FIC: "Equal and Opposite" 3/10, NC-17, Ten/Rose
Title: Equal and Opposite
Author: Amanda Rex, amandarex
Character/Pairing: Ten/Rose
Rating: NC-17, M
Spoilers: All of S1, S2, and S3 up to "The Lazarus Experiment"
Summary: As the Doctor discovered during the events of "The Runaway Bride", an excess of Huon particles can send you straight to the TARDIS, if you're not careful. What if Rose carried enough residual Huon energy after absorbing the Heart of the TARDIS in "The Parting of the Ways" to pull her through the Void and back to the Doctor?
Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the laptop this was written on. You know it, I know it.
Warnings: This isn't the usual, happy reunion fic. Warnings for dark and unhappy moments.
Author's Notes: I would like to thank my wonderful beta reader for all of her time and support, dynapink. Couldn't do it without you. Concrit on this fic is welcome. I would also like to thank scifiangel, corruptinnocent, iwillrememberu, svanderslice, firefaery2, hannagreen20, calapine, megoddess2, ellenscult, blackadder72, calleigh-j, jen-chan13, effulgent-girl, misscam, isolus-gurl, eulalumel, monkeefan1 for their contributions to a thread I posted on time_and_chips, which helped me a great deal with Chapter 6 of this fic.
Earlier parts: Teaser | Chapter 1
He was still spinning her around, clutched tightly in his arms, when he suddenly and unceremoniously released her.
"Wait," he said, holding up one long finger between their faces. "This has to wait. Someone's missing." He began to pace as Rose tried to wrap her confused thoughts around her new reality.
"Who's missing? Someone from the TARDIS? Did you find Jack?"
"Yes. And no. Yes and no, respectively."
"What?" she said, feeling more confused than ever.
"Yes, she's someone from the TARDIS. And no, it's not Jack."
"She?" Rose asked, feeling irrationally jealous. She'd been gone six years in her timeline, and there was no telling how long she'd been gone from this one. She hadn't wanted him to live out his nearly eternal lifespan alone, traveling the universe in an empty TARDIS. Something about knowing the specifics, though, made her wish she could forget.
"Martha. Martha Jones. We went to the moon. We met Shakespeare. We got separated on New Earth, and then we found some Daleks."
"Daleks? How could they-"
"Doesn't matter," he said, cutting her off and leaving her a bit hurt.
"You took her to New Earth?"
His eyes met hers and he ceased his pacing. Then he looked deliberately away from her. "Just a few trips, to say thanks."
She got the uncomfortable feeling that he was hiding something. His inscrutable exterior dropped easily back into place, making his face unreadable and the subject effectively dropped.
"What happened to her?"
"She disappeared. We were talking, she glowed, and then she was gone."
"She glowed?"
"Yes," he answered, looking thoughtful. "That's the point, isn't it? Not the disappearance. The glow is the key! Oh, yes!" he called triumphantly. "You do always know the right thing to say, just like I told her."
"Glad I could-"
"There's got to be something. Some idea. But where?" He ran to the screen on the main console, which was still hanging a bit off-center as a result of some of his previous incarnation's more frustrated tinkering. "The TARDIS will show some indication of what's happened."
"What about the TARDIS?"
"The glow. Huon particles. I can't believe I hadn't considered it."
"Hu-what?" Rose asked, making her feel absolutely thick in the way that only the Doctor was capable of.
"Huon particles, just like the ones in the heart of the TARDIS. Yours, the ones I couldn't take from you, were activated somehow, bringing you here. I just don't know-" he broke off, jogging through the control room as he made frustrated noises.
"Doctor!" she yelled, trying to follow him and failing horribly in the attempt.
"What does that have to do with Martha?" he said, his hair now an absolute caricature around his head as he ran his hands through it. "I just don't know how it's connected to Martha."
"Wait, Doctor. I'm still not sure what you're on about. What d'you mean, mine were activated somehow?"
"Residual Huon energy that I must not have been able to extract from you, after Satellite Five." She just looked at him, searching her memory for something that would explain what he was telling her. He looked a bit guilty, to be honest. "I never really told you, Rose, how we got out of that."
"It's hazy," she admitted. "You collapsed before I really had a chance to ask you what happened. After that, I suppose, it just didn't seem important."
"You absorbed energy from the TARDIS, Rose, but it was killing you. I had to take it from you, but I must have left some behind. Not enough to kill you, but enough to-" He stopped, and grinned at her. "Enough to bring you back, even through the void. They must have protected you."
"So, I'm back. I'm back for good."
"You are."
She waited for something to happen, for him to kiss her, or dance, or do any of the crazy, wonderful things he used to do, showing off for her. She could see it on his face, the joy that threatened to explode from his very fingertips. It all muted a moment later, as though a veil had passed over them.
"We just have to find out what this has to do with Martha."
"You said she glowed, though. Was she exposed to the Hu...Hu...whatevers, as well?"
"Not that I know of," he said, he told her, looking genuinely puzzled. "But I do know one thing." He smiled madly at her again. "We're just the two to find out."
"Where do we start?" she said, that tingle of excitement passing through her body, a feeling she'd long since given up for dead.
"We'll start with where I was about to take her. It's as good a place as any, and the coordinates are already programmed into the TARDIS. A flat, not too far from Royal Hope Hospital." He ran to the controls, flipping switches with one hand while leaning over to turn a crank with the other.
The time rotor began to move, and the noise, that wonderful noise she thought she'd never hear again, began to ring in her ears. She grabbed for something to steady herself but, just as she used to, she fell on her backside with a graceless bump instead.
It honestly wasn't until that moment, flat on her backside, that she felt at home again. She smiled, watching as the Doctor continued to dance around the center column, talking to himself as he operated the rather complicated controls.
She got a particularly good look at his bum as he threw himself across a panel, the back of his rather snug new suit jacket riding up. It reminded her painfully of nights she'd spent cursing herself for unfinished business, always wondering what he would have done if she'd ever been more direct.
She'd made promises to herself, promises that felt meaningless and irrelevant at the time, that she wouldn't waste her second chance if she ever got one. The six years she'd spent in a world with zeppelins and a father who hadn't died in a car crash, in a world that wasn't truly hers, had changed her.
She was much more direct now, with a higher opinion of herself and her own abilities. It was something that, even without her A-levels, had landed her a position at that world's Torchwood instead of one in a shop, folding jumpers and directing customers to the loo. Unconsciously or not, she had tried to form herself into the woman the Doctor would have wanted her to be.
In the end, it had taken a bit more effort than that to finish the job. She'd changed her hair and chose new, muted shades of lipstick and eye shadow, all to the constant refrain of "But why d'you want to look so plain, sweetheart?" from her mum. To be a different girl, a different woman, she'd had to change the person who looked back at her in the mirror. It was the last thing she'd needed to do before she felt she could really go on.
She picked herself off the floor and brushed unnecessarily at her night clothes, feeling silly in her fuzzy slippers.
"I just need a moment," she said, trying to get the Doctor's attention as the TARDIS controls slowed to a rest. "If we're off somewhere, I don't think this is the best thing to wear."
He looked at her as though he hadn't really seen her before, laughing a bit. "Oh, I don't know. I accomplished quite a bit in my jim-jams, once."
"Well, I'm not you," she told him, laughing with him. What wasn't funny was the worry that her old clothes wouldn't fit her anymore, either in body or in mind, but there wasn't much to be done about that for the moment.
"Hurry up. No time to waste."
"It's a time machine, or don't you remember?" she teased him, disappearing down the corridor to deal with the clothes her 20 year old self had seen fit to bring aboard.
She searched through the piles of laundry, which she was grateful to find was clean, at least. A wave of nostalgia came over her as it reminded her of some of their close scrapes. A t-shirt bearing a large Union Jack brought a smile to her face, just as an artfully battered red hoodie did.
She finally decided on a fairly conservative outfit, one that she was pleased to note still fit her as though she'd bought it yesterday. After one final look in the mirror, finding a disorienting mixture of the woman she was and the girl she'd once been, she headed back to meet the Doctor, and possibly to meet this Martha Jones.
On to Chapter 3
Author: Amanda Rex, amandarex
Character/Pairing: Ten/Rose
Rating: NC-17, M
Spoilers: All of S1, S2, and S3 up to "The Lazarus Experiment"
Summary: As the Doctor discovered during the events of "The Runaway Bride", an excess of Huon particles can send you straight to the TARDIS, if you're not careful. What if Rose carried enough residual Huon energy after absorbing the Heart of the TARDIS in "The Parting of the Ways" to pull her through the Void and back to the Doctor?
Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the laptop this was written on. You know it, I know it.
Warnings: This isn't the usual, happy reunion fic. Warnings for dark and unhappy moments.
Author's Notes: I would like to thank my wonderful beta reader for all of her time and support, dynapink. Couldn't do it without you. Concrit on this fic is welcome. I would also like to thank scifiangel, corruptinnocent, iwillrememberu, svanderslice, firefaery2, hannagreen20, calapine, megoddess2, ellenscult, blackadder72, calleigh-j, jen-chan13, effulgent-girl, misscam, isolus-gurl, eulalumel, monkeefan1 for their contributions to a thread I posted on time_and_chips, which helped me a great deal with Chapter 6 of this fic.
Earlier parts: Teaser | Chapter 1
He was still spinning her around, clutched tightly in his arms, when he suddenly and unceremoniously released her.
"Wait," he said, holding up one long finger between their faces. "This has to wait. Someone's missing." He began to pace as Rose tried to wrap her confused thoughts around her new reality.
"Who's missing? Someone from the TARDIS? Did you find Jack?"
"Yes. And no. Yes and no, respectively."
"What?" she said, feeling more confused than ever.
"Yes, she's someone from the TARDIS. And no, it's not Jack."
"She?" Rose asked, feeling irrationally jealous. She'd been gone six years in her timeline, and there was no telling how long she'd been gone from this one. She hadn't wanted him to live out his nearly eternal lifespan alone, traveling the universe in an empty TARDIS. Something about knowing the specifics, though, made her wish she could forget.
"Martha. Martha Jones. We went to the moon. We met Shakespeare. We got separated on New Earth, and then we found some Daleks."
"Daleks? How could they-"
"Doesn't matter," he said, cutting her off and leaving her a bit hurt.
"You took her to New Earth?"
His eyes met hers and he ceased his pacing. Then he looked deliberately away from her. "Just a few trips, to say thanks."
She got the uncomfortable feeling that he was hiding something. His inscrutable exterior dropped easily back into place, making his face unreadable and the subject effectively dropped.
"What happened to her?"
"She disappeared. We were talking, she glowed, and then she was gone."
"She glowed?"
"Yes," he answered, looking thoughtful. "That's the point, isn't it? Not the disappearance. The glow is the key! Oh, yes!" he called triumphantly. "You do always know the right thing to say, just like I told her."
"Glad I could-"
"There's got to be something. Some idea. But where?" He ran to the screen on the main console, which was still hanging a bit off-center as a result of some of his previous incarnation's more frustrated tinkering. "The TARDIS will show some indication of what's happened."
"What about the TARDIS?"
"The glow. Huon particles. I can't believe I hadn't considered it."
"Hu-what?" Rose asked, making her feel absolutely thick in the way that only the Doctor was capable of.
"Huon particles, just like the ones in the heart of the TARDIS. Yours, the ones I couldn't take from you, were activated somehow, bringing you here. I just don't know-" he broke off, jogging through the control room as he made frustrated noises.
"Doctor!" she yelled, trying to follow him and failing horribly in the attempt.
"What does that have to do with Martha?" he said, his hair now an absolute caricature around his head as he ran his hands through it. "I just don't know how it's connected to Martha."
"Wait, Doctor. I'm still not sure what you're on about. What d'you mean, mine were activated somehow?"
"Residual Huon energy that I must not have been able to extract from you, after Satellite Five." She just looked at him, searching her memory for something that would explain what he was telling her. He looked a bit guilty, to be honest. "I never really told you, Rose, how we got out of that."
"It's hazy," she admitted. "You collapsed before I really had a chance to ask you what happened. After that, I suppose, it just didn't seem important."
"You absorbed energy from the TARDIS, Rose, but it was killing you. I had to take it from you, but I must have left some behind. Not enough to kill you, but enough to-" He stopped, and grinned at her. "Enough to bring you back, even through the void. They must have protected you."
"So, I'm back. I'm back for good."
"You are."
She waited for something to happen, for him to kiss her, or dance, or do any of the crazy, wonderful things he used to do, showing off for her. She could see it on his face, the joy that threatened to explode from his very fingertips. It all muted a moment later, as though a veil had passed over them.
"We just have to find out what this has to do with Martha."
"You said she glowed, though. Was she exposed to the Hu...Hu...whatevers, as well?"
"Not that I know of," he said, he told her, looking genuinely puzzled. "But I do know one thing." He smiled madly at her again. "We're just the two to find out."
"Where do we start?" she said, that tingle of excitement passing through her body, a feeling she'd long since given up for dead.
"We'll start with where I was about to take her. It's as good a place as any, and the coordinates are already programmed into the TARDIS. A flat, not too far from Royal Hope Hospital." He ran to the controls, flipping switches with one hand while leaning over to turn a crank with the other.
The time rotor began to move, and the noise, that wonderful noise she thought she'd never hear again, began to ring in her ears. She grabbed for something to steady herself but, just as she used to, she fell on her backside with a graceless bump instead.
It honestly wasn't until that moment, flat on her backside, that she felt at home again. She smiled, watching as the Doctor continued to dance around the center column, talking to himself as he operated the rather complicated controls.
She got a particularly good look at his bum as he threw himself across a panel, the back of his rather snug new suit jacket riding up. It reminded her painfully of nights she'd spent cursing herself for unfinished business, always wondering what he would have done if she'd ever been more direct.
She'd made promises to herself, promises that felt meaningless and irrelevant at the time, that she wouldn't waste her second chance if she ever got one. The six years she'd spent in a world with zeppelins and a father who hadn't died in a car crash, in a world that wasn't truly hers, had changed her.
She was much more direct now, with a higher opinion of herself and her own abilities. It was something that, even without her A-levels, had landed her a position at that world's Torchwood instead of one in a shop, folding jumpers and directing customers to the loo. Unconsciously or not, she had tried to form herself into the woman the Doctor would have wanted her to be.
In the end, it had taken a bit more effort than that to finish the job. She'd changed her hair and chose new, muted shades of lipstick and eye shadow, all to the constant refrain of "But why d'you want to look so plain, sweetheart?" from her mum. To be a different girl, a different woman, she'd had to change the person who looked back at her in the mirror. It was the last thing she'd needed to do before she felt she could really go on.
She picked herself off the floor and brushed unnecessarily at her night clothes, feeling silly in her fuzzy slippers.
"I just need a moment," she said, trying to get the Doctor's attention as the TARDIS controls slowed to a rest. "If we're off somewhere, I don't think this is the best thing to wear."
He looked at her as though he hadn't really seen her before, laughing a bit. "Oh, I don't know. I accomplished quite a bit in my jim-jams, once."
"Well, I'm not you," she told him, laughing with him. What wasn't funny was the worry that her old clothes wouldn't fit her anymore, either in body or in mind, but there wasn't much to be done about that for the moment.
"Hurry up. No time to waste."
"It's a time machine, or don't you remember?" she teased him, disappearing down the corridor to deal with the clothes her 20 year old self had seen fit to bring aboard.
She searched through the piles of laundry, which she was grateful to find was clean, at least. A wave of nostalgia came over her as it reminded her of some of their close scrapes. A t-shirt bearing a large Union Jack brought a smile to her face, just as an artfully battered red hoodie did.
She finally decided on a fairly conservative outfit, one that she was pleased to note still fit her as though she'd bought it yesterday. After one final look in the mirror, finding a disorienting mixture of the woman she was and the girl she'd once been, she headed back to meet the Doctor, and possibly to meet this Martha Jones.
On to Chapter 3