Just Our Luck, Chapter 5

[my_meta_twin]

Title: Just Our Luck
Author: my_meta_twin
Pairing: 10/Rose
Summary: A brush with death too close even for the Doctor's liking leads him to make the most important decision of his life.
Rating: Teen
Authors' Notes: This story is dedicated with all the love in the world to two of the most awesome people ever to like Doctor Who: kelkat9 and who_in_whoville, who are two sisters of a secret Dalek cult, but we're not telling anyone.



The Doctor scanned Rose with seemingly every piece of equipment in the lab. He took blood, tissue, hair, and even saliva samples. Rose chewed on her thumbnail as she watched him stride through the infirmary.

She was terrified of what he would find. Had she been infected with some alien virus? Did the TARDIS pump her favorite occupants with super-cellular regrowth solution? Had she been exposed to something that altered her permanently? Her mind raced with all of the possible mad scenarios she could think of.

Her musing was cut off by the Doctor letting out a sigh of relief. The monitor in front of him glowed with the battery of test results. Immediately, the Doctor pulled on his glasses and studied the screen. After a few minutes of silence, Rose couldn’t take it anymore.

“What’s it say?” she demanded.

The Doctor slowly turned to look at her. His expression was unreadable. “According to this, your cellular structure has been altered significantly. Human cells are constantly dying, but not yours. The cellular walls are fortifying themselves, rather than breaking down.”

“So, what does that mean?”

He sighed, turning back to the monitor and pulling an image up on the screen. “Here,” he showed her. “This is a normal human genome. This is yours. You see this extra bit, here?” Rose nodded. “This is closer to a Time Lord. Not exactly the same, but close enough.” He rubbed his hands over his face. “Dating on your cells also indicates that you are approximately twenty years old.”

“But I’m not!” Rose protested, suddenly terrified. “I’m…wait…how old am I again?”

“Twenty-four.”

“Twenty-four!” she parroted. “There’s no way! This is…”

“Impossible?” he prompted her. “Unlikely? Highly improbable?” He pushed away from the monitor and ripped his glasses off his face. “Rose, your skin and nerve cells regenerated right in front of me! We should be taking you to casualty! You should be getting stitched up with highly inefficient 21st Century medical techniques! But here we are.”

Rose was silent for a moment. She remained on the exam table, staring down at her smooth, unmarked skin.

“How?”

The Doctor sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. “I don’t know, Rose. Not for certain. Though I’m beginning to form a theory.”

“Well, let’s have it then.”

He looked her directly in the eye. It occurred to her that he hadn’t done this the entire time they were in the infirmary. “What do you remember about the Game Station? Right before I regenerated?”

Rose scrunched up her nose, wracking her brain trying to remember. “There isn’t much there. I remember…light, a gold light. I remember the singing. And…” She trailed off.

“…and?” the Doctor prompted.

Rose stood at that moment, crossing the room to where the Doctor was still seated in his 32nd Century ergonomic rolling desk chair. She grasped his hands in hers and pulled him to his feet. Immediately, their arms were around each other and Rose had her face burrowed in his chest.

“…and I remember how badly I needed to get to you. All I wanted was to be with you. I didn’t want you to be alone.”

His arms tightened around her. “I kissed the Vortex out of you, Rose. There shouldn’t have been anything left. But I think the TARDIS altered you. She changed Margaret into an egg. She changed you into…well…I’m not sure what yet. But she seems to have matched your lifespan to mine.”

Rose was suddenly quite terrified. “Oh, God,” she choked out, pushing away a bit from him so she could see his face. “You’re human now!”

“Yes,” he replied.

“You’re gonna…age! You’re gonna get older and sicker and I’ll have to watch it happen! Oh, God, you could get hit by a car on your way to work! And I‘ll just be…here! For who knows how long!” Tears spilled out of her eyes as she pulled the Doctor closer to her.

He rocked her gently as she sobbed into his Oxford. “I never wanted this for you,” he whispered into her hair. “Not for anyone. Especially not for you.”

Rose didn‘t speak again for a while. When she did, her voice was thick with emotion. She looked up and met his gaze. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen him look so…defeated. She cupped his cheek tenderly. “So what do we do now?”

The Doctor sighed, turning into her touch and nuzzling her palm. “I haven’t the foggiest, Rose.”

“Can’t we use the arch on me? Change me back?”

“You’re still mostly human, Rose,” he explained. “I can’t rewrite a human into a human.”

“Well if it doesn’t work we could…just…” Rose trailed off, her eyes suddenly wide. “Doctor! The watch!”

He looked confused for a moment. “The one you got me for our three month anniversary? I know I haven’t gone to replace the battery yet, but really, there are more important things to discuss right now.”

“No, you big oaf!” she exclaimed, thumping on his chest. “That arch did make you human…human and thick! You’re watch! The fob watch you gave to Mum! It would change you back into a Time Lord, right!”

Realization dawned in his eyes. “The watch! Of course!” he exclaimed, racing to the door of the infirmary.

Rose pulled her mobile out of her pocket, pressing her mother’s speed dial while she followed the Doctor through the corridors of the TARDIS and into their flat.

“Of course, now she doesn’t answer,” Rose muttered as the phone rolled over to voicemail.

“’S alright,” the Doctor called to her, tossing Rose her jack and keys. “We’ll drive over there, find out what she did with it. Could be it’s just sitting in a drawer somewhere.”

He shrugged on his own overcoat and reached for her hand. As she grasped it, she nearly swooned at the glint in his eye. It was the one that always sent a thrill through her body. The one that meant adventure. Rose hadn’t seen that glint in far too long.

“Ready?” he asked. She nodded, and immediately he pulled her close and pressed his lips to hers in a long, firm kiss. When they finally parted, the Doctor trailed his lips up her jaw line and whispered in her ear.

“Run!”

*****

“Mum!” Rose called out after they barged into Jackie’s flat. “It’s us! You in?”

“What sort of thing do you call this?” Jackie screeched from the living room. “I could have a man in! Coulda been stripped down to my knickers!”

“Oh, good God, Jackie, not now,” the Doctor groaned, rubbing his eyes as if to erase that mental image.

“We tried calling!” Rose protested.

“I’ve got EastEnders on the Sky+, you know I put my mobile on silent!” Jackie moved to greet them. “Hello, love. What’s going on?”

“Do you remember the watch, Mum?”

“’Course I do,” Jackie replied, looking puzzled. “I helped you pick it out. It was gorgeous! Didn’t this one replace the battery yet? Honestly, men, you give them one task…”

The Doctor huffed, partly indignant and partly frustrated. Rather than respond, he simply turned and began poking through various drawers.

“Oi!” Jackie called. “Dunno if anyone told you, ‘s rude to go looking through someone else’s things!”

“Mum, it’s the fob watch,” Rose called her mother’s attention back to her. “The one the Doctor gave you after her turned human? What did you do with it?”

“He told me to get rid of it! Why are you asking about it now?” Jackie’s eyes suddenly turned murderous. “Did he change his mind? Oh, I will have his head for this! Doctor! Who do you think you are leaving my gorgeous daughter?”

“We aren’t splitting up,” Rose pressed her palms into her forehead, as if trying to ward off a headache. “I promise, I’ll explain everything in a few minutes. Just trust me. We really, really need to know what you did with the watch.”

“I sold it,” Jackie told her. “On eBay. Got a great deal for it, too. I used it to buy your wedding night lingerie.”

Upon hearing the word “lingerie,” the Doctor’s head immediately poked up from whatever cabinet he was rifling through. He grinned. “Ah, yes, been meaning to thank you for that, Jackie.”

“Doctor!” Rose chastised. “Go do something useful, please!”

“On it!” He immediately straightened and made a beeline for Jackie’s computer.

“Don’t you dare read my emails!” she called to him. “Oh, Rose, I do not envy you. How you deal with him is beyond me.”

“He’s a fantastic shag,” Rose said offhandedly. “Okay, I’m going to explain what happened. You’ve got to promise not to interrupt until I’m done. Okay?”

“Sure, sweetheart…whatever you want.”

Jackie allowed Rose to lead her to the sofa, and she began to explain. She talked for nearly a quarter of an hour, retelling the story of what happened in the kitchen and what they found in the infirmary. She told her the Doctor’s theory of how the TARDIS had changed her after she had gone back to him. He interjected a bit from her perch on the computer, enhancing her story with the science behind it. Now that they had some hope, he seemed downright joyous compared to how he had seemed in the infirmary.

“…and then we just got in the car and came here,” Rose finished up. Jackie was staring at her, open-mouthed. “Mum?” she prompted.

When Jackie didn’t respond right away, the Doctor let out a low whistle. “Who knew that all we had to do was tell her you've been altered by a slightly telepathic sentient time ship to get her to shut up?”

“Oh, shove it,” Jackie finally said. She pulled Rose’s hands into her lap. “So…you can’t…get hurt? And you’re gonna live a long time?”

“Seems like it,” Rose answered.

“Well, I suppose I can’t be all mad about that. It’ll save me from worrying and keep those wrinkles away.”

Rose smiled softly at her mum. “I’m glad you’re okay, Mum. Really.”

“And if we can get this straightened out…you’ll be happy about it, yeah?”

Rose started. It hadn’t even occurred to her to think about the future. They were so focused on finding the watch. However, now, she could practically see it. The Doctor and Rose Tyler-Smith, traversing time and space together. He wouldn’t need to worry about her so much. She could learn how to pilot the TARDIS. It would be mad and dangerous and wild but completely, completely wonderful.

And she could finally give him the forever that he deserved.

Rose turned towards the Doctor and caught his gaze, the small smile on his face causing one of her own to stretch across her features.

“Yeah,” she answered her mother. “I’ll be really, really happy.”

“But you won’t stay, will you? You’ll be off in that mad blue box to have mad adventures with the mad man you married?”

Rose knew the Doctor’s small smile had turned into a full-blown grin. “Yeah, Mum. We’ll be traveling again. He won’t have to worry about me as much. We can look out for each other. And you know I’ll be okay.”

“I suppose,” Jackie sighed. “Having you two here has been wonderful. Mind you, I’ve found a few new gray hairs since he’s been called my son-in-law…”

“A-ha!” the Doctor exclaimed from the computer chair. He spun around and gave Rose an enormous grin. “How clever is your husband?”

“Very clever, dear,” she responded. “Why in particular this time?”

“Well, after very easily hacking into eBay’s user files, I was able to locate the information of our mysterious buyer! His user name is ridiculous, ‘can you heart he dreams’ or some such rubbish. Anyway, I gave a quick run through Google and it turns out he’s a wealthy collector who displays his collection of art and antiques in a gallery here in London, open to the public until nine in the evening.”

“So, what’s the plan?” asked Rose, eager at the prospect of plotting more than the week’s groceries. “We just walk right in? Take a look?”

“Well, we could,” he drawled. “Except most of the exhibits are in cases. Makes sense, really, when you’re dealing with antiques.”

“Okay, so…what, we call the gallery? Arrange for a private showing?”

The Doctor immediately grinned at Rose and pulled his mobile from his pocket. “Knew there was a reason I kept you around.”

He referred to the computer for a moment and punched in the number for the gallery. After a few moments, Rose began snickering as she heard him put on a posh accent and say, “Mmmyes, this is Alastair Kensington Moorehouse III, and I am calling to inquire after one of your pieces…”

He frowned disapprovingly at Rose’s giggles and wandered into the kitchen to continue his conversation.

Jackie observed Rose quietly for a moment. “You’re so happy.”

Surprised, she turned to look at her mother, her mouth spreading even wider into a brilliant grin. “Yeah, I am.”

“And you’ll be even happier when you’re gone,” Jackie murmured sadly.

“We don’t even know if we can go yet, Mum. He can’t fly the TARDIS as a human. It’ll come back once he opens the watch.”

“Oh, I know you two will do it. You’re always getting us outta stuff. And his brain hasn’t changed, just his body. You’ll be back in that blue box before you know it.”

Before Rose could respond, the Doctor was storming out of the kitchen. “People say I’m rude? ‘No, sir, my employer does not offer private viewings with the pieces.’ ‘No, sir, he will not name a price. It is not for sale.’ I thought money solved all the problems of being a human. Apparently not.”

Rose felt her heart speed up in panic. “So, what do we do? We can’t just leave you like this! We need the watch!”

“Well,” the Doctor began slowly, tucking his hands in his pockets and rocking back on his heels. “I did have a thought. A tiny one, really. A thought-let, if you like…”

Rose was mesmerized by the twinkle in his eye. “…yes?” she prompted him.

A full-blown, glittering, we’re-about-to-get-in-trouble smile appeared across his face for the first time in six months.

“Fancy a heist?”