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

Entry tags:

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

The Doctor hatched a set of handcuffs. They were for him to use. The last time he'd let someone else restrain the Master, the Doctor had held him, still in restraints, as he died. That wouldn't happen this time. The Doctor would save him. Somehow.

Everything was ready. It was just time to move forward.

OOC: Final post for the Master's plot! Everything is in individual threads and threadhopping is encouraged. If you see that this needs another plotty starter thread, drop me a line and let me know!

EDIT: I was requested to put up a note letting everybody know that this is a backdated post.

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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."

She hesitates because what he's saying doesn't make sense. She buries her face in her hands, pulling her fingers through wind tousled hair. She wants to cry out of sheer exhaustion and frustration. Her emotions have run the gamete today and she's not even sure what she feels right now.

"One trip, Doctor. Remember? You promised me one trip."

"And then home," he said, firmly. "You can't disrupt the timeline, Rose, neither of us can. No matter how much we want to."

And he wanted to. He had her, now, in his life. He had her and he didn't want to lose her.

"Can we just go tomorrow? We'll sleep tonight and just go tomorrow," she asks, exhaustion in every word. She always wants a little more. One more trip. One more night. One more kiss. She can't help it.

Tomorrow, today, they're all the same to the Doctor. But she is right, they're not ready to leave yet. He's got to get the city ready, he's got to make sure the TARDIS is functioning correctly.

But right now, most importantly, he's got to get her back here.

"All right," he says. "One more night. Just come back. Or tell me where you are, I'll bring the TARDIS to you."

She takes a breath that trembles both when she inhales and when she exhales. She wants to hear that sound that's so distinctive to the TARDIS again. She wants to pretend for just a second he's come back for her.

Plus she knows he's probably dying to try the TARDIS out. Even if it is just a trip across town.

"HC Clements. In one of the executive suites. They've got cushy couches."

Immediately, the Doctor puts down the tablet and begins crossing around the console, flipping levers and buttons. It's like the last few months never happened, and he's back at the helm, ready to go off into time and space.

He steers the ship towards HC Clements, locking in on the heat signature in one of the cushy rooms.

And arriving in 3, 2, 1...

She can't help smiling when she hears the sound of the TARDIS approaching. By the time it lands she's up off the couch, her back against one wall. There are butterflies in her stomach, anticipation rushing through her. She remembers hopping worlds, showing up just in time to hear that sound as the Doctor left. She loves that sound and the complete joy she felt at seeing it here is back just a bit dampened by knowing they're sliding into the end of things.

The Doctor pulls the parking brake and darts for the door. He pushes it open and grins.

"Cab for Rose Tyler?"

"That's me. Rose Tyler," she grins back at him and rushes for the door. For all the crying she does, she has near maniac happiness as well.

When she reaches the door, he reaches down to scoop her into a hug.

"Don't scare me like that," he says, firmly. "I lost you once, I don't want to lose you again."

Of course she hugs back as tightly as possible, burying her face in his neck. "Just trying to make sure I don't lose you," she whispers to him. "Sorry 'bout scaring you."

"You don't lose me, Rose," he says, holding her tight. "You never will."

If only she could understand that, but he doesn't think she can.

Right now she's choosing not to question that answer. Blissfully ignorant is better than painfully aware. At least for the moment. She just nods against his shoulder.

No she doesn't understand. In some ways she wishes she could. It might make saying good bye easier. She leans back the slightest bit so she can look up at him. "We can sleep here tonight, yeah? In the TARDIS?"

"Of course we can," he says, and he's agreeing with her because it's the best choice. It's the only choice. She stays here overnight, he can take her away before he takes anyone else. They can have a proper good-bye that doesn't need to be witnessed by anybody. And then, he'll get everyone else out of here.

She'd prefer a more private goodbye anyway. The first one was awful enough to have Mickey and her Mum witness and they'd love her no matter what. This one is going to be worse.

"Okay," she nods then pauses, tugging her bottom lip through her teeth. This isn't a question she's ever had to ask in the TARDIS. "Your room or mine?"

She does want to see her room at least once before she has to leave. To make certain she didn't make it all up. To make certain it's still there. To make certain she hasn't been forgotten just because she's gone.

Re: Rescuing the Victims--Rose Tyler

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voice || Private to the Doctor and Rose

voice || Private to the Doctor and Rose

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Re: voice || Private to the Doctor and Rose

Re: voice || Private to the Doctor and Rose

Re: voice || Private to the Doctor and Rose

Re: voice || Private to the Doctor and Rose

Re: voice || Private to the Doctor and Rose

Re: voice || Private to the Doctor and Rose

Re: voice || Private to the Doctor and Rose

Re: voice || Private to the Doctor and Rose

Re: voice || Private to the Doctor and Rose

Re: voice || Private to the Doctor and Rose

[location: HC Clements]

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