amberfocus | Hunger Moon: Chapter Thirteen

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Davin

The TARDIS materialized inside Rose Tyler’s London flat and with a very stern admonishment to Jackie and the twins that they were not to leave the TARDIS no matter what while she and the Doctor met with Davin, Rose placed a call on the TARDIS phone to her ex-boyfriend.

“Hello?” The familiar voice came over the line and Rose felt her courage flee. “Hello?” Davin repeated, his voice sounding slightly irritated now. “Will you people stop calling me? I’ve no further comment. I--.”

“Davin, it’s Rose.”

There was silence on the other end of the line for a long moment. “Rose?” he finally asked in disbelief. “Rose? You’re safe?”

“Yes. I saw the news clip. Are you okay?” she asked him.

“Where the hell are you?” he asked.

“Do you have any reason to believe your phone is being tapped?” she asked him.

“Yeah, I do.”

“Then I can’t tell you where I am. Not directly anyway. Do you,” she glanced at the Doctor and grimaced, “remember where we were the first time we had sex?”

“Of course, I do,” he said softly.

“That’s where I am. Can you get here or do we need to go to you?” she asked him.

“My front door’s got someone watching it, but I think I can manage.”

“The special route?” Rose wondered.

“Yeah. Shouldn’t take me long at all,” he said.

“Rose, about Sarah…”

“I know, Dav. I know you’d never touch her. When this is all over we’ll get your name cleared, I promise. But it’s so much bigger than you can possibly imagine,” Rose told him.

“It always is with you, isn’t it?” he said. “I’ll be there as soon as I can. And Rose?”

“Yes?”

“I love you.”

“See you soon, Dav,” Rose said unable to respond in any other way. The line went dead and she hung up the phone. “He’s on his way,” Rose said. “He’ll be coming in the fire escape.” Rose walked out of the TARDIS and over to her balcony and unlocked the door before turning back to the Doctor who had followed her out.

“Now I want you to be on your best behavior,” she told him with narrowed eyes. “Davin’s been really good to me and my letter was written before I met you and he may be unclear about a lot of things. Including just how over he and I really are. So let me break it to him, okay? Gently.”

The Doctor’s jaw tensed, but he nodded. “Fine.”

“Why don’t you wait in the bedroom? It’ll be easier if I talk to him alone first,” she added. It was the Doctor’s turn to narrow his eyes. “I love you,” she said reaching up to him and stroking his face, her fingers catching a bit on the rough stubble. The Doctor leaned into the caress and when her hand slid down his neck to his shoulder he moved into her body and kissed her sweetly.

She sighed when he released her. “Which room is your bedroom?” he asked her.

She pointed to the appropriate door. “Figured out yet how you’re going to explain the pink Police Box?” he wanted to know.

“I have so many things to explain, I’m sure I’ll come up with something.” She pushed him towards her bedroom and watched his bum as he reluctantly left her alone in the living area. He was so sexy in jeans. For that matter he was quite sexy without the jeans. She shook herself. This was not time for one of her little sexual fantasies to be prancing through her mind.

Rose sat down on the couch to wait running through exactly what she was going to say to Davin when he finally appeared. It wasn’t going to be easy, she knew that, but in the end she thought he’d accept it. At least she hoped he would. His saying he loved her like he had on the phone, while it hadn’t been the first time, it had been said far more seriously than the flippant way he normally tossed it out at her.

He usually said something along the lines of “love you to pieces.” In all the time they’d dated he’d never said it flat out. Nor had she. It hadn’t really been a part of the equation. Not that she didn’t love him; it was just that she’d never been in love with him. She’d been happy enough around him. Not happy the same way she was with the Doctor, but he’d helped her in the grieving and healing process and he’d been good in bed when she’d finally acquiesced to his advances two years ago. Again, not like the Doctor was good in bed, but she’d always been satisfied. Davin could be easily hurt by all of this, despite their arrangement.

The sound of the sliding glass door opening startled her and she turned to see Davin McBain stepping into the flat and closing the door behind him. He was dressed in black shoes, black trousers and a black hoody that he’d pulled over his head. He removed the hood and smoothed down his ruffled hair and he stood there for a moment staring at Rose before he gave her a slow, hesitant smile.

Rose stood up and Davin quickly closed the distance between them, pulling Rose into his arms and hugging her fiercely. She hugged him back briefly and then he was pushing her away and looking at her. “I was so worried about you, Rose,” he told her, lifting one hand to touch her face. “It’s so good to see you.” He pulled her back into a hug and this time when he loosened his hold he lowered his mouth to hers.

Her surprised ‘o’ allowed him to slip his tongue into her mouth and he ran his hands down the length of her body, pulling her aggressively up against him. A vicious wave of nausea welled up inside of Rose and she pushed him off her, running to the kitchen where she vomited violently into the garbage disposal. She leaned over the sink a good minute after she’d lost the contents of her stomach, running cool water down the drain while she ran the disposal.

She rinsed her mouth and washed her face then turned to see Davin standing in the doorway behind her. “Not the reaction I was expecting.” Rose’s hand flew to her mouth and his eyes narrowed as he caught sight of the large diamond sitting on her ring finger. He approached her with a frown on his face. “What’s this?” he asked her.

“Davin, the letter I left you…”

“What about it?” he asked.

“It said I was leaving you. You know that, right?” she said slowly.

He scowled. “It said you were going travelling, that your Doctor had found you and you were off and you didn’t think you’d be back. But you are back. I thought…I thought you came back…to me.”

“Davin, you know we aren’t, we weren’t like that,” Rose began.

“We bloody well were, too, Rose. We had plans to get married and now you show up with some other man’s engagement ring on your finger!” Davin snapped.

Rose squared her jaw. “You know the arrangement better than that, Davin. You were the one who made up the rules. We’d get married, if and only if, we hadn’t found someone else we sparked with. We’d have sex for mutual enjoyment. We’d consider having kids together if we both wanted them. But you were never going to be the great love of my life.” She kept her tone gentle.

“Rose, I…” He ran his hand through his hair. “Can we go back into the living room?” he asked. Rose nodded and followed him warily. He sat down on the couch and she perched on the chair opposite of him. “You were so hesitant to get involved in a real relationship with me, I gave you an out, but…I never wanted you to take it. Rose, I’ve been in love with you for years.”

Rose’s stomach clenched into a knot. “Davin, I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I’d hoped you’d understand that the letter was my way of saying good-bye to you.”

“Good-bye, yes. It didn’t say anything about you getting romantically involved with anyone else.”

“It was never my intention to fall in love,” Rose said. “When the Doctor showed up on my doorstep, I was so confused because it brought back so many memories. But he was a different man than the one I’d known and--.”

“Had he regenerated again?” Davin interrupted.

“Not exactly. You know how I told you about parallel worlds? How my dad isn’t really my dad, but a duplicate?” Davin nodded. “Well, the Doctor, he’s not my original Doctor.”

Davin stared at her and anger rose up on his face as his eyes narrowed. He took a deep breath and reined himself back in before biting out, “You mean to tell me that this man isn’t even the same Doctor? You’ve run off with a man you only met a month ago and you’re engaged to him already? Not the man you loved and lost, but a stranger?”

“But he’s not. You can’t understand what it’s like for me. He is a different man, but he’s the same man in all the ways that matter. And I do love him. I love him desperately, Davin,” she said. “Please try to understand. He means everything to me.”

“And you mean everything to me, Rose. Why the hell should I try to understand this? I love you and some…alien comes in here and sweeps you off your feet when we had plans for a life together and you just expect me to what? Accept it? Just like that?” he demanded.

“I never wanted you to get hurt.”

“Well, what did you expect would happen?” he growled.

“I expected that you’d abide by our original agreement. You’re my friend, Davin. One of my best friends and a really good person and I do love you, but not…not that way. And I’m sorry that I can’t because you deserve someone to love you the way you want to be loved. It’s just never going to be me.”

“What is he? Better looking then me? Better in bed than I am?”

“I’d say no to the first and yes to the second,” said the Doctor from behind him. Davin’s head whipped around and his eyes took in the Doctor’s appearance with incredulity.

“What the hell, Rose?”

“I’m the Doctor,” he said closing the distance to stand beside Rose.

“Davin McBain,” the younger man said grudgingly.

“I said I’d handle this,” Rose told him.

“He’s angry. I don’t want him hurting you,” the Doctor answered softly running his hand from her elbow down her arm and then lacing his fingers through hers. She leaned into him.

“Thank you, Doctor, but Davin would never hurt me.”

“I’d never hurt Rose,” Davin said quietly at the same time. He studied the pair in front of him and the anger drained out of his body. “I love her,” he said simply meeting the Doctor’s eyes. “Surely you can understand what it must feel like to suddenly lose her.”

“Don’t even want to think about it,” the Doctor admitted.

“I’m sorry, Davin. I didn’t mean to fall in love with this Doctor, but I did. And I’m happy. I’ve never been this happy and I’m sorry if it has to be at your expense. You’ve been so good to me. But he’s the man I love and I can’t change that.”

Davin sighed and straightened his shoulders. Then he stood up and held his hand out to the Doctor. With surprise the Doctor shook the other man’s hand. “Promise me that you’ll take good care of her. She’s had her heart broken before, by the other you, and it took her a long time to get better. Promise me you won’t break her heart.”

“I promise,” the Doctor said.

Davin let out a deep breath in a rush of air. “Then…I’ll try to be happy for you, Rose.”

Rose reached out and hugged the other man again. “Thank you. I know this isn’t easy, but thank you for trying.”

“Rose, I’d rather have you in my life as a friend than out of my life completely,” he said. “I’m not going to stop caring about you just because we’re no longer lovers.”

She nodded at him. “I’m glad. Because I don’t want to lose you from my life, either.”

An awkward silence settled over them for a bit before Davin said, “Do you know why your father is accusing me of hurting Sarah?”

“Yeah, I do. And he’s not my father,” Rose said.

“Step-father,” Davin corrected.

“No, he’s not my step-father, either,” Rose said. “The man going after you is an alien shape shifter. He’s infiltrated Torchwood. I don’t know where the real Pete Tyler is, but that man appealing for the return of his family is an imposter.”

“Does Torchwood know?” Davin asked.

“Mickey and Jake do. They’ll suss it,” Rose said.

“I can help.”

“If you snoop around at work right now, you’ll be in even more danger than you are now. Look, we can prove to the police that you didn’t hurt Sarah if you want us to. Sarah, Kyle and Mum are all safe. We’ve got them in hiding in the Doctor’s ship. There’s no evidence of foul play so eventually the police will have to leave you alone, but I don’t mind letting them know...”

“No,” said Davin forcefully. “You keep your family in hiding, Rose. That’s the priority. But I need to know what else is going on. You know my level of clearance at Torchwood. You know I can get into places other people can’t. Let me help. Tell me everything you know about what’s going on.”

Ch. 14: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/80631.html

Hunger Moon: Chapter Thirteen

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