#another jump

[hestias-night-vale-ramblings]

Oh hey, current intern is from Michigan! Man they sure like connecting us to Night Vale, wonder why

Cecil, buddy, your intern is from there please stop butchering it please, just have Kareem say it

[moroiiangel]

Another Jump

Chapter 2

Notes: I started writing this story in December.  So it’s a fairly long time to wait for less than 2000 words, I admit, but I’m already half way through chapter 3, and I decided to finally get my rear in gear and get back into writing.  

Chapter 1  Ao3 

With a great shuddering breath and a steeling of shoulders, Rose Tyler went to work.

She directed the crowd’s attention, gave people jobs so that they felt they were involved, and generally distracted them so that the Doctor (oh, god, the Doctor, she’d found him she’d found himshe’dfoundhim) could get to work. It came easily to her; she had been required to deflect attention and deal with crowds when working for Pete. Before the canon, but after the year-long depressive spell. In the universe where her Mum was (she still was incapable of thinking of it as her own; it would never feel like her own) Rose had joined up with Torchwood after nagging from her mum, Mickey, Jake, and eventually Torchwood executives as well. After the Cyberman invasion, it had taken Torchwood a while to get back on its feet. While it was not operating at full capacity, things had slid, and they were pressed to find new staff to help catch up with everything. It hadn’t been until she had told the Doctor at Bad Wolf Bay that she was joining them that she had even truly decided she would.

Another year on, Rose had begged her way onto the team that was looking to reinitialize the cross-dimension initiatives. When they asked for volunteers to help test-run the new cannon, Rose was more than willing to give it a go. On the face of it, it was to help discover why the stars were going out. But Rose had hatched a plan, right from the start, to use it to find the Doctor. And, if she could figure out what was going on with the stars, then she’d be happy to fix that too.

After all, she was the “Defender of the Earth”.

Once the crowd before her had been properly dealt with, she turned back to the man who had given her that label. He was done scanning the craft, presumably. She made the assumption due to the fact that all she could see of the Doctor was his rump as he was tucked half inside of the wreckage. What on earth was he digging for? And really, should they still be hanging around? Back in the parallel world Torchwood would be on high alert after something like this. And if this world’s Torchwood - or UNIT - came to the crash site to do damage control, and found not just the Doctor but her... Rose knew they would try to take her in for questioning. And maybe tests. After all, it wasn’t every day that someone from a parallel universe simply busted in.

Now she got to thinking about it, Rose was surprised that no authorities seemed to be present yet. Not even the local constabulary. She vaguely recalled giving the portly gentleman she’d first spoken with the task of informing them. Had he done it? Rose scanned the diminished crowd but didn’t see him. Maybe he didn’t own a cell phone. Regardless she felt that she had hung around here long enough. She needed to tell the Doctor about the much larger crisis at hand, anyway.

She walked over to stand beside him, addressing the small of his back. “What’ve you found, then?” Her voice came out more clipped than she would have liked. He had been there, helped her to her feet, walked several blocks with her making idle conversation, and never once told her - Rose was angry. It was an irrational anger. She could hardly believe it of herself. Over fifteen canon jumps looking for this man spread out over months; nearly a year now. Bad Wolf Bay had been nearly three years ago. All the time she had missed him with an ache that went beyond anything she’d felt before. Despite all of it, she was cross. In all the times she had imagined their reunion (and she’d imagined it plenty) never had she thought he would hide from her.

The Doctor was making no signs of having heard her. Bloody typical. He had heard her tone, likely, and was running from it. How many regenerations distant was this Doctor from hers? And yet, still running however he could. This new baby-faced version of the Doctor was apparently going with passive aggressive. Brilliant. However, he was still the Doctor. She still needed his help. She still missed him badly, even when he was standing right next to her. So she tried to suppress her annoyance and treat him like... well. The least she could do was still treat him like The Doctor.

“Don’t think I’ve ever seen something like this before, Doctor,” she tried again. Her curiosity was genuine when she asked, “Where’s it from?”

From inside the craft, the Doctor’s muffled voice drifted out to her. “As I suspected, Solyule in make, but nobody seems to be at home. The escape pods weren’t jettisoned, but it looks as though the life-support packs are all gone. Shame they’re a smaller sort, it’s hard to reach - Hello, what’s this?” He crowed, and then made to pull out of the craft. As he moved backwards he rapped his head sharply on the side of the ship.

He sucked in air through his teeth and grabbed at his head. Rose instinctively held out her hands to him, trying to keep him steady as he wobbled. “Are you alright?” She asked, eyes wide in surprise. She was not used to the Doctor being clumsy. But he straightened, and after a few ginger touches to the back of his skull, his expression brightened again.

“Right as rain, Rose Tyler, and look at this this!” He exclaimed, holding forth what looked to Rose like an ordinary lump of metal.

The look she gave him was obviously not impressed enough, for he barreled on. “Come on, this is great! I’ve been needing one of these for ages!” He gave her a grin and when she steadfastly refused to be excited with him, he became a bit petulant. “The old girl needs it! It’s an integral part of her design. It whirls around, Rose Tyler. Whirls! And, as though that weren’t enough, it also glows!” She cocked an eyebrow at him, and he shoved the thing in his pocket. “Fine, be like that, but you’ll be begging forgiveness when you see it in action. Come along then, Tyler, and let’s get this back to the TARDIS.” He began marching away from the wreckage.

Rose had to admit this was not what she had been expecting. In fact she had imagined having to drag him away from this particular mystery. But in the end it was what she had been planning. Just because things hadn’t gone as she planned them didn’t mean she needed to stand about in a huff (although she was half-inclined to, just to see what he’d do about it). As she started after the Doctor and away from the warm crash site Rose began to really feel how chill it was. The snow around her and the fairy lights around lamp posts hadn’t really begun to click in her head until now. Was it Christmas time?

Momentarily distracted by the lights she didn’t even notice the black truck pull up beside her.