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a/n - All credit for the title goes to 
onabearskinrug
The Doctor was racing down the hall of the faux 1980s hotel, his boots barely making a sound on the garishly printed red and gold carpet when he heard voices whisper, “Praise Him, Praise Him, Praise Him.” He stopped as an overwhelming compulsion to open one of the doors consumed him. As he looked around, his eyes settled on a yellow door labeled with a number “11.” “There you are; just waiting,” he whispered.
Almost like some invisible force was pulling at him, he walked slowly toward the door, pausing to think of what lay beyond this threshold. Those imprisoned in this place had all described the horrors they encountered behind each and every door. Poor Joe, who he had first encountered after arriving here. He had said there was a room for everyone even the Doctor.
The Doctor opened the door, gazed inside the room and stepped in allowing the door to click shut behind him.
***************
Rose Tyler had been enjoying lunch at a little outdoor café on the planet Rizzif after she and her son, Jack, had investigated an odd variation in the flow of time around this world. They had found an ancient looking decayed device with Gallifreyan symbols sitting in a museum. The curator seemed to think it was artifact from his planet’s prehistoric era, but Rose knew better. It was some damaged remnant from the Time War that some how survived and landed on this planet millennia ago. It was causing a minor temporal variation. Of course, for she and her children, it was easily remedied. Rose distracted the curator while Jack deactivated the device and completed a thorough scan of it to upload to the database of such discoveries in their Tardis.
Afterward, they decided to spend a little down time exploring the tropical world and enjoying some of the unique cuisine. Jack, who in many ways was so much like his father, was easily intrigued and distracted by anything shiny or new and had wandered off to join a crowd in a park across the way to watch this world’s version of street performers. The technology on this planet was based on coconuts. It made Rose smile when she found out that coconuts and any derivatives from them was a part of daily life here. Jack was greatly amused at how even their transports were shaped like and made of coconut products.
While he went to view the entertainment, she sat back enjoying her coconut and banana daiquiri and contemplated their next destination. When she felt herself transmatted to a strange Earth hotel that judging by the tasteless decorations and annoying music, was from some time in the 1980s, she was not surprised. Stranger things had happened to her after all and she was always up for a new adventure. This, unfortunately, was a bit disappointing at first as it seemed rather boring with no people about. Little did she know as she began walking through the hotel and exploring the various rooms, that this was not some simple jaunt in a retro hotel.
******************
The Doctor heard the door shut, but was not the least bit concerned. His eyes were fixated on Rose Tyler standing in a corner of the room trembling and whispering “No” over and over again. Her eyes were filled with terror and her arms wrapped around herself. She didn’t look much different from the last time he’d seen her, still dressed in her standard jeans, purple shirt and black leather coat.
“Rose Tyler,” he said, both delighted and horrified to find her here. Suddenly, he snapped out of his delight at running into her and spun around looking about the room. These rooms did not tend to be nice places and he was waiting for some horror to jump out at him. That’s about the time it hit him. The horror was Rose being here. He walked over to her.
“Rose.” There was no response. “Rose, look at me. Forget about whatever nasty thing you think you see. It’s not real,” he said, staring at her. Still she did not respond.
“Ohhhkkkaaay. So, you‘re caught up in our friendly Minotaur‘s tower of terror,” he said as he looked around the room for something to help him. He was afraid to just grab her, but finally decided he had no choice. The second he touched her arm, the room warped around him.
“Well look at this,“ he murmured as he examined the room he now found himself in which was nothing even remotely similar to a hotel room. It looked like some type of laboratory and Rose was pounding her fists against some plexiglas window looking into another room. She seemed unaware that he was there. The Doctor walked over to her and looked through the window. Inside was his meta crisis, working madly on some type of device. He had aged. His hair was white, his face lined and he seemed a bit stooped. A cane was propped against a chair near him. He still wore a pinstripe suit and trainers. He looked up once at Rose, his eyes still intelligent but filled with sadness.
“No, you can’t!” Rose screamed, tears falling down her face. “Doctor, please! We’ll find another way to stop this!”
The Meta crisis soniced something and looked at Rose. “I’m sorry, love. There’s no other way.”
“No!” Rose wept, shaking her head, her horror and distress rolling off of her in waves.
The Doctor looked on filled with a deep sadness, his brow furrowing and his eyes conveying the heavy weight of his responsibility as he watched Rose crumble before him.
Rose looked as young as the day he left them both on Bad Wolf Bay while his meta crisis brother had aged. A deep guilt overcame him. He had done this, left her to suffer what he couldn’t bear to face. He looked at Rose and once again acknowledged how much braver she was than him. She stayed and loved his brother with all her heart. Even now, faced with such heart breaking loss, she fought for his brother knowing that even if he survived this, she would still have to watch him wither and die before her eyes.
The meta crises flipped some switches and some alarms began sounding in the stark white room in which he stood. He paused and looked up at Rose. “I wouldn’t have traded my time with you and the children for all of space and time. You gave me my best life, Rose Tyler, the one adventure I thought I could never have,” he said with emotion. “Promise me you’ll live. Live for me, my Rose.”
Rose wept uncontrollably, her face pressed against the window. “How can I without you?” Her hands were almost clawing at the window.
The meta crises smiled. “Because you’re so full of life and our children need you. The Universe needs you and….other me, he needs you too. Please, please, please, promise me you’ll live Rose. I need to know that.”
Rose looked at him, her eyes filled with sorrow and emotions remembering their life together and every precious moment the good and the bad. The Doctor could see these same memories reflected in the eyes of the meta crises. This was killing him, watching her like this, so distraught and broken. He wanted to turn away and run, but he couldn’t. He had to watch for her.
The Doctor looked back at the meta crises who smiled a brilliant smile at Rose. “Remember, I will always love you.”
He winked at Rose threw some switches and a bright light filled the room. A shockwave threw them both down and when they crawled up, the light had dissipated and the meta crisis Doctor was gone. Rose dropped to her knees screaming and crying. The Doctor stared at her, at a loss for what to do as she curled herself into a ball whispering. “They’re gone! They’re all gone, my babies, my Doctor. So alone!” she whispered, rocking back and forth. The Doctor dropped before her and grabbed her shoulders.
“No! You are not alone! I’m here, Rose.”
She didn’t respond. “Rose Tyler! You snap out of it this instant or I’llll….“ he stuttered looking around, his arms flailing while he tried to find the right words. Suddenly, he turned back to her “Or no fish fingers and custard for you!” he shouted, looking a bit unsure about what he said.
Rose looked up at him. “Fish fingers and custard?” she asked in a soft unsure and questioning voice.
He smiled at her in response. “That’s it. Come on! Wakey wakey back to face Mr. Minotaur!”
“Doctor,” she whispered, almost disbelieving he was actually there and threw herself at him. He captured her in his arms and squeezed.
“That’s my girl!” He pulled back. “Now then, you know where you are?”
“Creepy badly decorated Earth hotel, every room has a bad memory or scary whatever in it.”
“Not bad, Tyler!” He stood up and held his hand out for her. She grabbed it and he pulled her up. They were back in the hotel room but when they turned to face the door, someone was waiting for them.
The Doctor went still and his face froze. He stared at his mirror image dressed all in black leaning casually against the door, his arms crossed in front of him.
“Doctor?” Rose asked tentatively, looking from the Doctor dressed in a black suit to her bow tie wearing Doctor.
“Right, I was expecting you,” the proper Doctor said slowly.
The Doctor in black smirked and walked slowly toward them. The room disappeared and they were on the Tardis, only it wasn’t the proper Doctor‘s Tardis. This one was dim, shadowed and with a gray cast to everything. The time rotor glowed red instead of it‘s typical green. Rose looked around and knew it wasn’t real. She turned back to the Doctor in black who was walking around the console, running his hands over the knobs and switches.
He turned to the proper Doctor. “Well Doctor, you do know what this is about?”
The proper Doctor watched and followed him slowly. “Oh, you’d like for me to answer that wouldn’t you Let’s see, we’re playing let’s psycho analyze the Doctor today I‘ll bet. It’ll only take oh a few millennia.”
“Oh, don‘t be pathetic old me. Pathetic is boring,” the Doctor in black snarked back. “Still trying to save them all and wearing…. bad fashion. Still, at least you lost the fez.”
The proper Doctor looked offended and straightened his bow tie. “I have impeccable fashion, cutting edge and cool!” he responded, holding out his leg and showing off a boot clad foot as example. “And, don’t knock the fez. Fezzes are cool.”
Rose looked at him and then at the fez that had appeared on the console. She muttered, “Fez, right.”
“But, this isn’t about fezzes is it Doctor?” The Doctor in black mocked. “This is about controlling all of time and space, having it all bow down before us. Being a God!” the dark Doctor pronounced and held is arms out with a mad grin on his face.
Rose started to get a bad feeling about where this was going and the look on the proper Doctor’s face did nothing to alleviate the fear coursing through her.
“Oh Stop it!” the proper Doctor ordered.
“Stop it? Oh pish posh, I’m just getting started. He said spinning around the console, dancing to the beat of his own madness.
A dark look emerged on the proper Doctor’s face. This was a deep rooted fear and one that he had seen before. The manifestation of all the darkness residing inside of him all wrapped up in a twisted and dark image of this him full of madness and power. A Time Lord gone mad with no rules, no conscious and no one to stop him.
The Doctor in black smiled. “Now there’s a look I recognise! Oh, but we don’t show that to the little companions now do we. No, we have to play nice with the little fragile life forms. After all, how could they with their mayfly lives understand us, what we are and what we are capable of. Oh, they think they do in their pathetic attempts to analyze and make us better. In the end, what do they do? Leave and go back to their miserable domestic lives and we go on. What did they call us at the Pandorica? Oh yesss! A trickster, or a warrior, a nameless, terrible thing, soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies. The most feared being in all the cosmos. I rather like that last bit.”
Rose watched the proper Doctor pale, his shoulders slumped and his eyes seem to sink with the weight of the Doctor in black’s accusations and horrific pronouncements. The cloister bells began tolling.
The Doctor in black closed his eyes as if pleased. “Ahhh, now that is music to my ears. The melody of the destruction of the universe.” He opened his eyes and stared darkly at the Doctor. “You know what they say, out with the old and in with the new. Especially when I’m the one remaking it!” he said, clapping and rubbing his hands together as he began dancing around the console, the lights darkening and glowing mauve, the universal color for danger.
Rose had heard and seen enough. She gripped the Doctor’s hand and called out to him. He didn’t respond at first, just stared at the dark version of himself dancing about the console. Finally, Rose reached out and pinched him hard.
“Ow!” he yelped and jumped back away from her in a tangle of limbs, rubbing the spot she had pinched him.
“That hurt!”
“Good, it was s’pose to. Now can we please get out of here and do somethin’ about this place. I think we’ve both had enough, yeah?”
The Doctor looked at her and a slight smile emerged. “Saving me again are you?” he asked as he stalked over to her.
She cocked an eyebrow at him. “Somebody needs to keep you out of trouble. Now, come on,” she said and grabbed his hand, dragging him to the door, but not before he turned back to look at the dark vestige of himself.
The Doctor in black winked at him. “I’ll be waiting for you,” he said cockily, grinning at the proper Doctor like the mad man he was.
After the door clicked shut behind them, the Doctor and Rose looked at each other. Rose broke the silence. “That room it was…”
“Terrifyingly real, filled with the possibilities of our doom.”
“Yeah,” Rose answered softly staring at the door.
“I’m sorry,” the Doctor suddenly spit out.
Rose looked up at him confused.
“For other me. I saw you. In the room, I saw what you saw. You know that thing that happened to other me, when you lost him.”
She stared at a wall for a long time before turning to the Doctor. “You… you saw my Doctor die?” she asked softly.
The Doctor just gazed at her as if she was a mystery he wanted to solve. The reality was that Rose Tyler was a complicated puzzle that fascinated and frustrated him. He couldn’t resist poking at her in an attempt to unravel her mysterious nature.
She looked up at him, her eyes filled with the memory, the pain and sadness. “Yeah,” she said softly. “Felt like I lost everything in there.” She paused as if thinking about something and then looked back at him. “Our world was under attack from this species that doesn’t exist in this universe. There was only one solution to stop them and it meant he would die so he sacrificed himself to save everyone. He’s you. He did what had to be done.”
“You’re wrong. He wasn’t me. He had you.”
Rose smiled up at him. It wasn’t the smile he loved, the one that lit up the room. “Oh don’t know ‘bout that. I do know that your him and he’s you. After livin’ with him all those years, I’ve never been more sure of it. Same man different face, the two of you. He saved everyone that day except there wasn’t much for me to celebrate. Thought I would die and almost wanted to, but I couldn’t. I had to live for him and for the kids and then there’s the whole defender of the Earth and multiverse thing.”
The Doctor grinned. “Someone’s got to do it,” he repeated what she had said earlier while saving him.
“Yep!” she nodded. Besides, he’s not completely gone. He left an imprint of his consciousness in his sonic screwdriver. You see, he built this thing, sort of a database. He called it a Matrix. Said it was like what they did on Gallifrey only not as fancy. We spent our life together filling it with all the things we discovered and in the end, we uploaded him to it. It’s sort of his legacy for the kids.”
The Doctor suddenly started to laugh. His primary thought was what a genius he was. Even part human, he found a way to save something of his heritage without imploding the universe. A legacy. He rather liked that.
“Wot?” Rose asked, confused at his laughter.
“Come along, Tyler! Let’s go find the Ponds and face off against this maniacal beasty that likes to eat up the unfortunate terrified guests at Hotel de Horrors.”
Rose smiled a true Tyler smile at him, happy to see that light of mad adventure in his eyes. “You here with Amy and Rory then?” she asked.
“Oh they’re about some place I imagine, more than likely, finding all the little fears and phobias running about like mice after cheese,” he said and looked down the hall.
Rose smiled and grabbed his hand and they walked toward the stairs. “Guess we better catch up with them before they run across one of these rooms. So what were you on about a Minotaur?”
The Doctor turned to her as they walked. “Oh you know, your standard monster doing bad things, things you wouldn’t like. Oh but he is a bit fantastic, gorgeous even. I can’t wait to get a closer look! You see, it feeds off of fear. Likes its guests a bit tenderized by immersing them in their own nightmares.”
“Of course it does,” Rose said, nodding her head at his glee at finding a monster. She looked up at the ceiling as music echoed down the empty hall. “So what’s with the rubbish music? It trying to scare us with really boring and soul sucking music?”
“Oh, you’re standard torture no doubt. Twentieth century lift muzak is used in over hundred different prison systems as punishment,” the Doctor recited, stopping abruptly and whirling about nearly hurling Rose into a wall. “Hello, look at you,” he said looking into a camera mounted on the ceiling.
The Doctor turned to her with delight. “Come on!
Rose returned his grin. “You have a plan then?”
“Oh I always have something like a plan or plannish,” he explained as they wound their way up and down the maze like halls until they reached reception desk. The Doctor ran back behind the front desk and looked at the various monitors mumbling “Oh you beautiful big fella where are ya?”
Rose stood beside him. “Doctor, whose she?” Rose asked, pointing to the dark haired intern, Rita who appeared on one of the screens.
“Rita, where are you going?” the Doctor murmured and dialed her up on a phone.
Rose watched as Rita picked up a phone nearby and the Doctor pleaded with her to let him help her. His face was a mix or concern, horror and anger. Rory and Amy burst into the room and wanted to know what was happening. Rose shook her head “No” as they all watched the Doctor scream at Rita to save herself. They all stood back and in horror as the beast took her. The Doctor soniced the camera off before Rita met her grisly death. He stormed off without word. Rory ran after him to help collect Rita’s body.
Amy walked with Rose back to the dining room.
“So, you here to save us then?” Amy asked.
Rose shook her head. “Nope, ‘m afraid I’m stuck here like you. Was havin’ a bit of break before I ended up here, stuck in one of those scary rooms. The Doctor saved me.”
Amy smiled. “He does that. Are you all right?”
“Are any of us?” Rose replied mysteriously.
In the dining room, Amy introduced Rose to Gibbis who asked if she was here to repress or enslave him. Rose looked at Amy who rolled her eyes. “Uh no, but thanks for asking,” she replied to Gibbis. Rose looked around the room with the bodies lined up before ventriloquist dummies and felt a chill come over her. This was wrong. This whole place was just wrong, stale and dead.
Rory and the Doctor returned and laid Rita down beside the other bodies and the Doctor walked over and began knocking things over and shouting in aggravation. Rose and Amy flinched. Eventually, the group sat down at various tables to talk about what was happening.
“Okay, it preys on people's fear and possesses them,” the Doctor finally said while toying with a Rubik’s cube. “But Rita wasn't afraid, she was brave and calm. Maybe it's something to do with the people, some connection between the four of you that'll tell me how to fight it.”
Gibbis very negatively suggested there was no hope. Amy defended the Doctor. “Look, he’ll figure it. He always does.”
Rose sat up and looked at her, really looked at her. “Oh my Gawd,” she muttered as an idea occurred to her.
The Doctor was also staring at Amy as realization dawned. “Oh, no, no, no!”
“What is it? What’s wrong?” Amy asked.
“It’s not fear. It’s faith and not just religious faith, faith in something.”
Rose looked over at Amy and Rory watching the Doctor and then she looked down at table. Faith. She’d always had that, especially around the Doctor and she knew Amy was the same. She and Amy were about to become a buffet for this thing. An image of the Doctor in black flashed in her mind and thoughts of what would drive the Doctor over the edge into such a dark place. Loss. He had lost so much and losing people he cared about, felt protective of, would destroy him. Right then and there she made a decision to do anything in her power to stop that from happening no matter what it took. She looked up and watched him pacing wildly about the room.
“Howard believed in conspiracies, external forces controlling the world. Joe had dice cufflinks and a chain with a horseshoe. He was a gambler. Gamblers believe in luck, an intangible force that helps them win or lose. They all believed something was guiding them, about to save them. That's what it preys on, what it replaces. Every time someone was confronted with their most primal fear, they fell back on their most fundamental faith.”
He plunked down next to Rose and scrubbed at his face. “And all this time, I've been telling you to dig deep. Find the thing that keeps you brave. I made you expose your faith. Showed them what they needed.”
“It’s not your fault,” Rose said running her hand up and down his back.
“Isn’t it? Isn’t it always?” he responded darkly.
“But why us? Why are we here?” Rory asked.
The Doctor and Rose looked at each other. They grasped hands and then looked over at Amy and Rory.
“It doesn't want you. That's why it kept showing you a way out. You're not religious or superstitious, so there's no faith for you to fall back on. It wants Rose and Amy,” the Doctor replied darkly.
“But why? Why us in particular?” Amy asked, walking over to the Doctor and Rose.
“Because you both have faith in me,” the Doctor explained sadly, his eyes filled with concern as if the weight of the universe was on his shoulders once again. Rory looked over at them and looked down a the table. This was something that troubled him and not just because his wife’s life was in danger. The Doctor said Amy had faith in him. Rory couldn’t help a slight resentment. Amy was his wife and yet she had more faith in the Doctor than him.
Rose looked at Amy and leaned over toward her while the Doctor paced. “Amy, we both know how easy it is to see the Doctor as the hero. He sweeps into our lives and shows us amazin’ things and we watch as he saves people and planets over and over again. It’s all too easy to have faith in him, that he can save us and everyone when you see that on a daily basis. You and me, we’re like a smorgasbord for this thing.”
“And he’s about to ring the dinner bell,” Amy said fearfully.
“But why do they lose their faith before they die and start worshipping it?” Rory asked, growing more and more concerned for Amy as he watched her sit stiffly next to Rose.
“It needs to convert the faith into a form it can consume. Faith is an energy, the specific emotional energy the creature needs to live,” the Doctor explained, pacing back and forth.
Suddenly, Amy whispered, “Praise him.”
Rose gasped. Rory said, “No!” The Doctor turned and stared fearfully at Amy.
They could hear the beast stomping it’s way toward them. Rose grabbed Amy’s hand. “Right, time to run!”
“I’m not letting that thing take you Amy!” Rory shouted as they made their way out of the dining room, and began running through the hallways. They could here the beast grow closer and closer to them.
Amy stopped suddenly. “He is beautiful,” she whispered in awe.
Rose ran back with Rory close behind. She looked down the hall at the large cloven footed beast. It had scraggly brown hair, raised tattoos on it’s body and three horns protruding from it’s minotaur-like head. It stared at her with vivid blue eyes and she knew that after Amy, she was next. “Rory!” she shouted.
Rory quickly grabbed Amy’s arm and started to drag her but she was struggling. Gibbis, being the perpetual coward, wanted to leave her. Rose glared at him. She had no tolerance of cowardice. The Doctor grabbed Amy’s other arm and Rose’s hand.
“No time for sight seeing!” he shouted before hauling them all away at break neck speed.
The group ducked into a room where they saw young Amy by a window, sitting on her suitcase looking at the stars. Adult Amy collapsed onto her knees. Rose stared at young Amy and tears came to her eyes. She had heard Amy’s story and how she had waited for the Doctor, but seeing it in person made it all more heartbreaking and real. She was Amy Pond, the girl that waited.
Amy called for the Doctor. “It's happening. It's changing me, it's changing my thoughts,” Amy said, her eyes filled with fear.
The Doctor dropped to his knees next to her. “I can’t save you from this. There’s nothing I can do to stop it,” the Doctor told Amy, staring meaningfully into her eyes. Rory was standing against the door and looked at the Doctor as if he couldn’t believe he was saying those words to Amy. Rose stood rigid knowing what the Doctor was doing and feeling a twisting deep inside herself. This was painful for not just the two of them, but anyone who knew how close those two were.
The beast was banging against the door and howling. Rory had thrown himself against the door intent on keeping it out.
“What?” Amy asked, unable to believe he had said that.
“Oh Amy, I stole your childhood and now I've led you by the hand to your death. But the worst thing is, I knew. I knew this would happen. This is what always happens,” the Doctor said in a tired pain filled voice. He looked up at Rose meaningfully. Rose looked at him and felt tears well up.
The Beast broke into the room sending Rory tumbling. Rose took a step back. Gibbis cowered in a corner. The Doctor and Amy never flinched. Rose backed up and took Rory’s hand and together they watched the Doctor destroy Amy’s undying faith in him.
Once again, The Doctor stared deeply into Amy’s eyes. “Forget your faith in me. I took you with me because I was vain, because I wanted to be adored. It‘s what I do. What I always do.” He looked over at Rose, again conveying the same feelings to her with his ancient weary eyes. “I’m a selfish, lonely old man.” Rose shook her head in response.
The Doctor turned back to Amy and gently stroked her hair. “Look at you. Glorious Pond. The girl who waited for me.
The beast groaned as if in pain.
Rory and Rose gasped as the Amy sitting before the Doctor turned into young Amelia Pond. Rose felt something inside herself crack as she watched that tiny bit of Amy’s childhood shatter before her eyes. She also sensed the overwhelming loneliness of the Doctor seep into her mind as he let Amy go. For the first time, she felt how ancient he was. Her poor Doctor, he would always sacrifice his own happiness every time to save those he loved.
As he gazed down at young Amelia, the Doctor knew she finally understood. The rose colored glasses of her childhood were removed and she saw him. “I really am just a mad man in a box. And it's time we saw each other as we really are.”
He kissed her forehead and she returned to being adult Amy. Rose watched as the beast staggered out the door.
“Amy Williams, it's time to stop waiting,” the Doctor said softly, tapping her chin. Amy looked at him and a slight smile lit her face.
“Doctor!” Rose called out.
The Doctor looked back out the door at the collapsing beast. He stood up as Rory ran over to Amy and hugged her. The Doctor walked out to see the beast up close. He knelt down by it’s side. “I’ve severed the food supply by sacrificing their faith in me,” he told it, trying to comfort it as the hotel around them dissolved until they found themselves in a black room with a blue grid revealing the whole setting was nothing more than a virtual reality prison.
Everyone stood around the Doctor near the dying beast.
“What is it? An alien minotaur?” Amy asked and then mused, “That's not a question I thought I'd be asking this morning.” Rory squeezed Amy’s hand.
Rose looked at the two of them and smiled. Everything was as it should be. She looked back down at the Doctor, worry creasing her face. The Doctor said he destroyed her faith in him, but that was not necessarily true. After enough time had passed and after losing her Doctor in the alternate universe, she had learned to see the Doctor for who he really was long ago. She was once like Amy, blindly following him into Hell and back, never doubting his abilities. She wasn’t that girl anymore, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have faith in him. It was now a more realistic faith tempered by time, motherhood, loss and a new purpose to her life.
The Doctor looked over at Amy to answer her question. “Minotaur, well it's a distant cousin of the Nimon. They descend on planets and set themselves up as Gods to be worshipped. Which is fine, until the inhabitants get all secular and advanced enough to build bonkers prisons like this one.” He walked over to a computer panel and showed them.
“But we’re in space,” Rory pointed out, looking at the stars twinkling beyond a porthole.
The Doctor, back in lecture mode, explained further how this was a prison in space snatching people from different worlds and how it had malfunctioned and instead of recording their fears, it stole their faith.
“What about you Doctor? It’ didn’t try and show you the door. What do you pray to?” Amy asked, staring at him speculatively. He avoided her question and looked at Rose pointedly.
“Time to leave I think,” he said and held out his hand for Rose. Rose smiled brightly at him and walked over happily taking his hand. The beast growled and Rose paused, looking down at it compassionately.
“Doctor? Is he in pain?” Rose asked.
The Doctor walked over toward the beast with Rose’s hand in his and leaned over. He frowned and stared at the beast for a long time.
“Doctor? What did he say?” Rose asked.
“He said…” The Doctor paused. “Thank you. That’s all,” the Doctor lied. He wasn’t ready to reveal to Rose or anyone else that the beast had really said that the wolf would return to him to run at his side until the end of his days after a time of great darkness and sorrow had set upon him.
Everyone packed into the Tardis and they stopped off on Tivoli to let Gibbis return to his people. Rose and the Doctor had walked out with him only to find themselves faced with a committee of Gibbis people.
One promptly came forward and bowed to Rose, handing over a golden key. “Oh great and all merciful conqueror. The Tivoli bow down before your most merciful greatness and honorably surrender the planet.”
Rose held up the key and looked around at the prostrated people including Gibbis.
“Uh, thanks!” she said and looked over her shoulder at the Doctor who was pretending to dust off a corner of the Tardis. She muttered to him, “I’m so gonna kill you,” before turning back to the Tivoli people.
“Well, thank you for your most gracious surrender. It’s always nice to meet people who don’t want to shoot first,” Rose said politely.
The Tivoli all looked up and nodded their heads. “And what is your command, all great and wise one. How may we serve you?” the Tivoli leader asked.
Rose heard the Doctor coughing in the background trying to hide his laughter. She rolled her eyes and looked down at the worshipping Tivoli. “Well, I want you to continue runnin’ the planet the way you have been and just be…happy and uh fruitful. You know, continue to do good things. I’ll be back to check on you unless you’re, you know, conquered by someone else.”
“Oh thank you, oh blessed dominar!” the all chanted.
“Right,” Rose muttered. “Bye then.” She turned and examined the big gold key which she thrust at the Doctor as they walked back into the Tardis. As soon as the doors closed he burst into laughter.
“What?” Amy asked. “What did we miss?”
“Oh nothing!” the Doctor replied as he raced up to the console. Amy and Rory turned to Rose.
“Oh, they just surrendered the planet to me. No big deal,” she said waving her hand in the air and sat down on the jump seat.
“Next stop Earth!” the Doctor shouted as he madly dashed around the console.
Amy stared at Rose in deep thought. She walked over and sat down next to her and was silent for a moment. Rose was worried about her. “Amy, you okay?” she asked.
Amy turned to Rose. “Did he tell you he’s married?” she spit out suddenly.
Rose looked at her and then smiled. “No, but he never tells anyone that!”
Amy cocked her head and squinted her eyes at Rose. Rory who had been observing this from a distance stepped closer. He knew what Amy was going to say to Rose but Rose’s response was intriguing and worrying him.
“What!” Amy demanded.
“Oh, he marries all his companions at one point or another. Just sort of happens. Ya know?” Rose answered easily. It was the truth after all. With all the different alien planets and customs, it really was surprising how many times they had wandered into some cultural ritual or ceremony and accidentally been married. Although, at the time, Rose may not have known it. She didn’t learn the truth until the topic of marriage had come up with her meta crisis Doctor in Pete’s World. Now there had been a row with her mother.
“Sorry, but did you say he marries his companions by accident?” Rory asked, a bit horrified.
“Yeah, it’s no big deal really. It just sort of happens,” Rose answered him brightly.
Amy and Rory turned and stared at the Doctor who suddenly found himself immersed in Tardis navigation and ignored them.
Amy turned back to Rose. “That’s not what I meant. I mean, he is married for real to my daughter, River.”
Rose looked at Amy, her eyebrows raised in understanding and realization what this conversation was all about. “Oh, so you know who River is now.”
“You knew!” Amy said raising her voice.
Rose sighed. “Amy I know lots of stuff I don’t talk about. You’ve traveled with the Doctor long enough. Everything happens when it’s s’pose to. You wouldn’t want a universal ending paradox to occur now would ya?”
“Uh, universal ending paradox sounds bad,” Rory commented.
Rose nodded her head. “Pretty much, yeah.”
“Then you know that him and her are married and have a future together,” Amy continued.
“Of course,” Rose acknowledged, nonplussed by this statement.
Amy looked angry and Rory decided he better step in. He liked Rose. She was calm, compassionate and had always treated both he and Amy with kindness. “What Amy is trying to say is no one wants to see you hurt.”
Rose looked at both of them and then at the Doctor who was peeking at her from around the time rotor. When he saw her looking, he ducked back.
When she looked back at them, she could see the concern and parental protectiveness evident on their faces. “Look, River’s time with the Doctor is a fixed event. I won’t interfere in that. I like River.”
“You’ve met her?” Rory asked surprised.
“Yeah,” Rose acknowledged smiling. She heard a thunk and a grunt as the Doctor somehow injured himself probably when he heard her. She smiled at that. So much for the Time Lord thinking he knows everything. “She helped me and my kids with something. We sort of bumped into each other.”
“But, you love the Doctor!” Amy quite crankily demanded as if she needed a better answer.
“Of course I do,” Rose said softly and compassionately. “I love him and I understand that no one person will ever monopolize him. The Doctor, he’s bigger than me, River or you. He belongs to the Tardis and the universe really. I’ll always be here when he needs me just like he’s always there when River needs ‘im. Understand?”
The Tardis landed with a thump jolting Rory to fall over onto the floor. He got up and glared at the Doctor.
“Earth proper!” The Doctor shouted and clapped his hands together and ran to the doors. Rory and Amy followed him but Rose stayed seated. Amy and Rory hesitated at the door and looked back at Rose. “Aren’t you coming?” Amy asked.
“Naw, not this time. Think I’ll wait this one out. My kids may be lookin’ for me. I’ll see you around though, yeah?”
Amy nodded. “Sure, see you around.” Rory nodded to her and followed Amy out. Rose had a feeling she knew what was about to happen. He was letting them go. She could tell back in the virtual hotel that he was thinking about this day, the day he let them go. Something dark was on the horizon. She could feel that as well.
The Doctor walked slowly back into the Tardis making his way to the console. Rose walked over to stand next to them as he put them into the vortex. All of a sudden, he stopped and stared at the console. Rose put her hand on his arm and he looked over at her. “I had to,” he said without prompting.
“I know,” she answered quietly.
“Stay with me for a bit,” he said without his typical manic demeanor.
Rose smiled. “Ya know, I was on holiday before I was transmatted. Still would like a bit of a holiday before I get back to the grind of savin’ the universe.”
He grinned at her and she walked around the console trailing her finger along the edge. “You never did take me to Barcelona,” she said, peeking around the time rotor.
“Barcelona!” he shouted. “Dogs with no noses it is!” he said and in a tangle of long limbs dashing back and forth he sent them into the vortex.
Rose helped him, hitting a switch here and there. She knew she couldn’t stay with him permanently, at least not yet. Something was coming and she couldn’t interfere in it, but she could give him Barcelona, for now.