A Beautiful Disaster: Chapter Eight
An AU look at Human Nature/Family of Blood with a season 1 twist. Inspired by "Catalyst," by Anna Nalick.
It features Rose/9, Jack Harkness
( Chapter One ) ( Chapter Two ) ( Chapter Three ) ( Chapter Four ) ( Chapter Five ) ( Chapter Six ) ( Chapter Seven )
A/N: Nothing you recognize belongs to me! Quotes taken from "World War Three" and "Dalek."
Rose had an idea of what would probably happen when she let John into the little flat she'd called home for the past three months. At first she was surprised that he'd come, but the Doctor didn't shy away from her presence, even after moments like I could save the world but lose you and what use are emotions when you will not save the woman you love. Physically he was always there, but mentally, emotionally, he was absent. He would tinker with the TARDIS or read and even though he was within touching distance his walls kept her at arm's length.
So when he showed up at her door looking like he'd rather be anywhere but where he was she expected a bit of brooding, or maybe a good argument. She did not expect to be snogged within an inch of her life. Because he was the Doctor, even if he didn't know it, and he didn't do that. Except that he was human now, so maybe he did. Or maybe the Doctor just didn't do that with her. He'd seemed interested enough in Jabe back on Platform One, but that had been when they first met, and she hadn't seen him flirt with anyone since, not even Jack. And everyone flirted with Jack, whether they wanted to or not. It was a knee-jerk reaction to the man's existence.
It occurred to her that she was doing entirely too much thinking, but she really hadn't expected him to push her up against the door and kiss her in a manner that couldn't be considered chaste on any planet. She was stiff and unresponsive for a moment, out of surprise versus any real objection to his actions, but he noticed the hesitation and pulled back slightly. His lips hovered centimeters from hers and his eyes searched her face. "Is this alright?" he asked gently.
"Yes," she replied, a tad breathlessly. "God, yes."
He grinned. "Fantastic." And then he went back to attempting to kiss her until she forgot her own name. The door was cool and solid against her back and he was solid and warm in front of her and she was melting into him, because what else can you do when the man you love more than anything in the world finally gets over his guilt complex and makes a move? The reservation and confusion that had plagued her since she started talking to John Smith vanished as she realized a fundamental truth: he was the Doctor. Really and properly, he was. He didn't just look like the mad alien-in all the ways that mattered they were the same man. John didn't have the weight of an entire species hanging around his neck, but he'd lost his family and to a human man that was his whole world. He was a soldier; he'd been in war and come out changed, broken. He was prickly and brilliant and jealous of anyone who took her time away from him. He knew the most random bits of information about apparently everything, and he possessed an affinity for machines that bordered on savant-like. And it stood to reason that his feelings for her, like everything about him, was an echo of the Doctor's feelings.
He broke the kiss and rested his forehead against hers. He was smiling, she noted. Her brain fixed on the details and shied away from the fact that she had just kissed the Doctor. Well, really he'd been the one doing most of the kissing. They stood like that for a moment, one of his hands cradling the back of her head, the other resting at her waist. Her own arms were at her sides. She'd been so shocked that she hadn't given in to her natural desire to touch him everywhere she could.
"Wanted to do that for ages," he confessed quietly. "Ever since I saw you standing on that stage, wearing that dress." His eyes were soft and open as he catalogued her slightly dazed expression. "Been a while since I've kissed anyone. Glad to see I haven't lost my touch." His eyes sparkled and she hit him on the shoulder. "Oi!" he exclaimed in mock pain. "Abuse, that is!"
"You're just lucky I didn't slap you," she retorted. "Makin' fun of me after you kiss me like that. S your own fault!"
He laughed and pulled her into a hug. She went gladly. "Rose Tyler." He said her name like it was a thing of wonder. "You're a little bit mad."
She grinned at him, her tongue caught between her teeth. "Yeah, an you love it."
He kissed the top of her head. "Don't I just."
Jack and Joan visited Rose the next day. John was there; he'd come straight over from work and although there were some significant looks passing between the two visitors, neither of them mentioned how close John and Rose were, nor that they were almost always touching. It was clear that something in their relationship had shifted profoundly.
Jack was her friend and thus didn't need a reason to stop by, but that night he had one. "I'm sorry," he told Rose. "Your backpack was destroyed, but we found this." He placed a plane Yale key in her hand. "The chain was melted."
She stared at her TARDIS key. It was warm to the touch, and honestly she hadn't even wondered if it could survive the fire, she'd just assumed it would. Her lip trembled and she took a breath, steadying herself. John put a comforting hand on her shoulder and she covered his fingers with her own. "Did you find anything else?" she asked, trying to sound casual. "I had a watch with the key."
Jack shook his head. "That was it, Rosie." His voice was quiet and he tried to break it to her as gently as possible. "We went over the place with a fine-toothed comb. Either it was destroyed in the fire, or someone else picked it up."
She looked at him then. "D'you think someone could have grabbed it?"
He knew the answer, the only one he could give. "It's always possible, Rosie." A little hope was better than no hope at all.
"We'll put up fliers," John said, taking control. "Offer a reward."
She bit her lip. "I don't have much," she admitted.
He squeezed her shoulder. "I'll take care of it."
She smiled at him then, wide and glowing. He smiled in response, and Jack couldn't help but notice how different he was from the sour man who spent his days hunched over a bottle.
Rose turned back to Jack and Joan with a horrified expression on her face. "Here I am worrying about a watch," she said, "when you've just lost the bar." She reached out and took Joan's hands in hers. "How are you holding up?"
The older woman sighed. "It can be difficult," she admitted. "Oliver and I poured our lives into that place and now we've nothing to show for it."
"Weren't you insured?" John asked.
Joan nodded. "Of course, but it takes time for the paperwork to process." She snorted. "There are layers and layers of red tape."
"We'll think of something," Rose assured her, and then Jack jumped into the conversation, and talk turned to more lighthearted matters.
Rose met Jack for lunch a few days later. Without a job to occupy her spare hours she felt utterly useless, and she ached to be out and about and into trouble again. It was the first time she'd been out of her flat since she got back from the hospital, and even though it was cloudy and cold Rose thought it was a beautiful day. She hadn't noticed before how much value she placed on her ability to move. Life with the Doctor was dangerous, and even though she and Jack joked about the running (how better to keep her girlish figure and eat all the chips she wanted?) there was a serious side. They were frequently in tight spots, and she needed to be able to trust that her body would obey her. She was young and she hadn't yet completely learned her limits, or how to cope with her body betraying her.
She was recovering, but far too slowly for her own liking. Walking from her flat to the Tai restaurant Jack loved left her tired and out of breath. Before the fire she could have run the same distance with little effort, but she wasn't going to think about that now. They were safe, the Doctor was hidden, and the watch would be found. She repeated the sentence like a mantra in her mind.
"Hey sweetheart!" Jack's usual exuberance cut through the gloomy cloud that seemed to hover around her. She smiled at him. He was trying so hard to be upbeat about the whole situation. At least they were in a time period that was relatively close to her own. He was thousands of years away from the world with which he was familiar. 'The past is another country,' the Doctor said, and Jack was stranded. At least they had each other.
"Hullo Jack." He led her to a table tucked into the corner of the busy restaurant and held her chair for her like a gentleman.
"How are you feeling?" he asked after he slid into the chair across from her.
She shrugged. "Been better."
"Any sign of the watch?"
She shook her head. "Not yet. We were putting up flyers all of yesterday, and he said that it will probably take a few days for them to circulate." She worried her bottom lip with her teeth and stared out the window. "What if we don't find it?" she asked, sounding very small and a little lost. Jack forgot, sometimes, how young she was. He knew that she'd been traveling with the Doctor for months before he met them and when they were on different planets or in different times she kept herself together. She was brave and flexible, but then again she always had the Doctor to lean on. This time they had to be the experts.
He reached across the table and covered her hand with his own. "We'll find it, Rose." His voice conveyed a certainty he wasn't sure he felt.
She took a breath and nodded. He could almost see her put herself back together. By the time she smiled at him anyone who didn't know her would swear that nothing was wrong. "Yeah," she replied, matching his confidence. "We will."
He leaned in close. "Now, tell me. What happened between you two? When we talked before you were all flustered and frustrated and now-" He raised an eyebrow and gestured at her. The fear was there, but buried, and she seemed-lighter. "You're glowing, Rosie." She blushed. His eyebrows climbed higher. "Come on, you can't leave me hanging like that!" He frowned. "That is what you say, right? 'Leave me hanging?'"
She rolled her eyes. "Yes, Jack. Good job." She fidgeted a bit and a smile crept over her face, the kind that hinted at potentially naughty secrets. "He kissed me again."
"Who, John?" Jack couldn't stop a grin. "It's about time!" She laughed and the blush stole back across her cheeks. "I'm assuming that this is a good thing."
Rose nodded vigorously. "Last time-I was just so confused, Jack. This whole situation is mad and I, I didn't want him to hate me for taking advantage of him when he doesn't remember. Or worse, I didn't want to read into his actions. What if John Smith was an entirely different person, someone who loved me and wanted to kiss me and the Doctor came back and didn't?"
"What changed your mind?" Their food arrived, and Jack started in on his Pad Thai.
Rose picked at her curry. "He's so much himself, Jack. Really. The big things-being an alien an the last of his kind an all, they're different, but the little things are the same." A smile flitted across her face. "I bet he swears like a sailor when he cuts himself shaving."
"You'll just have to make up a reason for him to spend the night and find out," Jack replied with a healthy dose of innuendo. "Hang on, how do you know what he does when he shaves?"
She stared at him. "You've heard him yelling. I doubt the TARDIS could keep me from hearing if she tried!"
When they finished the admittedly excellent food and were ready to part ways, Jack moved to help Rose out of her seat but she waved him off. "I'm not an invalid, you know," she reminded him pointedly. "I walked here all on my own and everything."
"The doctor said to take it slow, Rose," he told her severely.
She sighed. "I know, I know." Her brows wrinkled in frustration. "I hate being like this, Jack. What if I don't get better? I can't run like this, even walking tires me out." Her hands curled into fists. "I'm no use to you and the Doctor if I can't run."
"Hey, that's not true." He tilted her chin up so that she was looking him in the eyes, instead of staring at the floor. "You are far more than a pair of gorgeous legs, Rose Tyler."
She met his gaze evenly. "If I can't run then I'm a danger to you both. I won't have you, either of you, getting killed trying to rescue me." She swallowed and pain flashed across her features. "If I can't run I have to go home."
He hugged her. "It won't come to that. The Doctor's got a med bay full of fancy equipment. If you still feel like this when he gets back I'm sure he'll be able to fix you up, right as rain."
She opened her mouth to reply, but was shoved roughly against Jack as a young man barreled past.
Tim was late. He promised his sister he would meet her at her favorite restaurant, a tiny little Thai place not too far from where the Big Bad Wolf had been. It was the fifth anniversary of the day she lost the baby, and it was always hard. He knew that she came to him because he didn't try to make her talk about her feelings or pretend that everything was fine. He let her sit across from him and they ate food that was spicy enough to set his tongue on fire and they talked about everything and nothing.
Two people were standing just in his way, a man and a woman, and they looked like they were in the middle of something important. They were-familiar. He tried to weave past them, but he wasn't quite flexible enough, and he brushed up against the woman rather roughly.
Rose. The watch spoke and the word burned in his mind. Feelings, so many feelings. Pain and loss and rage and hate and darkness-and then light. A hand, small and human-hot clasped in his. A quick thinking, sharp talking, chain swinging blur of pink and yellow. A force of nature, a second chance. She stood framed against a window three stories high, bathed in the red-orange light of a dying sun while chunks of her planet floated outside, suspended in space, and she cried for her home that was gone. But it wasn't gone, not like his, not locked away and burned to ash, not kicking and screaming. She almost died then and she almost died in a basement in Cardiff and she stayed. She leaned over the table, trapped in 10 Downing Street while the world winds its way toward nuclear holocaust and told him to do it. I could save the world but lose you-but that doesn't matter. She makes hard choices too and it's so good not to be alone any more. And then he thought she was dead and the rage was back but darker, deeper. For a little while he wasn't alone, for precious moments she made him laugh and smile and remember how it felt to be alive instead of to exist.
He staggered a little from the force of the emotions radiating from the watch. He knew her, knew her from just a touch of an alien consciousness. He saw her as an infant in her mother's arms and again as a young woman facing down bitchy skin trampolines and giant green baby-faced monsters and gas mask zombies. He knew how she liked her tea and what a million little gestures and sighs meant-and he knew without a doubt that whatever else was true about the Doctor, he loved this girl-Rose. The alien loved Rose, and he knew that Tim had saved her, had pulled her out of the fire when she was looking for the watch that currently rested in his pocket.
"Watch where you're going!" the man barked. Jack, that was his name. He was a bartender at the Big Bad Wolf.
"Sorry," Tim muttered.
Rose laid a hand on his shoulder. "S okay Tim." She smiled at him. "I never did get a chance to thank you. The doctor said you probably saved my life. Any longer and the carbon monoxide would have gotten the better of me. So, thanks."
He nodded. "Any time. Well, I hope not any time soon." He smiled, embarrassed. "You know what I mean." He'd never been good at talking to girls. They seemed to bring out the worst in him.
She hugged him, and Jack clasped his shoulder. "Thanks," the man said. "Rose is very important to me, and it means a great deal that you helped keep her safe."
Dancing and dancing and hands that know the feel of a gun, have taken someone's life. Smooth talker and smooth operator and something is missing, something important. Usurper and con-artist and eventually friend.
The watch was a bit more ambivalent with Jack than it had been with Rose, but there was still a fierce warmth of feeling. Still, it left Tim disturbed. He was dangerous, was Captain Jack. Not as dangerous as the Doctor, but then Tim would be hard pressed to find anyone who was. He offered the man a smile, and then went to join his sister at their customary table. He stroked the watch in his pocket as his eyes followed Rose and Jack out of the restaurant. It was coming for them. It was coming for the Doctor. He shivered.
Keep me hidden, the watch-that-wasn't instructed. Keep me safe.
It features Rose/9, Jack Harkness
( Chapter One ) ( Chapter Two ) ( Chapter Three ) ( Chapter Four ) ( Chapter Five ) ( Chapter Six ) ( Chapter Seven )
A/N: Nothing you recognize belongs to me! Quotes taken from "World War Three" and "Dalek."
Rose had an idea of what would probably happen when she let John into the little flat she'd called home for the past three months. At first she was surprised that he'd come, but the Doctor didn't shy away from her presence, even after moments like I could save the world but lose you and what use are emotions when you will not save the woman you love. Physically he was always there, but mentally, emotionally, he was absent. He would tinker with the TARDIS or read and even though he was within touching distance his walls kept her at arm's length.
So when he showed up at her door looking like he'd rather be anywhere but where he was she expected a bit of brooding, or maybe a good argument. She did not expect to be snogged within an inch of her life. Because he was the Doctor, even if he didn't know it, and he didn't do that. Except that he was human now, so maybe he did. Or maybe the Doctor just didn't do that with her. He'd seemed interested enough in Jabe back on Platform One, but that had been when they first met, and she hadn't seen him flirt with anyone since, not even Jack. And everyone flirted with Jack, whether they wanted to or not. It was a knee-jerk reaction to the man's existence.
It occurred to her that she was doing entirely too much thinking, but she really hadn't expected him to push her up against the door and kiss her in a manner that couldn't be considered chaste on any planet. She was stiff and unresponsive for a moment, out of surprise versus any real objection to his actions, but he noticed the hesitation and pulled back slightly. His lips hovered centimeters from hers and his eyes searched her face. "Is this alright?" he asked gently.
"Yes," she replied, a tad breathlessly. "God, yes."
He grinned. "Fantastic." And then he went back to attempting to kiss her until she forgot her own name. The door was cool and solid against her back and he was solid and warm in front of her and she was melting into him, because what else can you do when the man you love more than anything in the world finally gets over his guilt complex and makes a move? The reservation and confusion that had plagued her since she started talking to John Smith vanished as she realized a fundamental truth: he was the Doctor. Really and properly, he was. He didn't just look like the mad alien-in all the ways that mattered they were the same man. John didn't have the weight of an entire species hanging around his neck, but he'd lost his family and to a human man that was his whole world. He was a soldier; he'd been in war and come out changed, broken. He was prickly and brilliant and jealous of anyone who took her time away from him. He knew the most random bits of information about apparently everything, and he possessed an affinity for machines that bordered on savant-like. And it stood to reason that his feelings for her, like everything about him, was an echo of the Doctor's feelings.
He broke the kiss and rested his forehead against hers. He was smiling, she noted. Her brain fixed on the details and shied away from the fact that she had just kissed the Doctor. Well, really he'd been the one doing most of the kissing. They stood like that for a moment, one of his hands cradling the back of her head, the other resting at her waist. Her own arms were at her sides. She'd been so shocked that she hadn't given in to her natural desire to touch him everywhere she could.
"Wanted to do that for ages," he confessed quietly. "Ever since I saw you standing on that stage, wearing that dress." His eyes were soft and open as he catalogued her slightly dazed expression. "Been a while since I've kissed anyone. Glad to see I haven't lost my touch." His eyes sparkled and she hit him on the shoulder. "Oi!" he exclaimed in mock pain. "Abuse, that is!"
"You're just lucky I didn't slap you," she retorted. "Makin' fun of me after you kiss me like that. S your own fault!"
He laughed and pulled her into a hug. She went gladly. "Rose Tyler." He said her name like it was a thing of wonder. "You're a little bit mad."
She grinned at him, her tongue caught between her teeth. "Yeah, an you love it."
He kissed the top of her head. "Don't I just."
Jack and Joan visited Rose the next day. John was there; he'd come straight over from work and although there were some significant looks passing between the two visitors, neither of them mentioned how close John and Rose were, nor that they were almost always touching. It was clear that something in their relationship had shifted profoundly.
Jack was her friend and thus didn't need a reason to stop by, but that night he had one. "I'm sorry," he told Rose. "Your backpack was destroyed, but we found this." He placed a plane Yale key in her hand. "The chain was melted."
She stared at her TARDIS key. It was warm to the touch, and honestly she hadn't even wondered if it could survive the fire, she'd just assumed it would. Her lip trembled and she took a breath, steadying herself. John put a comforting hand on her shoulder and she covered his fingers with her own. "Did you find anything else?" she asked, trying to sound casual. "I had a watch with the key."
Jack shook his head. "That was it, Rosie." His voice was quiet and he tried to break it to her as gently as possible. "We went over the place with a fine-toothed comb. Either it was destroyed in the fire, or someone else picked it up."
She looked at him then. "D'you think someone could have grabbed it?"
He knew the answer, the only one he could give. "It's always possible, Rosie." A little hope was better than no hope at all.
"We'll put up fliers," John said, taking control. "Offer a reward."
She bit her lip. "I don't have much," she admitted.
He squeezed her shoulder. "I'll take care of it."
She smiled at him then, wide and glowing. He smiled in response, and Jack couldn't help but notice how different he was from the sour man who spent his days hunched over a bottle.
Rose turned back to Jack and Joan with a horrified expression on her face. "Here I am worrying about a watch," she said, "when you've just lost the bar." She reached out and took Joan's hands in hers. "How are you holding up?"
The older woman sighed. "It can be difficult," she admitted. "Oliver and I poured our lives into that place and now we've nothing to show for it."
"Weren't you insured?" John asked.
Joan nodded. "Of course, but it takes time for the paperwork to process." She snorted. "There are layers and layers of red tape."
"We'll think of something," Rose assured her, and then Jack jumped into the conversation, and talk turned to more lighthearted matters.
Rose met Jack for lunch a few days later. Without a job to occupy her spare hours she felt utterly useless, and she ached to be out and about and into trouble again. It was the first time she'd been out of her flat since she got back from the hospital, and even though it was cloudy and cold Rose thought it was a beautiful day. She hadn't noticed before how much value she placed on her ability to move. Life with the Doctor was dangerous, and even though she and Jack joked about the running (how better to keep her girlish figure and eat all the chips she wanted?) there was a serious side. They were frequently in tight spots, and she needed to be able to trust that her body would obey her. She was young and she hadn't yet completely learned her limits, or how to cope with her body betraying her.
She was recovering, but far too slowly for her own liking. Walking from her flat to the Tai restaurant Jack loved left her tired and out of breath. Before the fire she could have run the same distance with little effort, but she wasn't going to think about that now. They were safe, the Doctor was hidden, and the watch would be found. She repeated the sentence like a mantra in her mind.
"Hey sweetheart!" Jack's usual exuberance cut through the gloomy cloud that seemed to hover around her. She smiled at him. He was trying so hard to be upbeat about the whole situation. At least they were in a time period that was relatively close to her own. He was thousands of years away from the world with which he was familiar. 'The past is another country,' the Doctor said, and Jack was stranded. At least they had each other.
"Hullo Jack." He led her to a table tucked into the corner of the busy restaurant and held her chair for her like a gentleman.
"How are you feeling?" he asked after he slid into the chair across from her.
She shrugged. "Been better."
"Any sign of the watch?"
She shook her head. "Not yet. We were putting up flyers all of yesterday, and he said that it will probably take a few days for them to circulate." She worried her bottom lip with her teeth and stared out the window. "What if we don't find it?" she asked, sounding very small and a little lost. Jack forgot, sometimes, how young she was. He knew that she'd been traveling with the Doctor for months before he met them and when they were on different planets or in different times she kept herself together. She was brave and flexible, but then again she always had the Doctor to lean on. This time they had to be the experts.
He reached across the table and covered her hand with his own. "We'll find it, Rose." His voice conveyed a certainty he wasn't sure he felt.
She took a breath and nodded. He could almost see her put herself back together. By the time she smiled at him anyone who didn't know her would swear that nothing was wrong. "Yeah," she replied, matching his confidence. "We will."
He leaned in close. "Now, tell me. What happened between you two? When we talked before you were all flustered and frustrated and now-" He raised an eyebrow and gestured at her. The fear was there, but buried, and she seemed-lighter. "You're glowing, Rosie." She blushed. His eyebrows climbed higher. "Come on, you can't leave me hanging like that!" He frowned. "That is what you say, right? 'Leave me hanging?'"
She rolled her eyes. "Yes, Jack. Good job." She fidgeted a bit and a smile crept over her face, the kind that hinted at potentially naughty secrets. "He kissed me again."
"Who, John?" Jack couldn't stop a grin. "It's about time!" She laughed and the blush stole back across her cheeks. "I'm assuming that this is a good thing."
Rose nodded vigorously. "Last time-I was just so confused, Jack. This whole situation is mad and I, I didn't want him to hate me for taking advantage of him when he doesn't remember. Or worse, I didn't want to read into his actions. What if John Smith was an entirely different person, someone who loved me and wanted to kiss me and the Doctor came back and didn't?"
"What changed your mind?" Their food arrived, and Jack started in on his Pad Thai.
Rose picked at her curry. "He's so much himself, Jack. Really. The big things-being an alien an the last of his kind an all, they're different, but the little things are the same." A smile flitted across her face. "I bet he swears like a sailor when he cuts himself shaving."
"You'll just have to make up a reason for him to spend the night and find out," Jack replied with a healthy dose of innuendo. "Hang on, how do you know what he does when he shaves?"
She stared at him. "You've heard him yelling. I doubt the TARDIS could keep me from hearing if she tried!"
When they finished the admittedly excellent food and were ready to part ways, Jack moved to help Rose out of her seat but she waved him off. "I'm not an invalid, you know," she reminded him pointedly. "I walked here all on my own and everything."
"The doctor said to take it slow, Rose," he told her severely.
She sighed. "I know, I know." Her brows wrinkled in frustration. "I hate being like this, Jack. What if I don't get better? I can't run like this, even walking tires me out." Her hands curled into fists. "I'm no use to you and the Doctor if I can't run."
"Hey, that's not true." He tilted her chin up so that she was looking him in the eyes, instead of staring at the floor. "You are far more than a pair of gorgeous legs, Rose Tyler."
She met his gaze evenly. "If I can't run then I'm a danger to you both. I won't have you, either of you, getting killed trying to rescue me." She swallowed and pain flashed across her features. "If I can't run I have to go home."
He hugged her. "It won't come to that. The Doctor's got a med bay full of fancy equipment. If you still feel like this when he gets back I'm sure he'll be able to fix you up, right as rain."
She opened her mouth to reply, but was shoved roughly against Jack as a young man barreled past.
Tim was late. He promised his sister he would meet her at her favorite restaurant, a tiny little Thai place not too far from where the Big Bad Wolf had been. It was the fifth anniversary of the day she lost the baby, and it was always hard. He knew that she came to him because he didn't try to make her talk about her feelings or pretend that everything was fine. He let her sit across from him and they ate food that was spicy enough to set his tongue on fire and they talked about everything and nothing.
Two people were standing just in his way, a man and a woman, and they looked like they were in the middle of something important. They were-familiar. He tried to weave past them, but he wasn't quite flexible enough, and he brushed up against the woman rather roughly.
Rose. The watch spoke and the word burned in his mind. Feelings, so many feelings. Pain and loss and rage and hate and darkness-and then light. A hand, small and human-hot clasped in his. A quick thinking, sharp talking, chain swinging blur of pink and yellow. A force of nature, a second chance. She stood framed against a window three stories high, bathed in the red-orange light of a dying sun while chunks of her planet floated outside, suspended in space, and she cried for her home that was gone. But it wasn't gone, not like his, not locked away and burned to ash, not kicking and screaming. She almost died then and she almost died in a basement in Cardiff and she stayed. She leaned over the table, trapped in 10 Downing Street while the world winds its way toward nuclear holocaust and told him to do it. I could save the world but lose you-but that doesn't matter. She makes hard choices too and it's so good not to be alone any more. And then he thought she was dead and the rage was back but darker, deeper. For a little while he wasn't alone, for precious moments she made him laugh and smile and remember how it felt to be alive instead of to exist.
He staggered a little from the force of the emotions radiating from the watch. He knew her, knew her from just a touch of an alien consciousness. He saw her as an infant in her mother's arms and again as a young woman facing down bitchy skin trampolines and giant green baby-faced monsters and gas mask zombies. He knew how she liked her tea and what a million little gestures and sighs meant-and he knew without a doubt that whatever else was true about the Doctor, he loved this girl-Rose. The alien loved Rose, and he knew that Tim had saved her, had pulled her out of the fire when she was looking for the watch that currently rested in his pocket.
"Watch where you're going!" the man barked. Jack, that was his name. He was a bartender at the Big Bad Wolf.
"Sorry," Tim muttered.
Rose laid a hand on his shoulder. "S okay Tim." She smiled at him. "I never did get a chance to thank you. The doctor said you probably saved my life. Any longer and the carbon monoxide would have gotten the better of me. So, thanks."
He nodded. "Any time. Well, I hope not any time soon." He smiled, embarrassed. "You know what I mean." He'd never been good at talking to girls. They seemed to bring out the worst in him.
She hugged him, and Jack clasped his shoulder. "Thanks," the man said. "Rose is very important to me, and it means a great deal that you helped keep her safe."
Dancing and dancing and hands that know the feel of a gun, have taken someone's life. Smooth talker and smooth operator and something is missing, something important. Usurper and con-artist and eventually friend.
The watch was a bit more ambivalent with Jack than it had been with Rose, but there was still a fierce warmth of feeling. Still, it left Tim disturbed. He was dangerous, was Captain Jack. Not as dangerous as the Doctor, but then Tim would be hard pressed to find anyone who was. He offered the man a smile, and then went to join his sister at their customary table. He stroked the watch in his pocket as his eyes followed Rose and Jack out of the restaurant. It was coming for them. It was coming for the Doctor. He shivered.
Keep me hidden, the watch-that-wasn't instructed. Keep me safe.