Fic: The Lessons She Learnt from Me
Fic: The Lessons She Learnt from Me
Series: These Words Between Us
Characters: Rose Tyler, The Duplicate Tenth Doctor (Ten II/Rose)
Spoilers: Journey's End
Rating: G
A/N: This follows on from Indent in the Sand. Not Beta'd so any mistakes are my own.
Summary: The conversation continues as the Doctor and Rose adjust to their new life together
Rose Tyler found that she watched this new yet old Doctor a lot. She had been trying to work out what was different about him after he had told her that he might have acquired some new personality quirks, but she hadn’t noticed anything drastically different, and thankfully he hadn’t resorted to calling her ‘Earthgirl’ yet, for which she was grateful.
One of the changes she had noticed was his willingness to start wearing different clothes; he had commented that he’d been wearing his blue suit more and more often and maybe now was the time for a change. She had been dubious when her mum’s personal shopper had turned up on her doorstep with a credit account to get the Doctor clothed, but he had arrived back home later it was with bags full of clothes that most men would be envious of. When she told the Doctor that she approved of his new fashion-sense he had laughed, commenting it could have been far worse before muttering something about cricket whites and a stick of celery.
She had to admit to herself that she didn’t have the faintest idea of what he was on about. ‘Must be the Donna in you,’ she commented good naturedly as she helped him put away his clothes in the wardrobe. Suddenly, she sobered as she thought about Donna and looked at him with a serious expression. ‘How much of Donna is in you?’
The Doctor frowned as he thought about her question while she sat down on the bed that they were already sharing. He knew that Rose had been watching him to get an idea of how much he’d changed and he’d been doing the same thing, but he was starting to suspect that there wasn’t as much of his best friend buzzing around in his head as he had first thought. The most noticeable thing at the time had been his change in speak patterns, but even those had gone now. ‘Not as much as I first thought,’ he replied before adding sadly, ‘maybe it’s because she’s not around.’ He suspected that if she was around then more of her speech patterns and mannerisms would have asserted themselves into his mind. ‘There is still more of you up in here than there is of Donna,’ he told Rose as he tapped his head with a finger at the temple.
It took her a moment to realise what it is that he has said, and when it had sunk in she found that she still didn’t fully understand. ‘What?’
Once again the Doctor frowned and he leant against the wardrobe, looking down at Rose who was looking at him confused. Well, that’s one thing that’s different; he knew that had he still be a full Time Lord then he would never have told her this, but he wouldn’t have told her that he loved her either. ‘When I regenerated,’ he started slowly, ‘my mind created what it thought would be the ideal person for you.’
Her expression changed from confused to stunned, and then he sees that she is studying him like he’s something new. ‘How long have you been in love with me?’ she asked, still gazing at him, her heart filling with warm love for the man in front of her.
He smiled as he remembered the day that he had realised that he loved the beautiful blonde now sat opposite. ‘Since I realised you were still alive in Henry van Statten’s vault,’ he told her, but then he reconsidered, ‘or was it when you pointed out that it was me and not that Dalek that was pointing the gun at you. It was sometime around then.’
Rose is shocked by his honesty, she had half expected the Doctor to dance around the subject, but then she smiled at him. ‘You looked old enough to be my father back then,’ she teased with a smile before she laughed while pushing a strand of hair out of her face.
He hadn’t actually seen her laugh much since they got back to her flat, noticing that her mind was often elsewhere. He reflected that she probably had the worse journey of them all, fighting her way though Donna’s parallel world; a place where he had died. Donna hadn’t really remembered much, the memory of that parallel world slipped away from her like a dream, but Rose had lived through it and he knew that she was deeply hurt at the thought of him dying. Then a thought hit him, a thought he knew would kill the light-hearted mood, but he had to ask Rose about it.
‘Rose,’ he said slowly. She seemed to notice the change in his tone because she stopped laughing. ‘You knew Donna was going to die, how?’ he asked her quietly, and when he looked up, he can see that the colour has drained out of her face.
Rose looked at the Doctor intently, trying to gauge what his reaction will be to what she is about to tell him. She had filled him in on the flight back from Norway on how she had gotten back to his universe and to Donna’s universe. She bit her bottom lip and looked away from him as she started to speak. ‘The Dimension Cannon showed that her timeline was ending,’ Rose told him, still not looking in his direction but at the window, ‘it was when I was travelling between her parallel world and this universe that I saw it happen,’ she took a deep breath and looked up at the Doctor again. ‘I told her, the Donna in the parallel universe, that if she fixed the Time Lines then she would die,’ as she spoke she could feel the tears welling up inside her eyes.
She hadn’t spoken about what happened to anyone and to be given the opportunity to speak about it is just want she had been needed. ‘She didn’t remember that part, did she?’ Rose asked as a tear dropped from her eye to her cheek. ‘I sent her to her death.’ Silence fell between them for what seemed like forever before Rose spoke again. ‘But we all would have died without her.’
The Doctor looked away from Rose, unable to keep up with the whirlwind of feeling he has going around his mind. At the forefront of his mind is anger; Donna was his best friend, like a sister and Rose had manipulated her and sent her to her death. But then he feels Rose’s pain; to be burden with such a decision is something he has never wanted Rose to have to experience. He’s done precisely the same thing himself, manipulated people he has cared about to the ends of the greater good. Finally he’s hit with loss; not only has he lost Donna and the TARDIS, but he realises that he has lost his Rose, the woman he remembers has been forced to grow up and take everything she ever watched him do and do it herself. The other Doctor, the Time Lord, would not have realised that Rose Tyler also needed to heal from all that she had seen. He realised that they both needed each other.
‘Rose,’ he whispered overcome with sadness. He stepped forward and grabbed her limp hand.
She looked around in surprise as his hand wrapped around hers. ‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered.
Then he crouched down in front of her, his other hand pushing strands of hair behind her ears. ‘No,’ he told her firmly, ‘I’m sorry, you shouldn’t have had to...’ he trailed off as the words die in his mouth. His hand ran though her hair and down her cheek, cupping it gently and offering her the comfort that she so visibly needs.
Seconds later she is in his arms as the tears gush forth. He wondered how long she had been holding this all in; being stuck in this universe without him, travelling to parallel worlds where she found him to be dead, sending Donna to her death and whatever else life had subjected her to. ‘Rose,’ he whispered, fighting to keep his voice soft due to a new rising of anger he can feel. ‘Don’t go back to Torchwood.’
Rose pulled away from him and frowned, forgetting the tears that are streaming down her face. ‘But I don’t know how to do anything else,’ she told him. She’s been here so long, foiling alien plots and building the Dimension Canon that she’s no longer sure how to go back to a normal nine to five job.
The Doctor shrugged. ‘Neither do I,’ he admitted, ‘I’ve spent nine hundred years travelling between times and places that I’m not sure how to sit still anymore,’ but then he smiled at Rose. ‘Perhaps we can work on that one together as well, building something new for ourselves.’
The comment coaxed a laugh out of her and she smiled at him. ‘Given any thought of what you want to do then?’ she asked, the way this conversation has gone, it’s clear that the Doctor will never set foot in Torchwood. ‘You’ll need a normal name as well, just for your ID and stuff.’
‘What’s wrong with the Doctor?’ he asked her, slightly put out.
Rose wiped the tears from her eyes as she spoke. ‘Don’t you find it comes with too many questions?’ she asked him. She’s heard all the questions before, even been the person to be asking them. ‘You know, the most frequent being ‘who are you’?’
‘Well,’ started the Doctor, lengthening the final syllable, before ploughing on with the rest of the sentence, ‘yes, but nine hundred years on and...’
‘You’re coping,’ Rose finished for him with a smile. She pressed her lips to his in a chaste. ‘I know.’
They smiled at each other before laughing.
Series: These Words Between Us
Characters: Rose Tyler, The Duplicate Tenth Doctor (Ten II/Rose)
Spoilers: Journey's End
Rating: G
A/N: This follows on from Indent in the Sand. Not Beta'd so any mistakes are my own.
Summary: The conversation continues as the Doctor and Rose adjust to their new life together
Rose Tyler found that she watched this new yet old Doctor a lot. She had been trying to work out what was different about him after he had told her that he might have acquired some new personality quirks, but she hadn’t noticed anything drastically different, and thankfully he hadn’t resorted to calling her ‘Earthgirl’ yet, for which she was grateful.
One of the changes she had noticed was his willingness to start wearing different clothes; he had commented that he’d been wearing his blue suit more and more often and maybe now was the time for a change. She had been dubious when her mum’s personal shopper had turned up on her doorstep with a credit account to get the Doctor clothed, but he had arrived back home later it was with bags full of clothes that most men would be envious of. When she told the Doctor that she approved of his new fashion-sense he had laughed, commenting it could have been far worse before muttering something about cricket whites and a stick of celery.
She had to admit to herself that she didn’t have the faintest idea of what he was on about. ‘Must be the Donna in you,’ she commented good naturedly as she helped him put away his clothes in the wardrobe. Suddenly, she sobered as she thought about Donna and looked at him with a serious expression. ‘How much of Donna is in you?’
The Doctor frowned as he thought about her question while she sat down on the bed that they were already sharing. He knew that Rose had been watching him to get an idea of how much he’d changed and he’d been doing the same thing, but he was starting to suspect that there wasn’t as much of his best friend buzzing around in his head as he had first thought. The most noticeable thing at the time had been his change in speak patterns, but even those had gone now. ‘Not as much as I first thought,’ he replied before adding sadly, ‘maybe it’s because she’s not around.’ He suspected that if she was around then more of her speech patterns and mannerisms would have asserted themselves into his mind. ‘There is still more of you up in here than there is of Donna,’ he told Rose as he tapped his head with a finger at the temple.
It took her a moment to realise what it is that he has said, and when it had sunk in she found that she still didn’t fully understand. ‘What?’
Once again the Doctor frowned and he leant against the wardrobe, looking down at Rose who was looking at him confused. Well, that’s one thing that’s different; he knew that had he still be a full Time Lord then he would never have told her this, but he wouldn’t have told her that he loved her either. ‘When I regenerated,’ he started slowly, ‘my mind created what it thought would be the ideal person for you.’
Her expression changed from confused to stunned, and then he sees that she is studying him like he’s something new. ‘How long have you been in love with me?’ she asked, still gazing at him, her heart filling with warm love for the man in front of her.
He smiled as he remembered the day that he had realised that he loved the beautiful blonde now sat opposite. ‘Since I realised you were still alive in Henry van Statten’s vault,’ he told her, but then he reconsidered, ‘or was it when you pointed out that it was me and not that Dalek that was pointing the gun at you. It was sometime around then.’
Rose is shocked by his honesty, she had half expected the Doctor to dance around the subject, but then she smiled at him. ‘You looked old enough to be my father back then,’ she teased with a smile before she laughed while pushing a strand of hair out of her face.
He hadn’t actually seen her laugh much since they got back to her flat, noticing that her mind was often elsewhere. He reflected that she probably had the worse journey of them all, fighting her way though Donna’s parallel world; a place where he had died. Donna hadn’t really remembered much, the memory of that parallel world slipped away from her like a dream, but Rose had lived through it and he knew that she was deeply hurt at the thought of him dying. Then a thought hit him, a thought he knew would kill the light-hearted mood, but he had to ask Rose about it.
‘Rose,’ he said slowly. She seemed to notice the change in his tone because she stopped laughing. ‘You knew Donna was going to die, how?’ he asked her quietly, and when he looked up, he can see that the colour has drained out of her face.
Rose looked at the Doctor intently, trying to gauge what his reaction will be to what she is about to tell him. She had filled him in on the flight back from Norway on how she had gotten back to his universe and to Donna’s universe. She bit her bottom lip and looked away from him as she started to speak. ‘The Dimension Cannon showed that her timeline was ending,’ Rose told him, still not looking in his direction but at the window, ‘it was when I was travelling between her parallel world and this universe that I saw it happen,’ she took a deep breath and looked up at the Doctor again. ‘I told her, the Donna in the parallel universe, that if she fixed the Time Lines then she would die,’ as she spoke she could feel the tears welling up inside her eyes.
She hadn’t spoken about what happened to anyone and to be given the opportunity to speak about it is just want she had been needed. ‘She didn’t remember that part, did she?’ Rose asked as a tear dropped from her eye to her cheek. ‘I sent her to her death.’ Silence fell between them for what seemed like forever before Rose spoke again. ‘But we all would have died without her.’
The Doctor looked away from Rose, unable to keep up with the whirlwind of feeling he has going around his mind. At the forefront of his mind is anger; Donna was his best friend, like a sister and Rose had manipulated her and sent her to her death. But then he feels Rose’s pain; to be burden with such a decision is something he has never wanted Rose to have to experience. He’s done precisely the same thing himself, manipulated people he has cared about to the ends of the greater good. Finally he’s hit with loss; not only has he lost Donna and the TARDIS, but he realises that he has lost his Rose, the woman he remembers has been forced to grow up and take everything she ever watched him do and do it herself. The other Doctor, the Time Lord, would not have realised that Rose Tyler also needed to heal from all that she had seen. He realised that they both needed each other.
‘Rose,’ he whispered overcome with sadness. He stepped forward and grabbed her limp hand.
She looked around in surprise as his hand wrapped around hers. ‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered.
Then he crouched down in front of her, his other hand pushing strands of hair behind her ears. ‘No,’ he told her firmly, ‘I’m sorry, you shouldn’t have had to...’ he trailed off as the words die in his mouth. His hand ran though her hair and down her cheek, cupping it gently and offering her the comfort that she so visibly needs.
Seconds later she is in his arms as the tears gush forth. He wondered how long she had been holding this all in; being stuck in this universe without him, travelling to parallel worlds where she found him to be dead, sending Donna to her death and whatever else life had subjected her to. ‘Rose,’ he whispered, fighting to keep his voice soft due to a new rising of anger he can feel. ‘Don’t go back to Torchwood.’
Rose pulled away from him and frowned, forgetting the tears that are streaming down her face. ‘But I don’t know how to do anything else,’ she told him. She’s been here so long, foiling alien plots and building the Dimension Canon that she’s no longer sure how to go back to a normal nine to five job.
The Doctor shrugged. ‘Neither do I,’ he admitted, ‘I’ve spent nine hundred years travelling between times and places that I’m not sure how to sit still anymore,’ but then he smiled at Rose. ‘Perhaps we can work on that one together as well, building something new for ourselves.’
The comment coaxed a laugh out of her and she smiled at him. ‘Given any thought of what you want to do then?’ she asked, the way this conversation has gone, it’s clear that the Doctor will never set foot in Torchwood. ‘You’ll need a normal name as well, just for your ID and stuff.’
‘What’s wrong with the Doctor?’ he asked her, slightly put out.
Rose wiped the tears from her eyes as she spoke. ‘Don’t you find it comes with too many questions?’ she asked him. She’s heard all the questions before, even been the person to be asking them. ‘You know, the most frequent being ‘who are you’?’
‘Well,’ started the Doctor, lengthening the final syllable, before ploughing on with the rest of the sentence, ‘yes, but nine hundred years on and...’
‘You’re coping,’ Rose finished for him with a smile. She pressed her lips to his in a chaste. ‘I know.’
They smiled at each other before laughing.