Work Text:
With no warning one of the larger men used the butt of his gun to jab it into the Time Lord’s stomach, knocking all the air out of him and causing him to bend over in pain. The other larger man shoved a black sack over the Doctor’s head before the pair of them grabbed him by his arms. The shorter man rested a hand on the Doctor’s shoulder and with a blue flash they all vanished. All of this happened within seconds and Rose could do nothing but cry out his name in anguish.
Rose ran to the doors and slammed into them, they rattled but didn’t budge. ‘Let me out! Let me out!’ She yelled, her fists pounding against the wood. ‘I have to save him!’ She continued her tirade against the doors until her hands hurt too much. Panting, she stepped away and turned her furious gaze up to the ceiling. ‘Do you know where he’s gone? Where they’ve taken him?’ She shouted at the Tardis. She hummed and flashed in response and Rose groaned. ‘I don’t know what that means!’ She yelled with exasperation. All the lights in the console room dimmed, all but the ones that glowed by the controls where the monitor was. Rose took the hint and ran to the monitor which was showing a scan of the Earth. In orbit around the planet was the dark outline of some kind of spaceship. It was only just visible and would have probably stayed unnoticed if no one had been purposefully looking for it. ‘He’s up there yeah?’ The lights around her flashed brightly. ‘So they used some sort of teleport or a - a transmat or something,’ she mumbled, chewing on her thumbnail as she continued to stare at the monitor. She glanced back up at the ceiling a moment later. ‘Can you get us up there?’ A sorrowful hum filled the air and she sighed. ‘Well I can’t fly you like last time.’ She groaned again and ran her fingers through her hair as she paced beside the console. If the situation had been different she would have laughed at how she was acting because her movements reminded her so much of the Doctor. ‘See, this is why he needs to teach me to fly you so I can save his sorry arse,’ Rose said, her voice full of frustration. She rested her hands on the console; her knuckles were white as she gripped the edges of it tightly. Her eyes were staring at the monitor blankly, not taking notice of what was on the screen anymore as she thought hard about what to do. ‘Do you have any idea who they are? She asked, glancing up at the ceiling. ‘Can you scan the ship or something?’
A loud clunking coming from the door interrupted them before the Tardis could answer. Rose’s head snapped towards the sound as she said, ‘what the hell’s that?’ Out of the corner of her eye she noticed the monitor flicker to a new image, she glanced back at it. On the live feed a man dressed just the same as the others was trying to break through the doors using a crowbar whilst another stood guard, tightly holding onto his gun. ‘They can’t get in here right? She murmured, her voice growing a little louder and her words coming out quicker in her panic at the thought of them getting inside. ‘The Doctor said something about Genghis Khan not being able to get in…’ She trailed off at the comforting sounds of the Tardis and tried to calm herself. There was only so much she could worry about at once and if the Tardis was telling her that they weren’t getting inside then she had to focus on getting to the Doctor. It crossed her mind, as she thought of what to do next, that she could just wait it out. That the situation might not be as bad as it appeared but there was this niggling feeling within her that told her otherwise. Plus there was this worry in the back of her mind that she knew wasn’t hers but the Tardis’. She sighed and said, ‘so what about that scan? Can we get a detailed scan of the ship so we can see its inner workings - like a floor plan or something?’ The lights flashed brightly and Rose looked back at the monitor which showed a closer image of the outline of the ship with a line flowing over it from one side to the other as though the Old Girl was scanning it. Another thought popped into Rose’s mind and she quickly added, ‘oooh and life signs, can you show life signs? And do it so we can see the Doctor, like scan for his Time Lord - his - his body signature or something’. Her words all tumbled out in a rush and the lights flickered a few times irritably. Rose calmed down a little. ‘Yeah sorry. One thing at a time.’ Her fingers tapped impatiently on the edge of the console as she awaited her requests. ‘I’m just worried about him,’ she murmured sadly. She received an equally sorrowful hum. ‘Yeah, I know you are too…but we’ll get him back, we’ll save the Doctor.’ Her voice altered from one of despair to one full of determination because she was Rose Tyler and she would do everything in her power to get that Time Lord back where he belonged. By her side.
The shielding on the orbiting ship meant that the scans took far longer than Rose would have liked and she spent quite a while pacing and mumbling to herself whilst she waited. The monitor flickered back to the live feed when a new grinding sound came from beyond the door revealing two men using a new tool to try and get inside. Sparks flew at them as they tried to break through the door and Rose secretly hoped they hurt them. She then asked the Tardis if it hurt her. The Old Girl admitted that it did but that she was alright. Rose really hoped that they could get it all sorted out soon for the ship's sake as well as the Doctor’s.
When the scans were finally complete Rose and the Tardis spent quite some time going over them. They showed the floor plan of the ship, it had quite a few red dots scattered about and one blue dot alone in a small room. They discussed the layout and the movement patterns of the red dots. Rose’s heart beat faster when one of them entered the room with the Doctor. She tried not to think about what was going on up there but her mind was going to the worst case scenarios. What if they were hurting him, torturing him even? What if he was hurt so badly that he wasn’t her Doctor by the time she got up there? Every so often the monitor would flicker to the live feed to show whatever new method the men were trying to get in. They seemed very adamant to get inside.
Rose was watching on the monitor to see what happened on board the ship when the men teleported back to get the next tool when she froze. She stepped back a little unsteadily from the console. There was a questioning hum in the air but Rose didn’t answer the Old Girl because that was the thing, she now understood the Tardis. She didn’t speak in words as such, just in feelings and thoughts and flickering images. Rose could feel how the ship felt without any other visual clues like the lights changing colour or flashing. She didn’t need to hear a different pitch of hum to know what she was saying. She could actually understand the Tardis just in her mind.
‘I can understand you,’ Rose said slowly. The lights flickered brightly around her. ‘I couldn’t understand you before but I can now,’ she continued, ‘did you do something?’ The Tardis hummed a little noncommittally and Rose frowned. ‘But how? How can I understand you?’ The console room glowed gold. Her own eyes flashed gold for a second as she whispered, ‘Bad Wolf’.
It was as though a switch was flicked in her mind. A wolf howled around her from somewhere as Rose’s memories of that fatal day were suddenly unlocked. They all came rushing to her at once. A blur of images. The glow of the Tardis as she opened the panel. The look on her first Doctor’s face as she stepped through the doors. The feel of time passing around her. All that is, all that was, all that ever could be. The moment when she scattered the words across all of time and space. Throughout the universe. Bad Wolf. A message to lead herself back to the Doctor. She saw herself tearing the Daleks apart atom by atom, her head pounding with the weight of all time. Watched as she gave the command to bring life as her head felt like it was ripping open. She was burning from the inside out just as the Doctor had said. And then he saved her. He stepped forwards and kissed her gently, taking the vortex and all its power with it. Or so he had thought.
Her head pounded as the memories faded away and a blurred vision of the console room swam before her eyes. She squeezed them shut and swayed a little under the onslaught in her mind. She was burning. She was burning up and there was no Doctor there to save her this time. Rose collapsed to the grating with a thump and the Tardis hummed apologetically as the darkness took over her Wolf.
**********
One of the things the Doctor hated most was being chained up. He was a wanderer who gallivanted across the stars, never stopping and never settling. Plus he had the energy of a four year old that had eaten a few too many sugary snacks. Of course he hated being chained up. And really, what more did they expect to learn from him being in chains than just leaving him to rot in the jail cell? Well, he couldn’t fight back when they went through his pockets, that was for certain. The two beefy thugs, as he called them, dismissed everything but his sonic screwdriver. They didn’t know what it was of course. One had pressed the button making it buzz and glow blue but they passed it off as a torch. It still got confiscated though in case he wanted to hit them over the head with it which he very much did. Then one of them spied his breast pocket and dived in there. The Doctor writhed around beneath him just as much as he had when they stuck their fingers in his other pockets but he found himself more agitated than before because this was Rose. He was stealing Rose. The Doctor hadn’t taken the time to look at the picture yet and now the man’s greedy mitts had taken it away from him. He and the other thug were staring at her likeness hungrily and the Doctor couldn’t help but let out a low growl at their expressions. One of them heard and nudged the other and they both sniggered at the Time Lord.
‘She’s pretty,’ one of the thugs stated.
‘Don’t,’ he bit out. His answer only made them smile more.
‘Far too good for you.’
‘And don’t I know it,’ he muttered before he raised his voice once more as he demanded, ‘give it back’. Their following laughter made him feel sick, which was quite an achievement for a Time Lord.
‘No,’ the talkative thug replied, ‘don’t think we will’.
They left him alone in his cell after that, locking the door behind them with that customary big ring of keys that all jailers seemed to possess. The Doctor heard what sounded like a small cupboard door being opened just outside his cell. The sonic buzzed for a second as one of the men threw it into the cupboard before closing it up again. At least his sonic wasn’t far away, not that he’d have any chance of reaching it being chained up how he was. He sighed as their footsteps faded away and looked down at himself. The chains around his ankles were tight and slightly digging in, clearly not made for a being of his size if that wasn’t already being made apparent enough by the position of his legs. His knees were bent a little; the length of the chains neither allowing him to stretch out his legs nor bend them fully forcing him into this half and half position that he could tell would make his knees seize up if he couldn’t move soon. His arms were up against the cold metal wall behind him, his elbows bent so his wrists could be attached to the wall leaving his hands dangling limply and uselessly. He would lose the feeling in his hands soon enough, they were already beginning to tingle slightly from the poor circulation the position offered. He did have to hand it to them, it was a pretty fool proof arrangement and at the moment his only means of escape was his big gob, though that had been the reason for quite a few cell visits in the past.
It was two hours, seventeen minutes and thirty two seconds of complete boredom for the Time Lord before keys rattled in his cell door. He slowly looked up as the footsteps came to a halt in front of him.
‘Changed your mind yet?’ The nasally voice of the shorter of his three captors asked.
‘No,’ he mumbled.
‘Shame,’ the man said, though the way he said it certainly suggested he didn’t believe it was. ‘We’ve got some information on you…pertinent information,’ he gave a horribly spiky grin; the only real tell that he wasn’t human. The Doctor didn’t have to fake the bored look on his face as he looked up at the man who continued stating, ‘we scan all of our guests’. He scoffed at the word choice but the man ignored him. ‘A most interesting specimen you are. We didn’t believe you existed anymore…yet here you are.’ He bent down in front of him, studying him with intrigue, so close that the Doctor could feel the disgustingly hot, eggy breath upon his face. The Time Lord glared at his captor and he offered him his spiked grin in return. ‘I’m afraid our previous arrangement has altered due to the circumstances,’ the man began as he leant back again. The Doctor rolled his eyes. ‘We won’t be freeing you after we get control of your vessel because you’ll fetch a pretty penny just as much as your ship will. And we will be having your ship. If you’re a Time Lord then that is a Time Machine.’ The man’s eyes glimmered excitedly at the thought.
‘I’ve told you, you’re not having my ship,’ he snarled.
The man snorted. ‘That’s what they all say, but we have our methods of making you…comply,’ he grinned, his sharp teeth jutting out threateningly. He left the Doctor alone after that, but that didn’t last for long.
One hour later the Doctor’s left index finger was dislocated.
By two and a half hours later all the fingers and his thumb on his left hand were dislocated.
He’d also received a black eye, which was forming nicely on his face, after trying to trip one of the thugs by raising his knee as far as the chains allowed when they climbed over him to reach his left hand. They came crashing to the ground spectacularly, even managing to break their nose by not catching themself in time. But that was what they got for hurting his ship. The back of the Doctor’s head was throbbing as the punch resulting in his black eye had sent it slamming into the wall behind him. They could do what they liked to him, he was never giving up his ship especially not when Rose was in there.
**********
Darkness had fallen on the Powell Estate. The Tardis sat in the spot that had almost become commonplace for her, though what was uncommon was the man that stood outside guarding her doors. He was pacing, his gun clutched at his side as he peered into the night around him. This was something the Tardis much preferred. The men had either run out of ideas to get inside her doors or did not like to work in the dark. Though she preferred it neither option was particularly good. The latter meant more painful attacks on her come morning and the former meant more trouble for her Thief. She could feel his pain through their bond and tried to send comfort and reassurances back. He thanked her and sent his own to her. He questioned her about what was happening down on Earth, though he wasn’t happy with her answers. Then the topic changed and he asked about Rose and the Tardis lied. Her Thief would not like the truth. Her Thief had to stay strong so he could return.
**********
An unearthly song filled the air. It was like a sigh. It floated around caressing everything it touched with its wordless tune. It embraced like a warm blanket, wrapping delicately and soothingly, yet it never actually touched. Not physically. It was a mere presence, though not like a thought, it was far more than that. Far greater. It was alive. Forever lingering. Never fading. Eternal. The eternal song.
As she drifted in and out of consciousness it was this singing that she heard. It was a song that she had heard once before though it had been long forgotten. Her next thoughts were less comforting. It was cold and hard. Where she was, it was cold and hard. She groaned and tilted her head a little, lifting up her cheek and leaning on the back of her head instead. Slightly less cold. Still hard. It was the floor that was cold and hard beneath her. One of her fingers trailed across it, rising and falling over the crisscrossing grating. She was in the Tardis, her mind supplied. It wasn’t often that she spent time on the grating and certainly not in the position she found herself in now but she still knew that feeling beneath her fingers. Rose blinked open her eyes to see the dimly lit console room around her, she then sat up a little gingerly because it had not been a soft landing and the back of her head ached. Around her the Tardis hummed inquisitively and she replied with a murmured, ‘yeah, yeah I’m alright’. She raised a hand to the back of her head, feeling for any bumps or blood because it certainly felt like there should be something to show for the lingering throbbing in her skull. Then it came to her, why her head hurt so much, and her gaze shot up to the ceiling. ‘Am I - am I alright?’ Rose stuttered as her realisation hit her. ‘I was burning wasn’t I? But I’m still here. I’m alive…’ She was both confused and amazed that she was here because she had, once again, been burning up. Or that is what it had felt like anyway. ‘It was you wasn’t it?’ She continued slowly, putting the pieces together. ‘Bad Wolf happened because I looked into you, so you did this, you made this happen.’ The Tardis’ hum was like a shrug and Rose sighed in frustration. ‘You give me the ability to actually understand you and you don’t even use it?’ Her words lingered in the air and Rose got up to her feet, finally feeling like was catching a glimpse of understanding why the Doctor rowed with the Old Girl if she was behaving like this.
The Doctor.
‘Oh my God, the Doctor,’ she breathed. ‘He’s still up there. I have to save him.’ The ache in her head was slightly less prevalent now though she pushed that aside as she darted to the monitor firing off quick questions to the Tardis, uncaring about what had happened to herself now that his kidnapping had come to the forefront of her mind once again. ‘Show me the ship right now, those internal scans again,’ she demanded and the monitor flickered back to the floor plan. The Doctor’s blue spot was still in the small room but there was a red dot just outside the door. Quite a few red dots were gathered in two larger rooms at one end of the ship though a handful still roamed elsewhere. Her eyes flitted back to that initial red dot as they moved away from the Doctor’s room and she let out a sigh of relief. On the floor plan his room was about halfway down the length of the ship with the two large rooms, where most were gathered, situated near the bottom. She pointed towards the bottom end of the ship, merely a few rooms away from the two large ones and said, ‘so this is where they kept teleporting to right?’ The Tardis hummed in agreement and Rose traced the best possible route. She saw two options. One: the longer route that led her down corridors around the rest of the ship before looping around to the section where the Doctor was. She would have to watch out for the two patrolling guards who were sauntering separately around the corridors; it would be helpful to no one if she got caught too. Two: pass through the small room next to those two larger ones. It seemed to attach to the corridor not far from the Doctor’s room and would be a much quicker route and less time out in the patrol areas. The guards didn’t seem to pass through there either; they just took the corridors instead.
Now the only thing left to work out was how she would actually get on board. ‘I need a teleport,’ she stated out loud. The monitor flickered to the live feed once again and Rose saw a single guard standing not too far away seemingly guarding the Tardis. ‘You want me to take the teleport from him?’ She received a short affirmative hum and Rose looked on at the monitor a little nervously. He had a gun with him, he could easily kill her if it went wrong but this was for the Doctor. She had to do it. She steeled herself and went through the next problem in her mind. She couldn’t just walk up and ask him for it nor could she pick his pockets. Really it would be best if he was unconscious. She’d never knocked someone unconscious before but it seemed like the only option.
She left the console room and ran down the corridors until she reached storage four, an idea sprouting in her mind. Rose remembered seeing it in there when they had been searching for the forcefield for the Silurians. Now if only she could find it again. ‘Gotcha,’ she said triumphantly as she spied the signed cricket bat. It was a memento of their time at the Ashes in Australia. One of the British players on the cricket team was actually a very excited cricket fan from Temu Tama. They had disguised themselves as one of the actual players by using something called a Shimmer, according to the Doctor. The poor alien had an equivalent of a cold but it affected the human players much worse. Halfway through the game they were becoming drowsy. They were missing catches and failing at batting and they had started to lose against Australia. When half the team had suddenly fallen asleep where they stood, the Doctor stepped in and saved the day, batting an impressive run and enabling the British to win by a point. When the players awoke, having slept off their brief illness, they were delighted with the Doctor and each signed the cricket bat and gave it to him as a reward. Then he and Rose had taken the alien back to Temu Tama and had tea with their parents. Overall, a very successful adventure for team Tardis.
As Rose turned to leave the storage room something hit her foot. She glanced down at her pink chucks and saw a red cricket ball lying on the metal floor. The Tardis hummed and Rose nodded, she picked up the ball and threw it in the air once before catching it then made her way back to the console room. She walked to the doors feeling more nervous the closer she got but she had to do this to save the Doctor. When she reached them the lights flashed brightly and she stopped. ‘What?’ Rose sighed at the ceiling. The Old Girl hummed again and Rose turned to the coral strut that the Tardis had flashed an image of in her mind. On top of it, as usual, lay the Doctor’s coat and on top of that was his old leather jacket. ‘What do you want me to do with that?’ She asked as she stepped towards the jacket with a frown. The lights glowed blue for a moment in answer. Rose’s frown deepened but her hand dived inside the interior pocket and pulled out his sonic screwdriver. Her original Doctor’s sonic screwdriver. It was mostly the same as his current one though some of the components were a slightly different shade. ‘He just leaves these lying around when he’s done with them?’ She commented with disbelief. Rose was about to pocket the screwdriver and put the jacket back down, agreeing that the sonic would be useful to have especially as she knew the setting to unlock and lock things, when she paused. Instead she began to take off her grey hoodie and replaced that with the leather jacket. The Doctor used to wear it like a piece of armour; he’d walk out there and battle with aliens full of confidence and bravado. Right now Rose felt like she needed that. She put the sonic back in the jacket and picked up the cricket bat and ball she had left by the doors ready to face her own battle.
The door squeaked slightly as she began to open it. Rose stilled in her movements hoping that the man hadn’t heard. After a moment she started to open the door once again. Her first realisation was that it was dark out. How many hours had she been unconscious for? She sent a wave of anger from her mind to the Tardis and decided she would certainly be having words with her about her timing. The Old Girl sent an apology back but Rose wasn’t paying much attention to her now, her eyes were on the guard. His back was towards her though he was looking to the left, his gaze searching the streets of the estate. Now seemed as good a moment as any. Rose threw the cricket ball to the right and pushed the door closed as quickly as she could. She heard his footsteps pass to the right of the ship and she eased the door open once more. The ball had rolled its way to the edge of the row of garages and the man was walking towards it. Rose knew she had to act fast before he realised it was just a harmless ball and a mere distraction tactic. With the cricket bat held in her hands she crept up behind the man and swung the bat at his head just as he reached the ball. He fell to the floor instantly. Rose dropped the bat from her shaking hands and stared at him. She couldn’t believe that she had done that but as she kept telling herself, she had to. It was for the Doctor. She found the teleporter hooked onto his belt and grabbed it. About to press the button she stopped. She couldn’t just leave him here; what if someone saw him? He looked just like a human so they would probably try to help. And then again what about her mum, what if she saw that the Tardis was still on the estate and thought they were inside? What if more men came down to try and get in and she saw them? Rose didn’t think her mum would just go over and confront them but perhaps she would if she thought they were trying to get to Rose, she could be very protective of her. Another thought popped into her mind as she fretted over her mum and she pulled the sonic out of the jacket’s inner pocket and used it to unlock the garage at the end of the row. It was as good a spot as any to hide an alien when she was under a time constraint because she wasn’t sure how long it would take for said alien to awake. She lifted the creaky door as she got her phone out of her pocket and rang her mum. She put the mobile to her ear and held it there with her shoulder, waiting for her to pick up. As she waited she gripped the man under his arms and began to drag him backwards into the garage.
‘Rose? What is it sweetheart? You only saw me a few hours ago, can’t be missing me already.’
Even though she didn’t want her mum to worry, Rose was slightly thankful that her mum already knew something wasn’t quite right because it was strange for her to call so soon after seeing her. It also meant she could skip the pleasantries and get straight to the point. ‘Are you still at home?’
‘Of course I am, I was about to go to bed. Why, what is it?’
‘Just stay inside the flat, yeah?’ Her voice was slightly strained from the effort of dragging the man inside the garage.
‘Why? What’s happening out there? What’s wrong? Where are you sweetheart?’
She was going into full panic mode and that was exactly what Rose didn’t want. ‘Mum, just calm down, I’m sorting it out. It’ll be fine.’ She truly hoped it would be fine. She had dragged the man to the back corner of the garage and tucked him behind a large metal shelf stacked with paint cans and a few replacement motorbike tires for the bike that sat in the centre of the garage.
‘You’re sorting it? Is he with you, is the Doctor with you?’
‘Yeah,’ she answered. It wasn’t the answer to all her mum’s questions but she wasn’t going to tell her otherwise because she would worry more. ‘Just promise me you’ll stay inside? I’ll come visit you after and explain more okay.’ Rose noticed a couple of bike locks on the shelf too, she picked them up and started to tie the man’s wrists and attach him to the sturdy shelving unit. She couldn’t afford for him to get out and alert the others whilst she was trying to find the Doctor. Rose heard her mum’s reluctant sigh before she replied.
‘Okay, I promise. But you be safe Rose, you and himself.’
Rose was caught off guard by her mum’s words. She had certainly not expected to find herself a little choked up by them. It was a simple wish for her to stay safe. It was something her mum always worried about so she knew it wasn’t that that got to her even though she was about to do something that was probably incredibly dangerous. It was the fact that her mum wished for the Doctor to stay safe too and that was something that Rose had no idea about. It had been hours since he had been taken and anything could have happened to him. She had no idea if he was okay and that was why her mum’s words got to her.
After checking the coast was clear she stepped out of the garage, closed the door on the unconscious guard and sonicked it locked once more. She took a deep calming breath and said, ‘I gotta go mum, I love you’.
‘I love you too Rose-’
She hung up the phone and put it in her pocket before her mum could get in another word. As she took a step away from the garage her foot kicked something on the ground. Expecting the cricket ball she gasped a little when she saw it was the guard’s pistol. It must have become dislodged at she dragged him away. The Doctor didn’t like guns and Rose didn’t really either but she had no idea what she was about to step into. She picked it up and tucked it in the back of her trousers like she had seen people do in films and television. It felt strange and cold and not particularly pleasant but she felt a little safer with it because she wasn’t the Doctor. She could wear his clothes and have his sonic but she wasn’t him. She was just Rose Tyler.
With one last glance at the Tardis Rose stepped out of sight, around the corner of the garages so if she teleported back and there were more guards by the Old Girl she wouldn’t be caught by them, at least not straight away. She looked down at the teleporter; it seemed simple enough to understand. Rose pressed one of the buttons and vanished in a blue flash.