Don't Blink - 3/?
Title: Don't Blink - 3/?
Authors: rosewarren and ladychi
Characters: Rose, Ten
Summary: AU. What if Rose had stayed through Doomsday and was the one to end up in 1969 with the Doctor?
Rating: PG
Author's Note: ladychi is made of awesome, just for the record. She took a sad little chapter and made it sound wonderfully alive.
~ One~ Two~
Rose and the Doctor walked along the street, hand in hand. Rose’s head kept swiveling around, taking in all the 1960’s fashions. Men and women strolled by, long hair swinging - some bound into tight braids, some swinging loose - on both sexes. They wore miniskirts and long, flowing dresses of cotton, heavy beaded necklaces and metal bangles. Some walked with a sexy sway, deliberately rocking hips back and forth, and others walked with their heads in the air. This was the Sexual Revolution, the era of free love and protest songs. Rose could practically feel the spirit of change around her.
“This is fantastic,” Rose said, craning her head around to look at the people and the shops they passed. “A blast from the past and all that, yeah?”
“I remember the 1960’s,” the Doctor said nostalgically. “I was here for a while.”
“What were you doing?”
He opened his mouth but didn’t say anything for a long moment. “Just...staying in one place for a while,” he said finally.
“When you were working for UNIT?” Rose had heard some stories about that time. After one particularly rough adventure, when the Slitheen had tried to take over the Earth during his last regeneration, he'd told her stories of the time he'd been stranded on Earth.
“Yes,” the Doctor said softly. He’d been here before then, of course, traveling with his granddaughter Susan. Exiled from their home world, they’d traveled time and space in the TARDIS he had stolen, landing on Earth when she’d expressed an interest in going to school like a regular human girl. That experiment had ended with his taking two humans aboard - would Ian and Barbara be around here somewhere? - and his life hadn’t been the same since, really.
“Doctor?” Rose prodded him in the side. “You okay?”
He smiled at her. “Sorry. Lost my train of thought there. You were saying?”
It looked like Rose had a lot to say, but before she could ask what had brought that look of sadness to his face, they walked past an open shop door. Mrs. Robinson was playing somewhere inside, the music floating out to the street.
“Ah, Simon and Garfunkel,” the Doctor said cheerfully, throwing off his dark mood as suddenly as it had come over him. “Decent chaps, the pair of them. You'd have to go to Bustrix, in the Cappal nebula, to hear harmony like that again. They got Scarborough Fair all wrong, of course. Easy enough to do if you weren't there. Back in the Middle Ages, you see, Rose, the town of Scarborough would get all prettied up and-” He stopped talking when he noticed that Rose was gone.
She was standing in one of the shop windows, admiring the fashions clothing displayed there. She indicated the loudly patterned blouses in the window. “What do you think?”
The Doctor winced and rocked back on his heels. “I think my eyes hurt.”
She laughed but turned away, letting him tuck her hand into his as they walked down the street. “Sooo, we’re stuck here in the past. Where’s the TARDIS?”
He frowned. “Back where we left it, I’m afraid. If those angels manage to get inside it they’d have enough energy to do a lot of damage. We need to get it back.”
“Okay,” Rose said readily. “How do we do that? How do we get from now to then?” She paused and glanced around. “When exactly is now, anyway?” They’d come to the end of the street, on the corner of which was a newsstand. Nodding a friendly hello to the newsagent, Rose picked up a newspaper to look at the date. “Huh. It’s 1969.” She put the paper down and started walking in step with the Doctor again. “So all we need to do is get from- what are you doing?”
As soon as she’d said 1969 the Doctor started hunting through his coat pockets. “Good thing I had this with me,” he muttered.
“You usually do,” she agreed.
“Where is it? Where is it?” The Doctor took his coat off and was now going through all of the transdimensional pockets with greater urgency.
“Did you lose something?” Rose couldn’t help asking.
He gave a grunt of annoyance and looked around. Spotting a bench, he sat down and started looking through the pockets again. Rose sat down beside him and prepared to wait patiently.
They got a few odd looks from passers-by. The Doctor’s brown suit was not quite the current style for men. Her own sweats, while cute and comfortable, were a far cry from the neat shirtdresses, short skirts, and teased hair most of the women walking past seemed to be sporting. Rose shrugged it off. It certainly was not the first time they’d been somewhere where the local fashion didn’t mesh with what they wore.
“Ha!” the Doctor said triumphantly, pulling a large envelope out of his coat.
“What’s that?”
He frowned. “I got it in the future. I put it away just in case.”
Rose took a closer look at the envelope. “That looks familiar.” Realization came and she met his eyes. “Oh.”
“She said that someday we’d be stuck in 1969,” he said. “And that we’d need this.”
She nodded, remembering. “Did you ever look inside?”
“No,” he admitted, scratching his ear. “I don’t like to be surprised. Takes all the fun out of it.”
“We’re going to be here a while, aren’t we?” she asked. “We don’t have the TARDIS and we don’t know how to get it back.”
“Well, not yet.” The Doctor opened the envelope. “This is the key, though. Obviously we've gotten back before, so we just need to keep the time loop. Easy-peasy lemon-squeezy.”
Rose looked over his shoulder as he rifled through papers and photos. He flipped through them nonchalantly until he came to a neatly typed letter.
Doctor, it began, I have first to thank you for saving my life, and then strongly urge you to be careful with your own. My name is Sally Sparrow, and although we have never met, I would ask that you do exactly as I say...
“Bit bossy, isn't she?” Rose asked, wrinkling her nose.
“She's right,” the Doctor said shortly. “It's best not to deviate at all, or the universe could collapse. Paradoxes and time loops are tricky things.” He looked over at her and beamed. “As you and I both well know.”
“No reapers this time,” Rose said firmly. “Although, from this transcript --” she had been flipping through it, skimming what was written there, “it looks like we might be here for a while.” She grinned at him, tongue escaping from her teeth. “What's more frightening, Doctor? A lease or a mortgage?”
“Can't we just... stay in a motel? Travel around a bit?” the Doctor winced. “I'm really not good at domestic, Rose. Really not good.”
“I haven't had to be in a while, either,” Rose mused. “Still, let's just look at it as adventure, yeah? The Doctor and Rose, the stuff of legend - living the ordinary... legendarily. That went a bit better inside of my head.”
The Doctor threw back his head and laughed. “We can give it a go, yeah?”
“Definitely.”
Acquiring enough money to put down first months' rent in a modest flat was a simple enough matter: the Doctor flashed the psychic paper at a bank and they had enough cash to get settled.
“It has to be the last time, though,” the Doctor said, placing the roll of pounds in one of the many pockets of his greatcoat. “We don't want to get funny looks.”
“I can get a job. Was a shopgirl before, I can do it again,” Rose said cheerfully. “Especially since we won't be here long."
The Doctor looked over at her with a grin. “First things first, though.”
“What?” Rose looked over at him.
“We've got to go commit some vandalism!”
Rose beamed. “Let's try not to get thrown in jail while we’re at it.”
“Oh," drawled the Doctor, “where’s the fun in that?”
Four
Authors: rosewarren and ladychi
Characters: Rose, Ten
Summary: AU. What if Rose had stayed through Doomsday and was the one to end up in 1969 with the Doctor?
Rating: PG
Author's Note: ladychi is made of awesome, just for the record. She took a sad little chapter and made it sound wonderfully alive.
~ One~ Two~
Rose and the Doctor walked along the street, hand in hand. Rose’s head kept swiveling around, taking in all the 1960’s fashions. Men and women strolled by, long hair swinging - some bound into tight braids, some swinging loose - on both sexes. They wore miniskirts and long, flowing dresses of cotton, heavy beaded necklaces and metal bangles. Some walked with a sexy sway, deliberately rocking hips back and forth, and others walked with their heads in the air. This was the Sexual Revolution, the era of free love and protest songs. Rose could practically feel the spirit of change around her.
“This is fantastic,” Rose said, craning her head around to look at the people and the shops they passed. “A blast from the past and all that, yeah?”
“I remember the 1960’s,” the Doctor said nostalgically. “I was here for a while.”
“What were you doing?”
He opened his mouth but didn’t say anything for a long moment. “Just...staying in one place for a while,” he said finally.
“When you were working for UNIT?” Rose had heard some stories about that time. After one particularly rough adventure, when the Slitheen had tried to take over the Earth during his last regeneration, he'd told her stories of the time he'd been stranded on Earth.
“Yes,” the Doctor said softly. He’d been here before then, of course, traveling with his granddaughter Susan. Exiled from their home world, they’d traveled time and space in the TARDIS he had stolen, landing on Earth when she’d expressed an interest in going to school like a regular human girl. That experiment had ended with his taking two humans aboard - would Ian and Barbara be around here somewhere? - and his life hadn’t been the same since, really.
“Doctor?” Rose prodded him in the side. “You okay?”
He smiled at her. “Sorry. Lost my train of thought there. You were saying?”
It looked like Rose had a lot to say, but before she could ask what had brought that look of sadness to his face, they walked past an open shop door. Mrs. Robinson was playing somewhere inside, the music floating out to the street.
“Ah, Simon and Garfunkel,” the Doctor said cheerfully, throwing off his dark mood as suddenly as it had come over him. “Decent chaps, the pair of them. You'd have to go to Bustrix, in the Cappal nebula, to hear harmony like that again. They got Scarborough Fair all wrong, of course. Easy enough to do if you weren't there. Back in the Middle Ages, you see, Rose, the town of Scarborough would get all prettied up and-” He stopped talking when he noticed that Rose was gone.
She was standing in one of the shop windows, admiring the fashions clothing displayed there. She indicated the loudly patterned blouses in the window. “What do you think?”
The Doctor winced and rocked back on his heels. “I think my eyes hurt.”
She laughed but turned away, letting him tuck her hand into his as they walked down the street. “Sooo, we’re stuck here in the past. Where’s the TARDIS?”
He frowned. “Back where we left it, I’m afraid. If those angels manage to get inside it they’d have enough energy to do a lot of damage. We need to get it back.”
“Okay,” Rose said readily. “How do we do that? How do we get from now to then?” She paused and glanced around. “When exactly is now, anyway?” They’d come to the end of the street, on the corner of which was a newsstand. Nodding a friendly hello to the newsagent, Rose picked up a newspaper to look at the date. “Huh. It’s 1969.” She put the paper down and started walking in step with the Doctor again. “So all we need to do is get from- what are you doing?”
As soon as she’d said 1969 the Doctor started hunting through his coat pockets. “Good thing I had this with me,” he muttered.
“You usually do,” she agreed.
“Where is it? Where is it?” The Doctor took his coat off and was now going through all of the transdimensional pockets with greater urgency.
“Did you lose something?” Rose couldn’t help asking.
He gave a grunt of annoyance and looked around. Spotting a bench, he sat down and started looking through the pockets again. Rose sat down beside him and prepared to wait patiently.
They got a few odd looks from passers-by. The Doctor’s brown suit was not quite the current style for men. Her own sweats, while cute and comfortable, were a far cry from the neat shirtdresses, short skirts, and teased hair most of the women walking past seemed to be sporting. Rose shrugged it off. It certainly was not the first time they’d been somewhere where the local fashion didn’t mesh with what they wore.
“Ha!” the Doctor said triumphantly, pulling a large envelope out of his coat.
“What’s that?”
He frowned. “I got it in the future. I put it away just in case.”
Rose took a closer look at the envelope. “That looks familiar.” Realization came and she met his eyes. “Oh.”
“She said that someday we’d be stuck in 1969,” he said. “And that we’d need this.”
She nodded, remembering. “Did you ever look inside?”
“No,” he admitted, scratching his ear. “I don’t like to be surprised. Takes all the fun out of it.”
“We’re going to be here a while, aren’t we?” she asked. “We don’t have the TARDIS and we don’t know how to get it back.”
“Well, not yet.” The Doctor opened the envelope. “This is the key, though. Obviously we've gotten back before, so we just need to keep the time loop. Easy-peasy lemon-squeezy.”
Rose looked over his shoulder as he rifled through papers and photos. He flipped through them nonchalantly until he came to a neatly typed letter.
Doctor, it began, I have first to thank you for saving my life, and then strongly urge you to be careful with your own. My name is Sally Sparrow, and although we have never met, I would ask that you do exactly as I say...
“Bit bossy, isn't she?” Rose asked, wrinkling her nose.
“She's right,” the Doctor said shortly. “It's best not to deviate at all, or the universe could collapse. Paradoxes and time loops are tricky things.” He looked over at her and beamed. “As you and I both well know.”
“No reapers this time,” Rose said firmly. “Although, from this transcript --” she had been flipping through it, skimming what was written there, “it looks like we might be here for a while.” She grinned at him, tongue escaping from her teeth. “What's more frightening, Doctor? A lease or a mortgage?”
“Can't we just... stay in a motel? Travel around a bit?” the Doctor winced. “I'm really not good at domestic, Rose. Really not good.”
“I haven't had to be in a while, either,” Rose mused. “Still, let's just look at it as adventure, yeah? The Doctor and Rose, the stuff of legend - living the ordinary... legendarily. That went a bit better inside of my head.”
The Doctor threw back his head and laughed. “We can give it a go, yeah?”
“Definitely.”
Acquiring enough money to put down first months' rent in a modest flat was a simple enough matter: the Doctor flashed the psychic paper at a bank and they had enough cash to get settled.
“It has to be the last time, though,” the Doctor said, placing the roll of pounds in one of the many pockets of his greatcoat. “We don't want to get funny looks.”
“I can get a job. Was a shopgirl before, I can do it again,” Rose said cheerfully. “Especially since we won't be here long."
The Doctor looked over at her with a grin. “First things first, though.”
“What?” Rose looked over at him.
“We've got to go commit some vandalism!”
Rose beamed. “Let's try not to get thrown in jail while we’re at it.”
“Oh," drawled the Doctor, “where’s the fun in that?”
Four