The Boundaries of Temptation (3/5)

[amberfocus]

Title:  The Boundaries of Temptation
Series:  Crossing Boundaries (#3)
Author:  amberfocus
Characters/Pairings:  Nine/Rose, Ten, Donna, Jackie
Genre:  Romance, Angst, Smut (of the needy, possessive, dominant!Nine variety in a later chapter)
Rating:  Adult
Betas: amyo67, jeprdyfrndly
Summary:  Rose has a wedding to attend and the Doctor doesn't want to go, nor is he ready to come out to Rose's mother about their relationship as lovers.  The Tenth Doctor, still reeling from the loss of Rose and desperately wanting to see her again after one brief hour meddling in his own past, decides that the wedding will be a perfect place to steal time with her again, but Donna isn't so sure.
A/N:  Chapter two of my Support Stacie fic for catyuy.  Yeah, it morphed into a longer fic.  What did you expect?  Ten goes a little crackers.

Ch. 1:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/293332.html
Ch. 2:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/296147.html

Chapter Three: Desperation and Delusions

 

One of the first things they’d done on arriving at the resort was to locate the other Doctor’s TARDIS and make sure they were as far away from it as possible, so Donna knew precisely where it was and had no trouble locating it. She debated knocking on the door, but she figured the grumpy old fool wouldn’t answer. Why would he? Rose had a key and he’d be in no mood to see anyone else. Besides, the ship would likely be mistaken for a small garden shed or something in the dark by anyone who stumbled upon it. Why would anyone knock on it unless they were drunk? And she was assuming he’d be in the console room like her Doctor usually was. This one might be hidden in the bowels of the ship and he’d never hear a silly knock.

She pulled out her key and inserted it into the lock. For a moment the ship seemed to hesitate. She laid her hand against the door. “Please, old girl. He’s messing with time and he’s going to hurt Rose.” She could feel the slight alteration of pitch in the gentle hum and then the door clicked open.

The first thing she noticed was that the interior of the ship seemed to be a different color. More green than she was used to and far less blue. It also seemed to be in a greater state of disrepair, although how that was possible she didn’t know. Then again, it was closer to the Time War and the ship had taken a beating according to her Doctor. He’d been slowly fixing her ever since. Obviously he’d made a lot more progress than she’d ever suspected.

She closed the door behind her with a heavy thump and she heard a clatter followed by a loud, “Ow!” The Doctor scrambled out from beneath the console. “Rose, you’re back early,” he said before she came into view. He sounded delighted. “I know I said there weren’t any repairs left to do and I’d be bored, but I suppose I exaggerated. There’s always something. The gravitational stabilizers were a bit off so I was just…You’re not Rose. Who the hell are you?” he asked when he saw her.

“Doctor, shut up and listen. This is important.”

“I know you,” he said not listening to her. “Or I’ve seen you before. You were on Montcrief.”

“I know that, you big Dumbo. So were you,” she said. “And so was Rose. And…so were you.”

“You said that already,” he said.

“Not you you. My you.”

“What?”

“Look, I don’t have time to play games, so I’m just gonna be blunt.  I travel with you in the future. About three years from now actually…and well…I think you’ve gone a little insane,” she said. He frowned at her. “Look, I’m not explaining this well, and I know I’m probably breaking the rules of time travel left and right and maybe causing a paradox, but I have to do something. He’s desperate and stupid and you’ve got to stop him. You. You’ve got to stop you.”

“You sure he’s the one who’s gone a little insane?” the man asked derisively.

“Oi, shut it, space man. I said you needed to listen to me and I meant it. The long and the short of it is that the Doctor, future you, I mean, wanted to see Rose again. And when Montcrief wasn’t enough, he came here because he knew that you and Rose would be separated this weekend. He knew he could steal time with her.”

“Why should he need to steal time with her?” he asked. “Isn’t she…isn’t she still traveling with me?”

“No,” Donna said. “You…you lost her.” He closed his eyes and swallowed hard.

“Lost her?” he echoed. He turned to look at the doors. “Tonight? You said separated. She left me?”

“No, I meant away from each other. And it wasn’t like that, anyway. It was after the regeneration.”

“She left because I regenerated?”

“No, Doctor. I said it wasn’t like that. It wasn’t a break up. She didn’t leave you. She…she got trapped, away from you and there was no way back and…it devastated him. He…I met him, you, right after she…he nearly let himself die. He…it was bad. But he’s been better, for the last little while he’s been better. It was only when we went to Montcrief and he realized he could see her again, and then he spent all that time dancing with her and—.”

“That puffy-haired pretty boy was me?”

She nodded. “With a perception filter so Rose wouldn’t be able to really see him. And so you wouldn’t notice. If you had—.”

“I’d have put a stop to it.”

“And I need you to put a stop to it now. He’s interfering. He said he made Rose doubt your love for her. He said he had to fix it. He wouldn’t listen to reason. I’m afraid he’s going to do something very, very stupid.”

“More stupid than this, you mean?” he asked sourly. “You should have stopped me.”

“Oh, yeah, right, like that’s so easy to do.”

“It is if you know me well enough.”

“I do, but I’ve never seen him like this. Even when he wanted to die, he wasn’t reckless with anyone else’s life. This is different, though. He’s desperate, Doctor. I think he might try to take her with him. I don’t know what you’re like in this incarnation when you’re desperate but—.”

“Where the hell are they?” he said as sudden fear crossed his face.

“I think he followed her back to her room.”

“How unstable is he?” the Doctor asked grimly as they left the TARDIS at a jog. “He won’t hurt her?”

“No! No, he loves her, but…Rose isn’t going to understand. She doesn’t know about regeneration. You never tell her until it happens. But he’s desperate enough that I think he might tell her the truth about who he is and she’ll—.”

“Think he’s crazy and not believe him. She’ll be angry and scared.”

“Yeah. At least until he can prove it to her.”

“Do you know where her room is?” he asked.

“Don’t you?” she demanded.

“No.”

“What the hell kind of boyfriend are you?” she asked.

“Not a very good one,” he said grimly. “I’ll find out.”

 

When they got to the part of the resort that housed the rooms the Doctor strode right up to the front desk. “I’m looking for my wife,” he said confidently to the man at the desk. “She’s here for the Prentiss/Spencer wedding. Didn’t think I was going to make it up, but I’m able to join her now.  Can you just tell me what room she’s in? Her name’s Rose Tyler.”

A startled gasp came from behind him. “I knew it. Bloody hell, I knew it. The two of you, saying you’re not like that and you bloody go and get married!” Jackie Tyler bulldozed her way across the lobby and he ducked just in time to avoid a smack to the face. She contented herself with whacking him in the arm with her heavy pocketbook instead.

“Ouch!”

“Oi, blondie, there’s not time for that,” Donna said stepping between them.

“Don’t you tell me what there’s not time for,” Jackie said. “That…that man there is apparently now my son-in-law! And they didn’t even tell me they were involved! Not that I didn’t suspect something, the way they’re touching all the time, the way they look at each other, but…not married.”

The Doctor got a firm hold on her and steered her across the lobby. “Shut it, Jackie. I just said that so they’d tell me where Rose was. We didn’t go and get married. Why would we do that? Anyway, now you’re here you can tell me what room she’s in.”

“I’m not telling you anything, you filthy old lecher. You’re sleeping with her, aren’t you? My nineteen year old daughter. How could you?” Jackie screeched.

“Because I love her,” he said simply. Jackie’s mouth opened and shut.  She’d obviously thought there’d never be an actual admission and now that there was she didn’t quite know what to do with it. When it looked like she was gearing up to start yelling again it was time to intervene.

“I’m assuming you’re Rose’s mother,” Donna said stepping in between them. “You know what he is, right? What he does? Where they go? How they travel?”

Jackie looked confused. “Yes.”

“Then please believe me when I say your daughter could be in terrible danger. I’m from the future. The Doctor’s future. And if he doesn’t stop something right now, you could lose Rose forever. You both could.”

Jackie took a step back. “I knew it. I knew you’d bring some alien invasion down on this wedding. I should have just told Rose to stay away. Surprised she came anyway.   Doesn’t want to go anywhere without you. Well, what is it this time? Crazy shop window dummies? Big green monsters that dissolve in vinegar? Martians?” she demanded.

“There’s no alien invasion, Jackie,” he said impatiently. “Just me. Now we’re wasting time. Tell me where Rose’s room is.” She glared at him and he swallowed hard. “Please. I can’t lose her. I can’t.”

Jackie softened. “I want visits twice a month when this is all over,” she said sternly.

“Rose could be in mortal danger and you’re bargaining for visitation rights?” he asked incredulously.

“You’ll never let anything happen to her,” the woman said confidently. “Do we have a deal?”

“Yes,” he growled.

“Well, come on then. No sense hanging about here.” Jackie led the way into the hotel proper, Donna and the Doctor hot on her heels.




 

“Look, I’m not inviting you in. I like you well enough, John, but I—."

“I’m the Doctor,” he said, his eyes burning with a sudden intensity when he looked at her. It had been there all night, but it had been muted. A soft shiver edged its way through her body. “I am your lover, Rose.”

“The hell you are. You’re a bloody nutter, that’s what you are,” she said with a snort. She started to close her hotel room door, but he got his shoulder against it and pushed. Rose backed up. “Okay, I thought you were charming before, but now you are seriously scaring me. You need to leave me alone.”

“Rose, you need to listen to me. I am the Doctor. I’m from the future. A future that doesn’t have you in it, because I lost you.”

“I don’t know why you keep saying that,” Rose said edging towards the phone. The man stayed in the doorway and didn’t try to enter her room at all. Her heart was beating a mile a minute. She’d thought he was harmless, but now he sounded crazy. “You’re not the Doctor.”

“I am. I can tell you the first night we made love was on the planet Montcrief. I was mad at you because you were all over a strange man and I dragged you back to the TARDIS and I ripped the top of your dress to shreds and nearly took you right on the console,” he said.

“That’s where I know you from!” she said. “You were there that night. I danced with you. My mind didn’t put it together because it was centuries from now and time travel isn’t exactly a normal method of flitting across the universe. But you were that man. His name was John and you look just like him. Why didn’t I see it?”

“Because I didn’t want you to. I used a perception filter. I shouldn’t even be here, Rose, but I had to see you again. I had to. I couldn’t stand being without you for another day,” he explained.

“Look, it’s not normal to fixate on someone you dance with for an hour. I don’t know why you followed me back here, but you need help. I’m not your lover and you are not the Doctor,” she said. “And—oh! How do you know what the Doctor did that night? Did you bug my dress? Plant a camera on me?” she asked in horror.

“I know because I was there!”

“In the TARDIS? You watched.”

“I was there. I was with you. I took you to my bed. I made love to you.”

“You’re creeping me out. There’s no way you can be the Doctor. You look nothing like him. Even if you had plastic surgery, your body is totally different. You don’t act like him. You don’t even sound the same. Your accent is all posh and he sounds like he’s from the North.”

“Rose, it’s me. I can prove it.”

“No, you can’t. I want you to leave, John. Now.” She’d edged up to the phone and now gripped it, dialing the front desk with one quick push of a button. 

He pulled out what looked remarkably like the sonic screwdriver. “I said I can prove it.” He aimed the device at first the phone and then her and she felt her mind going dim and she came close to losing consciousness, slipping to the floor in a half faint.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Rose,” he said softly. He altered the setting on his screwdriver and pressed a button. Her eyes widened as the TARDIS suddenly materialized in the corner of the room. “But you have to believe me, because I can’t lose you again.”

She had no strength left in her body and she was suddenly terrified. He picked up her limp and unresisting form. How had he gotten a hold of the TARDIS? Her mind didn’t even consider he might be telling the truth. If this man had the TARDIS, what had happened to the Doctor? That scared her more than anything that might happen to her. What if he’d hurt or killed the only man she ever wanted to be with for the rest of her life?

He was almost to the doors when a loud and angry voice behind him stopped him in his tracks and filled her with relief. “Give her back to me!”

“Doctor,” Rose whispered in response to her lover’s sudden presence and a feeling of calm swept through her.

“You have no right to be here. You’re breaking every rule we were ever taught, doing irreparable harm to the time lines. I’m not sure even I can fix all the damage and I’m fantastic,” he said.

“You’re an idiot. You didn’t want to be here!” John snapped. “You wouldn’t even go to a silly wedding for her. Wouldn’t tell her mum you were together. Couldn’t tell her how much you love her, that she was your absolute world. Now look at you, all injured dignity that I’d dare break the laws of time and space to come get what is mine.”

“She’s not yours. She’s her own person and she can make her own decisions, Doctor,” said a red-haired woman who had followed Rose’s lover into the room. “This is his time. You lost Rose a long time ago. You need to let her go.”

“I can’t. I can’t do it, Donna. I loved Rose with everything I had and I thought I’d never see her again. Maybe I shouldn’t have done this, but you don’t understand what I lost the day she got trapped on the other side of the Void. I lost everything. I lost my last reason for existing. You know how hard it was for me to just go on. I can’t even…if I have to go back to that…”

“But you were better. You were getting better with me.”

“Seeing her again brought it all back. I can’t go through it again, Donna. Please. Please don’t ask me to live without Rose,” he begged.

“You take her out of the time line now, what’ll happen later when the Daleks come? When the Cybermen invade?” Donna asked.

Rose managed to lift her head at the word Daleks and stared at her Doctor who was looking at the red-head, Donna, in horror. “Daleks?” she asked in horror. And hadn’t there been the head of a Cyberman in that Utah bunker? The Doctor had been less than happy with that.

“I don’t care!” John said. “As long as I don’t lose Rose, I don’t care! She’s coming with me. We were happy. We will be again.”

“I don’t even know you. How can I be happy with you?” Rose begged softly. “I want him.”

“Doctor, do something!” demanded Jackie, who’d hung back in the doorway in shock at all that was happening.

“I will.” And he pulled out his own sonic screwdriver and aimed it at the man holding her. Rose figured it was the same trick John had used on her. He slumped to the ground and her head banged into the TARDIS doors with a resounding thud.

Ch. 4:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/297036.html