A Sky Without Zeppelins: Chapter Forty-Eight

[amberfocus]

                                                                                                          Banner by Mitashade
Title:  A Sky Without Zeppelins (48/?)
Author:  Amberfocus
Genre:  romance, action adventure, alternate reality, humor, fluff, smut
Characters/Pairings:  Ten2/alt!Rose, alt!Donna Noble/James Lumin, alt!Martha, Ten/Rose (briefly),
Beta:  Amyo67
Spoilers:  If you haven't seen Journey's End
Rating:  NC-17 for graphic sex, Please Note Rating Change!
Summary:  In a newly sealed off alternate reality, a chameleon arched human Ten meets a very different Rose Tyler after being left behind by his Time Lord self and the Rose he once loved.  This is their story.
A/N:  Amy has informed me that this chapter needs a Tissue Warning for the ending.  She's not wrong.

Previous Chapters:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/263349.html

Chapter Forty-Eight

 

Rose is utterly exhausted by the time she looks around the flat at the Powell Estate for the last time. They’ve spent the morning moving Sarah and the afternoon schlepping her own belongings down several flights of stairs. The place is barren, only a few things remaining that her mother will take care of when she returns from her honeymoon in two weeks. It’s odd that her entire life seems to have been easily packed up and placed inside one truck bed and the boot of Jonathon’s car.

“About ready?” Jonathon asks from the doorway to her bedroom.

“Yeah, just the boxes left,” she tells him.

“It’s a shame we never got to make love in your old flat,” he tells her.

Rose shrugs. “The bed is already in the truck.”

“Kitchen counters,” he says hopefully.

Rose rolls her eyes and snorts. “I’m too sore, the others are waiting downstairs for us, and I grew up in that kitchen. I don’t think I could.”

“Never going to get the chance again.”

“I can live with that. Besides, this is all part of my old life. You’re part of my new life, the one with a real future. I’m leaving this one behind. I don’t need that sort of memory to hold onto of this place,” she tells him. “I’ve made plenty of new ones elsewhere with you.”

“Just thought I’d offer.”

“Mmm hmm.” Rose picks up a box and shoves it into his arms then picks up the remaining one. “I’d like these to go in the boot of your car. I know Elliot has a tarpaulin but I’d rather these be protected at all costs.”

“What’s in them?” he asks.

“Keepsakes, photo albums, the few really nice things that I own. It still looks like rain so I don’t want to chance it.”

She follows Jonathon out of the flat and sets the box down, carefully locking the doors for the last time. She rests her hand against the door. She knows it’s silly, that the old place can’t possibly know that she’s saying good-bye, but she takes the moment anyway and whispers soft words of farewell. Jonathon doesn’t say anything and when she retrieves her box and looks up at him again he is looking at her with tenderness.

“Come on,” she says and starts the long trudge down the stairs to the ground level. The sky has darkened even more since she’d last gone inside the flat and a loud thunder clap rumbles in the distance. Jonathon hastily secures the two boxes in the boot of his car and then shuts it, moving over to help Elliot fasten the dark green tarpaulin over the rest of Rose’s belongings.

Rose is glaring up at the sky. “Don’t think much of the meteorologist that predicted a hot and sunny June day,” she mutters.

“Meteorology is not an exact science,” Elliot, who minored in the subject, says. “Weather patterns can change almost as often as a woman’s mind.”

“I heard that,” Sarah calls from the front of the truck.

“You were meant to,” he answers back good-naturedly. He finishes the last of the tie downs. “Least your new building has an underground car park and a lift up to your flat. We won’t get rained on.”

“Yeah, but this doesn’t bode well for the barbecue on the roof that Rebecca was planning for tonight,” Rose replies.

“Well, we can always order in pizza,” he says with a tweak of her nose that has her backing up somewhat warily away from him. Elliot’s face falls. “Oh, Rose, aren’t we beyond that yet?” he asks.

Her mouth thins. “No,” she says quietly. A blast of cold wind blows past them and lightning flashes in the sky.

“Come on, Elliot, let’s go!” Sarah hollers as the first fat, wet droplets of water begin to fall. He hurries to the front of the truck while Rose and Jonathon dash for his car.

“You all right?”

“It’s just a little water,” Rose says brushing the rain from her arms.

As he backs the car up and follows Elliot onto the road he is quiet but a moment later he says, “I meant about Elliot.”

Rose glances at him, but doesn’t say anything. “Rose, I know there’s something going on.”

“It’s history. I…put it behind me when he started dating Sarah.”

“Didn’t look like it,” Jonathon says.

“I don’t like him touching me is all,” she admits through tight lips.

“Did he do something to you?” She can hear the tension creeping into his voice and she debates with herself for a moment.

“Do you remember when I said that on the few dates I’ve been on over the years, I had boys and men who would spend money on me and then expect things in return?” Rose asks.

“Yeah.” Jonathon’s fingers tighten convulsively on the steering wheel. Lightning cracks and Rose jumps at the roar of thunder that follows. The sky opens up and she takes a moment to get her thoughts back under control. He deserves to be told what happened.

“A little over two and a half years ago, I dated Elliot for a while. It was nothing serious because I didn’t do serious; just pub nights and a bit of dancing or sometimes a film. I paid when I could but sometimes I let him. I’d told him up front that I wasn’t interested in anything like a relationship and he seemed good with that. So instead of breaking it off with him around the time I normally would, I kept seeing him. I liked him well enough and I figured what the hell. After a month he started expecting more than just a kiss good night. He wanted sex and he was very adamant about it. I said no and…it ended badly.”

“Rose, did he—?”

“No! Do you think I’d be anywhere near him if he had?” she interrupts. “No, he was physically aggressive, but he backed right off on that when I made it clear I didn’t want him that way. He was really angry because he’d wasted all this time on me, and he was so sure he’d be the one to get through my defenses. He told me he was in love with me and when I rejected him it made him spiteful. He said he’d spent well enough of his paycheck on me that he ought to have been able to get more than a few kisses. Only not nearly in such a polite way. It was a couple of months before he calmed down. Sarah had a lot to do with that. But I never really felt comfortable around him again.”

“So he’s why you don’t like me spending money on you?”

“I never wanted to feel indebted to you. I didn’t want…I never wanted there to be any possible reason to make you think I owed you sex,” she replies slowly.

“Rose, I’d never think that,” he protests. “No woman owes a man sex.”

“I know that now, but I was only nineteen, pretty naïve still, and old habits die hard. Really hard. If it had only been the one guy maybe I wouldn’t be so nervous about it, but other men expected things, too, after only a couple of dates. Elliot actually was more decent than most, but…we were friends for a long time first and after that happened, I felt like I’d never really known him at all. I still don’t trust him completely and will only be around him if Sarah is there.”

“Oh.” Jonathon’s voice is grim and dark and she can see the lines around his eyes that mean they’ve hardened and he’s holding back anger.

“I’ve handled it. You don’t need to do anything.” Her voice is firm.

“Rose.”

“No! I don’t need you to be my hero, Jonathon. I’m quite capable of keeping my own life sorted out. Don’t you interfere with this.” There is an edge to her voice that she has never used with him before and she can see the startled look that crosses his face.

“I’m sorry, Rose. I just don’t like thinking of any man hurting you,” he says.

“I know.” Her voice softens. “We have a truce. It’s worked fine. Sarah makes a good buffer. She’s in love with him and she cares about me. She makes it work. We all do.”

“I’ll leave it alone,” he says.

“Thank you.”

He pulls into the underground car park of Rose’s new building and she hands him her new parking permit. He waves it in front of the scanner on the machine and the barrier arm rises to let them pass. Sarah and Elliot use Sarah’s old one as they follow them through and park near the lift and they begin the long process of hauling Rose’s belongings up to the new flat, while outside the storm howls.

 

Deep in the heart of the Illuminate vault Caelum reaches out his mind for the little one. It has become a nightly ritual, even more important on the days when Jonathon does not bring her to spend the day with him. It is a contact he craves, so long denied him with the loss of his species. She is sleeping restlessly at first, but his thoughts tickle her awake and she responds with a sleepy mind tone of happiness that flushes through him, bringing him the immediate joy he always feels at contact with her.

He whispers into her mind and a wave of love and affection washes back towards him. He links more fully with her mind and senses an underlying emotion of uneasiness. The elements are bothering her, the storm brewing in the world outside frightening her. It is her first experience with such a thing since waking up from the seedling state. Her humans are not around and he does all that he can to soothe her, promising he will keep their link active until one of them returns.

She makes an impatient query, begging him to let her come to him. She does not like being alone. He soothes her again, impressing upon her that she is far too young to try to move between locations. She grumbles at him. He’s taught her the theory and she wants to put it into practice. She asks next why he can’t come to her and he laughs. It has been much too long since he has moved across space. He’s not sure he has the ability any longer with all the injuries he has suffered in his long life. And even if he does he will not fit in the tiny room she resides in. No, she will have to wait until her humans return her to Illuminate to see him again.

She settles down a bit then as he begins to tell her stories of the old world, one he knows she does not come from, exactly. He is old enough to see across parallels and he knows what she is even if she never will. Like him, and yet not, but so, so close. He shares himself with her and it’s almost, but not quite, like having her at his side.

 

Donna rolls away from James long enough to check the clock on her bedside table. They are at her flat today, having spent it making love the human way. She’d been horrified to find out that her grandfather had been watching the light shows they’d been making on the moon for the past week, through his telescope. Not that anyone on Earth could actually see anything other than the bursts of light, but it is the principle of the thing. The idea of Gramps being a voyeur on their lovemaking had just unsettled her immensely.

She’d found out at dinner the night before. She’d finally, after much nagging from her mother, taken James to meet her family. He had been a remarkably good sport about it; even praising her mother’s cooking, which Donna had to admit had been excellent that night. With Sylvia it was often hit or miss, but the woman had stuck to one of her tried and true recipes and not made something brand new and her lover had been very impressed. That was saying a lot for a man who could order gourmet meals from anywhere in the world at a moment’s notice.

For once her mother had been on her best behavior and her grandfather hadn’t even had to act as a buffer. Of course, Sylvia Noble had high hopes for the relationship. After all, it wasn’t all that often you found out your spinster daughter was dating a multi-billionaire. She’d practically seen the pound signs in the pupils of her mum’s eyes the day she’d first told her.

“What time is it?” James asks from behind her.

“We have an hour before Rose said we should drop by.”

“I suppose we ought to be thinking of getting out of bed then,” he says.

“Yeah.” She rolls back up against his side, drapes a leg over his, and cuddles into him.

“That’s sort of counter-productive to getting up, Donna,” he says.

She kisses his side. “I know.”

They fall silent for a while, just holding each other, James’ hand stroking through her silky, red hair. “Donna?”

“Hmm?”

“What would you think about going up to Gretna Green with me a couple of weeks from now?” he asks her.

“Gretna Green? Why on earth do you want to go up to…?” Donna trails off and pulls away from him, sitting up and looking at him with wide eyes as she puts two and two together. “Wait a minute. Are you asking me to…?”

James nods solemnly at her. “I know we haven’t been together like this long, but Donna, you’ve worked for me for some time. You’ve been indispensible to me for five years and we’ve been pretty close for the last two. I know you. And I love you. So unless you don’t see your future tangled up in mine, what’s the point in waiting?”

“I…are you sure?”

“Do you have any idea how long I’ve been in love with you, Donna?”

“I guess not. I mean, I’ve had feelings for you for ages, but we never…until recently it didn’t seem like it could be anything. Then this happened and now…” She shook her head. “You’re James Lumin. You’re…you’re—.”

“I’m the man who wants to spend the rest of his life with you. So will you run away with me to Gretna Green and marry me over the anvil?” he asks. “Will you be my wife?”

“It’s all so sudden,” she says. “Eloping?”

“Unless you wanted something fancy.”

“I don’t care about any of that. I just…I’m overwhelmed. I wasn’t expecting any of this and…”

“I’ve made Donna Noble speechless.”

She giggles and then she is laughing and then she is throwing her arms around him and kissing him fiercely. When she lets him go he asks, “Can I take that as a yes, then?”

“Yes! Yes, James. I’ll marry you. Any way you want.”

He smiles at her then, the little wrinkles at the corners of his eyes crinkling up and his eyes twinkling merrily. “I was hoping you’d say yes.” He leans away from her then and fishes around in the drawer of his bedside table. He pulls out a small box. “If you don’t like it we can go and find you something else this weekend, but I saw this last month and it made me think of you.”

“Last month? How long have you been planning this James?” she asks him.

“A while,” he says with that soft smile she adores so much. He opens up the box and pulls the ring out, takes her left hand and slips it onto the ring finger. Donna stares down at it for a long time. It’s a very simple ring, a twisted platinum band, housing a large, round, deep green emerald. It reminds her of how his light energy darkens just before he goes into her body.

“It’s beautiful,” she says. “I love it.”

He leans into her and kisses her, allowing just the faintest bit of his real form to emerge, just enough to seal the proposal with an electrifying joining of their mouths. It jolts through Donna’s system, releasing a small amount of the usual sensations before he pulls away. “Don’t want to get carried away in a non-shielded place,” he says when she whimpers her protest. “Anyway, you said we needed to be heading to Rose’s new flat.”

“It wasn’t set in stone,” Donna says. “She just said to drop by in the evening if we had nothing better to do. This is better.”

“Yes, but I wouldn’t mind talking to Jonathon about this new idea I had for a—.” He breaks off at the mutinous expression on her face. “Donna, he’s my friend. I haven’t had…”

Donna is instantly contrite. “You’ve been so lonely, haven’t you? All these years, all these secrets, and no one to share them with.”

“It’s not been easy. You and Jonathon and even young Rose have become so important to me. You get me in a way no one else does. Jonathon understands how my mind works. And Rose, I’ve been watching her progress through university for the last four years and she’s everything I hoped for when I picked her out of the masses for that scholarship. If I’m overeager it’s only because I’ve had nothing like this since my father died. I’ve missed so much, Donna. I don’t want to be alone like that ever again.”

“And you won’t be,” she says as she hugs him close to her. “Come on. Let’s go see our friends.”

 

Sarah and Elliot have said their good-byes and Rebecca has long since gone to bed when the four of them make their way onto the roof. James activates an experimental shield that helps to keep the rain off them and they sit down in some chairs provided by the building’s management. Rose glances up at the moon with a bit of a frown. “No light show tonight,” she says and Donna splutters.

“Light show?” she chokes.

“Haven’t you seen it?  Almost every night this past week there’s been this burst of colors coming from the moon. It’s even more spectacular than the laser show Illuminate put on at the Expo.” Donna shakes her head no and Rose says, “It’s been in all the papers. It’s driving the astronomers spare. I can’t believe you haven’t watched it.”

“We’ve been otherwise occupied,” Lumin says fondly and looks at Donna with such warmth that Rose blushes, feeling like she’s being a voyeur as she recognizes the heat in the man’s stare. A small burst of green light bursts from the man and Rose frowns.

“You’re leaking light energy, James,” Donna says and Lumin glances at her in surprise.

He smiles. “Still a bit excited,” he says.

“Oh?” asks Jonathon. “What about?”

Donna holds out her hand, twisting her ring around. She has been wearing the stone underneath until now and it glistens in the security light. “James proposed.”

Rose is instantly on her feet, tugging Donna into a hug and Jonathon is shaking hands with Lumin. “Congratulations, man,” he says, clapping Lumin on the arm. Then he engulfs Donna in his arms while Rose glances somewhat shyly at her boss. He smiles at her and stands up and Rose gives him a hug, too. She’s surprised at how awkward it doesn’t feel.

They all sit back down. “Have you set a date?” Rose asks.

“A couple of weeks from now,” Donna says.

“Weeks?” Jonathon looks startled.

“When you know, you know,” Lumin says. “Donna and I have been friends for a long time. We don’t want to waste anymore of it not being together. We’re heading up to Gretna Green as soon as I can get away from work.”

“We’d like you to come with us,” Donna says, “and be our witnesses.”

Rose glances over at Jonathon and he nods. “We’d love to,” she says.

Another small burst of excited energy leaves Lumin, this time in a slight flash of blue, then red. A blast of icy wind surges through their little grouping and the distant rumble of thunder is heard. The rain does not cut through the shield, but she shivers. “Maybe we should go inside,” she says feeling slightly uneasy. Lightning flashes and this time the thunder that follows is much closer. “It’s getting awfully cold.”

Lumin stands up suddenly and walks to the edge of the building. “It’s too cold for a summer storm,” he says cryptically. He turns back around to face the group and a look of horror washes over his face. “Inside, now,” he says.

Rose turns to see what has caught his attention. At the far end of the shield it’s gone completely dark. A wisp of black fog is pushing itself along the outer edge of the beam of light from the security lamp. She’s seen that before, felt that before. Memories of being drained by a mere brush from a creature like that flood her and she begins to shake.

“Get Rose out of here,” Lumin orders Donna. “She might not survive another encounter with the Caligo!” But the thing has drifted now, blocking their exit. The route to the fire escape is beyond the door that leads back inside.

“It’s too late,” Jonathon says. There is fear in his voice as he plants himself firmly in front of her, edging her back from the insidious fog. Then Lumin is beside her, gripping her arm.

“I can only teleport one person out of here with me at a time,” he says.

“Take Donna,” she tells him. “Take Donna and go.”

“Rose.”

“I’m not leaving him,” Rose says stubbornly, jerking her head at Jonathon.

“Rose, please!” Jonathon begs and the fear in his voice has moved to his eyes.

“I’m not leaving you behind!”

“Rose, go!” Donna insists. She turns to Lumin. “Take her!” But Rose is wrenching away from his grip and moving to stand defiantly with her lover. Her hand wraps around his.

“If we go down, we go down together,” she says. The fear is palpable.

“I can’t lose you,” he says.

“I can’t lose you!”

She can feel it then, his mind crying out in desperation, linking with hers and begging her to get to safety. A blinding light flashes and the baby alien suddenly appears before them.

 

The ancient being stirs in his vault as he recognizes, even at this distance, that the little one has moved through space. He senses her fear for her humans and reaches out his mind. He knows this danger immediately, feels the presence of his own person there. He links with Lumin, sees everything with vision entirely unlike his own, sees the fog eagerly encroaching on the baby girl. This is what it has wanted. This is what it has always wanted. To wipe out his kind. He has been in hiding so long…so very, very long. Hiding away from the evilness that is the Caligo.

It reaches for his little one and he feels her mind beginning to dissolve as she screams out for him and he knows he can’t hide anymore. Gathering together all of his strength, he summons energy as ancient as the universe and dematerializes.

 

Everything happens so fast Jonathon isn’t even sure what to do. The little coral appears on the roof and the Caligo instantly attacks it. Jonathon can feel her pain as her presence writhes in his mind. The door is clear now and he pushes Rose towards it. “Get out of here,” he yells at her over the heartbreaking screams. He isn’t sure if they are out loud or in his head.

“You can’t do anything!” Lumin insists. “I’ll save her. Take Rose and Donna and go. Go to Illuminate. Go to the thirteenth floor. It’s shielded.”

Jonathon grabs Donna’s hand, Rose’s already in his, and pulls the two women towards the entrance to the building. A huge flash of light breaks the sky and a sound as old as time splits the night. The giant, heaving bulk of Caelum takes up half the roof as he materializes. A small tendril of energy snakes out and encompasses the baby, pulling her to the old alien as he takes her within himself.

“Go!” Lumin shouts again.

“But you!” Donna cries out in protest. She breaks from Jonathon’s grip and runs to Lumin’s side. “James, I won’t leave you.”

"I love you.  Always remember that." He hugs her roughly, kisses her even more roughly, and shoves her back to Jonathon. “Get them out of here. Now!” Jonathon’s hand clamps around Donna’s wrist and he yanks her towards the door.

 

The Caligo spreads itself over Caelum’s surface, encompassing him until he can no longer be seen. Donna struggles to break free again as Jonathon inexorably pulls her away. They are finally at the door when Lumin loses cohesion, dropping his human form and reverting entirely to light energy. He floods the Caligo with every bit of his power, using it to burn and brand and fight.

The Caligo lifts away from the ancient being, rising high up into the air, Lumin’s energy crackling violently all around it. He pushes the thing inwards, using all of his strength to force the fog into a smaller and smaller space. It compacts and contracts beneath him as its mass is forced to occupy less area. In a last ditch effort it shoots itself outwards, tiny black strands streaking through Lumin like a spider webbing of veins against his own brilliant green light.

It hurts. It hurts more than anything has ever hurt before in his life. “James!” He hears Donna scream. One of the strands is shooting towards Donna and the others. In his head, Caelum offers him reinforcement, but it is too late. He knows what he has to do. There is only one way to kill this thing once and for all, one way to save his friends, and the ancient creature under his protection, and the little baby girl.

He channels every ounce of his life force into the Caligo, his energy turning bright red, and allows himself to burn. The Caligo’s death cries join his own and as they both dissipate into nothingness he knows that his friends are safe, that Donna will live, and that Caelum and the little one will survive this night, even as he does not. His last thought is that his death is not in vain.

Ch. 49:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/265636.html 

Comments

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I know.