Wolf Moon: Chapter Thirty-Nine

[amberfocus]

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Fragments

 

Rose followed the unusual sound of the Doctor’s laugher to the console room. Not that the sound of his laughter was unusual to her own ears, but to hear him laughing when she wasn’t there, when it was no one but him and the ship was very odd indeed. “What’s got you in such a good mood?”

“Aside from yesterday?” he asked with a glance that turned quite heated when it landed on her body.

“Yes,” she said. “I heard you laughing.”

“Ah, the TARDIS was just telling me a very bad joke.”

“Oh? Do tell?”

“All right. Who do you call when the local singularity breaks down?” he asked.

“Who?” Rose asked.

“The temporal mechanics!” And the Doctor had apparently cracked himself up heartily for he was bent over double laughing. Rose just looked at him and rolled her eyes. “Real mechanics, mind you, that fix temporal things, not the math. Ah, it loses something in the translation, doesn’t it, old girl?” he asked patting the TARDIS fondly. There was a slight protesting buzz and then he said, “Young girl, then? Barely a day over 100, after all.” The room brightened.

“You’re getting along?” Rose asked in mild astonishment.

The Doctor looked down at his feet sheepishly. “Well, yeah. It was time. The two of us decided while you were sleeping that maybe we ought to finally try and make a go of being…well, friends.”

“That’s wonderful,” Rose said running her hand gently over the coral support strut next to her and giving him a wide smile. “I’m happy for you both.”

“How are you doing?” the Doctor asked. “You slept through dinner last night and then on through breakfast this morning. Are you hungry?”

“Yeah,” she said.

“Come on, I’ll make you breakfast.” He held out his hand to her, gave the TARDIS one last pat and walked her to the kitchen.

“I can get my own breakfast, you know, Doctor,” said Rose.

“You’re still recovering.”

“No aches and pains today,” she said.

“Maybe not, but you slept for fifteen hours straight, Rose. Your body is obviously still healing somewhere,” he told her. “Sit.” He settled her at the kitchen table and proceeded to whip up a very big omelet that he cut into two pieces and set on the table. He dug into his with gusto.

“You look like you’re starving. Didn’t you eat last night?” Rose asked him.

“I did. Both your dinner and mine, but I put out a lot of energy, Rose, what with our activities yesterday. Need to restock my reserves.”

“Oh, yeah? What’ve you got in mind?” she asked with a wicked gleam in her eyes. She let her eyes trail from his eyes to his lips, linger for a moment, and then drop down his chest.

“You have a one track mind, Rose Tyler,” the Doctor accused lightly.

“Oh, but it’s a lovely track to be on, Doctor,” she said with a giggle.

“Well, tomorrow is week’s end,” he said. “Tomorrow I’ll run you through the scanner again and if all is well…”

“You’ll make love with me?” she asked hopefully.

“Oh, yes.” His eyes had darkened and his voice had gotten low and throaty. “I will make love with you.” He let his own eyes trace over her outline before coughing abruptly and changing the subject. “But for today, I’ve asked the TARDIS to set down near drayguin territory so we can check on how they’re doing now that they’ve been out of the behavior modification field for several days. I don’t want to leave Guinyoc’altinish’morclinia-morashnatil without making sure they’ve reverted to normal.”

“Ah, so adventure today instead of fooling around?” Rose asked with a slight pout.

“You’re insatiable,” he told her with a fond grin.

“Can I help it if I can’t get enough of you?” She grinned back happily at him.

“Reckon not,” he said with a slightly smug look and Rose laughed. She reached out and caressed his hand before picking up her fork and tucking into the omelet. She made a delighted moan as the flavors burst over her taste buds.

“You do breakfast about as well as you do…me,” she told him flirtatiously.

“Are you coming on to me?” he asked.

“Always,” Rose said not even bothering to blush. Her comfort with her lust for him had risen astronomically from the day before.

“We need to check on the drayguins,” he said.

“Oh, have it your way,” she said good-naturedly. “But I’m not letting you out of bed tomorrow any more than necessary.”

He smiled. “I can live with that. Now eat. We’ve got a big day ahead of us and I want you properly fueled up for it.”

“Will we have to do a lot of walking?” Rose asked.

“Not like before, no. The TARDIS will get us in pretty close to the wallows. Far enough away to hide her from their view, but not so far as to be a hardship to you,” the Doctor explained.

“Kind of her.”

“Oh, she likes you very much, Rose. She thinks you’re quite special,” he said in a voice that showed he heartily agreed with the ship.

“Well, I like her a great deal, too,” Rose said. The TARDIS hummed happily at Rose’s words and Rose laughed. She focused on eating then and when they were done she went back to her room and dressed in a pair of light yellow Capri pants and a pale pink tank top. She found her hiking boots and some good socks and put them on, then went to join the Doctor in the console room.

“Well, look at you, all pink and yellow,” he said. Rose froze. She literally went stock still and felt icy fingers reach out and take a very tight grip on her heart. “What is it?” the Doctor asked as the color washed from her face and he heard the change in her breathing.

Slowly Rose came back to herself, her color returning to normal and the hitch gone from her respiration. “Nothing,” she said giving herself a little shake. “I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine. You went white as a sheet, Rose. Are you hurting?” He came over and touched her forehead then peered into her eyes.

“I’m fine. Wasn’t reacting to something physical,” she told him.

“What then? That wasn’t normal,” he persisted.

“The other Doctor, the second incarnation I travelled with, he used to call me that,” she said in a rush.

“Call you what?”

“All pink and yellow. His pink and yellow girl. He meant my hair and my skin but…he called me that.” She raised her eyes to meet his almost afraid to see his reaction to her words. But all she saw was warmth there and compassion. He closed the distance between them and enfolded her in his arms.

“Okay, the pink I understand, but the yellow? Your hair is light brown.”

“I used to dye it blond,” she said.

One of his hands reached up and stroked through her hair. “Hard to picture you as a blond,” he said. “Why would you do that? It’s such a lovely color now.”

Rose shrugged. “Used to put my make-up on with a spackle brush, too. I was young and didn’t understand about less is more. Wasn’t comfortable with my own naturalness then.”

“But you’re so beautiful,” he said pushing back from her enough to look in her face.

“Thank you, Doctor. But I was a very insecure girl when it came to my looks back then. Didn’t understand a lot of things about what made people truly attractive. But we’re getting off the topic. The pink and yellow thing, it reminds me of him and I’d rather not be thinking of him when I’m with you. It feels disloyal somehow.”

“To him or to me?” the Doctor asked.

“Yes,” she said firmly.

“For my part, I don’t mind you thinking about him. He was an important part of your life. Might be jealous a little, but you’re with me now and he’s having to cope without you. I feel bad for him. Not bad enough to give you up if a way were ever found, but still.”

“I wouldn’t let you give me up,” she told him fiercely. “I told you, you’re my future.”

“But you loved him first.”

“I know,” she said. “And it’s hard sometimes, but…you’re mine. He never let himself be mine. I don’t know if he wouldn’t or he couldn’t but he didn’t. And you have. You’re mine and I’m yours and that’s just…that’s just the way it is. That isn’t going to change no matter what the future brings us. We’re bonded and we’re going to be married and…I want you. But it would be better if you didn’t call me pink and yellow, because it hurts to hear it.”

“Agreed,” he told her. He pulled her back into him and hugged her tightly before releasing her. “You ready then? To go out and face the drayguins?”

“I can face anything,” she told him, “as long as you are by my side.”


Making broad sweeping statements like that, Rose decided later that day, was just asking for trouble. It was like walking up to fate and admitting that you weren’t quite jeopardy friendly enough so you’d like a second helping, please. Really, she ought to have known better. It might not have stopped the current situation from happening, but then again, it very well might have. The universe had a wicked sense of humor.

As she backed against the pinnacle with no place left to go she turned her head slightly to look at the Doctor. He grasped her hand tightly in his own and turned to her. There was so much love in his eyes as he told her, “I’m so glad I met you.”

“Me, too,” she said echoing a similar conversation in a similar life-threatening situation in a dingy Cardiff basement a lifetime ago. She smiled at him, her Doctor, the face she’d never expected to see again, giving her the life she’d never expected to have.

“I love you,” she told him.

“I love you.” The drayguins swarmed the pinnacle and Rose felt herself being pushed away from the Doctor in the sea of bodies. She tried hard to keep a hold on his hand but the creatures were forcing her away from him and she could not. She cried out his name, heard him calling out hers, and she struggled to make her way back to him. The too warm leathery scales rubbed against her flesh and she was pushed hard away from him.

She managed to turn her body to look back at the Doctor, saw him being herded in the opposite direction from her and when he fought to go against the drayguins, flame shot from the snout of one of them. The Doctor yelped and she again tried to go back to him, when a dark green flame shot towards her from the nearest red female.

“Please,” she begged uselessly. “Please, I need him.” She knew it wouldn’t help, it was like pleading with animals, but she tried as they inexorably drove her forward across the plain.

Then she felt it, the faint nudging of something brushing across her mind. She recognized it as the Doctor as it tingled against her awareness. She waited for the shooting pain of telepathy to come to her but was surprised when there was none. The Doctor had said things would change once they’d bonded but neither of them had attempted to use it, having been together ever since.

“Rose, are you okay?” the Doctor asked her. His tone was so vibrant and alive she nearly felt like sobbing in relief. It was almost like holding his hand, the touch soothing in her mind.

“I…I think so. They just seem to be…herding me.” An excited buzzing noise rose from the drayguins closest to her.

“Me, too,” said the Doctor. “I seem to be surrounded by only males, Rose. They’re the more dangerous of the species. Which ones have got you?”

Rose took a moment to look around at her captors. “It’s the bigger ones. It has to be the females. Are they segregating us?”

“I think they are. I’m not sure what they intend. Rose, I’m going to get you out of this. I promise, love.”

“I know you will,” Rose sent back. “Never doubted you.” She focused on projecting emotions of great love and faith to him. She had no idea if it would work, but she felt his presence even more strongly just for a moment as she pictured giving him a mental caress.

The animals surrounding her began to buzz even more loudly. “Doctor, the drayguins are humming or something. It’s like they’re waiting for something to happen. It’s--.” She broke off as one of the drayguins approached her and erratically began waggling it’s forelimb at her. She took a step back.

“Rose?” The worry in the Doctor’s thought was very strong.

“I’m okay,” she said reassuringly. The red drayguin shook her forelimb at Rose again, then lowered her nose to her shoulder and sniffed. “I don’t know, Doctor. I think they’re trying to--.” A horrible sound pitched through Rose’s head like static feedback on a microphone and her connection to the Doctor was severed. “Doctor,” she cried out. “Doct--.” The feedback got stronger, the buzzing filled her head, and Rose felt a dizzying wave. It was the last thing she was aware of as a wash of sound inundated her brain and she passed out.



“Rose?” called the Doctor. “Rose!” There was no answer from his bondmate and a dreadful panic welled up inside him. “No more!” he shouted at the creatures surrounding him. “Take me back to my mate!”

The animals around him buzzed loudly and then the noise began to take on a melodic quality. The drayguin nearest him, an old one by the amount of graying along his blue muzzle, waggled his head at the Doctor. He came so close he was actually resting his nose against the Doctor’s chest. Then he carefully pulled back and waggled his head again.

The Doctor had no idea what the creature was doing nor did he care. The only thought in his head was the overwhelming urge to get back to Rose, to rescue her from the swarming drayguins. In desperation he called to the TARDIS. “I need you. The drayguins have taken, Rose. You’ve got to get to her, materialize around her or something.”

“I’m on my way,” his ship responded. A moment later the TARDIS said, “I’ve got her, Doctor. She’s safe. But these creatures are…” The TARDIS stopped talking as an ungodly keening rose up from the drayguins all around him. Images and sounds pushed against the edges of his consciousness, overwhelming him. The old blue drayguin was pushing against his chest again and the barrage became worse until the Doctor could no longer bear it. His world went black.

The TARDIS moved quickly, materializing around the unconscious form of the Time Lord. The drayguins screamed and threw themselves against the ship.

Chapter 40:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/22796.html

 

Comments

[kk-animation.livejournal.com]

I'm intrigued now, can't wait to find out what is going on. I'm a little sad to see we only have about 7 more chapters left of this story. Is there going to be a sequel? Maybe? Please?

[kk-animation.livejournal.com]

LOL... sorry I just read you post that says there is a sequel so ignore me

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's called Hunger Moon. I've just posted chapter four to my journal. I'm a bit behind with my time and chips posts.