The Shortest Life - Chapter Five: The Roof of the Earth [5/39]
DISCLAIMER & OTHER WARNINGS
‘What?’ the Doctor managed after what seemed like forever, his brain taking an absurdly long time to puzzle out both what the other man had said and the fact that his plan for a quick getaway was falling apart by the second.
‘I said, it’s a bit of a cock move - running out on a good looking girl like that?’ the stranger said, jerking his head toward where Rose had gone off. His voice was as boyish as his face, and with a mild Lancashire lilt. ‘And you - old enough to know better, you are! Just tell her to her face you’re not interested, don’t run off like a coward!’
The Doctor felt his cheeks begin to burn, and had to forcibly slow down his blood flow. ‘Dunno what you’re talking about.’
‘Yeah? So that wasn’t you eyeing the exit for the past five minutes, trying to figure out how fast you were gonna run?’ the young man teased, with only the slightest mettle to his words. ‘Cos it sure looked like it to me…’
‘Listen, mate -’
‘Oswin,’ the youth replied with a cheeky grin.
‘Yeah, don’t care who you are,’ the Doctor scowled. ‘It’s none of your business and you don’t know anything about what’s going on, so if you could step off, that’d be lovely, ta.’
‘Oh, I will - soon as my order’s up,’ Oswin replied with no hint that the Doctor’s displeasure even registered for him. ‘Just figured I’d do my good deed of the day and pass on some lifesaving advice to a grumpy old sod about to make a huge mistake, that’s all.’ He shifted in his seat, like he was getting comfortable. ‘So what, d’you two have a row or something? That why you’re thinking of swanning off?’
‘No, we didn’t have a - hold on, life-saving?’ the Doctor demanded. ‘Sticking your nose into matters you don’t understand is hardly lifesaving.’
‘Know that for sure, do you? Some kind of psychic or something, that you can tell the future?’ Oswin defied.
‘Something like that!’
‘Then you should know leaving her behind is the absolute worst thing you can do right now.’
His unwanted companion leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms and presenting a defiant expression.
The Doctor let out a weary, annoyed sigh, realizing this tosser wasn’t about to leave him alone until he’d said his piece. And something about his demeanour suggested that even if the Doctor got up and walked away, the kid would follow him out of the chippy hollering his opinions at him all the way down the street.
Not the most inconspicuous of escapes, really.
It was likely best to let this busybody say his piece and go on with his life. If he did it soon enough, the Doctor could leave. Rose wasn’t likely to spend that much more time in the toilets anyhow, so best get on with it.
He leaned forward, elbow on the dirty Formica table and chin in his palm. ‘Right then - enlighten me with all the wisdom of your - what, twenty years?’
‘Twenty-seven,’ the young man frowned.
‘Grow a beard,’ the Doctor advised. ‘Anyhow, tell me just how leaving right now’s the absolutely worst thing I can do. Seeing as how you’ve known me for all of a minute and thirteen seconds.’
‘Don’t have to know you to know you’re in a bad place right now,’ Oswin retorted. ‘S’all over your face and the way you hold yourself. A lot of us look like that right when we get back.’
‘…Get back?’
‘From wherever you were stationed,’ Oswin prompted. ‘I know I don’t look it, but it was two tours in Afghanistan for me before I couldn’t take it anymore. Felt like I’d been turned into a machine. Couldn’t even function for the longest time…it’s been three years and I still don’t feel right some days. But it’s the people in your life that help you through it, yeah? And that girl back there? She’ll do that for you.’
The Doctor narrowed his eyes. ‘Have we met before, or something? It’s usually only people who’ve met me who take it upon themselves to offer my unwanted advice.’
‘Never seen you before in my life,’ the young man replied cheerfully.
‘Really? Cos your face…’ the Doctor trailed off.
‘I’m sure there’s millions of faces like mine - unless you’ve spent much time in Blackpool?’
‘Not since the eighties.’
‘Shame. It’s gotten quite nice.’
‘Fantastic - not only are you a life coach for situations that couldn’t possibly be within your realm of understanding, you’re a travel agent as well,’ the Doctor remarked dryly. ‘Thanks so much for that - bye!’
He waggled his fingers at the irritating young man.
Oswin’s expression changed for the first time into something stubborn.
‘Who paid?’ he asked, apropos of nothing.
‘What?’
‘For your lunch - who paid?’ Oswin prompted. ‘Doubt it was you. You look like you’re a bit strapped for cash, so she’s not here with you for the money. And you’re obviously not shagging, or you’d look less…’ He trailed off, gesturing helplessly at the Doctor. ‘And as for your looks -’
‘Is there a point to this?’ the Doctor growled.
‘Yeah, there is - a girl that looks like that is sitting with you in the one of the dodgiest chip joints in London, not for money or sex or what have you, but cos she actually enjoys your company,’ Oswin pointed out. ‘And you’re gearing up to walk out on her like a coward.’
‘That’s me,’ the Doctor muttered. ‘Coward. Running away every time.’
‘So change that - doesn’t matter how old you are or how much running you’ve done, there’s some points in your life where you’ve got to choose to stay, even if it is hard at first,’ Oswin told him seriously. ‘The important ones.’
‘Oh, and sitting in a dive being told off by a stranger is one of those “important ones”, is it?’
‘Dunno,’ Oswin shrugged, grinning again. ‘Could be, for you. Me, I’m just going a good deed, like I said. Sometimes it’s easier to open up to a complete stranger than someone you care about.’
‘Haven’t known her long enough to care about her,’ the Doctor muttered, although his tone lacked conviction even in his ears.
‘Pull the other one,’ Oswin laughed. ‘You’ll have a hard time convincing any jury of the world of that - otherwise you’d’ve left ages ago.’
‘Could still leave now,’ the Doctor reminded him.
‘Maybe - or you could give it another go,’ Oswin told him reasonably, tracing his fingers along the greasy table where someone had carved the words BAD WOLF. ‘You never know - that girl could save your life.’
She already has, the Doctor thought.
‘So there you are,’ Oswin chuckled, and the Doctor realized he’d said that out loud. ‘Even a self-important, clever boy like you can be saved by a valiant child.’
The Doctor’s brows drew together at that particular phrase. ‘What?’
If Oswin had intended on offering any explanation, however, he didn’t find out because a shadow loomed over the table.
‘Er - am I interrupting something?’
They both looked up to see Rose had returned from the toilets, and she was glancing between the Doctor and Oswin with a polite yet confused expression.
‘No, I’m off,’ Oswin answered, vacating the seat with a wink at the Doctor and prancing over to the counter to grab his order and then waltzing out of the dive.
‘What was that all about?’ Rose asked, watching the young man’s progression outside the chip shop until he disappeared in one direction.
‘That? Oh, nothing - he wanted to know where I got the jacket,’ the Doctor lied easily. Even he knew it was best not to tell Rose how close he had come to just up and leaving without even a goodbye.
‘Right,’ she responded slowly, clearly not believing him. ‘So did you tell him?’
‘Tell him what?’
‘Where you got the jacket,’ she rolled her eyes.
‘Oh - nah. Wouldn’t’ve believed me if I told him.’
‘What about me?’
‘Well, you might believe me but…well. Story for another time,’ he offered her tight smile. ‘Anyhow!’ he jumped to his feet. ‘All the human stuff out of the way? Got you fed and watered and washed - blimey, it’s like keeping a pet.’
‘Oi!’ she shoved him hard in the shoulder.
‘Well it is,’ he protested. ‘Having to eat every three hours, plus tea? Or sleep a minimum of eight hours? D’you know how many civilizations I save in that time? And don’t get me started on the inefficient waste management system -’
‘Oh my God, stop talking!’ Rose protested, hands over her ears and cheeks turning pink, but she was laughing.
He beamed back. The distraction tactic had worked.
‘Should get back to things, shouldn’t we?’ He held his hand out for her, and damned if he gave a toss what that old busybody by the fryer thought!
There was a flicker of surprise in her face, possibly at the sudden change in subject, but her smile didn’t ebb.
She took his hand and let him lead her from the chippy. ‘Where’re we going, then?’
Destinations and times danced before him, on the tip of his tongue to suggest but he held back because none of them seemed exactly right. It was a restlessness that had possessed him of late, more so than the wanderlust he had had before; before the Wr.
Back then he had been motivated to travel to quench his thirst for knowledge and his cravings for adventures. Now, it was just the constant need to keep going, the ever present hope that he could outrun his past.
It felt almost like…like he was supposed to be doing something important, except he couldn’t for the life of him think of what it was.
He’d noticed the feeling over the course of the past few stops, before meeting Rose and after. Whenever he stepped out of the TARDIS, there was a niggling suspicion that he was looking for something, and when it didn’t make itself immediately available, it felt like he was being told, ‘Not here. Not Now. Keep looking.’
Would be nice if I had an idea what for, he thought as he and Rose turned the corner of the building and started into the alley he had been planning to escape through. Now, though, Rose was with him and it was an infinitely better way to return to the TARDIS.
The only thing he would have looked for with such fervour if he hadn’t known better was signs of his people surviving. What else could his subconscious possibly be trrying to tell him?
But he knew better than that. Such a thing was impossible. He was alone in the universe, but for the temporary companionship of a teenager from London.
Who was glancing at him expectantly, and he realizes that she was still waiting for him to answer her question.
‘Up to you,’ he told her finally. ‘Where d’you want to go?’
He watched her brow furrow in concentration, a stark contrast to the disbelieving optimism that had been there the first time he asked her where she wanted to go. He could also detect the faintest mixture of hesitance there, which he attributed to their less than ideal first trip.
Despite his own preference for high-energy adventures, it was suddenly imperative that he be able to show her the wonderful instead of just the dangerous. Also, given the fact she had just watched her planet blow up, perhaps staying close by for the next visit might reassure her somewhat.
‘We could keep it local this time, if you want,’ he suggested. ‘Like I said, Earth’s fantastic. You mentioned Darwin before - we could go see the Galapagos Islands. That’s where he came up with all his ideas, with a little help from yours truly. Or we could visit Darwin himself. Fiend for backgammon, old Charlie.’
‘Nah, I don’t really like board games,’ Rose told him. ‘I want to see somewhere…old, and beautiful and…and mysterious…’
‘Well, that narrows it down,’ he drawled, considering her request. ‘We could go see the Great Wall of China. Good place for non-life-threatening running, but where’s the fun in that?’
She laughed. ‘You’re cracked.’
‘Best stick to the modern era, though,’ he went on. ‘I don’t think you’d enjoy watching it be built. Dull, slow work there. Also, a bit morbid. Millions of bodies buried in its foundations.’
Rose made a face. ‘Yeah, that’s a bit…disgusting.’
‘Maybe another day,’ he allowed as they approached a large dumpster. ‘If you’re looking for pretty, we could head to Machu Picchu. Past or present, it’s always a sight. Though, if you’re keen on the past, better be prepared to possibly end up a human sacrifice. Learned a lot from Exxilons, that lot.’
‘The who?’
‘Ancient species - older than the Earth. A bit like walking pieces of mud. Believe the biggest compliment you could pay someone was sacrificing ‘em to the gods.’
‘Um, pass,’ Rose chuckled uncertainly.
‘Or we could -’
But his suggestion was abruptly cut off by a sudden loud clatter from behind the dumpster.
The Doctor didn’t even really think about it. He was already moving his body in front of Rose’s protectively, assessing the potential threat.
A rough looking man was now standing in front of them, all unkempt hair and wild eyes, his chest heaving and hands trembling. He stank of alcohol and unwashed human, and his clothes were dated in a way that suggested he’d dug them out of a bin at Oxfam.
‘Who’sat?!’ the man demanded, red veined eyes darting from the Doctor to Rose and then back again. ‘What’choo doin’ ‘ere?’
The Doctor relaxed somewhat, even as he felt Rose’s grip on his hand tighten somewhat. He could feel waves of uneasiness radiating from her, instead of the usual sense of pity and disgust that most humans would feel in the face of something or someone that upset their standards of acceptability. For his part, the Doctor felt the slightest bit of sympathy.
He had been in a similar state not very long ago, even if the circumstances leading him there were very different.
‘Sorry, mate,’ he said, adopting a disarming tone and raising a hand in pacification. ‘Didn’t mean to startle you - didn’t know anyone’s kip was here.’
‘D’you got permission to be ‘ere?’ the vagabond demanded. ‘They didn’ tell me no one was coming!’
‘Nah, look, we’re just passing through - be out of your hair in bit,’ the Doctor assured him.
‘No, no, can’t do that,’ the man said, shaking his head and looking at something beyond the Doctor and Rose. ‘Stop the message - they told me I’ve got to stop the message. No one’s allowed to see.’
‘Then we won’t look,’ Rose spoke up, bright despite the hesitation in her voice.
The Doctor grinned. ‘Yep. Keep our eyes closed. Won’t look at any messages.’
‘No, no, no, can’t do it,’ the tramp murmured, shuffling from foot to foot and rummaging around in his tattered coat. ‘They warned me - it’s important, see? End of the world - no hard feelings, yeah?’
And suddenly the vagrant was brandishing a knife at them, his eyes still looking apologetic but now tinged with madness.
The Doctor didn’t even really think about it, moving his body in front of Rose’s as he assessed the threat of the no longer harmless homeless man.
‘You really think that’s a good idea?’ he prompted. ‘Threatening to people in the middle of the day? Even if you manage anything, you’ll be carted off. Locked up. Won’t be able to guard your message if you’re locked up, will you?’
The man wavered, appearing to consider, and then shook his head.
‘Trying to confuse old Bruce, you are - I knows it - but I’m gonna take you out, cos that’s what they say’s the important thing. Stop the message, save the world,’ he nodded to himself, and then shrugged. ‘Sorry.’
And then he lunged forward.
Rose cried out, more out of shock than fear, as the Doctor backed up and pushed her away from the assailant.
For someone who was clearly intoxicated and in lamentable health, the vagrant still moved surprisingly quickly. Coupled with the knife in his hand, that would have made him dangerous even to a human with optimal reflexes. To a Gallifreyan with the Doctor’s reaction time, however, the task of diverting the attack was easy. He barely had to expend the effort to catch the knife before it ended up between his ribs, and it would have been nothing but a shift in his balance to disarm the man and then lay him out flat with a right cross.
Least amount of physical damage or exertion for either party, easier recovery time for the poor maddened sod.
But something still remained of the man the Doctor had been in the War - the man who believed in dealing with a threat once and for all instead of offering chances, chances that tempted the weak-willed and dangerous to harm the innocent again.
Something primal and instinctive, which had flared up even stronger at the sound of Rose’s cry and the sharp scent of fear in the close alleyway, causing his fingers to clench around the tramp’s wrist more firmly than it would have before.
There was a yelp of pain and the sound of the knife hitting the pavement; the Doctor felt and heard the grind of wrist bones beneath his fingers.
If this man was left to his devices and the voices in his head, what was the stop him from accosting some other innocent passer-by with a knife a few days from now? Maybe even an hour from now? What if he had already taken innocent lives in his mad quest to “stop the message”?
Some harried man cutting through the alley to make it to work on time, or a young woman like -
A young woman like Rose.
Abruptly, that was the only thought in the Doctor’s mind.
What if he hadn’t been with Rose?
It was an entirely likely possibility. He might have swanned off after all, decided he was doing what was best for them both by leaving her behind, and she might have come looking for him. Might have wandered down that very same alley way, only without him there, she might have been hurt.
Or killed.
Bled out on the pavement in a dirty back alley somewhere, and no one would ever know.
Even though his ability to see timelines was so muted these days he might as well be blind, that image surfaced in his mind in a grotesquely detailed way. He wondered if that might not have been the most probable course of events, and he’d only avoided it because some nosy git had stopped him.
His grip on the man’s wrist tightened and the vagrant cried out in agony, falling to his knees. All it would take was one twist, and he wouldn’t threaten anyone else every again, one quick movement to draw him in and place his hand on his temples -
‘Doctor!’
It was so tempting, to see what unfortunate quirk of neural imbalance was causing the man’s madness. But he reigned himself in. He wasn’t yet ready to connect to anyone’s mind, let alone another obviously broken individual. He had enough problems with his own demons, but to invite another’s into his head…
‘Doctor! He dropped it, you can let go now!’
He became aware of Rose’s voice in his ear and her grip on his shoulder, as she tried to push past him to see what was going on.
He abruptly let go of the homeless man’s hand and backed away, the world around him rushing back into focus. Shock and shame washed over him as well, as he realized what he had almost just done.
What had happened to his restraint? The centuries of conditioning to keep himself from giving into base, violent tendencies such as this?
He was only grateful that Rose hadn’t been able to see the entire altercation from her place behind his back. That was all he needed, was another companion to see the monster that he could be when he didn’t keep himself in check.
He was dimly aware of Rose ducking beneath his arm, prodding him gently in the arm and chest as if she was trying to find evidence the he had been hurt in the scuffle - him! - and then turning and kicking the discarded knife far under the dumpster where the tramp had been hiding.
The man was moaning in pain, cradling his wrist to himself and muttering unintelligibly now, and Rose bent down in front of him - still at a safe distance, the Doctor noticed - and spoke in a quiet, measured tone. ‘You alright? D’you need to go to hospital? We can take you, if you need?’
And she was glancing up at the Doctor in confirmation of this; he could only nod dumbly in response.
This brilliant and kind and maddeningly strange human girl had just been threatened at knife point, but instead of running away or dialling 999, she was checking to see if he was alright.
‘No!’ the tramp cried out, jerking away from her and scuttling back on his heels. ‘Don’t touch me! They’ll see! They’ll know!’
‘S’alright,’ Rose wheedled. ‘We won’t tell anyone, but you need someone to -’
‘Failed, failed, failed,’ he murmured. ‘The Abomination will be born, and it’s my fault!’
And before either Rose or the Doctor could properly react, he was on his feet and tearing down the alleyway as if the hounds of hell were on his trail.
Rose watched in confusion, other myriad emotions passing over her face - surprise and dismay - before she hesitantly asked, ‘Should we go after him, you think? Make sure someone takes him to A&E?’
The Doctor exhaled wearily.
Once, he wouldn’t have hesitated to try to go after the poor man, to try to help him as well as he could. A brief brush of his mind and he would be able to figure out the problem and whether he could do anything. But he didn’t feel like explaining his telepathic abilities to Rose just yet. She’s expressed enough difficulty with the idea of the TARDIS being telepathic, what would she say if she saw him actively integrating with the mind of someone else?
Not that he was even ready for that kind of contact. It would be too painful.
Besides, even if he hadn’t been telepathically crippled it wouldn’t be the best idea to involve himself in another man’s problems. Right now, he felt as though anything he tried to do would just make it worse. And that was without the possible trauma that the man might suffer if he thought the Doctor and Rose were following him.
‘Suppose we can try to find him, if you want,’ the Doctor told her carefully. ‘But I get the sense he won’t be too keen on a sit-down with the bloke who broke his wrist.’
‘I guess…’ Rose said helplessly.
She seemed distracted, and was biting her lip uncertainly now. Likely she was trying to sort through the unlikely progression of events, probably wondering if it was all part and parcel of travelling with him and whether it was worth it or not.
Maybe running out on her hadn’t been the answer after all. Maybe her leaving him behind was what would happen in the end.
He forced himself to meet her gaze, mentally preparing himself.
‘Still want to travel with me?’ he asked. There was a heaviness in the question. ‘I’d understand if you didn’t.’
She made a face. ‘Don’t be stupid! He pulled a knife on us, which could’ve happened to anyone!’
‘That’s not what I’m talking about.’
‘Is it cos you broke his wrist? You were just trying to keep him from hurting either of us. I’ve done worse, you know. There was this handsy bloke at the club, once, I accidentally broke his nose.’
The Doctor opened his mouth to correct her, to tell her it wasn’t the fact he’d broken a man’s wrist so much as the fact he had lost control of his emotion - when her words registered.
‘Hold on - how d’you accidentally break someone’s nose?’
‘Well, I was just trying to shove him back, but he tripped and I sort of…instead of hitting his chest, I hit his nose and - look, it was an accident!’
‘Well, if you’re that dangerous on accident, I’d hate to see what you might be capable of if you did something on purpose,’ he remarked with a trace of their earlier levity.
Rose rewarded him with a wan smile, and for a short spell they simply gazed at each other speculatively.
‘So…’ Rose began tentatively, biting her lip again. ‘Thought we were getting ready to go somewhere?’
Hope began to tear through the Doctor’s rattled psyche.
‘Well, you never did answer me,’ he returned lightly.
‘Hey, aren’t you the all-knowing, time and space travelling alien?’ she shot back. ‘You’re supposed to come up with the destinations, I’m just along for the ride.’
‘See that? That’s the exact laziness of the human race. Always expecting everyone else to do your thinking for you,’ the Doctor snorted. ‘Even spend inordinate amounts of time creating machinery for that exact purpose.’
‘Yeah, yeah, you’re the superior, brilliant alien,’ Rose snorted, nudging him her shoulder. ‘Bit of an ego on you, ain’t there?’
‘For very good reason, Rose Tyler.’
They headed down the rest of the alley way together, both feigning casualness but both also keeping an eye out for any more encounters with mad, knife-wielding alley denizens.
The Doctor was also scanning the walls and floor for any papers or written messages that could account for the man’s odd behaviour. There were a few sodden newspapers about, and the walls caked with mostly illegible graffiti, but nothing that the Doctor could take as any sort of message.
Must have all been in his head after all, he thought ruefully as they passed an avant-garde and slightly sexualized rendering of Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. Honestly, humans were so preoccupied with their base urges, it coloured everything.
They headed back through the packed lunch time crowds to where the TARDIS was parked. People were still milling about, completely absorbed in their own everyday lives, and as the Doctor dug into his pocket for the key, Rose started glancing around them in confusion.’
‘Problem?’ he inquired politely.
She didn’t answer immediately, instead frowning at the people moving around them. Some realization appeared to occur to her. ‘How comes no one notices the big blue box in the middle of the way? Or noticed us when we came out before?’
He grinned at her question, having been expecting it for a while. ‘Perception filter.’
‘What’s that?’
‘It means the TARDIS can direct attention away from itself,’ he explained as he unlocked the door and then gestured for her to come inside. ‘People look at it, but they don’t actually see it, cos the filter gets inside their heads and telepathically tells ‘em it’s not there.’
Rose frowned. ‘More stuff getting in my head, then?’
‘Well, it’s not in your head now,’ he pointed out. ‘You know the TARDIS is there, so it won’t work on you, will it?’
‘But it did before, right? Before I knew about the TARDIS?’
Deciding to head off the inevitable rant about the very human preoccupation with personal boundaries, he closed the door behind them and headed to the centre console. ‘How about Rapa Nui? Or, Easter Island as you’d know it. That’s mysterious. Well, for you lot anyway.’
‘You’re rubbish at changing the subject,’ she informed him, crossing her arms.
‘Am not. Champion subject changer, me! Got awards for it and everything.’
She rolled her eyes, but the corners of her mouth were tugging upward again and he knew she was going to let him get away with it.
He reached for the nearest lever. ‘So - come to a decision about where you want to go yet?’
‘I dunno,’ she murmured, apologetic. ‘Everything you said sounds brilliant, but…I don’t know anything about them.’
‘That’s the whole point of visiting,’ he pointed out. ‘So you can see it in person.’
‘I know, but…’ she trailed off, and shook her head and seemed to want to try a different track. ‘Aren’t they all places anyone with a ton of cash could get to see? I want to go see some place that shouldn’t even be possible to see. Where it shouldn’t matter if you’ve got money or not. Or…somewhere that I’ve actually heard of that I don’t need to be a genius to understand.’
The Doctor found himself puzzled by the turn of the conversation, wondering where his latest companion’s inexplicable uncertainty had suddenly appeared from. Rather than comment on it, however, he busied himself with thinking of a destination to fit her requirements. After all, if anyone in the universe could recognize a touchy subject in the offing, it was him.
‘Right, then!’ he announced, reaching for the nearest lever. ‘I’ve got an idea of where to go.’
‘Where?’
‘It’s a surprise,’ he told her smugly.
‘Why do I get the feeling I’m going to start dreading those words?’ she teased as the dematerialization sequence began.
Pretending to be miffed he keyed in a localized jump.
Several seconds later, the Time Rotor came to a rest and he stepped away from the console. ‘We’re here.’
‘Past or future?’ Rose wanted to know.
‘Neither,’ he told her smugly. ‘Present. Outside it’s the sixth of March, 2005 - though, I should tell you now you might not want to go more than ten meters from the TARDIS.’
‘Why?’
‘That’s as far as the Force Field Generator can beam a protective field to regulate oxygen and temperature,’ he told her. ‘Go much farther and you’ll either faint or get frostbite. Or both.’
‘So wherever we are is cold?’ she ventured.
‘Freezing. About thirty below out there right now. But like I said, stick within the immediate area and you’ll be fine.’
‘Did you bring me to the North Pole?’
‘Go and see!’
With a curious smile, she hurried down the ramp and pulled open the door. Brilliant light shone into the TARDIS, momentarily making her little more than a silhouette until his eyes adjusted, but it didn’t affect his hearing. He heard the sharp intake of breath as she stared outside in amazement, moments before stepping out of the doorway.
He followed out at a more leisurely yet quick pace, intent on seeing the look on her face.
Outside the TARDIS, the horizon stretched endlessly in every direction. The sky was at its bluest, slowly darkening to the pitch black of space barely forty kilometres above them. Hundreds of snow-capped mountains surrounded them on all sides, some surrounded by thick cloud cumulous, others bare to the elements. The sound of the wind roaring past them was like the rumble of a jet engine, but the TARDIS’ force field kept it from reaching them. The smell and taste of ozone permeated the area, and snow crunched beneath their feet as they moved farther from the door.
Directly within their ten meter circumference was the highest point on the surface where they stood, decorated with various scraps of coloured material that were half-frozen, half tied together in a makeshift garland. While these testaments to human achievement flapped wildly in the wind, only the lightest of breezes permeated the TARDIS shield.
‘Mount Everest,’ the Doctor announced. ‘Highest point above sea level - well, highest agreed-upon point above sea level. There’s an argument to be made for Chimborazo or Mauna Kea, but you can’t deny everyone’s heard of Everest. Either way it means you, Rose Tyler, are now literally on top of the world.’
‘This is Mount Everest,’ she repeated slowly, like she was trying to make sure. She turned slowly around to take in the panoramic view of the surrounding mountain ranges, moving with a sleepwalker’s dreaming slowness.
‘Yep.’
‘This is Mount Everest, and I’m standing at the top,’ she continued, more to herself than him. ‘Me. A shop girl from Peckham.’ She turned then to look at him, her eyes shining with awe. ‘This is amazing.’
The astonishment and admiration in her tone buoyed him up.
‘Have been known to do amazing from time to time,’ he boasted.
Her mouth quirked at that, and she looked back out on the perilous slopes of the giant mountain. ‘Will the people climbing up notice we’re here? Or are we perception thingied as well?’
‘The TARDIS is, we’re not,’ he told her. ‘Not that it would really matter. Not many climbers in March. Weather’s too unpredictable - see the storm clouds over there?’ He gestured at a dark patch of cumulous off in the far distance. ‘Even if anyone did feel like braving this place so early in the season, we’re just outside of the safe climbing window. No one comes up here later than two o’clock in the afternoon during the regular season, never mind now.’
Rose made a noise of understanding and shook her head, obviously still floored by the scene before her. Even the Doctor had to admit it was one of the nicest views he’d ever seen, and that was saying something.
‘Oh, I’ve got to get a picture of this!’ Rose declared after a while, digging out her phone. ‘This is really brilliant.’ She paused, shooting him a sidelong glance. ‘I can take pictures, yeah? It’s not like anyone will believe ‘em. They’ll probably think they’re faked. It shouldn’t matter, should it? I know they’re real, and that’s all that matters, yeah?’
The Doctor smiled indulgently throughout this excited ramble and reached for the phone. ‘Want me to get one of you at the top?’
‘Yeah!’ she squealed, shoving the device into his hand and scrambling toward the summit.
‘Watch it!’ he called after her when her trainers skid a little on the snow and ice. ‘Just cos you’re protected from the cold and lack of oxygen doesn’t mean you can’t still slip!’
At the summit she turned and posed, flashing a V-sign and grinning with the same tongue-touched smile that was rapidly becoming a favourite of his. He spared a moment to snap the shot of her, and then she was bounding back to him, once again ignoring his warning as she slid down the icy, snowy rocks.
She took the phone, examining the shot of herself with an expression of glee. Then, before he could react, she had caught him in a tight clinch and was angling the phone at them.
‘Oi!’ he protested as the camera shutter snapped. ‘What’s that all about, then?’
‘Well, you’re here too,’ she pointed out.
‘I don’t do photographs,’ he grumbled.
‘Yeah, right. I’ve seen plenty of pictures of you.’
‘Oh, you have, have you?’
‘Yeah!’ Rose answered, and then proceeded to tell him all about a man named Clive Finch, who she had run into while trying to learn what she could about him. As she spoke, her hand found his.
So joined they watched the sprawling vista for a while, even as the shadows became darker and the sun began to dip toward the horizon. It was only as the sound of the wind battering against the TARDIS exterior and the growing darkness of the approaching storm began in earnest that the Doctor squeezed Rose’s hand and drew her back toward the ship. Getting caught in the oncoming blizzard wasn’t tempting in the least.
She turned away from the breath-taking scene and leaned into him as they walked, offering him a cheeky grin. Jerking her chin in the direction of the TARDIS, she asked, ‘So, you going to teach me how to fly this thing?’
NEXT CHAPTER