Who Fic - On Side
Title: On Side
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating/warnings: G
Genre: gen
Characters: DI Bishop, Ten, mentions of Rose
Spoilers: up to “The Idiot’s Lantern”
Summary: As they head back to Florizel Street, Detective Inspector Bishop tries to get a read on the Doctor. Originally a scene from All that we could be
Disclaimer: Doctor Who and all associated characters/situations etc do not belong to me, I’m just borrowing them.
~*~
DI Bishop honestly struggled at first to keep up with the Doctor as he stormed out, leaving the faceless girl behind. He moved as a man who only had one purpose in the world - and judging by his reaction to the girl losing her face, he was.
“Who was she?” Bishop asked curiously as they clattered down the stairs together. “That girl we found - Rose you said her name was?”
“Rose Tyler.” the Doctor said, and even though his voice was clipped with strain he still took the time to roll the r’s. “She travels with me.”
“She’s not your partner?” Bishop asked and the Doctor gave him an odd look. “I assumed you were involved in some sort of law enforcement.”
“No I’m just a traveller.” the Doctor admitted. “I’m just very good at finding trouble. And Rose is...well she’s my companion. A friend.” he added somewhat hastily. “Good friend.”
“So the person who did this went after her because she was working with you?” Bishop deduced as they emerged from the building.
“What makes you think it’s a person? If I know Rose - and I know her very well - she probably went poking about for clues and ended up finding exactly what she was looking for.” the Doctor grimaced suddenly, pressing his lips together thinly. “I tell you what though, by the time I’m through whatever did this to her is going to wish that it hadn’t.”
“What are you going to do?” Bishop asked, half jogging to keep up with the Doctor’s long strides as they moved across the compound.
“I’m going to find whoever - or whatever - is behind this.” the Doctor said shortly. “And then I’m going to reverse what’s been done to Rose and all of those other people and then I’m going to give the instigator a piece of my mind.”
Bishop felt truly hopeful for the first time then. “You’ll be able to give them their faces back again?”
“I’d better be able to.” the Doctor said grimly. “If Rose gets stuck without her face I don’t think I can be held accountable for my actions.”
Bishop was silent for a moment, watching as the Doctor set to the lock on the gate with his buzzing blue torch.
“You really care an awful lot about her.” he observed. “Don’t you?”
The Doctor paused a moment. His torch stopped buzzing. And then he caught Bishop’s eye, his feelings flickering plainly on his face for a moment only before his expression became all but unreadable.
“Yeah.” His voice was heavy with everything that his face was working to hide. “I do.”
Bishop nodded, finally satisfied. He was used to being able to get a feel for people, to get some sort of reading of their character, but the Doctor was proving exceptionally difficult to pin down and categorise. He was an expert at dodging questions and even better at keeping a careful mask of indifference in place - except when he spoke about Rose. The affection he felt for the girl was plain, but there was something deeper there as well. Something that made Bishop think that this Doctor would go down fighting if he thought it could save her.
Thinking on it, he was suddenly glad that the man was on his side.