Crossroads - A Blue Gravel Path (3/13)
Title: A Blue Gravel Path
Characters: The Doctor, Rose Tyler, among others
Warnings: PG. Oh, and it’s baby!fic.
Spoilers: For the sake of this story, S4 never happens.
Beta: runriggers
Part of the Crossroads series
A now AU and non-S4 compliant story. Ah well.
Part One: Reflections
Part Two: One Day
Part Three: Choices and Chances
Part Four: A Blue Gravel Path - Chapter One ~ Chapter Two
Chapter Three: Dex, Dragons, and Panyards..... It never fails - when one wanders from the Tardis, one winds up taken into custody by the local constabulary.
Chapter Three: Dex, Dragons, and Panyards
Rose woke to the soft voice of her son, and opened her eyes to see a pair of brown eyes and a short nose resting on the edge of the mattress. This further muffled his voice, softly repeating, “Mummy?” over and over. It was a bit like a broken record, like another little boy calling for his mother in the midst of a German bombing campaign.
It almost worried her, waking to that memory, except it was tempered now by both time and experience. Rose felt a kinship with lost little Jamie, who’d been fixed by the nanogenes and returned to his mother, much as Rose had been fixed by the nanogenes and returned to the Doctor. Jamie had been lost and lonely, which the little boy at Rose’s bedside most decidedly was not. Dex was worried, of course, and a little bit fearful, but the cool green glow that accompanied his thoughts and knocked at Rose’s silvery-turquoise consciousness had an impatient and hopeful feeling about it, as if it was completely confident that Mummy could fix anything.
As soon as Rose’s eyes opened, Dex fell quiet, brown eyes wide. They looked at each other for a moment, Rose slowly waking up, and Dex slowly realizing that his mother had finally woken.
“Mummy,” he whispered one last time. “Why’re you and Dad naked? You’re not making another baby, are you?”
Rose’s hearts nearly stopped before she realized that she and the Doctor were, indeed, covered by the blankets she’d managed to grab shortly before they had fallen asleep. How her son knew they were both naked despite this, Rose didn’t know and didn’t think she wanted to know. She almost wished they’d remembered to lock the door behind them, but despite his bravado, she could tell from the green throb of Dex’s thoughts that he was distressed on some level that had nothing to do with his parents’ state of dress, so it was probably just as well the door was unlocked.
“Dex,” she whispered. “Go out into the corridor, sweetheart. I’ll be there in a tic.”
Dex’s nose dropped down from the mattress as he scampered out of the room and slipped into the corridor. Rose breathed a sigh of relief, and assessed her situation. The Doctor snored softly behind her, his arm gripping her waist possessively. Carefully, having had years of practice, she rolled just a bit closer to him, and he rolled onto his back, freeing her. She quickly moved out from under the covers, sliding her pillow down so that as he rolled back to slide his arm over her again, he cuddled her pillow. She watched as he frowned in his sleep, but when he didn’t immediately wake, Rose knew she’d have at least twenty minutes before he realized he’d been tricked.
Rose tossed on her clothes and hurried out to find her son sitting patiently in the corridor. She pulled on her shoes while the explanation flowed out of Dex as if he’d been holding back a tornado.
“I only wanted to see them, and if they were like Dad said, I didn’t mean to really do anything bad, only I told Aunt Sarah Jane I could but I don’t think she believed me but I can and I did and now the TARDIS is upset with me and I don’t know why because I’ll bet you never felt a thing and she won’t even open the doors and I want to see if I landed us right.”
“Breathe, Dex,” said Rose automatically.
“Why?”
“Because if you rely on your bypass respiratory system too much, you won’t be able to use it when you really need it. And because I asked you.” Dex inhaled sharply, and Rose knelt in front of him. He was trembling, but it was hard to tell if it was fear or indignation. There was a dark bruise forming on his cheek, and Rose ran her thumb over it with a frown. Dex winced.
“What caused this?”
“I fell when we landed,” said Dex. “Mummy, the TARDIS won’t open the doors.”
“Of course the TARDIS won’t open the doors,” said Rose kindly. “You know she won’t unless Dad or me are there with you. Besides, we aren’t anywhere for them to open, we’re orbiting Kaspa.” Rose paused while Dex’s words sunk in. “What do you mean, landed?”
“I took us somewhere!”
Rose gave her son what she hoped was a Do Not Exaggerate To Your Mother look.
“Mum, I did.”
“All right, where?”
“To see the Panyards.”
“Who?”
“Dad talks about them, they’re awful, he says, they eat little boys and sail like pirates and I wanted to see one.”
Rose sighed. “I knew telling you physics as bedtime stories was a bad idea.”
“It’s not physics, Mummy, it’s real,” insisted Dex, without any thought to logic whatsoever. “Panyards live in Lezzabethengland and I told the TARDIS to take us there and she did.”
Rose stared at her son for a moment, trying desperately not to laugh. “Dex. Do you mean the Spaniards in Elizabethan England?”
“That’s what I said!”
Rose’s voice began to rise. “You had the TARDIS move us from orbit, into the Time Vortex, and all the way back to Elizabethan England? Without either of your parents nearby?”
Dex swallowed. “Yep.”
Rose rubbed her temples for a moment, wondering how she had produced an exact replica of the Doctor, only shorter. Yelling at the Doctor never worked. Yelling at Dex just made her feel like a heel. Rose stood up. “Well, allons-y, then,” she said, with as much enthusiasm as she could muster. “We’d best take a look, don’t you think?”
Dex grinned wildly at his mother. “I’m not in trouble?”
“Oh, you’re in trouble. But we’ve got fifteen minutes before your father wakes up, we might as well make the most of it.”
Dex whooped and grabbed his mother’s hand to pull her down the corridor and into the console room. The TARDIS continued to hum disapprovingly, and Rose glanced at the crack in the strut as she passed. It didn’t seem to be any worse than it had been that morning, but the TARDIS didn’t so much as squeak as she passed it, which struck Rose as unusual. For the past week, the TARDIS had let out a series of beeps and whistles when anyone passed the damaged strut; now the console room remained silent, save for the hum.
Rose half expected to see a line of guards outside the TARDIS’s doors, all waiting to take the Doctor’s head. Instead, she found nothing but a lonely, thick forest, smelling strongly of damp bark and wet grass. The air was heavy and there was a low mist along the ground; it smelled of rain and damp dirt, and Rose wished she’d thought to find them both cloaks or coats or something to wear over their shoulders, because the chill in the air made even her cold-blooded son shiver. Rose pulled him a little closer, but Dex was fascinated by his surroundings and wasn’t distracted in the least.
“Mummy,” he said, his voice filled with delight, “are we in Sherwood Forest?”
Rose grinned, pleased that something existed in her son’s head other than temporal physics and pirating Panyards. Besides, the idea of somewhere new to explore - and they hadn’t explored anything new in months - appealed to her immensely. “Do you hear Robin Hood?”
“Maybe.” Dex began pulling his mother into the trees, so anxious to explore that he slipped on the wet leaves beneath his feet. “Do Panyards live in Sherwood Forest, too?”
“Spaniards,” corrected Rose, and she glanced back at the TARDIS. “We ought to find something warmer to wear if we’re going to go exploring.”
Dex broke into a grin. “Can we go exploring? I won’t get lost, I’m not cold, can we go now, please? Before Dad wakes up?”
“You’re still in trouble for running the TARDIS without either of us there,” Rose reminded her son, and he nodded, a bit too enthusiastic.
“Oh, I know that, but Dad won’t let me explore once he knows I’m in trouble. Can we look around a little bit, first? Please? I won’t tell Dad, promise!”
“I’m not supposed to be the good cop,” muttered Rose as she let Dex pull her further into the woods. “You have your father wrapped around your little finger already.”
“Do you think the dragons live here, too?” asked Dex, kicking up leaves as he walked.
“Dragons?”
“I want to catch one and show it to Aunt Sarah Jane.”
“I don’t think there are any dragons, Dex,” said Rose.
“Dad said there were.”
“Not on Earth, sweetheart.”
Dex stopped in his tracks and stared at his mother. “We’re on Earth?” he moaned, and Rose picked him up for a hug.
“Oh, Dex, where did you think Elizabethan England was?”
“Somewhere with dragons!” wailed the little boy, and Rose kissed his cheek.
“You know England is on Earth, that’s where Mummy’s from,” she chided her son gently, and set him back down on his feet. “Now, you can lift up your chin and help me explore, or we can go right back to the TARDIS and explain to your father what you did.”
Dex let out a most disgusted sigh and began walking through the trees again. “I thought there’d be dragons.”
“Next time Dad asks where we want to go, I’ll ask for dragons,” Rose promised him, ruffling his hair, and Dex stepped out of the way.
“He’ll know you’re asking for me.”
“Who said I’d ask for you? I like dragons.”
“Why’d Dad say there were dragons in Lezzabethangland, anyway, if there aren’t any dragons?” demanded Dex.
“He didn’t want to come here,” explained Rose, holding some of the brush out of their way. “He hasn’t had very good experiences when he’s landed in this time.”
“Like what?”
“Well, the first time, he was with Aunt Martha, and one of his hearts stopped beating, and she had to start it up again. And the next time was before you were born, and I was kidnapped by Spaniards, and he and Aunt Martha had to rescue me.”
Dex stared at his mother with something between awe and envy on his face. “You were kidnapped? By Panyards?”
“Spaniards, Dex. Yes.”
“Did they split you in two and eat you up like a baked potato?”
Rose stared at her son. “What is your father telling you before bed? Because it isn’t temporal physics.”
“Did they?”
“No!”
Dex sighed. “Are there Panyards in Sherwood Forest?”
“No!”
“Then what’s the point of being here?”
Rose was about to pick up her wayward son and drag him back to the TARDIS to start off his punishment when she heard the snap of breaking wood behind them. She froze, resting her hand on Dex’s shoulder. Rose had never gotten the hang of using words with telepathy, but she knew enough to give her son the sense of staying still and being quiet, and Dex immediately obeyed, looking up at his mother with wide eyes.
“Who’s there?” she called out, trying to make herself sound brave and important. She glanced behind her, and saw a man step through the trees. Carefully she turned to face him head-on, and held Dex just behind her.
“Who are you?” she snapped, determined to make a good show despite the odd situation.
He was tall, with blond hair and beard. He wore dark brown hose with black breeches, and a tan doublet on which was embroidered the shadow of a royal seal in dark brown. Rose could see bits of the white shirt he wore underneath the doublet at his neck and wrist, but his arms were covered by the thick black cloak that swirled around him. He wore a shiny metal helmet, and in his arms, pointed directly at her, was a long musket.
Rose could feel Dex tremble behind her, and she remembered exactly why they’d stopped exploring new places for a while; Bad Things had a tendency to occur. Dex’s fear pushed so strongly against her own, she could barely stand up straight. She held him closer to her, willing him silently to trust her.
“I am the captain of Her Majesty, Queen Mary’s Royal Guard, madame, and you are under arrest for trespassing.”
“Trespassing?” echoed Rose. “I saw no sign posted claiming these as private grounds.”
The captain snorted. “Then you are not from here. You will come with me.”
“I will do no such thing,” said Rose hotly. “My son and I were heading home, and that’s where I intend to go.”
She took a step forward, but around them, several more guards appeared, each holding a musket, each with a doublet emblazoned with what had to be Mary’s seal. Rose stopped again, looking more closely at the seal on the doublet. If Mary was queen, then Dex had brought them to a point in history well before the Doctor had met Elizabeth - hopefully. It meant he was still safe. It meant he might be able to help them.
“Name yourself, woman.”
Rose thought she might as well use the title another queen had given her. “I am Lady Rose Tyler of the Powell Estate,” she said as stiffly as she could manage. “This is my son. I insist you allow us to pass.”
The captain lowered his musket, and tipped his head at her respectfully. “Lady, I beg your pardon, but I cannot. I am under orders to bring all who wander here to Hatfield House. Once there, if what you say is true, your freedom can be obtained.”
Dex trembled again, but Rose didn’t think it was fear. The little boy shifted from foot to foot; he was practically bouncing. “Are we prisoners then?”
“No, lady,” said the captain, almost smiling. “Honored guests - with an escort.”
Rose wasn’t sure one rolled their eyes in Elizabethan England, but she did it anyway. The Doctor still slept, Dex tugged at her jumper, and her canvas trainers were soaked through.
“I will come with you,” said Rose carefully. “Provided you tell me where it is we go.”
“Hatfield House is two miles south. If you walk quickly, we will be there in but half an hour.”
Rose glanced back to where the TARDIS waited; she couldn’t even see the blue paint shining through the trees. “Lead on, then.”
The captain was good enough to hold back the worst of the branches as Rose and Dex walked. On the whole, though, he and the rest of the guards did not seem to pay much attention to either of them, talking amongst themselves and every so often letting out a barking laugh.
“Mummy?” Dex sounded entirely too excited, considering they were being marched toward imprisonment.
“Yes, Dex?”
“Dad won’t think we’ve been eaten by Panyards, will he?”
“I doubt it.”
“Are we going to be eaten by Panyards?”
“I hope not.”
“Okay. Because I still want to find a dragon for Aunt Sarah Jane.”
Rose began to laugh. The guards surrounding them glanced at her, but she didn’t care in the slightest. “Don’t worry, Dex. If there’s a dragon at Hatfield House, I’m sure he’ll be more than happy to meet Sarah Jane.”
“Good.” Satisfied, Dex squeezed her hand once, and then jogged up ahead to the captain, beginning to pepper him with questions Rose could only dimly overhear. She was able to pick up on dragons, and the use of a musket, and before long, her son had charmed the guard into describing every tree and plant as they passed by.
Rose grinned, despite herself. Leave it to her son to find the joy and excitement in anything, from being presented with a baby sister instead of the pint-size TARDIS he’d requested, to being marched toward their possible execution. She could feel the tension and fear leaving Dex’s thoughts, melting into the comfortable rhythms of a fascinated young boy, and Rose gently slipped back out of them, settling herself in her own concerned mind. The Doctor was still asleep, as was Nina, else she would have known it. The TARDIS hadn’t gone anywhere, because the key which hung around her neck beneath her jumper was still faintly warm. The superwatch was securely strapped to her wrist, with the built-in locater function that connected to the Doctor’s cellular modifier. For now, she and Dex were safe.
Rose rested her eyes on Dex and the captain, and wondered what they would find at Hatfield House.
Jump to Chapter Four
Characters: The Doctor, Rose Tyler, among others
Warnings: PG. Oh, and it’s baby!fic.
Spoilers: For the sake of this story, S4 never happens.
Beta: runriggers
Part of the Crossroads series
A now AU and non-S4 compliant story. Ah well.
Part One: Reflections
Part Two: One Day
Part Three: Choices and Chances
Part Four: A Blue Gravel Path - Chapter One ~ Chapter Two
Chapter Three: Dex, Dragons, and Panyards..... It never fails - when one wanders from the Tardis, one winds up taken into custody by the local constabulary.
Chapter Three: Dex, Dragons, and Panyards
Rose woke to the soft voice of her son, and opened her eyes to see a pair of brown eyes and a short nose resting on the edge of the mattress. This further muffled his voice, softly repeating, “Mummy?” over and over. It was a bit like a broken record, like another little boy calling for his mother in the midst of a German bombing campaign.
It almost worried her, waking to that memory, except it was tempered now by both time and experience. Rose felt a kinship with lost little Jamie, who’d been fixed by the nanogenes and returned to his mother, much as Rose had been fixed by the nanogenes and returned to the Doctor. Jamie had been lost and lonely, which the little boy at Rose’s bedside most decidedly was not. Dex was worried, of course, and a little bit fearful, but the cool green glow that accompanied his thoughts and knocked at Rose’s silvery-turquoise consciousness had an impatient and hopeful feeling about it, as if it was completely confident that Mummy could fix anything.
As soon as Rose’s eyes opened, Dex fell quiet, brown eyes wide. They looked at each other for a moment, Rose slowly waking up, and Dex slowly realizing that his mother had finally woken.
“Mummy,” he whispered one last time. “Why’re you and Dad naked? You’re not making another baby, are you?”
Rose’s hearts nearly stopped before she realized that she and the Doctor were, indeed, covered by the blankets she’d managed to grab shortly before they had fallen asleep. How her son knew they were both naked despite this, Rose didn’t know and didn’t think she wanted to know. She almost wished they’d remembered to lock the door behind them, but despite his bravado, she could tell from the green throb of Dex’s thoughts that he was distressed on some level that had nothing to do with his parents’ state of dress, so it was probably just as well the door was unlocked.
“Dex,” she whispered. “Go out into the corridor, sweetheart. I’ll be there in a tic.”
Dex’s nose dropped down from the mattress as he scampered out of the room and slipped into the corridor. Rose breathed a sigh of relief, and assessed her situation. The Doctor snored softly behind her, his arm gripping her waist possessively. Carefully, having had years of practice, she rolled just a bit closer to him, and he rolled onto his back, freeing her. She quickly moved out from under the covers, sliding her pillow down so that as he rolled back to slide his arm over her again, he cuddled her pillow. She watched as he frowned in his sleep, but when he didn’t immediately wake, Rose knew she’d have at least twenty minutes before he realized he’d been tricked.
Rose tossed on her clothes and hurried out to find her son sitting patiently in the corridor. She pulled on her shoes while the explanation flowed out of Dex as if he’d been holding back a tornado.
“I only wanted to see them, and if they were like Dad said, I didn’t mean to really do anything bad, only I told Aunt Sarah Jane I could but I don’t think she believed me but I can and I did and now the TARDIS is upset with me and I don’t know why because I’ll bet you never felt a thing and she won’t even open the doors and I want to see if I landed us right.”
“Breathe, Dex,” said Rose automatically.
“Why?”
“Because if you rely on your bypass respiratory system too much, you won’t be able to use it when you really need it. And because I asked you.” Dex inhaled sharply, and Rose knelt in front of him. He was trembling, but it was hard to tell if it was fear or indignation. There was a dark bruise forming on his cheek, and Rose ran her thumb over it with a frown. Dex winced.
“What caused this?”
“I fell when we landed,” said Dex. “Mummy, the TARDIS won’t open the doors.”
“Of course the TARDIS won’t open the doors,” said Rose kindly. “You know she won’t unless Dad or me are there with you. Besides, we aren’t anywhere for them to open, we’re orbiting Kaspa.” Rose paused while Dex’s words sunk in. “What do you mean, landed?”
“I took us somewhere!”
Rose gave her son what she hoped was a Do Not Exaggerate To Your Mother look.
“Mum, I did.”
“All right, where?”
“To see the Panyards.”
“Who?”
“Dad talks about them, they’re awful, he says, they eat little boys and sail like pirates and I wanted to see one.”
Rose sighed. “I knew telling you physics as bedtime stories was a bad idea.”
“It’s not physics, Mummy, it’s real,” insisted Dex, without any thought to logic whatsoever. “Panyards live in Lezzabethengland and I told the TARDIS to take us there and she did.”
Rose stared at her son for a moment, trying desperately not to laugh. “Dex. Do you mean the Spaniards in Elizabethan England?”
“That’s what I said!”
Rose’s voice began to rise. “You had the TARDIS move us from orbit, into the Time Vortex, and all the way back to Elizabethan England? Without either of your parents nearby?”
Dex swallowed. “Yep.”
Rose rubbed her temples for a moment, wondering how she had produced an exact replica of the Doctor, only shorter. Yelling at the Doctor never worked. Yelling at Dex just made her feel like a heel. Rose stood up. “Well, allons-y, then,” she said, with as much enthusiasm as she could muster. “We’d best take a look, don’t you think?”
Dex grinned wildly at his mother. “I’m not in trouble?”
“Oh, you’re in trouble. But we’ve got fifteen minutes before your father wakes up, we might as well make the most of it.”
Dex whooped and grabbed his mother’s hand to pull her down the corridor and into the console room. The TARDIS continued to hum disapprovingly, and Rose glanced at the crack in the strut as she passed. It didn’t seem to be any worse than it had been that morning, but the TARDIS didn’t so much as squeak as she passed it, which struck Rose as unusual. For the past week, the TARDIS had let out a series of beeps and whistles when anyone passed the damaged strut; now the console room remained silent, save for the hum.
Rose half expected to see a line of guards outside the TARDIS’s doors, all waiting to take the Doctor’s head. Instead, she found nothing but a lonely, thick forest, smelling strongly of damp bark and wet grass. The air was heavy and there was a low mist along the ground; it smelled of rain and damp dirt, and Rose wished she’d thought to find them both cloaks or coats or something to wear over their shoulders, because the chill in the air made even her cold-blooded son shiver. Rose pulled him a little closer, but Dex was fascinated by his surroundings and wasn’t distracted in the least.
“Mummy,” he said, his voice filled with delight, “are we in Sherwood Forest?”
Rose grinned, pleased that something existed in her son’s head other than temporal physics and pirating Panyards. Besides, the idea of somewhere new to explore - and they hadn’t explored anything new in months - appealed to her immensely. “Do you hear Robin Hood?”
“Maybe.” Dex began pulling his mother into the trees, so anxious to explore that he slipped on the wet leaves beneath his feet. “Do Panyards live in Sherwood Forest, too?”
“Spaniards,” corrected Rose, and she glanced back at the TARDIS. “We ought to find something warmer to wear if we’re going to go exploring.”
Dex broke into a grin. “Can we go exploring? I won’t get lost, I’m not cold, can we go now, please? Before Dad wakes up?”
“You’re still in trouble for running the TARDIS without either of us there,” Rose reminded her son, and he nodded, a bit too enthusiastic.
“Oh, I know that, but Dad won’t let me explore once he knows I’m in trouble. Can we look around a little bit, first? Please? I won’t tell Dad, promise!”
“I’m not supposed to be the good cop,” muttered Rose as she let Dex pull her further into the woods. “You have your father wrapped around your little finger already.”
“Do you think the dragons live here, too?” asked Dex, kicking up leaves as he walked.
“Dragons?”
“I want to catch one and show it to Aunt Sarah Jane.”
“I don’t think there are any dragons, Dex,” said Rose.
“Dad said there were.”
“Not on Earth, sweetheart.”
Dex stopped in his tracks and stared at his mother. “We’re on Earth?” he moaned, and Rose picked him up for a hug.
“Oh, Dex, where did you think Elizabethan England was?”
“Somewhere with dragons!” wailed the little boy, and Rose kissed his cheek.
“You know England is on Earth, that’s where Mummy’s from,” she chided her son gently, and set him back down on his feet. “Now, you can lift up your chin and help me explore, or we can go right back to the TARDIS and explain to your father what you did.”
Dex let out a most disgusted sigh and began walking through the trees again. “I thought there’d be dragons.”
“Next time Dad asks where we want to go, I’ll ask for dragons,” Rose promised him, ruffling his hair, and Dex stepped out of the way.
“He’ll know you’re asking for me.”
“Who said I’d ask for you? I like dragons.”
“Why’d Dad say there were dragons in Lezzabethangland, anyway, if there aren’t any dragons?” demanded Dex.
“He didn’t want to come here,” explained Rose, holding some of the brush out of their way. “He hasn’t had very good experiences when he’s landed in this time.”
“Like what?”
“Well, the first time, he was with Aunt Martha, and one of his hearts stopped beating, and she had to start it up again. And the next time was before you were born, and I was kidnapped by Spaniards, and he and Aunt Martha had to rescue me.”
Dex stared at his mother with something between awe and envy on his face. “You were kidnapped? By Panyards?”
“Spaniards, Dex. Yes.”
“Did they split you in two and eat you up like a baked potato?”
Rose stared at her son. “What is your father telling you before bed? Because it isn’t temporal physics.”
“Did they?”
“No!”
Dex sighed. “Are there Panyards in Sherwood Forest?”
“No!”
“Then what’s the point of being here?”
Rose was about to pick up her wayward son and drag him back to the TARDIS to start off his punishment when she heard the snap of breaking wood behind them. She froze, resting her hand on Dex’s shoulder. Rose had never gotten the hang of using words with telepathy, but she knew enough to give her son the sense of staying still and being quiet, and Dex immediately obeyed, looking up at his mother with wide eyes.
“Who’s there?” she called out, trying to make herself sound brave and important. She glanced behind her, and saw a man step through the trees. Carefully she turned to face him head-on, and held Dex just behind her.
“Who are you?” she snapped, determined to make a good show despite the odd situation.
He was tall, with blond hair and beard. He wore dark brown hose with black breeches, and a tan doublet on which was embroidered the shadow of a royal seal in dark brown. Rose could see bits of the white shirt he wore underneath the doublet at his neck and wrist, but his arms were covered by the thick black cloak that swirled around him. He wore a shiny metal helmet, and in his arms, pointed directly at her, was a long musket.
Rose could feel Dex tremble behind her, and she remembered exactly why they’d stopped exploring new places for a while; Bad Things had a tendency to occur. Dex’s fear pushed so strongly against her own, she could barely stand up straight. She held him closer to her, willing him silently to trust her.
“I am the captain of Her Majesty, Queen Mary’s Royal Guard, madame, and you are under arrest for trespassing.”
“Trespassing?” echoed Rose. “I saw no sign posted claiming these as private grounds.”
The captain snorted. “Then you are not from here. You will come with me.”
“I will do no such thing,” said Rose hotly. “My son and I were heading home, and that’s where I intend to go.”
She took a step forward, but around them, several more guards appeared, each holding a musket, each with a doublet emblazoned with what had to be Mary’s seal. Rose stopped again, looking more closely at the seal on the doublet. If Mary was queen, then Dex had brought them to a point in history well before the Doctor had met Elizabeth - hopefully. It meant he was still safe. It meant he might be able to help them.
“Name yourself, woman.”
Rose thought she might as well use the title another queen had given her. “I am Lady Rose Tyler of the Powell Estate,” she said as stiffly as she could manage. “This is my son. I insist you allow us to pass.”
The captain lowered his musket, and tipped his head at her respectfully. “Lady, I beg your pardon, but I cannot. I am under orders to bring all who wander here to Hatfield House. Once there, if what you say is true, your freedom can be obtained.”
Dex trembled again, but Rose didn’t think it was fear. The little boy shifted from foot to foot; he was practically bouncing. “Are we prisoners then?”
“No, lady,” said the captain, almost smiling. “Honored guests - with an escort.”
Rose wasn’t sure one rolled their eyes in Elizabethan England, but she did it anyway. The Doctor still slept, Dex tugged at her jumper, and her canvas trainers were soaked through.
“I will come with you,” said Rose carefully. “Provided you tell me where it is we go.”
“Hatfield House is two miles south. If you walk quickly, we will be there in but half an hour.”
Rose glanced back to where the TARDIS waited; she couldn’t even see the blue paint shining through the trees. “Lead on, then.”
The captain was good enough to hold back the worst of the branches as Rose and Dex walked. On the whole, though, he and the rest of the guards did not seem to pay much attention to either of them, talking amongst themselves and every so often letting out a barking laugh.
“Mummy?” Dex sounded entirely too excited, considering they were being marched toward imprisonment.
“Yes, Dex?”
“Dad won’t think we’ve been eaten by Panyards, will he?”
“I doubt it.”
“Are we going to be eaten by Panyards?”
“I hope not.”
“Okay. Because I still want to find a dragon for Aunt Sarah Jane.”
Rose began to laugh. The guards surrounding them glanced at her, but she didn’t care in the slightest. “Don’t worry, Dex. If there’s a dragon at Hatfield House, I’m sure he’ll be more than happy to meet Sarah Jane.”
“Good.” Satisfied, Dex squeezed her hand once, and then jogged up ahead to the captain, beginning to pepper him with questions Rose could only dimly overhear. She was able to pick up on dragons, and the use of a musket, and before long, her son had charmed the guard into describing every tree and plant as they passed by.
Rose grinned, despite herself. Leave it to her son to find the joy and excitement in anything, from being presented with a baby sister instead of the pint-size TARDIS he’d requested, to being marched toward their possible execution. She could feel the tension and fear leaving Dex’s thoughts, melting into the comfortable rhythms of a fascinated young boy, and Rose gently slipped back out of them, settling herself in her own concerned mind. The Doctor was still asleep, as was Nina, else she would have known it. The TARDIS hadn’t gone anywhere, because the key which hung around her neck beneath her jumper was still faintly warm. The superwatch was securely strapped to her wrist, with the built-in locater function that connected to the Doctor’s cellular modifier. For now, she and Dex were safe.
Rose rested her eyes on Dex and the captain, and wondered what they would find at Hatfield House.
Jump to Chapter Four