A Sky Without Zeppelins (54/55)

[amberfocus]

                                                                                                                          Banner by Mitashade

Title:  A Sky Without Zeppelins (54/55)
Author:  amberfocus
Genre:  romance, action adventure, alternate reality, humor, fluff, smut
Characters/Pairings:  Ten2/alt!Rose, alt!Donna Noble/James Lumin, alt!Martha, Ten/Rose (briefly)
Beta:  amyo67
Spoilers:  If you haven't seen Journey's End
Rating:  NC-17 for graphic sex, Please Note Rating Change!
Summary:  In a newly sealed off alternate reality, a chameleon arched human Ten meets a very different Rose Tyler after being left behind by his Time Lord self and the Rose he once loved.  This is their story.

Previous chapters:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/263349.html

Chapter Fifty-Four

 

Jonathon wakes up cold and instinctively reaches for the warm body of Rose beside him; a body that is very conspicuously absent. As he feels around groggily beside him in the bed and considers getting up to check the loo for his lover, it takes him far too long to remember that Rose isn’t here tonight. She’s moved in with Donna and he won’t have her with him again until the weekend. He grumbles and gets up to find the drawer where Rose put the spare blankets. He wonders for a moment as he spreads one on the bed why he feels so cold in the warmth of the summer night.

He lays awake for a long time, thinking of Rose until he becomes physically uncomfortable. It’s ridiculous how much he wants her all the time, even when she isn’t there. He wonders how much longer he’s going to be able to keep the pace they’ve set with their lovemaking. Rose is young and new to sex and he’s…well, not exactly old, but he’s not getting any younger. So far he’s had the hormones and capabilities of a sixteen-year-old boy but the control of a man his own age. He shifts against the bed linens and frowns. Perhaps control might be a bit of an overstatement.

He sighs and tries to make his erection go away. He’s gotten so spoiled by being able to make love to Rose whenever he wants that the very idea of not having her soft body to push into, of going back to the unyielding semi-comfort of only his hand, is extremely unappealing. He decides to get up and take a hot shower. The heat should relax him and take the chill from his bones.

It mostly does its job though he does flash on his lover in the shower with him as memories dance through his mind of undressing her for her bath that first night they made love, listening through the wall the time she pleasured herself before they’d become lovers, sitting on the rim and lowering her onto him, sharing the big tub in their Paris penthouse, and the numerous other showers they have shared. Still, he manages to chase them from his mind without giving in. But he’s definitely going to corner Rose at lunch the next day and lock her in his lab for the hour. He grins. He can make it another ten hours and Rose won’t mind. Rose never minds.

Jonathon settles back into bed, pulls the blankets over his body, and sighs wearily. He is just able to get back to sleep, cuddled around a pillow that is decidedly not Rose-shaped, when he feels distress. The mind-touch belongs to the baby alien. He tries to stifle the thought of how much easier life was before his coral became sentient and was just a souvenir, and goes to see if there is anything he can do to soothe the creature.

He isn’t able to get much from the little one. She’s radiating cold and he wonders if maybe he didn’t pick up on this earlier, if this was why he woke feeling so chilled and not because Rose was missing from his bed. “I don’t know how to make you warmer,” he tells her. “I suppose I could wrap you up in a blanket or put you on a heating pad or something,” he muses.

The thought that comes rejects his suggestions adamantly. “It’s not you that’s cold, is it?” He pauses then carefully spreads both hands over the surface of her body. “Is it Caelum? He’s safe, you know. We got him back to Illuminate.” But she’s very much aware of that fact, too, and it isn’t her friend that is suffering from severe cold.

“I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s wrong,” he says gently.

She tries to form words in his mind but all he can make out is light, green and swirling and strong. It’s familiar, more than familiar, and she shoves at his mind, trying to find a way further in, as if she is trying to hide inside his thoughts.

“No,” he says with a gasp. “That hurts.” She retracts apologetically. “I’ll check on Caelum in the morning,” he says, “if I can get past the new boss.”

The baby makes a disgruntled noise in his head. “No, you’re right. She isn’t James.” As he says Lumin’s name, a wave of triumph washes over him. “James?” he repeats and the alien is affirmative. “What about James?” And the image she’s been trying to convey rushes violently into his mind. The phone rings.

 

“Donna.” The word comes on the subvocal level, a whisper barely above the periphery of sound. “Donna.” It’s hardly there before it’s gone again, only to resurge a few moments later. “Donna. Donna?” Weak and begging and oh, so familiar.

Donna Noble awakens from a sound sleep, the name James torn from her throat. It is only a matter of heartbeats before her bedroom door is flung open and Rose Tyler is there, kneeling beside her bed and shaking her gently. “Donna?  Donna, sweetheart, wake up. You’re having a nightmare.” But Donna isn’t sleeping, she’s sure of it. She senses James’ presence. He’s not all around her, not soothing like a blanket, not all encompassing. He just is. He’s there again. Just as surely as she knew he was gone, she knows he is back, alive somehow, some way.

“I can feel James, Rose. I can feel him again. He’s not dead!”

Rose flips on the bedside lamp and just stares at her, clearly unsure of what to say. “You were dreaming,” she begins. “You were sound asleep and you were dreaming.”

“I was not dreaming. I heard his voice and he was calling my name.” 

“There’s no one here. No voice. Just you and me.” Rose’s words are soft and carry with them logic and reason that she denies. “I had to wake you up, Donna.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Donna says dismissively.  “I heard a voice. I heard his voice. It’s him.” Rose shakes her head no, but Donna is just as stubbornly insistent. “I told you before, that if he were alive I could sense him. Well, I can. I can feel him now, Rose. James is alive.”

“Donna…what you told me before is that he was gone, that you couldn’t feel him. That’s how you knew for sure he was dead, why you didn’t want anyone looking for him. And now suddenly you can feel him again? This is your grief talking. What you’re saying is impossible. People don’t just come back from the dead,” Rose says gently.

“James isn’t a normal person. You know that. He’s alien. Maybe he has some trick we don’t know about, some way of cheating death.” Rose just shakes her head no. “He could do. You don’t know. He didn’t tell us everything about himself.”

“I know how badly you want James to be here, sweetheart. But he’s just not.”

“Don’t. Just don’t,” Donna says before Rose can deny what is bursting through her heart one more time. “I know. I can feel it in here and nothing you say is going to keep me from believing it.”

Rose sighs and sits back on her heels. “I’m sorry,” she says. “I am. I should trust your instincts by now.” She bites her lip and looks Donna squarely in the eyes. “You’re sure?”

“I’m sure. I’ve never had this kind of certainty in my life. I know.” Rose bites the edge of her thumb and Donna sighs. “What would you do if the situation was reversed? If it was Jonathon calling to you across some unknowable distance of space and all you could feel was this void between you and not one bit of your life seemed real anymore except for that voice calling you and you knowing nothing but that you had to go. You’d go, wouldn’t you?”

“You know that I would.” Rose nods firmly, her attitude changing from comforter of her friend, to that of quiet competence in realizing that there is a massive job ahead to get done. “Do you know…do you know where he is then?”

Donna closes her eyes and tries to concentrate but the trace is too muted. “No,” she says. “No. Oh, Rose, he’s back and what if I can’t find him? He needs our help. I just know he does. I don’t know what to do.”

“I’ll call Jonathon,” she says climbing easily to her feet.

“Wait, Rose, it’s three a.m.”

“If Lumin really is alive, Jonathon’s going to want to know and he might have a way of finding him. He won’t mind being woken for this.”

 “Donna,” whispers the voice through her consciousness and Rose turns back to look sharply at her.

“Just then, did you hear something?” Rose asks.

“He called my name. I told you he’s been calling me.”

“Donna.”

“But I can hear it. I’m not a telepath, just slightly empathic. I shouldn’t even be able to hear him. I’m calling Jonathon right now.” She walks out into the living room and Donna follows, watching as Rose picks up the phone. Absently she flips the curtains open and looks down the street towards Illuminate while waiting for Jonathon to pick up. “Donna, come here. I think I know where he has to be.”

Donna edges over to look out the window. With the entire radius of the campus covered in brilliant dark green light, it is most certainly their first clue of where James is. Elsewhere the air is a translucent green, like pale tinted fog. “Like that isn’t going to be half obvious,” Donna mutters. She hopes it doesn’t mean that Jack Harkness fellow is going to be nosing around again. She doesn’t trust him or his people.

“It’s gonna be all right, Donna,” Rose says when she hangs up with Jonathon. “We’ll find him.”

“You really believe me?”

Rose gives a sharp bark of laughter and nods. “I’ve got to stop thinking things are impossible. The word’s been redefined too many times in the last few months.”

 

A half an hour later Jonathon arrives with both Drs. Martha and Tom Milligan in tow. Tom does not work for Illuminate but he is the nearest strong body Martha could offer and the man has always kept her own family secrets. Plus a second doctor might come in handy if James Lumin is in the shape they think he’s in. They head over to Illuminate in the medical van that Martha is in charge of and are able to enter the section of the car park that leads straight to the lift doors that let out only on the infirmary.

“Is his presence here any stronger than elsewhere?” Rose asks. “I feel…weird.” Donna nods. So does Jonathon. Martha is holding her hand to one side of her head and shivering a bit.

“He’s definitely alive,” she says shakily. “He’s somewhere in the building and he’s hurt, and very, very cold. He’s broadcasting on the widest telepathic band he can. He must be unconscious. He’d never do that awake. He’s reaching out for Donna hard, leaving telepathic scratches down the psyche of everyone who has the slightest bit of psychic talent. Even you, Rose. You should feel an itchiness in your skin like you want to crawl out of it, and a compulsion to do whatever the man wants of you. Right now all he wants is to be warm.”

Rose nods. Her limited empathic sense has been extremely uncomfortable since they arrived on campus. She shivers and Jonathon loops his arm around her shoulders, pulls her into him, and shares his body heat. It’s cold but not like the Caligo were cold. At least, she doesn’t think so. They’re gone. That Jack Harkness man from the Institute has assured them that whatever James did has killed them. At least…

“If Mr. Lumin is still alive is there any chance the Caligo survived the attack?” Rose blurts.

“Krattippe has been scanning constantly for them since the incident,” Donna says. “There’s been no sign. I think that awful Captain is right about them being gone for good.”

Jonathon gives Donna a calculating look. “I don’t think he’s as bad as you think he is,” he allows.

Martha turns on him. “I do.” Her voice is unyielding.

“You know about him?” Jonathon asks.

“I know enough. I warned you about him and my warning still stands. Don’t trust the man. He’s a con artist if ever I met one,” she says.

“How’d he get into such authority if he’s a con artist?” Rose asks.

“I don’t mean in the classic sense,” Martha says, smoothing her hand across her hair, trying unsuccessfully to tuck it into a high ponytail with a band that does not seem up for the task.

“Here,” Rose says pulling a scrunchy out of her purse and handing it over. “Then what do you mean?”

“Thanks,” says Martha as she twists her long, brown hair up and out of the way. “I mean he can talk a person into and out of anything. He has too much charm for his own good and he’s got just enough of the right kind of knowledge to be dangerous.”

From the infirmary they have taken one of the secret lifts up to the floor where James keeps his apartment and his office. “We need to be very quiet. Mademoiselle Pascal is staying in the guest suite here,” Martha says.

“Why isn’t she staying in one of the penthouses Illuminate keeps at the Grande?” Jonathon asks.

“She wanted to be available in case there were any emergencies,” Donna explains. “She likes having her nose in every aspect of the business.” The look on her face says clearly that Donna doesn’t like that sort of interference.

“What is the plan, anyway?” Rose asks, pretending not to notice. She has her own issues with the new boss lady, but isn’t about to air them in front of Martha, whom she only knows in her professional capacity, and Tom, whom she doesn’t know at all.

“We’re going to check his flat,” Donna says simply.

“It can’t be that easy,” Tom says piping up for the first time. He is an exceedingly quiet man, shy almost, around his wife’s colleagues.

“It probably isn’t,” admits Donna, “But I think he’s somewhere in the building. I feel him more strongly here than I did at home. And it’s the most obvious place to start.”

Jonathon winces in unison with Donna and Martha, and Rose feels a shudder run through her again. “Never been so glad to be completely numb to the psychic plane before,” Tom says at the obvious discomfort the rest of them are feeling.

“I’ve never felt anything like this before,” Rose says. “Do you suppose it’s my exposure to the little one?” she asks.

“Probably. Though you may just never have been aware of it before she started reaching for your mind,” Jonathon says. The lift dings open and everyone jumps as the loud sound echoes through the corridor. “Shh,” Jonathon tells it and Rose nearly laughs. She’d been tempted to tell the lift off herself.

They move as quietly as possible to James Lumin’s flat. Donna pulls a key out of the neck of her blouse. It’s on a long gold chain. Jonathon startles for a moment and Rose places her hand in his, squeezing in reassurance as he stares at the links in her hand. “What is it?” she whispers.

“Someone walking over me grave,” he says in a low rumble, his accent jumping out in full force in his uncertainty. Donna quietly unlocks the door and they ease inside the entryway. Rose stares around with mild curiosity. One full wall of the living area is a bank of windows that looks out on the city of London. The room is tastefully furnished, but heavily masculine. There are a few feminine touches here and there, Donna’s doing she’s certain, but mostly the room breathes out time with its antiques and maleness with the heavy wooden furniture. It’s beautiful.

The door shuts and the four of them stand there as Donna goes off to check the rest of the rooms. It feels like an invasion of privacy, being in here without James Lumin’s permission. Which is silly if he really is dead and creepy if he isn’t, muses Rose.

“Donna.” The voice comes again, almost in the room with them, and it causes Rose to jump.

When the woman in question returns from searching the other rooms her face is grim. “He’s not in this flat. But he’s close. I heard him again.”

“We all did,” says Martha.

“Not me,” amends Tom.

“Come on. Let’s go check his office.” They troop out the door and down the hall, quietly passing Renee’s suite.

“Anyone have a key to this?” Martha asks stopping in front of the heavy double doors and gorgeous intricately carved wooden lintels.

“I have all the masters but they’re down at my desk.”

“Never mind, I can do it,” Tom says stepping forward. He kneels down in front of the door knob and pulls out a small kit of tools.

“Were you a thief in a former life?” Donna asks him.

“Nope, locksmith,” he says quietly. “Never go anywhere without it. I wish I could have it all in one handy device. I’ve tried to build something that would work like that, but I haven’t the skills. Anyway, it’s how I paid my way through medical school.” He sticks two long metal tools into the keyhole and fiddles for a bit until he is able to move the pin away from the tumbler and open the door.

As they slip into the office one by one, it looks as if the coast is clear, that they’ve made it. Jonathon quietly latches and relocks the door behind them and they spread out, searching the two labs, the small kitchen and the large, professional workspace in which Mr. Lumin presented himself as nothing but a fiercely intelligent and competitive businessman to the outside world. They find nothing and Donna’s frustration has her on the verge of tears.

“You know, the little one was frightened. She was almost violently agitated,” Jonathon says. “She felt the cold that we’re all feeling. She implied that Caelum himself was okay, that it was James that was in trouble. How could she know that unless—?”

“Unless Caelum is with James?” Donna interrupts. “Oh, you’re brilliant, space man.” Donna lurches towards Jonathon and kisses him smack on the mouth. Rose looks on with tolerant amusement as Jonathon dances in the woman’s fierce grip.

When Donna releases him he protests, “Oi! That was so not necessary!” He wipes his mouth with the back of his wrist and glares at Rose when she giggles at his reaction.

“You’re just going to let her get away with that? Not defend your man’s honor?” he asks with injured dignity.

“You’re on your own,” she says.

Donna ignores them, instead opening the sliding wooden panels that lead to the secret lift, revealing shiny chrome doors. They crowd inside and she sends the little room plunging into the depths of Illuminate. Both Rose and Jonathon flank their friend and reach for Donna’s hands in an automatic reflex to provide comfort. The plunge below seems interminable, the anticipation building so heavily it’s almost visible. No one knows what they are about to see as the lift reaches its destination.

At last the doors open again, revealing the large tank filled with fluid and the creature resting there. Caelum. All eyes scan the room, but none so frantically as Donna’s. She sees him first, the crumpled, naked heap that could be a man, could be something less than human. She rushes to his side and falls to the floor beside him as if her body no longer has the power to hold her.

She rolls him gently onto his back and he whimpers but does not open his eyes. The changes in the man are devastating. His hair is a shock of white. His skin is raw and red, as if he's spent far too much time in the sun recently, burning it to blisters and long painful scratches. The huddled form is shivering violently. It is James though. There is no mistaking that jaw line, that chin, the fine nose or the strong brow.

Donna reaches out to check the pulse in his throat, needing the reassurance of that throbbing beat despite the visible shuddering of his body. “James?”

There is no response, no subvocal whisper, no turning of his body towards her. He has done all he can just getting her here and there is no strength left in him for more. “Right,” Donna says getting up and brushing off her trousers. “We need to get him to the infirmary. Jonathon, cover him with your coat please. Let’s let him have some dignity. Martha, Tom, go and get a gurney. And some kind of pain medication. Moving him to the infirmary in this condition is going to shatter him if there’s the least little bit of him still conscious. Jonathon, you play look out,” she says in a no-nonsense tone.

Her voice softens. “Rose, please stay with me.”

“Of course.” The others rush to do her bidding, Rose taking the coat from Jonathon to cover Lumin’s body while the others hurry into the lift and head to their assigned tasks.

Rose pulls Donna into her arms and the two women hold each other tightly. “He’s alive, Rose. Really and truly.”

Rose hugs her friend tighter. “I’m so happy for you, Donna. So happy.”

Donna bursts into tears of joy and laughter. Finally she manages to pull away. “I didn’t lose him. He’s alive, he’s here, and—oh, when he recovers he’s so going to get it for getting me pregnant!” But she isn’t mad. Rose doesn’t think that Donna, granted this reprieve, will ever be mad at James Lumin again.

Ch. 55:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/281797.html