FIC: A Cruel Punishment for a Flirt (1/1)
Title: A Cruel Punishment for a Flirt
Series: There's The Door!
Rating: T (whining)
Author: tkel_paris
Summary: A comment aboard the Crucible hints at something the TARDIS denied Rose as punishment for violating her. But what was it?
Disclaimer: Traveling without the protection of a time capsule is supposed to cause damage, right? That Rose looked exactly the same proves I own nothing.
Dedication: This came out through another email conversation with tardis_mole. Possibly during my beta-reading one of his stories. Although I'll also give a shout-out to bas_math_girl. ;)
Author's Note: Yeah, I still have a lot of frustrations to work through where Rose is concerned. Still, some things needed canonical explanations, like Sarah Jane not getting to look young whereas Rose did despite ten years passing for her - at least.
A Cruel Punishment for a Flirt
Started May 26, 2012
Finished February 6, 2013
The Doctor was trying to push Davros' words out of his mind from the moment they were said. He got his wish - through Caan's last words:
“It is done. The threefold man at the end of everything... with the Children of Time, and the heart of Rose Tyler is still to be revealed.”
Even with all the horror of his own soul being exposed, the harsh truth of his actions, that gave him something to focus on. Davros and Caan had hinted at Rose hiding a secret from the Doctor while they were prisoners, and Rose had blanched.
What, he wondered as he guided five of his companions - including Rose - in flying the Earth home, had they meant? He knew already that Rose was immature, more than a bit self-centered, Earth-centric in her views, a flirt, possessive of him, and willing to do just about anything - including destroy universes - to get back to him, get her own way. What else in Rassilon's name could there be?
Had she committed more crimes in getting back to him? Had she helped cause today's events? He didn't put either past her.
Actually, one thing did dawn on him, thanks to the TARDIS communicating something she'd been trying to tell him since Rose reappeared. The Old Girl had been furious with Rose for ripping her open, and had been denying her entrance. He also realized something else when he took the Vortex energy away and stopped the Bad Wolf:
The TARDIS had maintained a little control over the energy, and had removed the effects of traveling inside her from Rose. It meant that she, like Sarah Jane, was unable to avoid aging - although Sarah still looked a lot like she had. But he knew something else - the aging effects should have been accelerated by the use of the Dimension Cannon.
Now it dawned on him. It'd been over ten years since his hologram reached Bad Wolf Bay. So why didn't Rose look any older?
What had she done?
Mickey and Jackie looking the same told him that his ship forgave them for their unwitting parts in the violation. And they had been protected from the Cannon's effects because of the TARDIS. So what explained Rose's appearance?
Suddenly, the only possibility hit him. Oh, dear. He'd better expose this quickly. How else would Rose learn to accept that she wasn't going to get what she wanted?
Well, if he'd flown her away himself from the Game Station. Might've made the message sink in, but who knew now?
He let everyone have a moment to celebrate, but then he said they needed to do one more thing. He guided everyone back to their places, but asked Donna to take Rose's place. He claimed he needed her precision knowledge for this one.
And he did. They were going straight to Pete's World. And the TARDIS didn't want Rose touching her any longer than necessary.
He led them all outside, and Jackie was the first to recognize it. Figured, but she was also fairly quick to accept it - even teasing him with the idea of her son being named after him. Yeah, he was sure that she wasn't that fond of him. Surely not after all she'd seen Rose do.
“Jackie,” he began, catching her attention. “What has Rose been doing since you were all last here, over ten years ago? She should look older than she does, have changed a lot. Why isn't she any different?”
She frowned, but didn't let Rose talk. “I don't know. She started to gain wrinkles shortly into her research into the Cannon, from frustration, and they seemed to stick around. Then...suddenly they all vanished.”
“It was after she found some new equipment for the Cannon,” Mickey interjected, sticking near to the TARDIS doors. “Then she was able to start using it a bit.”
“Describe it.”
Mickey sighed and pulled out his camera. He turned it on and pulled up a file, showing the Doctor a series of photos of monstrous items, but he was stopped on one photo.
The Doctor groaned loudly, cutting off all reactions as he face-palmed himself. He recognized one item in particular, and it alarmed him. “Rose, what were you thinking?! That's an inverter with all sorts of side-effects on humans! Do you even know what that's done to you?!”
Rose shook her head. “Mum and Mickey were staying the same. I traveled longer with you, I should've done the same. So when I realized the new device had reversed the effects and kept me young, I kept going. Why should I have stopped using it?” She grinned. “It meant I was able to stay young for you.”
Jack cringed. There'd been a reason he'd kept a little distance between him and Rose even back then, despite the flirting. He'd sensed something that told him to avoid Rose. If only he'd listened more to it, then some things might not have happened - like his immortality.
Martha and Sarah Jane were appalled. Where were her priorities?! Did she even stop to think about others when she made plans?
Donna and the Duplicate merely glared. She kept him close to the ship, not trusting what might happen next. Her head was clear enough that she wasn't going to risk him being left behind anywhere.
The Doctor stared hard at Rose. The last bonds keeping him from speaking ill of her had been snapped. She had barely shown sadness for Donna, for his ship, and she'd practically acted like it was better for him to die than change into someone else. He could see his own feelings clearly. He felt the TARDIS nudge his mind. “Donna,” he called out. “There's a device that the Old Girl just made appear in the Control Room. Can you bring it out and toss it to me?”
Donna frowned, seeing the object in her mind. She was starting to realize that there was a bond of some sort between her and the Doctor, and what it meant. In the interests of getting home before the walls could close again, she rushed inside for it and was back out in a jiffy. She effortlessly flung it to him.
The Doctor caught it. It was a small attachment to the sonic, and he quickly prepared it.
“Doctor?” Rose asked, blinking as she looked around. “Why are we back in the parallel world?”
Jackie gasped, indignant.
The Doctor spoke in a rush. “Your mother has family to return to. Mickey, it seems you have nothing left in this world. You can come back with us, and I'm sorry for calling you an idiot. I was trying to push you into becoming something more, but I can see how my method could have backfired a bit or left someone really insulted. Sorry about that. Although I'm glad you turned your life around, whatever the motivation.” He turned to face Rose. “But it's time you all see what Rose's obsession has truly done to her.”
He aimed the sonic and pressed the button. A loud sonic buzzing made everyone cringe, but Rose shuddered. The energy interacted with her body, making her feel sick.
To everyone else's eyes, she glowed a sickly blue colour, her body a bit obscured by the energy. The Doctor knew it was working - it wouldn't react this way unless Rose's body had changed in the way he was expecting. When the glow reached a very deep blue, he deactivated and lowered the sonic.
The glow faded immediately. Everyone except Rose and the Doctor gasped, but even the Doctor's eyebrow raised at what Rose had become. A gray-haired person with very wrinkled skin stood in Rose's clothing.
Rose felt lethargic. “Why-?” She cut herself off as the creaking sound of her voice hit her ears. She looked down and screamed when she saw her hands. She touched her face, feeling the changes and how much slower she moved. “Oh, my God!”
The Doctor removed the device and put both objects in his right trouser pocket. “The TARDIS can make companions virtually ageless. She can't stop the progression of their years, but she can help them stay young. The gift was partially taken from Sarah Jane, and I haven't figure out how to restore it. With you, Rose, my ship was angry over you ripping her open and being so reckless with the Vortex Energy that I had to give up a life to stop you. She took the gift away from you. The device you found can seemingly stop aging, but it truly accelerates the process. Now...you're a 29 year-old girl - still emotionally 18 - in an 80 year-old woman's body. And you'll stay this way until you die - in about fifty to sixty years.”
Rose was so stunned from the shock that she didn't notice the Doctor waving his companions back inside. She just stared at his face in dismay. “Why did you-?”
“Because I don't believe in letting people live a lie when it only hurts everyone around them. And causes more pain to those they claim to love.” With that, he nodded a sad goodbye to Jackie and went back to his ship. Time to let Rose live with the consequences. It wasn't like the Cannon could be used again. Not with the things he'd done to the Dimension Jumpers left in Pete's World.
THE END