Chapter Text
The Doctor did not look at any of them as he joined them around the console again.
“Just time for one last trip,” he said, his eyes darting to his counterpart. “Dårlig Ulv Stranden.”
Rose’s heart missed a beat at the name. “Bad Wolf Bay?” Her tone did little to convey the depth of her apprehension at the mere thought of that place. “You mean…back to the other universe?”
“We’ve only got minutes,” the Doctor answered flatly, having already looked away from the new Doctor, his eyes fixed on the screen, the Time rotor once more roaring into life.
“The walls between worlds are closing again, now that the Reality Bomb never happened,” Donna explained. “It's dimensional retroclosure. See, I really get that stuff now,” she added with pride and with a note of delight, exchanging a grin with the man who apparently ‘grew out of her’ – from what little Rose understood of the process.
“Bloody Norway?” Jackie exclaimed with a scowl. “You’ve got a bleeping spaceship that can move between dimensions and whatnot. What’s it to you, to go straight to London instead?”
“No can do,” the new Doctor answered. “We’re materialising there for a reason. It’s a weak spot, a place where the fabric between realities is particularly thin. Always has been. That’s why my projection ended up coming through on that beach when I – ” He stopped himself, glancing at the other Doctor. “When we…” He cleared his throat. “Anyway!”
“We could technically take you home, once we get to Norway,” the Doctor finished for him. “But Donna and I wouldn’t have enough time to get back to our universe. We’d end up trapped here.”
“What d'you mean ‘Donna and I’?” Rose asked, her uneasiness growing stronger by the second.
The TARDIS chose that exact moment to ‘land’, resulting in a familiar clumsy jolt that caused her to lose balance. Out of habit, it seemed, the new Doctor’s fingers closed around her upper arm as she stumbled sideways, keeping her from falling completely.
As soon as the shaking stopped, he released her. Although her body had reacted to his touch and sent a flurry of shivers down her spine, Rose did not acknowledge him at all, not consciously, her eyes fixed on the other Doctor instead – the Doctor she suspected was about to send her away.
Again.
“End of the line,” said Doctor announced in a low voice, purposefully ignoring Rose’s question, already walking towards the doors.
Everybody made to follow him…except for Rose, who remained near the console.
Jackie noticed it first, quickly backtracking to stand closer to her daughter, whose eyes were fixed on the back of the Doctor’s head.
“You can’t seriously expect me to go back there,” she stated, her voice more steady than she felt.
The Doctor slowly turned around, finally meeting her gaze as he shoved his hands in his pockets. “You’ve got to.”
Even though he sounded disheartened at the thought, there was a finality in his voice that immediately turned her anxiety into frustration.
“Like hell I do,” Rose said fiercely, her cheeks warming up. “You don’t get to do that, dump me back on that beach.”
The way he did all his other companions, a nasty little voice whispered in her ear.
“I am not dumping…” he began, but he let that sentence die, looking away as he clenched his jaw. “You won’t be alone. He’s staying with you,” he said, indicating his ‘metacrisis’ self with a tilt of his chin.
“What?” she breathed out.
“He’s too dangerous to be left on his own,” was his only answer.
Rose did not even look at this other Doctor, her heart thumping under her ribs and against her ears, her face flushed, hating the characteristic prickling sensation in her eyes.
“You are such an arse.”
All eyes turned on Jackie, who had spoken the words. She’d moved closer to the Doctor in brown, who recoiled slightly at the look on her face.
“D’you have any idea how hard or how long she’s worked on that bloody cannon?” Jackie asked him, fuming. “I mean, we’re all grateful she did, we would’ve been done for when those stars started going out if she hadn’t, but she sure didn’t do it for the stars, not at first.”
“Mum,” Rose tried interrupting her, mortified by the scene – yet not exactly unfamiliar with her mother’s tendency to jump in and shout at people on her behalf or others’.
“Don’t you try and pretend it wasn’t all for ‘im, now,” Jackie snapped at her. “You know how I feel about you leaving, it’s not like I’ve been quiet about it. But what I feel or what I want don’t matter, not anymore. I’ve got my life. I’ve got Pete and Tony. It’s about time you get yours. So don’t you let any of those lanky boys make that choice for you.”
Rose’s throat had become too tight for her to be able to say anything in response to her mum’s honest words.
Thankfully, she could count on at least one of those ‘lanky boys’ to do it for her.
“This is not up for discussion,” the Doctor in brown declared, his voice even harsher than before, and clearly rushed, now. “Time’s running out, Rose, you must get out of this TARDIS.”
Rose crossed her arms, and the Doctor let out a noise of frustration, briefly grabbing at his hair before turning to his counterpart. “Now would be a good time for you to get involved.”
The new Doctor, who had been oddly silent for the last two minutes, looked from Rose to the other Doctor. “I have to agree with Jackie,” he stated in a low voice, and Jackie’s mouth actually slacked open a little. “The choice should be yours,” he told Rose.
“Ah, but you’re overlooking quite a few intricate variables here, Spaceboy,” Donna intervened. “Your judgment is obviously a tad skewed, probably all those tricksty human hormones I’ve passed on to you. Speaking of which, did you know there is a thirty-seven percent chance you might go through puberty in the next six months, zits and all? Ah! Absolutely bonkers that is! Bankers, blinkers, bunkers!”
Donna’s odd contribution was immediately followed by a low grinding, whooshing noise from the TARDIS itself.
“Time’s up,” the Doctor stated loudly, leaping to the doors in two quick strides, opening one of them wide, and Rose’s insides twisted at the sight of the beach beyond. “Everyone out. Everyone except Donna.”
No one moved.
“You cannot stay here,” the Doctor told Rose; he looked crazed, almost furious, the way he had back on the Crucible.
“And you cannot force me away,” Rose replied quietly with a small shake of her head, her voice quivering. “Not this time. Not again.”
“Tick-tock, tickety tock!” Donna chimed in.
“You have got to go, the three of you!”
“’m not moving.”
“She just wants to stay with you, you plum! Stop being so thick and let her decide for herself, will you?”
“I’m sorry, Rose, I really am, but you just can’t.”
“Weeell, actually – ”
“Do shut up.”
“Tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock t-”
“Donna,” the new Doctor stopped her with a hand on her arm, and she fell silent, taking a ragged breath.
The TARDIS’ whinge was louder and more urgent this time, spurting Jackie into action. She went straight for her daughter, grabbing her face in her hands.
“Don’t you let them boss you around.”
“I won’t,” she told her mum in a thick voice, and Jackie released her face to wrap her in a quick, tight hug while behind them, at least two of the Doctors were back at the console, getting the next sequence ready, too pressed by time to keep arguing.
“Live your life, sweetheart,” Jackie whispered in her ear. “We love you, all three of us.”
“I know,” Rose half-choked against her shoulder. “I love you, too.”
“Jackie!” one of the Doctors shouted.
Jackie tore herself from her daughter and dashed through the open door without a look back.
As soon as her mother was out, the TARDIS came into life, their next jump through space and across dimensions even more tumultuous than the last, succeeding in sending Rose to the ground, this time.
None of the Doctors seemed to notice, too preoccupied with Donna, who’d also started to crumple before she was caught from both sides, words rushing out of her without a break as she did so.
“Tick tock, tick tock, I'm a little cuckoo clock, tick tock, tick tock, now it's one o'clock! I’m not even going to ask you two if you know that one. All of that knowledge in those giant brains of yours, and no one’s ever taken the time to teach you nursery rhymes! What a pity, a pitfall, a pitcher, a pitchfork, a pittance, a pituitary gland! That’s something you’ll have to look out for, now, Human Boy, that pituitary gland of yours is going to give you wrinkles, wrinkles, wrinkles, wrinkles, wrinkles, wrink – ”
The only thing that seemed to stop her was her instinctive need for oxygen, filling up her lungs in another harsh inhale, the sound as panicked as the look on her face, both Doctors still holding on to her, keeping her upright.
“What is wrong with her?” Rose asked in a husky voice, still sitting on the grating; she was too shellshocked by whatever was happening to Donna to have gotten herself up, yet.
The Doctor in brown looked away from Donna’s face to look down at Rose with a kind of glare that sent an unpleasant kind of shivers down her spine.
He did not speak to her at all, looking away and back at his counterpart instead.
“You must get her out of this room,” he spoke, his voice lower than she’d ever heard it. The new Doctor opened his mouth, probably to protest, but the Doctor stopped him: “I cannot do this with her watching!”
“Her is standing right there,” Rose reminded him quite heatedly, finally back on her feet, and being rather fed up and hurt by the Doctor’s attitude, not to mention frightened and overwhelmed by the overall situation.
“Well you made it bloody clear you weren’t going to listen to anything I said!” the Doctor nothing short of shouted at her, his eyes blazing, and Rose recoiled at his rage, pure shock taking over any other emotion.
“Now now,” Donna said, shrugging off both men’s grip before patting the Doctor’s cheek a couple of times, the gesture a bit too hard to be merely friendly. “To quote what was said to you not even five minutes ago, you are being an absolute arse right now.”
As she finished her first real ‘sane’ sentence in quite some time, Donna turned to Rose. She looked shaken, pale and unwell, clearly in some kind of physical and psychological distress.
And yet, Donna being Donna, her next words were not about her own wellbeing at all.
“Better step out of this room, love. He’s right about that. There’s nothing you can do. It’ll just upset you.”
“What’s…” Rose breathed out, her heart pounding furiously in her chest, fighting a losing battle against her tears.
Donna shook her head with a sad smile. “Please?”
Rose, who was known in quite a few universes now for her stubbornness, caved in remarkably fast.
Maybe it was the contrast between the Doctor’s anguished fury and Donna’s sad resignation.
Maybe it was the new Doctor’s ashy complexion, or the sorrowful look on his face as he stared back at her, with a kind of vulnerability she’d only seen once on this face.
(On a beach in Norway)
In the end, Rose chose to honour Donna’s wishes, and stepped out of the room.