Fic: Echoes In Time
Title: Echoes in Time
Author: ladychi
Characters: Doctor/Rose
Rating: All Ages
Summary: From the prompt "Journey's End in reverse, Rose becomes a Time Lady"... I went a slightly different direction, edgeoftheworld, and examined the effects of near-immortality on their relationship over the course of their lives. I hope you enjoy it!
Echoes In Time
Infuse your life with action. Don't wait for it to happen. Make it happen. Make your own future. Make your own hope. Make your own love.
--Bradley Whitford
Prologue
“Donna?” Rose stopped just before she exited the TARDIS door. “Are you all right?”
“I'm fine,” Donna said, closing her eyes and swallowing. “I just keep hearing this sound... This double-heartbeat. Do you hear it?”
“No,” Rose said quickly, reaching for Donna's hand. “D'you think...”
The door slammed shut, and the timelines bent.
**
Eighty-Four Years Later
“You are... are... unbearable!” Rose spat out. “Great big Time Lord ponce! Trotting around in your... your... ugh! You make me so frustrated! I could regenerate you. I swear, I could. Right this very instant.”
Ridiculous bowtie hanging from his checked shirt, the Doctor gaped at her. “Well, let's not even get started on you! I may not put the toilet seat down, but at least I don't wake you up in the middle of the night to shout when I fall in, because I'm a graceless duck!”
Rose slammed her mug of tea down, nearly chipping the cup that was held together with love and superglue, and was silent the rest of the morning.
They landed on a planet - a nameless one, but filled with primitive life, cells just figuring out how to link together into tissues and organs and systems - the water teeming with possibilities, the land mostly soggy and barren, but the sky was a brilliant orange and red and blue, the atmosphere not quite reflecting all the other colors just yet.
The air was clean, like nothing Rose had inhaled in years, in decades. On this whole planet, which would someday have thousands, no... millions of different lifeforms on it, they were the first to really inhale and exhale. Her hand found his.
“I'm sorry. I'm being a crab, again,” she muttered.
“Been a bit testy, myself,” the Doctor said, and squeezed her hand. “Still. This is brilliant, isn't it?”
“Yeah,” Rose said, as she watched something dart across the surface of the water. “Brilliant.”
**
167 Years Later
“Doctor?” Rose looked down, horrified at what she saw. No matter how many times she was injured, the sheer sight of her body bleeding still made her light-headed. Although, this time... this time she might have a good reason.
“Rose!” The Doctor was beaming, probably elated that they managed to stop a takeover of a small, out of the way planet by the Sontarans, and then his face fell. Rose knew right then that something wasn't right. “Rose!” He ran across the field to her and picked her up, swinging her in his deceptively small arms. “We've got to get you to the TARDIS.”
“Am I going to die?” Rose asked, terrified.
“Only for a minute,” the Doctor said. “I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, but there's nothing I can do. You'll just have to let it happen.”
“Will it hurt?”
The Doctor threw open the TARDIS doors and laid her on the floor, cupping her cheek in his hand. “I'm sorry, Rose, but I can't touch you while it happens. I'll see you on the other side, yeah?”
“Will it hurt?” Rose demanded, already feeling a tingle, and then a sharp pain, originating in her chest, where her two hearts lay.
The Doctor shook his head, but Rose could see the lie in his eyes. “No.”
**
692 Years Later
“Doctor?” The voice of a little boy cut through the darkness, and the Time Lord started a little, the light of a full moon illuminating his face and not much more.
“Yeah? Tommy, was it?”
“Timmy,” the little boy corrected firmly. “My mum says you've been here before.”
“Yeah, once. A long time ago,” the Doctor said. “My... Rose and I were here.”
“She says you were happier then.”
“Did she?” The Doctor shook his head. “I'll be happy again, Timmy. It comes and goes.”
“A hundred years is a long time to wait for someone,” Timmy said. “I'm eight, and it's going to take me forever to get to nine. I can't imagine waiting until one hundred.”
“That's how long she said she needed. I can't blame her. Sometimes I need a break from me, too.”
“How long have you been waiting, Doctor, sir?”
“Ninety-four years,” the Doctor said sadly. “Eight days, thirty-one minutes and... twenty-six seconds.”
“My da would say that's close enough to throw a hand grenade, Doctor.” Timmy covered the distance and took the Doctor's hand. “I don't think she'd mind you coming a bit early, Doctor.”
The Doctor smiled, until slowly the expression covered his whole face. “You know what? You're right!”
Timmy shook his head. “Of course I am, sir. Grown-ups. Couldn't see their way out of a paperbag, sometimes.”
**
850 Years Later
“One o'clock and all's well!” The guard's voice rang out over the prison, and Rose watched the Doctor curse the sonic screwdriver under his breath.
“Just a little bit more, come on, baby, you can do it...”
Rose bit her thumb, trying not to laugh outright. From regeneration to regeneration, some things stayed the same, and some things changed - but this, the Doctor's affection for the companions that had been with him since the beginning: the TARDIS and the sonic screwdriver, never wavered, even as they themselves felt the ravages of Time assault their effectiveness.
“So. Resonating stone. Is that anything like resonating concrete?”
The Doctor looked over at Rose. “Actually, a bit, yes. But a little different because... Wait. 1941, right? Jack Harkness and the barrage balloon?”
“Yes, that's it,” Rose said. “I'm getting an old, familiar feeling.”
“Well, Rose. The fundamental things apply, as time goes by,” the Doctor returned, whirling away from the wall, and tossing his sonic screwdriver in his hand before he put it in his coat pocket. “One of them being the necessity to dance in jail cells. May I?”
Rose dropped a curtsy. “Of course, sir.”
And they swayed together to music only they could hear, in the dampness of the cell.
**
2,086 Years Later
There was a planet, a relatively unknown one, as of yet, that whirled around a sun. A little backwards and a little bit bonkers, it was still the place she had come from. Although it was getting trickier and trickier to return, to come to a year that she hadn't profoundly influenced in some way.
Still, as she landed the TARDIS in the playground outside the Torchwood Hub, she patted its side, lovingly. She remembered taking Cassandra to see her friends just before she died a final time, and the look of joy on her face... Rose knew, there would be no more regenerations. Just as there had been no more regenerations for the Doctor after his last body had given out.
The year was 2068, and Jack Harkness would still be in charge, although not for much longer. Not, Rose realized with a start, after this. She climbed onto the elevator and let it take her down, down... down.
“Who goes there?” A young, cocky voice called out.
“You must be new, then,” Rose said, heaving her chest with a sigh and wishing it didn't hurt quite so much to move. “Just go find Jack Harkness. Tell him Rose Tyler is here to see him, and that I don't have much time, please.”
His hair had gone a bit grey, and there were more wrinkles than she remembered seeing, the last time she and the Doctor had dared to see him during this time in his life, but he was still her Jack. He was still her friend.
“Rose?” His voice was surprised, and more than a little sad. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, you know,” she said, reaching out her hand, and feeling it tremble despite her best efforts to get it to stop. “There's a ship outside I'm going to need you to take care of, Jack. You have to let it sit in the Hub and die, yeah?” She shuddered.
“Where's the Doctor?”
“Dead. These last 500 years, he's been dead,” Rose muttered. “Please, Jack, can I sit? It's so undignified to faint.”
“Yeah, yes of course. Sally? Bring us some tea, please!”
Jack sat down on the sofa and arranged himself around her, so that she folded neatly into his side. She sighed. “Oh, that's very nice, that's very nice indeed. Jack - I want to say sorry.”
“You already have, dearest. In a thousand different ways.”
“I loved you - still love you, in thousands of years from now when we meet again, I do - so much, Jack. I want you to know. He wanted you to know, too. And I'm sorry but I'm afraid...” she drew in a deep breath, and let it out, “...the universe is just going to have to look to you from now on.”
And she breathed no more.
**
3 days later
Jack took her body to the countryside and burned it, just as he had helped the Doctor do with the Master all those years ago, and, unknown to him, just as he would help Rose do for the Doctor, thousands of years in his future.
The TARDIS sat, underneath the Hub, untouched, until it died.
The Bad Wolf had been right, all along. Everything comes to dust, and everything dies.
But the living - the dancing, the arguing, the love, the passion, of the Doctor and Rose Tyler... that echoed until the end of time.
Author: ladychi
Characters: Doctor/Rose
Rating: All Ages
Summary: From the prompt "Journey's End in reverse, Rose becomes a Time Lady"... I went a slightly different direction, edgeoftheworld, and examined the effects of near-immortality on their relationship over the course of their lives. I hope you enjoy it!
Echoes In Time
Infuse your life with action. Don't wait for it to happen. Make it happen. Make your own future. Make your own hope. Make your own love.
--Bradley Whitford
Prologue
“Donna?” Rose stopped just before she exited the TARDIS door. “Are you all right?”
“I'm fine,” Donna said, closing her eyes and swallowing. “I just keep hearing this sound... This double-heartbeat. Do you hear it?”
“No,” Rose said quickly, reaching for Donna's hand. “D'you think...”
The door slammed shut, and the timelines bent.
**
Eighty-Four Years Later
“You are... are... unbearable!” Rose spat out. “Great big Time Lord ponce! Trotting around in your... your... ugh! You make me so frustrated! I could regenerate you. I swear, I could. Right this very instant.”
Ridiculous bowtie hanging from his checked shirt, the Doctor gaped at her. “Well, let's not even get started on you! I may not put the toilet seat down, but at least I don't wake you up in the middle of the night to shout when I fall in, because I'm a graceless duck!”
Rose slammed her mug of tea down, nearly chipping the cup that was held together with love and superglue, and was silent the rest of the morning.
They landed on a planet - a nameless one, but filled with primitive life, cells just figuring out how to link together into tissues and organs and systems - the water teeming with possibilities, the land mostly soggy and barren, but the sky was a brilliant orange and red and blue, the atmosphere not quite reflecting all the other colors just yet.
The air was clean, like nothing Rose had inhaled in years, in decades. On this whole planet, which would someday have thousands, no... millions of different lifeforms on it, they were the first to really inhale and exhale. Her hand found his.
“I'm sorry. I'm being a crab, again,” she muttered.
“Been a bit testy, myself,” the Doctor said, and squeezed her hand. “Still. This is brilliant, isn't it?”
“Yeah,” Rose said, as she watched something dart across the surface of the water. “Brilliant.”
**
167 Years Later
“Doctor?” Rose looked down, horrified at what she saw. No matter how many times she was injured, the sheer sight of her body bleeding still made her light-headed. Although, this time... this time she might have a good reason.
“Rose!” The Doctor was beaming, probably elated that they managed to stop a takeover of a small, out of the way planet by the Sontarans, and then his face fell. Rose knew right then that something wasn't right. “Rose!” He ran across the field to her and picked her up, swinging her in his deceptively small arms. “We've got to get you to the TARDIS.”
“Am I going to die?” Rose asked, terrified.
“Only for a minute,” the Doctor said. “I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, but there's nothing I can do. You'll just have to let it happen.”
“Will it hurt?”
The Doctor threw open the TARDIS doors and laid her on the floor, cupping her cheek in his hand. “I'm sorry, Rose, but I can't touch you while it happens. I'll see you on the other side, yeah?”
“Will it hurt?” Rose demanded, already feeling a tingle, and then a sharp pain, originating in her chest, where her two hearts lay.
The Doctor shook his head, but Rose could see the lie in his eyes. “No.”
**
692 Years Later
“Doctor?” The voice of a little boy cut through the darkness, and the Time Lord started a little, the light of a full moon illuminating his face and not much more.
“Yeah? Tommy, was it?”
“Timmy,” the little boy corrected firmly. “My mum says you've been here before.”
“Yeah, once. A long time ago,” the Doctor said. “My... Rose and I were here.”
“She says you were happier then.”
“Did she?” The Doctor shook his head. “I'll be happy again, Timmy. It comes and goes.”
“A hundred years is a long time to wait for someone,” Timmy said. “I'm eight, and it's going to take me forever to get to nine. I can't imagine waiting until one hundred.”
“That's how long she said she needed. I can't blame her. Sometimes I need a break from me, too.”
“How long have you been waiting, Doctor, sir?”
“Ninety-four years,” the Doctor said sadly. “Eight days, thirty-one minutes and... twenty-six seconds.”
“My da would say that's close enough to throw a hand grenade, Doctor.” Timmy covered the distance and took the Doctor's hand. “I don't think she'd mind you coming a bit early, Doctor.”
The Doctor smiled, until slowly the expression covered his whole face. “You know what? You're right!”
Timmy shook his head. “Of course I am, sir. Grown-ups. Couldn't see their way out of a paperbag, sometimes.”
**
850 Years Later
“One o'clock and all's well!” The guard's voice rang out over the prison, and Rose watched the Doctor curse the sonic screwdriver under his breath.
“Just a little bit more, come on, baby, you can do it...”
Rose bit her thumb, trying not to laugh outright. From regeneration to regeneration, some things stayed the same, and some things changed - but this, the Doctor's affection for the companions that had been with him since the beginning: the TARDIS and the sonic screwdriver, never wavered, even as they themselves felt the ravages of Time assault their effectiveness.
“So. Resonating stone. Is that anything like resonating concrete?”
The Doctor looked over at Rose. “Actually, a bit, yes. But a little different because... Wait. 1941, right? Jack Harkness and the barrage balloon?”
“Yes, that's it,” Rose said. “I'm getting an old, familiar feeling.”
“Well, Rose. The fundamental things apply, as time goes by,” the Doctor returned, whirling away from the wall, and tossing his sonic screwdriver in his hand before he put it in his coat pocket. “One of them being the necessity to dance in jail cells. May I?”
Rose dropped a curtsy. “Of course, sir.”
And they swayed together to music only they could hear, in the dampness of the cell.
**
2,086 Years Later
There was a planet, a relatively unknown one, as of yet, that whirled around a sun. A little backwards and a little bit bonkers, it was still the place she had come from. Although it was getting trickier and trickier to return, to come to a year that she hadn't profoundly influenced in some way.
Still, as she landed the TARDIS in the playground outside the Torchwood Hub, she patted its side, lovingly. She remembered taking Cassandra to see her friends just before she died a final time, and the look of joy on her face... Rose knew, there would be no more regenerations. Just as there had been no more regenerations for the Doctor after his last body had given out.
The year was 2068, and Jack Harkness would still be in charge, although not for much longer. Not, Rose realized with a start, after this. She climbed onto the elevator and let it take her down, down... down.
“Who goes there?” A young, cocky voice called out.
“You must be new, then,” Rose said, heaving her chest with a sigh and wishing it didn't hurt quite so much to move. “Just go find Jack Harkness. Tell him Rose Tyler is here to see him, and that I don't have much time, please.”
His hair had gone a bit grey, and there were more wrinkles than she remembered seeing, the last time she and the Doctor had dared to see him during this time in his life, but he was still her Jack. He was still her friend.
“Rose?” His voice was surprised, and more than a little sad. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, you know,” she said, reaching out her hand, and feeling it tremble despite her best efforts to get it to stop. “There's a ship outside I'm going to need you to take care of, Jack. You have to let it sit in the Hub and die, yeah?” She shuddered.
“Where's the Doctor?”
“Dead. These last 500 years, he's been dead,” Rose muttered. “Please, Jack, can I sit? It's so undignified to faint.”
“Yeah, yes of course. Sally? Bring us some tea, please!”
Jack sat down on the sofa and arranged himself around her, so that she folded neatly into his side. She sighed. “Oh, that's very nice, that's very nice indeed. Jack - I want to say sorry.”
“You already have, dearest. In a thousand different ways.”
“I loved you - still love you, in thousands of years from now when we meet again, I do - so much, Jack. I want you to know. He wanted you to know, too. And I'm sorry but I'm afraid...” she drew in a deep breath, and let it out, “...the universe is just going to have to look to you from now on.”
And she breathed no more.
**
3 days later
Jack took her body to the countryside and burned it, just as he had helped the Doctor do with the Master all those years ago, and, unknown to him, just as he would help Rose do for the Doctor, thousands of years in his future.
The TARDIS sat, underneath the Hub, untouched, until it died.
The Bad Wolf had been right, all along. Everything comes to dust, and everything dies.
But the living - the dancing, the arguing, the love, the passion, of the Doctor and Rose Tyler... that echoed until the end of time.