Doctor Who - Time
Alright, first fic post.
Title: Time
Pairing: 10/Rose
Rating: T for now
Disclaimer: Not mine, but if your offering...
Summary: Post-Doomsday fix it of only mildly epic proportions. In which the Doctor, Rose and Donna save the Earth, Pete's World and a handful of others. Let's see how.
Time really isn’t linear. Well, perhaps from a 78th century Zoogodean perspective of linear patterns, but planar creatures always have an odd sort of perception. Really it was rather like a ball, timey-whimey or otherwise. The point is, at any given moment, any millisecond in space and time, and any other dimension you Zoogodean’s would like to throw in there, life was infinite. There were a million and one, a trillion and two even, possibilities hanging glittering and tremulous in any given moment. The Doctor could look at a split second in the universe and see, really and truly see, the complex spider-webbing of time and possibility overlaid on that brief moment. He could, but really, he’d rather not. Gave a bloke a bit of a headache.
Still, it was there, lurking in the corner of his eye, or rather the corner of his mind. Where he left all sorts of things (Gallifrey and Susan and Romana and the Master and orange skies over red fields) to accumulate dust. And normally there it stayed, quietly tinting his universe in familiar shades. So it was rather jarring when this screen was abruptly lifted from his vision.
While a better metaphor might be that it was quite similar to when a Yykmyykian broke from its placental exoskeleton to first view its gaseous world with it’s eighty-three eyes. An acceptable Earth substitute circa the 21st century was that previous to that moment he had been viewing the universe in full colour, high definition, Dolby digital surround sound, to have suddenly reverted to a stuttering, sepia toned, grainy image.
It was understandable, then, that the considerably jarred Doctor stumbled briefly on the cobbled streets of Urvia and had to lean heavily on the stand selling lo, which was rather like a purple banana but most definitely less pleasant when ingested. It was also understandable that Donna about had a heart attack when she turned round from inspecting the aforementioned lo speculatively to see the Doctor panting heavily and alarmingly pale.
----
“Doctor, Doctor? Are you alright?” Abandoning the purple banana where she found it she was crouching next to the Doctor as he leaned on the stand. His eyes were glassy and his grip on the wooden stalk holding up the cabana was white knuckled. “Doctor?” More than a bit shaken Donna reached out her hand, lightly brushing the Doctor’s shoulder before firmly shaking him “Doctor!” His gaze abruptly shifted from the miscellaneous foreground to searing straight into her eyes. More or less used to his occasional bout of Oncoming Storm, Donna sighed in mild relief and beamed up at the stalls owner who looked about as perturbed as a Groat could, that is any being possessing of twelve noses in varying strategic positions but no eyes could.
“Come on then, let’s get you back to the TARDIS to save the universe you great git.” Pulling his lean form up and brushing off his familiar brown pinstripe suit. “Had me worried there, thought you’d seen a ghost the way you were acting.” The Doctor allowed himself to be led through the market back to the TARDIS, and was led equally complacently into his ship and on to the pilot’s chair in the console room. By this point Donna had moved from mildly nervous to full blown terrified. Never had she known the stupid skinny Martian to do anything complacently. “Doctor? What is it?” Shaking his head slowly, as though waking from a daze, the Doctor looked at Donna grimly
“It’s gone.” Goes to show, even in the middle of what must be a full blown crisis, the daft alien would be vague as all get out just to look cool.
“What is Doctor?” Donna was really only so patient and if he didn’t explain soon he was gonna get a slap, because despite herself, she was quite worried.
“The Veil, between the worlds. Between the universes.” He shuddered eloquently as he uttered it, as though someone had just walked over his grave. “It’s gone.”
----
Rose Tyler was absolutely and completely bored. Alright, so she didn’t have A-Levels. This daft universe didn’t even have A-Levels, there was just some lark about a Proficiency Test and a mind boggling array of certificates and diplomas. Really, you’d think that the organization which dealt almost exclusively with the extraterrestrial or the fantastical and was run by her not-dad would just take her invaluable experience at face value and just give her a position somewhere or other. But no, she had to have the right qualifiers, You understand Rose? It would just seem like favouritism otherwise. Right, because two linear years and who knows how much TARDIS time spent seeing the universe from beginning to ending just wasn’t enough experience for a desk job.
Twelve seconds after the Doctor faded away from her on Bad Wolf Bay and about fifty five seconds after she accepted she was stuck and he wasn’t coming back to finish his sentence Rose decided that she was going to move on. That phase lasted a surprisingly long amount of time. The three months spent mourning him before her jaunt to Norway was enough. Rose Tyler didn’t need a man, or a Time Lord for that matter, to define her. She was going to see the world. So Pete passed out a travel allowance, she kissed her mum goodbye and told Mickey to stay in touch. Then off she went.
Spent a year and a half travelling the world, at least, this world - saw the United States of Mexico and up through America and the Canadian Union. Back around to New Germany, Russia and Chzeckoslovania. Spent an extended period of time in the Japanese Isles and deeply enjoyed New Zealand, which was most notable in its lack of difference from her home universe, having eschewed travel by zeppelin. Australia was a no fly zone for the last decade due to the nuclear strikes taken in the last half of the Great Atlantic War. South America was amazing and Rose couldn’t really spot much difference, but neither had she known much about the continent in her own world. Before she knew it she had seen what felt like everything this planet had to offer and only a deep dislike of cold kept her from the poles of the world. Then it was just a matter of time before her evenings were spent staring up at the stars.
The expanse stretching above her causing strange twinges somewhere in her chest, a tear in her running ragged at the edges. A hole she imagined must have been filled by the adventure and wonder of her old life (but really was the space she kept for the Doctor). From that point it was a hop, skip and an extended zeppelin ride back to London. Her mum threw a great do, and everyone got together. There was much talk of what she was going to do now and then someone mentioned if she met a bloke and then she was crying.
The Doctor always used to like to wax poetic on the nature of time and how it was a fickle beast. Really, since those twelve seconds past the Doctor leaving her hopeless in a strange universe, nearly two years had passed. At least empirically. However, as far as Rose was concerned, not two seconds must have gone by. It was as though time had folded in on itself while she wasn’t paying attention. And now two moments, two Roses, were no longer separated by time and distance and experience but laying one atop the other. It really was incredibly frustrating to realize that perhaps she did need the Doctor, even if she couldn’t have him.
The party cleared out pretty fast after that leaving her and mum hugging each other in a pile in the drawing room while Pete, Mickey and Jake hung about awkwardly the next room over. Jackie tucked Rose into bed that night like she’d not done for over a decade and proceeded to dress down Pete for being an insensitive twat.
Rose woke up twelve hours later with a mild head ache and a new conviction. So being her own women hadn’t worked in the traditional sense for her. What ever did? Nonetheless, Rose Tyler wasn’t going to just sit around. If her Doctor was going to be stubborn about the whole fabric of time and space being torn to shreds thing then she’d just have to find a way back to him herself. So she got up, showered and asked Pete for a place at Torchwood. Figures that all of that would lead her to a brain numbing lecture on organic chemistry.
Still it would be worth it, if she could see her Doctor again.