Part 04 - Chapter 04 - Homecoming
Jackie and Mickey both exclaim together, “Doctor!” as he tumbles out the door of the TARDIS barely being slowed in his decent as they both grab for his collapsing form.
Mickey looks up at Jackie in the same moment in horror both wondering what has happened and why the only word out of the Doctor’s mouth as he collapsed was Rose. Jackie recovers first, pushing the now dead weight of the Doctor’s unconscious form fully into Mickey’s arms, before turning and running into the interior of the TARDIS shouting, “Rose!” Freezing for a moment as she spots her daughter’s form lying next to the console, clamping both her hands over her mouth in terror as she cries out, “Oh Rose, NO!”
Rose, at hearing her mother’s voice cry out, we try to coordinate my, her new body enough to reassure her mother she will be okay. But even as when we had felt Theta’s panic and pleas as he was working to get us back to Earth there was too much information, too much to take in with all of the sensations pouring in from both our bodies. When Verity had told me what would happen I had known I would do anything to save the Doctor even if that meant dying for him to be able to live. Though even with the warning, even with her caution, I don’t know if we, she, no I am going to be able to handle this, everything is different now, so confusing. When the Vortex had been burning through me everything had seemed simple every thing so clear and right and easy. Then had come the burning fiery pain, which had been excruciating for a brief time, as Verity was finishing moving all of my memories over to her. In spite of the fear at knowing my body was burning up from the inside, that I was dying, still everything made sense. For a short time, we watched with completely detached vigilance as finally too much of my human nervous system had failed and my body was finally vaporized by the intensity of the energy I, she, no we had tried to contain in her frail human frame. Despite everything, things were the way they were meant to be. Even as we had finally watched my human body die, from the safety of my place stored in the TARDIS memory banks, everything had seemed right and proper, everything was going as planned. As the threads of vortex energy began to rebuild piece by piece a new Gallifreyan body in which we would reside, in which I could live out our days as the Doctor’s physical equal, things had been scary but right. Then everything seemed to go pear shaped as Theta had grabbed us and pulled me into his arms and we felt his desperation to pull the energy from my, our new body, not realizing what was happening, only hoping with every fiber of his being he could save Rose’s life by sacrificing his own which is exactly what we were trying to prevent. We had barely stopped the flow of energy outward before it would have caused him to regenerate, knowing with a sickening certainty that he would be sick for days as his body tried to repair the damage caused by the small portion of energy he had snatched from us before we could stop him. We had so wanted to heal him but nothing was working right. The distraction had been enough and everything had began to spiral out of control, the integration which had at first seemed so easy suddenly was becoming very, very difficult and confusing as she, I, no we struggled to figure out who was thinking what and who was to control what parts of each of our bodies and the urge to panic only made things worse. All of my reactions seemed wrong and so for a time, in a state of shock I had tried to do nothing, letting Verity control the TARDIS form I was now joined to as my, no our new Gallifreyan body dropped in and out of consciousness and I bounced back and forth between my two new bodies having trouble trying to figure out where I belonged both seemed wrong at the same time they both felt sort of right too. When my humanoid body was conscious I was desperately trying not to think and confuse us as Verity navigated the vortex. The landing had been bad and the impact against the buildings hurt in a way I couldn't begin to explain but at least we had gotten to almost exactly where and when had wanted between the three of us, a few hours after we left and two days before Christmas. Now though I need to get my act together to keep mum from panicking.
The sudden wave of nausea doesn’t help and I desperately wish I could just tell mum to quit rocking her.
“Rose?” Opening my eyes seems so hard; it isn’t supposed to be this hard at least Jackie has stopped rocking us.
“What isn’t suppose… Rose?” I can feel mum’s fear and Jackie’s sudden realization that I didn’t say anything aloud and sigh with a mixture of relief and frustration. This was not how I intended to tell mum the daughter of her body was dead that I was part Gallifreyan and part TARDIS now, and physically no longer human and very much confused by it all.
“Rose honey your not making any sense you’re not dead, you’re right here your home now. How are you talking without moving your lips, what did he do to you?”
Her flash of anger at Theta hurts but it seems this is the best I can do right now. ‘It’s telepathy mum and he didn’t do anything to me. I… well I did actually, when I opened up the TARDIS’. Images of the yellow tow truck flash through my mind and everything is suddenly double as I remember those events from both my perspective and Verity’s and abruptly I have a raging headache.
“Rose, let me get you an aspirin if your head hurts half as much as…”
‘NO!’ I shout and I feel mum jerk in pain as I realize what she has just said and a horrific image of a man twisting in what appears to be horrific agony while two Essarrians laugh flashes in my mind the man's face then morphs to my own and then to the Doctor’s and I know, but not how I know, that the man was a Gallifreyan and had been poisoned with aspirin and would shortly die unable to regenerate
I hear her gasp as I finally get my eyes open just in time to see mums terrified expression and realize that I wasn’t the only one who saw those gruesome images and knew exactly what they meant.
“Jackie? Is Rose okay?” I hear Mickey’s voice from the doorway and suddenly realize that he is here too and has laid Theta down inside the doorway I need to get to him and yet I still can’t seem to get my body to cooperate.
‘Please mum he’s hurt!’ Need to…’ Confusion descends on my thoughts and the headache that had begun surges forward like a tidal wave sweeping me away into darkness.
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“Jackie?” I hear Mickey calling and I don’t know what to tell him. First I find Rose lying here seemingly unable to move, and then she starts talking, well sort of, it is like hearing a broadcast through a static filled radio with half the words unintelligible. The rest seemingly nonsense about being dead and not human, well not exactly talking more like thinking at me. What has he done to my daughter? Rose had said before she left that he had told her he was going to die and that was why it was so urgent she get back to him. But what happened when she finally got the TARDIS to move? What happened to them while they were gone, for that matter how long has it been? It’s only been a few hours here since she disappeared on her desperate mission to try to save the Doctor. What happened to that fellow Mickey said was traveling with them? Rose had said when we had taken her out to chips trying to calm her down that he had left to try to get them some more time. I can’t help looking around wondering if he is lying passed out around here someplace too? I wish she could just tell me what is going on, tell me she is going to be okay. After what she showed me with regard to the aspirin I am afraid to give either of them anything. I can’t stop the shiver as I think about the man in the picture she sent that was clear enough as well as the sense of total panic at the idea. I don’t know what happened to her but it’s obvious that it’s poison for ‘er now as well as for him.
“Jackie?” Yes, right Mickey still needs some kind of answer and now that he is standing right here maybe he can help with Rose, help me sort out what to do. Mickey has always been good at sorting stuff with Rose, well used to be anyway.
“I’m… I’m not sure. It was like she was talking to me but she wasn’t saying anything like instead she was talking directly into my head, showing me pictures. She couldn’t do that before and… I don’t know she doesn’t seem to be able to move, something about her opening the TARDIS. Says himself is hurt though, did you see anything?”
“No, but he does seem rather hot, she told me once that his body temp is lower than ours so don’t figure that can be good. But haven’t a clue what to do about it maybe if we can get him awake we can get him some sort of paracetamol or aspirin bring down...”
“No! Not aspirin ‘s poison to him.” Looking down at my child I can’t help but mumble “her now too, I guess, based on what she showed me.” Some how that doesn’t seem like enough explanation and I try to explain. “Has a bleeding bad headache she does and she practically shouts me head off when I suggested it. I don't know Mickey. I don’t understand any of this; just know that something bad has happened.
“Do you think that Jack fellow is around here someplace too? Maybe he knows what to do for them.”
“Not sure, you heard what she said if he’s that bad” pointing back to the Doctor’s form just in side the door, “not sure Jack would still be…” Mickey stops unwilling to say anything further.”
“You don’t think he’s dead do you?” Jackie asks with of a bit of a tremble in her voice.
Looking between Rose and the Doctor meaningfully Mickey doesn’t answer instead he say, “Maybe I should look around just to make sure he’s not on board hurt or out like these two.”
“We should get someone to help? You know...” unsure he shrugs not sure who they would even call.
“Who Mickey? You have heard the rumors about people getting hurt recently because they’ve been accused of being aliens. Ever since the thing with Big Ben people have been jumpy”
“Well, maybe those fellows at UNIT he said he used to work for them maybe they can help.”
“We can’t risk it, we don’t know how long ago it was he worked with those chaps. Rose said that the alien experts people had been all killed by the Slitheen what if nobody knows who he is now and what about Rose Mickey? What if somethin’s wrong with her, if those Dalek creatures she was talking about hurt her or she’s got some alien flu? He’s the only one who’s going to be able to help her.”
“I can take Rose up stairs but what about him? Not sure were gonna be able to get him up there even with both of us. You know how people gossip, us hauling bodies around broad daylight next thing you know well have the Old Bill at the door and that ain’t going to help either of ‘em.
Both of them jump, as the front door slams shut.
Chapter 05 - Settling in
Story Index