Wolf Moon: Chapter Three
Jan. 26th, 2008 09:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amberfocusWolf Moon: Chapter Three
A Little Bit Erratic
Rose started to laugh, a huge, deep belly laugh that shook her entire body. This whole night had been surreal. This man, this duplicate version of her Doctor had come strolling into her life big as you please and everything was turned completely upside down in her universe and he chose to focus on a comment that she made back in her apartment a half an hour ago. That was so…Doctor!
The expression on the Doctor’s face as he observed her hysterics just made her laugh that much harder. His pride started looking wounded the longer she went on and she knew she needed to get herself under control before he started thinking she had completely lost her mind and chucked her right back out the doors. “Sorry,” she gasped out when she was halfway under control again. “If you only knew…” She didn’t finish with how much she had missed those ears, or that nose, those eyes, and that face. She shook her head and forced herself to breathe deeply.
“My ears are not big,” he said huffily, folding his arms across his chest and giving her such a glare, such a beautiful, intense, angry Doctor glare, that her eyes softened and her heart felt the tiniest of tugs. She’d missed that glare! What did that say about her?
“Well, you know what they say about men with big ears,” she said cheekily. Was she flirting? Oh, she really needed to get her wayward emotions under control. His eyes widened and he suddenly looked wary and just a trifle afraid of her.
“No, I don’t.”
“They get better reception than satellite five,” she said, covering for the much more inappropriate thing that had been on the tip of her tongue. He just stared at her for a long time and she wondered if he was counting to one hundred to keep his temper in check or he simply did not understand what could be going on in her head at the moment. Well, that would make two of them, wouldn’t it? She wasn’t entirely sure what the jumble formerly known as Rose’s mind was doing either.
“Look, I need to examine you,” he finally said.
“Ooh, Med Bay fun. Are you going to poke me with your sonic screwdriver?” She asked raising her eyebrows at him suggestively.
“Please come with me,” he said brusquely, taking her by the arm and leading her to the infirmary.
“But we’ve only just met,” she said. Then she closed her eyes and shook her head. The only logical explanation was that her mouth had completely bypassed her brain. She wondered if it was possible for humans to have an oral bypass system and then despaired of ever getting her mind out of the gutter when that turn of phrase sent it reeling. And instead of keeping her mouth shut and making it better, she said, “But if you keep the leather coat on I just might--.”
“Look, will you just stop it?” The Doctor snapped at her. “I don’t know if you’re flirting or in heat or what, but I’m not interested. Now take off your clothes and get on the table.”
“I am not taking off my clothes,” she said, suddenly indignant. “We may have been best friends in another lifetime but the only time I ever took my clothes off for you was when I was bleeding.” Well, that wasn’t entirely true, there had been that one time on Divo when they’d gone skinny dipping and then that time on Danzibar, but that hardly counted because--.
“A minute ago you were coming on to me and now you’re afraid to show a little skin? You have got to be the most exasperating creature I’ve ever met,” the Doctor told her.
“Well, you know us stupid apes,” she said as a touch of sadness crept through her. She missed him after not missing him for so long. And this man it front of her was not helping at all.
“Why do you call yourself that?” He asked. Not her Doctor, not her Doctor at all.
She sat down hard on the examining table. “I think I might be just a little bit drunk,” she said as the thought finally occurred to her. “I had two, no, three glasses of wine after dinner. I never should have agreed to come back here with you. You’re a complete stranger. You might look like him but you’re not.”
The Doctor turned away from her and reached into a drawer. “Look, just let me…” He trailed off as he turned back around and realized that Rose had slipped out of the infirmary while he wasn’t looking. He could hear her feet running in the corridor.
He went after her, saw her dodge into the console room and she was at the outer doors as he made it into the room. Her hand was reaching out for the handle when the sound of dematerialization filled the chamber. He stared at the console in shock. “What are you doing?” He yelled at the TARDIS, rushing over to the controls and trying in vain to stop the time rotor from moving up and down. Nothing he did made a difference.
“You can’t do this!” Rose said pounding on the doors. “It’s kidnapping, it is. Let me out right now.”
“It’s not me,” cried the Doctor. “It’s her.” He stabbed a finger at the console.
“She’s not leaving us,” his ship said firmly.
“You can’t just--.” Angry sparks shot out of the console. A large one landed on the back of his hand and he cried out, “Ouch.” He sucked at the spot. “You’re crazy.”
“She stays. We need her.”
“No, we don’t. We don’t need her. She’s just a…an anomaly,” he said.
“I need her.”
“Why? She’s nothing special. She’s just a human. She can’t even interface with you properly,” the Doctor argued. “We’ll find out what’s wrong with her and we’ll fix her and be rid of her.”
From behind him he heard a gasp and he turned to see Rose standing with her back against the doors, one fist against her mouth and the other over her gut. She slid down the doors to the floor and sat there in a heap. He realized what he had said must have sounded extraordinarily harsh to her ears.
“Rose?” He said in the softest, most even tone he’d used all night.
“What?” He was relieved to note that there was still spunk in her voice.
“Why don’t you sleep off the wine, and in the morning we’ll start over again?” He suggested.
“It’s not the wine, Doctor. Your ship zapped me when I had my back against the doors. Don’t know what voltage she used, but I’m not sure I can make my legs work.”
Relief washed through him that he hadn’t actually hurt her feelings. Now where had that thought come from? It shouldn’t matter to him if her feelings were hurt. She wasn’t anything to him. But wait a minute. “She shocked you?”
“Electrocuted, more like,” Rose replied. “My nerve endings are still firing. It hurts.” She tried to keep the pain out of her voice but he heard it and it made him furious at the TARDIS. A little too furious, if he thought about it.
The Doctor slammed his fist down on the console. “You do not do that to her! Do you get me? You shock me all you want if you disagree with me, but Rose is off limits to your little games. I don’t care how much you want her to stay on board, you will not hurt her. Understand?”
“Not to mention it’s counterproductive,” Rose said wryly. Tentatively she reached a hand above her head and pressed her palm to the door. “I respond much better to sweet talk,” she murmured. The TARDIS hummed at her in desperate apology.
“I’m sorry,” the Doctor said, amazed at Rose’s ability to give the ship another chance and slightly…jealous? Jealous of her kindness to his ship? What kind of crazy was that? “She is, too, but she’s not going to let you out. For some reason she thinks you’re important to us, to our survival.”
“But you don’t, do you?” She asked him softly. He met her amber eyes, seeing something poignant and raw in them, before they shifted from his gaze and the moment was lost. She gave a rueful smile. “Well, morning then,” she said brusquely. “Do you have some place I can sleep in this bu…ship?” She’d been about to say bucket, but didn’t think this TARDIS would appreciate being referred to in such a manner. Especially since this ship was not a falling apart old rattletrap that loved her and wouldn’t mind being teased.
“You can sleep in my room,” the Doctor said.
She raised her eyebrows and grinned at him. “Now who’s flirting?” She said pointedly.
“I’m not! I didn’t mean it that way,” he said, disconcerted. “But there’s no point in having the ship fix up a room for you for just one night.” The TARDIS flickered her lights and made a scornful sound of disapproval.
“I don’t think she thinks it’ll be one night,” Rose said thoughtfully.
“Well, if it turns out it’s for more, she’ll make you up a room. I don’t sleep much and mine is free tonight. Unless you plan on just sleeping right there on the floor,” he said.
“I was waiting for the shock to wear off,” she said, finally rising to her feet a bit shakily. “Thought if I asked you to carry me to bed you might take it the wrong way.” She took a hesitant step forward and winced.
“Do you need me to carry you?” He said. “I can.”
“I think I’ll be fine now,” she said. “Lead on.” She did have to lean against the wall a couple of times as she followed him down the corridor. His room wasn’t too far from the console room and when they got there the TARDIS had placed a tank top and pajama bottoms on the duvet.
“The washroom is just through that door,” the Doctor said pointing at one of two doors. “I’ll leave you to it.”
“Okay.” Rose picked up the pajamas and headed towards the washroom.
“Rose,” he said as he got to the doorway.
“Yes?”
“I need to do that exam first thing,” he told her. “Find out what’s wrong with you. See if I can fix you.”
“I don’t think it’s a wrongness, Doctor. I think it’s more than that,” she told him. He could hear the smile in her voice. Odd, that. A smiling voice. Yet, it seemed perfectly natural for Rose to have one.
“In the morning, we can talk, yeah?” His voice was hesitant. “About this other…me.”
He heard her breath hitch but she pushed past it. “I’ll tell you everything,” she said. “Everything you want to know. Probably more than you want to know.” She laughed.
He turned back around and gave her a searching look. “You said in this other life that we were best friends?” He asked.
For a moment she didn’t say anything, couldn’t say anything. Her eyes lost focus and her face gentled at the memory, before she regained her composure and looked him straight in the eyes. “Yes,” she said. “We were.” A fond, beaming smile spread across her face. “Him and me, we were special.”
“I don’t understand. Why would he be so close with a human?”
“He said it was because I saved him,” Rose told him. “Because I was there for him. After the…” She hesitated than raised her eyes to his. “After the Time War.” He flinched and looked away from her.
“Saved him. Saved him from what?” He asked her, his curiosity getting the better of him.
“From himself,” she said with a shrug. “Good-night, Doctor,” she said and walked into the bathroom, closing the door firmly behind her.
“Good-night, Rose,” he said to the stunningly empty room.
Ch. 4: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/4881.html
The expression on the Doctor’s face as he observed her hysterics just made her laugh that much harder. His pride started looking wounded the longer she went on and she knew she needed to get herself under control before he started thinking she had completely lost her mind and chucked her right back out the doors. “Sorry,” she gasped out when she was halfway under control again. “If you only knew…” She didn’t finish with how much she had missed those ears, or that nose, those eyes, and that face. She shook her head and forced herself to breathe deeply.
“My ears are not big,” he said huffily, folding his arms across his chest and giving her such a glare, such a beautiful, intense, angry Doctor glare, that her eyes softened and her heart felt the tiniest of tugs. She’d missed that glare! What did that say about her?
“Well, you know what they say about men with big ears,” she said cheekily. Was she flirting? Oh, she really needed to get her wayward emotions under control. His eyes widened and he suddenly looked wary and just a trifle afraid of her.
“No, I don’t.”
“They get better reception than satellite five,” she said, covering for the much more inappropriate thing that had been on the tip of her tongue. He just stared at her for a long time and she wondered if he was counting to one hundred to keep his temper in check or he simply did not understand what could be going on in her head at the moment. Well, that would make two of them, wouldn’t it? She wasn’t entirely sure what the jumble formerly known as Rose’s mind was doing either.
“Look, I need to examine you,” he finally said.
“Ooh, Med Bay fun. Are you going to poke me with your sonic screwdriver?” She asked raising her eyebrows at him suggestively.
“Please come with me,” he said brusquely, taking her by the arm and leading her to the infirmary.
“But we’ve only just met,” she said. Then she closed her eyes and shook her head. The only logical explanation was that her mouth had completely bypassed her brain. She wondered if it was possible for humans to have an oral bypass system and then despaired of ever getting her mind out of the gutter when that turn of phrase sent it reeling. And instead of keeping her mouth shut and making it better, she said, “But if you keep the leather coat on I just might--.”
“Look, will you just stop it?” The Doctor snapped at her. “I don’t know if you’re flirting or in heat or what, but I’m not interested. Now take off your clothes and get on the table.”
“I am not taking off my clothes,” she said, suddenly indignant. “We may have been best friends in another lifetime but the only time I ever took my clothes off for you was when I was bleeding.” Well, that wasn’t entirely true, there had been that one time on Divo when they’d gone skinny dipping and then that time on Danzibar, but that hardly counted because--.
“A minute ago you were coming on to me and now you’re afraid to show a little skin? You have got to be the most exasperating creature I’ve ever met,” the Doctor told her.
“Well, you know us stupid apes,” she said as a touch of sadness crept through her. She missed him after not missing him for so long. And this man it front of her was not helping at all.
“Why do you call yourself that?” He asked. Not her Doctor, not her Doctor at all.
She sat down hard on the examining table. “I think I might be just a little bit drunk,” she said as the thought finally occurred to her. “I had two, no, three glasses of wine after dinner. I never should have agreed to come back here with you. You’re a complete stranger. You might look like him but you’re not.”
The Doctor turned away from her and reached into a drawer. “Look, just let me…” He trailed off as he turned back around and realized that Rose had slipped out of the infirmary while he wasn’t looking. He could hear her feet running in the corridor.
He went after her, saw her dodge into the console room and she was at the outer doors as he made it into the room. Her hand was reaching out for the handle when the sound of dematerialization filled the chamber. He stared at the console in shock. “What are you doing?” He yelled at the TARDIS, rushing over to the controls and trying in vain to stop the time rotor from moving up and down. Nothing he did made a difference.
“You can’t do this!” Rose said pounding on the doors. “It’s kidnapping, it is. Let me out right now.”
“It’s not me,” cried the Doctor. “It’s her.” He stabbed a finger at the console.
“She’s not leaving us,” his ship said firmly.
“You can’t just--.” Angry sparks shot out of the console. A large one landed on the back of his hand and he cried out, “Ouch.” He sucked at the spot. “You’re crazy.”
“She stays. We need her.”
“No, we don’t. We don’t need her. She’s just a…an anomaly,” he said.
“I need her.”
“Why? She’s nothing special. She’s just a human. She can’t even interface with you properly,” the Doctor argued. “We’ll find out what’s wrong with her and we’ll fix her and be rid of her.”
From behind him he heard a gasp and he turned to see Rose standing with her back against the doors, one fist against her mouth and the other over her gut. She slid down the doors to the floor and sat there in a heap. He realized what he had said must have sounded extraordinarily harsh to her ears.
“Rose?” He said in the softest, most even tone he’d used all night.
“What?” He was relieved to note that there was still spunk in her voice.
“Why don’t you sleep off the wine, and in the morning we’ll start over again?” He suggested.
“It’s not the wine, Doctor. Your ship zapped me when I had my back against the doors. Don’t know what voltage she used, but I’m not sure I can make my legs work.”
Relief washed through him that he hadn’t actually hurt her feelings. Now where had that thought come from? It shouldn’t matter to him if her feelings were hurt. She wasn’t anything to him. But wait a minute. “She shocked you?”
“Electrocuted, more like,” Rose replied. “My nerve endings are still firing. It hurts.” She tried to keep the pain out of her voice but he heard it and it made him furious at the TARDIS. A little too furious, if he thought about it.
The Doctor slammed his fist down on the console. “You do not do that to her! Do you get me? You shock me all you want if you disagree with me, but Rose is off limits to your little games. I don’t care how much you want her to stay on board, you will not hurt her. Understand?”
“Not to mention it’s counterproductive,” Rose said wryly. Tentatively she reached a hand above her head and pressed her palm to the door. “I respond much better to sweet talk,” she murmured. The TARDIS hummed at her in desperate apology.
“I’m sorry,” the Doctor said, amazed at Rose’s ability to give the ship another chance and slightly…jealous? Jealous of her kindness to his ship? What kind of crazy was that? “She is, too, but she’s not going to let you out. For some reason she thinks you’re important to us, to our survival.”
“But you don’t, do you?” She asked him softly. He met her amber eyes, seeing something poignant and raw in them, before they shifted from his gaze and the moment was lost. She gave a rueful smile. “Well, morning then,” she said brusquely. “Do you have some place I can sleep in this bu…ship?” She’d been about to say bucket, but didn’t think this TARDIS would appreciate being referred to in such a manner. Especially since this ship was not a falling apart old rattletrap that loved her and wouldn’t mind being teased.
“You can sleep in my room,” the Doctor said.
She raised her eyebrows and grinned at him. “Now who’s flirting?” She said pointedly.
“I’m not! I didn’t mean it that way,” he said, disconcerted. “But there’s no point in having the ship fix up a room for you for just one night.” The TARDIS flickered her lights and made a scornful sound of disapproval.
“I don’t think she thinks it’ll be one night,” Rose said thoughtfully.
“Well, if it turns out it’s for more, she’ll make you up a room. I don’t sleep much and mine is free tonight. Unless you plan on just sleeping right there on the floor,” he said.
“I was waiting for the shock to wear off,” she said, finally rising to her feet a bit shakily. “Thought if I asked you to carry me to bed you might take it the wrong way.” She took a hesitant step forward and winced.
“Do you need me to carry you?” He said. “I can.”
“I think I’ll be fine now,” she said. “Lead on.” She did have to lean against the wall a couple of times as she followed him down the corridor. His room wasn’t too far from the console room and when they got there the TARDIS had placed a tank top and pajama bottoms on the duvet.
“The washroom is just through that door,” the Doctor said pointing at one of two doors. “I’ll leave you to it.”
“Okay.” Rose picked up the pajamas and headed towards the washroom.
“Rose,” he said as he got to the doorway.
“Yes?”
“I need to do that exam first thing,” he told her. “Find out what’s wrong with you. See if I can fix you.”
“I don’t think it’s a wrongness, Doctor. I think it’s more than that,” she told him. He could hear the smile in her voice. Odd, that. A smiling voice. Yet, it seemed perfectly natural for Rose to have one.
“In the morning, we can talk, yeah?” His voice was hesitant. “About this other…me.”
He heard her breath hitch but she pushed past it. “I’ll tell you everything,” she said. “Everything you want to know. Probably more than you want to know.” She laughed.
He turned back around and gave her a searching look. “You said in this other life that we were best friends?” He asked.
For a moment she didn’t say anything, couldn’t say anything. Her eyes lost focus and her face gentled at the memory, before she regained her composure and looked him straight in the eyes. “Yes,” she said. “We were.” A fond, beaming smile spread across her face. “Him and me, we were special.”
“I don’t understand. Why would he be so close with a human?”
“He said it was because I saved him,” Rose told him. “Because I was there for him. After the…” She hesitated than raised her eyes to his. “After the Time War.” He flinched and looked away from her.
“Saved him. Saved him from what?” He asked her, his curiosity getting the better of him.
“From himself,” she said with a shrug. “Good-night, Doctor,” she said and walked into the bathroom, closing the door firmly behind her.
“Good-night, Rose,” he said to the stunningly empty room.
Ch. 4: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/4881.html
