A Place in Time (5/30)

[amberfocus]

                                                                                            Banner by Megz33

Chapter Five:  Remember Us

Nick Daniels was sitting in the cemetery next to his wife’s grave when the TARDIS materialized. It had been a year since he had put Rose in the ground. Tonight he had looked up at the stars waiting for the one that would shoot across the sky. But instead he had heard a strange grinding noise and turned his head to see the large blue box materializing in front of him.

The door burst open and a brown-haired man with a manic grin tumbled out, followed by two women, one with startlingly gorgeous red hair and the other a slim, pretty black woman. The man looked about him wildly then held a little device in front of him. “It says she’s right here, but I don’t see her anywhere.”

“Maybe she dropped the key,” Donna said.

Nick stood up. “She didn’t drop the key,” he said. The Doctor spun about wildly. “She’s just there.” He pointed to the grave that held Rose’s body. “You’re the Doctor, aren’t you? You came too late. Thirty years too late. And then only one year and 3 days too late.”

The Doctor had walked forward slowly, his panicked eyes taking in first that he was in a cemetery and then the quiet man whose words said things he didn’t want to hear. As he came close enough to read the words on the grave marker, he fell to his knees.

“I buried the key just here,” Nick told him. “So if you ever made it back, you could find her. She loved you, you know. To the day that she died. But she loved me, too. And that was all that mattered. I’m Nick Daniels.”

“You were her husband?” said Martha softly.

“I had that honor yes. And the father of her children.”

“How many?” The Doctor’s voice sounded almost like a child’s.

“Two. We named the girl Sarah after a woman she had admired greatly, and the boy is Jack.”

Martha smiled, “After Captain Jack. He’d be pleased,” she said softly.

“Are her parents still alive? Or Mickey Smith?” the Doctor asked.

“Pete died a couple years ago, but Jackie’s still alive and well living up at the manor house. And Mickey’s the head of a place called Torchwood.” Nick sighed and stood up. “I figured you’d show up one of these years on the night of the shooting star,” he said cryptically. “I have some things Rose wanted to share with you if you ever returned. They’re just in my car.”

“Martha, Donna, go with him, will you?” The Doctor’s tone was pleading and he wasn’t really asking for them to go with Nick. He was asking to be left alone with Rose.

The women turned and followed Nick to his car and the man retrieved a box from the boot. “Don’t you mind this?” asked Donna taking the box he offered her. “That your wife left this for him?”

“My Rose loved me,” he said softly. “She never once treated me as second best to the memory of that man. She loved him, yes, that is true, and if he’d come back before we wed I have no illusions that she would have chosen me. But I’m the one who got to live a life with her. I have no petty jealousy of this man. He was denied her light. I could never hate him. Not the man that showed her the universe.”

He shook his head. “I’ll give him his time. Tell him…” Nick looked up at the stars for a moment then back down at Martha and Donna. “Tell him that I’m so sorry for his loss."

And with that he got into his car and drove away. “We best be getting back to him,” said Martha shaking her head at Nick’s kindness and nobility. “I can see why she married that man.”

“Me, too.” They walked slowly in the direction of the TARDIS. The sound hit them before they saw him. Prostrate on Rose’s grave, the Doctor was sobbing his hearts out. In silent agreement they slipped into the TARDIS, giving the Time Lord his privacy.

“Should we look?” asked Donna.

“What? In the box? No. It’s his.”  Martha frowned at her friend.

“Aren’t you just a little bit curious what she left him?” Donna wanted to know.  "We can close it up again afterwards."

“Of course, I am,” said Martha. “But he’ll share it with us in his own good time, if he wants to.” Martha took the box from Donna and set it on the jump seat. “Come on, leave it. You go on to bed. I’ll wait for him.”

Donna grumbled all the way out of sight and hearing distance. Martha sat down in the jump seat next to the box and she waited patiently. Finally the door opened and the Doctor slipped inside, shoulders slumped and face downfallen. Martha stood up and walked over to him. She put her arms around him. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’ve left the box on the jump seat for you. I’ll leave you to it. If you need me, don’t hesitate to wake me up tonight.”

She dropped her arms from around him and left him to his thoughts. At first he didn’t want to open the box, didn’t want to see what Rose had left for him. But he still craved for that last bit of contact with her. Slowly he opened the box.

A quick scan of the contents showed a photo album, a rose quartz pendant on a leather necklace that he had given her from a carnival on Cormet 5, and an envelope simply labeled The Doctor.

He opened the letter with shaking hands and began to read.

My Doctor–

It has been too many years since I last saw you and I hoped for the rest of my life that I would get the chance to see you again and say thank you to you for the two marvelous years that you gave me.

I don’t know if you ever really knew how I felt about you. I know I told you that one day on the beach when you burned up a star to say good-bye to me. It was the truth, though, that I loved you. And the truth is that I still do. I want you to know, dear Doctor, that even though we were cut off that day, I know that you loved me, too. I know you never got the chance to say it, but I always knew.

I had a good life. It took me awhile to get past you. I can’t say get over because there never was a getting over. But I moved around it. I found a good man. I think you would have liked Nick in better circumstances. He treated me well and we had two marvelous children.

My daughter was born first and I named her after your friend Sarah Jane. She grew into that name well, and definitely had Sarah’s feisty spirit. My boy Jack grew into his name a little too well, but I think you would have loved him despite that.

I’ve sent along a photo album so you could see what became of me. I am so sorry, my Doctor, that this comes to you too late. But please look at it and know that I did as you once asked me to do, and I had a fantastic life.

Love,
Your Rose
Always Remember Us

Tears fell down his face as he folded the letter up and put it in his inside jacket pocket. It would be hard to look at the photographs, but he would honor her last request.

Slowly he opened the book and began to look at the pictures. The first one of Rose took his breath away. It was her standing in a gown holding up her University degree. He smiled through his tears. She’d gone back to school. Good for her! Had she always been that beautiful?

On the next page there was a photo of her on her wedding day, standing with her husband at the altar. She made the most beautiful bride he had ever seen. As he paged through the photos, watching her children grow up, seeing photos of a boy with Rose’s parents with the caption John and the Folks under it, who he assumed was Rose’s little brother, and finally photos of both Sarah and Jack on their respective wedding days, standing with their parents and respective sibling.

He smiled again and dried his tears. Then he turned the book back to the beginning and began to look through them again. Something caught his attention, something he had not seen before, and it took his breath away. Rose, in all of the pictures in this album, had blue eyes.

He jumped to his feet, his hearts racing like crazy and rapidly punched keys in front of the TARDIS control screen. And there it was, a string of numbers that came up, the coordinates of where they’d arrived. In his earlier excitement he had missed it completely. They were off by one single digit. He was still in the wrong universe. His Rose was alive!

Ch. 6:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/48075.html