Bloom of the Flutterby - Chapter Six
This is the first story in a short AU series.
I want to thank my beta oldweirdme aka Mahala for all her help, and her suggestion on the title. This would have been much more of a train wreck otherwise.
Doctor Who is owned by the BBC and is being used here without permission. No money is being made from this endeavor.
The Bloom of the Flutterby
Chapter Six: Paying the piper
by Mariposa Torres
Rose looked up and smiled as the Doctor entered the kitchen. He came up behind her and whispered in her ear, "Missed you."
"Oi!" she said when his breath brushed her ear, "I felt you peeking into my mind." She quivered as he settled his hands on her waist. She abandoned her pot watching and turned to face him. "I'm still wearing the corset."
He leaned forward and kissed her, "Yes, you are."
She giggled against his lips, "I do believe it is all that is holding me up right now." She slid her hands inside his jacket as he slid his tongue inside her mouth.
"What the 'ell are you doin' to me little girl?!" The Doctor and Rose jumped apart as a livid Jackie stood in the doorway to the kitchen. She snatched up a pan and advanced on the Doctor, "How dare you!"
"He has every right to snog me!" Rose came to stand between her mother and the Doctor. "We're in love!"
"In love?"
"Yes!"
Jackie glared at the Doctor, "So this is your idea of keeping her safe is it? Get her thinking you love her?"
"But I do love her, with both my hearts and all my soul..." he protested.
"I don't believe you!" Jackie snapped at him.
"Mum, I love him and he loves me..."
"He's taking advantage of you sweetheart! Just like Jimmy..."
"He's nothing like Jimmy!" Rose protested.
Fire turned the Doctor's voice to ice, "I would never take advantage of her."
"You left school for Jimmy, you left me house for this man..."
"He's shown me things that I could never see living here!"
Oh, please, don't go there, Rose. The Doctor pleaded with her mind.
"What about a normal life? A husband and kids..."
Rose. Her name laced with meaning. Unfortunately she had hit that point where her mouth was getting ahead of her brain.
"I can give him that! I'm the only one who can thanks to the TAR-" she abruptly clamped her hands over her mouth, realizing too late she had said far more than she had intended.
"What's his ship done to you?" Jackie shrilly cried.
Rose took a step closer to her mother. "Nothing that I didn't in my heart wish for. When I had you and Mickey help me open her heart I knew I might die in trying to save him."
"You didn't say that!"
"I knew I couldn't! Neither of you would've lifted a finger if I had! I couldn't let him die!"
"You could've died!"
"Didn't matter." she turned and looked at the Doctor, "All for my Doctor." She turned back to her mother, "I've been changed, something closer to what his people were like."
This isn't going to go over well at all. The Doctor thought to Rose, though at this point he wasn't sure he was getting through.
"Are you telling me that it changed you into an alien?" Jackie's hand tensed on the pan, "Are you?"
"Yes."
Time slowed. Jackie let out a howl of inarticulate rage and grief and swung forward with the pan. Rose ducked out of the way, the corset ruining her flexibility and sending her to the floor. The pan left Jackie's hand and sailed across the room, missing the Doctor who was stooping to check on Rose. Jackie turned and the pan broke the cabinet it hit. Shoving Jack out of her way, Jackie ran out of the kitchen heading for her room.
Rose followed, leaving the stunned men in the kitchen. Jack looked at the Doctor. "What just happened?"
"Mother-daughter spat." he said straightening his tie.
"Not that." He reached up and pulled the pan free from the cabinet where it had wedged itself. "Both you and Rose moved in anticipation of the swing. Were you both reading her mind?"
"No, you've heard of time echoes, right?"
"Yes. Things that appear to be there even when they aren't anymore."
"Time doesn't just echo backwards, it echoes forwards as well. I, and to a lesser extent Rose, can sense these. It's, it was a fully developed marital art on Gallifrey." The Doctor popped off the stove and sighed. "We'd better check on them, don't know what kind of deadly weapons Jackie's got stashed in her hope chest."
They made it as far as the living room when Rose came out of her bedroom toting a suitcase that bulged but was reinforced with belts. "I've got a couple more." Her face was streaked with tears.
"Rose," the Doctor began.
"Oh, you can program the TARDIS to never come back here again, my mum never wants to see us again. Ever. Call the cops she will." She stalked back to her bedroom.
"Maybe she just needs some time to cool down." Jack suggested, Rose catching the last half of his statement.
"Or maybe she doesn't want a mutated freak for a daughter." Rose snapped as she dropped another pair of bags at their feet.
The Doctor grabbed her arm and stopped her, turning her to face him. "You are not a freak, I don't ever want you thinking that! You're Rose." He reached up and cupped her face in his hands, "You're my better half." He kissed her gently.
She closed her eyes as she touched his hands on her face, "My Doctor."
They turned as Jack fell over from trying to carry all her suitcases. "Y'all's sherpa." He got up to try again.
Rose smiled as the Doctor held her for a moment, "I've got three more, but I can carry those." She gave the Doctor's arm a tender pat before returning to her bedroom.
They gathered Rose's luggage and left the flat, Rose giving the door a long last lingering look. It didn't escape her male companions attention as they began descending to street level. Uncomfortable silence not being Jack's favorite sound he asked, "Have either of you been to Las Vegas?"
"Which one?" The Doctor asked with a wink at Rose who managed to give him a smile in return.
"Which one? The original of course! The only place on 51st Century Earth where you can see a native desert."
Rose stopped and dropped her bags, tears starting again. The Doctor pulled her into his arms and let her cry. Jack gave the Doctor a glance, picked up a couple of additional bags and headed in the direction the Doctor indicated with his head.
Finally Rose pulled herself together, "She threw me out! She told me she never wants to see me again!"
"Its a lot for her to take in. Give her time."
"Oi, this is you talking right? No second chances? Isn't that the kind of man you are?"
"If she truly didn't care she wouldn't be so upset. Trust me, it is a far worse fate to be abandoned and ignored."
She didn't say anything immediately, choosing to study his hands in hers. "One of these days we'll have a nice long chat about how you know that."
He smiled as she brushed imaginary lint off his coat. "Someday. Time heals all wounds, isn't that you humans say?"
"It hasn't healed you." she said looking into his eyes.
"Time takes time." Rose snorted and rolled her eyes. The Doctor took on a mock affronted look, "I'll have you know that is an Ancient Gallifreyan saying!"
She looked around, "Where's my things?"
"Jack took a larger share and headed off in he direction of the TARDIS."
"How'd he know where we parked?"
"I pointed him in the right direction. We can catch up with our loyal sherpa with no problem."
She smiled as they picked up her remaining bags. "Have you ever been to the Himalayas?"
"I've even seen a real yeti, not the hostile robotic imitations but the real thing."
"They're real?"
"Oh yes, rather shy and inoffensive as a matter of fact. Professor Travers was quite eager to see it..."
**********
Jackie flung open the door, "You again. Come to destroy the rest of me 'ouse?"
Jill shook her head, "No, can we talk?"
"No." Jackie slammed the door, but when she turned, Jill was standing in the living room. "What the 'ell?"
Jill was looking around the room, "I came to talk, mind you, my father will be most cross with me for this part, especially this part."
"Who the hell are you? Really."
"I'm Shatlehonaaeisotsoh, your youngest granddaughter."
"I haven't got a granddaughter."
Jill smiled, "Not yet." then her features hardened, "I don't like to see my mother cry."
"Rose is your mum?"
"Yes. I could tell you about all the brave and heroic things she's going to accomplish over the next several years, but I think you'd like her versions better." she sat on the couch. "I remember a Christmas when I was three years old, me, Penny and Pete were playing with the tridimensional block set Pete had just unwrapped, Ada was trying to climb into the box it came in, saying 'tardis! tardis!' and you had just unwrapped a box of baklava from Arianna, when Father interrupted you to point out that Ada had finally spoken her first words..."
"Here?"
Jill nodded and pointed to wall, "You put the tree picture there, every single year, no Christmas trees allowed in Gran's house." she smiled at the memory.
"Are you saying I'm going to like the idea of my Rose changing into some kind of freak?"
"No." Jill sobered, looking at Jackie with a soul piercing gaze. "You come to peace with it somehow, you never say how. But you do come to accept your daughter for who she is, rather than who she should be." Jill got to her feet. "Be seeing you." She walked across the room and let herself out of the flat.
~end of chapter six~
Crossposted at vilya_mariposa , dwfiction , and at A Teaspoon and An Open Mind (www.whofic.com)
I want to thank my beta oldweirdme aka Mahala for all her help, and her suggestion on the title. This would have been much more of a train wreck otherwise.
Doctor Who is owned by the BBC and is being used here without permission. No money is being made from this endeavor.
The Bloom of the Flutterby
Chapter Six: Paying the piper
by Mariposa Torres
Rose looked up and smiled as the Doctor entered the kitchen. He came up behind her and whispered in her ear, "Missed you."
"Oi!" she said when his breath brushed her ear, "I felt you peeking into my mind." She quivered as he settled his hands on her waist. She abandoned her pot watching and turned to face him. "I'm still wearing the corset."
He leaned forward and kissed her, "Yes, you are."
She giggled against his lips, "I do believe it is all that is holding me up right now." She slid her hands inside his jacket as he slid his tongue inside her mouth.
"What the 'ell are you doin' to me little girl?!" The Doctor and Rose jumped apart as a livid Jackie stood in the doorway to the kitchen. She snatched up a pan and advanced on the Doctor, "How dare you!"
"He has every right to snog me!" Rose came to stand between her mother and the Doctor. "We're in love!"
"In love?"
"Yes!"
Jackie glared at the Doctor, "So this is your idea of keeping her safe is it? Get her thinking you love her?"
"But I do love her, with both my hearts and all my soul..." he protested.
"I don't believe you!" Jackie snapped at him.
"Mum, I love him and he loves me..."
"He's taking advantage of you sweetheart! Just like Jimmy..."
"He's nothing like Jimmy!" Rose protested.
Fire turned the Doctor's voice to ice, "I would never take advantage of her."
"You left school for Jimmy, you left me house for this man..."
"He's shown me things that I could never see living here!"
Oh, please, don't go there, Rose. The Doctor pleaded with her mind.
"What about a normal life? A husband and kids..."
Rose. Her name laced with meaning. Unfortunately she had hit that point where her mouth was getting ahead of her brain.
"I can give him that! I'm the only one who can thanks to the TAR-" she abruptly clamped her hands over her mouth, realizing too late she had said far more than she had intended.
"What's his ship done to you?" Jackie shrilly cried.
Rose took a step closer to her mother. "Nothing that I didn't in my heart wish for. When I had you and Mickey help me open her heart I knew I might die in trying to save him."
"You didn't say that!"
"I knew I couldn't! Neither of you would've lifted a finger if I had! I couldn't let him die!"
"You could've died!"
"Didn't matter." she turned and looked at the Doctor, "All for my Doctor." She turned back to her mother, "I've been changed, something closer to what his people were like."
This isn't going to go over well at all. The Doctor thought to Rose, though at this point he wasn't sure he was getting through.
"Are you telling me that it changed you into an alien?" Jackie's hand tensed on the pan, "Are you?"
"Yes."
Time slowed. Jackie let out a howl of inarticulate rage and grief and swung forward with the pan. Rose ducked out of the way, the corset ruining her flexibility and sending her to the floor. The pan left Jackie's hand and sailed across the room, missing the Doctor who was stooping to check on Rose. Jackie turned and the pan broke the cabinet it hit. Shoving Jack out of her way, Jackie ran out of the kitchen heading for her room.
Rose followed, leaving the stunned men in the kitchen. Jack looked at the Doctor. "What just happened?"
"Mother-daughter spat." he said straightening his tie.
"Not that." He reached up and pulled the pan free from the cabinet where it had wedged itself. "Both you and Rose moved in anticipation of the swing. Were you both reading her mind?"
"No, you've heard of time echoes, right?"
"Yes. Things that appear to be there even when they aren't anymore."
"Time doesn't just echo backwards, it echoes forwards as well. I, and to a lesser extent Rose, can sense these. It's, it was a fully developed marital art on Gallifrey." The Doctor popped off the stove and sighed. "We'd better check on them, don't know what kind of deadly weapons Jackie's got stashed in her hope chest."
They made it as far as the living room when Rose came out of her bedroom toting a suitcase that bulged but was reinforced with belts. "I've got a couple more." Her face was streaked with tears.
"Rose," the Doctor began.
"Oh, you can program the TARDIS to never come back here again, my mum never wants to see us again. Ever. Call the cops she will." She stalked back to her bedroom.
"Maybe she just needs some time to cool down." Jack suggested, Rose catching the last half of his statement.
"Or maybe she doesn't want a mutated freak for a daughter." Rose snapped as she dropped another pair of bags at their feet.
The Doctor grabbed her arm and stopped her, turning her to face him. "You are not a freak, I don't ever want you thinking that! You're Rose." He reached up and cupped her face in his hands, "You're my better half." He kissed her gently.
She closed her eyes as she touched his hands on her face, "My Doctor."
They turned as Jack fell over from trying to carry all her suitcases. "Y'all's sherpa." He got up to try again.
Rose smiled as the Doctor held her for a moment, "I've got three more, but I can carry those." She gave the Doctor's arm a tender pat before returning to her bedroom.
They gathered Rose's luggage and left the flat, Rose giving the door a long last lingering look. It didn't escape her male companions attention as they began descending to street level. Uncomfortable silence not being Jack's favorite sound he asked, "Have either of you been to Las Vegas?"
"Which one?" The Doctor asked with a wink at Rose who managed to give him a smile in return.
"Which one? The original of course! The only place on 51st Century Earth where you can see a native desert."
Rose stopped and dropped her bags, tears starting again. The Doctor pulled her into his arms and let her cry. Jack gave the Doctor a glance, picked up a couple of additional bags and headed in the direction the Doctor indicated with his head.
Finally Rose pulled herself together, "She threw me out! She told me she never wants to see me again!"
"Its a lot for her to take in. Give her time."
"Oi, this is you talking right? No second chances? Isn't that the kind of man you are?"
"If she truly didn't care she wouldn't be so upset. Trust me, it is a far worse fate to be abandoned and ignored."
She didn't say anything immediately, choosing to study his hands in hers. "One of these days we'll have a nice long chat about how you know that."
He smiled as she brushed imaginary lint off his coat. "Someday. Time heals all wounds, isn't that you humans say?"
"It hasn't healed you." she said looking into his eyes.
"Time takes time." Rose snorted and rolled her eyes. The Doctor took on a mock affronted look, "I'll have you know that is an Ancient Gallifreyan saying!"
She looked around, "Where's my things?"
"Jack took a larger share and headed off in he direction of the TARDIS."
"How'd he know where we parked?"
"I pointed him in the right direction. We can catch up with our loyal sherpa with no problem."
She smiled as they picked up her remaining bags. "Have you ever been to the Himalayas?"
"I've even seen a real yeti, not the hostile robotic imitations but the real thing."
"They're real?"
"Oh yes, rather shy and inoffensive as a matter of fact. Professor Travers was quite eager to see it..."
**********
Jackie flung open the door, "You again. Come to destroy the rest of me 'ouse?"
Jill shook her head, "No, can we talk?"
"No." Jackie slammed the door, but when she turned, Jill was standing in the living room. "What the 'ell?"
Jill was looking around the room, "I came to talk, mind you, my father will be most cross with me for this part, especially this part."
"Who the hell are you? Really."
"I'm Shatlehonaaeisotsoh, your youngest granddaughter."
"I haven't got a granddaughter."
Jill smiled, "Not yet." then her features hardened, "I don't like to see my mother cry."
"Rose is your mum?"
"Yes. I could tell you about all the brave and heroic things she's going to accomplish over the next several years, but I think you'd like her versions better." she sat on the couch. "I remember a Christmas when I was three years old, me, Penny and Pete were playing with the tridimensional block set Pete had just unwrapped, Ada was trying to climb into the box it came in, saying 'tardis! tardis!' and you had just unwrapped a box of baklava from Arianna, when Father interrupted you to point out that Ada had finally spoken her first words..."
"Here?"
Jill nodded and pointed to wall, "You put the tree picture there, every single year, no Christmas trees allowed in Gran's house." she smiled at the memory.
"Are you saying I'm going to like the idea of my Rose changing into some kind of freak?"
"No." Jill sobered, looking at Jackie with a soul piercing gaze. "You come to peace with it somehow, you never say how. But you do come to accept your daughter for who she is, rather than who she should be." Jill got to her feet. "Be seeing you." She walked across the room and let herself out of the flat.
~end of chapter six~
Crossposted at vilya_mariposa , dwfiction , and at A Teaspoon and An Open Mind (www.whofic.com)