Don't Cage the Wolf (3/?)
Beta: roxieflashPairing/Characters: Eleven/Rose, Amy, Rory, River
Chapter Rating: PG
Word Count: ~2,000
Summary: If you're smart, if you value your continued existence, if you have any plans about seeing tomorrow: Don't trap the Doctor, and don't cage the Wolf.
A/N: Long chapter is long!
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“Where’s the containment level?”
“No idea.”
“I thought you lived here!”
“That’s fifty thousand years from now, they’ve redecorated!”
The Doctor and River shouted over the sounds of gunfire from opposite sides of a large archway that opened into a wide corridor. In the fifty-second century, it led down to the prison mess hall, but-as River continued to point out-a few things would change in the next five hundred or so decades.
“You do realize,” River commented as two guards passed through the arch. She shot one in the back with a shock pistol as the Doctor stuck out a booted foot and tripped the other, sending both men tumbling down the stairs, “that this is the year they rename this place Stormcage?”
“Is it?” The Doctor peeked around the corner from a crouched position and held up three fingers to indicate the size of the next group about to pass. “Hope that doesn’t mean they catch us.” River took an ionic pulse charge from a cargo pocket and tossed it down the hallway; the Doctor shielded his eyes as he activated it, mid-flight, with a zap of his screwdriver. After a soundless, blinding flash, they peeked out from their shelter to see three half-stunned men, still groping, unseeing, towards the doorway.
The two intruders tiptoed past the guards, careful not to make any noise. They’d almost reached the far door when an entire platoon came bursting through. The Doctor and River flattened themselves against opposing walls. There was no hope now in not being seen-they’d be lucky if they weren’t trampled.
When they were completely ignored, the Doctor reappraised the situation. “River, look,” he called over the heads of the troops, “they’re not marching, they’re running.”
River saw that each was armed, but that weapons dangled uselessly from straps or had been hastily stuffed into holsters, freeing up their hands for opening doors and pushing one other out of the way in their desire for escape. “They’re scared of something,” she surmised.
The last few stragglers made their way past, one gasping for breath through sobs of terror. River turned the corner and inhaled sharply, grabbing the Doctor’s upper arm to pull his attention away from the back of the crying young man.
The sight that greeted the Doctor caused a vastly different reaction. Tendrils of glittering mist like liquid sunlight were seeping through the edges of the wooden door in front of them.
“Who’s afraid,” the Doctor asked himself in a whisper, reaching out his hand and running his fingers over the door, “of the big, Bad Wolf?” He reached for the handle, and turned to face River, composing himself for what had to come next. “Before we go, I should probably let you know why we came here. Sorry, I’ve been a bit distracted. But this is-“
“Rose Tyler, love of your life, my best mate, so on and so forth, can we move on?” The Doctor looked at her blankly, and she sighed. “I’m from your future, remember? My memories have been re-writing themselves since we landed; a lot’s changed for me in the past few minutes.” She checked the charge on her pistol, and re-inserted a clip that had come loose. “Just answer me one question, Doctor. You’ve seen the future. Our future.”
He knew what she was asking. River had never hidden her intentions towards him, and he’d been perilously close to giving in to her, if only to avoid causing another heartbreak like Martha’s or Sarah Jane’s. He was quiet, unable to think of a kind way to answer.
“All for the best, then,” River said, interpreting his silence correctly. “In any case, you’re much easier to get along with when she’s around.”
“I’m sorry, River,” he said sincerely.
She nodded. “I’ll manage. But I’ve seen the two of you, and I wouldn’t take that away from anyone. Can we go? I’d really like to see her again, it’s been ages.”
The Doctor suddenly dropped his grip from the handle and snapped his head around to fix his eyes on River, utter disbelief etched on his face. “Hold on, ‘best mate’?”
River gave him a knowing look and arched her eyebrows. “Spoilers,” she said, then shouldered open the door.
The sight that greeted them gave a new, literal meaning to the term “mess hall”. Shards and splinters of various kitchen implements were littered about the floor and a few were impaled in the walls. Not a single piece of whole furniture remained. Four seated men faced them, their backs to an overturned wooden table. One would occasionally fire a blind shot over his shoulder-if only to distract their aggressor-while the others scanned for possible escape routes.
The object of their fear reached out a hand in a lazy, almost negligent wave. Their barrier dissolved, and she followed their stumbling progress with blazing eyes until they reached the door. When her gaze fixed on the Doctor, she melted into the surrounding golden mist for an instant, only to reappear directly in front of him, her palm flat on his chest and covering both hearts.
He had less than half a second to marvel at the astounding beauty and raw power of the creature in front of him before she thrust her palm out, shoving him back a handspan and pinning him against the wall.
“Oh right, new face.” He lifted both hands quickly to shoulder height in the most unthreatening manner possible. “It’s me, it’s the Doctor. I swear, Rose, it’s me.”
She blinked away the fires, and for the first time in longer than he cared to remember, Rose’s eyes looked into his. That deep, dark brown that had entranced him from the moment he’d first seen her in the basement of Henrik’s department store. He remembered going back and asking for her name, just to see them again.
“Doctor?” Rose asked softly. The pressure from her hand eased into a caress. Her fingers trailed up over his shoulder and down the sleeve of his tweed jacket to land, fitted, in his palm. Rose’s lips were centimeters from his when her expression became suddenly irate. “Where the hell have you been!?” she demanded, before cupping the back of his neck and kissing him, hard.
River chuckled.
Rose broke away from the Doctor, breathless, and turned to her. “Hi!” she said, flushed and grinning. “Sorry, he’s a bit rude sometimes. Must have carried over. I’m Rose.”
The Doctor was still leaning against the wall looking bemused. “Rose Tyler,” he said, motioning to each woman in turn. “River Song.”
“Pleasure to meet you, dear. I’m sure we’ll get along just fine, the Doctor’s told me so much about you.”
“Have I?”
“Spoilers,” River reminded him again, before turning back to Rose. “What say we escape this drafty old prison and pop back to London for chips?”
“Oh, I like you,” Rose said, flashing a grin.
River smiled over Rose’s head at the Doctor and winked. He rolled his eyes, thumping his head back against the wall. “Follow me, you two,” River said, unholstering her shock pistol again and holding it at the ready. “TARDIS is this way.” She grabbed a dropped two-way radio from the nearby carnage and fiddled with the dial. After a few beeps that sounded like Morse code and a static-filled announcement that may have been an order not to attempt their capture, they heard the voice of the guard that had set Rose free. He and River began to discuss escape logistics, and Rose fell into step with the Doctor.
Walking hand-in-hand down a corridor in the middle of a life-threatening situation was such a routine thing that it seemed only days since they’d last seen each other. “Gonna tell me why you’re dressed like my year nine Maths teacher?” She asked him, squeezing his hand.
“I get lonely sometimes. And you still owe me homework.”
“What, seriously?”
“Yes! Chapters nine and ten, you always did hate exponents.”
“No, seriously, you went back to teach me maths?”
“Well, I tried, but it’s very difficult if you won’t do your homework.”
“Shareen thought I was daft for fancying you,” Rose admitted. He smiled down at her. “She figured you were barmy, walkin’ around in a bowtie.” Rose reached up with their clasped hands to touch the silk fabric for emphasis. “Not me, though. I always thought it was sort of ‘geek chic’.”
“’Bow ties are cool’?” he asked her.
“Yeah, I s’pose you could put it like that.”
River reached the large door ahead of them and held up a hand, motioning for them to stop. She confirmed the final plans over the walkie-talkie before clipping it back to her waistband and relayed to them, “All right, this door should be opening in about thirty seconds. They’re under orders not to shoot you, but you may want to run just in case. I’m going back in to meet with my contact.” River laid a gentle hand on Rose’s shoulder, and her voice dropped to a soothing tone. “You don’t know me yet, but you will. I’ll find out who was keeping you here and make sure they won’t try it again.” River let her hand drop. “I’ll contact the both of you when I have more information.” As she started back inside at a run, she added over her shoulder, “And this time, Doctor, answer your bloody phone!”
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When the door opened, everyone on duty fled at the sight of Rose. “Blimey. Guess the Bad Wolf did a number on them.”
“Well, you were quite frightening,” the Doctor said as he directed them to where the TARDIS had landed. “In a good way,” he added at the sight of her expression.
“Why’d it come back?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted, “There’s a medbay onboard that I don’t get to use very often; a couple of hair samples and we’ll get you figured out.” After a pause, he asked, “How did you get here?” He wanted to know about his cloned human self-wasn’t Rose happy? Was he not the same man? Had something terrible happened?-but couldn’t formulate the question.
“Well, Pete’s like this ‘head honcho’ in Torchwood, yeah? So I kind of convinced him to start working on this, I dunno, travel machine. Sort of like a… dimension cannon. So I could come back.”
“Dimension cannon?”
“That’s the idea. But first time I used it, there’s the huge light I get stuck in for ages, and next thing I know I’m breaking out of prison.” She looked over at him, beaming. "Worked, though, didn’t it?"
The Doctor took a moment to process the time gap as they finally reached the TARDIS. Something was very, very wrong. “So if I said ‘metacrisis’ or ‘twenty-seven planets in the sky’, that wouldn’t mean a thing to you?” he asked as he opened the doors. He turned, expecting Rose’s response. Instead, he watched her pitch slowly forward as shimmering golden light flowed from her eyes and mouth to the interior of the control panel, back into the heart of the TARDIS.
His body took action as his brain tried to deny everything it saw; he barely remembered catching her and bringing her unconscious form inside. Murmuring encouragements to her in English, Gallifreyan, and a hundred other languages, he set their course to Rome, grateful that he knew the exact location of a nurse that would aid him without question.
There were times when it was his solemn duty to set right the corruption in the universe and times when the whole of reality hung in the balance, waiting for him to make a decision. But right now, he was a selfish old man. As he knelt on the grating, pulling Rose’s limp body to his chest, feeling her rapid, erratic heartbeat, and absolutely aching with hurry, he vowed to break any rule, any law of nature necessary to keep her.