A Life Unexpected (13/15)

[amberfocus]

Chapter Thirteen:  Unravelling

“My name is Barbara Wright Chesterton. My late husband Ian for whom you are named,” she nodded at her grandson, “and I were the first two humans to travel with a strange old alien man called the Doctor. Only the Doctor.” She smiled at Rose. “We didn’t come on board voluntarily. He kidnapped us and then his ship refused to take us home! But despite all that, it was a glorious adventure travelling about time and space with him and his granddaughter. We came to respect the old man a great deal, though we never formed any deep affection for him.”

Her eyes focused on the distant past. “He was not then the man he later became. He was hardened to all but his granddaughter Susan, tended to act first and think later despite his advanced intelligence, and seldom accepted responsibility for the things he did that got us into danger. Despite that, if it hadn’t been for the old man I don’t think your grandfather and I would have fallen in love and later married. Our friendship before our travels was extremely formal and we certainly never had to depend on each other for our lives.”

Barbara sighed and shook her head. “There was a race, a race of mutated beings encased in metal transport machines, called the Daleks. We encountered them on more than one occasion. The last time we ran up against them with the Doctor, they had a time machine.”

Rose gasped. “The Daleks had a time machine? How?”

“They developed it. I was never quite clear on how. I think they must have stolen the technology from the Doctor’s people, though the theories also allowed that they might have created it for themselves. Ian and I never really found out. But when the adventure was over we had possession of the Dalek time machine. And with the Doctor’s blessing we used it to return home. We arrived two years after we joined the Doctor and had a lot of explaining to do.”

Rose smiled. “I’ve been there.”

“I know you have, Rose. I know so much about you. I dreamed of your face long before I knew what it meant.” She smiled gently. “Before we left him, the Doctor told me something in confidence that I have never shared with anyone, not even Ian Chesterton. He told me that there would come a time when he needed my help. He would come to me and perhaps he would no longer look the same, but I could be assured it was him if he used one word to identify himself. That word was Rose.”

Rose sat back. “He knew about me then? How is that even possible? I wasn’t even born yet.”

“Time isn’t linear, Rose. You travelled with him. You should know the answer. But he always knew about you. And one by one, each incarnation of the Doctor has visited me, with eight different faces. Every time he would ask me if I’d kept his secret and I assured him I had. The last time he came to see me was for your grandfather’s funeral.” She sighed.

“Afterwards he came and took the Dalek time machine away from me. It no longer functioned but he was worried about an organization of alien technology collectors getting a hold of it. In its place he left me with something to guard, something with the ability to disguise itself with the original chameleon circuit of his TARDIS. He told me a war was coming, a war that would wipe the universe of many sentient species, but that Earth would be safe when all was said and sifted. And he needed me to keep that object safe until Rose came.”

“But he didn’t know me when we met. How could he not know me when we met?” Rose demanded.

“His ship would remove the memories when he returned to it and when it was time for him to visit me, the ship would unblock those memories for him. The last time he visited, the object he gave me began to grow. I had many dreams during this time period and I saw what was coming. I was horrified and terrified of that coming war. Then something horrible happened when young Ian was a little boy.”

“The explosion.” Ian’s face was white.

“Yes.” She turned to Rose. “Ian came looking for me. I’d gone down in the basement to fetch his favorite jam, just like today. But I heard singing, quiet and soft, but singing none the less emanating from the cupboard in the closet where I kept the Doctor’s object. I went inside the cupboard. It was a bit like the Doctor’s ship, bigger on the inside than the outside, but not enormous. About the size of this house, really.”

Barbara fell silent for a couple of minutes, a few tears falling down her face as she stared at her grandson. Rose reached out and took one of Barbara’s hands and Ian took the other. “I didn’t get the door latched behind me.” She stopped. “The object the doctor gave me was glowing green and grew in front of my eyes from the size of a croquet ball to the size of a volley ball and then if forcefully expelled something the size of a marble. It shot across the room and as young Ian opened the door it shot forcefully into him.”

She shuddered. “There was a horrible explosion and he glowed purple and then green. Everything shifted sideways. It went on for what felt like hours. When it ended we were on this parallel Earth. Ian lay dying, and his parents were left behind. I do not even know if my daughter or her husband lived. They didn’t come with us, that much is certain.”

“I didn’t know what to do. This world was so different and yet so similar at the same time. I tried to leave the cupboard to seek help but the door wouldn’t open. I was trapped inside for days, though the cupboard provided nicely for my needs. Finally Ian awoke, and then the object spoke to me. To us.”

She pulled her hands away from their grasps and put her fingers on either side of Ian’s temples. “Gallifrey,” she whispered. It was like a veil lifting from Ian’s face. So many different emotions washed over him. First anger, then fear, then sadness, then finally acceptance and wonder crossed his face. When the singing started, a feeling of indescribable joy enveloped him.

“I know what I am now,” he said, as he began to glow purple and green in pulsing waves.

“What? What is it?” Rose asked as Ian turned instinctively towards the basement, but made no further move.

“What he found that day, what went into him, it was the birth of a baby TARDIS. Somehow it merged with him. And it’s been growing. This year, this past week especially when he came into contact with you, it has been coming to maturity. And as soon as he meets up with the mother below, he will be able to travel across time and space and parallel dimensions and take the mother back to the Doctor. And you with it.”

“I can go home?” Rose whispered, tears coming unbidden to her eyes.

Barbara nodded. A slow smile spread across Rose’s face. Then her eyes went flat. “What about Ian? What happens to him?”

“Ian, the child Ian, died that day twenty years ago. He became something else, something more. He became his destiny. He is no longer human. He cannot go back to being human. But the future he finds will be one of great joy. And so much love. You cannot begin yet to understand the capacity for love that he will have when he returns to the mother,” Barbara said.

“And you?” Rose asked. “What are you left with?”

“It doesn’t matter Rose. I’ve seen what the future is supposed to be. I talked with the mother last night. It is right and I am at peace with it. Ian, what he has become, will restore so much. He is going back to the mother; they are going back to the Doctor. It is your choice to go with them or to stay. It has always ever been your choice, Rose.”

Rose stood up and circled around the table to Ian, who was still glowing in pulsating waves of green and blue. “Ian, are you still there?”

“I am ever there, Rose. I am everywhere.”

“And are you…okay with this?”

“It is a wonderful thing.”

Rose swallowed hard. “I need to talk to Mum.”

The moment she said it a purple light shot out from Ian and out through the wall of the house. When it withdrew back into Ian, Jackie Tyler was standing in Barbara’s kitchen.

Jackie took one look around and then focused on her daughter. “Rose!” She pulled her daughter to her and gave her a hug so hard that Rose thought she might crack some ribs. “You’re okay.”

When Jackie let her go, she looked at Ian, then Barbara. “You’ve found a way, haven’t you, sweetheart? A way to get back to him.”

Rose nodded, her face trying to smile but scrunching up from the tears that had started pouring down her face as soon as her mother appeared. “I want to go, Mum, but what about you? What about Mickey and Dad and the children? How will you get on without me?”

“I’ve had five more years than I ever expected to get Rose,” Jackie said, tenderly wiping tears from Rose’s face. “And if there is ever a way to come back, your clever Doctor will find it and then we can visit. Don’t think about it. I’ll tell them all good-bye for you. Mickey, too.”

Are you sure, Mum?” Rose desperately sought reassurance that her Mum would be fine without her.

“Second chances are everything, Rose. I should know. I got my Pete back. Well, almost my Pete.” Jackie smiled, holding all of her tears in. "Go on, then. Go after him. You’ll never be happy until you’ve seen him again. It’ll never be over if you don’t. You’ll love him forever and your heart will never heal. I know that now. And all I want is for you to be happy. That’s all I’ve ever wanted, sweetheart.”

“Isn’t it selfish, throwing away everything on just one little chance I might be able to see him again?” Rose asked.

“You’ve never been selfish in your life. It’s time for selfish. You’ve earned selfish.” Jackie hugged and kissed her daughter and then turned to Ian. “Can you send me back?”

Ian nodded and returned Jackie to where he’d grabbed her from. “Are you ready?” he asked Rose, reaching for her hand.

“Wait a moment,” Barbara said, removing her necklace and putting it over Rose’s head. The pendant clunked onto her chest. Ian reached into his pocket and pulled out his.

Rose put her hand in Ian’s and he led her into the basement, into the closet, into the cupboard. She looked into the mother and the mother looked into her.

Ch. 14&15:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/35848.html