taxonomites | seventeen | location: around taxon | someone who appears to save the day

"Maybe," he says, trying not to worry about it. It's just psychic paper, he can always hatch a new one if he needs to...but where did it end up?

"Maybe I left it in my room, when we---" he cleared his throat. "The last time I was here."

She turns a little pink at that, biting her bottom lip to keep from grinning. The Doctor is uncomfortable enough about sex. She doesn't need to make it worse by teasing him. At least not right now.

"Right you were disheveled," she admits with the slightest bit of teasing in her voice. She considers offering to get out of the tub and go look with him but she knows that's ridiculous. She can let him out of her sight for a minute to two. "Why don't you go look? I'm just going to wash my hair. I'll follow when I'm done."

He smirks at that. He likes that she's still got that ability to tease in her.

"You sure?" he asks, warily getting to his feet. He keeps his hand on hers and doesn't pull away, just in case.

She takes a deep breath and actually considers it a moment before nodding. She can do this. She doesn't have to let this event rule the rest of her life. "Yeah, open doors between us and just a few meters." More than a few but 'a few' sounds better to her. "I'll be alright. Pretty sure I can scream loud enough for you to hear." She feels a little sick knowing in a few seconds she'll be alone in this room but that's part of the point. It's a baby step, a small demonstration that no matter how hard he tried, the Master hasn't ruined her. She pulls her hand away and nods, forcing a smile.

"Just down the hall, yeah? I'll be all right."

"All right," he says. He lifts her hand up and kisses her fingers. It's a very romantic gesture, something he doesn't do often, if at all. Still, he gives her that, then turns to leave, pausing briefly in the hallway to check on Tara before he heads to check the other room.

The uncharacteristic romantic gesture does make her smile and it goes a long way toward soothing whatever tangled feelings she's got about Morgana and the Doctor. When he's gone she washes her hair, rinses it and steps out of the tub feeling a bit better than before. She's trying not to be too jumpy, too twitchy about being alone to very little avail. She pulls the tee shirt she'd worn in here back on and pads warily into the bedroom. It's empty, naturally and much to her relief.

The hallway seems longer than she remembers it and about half way across it she scuttles a little faster, tip toeing rapidly to the door of the second room. "Doctor," she says as she edges her way into the room.

The Doctor bursts out of the room and reaches for her arm. Any anger, any hurt, any upset is completely replaced by pure joy on his face.

"Come here, you have to take a look at this."

And behind the door of the room, tucked neatly in the corner, is a very familiar blue box.

And at the sight of that familiar blue box, Rose has the same joy on her face. She laughs, biting her bottom lip around a huge smile then reaches out to touch the TARDIS as if she wants to make certain it's real. She can feel it alive underneath her hand and she rests her cheek against it as if she could hear a heartbeat. She can't but it's something she used to do in the parallel world, try to get it to wake up a little.

She starts to open the door then stops because as much as the TARDIS once felt like home to her, it isn't her home anymore. She looks over her shoulder, eyebrows arching up. "Can I?"

The Doctor reaches into his pocket, then makes a startled face.

"Key," he says. "I left it with---"

Though he had two, didn't he? Where was the second one? Had it gone the same place as his psychic paper?

He shakes his head and holds up his hand. "Watch this." And with a snap, the door to the TARDIS opens.

She'll worry about the fact that her key is missing later. Right now she's torn between being very worried over the Doctor's forgetfulness and absolute glee that the TARDIS is here. In any case the Doctor will get better now. Or he should and he'll remember where he left the key.

She laughs out loud, a real Rose laugh when the door opens. "Look at you," she teases him and steps inside the TARDIS. The floor feels familiar to her bare feet and subconsciously she holds her breath as she takes a few more steps inside. There were days she never thought she'd see the TARDIS like this again. For the moment all the pain she's gone through the last couple of days is replaced by joy.

In that moment, there's nothing but joy. The TARDIS clings to his mind and he to hers, and they're together and it's perfect. He doesn't think about why the TARDIS is here, he doesn't think about what it could mean for the universe. She's here, now.

"We can go home," he says. It comes out sadder than he'd expected it to.

Rose turns to him, her face falling a little. "Or we could go anywhere. It's a time machine. My timeline is always going to be there. Mum, Dad, Mickey...won't think anything of it if I'm a bit older."

She takes another moment to ponder things. He said when they leave this place everything changes. She's not quite sure she's ready to give everything up right now. "Or we could stay here for a little while. Make sure things get sorted out. It'd be a responsible sort of thing to do. Timeline's still waiting."

It's appealing. Taking her anywhere. The Doctor and Rose in the TARDIS, the way it should be. His hearts almost broke when he thought he lost her today, now he knows he's going to and he's just waiting for them to shatter.

"You've got me to save out there," he says, sad. "I can't keep you from that."

"I will," Rose promises. "Time machine, remember? We can stick to just the past even. Or just the future or just other planets."

Goodbye wasn't supposed to come this fast. But the TARDIS is back. It's the TARDIS, it's their way out. It's everyone's way out. He should be ecstatic. He should be thrilled. He should be bouncing up and down and racing to the controls.

Instead, he stands there. "We---can't."

She's got this irrational desire to run. It's warring with the insecurity and fear of being alone so recently introduced to her. She looks at him, eyes filling up with tears. She knows it's time to go find an earlier Doctor. One that won't send her home, not right away.

"Okay. I'll just go get properly dressed. Can't show up in London like this."

She steps closer to him, hands reaching up to smooth over the lapels of his jacket before she tiptoes and kisses him. It's one of those kisses. The kind that she pours everything into; everything she felt about him before, everything she feels now.

It's the end, isn't it? He's got to take her home, back where she'll leave him for his human self, back where they don't have what they have now. And they never will.

She kisses him, and he kisses her back just as desperately. He should be more gentle, he thinks. She's been through more than enough today to not have to handle any more from him. But just one more kiss, one more goodbye. He can't let her go without that.

And he breaks the kiss, reluctantly.

"Go ahead and get dressed," he says. "I'll---I'll get the TARDIS ready to start sending people out."

Rose nods, biting her lip hard to keep from crying. She backs toward the door of the TARDIS, keeping him in sight as long as she can. Once he's gone from her sight she turns and runs as light footed as she can for her bedroom. She tugs on jeans, packs a bag, slips her blaster over her shoulder and tiptoes down the stairs, shoes in hand. Once she's outside she puts her trainers on, turns her tablet off and she runs. Adrenaline and the need to run from a future the Doctor leaves her in gives her the energy to keep moving. It's a bit like running for her life she thinks as she gets off the street and ducks into alleys. She hasn't been working on getting home as hard as she should have. The Doctor warned her about that. Now she wishes she'd made more demands of Ruby, more demands of DG, more demands of anyone who can actually teleport. She's heading toward HC Clements. It's the obvious choice but it's also the only place that might have any equipment she needs. Not to mention she happens to have a key courtesy of Donna.

"Rose?" the Doctor steps out of the TARDIS after a long while waiting. "Really, you can get ready on the TARDIS----"

He steps into her room, but she isn't there. He hops down the stairs, but she's not in the flat at all. His hearts thud in his chest, panic overtaking him. He races back up to the TARDIS.

She's been captured again.

Definitely not captured again and she feels guilty, knowing that will be the Doctor's first thought but she also knows that he won't approve of what she wants to do. It's changing major events, messing with the timeline, rewriting time, all the things she's not supposed to do.

She finally slows down, winded as she lets herself in the backdoor of the large office complex. She stops by Donna's desk to half smile at it and whisper an apology for ditching her while she's so injured. She makes her rounds through the building, checking to see that all doors are locked before she heads down into the basement where the labs are. She wants to see what she has, what she needs and what she can do with those things. She'll need to sleep soon. She knows that she's running on exhaustion, adrenaline and sheer willpower but she won't be able to sleep now, not with her stomach churning and her heart pounding.

The Doctor flips on his tablet and targets Rose's. He doesn't know who has taken her, but whoever it is should be able to hear it.

"Whereever you've taken her, give her back!" he bellows. "Give her back right now, don't play games with me."

He starts back up the stairs, towards the TARDIS. He can leave Taxon now, but he's not leaving without her.

"We have a way out of Taxon," he says. "We have a way out, but I'm not letting anyone go until you give her back to me, do you understand?"

She flips her tablet on before she finds a couch to sleep on. She's just going to check the network and see if they've gone already. The Doctor's message is backlogged there and the pit of her stomach twists. She flips it off and weighs her options. This doesn't end up terribly well for anyone. If the Doctor does leave her, she knows she's got several more months here trying to figure out how to leave if she can figure it out at all. If she goes back, he drops her off in her timeline and she never sees him again. She'll have a life of UNIT and Torchwood, Jackie, her Dad, ever faithful Mickey and no Doctor. Stuck in one world, one time for the rest of her life without her Doctor to make it all right. She knows he says she falls in love. She can't even imagine it. She tried after he left the first time. Tried to fall in love with Mickey desperately. After all she had been in love with him at some point, hadn't she?

She doesn't want to go back to that. Not now, not ever. She can't let the Doctor think she's been kidnapped like this either. Finally she sends a private voice back to him.

"I'm staying here, Doctor. I can't go back to that world and that time. I'm sorry. I haven't been kidnapped again and I'm--I won't go back. Not to a world you leave me in."

The shock of her words hit him like a pipe to the chest. She left him. She ran away, just when he found the TARDIS. He shakes his head and turns back to the tablet, his voice less harsh now that he knows she's safe.

"Rose, you have to," he says. "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, everyone else in this city has a choice, but you don't. You're part of events, now. You live a life out there, and you're happy. I promise, you're happy. I've seen it."

She left him in order to find that him that was still willing to let her stay forever. She can't tell him that though. No matter how much it hurts she can't tell him the reason behind her actions.

"I looked for you for so long, Doctor. I didn't care which you I found. I just--I needed to find you. I'm not like Sarah Jane. I can't--I don't just adjust. And I don't just haphazardly fall in love with people. I tried to do that after Bad Wolf Bay and I couldn't. You're wrong. Maybe it was a parallel world but you're wrong. I couldn't be happy without you. I know because I tried it before. I'll find my own way back. Make sure I'm there for the important events but I'm not letting you leave me like that. Not when I can tell you don't want to."

"Rose, I'm not leaving you," he says, leaning against the console. "I'm giving you back to me. You see me, again. You save me. You'll make your own decisions and I know they'll be exactly what you want."

Otherwise, why would she have made them?

He closes his eyes. "Please come back."

Re: Rescuing the Victims--Rose Tyler

Re: Rescuing the Victims--Rose Tyler

Re: Rescuing the Victims--Rose Tyler

Re: Rescuing the Victims--Rose Tyler

Re: Rescuing the Victims--Rose Tyler

Re: Rescuing the Victims--Rose Tyler

Re: Rescuing the Victims--Rose Tyler

Re: Rescuing the Victims--Rose Tyler

Re: Rescuing the Victims--Rose Tyler

Re: Rescuing the Victims--Rose Tyler

Re: Rescuing the Victims--Rose Tyler

Re: Rescuing the Victims--Rose Tyler

Re: Rescuing the Victims--Rose Tyler

Re: Rescuing the Victims--Rose Tyler

Re: Rescuing the Victims--Rose Tyler

Re: Rescuing the Victims--Rose Tyler

Re: Rescuing the Victims--Rose Tyler

Re: Rescuing the Victims--Rose Tyler

Re: Rescuing the Victims--Rose Tyler

Re: Rescuing the Victims--Rose Tyler

Re: Rescuing the Victims--Rose Tyler

voice || Private to the Doctor and Rose

voice || Private to the Doctor and Rose

Re: voice || Private to the Doctor and Rose

Re: voice || Private to the Doctor and Rose