Worth A Thousand Words - Chapter Three [3/9]

[erthechilde]

‘I got you away from that other time, didn’t I?’

DISCLAIMER & OTHER WARNINGS

It took the better part of an hour of dodging shadows and potential followers before they figured out exactly where they had been taken. Somewhere called Frisco, according to the signage. Even with that bit of knowledge, there was another hour wasted trying to hail a cab and arguing with Rose about the dangers of hitchhiking.

‘You do know the latter half of the twentieth century is known for its highway serial murders, don’t you?’ he pointed out, disapprovingly.

‘Yeah, well, if you’d borrow one of the cars we keep passing - ’

‘You mean steal. Borrowing implies the intention to return the thing that was taken.’

‘We’ll return it! I don’t exactly see you lugging a yellow roadster around time and space!’

The Doctor decided not to mention Bessie to her just then. ‘We can’t afford to draw attention.’

‘Can’t afford to get caught, either,’ Rose pointed out.

‘And we won’t, so long as we’re careful. But say we did borrow a car - if someone notices it missing they’ll call the police. Give them a description. Possibly one of us too if we’re seen. Which means the police set up some road blocks and start pulling over every car like the one we’re considering stealing. Maybe not just in this little suburb but towards the city as well. Everyone knows the President’s coming to Dallas today. Anyone working in law enforcement will be going that extra mile, either inspired by fierce pride or fierce paranoia… What if they delay traffic into the city? What if that delays the start of the presidential procession? I already told you all of that has to happen. We can’t do anything that might affect it in the long run, no matter how insignificant if might seem!’

Rose was gaping at him, obviously not having expected the tirade that his refusal would turn into.

‘Point is, bad idea,’ he finished lamely.

‘Nothing’s ever simple with you, is it?’ she said with a shake of her head. Still, she dropped the idea and fell into step with him on the long walk back into the city.

A walk which involved hurrying into the shadows whenever a car approached on the darkened highway, lest it end up belonging to their mystery agency followers.

‘I’m really regretting these boots right now,’ Rose complained after about an hour of this.

‘You and me both,’ the Doctor acknowledged. Her limping gait was not only worrying him, but also making their journey slower.

They didn’t talk as much as they usually did although the Doctor attributed that to Rose being tired. Nine hours in an interrogation room was taxing. Once this whole mess was sorted he’d make sure she found her way to one of the bedrooms on the TARDIS.

As for him, his thoughts remained on the self-styled Agent Kinross - if that even was her name.

Determined questions aside, she was obviously very intelligent, and her directness had actually reminded him a bit of Jo Grant.

There was something about her, however, that bothered him. Something in her mental signature that had made him attempt his little hypnosis trick to begin with. Almost as if her mind had already been somewhat weakened by a mental incursion in the past.

By the time they made it back to the heart of Dallas, almost ten hours had passed. Luckily the TARDIS hadn’t been found by any of Kinross’s people, and so the Doctor and Rose got inside with little cause for alarm.

‘Let’s get you fixed up,’ the Doctor ordered and knelt down to help her ease her feet out of the long white boots; the insides were crusted with blood, and he forced himself not to breathe. He didn’t like the smell of blood on a regular day, but the knowledge that it belonged to Rose made him a bit ill. ‘Have you good as new in a minute, and while you rest I’ll pop out and get my picture taken. Then we’ll be off again!’

‘It never goes as smooth as that with you,’ Rose tried to tease, though that gave way to a wince as she peeled off her nylon stockings. He turned away to give her a bit of privacy with that, instead going over to get the dermal regenerator prepped.

‘I’m never wearing anything but trainers, ever again,’ she informed him as he helped her up onto the bed in the sickbay, cracking a small smile. The Doctor tried to smile back, but instead winced at the sight of the bleeding blisters around the tops of her toes and along her heels. ‘Guess this is why I’m not in that picture, huh?’

‘Looks like,’ he agreed as he carefully cleaned and disinfected the wounds, contrasting their rough ugliness with the softness of the skin of her calf. He reached for the dermal regenerator. ‘Let that be a lesson to you - want to show up in famous pictures? Wear practical footwear.’

She snorted and leaned back to let him do his work.

Rose must have been more tired than she pretended, because once he looked up from his finished work, her feet once more unblemished, he saw that she had dozed off.

He snorted. ‘Humans. No staying power.’

But there was no malice or insult in the words, and after a moment of consideration, he draped his coat over her.

Need to find her a proper room when I get back, he thought as he exited the TARDIS.

People already completely packed the downtown area. The streets were lined so tightly that it made it hard to keep an eye out for anyone who might follow him. The agents following him wouldn’t be dressed conspicuously, and he was sure he wouldn’t realise they were there until they came down upon him.

Still, there was nothing for it now, and so he weeded through the masses of people to the area he was supposed to be. He’d have to hope the perception filter he wore was enough to keep them at bay.

Given they were looking for him specifically, the odds of that were low.

There were more cheers farther up the street, indicating that the President’s car had turned onto its final doomed stretch. It wouldn’t be long now…

Across the street, the Doctor suddenly caught sight of the blond agent that had arrested them the day before. So, he had been right - Kinross and her men were in the crowds looking for him.

He was glad he’d left Rose in the TARDIS. He might not be a fan of bullets, but Rose was the one who could be permanently harmed by one.

Once the blond man looked into the other direction, the Doctor seized his chance and pushed through the throngs of people. Ignoring the annoyed mutterings of people he nudged out of the way, he made it to the spot where Rose had indicated he was meant to be standing.

The car was moving past now, and through the waving masses he could make out the President’s smile and Jacqueline Kennedy’s iconic pink suit. He was aware of distant camera flashes and judged that he’d managed what he’d come here to do. The cheering around him increased in volume as the car passed, and he held his position until it was quieter again.

He was just turning to leave when the familiar shape of a gun barrel pressed against his back, and then a whisper in his ear.

‘Don’t make any sudden movements, Doctor.’

He obligingly held very still, conscious of the firearm’s nozzle against his spine.

‘Did you hear me?’ the woman behind him hissed, pressing the nose of the gun into his back even harder between their two bodies.

‘Oh, I heard you,’ he answered mildly. ‘Easy to do with these ears.’

‘It’s hardly the time to make jokes, Doctor.’

‘Or idle threats, Agent Kinross,’ the Doctor answered. ‘If that’s even your real name.’

‘You think I’m threatening you?’

‘I do, yeah - cos you’re not going to shoot me,’ he remarked mildly. He glanced surreptitiously around to make sure none of the other people in the crowd had noticed what was going on between them. ‘Don’t want to spark pandemonium during a presidential visit, do you? And causing a civil incident by shooting an unarmed man in public? You’d be facing an enquiry - more so, you’d lose your job. A job you’re already in danger of losing, if you haven’t already.’

She made a surprised noise, which she tried to cover with a sudden inhalation of breath, but he wasn’t fooled.

‘Bit obvious, really, given the elaborate set up. You wanted us to think you’re CIA, but you’re not, are you? At least, you haven’t been in a while. I’ve met the CIA, and their tactics are a bit more by the book than what you’ve been up to. Female agents in the CIA don’t interrogate possible threats - not in this time period,’ the Doctor explained. ‘Silly, archaic ideals, really, but give it a decade or so -’

‘What - ?!’

‘Right now, though, a typical female agent would just be an information gatherer. But I figure from your demeanour and the confident way you’re holding that gun, you’ve done more than spy. You’ve been out in the field,’ the Doctor went on, eyes trained forward on the oblivious and still cheering crowd. ‘You’ve been back to the typing pool recently, if the ink stains on your fingers are any sign.’

He sensed the slightest twitch behind him, as though the woman was adjusting her grip, and continued.

‘So, you were out on active duty but then were recalled - maybe you failed and they stuck you back on the bench. But benched or not, you still want to do good. You’re frustrated by the fact you’re not doing what you can to make it safer. So you set up your own little operation to keep an eye out for what your higher ups are ignoring. How’m I doing?’

‘How did you know all of that?’ Kinross hissed into his ear.

‘I didn’t,’ he snorted. ‘Well, not really. But my dead clever companion gave me the idea and I sort of ran with it. Then, of course, there’re your physiological reactions to everything I’ve said. People have tells, don’t they? And don’t get me started on how your thoughts are projecting -’

The gun was shoved harder into the small of his back.

‘You’ve been in my head?’ she demanded.

‘Nope. But it doesn’t take a low level telepath to realise someone else has. Someone a lot better at it than me, or I could offer to fix it for you.’

‘I don’t want you in my head! I want you to stop whatever you and whoever you’re working with is planning! And if you don’t put your hands where I can see them and proceed out of the crowd, I will shoot you - pandemonium be damned.’

The Doctor sighed. ‘Much as I’d love to be anywhere but here, I can’t, so you’ll have to shoot me.’

‘What?’ the woman seemed a bit caught off guard by this.

‘I’m not here to do anything but watch,’ the Doctor said. ‘Everything that happens today, Agent Kinross, it has to happen. If it doesn’t, there won’t be a world left for you to protect. There will be a nuclear war that destroys it all.’

The gun and the hand holding it appeared to waver. ‘What will happen?’

He ignored the question, instead asking, ‘What happened to you? To your mind? If I were to guess, I’d say something’s missing…’

‘Memories,’ she whispered after a long moment, so quiet he barely caught it. ‘Months of my life, gone - and I want them back.’

‘Some memories aren’t worth the trouble,’ he cautioned her. ‘I should know.’

‘That’s not your choice - or anyone else’s but mine! And I want it fixed.’

‘I can respect that. And if I had the ability, I’d offer to fix it for you.’

‘Why can’t you?’

‘Because like you, I’m damaged,’ he told her earnestly. She didn’t seem to have anything to say to that, and so he went on. ‘There’s a facility I know of in this time period. It’s not government - it’s not even American. Small place, off the northern coast of Scotland. Muir Island. They might be able to help you get your memories back. Or at least point you to whoever took ‘em in the first place.’

He finally felt the gun being removed from his spine.

Kinross’s voice was a bit shaky when she spoke. ‘Who are you, really?’

‘That’s the question of the age, isn’t it?’ he replied. ‘If you’re anything like me, you ask yourself that question every morning in the mirror.’

They stared at each other for precious seconds, and even without his time sense he could sense the time ticking down.

‘Moira MacTaggert,’ she said after a moment. ‘That’s who I was, before.’

He blinked at the name and then grinned. ‘And I know who you are now and who you will be will be fantastic. But forgive me for saying, you’re not really the government agent type. Ever think about a career in the sciences?’

He didn’t get a response.

There was a gunshot from up ahead.

Time shifted before the panic set in where every set of eyes in the crowd, even his pursuers, drew to the origin of the noise. It was the diversion he needed, and likely the only one he would get if Kinross’s comrades thought he had anything to do with the shooting.

As time coalesced around the event - not quite fixed, but still focal - he pulled together every shred of his concentration to force time a second out of sync. Coupled with the sudden surge of the crowd as people tried to figure out what was going on, he could easily slip away.

He wasn’t the only person making a run for it soon as people alternatively rushed after the quickly departing presidential car and as far from the street as possible. Women rushed their children along, worried for their safety, and husbands ushered their wives away. In spite of the general chaos, it didn’t take the Doctor long to return to the TARDIS.

Once safely inside he promptly sent them into the Vortex.

‘How’d we do?’ Rose asked with a yawn as she wandered into the console room, her feet bare and his jacket folded over her arms.

‘How d’you think?’ the Doctor countered, bringing up the photographs on the view screen. In each of them, he was staring directly at the camera just as the President’s car drove by. If he squinted, he could also make out Kinross in the background before she’d snuck up on him.

Rose appeared to follow his gaze, because she asked, ‘And what about her? Did you figure what she was doing?’

‘Just someone else, looking for answers. I gave her some ideas about where to look for them.’

‘D’you think she will?’

‘I have a suspicion,’ he answered, and then fixed her with a gentle smile. ‘Bet you didn’t get much sleep last night. If you head down the corridor opposite the wardrobe, there’s a hall of extra rooms. I’ve no doubt the TARDIS already picked one out, just for you.’

‘Sounds good - that and a bath,’ Rose said with another yawn as she headed out of the room. She paused, throwing a look over her shoulder. ‘No adventures without me, yeah?’

‘Wouldn’t dream of it,’ he promised.

· ΘΣ ·

For a split second when she woke up, Rose didn’t know where she was.

This room was easily three times as large as her own back home. Unlike the latter, it was not furnished with cheaply made dressers and a lumpy double bed that took up almost all the space. The floors were a smooth hardwood instead of the carpet she was used to. The walls, painted a rich purple, had similar round protrusions as those in the console room of the TARDIS. The familiar sound of traffic and neighbours arguing was absent, replaced instead by the infinitely more comforting background hum she associated with the timeship.

As the last vestiges of sleep ebbed away from her senses, memory returned in full colour and detail, and she smiled.

She was waking for the first time in the TARDIS.

It was a milestone, and she refused to feel silly over the pleasant, buoyant sentiment that welled up inside her at the realisation.

She’d slept a few times since meeting the Doctor, but this, right now - a room of her own smacked of some kind of permanence.

She was a passenger - no, a crew-member - on a bigger-on-the-inside-time-ship. Rose was officially travelling with the Doctor for… for however long he would have her along.

She allowed herself a few more minutes to mull over that reality before the excitement over the day’s prospective adventures kicked in and she vaulted out of bed.

She rushed through her morning rituals, barely taking time to marvel at her spacious en-suite, and grabbed the first pair of clothes in her red pack on her way out.

A pit-stop to the TARDIS kitchen gave her brief pause. It was easily the size of her entire flat, and full of futuristic appliances she would likely need the Doctor to explain to her. Still,  she hunted down a good old-fashioned kettle and some English Breakfast without getting into too much trouble. Upon brief reflection as she sipped her own milk-and-sugar laced brew, she poured a second cup and mixed in two sugars before heading to the console room.

‘Good morning,’ she chirped to the Doctor, who was fiddling with one of the large dials.

‘Diurnal perception,’ he grunted, more to himself than her. ‘There’s no such thing as day or night on the TARDIS, you know.’

‘Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed,’ Rose rolled her eyes, holding out the second cup of tea she had brought. ‘Are you always this charming first thing, or were you up again all night?’

‘Hot liquids and wiring aren’t exactly good bedfellows, Rose,’ he pointed out, not answering her. He still took the cup anyhow and sipped it thoughtfully, his eyes flicking over her attire. ‘Bit underdressed for 1912, aren’t you?’

‘We’re not going to 1912,’ she told him confidently.

‘Oh?’

‘Nope. I want to spend at least one day in a place that doesn’t have a gaol cell or interrogation room I can get thrown into.’

‘So, instead of the relative safety of twentieth century law enforcement, you want to go to one of the worst volcanic eruptions in your history?’ he inquired, eyebrow raised sceptically.

‘Exactly.’

His expression changed to the game smile she loved. ‘Fantastic!’

He practically threw the tea down his throat and began the usual dance around the console that heralded a new destination. Rose was forced to finish off her own beverage rather quickly lest she end up wearing it.

A short, shaking trip and buzzing sound later, and he straightened up.

‘There we are - August 27, 1883. The day of the final eruption of Krakatoa,’ he announced proudly, opening up a compartment within the console and rummaging around. ‘Here, you’ll need these.’

He handed her what looked like a translucent surgical mask with some kind of gearbox within it and what looked like wireless headphones.

‘What’s that for?’

‘The mask’s to keep you from choking to death on ash and pumice. The buds are to keep your eardrums from rupturing,’ he told her simply, pointing to them. ‘Also, so that you can hear me when I tell you not to wander off. Two-way microphone in these.’

‘That’s very… Spock,’ she said, accepting the bits of alien technology. ‘What about you?’

‘I’ll be fine. Superior Time Lord physiology - as long as I don’t take a lava bath, I can survive in much hotter temperatures than you lot.’

‘That’s your answer for everything, isn’t it?’ Rose quipped as they headed for the door, pressing the ear buds into her ears and the mask onto her face.

Upon stepping foot outside the police box exterior, she wished the Doctor had given her goggles as well. The heat made her eyes tear up at its sudden onslaught, and in an attempt to blink them away she glanced around her new surroundings.

The island had once been beautiful - she could still make out the skeleton of the land, ash covered shapes that had once been trees and rocks. There was no more vegetation, just dried and dead remnants, and in some places they had to slog through ash that was almost a foot thick.

A pillar of black clouds towered over the island, kilometres into the air, blocking out the sun so that Rose wasn’t sure if it was day or night. Every ten minutes or so the air crackled and boomed with explosions that made the ground vibrate

‘Right, we’ll have to make this quick,’ the Doctor declared, glancing at his watch. Even with the headphones, she had to strain to hear his voice. ‘We’re a bit later than I expected us to be. Can’t be anywhere near here when it finally blows - it’s about four in the morning now, the first blast will be around five-thirty.’

‘So, how’s this going to work then? Do I have to draw you myself?’ Rose questioned, following the Doctor toward an area that looked similar to where she remembered from Clive’s drawing. ‘Because I’m a horrible artist.’

‘No matter. I can just draw myself.’

‘But you’re supposed to be posing for the picture, not drawing it.’

‘I can do both you know - immensely impressive.’

‘You won’t get the picture right.’

‘Sure I will, you’ll tell me how it has to look, I’ll draw it. Police sketch artists do it all the time.’

‘It just feels like cheating…’

‘Won’t matter, in the end. Whatever I draw, you’ll remember.’

‘It’s still cheating -’

‘Excuse me, but do you two mind?’ an irritated voice piped up out of nowhere. ‘Your idle bickering is interrupting my observations - and considering the decibel level of the preliminary eruptions, that’s saying something.’

Rose emitted a squeak of surprise as a dishevelled looking older man in too-large trousers and a bow-tie appeared from behind the rather large boulder.

‘What the - ?’ the Doctor began, putting himself between Rose and whatever danger the newcomer might present.

‘Perhaps you’re a bit busy canoodling, but if you haven’t noticed, we’re in the middle of an active eruption!’ the short stranger lectured. ‘Or did the falling pumice fail to make an impression?’

Rose peeked out from behind the Doctor and her eyes sweeping over the newcomer. Her first instinct to feel threatened disappeared into intrigued curiosity instead.

He was dark eyed, with heavy brows and a Beatles-looking haircut. Though he scowled at them she got the distinct impression his mouth was more used to curling into a wry smile.

Not really that threatening, she decided. ‘Who are -?’

But her rather appropriate question was cut off when the Doctor suddenly barked out, ‘Oh, for the love of - what the hell are you doing here?’

· ΔΩ ·

End Note: As treat for the fashion enthusiasts, I’ll be posting Rose’s outfits on my Pinterest. You can find all of them (as I add them) under my Rose Tyler Clothing Ideas board. As for this chapter, you can find them here:

Casual: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/393713192400111863/

· ΔΩ ·

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