(no subject)
It was over.
13 days since they'd seen the TARDIS.
3 days without sleep.
Rose wasn't sure the last time she had actually eaten anything that hadn't come out of a package of mush. Her body was sore, and she hadn't had a real shower in god knows when. This planet hadn't any oceans or seas left, and no packaged water, and the rain was their only source of drinkable anything.
The planet was mostly dust now, nearly every building destroyed except for anything that hadn't fallen in the aftermath. The grass had long since gone, and Rose was really tired of being there. When she and the Doctor had agreed to help them, she hadn't realized how long they'd be staying.
Not that she minded fighting someone else's war, she'd done it before. It was rare that she and the Doctor went somewhere that wasn't war plagued. She'd begun to think that he found them on purpose, because he felt bad about her own planet. That he blamed himself for the state of it, and if that was the truth, she'd tell him not to blame himself. It was no one's fault what had happened. Somehow she never got up the guts to ask.
The side she and the Doctor had been in had been victorious this time, pushing the foreign aliens off their planet but at a horrible cost. They wouldn't be able to survive on this planet anymore and Rose wondered if they should've fled the planet before this whole thing started. At least then they would've had more people.
The journey back to the TARDIS was long and tiring and Rose wanted nothing more then to take a very long nap, preferably in a bathtub for several days though she'd have to work around the trying not to drown thing.
Finally inside the protected walls, the Doctor had instructed her to go to the medic bay and wait for him there. She had taken a couple of knocks, and while there wasn't anything incredibly serious, he always wanted to make sure she hadn't picked up anything while on the planet.
“I think we should head back to Earth, Thorn. Do a check in.”
“A check in? Did Dad contact you?” she asked, wincing slightly as he finally reset her thumb back into place with a snap.
“No, but I figure he's got something for us to do.” He knew better then to add anything like 'he'd want to see you' or something like that. And she didn't answer back, she just nodded her head. If he wanted to say something else, he'd say it.
“There's something I didn't tell you.”
Rose looked up at him, “What the fuck does that mean?” he never excluded information because he wasn't stupid. He knew that was the worst thing to do, especially with just the two of them. Didn't he?
“America's gone.”
Okay maybe it wasn't what she expected but...
“I mean .. gone. Completely wiped off the map.”
A difference.
“What d'ymean gone and wiped off the map?”
“It broke up into sections and then sank. The whole bloody continent.”
“Why didn't you want to tell me?”
“It was because of the rift.”
“Oh. You'd think I'd want to go and figure out what went on, right?”
The Doctor just nodded at her, not saying anything as he threw bloody towels into the garbage.
“I won't go.”
“Yeah you will.”
“No, I'll go and I'll see dad and he'll tell us where to go if he's got a job or I'll just stay home and work and y'can go wherever and pick me up later.”
She had wished she had been telling him the truth. But they both knew she wasn't.
Several hours later and the TARDIS had landed outside of Cardiff and the Doctor and Rose were inside Torchwood, debriefing them on what had happened and giving Tosh all of the records to put in their database.
Soon there was no one left in the room but Rose and Pete Tyler. She hadn't really looked at him the entire time.
“The Doctor says you're going to the rift.”
She said nothing.
“I forbid you to go.”
Her eyes flicked up to meet his. Still, she said nothing.
“I mean it, Rose. It's too dangerous and you don't know what's going to happen. You're too great of an asset to lose.”
“As your daughter or as a soldier.”
It was his turn to be silent.
“That's what I thought. Do me a favor. While I'm gone? Go to hell.”
Rose headed back up to the surface to give her some time to think and sort things out. Did she want to stay? How was she going to get to what used to be the USA?
There was an air raid when she heard a noise buzzing around from her deep cargo pockets. The sound of gunshots in the distance.
”You know it's thrilleeeeeeeeeeer. Thriller niiiiiiiight.”
She reached into her pocket and pulled out the strange device and peered into it. Rose never felt the hands that were guiding her, or perhaps pushing her to the rift that was right there in Cardiff. And she certainly didn't know who it was.
There was that sudden rush, and the feeling like her body was being ripped apart. And then nothing. Suddenly the world was right again and she was still standing where she had been when she fell through. But something was wrong.
She looked at the communicator.
“How come this bloody thing in my pocket has Thriller as it's ring tone. It's not even my phone.
Beware of Michael Jackson, what's that supposed to mean? And where am I? Dad?
I bet the Doctor's cocked up the destination again. This don't look nuffin like my world. Close but.. “
Word Count: 970