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Tweak says, "I haz a flavor."

Rose M. Tyler (jeopardysfriend) wrote in vas_captio_rpg,
@ 2009-09-12 21:46:00

Entry tags:

!complete, day 23, location: gym, rose tyler, the doctor (nine)

Who: Rose Tyler and anyone in the gym
What: A very rude awakening
When: Day 23, bright and early
Where: I SAID the gym!
Status: Active
Rating: PG...13!

She may have only known him a couple of days, but Rose was beginning to consider herself close to Chris. To see him so weakened and miserable and ill physically pained her. The man had listened to her babble about complete nonsense, had confided in her about some of his own sufferings, and, well, she could possibly move him up into the makeout buddy category, too. In this place? It didn't hurt to find some comfort, and after the week she'd had, it felt good to know she was wanted, even if by someone who by all rights was a complete stranger. Even if he was a good-looking, green-eyed, good as gold, guardian angel style complete stranger.

Though she'd tried desperately to stay awake by his side, helping however she could, she'd dozed off for what she assumed were just a few moments. But that clearly hadn't been enough for their beloved management, said with sarcasm dripping. They'd moved her from her night watch at some point, plopped her into the area she'd been calling 'home' since she'd retreated to the gym, and given her a giant body pillow. In her sleep, all she knew was there was an additional figure, a tall lanky one that seemed terribly comfortable.

Until the smell reached her.

Rose stirred, knowing immediately something was off. First of all, she hadn't had anyone sharing her bed since Mickey, and this figure was definitely not shaped like his. Secondly, she definitely hadn't in this place, and she knew as soon as she figured out she wasn't in her comfortable TARDIS bed that she was still in that awful glass box. And thirdly...no man she'd ever invited home, even at her drunkest, would smell like that.

With a sinking feeling in her stomach, Rose's eyes flickered open. She turned over and blinked. The dread she'd felt turned to horror and she sat up lightning fast. No. No. They hadn't. They couldn't have! But it was him. And he? Had been presented to her like a gift, all wrapped up in his tattered trench, his ruined suit, and his bruised, beaten, and mangled body.

At that point, she didn't care who she woke up. All sense left her as Rose let out a panicked, desperate scream. Not quite loud enough to wake the dead--the proof lay lifeless beside her.

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so_impressive
2009-09-18 02:40 pm UTC (link)

"I will, but not right now." He accepted the jacket when she draped it over his shoulders, but he was sliding it off just a moment later and dropping it unceremoniously back onto hers. "Right now, I'm with you. He can take care of himself." He'd always come last, always, Rose. That was just the way the Doctor worked, no matter which regeneration it was. He was never as important as anyone else.. even if he was someone else, in a completely different body. It didn't matter. He was strong enough to handle it, he could withstand the cracks. He wouldn't break.

"Sit back down." He advised again, hands coming out to trap her biceps and turn her around, to ease her back towards that bench, to sit, before he sat back down next to her. "He'll get back to work on the modulator and I'll get back to work on the booster, and the two of us will get everyone out of here. You'll save me, and the world, then you'll get him. Maybe he'll take you to Barcelona." Cat was already out of the bag, everything had already been changed, if it was going to change. He might as well give her the added benefit of some type of security. You'd save his life, Rose. And you'd save the world. You were amazing. You deserved to know, deserved to hear it from his lips.

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jeopardysfriend
2009-09-18 05:33 pm UTC (link)

Why did these crazy blokes have that sort of faith in her? Didn't they get it? She was merely a shopgirl from London, and not even one of the ritzier parts of London. She was a poor girl with a somewhat shady past and no A-levels and no job waiting for her back home. There was no point putting the fate of the world in her hands because it couldn't happen.

"When's this?" she asked with an amused laugh. "Sometime between watching Eastenders on the telly with Mum and getting chips on the corner with Mickey?" Last she knew, she'd been sent home to wait patiently while the Doctor fought off a Dalek invasion. Granted, Rose didn't do patient well and had done nothing but pace and cry and snap at those who didn't need to be snapped at. But that was another story entirely. "You're the tough one, Doctor. Me, I'm just along for the ride." And what a ride it had been.

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so_impressive
2009-09-18 05:48 pm UTC (link)

"Minutes for me." He explained calmly, seriously. "Days, weeks, months.. I don't know how long it is for you. But you never were good at listening to directions, and you'll come back in, my white knight, and you'll single handedly save everyone. Including this tough Doctor." As he said these words, he was moving his arm out to wrap around her shoulders and his coat once again, pulling her back in against his side, those cool blue eyes staying locked onto the side of her face, watching as she laughed at herself.

Had you ever seen your Doctor so serious, shopgirl? You knew that look. He couldn't be more serious about this whole thing.. you'd save him, and the world. But you'd never know it for sure until you did it. And why was he telling you? Because he was weak. Your strong, tough Time Lord was weak.. you made him this way.

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jeopardysfriend
2009-09-18 05:53 pm UTC (link)

When he pulled her closer, she felt a little woozy. Was he actually saying...? But she couldn't. She'd tried. God knew, she'd tried. He'd told her to leave the TARDIS, to let it die and become a relic, but she hadn't been able to. She'd spent so much time inside there, the key still rested around her neck to that very day. She'd tried every control and button and knob she could find, and nothing worked. There was no way back to the satellite, she couldn't help him.

"No," she whispered, glancing up at him. "No, I can't have. I tried. I tried so hard. You sent me away..." Like a child. Because, again, she'd always be nothing more than a child to be looked after to him. "I couldn't get back, I wanted to, so much. I told you I wouldn't leave you." Oh, hell. Tears she'd been holding back all morning, that had threatened to spill over and she hadn't let them, welled up and trickled down slowly. She hated when he saw her cry and she rubbed at her face furiously with the backs of her hands, but they wouldn't stop. "I can't lose you, don't you see? And then I did and now I did again only not you, the other you. I hate this place, I hate what it's done to us, I don't like..." She didn't like knowing. The girl who'd travelled in time didn't like knowing the future that had been laid out before her.

"Sorry," she sniffled a beat later. "Just...sorry."

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so_impressive
2009-09-18 06:01 pm UTC (link)

"Don't be sorry, Rose. It's the truth. You'll come for me. You can't lose me. And that's why you won't. You're going to save me, you're going to be fantastic." He lifted that other hand, catching her chin and urging it up so blue could lock onto hazel, a smile lighting up his face. You were fantastic, Rose. He'd told you that before. He meant it. "Then I'm going to save you." He smoothed a thumb up over her cheek to wipe away a tear. "And things will be the way they have to be. The way they should be. You're going to travel with me-- with him-- and it's going to be fantastic. And I won't give you up for anything. I know that, because he told me. He loses you, Rose, he doesn't leave you. He'd never leave you. I'd never leave you." Though he'd threatened a hundred times, he could never really do it.

"I don't know what happens and it's better that way, for both of us. Don't ask him. Just know that neither of us will ever, ever leave you, Rose Tyler." He was finally releasing her face then, and lifting his eyes to look around the gym, only to assure that they weren't being watched, before he looked back again.

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jeopardysfriend
2009-09-18 07:15 pm UTC (link)

How could he be smiling when she was sobbing her heart out? Oh, sure, it sounded brilliant, didn't it? She went in and saved him at the last minute? Then he became the other him and all was fine and dandy until something went very, very wrong. He'd lost her? How? And how was she supposed to not ask? Was she dead? Kidnapped by some awful race of aliens?

But that calloused thumb ran over her damp skin and she couldn't help but smile, even if she was still crying. Stupid men. Only a man could make you smile and cry at the same time, no matter the species. "Yeah, well," she commented, the sound somewhat choked, "just be sure you know it goes both ways. I'm not going anywhere. You know, unless you trick me into it." Since, you know, he had and all.

"You know," she added with the barest hint of a smirk, "you were going to leave me back there in nineteen eighty-six. Don't think I don't know you were."

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so_impressive
2009-09-19 03:22 am UTC (link)

"I know." He agreed, passing his thumb over her cheek again to dry another tear, before he removed his hand all together, and for good this time. However, she was then declaring that she knew he would have left her in eighty six, and he made a noise of disapproval and shock (at least, that was what he tried to make it sound like.. it came out more like a bird squawk).

"Left you there? Maybe for a bit. But I would have come back. I did come back." He pointed out with a lift of his finger and a self-satisfied smile. "Rose Tyler, my Rose Tyler. You couldn't live in the eighties, with that poofy hair and big-bow style. You'd never have made it." A tease, of course. It was good to tease her again.

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jeopardysfriend
2009-09-19 08:44 am UTC (link)

His. She liked that. The bloke in the suit, he'd always called this one her Doctor. But how many people ever called her his Rose? And she supposed, in many ways, it was true. She'd never given herself so whole-heartedly to anyone else before. Not Jimmy, not Mickey, not even her own mother. No, he was stuck with her, like it or not.

"Could have," she defended with a grin. "Always wanted to dress like Madonna. Mum wouldn't let me, said I was too young. Wouldn't be if I was stuck there at nineteen, though. I'm thinking Get Into the Groove Madonna. Or Cherish." Her face went serious as she pretended to consider it. "You'd have to come back for me before the traffic cone bra, though," she warned. "Terrible fashion statement to try and copy, don't you think?"

Rose could tease, too, Doctor. And she loved every second of it. God, she'd missed him.

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so_impressive
2009-09-19 11:14 pm UTC (link)

"Nope, if you want to go back and be Madonna, you'll have to go through all of her phases, traffic cone bra era included." He nodded decisively with that statement. "And then even your charm and good looks wouldn't get you some young, handsome, stupid thing. They'd try to get close, and you'd skewer them. And there'd go the new boyfriend." Was he jealous? Yeah, a little. .. Maybe more than a little. .. Okay, yeah, he was really jealous, but at least he didn't let it show so outwardly. He had with Jack, but that was different. That was Jack, the impossibly handsome omisexual man who could have seduced a mail box into his bed. But not the Doctor. No, Jack, you could never have this Doctor.. and maybe that was why he wanted him so badly.

"We should get you out of here." Away from the body of the man she'd grow to love. Away from the death. Away from the smell. Out into the fresh air, as there seemed to be no zombies around anymore.

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jeopardysfriend
2009-09-20 12:22 am UTC (link)

"Ha, what new boyfriend?" she challenged, a wicked grin crossing her face. "Remember, Doctor, I'd be Madonna-esque. I'd have dozens of new boyfriends." The smirk she gave him was unmistakably Rose. The same girl who'd held out a hand and gotten her Doctor to dance, no matter how much he'd protested. Sure, it had taken using Jack to get him all good and jealous to do so, but it had worked, in the end. Of course, the Doctor had often played his part, too. Giving her tips and tricks on space travel to impress Adam with. Dragging her to chip shops whenever they passed one. Oh, those two went through all sorts of ranges of emotion. Teasing was just one on a ladder of many. But it was a good one. Especially at that moment.

Of course, then he had to go and ruin it and try to get her out of there. "I thought we went over this," she said, though she didn't sound angry. For her part, Rose wasn't even all that argumentative. Simply strong in her statement. "I'm not leaving. Not till I know Chris is going to be okay, and maybe not even after that."

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so_impressive
2009-09-20 12:59 am UTC (link)

"Dozens? With that bra, you'd need dozens, you'd be offing them just as quickly as you made them." He could just picture it now.. the thought made him smirk some. However, she was insisting once again that she wanted to stay, and he raised his hand, as if to quell any argument, whether it was coming or not.

"Just for a breath of fresh air. Just for a moment. I think it'd be good. For both of us." He was slowly standing up then, extending that hand down to her. On more than one occasion, he'd asked her to come with him, this way. She'd yet to turn him down. "We'll come right back inside and check on him. I promise. Just for a moment, Rose." He was doing what he thought was best.

And maybe being a little selfish in the process.

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jeopardysfriend
2009-09-20 01:14 am UTC (link)

Rose rolled her eyes at him, but stopped to consider his request. "Just outside the gym," she said carefully, watching him, as if challenging him to go much further.

Because he was right. She'd never once turned down the offer of his hand, and as she reached out to grip it, she didn't then, either. And, whether she knew it or not, she wouldn't turn down the other Time Lord's hand, either. Maybe it was something about the race, or maybe it was just something about the man himself. She'd put her trust in him from that first moment he'd saved her life, and would until she was parted from him forever.

Which, if rumours were to be believed, would be much sooner than she'd like.

Still. At that moment, he was offering to take care of her, and after days of trying to take care of everyone else, she couldn't turn it down. Her hand gripped his firmly and she got to her feet, nestling in that warm, safe place by his side. "Still dark," she said quietly, as they reached the gym's entrance. "Barely even moonlight. Wonder what that's got to mean."

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so_impressive
2009-09-20 01:36 am UTC (link)

"Still dark." He agreed as he led them through those glass doors and out onto the steps, down a few before coming to a stop. Blue eyes remained locked onto the starts in the sky, no formations he knew, no galaxies he knew. Nothing. Like it was all fake, all made up.. like a child had just dotted on a false sky. It was disquieting.

"It means they forgot to turn on the moon." Mention of the moon made him remember the werewolf, and he turned his head to glance in the direction of the museum, where he knew the boy still was. But it didn't matter right now, Rose was most important. His hand stayed linked with hers and he turned a bit, facing her straight on.

"I'm going to need your help, Rose." He announced, finally. "Think you'll be up for it?" He knew she would be, but he had wanted to verbally announce that he needed her, so there wasn't any question in her mind.

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jeopardysfriend
2009-09-20 04:39 am UTC (link)

Smartass. And yet, she knew he probably hadn't meant it sarcastically at all. Typical. She knew that's what that meant, but what were their motives? Was this part of their bargain with Tonks? Were they attempting to get back at them for trying to wager for Remus? And, if they were, why something that would take it out on the entire community?

But she couldn't think about that just then. Instead, she pushed a smile on her face as she looked up at him expectantly. "Yeah? What is it, then?" Giving his hand a squeeze, she released it and dropped down on to the steps, making sure he knew he wasn't getting her any further from Chris' bedside, such as it was, than she already was.

The last time she'd tried to help him with something, it was the Delta Wave. And look where that had gotten them. Separated by a few thousand years was all. To be honest, she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to attempt it again.

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