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5 Times the Doctor and Rose got caught out in a snowstorm....(and one time they didn't.), Ten/Rose, Ten II/Rose, R.
“It’s like the stars are falling.” She whispers, because somehow in the silence of the snowflakes, speaking loudly seems wrong. Like they’re in a giant library at the heart of a kingdom made of ice, and she doesn’t want to be told off for shouting. 2, 163 words.
(spoilers for "The End of Time" and anything before then. Lyrics in italics belong to Bon Iver.)
Five Times the Doctor and Rose got caught out in a snowstorm...
1.
There’s a pull to the glow, my feet melt the snow
For the irony, I’d rather know.
They’re holidaying on a seaside planet-that is to say, the entire planet consists of one long stretch of land that runs between two large oceans-when it snows. And Rose says it’s typical as she and the Doctor take shelter in a building made completely of glass.
They’re there for nearly ten minutes before The Doctor spots the first local strutting through the blizzard in the alien equivalent of shorts and t-shirts. He frowns as Rose too notices him.
“Do they feel the cold?”
“Yes, or at least they should do… That is, assuming that it’s cold at all.”
“It’s snow. It’s frozen water, of course it’s cold.”
“Well...”
The Doctor opens the door, and as tiny flurries of snow fall into the doorway they bring with them warmth. Warmth the Doctor certainly feels as he steps outside into the storm. He beckons Rose forward and she stands amazed, staring up at the skies expulsion of warm snow.
“Well? Aren’t you going to stand there and explain everything in one breath?” She smiles, intrigued and the Doctor stalks closer to her. He brushes the un-melting flakes out of her blonde locks and smiles.
“Not yet.” He whispers, placing a kiss on her cheek just where a snowflake had sat idly by. They hold hands and run through the blizzard, leaving their scarves in their wake as they head for the shore.
They sit on a snow-covered beach barefoot, staring at the glimmering sea with ice cream cones in their hands. Rose thinks she has cosmopolitan flavour. It has a lot more pop, and just like the snow, it’s warm too. The Doctor has vanilla. He rants about people wanting too much and never being satisfied with the wonderful simplicity of plain vanilla-until he finds it has a strange caramel-fudge centre and he sits content with this unexpected delight.
2.
All my love was down in a frozen ground.
They’re in London. Though really, it’s something like the nineteenth re-incarnation of the city, far off into the future, and yet, it’s a near perfect replica of London as Rose knows it.
“You people and nostalgia...” The Doctor would mutter whenever they came across a ‘vintage’ shop that to Rose was just a normal shop.
The snow started falling while they were on the tube, and they hadn’t expected the wintery landscape that lay before them.
“I knew I should have checked the forecast of this planet...” The Doctor says, nudging Rose to follow him through the blizzard. Within seconds the bottoms of her jeans are soaked through and her trainers are filled with freezing cold puddles. She can’t stop shivering as they run through the clean white streets, following the billows of the Doctor’s long brown coat.
They buy two colourful umbrellas and head towards the Houses of Parliament. Big Ben (the nineteenth) chimes above as the city falls silent under the weight of the snow.
“Our own personal playground!” The Doctor grins spinning around under the streetlamps, stopping only to splutter in response to Rose having thrown a large snowball at him.
“Oi! That hurt.”
“Oh don’t be such a ba-OW! That hurt!”
They keep fighting-keep hurtling snowballs at one another until their feet give our and they fall to the ground together, exhausted, laughing and staring up at the falling snow.
“It’s like travelling at light-speed in Star Wars.” The Doctor laughs, and swallows a hundred tiny, tiny flecks of snow in the process.
“It’s like the stars are falling.” Rose whispers, because somehow in the silence of the snowflakes, speaking loudly seems wrong. Like they’re in a giant library at the heart of a kingdom made of ice and she doesn’t want to be told off for shouting.
“I can take you to places like that, you know. At the edge of the universe where stars die and their bright lights fall like ash in the cosmos.”
“Really?”
“We’ll go there next. And then on to the great canyons on Eridad’s third moon. And then the Sapphire Waterfalls on Midnight. Oh I’ve never been there, it sounds wonderful.”
"I can’t wait.” She tells him, staring up through the snow at the large clock face that reminds her so much of home. “Can we visit Mum first? It’s been a while since I’ve been to my London...”
“More nostalgia!”
“Doctor...”
“Oh alright, fine. We’ll go visit your mother first. But then somewhere far, far away from the Powell Estate. What about Italy?”
“I could go to Italy on a plane.”
“What about Pompeii, or Herculaneum, before Vesuvius erupted? Eh? Can you do that on a plane?”
“No,” Rose smiled.
“Yeah, didn’t think so. Oh, I’ve got to show you something first, before we leave. Britain certainly doesn’t have this on your little rock.”
As the sun rises over the outskirts of the world, huge birds-the size of Velociraptors fly up through the broken canyons of the planet. The Doctor tells her how this planet used to be theirs, just like the dinosaurs, except a meteor didn’t destroy them, and evolution kept them flying out of the way of humans. The humans are too afraid to realise that the birds are so timid and kind that they would let you ride them for hours through the rocky canopies of their homes without complaint.
“How long are you going to stay with me?” The Doctor asks all of a sudden, enjoying the awe in her expression. The glistening in her eyes.
“Forever.” She answers.
He smiles and takes her in his arms, spinning her until she stops giggling and they both stare at one another. A bird squawks overhead as the Doctor leans in for a kiss. Rose bites her lip and whispers “We better be off.” Teasingly.
“Spoilsport.”
3.
Then the snow started falling, we were stuck out in your car,
You were rubbing both of my hands, chewing on a candy bar.
You said, “Ain’t this just like the present, to be showing up like this?”
As a moon waned to crescent, we started to kiss.
Rose shivers in the car as the Doctor traipses around outside in the snow staring at the engine as though he has any idea about what anything means Rose herself had had a look too, but her fingers had gone numb so quickly that she couldn’t bear being outside any longer.
And since the Doctor was intent on fixing this all by himself, she was left to sit inside their little green car, staring out at the snow and trying not to think of all the warm fun she’s currently missing at her parents house.
Instead her mind trails to memories of snow with the Doctor, a similar, but not quite the same, Doctor. Ash, and pieces of burnt out ships. Snow from a sonic screwdriver, warm snow that kept the cold at bay, London deserted in the torrents of Winter...
“Brrr!” She hears the Doctor joke outside, rubbing his hands together before fiddling a little longer with the engine. His brown coat is now completely white, and the same can be said about his hair. His cheeks are slowly starting to redden, and Rose wonders how human he really is now. How long he can last in this weather. How safe it is. How dangerous.
Just as her concern is growing to a breaking point, threatening to overwhelm her complete, he jumps back into the car, grinning, with chattering teeth. He takes one look at Rose and her goosebumped arms and quickly uses his sonic screwdriver to push the inside heater to the max. It would drain the battery, yes, but they both knew they wouldn’t be driving away without assistance any time soon.
As her fingertips clutch at the ends of her jumper, the Doctor leans over and takes her hands in his. Instantly she feels them begin to thaw out in his hold as the snow falls all around them with increased velocity.
“We’re gonna get snowed in.” Rose groans, trying to look through the snow gathered on the front window to the winter wonderland outside.
“No we won’t. Much. Besides, your mum sends a search party when you’re three minutes late-”
“Except it’s been close to three hours and no one’s here!”
“It’s not so bad, is it? Stuck out here with me. It’s like space. Except it’s a lot whiter, and the stars are falling. And we’re not in a time machine that can propel us to Barcelona at a moment’s notice...”
“Can’t you...I dunno...make it into a time machine with your screw-driver? We need a flux-capacitor or something...”
“Just because it worked in Back to the Future does not mean it will work here. And how do you suppose I would even begin to make a fictional machine with a sonic screwdriver, exactly?”
“Well you built yourself another screwdriver on your own using god knows what...”
“It’s hardly the same!”
“Oh stop snapping at me, already! I’m only trying to help. You’re always coming up with ridiculous ideas that shouldn’t ever work but always do.”
“No, Rose, I’m good, but I’m not that good.” He whispers, clenching his fists. He’s not used to feeling the cold this much. He can’t remember a time when he did. Two hearts pumping together makes you far less susceptible to such things. But now there’s only one...
She huffs, and the Doctor deflates rather quickly. Banter had turned into an argument fuelled by the intense cold and un-reassuring circumstances.
“It isn’t so bad,” Rose piped up suddenly, noticing the dark look in his eyes. The doubt that he’s as good as he once was...as his clone, his double, his original, was. “Being stuck here with you. In a secluded car. With reclining seats.”
His grin is instantaneous, but then, so is hers.
4.
I’m in love with your honour, I’m in love with your cheeks
What’s that noise up the stairs babe? Is that Christmas morning creaks?
And I said I know it well.
They’re supposed to be going to a ball in honour of their engagement. The Tyler’s here are rich, and powerful, and their long-lost-daughter is a firm part of high society as far as the gossip magazines are concerned.
And while the Doctor has always relished in being the centre of attention, he hates these parties with a passion. It’s just an endless litany of “Oh yes, I’m a Doctor, from overseas...John, John Smith, delighted to meet you,” to friends and colleagues and neighbours who are just dying to meet Rose’s mysterious fiancée, that he’ll never see again.
“Did you have something to do with this?” Rose asks, leaning against the windowpane.
“Did I have something to do with what?”
Rose gestures to the snow falling outside.
“Ah. No, that is most certainly Mother Nature at work.”
“Apparently it’s worse by Mum’s. Pete doesn’t want us to get stuck with the car again, and he knows you forgot to buy chains for the wheels.”
“Shame.” The Doctor smiles, throwing off his dinner jacket and loosening his tie considerably. It’s now as lopsided as his grin, and Rose sighs in her long cashmere jumper and comfortable leg-warmers. “How will we pass the time now?” The Doctor asks, arms spread around her waist, nuzzling into the crook of her neck.
She turns and moans happily in his grasp. She stands on tip-toes to kiss him as she runs her hands through his tidily brushed hair to ensure it looks its usual state.
“I can think of lots of things we could do.”
“Yeah?”
“Oh yes,” she takes off his tie. “First off,” she undoes the top two buttons of his shirt. “You can help me with the washing up. C’mon!”
5.
I crouch like a crow, contrasting the snow
For the agony, I’d rather know. ‘Cause blinded, I am blindsided.
The Doctor can’t help but think if he had two hearts, he could run faster, and save her. But all he can hear is one thumping hard against his chest as he sprints after the creatures that have Rose.
He can’t help but think if he had the TARDIS, he could pinpoint their location and find her the easy way.
He can’t help but think, as he tries desperately to find his footing in the slippery snow, that he’s failed, and if anything happens to her it’s all his fault.
“Rose!” He calls through the wind. “Rose!” He chokes on her name, chest burning, falling to the ground, trying to stop the tremors in his hands and knees that won’t let him stand let alone sprint. He can’t stop shivering and his eyes burn at the sheer white of his surroundings.
Back-up’s on the way. Torchwood. Pete and his best men.
They’ll be here soon, they’ll be here soon.
The Doctor makes it to his feet and stumbles forward, eyes stinging. His trainers catch in the hard icy ground and as his face hits the snow, he stays there. Prone. Unconscious. And slowly freezing to death. In his mind’s eye all he can see is her being taken again and again. As the shivering stops, and he drifts off, he doesn’t hear the whirring of an engine or feel the wind pick up. Throughout it all, he lies still.
Doctor!
John? John, can you hear me?
“Doctor.” Someone whispers. “Doctor, please.”
Wake up, will you? Rose can’t lose you. Not again.
Rose…rose…
“Rose!” The Doctor bolts upright in his hospital bed, and instantly sinks back down into the pillows; his body devoid of any strength and still shivering, days later.
Hazel eyes lock onto brown.
“Are you alright? D-did they hurt you? How did you get free? Are y-you okay? Please tell me you’re okay.”
“I’m a lot better than you, you idiot.” Rose says, smiling to ease his fear, wearing nothing more than bruises from their latest Torchwood mission. “You have hypothermia,” She tells him. “We nearly lost you.”
“I t-thought I’d l-lost you.”
“I’m a big girl, I can take care of myself…That, and dad turned up in a helicopter...” She smiles, stroking his knuckles with her free hand. Knuckles that are torn from fighting to keep Rose safe and that are bright red from the sheer force of holding her hand.
“I…”
“I know. I do. But you have to be more careful. You’re not indestructible. You can’t regenerate and you can’t handle those kinds of conditions the same you used to. I can’t lose you. I can’t bear to even-”
He squeezes her hand, and she places a kiss on his dry cracked lips.
“My knight in shining Converse.” She laughs, ignoring the tears of relief running down her face that season their hurried kisses.
“I’ll be more careful. I promise.”
He stops seeing his humanity as a curse, and instead, as a gift. He stops thinking about being abandoned that day on the beach, he stops thinking about all of the things he could do as Timelord and instead starts to think of all things he has to look forward to, with Rose.
“There’s...there’s something I need to tell you.” She smiles, her hand leaving his and holding her stomach in a caring manner.
“Oh, Rose.” The Doctor beams, reaching out to hold her, and imagining that he can just about hear two heartbeats...
And the one time they didn’t...
So apropos, saw death on a sunny snow…
He wonders if he’s being selfish. Just, wanting to see her once more. Truth be told, he’d barely made it back inside the door before the TARDIS was geared up again, taking him to her wherever she still was in this world. This universe.
He hears Jackie’s voice first, and he smiles despite himself. He didn’t realise he’d missed her too. Rose is comforting her mother, a purple beanie on her head, a long scarf around her neck. Happy New Year! Happy New Year!
He stays silent, he can’t interfere, he can’t risk changing anything-it was perfect-it was.
The fire in his belly burns with intent. He’s dying and he can’t help the groan that escapes. He falls against the wall and tries to breathe. He can feel her eyes on him, watching.
“You alright, mate?”
His breath catches in his throat and she’s staring, concerned and suspicious.
“Yeah.” He blurts out before she asks him if he’s had too much to drink.
“What year is this?” He wonders, unaware of when he is, but aware of her.
“2005.” She tells him. 2005, he thinks as memories collide in his brain of times long ago. No, not long, not long ago at all.
“2005. Tell you what, I bet you’re gonna have a really great year.” He beams.
“Yeah?” Rose smiles through her curiosity, staring at the man in the shadows. “See ya.”
She runs, and he tries to do the same but finds himself unable to. He tries to breathe through the pain, using the wall as his crutch but the world is tilting and in the distance he hears singing. The acoustic properties of snow. The crunch as he falls. The pattering of snowflakes. And in the midst of it all, an Ood leads the orchestra of the Universe as they sing him to sleep.
-Fin.
“It’s like the stars are falling.” She whispers, because somehow in the silence of the snowflakes, speaking loudly seems wrong. Like they’re in a giant library at the heart of a kingdom made of ice, and she doesn’t want to be told off for shouting. 2, 163 words.
(spoilers for "The End of Time" and anything before then. Lyrics in italics belong to Bon Iver.)
Five Times the Doctor and Rose got caught out in a snowstorm...
1.
There’s a pull to the glow, my feet melt the snow
For the irony, I’d rather know.
They’re holidaying on a seaside planet-that is to say, the entire planet consists of one long stretch of land that runs between two large oceans-when it snows. And Rose says it’s typical as she and the Doctor take shelter in a building made completely of glass.
They’re there for nearly ten minutes before The Doctor spots the first local strutting through the blizzard in the alien equivalent of shorts and t-shirts. He frowns as Rose too notices him.
“Do they feel the cold?”
“Yes, or at least they should do… That is, assuming that it’s cold at all.”
“It’s snow. It’s frozen water, of course it’s cold.”
“Well...”
The Doctor opens the door, and as tiny flurries of snow fall into the doorway they bring with them warmth. Warmth the Doctor certainly feels as he steps outside into the storm. He beckons Rose forward and she stands amazed, staring up at the skies expulsion of warm snow.
“Well? Aren’t you going to stand there and explain everything in one breath?” She smiles, intrigued and the Doctor stalks closer to her. He brushes the un-melting flakes out of her blonde locks and smiles.
“Not yet.” He whispers, placing a kiss on her cheek just where a snowflake had sat idly by. They hold hands and run through the blizzard, leaving their scarves in their wake as they head for the shore.
They sit on a snow-covered beach barefoot, staring at the glimmering sea with ice cream cones in their hands. Rose thinks she has cosmopolitan flavour. It has a lot more pop, and just like the snow, it’s warm too. The Doctor has vanilla. He rants about people wanting too much and never being satisfied with the wonderful simplicity of plain vanilla-until he finds it has a strange caramel-fudge centre and he sits content with this unexpected delight.
2.
All my love was down in a frozen ground.
They’re in London. Though really, it’s something like the nineteenth re-incarnation of the city, far off into the future, and yet, it’s a near perfect replica of London as Rose knows it.
“You people and nostalgia...” The Doctor would mutter whenever they came across a ‘vintage’ shop that to Rose was just a normal shop.
The snow started falling while they were on the tube, and they hadn’t expected the wintery landscape that lay before them.
“I knew I should have checked the forecast of this planet...” The Doctor says, nudging Rose to follow him through the blizzard. Within seconds the bottoms of her jeans are soaked through and her trainers are filled with freezing cold puddles. She can’t stop shivering as they run through the clean white streets, following the billows of the Doctor’s long brown coat.
They buy two colourful umbrellas and head towards the Houses of Parliament. Big Ben (the nineteenth) chimes above as the city falls silent under the weight of the snow.
“Our own personal playground!” The Doctor grins spinning around under the streetlamps, stopping only to splutter in response to Rose having thrown a large snowball at him.
“Oi! That hurt.”
“Oh don’t be such a ba-OW! That hurt!”
They keep fighting-keep hurtling snowballs at one another until their feet give our and they fall to the ground together, exhausted, laughing and staring up at the falling snow.
“It’s like travelling at light-speed in Star Wars.” The Doctor laughs, and swallows a hundred tiny, tiny flecks of snow in the process.
“It’s like the stars are falling.” Rose whispers, because somehow in the silence of the snowflakes, speaking loudly seems wrong. Like they’re in a giant library at the heart of a kingdom made of ice and she doesn’t want to be told off for shouting.
“I can take you to places like that, you know. At the edge of the universe where stars die and their bright lights fall like ash in the cosmos.”
“Really?”
“We’ll go there next. And then on to the great canyons on Eridad’s third moon. And then the Sapphire Waterfalls on Midnight. Oh I’ve never been there, it sounds wonderful.”
"I can’t wait.” She tells him, staring up through the snow at the large clock face that reminds her so much of home. “Can we visit Mum first? It’s been a while since I’ve been to my London...”
“More nostalgia!”
“Doctor...”
“Oh alright, fine. We’ll go visit your mother first. But then somewhere far, far away from the Powell Estate. What about Italy?”
“I could go to Italy on a plane.”
“What about Pompeii, or Herculaneum, before Vesuvius erupted? Eh? Can you do that on a plane?”
“No,” Rose smiled.
“Yeah, didn’t think so. Oh, I’ve got to show you something first, before we leave. Britain certainly doesn’t have this on your little rock.”
As the sun rises over the outskirts of the world, huge birds-the size of Velociraptors fly up through the broken canyons of the planet. The Doctor tells her how this planet used to be theirs, just like the dinosaurs, except a meteor didn’t destroy them, and evolution kept them flying out of the way of humans. The humans are too afraid to realise that the birds are so timid and kind that they would let you ride them for hours through the rocky canopies of their homes without complaint.
“How long are you going to stay with me?” The Doctor asks all of a sudden, enjoying the awe in her expression. The glistening in her eyes.
“Forever.” She answers.
He smiles and takes her in his arms, spinning her until she stops giggling and they both stare at one another. A bird squawks overhead as the Doctor leans in for a kiss. Rose bites her lip and whispers “We better be off.” Teasingly.
“Spoilsport.”
3.
Then the snow started falling, we were stuck out in your car,
You were rubbing both of my hands, chewing on a candy bar.
You said, “Ain’t this just like the present, to be showing up like this?”
As a moon waned to crescent, we started to kiss.
Rose shivers in the car as the Doctor traipses around outside in the snow staring at the engine as though he has any idea about what anything means Rose herself had had a look too, but her fingers had gone numb so quickly that she couldn’t bear being outside any longer.
And since the Doctor was intent on fixing this all by himself, she was left to sit inside their little green car, staring out at the snow and trying not to think of all the warm fun she’s currently missing at her parents house.
Instead her mind trails to memories of snow with the Doctor, a similar, but not quite the same, Doctor. Ash, and pieces of burnt out ships. Snow from a sonic screwdriver, warm snow that kept the cold at bay, London deserted in the torrents of Winter...
“Brrr!” She hears the Doctor joke outside, rubbing his hands together before fiddling a little longer with the engine. His brown coat is now completely white, and the same can be said about his hair. His cheeks are slowly starting to redden, and Rose wonders how human he really is now. How long he can last in this weather. How safe it is. How dangerous.
Just as her concern is growing to a breaking point, threatening to overwhelm her complete, he jumps back into the car, grinning, with chattering teeth. He takes one look at Rose and her goosebumped arms and quickly uses his sonic screwdriver to push the inside heater to the max. It would drain the battery, yes, but they both knew they wouldn’t be driving away without assistance any time soon.
As her fingertips clutch at the ends of her jumper, the Doctor leans over and takes her hands in his. Instantly she feels them begin to thaw out in his hold as the snow falls all around them with increased velocity.
“We’re gonna get snowed in.” Rose groans, trying to look through the snow gathered on the front window to the winter wonderland outside.
“No we won’t. Much. Besides, your mum sends a search party when you’re three minutes late-”
“Except it’s been close to three hours and no one’s here!”
“It’s not so bad, is it? Stuck out here with me. It’s like space. Except it’s a lot whiter, and the stars are falling. And we’re not in a time machine that can propel us to Barcelona at a moment’s notice...”
“Can’t you...I dunno...make it into a time machine with your screw-driver? We need a flux-capacitor or something...”
“Just because it worked in Back to the Future does not mean it will work here. And how do you suppose I would even begin to make a fictional machine with a sonic screwdriver, exactly?”
“Well you built yourself another screwdriver on your own using god knows what...”
“It’s hardly the same!”
“Oh stop snapping at me, already! I’m only trying to help. You’re always coming up with ridiculous ideas that shouldn’t ever work but always do.”
“No, Rose, I’m good, but I’m not that good.” He whispers, clenching his fists. He’s not used to feeling the cold this much. He can’t remember a time when he did. Two hearts pumping together makes you far less susceptible to such things. But now there’s only one...
She huffs, and the Doctor deflates rather quickly. Banter had turned into an argument fuelled by the intense cold and un-reassuring circumstances.
“It isn’t so bad,” Rose piped up suddenly, noticing the dark look in his eyes. The doubt that he’s as good as he once was...as his clone, his double, his original, was. “Being stuck here with you. In a secluded car. With reclining seats.”
His grin is instantaneous, but then, so is hers.
4.
I’m in love with your honour, I’m in love with your cheeks
What’s that noise up the stairs babe? Is that Christmas morning creaks?
And I said I know it well.
They’re supposed to be going to a ball in honour of their engagement. The Tyler’s here are rich, and powerful, and their long-lost-daughter is a firm part of high society as far as the gossip magazines are concerned.
And while the Doctor has always relished in being the centre of attention, he hates these parties with a passion. It’s just an endless litany of “Oh yes, I’m a Doctor, from overseas...John, John Smith, delighted to meet you,” to friends and colleagues and neighbours who are just dying to meet Rose’s mysterious fiancée, that he’ll never see again.
“Did you have something to do with this?” Rose asks, leaning against the windowpane.
“Did I have something to do with what?”
Rose gestures to the snow falling outside.
“Ah. No, that is most certainly Mother Nature at work.”
“Apparently it’s worse by Mum’s. Pete doesn’t want us to get stuck with the car again, and he knows you forgot to buy chains for the wheels.”
“Shame.” The Doctor smiles, throwing off his dinner jacket and loosening his tie considerably. It’s now as lopsided as his grin, and Rose sighs in her long cashmere jumper and comfortable leg-warmers. “How will we pass the time now?” The Doctor asks, arms spread around her waist, nuzzling into the crook of her neck.
She turns and moans happily in his grasp. She stands on tip-toes to kiss him as she runs her hands through his tidily brushed hair to ensure it looks its usual state.
“I can think of lots of things we could do.”
“Yeah?”
“Oh yes,” she takes off his tie. “First off,” she undoes the top two buttons of his shirt. “You can help me with the washing up. C’mon!”
5.
I crouch like a crow, contrasting the snow
For the agony, I’d rather know. ‘Cause blinded, I am blindsided.
The Doctor can’t help but think if he had two hearts, he could run faster, and save her. But all he can hear is one thumping hard against his chest as he sprints after the creatures that have Rose.
He can’t help but think if he had the TARDIS, he could pinpoint their location and find her the easy way.
He can’t help but think, as he tries desperately to find his footing in the slippery snow, that he’s failed, and if anything happens to her it’s all his fault.
“Rose!” He calls through the wind. “Rose!” He chokes on her name, chest burning, falling to the ground, trying to stop the tremors in his hands and knees that won’t let him stand let alone sprint. He can’t stop shivering and his eyes burn at the sheer white of his surroundings.
Back-up’s on the way. Torchwood. Pete and his best men.
They’ll be here soon, they’ll be here soon.
The Doctor makes it to his feet and stumbles forward, eyes stinging. His trainers catch in the hard icy ground and as his face hits the snow, he stays there. Prone. Unconscious. And slowly freezing to death. In his mind’s eye all he can see is her being taken again and again. As the shivering stops, and he drifts off, he doesn’t hear the whirring of an engine or feel the wind pick up. Throughout it all, he lies still.
Doctor!
John? John, can you hear me?
“Doctor.” Someone whispers. “Doctor, please.”
Wake up, will you? Rose can’t lose you. Not again.
Rose…rose…
“Rose!” The Doctor bolts upright in his hospital bed, and instantly sinks back down into the pillows; his body devoid of any strength and still shivering, days later.
Hazel eyes lock onto brown.
“Are you alright? D-did they hurt you? How did you get free? Are y-you okay? Please tell me you’re okay.”
“I’m a lot better than you, you idiot.” Rose says, smiling to ease his fear, wearing nothing more than bruises from their latest Torchwood mission. “You have hypothermia,” She tells him. “We nearly lost you.”
“I t-thought I’d l-lost you.”
“I’m a big girl, I can take care of myself…That, and dad turned up in a helicopter...” She smiles, stroking his knuckles with her free hand. Knuckles that are torn from fighting to keep Rose safe and that are bright red from the sheer force of holding her hand.
“I…”
“I know. I do. But you have to be more careful. You’re not indestructible. You can’t regenerate and you can’t handle those kinds of conditions the same you used to. I can’t lose you. I can’t bear to even-”
He squeezes her hand, and she places a kiss on his dry cracked lips.
“My knight in shining Converse.” She laughs, ignoring the tears of relief running down her face that season their hurried kisses.
“I’ll be more careful. I promise.”
He stops seeing his humanity as a curse, and instead, as a gift. He stops thinking about being abandoned that day on the beach, he stops thinking about all of the things he could do as Timelord and instead starts to think of all things he has to look forward to, with Rose.
“There’s...there’s something I need to tell you.” She smiles, her hand leaving his and holding her stomach in a caring manner.
“Oh, Rose.” The Doctor beams, reaching out to hold her, and imagining that he can just about hear two heartbeats...
And the one time they didn’t...
So apropos, saw death on a sunny snow…
He wonders if he’s being selfish. Just, wanting to see her once more. Truth be told, he’d barely made it back inside the door before the TARDIS was geared up again, taking him to her wherever she still was in this world. This universe.
He hears Jackie’s voice first, and he smiles despite himself. He didn’t realise he’d missed her too. Rose is comforting her mother, a purple beanie on her head, a long scarf around her neck. Happy New Year! Happy New Year!
He stays silent, he can’t interfere, he can’t risk changing anything-it was perfect-it was.
The fire in his belly burns with intent. He’s dying and he can’t help the groan that escapes. He falls against the wall and tries to breathe. He can feel her eyes on him, watching.
“You alright, mate?”
His breath catches in his throat and she’s staring, concerned and suspicious.
“Yeah.” He blurts out before she asks him if he’s had too much to drink.
“What year is this?” He wonders, unaware of when he is, but aware of her.
“2005.” She tells him. 2005, he thinks as memories collide in his brain of times long ago. No, not long, not long ago at all.
“2005. Tell you what, I bet you’re gonna have a really great year.” He beams.
“Yeah?” Rose smiles through her curiosity, staring at the man in the shadows. “See ya.”
She runs, and he tries to do the same but finds himself unable to. He tries to breathe through the pain, using the wall as his crutch but the world is tilting and in the distance he hears singing. The acoustic properties of snow. The crunch as he falls. The pattering of snowflakes. And in the midst of it all, an Ood leads the orchestra of the Universe as they sing him to sleep.
-Fin.