A Place in Time (11/30)
Apr. 29th, 2008 02:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amberfocus
Banner by Megz33
Chapter Eleven: Void
The TARDIS landed on top of the rift outside of the Millennium Center in Cardiff. “Might as well let her refuel while we’re here; have her take on some extra to help insulate against the Void this time around.” The Doctor set the power source to absorb and then looked up at his companions. He gave them a happy grin.
“Let’s go get Rose!” he said.
Martha led the way into the Torchwood facility having worked there often enough in her own universe to know the way. “If we have any trouble you let me do the talking,” she told the Doctor and Donna. “I mean, it,” she said to the Doctor as he opened his mouth to protest. “I know how Torchwood works day to day. You don’t. I don’t want to be nursing you through a regeneration because you couldn’t keep your opinions to yourself.”
Even the passwords were the same, which Martha found a little bit odd. Surely there should have been a little variation. Then again, if they didn't have people coming and going all the time, they wouldn't change them much. It had only been a couple of weeks since her last consulting job there. Maybe she should just be grateful they were on the same cycle. They made it all the way down to the hub before someone pulled a gun on them.
“Oh, put that down, Ianto,” Martha said a touch of irritation in her voice. “I’m not a threat.”
Ianto frowned at her. “Just who are you and your friends, how do you know my name, and how did you get past all the check points?” Ianto did not lower his gun. Owen and Toshiko flanked him, though neither held a weapon. “We’ve had a bit of a morning so I suggest you answer quickly.”
“You in charge here?” she asked him.
“I am.”
“That’s how then. Same passwords from the same person, even if he’s not the boss there,” Martha mumbled. In a much clearer voice she said, “She's Donna Noble, he's the Doctor, and I'm Martha Jones. I work here.”
“I think I would have remembered that, someone like you,” Owen said aggressively. His eyes dropped down the length of her body in a way that would have made her deck the Owen in her universe if he didn’t already behave himself around her. U.N.I.T. training had it's uses for keeping randy males in line.
“Oh, shut it, Owen,” Martha said. “I wouldn’t sleep with you in my universe and I certainly won’t do it here.”
“They must not have a Captain Jack here to fill the perpetual man on the pull role,” said Donna. “And before you even ask, I wouldn’t sleep with you there and I won’t sleep with you here, either.”
Owen rolled his eyes at the two women and focused on the Doctor. “Don’t look at me, either,” the Doctor said with a growl.
“I must get around,” said Owen sounding pleased with himself.
“Bit of a tramp, you,” said Donna. “In our world.”
Ianto relaxed perceptibly. “You came after Rose then?”
“Yes. Is she here?” Martha asked.
They were silent. Finally a voice came from behind them. “You missed her. Captain Jack came and got her and took her home through the Void.” They turned around to see who had spoken.
“Gwen,” Martha said. “It’s good to see you.”
Gwen nodded at her. She turned to the Doctor. “She wanted to get home to you. Said you were waiting for her. They left a half hour ago. And the breach is shrinking. I’m so sorry. She’s gone.”
*******************************************
He’d told her they’d be together soon. He’d told her he was close. He’d told her he’d been waiting for her. Always. He told her he was beyond the sun. He’d told her they’d find each other. Soon. Not once had he said he was on his way. Not once had he told her to wait there for him. And so his beautiful, smart, headstrong Rose had found a way herself. And she was gone. Just out of reach. Again.
And it had to be, oh yes, of course it had to be, Captain bloody Jack Harkness who had saved her. Again. That interfering, underhanded, way too pretty for his own good, not to mention the sex appeal to women, or for that matter many men and creatures of indeterminate--.
“Doctor!” He looked up at Donna. The way she’d said it made him figure she’d said it more than once.
“Yes, what is it Donna?” His voice begged for a distraction, anything to help him stop thinking of Rose.
“We’re in a time machine, aren’t we?”
He looked at her like she’d gone daft. “Yes,” he said shortly.
“So go back and get her.”
“You know how this works, Donna, as well as I do,” Martha said. “As soon as we land we become part of events. The fissure's closed now. It closed with the Void. We can’t change--.”
“I’m not asking him to change anything,” Donna interrupted, her eyes flashing. "And I'm not asking him to land. I'm not stupid." She turned back to the Doctor. “You don’t have to interfere with a single thing in the timeline of this planet because we'll be above it. The fissure was here for a long time. The breach was open for a couple of weeks. Just go back to before the breach in the Void closed. Go back to before we landed. Go back to before we were floating beyond the sun. Go back to before we got here. Then go back into the fissure and take us home.”
The Doctor just stared at her. Why was it he never saw the obvious when he tumbled down into one of his depreseive funks? “Donna Noble,” he said when he got over his shock at her actually making a useful and possible suggestion, “You’re brilliant.” And then he came to life running around the center console and putting events in motion. It was the first time since this adventure began that his manic, wild smile appeared.
‘Hope was a useful thing,’ thought Donna, watching the Doctor fondly, ‘Even for a crazy man.’ Out loud she said, "You're just figuring that out now?"
*******************************************
“Mind the hands, Jack,” said Rose for the third time since they’d entered the Void.
“Sorry, Rose,” Jack said shifting his position and not sounding the least bit sorry. “It’s kind of close quarters. We could only allow for so much volume within the shell. This metal is hard to come by. When I said it was the only material on Earth that could traverse the Void, I meant it. But it doesn’t come from Earth. We found it in the wreckage of an alien craft. There’s an extremely limited supply and I’m lucky I got a hold of as much as I did to fashion this capsule.”
“Even so,” said Rose, “Shift your hands back where they were a minute ago.”
“You used to like it when we got stuck in close quarters,” Jack teased.
“I love you, Jack, but I’m in love with the Doctor and if anyone is going to be touching anything, it’s going to be him. And he’s not going to like it if your hands keep roaming.”
Jack sighed. “You used to be a lot more fun.”
“I used to be a lot of things,” said Rose. "Then I got trapped in a parallel world and had my heart torn to shreds."
They fell silent for awhile until Jack couldn’t stand it any longer.
“Rose?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry. I just…I never thought I’d see you again. I love you, too, you know. Maybe not as intensely as the Doctor does, but enough to throw myself across the Void to bring you home,” Jack said seriously.
Rose nodded her head. “I know you do. I do, Jack. I... Thank you for risking your life for me.”
“There was no risk involved.”
“Of course there was a risk. A person can die in the Void if the slightest thing goes wrong.”
“Wouldn’t matter,” said Jack. “I can’t die. Not permanently.”
“What?”
“How much do you remember of our time on the game station?” Jack asked her.
Rose was silent for a long time. “Not very much,” she said. “I remember looking into the heart of the TARDIS and everything went golden. I remember the Daleks. I remember you died. How do I remember that? I wasn’t with you. And how are you alive now? I mean, the Doctor said you were alive, but then he'd never talk about you so I thought he was trying to spare my feelings and that you were really dead.”
Jack's muscles tensed against her. “You had the power of time and space within you, the ability to rewrite history. You brought me back, Rose. Only you did too good a job of it. It’s been a couple hundred years for me since the last time I saw you. And I’ve died more times than I can count. Almost didn’t come back from the last one, but I did.” Jack’s voice was strange in the hollow shell. It sounded empty.
“I’m sorry,” she said, for she sensed so much regret in his voice. “I couldn’t imagine a universe without you in it. There had to be a Captain Jack. Until I went to the alternate one and there was no you. At least no you in my time.”
“Don’t be sorry, Rose. I’ve learned how to live with it. And with you back in my universe, it’ll be a lot easier to deal with. A universe without Rose Tyler is a million times worse than a universe without Jack Harkness.”
Rose smiled against his chest. “You always did know how to sweet talk a girl.”
“Or a boy,” Jack added cheekily and Rose laughed.
“Thank you,” she said. “For coming to get me and bringing me home.”
She could feel him nodding. “Anything for you, Rosie. And anything for him, too.”
“But Jack?”
“Yeah?”
“Really. Move your hand.”
Ch. 12: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/50489.html
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no subject
Date: 2008-04-29 10:59 pm (UTC)“I must get around,” said Owen sounding pleased with himself.
“Bit of a tramp, you,” said Donna. “In our world.”
ROFL! xD That had me laughing way too much; good ol' Owen!
Loved Donna's take-charge moment (the Doctor's rant was just guh, too), but:
Jack sighed. “You used to be a lot more fun.”
“I used to be a lot of things,” said Rose.
Y'know how there's always one line that really really jumps out at you and just throws the whole chapter as brilliant? Right there. You captured Rose perfectly in that scene, and that line just tugged at me. <3
no subject
Date: 2008-04-30 07:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-29 11:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-30 07:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-30 07:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-02 06:15 am (UTC)re: A Place in Time (11/30)
Date: 2008-05-29 08:30 am (UTC)Re: A Place in Time (11/30)
Date: 2008-05-30 01:08 am (UTC)