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History Repeats | Chapter 3

Due to this not being posted anywhere else yet, please like and DON’T REBLOG my fics.

Chapter Summary:

She went right back to the start, and now it’s time to go right to the end… of her world anyway. Once again back on Platform One, Rose has her first proper chance to try and change things for the better. But it would be so much easier if she could just tell everyone Cassandra was trying to kill them…

Author Note:

Hello, and welcome to The End of the World. If you have a teleportation device to leave this story, they are not prohibited and I would reconsider that course of action. Mostly because this story is starting to get really good. I’ve kept it mostly the same as my original rewrite, but embellished it a little more, and I’m really happy with the direction it’s going.

I hope you enjoy it just as much.

End of the World A Gift in Good Faith

“Right then, Rose Tyler, you tell me. Where do you want to go? Backwards or forwards in time? What’s it going to be?” the Doctor asked the second she reached the console.

“Definitely forward,” she told him.

“How far?”

“Far as you like.”

He grinned in excitement at the prospect. Last time she faintly recalled that they had stopped a few times before she actually got out. He just kept showing off. She watched excitedly as he began madly rushing about the console, turning knobs and pressing buttons. He gave a few pumps of the ‘squeaky thing’, as he’d once described it to her, and then they stopped with a lurch.

“There you go,” he said with a wide grin. “Ten thousand years in the future. Step outside, it’s the year 12,005. The New Roman Empire.”

“You’re kidding!” she exclaimed, acting disbelieving. She saw the smug, self-satisfied grin plastered on his face and cracked up laughing. “Oh, you think you’re so impressive!”

“I am so impressive,” he said defensively. She loved how she could get him sounding that indignant and pouty so fast. God, he just loved showing off so much. He was always out to impress. And if he didn’t, he would pout, then try even harder.

“You wish!” she teased. “Come on, what’s the best you’ve got?!”

He grinned at her challenge, looking like a kid at Christmas. “Alright, Rose Tyler, you asked for it! I know exactly were to go!” He began the dance around the console again, and soon they were landing once more. The Doctor looked at her expectantly and gestured to the doors.

“Where are we?” Rose asked excitedly.

And despite the fact she knew, it really was genuine excitement. She couldn’t believe she was back here. She had once told the Doctor that his life was incredible because he could see days come and gone that only happened once. And she knew from experience that even then they could only go back to see it that once. If they wanted to be safe about it anyway. But here she was, back once more to do it all again. She would be able to have another go. She might be able to save the people that died the first time. She may even actually see the Earth explode this time! …Although, she wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing to see…

When the Doctor just looked at her with a smile, she grinned and leaned in excitedly. “What’s out there? Come on, tell me!”

The Doctor just gestured again, and without another beat, she turned and ran out.

Once again, she found herself in that room with the viewing window. The Doctor followed her out and used the sonic screwdriver to open the window so they could look out. They walked down the steps and right up to the glass, and once again her breath was taken away by the spectacular view of the Earth with a huge, dying sun right behind it.

“You lot,” the Doctor said affectionately. “You spend all your time thinking about dying. Like you’re going to get killed by eggs, or beef, or global warming, or asteroids. But you never take the time to imagine the impossible. Maybe you survive. This is the year 5.5/Apple/26. Five billion years in your future. This is the day… hold on…” He looked at his watch, and Rose smiled. “This is the day the sun expands. Welcome to the end of the world!”

“I don’t think about dying,” she told him calmly. His eyebrows rose in surprise at the statement. Out of everything he had said, that had been what she picked up on? But what she said next was what threw him for a loop. “I’m not afraid of dying.”

“Really?” he asked. Most people her like her generally were. Humans were fragile, and most of them feared the inevitable. “Then, what are you afraid of?”

“Leaving people behind,” she said. “Being left alone. No one deserves to be alone.” She saw a look pass across his face at that, but still, she kept staring out at the huge orange sun. “Imagine what it would be like, separated from the person you care the most about in the entire universe. They’re not dead, you know they’re not. Or at least… you hope they’re not. But you can never see them again, never hear their voice. They are somewhere out there, but no power in the universe could bring you together, you may as well be dead to one another. And that makes it even worse because you know that they are out there, all alone… Feeling just as lost and hurt as you are…”

“You sound like you’re speaking from experience,” he noted softly.

Rose started out of her thoughts and finally looked at him, flashing him a forced smile. “Nah, I’m just nineteen. This is the biggest thing that’s ever happened to me. It’s just a fear.”

Beside her, the Doctor frowned. There was something different about her. She seemed more confident than he had originally thought. And, not to sound rude, but more complex. He had known away from her family and obligations and all the things that dulled her life and held her back, she had the ability to shine. But this was almost something else. In the end, he gave up looking for what was so different about her and headed for the doors and down the corridors. Rose trailed after him, ignoring the announcement that came over the speakers.

“So, what is all of this, anyway?” she asked. She hated having to play dumb, and knew that it was probably going to bug her until she caught up, but the Doctor would get suspicious if she didn’t ask curious questions. She could deal with asking things she already knew the answers to if it meant she got to spend forever with the Doctor. “Some sort of party for people to come and watch the world go ‘boom’?”

“Pretty much, yeah,” the Doctor said, taking out his sonic-screwdriver to open the door that would lead to the main viewing platform. “The great and the good are gathering to watch the planet burn.”

“What for?” she asked.

“Fun!” he replied, grinning as the door slid open. Together, they walked into the huge viewing room where all the guests would soon be gathering. “Mind you,” he tacked on as they went in, “when I say ‘the great and the good’, what I mean is ‘the rich’. There’s gonna be all sorts of people.”

“You mean aliens,” Rose grinned.

“Yep! But who knows, maybe we’ll find some human people too.”

“Yeah, I doubt it,” she muttered under her breath. There was no way in hell she was considering Cassandra as a human, even if she had seen her before she became a bloody trampoline.

“I’m not sure if there’s any pure humans left,” the Doctor went on. “You lot went off into the stars and, well, did what humans do,” he wiggled his eyebrows at her suggestively, “and not always with other humans. But, this is the end of your planet, there has to at least be one human representitve of some kind.”

“Are you trying to suggest that humans are the bunnies of the universe, Doctor?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

“Oh, not at all. There are several species out there that could claim that title. Though, you are up there. Definitely the most far reaching. You lot are everywhere. It’s all very Captain Kirk.”

Rose giggled and they walked closer to the main viewing window. The sun could be seen like an explosion, looming over the planet before them. “God, it’s beautiful,” she said in awe, staring down at her planet. “It’s strange thinking that it’s gonna be different. That all this will be gone. That sun’s been there for billions and billions of years. And then it starts to die and billions of years it just…”

“Turns into a red giant and destroys majority of the planets around it. Mercury, Venus and Mars are already gone,” he told her. “Only reason Earth hasn’t gone yet is that it’s being protected. The planet’s the property of the National Trust. They’ve been keeping it preserved, using gravity satellites to hold back the sun.”

“A ‘National’ Trust that looks after an entire planet?” she snorted, making the Doctor snigger at her point. “And what? They just ‘put the countries back in the right place’ for the 21st century? I thought the continents were supposed to shift. Earthquakes, ice ages, global warming, rising sea and all that. You know, supercontinents forming and breaking apart and smashing back together in different ways to make new supercontenets.”

“They did… to both. The continents shifted and the Trust moved them back. That down there is a Classic Earth.”

“Classic? Who decided that?” she asked. “If someone made the choice to just… completely rearrange the landmasses back to how the used to be, why this era? Why not Pangea or Rodinia or some era from the future? Why is my time so special?”

“Oh, Rose Tyler. The 21st century is when it all changes. It’s when you lot finally really get out there and begin to explore the stars. It’s also the era that the National Trust was founded. But now their money’s run out, so nature takes its course.”

“Right… nature. And when does that happen exactly?”

The Doctor looked down at his watch. “About half an hour. And then the planet gets roasted!” He grinned manically, his eyebrows rising in excitement. She noted that it wasn’t quite as manical as his next incarnation’s could be, but it still made her smile to herself.

“So, the Earth’s about to go ‘bye bye’, you’re not gonna stop it because it’s time is up. Or well, it’s time was up ages ago and they’re finally letting it happen. And this is some sort of party to… celebrate the fact that it’s not gonna be there anymore… Where are all the people? On Earth, I mean. They can’t still be down there.”

She knew the answer to that, of course. About now, a good amount of them would be settling down on New Earth or other planets.

“Nope, they left. All gone,” he replied. “Packed up and moved. Settled down in colonies on planets, in spaceships. Like I said, you humans are everywhere.”

“Mmm, we may just be stupid apes, but you love us,” she teased, giving him her tongue in teeth grin. The wide grin he had on his face at that suddenly dropped when a voice came from behind them.

“Who the hell are you?!” They spun around to see the blue skinned steward striding towards them.

“Oh, that’s nice. Thanks,” the Doctor said sarcastically.

“But how did you get in?” the steward snipped. “This is a maximum hospitality zone. The guests have disembarked! They’re on their way any second now!”

“That’s me,” the Doctor said quickly. “Look, I’ve got an invitation.” He took the psychic paper from his pocket and held it up to the man. “Look, you see? It’s fine, you see? The Doctor, plus one. I’m the Doctor, this is Rose Tyler. She’s my plus one. That alright?”

“Well… obviously,” he said stiffly. He seemed awkward and slightly embarrassed that he had mistaken guests for something else. He’d sort of been right, but he didn’t know that. Rose idly wondered if he turned purple when he blushed… assuming his blood was red. “Apologies, etcetera. If you’re onboard, we’d better start. Enjoy.” Then he briskly walked off to the podium near the door.

The Doctor turned to show her the psychic paper. “Nifty, that,” she told him.

“Yep! It’s psychic paper. Shows them whatever I want to see. Saves a lot of time.”

“And if you don’t have time to make them see anything?”

“Then their mind fills it in for them,” he told her. It was something she already knew, but then he told her something he’d never told her in the two plus years she’d known him. “Only genuses see it as blank. I only see it because I chose to.”

“Full of yourself, aren’t ya?” she laughed. “So, what kind of alien is he?”

“Hmm, well…” The Doctor looked at the steward a moment. “I would say he’s one of the many species of Crespallion. Majority of the humanoid species there have blue skin. There’s at least three separate races, all distinguishable by height. Only… I can’t quite remember which is which at the moment…”

“So much for genius,” she teased, bumping into his shoulder playfully.

Before the Doctor would even react indignantly the steward, once again, interrupted them as he spoke into the microphone.

“We have in attendance: the Doctor and Rose Tyler. Thank you. All staff to their positions.” He gave a sharp clap and soon a whole bunch of tiny blue aliens were scurrying about, getting everything ready. Rose remembered what the Doctor had just said and realised that these people must be one of the blue races. Just like that other blue woman she’d met the first time around. The space plummer. The steward encouraged them along a moment before turning back to the door. And now, might I introduce the next honoured guest: represent the forest of Cheem, we have Trees. Namely Jabe, Lute and Coffa.”

The doors opened again, and out stepped the three humanoid trees Rose remembered from last time. She’d only briefly seen them, and only really remembered Jabe, but still, she got mixed feelings seeing the beautiful flora woman. Knowing what was likely coming up, she felt an annoying surge of jealousy, recalling how she and the Doctor had flirted the entire time. And that had just been while she was still in the same room as them. But she also knew that last time, Jabe had died trying to save everyone here, trying to give the Doctor time to do… something that would put the shields back up. Knowing that she would die made her both sad and determined. She wouldn’t let that happen if she could help it. That was one of the perks of her being back here. She could try and fix things like this.

Maybe this time, Jabe didn’t have to die. There had to be something that she had missed, being trapped in that room most of the time, that could prevent her from giving her life. And, maybe, if she saved her and Jabe flirted with the Doctor again, she could have a go at her. The thought made her smile, getting to save a life and have a go at an annoyingly flirtatious tree.

The idea quickly fled her mind. The Doctor wasn’t exactly hers. As far as he was aware, they’d only just met. It wasn’t like she had any right to start going off at someone for flirting with him.

“There will be an exchange of gifts representing peace,” the steward went on, snapping her out of that little thought. “If you can keep the room circulating, thank you. Next, from the solicitors Jolco and Jolco, the Moxx of Balhoon.” The doors opened once more and in rolled the tubby blue pixie-like alien on his chair. He had been one of the people to die in the end if she remembered correctly. So many had died…

She listened as the steward continued to introduce all kinds of strange aliens, watching as they all filed through the doors. She vaguely remembered being overwhelmed last time, but this time she just felt her usual curiosity as she took in how different they were, storing away the questions that bubbled up about their species and where they were from, what was their planet like, how they did certain things when they were so different from humans.

She couldn’t help the small shudder that shook her when the Repeated Meme came in, knowing that Cassandra would use them to pull off her plan. She still remembered that they had attacked her. However, when the Face of Boe came in, she looked up hopefully. She had wanted to talk to the Face of Boe so badly. There had been so much she’d wanted to ask him last time she’d seen him, but she hadn’t been able to do anything because of bloody Cassandra taking over her body.

Beside her, she could practically feel the Doctor laughing at her reactions, and turned to see him grinning down at her. She narrowed her eyes at him, making him grin even wider. But they were interrupted from their silent conversation when Jable and her two companions stepped up to them and tilted her head in greeting.

“The gift of peace,” she said to them. “I bring you a cutting of my grandfather.” She reached behind her and grabbed a small pott with a twig growing in it from her companion and then handed it to the Doctor.

“Thank you,” he said, smiling at her, and then he handed the potted twig to Rose. “Yes, gifts… erm…” He patted down his pockets, not finding anything to give her. Not that a pat-down would do much good with the tech he’d sewn into those things, and if he dug his hand in, they’d probably be there forever. He was quite attached to the random things he shoved in his pockets. “I give you in return-”

“Three hairs from my head,” Rose cut him off, remembering what had happened last time. With her free hand, she reached up and plucked a few strands, twisting them into a neat loop and handed them to Jabe. Quick thinking wasn’t always her best talent, and the only thing that had come to her head was a scene from the first Lord of the Rings movie, where Gimli had asked for Galadriel’s hair as a parting gift.

“Thank you.” Jabe smiled at her, carefully taking the loop of hair and handed it to the companion on the other side of her, who then placed it in a bag. Then they moved on. She grinned as she watched them go, but as she turned back, she caught the look the Doctor was giving her.

“What?” she said indignantly. “She gave us something off a living person. At least I have enough hair!” The Doctor huffed and rubbed his hand over his short-cropped hair. She suddenly found herself wondering if he’d had more hair in his previous incarnation. After all, she knew he loved his hair in the next. “Besides,” she muttered, “it’s better than ‘air from your lungs’.”

At this, the Doctor’s brows rose, then drew together in confusion. He wondered what had made her say that? How could she have known that just before she had jumped in, that was exactly what he was going to say?

All too quickly, he was distracted from that thought when the next guest rolled up. “The Mox of Balhoon!” he cried in delight. He lent down a little so he was more on eye level with the blue alien. He didn’t even notice Rose creep beind him. She may not remember every detail of something that had happened years ago for her, but she vividly remembered what came next. It was a little too gross of a first impression to forget.

“My felicitations on this historical happenstance. I give you the gift of bodily saliva,” he chirped in reply. And with that, he spat… right into the Doctor’s eye.

Behind him, Rose burst into a fit of giggled, glad that it wasn’t her this time. “Thank you!” she laughed, popping her head over the Doctor’s shoulder and handing him some of her hair. Then, she immediately stiffened when the Mox of Balhood moved away and the Repeated Meme approached. With a tight expression, she stepped out from behind the Doctor and plucked three hairs from her head to give to them.

“Ah! The Adherents of the Repeated Meme,” the Doctor grinned. “I bring you hair frim my companion’s peroxide head.”

“Oi!” she cried indignantly as he grabbed the hairs from her and gave them to the Memes.

“A gift of peace in all good faith,” the leader rasped. It held out the silver ball that was its ‘gift’. The Doctor took it from them, tossing it in the air a moment, and then handed it to Rose. She was hesitant taking it from him, and held it almost gingerly in her hand, turning it around to look at it. She recalled that the Doctor had told her these were how Cassandra smuggled the spiders in. She hoped that there was a latch or some kind of button that she would be able to play around with and ‘accidentally’ let the spider out of the bag early. She couldn’t find one, the surface almost completely smooth, other than the lines etched in it. She assumed that they must be controlled to open on Cassandra’s end. She could probably get it open with the sonic, but the Doctor would most definitely get too suspicious if she just suddenly grabbed his beloved tool off him and instantly knew how to use it to open something that looked otherwise benign.

“And last, but not least,” the steward called out as the Memes moved off. “Our very special guest. Ladies and Gentlemen, and Trees and Multiforms. Consider the Earth below. In memory of this dying world, we call forth the Last Human. The Lady Cassandra O’Brien. Δ17!”

The doors once more slid open to reveal the flat stretch of skin on a frame with lipstick and eyes and a brain in a jar that was Cassandra, the ‘last human’. The Doctor looked down to watch Rose’s reaction, he was sure that she would be shocked and absolutely baffled that this was the last of her race, but what he saw instead surprised him. Rose barely looked shocked at all. Instead, she was glaring almost coldly at the woman, an expression that wavered as it seemed to battle it out with a look of sympathy. He was baffled by this, not entirely sure why she would react like that. Rose herself was a bit of a mystery he was intreaged to solve. She often seemed simple enough on the outside, but he could tell that there was something there, just below the surface…

“Oh, now, don’t stare,” Cassandra gushed. “I know, I know. It’s shocking, isn’t it? I’ve had my chin completely taken away and look at the difference! Look how thin I am!”

Rose’s eyes widened in disbelief. She knew that Cassandra was conceited and absoulty full of herself, but she had forgotten just how bad she bad been, especially this first time they’d met her. Even though she knew how things would turn out for the flap of skin, the way she talked was still enough to gall. She could feel the Doctor shaking with barely contained laughter beside her, and she reisted the urge to elbow him in the side. Sure, he’d think it was funny now… wait until that cow had possessed him and was talking about how ‘yum’ it was to be in his body. Rose was sorely tempted to fulfil one of her day dreams then and there, and run over to Cassandra, flip her on her… back? …and jump on her!

“Thin and dainty,” Cassandra went on. Rose had to clench her fists and force herself to stay still so she didn’t act out what was going through her mind out of sheer spite and annoyance. “I don’t look a day over two thousand! Moisterise me, moisterise me!” she muttered to the white suited men either side of her. One of them lifted his canister and sprayed her. “Truly, I am the Last Human. My father was Texan. My mother was from the Arctic Desert. They were born on the Earth, and they were the last to be buried in its soil. I have come to honour them and…” she gave a sniff, “say goodbye. Oh, no tears. No tears. I’m sorry.” One of the men wiped at her eyes, and though Rose was facing her ‘back’, she was fairly sure her eyes were dry as a bone. “But behold! I bring gifts from Earth itself. The last remaining ostrich egg…” A tiny blue Crespallian brought it in, and Rose eyed it warily. She had still been trapped in that room at the time, but the Doctor had told her that Cassandra had hidden some device inside it. “Legend says it had a wingspan of fifty feet and blew fire from its nostrils! …or was that my third husband?” There were a few laughs around the room, including the Doctor’s. Rose just rolled her eyes in grudging amusement. It was typical Cassandra. “Who knows? Oh, don’t laugh. I’ll get laughter lines!” Behind her, the staff wheeled in a jukebox and Rose had to suppress a grin, remembering the deluge of misinformation Cassandra was about to spill. It amused her to no end – now that she wasn’t so horrified and overwhelmed to appreciate it all – that Cassandra got so many things wrong about her own culture. Then again, she assumed that if she were to talk about the few items from Ancent Rome she’d known about in school, she probably would have sounded just as daft. Humans had always gone with whatever little knowledge they had and assumed the rest, taking it as fact. And the fact was that a lot of information was lost to history. “And here, another rarity. According to the archives, this was called an ‘iPod’. It stores classical music from humanity’s greatest composers. Play on!”

At her cue, someone started up the jukebox, and ‘Tainted Love’ by Soft Cell filled the room. As far as classical and ‘humanity’s greatest composters’ went, Rose was most certain that this was not one. In fact, she was pretty sure it was a one-hit-wonder. She rolled her eyes and grinned, watching as the Doctor did a little bobbing dance… and that was just too much. That really was the cherry on top!

Last time, she had just been so bewildered, so shocked, so overwhelmed, that she didn't notice much of what was going on. She couldn't properly appreciate all the things she had just seen. But this time she could. And she was realising just how much she had missed. Once more, the fact that she had a second chance to do this all again hit her with full force.

A laugh bubbled up within her, and she clapped her hand to her mouth to stop it. It didn’t do much to help, and soon she had burst out into hysterical giggles. The Doctor watched her, grinning in amusement, and soon he joined in, chuckling away with her.

But Rose couldn’t stop laughing, the giggle overtaking to the point that she just wanted to sit on the floor and laugh until she was done. Tears were starting to leak down her cheeks, and people were starting to stare at her. The Doctor was looking at her in confusion but still slightly amused. He looked like he was about to ask her what was so funny, so she raised a finger to him, then ran out of the room.

She ran out and down through all the halls until she found herself at the observation room she had been in last time. She was almost calm by the time she reached it, but then she saw a group of the tiny blue staff members pushing the TARDIS out the door and away somewhere, and she burst into a peal of fresh giggles. It wasn’t until later on in the TARDIS that she realised she hadn’t met the other blue woman, the space plumber this time.

It took her a while to calm down. Mostly because she kept thinking about how she was probably going a bit overbored, and it just seemed so ridiculous. It just made her keep laughing at herself. Why was she still laughing? It wasn’t that funny! God, something was wrong with her. Maybe being in the parallel universe and coming back in time by jamming her mind into her younger self’s body had made her insane…

When it came down to it, she didn’t much care.

“What’s so funny?” the Doctor asked with a small chuckle of his own when he finally found her. He came and sat on the other side of the stairs, just like he had last time.

“Everything!” Rose gasped out. The laughter had died down now, but she was still yet to fully get her breath back, or shake the weird jitters that had come over her. “It’s just so blimmen incredible! Just this… it’s so…” Sighing, she layed back so she was lying on the ground, looking up at the ceiling, with her feet hanging over the edge, swinging slightly.

“You’re taking this all pretty well,” he commented. “Well, apart from that little hysterical breakdown back there.”

Rose let out a small laugh, covering her face in embarrisment. Oh god, what was she doing? She was supposed to be making it look like this was the first time she’d ever seen a big bunch of aliens. She should be asking more questions, being curious, acting amazed. If she didn’t, he would probably think she was a bit daft or start suspecting something. How many people had he shown the stars and all that came with it and they had just… accepted everything. Probably no one. She couldn’t be that person!

“There’s just… so many aliens!” she told him. “Like, alien aliens! Just days ago, I didn’t even believe in them. Like, yeah, I thought that there had to be a planet out there that could have some kind of like, but not like this! I used to think that people who believed in aliens like this were complete nutters! Now I’m the nutter… and I love it!” She turned her head to the Doctor and grinned at him. He smiled back at her, and she found the usual questions bubbling up within her. She’d always wanted to know more about his planet. He very rarely spoke of his home and his people, and she’d always felt too guilty to ask, knowing how much it hurt him. But those questions were there. And why not ask them? She should at least try and get him to tell her the basic stuff, so she didn’t end up slipping up and saying something before she was told. “So, where are you from, then?”

“All over the place,” he replied nonchalantly, streatching out a little.

Rose snorted, sitting up again. “That’s not an answer!” He clearly wasn’t okay with sharing more that than right now, and she wasn’t going to push him, but she didn’t want to give up on it either. Instead, she asked another question. One she already knew the answer to, so it would be important to get it out of the way. “Why are they all speaking English?” she asked. “I thought they’d be speaking… Tree-ish and stuff.”

“Tree-ish?!” the Doctor laughed. “Nah, they are speaking their language, you just hear English. It’s a gift of the TARDIS. Telepathic field gets inside your brain and translates.”

“Right…” She drew the word out. She knew better than to go mental time time. She had been upset she wasn’t asked last time, but now she knew better. Besides, the TARDIS was her friend, and now it was more than just the telepathic field affecting her. “So… you have a telepathic, sentient ship that can turn any language in the universe into the one that you speak?”

“Yep!”

“Right, because who doesn’t have one of those?” she said sarcastically.

“Ah, everyone but me,” he told her, quite obviously.

“And how come you get one?”

“Because it’s from my home planet.”

“And where’s that?” she asked excitedly. Sure, she knew the name of his planet… but that was all. At her question, though, the Doctor’s face fell and he floundered for a moment. She knew the mournful look in his eyes well, though she doubted anyone just meeting him would, and her heart broke for him. Doubt and guilt began to fill her mind. Maybe she shouldn’t do this. He was clearly upset about it and… and the same thing would happen all again. She had never asked because she didn’t want to upset him. But what if opening up about his home helped him. Having someone to share it with at least in some small way.

“It-it’s not like you’ll know where it is…” he said.

She rolled her eyes. “Well, yeah. But can I at least get a name? I mean, let’s face it, Doctor, I know nothing about you… I kind of just ran away with a total stranger. So, where you from?”

The Doctor stared straight ahead for a good while, to the point that Rose was sure he wasn’t going to say anything. But just as she was about to say something else, he huffed out a breath and gave a harsh nod, as if trying to encourage himself to speak. “Gallifrey,” he finally croaked out. Rose’s brows rose in surprise. She hadn’t expected him to actually say it.

“Sounds pretty. Kind of Gaelic. So, you’re… Gallifreyan?”

“Yep,” he chuckled lowly. “But my people are called Time Lords.”

“Time Lords?”

“We were the first species to discover time travel. So, we sort of… govern over time. Prevent paradoxes and watch over the universe, observing everything.”

“What’s Gallifrey like?”

The Doctor took a deep breath. He didn’t say anything for a moment, and she thought that this was when he was going to suddenly change the subject on her, so she was surprised when, again, he kept going. “Well, it’s beautiful,” he said quietly. She grinned at that, but then she noticed that he had said ‘it’s’ – as in, current tense – and her brow furrowed for a moment. She quickly plastered a gentle smile on her face by the time he turned to look at her. He was suddenly very expressive, using his entire body to tell her about the beauty of his planet. “The sky’s a burnt orange,” he told her wistfully. “With the Citadel enclosed in a might glass dome, shining under the twin suns. Beyond that, the mountains go on forever. Slopes of deep red grass capped with snow…” He trailed off, just remembering for a moment. And Rose’s heart broke as she realised what he was doing, the way he was speaking. He was pretending his planet and his people were all still there. He was using her ‘ignorance’ as an excuse to pretend, for just a moment, that the Time War hadn’t destroyed everything he had known and loved about his home planet. “The second sun rises in the south, and the mountains just shine. The leaves on the trees are silver, and when they catch the light every morning, it looks like a forest on fire. When autumn comes, the breeze blows through the branches like a song…” He faded off, staring out into the starscape before them.

Despite the sadness she could see in his eyes, Rose was left stating at him in wonder and awe. His home sounded beautiful. She’d never heard so much about it before, other than its name and the odd comment. But the way he described it was like poetry. She could almost see exactly what he described, high peaked, snow-capped mountains with red slopes, and the large house on the hills of Peridon, as if she’d plucked the very image from his mind.

“Can you take me there sometime?” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them, too caught up in the moment. She wanted to take them back right away, but really, she knew that it was a good thing she had. She was supposed to be clueless. If she didn’t know the truth, she most definitely would have asked that question.

“Nah!” the Doctor cried, jumping up and walking over towards the window, looking out at the dying planet before them. “Why would I want to go back there? So many more exciting planets to see. Besides, I don’t want to go home.”

If Rose hadn’t known he was lying, she would never have noticed the slight quiver in his voice. She knew him well enough to know that right now, with his back to her like that, he was trying to blink the tears from his eyes before they even fell. It was a realisation that shocked her. She had never seen him cry in this incarnation. She’d seem him close like this only a handful of times in both incarnations. It took a lot to make him cry, and the only time she knew for sure that he had was when she saw him cry just before he disappeared on Dårlig Ulv Stranden.

She got up, moving to comfort him, or do something that would snap him out of his mood without alerting him to the fact she knew he was upset. And seeing him like that, staring out forlornly at the dying planet, it suddenly struck her. She realised why he had brought her here. He may not have done it intentionally, but he had done it none the less. He brought her here so that she could feel the pain of watching her planet burn. So that someone could understand, at least a little, how he felt.

She kept forgetting how different he had been right at the beginning, their later adventures too ingrained in her mind. At this point in time, he was a broken man, fresh out of a war that had devastated a good part of the universe and taken everything from him. A man of pain, and anger, and bloodshed. He shied away from the violence he had been a part of for so long, but he was still so angry.

He was just so different. And not just different from his next incarnation, but different from how she remembered this him to be. He had seemed happier back then… or, well… would be happier soon…

Gently she laid a hand on his shoulder, giving him a small nudge and a smile. He seemed to accept the small comfort she gave and smiled tightly in return.

“Hey, we don’t have to go there if you don’t want to,” she told him, attempting to make it sound like she still didn’t have a clue. “No arguing with the designated driver, right?” He gave a small chuckle at this. Smiling at her success, she took out her phone in a futher attempt to distract him. “Besides, can’t exactly call for a taxi now, can I? There’s no signal. We’re out of range… Well, only by a few billion years.”

The Doctor chuckled again and finally turned to her, all signs of pain gone from his face. “Tell you what,” he said, grabbing the phone off her and fiddling about with it. “With a little bit of jiggery pokery…”

“Is that a technical term, ‘Jiggery pokery’?” she teased.

“Yeah, I came first in jiggery pokery. What about you?”

“Nah,” she laughed. “I took hullabaloo.”

“Did you pass?” he asked her.

“Do you think I’d be talking to you if I didn’t?”

He laughed. “Fair point. There you go.” He handed the phone back to her.

Hesitantly, Rose began to dial her mum’s number. She tried to summon the expression of utter wonder she likely had the first time she had done this. She was glad of the years she’d done theatre in school, even though it had been many years for her now.

The phone picked up. “Hello?” Jackie’s voice came down the line.

“Mum?” Rose said.

“Oh, what is it? What’s wrong?” she complained. “What have I done now? Oh, this red top’s falling to bits! You should get your money back. Go on! There must be something, you never phone in the middle of the day.”

Rose laughed, tears welling in her eyes. It was her mum. Her wonderful, silly mother! Back when she was still so innconcent. Before she knew about aliens and extrateriestiel threats. Before she started to fear for her daughter’s life. Before she was ripped from her own world and life. Before she had ever had to watch her daughter sobbing in heartbroken grief, or screaming from the pain of her migraines, or shaking as a seizure wracked her body…

“What’s so funny?” Jackie asked.

“Nothing! You alright, though?”

“Yeah! Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Just checking in, is all. Look, Mum, I just wanted to tell you, I might be away for a bit, yeah? A friend and I are going on a trip. Not too sure when I’ll be back.”

“Oh, where you going?”

“Oh, you know. Just here and there. Making it up as we go along.” She glanced at the Doctor with a grin.

“Alright then, you be safe, though, Love.”

“Yeah, I… I will, promise,” she told her, guilt tugging at her chest.

“You better… Is something wrong?”

“No! No, I’m fine! …Top of the world!” Beside her, the Doctor laughed quietly at her joke. She hung up and turned to him.

“Think that’s amazing, you want to see the bill,” he joked.

“That was five billion years ago,” she said. To be honest, despite the fact that she had used ‘universal roaming’ for years, the idea of it still left her a bit dazed. There were so few places that the signal didn’t work. No matter where they went in time and space, she had always been able to call home. Even now, it was just so incredible. There were some things about her life with the Doctor that she didn’t think she would ever get used to. “I just called my mum through time. This is… This is…” The Doctor looked at her in amusement, but was startled when she was suddenly in his arms the next moment, her arms wrapped around his neck. “Thank you,” she said quietly.

As she spoke the words, it occurred to her that she had never truly thanked him before. She had told him that she loved travelling with him, and how brilliant it was, that she would never have missed it for the world… but she had never once said ‘thank you’.

Hesitiatnly, the Doctor brought his arms up and hugged her back. “You’re welcome,” he told her. He didn’t think he’d ever had a companion quite like Rose Tyler. “You like hugs, don’t you?” he laughed.

Rose nodded into his shoulder, he could feel her smiling. And although he had never been the hugging type – or at least, he didn’t think he was, he hadn’t been hugged by many people in this incarnation – he found he quite liked this. He liked the feel of someone holding him, of Rose pressed against his… But he was not going to admit that, for many, many reasons.

Suddenly, they were jolted apart when the platform gave a huge, jerking shudder. The Doctor looked at her and then around the room. “That’s not supposed to happen,” he said. Excitement began to stir within him and a wide grin spread across his face. He lived for adventure. It had been a part of his life for so long that it encouraged him. It drove him on. And he could see something in Rose’s eyes that told him that she was the same. He’d seen that same driving curiosity the first time he’d met her.

“Honoured guests may be reassured that gravity pockets may cause slight turbulence, thanking you,” the steward said over the speaker.

His eyebrows rose at that and he turned to her excitedly. “Come on. Let’s go.” And then, with her hand in his, they ran from the room.

Author Note:

Again, this was such a fun one to play around with. I loved working in their natural banter in a bit of a different way, and showing how much more confident in herself Rose has become since she first met the Doctor. I could also see her trying to push for things in ways she didn’t originally, and being better at defusing tension. Which led to her conversation with the Doctor about Gallifrey. I could really see him pretending they were still around, like he had with Martha. But since it’s all so fresh for him and the implications of their trip, he would probably be desperate to pretend, if only for a moment.

Word count from 4,937 to 7,317words (8 → 12 pages).

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