Chapter Text
“You told me ghosts aren’t real.”
Rose crossed her arms over her chest and stared at the Doctor from the entry to the console room, her shoulder leaned against the wall.
He glanced at her briefly, surprised at her words. “They aren’t.” He told her.
“Then why do I keep reading stuff in history and travel books in the TARDIS library about ghosts?” Rose asked.
“You’ve been reading?” He teased her, smiling a little.
“Don’t change the subject,’ she laughed good naturedly, “Come on, I’m serious, there’s all this stuff about ghosts, and I want to know exactly what’s going on here. The unexplained, and all that.” She waved her hand vaguely.
The Doctor leaned back against the console and crossed his arms over his chest, mimicking her. “Hm,” he said thoughtfully, tilting his chin up, “Good question, the unexplained. Not a lot known about it, really. Scientists will ponder so many parts of the world that they don’t even know what’s unknown! Nothing is the same in two planets, not really.”
“That’s why it’s unexplained.” Rose said bluntly.
“Ah. Right.”
The two of them stood in a deadlock for a few moments and then they both started laughing, almost doubled over with laughter after such a weird silence. Rose approached him and threw herself into the jumpseat.
“So are you going to tell me what to do about it?” Rose asked, kicking her legs, “Are you going to take me to some ghosts?” She asked eagerly, her excitement ratcheting up the longer she thought about it. She had a feeling that this wouldn’t be anything like the Gelth, as it was something that was known, by people in the area, as opposed to a historical anomaly.
He sighed. “Rose, I’m telling you, there are no ghosts,” he groaned, running his hand through her hair. She was a bit stubborn at times, and he had a feeling that this wasn’t going to be anything different.
Rose laughed. “There could be ghosts, and maybe you just haven’t seen any because they’re-” she wiggled her fingers at him, “Unexplained.”
“Ha!” The Doctor shook his head. “You don’t know that at all. You don’t know that!”
“And neither do you.”
“You’re killing me, Rose.”
“I am not, you’re just being difficult,” she said. “I know! I read in this book about something like the Bermuda Triangle, but it’s not in this galaxy,” she kicked her feet again. “And there’s this really big speculation that ghosts take the people that disappear. Whole boats are disappearing! It’s absolutely bonkers.”
“Bonkers?”
She gave him a look. “Oh, so that’s the word you take from that?”
The Doctor chuckled. “Yes, it is,” he said, “Rose, there are no ghosts. There just aren’t. So I need you to let it go.”
“No.”
He raised his eyebrows at her. “You’re serious. You want to look for ghosts.”
“This kind of ghosts specifically,” Rose said, “Do you know what I’m talking about?” She asked.
“I have heard of it,” he said slowly, “I am aware of it,” he said, feeling a bit odd about it all. He didn’t like to take Rose straight into danger. He really preferred that danger just stumbled across them. But it didn’t seem like that was going to happen today, just because she was pushing it so hard. And it was very hard for him to refuse Rose Tyler when she wanted something from him. It was very clear that she wanted something from him.
He sighed and walked over to her, shoving his hands in his pockets, looking down at her. “I know where it is. And you’re saying you want to go on a boat and supposedly get sucked into a Bermuda Triangle?”
She nodded. “There could be people that need help there, Doctor, on the other side of whatever is happening there.” She chewed her bottom lip as she looked up at him. “Can you imagine, being on the other side of that and not knowing what to do, being stuck, and not seeing any of your family for God knows how long?”
He regarded her carefully and smiled softly. “You never do anything for yourself, do you?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Here I thought you just wanted to see some weird phenomena, but really, you just want to help people that might be in trouble. You don’t even know that people are in trouble and you want to rescue them.”
Rose smiled a little and shrugged her shoulders. “I think that if we have a TARDIS at our disposal, and time and space, seeking out people to help would be… I don’t know, a really good use of our time.”
“Are you saying this so that we go and I give in to you?”
She let out a laugh. “Nah, I don’t need to pull sympathy cards to get you to take me somewhere.”
He laughed as well, realizing that she probably knew him better than he thought. “So you want to get tickets for a cruise that might disappear?”
“We’ll have to pack for really good and really bad weather,” Rose told him, in case we get dumped somewhere where the weather is weird.”
“I’m always dressed for the weather.”
She wrinkled her nose at him. “Kind of,” she said, “Not really though. You’re always dressed for fall and winter.”
“What?” The Doctor sputtered, “This outfit is timeless, as well as completely transverse when it comes to weather.”
“That’s not true!” She said, “If you go out like that in the summer, people look at you like you’re absolutely bonkers. Because you are. Because it’s weird to wear a suit in summer, and we go to desert planets and you wear your big coat over your suit. That’s just too much!”
“It is not!” He crossed his arms and went back to the console. “I’ll show you, Rose Tyler.”
“No, Doctor,” she giggled a little, “You need to blend in. Like, you really need to blend in, okay? Because if people get suspicious of us, how are we supposed to protect them?”
He glanced at her. “You really think that I don’t blend in?”
“To me you do,” she reassured him, “You make a good impression when you’re not being rude, but sometimes, you know… Sometimes you’re a lot.”
“But-” he started to feel a bit insecure and tightened his tie. “You like it though, right?”
She shrugged. “Of course.”
There were moments like this where she had no idea what he wanted from her. He seemed to care about her opinion an awful lot for someone who lived a life that had people falling at his feet all the time. She knew people adored him, and he didn’t seem to care about any of them.
“Why are you staring at me?”
“Sorry,” she said, catching herself, “So can we go?’
He blew out a long sigh. “Show me the book you were reading, I need to know what exactly you were going for when you found it.”
“The TARDIS showed it to me,” Rose said, hopping up off the jump seat and reaching for the Doctor’s hand. He took it without hesitation and she led him to the library. He trailed along behind her, humming a little as they walked. She rolled her eyes at how odd he was being and pulled him into the library.
“My ship showed you a book about vanishing boats in the ocean?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh.”
“What, did you think she wouldn’t show me something?” Rose asked as they entered the ornate room. She glanced around at everything in there again, just liking to look at it while she was in there. It was beautiful, and it was clear that the Doctor had worked very hard when he had looked into decorating the room.
She threw the book from the couch at him, and he caught it one handed, not wanting to release Rose’s hand. He looked down at the book and furrowed his brows.
“Rose, are you trying to stand here and tell me that you were reading a history book for pleasure? You, who barely reads for pleasure?”
“I read for pleasure all the time, you just don’t see it,” she said, scowling at him. “And it’s interesting, in a planet just like Earth. Well, not just like Earth, but really similar.”
“It is,” The Doctor acknowledged, knowing that it was similar. “I’m just very surprised that the TARDIS showed it to you, I don’t know.”
“But she did show it to me, which means she must think it would be beneficial if we went there, don’t you see?” Rose said, swinging their hands a little and popping up on her toes to get a good look at his face, just to see what he might be thinking about.
He looked down at her and grinned. “Okay, okay.”
“Okay?” She perked up.
“Yes, I said okay, don’t push it,” he dropped the books and waggled a finger at her. “And you’re not going to wander off, and I’m going to keep an eye on you, and you’re going to listen to me.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Are you really worried about this?” “A bit,” he admitted, then blushed, letting go of her hand, “You go pack a bag, I’ll be in the console room when you’re ready.”
“You’ll need a bag,” She said, crossing her arms. “You know, so that you can pack too.”
He shook his head. “No, ma’am. I am going to prove to you that this suit can fit into anything, in any time, any place! You’ll see!” He left the room then, and Rose laughed as he left.
She packed a bag quickly, wanting to get back to him so that they could go. She wasn’t really sure why this was so important to her, but the TARDIS had planted that seed of thought in her head. And if it was important to the TARDIS, that made it important, because there was really nothing the TARDIS thought about that wasn’t relevant to their lives.
She threw in clothes for every season and all her toiletries and all the other things a young woman needs, and bolted back to the console room with the bag in her hand.
“I’m back,” she said cheerfully, skipping into the room and throwing her bag on the jump seat.
“Welcome back,” he smiled, flipping a couple switches on the TARDIS console and pointing to a switch on the other side. “Hold that down, will you?”
He had been teaching her to fly the TARDIS a bit, and it was making her dreadfully happy, because it felt like she was more of a permanent part of his life, if he was willing to show her this. He had told her that actually, a TARDIS was supposed to be flown like several Time Lords, and it was very odd for one to be flown solo. That was all the more reason to learn. She wanted to be like him, in a way, in the ways she wasn’t able.
They flew it together as they got to where they were going, and the TARDIS landed roughly, throwing them both back on the grating.
The Doctor burst out laughing, and stood up, rushing to Rose’s side to pull her to her feet. “I think we’re here.”
“You do, do you?” she asked, rocking back on her heels. “Where exactly is ‘here’?”
The Doctor grinned at her. “Here is supposed to be the dock where we board our cruise that’s going to take us across the Placaton Ocean, through your mysterious spot and everything.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Placaton?”
“What, you thought it would be Pacific, like on Earth?” he raised his eyebrows at her. “Ha! Not everything is like Earth, Rose Tyler!”
“I know that!” She said, “But Placaton just sounds kind of gross,” she admitted.
“Placaton,” he wrapped his mouth around the word and hummed a little. “I suppose you might be right. It is kind of ‘gross’.”
She nodded with her chin towards the door. “So, shall we go?”
He took her hand, lacing their fingers together and beaming at her. “I rather think we shall.”