Crossover Fic: Lending a Hand (11/12), Firefly/Doctor Who
Title: Lending a hand (11/12)
Authors: goldy_dollar and hjea
Keywords/Pairings: Tenth Doctor and Rose, Ten/Rose, Firefly crew, Mal/Inara.
Disclaimer: We don’t own DW and/or Firefly. Please don’t sue. We are only poor university students.
Spoilers/Timeline: Doctor Who: Post-Fear Her, pre-AoG/Doomsday, Firefly: post-Serenity
Summary: Ten fixes a sink. Simon fixes Rose. Inara fixes Mal. And everyone lives happily-ever-after. Maybe.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2, 614
A/N: One chapter to go! This one is a little on the shippy side. Hey. They deserve it. :D
( Chapter One)( Chapter Two)( Chapter Three)( Chapter Four)( Chapter Five)( Chapter Six)( Chapter Seven)( Chapter Eight) ( Chapter Nine)( Chapter Ten)
Chapter Eleven
Mal watched the Doctor carefully.
He did not seem capable of sitting still. He rolled a pencil down the galley table, eyes peering over the edge to study the slope. After a pause, he bent over to fix the table’s legs with his blinking screwdriver. Then he moved to the cabinets, pushing up his glasses to study the broken pieces of china left behind by Serenity’s crash.
Mal rolled his eyes and decided to let him be. If this is what the Doctor needed to do to settle his nerves, Mal was not going to be the one to get in the way.
The rest of the crew appeared to be no worse for their stint in jail. Kaylee even got them flying again, and they were currently putting as much distance between themselves and that planet as possible.
Not that it mattered, Mal thought. Alliance was bound to keep coming.
“Mal.”
He looked up. It was Inara, gentle smile on her face. She looked proud of him.
“Hey,” he said. She was wearing a simple shirt and he noticed-a pair of loose fitting trousers. “Guess we ain’t been near your sort of world lately, huh?”
Her smile slipped. “No, we haven’t. But that’s… that’s fine.”
“That’s new.”
She gave him a pointed look. “Not that new,” she said, in a voice that intimated he hadn’t been paying close attention recently.
He decided to change the subject. “How’s she doing? Rose?”
“You know Simon,” said Inara. “I suspect she’ll be fine.”
Mal released a breath. “Good. That’s… good.”
He chanced a look behind him at the Doctor, who was on his back under the sink, evidently fixing the leak that had been plaguing them since the last time Serenity crashed.
Mal shook his head. “He keeps that up, ain’t going to be anything left for me to pay Kaylee to do.” Inara gave him a knowing smirk. “What?”
“Oh, nothing,” she said. “It’s just… you’ve known these people for only a day or so, and you already feel responsible for them.”
“Hey,” Mal said, not entirely certain why he was indignant. “Rose getting shot-that’s on account of us, dong ma? She’s just a kid. Got nothing to do with the Alliance.”
“You don’t have to defend yourself, Mal,” she said. “It’s who you are.”
“Yeah?” he said smugly. “That a compliment?”
She rolled her eyes. “This time.”
“How about you?” Mal said, looking her up and down. “First time in an Alliance jail. Don’t imagine this is the sort’a thing you signed up for.”
“Please,” Inara said. “Petty theft? Fighting for our lives? What do you think I was expecting?”
“Yeah, well,” he said. “Ain’t likely to change anytime soon. They keep coming. The Alliance. And it ain’t ever going to stop. That’s this life. We keep on... running until Alliance finally catches up to us.”
Her face softened, and she moved closer. Close enough so that when she raised her eyes to meet his, he had trouble breathing.
“What’s…” he trailed off and cleared his throat quite vehemently. “You’re…”
“I’m fairly certain,” she said, “if there’s anyone who could stubbornly elude the Alliance, it’d be you.”
“Huh,” he said.
“Of course,” Inara continued. “You do have an uncanny ability to irritate everyone you meet.”
“Yeah,” Mal said. “Personality flaw.”
“Hmm,” Inara agreed, but she didn’t look annoyed-far from it.
And she was standing all close to him like that.
Someone cleared their throat. Mal turned around to find the Doctor scratching the at the back of his neck.
“Um, hello,” said the Doctor. “Didn’t mean to interrupt.” He settled his gaze on Inara and turned serious. “How’s Rose?”
“Resting,” Inara said. “She’s… very strong.”
“Yes,” he said. And then he stood there, for once not seeming to know what to say.
“Could go and sit with her,” Mal said, and the Doctor’s gaze slowly drifted over to him. “You know, if you’re done patching up our kitchen.”
“I’m sure she’d like that,” Inara said.
The Doctor jammed his hands in his pockets and jerked his head. “That way?”
Mal nodded. The Doctor started off, but then stopped and turned back. “We’ll be on our way… soon as she’s awake. We’ll be off. Back in the TARDIS.”
Mal raised his eyebrows. “Fine.”
“Right,” said the Doctor. He turned, and then stopped again. “Not that…” his voice quieted. “Thank you, I should say. You didn’t have to help her, but you did.”
Mal held his gaze. “Yes, we did.”
The Doctor gave a slow nod, approving smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. He turned and started off again.
Mal watched him go. “He’s… a strange sort of person.”
Inara nodded. “Yes. Though this ship does seem to attract the sort.”
Mal allowed himself a brief chuckle. “Yeah, I’d have a hard time arguing with you on that.”
“You? Have a hard time arguing?” Inara raised both her eyebrows in mock surprise, and rested a hand on her hip, bunching her rather thin shirt, Mal couldn’t help but noticing, in an interesting and… alluring way.
He shook his head, just slightly, and then realized that Inara was waiting for him to respond, probably with some kind of biting remark of his own. Unfortunately, his brain let him down for once, so absorbed as it was in trying to follow the gently sweeping lines of Inara without her noticing.
Mal shrugged. “Um… yep.” He said lamely. Inara’s mouth twisted into something suspiciously smirk-like.
There was a brief pause, not wholly awkward, as Mal tore his eyes away from Inara and swept over the work that the Doctor had done in the room. He had to admit that it looked pretty good. Definitely a vast improvement from the chaos the crash had left and probably a sight better than it had been before, even.
“Mal?”
“Hmm?” He turned back to face Inara, and noticed that her smirk had been replaced by… something else. A gaze he wouldn’t mind being on the receiving end of more often.
She smiled gently and leaned forward even closer. “It’s been a long day, hasn’t it?”
He nodded, wondering where she was going with this. “That it has. Some new adventures for all of us.”
“And Serenity’s fine? There’s nothing else to do for tonight?”
Mal shook his head. “Nothing urgent I can think of that can’t wait ‘til morning.”
“Well then, if you don’t mind, I think I might retire to my shuttle.”
Mal shrugged again. “S’your choice Inara. I wouldn’t fault you for getting some shut-eye after a day like this.”
“Well…” Inara’s gaze dropped to the floor, and then slowly lifted until she was looking up at him through her lashes. “I’m not sure if I’ll fall asleep right away.”
Something clicked into place in Mal’s brain. He finally understood.
“Understandable.” Mal smiled back at her and leaned forward. “How about I join you for a bit? We could talk… more about the exciting things we learned today”
Inara pretended to consider it for a moment before nodding. “Yes, that would be lovely - if you don’t mind the late hour.”
“Not at all.” Mal smirked. “Maybe you could make me some tea.”
Inara blinked once but then smiled right back up at him.
***
As she led him to her shuttle, Mal reached out and just barely brushed the inside of her wrist. Inara didn’t look back, but her warm hand slipped into his own, tugging him to come along.
***
The first thing Rose saw when she opened her eyes was the Doctor rearranging the infirmary’s medicine cabinets. She had to blink twice, certain she was imagining things-but, no, he was still there.
“Doctor?”
It felt like there was a lump of coal lodged in her throat and she swallowed hard before trying again.
“Uh, Doctor… what are you doing?”
He spun around, syringe held incriminatingly in his hands. “Rose!” he said, grinning. “You’re awake.”
He blinked down at the syringe in his hands as if surprised to find it there-and then shrugged and tossed it over his shoulder. Rose winced at the ensuing crash.
He moved forward and then stopped. “No, wait, I should get the doctor-not me, mind you, the other one-oh, you know who I mean.”
He looked so torn that Rose smiled, propping herself up on her elbows as far as possible. “Nah, think I’ll live.”
That was as much encouragement as he needed. He was by her side in an instant, drawing her into a fierce, bone crushing hug.
She let out a muffled “oof” and he loosened his grip, but held onto her. Small pains shot up and down her side, but she smiled into his shoulder.
He pulled away, but leaned down close to her. “How are you feeling?”
“Better now,” she said. “Bit sore, I suppose.”
He pointed to her stomach. “There?”
She nodded. “Yep.”
He dug around in his pockets for the sonic screwdriver, emerging with it with a vague, “Aha!’
He fumbled with the settings and then he moved it over the body, watching her face closely. “Hmm? What about now?”
A pleasant warmth shot through her belly, and she bit her lip to hold down her smile. “Show-off.”
“Time Lord.”
“What, that makes it okay, then?”
The Doctor hmmed vaguely to himself, and changed the settings on the screwdriver. He continued moving it up and down her body, frowning deeply. Rose felt oddly calm, despite the circumstances.
She caught the Doctor’s eyes and smiled. “I got shot.”
He raised his eyebrows slightly, but didn’t answer.
“Never been shot before,” Rose continued. “Had my face sucked out once, though. Remember that?”
“Yes,” said the Doctor evenly. “And that-that I understand. Aliens I can handle. But people? Idiots. Amateurs-putting guns in the hands of people who think that makes them god.”
“He didn’t mean to shoot me,” Rose said. “Just… just happened, is all.”
The Doctor shut off the screwdriver and said tersely, “He’s lucky he didn’t kill you. If I’d lost you, I…”
“Don’t say that,” Rose said gently. “Doctor… everything turned out okay in the end, didn’t it?”
He stared at her for a moment, and then said, “Lift your shirt.”
Rose sighed and complied. She wiggled slightly as he bent over to inspect Simon’s handiwork. There was a thick line of gauze wrapped around her stomach, but Rose suspected she would be sporting a nasty looking bruise for a while at least.
The Doctor turned on the sonic screwdriver again. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“What doesn’t?” Rose said.
“This blast-it wasn’t meant to kill you.”
“Well, that’s good, yeah?” Rose said. She pushed her shirt back down, and then said, “No, hang on… they thought I was part of the crew.”
“Which means they wanted them alive,” the Doctor said. “Very much alive, if my readings are correct, and they usually are. What does the Alliance want with a small crew of petty criminals? Hardly even worth a basic police raid, are they?”
“Hold on-” Rose said, attempting to sit up straighter and wincing. “Back in town, when I was in jail, I heard the guards talking. They said… something about the Alliance-that they haven’t been the same. Not since… Miranda.”
She saw understanding dawn in the Doctor’s eyes. “Yes,” he whispered. “No, no, no, no-it can’t be.”
“What?” Rose said. “What is it?”
“But it all makes sense now,” the Doctor whispered. “Everything-why the TARDIS would choose them. Don’t you see who they are?”
“Uh,” Rose said. “From twenty-first century, me. Remember? Not exactly up on all my future history. ‘Cause it’s the future.”
The Doctor got that vaguely irritated look he sometimes got when he realized she couldn’t recite string theory aloud.
“Well, are you gonna tell me or what?” Rose said. “Who are they?”
“They started the revolution, Rose,” the Doctor said. “The start of the first Great and Bountiful Human Empire. End of the Alliance, dawn of a new era. Casting off the chains and looking forward to a freer, more inclusive future.” The Doctor paused. “Well, when I say freer, I do mean in the future. Reckon this lot won’t even be around to see it change, but they started it, Rose. Unintentionally, maybe. But that’s how history works. One single, simple event can affect millions.”
“Well, that’s great!” Rose said. “So what’d they do?”
“Either they… rescued someone called Miranda, or revealed something about her,” the Doctor said, scratching his chin. “No, that’s not right. When was the last time I was even in this century?” He scratched his chin. “Fifth incarnation-no, third? Blimey, gets to be a blur sometimes. What’s your name again?”
She rolled her eyes. “You could ask them.”
“What?” said the Doctor, stung at her insinuation that he might be rusty on his history. “It’ll come to me. Just… just give me a moment.”
Rose muffled a yawn. “Could’ve been a dog, for all I know.”
“A dog!” the Doctor said. Then he shook his head. “No, that doesn’t sound right.”
They turned at the sound of footsteps, and Simon entered the infirmary. He shot the Doctor an accusing look when he saw that Rose was awake.
“You should have called me immediately.”
“Well,” said the Doctor, scratching at the back of his neck. “I checked her over with the sonic screwdriver. She was… I was…”
He was distracted by River, who glided in behind her brother and was busy mouthing words at him.
“What? Scuba-diving… cross-country skiing… canoeing in the Arctic-” River stopped and rolled her eyes at him. “Oh!” said the Doctor. “A planet! A planet-that’s right.”
“A planet?” said Rose, as Simon stuck a thermometer in her mouth. She resisted the urge to gag.
“You know,” said the Doctor, gesturing vaguely. “That… thing that we were just discussing.”
“Oomf,” Rose mumbled around the thermometer.
The Doctor pondered his newest piece of information quietly. “Brilliant. Well, completely stupid, I should say, but still brilliant.” He nodded. “I ought to find the Captain and hug him.”
Rose spat out the thermometer. “Uh, Doctor, I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”
“Yeah,” said Simon. “Mal’s not really-I mean, he’d likely punch you.”
The Doctor looked wounded, but then he perked up. “In that case, I suppose me and the sonic could have a bit of a look at the Alliance database.” He dug out the screwdriver and twirled it around in one hand. “What do you say, Doctor Tam? Tired of being a fugitive?”
“You can do that?” said Rose. “But won’t it-I dunno, mess up their personal timeline?”
“No,” said the Doctor. He paused. “Probably not. Maybe. You know what? Doesn’t matter. Where’s Kaylee?”
Simon looked a little stunned. “Um-bridge, I think,” he said. “But you can do that? Make it so… River and I are no longer fugitives?”
“Yep,” said the Doctor. “Wipe the entire system clear. No mention of any ship named Serenity.”
“Well, that would be… I mean, that would…” Simon trailed off, and made a show of studying Rose’s thermometer.
“He’s trying to say ‘thank you,’” River supplied. She idly rifled through the mess the Doctor had left behind when he rummaged through Simon’s cabinets.
Rose grinned and leaned over Simon’s shoulder. “How do I look, doc?”
“You’re fine,” said the Doctor cheerfully. Simon shot him a look. “Oh, right, sorry. Not me.”
Simon swallowed and said, “You’re fine.”
“Excellent,” said the Doctor. He bounded over to Rose and leaned down to give her a chaste kiss on the forehead. “Get some rest. I’ll see you soon.”
Authors: goldy_dollar and hjea
Keywords/Pairings: Tenth Doctor and Rose, Ten/Rose, Firefly crew, Mal/Inara.
Disclaimer: We don’t own DW and/or Firefly. Please don’t sue. We are only poor university students.
Spoilers/Timeline: Doctor Who: Post-Fear Her, pre-AoG/Doomsday, Firefly: post-Serenity
Summary: Ten fixes a sink. Simon fixes Rose. Inara fixes Mal. And everyone lives happily-ever-after. Maybe.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2, 614
A/N: One chapter to go! This one is a little on the shippy side. Hey. They deserve it. :D
( Chapter One)( Chapter Two)( Chapter Three)( Chapter Four)( Chapter Five)( Chapter Six)( Chapter Seven)( Chapter Eight) ( Chapter Nine)( Chapter Ten)
Chapter Eleven
Mal watched the Doctor carefully.
He did not seem capable of sitting still. He rolled a pencil down the galley table, eyes peering over the edge to study the slope. After a pause, he bent over to fix the table’s legs with his blinking screwdriver. Then he moved to the cabinets, pushing up his glasses to study the broken pieces of china left behind by Serenity’s crash.
Mal rolled his eyes and decided to let him be. If this is what the Doctor needed to do to settle his nerves, Mal was not going to be the one to get in the way.
The rest of the crew appeared to be no worse for their stint in jail. Kaylee even got them flying again, and they were currently putting as much distance between themselves and that planet as possible.
Not that it mattered, Mal thought. Alliance was bound to keep coming.
“Mal.”
He looked up. It was Inara, gentle smile on her face. She looked proud of him.
“Hey,” he said. She was wearing a simple shirt and he noticed-a pair of loose fitting trousers. “Guess we ain’t been near your sort of world lately, huh?”
Her smile slipped. “No, we haven’t. But that’s… that’s fine.”
“That’s new.”
She gave him a pointed look. “Not that new,” she said, in a voice that intimated he hadn’t been paying close attention recently.
He decided to change the subject. “How’s she doing? Rose?”
“You know Simon,” said Inara. “I suspect she’ll be fine.”
Mal released a breath. “Good. That’s… good.”
He chanced a look behind him at the Doctor, who was on his back under the sink, evidently fixing the leak that had been plaguing them since the last time Serenity crashed.
Mal shook his head. “He keeps that up, ain’t going to be anything left for me to pay Kaylee to do.” Inara gave him a knowing smirk. “What?”
“Oh, nothing,” she said. “It’s just… you’ve known these people for only a day or so, and you already feel responsible for them.”
“Hey,” Mal said, not entirely certain why he was indignant. “Rose getting shot-that’s on account of us, dong ma? She’s just a kid. Got nothing to do with the Alliance.”
“You don’t have to defend yourself, Mal,” she said. “It’s who you are.”
“Yeah?” he said smugly. “That a compliment?”
She rolled her eyes. “This time.”
“How about you?” Mal said, looking her up and down. “First time in an Alliance jail. Don’t imagine this is the sort’a thing you signed up for.”
“Please,” Inara said. “Petty theft? Fighting for our lives? What do you think I was expecting?”
“Yeah, well,” he said. “Ain’t likely to change anytime soon. They keep coming. The Alliance. And it ain’t ever going to stop. That’s this life. We keep on... running until Alliance finally catches up to us.”
Her face softened, and she moved closer. Close enough so that when she raised her eyes to meet his, he had trouble breathing.
“What’s…” he trailed off and cleared his throat quite vehemently. “You’re…”
“I’m fairly certain,” she said, “if there’s anyone who could stubbornly elude the Alliance, it’d be you.”
“Huh,” he said.
“Of course,” Inara continued. “You do have an uncanny ability to irritate everyone you meet.”
“Yeah,” Mal said. “Personality flaw.”
“Hmm,” Inara agreed, but she didn’t look annoyed-far from it.
And she was standing all close to him like that.
Someone cleared their throat. Mal turned around to find the Doctor scratching the at the back of his neck.
“Um, hello,” said the Doctor. “Didn’t mean to interrupt.” He settled his gaze on Inara and turned serious. “How’s Rose?”
“Resting,” Inara said. “She’s… very strong.”
“Yes,” he said. And then he stood there, for once not seeming to know what to say.
“Could go and sit with her,” Mal said, and the Doctor’s gaze slowly drifted over to him. “You know, if you’re done patching up our kitchen.”
“I’m sure she’d like that,” Inara said.
The Doctor jammed his hands in his pockets and jerked his head. “That way?”
Mal nodded. The Doctor started off, but then stopped and turned back. “We’ll be on our way… soon as she’s awake. We’ll be off. Back in the TARDIS.”
Mal raised his eyebrows. “Fine.”
“Right,” said the Doctor. He turned, and then stopped again. “Not that…” his voice quieted. “Thank you, I should say. You didn’t have to help her, but you did.”
Mal held his gaze. “Yes, we did.”
The Doctor gave a slow nod, approving smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. He turned and started off again.
Mal watched him go. “He’s… a strange sort of person.”
Inara nodded. “Yes. Though this ship does seem to attract the sort.”
Mal allowed himself a brief chuckle. “Yeah, I’d have a hard time arguing with you on that.”
“You? Have a hard time arguing?” Inara raised both her eyebrows in mock surprise, and rested a hand on her hip, bunching her rather thin shirt, Mal couldn’t help but noticing, in an interesting and… alluring way.
He shook his head, just slightly, and then realized that Inara was waiting for him to respond, probably with some kind of biting remark of his own. Unfortunately, his brain let him down for once, so absorbed as it was in trying to follow the gently sweeping lines of Inara without her noticing.
Mal shrugged. “Um… yep.” He said lamely. Inara’s mouth twisted into something suspiciously smirk-like.
There was a brief pause, not wholly awkward, as Mal tore his eyes away from Inara and swept over the work that the Doctor had done in the room. He had to admit that it looked pretty good. Definitely a vast improvement from the chaos the crash had left and probably a sight better than it had been before, even.
“Mal?”
“Hmm?” He turned back to face Inara, and noticed that her smirk had been replaced by… something else. A gaze he wouldn’t mind being on the receiving end of more often.
She smiled gently and leaned forward even closer. “It’s been a long day, hasn’t it?”
He nodded, wondering where she was going with this. “That it has. Some new adventures for all of us.”
“And Serenity’s fine? There’s nothing else to do for tonight?”
Mal shook his head. “Nothing urgent I can think of that can’t wait ‘til morning.”
“Well then, if you don’t mind, I think I might retire to my shuttle.”
Mal shrugged again. “S’your choice Inara. I wouldn’t fault you for getting some shut-eye after a day like this.”
“Well…” Inara’s gaze dropped to the floor, and then slowly lifted until she was looking up at him through her lashes. “I’m not sure if I’ll fall asleep right away.”
Something clicked into place in Mal’s brain. He finally understood.
“Understandable.” Mal smiled back at her and leaned forward. “How about I join you for a bit? We could talk… more about the exciting things we learned today”
Inara pretended to consider it for a moment before nodding. “Yes, that would be lovely - if you don’t mind the late hour.”
“Not at all.” Mal smirked. “Maybe you could make me some tea.”
Inara blinked once but then smiled right back up at him.
***
As she led him to her shuttle, Mal reached out and just barely brushed the inside of her wrist. Inara didn’t look back, but her warm hand slipped into his own, tugging him to come along.
***
The first thing Rose saw when she opened her eyes was the Doctor rearranging the infirmary’s medicine cabinets. She had to blink twice, certain she was imagining things-but, no, he was still there.
“Doctor?”
It felt like there was a lump of coal lodged in her throat and she swallowed hard before trying again.
“Uh, Doctor… what are you doing?”
He spun around, syringe held incriminatingly in his hands. “Rose!” he said, grinning. “You’re awake.”
He blinked down at the syringe in his hands as if surprised to find it there-and then shrugged and tossed it over his shoulder. Rose winced at the ensuing crash.
He moved forward and then stopped. “No, wait, I should get the doctor-not me, mind you, the other one-oh, you know who I mean.”
He looked so torn that Rose smiled, propping herself up on her elbows as far as possible. “Nah, think I’ll live.”
That was as much encouragement as he needed. He was by her side in an instant, drawing her into a fierce, bone crushing hug.
She let out a muffled “oof” and he loosened his grip, but held onto her. Small pains shot up and down her side, but she smiled into his shoulder.
He pulled away, but leaned down close to her. “How are you feeling?”
“Better now,” she said. “Bit sore, I suppose.”
He pointed to her stomach. “There?”
She nodded. “Yep.”
He dug around in his pockets for the sonic screwdriver, emerging with it with a vague, “Aha!’
He fumbled with the settings and then he moved it over the body, watching her face closely. “Hmm? What about now?”
A pleasant warmth shot through her belly, and she bit her lip to hold down her smile. “Show-off.”
“Time Lord.”
“What, that makes it okay, then?”
The Doctor hmmed vaguely to himself, and changed the settings on the screwdriver. He continued moving it up and down her body, frowning deeply. Rose felt oddly calm, despite the circumstances.
She caught the Doctor’s eyes and smiled. “I got shot.”
He raised his eyebrows slightly, but didn’t answer.
“Never been shot before,” Rose continued. “Had my face sucked out once, though. Remember that?”
“Yes,” said the Doctor evenly. “And that-that I understand. Aliens I can handle. But people? Idiots. Amateurs-putting guns in the hands of people who think that makes them god.”
“He didn’t mean to shoot me,” Rose said. “Just… just happened, is all.”
The Doctor shut off the screwdriver and said tersely, “He’s lucky he didn’t kill you. If I’d lost you, I…”
“Don’t say that,” Rose said gently. “Doctor… everything turned out okay in the end, didn’t it?”
He stared at her for a moment, and then said, “Lift your shirt.”
Rose sighed and complied. She wiggled slightly as he bent over to inspect Simon’s handiwork. There was a thick line of gauze wrapped around her stomach, but Rose suspected she would be sporting a nasty looking bruise for a while at least.
The Doctor turned on the sonic screwdriver again. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“What doesn’t?” Rose said.
“This blast-it wasn’t meant to kill you.”
“Well, that’s good, yeah?” Rose said. She pushed her shirt back down, and then said, “No, hang on… they thought I was part of the crew.”
“Which means they wanted them alive,” the Doctor said. “Very much alive, if my readings are correct, and they usually are. What does the Alliance want with a small crew of petty criminals? Hardly even worth a basic police raid, are they?”
“Hold on-” Rose said, attempting to sit up straighter and wincing. “Back in town, when I was in jail, I heard the guards talking. They said… something about the Alliance-that they haven’t been the same. Not since… Miranda.”
She saw understanding dawn in the Doctor’s eyes. “Yes,” he whispered. “No, no, no, no-it can’t be.”
“What?” Rose said. “What is it?”
“But it all makes sense now,” the Doctor whispered. “Everything-why the TARDIS would choose them. Don’t you see who they are?”
“Uh,” Rose said. “From twenty-first century, me. Remember? Not exactly up on all my future history. ‘Cause it’s the future.”
The Doctor got that vaguely irritated look he sometimes got when he realized she couldn’t recite string theory aloud.
“Well, are you gonna tell me or what?” Rose said. “Who are they?”
“They started the revolution, Rose,” the Doctor said. “The start of the first Great and Bountiful Human Empire. End of the Alliance, dawn of a new era. Casting off the chains and looking forward to a freer, more inclusive future.” The Doctor paused. “Well, when I say freer, I do mean in the future. Reckon this lot won’t even be around to see it change, but they started it, Rose. Unintentionally, maybe. But that’s how history works. One single, simple event can affect millions.”
“Well, that’s great!” Rose said. “So what’d they do?”
“Either they… rescued someone called Miranda, or revealed something about her,” the Doctor said, scratching his chin. “No, that’s not right. When was the last time I was even in this century?” He scratched his chin. “Fifth incarnation-no, third? Blimey, gets to be a blur sometimes. What’s your name again?”
She rolled her eyes. “You could ask them.”
“What?” said the Doctor, stung at her insinuation that he might be rusty on his history. “It’ll come to me. Just… just give me a moment.”
Rose muffled a yawn. “Could’ve been a dog, for all I know.”
“A dog!” the Doctor said. Then he shook his head. “No, that doesn’t sound right.”
They turned at the sound of footsteps, and Simon entered the infirmary. He shot the Doctor an accusing look when he saw that Rose was awake.
“You should have called me immediately.”
“Well,” said the Doctor, scratching at the back of his neck. “I checked her over with the sonic screwdriver. She was… I was…”
He was distracted by River, who glided in behind her brother and was busy mouthing words at him.
“What? Scuba-diving… cross-country skiing… canoeing in the Arctic-” River stopped and rolled her eyes at him. “Oh!” said the Doctor. “A planet! A planet-that’s right.”
“A planet?” said Rose, as Simon stuck a thermometer in her mouth. She resisted the urge to gag.
“You know,” said the Doctor, gesturing vaguely. “That… thing that we were just discussing.”
“Oomf,” Rose mumbled around the thermometer.
The Doctor pondered his newest piece of information quietly. “Brilliant. Well, completely stupid, I should say, but still brilliant.” He nodded. “I ought to find the Captain and hug him.”
Rose spat out the thermometer. “Uh, Doctor, I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”
“Yeah,” said Simon. “Mal’s not really-I mean, he’d likely punch you.”
The Doctor looked wounded, but then he perked up. “In that case, I suppose me and the sonic could have a bit of a look at the Alliance database.” He dug out the screwdriver and twirled it around in one hand. “What do you say, Doctor Tam? Tired of being a fugitive?”
“You can do that?” said Rose. “But won’t it-I dunno, mess up their personal timeline?”
“No,” said the Doctor. He paused. “Probably not. Maybe. You know what? Doesn’t matter. Where’s Kaylee?”
Simon looked a little stunned. “Um-bridge, I think,” he said. “But you can do that? Make it so… River and I are no longer fugitives?”
“Yep,” said the Doctor. “Wipe the entire system clear. No mention of any ship named Serenity.”
“Well, that would be… I mean, that would…” Simon trailed off, and made a show of studying Rose’s thermometer.
“He’s trying to say ‘thank you,’” River supplied. She idly rifled through the mess the Doctor had left behind when he rummaged through Simon’s cabinets.
Rose grinned and leaned over Simon’s shoulder. “How do I look, doc?”
“You’re fine,” said the Doctor cheerfully. Simon shot him a look. “Oh, right, sorry. Not me.”
Simon swallowed and said, “You’re fine.”
“Excellent,” said the Doctor. He bounded over to Rose and leaned down to give her a chaste kiss on the forehead. “Get some rest. I’ll see you soon.”