Unbeta'd, all mistakes my own!
A manic grin spread across his face when he watched her eyes light up. It had been a long time since those beautiful dark pools had expressed any bit of joy. It was that look alone that might just give him the strength to keep going.
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| Tenth Doctor, Torchwood | |
Never Say Never by Kimori1024 [Reviews - 58]  Chapter or Story Author's Notes: | |
“I don’t even want to know....” Tori entered the open door of the flat, only to stop dead at the sight before her.
“What is it?” Rob came in behind her, but soon dropped all of the bags and boxes he’d been carrying from their shopping excursion as his eyes found what the girl’s finger was pointing at. “Oh my god...”
Tori stood in a state of disbelief as she took in the image of her half naked mother lying in the arms of the Doctor on the sofa. The pair of them were sound asleep, oblivious to the presence of the two that had just entered the flat.
“Ahem!” Tori cleared her throat deliberately loudly, making the slumbering Time Lord jump.
“No, Jackie! I swear nothing happened!” The very startled Doctor flew up to a sitting position on the cushion sending the woman in his arms tumbling to the floor. “Rose?”
“M’fine, fine....” The blonde picked herself up from the carpet, gingerly holding her forehead. She glanced underneath the coffee table to see a tapping trainer clad foot. Following the path of the leg attached upward, Rose came face to face with an arched eyebrow brunette. “Tori?”
“Uh, yeah, it’s your daughter back from shopping. Glad to know you found something to occupy yourself while we were gone.” The girl’s irritated tone was something the Doctor had heard before. It was a tone that meant only one thing was to come. He sat frozen in his seat as Tori made her way toward him.
“And you...!” With that the Doctor knew for certain that the Tyler slap was an inherited trait as the young woman smacked him across the cheek. The act caused Rose to burst out in laughter, earning a reprimanding snap from her daughter. “Oi, you’re not much better!” But her attempt at anger quickly faded as a smile overwhelmed her.
“Oh, Doctor,” Tori spoke as she smugly watched the Doctor rub his cheek. “I believe this...” Her hand fished a moment in her pocket. “This belongs to you?” Wrapped in her fingers was a tiny device with a blue tip. She tossed the object at the Time Lord who caught it in awe.
“My sonic screwdriver?” He looked from the device in his hands to the girl and back again. Instinctively, he pat down his pockets only to remember that he hadn’t been able to find it earlier. In fact, it was because he’d been searching for it that he’d stopped on the steps thereby allowing himself to hear Rose and realize what a big mistake he would have made. He cocked his head and his eyebrow as he looked at the smirking young woman before him; her blue eyes twinkled with mischief and her tongue cheekily poked out from the corner of her mouth. His mind wandered back to just before she’d left... “You!”
“Did you think I was really gonna hug you without a motive?” Her smile grew as she crossed her arms in triumph. “Mind you, just because I took your screwdriver, you didn’t have to go and take your other one out.” She chuckled as the tiniest bit of rouge spread across his cheeks. “But I just couldn’t let you get off that easily. Especially since you still had my gun.” She pulled the pistol from her other pocket and twirled it on her finger.
“How did you...?”
“If I told ya, I’d have to kill ya.”
Rose had managed to resituate her top, regaining some sort of dignity best she could. She couldn’t help but smile at the slightly embarrassed Rob who was currently doing his best not to stare.
“You can look now,” she giggled when he spun around knowing she’d noticed. “So, d’you two fancy a bit of traveling?”
“Depends where....”
“Well...” The Doctor rolled the word over his tongue, cheekily grinning at Tori’s reaction as he walked over, placing his elbow on Rob’s shoulder and his other arm around the girl’s. “Instead of staying around here filling your life with food, sleep and telly, you could go anywhere?” The smile he saw form on the brunette’s face caused his own to beam back. He snuck a look up at the blonde grinning a few feet away and, for the first time in a long time, he felt alive.
Rose shifted through the drawers of her dresser for the last of her clothing. She hadn’t seen this stuff in nearly thirty five years. Every time she came home she’d thrown a few pieces of clothing in her bag and dashed off for another adventure. She’d left her mum and her whole life back at this flat, never imagining that she’d wind up in a parallel world never to see this place again. But her life had taken some crazy turns and here she was yet again.
Stepping over to her wardrobe, her eyes settled on the last garment inside. A beaten leather jacket hung alone, everything else had been packed neatly into her rucksack. She took the jacket out gingerly and pressed it to her face. The scent soothed her. The first time she’d pressed her face to this jacket she was off to start a brand new life with the man inside. Here she was off with a new beginning with the same man, but everything was so different now. She gripped the leather more tightly for maybe if she held it that much more tightly she’d be transported back then. But nothing worked that way, it would never be the same again.
“You ready?” The Doctor’s voice trailed into the room, followed by his body coming to rest in the doorway.
“Yeah... I think...” Rose’s eyes darted to the dark haired man as she placed the jacket down on her pink duvet. Though she knew he was there, his presence startled her.
“Tori and Rob have managed to get together all of their purchases and things.” The conversation was awkward; the air thick with the unknown. Yet still, excitement buzzed through him and from the pheromones the blonde was emitting, he knew he wasn’t alone.
“It’s weird...”
“What is?”
“The last time I properly moved out of this flat I was sixteen and going off to live with Jimmy Stones...” She laughed at the irony. That was such a long time ago. She couldn’t really recall the girl she was back then.
“Yeah, I suppose you never officially moved out when you ran off with me...” The Doctor laughed nervously as he surveyed the room. He tugged on his ear and looked back the young woman who was currently doing the same; one last look. Their eyes met and she smiled back at him.
“Nope...” Rose laughed as she looked down. “I suppose not.... Well, I guess that’s everything I’m going to need.” She took one last look around the small pink room. For some place she never thought she’d see again, it was so hard to say goodbye.
The Time Lord seemed to have sensed her feelings. He adjusted his position at the door and ran his hand through his messy hair. “Yeah, Jack’s still got the lease so everything else will be fine here. I mean, pull a few strings and I think I can ensure that that never runs out.” A manic grin spread across his face when he watched her eyes light up. It had been a long time since those beautiful dark pools had expressed any bit of joy. It was that look alone that might just give him the strength to keep going.
A soft techno beat played into the room as the Doctor reached into his trench pocket. he examined the tiny screen of the mobile before placing it back into his coat. “Ianto’s just got here. He’ll take us back to Torchwood. Ready for this?” He outstretched his hand as he pulled himself away from the door frame.
Rose grinned and stepped forward as she gripped her bag. Her hand was inches from his when she suddenly stopped and flipped around. “Oh, no one more thing....”
His breath caught as he waited for the moment where she’d tell him no. He braced himself, readied for the worst. But moments later before he’d had time to take another breath her tiny hand wrapped tightly around his. In her other arm lay his old leather jacket.
“I’m not leaving it this time,” she spoke quietly, gesturing toward the coat. It was shard to let go of the past; the ring she wore around her neck was proof of it. No she couldn’t ever go back because life didn’t work that way. Would they never be the same? Would they ever be able to mend the ruins time had brought upon them? The Doctor smiled and swung his arms slightly as he returned her hold on his hand with a fierce grip on his own and tugged her gently down the corridor.
“So?”
“So, you seem just fine now.” Martha smiled at Rose who sat on the metal table just in front of her. “Completely recovered from whatever had happened before.”
“Glad to hear it.” Rose couldn’t help but grin back as she scooted off of the examination table. “How’s Tori?”
“She seems just fine as well, brilliant mind though....”
“Definitely. Oh, Martha...”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks. Oh and the Doctor mentioned you just got married, congratulations!”
“Oh thanks. I really like married life.”
“Have fun, it’s great.” Thoughts of her life with John passed through her mind, but the pain now seemed somehow dulled; not by much, but just enough.
Rose made her way out of the room without looking back. A few moments later, Jack entered the medical unit of the Torchwood hub.
“So my little nightingale, how are the girls?” Jack swaggered over to the young woman examining a computer monitor.
“They both seem to be fine now. It’s been a week and they should be in good hands,” Martha smiled and looked up at the Captain as she spoke. “I mean they will be traveling with the best Doctor in the universe.”
“Shall we go give them the good news?” The older man peered over her shoulder as Martha returned to the test results on the computer screen. A digital brain scan spread across the screen. The energy readings were off the scale. “Hold on, I thought you said she was fine?”
“Rose, yeah. Her mind has returned to normal human function. Well, normal for someone with vortex energy still regulating her body, but completely safe nonetheless. This is Tori’s brain.” Martha clicked on the image to enlarge the detail. “I’ve never seen anything like it; working here or at UNIT or even traveling with the Doctor. Her mind is brilliant and oddly enough it seems to show signs of regeneration.”
“Really?” Jack bent closer to read the data. Sure enough, there were signs of a complete regeneration. Decades ago, but still the evidence was clear. He’d seen the same thing when he scanned the Doctor when first traveling with him. He hadn’t completely trusted the Time Lord, so he’d done a bit of research. But Tori was so young, and her father, though he was like the Doctor in many ways, had been human. “Well I’ll be damned...”
“She died when she was an infant and her dad gave the residual energy he had left to save her, condemning him to an early death in the process.” The Doctor’s voice carried into the room causing the two to turn around startled.
“What would make you say that?”
“Or at least that’s what I gathered from talking to Tori. She blames herself for her father’s death.”
“How did that work? He was human wasn’t he?” Martha asked.
“He wasn’t entirely human, he had my mind; my energy. It was the one thing he could give her. There are only so many times you can see your hopes and dreams die before you.” The Doctor looked away before continuing on. “Tori became like me, like a Time Lord, only stronger. The mixture of residual vortex from Rose and the mind of a Time Lord was burning her brain up and turning her into something she couldn’t control. She had these... attacks. You found Rose passed out at first yes?”
“Yeah... But, what...?”
“She had similar attacks. When I was around, the Bad Wolf energy was subdued, but still at work. When my clone... John,” The Doctor paused finding it much more difficult to speak of the other man than he’d expected. He swallowed deeply. “When John died, Rose became subconsciously desperate which strengthened her attacks. The energy in both Rose and Tori began to react to each other which probably put a strain on their relationship entirely out of their control. But they began to coincide closer and closer until Bad Wolf was strong enough to react to the fact that there was now a Time Lord or equivalent in each universe. Tori’s mind was pretty expressive about some things, it wasn’t that difficult to piece together. The only strange thing...”
“The only strange thing?”
The Doctor smirked and cockily looked at the Captain. “Yes, the only really strange thing is the fact that it has only been six months in this world, but it has been thirty one years in the parallel world and the equivalent for me....”
“You yourself have witnessed the power of Bad Wolf...” Jack returned the cocky smirk. “But you haven’t talked to Rose about it yet?” Jack crossed his arms and cocked his head at the Time Lord. “I swear Doctor, if you’re still being stubborn...”
The Doctor displayed his best mock hurt expression earning an eye roll from the former Time Agent and a giggle from Martha. Then he grinned, a sincere smile. “Oh you know me. But Rose and I will have plenty of time to talk once this is all said and done with. There’s a lot of time to talk in between running for your life.” He winked at the two and turned with an unmistakable jump in his step.
Jack found that the Doctor’s smile had been infectious, for he and Martha had caught the bug. Jack nodded to Martha who proceeded to finish logging her data and followed the Time Lord out of the room.
The Captain made his way to his office, stopping only to watch as the Doctor made his way over to Rose across the hub. The older man squeezed the girl’s hand briefly and then made his way out the door to prepare the TARDIS for travel no doubt. He watched the way the blonde stiffened both when the Doctor had walked up beside her and when he’d left. But there wasn’t a doubt in his mind that they would make it. They always had before. Just this once they’d been graced with something that could never be, something good. He watched as Mickey stepped toward her. They just needed time.
Jack stepped through the door, closing it behind him. He turned to his desk but found himself halted in his tracks as the view of a young brunette sat before him. Tori sat all too innocently on his big oak desk, swinging her legs and sweetly staring up at the shocked blue eyed man.
“That door was locked....” Jack started forward examining the growing smile of the young woman.
“I have my ways,” she replied cheekily, her tongue firmly stuck at the corner of her mouth. “Anyway, I got bored down at your firing range...” She swung her handgun around on her finger from emphasis before placing it into her pocket.
“You know, I can almost see why Ianto is afraid of you...” Jack smiled and slid past the girl to sit in his chair and look up at her. In response, Tori shifted her body so that she was looking directly at the Captain, her legs straddling him from her position on the desk. A trainer clad foot carefully balanced on each of the armrests as her blue eyes stared intently into his. “But I suppose that’s part of your charm?” he added with a distinctly flirtatious tone.
“Oh, mystery is always part of the charm,” Tori winked as she pushed her body closer to the Captain’s. “Too bad I know all about you...”
“Do you now?”
“Oh yes...” Her grin became a mischievous smirk and she leaned her face just inches away from his as she continued. “Just a bit of prying and that idiot boy out there sings like a bird.”
But with one swift movement that had years of experience backing it, Jack flipped the young woman off the desk and onto his lap. Her arms swung up around his neck for support as her feet swung over one of the arm rests. Jack waggled his eyebrow at her look of shock. “I bet you didn’t know I was gonna do that, eh?” He smiled and continued when he got no response. “I’m sorry we got off on a bad foot the last time.”
“Eh, it was my fault...” Tori’s smile returned, but was much softer as she remembered her first night in this universe.
Jack could see her mood beginning to darken at the thought of bad memories, so he started again. “So, 21st century parallel universe time lord and human vortex hybrid...”
To the Captain’s relief, her grin grew; her tongue firmly at her cheek. “So, 51st century parallel universe to me, immortal human with a huge head one day havin’ it swallow up you’re whole body?”
“Which head?” Jack ran a finger along the girl’s jaw in emphasis causing her to giggle.
“Touché, Mr. Harkness.” It was truly just harmless flirting, but he knew it would take her mind away from the apprehension, the unknown that must be filling her mind. It was a technique he’d been using for centuries to hide the pain.
“So, your mum get you a zeppelin for your 21st birthday?”
“Nah, I’ve never been into those sorts of things. All flash and no power under the hood.”
“What if you could get flash and power?” Jack held his fingertips deliberately close to the girl’s face as he clicked them causing the nanogenes he’d snuck into his office to light up and swirl around them on command.
“Oh, that’s flash... Definitely flash...” Tori looked at the tiny microscopic robots, running her fingers through them as a cut she’d sustained the night before vanished before her eyes.
“That’s what your mum said,” Jack added with a chuckle and a cocky wink.
The sound of a throat clearing barely registered behind them. The owner of the throat stepped through the glass door and hazarded another try when there was no answer. “Ahem, uh, Tor?” Rob stood impatiently at the sight before him, but Tori merely continued to sit in the Captain’s lap, mesmerized by his charm. “Tori, it’s time to go...”
Tori didn’t even stir.
“Yeah, lets’ go...”
Still.
“Oi! TORI!”
“Oh yeah...” The brunette shook her head as she pulled herself off the older man’s lap. She cocked her eyebrow at the smirking man, briefly wondering how he had done that. That Mickey bloke had been right to warn her of his charms. She turned to the irritated Rob and yet somehow she knew that her hearts fluttered more from him than for any amount of flash in the universe. “Comin’.... See you Captain.”
Jack placed a chaste kiss to the back of her hand before saluting the young woman. She smiled before taking the black haired boy’s hand and heading out of the office. Jack turned back to his desk when moments later, Tori stuck her head around the corner one last time. “No saluting! Oh, and I’m still up for that drink!” She giggled before the young man on her arm pulled her down the corridor.
“So, you and Captain flash....” Rob mentioned nonchalantly as the couple made their way toward to hub door. His hand gripped the girl’s tightly, awaiting her response.
“No, definitely not,” Tori replied, wrapping her other arm over her body to grip his, pulling herself more tightly to Rob. “According to Mickey the idiot, he’s slept with both my mum and my well, not-dad... I don’t need to be thinking about that...” She visibly shook for dramatic effect. “Anyway, what else would I be bringing you along for?” Without looking at him, she placed her head gingerly on his shoulder. Her cheeks burned and so did a feeling in her hearts that she never had allowed herself to feel.
Similarly to her daughter, a feeling Rose had begun to forget clenched at her heart. The Doctor had told her that he was just going to prepare the TARDIS for them to go. She didn’t think she’d be so nervous. Would he still leave? Did she really want to go with? She’d been so caught up in the moment before... Could she really do this? More importantly, could she not?
“So, are you goin’ this time?” Mickey’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts. She looked up to find her ex-boyfriend standing beside her.
“I don’t really have a choice, do I?” That was true. She didn’t age or change. She had nothing left in this universe or the next that really needed her. Did the Doctor still truly need her? Even after everything he’d said, doubt still lingered in her mind. One thing she knew was that there was no more denying that she needed him...
“Guess not....” Mickey’s eyes wandered over the blonde’s distraught face. His hand drifted to place a stray strand of hair behind her ear. But instead of stopping there, he pulled her into his arms. Rose’s face rested on his chest as she wrapped her arms tightly around his back.
“I missed you!” The blonde choked out as she hugged the young man fiercely.
“Me too.” Mickey rocked her slowly in his arms.
“Do you really think we’ll be okay?” She couldn’t hide the emotion thick in her voice.
“You always are. You two haven’t changed that much. I know you’ll be alright. And d’you know how?” With on hand, the young man tenderly tilted the woman’s chin upward until their eyes met. It was hard for him to give her away again though it had been a very long time since she had been his to give.
“How?” Rose asked him in desperation.
“Because you love him. The Doctor and Rose Tyler in the TARDIS can never be wrong.”
“Time to go!” The Doctor stepped into the hub as the machinery of the door cranked open. Rose spun around at the sound of the Time Lord’s voice, falling out of Mickey’s grip.
Life had taught Rose Tyler a few things. Mickey nodded in reassurance when she looked back at him. Behind him, she could see her daughter and Robert coming into view, walking toward the exit where the Doctor stood patiently. The older man held his hand out when she looked his way, beckoning her to come with; one more chance to do the impossible. It wouldn’t be easy; it wouldn’t be smart. In her right mind she would never run off, leaving everything behind for an uncertain future with a handsome stranger.
Yes, life had taught her many, many lessons. One of those just happened to be to never say never.
TBC
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