This is the first chapter in the fourth volume of my Love Songs series, following I'm Yours.
With credit to Russell T Davies for the Doctor Who episode the Runaway Bride. Volume title taken from the song of the same name by Jason Mraz.
Love Songs Vol. IV - I Won't Give Up
by Rishi_Diams [Reviews - 23]
Chapter or Story
- All Ages
- None
- Action/Adventure, Het, Missing Scene, Romance, Series
It's like watching the night sky
Or a beautiful sunrise
There's so much they hold
And just like them old stars
I see that you've come so far
To be right where you are
How old is your soul?
I won't give up on us
Even if the skies get rough
I'm giving you all my love
I'm still looking up
- "I Won't Give Up," Jason Mraz
"normal speech"
*telepathy*
He felt the muting of the bond as the last remaining hole between the dimensions closed. A single tear slid down his cheek, joined an instant later by a second. Wiping the tears from his face, he composed himself. Falling apart at this point would do nothing to get Rose and the baby back. His child - their child. The Doctor dropped into the jumpseat as the enormity of that statement began to weigh down on him.
Rose was carrying his child, a half-Gallifreyan - half-alien - baby. Aside from a few casual thoughts about the hazards of traveling with a pregnant woman and, eventually, an infant, he'd never really let it sink in. He'd done nothing to prepare her regarding the differences between a Gallifreyan pregnancy and a Human one, and now she was stranded where he could do nothing to help her should the need arise.
He'd promised Rose he would fix this, but travel between the dimensions was impossible. In order to get back, Rose and the baby were going to need to cross dimensions in a way that would not harm either of them or the dimensions themselves.
His stomach twisted. Was that the reason why his sweet blond son always came to him for answers? He wore a vortex manipulator on his wrist that was very similar to the one Jack Harkness used. His questions were almost always focused on the basics of Time Lord science. Was it possible that in the boy's present, he and Rose were still trapped in the parallel dimension? Could he have somehow programmed the vortex manipulator to allow short hops back to this dimension? Was he still, some seven years in the Doctor's future, searching for the answers to the same questions now facing the Doctor himself?
"What?"
He sprang from the jumpseat to look at the woman who had just appeared inside the TARDIS. She was ginger, utterly incensed and wearing a wedding dress of all things, the multiverse's cosmic joke when his wife was trapped on the other side of the void. "What?" he parroted.
"Who are you?" she barked.
"But --" It was impossible.
"Where am I?"
"What?" No one could...
"What the hell is this place?"
But she somehow had.
After they'd gotten past the ranting and the obligatory "not Human" conversation, the purely scientific part of his brain latched on to the impossibility of Donna appearing in the TARDIS like she had. It was fascinating, and, if she could do it, maybe it could be adapted to Rose.
"Maybe a genetic --"
Donna slapped him hard across the face.
"What was that for?"
"Get me to the church!"
He dropped the ophthalmoscope he'd been using to look into her eyes and turned back to the console. "Right! Fine! I don't want you here anyway! Where is this wedding?"
"Saint Mary's, Hayden Road, Chiswick, London, England, Earth, the Solar System."
As he set the controls to take Donna back to her wedding, he also set the TARDIS to scan her for anything that he might be able to use to bring Rose home.
"I knew it. Acting all innocent. I'm not the first, am I? How many women have you abducted?"
The Doctor looked up from the controls and his eyes fell to the purple shirt that Donna was brandishing at him accusingly. Rose's purple shirt, the one she'd worn on New Earth. It had been in the pile to take to Jackie on their last visit, but at the last minute Rose had decided it still smelled enough like apple grass to warrant leaving it behind. He'd been so busy trying to figure out a way to get a message to her that he'd hardly noticed that it was still in the console room.
"That's my... friend's," he said softly.
"Where is she, then? Popped out for a space walk?"
"She's gone."
"Gone where?"
"I lost her," he said after a moment, not willing to delve into the details with this harpy.
"Well, you can hurry up and lose me." Then, gentler but still with an edge that cut, "How do you mean, 'lost'?"
The Doctor looked up and stared at her then advanced, ignoring the sudden fearful look she gave him, but he only snatched Rose's blouse away from her. He circled the console, pulling the lever to start the materialization sequence. "Right! Chiswick."
* * *
Rose awoke to the sound of her name and the faint smell of roses. She sat in bed waiting, hoping to hear it again, praying that she had not dreamt it. After a while, she laid back down again and tried to go back to sleep. She was just on the edge of sleep when she heard it again.
*Rose.*
Now there was no way she was going to get back to sleep. The sun was almost up anyway, so she got out of bed, dressed, and then headed down to breakfast. Pete was dressed for work sitting at the head of the table and reading the newspaper while he ate. His fork clattered against his plate when she walked into the dining room, and he watched her warily as she picked up a plate and served herself from the sideboard.
Rose sat next to him and started eating, realizing a few bites in that she was really hungry. After a few minutes Pete picked his fork back up and joined her. "Good morning."
"Morning."
"You're up early," he commented cautiously.
She could tell he was afraid to say something that would set what they viewed as her recovery back. Her father, but not really, he was still one of the only people she could trust in this entire universe. "I heard a voice again this morning. Calling my name, just like last time. He said he'd find a way through and I think he's doing it."
Pete was stunned. "Good - that's good."
Rose finished the last of her eggs and stood, brimming with energy and confidence she hadn't realized she'd missed since arriving in this universe. He was coming for her. Things were going to be okay. "I think I'm going to take a walk around the grounds. That all right?"
This time Pete couldn't even form words.
"Good morning, Mum!" Rose called to Jackie who was coming down the stairs.
"Rose?" But she was already outside, feeling the warmth of sunlight on her face for the first time in weeks.
Her first trimester was almost over. What little morning sickness she'd experienced had already stopped. Physically, Rose was feeling better than she had before she'd found out she was pregnant. And now she had renewed hope that the Doctor was close to a breakthrough which would bring her home.
She walked for hours along the pathways that weaved around Pete's enormous estate, stopping occasionally to examine a flower that was native to this universe or to sit and rest a while on a bench. As she walked she talked to the child growing inside of her, telling him stories of her travels with his father.
"Hopping for our lives, can you believe it?" and "She is one of your dad's best friends, your Auntie Sarah Jane."
That night she lay in bed waiting, but nothing happened. Eventually, she began to drift off, but just as she did the smell of roses filled her nose. *Rose.*
Remembering how quickly the connection had dissolved that morning, she responded softly, careful not to stir too much. *I'm here.*
*Love you... Mum.*
As the voice faded away Rose jolted to a sitting position, suddenly fully awake, one hand coming up to clutch at her still flat stomach, the other covering her mouth. Not the Doctor this time, but their child.