Of the Vortex Born: Chapter Eight
Jul. 20th, 2008 07:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amberfocus
Chapter Eight: Between Then and Now
“Can I go to school with Jamie today?” Luke asked as he entered the kitchen completely unaware of the conversation he was walking in on. When no one said anything he continued, “Only Jamie said there’s a program for visiting Earth students who come up on holiday.”
“I expect that would be all right,” Rose said pulling herself together. “I’ll give admin a quick call.” Rose brushed by the Doctor on her way out of the kitchen, their fingertips coming into a brief reassuring contact. Her hand was almost shaking as she picked up the phone. She punched in the numbers of the school.
“Hello, Monica? It’s Rose Tyler. No, Jamie’s not in trouble again, honestly!” There was a pause and Rose laughed. “No, we’ve got a guest. Earth kid. He wants to go to school with Jamie while he’s visiting.” Rose waited a moment then said, “Dunno, just a moment. Luke, what level are you in at school?”
“Not really in one,” said Luke. “I’ve got a specially designed curriculum of Quantum Physics, Quantum Math, Biochemistry, Astronomy, Humanities, World History and Music.”
“Ah,” said Rose. She spoke into the phone again. “Put him in Track 17 with Jamie.” She paused. “Yes, I’m quite sure.” She laughed again. “No, his guardian assures me he’s brilliant. His name is Luke Smith, standard spelling on both.” Rose rolled her eyes towards the ceiling. “Right then, I’ll see you at the next chinwag. Ta.”
She hung up the phone and turned to Luke. “They’ll have a school I.D. tag waiting for you at the security check point. Until then, make sure you’ve got the tags we made yesterday.” Rose picked up her file reader and hastily tapped away with a little stylus. “And I’ve just created a food account for you and transferred in plenty of credit.”
“Thank you,” Luke said.
After a brief breakfast Jamie and Luke headed out and the Doctor and Rose were left alone in the apartment. “Right,” said Rose. “I’m all for a shower. Want one?” she asked. Then as the Doctor blushed and she realized how that sounded she quickly added, “You can use the main one while I use mine. They’re sonic. Think you’ll like it. If you want to use real water for shaving your face punch in 327 on the key panel beside the mirror. Towels are under the sink.”
“Rose,” the Doctor said.
“We can talk after, yeah?” she said softly. He nodded his agreement and she hurried back to her room. When she emerged from her bedroom several minutes later the Doctor was waiting on the couch looking decidedly less rumpled than he had with his sleep-tousled hair. He had two mugs of tea steaming on the coffee table.
Rose sat down and picked up one of the cups, taking a careful sip. “You remembered,” said Rose with a smile that he had added the proper amounts of cream and honey to her drink.
“I remember everything, Rose,” he said sipping at his own tea. “What happened to you, Rose? The last time we talked you said you were working for Torchwood. How did you come to be working for U.N.I.T?”
“That’s a long story, Doctor.”
“We have time. I heard you call in a leave request for today last night.”
“I worked for Torchwood for a couple of years while I went back to school and finished my A levels. There was an accident. They were messing with the Rift in Cardiff and somehow it opened fully. The universe started cracking and I had to seal it or the Earth would have been pulled apart. I used Bad Wolf.”
She sighed. “A few weeks later I started having symptoms of morning sickness. Of course, I didn’t know what it was. I had just had my period five weeks before so it didn’t occur to me I could be pregnant. But when I fainted at work after skipping breakfast, Jake took me to the hospital.” Her voice turned soft on saying her friend’s name. “One blood test later and it was confirmed I was pregnant. But the blood was odd. They’d also been trying to monitor my heart rate on an EKG machine but were getting all kinds of weird readings. It was then I figured out I had two hearts.”
She frowned. “Torchwood got a hold of my blood and the readout and things got weird from there. They wanted to monitor me constantly and it began to feel less and less like concern for an employee and more and more like I was a lab experiment. Mickey…” She trailed off and stared into space.
After a moment the Doctor prompted her. “Mickey did what?”
“Mickey had a hard time accepting the fact that I didn’t want to get back together with him after we said good-bye at Norway. As the months went by he got more and more aggressive about it. He couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t even try with him. But how could I? My heart was yours,” she said raising her eyes to meet his for a brief moment before her gaze skittered away again.
“About three months before the Rift opened, we had a really big fight. He accused me of living in the past and giving my heart to a man who never really loved me or wanted me around. Said if you had you’d have come for me and that you hadn’t just proved that you didn’t.”
The Doctor sucked in a mouthful of air in shock. “I told him he was the one living in the past if he thought I’d ever get back together with him after I’d had someone like you in my life. It was cruel of me, but I wasn’t in the mood to be nice after what he said. Part of me knew it was a lie but part of me thought maybe it was true, maybe the reason you didn’t say you loved me in Norway wasn’t because you ran out of time. It was because you didn’t love me and wouldn’t lie to me about it.”
“No, Rose.”
“I know,” she said holding up a hand to stop his protestations. “On my good days I knew. But this wasn’t a good day. It was an all out row with him and we said so many things we shouldn’t have said. I knew every button to push to play on his insecurities and I pushed them all as hard as I could.” Rose stopped talking and put her tea down. She pulled her legs up onto the couch, knees under her chin, and wrapped her arms around them.
“He brought up Sarah Jane and Reinette, said I was just the girl you ran around on, that I meant nothing to you, or you wouldn’t be chasing after other bits of skirt. Then he called me your…well, a rather impolite word for a woman who gives it away. He made me so angry that I raised my hand to slap him. I was just able to stop myself and I told him to get out and leave me alone. I thought it would end there, but he was so mad that I’d been about to hit him.”
Her eyes went blank and her voice became small. “He said he was going to make me remember what we’d had before. I’d never seen him so angry in my life, Doctor.”
“He forced himself on you?” the Doctor asked gently, his hand creeping out to rest on hers.
“No. I mean...no. I just...let him. I let him do what he wanted so that he’d just leave. I was afraid of what might happen with Torchwood if I denied him, he had so much power there. Still does. It was my job, my livelihood. So I just…I let him. I hated myself for it for a long time; that I gave in to him instead of fighting. I should have fought him because I don't think he would have...I don't think so, anyway... But he might have. I didn't know him well enough anymore to be sure. The Mickey I'd left behind never would have but he wasn't the same man.”
She bit at her lower lip. “When I ended up pregnant a few months later after closing the Rift, he thought at first that it was his baby from that night. I knew it wasn’t, that it couldn’t be but he didn’t believe me. I hadn’t been dating anyone and you don’t just turn up pregnant out of the blue. But when he found out the baby had two heart beats, he was so angry. There you were, still keeping him from getting what he wanted; a life with me, and you weren’t even in the same universe. As if I’d ever allow him anywhere near my child even if it had been his after that night.” She laughed bitterly.
“Mickey turned more and more bitter, knowing that whether you were here or not it had to be your child and it would tie me to you forever. When the baby came he betrayed me to Torchwood, and they took Landon. They had him for eight days and I still don’t know what they did to him. The only thing that got me through that time was Jake. He helped me plot and scheme and we were able to rescue Landon. And then we blew up Torchwood One.”
“What?”
“We made sure they had time to evacuate first,” she said. “Jake was almost killed but he got out just in time. His injuries took a while to heal. Jake had connections at U.N.I.T and he was able to get a job there. I lived with him and he took care of us. When Landon was old enough, Jake got me in the door. I took advantage of their university program and did their internet school, with labs conducted in their main facility. Eventually I worked my way up to Chief Scientific Advisor. That was all much easier with my Time Lady brain.”
“Would be,” said the Doctor.
Rose smiled. “All that time I was constantly harrassed by Torchwood. They made my life a living hell. It got so I didn't step foot off the base after the first couple of years. When U.N.I.T. opened a base up here Jake and I both transferred up. It was the first freedom I'd had to move around in years. Torchwood isn't allowed on the moon. It's under control of the United Nations and Torchwood is too U.K. centric. So Jake and I were safe from their grasp. He’s been a good father figure for the kids and I could always count on him for anything I needed.”
“Were you and he lovers? Are you and he lovers?” the Doctor asked.
“No,” she told him. “Jake is a wonderful man and I do love him and he does love me, and sometimes it seemed like maybe there might be something more there, but no. He’s got a pretty great boyfriend.” She smiled at the way the Doctor suddenly relaxed.
“I’m sorry, Rose. I’m sorry Mickey put you through that and I’m sorry I wasn’t able to be here for you; that I wasn’t able to help you raise our children, or for that matter conceive them as you put it, ‘the fun way.’” Rose blushed. “But I’m here now, Rose. I want to be with you. I want to help you raise Jamie and this new little one. I want you to come back with me.”
Rose’s body unclenched from her defensive posture and she leaned into the Doctor, his arms wrapping around her. “I know you do, Doctor,” she told him. “And I want to go with you, too. More than anything. But I don’t know if I can.”
Ch. 9: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/104582.html
“Not really in one,” said Luke. “I’ve got a specially designed curriculum of Quantum Physics, Quantum Math, Biochemistry, Astronomy, Humanities, World History and Music.”
“Ah,” said Rose. She spoke into the phone again. “Put him in Track 17 with Jamie.” She paused. “Yes, I’m quite sure.” She laughed again. “No, his guardian assures me he’s brilliant. His name is Luke Smith, standard spelling on both.” Rose rolled her eyes towards the ceiling. “Right then, I’ll see you at the next chinwag. Ta.”
She hung up the phone and turned to Luke. “They’ll have a school I.D. tag waiting for you at the security check point. Until then, make sure you’ve got the tags we made yesterday.” Rose picked up her file reader and hastily tapped away with a little stylus. “And I’ve just created a food account for you and transferred in plenty of credit.”
“Thank you,” Luke said.
After a brief breakfast Jamie and Luke headed out and the Doctor and Rose were left alone in the apartment. “Right,” said Rose. “I’m all for a shower. Want one?” she asked. Then as the Doctor blushed and she realized how that sounded she quickly added, “You can use the main one while I use mine. They’re sonic. Think you’ll like it. If you want to use real water for shaving your face punch in 327 on the key panel beside the mirror. Towels are under the sink.”
“Rose,” the Doctor said.
“We can talk after, yeah?” she said softly. He nodded his agreement and she hurried back to her room. When she emerged from her bedroom several minutes later the Doctor was waiting on the couch looking decidedly less rumpled than he had with his sleep-tousled hair. He had two mugs of tea steaming on the coffee table.
Rose sat down and picked up one of the cups, taking a careful sip. “You remembered,” said Rose with a smile that he had added the proper amounts of cream and honey to her drink.
“I remember everything, Rose,” he said sipping at his own tea. “What happened to you, Rose? The last time we talked you said you were working for Torchwood. How did you come to be working for U.N.I.T?”
“That’s a long story, Doctor.”
“We have time. I heard you call in a leave request for today last night.”
“I worked for Torchwood for a couple of years while I went back to school and finished my A levels. There was an accident. They were messing with the Rift in Cardiff and somehow it opened fully. The universe started cracking and I had to seal it or the Earth would have been pulled apart. I used Bad Wolf.”
She sighed. “A few weeks later I started having symptoms of morning sickness. Of course, I didn’t know what it was. I had just had my period five weeks before so it didn’t occur to me I could be pregnant. But when I fainted at work after skipping breakfast, Jake took me to the hospital.” Her voice turned soft on saying her friend’s name. “One blood test later and it was confirmed I was pregnant. But the blood was odd. They’d also been trying to monitor my heart rate on an EKG machine but were getting all kinds of weird readings. It was then I figured out I had two hearts.”
She frowned. “Torchwood got a hold of my blood and the readout and things got weird from there. They wanted to monitor me constantly and it began to feel less and less like concern for an employee and more and more like I was a lab experiment. Mickey…” She trailed off and stared into space.
After a moment the Doctor prompted her. “Mickey did what?”
“Mickey had a hard time accepting the fact that I didn’t want to get back together with him after we said good-bye at Norway. As the months went by he got more and more aggressive about it. He couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t even try with him. But how could I? My heart was yours,” she said raising her eyes to meet his for a brief moment before her gaze skittered away again.
“About three months before the Rift opened, we had a really big fight. He accused me of living in the past and giving my heart to a man who never really loved me or wanted me around. Said if you had you’d have come for me and that you hadn’t just proved that you didn’t.”
The Doctor sucked in a mouthful of air in shock. “I told him he was the one living in the past if he thought I’d ever get back together with him after I’d had someone like you in my life. It was cruel of me, but I wasn’t in the mood to be nice after what he said. Part of me knew it was a lie but part of me thought maybe it was true, maybe the reason you didn’t say you loved me in Norway wasn’t because you ran out of time. It was because you didn’t love me and wouldn’t lie to me about it.”
“No, Rose.”
“I know,” she said holding up a hand to stop his protestations. “On my good days I knew. But this wasn’t a good day. It was an all out row with him and we said so many things we shouldn’t have said. I knew every button to push to play on his insecurities and I pushed them all as hard as I could.” Rose stopped talking and put her tea down. She pulled her legs up onto the couch, knees under her chin, and wrapped her arms around them.
“He brought up Sarah Jane and Reinette, said I was just the girl you ran around on, that I meant nothing to you, or you wouldn’t be chasing after other bits of skirt. Then he called me your…well, a rather impolite word for a woman who gives it away. He made me so angry that I raised my hand to slap him. I was just able to stop myself and I told him to get out and leave me alone. I thought it would end there, but he was so mad that I’d been about to hit him.”
Her eyes went blank and her voice became small. “He said he was going to make me remember what we’d had before. I’d never seen him so angry in my life, Doctor.”
“He forced himself on you?” the Doctor asked gently, his hand creeping out to rest on hers.
“No. I mean...no. I just...let him. I let him do what he wanted so that he’d just leave. I was afraid of what might happen with Torchwood if I denied him, he had so much power there. Still does. It was my job, my livelihood. So I just…I let him. I hated myself for it for a long time; that I gave in to him instead of fighting. I should have fought him because I don't think he would have...I don't think so, anyway... But he might have. I didn't know him well enough anymore to be sure. The Mickey I'd left behind never would have but he wasn't the same man.”
She bit at her lower lip. “When I ended up pregnant a few months later after closing the Rift, he thought at first that it was his baby from that night. I knew it wasn’t, that it couldn’t be but he didn’t believe me. I hadn’t been dating anyone and you don’t just turn up pregnant out of the blue. But when he found out the baby had two heart beats, he was so angry. There you were, still keeping him from getting what he wanted; a life with me, and you weren’t even in the same universe. As if I’d ever allow him anywhere near my child even if it had been his after that night.” She laughed bitterly.
“Mickey turned more and more bitter, knowing that whether you were here or not it had to be your child and it would tie me to you forever. When the baby came he betrayed me to Torchwood, and they took Landon. They had him for eight days and I still don’t know what they did to him. The only thing that got me through that time was Jake. He helped me plot and scheme and we were able to rescue Landon. And then we blew up Torchwood One.”
“What?”
“We made sure they had time to evacuate first,” she said. “Jake was almost killed but he got out just in time. His injuries took a while to heal. Jake had connections at U.N.I.T and he was able to get a job there. I lived with him and he took care of us. When Landon was old enough, Jake got me in the door. I took advantage of their university program and did their internet school, with labs conducted in their main facility. Eventually I worked my way up to Chief Scientific Advisor. That was all much easier with my Time Lady brain.”
“Would be,” said the Doctor.
Rose smiled. “All that time I was constantly harrassed by Torchwood. They made my life a living hell. It got so I didn't step foot off the base after the first couple of years. When U.N.I.T. opened a base up here Jake and I both transferred up. It was the first freedom I'd had to move around in years. Torchwood isn't allowed on the moon. It's under control of the United Nations and Torchwood is too U.K. centric. So Jake and I were safe from their grasp. He’s been a good father figure for the kids and I could always count on him for anything I needed.”
“Were you and he lovers? Are you and he lovers?” the Doctor asked.
“No,” she told him. “Jake is a wonderful man and I do love him and he does love me, and sometimes it seemed like maybe there might be something more there, but no. He’s got a pretty great boyfriend.” She smiled at the way the Doctor suddenly relaxed.
“I’m sorry, Rose. I’m sorry Mickey put you through that and I’m sorry I wasn’t able to be here for you; that I wasn’t able to help you raise our children, or for that matter conceive them as you put it, ‘the fun way.’” Rose blushed. “But I’m here now, Rose. I want to be with you. I want to help you raise Jamie and this new little one. I want you to come back with me.”
Rose’s body unclenched from her defensive posture and she leaned into the Doctor, his arms wrapping around her. “I know you do, Doctor,” she told him. “And I want to go with you, too. More than anything. But I don’t know if I can.”
Ch. 9: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/104582.html
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