Mickey scratched at his beard. It had been six months since the Doctor rode that bloody horse through the time window. Rose spent most of her time sitting in the console room. She would talk to the air and stroke the console almost as if she were having a conversation with another person. Mickey had decided that Rose was off her rocker. She slept only when exhaustion overtook her and she ate only if he stood over her and watched her.
This waiting had driven her mad. Poor, sweet Rose Tyler. Mad as a hatter. He sighed as he made his daily trek through the ruined spaceship. There were no windows opening up. No Doctor coming to save them. Even Rose had quit protesting the past few weeks. She seemed resigned to being stuck here on some strange alien spaceship in the middle of God-knows-where centuries out of their timeline. Mickey just wanted to get back to England, to have some proper fish and chips, and go back to work. Sure, traveling through space and time had been fun but it was hardly a proper life. Maybe now that the Doctor had run off, Rose would stay with him. He might not be some time-traveling alien but he and Rose had done all right for themselves before that old Doctor showed up and ruined it.
“Mickey?” he heard Rose calling for him. Quickening his step, he hurried back to the TARDIS. When he stepped inside the doors, they closed behind him. “Go wait in your room, Mickey,” Rose said firmly. “We’re going home.”
“No way, I’m standing right here by you. You might need my help to fly this thing.”
“I won’t,” Rose countered firmly. “The TARDIS has taught me enough to do this. But it could be dangerous,” she said with a slight tremor in her voice. “I’ll have to look into the Time Vortex again. The TARDIS believes I can survive it,” she bluffed – no way was she telling her best mate that the TARDIS believed there was a one-in-five chance she’d survive it – “but you wouldn’t. So, go wait in your room. I’ll come get you when we’re home.”
“Rose…”
“Don’t argue with me, just do it!” Her hazel eyes were hard as stone as she stared him down. Her face was calm and composed – albeit it a little wan and drawn. Mickey gaped at the change in her over the past half-year. Somewhere along that time, Rose had hardened. Her blonde hair was the same and she still chewed her lower lip when worried or deep in thought, but he hadn’t seen her smile in ages unless she was ‘talking’ to the TARDIS.
“You think he’s not coming back?” Mickey asked softly. Part of him wanted to fold Rose into a hug, let her lean her head against his chest, and hold her. But this Rose…she didn’t seem to want to be held or comforted. She just wanted him…gone.
“He had a chance…and he chose to remain there. With Reinette,” Rose sighed. No tears welled up in her eyes but her chest felt heavy and constricted, as if someone had wrapped metal bands around her torso and tightened them until she could scarcely breathe. She tugged irritably at the button-up shirt she wore, pulling the hem out of her black jeans. “I’m going to take you home.”
“And then what?”
“I’ll take the TARDIS back to the Doctor.”
“And then what?”
“Live out my life in late nineteenth century France, I suppose,” Rose said with a smile that didn’t touch her eyes at all. “Now, go to your room or we’ll sit here until you do.”
“This isn’t over, Rose Tyler,” he growled as he stalked back to his room. “Not over by half!”
“Oh, but it probably is,” Rose muttered as she put her hands on the console. She and the TARDIS had been bonding over the past six months. She’d come to appreciate just how alive the old girl was. And the TARDIS had come to love seeing the universe through Rose’s human eyes. Neither one of them wanted the separation that Rose’s death would bring but then, they couldn’t stand to sit idle, abandoned on some alien ship, waiting for a man who was never going to return for them.
Rose sighed and began mentally preparing herself. She was no Time Lord with multiple bypass systems to handle the onslaught that was coming. She was just a little human shop girl. But, in one way, humans surpassed Time Lords and any other people in the universe. Humans could dream and imagine things, seeing in a myriad of ways and probabilities that others did not. That capacity for sheer, raw imagination is what led the TARDIS to believe that this bonding might not destroy the girl entirely. And the TARDIS most certainly did not want Rose Tyler to die. Out of all of the Doctor’s companions, Rose was the only one she felt close to. Rose was the only one who really accepted her. Rose was the only one who loved her.
“I’m ready, sister,” Rose whispered as she lifted up the console. Light and song surrounded her and then the TARDIS began to dance through the Vortex, taking her human passenger and pilot back home.
~*~*~*~
The memories returned. Rose could see herself absorbing the Time Vortex as she traveled back to Satellite Five and the Doctor. She had to save him. She loved him. He was all big ears, big nose, and rough around the edges but she loved him. And he needed her. Something in his bright blue eyes told her that he needed her desperately. And that he loved her. Loved her more than any man had loved any woman in all of eternity.
The Song of the Universe swept through her, searing her mind with its sweet caress. She was returning to the Doctor. The man she loved. The reason her heart kept beating. The Doctor. The Doctor.
Then the Song ended. Her mind grew dark and she felt her body sliding to the floor. “Doctor,” she whispered and then knew nothing more.
~*~*~*~
Mickey was still bristling at being sent to his room like a kid. He stared at his haggard face in the mirror. Shaving cream covered one cheek and most of his neck. The razor was still in his hand. Grunting, he finished shaving off the beard he’d grown on that weird alien spaceship and then rubbed his face dry. He sat and waited for a few more minutes before deciding that enough was enough. He was going to go back to the control room and see what was happening. He stormed through the halls, his feet ringing loudly against the floor.
“Rose!” he called out, half in warning and half in fear. “Rose?!”
He reached the control room a few minutes later and screamed in fright. Rose was lying on the grillwork floor. Blood streamed from her nose and mouth. He ran and gathered her in his arms, gently pulling back her eyelids. Her pupils were fixed and dilated. She wasn’t breathing. He placed a hand on her chest, between her breasts, and felt nothing.
“No way, Rose Tyler,” he growled, settling her back on the floor. He tilted her head back and wiped her mouth and nose clean of blood. Putting a finger in her mouth, he made certain her airway wasn’t obstructed. “You ain’t leaving me here. Not like this,” he huffed as he put his mouth over hers and breathed into her lungs. He sat up and placed his hands over her heart. Once, twice, three times he pumped, feeling her heart hit against her breastbone. Again and again he breathed into her mouth and then pumped her chest. When he was just about ready to give up, Rose coughed and drew in a ragged breath. Tears of joy and relief welled in Mickey’s eyes as she began groping around her, finally lifting a shaking hand to her head and rubbing it as if she were in immense pain.
“You there, Rose?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she said weakly. “I think we’re home.”
“I’ll go look outside. You look like you need an ambulance.”
“I’ll be fine,” she whispered hoarsely. She tried to lift herself up but fell back.
“Oh no you don’t, Rose Tyler. Your mother will slap me into next week if I let anything happen to you,” he muttered. “Just rest a bit. I’ll go get an ambulance and we’ll get you checked out. But I do have to tell you something,” he grinned.
“What is it, Mickey?”
“You’re a much better pilot than that old Doctor.”
Rose grinned weakly and closed her eyes. She was so tired. Her head ached as it never had before. She’d only had migraines twice before in her life and this one topped both of them by about a factor of twenty. Vaguely, Rose thought she might be sick but decided that throwing up would just cause even more pain. She reached up to pat the TARDIS’s console soothingly. “We did it, sister,” she whispered.
It almost killed you. the TARDIS replied, sounding guilty.
“I’ll get better at it. I’ll bet the Doctor wasn’t any great shakes when he first started flying you.” Rose could feel the TARDIS laughing. “He wasn’t was he?”
It was all he could do to land in the right millennium, the TARDIS laughed. It was a few decades before he was competent enough for me to trust him. You are much better, Rose.
“That’s because we’re both girls,” Rose grinned. “We understand each other.”
True. Though…Rose…something isn’t right here. The Doctor…as a Time Lord, he could sense a wrongness in a timeline. I can but only because of my bond with him. I’m not sure how to describe it but…
The TARDIS’s doors slammed open and Mickey came running back in. They closed behind him and he fell to his knees next to Rose. “What’s the matter?” she asked.
“Rose, I think you better come see this,” he said breathlessly. “I can carry you if you don’t think you can walk.”
“No, give me a minute,” she sighed. After several minutes, Rose felt as if she had her bearings enough to pull herself to her feet. She was still dizzy and her head pounded but she could walk. Staggering out of the TARDIS, she locked the door. Mickey had made his way out again and was staring at the sky.
Zeppelins flew overhead.
Rose’s mouth dropped open in shock.
Zeppelins.
“I don’t think this is right…” she muttered. “Maybe we’re on some planet that is like Earth but with…zeppelins.”
“Nah, I checked that. This is London. February 1, 2006,” Mickey replied. “And…your dad…”
“What about him?” Rose asked absently as she watched the zeppelins fly overhead.
“Your dad is still alive.”
Rose’s eyes widened in shock and she stared at her friend. Mickey pointed to a sign. It was an advertisement for Vitex Lite. Pete Tyler stood there holding a bottle of some kind of drink and winking. “You can trust me,” his voice said as the advert moved through its animation.
“That’s not my dad,” Rose said dumbly.
“Yeah it is, Rose,” Mickey argued. “I’ve seen the photos of him.”
“No, my dad died when I was six months old. That’s not him. And this isn’t our London.”
“How do you figure that?”
“I think it’s like…a parallel world or something,” Rose muttered, rubbing her still throbbing head. “I’m no good at piloting the TARDIS. I must have dropped us off into some parallel Earth.”
“Well, while we’re here, let’s see what’s going on,” Mickey laughed.
“I’m going to go check on the TARDIS first,” Rose said as she moved back into the ship. The TARDIS was eerily quiet. Rose could sense her presence but it was greatly weakened. The lights on the console had all gone dark.
“Sister? Are you alright?” Rose said into the hushed gloom.
I took a wrong turn in the Vortex, the TARDIS whispered weakly. I’ll need time to recuperate. And you will as well. A few days and we’ll be able to get back to your universe.
“So this is a parallel world,” Rose nodded. “I’ll have to study up on this stuff. Might not have completed my A levels but I wasn’t stupid. Just an idiot. You rest, sweetheart,” she continued, stroking the console fondly. “Mickey and I will just bang around this parallel London for a few days and then, when you’re up to it, we’ll hop back home.”
Exiting the TARDIS and locking the door again, Rose let Mickey grab her hand and drag her to see the sights of this alternate London.