Fic: The Road to Yes
Title: The Road to Yes
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: PG
Characters: Nine, Rose
Spoilers: Just for the first episode of Season One
Summary: In the inbetween bits of "Rose", the Doctor finds reasons to ask a second time. And discovers that it's just not Rose who needs to say yes.
Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any of the characters or the universe. I simply play with it.
Author Notes: Many, many thanks to my lovely beta
_bounce_ . :)
"Don't tell anyone about this, because if you do, you'll get them killed."
The door closed behind the Doctor with a bang and he grinned as he tossed the relay device up in the air before catching it. There, that sounded nice and dramatic. He rather liked dramatic: it had a way of sticking with people the way a nondramatic (though often wise) saying never did.
So. Right. He'd gotten the human out of the way...
The Doctor frowned as he tapped the relay device against his hand before he stopped what he was doing. If he wasn't careful he was going to break it and that wouldn't do. Not on the ground floor, anyway, and so far away from the center of the building.
He hadn't gotten the girl's name and it bothered him. But why should it matter? She'd blundered in on the mission-who stayed after closing, he asked himself, when they could be home having chips-nearly got herself all plastified (there was a brilliant word) before he showed up. Nick of time, too, but that was what he did. He'd rescued countless people before, all of them nameless.
A curious glance over the door showed him it was still shut but he didn't move on like he had to.
The girl hadn't panicked...alright, much, since the fuss she'd made earlier was how he found her. But that was forgivable, understandable even. She'd run when she'd been told to-an admirable trait no matter what the species-despite never having laid eyes on him before.
But then she'd had the gall to question him! Fantastic! And a rather interesting assumption of what had been going on. Students, brilliant. Completely wrong, of course, but if she had suddenly blurted out "Oh, right then, they must belong to Nestene Consciousness, right? I'll be on my way, nice to meet you," he might've had bigger worries than attacking shop dummies.
The Doctor scowled. It was rather rude, wasn't it, to keep calling her a "she"? He was often rude but...still.
He brightened. Humans liked nothing more than a title or a name to go with a good story. And as he was so very fond of introducing himself, he might as well get her name at the same time. He liked to have names for the different ones and she struck him as being...not quite ordinary.
Turning around, he swung the door open again.
"I'm the Doctor. By the way, what's your name?"
"Rose."
"Nice to meet you, Rose. Run for your life."
The door clanged shut behind him and the Doctor nodded to himself, pleased when he heard the sound of muted running. There. That had been taken care of.
Time to blow something up.
~~
"It's where?"
The TARDIS didn't deign to answer him. Not that the Doctor was expecting it (but after 900 years it would be nice to get a little more respect. As it was, his hammer kept disappearing at the worst times) but it was still aggravating.
"That's a flat," he said, squinting at the screen. "What's it doing in a flat?" Or, well, in a block of flats. He couldn't tell which one it was in until he got out there and started to look, which meant trolling around. "Lovely. Lots of help, you are."
If it could have been, the TARDIS would have looked smug.
Ten minutes later...
"Who nails a cat door shut?" the Doctor muttered, crouching down in front of it. "Doesn't that ruin the entire point of the bloody thing?"
The sonic screwdriver had hummed and buzzed at him a second ago, letting him know the living plastic was somewhere inside the flat. And he winced. Why couldn't it have been in that lovely one down the hall? It was empty. This one had at least two people in it and one of them was very, very loud.
Setting 224, removing nails. There it was.
With the nails removed, the cat door swung open and he managed to catch a brief glimpse into the flat. Not much to see but he could tell it wasn't on eye level at least...another look, maybe, and then he'd try another way in.
The Doctor could feel his hearts skip a beat when the cat flap suddenly poked back at him and he caught a glimpse of blonde hair and familiar eyes. On the second poke, he realized the gasp of shock sounded familiar as well.
Jerking himself to his feet, he couldn't help but stare as Rose swung open the door.
"What're you doing here?" he demanded. This was impossible. Statistically speaking, it was impossible that she could blunder into two different situations involving the living plastic...
"I live here!"
Right then, that explained it. And statistically that was even worse. The Doctor glared down at the sonic screwdriver. Perhaps it'd gone a bit wonky. It had been ages since he'd done any proper maintenance on it.
"Must've got the wrong signal. You're not plastic, are you?"
He can't help himself as he reached over to knock her gently on her forehead. Nope, not plastic. Warm, soft skin under his knuckles, though probably due for a bit of one of those funny female facials they all enjoyed. "No, bonehead! Bye, then!"
Right, back to the TARDIS and back to the drawing board. A bit frustrating, that, he thought, heading for the stairwell. After this flat, he'd had no other leads...
The Doctor started when he felt a hand grab him, yanking him firmly inside the flat. He stared at her, surprised that she'd had the gall to try that and the strength to do it at all. He guessed she wanted answers and while he wasn't prepared to give them to her, she intrigued him.
It'd be rude to swan off just yet and, after all, maybe she did have a lead.
It couldn't hurt.
~~
Fantastic. The living plastic was now showing up in incredibly populated areas. It had been getting bold, probably spurred on by the Doctor's actions. Which meant he didn't have much time left to find the Nestene Consciousness before it went and did something stupid...and won.
Bipeds thought they were so clever but when a goopy, plastic life form snuck onto their planet, they were goners. Honestly.
He waited for the group of people to clear out before he stepped up, pretending to read the menu as he got a better look around. A pizza place? That was unexpected. A factory, yeah, a junk yard or even a toxic dump, that he'd expect. But a sit down pizza place?
There was a large window by the door which allowed potential customers to see how crowded it was or what the décor looked like. He sidestepped, though he doubted it would be right in plain sight...
His mouth dropped open.
It was in plain sight.
At a table.
With Rose bloody Tyler.
Three times. Three times she'd managed to show up in the middle of all of this mess. That just wasn't possible.
He snorted and scratched the back of his head. Actually, it was possible and this time it was his fault. Well, technically the last time could have been his fault as well. After all, he'd given her the arm in the first place. But that aside, this really was his fault because it was probably looking for information on him and it would have seen her at the flat.
Though the daft thing hadn't caught on to the fact that her boyfriend was plastic. Unless his hair had always looked like that and then the boy might have had bigger problems than having been turned into a copy of himself.
They were far enough away from the door to not spot him as he slipped in, heading over to the person who was waiting to seat him. "Excuse me," he said, flipping out the psychic paper. "See that couple over there? Pretty blonde girl with the plastic hair git?"
The woman blinked and then looked in the direction he indicted. "Um, yes, sir?"
"Been asked to stop by and deliver a bottle of champagne," the Doctor said with a grin. "Anniversary, big one, though. This is a surprise from her mum."
"Really?" She sounded uncertain.
"Oh, yeah. She wanted the best the house had to offer but forgot to call ahead and ask for it. Told me to leave the check after they get it, attached to the bill." He leaned forward to whisper, "The mum, you know, not quite right in the head. But loaded."
"Well..."
"I'm just doin' my job and I'd really liked to go home..."
"Oh, all right. Hang on a second, please."
The Doctor grinned. This was going to be fun.
~~
"Go on, then," the Doctor snapped, smacking the console of the TARDIS with the hammer. "Randomize or something since that's what you like to do. Find us a nice luscious jungle with man-eating things that have a taste for Doctors. Better than ungrateful shop girls, I'll tell you that much."
The TARDIS shuddered violently, throwing him off balance and then it just...stopped. It came to a complete stop, the normal noise of the engine dying down to a quiet hum.
He stared and then pressed a button but nothing happened. "What the bloody hell? No no no, no breaking down! I said I was sorry you got melted living plastic all inside your cooling system, didn't I? I apologized and this is..."
His hands gripped the handle of the hammer as his eyes widened. "You're doing this on purpose. Yes you are, I can tell! You want me to go back, don't you?"
The hammer clattered down onto the grating at his feet as the Doctor stomped off in a circle. "Well, I'm not. D'you hear me? She said no. I don't ask twice. When have you known me to ask twice? Never, that's when! Rose said no. I won't beg, I won't. You can't make me."
The only answer was the unnatural quiet, as if the TARDIS was waiting for him to finish his tantrum. She'd never stopped in the middle of a flight, not like this. The ship was slightly telepathic but it was she who was bonded to him and not the other way around. She did what he wanted-mostly-and this was absurd. Unless, deep down, he'd wanted her to mutiny against him for being such a stubborn git? But that wasn't right...
The Doctor frowned, staring down at his feet.
Rose had been brilliant, for a human. She'd managed to clear the restaurant despite having, well, seen her boyfriend's head pulled clean off. And if it hadn't been for her and the fantastic bit of swinging, he'd probably have been dead.
And the regeneration would have been so close to his last...the Doctor shuddered. Oh, now that would have hurt just a bit more than he would have liked. He hadn't had enough time, really, to even start to like this new him, big ears and all.
She'd saved him and the world, unlike that useless Ricky of hers. Cowering at the door to his TARDIS, calling him an "it" after they'd gotten out. Useless, ignorant and utterly normal.
Rose'd been useful, smart and so very unusual.
But he didn't ask twice. He'd asked, she'd said no. Off he went, back to the stars and adventure; back she went to her beans and toast. Both of them as alone as when they'd started the whole mess.
"Bloody hell."
There'd been a longing in her eyes when she'd said no. She believed she had to take care of her boyfriend and mum, put them in front of what she'd wanted. Wasn't that what he did all the time? Put everyone else in front of him even if they didn't realize it?
And there were times, oh there were times, he'd wanted to be selfish. Go back before the war, warn someone. Save someone. Bring them with him. But he hadn't, he couldn't, he wouldn't. The Doctor told himself no over and over and over again.
Maybe it was time to tell himself "yes". And maybe he could get her to be really selfish for the first time in her life as well.
The Doctor grinned and patted the controls. "All right, old girl, rules are meant to be broken," he said. "Might as well break some of my own, yeah? Who says I can't ask twice? Besides me. But she did say no to my offer before and that was a fantastic offer..."
Immediately, he felt and heard the TARDIS start back up again and he laughed as he danced around, flipping switches here and pushing buttons there. "I know! Let's tell her it travels through time, I forgot that part." The Doctor smiled so widely it hurt. "Rose Tyler won't be able to turn that down, now will she? No, I somehow think not."
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: PG
Characters: Nine, Rose
Spoilers: Just for the first episode of Season One
Summary: In the inbetween bits of "Rose", the Doctor finds reasons to ask a second time. And discovers that it's just not Rose who needs to say yes.
Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any of the characters or the universe. I simply play with it.
Author Notes: Many, many thanks to my lovely beta
_bounce_ . :)
"Don't tell anyone about this, because if you do, you'll get them killed."
The door closed behind the Doctor with a bang and he grinned as he tossed the relay device up in the air before catching it. There, that sounded nice and dramatic. He rather liked dramatic: it had a way of sticking with people the way a nondramatic (though often wise) saying never did.
So. Right. He'd gotten the human out of the way...
The Doctor frowned as he tapped the relay device against his hand before he stopped what he was doing. If he wasn't careful he was going to break it and that wouldn't do. Not on the ground floor, anyway, and so far away from the center of the building.
He hadn't gotten the girl's name and it bothered him. But why should it matter? She'd blundered in on the mission-who stayed after closing, he asked himself, when they could be home having chips-nearly got herself all plastified (there was a brilliant word) before he showed up. Nick of time, too, but that was what he did. He'd rescued countless people before, all of them nameless.
A curious glance over the door showed him it was still shut but he didn't move on like he had to.
The girl hadn't panicked...alright, much, since the fuss she'd made earlier was how he found her. But that was forgivable, understandable even. She'd run when she'd been told to-an admirable trait no matter what the species-despite never having laid eyes on him before.
But then she'd had the gall to question him! Fantastic! And a rather interesting assumption of what had been going on. Students, brilliant. Completely wrong, of course, but if she had suddenly blurted out "Oh, right then, they must belong to Nestene Consciousness, right? I'll be on my way, nice to meet you," he might've had bigger worries than attacking shop dummies.
The Doctor scowled. It was rather rude, wasn't it, to keep calling her a "she"? He was often rude but...still.
He brightened. Humans liked nothing more than a title or a name to go with a good story. And as he was so very fond of introducing himself, he might as well get her name at the same time. He liked to have names for the different ones and she struck him as being...not quite ordinary.
Turning around, he swung the door open again.
"I'm the Doctor. By the way, what's your name?"
"Rose."
"Nice to meet you, Rose. Run for your life."
The door clanged shut behind him and the Doctor nodded to himself, pleased when he heard the sound of muted running. There. That had been taken care of.
Time to blow something up.
~~
"It's where?"
The TARDIS didn't deign to answer him. Not that the Doctor was expecting it (but after 900 years it would be nice to get a little more respect. As it was, his hammer kept disappearing at the worst times) but it was still aggravating.
"That's a flat," he said, squinting at the screen. "What's it doing in a flat?" Or, well, in a block of flats. He couldn't tell which one it was in until he got out there and started to look, which meant trolling around. "Lovely. Lots of help, you are."
If it could have been, the TARDIS would have looked smug.
Ten minutes later...
"Who nails a cat door shut?" the Doctor muttered, crouching down in front of it. "Doesn't that ruin the entire point of the bloody thing?"
The sonic screwdriver had hummed and buzzed at him a second ago, letting him know the living plastic was somewhere inside the flat. And he winced. Why couldn't it have been in that lovely one down the hall? It was empty. This one had at least two people in it and one of them was very, very loud.
Setting 224, removing nails. There it was.
With the nails removed, the cat door swung open and he managed to catch a brief glimpse into the flat. Not much to see but he could tell it wasn't on eye level at least...another look, maybe, and then he'd try another way in.
The Doctor could feel his hearts skip a beat when the cat flap suddenly poked back at him and he caught a glimpse of blonde hair and familiar eyes. On the second poke, he realized the gasp of shock sounded familiar as well.
Jerking himself to his feet, he couldn't help but stare as Rose swung open the door.
"What're you doing here?" he demanded. This was impossible. Statistically speaking, it was impossible that she could blunder into two different situations involving the living plastic...
"I live here!"
Right then, that explained it. And statistically that was even worse. The Doctor glared down at the sonic screwdriver. Perhaps it'd gone a bit wonky. It had been ages since he'd done any proper maintenance on it.
"Must've got the wrong signal. You're not plastic, are you?"
He can't help himself as he reached over to knock her gently on her forehead. Nope, not plastic. Warm, soft skin under his knuckles, though probably due for a bit of one of those funny female facials they all enjoyed. "No, bonehead! Bye, then!"
Right, back to the TARDIS and back to the drawing board. A bit frustrating, that, he thought, heading for the stairwell. After this flat, he'd had no other leads...
The Doctor started when he felt a hand grab him, yanking him firmly inside the flat. He stared at her, surprised that she'd had the gall to try that and the strength to do it at all. He guessed she wanted answers and while he wasn't prepared to give them to her, she intrigued him.
It'd be rude to swan off just yet and, after all, maybe she did have a lead.
It couldn't hurt.
~~
Fantastic. The living plastic was now showing up in incredibly populated areas. It had been getting bold, probably spurred on by the Doctor's actions. Which meant he didn't have much time left to find the Nestene Consciousness before it went and did something stupid...and won.
Bipeds thought they were so clever but when a goopy, plastic life form snuck onto their planet, they were goners. Honestly.
He waited for the group of people to clear out before he stepped up, pretending to read the menu as he got a better look around. A pizza place? That was unexpected. A factory, yeah, a junk yard or even a toxic dump, that he'd expect. But a sit down pizza place?
There was a large window by the door which allowed potential customers to see how crowded it was or what the décor looked like. He sidestepped, though he doubted it would be right in plain sight...
His mouth dropped open.
It was in plain sight.
At a table.
With Rose bloody Tyler.
Three times. Three times she'd managed to show up in the middle of all of this mess. That just wasn't possible.
He snorted and scratched the back of his head. Actually, it was possible and this time it was his fault. Well, technically the last time could have been his fault as well. After all, he'd given her the arm in the first place. But that aside, this really was his fault because it was probably looking for information on him and it would have seen her at the flat.
Though the daft thing hadn't caught on to the fact that her boyfriend was plastic. Unless his hair had always looked like that and then the boy might have had bigger problems than having been turned into a copy of himself.
They were far enough away from the door to not spot him as he slipped in, heading over to the person who was waiting to seat him. "Excuse me," he said, flipping out the psychic paper. "See that couple over there? Pretty blonde girl with the plastic hair git?"
The woman blinked and then looked in the direction he indicted. "Um, yes, sir?"
"Been asked to stop by and deliver a bottle of champagne," the Doctor said with a grin. "Anniversary, big one, though. This is a surprise from her mum."
"Really?" She sounded uncertain.
"Oh, yeah. She wanted the best the house had to offer but forgot to call ahead and ask for it. Told me to leave the check after they get it, attached to the bill." He leaned forward to whisper, "The mum, you know, not quite right in the head. But loaded."
"Well..."
"I'm just doin' my job and I'd really liked to go home..."
"Oh, all right. Hang on a second, please."
The Doctor grinned. This was going to be fun.
~~
"Go on, then," the Doctor snapped, smacking the console of the TARDIS with the hammer. "Randomize or something since that's what you like to do. Find us a nice luscious jungle with man-eating things that have a taste for Doctors. Better than ungrateful shop girls, I'll tell you that much."
The TARDIS shuddered violently, throwing him off balance and then it just...stopped. It came to a complete stop, the normal noise of the engine dying down to a quiet hum.
He stared and then pressed a button but nothing happened. "What the bloody hell? No no no, no breaking down! I said I was sorry you got melted living plastic all inside your cooling system, didn't I? I apologized and this is..."
His hands gripped the handle of the hammer as his eyes widened. "You're doing this on purpose. Yes you are, I can tell! You want me to go back, don't you?"
The hammer clattered down onto the grating at his feet as the Doctor stomped off in a circle. "Well, I'm not. D'you hear me? She said no. I don't ask twice. When have you known me to ask twice? Never, that's when! Rose said no. I won't beg, I won't. You can't make me."
The only answer was the unnatural quiet, as if the TARDIS was waiting for him to finish his tantrum. She'd never stopped in the middle of a flight, not like this. The ship was slightly telepathic but it was she who was bonded to him and not the other way around. She did what he wanted-mostly-and this was absurd. Unless, deep down, he'd wanted her to mutiny against him for being such a stubborn git? But that wasn't right...
The Doctor frowned, staring down at his feet.
Rose had been brilliant, for a human. She'd managed to clear the restaurant despite having, well, seen her boyfriend's head pulled clean off. And if it hadn't been for her and the fantastic bit of swinging, he'd probably have been dead.
And the regeneration would have been so close to his last...the Doctor shuddered. Oh, now that would have hurt just a bit more than he would have liked. He hadn't had enough time, really, to even start to like this new him, big ears and all.
She'd saved him and the world, unlike that useless Ricky of hers. Cowering at the door to his TARDIS, calling him an "it" after they'd gotten out. Useless, ignorant and utterly normal.
Rose'd been useful, smart and so very unusual.
But he didn't ask twice. He'd asked, she'd said no. Off he went, back to the stars and adventure; back she went to her beans and toast. Both of them as alone as when they'd started the whole mess.
"Bloody hell."
There'd been a longing in her eyes when she'd said no. She believed she had to take care of her boyfriend and mum, put them in front of what she'd wanted. Wasn't that what he did all the time? Put everyone else in front of him even if they didn't realize it?
And there were times, oh there were times, he'd wanted to be selfish. Go back before the war, warn someone. Save someone. Bring them with him. But he hadn't, he couldn't, he wouldn't. The Doctor told himself no over and over and over again.
Maybe it was time to tell himself "yes". And maybe he could get her to be really selfish for the first time in her life as well.
The Doctor grinned and patted the controls. "All right, old girl, rules are meant to be broken," he said. "Might as well break some of my own, yeah? Who says I can't ask twice? Besides me. But she did say no to my offer before and that was a fantastic offer..."
Immediately, he felt and heard the TARDIS start back up again and he laughed as he danced around, flipping switches here and pushing buttons there. "I know! Let's tell her it travels through time, I forgot that part." The Doctor smiled so widely it hurt. "Rose Tyler won't be able to turn that down, now will she? No, I somehow think not."