Gift for missvmarigold
To: missvmarigold
From: gentlehobbit
Title: Coral Tunnels
Characters and/or Pairings: Ten/Rose
Rating: R
Summary: When they become stuck in time, Rose begins to notice something odd about both the Tardis and the Doctor.
Author’s Notes: This story takes place in late Season Two, somewhere after The Age of Steel and before Doomsday. Also, the Tardis corridors descriptions were based for the most part on a picture of Doctor Who concept art that has been floating around the internet but for which I have not been able to track down the name of an artist.
Word Count: 9,092
Coral Tunnels
One
'And you thought we'd never get to Barcelona!' crowed the Doctor triumphantly. He reached over the console, twirled a knob and pulled on the lever. 'No faith at all!'
The Tardis whined, the time rotor rose and fell, and Rose bounced on her toes.
'We're not there yet,' she reminded him. 'Until I see those dogs with no noses, I'm not going to believe you. Not a chance!' She hung onto the rail as the Tardis lurched her way through the Vortex.
The Doctor grinned happily at the mention of the dogs. Rose watched him fondly as she felt the time machine finally settle into place with a thump.
But as they both began to run for the door, the Tardis gave one sudden, sharp judder and they were both sent sprawling onto the grating.
'Ow!' said Rose, but the Doctor had already jumped to his feet and ran back to the console.
'That's odd,' he said as he checked instruments and felt under the console with his hand. 'She doesn't do that. Not after we land.'
As Rose got up a little more slowly, she ran a hand through her hair. 'Let me guess. We're not on Barcelona.'
'Oh no. No, no, don't you start, Rose Tyler,' the Doctor admonished. 'We're there,' he muttered, as he pulled out his sonic screwdriver. 'So sorry. Just... have... to look at this first.'
'Mm-hmm,' said Rose. 'Think I'll go make some tea while I wait.'
'Yeah,' said the Doctor vaguely, now lying under the edge of the console, long limbs askew, hands busy with the console innards. 'Be right there.'
* * *
Disgruntled, Rose wandered in the direction of the kitchen. The delicate coral ribs of the ship looped and spiralled under the grating and over her head as she headed down the long, tubular walkway. The burnt orange and rich bronze tints of the walls seemed to shimmer as she passed, rich and vibrant. Rose shook her head as if to clear it -- was it her imagination, or did the ship seem more alive than usual? Fascinated, she trailed her fingers along the walls.
'The Doctor will fix you,' she said softly to the ship. 'If there's anything wrong, that is,' she added.
When she arrived at the kitchen, she brewed enough tea in case the Doctor joined her, and she settled in with her mug and an old, Gallifreyan puzzle toy to decipher. It was a new habit of hers that whenever she had to wait for the Doctor, she'd play with one of many traditional toys he had from his planet. It gave her a chance to start analyzing things, figuring out how they worked. It was something she had never done on Earth, and the idea of trying to solve puzzles or unlock mysteries had horrified her. Now, she took pleasure in working her way through each item the Doctor produced. He too had been delighted when she asked for more, and he triumphantly produced a curiously wrought wooden chest filled with an odd mixture of objects for her to explore.
* * *
It was a couple of hours before the Doctor appeared, running into the kitchen and skidding to a stop. His earlier consternation had disappeared, and he looked so enthusiastic that Rose decided to forgo teasing him about abandoning her for the Tardis.
'Sorry about that,' he said. 'Not quite sure what got into the old girl. But,' and he clapped his hands together and rubbed them, 'she's got a diagnostic running, and we've got a planet to explore. Allons-y!'
'Allons-y!' echoed Rose happily and she linked her arm through his. They returned to the corridor, cold tea and puzzle forgotten.
They had only made their way half way down the corridor before the Doctor stopped suddenly, bringing Rose up short with a jolt.
'Whoah!' he cried. 'What's going on here?'
'What?' asked Rose. She gingerly disengaged herself and rubbed her arm.
'The walls,' he said, gazing all around him. 'Look at the walls. They're... they're...' He looked confused.
'Shimmery,' said Rose. 'Yeah, I noticed.'
'You did?' asked the Doctor. The unspoken addition, ...before I did?, hung in the air.
'Sorry,' said Rose. 'I thought maybe it was natural. Maybe it was a part of what you were trying to fix.'
'Oh, no, no. Not natural,' he said, absentmindedly. 'Maybe connected.' He looked at her directly then. 'Or maybe not! Hard to tell.' He leaned forward, his palms flat against the wall, and he sniffed the shimmering surface. 'Hmm,' he murmured. Hand over hand, he worked his way over to one of the spiralling ribs and sniffed it too.
'Smell anything?' asked Rose, curious.
'Sort of,' he mumbled. 'Well, no. Not really.' And then, slowly, cautiously, he reached out his tongue and licked the edge of the rib. Scowling, he worked his tongue around his teeth, concentrating on the taste.
'Er... ' said Rose. 'You... you licked the Tardis.'
The Doctor opened his eyes wide. 'Hmmm?' he asked. 'Yes. Why not?'
'Is that kind of thing allowed?' she asked, half-teasing.
'Of course!' he said indignantly. 'How else do you investigate? Using all your senses. Gives you all sorts of information.'
'So, what information did you get from your tongue?' asked Rose.
'Something's definitely odd,' he said, a faraway look on his face. 'Concentrated. Like... like.... like... the Tardis has doubled herself somehow. Just.... more of her.' He whipped out the screwdriver and, turning around on the spot, scanned the corridor. He looked at the results and then pocketed the device. 'Nothing. Tells me nothing. Just like the internal sensors. There you are, Rose. Always rely on your senses. On your intuition.'
'Right,' said Rose. 'I'll leave the licking to you, though, if you don't mind.'
But as the Doctor opened his mouth to answer, the corridor, the Doctor himself, and even the air... shifted.
* * * * *
Two
'Ow!' Rose sat up and gingerly felt the back of her head.
The Doctor was already up and he dashed to the console.
'That grating is hard. Ever thought of carpeting the place?' she asked. She clambered to her feet and tucked her hair behind her ears.
'That's odd,' muttered the Doctor. He scowled. 'That's... that's really odd. She doesn't do that.' He leaned over and touched several controls in rapid succession. He then felt with his hands under the console.
Rose turned around and looked at the doors longingly. 'Let me guess. We're not on Barcelona.'
'Oh no. No, no, don't you start, Rose Tyler,' the Doctor admonished. 'We're there,' he muttered, as he pulled out his sonic screwdriver. 'Just... have... to look at this first.'
'Fine,' said Rose. 'I'm going to start without you. I'll let you know when I find my first no-nose dog.'
The Doctor popped his head up over the ledge. 'I don't recommend it.'
'Why not?' she asked. 'You look like you're settled in for some tinkering. I'm ready to go adventuring.'
The Doctor ignored that. 'She hasn't quite chosen her time yet. We're there, but not then.'
'Oh.' Rose walked over to the door and tried to peer out of the window, but she could see nothing. Not strictly nothing but an absence of anything solid. A greyness swirled outside. Unsettled, she backed away.
'Mm-hmm,' said Rose. 'See what you mean. Think I'll go make some tea while I wait.'
'Yeah,' said the Doctor vaguely, now lying under the edge of the console, long limbs askew, hands busy with the console innards. 'See you later.'
* * *
The grating echoed under her feet as she meandered, dispirited, down the corridor. She trailed her fingers over one of the ribs as it soared up and over her head. She had never done this before and was not sure why she did it now. The coral was softer and finer than the sturdy struts that wove through the console room. The surface of the rib seemed to shimmer slightly, and when her hand passed over it, the tips of her fingers seemed to briefly sink into the shimmer even though the coral itself still felt solid.
'That's funny,' she mused. 'The Doctor will fix you, though. If there's anything wrong, that is.'
It didn't take her long to settle in with her latest puzzle and a steaming mug of tea. Barcelona might have to wait for now, but at least she could keep her mind busy. The current object she was trying to solve was a Gallifreyan child's time toy. It only worked in the Tardis, the Doctor had explained, as it used the Tardis's own time field to create more difficult parameters each time one reached a new level.
Soon she was utterly absorbed in the toy and her tea sat cooling on the table.
* * *
Rose had lost track of time when the Doctor suddenly burst into the kitchen and skidded to a stop. He looked so much like an eager puppy that Rose instantly forgot her earlier irritation.
'My poor Rose!' he said. 'Have no idea what got into the old girl. But,' and he held out his arm to her, 'she's running some tests, and we've got adventuring to do. Allons-y!'
'Allons-y!' echoed Rose happily. She jumped up and linked her arm through his. Behind her, on the table, the partly-solved puzzle lay forgotten on the table, quietly ticking its way down to the reset.
They scampered down the corridor, the Doctor's head only just missing the coral overhead. But something caught his attention and he stopped, nearly overbalancing. Rose stumbled but kept from falling by hanging onto a rib.
'Whoah!' he cried. 'What the devil's going on here?'
'What,' asked Rose, curious. 'Oh, right.' She straightened and moved towards the Doctor.
'The walls,' he said, gazing all around him. 'How peculiar! They're... they're...' He looked utterly baffled.
'They've gone funny,' said Rose. 'Yeah, I noticed.'
'You did?' asked the Doctor. The unspoken additions of ...before I did? and Why didn't you tell me? hung in the air.
'Sorry,' said Rose. 'I thought maybe it was because she hadn't chosen her time yet. Maybe it was a part of what you were trying to fix.'
'Oh, no, no. No.... not at all,' he said, absentmindedly. 'I've never seen this before.' He leaned against the wall, and stroked the surface. 'What's wrong with you, then?' He thought for a moment and then, delicately, sniffed the shimmering surface. 'Hmm,' he murmured. 'Smells the same as ever. But... one more test, I think.' With a sideways glance at Rose, he reached out his tongue and ran it over the edge of the rib. 'Hmm!' he mumbled, his eyes shut. Rose could see his jaw working as he analyzed the taste.
'I don't believe it' said Rose. 'You... you licked the Tardis. You actually... licked the Tardis!'
'Mm-hm!' he said. 'Best way to investigate! Your senses tell you all sorts of things!'
'And?' asked Rose.
'Something's positively, definitely odd,' he said, an almost affronted but dumbfounded look on his face. 'Doubled. Like... like.... like... the Tardis has... more of herself in the same space.'
'Hadn't you better scan with your screwdriver?' asked Rose.
He looked at her, gaping, and then promptly yanked the screwdriver out of his jacket pocket. He waved it rapidly around him and then brought it down to look at the results. He dropped it back in his pocket. 'I don't understand,' he muttered. 'Absolutely nothing. Just like the internal sensors. That's not right. How could that be right?' He ran a hand through his hair and then suddenly stopped still staring at her.
'What's wrong?' asked Rose.
He reached out for her hand. 'Your fingers,' he said, frowning. 'They're shimmering too.'
She looked down at her hand held in his. He was right. The tips of her fingers did seem to blur slightly with the most delicate ripple of light playing over them.
'I touched the wall for a moment,' she said. 'Just now... and before, too.'
The Doctor looked at his own hands and then back at hers. 'Only you,' he mused. He brought her hand up to his mouth. 'You mind?'
'Er... I suppose not,' stammered Rose.
He accepted her response at face value and swiped his tongue over one finger. Rose started. His tongue was a little rougher than she expected. Not a lot, but... just enough to notice the difference. A shiver ran down her spine.
'Sorry!' he said, worried. He peered at her. 'Was that... er... inappropriate?'
Rose laughed a little. 'Well, sort of, yeah,' she said. 'But... uh.... never mind. Notice anything?'
'You're the same as the Tardis,' he said.
'I taste like the Tardis?' She stared at him, eyebrows raised.
'No! I mean... You're... you're doubled. More intense. Like there's extra Rose. Not that I know what you taste like,' he hastily amended. 'Well, I do now. I mean...'
He looked so flustered that Rose took pity on him.
'I know what you mean,' she said.
'Good!' he said, clearly with relief. 'We have a mystery to solve.' Enthusiasm began to creep back into his voice.
'Right,' said Rose. 'I'll rely on my intuition, and you just keep licking.'
But as the Doctor opened his mouth to answer, the corridor, the Doctor himself, and even the air... shifted.
* * * * *
Three
'Carpet,' Rose called out to the Doctor. 'Carpet is marvellous stuff. Soft. Easy to land on.'
'Uh-huh,' said the Doctor vaguely. 'How odd,' he murmured. He was already reaching up the underside of the console, pulling down cables and applying his screwdriver.
Rose rolled over onto her knees and sat back on her heels. She was certainly used to being pitched onto her back whenever the Tardis decided to be bouncy, but she heartily wished that she had the uncanny nimble footwork the Doctor displayed to keep himself upright... on most occasions.
She glanced towards the doors' windows but all was pearly grey and swirling. She didn't bother to go closer and look. Instead she got up, went over to the Doctor and squatted down beside him. He lay on his back, legs stuck out haphazardly, and his hands were busy reaching up into Tardis innards.
'Can I help?' she asked. 'Looks like your hands are full.'
'No,' he said.
'You sure?' She felt a little stab of disappointment. Recently the Doctor had begun to show her some small details about the console. Truth be told, she felt wistful about the bond the Doctor shared with the Tardis and she wanted to be a part of it.
The Doctor paused and shook his head. 'I said I'd take you to Barcelona, and I will. I promise. But I need to find out what's wrong.' He shook the cables in his hand. 'Go and do something somewhere, would you?'
'All right,' she said. 'I'll keep out of your way.'
* * *
Rose scuffed her shoes against the metal strips of the walkway that ran along the corridors of the Tardis. She loved the corridors. They weren't narrow or low, exactly, but they were tubular, tunnel-like, and the same coral that wove itself through almost every other room wound itself through and around the walls here. The delicate ribs were of different thickness. Sometimes the rich burnt orange walls between them were bare and smooth, with subtle gradations of red and brown suffused throughout, and sometimes delicate tendrils of coral wove themselves between the ribs in honeycomb patterns. Even the ribs themselves sometimes stood out from the walls supported or suspended by the tendrils. Once in a while, a particularly complex rib structure would dominate, swirling overhead and underneath the grating in a spiral, reminding Rose of the innards of an exotic shell. At other times, she felt as if she were inside the vessels or lungs of a huge creature. In some ways, she thought, she was. For some reason, the colours seemed stronger today, a little brighter than usual.
In some places, the coral wove itself through the gaps in the metal grating underfoot. In others, the walkway stood apart slightly and there was a slight drop from a few inches to a foot on either side where the walls and coral curved and swept underneath the path. She chose one such spot and sat with her back against the wall and her legs resting, knees bent, up on the slightly elevated walkway. It was comfortable there, and she could feel the hum of the Tardis through the walls. She brushed her fingers over the coral, marvelling at the luster and rich colours. She vaguely wondered why she'd never really noticed them before.
After a little while, she remembered an intriguing puzzle that she had been trying to solve. She rolled over, up and onto the walkway and made her way to the kitchen. Once her tea was brewed, she sat down, propped her feet on another chair and picked up where she had left off the other day. Soon she achieved the first level, and the toy shifted to the next one, increasing in difficulty. She kept on playing. She passed the second level and began the third.
* * *
Rose was so absorbed in her puzzle that she barely noticed the rapidly approaching footfalls until she suddenly looked up and found the Doctor standing in front of her with a smile on his face.
'I like this one,' she said and held it up.
'Really?' He grinned. 'That was one of my favourites when I was a child. Time toys. Love them!' He bounced on the balls of his feet. 'Shall we explore Barcelona?'
Rose eagerly jumped to her feet and tossed the puzzle onto the table. 'Of course,' she said. 'How is the Tardis?'
'My poor Rose!' he said. 'You've been waiting like you always do. But,' and he held out his arm to her, 'I think I've solved it. There was a feedback in the time rotor. I've set some recalibrations that should stop it happening again. She was starting to settle down in one time when I left. It should be fine now. Allons-y!'
'Allons-y!' she echoed happily. She linked her arm through his. The puzzle lay forgotten on the table, quietly ticking its way down to the reset.
They ran down the corridor, the Doctor whooping happily, his head only just missing the coral overhead. When they reached one of the stronger ribs, he swung on it. But when he landed, he overstepped and hopped on one foot, arms pinwheeling to regain his balance. Rose had no time to stop and she plowed into him from behind.
'Whoah!' he cried. They clutched each other to stop going over again, and Rose reached out to the side to steady herself. Her finger scraped painfully along the surface.
'What the devil's going on here?'
'What?' asked Rose. She inspected her finger. It began to bleed just a little.
'Have you seen this?' he asked. They're... they're... positively, definitely, indubitably... glowing! How could they possibly glow?' He looked at Rose as if she were guilty of monkeying with the Tardis. 'Something's changed. Altered them somehow.' He cautiously pressed his fingertips against the wall, stroked it and then sniffed his fingers.
'Yeah, I noticed.'
'You did?' asked the Doctor. 'Rose Tyler! We'll make a sleuth of you yet. But sleuths can't sleuth with no information.' He looked at her intently. 'Tell me next time, all right?
'Sorry,' she said. 'I would've, but you weren't in a mood for talking.'
'Oh, right,' he said. 'I'm sorry. I was a bit rude, wasn't I. Tsk! There I go again. Rude, rude, rude. You call me out on it next time, you hear? But this...' and he looked up and around. 'I've never seen this before.' He leaned against the wall, and stroked the surface. 'What's wrong with you, then?' He sniffed the shimmering surface. 'Hmm,' he murmured. 'Smells the same as ever. But... one more test, I think.' He wandered over to one of the spiralling ribs.
'You tell me what's wrong, old girl,' he said softly. He curled his fingers around and amongst the tendrils, and, in one gentle lingering stroke, licked the rib.
Rose shivered. Finally, she managed, 'You... you actually licked the Tardis.' She watched his lips pucker slightly as he pondered the taste. 'Doesn't she mind?'
'Mind?' he said indignantly. 'Of course not! We understand one another, we do. She uses her sensors, and I use mine. We tell each other all sorts of things! This does too, but...' He pulled out the screwdriver, scanned, and then shook his head. 'Nothing. I thought not.' He dropped it back into his pocket with disgust. 'No, much better to use your own senses. And this...' he gestured to the rib, 'this is remarkable.' He stopped then, and stared down at her hands. 'But you are remarkable too.'
'I am?' asked Rose. She held up her hands.
He reached out for her left hand. 'They've got the same distortion,' he said, frowning.
He was right. Her fingers did seem to scintillate slightly, just like the coral.
'I've been touching the walls,' she said.
The Doctor gazed at her intently. 'I see,' he said and then, firmly, as if brooking no argument, brought her hand up to his mouth and sucked on one finger. Rose started. His tongue worked over her skin, and she could feel the edges of his teeth scrape slightly as he pulled her finger out.
'Oh,' was all she could say. She stared at him with wide eyes.
He smiled tolerantly at her. 'Your senses tell you so much more. Same as the Tardis, you are,' he said. 'Everything with that shimmer is more intensified, somehow. And you are a part of it.'
But his attention seem to be caught then by her other hand, which she had begun to lower.
'You're bleeding,' he said sharply. He snatched her right hand up and inspected it.
'It's just a little cut,' she protested. 'I scraped it on the side there a few minutes ago.'
'I see,' he said softly, but there was some indefinable edge to his voice.
Rose shivered but stayed still, obediently leaving her hand, palm turned up, in his.
The Doctor regarded the finger thoughtfully, turned it slightly, and then, as if satisfied, put it in his mouth.
'Hey,' she said, but only half-heartedly. 'Isn't that germy?'
'Not at all,' he mumbled around her digit. 'Time Lord saliva is cleaner than humans.'
Rose felt his tongue lapping and cleaning her skin and she went weak in the knees.
The Doctor looked at her thoughtfully and pulled her finger out. 'You like this!' he said, and there was an intrigued, satisfied air to his voice.
'Uh, yeah,' managed Rose.
But as the Doctor opened his mouth to answer, the corridor, the Doctor himself, and even the air... shifted.
* * * * *
Four
Rose clambered to her feet. Through the doors' windows, all was pearly grey and swirling, but she didn't bother to go closer and look. Instead she walked over to the Doctor and squatted down beside him. He lay on his back, legs sprawled out and hands busy with cabling.
'Can I help?' she asked.
'No,' he said. He didn't look up.
'I can hold things for you. Learn how to help,' she offered.
The Doctor stopped what he was doing. 'Rose,' he said, scowling. 'I said I'd take you to Barcelona, and I will. I promise. But this... this... blasted...' He gave up and brandished the cables in his hand. 'Go and amuse yourself elsewhere, would you?'
'Don't get shirty with me, mister,' she said. 'Don't worry, I know how to keep out of your way.'
* * *
She didn't feel like sitting in the kitchen. There had been too many times in the past when she had to wait for the Doctor to finish whatever project he had going and today she felt a little rebellious. Instead she took her tea and a new puzzle she had begun working on the previous day, and went back out into the corridor. For some reason the colours seemed more vibrant than usual, and the light almost scintillated on the surfaces. She sat with her back against the curving wall and her feet perched on the slightly elevated walkway.
Soon she achieved the first level, and the toy shifted to a higher stage. She kept on playing. Every now and then, she idly ran a hand over the coral ribs, marvelling at the luster and rich colours. She vaguely wondered why she'd never really noticed that before.
She reached the fourth level.
* * *
Rose was so absorbed in her puzzle that she barely noticed the rapidly approaching footfalls until she suddenly looked up and found the Doctor on hands and knees peering down at her with a quizzical look on his face.
'I like it here,' she said, rather lamely. 'Comfortable.'
'Really?' He sat back on his heels and bounced. 'Would you like to stay here, or would you like to find some new comfortable nooks in Bar-ce-lo-nah.' He drawled the syllables and gave her a wink. He looked so impish and just a little ridiculous that Rose instantly forgot their almost-squabble in the console room.
'Of course,' she said. 'But next time, let me help, all right?' She scrambled to her feet and he steadied her.
'My poor Rose!' he said. 'I always keep you waiting, don't I! I love it when you want to help. But,' and he held out his arm to her, 'I think I've got it sorted. There was a feedback in the time rotor. I've set some recalibrations that will ensure it doesn't happen again. Allons-y!'
'Allons-y!' echoed Rose happily. She linked her arm through his. Behind her, tilted over on the slope of the rounded wall lay the puzzle, mostly solved, quietly ticking its way down to the reset.
* * *
They stood facing the walls, the Doctor perplexed. Unsatisfied with either scanning or sniffing, he leaned in close to a rib. 'You tell me what's wrong, old girl,' he said softly. He opened his mouth and ran his tongue slowly and gently up the coral.
Rose shivered. 'Did that tell you anything?'
'Yep,' he said. 'The Tardis feels... doubled. Heavy. Stuffed, like she gorged herself, only she didn't.' He stopped then and peered down at her hands. 'Hang on. What's happening to you?'
'Me?' asked Rose. She held up her hands.
He reached out for her left hand. 'Have you been touching the walls?' he asked, frowning.
She nodded. Her fingers and palms did seem to scintillate slightly.
The Doctor gazed at her intently. 'I see,' he said and then, firmly, sternly, as if admonishing her for not telling him about this as well, he took hold of her wrist, brought her hand up to his mouth and ran the tip of his tongue up one finger. Rose started.
When she was able to speak again, she whispered, 'Did my hand tell you anything?'
He smiled tolerantly at her. 'You're the same as the Tardis. Exactly,' he said. 'You've both been intensified, somehow.'
But his attention seem to be caught then by her other hand, which she had begun to lower.
'You're bleeding,' he said sharply. He snatched her right hand up and inspected her palm. Scratches roughened the skin and some were bleeding slightly.
'It's just a little graze,' protested Rose. 'I scraped it on the side there a few minutes ago.'
'Well, we can't have that,' he said softly.
She shivered but stayed still, obediently leaving her hand, palm turned up, in his.
The Doctor regarded the palm thoughtfully, turned it slightly, and then, as if satisfied, brought it against his mouth. Soon Rose felt the tip of his tongue probing at the graze.
'Hey,' said Rose, but only half-heartedly. 'Isn't that germy?'
He paused. 'Not at all. Time Lord saliva is cleaner than humans. Antiseptic.'
'Oh, of course,' she said, but he returned to his task and Rose felt his tongue lapping and cleaning her skin. It stung a little but when he moved to non-grazed skin, it tickled and her fingers involuntarily curled in over her palm. The Doctor immediately straightened them with his thumbs and held them flat. Once he had finished with her palm, he parted her fingers with his own and worked the tip of his tongue between.
The Doctor looked up at her thoughtfully. 'You like this!' he said, and there was an intrigued, satisfied air to his voice.
'Uhh?' managed Rose.
'You're flushed and your hand has just a tinge of salt. You're sweating.'
'Am not,' protested Rose, but even to her, she sounded less than convincing.
But as the Doctor opened his mouth to answer, the corridor, the Doctor himself, and even the air... shifted.
* * * * *
Five
Rose slammed the mugs down on the counter. The Doctor had snapped at her when she offered to help fix the problem with the Tardis. The last thing she heard was him vehemently muttering to himself as he viciously tore out a bunch of cables from underneath the console.
She was upset, but she was also unsettled. It was quite unlike the Doctor to show anger towards the machine, and he was angry now. She knew better than to push the issue, though. Something was wrong and he was clearly not himself. And so she retreated.
To be fair, she too had been on edge. Why, she wasn't sure. And now she felt sore from the tumble in the console room. Altogether, there was just something odd about the day.
* * *
'There you are,' he said triumphantly. 'I knew I'd find you holed up somewhere.'
'You shouted at me,' said Rose. She slowly uncurled from her spot wedged up against a coral rib.
'I did,' he said, contrite. 'And at the Tardis, too. I'm ever so sorry. You didn't deserve that. At all. I'm just tired of not being able to give you a good holiday. I've been trying to take you to Barcelona for ages. Ages and Ages. But that's no excuse. Forgive me?'
He looked so much like an eager puppy that Rose didn't have the heart to refuse, although a small voice inside her told her she should. She held out her hand and he took it and pulled her to her feet. She smiled at him.
'Brilliant! Come on!'
She dug in her heels. 'Wait,' she said. 'Something's been bugging me.'
'What?' he asked.
'Do you... did you... have you, sort of, felt like things are repeating? Somehow?' She looked up at him hopefully.
'Repeating?' he echoed. 'No. Why do you think that?'
'I don't really... know,' she said lamely. 'Just this feeling as if we're doing things again. Like when the problem started with the Tardis. And even now--you talking to me here. It just... just...'
'You remember doing this before?' asked the Doctor, his eyebrows raised.
'Not exactly,' she answered. 'Well, no. I don't.' She flapped her free hand in front of her in frustration. 'But it feels... familiar. Even trying to solve the puzzle, though I suppose I've been working on that for ages.'
'Not ages,' he corrected her. 'You took that out yesterday for the first time. But I can explain that for you. Levels. When they repeat, they start off the same. Again and again. That could be giving you the effect you're talking about. Make you feel you've been doing it longer.' He looked down at the toy she still had in her hand. 'You're on Level 5. Well done! But there you are. You've been repeating the sequences quite a bit.'
'Yeah,' said Rose doubtfully. 'Hey, did you ever see Groundhog Day? It's a movie, where one bloke had to live the same day over and over and figure out how to stop it. Nobody believed him when he said time was repeating.'
'No,' said the Doctor. 'But I can tell you that would be nonsense. If there ever were a time loop, he wouldn't have been aware of it. Or everyone would. See, there are two kinds of loops,' he said, warming to the subject. 'If it's a cyclical reversal, the events would be erased each time and no-one would ever be aware. Theoretically, the loop could continue forever. Well, not forever, because any Time Lord would detect it, of course. But if it's a chronological loop, everyone would be taken back to the beginning with their memories intact. But events would change wildly as people realized what was happening and react to it. The loop would be broken somehow.'
'So... No time loop here?' she asked.
He smiled. 'No time loop. I'd know if we were in one.'
'Okay,' she said and smiled. 'Let's not keep Barcelona waiting.' She set the toy down by the rib.
'That's my girl,' he said. 'Come on!'
He ran down the corridor dragging her behind him.
'Wait!' she said, out of breath from the sudden acceleration. 'Look at the walls. I've been wanting to show you.'
The Doctor skidded to a halt and she collided with him, sending both of them tumbling to the grating.
'Second time today,' Rose groaned. 'I'm going to be black and blue, I swear.'
The Doctor said nothing. He was already peering at the walls. Still lying face down over the edge of the grating, he sniffed at the wall as it curved under him. Rose rolled off him and onto her knees while he jumped to his feet and curled his fingers around a rib over his head.
'Go on,' said Rose. 'Lick it.' She stood up.
He looked at her a bit strangely, but he did as she suggested.
'Inconclusive,' he said. 'Intense, but inconclusive.'
Rose brought up her hands. 'Look,' she said. 'I've noticed they've gone a bit funny like the walls.'
The Doctor immediately took both her hands and turned them over.
'So they have.' His voice was low and soft, both curious and intense. 'Let's see if they have the same effect as the walls.'
Rose held her breath.
He wove his fingers between hers and then closed his mouth around her thumb. His front teeth scraped over the pad of her thumb while his tongue laved the knuckle.
'Oh,' whispered Rose.
The Doctor slowly took her thumb from his mouth and merely looked at her with a glint in his eye.
'Am... am I "intense" like the Tardis?' she managed to ask. The Doctor still held her hand in a tight grip.
'Yes,' he said. 'You are. We have a mystery.' His left eyebrow was raised and he was now regarding her with fascination.
'Uh... so... what do we do?' She looked longingly at the Doctor's mouth, and then, when she realized how that must seem, she turned her head in embarrassment.
'You're breathing hard,' he noted, though he didn't look too worried. 'Is something wrong?'
'N-no,' stuttered Rose. 'I--'
'Go on,' said the Doctor. His eyes, dark and wide, were focused utterly on her. His eyebrows lowered into a questioning frown.
'I liked when you did that,' she whispered. 'Sorry. I shouldn't say that, really.'
He smiled slowly. 'Did you?' He brought up her other hand and slowly ran his tongue up her palm.
Rose shuddered and her back arched slightly. 'Oh, yes...' she whimpered.
He glanced up, his face still lowered over her hand. 'There's something I've always wanted to do,' he said. 'It would never have been... proper.'
'What is it,' she whispered.
'I've always wanted to lick your ears,' he murmured. 'Silly, I know. Dreadfully silly. But there you are.'
Wordlessly, with her free hand, Rose swept her hair back and tilted her head.
Swiftly, the Doctor let go of her hand and he wound his hand through her hair. He wrapped his other arm around her back and held her firmly to him. She closed her eyes and felt him grasp her hair tightly and pull so her head tilted more and her neck and ear lay exposed.
She gasped when his tongue first touched her ear, running over the rim. He murmured something unintelligible and repeated the action. He pressed his cheek against hers and his teeth nibbled at her earlobe. His sideburn scratched softly against her cheek as he nuzzled.
Rose's knees buckled, but the Doctor, still holding her hard in his grip, merely lowered them both until they knelt.
He took tiny licks behind her ear and the combined pleasure and tickling nearly drove her frantic.
'Ah,' murmured the Doctor. 'And finally...'
The tip of his tongue touched just inside her ear, and she gasped again. But before he could do more, Rose felt the grating below her, the Doctor himself, and even the air... shift.
* * * * *
Six
'All right,' growled the Doctor as he paced stealthily around the console, the screwdriver firmly in hand. 'You're being coy, and I won't have it. I'll find out what's wrong, and you will let me fix it. You hear me? No-one is keeping me from taking Rose to Barcelona, least of all, you!' Suddenly, swiftly, he reached under the console and pulled out a cable with a vicious tug.
Rose edged out of the console room, not quite sure if she wanted the Doctor to notice her leaving or not. Pinstripes or no, he looked for all the world like a jungle cat ready to strike. The intensity of his gaze was, if she admitted it to herself, a little frightening. She didn't know how to deal with this predatory Doctor. This behaviour seemed almost to switch on the moment the Tardis threw them both to the floor. It may be selfish, she thought, and decidedly unheroic, but she definitely wanted to abandon the Tardis to his attentions and run.
* * *
She made her way to the infirmary, glancing back over her shoulder. When she got inside, she took a deep breath and looked up at the scanner readouts.
'Is there anything wrong with the Doctor?' she asked.
The reply was negative. That much she could understand from the otherwise enigmatic Gallifreyan script.
She took a deep breath. 'All right,' she said, shifting slightly into a better stance. 'Is there anything wrong with the Tardis?'
Again the response was negative.
She blew her breath out noisily. 'Think, Rose, think,' she muttered. 'Okay, then. Is there anything wrong with me?'
The scanners were even less forthcoming, if that were possible.
She left the infirmary and made her way to the kitchen. A cup of tea, she thought, might be soothing. After all, nothing was wrong. The Tardis said so, and the Doctor dealt with the machine's oddities every day. It was just her nerves, and after all, it had only been 20 minutes or so since the Doctor started acting this way. Hadn't it? She stopped for a moment and, standing on tip-toes, gripped the coral rib that arched above her. As she lifted her feet off the walkway and hung for a moment, she tried to mimic the Doctor's playful antics. But instead she found herself simply dropping back down. She chided herself. Where had this skittishness come from? And an odd sense of growing anticipation?
* * *
She had just finished the sixth level of the puzzle when she heard it: the Doctor whispering her name from the corridor. She knew that it was a trick of the tunnel's acoustics, but before she had time to think about it, she was on her feet and out the door before her name came again. Despite her earlier fear which still lingered, an overwhelming compulsion pushed her to go to him. The puzzle lay abandoned, sparking in the pool of tea from her knocked-over mug.
She stepped onto the walkway warily. The Doctor walked towards her slowly and casually, yet she could still sense the tension coiled tight in him.
'Ready for Barcelona?' he asked. His voice, deep and soft, sent shivers down her spine.
She walked towards him, mesmerized. And when she reached him, she lifted her hands up for him to see. 'Just like the walls,' she said. 'They've gone all shimmery.'
Without taking his eyes off her, he pulled out the screwdriver and waved it casually behind him. Once he had finished, he brought it up to his face so that he could glance down only an inch before his gaze snapped back to her.
'Nothing,' he said very softly. 'Nothing at all.' He pocketed the screwdriver without moving any other muscle. 'But you, Rose Tyler, you could tell me so much more. Couldn't you.'
'Could I?' she squeaked. 'I mean... I can?'
He nodded slowly.
'Uh, shouldn't you, er, sniff the wall or something?' she asked.
'I've already done that,' he said thoughtfully. 'The Tardis has intensified somehow. I don't know how. She seems stable and I've set some diagnostics running. But I'm more interested in you. What's this effect doing to you?'
He seized her hands and brought them up. 'Exactly the same,' he mused. 'Let's see.'
Bending his head over her hand, he licked from the tip of her middle finger, over her palm and down her wrist.
She shivered and tried to pull away as he bent over her other hand, but he held her hand fast as he repeated the action. He closed his eyes and pondered the taste.
'Like the walls?' she asked when she could breathe again.
'Yes,' he said, opening his eyes. 'Exactly the same. In a manner of speaking. Different taste though. But same effect.' He paused then and kneaded her hands with his long fingers. 'You liked it.' He smiled slowly, indulgently. 'You liked me licking you.'
'I... uh...' managed Rose.
'Let's put that to the test, shall we?' he said, letting go of her hands and walking behind her.
She didn't move, and soon she felt his hands lifting her hair and roughly combing it back with his fingers. Her left ear was uncovered.
She shut her eyes tightly. The feelings of being out of place and out of time warred with breathless anticipation. It felt as if she'd been hoping for this for quite some time, although why or when that feeling had started, she had no idea. Instinct warred with desire: although she knew she should get out of there, she wanted nothing more than to stay.
The slight roughness of his tongue seemed magnified against her ear. She jumped, but he immediately steadied her, holding her across her shoulders with his left arm, with her back to his chest. With his other hand still grasping her hair, he held her head against his right shoulder.
'That's my girl,' he said, almost in a purr. The tip of his tongue traced inside and out. Her knees buckled. 'Oh my... you do like that, don't you. Holding out on me all this time. Rose, Rose, Rose... what am I to do with you?'
He let her go then and she turned around, backing away from him, but not too far.
'Tell me that you liked it. Tell me honestly.'
She nodded her head rapidly, seemingly unable to speak.
'Cat got your tongue?' he asked, amused. He crooked a finger at her. She came to him.
'Unzip your top,' he commanded.
Rose gulped, but her hands came up almost of their own accord, and pulled the zipper down.
He waited, merely cocking an eyebrow.
She undid the clasp of her bra.
'That's better,' he murmured. 'Now, lie down.'
'Here?' she asked, startled.
'Yes,' he responded, as if with infinite patience. 'Right here.'
She obeyed immediately.
'Put your hands above your head.'
She did so, shivering. Whether that was from the cool air of the Tardis, or from her current situation, or maybe both, she didn't know. She hooked her fingers into the grating.
He knelt beside her and laid his hand on her stomach. She flinched but didn't move.
'Good girl,' he said, and he bent over her. 'Close your eyes.'
She did, trembling.
The assault came swiftly. He latched on, sucking hard on her right nipple, his tongue flicking it sharply. She gasped and brought her hands down to protect herself.
He let go immediately and raised his head. 'Yes, or no,' he demanded. 'If we do this, we do it my way.'
'Your way,' she whispered, contrite. 'Please.'
He took her arms and pinned them down behind her head. He kept his hands there on her wrists, pressed against the grating, and once more lowered his head to her right breast. No less brutal the second time, he flicked her nipple until it was hard and then nipped with his teeth--not enough to injure, but the small pain mixed exquisitely with pleasure and Rose moaned. He nipped again and she squirmed.
'That's my girl,' he whispered against her breast. He licked it gently.
Rose kept her eyes tightly shut. The gentle lapping of his tongue now both soothed her and drove her mad. When would the next assault come?
'Shhh,' he whispered and continued to lick around and under. Ticklish, Rose whimpered and shuddered. But the Doctor held her hands fast against the metal and he continued to lick.
Then, as quick as lightning, he moved to her left breast, pulling at her nipple with his lips and then flicked at the bud. The new attack on unsuspecting flesh was almost unbearable. Rose cried out and jerked under him, but he did not stop.
But as he once again began to nip, ...
Rose felt the grating beneath her, and the Doctor's hands and mouth against her, suddenly shift...
...and time continued.
'What?' she gasped. She opened her eyes. The very air and space around them seemed to clear. The heady atmosphere of only seconds previous vanished.
The Doctor sat up with a jerk and looked at her, eyes impossibly round. He snatched his hands away from hers as if they burned him. He scrambled backwards until he dropped over the edge of the grating with a yelp and fetched up against the curve of the wall. A look of blind panic was on his face. He gulped twice. 'Oh my...'
She struggled to sit up, drawing the edges of her top together. 'Doctor?' she asked.
'I was... I was...' He gestured helplessly at her front.
She refastened her bra and zipped up her top. She climbed unsteadily to her feet. The Doctor relaxed slightly, but not by much.
'What happened?' he asked almost plaintively.
She raised her eyebrows. 'I don't know about you, but it seemed to me that I was being licked senseless.'
He nodded almost convulsively. 'I, uh... er, yes. It seems that way. Blimey!' This last was in an awed whisper.
'I, um, don't suppose you'd like to finish,' ventured Rose.
He looked at her with wide eyes. 'That would be entirely, utterly... not a good thing.' As if he were only just realizing that he was upended a bit ridiculously with his bottom stuck in the gap between grating and wall, and his long limbs sprawled up and over the edge of the walkway, he struggled to his feet with an alarming lack of grace.
With more seriousness and a touch of returning intensity, he fixed his gaze on her and said, 'You must never let me take advantage of you like that again. What I did was wrong. I lost control, and that's dangerous.'
'It did feel... odd,' she admitted.
The Doctor ran his fingers through his hair and muttered to himself. 'I don't understand. I've never slipped like that. What happened?'
'I still think it was Groundhog Day,' said Rose. At his puzzled glance, she added, 'A time loop.'
He stared at her dumbfounded and then slapped himself on the forehead so hard that Rose couldn't imagine how he didn't see stars. 'The feedback loop in the time rotor,' he gasped. 'The doubled, intensified structure of the Tardis! But even with the glitch in the console amplifying the time field, there'd still need to be a focal time-end point for the loop to establish itself.' He grasped clumps of his hair with both hands and paced back and forth. 'Think, think, think! Aughh! What could've interacted with the time field enough to restart events?'
'Maybe the Tardis finished her diagnostic and... and sort of... tripped something,' she offered.
'That wouldn't do it,' he said, letting go of his hair which now stuck up wilder than ever in matted tufts. 'No. Something independent of the Tardis. What were we doing at the precise moment that we felt the shift?'
'Licking,' she said.
He looked at her guiltily with the return of a touch of panic. 'Yes. Well, er, can't be that.'
'I was playing with that time toy of yours,' she suggested.
The Doctor's eyes widened again and suddenly he took off like a shot, feet pounding over the metal walkway. Rose followed. She found him in the kitchen, inspecting the puzzle.
'It's broken,' he said softly, understanding dawning in his face. 'It was lying in a puddle of tea and had shorted out. You must have knocked over your mug just before you came out into the corridor.'
'The toy created the loop? But the shift came a while after I would've spilt the tea,' Rose objected. 'I don't see how--'
'Not exactly... It was actually the Tardis's own time-field reacting to something else. But just by chance, when circumstances were favourable, you were playing with just that particular toy which interacts with the time field, and the reset function must have created some kind of chronological harmonic that sparked the feedback which in turn created the loop. The level reset function always takes a few minutes. When it didn't come, time would have been free to continue and escape the loop.'
'Er, okay. I think. But you said that you'd've been aware of a loop,' she said, waggling a finger at him.
'When did I say that?' he asked with a puzzled frown.
'When we met in the corridor before you started... um....'
'No, I didn't,' he said. 'I just asked you if you were ready for Barcelona and then... well, then... you know.'
'Must have been another loop, then,' said Rose firmly. 'I could've sworn you said that, Mr. know-it-all Time Lord.' Then a thought suddenly struck her. 'Hang on. I want to see something.'
She walked back out into the corridor and looked at the walls. The Doctor came up behind her. 'Look,' she said. 'They're back to normal.' She held up her own hands. 'And so am I. Why weren't you all shimmery?'
'I'm a Time Lord,' he said. 'I constantly move through Time and all its anomalies. It was you, a linear time creature, and the toy as the focal point that created the distortion. It was only this corridor that had this effect. I noticed the change as I came here which is why I had already, er, tested the walls before I called your name. You must have touched the walls or spent some time here before you went into the kitchen.'
'No, I didn't,' she answered. 'Well, I did touch one of these.... things overhead. But only for a second. Then I went straight to the kitchen.'
They looked at each other. 'In an earlier loop,' they chorused. 'Or all of them,' the Doctor added. 'And each time,' he mused, 'you and the corridor, and the kitchen, actually, were being overlaid by temporal echoes of yourselves. Intensifying.'
'What about you?' challenged Rose. 'You keep saying you're above all these... effects... stuff, but you were getting pretty intense too. And I have a feeling you weren't exactly being a gentleman in other loops either. There must have been plenty of touching then too...'
'That's how it manifested in me,' the Doctor whispered. 'Not physically as I live all through time. But in emotions, in interacting with you. Reactions. No wonder...' He shook his head violently. 'Yes, well... good thing that ended.' He started walking quickly down the corridor. 'Well!' he shouted, 'time to get back to normal.'
But Rose was ready. She ran up behind him and grabbed his arm, pulling him to a stop.
'Oh no, you don't. You don't get to walk away from that,' she said firmly. 'So, you were "intensified". But you have to start from somewhere, yeah? What is it you're not telling me?'
His expression darkened. 'No, Rose. You don't want to know.'
'Yes, I do,' she objected. 'I think I have a right to, after how you behaved towards me.'
'Yeah,' he whispered. 'Yeah, you do.' Slowly he stepped off the walkway and leaned against the wall. Now almost at eye-level, he stared earnestly at Rose. 'After all these centuries, doing what I do, seeing what I've seen--I carry a lot of darkness in me. I didn't ever want you to see any of that. But... some of that... just a small part of that came out today.' He fidgeted then. 'Only you could have brought out that particular...I hope that you will never see that again.'
'Only me? So you didn't enjoy what you were doing?'
He looked trapped then, and he turned his head away. 'That's not the point.'
Rose reached up, held his chin, and brought him back to face her. 'Maybe not. But... I think you did enjoy it. And, what if... what if I... liked it? And that we sort of... understood each other?'
He gulped. 'I... uh... well...'
'I mean, you wouldn't have actually hurt me, would you?'
'No,' he murmured. 'Not injured you, at any rate. I couldn't do that. Not ever. Not you. Scare you, yes, perhaps, if it had continued. And... I might have... I might have...'
'Have what?' she pressed.
'Never mind,' he said bitterly. 'Never you mind, Rose. Your overactive imagination can fill in the blanks.'
'Yeah,' said Rose softly, and she wound her arms around the Doctor. 'It can. And maybe one day we can explore those blanks together. Once we.... er... understand each other. With no time loops.'
He rested his head on her shoulder and closed his eyes.
'Maybe,' he whispered. 'I'd like that.'
The End
From: gentlehobbit
Title: Coral Tunnels
Characters and/or Pairings: Ten/Rose
Rating: R
Summary: When they become stuck in time, Rose begins to notice something odd about both the Tardis and the Doctor.
Author’s Notes: This story takes place in late Season Two, somewhere after The Age of Steel and before Doomsday. Also, the Tardis corridors descriptions were based for the most part on a picture of Doctor Who concept art that has been floating around the internet but for which I have not been able to track down the name of an artist.
Word Count: 9,092
Coral Tunnels
One
'And you thought we'd never get to Barcelona!' crowed the Doctor triumphantly. He reached over the console, twirled a knob and pulled on the lever. 'No faith at all!'
The Tardis whined, the time rotor rose and fell, and Rose bounced on her toes.
'We're not there yet,' she reminded him. 'Until I see those dogs with no noses, I'm not going to believe you. Not a chance!' She hung onto the rail as the Tardis lurched her way through the Vortex.
The Doctor grinned happily at the mention of the dogs. Rose watched him fondly as she felt the time machine finally settle into place with a thump.
But as they both began to run for the door, the Tardis gave one sudden, sharp judder and they were both sent sprawling onto the grating.
'Ow!' said Rose, but the Doctor had already jumped to his feet and ran back to the console.
'That's odd,' he said as he checked instruments and felt under the console with his hand. 'She doesn't do that. Not after we land.'
As Rose got up a little more slowly, she ran a hand through her hair. 'Let me guess. We're not on Barcelona.'
'Oh no. No, no, don't you start, Rose Tyler,' the Doctor admonished. 'We're there,' he muttered, as he pulled out his sonic screwdriver. 'So sorry. Just... have... to look at this first.'
'Mm-hmm,' said Rose. 'Think I'll go make some tea while I wait.'
'Yeah,' said the Doctor vaguely, now lying under the edge of the console, long limbs askew, hands busy with the console innards. 'Be right there.'
* * *
Disgruntled, Rose wandered in the direction of the kitchen. The delicate coral ribs of the ship looped and spiralled under the grating and over her head as she headed down the long, tubular walkway. The burnt orange and rich bronze tints of the walls seemed to shimmer as she passed, rich and vibrant. Rose shook her head as if to clear it -- was it her imagination, or did the ship seem more alive than usual? Fascinated, she trailed her fingers along the walls.
'The Doctor will fix you,' she said softly to the ship. 'If there's anything wrong, that is,' she added.
When she arrived at the kitchen, she brewed enough tea in case the Doctor joined her, and she settled in with her mug and an old, Gallifreyan puzzle toy to decipher. It was a new habit of hers that whenever she had to wait for the Doctor, she'd play with one of many traditional toys he had from his planet. It gave her a chance to start analyzing things, figuring out how they worked. It was something she had never done on Earth, and the idea of trying to solve puzzles or unlock mysteries had horrified her. Now, she took pleasure in working her way through each item the Doctor produced. He too had been delighted when she asked for more, and he triumphantly produced a curiously wrought wooden chest filled with an odd mixture of objects for her to explore.
* * *
It was a couple of hours before the Doctor appeared, running into the kitchen and skidding to a stop. His earlier consternation had disappeared, and he looked so enthusiastic that Rose decided to forgo teasing him about abandoning her for the Tardis.
'Sorry about that,' he said. 'Not quite sure what got into the old girl. But,' and he clapped his hands together and rubbed them, 'she's got a diagnostic running, and we've got a planet to explore. Allons-y!'
'Allons-y!' echoed Rose happily and she linked her arm through his. They returned to the corridor, cold tea and puzzle forgotten.
They had only made their way half way down the corridor before the Doctor stopped suddenly, bringing Rose up short with a jolt.
'Whoah!' he cried. 'What's going on here?'
'What?' asked Rose. She gingerly disengaged herself and rubbed her arm.
'The walls,' he said, gazing all around him. 'Look at the walls. They're... they're...' He looked confused.
'Shimmery,' said Rose. 'Yeah, I noticed.'
'You did?' asked the Doctor. The unspoken addition, ...before I did?, hung in the air.
'Sorry,' said Rose. 'I thought maybe it was natural. Maybe it was a part of what you were trying to fix.'
'Oh, no, no. Not natural,' he said, absentmindedly. 'Maybe connected.' He looked at her directly then. 'Or maybe not! Hard to tell.' He leaned forward, his palms flat against the wall, and he sniffed the shimmering surface. 'Hmm,' he murmured. Hand over hand, he worked his way over to one of the spiralling ribs and sniffed it too.
'Smell anything?' asked Rose, curious.
'Sort of,' he mumbled. 'Well, no. Not really.' And then, slowly, cautiously, he reached out his tongue and licked the edge of the rib. Scowling, he worked his tongue around his teeth, concentrating on the taste.
'Er... ' said Rose. 'You... you licked the Tardis.'
The Doctor opened his eyes wide. 'Hmmm?' he asked. 'Yes. Why not?'
'Is that kind of thing allowed?' she asked, half-teasing.
'Of course!' he said indignantly. 'How else do you investigate? Using all your senses. Gives you all sorts of information.'
'So, what information did you get from your tongue?' asked Rose.
'Something's definitely odd,' he said, a faraway look on his face. 'Concentrated. Like... like.... like... the Tardis has doubled herself somehow. Just.... more of her.' He whipped out the screwdriver and, turning around on the spot, scanned the corridor. He looked at the results and then pocketed the device. 'Nothing. Tells me nothing. Just like the internal sensors. There you are, Rose. Always rely on your senses. On your intuition.'
'Right,' said Rose. 'I'll leave the licking to you, though, if you don't mind.'
But as the Doctor opened his mouth to answer, the corridor, the Doctor himself, and even the air... shifted.
* * * * *
Two
'Ow!' Rose sat up and gingerly felt the back of her head.
The Doctor was already up and he dashed to the console.
'That grating is hard. Ever thought of carpeting the place?' she asked. She clambered to her feet and tucked her hair behind her ears.
'That's odd,' muttered the Doctor. He scowled. 'That's... that's really odd. She doesn't do that.' He leaned over and touched several controls in rapid succession. He then felt with his hands under the console.
Rose turned around and looked at the doors longingly. 'Let me guess. We're not on Barcelona.'
'Oh no. No, no, don't you start, Rose Tyler,' the Doctor admonished. 'We're there,' he muttered, as he pulled out his sonic screwdriver. 'Just... have... to look at this first.'
'Fine,' said Rose. 'I'm going to start without you. I'll let you know when I find my first no-nose dog.'
The Doctor popped his head up over the ledge. 'I don't recommend it.'
'Why not?' she asked. 'You look like you're settled in for some tinkering. I'm ready to go adventuring.'
The Doctor ignored that. 'She hasn't quite chosen her time yet. We're there, but not then.'
'Oh.' Rose walked over to the door and tried to peer out of the window, but she could see nothing. Not strictly nothing but an absence of anything solid. A greyness swirled outside. Unsettled, she backed away.
'Mm-hmm,' said Rose. 'See what you mean. Think I'll go make some tea while I wait.'
'Yeah,' said the Doctor vaguely, now lying under the edge of the console, long limbs askew, hands busy with the console innards. 'See you later.'
* * *
The grating echoed under her feet as she meandered, dispirited, down the corridor. She trailed her fingers over one of the ribs as it soared up and over her head. She had never done this before and was not sure why she did it now. The coral was softer and finer than the sturdy struts that wove through the console room. The surface of the rib seemed to shimmer slightly, and when her hand passed over it, the tips of her fingers seemed to briefly sink into the shimmer even though the coral itself still felt solid.
'That's funny,' she mused. 'The Doctor will fix you, though. If there's anything wrong, that is.'
It didn't take her long to settle in with her latest puzzle and a steaming mug of tea. Barcelona might have to wait for now, but at least she could keep her mind busy. The current object she was trying to solve was a Gallifreyan child's time toy. It only worked in the Tardis, the Doctor had explained, as it used the Tardis's own time field to create more difficult parameters each time one reached a new level.
Soon she was utterly absorbed in the toy and her tea sat cooling on the table.
* * *
Rose had lost track of time when the Doctor suddenly burst into the kitchen and skidded to a stop. He looked so much like an eager puppy that Rose instantly forgot her earlier irritation.
'My poor Rose!' he said. 'Have no idea what got into the old girl. But,' and he held out his arm to her, 'she's running some tests, and we've got adventuring to do. Allons-y!'
'Allons-y!' echoed Rose happily. She jumped up and linked her arm through his. Behind her, on the table, the partly-solved puzzle lay forgotten on the table, quietly ticking its way down to the reset.
They scampered down the corridor, the Doctor's head only just missing the coral overhead. But something caught his attention and he stopped, nearly overbalancing. Rose stumbled but kept from falling by hanging onto a rib.
'Whoah!' he cried. 'What the devil's going on here?'
'What,' asked Rose, curious. 'Oh, right.' She straightened and moved towards the Doctor.
'The walls,' he said, gazing all around him. 'How peculiar! They're... they're...' He looked utterly baffled.
'They've gone funny,' said Rose. 'Yeah, I noticed.'
'You did?' asked the Doctor. The unspoken additions of ...before I did? and Why didn't you tell me? hung in the air.
'Sorry,' said Rose. 'I thought maybe it was because she hadn't chosen her time yet. Maybe it was a part of what you were trying to fix.'
'Oh, no, no. No.... not at all,' he said, absentmindedly. 'I've never seen this before.' He leaned against the wall, and stroked the surface. 'What's wrong with you, then?' He thought for a moment and then, delicately, sniffed the shimmering surface. 'Hmm,' he murmured. 'Smells the same as ever. But... one more test, I think.' With a sideways glance at Rose, he reached out his tongue and ran it over the edge of the rib. 'Hmm!' he mumbled, his eyes shut. Rose could see his jaw working as he analyzed the taste.
'I don't believe it' said Rose. 'You... you licked the Tardis. You actually... licked the Tardis!'
'Mm-hm!' he said. 'Best way to investigate! Your senses tell you all sorts of things!'
'And?' asked Rose.
'Something's positively, definitely odd,' he said, an almost affronted but dumbfounded look on his face. 'Doubled. Like... like.... like... the Tardis has... more of herself in the same space.'
'Hadn't you better scan with your screwdriver?' asked Rose.
He looked at her, gaping, and then promptly yanked the screwdriver out of his jacket pocket. He waved it rapidly around him and then brought it down to look at the results. He dropped it back in his pocket. 'I don't understand,' he muttered. 'Absolutely nothing. Just like the internal sensors. That's not right. How could that be right?' He ran a hand through his hair and then suddenly stopped still staring at her.
'What's wrong?' asked Rose.
He reached out for her hand. 'Your fingers,' he said, frowning. 'They're shimmering too.'
She looked down at her hand held in his. He was right. The tips of her fingers did seem to blur slightly with the most delicate ripple of light playing over them.
'I touched the wall for a moment,' she said. 'Just now... and before, too.'
The Doctor looked at his own hands and then back at hers. 'Only you,' he mused. He brought her hand up to his mouth. 'You mind?'
'Er... I suppose not,' stammered Rose.
He accepted her response at face value and swiped his tongue over one finger. Rose started. His tongue was a little rougher than she expected. Not a lot, but... just enough to notice the difference. A shiver ran down her spine.
'Sorry!' he said, worried. He peered at her. 'Was that... er... inappropriate?'
Rose laughed a little. 'Well, sort of, yeah,' she said. 'But... uh.... never mind. Notice anything?'
'You're the same as the Tardis,' he said.
'I taste like the Tardis?' She stared at him, eyebrows raised.
'No! I mean... You're... you're doubled. More intense. Like there's extra Rose. Not that I know what you taste like,' he hastily amended. 'Well, I do now. I mean...'
He looked so flustered that Rose took pity on him.
'I know what you mean,' she said.
'Good!' he said, clearly with relief. 'We have a mystery to solve.' Enthusiasm began to creep back into his voice.
'Right,' said Rose. 'I'll rely on my intuition, and you just keep licking.'
But as the Doctor opened his mouth to answer, the corridor, the Doctor himself, and even the air... shifted.
* * * * *
Three
'Carpet,' Rose called out to the Doctor. 'Carpet is marvellous stuff. Soft. Easy to land on.'
'Uh-huh,' said the Doctor vaguely. 'How odd,' he murmured. He was already reaching up the underside of the console, pulling down cables and applying his screwdriver.
Rose rolled over onto her knees and sat back on her heels. She was certainly used to being pitched onto her back whenever the Tardis decided to be bouncy, but she heartily wished that she had the uncanny nimble footwork the Doctor displayed to keep himself upright... on most occasions.
She glanced towards the doors' windows but all was pearly grey and swirling. She didn't bother to go closer and look. Instead she got up, went over to the Doctor and squatted down beside him. He lay on his back, legs stuck out haphazardly, and his hands were busy reaching up into Tardis innards.
'Can I help?' she asked. 'Looks like your hands are full.'
'No,' he said.
'You sure?' She felt a little stab of disappointment. Recently the Doctor had begun to show her some small details about the console. Truth be told, she felt wistful about the bond the Doctor shared with the Tardis and she wanted to be a part of it.
The Doctor paused and shook his head. 'I said I'd take you to Barcelona, and I will. I promise. But I need to find out what's wrong.' He shook the cables in his hand. 'Go and do something somewhere, would you?'
'All right,' she said. 'I'll keep out of your way.'
* * *
Rose scuffed her shoes against the metal strips of the walkway that ran along the corridors of the Tardis. She loved the corridors. They weren't narrow or low, exactly, but they were tubular, tunnel-like, and the same coral that wove itself through almost every other room wound itself through and around the walls here. The delicate ribs were of different thickness. Sometimes the rich burnt orange walls between them were bare and smooth, with subtle gradations of red and brown suffused throughout, and sometimes delicate tendrils of coral wove themselves between the ribs in honeycomb patterns. Even the ribs themselves sometimes stood out from the walls supported or suspended by the tendrils. Once in a while, a particularly complex rib structure would dominate, swirling overhead and underneath the grating in a spiral, reminding Rose of the innards of an exotic shell. At other times, she felt as if she were inside the vessels or lungs of a huge creature. In some ways, she thought, she was. For some reason, the colours seemed stronger today, a little brighter than usual.
In some places, the coral wove itself through the gaps in the metal grating underfoot. In others, the walkway stood apart slightly and there was a slight drop from a few inches to a foot on either side where the walls and coral curved and swept underneath the path. She chose one such spot and sat with her back against the wall and her legs resting, knees bent, up on the slightly elevated walkway. It was comfortable there, and she could feel the hum of the Tardis through the walls. She brushed her fingers over the coral, marvelling at the luster and rich colours. She vaguely wondered why she'd never really noticed them before.
After a little while, she remembered an intriguing puzzle that she had been trying to solve. She rolled over, up and onto the walkway and made her way to the kitchen. Once her tea was brewed, she sat down, propped her feet on another chair and picked up where she had left off the other day. Soon she achieved the first level, and the toy shifted to the next one, increasing in difficulty. She kept on playing. She passed the second level and began the third.
* * *
Rose was so absorbed in her puzzle that she barely noticed the rapidly approaching footfalls until she suddenly looked up and found the Doctor standing in front of her with a smile on his face.
'I like this one,' she said and held it up.
'Really?' He grinned. 'That was one of my favourites when I was a child. Time toys. Love them!' He bounced on the balls of his feet. 'Shall we explore Barcelona?'
Rose eagerly jumped to her feet and tossed the puzzle onto the table. 'Of course,' she said. 'How is the Tardis?'
'My poor Rose!' he said. 'You've been waiting like you always do. But,' and he held out his arm to her, 'I think I've solved it. There was a feedback in the time rotor. I've set some recalibrations that should stop it happening again. She was starting to settle down in one time when I left. It should be fine now. Allons-y!'
'Allons-y!' she echoed happily. She linked her arm through his. The puzzle lay forgotten on the table, quietly ticking its way down to the reset.
They ran down the corridor, the Doctor whooping happily, his head only just missing the coral overhead. When they reached one of the stronger ribs, he swung on it. But when he landed, he overstepped and hopped on one foot, arms pinwheeling to regain his balance. Rose had no time to stop and she plowed into him from behind.
'Whoah!' he cried. They clutched each other to stop going over again, and Rose reached out to the side to steady herself. Her finger scraped painfully along the surface.
'What the devil's going on here?'
'What?' asked Rose. She inspected her finger. It began to bleed just a little.
'Have you seen this?' he asked. They're... they're... positively, definitely, indubitably... glowing! How could they possibly glow?' He looked at Rose as if she were guilty of monkeying with the Tardis. 'Something's changed. Altered them somehow.' He cautiously pressed his fingertips against the wall, stroked it and then sniffed his fingers.
'Yeah, I noticed.'
'You did?' asked the Doctor. 'Rose Tyler! We'll make a sleuth of you yet. But sleuths can't sleuth with no information.' He looked at her intently. 'Tell me next time, all right?
'Sorry,' she said. 'I would've, but you weren't in a mood for talking.'
'Oh, right,' he said. 'I'm sorry. I was a bit rude, wasn't I. Tsk! There I go again. Rude, rude, rude. You call me out on it next time, you hear? But this...' and he looked up and around. 'I've never seen this before.' He leaned against the wall, and stroked the surface. 'What's wrong with you, then?' He sniffed the shimmering surface. 'Hmm,' he murmured. 'Smells the same as ever. But... one more test, I think.' He wandered over to one of the spiralling ribs.
'You tell me what's wrong, old girl,' he said softly. He curled his fingers around and amongst the tendrils, and, in one gentle lingering stroke, licked the rib.
Rose shivered. Finally, she managed, 'You... you actually licked the Tardis.' She watched his lips pucker slightly as he pondered the taste. 'Doesn't she mind?'
'Mind?' he said indignantly. 'Of course not! We understand one another, we do. She uses her sensors, and I use mine. We tell each other all sorts of things! This does too, but...' He pulled out the screwdriver, scanned, and then shook his head. 'Nothing. I thought not.' He dropped it back into his pocket with disgust. 'No, much better to use your own senses. And this...' he gestured to the rib, 'this is remarkable.' He stopped then, and stared down at her hands. 'But you are remarkable too.'
'I am?' asked Rose. She held up her hands.
He reached out for her left hand. 'They've got the same distortion,' he said, frowning.
He was right. Her fingers did seem to scintillate slightly, just like the coral.
'I've been touching the walls,' she said.
The Doctor gazed at her intently. 'I see,' he said and then, firmly, as if brooking no argument, brought her hand up to his mouth and sucked on one finger. Rose started. His tongue worked over her skin, and she could feel the edges of his teeth scrape slightly as he pulled her finger out.
'Oh,' was all she could say. She stared at him with wide eyes.
He smiled tolerantly at her. 'Your senses tell you so much more. Same as the Tardis, you are,' he said. 'Everything with that shimmer is more intensified, somehow. And you are a part of it.'
But his attention seem to be caught then by her other hand, which she had begun to lower.
'You're bleeding,' he said sharply. He snatched her right hand up and inspected it.
'It's just a little cut,' she protested. 'I scraped it on the side there a few minutes ago.'
'I see,' he said softly, but there was some indefinable edge to his voice.
Rose shivered but stayed still, obediently leaving her hand, palm turned up, in his.
The Doctor regarded the finger thoughtfully, turned it slightly, and then, as if satisfied, put it in his mouth.
'Hey,' she said, but only half-heartedly. 'Isn't that germy?'
'Not at all,' he mumbled around her digit. 'Time Lord saliva is cleaner than humans.'
Rose felt his tongue lapping and cleaning her skin and she went weak in the knees.
The Doctor looked at her thoughtfully and pulled her finger out. 'You like this!' he said, and there was an intrigued, satisfied air to his voice.
'Uh, yeah,' managed Rose.
But as the Doctor opened his mouth to answer, the corridor, the Doctor himself, and even the air... shifted.
* * * * *
Four
Rose clambered to her feet. Through the doors' windows, all was pearly grey and swirling, but she didn't bother to go closer and look. Instead she walked over to the Doctor and squatted down beside him. He lay on his back, legs sprawled out and hands busy with cabling.
'Can I help?' she asked.
'No,' he said. He didn't look up.
'I can hold things for you. Learn how to help,' she offered.
The Doctor stopped what he was doing. 'Rose,' he said, scowling. 'I said I'd take you to Barcelona, and I will. I promise. But this... this... blasted...' He gave up and brandished the cables in his hand. 'Go and amuse yourself elsewhere, would you?'
'Don't get shirty with me, mister,' she said. 'Don't worry, I know how to keep out of your way.'
* * *
She didn't feel like sitting in the kitchen. There had been too many times in the past when she had to wait for the Doctor to finish whatever project he had going and today she felt a little rebellious. Instead she took her tea and a new puzzle she had begun working on the previous day, and went back out into the corridor. For some reason the colours seemed more vibrant than usual, and the light almost scintillated on the surfaces. She sat with her back against the curving wall and her feet perched on the slightly elevated walkway.
Soon she achieved the first level, and the toy shifted to a higher stage. She kept on playing. Every now and then, she idly ran a hand over the coral ribs, marvelling at the luster and rich colours. She vaguely wondered why she'd never really noticed that before.
She reached the fourth level.
* * *
Rose was so absorbed in her puzzle that she barely noticed the rapidly approaching footfalls until she suddenly looked up and found the Doctor on hands and knees peering down at her with a quizzical look on his face.
'I like it here,' she said, rather lamely. 'Comfortable.'
'Really?' He sat back on his heels and bounced. 'Would you like to stay here, or would you like to find some new comfortable nooks in Bar-ce-lo-nah.' He drawled the syllables and gave her a wink. He looked so impish and just a little ridiculous that Rose instantly forgot their almost-squabble in the console room.
'Of course,' she said. 'But next time, let me help, all right?' She scrambled to her feet and he steadied her.
'My poor Rose!' he said. 'I always keep you waiting, don't I! I love it when you want to help. But,' and he held out his arm to her, 'I think I've got it sorted. There was a feedback in the time rotor. I've set some recalibrations that will ensure it doesn't happen again. Allons-y!'
'Allons-y!' echoed Rose happily. She linked her arm through his. Behind her, tilted over on the slope of the rounded wall lay the puzzle, mostly solved, quietly ticking its way down to the reset.
* * *
They stood facing the walls, the Doctor perplexed. Unsatisfied with either scanning or sniffing, he leaned in close to a rib. 'You tell me what's wrong, old girl,' he said softly. He opened his mouth and ran his tongue slowly and gently up the coral.
Rose shivered. 'Did that tell you anything?'
'Yep,' he said. 'The Tardis feels... doubled. Heavy. Stuffed, like she gorged herself, only she didn't.' He stopped then and peered down at her hands. 'Hang on. What's happening to you?'
'Me?' asked Rose. She held up her hands.
He reached out for her left hand. 'Have you been touching the walls?' he asked, frowning.
She nodded. Her fingers and palms did seem to scintillate slightly.
The Doctor gazed at her intently. 'I see,' he said and then, firmly, sternly, as if admonishing her for not telling him about this as well, he took hold of her wrist, brought her hand up to his mouth and ran the tip of his tongue up one finger. Rose started.
When she was able to speak again, she whispered, 'Did my hand tell you anything?'
He smiled tolerantly at her. 'You're the same as the Tardis. Exactly,' he said. 'You've both been intensified, somehow.'
But his attention seem to be caught then by her other hand, which she had begun to lower.
'You're bleeding,' he said sharply. He snatched her right hand up and inspected her palm. Scratches roughened the skin and some were bleeding slightly.
'It's just a little graze,' protested Rose. 'I scraped it on the side there a few minutes ago.'
'Well, we can't have that,' he said softly.
She shivered but stayed still, obediently leaving her hand, palm turned up, in his.
The Doctor regarded the palm thoughtfully, turned it slightly, and then, as if satisfied, brought it against his mouth. Soon Rose felt the tip of his tongue probing at the graze.
'Hey,' said Rose, but only half-heartedly. 'Isn't that germy?'
He paused. 'Not at all. Time Lord saliva is cleaner than humans. Antiseptic.'
'Oh, of course,' she said, but he returned to his task and Rose felt his tongue lapping and cleaning her skin. It stung a little but when he moved to non-grazed skin, it tickled and her fingers involuntarily curled in over her palm. The Doctor immediately straightened them with his thumbs and held them flat. Once he had finished with her palm, he parted her fingers with his own and worked the tip of his tongue between.
The Doctor looked up at her thoughtfully. 'You like this!' he said, and there was an intrigued, satisfied air to his voice.
'Uhh?' managed Rose.
'You're flushed and your hand has just a tinge of salt. You're sweating.'
'Am not,' protested Rose, but even to her, she sounded less than convincing.
But as the Doctor opened his mouth to answer, the corridor, the Doctor himself, and even the air... shifted.
* * * * *
Five
Rose slammed the mugs down on the counter. The Doctor had snapped at her when she offered to help fix the problem with the Tardis. The last thing she heard was him vehemently muttering to himself as he viciously tore out a bunch of cables from underneath the console.
She was upset, but she was also unsettled. It was quite unlike the Doctor to show anger towards the machine, and he was angry now. She knew better than to push the issue, though. Something was wrong and he was clearly not himself. And so she retreated.
To be fair, she too had been on edge. Why, she wasn't sure. And now she felt sore from the tumble in the console room. Altogether, there was just something odd about the day.
* * *
'There you are,' he said triumphantly. 'I knew I'd find you holed up somewhere.'
'You shouted at me,' said Rose. She slowly uncurled from her spot wedged up against a coral rib.
'I did,' he said, contrite. 'And at the Tardis, too. I'm ever so sorry. You didn't deserve that. At all. I'm just tired of not being able to give you a good holiday. I've been trying to take you to Barcelona for ages. Ages and Ages. But that's no excuse. Forgive me?'
He looked so much like an eager puppy that Rose didn't have the heart to refuse, although a small voice inside her told her she should. She held out her hand and he took it and pulled her to her feet. She smiled at him.
'Brilliant! Come on!'
She dug in her heels. 'Wait,' she said. 'Something's been bugging me.'
'What?' he asked.
'Do you... did you... have you, sort of, felt like things are repeating? Somehow?' She looked up at him hopefully.
'Repeating?' he echoed. 'No. Why do you think that?'
'I don't really... know,' she said lamely. 'Just this feeling as if we're doing things again. Like when the problem started with the Tardis. And even now--you talking to me here. It just... just...'
'You remember doing this before?' asked the Doctor, his eyebrows raised.
'Not exactly,' she answered. 'Well, no. I don't.' She flapped her free hand in front of her in frustration. 'But it feels... familiar. Even trying to solve the puzzle, though I suppose I've been working on that for ages.'
'Not ages,' he corrected her. 'You took that out yesterday for the first time. But I can explain that for you. Levels. When they repeat, they start off the same. Again and again. That could be giving you the effect you're talking about. Make you feel you've been doing it longer.' He looked down at the toy she still had in her hand. 'You're on Level 5. Well done! But there you are. You've been repeating the sequences quite a bit.'
'Yeah,' said Rose doubtfully. 'Hey, did you ever see Groundhog Day? It's a movie, where one bloke had to live the same day over and over and figure out how to stop it. Nobody believed him when he said time was repeating.'
'No,' said the Doctor. 'But I can tell you that would be nonsense. If there ever were a time loop, he wouldn't have been aware of it. Or everyone would. See, there are two kinds of loops,' he said, warming to the subject. 'If it's a cyclical reversal, the events would be erased each time and no-one would ever be aware. Theoretically, the loop could continue forever. Well, not forever, because any Time Lord would detect it, of course. But if it's a chronological loop, everyone would be taken back to the beginning with their memories intact. But events would change wildly as people realized what was happening and react to it. The loop would be broken somehow.'
'So... No time loop here?' she asked.
He smiled. 'No time loop. I'd know if we were in one.'
'Okay,' she said and smiled. 'Let's not keep Barcelona waiting.' She set the toy down by the rib.
'That's my girl,' he said. 'Come on!'
He ran down the corridor dragging her behind him.
'Wait!' she said, out of breath from the sudden acceleration. 'Look at the walls. I've been wanting to show you.'
The Doctor skidded to a halt and she collided with him, sending both of them tumbling to the grating.
'Second time today,' Rose groaned. 'I'm going to be black and blue, I swear.'
The Doctor said nothing. He was already peering at the walls. Still lying face down over the edge of the grating, he sniffed at the wall as it curved under him. Rose rolled off him and onto her knees while he jumped to his feet and curled his fingers around a rib over his head.
'Go on,' said Rose. 'Lick it.' She stood up.
He looked at her a bit strangely, but he did as she suggested.
'Inconclusive,' he said. 'Intense, but inconclusive.'
Rose brought up her hands. 'Look,' she said. 'I've noticed they've gone a bit funny like the walls.'
The Doctor immediately took both her hands and turned them over.
'So they have.' His voice was low and soft, both curious and intense. 'Let's see if they have the same effect as the walls.'
Rose held her breath.
He wove his fingers between hers and then closed his mouth around her thumb. His front teeth scraped over the pad of her thumb while his tongue laved the knuckle.
'Oh,' whispered Rose.
The Doctor slowly took her thumb from his mouth and merely looked at her with a glint in his eye.
'Am... am I "intense" like the Tardis?' she managed to ask. The Doctor still held her hand in a tight grip.
'Yes,' he said. 'You are. We have a mystery.' His left eyebrow was raised and he was now regarding her with fascination.
'Uh... so... what do we do?' She looked longingly at the Doctor's mouth, and then, when she realized how that must seem, she turned her head in embarrassment.
'You're breathing hard,' he noted, though he didn't look too worried. 'Is something wrong?'
'N-no,' stuttered Rose. 'I--'
'Go on,' said the Doctor. His eyes, dark and wide, were focused utterly on her. His eyebrows lowered into a questioning frown.
'I liked when you did that,' she whispered. 'Sorry. I shouldn't say that, really.'
He smiled slowly. 'Did you?' He brought up her other hand and slowly ran his tongue up her palm.
Rose shuddered and her back arched slightly. 'Oh, yes...' she whimpered.
He glanced up, his face still lowered over her hand. 'There's something I've always wanted to do,' he said. 'It would never have been... proper.'
'What is it,' she whispered.
'I've always wanted to lick your ears,' he murmured. 'Silly, I know. Dreadfully silly. But there you are.'
Wordlessly, with her free hand, Rose swept her hair back and tilted her head.
Swiftly, the Doctor let go of her hand and he wound his hand through her hair. He wrapped his other arm around her back and held her firmly to him. She closed her eyes and felt him grasp her hair tightly and pull so her head tilted more and her neck and ear lay exposed.
She gasped when his tongue first touched her ear, running over the rim. He murmured something unintelligible and repeated the action. He pressed his cheek against hers and his teeth nibbled at her earlobe. His sideburn scratched softly against her cheek as he nuzzled.
Rose's knees buckled, but the Doctor, still holding her hard in his grip, merely lowered them both until they knelt.
He took tiny licks behind her ear and the combined pleasure and tickling nearly drove her frantic.
'Ah,' murmured the Doctor. 'And finally...'
The tip of his tongue touched just inside her ear, and she gasped again. But before he could do more, Rose felt the grating below her, the Doctor himself, and even the air... shift.
* * * * *
Six
'All right,' growled the Doctor as he paced stealthily around the console, the screwdriver firmly in hand. 'You're being coy, and I won't have it. I'll find out what's wrong, and you will let me fix it. You hear me? No-one is keeping me from taking Rose to Barcelona, least of all, you!' Suddenly, swiftly, he reached under the console and pulled out a cable with a vicious tug.
Rose edged out of the console room, not quite sure if she wanted the Doctor to notice her leaving or not. Pinstripes or no, he looked for all the world like a jungle cat ready to strike. The intensity of his gaze was, if she admitted it to herself, a little frightening. She didn't know how to deal with this predatory Doctor. This behaviour seemed almost to switch on the moment the Tardis threw them both to the floor. It may be selfish, she thought, and decidedly unheroic, but she definitely wanted to abandon the Tardis to his attentions and run.
* * *
She made her way to the infirmary, glancing back over her shoulder. When she got inside, she took a deep breath and looked up at the scanner readouts.
'Is there anything wrong with the Doctor?' she asked.
The reply was negative. That much she could understand from the otherwise enigmatic Gallifreyan script.
She took a deep breath. 'All right,' she said, shifting slightly into a better stance. 'Is there anything wrong with the Tardis?'
Again the response was negative.
She blew her breath out noisily. 'Think, Rose, think,' she muttered. 'Okay, then. Is there anything wrong with me?'
The scanners were even less forthcoming, if that were possible.
She left the infirmary and made her way to the kitchen. A cup of tea, she thought, might be soothing. After all, nothing was wrong. The Tardis said so, and the Doctor dealt with the machine's oddities every day. It was just her nerves, and after all, it had only been 20 minutes or so since the Doctor started acting this way. Hadn't it? She stopped for a moment and, standing on tip-toes, gripped the coral rib that arched above her. As she lifted her feet off the walkway and hung for a moment, she tried to mimic the Doctor's playful antics. But instead she found herself simply dropping back down. She chided herself. Where had this skittishness come from? And an odd sense of growing anticipation?
* * *
She had just finished the sixth level of the puzzle when she heard it: the Doctor whispering her name from the corridor. She knew that it was a trick of the tunnel's acoustics, but before she had time to think about it, she was on her feet and out the door before her name came again. Despite her earlier fear which still lingered, an overwhelming compulsion pushed her to go to him. The puzzle lay abandoned, sparking in the pool of tea from her knocked-over mug.
She stepped onto the walkway warily. The Doctor walked towards her slowly and casually, yet she could still sense the tension coiled tight in him.
'Ready for Barcelona?' he asked. His voice, deep and soft, sent shivers down her spine.
She walked towards him, mesmerized. And when she reached him, she lifted her hands up for him to see. 'Just like the walls,' she said. 'They've gone all shimmery.'
Without taking his eyes off her, he pulled out the screwdriver and waved it casually behind him. Once he had finished, he brought it up to his face so that he could glance down only an inch before his gaze snapped back to her.
'Nothing,' he said very softly. 'Nothing at all.' He pocketed the screwdriver without moving any other muscle. 'But you, Rose Tyler, you could tell me so much more. Couldn't you.'
'Could I?' she squeaked. 'I mean... I can?'
He nodded slowly.
'Uh, shouldn't you, er, sniff the wall or something?' she asked.
'I've already done that,' he said thoughtfully. 'The Tardis has intensified somehow. I don't know how. She seems stable and I've set some diagnostics running. But I'm more interested in you. What's this effect doing to you?'
He seized her hands and brought them up. 'Exactly the same,' he mused. 'Let's see.'
Bending his head over her hand, he licked from the tip of her middle finger, over her palm and down her wrist.
She shivered and tried to pull away as he bent over her other hand, but he held her hand fast as he repeated the action. He closed his eyes and pondered the taste.
'Like the walls?' she asked when she could breathe again.
'Yes,' he said, opening his eyes. 'Exactly the same. In a manner of speaking. Different taste though. But same effect.' He paused then and kneaded her hands with his long fingers. 'You liked it.' He smiled slowly, indulgently. 'You liked me licking you.'
'I... uh...' managed Rose.
'Let's put that to the test, shall we?' he said, letting go of her hands and walking behind her.
She didn't move, and soon she felt his hands lifting her hair and roughly combing it back with his fingers. Her left ear was uncovered.
She shut her eyes tightly. The feelings of being out of place and out of time warred with breathless anticipation. It felt as if she'd been hoping for this for quite some time, although why or when that feeling had started, she had no idea. Instinct warred with desire: although she knew she should get out of there, she wanted nothing more than to stay.
The slight roughness of his tongue seemed magnified against her ear. She jumped, but he immediately steadied her, holding her across her shoulders with his left arm, with her back to his chest. With his other hand still grasping her hair, he held her head against his right shoulder.
'That's my girl,' he said, almost in a purr. The tip of his tongue traced inside and out. Her knees buckled. 'Oh my... you do like that, don't you. Holding out on me all this time. Rose, Rose, Rose... what am I to do with you?'
He let her go then and she turned around, backing away from him, but not too far.
'Tell me that you liked it. Tell me honestly.'
She nodded her head rapidly, seemingly unable to speak.
'Cat got your tongue?' he asked, amused. He crooked a finger at her. She came to him.
'Unzip your top,' he commanded.
Rose gulped, but her hands came up almost of their own accord, and pulled the zipper down.
He waited, merely cocking an eyebrow.
She undid the clasp of her bra.
'That's better,' he murmured. 'Now, lie down.'
'Here?' she asked, startled.
'Yes,' he responded, as if with infinite patience. 'Right here.'
She obeyed immediately.
'Put your hands above your head.'
She did so, shivering. Whether that was from the cool air of the Tardis, or from her current situation, or maybe both, she didn't know. She hooked her fingers into the grating.
He knelt beside her and laid his hand on her stomach. She flinched but didn't move.
'Good girl,' he said, and he bent over her. 'Close your eyes.'
She did, trembling.
The assault came swiftly. He latched on, sucking hard on her right nipple, his tongue flicking it sharply. She gasped and brought her hands down to protect herself.
He let go immediately and raised his head. 'Yes, or no,' he demanded. 'If we do this, we do it my way.'
'Your way,' she whispered, contrite. 'Please.'
He took her arms and pinned them down behind her head. He kept his hands there on her wrists, pressed against the grating, and once more lowered his head to her right breast. No less brutal the second time, he flicked her nipple until it was hard and then nipped with his teeth--not enough to injure, but the small pain mixed exquisitely with pleasure and Rose moaned. He nipped again and she squirmed.
'That's my girl,' he whispered against her breast. He licked it gently.
Rose kept her eyes tightly shut. The gentle lapping of his tongue now both soothed her and drove her mad. When would the next assault come?
'Shhh,' he whispered and continued to lick around and under. Ticklish, Rose whimpered and shuddered. But the Doctor held her hands fast against the metal and he continued to lick.
Then, as quick as lightning, he moved to her left breast, pulling at her nipple with his lips and then flicked at the bud. The new attack on unsuspecting flesh was almost unbearable. Rose cried out and jerked under him, but he did not stop.
But as he once again began to nip, ...
Rose felt the grating beneath her, and the Doctor's hands and mouth against her, suddenly shift...
...and time continued.
'What?' she gasped. She opened her eyes. The very air and space around them seemed to clear. The heady atmosphere of only seconds previous vanished.
The Doctor sat up with a jerk and looked at her, eyes impossibly round. He snatched his hands away from hers as if they burned him. He scrambled backwards until he dropped over the edge of the grating with a yelp and fetched up against the curve of the wall. A look of blind panic was on his face. He gulped twice. 'Oh my...'
She struggled to sit up, drawing the edges of her top together. 'Doctor?' she asked.
'I was... I was...' He gestured helplessly at her front.
She refastened her bra and zipped up her top. She climbed unsteadily to her feet. The Doctor relaxed slightly, but not by much.
'What happened?' he asked almost plaintively.
She raised her eyebrows. 'I don't know about you, but it seemed to me that I was being licked senseless.'
He nodded almost convulsively. 'I, uh... er, yes. It seems that way. Blimey!' This last was in an awed whisper.
'I, um, don't suppose you'd like to finish,' ventured Rose.
He looked at her with wide eyes. 'That would be entirely, utterly... not a good thing.' As if he were only just realizing that he was upended a bit ridiculously with his bottom stuck in the gap between grating and wall, and his long limbs sprawled up and over the edge of the walkway, he struggled to his feet with an alarming lack of grace.
With more seriousness and a touch of returning intensity, he fixed his gaze on her and said, 'You must never let me take advantage of you like that again. What I did was wrong. I lost control, and that's dangerous.'
'It did feel... odd,' she admitted.
The Doctor ran his fingers through his hair and muttered to himself. 'I don't understand. I've never slipped like that. What happened?'
'I still think it was Groundhog Day,' said Rose. At his puzzled glance, she added, 'A time loop.'
He stared at her dumbfounded and then slapped himself on the forehead so hard that Rose couldn't imagine how he didn't see stars. 'The feedback loop in the time rotor,' he gasped. 'The doubled, intensified structure of the Tardis! But even with the glitch in the console amplifying the time field, there'd still need to be a focal time-end point for the loop to establish itself.' He grasped clumps of his hair with both hands and paced back and forth. 'Think, think, think! Aughh! What could've interacted with the time field enough to restart events?'
'Maybe the Tardis finished her diagnostic and... and sort of... tripped something,' she offered.
'That wouldn't do it,' he said, letting go of his hair which now stuck up wilder than ever in matted tufts. 'No. Something independent of the Tardis. What were we doing at the precise moment that we felt the shift?'
'Licking,' she said.
He looked at her guiltily with the return of a touch of panic. 'Yes. Well, er, can't be that.'
'I was playing with that time toy of yours,' she suggested.
The Doctor's eyes widened again and suddenly he took off like a shot, feet pounding over the metal walkway. Rose followed. She found him in the kitchen, inspecting the puzzle.
'It's broken,' he said softly, understanding dawning in his face. 'It was lying in a puddle of tea and had shorted out. You must have knocked over your mug just before you came out into the corridor.'
'The toy created the loop? But the shift came a while after I would've spilt the tea,' Rose objected. 'I don't see how--'
'Not exactly... It was actually the Tardis's own time-field reacting to something else. But just by chance, when circumstances were favourable, you were playing with just that particular toy which interacts with the time field, and the reset function must have created some kind of chronological harmonic that sparked the feedback which in turn created the loop. The level reset function always takes a few minutes. When it didn't come, time would have been free to continue and escape the loop.'
'Er, okay. I think. But you said that you'd've been aware of a loop,' she said, waggling a finger at him.
'When did I say that?' he asked with a puzzled frown.
'When we met in the corridor before you started... um....'
'No, I didn't,' he said. 'I just asked you if you were ready for Barcelona and then... well, then... you know.'
'Must have been another loop, then,' said Rose firmly. 'I could've sworn you said that, Mr. know-it-all Time Lord.' Then a thought suddenly struck her. 'Hang on. I want to see something.'
She walked back out into the corridor and looked at the walls. The Doctor came up behind her. 'Look,' she said. 'They're back to normal.' She held up her own hands. 'And so am I. Why weren't you all shimmery?'
'I'm a Time Lord,' he said. 'I constantly move through Time and all its anomalies. It was you, a linear time creature, and the toy as the focal point that created the distortion. It was only this corridor that had this effect. I noticed the change as I came here which is why I had already, er, tested the walls before I called your name. You must have touched the walls or spent some time here before you went into the kitchen.'
'No, I didn't,' she answered. 'Well, I did touch one of these.... things overhead. But only for a second. Then I went straight to the kitchen.'
They looked at each other. 'In an earlier loop,' they chorused. 'Or all of them,' the Doctor added. 'And each time,' he mused, 'you and the corridor, and the kitchen, actually, were being overlaid by temporal echoes of yourselves. Intensifying.'
'What about you?' challenged Rose. 'You keep saying you're above all these... effects... stuff, but you were getting pretty intense too. And I have a feeling you weren't exactly being a gentleman in other loops either. There must have been plenty of touching then too...'
'That's how it manifested in me,' the Doctor whispered. 'Not physically as I live all through time. But in emotions, in interacting with you. Reactions. No wonder...' He shook his head violently. 'Yes, well... good thing that ended.' He started walking quickly down the corridor. 'Well!' he shouted, 'time to get back to normal.'
But Rose was ready. She ran up behind him and grabbed his arm, pulling him to a stop.
'Oh no, you don't. You don't get to walk away from that,' she said firmly. 'So, you were "intensified". But you have to start from somewhere, yeah? What is it you're not telling me?'
His expression darkened. 'No, Rose. You don't want to know.'
'Yes, I do,' she objected. 'I think I have a right to, after how you behaved towards me.'
'Yeah,' he whispered. 'Yeah, you do.' Slowly he stepped off the walkway and leaned against the wall. Now almost at eye-level, he stared earnestly at Rose. 'After all these centuries, doing what I do, seeing what I've seen--I carry a lot of darkness in me. I didn't ever want you to see any of that. But... some of that... just a small part of that came out today.' He fidgeted then. 'Only you could have brought out that particular...I hope that you will never see that again.'
'Only me? So you didn't enjoy what you were doing?'
He looked trapped then, and he turned his head away. 'That's not the point.'
Rose reached up, held his chin, and brought him back to face her. 'Maybe not. But... I think you did enjoy it. And, what if... what if I... liked it? And that we sort of... understood each other?'
He gulped. 'I... uh... well...'
'I mean, you wouldn't have actually hurt me, would you?'
'No,' he murmured. 'Not injured you, at any rate. I couldn't do that. Not ever. Not you. Scare you, yes, perhaps, if it had continued. And... I might have... I might have...'
'Have what?' she pressed.
'Never mind,' he said bitterly. 'Never you mind, Rose. Your overactive imagination can fill in the blanks.'
'Yeah,' said Rose softly, and she wound her arms around the Doctor. 'It can. And maybe one day we can explore those blanks together. Once we.... er... understand each other. With no time loops.'
He rested his head on her shoulder and closed his eyes.
'Maybe,' he whispered. 'I'd like that.'
The End