Gift for larakailyn, Part the Third.
For: larakailyn
Part Three
Notes: Part One is here, Part Two is here.
Why not, Rose thought, and sighed.
"All right, then. I'm not dressing up, mind."
---
The party turned out not to have been Beth's at all, but another friend's, and everyone was invited to bring along someone else. It was themed, but the theme was "come as you were", so Rose felt perfectly justified in wearing just her red hooded top and jeans. It was what she'd woken up in, after all, so it fit the theme.
According to Jackie, it had meant something about past lives, but most people took it to mean dressing up as they wanted.
An elderly Marilyn Monroe flirted with a young vicar, a geisha talked busily to a masked man in a tuxedo, and the dressed up mingled with those who couldn't be bothered in a way that made everyone seem disguised.
Rose sat on a stool beside the kitchen buffet, now a makeshift bar, and gazed at the disarray. There were too many people in the house and, well, she should've known better than to have gone. She felt odd, and sort of lonely.
"What'll you have?" asked the bartender, a man who must have been paid to be there among the older couples. He was rather handsome, Rose considered, and so she smiled at him.
She thought of drinks that she could order, and almost said a Martini, before the thought slipped away from her reach again. "Surprise me," she said, and turned back to watch the crowd for a bit.
Jackie was talking to a group of friends, and Richard, dressed all in black, sat with some others, watching Jackie in a way that seemed... protective. That was it. And perhaps a bit lonely. Rose felt like talking to him, but he had been a bit distant when they'd been introduced, so she decided against it.
Instead, she turned back to the bar, where the bartender was twisting bottles around with an agonised expression on his face. He looked like the bartender from Cocktail, if Tom Cruise's part had been played by Keanu Reeves circa The Matrix.
Rose giggled at that thought, and the bartender looked up briefly. A small bottle careened out of his hand, only to smash against the bottom of the buffet table.
"I'll clean it," they both said, and Rose grinned again. She searched in the kitchen cupboards for some paper towels or something, while the bartender stood up and flashed a grin at the two old men he'd been serving.
Rose stifled giggles at his explanation, and was glad that he couldn't see her face as she cleaned up the spilt alcohol and bits of glass.
"So, what were you trying to make me?" she asked, after they'd finished and settled again.
He grinned. "A screaming orgasm," he admitted, and Rose noticed that he looked a little flushed.
She looked down at the floor and pointedly said, "Ouch," before both of them began to laugh.
A memory slipped back to Rose, of her laughing with someone else in the same way as this. Gentle flirtation. She remembered the feeling, but there was no image. Just the sound of her laughing with someone, and her feeling slightly mellow with the drink and the company.
Again, Rose found herself wanting to know what the blank space in her memory was. If she'd been travelling, where were her bags? Who was her boyfriend? And why did she have nowhere to go to find this out?
Rose blinked, and focused her mind back to where she was. The bartender had gone to serve Richard, and the mood was over. Richard smiled at her and went to sit back down, and Rose felt frustrated. There had to be something else she hadn't thought of. No wonder she'd run away...
Ah. Someone outside the house screamed, and Rose put down her drink without realising it. She went to investigate. After all, she didn't have anything else to lose.
Following it proved difficult, as the screamer had gone, but a quick duck into one of the nearby streets showed a green blob, a bit like a giant green sweet. It was moving slowly, and arcing bright sparks every so often.
Rose wondered what to do. She couldn't just ring up someone and say, "Look, there's an alien here, and I think it's got some sort of forcefield, come and take care of it, please." And sparking meant it'd probably electrocute her if she got too close.
On the other hand, perhaps she could talk to it? It was worth a try, she decided, and so she asked, "What are you doing here?" She felt like a right wally, talking to a green blob, but it stopped.
It turned around, and moved towards her. Rose backed away slowly, at exactly the same pace, but stopped when she felt someone behind her. She stopped and turned around. Standing behind her was a bald man in a leather jacket who she instantly recognised. The last of her thoughts drifted into place.
"Hello," the Doctor said, grinning. "Fancy seeing you here."
Right, Rose thought, keep sensible. It was difficult, under the sudden rush of memories and feelings, but she managed to say, "There's an alien over there. I didn't want to touch it, because it looks dangerous."
The Doctor moved past Rose and strode forward. He held out the sonic screwdriver and told the alien, "I'm offering you a chance to survive. Just come with me, and I'll drop you back off to your home planet first thing. Don't you miss it back there?"
Rose wondered if the plan would work, but she knew it probably would. He was the Doctor, after all.
In a crackly voice that passed for human, the alien said, "Very well, Doctor. Take us back with you, and we shall cease the invasion."
The Doctor grinned. "Fantastic. Follow me."
Rose wanted to say something, but she didn't know quite what to tell him. After all, he was gone, she'd seen him change. She remembered her other Doctor, the one with the painted nails and the no-nonsense attitude. She could also remember the Doctor she'd left behind, with the big hair and the sideburns. And now... she didn't know what to do.
"Rose, wasn't it?" the Doctor said, turning around. He grinned. "You sure you don't want to come with me this time? I don't usually ask twice."
Rose found herself smiling at the same time as she felt her eyes sting with tears. This was him, and she'd forgotten how she felt for him up close. She just wanted to cling to him and tell him... oh. He'd mentioned asking twice. She understood.
She managed to say, "You'll have to ask me back then, Doctor." Rose walked away, hoping he'd take her advice. But he had, otherwise she wouldn't have gone with him. She'd had to leave, she told herself, otherwise he'd vanish, or be eaten by Reapers, or whatever else happened if you changed the past. Strange, how knowing didn't seem to stop her wanting to do the stupid thing and go back.
After all, there was nothing for her here, and she had a head full of all the amazing things she'd seen. She didn't know how her mum and Mickey had forgotten, but it worried her. And she couldn't just go back and settle down, could she? Not when she knew what it was like out there, not yet. She had stayed, and taken A-Levels, and it had been pleasant, if a little unsatisfying. Then the Doctor had shown up, and Rose had once again left to travel the universe.
Besides, Rose thought, I don't want to settle down if I'm just going to leave again. And she knew that she would, if her Doctor came back.
She'd been walking down the streets automatically again, lost in thought, and now she looked around and found herself lost in a more physical sense. It shouldn't have been possible, given that she knew most of London, but she didn't know where she was.
She heard the sound of the TARDIS, but assumed it was her Doctor's, taking off to whatever planet the green blob came from. In the habit of all humans, her mind seized on this digression, and she thought, Why are such a lot of aliens green?
In doing so, she didn't notice the appearance of the familiar blue police box right in the middle of a driveway. She thought about aliens and anything but her choice to leave the Doctor, until someone interrupted.
"Rose!" she heard someone shout. She turned back, and there was... the other Doctor. He stood there, in his trenchcoat and sneakers, leaning in the doorway of the TARDIS and grinning.
"Come on then," he said, his grin fading. "She asked me to find you, and take you back."
"She?" Rose said. 'She' could be anyone. 'She' could be Queen bloody Victoria for all Rose knew. But the Doctor was grinning again, although in a decidedly more embarassed way. Rose walked over to the TARDIS with a bit of hesitation in her step.
"Well, me," the Doctor admitted. "The one you've been travelling with. She's promised that she'll allow me to erase all trace of that revelation if I rescue you."
"What about her? Is she alright?" Rose asked, worry showing on her face. After all, thought Rose, she'd been on that planet, too.
The Doctor frowned. "She's in discussion with an old friend, one I thought was dead," he said. "I'm not at all confident about how it'll turn out, since I'm to blame for so much, but I shouldn't even know about it. That means there's all the more need to erase my memory."
Rose felt a bit confused, but she looked at the Doctor, and noticed his worry. He didn't want to know, either, she realised.
"I wasn't going to come back again," he said, "but I promised I'd find you when you were ready, and she told me you had been. Are you?" He seemed a lot more serious than she remembered.
He was still the Doctor, Rose knew, and suddenly she felt guilty for having left him. She said, "Yes. I told you you were stuck with me, didn't I?"
He smiled, and moved out of the doorway.
"Now, I've got the directions," he said, "but I wouldn't be surprised if the slight paradoxes lately have affected the temporal circuit. So we may not get there on the first try, but give it some time." He followed her inside the TARDIS, and closed the door behind them.
Rose looked around, and grinned. She felt somewhere she belonged, at least until she got back to her Doctor. "Fantastic," she said, and meant it.
.
.
.
.
Part Three
Notes: Part One is here, Part Two is here.
Why not, Rose thought, and sighed.
"All right, then. I'm not dressing up, mind."
---
The party turned out not to have been Beth's at all, but another friend's, and everyone was invited to bring along someone else. It was themed, but the theme was "come as you were", so Rose felt perfectly justified in wearing just her red hooded top and jeans. It was what she'd woken up in, after all, so it fit the theme.
According to Jackie, it had meant something about past lives, but most people took it to mean dressing up as they wanted.
An elderly Marilyn Monroe flirted with a young vicar, a geisha talked busily to a masked man in a tuxedo, and the dressed up mingled with those who couldn't be bothered in a way that made everyone seem disguised.
Rose sat on a stool beside the kitchen buffet, now a makeshift bar, and gazed at the disarray. There were too many people in the house and, well, she should've known better than to have gone. She felt odd, and sort of lonely.
"What'll you have?" asked the bartender, a man who must have been paid to be there among the older couples. He was rather handsome, Rose considered, and so she smiled at him.
She thought of drinks that she could order, and almost said a Martini, before the thought slipped away from her reach again. "Surprise me," she said, and turned back to watch the crowd for a bit.
Jackie was talking to a group of friends, and Richard, dressed all in black, sat with some others, watching Jackie in a way that seemed... protective. That was it. And perhaps a bit lonely. Rose felt like talking to him, but he had been a bit distant when they'd been introduced, so she decided against it.
Instead, she turned back to the bar, where the bartender was twisting bottles around with an agonised expression on his face. He looked like the bartender from Cocktail, if Tom Cruise's part had been played by Keanu Reeves circa The Matrix.
Rose giggled at that thought, and the bartender looked up briefly. A small bottle careened out of his hand, only to smash against the bottom of the buffet table.
"I'll clean it," they both said, and Rose grinned again. She searched in the kitchen cupboards for some paper towels or something, while the bartender stood up and flashed a grin at the two old men he'd been serving.
Rose stifled giggles at his explanation, and was glad that he couldn't see her face as she cleaned up the spilt alcohol and bits of glass.
"So, what were you trying to make me?" she asked, after they'd finished and settled again.
He grinned. "A screaming orgasm," he admitted, and Rose noticed that he looked a little flushed.
She looked down at the floor and pointedly said, "Ouch," before both of them began to laugh.
A memory slipped back to Rose, of her laughing with someone else in the same way as this. Gentle flirtation. She remembered the feeling, but there was no image. Just the sound of her laughing with someone, and her feeling slightly mellow with the drink and the company.
Again, Rose found herself wanting to know what the blank space in her memory was. If she'd been travelling, where were her bags? Who was her boyfriend? And why did she have nowhere to go to find this out?
Rose blinked, and focused her mind back to where she was. The bartender had gone to serve Richard, and the mood was over. Richard smiled at her and went to sit back down, and Rose felt frustrated. There had to be something else she hadn't thought of. No wonder she'd run away...
Ah. Someone outside the house screamed, and Rose put down her drink without realising it. She went to investigate. After all, she didn't have anything else to lose.
Following it proved difficult, as the screamer had gone, but a quick duck into one of the nearby streets showed a green blob, a bit like a giant green sweet. It was moving slowly, and arcing bright sparks every so often.
Rose wondered what to do. She couldn't just ring up someone and say, "Look, there's an alien here, and I think it's got some sort of forcefield, come and take care of it, please." And sparking meant it'd probably electrocute her if she got too close.
On the other hand, perhaps she could talk to it? It was worth a try, she decided, and so she asked, "What are you doing here?" She felt like a right wally, talking to a green blob, but it stopped.
It turned around, and moved towards her. Rose backed away slowly, at exactly the same pace, but stopped when she felt someone behind her. She stopped and turned around. Standing behind her was a bald man in a leather jacket who she instantly recognised. The last of her thoughts drifted into place.
"Hello," the Doctor said, grinning. "Fancy seeing you here."
Right, Rose thought, keep sensible. It was difficult, under the sudden rush of memories and feelings, but she managed to say, "There's an alien over there. I didn't want to touch it, because it looks dangerous."
The Doctor moved past Rose and strode forward. He held out the sonic screwdriver and told the alien, "I'm offering you a chance to survive. Just come with me, and I'll drop you back off to your home planet first thing. Don't you miss it back there?"
Rose wondered if the plan would work, but she knew it probably would. He was the Doctor, after all.
In a crackly voice that passed for human, the alien said, "Very well, Doctor. Take us back with you, and we shall cease the invasion."
The Doctor grinned. "Fantastic. Follow me."
Rose wanted to say something, but she didn't know quite what to tell him. After all, he was gone, she'd seen him change. She remembered her other Doctor, the one with the painted nails and the no-nonsense attitude. She could also remember the Doctor she'd left behind, with the big hair and the sideburns. And now... she didn't know what to do.
"Rose, wasn't it?" the Doctor said, turning around. He grinned. "You sure you don't want to come with me this time? I don't usually ask twice."
Rose found herself smiling at the same time as she felt her eyes sting with tears. This was him, and she'd forgotten how she felt for him up close. She just wanted to cling to him and tell him... oh. He'd mentioned asking twice. She understood.
She managed to say, "You'll have to ask me back then, Doctor." Rose walked away, hoping he'd take her advice. But he had, otherwise she wouldn't have gone with him. She'd had to leave, she told herself, otherwise he'd vanish, or be eaten by Reapers, or whatever else happened if you changed the past. Strange, how knowing didn't seem to stop her wanting to do the stupid thing and go back.
After all, there was nothing for her here, and she had a head full of all the amazing things she'd seen. She didn't know how her mum and Mickey had forgotten, but it worried her. And she couldn't just go back and settle down, could she? Not when she knew what it was like out there, not yet. She had stayed, and taken A-Levels, and it had been pleasant, if a little unsatisfying. Then the Doctor had shown up, and Rose had once again left to travel the universe.
Besides, Rose thought, I don't want to settle down if I'm just going to leave again. And she knew that she would, if her Doctor came back.
She'd been walking down the streets automatically again, lost in thought, and now she looked around and found herself lost in a more physical sense. It shouldn't have been possible, given that she knew most of London, but she didn't know where she was.
She heard the sound of the TARDIS, but assumed it was her Doctor's, taking off to whatever planet the green blob came from. In the habit of all humans, her mind seized on this digression, and she thought, Why are such a lot of aliens green?
In doing so, she didn't notice the appearance of the familiar blue police box right in the middle of a driveway. She thought about aliens and anything but her choice to leave the Doctor, until someone interrupted.
"Rose!" she heard someone shout. She turned back, and there was... the other Doctor. He stood there, in his trenchcoat and sneakers, leaning in the doorway of the TARDIS and grinning.
"Come on then," he said, his grin fading. "She asked me to find you, and take you back."
"She?" Rose said. 'She' could be anyone. 'She' could be Queen bloody Victoria for all Rose knew. But the Doctor was grinning again, although in a decidedly more embarassed way. Rose walked over to the TARDIS with a bit of hesitation in her step.
"Well, me," the Doctor admitted. "The one you've been travelling with. She's promised that she'll allow me to erase all trace of that revelation if I rescue you."
"What about her? Is she alright?" Rose asked, worry showing on her face. After all, thought Rose, she'd been on that planet, too.
The Doctor frowned. "She's in discussion with an old friend, one I thought was dead," he said. "I'm not at all confident about how it'll turn out, since I'm to blame for so much, but I shouldn't even know about it. That means there's all the more need to erase my memory."
Rose felt a bit confused, but she looked at the Doctor, and noticed his worry. He didn't want to know, either, she realised.
"I wasn't going to come back again," he said, "but I promised I'd find you when you were ready, and she told me you had been. Are you?" He seemed a lot more serious than she remembered.
He was still the Doctor, Rose knew, and suddenly she felt guilty for having left him. She said, "Yes. I told you you were stuck with me, didn't I?"
He smiled, and moved out of the doorway.
"Now, I've got the directions," he said, "but I wouldn't be surprised if the slight paradoxes lately have affected the temporal circuit. So we may not get there on the first try, but give it some time." He followed her inside the TARDIS, and closed the door behind them.
Rose looked around, and grinned. She felt somewhere she belonged, at least until she got back to her Doctor. "Fantastic," she said, and meant it.
.
.
.
.