The One True Free Life 11/26
Title: The One True Free Life (11/26)
Characters: Alt!Ten/Rose, and everyone else I can cram in to the Alt!Verse, plus several OCs
Rating: Teen
Spoilers: Everything
Disclaimer: It would be a very different, and possibly quite upsetting, world if I owned these characters. For the sake of the world's children, I don't.
This chapter is as of yet unbeta'd, so read at your own risk.
Summary: When Rose and Alt!Ten return to Pete's World, after a much longer absence than planned, they find that things have begun to go a bit pear-shaped there. Can Our Heroes save the British Republic while at the same time working out their own Byzantinely complicated personal issues?
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 | Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 20 | Chapter 21 | Chapter 22 | Chapter 23 | Chapter 24 | Chapter 25 | Chapter 26/ Epilogue | Whole story on Teaspoon
Dawn was breaking by the time Rose got her new look sorted. She'd toned things down a lot over the years, just as a function of getting older and throwing herself in to her work, but had never looked this plain. She'd been shocked in the store that they even sold a brown dye this mousy--who would voluntarily do this, except for the purposes of evading capture by a shadowy organization prone to abductions at gunpoint?
Jake had several catty comments to make, sitting on the edge of the bath tub while she worked, but he kept the coffee flowing and the conversation light, which was a blessing. When she was finished in the bathroom he produced some orange juice and muffins. As they ate, they regarded one another largely in silence, neither wanting to mention that this, once again, could be the last time they'd see each other.
Poor Jake, thought Rose, first Mickey and now me. Again.
It took her forever to get from Shoreditch back west and over the river to Richmond on her motorbike, but she didn't want to leave it to be found near Jake's flat, and felt more secure having her own means of transport. When she did get there, it was a nightmare of early morning commuters flooding in from Surrey and parts south, but so much the better. She would only be able to fool facial recognition with a new hair colour and large sunglasses until a real person spotted her on camera and took the software off of auto-pilot. Not looking exceedingly suspicious while wandering around a train and tube station with no actual idea of what she was searching for would take a good bit of doing, however.
She stopped off at the map first. Maybe the Doctor had been trying to get somewhere else. Not by standard rail, that would have taken too long. Gordon had said he'd picked him back up, in the same location outside the station, just two hours later. Going to Canary Wharf was the obvious choice, and it could have been this trip that tipped off their unseen enemies to his presence here. But why had he felt the need to do that alone, in secret, while she slept? He could have easily just gone with her, had a little field trip to see the old stomping grounds and taken lunch at a nice cafe.
Rose was acutely aware that she looked like a tourist, studying the map, and she was shoved more than once by men in suits and women in high-heels running for trains. She placed her finger on Richmond and decided to go for a more physical approach, tracing the District Line up: Kew, Gunnersbury, and then the split, in to the city centre (Canary Wharf?) or the other way? People were beginning to stare at the woman in the large sunglasses with her finger hovering over the little blue line of the Thames.
When she saw it, she nearly smacked herself quite literally on the forehead for not seeing it before. Chiswick Park. He had gone to see Donna, or tried to. Though he of all people should have known that she was just as likely in this universe to have been upgraded by the Cybermen, or a Manc, or her mum's ginger cat. Nevertheless, he had gone to find out for himself. He always was a man for "do as I say, not as I do."
After the initial jolt of her realization came the deflation of this having nothing whatsoever to do with his abduction. It had just been a little trip to assuage some of his curiosity. She left the map and dodged the increasing sea of people to buy a coffee and try to find a dark unsurveiled corner to sit in and try to push down the rising levels of despair and hopelessness.
Again, however, the question arose, why alone? Why did he feel the need to rush out, on his first full day with her, abscond with the car and driver, and been so secretive when he returned? He hadn't gone out to run errands at all, so why the fib? She was sure he missed Donna, but she'd never pegged him as the sort to be nostalgic when in fact the real Donna Noble was out there right now experiencing the whole of time and space with the other Doctor.
With nothing else but the word Liberty to go on, she decided to see what it was the Doctor had found in Chiswick. Ginger cat, or a real alternate version of Donna Noble?
Pulling up outside what she knew from multiple universes now to be the Noble house and killing the engine, she noticed the mailbox read "Mott" and not "Noble". She checked her watch: 0800. Was that too early to call on the residents? Or too late and they'd all already be at work? It didn't matter, this was all she had to do and the only thing keeping her in connection with the Doctor.
The time between when she rang the bell and when the door began to open seemed an eternity. She turned over and over in her head what this could possibly have to do with the Doctor's abduction, and the high likelihood that it was just a coincidence that he'd come here the same day he'd been taken. The logical explanation was that it was the bugging of her parents' house that had led to it all, as she'd told Jake.
"What?" The door opened and before Rose stood Donna Noble. For a moment Rose was speechless and overcome with a depth of feeling reserved only for those who had truly shared in her own experiences with the Doctor.
"Donna? Donna Noble?" Rose felt a quaver in her voice, as if she was standing up in front of a crowd of hundreds giving a speech.
Donna looked her up and down with a sneer and said, "Donna Mott. What d'you want? It's eight in the bloody morning, I'm going to be late for work."
Rose didn't really have an answer for her that would have made any sense, but was saved at any rate by Donna's mobile ringing with an obnoxious pop song.
"If you're just going to stand there gaping, I've got to take this," Donna barked, reaching in to a pocket of her pant suit.
The last thing Rose heard was Donna begin a loud conversation with whomever was on the phone, and as she had the door shut in her face, the last thing she saw was the ID tag Donna wore at the bottom of her jacket.
The place where a photograph would be was blank, just bordered by a thin blue box. Where the name would be it merely said "TEMPORARY ID #458-81". Beneath this complete lack of information, and next to an abstract logo that may have been a bird or a blatant rip-off of the Nike swoosh or any number of other things, were the words "Liberty Systems."
~o0o~
The Doctor turned his head as much as he could towards Mr. Carney, eyes full and wide, took a dry swallow and opened his mouth to speak. "I've been thinking--and you understand that doesn't take me very long--and I've come to the considered decision that I don't really have to tell you anything."
Mr. Carney's face remained completely unchanged, telling the Doctor all he needed to know. "You don't. It would have made things easier if you did--both for you and Rose Tyler--but you're quite correct."
"You're mentioning Rose as a threat. It's not going to work. I know that you've decided she's a liability no matter what I tell you about myself, and you are correct on that score. She is a liability for you, a big one. She'll find out what you're doing here and stop you. It doesn't matter what happens to me. You have no idea who you're up against."
Mr. Carney turned towards the door before the Doctor had finished speaking, looking over his shoulder at the others in the room, waving his hand and saying, "Proceed."
The Doctor strained his eyes, trying to see to whom he directed this order, but he needn't have tried so hard. The woman with the dark hair and lab coat came directly over him and looked deeply in to his eyes, while saying nothing. He stared back at her, threatening and pleading at once.
The woman let her eyes drift up and around the room once, as if checking to see what her colleagues were doing before speaking. "We're going to sedate you now, so please don't try and struggle." She looked around again and in a lower voice whispered, "I'm sorry."
He wanted to form the words to tell her that she didn't have to do this, that she could help him and they could both run from this place and he'd make sure they had their chance to make it right, but his mouth was suddenly thick and glued shut, and his eyes began to shut through no volition of his own. Again the darkness rolled over him and again he tilted back in to a place where time did not exist and he was therefore lost and without a map.
(To Chapter 12)
Characters: Alt!Ten/Rose, and everyone else I can cram in to the Alt!Verse, plus several OCs
Rating: Teen
Spoilers: Everything
Disclaimer: It would be a very different, and possibly quite upsetting, world if I owned these characters. For the sake of the world's children, I don't.
This chapter is as of yet unbeta'd, so read at your own risk.
Summary: When Rose and Alt!Ten return to Pete's World, after a much longer absence than planned, they find that things have begun to go a bit pear-shaped there. Can Our Heroes save the British Republic while at the same time working out their own Byzantinely complicated personal issues?
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 | Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 20 | Chapter 21 | Chapter 22 | Chapter 23 | Chapter 24 | Chapter 25 | Chapter 26/ Epilogue | Whole story on Teaspoon
Dawn was breaking by the time Rose got her new look sorted. She'd toned things down a lot over the years, just as a function of getting older and throwing herself in to her work, but had never looked this plain. She'd been shocked in the store that they even sold a brown dye this mousy--who would voluntarily do this, except for the purposes of evading capture by a shadowy organization prone to abductions at gunpoint?
Jake had several catty comments to make, sitting on the edge of the bath tub while she worked, but he kept the coffee flowing and the conversation light, which was a blessing. When she was finished in the bathroom he produced some orange juice and muffins. As they ate, they regarded one another largely in silence, neither wanting to mention that this, once again, could be the last time they'd see each other.
Poor Jake, thought Rose, first Mickey and now me. Again.
It took her forever to get from Shoreditch back west and over the river to Richmond on her motorbike, but she didn't want to leave it to be found near Jake's flat, and felt more secure having her own means of transport. When she did get there, it was a nightmare of early morning commuters flooding in from Surrey and parts south, but so much the better. She would only be able to fool facial recognition with a new hair colour and large sunglasses until a real person spotted her on camera and took the software off of auto-pilot. Not looking exceedingly suspicious while wandering around a train and tube station with no actual idea of what she was searching for would take a good bit of doing, however.
She stopped off at the map first. Maybe the Doctor had been trying to get somewhere else. Not by standard rail, that would have taken too long. Gordon had said he'd picked him back up, in the same location outside the station, just two hours later. Going to Canary Wharf was the obvious choice, and it could have been this trip that tipped off their unseen enemies to his presence here. But why had he felt the need to do that alone, in secret, while she slept? He could have easily just gone with her, had a little field trip to see the old stomping grounds and taken lunch at a nice cafe.
Rose was acutely aware that she looked like a tourist, studying the map, and she was shoved more than once by men in suits and women in high-heels running for trains. She placed her finger on Richmond and decided to go for a more physical approach, tracing the District Line up: Kew, Gunnersbury, and then the split, in to the city centre (Canary Wharf?) or the other way? People were beginning to stare at the woman in the large sunglasses with her finger hovering over the little blue line of the Thames.
When she saw it, she nearly smacked herself quite literally on the forehead for not seeing it before. Chiswick Park. He had gone to see Donna, or tried to. Though he of all people should have known that she was just as likely in this universe to have been upgraded by the Cybermen, or a Manc, or her mum's ginger cat. Nevertheless, he had gone to find out for himself. He always was a man for "do as I say, not as I do."
After the initial jolt of her realization came the deflation of this having nothing whatsoever to do with his abduction. It had just been a little trip to assuage some of his curiosity. She left the map and dodged the increasing sea of people to buy a coffee and try to find a dark unsurveiled corner to sit in and try to push down the rising levels of despair and hopelessness.
Again, however, the question arose, why alone? Why did he feel the need to rush out, on his first full day with her, abscond with the car and driver, and been so secretive when he returned? He hadn't gone out to run errands at all, so why the fib? She was sure he missed Donna, but she'd never pegged him as the sort to be nostalgic when in fact the real Donna Noble was out there right now experiencing the whole of time and space with the other Doctor.
With nothing else but the word Liberty to go on, she decided to see what it was the Doctor had found in Chiswick. Ginger cat, or a real alternate version of Donna Noble?
Pulling up outside what she knew from multiple universes now to be the Noble house and killing the engine, she noticed the mailbox read "Mott" and not "Noble". She checked her watch: 0800. Was that too early to call on the residents? Or too late and they'd all already be at work? It didn't matter, this was all she had to do and the only thing keeping her in connection with the Doctor.
The time between when she rang the bell and when the door began to open seemed an eternity. She turned over and over in her head what this could possibly have to do with the Doctor's abduction, and the high likelihood that it was just a coincidence that he'd come here the same day he'd been taken. The logical explanation was that it was the bugging of her parents' house that had led to it all, as she'd told Jake.
"What?" The door opened and before Rose stood Donna Noble. For a moment Rose was speechless and overcome with a depth of feeling reserved only for those who had truly shared in her own experiences with the Doctor.
"Donna? Donna Noble?" Rose felt a quaver in her voice, as if she was standing up in front of a crowd of hundreds giving a speech.
Donna looked her up and down with a sneer and said, "Donna Mott. What d'you want? It's eight in the bloody morning, I'm going to be late for work."
Rose didn't really have an answer for her that would have made any sense, but was saved at any rate by Donna's mobile ringing with an obnoxious pop song.
"If you're just going to stand there gaping, I've got to take this," Donna barked, reaching in to a pocket of her pant suit.
The last thing Rose heard was Donna begin a loud conversation with whomever was on the phone, and as she had the door shut in her face, the last thing she saw was the ID tag Donna wore at the bottom of her jacket.
The place where a photograph would be was blank, just bordered by a thin blue box. Where the name would be it merely said "TEMPORARY ID #458-81". Beneath this complete lack of information, and next to an abstract logo that may have been a bird or a blatant rip-off of the Nike swoosh or any number of other things, were the words "Liberty Systems."
~o0o~
The Doctor turned his head as much as he could towards Mr. Carney, eyes full and wide, took a dry swallow and opened his mouth to speak. "I've been thinking--and you understand that doesn't take me very long--and I've come to the considered decision that I don't really have to tell you anything."
Mr. Carney's face remained completely unchanged, telling the Doctor all he needed to know. "You don't. It would have made things easier if you did--both for you and Rose Tyler--but you're quite correct."
"You're mentioning Rose as a threat. It's not going to work. I know that you've decided she's a liability no matter what I tell you about myself, and you are correct on that score. She is a liability for you, a big one. She'll find out what you're doing here and stop you. It doesn't matter what happens to me. You have no idea who you're up against."
Mr. Carney turned towards the door before the Doctor had finished speaking, looking over his shoulder at the others in the room, waving his hand and saying, "Proceed."
The Doctor strained his eyes, trying to see to whom he directed this order, but he needn't have tried so hard. The woman with the dark hair and lab coat came directly over him and looked deeply in to his eyes, while saying nothing. He stared back at her, threatening and pleading at once.
The woman let her eyes drift up and around the room once, as if checking to see what her colleagues were doing before speaking. "We're going to sedate you now, so please don't try and struggle." She looked around again and in a lower voice whispered, "I'm sorry."
He wanted to form the words to tell her that she didn't have to do this, that she could help him and they could both run from this place and he'd make sure they had their chance to make it right, but his mouth was suddenly thick and glued shut, and his eyes began to shut through no volition of his own. Again the darkness rolled over him and again he tilted back in to a place where time did not exist and he was therefore lost and without a map.
(To Chapter 12)