And then the sky fell
“See,” the Doctor said to her over something that was decidedly not ice cream but defied any other classification, “I can take you out without someone getting kidnapped or threatening to take over the world.”
“Don’t say that too loudly, okay? I don’t want you jinxing us. Every time you try to take me somewhere fun, that’s when televisions start trying to take over the world or werewolves show up.” Rose thought for a minute. “You still owe me a trip to a concert, you know.”
“I know,” he said airily. “I’m just trying to decide where to take you.”
“I could give you some suggestions.”
“Nope! It’s going to be a surprise.” Rose just rolled her eyes at him and went back to her Not Ice Cream. The Doctor threw his empty cup into a trashcan and grabbed Rose’s free hand. “We should go up there,” he pointed to a mountain.
“And what is up there,” Rose asked.
“If I remember my Vibrackian geography correctly,” the Doctor said, “and I do, that is the peak from which you can see the best views of the city.”
That sounded nice, and more importantly considering their track record, safe, so they took the little train to the top of the mountain (the Doctor (rudely) pointing out how primitive the rail system actually was and that the Vibrackians should move towards a more advanced system, possibly something involving robotic pulleys. Rose didn’t quite understand it).
The view was nice, Rose had to admit. The city was filled with sparkling lights that weren’t bright enough to dim the stars up in the sky. Rose and the Doctor found a bench to sit on and she rested her head on his shoulder.
“S’nice,” Rose murmured, constantly looking between the stars and the city. “The sky is pretty.”
“That might have to do with the atmosphere,” the Doctor said, “The gases that make it up would-”
“Doctor,” Rose interrupted. “We’re enjoying the view.”
“We can enjoy the view and talk!” he protested. “There are lots of things you could say about the sky.”
Rose sighed. “It is nice. It almost looks like the stars are falling, doesn’t it?” The Doctor suddenly straightened, knocking Rose’s head off his shoulder. “Ow! What was that for?”
“Er, Rose,” the Doctor said, looking above her. “I think the sky is falling”
It took Rose a minute to realize what he was saying. Then it hit her and she screamed. “We have to do something!”
The Doctor frantically looked up at the sky and then around. He grabbed Rose’s hand and ran them over to a clear spot under an outcropping of rocks. “I think this is about the extent of what we can do,” he said once they were under it.
“What do you mean?” Rose was panicking. She wasn’t going to deny it. The sky didn’t just fall everyday. “Can’t we get to the TARDIS?”
He shrugged nervously. “We can’t reach it from up here. And I don’t think you want to try to climb down that mountain.”
“What about the train thing?”
“Probably won’t work in these conditions. We’re stuck here until it’s over. If it will be over,” he added thoughtfully.
Rose looked back out at the sky. It was still falling. And it was getting much, much closer. “What do we do,” she asked.
The Doctor turned to look at her and his gaze softened. “We should be able to ride it out from here. Give me a few minutes and I can think of a way to get us out of this.” He held her hand and squeezed it reassuringly.
Rose looked up at the ledge there were under. It seemed sturdy enough; nice solid rock. But they didn’t know that for sure. And that sky certainly was coming down quickly. There was a whistling noise in the air that meant it had to be touching down soon. Another thought suddenly hit her. “What about the TARDIS?”
The Doctor absolutely froze next to her and he looked scared for the first time since it all began. “It should be fine,” he murmured, “it should be fine, it’s got the right defenses, unless…” And then he ran out.
“Doctor! What about the sky falling? Get back in here!” He had almost made it to the edge of the mountain (and what he was planning on doing once he got there, Rose wasn’t sure) when it happened. All those stars that had started to fall hit the ground. Even from where she was standing, she saw that the Doctor was being pelted by them.
She heard him yell something. Rose couldn’t tell if it sounded like a yell of pain. She really, really didn’t want it to be pain. He started running towards her and he was…smiling. He was smiling. Of course he was. Who else did Rose know that would smile at the sky falling?
“Rose,” he shouted. “You have to come out here. It’s brilliant!”
“What happened to ‘our only option is to die,’” Rose asked warily. The little sparkly things were bouncing off his shoulders and head.
“Nothing’s going to happen! We just overreacted.”
“We overreacted over the sky falling?”
“It’s not the sky falling. I’d heard of this before but I’d never actually seen it. What’s going on is…” as he was talking, the Doctor pulled Rose out into the open. It didn’t hurt but it felt odd; little pieces of sparkly rock hitting her skin and then bouncing off to the ground. And, once she looked around, it was gorgeous to watch, really. The lights from the city made the sky pieces or whatever they were glisten even more as they fell to earth.
When she tuned the Doctor back in, he was saying, “It all has to do with atmospheric gases, really. They crystallize the clouds and finally they just shatter and once they hit the atmosphere-”
“Doctor,” she interrupted for the second time that evening. “It’s watching time again, okay?”
He looked offended for about a second before he smiled widely at her and pulled her into a hug.
They stayed like that, watching the scene around them in silence except for the sound of sky pieces hitting the ground, until Rose said, “You always take me to the best places.”
“Thank you.”
“The most dangerous places,” she added. “But the best.”
“Thank you” he said, “I think.”
And then they stood back and watched the crystallized-by-atmospheric-gasses-clouds fall around them.