They Wouldn't Dare (2/4)
Title: They Wouldn't Dare
Author: Jessa L'Rynn
Character(s): Tenth Doctor, Rose Tyler
Rating: T
Warnings: None
Summary: Rose Tyler is having the worst day ever. Even planning ahead for a stop on the peaceful planet of Desteria can't prepare her for this one.
Part Two
Rose forced herself to concentrate on not giggling as she arrived at the Destiny Natural Rehabilitation and Rehabitation Center for Endangered Lifeforms. She looked, she thought, suitably professional in her smart new suit. She reminded herself carefully that she was going to rescue the Last of the Time Lords from...
No, it was no good. She sat on the steps in front of the Center and howled with mirth. God, she was going to blackmail him with this one for the rest of their lives. She was going to call her mum. She was going to find a way to get a signal through to the parallel universe so she could tell Mickey. She was going to demand he tell her where Jack was so she could go tell Jack. She might even look up Adam, the complete useless nutter. This was too good to keep to herself.
She picked up her phone and was on the verge of dialing Sarah Jane's number, just to update the former companion and have someone to share in the penultimate moment of all her adventures with the Doctor. She's a reporter, Rose thought gleefully. She knows ALL his old friends.
She smirked then and put the phone in her pocket. Sarah Jane would be the number one person he would NOT want told. Her and the TARDIS, of course. It would not be worth holding over his head later if she told Sarah now.
She imagined the conversation in her head:
"Doctor, I'd like to go shopping."
"No, Rose, you went shopping yesterday."
Pulling out her phone. "Oh Sarah, guess what..."
The coordinates reset on speed dial. "Super-Shop-O-Rama-World sound good?"
Perfect.
She loved him, but this was too brilliant.
But it would all be for naught if she didn't wipe that smirk off her face right this instant, get in there and save him from ending up as the main character in one of Jack's famous stories.
The ones where everybody ended up naked.
Fantastic!
"Doctor Tyler," she said at reception and proffered the psychic paper, which should tell everyone she was with the Department of Research Funding and therefore gain her easy access to their new project.
"We weren't told to expect you, Doctor Tyler," said the receptionist, dubiously.
Rose shot the man her best smile. It would work, of course, unless he was completely gay, and if Jack had been a proper example of sexuality from this time frame, she was sure it wouldn't be a problem.
It wasn't. He gazed at her in obvious adoration while Rose bubbled at him, enthusiastically. "A little bird told me," she said, "that you have the most amazing new development in your - sorry, our - Endangered Species Recovery Program. I came as quickly as I could, because I was just so excited to see such a positive development. Fantastic, don't you think? A mythological creature. It'd be just like having unicorns, don't you think?"
The man nodded, vacant-eyed and beaming at her while she grinned and babbled on. He even volunteered to call in the senior supervisor of the new project to meet her.
"Fantastic," Rose enthused.
When the supervisor, a tall, big-eyed brunette woman with faintly Asian features and slightly blue skin showed up, Rose enthused melodramatically at her, too. She had planned originally to pretend to be Doctor-like, but since these people seemed to be accepting her at face value, she decided to give them their money's worth. She poured on every damp ounce of charm she had ever possessed. She glittered, she sparkled, she smiled and nodded and listened in wide-eyed incredulity.
They really were doing something wonderful here, actually. It was a shame they had to take the Doctor, and it would be more of a shame if they forced him to use his usual tactics to get away from them. Best for all parties concerned if she could just get him loose quickly, quietly, and efficiently before he decided to "accidentally" blow the place to hell.
Come to think of it, she was curious why he hadn't already done that. She'd been hours hunting for him, and it was unlikely he'd've waited this long normally. Maybe it was because he didn't have the sonic screwdriver. She hoped.
"So tell me, Doctor Abbot," she said as they walked down the stairs together, "all about your latest find. I fancy myself something of an expert of that species, so I'd be glad to help out if I can."
"Oh, wonderful, Doctor Tyler!" the scientist gushed, completely taken by her charm. "If you don't mind my asking, what's your species and how do you come to be an expert on a mythological culture?"
"Oh, I'm Human," Rose said. "Full-blood, oddly enough. No idea how that happened." She grinned while Dr. Abbot beamed at her. "I studied them for a research project at University, and kept it up any time there was any information to be had. They're fascinating. Supposedly virtually immortal, oldest race in the galaxy, and humanoid besides, it's just fantastic, isn't it."
"Oh, wonderful!"
God, this was getting irritating.
"We've found a male of the species, and what appears to be a female symbiot."
She wracked her brain for the definition, but couldn't come up with anything conclusive. "Well, but the males always travel with at least one female, don't they?"
"That's what we hoped, but he appears to be alone. Poor, bitter thing. Last of his kind, or very near it. We imagine he's hurting very much from the loneliness."
"No doubt," Rose agreed, knowing that, at least, was completely accurate.
"We brought the symbiot to keep him company - no idea how they communicate, but hopefully he'll be happier with her around. She's blue, if you can believe it, not even trying to blend in."
Oh, the TARDIS. "Maybe she's a bit injured," Rose observed. She'd heard the Doctor's regular rant on the broken chameleon circuit at least three times in the past month, so she had an idea what to say to that. "Still, all the evidence I've picked up says they communicate telepathically."
"What, really!" Abbot rounded on her, goggle-eyed and excited. "Oh, telepathy!" she rhapsodized. "Oh, I just can't wait! He'll be so much happier when we help him."
Rose raised a hand to cover her giggle with a cough. "I'm terribly afraid, though, that this won't work. For one, you'd need a female."
"We'll think of something. A compatible cross-species genetic match may work, if we're careful of him." They came to the bottom of the flight of stairs to a door that said "Authorized Personnel Only." Doctor Abbott flipped a badge at the door, then escorted Rose through it.
All at once, Rose became completely aware of exactly why the Doctor hadn't escaped. He was being held in an enormous glass box, full of delicate ivory furniture, with the TARDIS in one corner, looking large, blue, and sulky. He was sprawled sideways on a Roman divan looking thing, wearing what looked like a soft white hospital gown. He looked blissfully unconcerned about his surroundings, and just to add to her blackmail fodder, was singing sweetly at the top of his lungs.
"Oh, no," she exclaimed, quite delighted. "What'd you give him? Their physiology is far superior, you know."
"We looked up a sedative in the Torchwood archives," Abbot said. "We gave him the recommended dose, and he threw that off almost immediately and began lecturing our staff extensively on why he should be left alone, so we boosted it with a recommendation from the UNIT records. They're astonishingly complete on Gallifreyan physiology, so we knew what not to give him, too."
"Absolutely NO aspirin," Rose said, a matter of great concern.
"Yes, the record was adamant about that. We don't want to hurt him. He's lovely, isn't he?"
Rose smiled at him, dangled upside down and singing to the ceiling. "Oh yes," she said with a smile. "This is very exciting. Can I take a closer look?"
"Sure, just walk on over."
"What's his name?" she asked to keep up her routine.
"He says 'Rose' all the time, so we thought about calling him that, but he doesn't seem to want to answer to it."
She beamed at him, her beautiful Doctor, all soft and silly and vulnerable. She wished she were in there with him, where she could protect him from what his addled brain might suggest next.
Too late.
He caught sight of her, fell off the divan and came racing over. He bounced a bit on the glass, but not hard enough to indicate that he hadn't known it was there. Sort of for emphasis, really. She firmly put down the hand that had been instinctively raised to help him.
He looked her over from toes to tip, slowly. Then, he smirked, that little maniacal smirk that suggested he was about to explode something really, really big with nothing more than a bottle of nail polish and a tin of spam. She worried. A lot.
"Doctor," he cried out, sounding relieved and frightened all at once. She looked at him closely, though, and saw that light twinkling ever brighter, the perverse little imp he called a sense of humor coming out like the stars on a dark night. "Doctor, you have to help me. I've been kidnapped by aliens, Doctor! Rescue me!"
She rolled her eyes. "Are you sure he's still drugged?" she asked Dr. Abbot. "Only, Time Lords are really intelligent, you know."
"Time Lords?" asked Doctor Abbot, looking down at a nearby screen to check her notes.
"Wide to sell Ben's hat!" the Doctor mouthed vigorously at her.
She thought about that a moment, and then translated it to "Why'd you tell them that!"
"They knew," she mouthed a reply.
"What shoe?" he said aloud.
"Oh," said Rose sheepishly. "I guess he is still, a bit, anyway." She put her hand to the glass and he put his up on the other side, eyeing her impatiently. "Time Lords are high-born Gallifreyans," she added.
"Time Lords are not amused," said the Doctor, sounding only slightly dazed. "Let the Time Lord out of the box. Now."
"Do they always refer to themselves in third person?" asked Dr. Abbot.
"No, he's annoyed, I think. Probably doesn't realize you're trying to help him." She said that last extra loudly, so he would catch on that he wasn't in any danger, and that she was trying to work out how to get him free as quickly as possible.
He turned those blazing eyes on her and then, running a hand through his hair, moved away. When he came back, he was smiling at her a little and had his eyes under control.
"He doesn't talk much?" Rose asked, rather alarmed as she realized that the Doctor silent was actually far more frightening to her than any amount of arguing or shouting could ever be.
"Oh, he can if he wants to. I think you're right, he's a bit put out with us. He went on and on about the Shadow Proclamation and several other very odd intergalactic laws I've never heard of earlier. Plus, he's a bit dazed." She was still checking her computer terminal and hadn't looked up at the two interacting at the window in awhile.
He looked sheepish as Rose rounded on him, annoyed that he would be breaking his own rules and giving away information that didn't exist yet. He pleaded with her with his eyes and she sighed. Then she smirked. "Oh, such a precious person," she cooed at him, like he was about six months old. "Pretty Time Lord."
His glower was thunderous. She grinned at him cheekily and he held up one finger as if to start in on a lecture to make her ears bleed.
"Hum. Time for his next dose," said Dr. Abbot. She pushed a small button on her panel and the Doctor rounded on her in fury. He remained solidly and firmly stormy eyed and normal for a minute, drew in a breath, probably planning to turn the lecture on Abbot instead, and then, as if he'd been hit with a brick, dropped to the floor.
Rose stared down at him, filled with desperate fear, and put her hand down near where the Doctor's face rested against the glass. He turned his head, as if to feel her hand, then looked up at Rose with an expression that nearly stopped her heart.
He had gone doe-eyed and sweet faced, innocent and utterly content. For the first time in the entire time she had known him, he seemed absolutely at peace.
Heartbreakingly lovely and soft as new dawn, he smiled contentedly into her eyes. He began humming and playing with the hem of his gown. Rose began to wonder if she shouldn't get in there before he found something to put into his mouth.
They had drugged the storm right out of him, she realized. There were no dark worries, no ancient fears. Somewhere, probably, the Universe was now spinning out of control and no one would fix it, because the Atlas who normally held it all on his slender shoulders was instead gazing wistfully at her with an expression of vacant awe and ineffable joy.
Then, as sweet and tender as he now looked, his voice came softly. "Everything is better with two. Stars and danger, Earth, the flu. I saved my life with just one line. 'It travels in time' and she was mine. Roses are red, except my one. She's pink and yellow, like her sun."
Rose beamed at him as he rambled on his dizzy, silly, darling couplets.
"She says she's not so very clever. But then she said she'd stay forever. And that's so brilliant even I can't trump it so I'll never try. She likes me more than she likes chips. She even likes my strange old ship. That's my Rose, my perfect friend. Her mum will kill me in the end. The blokes may court her by the score, Mickey, Jack, and many more. They circle round her for awhile, caught in her eyes, her heart, her smile. She just walks out and saves the day, shining, laughing on her way. I want to keep her, hold her near, see her glow, erase her fear. Alone, I'm lost, no place to stand, without my Rose to hold my hand."
"Good gracious."
Rose turned to find Doctor Abbot, wide eyed and breathless, looking from him to her and back at him, the alien woman's expression almost hungry with want and wonder. Rose cleared her throat and blinked away the tears that filled her eyes at his sweet, spontaneous poem. "Wasn't Shakespeare," she said.
"No but... my goodness."
The Doctor blinked at them both, still vacant eyed and sweet. "I know Bill Shakespeare," he said. "And I'm no Bill Shakespeare."
"It was nice, though," Rose told him.
"Thanks," he said, and stood up. He wandered seemingly aimlessly over to a fine, delicate chair, making a path that took him around almost all the furniture in the room on his way. At last, he seated himself like a small boy, his knees tucked up to his chin, his bare feet visible as he pulled his hospital robe down to cover his thin legs. He watched her, then, with all the faith and innocent devotion of the child he resembled, and Rose was forced to turn away, lest she break down.
Doctor Abbot stared at her in consternation. Rose decided to get back on topic before the woman wised up and started asking impossible questions. "You said something about finding him a compatible mate?" she said, her smile, though blunted, back in place.
"Oh, right. Yes." Doctor Abbot grinned sheepishly. "After seeing that, I'd almost..." She blushed.
"Definitely," agreed Rose, blushing herself. Then she cleared her throat. "His species just seems to have that effect on people."
Doctor Abbot gave a great sigh that sounded like relief. "Oh. And then, in combination with our atmosphere, it would be..."
Rose decided then and there that it didn't matter how sweetly precious he looked, she was going to kill him and the TARDIS both when she got them out. Bring her to a planet where the very air made you want to... She tossed out a soft, discordantly chiming swear word.
"Am not," said the Doctor, and blushed.
Rose wondered what she had just called him.
"Did you know you have a halo?" he asked her. "Nimbus, like a Nimbus 2000, only sparkles, not a broomstick." He stopped and looked at her in frustration. "Velcro," he explained.
"Right," said Rose, and shook her head.
He nodded and smiled at her, tenderly, like a lost angel.
"Doctor Abbot," a young man in a lab coat came flapping in, darting around the monitors and bouncing so ecstatically Rose couldn't even get a look at him. Without preamble or even pause, he thrust a little computer tablet into the woman's startled hand. "We've got his blood work back, and we even had a decent match or two. Of course, the best possible match won't happen probably, and the second best is almost as impossible, but we've got some viable ideas. It might be possible to get the second best, might even be better, you can never tell, but it will damage other projects, and I know we don't like to do that, but really, we're not going to find a Gallifreyan female anywhere, and he's hardly likely to be attracted to a female who doesn't at least resemble his species, so honestly, our best bet..."
"He's stealing my behavioral problem, Rose," the Doctor whinged by way of interruption.
Bet he doesn't lick everything and everyone he comes across, she thought sourly.
"What species do you suggest, Dr. Krishin?" asked Dr. Abbot. "Oh, this is Dr. Tyler, by the way," she introduced Rose vaguely.
Dr. Krishin looked at her with obvious delight and Rose realized that there was very little if any human in him. He looked oddly like a cross between an Irish Setter and that bright pink ottoman her mum had at home in her sparkly atrocity of a bedroom. "Oh, this is just too wonderful. Dr. Tyler, so pleased to meet you," he said and, to her complete astonishment, lifted her hand and licked it.
Behind her, the Doctor giggled.
"You're... human?" he ventured, now bouncing on his toes.
"Yeeaaah," Rose said, slowly and with great concern.
Doctor Abbot finished reading the report and her expression suddenly matched Doctor Krishin's. Rose felt like she'd suddenly been added to the menu, right between the fish and chips and the burger platter.
"Purely in the interest of science, Dr. Tyler," said Dr. Abbot, "do you have a partner or husband?"
"Nooo..." Again, she spoke slowly, worried that she was spelling out her doom in very short words and at least wanting to extend it a few breaths. "Why?" she asked, as they continued to gaze at her in delighted wonder.
"Well, our charts suggest that a human being - a full-blooded one, young and healthy, such as yourself, would probably be the most viable match."
Rose took a step back and stared at them.
"Purely in the interest of science," said Dr. Krishin, helpfully.
"You did say you wanted to help any way you could," added Dr. Abbot.
Rose just gaped at them in silent confusion. Behind her, the Doctor had started humming again, and all at once, he burst into song. "Come dancing," he sang gleefully. "It's only natural."
Rose was proud of herself for not fainting on the spot.
Author: Jessa L'Rynn
Character(s): Tenth Doctor, Rose Tyler
Rating: T
Warnings: None
Summary: Rose Tyler is having the worst day ever. Even planning ahead for a stop on the peaceful planet of Desteria can't prepare her for this one.
Part Two
Rose forced herself to concentrate on not giggling as she arrived at the Destiny Natural Rehabilitation and Rehabitation Center for Endangered Lifeforms. She looked, she thought, suitably professional in her smart new suit. She reminded herself carefully that she was going to rescue the Last of the Time Lords from...
No, it was no good. She sat on the steps in front of the Center and howled with mirth. God, she was going to blackmail him with this one for the rest of their lives. She was going to call her mum. She was going to find a way to get a signal through to the parallel universe so she could tell Mickey. She was going to demand he tell her where Jack was so she could go tell Jack. She might even look up Adam, the complete useless nutter. This was too good to keep to herself.
She picked up her phone and was on the verge of dialing Sarah Jane's number, just to update the former companion and have someone to share in the penultimate moment of all her adventures with the Doctor. She's a reporter, Rose thought gleefully. She knows ALL his old friends.
She smirked then and put the phone in her pocket. Sarah Jane would be the number one person he would NOT want told. Her and the TARDIS, of course. It would not be worth holding over his head later if she told Sarah now.
She imagined the conversation in her head:
"Doctor, I'd like to go shopping."
"No, Rose, you went shopping yesterday."
Pulling out her phone. "Oh Sarah, guess what..."
The coordinates reset on speed dial. "Super-Shop-O-Rama-World sound good?"
Perfect.
She loved him, but this was too brilliant.
But it would all be for naught if she didn't wipe that smirk off her face right this instant, get in there and save him from ending up as the main character in one of Jack's famous stories.
The ones where everybody ended up naked.
Fantastic!
"Doctor Tyler," she said at reception and proffered the psychic paper, which should tell everyone she was with the Department of Research Funding and therefore gain her easy access to their new project.
"We weren't told to expect you, Doctor Tyler," said the receptionist, dubiously.
Rose shot the man her best smile. It would work, of course, unless he was completely gay, and if Jack had been a proper example of sexuality from this time frame, she was sure it wouldn't be a problem.
It wasn't. He gazed at her in obvious adoration while Rose bubbled at him, enthusiastically. "A little bird told me," she said, "that you have the most amazing new development in your - sorry, our - Endangered Species Recovery Program. I came as quickly as I could, because I was just so excited to see such a positive development. Fantastic, don't you think? A mythological creature. It'd be just like having unicorns, don't you think?"
The man nodded, vacant-eyed and beaming at her while she grinned and babbled on. He even volunteered to call in the senior supervisor of the new project to meet her.
"Fantastic," Rose enthused.
When the supervisor, a tall, big-eyed brunette woman with faintly Asian features and slightly blue skin showed up, Rose enthused melodramatically at her, too. She had planned originally to pretend to be Doctor-like, but since these people seemed to be accepting her at face value, she decided to give them their money's worth. She poured on every damp ounce of charm she had ever possessed. She glittered, she sparkled, she smiled and nodded and listened in wide-eyed incredulity.
They really were doing something wonderful here, actually. It was a shame they had to take the Doctor, and it would be more of a shame if they forced him to use his usual tactics to get away from them. Best for all parties concerned if she could just get him loose quickly, quietly, and efficiently before he decided to "accidentally" blow the place to hell.
Come to think of it, she was curious why he hadn't already done that. She'd been hours hunting for him, and it was unlikely he'd've waited this long normally. Maybe it was because he didn't have the sonic screwdriver. She hoped.
"So tell me, Doctor Abbot," she said as they walked down the stairs together, "all about your latest find. I fancy myself something of an expert of that species, so I'd be glad to help out if I can."
"Oh, wonderful, Doctor Tyler!" the scientist gushed, completely taken by her charm. "If you don't mind my asking, what's your species and how do you come to be an expert on a mythological culture?"
"Oh, I'm Human," Rose said. "Full-blood, oddly enough. No idea how that happened." She grinned while Dr. Abbot beamed at her. "I studied them for a research project at University, and kept it up any time there was any information to be had. They're fascinating. Supposedly virtually immortal, oldest race in the galaxy, and humanoid besides, it's just fantastic, isn't it."
"Oh, wonderful!"
God, this was getting irritating.
"We've found a male of the species, and what appears to be a female symbiot."
She wracked her brain for the definition, but couldn't come up with anything conclusive. "Well, but the males always travel with at least one female, don't they?"
"That's what we hoped, but he appears to be alone. Poor, bitter thing. Last of his kind, or very near it. We imagine he's hurting very much from the loneliness."
"No doubt," Rose agreed, knowing that, at least, was completely accurate.
"We brought the symbiot to keep him company - no idea how they communicate, but hopefully he'll be happier with her around. She's blue, if you can believe it, not even trying to blend in."
Oh, the TARDIS. "Maybe she's a bit injured," Rose observed. She'd heard the Doctor's regular rant on the broken chameleon circuit at least three times in the past month, so she had an idea what to say to that. "Still, all the evidence I've picked up says they communicate telepathically."
"What, really!" Abbot rounded on her, goggle-eyed and excited. "Oh, telepathy!" she rhapsodized. "Oh, I just can't wait! He'll be so much happier when we help him."
Rose raised a hand to cover her giggle with a cough. "I'm terribly afraid, though, that this won't work. For one, you'd need a female."
"We'll think of something. A compatible cross-species genetic match may work, if we're careful of him." They came to the bottom of the flight of stairs to a door that said "Authorized Personnel Only." Doctor Abbott flipped a badge at the door, then escorted Rose through it.
All at once, Rose became completely aware of exactly why the Doctor hadn't escaped. He was being held in an enormous glass box, full of delicate ivory furniture, with the TARDIS in one corner, looking large, blue, and sulky. He was sprawled sideways on a Roman divan looking thing, wearing what looked like a soft white hospital gown. He looked blissfully unconcerned about his surroundings, and just to add to her blackmail fodder, was singing sweetly at the top of his lungs.
"Oh, no," she exclaimed, quite delighted. "What'd you give him? Their physiology is far superior, you know."
"We looked up a sedative in the Torchwood archives," Abbot said. "We gave him the recommended dose, and he threw that off almost immediately and began lecturing our staff extensively on why he should be left alone, so we boosted it with a recommendation from the UNIT records. They're astonishingly complete on Gallifreyan physiology, so we knew what not to give him, too."
"Absolutely NO aspirin," Rose said, a matter of great concern.
"Yes, the record was adamant about that. We don't want to hurt him. He's lovely, isn't he?"
Rose smiled at him, dangled upside down and singing to the ceiling. "Oh yes," she said with a smile. "This is very exciting. Can I take a closer look?"
"Sure, just walk on over."
"What's his name?" she asked to keep up her routine.
"He says 'Rose' all the time, so we thought about calling him that, but he doesn't seem to want to answer to it."
She beamed at him, her beautiful Doctor, all soft and silly and vulnerable. She wished she were in there with him, where she could protect him from what his addled brain might suggest next.
Too late.
He caught sight of her, fell off the divan and came racing over. He bounced a bit on the glass, but not hard enough to indicate that he hadn't known it was there. Sort of for emphasis, really. She firmly put down the hand that had been instinctively raised to help him.
He looked her over from toes to tip, slowly. Then, he smirked, that little maniacal smirk that suggested he was about to explode something really, really big with nothing more than a bottle of nail polish and a tin of spam. She worried. A lot.
"Doctor," he cried out, sounding relieved and frightened all at once. She looked at him closely, though, and saw that light twinkling ever brighter, the perverse little imp he called a sense of humor coming out like the stars on a dark night. "Doctor, you have to help me. I've been kidnapped by aliens, Doctor! Rescue me!"
She rolled her eyes. "Are you sure he's still drugged?" she asked Dr. Abbot. "Only, Time Lords are really intelligent, you know."
"Time Lords?" asked Doctor Abbot, looking down at a nearby screen to check her notes.
"Wide to sell Ben's hat!" the Doctor mouthed vigorously at her.
She thought about that a moment, and then translated it to "Why'd you tell them that!"
"They knew," she mouthed a reply.
"What shoe?" he said aloud.
"Oh," said Rose sheepishly. "I guess he is still, a bit, anyway." She put her hand to the glass and he put his up on the other side, eyeing her impatiently. "Time Lords are high-born Gallifreyans," she added.
"Time Lords are not amused," said the Doctor, sounding only slightly dazed. "Let the Time Lord out of the box. Now."
"Do they always refer to themselves in third person?" asked Dr. Abbot.
"No, he's annoyed, I think. Probably doesn't realize you're trying to help him." She said that last extra loudly, so he would catch on that he wasn't in any danger, and that she was trying to work out how to get him free as quickly as possible.
He turned those blazing eyes on her and then, running a hand through his hair, moved away. When he came back, he was smiling at her a little and had his eyes under control.
"He doesn't talk much?" Rose asked, rather alarmed as she realized that the Doctor silent was actually far more frightening to her than any amount of arguing or shouting could ever be.
"Oh, he can if he wants to. I think you're right, he's a bit put out with us. He went on and on about the Shadow Proclamation and several other very odd intergalactic laws I've never heard of earlier. Plus, he's a bit dazed." She was still checking her computer terminal and hadn't looked up at the two interacting at the window in awhile.
He looked sheepish as Rose rounded on him, annoyed that he would be breaking his own rules and giving away information that didn't exist yet. He pleaded with her with his eyes and she sighed. Then she smirked. "Oh, such a precious person," she cooed at him, like he was about six months old. "Pretty Time Lord."
His glower was thunderous. She grinned at him cheekily and he held up one finger as if to start in on a lecture to make her ears bleed.
"Hum. Time for his next dose," said Dr. Abbot. She pushed a small button on her panel and the Doctor rounded on her in fury. He remained solidly and firmly stormy eyed and normal for a minute, drew in a breath, probably planning to turn the lecture on Abbot instead, and then, as if he'd been hit with a brick, dropped to the floor.
Rose stared down at him, filled with desperate fear, and put her hand down near where the Doctor's face rested against the glass. He turned his head, as if to feel her hand, then looked up at Rose with an expression that nearly stopped her heart.
He had gone doe-eyed and sweet faced, innocent and utterly content. For the first time in the entire time she had known him, he seemed absolutely at peace.
Heartbreakingly lovely and soft as new dawn, he smiled contentedly into her eyes. He began humming and playing with the hem of his gown. Rose began to wonder if she shouldn't get in there before he found something to put into his mouth.
They had drugged the storm right out of him, she realized. There were no dark worries, no ancient fears. Somewhere, probably, the Universe was now spinning out of control and no one would fix it, because the Atlas who normally held it all on his slender shoulders was instead gazing wistfully at her with an expression of vacant awe and ineffable joy.
Then, as sweet and tender as he now looked, his voice came softly. "Everything is better with two. Stars and danger, Earth, the flu. I saved my life with just one line. 'It travels in time' and she was mine. Roses are red, except my one. She's pink and yellow, like her sun."
Rose beamed at him as he rambled on his dizzy, silly, darling couplets.
"She says she's not so very clever. But then she said she'd stay forever. And that's so brilliant even I can't trump it so I'll never try. She likes me more than she likes chips. She even likes my strange old ship. That's my Rose, my perfect friend. Her mum will kill me in the end. The blokes may court her by the score, Mickey, Jack, and many more. They circle round her for awhile, caught in her eyes, her heart, her smile. She just walks out and saves the day, shining, laughing on her way. I want to keep her, hold her near, see her glow, erase her fear. Alone, I'm lost, no place to stand, without my Rose to hold my hand."
"Good gracious."
Rose turned to find Doctor Abbot, wide eyed and breathless, looking from him to her and back at him, the alien woman's expression almost hungry with want and wonder. Rose cleared her throat and blinked away the tears that filled her eyes at his sweet, spontaneous poem. "Wasn't Shakespeare," she said.
"No but... my goodness."
The Doctor blinked at them both, still vacant eyed and sweet. "I know Bill Shakespeare," he said. "And I'm no Bill Shakespeare."
"It was nice, though," Rose told him.
"Thanks," he said, and stood up. He wandered seemingly aimlessly over to a fine, delicate chair, making a path that took him around almost all the furniture in the room on his way. At last, he seated himself like a small boy, his knees tucked up to his chin, his bare feet visible as he pulled his hospital robe down to cover his thin legs. He watched her, then, with all the faith and innocent devotion of the child he resembled, and Rose was forced to turn away, lest she break down.
Doctor Abbot stared at her in consternation. Rose decided to get back on topic before the woman wised up and started asking impossible questions. "You said something about finding him a compatible mate?" she said, her smile, though blunted, back in place.
"Oh, right. Yes." Doctor Abbot grinned sheepishly. "After seeing that, I'd almost..." She blushed.
"Definitely," agreed Rose, blushing herself. Then she cleared her throat. "His species just seems to have that effect on people."
Doctor Abbot gave a great sigh that sounded like relief. "Oh. And then, in combination with our atmosphere, it would be..."
Rose decided then and there that it didn't matter how sweetly precious he looked, she was going to kill him and the TARDIS both when she got them out. Bring her to a planet where the very air made you want to... She tossed out a soft, discordantly chiming swear word.
"Am not," said the Doctor, and blushed.
Rose wondered what she had just called him.
"Did you know you have a halo?" he asked her. "Nimbus, like a Nimbus 2000, only sparkles, not a broomstick." He stopped and looked at her in frustration. "Velcro," he explained.
"Right," said Rose, and shook her head.
He nodded and smiled at her, tenderly, like a lost angel.
"Doctor Abbot," a young man in a lab coat came flapping in, darting around the monitors and bouncing so ecstatically Rose couldn't even get a look at him. Without preamble or even pause, he thrust a little computer tablet into the woman's startled hand. "We've got his blood work back, and we even had a decent match or two. Of course, the best possible match won't happen probably, and the second best is almost as impossible, but we've got some viable ideas. It might be possible to get the second best, might even be better, you can never tell, but it will damage other projects, and I know we don't like to do that, but really, we're not going to find a Gallifreyan female anywhere, and he's hardly likely to be attracted to a female who doesn't at least resemble his species, so honestly, our best bet..."
"He's stealing my behavioral problem, Rose," the Doctor whinged by way of interruption.
Bet he doesn't lick everything and everyone he comes across, she thought sourly.
"What species do you suggest, Dr. Krishin?" asked Dr. Abbot. "Oh, this is Dr. Tyler, by the way," she introduced Rose vaguely.
Dr. Krishin looked at her with obvious delight and Rose realized that there was very little if any human in him. He looked oddly like a cross between an Irish Setter and that bright pink ottoman her mum had at home in her sparkly atrocity of a bedroom. "Oh, this is just too wonderful. Dr. Tyler, so pleased to meet you," he said and, to her complete astonishment, lifted her hand and licked it.
Behind her, the Doctor giggled.
"You're... human?" he ventured, now bouncing on his toes.
"Yeeaaah," Rose said, slowly and with great concern.
Doctor Abbot finished reading the report and her expression suddenly matched Doctor Krishin's. Rose felt like she'd suddenly been added to the menu, right between the fish and chips and the burger platter.
"Purely in the interest of science, Dr. Tyler," said Dr. Abbot, "do you have a partner or husband?"
"Nooo..." Again, she spoke slowly, worried that she was spelling out her doom in very short words and at least wanting to extend it a few breaths. "Why?" she asked, as they continued to gaze at her in delighted wonder.
"Well, our charts suggest that a human being - a full-blooded one, young and healthy, such as yourself, would probably be the most viable match."
Rose took a step back and stared at them.
"Purely in the interest of science," said Dr. Krishin, helpfully.
"You did say you wanted to help any way you could," added Dr. Abbot.
Rose just gaped at them in silent confusion. Behind her, the Doctor had started humming again, and all at once, he burst into song. "Come dancing," he sang gleefully. "It's only natural."
Rose was proud of herself for not fainting on the spot.