Echoes of Summer - Chapter Thirty-Three: Summer in Those Eyes
Disclaimer: Neither Doctor Who nor any characters, items or materials of any kind pertaining to Doctor Who or the Whoniverse belong to me. I’m just looking for a good time. Hee. Trying them out for a bit, see how they fit.
Plot Summary: He was left with his lips against her jaw, her figure pressed to him as if she belonged there. One of many moments between the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler after he breaks his own rules to retrieve her from Bad Wolf Bay. The walls between worlds begin to fall, two different realities merging. And on the horizon a threat rises that threatens to destroy everything the Doctor holds dear.
Pairing: Ten/Rose
Beta: bratflorida
Rating: Starts at PG. Runs the gamut straight through to NC-17.
Spoilers: Oh yes. Series One through Series 4 Specials.
Timeline: AU after the end of Series 2. Spoilers up to, including and going past Series 4 though. I’ve seen all of Series 1 through 4, including the series 4 specials but am not very familiar with the Classic Who much. As such, if I happen to include anything that really touches upon Classic Who, other than it being unintentional, I’ll be surprised out of my head. Really. You’ll probably see a lot of familiar things in the fic that play into the series of DW. Bear with me, it all ties in together.
Chapter Thirty-Three - Summer in Those Eyes:
“You want me to just leave you?!” the young woman demanded, her hand holding his tightly as he ran ahead of her, yanking her along behind. “Dad, stop! I’m not going to leave you!”
“You have to,” he said to her through gritted teeth, coming to a stop at the end of the TARDIS corridor and looking around quickly. A frown crossed his forehead as he grimaced, searching the hallways in question. “What? This isn’t-“
“Stop and talk to me!” his daughter cried as they both hesitated, gazing at him pleadingly as he looked left then right, his free hand lifting to run through his wild hair in panic.
“She’s changing it,” he whispered huskily under his breath, eyes wide as he examined the corridors branching off from the main hallway they were in. Left and right. “S-she’s changing the layout of the TARDIS. We’re running in circles-“
“What are we going to do?” she asked from beside him, now looking back and forth as well. “That’s back the way we came,” she uttered, pointing to their right. She turned and looked back over her shoulder to see the exact same coral corridor behind her as well, her figure coming to a stiff stop. “That’s-“
“Not impossible,” he cut her off even as she went to say it. “Highly improbable. But not impossible. Not for her.” Seeing the sudden movement behind his daughter, the Doctor dragged her back, yanking her behind his frame protectively.
She was at the foot of the corridor.
Looking toward their right he encountered the same corridor and the same glowing woman at the foot of that hallway as well.
Seeing her to their right, his daughter jumped and let out a small squeak of surprise, recoiling up against the Doctor. “How is she-“
Wordlessly, the Doctor turned left and bolted, hauling the girl after him. Stumbling at the sudden movement she quickly righted herself and ran, following closely, their hands caught together. He was breathing hard, heaving almost, but not from exertion.
It was falling apart, here and now.
“I’m not leaving you,” his daughter called out as they made it to the end and out into another long, gold-lit hallway. “Do you hear me?”
“Jenny, we have to find a way to get you out first before we can fuss and moan about it,” he rapped out sharply, coming to a stop and feeling her stumble into him from behind. Wordlessly, panic looming ever closer, he lifted his free hand to the wall beside him, splaying his fingers against the coral.
Help me, he pleaded mentally.
She had said that once to him. Once upon a time, during his regenerative cycle when his former body had perished from absorbing the time vortex, a golden-haired girl had asked him for help. When the pilotfish had arrived and the Christmas tree had come to life dangerously, she had asked for his help at his bedside and he had given it, even in his weakened state.
Now he asked it of the TARDIS.
The golden woman appeared behind them a moment later, at the foot of the corridor they had just left, and his daughter backed up into him, pointing shakily. “Dad…”
Closing his eyes against the underlying fear in his daughter’s voice, he asked once more silently, reaching out to the TARDIS with his thoughts.
Help me.
A shift raced down the entire hallway, golden light flaring and flashing. Opening his eyes, he waited, feeling the change sweep toward him and past them both, his daughter pressed to his back, still looking down the corridor at the woman.
“Run,” he ordered his daughter and she looked back toward him then around him, suddenly aware that the corridor before them had changed, warped. Now standing midway down a completely different hallway, they took off once more, nearing the head of the corridor and the doorway that lead to the console room.
“She’s still following,” she said to him frantically, looking back over her shoulder reluctantly. And sure enough the woman had turned the corner and was on their heels, almost floating. “Dad, she’s glowing-“
“Never mind that,” he cut her off quickly and they burst through the doorway, the Doctor slamming the door shut behind them. Releasing his daughter’s hand, he dug through his pocket and pulled forth his sonic screwdriver, tossing it to her as he made for the controls. “Secure that door!” He shouted back to her and he turned to find himself heading up the ramp toward the console, the blue core pale and dim. The TARDIS had been weakened, stripped of pieces of her heart and he could sense her straining. He almost felt the sting of tears then as he heard the phone box’s mental voice from far off but he quickly blinked them away a moment later. No time for that. “It’s not going to stop her,” he called back to his daughter. “But it will give me enough time to-“ And he broke off, unwilling to say what he was about to do. Yanking the monitor to face him as he reached the console, he immediately began inputting coordinates. “Please. Please, please, please.”
Hearing the quiet buzz of the screwdriver in the background, he tapped furiously at the keyboard, scanning the data that came up at his command. The phone box was sluggish. She had absorbed the majority of the TARDIS heart, leaving very little with which to operate the TARDIS itself. It was expected.
No. That was wrong, he reflected suddenly. And it took all of his reserve not to stumble at the console then and there in misery. He hadn’t expected it. Not at all. Even after everything, everything he had been told and everything that had happened before him, he hadn’t expected this.
“Got it!” his daughter cried to him triumphantly, snapping him back to attention. And as he made himself move once more, the core of the TARDIS began to sound, the blue central column beginning to lift and fall slowly. His daughter managed a step when a sharp crack sounded from the door leading back to the corridors, sparks exploding and fizzing.
“Jenny!” he shouted, whirling toward her.
“I’m fine! I’m fine!” she called to him, staggering away and stopping to stare at the door. “What is she…is she trying to break through the door?” she questioned her father in disbelief.
“Wait by the front door!” he ordered her, motioning toward the front doors of the TARDIS as he spun back around to the console.
She ignored his command, climbing up beside him at the controls. “I’m not leaving you,” she repeated once more, her face firm. “Do you hear me? I’m not leaving you! Don’t ask me to-”
“I’m not asking, Jenny,” he retorted just as stiffly. “Humor your father and stand by that door!”
She stared at him for a long moment as he flicked knobs and toggled switches, silent. And he stopped when he realized she wasn’t moving, hunching over the console to support himself and then look at her pointedly. Staring at him, searching his eyes, she opened her mouth to say something. And a moment later, she merely shut it, her shoulders slumping wearily. Turning, she took a step toward the TARDIS doors.
Taking hold of her suddenly, he pulled her back into a tight embrace, long arms wrapping around her and holding her to him. She immediately hugged him in return, burying her face into his chest and holding on to him for dear life.
“I’ll give you as much time as I can,” he said to her quietly as another burst sounded from the sealed door behind them.
“I don’t think I can do this alone,” she whispered, her words muffled against his chest.
“Yes, you can,” he stated firmly and he pulled back enough to lift both hands to her face, grasping her between his palms and seeing himself in her. There was so very little resemblance between them but in that moment, she was all of him in a small, trembling package. “You know what to do. She’ll follow after you once she’s done with me. But she won’t chance an encounter with herself. The same way I can’t chance an encounter with myself. And I can’t send you back any earlier than I am now, not without crossing timelines and mucking everything up.”
She gazed at her father, at his wild hair and wilder expressions. “It wasn’t for nothing,” she said to him thickly, needing him to know. “Everyone who went before me…it wasn’t for nothing, what they did.”
He shook his head at that, his face tight and gaunt. “I never believed it was. Not for one moment.”
The TARDIS suddenly knocked roughly, throwing them off balance and he looked back at the console just as a third bang came from the door behind them. “We’re here. Get to that door. Now! Quickly!” he ordered and he shoved her away from him, turning his full attention to the console.
She did so, whirling and scrambling around the console and down the ramp just as the back door burst open, pieces of metal flying and screeching as it was bent and warped by a powerful golden light. The TARDIS let loose a high-pitched shriek at the destruction, red light suddenly flaring from the core, the cloister bell chiming in imminent danger.
“Dad!” Jenny screamed as the Doctor whirled to face the woman who floated into the console room of the TARDIS.
Turning to look back toward her he gestured violently. “Go!”
And as she turned to open the doors the golden woman lifted her hand, waving it blindly at the TARDIS doors.
“No!” the Doctor shouted and he darted in front of her as gold light snaked up the doors of the TARDIS and flashed.
Eyes widening, Jenny threw herself at the doors and yanked frantically as they held, as the golden light flared powerfully against her.
“After everything, I will create myself still,” the woman whispered to him, her glowing eyes almost saddened by the sight of the Doctor standing before her.
He held stiffly for a moment, settling himself and closing his eyes.
Fight her. You are mine. You belong to me.
As the TARDIS whimpered softly in agreement he turned to look over his shoulder at his daughter, slowly lifting his hand. And he snapped his fingers.
The doors of the TARDIS burst open outward, golden light sparking, hinges snapping almost painfully by the mere sound of them. Jenny found herself looking out into daylight, staggering as she realized the TARDIS hovered over solid ground at an angle. With a cry, losing her balance, she fell out through the doors, crashing roughly to hard cement. Caught off guard, she whirled onto her rear and sat up, looking up into the core of the TARDIS, the time machine hovering before her. And she was witness to it, just as her father snapped his fingers once more, turning his attention to the woman before him. She caught sight of the woman as she waved a hand at the TARDIS console, as red light poured from the core like blood from a gash, gnarled wiring and coral springing from the console itself.
With a hard slam the doors shut once more on its broken hinges, blocking her view from her father and vanishing, leaving her in heaving silence in an alley in past London.
Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor stared as the golden woman faced him once more, her expression explaining it all to him. She was going to go after Jenny after she was done with him, it was just a matter of time. All he’d done was delay her. Lifting his head, he hesitated, his hearts pounding as he realized what was happening. He felt fear spike as the TARDIS began to shift around him in blood-red light, as he lost her ethereal voice in his head.
“Everything dies,” the woman said to him faintly, her voice ghostly. And he did not mistake the sadness that was at the very core of her eyes.
Turning back to the woman before him, the Doctor finally agreed with her. “Yes,” he uttered wearily, gazing into those eyes that betrayed summer.
Next Chapter - Chapter Thirty-Four: The Last Visit:
The TARDIS had vanished almost the same moment it had deposited her out on the sidewalk. Wherever her father had gone, he was taking the fight away from London and away from that current time. But somewhere in this city Rose Tyler and the past Doctor were together, oblivious to everything that was happening further down their timeline.