How I Died And Lived: Clara & Rose's Close Call
Series Title: How I Died And Lived
Story Title: How I Died And Lived: Clara & Rose's Close Call
Authors: needtakehave & sarah_jones
Rating: M
Series Genre: romance, sci-fi, adventure, action, het, AU (canon divergence)
Fandoms: Doctor Who
Characters: Rose Tyler, Clara Oswald, Mickey Smith
Pairings: Rose/Ten
Series Summary: Finding out Rose is pregnant sets in motion many things for the Doctor. How will Rose survive pregnant with an alien child without the Doctor in a parallel universe? And what happens once they are reunited?
Ficlet Summary: When the Doctor burns up a sun to say goodbye to Rose she tells him something important.
Disclaimer: We don’t own any of the characters or fandoms. We wish we did… *g* We don’t make any money with this! We're just writing for fun and hope someone else will enjoy it, too.
Spoiler Warnings/Series Timeline: Starts in the season 2 finale (Doctor Who), onwards into Season 3, Season 4, many characters from Season 5, 6 and 7 will show up. There will be spoilers for all of season 7.
Other Warnings: Like usually, we write from multiple points of view to grant an insight into what different characters are thinking.
I am roleplaying this story with my friend needtakehave. We tried to transform this into more of a fic format. Hopefully we managed.
I’m German and my English isn’t and probably never will be perfect. I hope I don’t make too many mistakes. Feel free to point out errors so I can learn and improve.
The series re-writes canon events (usually much of canon and then expanding on it) for the Doctor throughout Seasons 3 and 4, adding in stories told in the parallel universe, and then expands outward after Season 4 completely new. No worries to Season 5, 6 and 7 fans, lots of characters from those seasons will still be showing up!
This ficlet is set after "Say It Ain't So". ;-)
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*~*~* art *~*~* Series Master Post *~*~*
Pete's World:
Rose had been working at the newly opened Torchwood in the alternate universe for almost three months. Her father, Pete, had finally gotten the alien defense department open just shy of a month after they'd been stranded. Truthfully, she was grateful for the job. In fact, it was the sole most important thing in her life beyond the baby growing inside of her. It kept her sane, pure and simple. Her mum tried to understand, but truth be told, Jackie had never really liked the Doctor that much. Never thought he was good enough.
So, Rose spent day after day, sometimes late into the morning at Torchwood. Pete had been more than generous. She was the head of the alien defense division which mostly meant looking at weird objects and things that came in. They hadn't had any invasions since she started but that was bound to happen sooner or later. A few weeks after she started, she had finally hired an assistant; Clara Oswald. Clara was so much smarter than Rose could ever have hoped to be, which wasn't much of a surprise since the girl was an actual genius. Really, she could be running the division herself except she had no actual 'field experience' as it was called -- no experience with aliens or anything other than what was inside of a lab or office. That's what gave Rose the edge over everyone else and got her the job. Well, that and the fact that her father was the one running the place -- it didn't hurt.
They became fast friends, not best friends, but Rose admired her and sometimes, when she was honest with herself, she envied her intellect and how it made everyone pay more attention. Rose really had never had that.
Rose was in the lab one night, it was late, well actually early depending on your point of view since it was nearly four in the morning.
She was trying to find what made this device they'd found recently 'tick'. She had been there for almost five hours and still hadn't managed to figure it out. The preliminary reports said that whatever it was wasn't fatal, so whatever happened wouldn't hurt her which was important to know since she didn't have only herself to worry about anymore. At least that's what the report said. Too bad the report had been wrong.
Finally, she managed to set it open. It was small, no bigger than an egg really. It weighed about just as much. In the center was a circle which probably was some sort of latch. It was what Rose had been trying to get open all this time. It sprung up open with a loud snapping noise, startling her, causing her to drop it suddenly into her lap.
"Bloody hell!" she said in surprise as she put her hand down to pick it up.
Rose froze as the egg started to glow and pain radiated throughout her entire body but most specifically her abdomen. Letting out a scream, she knocked the egg out of her lap and onto the floor, while she fell off her chair and onto the floor directly opposite the egg. The light from the egg started to become brighter and it looked as if it was moving ... towards her.
Struggling to get up, Rose went to her hands and knees, crawling backwards before hitting the wall behind her as she watched the light from the egg move closer to her. She looked down and saw blood seeping through her fingers and wondered where it was coming from. Later, she'd realize the blood she was losing was coming from inside her, from the same place as her child because the bright light from the egg had attacked it, seeking the energy of its timelord essence.
Rose closed her eyes, screaming over and over again as the light finally reached her. She felt it throughout her entire body but she knew it seemed to have one purpose, one craving; it wanted her baby.
That was her last thought before she passed out from shock and blood loss.
Clara walked through the Torchwood building, her steps echoing through the halls. It was eerily silent, but what had she expected? It was the middle of the night. She was supposed to be home, in bed, like normal people, and she had been, up until about half an hour ago, when she woke up after one of her strange dreams. She couldn't remember it clearly, but she had been off, travelling the universe, like in most of her dreams lately. Apparently, working for Torchwood and hearing about some of Rose's adventures made her want to experience some of her own. At least that was the only explanation she could come up with for those dreams. Still, that didn't explain what she was doing at Torchwood right now. She had no idea why she was here, but the moment she woke up she had this weird feeling, as if there was something she needed to do, something very important.
"You're going crazy," she muttered to herself. "Mad, bonkers... and now I am talking to myself. Definitely not a good sign." She was glad that nobody was around to hear her right now, because clearly, she had gone insane.
Sighing she was about to turn around and go back home, when she noticed a light further down the corridor. Startled she went closer. It was shining out from under one of the lab doors. Had someone forgotten to turn off the light before they went home? Frowning she opened the door, then she froze.
"Oh my god," she exclaimed when she saw Rose lying on the ground, blood pooling around her. However, that wasn't everything. Some kind of weird egg-like thing with legs like a spider was in front of her, glowing brightly.
Without even thinking about, it Clara looked around, reached for a broom that someone had left near the door, rushed towards the alien egg-spider-thingy and brushed it away. With a thudding noise it hit the wall hard, its light fading. Then it turned around, legs jiggling in the air until it was no longer upside-down.
"Oh no, you don't," Clara exclaimed whilst rushing towards it and hitting it with the broom.
Rose drifted in and out of consciousnesses and when she was awake, or sort of awake, she heard a female voice. She knew, even in her weakened state, that wasn't possible since it was the middle of the night and there was no one around. It was her bodies last ditch effort to live, no doubt, by giving her hope. She felt strangely numb. The pain she'd felt before was gone, or muted to be exact. It was as if she was having an out of body experience. She could see outside of herself and looked down at her own body.
With a strange detachment, Rose watched the blood pool around her own body and thought 'I've never seen so much blood' as if she was a scientist and this was all some big experiment and meant nothing. This must be what it felt like to die. Looking down at her body, she briefly felt sad, sad she'd never get to see her baby born. She'd spent the last three months, when not working, thinking about what the baby the Doctor brought into the world would be like; if it would be more human than timelord or more timelord than human and if so, what exactly that even meant? Now she would never know.
Rose turned her 'outside body experience head' and watched as Clara entered the room and killed the egg. As the light faded from her body, Rose's consciousness slammed back into it. She woke gasping for air and screaming as the pain began anew. Unlike before, the light wasn't causing the pain but it was the damage the light had caused inside of her. Tears ran down her cheeks as her hands went to her stomach and lower. More blood pulsed in between her fingers, sticky and red.
"My baby..." she whispered, panicked.
Clara spun around when she heard Rose's screams. Rushing to her side she knelt down beside her.
"It's going to be okay, Rose," she said, in what she hoped was a reassuring tone, whilst she rummaged through her purse for her mobile. She had just found it and pulled it out when she felt a stinging pain in her leg. She turned and saw the alien creature. Apparently she hadn't managed to kill it before Rose distracted her, and now it was back. It looked damaged, but it had a tail now, which reminded Clara of a scorpion. Was that what had stung her? And was it poisonous like a real scorpion?
When the creature attacked once more with its tail, Clara blocked it with her bag, then took the broom she had abandoned earlier and went back to hitting the egg-scorpion until it really didn't move anymore. After that she grabbed it with her jacket and threw it down the hole in the lab's wall, which scientists used for toxic waste.
Once she was finished, Clara walked back to Rose but started staggering on the way. Within seconds her vision blurred and she was having trouble staying on her feet. Crap, that tail really must have been poisonous. Taking a deep breath, she stumbled towards the lab table. There was an alarm button on it. If she could reach it, help would come.
Forcing herself forward by willpower alone, she sacked against the table, reached forward and hit the alarm.
Rose lay on the floor, not far from the table where Clara was hunched over. Her body started to glow, almost like the alien device had except her glow was brighter. It filled the room, and then the hallway, and then all rooms and hallways. If anyone had been standing outside of the building just then, the entire building would have been lit up like a Christmas tree from the light coming from inside her. It spread throughout her stomach, repairing all the damage to the small baby that was almost half grown. Then it spread throughout her entire body repairing the rest of the damage and soothing the nerve endings that had had her screaming in pain.
Clara was lying on the table, unable to move. She could no longer feel her legs or arms. Her thoughts seemed to be slipping away from her as well. The only thing she still remembered was that she was terrified, that she had failed. She had been born for one single purpose, she knew that much. As everything else started to fade away she remembered, what that purpose was: saving the Doctor, and that included helping him in any way she could. Usually that just meant saving his life, or the lives of his companions, who could then save him later. It was what most of the other echoes of the real Clara Oswald had been born to do. Her job had been a little different. She was supposed to save his unborn child. It was why she had woken up in the middle of the night and ran off without a second thought. Subconsciously she had always known what she was supposed to do, even if she didn't actually remember before now. Unfortunately she had failed. Through her hazy vision she could still make out the blood surrounding Rose. Was she dead already? Where they both gone, her and the baby? She didn't know and that scared her. She wished she could at least go and check on her, but she could barely keep her eyes open at all. Then, all of a sudden there was a light.
Clara blinked, trying to clear her vision, to see if help had arrived, but all she could make out, was the light, which seemed to get brighter by the second. Strange. It did feel nice though, safe even.
Rose's eyes widened, though she was blinded by the light, she watched as it seemed to heal her. She stood up slowly, making sure she was steady. Some instinct had her putting her hand out. The moment she did, the light spread from her hands outward towards Clara until it enveloped her, healing the poisonous damage the egg had done to her. Then, almost like a rubber band snapping into place, the light slammed back into Rose and winked out. She gasped at the suddenness of it and stared at her hands as if they were alien beings. How had she done that? It was almost as if... Shaking her head, Rose stopped her train of thought and hurried over to Clara.
Clara no longer felt that hazy or weak. Weird. Was she dead now? Was this what was happening? Had she moved on to whatever came next? She opened her eyes just as the light in the room was fading. Then she saw Rose in front of her. She blinked, startled. Was she still alive after all?
"Clara! Are you alright?!" Rose asked, concerned.
Hearing her question, Clara cleared her throat and pushed herself up.
"I... I guess so," she answered. "What happened? And more importantly, are you alright? And the baby?"
Rose quickly thought about how to answer that question, the one about 'what happened'. So, she decided to fudge the truth a little (well, okay a lot).
"I... don't know, the light came out of nowhere and just... it healed both me and the baby. Then, when I got up, the light seemed to move to you and heal you as well. I'm not sure how it happened exactly. I think the baby is okay," she said, her hands moving to her stomach protectively.
So, okay, everything she said was a lie but it was all fixed with truth, too. The light did come out of nowhere. When she had gotten up, it had spread from Rose to Clara. What she didn't tell Clara was she highly suspected that maybe the Doctor hadn't sucked all of the Bad Wolf powers out of her after all. Of course, he had said, that if it didn't work, she'd have basically just burnt up and that hadn't happened, so Rose wasn't sure what had happened, but that was her theory.
Sadly, since the Doctor wasn't here, she was on her own. "Whatever or however it happened, I don't really care, I'm just glad. All three of us seem to be ... better," she said.
Rose took Clara's hand. "I'm really glad, Clara. I was worried. I mean, besides for me and the baby but you... I was afraid it had killed you."
Clara narrowed her eyes. A mysterious light that healed them? Weird, but who was she to talk about weird. She was an echo of a woman from another universe who had been born to help an alien and his family. She snorted slightly at how ridiculous that sounded. Then she grinned. It was also kind of awesome, wasn't it? She was the impossible girl, or well, part of her. But still... She wasn't just an ordinary human who dreamed about having amazing adventures. She did have those adventures... well, sort of. The real Clara Oswald did.
Hearing Rose's last words, Clara looked at her and pushed away her thoughts for now.
"I was afraid, too." Terrified, actually, she added in thoughts. She had really thought that she failed, but for some reason she had gotten another chance to help Rose and her baby... the Doctor's baby. She grinned.
"I'm so happy you're okay," she exclaimed and hugged her friend.
Rose froze, startled by the hug before she relaxed and hugged Clara back.
"I'm happy you're okay! I don't know what I'd have done if you'd have died. I mean, trying to find another assistant on such short notice would be a nightmare!" she said, her grin easily able to tell Clara that, of course, she was only kidding.
Clara smirked at Rose's joke. She had always liked the other woman's sense of humor and after what just happened it was a nice way to lighten up the mood.
"Mostly though, I'll be honest, I'm glad the baby is okay. I never realized how... terrifying being pregnant can be. I only have around 5 more months but still. I'm not sure I can take anymore shocks like this. And the hormones! I just wish the ---" she cut off her sentence midway. No, she wasn't about to finish that sentence. No way was she going to bring his name up. First, it always made people ask question after question and become nosy as anything and second, it made her feel miserable that he wasn't here.
"I don't know what I wish," she said finally, pretending she'd changed her mind before a thought suddenly popped into her head.
"Wait a second, you weren't scheduled to come in, especially this early. Why did you come by?"
When Rose suddenly stopped talking, Clara raised an eyebrow at her. Somehow she didn't think, that Rose really didn't know what she wished. Clara had a feeling, that she just didn't want to talk about it. Maybe it had something to do with the Doctor? Rose always had that sad look on her face whenever he was mentioned and tried to change the subject as quickly as possible. Not that Clara couldn't understand that especially now that she remembered him. She only just started to remember, and she already did miss the Time Lord. How awful did it have to be for Rose, especially since they were in love? She wished she could tell Rose that she would get him back, but she knew that she couldn't. Foreknowledge of the future was dangerous. It could change events and alter the future, which in this case would be bad. No matter how many awful things she witnessed whilst travelling with the Doctor and their friends, Clara wouldn't want to change any of it, and she was sure Rose wouldn't want to change anything either, if she knew what was to come.
Pushing away her thoughts, Clara concentrated on Rose and her last question. She sighed. What was she supposed to say to that? She couldn't tell Rose the truth, could she? She nervously went back to the table and turned off the alarm that was still on, just so she had something to do.
"The important thing is that I came, isn't it?" she mumbled silently.
Rose eyed Clara suspiciously. If she didn't know any better, she'd have thought that Clara was hiding something but what and more importantly, why? Shaking her head, Rose mentally did a smack to the forehead. This was Clara she was talking about. Clara, who was super smart and often very scientific. Clara didn't know how to lie. Rose didn't know what made her think that.
"You're right, that is the important thing. Here's an even more important question though, how are we going to explain the mess," she said, waving her hands to the floor where her own blood still stuck to it like syrup. It was kinda freaking her out truth be told.
"I mean sure, I could tell Pe-- my father, that it was the alien device but then he'd shut the entire division down and we'd likely never get open again until there was a full scale invasion, if we were lucky, I mean. If it was vomit, although really gross, it would be much easier to clean up. Blood, however, I think leaves traces, no matter how much you clean it," she said finishing with a dramatic sigh and taking a seat on one of the stools.
Clara sighed in relief, when Rose didn't ask anymore questions. Then she glanced around, frowning. That really was a bloody mess.
"We could disappear and claim it wasn't us," she suggested half-heartedly and smirked slightly. That was totally what Angie and Artie would do. Not that it would do them any good, if they really decided to do it, since she had used her own ID card to enter the building and Rose surely did the same. Plus, an analysis of Rose's blood would probably reveal her identity as well, which would then raise questions of why she left.
"I think I'm getting too old for all of this. I never though I'd say that. Next I'm going to be saying something horrible and it's going to sound like my mum. Probably to my baby once it's born. Are you ever afraid of that?" Rose asked Clara, "Of becoming like your parents, you know, when you have kids one day, I mean."
Clara smiled slightly and shook her head. "No, I actually hope to be like my mom, when I have kids." Her mom was amazing... both versions of her actually; and she had gotten lucky. She was probably the only echo, who had had the chance to by raised by almost the same people as the original Clara. Living in an alternate reality, in about the same time as the real Clara, she had been born as the daughter of alternate versions of Ellie and Dave Oswald, and this time her mother hadn't died so young, in fact, she was still alive and well. Clara smiled at the thought. She would have to visit her as soon as possible!
Looking back at the room Clara shrugged. "I don't think we have much of a choice, when it comes to this mess. I raised the alarm, and even though I turned it off again, I am pretty sure that someone will be here any minute. Even if we tried cleaning up ourselves, I doubt we'd be done in time. And I don't think we should try and hide this. You were under the influence of something alien, and we both don't know how we survived the attack. We should get ourselves checked out by Torchwood doctors, especially you." She'd never forgive herself, if anything happened to Rose or the baby, just because she didn't make sure Rose went to a doctor!
Sadly, Clara was right, Rose thought. There was no way they were just going to be able to walk away from this easily. Even more importantly, she did need to get checked out by an actual doctor.
She was about to say something except nod when suddenly there was a lot of noise, what sounded like a lot of banging and footsteps and then a crash in the doorway.
Rose turned and there stood Mickey, with a big hulkin gun in his arms. Since they'd gotten stranded in this universe, Mickey had really changed. If she hadn't already given her heart to the Doctor, Rose might have thought about rekindling what once was there. Though she had heard rumors that he was in a relationship with some doctor now, but she wasn't sure and she thought it might be awkward to ask. In any case, since coming here, he had really 'manned up' for a lack of a better phrase.
"What the bloody hell is going on Rose?" Mickey asked, and because he was so concerned his tone was downright hostile.
When someone came bursting into the room Clara turned and smiled when she noticed that it was agent Smith. He was a good friend of Rose's, as far as she could tell, and would probably freak out any minute now with all the blood.
"We had a little trouble with something alien, but we're fine now, really," she tried to reassure him. "We should probably go see a doctor though, just as a precaution."
Mickey took in the room in one big sweep, the blood on the floor and then both women. He immediately went over to Rose's side.
"Are you sure you're alright, Rose? You have blood... all over you," he said, his eyes going to the sweater she had worn that used to be something resembling a cream color but was now drying a dark red.
Rose nodded, her hands going to cover Mickey's. "I'm fine, I promise, but like Clara said, we should probably both see a doctor to be safe. And I'd advise whoever did the preliminary report on this alien object, CODENAME: EGG, should most definitely be fired," she said, her voice hardening at the end. Whoever had made the report almost got her killed because of their inability to do their job.
Mickey kicked into gear, pulling his radio out and calling for a medical team.
"Just sit tight. A team will be here in five minutes. Course, Rose, you're still going to have to explain this to Jackie, you know..." he said trailing off.
Rose groaned, her head going to her forehead. She looked over at Clara. "I'm not sure if you've ever met my mum. She can be... a lot."
Mickey snickered. "That's one way of putting it."
Clara smirked. She had heard rumors about Jackie Tyler before. Apparently these two agreed with them.
"You could leave out the blood and almost dying part," she suggested. "Maybe the weird light, too."
Rose laughed. “That doesn't leave much left to the story then but I'll think of something. Maybe I can beg Pet- my dad to make up something official.”
Mickey watched the two, thinking he was going to get the real story from Pete either way. He'd have asked Rose himself, but he didn't want to upset her anymore than she already might be, especially with the baby. As the three waited, they heard more thundering of footsteps as people started coming through the door next to where Mickey was standing.
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