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

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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 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.

The Doctor looks back to the hallway. His room isn't somewhere he takes people, not normally. But if this is Rose's last stay on the TARDIS, then she can go there, he thinks. Just once.

"Whichever you'd like," he says.

It doesn't take much thought. She can look in on her room anytime. She'll end up there in the morning rummaging for clothes anyway. Selfishly if this is her last stay on the TARDIS, she wants to leave her stamp somewhere personal like his room.

"I've never seen your room so let's go there."

"Okay."

The Doctor's room is at the end of the long hallway of rooms. Unlike the coral walls and the metallic doors of every other room on this hallway, the Doctor's door is 18th century walnut, varnished and shining, sticking out among the technology of the other rooms. He turns the wide, brass knob and pushes it open.

Within, the floors and walls are also polished hardwood, with a four-poster bed nestled on one wall, and bookshelves (with mis-matched books packed in awkwardly) lining the wall parallel to that. A simple sink and mirror setup are opposite the bed, with a straight razor, brush, and strop against the side. Clocks dot the remaining wall space.

"Home sweet home.

Rose takes a tentative step inside then looks around with as much awe as she regards the rest of the TARDIS. She turns in a circle, looking at everything then branching out. She touches things carefully, almost reverently as goes. Finally once she's inspected it all she turns back to him with a half smile. "It looks like you. Didn't imagine it this way. More like the rest of the TARDIS with coral walls but...now that I've seen it--it looks exactly like you."

He gives her a shy smile. "Well, everything else in the TARDIS changes, but I prefer to keep the place I sleep looking at least somewhat like itself."

He steps over to the side table near the bed, where a small gold lamp stands, and flips it on, illuminating the room just a little bit more.

"Familiar," Rose says returning his smile. She takes a step toward him, trailing hand on the bedpost as she gets closer. She should sleep. She knows she's not going to. Not right now. Not yet. Not on her last night here. She takes another step toward him, coming close enough to reach her hand out and place it carefully against his chest, as if he's going to be a hologram on a beach instead of real flesh and blood.

Once she touches him, discovers he is real, she can't help but folding into him, arms wrapping around him in a hug. She lays her head on his chest. "As long as I don't sleep it's still tonight."

Realistically she knows she can't stay awake more than a few hours. Ideally, she'd stay up for days.

"We won't go until tomorrow," he promises. "Even if you wake up."

He holds her tight, because he doesn't want her to go. He doesn't want her to leave, he doesn't want to give her back to time that took her from him in the first place.

But he has to. He knows it's the right thing to do.

Rose nods against his chest. She doesn't want to go anymore than he wants to let her. She wants to run away with him and she knows he won't allow it. Between the two of them, he's the far more responsible party. She also doesn't want to spend this night crying. She turns her head slightly, pressing a kiss to his chest over his shirt.

"I always love you. For the rest of my life, no matter where you are. Remember that, okay?"

She knows this is goodbye. She knows at some point for whatever reason she lets him go. At some point he doesn't realize how much she loves him. If she's ever going to say the words to the point that he can't ever forget them it's now.

Re: voice || Private to the Doctor and Rose

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