Hope (2/3)

[amberfocus]

A/N:  Amidst the peril caused by the werewolf, Rose finds herself seriously attracted to the Doctor.

                                                                       Chapter Two: Endangered

It isn’t Sheffield. It isn’t even close. And they’re off their target time even further than they’re off their proper location. A whole century instead of a year! He had really hoped his driving would improve this regeneration. It doesn’t appear to have. Still, Rose doesn’t seem terribly upset by it until he starts making stupid cracks about her being a wee timorous beastie or calling her a feral child. He wants to kick himself every time one of those stupid remarks comes flying right out of his mouth but he can’t seem to stop them. Rose, for her part, doesn’t seem to be taking it to heart, but she’s gotten so good at hiding her feelings from him since he changed that he’s not sure he’d recognize it if she did.

He tries to concentrate on being silly and having fun with her, making a silly bet with her that she can’t make the queen say, “We are not amused,” and not trying to parse out whatever it is that’s bugging her. And something is. Something beyond his regenerating without telling her he could, which is admittedly huge but not everything is bothering her. When he makes another stupid crack she shoots him a look that tells him she is most definitely getting annoyed with him.

He’s almost relieved when the queen insists Rose dress for dinner and is sent off to do so. Relieved because if Rose is away from him for a bit maybe he can get his runaway, thoughtless gob back under control again. Soon enough he isn’t even thinking about her as Sir Robert tells his father’s story of the werewolf at the dinner table and it absorbs all of his attention for a bit too long before he realizes exactly what the man is trying to tell him, puts two and two together and realizes that the brethren are in the house and it’s been far too long since he’s seen Rose.

Fear leaps through his stomach as worry flashes through him. He rises to his feet ignoring everything else that is going on in the room, Queen Victoria, Sir Robert, and moves towards the bald man by the window. “Where’s Rose? Where is she?” he shouts all semblance of control leaving him as icy fingers clutch suddenly at his heart. If there really is a werewolf and Rose has gone missing…no, he can’t even bear that thought!

He teeters on the edge of action unsure of where to even look for his girl when he hears the unearthly screaming rise from below. It’s as good a direction to go as any and when he hears the cries of the servants as well, he redoubles his efforts to get there quickly, Sir Robert on his heels. When they arrive at last he is confronted with a furious, but very much alive, Rose Tyler.




Rose hadn’t been too terribly annoyed that they’d landed in the wrong time and the wrong place. That was par for the course. She is ready to hit the Doctor though when he starts making cracks about her being a wee timorous beastie and a feral child. It harkens back to the days of his calling her a stupid ape and though this time she is sure, mostly, that he is joking, she’s still somewhat upset by it. He knows it is the sort of thing that bothers her and yet here he is doing it again, glib as you please. It makes her feel like her feelings aren’t as important to him as she thought.

She knows she is probably overreacting but that’s easy enough to do in the situation she currently finds herself in. She’s been introduced to and looked down the nose at by the queen of England, but it’s hardly the first time something like that has happened to her. No, it’s more how the Doctor is allowing her be treated, in fact seems to be treating her himself, based on the way he told her to dress for the concert they never arrived at. She is very annoyed with the fact that she is prancing around in clothes that are far too immodest for the time period because the Doctor hadn’t bothered to double check on the monitor that they were in the correct time before they left the TARDIS.

The queen is obviously as annoyed as Rose about her state of attire when she sends Rose away to be properly clothed. Rose finds it a relief to leave her presence and all those judging eyes. She isn’t sure whether to include the Doctor’s eyes in that same category or not. She sighs. And the morning had started out so well.

She falls in love with the gorgeous blue dress on offer to her immediately, but does she have time to put it on? Oh, no. Instead she finds a chamber maid hiding in the wardrobe. And then she ends up in this dungeon, with a dozen other members of the household staff. A dozen very frightened people.

At first all she really wants to think about is the fact that here she is in a dark, dank cellar chained to a wall, she is several weeks pregnant, and that she hasn’t had anything to eat in a very long time. And oh, yes, she has to pee. Desperately. She doubts very much she can rely on the Doctor to realize she’s gone missing for a while. Put a plate of food in front of this version of him and fascinating historical people to talk to and he’ll be lost to her for a while. At least if it’s good food and she imagines anything prepared for a queen will be delicious.

She sighs and gives the chain a few good firm tugs. Well, maybe it’ll come free with proper incentive. She crosses her legs. If the insistence of her bladder gets much worse she’ll likely have very good incentive. The lady of the house tells her to stop, tells her that if they try to escape they’ll all be slaughtered, but her eyes tell a different story as they turn to the man in a cage in the center of the room.

At first Rose doesn’t understand but as his eyes open and turn on her a chill shudders through her. The man has eyes that are totally black, that have swallowed any soul he might have once had whole. And the things he says to her, that she has something of the wolf about her, that she burns like the sun, sends fear racking through her body. And then he says something else, something unexpected that should be unknowable to him. “You nurture the wolf within your body.”

She knows that this creature somehow knows about her child and worse yet, he is telling her Bad Wolf is somehow linked to the pregnancy. She doesn’t want to believe that, but what else can he possibly mean? Then all thoughts flee her head as he begins to change in front of her eyes. He had said all he needed was the moon and her mind rapidly puts together what is going on. This alien creature before her is somehow a werewolf.

Rose marshals the others to pull, with better incentive to get away now than any full bladder could ever give her. And slowly, slowly the chains pull from the wall. The creature continues to change and her theory is confirmed right before her eyes. They pull harder and at last the chain gives and then the door to the cellar is kicked open and she sees the Doctor.

“Where the hell have you been?” she shouts at him in a sudden blinding rage.

He turns away from her and is confronted with the werewolf in the cage and stops for a moment in awe. “Oh, that’s beautiful,” he says. Rose wants to knock him over the head with a spare bit of chain. She’s in danger, they’re all in danger, and he stops to smell the roses! She turns away from him and continues to get everyone moving and out of the room. The Doctor continues to stare at it in awe and she calls to him but he doesn’t hear her. Part of her wants to go to him, to pull him from the room, but her responsibility is to her unborn child first so she exits the room with the others and hopes that the Doctor will come to his senses and move. She calls his name again.

Finally he’s back in the corridor with the others, sonicing the door locked behind him. It won’t hold the werewolf long, but hopefully it will hold him long enough for them to make a hasty retreat. Her ladyship takes the rest of the females away but Rose refuses to leave the Doctor’s side. It is always the safest place to be despite his nature as a trouble magnet. She watches as he goes in search of the wolf for a moment and when he comes running back like there’s a demon on his tail he grabs her hand and pulls her behind the rest of the men, placing his body between hers and the oncoming danger.

She watches as the men fall one by one to the werewolf and the Doctor does everything he can to protect her. She no longer feels forgotten even when it’s the queen’s hand he takes to pull her to safety. He makes sure Rose is with him, following closely behind and when they finally have breathing space in the library he takes a moment to pull her into his arms, not just excited about the fact that they have encountered a werewolf, but to run his hands over her body and make sure that she is, in fact, in one piece.

The queen looks at them as if she is scandalized by his familiarity with her, but Rose is beyond caring as her hands slide over his chest and arms, reassuring herself that he, too, is still in one piece. The urge to kiss him is very strong but she holds back. That would get them in serious trouble as it has been made quite clear that she is not the Doctor’s wife, but his charge.

Her heart takes a long time to calm down as they look through books in search of knowledge that might help them defeat the wolf. She shoots looks at the Doctor, finds his worried eyes on her as often as they are on the books. When he pulls out his glasses and puts them on she feels something twist inside her. He’s sexy with the spectacles. It’s the first time she’s looked at him and really seen him as sexy in this body and a flood of arousal jolts through her.

He looks up at her, his dark eyes catching hers, and his nostrils flare. He has captured her scent, is fully aware of her sudden response to him, and he has caught her staring at him. He offers her a slow, sexy smile that makes her stomach flip over. She bites her lip hard and goes to stand over beside him, her hip brushing against his thigh. She can’t help but keep some part of her in contact with him as they continue to search through the books despite the disapproving looks shot at her by the queen and even Sir Robert.

Rose can’t stop it, though. As the Doctor puts things together, the intensity in his voice does things to her body that she isn’t expecting. It had been like this sometimes before, in his last body, when he got going on a lecture, but this, this deep husky knowing that his voice had fallen into… For the first time since he’d changed she finds herself violently attracted to him, a second wave of arousal shooting through her so hard that she gasps. And he knows it, catches her eye for just a second and then quickly looks down at the book in front of him, but he is not unaffected. His breathing has become quite rapid.

He shifts his body and presses forward into her thigh and Rose jumps at the sudden hardness she feels. No, he is definitely affected. It is only the queen rambling on that draws their attention away from each other; her flashing of a giant diamond, the Kohinoor, in front of them.

Usually it’s Rose who gets drawn away by things that are shiny, but this version of the Doctor is as attracted to the stone as a magpie. They are both drawn to it like magnets. As the Doctor explains to Rose about the diamond’s history he takes off his glasses. She is slightly disappointed until his voice falls back into that rich, sexy timbre that makes her shiver in anticipation of things that might come later when they are alone again. Things she just might be ready for by the end of this adventure.

And as he goes into some kind of fit of drawing everything together into one almighty whole as he paces the room and ruffles that hair that she was playing with only this morning, she is almost ready to forget there is anyone else in the room and throw her arms around him and snog him until they are both senseless. His brilliance attracts her as it has always done, no matter what face he wore. A huge wave of relief washes over her as she feels certainty click into place that she is past it now, past all of the changes, and is ready to resume a full relationship with the man before her.

But that will have to wait until the resolution, until they solve the problem of the werewolf, save the queen, and save the day. And then…oh, yes, and then she is ready to move on…with him.

Ch. 3:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/168380.html 

Comments

[catyuy.livejournal.com]

Yes Rose, snog him now.
As you are in for a one-two punch emotionally really soon.

oooo Shiny!!

[othermewriter.livejournal.com]

oooooo Love it! Poor them Rose getting all turned on and turning him on in a stuffy Victorian setting and the queen no less in attendance. Ah well soon enough for her to sort that out.

[wishiknewwho.livejournal.com]

I am glad that Rose is finally attracted to him again. I know she was in love with Nine, but Ten+specs+brainy talk = very hard to resist.

Great chapter. You captured their emotions perfectly, as per usual.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Well, I think the snogging will wait until they get back to the TARDIS, but there is definitely going to be some. *smiles* Setting them up for a great big fall, I am...

Re: oooo Shiny!!

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

*grins* Yeah, there will be some sorting, just not quite as much sorting as the Doctor might like. In viewing the episode again, there was an awful lot of unnecessary touching and looking going on and I just went with it and exaggerated it a bit for my own nefarious purposes.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Oh, it is very, very hard to resist and I think she's coming to the conclusion of why should she? Yeah, she'll find out why soon enough, but for now she'll get a few shiny romantic moments. Thank you.

[nattieb.livejournal.com]

I am so torn about this, I want her to accept him (and really when he puts on the glasses Ten becomes very hard to resist) but I know what is coming and there is a lot of heart break set up for Rose. And I just want her to be happy, she has gone through so much.

*runs off to read Zeppelins or Hunger Moon for a bit of happiness*

Re: oooo Shiny!!

[othermewriter.livejournal.com]

And you know how much we all love your nefarious purposes. :)

[doctor10-crazt.livejournal.com]

"He's sexy with the spectacles."

Oh, I couldn't agree more!

[javabreeze.livejournal.com]

Gah, this makes it so hard to enjoy knowing GitF is next but I enjoyed this nonetheless. I'm really glad Rose is attracted to the Doctor now and now I can't wait until the next installment.

[jesmel.livejournal.com]

Oh, the Doctor in his specs, pulling his hair and being brainy is very hard to resist indeed!

I'm starting to cringe in anticipation for GitF though, so I hope they have a bit of fun while they can.

[maniacalshen.livejournal.com]

Lol, "some kind of fit," "attracted to the stone as a magpie," - great Ten descriptions. Good going, noting how judged she must have felt by the queen and everyone for being "naked." Thank heavens she had those dark tights, eh?

[ramblinsuze.livejournal.com]

Yup. The Doctor was *damn* sexy in that episode. Well, when he wasn't being childish. ;)

I can't blame Rose one little bit for wanting to jump him.

[beneficia.livejournal.com]

You know, it's kinda weird when you're squeeing while dreading what's coming. Cause I know what's coming up next. GitF. Well, after School Reunion, and honestly I'm actually looking forward to that padding before the GitF Chernobyl, because the whole Sarah Jane thing was understandable and I think it actually brought them closer together in the end.

But I'm trying to reconcile the Doctor's behavior in GitF with the Moments in Darkness universe... and I just can't. I really, really can't. I could sorta maybe understand it if Rose and the Doctor didn't have a relationship LIKE THAT, and if there was some vagueness about Mickey's place in Rose's life, but in MiD? I honestly don't know if I CAN forgive him for the whole Reinette thing after all this.

Seriously, the only way to make it okay in the original series was by having Mickey along and there being the possibility that he and Rose got back together after CI or-

*is struck dumb by lightbulb eureka moment*

Or if the Doctor THINKS Rose got back together with Mickey. Behind his back. Cause I just realized you're going to have Mickey in School Reunion. Mickey who knows Rose is pregnant. Mickey who might want to talk to Rose about it privately without the Doctor knowing. Mickey who walked off with Rose during an indeterminate amount of time in Boom Town, JUST before Rose became pregnant. Rose who is pregnant, but according to everything the Doctor knows (or thinks he knows) is completely and totally 100% incapable of carrying HIS child.

...

OMG WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO!!!

*sputter* I...YOU... BUT...

AAARRGGHH!!

Fine, okay, so tons of misunderstanding, hurting, and angsting is coming up. For several installments.

But you better fix it afterwards! I mean it! I need my happy ever after. Like I need air.

And currently I need a drink.

*goes off to get drunk*

[beneficia.livejournal.com]

And I totally didn't mean to write you a comment that long. Sorry.

[corusca.livejournal.com]

Oh! You're evil, you're making her happy and then....you're so mean :(

I love it, as always, I love it.

[salimali.livejournal.com]

But why do I fear its all going to go to pot first!! (hee)
Lovely writing x

[ehmi.livejournal.com]

My emotions are so torn to pieces right now! Waah!

[aquakittie.livejournal.com]

squee, she finally realized she still loves him and wants to shag him silly! But, of course, have to solve the problem of the werewolf and all that nonsense. But, but...I am sooooo dreading GitF. I'm already gearing up my smacking hand and aiming it at the Doctor's head of really great hair.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Well, that means I am doing my job, I suppose. On the bright side, when I write severe angst as bad as the GitF story is going to have to be, I usually have to counterbalance it elsewhere by writing something extremely fluffy and happy. She will be happy eventually, they will be happy. Though I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do about Doomsday...

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

LOL Did you just go and make that icon?

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Well, but School Reunion is actually next so there is a bit of a breather first. Although there will be a fair amount of jealousy in that as there was in the episode.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

He really is. And Rose will have a tough time resisting him. There will definitely be some kissing before this fic is over.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Well, it definitely looked like he was having one. I rewatched the episode twice and he was really going a little nuts there. And he is definitely easily attracted by the shiny! I do think she felt judged, too. She had some expressions on her face that really made me think so. Yeah, the tights probably helped some. Plain nylons would have been considered indecent, I'm sure.

[electrictoes.livejournal.com]

Oh, wonderful.
It's getting rather exciting!