#also what kind of acting sonic...specialises in...

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teaser 🎬💥

[blueyesandleatherjacket]

The summertime of our lives, 3/?

Volume: 1.

Number of parts: 3/?.

Pairings: Ninetoo x Rose.

A/N: Written for @doctorroseprompts summer bingo. Five summer-themed words: Sunset, Laugh, Game, Fruit, Swim (BINGO!). Tagging @thebookster on her demand.

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” - William Shakespeare.

CHAPTER 3:

The Doctor was astonished. He hadn’t seen that one coming and even if he had seen it coming, he would still had been left speechless. This day hadn’t been a good one in his book. It had begun smoothly with that surprise and the talk he had had with Rose, but then, he had been arrested by Alec Hardy, almost ended up in a hospital and learnt more about Rose in five minutes than he had in months. She had driven him home, forced him do drink more – he was glad that she had a go at Alec for leaving him locked in that overheated cell. The only thing he wanted to know was what was the surprise she had in store for him. He wasn’t patient, nor was he used to be the one left to ponder. Rose Tyler had been one of his best companions and she obviously had learnt some tricks from him. He hated the fact that it was used against him.

He never thought he would see one those things ever again in his shorten life. He thought he had destroyed them all. This universe wasn’t supposed to have this kind of technology either. There were aliens but they didn’t have time travel or dimension travel technologies. Because the dimension canon built by Torchwood obviously. So when Rose had pulled out this wrist device similar to the one Jack was wearing when they met that night. She had just given him a cheeky smile before fastening it around her arm. She hooked her other arm around his and dialled on the small keyboard. He had known what would happen; had known that he would feel disoriented and nauseous, that he would stumble and maybe fall. This device wasn’t protecting the user. It was just teleporting them from point A to point B. The TARDIS at least was keeping them safe when they were travelling. Another reason that made him miss his precious ship. What he wouldn’t give to have it back! But that was impossible.

He was dizzy, lost his balance and fell on all four. Rose only stumbled. She chuckled and held a hand out to him to help him up but his eyes were stuck on the scene before him. She could see the shock on his face, the disbelief, the feeling of hallucinating and it was amusing her. Before, it was the expression she was wearing when he was showing her something out of her comfortable little world. It was funny to see the parts reversed this time again.

“Where are we?”

His voice was barely more than a murmur. He forced himself to his feet, his eyes still on the object of his wonder. The surroundings were dark, cold and this thing was shining like the sun and calling for him. He didn’t move. He was hypnotized by the beauty of the scene but his reason was telling him that it couldn’t be true.

“Somewhere on Earth, somewhen in time. This seemed like the safest place at the moment. It still is true.”

“You could have built it at home. I would have loved it.”

“I didn’t build this. I’m not clever enough…”

“You are more than clever.”

“Not enough to build a TARDIS.”

What he had before his eyes indeed was a growing type 40 TARDIS. Identical to the one he had stolen thousands years ago. Sure the police box shape had become his favourite but having a real TARDIS? That was unexpected, astonishing. He had a hard time believing it.

“That can’t be possible. How would you… It would take a thousand years or more. I t can’t…”

“There was a coral strut with the sonic. And a letter. I followed the instructions after finding this place. I couldn’t do it at home, couldn’t let Torchwood know about it.”

“You don’t trust them much.”

He didn’t trust them either, but he had his own personal reasons to. Her own father was the head of the company specialised in alien technologies. She had worked with them. Something must have happened before he arrived for her to be so distrustful of Torchwood.

“I can’t trust them, nor any of what they do. I don’t like the way they work. It’s… wrong.”

“What do they do?”

She didn’t answer, turned her head away. She didn’t want him to read on her face. He was very good at that and she preferred keeping those secrets for herself. He was no man to accept this though. He got closer to her, grabbed her hand, intertwined their fingers. She was tensed and he was curious. He needed to know why she was acting like this, why she was doing things secretly.

“Tell me.”

His voice was softer, he brought her closer. She could trust him. She could always trust him. He wouldn’t betray her, would do anything to protect her. He had learnt a long time ago that Rose was no damsel in distress, no damsel to save. She could do that herself. However, she also had a deep vulnerability she was keeping hidden under a tough shield. Only him could see through. He had been her confident before and she had been deprived from him for years, had had to stay there without an ally or almost. And now he was back by her side and could see all the cracks in her shield. It was up to him to fix them all.

“It wasn’t something planned.” She swallowed, squeezed his hand, kept her eyes on the TARDIS. “In the first few months, we spent our time together to get to know each other better. Then we said goodbye and mom told Pete about how I sacrificed myself to save your life. She didn’t know much about the TARDIS, about the Vortex and all but Pete had done his researches.”

Her voice broke, he brought her closer to him, wrapped her in a protective embrace. She was trembling but not crying. Even there, in an unknown place and time, she was holding on. She was resisting. Hiding her feelings. Hesitating. Just like this day on the cliff. Alec had prevented her from jumping; the Doctor would have told her that if she was jumping, he would jump too. That was just how he was. Brave, stupidly brave for her.

“What has he done to you?”

Anger boiled in his veins. She could almost feel it when she put her head on his chest. She should be scared of such a fury. She really should be. He was the Oncoming Storm, the man standing as an obstacle in front of every threat without fear. Or seemingly without fear. He was mad at himself, at the universe, at the Time Lords. But we would do anything to keep her safe. Human or Time Lord, it didn’t matter. If his Rose was or had been hurt, he would unleash his rage. He would become the Oncoming Storm again.

“Rose.”

He slipped two fingers under her trembling chin and made her look up at him. His heard ached at the sight of so much pain and despair swirling in her amber brown eyes. Fear too, the fear of seeing so much anger in his eyes. He softened. He didn’t want to scare her. He just wanted to help.

“Since he met us the first time, Pete has done a lot of researches. I don’t know how but he found out that I absorbed the Time Vortex, that I was Bad Wolf. They took me by surprise. Drugged my morning tea. When I woke up, I was in a sort of glass coffin and they… they were testing me.”

All his body tensed at that tale. Her own family had betrayed her, thrown her into a complex situation she was alone to deal with. They had turned her into a Guinea pig, run tests on her, probably used her against her will and no one had raised a finger to help her.

“Does your mum know about this?”

Rose shook her head, “I couldn’t bring myself to tell her. I’ve never seen her this happy back in our world… I don’t want to ruin this.”

For a reason he wouldn’t be able to explain, the Doctor understood. He had been in Rose’s past many times – always made sure to never intervene and change anything, except for that red bicycle for her twelfth Christmas – had been in Jackie’s past as well and her attachment to Pete Tyler was something he thought he would never experience. The woman had been destroyed by his death despite their up and down relationship and had focused entirely on giving Rose a better life than hers… But Pete was back – another version of him for that mattered – and Rose was an adult who could handle herself. And their so strong bond had slowly faded. A sad story.

“How did you get out?”

Coming from Rose, he expected something impressive and clever but his reason was telling him otherwise. She remembered so they obviously hadn’t erased her memory or they had done it very badly. Could it be that they just…?

“They let me go. Who would have believed me anyway?”

Who would have listened to her in the first place? She had no friends back then, no one to speak to. Pete had her figured out in very little time. He had guessed she wouldn’t speak to her mother, no matter how close they still were back then. It really infuriated the Doctor. How could he have been so wrong on someone? Had he just wanted to see what he wanted to see for his Rose? How would she have survived if this human self of the man she loved hadn’t been created?

“But the worse is that they found something.”

His body tensed. Rose sniffled and wiped her nose with her hand. Her eyes were red but dry. She kept her voice steady as she explained to him that becoming the Bad Wolf hadn’t been without consequences. He had acted in time and saved her but the energy had corrupted a part of her. She was still human but an improved human: better senses, an ability for telepathic communications, a formidable gift for healing physical wound, an extraordinary awareness to the time passing. Nothing really out of the ordinary but Torchwood knew about it. They could use it to force her into doing stuff for them and who knew what else. He didn’t ask questions and she didn’t add more to the story. He didn’t want to know more. Not yet. Not if she wasn’t ready. It was enough for now.

He teleported them back home. The sun was slowly setting, drowning its burning rays in the quiet sea. The air was fresher than earlier, more pleasurable. They settled down on the chairs outside the house with the picnic they were supposed to eat earlier on the yacht. The Doctor would say that it was cliché but it was quite romantic, in the modern sense of the term. Their mood was cheerier as they shared sandwiches and beers while watching the sun disappearing.

“I could get used to that.”

“Hm?”

“Spending evenings with you like this, just the two of us. Having a normal life.”

It had been silently decided that they wouldn’t talk about the TARDIS when they were out of the safety bubble that Rose had found to be sure the ship would grow peacefully until it reached maturity. In a couple months, they would be back where they really belonged. In the meanwhile, they would build their perfect little life together on Earth. Like normal people.

The sun was now long gone and they were still outside their rented house. Rose was uncontrollably laughing about him fighting the mosquitos and butterflies – “of all the things that could have disappeared, those freaking blood suckers have decided to stay and be the summer destroyers in every existing parallel world!” – and she found it heartily funny to watch him slap the night warm air in an incredibly stupid and yet sexy dance. Nothing could be funnier than this at the moment. She was on her fourth beer though. You would think that someone whose DNA had been improved by the Time Vortex would handle alcohol better. He was only slightly tipsy and grinning at her because there was nothing better than observing a happy Rose.

“We should play a game!”

She put the bottle down and her face showed that she was exulting. What did she have in mind that could cause such a burst of joy? She made the bottle spin several times until the neck ended its course in his direction with a mischievous smile on her face. He raised an eyebrow, getting really curious now.

“Truth or dare?”

“You’re not man enough for that, Tyler,” he laughed.

“You ready to bet on that, Doctor?”

He liked the expression of challenge on her face. That was triggering something in him. He drank the rest of his beer in one go and placed the empty bottle with the two others on his right. He looked at Rose in the eyes. She held his gaze, wasn’t gonna avoid this intense blue staring.

“Dare.”

He was playful. She wanted to play, he was gonna play. All night if that was what she wanted. He was ready for the challenge and she appeared to be too. He expected her to suddenly fall asleep once the alcohol and laughing and fatigue of the day would get to her but she was remaining wide awake despite the passing hours. No more alcohol for their the pack they had drunk. More and they would see Shitface coming to them and lock them in a tiny cell. An experience the Doctor wasn’t ready to live again. He had been in that situation too many times before.

“If you were given the chance, would you go back with him?”

She had picked truth and he had pronounced the question that had been haunting his mind. One of them at least. His heart was racing; he wasn’t sure he would hear the answer. Did he want an answer at all? According to the face Rose was making now, he probably wouldn’t even have that answer. Her smile was gone, the redness on her cheeks was due to the alcohol. She looked away, played with her fingers. He shouldn’t have asked that.

“I would go back to my original universe without hesitation.”

“So you’d go to him.”

He wasn’t disappointed. He had expected the answer. He had dreaded that answer. It was his turn to look away. The harm was done, the joy was gone. He traced the seams of his jeans. He couldn’t tell if he was sad or else. He was being realistic. She loved him but she loved the true Doctor more. It would be the pretty boy. It would always be the pretty boy.

“He has left me behind. More times than I can count, in more ways than I can tell.” She looked back at him. “You would never even think of leaving my side. Well, the Doctor who wore your face always came to find me if I was wandering around.”

“And you were wandering around all the time.”

“Curious, me.”

“I love that about you. You’re curious, you want to learn, you’re not afraid to make a stand for what is right.”

“I’ve had a good teacher.”

“Not the best. I was fresh out of the Time War. Deeply wounded. I was trying to fix my mistakes but I also needed you to understand how I felt.”

“Hence the end of my world.”

“That was stupid.”

“But I understood. And I promised myself to never leave you.”

She held a hand out to him. He hesitated for a moment, just staring at her hand. Was it just an offer for peace or the beginning of an answer that would please him more? She noticed the time it was taking him to take a proper decision. It hurt but it was her words that had caused this. His now human heart must be aching.

“I don’t know why but… even if you were born from his hand, from his energy, the fact that you are wearing this face, the face you had when we first met, my mind is convinced that you’re just the same.”

“Part of me is. It came back with the face. When I… When I regenerated that day, I wanted to be better for you. Younger, cheerier, more open on my feelings. Guess I was wrong.”

“It was fun. At first. And then, I noticed little things. And Torchwood happened.”

“You came back.”

“The worlds were in danger.”

“We would all have been screwed without you. Was too busy having fun, me.”

“That’s it. Carelessly having fun, always wanting to impress your companions.”

“Donna was hard work.”

This was supposed to be a joke but remembering Donna was also an open door to remember that she would never recall any of this. Rose didn’t know but before the walls separating the parallel worlds definitely closed, he was still sharing a bond with the pretty boy, with the TARDIS, with Donna Noble and he had seen her mind being deprived from the best memories of her life, of her self-confidence. The Doctor Donna died to save the human Donna. Without her, he wouldn’t be here and she would never remember him or Rose or any of her adventures. He would remember it all for her.

“But she was… how were you saying back then? Oh, fantastic.”

He grinned, “She really is brilliant. How lucky are you to be stuck with a man who’s got half of her personality?”

“That is quite interesting at times. Especially when you’re cross and use that accent of hers.”

She chuckled. Here, in this universe, they couldn’t make a difference between one accent or another. What was a Northern England accent for them is actually a south Australian accent. So, the mix of Northern Gallifreyen and Chiswick accents was curious to them. They had never heard it before. They considered the Doctor as an alien, which was funny for her since he was partly alien.

“I wonder if there is a Donna Noble in this universe.”

“I’ve made my researches. There was one. She was an old lady. She sadly passed away before you came here. She was a fantastic storyteller and narrator.”

“What her stories were about?”

“You would be surprised.”

“Oh, come on.”

“She was writing about a mad man in a blue box travelling the universe and fixing what needed to be fixed.”

“Could it be that a version of her never made it back in time? No… That wouldn’t work. This world wouldn’t exist anymore. Earth would be gone. It has to be something else.”

“It’s another one of those mysteries you love so much and listen to this: her daughter said that just before she passed away, she has received the visit of a young blonde woman with a long white and blue coat who was calling herself the Doctor. She told Donna that all her stories were true and she thanked her for sharing these adventures, for sharing the hope to the younger ones.”

“That can’t be possible.”

“Why not?”

“Gallifrey doesn’t exist no more. Only Time Lords were enabling and controlling the access to parallel worlds. And I’ve never been a woman before. The Doctor has always been a male.”

“I wouldn’t mind meeting a female Doctor.”

“I have to admit that it would be a nice change but…

“I’d love you no matter the age, the face or the gender.”

This time, he took her hand and intertwined their fingers. He wasn’t totally convinced that she wouldn’t go back to the other Doctor if she was given the chance to. Their talk had strayed on subjects close to his question but not enough to give him a proper answer.

“But I’ll always have a preference for the Doctor with blue eyes, the first face he showed to me.”

“Which technically was the pretty boy’s face on January, 1st 2005.”

“I haven’t seen much of this face. You stayed in the shadows to be sure I wouldn’t. So you technically were the first one I’ve met.”

“And I’m fine with that idea.”

He gave her one of his daft full grin and got up from the chair. He disappeared in the house for a couple minutes and came back with the basket of fresh fruits. She watched him as he picked a mature banana and peeled it off. She burst out laughing when he took a first bite and immediately made a face of profound disgust before coughing out the bit of fruit that had dared sullying his superior taste buds.

“What the hell is that?”

“You haven’t let me the time to tell you: in this part of the country, they are specialised in peer-flavoured bananas. You can’t find any ‘normal’ bananas.”

“But that’s criminal!” he snarled.

“That’s a banana. It just has a different taste.”

“I hate peers!”

“I thought every Doctor has their personal likes and dislikes.”

“The hate for peers is common to all my incarnations, past and future.”

“So you won’t give it a chance.”

“I’d rather jump in that dirty water than eat this freak of nature!”

“Go on.”

“What?”

Rose pointed to the water they were sitting by and she reiterated her challenge. After all, that was all the game they were playing before the atmosphere became more serious. She had said truth, he had suggested the dare. If he wasn’t accepting now, she was winning, and he would never let her win so easily so he just stepped over the edge of the quay and jumped in the water. She gasped. Her alcohol must have been worse than she thought if she had believed he wouldn’t do it. He was the Doctor. He was proud. If you were daring him to do something, he would do it.

“How is the water?”

The Doctor resurfaced, rubbed his face and smiled at Rose. A happy idiot, she thought as he was splashing around, fully clothed. Whether the water was warm or cold, it wasn’t bothering him at all. The fact was he wasn’t wearing bathing trunks either. Thinking about it, she never saw him fully naked. He was always wearing pants and a T-shirt, even around her. She never forced him to. He was uncertain about his body. That was something she had gone through when she was younger, when she became a woman. But what could he have to hide? She could only fantasize about his body and respect his decision. He would do the same for her. She got a nice overview when he swam back to the edge and hauled himself over of the water to the only strength of his arms. It gave her an idea, and the smirk on her face didn’t mean anything good for him…

A suivre

The summertime of our lives © | 2019 | Tous droits réservés.

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