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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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.

He leans down and presses a kiss to her mouth. He wants to reciprocate the words and maybe, right now, he probably could. But if he does, she won't choose the other man on the beach. Time will be rewritten, things will fall apart.

He's not selfish enough to do that to the universe.

"Come sleep with me," he says. After a moment, he rephrases. "Sleep sleep, you must be exhausted."

Yes because nothing they've been through here so far will cause her to make another choice. For a genius he really is dumb sometimes.

Universe, get ready to deal.

She laughs softly at his rephrasing and nods. "Yeah...but I don't want to waste our time."

"You're not wasting it," he says. "You're just...spending it with me."

He thinks about all the things he wants to say and do and she's only here for a little while but he doesn't want her to go and---and---

"Come on."

There's not enough time for the things they want to do and say. Everything in Rose wants to protest at that idea because they're in a time machine. Instead she nods, shimmies out of her jeans because modesty is ridiculous at this point and she'll sleep more comfortably in just her tee shirt. Once that's done she crawls in the bed and waits for him to follow.

He lays down next to her, still in his rolled-up sleeves and trousers and trainers. It's been a long day, but he doesn't imagine he can sleep yet. It's too bad, he thinks. One of the things he's loved about Taxon is being able to actually sleep with Rose.

He props himself up on one elbow and gives her a smile.

"Do you have any idea how long it's been since I've had someone in this room besides just me?"

Rose props herself up in a mirror image of him. She grins at his words, the tip of her tongue between her teeth. If nothing else at least the Doctor has given her parts of himself that he doesn't normally give anyone else and no matter how much it hurts later, she'll be grateful for that.

"'Least a couple of regenerations, m'guessing." She's being cautious because she'd hate for him to have to correct her and tell her 'no not quite that long'.

"At least," he agrees. Possibly longer. He reaches out and toys a bit with a lock of her hair. It's still a little wet from her bath, and he likes the way it feels in his fingertips.

"The TARDIS missed you," he observes.

She likes when he plays with her hair. It's something that seems very intimate somehow.

"I missed her too. So much. The last time I was inside her she was already gone and it was empty. So lonely. I couldn't bear to walk around. It's nice to see her like this again."

The words before I go are left unsaid.

It took the Doctor a moment to register what she meant. "In Donna's parallel world," he says. "Where I died. That must've been terrible for her."

"Yeah," Rose nods. "I like to think it was better after I found her. I tried to make sure everyone talked to her, touched her. Made sure they realized she wasn't just a fantastic blue box. Don't know if they listened while I was off looking for you though. I'm pretty sure they thought I'd gone nutters but I was also right so it didn't matter."

"She probably appreciated it," he says. "The TARDIS, that is. She doesn't have a lot of people acknowledge her as being alive, too. Probably meant a lot to her that you did."

"I think we just both missed you," Rose admits quietly. She scoots closer to him, resting one hand on his chest so she can feel his heart beat underneath her palm. "We were all that was left of you so we made do with what we had."

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

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