Something Like Home [Simon, Rose, Ten] PG
Title: Something Like Home
Fandom: Doctor Who, Firefly
Characters: Simon, Ten, Rose, mentions of other Firefly characters
Pairings: Ten/Rose, though it’s mostly in the friendship way, some implied Firefly pairings but nothing specific.
Summary: This isn’t home anymore, not really.
Timeline: Firefly - OiS is the last that happened, but this is long into the future, a couple of years, I’d say. Doctor Who - Assume that everything up to and including 2x09 has happened.
Word Count: 3191
Rating: PG
Thank you to naughtyelf for the beta job and read throughs and nitpicks.
After River was killed and Simon’s arrest warrant was deemed null and void, Simon couldn’t stay on Serenity. There were too many things there reminding him of the fact that, in the end, he couldn’t save his sister. He had failed. He couldn’t deal with that, so he had Mal take him back to Osiris. There was nothing left for him out there, no real reason for him to stay.
Not that there was much for him on Osiris. He’d gone back to his parents, who’d welcomed him with open arms. It wasn’t necessarily where he wanted to be, but it was a place to call home, at least for the time being. He settled back into work at the hospital. It wasn’t bad. Not really.
Sometimes he missed the hum of Serenity’s engines. The sound of Kaylee and Inara laughing and joking with each other. Arguing with Mal about absolutely nothing and everything at the same time. But none of it had really been the same without his sister, and the ship would never be the same without her.
It was hard to leave, but it would have been harder to stay.
So he went home. It wasn’t home anymore, but it wasn’t bad. It had actually surprised him how easy it had been to settle back in. Once the warrant was dropped, it was almost like nothing had happened at all. His dad acted like nothing was wrong, and the head of the hospital practically begged him to come back, once they knew he was on the planet again.
It felt strange going back to a normal life, on a core planet, after spending nearly two years living day to day on a space ship, working when the jobs came, being a criminal, being a fugitive.
It was dull. Simon sometimes wished he could go back, but there was no way he could do that. Even if he could contact Mal, and the crew of Serenity, there was no way they were coming back to Osiris for him, so he just had to accept the choice he made. It was all for the best anyway.
Even if his life felt empty.
-----
“Osiris, home to nearly 1 billion human beings. Fantastic, isn’t it? Beautiful planet. And some of the best Chinese food in the history of time,” The Doctor grinned at Rose as they stepped out of the TARDIS.
“They’ve still got Chinese food?”
“Of course they’ve still got Chinese food. I think they just call it food, though, to tell you the truth,” The Doctor began speaking mostly under his breath, “Now, what was the name of that little restaurant….”
Rose smiled over at him, brightly and then looked out at the city below her. Sparkling lights and space ships were scattered all around. It was, she had to admit, nearly breathtaking.
The Doctor looked over at her and smiled back. He would never get tired of her reactions to seeing all of the things the universe had to show. She was so enthusiastic. It reminded him of himself. He grabbed her by the hand and started walking quickly off, closer to the city below.
It didn’t take long to get deep into the city. Everything was even more fascinating up close. Rose had seen a lot in her time with The Doctor, but this was going to be near the top of the list of her favorite places. She could already tell.
“So, what year is this, then?”
“This would be the year 2520.”
“2520,” she repeated to herself, “So, not so distant future, comparatively, then? It all looks so different, though, not, I suppose. Why are they all here and not on Earth?”
“Too many of them,” he paused, “The human race was forced to branch out. They created what are, basically, the equivalent of a whole group of new Earths. Some are like this, some aren’t.”
Rose just nodded, taking it all in. After a quick pause, she grinned and then took off down the street.
“You coming?”
The Doctor smiled and then took off after her.
-----
The ER was slammed. Simon hadn’t seen it this busy since he’d returned to Osiris a month ago. It made him, at the very least, feel like he was doing something. He felt important when he was in surgery, giving orders, saving lives, doing what he’d always wanted to do.
The wounds were hard to place. He didn’t know any weapon that made those sorts of marks, and he’d seen four people with the same injuries in the last hour. He’d seen more than he cared to remember while he was with Serenity. Every kind of knife, gun, laser, wounds gotten in bar fights and sword fights, reavers. Name it, and Simon probably saw it on Mal, Jayne, Zoe, or one of the other crew members, though, mostly Mal. But none of those were like this.
It didn’t seem possible.
He spouted off another list of orders to the newest interns and went on to the next person.
Same injuries.
It went on like that for the rest of the night. One after the other people came in with strange injuries he couldn’t think of any cause for, and none of them were in a position to tell him what had happened. They’d patch the injured up one by one and move on to the next. Around 1AM, they seemed to have gotten a reprieve. No new injured.
At around 1:30, Simon was sitting on a couch in the lounge, drinking a cup of coffee that would hopefully help him make it through the rest of the night. Another thing he missed about Serenity was that the ship always seemed to have the strongest coffee he could ever remember drinking. He needed a cup of that coffee now. This was too weak. It wasn’t going to do the job.
“Doctor?”
Simon jumped up at the sound of the voice. He looked back to see a blonde girl, around nineteen or twenty, standing in the doorway.
“I’m Doctor Tam. Can I help you with something?”
“Doctor Tam,” she paused, “I’m Rose.”
Simon walked towards her and then took her arm and lead her out of the lounge. She looked shaken by something.
“Rose, are you here visiting someone?”
“Actually, I’m looking for someone. My,” she paused, “friend, someone I travel with. I was told to meet him here, but I can’t seem to find him anywhere.”
“Maybe I can help. What’s your friend’s name?”
“The Doctor.”
Simon couldn’t but let out a slight laugh, even with all that had happened previously in the night.
“This is a hospital, Rose. You might have to be a little more specific than that.”
She laughed too. Simon started to feel just a bit better, and it was enough for the moment.
“Right. Uhm, well, he’s sort of tall, skinny, and his hair sort of…” she tried to explain it with her hands, “And glasses! He’s got on glasses, probably. I’m not really sure actually. He doesn’t always wear them. Oh, and he might be carrying around a screwdriver.”
Simon quirked an eyebrow at her. He was starting to wonder if maybe this Rose had really just escaped from the psych ward.
“Right,” he paused, “Let me see if I can help you find---”
“Rose! There you are,” he gave Simon a look, “And who is your new friend?”
“This is Doctor Tam,” she gave him another smile, “He was going to help me find you.”
“Nice to meet you, Doctor Tam,” he looked back over at Rose and got serious, “We have to go. Now.”
“But why? I thought you had to---”
“Yes, that’s done, and now we have to go,” he looked over his shoulder and broke into a run, taking Rose with him, “Doctor Tam, you might want to come along.”
Simon looked confused and then noticed some Alliance officials coming around the corner, carrying guns. He didn’t have any reason to run from the Alliance anymore, but he didn’t like them, and he still had the urge to run while they were in the area. He didn’t hesitate for more than a moment before hurrying to catch up with The Doctor and Rose.
----
They were clear of the hospital before they lost the Alliance guards. Simon suddenly realized he’d just left while he was still on call. And he’d dropped his pager. This was surely a firing offence. The Doctor pulled Rose pulled Simon into an alley behind a restaurant, so they could catch their breath.
“Do you want to tell me why we’re being chased by the Alliance?”
“What’s the Alliance?” Rose looked from The Doctor to Simon.
“You’re not serious,” Simon looked at The Doctor, “She’s not serious.”
“Oh, she’s serious,” The Doctor ignored Rose’s question for the time being and went on to answer the original question, “As to why we’re running from them, well, as it turns out, they don’t exactly like people exposing their darker side. Can’t quite understand why.”
Simon had more than enough experience with the Alliance’s darker side. He didn’t need anymore elaboration than that.
“You aren’t a doctor, are you?”
“Not a doctor. The Doctor,” he grinned.
“Right,” that wasn’t quite the answer Simon had been looking for, but he was willing to accept it was probably all he was going to get for now.
“Are those people back there going to be alright then?”
“What people?” Simon hadn’t seen anyone other than the Alliance.
“You work at the hospital, surgeon, if your name badge isn’t lying, you saw them for yourself, earlier tonight.”
“The strange injuries,” that had been the Alliance. Simon should have seen that coming. Nothing about the Alliance surprised him anymore. Nothing.
“Yes, that would be them,” The Doctor turned to look at Rose, “They’re going to be fine. That’s part of the reason they’re after us. As it turns out, they were part of some government experiment.”
“That’s terrible,” Rose was quiet.
“Terrible, but not shocking,” Simon spoke up and noticed the two of them looking at him, “The Alliance isn’t exactly known for caring about people. I know this from personal experience.”
He didn’t see fit to elaborate. Not when he didn’t know anything about these people, with the exception of the facts that her name was Rose and he was some sort of doctor.
“Yes, well, we’ve got to get out of here. The TARDIS isn’t far from here, but we can’t be sure they aren’t looking for us.”
“What, may I ask, is a TARDIS?”
“It’s a space ship,” Rose answered.
Simon didn’t think that was odd, considering everyone had a spaceship.
“We’ll need to get to it and out of here as quickly as possible.”
“What about him?” Rose looked over at Simon, “We can’t just leave him.”
The Doctor sighed. Every time she met a guy, she wanted to bring them along. It never failed. He knew he probably shouldn’t actually be surprised that the same would happen here.
“Me?” Simon looked surprised, “Oh, I can handle the Alliance. I’ll be fine. Just get back to your ship and get out of here.”
“That’s settled then,” The Doctor took Rose by the hand, “You best be getting back to work, Doctor Tam.”
Simon nodded. Back to work it was. He turned to walk out of the alley, leaving the two of them to go back to his ship, what had he called it again? Not that it was important. Simon walked back to the hospital, not seeing any Alliance anywhere. It was unlikely they’d even realize that it was him that ran off with the two new fugitives. He was on call, but he wasn’t the only doctor in the hospital that night.
He wondered exactly what the Alliance had done to those patients. As it turned out, he would never know. Because by the time he got back to the hospital and went to check on them, the ward had been cleaned out.
------
“Do you think he realizes what happened to those people?”
Rose and The Doctor stepped back into the TARDIS. They’d managed to steer completely clear of any officers on their way back.
“I doubt it. It’s not in the nature of human beings to see what’s right in front of them. Especially when it’s something so horrible.”
Rose nodded. She’d experienced people doing that very thing on more than one instance, and it didn’t surprise her anymore when people ignored what was right in front of them. It happened all too often.
“Suppose so,” she paused, “What do you reckon he meant?”
“Hmm?” The Doctor was fiddling with dials and settings.
“When he said he knew from experience.”
“I wouldn’t know,” The Doctor paused, “I think we should go some place warm next. It’s been a while since we’ve been some place warm.”
“We should have invited him.”
“We can’t invite everyone,” he went back to thinking, “Yes, I do believe some place warm,” he paused again and looked at her, “And anyway, what makes you think he would have accepted? You only spoke to him for what? Thirty seconds?”
Rose laughed. If she didn’t know any better, she would think he were jealous. He wasn’t, of course. He had no reason to be, but she would think it.
The truth was, Doctor Tam had seemed less than content. He obviously had a reason to fear the Alliance, maybe even hate them. And she’d noticed something when she looked into his eyes. Something she could relate to.
The need for more.
“I suppose.”
“So, some place warm, then?”
Rose laughed again.
“Yes, some place warm is good.”
-----
Two days later, Simon was back to the same routine. Nothing had happened after The Doctor and Rose left, though he’d heard they were being looked for. That didn’t surprise him, especially if they knew something they shouldn’t. He had actually been surprised the Alliance hadn’t killed him, rather than setting him free after River died since mercy wasn’t exactly something the Alliance usually showed.
He stopped thinking about it. If he thought too hard, he just started thinking about everything again, not that he ever really stopped. He just wanted to push it to the back of his mind and try to form some semblance of a life again, and he wasn’t doing such a bad job.
Even if his life consisted of his parents, the hospital and one brief meeting with two mysterious people who had been trying to outrun the Alliance at the time.
He wondered when he stopped loving his job. Simon shook his head and glanced at the time. He didn’t need to think about it right now because it was time for him to get off. He would ponder the great mysteries of his life when he wasn’t ready to go home and crawl into bed and sleep for the next twelve hours before he had to get up and do it all over again.
-----
Simon heard something. He wasn’t quite awake yet, so he had no idea what it was, but it wasn’t something he thought he would recognize anyway. It was loud, and it was close. He forced himself to sit up in his bed. He didn’t want to get up, but he couldn’t sleep through that noise. He looked at the time.
He would have to be up for work in half an hour.
He stood up and walked to the window to look outside. He didn’t see anything that could be making that noise. Maybe it was some kind of ship.
He saw something in the distance that he thought hadn’t been there before. It looked like a big blue box of some kind. Very out of place. And he knew that it wasn’t there when he came in and went to bed earlier that night.
He tried to make out exactly what it was, but it was too far away, and he was still half asleep. It was probably nothing.
-----
“Doctor Tam, there’s someone to see you,” the receptionist had popped her head into the lounge.
“Who is it?”
“Won’t say. He’s another doctor, though. I don’t recognize him, but he has documentation that he works here in the hospital. Must be new.”
Simon nodded and stood. So much for that fifteen minute break. He walked around the corner and saw The Doctor and Rose standing at the counter, talking to one of the nurses. He walked over to them quickly, put on a smile and then nodded for them to follow him into one of the empty exam rooms. He closed the door behind them and turned to look at them, smile fading.
“What are you doing here? The Alliance has you both marked as fugitives. If they see you anywhere near here, you’ll be arrested.”
“Oh, I’ve never been a fugitive before!” Rose looked excited at the idea. Simon wondered if she really had escaped from a mental ward.
“It’s not a good thing, believe me. I’ve been in that position before. It’s not something you want,” he sighed, “What are you doing here?”
“Ask Rose. She’s the one who wanted to come back.”
“I just thought you might be interested in coming with us,” she looked at him, really looked, “Thought you looked like you could use a change.”
Simon couldn’t deny that it was true, but it also bothered him that a girl he’d known for all of thirty seconds, who seemed to be a mental patient, was trying to analyze him.
“I know what it’s like, you know, to feel like there’s more. It’s why I’m here. You should come with us. It’s never boring.”
Simon thought about it. He could use a change, and these people, well, they didn’t seem any worse than the crew of Serenity. It might be nice to be in the air again. He did miss it.
“You’re serious? Just drop everything? My job, my family? Come with you?”
“You got a better offer somewhere?” Rose gave him a smile.
Maybe she wasn’t mental after all.
“I have to think about it.”
“Take your time, Doctor Tam.”
“Simon.”
“Take your time, Simon,” Rose corrected herself.
The Doctor stood back, smiling, almost like he knew exactly what was happening, what was going to happen. It would have been frightening, if it hadn’t been oddly comforting.
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Okay.”
Rose’s smile gotten bigger and she turned to look at The Doctor, still smiling brightly.
“Looks like we’ve got a third again, there, Doctor.”
“Looks like it,” he paused, “You should know, Simon, the deal ends in five minutes. We’ve got to go now. The whole fugitive situation being what it is,” he paused and looked at Simon seriously, “This is it. You come with us now, there’s no turning back.”
“I can live with that.”
The Doctor nodded and opened the door to leave the room. Rose followed behind him, beside Simon. He stopped at the desk to turn in his badge before walking out of the building with him.
He wasn’t turning back.
Fandom: Doctor Who, Firefly
Characters: Simon, Ten, Rose, mentions of other Firefly characters
Pairings: Ten/Rose, though it’s mostly in the friendship way, some implied Firefly pairings but nothing specific.
Summary: This isn’t home anymore, not really.
Timeline: Firefly - OiS is the last that happened, but this is long into the future, a couple of years, I’d say. Doctor Who - Assume that everything up to and including 2x09 has happened.
Word Count: 3191
Rating: PG
Thank you to naughtyelf for the beta job and read throughs and nitpicks.
After River was killed and Simon’s arrest warrant was deemed null and void, Simon couldn’t stay on Serenity. There were too many things there reminding him of the fact that, in the end, he couldn’t save his sister. He had failed. He couldn’t deal with that, so he had Mal take him back to Osiris. There was nothing left for him out there, no real reason for him to stay.
Not that there was much for him on Osiris. He’d gone back to his parents, who’d welcomed him with open arms. It wasn’t necessarily where he wanted to be, but it was a place to call home, at least for the time being. He settled back into work at the hospital. It wasn’t bad. Not really.
Sometimes he missed the hum of Serenity’s engines. The sound of Kaylee and Inara laughing and joking with each other. Arguing with Mal about absolutely nothing and everything at the same time. But none of it had really been the same without his sister, and the ship would never be the same without her.
It was hard to leave, but it would have been harder to stay.
So he went home. It wasn’t home anymore, but it wasn’t bad. It had actually surprised him how easy it had been to settle back in. Once the warrant was dropped, it was almost like nothing had happened at all. His dad acted like nothing was wrong, and the head of the hospital practically begged him to come back, once they knew he was on the planet again.
It felt strange going back to a normal life, on a core planet, after spending nearly two years living day to day on a space ship, working when the jobs came, being a criminal, being a fugitive.
It was dull. Simon sometimes wished he could go back, but there was no way he could do that. Even if he could contact Mal, and the crew of Serenity, there was no way they were coming back to Osiris for him, so he just had to accept the choice he made. It was all for the best anyway.
Even if his life felt empty.
-----
“Osiris, home to nearly 1 billion human beings. Fantastic, isn’t it? Beautiful planet. And some of the best Chinese food in the history of time,” The Doctor grinned at Rose as they stepped out of the TARDIS.
“They’ve still got Chinese food?”
“Of course they’ve still got Chinese food. I think they just call it food, though, to tell you the truth,” The Doctor began speaking mostly under his breath, “Now, what was the name of that little restaurant….”
Rose smiled over at him, brightly and then looked out at the city below her. Sparkling lights and space ships were scattered all around. It was, she had to admit, nearly breathtaking.
The Doctor looked over at her and smiled back. He would never get tired of her reactions to seeing all of the things the universe had to show. She was so enthusiastic. It reminded him of himself. He grabbed her by the hand and started walking quickly off, closer to the city below.
It didn’t take long to get deep into the city. Everything was even more fascinating up close. Rose had seen a lot in her time with The Doctor, but this was going to be near the top of the list of her favorite places. She could already tell.
“So, what year is this, then?”
“This would be the year 2520.”
“2520,” she repeated to herself, “So, not so distant future, comparatively, then? It all looks so different, though, not, I suppose. Why are they all here and not on Earth?”
“Too many of them,” he paused, “The human race was forced to branch out. They created what are, basically, the equivalent of a whole group of new Earths. Some are like this, some aren’t.”
Rose just nodded, taking it all in. After a quick pause, she grinned and then took off down the street.
“You coming?”
The Doctor smiled and then took off after her.
-----
The ER was slammed. Simon hadn’t seen it this busy since he’d returned to Osiris a month ago. It made him, at the very least, feel like he was doing something. He felt important when he was in surgery, giving orders, saving lives, doing what he’d always wanted to do.
The wounds were hard to place. He didn’t know any weapon that made those sorts of marks, and he’d seen four people with the same injuries in the last hour. He’d seen more than he cared to remember while he was with Serenity. Every kind of knife, gun, laser, wounds gotten in bar fights and sword fights, reavers. Name it, and Simon probably saw it on Mal, Jayne, Zoe, or one of the other crew members, though, mostly Mal. But none of those were like this.
It didn’t seem possible.
He spouted off another list of orders to the newest interns and went on to the next person.
Same injuries.
It went on like that for the rest of the night. One after the other people came in with strange injuries he couldn’t think of any cause for, and none of them were in a position to tell him what had happened. They’d patch the injured up one by one and move on to the next. Around 1AM, they seemed to have gotten a reprieve. No new injured.
At around 1:30, Simon was sitting on a couch in the lounge, drinking a cup of coffee that would hopefully help him make it through the rest of the night. Another thing he missed about Serenity was that the ship always seemed to have the strongest coffee he could ever remember drinking. He needed a cup of that coffee now. This was too weak. It wasn’t going to do the job.
“Doctor?”
Simon jumped up at the sound of the voice. He looked back to see a blonde girl, around nineteen or twenty, standing in the doorway.
“I’m Doctor Tam. Can I help you with something?”
“Doctor Tam,” she paused, “I’m Rose.”
Simon walked towards her and then took her arm and lead her out of the lounge. She looked shaken by something.
“Rose, are you here visiting someone?”
“Actually, I’m looking for someone. My,” she paused, “friend, someone I travel with. I was told to meet him here, but I can’t seem to find him anywhere.”
“Maybe I can help. What’s your friend’s name?”
“The Doctor.”
Simon couldn’t but let out a slight laugh, even with all that had happened previously in the night.
“This is a hospital, Rose. You might have to be a little more specific than that.”
She laughed too. Simon started to feel just a bit better, and it was enough for the moment.
“Right. Uhm, well, he’s sort of tall, skinny, and his hair sort of…” she tried to explain it with her hands, “And glasses! He’s got on glasses, probably. I’m not really sure actually. He doesn’t always wear them. Oh, and he might be carrying around a screwdriver.”
Simon quirked an eyebrow at her. He was starting to wonder if maybe this Rose had really just escaped from the psych ward.
“Right,” he paused, “Let me see if I can help you find---”
“Rose! There you are,” he gave Simon a look, “And who is your new friend?”
“This is Doctor Tam,” she gave him another smile, “He was going to help me find you.”
“Nice to meet you, Doctor Tam,” he looked back over at Rose and got serious, “We have to go. Now.”
“But why? I thought you had to---”
“Yes, that’s done, and now we have to go,” he looked over his shoulder and broke into a run, taking Rose with him, “Doctor Tam, you might want to come along.”
Simon looked confused and then noticed some Alliance officials coming around the corner, carrying guns. He didn’t have any reason to run from the Alliance anymore, but he didn’t like them, and he still had the urge to run while they were in the area. He didn’t hesitate for more than a moment before hurrying to catch up with The Doctor and Rose.
----
They were clear of the hospital before they lost the Alliance guards. Simon suddenly realized he’d just left while he was still on call. And he’d dropped his pager. This was surely a firing offence. The Doctor pulled Rose pulled Simon into an alley behind a restaurant, so they could catch their breath.
“Do you want to tell me why we’re being chased by the Alliance?”
“What’s the Alliance?” Rose looked from The Doctor to Simon.
“You’re not serious,” Simon looked at The Doctor, “She’s not serious.”
“Oh, she’s serious,” The Doctor ignored Rose’s question for the time being and went on to answer the original question, “As to why we’re running from them, well, as it turns out, they don’t exactly like people exposing their darker side. Can’t quite understand why.”
Simon had more than enough experience with the Alliance’s darker side. He didn’t need anymore elaboration than that.
“You aren’t a doctor, are you?”
“Not a doctor. The Doctor,” he grinned.
“Right,” that wasn’t quite the answer Simon had been looking for, but he was willing to accept it was probably all he was going to get for now.
“Are those people back there going to be alright then?”
“What people?” Simon hadn’t seen anyone other than the Alliance.
“You work at the hospital, surgeon, if your name badge isn’t lying, you saw them for yourself, earlier tonight.”
“The strange injuries,” that had been the Alliance. Simon should have seen that coming. Nothing about the Alliance surprised him anymore. Nothing.
“Yes, that would be them,” The Doctor turned to look at Rose, “They’re going to be fine. That’s part of the reason they’re after us. As it turns out, they were part of some government experiment.”
“That’s terrible,” Rose was quiet.
“Terrible, but not shocking,” Simon spoke up and noticed the two of them looking at him, “The Alliance isn’t exactly known for caring about people. I know this from personal experience.”
He didn’t see fit to elaborate. Not when he didn’t know anything about these people, with the exception of the facts that her name was Rose and he was some sort of doctor.
“Yes, well, we’ve got to get out of here. The TARDIS isn’t far from here, but we can’t be sure they aren’t looking for us.”
“What, may I ask, is a TARDIS?”
“It’s a space ship,” Rose answered.
Simon didn’t think that was odd, considering everyone had a spaceship.
“We’ll need to get to it and out of here as quickly as possible.”
“What about him?” Rose looked over at Simon, “We can’t just leave him.”
The Doctor sighed. Every time she met a guy, she wanted to bring them along. It never failed. He knew he probably shouldn’t actually be surprised that the same would happen here.
“Me?” Simon looked surprised, “Oh, I can handle the Alliance. I’ll be fine. Just get back to your ship and get out of here.”
“That’s settled then,” The Doctor took Rose by the hand, “You best be getting back to work, Doctor Tam.”
Simon nodded. Back to work it was. He turned to walk out of the alley, leaving the two of them to go back to his ship, what had he called it again? Not that it was important. Simon walked back to the hospital, not seeing any Alliance anywhere. It was unlikely they’d even realize that it was him that ran off with the two new fugitives. He was on call, but he wasn’t the only doctor in the hospital that night.
He wondered exactly what the Alliance had done to those patients. As it turned out, he would never know. Because by the time he got back to the hospital and went to check on them, the ward had been cleaned out.
------
“Do you think he realizes what happened to those people?”
Rose and The Doctor stepped back into the TARDIS. They’d managed to steer completely clear of any officers on their way back.
“I doubt it. It’s not in the nature of human beings to see what’s right in front of them. Especially when it’s something so horrible.”
Rose nodded. She’d experienced people doing that very thing on more than one instance, and it didn’t surprise her anymore when people ignored what was right in front of them. It happened all too often.
“Suppose so,” she paused, “What do you reckon he meant?”
“Hmm?” The Doctor was fiddling with dials and settings.
“When he said he knew from experience.”
“I wouldn’t know,” The Doctor paused, “I think we should go some place warm next. It’s been a while since we’ve been some place warm.”
“We should have invited him.”
“We can’t invite everyone,” he went back to thinking, “Yes, I do believe some place warm,” he paused again and looked at her, “And anyway, what makes you think he would have accepted? You only spoke to him for what? Thirty seconds?”
Rose laughed. If she didn’t know any better, she would think he were jealous. He wasn’t, of course. He had no reason to be, but she would think it.
The truth was, Doctor Tam had seemed less than content. He obviously had a reason to fear the Alliance, maybe even hate them. And she’d noticed something when she looked into his eyes. Something she could relate to.
The need for more.
“I suppose.”
“So, some place warm, then?”
Rose laughed again.
“Yes, some place warm is good.”
-----
Two days later, Simon was back to the same routine. Nothing had happened after The Doctor and Rose left, though he’d heard they were being looked for. That didn’t surprise him, especially if they knew something they shouldn’t. He had actually been surprised the Alliance hadn’t killed him, rather than setting him free after River died since mercy wasn’t exactly something the Alliance usually showed.
He stopped thinking about it. If he thought too hard, he just started thinking about everything again, not that he ever really stopped. He just wanted to push it to the back of his mind and try to form some semblance of a life again, and he wasn’t doing such a bad job.
Even if his life consisted of his parents, the hospital and one brief meeting with two mysterious people who had been trying to outrun the Alliance at the time.
He wondered when he stopped loving his job. Simon shook his head and glanced at the time. He didn’t need to think about it right now because it was time for him to get off. He would ponder the great mysteries of his life when he wasn’t ready to go home and crawl into bed and sleep for the next twelve hours before he had to get up and do it all over again.
-----
Simon heard something. He wasn’t quite awake yet, so he had no idea what it was, but it wasn’t something he thought he would recognize anyway. It was loud, and it was close. He forced himself to sit up in his bed. He didn’t want to get up, but he couldn’t sleep through that noise. He looked at the time.
He would have to be up for work in half an hour.
He stood up and walked to the window to look outside. He didn’t see anything that could be making that noise. Maybe it was some kind of ship.
He saw something in the distance that he thought hadn’t been there before. It looked like a big blue box of some kind. Very out of place. And he knew that it wasn’t there when he came in and went to bed earlier that night.
He tried to make out exactly what it was, but it was too far away, and he was still half asleep. It was probably nothing.
-----
“Doctor Tam, there’s someone to see you,” the receptionist had popped her head into the lounge.
“Who is it?”
“Won’t say. He’s another doctor, though. I don’t recognize him, but he has documentation that he works here in the hospital. Must be new.”
Simon nodded and stood. So much for that fifteen minute break. He walked around the corner and saw The Doctor and Rose standing at the counter, talking to one of the nurses. He walked over to them quickly, put on a smile and then nodded for them to follow him into one of the empty exam rooms. He closed the door behind them and turned to look at them, smile fading.
“What are you doing here? The Alliance has you both marked as fugitives. If they see you anywhere near here, you’ll be arrested.”
“Oh, I’ve never been a fugitive before!” Rose looked excited at the idea. Simon wondered if she really had escaped from a mental ward.
“It’s not a good thing, believe me. I’ve been in that position before. It’s not something you want,” he sighed, “What are you doing here?”
“Ask Rose. She’s the one who wanted to come back.”
“I just thought you might be interested in coming with us,” she looked at him, really looked, “Thought you looked like you could use a change.”
Simon couldn’t deny that it was true, but it also bothered him that a girl he’d known for all of thirty seconds, who seemed to be a mental patient, was trying to analyze him.
“I know what it’s like, you know, to feel like there’s more. It’s why I’m here. You should come with us. It’s never boring.”
Simon thought about it. He could use a change, and these people, well, they didn’t seem any worse than the crew of Serenity. It might be nice to be in the air again. He did miss it.
“You’re serious? Just drop everything? My job, my family? Come with you?”
“You got a better offer somewhere?” Rose gave him a smile.
Maybe she wasn’t mental after all.
“I have to think about it.”
“Take your time, Doctor Tam.”
“Simon.”
“Take your time, Simon,” Rose corrected herself.
The Doctor stood back, smiling, almost like he knew exactly what was happening, what was going to happen. It would have been frightening, if it hadn’t been oddly comforting.
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Okay.”
Rose’s smile gotten bigger and she turned to look at The Doctor, still smiling brightly.
“Looks like we’ve got a third again, there, Doctor.”
“Looks like it,” he paused, “You should know, Simon, the deal ends in five minutes. We’ve got to go now. The whole fugitive situation being what it is,” he paused and looked at Simon seriously, “This is it. You come with us now, there’s no turning back.”
“I can live with that.”
The Doctor nodded and opened the door to leave the room. Rose followed behind him, beside Simon. He stopped at the desk to turn in his badge before walking out of the building with him.
He wasn’t turning back.