FIC: Decade Jump (1/1)
Title: Decade Jump
Genre: Doctor Who
Rating: T (language)
Author: tkel_paris
Summary: During the celebrations in JE, Mickey makes a comment that alerts the Doctor that something is not adding up about Rose's behavior. She carries a secret that will alter his perceptions of her, but he should've known it already.
Disclaimer: Did RTD add up the implications of things declared in earlier episodes? No? Then I have nothing to do with the characters. Sadly. :(
Dedication: tardis_mole, as it was beta'ing one story that triggered this plot bunny.
Author's Note: Look back to the Series Two end. How much time had passed for Mickey since the first visit to Pete's World? Now... add that up and include the assumption that it was well over two years between “Doomsday” and “The Stolen Earth/Journey's End” in “our” universe, and you get a nasty little surprise. Rose was lying through her teeth to the end, I'm afraid, because there had to be at least ten years passing in Pete's World. So what the heck happened, Rusty?
Not Rose-friendly. I'm trying to figure out how to reconcile the things I'm piecing together to make her still into someone worthy of being called a companion. I need more time with that.
Posted as a birthday present for serenityslady, who I know doesn't mind this kind of fic. ;)
Decade Jump
Started May 6, 2013
Finished December 25, 2013
The Doctor stepped back to let his companions have their moment. Besides, he needed a tiny breather from Rose's hugs. A little eager, and clearly she'd missed him, but a man needed to breathe! Her hugs were more like a lover's than a lost friend's, which reminded him of things he had tried to forget about.
Like when he had to sleep in her bed while he was still suffering from regeneration sickness, until the windows were repaired. During those nights, Rose slept curled around him, and when she thought he was asleep she stroked his chest intimately. Things that on their own might be explained away but put together couldn't be ignored. Only the time-lines kept him from lashing out at her then, along with a still-there sense of obligation toward her for saving his life back under the London Eye.
Well, he had slowly realized after Martha had left, it didn't hold up rationally. He'd more than repaid Rose. Platform One. Victorian Cardiff. Giving up a life to save her. Saving her from Cassandra. The list went on.
His ears listened to the various conversations going on, happily noting the friendships Donna was forming with Sarah Jane and Martha. Jackie was talking with Jack, catching up. He was listening in to Mickey telling the Duplicate about his time in Pete's World when one thing Mickey said caught his attention:
“Yeah, Annie's a great girl, and grew up well. She just became a mother, the day before Jackie and I followed Rose. Jackie and Pete have decided they love being great-grandparents.”
The Doctor hurried over. “Wait, wait, wait! You mean grandparents, don't you? Or parents? That's the baby Jackie was pregnant with, right?”
Because he was certain Rose hadn't become a mother. She didn't show the changes in her mental state that he associated with parenthood. And Jackie didn't look old enough.
Mickey snorted. “No, I mean great-grandparents. Annie just had a child, and she's Tony's daughter. Tony was the one Jackie was pregnant with. He married on the young side for a bloke, and she married last year after her twenty-first birthday. Jackie had two others: Suzette and William.”
The Doctor's jaw dropped. “But that means...”
“Think about it, Boss: how many months passed on Earth in this universe from when I left the TARDIS to Canary Wharf?”
“Two months,” he readily answered.
“It was three years for me, and some change. Now, calculate that. How many years has it been for us since Canary Wharf?”
Two months in this universe equaled at least three years in Pete's World, and for Earth it had been two years and over three and a half months since Canary Wharf. Do the math, and... it wasn't just one decade Rose had jumped being in a faster universe.
The Doctor whirled to face the person who owed him an explanation. “Rose Marian Tyler!”
All went quiet. No one had expected the Doctor to shout at the girl he had mourned. Nor sound like a father about to ground his child.
Rose blinked, shocked. “What's wrong?”
He stalked over to her side, eyes colder than they'd ever been toward her. “How long has it been since you saw the hologram I broadcast?”
She squirmed, unable to believe he was acting so harshly and unwilling to admit the truth. If only he'd been quieter in his demand and not shouted. Then she might've been able to flirt her way out of it. In her experience, when a man shouted it was usually too late.
“Don't try to lie to me. You've been doing that since you first mentioned the cannon. We'll talk about that in a moment. First, how many years has it been? Mickey just said something very interesting about your mother being a great-grandmother, so it's not like only a few have passed.”
Jackie groaned. “Rose, save your breath. Doctor, she did jump a few months ago from our time.” She took a deep breath, as if the enormity of it all was finally striking her. “For us, it's been... forty-nine years and eight months.”
The room gasped. Even the TARDIS' sounds went quiet.
Rose blushed. “Mum!”
“How the hell can she still look like a teenager?!” cried Martha.
“The TARDIS froze her at age at sixteen, her age when she met me,” the Doctor said, rubbing his hands over his face.
“Doctor!” Rose gasped.
Jackie glared. “Don't 'Mum' me or 'Doctor' him! You're the one who started immediately looking for a way back to him after Bad Wolf Bay!”
The Doctor turned to face Jackie, speaking softly so he didn't get angry at her. “You mean that she's been working on that cannon for nearly fifty years?”
Jackie nodded. “Started testing it fifteen years ago. She flirted and bullied her way into a position of authority, not caring about what feathers she ruffled. Absolutely certain that she could do no wrong in your eyes, she expected everyone else to fall into line. And she was frighteningly good at making it happen since she could use her 'I know a thing or two about fighting aliens' card.”
He face-palmed himself. “Rose, Rose, Rose... I wanted you to have a life of your own. To marry and have a family, not cause destruction to multiple universes!”
“Well, that wasn't going to happen! I died that day! No one could compare to you!”
Sarah Jane boldly interrupted. “That is no excuse for wasting your life away over a man. I was hurt that my days with the Doctor were over, but I made a life for myself. I protected Earth, I made friends, and I carried on. Did you do any of that?”
“Why should I? If I got that cannon working, then I wasn't going to be staying anyway. I wasn't going to hurt anyone.”
“Other than your own mum, again!” snapped Jackie.
The Duplicate folded his arms, exactly like Donna. “But you did. You killed billions. Billions! You've been punching away at the walls between the universes for fifteen years. No wonder Caan was able to break Davros out, bringing him to the Supreme Dalek.”
The Doctor nodded. “Yes, now we know. It's all making sense now. The Daleks have always been able to work fast, and this time they had added motivation because they had a mad Dalek leading them on what they thought was a path to victory.”
“And forced me to destroy them all when they shouldn't have been out in the first place. I shouldn't even exist.”
Everyone on the sidelines stared in confusion over that. But no one had the chance to contradict him because Donna's human instinct leaped to a conclusion that made her blanch. “Those fixed points... the Game Station, Christmas 2005, and Canary Wharf... they became such to balance out the damage caused by Rose's actions as the Bad Wolf. And now this!”
“What are you talking about?!” Rose shouted. “All I did was try to get back to him!”
“Disobeying me each time,” the Doctor sharply interrupted. His voice hadn't been so cold since he was early in his life as his Ninth regeneration. “Oh, Rose Tyler, I not only told the wrong person to shut up, but I called the wrong person an idiot.”
Mickey's eyes went nearly as wide as his mouth. He shook himself out of the stupor. “Wait, are you admitting that you made a mistake?”
“Multiple ones. And they all began the moment I unknowingly asked a sixteen year-old girl to run away from her life and her mother because I was so lonely I thought having a silly teenager for a companion was better than having no one but my Old Girl.”
“What?!” Rose squealed, shocked. “Doctor?”
“Enough!” He suddenly forced Rose to turn around, and cuffed her before anyone could blink. Her hands were in front, where he could see them, just to make sure she couldn't try anything else.
Stunned, she whimpered. “What are you doing?”
Donna groaned. “The Ood cuffs? I thought you said we had a use for them.”
It was a rare time in Jack Harkness' life that a golden opening for a naughty comment was allowed to pass him by. Did Donna have hopes of the Doctor using them on her? Or vice versa? But it was simply rude to ask. And inappropriate. And, contrary to popular opinion, the one thing he was not was inappropriate. Still, he had to say something, and he had it. “I wish I'd thought of doing that when she brought me back. The way I see it, I'm owed.”
“Sorry, Jack. But I am going to make her pay. Jackie, did she cause damage in her tests? Did she kill people?”
“Yes. Three thousand that we could prove.”
Multiple gasps broke out, including from the Doctor. Which probably meant the true toll was higher.
Donna faced the mother. “And she was allowed to continue her testing?”
“She had them under some kind of a spell. Pete was about to remove her from the project and even destroy it after she brought back a damaged TARDIS.”
“What?!” roared the Doctor.
The Duplicate paled. “Oh my God. It must be from the world where she forced Donna to kill herself to reset events.”
Donna shook as the truth hit her. “She deliberately set me down too far away to make it. All I could do was cause an accident to force myself to turn left.”
“You tried to kill a Time Lord fixed point?!” Jack shouted. “My god, Rose I never even knew you!"
Jackie gasped and cried, “Rose! How could you?! I did not raise a murderer!”
“No one ever does,” Jack said, quietly. And unfortunately, turning a blind eye when someone you know has turned into one is a crime under British law. He prayed Jackie had done enough in Pete's World to protect herself from that charge.
Martha shook her head. “Have you no self-respect? What kind of a person destroys lives just to get back to someone no matter how wonderful they are? Did he ever tell you that he loved you?”
Rose shook her head slowly. “But I knew. A Dalek said he did.”
“He absorbed your thoughts and emotions, Rose,” the Doctor interrupted. “He called you a woman when you were still seventeen. If that. They weren't my emotions. They were your invention.”
Martha exclaimed wordlessly. “That's it?! You caused all this just to return to someone who never said that they loved you?! My god, you're a mess!”
Rose whipped her eyes in anger. “Shut up, you-”
“Enough!” The Doctor forced Rose over to a pillar which suddenly magnetized, holding her by the cuffs. “We're going straight to Pete's World. Jackie, I need you to ensure that Pete turns her over to the authorities.”
“She was about to be turned in anyway,” Jackie confessed, voice breaking. “She was going to stand trial for those deaths. It's a certain conviction, and carries execution as punishment.” She hesitated a moment, looking down at her feet as tears filled not only her eyes but her voice. “And this world likes to make those into spectacles.”
Rose sucked in a breath. She knew her mother and Mickey couldn't be trusted to help her anymore, but she had one last person she could try to teach. “Doctor, you can't let them do this.”
“Not your call, Rose,” Mickey said, quietly. “I was sent to find you and bring you back. Jackie came along because she knew you, and she wanted to stop you from hurting anyone else because she felt responsible for not setting enough boundaries for you. It was also her way of assuring mercy on herself since she could be called an accessory for not stopping you sooner.”
“I don't have any choice, Rose,” the Doctor said numbly. “It's either I turn you in to the Shadow Proclamation, who will execute you on the spot, or I drop you in chains back in Pete's World, which is screaming for some sort of resolution. It also ensures that Tony, Suzette, and William keep their mum. At least what I'm about to do gives your mum a little more time with you. Something I hope you appreciate before the end. Start praying for mercy in the After, Rose Tyler, because you've lost your last second chance. Be grateful I'm not the one to dish out your final moments.”
She cried, but no one listened. Not even her mother, who was getting hugs from the others before and after they helped fly the TARDIS.
The Doctor, as heavy as he felt from that, knew his hardest moment was yet to come. He still had to rescue the TARDIS that somehow survived that parallel world after Rose stole it to Pete's World. From what Jackie had said and what little Donna remembered, he guessed that version of the Old Girl was dead or dying. The most dignified end he could give that ship was to use her to repair his TARDIS.
The one plus side to Rose exposing herself as the real culprit behind this disaster? At least now he was willing and glad to have a second Time Lord around to help protect Donna.
THE END