Forgotten (3/5)

[amberfocus]

A/N:  Recognizable dialogue is from The Girl in the Fireplace.

                                                                 Chapter Three: Crumble

Rose doesn’t want to be the one standing here warning Madame de Pompadour about the possible ending to her life in five years time. She’d wanted Mickey to go but the Doctor had argued quite rightly that a strange man in Reinette’s bedroom would do more harm than good and could end up with the warning possibly not being delivered at all. She does not like the condescending way the woman looks at her, the way she calls her child, the way she sizes Rose up and looks away dismissively.

She knows something happened the last time the Doctor was here and she knows it’s the reason he’s sent her here now, not just that he has work to do on the ship in preparing to save the noblewoman in the future. It’s because he doesn’t want to face whatever it is that is bothering him. She admires the woman’s beauty and her brains but there is something else that radiates from her, a sort of ruthless ambition that frightens Rose and her nerves are already on full alert as it is. She’s faced down Slitheen and Daleks and a werewolf but this—this scares her.

Still she pushes through her message, preparing the woman for what is to come. When she asks her what can be done, Rose replies, “The Doctor says to keep them talking. They’re sort of programmed to respond to you now. You won’t be able to stop ‘em, but you might be able to delay them a bit.”

“Until?”

“Until the Doctor can get there,” Rose says.

“He’s coming then?” she asks with so much hope and delight that Rose suddenly realizes the woman has fallen in love with the Doctor and that explains so much right there.

“He promises,” Rose says trying to ignore the feeling of jealousy rising up inside her at the beautiful woman who loves her Doctor while Rose sits there awkward and uneducated and with a barely concealed spot on her chin.

“But he cannot make his promises in person?”

“He’ll be there when you need him. That’s the way it’s got to be,” Rose says. She doesn’t like the way her own words fall into the room, doesn’t like the sense that maybe the words that are coming out of her mouth aren’t entirely true, that sometimes he isn’t there when you need him, sometimes he runs away. She tries to put a sharp end to that line of thought and brings her attention back to the other woman.

“It’s the way it’s always been. The monsters and the Doctor. It seems you cannot have one without the other,” Reinette says.

“Tell me about it,” Rose breathes out hard. “The thing is, you weren’t supposed to have either. These creatures are messing with history. None of this was supposed to happen to you.”

“Supposed to happen?” Reinette’s voice turns angry and Rose recoils. “What does that mean? It happened, child. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. One may tolerate a world of demons for the sake of an angel.”

“The Doctor’s hardly an angel,” Rose says.

“What would you know about it?” Reinette sniffs. “The pleasures the man offers border on the divine. The softness of his lips upon mine, the way we moved in the rhythm of our…dance.” Her eyes are suddenly cat-like in victory as Rose’s face falls and her heart sinks down into her stomach.

“You kissed him?”

“Did I not just say it, child? And oh, how we danced.” Again she emphasizes the word danced and her innuendo is clear to Rose as well. She doesn’t believe it, though. The Doctor wouldn’t do that to her. Not that. He might lose his head and kiss another woman; he could be an intolerable flirt, but sleep with her? He’d never. This woman is in love with her Doctor and is surely striking out.

“But he doesn’t belong to you,” Rose mumbles.

“And surely he does not belong to you,” she says rising and moving away to face the fireplace.

Rose is relieved when Mickey comes for her then and when Reinette follows them onto the space ship, issuing a sharp order to “Unhand me,” when Rose tries to stop her from entering, she is more than a little glad that the woman’s face falls into confusion and fright. Reinette cannot handle Rose’s world. And when she hears her own voice calling from the future, the panic and fear so clear in it, the proud and beautiful woman begins to deflate before Rose’s eyes.

And despite everything this woman has said and what she might mean to Rose’s relationship with the Doctor, Rose moves to comfort her. “You okay?”

“No.” Reinette drops all pretenses. “I’m very afraid. But you and I both know, don’t we, Rose, that the Doctor is worth the monsters?” And all Rose can do is nod as Reinette walks away and back into her life in 18th century France. And she is relieved beyond the telling of it to watch the woman go.



“Can’t we just smash through?” Mickey asks as they watch the chaos in the main ballroom of Versailles as the clockwork drones descend on the royal court.

“Hyperplex on this side, plate glass on the other,” says the Doctor. “We need a truck!”

“We don’t have a truck!” says Mickey.

“I know we don’t have a truck!”

“Well, we’ve got to try something!” Rose snaps angrily. She is still feeling betrayed by Reinette’s words, by all that the woman said to her and her confession of that kiss and she’s had no time to talk to the Doctor about any of it. This is all happening so fast and if her life has just been ruined by some sort of betrayal, and her mind skitters sharply away from the echo of the way Reinette said the word dance as it plays through her head, she’s damn well not going to let it be for nothing. She’s going to help save history and the stupid time line if it’s the last thing she does.

“No! Smash the glass, smash the time windows. There’d be no way back!” His eyes hold hers only for a moment and she sees the anguish there and she realizes in that moment what he just might have to do.

She turns at the voice of Reinette through the time window calming the royal court and regaining control over the screaming crowd. And she knows, she knows, that she’s going to have to do something, going to have to give up something in this moment and she steps over to him and she stills his hands as they move over the equipment trying to break the lock on the time window.

“Arthur,” she says softly.

His head jerks up. “What?”

“Arthur. The horse. We don’t have a truck but we do have Arthur.”

“Rose, no.” His eyes get very big and very scared and she can tell that he’s running through the odds of it working even as he says the words.

“It’s history, though, isn’t it?” she asks him. “What happens if she dies? What happens to my world if someone as important as her dies before she should?” He hangs his head in defeat and she knows that this is the right thing, the only thing they can do.

He pulls Rose to him fiercely. “You know what to do? You know how to use the recall button to get back home if I don’t come back to you?”

“You’re coming back to me!”

“Rose.”

“You’re coming back!” she insists. She hasn’t forgiven him for kissing Reinette but if this is the last moment she gets with him she’s going to make the most of it. She pulls his head down to her mouth and she kisses him hard, telling him in that moment exactly what he means to her and just how much she needs him.

When he pulls away she repeats, “You’re coming back.”

“I’ll find a way!” And then he’s off and dashing down the corridor. It is only a moment and then he is back, galloping down the catwalk and straight through the time window and then it’s gone and Rose finally realizes what he’s just done. She closes her eyes tightly and blocks out the sight of the ship’s wall.  All she can see now is that 18th century France has vanished.

She swallows hard and opens them up again and steps forward, her hand reaching out to touch the smooth surface of the inner hull. She lays her face against the side of it and allows the tears to fall. She gives herself this luxury for only a minute before she pulls herself together and sits down to wait. When he gets back she’s going to give him hell.

Ch. 4:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/213256.html