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DocRating: PG-13 (rating subject to change
Coupling: 10/R
Spoilers: Doomsday
Summary: The walls between universes are more fragile than they seem. Once again it falls to the Doctor to save more than one universe...but can he fight what he wants the most? And who is this unseen enemy? A post-Doomsday reunion, of sorts.
Thanks to SimbiAni for helping me remember the chapter name, and Firefaery for grammar, feasibility, inspiration, beta'ing and the name of one of Rose's books
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simbiani82 firefaery2Disclaimer: Still don’t own DW. Nope.
AN: Don't often write next-chapters very quickly, but the prospect of this fic excites me. What can I say? A writer can enjoy writing as much as a reader can enjoy reading. :P
Once again, all funny theories are backed up with an all-too extensive knowledge
of a dizzying assortment of fandom.
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One Times Infinity
Chapter 2: Anomalies
She was there. After so long she was finally there- warm in his arms and holding him like she had never left. Eyes, wide with surprise, fell closed and... and...
…And exactly what did he think he was doing, kissing Rose in the middle of the street? Why was he simply accepting this impossible act of providence without so much as a word of reprimand over the rules she had broken coming here?
Wait a minute, now... Him. Kissing. Rose?
Hands released the young woman, and he took a hurried step back- he was a nine-hundred year old Time Lord! He neither backpedaled, nor felt nervous over a human female.
"Rose! How did…Where did you…I…that is..."
Her shaky voice broke through his spluttering as she squinted up at him. "You're not my Doctor, are you?"
"I...” He blinked and frowned back at her. "I'm not?"
It was a rather ineloquent thing to say and as he gazed at her, really looked at her this time, he began to realize the differences- things that screamed the fact that, whoever she was, she was not his Rose.
Blue eyes. Blue eyes like ice reflected bitterness and sorrow even through the mild distress that was etched into her expression. The tight, well-formed muscles that adorned her figure could not have developed so quickly.
"Who are you?" He asked, finally, both curious and suspicious.
She blinked for a moment, seeming to gather her composure, before speaking in a somewhat prim tone.
"My name is Rose Tyler."
He suppressed the passing urge to make a silly comment along the lines of 'no, actually, it isn’t' and instead shook his head slightly, opting for an authoritative tone.
"Not the one I know."
"Obviously."
"How did you get here?"
"Do you always kiss first and ask questions later?" She shot back, quirking an eyebrow.
He sighed. Couldn't she just forget about that?
"I thought you were someone else."
"What happened to her?"
He blinked, taken aback by her sudden shift of topic.
"Who said anything happened to her?"
She smiled. It wasn't her smile; there was something less vibrant about it, like a picture when the colour has faded. All the same, he experienced the familiar clenching of his throat at the image.
"Is she dead?"
"No." He did not answer any more quickly than the situation called for. Of course his Rose was still alive, it was hardly like she spent her days involved in life-endangering adventures anymore.
She nodded. "But not here."
"Who are you and how did you get here?"
"Rose Tyler. But not your Rose Tyler," she replied, frowning "the Doctor, that is, my Doctor, said things might be different, but I didn't think..." she paused and glanced at the people passing by, now beginning to stare, and at the mess of books at her feet, "help me pick these up and perhaps we can talk somewhere else?"
"Right." He nodded briskly and moved to pick up the scattered books. He was not exactly looking but he could not help catching a few of the titles: ‘Predestination or Randomization?’, ‘Me, You, and Me,’
‘Discoherence made Coherent’…
Several quips came to mind, but he simply gave the young woman a curious and amused look as he handed her the books.
"Not my choice of lunch-break material."
"Well, its not like there was a '100 Questions About the Void you’ve been Dying to Ask' lying around,”
He squinted a moment in recollection.
"Oh, not for another... fifty-thousand years, at least?"
"Then I apologize for not having my own handy little space-box to hop into."
He frowned at her, but decided to let it go.
"Right then, to the TARDIS?"
"What, you're not going to search me for weapons first?"
"Trust me, I've had worse than you in it before."
She gave a smirk that could easily have been a substitute for a thousand withheld comebacks before sweeping an arm out in front of her.
"This way? Unless the rift is somewhere else in this universe?"
He shook his head and turned to follow the young woman as she walked, using her silence as an excuse to gather his thoughts. Here walked another Rose; she had to come through some similar breach in the universe to the one into which his Rose had vanished. There had been no recorded Rose Tyler in that parallel universe. Was she, somehow, from that universe, then? Was there another opening somewhere? His stomach practiced admirable acrobatics at the thought.
He shook his head to regain his senses and sighed. It could not be. He had been keeping an eye on the wall, monitoring it for any sign whatsoever that there might be another breach- so he could nip it in the bud, of course, so he could protect Rose and both universes. No, she had to be from yet another universe. Which, of course, begged a few questions: had her Doctor sealed the breach? Was she stuck here or was there another rip in reality threatening both universes again? Would she be able to get back through to her universe?
The dark-haired Rose turned and gave him a slim, expectant smile as they reached the familiar form of the TARDIS.
"I don't think my key would work."
He fiercely staunched the ghost of thought that suggested he might prefer this Rose to no Rose at all.
"It might, actually."
"Lost it, anyway."
He suppressed the urge to roll his eyes.
"You apes..."
She grinned then and it wasn't like her previous reserved smiles. This was wide and true as she chuckled at his remark. She even chewed that bit of her tongue like his Rose always had. He quickly gained a keen interest in opening the TARDIS and turned so that he did not have to watch it.
The warm hum of the TARDIS was reassuring and her renewed presence had a calming effect as Rose stepped inside after him. He heard the door click before she stepped out in front of him to circle the consol. There was a soft look of wonderment on her face before she stopped and looked over at him.
"Its so..." she trailed off softly and sighed.
"Different?"
"Yeah...but very similar at the same time," She said, smiling, "kinda like everything in this universe."
"How did you get here?" He asked, crossing his arms.
"It was in ruins, you know," she went on as if she had not heard him "we don't even know for sure what happened. One moment we were leaving and then..."
She trailed off again, eyes glistening in the glow of the TARDIS. He resisted the urge to hug her--this was not his Rose and he planned on getting this one back to her Doctor as soon as possible, with no dragging of feet. He certainly would not appreciate someone else, an alternate version of himself or otherwise, gallivanting across the universe with his Rose, after all.
"What happened?"
She looked up at him with an expression that implied she had forgotten his presence for a moment.
"Starting from when?"
"The beginning? That’s how you apes usually work."
She gave him an amused smile, and sat down on a nearby chair.
"I don't suppose this TARDIS has any tea?"
"She's not that different." He moved further to lean casually against the console and fixed her with a level gaze. This was his universe, and they would be playing by his rules.
"Of course."
"I believe you had a story to tell me?"
She frowned for a moment. "Where's Jack?"
He blinked. Jack? "I haven't seen him since Satellite Five."
"Why?" She asked, her expression intense.
"I had to leave. He had a world to rebuild." He shrugged.
"You just left him?!"
"I'll thank you for not passing judgment on decisions you weren't around for!" He snapped back rather coldly, bristling "What's so important about Jack at the moment, anyway? If you're starting at the beginning then that'd likely be when you and your Doctor met. He didn't come in for months after that."
She looked genuinely surprised.
"You mean when you met her, your Rose, he wasn't there?"
"No!" He wrinkled his nose slightly at the thought of trying to withstand the ex-conman's attitude before he had Rose around to soften it "He came in way after that."
"Well then, I guess that's where the differences begin.”
"I doubt it."
She narrowed her eyes slightly.
"Do you want me to tell you or not?"
He sighed and nodded.
"Right then," she adjusted herself in her seat, before continuing "I was working in a department store when the Auton's attacked. I'd backed into a wall when he came out of nowhere- he grabbed my hand, grinned, and told me to run for my life."
"Pretty much the same, then."
She shrugged. "When we finally got a break to talk, he was all roguish charm, introducing himself, telling me that there was nothing to worry my ‘pretty little head’ about, that he an' the Doctor would handle things."
He should have expected it, from what she had said moments earlier, but he still found himself staring in bemusement at her.
"Jack?"
"Jack," She gave him a wry grin "I'm guessing it was you in this universe?"
He grunted. “Except I didn't try flirting my way into her pants."
"Skirt."
"Hmm?"
"It was a skirt."
He arched an eyebrow at her. Did that even matter? "Maybe I should get a chair."
She nodded slightly.
"Right, I get it, I'll summarize."
"Thanks. I’ve got universes to save, don't have all day." He was not entirely sure why he was being so short with her...it was just...
"So, after dad died, I didn't have anywhere to go," he realized that she had been continuing her tale through his musings "so Jack convinced my Doctor to let me come along. He didn't really want me to, said one was enough, didn't want things getting all ‘domestic.’"
"Wait. After your dad died?" He frowned. But then, she was only six months old?
"Yeah. Dad. Pete," She said slowly, "you did bother to meet her family, didn't you?"
"Would have avoided it if I could," he snorted, "but this universe's Pete died when Rose was a baby."
"So it was her mother who died when you took her in?"
"No! That woman would have been far too stubborn to die."
She laughed slightly. "She died when I was a baby."
"Ah."
Rose shook her head, and frowned. "Was anything the same? Your Rose and Jack, before you abandoned him, they were married, right?”
It was fortunate that he had not actually made them tea. If he had, he probably would have choked to death on it.
TBC…
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AN: Gah. They do go on, don't they? I wanted to include more of her tale, but it was
getting a bit long.