctor grabbed her hand and ran back toward the TARDIS.
------------
The Doctor waited at the door, his coat in hand, moving back and forth on his feet like an impatient child. "Rose, it's Disney, not Vogue. Could you come on?"
"Oi," Rose said as she fastened her hoop earrings and rounded on the Doctor. "I hadn't even had a shower since I'd been back on this Earth."
"Well, you've showered now."
"All right, all right. I'm ready." She picked up a denim jacket that was draped over the TARDIS's railing by the door and stood beside the Doctor as he pushed the door open.
The Doctor couldn't help but look her up and down a bit. She was always beautiful, one of the most beautiful humans he'd ever known, but she did look decidedly better in her fitted tee shirt which had horizontal pink and white stripes and her jeans that were far more suited to her than the grey sweatpants and the big, stained tee shirt that she had been wearing from the time they'd been reunited because of a series of events involving a rather nasty race who were bent on destroying the existence of all humans across all dimensions and were planning to do it by making the worlds collide. The Doctor wasn't sure if he should say he was glad it happened or not, though he certainly was glad to have her back.
When they'd had a short window of opportunity to decide which side of the breach to stay on Rose's entire family- if you could call it that- had decided to come back with her in spite of the fact that they were leaving behind Pete's fortune. Jackie did, however, make sure that she was wearing her most expensive jewelry when she got onboard the TARDIS. When they'd come back the TARDIS had touched down in Cardiff as it was the easiest entry because of the old rift. Funny how so much that impacted the entire world happened in Cardiff. So all of them, Mickey and Jake included, along with the new baby were back in the flat on the Powell Estate. The Doctor really wondered how Pete would hold up.
"You look nice," the Doctor said, coming back to the moment.
"Thanks," she said, furrowing her brow a bit in spite of the fact that she smiled. It'd been a while since he'd said that... a long while.
As they walked out of the TARDIS into an alleyway between all the bright lights and attractions that were as far as the eye could see the Doctor offered his arm to her and she wrapped hers around his tightly, grinning from ear to ear.
"You know, I don't think I asked, what's your sister's name?"
"Sarah."
"Sarah, right. Has that got... no, it wouldn't, would it?"
"Yeah. I suggested it because of Sarah Jane. Just... somebody else who knew what it was like."
The Doctor used his free hand to rub the back of his neck. "Right..."
Rose might have responded but she noticed a little boy on his knees, picking up wrappers of snacks and other bits of litter and putting them in a bag that never seemed to get full. She slipped her arm away from the Doctor's and walked over and knelt by the boy. "What are you doing? Why aren't you out playing or riding a ride or...?"
"I hate them," the little boy said, jerking away as Rose reached out to touch his shoulder.
The Doctor walked over and gave Rose a look, raising his eyebrows and puffing out his cheeks a bit as he breathed in and exhaled.
"Hate them? Why do you hate them? And where's your Mum... your Dad?"
The little boy rounded, his blue eyes flashing in the neon lights in the dark. "I haven't got parents and I'm working so leave me alone!"
Rose stood and stepped back, frowning with concern as she looked at the Doctor.
"Working?" the Doctor pressed.
"Yes, I work here. Because if I didn't I would be anywhere but here."
"But working... aren't you a bit young? What age are you?"
"Eight. And I work for my uncle who works in that food stand over there." The boy pointed a bony finger down the alleyway to a place where a heavy man was selling oddly coloured funnel cakes with a snarl on his face.
"Looks like he loves his job," Rose said sarcastically.
"Yep. Right, what was your name?" the Doctor asked the little boy.
"William."
"Thanks then, Will. See you later," the Doctor said as he took Rose's hand and led her away from the little boy.
"William..." the little boy growled.
"You're just going to leave him? That little boy shouldn't be working..."
"They've still got child labour laws... even stricter than in your time... we can deal with it without dealing with William's attitude."
The Doctor took Rose by the hand to the cake stand and spoke to the man. "Tell me; is that little boy over there yours?"
"What business is it of yours?"
"It's the government's business. The Empire wouldn't be happy you've got him doing your dirty work, at a children's theme park no less."
"William!" the man called dismissively. "Come have some funnel cake, boy."
The little boy walked over unenthusiastically. "What?" he asked, shoving his hands down in the pockets of his dirty dark pants.
"Have some funnel cake, son. You need to stop working so hard."
"I hate that 'cake' and I am not your son."
"Tell you what, William," the Doctor started. "Come with me and Miss Rose here and we'll take you on a ride. I'm sure you'd like it if you just give it a chance."
"Whatever," the little boy said, following the Doctor's guiding hand.
Out of the corner of her eye Rose noticed the look the man whose hands were smeared with icing and grease gave William. She didn't want to let the little boy go back.
"Where are we taking him?" Rose asked as she caught up.
"What ride looks best to you, Willy-boy?"
"It's William..."
"All right, William. Come on. Ferris wheel. Good introduction," the Doctor said as he gently pushed the boy in line and stood behind him.
"What about money?" Rose asked.
"That's the thing about the TARDIS," the Doctor grinned. "You have to pay to come in the atmosphere and once you get here everything's free."
"Oh." Rose half-laughed and half-frowned.
"Capitalism at its height... for better or for worse."
"Right..."
On the Ferris wheel William sat squeezed between the Doctor and Rose, staring down at his feet. The Doctor wrapped his arm around his shoulder and then straightened it so it was behind the boy's head and gently touching Rose's shoulder.
"So how'd you end up here?" he asked.
"Parents died. Uncle was the only one left in the system so ended up here."
"And you don't like Disney... don't like the rides or Disney... don't like cartoons...?"
"I hate them. They're for children and I cannot be a child..."
Rose looked at the Doctor sadly, biting her lip and she bent forward to try to look into William's eyes. "Why not? You're eight years old. You're supposed to be a child. You're a little boy."
"I am not. I was left the last real man in my family."
"Well... maybe there doesn't need to be a man... Least for a few years," the Doctor offered.
"Yes there has. My father was a man and now I have to be."
Rose looked above the boy's head into the Doctor's eyes and shrugged helplessly.
The Doctor looked back for a moment until suddenly he leaned forward to get on eye-level. "Just the same, seems your uncle has got you doing some pretty hard work for an eight-year-old. Does he give you money, or--?"
William chortled. "Money? He gives me bread, a mattress to sleep on- that sort of thing. Today was the first time he'd offered me any of that cake he sells in a year. No, the money he makes it all his."
The Doctor kept looking until finally William glanced up into his eyes. "Chores are one thing, but what that man is doing to you is wrong. There are laws against it. And all in a world that was designed so children like you could play... use their imaginations..."
Rose smiled as she watched William's icy exterior begin to melt as the Doctor continued.
"William, would you come with us? Tell them what your uncle is going and stop it?"
"It wouldn't do any good," William scoffed.
"You won't know until you try," Rose insisted.
"Whatever," William sighed.
When the wheel came to a halt and the three disembarked the Doctor took Rose's hand and she offered the other to William.
He stood stoically and ignored her for the most part, though he didn't offer to walk away.
"All right, then," Rose said with a bit of annoyance in her voice.
"Rose," the Doctor said softly, wordlessly telling her with his eyes to let William have his space.
Rose shrugged with a physical attempt at sloughing off the annoyance. She was beginning to think William was just being petty but the Doctor had told her he had once been a father. Though part of Rose still wanted further explanation about that she did suppose that the Doctor may be better equipped to handle the likes of young William.
They walked, the Doctor and Rose hand-in-hand and William a few steps behind, to the nearest central building. The part had a large office complex for every fifty square miles which contained the Police, the Park Administration, the Fire Department, a field hospital, and a little shop among other things. When they got there, there seemed to be quite a number of young adult couples in line at the Police cubicle, many of them crying or shouting angrily.
"Now, that's odd," the Doctor whispered to Rose as they stood to the side of the cue, William trying to hide the curiosity in his eyes.
"What's odd?" Rose asked for confirmation, though she had a good idea.
"All these people... Disney Planet is not known to have a high crime rate, but look, all these people are upset... and where are the children?"
Rose watched the Doctor, feeling that nervous fluttering of adrenaline in her stomach.
Suddenly the Doctor's tone of voice changed from serious and thoughtful to a childish half-whine. "Oh, and I thought to myself: 'Disney Planet. The one place I could go where nothing could possibly go wrong.' What I get for thinking..."
"Want to find out what's doing on?" Rose asked with a playful lilt in her voice, while William rolled his eyes.
Without responding to her the Doctor bounded forward a few steps to the police counter. "Could you tell me what's going on here?"
"I'm sorry, sir, but you'll have to get in line," said a thin police officer behind the window as he pushed his ill-fitting glasses back up his nose.
Rose glanced to check on William and then watched as the Doctor retrieved the psychic paper from his coat pocket and flashed it to the policeman.
"Oh! Why didn't you say so?" the policeman asked in a bit of a frantic tone as the buzzed the Doctor through a door to the side of his glass-enclosed booth. "I'm really sorry," he said to the next rather distraught looking woman in the line.
The Doctor's presence made the angry shouting louder, but it couldn't be helped so Rose turned her attentions to William. "You all right?"
"Yes," William said without looking at her, watching the Doctor. "Who is he?"
"He's the Doctor, and I'm Rose. Rose Tyler."
"He's just 'the Doctor'?"
"That's him," Rose replied with a smile, looking more squarely down at William.
"Nice to meet you, then, Rose Tyler," William said at length, extending his hand and methodically shaking hers, though he finally did look up at her eyes. "William Edinburgh," he offered as further explanation.
Rose furrowed her brow thoughtfully. "'Edinburgh'... like Edinburgh, Scotland?"
"Yeah. Old Earth family was supposed to have been from there." William shoved his hand down into his pockets and looked blankly forward. Something about him reminded Rose of the Doctor. Still, she shrugged it off as she saw the Doctor jog back over to them and stop in front of her.
"So?" she asked, finding herself looking very intently into his eyes as they stood facing each other, but the Doctor didn't seem to notice before she had the chance to shake herself.
"All of these people have had children go missing in the last few weeks, and that's not something that happens on Disney Planet... Although something my buddy Ned over there noticed was that the incidence of children going missing seemed concentrated in this area, with only a few cases outside it. Also, nothing has been released on the Planet's official news channel..."
Rose nodded and as soon as she did the Doctor ran off, a spark in his eyes showing he had a plan as he found the nearest free computer terminal. He pulled out the sonic screwdriver and began navigating through the system.
William looked at Rose, wondering what they were meant to do in this instance and when she followed the Doctor so did he.
"So you think they're hiding something?" Rose asked when she was positioned at the Doctor's shoulder.
"Hiding something? No, I think someone's doing something- something with those kids and when I find out what I'm going to stop it."
Rose made a sound but before it could turn into a word the Doctor went on to say, "Seven."
"What?"
"What is that thing?" William interrupted, pointing to the screwdriver.
"Sonic screwdriver," the Doctor and Rose replied in unison, both turning their heads to look at him.
"You're nutters."
"Seriously," the two of them said in unison again. Rose smiled and pressed her lips together to let the Doctor finish, gently gripping his shoulder once through his long coat.
"It's a screwdriver and it's..." He pressed the button twice, causing the end of it to glow blue, "...sonic."
William rolled his eyes and walked off a little ways. "Right. Not nutters at all."
"Will-" Rose began as she turned to watch him go, nearly going after him.
"He'll be back," the Doctor assured her and directed her attention back to the monitor.
William heard the Doctor and his feet slowed, stopping in spite of his intentions to leave. Maybe he shouldn't give up on the odd couple just yet. After all, this was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to him beneath the neon lights of the Planet. Even though he wasn't quite sure what was going on he at least felt as though he could be involved; most of all he felt wanted. There had been plenty of families who had taken pity on him since he had lived with his uncle, but it had never lasted very long- how could it? Those people had children of their own. So ever night with was back home to the slums of the Planet. The slums were a place few people knew existed. At one time it had been as bright, new and shining as the rest of the Planet but has the profit machine kicked in high gear the permanent residents, the working class who made the Planet what it was, had been largely forgotten.
William was drawn back into the present by the Doctor's voice. "...seven," he repeated. "All the children who have gone missing have been seven years old- all human."
Rose waited patiently as she watched the Doctor's eyes flicker with thought, his tongue pressing at his lower lip for a moment. She heard William's slowly reproaching footsteps and glanced back and held out her hand to him. "Come on," she coaxed and motioned with her fingers. When William reluctantly stepped within her reach she gently gripped his shoulder and pulled him closer to her, making sure he saw her smile at him. After a moment of merely maintaining eye contact with the little boy who seemed so hurt and so closed she directed her attention back to the Doctor as he cleared his throat.
William watched Rose's eyes shift but took special note that her grip round his shoulder didn't loosen. She still knew he was there. The Doctor and Rose were like no two people William had ever seen before. Sure, he'd seen hundreds of thousands of families mill on and off the planet- all laughs and smiles and hugs and balloons, and all completely unbelievable. But the Doctor and Rose- they weren't like that- they weren't perfect; they weren't pretending to be. They didn't talk about the kids or the money or the yacht, but they still had purpose- seemingly a much greater purpose than those other people did. The Doctor and Rose just worked; they seemed to understand each other without any of those false pretenses. Still, William thought, they'll forget about me sooner or later.
"Aha!" the Doctor explained, seeming to jump back from the screen a bit when Rose looked at him. "That's it." He stepped back forward and spoke softly so only Rose and William could hear. "Every sector of the Planet has the same layout beneath its central building. Behind us and beneath our feet there are floors of office space and a hospital. Now, the office space varies a bit from building to building, but the hospitals- they are all meant to be the same, each with seven floors below the surface- but this building only has six hospital floors on file. But that's a problem," the Doctor finished, his voice raising a bit as he stood straight again. "That's a problem because that means someone is taking those kids and hiding them down there, and that someone just developed a great, big problem with me. But seven-year-olds... why seven-year-olds? And the seventh floor beneath... I need someplace to think." And with that the Doctor turned, his long coat whipping up briefly as he led the way out of the central building.
"Come on, Will," Rose said gently as she hugged him to her and began to follow the Doctor.
"It's William," he insisted, tensing against her, though he made no effort to move away.
"All right," Rose replied, making the irritation that returned to her voice when the Doctor glanced back at her with a bit of a look. "Come on, William," she tried again, though she still couldn't help but mock him a bit.
For a long time the Doctor wandered around among the throngs of tourists with Rose and William not far behind. Rose watched him with concern; usually he would have at least talked to her about it but ever since they had left the central building there had only been silence. She tried to brush it off, though. The Doctor had always carried a soft spot for children and the thought that someone was taking them from their families and possibly harming them was probably even more upsetting to him than it was to her... and even she had a bit of a problem dealing with the fact that anyone could hurt children.
"So this is what you do?" William asked, breaking her reverie.
"Do what?"
"Follow him around," he replied, gesturing to the Doctor with his hand.
Rose ran her hand over William's shoulder again as she looked at the Doctor, watching him walk just a bit ahead. "Sort of," she whispered, a smile spreading slowly across her face as her mind drifted back. "Sort of, yeah."
"I should be getting back," William said as he shrugged his shoulder free of Rose's hand.
The Doctor finally tuned back around and looked from William's eyes to Rose's.
William noticed the look and bristled defensively. "You haven't got to feel sorry for me!" He stood straight and at attention, part of him wanting to run back to the familiar no matter how bad it was. It didn't matter how much he hated the neon lights spinning round and round, the smoke in the underbelly, the sound of other children's laughter that ran hollow in his ears- it was the only home he could remember. The Doctor knelt down in front of him, and as William looked into his eyes something made him want to stay and want to run away as far as he could even more, all at once. Something so much bigger, so much darker, and so much grander than anything William had ever believed could exist. Around the Doctor and Rose it was like the air changed and it almost seemed like neither of them quite belonged where they stood.
When the Doctor caught his attention and spoke it seemed to completely counterpoint the myriad of profound thoughts that seemed to be broadening William's mind by the second with his light, almost playful tone. "Ah, come on, don't leave yet. There's still so much Rose and I've got to show you. No kid who lives her should grow up not enjoying it! Every second and every light."
Rose beamed and joined them by the Doctor's side and looked into William's eyes when the Doctor had finished and nodded for him to listen. But when the Doctor spoke again his tone changed.
"But first, there's something going on here. Something beneath the surface and it's probably not good. It's probably very not-good. So I've got to wait until I can find out what it is and stop it." He brandished his sonic screwdriver and looked at the blue top from nervous habit, looking up from the tip at the sky. "Oh, I do hate waiting. Still, might as well make it worth it. Why don't we go find one of these swanky hotels and crash for a bit?"
"Doctor..." Rose said, softly placing her hand on his shoulder.
"Yes?" he asked, looking into her eyes. "What? Was that rude, or...?"
"No, just, what if William's uncle comes looking for him?"
"Him?" William scoffed.
"Nah. Come on."
They walked down the busy street again, looking for the entire world like any other tourist family.
"Here we are," the Doctor said, opening the shiny, metallic, retro door for Rose and William to walk through.
Rose looked up as she walked inside, noting that the hotel was taller than many of the surrounding buildings but wasn't as brightly lit. Especially in light of what the last year of her life had been like, it wasn't as frequent for her to become bright-eyed with wonder, but she was surprised at how similar to the hotels on Earth this one was. Before she could become too distracted the Doctor put his hand on the small of her back and led her inside.
As the Doctor walked inside, William just ahead, the Doctor for a moment found it much more difficult to take his hand off Rose than it ever should have been. The more mechanical, logical side of him noted how different, even though her clothes, she felt in comparison to his own body. Although, the fact that he noted it at all could prove to be a problem. As soon as he could he let go and walked to the concierge’s desk, carefully not looking at Rose until he could clear his throat.
"Do you have reservations, sir?"
The man at the desk straightened his vest which was blazoned on the chest with the typical Disney mouse ears with his name in the center and smiled in a way that was gracious, however mechanic.
"Well," the Doctor began leisurely, glancing back at Rose and William thoughtfully. "No, not as such, but I do have this. Suppose you could help us out?"
He retrieved the psychic paper from his coat pocket and flipped it open like a badge.
Rose noticed the battered wallet and walked over to the Doctor curiously, putting her palms on the front desk and tiptoeing forward a bit in hopes of seeing what identity the Doctor had supplied this time.
He looked into her eyes, almost guiltily, and deftly shoved it back into his pocket as the concierge had already begun registering them in the hotel on his partially transparent touch screen.
Rose frowned at him, her lip assuming a very slight pout as she turned on her heels and leaned the small of her back against the high desk, crossing her arms and waiting impatiently.
The Doctor sighed as he watched her telltale body language as the concierge turned to another touch screen behind him to register their keycards.
"Just like your mother," the Doctor mumbled, but before Rose's ten fully gaping mouth could respond the Doctor skillfully turned his attentions back to the concierge. "Thank you, sir," he said enthusiastically as he took the cards.
When he turned from the desk to lead on to the room Rose turned to face in squarely, looking up at him with her bright hazel eyes rather confrontationally, her arms still folded across her chest.
He glanced around nervously just once before donning his most disarming smile. "Key cards," he said brightly and immediately both of them thought of the sonic screwdriver at the simple power of suggestion. Rose's glare melted into soft laughter as she looked down and hooked her thumbs in her pockets, biting her lift. When she looked up a bit she tentatively took the card the Doctor offered to her and slipped it into her back pocket, then looked back into the Doctor's dark eyes.
"I'm really not sure about this," William said as he came to stand next to them.
"Oh, don't be a spoilsport," the Doctor insisted. "I thought maybe we could go kill some time..." The Doctor hesitated and rubbed his chin thoughtfully for a moment. "Ooh, not such a good word choice for me. Anyway! I thought we could, I dunno..." He looked at Rose for a moment, searching for any sort of idea that would keep William away from his apparently rather unpleasant uncle while he could work out some sort of a plan to deal with the bigger problem at hand. "...watch The Lion King?" He grinned at Rose, remembering last Christmas.
"I told you, I hate Disney!" William insisted a bit peevishly.
The concierge stopped what he was doing and suddenly stared at William as though he had just turned to a pillar of salt.
The Doctor smiled apologetically and leaned toward the man to whisper, "He's a troubled child. The shrink said this would do his good."
"Oi!" William said aloud before the Doctor turned to him again.
"Come on, then?" He put his hand on the boy's shoulder.
William looked at the Doctor's hand as thought it was a venomous snake for a moment but still didn't walk away, settling after a moment and looking the Doctor square in the eye.
"If you don't like it you can go home," Rose offered.
"Fine," William sighed.
"Great," Rose beamed and gently hugged William's shoulders from behind.
The Doctor gestured to the lift behind William. "First floor, A87. You lead the way?"
He gave William the second key card as Rose nudged his shoulders forward, toward the elevator.
After a silent ascent to the first floor William stroke purposefully, following the posted signs to the room. Rose and the Doctor followed just behind, as always side-by-side. For a moment more the silence lingered until, when William paused to read another directional sign, Rose took the Doctor's hand and touched her chin to his shoulder briefly, looking at him. "Come on, tell me..."
"Tell you what?"
"Who are we?" she asked with childlike excitement bubbling over for a few seconds.
The Doctor tried to keep his eyes forward, now realizing what she was talking about. "How many times have we been over this? Thought you'd outgrown it by now. I'm the Doctor and you are Rose Marion Tyler. And that boy there, that's William... something," he replied nervously, gesturing with his hand appropriately to each of them as he spoke.
"Edinburgh."
"What?"
"William. His name's William Edinburgh, he said."
"Scotland," the Doctor muttered.
"Yes, but you know what I meant. Been a while since you used the psychic paper to get us in somewhere, so what did it say?"
The Doctor cleared his throat a bit and pushed his hands into his pockets, subconsciously securing the object that was suddenly causing him so much discomfort. "Just told them I was Sir Doctor of the British Empire."
"So there really is a British Empire in the future?"
"Yeah. Once space travel got big, colonialism happened all over again. As you'd imagine interplanetary civil wars are a bit of a mess--"
"Doctor," Rose interrupted to prevent an hour-long lecture. "What about me? What about William? How'd you get us in?"
"Well..." the Doctor grimaced.
"Well?" Rose asked, raising her eyebrows and smiling sweetly.
The Doctor sighed and his shoulders slumped as he looked at her briefly, apparently embarrassed. "Fine. Well, I told them that I was a knight, and you and William... my lady and my heir," he said a cryptically as he could, but sighed, relenting once again. "My... wife and son."
Rose's eyes widened a bit and for a moment she nearly lost her footing as she continued walking but just stared at the Doctor, suddenly having no idea what to say. She shook herself a bit once the Doctor made no further move to discuss- she was behind stupid, it was just simple. Who knew what these people's sensibilities were if not the Doctor? "R-Right," she finally managed as evenly as possible and formed her lips into a smile.
"Here it is," William said with a twinge of pride and relief as he carefully slid the card and opened the door, walking it and briefly holding the door until the Doctor caught it and held it for Rose.
Rose stepped through it, grateful for something else on which to focus her attentions.
William shifted uncomfortably, rubbing his left hand up and down his right arm, standing the middle of the large common room. "You must be rich," he murmured softly.
The Doctor smiled, trying to catch Rose's now somewhat sheepish eyes as he spoke, "Ah, we get by..."
Rose smiled tightly and swallowed hard as she looked down and gripped the soft back of an arm chair, running her hand back and forth. "This is nice," she said softly at length, slowly walking around the chair, looking at the varied decoration.
The Doctor looked from Rose to William and back again. He sighed heavily and stepped within whispering distance of her and began to reach out for her hand but found himself hesitating and only resting his next to hers. "You all right?"
She started a bit as he spoke and looked up at his eyes and cautiously moved her hand over his, pushing her hair behind her ear with the other. "Yeah. Fine."
The Doctor quickly looked away and took on the most enthusiastic spirit he could muster. "Right. The Lion King," he said as he went to the television set and began using a secondary touch screen to tune and select The Lion King from a list of the now-hundreds of Disney Classics. "Have a seat, Will."
William only groaned and flopped down on the sofa with his arms folded. It was hopeless, he had decided, to make this man understand his reasoning. 'Will' was a name his father had called him. Father was gone now, though, and William was alone. It was time to grow up. William looked at the Doctor, mildly perplexed by the fact that though just an hour earlier this man seemed to have found something important and dangerous, he was now sitting back on the sofa watching an animated sunrise. The Doctor had said something about needing to wait, needing to think- but this? And that was what was most confusing about the Doctor's life: no matter how much damage or pain or mystery rose to the surface there was always time and reason to watch cartoons.
"Rose?" the Doctor asked, patting the spot on the sofa to the other side of him.
Rose came just around the armchair and sat in it, ignoring the little slump in the Doctor's shoulders that only she could see.
William sighed again and directed his attentions toward the television. There was no getting away from these two, and even if he could what would be the point? After a few moments of watching he cautiously tapped the Doctor's forearm and whispered, completely unsure of whether it was appropriate to talk. "How come..."
"Yes?" the Doctor urged.
Rose leaned her arms against her knees to show attention and listen.
William frowned and finally asked at length, "How come the animals are talking? They're not aliens or anything... they're just Old Earth animals- they don't talk do they?"
The Doctor looked at Rose and laughed nervously. It'd been a while since he had dealt with kids- and never one of this caliber. A child indwelled by an Isolus? That was one thing. But a child who refused to actually be a child... that was another. The question was so much bigger than the cartoon. "Well, no, not as such but..."
When he trailed off Rose chimed in finally, her mouth slightly agape. "You've really never seen a cartoon before?"
William shrugged, feeling almost embarrassed. "Not since I was a baby."
"But you live in a place where everything is about cartoons..."
"Well, it's about time, then. Don't you think?" the Doctor asked gently. Before anyone could respond the Doctor wrapped his arm around William's shoulders and pointed to the movie. "In cartoons, they use animals as characters because they're easy archetypes. Archetypes are like representations of certain ideas or kinds of people. The lions: lions are thought to be brave and strong... but they also have big families that are supposed to help each other. The monkey there, he's meant to be the wise old sage, which is something else called irony- though monkeys can be smart. Apes can sometimes surprise you..."
Rose tried to pay some attention to the movie but couldn't help listening to the Doctor's every word. At the mention of apes she folded her hands together and pressed them to her lips to stop herself laughing and began to watch them out of the corner of her eye. She watched as the Doctor gesticulated with nearly every word, her hidden smile widening with each wave of his hands it seemed. She sighed, thinking how much she had missed that.
Slowly William became more conversant, his interest becoming apparent, and each time he had a question the Doctor answered it thoroughly. His patience and enthusiasm never seemed to wane. Rose began thinking about the Doctor's long-ago, irritatingly ambiguous reference to being a father, or at least, to having been a father. She had thought about it far too much, actually. But this time it was different; it wasn't a kind of irrational jealousy or a morbid curiousity. Only the very clear thought that he would have been good at it- being a dad. And having known her father, having loved Pete from both worlds, but never really having a dad, she knew how much that meant.
The Doctor had been a father. It was something she had known for what felt like ages, but another level of its reality was sinking in. She had lost her father- far too soon, but losing your parents? That was a natural part of life. But the Doctor had lost his child, children, whatever he'd had... all gone. All dead. Lost as the victims of war...
Rose felt her skin get hot and her eyes well with tears, and she quickly stood up and walked toward the bathroom. "Going to the loo," she explained quickly without letting either of them see her eyes.
"All right," the Doctor said, furrowing his brow a bit and shrugging as he turned back to William and The Lion King.
When she entered he bathroom she turned and sat down on the counter, facing away from the mirror while try to keep the tears from running down her face. After a moment she turned to her left and used one hand to get some cold water in one of the hotel's courtesy cups and drank it as quickly as possible, trying to compose herself. She believed she had become the master of hiding tears in the last several months. She waited for a bit, breathing deeply and then sprang up, flushing the toilet and running the tap for a moment aimlessly so no questions would be asked.
When she sat down again she leaned against the chair and lost herself in the movie as best she could. That was how the next hour passed, in silent reverence of The Lion King. She looked up again as the credits began to roll and saw that William was dozing against the Doctor's shoulder. She pulled herself forward and stood quietly, whispering to the Doctor, "How long has he been asleep?"
"Dunno. Few minutes. Was afraid if I moved I'd wake him up."
"You just like cartoons," she teased as the two of them, with one mind, carefully hoisted the boy up and carried him to the single, however obscenely large bed and placed him right in the middle.
From either side of the bed the Doctor and Rose looked at each other, neither of them sure what to do next. Almost simultaneously they sat down and leaned back in the still-made bed on either side of William, Rose turning to look at the Doctor first.
"If you know what's happening to those kids, why are we here?"
"I don't. Not exactly."
"But we're here watching The Lion King instead of figuring it out?"
"Going to wait until the shift change, now."
"When's that?"
"In the central building it's 3 AM."
"Still, that's not like you. All this waiting," she mused as she looked more squarely at him.
"Oh, I would have e loved to have marched right down there earlier, but I could risk it with young William, here."
"You're... good with kids."
The Doctor beamed, even though by the look in his eyes she could tell it was a bit of a sad smile.
"And you, Rose Tyler, always say the right thing."
She could only try to stifle laughter as a response.
"At least in this case, I hope you do. ’Cause it sounds like I might be these kids' only shot."
"What's the plan, then?"
"We wait until 2:30 and go down to the Central Building and take the back way in to the hospital complex and work out way down. Find out what's going on, tell our police friends upstairs, then disappear back here before he wakes up," he rattled off as quickly as he could speak.
"Nothing's ever that easy with you," Rose said as she turned onto her back and stared at the ceiling.
"I can hope, can't I?"
"Sure," Rose yawned.
The Doctor smiled at the sound- one that he almost never made. "You're not going to sleep, are you?"
"Me? Sleep? When do I ever?" she complained as she closed her eyes, planning to attempt a power nap no matter how much he whined about it.
Waking to the Doctor's voice and his hand on her shoulder was something Rose enjoyed entirely too much, to the point that she almost pretended to still be asleep so he would try again, but some part of her mind scolded her with a spark of electricity and she was instantly and fully awake.
"Come on," he urged as she put her feet on the floor.
"All right. Coming," she said, more to herself than to him, as she stood and pushed her hair behind her ears and followed him out the door.
William stirred at the sound of the door and, as he realized he was in a bed instead of a mattress on the floor, he remembered the Doctor's original reason for coming to the hotel. He hopped out of bed and felt for the keycard and walked out the door, determined to follow them. They couldn't expect him to listen to stories about bravery and courage and then stay behind when he had the chance to find out if any of it was true. A cartoon was a cartoon- but this time he wondered if someone like the Doctor, someone like Rose- he wondered if they were what made it real. So real that they made entire worlds for those ideas. Wherever they were gong something made him want to follow.
"Why isn't security any better than this? It's a hospital."
"It's a hospital," the Doctor repeated as they descended the long staircase, flight after flight, toward the bottom secret floor.
Rose paused for a moment and blinked. "Shouldn't someone do something about it, though? There are sick people here."
"Oh... they do... occasionally. Political campaigns are almost always about healthcare reform. Now you see why I don't like hospitals."
Rose just frowned and kept following until they reached a door that was locked and marked "Private" in place of the typical doors that lead to the floors-proper.
"People are just so daft," the Doctor remarked as he went about destroying the locking mechanism with the sonic screwdriver.
"You're being rude again..." Rose remarked in a soft, sing-song voice barely above a whisper.
"Really, though. You put "Private" on a door and lock it? You ought to know someone’s going to come knocking when you make it so obvious you don't want them to... It's like making the most dangerous, most important button red," he explained, pushing the door back and peeking round before going through.
"Getting rusty?"
"Well it was a good lock- I'll give them that."
When another flight of stairs ended, they reached a set of sliding, ultramodern, white, electronic doors that lay in stark contrast with the rest of the hospital which was several decades behind in its development. Once again the Doctor began manipulating another touch screen by the doors as Rose watched over his shoulder. Her experience with working at Torchwood had made her better able to understand many of the computer protocols- before typing had been about her limit- but, she would never understand how he did it so quickly. But then, she couldn't understand how he had Pride & Prejudice memorized either. The farthest she ever got with memorization was Spiderman 2.
The Doctor began to ramble a bit so neither of them noticed William slipping down the stairs, one by one, waiting and watching in the shadows. He couldn't believe the Doctor had been right. There was something down beneath the surface that no one else knew about. Something secret going on under all the lights. The doors hissed to slide back and he went down a few more steps to see a laboratory of sorts behind them, all white and chrome illuminated by a sickly blue glow.
The Doctor took Rose's hand and gripped it tightly and they stepped through the doors, standing just past the threshold, keeping the doors from closing. He looked around a felt a bit of a sinking feeling when he noticed the burly security staff blocking the exit but was driven on by a sight that outraged him: from floor to ceiling along the back wall were life support tanks, hundreds of children suspended in blue gel, dressed in hospital gowns with electrodes attached at their temples.
"Hello," he began, his tone not matching his mood in the slightest as he addressed the elderly man in a lab coat who stood back from his touch screen. He seemed to be the man-in-charge in spite of his small, withered stature.
"How did you get in here?" came the shaky voice.
"I'll be the one asking the questions," the Doctor said, his voice taking on a kind of aggression through his eloquence.
William slipped inside behind the commotion, slipping beneath a lab table and watching in absolute silence. It now seemed the Doctor and Rose could use some help, but it was now, when he needed to be the most grown-up that he felt the most helpless. All those children on the wall... he knew they were alive but he could only imagine what terrible things must have happened for all of them to need those tanks...
Things went from bad to worse when two of the guards stepped forward and pulled the Doctor and Rose's hands apart and behind their backs and fastened them with clear electronic bonds that glowed blue for a moment to indicate that they had successfully locked.
The Doctor sighed and looked at Rose. "Nothing ever is that easy, is it?"
Rose just rolled her eyes. She wasn't so much frightened as annoyed. What could the old man want with them anyway? Still, she had to try not to look at the wall- at all of those children- until they found a way to free them.
"All right. You want to do it that way? Fine. But now tell me, what are you doing with those children?!" the Doctor asked the man in the white coat even more angrily.
"My name is Dr. Matthews."
"We don't care who you are. Just tell us what's going on," Rose chimed in, slowly wriggling her wrists again the bonds with little success.
"I'm terribly sorry. This is a great misunderstanding. I just couldn't have the pair of you waltzing in here and destroying the great and saving work that has begun here."
"'Great and saving work'?" the Doctor asked with raised eyebrows.
"This single facility will save Disney's magic throughout all civilisation for centuries!"
"All right, this is the one and only time I'm going to ask calmly. What are you doing to the children?"
"For as long as the Disney Corporation has existed it has been kept great by one thing: imagination. But now it has come to see a time when imagination has been replaced by industrialism and intergalactic urban sprawl. You must know how things are these days. But children, these children, could change all of that with just the simple power of their imaginations. In this state they never tire, never become sick, and never feel pain. All of them lost in a world or pleasant dreams while the machine reads their imaginations- their brainwaves- and translates it into useable information for this planet and every other Disney franchise in the galaxy."
"You're absorbing their brainwaves? That can cause permanent brain damage."
"And these are kids," Rose added, having given up on her attempt to loosen the tie around her wrists. "They've got parents who are devastated looking for them."
All the while listening, William searched the room for a way out for himself and the others. Each other tanks had a keypad, but even if he could reach all of them he'd be caught before he could unlock them all. And what about Rose and the Doctor? On the side wall several flashing buttons and conduits ran along a panel as the conduits snaked their way to the ceiling. It seemed that they led to the tanks and further encircled the room, something protruding from each attaching itself to every electronic device in the room.
"I let them go before any damage is done. They're the perfect age and, when they awake they won't remember a thing except happy dreams."
"It's still wrong. Now, I am commanding you to let them go!"
"I'm sorry, sir, but I can't. The pain of a few families that will be temporary is the price which must be paid for an everlasting result."
Before the Doctor could speak Rose shouted the very thing the Doctor would have had he been given the chance. Just remembering the eyes of all the heartbroken and angry parents of the children made her feel a kind of righteous anger she was sure the Doctor felt all the time. "Let them go or we'll stop you!"
William's eyes had a goal now; they were directed toward a large while letters above a single, large, ironically-red button which red "Emergency Release" in white letters on a plaque above. After some silent deliberation he had decided that in this room that was only likely to mean one thing. Now that even Rose, who was gentle by nature from what he'd seen, seemed to be getting very angry and the two of them had not yet escaped it seemed that the ball was rolling ever-closer to his side of the court. Still, looking at the silent, statue-like security staff, it was hard to move.
"That's... regrettable," Dr. Matthews sighed, turning his back to them and looking up at his mausoleum of yet-living children. "For I cannot let this dream die. Project Development has been my responsibility for fifty years. In my youth it was easy. My own imagination continually fascinated my employers, but now those days lie in the dust. The advent of an entire planet built on sheer imagination... but now there's no imagination left. Which is why, I'm sorry to say," he turned around and looked both the Doctor and Rose squarely in the eyes, a look of active, pitiful madness in his own as he continued in a high, excited pitch, "that you cannot be allowed to leave either. You cannot destroy the dream!"
"That dream is nothing when it's achieved like this!" the Doctor argued.
Now Rose looked around more nervously. There was always the possibility that this was it. They could be trapped here with no way out. Sometimes with the Doctor it was easy to feel invincible. During her time away from his she had become very keenly aware of her mortality, and even of the Doctor's ultimate mortality, but after defying the impossible so many times to be standing next to him it was still easy to forget. She thought about poor William and what he'd think if it seemed they had just abandoned him in the middle of the night. She was jolted back as all at once the guards began to push them to walk forward and the Doctor called out with surprise at the sound of small, running feet.
"William?"
"Why didn't you stay where it was safe?" Rose asked in a high pitch.
By that time the guards had left their already-detained prisoners to go after the little boy who was running headlong toward the most important of important buttons in the room.
The Doctor took one step to stand closer to Rose. "Just like your mother."
"Shut up. We've got to help him."
"That," the Doctor began- would have pointed at her had he had use of his hands, "was rude. What are we doing to do anyway? I think Willy-boy may have something. Just watch."
In a matter of seconds William nearly collided with the wall and depressed the button with all the strength in his little arms. Everything with any sort of locking or hold device: the tanks, the hand-bonds- even the cabinets- fell open and unlocked and each of the tanks began an automatic process in which the tanks began cycling down and flattening out like stretchers, each stretcher rolling with automatic wheels into an accessible formation. Inside the tanks each of the children began to rouse and cough up the sticky blue liquid.
In the commotion William slipped right beneath security staff and crawled on his hands and knees discreetly but quickly until he ran clear and grabbed Rose's now-free hand as the Doctor grabbed her other.
"Time to go," the Doctor said as he led them up the stairs at top speed. "Rose, phone?"
Rose let go of the Doctor's hand, momentarily stopping on their journey up the stairs as she gave it to him.
After he had buzzed it with the sonic screwdriver twice and put it up to his ear they were running again, the Doctor a bit ahead as he called the police desk and began explaining to the officer-on-duty what was going on just below his feet.
When they reached the top Rose and William waited patiently as the Doctor unlocked the door to the police lobby. William was growing accustomed to the routine now.
"Listen, I'm telling you the truth. They're all just beneath your feet."
The door swung open and the Doctor gave Rose's phone back to her and sprinted over to the desk, in the front of another distraught couple looking for their little girl. Gesturing to the crowd of parents behind him he made eye contact with the police officer.
"Just look," he insisted.
----
Within the hour children were being carefully carried up the stairs on proper stretcher and being thoroughly checked by hospital doctors.
William watched as frail and rather gooey children were reunited with their families and for the first time in a long time he didn't resent them. This time he just had to fight the tears for his own parents much harder.
"You did it, Will- oh, sorry, William," the Doctor beamed as he patted him firmly on the shoulder.
"'Will' is fine."
"Really, now?" Rose teased as she squeezed his other shoulder, playfully nudging his side. "All of them get to go home now," she said softly, her eyes finding their way to the Doctor.
"I should, too, I guess..." William pulled away and turned around, as ready as he'd ever be to say his goodbyes. At least these people had done something for him.
Rose frowned and nudged the Doctor's shoulder gently and nodded toward William.
"You... could come with us," the Doctor said, rubbing the back of his neck. He wasn't as sure about this as Rose was, but he did think it would do the boy some good to get away from the Planet for a while.
"Come with you?"
Rose grinned at the Doctor as she knelt in front of Will as he turned back round to give him the pitch.
"The Doctor has this ship called the TARDIS. It's not just a space ship but it's a time ship. It can go anywhere at any point in all of history. That's how we got here... and it's bigger on the inside."
"It can't be."
"It is," the Doctor almost whined. "I'll show you."
"Well... don't suppose there's any reason to stay here..."
"If you don't like it you can always come home."
Rose extended her hand. "What do you say?"
The three of them returned to the alleyway. When he had unlocked it he let William go through first.
"It really is. It's bigger on the inside."
"Now, Will, you can stay as long as you like but there will be rules here for you just like anyone else. First of all a bedtime," the Doctor said in a gently paternal tone that came second-nature.
"Where are we going to put him tonight?" Rose asked as she took off her jacket.
"He can stay in my room until we can work out other arrangements."
"But I’m not tired," Will insisted. He couldn't sleep now. His eyes couldn't possibly stop looking around the magnificent time ship.
"Compromise. Rose and I can watch a movie with you until you are. What do you think? Pinocchio?"
"Sure," Rose said, yawning a bit and trying to stifle it.
"You're tired again?" The Doctor asked.
"I'm going to get ready for bed, then I'll help Will. You two go find something for him to sleep in."
"I can't do it," the Doctor said a bit awkwardly.
"Do what?"
"I'll get him ready for bed."
"All right," Rose said with a chuckle and raise of her eyebrows as she went down the hall to the bathroom and, after she had brushed her teeth and washed her face, to her bedroom.
The Doctor did enjoy cartoons entirely too much he had decided, but he had also decided it would be something of a flaw he wouldn't even try to fix.
"Sorry. Started it yet?" Rose asked when she came into the Doctor's room, wearing her pajamas which consisted of a white tee shirt and light pink shorts.
The Doctor swallowed hard in spite of himself as he subconsciously looked her up and down once. After the momentary lapse he smiled rather smugly. "It takes you that long just to get ready for bed?"
Rose rolled her eyes and crawled into the Doctor's bed between him and William. "I'm not sure I've ever seen you wear pajamas more than four times including tonight."
"That's because I don't sleep all the time."
"Oi."
"You're only human. Now let William watch the movie." He nodded toward the little boy whose eyes were already batting rapidly.
The Doctor and Rose watched with silent smiles as William drifted off to sleep. When his breathing deepened Rose turned over to face the Doctor. Their eyes met and the Doctor felt his hearts speed up a bit, inhibitions worn thin and his mind torn.
"Something isn't it?" he asked.
"What?"
"Lonely, mixed-up kids who need each other."
Rose impulsively leaned forward and pressed her lips against the Doctor's, kissing him softly before pulling back to smile at the memory. It was the first time she'd been able to smile at memories without also being on the verge of tears in a while.
"Rose," the Doctor managed nervously, blushing a bit, having one of those rare speechless moments.
"We can talk about it later." Rose yawned again and slowly slipped down further in the Doctor's bed and leaned her head against his chest, one arm wrapped loosely around him.
He opened his mouth to speak, to explain all the reasons things shouldn't change between them, but as he looked down at her peacefully resting face and noticed how right it felt to have her so close all those arguments seemed null and void. He found himself getting relaxed and a bit sleepy. He smiled over Will- it was nice to have a kid around again- and then cautiously put his arm around Rose and, more comfortable that he'd been in a long time, the Time Lord slept.
Fin
First draft completed: 6 August 2007
Final draft completed: 26 August 2007
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: K+/PG at most
Status: Complete
Title: Disney Planet
Pairings, Characters: Doctor/Rose (though just barely more than you get in canon), OC
Spoiler Warnings: This is meant to be slightly AU in that it takes place after a [post-Doomsday]reunion which is undisclosed within the fanfiction itself. The main reason I wrote it that way is because the end implies a sort of future Doomsday didn't allow for... and I just like it. This really isn't the best think I've ever written and was for the time_and_chips Anywhere But Cardiff ficathon and therefore was based on a prompt and I'm not sure I did it justice but I tried...
Summary/Public Notes: The Doctor and Rose decide to visit the Disney Planet where they meet a troubled little boy and find something lurking beneath the surface of the neon lights.
Prompts: Disney Planet, Nov. 22, 1998 (though it changes after using that date)
Beta'd by: larielromeniel
Disney Planet
By: BohemianNeko
The Doctor was walking down a street holding Rose Tyler's hand- something that wasn't out of the ordinary but something he hadn't done in a very long time. Neither of them said anything, both thinking about everything that had led to them standing here, walking through the bustling city street like two strangers who hadn't been through anywhere near as much. Occasionally he thought of something to say but as he opened his mouth to say it and looked at her it just faded into a smile, which she returned. The sad thing was that though they were overjoyed to be together again and that both Universes had stayed intact in spite of it, now that the dust had settled there was just something tangible in the air that was different. So many things to say but neither of them knew how. It would come with time both of them hoped but it was difficult to talk about anything that hurt so much...
Finally, Rose looked up at the Doctor and slowed her walk a little, not being able to bear even the momentary silence. "When are we?" she asked, looking round at everything that was familiar but somehow different from the time she'd just left- her time.
"I don't know," the Doctor replied, excited at the chance to talk about something that didn't feel so heavy on the tongue. He let go of her hand and dashed over to a news paper stand and picked up The Sunday Telegraph and looked for the date.
The man behind the stand gave the Doctor a look. "Oi, you going to pay for that?"
Rose stepped forward, smiling as she gave the man the money. "He's not too clear on money," she explained as she gently gripped the Doctor's long brown coat and pulled him away.
"1998," the Doctor said as he put his glasses on with one hand. "Twenty-second, November, 1998."
"Not exciting, then?" Rose said with a mock sigh.
"Oh, well you never know," the Doctor insisted. "I remember this!" he exclaimed as he found something colourful in the paper and immediately found the nearest bench and plopped himself down.
Rose sat down next to him and looked over his shoulder at the paper. "Remember what?"
"Disney Planet."
Rose looked at him blankly and shook her head a bit.
"Disney Planet. It was a comic strip that ran in this newspaper from 1998 to 2000. This is the first issue, actually."
"Oh," Rose said simply as she scanned her eyes over the comic.
"We could go, you know."
"Go where?"
"Disney Planet."
"I thought you said it was a comic strip... this comic strip."
"It is," the Doctor said as he refolded the newspaper and lowered it into his lap and looked at her. "I meant we could go to the Disney Planet."
Rose looked at him incredulously and laughed a little. "The what?"
"The Disney Planet. About... five hundred years from now, give or take, the Disney Corporation's theme parks combined and moved off-world to cater to the growing number of humans that lived away from home."
"So it's actually... a planet?"
"Yes, Disney Planet."
"All right..." she looked down for a moment experimentally, seeing if she even could look away from the Doctor's eyes- the eyes she'd missed so much.”Yeah, I guess we could go."
"Come on!" The Doctor grabbed her hand and ran back toward the TARDIS.
------------
The Doctor waited at the door, his coat in hand, moving back and forth on his feet like an impatient child. "Rose, it's Disney, not Vogue. Could you come on?"
"Oi," Rose said as she fastened her hoop earrings and rounded on the Doctor. "I hadn't even had a shower since I'd been back on this Earth."
"Well, you've showered now."
"All right, all right. I'm ready." She picked up a denim jacket that was draped over the TARDIS's railing by the door and stood beside the Doctor as he pushed the door open.
The Doctor couldn't help but look her up and down a bit. She was always beautiful, one of the most beautiful humans he'd ever known, but she did look decidedly better in her fitted tee shirt which had horizontal pink and white stripes and her jeans that were far more suited to her than the grey sweatpants and the big, stained tee shirt that she had been wearing from the time they'd been reunited because of a series of events involving a rather nasty race who were bent on destroying the existence of all humans across all dimensions and were planning to do it by making the worlds collide. The Doctor wasn't sure if he should say he was glad it happened or not, though he certainly was glad to have her back.
When they'd had a short window of opportunity to decide which side of the breach to stay on Rose's entire family- if you could call it that- had decided to come back with her in spite of the fact that they were leaving behind Pete's fortune. Jackie did, however, make sure that she was wearing her most expensive jewelry when she got onboard the TARDIS. When they'd come back the TARDIS had touched down in Cardiff as it was the easiest entry because of the old rift. Funny how so much that impacted the entire world happened in Cardiff. So all of them, Mickey and Jake included, along with the new baby were back in the flat on the Powell Estate. The Doctor really wondered how Pete would hold up.
"You look nice," the Doctor said, coming back to the moment.
"Thanks," she said, furrowing her brow a bit in spite of the fact that she smiled. It'd been a while since he'd said that... a long while.
As they walked out of the TARDIS into an alleyway between all the bright lights and attractions that were as far as the eye could see the Doctor offered his arm to her and she wrapped hers around his tightly, grinning from ear to ear.
"You know, I don't think I asked, what's your sister's name?"
"Sarah."
"Sarah, right. Has that got... no, it wouldn't, would it?"
"Yeah. I suggested it because of Sarah Jane. Just... somebody else who knew what it was like."
The Doctor used his free hand to rub the back of his neck. "Right..."
Rose might have responded but she noticed a little boy on his knees, picking up wrappers of snacks and other bits of litter and putting them in a bag that never seemed to get full. She slipped her arm away from the Doctor's and walked over and knelt by the boy. "What are you doing? Why aren't you out playing or riding a ride or...?"
"I hate them," the little boy said, jerking away as Rose reached out to touch his shoulder.
The Doctor walked over and gave Rose a look, raising his eyebrows and puffing out his cheeks a bit as he breathed in and exhaled.
"Hate them? Why do you hate them? And where's your Mum... your Dad?"
The little boy rounded, his blue eyes flashing in the neon lights in the dark. "I haven't got parents and I'm working so leave me alone!"
Rose stood and stepped back, frowning with concern as she looked at the Doctor.
"Working?" the Doctor pressed.
"Yes, I work here. Because if I didn't I would be anywhere but here."
"But working... aren't you a bit young? What age are you?"
"Eight. And I work for my uncle who works in that food stand over there." The boy pointed a bony finger down the alleyway to a place where a heavy man was selling oddly coloured funnel cakes with a snarl on his face.
"Looks like he loves his job," Rose said sarcastically.
"Yep. Right, what was your name?" the Doctor asked the little boy.
"William."
"Thanks then, Will. See you later," the Doctor said as he took Rose's hand and led her away from the little boy.
"William..." the little boy growled.
"You're just going to leave him? That little boy shouldn't be working..."
"They've still got child labour laws... even stricter than in your time... we can deal with it without dealing with William's attitude."
The Doctor took Rose by the hand to the cake stand and spoke to the man. "Tell me; is that little boy over there yours?"
"What business is it of yours?"
"It's the government's business. The Empire wouldn't be happy you've got him doing your dirty work, at a children's theme park no less."
"William!" the man called dismissively. "Come have some funnel cake, boy."
The little boy walked over unenthusiastically. "What?" he asked, shoving his hands down in the pockets of his dirty dark pants.
"Have some funnel cake, son. You need to stop working so hard."
"I hate that 'cake' and I am not your son."
"Tell you what, William," the Doctor started. "Come with me and Miss Rose here and we'll take you on a ride. I'm sure you'd like it if you just give it a chance."
"Whatever," the little boy said, following the Doctor's guiding hand.
Out of the corner of her eye Rose noticed the look the man whose hands were smeared with icing and grease gave William. She didn't want to let the little boy go back.
"Where are we taking him?" Rose asked as she caught up.
"What ride looks best to you, Willy-boy?"
"It's William..."
"All right, William. Come on. Ferris wheel. Good introduction," the Doctor said as he gently pushed the boy in line and stood behind him.
"What about money?" Rose asked.
"That's the thing about the TARDIS," the Doctor grinned. "You have to pay to come in the atmosphere and once you get here everything's free."
"Oh." Rose half-laughed and half-frowned.
"Capitalism at its height... for better or for worse."
"Right..."
On the Ferris wheel William sat squeezed between the Doctor and Rose, staring down at his feet. The Doctor wrapped his arm around his shoulder and then straightened it so it was behind the boy's head and gently touching Rose's shoulder.
"So how'd you end up here?" he asked.
"Parents died. Uncle was the only one left in the system so ended up here."
"And you don't like Disney... don't like the rides or Disney... don't like cartoons...?"
"I hate them. They're for children and I cannot be a child..."
Rose looked at the Doctor sadly, biting her lip and she bent forward to try to look into William's eyes. "Why not? You're eight years old. You're supposed to be a child. You're a little boy."
"I am not. I was left the last real man in my family."
"Well... maybe there doesn't need to be a man... Least for a few years," the Doctor offered.
"Yes there has. My father was a man and now I have to be."
Rose looked above the boy's head into the Doctor's eyes and shrugged helplessly.
The Doctor looked back for a moment until suddenly he leaned forward to get on eye-level. "Just the same, seems your uncle has got you doing some pretty hard work for an eight-year-old. Does he give you money, or--?"
William chortled. "Money? He gives me bread, a mattress to sleep on- that sort of thing. Today was the first time he'd offered me any of that cake he sells in a year. No, the money he makes it all his."
The Doctor kept looking until finally William glanced up into his eyes. "Chores are one thing, but what that man is doing to you is wrong. There are laws against it. And all in a world that was designed so children like you could play... use their imaginations..."
Rose smiled as she watched William's icy exterior begin to melt as the Doctor continued.
"William, would you come with us? Tell them what your uncle is going and stop it?"
"It wouldn't do any good," William scoffed.
"You won't know until you try," Rose insisted.
"Whatever," William sighed.
When the wheel came to a halt and the three disembarked the Doctor took Rose's hand and she offered the other to William.
He stood stoically and ignored her for the most part, though he didn't offer to walk away.
"All right, then," Rose said with a bit of annoyance in her voice.
"Rose," the Doctor said softly, wordlessly telling her with his eyes to let William have his space.
Rose shrugged with a physical attempt at sloughing off the annoyance. She was beginning to think William was just being petty but the Doctor had told her he had once been a father. Though part of Rose still wanted further explanation about that she did suppose that the Doctor may be better equipped to handle the likes of young William.
They walked, the Doctor and Rose hand-in-hand and William a few steps behind, to the nearest central building. The part had a large office complex for every fifty square miles which contained the Police, the Park Administration, the Fire Department, a field hospital, and a little shop among other things. When they got there, there seemed to be quite a number of young adult couples in line at the Police cubicle, many of them crying or shouting angrily.
"Now, that's odd," the Doctor whispered to Rose as they stood to the side of the cue, William trying to hide the curiosity in his eyes.
"What's odd?" Rose asked for confirmation, though she had a good idea.
"All these people... Disney Planet is not known to have a high crime rate, but look, all these people are upset... and where are the children?"
Rose watched the Doctor, feeling that nervous fluttering of adrenaline in her stomach.
Suddenly the Doctor's tone of voice changed from serious and thoughtful to a childish half-whine. "Oh, and I thought to myself: 'Disney Planet. The one place I could go where nothing could possibly go wrong.' What I get for thinking..."
"Want to find out what's doing on?" Rose asked with a playful lilt in her voice, while William rolled his eyes.
Without responding to her the Doctor bounded forward a few steps to the police counter. "Could you tell me what's going on here?"
"I'm sorry, sir, but you'll have to get in line," said a thin police officer behind the window as he pushed his ill-fitting glasses back up his nose.
Rose glanced to check on William and then watched as the Doctor retrieved the psychic paper from his coat pocket and flashed it to the policeman.
"Oh! Why didn't you say so?" the policeman asked in a bit of a frantic tone as the buzzed the Doctor through a door to the side of his glass-enclosed booth. "I'm really sorry," he said to the next rather distraught looking woman in the line.
The Doctor's presence made the angry shouting louder, but it couldn't be helped so Rose turned her attentions to William. "You all right?"
"Yes," William said without looking at her, watching the Doctor. "Who is he?"
"He's the Doctor, and I'm Rose. Rose Tyler."
"He's just 'the Doctor'?"
"That's him," Rose replied with a smile, looking more squarely down at William.
"Nice to meet you, then, Rose Tyler," William said at length, extending his hand and methodically shaking hers, though he finally did look up at her eyes. "William Edinburgh," he offered as further explanation.
Rose furrowed her brow thoughtfully. "'Edinburgh'... like Edinburgh, Scotland?"
"Yeah. Old Earth family was supposed to have been from there." William shoved his hand down into his pockets and looked blankly forward. Something about him reminded Rose of the Doctor. Still, she shrugged it off as she saw the Doctor jog back over to them and stop in front of her.
"So?" she asked, finding herself looking very intently into his eyes as they stood facing each other, but the Doctor didn't seem to notice before she had the chance to shake herself.
"All of these people have had children go missing in the last few weeks, and that's not something that happens on Disney Planet... Although something my buddy Ned over there noticed was that the incidence of children going missing seemed concentrated in this area, with only a few cases outside it. Also, nothing has been released on the Planet's official news channel..."
Rose nodded and as soon as she did the Doctor ran off, a spark in his eyes showing he had a plan as he found the nearest free computer terminal. He pulled out the sonic screwdriver and began navigating through the system.
William looked at Rose, wondering what they were meant to do in this instance and when she followed the Doctor so did he.
"So you think they're hiding something?" Rose asked when she was positioned at the Doctor's shoulder.
"Hiding something? No, I think someone's doing something- something with those kids and when I find out what I'm going to stop it."
Rose made a sound but before it could turn into a word the Doctor went on to say, "Seven."
"What?"
"What is that thing?" William interrupted, pointing to the screwdriver.
"Sonic screwdriver," the Doctor and Rose replied in unison, both turning their heads to look at him.
"You're nutters."
"Seriously," the two of them said in unison again. Rose smiled and pressed her lips together to let the Doctor finish, gently gripping his shoulder once through his long coat.
"It's a screwdriver and it's..." He pressed the button twice, causing the end of it to glow blue, "...sonic."
William rolled his eyes and walked off a little ways. "Right. Not nutters at all."
"Will-" Rose began as she turned to watch him go, nearly going after him.
"He'll be back," the Doctor assured her and directed her attention back to the monitor.
William heard the Doctor and his feet slowed, stopping in spite of his intentions to leave. Maybe he shouldn't give up on the odd couple just yet. After all, this was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to him beneath the neon lights of the Planet. Even though he wasn't quite sure what was going on he at least felt as though he could be involved; most of all he felt wanted. There had been plenty of families who had taken pity on him since he had lived with his uncle, but it had never lasted very long- how could it? Those people had children of their own. So ever night with was back home to the slums of the Planet. The slums were a place few people knew existed. At one time it had been as bright, new and shining as the rest of the Planet but has the profit machine kicked in high gear the permanent residents, the working class who made the Planet what it was, had been largely forgotten.
William was drawn back into the present by the Doctor's voice. "...seven," he repeated. "All the children who have gone missing have been seven years old- all human."
Rose waited patiently as she watched the Doctor's eyes flicker with thought, his tongue pressing at his lower lip for a moment. She heard William's slowly reproaching footsteps and glanced back and held out her hand to him. "Come on," she coaxed and motioned with her fingers. When William reluctantly stepped within her reach she gently gripped his shoulder and pulled him closer to her, making sure he saw her smile at him. After a moment of merely maintaining eye contact with the little boy who seemed so hurt and so closed she directed her attention back to the Doctor as he cleared his throat.
William watched Rose's eyes shift but took special note that her grip round his shoulder didn't loosen. She still knew he was there. The Doctor and Rose were like no two people William had ever seen before. Sure, he'd seen hundreds of thousands of families mill on and off the planet- all laughs and smiles and hugs and balloons, and all completely unbelievable. But the Doctor and Rose- they weren't like that- they weren't perfect; they weren't pretending to be. They didn't talk about the kids or the money or the yacht, but they still had purpose- seemingly a much greater purpose than those other people did. The Doctor and Rose just worked; they seemed to understand each other without any of those false pretenses. Still, William thought, they'll forget about me sooner or later.
"Aha!" the Doctor explained, seeming to jump back from the screen a bit when Rose looked at him. "That's it." He stepped back forward and spoke softly so only Rose and William could hear. "Every sector of the Planet has the same layout beneath its central building. Behind us and beneath our feet there are floors of office space and a hospital. Now, the office space varies a bit from building to building, but the hospitals- they are all meant to be the same, each with seven floors below the surface- but this building only has six hospital floors on file. But that's a problem," the Doctor finished, his voice raising a bit as he stood straight again. "That's a problem because that means someone is taking those kids and hiding them down there, and that someone just developed a great, big problem with me. But seven-year-olds... why seven-year-olds? And the seventh floor beneath... I need someplace to think." And with that the Doctor turned, his long coat whipping up briefly as he led the way out of the central building.
"Come on, Will," Rose said gently as she hugged him to her and began to follow the Doctor.
"It's William," he insisted, tensing against her, though he made no effort to move away.
"All right," Rose replied, making the irritation that returned to her voice when the Doctor glanced back at her with a bit of a look. "Come on, William," she tried again, though she still couldn't help but mock him a bit.
For a long time the Doctor wandered around among the throngs of tourists with Rose and William not far behind. Rose watched him with concern; usually he would have at least talked to her about it but ever since they had left the central building there had only been silence. She tried to brush it off, though. The Doctor had always carried a soft spot for children and the thought that someone was taking them from their families and possibly harming them was probably even more upsetting to him than it was to her... and even she had a bit of a problem dealing with the fact that anyone could hurt children.
"So this is what you do?" William asked, breaking her reverie.
"Do what?"
"Follow him around," he replied, gesturing to the Doctor with his hand.
Rose ran her hand over William's shoulder again as she looked at the Doctor, watching him walk just a bit ahead. "Sort of," she whispered, a smile spreading slowly across her face as her mind drifted back. "Sort of, yeah."
"I should be getting back," William said as he shrugged his shoulder free of Rose's hand.
The Doctor finally tuned back around and looked from William's eyes to Rose's.
William noticed the look and bristled defensively. "You haven't got to feel sorry for me!" He stood straight and at attention, part of him wanting to run back to the familiar no matter how bad it was. It didn't matter how much he hated the neon lights spinning round and round, the smoke in the underbelly, the sound of other children's laughter that ran hollow in his ears- it was the only home he could remember. The Doctor knelt down in front of him, and as William looked into his eyes something made him want to stay and want to run away as far as he could even more, all at once. Something so much bigger, so much darker, and so much grander than anything William had ever believed could exist. Around the Doctor and Rose it was like the air changed and it almost seemed like neither of them quite belonged where they stood.
When the Doctor caught his attention and spoke it seemed to completely counterpoint the myriad of profound thoughts that seemed to be broadening William's mind by the second with his light, almost playful tone. "Ah, come on, don't leave yet. There's still so much Rose and I've got to show you. No kid who lives her should grow up not enjoying it! Every second and every light."
Rose beamed and joined them by the Doctor's side and looked into William's eyes when the Doctor had finished and nodded for him to listen. But when the Doctor spoke again his tone changed.
"But first, there's something going on here. Something beneath the surface and it's probably not good. It's probably very not-good. So I've got to wait until I can find out what it is and stop it." He brandished his sonic screwdriver and looked at the blue top from nervous habit, looking up from the tip at the sky. "Oh, I do hate waiting. Still, might as well make it worth it. Why don't we go find one of these swanky hotels and crash for a bit?"
"Doctor..." Rose said, softly placing her hand on his shoulder.
"Yes?" he asked, looking into her eyes. "What? Was that rude, or...?"
"No, just, what if William's uncle comes looking for him?"
"Him?" William scoffed.
"Nah. Come on."
They walked down the busy street again, looking for the entire world like any other tourist family.
"Here we are," the Doctor said, opening the shiny, metallic, retro door for Rose and William to walk through.
Rose looked up as she walked inside, noting that the hotel was taller than many of the surrounding buildings but wasn't as brightly lit. Especially in light of what the last year of her life had been like, it wasn't as frequent for her to become bright-eyed with wonder, but she was surprised at how similar to the hotels on Earth this one was. Before she could become too distracted the Doctor put his hand on the small of her back and led her inside.
As the Doctor walked inside, William just ahead, the Doctor for a moment found it much more difficult to take his hand off Rose than it ever should have been. The more mechanical, logical side of him noted how different, even though her clothes, she felt in comparison to his own body. Although, the fact that he noted it at all could prove to be a problem. As soon as he could he let go and walked to the concierge’s desk, carefully not looking at Rose until he could clear his throat.
"Do you have reservations, sir?"
The man at the desk straightened his vest which was blazoned on the chest with the typical Disney mouse ears with his name in the center and smiled in a way that was gracious, however mechanic.
"Well," the Doctor began leisurely, glancing back at Rose and William thoughtfully. "No, not as such, but I do have this. Suppose you could help us out?"
He retrieved the psychic paper from his coat pocket and flipped it open like a badge.
Rose noticed the battered wallet and walked over to the Doctor curiously, putting her palms on the front desk and tiptoeing forward a bit in hopes of seeing what identity the Doctor had supplied this time.
He looked into her eyes, almost guiltily, and deftly shoved it back into his pocket as the concierge had already begun registering them in the hotel on his partially transparent touch screen.
Rose frowned at him, her lip assuming a very slight pout as she turned on her heels and leaned the small of her back against the high desk, crossing her arms and waiting impatiently.
The Doctor sighed as he watched her telltale body language as the concierge turned to another touch screen behind him to register their keycards.
"Just like your mother," the Doctor mumbled, but before Rose's ten fully gaping mouth could respond the Doctor skillfully turned his attentions back to the concierge. "Thank you, sir," he said enthusiastically as he took the cards.
When he turned from the desk to lead on to the room Rose turned to face in squarely, looking up at him with her bright hazel eyes rather confrontationally, her arms still folded across her chest.
He glanced around nervously just once before donning his most disarming smile. "Key cards," he said brightly and immediately both of them thought of the sonic screwdriver at the simple power of suggestion. Rose's glare melted into soft laughter as she looked down and hooked her thumbs in her pockets, biting her lift. When she looked up a bit she tentatively took the card the Doctor offered to her and slipped it into her back pocket, then looked back into the Doctor's dark eyes.
"I'm really not sure about this," William said as he came to stand next to them.
"Oh, don't be a spoilsport," the Doctor insisted. "I thought maybe we could go kill some time..." The Doctor hesitated and rubbed his chin thoughtfully for a moment. "Ooh, not such a good word choice for me. Anyway! I thought we could, I dunno..." He looked at Rose for a moment, searching for any sort of idea that would keep William away from his apparently rather unpleasant uncle while he could work out some sort of a plan to deal with the bigger problem at hand. "...watch The Lion King?" He grinned at Rose, remembering last Christmas.
"I told you, I hate Disney!" William insisted a bit peevishly.
The concierge stopped what he was doing and suddenly stared at William as though he had just turned to a pillar of salt.
The Doctor smiled apologetically and leaned toward the man to whisper, "He's a troubled child. The shrink said this would do his good."
"Oi!" William said aloud before the Doctor turned to him again.
"Come on, then?" He put his hand on the boy's shoulder.
William looked at the Doctor's hand as thought it was a venomous snake for a moment but still didn't walk away, settling after a moment and looking the Doctor square in the eye.
"If you don't like it you can go home," Rose offered.
"Fine," William sighed.
"Great," Rose beamed and gently hugged William's shoulders from behind.
The Doctor gestured to the lift behind William. "First floor, A87. You lead the way?"
He gave William the second key card as Rose nudged his shoulders forward, toward the elevator.
After a silent ascent to the first floor William stroke purposefully, following the posted signs to the room. Rose and the Doctor followed just behind, as always side-by-side. For a moment more the silence lingered until, when William paused to read another directional sign, Rose took the Doctor's hand and touched her chin to his shoulder briefly, looking at him. "Come on, tell me..."
"Tell you what?"
"Who are we?" she asked with childlike excitement bubbling over for a few seconds.
The Doctor tried to keep his eyes forward, now realizing what she was talking about. "How many times have we been over this? Thought you'd outgrown it by now. I'm the Doctor and you are Rose Marion Tyler. And that boy there, that's William... something," he replied nervously, gesturing with his hand appropriately to each of them as he spoke.
"Edinburgh."
"What?"
"William. His name's William Edinburgh, he said."
"Scotland," the Doctor muttered.
"Yes, but you know what I meant. Been a while since you used the psychic paper to get us in somewhere, so what did it say?"
The Doctor cleared his throat a bit and pushed his hands into his pockets, subconsciously securing the object that was suddenly causing him so much discomfort. "Just told them I was Sir Doctor of the British Empire."
"So there really is a British Empire in the future?"
"Yeah. Once space travel got big, colonialism happened all over again. As you'd imagine interplanetary civil wars are a bit of a mess--"
"Doctor," Rose interrupted to prevent an hour-long lecture. "What about me? What about William? How'd you get us in?"
"Well..." the Doctor grimaced.
"Well?" Rose asked, raising her eyebrows and smiling sweetly.
The Doctor sighed and his shoulders slumped as he looked at her briefly, apparently embarrassed. "Fine. Well, I told them that I was a knight, and you and William... my lady and my heir," he said a cryptically as he could, but sighed, relenting once again. "My... wife and son."
Rose's eyes widened a bit and for a moment she nearly lost her footing as she continued walking but just stared at the Doctor, suddenly having no idea what to say. She shook herself a bit once the Doctor made no further move to discuss- she was behind stupid, it was just simple. Who knew what these people's sensibilities were if not the Doctor? "R-Right," she finally managed as evenly as possible and formed her lips into a smile.
"Here it is," William said with a twinge of pride and relief as he carefully slid the card and opened the door, walking it and briefly holding the door until the Doctor caught it and held it for Rose.
Rose stepped through it, grateful for something else on which to focus her attentions.
William shifted uncomfortably, rubbing his left hand up and down his right arm, standing the middle of the large common room. "You must be rich," he murmured softly.
The Doctor smiled, trying to catch Rose's now somewhat sheepish eyes as he spoke, "Ah, we get by..."
Rose smiled tightly and swallowed hard as she looked down and gripped the soft back of an arm chair, running her hand back and forth. "This is nice," she said softly at length, slowly walking around the chair, looking at the varied decoration.
The Doctor looked from Rose to William and back again. He sighed heavily and stepped within whispering distance of her and began to reach out for her hand but found himself hesitating and only resting his next to hers. "You all right?"
She started a bit as he spoke and looked up at his eyes and cautiously moved her hand over his, pushing her hair behind her ear with the other. "Yeah. Fine."
The Doctor quickly looked away and took on the most enthusiastic spirit he could muster. "Right. The Lion King," he said as he went to the television set and began using a secondary touch screen to tune and select The Lion King from a list of the now-hundreds of Disney Classics. "Have a seat, Will."
William only groaned and flopped down on the sofa with his arms folded. It was hopeless, he had decided, to make this man understand his reasoning. 'Will' was a name his father had called him. Father was gone now, though, and William was alone. It was time to grow up. William looked at the Doctor, mildly perplexed by the fact that though just an hour earlier this man seemed to have found something important and dangerous, he was now sitting back on the sofa watching an animated sunrise. The Doctor had said something about needing to wait, needing to think- but this? And that was what was most confusing about the Doctor's life: no matter how much damage or pain or mystery rose to the surface there was always time and reason to watch cartoons.
"Rose?" the Doctor asked, patting the spot on the sofa to the other side of him.
Rose came just around the armchair and sat in it, ignoring the little slump in the Doctor's shoulders that only she could see.
William sighed again and directed his attentions toward the television. There was no getting away from these two, and even if he could what would be the point? After a few moments of watching he cautiously tapped the Doctor's forearm and whispered, completely unsure of whether it was appropriate to talk. "How come..."
"Yes?" the Doctor urged.
Rose leaned her arms against her knees to show attention and listen.
William frowned and finally asked at length, "How come the animals are talking? They're not aliens or anything... they're just Old Earth animals- they don't talk do they?"
The Doctor looked at Rose and laughed nervously. It'd been a while since he had dealt with kids- and never one of this caliber. A child indwelled by an Isolus? That was one thing. But a child who refused to actually be a child... that was another. The question was so much bigger than the cartoon. "Well, no, not as such but..."
When he trailed off Rose chimed in finally, her mouth slightly agape. "You've really never seen a cartoon before?"
William shrugged, feeling almost embarrassed. "Not since I was a baby."
"But you live in a place where everything is about cartoons..."
"Well, it's about time, then. Don't you think?" the Doctor asked gently. Before anyone could respond the Doctor wrapped his arm around William's shoulders and pointed to the movie. "In cartoons, they use animals as characters because they're easy archetypes. Archetypes are like representations of certain ideas or kinds of people. The lions: lions are thought to be brave and strong... but they also have big families that are supposed to help each other. The monkey there, he's meant to be the wise old sage, which is something else called irony- though monkeys can be smart. Apes can sometimes surprise you..."
Rose tried to pay some attention to the movie but couldn't help listening to the Doctor's every word. At the mention of apes she folded her hands together and pressed them to her lips to stop herself laughing and began to watch them out of the corner of her eye. She watched as the Doctor gesticulated with nearly every word, her hidden smile widening with each wave of his hands it seemed. She sighed, thinking how much she had missed that.
Slowly William became more conversant, his interest becoming apparent, and each time he had a question the Doctor answered it thoroughly. His patience and enthusiasm never seemed to wane. Rose began thinking about the Doctor's long-ago, irritatingly ambiguous reference to being a father, or at least, to having been a father. She had thought about it far too much, actually. But this time it was different; it wasn't a kind of irrational jealousy or a morbid curiousity. Only the very clear thought that he would have been good at it- being a dad. And having known her father, having loved Pete from both worlds, but never really having a dad, she knew how much that meant.
The Doctor had been a father. It was something she had known for what felt like ages, but another level of its reality was sinking in. She had lost her father- far too soon, but losing your parents? That was a natural part of life. But the Doctor had lost his child, children, whatever he'd had... all gone. All dead. Lost as the victims of war...
Rose felt her skin get hot and her eyes well with tears, and she quickly stood up and walked toward the bathroom. "Going to the loo," she explained quickly without letting either of them see her eyes.
"All right," the Doctor said, furrowing his brow a bit and shrugging as he turned back to William and The Lion King.
When she entered he bathroom she turned and sat down on the counter, facing away from the mirror while try to keep the tears from running down her face. After a moment she turned to her left and used one hand to get some cold water in one of the hotel's courtesy cups and drank it as quickly as possible, trying to compose herself. She believed she had become the master of hiding tears in the last several months. She waited for a bit, breathing deeply and then sprang up, flushing the toilet and running the tap for a moment aimlessly so no questions would be asked.
When she sat down again she leaned against the chair and lost herself in the movie as best she could. That was how the next hour passed, in silent reverence of The Lion King. She looked up again as the credits began to roll and saw that William was dozing against the Doctor's shoulder. She pulled herself forward and stood quietly, whispering to the Doctor, "How long has he been asleep?"
"Dunno. Few minutes. Was afraid if I moved I'd wake him up."
"You just like cartoons," she teased as the two of them, with one mind, carefully hoisted the boy up and carried him to the single, however obscenely large bed and placed him right in the middle.
From either side of the bed the Doctor and Rose looked at each other, neither of them sure what to do next. Almost simultaneously they sat down and leaned back in the still-made bed on either side of William, Rose turning to look at the Doctor first.
"If you know what's happening to those kids, why are we here?"
"I don't. Not exactly."
"But we're here watching The Lion King instead of figuring it out?"
"Going to wait until the shift change, now."
"When's that?"
"In the central building it's 3 AM."
"Still, that's not like you. All this waiting," she mused as she looked more squarely at him.
"Oh, I would have e loved to have marched right down there earlier, but I could risk it with young William, here."
"You're... good with kids."
The Doctor beamed, even though by the look in his eyes she could tell it was a bit of a sad smile.
"And you, Rose Tyler, always say the right thing."
She could only try to stifle laughter as a response.
"At least in this case, I hope you do. ’Cause it sounds like I might be these kids' only shot."
"What's the plan, then?"
"We wait until 2:30 and go down to the Central Building and take the back way in to the hospital complex and work out way down. Find out what's going on, tell our police friends upstairs, then disappear back here before he wakes up," he rattled off as quickly as he could speak.
"Nothing's ever that easy with you," Rose said as she turned onto her back and stared at the ceiling.
"I can hope, can't I?"
"Sure," Rose yawned.
The Doctor smiled at the sound- one that he almost never made. "You're not going to sleep, are you?"
"Me? Sleep? When do I ever?" she complained as she closed her eyes, planning to attempt a power nap no matter how much he whined about it.
Waking to the Doctor's voice and his hand on her shoulder was something Rose enjoyed entirely too much, to the point that she almost pretended to still be asleep so he would try again, but some part of her mind scolded her with a spark of electricity and she was instantly and fully awake.
"Come on," he urged as she put her feet on the floor.
"All right. Coming," she said, more to herself than to him, as she stood and pushed her hair behind her ears and followed him out the door.
William stirred at the sound of the door and, as he realized he was in a bed instead of a mattress on the floor, he remembered the Doctor's original reason for coming to the hotel. He hopped out of bed and felt for the keycard and walked out the door, determined to follow them. They couldn't expect him to listen to stories about bravery and courage and then stay behind when he had the chance to find out if any of it was true. A cartoon was a cartoon- but this time he wondered if someone like the Doctor, someone like Rose- he wondered if they were what made it real. So real that they made entire worlds for those ideas. Wherever they were gong something made him want to follow.
"Why isn't security any better than this? It's a hospital."
"It's a hospital," the Doctor repeated as they descended the long staircase, flight after flight, toward the bottom secret floor.
Rose paused for a moment and blinked. "Shouldn't someone do something about it, though? There are sick people here."
"Oh... they do... occasionally. Political campaigns are almost always about healthcare reform. Now you see why I don't like hospitals."
Rose just frowned and kept following until they reached a door that was locked and marked "Private" in place of the typical doors that lead to the floors-proper.
"People are just so daft," the Doctor remarked as he went about destroying the locking mechanism with the sonic screwdriver.
"You're being rude again..." Rose remarked in a soft, sing-song voice barely above a whisper.
"Really, though. You put "Private" on a door and lock it? You ought to know someone’s going to come knocking when you make it so obvious you don't want them to... It's like making the most dangerous, most important button red," he explained, pushing the door back and peeking round before going through.
"Getting rusty?"
"Well it was a good lock- I'll give them that."
When another flight of stairs ended, they reached a set of sliding, ultramodern, white, electronic doors that lay in stark contrast with the rest of the hospital which was several decades behind in its development. Once again the Doctor began manipulating another touch screen by the doors as Rose watched over his shoulder. Her experience with working at Torchwood had made her better able to understand many of the computer protocols- before typing had been about her limit- but, she would never understand how he did it so quickly. But then, she couldn't understand how he had Pride & Prejudice memorized either. The farthest she ever got with memorization was Spiderman 2.
The Doctor began to ramble a bit so neither of them noticed William slipping down the stairs, one by one, waiting and watching in the shadows. He couldn't believe the Doctor had been right. There was something down beneath the surface that no one else knew about. Something secret going on under all the lights. The doors hissed to slide back and he went down a few more steps to see a laboratory of sorts behind them, all white and chrome illuminated by a sickly blue glow.
The Doctor took Rose's hand and gripped it tightly and they stepped through the doors, standing just past the threshold, keeping the doors from closing. He looked around a felt a bit of a sinking feeling when he noticed the burly security staff blocking the exit but was driven on by a sight that outraged him: from floor to ceiling along the back wall were life support tanks, hundreds of children suspended in blue gel, dressed in hospital gowns with electrodes attached at their temples.
"Hello," he began, his tone not matching his mood in the slightest as he addressed the elderly man in a lab coat who stood back from his touch screen. He seemed to be the man-in-charge in spite of his small, withered stature.
"How did you get in here?" came the shaky voice.
"I'll be the one asking the questions," the Doctor said, his voice taking on a kind of aggression through his eloquence.
William slipped inside behind the commotion, slipping beneath a lab table and watching in absolute silence. It now seemed the Doctor and Rose could use some help, but it was now, when he needed to be the most grown-up that he felt the most helpless. All those children on the wall... he knew they were alive but he could only imagine what terrible things must have happened for all of them to need those tanks...
Things went from bad to worse when two of the guards stepped forward and pulled the Doctor and Rose's hands apart and behind their backs and fastened them with clear electronic bonds that glowed blue for a moment to indicate that they had successfully locked.
The Doctor sighed and looked at Rose. "Nothing ever is that easy, is it?"
Rose just rolled her eyes. She wasn't so much frightened as annoyed. What could the old man want with them anyway? Still, she had to try not to look at the wall- at all of those children- until they found a way to free them.
"All right. You want to do it that way? Fine. But now tell me, what are you doing with those children?!" the Doctor asked the man in the white coat even more angrily.
"My name is Dr. Matthews."
"We don't care who you are. Just tell us what's going on," Rose chimed in, slowly wriggling her wrists again the bonds with little success.
"I'm terribly sorry. This is a great misunderstanding. I just couldn't have the pair of you waltzing in here and destroying the great and saving work that has begun here."
"'Great and saving work'?" the Doctor asked with raised eyebrows.
"This single facility will save Disney's magic throughout all civilisation for centuries!"
"All right, this is the one and only time I'm going to ask calmly. What are you doing to the children?"
"For as long as the Disney Corporation has existed it has been kept great by one thing: imagination. But now it has come to see a time when imagination has been replaced by industrialism and intergalactic urban sprawl. You must know how things are these days. But children, these children, could change all of that with just the simple power of their imaginations. In this state they never tire, never become sick, and never feel pain. All of them lost in a world or pleasant dreams while the machine reads their imaginations- their brainwaves- and translates it into useable information for this planet and every other Disney franchise in the galaxy."
"You're absorbing their brainwaves? That can cause permanent brain damage."
"And these are kids," Rose added, having given up on her attempt to loosen the tie around her wrists. "They've got parents who are devastated looking for them."
All the while listening, William searched the room for a way out for himself and the others. Each other tanks had a keypad, but even if he could reach all of them he'd be caught before he could unlock them all. And what about Rose and the Doctor? On the side wall several flashing buttons and conduits ran along a panel as the conduits snaked their way to the ceiling. It seemed that they led to the tanks and further encircled the room, something protruding from each attaching itself to every electronic device in the room.
"I let them go before any damage is done. They're the perfect age and, when they awake they won't remember a thing except happy dreams."
"It's still wrong. Now, I am commanding you to let them go!"
"I'm sorry, sir, but I can't. The pain of a few families that will be temporary is the price which must be paid for an everlasting result."
Before the Doctor could speak Rose shouted the very thing the Doctor would have had he been given the chance. Just remembering the eyes of all the heartbroken and angry parents of the children made her feel a kind of righteous anger she was sure the Doctor felt all the time. "Let them go or we'll stop you!"
William's eyes had a goal now; they were directed toward a large while letters above a single, large, ironically-red button which red "Emergency Release" in white letters on a plaque above. After some silent deliberation he had decided that in this room that was only likely to mean one thing. Now that even Rose, who was gentle by nature from what he'd seen, seemed to be getting very angry and the two of them had not yet escaped it seemed that the ball was rolling ever-closer to his side of the court. Still, looking at the silent, statue-like security staff, it was hard to move.
"That's... regrettable," Dr. Matthews sighed, turning his back to them and looking up at his mausoleum of yet-living children. "For I cannot let this dream die. Project Development has been my responsibility for fifty years. In my youth it was easy. My own imagination continually fascinated my employers, but now those days lie in the dust. The advent of an entire planet built on sheer imagination... but now there's no imagination left. Which is why, I'm sorry to say," he turned around and looked both the Doctor and Rose squarely in the eyes, a look of active, pitiful madness in his own as he continued in a high, excited pitch, "that you cannot be allowed to leave either. You cannot destroy the dream!"
"That dream is nothing when it's achieved like this!" the Doctor argued.
Now Rose looked around more nervously. There was always the possibility that this was it. They could be trapped here with no way out. Sometimes with the Doctor it was easy to feel invincible. During her time away from his she had become very keenly aware of her mortality, and even of the Doctor's ultimate mortality, but after defying the impossible so many times to be standing next to him it was still easy to forget. She thought about poor William and what he'd think if it seemed they had just abandoned him in the middle of the night. She was jolted back as all at once the guards began to push them to walk forward and the Doctor called out with surprise at the sound of small, running feet.
"William?"
"Why didn't you stay where it was safe?" Rose asked in a high pitch.
By that time the guards had left their already-detained prisoners to go after the little boy who was running headlong toward the most important of important buttons in the room.
The Doctor took one step to stand closer to Rose. "Just like your mother."
"Shut up. We've got to help him."
"That," the Doctor began- would have pointed at her had he had use of his hands, "was rude. What are we doing to do anyway? I think Willy-boy may have something. Just watch."
In a matter of seconds William nearly collided with the wall and depressed the button with all the strength in his little arms. Everything with any sort of locking or hold device: the tanks, the hand-bonds- even the cabinets- fell open and unlocked and each of the tanks began an automatic process in which the tanks began cycling down and flattening out like stretchers, each stretcher rolling with automatic wheels into an accessible formation. Inside the tanks each of the children began to rouse and cough up the sticky blue liquid.
In the commotion William slipped right beneath security staff and crawled on his hands and knees discreetly but quickly until he ran clear and grabbed Rose's now-free hand as the Doctor grabbed her other.
"Time to go," the Doctor said as he led them up the stairs at top speed. "Rose, phone?"
Rose let go of the Doctor's hand, momentarily stopping on their journey up the stairs as she gave it to him.
After he had buzzed it with the sonic screwdriver twice and put it up to his ear they were running again, the Doctor a bit ahead as he called the police desk and began explaining to the officer-on-duty what was going on just below his feet.
When they reached the top Rose and William waited patiently as the Doctor unlocked the door to the police lobby. William was growing accustomed to the routine now.
"Listen, I'm telling you the truth. They're all just beneath your feet."
The door swung open and the Doctor gave Rose's phone back to her and sprinted over to the desk, in the front of another distraught couple looking for their little girl. Gesturing to the crowd of parents behind him he made eye contact with the police officer.
"Just look," he insisted.
----
Within the hour children were being carefully carried up the stairs on proper stretcher and being thoroughly checked by hospital doctors.
William watched as frail and rather gooey children were reunited with their families and for the first time in a long time he didn't resent them. This time he just had to fight the tears for his own parents much harder.
"You did it, Will- oh, sorry, William," the Doctor beamed as he patted him firmly on the shoulder.
"'Will' is fine."
"Really, now?" Rose teased as she squeezed his other shoulder, playfully nudging his side. "All of them get to go home now," she said softly, her eyes finding their way to the Doctor.
"I should, too, I guess..." William pulled away and turned around, as ready as he'd ever be to say his goodbyes. At least these people had done something for him.
Rose frowned and nudged the Doctor's shoulder gently and nodded toward William.
"You... could come with us," the Doctor said, rubbing the back of his neck. He wasn't as sure about this as Rose was, but he did think it would do the boy some good to get away from the Planet for a while.
"Come with you?"
Rose grinned at the Doctor as she knelt in front of Will as he turned back round to give him the pitch.
"The Doctor has this ship called the TARDIS. It's not just a space ship but it's a time ship. It can go anywhere at any point in all of history. That's how we got here... and it's bigger on the inside."
"It can't be."
"It is," the Doctor almost whined. "I'll show you."
"Well... don't suppose there's any reason to stay here..."
"If you don't like it you can always come home."
Rose extended her hand. "What do you say?"
The three of them returned to the alleyway. When he had unlocked it he let William go through first.
"It really is. It's bigger on the inside."
"Now, Will, you can stay as long as you like but there will be rules here for you just like anyone else. First of all a bedtime," the Doctor said in a gently paternal tone that came second-nature.
"Where are we going to put him tonight?" Rose asked as she took off her jacket.
"He can stay in my room until we can work out other arrangements."
"But I’m not tired," Will insisted. He couldn't sleep now. His eyes couldn't possibly stop looking around the magnificent time ship.
"Compromise. Rose and I can watch a movie with you until you are. What do you think? Pinocchio?"
"Sure," Rose said, yawning a bit and trying to stifle it.
"You're tired again?" The Doctor asked.
"I'm going to get ready for bed, then I'll help Will. You two go find something for him to sleep in."
"I can't do it," the Doctor said a bit awkwardly.
"Do what?"
"I'll get him ready for bed."
"All right," Rose said with a chuckle and raise of her eyebrows as she went down the hall to the bathroom and, after she had brushed her teeth and washed her face, to her bedroom.
The Doctor did enjoy cartoons entirely too much he had decided, but he had also decided it would be something of a flaw he wouldn't even try to fix.
"Sorry. Started it yet?" Rose asked when she came into the Doctor's room, wearing her pajamas which consisted of a white tee shirt and light pink shorts.
The Doctor swallowed hard in spite of himself as he subconsciously looked her up and down once. After the momentary lapse he smiled rather smugly. "It takes you that long just to get ready for bed?"
Rose rolled her eyes and crawled into the Doctor's bed between him and William. "I'm not sure I've ever seen you wear pajamas more than four times including tonight."
"That's because I don't sleep all the time."
"Oi."
"You're only human. Now let William watch the movie." He nodded toward the little boy whose eyes were already batting rapidly.
The Doctor and Rose watched with silent smiles as William drifted off to sleep. When his breathing deepened Rose turned over to face the Doctor. Their eyes met and the Doctor felt his hearts speed up a bit, inhibitions worn thin and his mind torn.
"Something isn't it?" he asked.
"What?"
"Lonely, mixed-up kids who need each other."
Rose impulsively leaned forward and pressed her lips against the Doctor's, kissing him softly before pulling back to smile at the memory. It was the first time she'd been able to smile at memories without also being on the verge of tears in a while.
"Rose," the Doctor managed nervously, blushing a bit, having one of those rare speechless moments.
"We can talk about it later." Rose yawned again and slowly slipped down further in the Doctor's bed and leaned her head against his chest, one arm wrapped loosely around him.
He opened his mouth to speak, to explain all the reasons things shouldn't change between them, but as he looked down at her peacefully resting face and noticed how right it felt to have her so close all those arguments seemed null and void. He found himself getting relaxed and a bit sleepy. He smiled over Will- it was nice to have a kid around again- and then cautiously put his arm around Rose and, more comfortable that he'd been in a long time, the Time Lord slept.
Fin
First draft completed: 6 August 2007
Final draft completed: 26 August 2007