Don't Blink - 11/?
Title: Don't Blink - 11/?
Characters: Rose, Ten
Summary: AU. What if Rose had stayed through Doomsday and was the one to end up in 1969 with the Doctor?
Rating: PG
~ One~ Two~ Three~ Four~ Five~ Six~ Seven~ Eight~ Nine~ Ten~
The Doctor had reacted quite without thinking. The yells coming from outside the flat had instantly diverted his thoughts from Sally Sparrow and the rather confusing mess of papers she had given him. Grabbing his coat, he opened the door, slammed it shut behind him, and started running down the hallway towards the source of the noise.
He bumped into Jeff as he ran, struggling to get his arms into his coat sleeves.
“Did you hear that?” Jeff demanded as they both continued to jog down the hall. “I’ve never heard anyone make a noise like that!”
As quickly as it had started, the noise stopped, switched off like a radio. They both came to a slow stop.
“What happened?” Jeff asked in confusion.
“It’s stopped,” the Doctor pointed out. Really, the man was good looking enough and dense enough to qualify as another of Rose’s - no, no, no, he told himself firmly. He was not going to go there.
“Yeah it stopped,” Jeff said, bringing the Doctor out of his mental wanderings concerning Rose and the young men she seemed to attract without any effort at all, not that he was jealous because he wasn't, not at all, “but what was it? I could swear it was coming from downstairs.”
“Well, then.” The Doctor adjusted his coat. “We’d better go see.”
There was nothing in the hallway or on the stairs. No signs of struggle or accident. No one was loitering about in the lobby, either. Both men paused and looked all around, trying to find a clue as what had happened. A very tall woman in a tie-dyed shirt and skin-tight pants walked down the hall to the row of mailboxes that lined the wall by the building’s entrance.
“Hello, Sandra,” Jeff greeted her. “How are you?” He tried in vain to make eye contact with her.
She glanced in the general direction of his voice without actually looking at him. “Fine,” she answered.
“You just getting in?”
She heaved a deep sigh as she reached the mailboxes. “Yes.”
“Did you hear anything just now?” he persisted. “Like...screaming?”
She collected her mail, locked her box up again, and fixed him with a look of deep annoyance. “Screaming?”
“Yeah. Screaming.”
“From where?” she asked after a long moment of silence.
“From...” Jeff was stumped. He looked at the Doctor, who was equally stumped.
“Er, from around here. Or the general direction of here,” the Doctor finally said with a vague hand gesture.
Sandra looked like she couldn’t believe she was actually speaking to them. “No. I didn’t hear anything.” She took her mail and continued on to the front door, walking out without a backwards glance and letting the door slam behind her.
“See you later!” Jeff called.
“Not too friendly, is she?” the Doctor observed. “Amazing how she manages to convey so much disdain with so few words.”
“She’s friendly enough,” Jeff said darkly. “With the right sort of person.”
“Ah.” The Doctor could just imagine who that right sort of person would be. Judging by the girl’s reaction, Jeff was not the right sort of person. His attention caught again by the mailboxes, he walked over to them and stared fixedly at each one, hands stuffed into the pockets of his trousers.
“What are you looking at?” Jeff came up beside him and scanned the wall.
“This unit isn’t a very big one, is it? Not like a council estate, certainly. There are only ten units here,” the Doctor observed, nodding at the two rows of black boxes, five in each row. “Single people, couples, families with children. Could be as few as fifteen altogether. If just five flats have a family of four living in it, we’re up to around twenty-five, thirty people. Possibly more.”
Jeff looked confused, which quite possibly was his natural expression. “What has that got to do with the yelling?”
“We could knock on the door of each flat and ask if the occupants are all right.” The Doctor spoke absently, eyes still on the mailboxes, reading the names on each one. He noted that the one assigned to his own flat had no name on it. No one knew that he and Rose were there.
“What’s the use of that? It could have been someone coming in from off the street and then right back out again.”
This bit of reasonable thinking earned Jeff an approving glance. Perhaps he wasn’t as dim as the Doctor initially thought. Before he could pursue that line of logic, the door to the flat by the entrance creaked open. They both turned around to spot a head with curly grey hair peering out at them through the chain.
“Something wrong?” the unit manager asked.
“No, Mrs. MacMurray,” Jeff said quickly. “Not at all. How are you?”
“Oh, fine. Just fine.”
“Lovely.” Jeff grabbed the Doctor’s arm and pushed him to the door. “We were just heading out. See you later!”
“What was that for?” the Doctor demanded once they were outside on the street.
“I don’t want to bother her,” Jeff explained. “If something was going on, she would have heard and would have gotten worried.”
“Worried? She manages the entire building! Surely she’s seen worse than some anonymous yelling.”
“Yeah, but she’s got a bad heart. I hate to bother her.”
“What happens when something goes wrong?”
“Oh, she deals with it, of course. Bad stuff happens here all the time, just like any other place. Heart attacks, angry husband hits his wife, kids fall down the stairs.”
The Doctor could not argue with this logic, not when there was anything wrong that he could see. “Fair enough.”
“I better get going back to work,” Jeff said. “I just stopped back home to pick up some paperwork.” He held up a briefcase that the Doctor hadn’t noticed before. Jeff hesitated as he turned. “What’s your name, anyway?”
“My name? Smith. John Smith.” The alias came to his lips easily, which was no surprise if you considered just how often he had used it.
“Nice to meet you. I’m meeting some mates down at the pub on the corner after work. You’re welcome to come by, especially if the missus is gone.”
Meeting Jeff and his mates at the neighborhood pub was one of the last things the Doctor felt like doing, but he nodded anyway.
“Sounds great! I’ll see what we get up to later.”
“See you.” And Jeff was gone, heading off down the street. Despite the casual air, Jeff was wearing a proper City suit. He idly wondered what the man did for a living.
It was no use. Despite his fascination with the envelope - where had Sally Sparrow bumped into him in his future? - all he could think about was the passing of time and where Rose was. He hadn’t thought to ask the name of her shop, and although he wanted to go find her, he didn’t want her to think that he was checking up on her. She was of course capable of handling things on her own. This was London in 1969, not an alien planet.
Right. Time to get back to work. Off we go.
The Doctor returned to the flat, struck by how...shabby it seemed in the light of day. He hung his coat up and walked around the room, hands in pockets. The view from the sitting room wasn’t bad. They had a television. Reminded of this, he switched it on, content to let the tinny sounds keep him company. The furniture wasn’t that bad, he supposed, but it had nothing on the styles and fabrics of the future. The couch had been in the flat for sometime, judging by the springs he could see just beneath the seat.
That envelope beckoned. He sat, put on his glasses, and got to work, sorting through the random notebook pages and old photographs. Try as he might, he couldn’t concentrate on any one item long enough to work out how it was connected to himself.
He stopped to have lunch, running out to find himself a sandwich at a small take-away place down the street. After that he simply wandered, amused to see so many familiar places. He’d been here before 1969, and would be here after 1969. He thought back to his own personal timeline. Was he there in London right now, working for UNIT? He resolved to avoid the more memorable spots, just in case. It never did to meddle in one’s own personal timeline. Also, for some reason, his previous regenerations never appreciated his later regenerations.
The Doctor didn’t go back to the flat. Although he was unwilling to admit it to himself, he was lonely without Rose and felt anxious. She was off working because they needed money to live while they were here. They were here because of the Weeping Angels, and shouldn’t he have been more careful in that house? He had promised Jackie he’d take care of Rose, and just look where they were. It just didn’t feel right without Rose beside him, and he didn’t like that at all.
“‘Lo, mate,” someone greeted him, and he looked up to see his old buddy Jeff standing there, this time dressed in jeans and a casual sweater. “I’m heading to the pub. Coming?”
The Doctor spoke without thinking.
“I’d love to,” he said. “I just...I need to go meet Rose first.”
Jeff grinned. “Like that, eh? I’ll see you down there.”
“See you,” the Doctor said. He decided to check the flat first. If Rose wasn’t there, he would give in and go find her shop. He’d made it through an entire day without her. He was willing to admit that it had been very unpleasant.
The pub was dark inside, and Rose had to blink a few times to see through the haze of cigarette smoke. The telly was on over the bar, showing a rugby match or football or something equally compelling. She didn’t care enough to look closely and figure out which it was. A waitress bustled by in a tight top and very short skirt, bearing a tray of pints. Rose stepped aside to let her pass, then followed the Doctor to the back.
“So who am I meeting?” she asked once more, but if he heard her he didn’t answer. Coming to a stop at a table, he waved an arm for Rose to sit down. She sat, eyes on the dark haired man across from her.
He grinned at her as the Doctor settled in beside her, taking off his coat and carefully hanging it over the back of his chair so it didn’t drag on the floor.
“Hello!” he said cheerfully, swigging back a truly amazing mouthful of ale. “Name’s Jeff. Live upstairs from you.”
Rose nodded, wondering where the Doctor had bumped into him. “Hello. I’m Rose.”
“Nice to meet you! What’ll you have?”
She was still slightly off balance, and looked around for a menu. “I, I don’t know.” Did pubs in this time serve the same type of food as in her own time?
“We’re both having the fish and chips,” the Doctor told him. “I’ll go place that order.” He smiled cheerfully at Rose and was away and at the bar before she could say anything to stop him. She looked back at Jeff and found him staring at her from over his mug.
“So how do you like London so far?”
“It’s...nice,” Rose said carefully. How much had the Doctor told this man? Did she need to start creating a backstory for them? Why had he just walked away like that?
“Nice?” Jeff shook his head. “I’d never call it nice. Now, crazy, that’d be a good one.”
“Crazy,” Rose echoed. “Really?” The London she knew was busy and loud and carefree and lots of things, but she had never thought of it as crazy before.
“Yeah. Crazy’s a good word. Came down from the North as a kid, myself. Never got over the shock. Couldn’t bear to go back.”
Rose smiled, a real smile, not the polite one she had first used with him. “I used to have a friend from the North.”
“Yeah? What part?”
“Oh, not the north of England. The north of...” Her voice trailed off. “So. Do you like it here, then?”
“Love it. Never leaving. I’ve got a great job, nice enough flat, lots of girls to call.”
Rose nodded understandingly. “Single bloke, lots of prospects.”
“Exactly. Man’s got to play the field while he’s young, you know?”
“So how did you meet-”
“Here we go! Fish and chips, as ordered!” The Doctor set down two baskets and slipped back in beside Rose.
“Thanks.” Rose bit into a chip, realized how hungry she was, and took another one. “Mmm, these are delicious!”
“Nothing like good old English pub food,” the Doctor agreed. “Best in the universe!”
Jeff gave him an odd look. “Right. Pub food. Best in the Milky Way.”
“Well, I didn’t specify the galaxy,” the Doctor began, but Rose interrupted him.
“Did we get drinks, too?”
From his pocket he pulled out two bottles of Coca Cola and handed one to Rose. She looked, perplexed, at the bottlecap and tried to twist it off. It pinched her fingers. From another pocket the Doctor produced a small bottle opener, flipped the cap off, and presented it to her.
“There you are.”
“Thank you.” She beamed at him and took a long sip.
The Doctor was momentarily distracted by the way her mouth curved around the bottle. He could almost see her tongue working as she swallowed the cola, and he shook himself back to his senses and changed the subject before he did something really, really stupid.
“As I was about to tell Jeff before I decided to come find you,” the Doctor said to Rose, taking a chip off her plate without even asking, “we’re in town for a bit after some trouble with our transportation.”
Rose nodded, trying to look like she had known that al along. Unbidden, a memory of the Doctor in the midst of World War II came to mind. Short dark hair and blue eyes, wearing a black leather jacket and being addressed as “Dr. Spock.” Absurdly, for a split second she missed him, even as he was sitting beside her.
“Yeah, our transportation,” she echoed. “Just a bit of trouble. Thought we’d stay for a while and...and enjoy the sights.” She glanced around the dark pub, wishing this was a place worth seeing and not the same sort of pub she had been in with Mickey as he watched a match with his mates and she played with her mobile phone.
“Well, don’t know how many sights are here to enjoy.” Jeff paused to take a bite of his cheeseburger. “Unless you’re into Buckingham Palace or 10 Downing Street.”
“Oh, we’ve done all that,” the Doctor said casually. “Or will do, depending on your point of view. But for the moment we’re happy to be here.”
“Stop,” Rose whispered to him. Too much talk of time would make people nervous and suspicious.
“So, John tells me that you’re working while he’s at university?” Jeff asked Rose.
She stared at him until her brain told her who the “John” must be referring to. “Uh, yes.” She glanced at the Doctor, who looked at her innocently but with a suspicious gleam of laughter in his eyes. “I’ve got a job at a shop near here. You know professional students,” she couldn’t resist adding. “Never want to work if they can hang around in the classroom all day!”
The Doctor was startled into a frown and Jeff laughed.
“I’m a post - graduate student,” the Doctor corrected Rose. “Busy and professional and all that. Making great strides in research.”
“Huge, huge strides,” Rose agreed. “Absolutely amazing, the stuff he comes up with.”
The Doctor gazed at her incredulously, with a slight smile curving his mouth. He was enjoying this, even as she was teasing him.
“You wouldn’t believe the stuff I can come up with,” he agreed in an undertone, and Rose felt herself flush. She hadn’t felt this giddy since...well, before her mum went through to the other universe, for sure.
“Wouldn’t I?” she murmured.
“Blimey.” Jeff shook his head and reached for his drink. His voice broke the spell surrounding them and they moved back away from each other. The Doctor reached for a chip. Rose nervously smoothed back her hair. Each tried to act like nothing had happened. “What’s it like, anyway, being married? Is it worth the trouble or not?”
The chip fell out of the Doctor’s open mouth. “Sorry. What?”
Rose turned to the Doctor and coldly, quite deliberately, changed the subject.
“Where did you meet, anyway? You never did say. Weren’t you studying all day?”
His eyes widened. “Studying? Is that what you would call trying to piece together-”
“It was the weirdest thing!” Jeff interrupted, forgetting his cheeseburger and leaning towards her. “There I was, in the hallway right outside your flat, when I heard someone yelling.”
Rose glanced at the Doctor, satisfied that the mention of marriage had been forgotten. Plenty of time to avoid that one later on. “Outside our flat?”
“Yeah, I knocked on the door to say hello.”
“Someone was yelling,” the Doctor confirmed. “Jeff and I both ran out but we didn’t see anything.”
“No one would even answer their doors,” Jeff added. “All that bloody racket, and no one heard anything.”
“Well, they might not have been home,” the Doctor allowed.
“Middle of the day, most people are out,” Jeff conceded. “But it was still right strange.”
“That is strange,” Rose agreed, and when they got to debating what it could possibly have been, she fell into it with as much enthusiasm as they did.
Long after their meals were finished, they stayed in the booth. Rose went to the loo once, and the Doctor would hop up now and then to examine something or other that caught his fancy, either inside the pub or something that he saw in the street. People came and went, saying hello to Jeff and being introduced.
Rose was actually enjoying herself quite a lot, and the Doctor appeared very relaxed. Sometimes he would stretch an arm along the seat behind her back, and she had to fight the temptation to snuggle against him.
Jeff sat up straight when a pretty woman with blonde hair entered the pub. She glanced all around, saw Jeff, and immediately turned away. He frowned, got up and walked over to her. They appeared to be having a difference of opinion.
“Ouch,” the Doctor said mildly when Jeff got slapped in the face. “I know what that’s like.”
“Lover’s tiff?” Rose guessed.
“Maybe.” The Doctor lost interest in Jeff and his female friend, preferring to look at Rose instead.
“We should think about getting back, shouldn’t we?” She leaned over to grab a chip from the Doctor’s plate. Her hair had come loose and brushed the side of his face as she moved.
He blinked and cleared his throat. “Yes. Yes. We should get back home.” He spoke without thinking, but it touched a nerve in Rose.
“I can’t think of it as home, you know?” Rose spoke quietly, staring down at the tabletop. “My mum’s flat was home. The TARDIS was home. This...it’s more like we’re on holiday.”
“That’s the spirit,” the Doctor said, forcing himself to sound cheerful. “We are on a time traveling holiday, and soon we’ll be back where we belong.”
She smiled wryly. “Relaxed and refreshed?”
“Why not? I haven’t relaxed like this since...” He paused. “Since when?”
“Not since we found that weather predictor for my mum.” Her smile faded. That day had been wonderful and fun and full of laughter, and the trip to see her mother had started a long series of disasters.
“Don’t,” he said when he saw her trying not to cry. “Your mother is happy and safe. She knows where you are.”
Rose sniffed. “I know. I’m glad she found my dad and they’re having a baby. I just miss her. I’ll never see the baby, I’ll never know if I have a brother or sister.”
“If there’s a way to go back, we will find it,” he promised her. “Okay? I promise it, Rose. I swear it.”
“First we have to get out of 1969,” she reminded him.
“First that. Then we’ll break across parallel dimensions.”
Rose nodded. “Deal. Anyway, I’d rather be here. I’d rather be here with you than be stuck on the other side of that wall.” She couldn’t stop the tears this time, and he hugged her with one arm.
“Stuck with me, that’s what you are. Come on.”
Rose found her shoes under the table and slipped them back on. They’d started to hurt her feet, and she made a mental note to wear something more comfortable to work from now on. The Doctor slid out of the booth and waited for her. Rose stumbled a little when she stood up and he caught her easily against him.
“Steady now! All right!”
“Yup. Right as rain.” She grinned up at him, and he was amazed that her scent was still as fresh as when she first put it on that morning.
“Doctor? You all right?”
He realized that he was holding her against him. She looked up at him with a question in her eyes.
“‘Course I’m all right! When aren’t I? Come on!” He offered her his arm and headed out of the pub, waving a goodbye to Jeff on the way.
Back at the flat Rose meant to go change into pajamas and get ready for bed, but she was distracted by the papers all over the floor, couch and tables. By the light of the streetlamps outside, it looked like a thick white coating over everything. Rose switched on a lamp and looked around.
“What’s all this?”
“Sally Sparrow, whoever she may be, amassed the oddest collection of memorabilia for me.” The Doctor cleared the couch off by sweeping the papers to the floor and sitting down.
Rose stifled a laugh but joined him. The couch, old and sagging as it was, felt heavenly.
“Oh, that’s nice,” she sighed leaning back against the cushions. The springs jabbed into her legs but she ignored them for the moment.
“Are you really that tired?” he asked in some surprise. Normally Rose could go all day and all night.
“Not tired, exactly,” she allowed. “Just been a long day. I haven’t had to do a proper job like that in a long time. Not since you blew my last job up,” she couldn’t help adding.
“It’s my fault that you’re working now.” The Doctor looked at her. “I’m sorry, Rose.”
The last time he had looked so devastated was when he had realized he’d trapped her on a planet orbiting a black hole. It had broken her heart to see him without the TARDIS then, and it broke her heart now, too.
“No, it’s not your fault!” she hastened to tell him. “You didn’t ask those, those creepy space traveling angels to send us back in time! I’m gonna work to support us until you figure it all out.”
He nodded. Of course he would figure it all out! He was the Doctor.
Rose leaned over and idly picked up the first piece of paper she touched. As she looked it over the Doctor used the sonic screwdriver to turn the television on. Rose looked up when she heard the sound.
He grinned. “I just invented the remote control!”
She giggled before going back to the paper. “This doesn’t make any sense. Love, Actually. Manon of the Spring. A Man and a Woman. The Maltese Falcon.” She set the paper down and peered at the Doctor. “What is this?”
He glanced at the paper she was holding out. “Oh! Apparently this is a list of movies that we are to insert an Easter egg onto once they are released in DVD format.”
“Easter eggs,” she repeated.
“Yes. A hidden message, passage or scene inside a dvd, computer game, whatever.” The Doctor shrugged. “This a list of movies that our good friend Sally Sparrow owns. And apparently I will one day insert an Easter egg full of instructions and dialogue onto each one for her to find.”
Rose was still puzzled. “How are you going to do that?”
“Oh, I imagine it’s all laid out somewhere.” He gestured to the papers.
“But it’s only 1969. DVDs won’t be out until...when?”
He thought for a moment. “Around 1995 or so.”
“1995? But that’s almost thirty years from now!” she exclaimed.
“Now, Rose, don’t worry. We just need to be calm and rational, and everything will work itself right out.”
She took a deep breath and settled herself more comfortably on the couch. “If you say so, Doctor.”
“I do,” he said firmly, and they both pretended to believe that everything was going to be all right.
Twelve."
Characters: Rose, Ten
Summary: AU. What if Rose had stayed through Doomsday and was the one to end up in 1969 with the Doctor?
Rating: PG
~ One~ Two~ Three~ Four~ Five~ Six~ Seven~ Eight~ Nine~ Ten~
The Doctor had reacted quite without thinking. The yells coming from outside the flat had instantly diverted his thoughts from Sally Sparrow and the rather confusing mess of papers she had given him. Grabbing his coat, he opened the door, slammed it shut behind him, and started running down the hallway towards the source of the noise.
He bumped into Jeff as he ran, struggling to get his arms into his coat sleeves.
“Did you hear that?” Jeff demanded as they both continued to jog down the hall. “I’ve never heard anyone make a noise like that!”
As quickly as it had started, the noise stopped, switched off like a radio. They both came to a slow stop.
“What happened?” Jeff asked in confusion.
“It’s stopped,” the Doctor pointed out. Really, the man was good looking enough and dense enough to qualify as another of Rose’s - no, no, no, he told himself firmly. He was not going to go there.
“Yeah it stopped,” Jeff said, bringing the Doctor out of his mental wanderings concerning Rose and the young men she seemed to attract without any effort at all, not that he was jealous because he wasn't, not at all, “but what was it? I could swear it was coming from downstairs.”
“Well, then.” The Doctor adjusted his coat. “We’d better go see.”
There was nothing in the hallway or on the stairs. No signs of struggle or accident. No one was loitering about in the lobby, either. Both men paused and looked all around, trying to find a clue as what had happened. A very tall woman in a tie-dyed shirt and skin-tight pants walked down the hall to the row of mailboxes that lined the wall by the building’s entrance.
“Hello, Sandra,” Jeff greeted her. “How are you?” He tried in vain to make eye contact with her.
She glanced in the general direction of his voice without actually looking at him. “Fine,” she answered.
“You just getting in?”
She heaved a deep sigh as she reached the mailboxes. “Yes.”
“Did you hear anything just now?” he persisted. “Like...screaming?”
She collected her mail, locked her box up again, and fixed him with a look of deep annoyance. “Screaming?”
“Yeah. Screaming.”
“From where?” she asked after a long moment of silence.
“From...” Jeff was stumped. He looked at the Doctor, who was equally stumped.
“Er, from around here. Or the general direction of here,” the Doctor finally said with a vague hand gesture.
Sandra looked like she couldn’t believe she was actually speaking to them. “No. I didn’t hear anything.” She took her mail and continued on to the front door, walking out without a backwards glance and letting the door slam behind her.
“See you later!” Jeff called.
“Not too friendly, is she?” the Doctor observed. “Amazing how she manages to convey so much disdain with so few words.”
“She’s friendly enough,” Jeff said darkly. “With the right sort of person.”
“Ah.” The Doctor could just imagine who that right sort of person would be. Judging by the girl’s reaction, Jeff was not the right sort of person. His attention caught again by the mailboxes, he walked over to them and stared fixedly at each one, hands stuffed into the pockets of his trousers.
“What are you looking at?” Jeff came up beside him and scanned the wall.
“This unit isn’t a very big one, is it? Not like a council estate, certainly. There are only ten units here,” the Doctor observed, nodding at the two rows of black boxes, five in each row. “Single people, couples, families with children. Could be as few as fifteen altogether. If just five flats have a family of four living in it, we’re up to around twenty-five, thirty people. Possibly more.”
Jeff looked confused, which quite possibly was his natural expression. “What has that got to do with the yelling?”
“We could knock on the door of each flat and ask if the occupants are all right.” The Doctor spoke absently, eyes still on the mailboxes, reading the names on each one. He noted that the one assigned to his own flat had no name on it. No one knew that he and Rose were there.
“What’s the use of that? It could have been someone coming in from off the street and then right back out again.”
This bit of reasonable thinking earned Jeff an approving glance. Perhaps he wasn’t as dim as the Doctor initially thought. Before he could pursue that line of logic, the door to the flat by the entrance creaked open. They both turned around to spot a head with curly grey hair peering out at them through the chain.
“Something wrong?” the unit manager asked.
“No, Mrs. MacMurray,” Jeff said quickly. “Not at all. How are you?”
“Oh, fine. Just fine.”
“Lovely.” Jeff grabbed the Doctor’s arm and pushed him to the door. “We were just heading out. See you later!”
“What was that for?” the Doctor demanded once they were outside on the street.
“I don’t want to bother her,” Jeff explained. “If something was going on, she would have heard and would have gotten worried.”
“Worried? She manages the entire building! Surely she’s seen worse than some anonymous yelling.”
“Yeah, but she’s got a bad heart. I hate to bother her.”
“What happens when something goes wrong?”
“Oh, she deals with it, of course. Bad stuff happens here all the time, just like any other place. Heart attacks, angry husband hits his wife, kids fall down the stairs.”
The Doctor could not argue with this logic, not when there was anything wrong that he could see. “Fair enough.”
“I better get going back to work,” Jeff said. “I just stopped back home to pick up some paperwork.” He held up a briefcase that the Doctor hadn’t noticed before. Jeff hesitated as he turned. “What’s your name, anyway?”
“My name? Smith. John Smith.” The alias came to his lips easily, which was no surprise if you considered just how often he had used it.
“Nice to meet you. I’m meeting some mates down at the pub on the corner after work. You’re welcome to come by, especially if the missus is gone.”
Meeting Jeff and his mates at the neighborhood pub was one of the last things the Doctor felt like doing, but he nodded anyway.
“Sounds great! I’ll see what we get up to later.”
“See you.” And Jeff was gone, heading off down the street. Despite the casual air, Jeff was wearing a proper City suit. He idly wondered what the man did for a living.
It was no use. Despite his fascination with the envelope - where had Sally Sparrow bumped into him in his future? - all he could think about was the passing of time and where Rose was. He hadn’t thought to ask the name of her shop, and although he wanted to go find her, he didn’t want her to think that he was checking up on her. She was of course capable of handling things on her own. This was London in 1969, not an alien planet.
Right. Time to get back to work. Off we go.
The Doctor returned to the flat, struck by how...shabby it seemed in the light of day. He hung his coat up and walked around the room, hands in pockets. The view from the sitting room wasn’t bad. They had a television. Reminded of this, he switched it on, content to let the tinny sounds keep him company. The furniture wasn’t that bad, he supposed, but it had nothing on the styles and fabrics of the future. The couch had been in the flat for sometime, judging by the springs he could see just beneath the seat.
That envelope beckoned. He sat, put on his glasses, and got to work, sorting through the random notebook pages and old photographs. Try as he might, he couldn’t concentrate on any one item long enough to work out how it was connected to himself.
He stopped to have lunch, running out to find himself a sandwich at a small take-away place down the street. After that he simply wandered, amused to see so many familiar places. He’d been here before 1969, and would be here after 1969. He thought back to his own personal timeline. Was he there in London right now, working for UNIT? He resolved to avoid the more memorable spots, just in case. It never did to meddle in one’s own personal timeline. Also, for some reason, his previous regenerations never appreciated his later regenerations.
The Doctor didn’t go back to the flat. Although he was unwilling to admit it to himself, he was lonely without Rose and felt anxious. She was off working because they needed money to live while they were here. They were here because of the Weeping Angels, and shouldn’t he have been more careful in that house? He had promised Jackie he’d take care of Rose, and just look where they were. It just didn’t feel right without Rose beside him, and he didn’t like that at all.
“‘Lo, mate,” someone greeted him, and he looked up to see his old buddy Jeff standing there, this time dressed in jeans and a casual sweater. “I’m heading to the pub. Coming?”
The Doctor spoke without thinking.
“I’d love to,” he said. “I just...I need to go meet Rose first.”
Jeff grinned. “Like that, eh? I’ll see you down there.”
“See you,” the Doctor said. He decided to check the flat first. If Rose wasn’t there, he would give in and go find her shop. He’d made it through an entire day without her. He was willing to admit that it had been very unpleasant.
The pub was dark inside, and Rose had to blink a few times to see through the haze of cigarette smoke. The telly was on over the bar, showing a rugby match or football or something equally compelling. She didn’t care enough to look closely and figure out which it was. A waitress bustled by in a tight top and very short skirt, bearing a tray of pints. Rose stepped aside to let her pass, then followed the Doctor to the back.
“So who am I meeting?” she asked once more, but if he heard her he didn’t answer. Coming to a stop at a table, he waved an arm for Rose to sit down. She sat, eyes on the dark haired man across from her.
He grinned at her as the Doctor settled in beside her, taking off his coat and carefully hanging it over the back of his chair so it didn’t drag on the floor.
“Hello!” he said cheerfully, swigging back a truly amazing mouthful of ale. “Name’s Jeff. Live upstairs from you.”
Rose nodded, wondering where the Doctor had bumped into him. “Hello. I’m Rose.”
“Nice to meet you! What’ll you have?”
She was still slightly off balance, and looked around for a menu. “I, I don’t know.” Did pubs in this time serve the same type of food as in her own time?
“We’re both having the fish and chips,” the Doctor told him. “I’ll go place that order.” He smiled cheerfully at Rose and was away and at the bar before she could say anything to stop him. She looked back at Jeff and found him staring at her from over his mug.
“So how do you like London so far?”
“It’s...nice,” Rose said carefully. How much had the Doctor told this man? Did she need to start creating a backstory for them? Why had he just walked away like that?
“Nice?” Jeff shook his head. “I’d never call it nice. Now, crazy, that’d be a good one.”
“Crazy,” Rose echoed. “Really?” The London she knew was busy and loud and carefree and lots of things, but she had never thought of it as crazy before.
“Yeah. Crazy’s a good word. Came down from the North as a kid, myself. Never got over the shock. Couldn’t bear to go back.”
Rose smiled, a real smile, not the polite one she had first used with him. “I used to have a friend from the North.”
“Yeah? What part?”
“Oh, not the north of England. The north of...” Her voice trailed off. “So. Do you like it here, then?”
“Love it. Never leaving. I’ve got a great job, nice enough flat, lots of girls to call.”
Rose nodded understandingly. “Single bloke, lots of prospects.”
“Exactly. Man’s got to play the field while he’s young, you know?”
“So how did you meet-”
“Here we go! Fish and chips, as ordered!” The Doctor set down two baskets and slipped back in beside Rose.
“Thanks.” Rose bit into a chip, realized how hungry she was, and took another one. “Mmm, these are delicious!”
“Nothing like good old English pub food,” the Doctor agreed. “Best in the universe!”
Jeff gave him an odd look. “Right. Pub food. Best in the Milky Way.”
“Well, I didn’t specify the galaxy,” the Doctor began, but Rose interrupted him.
“Did we get drinks, too?”
From his pocket he pulled out two bottles of Coca Cola and handed one to Rose. She looked, perplexed, at the bottlecap and tried to twist it off. It pinched her fingers. From another pocket the Doctor produced a small bottle opener, flipped the cap off, and presented it to her.
“There you are.”
“Thank you.” She beamed at him and took a long sip.
The Doctor was momentarily distracted by the way her mouth curved around the bottle. He could almost see her tongue working as she swallowed the cola, and he shook himself back to his senses and changed the subject before he did something really, really stupid.
“As I was about to tell Jeff before I decided to come find you,” the Doctor said to Rose, taking a chip off her plate without even asking, “we’re in town for a bit after some trouble with our transportation.”
Rose nodded, trying to look like she had known that al along. Unbidden, a memory of the Doctor in the midst of World War II came to mind. Short dark hair and blue eyes, wearing a black leather jacket and being addressed as “Dr. Spock.” Absurdly, for a split second she missed him, even as he was sitting beside her.
“Yeah, our transportation,” she echoed. “Just a bit of trouble. Thought we’d stay for a while and...and enjoy the sights.” She glanced around the dark pub, wishing this was a place worth seeing and not the same sort of pub she had been in with Mickey as he watched a match with his mates and she played with her mobile phone.
“Well, don’t know how many sights are here to enjoy.” Jeff paused to take a bite of his cheeseburger. “Unless you’re into Buckingham Palace or 10 Downing Street.”
“Oh, we’ve done all that,” the Doctor said casually. “Or will do, depending on your point of view. But for the moment we’re happy to be here.”
“Stop,” Rose whispered to him. Too much talk of time would make people nervous and suspicious.
“So, John tells me that you’re working while he’s at university?” Jeff asked Rose.
She stared at him until her brain told her who the “John” must be referring to. “Uh, yes.” She glanced at the Doctor, who looked at her innocently but with a suspicious gleam of laughter in his eyes. “I’ve got a job at a shop near here. You know professional students,” she couldn’t resist adding. “Never want to work if they can hang around in the classroom all day!”
The Doctor was startled into a frown and Jeff laughed.
“I’m a post - graduate student,” the Doctor corrected Rose. “Busy and professional and all that. Making great strides in research.”
“Huge, huge strides,” Rose agreed. “Absolutely amazing, the stuff he comes up with.”
The Doctor gazed at her incredulously, with a slight smile curving his mouth. He was enjoying this, even as she was teasing him.
“You wouldn’t believe the stuff I can come up with,” he agreed in an undertone, and Rose felt herself flush. She hadn’t felt this giddy since...well, before her mum went through to the other universe, for sure.
“Wouldn’t I?” she murmured.
“Blimey.” Jeff shook his head and reached for his drink. His voice broke the spell surrounding them and they moved back away from each other. The Doctor reached for a chip. Rose nervously smoothed back her hair. Each tried to act like nothing had happened. “What’s it like, anyway, being married? Is it worth the trouble or not?”
The chip fell out of the Doctor’s open mouth. “Sorry. What?”
Rose turned to the Doctor and coldly, quite deliberately, changed the subject.
“Where did you meet, anyway? You never did say. Weren’t you studying all day?”
His eyes widened. “Studying? Is that what you would call trying to piece together-”
“It was the weirdest thing!” Jeff interrupted, forgetting his cheeseburger and leaning towards her. “There I was, in the hallway right outside your flat, when I heard someone yelling.”
Rose glanced at the Doctor, satisfied that the mention of marriage had been forgotten. Plenty of time to avoid that one later on. “Outside our flat?”
“Yeah, I knocked on the door to say hello.”
“Someone was yelling,” the Doctor confirmed. “Jeff and I both ran out but we didn’t see anything.”
“No one would even answer their doors,” Jeff added. “All that bloody racket, and no one heard anything.”
“Well, they might not have been home,” the Doctor allowed.
“Middle of the day, most people are out,” Jeff conceded. “But it was still right strange.”
“That is strange,” Rose agreed, and when they got to debating what it could possibly have been, she fell into it with as much enthusiasm as they did.
Long after their meals were finished, they stayed in the booth. Rose went to the loo once, and the Doctor would hop up now and then to examine something or other that caught his fancy, either inside the pub or something that he saw in the street. People came and went, saying hello to Jeff and being introduced.
Rose was actually enjoying herself quite a lot, and the Doctor appeared very relaxed. Sometimes he would stretch an arm along the seat behind her back, and she had to fight the temptation to snuggle against him.
Jeff sat up straight when a pretty woman with blonde hair entered the pub. She glanced all around, saw Jeff, and immediately turned away. He frowned, got up and walked over to her. They appeared to be having a difference of opinion.
“Ouch,” the Doctor said mildly when Jeff got slapped in the face. “I know what that’s like.”
“Lover’s tiff?” Rose guessed.
“Maybe.” The Doctor lost interest in Jeff and his female friend, preferring to look at Rose instead.
“We should think about getting back, shouldn’t we?” She leaned over to grab a chip from the Doctor’s plate. Her hair had come loose and brushed the side of his face as she moved.
He blinked and cleared his throat. “Yes. Yes. We should get back home.” He spoke without thinking, but it touched a nerve in Rose.
“I can’t think of it as home, you know?” Rose spoke quietly, staring down at the tabletop. “My mum’s flat was home. The TARDIS was home. This...it’s more like we’re on holiday.”
“That’s the spirit,” the Doctor said, forcing himself to sound cheerful. “We are on a time traveling holiday, and soon we’ll be back where we belong.”
She smiled wryly. “Relaxed and refreshed?”
“Why not? I haven’t relaxed like this since...” He paused. “Since when?”
“Not since we found that weather predictor for my mum.” Her smile faded. That day had been wonderful and fun and full of laughter, and the trip to see her mother had started a long series of disasters.
“Don’t,” he said when he saw her trying not to cry. “Your mother is happy and safe. She knows where you are.”
Rose sniffed. “I know. I’m glad she found my dad and they’re having a baby. I just miss her. I’ll never see the baby, I’ll never know if I have a brother or sister.”
“If there’s a way to go back, we will find it,” he promised her. “Okay? I promise it, Rose. I swear it.”
“First we have to get out of 1969,” she reminded him.
“First that. Then we’ll break across parallel dimensions.”
Rose nodded. “Deal. Anyway, I’d rather be here. I’d rather be here with you than be stuck on the other side of that wall.” She couldn’t stop the tears this time, and he hugged her with one arm.
“Stuck with me, that’s what you are. Come on.”
Rose found her shoes under the table and slipped them back on. They’d started to hurt her feet, and she made a mental note to wear something more comfortable to work from now on. The Doctor slid out of the booth and waited for her. Rose stumbled a little when she stood up and he caught her easily against him.
“Steady now! All right!”
“Yup. Right as rain.” She grinned up at him, and he was amazed that her scent was still as fresh as when she first put it on that morning.
“Doctor? You all right?”
He realized that he was holding her against him. She looked up at him with a question in her eyes.
“‘Course I’m all right! When aren’t I? Come on!” He offered her his arm and headed out of the pub, waving a goodbye to Jeff on the way.
Back at the flat Rose meant to go change into pajamas and get ready for bed, but she was distracted by the papers all over the floor, couch and tables. By the light of the streetlamps outside, it looked like a thick white coating over everything. Rose switched on a lamp and looked around.
“What’s all this?”
“Sally Sparrow, whoever she may be, amassed the oddest collection of memorabilia for me.” The Doctor cleared the couch off by sweeping the papers to the floor and sitting down.
Rose stifled a laugh but joined him. The couch, old and sagging as it was, felt heavenly.
“Oh, that’s nice,” she sighed leaning back against the cushions. The springs jabbed into her legs but she ignored them for the moment.
“Are you really that tired?” he asked in some surprise. Normally Rose could go all day and all night.
“Not tired, exactly,” she allowed. “Just been a long day. I haven’t had to do a proper job like that in a long time. Not since you blew my last job up,” she couldn’t help adding.
“It’s my fault that you’re working now.” The Doctor looked at her. “I’m sorry, Rose.”
The last time he had looked so devastated was when he had realized he’d trapped her on a planet orbiting a black hole. It had broken her heart to see him without the TARDIS then, and it broke her heart now, too.
“No, it’s not your fault!” she hastened to tell him. “You didn’t ask those, those creepy space traveling angels to send us back in time! I’m gonna work to support us until you figure it all out.”
He nodded. Of course he would figure it all out! He was the Doctor.
Rose leaned over and idly picked up the first piece of paper she touched. As she looked it over the Doctor used the sonic screwdriver to turn the television on. Rose looked up when she heard the sound.
He grinned. “I just invented the remote control!”
She giggled before going back to the paper. “This doesn’t make any sense. Love, Actually. Manon of the Spring. A Man and a Woman. The Maltese Falcon.” She set the paper down and peered at the Doctor. “What is this?”
He glanced at the paper she was holding out. “Oh! Apparently this is a list of movies that we are to insert an Easter egg onto once they are released in DVD format.”
“Easter eggs,” she repeated.
“Yes. A hidden message, passage or scene inside a dvd, computer game, whatever.” The Doctor shrugged. “This a list of movies that our good friend Sally Sparrow owns. And apparently I will one day insert an Easter egg full of instructions and dialogue onto each one for her to find.”
Rose was still puzzled. “How are you going to do that?”
“Oh, I imagine it’s all laid out somewhere.” He gestured to the papers.
“But it’s only 1969. DVDs won’t be out until...when?”
He thought for a moment. “Around 1995 or so.”
“1995? But that’s almost thirty years from now!” she exclaimed.
“Now, Rose, don’t worry. We just need to be calm and rational, and everything will work itself right out.”
She took a deep breath and settled herself more comfortably on the couch. “If you say so, Doctor.”
“I do,” he said firmly, and they both pretended to believe that everything was going to be all right.
Twelve."