A Place in Time (4/30)

[amberfocus]

                                                                                         Banner by Megz33

A/N:  Okay, so don't freak out on me for this chapter.  It's part of the rollercoaster ride and it's necessary for the plot, but I promise there's more here than meets the eye.  Angst warning.

Chapter Four:  It's Not A Dream

It had been one year since Rose Tyler had stood on the balcony of her room at her parent’s house and made a wish on a shooting star. One year since she and Nick had gone on their wildly successful not date. So much had changed for her in one year’s time.

She’d moved out of her parent’s house and into her own flat. Pete was more Dad than Pete now. And Nick, sweet Nick, had hung in with her for a year while they built a friendship almost as strong as the strongest one she had ever had. And tonight he was taking her back to The Bromeliad.

Rose smiled at herself in the mirror as she took in her appearance. The glittering silver dress fell to just below her knees. It had tiny red spaghetti straps and red along the top of the heart-shaped bodice and the bottom of the hem. The shoes were a work of art, an open-toed sandal in red that criss-crossed across the top of the foot then ended with a delicate curve around the back of the heel. She adored those shoes.

Around her neck she wore a pretty silver chain with a little red rose for a pendant. It had been a gift from Nick on her birthday last week and she loved it. Every time she looked at it, it made her smile. Nick made her smile. So much.

She stepped out onto the balcony of her flat to check the weather. As she glanced up at the sky, a shooting star shot across her line of vision. She smiled and said, “I wish I could see him one more time, to let him know I’m okay now.”

Stepping back into her apartment she found a suitable wrap and then checked her hair one more time. The doorbell buzzed and she went to answer it. “Hello, Nick,” she said.

“Wow, Rose, you look amazing.”

“Thank you.”

“Are you ready?” Rose picked up her purse from the little table by the door.

“Ready for anything,” she said dazzling him with her smile. When she slipped her hand into his he turned to look at her. She had linked arms with him on many occasions, but she had never held his hand. That used to be sacred. So much power in the holding of a hand.

“Rose?” he asked. She tilted her head to one side and looked up at him.

“What?”

“I…” He seemed so unsure of himself. “We’re going to be late,” he said ushering her to the car. He opened and closed her door for her then ran around to his own side of the car.

Dinner was lovely and dancing was better than it had been on any previous occasion between them. Afterwards, they went for a little walk on the nearby pier. Rose held her perfect little shoes in one hand and in the other hand she held Nick’s hand. At the end of the dock she turned to look at him.

“You’ve been wonderful to me, Nick. You’ve been so patient and so kind. You haven’t ever pushed me to be anything more than friends and I appreciate that more than you will ever know. But if you still want to--.”

He didn’t give her time to finish her sentence. Instead he pulled her to him and kissed her. She smiled against the kiss. It was good to be happy again.

****************************************

“Something’s wrong,” the Doctor said as the brilliant colors that had been streaming through the TARDIS turned into ugly shades of green, yellow, and brown. The air seemed to thicken and the walls of the TARDIS convulsed.

He ran to the control screen and tapped rapidly at the keyboard in front of it. The answer that flashed on the screen made no sense to him. He looked up towards his companions only to discover they were frozen, unmoving.

“Martha! Donna!” he cried out in sudden fear as he ran over to the two women. But it was no good. There was no response at all. He touched first one, then the other. He could just feel pulses, could barely hear heart beats, and faintly saw the rise and fall of their chests that showed they were breathing.

He’d been reckless risking all of their lives just to get back to the woman he loved. He put one hand against the coral support strut and had to pull it away. The TARDIS was in agony. She was screaming. What had he done?

***************************************

It had been five years since Rose Tyler Daniels stood on the balcony of her old room in her parent’s house and wished on a shooting star and nine years since she had seen the Doctor.

Three years ago she had married Nick and two years ago she had given birth to their first child, a little girl they had named Sarah. She had just found out she was pregnant again and she was sure this time it was a boy.

Nick had been delighted with the news and they had gone to visit Jackie and Pete to tell them they were about to be grandparents again. Sarah was going to be spending the evening with Jackie, Pete, and their son John while the happy new parents went out to celebrate.

Rose went on up to her old room and rooted around in her jewelry case for her rose quartz necklace, one of the few things she had leftover from her previous life, by the sheer good fortune that she had been wearing it the night she was left behind.

It was the perfect thing to match her dress if she could just find it. Her searching fingers closed on a chain and she pulled it out. It wasn’t what she’d been looking for. It was her old TARDIS key. She stared at it in wonder. She’d thought she’d lost it in the move from her old flat into the house she and her husband shared.

She smiled in sweet remembrance, before putting the key into her pocket and searching yet again for the rose quartz. At last the jewelry case yielded defeat and the necklace she’d been seeking appeared at her finger tips. She picked it up and fastened it around her neck and turned to look at herself in the mirror. Yes, it matched the pale pink of her dress perfectly.

Some unknown impulse struck her and she stepped out onto the balcony and looked up at the sky. A shooting star shot across her field of vision. She frowned. Three times on the same day of the year was very odd. Of course, there had been many years since the last one, but…was it more than coincidence?

Rose put the thought out of her head. It couldn’t be him. The universe would be torn apart. And it didn’t matter if it was him. She couldn’t have gone with him anyway. She had a family now. If it was him, well… “I wish you would have found me sooner.”

****************************************

The TARDIS rocked violently back and forth then fell into a tumble. Martha and Donna were stuck to the floor, the TARDIS magnetizing the iron in their blood, but the Doctor floated in free fall and managed to get banged around as he hit various bits of his ship with various bits of his anatomy.

Even the ugly swirling colors were beginning to fade and be replaced by blackness. The TARDIS lights began to dim. He lurched against the console and hit his head hard on the central column. Then it went completely black.

*****************************************

Rose Tyler Daniels smiled at her daughter Sarah as she walked down the aisle, flowers in her hair and a gorgeous veil upon her head. Nick handed her off to her fiancé Andrew and went to stand beside his wife. “Who blesses the union of this woman to this man?” the minister asked. Sarah had insisted on that particular phrasing, saying she wasn’t a piece of property to be given away.

Nick turned to Rose and in unison they said, “We do.”

“And who blesses the union of this man to this woman?”

Andrew’s parents said, “We do.”

The ceremony proceeded with Sarah’s younger brother Jack singing a lovely song to the couple. It was beautiful. Rose could barely remember a time when she was happier, at least not since she’d been in this universe. That night as she prepared for bed she stepped out on the front porch of her house.

A shooting star shot across her field of vision. She knew it would. It was the night for it. She no longer believed it was a shooting star. She liked to think of it as a gift sent from the Doctor, to know he still remembered her, but she wished anyway. “I wish you could have seen her today. She was so beautiful. You would have liked my Sarah. Not so sure about Jack, he’s a bit too much like his namesake.” She smiled fondly at the sky and then went in to go to bed.

******************************************

The Doctor woke, cold. He was lying on the floor of the console room. Someone had thrown a blanket over him. “Martha?” he called out in a barely there voice. “Donna?” he tried again, louder.

No one answered him so he sat up, gingerly rubbing his head. It was no longer dark in the TARDIS. The light was a pale silver reflection coming from the view screen. The ship hummed happily and the sense of forward motion had resumed. He called for his friends again.

Donna appeared around the doorway to the console room. “Martha!” she hollered down the hallway. “Sleeping Beauty is awake.” He heard the sound of feet running down the hallway and Martha burst through the doorway.

“Oh, thank goodness!” she said. “It’s been three days! We tried to drag you to a bed, but you were like a rock stuck to the ground.”

“Are we through yet?” he asked as Martha’s cool fingers checked the bump on his head.

“That’s looking much better today,” she said. “To answer your question, I have no idea. We’ve been stuck in silver for two and a half days.”

“It’s been a little spooky,” said Donna. “Felt like ghosts were roaming the corridors at times. But whenever I’d catch one out of the corner of my eye and turned to look, it would vanish.”

“The Void can play tricks on you. Seems the fissure is even worse.” The Doctor looked up at the view screen. “Something’s changing.” The light was turning from silver to golden.

****************************************

Nick Daniels laid flowers down on the little grave in front of him. It had been hard putting her in the ground this way. She had died much too soon. It should have been him. She had pushed him out of the way and let the automobile run her down in her quest to save him. “My brave girl,” he said.

He read the words on the tombstone in front of him.

Rose Marion Tyler Daniels
Adored Wife
Devoted Mother
Beloved Daughter
Gone Too Soon

It gave her birth date and the date of her death. He opened the little envelope they had given him at the mortuary. It had the things that had been in the pocket of the little suit dress they had buried Rose in. The silver chain with the red rose pendant he had given her so many years ago fell into his hand, along with a gold chain with a key that was warm to the touch and shining golden. He dug a little hole at the head of her grave and dropped them both into it, gently covering them with dirt.

He knew what the key was, why she had it in her pocket all these years. It had taken her years, but she had finally told him. A reminder of the love that had come before him. And he had been okay with that, because so much of it had shaped Rose into the woman he adored.

He stood up and looked into the night sky. A shooting star shot across his field of vision. “I buried the key,” he told the star, “So you could find her even this late.” He brushed the dirt from his pants and slowly walked away.

***************************************

As the powerful glowing light suffused the ship, the TARDIS burst through to the other side of the fissure. The Doctor checked the readings. “We made it!” He said, exultant. “We made it to Rose’s universe.” He flipped a switch. “And we can still track her TARDIS key!”

Martha smiled at the exuberant look on the Doctor’s face. “Let’s go find Rose,” she said. The Doctor’s smile was bigger than she had ever seen it.

“That’s the best idea you’ve ever had, Martha Jones!”

Ch. 5:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/47756.html 

Comments

[slvrcrystalc.livejournal.com]

Oh no. I see some serious Oncoming Angst. If Nick isn't there to give the Doctor those pictures, then he wont ever know that she's not his Rose!

You're changing it! Brilliant!

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

I'm only changing tiny little details. You'll see.