Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (14/27)
Title - Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (14/27)
Author --
earlgreytea68
Rating - Teen
Characters -- Ten, Rose, OCs
Spoilers: Through the end of S2.
Disclaimer: I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for Brem and Athena. They're all mine.)
Summary - And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby. Hijinks ensue from there.
Author’s Notes - The icon was created by
punkinart , commissioned by
aibhinn , who graciously offered it to me for my use.
jlrpuck is currently on Cloud Nine, because her beloved Caps are in the playoffs. But when she's here on Earth she's my incomparable beta. Also thanks to Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ, who brainstormed this fic with me endlessly, and
bouncy_castle79 , who gave it the first major outside-eyes read-through.
Ch.1 - Ch. 2 - Ch. 3 - Ch. 4 - Ch. 5 - Ch. 6 - Ch. 7 - Ch. 8 - Ch. 9 - Ch. 10 - Ch. 11 - Ch. 12 - Ch. 13
Chapter Fourteen
“Where’s Brem?” Rose asked, anxiously, as soon as he entered.
The Doctor was grim as he told her the truth. “He’s trapped in a drawing.”
“Trapped in a drawing?” Rose repeated. “How can that be?”
“There’s an Isolus, possessing this little human girl called Chloe Webber, using ionic power to trap people in drawings. Fell to Earth about six days ago.”
Rose struggled to understand, watching him as he shed his coat, moved around the console, assembling materials. “What’s an Isolus?”
The Doctor explained, “The Isolus mother drifts in deep space. She jettisons millions of Isolus spores. Her children. The Isolus are empathic beings of intense emotion. When they’re cast off from their mother their empathic link-their…need for each other-is what sustains them. They need to be together. They cannot be alone.”
“The Isolus children travel,” continued the Doctor, finding it soothing to speak about something he understood, to be lecturing, to have a name to his problem, “each inside a pod. They ride the heat and energy of solar tides. It takes thousands and thousands of years for them to grow up.” He thought of it, thousands of years, just floating through space. He’d done it, for a short period of time, on his own, and thought he’d go mad with boredom. “While they travel they play games. They use their ionic power literally to create make-believe worlds for them to play in. In-flight entertainment. It helps keep them happy. While they’re happy they can feed off each other’s love. Without it, they’re lost.”
“Alright,” said Rose. “I get that. And they live on Earth?”
“No. They were too close. There was a solar flare from your sun. It would have made a tidal wave of solar energy that scattered the Isolus pods. This Isolus fell to Earth. Its pod crashed. Its brothers and sisters are still up there and it can’t reach them. It is…very alone.”
Rose stared at him. “You sound like you’re on its side.”
The Doctor sat on the captain’s chair, surrounded by his materials, as he began to assemble something. “I know what it’s like to travel a long way on your own. I sympathize, that’s all.”
“It stole our child,” Rose reminded him.
“I understand that. And I’m going to get him back. But the Isolus is just a child itself. It’s exactly what you’re always so worried Brem is going to be: just a lonely kid.”
“But Brem would never go around stealing people from reality.”
“No.” The Doctor recalled the frightening capability of his rage, as he’d stared at Brem’s drawing. “Brem could do much worse.”
Rose blinked. “What’s that mean?”
The Doctor shook his device a bit, looking pleased. “I think we’re there.” He jumped up from the seat, moving around the console. “Fear. Loneliness. They’re the big ones, Rose. Some of the most terrible acts ever committed have been inspired by them. We’re not dealing with something that wants to conquer or destroy. There’s a lot of things you need to get across this universe: warp drive, wormhole refractors. You know the thing you need most of all?”
Rose stared at him. “What?”
“You know, because you’re the one who taught me it was the most important thing in the first place. You need a hand to hold.”
There was a moment of silence. “Alright,” she allowed. She still didn’t understand this Isolus, and definitely wasn’t going to forgive it, but she supposed she could understand why the Doctor identified with it. “D’you have a plan for getting Brem back?”
“Of course I do. We need to find the Isolus pod.” He moved over to the monitor, began typing away at it.
“You said it crashed,” she pointed out. “Won’t it be destroyed?”
“It’s been sucking in all the heat it can, hopefully that should keep it in a fit state to launch. The pod needs heat, it would have been attracted to heat when it crashed. It must be close, it should have a weak energy signature the TARDIS can trace. Once we find it, then we can send the Isolus off.”
“That’ll get Brem back?”
“Yes.” He nodded. “It’ll release the ionic power holding him into the drawing, and he’ll come back to us.” He met her eyes. “Safe and sound. Good as new. I promise. How’re you doing, Athena?” He smoothed his hand over Athena’s tumbled hair. She looked at him with wide, heartbroken eyes. He knew she was feeling a huge hole inside of her where Brem usually was, and he tried to send her comforting thoughts.
The monitor started beeping, and the Doctor looked at it. “It’s the pod!” he exclaimed, joyfully. “It is in the street.”
“How come no one’s seen it?”
“It’s small. About two inches across, dull gray, like a gull’s egg. Very light.”
“And you find it, and you give it back to the Isolus?”
“Not quite that simple.” He was pulling on his coat now. “I’ve got to fire it up first.”
Rose set Athena on a blanket on the floor, walking over to stand by him. “And how d’you do that? More heat?”
He shook his head. “Has to be more than heat. Love.”
She blinked. “Love?”
“Haven’t you been listening? The Isolus are empathic. They survive on love.”
“You mean, even more than the rest of us?”
The Doctor paused by the TARDIS door and looked at her, then smiled crookedly. “Yes,” he said. “I won’t be long. Next time I come back I’ll have Brem.” He winked at her.
She went to the door, standing in it as he walked confidently down the street, holding the strange device he’d made. And then, abruptly, in the blink of an eye, he was gone. The device crashed to the street, smashing into pieces.
Rose didn’t think, as she darted out of the TARDIS, rushed to where the Doctor had been. She could smell what he’d been talking about, a smell like a burnt fuse plug that made her wrinkle her nose. She knew what had happened, but how was she going to fix it?
She turned back to the TARDIS. First things first. She had to tuck Athena safely in the nursery.
But the TARDIS was no longer there, apparently having been snatched out of space-time as well.
Rose stood for a second, blinking, in the middle of the street. She had suddenly lost everything she had ever wanted in the world. Oh, that…that was…unacceptable.
She turned on her heel, running down the street. She ran into a woman taking her trash out, demanded, “Where does Chloe Webber live?” When the woman stammered at her in surprised, she shouted, “Which house?”
The woman pointed, and Rose sprinted to it, pounding on the door. A woman opened it, looked at her in surprise. “Who-” she began.
“Where is she? Chloe!” she called, taking the stairs two at a time and pushing open the first door she found. The little girl stared up at her, and Rose looked over her shoulder, at the drawing of a smiling Doctor, all pin-striped suit and dramatic coat, standing next to the TARDIS. “Oh, big mistake,” Rose bit out. “Huge. He was all sympathetic. He identified with you. You would have been much better off dealing with him, because with me you’re just going to get a furious wife and mother who’s out for blood. I don’t give a damn about this family you’re missing. You give my family back to me.”
“No,” responded Chloe Webber.
Rose grabbed onto her shoulders and shook her a bit. “Bring. Them. Back.”
“Leave me alone,” said Chloe, squirming.
“What are you doing to her?” Chloe’s mother pulled Rose away from her. “Get off her. Who do you think you are?”
Rose shrugged the woman’s touch off of her, tried to calm down. The Doctor had had a plan. A plan that had made sense, that was going to get her a lot farther than yelling at a stubborn, little girl. Find the pod. Find the pod that had been drawn to heat and launch it.
She turned to the mother, pointing at Chloe. “Watch her. Don’t take your eyes off her. I need to go and find the pod.”
She turned, racing out of the house and onto the street. Heat. Heat. Six days ago. Heat. She circled, trying to focus, to think like the Doctor, to see all the possibilities of the situation. Behind her, a car stalled on the street, and she glanced over her shoulder, watching the tarmaccers run out to push out. Tarmaccers. Hot tar. Things clicked in her head.
She ran out to the street. “Six days ago,” she gasped, realizing she was short of breath, from adrenaline, or from lack of practice at this, or something. “Were you filling potholes? Six days ago? With the hot tar?”
They looked at her as if she were crazy, and then one said, “Yeah. This one here, as a matter of fact. Don’t know why the bloody thing keeps stalling the cars.”
“Heat. Hot tar.” Rose stared at the pothole, and then took off for the van the tarmaccers had been using, which was standing open, revealing the object of her desire.
“Oi!” one of the tarmaccers called after her, as she lifted herself into the back of the van. “That’s a Council van.” Rose grabbed the pickaxe, leaping lightly down. “You’ve just removed a Council axe from a Council van,” protested the tarmaccer as Rose got into position, lifting the pickaxe over her head. “Put it back. No, no, wait, that’s not a Council axe, that’s my axe. Give it back.”
Rose heaved the pickaxe with all her might into the tar, grunting as she did so.
“Wait!” shouted the tarmaccer. “No! No! You stop! You just took a Council axe, from a Council van, and now you’re digging up a Council road!”
Rose ignored him, focusing on swinging the axe, watching the tar come apart under her feet.
“I’m reporting you to the Council!” he threatened.
“Oh, bloody hell,” she snapped. “Do whatever you want.” She dropped to her knees, hands digging through the tar. Gull’s egg, he’d said. Gull’s egg. Her hands fastened around it and she pulled it into her grasp in amazement. “It went for the hottest thing in the street,” she breathed, and then grinned at the tarmaccer. “Your tar!” She couldn’t help laughing with relief. Here it was, in her hands. The Doctor and Brem and Athena, all back, safe and sound.
The tarmaccer looked confused. “What is it?”
“It’s a spaceship.” Rose felt her sense of humour return, buoyant and joyful. “Not a council spaceship, I’m afraid.” Cradling the precious pod, she raced back to the Webbers’, shouting, “I found it!” She wasn’t sure what to do with it now. Maybe the Isolus would just hop on board. But she’d at least found it.
She raced up the stairs, taking them, as she had previously, two at a time, bursting into Chloe’s room. “I found it!” she exclaimed. “I’ve got your ship, we can send you home!”
“The pod is dead,” Chloe told her, frowning.
“All it needs is heat,” Rose protested, desperately.
“It needs more than heat,” Chloe responded.
And Rose remembered the Doctor telling her. Love. How the hell was she going to figure out how to power the pod with love? She stared at his drawing, on the desk where she’d left it. She loved him. And Brem. And Athena. She was desperate with love for them. How could that not be enough?
She blinked. The drawing had changed. The Doctor was pointing. At a drawing of the Olympic torch. More than heat, she thought. Love.
A television she had not even realized was on suddenly invaded her consciousness. “It’s a beacon of love,” said the announcer, and Rose stared at the torch on the screen. She looked at Chloe Webber’s mother. “Is the torch going by here?”
“Right by here. At the end of the street. Why?”
“I know how to charge up the pod.” Rose pushed past her, out onto the street. A crowd had gathered, watching as the torch began to make its journey past the street. Rose struggled through the crowd, clutching the tiny spaceship, desperate to get close. A policeman stopped her, babbling something at her, something she couldn’t comprehend, because she was so desperate to get the pod to the torch that she did the only thing she could think to do, pulling her hand back and flinging the pod in the direction of the torch, praying it would be enough.
But she couldn’t tell. She couldn’t tell if anything had happened at all. She couldn’t tell if she’d done it correctly, if she’d saved the world, or if she’d failed miserably. She stood, still and drained, staring after the torch, as the crowd began to disperse. And then a voice cried, “Mum!”
Even as she turned in its direction, Brem barrelled into her, and Rose grabbed him to her, hugging him as tightly as she could. She dropped to the concrete, the better to cuddle him, and all around them the crowd was frowning as they picked their ways around them, but Rose didn’t notice, because it was Brem burrowing into her, with his little boy smell, and his messy hair, and his ridiculous jumper.
“Oh, Brem,” she sighed, running her hands over him to verify he was in one piece. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine, Mum,” he said, muffled against her shoulder.
“We were so worried,” she whispered, kissing his hair. “So worried.”
“I’m fine,” he said again.
Rose gave him one last squeeze, then pushed him away a bit, to smile at him. “Come on. Let’s go find your father and sister.”
**********************
The TARDIS was where they’d left it, and, when they walked in, Athena was standing in the control room, reaching up and pressing buttons on the console. She turned guiltily as the door opened, and then her face lit up as she exclaimed, “Brem!”
He grinned. “Hi, Theenie.”
“Are you alright?” she said, her tiny features puckered in concern.
“Oh, I’m fine,” said Brem, importantly, enjoying the attention.
Rose looked around the control room. “Where’s your father?” she asked Athena.
Athena looked at her, surprised. “He’s not here.”
Rose, concerned now, opened the TARDIS door, looked out at the crowd on the street. None of whom were her Doctor.
“He’s alright,” said Brem.
She looked down at him. “How do you know that?”
“I can feel him. There’s something he has to take care of, and then he’ll be home, but I can tell he’s alright. Can’t you tell, Theenie?” He looked at Athena for verification.
Athena nodded.
“What do you mean, ‘something he has to take care of’? Where’s he gone?”
Brem shrugged. “Dunno. Can we go out there?” He was looking beyond his mother, at the party that was now underway on the street.
She looked as well. The place was crowded with children. She thought of the havoc the Isolus had wreaked because it had been lonely, and smiled. “Sure. Let’s go.” She took Athena’s hand to lead her. “Your father will find us. You’re staying close to me, though.”
Brem, uncharacteristically, agreed to this directive, and Rose thought he must have been more terrified than he was letting on.
They wandered through the street, laughing a bit with people they met, enjoying the atmosphere. There was food and drink, and Rose amused the kids by giving them cupcakes with edible ball bearings, gauging their reactions.
“I wonder,” Brem mused, “if there’s any other species in the universe that has thought to make edible ball bearings. I’ll have to ask Dad.”
They found him on the outskirts of the party, his back to them, his hands in his pockets. He was standing still, and Rose had the impression he was looking for them in the crowd of people.
“Go ahead,” she whispered at Brem. “Call him.”
“Dad,” he said, and the Doctor turned.
For a moment he didn’t react. Then his face split in a grin of delight that turned into a full-fledged, boisterous laugh, as he walked over to them and crouched before Brem. “Oh, Brem,” he said, tousling his hair, drinking in the sight of him.
Brem smiled crookedly before launching himself into his father’s arms. The Doctor closed his eyes and caught him to him.
“I knew you’d save me,” Brem mumbled against him. “I knew it.”
“Oh, Brem, always,” he sighed. “I will always save you.”
Brem pulled back, delighted. He looked carefree, as if nothing interesting had happened at all that day. “They’re playing a game,” he said, gesturing to a group of children. “Can I go play?”
“Tag,” said Rose. “It’s called tag. You can go, but watch your sister.”
Brem grabbed Athena’s hand, skipping over to where the game was in progress.
The Doctor and Rose looked at each other for a second, before Rose wrapped her arms about him.
“Oh, well done, you,” the Doctor said, into her hair.
“That was some good, old-fashioned teamwork there,” she noted.
“I was so proud of you.”
“Can you feel proud when you’re trapped in a drawing?”
“You can when your wife is behaving so brilliantly.” He drew back a bit, grinning. “Isn’t that what you told Chloe Webber? That you were a wife and mother who was out for blood?”
Rose blushed. “I didn’t think you could hear me,” she mumbled. “And I couldn’t think what else to say. I mean, to get the point across-”
“It’s fine,” he said.
The moment seemed heavy, so she cleared her throat and changed the subject. “Where’ve you been?”
“Oh, had a little thing to take care of,” he said, nonchalantly. “Had to go light the Olympic torch.”
“Had to go…” Rose trailed off, shaking her head. “Of course you did. Well, you should have stopped by to tell me you were okay first. I thought I’d lost you.”
He shook his head. “Not ever. Definitely not on a night like this.” He looked toward Brem, his expression soft and even a bit amazed, like he couldn’t believe their good luck. She wondered if he had doubted they would get him back, if he had been pretending confidence for her benefit. “This is a night for lost things being found.”
There was a sudden loud boom. Rose jumped in his arms, looking up as sparks of fireworks showered over the sky.
“Oh, top banana,” said the Doctor, pleased, as he tipped his head back to look up at them.
Athena came running toward them, clearly startled by the fireworks, and Rose crouched to sweep her up.
“Haven’t we ever showed you fireworks before, princess?” the Doctor asked her.
Athena, astonished, looked up into the sky and shook her head slowly. The Doctor took her out of Rose’s arms. “Aren’t they beautiful?” he said to her. “Brem!” he called over his shoulder, wanting his entire family, one cohesive unit. “Come watch the fireworks with us.”
He settled them in a front garden, huddled on top of each other in a happy jumble. The Doctor smiled, as Rose leaned back against him, warm and so very familiar. Athena was oohing and aahing and clapping her hands, plainly enchanted by the sight. Brem was asking a million questions. “Dad, why’s that one green? Why’s that one red? And I meant to ask you about the edible ball bearings.”
The Doctor didn’t really answer him, instead listened to the sound of his voice and nuzzled behind Rose’s ear as she snuggled closer to him.
The chill came from nowhere, just as he was thinking that it was impossible for him to be any happier than he was at that moment. He shivered with it, as it passed over him.
Rose tipped her head back to look up at him, curious. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Yeah.” He looked down at her, managed to smile.
But there was something in the air. Something was coming. A storm was approaching.
Next Chapter
Author --
earlgreytea68
Rating - Teen
Characters -- Ten, Rose, OCs
Spoilers: Through the end of S2.
Disclaimer: I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for Brem and Athena. They're all mine.)
Summary - And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby. Hijinks ensue from there.
Author’s Notes - The icon was created by
punkinart , commissioned by
aibhinn , who graciously offered it to me for my use.
jlrpuck is currently on Cloud Nine, because her beloved Caps are in the playoffs. But when she's here on Earth she's my incomparable beta. Also thanks to Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ, who brainstormed this fic with me endlessly, and
bouncy_castle79 , who gave it the first major outside-eyes read-through.
Ch.1 - Ch. 2 - Ch. 3 - Ch. 4 - Ch. 5 - Ch. 6 - Ch. 7 - Ch. 8 - Ch. 9 - Ch. 10 - Ch. 11 - Ch. 12 - Ch. 13
Chapter Fourteen
“Where’s Brem?” Rose asked, anxiously, as soon as he entered.
The Doctor was grim as he told her the truth. “He’s trapped in a drawing.”
“Trapped in a drawing?” Rose repeated. “How can that be?”
“There’s an Isolus, possessing this little human girl called Chloe Webber, using ionic power to trap people in drawings. Fell to Earth about six days ago.”
Rose struggled to understand, watching him as he shed his coat, moved around the console, assembling materials. “What’s an Isolus?”
The Doctor explained, “The Isolus mother drifts in deep space. She jettisons millions of Isolus spores. Her children. The Isolus are empathic beings of intense emotion. When they’re cast off from their mother their empathic link-their…need for each other-is what sustains them. They need to be together. They cannot be alone.”
“The Isolus children travel,” continued the Doctor, finding it soothing to speak about something he understood, to be lecturing, to have a name to his problem, “each inside a pod. They ride the heat and energy of solar tides. It takes thousands and thousands of years for them to grow up.” He thought of it, thousands of years, just floating through space. He’d done it, for a short period of time, on his own, and thought he’d go mad with boredom. “While they travel they play games. They use their ionic power literally to create make-believe worlds for them to play in. In-flight entertainment. It helps keep them happy. While they’re happy they can feed off each other’s love. Without it, they’re lost.”
“Alright,” said Rose. “I get that. And they live on Earth?”
“No. They were too close. There was a solar flare from your sun. It would have made a tidal wave of solar energy that scattered the Isolus pods. This Isolus fell to Earth. Its pod crashed. Its brothers and sisters are still up there and it can’t reach them. It is…very alone.”
Rose stared at him. “You sound like you’re on its side.”
The Doctor sat on the captain’s chair, surrounded by his materials, as he began to assemble something. “I know what it’s like to travel a long way on your own. I sympathize, that’s all.”
“It stole our child,” Rose reminded him.
“I understand that. And I’m going to get him back. But the Isolus is just a child itself. It’s exactly what you’re always so worried Brem is going to be: just a lonely kid.”
“But Brem would never go around stealing people from reality.”
“No.” The Doctor recalled the frightening capability of his rage, as he’d stared at Brem’s drawing. “Brem could do much worse.”
Rose blinked. “What’s that mean?”
The Doctor shook his device a bit, looking pleased. “I think we’re there.” He jumped up from the seat, moving around the console. “Fear. Loneliness. They’re the big ones, Rose. Some of the most terrible acts ever committed have been inspired by them. We’re not dealing with something that wants to conquer or destroy. There’s a lot of things you need to get across this universe: warp drive, wormhole refractors. You know the thing you need most of all?”
Rose stared at him. “What?”
“You know, because you’re the one who taught me it was the most important thing in the first place. You need a hand to hold.”
There was a moment of silence. “Alright,” she allowed. She still didn’t understand this Isolus, and definitely wasn’t going to forgive it, but she supposed she could understand why the Doctor identified with it. “D’you have a plan for getting Brem back?”
“Of course I do. We need to find the Isolus pod.” He moved over to the monitor, began typing away at it.
“You said it crashed,” she pointed out. “Won’t it be destroyed?”
“It’s been sucking in all the heat it can, hopefully that should keep it in a fit state to launch. The pod needs heat, it would have been attracted to heat when it crashed. It must be close, it should have a weak energy signature the TARDIS can trace. Once we find it, then we can send the Isolus off.”
“That’ll get Brem back?”
“Yes.” He nodded. “It’ll release the ionic power holding him into the drawing, and he’ll come back to us.” He met her eyes. “Safe and sound. Good as new. I promise. How’re you doing, Athena?” He smoothed his hand over Athena’s tumbled hair. She looked at him with wide, heartbroken eyes. He knew she was feeling a huge hole inside of her where Brem usually was, and he tried to send her comforting thoughts.
The monitor started beeping, and the Doctor looked at it. “It’s the pod!” he exclaimed, joyfully. “It is in the street.”
“How come no one’s seen it?”
“It’s small. About two inches across, dull gray, like a gull’s egg. Very light.”
“And you find it, and you give it back to the Isolus?”
“Not quite that simple.” He was pulling on his coat now. “I’ve got to fire it up first.”
Rose set Athena on a blanket on the floor, walking over to stand by him. “And how d’you do that? More heat?”
He shook his head. “Has to be more than heat. Love.”
She blinked. “Love?”
“Haven’t you been listening? The Isolus are empathic. They survive on love.”
“You mean, even more than the rest of us?”
The Doctor paused by the TARDIS door and looked at her, then smiled crookedly. “Yes,” he said. “I won’t be long. Next time I come back I’ll have Brem.” He winked at her.
She went to the door, standing in it as he walked confidently down the street, holding the strange device he’d made. And then, abruptly, in the blink of an eye, he was gone. The device crashed to the street, smashing into pieces.
Rose didn’t think, as she darted out of the TARDIS, rushed to where the Doctor had been. She could smell what he’d been talking about, a smell like a burnt fuse plug that made her wrinkle her nose. She knew what had happened, but how was she going to fix it?
She turned back to the TARDIS. First things first. She had to tuck Athena safely in the nursery.
But the TARDIS was no longer there, apparently having been snatched out of space-time as well.
Rose stood for a second, blinking, in the middle of the street. She had suddenly lost everything she had ever wanted in the world. Oh, that…that was…unacceptable.
She turned on her heel, running down the street. She ran into a woman taking her trash out, demanded, “Where does Chloe Webber live?” When the woman stammered at her in surprised, she shouted, “Which house?”
The woman pointed, and Rose sprinted to it, pounding on the door. A woman opened it, looked at her in surprise. “Who-” she began.
“Where is she? Chloe!” she called, taking the stairs two at a time and pushing open the first door she found. The little girl stared up at her, and Rose looked over her shoulder, at the drawing of a smiling Doctor, all pin-striped suit and dramatic coat, standing next to the TARDIS. “Oh, big mistake,” Rose bit out. “Huge. He was all sympathetic. He identified with you. You would have been much better off dealing with him, because with me you’re just going to get a furious wife and mother who’s out for blood. I don’t give a damn about this family you’re missing. You give my family back to me.”
“No,” responded Chloe Webber.
Rose grabbed onto her shoulders and shook her a bit. “Bring. Them. Back.”
“Leave me alone,” said Chloe, squirming.
“What are you doing to her?” Chloe’s mother pulled Rose away from her. “Get off her. Who do you think you are?”
Rose shrugged the woman’s touch off of her, tried to calm down. The Doctor had had a plan. A plan that had made sense, that was going to get her a lot farther than yelling at a stubborn, little girl. Find the pod. Find the pod that had been drawn to heat and launch it.
She turned to the mother, pointing at Chloe. “Watch her. Don’t take your eyes off her. I need to go and find the pod.”
She turned, racing out of the house and onto the street. Heat. Heat. Six days ago. Heat. She circled, trying to focus, to think like the Doctor, to see all the possibilities of the situation. Behind her, a car stalled on the street, and she glanced over her shoulder, watching the tarmaccers run out to push out. Tarmaccers. Hot tar. Things clicked in her head.
She ran out to the street. “Six days ago,” she gasped, realizing she was short of breath, from adrenaline, or from lack of practice at this, or something. “Were you filling potholes? Six days ago? With the hot tar?”
They looked at her as if she were crazy, and then one said, “Yeah. This one here, as a matter of fact. Don’t know why the bloody thing keeps stalling the cars.”
“Heat. Hot tar.” Rose stared at the pothole, and then took off for the van the tarmaccers had been using, which was standing open, revealing the object of her desire.
“Oi!” one of the tarmaccers called after her, as she lifted herself into the back of the van. “That’s a Council van.” Rose grabbed the pickaxe, leaping lightly down. “You’ve just removed a Council axe from a Council van,” protested the tarmaccer as Rose got into position, lifting the pickaxe over her head. “Put it back. No, no, wait, that’s not a Council axe, that’s my axe. Give it back.”
Rose heaved the pickaxe with all her might into the tar, grunting as she did so.
“Wait!” shouted the tarmaccer. “No! No! You stop! You just took a Council axe, from a Council van, and now you’re digging up a Council road!”
Rose ignored him, focusing on swinging the axe, watching the tar come apart under her feet.
“I’m reporting you to the Council!” he threatened.
“Oh, bloody hell,” she snapped. “Do whatever you want.” She dropped to her knees, hands digging through the tar. Gull’s egg, he’d said. Gull’s egg. Her hands fastened around it and she pulled it into her grasp in amazement. “It went for the hottest thing in the street,” she breathed, and then grinned at the tarmaccer. “Your tar!” She couldn’t help laughing with relief. Here it was, in her hands. The Doctor and Brem and Athena, all back, safe and sound.
The tarmaccer looked confused. “What is it?”
“It’s a spaceship.” Rose felt her sense of humour return, buoyant and joyful. “Not a council spaceship, I’m afraid.” Cradling the precious pod, she raced back to the Webbers’, shouting, “I found it!” She wasn’t sure what to do with it now. Maybe the Isolus would just hop on board. But she’d at least found it.
She raced up the stairs, taking them, as she had previously, two at a time, bursting into Chloe’s room. “I found it!” she exclaimed. “I’ve got your ship, we can send you home!”
“The pod is dead,” Chloe told her, frowning.
“All it needs is heat,” Rose protested, desperately.
“It needs more than heat,” Chloe responded.
And Rose remembered the Doctor telling her. Love. How the hell was she going to figure out how to power the pod with love? She stared at his drawing, on the desk where she’d left it. She loved him. And Brem. And Athena. She was desperate with love for them. How could that not be enough?
She blinked. The drawing had changed. The Doctor was pointing. At a drawing of the Olympic torch. More than heat, she thought. Love.
A television she had not even realized was on suddenly invaded her consciousness. “It’s a beacon of love,” said the announcer, and Rose stared at the torch on the screen. She looked at Chloe Webber’s mother. “Is the torch going by here?”
“Right by here. At the end of the street. Why?”
“I know how to charge up the pod.” Rose pushed past her, out onto the street. A crowd had gathered, watching as the torch began to make its journey past the street. Rose struggled through the crowd, clutching the tiny spaceship, desperate to get close. A policeman stopped her, babbling something at her, something she couldn’t comprehend, because she was so desperate to get the pod to the torch that she did the only thing she could think to do, pulling her hand back and flinging the pod in the direction of the torch, praying it would be enough.
But she couldn’t tell. She couldn’t tell if anything had happened at all. She couldn’t tell if she’d done it correctly, if she’d saved the world, or if she’d failed miserably. She stood, still and drained, staring after the torch, as the crowd began to disperse. And then a voice cried, “Mum!”
Even as she turned in its direction, Brem barrelled into her, and Rose grabbed him to her, hugging him as tightly as she could. She dropped to the concrete, the better to cuddle him, and all around them the crowd was frowning as they picked their ways around them, but Rose didn’t notice, because it was Brem burrowing into her, with his little boy smell, and his messy hair, and his ridiculous jumper.
“Oh, Brem,” she sighed, running her hands over him to verify he was in one piece. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine, Mum,” he said, muffled against her shoulder.
“We were so worried,” she whispered, kissing his hair. “So worried.”
“I’m fine,” he said again.
Rose gave him one last squeeze, then pushed him away a bit, to smile at him. “Come on. Let’s go find your father and sister.”
**********************
The TARDIS was where they’d left it, and, when they walked in, Athena was standing in the control room, reaching up and pressing buttons on the console. She turned guiltily as the door opened, and then her face lit up as she exclaimed, “Brem!”
He grinned. “Hi, Theenie.”
“Are you alright?” she said, her tiny features puckered in concern.
“Oh, I’m fine,” said Brem, importantly, enjoying the attention.
Rose looked around the control room. “Where’s your father?” she asked Athena.
Athena looked at her, surprised. “He’s not here.”
Rose, concerned now, opened the TARDIS door, looked out at the crowd on the street. None of whom were her Doctor.
“He’s alright,” said Brem.
She looked down at him. “How do you know that?”
“I can feel him. There’s something he has to take care of, and then he’ll be home, but I can tell he’s alright. Can’t you tell, Theenie?” He looked at Athena for verification.
Athena nodded.
“What do you mean, ‘something he has to take care of’? Where’s he gone?”
Brem shrugged. “Dunno. Can we go out there?” He was looking beyond his mother, at the party that was now underway on the street.
She looked as well. The place was crowded with children. She thought of the havoc the Isolus had wreaked because it had been lonely, and smiled. “Sure. Let’s go.” She took Athena’s hand to lead her. “Your father will find us. You’re staying close to me, though.”
Brem, uncharacteristically, agreed to this directive, and Rose thought he must have been more terrified than he was letting on.
They wandered through the street, laughing a bit with people they met, enjoying the atmosphere. There was food and drink, and Rose amused the kids by giving them cupcakes with edible ball bearings, gauging their reactions.
“I wonder,” Brem mused, “if there’s any other species in the universe that has thought to make edible ball bearings. I’ll have to ask Dad.”
They found him on the outskirts of the party, his back to them, his hands in his pockets. He was standing still, and Rose had the impression he was looking for them in the crowd of people.
“Go ahead,” she whispered at Brem. “Call him.”
“Dad,” he said, and the Doctor turned.
For a moment he didn’t react. Then his face split in a grin of delight that turned into a full-fledged, boisterous laugh, as he walked over to them and crouched before Brem. “Oh, Brem,” he said, tousling his hair, drinking in the sight of him.
Brem smiled crookedly before launching himself into his father’s arms. The Doctor closed his eyes and caught him to him.
“I knew you’d save me,” Brem mumbled against him. “I knew it.”
“Oh, Brem, always,” he sighed. “I will always save you.”
Brem pulled back, delighted. He looked carefree, as if nothing interesting had happened at all that day. “They’re playing a game,” he said, gesturing to a group of children. “Can I go play?”
“Tag,” said Rose. “It’s called tag. You can go, but watch your sister.”
Brem grabbed Athena’s hand, skipping over to where the game was in progress.
The Doctor and Rose looked at each other for a second, before Rose wrapped her arms about him.
“Oh, well done, you,” the Doctor said, into her hair.
“That was some good, old-fashioned teamwork there,” she noted.
“I was so proud of you.”
“Can you feel proud when you’re trapped in a drawing?”
“You can when your wife is behaving so brilliantly.” He drew back a bit, grinning. “Isn’t that what you told Chloe Webber? That you were a wife and mother who was out for blood?”
Rose blushed. “I didn’t think you could hear me,” she mumbled. “And I couldn’t think what else to say. I mean, to get the point across-”
“It’s fine,” he said.
The moment seemed heavy, so she cleared her throat and changed the subject. “Where’ve you been?”
“Oh, had a little thing to take care of,” he said, nonchalantly. “Had to go light the Olympic torch.”
“Had to go…” Rose trailed off, shaking her head. “Of course you did. Well, you should have stopped by to tell me you were okay first. I thought I’d lost you.”
He shook his head. “Not ever. Definitely not on a night like this.” He looked toward Brem, his expression soft and even a bit amazed, like he couldn’t believe their good luck. She wondered if he had doubted they would get him back, if he had been pretending confidence for her benefit. “This is a night for lost things being found.”
There was a sudden loud boom. Rose jumped in his arms, looking up as sparks of fireworks showered over the sky.
“Oh, top banana,” said the Doctor, pleased, as he tipped his head back to look up at them.
Athena came running toward them, clearly startled by the fireworks, and Rose crouched to sweep her up.
“Haven’t we ever showed you fireworks before, princess?” the Doctor asked her.
Athena, astonished, looked up into the sky and shook her head slowly. The Doctor took her out of Rose’s arms. “Aren’t they beautiful?” he said to her. “Brem!” he called over his shoulder, wanting his entire family, one cohesive unit. “Come watch the fireworks with us.”
He settled them in a front garden, huddled on top of each other in a happy jumble. The Doctor smiled, as Rose leaned back against him, warm and so very familiar. Athena was oohing and aahing and clapping her hands, plainly enchanted by the sight. Brem was asking a million questions. “Dad, why’s that one green? Why’s that one red? And I meant to ask you about the edible ball bearings.”
The Doctor didn’t really answer him, instead listened to the sound of his voice and nuzzled behind Rose’s ear as she snuggled closer to him.
The chill came from nowhere, just as he was thinking that it was impossible for him to be any happier than he was at that moment. He shivered with it, as it passed over him.
Rose tipped her head back to look up at him, curious. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Yeah.” He looked down at her, managed to smile.
But there was something in the air. Something was coming. A storm was approaching.
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