1x16 Coup by Memory (2/2)
Title: Coup by Memory
Author: millylicious
Rating: PG
Summary: When the celebration of a planet's independence turns into a political coup, the Doctor and Rose have to fight the clock to save the royal family. In the process, they may literally lose a part of themselves.
Author's notes: Thanks to shinyopals for all the help and to everyone who provided assistance and compassion. Episode 16 of a virtual series at the_altverse, following When in Rome... last week. Virtual Series Masterlist
The scene that awaited him on the other side of the door would haunt him forever, the Doctor knew. They had burst through the door after waiting some time for the guard who had exited the room to be at a safe distance, only to find Rose tied to a chair and convulsing violently. Prince Alran had disabled the guard easily and the Doctor had rushed to Rose while Princess Valrana had stopped the process. Rose's eyes were staring blankly at the ceiling when he got to her. He pulled off the wires and cradled her head in his hands. “Rose? Rose, love, are you okay?”
She looked at him for a few seconds, still appearing dazed, then her head gave a shake and she turned her attention to the rest of the room. It wasn't long before she starting pulling on her restraints in a growing panic. “Who are you? Where am I?”
“Rose! Look at me, just me... Do you know who I am?” he pleaded, turning her head back towards him. Their eyes met and she had a moment of hesitation.
“I don't know... I... I think? Oh god, please untie me?”
He nodded, undoing the restraints around her wrists, then her ankles. The moment she was free, she jumped out of the chair and backed away into a corner. “Who the hell are you people? If it's some kind of prank, it's not funny!”
The Doctor took a step in her direction but it only made her retreat even more into the corner.
“Rose, it's okay. Remember, you said you thought you knew me. I won't do you any harm.”
She did not budge. It was obvious that most if not all of the conscious memories had been erased, but if she felt as though she knew him, then they had interrupted the process before it was complete. Hopefully it would make reversing the procedure easier.
“Princess Valrana, is there video surveillance of this room?” he said without taking his eyes off Rose. Rose frowned at the word “princess”, giving the woman an odd look before shifting her attention back to him.
“Yes, there is.”
“Can you find a way to bring it up in this room?”
There were a few electronic beeps coming from the control panel as Valrana entered a command sequence. Soon after, a video display like the one he had observed in his cell earlier that day made its appearance on the wall next to Rose. She gasped and jumped away, shaking like a leaf in her silk dress. He wanted nothing more than to pull her in his arms and reassure her, but he knew doing so would have the opposite effect at the moment.
“Look, Rose. We're... friends. The person we knocked out erased your memory and we're here to save you.”
The video caught up to a few minutes before, when she had jumped from the chair, and Rose turned to him again.
“And that's how I know you? We're friends?” she asked.
“Something like that.”
She gave a small nod. “Okay, then I have just one question.”
He had a pretty good idea what was coming next. If they had erased most conscious memories of him, they had also erased knowledge of aliens. Of course, she would have questions about the royals' physical appearance. “What is it?”
“Why am I wearing this dress? And why am I barefoot?”
He smiled wide and she grinned back at him, not quite with the same enthusiasm she usually displayed but it was a start. He was about to reply when he was interrupted by the Princess.
“Doctor, I think you need to take a look at this.”
The Prince announced that he would be keeping guard outside of the room as the Doctor joined Valrana at the console. The keys were disposed on both sides of a central screen displaying charts. The Princess pointed at energy spikes pointing up.
“This is the energy reading from a memory wipe. You can see the one for Rose and just before that, the one for Father,” she explained, her voice faltering as she mentioned her father's execution. Next, her finger moved to point at a series of spikes that pointed down instead of up. “These spikes are abnormal, or rather their frequency is abnormal. This is what you would see for a restoration, when the memory wipe is reversed.”
“Are they common? Would there have been that many?”
“They happen, but they are not that common,” the Princess replied, shaking her head. He took over for her at the keyboard, making a few more graphs pop up on the screen along the initial two. A quick analysis revealed that over the last two years, the restoration spikes had grown more frequent. He was so absorbed by his discovery that he did not notice the attacker coming from behind.
Thankfully, Rose did.
“Look out!” she screamed as she breezed past him and tackled the Queen to the floor. The knife Queen Morana had been aiming at his back flew across the room before landing on the floor with a loud metallic clunk. The Queen screamed like a fury, trying to shove Rose off of her. Rose held on, doing her best to keep her pinned to the floor.
The commotion attracted Prince Alran back inside. His confusion was clear and it took multiple promptings from both his sister and the Doctor before he settled on pointing the gun he had acquired from the guard at his own mother. The Doctor helped Rose back up, making sure she was unhurt before he focused back on his surprising attacker. She was sitting on the floor with both hands up and murder in her eyes.
“Why, Mother?” Alran asked, a mixture of rage and sadness in his voice. He felt betrayed and the Doctor could understand why. What could possibly have led her to this? The look she gave her son gave the Doctor his first hint.
“You're not Queen Morana,” the Doctor stated, not trying to hide the disgust from his voice. The woman sneered at him.
“Can't get one past you, Doctor. I haven't been Queen Morana in a very long time.”
From her voice to her expression, she looked like a completely different person. It was clear now why she had decided to come and it had nothing to do with ensuring the safety of her children. If she could not stop them from coming, then she needed to keep an eye their actions here. Make sure that they would not uncover secrets that might risk the continued success of the coup. Down below, he knew that the battle was not over and that if they could save the King, the outcome might be in their favour.
“Where's my mother?” Princess Valrana asked, tears streaming down her face. Rose had her arms around her, despite not truly understanding much of the situation. She was still seeking to offer comfort as well as she could.
“In a database. Maybe. I didn't really keep track. Just needed the meat suit.”
“What are you, then? Gareyn?” the Doctor asked, crouching down in front of her. She raised her chin, looking at him defiantly.
“Yes, I'm Gareyn. You have no idea how horrible it's been, trying to pretend I care about any of them. Trying to play wife and mother to that filthy hybrid scum. How hard it's been being one of them. Two years! Two years just waiting it out, knowing that the day would come where we would crush their silly kingdom. It was mine first. It should have stayed mine.”
Valrana gasped. The Doctor looked at her over his shoulder, waiting for the explanation he knew would come.
“She's Tak'reth. She was in charge of Talong during the revolution. We thought she was dead...”
Though she was still shaken, Valrana looked like she was finally calming down. He recognized in her attitude the future leader her father saw in her. It was not long before Tak'reth made herself heard again, her voice growing shrill as her anger started overtaking her.
“I was just biding my time! Getting the right allies!”
There. This was the information he had been waiting for. Who were her allies? The ones he had seen before being brought onto the ship as a prisoner with the King were Talongs; it made no sense for them to be helping the old administration take the planet back.
“How did you get Talongs to help you?” he asked, not truly expecting her to answer. “Did... Oh, no! Yes?”
His eyes went wide as he connected the dots in his head. The energy spikes had grown steadily over the last few months, enough in total to constitute a small army. Tak'reth glared at him, looking like she was ready to pounce on him were it not for Prince Alran's weapon pointed at her.
The rest of the story unfolded without much prompting needed from the woman wearing the body of Queen Morana. After the people of Talong had gained independence, she had gone into hiding only to plan her revenge. Through many alliances and dealings with various sketchy individuals, she had acquired databases of memories that had been wiped from murderers on planets under Gareyn control. In exchange for their service, they would be given a new body and the chance to lead a life with all their memories. Passing as the Queen, she was allowed access to the prison ship and was able to infiltrate her mercenaries on Talong without much difficulty. People who had been convicted of only small crimes had had their memories completely wiped
Sorting everyone out and restoring the right memories in the right bodies would be a lot of work. With the human empire and the Alliance's help, however, it could be done. Starting with Rose.
Prince Alran led Tak'reth to the cells, while Princess Valrana seeked out to contact the Alliance. He knew they would not be pleased with someone interfering in the administration of their prison, but they would be even more angered by someone using their technology to stage a coup.
Following his instructions, Rose sat down on the chair, looking terrified. He reapplied the wires to her head but let the restraints undone.
“Rose, I know you don't really know who I am and I understand that you're feeling scared, but we have to do this,” he said, trying to sound as reassuring as possible.
“I know. I... I trust you.”
He smiled and instinctively kissed her forehead. When he stepped back, she looked surprised at the display of affection, but said nothing. He went to the control panel, typing up the command sequence, then looked up at Rose with apprehension. Her fingers were gripping the arm rests of the chair and she was breathing heavily.
“It's gonna be fine, Rose. Just relax,” he tried, although he could have done with some reassurance himself. It seemed to appease her, because she took a deep breath, then smiled at him.
**
She ought to be terrified of what he could do to her, what with being strapped to a chair with wires attached to her head and all. Yet, she had said the truth. She trusted him, for no reason other than instinct.
Her eyes focused on the Doctor's face as the tickling sensation slowly crawled down her spine, then back up. A bizarre sense of growing awareness overtook her, as though she could see things that had made no sense up until that day with perfect clarity now. Suddenly, she was not seeing him as he was, standing there in front of her, but as he had been through the years. Travelling with him, all big ears and nose first, then as he was now. Then she felt the pain of losing him, followed by the bittersweet joy of finding him again and starting their life in this universe. In an instant, all of the memories of the life they shared came rushing back to her. As the last moments leading up to the memory wipe were restored, the tickling sensation dissipated and she became conscious of her surroundings again. The Doctor stood in front of her with a worried expression on his face.
“Rose?”
She smiled. “I really, really need you to kiss me right now.”
He didn't take much convincing.
If she had been impressed by the reception they had initially come to Talong for, it was nothing compared to the planet-wide affair that took place a few months down the road. Many things had been destroyed, both lives and buildings, but Talong had finally returned to what it once was. More importantly, everyone was back to being themselves.
The Doctor had taken her back to the TARDIS soon after their return on the planet surface, eager to check on her vital signs and make sure that everything was alright. After that, he hopped the TARDIS a few months forward so that they could attend the celebration they had been invited to. No need to RSVP.
They received heartfelt thanks from the King, then got to meet the Queen. The real Queen. She had no memories of the previous two years, nor any memories of being taken to the prison ship. The last thing she could remember was going to bed, before she woke up in the chair after her memories had been restored. The Alliance had offered their assistance in sorting out the matter despite their usual stance against getting involved in planetary politics. They probably considered that their inability to stop Tak'reth from almost bringing her plan to fruition by using their technology had been partly to blame.
Ironically, the assassination attempt that had led them to uncover the conspiracy had not been planned. It was the dangers one faced when they chose to associate themselves with murderers: they were not known for following orders. One thing they were known for, however, was taking initiative. That initiative had forced Tak'reth to move ahead with her plan in case the man they had arrested lifted the veil on the entire thing during interrogation.
The streets surrounding the castle looked like a fair, with stands offering copious quantities of food and numerous tables disposed here and there. Rose had made certain to wear jeans and sensible shoes this time. If she ever wore another silk dress again, it would be too soon.
The Doctor was holding onto her hand tightly, making sure to keep her close even when they were simply talking with other people, including Neena and Safran. Neena was pregnant now, her round stomach a clear indicator that they had indeed jumped forward in Talong's timeline. It was easy to lose track of exactly how much time had passed for the planet when the cuts she had gotten on the soles of feet from walking down the secret passage on the day of the failed coup had yet to heal. After a few jokes on the baby's taste buds, the couples parted ways. The Doctor led her to a table, waiting for her to sit down before he spoke.
“I'm sorry I couldn't get to you in time to stop the wipe in the first place.”
“Don't be sorry, that was the plan, remember? Take one for the team and all,” Rose joked, trying to lighten the mood. She forced a laugh, but he looked her straight in the eyes, obviously not keen on joining in. It was clearly gonna take a lot more than a joke or two.
“I should have found a better way.”
With a sigh, she covered his hand with hers on top of the table and squeezed it gently. “You can't always protect me from everything, Doctor. I thought I'd made that clear before: we protect each other.”
“But what if I hadn't been able to reverse the memory wipe? You would have permanently lost all memories of us and your life in this universe. It was a big gamble, Rose...”
He was growing agitated and she could tell from the look in his eyes that he was exploring all the scenarios in which things could have gone wrong in his head. She squeezed his hand again, more firmly this time.
“I trust you. It was... you know, one of those exercises where you have to close your eyes and let yourself fall back into people's arms, trusting them to catch you? It was that, but on a bigger scale. I trust you to catch me, Doctor. From day one, swinging from a chain over the Nestene consciousness, I knew you'd catch me.”
“I didn't always catch you, you fell once and I couldn't stop it.”
More than melancholy for past events, it was fear she read on his face as he spoke. Fear for what the future held for them, perhaps, or maybe the lingering fear he had felt when he had lost her for a few minutes thanks to the memory wipe.
“That's okay. I made my way back then. Team effort,” she said with a firm nod, eager to provide reassurance. “I trust you, but you need to keep trusting me too. Okay?”
“I know. I just hate to see you come to any danger. I love you so much, it's hard to be rational about it,” he said with a sigh.
“Then that makes two of us. I hate it when you're in danger too, but more than just trusting you, I trust us. We're a good team.”
He smiled, then wrapped his arm around her and pulled her head against his shoulder. They remained like that just long enough for Rose to realize just how tired she was. After all, they had not slept since the night before the party. “Doctor?”
“Yes?”
“Remember, before the whole thing where we stopped a power-hungry Gareyn from taking back the planet and I spent several hours in a very silly dress, then got my memory wiped?”
He chuckled. “Yes?”
She pulled back, resting her chin on his shoulder and looking at him straight in the eyes. “I asked you to hold onto something for me.”
It took a few seconds for her implication to register, but she knew he had caught her meaning when he smiled brightly at her. She smiled back, then moved closer to press her lips against his.
Author: millylicious
Rating: PG
Summary: When the celebration of a planet's independence turns into a political coup, the Doctor and Rose have to fight the clock to save the royal family. In the process, they may literally lose a part of themselves.
Author's notes: Thanks to shinyopals for all the help and to everyone who provided assistance and compassion. Episode 16 of a virtual series at the_altverse, following When in Rome... last week. Virtual Series Masterlist
The scene that awaited him on the other side of the door would haunt him forever, the Doctor knew. They had burst through the door after waiting some time for the guard who had exited the room to be at a safe distance, only to find Rose tied to a chair and convulsing violently. Prince Alran had disabled the guard easily and the Doctor had rushed to Rose while Princess Valrana had stopped the process. Rose's eyes were staring blankly at the ceiling when he got to her. He pulled off the wires and cradled her head in his hands. “Rose? Rose, love, are you okay?”
She looked at him for a few seconds, still appearing dazed, then her head gave a shake and she turned her attention to the rest of the room. It wasn't long before she starting pulling on her restraints in a growing panic. “Who are you? Where am I?”
“Rose! Look at me, just me... Do you know who I am?” he pleaded, turning her head back towards him. Their eyes met and she had a moment of hesitation.
“I don't know... I... I think? Oh god, please untie me?”
He nodded, undoing the restraints around her wrists, then her ankles. The moment she was free, she jumped out of the chair and backed away into a corner. “Who the hell are you people? If it's some kind of prank, it's not funny!”
The Doctor took a step in her direction but it only made her retreat even more into the corner.
“Rose, it's okay. Remember, you said you thought you knew me. I won't do you any harm.”
She did not budge. It was obvious that most if not all of the conscious memories had been erased, but if she felt as though she knew him, then they had interrupted the process before it was complete. Hopefully it would make reversing the procedure easier.
“Princess Valrana, is there video surveillance of this room?” he said without taking his eyes off Rose. Rose frowned at the word “princess”, giving the woman an odd look before shifting her attention back to him.
“Yes, there is.”
“Can you find a way to bring it up in this room?”
There were a few electronic beeps coming from the control panel as Valrana entered a command sequence. Soon after, a video display like the one he had observed in his cell earlier that day made its appearance on the wall next to Rose. She gasped and jumped away, shaking like a leaf in her silk dress. He wanted nothing more than to pull her in his arms and reassure her, but he knew doing so would have the opposite effect at the moment.
“Look, Rose. We're... friends. The person we knocked out erased your memory and we're here to save you.”
The video caught up to a few minutes before, when she had jumped from the chair, and Rose turned to him again.
“And that's how I know you? We're friends?” she asked.
“Something like that.”
She gave a small nod. “Okay, then I have just one question.”
He had a pretty good idea what was coming next. If they had erased most conscious memories of him, they had also erased knowledge of aliens. Of course, she would have questions about the royals' physical appearance. “What is it?”
“Why am I wearing this dress? And why am I barefoot?”
He smiled wide and she grinned back at him, not quite with the same enthusiasm she usually displayed but it was a start. He was about to reply when he was interrupted by the Princess.
“Doctor, I think you need to take a look at this.”
The Prince announced that he would be keeping guard outside of the room as the Doctor joined Valrana at the console. The keys were disposed on both sides of a central screen displaying charts. The Princess pointed at energy spikes pointing up.
“This is the energy reading from a memory wipe. You can see the one for Rose and just before that, the one for Father,” she explained, her voice faltering as she mentioned her father's execution. Next, her finger moved to point at a series of spikes that pointed down instead of up. “These spikes are abnormal, or rather their frequency is abnormal. This is what you would see for a restoration, when the memory wipe is reversed.”
“Are they common? Would there have been that many?”
“They happen, but they are not that common,” the Princess replied, shaking her head. He took over for her at the keyboard, making a few more graphs pop up on the screen along the initial two. A quick analysis revealed that over the last two years, the restoration spikes had grown more frequent. He was so absorbed by his discovery that he did not notice the attacker coming from behind.
Thankfully, Rose did.
“Look out!” she screamed as she breezed past him and tackled the Queen to the floor. The knife Queen Morana had been aiming at his back flew across the room before landing on the floor with a loud metallic clunk. The Queen screamed like a fury, trying to shove Rose off of her. Rose held on, doing her best to keep her pinned to the floor.
The commotion attracted Prince Alran back inside. His confusion was clear and it took multiple promptings from both his sister and the Doctor before he settled on pointing the gun he had acquired from the guard at his own mother. The Doctor helped Rose back up, making sure she was unhurt before he focused back on his surprising attacker. She was sitting on the floor with both hands up and murder in her eyes.
“Why, Mother?” Alran asked, a mixture of rage and sadness in his voice. He felt betrayed and the Doctor could understand why. What could possibly have led her to this? The look she gave her son gave the Doctor his first hint.
“You're not Queen Morana,” the Doctor stated, not trying to hide the disgust from his voice. The woman sneered at him.
“Can't get one past you, Doctor. I haven't been Queen Morana in a very long time.”
From her voice to her expression, she looked like a completely different person. It was clear now why she had decided to come and it had nothing to do with ensuring the safety of her children. If she could not stop them from coming, then she needed to keep an eye their actions here. Make sure that they would not uncover secrets that might risk the continued success of the coup. Down below, he knew that the battle was not over and that if they could save the King, the outcome might be in their favour.
“Where's my mother?” Princess Valrana asked, tears streaming down her face. Rose had her arms around her, despite not truly understanding much of the situation. She was still seeking to offer comfort as well as she could.
“In a database. Maybe. I didn't really keep track. Just needed the meat suit.”
“What are you, then? Gareyn?” the Doctor asked, crouching down in front of her. She raised her chin, looking at him defiantly.
“Yes, I'm Gareyn. You have no idea how horrible it's been, trying to pretend I care about any of them. Trying to play wife and mother to that filthy hybrid scum. How hard it's been being one of them. Two years! Two years just waiting it out, knowing that the day would come where we would crush their silly kingdom. It was mine first. It should have stayed mine.”
Valrana gasped. The Doctor looked at her over his shoulder, waiting for the explanation he knew would come.
“She's Tak'reth. She was in charge of Talong during the revolution. We thought she was dead...”
Though she was still shaken, Valrana looked like she was finally calming down. He recognized in her attitude the future leader her father saw in her. It was not long before Tak'reth made herself heard again, her voice growing shrill as her anger started overtaking her.
“I was just biding my time! Getting the right allies!”
There. This was the information he had been waiting for. Who were her allies? The ones he had seen before being brought onto the ship as a prisoner with the King were Talongs; it made no sense for them to be helping the old administration take the planet back.
“How did you get Talongs to help you?” he asked, not truly expecting her to answer. “Did... Oh, no! Yes?”
His eyes went wide as he connected the dots in his head. The energy spikes had grown steadily over the last few months, enough in total to constitute a small army. Tak'reth glared at him, looking like she was ready to pounce on him were it not for Prince Alran's weapon pointed at her.
The rest of the story unfolded without much prompting needed from the woman wearing the body of Queen Morana. After the people of Talong had gained independence, she had gone into hiding only to plan her revenge. Through many alliances and dealings with various sketchy individuals, she had acquired databases of memories that had been wiped from murderers on planets under Gareyn control. In exchange for their service, they would be given a new body and the chance to lead a life with all their memories. Passing as the Queen, she was allowed access to the prison ship and was able to infiltrate her mercenaries on Talong without much difficulty. People who had been convicted of only small crimes had had their memories completely wiped
Sorting everyone out and restoring the right memories in the right bodies would be a lot of work. With the human empire and the Alliance's help, however, it could be done. Starting with Rose.
Prince Alran led Tak'reth to the cells, while Princess Valrana seeked out to contact the Alliance. He knew they would not be pleased with someone interfering in the administration of their prison, but they would be even more angered by someone using their technology to stage a coup.
Following his instructions, Rose sat down on the chair, looking terrified. He reapplied the wires to her head but let the restraints undone.
“Rose, I know you don't really know who I am and I understand that you're feeling scared, but we have to do this,” he said, trying to sound as reassuring as possible.
“I know. I... I trust you.”
He smiled and instinctively kissed her forehead. When he stepped back, she looked surprised at the display of affection, but said nothing. He went to the control panel, typing up the command sequence, then looked up at Rose with apprehension. Her fingers were gripping the arm rests of the chair and she was breathing heavily.
“It's gonna be fine, Rose. Just relax,” he tried, although he could have done with some reassurance himself. It seemed to appease her, because she took a deep breath, then smiled at him.
**
She ought to be terrified of what he could do to her, what with being strapped to a chair with wires attached to her head and all. Yet, she had said the truth. She trusted him, for no reason other than instinct.
Her eyes focused on the Doctor's face as the tickling sensation slowly crawled down her spine, then back up. A bizarre sense of growing awareness overtook her, as though she could see things that had made no sense up until that day with perfect clarity now. Suddenly, she was not seeing him as he was, standing there in front of her, but as he had been through the years. Travelling with him, all big ears and nose first, then as he was now. Then she felt the pain of losing him, followed by the bittersweet joy of finding him again and starting their life in this universe. In an instant, all of the memories of the life they shared came rushing back to her. As the last moments leading up to the memory wipe were restored, the tickling sensation dissipated and she became conscious of her surroundings again. The Doctor stood in front of her with a worried expression on his face.
“Rose?”
She smiled. “I really, really need you to kiss me right now.”
He didn't take much convincing.
If she had been impressed by the reception they had initially come to Talong for, it was nothing compared to the planet-wide affair that took place a few months down the road. Many things had been destroyed, both lives and buildings, but Talong had finally returned to what it once was. More importantly, everyone was back to being themselves.
The Doctor had taken her back to the TARDIS soon after their return on the planet surface, eager to check on her vital signs and make sure that everything was alright. After that, he hopped the TARDIS a few months forward so that they could attend the celebration they had been invited to. No need to RSVP.
They received heartfelt thanks from the King, then got to meet the Queen. The real Queen. She had no memories of the previous two years, nor any memories of being taken to the prison ship. The last thing she could remember was going to bed, before she woke up in the chair after her memories had been restored. The Alliance had offered their assistance in sorting out the matter despite their usual stance against getting involved in planetary politics. They probably considered that their inability to stop Tak'reth from almost bringing her plan to fruition by using their technology had been partly to blame.
Ironically, the assassination attempt that had led them to uncover the conspiracy had not been planned. It was the dangers one faced when they chose to associate themselves with murderers: they were not known for following orders. One thing they were known for, however, was taking initiative. That initiative had forced Tak'reth to move ahead with her plan in case the man they had arrested lifted the veil on the entire thing during interrogation.
The streets surrounding the castle looked like a fair, with stands offering copious quantities of food and numerous tables disposed here and there. Rose had made certain to wear jeans and sensible shoes this time. If she ever wore another silk dress again, it would be too soon.
The Doctor was holding onto her hand tightly, making sure to keep her close even when they were simply talking with other people, including Neena and Safran. Neena was pregnant now, her round stomach a clear indicator that they had indeed jumped forward in Talong's timeline. It was easy to lose track of exactly how much time had passed for the planet when the cuts she had gotten on the soles of feet from walking down the secret passage on the day of the failed coup had yet to heal. After a few jokes on the baby's taste buds, the couples parted ways. The Doctor led her to a table, waiting for her to sit down before he spoke.
“I'm sorry I couldn't get to you in time to stop the wipe in the first place.”
“Don't be sorry, that was the plan, remember? Take one for the team and all,” Rose joked, trying to lighten the mood. She forced a laugh, but he looked her straight in the eyes, obviously not keen on joining in. It was clearly gonna take a lot more than a joke or two.
“I should have found a better way.”
With a sigh, she covered his hand with hers on top of the table and squeezed it gently. “You can't always protect me from everything, Doctor. I thought I'd made that clear before: we protect each other.”
“But what if I hadn't been able to reverse the memory wipe? You would have permanently lost all memories of us and your life in this universe. It was a big gamble, Rose...”
He was growing agitated and she could tell from the look in his eyes that he was exploring all the scenarios in which things could have gone wrong in his head. She squeezed his hand again, more firmly this time.
“I trust you. It was... you know, one of those exercises where you have to close your eyes and let yourself fall back into people's arms, trusting them to catch you? It was that, but on a bigger scale. I trust you to catch me, Doctor. From day one, swinging from a chain over the Nestene consciousness, I knew you'd catch me.”
“I didn't always catch you, you fell once and I couldn't stop it.”
More than melancholy for past events, it was fear she read on his face as he spoke. Fear for what the future held for them, perhaps, or maybe the lingering fear he had felt when he had lost her for a few minutes thanks to the memory wipe.
“That's okay. I made my way back then. Team effort,” she said with a firm nod, eager to provide reassurance. “I trust you, but you need to keep trusting me too. Okay?”
“I know. I just hate to see you come to any danger. I love you so much, it's hard to be rational about it,” he said with a sigh.
“Then that makes two of us. I hate it when you're in danger too, but more than just trusting you, I trust us. We're a good team.”
He smiled, then wrapped his arm around her and pulled her head against his shoulder. They remained like that just long enough for Rose to realize just how tired she was. After all, they had not slept since the night before the party. “Doctor?”
“Yes?”
“Remember, before the whole thing where we stopped a power-hungry Gareyn from taking back the planet and I spent several hours in a very silly dress, then got my memory wiped?”
He chuckled. “Yes?”
She pulled back, resting her chin on his shoulder and looking at him straight in the eyes. “I asked you to hold onto something for me.”
It took a few seconds for her implication to register, but she knew he had caught her meaning when he smiled brightly at her. She smiled back, then moved closer to press her lips against his.