Where Are You Roaming? (10/25)
Author: lorelaisquared
Titile: Where Are You Roaming?
Fandom: Doctor Who
Word Count: 1661
Characters: Rose, Donna, Ten, Viola (OC)
Pairings: Rose/TenII, Rose/Ten
Summary: Sequel to What’s To Come is Still Unsure. Rose and Viola struggle to adjust to being in Rose’s original universe while the Doctor deals with the ramifications of his actions at "Bowie Base One" on Mars.
Rating: PG
Beta(s): meremoon
Author’s Note: Apologies that this is a bit later that usual. But I have a good excuse - I was busy watching Catherine Tate and David Tenant in "Much Ado About Nothing." But here it is now! Also, just in case you missed it, Chapter Nine was posted in a special bonus posting on Wednesday.
Special thanks to my beta, meremoon for her invaluable feedback. Also a huge thank you to rumpelsnorcack for her constant support and cheerleading. A quick shout out to earlgreytea68 for periodically letting me bounce ideas off of her.
Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 |
Chapter 10
Viola sat cross-legged on the floor in the library with a giant, tome on her lap. As she scoured the text, written in Ancient Rogmartagrian, for clues about disturbances in time, she reflected on the conversation she'd had with the Doctor a short while earlier.
He'd asked her to recount the things that had happened since she and Rose had arrived in his universe, hoping for a clue. So she'd told him everything - the dead TARDIS, the strange “earthquakes” and time leaps, her mother's injury, meeting Jack, - all of it. And through it all, the Doctor had listened carefully, taking every morsel of information and mulling it over. Nodding at some points, frowning at others.
When she'd finished he'd asked her a few questions, particularly about when they'd first arrived. After several hmms and huhs, he'd jotted some equations on a piece of paper until he pinpointed the exact date of their arrival on earth. Then he'd thanked her and left the room. Viola knew he'd figured something else out but he didn't seem to want to tell her.
His evasiveness was driving her batty.
She tried once again to concentrate on the text but found it futile and after another minute she slammed the book closed and tossed it onto the sofa.
Steeling herself for what she was certain was going to be a tricky battle of wills, she marched into the control room where the Doctor was tinkering beneath the console, so that only his brown pinstripe adorned legs and white converse were visible.
She paused, swallowing a lump in her throat as she was suddenly thrust into a memory of a time when she'd found her father in an identical position. He'd sensed her in the doorway and had motioned her over, handing her a ratchet and gesturing for him to join her. They'd spent the next few hours tinkering together as he taught her the ins and outs of TARDIS mechanics.
A loud clatter brought Viola back to the present and she blinked back tears as the memory faded and the Doctor who was like her father, but wasn’t him, emerged from beneath the TARDIS, tools in hand.
He nodded to her in acknowledgement, then reached for another tool and started to lay back down.
Her resolve renewed, Viola stormed over to him and wrenched the metal object from his hand.
“Hey! I need that!” he cried.
“You can have it back when you tell me what else you know.”
“I don't know what you're talking about,” he claimed, careful not to make eye contact.
“You do. You know something about Mum, and I want you to tell me what it is.”
“Viola,” he started, in that tone adults always use when they're trying to change the subject.
“No.” She folded her arms over her chest and glared down at him. “I have a right to know.”
“But-”
“Please...” she pleaded, blinking innocently. It had always worked on her father and she was hoping it would work on him.
The Doctor sighed. “Fine. You win.” He set down the rest of his tools and stood, brushing dust from his trousers before sitting down on the captain’s chair and motioning for her to join him. “I'll tell you my theory, but you're not going to like it.”
Viola raised her chin haughtily. “I can handle it.”
The Doctor nodded. “I know you can. But please, will you sit?”
Viola complied, looking at him expectantly as soon as she was settled. “Well?”
The Doctor ran his hand through his hair several times before scrubbing his hands over his face and peering out at Viola through his fingertips. “You were right, it's my fault.”
Viola blinked. “What?”
The Doctor dropped his hands and stood, pacing restlessly as he spoke. “All of these strange things that have happened to you and your mother - I'm the cause.”
Viola sat silently, waiting for him to continue.
“I - I've done some things recently, things I'm not proud of. I know you saw some of it - before I started shielding you from my thoughts. I was - selfish. I abused my knowledge of time and space, messed with things I shouldn't have - changed things I shouldn't have. I started to act like a god. And I convinced myself it was right because the universe owed me.”
“The universe owed you?” Viola scoffed.
“There were all these signs,” he shouted tugging at his hair. “I was told that my time had come.” He lowered his voice. “Viola, I think I'm supposed to die. To regenerate into someone else and I - I don’t want to. So I ran. Threw myself into trying to fix my past mistakes instead of facing the future.” He dragged his hand through his hair. “The worst thing is, I think I may have unknowingly put you and your mum, and I think Donna, in serious danger in the process.”
“What do you mean?” Viola asked, even though she was pretty sure she knew the answer.
“I know why you keep disappearing - I... I undid you.”
Viola frowned at him. “How?”
“It's not important.”
“Yes, it is.”
He sighed and looked at her, his face unreadable. “I went back and prevented Donna from causing the meta-crisis that created your father.”
Viola gasped. “Why would you do that?”
He ground the heel of his hand into his forehead. “Paradoxes,” he explained. “With reality in flux like that, it’s like trying to see your way through molasses.” He clicked his tongue. “Happens to the best of us, you know, sometimes there’s just no avoiding…” He broke off as her probing gaze found him, her doubt tearing down his facade. His face fell as he gave a sigh. How was it that a seven year old could see through him so easily? “I was stupid,” he confessed finally. “I didn't think it through. I was trying to save Donna.”
“How would my dad not existing save Donna?”
“When Donna caused the meta-crisis it changed her - gave her a Time Lord consciousness.”
Viola's eyes widened. “But she's human - the human brain...”
“... can't handle that kind of information,” he finished for her, “which is why, after I left your parents on the beach in your world, I had to do one of the worst things I've ever done in my life.”
“You took her memories away,” Viola realized.
The Doctor nodded miserably. “It was horrible. She was amazing, Donna. Absolutely magnificent and I had to take that from her.”
“Doctor,” Viola placed her hand over his. “You had no choice.”
“There’s always a choice,” he replied darkly. He was silent for a moment before finally sucking in a breath and looking back up at her. “After that happened, I cut myself off. I didn't let myself get close to anyone because I couldn't bear to lose anyone else. Then, when I had the opportunity, that was the first thing I wanted to fix. I just wanted to do right by Donna, I didn't mean to...” He looked at Viola. “If I had thought - if I had known...”
“It's okay. You know now, you can fix it.”
“Maybe.” The Doctor scrubbed his eyes with his hands. “But it's worse than that.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your mum. I changed her history too.” He glanced down at his lap, but not before Viola noted the pain clouding his eyes. “I think that's why you kept being shifted through time and space.”
Viola shook her head. “You really did make a mess of things, didn't you?” she said, trying to keep her voice light, so as not to upset him further.
He laughed sardonically. “You don't know the half of it.”
Viola studied him for a moment, thinking through all the details she knew about her mum's time with the Doctor. Something clicked and she gasped. “You stopped her from being trapped in the parallel universe.”
He gaped at her in surprise. “I did.”
Everything was beginning to make sense. “When Mum suddenly started bleeding in the street - it was because something happened to her previous self.”
The Doctor's face was shrouded in sadness as he nodded.
Viola wanted to crawl into his lap and comfort him, but she held herself back. Instead she simply placed a gentle hand over his and murmured, “She died, didn't she?”
“Yes,” the Doctor whispered sadly.
“But Mum didn't. She went from being unconscious and bleeding to being perfectly fine - there wasn't even a wound. How is that possible?” Viola mused.
“I'm really not sure. It doesn't make sense. Just like it doesn't make sense that you're still here. All my calculations indicate that you shouldn't even exist anymore, and yet, here you are.”
Viola smiled. “Here I am. Mum always did say I was special!” The smile faded and she grew serious. “So what now?”
“I wish I knew...”
They sat in silence for a while and then something occurred to Viola. “What about Donna?” she asked.
The Doctor looked baffled. “What about her?”
“On the bridge, before she and Mum disappeared, I felt something in here.” Viola tapped the side of her head. “I think - I think it was Donna.” Viola swallowed hard as she recalled the moment and for a moment the burning torment filled her head again. “It was horrible. She was scared and there was so much pain. I've never felt anything so awful.”
The Doctor looked distressed. “Oh, no. ”
“She was remembering, wasn't she?”
The Doctor stood up and started to pace. He kept tugging on his ear periodically as he thought. “Did she say anything? Anything that might indicate she was remembering?”
Viola scrunched her face up and thought hard. “She knew Mum's name!”
“No, no, no, no.” The Doctor's eyes were wide. “This was all just before they vanished?”
Viola nodded.
“Okay, Think. Think, think, think, think, thinkity, think.” He stopped suddenly and snapped his fingers. “I know what to do.”
*~*~*~*~*
TBC
Previous Chapter | Next Chapter
Titile: Where Are You Roaming?
Fandom: Doctor Who
Word Count: 1661
Characters: Rose, Donna, Ten, Viola (OC)
Pairings: Rose/TenII, Rose/Ten
Summary: Sequel to What’s To Come is Still Unsure. Rose and Viola struggle to adjust to being in Rose’s original universe while the Doctor deals with the ramifications of his actions at "Bowie Base One" on Mars.
Rating: PG
Beta(s): meremoon
Author’s Note: Apologies that this is a bit later that usual. But I have a good excuse - I was busy watching Catherine Tate and David Tenant in "Much Ado About Nothing." But here it is now! Also, just in case you missed it, Chapter Nine was posted in a special bonus posting on Wednesday.
Special thanks to my beta, meremoon for her invaluable feedback. Also a huge thank you to rumpelsnorcack for her constant support and cheerleading. A quick shout out to earlgreytea68 for periodically letting me bounce ideas off of her.
Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 |
Chapter 10
Viola sat cross-legged on the floor in the library with a giant, tome on her lap. As she scoured the text, written in Ancient Rogmartagrian, for clues about disturbances in time, she reflected on the conversation she'd had with the Doctor a short while earlier.
He'd asked her to recount the things that had happened since she and Rose had arrived in his universe, hoping for a clue. So she'd told him everything - the dead TARDIS, the strange “earthquakes” and time leaps, her mother's injury, meeting Jack, - all of it. And through it all, the Doctor had listened carefully, taking every morsel of information and mulling it over. Nodding at some points, frowning at others.
When she'd finished he'd asked her a few questions, particularly about when they'd first arrived. After several hmms and huhs, he'd jotted some equations on a piece of paper until he pinpointed the exact date of their arrival on earth. Then he'd thanked her and left the room. Viola knew he'd figured something else out but he didn't seem to want to tell her.
His evasiveness was driving her batty.
She tried once again to concentrate on the text but found it futile and after another minute she slammed the book closed and tossed it onto the sofa.
Steeling herself for what she was certain was going to be a tricky battle of wills, she marched into the control room where the Doctor was tinkering beneath the console, so that only his brown pinstripe adorned legs and white converse were visible.
She paused, swallowing a lump in her throat as she was suddenly thrust into a memory of a time when she'd found her father in an identical position. He'd sensed her in the doorway and had motioned her over, handing her a ratchet and gesturing for him to join her. They'd spent the next few hours tinkering together as he taught her the ins and outs of TARDIS mechanics.
A loud clatter brought Viola back to the present and she blinked back tears as the memory faded and the Doctor who was like her father, but wasn’t him, emerged from beneath the TARDIS, tools in hand.
He nodded to her in acknowledgement, then reached for another tool and started to lay back down.
Her resolve renewed, Viola stormed over to him and wrenched the metal object from his hand.
“Hey! I need that!” he cried.
“You can have it back when you tell me what else you know.”
“I don't know what you're talking about,” he claimed, careful not to make eye contact.
“You do. You know something about Mum, and I want you to tell me what it is.”
“Viola,” he started, in that tone adults always use when they're trying to change the subject.
“No.” She folded her arms over her chest and glared down at him. “I have a right to know.”
“But-”
“Please...” she pleaded, blinking innocently. It had always worked on her father and she was hoping it would work on him.
The Doctor sighed. “Fine. You win.” He set down the rest of his tools and stood, brushing dust from his trousers before sitting down on the captain’s chair and motioning for her to join him. “I'll tell you my theory, but you're not going to like it.”
Viola raised her chin haughtily. “I can handle it.”
The Doctor nodded. “I know you can. But please, will you sit?”
Viola complied, looking at him expectantly as soon as she was settled. “Well?”
The Doctor ran his hand through his hair several times before scrubbing his hands over his face and peering out at Viola through his fingertips. “You were right, it's my fault.”
Viola blinked. “What?”
The Doctor dropped his hands and stood, pacing restlessly as he spoke. “All of these strange things that have happened to you and your mother - I'm the cause.”
Viola sat silently, waiting for him to continue.
“I - I've done some things recently, things I'm not proud of. I know you saw some of it - before I started shielding you from my thoughts. I was - selfish. I abused my knowledge of time and space, messed with things I shouldn't have - changed things I shouldn't have. I started to act like a god. And I convinced myself it was right because the universe owed me.”
“The universe owed you?” Viola scoffed.
“There were all these signs,” he shouted tugging at his hair. “I was told that my time had come.” He lowered his voice. “Viola, I think I'm supposed to die. To regenerate into someone else and I - I don’t want to. So I ran. Threw myself into trying to fix my past mistakes instead of facing the future.” He dragged his hand through his hair. “The worst thing is, I think I may have unknowingly put you and your mum, and I think Donna, in serious danger in the process.”
“What do you mean?” Viola asked, even though she was pretty sure she knew the answer.
“I know why you keep disappearing - I... I undid you.”
Viola frowned at him. “How?”
“It's not important.”
“Yes, it is.”
He sighed and looked at her, his face unreadable. “I went back and prevented Donna from causing the meta-crisis that created your father.”
Viola gasped. “Why would you do that?”
He ground the heel of his hand into his forehead. “Paradoxes,” he explained. “With reality in flux like that, it’s like trying to see your way through molasses.” He clicked his tongue. “Happens to the best of us, you know, sometimes there’s just no avoiding…” He broke off as her probing gaze found him, her doubt tearing down his facade. His face fell as he gave a sigh. How was it that a seven year old could see through him so easily? “I was stupid,” he confessed finally. “I didn't think it through. I was trying to save Donna.”
“How would my dad not existing save Donna?”
“When Donna caused the meta-crisis it changed her - gave her a Time Lord consciousness.”
Viola's eyes widened. “But she's human - the human brain...”
“... can't handle that kind of information,” he finished for her, “which is why, after I left your parents on the beach in your world, I had to do one of the worst things I've ever done in my life.”
“You took her memories away,” Viola realized.
The Doctor nodded miserably. “It was horrible. She was amazing, Donna. Absolutely magnificent and I had to take that from her.”
“Doctor,” Viola placed her hand over his. “You had no choice.”
“There’s always a choice,” he replied darkly. He was silent for a moment before finally sucking in a breath and looking back up at her. “After that happened, I cut myself off. I didn't let myself get close to anyone because I couldn't bear to lose anyone else. Then, when I had the opportunity, that was the first thing I wanted to fix. I just wanted to do right by Donna, I didn't mean to...” He looked at Viola. “If I had thought - if I had known...”
“It's okay. You know now, you can fix it.”
“Maybe.” The Doctor scrubbed his eyes with his hands. “But it's worse than that.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your mum. I changed her history too.” He glanced down at his lap, but not before Viola noted the pain clouding his eyes. “I think that's why you kept being shifted through time and space.”
Viola shook her head. “You really did make a mess of things, didn't you?” she said, trying to keep her voice light, so as not to upset him further.
He laughed sardonically. “You don't know the half of it.”
Viola studied him for a moment, thinking through all the details she knew about her mum's time with the Doctor. Something clicked and she gasped. “You stopped her from being trapped in the parallel universe.”
He gaped at her in surprise. “I did.”
Everything was beginning to make sense. “When Mum suddenly started bleeding in the street - it was because something happened to her previous self.”
The Doctor's face was shrouded in sadness as he nodded.
Viola wanted to crawl into his lap and comfort him, but she held herself back. Instead she simply placed a gentle hand over his and murmured, “She died, didn't she?”
“Yes,” the Doctor whispered sadly.
“But Mum didn't. She went from being unconscious and bleeding to being perfectly fine - there wasn't even a wound. How is that possible?” Viola mused.
“I'm really not sure. It doesn't make sense. Just like it doesn't make sense that you're still here. All my calculations indicate that you shouldn't even exist anymore, and yet, here you are.”
Viola smiled. “Here I am. Mum always did say I was special!” The smile faded and she grew serious. “So what now?”
“I wish I knew...”
They sat in silence for a while and then something occurred to Viola. “What about Donna?” she asked.
The Doctor looked baffled. “What about her?”
“On the bridge, before she and Mum disappeared, I felt something in here.” Viola tapped the side of her head. “I think - I think it was Donna.” Viola swallowed hard as she recalled the moment and for a moment the burning torment filled her head again. “It was horrible. She was scared and there was so much pain. I've never felt anything so awful.”
The Doctor looked distressed. “Oh, no. ”
“She was remembering, wasn't she?”
The Doctor stood up and started to pace. He kept tugging on his ear periodically as he thought. “Did she say anything? Anything that might indicate she was remembering?”
Viola scrunched her face up and thought hard. “She knew Mum's name!”
“No, no, no, no.” The Doctor's eyes were wide. “This was all just before they vanished?”
Viola nodded.
“Okay, Think. Think, think, think, think, thinkity, think.” He stopped suddenly and snapped his fingers. “I know what to do.”
*~*~*~*~*
TBC
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