taxonomites | fifteen | various notes around Taxon | visual

Entry tags:

fifteen | various notes around Taxon | visual | location: central

Several notes have been left around Taxon over the last few days.

For Fred >> An electronic cart has been folded up and is leaning against the door. There is a note.

HC Clements

Bring the Drill

For Rose >> A note:

I'm okay.

Please take care of yourself.

Love, D

For Tara >> A note:

I'm sorry about before.

HC Clements. Tomorrow.

For Fitz >> A map of Taxon, with a segment of woods circled, and a circle around HC Clements. Also, a note:

Tomorrow.

Once all are delivered, the Doctor plants himself in a nondescript alley in central, smooths out his hair, and flips on the tablet to visual. He grins madly at the camera.

Of course, right before he opens his mouth to speak, music begins playing. Ah, it's that old familiar tune, the first bars to "All By Myself". The Doctor feels the music tug at his heartstrings, and he opens his mouth and says:

"No, I'm serious. I'm not singing that, stop it."

He says it with enough force, that an Extra walking behind him stops and turns to stare at him. The Doctor focuses on the tablet.

"So, rumors of my disappearance have been greatly exaggerated, of course," he says, all smug and self-satisfied, as per usual.

The Extra behind the Doctor picks up a pipe from the ground and starts towards him. The Doctor, focused on the tablet, doesn't notice.

"But! Since the Council, or whatever you call it, is doing such a fantastic job of keeping law and order, I think I might give the citizens of Taxon a head's up about the actual threat around this place."

The Extra is now right behind the Doctor, and it raises the pipe above its head.

The Doctor continues. "You should really look out for---"

The Extra slams the pipe down, and the screen goes suddenly static, then fizzes back to the Doctor, struggling with the strangely violent Extra. The Extra smacks him across the face and he falls over, out of camera range.

OOC: To those whom he's left a note, you're welcome to just meet him at HC Clements after or prior to the events with this Extra.

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The Doctor freezes. His arms are full of books, and he's reacquired a few papers he realized he'd left behind when he made a run for it. There's Rose, and she's armed.

"Hi," he says, pathetically.

She lowers the cricket bat, letting it hang by her side for a moment before she leans it against the wall and folds her arms over her chest, leaning against the door frame.

"Sneaking out on me again?"

"I didn't want to worry you," he says, tucking another book under his arm and promptly avoiding her gaze. "I'm fine, but I can't stay here. Not while they're looking for me."

"Didn't want to worry me?" Rose says, arching one eyebrow up at him. "Should have told me you were going. Or where you were going."

"And then when they caught you, they'd have something to use against you," the Doctor says. "No, Rose. I can't tell you where I am or where I'm going, because if they know you know, they'll figure out a way to make you talk."

Rose bites her lips, considering this a moment. She sighs and looks back up at the Doctor. "When who knows that I know? Who's going to make me talk, Doctor?"

"The council," he says. "The ones who arrested me. They want me to stay trapped for them, while everyone's disappearing under our noses."

He lifts up the cuff to his trouser leg, showing that the anklet is gone.

"Sort of figured that was gone when I couldn't find you on the map," Rose tells him, eyes flickering to his ankle then back up to his eyes. "Doctor...they're not going to hurt me. You're--" She stops, not wanting to offend him or chase him off. "The people that disappear. They don't die. People disappear and come back here sometimes. They don't always remember their time here but they don't die."

"Yeah, different point in the timeline, Rose, they don't go home." The Doctor's had people tell him this before, but he doesn't believe them. "No one can do what they do to us and just leave it. They kill us, they'll mind-wipe us until we're empty shells. But they won't just let us go."

Rose thinks about this, pinching her bottom lip between her thumb and index finger. She understands what he's saying. "Doesn't that mess up the timeline though? When they pull someone from earlier?"

She understands about time not being a straight line but she doesn't understand how things affect it entirely. She's not doubting so much as trying to understand. She's also trying to determine whether the Doctor is being paranoid or if he's in control.

"No," he says. "It doesn't just mess up the timeline."

He points to a glass vase on the bookshelf.

"Time," he says.

He pushes it towards the edge. "Blipping out important people."

He pushes it until it falls, shattering into a million pieces on the floor.

"We need to stop them."

"How do they come back then?" She's not surprised by the dramatic display but she does jump when the vase hits the floor.

"And how can we stop them? And can't I stay with you in hiding? I'll turn my tablet off."

She just doesn't want him to leave her again.

Edited 2010-05-21 04:00 (UTC)

"And if they find me?" he says, stepping over the glass to approach her. "If they find me, Rose, they'll find you. And I won't have them doing to you what they did to me."

He reaches out, cupping the side of her face. He's wanted to touch her since he ran away, but he's been afraid to get too close.

Once he touches her, she steps in closer, her left hand going to his waist and her right resting on his chest.

"We'll be careful. I'll run. If they find you, I'll run and hide. So I can help you."

It's an almost desperate promise but it's also one she's willing to keep. Someone has to help him if he ends up in jail again.

"It's not that easy, Rose, they won't just put me in prison this time."

He leans forward, pressing his forehead to hers. He doesn't want to go. He doesn't want to leave her like this.

"I don't want---I'm just---I can't put you in that danger, Rose. I can't."

Rose takes a deep breath, closing her eyes. She only has to tilt her head up to press his lips against his but she hesitates, not sure if this will make anything easier or harder.

In the end she shifts, going up on her tiptoes and capturing his mouth in a kiss, her arm winding around his neck as she tries to tug him closer.

He goes with her kiss without question. He's longed for her since he left, and once she's in his arms he's not about to let her go. He lets the books fall to the floor and wraps his arms around her, pulling her close to his body.

He breaks the kiss, but doesn't pull away. "I'll save you," he promises. "No matter what it takes."

"I know," she answers. She's never doubted even once that the Doctor would save her in all the situations they've been in. "That's what I'm afraid of," she admits. There are worse things than dying as far as Rose is concerned. There are worse things than being physically harmed. Most of those things include losing the Doctor.

She reaches up to run her fingers through the top of his hair then kisses him again. She's going moment by moment here well aware that in the next moment he may send her away.

He only has moments here. Any moment, someone can come in and take him away. Any moment, someone can come in and take Rose with him. They can be hurt, they can be tortured, they can even be killed.

But when he leaves this room to run, he's going to run alone and he knows it.

He reaches his hand over and shuts the door, then pulls her close to him. He's going to indulge in this moment for as long as he can. Because when it's over, he'll be alone.

Door shutting. She likes that part of this moment. It means she gets to keep him for just a little while. She laughs very softly against his mouth, almost a sound of relief and gratitude than anything then nips at his bottom lip and runs her hands up his chest to his shoulders, pushing his suit jacket off as she does.

They can be hurt, tortured and killed anywhere. She realizes this even if the Doctor doesn't. All they'll ever have are moments. She'll take those for what they are and hope that one of these days he realizes he doesn't have to be alone.

He breaks the kiss in order to press kisses along her throat. He's missed her, which is idiotic, if he thinks about it. Sexually, he's only been with her once. But emotionally, she's had him around her finger for ages.

He takes a step forward, and then another, until she's pressed against the wall. Silently, he longs for the settee that is still sitting outside. He unzips her hoodie and lets it fall off her shoulders.

"I can't take you with me," he says, and there is a lot of unspoken sadness in his voice at that. "But I want to, and I'm sorry."

Settee would be nice. Of course her room is just across the hall but that would mean opening doors and possibly walking with space between them.

"You want to. That's enough for now," she tells him as she undoes his tie, pulling it off and dropping it on the floor before she starts with the buttons on his shirt. She's not entirely sure that is enough for now but she doesn't want to spend these moments arguing about whether he'll take her with him or not. If she's lucky, she'll talk him into stopping by again sometime.

In the back of her mind it occurs to her how much she's settling for but even later she knows she won't care.

Time is of the essence, and he hates that. He hates that he can't savor this, the way he did the first time the were together. He hates that there's no time to hold her or kiss her or properly get undressed. He only has now, and now is only moments.

He fumbles with the buttons to her jeans, then tugs them gently down her hips. He feels awkward, foolish, like he's doing something terribly wrong. He wants her, but this isn't enough. It isn't enough. He can't settle with it.

"Rose," he murmurs against her mouth. "I just---I want you to know, if I don't come back---"

This is different and she knows it's because he can't stay. She braces herself against the wall and uses him for balance, nudging her jeans off with her feet then kicking them away. Once they're off she curls one leg around his.

Her breath catches and she honestly doesn't know if it's because of the need in this hurried rendezvous, the idea of him not coming back or the sentence he hasn't finished.

She breaks the kiss, ducking her head to press a kiss to his collarbone. "Want me to know what?" she asks breathlessly when she can finally get the words out. Her stomach is a twisting, writhing knot. She'll argue about whether he's coming back after she gets him to finish his sentence.

"You just---you mean so much---"

He doesn't think he can tell her he loves her. He doesn't think he can say the words, because they mean things like forever and the two of them don't have that. They don't even have moments right now.

He unzips his own trousers and pulls her towards him. No time for finesse, no time for even pretending he can be anything like Casanova sexually. He needs her, he loves her, and he wants her, and he wants to pretend that they have all the time in the universe together, but they don't.

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