Don't Blink - 4/?
Title: Don't Blink - 4/?
Authors: rosewarren and ladychi
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~
“Right,” the Doctor said briskly. “Here’s the plan, Rose. We go back to that house with the angels - what’d she call it? Wester Drumlins. We go back to Wester Drumlins and set up whatever we’ve already set up so that we can wind up here again, in the future. Past. Present.” He waved a hand. “Wibbly-wobbly.”
Rose shook her head. “Mm, sorry Doctor, not following ya.”
He waved a set of photographs at her with a proud grin. “We’re going back to this house, Rose. Where apparently it's really important that we tell Sally Sparrow to duck.”
Rose flipped through the photographs. “The house that sent us here to 1969? Won’t there be people living there or something?”
The Doctor leaned over her shoulder, looking at the pictures with her. “Maybe. Maybe not. Only one way to tell. She has the address down, here.” He pointed. “ All we need to do is go have a look.”
Rose nodded slowly, not moving from her spot on the bench even the Doctor jumped up. He looked down at her expectantly.
“Those angels,” Rose began, thoughtfully. “They sent us here to the past. To use up our potential futures.”
“Yeah. In a nutshell.” The Doctor stuffed the envelope back into his coat and slid his hands into his trouser pockets.
“What if the angels are still there? Or are there already,” she corrected herself. One of the hazards of time travel was the damage it could do to all your tenses. “If they see us, will they send us back even farther in time? What happens if they do?”
The Doctor opened his mouth to answer and then shut it again. “I don’t know,” he was forced to admit. The slight frown on his face betrayed the fact that he did not like admitting that he didn’t know an answer. “We only have one future. Potential futures may be more numerous, I don’t know. Time was you could look into a timeline and-”
“If we go there and the angels are there,” Rose interrupted him, “then we take the risk of having them zap us back again, yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“So we just need to work out a way to keep them from uncovering their eyes.”
The Doctor began to smile. “I have just the thing, Rose Tyler. Come on!”
“No one knows where they came from,” the Doctor told Rose as they walked down the street. “They’ve been around for, ohhhh, nearly as long as the universe, more or less. They survive because they’re quantum-locked.”
Rose skirted around a couple embracing each other in the middle of the street. It was a nice sunny, warm day, and she was still a bit shocked to see how much skin the couple had on display. She made a mental note to remember that the sixties were not so long ago.
“Quantum-locked?” she repeated. “What’s that?” Sometimes her questions were answered enthusiastically and in great detail, and other times the Doctor merely regarded her with a look of mild confusion, like he didn’t understand why she couldn't get it the first time around.
Thankfully, this time he nodded and chose to expand. “Quantum-locked. They don’t exist when someone is watching them. Remember the first time you saw one, in the gardens at the house?”
“Its hands were covering its eyes,” Rose recalled.
“Exactly. The moment another living creature sees them, they turn into rock.”
“Into rock.”
“Into rock! A rock can’t hurt you, of course. But if you look away it’s not a rock anymore, it’s alive.” The Doctor expanded his hands in front of his face and shuddered. “Sorry, didn't mean to do the... jazz hand thing...”
Rose grinned but refocused him. “We definitely need to do this quickly.”
“We do, indeed. First things first. We need transportation.”
“There’s a cab,” Rose pointed out. “It’s a bit of a trek from here to there, isn’t it?”
He started to agree, then stopped. “We’re pretty low on funds, after leaving that deposit on the flat,” the Doctor said slowly.
“Bit hard to get cash without an ATM,” Rose agreed. “How’d you manage the last time you were here?”
“Well, I had a job, didn’t I? Ready cash at hand.”
“We’ll have that soon,” Rose promised him. “I’ll get a job tomorrow, just like that.” She snapped her fingers to illustrate, and he grinned in appreciation.
“Too right you will, Rose Tyler. In that case, let’s hail that cab. We have a detour to make.”
“We’re not even there yet,” Rose said.
“All in good time, Rose. All in good time.”
The cab came to a stop at a red light. The Doctor opened the door with a flourish, ushering Rose into the backseat. He bounced in after her and addressed the driver.
“Hello there! Can you take us to the nearest Woolworth’s, please?”
“What are you doing?” the driver demanded. “This cab is not in service.”
“Oh,” Rose said lamely. “Sorry, we didn’t see.”
“Not a problem!” the Doctor assured him cheerfully. “Just drop us off at Woolworth’s and you can go on your merry way.”
“I can’t take you anywhere,” the driver snapped. “Please get out.”
“Green light,” Rose pointed out, and the driver muttered something and hit the gas. Rose fell back against the Doctor. He steadied her and put his arm around her.
“He’s a bit skittish, isn’t he?” she asked in a low voice.
“A bit,” the Doctor agreed.
Rose knew that tone of voice. He was intrigued. She was suddenly very, very tired. All she wanted was to lean back against the Doctor and close her eyes, turn her face into his coat and sleep. The events of the day had caught up with her, and she doubted that she could go on for much longer.
She did just that, breathing in the scent of him as she closed her eyes. The coat smelled like the Doctor, clean and sharp and something that she’d never been able to place but that was a wonderful smell.
The Doctor settled his arm around Rose’s shoulders and squeezed her arm gently. “All right? We had a bit of a rough day.”
“Never-ending day, but ‘m okay,” Rose mumbled, and he smiled a little.
“I promise, we'll be done after this. Won't take long.” He brushed the top of her head with a kiss. “Just rest until we get where we're going and then it's all downhill from there.”
The light kiss the Doctor gave her ran through her body like a current. Rose knew it was silly, but every touch the Doctor gave her did that. Every hug, every hand he held, every shoulder nudge. She was dangerously close to falling for him, if she hadn’t already.
The cab’s radio switched on before Rose could get comfortable again.
“Harvey, where are you?” an aggravated voice demanded. “I’ve been standing here for ten minutes!”
“I have a fare,” the driver - Harvey - said into the radio. “Be right there.”
“What do you have a fare for?” the voice asked. “Get rid of ‘em and come on!”
“Okay, Steve. Coming.”
“Hurry up!”
“Your friend doesn’t sound very patient,” the Doctor observed.
“He’s been waiting a while,” Harvey said, speeding through a light before it could turn from yellow to red. “Woolworth’s is right down here.”
“He’s got access to a radio,” the Doctor observed. “Is he a cab driver? He could just hop into an empty cab and take himself off.”
“It’s complicated,” Harvey said repressively. “No need to trouble you folks about it.”
“Well, now, complicated is a state of mind,” the Doctor started, and was silenced by Rose’s hand on top of his own.
“Leave him alone,” she said softly. “We have enough to be curious about right now.”
He was a bit hurt by that, but he had to admit the truth of her words. They were in quite the mess at the moment, weren’t they?
The radio crackled with static again. “Harvey!” the same voice snapped. “Change of plans! Condition red! Repeat, condition red!”
Harvey swore.
Rose sat up warily, looking from the back of Harvey’s head to the Doctor.
“What’s condition red, then?” the Doctor said politely. “If you don’t mind us asking?”
Harvey smiled at them in the mirror. “It means your miserable planet’s time has come.”
Rose wrinkled her nose. “Sorry, but that doesn’t make much sense. Time for what?”
The Doctor sighed and rubbed his head. He had a feeling he knew where this was going.
Harvey proved him right.
“Time to surrender to superior alien forces,” Harvey said, and stepped on the gas pedal.
Rose settled back against the seat, prepared to go along. “Of course,” she says cheerfully. “I might have known.”
They looked at each other for a moment, until the absurdity of the situation struck them, and they started to laugh.
Five
Authors: rosewarren and ladychi
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~
“Right,” the Doctor said briskly. “Here’s the plan, Rose. We go back to that house with the angels - what’d she call it? Wester Drumlins. We go back to Wester Drumlins and set up whatever we’ve already set up so that we can wind up here again, in the future. Past. Present.” He waved a hand. “Wibbly-wobbly.”
Rose shook her head. “Mm, sorry Doctor, not following ya.”
He waved a set of photographs at her with a proud grin. “We’re going back to this house, Rose. Where apparently it's really important that we tell Sally Sparrow to duck.”
Rose flipped through the photographs. “The house that sent us here to 1969? Won’t there be people living there or something?”
The Doctor leaned over her shoulder, looking at the pictures with her. “Maybe. Maybe not. Only one way to tell. She has the address down, here.” He pointed. “ All we need to do is go have a look.”
Rose nodded slowly, not moving from her spot on the bench even the Doctor jumped up. He looked down at her expectantly.
“Those angels,” Rose began, thoughtfully. “They sent us here to the past. To use up our potential futures.”
“Yeah. In a nutshell.” The Doctor stuffed the envelope back into his coat and slid his hands into his trouser pockets.
“What if the angels are still there? Or are there already,” she corrected herself. One of the hazards of time travel was the damage it could do to all your tenses. “If they see us, will they send us back even farther in time? What happens if they do?”
The Doctor opened his mouth to answer and then shut it again. “I don’t know,” he was forced to admit. The slight frown on his face betrayed the fact that he did not like admitting that he didn’t know an answer. “We only have one future. Potential futures may be more numerous, I don’t know. Time was you could look into a timeline and-”
“If we go there and the angels are there,” Rose interrupted him, “then we take the risk of having them zap us back again, yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“So we just need to work out a way to keep them from uncovering their eyes.”
The Doctor began to smile. “I have just the thing, Rose Tyler. Come on!”
“No one knows where they came from,” the Doctor told Rose as they walked down the street. “They’ve been around for, ohhhh, nearly as long as the universe, more or less. They survive because they’re quantum-locked.”
Rose skirted around a couple embracing each other in the middle of the street. It was a nice sunny, warm day, and she was still a bit shocked to see how much skin the couple had on display. She made a mental note to remember that the sixties were not so long ago.
“Quantum-locked?” she repeated. “What’s that?” Sometimes her questions were answered enthusiastically and in great detail, and other times the Doctor merely regarded her with a look of mild confusion, like he didn’t understand why she couldn't get it the first time around.
Thankfully, this time he nodded and chose to expand. “Quantum-locked. They don’t exist when someone is watching them. Remember the first time you saw one, in the gardens at the house?”
“Its hands were covering its eyes,” Rose recalled.
“Exactly. The moment another living creature sees them, they turn into rock.”
“Into rock.”
“Into rock! A rock can’t hurt you, of course. But if you look away it’s not a rock anymore, it’s alive.” The Doctor expanded his hands in front of his face and shuddered. “Sorry, didn't mean to do the... jazz hand thing...”
Rose grinned but refocused him. “We definitely need to do this quickly.”
“We do, indeed. First things first. We need transportation.”
“There’s a cab,” Rose pointed out. “It’s a bit of a trek from here to there, isn’t it?”
He started to agree, then stopped. “We’re pretty low on funds, after leaving that deposit on the flat,” the Doctor said slowly.
“Bit hard to get cash without an ATM,” Rose agreed. “How’d you manage the last time you were here?”
“Well, I had a job, didn’t I? Ready cash at hand.”
“We’ll have that soon,” Rose promised him. “I’ll get a job tomorrow, just like that.” She snapped her fingers to illustrate, and he grinned in appreciation.
“Too right you will, Rose Tyler. In that case, let’s hail that cab. We have a detour to make.”
“We’re not even there yet,” Rose said.
“All in good time, Rose. All in good time.”
The cab came to a stop at a red light. The Doctor opened the door with a flourish, ushering Rose into the backseat. He bounced in after her and addressed the driver.
“Hello there! Can you take us to the nearest Woolworth’s, please?”
“What are you doing?” the driver demanded. “This cab is not in service.”
“Oh,” Rose said lamely. “Sorry, we didn’t see.”
“Not a problem!” the Doctor assured him cheerfully. “Just drop us off at Woolworth’s and you can go on your merry way.”
“I can’t take you anywhere,” the driver snapped. “Please get out.”
“Green light,” Rose pointed out, and the driver muttered something and hit the gas. Rose fell back against the Doctor. He steadied her and put his arm around her.
“He’s a bit skittish, isn’t he?” she asked in a low voice.
“A bit,” the Doctor agreed.
Rose knew that tone of voice. He was intrigued. She was suddenly very, very tired. All she wanted was to lean back against the Doctor and close her eyes, turn her face into his coat and sleep. The events of the day had caught up with her, and she doubted that she could go on for much longer.
She did just that, breathing in the scent of him as she closed her eyes. The coat smelled like the Doctor, clean and sharp and something that she’d never been able to place but that was a wonderful smell.
The Doctor settled his arm around Rose’s shoulders and squeezed her arm gently. “All right? We had a bit of a rough day.”
“Never-ending day, but ‘m okay,” Rose mumbled, and he smiled a little.
“I promise, we'll be done after this. Won't take long.” He brushed the top of her head with a kiss. “Just rest until we get where we're going and then it's all downhill from there.”
The light kiss the Doctor gave her ran through her body like a current. Rose knew it was silly, but every touch the Doctor gave her did that. Every hug, every hand he held, every shoulder nudge. She was dangerously close to falling for him, if she hadn’t already.
The cab’s radio switched on before Rose could get comfortable again.
“Harvey, where are you?” an aggravated voice demanded. “I’ve been standing here for ten minutes!”
“I have a fare,” the driver - Harvey - said into the radio. “Be right there.”
“What do you have a fare for?” the voice asked. “Get rid of ‘em and come on!”
“Okay, Steve. Coming.”
“Hurry up!”
“Your friend doesn’t sound very patient,” the Doctor observed.
“He’s been waiting a while,” Harvey said, speeding through a light before it could turn from yellow to red. “Woolworth’s is right down here.”
“He’s got access to a radio,” the Doctor observed. “Is he a cab driver? He could just hop into an empty cab and take himself off.”
“It’s complicated,” Harvey said repressively. “No need to trouble you folks about it.”
“Well, now, complicated is a state of mind,” the Doctor started, and was silenced by Rose’s hand on top of his own.
“Leave him alone,” she said softly. “We have enough to be curious about right now.”
He was a bit hurt by that, but he had to admit the truth of her words. They were in quite the mess at the moment, weren’t they?
The radio crackled with static again. “Harvey!” the same voice snapped. “Change of plans! Condition red! Repeat, condition red!”
Harvey swore.
Rose sat up warily, looking from the back of Harvey’s head to the Doctor.
“What’s condition red, then?” the Doctor said politely. “If you don’t mind us asking?”
Harvey smiled at them in the mirror. “It means your miserable planet’s time has come.”
Rose wrinkled her nose. “Sorry, but that doesn’t make much sense. Time for what?”
The Doctor sighed and rubbed his head. He had a feeling he knew where this was going.
Harvey proved him right.
“Time to surrender to superior alien forces,” Harvey said, and stepped on the gas pedal.
Rose settled back against the seat, prepared to go along. “Of course,” she says cheerfully. “I might have known.”
They looked at each other for a moment, until the absurdity of the situation struck them, and they started to laugh.
Five