If It's Tuesday, There Must Be Aliens - 7/8
Title: If It's Tuesday, There Must Be Aliens - 7/8
Characters: Rose, Ten.5
Summary: Rose and 10.5 are on their honeymoon. The usual chaos ensues
Rating: PG
Beta: nattieb
For those four or five of you who are reading along with this, hang in there! There is just one more chapter, and then we will be done.
One~ Two~ Three~ Four~ Five~ Six~
Rose pulls away, tears streaking her cheeks. “It doesn’t matter how long you waited for me,” she chokes. “It could end any day, couldn’t it? A car accident, an explosion at work, an alien with a grudge-”
“Stop it!” He’s so angry, and slightly amazed that his anger comes on so strong, so fast. “We’re both here now. So it’s a risk. That’s all life is - a risk! It’s amazing that anyone wakes up in the morning to start a new day. I wasn’t supposed to exist at all, Rose. Isn’t the fact that I’m here with you now amazing enough?”
Rose walks across the room to sit on one of the white velvet chairs. She stares at her hands, shaking in her lap.
“It is amazing enough,” she states, not looking up at him. “But I saw so many things last year, when I was trying to find you.” Now she does look up at him, and her eyes are wide and dark with secrets that she has never shared. “I went from world to world to world, and I saw so much death and, and, just awful, awful things.” Her voice cracks a little. “I found you so many times, and each time was the wrong time, the wrong place. You were dead or you were gone, or you’d never been alive at all. I almost got used to that,” she adds in a conversational tone, as if they were talking about the weather. “You bein’ dead, I mean.”
He’s rocked to the core. “Rose, no. I didn’t know, I-”
“‘Course you didn’t know. I didn’t tell you. What would be the point? What matters is that I found you in the end, and I was able to make sure Donna did what she was supposed to, to keep everything moving the way it should.”
He shifts from foot to foot, wanting to comfort her but not sure that she would let him.
“My best hope was to find you,” she continues, looking away from him again to stare out the windows. “I knew you’d be able to help us. Help the universe,” she adds with a small, wry smile. “I knew you could do anything.”
He raises an eyebrow, amused despite himself. “Thanks for your confidence in me.”
“I’ve seen you do impossible stuff.” Rose shrugs. “You were our last hope. And you did it, didn’t you? You stopped the darkness.” She frowns down at her hands. “I just didn’t think you - he - would leave us in this universe together.” She looks up at him, and there are tears in her eyes. “He meant to do that all along. Leave us together. He said you were broken, remember? But you weren’t. I was.”
Now he does move, walking quickly to her and kneeling in front of her chair.
“You’re not broken, Rose,” he says urgently, taking her hands. “You are strong and unafraid and determined. I knew that the first moment I ever met you. That hasn’t changed.”
“Maybe I made him better,” she whispers. “I think I did. But what about me? I needed him, and he left me. And you...you’ve made me better, Doctor. You’ve healed what was wrong with me. But if you leave...if you die, what will happen to me?”
“You’ll go on, Rose, just like you did before. You were brilliant! I know you were so brilliant. You never gave up. Promise me you will never give up, no matter what happens.”
She closes her eyes. “I promise,” she murmurs, and he feels a deep sense of relief at that. But then she swallows hard and looks at him again.
“I saw you,” she whispers, and his heart stops at the look in her eyes. It’s wide and fearful, not like Rose at all. “I saw you when I was gone. You went through so much after you lost me. And then you finally stopped caring. Without Donna there was no one to keep you in check. You became something...something else. You didn’t care what you did. The rules you had lived by didn’t matter, and you did whatever you wanted. You hurt so many people...” Her voice trails off.
“That wasn’t me, though,” the Doctor states uncertainly. “It was another universe, another existence. Not mine. Not the one he has left to live.” When she is silent, he says, “Isn’t it?”
She doesn’t answer him directly. “If any version of you, of the Doctor, can reach that end, what about you?”
“Me?” He can’t even imagine becoming so deranged that he would turn power-hungry and corrupt. That was the Master’s way, perhaps, but never his.
“Promise me,” Rose demands, “promise me that if something ever happens to me, you will go on. Promise you won’t go mad.”
He can’t think like that. He refuses to imagine Rose gone. He will never lose her. She sees his thoughts and smiles.
“Promise,” she says softly. “If I have to go on, then so do you.”
Memories of his life after Rose fell through the Void fly through his thoughts. Had he really wanted to die, in those days and months after she was gone?
Yes, he admits to himself. He did.
“I promise I’ll go on,” the Doctor says, as solemn as if he was reciting his wedding vows to her again. “I’ll remember what we had and I’ll do my best to do what you’d want me to do.”
She smiles then, a real smile that reaches her eyes and lights up her face.
“Then it’s okay,” Rose says softly, and closes her eyes to kiss him.
It’s dark outside when the Doctor wakes up. When he opens his eyes he’s a bit disoriented, but his sense of time tells him that three hours, twenty-six minutes have passed since he fell asleep. Beside him in the honeymoon suite bed, Rose sleeps on. She’s frowning slightly in her sleep, and he feels guilty. She was upset because he had taken a careless risk and gotten hurt that afternoon, and no amount of lovemaking and promises that he will be more careful have wiped that fearful look for her face.
But what more can he do? He didn’t ask to wink into existence via a spare hand and Donna. He didn’t want to be the one who had to stop Davros and his reality bomb. He never asked to be made human.
But if he hadn’t become human, he would still be a spare hand in a jar. Without him Rose would be with the other Doctor, traveling through the stars.
Sometimes thinking about himself just gives him a headache. Sliding out of bed, he shuts himself in the bathroom and takes a quick shower. By the time he’s dressed, with his hair properly styled, Rose is awake. He finds her sitting up in the bed.
“Did I wake you?” he asks guiltily.
She pays no attention to that. “We need to go back,” she says.
He blinks. “Back?” he asks warily. At the moment, going back could mean anything. Back home? Back to the other universe? Back to the other Doctor?
“We need to go and tell them that the retcon was the wrong decision.” Rose waves her arm towards the windows, and he lets his breath out in relief. “What we did was wrong. We have to fix it.”
Standing outside the police station, the Doctor can’t help feeling that his honeymoon has been taken over by aliens. It had been going so well until they reached Athens, he reflects to himself rather sadly. One moment they were enjoying themselves, having fun together. Next thing you know, aliens are taking up residence and the authorities take the unprecedented step of altering the memories of not only their own people, but of thousands of tourists as well.
It’s just wrong.
“I mean, just because the royal family thought it was a good idea doesn’t mean it is,” Rose is insisting as they walk up the steps to the building. “It’s not like royalty is given a free pass or anything. They’re not perfect.”
“No,” the Doctor agrees, because royalty isn’t perfect, and Rose is too carried away to hear him if he were to say otherwise, anyway.
“I just can’t believe that my dad would go along with this. We need to fix it.”
Rose Tyler on a mission is someone not to be messed with. The Doctor is not someone who can mess with her in this mood. He doesn’t think anything will really get done, but he will never admit that to Rose. Besides, he loves seeing her like this, all fired up and determined.
The Athenian police chief, however, proves to be Rose’s equal.
“The decision was made, and Torchwood cooperated with the king’s wishes,” he states firmly. “It has already been done. There is no way to reverse the effects.” He pauses and looks hard at the Doctor. “Is there?”
The Doctor shakes his head slightly. “No reversals.” And he’s tried. When no one else has been around at Torchwood, he has looked at the retcon formula, trying to work out a way to cure the effects. There simply is not a cure. Once the retcon drug has been used, the memories are gone forever. Whoever created it was very thorough. And of course the records are sealed. If any documentation remains about how and when the retcon came to Torchwood, it is not easily accessible.
“There. You see?” The chief folds his arms and frowns down at Rose.
The truth about no reversals is not new to Rose. That is why she has always argued against using the drug for any reason. Until Athens she had always been successful. “But you can’t just retcon the entire city,” Rose persists. “It’s not fair to them. They deserve to know the truth.”
“Our country will be told the truth at the proper time.”
“Like they were told about the Cybermen?” she questions, and the Doctor admires the adroitness of this. The chief flushes slightly beneath his olive skin.
“We made a mistake about them,” he acknowledges. “None of us believed it was possible until it was too late. By the time our borders were sealed against them, you had eliminated the threat. We were able to convince the population that it was a hoax perpetrated by you English.”
“But what good was that?” Rose demands, trying desperately to make this man see reason. “Now that another threat has come, your people were just as unprepared. And you’re lying to them again!”
“Another visit from Torchwood, Dimitri?”
The three of them turn to the door. A tall, dark haired man wearing an incredibly expensive dark suit stands in the doorway. Behind him flutter various aides and policemen.
“Your majesty!” The chief - Dimitri - jumps a few inches in the air before giving a convulsive bow, regaining his senses and saluting. “I thought you had returned to the palace.”
“I was advised that Torchwood had returned.” The king of Greece stands in the doorway, staring impassively at Rose and the Doctor.
The chief hurries over. “Please, come in, your majesty. Allow me -”
“Leave us,” the king says simply, and everyone melts away and closes the door.
“That’s an impressive trick,” the Doctor says mildly. “Do you need to be royalty to do it right?” Rose jabs him in the side.
“It comes in handy,” is all the king will say to that. He continues to stare at them. “I am Vasilis. King of this country.”
“Yes, we know who you are. I’m the Doctor. This is my wife, Rose Tyler.”
“Hello,” Rose says. “Nice to meet you.”
“Your father did me a service, Ms. Tyler,” the king says to Rose. “You may not agree, but it was best for our country. What I did was in the interests of my people.”
“Lies are never in the best interest,” Rose states.
“They tend to lead to cover-ups and more lies,” the Doctor agrees.
The king folds his arms. “I realize that the English have no monarchy, most people do me the courtesy of acting with the respect this office deserves.”
“Well, once you’ve been knighted by Queen Victoria, every other royal seems a bit plain,” the Doctor just can’t resist saying. “Not that you are plain,” he hurries to add. “Just that she was very...majestic.”
“You speak of Victoria, my distant ancestor?” The king raises a dark eyebrow, and Rose can see this conversation derailing.
“It’s a long story. Please, your, er, majesty, can we not make you change your mind?”
“Even if I were to change my mind, the service Torchwood performed for me today was done. The effects cannot be reversed, I’m told.”
Rose gives a small shake of her head. “They can’t be, no.”
“Well, then. I owe England a great favor, which I have already conveyed to your father and to your president. The next time we face extraterrestrials we will be better prepared to face them. Now, please allow someone to escort you back to your hotel.” The king unbends enough to bestow a small smile upon them. “I understand that this is your honeymoon. You could not have chosen a better spot.” Turning to the door, he snaps his fingers. The door opens and two men are immediately in the doorway, awaiting his commands.
“See them out,” the king orders, and walks out without another glance.
The two aides stare at Rose and the Doctor.
“He seems fun to work for,” the Doctor observes. “He ever been in the same room as a werewolf?”
Out on the square, the sun is shining. People are wandering around, enjoying the day. It is literally as if nothing out of the ordinary has happened. That fact really, really bothers Rose.
“So everything’s been retconned,” Rose begins in frustration. “What good did it do? How will it keep the people from panicking the next time something happens?”
“I assume the authorities will be planning for that.” The Doctor shrugs his shoulders. “Maybe they’ll reconsider the Cybermen invasion and go from there.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. But what if something else comes through? What happens then?”
He stares out across the square, his eyes squinting despite his sunglasses. “I don’t know, Rose. I’m sorry. Sometimes the only choice is an absolutely wrong one.”
“Things were easier when you could just decide for everyone. Force them to see things your way.” Rose used to think he was a heavy-handed alien, back in those days. Now she wishes he’d been a little more forceful.
“Yeah, but was my way the right way?” he asks. “”I thought I was doing the right thing, every time. And sometimes it turned out that it wasn’t the right thing.”
“But we tried. We tried to do the right thing, to make a difference. We didn’t do that here.”
“No. Not here. Not this time. But next time, Rose Tyler. Maybe next time we can make a difference.”
She sighs and leans into him, glad for the arm that comes up around her shoulder.
“It’s not all fun and games, bein’ us, is it?”
She can feel his silent chuckle beneath her cheek. “Someone has to be us, Rose. Even when it’s not all fun and games.”
They find a tiny restaurant to have dinner. Although Rose tells herself it’s just her imagination, she feels that unseen eyes are on them, watching their every move.
“It’s your imagination, love,” the Doctor says absently when she confides in him. He’s working his way through a giant plate of hollow pasta, ground beef and cream sauce, and appears disinclined to really listen to her concerns.
“I don’t think the government would hesitate to keep an eye on us. What if they’re afraid we would try and, I don’t know, alert the media or something?” Rose eyes the salad on her plate and spears a tomato with her fork.
“Wouldn’t do much good, would it? No one remembers anything. They’d just think we’re crazy tourists.” The Doctor beams up at their waitress as she sets a plate of lemon-roasted potatoes down on the table.
“Lovely! Thank you!”
“Are you gonna eat all that?” Rose asks, amused.
“Yes,” he answers. “Oh, yes.”
She smiles and goes back to her own meal, pausing to snag not only some potatoes by some of his pasta as well.
“Get your own,” he protests.
“I’m good, thanks.” She spears another potato with her fork.
“You know,” the Doctor says a few minutes later, breaking a companionable silence, “I can’t help thinking how strange it was that a monarch would come all the way to the police station just to deal with us.”
Rose looks up. “Well, he was dealing with an alien threat. That’d be enough for me.”
“Yeah, but normally a king would rule from the palace and all that. Send the orders in and wait for results and reports. Not come down to the midst of the chaos.”
“Maybe he’s just very proactive.” Rose grins at him as she takes a sip of wine.
The Doctor puts an elbow on the table, leaning towards her. “Rose, I’ve known many, many monarchs in my lifetime. Most of them are full of themselves and what their consequence is owed.”
“Okay, I’ll give you that one,” Rose allows. “Queen Victoria certainly wouldn’t have gone out of her way for anybody. Still, this world isn’t as power-mad as our old one.”
The Doctor smiles briefly. “Isn’t it? Sometimes I think it’s more so.”
She’s not sure she likes the look in his eye. “What do you mean?”
He shakes his head. “I don’t mean anything, I guess. Just because a person seems strange doesn’t mean anything.”
“Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar?”
“And sometimes people are staring because they see a beautiful woman,” the Doctor says, smiling at her. “And no other reason.”
“It’s been fun,” the Doctor says after dinner, as they’re strolling about. The late afternoon is warm. The sun is shining, and even the smog that covers Athens is not so bad.
“It’s beautiful,” Rose agrees. And it is. The Parthenon, untouched by man or alien once more, gleams in the sun. People are walking everywhere, chatting to each other or on their mobiles, enjoying the day. Cars race by on the street, blithely ignoring traffic laws and, occasionally, a pedestrian. She tucks her hand into the Doctor’s and is content just to walk along with no destination in mind.
Later that evening, when they’re back in their hotel room, Rose has finally come to terms with what happened.
“We never had a chance, you know? The Greeks never intended to let their people know what was happening. They would have covered it up somehow, but here we were, waving our Torchwood IDs everywhere, and the king took advantage of that.”
The Doctor is lying on one of the white couches in the sitting room, hands tucked behind his head, watching her pace around the room. This is Rose. Quiet and thoughtful when something is wrong, unable to rest as long as she sees an injustice to be righted. He’d been right, all those years ago, when he’d judged her to be a worthy companion. She had brains and guts in spades, and she never, ever backed down from a fight.
“Doctor?” Rose prompts him. “Are you listening to me?”
He straightens into a sitting position. “Of course! Cover ups and shady Torchwood dealings.”
“Not shady,” she corrects him. “Just...not on the up and up. I’ll have to have a talk with Dad when we get back.” She pauses to frown over Pete’s actions. He must have a good reason for cooperating with the Greek king in this way.
The Doctor waits while she thinks something over, and then she repeats herself.
“The king was never going to listen to us about the retcon.”
“He did seem to have an agenda, didn’t he? Blimey, but it must be tiresome to be a ruler.”
Distracted, Rose glanced over at him. “Did you ever have a chance to be a ruler?”
He thinks for a moment. “There was an incident on this little planet on the far side of your galaxy. Your former galaxy, I should say. I showed them fire and they wanted to make me their supreme ruler. Took some convincing for them to believe that I wasn’t their own personal god. I did teach them how to barbecue. They named an entire cuisine after me.”
She rolls her eyes. “Seriously?”
“Seriously! Barbecued meat rubbed with a variety of spices. It’s very good.”
“I don’t doubt it.” Rose joins him on the couch, where they can look out the window and watch the sunset. On one of the small occasional tables is a honeymoon gift basket from the hotel. Rose lazily reaches over and picks out a small gold box. It’s filled with chocolates. She takes one before offering the box to the Doctor.
For a few minutes they chew in companionable silence, Rose leaning against the couch with her legs thrown over his lap. His right arm is draped over the back of the couch. His left hand rests on her bare leg, absently smoothing the skin. Occasionally his hand will reach higher on her leg, beneath her hem, and her skin will prickle and her heart will skip a beat.
Finally the Doctor tilts his head to look at her.
“So, Rose Tyler. Are we ready to go home?”
Rose rests her head back on the couch and thinks about the past few weeks. France and Italy, with so many little stops in between. Greece was lovely - until the aliens came. She thinks about how wonderful it’s been to have time with each other, with no alien or family crises getting in the way. She thinks about her home with the blue door, and her parents and Tony, and even the baby TARDIS living in their shed.
“I think I am. Are you?”
“I am.” He glances around the hotel room. “I thought a final morning here in Athens, and then we could start home. I have a new route in mind for that trip,” he tells her, and she smiles.
“New cities to stop in?”
“Of course! We only have one world, might as well explore it all.”
“You won’t get lost and land us in Spain, will you?” she can’t help asking, and is kissed senseless in return.
“So is that a yes or a no?”
The hand on her leg reaches higher, lifting the skirt of her dress. He smiles at her.
“We’ll have to wait and find out.”
There is a new museum in town since the last time the Doctor was here. The hotel clerk told them all about it as they were checking out, and nothing would do but for the Doctor to visit it before they left. Their bags were stowed in the car, and soon they were driving out to locate the museum.
The windows are down, and Rose is enjoying the feel of the wind in her hair. In another time she would have been wearing a glamorous scarf to keep it in place, but she’s happy to have it whipped all around. She suspects the weather won’t be as pleasant back in London.
“When was the last time you were here?” she asks, and the Doctor shrugs.
“I lose track, honestly. Sometime right before Socrates drank the hemlock, I think. Lots of time to make up for!” A herd of sheep suddenly appear on the road about thirty meters ahead. He whoops in surprise and turns the car onto the first street he sees to avoid them. Glancing back, Rose sees a black clad shepherd raising his fist at them. He’s probably not giving them a friendly wave.
“Want me to drive?” she asks.
“No!” He’s as indignant as any male.
“Is this the right way?” Rose says after a glance around. The road is empty except for them, and it’s not as well-maintained as the previous ones.
“Just five miles outside Athens,” the Doctor confirms.
“Yeah, but the road we should have taken is back there with the sheep, isn’t it?”
“We can pick it up again down here.”
Instead of picking up a popular road, however, they drive themselves into a quiet countryside filled with olive trees. Rose can see the occasional ruin, and here and there bits of ancient marble lie around casually. Now that things have quieted down she switches on the radio. She has no idea what the singers are saying, but the music is pleasant enough.
“It’s so beautiful here. Look!” She points out a donkey that’s chewing grass by the side of the road.
The Doctor makes a disparaging noise. “Donkeys. Beasts of burden and incredibly stubborn. Hell of a kick, too.”
“Did one get you once?” she asks sympathetically.
“Almost kicked me right into my next regeneration!”
Rose hums along with the current song to keep from giggling. It doesn’t mask her concern, though, because she is certain that they are now lost. Before she can think of how to phrase this, the Doctor stops the car.
“Rose.”
“Yes?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know where we are.”
“Well, let’s just have a look around!”
“At what?” The Doctor turns off the car and pockets the keys, following Rose out. “There’s nothing here but trees and flowers.”
“There must be a village or something nearby. We can ask for directions.”
The Doctor reaches Rose where she’s standing on a small incline. He takes her hand.
“All right, then. Lead the way.”
“Allons-y, Alonso,” she says lightly, and he laughs.
There’s no village in sight, and no people either. They walk a few hundred meters in each direction, but there’s nothing to see.
“We may as well just turn around,” the Doctor says. “Retrace our steps, so to speak. We’ll be there in no time.”
“Yeah,” Rose agrees. “I guess it was silly to -” She stops talking, arrested by the sight of smoke ahead of them.
“Silly to what?” When she doesn’t answer, he turns to look at her and sees the smoke himself. “What’s that?”
“Let’s go see,” Rose says breathlessly, and they start to run.
Eight
Characters: Rose, Ten.5
Summary: Rose and 10.5 are on their honeymoon. The usual chaos ensues
Rating: PG
Beta: nattieb
For those four or five of you who are reading along with this, hang in there! There is just one more chapter, and then we will be done.
One~ Two~ Three~ Four~ Five~ Six~
Rose pulls away, tears streaking her cheeks. “It doesn’t matter how long you waited for me,” she chokes. “It could end any day, couldn’t it? A car accident, an explosion at work, an alien with a grudge-”
“Stop it!” He’s so angry, and slightly amazed that his anger comes on so strong, so fast. “We’re both here now. So it’s a risk. That’s all life is - a risk! It’s amazing that anyone wakes up in the morning to start a new day. I wasn’t supposed to exist at all, Rose. Isn’t the fact that I’m here with you now amazing enough?”
Rose walks across the room to sit on one of the white velvet chairs. She stares at her hands, shaking in her lap.
“It is amazing enough,” she states, not looking up at him. “But I saw so many things last year, when I was trying to find you.” Now she does look up at him, and her eyes are wide and dark with secrets that she has never shared. “I went from world to world to world, and I saw so much death and, and, just awful, awful things.” Her voice cracks a little. “I found you so many times, and each time was the wrong time, the wrong place. You were dead or you were gone, or you’d never been alive at all. I almost got used to that,” she adds in a conversational tone, as if they were talking about the weather. “You bein’ dead, I mean.”
He’s rocked to the core. “Rose, no. I didn’t know, I-”
“‘Course you didn’t know. I didn’t tell you. What would be the point? What matters is that I found you in the end, and I was able to make sure Donna did what she was supposed to, to keep everything moving the way it should.”
He shifts from foot to foot, wanting to comfort her but not sure that she would let him.
“My best hope was to find you,” she continues, looking away from him again to stare out the windows. “I knew you’d be able to help us. Help the universe,” she adds with a small, wry smile. “I knew you could do anything.”
He raises an eyebrow, amused despite himself. “Thanks for your confidence in me.”
“I’ve seen you do impossible stuff.” Rose shrugs. “You were our last hope. And you did it, didn’t you? You stopped the darkness.” She frowns down at her hands. “I just didn’t think you - he - would leave us in this universe together.” She looks up at him, and there are tears in her eyes. “He meant to do that all along. Leave us together. He said you were broken, remember? But you weren’t. I was.”
Now he does move, walking quickly to her and kneeling in front of her chair.
“You’re not broken, Rose,” he says urgently, taking her hands. “You are strong and unafraid and determined. I knew that the first moment I ever met you. That hasn’t changed.”
“Maybe I made him better,” she whispers. “I think I did. But what about me? I needed him, and he left me. And you...you’ve made me better, Doctor. You’ve healed what was wrong with me. But if you leave...if you die, what will happen to me?”
“You’ll go on, Rose, just like you did before. You were brilliant! I know you were so brilliant. You never gave up. Promise me you will never give up, no matter what happens.”
She closes her eyes. “I promise,” she murmurs, and he feels a deep sense of relief at that. But then she swallows hard and looks at him again.
“I saw you,” she whispers, and his heart stops at the look in her eyes. It’s wide and fearful, not like Rose at all. “I saw you when I was gone. You went through so much after you lost me. And then you finally stopped caring. Without Donna there was no one to keep you in check. You became something...something else. You didn’t care what you did. The rules you had lived by didn’t matter, and you did whatever you wanted. You hurt so many people...” Her voice trails off.
“That wasn’t me, though,” the Doctor states uncertainly. “It was another universe, another existence. Not mine. Not the one he has left to live.” When she is silent, he says, “Isn’t it?”
She doesn’t answer him directly. “If any version of you, of the Doctor, can reach that end, what about you?”
“Me?” He can’t even imagine becoming so deranged that he would turn power-hungry and corrupt. That was the Master’s way, perhaps, but never his.
“Promise me,” Rose demands, “promise me that if something ever happens to me, you will go on. Promise you won’t go mad.”
He can’t think like that. He refuses to imagine Rose gone. He will never lose her. She sees his thoughts and smiles.
“Promise,” she says softly. “If I have to go on, then so do you.”
Memories of his life after Rose fell through the Void fly through his thoughts. Had he really wanted to die, in those days and months after she was gone?
Yes, he admits to himself. He did.
“I promise I’ll go on,” the Doctor says, as solemn as if he was reciting his wedding vows to her again. “I’ll remember what we had and I’ll do my best to do what you’d want me to do.”
She smiles then, a real smile that reaches her eyes and lights up her face.
“Then it’s okay,” Rose says softly, and closes her eyes to kiss him.
It’s dark outside when the Doctor wakes up. When he opens his eyes he’s a bit disoriented, but his sense of time tells him that three hours, twenty-six minutes have passed since he fell asleep. Beside him in the honeymoon suite bed, Rose sleeps on. She’s frowning slightly in her sleep, and he feels guilty. She was upset because he had taken a careless risk and gotten hurt that afternoon, and no amount of lovemaking and promises that he will be more careful have wiped that fearful look for her face.
But what more can he do? He didn’t ask to wink into existence via a spare hand and Donna. He didn’t want to be the one who had to stop Davros and his reality bomb. He never asked to be made human.
But if he hadn’t become human, he would still be a spare hand in a jar. Without him Rose would be with the other Doctor, traveling through the stars.
Sometimes thinking about himself just gives him a headache. Sliding out of bed, he shuts himself in the bathroom and takes a quick shower. By the time he’s dressed, with his hair properly styled, Rose is awake. He finds her sitting up in the bed.
“Did I wake you?” he asks guiltily.
She pays no attention to that. “We need to go back,” she says.
He blinks. “Back?” he asks warily. At the moment, going back could mean anything. Back home? Back to the other universe? Back to the other Doctor?
“We need to go and tell them that the retcon was the wrong decision.” Rose waves her arm towards the windows, and he lets his breath out in relief. “What we did was wrong. We have to fix it.”
Standing outside the police station, the Doctor can’t help feeling that his honeymoon has been taken over by aliens. It had been going so well until they reached Athens, he reflects to himself rather sadly. One moment they were enjoying themselves, having fun together. Next thing you know, aliens are taking up residence and the authorities take the unprecedented step of altering the memories of not only their own people, but of thousands of tourists as well.
It’s just wrong.
“I mean, just because the royal family thought it was a good idea doesn’t mean it is,” Rose is insisting as they walk up the steps to the building. “It’s not like royalty is given a free pass or anything. They’re not perfect.”
“No,” the Doctor agrees, because royalty isn’t perfect, and Rose is too carried away to hear him if he were to say otherwise, anyway.
“I just can’t believe that my dad would go along with this. We need to fix it.”
Rose Tyler on a mission is someone not to be messed with. The Doctor is not someone who can mess with her in this mood. He doesn’t think anything will really get done, but he will never admit that to Rose. Besides, he loves seeing her like this, all fired up and determined.
The Athenian police chief, however, proves to be Rose’s equal.
“The decision was made, and Torchwood cooperated with the king’s wishes,” he states firmly. “It has already been done. There is no way to reverse the effects.” He pauses and looks hard at the Doctor. “Is there?”
The Doctor shakes his head slightly. “No reversals.” And he’s tried. When no one else has been around at Torchwood, he has looked at the retcon formula, trying to work out a way to cure the effects. There simply is not a cure. Once the retcon drug has been used, the memories are gone forever. Whoever created it was very thorough. And of course the records are sealed. If any documentation remains about how and when the retcon came to Torchwood, it is not easily accessible.
“There. You see?” The chief folds his arms and frowns down at Rose.
The truth about no reversals is not new to Rose. That is why she has always argued against using the drug for any reason. Until Athens she had always been successful. “But you can’t just retcon the entire city,” Rose persists. “It’s not fair to them. They deserve to know the truth.”
“Our country will be told the truth at the proper time.”
“Like they were told about the Cybermen?” she questions, and the Doctor admires the adroitness of this. The chief flushes slightly beneath his olive skin.
“We made a mistake about them,” he acknowledges. “None of us believed it was possible until it was too late. By the time our borders were sealed against them, you had eliminated the threat. We were able to convince the population that it was a hoax perpetrated by you English.”
“But what good was that?” Rose demands, trying desperately to make this man see reason. “Now that another threat has come, your people were just as unprepared. And you’re lying to them again!”
“Another visit from Torchwood, Dimitri?”
The three of them turn to the door. A tall, dark haired man wearing an incredibly expensive dark suit stands in the doorway. Behind him flutter various aides and policemen.
“Your majesty!” The chief - Dimitri - jumps a few inches in the air before giving a convulsive bow, regaining his senses and saluting. “I thought you had returned to the palace.”
“I was advised that Torchwood had returned.” The king of Greece stands in the doorway, staring impassively at Rose and the Doctor.
The chief hurries over. “Please, come in, your majesty. Allow me -”
“Leave us,” the king says simply, and everyone melts away and closes the door.
“That’s an impressive trick,” the Doctor says mildly. “Do you need to be royalty to do it right?” Rose jabs him in the side.
“It comes in handy,” is all the king will say to that. He continues to stare at them. “I am Vasilis. King of this country.”
“Yes, we know who you are. I’m the Doctor. This is my wife, Rose Tyler.”
“Hello,” Rose says. “Nice to meet you.”
“Your father did me a service, Ms. Tyler,” the king says to Rose. “You may not agree, but it was best for our country. What I did was in the interests of my people.”
“Lies are never in the best interest,” Rose states.
“They tend to lead to cover-ups and more lies,” the Doctor agrees.
The king folds his arms. “I realize that the English have no monarchy, most people do me the courtesy of acting with the respect this office deserves.”
“Well, once you’ve been knighted by Queen Victoria, every other royal seems a bit plain,” the Doctor just can’t resist saying. “Not that you are plain,” he hurries to add. “Just that she was very...majestic.”
“You speak of Victoria, my distant ancestor?” The king raises a dark eyebrow, and Rose can see this conversation derailing.
“It’s a long story. Please, your, er, majesty, can we not make you change your mind?”
“Even if I were to change my mind, the service Torchwood performed for me today was done. The effects cannot be reversed, I’m told.”
Rose gives a small shake of her head. “They can’t be, no.”
“Well, then. I owe England a great favor, which I have already conveyed to your father and to your president. The next time we face extraterrestrials we will be better prepared to face them. Now, please allow someone to escort you back to your hotel.” The king unbends enough to bestow a small smile upon them. “I understand that this is your honeymoon. You could not have chosen a better spot.” Turning to the door, he snaps his fingers. The door opens and two men are immediately in the doorway, awaiting his commands.
“See them out,” the king orders, and walks out without another glance.
The two aides stare at Rose and the Doctor.
“He seems fun to work for,” the Doctor observes. “He ever been in the same room as a werewolf?”
Out on the square, the sun is shining. People are wandering around, enjoying the day. It is literally as if nothing out of the ordinary has happened. That fact really, really bothers Rose.
“So everything’s been retconned,” Rose begins in frustration. “What good did it do? How will it keep the people from panicking the next time something happens?”
“I assume the authorities will be planning for that.” The Doctor shrugs his shoulders. “Maybe they’ll reconsider the Cybermen invasion and go from there.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. But what if something else comes through? What happens then?”
He stares out across the square, his eyes squinting despite his sunglasses. “I don’t know, Rose. I’m sorry. Sometimes the only choice is an absolutely wrong one.”
“Things were easier when you could just decide for everyone. Force them to see things your way.” Rose used to think he was a heavy-handed alien, back in those days. Now she wishes he’d been a little more forceful.
“Yeah, but was my way the right way?” he asks. “”I thought I was doing the right thing, every time. And sometimes it turned out that it wasn’t the right thing.”
“But we tried. We tried to do the right thing, to make a difference. We didn’t do that here.”
“No. Not here. Not this time. But next time, Rose Tyler. Maybe next time we can make a difference.”
She sighs and leans into him, glad for the arm that comes up around her shoulder.
“It’s not all fun and games, bein’ us, is it?”
She can feel his silent chuckle beneath her cheek. “Someone has to be us, Rose. Even when it’s not all fun and games.”
They find a tiny restaurant to have dinner. Although Rose tells herself it’s just her imagination, she feels that unseen eyes are on them, watching their every move.
“It’s your imagination, love,” the Doctor says absently when she confides in him. He’s working his way through a giant plate of hollow pasta, ground beef and cream sauce, and appears disinclined to really listen to her concerns.
“I don’t think the government would hesitate to keep an eye on us. What if they’re afraid we would try and, I don’t know, alert the media or something?” Rose eyes the salad on her plate and spears a tomato with her fork.
“Wouldn’t do much good, would it? No one remembers anything. They’d just think we’re crazy tourists.” The Doctor beams up at their waitress as she sets a plate of lemon-roasted potatoes down on the table.
“Lovely! Thank you!”
“Are you gonna eat all that?” Rose asks, amused.
“Yes,” he answers. “Oh, yes.”
She smiles and goes back to her own meal, pausing to snag not only some potatoes by some of his pasta as well.
“Get your own,” he protests.
“I’m good, thanks.” She spears another potato with her fork.
“You know,” the Doctor says a few minutes later, breaking a companionable silence, “I can’t help thinking how strange it was that a monarch would come all the way to the police station just to deal with us.”
Rose looks up. “Well, he was dealing with an alien threat. That’d be enough for me.”
“Yeah, but normally a king would rule from the palace and all that. Send the orders in and wait for results and reports. Not come down to the midst of the chaos.”
“Maybe he’s just very proactive.” Rose grins at him as she takes a sip of wine.
The Doctor puts an elbow on the table, leaning towards her. “Rose, I’ve known many, many monarchs in my lifetime. Most of them are full of themselves and what their consequence is owed.”
“Okay, I’ll give you that one,” Rose allows. “Queen Victoria certainly wouldn’t have gone out of her way for anybody. Still, this world isn’t as power-mad as our old one.”
The Doctor smiles briefly. “Isn’t it? Sometimes I think it’s more so.”
She’s not sure she likes the look in his eye. “What do you mean?”
He shakes his head. “I don’t mean anything, I guess. Just because a person seems strange doesn’t mean anything.”
“Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar?”
“And sometimes people are staring because they see a beautiful woman,” the Doctor says, smiling at her. “And no other reason.”
“It’s been fun,” the Doctor says after dinner, as they’re strolling about. The late afternoon is warm. The sun is shining, and even the smog that covers Athens is not so bad.
“It’s beautiful,” Rose agrees. And it is. The Parthenon, untouched by man or alien once more, gleams in the sun. People are walking everywhere, chatting to each other or on their mobiles, enjoying the day. Cars race by on the street, blithely ignoring traffic laws and, occasionally, a pedestrian. She tucks her hand into the Doctor’s and is content just to walk along with no destination in mind.
Later that evening, when they’re back in their hotel room, Rose has finally come to terms with what happened.
“We never had a chance, you know? The Greeks never intended to let their people know what was happening. They would have covered it up somehow, but here we were, waving our Torchwood IDs everywhere, and the king took advantage of that.”
The Doctor is lying on one of the white couches in the sitting room, hands tucked behind his head, watching her pace around the room. This is Rose. Quiet and thoughtful when something is wrong, unable to rest as long as she sees an injustice to be righted. He’d been right, all those years ago, when he’d judged her to be a worthy companion. She had brains and guts in spades, and she never, ever backed down from a fight.
“Doctor?” Rose prompts him. “Are you listening to me?”
He straightens into a sitting position. “Of course! Cover ups and shady Torchwood dealings.”
“Not shady,” she corrects him. “Just...not on the up and up. I’ll have to have a talk with Dad when we get back.” She pauses to frown over Pete’s actions. He must have a good reason for cooperating with the Greek king in this way.
The Doctor waits while she thinks something over, and then she repeats herself.
“The king was never going to listen to us about the retcon.”
“He did seem to have an agenda, didn’t he? Blimey, but it must be tiresome to be a ruler.”
Distracted, Rose glanced over at him. “Did you ever have a chance to be a ruler?”
He thinks for a moment. “There was an incident on this little planet on the far side of your galaxy. Your former galaxy, I should say. I showed them fire and they wanted to make me their supreme ruler. Took some convincing for them to believe that I wasn’t their own personal god. I did teach them how to barbecue. They named an entire cuisine after me.”
She rolls her eyes. “Seriously?”
“Seriously! Barbecued meat rubbed with a variety of spices. It’s very good.”
“I don’t doubt it.” Rose joins him on the couch, where they can look out the window and watch the sunset. On one of the small occasional tables is a honeymoon gift basket from the hotel. Rose lazily reaches over and picks out a small gold box. It’s filled with chocolates. She takes one before offering the box to the Doctor.
For a few minutes they chew in companionable silence, Rose leaning against the couch with her legs thrown over his lap. His right arm is draped over the back of the couch. His left hand rests on her bare leg, absently smoothing the skin. Occasionally his hand will reach higher on her leg, beneath her hem, and her skin will prickle and her heart will skip a beat.
Finally the Doctor tilts his head to look at her.
“So, Rose Tyler. Are we ready to go home?”
Rose rests her head back on the couch and thinks about the past few weeks. France and Italy, with so many little stops in between. Greece was lovely - until the aliens came. She thinks about how wonderful it’s been to have time with each other, with no alien or family crises getting in the way. She thinks about her home with the blue door, and her parents and Tony, and even the baby TARDIS living in their shed.
“I think I am. Are you?”
“I am.” He glances around the hotel room. “I thought a final morning here in Athens, and then we could start home. I have a new route in mind for that trip,” he tells her, and she smiles.
“New cities to stop in?”
“Of course! We only have one world, might as well explore it all.”
“You won’t get lost and land us in Spain, will you?” she can’t help asking, and is kissed senseless in return.
“So is that a yes or a no?”
The hand on her leg reaches higher, lifting the skirt of her dress. He smiles at her.
“We’ll have to wait and find out.”
There is a new museum in town since the last time the Doctor was here. The hotel clerk told them all about it as they were checking out, and nothing would do but for the Doctor to visit it before they left. Their bags were stowed in the car, and soon they were driving out to locate the museum.
The windows are down, and Rose is enjoying the feel of the wind in her hair. In another time she would have been wearing a glamorous scarf to keep it in place, but she’s happy to have it whipped all around. She suspects the weather won’t be as pleasant back in London.
“When was the last time you were here?” she asks, and the Doctor shrugs.
“I lose track, honestly. Sometime right before Socrates drank the hemlock, I think. Lots of time to make up for!” A herd of sheep suddenly appear on the road about thirty meters ahead. He whoops in surprise and turns the car onto the first street he sees to avoid them. Glancing back, Rose sees a black clad shepherd raising his fist at them. He’s probably not giving them a friendly wave.
“Want me to drive?” she asks.
“No!” He’s as indignant as any male.
“Is this the right way?” Rose says after a glance around. The road is empty except for them, and it’s not as well-maintained as the previous ones.
“Just five miles outside Athens,” the Doctor confirms.
“Yeah, but the road we should have taken is back there with the sheep, isn’t it?”
“We can pick it up again down here.”
Instead of picking up a popular road, however, they drive themselves into a quiet countryside filled with olive trees. Rose can see the occasional ruin, and here and there bits of ancient marble lie around casually. Now that things have quieted down she switches on the radio. She has no idea what the singers are saying, but the music is pleasant enough.
“It’s so beautiful here. Look!” She points out a donkey that’s chewing grass by the side of the road.
The Doctor makes a disparaging noise. “Donkeys. Beasts of burden and incredibly stubborn. Hell of a kick, too.”
“Did one get you once?” she asks sympathetically.
“Almost kicked me right into my next regeneration!”
Rose hums along with the current song to keep from giggling. It doesn’t mask her concern, though, because she is certain that they are now lost. Before she can think of how to phrase this, the Doctor stops the car.
“Rose.”
“Yes?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know where we are.”
“Well, let’s just have a look around!”
“At what?” The Doctor turns off the car and pockets the keys, following Rose out. “There’s nothing here but trees and flowers.”
“There must be a village or something nearby. We can ask for directions.”
The Doctor reaches Rose where she’s standing on a small incline. He takes her hand.
“All right, then. Lead the way.”
“Allons-y, Alonso,” she says lightly, and he laughs.
There’s no village in sight, and no people either. They walk a few hundred meters in each direction, but there’s nothing to see.
“We may as well just turn around,” the Doctor says. “Retrace our steps, so to speak. We’ll be there in no time.”
“Yeah,” Rose agrees. “I guess it was silly to -” She stops talking, arrested by the sight of smoke ahead of them.
“Silly to what?” When she doesn’t answer, he turns to look at her and sees the smoke himself. “What’s that?”
“Let’s go see,” Rose says breathlessly, and they start to run.
Eight