Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Mum, come on. You must be bored.” Jenny pleaded on the other end of the line while Rose walked across the campus of St Luke’s University. 

It was a warm, sunny day, though early enough that it could still take a drastic turn for the afternoon. People were milling about, either on their way to classes or skipping them in favor of the nice weather. Unseasonably nice days, Rose learned over the decades, tended to do that.

“Not yet.” She replied to her daughter who was who knew where or when, or even with who. “Wasn’t that long ago I was with Livie.”

“Mum, Liv’s in her hundred and thirties now. Pretty sure spending time with her Gram isn’t what she considers fun.”

“I’m a fun Gram, what are you on about?” She said a bit too loudly, earning some really odd looks from a couple that passed by. She may look a touch older than most of the students, but despite being over three thousand years old, she didn’t look a day over thirty on a bad one. Though… she supposed she could, technically be a grandmother at thirty, if things were tragic all around.

Jenny sighed. “Listen, we’re all just worried about you and Dad. It’s been, what, seventy years on the slow path?”

“Well,” Rose shrugged, “At least here.”

 Right. Well, you at least pop off now and again, but Dad? Dad must be going spare.”

“He pops off, too, just not as often.” She replied as she entered the main building and headed straight for the canteen. “We’re fine, promise. Nardole’s about, gives us a break when we really need to be off together. Just… off together doesn’t mean taking the TARDIS out together, is all.”

“You’re being punished for something neither of you did,” Jenny grumbled.

“It’s not a punishment, sweetheart, it’s a responsibility. One we took on gladly.”

“If you say so.” Jenny finally relented as Rose made her way inside the canteen. 

The scent of food instantly made her mouth water, and while there were so many other, better places for her to eat, sometimes it was nice to feel like she got back in touch with her roots. Cheap, fried food was always her weak spot, especially from Earth, and never had that altered in all the years she lived.

“Right,” Jenny continued. “Well, if you need to break away for a while again, let me know, I’ll come get you.” 

“’Preciate it, love. I’m off for now, though. Check in again with me, soon, yeah?”

“Give my love to Dad,” Jenny said before disconnecting the call, and Rose pocketed her mobile before grabbing a tray and getting in line.

Not much had changed over the years. Rose had noted very little had altered in the building over the decades. A fresh coat of paint here and there, the food changing with the times, of course, but it was starting to feel comforting to see something on Earth stay the same.

She glanced around before she spotted her, Chip Girl. Really, Rose should ask her name if for no other reason than calling her Chip Girl was rude, and so very much like her husband that she worried maybe the millennia together was starting to affect her. 

Chip Girl noticed her and blushed, as she always seemed to. She was quite pretty, big brown eyes and a charming smile. Her hair wasn’t pulled back today but was merely pushed back with a headband and a red bow. She wore a vest top, thin-strapped and stripped with a necklace that made her far too stylish to be working the canteen.

“Love the earrings,” Rose said to her as she made her way to the chips, noting the adorable peace signs hanging from Chip Girl’s ears.

“Thanks,” She said a little shyly as she added a bit more to the plate than she was supposed to. 

“Thanks, yourself,” Rose replied with a little grin before she went and paid for her treat. After that, she grabbed her plate and left the tray, heading up and through the main building to an office a few floors up. An office she was intimately familiar with after all these years.

She went to turn the knob when the door flew open, a short, bald man standing on the other side glaring at her.

“Forgot your specs again?” Rose asked before popping a chip in her mouth and moving around him.

“Seemed to have misplaced them,” Nardole replied as he closed the door.

Rose frowned, pausing to listen. “That you making that noise?” She asked, not having to strain much to hear the mechanical whirring as Nardole waddled a little.

“Might be,” He said with indigence.

“No need to get your knickers in a twist,” Rose replied. “Think it might just be time for a little maintenance, is all. Have you asked the Doctor?”

Nardole didn’t reply, just made his way into the apartments in which the Doctor was likely in.

Rose rolled her eyes and sat at her husband’s desk in the guest chair, setting her plate of chips down. 

Nardole was a bit of an accidental acquisition. He was supposed to stay with Susan and the relocated Gallifreyans. But when Rose went to check on them once she and the Doctor settled in for their thousand-year stint on Earth, Nardole had sort of followed her into the TARDIS like a lost puppy. 

He called it making up for all the things the Time Lords made him do to Rose while she was imprisoned. She called it supervising when he learned that she and the Doctor were meant to watch over Missy.

Either way, she supposed he was decent company.

After a few minutes, her husband came out of where Nardole entered, a stack of folders in his hands. He had a hoodie on under his blazer, a plain tee beneath that, from what she could see. His casual attire was a good look, one she’d come to appreciate after thousands of years in suits. He still wore them on occasion, of course, but there was something about the current look - especially when paired with sunglasses and his guitar- that made her take a second glance.

“Jen sends her love,” She said as she popped another chip in her mouth.

The Doctor set the stack on his desk before sitting on the edge next to her chips.

“Does she?” He replied with an almost skeptical tone, stealing a chip off her plate.

Rose hummed, “That and she was near begging me to join her. Don’t think she thinks we can do this for the whole term.” 

The Doctor smiled, and it was always amazing how this body could go from grump to dazzling with just one, honest curve of his lips. “That’s because Jenny couldn’t sit still for anything.” But that smile faded. “Not even for her family.”

“She gave it a good go,” Rose said, reaching out and putting a hand on her husband’s knee. “She was there most of Liv’s childhood.”

“She could have stayed with him, though.” He replied, casting his eyes to his knees. “Could have brought him with her.”

“Tim was done.” She reminded. “He was done with the travelin’, done riskin’ his life for a thrill. After what happened with… with Her , and the kids when Liv was young, he didn’t want anything more to do with it, an’ I don’t blame ‘im. Not like we did a whole lot of that when Mel-River was little.”

The Doctor pursed his lips, nodding. “Yeah,” he agreed.

She studied him for a bit. “Was nice, though.” She volunteered after a bit, “Gettin’ to see lots of Amy and Rory, have them visit when Anthony was older.”

The Doctor smiled again, but it was more wistful. “She stopped going by Melody after that.” He said. “Once they….” Both took a moment to allow the maudlin to pass, taking a chip off the plate and popping it in their mouths. “I’m having a meeting this afternoon after my lecture.” He changed the subject.

“So, you want me gone is what you’re saying.”

“No, just want you not in the office.” He countered with a smirk. “Might not give a good impression if the woman I’m going to tutor sees my very young wife.”

“Young?” Rose said, holding back a laugh. “Older than this building, I am.”

“Not how you look, though.”

“Suppose not,” She agreed. “Right, well, if you’re worried about impressions, might not wanna have all the family photos out,” She said, indicating a pair on his desk, one from a few thousand years and two bodies ago, and one more recent. “Might send the wrong impression, that. And get Nardole looked at, he’s startin’ to creak.”

~DW~

When Bill Potts walked into the office of the Doctor, she was a bit too nervous. Must’ve been, as the bloke who led her in seemed to be creaking, like a robot of some sort. He gestured for her to take a seat, and as she did, something fell from… somewhere. His sleeve, perhaps? Whatever it was, and from where ever it fell, didn’t seem to matter because he slid it behind him with his foot, holding an unnervingly creepy smile the whole time, before slowly backing out of the room.

Weird.

The Doctor wasn’t in, and she didn’t seem to hear him in the apartments adjacent to the office, so Bill glanced around. 

The first thing she noticed, as it was hard not to, was the great, big, blue police box in the corner of the room. The thing was massive, nearly as high as the ceiling. Getting to her feet, clutching the strap of her bag, Bill gazed at it up and down. It looked old, like it was some sort of nostalgia piece, though she couldn’t for the life of her figure out why there would be an “out of service” sign on it. Yeah, it was a phone box, but it’s not like it would have actually worked. 

She turned, making her way back to the desk when she noticed the pictures. Nosy, she tilted her head, having a look at them. One was old, black and white, seemingly a school picture of a young woman. Maybe his wife? Daughter? Could have been a daughter, maybe. Sister more probably, he didn’t look that old. There was a smaller picture, one of three women, two looking very much alike, though one had blonde hair and the other had brown. The third woman was a riot of curls, ginger toned, all three of them gorgeous. There was a space on the desk where it was clear another picture had been, but for some reason wasn’t there any longer.

A shuffle in the next room had Bill flying for her seat, plopping down as quickly as she could. Her eyes had just landed on a cup with the weirdest-looking pens she’d ever seen when the Doctor walked into the room.

“Potts? Bill Potts?” He asked as he came around to the other side of th e desk, facing her and the fireplace at her back, but didn’t sit down.

“Yeah, you wanted to see me?” She asked with a smile.

He turned around. “You’re not a student at this university.” He stated, and Bill’s smile faded.

“Nah, I work at the canteen.” She replied as casually as she could. 

“Yeah, but you come to my lectures.” He commented as he shuffled papers and whatnot around on the counter he faced.

“No I don’t,” she answered a bit too quickly, laughing nervously. “I never do that.”

He turned and pointed at her with a record. “I’ve seen you.” 

“Love your lectures,” She confessed. “They’re totally awesome.” 

“Why’d you come to my lectured when you’re not a student?” He asked as he turned back around.

Bill debated for a moment if she really wanted to tell the Doctor, an infamous professor there on campus, the reason she started going to his lectures. But, really, she’d already been caught out, and she really didn’t have anything to lose at this point.

“Okay,” She began, shifting in her seat. “So, my first day here, in the canteen, I was on chips. There was this girl, student I think. Beautiful. Like, a model, only with talking and thinking. She looked at you and you perved.” The Doctor froze, then half turned to look at her. “Every time,” She said, fleetingly meeting his gaze. “Automatic, like physics. Eye contact, perversion. So, I gave her extra chips. Every time, extra chips, like a reward for all the perversion. Every day, got myself on chips, rewarded her. Started worrying maybe I’d fat her, eventually. But, one day, coming off shift, see her heading through the building, I follow her. Dunno why, sorta stalkerish, but thought, hey, maybe I can see if she’s got someone, yeah? She went to your lecture. Lost her in the crowd, but, I sat down and listened, and… well.”

The Doctor’s eyes moved about like he was looking for something. “So, you came to my lecture… because you stalked a pretty girl on campus?”

“Yeah, sounds bad when you say it like that. What’s that, a police telephone box?” She asked, pointing to the thing in the corner and promptly changing the subject.

He glanced at it. “Yeah,” He said before making his way toward it, eying it somewhat suspiciously.

“Did you build it from a kit?” Bill asked.

He turned to her briefly before gesturing to the box. “No, it came like that.”

“Then how did you get it in here?” Bill asked, sizing up the box and then the door. She swore, for one fleeting moment, that she heard a soft giggle. Shaking it off, she added, “The door’s too small and so are the windows.”

“I had the window and part of the wall taken out and it was lifted in.” The Doctor explained, gesturing about as if to demonstrate how that worked.

“What, with a crane?” Bill asked. She knew he’d been here a long time, but had they had cranes that big when he first started teaching? It couldn’t have been all that recent, a big to-do like that for an eccentric professor’s odd choice of decor would have made some sort of media.

“Yeah, with a crane. It’s heavier than it looks. Why do you keep coming to my lectures?” he said, getting them back to the original topic. 

He came back to his desk and folded himself in his chair, one leg propped up, hands resting on it.

“Because I like them,” Bill smiled. “Everybody likes them, they’re amazing. Why me?” She deflected after a beat.

“Why you what?” The Doctor countered, dropping the leg and moving side to side.

“Well, plenty of people come to your lectures that aren’t supposed to.” Bill shrugged. “Why pick me?”

He glanced at a picture on his desk. “Well, I noticed you.”

“Yeah, but why?” She asked.

He seemed to take a second to think on that, looking at the other picture a moment before saying, “When most people don’t understand something, they frown. You… smile.” He said, giving her one of his own. It was warm and friendly, kind and something she couldn’t pinpoint. It had an effect on her, something she could barely say for the males of her species, though it was different than most would expect. It made her feel hopeful, bright, and clever. 

She grinned back. 

“Tell you what I don’t understand,” She said, and they both leaned forward on the desk. “You’ve been lecturing here for a long time. Like, fifty years, some people say. Nebeela in the office says over seventy.”

“Yeah, and you’re thinking, ‘well, he doesn’t look old enough’.” The Doctor smirked.

“No,” Bill replied, and he seemed taken aback. “I’m wondering what you’re supposed to be lecturing on. It’s like the university lets you do whatever you like. One time, you were going to give a lecture on quantum physics, you talked about poetry.”

“Poetry, physics, same thing.” He said, holding his hands up like he was making a comparison.

“How is it the same?” Bill asked.

“Because of the rhymes.” He countered before pointing at her across the desk. “What are you doing at this university?”

“I always wanted to come here.” She replied.

“Yeah, to serve chips.” He retorted with a smile.

“Oi, don’t be rude.” Bill’s eyes widened at the voice. That voice. 

The Doctor frowned over her shoulder, and Bill turned slowly with her heart pounding to see her standing in the doorway to the apartment. Just as gorgeous as she was earlier in the day in her blue, pin strip blouse and dark brown trousers. Her hair was still in large, perfect curls, and her makeup was still tastefully done.

“I thought I told you I was having a meeting?” The Doctor said, just a hint of lecture in his tone.

“Did. Just thought if you were gonna insult the girl that keeps me happy with the extra chips, should probably step in.” The girl said, and Bill looked between the two of them, not sure what to think or where to look. 

“I wasn’t insulting her,” he whinged. “She said she always wanted to come here, and she serves chips!”

“You forget where I came from, or somethin’?” Pretty girl countered, and the Doctor looked a bit like he was chastised, but fondly so.

“Right, sorry… who are you? I mean, I know who you are, sorta, but, ummm….” Bill stammered, feeling herself begin to blush a little as those pretty brown eyes turned on her.

“This is my wife, Rose.” The Doctor replied.

And it felt like the floor came out from underneath Bill’s feet. “Sorry, you’re….” She looked at pretty girl - Rose - and tried to take her in. She was older than most students, but she wasn’t that much older, still in her twenties. She looked to the Doctor who was… well, she supposed he wasn’t bad looking for a bloke. Bit old. Eyebrows were something.

“Right.” She eventually said. “So… I was giving your wife extra chips and followed her to a lecture. Is this, are you…?”

“You’re not in trouble,” Rose assured. “He’s just got a funny way’ve goin’ about asking you if you want to have him be your personal tutor.”

“My what?” Bill asked, starting to feel like this conversation was giving her a serious case of whiplash.

“Your personal tutor,” The Doctor repeated with that grin.

“But… I’m not a student here.” Bill replied, shaking her head. “I’m not part of the university. I never even applied.”

“We’ll sort that out later.” The Doctor waved off her concerns.

“You kinda have to sort that out earlier,” She countered.

“We can take care of that,” The Doctor said, gesturing to Rose as she came over to lean on the counter behind him. “Assuming that’s a yes.” 

Bill didn’t answer right away. She couldn’t. He was smiling that ‘you’re so clever’ smile, Rose was smirking, giving her a slight nod. Bill, who couldn’t have afforded the tuition to come and even attend one class, who lost out on the scholarships she applied for, suddenly had an opportunity that was unheard of was presented to her for no other reason than she loved learning, and happened to smile when she didn’t understand.

“Yeah,” She said before slowly nodding her head. “Yeah, that’s a yes.” 

She and the Doctor got to their feet, and he moved around the desk to her side. “A first, every time, or I stop.” He said as he led her to the door. “I’ll see you at 6 pm every weekday. I don’t care who’s dying, never, ever be late. I’m very particular about time.” At this, he spun and pointed sternly at his wife. “Not a word.”

Rose pursed her lips as if trying very hard to contain a smile.

“Right, 6 pm, got it,” Bill said, turning to the door. She paused as a thought came to her. “Oh, er, people just call you the Doctor. What do I call you?”

“The Doctor,” he replied.

“But Doctor’s not a name. I can’t just call you Doctor. Doctor what?”

“Tyler.” Rose said, and Bill could see the ‘don’t you dare’ written all over the Doctor’s face. She didn’t seem to care in the slightest, moving to her husband’s side and leaning against him. “Doctor John Tyler. But seriously, just call him the Doctor. Much easier that way.” 

“Doctor it is then,” Bill said, and the Doctor actually breathed a sigh of relief at that. “Tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow.” He agreed, and then Bill left the office.

Down a potential girlfriend, but up a step in an education she didn’t have. It would mean studying, and writing papers. Moira will wonder how this all came about, probably make some sort of remark of how he’ll only be after one thing, or that Bill will need to be careful. But it didn’t matter.

She was going to be tutoring with the Doctor.

~*~

It wasn’t exactly easy, not that Bill expected it to be. 

Oddly enough, it wasn’t the education part that was hard. She had been told all her life she had potential if she tried. If she applied herself. But despite all that potential, Bill could never really get her grades where she wanted or needed them. It’s why she wound up at St. Luke’s serving chips instead of attending classes like she had wanted. 

Studying, writing the papers, it wasn’t that hard. The Doctor explained things in ways that had her paying attention, wanting to understand more. Often, she would incorporate what he would lecture both in class and behind closed doors. It awakened an urge to learn in her.

What wasn’t easy was seeing Rose around campus because there was still a crush there. Knowing she wasn’t just married but married to the Doctor certainly helped curb it, but the crush lingered, which meant interest lingered, which had Bill wondering how the Doctor ended up marrying Rose because bloody hell that was a massive age gap.

It also wasn’t easy spotting Rose, and sometimes the Doctor and creaky bloke going to a spot that looked like a cellar in the school. She managed to go down there once, but it was dark and they were messing about with electronics, and she had a suspicion she should be there for safety reasons so she left.

And, of course, there was the work/life/school balance she had never had to deal with before. 

Not a problem for the things Bill coveted most. She still held her job well enough, no issues there. She managed to get out, have drinks with mates, and spot a cute girl from time to time. And she was never late for the Doctor.

The problem was Moira. 

Moira was Bill’s foster mum mostly in name only. She was the one who had custody of Bill since she was a baby and her mum died, but she hadn’t really been a mum . Moira was younger than Bill was when the accident happened, wasn’t ready to be responsible for someone else’s life, but in no way was going to give up whatever custody she had just in case Bill’s grandparents weren’t quite as forgiving as they seemed.

In fairness, all the times Bill spent with her mum’s parents - which was a lot more than was probably expected - they never had a bad thing to say about Rosie Potts. There weren’t any pictures, her name wasn’t spoken often, but when they did speak of her it was fondly and with profound sadness. They passed when Bill was in her teen years, old enough to be left on her own when Moira went out, but still far too young to be on her own.

Moira never really tried to get to know Bill, not in any real way. She would say from time to time that Bill looked just like Rosie, so Bill’s best guess was it was a grief thing. But it made it hard to see Moira as someone of authority in Bill’s life instead of just a required roommate.

So she hadn’t exactly told Moira that she was taking a class at St Luke. Hadn’t exactly told Moira a lot of big important things in her life, but the class was probably the smallest of those big important things. So when Moira stumbled upon (probably on purpose) the papers Bill had written in her bag while supposedly looking for something else, Bill wasn’t as freaked out as she could have been.

“You know you’re my foster mum?” She tried to explain, “He’s like my foster tutor.”

“Am I going to have to break every bone in his body?” Moira threatened as she looked at the exceptionally high marks on Bill’s papers. Probably the highest she’d ever gotten. Which, okay, yeah, Bill could kind of see why Moira was freaking out a little bit.

“It’s not like that,” She assured his Foster Mum. “For one, he’s married. Like, ridiculously happily married.”

“Never stopped anyone,” Moira said bitterly. “You need to keep your eye on men,” She said pointedly, probably thinking of how Bill came to be.

“Men aren’t where I keep my eye, actually,” Bill muttered.

“What was that?” Moira asked absently.

“He’s only got eyes for his wife, promise,” Bill assured. “Anyway, you’re going to be late,” She glanced pointedly at the clock, getting Moira to turn her attention away from the papers and on the time.

“Shit,” She cursed, dropping the papers down and getting ready to take off to wherever she was meant to be in a hurry. Probably a date, though to who Bill was never too sure.

For someone who warned Bill constantly about watching out for men in that “they only want one thing” tone, Moira remained blissfully oblivious to them and likely always would.

~DW~

A new routine had formed. At six o’clock on the dot, Bill would join the Doctor in his office, and they would do whatever it was that the Doctor felt like doing for the evening. 

That part was nice. He was getting restless, Rose could tell. He’d been good about keeping his word, choosing a place and time that they could probably stay without getting too bored. And when the wanderlust was a little too strong, she would man the fort while he popped off. It was never for long, no more than an hour or so for both of them. But having someone he could teach directly, one who wanted to learn from him specifically was going to do wonders for him.

And Rose, while the Doctor and Bill were busy, would head down to the vault.

Jack was in Wales as of late - the version of him currently on Earth, anyway - and while that wasn’t terribly far it wasn’t exactly somewhere she could pop over for a couple hours every day. Same for Mickey and Martha, for Donna, for so many of the people who traveled with them. And even those who weren’t so far away, well. Years of the slow path had Rose feeling out of sorts. Watching the years these people were born pass by, knowing they were out there growing and aging - herself included - made wanting to get back in touch with them terribly daunting.

And, in many ways, like they were from a past life.

She was beginning to understand why the Doctor hadn’t always kept in touch.

“Here she is,” Missy sang as Rose entered the vault.

Missy smiled from the piano bench behind the encasement that held her, tapping out a little tune that sounded oddly like that from a pageant.

“Yes, yes, here I am,” Rose replied as she ensured the vault was closed behind her before going up to the enclosure and tapping her sonic against the security panel. The door to the encasement opened with a hiss, and Missy finished her little melody. “Sure you’d like as much of a stretch as you can get,” Rose said as she went to flop in one of the two leather chairs that sat in the vault, facing the enclosure. 

“I never mind a little turn about the room,” Missy said as she got to her feet, striding out of the enclosure and doing just that. As she began her lap, she said, “How’s the hubby today?”

“Same as he has been,” Rose replied, rolling her head so she could keep a loose eye on the Time Lord. “How’s recovery?”

Missy paused a second before saying, “It’s a thing.”

“Mmm,” Rose hummed, narrowing her eyes at Missy. “You wanna talk about it?”

“No,” Missy snorted as she came closer, brogue thickening, “I don’t wanna talk about it.”

“No skin off my back,” Rose reminded her, listening to the quiet snort.

As Missy passed Rose, and started another lap around the room, she asked, “Has he said if he figured it out yet?”

Rose smirked, “No. If he’s given it any thought, he hasn’t let me in on it.”

“Uh-oh, do I detect a bit of matrimonial trouble?” Missy asked.

If Rose hadn’t gotten to know her so well, she wouldn’t have realized that Missy was, of all things, teasing her.

“Been married for something like a few thousand or billion years,” Rose reminded her. “We’ve never let every thought slip through. Bloody hell, imagine if I had to listen to him design a new sonic every time.”

“Any gadget, really,” Missy agreed.

“Or when he and the TARDIS are in a tiff,” Rose piled on, making Missy throw her head back and laugh.

She came around and sat down in the other chair just a touch more gracefully than Rose had, looking at her with a warm smile.

That was strange, still. Missy looked at Rose less like a fascination and more like a friend. An old friend, like the Doctor, maybe. She doubted she’d have ever had this sort of relationship with a young version of the Time Lord, the previous incarnation Rose was familiar with still fresh in her mind.

But after a few centuries of staying with her, guarding her, and not having Missy try to kill her, Rose could see that person the Doctor desperately kept trying to save time and time again. The old friend they loved and could never really let go of.

“So what’s got you coming down here so punctual?” Missy asked as she crossed her legs and turned to face Rose properly. 

“Noticed that, did ya?” Rose asked with a smirk in return.

“Dear, I’m a Time Lady. Yes, I noticed. Now, come on, spill. What’s he getting up to every night that you’re coming down here.”

“Maybe I just like the girl chat,” Rose countered, though Missy didn’t look too impressed. “He’s got a new student. Giving her and him some space.”

“Ooooh, a her, is it? I remember a couple of times there was a ‘her’ kicking about that was making eyes on your partner.”

“She’d be making eyes at me, this go,” Rose countered. “Turns out my extra chips were a bit of a flirt.”

“Saucy,” Missy grinned wickedly with a twitch of her eyebrow. “What’s this one? Better than the Clara one who got all soppy with the cybermen I hope.”

“Oi, don’t start that,” Rose pointed at Missy crossly. “Don’t you try that with me, Missy. I know you’ve got regret about that.”

Missy, for just a brief moment, looked chagrined. 

Rose suspected Missy’s progress in repentance was only something she had seen or heard. Nardole was adamant that she was just as evil as she’d been when sentenced to death. The Doctor could never be certain, be that because of trust issues of genuinely not seeing it.

But Rose, she’d seen the tears. Real ones, nothing crocodile about them. She’d heard what Missy had been through, related to it, and listened as she told stories about things she was starting to regret.

The people she’d killed, how she remembered their names.

Rose felt that in her gut.

But regardless of any vulnerability Missy showed from time to time, deep down she had a wicked streak that was simply a part of her. Not always evil, not always bad, just a sharp tongue and an unapologetic way of using it.

“Still weren’t too sad to see her go, though, were ya?” She egged Rose on. 

Rose rolled her eyes. “I’ve had so many people fall in love with my husband, it’s a bit old hat now.”

“Still more to come,” Missy grinned.

“I shouldn’t know that,” Rose sing-songed.

“Oh, but you do. You know who he is next, don’t try and deny it.” Missy smacked her lightly on the arm. 

Rose chuckled. “Yeah, suppose I did let that slip with you, didn’t I?”

“One of us did, suppose it doesn’t matter who it was,” Missy said, usually a sign that it had been her first and she wasn’t about to own up to it. “So, what’s this one’s name, then? The next ‘companion’?”

“Bill. Bill Potts,” Rose said, turning to look at Missy again only to see her wide-eyed. “What?”

“Nothing,” She said, meaning that it was very much something. “Nothing at all.”

~*~

The weeks ticked on, greenery and twinkling lights began to make an appearance, and Rose had to wonder how many Christmas she spent with the Doctor. 

They were always bittersweet. There were memories of spending them with the Ponds, the Smiths, Tim, and Olivia. There was the time they met Donna, of course, and one where they saw Clara and her little one for their first together. And there was the last one she spent with her mum, with Christmas crackers and killer trees and not enough appreciation for it.

Years and years on Earth taking the slow path meant they passed many of them in somewhat quick succession. Oftentimes, they skipped them. Both the Doctor and Rose made it a habit of never getting terribly familiar with the University staff, so they hadn’t had anyone to spend them with for the majority of their time there. 

But Bill had asked if she could swing by on the eve for a little celebration, and neither of them could say no.

So in the Doctor’s office, the three of them gathered around a cleared-off desk, a fire crackling in the hearth, and a tree Rose dug out from the depths of the TARDIS twinkling in the corner.

“It’s a rug,” The Doctor said as he unwrapped the gift Bill brought.

“What he means is, thank you,” Rose said with a smirk, tongue peeking out the corner of her mouth when he turned a glare on her. “What, do I need to break out the cue cards again?”

“Cue cards?” Bill asked with a confused chuckle.

“Something I did when he was at his rudist,” She explained with a wave of her hand. “And you didn’t have to, you know,” Rose said with a tilt of her head to the rug. “Didn’t really get you anything.”

“It’s okay, it was cheap,” Bill waved it off. “Besides, you’re providing dinner.”

Dinner was Chinese. It hadn’t occurred to either of them that all the holidays they participated in, the Doctor and Rose never actually cooked. Who they celebrated with did all the heavy lifting, meaning that neither of them really knew how to do a turkey and the trimmings. So, Rose resorted to a long-standing estate tradition among those who didn’t celebrate or celebrate alone.

There was still, at least, Christmas crackers. 

Not the sort of special ones that they sometimes had for friends. There had been a debate, but how could they explain it when Bill hadn’t known what they were? 

“Going anywhere for Christmas?” Bill asked after the plates were cleared and the paper crowns were in place on their heads. She fiddled with the little metal puzzle that had been in her cracker, glancing from it to the Doctor and Rose in turn.

“We never go anywhere,” The Doctor replied.

“That’s not true. You go places, I can tell.”

“Usually we save it for the summer,” Rose lied.

“We do?” The Doctor asked through the bond.

“ Makes more sense than never, ” Rose retorted as Bill smiled.

“See, I knew it.” She said proudly. “Mum always said, ‘with some people you can smell the wind in their clothes.’”

The Doctor frowned, “She sounds nice.”

“ Wind in their clothes? Is that a thing?”

“Not a saying I’ve heard, ” Rose replied, pursing her lips.

“She died when I was a baby,” Bill admitted, eyes going sad and distant.

“’M sorry,” Rose said, reaching for Bill and gripping her arm. “Know what it’s like. My dad died when I was a baby, too.”

“What, really?” Bill asked. “I mean, sorry. That… Moira, my foster mum, she said my dad didn’t really want to be around, just sort of supported me from afar.”

“Had a friend with a relationship like that, too,” Rose grinned. “He used to say his dad was a secret agent when was asked why his dad was never about.”

“I never really gave him much thought, my dad,” Bill shrugged. “Mum, I used to think of all the things she would have said. Like that, the wind in the clothes thing. She said it in my head because, well… couldn’t have said it when I was growing up, could she?”

“I used to do a lot of the same. Think my dad woulda said all sorts of wise things ‘cause mum was always going on about how smart he was. Bring out the album once a year, have a gander.”

“There’s hardly any photographs of my mum,” Bill said with a wistful, sad smile. “I’m supposed to look like her, but I don’t really know. She hated having her pictures taken. But if someone’s gone, do pictures really help?” She asked thoughtfully.

Rose’s eyes fell to the pictures on the desk. She didn’t know when he put the family photo back, the one with Jackie and Pete, Tony. Rose and the Doctor two bodies ago and their daughter. She wondered if Bill had ever noticed it. She wondered if she ever asked.

“ I keep her from noticing, ” The Doctor assured, and Rose nodded.

“Yeah, think they help a lot,” She told Bill.

~DW~

Rose was melancholy in a way the Doctor hadn’t seen in thousands of years. After Bill left, she blocked him out, putting up a wall as she turned her chair toward the fireplace and stared into it. She still had on the purple paper crown from her cracker, but no pink in the lot. 

He snapped his fingers, the door of the TARDIS opening and the Old Girl already cueing up a song. He strode across the room in three steps, stuck his hand out by Rose’s head, and waited for her to turn to look at him before he smiled.

“We haven’t upheld a Christmas tradition in a long time,” he said as she looked at him quizzically.

Taking his hand, she got to her feet with her frown in place, even as he led her inside the console room.

But instead of that wide smile he was hoping for when they took formation and the song started, she merely huffed a quiet laugh.

“That obvious, was I?” She asked, still not opening the bond.

“Well, mentions of your mum and dad never leave you in a good place. And you’ve been more and more humbug these last few years.”

“Suppose I have, though not intentionally,” Rose replied, looking over his shoulder in thought. “I think maybe it’s a bit of the slow path. See it all time and again, starts to lose its magic.”

“I suppose,” He agreed reluctantly. If he were honest, he hadn’t realized so many had passed by. Years ticked by, and people moved on, but they stayed still.

“We should do something for her,” Rose said after a couple of turns about the console room, drawing his attention back to her. Her face was all scrunched up in that adorable way it did when she was thinking of something. Still, after a couple mellania had passed after her eyes began to turn ancient like his, her face still scrunched adorably. 

It made his hearts swell, made him pull her a little closer.

“Like?” He asked.

“Dunno,” Rose said in a tone that made him think she did know.

“We’re not taking her to see her mum, we know how well that always turns out.”

Rose grinned.

“Yeah, no, wasn’t thinking that. But, well, maybe I was?”

The Doctor frowned, but before he opened his mouth and potentially ruined the moment they were having, Rose opened the bond, and he understood her plan.

~*~

Rosie Potts had been a reluctant but obliging model. 

“Amateur photographers,” Rose had explained after they approached her on campus. 

There had to be perception filters put in place, what with the Doctor teaching at the campus at the time, and Rose being around. For her, it was programmed just to change her hair color, a couple of her features, make anyone who saw her think she was maybe her own sister. For him, he made it so he looked like his last self. 

“You’ve just got such a lovely face,” Rose told Rosie warmly, affecting a posh accent, “and you have such charisma. Won’t be more than a few days, a few shots here and there, and we’ll pay you for your time.”

Rosie Potts chewed her lip in a way that reminded the Doctor of Bill, and suddenly any apprehensions he might have had about doing this little thing for his student vanished.

“Yeah, alright,” Rosie agreed. “When should we do this?”

~*~

“You were always a softie,” Missy taunted in a sing-song way after the Doctor told her where he and Rose took off to. “You tell the bald one that you both left at the same time?”

The Doctor scoffed, rolling his eyes as he strummed a little mindless tune on his guitar.

“We did not,” He said over his shoulder to where Missy was in her containment unit, likely still sitting at the piano. “Nardole would have a right fit if he knew, and it would cause him to fall into disrepair. Then Rose would make me fix him, and we’d be stuck with him for longer.”

Missy snickered.

“Yes, but you always liked your little pets.”

“Nardole’s not a pet, so much as a stray my wife keeps around.”

“He was one of the High Councils’ wasn’t he? I remember him, from my time there. Imprisoned.”

She started tapping out a tune similar to the one he had been riffing, but the Doctor was less focused on her notes and more on her words.

“He was an odd duck. Never did figure out how he got there. He certainly wasn’t created by them, but I suppose it doesn’t rightly matter does it? Followed their orders.”

“He did,” The Doctor agreed, “But he wasn’t always happy to do it.”

Missy said nothing to that, and they two continued to play in sync for a while.

“Do I get to meet the new one?” 

“No,” The Doctor said without a second’s hesitation.

“Please?” Missy asked, and he could hear the pout in her tone. “I’ll be good.”

The Doctor snorted, looking over his shoulder to see Missy attempting to look innocent. It came across more as a sly cat about to hit the water off the table after being told not to do it. He arched a single brow at her, holding it pointedly until she relented.

“Rose is more fun.”

“I’ll be sure to tell her you said that,” He said as he turned away again, changing the tune he was strumming to one that always made him think of his wife.

“She’ll let me meet the new one,” Missy said like a petulant child certain mum or dad would give them what the other wouldn’t.

“You know, my granddaughter tried that tone with me, it never worked.”

“Which granddaughter?” Missy asked.

It still had the Doctor’s hearts stop a second to hear Missy refer to his new life, his new family. He wasn’t sure how she found out, whether Rose told her, or there was something in MIssy’s past that was from their future that led to her knowing.

He didn’t know for absolute certainty if Rose talked about their family in any amount of detail, but the Doctor still found it hard to.

“The new one,” He replied.

“Suppose Susan was raised to never do something so beneath her. How she ended up more like you than any Time Lord is a mystery.”

“There is that,” The Doctor agreed.

“Well,” Missy said with faux thoughtfulness. “I’m not above it.”

The Doctor snorted again.

“No, you are not,” he agreed. “But I’m still not letting you meet Bill, and I doubt Rose will, either. She’s too protective.”

“Yes, yes, your scary little Wolf. I know, I know,” Missy sighed dramatically. “But I think we’re becoming friends, she and I. We’re more alike than I want to admit. For instance, we both adore you.”

“I’m easy to adore.”

“We’ve both killed hundreds of people.”

“She didn’t exactly enjoy it,” The Doctor argued, brogue thickening.

“We’re both insanely beautiful. Timeless. Ageless.”

“Vain,” The Doctor chipped in, though he could admit to himself that was really more him than Rose.

“And we were both tortured at the hands of the High Council because of our connection to you,” She said this bit cheerfully.

The reminder made his hearts ache. Made him wish he’d gotten to witness the burn of that whole planet and remember it, especially now that he knew the truly innocent had escaped.

“Besides,” Missy said into the silence that was thick and heavy, cutting through it like she couldn’t sense the change. “You only ever take the best. I’m sure this pet is no exception.”

“Stop calling them pets,” He said, melancholy and unwilling to continue the banter.

This time, Missy seemed to get the hint and began to tap out a mournful tune on the piano. It took a moment for the Doctor to realize he stopped playing along, had before she switched gears.

He listened for a beat or two before joining in, the pair of them playing together in silence until it was time for him to return to the campus above, and the new term about to begin.

Chapter Text

For all the years they’d been on Earth, keeping Missy locked in the vault, keeping guard, nothing truly interesting ever happened.

Well, the Doctor supposed that wasn’t entirely true. It’s just that there was always another him on Earth - or sometimes, multiple hims - taking care of it. He’d made a bit of a game critiquing the outcome, how things went, to which Rose always found hilarious because it was still him, just a (presumably) younger version.

So when, on a sunny afternoon in spring while grading papers Bill walked in with a haunted look on her face, the Doctor was rather interested. It was the first proper mystery he could be a part of since… he couldn’t properly remember.

And Bill, clever, brilliant Bill, used a logic he hadn’t seen since meeting Rose. Maybe not perfect, some of her ideas were very clearly pulled from fiction. But she hadn’t tried to human reason it away. Hadn’t tried to come up with a “based in reality” reason for why her friend was so bothered, why she may have been affected.

He really liked her, saw the potential, but he really couldn’t let her get involved in all this, could he? He shouldn’t even be getting involved, and yet….

“What in the bloody hell are you doin’?” Rose asked with a chuckle as he tried to analyze the sample he took from the puddle Bill had shown him.

“Not sure,” He replied.

Rose came to his side, her footsteps soft and almost too quiet to hear. She rested her chin on his shoulder.

“What’s that?”

“It’s from a puddle,” he replied.

“Puddle? Dare I ask where this puddle was and why you need to analyze it?”

“It’s not liquid. I mean, it is, but it’s not from Earth. Not sure what it is. Looks like water, moves like water, smells like it.”

“Tastes?” She asked inquisitively.

“Wrong body, love.”

“Still wouldn’t put it past you,” She said as she took her head off his shoulder, patting his arm. “Right, well, I’m gonna go pop into our proper home for a bit, do a bit’o readin’ in there. Nardole’s a bit busy watching his shows in the apartments and I think I want the sound proofin’.”

“Right, enjoy,” He said, not watching Rose walk away because while this stuff did move like water, it also didn’t. It was incredibly frustrating because he couldn’t figure out why it didn’t by movement alone. It was like it was thicker than it was. Yet when compared to a sample of regular old water from the tap, nothing seemed different.

He could join Rose, and get the TARDIS to run an analysis. That would be the smart thing.

But if he didn’t run tests in the TARDIS, then he could arguably say he wasn’t involved.

But who would he argue with? Rafando, the judge, jury, and executioner of the Doctor’s prisoner? Ran away with his tail between his legs, knowing full well Missy was alive, so the Doctor doubted he would pop up out of nowhere to declare that he and Rose broke their oath. And it was a test, just a test, couldn’t hurt, right?

The water moved, which had the Doctor looking at it a little closer, thoughts of doing a proper investigation momentarily halted. He waited, staying perfectly still with an eagle eye on the fluid in his collection vial.

It moved again, but maybe he flinched. Wasn’t as young as he used to be, if the face he was reminded of having was anything to go by.

That had been amusing, Bill’s commentary about him being flexible on the subject. And strangely insightful, showing once again she had instincts that would have sold him so fast on her coming along for the right.

He was pulled from his thoughts when the liquid moved again, and this time he knew damn well he hadn’t moved even the smallest amount. It was alive, he knew it was. But how? Why? Where did it come from?

Bill came bursting into the office, slamming the door behind her before looking around the room for something. 

The Doctor set down the vial slowly, watching her grab a chair and jam it under the door handle.

“Hello, Bill,” He said cautiously, noting her watching the door with wide eyes even as she backed away, putting a good bit of distance between it and her.

No, not the door, under the door.

He thought he heard water splashing about, too much to be anything but maybe the contents of a bathtub or pool sloshing about. The Doctor glanced at the TARDIS, wondering if she was being a bit cheeky and amplifying a sound from within, but the doors were firmly closed. On top of that, he was getting a sense that the time machine did not like something and wanted to be away from it. Now.

“Oh!” Bill exclaimed, voice shaking a touch as she took another step back.

The Doctor looked from her to the door, watching as water that probably wasn’t started to seep under the door.

“What’s that?” He asked, already guessing.

“I’ll tell you what it isn’t. It isn’t a freak optical illusion,” Bill said as the liquid began to take the shape of a young woman the Doctor had seen in a few of his classes. “And it’s following me,” Bill added as the creature stared at her.

Nothing happened, it didn’t move, not for a good while. Not until Bill took another shaky step back and leaned against the TARDIS.

Then it turned to the Doctor, and he realized that there was something off about it. Her. He wasn’t sure. He couldn’t put his finger on what was wrong, but it was something. He inched closer for a moment, reaching out and ignoring Bill’s warnings until it met his eyes.

A cold chill ran down his spine, making him hesitate. 

Rose once told him that encountering Missy on the jet made her feel like two predators sizing one another up. The way the water creature stared him down made the Doctor feel like prey.

“I’ll tell you what,” He said as he shifted gears and moved to Bill, “let’s just pop into my box.”

“Your box?” Bill asked incredulously. “What good is getting in your box going to do?”

“What an extraordinarily long and involved answer this is going to be.” He said as he gently shoved her inside.

She kept her eyes on the water creature, almost as if she had that same instinct he had to keep an eye on it. All through entering the TARDIS, the closing of the doors, Bill peered at the creature with fear and a bit of awe.

“What’s happening?” Rose asked, and he glanced at her sitting in their favorite chair on the mezzanine next to the bookshelf. 

She slowly closed the book, setting it aside on the armrest, and got to her feet, quietly making her way down the stairs to the console.

“This is mad,” Bill said without turning away from the door. “But out there? Following me about is Heather. Girl I was telling the Doctor about earlier, with the star in her eye. Only, I don’t think it’s really her.” Bill said thoughtfully. “I know it’s hard to believe, and I’m guessing you probably aren’t a sci-fi person.”

Entirely likely, she was going to add more to that, but then she turned around and took on The Look. 

~DW~

Bill’s day had not been normal.

Heather disappearing just as Bill saw her actually happy for the first time. The Doctor tearing off after a puddle when all she needed was someone to tell her she was not crazy but maybe not sane, either. The jury was out, even still, on what she had wanted from that whole interaction. 

Then there was the whole… thing which was still happening, with Heather-but-not following her around as a sort of water-zombie. Were water zombies a thing? Bill hadn’t heard of one, but Heather wasn’t exactly alive, and she was still moving around, so she wasn’t dead, so water Zombie.

That aside, her day had not at all been normal. So, a part of her wasn’t exactly shocked that the box the Doctor had in his office - the one that somehow managed to be on top of the rug she’d given him for Christmas despite being so heavy it needed a crane - was… not proportional to its exterior dimensions. 

“Time and Relative Dimension In Space,” The Doctor said from beside a tube that went floor to ceiling with a counter covered in controls surrounding it. “TARDIS for short. You’re safe in here, and you always will be. Any questions?”

So many. Too many. Some far beyond anything she should ask if she wanted to sound remotely sane. But then again, she was standing in a giant room that should not be logically possible, so sane was probably subjective.

Then again, she’d never taken note of what was next to the Doctor’s office. She knew there were apartments attached to them, so maybe….

“Is this a knock-through?”

“Do you think it’s a knock-through?” Rose asked, and Bill had sort of forgotten she was there, making her stumble down a short step as she ventured away from the door.

Rose was on the opposite side of the control-panel-thing from the Doctor, a little closer to the stairs than he was. Stairs that led to a sort of split level that was too tall to fit properly in the space the rooms at the university would have. So, knock-through was out. Had to be. 

“Not sure what to think,” Bill admitted as she looked up at the ceilings too high to be reasonable, at the sleek chrome decor. “Look at this place, it’s like a-“

“Spaceship?” The Doctor offered.

“Kitchen,” She replied.

Rose snorted, then outright chuckled as the Doctor almost looked offended.

“A really posh kitchen, all metal,” Bill explained. “What happened with the doors, though? Did you run out of money?”

“It’s an aesthetic,” Rose said as she came closer to Bill, leaning against the control thing that Bill had been inching toward subconsciously. She crossed her arms, nonchalant, easy as anything. “Seriously, though, he’s right. You’re safe in here. Looks like wood, yeah, thought the same thing when I stepped inside for the first time.”

“So it’s, like, definitely not a knock-through?”

“No,” Rose assured with a gentle smile and a shake of her head.

“So, there a loo?”

“Is there a loo?” The Doctor repeated incredulously.

Bill looked over at the flabbergasted old man and shrugged. “I’ve had a fright. I need the toilet.”

“It’s down there, first right, second left, past the macaroon dispenser.”

“Thanks,” Bill said, heading for the stairs as the squeaky bald man came up them.

“Oh, human! Human alert!” He said, giving Bill pause.

Human. Right, somehow, with the dead-but-not Heather, and the box that was apparently not a knock-through with far too large an interior to be possible, the idea that any of them weren’t human probably shouldn’t be surprising.

“Nardole, mate, that’s rude,” Rose said, calm as ever. “’Sides, thought you were in the apartments watching telly?”

“Thought it’d use the loo in here, be more polite if you catch my drift,” He said pointedly.

Rose rolled her eyes, about to say something when the Earth shook enough to throw everyone off their feet a bit.

As Bill grabbed hold of the railing - the need for the loo a little less urgent for the moment - she tried to think if it was possibly an Earthquake.

“What was that?” Nardole demanded in a tone that didn’t instill confidence in the claims that this place was safe.

“We have an incursion on campus,” The Doctor replied as Bill got her barrings. He whipped a screen around as Rose darted for the controls, showing Nardole an image of Heather outside the box. “Extra-terrestrial. We’re under attack.”

“Geronimo, then,” Rose said as the Doctor joined her, flicking switches, and turning knobs before pulling down on a lever that made the box grind.

At the top of the long tube in the middle of the room, the circle things started to move. 

“Oh, my God! This isn’t just a room, is it?” Bill asked, all while knowing the answer.

“No, it’s not just a room.” The Doctor replied.

There was a gentle boom as everything stopped. 

“Right, are we doing this together, then?” Rose asked the Doctor, brushing her hands on her denims.

“Maybe you can answer the questions, and I can do the scanning,” He replied before once more moving like a penguin with its arse on fire.

“Domestics for me, then? Surprise, surprise,” Rose replied, raising her voice over her shoulder as Nardole followed the Doctor out of the room.

Bill inched to where they exited, noting the doors were still open. A peek through, and they were in the dark cave-like thing that she had followed them to once and decided was not a place for her to be.

“So it moves anywhere in the whole university?” Bill asked, pointing through the doors to where the Doctor and Nardole were doing something.

“More than that,” Rose said as she came up to Bill, dropping her arm around Bill’s shoulder as she guided her outside. “Goes literally anywhere and anywhen we want to go. And right now, where we want is here and now.”

“Which is?” Bill asked.

“Under the university about a few minutes after you lot came inside and interrupted my readin’,” Rose teased, tongue peeking out between her teeth. And bloody hell, it was really, properly unfair that she was already married.

“Right,” Bill said, glancing behind them at the box, whole and intact, exactly like it was in the office. Through those still open doors, Bill could see the same, far too big room crammed within.

“It’s bigger on the inside,” She said quietly to Rose, still so bloody baffled.

“Hey, we got there!” Nardole shouted, only to be shushed by the Doctor as he ran a pen-thing around the big, metal doors.

“Great as that is, can we shut up, please? I need to know if there’s any interest in what’s inside this vault.”

“Why, what’s inside it?” Bill asked.

“Something we don’t want anyone being too curious about,” The Doctor retorted.

“So you put it in the middle of a university?” Bill countered, failing to see the logic there.

“Valid point, nice,” Nardole nodded along.

“Been here since before the University,” Rose replied, pulling Bill’s attention to her in full. “It’s also why no one really knows about it. Besides, only people who can get down ‘ere are friends of ours.”

“So why’s he worried, then?” Bill asked.

“I know you’ve been down here before,” The Doctor replied, ceasing his scan to turn toward Bill, tucking the pen thing inside his jacket. “I know because there’s no one else who could have been. Rose would announce herself. Our daughters, same thing. Our other friends don’t know we’re here . And that thing that’s chasing you took the form of your friend, there’s a reason for it. This?” He gestured behind him to the vault, “This holds something powerful and dangerous-“

“Don’t inflate her ego,” Rose interjected.

The Doctor just shot her a glare that had no heat behind it before saying to Bill, “Either the creature came here specifically for what’s in there, or it’s just a coincidence.”

“It’s just a coincidence,” Bill said without missing a beat, knowing flat out that whatever was happening had nothing to do with the vault. And she was sure when she explained it, the Doctor would see it, too. “Was here for ages before it did anything. If it had work to do, why would it lie around in a puddle?”

“I don’t know, maybe it’s a student?” The Doctor retorted.

“Banter,” Narodle grinned.

“Rude,” Rose said at the same time, exasperated enough to pull her arm away from Bill to put her hands on her hips.

“Well, she asked,” The Doctor started to protest when he seemed to freeze up. 

That’s when Bill registered the sound of rushing water. She doubted very much that that was a normal sound down here when even Nardole and Rose seemed to go instantly on edge.

“Right, you lot, in the TARDIS, then,” Rose said as she slowly started to move down the corridor.

“Us? Why not you?” Bill asked despite already following instructions.

“She’s, um… waterproof,” The Doctor said, hand gently pushing Bill toward the blue box.

“What if it attacks us?” Nardole asked.

“It’s gotta get through me first,” Rose said with a sharp tone.

“Would prefer if it went through none of us,” The Doctor said as he shoved Bill inside, the Nardole shortly after. “Rose!” He snapped, and Bill couldn’t see anything, but that weird, unearthly scream the Water Creature had made before Bill bolted for the Doctor’s office came from out of view. A few seconds later, the Doctor was yanking Rose inside, and the two of them shut the doors before moving as one to the controls.

“It doesn’t want the vault,” Rose said with confidence as they did a sort of dance around the controls, perfectly in sync, moving to a rhythm they seemed to know.

“It’s chasing us. Let’s give it a proper challenge,” the Doctor replied. “Let’s see how far she’s prepared to go.”

“What about my friend?” Bill asked, moving on unsteady legs as the TARDIS moved again. She stumbled, grabbing the edge of the controls and looking between the two of them. “What about Heather? Can we save her?”

“First thing’s first, let’s see if we can survive her,” The Doctor retorted as the box landed, or something, and he darted for the doors.

When he opened them, sunlight poured in, the sound of galls coming from some distance beyond.

Bill… still needed the loo. Probably needed it more than she had before, but….

It was sunny. Which made no sense in a way because last she was outside it was night. Now, sun. Which meant.

“We time traveled,” She said in awe as she stepped outside.

“No, of course not,” The Doctor scoffed. “We’ve traveled to Australia.”

Okay, not time travel. But, well, would that be better? Would it actually have been better to know they went forward or backward in time than knowing they went from England to Australia in less than two minutes?

Bill wasn’t sure. And right at this moment, she didn’t want to figure it out.

What she needed was the loo.

So she ran.

~DW~

The Doctor started to go after Bill but Rose stopped him with a hand on his chest.

“Leave her a mo,” She said without room for argument.

He gestured after Bill, “And what if that thing follows her?”

“I’ll go after her, then,” Rose assured.

“And what if it comes after us,” Nardole asked, causing Rose to roll her head toward him.

“What’s your programming, then?” She asked him, already knowing the answer.

Shrugging, Nardole replied, “Make sure nothing happens to you two, and you stay on task.”

“Right,” Rose said, stepping away from her husband while digging in her pocket and pulling out her phone. Handing it to a confused Nardole, she said, “’m going after Bill. You’re gonna watch over the Doctor. And while you do, you’re gonna call one of our daughters and get her to go to the vault for us, yeah?”

“Rose,” The Doctor protested, and she turned to look at her husband.

“Bill doesn’t know. Not about you, not about us. If something happens-“

“I’ll be here. And If something happens, you can ask whatever daughter Nardole calls to come find me.” She reasoned. “But right now, Bill needs someone, an’ I’m thinking someone a little closer to her species might be more helpful, yeah?”

She turned and headed for the cafe Bill had ran for earlier, moving at a more reasonable pace as to not draw attention.

“ I don’t like this,” The Doctor said through their bond as Rose weaved around people in shorts and t-shirts sipping drinks.

“What don’t you like? That we’re seperatin’ or that it’s clearly after Bill ,”

“ It could have been after Missy.”

“Bill was right, love. If it was after her it would have struck sooner.”

She opened the door of the washroom, finding Bill at the sink, splashing water on her face.

“Hey,” She said gently, though still startled Bill violently. “You alright?”

Bill laughed, “No.”

“Suppose you wouldn’t be,” Rose agreed, crossing the room and turning to lean back against the sink.”

Bill looked up, first at the mirror, then at Rose. 

“Can I ask you a personal question?”

“Can, but I might not answer,” Rose replied with a smirk.

“Are you from space?” Bill asked.

“No,” Rose shook her head. “No, I’m from Earth”

“Is he? Is the Doctor?”

“No, he’s not,” Rose said gently, recalling her being in the TARDIS, looking at him all leather and big ears. She remembered what it was like having the question “are you an alien” answered in the affirmative and how life-altering that was.

“Doesn’t make sense, then,” Bill said.

“What doesn’t?” Rose asked with a smirk. “Us, or…?”

“The TARDIS. Unless you named it, why would the name be in English? Those initials wouldn’t work in any other language.”

“Right,” Rose said, frowning. “Thousands of years never thought of that.”

“Thousands of-“ Bill started, but then there was a gurgle of water in the sink that shouldn’t be.

Rose whipped around, putting herself between Bill and the sink just as condensation that couldn’t be started appearing on the mirror.

“Right, more on that later. Turn around. Run,” She said, giving Bill a bit of a shove before turning and getting them out the doors.

“Out, out, everyone out! Gator or something, out!” She called, hearing people scream as everyone ran for the door. 

The screech the water alien made in the vault after Bill and the Doctor was out of its view sounded again, spurring a greater urgency in getting her and Bill out.

“ Start the engine, love,” Rose told the Doctor through the bond, hoping the urgency would get him and Nardole inside the TARDIS and ready to go once they were clear.

She could see it through the crowd once they were outside, and grabbing Bill’s hand, she made a sprint for it, snapping her fingers to get the doors opened well before they could get to the threshold.

Bill had to catch the rail to stop herself, Rose opting to grab the door and spin with it, slamming it shut just before the Doctor put the TARDIS into the vortex, heading off to wherever he was going to take them next.

“She made it to Australia in a little over ten minutes,” The Doctor informed them.

“Where are we going?” Bill asked breathless and panting.

“The other end of the universe,” The Doctor replied with a giddy grin. “Twenty-three million years in the future.”

“Bit much, innit?” Rose asked as she watched the rotor bob.

“I want to know what it can do,” The Doctor replied with a glimmer in his eye Rose realized she hadn’t seen in a good thousand years or more.

He was encountering something new. 

And when was the last time that happened? Maybe Gus on the Orient Express on their thousandth wedding anniversary. Not a single thing since, she’d guess, had really surprised him. Nothing seemed unfamiliar, all their encounters with all sorts of aliens and enemies had a ring of familiarity to him, even if it was all new for Rose.

If she focused, she could feel the excitement and trepidation he was trying his damnedest to mask from her through the bond. His giddiness was too big to be contained.

They landed once more, and she opened the doors behind her, stepping out, making sure the other end of the universe wasn’t going to be a horror show as it had been in the past.

But it was a beautiful, sunny day wherever they were. At least, that’s what Rose would guess, always hard to tell when the sky wasn’t like Earth’s. There was a bit of a breeze, she figured, since the little plant bits were moving. They were in a canon of some sort with gorgeous formations.

It felt familiar somehow, but not in the way she had expected it would.

Bill stepped out, her awe momentarily making Rose forget the familiarity of where they were. 

This was a moment she and the Doctor hadn’t experienced in a very, very long time. There had been no one else since Clara, not really. No one that  they took off planet, to step on new ground and breathe new air.

“This is a different planet. Not Earth, a different one?” Bill asked as she cautiously stepped away from the TARDIS, the Doctor not far behind her.

“That’s the general idea,” he replied, a giddy grin in place even if he was still trying to tamp down the feeling.

“That’s a different sky? Is it made of something different? What is sjy made of?”

“Lemon drops.”

“Really?” Bill asked with a disbelieving chuckle.

“No,” The Doctor grinned at Bill, “But wouldn’t it be nice?”

“You can be very silly sometimes, you know that?” Nardole asked him, which had Rose chuckling. When Nardole looked at her inquisitively, Rose shrugged.

“Had to have attracted me somehow, yeah?”

“Well,” Nardole looked the Doctor up and down, “Just assumed he was handsome before.”

“Oi, handsome now!” The Doctor snapped back, shoving his hands in his jacket pockets. “Was the past ones that were questionable.”

“How ‘bout you tell me a bit more about the puddle instead of gettin’ in an argument with the android who actually helped you save me? Never did explain it, just said it wasn’t water.” Rose said as she crossed her arms, smirking a bit.

“Bill showed me,” He started as they slowly all ventured away from the TARDIS. “There were scorch marks on the concrete where we found it. Could have been left by a shuttlecraft,” He said, stopping suddenly, turning to Bill. “What did it look like? The puddle? I mean, if that was a car, what would you say it was?” He asked, taking his hands from his pockets and gesturing wildly.

Rose tilted her as Bill squinted thoughtfully. “An oil leak?” She asked.

The Doctor nodded, a wide smile stretching his face, and Rose felt a spark of pride through their bond.

“So, it’s space engine oil?” Bill added at the Doctor’s wordless encouragement.

“Intelligent oil. Super intelligent space oil,” The Doctor said with glee. “No! Part of the ship itself. Shape-shifting fluid that becomes anything it needs to be.”

“Seriously?” Bill questioned.

“We once dealt with a surrogate who grew babies outta people’s fat,” Rose said, grinning at the smile Bill flashed her. 

She remembered what the Doctor had said to Bill, about how when she didn’t know something, she smiled. Yeah, the poor girl still seemed to be coming to terms with everything happening and was probably still frightened, but it wasn’t of the unknown. 

“How long was the puddle there for?” Rose asked Bill with a frown.

Bill mimicked it as she answered, “Since before Christmas. Probably… October? Maybe?”

“’S March when we are,” Rose tapped a finger against her elbow. “’S half a year just being a puddle. Why would it just change its mind now? What happened?”

Bill shrugged, wandering away as her smile faded.

The Doctor, who had been pacing, stopped suddenly and turned to Bill, pointing at her. 

“Your friend, the one it looks like. She looked into it, didn’t she? More than once.”

“So,” Bill shrugged sadly.

“Maybe it saw something it needed. What was she like? What did she want? What did she need?” 

Bill paused, considering the question. She must have drudged up a memory of some past conversation because her shoulders slumped just a touch. 

“I think she wanted to leave,” She said sadly.

“You see?” The Doctor said as if the answer were obvious.

“The puddle found a passenger,” Nardole said like it was poetic.

“So you’re saying the thing that’s chased us from England to Australia, the thing that seems hell-bent on killing us - or something - killed a human because it needed a passenger?” Rose asked while keeping an eye on Bill.

She had wandered away again, but this time it didn’t seem aimless. She seemed to have found something interesting and was slowly inching toward it.

“A strange single teardrop, alone in a strange world. Then, one day, it finds someone who wants to fly away,” The Doctor said, pausing until Rose turned to look at him. “Sound familiar?” He asked with a quirk of his eyebrow.

“You didn’t kill me to take me along with you?”

“Didn’t I?”

“Pretty alive, here, me,” Rose retorted. “And it was my choice, do we know if this girl had one?”

“I don’t know,” The Doctor admitted. “I don’t know everything.”

“You act like you do,” Nardole grumbled, and Rose could tell the pair of them were about to get into one of their mini rows. 

With a huff - because in the centuries they spent together, the three of them, she had learned not to bother trying to break it up - Rose decided seeing the sort of otherworldly thing that drew Bill’s attention would be a better use of her time. That, and the poor thing could probably use some comfort.

“Hey,” She said as she approached, seeing Bill flinch as if she wanted to look but couldn’t pull her eyes away. “You know-“ She started to say before she noticed something coming out of the puddle. Rose slowed a step, then another, and just as she realized she was looking at a head, a hand reached out and grabbed Bill over her mouth an nose.

In an instant, Rose was pulling on her, finding the strength of the creature a bit more than even her modified strength could bare. Before she could even think to ask for help, the Doctor and Nardole were both there, helping her pull Bill away before leading her back to the TARDIS and away.

Behind them, a geyser of water erupted, the scream that was becoming familiar filling the air around them just as they got the doors open. 

“Okay,” The Doctor said as they got the doors closed, darting for the controls. “It’s fast, it time travels. It never gives up. Plan,” He said as he sent the TARDIS first into the vortex, then seeming to think of where to go next. 

A fleeting image flashed through Rose’s mind, one from her husband because there was no way in bloody hell that would have been her idea.

“Are you insane!?” She asked him as she went to his side but didn’t join him at the controls.

He looked at her with trepidation but determination.

“I think you know the answer to that by now,” He said with a pointed flick of a switch.

“What’s happening?” Bill asked.

“He’s gonna lead it into a fight with a creature that kills anyone and everything not like it,” Rose snapped while glaring at her husband.

“It’s the only way we can be sure to stop it,” He said gently.

“An’ what about the three of you, huh? You lot gonna stay hunkered down in here?”

“What do you think?” He asked her.

“Not stupid, know you wouldn’t, so why are we going somewhere where it’s next to impossible for me to protect all of you?”

“Nardole’s repairable.”

“Nardole can still die, he’s part human.”

“What the hell is going on?” Bill asked as the Doctor threw the dematerialization switch.

“We’re going to run that thing through the deadliest fire in the universe by running through it first,” He explained as the TARDIS landed with a soft thud.

The sounds of explosions and gunfire sounded outside the safety of the time ship, who grumbled at being put in the middle of a place that endangered them all. 

“Nardole,” The Doctor said as he dashed to where he kept a few older sonics, ones that could still be used unlike the ones that sat on his desk in his office. He grabbed one that looked to be pre-time war, tossing it to Nardole over the console. “I want you running interference. Can you do that?”

“Can I say no, sir?” Nardole asked.

“Yes,” Rose said as the Doctor said, “no.”

She turned to him.

“Why send him? Why not me?” She demanded.

“Because I’m going into the deep of it, too, and we both know which one of us your instincts are going to want to protect.” He reasoned, which Rose detested so bloody much, but she knew he was right. He grinned wickedly when he knew she was caving, he could probably see it in her face, no bond required. “Say yes, Nardole.”

“Yes,” Nardole replied automatically. 

“Thank you,” the Doctor said as he took Rose’s hand and pulled her toward the doors.

“But no, really,” Nardole added, stubborn as always.

“Where are we?” Bill asked as the Doctor grabbed her hand as well, pulling her along to the doors.

“Well, we’re basically in the middle of a war,” He admitted. “No, but, well… it’s a war zone, and this is just your basic skirmish. Not as bad as it sounds, I promise.”

“Just stay behind me, yeah,” Rose told her behind the Doctor’s back as he let go of their hands to open the doors. “And whatever happens to me, you just stay with him and keep going. I’ll catch up, yeah?”

In the distance, Rose could hear the Daleks announce the presence of the Doctor. Behind her, Nardole whimpered. 

“You get vacation time when we get back,” Rose promised over her shoulder as she followed her husband and Bill out the doors. 

“Holding you to that!” Nardole shouted as Rose sprinted ahead, making sure to put a wall between the Doctor and Bill and whatever Daleks could be there.

Not like it was very useful, seeing as how they could technically come at them from all sides.

“Are we still in the future?” Bill asked as they ran through the corridors, dodging explosions and generally keeping out of sight as much as possible until the water creature showed up.

“No, this is the past,” The Doctor replied.

“Doesn’t look like the past,” Bill argued.

“Don’t start,” Rose shouted over an explosion.

“Wasn’t going to say anything,” The Doctor countered, but she could hear the mental murmurings about primitive species through their bond.

“ You know I’m one of ‘em, right?” She sent through to him.

“Debatable,” He countered.

“Where are we going?” Bill asked when they were probably too quiet for her liking.

“Into the fire,” The Doctor replied, the sounds of a firefight up ahead.

Around the corner, Rose spotted a species she vaguely remembered the Doctor telling her about once. One she hadn’t personally encountered herself. Movellans, her brain supplied. While they couldn’t see who they were firing at, it wasn’t hard to figure out, given the reason they arrived here.

Almost as if on cue, there was the sound of running water behind them, and Rose turned to see Heather forming.

“You two stay here,” She said.

“No, we need Bill. And you need me,” The Doctor argued.

“They know me,” Rose retorted.

“These ones may not,” The Doctor reasoned, and the three of them went out into the hallway.

Being exposed like this grated on every one of Rose’s protective instincts. She wanted nothing more than to shove both the Doctor and Bill back into the corridor they came out of, even as the water creature moved behind them.

“IDENTIFY. INTRUDER. IDENTIFY.” The Dalek demanded.

The Doctor reached around Rose, thrusting out his new, blue sonic screwdriver for the Dalek to scan.

“YOU ARE THE DOCTOR!” It exclaimed in that grating way of theirs. “YOU ARE AN ENEMY OF THE DALEKS! EXTERMINATE!”

Rose turned, shoved the pair of them into the hall, and just managed to avoid getting hit with the ray herself. It took her a moment, with the rushing of blood in her ears and the general noise from the firefight that the shot from the Dalek didn’t hit a wall. Instead, it made a strange bloop sound like something big hitting water.

Rose looked around the corner, seeing the water creature glower at the Dalek as though it now had the ability to be offended.

“Exterminate.” It said without passion.

“EXTERMINATE!” The Dalek shouted as it fired again.

“Exterminate,” the creature repeated in that same tone.

“We should…” Rose said, gesturing to the hall.

“Yes, we should,” The Doctor agreed, grabbing Bill and pulling her along as he and Rose started in a sprint.

“What was that thing?” Bill asked as they bolted down the long, eerily quiet corridor.

“A Dalek,” The Doctor replied, pausing at an intersection.

Rose pointed in the general direction that would presumably lead them in a circle back to the TARDIS. The Doctor nodded, and they started steering Bill that way.

“What’s a Dalek?” Bill asked as they ran down a corridor.

“Annoying,” Rose added as they turned another corner. 

They barely got far when there was an explosion at the end of the corridor, halting their dash and making the lot of them skid before turning around, ready to go back the other way, and take another route.

They all stopped short at the Dalek in the corridor just where they came from. Rose shoved herself between Rose and Bill, standing in front of them with her arms wide.

“Exterminate,” It said, sounding gargled and slow.

“That’s wrong,” The Doctor said.

“It is,” Rose agreed, dropping her arms a touch.

“I’ve sealed off the area,” Nardole said behind them. “All the Daleks are quarantined. Oh! Except that one.”

“It’s fine,” Rose said as she lowered her arms a touch more, glancing at the Doctor as he moved around her almost in a crouch.

The Dalek didn’t move at all, which was reassuring. Her instincts to protect the Doctor was still there and quietly thrumming, but there was something about this Dalek that didn’t make her want to shove him out of the way.

Oddly, though, she worried for Bill behind her, found herself creeping to stand more in front of her. She felt Bill’s hands on her shoulder as she looked around Rose, her weight pressing down like she was standing on her toes.

“Oh,” the Doctor said as he straightened. “I see.”

“You see what?” Bill asked.

“This isn’t a Dalek,” He replied, glancing back at them while gesturing to the Dalek in front of him. “Look. Look at the eye.”

Rose and Bill crept forward, and while Rose could see what the Doctor was talking about on closer inspection, she didn’t know what it meant. It looked more like an iris, yeah, but also a bit like there was a star in it.

“Heather,” Bill said as she stepped around Rose, creeping closer to the Dalek.

It started to flood, collapsing into a puddle before quickly reforming into the water-creature, looking a little less dead than before somehow.

“Heather,” it repeated. Or maybe agreed. 

The Doctor moved around it, and for a moment, the water creature tracked his movements.

“Interesting. You had a gun, but you didn’t use it. Why? You’ve already taken one person from Earth. I’m going to let that pass because I have to, but I will not let you take another. Go. Just go, now. Fly away.” He said as he stopped opposite of Bill, having gotten the water creature to look away from her for a moment. But at his suggestion, it paused, then turned to face Bill once more. “Why won’t you just go?” He questioned it even though it was paying him no mind.

Rose watched how it looked at Bill, dead seeming as it was, and how Bill looked back.

“Doctor,” Rose said softly, understanding so painfully clear to her now. “Why’d you come back for me?”

The question seemed to bring him up short.

“S like you said earlier, it found someone who wants to fly away. Only, maybe they didn’t want to fly alone.”

“Oh my god, I understand,” Bill said with a hint of a sad grin.

“You what?” Nardole asked.

“The last thing she said to me,” Bill answered without looking away from the water creature. “She promised she wouldn’t leave without me.”

“Her last conscious thought, driving her across the universe,” The Doctor cottoned on, looking to Rose with a subtle smirk. “Never underestimate a crush.”

She grinned back, tongue between her teeth and gave him a wink before looking back to Bill.

“What do we do?” Bill asked, finally looking away, turning to Rose and the Doctor for guidance.

“I don’t know,” The Doctor said as he moved around the pair, back to Rose’s side. “She’s not chasing you, she’s inviting you. Release her from her promise.”

Bill turned back to Heather, a bit grief stricken as she said, “You have to let me go.”

“You have to let me go,” Heather repeated.

“I will,” Bill said, only to have it parroted back.

“I really liked you,” She said with feeling, breaking Rose’s heart with it. Heather repeated the words but without the same infliction behind it. 

Instead, she lifted her hand toward Bill, an offering.

Bill reached up, slowly, moving closer to intertwine her fingers with Heather's.

“Bill, don’t. Don’t,” The Doctor said, looking ready to jump in and yank her away but hesitating.

“Don’t do that, listen. Please,” Nardole begged.

Rose lifted her hand toward them, asking them to stop as Bill made to clasp her hand more firmly to Heather.

“It will change her, she won’t be human anymore!” The Doctor explained with a pained look in her eye.

Rose nodded once, turned to Bill, and inched over as Bill and Heather locked on to one another.

Water started to move up Bill’s legs, swirling around her, almost embracing her. It climbed higher, almost covering her entirely but leaving her neck and shoulders free.

“Bill, listen,” Rose said, firmly next to her ear, hoping she could be heard clearly over the sound of the water, which seemed to rush about between Bill and Heather. “I know what it’s like. More than anyone here, in this room, I know what it’s like to fall so hard for someone you’d be willing to change yourself for ‘em. But I didn’t know what I was doing, and you do. You heard the Doctor she’s gonna change you, and you won’t be human anymore. There’s no going back from that. An’ you don’t know how long you’ll have to live with the consequences. So you gotta ask yourself, is what she’s offering you worth it? Do you like her enough to potentially give up everything for her?”

Bill was smiling, a flash in her eyes like she was seeing worlds and galaxies no one else could. But the smile faded, and Rose could see she was loosening her grip on Heather’s hand.

“Goodbye, Heather,” She said as she started to pull back.

“Goodbye, Bill,” Heather said before they let go of one another.

There was a force behind it that had Bill stumbling back into Rose, and Rose managed to catch her before she could stumble much more. 

Heather started to slowly sink into the floor, disappearing from view.

“You alright?” The Doctor asked, coming up to them with his sonic out, scanning Bill.

“Yeah, I think so,” She said, a bit breathless and more than a little dazed.

“You, umm,” Rose said softly. Pointing to Bill’s cheek, she said, “Tear, there at the corner of your eye.”

Bill reached up, gently swiping it away.

“I don’t think it's mine,” She said, sounding somewhere between sad and awed at the possibility.

“Come on, let’s get you home, yeah?” Rose suggested, stroking Bill’s arms in a comforting gesture before turning her around, and leading her back to the TARDIS.

~DW~

When they stepped out of the TARDIS into the office, River was sitting in his desk chair, swiveling back and forth.

“Hello, Dad,” She greeted him and that ever-cheeky way of hers. She glanced past him, presumably saw Rose, and added, “Mum.”

“Hello, darling,” Rose said as she stepped out and around the Doctor, moving to embrace River. “Everything alright with our friend downstairs?”

“A student was sick outside, triggered a biological attack alarm, but nothing else aside from that,” River replied before kissing the air beside Rose’s cheek.

“She’s your daughter?” Bill asked as she stepped out of the TARDIS, pointing to River.

“Sorta. We co-raised her. Long story,” He brushed it off before turning to face Bill more fully. “You alright? Really?”

Bill glanced over at where Rose and River were, their conversation fading out as presumably, they ventured into another room. Nardole, who knew where he went to, the Doctor didn’t bother to pay attention.

He focused entirely on Bill as she zoned out for a moment, her mind wandering.

“I saw it all for a moment,” she said with a hint of excitement. “Everything out there. She was going to let me fly with her. She was inviting me,” She faced the Doctor, grimacing even with a grin still on her lips. “I was too scared.”

“Scared is good. Scared is rational. She wasn’t human anymore.”

“Rose said she isn’t. You aren’t. Nardole isn’t. Willing to bet I was the only human in this room.”

The Doctor pursed his lips. “Well. Basic human, yeah. You were.”

“So not human doesn’t mean not scary. But… I dunno. I liked her, but I didn’t really know her. And would I ever really know her? Now that she’s not Heather anymore?”

The Doctor merely shrugged because that was a can of worms he wasn’t ready to get into after running from Daleks and fleeing across the universe from what turned out to be a sentient oil spill with a crush.

“Will we see her again?” Bill asked.

“I don’t see how,” He admitted with a grimace, watching as Bill glanced longingly back at the TARDIS.

He should say no, absolutely not. Flat out. They were supposed to be here in disguise, watching over the vault, rehabilitating Missy, not taking on a new companion and seeing the universe.

But….

Bill. Bill was a breath of fresh air, something and someone new. Clever, brilliant, with so much potential. And it struck him as he glanced to where he could hear the soft tones of his wife and their adopted daughter from another room that he was starting to feel for Bill a bit what he felt for River. Not in the same way, it never would be. He wouldn’t have raised her like he had River. Not quite like Donna, either, where she had been his best mate aside from Rose.

And he wanted, so very badly, to show someone like Bill all the wonders of the Universe.

“If you don’t do it, I will. With or without you,” Rose warned through the bond, clearly having listened to all his reasoning while carrying on a conversation with River.

The TARDIS hummed in agreement, the leading ladies of his life clearly of one mind on this one.

Always an excellent sign that.

“It’s a big universe,” he said as casually as possible, “but maybe one day we’ll find her.”

Bill looked up at him with wide, hopeful eyes.

“Go home. Get some sleep. Six o’clock tomorrow, don’t be late. And make sure to wear good shoes.”

~*~

A quiet night. Nardole and Rose were asleep in the depths of the time ship. All the fleeing had the Doctor want to take a look at the Old Girl, make sure she was still going to run smoothly when he took Bill out after classes on her first big trip. 

He would still have to work out logistics with Rose as to whether or not she joined them or stayed behind to watch over Missy. They didn’t like parting ways for long after the mess on Gallifrey, the wounds still fresh to them both, especially with their guest down below. Visits to their daughters and granddaughters didn’t count.

That thought led to Susan and the reality that he himself had yet to pay her a visit where she and the other Gallifreyan refuges made a home for themselves. A part of him couldn’t look her in the eye, not after everything. But knowing she was alive and out there had his hearts aching.

It was between one thought and the next that it happened. A strange flutter in his memory of something that didn’t happen but apparently did.

He had visited Susan before the Time War, just after she got her call to arms. He’d gone to ask her not to go, of course. Did his damnedest to distract her from all the hypercubes that brought the message. In the end, he couldn’t.

And yet.

He suddenly remembered that before that, he heard something odd, felt a ripple in time, then Susan yelped on the other side of the door. He had broken in, ready to help, only to find she wasn’t there. There had been a tang of ozone in the air, like someone had time traveled. 

She had gone missing. But how could that have been? He still recalled with absolute clarity the images Rose shared of Susan, happy and thriving in the place she and the Gallifreyans settled. How Susan gifted Rose Nardole for company. Even still, he could remember Susan on Gallifrey while they waited for a tortured Rose to revive.

It was almost like somehow, somewhere, time had been rewritten, only he hadn’t experienced that changed yet.

He shook it off, glancing up at the time rotor where the names of all that traveled with him was etched in Gallifreyan. Those names were still there, though he supposed they always would be, disappearance or not.

“Did you feel it, too?” He asked the TARDIS.

She hummed in displeasure, a feeling of curiosity and confusion coming from her, washing over him a moment. But she didn’t feel ill, there didn’t seem to be a disruption in time. Perhaps something he couldn’t remember right now? Something that would happen with a future self, and he just somehow, accidentally, got a glimpse of the event.

“We’re getting old,” He grumbled with a smile, getting back underneath to examine the wiring.

The TARDIS sent him a playful slap, like she was giving him a gentle smack, but it was all in good humor.

Both of them ignored how unsettled they both were feeling.

Chapter Text

Rose carried a couple of takeaway cups of coffee and a bag of pastries down to the vault shortly after the school day started. She’d taken a run to the nearest shop off campus, one she knew was a decent bakery and had been utterly disappointed when they knew what she was getting before she got there.

The doors opened for her, allowing her in as they always did as one of the keepers. She let out a sigh as she stepped through, Missy’s piano tinkling loud enough she thought for sure the Time Lady wouldn’t hear it.

Rose should have known better.

“Oh, that was heavy. Why so glum?” Miss asked, halting her tune immediately and turning on the bench to watch Rose set down the two cups and pastry bag on the table between the two chairs. She then made her way to the encasement, limbs heavy with annoyance as she went to free Missy from within.

“Got to switch up bakeries in the next couple years,” She grumbled as she turned on her heel and headed for her preferred chair. “Gettin’ to be recognized, which doesn’t bode well for me.”

“Use a perception filter,” Missy suggested with a wave of her hand as she came to join Rose. “Or just, you know, murder them a little bit.”

Rose let out a surprised chuckle. “Yeah, how’s that gonna get me my brekkie, then?”

“I said a little bit,” Missy deadpanned as she dropped into the chair and crossed her legs in a fluid motion. Holding Rose’s eye as long as possible, she opened the pastry bag, glancing away only to peek inside to see what was brought.

Rose was not at all shocked when Missy pulled out the pinwheel. Frankly, they had this routine almost ask long as Rose had had a pastry run. Actually, probably longer, since every decade or so, Rose would have to change things up. 

“So what did you two get up to last night, then?” Missy asked with a smirk, looking at Rose through her lashes.

“What makes you think we got up to anything?” Rose asked incredulously, reaching in and grabbing a Danish.

“His mental signature faded out, then disappeared a bit. Then the curly-haired one came down and glared from a distance.” Missy replied before taking a massive bite, chewing animatedly.

Rose pursed her lips, considering telling Missy that it was none of her business. 

“Have you ever heard of sentient oil? Like a motor oil sorta thing?” Rose asked with narrowed eyes, taking a more dainty bite.

Missy’s eyes went wide. “You think I mighta seen something the hubs hasn’t?”

“You’ve been around,” Rose countered. “Not like you lived your whole life followin’ him about, vying for his attention.”

“Now, now. Don’t be jealous.”

“Which one’ve us married him again?” Rose bantered back, earning a grin before Missy schooled her features.

“No need to brag,” She said with a faux pout. “No, can’t say I’ve come across sentient oil before. That’s a new one.”

“Well, we did. And it chased us literally to the end of space and time because of a crush.”

“You or him?”

“Bill, actually,” Rose replied.

“Hm,” Missy hummed. “Well, as long as it wasn’t the squeaky android you keep about.”

“Keep tellin’ the Doctor to oil him up. Tried once, told me to buy him dinner first,” Rose took another bite, chewing thoughtfully. “What’s the craziest thing you’ve done for a crush?”

“Tried to give him an army of cybermen,” Missy replied. “You?”

“Looked into the heart of the TARDIS.” Missy laughed quietly, and Rose smiled at her. “You laugh, but I didn’t really think it through, then. Just wanted to get back to him. Bloody man tricked me into gettin’ sent away, and I wasn’t having it.”

“Which one was that?” Missy asked with a crease in her brow.

“Call him leather and big ears,” Rose replied.

“Ah, yes. Handsome, that one. Don’t blame you for frying your little human brain for him.” Missy said, all nonchalant.

“Didn’t fry it, though, did I? ‘Came a goddess instead, saw all that was, is, would be, decided to say I wanted to be with him for literally as long as he lived. Know what I woulda done?” Rose asked Missy, who leaned in as if they were about to share a secret. “Maybe would put in a thing where I changed up a bit myself each time I kicked it. Maybe not everything, but little things, you know? Like maybe I’d come back ginger or with blue eyes.”

“Yes, but why mess with perfection?” Missy asked while giving Rose a once over and wink.

“Your flirtin’ ain’t gonna get you anywhere, ya know?” Rose grinned. “Am married.”

Missy let out a large, put-upon sigh, “Yes, as you two remind me all the time. What with your constant togetherness and unbreakable bond.”

“Not at his side right now,” Rose pointed out as she reached for her coffee and took a sip.

“Yes, but you’re not off doing your own thing,” Missy said as she grabbed for her own. “You and he, you probably haven’t done your own things since before-“ 

Missy paled and looked down at her lap, though she couldn’t hide the regret on her face as well as she probably hoped. Rose could see it and did see it from the moment Missy brought the disc and bracelets out. When her attempt to give the Doctor an army to go against Gallifrey with, though how she figured that would work, Rose could never figure out.

“I see the girls,” Rose offered weakly.

“Yes,” Missy said quietly. “And so does he. But how long do you two actually leave for?”

“Not long,” Rose admitted. 

The pair of them fell quiet for a while. From the corner of her eye, Rose could see Missy open her mouth to say something only to stop like she thought better of it. Not in a way meant to taunt, to get Rose asking what so Missy could say something Missy-like. It seemed like she was genuinely warring with herself as to whether or not what she wanted to say should be said.

They ended up finishing their breakfast in silence, quietly deciding to turn on the telly and watch a few things together before Rose would leave for the afternoon.

~*~

Missy’s words stuck as the hours ticked on. There had been a time when Rose and the Doctor did do their own thing. When there wasn’t a quiet fear of leaving one another’s side for anything but their family. Maybe not all the time, true, they spent far more time together than apart.

It could be a ploy, of course. She wasn’t stupid, and despite how much Missy seemed to change, she was still her. Still, the Master with a different name and Rose knew all about the Master and what they did over the years. But what could Missy possibly gain by separating them? She couldn’t get out of the vault, and if she were going to try to kill them or knock one of them out in order to escape, she’d already had hundreds of years to try that. 

So as six o’clock began to creep ever closer, Rose weaved and waffled through the possibilities of staying behind this go as the Doctor took Bill out on her first, real adventure on the TARDIS. But then the idea that something would happen to him would spring up, and Rose would have to tamp down a panic that wasn’t necessary. 

She couldn’t imagine what her thoughts must have sounded like to the Doctor. He sat opposite of her, in his chair at his desk, marking papers. He had the bond mostly closed off, something like three-quarters of the way, so he could concentrate more on the papers than what she was thinking. But every so often, he would look up at her, eyebrow quirked and either amusement or concern coloring his grin.

To her, it was just a quiet mutter of insults coming from him as he seemed to come up with new and delightful ways to call his students idiots.

Nardole, bless him, kept walking through the room and looking at them with suspicion. 

“You need to oil ‘im,” Rose said after another round of Nardole passing through with a glare.

“I did,” The Doctor said dismissively.

“No, ya didn’t, ‘cause he’s still creaking.”

“I did so,” The Doctor argued, looking up from his papers.

“Yeah, when?” Rose challenged.

The Doctor seemed to think on it, recalling the last time he’d taken Nardole to the med bay, the only place the android would allow himself to be maintained.

“Doctor, that was three years ago,” Rose said aloud.

“It was?” The Doctor frowned.

“Yeah, he’s due. An’ avoiding it. So oil him.”

The Doctor looked wide-eyed between Rose and the door. For a being of over three thousand or so - depending on his mood - he had the ability to look as sullen as any teenager.

Huffing, Rose amended, “After your adventure with Bill.”

That had the Doctor rearing back in his seat, a frown forming between his brow.

“My trip?” He asked.

“Yeah,” Rose hedged. “Someone’s gotta be here, ya know?”

The Doctor blinked, looking very much like some of those confused students he’d insulted not long ago.

“That’s what Nardole is for.”

“No, it’s fine, really,” Rose protested.

The Doctor opened his mouth to object, but the TARDIS shut him up, humming low and flashing them an image of the human form she once had standing next to Rose as if to side with her. 

Both Rose and the Doctor turned to the TARDIS in surprise, the Old Girl refusing to elaborate as to why she was siding with Rose at the moment.

Rose turned back to her husband, staring him down as he did the same to her in return, neither seeming to know whether or not to argue their points or to try and decipher the TARDIS’s odd stance.

Bill’s eager knock, then bolting into the room, interrupted the quiet discussion, her smile wide and infectious.

“Right. Ready. So ready for this,” She said with enthusiasm Rose hadn’t seen in a very, very long time.

Bill went over to the TARDIS, making the Doctor snap his fingers to allow her ease of entry. He then set aside whatever he was marking and made to follow her at a far more sedate pass despite the excitement already bubbling up within him.

Rose couldn’t help herself and found herself wandering over as well, stepping just inside the doors and leaning against the threshold to watch.

“So,” Bill said, clapping her hands together and rubbing them.

“So,” the Doctor said as he went to stand by the controls.

“What do we do? Do I have to sit somewhere? Are there seat belts?” 

“Just hold on good,” Rose said, gesturing to the rails. “Could sit, but he might toss ya.”

Bill moved to the nearest jump seat and sat, eager grin turning to a frown as she put her arms straight out in front of her. “Oh, that’s a mistake?”

“What is?” The Doctor asked as he slowly moved around the console.

“You can’t reach the controls from the seats. What’s the point in that?” Bill asked before her face lit up. “Or do you have stretchy arms, like Mister Fantastic?”

“Oh, I stand like this,” The Doctor replied with a grin, demonstrating.

“More like you dance around,” Rose commented before looking to Bill. “Supposed to stand. Meant for six to fly, but before I learned, the Doctor did it himself.”

“Where’s the steering wheel?” Bill asked as she got up from her seat and examined the controls.

“Well, you don’t steer the TARDIS. You negotiate with it,” The Doctor reasoned.

The TARDIS grumbled in her quiet way at that.

“She takes you where you need to go,” Rose clarified. “Sometimes that’s also where you want to go. Other times,” She finished with a shrug.

Bill turned from Rose, her grin delighted, to look back at the Doctor. 

“How much did it cost?” She asked.

“Ah, no idea. Stole it,” He replied smugly.

“Seriously?” 

“According to her, she stole him,” Rose gestured to the Doctor. “So I suppose they stole each other.”

Bill frowned, but the delight was still there underneath. 

“Know people talk about their cars like their people, but-“

“Oh, the TARDIS is alive,” The Doctor added. “She’s sentient. And telepathic.”

“Not gonna read your mind, though,” Rose quickly added before any trepidation could come up. “She’ll just help you out, give ya what you need. The Doctor and I, we’re just a bit more bonded with her is all, so we can communicate.”

“So, she has, like, a voice,” Bill said, looking up at the ceiling.

“No, she more or less communicates in hums and mental pictures.” The Doctor said as he finished making his way around the console, stopping the dematerialization switch. “Now, you have to make a choice.”

“What choice?” Bill asked.

“Past or future.”

“Future,” She said immediately.

“Why?” The Doctor asked, caressing the switch with the palm of his hand.

“Why do you think? I want to see if it’s happy.”

The Doctor turned to Rose, catching her eye.

“ Sure you don’t want to come along?”

She chewed her lip, wanting to say she did. She knew, deep down, that these sorts of things never went well and that the chances that they would simply go to a happy bit in the future and shop first go was slim to none. 

But Missy’s words still rang in her head. For hundreds of years, Rose and the Doctor had been at each other’s side. They were all each other had, the TARDIS their only home. Then their family grew. And while they didn’t always keep a place for themselves, they had settled enough times here and there that the TARDIS wasn’t the only place they settled. Rose and the Doctor didn’t always travel as his Eleventh body aged. And after Olivia was born, Rose found herself helping Tim and Jenny more and more, especially as the wanderlust Jenny inherited from her father took over.

It was only after the incident with the Time Lords that Rose and the Doctor became completely joined at the hip once more. And that was centuries ago for them, something the slow path had made Rose more acutely aware of. 

The TARDIS sent her assurance. Humming in her mind, giving a flicker of something in Rose’s mind, like a memory she couldn’t quite pull up yet. It was like a promise that Rose staying behind wasn’t just okay but possibly even required. Just this once.

“Right,” Rose said as she pushed off the threshold and took a step backward out of the TARDIS. “I’d say stay outta trouble, but we both know that’ll never happen.”

The Doctor’s face fell, but he quickly schooled it into a grin that didn’t reach his eyes.

“Be safe,” He said to her.

“You, too,” She said before slowly closing the door, taking a few steps backward to give the Old Girl room.

It took a couple of seconds before the TARDIS engines began to groan and whir, and she slowly began to fade from view.

It was terrifying, a part of Rose raging at the idea of the Doctor leaving without her, even if it's what she wanted. Oddly, she didn’t think it was entirely Bad Wolf that made it that way. Bad Wolf still wanted to protect the Doctor, yes, but that part of her had calmed over time. Especially since the second time she looked into the TARDIS and took on the entity in full. 

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. Repeating it a few more times even as she heard the urgent rush of Nardole’s footfall growing louder behind her.

“Where’d he go? Where’s he going?” Nardole asked from her left, and Rose opened her eyes as she turned to him

“He’s off,” She said without explaining.

“Yes, but where? For how long?”

Rose arched a brow.

“He’s in a time machine, mate. Could be back any second, now.”

“Could be, but he isn’t, and every second away-“

“Nardole,” Rose cut him off. “It’s alright. Still here, aren’t I?”

Nardole huffed, reluctantly agreeing. 

As he turned to return to wherever he came running from, Rose’s phone rang. 

Not abnormal in and of itself, but not common enough a thing for it not to give Nardole pause. 

Rose took the mobile out of her pocket, ready to assure him it was one of the girls, when the caller ID  stopped her short.

“Hello?” She answered cautiously.

“Rose,” Kate Stewart replied in her usual no-nonsense tone. “I’m hoping I’m catching you at a good time. I need you to come in.”

“What? Really?” She asked, glancing at Nardole and guessing by his wide eyes he heard Kate despite the call not being on speaker.

“Yes. I need someone… current if you understand my meaning.”

“Umm,” Rose closed her eyes and shook her head. “Can’t exactly pop down. TARDIS isn’t with me at the mo.”

“I was sending someone just in case that was the case,” Kate replied.

Rose frowned, the question of what that meant on the tip of her tongue when she heard the sound of a helicopter in the distance.

“You know where we are?” She asked incredulously.

“Of course I do,” Kate replied, sounding a touch offended. “I make it my job to have an idea where you are when you’re on Earth and roughly what part of your timeline you’re from.”

“Must take a lot of work,” Rose smirked.

“I have the Osgoods on it,” Kate replied, sounding amused herself. “Should be there in five minutes.”

“Right, I’ll head up and meet it, then,” Rose said as she disconnected the call. As she repocketed her mobile, she looked at a still wide-eyed Nardole. “She won’t get out. Won’t even try. And remember, the Doctor could be back anytime.”

“What if there’s an emergency?” Nardole asked as Rose headed for the coat rack in the corner, plucking up her old blue leather jacket and slipping it on.

“Call River or Jen,” Rose said without hesitation. “But we both know there won’t be a reason ‘cause you’re here. And you, Nardole, are perfectly capable of watching over one Time Lord who is sealed away behind two barriers.”

“What makes you so confident that I am?” He challenged, drawing himself up as much as his shorter stature allowed.

Rose grinned wickedly, “You tried to kill the Bad Wolf and survived, yeah?”

She turned and left him then, knowing full well that he would try and challenge that just to keep her around longer.

Chapter Text

The Doctor was a three thousand year old being from a highly intelligent species. He had been traveling for most of his life. Maybe not entirely on his own, but it had happened. He’d done it. He survived. Mostly.

He didn’t need his wife - his human wife - with him to make sure he stayed alive and out of trouble. Or polite. 

Yes, Rose was more human plus, or something else entirely, really, at this point.  But that didn’t mean he needed her. No, she could stay behind all she liked and miss out on seeing this new, wonderful, people-less Human colony. She could be boring, guard the vault, and be responsible. 

He didn’t miss her. Nope. Not at all, not even a little. When Bill asked which way Earth was, and he said space was bent and Earth was anywhere, it wasn’t to deflect how thin his and Rose’s bond was. How quiet his mind became. 

“So, why did Rose not come with us?” Bill asked as they walked through the empty city. “Does she, like, have something against me? Did my perving on her before freak her out.”

“No,” He replied without giving Bill his full attention because why weren’t there any people around? “She’s taking a turn being the responsible one.”

“Guarding a vault?” Bill asked, stopping and putting her hands on her hips, making the Doctor stop, too. 

“Guarding a vault,” He agreed.

“Why? Why guard it? Who’s in there? Unless it’s another TARDIS situation, and it’s a sentient object that also goes by ‘she.’”

The Doctor tilted his head and looked at the smug yet gentle expression on this young woman’s face. 

“It’s a person. One who once did a lot of bad things over and over. As a result, they’re under our care.”

“So, you’re like wardens. Why keep her under the university, then? Seems like a not-smart thing to do if she’s dangerous.”

“She’s fine,” He waved it off.

“Fine enough that your wife is still guarding her? What happens if you get stuck or lost?” Bill asked as they continued on.

“I call one of my daughters, and they come help. Or send mum, which is actually more terrifying than the prospect.”

“What, they have TARDISes, too?” 

“Jen does. River uses other means.”

“So you’re like a whole family of time travelers. Is that normal? Where you’re from?”

The Doctor paused again as the memories of his last time on Gallifrey came to the forefront. Both as this him and his other self, how the younger version of him had found their wife in a torture chamber linked to his. How the Time Lords had so little regard for what was happening that they were wiping out species and worlds to try and win a war, they were always going to lose. How, as his current self and Rose distracted Rassilon and his crowd of boot lickers, his Eighth self got his hands on the moment.

“My species isn’t important,” he replied, taking a second to tamp down the bitter hatred that burned his throat. “Yours, however,” He turned on his heel to smile at Bill, deflect, “look what it’s done. You know what this building is made of? Pure, soaring optimism. Look at what its hopefulness has accomplished.”

And with a sweep of his arm, Bill looked around, and the Doctor felt assured she was distracted enough to go further down that line of questioning.

~DW~

Rose straightened her jacket as she stepped out of the chopper, the ride having been relatively quick all things considered. Fixing her hair would be useless until the whole thing shut down completely.

She strode with assured steps toward the people waiting for her on the roof of the black archives. Kate, of course, a few soldiers and two people anyone would have thought were twins if they didn’t know any better.

One Osgood was in brown pants with a green blazer and a brown waistcoat over a cream shirt, finished with a blue ascot. The other one could be argued as looking more casual with a tan blazer with a sweater vest over a white button-up that happened to have little question marks on the collar. The trousers were something else, though, what with the incredibly bold, vertical stripes.

“Least you aren’t wearing the celery,” Rose smiled at that Osgood, opening her arms to hug that one first before moving on to the other.

“I had a pin, but I forgot it,” The Osgood clarified.

“Right,” Rose said as she stepped back. “Which one’s Pat, and which one’s Nell?” She asked, pointing to each of them.

“Pat,” Tan Blazer said, raising her hand.

“Nell,” Green Blazer replied, also raising her hand.

“Right. Now we’ve got that settled,” Rose turned to Kate, who smiled warmly at her from behind the Osgoods.

“It’s an interesting situation,” Kate warned as she beckoned Rose forward.

She followed in step behind Kate as she led them down into the archives, the Osgoods just behind them, trailed by the guards. 

“I’ve called in some consultants. Or rather, they called me, which had us having a deeper look and found it to be a bit… worrisome.”

“Vague as ever, you are,” Rose commented as she glanced around the corridors. Nothing was really different that she could remember. Mostly she was just glad she wasn’t being led in from the front door. It always unsettled her how the keep of the key never realized how long he’d been there. 

Kate led Rose into what might be considered a fairly modern conference room. Definitely not something that had been about when Rose last put in a shift for UNIT. Better lit, for one. Brighter than anything she was used to. Clean lines and mostly white, making the people milling about stand out in contrast that much sharper. Though, there really weren’t all that many people around.

“Our consultants: Dorothy Gale McShane, otherwise known as Ace. And Tegan Jovanka,” Kate introduced the slightly older-looking women.

It took a moment before those names clicked in her head, and she froze partway to shake their hands. They glanced at one another with a frown before looking her over, almost in sync.

“Ace, Tegan, this is Rose Tyler.”

“Hey,” She gave them an awkward wave and a hesitant smile. She turned to Kate, “How much do they know?”

Kate smirked, “Not much.”

“Great,” Rose huffed before her attention was turned to the screen ten feet behind the women. There were four photos, one she didn’t recognize at all, one that was familiar in a way Rose couldn’t pinpoint, bloody Adam Mitchell, and the other….

“What happened to Sarah Jane?”

“Oh, Sarah Jane, she recognizes,” Ace grumbled.

“She’s gone missing,” Kate answered. “She, Jo Grant, and Nyssa Jovanka.”

“Missing?” Rose frowned.

“We were hoping you might remember if they might have found their way on the TARDIS within the last year. Or, perhaps, in just your recent history. But I’m guessing by the look on your face, that’s a no.”

“Haven’t seen Sarah Jane in about five years,” Rose admitted. “Never met the other two.”

“Right, who are you again?” Tegan asked with thinly veiled politeness, crossing her arms and giving Rose a bit of a glare.

“Rose has been with the Doctor since their ninth incarnation,” Kate supplied vaguely.

“Burning through the regenerations, isn’t he?” Tegan commented, looking Rose up and down.

“Not if I can help it,” Rose replied, unable to keep the grin off her face. “Current one’s been hanging on for a couple thousand years, but it’s not a record. Tell the truth, not even sure how old we are anymore, keep losing track.”

“We? Are you a Time Lord?” Ace asked, narrowing her eyes.

“Nah, just his wife,” Rose waved it off before turning to Kate, “Mind explainin’ to me why Adam Mitchell is up there?”

Kate huffed, “You know we catalogue-“

“Yeah, know that bit. He was with us, like, two days. Why’s he up there?”

“He works for us,” Kate admitted. Rose’s feelings on that must have been clear because Kate rushed to assure, “We couldn’t let him walk about with his… condition. And since he had experience with Van Statten over in the States, UNIT International decided it was better he works for us so he could keep his life quiet. But he’s missing, too. Hasn’t reported for duty in a while.”

Rose nodded, supposing that made a lot of sense now that she thought about it. There was a follow-up on the tip of her tongue when there was a quiet throat clear beside her.

“Sorry, his what?” Tegan asked, and Rose looked at Kate to see she was entirely too amused.

“Did this on purpose, didn’t ya?” Rose accused, pointing a finger at her. “Made sure they didn’t know, so when I said it, you get to see their reactions.”

“If I’m honest, I was hoping it would never come up,” Kate retorted. “Hoped that maybe you just being an expert on the Doctor would suffice.”

Rose snorted as she looked at the screens again. “Right, so when did Jo, Sarah, and,” Rose turned her gaze to a still huffy Tegan and asked, “Sister or Wife?”

“Partner,” She said, softening a bit. “Not officially married. She’s not, umm….”

“I know the names and the species, just not the faces,” Rose assured her. “Doctor sorta keeps them to himself when he tells me about days gone by.”

“Right,” Tegan said, sighing before turning to the screen. “Nyssa’s my partner. She came with me to Australia. I was a flight attendant up until the nineties, and after that, we sort of…. Anyway, I haven’t seen or heard from her in… a while.”

“A while,” Rose frowned, noting the wording choice. 

“Jo, Sarah Jane, Nyssa, they all disappeared,” Ace pulled Rose’s attention, doing something at a control panel and reorganizing their pictures in a list form.

 Years were put beside them. Nyssa had 2013, Sarah Jane 2008, Adam had 2017, and Jo 1993.

“The problem is, we don’t have proof that they’ve been on Earth since those years,” Kate supplied.

“And our memories of our last interactions with them are getting a bit faded,” Ace added. “Like, I know I’ve talked to Jo just last month. Only now, I can’t really remember what about.”

“Best we could guess is that they were pulled from their timelines and not put back,” An Osgood said behind them. “But the only person we know to do that is-“

“The Doctor,” Rose agreed, nodding. She looked at the screen a moment, pondering, brain racing. “What’s their connections? Other than the Doctor, I mean,” She asked.

“Sarah Jane and Jo both work for us as consultants, same as Ace and Tegan,” Kate informed her.

“Nyssa?” She asked Tegan.

Tegan shook her head. 

“She keeps to herself.”

Rose nodded, frowning, “We know if this is happening to any of the others who left the TARDIS?”

“There’s a chance,” Kate agreed. “But we only know of his companions from Earth, and while UNIT is global, not all of the countries where we know people have interacted with him are willing to keep tabs on their citizens like we are.”

“Fair, probably had a hand in that himself, actually,” Rose turned back to the screen, squinting at it thoughtfully.

“Let’s see if we can run a comparison, yeah? Might be hard to pinpoint if we know people will remember ‘em but might not, ya know, report it.”

“We have your permission to do that, then?” Kate asked, quirking a brow at Rose.

“Didn’t realize you needed it.”

“Better to ask one of you when we’re about to go digging in his past for people who don’t have a connection with UNIT like these ones do.”

“Yeah, let’s do what we can,” Rose said as she watched the screen with an eagle eye while some UNIT crew got to work.

~DW~

“Emojis. Wearable communications. We’re in the utopia of vacuous teens.”

Bill gave the Doctor a bit of a side eye but let that one go. He was grumpy when there really wasn’t a reason to be because everything was just so bloody awesome.

The air was the cleanest Bill had ever breathed, the architecture was so bloody cool. The robot? Top rate, perfect, adorable. How could he be grumpy watching it walk as it led them down a long hall with large windows with a smile on its face. Literally, it had a smile emoji for a face at the moment.

Yeah, sure, was weird there wasn’t anyone around, but maybe this was just the before part. Bill got a vibe from Rose that maybe the Doctor wasn’t always on time, so maybe he undershot it?

Either way, this whole thing was amazing, and she couldn’t be happier. Well, actually, she could use a bit of a nibble. Or a lot of a nibble. It only just occurred to her that she was so excited to go on this little adventure that she’d forgotten to eat.

The little bot wandered into a room, another large and mostly empty space with lots of windows and not a lot of color. There was a table, at least, and a couple of chairs. It went out of sight for a moment as Bill and the Doctor slowly entered, looking around, then returned with a couple of plates with tiny little blue jelly cubes on them.

“Look at this! It knew I was starving!” Bill crowed before practically skipping over to where the robot was gesturing for her to sit. “Food from another planet. You’ve got to, haven’t you?” She reasoned, sitting down and picking up the fork. She leaned in, taking a whiff while expecting something fruity. She reared back after the first sniff. “Smells like fish.”

“I’m not that fond of fish,” The Doctor dismissed absently, looking around the room still. “Except socially, which can complicate a meal like this.”

“Rose eats fish. I know she does, seen her order it.”

“Yeah, well, Rose doesn’t speak fish,” The Doctor frowned up at the ceiling.

Bill pursed her lips, debating if she wanted to broach that subject, and decided not to. Likely, he was having on her, which would get him to smile, she knew, but wasn’t really worth it when there was the potential to eat right in front of her.

“Should we eat it, though? I mean, what if they’re not like us?”

“Well, the cutlery’s human cutlery,” The Doctor said as he looked at the table. “No other species in the universe uses emojis. Everything here is human except….”

Bill cut a sliver off the cube, stabbing it and bringing it to her face as she said, “No humans.”

“This is the perfect colony for humans,” The Doctor started to walk backward to a corner of the room, bracing himself against a ledge. “So where are all the colonists? That’s some sort of flavored algae,” He added as Bill took a bite and began to chew. “I haven’t seen any livestock yet.”

Well, whatever the flavor was, it wasn’t something Bill had tasted. Wasn’t bad, really. Little sweet, a little salty. Chewier than she expected it to be, wasn’t sure about that, but it was edible. And as she swallowed the first bite, the sensation of intense hunger almost instantly dulled. 

“That’s good, isn’t it?” She questioned the Doctor. “In the future we don’t eat living things; we eat algae.”

“I met an Emporer made of algae once,” The Doctor said, not looking at Bill but rather staring off into the distance like he was reliving a fond memory. “He fancied me.”

She expected more. A funny story, a quip about Rose, anything. But he remained utterly still, staring at nothing with the little frown thing he had when he was suspicious.

Setting down the cutlery, Bill asked, “Why aren’t you loving this?”

“Everything is here, everything is ready, but there’s no one here,” The Doctor replied as he stepped out of the corner, gesturing about the room as that frown got deeper.

Bill took another bite of her algae, chewing before saying, “It’s like the Student Union first thing before the actual students arrive.” She cut off another piece of algae, happy to find her hunger rapidly dying but wondering if this wasn’t going to be a bit like Chinese takeout, wherein she was going to be hungry again in and out. She glanced at the Doctor’s untouched plate, wondering if she could sneak his when it clicked how many were on there. “Two portions, though?”

“Well, that’s because that one is mine,” The Doctor said absently before turning around and trotting toward the table. He was grinning as he said, “That’s it, that’s it! Of course! The whole place is waiting. We’re just too early.”

“So they’re all still in bed?” Bill grinned before the cubes got her attention again. “Two portions, one portion,” She looked at the Doctor, “is there going to be food sexism even in the future? Is this bloke utopia?”

“It’s probably reading me as two people. The heartbeats.” He gestured to both sides of his chest before he continued on his little rant.

Bill’s ears, despite picking up every word he said, went a bit fuzzy.

He was alien. She knew he was alien. Rose said he was, the Doctor admitted he was. And yet, he looked so human. Probably looked human all over, so the idea of him having extra anything….

“Sorry? Two hearts?” She stuttered though he went on, clearly on roll. And if he talked that fast, how quick was his brain going? Did he have more than one brain? Was it bigger than Bill’s? Smaller but with better speed? Sort of like a laptop that had all the pep and go versus the clunky old desktop from Bill’s childhood that barely got her through school. “You, you’ve got two hearts?”

“Robots, they don’t breathe,” The Doctor continued like Bill hadn’t said something twice. “They can fix the atmosphere for you, send data back, so you know whether to bring your waterproofs or not. Work in huge robot flocks. You just send them up ahead and you leave them to it!” 

He looked absolutely beside himself with joy, which Bill was starting to get a bit of a contact high from despite the pacing he did.

“Yeah. Hearts, though. Why two?” She asked.

“Well, why one?” He countered as if Bill could possibly answer that.

She looked at his beaming smile, realized how much he moved in that small moment, and wondered, “Does that mean you’ve got really high blood pressure?”

“Really high, “ he beamed. “Now, finish your algae. We’ve got more to see.”

~DW~

There were, to their best guess, two other former companions or acquaintances of the Doctor that seemed to be missing, yet not.  

Fitz Kreiner wasn’t even supposed to be in the twenty-first century. At least not at the age he was last marked by UNIT. And yet, he had been. Only there hadn’t been any credit card activity for months. 

So, Rose and Ace got in a UNIT car, volunteering to go knocking as a pair of friends of the Doctor instead of having Kate and a brigade of soldiers in case he was wanting to go unnoticed.

Ace kept glancing over at Rose as they navigated their way through London, the traffic not awful but still slowing them down more than either would have probably liked.

“Ask,” Rose said after she caught Ace glancing her way for about the dozenth time. “Know you want to. Better than guessing.”

“How are you two thousand years old if you’re not a Time Lord?” Ace asked almost immediately.

Rose snorted. “Wish I was only two thousand. Sounds young, now. I did a thing, let’s say the TARDIS and I have a special relationship, and it changed me.” 

“Oh, god, you’re not, like, part TARDIS are you?” Ace lamented, making Rose laugh.

“Nah. Doctor calls me human plus.”

Ace nodded, seeming satisfied with that answer.

“And you’re really married to the Professor?” She asked. 

“Since his tenth, yeah,” Rose looked at the little frown Ace had. “He is sorry, you know? About how things ended with you? He doesn’t talk about life before… well, before a thing. Not often, anyway. But he’s talked about all of you at one point or another. I know all your names. Know which Doctor you traveled with. Told me once you were sorta like a daughter or granddaughter to him.”

Ace glanced briefly at Rose but said nothing.

Unsure if maybe she pushed a button, Rose remained quiet, looking out the window at the city crawling by.

“Have you met others? Aside from Sarah Jane?” Ace asked after a couple of minutes.

“Susan, of course. See her from time to time. Grace Holloway, though the circumstances with her are such that she wouldn’t know me.” 

Ace made gave an understanding hum at that one.

“The others… be honest with you, I haven’t even met most of the younger versions of my husband, let alone those who traveled with him.”

“You’ve met younger versions of the Professor?” Ace asked.

“Not yours,” Rose clarified. “He jokes and says I’ve been married to him since his tenth, met his ninth, but have had affairs with his eighth. But that’s as young as I’ve met.”

“So you met Susan. Who else in his family?”

Rose glanced away, biting her lip and looking down at her feet.

“I haven’t. It’s complicated, Ace. Gallifrey… it’s a bit off-limits. It’s….” She frowned. “Suppose you could say it’s in a time lock. ‘S been broken a couple of times since I met the Doctor, but for the most part, it’s considered utterly gone. Can’t tell you more about it, though. Not my bit to say.”

Ace gratefully didn’t push for more of an explanation. 

Sarah Jane had known about the time war, but that’s because the Doctor had told her. He’d probably tell the others if they asked, too, but it wasn’t Rose’s place.

If he hadn’t traveled in time, Rose might have tried to ask him.

“You ever meet the Master?” Ace asked, seemingly out of nowhere.

Rose gave a startled laugh. 

“Yeah, you could say that,” She replied, brushing her hair behind her ear.

“He still half cat?”

She looked at Ace and smirked. “No. Last I saw them, they were a woman. But I’ve never heard this half-cat story.”

Ace turned briefly to smirk at Rose, and Rose settled in to listen to a bit of dirt on Missy the Doctor had never shared.

~*~

They arrived at a block of flats, not unlike the ones Rose grew up in, just as the sun was dipping toward the horizon. She and Ace made their way up, up, up, to nearly the top of the building where Fitz lived. Rose spotted more than one nosy neighbor peeking through the curtains as they passed, and it damn near made her homesick for a youth she hadn’t experienced in millennia.

When they got to Fitz’s door, Rose stood aside while Ace knocked.

“Fitz?” She called before knocking again and then putting her head to the door.

Rose focused and tried to see if there was any shuffling happening behind the door. A stereo, a TV, anything. After Ace knocked again with no sign of anything coming of it, Rose pulled her pink diode sonic screwdriver from her pocket and turned to the door.

Ace watched her with a frown as Rose put the sonic next to the knob.

“Might not do wood, but it does pick locks,” She said as she activated the screwdriver.

Ace’s eyebrows shot up as it buzzed before the lock clicked.

“That’s a sonic screwdriver?” She asked incredulously.

“Yeah, he’s gone through a few models over the years,” Rose said, pocketing her own. “Also experimented with sonic sunglasses. Was a bit of a pain, that one,” She opened the door and stepped in.

Inside, the air smelled stale, but there wasn’t really any sign of neglect. Dust, yes, but given that Fitz was supposedly a bachelor in his late forties, it wasn’t a sure sign of his not being around. The same could be said for the fridge being empty.

“Why did he stop traveling?” Ace asked as she and Rose split up, poking about.

The time war , Rose immediately thought. It was what the Doctor had told her, that things were starting to get serious, and he hadn’t wanted to travel with someone he had been so close to, just in case. Not only that but knowing that Fitz, this Fitz, wasn’t exactly the original and the last possible incarnation of him, he didn’t want to risk such a bright light to be snuffed out forever. 

“Because the Doctor loved him too much,” Rose admitted, knowing full well that Fitz wasn’t in the flat. Ace slowly turned to look at Rose with wide-eyed intrigue. “He asked Fitz when on Earth he liked best, and he picked this about eight years ago. The Doctor didn’t keep tabs on him, not after. I think part of his memory to where Fitz was was lost to ‘im.”

“I have a hard time imagining the Professor….” Ace waved a hand at Rose, which made Rose chuckle.

“Suppose it depends on the body, yeah?”

The pair looked about, trying to find a sign of when he had last been there. Rose ventured down the hall to his bedroom, a small part of her hoping to find the poor bloke asleep.

No such luck, though the bed wasn’t made. She frowned, noting no picture, no nothing that might of marked time sitting out in the room. She turned, heading back down the hall to where Ace looked just as lost and torn.

Rose was about to ask if they should maybe start rummaging when there was a somewhat timid knock on the door frame.

Both women turned to see an older woman looking at them with an uncertain grin.

“You ladies here to clean the place out?” She asked curiously.

“Clean it out?” Rose asked, glancing around the space.

“Well,” the woman said, looking around the room, assessing. “I suppose it’s not bad if you’re in need of furniture and such.”

“What makes you think we’re here to clean it out?” Ace asked.

“Well, place has been empty for…. Gosh, I couldn’t tell you,” The woman said with a huff and a grin. “Long as I can recall, anyway.”

“Really,” Rose said neutrally. “Place like this empty forever? Board not come by beforehand?”

“I think it was in a family name,” The woman shrugged. 

“Ah,” Rose said in understanding. Then, before this woman got any ideas, she said, “Yeah, you’d be right. Was my uncle’s. Fitz, you know ‘im?”

The woman seemed to think about it before she shook her head. 

“I don’t think I ever knew who was here, and I’ve been in this building for twenty years.”

“He kept to ‘imself,” Rose lied. 

“Well, good to see someone here for it,” The woman said before turning and leaving.

Rose and Ace watched her go, frowning.

“Been here twenty years, and she’s never seen who lives here?” Ace said with heavy suspicion.

“Yeah, sounds odd, doesn’t it?” Rose and Ace exchanged an understanding glance before the pair left without saying a word to one another. Rose locked the door with her sonic, ensuring nothing happened to FItz’s things before they could figure out what was going on.

Chapter Text

“Anything?” Kate asked as Rose and Ace walked back into the war room, where the screen still showed a map of all the companions currently known to UNIT. Kate had been looking at it with her arms crossed when they entered, a frown firmly in place.

“People ‘round say they haven’t seen anyone there in years,” Rose told her, coming to stand at Kate’s side, mimicking her stance. “No mail or anything kicking about. Bit’o dust, just not… anything really indicating he was ever there, but nothing to say he wasn’t.”

Kate hummed in annoyance.

“Anything new happen?” Rose asked after a few seconds of lingering silence.

“No, nothing yet,” Kate sighed. She then turned to Rose with an apologetic smile. “I don’t have much cause for keeping you kicking about here,” She said.

“Well, keep me informed, yeah? I’ll ask the Doctor when he gets back if he remembers anything.”

“Let me know if he does,” Kate said. “I’ll call up to the boys on the roof, let them know to take you back to Bristol.”

Rose nodded, reaching out and clasping Kate’s arm briefly before turning about the room. She noticed Ace was gone, and Tegan clearly hadn’t come back from where she left. It felt weird leaving without a proper goodbye, even if it was only temporary. 

“Tell Ace and Tegan bye for me, yeah?” Rose said over her shoulder, Kate taking a second to turn toward her. At Kate’s deepened frown, Rose added, “Don’t wanna be like my husband and not acknowledge ‘em, yeah?”

“Right, of course,” Kate assured, and Rose nodded once before heading out. As she headed for the doorway, Nell looked up from her computer and met Rose’s eye with a worried expression.

Rose slowed, glancing over at Pat, who only looked up a moment with a grin and a wave that Rose returned. When she looked at Nell, she got the vibe that something wasn’t sitting right, but she couldn’t say anything at the moment. 

Rose, glancing around the room, stepped over and whispered, “Keep in touch, too, yeah? Think we still owe you and your sister a trip.”

“Yeah, you do,” Nell replied, a ghost of a grin momentarily chasing the shadow off her face. With that, Rose walked out of the war room and headed up to the chopper.

~DW~

Bill had still been positively reeling from the experience at the human settlement. The Vardies and their programming error, the way had to be reprogrammed from thinking grief was a disease, and the idea that humans were now living with them instead of merely controlling them.

And yet, instead of opening to doors to the TARDIS and finding the Doctor’s office beyond, she found London. In Winter. With an elephant.

“You never said we could travel to parallel worlds!” Bill said as she closed the door and darted to the Doctor’s side as he stood at the console.

“We can’t, thankfully. I’d have been forced to visit my mother-in-law.”

“Your mother-in-law is in a parallel world?” Bill asked. “Is Rose from a parallel world?”

“No, Rose is from this world. Universe, technically. But her mother was sent to another one.”

“Right,” Bill blinked, then shook her head. Best unpack that later, maybe with Rose around to do it. “So, that’s London? Our London?”

“Our London,” the Doctor confirmed, turning the monitor so she could see. “We’re on the Thames. The last great Frost Fair. February the fourth, 1814.”

1814. Holy flip, she was in the past! Out there, was over two hundred years ago. Well, it’s current because they are in the year 1814, but it was still almost two centuries before she was born. And wasn’t that insane?

Which, well, the pictures. She remembered the pictures she was given Christmas morning of her mum. The box of them that was supposedly taken by photography students had been handed to Moira at some point and forgotten about. 

She remembered seeing the Doctor and Rose reflected in the mirror of one of the photos, but she hadn’t really believed it was them. Well, maybe the Doctor since he was older, but Rose? Now, really, it all made sense. Because she was in 1814 and that meant it was entirely possible for the Doctor and Rose to have gone back in time and….

No. No, that wasn’t a thing, was it? They didn’t do that because she had mentioned not having photos of her mum. Couldn’t have.

As the Doctor moved slowly, carefully about the console - turning knobs and flicking switches - Bill began to follow.

“So why aren’t we home?”

“As Rose said, takes you where you need to go. She’s a bad girl, this one,” He said as he stroked the big switch before pulling it. “Always looking for trouble.”

Bill snickered quietly as the machine did that grinding thing, though it seemed quieter than before somehow. It barely lasted a couple of seconds before it stopped with a quiet thud, and the Doctor headed for the doors.

Bill followed, lingering at the threshold as he stepped outside.

It was an incredible view. One Bill couldn’t help but give a quiet gasp at. She’d been to London a few times with her grandparents. Hell, she’d been to London a few times in the dead of winter with snow and everything. But it was nothing like this, nothing at all. London with no lights or billboards. With thick, heavy snow dusting the rail of the bridge and the stairs leading down to the Thames. 

The Thames frozen.

“Last day before the thaw,” The Doctor told her. “Thought I’d better find a more reliable parking spot.”

He had turned to Bill expectantly, and it took her a second to catch on.

“Wait, you want to go out there?” She asked, pointing at the scene below.

“You don’t?” He asked in turn.

“It’s 1814.” She reminded him, pointing to her face when he still seemed clueless. “Melanin.”

“Yes?”He still seemed clueless.

“Slavery is still totally a thing.” She reminded him.

He turned, looking out again at the people below.

“Yes, so it is.”

“It might be, like, dangerous out there.”

“Definitely dangerous,” The Doctor said in a tempting sort of way. 

And, okay. 1814.

She got to experience the future, and it was dangerous in a sci-fi sort of way that would have fit better in a horror movie than reality, but it all worked out. And, well, Heather. Heather was Bill’s present, and that was a potentially dangerous situation.

“So… how do we stay out of trouble?” She asked cautiously.

He turned to her with a smirk. 

“Well, I’m not the right person to ask. Rose would tell you it’s almost impossible for me not to find it.”

“Okay,” Bill reasoned. “But, like, when you two go somewhere dangerous, what do you take?”

“First door on the left,” The Doctor gestured at the open TARDIS doors, “second right, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on the left.”

Bill looked over her shoulder at the TARDIS, then back at the Doctor in confusion.

“What’s there?” She asked, almost not wanting to know.

“The wardrobe,” He replied. “Pick a dress.”

“What, from like Rose’s clothes?”

“No, the TARDIS has dresses for people who travel with us separate from Rose’s.”

Bill looked at the TARDIS with a cheeky grin, sure she could hear a little happy hum from inside.

“So the TARDIS has dresses and likes a bit of trouble?” She asked the Doctor with a grin, crossing her arms. “Yeah, I think I’m low-key in love with her.”

The Doctor smiled, “Me too.”

“What about your wife?” Bill asked as she turned to head inside, the Doctor following.

“Oh, Rose is, too,” he said as easy as anything, heading off in a different direction once he closed the doors. “We have an understanding, the three of us. Now, don’t take too long.” And with that, he disappeared down a different hall altogether.”

“Right, in a time machine, be you can take too long,” Bill grumbled as she headed for the first door on the left.

She was barely making her way down the hall when another door opened to her left completely on its own.

She stopped because that was odd. But then, maybe it wasn’t? Sentient time machine, that’s what the TARDIS was. So maybe she wanted Bill’s attention?

Sure enough, as she peeked curiously inside the room the door had opened to, it revealed an extensive wardrobe filled with what she would guess were era-appropriate dresses and accessories.

“Yeah, definitely loving you,” She said as she stroked the door frame before skipping inside.

The TARDIS, she was pretty damn sure, made a happy humming noise.

~DW~

It occurred to the Doctor around the time he and Bill were watching the wrestling match happen that he had been to this exact fair before, which had him a bit distracted because he wasn’t sure when he left. And while he thought he could sense something just at the edges of his mind, he couldn’t quite grasp who or what it was. 

The TARDIS didn’t complain when they landed, so there wasn’t another one of her around. Probably. Or, they were far enough away from the Thames at this point for it not to matter. Had they done that? Gone to stay at an inn or simply parked far away from the fair? They’d have had Melody, so likely the latter. 

He was just distracted enough that he almost didn’t notice the lights right away. 

“Are there side-effects to time travel?” Bill asked after he showed off having stolen a second fish pie from the cheater of a vendor. After all, technically, Bill would have won, so in fairness, it was theirs. And he remembered being swindled by the man before in a different body and wanted to see if different words would yield different results.

Still got chucked from the tent, but that wasn’t important.

What was was the fact he didn’t remember seeing the lights before, because if he had, he damn well would have poked around, Melody with them or not.

“Oh yeah, yeah,” He said casually to Bill, leaning toward her. “Yeah, sometimes you see lights under the ice,” He teased, grinning when she rolled her eyes. 

Tossing the remains of her pie, she said, “Okay, so you’ve seen the lights.”

“Of course,” The Doctor said as he started to lead her off in the direction he thought would be their best bet to find them. He took out his sonic from his inner pocket, trying to get a read on what was beneath the ice, but there was too much feedback from all the humans and not-quite humans around them. A few aliens who were perfect allowed and expected to be among a circus crowd.

“Well, why didn’t you say something?” Bill asked, hurrying to keep up.

“Well, you’re enjoying yourself. I assumed we’d get to work eventually.” He grinned at her, seeing her smile back, just as delighted by the mystery as he was.

“Now,” He posed to her as they weaved their way through the crowd. “Are these lights electric or organic?”

“Organic lights?” Bill questioned. Looking up from the ice. 

“Bioluminescence,” He replied. When she continued to look at him oddly, he added, “Fireflies? Glow-worms?” 

Bill made an “ah” face, nodding slowly before they were approached by a young girl with an empty dog collar.

Bill, big and bright-hearted Bill, was instantly sucked into the little charade. It was a good one, he had to admit. If anyone was a bit too in their cups or just a bit too tender-hearted to look, they’d not clue in at all that there was no little brown dog. She’d make a great actress, this girl if she’s ever given the chance.

He was less impressed by the accompanying pickpocket that stole his sonic. Why he’d tucked his sonic in the pocket of his trousers - period friendly and without bigger on the inside pockets - he would never know. He just knew that when he was shifting what he thought he would need from his regular attire to the period-friendly choice, he thought the sonic would be concealed.

The Doctor had forgotten the habit he’d developed in this body to flick his jacket open and behind him. How much he liked putting his hands in his trouser pockets or on his hip. He hadn’t counted on exposing his sonic or for some little human to be handy enough to snatch it. Or, at least, be handy enough to nearly snatch it only to have a partner willing to do what it takes to make sure they got what they were after.

Then he hears it, just beyond the tents.

“Kitty! Come look!”

Instinctively, the Doctor knows what the boy has seen. He and Bill weave their way around the tents, in behind them where the ice is deemed more dangerous. He and Bill come to a stop and see exactly what he expects.

“The lights.”

They’re there, just below the surface, moving fast and in a circular pattern. 

“Kitty?” The boy calls, voice shaking with uncertainty.

The Doctor makes to dart forward just as the ice below the boy’s feet begins to crack, and then a blur of yellow and black runs past him.

Not in time to get to the boy, though, as he falls through the ice.

Rose Tyler -dressed similarly to when they met Dickens all those centuries ago, slid toward the hole, grabbing a hold of the boy’s hand just as the ice closed around his arm.

“I can’t,” She said as she pulls, face screwed up with effort. “Doctor!” She shouted, turning toward him and meeting his eye.

Which is a bit unorthodox because that is not his Rose. Usually, when they meet like this, all out of sync, she doesn’t know or recognize him. Maybe she’s a future version, which would make sense. Still, she looked at him, so she was expecting him to be the Doctor to respond. 

“Stay back,” he said to Bill and the girl as he darted for his wife, who was struggling with maintaining a grip.

He slid on his knees over the ice to her side, attempting to reach for the boy’s arm as the lights beneath them swirled ever faster. The pull was strong. Too strong for both him and Rose, and when he looked at her, he could see she had come to the same conclusion. 

They hadn’t even let go when the boy’s arm was pulled beneath the ice. The sonic, which he had been clutching in his hand, clattered to the ice, which had sealed up perfectly like nothing had happened at all.

Rose looked at the young girl who stared at the spot her friend had vanished from.

“You alright?” She asked, reaching for the girl and patting her gently.

“Save him,” Bill said behind him, voice breaking.

The Doctor turned to see a similar, shell-shocked look on her face.

“I can’t. He’s gone,” He told her gently.

She crept closer, getting a bit in his face as she bit out, “Do something and save him.”

~DW~

She didn’t know why the Doctor wasn’t trying anything more. Didn’t know why Rose was looking at her like they’d never met, but Bill had to get away from the scene of the most horrific thing she’d ever witnessed.

It was different than what happened in the future when they found the bones of the settlers. Yeah, that had gotten her heart racing and struck a primal fear into her that Bill could never have imagined before, but this was new. She had seen someone - a little boy - get killed, and the two people she had thought would be able to save him do nothing.

She didn’t get far. The thing was, with the past, she didn’t want to get lost in it. Trapped forever. Eventually, she was sure she could make her way to the TARDIS and stay there until the Doctor and Rose decided to go home, but for now, the crate she parked herself on was a good enough distance away that she could have a good cry in relative peace.

Or, at least, she thought she would, but she barely got a few tears out before soft footsteps came up behind her, and a familiar face came around to kneel in front of her.

“How did you find me?” She asked Rose.

“I followed you,” She replied honestly. “Doctor’s avoiding me at the moment, more interested in asking the young girl some questions.”

“Course he is,” Bill scoffed, looking down at her gloves resting in her lap.

There was a beat of silence before Rose asked, “He that bad? This regeneration?”

That made Bill frown and look harder at Rose. “Whaddya mean?” She asked with a sniff.

“I’ve met this him, but a few hundred years ago, and only briefly. Seemed a bit… prickly.”

“Yeah, can say that,” Bill grumbled. “But I mean… I didn’t think he was. Ya know? I thought… he seems to care, but he just… has he seen people die before? Have you?”

Rose’s eyes grew sad. Intensely sad in a way that made the answer clear that the number she’d give would be one to turn Bill’s stomach.

“Yeah, we have. Too many. They’re the ones we can’t save. And it hurts, it hurts like you wouldn’t believe.”

“Oh, I think I know,” Bill snapped.

“Yeah, suppose you do,” Rose conceded gently. “But thing is, we gotta move on. We mourn, yeah, but we move on.”

“Pretty quickly.” Bill bit out.

“Yeah,” Rose conceded. “Suppose we do.”

“Has he… has he ever killed anyone?” She asked. “There’s a look in his eyes sometimes that makes me wonder.”

“We both have.”

That was not the answer Bill had been expecting.

She was up on her feet before she had even realized it, not sure where she was about to go, but Rose caught her hand.

“Hey,” She said gently, “Hey, hey, listen. Listen.” Bill turned around, pulling her hand free and crossing her arms, waiting.

Rose sighed. “What we do, he and I? Sometimes saving the world, saving the universe, comes at a price. I’ve paid it more times than I’d have ever thought I would. You gotta understand, sometimes we don’t have a choice.”

“How can you say that?” Bill demanded. “How can you say you don’t have a choice?”

“Because if we don’t do it, more people die,” The Doctor said from behind her.

Bill turned to see him standing a few feet away, the little girl from before hovering further back. 

“There are kids living rough near here,” he continued when Bill didn’t argue back. “They may well be next on the menu. Do you want to help me? Do you want to stand here stomping your foot? Because let me tell you, Rose and I, we are old. So very, very old. Older than most civilizations on your world, and we have never had the time for the luxury of outrage.”

“What do you mean?” The young girl asked, the Doctor turning, clearly having not realized she was behind him. “What do you mean ‘on the menu’?”

Rose glanced at the Doctor before lifting the skirts of her dark dress and carefully making her way over to the girl. Like she had with Bill a moment ago, she knelt before the girl, giving her a gentle smile.

“What’s your name?” She asked as she fussed with the shawl wrapped around the girl’s shoulders.

The girl glanced up at Bill before she looked at Rose. 

“Kitty.”

“Kitty. I’m Rose. That’s the Doctor, and that’s….”

“Bill,” she said with an amused frown.

Rose smiled at her before turning to Kitty. “We help people. And we’re gonna help you, but it’s best if we get to speak to all of you at once. Promise to not tell anyone where you’re all hiding, yeah?”

Kitty seemed apprehensive at first, but after seeming to size each of them up, she nodded.

Rose got to her feet, brushing her hands on her skirts, then flashing a smile over her shoulder as Kitty began to lead them.

“Why didn’t she know my name?” Bill asked.

“Because I lied,” the Doctor replied. “I’m so old that there are civilizations on your planet younger than me. That Rose is maybe three hundred years old. If that.”

Bill looked at him wide-eyed, but he merely grinned.

~*~

Logically, Bill knew that Rose and the Doctor were parents. Yet seeing them with all the little urchin kids, how good they were with them, was odd in a way she couldn’t place. Maybe it was learning that they were both really quite old, super old. Far older than Bill was guessing because she figured them being alien and being around for a while meant that they didn’t age like normal. Well, one alien, one human plus, or whatever. 

Point was. Old. Ancient people who did bad things for good reasons, and these kids trusted them. 

He was reading to the majority of them from a book he pulled from his pocket that couldn’t have logically held it. Rose, who had been holding the little girl named Dot, kissed her head and scooted her off her lap. She got up, making her way over to where Bill was half hiding, keeping out of sight.

“Sorry about earlier,” Rose said quietly. “For not knowing you. It happens, sometimes.”

“It’s alright,” Bill said, not knowing what the polite thing to say would be. “How are you here if you didn’t know him, or…?”

“Ah,” Rose said, smiling before biting her lips like she was trying not to laugh. “My Doctor, the one I’m with now? Went to bring our daughter back to her parents. Her proper parents, it’s a whole… thing,” Rose waved it off.

“Yeah, met her, actually. As a grown-up.”

Rose smiled fondly, “Yeah, we have, too,” She said before sighing. “Anyway, said he would drop her off, then come back, and we could have a nice time at the Frost Fair together, he and I.” She wrinkled his nose. “Get the feelin’ he’s gonna be a bit late.”

Bill couldn’t help but chuckle at that.

Rose seemed to size her up, pursing her lips. 

“You’ve not been traveling with us long, have you?” 

“No,” Bill admitted. “This is only my second proper trip, and we came here right after the first.”

“Seem to still be getting the lay of the land, so to speak.”

“Yeah, guess so.”

There was a beat of silence between them, one in which Bill could hear a cupboard behind her opening. She turned, watching Kitty stuff half a fish pie inside. 

Rose nudged her, and Bill turned away from Kitty to see Rose watching the Doctor.

“We’ll help,” She said quietly. “Don’t know how long you’ve been traveling with us, but I’m guessing it’s the first time you’ve run into kids with nothing.”

“It’s… it hasn’t been long,” Bill admitted. “Only like the second official trip. Wasn’t even supposed to be here.”

“Sounds about right,” Rose grinned as the Doctor finished the book he was reading to the children, switching to interrogation.

“Okay, I’m wondering why the Frost Fair’s on this part of the river. I bet that at least one of you knows who paid Kitty to take people out on the ice.”

“It was a bad man with a ship!” The little blonde girl, Dottie, announced, ignoring the chastising she’d gotten from the girl in trousers.

“A ship? Like in the harbor?” Rose asked. 

“Not that kind of ship,” the young boy, Perry, corrected, which had him scolded this time.

Kitty settled them all, the clear leader of the bunch, making sure they behaved and gave what information they could. She had come around, draping her arms around Perry and the girl who chastised him.

“It’s a drawing,” Dottie said, lifting her hand and tapping the back of it. “Here. On his hand.”

“So this guy? Where would we find him?” Bill asked the kids.

“He finds us,” the girl in trousers replied.

“But a tattoo on his hand,” Bill turned to the Doctor, and glanced over at Rose. “I mean, we could ask around?”

“Boring!” The Doctor exclaimed, getting up. “I know something that’s much easier to find.”

“Oh bloody hell,” Rose grumbled, rolling her eyes and pushing off the wall as the Doctor made a terrible attempt at using slang to say bye to the kids.

The three of them left the kids’ hideout, night had fallen around them, the fair far quieter than it had been before.

“I was being all ‘down with the kids’ there, did you notice?” The Doctor asked Bill once they were clear of the flaps.

“Yeah, my hair was cringing.” Bill retorted.

“Awesome.”

“Please stop.” 

“Only traveling with us for a bit, huh?” Rose asked, crossing her arms and smirking at her husband.

“I’ve been, um… you can’t know this.” 

“You know I’m gonna forget,” she retorted.

“Well, yeah, sort of. You never completely forget. It becomes all fuzzy thoughts.”

“Wait, is that a side effect of time travel? You forget things?” Bill asked as the Doctor started to lead them somewhere else.

“Just for Rose and me. Especially when we cross paths with older or younger versions of ourselves.” The Doctor replied, waving them to follow. “I sort of tutor Bill. Won’t say more than that. You’ll figure it out in a few thousand years.”

“Helpful as ever, you are. So, where’s your Rose, then?” Rose asked, sounding utterly unperturbed by the idea of there being another one of her around.

Frankly, Bill thought she’d freak out a little if she discovered there was a second version of herself running around. Then again, she was a time traveler now. Might be another side effect.

“2018,” The Doctor replied easily. “She didn’t come with.”

“Interesting life we must be leading if I’m not along for the ride ‘cause it’s my actual home making the trip.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” he said with a grin, and Bill glanced at Rose to see her smirking adoringly at him. 

“This is weird,” Bill declared, earning absolutely no reaction from either of them. “Right, well. What’s easier to find than a man with a ship tattoo?”

“There’s something frozen under the Thames, and it’s eating people,” The Doctor replied, giving a very non-answer to her question.

“Okay.”

“Proposal-“

“No,” Rose interrupted.

“Oh, come on. You’re not supposed to hear me that easily,” The Doctor stopped, spinning on his heel and putting his hands on his hips while glaring at Rose. His accent had grown painfully thicker with each word, the Scottish really coming out in him.

Did other planets have a Scotland? Might have to ask sometime.

“Well, I can,” Rose retorted, mirroring his stance. “We’re married, s’not like the bond’s not gonna be there and open.”

“But I’m not your Doctor.”

“You’re always my Doctor. Now, think of a new plan, yeah? One that doesn’t have you trying to become fish food.”

“Well, how else are we gonna get down there?”

“A distraction. Like, maybe having a sonic vibrate against the ice?”

The Doctor blinked, pursed his lips, then frowned. He stayed very quiet while Rose arched a single brow, clearly waiting for an argument that didn’t seem to be coming.

Bill watched them, more amused than she had any right to be. Never in her life had she seen two people so utterly married to each other. It was sort of adorable.

“Fine,” The Doctor relented. “We’ll even go back to the TARDIS, get proper diving suits.”

~*~

Bill didn’t want to think about the sort of plan the Doctor was originally thinking of. It probably didn’t involve a change into the super sleek diving suit she was currently wearing, with the button-activated, holographic-like helmet that had communication between the three of them. 

Her experience was pretty low, but given the way he looked longingly at the old-fashioned (modern for the time they were in) diving equipment and the exasperated eye roll Rose gave him, Bill would guess they’d be clomping around on the ice in those.

“Would those even be safe?” She asked as they made their way to the ice.

The Doctor looked over his shoulder at the cart piled with them.

“Potentially,” He replied.

“Not bettin’ on potentially,” Rose retorted.

“It’s safe with a frisson of excitement,” He argued as they carefully stepped back onto the ice.

“Get enough excitement without worrying about you drownin’ or freezing to death. Trust me, and neither is a way you wanna go.”

“Yeah, don’t imagine,” Bill said, appreciating the warmth her current suit provided. “Right, so. Plan. No one really told me what the full one was, so are we, like, actually going under?”

“It’s the plan,” Rose said with a sigh. 

“But we’re not going to be, like, completely defenseless down there, right?”

Rose turned to her, meeting Bill’s gaze dead on. “If I had it my way, neither you nor he would be divin’. But since I doubt that’s how it woulda worked out anyway, I’m going first. If it’s really dangerous, keeps you two outta the way.”

Bill narrowed her eyes at Rose. “Why you first? You have magical alien powers or something?”

She expected Rose to laugh it off, but instead, Bill found herself on the receiving end of a smirk that made her think of nursery tales, like how she always imagined the wolf in Red Riding Hood to look when it finally had Red in its clutches.

“Or something,” Rose said with a smirk.

They headed further away from the safety of land, and Bill kept glancing between Rose and the Doctor and the ice beneath their feet, waiting for the eerie green lights from earlier to come up. 

“Any idea what we’re expecting down there?” Rose asked, turning briefly to the Doctor.

“No. But whatever they are, they’re clever. When they went after the boy, they waited until he was away from the crowds. By himself.”

“Wasn’t entirely, though, was he.” Rose pointed out, looking thoughtfully out into the night. “Had Kitty with him. You and Bill on his tail.”

“What had you chasing him?” He asked, turning fully to face his wife.

It was hard to see, but Bill thought she could see a grin on Rose’s lips before elbowed her husband. 

“Was chasing you. Got your signature, walls not up but you weren’t really open, either. Didn’t know which one you were.”

“Well, you got the handsomest one,” The Doctor flirted, and Bill barely refrained from making a gagging noise. 

“You’re just as bad as I remember you to be,” Rose replied, sounding a bit flustered even as she tried to sound annoyed.

It was cute in a weird, confusing way, and Bill probably could have kept watching them for a while if it wasn’t for those little green lights coming toward her.

“Uh, guys,” She said, pulling their attention away from them to her. She pointed down, heart starting to race as the lights began to circle her the same way they circled Spider before he was pulled under.

Rose didn’t even hesitate to run at Bill full speed, and Bill wasn’t sure if she should move or not. They had gone farther ahead than she had realized, the communication between the suits meaning she could hear them crystal clear. But they weren’t so far away that Rose wasn’t going to collide with her whether Bill made to get out of the way or not, and she couldn’t see a way this was going to end well.

Just as Rose reached for her, Bill fell through the ice.

She expected to feel the shock of cold as she fell and continued falling further and further below. But it never came. She never even felt a chill, which was amazing. The whole way to the river floor, Bill felt Rose’s grip on her arm, though she couldn’t see anything.

Nothing, anyway, but the lights now above her, circling near the ice surface.

Rose’s hand slipped down her arm into hers, grounding Bill when she knew she would otherwise be panicking.

Then there was a light and a familiar hum, and Bill could see the Doctor and Rose both.

“The fish,” Bill said, pointing up, following her own gesture. She recognized them now, sort of. She remembered the fish Marlin and Dory escaped from in Finding Nemo , and that’s what those were. The little lantern fish that used the light to lure other fish to them to eat.

Unsettling, that was. 

But not nearly as unsettling as the growl that was a bit too close for comfort. Bill turned toward it, clutching Rose’s hand a bit tighter as she took in the enormous creature chained to the bottom of the Thames. 

It made another, uncomfortable-sounding noise, and then debris floated out around them.

Among it, the red hat from Spider’s head, proof the boy really was gone. 

Bill’s heart broke, thinking of how she watched him die with nothing to be done for it. How the Doctor had told her as much as did Rose, and she hadn’t wanted to believe it.

They could go back in time, couldn’t they? Fix it? But there was probably a rule against it. One Bill hadn’t even begun to understand.

Another sound, this one more mournful, and Bill looked away from the hat to the creature in time to see it open a huge eye. 

The iris alone was probably as big as Bill, and while it was certainly horrifying, there was something worse to it. The mournful sound repeated, and Bill could see that sadness now reflected back at her. 

“Can we help it?” She asked, voice choking up a bit.

“We can try,” Rose said, giving Bill’s hand a squeeze. “Not down here, though, yeah? Gotta find out more.”

Bill turned away as that giant eye closed again, not missing the way Rose bravely went up and gave the creature a pet, just a hair off from where its mouth was.

“There’s a hole over there,” The Doctor said, pointing his little wand thing to the left. “Near the docks.”

“Let’s go, then,” Rose said, giving Bill’s hand a little tug before guiding her where the Doctor was heading.

Either Bill’s crush on her was well and truly dead, or she was still reeling from the whole discovery of what was beneath the ice the whole time because otherwise, she’d be giddy as anything. Pretty girl holding her hand? Yeah, she’d have been grinning like an idiot.

Her heart was too heavy for it, though. Couldn’t muster the will to even say anything until they were once again above the ice.

“I know you!” The Doctor said as they surfaced. “You’re the cheat! I love your work.”

Bill spotted the pie man from earlier sitting on a crate, fishing pole in hand and a sack and a Nemo fish at his feet, clearly having been caught earlier as it wasn’t moving.

He didn’t stay on the crate long, though. By the time the three of them got their helmets off, he was taking off up the stairs, retreating from whatever consequences fishing here probably had.

But Bill didn’t want to think about the Pie Guy or the fish he used in them at the moment. The memory of the creature below and its wailing was sharp in her head.

“The sound it made,” Bill said, knowing that they’d know what she meant. “It’s like I felt it in my bones, you know? It sounded like… like…”

“Despair,” The Doctor supplied. “Loneliness. A prisoner in chains.”

“Not the first we encountered,” Rose said as the Doctor moved to investigate the catch dropped by Pie Guy. “Won’t be the last, I’m sure. Never gets easier.”

“We’re gonna do something, right?” Bill asked her. “I mean, it’s probably what’s making London so cold, right?”

“Maybe,” Rose agreed. “But whether it’s the reason or not, it’s not supposed to be there. And someone’s keeping it there for a reason, an’ I doubt it’s just so we can all go skating on the Thames.”

“Perhaps our friend here can answer that?” The Doctor called from up on the wharf, having made his way up there while Rose and Bill were talking.

As they rushed to catch up, the Pie Guy slowly came out from behind a barrel, looking well and truly caught out.

“You said you caught the fish yourself,” Bill crossed her arms, looking down her nose at him.

“I did.”

“I ate that pie. I liked that pie.”

“And I caught the fish was in the pie. Might be a bit ugly, but it’s edible.”

“Forget the fish,” Rose silenced him with a wave of her hand. “You see the bloke about that’s been hiring street kids to bring people to the fair?”

He looked at her, the Doctor, back at Rose and shook his head in confusion.

“What about a man with a tattoo of a ship?” The Doctor asked, causing Pie Guy to look at him like he was crazy. “What’s that face?” The Doctor asked, gesturing about Pie Guy’s head. “Is that a no, or are you against tattoos?”

“We’re stood by the docks, and you just asked me if I’ve ever seen a man with a tattoo of a ship.” Pie Guy retorted.

“Fair point,” Bill conceded.

“What point?” The Doctor asked.

“What about on his hand?” Rose asked, hands on her hips, posture straightening.

Pie Guy shrugged a shoulder.

“S a bit more narrowed down, yeah, but I mean.”

Tattoos weren’t helping, so Bill tried another way. 

“Forget the tattoos. Have you seen anyone acting suspiciously since the freeze?”

Pie Guy tilted his head as he considered the question. “Well, there’s the dredgers,” he winced.

“Dredgers?”

“There’s a workhouse upriver. They have men out there patrolling all hours.”

“Gonna guess we don’t know what they’re dredging for,” Rose said, and the guy shrugged but nodded.

“It’s all real secret-like.”

“Thanks, mate,” Rose said, turning to the Doctor, “can’t go tonight.”

“Why not?” The Doctor asked as Pie Guy skirted around them and slipped away in a hurry. 

“Well, for one, we gotta get changed back, yeah? Can’t go up there in diving suits from the twenty-fifth century, might be a bit odd, yeah? For another, being night and all, can’t exactly slip, psychic paper or not. Low visibility for sneaking, and anything official requires daylight hours.”

“I’m guessing you guys have done this before?” Bill smirked before cracking a yawn.

“Yeah, there’s that, too,” Rose said, gesturing to Bill. “How long’s it been since she’s had some rest?”

“Uh, well, we left around six,” Bill said, realizing only after how dumb that was. “In, like, the evening. But we spent a few hours with Vardies, yeah? And it’s been… how long here?”

“Right, so she’s been awake for probably a day,” Rose turned to her husband with her arms crossed, a heatless scowl on her face. “She’s regular human. She needs sleep.”

The Doctor huffed. 

“Right, yes, Forgot that bit.” He turned to Bill, beckoning her toward him with a wave and a tilt of his head. “Let’s go, TARDIS. She’ll make you up a room. You can get some sleep, we’ll see about the dredgers in the morning.”

Bill was about to protest that she was fine, but her jaw cracked with another yawn, and she knew she’d be dead on her feet and useless if things went sideways. And, given what happened with Heather and the Vardies, she had the distinct feeling that sideways was pretty much a guarantee with this lot.

Besides, if the TARDIS was sentient enough to bring the wardrobe to Bill and provide exactly what she needed, she couldn’t imagine what sort of bed the thing would give her.

Chapter Text

The Doctor looked up as Rose returned from bringing Bill to her room, the book he had started to read set aside as he straightened up in his chair. 

Rose was in a pair of pajamas herself now. Pink bottoms, a navy t-shirt that was old as anything and still managed to keep itself together. Barefoot, she climbed the stairs to the mezzanine where he was, so completely at ease with the changes inside the TARDIS that he might have mistaken her for his Rose.

“Bill had a bit of a freak out - the good sort - when we found where the Old Girl was putting her. Think she might try and move in, so I hope I like her as much in the future as I do now.”

The Doctor smirked, opening his arms and taking his wife into his lap, kissing her temple.

“We’re not in a situation where we can have her live on board,” He told her.

Rose narrowed her eyes at him but sighed, “Spoilers, then?”

“Some too big for even you to know.”

“Suppose,” She agreed, sighing again before turning so she could lean back against him. “Wasn’t expecting to spend the night with a new Doctor, but I’m thinking the needs must here.”

“Weren’t we here before? Back in my tenth body?” He asked, mindlessly reaching up and running his fingers through her hair. “Could always see him.”

“He’d have another me be a bit awkward,” She replied, a grin pulling at the corner of her lips. “’Sides, think we left earlier than now, yeah? ‘S why you, my you, waited so long to take Melody here. Didn’t have Jen, then, so it woulda been weird explaining a second daughter.”

The Doctor hummed in agreement, recalling that being the exact reason he had waited so long. He also vaguely remembers getting after the TARDIS for making him a whole day late.

He turned his gaze to the ceiling as time ship happily hummed, unrepentant at all for what she had and would later do. After all, the Doctor had been pulled here, not selected it, and was without his Rose. How could he possibly be surprised to find his wife here without his younger self?

“How we gettin’ on, then?” Rose asked after a stretch of silence. “Last I saw this you, I was mad at ya.”

“Oh, that,” He shrugged. “That actually happened to us a good… couple thousand years ago?”

“So, this isn’t a sort of time out?”

“No, this is just you either knowing this was going to happen or wanting to test out some distance. We’ve been rather more joined at the hip than usual for nearly a thousand years now. Had a thing happen, we got a bit co-dependent.”

“Doesn’t sound much different than we already are,” Rose snickered.

The Doctor shook his head, planting a quick peck on her cheek. “Not the same. You’ll understand one day.”

Rose hummed in agreement again, and they fell into silence for another beat.

“Surprised you haven’t commented on the TARDIS.” He said.

“’S not that different, really. Bit darker-toned, but still Spock. More curious about this ring on your finger. Keep saying you don’t like it.”

The Doctor glanced down at his left hand.

“Felt right this body for some reason.” 

Rose locked the fingers of her left hand with his, their rings making a delicate clinking sound as she did. His Rose had long gotten used to seeing it. This one probably quite liked the novelty.

“You know I’ve yet to see how you normally dress,” She commented, shifting to face him with a cheeky grin. “First time, it was the toga. This time you got the Georgian attire.”

“Look at you getting the eras right,” He teased back, making her chuckle. “Maybe I’m just too dashing dressed as I usually am for you to see so young. Might want the browless wonder to regenerate sooner.”

“I’d get you eventually. No need to rush it,” She said before leaning in and kissing him without a second’s hesitation.

It wasn’t weird, necessarily, to kiss his wife but younger. He’d done it before, of course, but it still surprised him when she leaned in so naturally. Then again, he supposed if she had had affairs with his younger selves, this wasn’t exactly off limits.

“Affairs?” She said against his lips, her amusement thick in both her voice and in their bond. 

“What else would you call it when you go and snog the younger versions of myself?” He countered with a smile.

“This you is older, as was my current you when you snuck back to the 70s, yeah? Can’t quite remember why you did that, but you had, and you stole a snog, then, too? Martha had a right fit.”

“Ah, see, that me was still married to you. Big Ears and Curly Sue? They were before we were involved that way.”

“Still you,” She argued, tongue-touched grin in place, eyes bright and full of mischief. 

“Still me,” He agreed before capturing her lips again, feeling her melt against him.

~DW~

Bill really needed to get her own place. Or a place with roommates. Or figure out how to move into the TARDIS. That last one was likely impossible, but it would be awesome if she could swing it.

The bed was the best bed Bill had ever slept in. The shower was the perfect temperature with the exact sort of water pressure Bill liked. There were products on the shower shelf she had never heard of before - might have even been alien - that smelled fantastic and was better than anything she’d ever used.

Not to mention the breakfast.

The fridge on the TARDIS was filled with anything and everything Bill could have possibly wanted. Did it expire? Who knew! She certainly didn’t. And after watching Rose crack a couple of eggs that looked like something to be avoided, Bill was leaning towards not. Time machine, right? Maybe things put in the fridge or pantry or whatever never went off because of some sort of space-time continuum thing that she did not dare ask anyone about.

The point was, though, she’d lived exclusively with Moira for long enough to know that she wasn’t exactly living the high life. And while serving chips wasn’t precisely a lucrative career, it paid well enough that Bill didn’t exactly want for anything she really needed. So she could probably, move out on her own and possibly running less of a risk of finding food that started growing stuff or have no hot water because Moira or her flavor of the night used it all up.

She was still trying to wrap her brain around the possibilities of it all while they were making their way to where the dredgers Pie Guy talked about were.

The three of them were back in their period clothes, and this time she had Rose quietly suggest some tricks and tips to make things a bit more bearable. Like the runners under the dress because, chances were, no one was going to notice them. And the leggings. Good old fashion leggings from their time to keep the legs warm and also in case of any required running.

Bill could see how running might be a possibility. So far an alien encounter except for with the Doctor had involved running. Actually, scratch that. There was running involved with him, too, because there had been a couple of times when six o’clock was coming up a bit too quickly and Bill had to do a bit of a jog, if not a full sprint, to make sure she wasn’t going to be late.

“How are we getting in?” She asked as they approached the refinery where the dredgers supposedly worked all the time.

The Doctor reached into his jacket pocket, showing Bill a billfold before flipping it open.

Sir Doctor Disco of TARDIS and Lady Rose Tyler of TARDIS, friends of the Royal Family, Keepers of the Under Gallery, and Protectors of the English Empire.

“You two work for the palace?” She asked, eyes wide.

The three of them stopped a moment, Rose leaning in to look at the paper in the billfold. 

“Doctor Disco?” Rose chuckled.

“It’s a thing. You’ll see.”

“Right. Sure we couldn’t have fit a few more titles on there?” Rose mused as the Doctor folded it back up, sticking it in his pocket.

“It’s been a while since we had that one come up.”

“Trying to cover everything, then?” She teased the Doctor with a tongue-touched grin.

Bill frowned. “What do you mean, that one?”

“’S psychic paper,” Rose explained. “Shows people what we want them to see. Mostly. Sometimes like the TARDIS it goes a bit rogue, but mostly if you let your thoughts slip.”

“So if I were to hold it?” Bill questioned, arching a brow.

“We’ll let you play with it later. Though if your crush on Rose was supposed to be a secret-“

“You have a crush on me?” Rose asked, sounding astoundingly flattered.

Bill, blushing, shook her head in tiny movements. “I mean, yeah, did. But, you know… you’re married. To him, and yeah.”

The Doctor darted his gaze between the two of them before shaking his head. He said nothing, which Bill had never been more thankful for, and she followed him and Rose through the gates of the tall, spiked wall like they owned the place.

There were a lot of workers, some doing exactly as Pie Guy had said - dredging stuff from the river. Others were forming it into bricks, more loading said bricks on carts, then carting them off. Pretty much all of them working directly with the mud had their mouths and noses covered.

It was nearly distracting enough that Bill almost didn’t see the tall, imposing blokes follow them on their heels. Not big, at least not the ones immediately in their vicinity. But Bill was aware that skinny didn’t mean weak. 

Rose glanced over her shoulder, seemed to meet the eye of the nearest bloke, who was frankly intimidating and smiled at him.

Not a normal Rose smile, either. There was something really dark about it, that had the hair on the back of Bill’s neck stand on end.

“Oi! How’d you get in here?” Another bloke came up to them. Shorter than the others though he was, he was definitely someone in charge. He looked to the Doctor for an answer, mostly. He glanced at Bill and barely put his eyes on Rose before they flitted away.

“At last, someone in authority,” The Doctor said as he pulled out the billfold with the psychic paper and showed it to the boss man.

He stood a little straighter, this fella. He even looked behind the three of them and nodded to the other blokes, getting them to back down.

“I do apologize, sir. Does Lord Sutcliffe know you’re here?”

“Does Lord Sutcliffe know we’re here?” The Doctor repeated like it was the stupidest question the bloke could ask.

There was an awkward pause before Rose stepped in, “What did the paper say?”

The bloke looked between her and the Doctor. 

“Ah… that you work for the crown?”

“Exactly,” Rose said in a sort of flirty tone that oddly had the Doctor grinning like a madman. “And as an agent for the crown, we sometimes check up on things without warning. Just to make sure everything’s on the up and up, yeah? As they should be?” 

Rose fixed the bloke’s lapels all while he blushed a bit, and yeah, alright. Bill could admit on the other side of things, it was kind of hilarious to watch. She knew how he felt and almost had pity for the guy.

“So you’d better show us around,” The Doctor said, and the bloke was physically startled before turning his attention to the Doctor. 

“Right, yes,” he swallowed before gesturing behind him, “follow me.”

Rose turned to Bill flashing a wink before following the boss bloke.

Bill looked wide-eyed at the Doctor, trying so hard not to react, and let a giggle slip when he met her eye with a wicked smirk.

The bloke led them further inside the work yard, no one paying them any mind at all. The lot of them, heads down, keeping themselves to themselves. Didn’t even seem like they were chatting, which made Bill wonder how tight of a ship these guys were under.

The boss bloke turned as someone called, and he excused himself a moment, leaving the three of them on their own.

“Why all the fuss?” Bill asked as they stood off to the side a moment. “It’s just mud from the river, isn’t it?”

“Mud is one word for it,” The Doctor said, wandering over to a stack of bricks.

“Is this even the right place?” She asked as she followed, glancing behind her to see Rose remaining off to the side, eyes narrowed as she looked over the work yard. “The creature’s almost a mile away.”

“The creature’s head is almost a mile away,” The Doctor said as Bill picked up a brick curiously. It was damp, not surprising. She expected it to smell like water or fish or some combination of the two. It had a funky essence to it that she couldn’t really place.

It was, of course, now that she had the bloody thing so close to her face that he felt the need to say, “I assume we’re now at the other end .”

She had never dropped anything so quickly in her life. 

Why? Why would he let her touch the thing, knowing what it was? Why? Shuddering, Bill slowly turned to see the Doctor had rejoined Rose and the boss bloke. 

“These men,” the Doctor said, gesturing at the workforce. “Why do we trust them?”

“Hired them all myself, sir,” Boss Bloke replied.

“Ah. Why do I trust you?”

“Sir?”

“You know why we're asking, yeah?” Rose asked, a little less flirtatious now that they were in the thick of it. “We can’t be having anyone know where this all goes after here.”

“Oh, I know that, ma’am. We use unmarked carts,” Boss bloke assured confidently.

“Are they ever followed?” The Doctor asked, quirking a brow.

“Oh, no, Sir.”

“Have you checked this personally?”

“Oh yes, sir.”

“All the way to Hampton?”

Boss bloke frowned. 

“No, to the steel mill, sir.”

“Hampton is code for the steel mill,” The Doctor covered flawlessly.

“Code, sir?” Boss Bloke asked, even more confused.

“To make sure we keep things between us,” Rose stepped in. “Makes sure that only the people who are supposed to know where it goes does. Deflects anyone from following, too, yeah? Just in case?”

Boss Bloke ducked his head and scuffed his foot.

“Suppose that’s true, ma’am.

“Now,” Rose inched forward, tilting her head so she could meet his eyes. “You or anyone else know what you’re dredging up from the Thames?”

“No, ma’am,” Boss bloke assured seriously, straightening up as he shook his head.

“You sure?” She asked.

“He looks like someone who knows more than he tells, doesn’t he, Love?” The Doctor asked, getting Boss Bloke’s attention.

“I’m not one to speculate,” He hedged.

“But you can’t help it because you’re a man of intelligence,” The Doctor egged on.

Boss Bloke leaned toward them, glancing around before he said, “They won’t let us smoke in here, so I assume it’s fuel,” he said, lowering his voice a touch. “Fuel for the furnaces.”

“Excellent reasoning,” The Doctor encouraged. “Lord Sutcliffe appreciates an inquiring mind.”

“Well, I keep my ear to the ground, you know?”

“And what’re you hearing?” Rose asked.

“That this stuff burns a thousand times longer than coal.” Boss bloke replied.

“Very good,” The Doctor grinned.

“Hotter, too!” Boss bloke added enthusiastically. “Hotter than anything they can measure.”

“Impressive,” Rose nodded. “But, you know. Should probably keep quiet on that, yeah? Mean, if word gets ‘round that this stuff burns so long, well. One or two goes missing. Who you think Lord Sutcliffe’s gonna look to?”

Boss bloke paled and nodded. He looked torn, glancing around them again before he said, “You know what else they say? They say it even burns underwater.”

“No shit,” Bill exclaimed softly.

“Yeah,” Boss bloke huffed. “Something else, isn’t it?”

“Well, thank you so much for showing us around. We have so much to discuss with Lord Sutcliffe,” Rose said with a strained smile. 

“Right, ma’am,” Boss Bloke said. Should I walk you out?”

“No, we’re fine. We’ve got it from here. Thank you,” The Doctor said, putting his arm around Rose’s waist and then tilting his head at Bill. 

She followed, trying to keep pace with the pair of them and look as natural about it as they did. Not really penguins with their arses on fire. Maybe very determined ducks. Trying to appear aloof while they head for the bread bits.

Once outside and a little ways away from the entrance, the Doctor and Rose stopped.

Bill nearly asked what the plan was before Rose sighed and smiled wistfully at the Doctor.

“Sure you don’t want to see what we’re dealing with?” He asked like he was tempting her with the last piece of cake.

She grinned indulgently, fiddling with the lapels of his jacket. 

“This is about the time my Doctor took off. I should be getting back to the fair, see if he shows back up, yeah?”

“I suppose if you must. I’m much more fun than he is, though. You’re missing out.”

“Sure I get plenty of time to see how fun you are,” She teased before leaning in and giving him a kiss.

Bill immediately averted her eyes because, holy flip. Yep, okay, that was new. Had she ever seen the Doctor and Rose kiss? She couldn’t be sure, but if she had, it was a peck, a blip, not anything too crazy. That was a proper kiss. Not a snog, but… and, well, he still looked older than her, by, like, a lot. So….

“Keep out of trouble,” Rose said, and Bill turned to see they were still very close and sort of cute and okay. Yeah, he might look older, but they really did love each other a lot. Made the juxtaposition of a woman only a bit older than Bill and someone who looked old enough to be her grandfather a bit understandable.

“You know me,” He said, voice a bit deeper than normal and his smirk fond.

“I do. ‘S why I say to stay out of trouble,” Rose said before stepping back and turning to Bill.

“Good luck,” She said.

“Thanks,” Bill replied, not sure what else to say.

Rose tilted her head with a frown, then stepped to Bill. Slowly, she reached out and gently wiped at something on her cheek.

“Cold’s making your eyes water, I think,” She said, showing Bill the teardrop she’d wiped from her cheek.

Bill reached up and touched the damp trail, heart skipping a beat as she did. 

“Guess so,” She lied, grinning through it and hoping neither Rose nor the Doctor would notice. 

“Right. See you later,” Rose said with a cheeky wink before taking off toward the fair.

“We are going?” Bill asked the Doctor as he watched his wife walk away.

“This way,” He said, pointing in the opposite direction than where Rose had gone.

“Let’s get to it, then,” Bill said with as much enthusiasm as she could muster, trying not to think too much about the fact they were about to see an alien who didn’t seem to care about human life and had a monster chained below the river. Or that there was a tear on her cheek that didn’t come from her. Or that she had literally touched a brick of shit.

She would never hear the phrase “shit a brick” quite the same ever again.

~DW~

“ Rose ,” The Doctor tried, knocking on her mental walls. She wasn’t precisely closed off, but they were out of sync, and she was a couple of thousand years younger than he was used to. “ Rose. ”

Bill, for her part, remained mostly quiet on their way back to the Frost Fair. Tied up, and shoved in the carriage with the blinds drawn, there wasn’t really anything that could be said or done, so it was probably for the better. 

That, and it was really a short journey from the insufferable Lord Sutcliffe’s home to the fair, what with so many people from London in attendance.

He could feel when they went from traveling on the cobblestone to the ice of the river, the dip in the slope that led them there. He knew Rose would have had a head start getting there, but she was on foot. And he hadn’t sensed another him around, so she was still about, wasn’t she? 

“ Rose, love, could really use some assistance,” He said again through the bond as the carriage came to a stop, and one of the men Sutcliffe had hired as muscle pulled The Doctor and then Bill from the coach. Sutcliffe had apparently road in a separate one, likely to make sure the Doctor and Bill didn’t attempt a daring escape or something.

They were pushed toward a tent, and the Doctor started banging a bit more furiously on the mental walls as he spotted the barrels and wires within.

“It could be rum,” Bill tried to reason with a shaky voice as they were steered to the center post that had been wrapped in wire. “Rum came in barrels.”

“Nah, smell that? It’s their homemade rocket fuel, redeployed as explosive.” He pointed out while he was being forced down. His sonic would be accessible, which was good, because he may at least be able to loosen the binds holding them once most everyone cleared the tent. Good step one, really. 

Sutcliffe watched the Doctor and Bill get tied up with an air of detachment and superiority the Doctor hadn’t seen in a human in a long, long time. Actually, he could picture the human. Bald, bad mustache. Mocked Rose. Couldn’t think of a name for him, though.

“It’s a little reckless, don’t you think?” The Doctor asked Sutcliffe. “Half the fair disappears into the river. The secret of your success won’t be secret anymore.

“Hardly,” Sutcliffe scoffed. “The city will pause to mourn a fireworks display gone tragically awry, and the creature will be fed. By spring, this will be a footnote in history. “Sutcliffe tapped his lips. “That is progress.” He then turned to the muscle and stated, “They’re bringing the elephant out presently. We won’t get bigger crowds than that, so make sure you’re off the ice by noon.”

“Noon?” Bill said with a hopeful lilt. “There’s no way you can keep us here that long. We’ll just scream our heads off.”

Despite the Doctor’s protests, as soon as Sutcliffe turned his back, Bill began to scream.

The muscle who remained looked rather unimpressed if he looked anything other than unaffected. He watched Bill for a moment, probably trying to figure out if it was worth attempting to shut her up, and then turned to head out of the tent.

There was a loud crack , and the muscle fell ball on the ice with a rather sickening thud. 

Bill went silent mid-cry for help. 

The Doctor looked at the guy, out cold and with a bloodied nose, and then looked up at the tent flap.

“Sorry,” Rose said, flipping her bangs from her face. “Was waiting for younger you a bit further away. Couldn’t quite knock back.”

“Glad you came at all,” The Doctor told her as she stepped over the muscle on the ice. “Was going to have to sonic our way out.”

“Yeah, seems like a bad idea, that,” Rose replied as she knelt down, feeling the ropes. “Sorta knots they use?” She grumbled, fumbling to untie them a moment before just yanking and breaking the rope. “Sorry,” She said mostly to Bill, who hissed at the pull of the rough material.

“Right, why was the sonic bad?” Bill asked as she and the Doctor scrambled to their feet. Human legs, hers were probably numbed a bit from the ice, so he could forgive her for being a bit slower.

“It makes a noise,” he explained. “That’s how they choose a victim, how they know they’ve isolated someone on the ice.”

“But there’s a lot of noise,” Bill pointed out, gesturing to the tent flaps.

“Yeah, but it’s a lotta noise over a large area,” Rose explained. “’S like it becomes white noise, yeah? Like you don’t see all the faces in a crowd, but when someone’s on their own, you do. You see them. Same sorta idea, that.”

“Love it when you talk acoustics,” The Doctor said absently as he looked at the tent flaps.

He knew what had to be done, and experience with the moon over a millennium ago told him that the likely outcome would mean everything that had happened would stay the same. Likely, probably.

But more importantly, if Bill was going to travel with him - with them - then she needed to understand that sometimes death was inevitable. That he couldn’t save everyone. That sometimes tough decisions had to be made, and that Rose couldn’t always be the sacrifice.

Rose hadn’t exactly displayed that unique ability of hers yet, but if they kept going on trips, it would likely be inevitable.

“Right, things to do, decisions to make,” He said, turning to Bill. “What are we going to do about Tiny?” He asked her.

She frowned, “Tiny?”

“The creature. The loch-ness monster. The not-so-little mermaid. Are we going to leave her down there?”

“We can’t set her free,” Bill countered like it was obvious. “She could burst ip out of the water and eat a hundred people right off of Southbank! She could eat half of London!”

“Or she could just swim off,” Rose suggested. When Bill looked at her in disbelief, Rose sighed. “Look, don’t know if she’d have eaten people by choice, yeah? Lotsa creatures in the depths bigger than a human, probably what she’d have gone for. Right now, though, she’s chained up down there below the ice, suffering. Heard it like I did, like we all did.”

Bill looked between him and Rose, growing increasingly distraught.

“Why is it up to me?” She asked pleadingly.

“Because it can’t be up to me,” He told her bluntly. “Your people, your planet.”

“Rose is from this planet. Why can’t she decide?”

“Bill, don’t know if you know this, but I’m dead.”

Bill’s eyes widen, mouth opening, but no words came out.

It wasn’t any more than a second, maybe two before Rose continued, but it was amusing to watch nonetheless.

“Canary Wharf. When the ghosts came through, attacked the world. I chose to stay with the Doctor, and my mum got sent to another universe where she got to live with a version of my dad that didn’t die. I had no one. Nothing left but him and the TARDIS. Gave up my status as a resident on Earth, then. Barely have one now, even though I’m living on it more than not. So it’s not up to me. But I know what I’d do.”

“Not long ‘til noon,” the Doctor reminded Bill. “I need an order.”

Bill looked at the tent flaps, worrying her lip a moment. He could see it, the genuine thought process that went through Bill’s mind. The understanding, the surety that would come through when she spoke next.

Turning to the Doctor, she said, “Save her,” with so much conviction that the Doctor smiled.

“I’ll take care of it. You get everyone off the ice.”

Bill didn’t even question. She just turned and bolted.

“What’s your plan, then?” Rose asked when they were alone.

He turned to her, smiling wide. 

“You heard what they said at the factor. The explosives can burn underwater.” 

“Yeah? An’ how are you going to get it under the water? TARDIS is across the Thames.” She asked.

“You didn’t see me get dressed this morning, did you?” He asked, already knowing the answer. He unbuttoned his shirt, showing off the twenty-fifth-century diving suit he’d put on under his clothes.

Rose snorted, “Really? Planned this, did ya?”

“Think we both know by now that there was a chance we’d have to free the creature ourselves.” He said, continuing the removal of his suit.

Rose watched him with a curious frown, “What are you wearing under the diving suit?”

He just met her eye pointedly before continuing undressing. 

“Right, and what are you gonna do after you pull off your usual heroics, then? Clothes are gonna be here.”

“Was thinking of changing on the TARDIS,” He replied with a shrug.

“How can I help?” She asked as he finished getting the last of his outer layer off. 

“Help me cut a hole behind this tent,” He said as he sized up the barrels. It should be enough to get the job done. “I can get the barrels down by myself. Rig an explosion my old friend Ace would be proud of.”

“Long as you’re clear of that explosion, yeah?” Rose said sternly. “Can always be me that goes down there.”

“Love, it will be fine,” He said, kissing her cheek before activating the diving helmet. “Promise.”

~*~

He kept his promise. After he and Rose had the hole cut in the ice, she helped him move the barrels out of the tent and into the water before she headed off to try and help Bill clear the ice of innocent people.

When he arrived back at the docks, his wife and Bill were already there, watching the cracks in the ice form before the large back of the captive creature broke through.

“You did it,” Bill exclaimed when she spotted him, turning to give him a massive hug that he was utterly unprepared for. He looked over Bill’s shoulder to Rose as he held his arms awkwardly out to the side.

Rose just watched with amusement, and maybe a bit of confusion, at the way he robotically and awkwardly pat Bill on the back.

Bill didn’t seem to notice or care as she pulled back, holding him by the shoulders to beam at him before she turned back to the river.

“She’s free,” She said with glee. “Where will she go?”

“Somewhere cold, I imagine,” He told her as they edged closer to the river. “Hopefully, she’s smart enough to avoid you lot, now.”

“But what is she isn’t? What if we just, like, doomed Greenland?” Bill asked, nose scrunching up in worry.

The fondness he was feeling for her welled up inside him, coming out in the form a smirk as he looked at her from the corner of his eye.

“I’ll check on Greenland,” He assured.

As they watched the creature dive beneath the London bridge, the unmistakable sound of the TARDIS materializing came from behind them.

The Doctor, Bill, and Rose turned to watch the Old Girl appear, solidifying with a gentle thud.

Rose crossed her arms, mouth twisting in an attempt to not appear amused. 

A beat later, the door opened.

His Eleventh self appeared in the doorway, grimacing as he took in the three of them, his purple-toned top hat askew.

“I’m late, aren’t I?” He asked without needing to know the answer.

“Just a bit, yeah,” Rose deadpanned. “Took you that long to drop off Melody, did it?”

As if summoned, Melody popped around Eleven, her mop of curly hair styled in an up-do dress perfect for the era. She was probably forty, meaning she looked like a ten-year-old human, more so by the way she was snickering behind her hand.

Eleven looked down at her and winced.

“Might have, um, caved a bit to the request to just go back for her at the end of the week and bring her back here.”

“Well, Fair’s over, I’m afraid.” Rose mused as she made her way over to the TARDIS. 

Eleven narrowed his eyes at her.

“What did you get up to?” He asked her.

“Saving an alien trapped beneath the Thames you apparently missed not once, but twice.” She said, poking him in the chest.

He caught her hand, then looked out at the river. 

“Actually, three times.”

“First us,” The Doctor replied, barely holding back a grin as Bill startled violently.

“Exactly,” Eleven said as he looked at the Doctor, glancing him over. There were insults in that brain, the Doctor knew. He had enough digs at his younger self that he knew it was mutual. Always was. But for once, neither of them seemed to want to voice them.

“So, fair’s over, then?” Melody asked.

“Yes, darling, but I’m sure we can find you somewhere to go, dressed up as you are,” Rose said to Melody as she stroked her hair. To Eleven, she said, “Maybe we can take her to Leatis?”

“Sounds excellent, Sweetheart,” Eleven said, kissing Rose on the cheek before heading inside the TARDIS, calling for Melody to follow.

Rose looked out at the Doctor and grinned.

“See you later, then,” She teased, tongue at the corner of her mouth.

“That you will, love,” he assured, watching her step inside and close the door. As soon as it was shut, the TARDIS took off, blinking in and out until there was nothing occupying the space it had sat.

“Okay,” Bill said after a moment. “I have… so many questions.”

“I’ll answer them,” The Doctor assured. “But first, to my TARDIS. I’m going to need to change. There’s a family fortune up for grabs and some children who could benefit from it.”

~*~

When the Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS into his office, Nardole was standing in the middle of it, looking after the door like it had offended him. 

He turned, then pointed at the door indignant.

“Your wife just took off.”

“She’s allowed to do that,” the Doctor replied, clearing the way for Bill, who was immediately engrossed in something on her phone.

“I think she was leaving the University, she suggested I call one of your daughters,” Nardole replied as he waddled up to him, face pinched with disapproval.

“Well, she’s allowed to do that, too.” The Doctor reminded Nardole. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

“Yes, but what if you weren’t?” Nardole argued. “You two took an oath.”

“Technically, I made the oath. Rose is free to do what she likes.”

Nardole scrunched his face up a bit more, but Bill spoke before the android could argue.

“I don’t understand. How could it not have been headline news?”

He knew what she was talking about, and turning his back to Nardole, he went to see what Bill had on her phone. Sure enough, there was nothing about “creature” and “Frost Fair 1814” together. Just the freak thaw, and the few lives lost to it as they weren’t quick enough to move or blatantly ignored any warning to do so.

“Never underestimate the collective human ability to overlook the inexplicable,” He said as he held out his hand. “May I?”

Bill gave him the phone, and he quickly searched up Peregrine Sutcliffe .  

“You can always rely upon the papers to miss a headline,” He said as he clicked on the result he wanted, handing the phone back to Bill.

“Lord Sutcliffe drowns in snap thaw. Shock as steel fortune is passed to street urchin. The new Lord Sutcliffe was found starving on London’s streets. The inheritance was contested, everyone got super mad, blah, blah, blah…,” She skimmed the rest, and then looked up with a delighted smile. “Urchin boy deemed legitimate! Oh my God, it worked! You did it, you saved them.”

“We can’t save everyone,” The Doctor reminded her. “And time can not be rewritten. The snap-thaw happened. How it happened was never mentioned, but now you know.”

“So… we were always meant to go back in time and free the creature?” Bill asked, a grin pulling at the corners of her lips even as she frowned in confusion.

“Maybe,” the Doctor replied with a shrug. “The answer is likely ‘yes.’”

Bill nodded slowly, clearly trying to wrap her head around it.

“Okay,” She said, “I’m going to go change back into my kit. Then, I’m gonna go home, and I’m gonna make a list. Like, a long list of every question I can think of, including how you look like you, but the other you looked nothing like you at all.”

“I look forward to the inquisition,” the Doctor deadpanned, watching Bill nod as she turned and headed into the TARDIS.

“You made an oath,” Nardole said when they were pretty much alone again. “The vault must have a guard. You said so yourself.”

“And it does,” The Doctor assured. “But whether we are here or not is irrelevant. She won’t escape.”

Nardole didn’t look like he really believed that, but he thankfully relented. He turned, waddling away to the apartment, grumbling something the Doctor was choosing not to hear.

~*~

It was a few hours later when Rose returned. The Doctor had spent the time idly strumming on his guitar, plucking away at a song he wrote that made him think of his wife.

She entered his office with a smile, taking the time to remove her jacket and hang it up before making her way to him. She leaned down, giving him a quick kiss before hopping up on the corner of his desk while he finished the refrain.

“Where’d you go?” He asked her as the final notes faded out.

“Kate called. Had me look into something for her. Got to meet a couple of your old companions while I was there,” She replied, nudging his leg with her foot while she sent him an image that was a bit foggy around the edges. 

Ace and Tegan, older than he’d last saw them.

“What were they there for?” He asked her, setting his guitar aside.

“Same as I was. Something fishy. Kate wasn’t given much details.” Rose frowned. “Actually, think she wanted me to ask you something, but I can’t remember what it was.”

“Probably wasn’t important, then,” He shrugged before getting out of his seat. “Saw you earlier,” He said as he placed his hands on her waist.

“Yeah, remembered on the way back,” She smiled, giving him a gentle shove on the shoulder. Nothing to make him back off or leave her space. He knew it wasn’t her intention. “Knew I liked Bill, knew without a doubt I wanted her around, just didn’t know why. Now I do, suppose. You answer her questions?”

“She’s going to make a list,” He said with a fond grin, making Rose chuckle. “She reminds me of Liv, I think. Not sure if that means we should introduce her or not.”

“Maybe wait and see how she handles everything else she wants to know before we bring up the granddaughter,” Rose suggested, and he couldn’t help but agree with that. She yawned, leaning in and placing her head between his hearts. “Beat,” she said, “think I’m gonna turn in for the night.”

“I’ll go with you,” He said, kissing the crown of her head before she scooted off the desk, “think we could both use the rest.” 

Chapter Text

“Okay, first question: explain what ever regeneration is?” 

Bill had, indeed, come back with a list of questions, only she didn’t wait until six o’clock to get them answered.

The Doctor rocked side to side in his chair, amused as he looked at the little notepad in his companion’s hand, then to the expectant face as she waited for an answer.

“I’m Time Lord,” He replied, as if Bill would understand how much that explained the answer.

She, of course, didn’t and merely smirked as her brow furrowed.

“Right, so, that your job or something?”

“No, it’s my species,” he clarified. 

“Doesn’t sound like a species. Sounds posh. Like, ‘yes my lord,’ doff my cap.”

“Oh, well, that’s why I gave it up, ran away,” He quipped.

“Right. Okay, you ran away. Suppose I can see that. Anyway, regeneration, what’s that got to do with being a Time Lord?”

“We regenerate. When we die, every cell in our body burns and rewrites itself, creating a new version of me. Sometimes I’m older. Sometimes I’m younger. I could be a woman next, who knows?”

Rose, who was sitting in a chair by the window, made a soft sound barely detectable to humans. He glanced at her, trying to discern if that was a good sound or bad sound, but she remained stoic, and her mind was firmly sealed off. Interesting.

“So Time Lords, bit flexible on the whole man-woman thing?” Bill asked, a hint of delight in her tone.

“We were the most civilized civilization in the universe. We were billions of years beyond your petty human obsession with gender and its associated stereotypes,” he replied, waving his hand as if he could wave away the stupid twenty-first-century hang-ups humans had.

“But you still call yourselves Time Lords ,” Bill pointed out, arching a brow in amusement.

“Well, the old-fashioned ones go between that and Time Lady,” Rose piped up from where she stared out the window.

That made Bill frown more. “Rose isn’t alien,” She stated, though still looked to the Doctor for confirmation as she gestured to his wife. He nodded once. “But you were talking like Time Lords aren’t about anymore. Except, well, you are because you’re here.”

The Doctor pursed his lips a moment, nodding once. “There was a war. I won. Literally just me, though I have come to learn in recent years I wasn’t the only survivor. But of the Time Lords, there is only me, my biological daughter and granddaughters, and… an old friend. They escaped the war. But the race as a whole, essentially gone.”

“Okay,” Bill nodded once. “So, younger you looked different because he was, like, a past you. He’s gone.”

“Yes.”

“How many versions of you have there been?” Bill asked curiously, leaning in as if he was about to impart a great secret.

“Twelve,” He told her. An easy answer to give since explaining that all of him would have been roaming about in some form or another. His last one was out there right now. 

“And how long have you two been married? Like, for all of them?”

“Rose and I have been married since my tenth.”

“Started traveling with him in his ninth,” She added. 

“And she’s been known to have affairs with my eighth,” He added simply because he knew it would wind her up.

Sure enough, Rose huffed, the slap of her hand on her thigh echoing in the room.

“’Nough of that bit, yeah? It’s you, still you.”

“Gotta agree with her on that one, still you,” Bill added, cringing a touch.

“It was before we met.”

“Yeah, well, technically, the other Rose didn’t meet this you before.”

“Actually, that Rose had met this me before, once when she was younger.”

“You flirted with me as your eleventh self at a time when I didn’t know you,” Rose reminded him. “Don’t think I didn’t figure it out.”

“There’s a difference between flirting and snogging,” He shot back.

“Would also like to point out that it was you who always kissed first,” Rose countered, grinning with her tongue between her teeth. 

“Ninth self,” he countered.

“Way I remember it is you kissed me before I kissed you.”

“Chronologically-“

“For you, maybe, not for me.”

“Not sure I’m followin’ or if I wanna,” Bill interrupted, ending the spat before it could snowball. “So. Time Lord, two hearts. Anything else you got two of?”

“Mum asked the same thing,” Rose snickered.

The Doctor cringed, recalling hearing Jackie ask that during one of his lucid moments. 

“No,” He answered Bill. “Just two hearts.”

“Okay,” She said, smoothing her hands on her thighs before gripping the arms of the chair. “How many aliens are actually on Earth? Like, you made it sound like that Sutcliffe bloke being an alien wasn’t weird.”

“There are… a few,” The Doctor gestured with a flick of his hand. “More than you can possibly imagine, less than you’ll start suspecting.”

Bill nodded slowly, glancing over toward Rose and then at the pictures on the desk.

He had them all out now. No need to hide the family photo with Jackie, Pete, and Tony. Bill didn’t ask much about it, but now she could probably figure out Tight Suit was him. 

“Are there actually side effects of time travel? Like, you say if Rose or you meet another version of yourself, you have to forget. But am I going to forget something if I see a different version of myself? Can I see a different version of myself?”

“It’s possible,” He conceded, “but the chances are unlikely. If something changes your personal history, you can get headaches. But it’s unlikely.”

“If you do see yourself at any point, never make contact with you,” Rose said gravely. “And don’t try and change your past.”

“Sounds like you’re speaking from experience,” Bill laughed nervously.

“She is,” The Doctor told her, steepling his fingers. “But that’s not important. Any other questions?”

“I think it’s all I got for now,” Bill said as she looked down at her notepad again. “Except…,” She chewed her lip, “What about… aging? Like, I just spent a whole day - two, really - away. Like, out of time, or whatever. We came back to just a minute or two later, but, like, am I now two days older, or am I the same?”

“Your metabolic state doesn’t pause or slow down because you time traveled. You still aged. You are, technically, two days older than you were. If we were to be somewhere for five years, you come back five years older.” He said, recalling Amy and Rory, their choice to stay behind. How they settled into a new time knowing they could at least continue to see their daughter. The letters they asked them to pass on to Arthur. 

He remembered raising River, how they would have her for so much longer than Amy and Rory simply because they needed her to age psychically like the other children in the neighborhood. The forty-year-old in a ten-year-old’s body. 

The Doctor hadn’t been so lost in thought as to have missed the momentary ashen look on Bill’s face at the thought. He watched and waited, curious to see what she would do with the information now that she had it. 

“Okay,” She said slowly. “And has that… happened before?”

“Yes,” He told her.

“It can also be the opposite,” Rose said, getting up from her chair and making her way toward them. She hopped up on the corner of his desk, turning to face Bill with a smirk. “First time I traveled with him, he brought me back twelve months late. Mum had me down as a missing person and everything. So, on paper, here, I was twenty. But the reality was I was still only nineteen.”

“Think we made up for that, what with how long you were gone between travels,” The Doctor mused, resting his hand around her ankle.

“Still, point is, sometimes we skip ahead, yeah?”

“Right, okay,” Bill nodded once. “I think that’s all the questions I have. For now, anyway.”

“Good, because I’m supposed to be teaching you,” He said, patting Rose’s ankle twice.

She hopped down as Bill said, “You are teaching me.” 

Rose threw a smirk at him over her shoulder before she started heading toward to door.

“Right, if you two decide to go gallivanting, let me know. Was not impressed to find out you two had to negotiate with killer robots, and I wasn’t there as a buffer.”

Bill’s eyebrows shot up, watching as Rose left before saying, “Right, that was….?”

“Never mind,” He said, waving it off. “Where’s your paper that I assigned you?”

~*~

“You’re frowning,” Missy said after a bit. “It’ll give you wrinkles, ruin your pretty face.”

“Can’t get wrinkles when I don’t age,” Rose replied. She and Missy had been watching telly, something her mum would have loved, given her obsession with dramas. Rose was following because she couldn’t not, but she also hadn’t been paying much attention to it. 

She’d been trying to figure out what she was forgetting. There was something. She knew that. Kate had called her to UNIT. She went there, and she met… Ace? And someone… the memory was getting foggier by the moment. She couldn’t even remember why she had gone there, why she left if the problem cleared itself up.

Had she met a younger her? Was that why she wasn’t able to remember what happened? She knew the Doctor wasn’t there and that he wasn’t called for, so maybe it had involved him in some way?

Was driving her spare, it was.

“Is it the pet?” Missy asked.

Rose snorted, “Got a name, she does. And no, not Bill. Bill’s fine. ‘S something else. Can’t place my finger on what it is.”

Rose expected Missy to comment on that, but she remained surprisingly quiet. 

The television filled the silence, the cadence of the actors’ voices a comfort. Rose tried and failed to focus on that memory in her head that was shrouded in shadow to make it clearer. 

She could ask the Doctor, and she could feel his curiosity as to what was driving her mad at the edges of their bond. But she had a feeling that if he knew, he’d worry. And if he worried, he might investigate.

As Rose half listened to the telly, a piece of memory slipped in. She couldn’t be sure who said it to her or why, but it was there and seemingly so outrageous she couldn’t be sure she dreamt it.

“Were you a cat once?” Rose asked with a frown, turning to Missy.

Missy smirked, “Was not my finest moment or my best of plans. Had a bit of a spell there, in the middle. Or, perhaps the early beginnings? One can never tell when one has been resurrected a few too many times.”

“Bit like a bad penny, you are,” Rose agreed with a grin.

“I’m worth far more than that,” Missy said indignantly. “But I will give you that that was not my best moment. Or my best plot. My best anything, really, but that’s why one strives to improve with every regeneration.”

“Weren’t you sort of snake-like in another?” Rose quirked a brow.

Missy pouted. “It was another resurrection. They don’t always go well.”

“Yeah, remember the Doctor saying you were a bit unstable before the whole multiple… you thing. That was a nightmare to live through twice.”

“At least you didn’t have to live through my darlings twice.”

“Yeah, well, ‘s what happens when the year doesn’t happen,” Rose sighed, feeling the beginnings of a headache coming on. It had been ages - centuries - since she had one from overworking her brain. “How many yous have there been?”

Missy gasped. 

“It’s impolite to ask a lady how many regenerations she’s had.”

“Well, if it is, Doctor’s never called anyone out on it.”

“Well, he’s not a lady. Not yet.” There was a pause that Rose waited out. “I think I’m my eighth. Don’t think I’m forgetting one, but it’s hard to know sometimes.”

Rose opened her eyes a fraction to see Missy staring off into the distance.

“I wonder, sometimes, if the Time Lords took some of that away. Who I was. If maybe there was a version of me that was good. If there was a regeneration that… that wasn’t what I always am.”

Rose didn’t know what to say to that, didn’t know how to offer Missy any comfort with words. So she reached over and took her hand, holding it loosely before closing her eyes again.

Missy squeezed once, tight but not to the point of pain. She kept hold of Rose’s hand, that barely there connection. 

Rose didn’t open her eyes for another hour, allowing her mind to settle to ease the pain. And, from what she could guess, allow Missy to grieve her time with the Time Lords without a witness. 

~DW~

“So, I get home,” Bill starts, her mate Shireen resting with her elbow on the bar top and her hand propping up her head. Already she’s got a grin on her face as if she knows what’s about to happen, which only makes Bill grin more. “And I hear the shower runnin’ which, let me tell you, not so many great experiences with that happenin’ lately.”

Shireen giggled, though thankfully didn’t ask for Bill to elaborate on that. She already had to walk her away from the idea that maybe Heather would come strolling in at any moment, what with Shireen having been there the few times Bill had spotted Heather in the pub.

“An’ I’m thinkin’ it’s Moira, yeah? But who walks out but bloody Neville. Barely remembered to use a towel. Didn’t think I could get any gayer, but here we are.”

Shireen snorted inelegantly before reaching for her pint. 

“Keep saying you should move out,” She said before taking a sip. Her eyes went wide, and she made a little noise before setting down her pint. She turned to Bill more fully, slapping her hand down on her knee. “Me and a few others are looking to let a house. Get proper space. You should pitch in. Rent’s bound to be cheaper with six of us, yeah?”

Bill chuckled, “Six?”

“Yeah!” Shireen beamed. “Long as you don’t mind living with a few blokes.”

“Are they gonna remember the towels?” She asked with a smirk.

“We’ll make it a house rule,” Shireen assured. She glanced over her shoulder, looking in the direction of the loos. “Back in a mo’,” She said before hopping off her stool and heading off.

Bill turned toward the bar top, taking a drink of her own pint as she people-watched. 

The pub was full for a Thursday, people milling about, having a laugh, unwinding after a day.

It was nice in its normalcy. Knowing now that the Doctor was an alien made their sessions without a trip in the TARDIS strange. Now, he taught her things that she couldn’t possibly begin to research without a field trip to a different time or planet. Sometimes a different planet at a different time. 

She was starting to wonder if she could ask for a field trip. Like, maybe to witness what people now consider a great mystery, or to see something Shakespeare wrote performed for the first time. Might be worth it to make a list, see what the Doctor would say. Maybe try to get Rose on her side, she had a feeling that would work.

As she was plotting how best to ask for some more in-person history lessons, Bill felt someone watching her.

She expected it to be a bloke. It was always a bloke. There didn’t seem to be enough ladies that leaned her way in Bristol that would fancy her, so she was ready to give an awkward wave to the guy and hope Shireen made it back before he came over. 

Bill was pleasantly surprised to find a really pretty woman looking her way. Dark brown hair, bright blue eyes. Familiar, sort of. Must have seen her around the university.

Blue eyes smiled a little wider, picked up her beer bottle, and moved.

Bill’s heart shot up in her throat, and she frantically looked around for Shireen, unsure if she wanted her nearby or still in the loo. She hadn’t spotted her mate before Blue eyes finally sat down in Shireen’s spot.

“So, was she your girlfriend, or am I just making an ass of myself?” Blue eyes asked, her accent completely unplaceable. 

Bill blushed, barking out a laugh at the brazenness but unable to find it off-putting, especially when she smiled.

“Um, friend. Just friend.”

“She’s absolutely mad, then,” Blue Eyes replied.

“She’s also straight,” Bill pointed out.

Blue eyes wrinkled her forehead. “Forgot that was a thing that mattered.”

Bill shook her head. “You are not from around here, are you?”

“I most certainly am not,” Blue Eyes replied coyly. “Came by to surprise my grandparents with a visit, thought I’d pop by the local to take in the neighborhood, get a feel for things.”

“Sweet, though. Surprising your grandparents like that. ‘M Bill, by the way.”

“Olivia,” She said, offering her hand.

Bill gave it to her, prepared to shake, and was thrown completely off when Olivia brought Bill’s hand to her lips and placed a kiss on it, all while holding Bill’s eye.

Oh, shit, she was in trouble. She was just… gone. Already. Awful, that was.

Movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention, and for a split second, just a fraction, Bill could have sworn she saw Heather. But that wasn’t possible because Heather was gone. Heather was sentient oil now. 

So she refocused on Olivia, who still had her hand near her lips, but was clearly assessing Bill’s receptiveness.

She squeezed Olivia’s hand as she smiled, allowing the brunette to continue holding on to her as she lowered their joined hands to Bill’s knee.

“So, were you from, then?” She asked.

Olivia tilted her head side to side, “Here and there. Raised in London.”

Bill narrowed her eyes, “yeah, you don’t sound like you’re from London.”

“Lots of places have a London,” Olivia shot back with a twinkle in her eye that was so damn familiar. 

“Right, ‘kay,” Bill smirked. “So, what London are you from?”

“If I told you, it would take away from my mystique. And I’m getting a sense that you like a woman who's a bit mysterious. Like… you really, really like the ones who won’t tell you everything.”

Bill huffed, but she couldn’t very well deny it, could she? Hard to get, hard to open up. All her exes fell in that category. Crushes, too. Probably a bad influence from Moira, which just made for one more reason to move out.

Shireen started making her way back, catching Bill’s eye over Olivia’s shoulder. She started to make a really convoluted gesture that Bill could make no sense of at all.

“I’ll let you and your friend get back to chatting,” Olivia said with a knowing grin. She didn’t even look over her shoulder, couldn’t possibly have known Shireen was there. “Hope I see you around, Bill.”

“Yeah, you too,” Bill replied, a bit flustered.

It only got worse when Olivia winked before sliding off the stool and disappearing into the crowd. She hadn’t even bothered taking her drink with her.

“Did I just ruin something?” Shireen lamented as she hopped up on her stool.

“I genuinely don’t know,” Bill replied. “Because that woman came over, guns blazing, and took off without so much as a ‘by your leave.’ Had a weird accent, said she was from London. Said she didn’t sound like it, looked at me, and told me, ‘lots of places have a London.’ Like, what even is that?”

“Still better than what some bloke tried to pull on me,” Shireen lamented before launching into a story from her last pub visit.

Bill listened, heart still pounding from the whole encounter.

Chapter Text

“Humans are a strange species,” The Doctor began, deciding to give the lecture that popped into his head rather than whatever he was supposed to talk about. 

It was his early class at the University, the one he taught twice a week, and that Bill didn’t attend because she was doing prep work in the kitchens. He wasn’t worried about her missing it, what with him never actually staying on any particular topic. That and their recent adventures being far more educational than any random thought he might end up spouting off here.

“Never in history has there been a collective like you who can forget whole world-changing events. A percentage of the population uncontrollably go to stand on the roof of a building, and you shrug it off and carry on the next day. Hostile beings try and take over your planet, time and again, and you all pretend it never happens. There’s a creature who lived in the Thames, who was chained to the river floor for generations, but history only remembers that it’s jailer died falling through the ice. Unless the crime is committed to you by one of you, you don’t remember.

“One day, you’ll make it to the stars and be surprised there are other beings living among them.”

As he spoke, he scanned the room, glossing over face after face as they blurred one into another. 

Until suddenly, one didn’t.

She smiled a cheeky grin from the third row from the front, giving a little wave of her fingers. 

“There are beings living among, creatures from your deepest nightmares and wildest dreams, and you pass them on the street every day,” he continued, pulling his gaze away from the brown hair, blue-eyed woman. 

He continued on, watching vaguely as the majority of the people in the room frowned, trying to make sense of what he was saying. Maybe he slipped into Gallifreyan, and the poor TARDIS was having a time trying to translate him. 

When the class was over, he doubted any of them would actually take anything useful away from it. They’d probably twist his words and start spouting off nonsense about how none of them were truly human.

He’d heard it happen before.

By the time the door to the lecture hall closed, there was only him, and the brunette left.

He leaned against the lectern and crossed his arms.

“What in all the worlds are you doing here?” He asked her.

“Hello, Granddad,” She replied with a cheeky grin.

“Olivia,” He said in a warning tone, and she huffed, rolling her eyes.

Olivia Tyler Latimer. Half human, half Time Lord. All casual confidence like her father with a dress sense to match. All headstrong and reckless like her mother, with less of a chance of regenerating in any way. 

“Can’t I just come visit my favorite grandparents?” She asked, crossing one ripped denim-covered leg over the other, black trainer-wearing foot bouncing.

“We’re your only grandparents, try again,” He said evenly.

“Where Gram?” She asked instead.

“Up in our apartments, where do you think?”

“Just seeing if she’s around,” Olivia said with a shrug before she got up. She half skipped over to him, still grinning a bit too innocently for his liking. Olivia was a lot like her father, thankfully, but there were still bits of her mother in there. Usually when she acted like this. 

Rolling his eyes, the Doctor gestured with a tilt of his head for Olivia to follow him. He turned, heading out of the lecture hall and through the bustling university up to his office. 

When he entered with Olivia on his heels, he spotted Nardole coming out of the apartments with a plate of cheese and meats in one hand, and a book in the other.

“Cancel the rest of my classes for the day,” he told the android as he headed toward the TARDIS.

“Sir?” Nardole called, but the Doctor ignored him as he snapped his fingers and walked inside the time ship.

Of course, the Old Girl was positively gleeful at Olivia’s presence, the traitorous thing. She brightened up for her, humming merrily as Olivia greeted her by leaning over the console and stroking the time rotor.

He immediately went to the controls, ignoring the disapproval of the TARDIS as he scanned for a second-time ship.

“Hello, darling! The TARDIS told me you were here,” He heard Rose say as she emerged from somewhere. He knew without looking that she darted over to their granddaughter, hugging her tight as she groaned happily.

“Hey, Gram,” Olivia said with a warmer tone than she usually gave the Doctor.

“Your mum here, too?” Rose asked, and the Doctor looked over his shoulder to see her looking about the console room and out the door.

“Uh, no,” Olivia said hesitantly. “I, uh, came by myself.”

“And how did you do that?” He asked her.

“I might have borrowed something from Aunt River,” She replied apprehensively. Likely already knowing exactly what the Doctor was going to say about it. Sure enough, when he stared at her wrist while she fidgeted, he could see the band of the vortex manipulator peeking out from beneath her black leather jacket. 

“You didn’t have to do that, Liv, you could have called us,” Rose said as she petted their granddaughter’s hair. 

“Did it occur to either of you that maybe I wanted to do something on my own? Nearly a hundred forty, now. Can’t always rely on my mum and grandparents to take me through time and space.”

“Those things are nasty,” The Doctor said, pointing to the device on Olivia’s wrist. 

“Yeah, wasn’t the most pleasant thing I’ve experienced, but it got me here, didn’t it?” She countered obstinately. Olivia crossed her arms, jutted her hip, and arched a brow at him, making the Doctor’s hearts constrict with love and sadness all at once.

So grown up, so very much like both her parents, like him, that he was both proud and scared at once.

“It’s not the point, Livie. It’s dangerous,” He said far more gently than any tone he’d taken with her. “Vortex manipulators can stop working, trapping you somewhere you can’t leave.”

“Which is why I aimed for you,” She countered. 

He huffed, then asked again, “What are you really doing here?”

Olivia chewed her lip before she huffed and rolled her eyes. “Okay, this is going to sound really… stupid. But… so, Aunt River, yeah? She was telling me a story a bit ago about you and Gram taking her to this fair here on Earth. She said that Granddad was supposed to bring her back to Amy and Rory, then come back for you, but she asked him to come back for her. Only… she said she swears that when they got there, they actually found no one home? Which was weird because it was supposed to be a leaving one minute and back the next situation, right?”

“Okay,” The Doctor said, frowning at Rose, who looked at him with just as much concern and confusion.

“Well, that’s about now. Aunt River said she was about eight.”

“So, you want us to see if the Ponds are still there?” Rose asked. “Can’t exactly bring the TARDIS ‘round, Liv. They hear it, they’ll think it’s us with Melody, and then there’ll be confusion.”

“Figured. It’s why I used this,” Olivia said, holding up her arm and wiggling her wrist with the manipulator. “I knew the coordinates for here, so I used them, psychic papered my way to London, and sort of tried to see what was happening. No one was there.”

“Mighta been working,” Rose pointed out.

“Amy worked from home, remember? Would’ve seen her or any activity. I stayed until the TARDIS showed, for young granddad to go poke around, then go back to the TARDIS. Nothing.”

The Doctor looked at Rose when he felt the trickle of worry coming over their bond. When he met her eye, she showed him that she had a feeling that this wasn’t new.

But that… he didn’t remember that. 

At least, he didn’t think he did. 

The more the Doctor pushed at the memory, though, the more he realized that he had brought Melody back, but there wasn’t anyone home. How he looked up and down the street, trying to find a sign of them because they had just left. He had checked and double-checked the TARDIS because it was important not to be late with Melody. 

He vaguely remembered seeing Olivia, but there had been someone else. Not with her, a distance away. Someone who felt was staring right at him. It’s what had him hurrying Melody back into the TARDIS protectively, wanting to be certain no one could harm a curly hair on her head. 

Once he was inside the TARDIS, though….

“ How could you forget that the second you got in the TARDIS? How could Melody?” Rose asked him.

“ She may not have, not if she’s told Olivia.”

“ Odd thing to start tellin’ your niece about .”

That was an excellent point, and he turned his gaze back to his granddaughter, piercing her with it.

“Olivia,” he started to say in a warning tone, but there was a noise inside his office that stopped him.

“Doctor!” Bill called, “What’s this I hear about you canceling your classes?” 

She appeared in the doorway a beat later, hair tied back, overalls, and a stripped jumper, looking a bit less put together than she usually did. She looked from him to Rose, then Olivia.

And her eyes went wide.

“Hey, you,” Olivia said flirtatiously, winking at Bill.

“Hey,” Bill choked out. “You. Your… grandparents.”

“Oh great, they’ve met,” He said with a sigh. At Rose’s snort, he looked at her and asked, “Is this going to be a thing? We bring someone on board, and then one of our relations decides to marry them? River and Jack. Jen and Tim, now-“

“Dad and Mum were never married,” Olivia reminded him. “And can you really say Aunt River and Uncle Jack were married when they were also married to multiple other people through time?”

“Well, polyamory’s a thing,” Bill said, coming back to herself. 

“Oh, very much so,” Olivia agreed. “But there really wasn’t a commitment to one another. Mostly they got married for a lark.”

“I think you’re jumping to conclusions,” Rose got around to answering him. “Just ‘cause they’ve met doesn’t mean we need to start plannin’ a wedding here. How did you two meet?” She asked Olivia with amusement, which was definitely not how the Doctor was feeling.

He’d just said, he’d just said that Bill reminded him of Olivia not a month ago. And here they both were, making eyes at one another. Sort of. Bill still looked a bit shell-shocked, but Olivia was certainly resembling Jack at the moment. Which….

“Does it ever just hit you that Tim was likely a descendant of Jack? ”

“ Watching Olivia? Yes.” Rose replied, smirking outward as much as she was mentally.

“At the pub,” Bill answered Rose’s question. “She, um, came up and chatted.”

“It wasn’t anything like you’re thinking,” Olivia assured Rose. “Saw a pretty girl, decided to chat her up, then left when her friend came around. Although, I mean… if you’re free?” She asked Bill with a wiggle of her eyebrows.

Bill blushed and laughed awkwardly.

“Yeah, I’m actually supposed to be working. Just, thought I’d come up and see why the Doctor - your granddad, apparently - canceled his classes. So, I’ll be heading back. And, um…” She looked at the Doctor, face scrunched. “Do I still come around at six?”

“Yes,” he said. 

“Right, see you then,” Bill said, giving one last awkward wave to everyone before pretty much bolting out of the room.

Rose looked at him fondly, “We’re taking her somewhere fun. With sun and beaches.”

“If you say so,” he said before turning back to his granddaughter. Now, you. Talk. River telling you a little anecdote from her childhood wouldn’t make you come here using terrible time travel technology. What is happening?”

Olivia’s charm and confidence fell away, reminding him very much of a scared little girl.

“It’s Dad,” She said softly. “He’s started to get too many… visions or something. He says it’s not normal, not like he’s getting a bunch of bits of the future, but like there’s something going on with time. He said the last time he felt like that was when he would experience multiple timelines.”

“Well, your dad was always a bit dramatic,” The Doctor deflected, turning his back to his granddaughter so she wouldn’t see the concern he couldn’t hide quickly enough.

“Liv, he okay?” Rose asked, concern for her friend heavy in her tone.

“He took suppressants,” Olivia replied, and he could hear the fear in her voice as she said it. “He couldn’t handle it.”

“Least he’s somewhere he can get them,” Rose replied, trying to find the good in all this.

“He shouldn’t have to,” the Doctor bit out, turning around again. “He shouldn’t have to turn to a chemical suppressant to stop his mind from exploding. What sort of changes did he see? Did he tell you?”

Olivia’s eyes went wide as she shook her head.

“He said it wasn’t clear enough. Faces, really, but most of them he didn’t know. And just… things going wrong after that.”

“And you?”

She made a face.

“You know I don’t have visions like him. Once I got a hang of my time sense I stopped seeing into the future.”

The Doctor couldn’t help a bit of a smug grin at that because it certainly wasn’t her mother that taught her how to control it. 

“I poked,” Olivia confessed. “Not hard because vortex manipulators are shit.”

“Told ya,” he said, though Olivia paid him no mind.

“I can’t…. Okay, so I’m here, yeah? Went to see the Ponds, couldn’t find them. Didn’t want to venture too far because you lot warned me that there’s a risk UNIT might swoop in and try to question me if they suspected or read the two hearts or whatever. So I made calls on the train back up. Aunt Donna is still about. She answered right away, I didn’t say who I was, just pretended I was a survey sort of deal like I read about in the history books, and we hung up. Thought I would try Uncle Mickey and Aunt Martha, but kinda like the Ponds, they didn’t answer.”

“Well, MJ’s graduating from Cambridge,” Rose assured. “Likely on the go or just couldn’t answer.”

Olivia shifted from foot to foot, “Suppose,” She agreed reluctantly.

“Look, Ponds? They’re fine, yeah? Maybe she didn’t remember it, but chances are we popped back for them ourselves. Granddad doesn’t always get it right, yeah?”

“Yes, that’s what it was,” The Doctor assured, latching on to the idea with two metaphorical hands and running with it. “Melody and me, we got the timing wrong. Went back for your grandmother, then we brought her home just as her parents came back.”

Olivia narrowed her eyes and glanced at Rose, but Rose only shrugged and nodded.

“Fine,” Olivia relented. “But what about Dad?”

“Your dad was always sensitive,” The Doctor quickly supplied. “His low-level telepathic abilities might have somehow latched onto your time sense, and he was flooded with information.”

That was a lie, a pretty big one that he was banking on Olivia being too young to catch. It didn’t work that way, not at all. Otherwise, Tim would have been having visions constantly while in the TARDIS. But Olivia’s Time Lord knowledge was limited to what the Doctor taught her, maybe her cousin at a stretch if there was something Susan could impart from her limited time at the Academy. She wouldn’t know enough to catch on to the deception.

She didn’t look so certain that was the case, but she also didn’t argue. 

“How about we get some lunch or something?” Rose offered after a bit of tense silence. “Granddad and I will take you home later so you don’t have to use the manipulator. For now, somewhere off campus. An’ please remember-“

“Rose. Yep, outside of the office, it’s Rose.”

“Don’t wanna cause a scandal,” Rose smirked, leading their granddaughter out of the TARDIS, but not before flashing a worried smile over her shoulder his way.

“It’s nothing ,” he assured his wife. “ She’s just being paranoid. Seeing things that aren’t there.”

“If you say so,” Rose replied, unconvinced but trusting enough to let it slide.

~DW~

Why? Why was Olivia the Doctor’s granddaughter? Why was it that the only women that showed any interest in Bill as of later were either abducted, sort of, by aliens or was an alien? She heard about the one and only lecture the Doctor gave for the day, and that had essentially been the premise of it. Aliens everywhere. You never know who they were.

No one else seemed to see it the same way Bill had, but then Bill had first-hand experience with knowing. The truth really was out there. And, apparently, part of that truth is getting flirted to all hell by an alien in a pub. Only, of course, to find out she was the granddaughter of Bill’s new best friend and mentor.

Maybe Heather had always been an alien? It’s not like Bill knew for sure, did she? She hadn’t really known anything about Heather before… well, before.

The whole thing was a vicious circle for the whole day, running around Bill’s mind while she served chips and cleaned up after the lunch rush. 

It continued to do its loopy-loo as she was changing out of her work clothes and into something a bit nicer. Black skinny jeans, black halter, denim jacket without the patches. She let her hair down, fluffing her curls and getting them to sit just so. Not bad, really. She could definitely turn a few heads.

Not that she was trying. Because Olivia was totally off-limits as far as Bill was concerned. At least for anything more than a friend. Besides, how likely was she to ever see her again? Said she was from London, and while Bill doubted she meant England London, it was still a bit far even if she had.

Because she hadn’t been sure she would see Olivia again, it shouldn’t have surprised Bill at all, whatsoever, to find her lounging inside the TARDIS when Bill arrived.

“Good, you’re here,” the Doctor said, snapping his fingers and closing the doors behind Bill. “Now, time to get you home, little missy,” This was apparently said to Olivia.

“I’m nearly a hundred forty,” She whinged, and Bill felt a bit smacked around the head at that.

“Sorry, you’re how old? Do any of the women in your family age?” Bill asked this to the TARDIS population in general.

“Technically, only one who doesn’t age is me,” Rose said from where she helped the Doctor fly the TARDIS. “Liv, her mum, and her aunt are just slow about it.”

“I aged normally until I was about twenty, then it all slowed down,” Olivia supplied. “The genetics for all involved are very wibbly-wobbly.”

The Doctor gave a full-body wince, and Rose snickered.

“Well,” Olivia said, slapping her thighs before getting up. “Suppose this is it. See you around, then?” She said to Bill as the TARDIS settled, landing somewhere unknown.

“Will you? See me around?” Bill asked, and then promptly mentally kicked herself for flirting with the off-limits Olivia.

“Maybe,” Olivia said with a tilt of her head, looking Bill up and down. “It’s not not a possibility.” 

Bill watched as Olivia strode over to the TARDIS doors, opened them, stared outside a moment, then promptly closed them.

“What’s wrong?” The Doctor asked. 

Olivia pursed her lips and tilted her head, crossing her arms.

“Last I checked, I lived on New Earth,” She replied.

“Yeah, and?” The Doctor deadpanned.

“Well, pretty sure that’s Mars out there,” Olivia said, pointing to the doors. “Can’t be sure, though, ‘cause while it is red out there, there’s a rock formation a bit down the slope.”

“Formation? What formation?” The Doctor asked before darting to the monitor and typing some things on the keyboard. He peered at it, brow all furrowed and angry looking as Rose cautiously came up to his shoulder. She took one look at the screen and snorted.

“Is this a joke?” The Doctor asked.

“If it is, I didn’t play it,” Olivia replied, hands up in surrender.

“Didn’t think you would have, love,” Rose reassured. “Really, you’re aunt is more likely to pull something like this.”

Bill didn’t want to look. Not really, not when she was promised beaches and sun. But, well, half the fun of going places with the Doctor was the unusual things, the strange and wonderful. And, apparently….

“Does that say ‘God Save the Queen?’” Bill asked with a grin as she saw what the others were seeing on the screen.

“Yeah,” The Doctor said, a lilt of excitement in his brogue.

“Didn’t think England went to Mars,” Bill said, a bit chuffed by the idea.

“They haven’t. At least, not in the last century, apparently.” 

“What, come again?” Bill turned to the Doctor, who hadn’t torn his eyes away from the monitor. 

“Those rocks have been there for at least a hundred years. Look, everything’s settled around it.” The Doctor gestured to the screen and then quickly started moving about, Rose barely getting out of his way before she was bowled over. 

“Guess I’m not going home right away, then?” Olivia asked as she leaned back against the rail nearest her and the door.

“Guess not,” Rose grinned at her granddaughter over her shoulder. “Hope you’re not too disappointed.”

“Been a bit since I’ve done something like this,” Olivia replied as the Doctor set the TARDIS in motion.

~DW~

Spacesuits on, Rose and the Doctor led Bill and Olivia out of the TARDIS into the underground labyrinth of Mars. They both had their sonics out to use as flashlights, but admittedly the Doctor’s was doing a far better job lighting the way than Rose’s. Maybe in the future, she could ask him to update her own, though a little pang of guilt hit her square in the chest as she recalled the sentimentality linked to her current one.

“Didn’t we almost come here once?” Rose asked, distracting herself from her moment of melancholy. “With Liv’s parents?”

“Yes,” The Doctor replied, glancing at her curiously for a moment before cottoning on as to why she was asking. “It was a fixed point. Nothing that could be done.”

“Yeah, Mum brought me here once when I was younger. Told me not to drink the water,” Olivia said with a wince to her tone.

“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem right now.” The Doctor said as he looked around the cave as they slowly ventured forward. 

“So, if the writing was on the surface, why are we down here?” Bill asked after a moment.

“The TARDIS registered life forms under the surface,” Rose told her. “And we might be a touch early, like before that’s been put up there.”

“So, the writing’s a fixed point, so I’m guessing we can’t change that. But we’re early, so we… might?” Bill tried to guess.

“It means we’re probably part of events,” Olivia explained with a bit too much eagerness.

“Don’t get too giddy about it,” The Doctor chided weakly, what with his own enthusiasm for the mysterious and unknown flooding his mind, leaking into Rose’s over the bond. The girls wouldn’t have known that, though, so Rose kept her fond amusement to herself so as not to give him away. 

“Still don’t understand how there’re humans on Mars during Victorian times. You said it was 1881 when we stepped off, yeah?” 

“There weren’t,” The Doctor told Bill. 

“So, this is…?”

“Exciting,” Olivia supplied before the lot of them fell quiet for a bit.

As the cavern opened wider, a flickering glow could be seen up ahead. Rose ventured slightly further, hearing the others shuffling to keep up as they rounded the corner into an open space.

There was a campsite set up with shovels and a camp bed, a few other amenities for comfort, including a roaring fire.

“If there’s fire, there’s got to be oxygen,” Bill said eagerly, and Rose could see her moving for her helmet in the corner of her eye.

“Wait,” the Doctor stopped her before Rose had the chance. “Wait, wait, let’s not be rash.”

“I’ll do it,” Rose said, already moving to unlatch her helmet.

“Woah, wait, hold on,” Bill started to say, but the hissing of the hydraulics drowned her out. 

Rose could already tell there wasn’t any danger even before she fully removed her mask. She’d been through enough oxygenless scenarios in her time to know how it felt, and so she confidently removed her helmet and shook out her hair. 

“There,” She said with a grin, “We’re good.”

“How-“ Bill started to ask as she took off her helmet, the hissing from them all making her pause. 

Rose knew what she was going to ask, or at least assumed, but the question didn’t come. 

Instead, Bill frowned, looked around, and asked, “Wait, how can there be oxygen here?”

“The indigenous Martians were superb engineers,” The Doctor replied, looking around. “Mind you there’s a lot here that doesn’t make sense.”

“’Cause none of this should be here?” Rose asked, glancing around them. It was unsettling in its normalcy because this should not be the norm for 1881. 

“There’s that,” The Doctor agreed. “But the message as well. And why the TARDIS would bring us here instead of Tim’s flat.”

“Maybe she just knew I didn’t want to go home just yet,” Olivia cheekily threw over her shoulder. “Maybe she knew I just wanted to get to know the very pretty woman you two have been keeping from me.”

Rose glanced past Olivia to where Bill had been wandering away, seeing she stopped and looked adorably flustered by it.

“You’re an incorrigible flirt, and the TARDIS likes Bill,” The Doctor said, turning slowly to face his granddaughter.

“I’m not sure how I’m supposed to take that,” Bill said with a frown.

“It means he thinks I wouldn’t be very serious about you,” Olivia told Bill while holding her granddad’s eye. 

“Doctor, maybe remember that both Bill and Olivia are grown women,” Rose said as Bill shrugged and continued exploring.

Rose crossed her arms, looking at her husband and granddaughter both, seeing which one was going to stand down first. It didn’t seem like either of them were, and she had just let out a sigh when there was the slightest sound of shifting rock.

Then Bill suddenly dropped out of sight while letting loose a long scream.

“Bill!” All three family members shouted, darting for the space from which Bill vanished. 

“Stay here,” Rose said, handing off her helmet to Olivia before jumping down into the hole where Bill disappeared, finding barely five feet down the wall began to slop like a slide. 

“Bill,” She called ahead, hoping she wouldn’t crash into their companion when she made it to the end of this.

She could see her at the bottom, already on her feet and looking at something nervously. As soon as Rose was able to stand, she was on her feet, moving to place herself between the door-like thing and Bill as it began to hiss open.

Someone came through in what looked like one of those diving suits Rose told the Doctor he couldn’t use not that long ago. She and Bill took a couple of steps back, giving the person space as they reached for their helmet and lifted it off.

A roguishly handsome man with black hair and a mustache smiled charmingly at them.

“I say, we weren’t expecting company.”

“Sorry,” Rose smiled back, deciding maybe a little charm in return would be their best bet. “We got a bit turned around, I suppose.”

An echo of a gunshot came from above, and she immediately shot her gaze upward. 

“ Doctor?”

“Taking care of it.” Came the reply immediately, and Rose caught flashes of the usual titles and jobs displayed when using the psychic paper.

“I’m Dame Rose of TARDIS,” She told the man while mentally tacking on, “ who was exiled from England two years ago.”

“And by now, I’m sure Queen Vicky found out what good ol’ Queen Bess wanted of us. Sure our portrait had been kicking around.”

“The black archives. We never did find out why Liz was so mad at seeing us again when we saw Shakespeare with Martha.”

“Sure we will,” The Doctor responded as Rose continued to speak to the man in front of her.

“My partner, and our companion, were sent by the crown on Friday’s ship in secret to ensure everything would go as planned.”

She had no idea who Friday was, what was planned, or why the crown would send them, but she rolled with the information she was fed.

Either way, it seemed to work because the man in front of her didn’t seem all that surprised by her being there. 

“Well, Dame Rose, allow me to introduce myself. I’m Captain Neville Catchlove of the British Army. Allow me to escort you and your companion to our encampment so that we can better discuss the progress of the project.”

He strutted past them, helmet tucked under his arm as he led the way.

As Rose and Bill turned to follow, Bill leaned in and said, “Something’s up with him.”

“How can you tell?” Rose asked quietly, watching the Captain’s back for signs of eavesdropping.

“’Cause I never met a bloke named Neville that wasn’t up to something,” Bill told her in turn.

Anecdotal, of course. But Rose knew that the healthy dose of skepticism was warranted. She may not have met a lot of blokes named Neville, but she had met enough that exuded the same brand of charm, and it never, ever ended well.

~DW~

Olivia had practically been born and raised on a TARDIS. She had been traveling through space and time her whole life. Even in her youngest years, when her dad was fiercely protective of her and tried to have her lead as normal of a life as possible, she still saw times and places no one else her own age had. She was a time traveler. It was in her blood. While others were taught how to fly a car, she was learning how to travel through the time Vortex.

So, when her granddad asked her to return to the TARDIS to get stuff to help Gram and Bill get back up to them safely, she wouldn’t have touched anything. And when the time ship decided, for whatever reason, to send herself and Olivia back to her granddad’s office two hundred years in the future from where they were, she had known it wasn’t because she hit the return switch.

It’s also how Olivia, when the TARDIS wouldn’t go back to Mars 1881, knew that something more was going on with the ship. Why the Old Girl was being stubborn was beyond her. All the pleading, switch pulling, knob turning in the Universe wouldn’t get her to move. The TARDIS wouldn’t even talk to her, giving off a stubborn vibe like she wasn’t going to move until Olivia did what she was supposed to.

She hadn’t lied. She doesn’t have visions like her dad does, not anymore. But she touched her dad’s temples while he’d been having them as of late, had seen the things he had, knew what premonitions he witnessed. It’s what had initially drawn her to Bill, having seen a flash of her face in her father’s mind. It’s also how she knew there was someone around she could probably, likely, trust to help her.

Taking a deep breath, Olivia took off the space suit, squared her shoulders, and made her way to the one place she knew her grandparents didn’t want her to go: the Vault.

Chapter Text

“ Olivia took the TARDIS.”

“Why would she do that?”

“I don’t know, but I sent her to get things to help get you and Bill back up, but they took off.”

“Whatever you two are arguing about, can it wait?” Bill cut in as a soldier served them tea.

Full tea service on Mars, with an Ice Warrior standing watch like a bloody footman. If Rose’s mother could see her now, there would be a fit to be had for sure.

The memory of one of the last times she’d seen her flashed to the forefront of her mind, sitting on the jumpseat, staring daggers at a man who would be her son-in-law. 

“ If we end up on Mars, I’m going to kill you. ”

The Doctor glanced at her, a worried frown subtly in place, but she shook it off.

Strange, she hadn’t thought of her mum in years, not in any solid sort of way. She had thought of her in a vague way, of course. There was a picture of her on the Doctor’s desk, Rose passed it every day. Before that, it stayed in their bedroom, a copy in the library on the fireplace. Her daughter’s middle name was for Jackie Tyler, her memory certainly hadn’t died. But it hadn’t been properly alive, either. To have it flash to the front had been strange and a bit heartbreaking, but something for Rose to look closer at another time.

For now, she needed to pay attention to what was happening with these soldiers because Rose knew in her gut that her granddaughter wouldn’t just leave them on Mars willy-nilly. And she also knew the TARDIS wouldn’t leave them without a good reason. 

“ You’re right, they wouldn’t, ” The Doctor said through the bond, “ Which is what’s troubling about this whole situation. ”

“ That’s not what’s troubling. It’s the anachronism of this whole thing. How have we never heard about this mission before?”

“It was buried, obviously. The question is, why?” He looked up from the teacup in his hand, turning to the colonel he’d encountered when Rose went to Bill. “You were saying, Colonel?”

“Oh, Oh, er, well, yes, I was stationed out there. South Africa. One day, I, I came across something in the veldt. Something that was clearly not of this earth. An interplanetary vessel. I found Friday here on board, in a sort of coma, half dead.”

“Why’d you call him that?” Bill asked curiously.

“Guessin’ you’re Robinson Crusoe fans, yeah?” Rose took a guess.

“Indeed,” Smarmy Catchlove replied with a too-charming smile. It was grating on her more and more, making Rose want to snarl. “So, according to the papers Sir Doctor showed us, you’ve been on board Friday’s ship the whole time?” 

“Well, like they said. Secret order and all. Had to stay hidden,” Rose countered, taking a sip of her exceptionally weak tea. Probably rationed. 

“Well,” Catchlove said, tilting his head, “I suppose it was pretty roomy.”

“It was, yes. Wasn’t it?” The Doctor agreed a bit too eagerly, Bill nodding along. “But the whole, you know, getting on board. It’s all a bit… hazy. Maybe you could tell us everything?”

“Especially as we only have what her majesty told us,” Rose said with a tilt of her head toward the portrait of the Queen who gave them a title and kicked them out of England all on the same day. Who then started up the organization that would eventually result in the battle of Canary Wharf.

“Yes, well, after I woke him up, Friday asked for my help,” Colonel Godscare continued. 

“To repair his spaceship?” Bill asked.

“Yes, and to bring him home.”

“In return for what?” The Doctor asked.

“Ah, well now. That is the question,” Catchlove cut in.

A loud boom echoed through the cave, rattling the china and sending bits of rock and debris to the ground. 

“What the bloody hell was that?” Rose asked as she looked above for any cause for alarm and signs that maybe the cavern was about to cave in around them.

“The Gargantua,” Catchlove replied. “A remarkable piece of mining equipment Friday helped us build, fashioned from one of his ship’s artillery.” Another boom interrupted him, mild annoyance flashing across his face so quickly it was a blink-and-miss-it situation. “He promised us gemstones, you see. Silver, gold. Treasure beyond our wildest dreams.”

Rose gave him a shark-like grin, “Something tells me it wasn’t just about the gold, though, mate. Not unless you were getting it for the crown.”

“Too right, dame Rose,” Catchlove countered as if he thought she was flirting with him. “Claim Mars in the name of Queen Victoria, bring back the riches, and in exchange, we get a share. But there’s nothing here. Whole show has been a ruddy wash-out. The ship crashed on landing. I go top side now and then to see if I can repair the bugger. That’s what I was doing when I ran across you two.”

“And?” Bill asked curiously. “Have you fixed it?”

Something shifted in Catchlove’s eyes, even as his smile stayed the same. 

“No joy so far,” He said evenly.

Rose narrowed her eyes slightly at him, making his smile twitch, but the conversation continued on without them. Bill and the Doctor led it from their end, and Rose was fine with that, keeping one eye on Catchlove the whole time.

He looked at the Colonel with barely masked disdain, something only thousands of years of watching people would allow her to see. Something more was going on here, Rose just hadn’t been able to piece together what it was. And from the similar feelings coming through the bond, neither had the Doctor.

~DW~

Olivia had never been to the vault before, but she knew where it was. Back in the early days of their residence at the university, when her grandparents had decided to settle in Bristol for a century or two, she had been down to the doors. It was more of an in case of dire emergency situations, ones no one could have fathomed possible when she, her mum, and her aunt were shown where it would be. Before they had been set up a bit more remote, somewhere in Greenland, but Grandad had gotten bored, and Gram was about to lose her mind from his boredom. 

So, Olivia had been to it before, but not inside. Inside was kept mostly for her mum and aunt, and she understood their involvement was more recent. 

She could have called them, either of them. Olivia knew it was probably better that she did, but she had a stubborn streak a mile long and the confidence that whatever happened after she crossed the threshold, she could handle it.

The music tinkling from beyond the doors was only ominous if she allowed it to be. The Time Lord inside was only dangerous if she let her guard down. She could do this.

Reaching out, the vault locks slipped out of place, mechanisms turning and whirring as they shifted into place and let the doors open.

“Finally,” a Scottish brogue sounded around the room. “I was getting ever so bored. It’s been hours, I know, but-“

Olivia watched as the woman in the glass containment noted her presence for the first time. She stared at Olivia with wide blue eyes, shocked silent.

“And how did you get in here, little poppet?” The Mistress asked as she got off the piano bench and headed for the walls of her inner containment chamber. 

“I opened the doors,” Olivia quipped back, causing a singular, perfect brow to arch and those sharp blue eyes to soften a touch.

“Didja now?” The Mistress asked. “An’ how’d you manage that?”

“I turned the knob,” Olivia replied as she climbed the dias and stood before the Mistress with nothing more than the glass between them. “I need your help.”

“Oh, I think you might have me a bit confused there, dear. Not the one people come to for help.”

Olivia snickered, then pulled a spare sonic nicked from her granddad’s desk out of her pocket, showing it to the Mistress. She then tapped it against the lock, watching as it unlocked, recognizing the sonic for what it was, and stepped back carefully, mindful of the dias behind her.

“Now, that was a bit of a mistake, wasn’t it?” The Mistress said as she crowded Olivia, eyes glinting like she wanted to be malicious but was far too curious. “I don’t recognize you, but you’re obviously a friend of the Doctor’s. So, perhaps it’s merely you had no idea what sort of villain you just let out.”

“I have a very good idea,” Olivia said as she pocketed the sonic. She then grabbed the Mistress’s wrists, shifting to grip her hands as she brought said hands to her chest. Olivia held those hands there, watching the Mistress’s face as she grinned.

“This is all so sudden. We hardly know each other,” She said to Olivia in what was probably meant to be a half-flirt before realization slowly dawned on the Mistress’s face. 

It wouldn’t have taken much. Despite her cool, calm demeanor, Olivia’s hearts were actually pounding wildly. Less from fear of the Time Lady she was in the presence of, but more for what could be happening back on Mars two hundred years ago.

“Oh,” The Mistress said softly, “you’re the granddaughter I’ve never met.” She studied Olivia’s face, seeming to drink it in. “I see it.  A bit of your mother in there. Your grandmother, too.”

“Please, I look like my dad,” Olivia scoffed.

“Well, yes, you probably do. I said a bit, didn’t I? And, oh. Oh, I see your granddad. The old him, the skinny one with the fluffy hair and the long coat.”

“I’ve never met that one.”

“You aren’t missing out on much, dear. Handsome as he was, I think it was probably his stupidest incarnation.” 

The Mistress kept looking her over, softening more and more by the second despite the facade she still seemed to try and put up.

“Granddad and Gram are stuck somewhere. The TARDIS kicked me back, and she refused to let me fly her. I need help. I trust you to help me.”

“And why would you do a silly thing like that?” The Mistress asked as she pulled her hands from Olivia’s grip. “You know me, don’t you? Know what you’ve done?”

“I’ve heard stories about the Master, yeah. My dad lived through the Tolclafane with Gram. Granddad used to tell me about what happened with you two, how he had missed his friend from his younger years on Gallifrey. I’ve even heard stories about this you, of what happened and what you tried to do. Which aligns perfectly with what Dad could see.”

“Which was?”

“That this you, the Mistress, changed not just because you fancied being a pretty woman this go, but because you wanted to distance yourself from yourself. You wanted to change how the Doctor saw you.”

She stared Olivia down, and for a brief moment, Olivia worried that she might just find out firsthand if she was going to regenerate like her mum or if she was going to regenerate at all. But something in the Mistress shifted, her shoulders slumping just a hair as if she were relaxing or giving up.

“Call me Missy,” She said. “Now, let’s see what’s going on, shall we?”

~DW~

Rose watched Friday mill about as the Doctor explained to Bill what Ice Warriors were. There was something lonely about him as he tidied up, utterly ignored by Catchlove. She knew he didn’t need help, but if there was one thing Rose knew she couldn’t stand it was to see someone so lonely. 

“Need a hand,” She asked Friday softly as she came up to his side, giving him a gentle smile. He stared at her with his one good eye, then nodded once. She glanced over her shoulder at Catchlove, but the man was too involved with whatever he was reading to note she was helping what might be thought of as the help.

“How long have you been up here?”

“A few months,” Friday replied as he and Rose gathered up the remains of the tea service.

“Not that long. Big planet, Mars. Maybe you just landed in the wrong spot? Could still find your people, yeah?”

She couldn’t discern any expression, but she had a feeling he thought she was a bit slow.

“We arrived where my people should have been. I have yet to find them.”

“Still. Early days yet,” She tried to encourage. When she thought he was still quite skeptical, she added, “You’re not the first being in the universe who thought they were the last of their kind.”

Friday stared, then slowly nodded before leading Rose over to wear Bill and the Doctor were talking near the makeshift kitchen.

“Why have you really come back?” The Doctor asked Friday as they approached, causing the Ice Warrior’s shoulders to slump.

Rose shot her husband a glare around the alien that he promptly ignored in favor of his interrogation.

“I am old and tired and spent,” Friday said.

“Sounds like someone else I know,” Rose said pointedly to her husband.

“Not spent yet. Or tired,” He countered.

“Friday,” Rose started before a rumble larger than the ones from before shook the cavern, causing a plate to tumble off the pile.

Friday caught it with ease, quickly snatching it before it could tumble to the ground.

“Not bad for someone who’s tired,” She complimented, smiling brightly up at the Ice Warrior.

“It is still slower than I once was,” Friday sighed.

“Still pretty awesome,” Bill joined in, beaming.

There was a commotion, someone coming from a different corridor than any of the ones they’d been down yet. The Doctor, of course, moved forward, wasting no time in joining the Colonel and Catchlove in receiving the news that was being reported. 

“Should probably make sure he stays outta trouble. Got this, mate?” Rose asked Friday, placing a hand on his arm.

He nodded, and she tried to give it a squeeze but the armor made that rather difficult. She beckoned Bill to follow her, and the pair of them managed to catch up to the Doctor as he, the Colonel, and Catchlove followed one of the other men to what they found.

“Looks like old Friday came good after all, eh?” Catchlove said as they entered the room.

A gleaming gold sarcophagi inlaid with jewels sat in the center of the room. The figure it bore was that of an Ice Warrior, its features different from those of Friday’s.

“Oh, it’s beautiful,” Bill said in awe as she looked it over. “What is it, a tomb?”

“Not just any tomb. This is the tomb of an Ice Queen,” The Doctor replied as he inched closer. “I have a bad feeling about this. These sarcophagi were sometimes part of a complex hibernation system.”

“So this could-“ Rose started before Catchlove turned to one of the men and spoke over her.

“Sergeant Major, get these civilians out of here.”

“Civilians?” Rose cut in. “Think our rank says were a bit more than that?”

He smiled at her in that way Rose had seen so many men smile at her in her past when they thought she would have been better off keeping her mouth shut and looking pretty.

“Dame Rose, much as you have title and were sent to keep an eye on things for Queen Victoria, you are not part of the British Army. Therefore, as far as I’m concerned, you are all civilians and have no right or reason to be here. This is, after all, a military matter.”

“This may not just be a grave you’ve uncovered,” The Doctor protested. “This could be the entrance to an Ice Warrior Hive.”

Catchlove scoffed, looking at the Doctor with a bemused smirk. “A what?” He didn’t wait for an answer, turning once more to one of the men and snapping, “Sergeant Major Peach, I gave you an order!”

“I’m in charge here, Catchlove,” the Colonel spoke up.

Rose watched as that barely concealed contempt Catchlove had for the Colonel showed for a moment before he schooled it into something sickeningly pleasant. 

“Yes, sir. Of course, sir,” he mocked with a bow of his head.

The Colonel turned to the same man Catchlove tried to order about.

“Post a guard. No one’s to come near this thing until the morning, is that clear?”

“Yes, sir,” the man - Peach, Rose believed - saluted the Colonel and started organizing the guard.

“Doctor, if you and I could discuss what you mean?” The Colonel asked. 

The Doctor nodded, glancing at Rose before following. 

“ You want me to stay here or go with?” She asked as Bill looked just as lost.

“ Both of you with me. I don’t trust that this isn’t a trap by Friday.”

She could argue she was a bit trap-proof, but it might not have been her he was worried about. And Rose could see Bill was itching to join the Colonel and the Doctor. With a hand placed between Bill’s shoulder blades, Rose encouraged her to follow.

A second later, she was grateful that the Doctor wanted her along. Friday she had a feeling they could trust. Catchlove, though, she was sure would shoot any of them if it would get him what he wanted. 

If anything was going to happen, he’d be behind it.

~DW~

It was later in the day, very few, if any, classes were still going on, the odd person milling about, which meant leading Missy through the halls wasn’t going to draw a lot of attention. If Olivia had been thinking, she may have tried to wipe up a perception filter so Missy’s Mary Poppins attire would go unnoticed by the few that did see her. She just hoped her Granddad’s eccentricities were well-known enough that people would just assume that’s who they were going to see.

It was as they were heading to the teacher’s wing that things got weird. Not because someone was stopping them, Olivia was pretty sure no one would. She did bear enough resemblance to the Tyler side of things that she might get a second look but not stopped.

As they turned the corner to the corridor leading to the stairs to where her granddad’s office was, there was someone familiar in the corridor looking at the faculty directory. 

He wasn’t familiar in a way that Olivia could pinpoint. Not like she’d met him before or anything. Perhaps she’d seen him around earlier in the day when she and Gram had been about the town.

She tried not to look at him as she and Missy passed, not wanting accidentally draw attention as they walked by. 

“Excuse me,” he said just as they crossed his path. 

Olivia stopped and looked over her shoulder at him, meeting brown eyes and feeling instantly unsettled.

“I don’t know if you can help me. I was looking for a doctor,” he said, gesturing to the board.

Olivia glanced at it and frowned.

“Mate, it’s a university. Lotsa those kicking about.”

“I was looking for a particular one. I heard he lectures here, and all anyone knows him as is the Doctor.”

Olivia’s hearts skipped a beat.

“Not here. He’s on a sabbatical. Something came up, and he canceled his classes.”

The man glanced back at the board. 

“He’s not even listed here,” he said, gesturing to it again.

“Yeah, 'cause he’s gonna be a bit,” She answered quickly. 

“You know him?” The man asked.

“I’m in one of his classes. Are you done with the interrogation?” She snapped back.

He put his hands up, grinning at her in a way that might have been charming if she liked blokes much.

“Sorry. Maybe I can buy you a drink?” He asked as he put his hands in his pockets. “As a way to thank you for what help you could give me.”

“Not my type,” She replied, turning and looping her arm through Missy’s, stiff as it was, before they carried on.

Olivia glanced over her shoulder, making sure the guy wasn’t following, which he wasn’t. She couldn’t even see where he might have gone.

“Loser,” She scoffed.

“Indeed,” Missy said, something off in the way she spoke.

Olivia glanced up, seeing there was a frisson of worry in the Time Lady’s eye, one that she was clearly trying not to let show.

And yeah, Olivia could poke at that. She probably should because clearly Missy knew something that she didn’t, and if the guy was bad news to both of them, it couldn’t be good.

“Say nothing,” Missy said quietly as if she was picking up on Olivia’s thoughts despite there being no skin contact between them. “Tell neither of your grandparents, alright.”

“Okay,” She said, probably a bit too trusting of a woman who, in many of her previous lives, had tried to kill both grandparents multiple times. Hell, in this life, she had taken a shot at her Gram.

But, well, he was familiar. Maybe he was in one of those visions her dad had had that she had picked up on. And she had always been warned that foresight wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, and some things just couldn’t be changed.

~DW~

Rose watched her husband sigh heavily as Catchlove and the Colonel took off, leaving the tent with the former in a huff and the latter likely doing damage control.

“What happened to not taking sides?” Bill asked as she stood beside him, hands on her hips.

“I’m trying to save their lives. Let’s face it, in this scenario, the humans are the invaders. On the other hand, the Ice Warriors have vastly superior armaments which will wipe the humans out. So what am I supposed to do?”

“Exactly what you did,” Rose said from where she sat inside the tent, making the pair of them turn toward her. She rubbed at her face. “It’s Catchlove who’ll be the ruin of the lot of them. Seen it too many times before, yeah? He’s the one who clearly has his eye on power more than anything. The one who left in a huff really believing Britain’s some invulnerable thing.” She pushed herself off the bench she’d been perched on, stretching her back before she huffed and stumbled out of the tent. “We could talk to Friday, yeah? He’s been looking for his people. Maybe he’d found them.”

“I’m not sure you realize how bad an idea that might be,” The Doctor said levelly, but Rose shook her head.

“We’ve done a lot of things that were bad ideas for good reasons. Far as I can tell, most of this lot treat Friday respectfully. ‘S just our resident mustache twirler that’s the problem.”

“Mustache twirler?” Bill snickered.

“He’s an old-timey villain, ain’t he? Image certainly fits him.”

“So, what do we do?” Bill asked, looking between the pair of them expectantly.

“I don’t know,” the Doctor said, shaking his head. “We can wait for them to all go to sleep, slip into the chamber. You two distract the guards while I-“

There was a commotion, causing the Doctor to stop short. The three of them watched as a bunch of soldiers started a sprint for the burial chamber, all armed with guns.

The three of them followed without a word spoken between them, all jogging to keep up and pass the men as they entered the room and fell into formation. 

Rose glanced around the room, taking note of everything. There was Friday, standing beside another Ice Warrior, though this one looked like they might be of a higher rank. On the floor was a cube-like form that might have once been a British soldier, something the Colonel and Catchlove clearly deduced as well.

“What the devil?” The Colonel asked before asking Friday, “What the hell’s going on here?”

“Colonel, let me speak to them,” The Doctor hurried to ask, darting to the man’s side. “I can do this, I can sort this out.”

“Who the devil is this?” Catchlove asked, maneuvering around the Colonel and the Doctor with a hand on his sword hilt.

“She is Iraxxa, Empress of Mars,” Friday explained.

“The deuce she is,” Catchlove sneered. “And you think you can just go about slaughtering my me willy-nilly, do you, madam?” He demanded condescendingly.

“Your men,” Bill challenged, glancing at Rose when she was ignored by Catchlove. 

“What does the pink thing say?” Iraxxa asked Friday.

“Pink thing?” Catchlove said in disbelief. He started scrambling for his gun as he said, “Sergeant Major, call to arms!”

Guns were raised, all pointing at the ice warriors.

“No,” Rose and the Colonel said at once, her in a very casual though threatening way while the Colonel was in a panic.

Rose moved to stand in front of Catchlove, who hadn’t even managed to get his gun from his holster, and looked him in the eye and stared him down with all the desire she had to rip him apart.

“Listen to your Colonel, Captain,” She spat. “Might know a thing or two more than you, yeah?”

She wanted to slap the smile off his face.

“You would think that wouldn’t you?” He said quietly to her, averted his gaze over her shoulder. 

“By the moons, I honor thee,” she heard her husband say. “I am the Doctor, and I bed leave to intercede.”

“You know my race?” Iraxxa asked.

“I do. And I ask mercy for these primitives.”

Rose only saw Catchlove’s mouth start to open before she slammed her hand against his mouth. She tried not to dig her nails into his skin, but she may not have succeeded well.

She only let go when the Doctor continued speaking.

“Majesty, the world you knew is dead. The atmosphere has all but evaporated. The surface is lifeless. If there are others who sleep here, they cannot survive on Mars without help. You must cooperate if you are to survive.”

“He speaks the truth, Majesty. The war, all that we fought for, is less than the dust now,” Friday said in a sincere way.

Seeing that Catchlove didn’t look two seconds away from doing something stupid, Rose turned to see Iraxxa looked to be thinking about what she was told.

“And you, both of you, the females. What do you say?”

“Us?” Bill asked from somewhere near the back of the room.

“We are all surrounded by noisy males. I would value your opinions.”

Bill came forward as she said, “Yeah, yeah, they’re not lying to you. There’s no need for anyone else to die today. The humans saved his life.”

“Is this true?” Iraxxa asked Friday.

He nodded.

“They helped him get back here,” Rose told her. “He came in hopes of finding his people.”

“They made him their pet!” Iraxxa argued.

“It was necessary to dissemble, Majesty. I thought only of your resurrection. It was a tactical decision.” Friday reasoned.

“An Ice Warrior’s duty is to command!” Iraxxa spoke passionately.

“Present!” Catchlove ordered, and before Rose could act, all the guns in the room were drawn and focused on Iraxxa, Friday, and by proxy, the Doctor.

She moved to cover his back, turning to Bill and gesturing her back before someone made the wrong move. All while the Doctor pleaded and begged for Iraxxa to see reason.

They’d done this hundreds of times over thousands of years. Never once had it ever gone off smoothly. So it was no surprise to her at all when the gun of a nervous soldier went off, and a bullet bounced off Iraxxa’s helmet.

Rose turned, noting that as the Colonel tried to get the rest of the men to stand down while reprimanding the nervous soldier, Catchlove was raising his gun.

She acted, grabbing the man’s arm and hand and twisting, sending him to the ground with a cry of agony.

“Enough of this!” She shouted over the roar, silencing the chamber. “Swear on all I’ve seen in the universe, my species are among the absolute stupidest, but especially blokes who think they rule the bloody world.” She sighed as all the guns slowly lowered around her.

She then approached the Ice Queen, hand over her heart like she’d known the Doctor had done, and bowed her head.

“By the moons, I honor thee, Queen Iraxxa. And ask you forgive the nervous finger of a young, inexperienced soldier.”

Whether that soldier was inexperienced or not, the man had the good sense to keep his mouth shut.

Iraxxa hissed softly as she seemed to think of it.

“You are certainly not inexperienced,” She said, and Rose guessed by her subtle movements she was being sized up.

“More than I’d like to admit to,” Rose confessed. “So I know when someone hadn’t intended to do wrong. The man whose arm I broke certainly does. The Colonel, there, he has a good heart, good intentions.”

“He’s a coward,” Catchlove grit out.

Rose looked partially turned to see the bastard was still on his feet, sweating a bit at the temples and holding his arm close. Stiff upper lip indeed, though it didn’t make her respect him more. 

Seeing he had the floor, Catchlove’s grimace turned into a smirk as he said, “The Colonel is not what he appears! The hero of Isandlwana, show them your famous wound, Colonel.” 

The Colonel bowed his head in shame, shaking his head.

“No?” Catchlove panted. In two steps, he used his good hand to rip away the Colonel’s cravat, revealing a scar along his neck. “The mark of the rope,” Catchlove said, holding the cravat high above his head like it was the evidence instead of the scar around the Colonel’s neck. “While you were fighting for Queen and country, the Colonel here was dancing the Newgate polka. That is the mark of a rope that failed to hand him for desertion. They bungled it.”

“And how did you get your rank, then? Buy your way in?” Rose asked him, crossing her arms as she stared Catchlove down.

She must have hit a nerve because his jaw got tight as he threw the cravat to the ground.

“How much battle have you really seen?” She asked.

“And what of you, madam?”

“Way more than you wanna know, mate.”

“I’m gonna guess that most of ‘em probably hasn’t seen much of anything except the Colonel,” Bill commented. “’Cause I’m guessing if she’s got a bunch of Ice Warriors waiting in the wings, you’d be deserting pretty damn fast.”

Rose watched Catchlove’s face turn a sickly shade of red before he ducked down quicker than a man with a broken arm should be able to. He grabbed his gun off the ground with his good hand, shot back up, and pointed it at Bill.

Rose moved, the shot fired, and she felt the burning tear of it going through her shoulder. Her stomach turned with the pain of it, still not used to it after all these centuries. She gritted her teeth, straightened up, and faced Catchlove, clearly reloading and getting ready to finish her off.

The shot that fired wasn’t from his gun. From the looks of Catchlove, he was as surprised as Rose was. At least that’s how he looked before fell forward to the ground, making not a sound as he landed on his broken arm.

Behind him, a stoic Colonel remained poised to fire as if Catchlove would suddenly rise from the dead. It took a beat before he lowered his weapon, turned to Iraxxa, and dropped to his knees.

“Your Majesty,” he said, “It’s true what was said about me, but if it may please you in some way, I ask you to finish the job that was bungled if it would spare my people, the Doctor, his companions. That man was not one of us. Please do not judge mankind by his cruelty or indeed by my cowardice.”

Iraxxa tilted her head, then turned to Rose and Bill.

“Would you take his word, as one warrior to another?”

“I would,” She said with a nod. “We, the Doctor and I, we can help get your people to a new world. It doesn’t have to be a battle here. Not ‘cause of some bloke on a power trip.”

Iraxxa looked down at the Colonel. 

“You will die with honor, with bravery, and in the service of those you protect,” She told him.

Bill flinched behind Rose, but she put a placating hand on her hip, asking her to not say anything. She looked over her shoulder at Bill, met her terrified eyes, and shook her head, hoping to drive the point home.

Rose then watched the rest of the interaction between the Colonel and Iraxxa as the Colonel straightened as much as he could while on his knees.

“God save the Queen,” He declared, the soldiers echoing the sentiment around them.

Iraxxa smiled. 

“But not today,” she told him. “To die in battle is the way of the warrior. Pledge your allegiance to me and my world, and I will ensure you have the opportunity.”

The Colonel bowed his head. “My life and my service are yours.”

Iraxxa turned to the Doctor. 

“You can find my Warriors and I a home?”

“I can send out a signal,” He nodded. “Wake your people, and I will find someone who can take them somewhere where they can live.”

~DW~

Nardole, of course, was in the office when Olivia and Missy entered.

It was a bit funny to watch his eyes go huge at the sight of her, and if Olivia thought the android could get any paler, she was sure he would have.

“What’s she doing out of the vault? She can’t be out of the vault,” He asked in a panic.

Olivia paused in the middle of the room and looked at him.

“Do you know how to fix or fly the TARDIS?” She asked.

“No,” He replied, frowning.

“So, you wouldn’t be able to get Granddad and Gram back here, either, then.”

That only seemed to make Nardole more freaked out.

“They have an oath! They have to be here, or she could get out!”

“Well, they’re not here, and I’m out, and I haven’t gone around murdering anyone yet, now have I?” Missy asked, hands on her hips as she sized Nardole up. “Of course, if you’re volunteering.”

“Fix the TARDIS, get my grandparents back, and maybe I’ll see if you can tinker with him,” Olivia said, nudging Missy toward the TARDIS.

“So you know, you’re my least favorite granddaughter,” Nardole shouted as Olivia and Missy went through the doors, the former snapping her fingers and shutting the doors behind her.

The TARDIS hummed in relief and happiness, which was more frankly off-putting since she wouldn’t do that for Olivia earlier. 

“Did I make you angry or something?” She asked the Time Rotor.

“No,” Missy said as she looked at the controls and started making adjustments. “She simply needed someone back here to see him. Perhaps she needed you specifically, so you would have to get me so I could see him.”

Olivia frowned, “the bloke from the hallway?”

Missy stilled, hesitated, then met Olivia’s eye. The intensity sent s chill down her spine, and had her going stock still and unable to look away.

“Something is going to happen, and I’m going to guess it will happen soon. He’s involved, you are not. You can’t tell them about him because if you do, it could rewrite time. You rewrite time, there will be a bunch of nasty consequences.”

“I’m guessing you’re involved,” Olivia asked without actually wanting to know.

“In a way, yes,” Missy replied regretfully. “It was a few false starts before I realized how badly I wanted to be good. How much I wanted your grandparents, your granddad especially, in my life.”

Olivia chewed her lip, warring between wanting to stop something bad from happening and wanting to not screw things over. She could hear her dad in her head telling her that some things couldn’t and shouldn’t be changed. She heard the echoes of stories of reapers and years wiped away, never to have existed. Olivia had been raised to know when you could bend time to your will and when you had to let things happen.

But that didn’t mean she had ever been faced with a choice like this.

“Don’t,” Missy snapped. “I know what you’re thinking, you have the same look your granddad gets when he’s about to do something noble and stupid, and I’m tellin’ you, don’t go messin’ with this. Forget the knobless wonder.”

That had Olivia snapping out of her dilemma.

“Do I want to know why you called him a knobless wonder?” She asked, knowing already she didn’t.

Missy smirked wickedly but thankfully didn’t comment. She merely flipped the dematerialization switch, moved to the jumpseat, and sat down.

~DW~

Rose watched the bullet push itself out of her shoulder, wincing and cringing at the feel of it. Bill, thankfully, was helping the Doctor with setting up the S.O.S. call that would get Iraxxa and her people off the planet. Whether the Doctor asked for her help precisely to keep Bill from seeing this or because he genuinely needed help from someone who likely wasn’t going to bleed all over the equipment.

She knew he wouldn’t want to hear it, but right about now, she genuinely wished the bullet went lower. Yes, recovering from getting shot in the chest post-revival wasn’t pleasant either. But at least then she wouldn’t have to feel the bullet being forced from her body, nor would she have to deal with the blood. 

“Are you alright?” The Colonel asked, wincing at the sight of the bullet wound. “I could get out medic….”

“It’s fine,” Rose assured. “Been through worse. You gonna be alright, then? Going about with Iraxxa and wherever that takes ya? It’s a lot to take in, ya know?”

“I do,” The Colonel nodded thoughtfully. “But if I’m honest, I hadn’t done a whole lot of living since, well,” he said with a gesture to his neck. “I’ve no one waiting for me back home. And I have no real honor among anyone that finds out. So… yes. I think… I think I’ll be alright.”

Rose grinned, giving the Colonel’s arm a squeeze and wincing as she felt the bullet clear the hole. It dropped to the ground with a ping, leaving a mark in the red soil. 

“You know what I think the worst of all this is?” The Colonel said after a beat, like nothing odd at all took place. “That no one back on Earth will ever know we got here. All will be forgotten.”

Rose snickered, “You know. Once the Doctor has the signal up and running and someone answers, they’re gonna need a sign of some sort to know where to find you. Think you can probably come up with something, yeah? Something that might be seen later on down the road?”

The Colonel frowned thoughtfully, “I think I might,” He said with a nod, turning on his heel and heading off to see the Doctor. Rose watched him a moment before a tickle at the edge of her mind got her attention. 

It grew stronger, and she knew as well as the Doctor would that the TARDIS was back.

“ I’ll go see what that was about,” Rose told him through the bond, half picking up on his plans for the rock formation they’d seen earlier.

Rose headed toward the TARDIS, the Old Girl already apologetic but not elaborating as to what was happening in any way.

Rose snapped her fingers, and as the doors opened, she could see her granddaughter at the end of the ramp inside.

“Right, so a thing happened,” Olivia started.

“A thing?” Rose mused. “What sorta thing?”

She stepped inside and immediately spotted Missy lounging on one of the jumpseats. Rose’s eyebrows shot toward her hairline as she looked between her frenemy and her granddaughter.

“Are you alright?” Missy asked, getting to her feet.

Rose was confused for a moment, thinking she was asking because of the shock, but as Missy got closer, her hands hovered around the bullet wound.

Rose shook her head, “It’s fine,” she brushed it off. “Why are you here?”

“Olivia there had some TARDIS trouble,” Missy explained.

“I didn’t know what else to do,” Olivia protested. “She wouldn’t start, and Nardole was no help.”

“You didn’t think to call your mum?” Rose asked, her pitch reminding her a bit too much of Jackie.

“Well, I learned to fly on her TARDIS, and so I figured she wouldn’t have known. And before you ask, I was not calling Aunt River because I would have never heard the end of it. I went to Missy for help because she was the only one I knew of who likely could. And she did.”

Rose turned back to Missy and noted how proud of herself she looked. It made the corners of Rose’s mouth twitch, wanting to smile at how adorable it was even those there was a chance she’d get a stabbing or something for her trouble.

“ Missy’s here,” She warned the Doctor.

“ What!?” Came back through, and Rose showed him what was happening on the TARDIS. “ This can’t happen. It’s not what we agreed to. We’re going to have to put her back in.”

“ Yes,” Rose agreed. “ But it can wait a few.” 

“He’s not happy, is he?” Missy asked knowingly.

“No, but he’s my problem to deal with. Wanna help me with the dermal regenerator? If I’m not going to die, I’d like the boost. ‘S bit more painful than I remember.”

“I mean, I could just, you know,” Missy said casually before making a slicing motion along her neck, a choking sound, then mimicked dead weight a beat. Rose merely shook her head, still trying not to smile, and Missy shrugged. “Probably best I don’t, anyway,” She said before putting her hand on Rose’s back and leading her up to the Medbay.

It was oddly comforting, which made Rose realize for the first time that perhaps Missy was more friend than enemy than she realized.

Chapter Text

Rose laid on back, arms folded over her stomach as she closed her eyes and let Missy move the regenerator over the wound.

“You probably wished it was just a bit lower,” Missy mused, making Rose chuckle.

“Yeah,” She replied. “Never would tell the Doctor that, though.”

“No, of course not,” Missy said. A beat. “Still. You wouldn’t be here, with me, causing a scandal.”

Rose threw her head back and laughed, managing to open her eyes and see Missy smirking, clearly pleased with herself.

“People go running dressed like this,” Rose said with a wave of her hand toward her sports bra. The regenerator was obviously best worked over uncovered skin, and Rose hadn’t thought twice about removing her ruined t-shirt as they entered the medbay.

“See what you two are making me miss out on, then?” Missy retorted, hand on her hip, the wand of the dermal regenerator against her leg a moment. 

“Isn’t that my job?” The Doctor said as he came into the room, back in his normal attire, space suit probably tucked away for now.

He approached the table, running his hand over the skin where Rose’s wound was in a state of angry red scarring, no longer open but sensitive. His cooler touch on the warmer skin made goosebumps spring up along her arms.

“Well, you weren’t here,” Missy countered. “What was I supposed to do? Leave our Rosie Posie all torn up?”

“You shouldn’t be here, period,” He said with a snap that didn’t sound like he meant it. He wouldn’t really look at either of them, either. “You know we need to put you back in the vault.”

“I do,” Missy replied, all joking set aside. “Just… don’t blame Olivia.”

At that, the Doctor looked up, and Rose watched the two of them stare each other down a moment. 

“She needed help. She was scared. She went where she could to get help.”

The Doctor didn’t show it, but there was a weird mix of thankfulness and discomfort warring in him. Rose could understand both and reached up for the hand that still lingered on her skin, giving it a squeeze and sending him her own love and comfort through it.

“Thank you,” The Doctor said to Missy. “But.”

“I know,” Missy nodded. “Do what you must.” 

The Doctor gave Rose’s hand a squeeze.

“Finish up here,” He said, “I’ll get us home.”

~DW~

“So, how long have you been traveling with my grandparents?” Olivia asked as she and Bill settled in at a hightop in the same pub they’d met at the night before. 

Though that was now seeming like forever ago, she had a bit of a kip after the whole Mars thing. And by a bit of a kip, Bill slept for about six hours in her TARDIS room. They’d apparently stayed in the vortex, the Doctor not wanting to have Missy - the scary lady Bill hadn’t met until after she’d woken up - off the ship until he knew for sure she hadn’t done anything to it while she and Olivia went to Mars to get them. 

He brought them back to about seven in the evening, sending Bill and Olivia off to the pub for a bit while he did more work on the TARDIS, and Rose went with Missy back to the vault.

Bill wasn’t sure if this was the Doctor’s way of setting her and his granddaughter up on a date or merely his way of getting them out of his hair while he worked. Either way, Bill couldn’t complain about spending time in the presence of a pretty woman, even if she was an alien.

“A couple months, I guess?” Bill asked. “Hard to know for sure, yeah? What with the time travel and all. Plus, I mean, does it count as traveling when you’re trying to outrun your not-quite girlfriend who had apparently become sentient oil, and you weren’t sure if she was trying to kill you?”

Olivia’s eyes went wide, and she grinned.

“And I thought I had bad luck. You’re not-quite girlfriend, huh? What was her name?”

“Heather,” Bill said, a wave of sadness mixed with affection changing the cadence of how she spoke the name. “I didn’t really know her, ya know? Not like, what her favorite color was, or what she wanted to do after she was done school. I’d guess travel, by the way she spoke, but you know.”

“So it was a short-lived romance?”

Bill frowned. “Think it was… a coulda been. There was something between us. A spark. Felt like destiny. We locked eyes across the room, this room, actually, and it was like gravity pulled us together. But, yeah.”

Olivia hummed in understanding, took a sip of her pint, and looked off to the side, deep in thought.

“Dad would probably say it was. He’s a bit psychic, could see bits of the future his whole life. Knew the Doctor was coming for him before he knew who he was. Could see Mum in visions before they met. And my step mum, Liz, who I adore. Said that always broke his heart a bit, the fact that he could love Mum so much and know that no matter how many times they tried it would never last.”

“Must’ve been hard,” Bill said sympathetically.

Olivia shrugged, “It wasn’t so bad. He’s happier with Liz, I think. He didn’t want to travel his whole life. He was a famous author here, sort of. Tim Latimer.”

“Shit,” Bill said, about to take a drink but needing to put her pint down. “Seriously, your dad is Tim Latimer? Love his books, they’re crazy sci-fi. Suppose they’re based on reality, then. At least his.”

“Some, yeah,” Olivia smiled. “You know the one about the human who turned out to be an alien in disguise?”

Bill nodded vigorously.

“That was about Granddad.”

“No shit,” Bill said, leaning in as Olivia told an abridged version of how the Doctor used some sort of thing on the TARDIS to turn himself human. When Olivia finished, Bill closed her eyes and shook her head. “Wait, if you’re dad is Tim Latimer, who is, like, my age, how are you….?”

“There is a version of my Dad here on Earth right now. But there’s gonna be a thing that happens, and mum gets freaked out, and they get his life expanded in the future, then he’ll come back here and try and “age” with dye and such, then I’m gonna be a bit of a surprise, and he’ll settle in the future.” Olivia grinned.

“So one of my favorite authors traveled with the Doctor.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Olivia smirked. “Anything I can do to make you this awestruck over me?”

Bill laughed nervously, ducking her head and trying to hide while also not wanting to look away from Olivia.

“Are you even gonna be sticking around long? We were supposed to be dropping you back home when we went to Mars.”

Someone walking by shot Bill a strange look, but they kept going. Maybe a bit faster than they meant to, but then Bill probably sounded absolutely mad. She’d try and get away from someone crazy, too.

“Suppose I wouldn’t be. Is that a problem, though? One night and all?” Olivia asked, leaning in.

Bill closed her eyes, and took a breath. “You would be exactly my type. You are, actually. But I also had a crush on your Grandmother for, like, months. So… think that makes this all a bit… awkward.”

Olivia sighed and rolled her eyes but grinned as she lifted her pint to her mouth. 

“Damn that immortal thing of hers and her always looking perfect,” She said before taking a sip.

Bill snorted before what Olivia said really sunk in.

“Wait, immortal?” Bill asked, a confused grin curling her lips.

Olivia waved it off as if immortality was something so blase it didn’t warrant addressing. Or, rather, something Bill probably should have already known about.

Before she could give any sort of response, a guitar started up on the stage, pulling Olivia’s attention with a groan.

Bill frowned, then turned to the stage, jaw-dropping.

The Doctor was up there, sunglasses on and guitar in hand as he riffed something with a few of the regular musicians who tended just to jam. He instantly drew a crowd, of course. The Doctor was a legend around the university, seeing him do anything outside of it was worthy of attention. The fact that he wasn’t just playing guitar but singing as well was indeed warranted by all the cell phones out and pointed toward him.

“I never stood a chance with you,” Olivia sighed forlornly. “If it wasn’t the fact you fancied my Gram, Granddad crashed our date.”

“Is that what this was?”

“It’s what I was going for,” Olivia grinned unrepentant. “And besides, where there’s Granddad, there’s Gram, so I’m sure she’ll be along shortly.”

“Well,” Bill said, lifting up her pint and bringing it a touch closer to Olivia. “To sort of dates and at least making new friends.”

“I’ll drink to that,” Olivia said, clinking her pint to Bill’s.

~DW~

Rose had left the University grounds after her husband. She gave him the reprieve from Nardole and his insistence on being absolutely sure Missy was completely and utterly secured in her vault. That there was no way she could come out on her own, nor was she on the TARDIS, hidden somewhere, and they were just having a laugh at him.

The Doctor took the TARDIS, which is probably why Nardole started that line of questioning, the suspicious and fearful bugger. So when Rose heard it in an ally on her way to the pub, she hadn’t thought much of it.

She snickered to herself, though, because the Doctor should have had at least a twenty-minute head start, and if he wanted to get there to join the bunch of students he’d overheard a month or so back talk about a jam there, he would have missed it.

The night was mild, a warmth lingering in the air that normally didn’t in late spring. People were milling about, enjoying the nice weather while they could.  There was the smell of grilling in the air wafting out from nearby eateries.

“Rose,” Someone called, and she smirked at how common her name was. “Rose!”

She paused, realizing she knew that voice.

But it couldn’t be. Why would it be? She had never been to Bristol before she and the Doctor settled in. It’s partly why they chose it, less of a chance of them running into anyone, especially herself.

Still, just in case, Rose half turned, then fully turned as the Doctor came striding up to her.

Only, well, not her current Doctor. His ninth form.

He was a harried mix of terrified and relieved, all under a mask of annoyance as he came striding toward her.

“There you are,” He said as he reached her, grabbing her and pulling her into a hug she instinctively returned. “Didn’t think I’d find you that quick. What are you doing in Bristol? Who brought you here?”

She tensed, and of course, he felt it and pulled back.

Nine studied her face, really took her in, and she watched the dawning realization come over him.

“You’re not my Rose.”

“Always your Rose,” She replied immediately. “Just… not the Rose that should be with you.”

He continued to look at her, eyes darting about her face, a bit of fear creeping into those beloved blue eyes.

“You’re ancient,” he said quietly, lifting his hands from her waist to her face, cupping it gently as if her age made her more fragile.

“Should be a bit put out, you calling me that,” She grumbled.

“I have vague memories of seeing you, a future you, but you weren’t this old.”

“No, I haven’t seen you in… a very long time,” She admitted, holding onto his wrists, feeling his double pulse race beneath his thumb. “Why’d you come here? Lookin’ for me but not this me.”

He shook his head, glancing away, around them, before dropping his hands to her shoulders.

“Do you remember gettin’ taken from me?” He asked. 

She frowned, “When is it for you?” She asked carefully. 

It had been many, many lifetimes ago that she was pulled into the Game Station. She remembered the light, looking at and reaching for the Doctor before everything went fuzzy, and she woke up on the set of The Weakest Link with the Anne Droid. She didn’t know, and never asked, where the Doctor had been before that, though she always assumed he was somehow on the Station the whole time himself. But maybe he hadn’t been, and this was when he was trying to find her.

“Just left Das’s wedding,” He replied, and Rose had to search her memory hard for when she, the Doctor, and Jack had encountered the Neanderthal that had been brought mistakenly to the twenty-first century. 

“Where’s Jack?” She asked curiously.

Nine scoffed. “Last I saw him, he was with a bride’s maid and a groomsman. But that doesn’t really….”

Rose frowned because she sort of remembered something.

The wedding, vaguely. She got to dress up a bit for it, put on really posh black suit, the sort that she’d seen on models in magazines that always looked so sleek and sexy in ways Rose hadn’t thought she would ever pull off. Paired with a pink top, something a little loose and flowy, Rose thought she looked like someone who had just walked off the runway.

It gave her enough confidence to try and convince the Doctor to dance with her, which worked for longer than she thought. She had stepped away to get something to nibble and saw… someone. 

“I… I don’t remember anything like being taken from the wedding, but… someone was there,” She said, meeting his eye again. “Someone I think I know. Or knew. But…,” She sighed, “the memory’s fuzzy,” She admitted. “Usually, that means for me I’m not supposed to remember. An’ I’ve been around so long, I don’t… if I did see them, it may have been someone I hadn’t met until later. Or maybe even you, a future you.”

Nine frowned. 

“Are we not still…?”

“’Course we are,” she smiled gently.

“Then why would I be where you are without you?” He asked a bit gruffly.

Rose chuckled, “We get a bit mixed up from time to time. You go somewhere without me, not intentionally, but it happens. Or I go somewhere without you. We run into different versions of each other all over.”

He seemed satisfied with that answer, nodding and looking away from her and around them. Then, like that body was so good at doing, he sighed and flipped a switch, turning to Rose with a big, put-on smile. 

“Well, guess I gotta keep lookin’. Always wandering off, you are.”

“Hey,” She said as he was about to step away. “You’ll find me, yeah? Always do.”

“Right,” he said, though Nine didn’t sound convinced. 

Rose got on her toes and kissed his cheek.

“Always,” She promised, kissing his cheek again before turning and continuing to the pub. She glanced over her shoulder once, seeing he was still watching her, the longing on his face too painful to look at too long. 

How she hated how stupid they’d been back then. How he couldn’t remember from his Eighth self - or even the interludes with her younger self from his future - how much she loved him. He probably wouldn’t have been so stubborn if he had, so keen to keep a distance she never wanted between them.

As she headed for the pub, she wondered what his other past selves had been like. For thousands of years, they’d been pretty careful not to cross timelines with them, though she’d seen one or two of his younger selves from a distance. She’d love to meet them, the ones who hadn’t been in the war, who might still be bright-eyed and fond of Gallifrey instead of jaded toward it. Love to know those facets of her husband that made him the man he was when she’d met him. A part of her had wondered if it was her own doing. She had been a goddess of time, she could easily see how she might decide that the only Doctors she would see were the ones involved and affected by the Time War.

But, there was no point in dwelling. She rounded the corner, spotted the pub, and went in as though nothing happened.

Inside, she was hit with the scent of beer and fried food, making her instantly wanting an order of chips. Music filled the room, her husband's voice mixing with the melody brought on from his guitar as well as the instruments played by people she’d seen around the university. At a high top, her granddaughter was making Bill laugh and blush. 

She decided to leave them be, knowing that this little moment between them was fleeting. So, Rose went to the bar, ordered her chips and a pint, then hopped up on a stool to watch her husband play. He noticed her a few seconds later, looking at her over his sunglasses with a smirk before giving her a wink. 

Rose bit her lip, feeling much like her far younger self, vaguely wondering what it might have been like if she had been charmed by the Doctor on the guitar instead of Jimmy on a base and how wildly different her life might have been.

Funny, she wasn’t sure why she was thinking of her younger self. She hadn’t thought of her life from back then in a long time. Rose had seen the Doctor play hundreds of times, and this wasn’t the first time he’d flirted with her from the stage. So why was it this time she felt butterflies and wistfulness for something that didn’t happen or could have happened if they hadn’t been so stupid?

A headache started to creep in, so Rose let it go. Whatever it was, clearly her mind didn’t want her poking at it. So she let it go, leaned back against the bar top, and simply enjoyed the night.

~DW~

Bill wasn’t drunk, per se, but she wasn’t really sober either. 

She and Olivia drank and flirted, and she was enjoying herself, really. But every once in a while, she’d feel a pang of guilt. Because she liked Olivia, she was beautiful and funny, and wicked smart. She was a lot of the things Bill was looking for, but it didn’t feel right. Maybe because they started the night talking about Heather and how this wasn’t going to happen anyway. Maybe because this was the Doctor and Rose’s granddaughter. 

Either way, it made her drink a bit more, and so she was a bit stumbly on the way back to the TARDIS.

“Okay,” the Doctor said, setting the guitar down on the stairs leading down to somewhere in the TARDIS Bill had never ventured. “This time, we are taking you home,” He said to Olivia as he went to console.

“If you must,” She said, plopping down on a jumpseat and crossing her legs. Olivia then patted the spot next to her for Bill to join her.

Not really wanting to stand while the Doctor and Rose flew the TARDIS, Bill joined her.

Olivia reached into her leather jacket pocket, pulled something out, and opened her palm toward Bill.

“What’s that?” She asked, gesturing to the little blue-ish pill in Olivia’s hand.

“It’ll make you sober,” She said knowingly as the TARDIS started to grind and hum.

Bill took it, popping it in her mouth and swallowing it back without hesitation. She could feel the alcohol leave her system almost immediately, which was both awesome and very unsettling at once.

A few seconds later, the TARDIS came to a stop, and the Doctor turned to his granddaughter, nodding toward the door.

Olivia stood up and opened her mouth to say something when a voice shouting, “Olivia Tyler Latimer!” echoed through the TARDIS.

She winced, biting her lip.

“Yeah, shoulda known even on suppressant, he woulda seen this happening.” She sighed as she headed to the doors.

“Let me go talk with him,” Rose said as she came down the ramp, dropping her arm around Olivia’s shoulder. “Might soften the blow.”

“’Kay. Bye, Granddad,” Olivia said over her shoulder before Rose opened the doors and led her out.

Bill caught a glimpse of the older-looking dude before he was stepping back, grumbling something to Rose. 

The doors closed behind them, Bill stood up and slowly inched toward the Doctor.

“So you know, if I had known she was your granddaughter, I wouldn’t’ve flirted with her.”

“Yes, you would,” He said like a forgone conclusion. “It’s in her genetics to flirt and be flirted with. You knew full well who she was earlier, and yet….” He looked up from the controls, amusement in the lines of his face. “What color sand would you like for your beach experience?”

“There’re options?”

The Doctor shrugged. “Green’s a bit off-putting. Red might not be top of the list since we just came from Mars not long ago. Blue’s nice. Orange isn’t bad.”

Bill frowned, looked down at what she was wearing, then back up at him. “I mean, I like beaches, all for beaches. Not really dressed for it.”

“It’s what the wardrobe is for.”

“Is that sanitary? Swimsuit someone else wore?”

The Doctor frowned.

“It’s very sanitary. There’s thousands of suits no one’s touched. She just archives them until their needed. So, beach? Blue or Orange sand?”

“I dunno, surprise me. Or, oh! White sand. Like the whitest sand in the Universe. Wanna see just how pasty you are in comparison.”

“You won’t,” he quipped back, setting something on the controls. 

“What, you’re going to the beach like that?” 

“No, I’ll take off the jacket,” The Doctor said without a hint of irony.

Rose came back in, closing the door before darting up the ramp.

“They’ll sort themselves out,” She said with a wave over her shoulder toward the doors. “More scared than angry. Pretty sure River’s gonna get an earful.”

“As is his right,” The Doctor said before flicking a switch, the grinding sound of taking off filling the room.

Just as the grinding sound faded off, the room went mauve and the TARDIS shook.

~DW~

It wasn’t the right time. Last night was the closest he’d come to seeing the Doctor. He knew Bristol 2018 was where he would find this version of him, and yet....

Too public. Too many people would see. Especially putting on a show like that, where everyone had their eyes on him. while he played the guitar like he thought he was some famous rock star.

At least that girl back at the University was right, he hadn’t been around. He didn’t really believe the Doctor left the school, which made him wonder who that girl was and what she was hiding. It was hard to be certain, what with how often people fawned over the bloody Time Lord. 

No, he’ll just have to wait. A time would come, and soon, he was sure. He just had to let his partner know that he wouldn’t be coming back. Not right away. He’d get a place to stay and bide his time.

Chapter Text

They were barely in the Vortex when things went sideways. The TARDIS lurched, shaking and humming frantically as a few sparks flew from her ceiling. The interior momentarily turned mauve, making Rose’s heart drop before the TARDIS seemed to metaphorically catch her breath. She changed her tune to orange, grumbling as she came to a stop.

“Get the feeling we’re not on some beach planet,” Bill said after a couple of beats.

“No,” The Doctor said, “we’re certainly not.”

He swung the monitor around for Bill to see, but that didn’t prevent Rose from catching the snow on the screen.

She looked at her husband with a frown, but he could only shrug, a sure sign that whatever was happening, he was just as clueless.

“ I think something happened with time. It’s like we were accidentally yanked from the Vortex.”

“Always reassuring, that. What with what Livie said,” Rose replied while forcing a smile for Bill’s sake. “Snow might not be all bad, yeah?” She said aloud, hoping her feigned enthusiasm would be catching.

The Doctor glanced between them both before turning and heading out the door, the cool air from beyond the TARDIS drifting in.

On the rail by the door, a couple of thick parkas appeared.

“Have I told you how much I love you recently?” Rose said, stroking bits of the time ship as she made her way to the parkas and the door. The TARDIS’s reply was weak by appreciative nonetheless, and Rose frowned at the lackluster response.

The Old Girl attempted to tell her she was fine, but Rose almost got the feeling that the poor thing was nauseated.

“Right, so what’s going on?” Bill asked, remaining as far from the door as possible.

“You can come find out,” Rose teased as she picked up the blue jacket and pulled it on.

“Yeah, nah, I’m gonna just… stay here if it’s fine. Maybe pop down in the library.”

“Suit yourself, then,” Rose said with another grin before following her husband out the door.

He was standing a few feet away with a frown, narrowing his eyes like he was listening for something. 

Rose shoved her hands in her jacket pockets and glanced around.

“Where are we?” She asked, not recognizing anything.

“The South Pole,” The Doctor replied.

“ South Pole? What we doing here, then?”

“I’m not sure.” He said, taking another step forward. “Hello? Is someone there?” He called out to the seemingly barren landscape.

Faintly, Rose could hear footsteps, something she was sure the Doctor had already picked up on. 

“Who is that?” Someone called back.

“I’m the Doctor,” Her husband replied a speech on his tongue, before that someone interrupted.

“Oh, I don’t think so. No, dear me, no.” 

She watched her husband’s eyes go wide and panicked as the silhouette of a man came inching closer. 

“You may be a Doctor,” The man said as he stepped into the TARDIS-provided light. “But I am the Doctor. The original, you might say.”

“Bloody hell,” Rose gasped quietly.

“I second that,” Her husband said as he crept closer to his younger self. His first self.

Years, centuries, millennia married, and Rose may have only caught fleeting glimpses of her husband’s younger self with one notable exception. A part of her had wondered if it was her own doing. She had been a goddess of time, she could easily see how she might decide that the only Doctors she would see were the ones involved and affected by the Time War. 

But here was the first one, the one that her husband always winced when speaking of. 

“You,” He said to himself, “How can it be you?”

“Do I know you, sir?” His younger self asked.

“You do, will. It’s complicated. But you, here… this is where it happened. This is it, the very first time that I, well, you. We? Regenerated.”

The younger Doctor frowned. “What do you know of regeneration? Are you a Time Lord?” he asked suspiciously.

“How do you know recognize yourself?” Rose asked her husband, but the younger one snapped his gaze to her.

“Young lady, I don’t know what you or he are on about, but I have met older versions of myself, and while I do not remember them exactly, I know that this could not be it.”

Rose couldn’t help but snort, crossing her arms and looking amusedly at her husband, who looked absolutely pained.

“That’s not very ladylike.” The younger Doctor commented, and her Doctor mentally screamed, tipping his head back and looking to the sky as if he could plead with some deity that didn’t exist to save him.

It was then that the snow around them suddenly stopped.

The anomaly was enough to put her on edge. Glancing back at the TARDIS to make sure Bill hadn’t come out with all the commotion before inching to put herself between the two Doctors.

“The snow,” Her husband said. “Look at it.”

“How extraordinary,” the younger Doctor said. “Perhaps we should go inside my- my ship!”

“Oh, you still call it a ship,” her husband said like he was speaking to Olivia when she was very, very young. 

“What have you done to it?” The younger one demanded.

Rose shushed them sharply as she heard footsteps coming toward them. She threw her arm out, glaring at the silhouette that came stumbling toward them.

Rose took in the man who walked toward them in a daze. Part of her brain cataloged the attire, the uniform marking him a soldier from the first world war, the mustache, the absolutely confused look about him. The other part of her brain clocked the gun pointed in their direction.

She moved before she had a chance to ask, grabbing the gun and easily disarming the man. His eyes widened in fear, so instead of grabbing his neck, Rose went for his shoulder.

“Sorry,” he gasped out. “So sorry.”

“Gun pointed at us, mate. Should be sorry.”

“I am, truly, didn’t mean to, especially not at a lady. It’s just,” He paused, looking behind her. “Are either of those men a doctor?”

“You trying to be funny?” Her husband asked. 

Before anyone could reply, a bright light appeared behind the man, and he gasped again.

“She’s coming,” he said, turning in Rose’s hold. “She’s coming, it’s her.”

“Get back behind me, mate,” Rose gently told him, keeping her eye on the strange, glass-like creature once she caught sight of it. She heard the man back up as her husband and his younger self crept forward.

“Not human, I think,” the younger one said. “State your planet of origin and your intentions. This is Earth, a level five civilization.”

“And it is protected,” her husband added with the Oncoming storm in his voice.

“It’s what?” The younger one questioned.

Before Rose or the Doctor could reply, the creature disappeared in a flash of light.

“Oh, okay, that doesn’t usually work,” her husband said, and Rose turned to face him.

“Which means trouble, yeah?”

“Oh yes,” Her husband agreed.

“You said Earth was protected?” His younger self interrupted. “Protected by whom?”

Rose blinked. 

“Seriously?” She asked incredulously, only to get a stern glare from the younger Doctor. She turned to her husband, “really?”

“Early days,” he replied. “Just… please, please, whatever happens, while he’s around, don’t…. It’s not… I mean, it’s me , but….”

Rose took his hand and squeezed. 

“It’s young you. By comparison, this is like teenage you, yeah? Sorta rebellious, but still wanna be good, follow rules, yeah? Well, teenage Rose wasn’t all that brilliant, either.”

“Met you when you were technically a teenager,” He replied with a warm smile.

“Yeah, but that was me after the whole thing.” She said, glancing behind him and seeing the younger Doctor leading the man into the TARDIS. “Oh, bloody hell,” She said, getting the Doctor to turn on his heel quickly. He barely stopped spinning before he was bolting for the TARDIS, following his younger self inside.

Rose moved to keep up, darting for the doors and closing them behind her.

“This place is, or ought to be, my TARDIS!” The younger Doctor was protesting as he looked around the console room with utter disgust.

The TARDIS had a sort of huff to her hum like she had forgotten somehow what this version of him was like, too.

The poor bloke who they brought in seemed to be in more shock than normal, a glaze coming over his eyes. 

“Hey, why don’t you take a seat here,” Rose suggested, leading him to the stairs to the mezzanine while The Doctors argued. “What’s your name?” She asked as the man settled on the step.

“Captain Archibald Hamish Lethbridge-Stewart,” He rattled off as if on reflex. 

She sucked in a breath, dots connecting in an instant. 

“Can I call you Archie, then? Or are you attached to the whole thing?” She asked, putting aside her concern for what it all could mean to give him a cheeky grin.

He laughed mirthlessly, “Suppose Archie is alright. My wife calls me Archie.”

“Well, then, Archie, ‘m Rose. The man, well, men, there are the Doctor. Both of them, which is a bit barny right now, I’m sure, but you’ll get used to it. Think of the one with the whiter, longer hair as One and the Scottish one as Twelve.”

“Why not Two?” Archie asked.

“Bit more than you wanna know right now, yeah?” She winked at him, making the man blush before she straightened up and turned to see what sort of argument her husband was currently getting into with himself.

“Well, I know who you are,” The Doctor said as he held his hand up by One’s temple. “Contact,” he said before touching the man’s temples briefly. “Snap.”

“You are me?” One asked, wide-eyed and horrified. “No, no.”

“Yes, yes, I’m very much afraid so.”

“Do I become… you?” One asked hesitantly.

“Well, there’s a few false starts, but you get there in the end,” The Doctor beamed proudly.

“But I thought… well, I assumed I’d get, er, younger.”

The Doctor’s smile fell.

“I am younger,” He insisted.

“You two done having a go at each other? Or am I the only one who gives a damn about poor Archie over here?” Rose asked hands on her hips and a tilt of her head toward their unexpected guest.

“Well, seeing as how it’s your place as a woman,” One started, gripping the lapels of his jacket.

“You can’t, you-you-you can’t say things like that,” The Doctor implored, pained, practically begging.

“Can’t I? Says who?” one asked.

“Just about everyone you’re going to meet for the rest of your life,” The Doctor replied, glancing down at Archie and then up to Rose. “Archie?”

“Yeah, well, usually helps to ask who you’re helping, yeah?” Rose quipped back.

“That’s why I have you,” The Doctor replied flippantly without seeming to think about what he was saying for a moment. When it clicked, his eyes went wide, and he looked utterly horrified, ready to backtrack what would have been their normal banter.

Rose snorted, shaking her head.

“Right,” One said, perplexed and unamused. “The man’s in shock. Get him brandy,” He said to Rose. “I had some somewhere.”

“I’ll just… hang on,” The Doctor said as he darted up the mezzanine.

An awkward silence lingered, filled only with the Doctor’s quick-footed steps as he went up to retrieve the brandy Rose hadn’t known existed. Then, it’s not like she was hurting for choices in the galley, and it’s not like she knew every thing about her husband and his life prior to her. 

He returned with the entire decanter and a glass, handing the former to his younger self, then the glass to Archie.

One looked at the decanter, then up at the Doctor, “Have you had some of this?” He asked, voice heavy with disappointment.

“Well, you know, I may have snuck a glass at some point in the last three thousand years. It’s been rock and roll.”

“It’s been something,” Rose snickered as she watched One pour a decent amount of whiskey in the glass.

“There you are, get this down you. You’ll feel a lot better.” One assured.

“And if that doesn’t, I got something stronger. You feeling alright? Aside from the shock of it all?” She asked, giving Archie’s shoulder a squeeze as he tossed back the whole thing.

“I think so,” He said like he was catching his breath.

One had turned to the Doctor, and from what Rose picked up on, they were bickering again. 

She rolled her eyes, resigning herself to the fact that this was probably going to be worse than when there were four of them all together to deal with the Zygons. At least then they were one regeneration after the other, closer in a age and experiences. Hell, even when this Doctor and his tenth self were together during Pompeii it was still a smaller age gap despite the massive personality differences.

Thousands of years, eleven regenerations between them, that was a much harder gap to bridge.

“Good Lord, what is that?” One asked, having spotted the Doctor’s guitar on the lower deck.

The Doctor zipped past his younger self to stand almost protectively at the guitar’s side before the younger him got down the stairs.

“I say, it’s some sort of guitar, isn’t it?” Archie asked, leaning forward to get a good look at it. 

“He’s a bit of a musician this go,” Rose shrugged.

One looked at her briefly over his shoulder, grabbing his lapels and standing as tall as his shorter stature allowed.

“Yes, well, it seems to be the only thing here that’s been cleaned.” He looked up around, running his finger along the rail before climbing it slowly. “Yes, in fact, this whole place could do with a good dusting. Obviously, Polly isn’t around anymore, so clearly the job would fall to you,” he said pointedly to Rose.

“Please,” The Doctor said as he came up the stairs behind his younger self. “Please, stop saying things like that. You’re going to get me in trouble.”

“In trouble? With who?” One asked.

“With Rose.”

One looked at Rose, then at his older self. “I don’t think she matters much.”

The Doctor looked like he wanted the floor to open up under him- either him - and swallow him whole. He looked at Rose pleadingly.

“ I swear to Rassilon if he knew…. ”

Rose, for her part, was highly amused. Offended, absolutely. But then, she knew if he was to meet pre-Jimmy Rose and have to deal with her then the Doctor wouldn’t have been best impressed with her. 

One huffed, but before he could say anything, the TARDIS lurched again. 

“ Someone’s got us,” She said, looking up at the ceiling and then at her husband.

He met her gaze with determination in his eyes, then they moved as one to the console.

“ We should try and shake them,” he said as the two of them worked in sync, trying to get the TARDIS to move.

“What’s happening? What’s going on? What are you doing?” One demanded, directing the last bit to Rose, which she promptly ignored.

“I can’t get the engines to start,” The Doctor said, looking up once more and meeting Rose’s eyes. “There’s some kind of signal blocking the command path.

“So what do we do?” She asked.

“Ah, Doctor?” Bill’s voice broke through the noise, panicked as she came into the console room from the mezzanine. “What’s going on?”

Rose looked to One, grabbing his arm and pulling him in, meeting his eye and putting the weight of the Bad Wolf behind it.

“Say a word, one word, to her like you been talking to me, an’ I promise I’ll give you a slap so hard, he’ll feel it, you understand?” She warned as the Doctor gave Bill a run down of what was happening.

One gave Rose an assessing glance, narrowed his eyes a bit in suspicion, and gave no indication as to whether or not he understood before he wrenched his arm from her hold and turned to the Doctor as the TARDIS came to a stop.

“Exit your capsule,” A woman’s voice echoed around them. “The Chamber of the Dead awaits you.”

Rose met her husband’s eye again.

“Sounds promising,” She said, allowing her nerves to come through.

“We’ve been through similar before.” He said.

“Clara.”

“Only we know that’s not this,” He said. “I’ll fix the engines, you keep her talking.”

Rose nodded once, squaring her shoulders and turning sharply to march out of the TARDIS.

She exited into a room, dark but for the light over the bottom of a long staircase and a few glowing spots around the room. She inched a little further forward, hearing the door creak behind her. A glance over her shoulder, and she spotted One creeping out curiously and suspiciously behind her. He was still gripping his lapels, a habit Rose was beginning to understand was part of that regeneration. Maybe even something drilled into him from the academy.

“Look around you,” The same female voice from before spoke. “You stand in the Chamber of the Dead.”

Another creak, and this time, Rose looked over her other shoulder to see Bill peeking out, though still remaining mostly inside the TARDIS.

“You are known to all here,” the woman continued, “for you are the Bad Wolf, and you are the Doctor of War.

“The Doctor, yes,” One spoke up. “But the Doctor of War? Never ma’am, never.”

“He’s a bit early,” Rose added, which had One looking at her wide-eyed. “Why’d you bring us here? Is this because of our Oath?”

“No,” The woman assured, “Your Oath is not why we brought you here. We offer you a gift. Return to us the human on your TARDIS, and in exchange, you may speak with them again.”

“Speak with whom?” One asked.

A couple of figures appeared in a lit doorway off to the left. Rose narrowed her eyes, shifting so she was standing slightly in front of One and Bill, who stepped out curiously. 

The figures came forward just a hair, their shapes familiar.

“Rose?” 

Rose stopped breathing for a moment. She hadn’t heard that voice in thousands of years. 

“Rose, sweetheart?”

Sure enough, as the figures came out, there stood her mum and dad. 

For a moment, her heart swelled. But then, reality caught up to her, and Rose’s jaw grew tight as she turned to where the voice came from.

“That’s not my mum. ‘S not my mum or my dad. You can’t offer me-“

“Heather?” Bill asked behind her, causing Rose to look back.

Sure enough, behind a very confused and heartbroken Pete and Jackie Tyler was Heather. Healthier, brighter, more human than Rose remembered her being. But then, had she ever met her when she was alive? 

Bill was moving past Rose before she had a chance to stop her, Jackie inching closer, having torn Rose’s attention. Part of her had wanted to reach out and grab Bill, but the scent of Jackie’s cosmetics wafted toward Rose and hitting her in a way that broke her heart.

“I say, madam, who might you be?” One asked.

Jackie turned toward him and glared.

“Your mother-in-law, last I checked,” She said. “Doesn’t matter what face you’re wearin’ these days, I still know it’s you.”

“I’m sorry,” One said, “you’re who?”

“We never did cover that, did we?” The Doctor said, coming out of the TARDIS and zipping to Rose’s side. “Jackie,” he said to her.

She looked him over. 

“This the proper one, then?” She asked.

“Jacks,” Pete said behind her, fondly exasperated.

“What? Rose doesn’t look like she’s aged a day, and here he is, looking like her grandfather.”

“Mum,” Rose complained. It hit her again how she hadn’t said that word in thousands of years, not in reference to her own. Tears stung her eyes as she took in the Jackie and Pete Tyler in front of her. They were just as she remembered them, just as the picture on the Doctor’s desk showed them. But it couldn’t be because they were in another Universe altogether and would have aged and died. Maybe not in 2018, when Rose was last living any amount of time, but she was ancient now, so the point was moot. Her mum was a blip in her long life, her father nothing more than a minute.

The whir of the sonic caught her attention, and Rose glanced over to see the Doctor scanning Jackie with his sonic much to her annoyance.

“That device, what is it?” One asked.

“It’s a sonic screwdriver.” The Doctor replied before looking Jackie over. “It’s a really good job.”

“Oi, what are you gettin’ at?” Jackie demanded, crossing her arms and glaring back.

“I mean you. There are only three low-key markers indicating that she’s a duplicate.”

“What makes you say she’s a duplicate?” One asked.

“Because Jackie Tyler hasn’t been in this universe in a long time. And Pete Tyler longer still. Rose and I have been married for over two thousand years. She lost Jackie about six years before that. So, who has been stealing the faces of the dead?”

The Doctors both went up the stairs, leaving Rose and Bill at the bottom of the stairs with duplicates of the people they loved. Well, duplicates of a loved one and a massive crush. 

She could hear Bill and Heather having a hushed conversation together, she could hear the faint voices of the Doctors up above. She tried to ignore the images of her parents just a few feet away.

“Rose,” Pete said, and she looked warily at him out of the corner of her eye. 

“You're not my dad.”

“I am,” he tried to say.

“Yeah? Which one, then? ‘Cause you look like the one my mum went to live with, but the one I knew? My actual dad? He died when I wasn’t even a year old. He died with more hair on his head and a lot less wrinkles, and you’re trying to tell me you’re him?” 

“It’s… it’s complicated,” he tried to reason.

“How’d you die, then?” Rose asked, turning fully toward him, and crossing her arms. “Chamber of the Dead, so means you’re gone. How’d you die?”

“I… I was…,” he stammered, frowning.

“Mum, what about you?”

“Why are you asking?” Jackie countered. “Sweetheart, why do you need to know?”

“You weren’t surprised by what the Doctor said ‘bout how long we’ve been married.”

Jackie scowled, “knew he changed you.”

“ I changed me,” Rose said as the woman spoke again, her voice echoing loud throughout the chamber. She was going on about testimony, about plucking people from the moment of their death, but Rose was only giving it half a mind. 

“Yeah, well, suppose I expected you’d be around still,” Jackie said, trying to wave it off. “You’re my daughter.”

“Am I your only child?” Rose asked.

Jackie reared back. “’Course you’re not! Got Tony.”

“And how old’s he?”

Jackie took a breath to respond but didn’t. Instead, she seemed to have to really think about it, trying to decipher it.

Rose sighed, looking past Jackie to where Bill and Heather were still speaking animatedly.

“Look,” She huffed, “Get that this is some sort of incentive, but you’re not my mum. You’re not a complete version of her, and you’re not my dad.”

“Don’t say that,” Jackie pleaded.

“Er, excuse me! Doctor?” Archie called, causing Rose to startle. Too wrapped up in what was happening with the facsimile of Jackie to have realized he snuck out.

“Get back inside!” The Doctor called as he and One came into view at the top of the stairs.

“I’m not quite sure, but it seemed to me that the lives of these people were being offered in exchange for my own. As it happens, I think my number is pretty much up anyway.”

“Archie, no, listen,” Rose said, turning to him and gently gripping his arm. “My mum and dad have been gone for a long time.”

“Yes, but has she?” He asked, looking over to Bill and Heather. “I don’t understand what’s happening. But it appears as though your friend has found someone she lost quite recently. I should be happy to take her place if it would resolve this situation.”

Before Rose could try and sway him further, the woman who spoke before said, “Accepted.” 

“What, what is happening?” Bill asked, her smile tinged with confusion as she and Heather came a bit closer.

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” The Doctor said, the weight of the Oncoming Storm behind it. “First, we’re going to escape. You, with me.” He said to his younger self before starting down the stairs.

“Escape is not possible,” the woman stated.

“It is possible, and it’s happening,” The Doctor paused to tell whoever was up there. “I’m taking the Captain and Heather with me. And the in-laws if I have to.”

“Why are you advertising your intentions?” One asked as they made their way to the bottom of the stairs. “Can’t you stop boasting for a moment?”

“Escape is not possible,” the woman repeated.

“Oh, we’re going to do way more than escape,” The Doctor swore, pausing at the bottom of the stairs to turn and look up once more. 

A figure like the one they encountered at the South Pole stood at the top of the stairs, looking down at them.

“We’re going to find out who you are and what you’re doing,” He pointed up. “And if we don’t like it, we will come back, and we will stop you. We will stop all of you,” he said to the rest of the room. The spots of light that had been dim before grew brighter, and Rose could see each one held another glass-like figure.

“Who the hell do you think you are?” One demanded with a frown.

“I’m the Doctor,” he replied, still looking up at the figure at the top of the stairs.

“I am the Doctor. Who you are, I cannot begin to imagine,” He snapped back.

“Then let us show you, Doctor. See who you will become,” the figure said, and with a wave of her arm, there were more figures like her around the room. From each spawned a bubble, almost like a glass orb, and seemed to broadcast the Doctor at some of his worst moments. 

She watched One’s face as he began to understand what his future was, or at least was in part how it morphed into fear and disbelief.

“The Imp of the Pandorica,” The glass-like woman said, “the Shadow of the Valeyard. The Oncoming Storm. The Butcher of Skull Moon. The Last Tree Garsennon. The Destroyer of Skaro. He is the Doctor of War.”

In an instant, the echoes of memories disappeared, leaving One seemingly devastated.

“What… what was that?” He asked his older self.

“To be fair, they left out all the good bits. Now, do what I do when I do it.”

He used his sonic to open the hatch beneath the TARDIS, then to open the lock on the chains that were attached to the claws at the top of the TARDIS that had pulled them up. 

“Jump,” he shouted, he and One going right away, Archie and Bill following close behind. 

Rose blinked, and Heather was gone, grabbing onto the chains as well. 

“We are not to be feared,” The woman said, and Rose turned to her.

“Been around too long to believe that,” She said regretfully before.

“Rose!” Jackie called, but Rose ignored her, jumping for the chains and sliding down as they came to a stop. 

“Jump,” She heard her husband below and hoped that the lot of them would clear away before she got down there. Already, she could feel the chains moving back up, the TARDIS getting too close too quickly. She let go, pushing herself clear of the Old Girl. 

It was risky. One was already overwhelmed by what he learned of his life yet to come. Bill hadn’t seen what happened to her when she died yet. Archie and Heather were new to everything. But there was little choice to the free fall, not unless she wanted to be stuck in the Chamber of the Dead.

Rose closed her eyes, bracing for impact.

She found herself landing with an “oof!” in her husband’s arms.

She opened her eyes, seeing him smiling down at her.

“Hello,” She grinned before leaning up and giving him a quick kiss on the lips. “Thanks for the catch.”

“Well, you’re usually a few minutes getting yourself back together. We really don’t have time for the whole song and dance,” he said with a grin as he set her on her feet.

“An’ here I thought you just wanted to keep me close,” She said as she got her footing and adjusted her jacket.

“Right, so, what do we do now?” Bill asked.

“Run,” The Doctor grinned.

“Where? They’ve got the TARDIS,” Bill gestured skyward.

“Yes, that’s exactly what they’re supposed to think.” The Doctor replied unhelpfully.

Rose rolled her eyes. “What he means is, where there’s a Doctor, there’s a TARDIS. An’ we happen to have two Doctors.”

Bill frowned a moment before her eyes went wide, and she beamed.

“Oh, that’s clever,” She said.

“I thought so,” The Doctor replied smugly.

One rolled his eyes before reaching into his pocket and pulling out an old TARDIS key. “Come on,” He said, beckoning them to follow him.

Chapter Text

Life with the Doctor meant questions. Soo many questions almost all of the time when they were together. And she had them. Like, why an old soldier was on the TARDIS, and how he got there. Who was the old bloke, though she was getting a sense this was another former him. How was it possible for the TARDIS to be physically moved, and how often did it happen? Was it why he kept it inside his office with an out-of-order sign on it?

But, admittedly, those questions had fled the moment she spotted those two-tone eyes and gorgeous smile peeking around the pair of strangers that had been focused on Rose.

Bill had found herself running to Heather before she realized what she was doing. It had her slowing down and trying to smoothly close the distance between them, but if Heather’s smile meant anything, it wasn’t as cool as she’d hoped.

“Hey,” Bill said, a touch over-eager. 

“Hi,” Heather replied, “been hoping to talk to you.”

“Yeah?” Bill perked up.

“Didn’t get much of a chance before, did I? Too sullen, too wrapped up in myself.”

Bill’s smile fell a bit as she cottoned on to what that might mean. Chamber of the Dead, and Heather….

“Right,” She said, dropping her gaze to the floor.

Heather gave her a gentle smack on her arm.

“Don’t be sad,” Heather said, smiling softly. “I’m more alive now than I ever was.”

“More alive… being dead?” Bill frowned, amused.

“I can’t explain it more than that,” Heather said, glancing away from Bill for a moment.

Bill followed her gaze, seeing the Doctors were heading up the stairs and the strangers were still trying to get Rose’s attention. She swore she heard the word ‘mum’ from Rose’s lips, but she was just quiet enough that Bill couldn’t be sure.

“Have you liked it? The traveling?” Heather asked, drawing Bill’s attention back to her.

“Yeah,” She said shyly. “I mean, not real fond of the whole ‘running for your life’ thing that’s happened, but yeah. Different worlds, different times. Been crazy but so, so good.”

“It’s amazing,” Heather agreed.

Bill wondered if she actually had an idea of all the places she had followed the TARDIS when they attempted to outrun her. If there was a part of her that had known what was happening. Bill hadn’t thought so at the time, but how else would she have any idea of what it was like?

“Part of me feels like I could do it forever,” Bill admitted. “Like, I’ve only been two a handful of places, but it’s been more than I ever thought I’d get, ya know? But I still… like, what am I gonna do when I’m older? Can’t keep going all over the universe, aging, then come back an’ not having anything to keep me going.”

“Who said you had to go back to your old life at all?” Heather asked with a smirk.

Bill wasn’t sure what to make of that, didn’t know what to say, and was saved in a way from giving an answer by the Doctor. She wasn’t sure what had happened, only the soldier was now outside the TARDIS, the word “accepted” had echoed through the chamber, and then they were moving.

She momentarily lost sight of Heather as she followed the Doctor’s instructions to jump. But by the time she landed in the snow, Heather was there, helping her to her feet, getting her standing, and seeing the Doctor catch Rose in his arms. 

After the Doctor gave them the plan, Bill turned to Heather and grinned. 

“Coming?” 

She nodded, smiling a sort of secret smile that Bill couldn’t decipher. 

They followed the Doctors and Rose through the cold, Bill regretting having never bothered with the parka just a few feet into their journey.

Rose paused, shrugging off her jacket and handing it to Bill.

“What about you?” She asked, gratefully taking the jacket and pulling it on.

“Can bear it,” Rose replied, her lip already quivering a touch. 

“Can you?” Bill asked, but Rose merely winked and rushed to catch up to her husband and… her husband. 

Yeah, that was a weird way to think of it.

“She’ll be alright,” Heather assured. 

“How can you be sure? Do you, like, know everyone who goes to the Chamber? You know when she gets there?”

“No,” Heather replied, shaking her head. “I just know Rose is special. Being what I am now, I’ve gotten to see more. I know there isn’t anything that will hurt her for long.” 

“Okay,” Bill said, trying to sort out that little tidbit and not really knowing how.

Thankfully, it wasn’t that long before the second TARDIS came into view.

“Why’s it smaller?” Bill asked. “Windows are all wrong.”

“Well, it’s bigger on the inside. Imagine trying to suck it in for a few thousand years,” The Doctor said, sounding a bit put out by the question. Or maybe he was worried, given how he had his arm around Rose, rubbing her arm like he was trying desperately to keep her warm.

The Other Doctor let them in, not with a snap but with a key which was weird. The Doctor practically shoved Rose inside on the heels of his Other self,  then waited for the soldier, Bill, and Heather, eying the latter suspiciously.

The inside of the TARDIS was so bloody different. There were hints of the same design, but instead of it being all like a posh kitchen, it reminded Bill more of a hospital, which was funny since he called himself the Doctor.

“I tell you what,” the Soldier said, looking around in amazement, “these police boxes. They’re ever so good, aren’t they?”

“Y-you don’t n-know the ha-half of it, mate,” Rose said through chattering teeth and blue lips before the Other Doctor started to send the TARDIS into flight. 

They all stumbled a bit, but Heather stabilized Bill before she could fall. 

“The navigation systems don’t function properly,” The Other Doctor informed them after a bit. “I’m unable to program our flight with any accuracy.”

“We don’t need accuracy yet,” The Doctor said as he pulled out a pair of sunglasses and placed them on his face.

“Not those again, I forbid it!” The Other Doctor protested as the one Bill knew made his way over to a television screen.

He tapped the frames, and an image of a glass woman appeared on it.

“There you go, I was right. Asymmetrical,” The Doctor said as he gestured at the woman’s face.

“I said that,” Other Doctor protested, grabbing the lapels of his jacket. 

“Same difference,” The Doctor shrugged before taking off his sunglasses and putting them on the Other Doctor’s face. “If her face was based on a human original, perhaps identifying who that was will tell us what we need to know about Testimony.”

“You re-really think?” Rose asked, earning the attention of both Doctors and the Soldier.

“Why aren’t you warm yet?” The Doctor asked, concern marring his face as he went to her side.

“Probably because she’s of a delicate constitution, as all ladies are prone to be,” The Other Doctor said in a haughty way that had the Doctor look at him like he had three heads.

“He’s you,” Bill reminded him. 

“He’s an idiot,” the Doctor quipped back before returning his focus to Rose.

“Go-n-na take me a b-it. Didn’t, umm…,” Rose waved her hand, looking pointedly at the Doctor. “Wasn’t cl-ose enough.”

“Well, when we get to our destination, you’re staying in here. Last thing we need is to explain that to the whole lot,” The Doctor said before we went to the console.

“Explain what?” The Other Doctor asked as he removed the sunglasses and set them on the console. “And what do you think you’re doing?”

“I think,” The Doctor said, “I want to see if we can match her face to a known human. But the TARDIS data bank is too small, there’s hardly anything in it yet,” He said, glancing at the center of it. “You’re young. You’ll get there,” he said to it before turning to his predecessor again. “We need a bigger database.”

He did a few things, most of which Bill couldn’t have followed if she tried. She turned to comment to Heather only to find Heather watching her with a smirk like she knew something Bill didn’t. Couldn’t imagine what, of course, but it did funny things to Bill’s heart and she had to look away. Still couldn’t help but grin, though.

“So basically, we’re trying to track the Glass Lady, yes?” The soldier asked.

“Something like th-at yeah,” Rose replied, her coloring looking less blue and more pink. Which, well, that was a bit quick, wasn’t it? She was in proper hypothermia mode, likely. Might have even had frostbite, but she seemed to be recovering quite quickly. Not as fast as the Doctor seemed to think she should, but fast enough that it was evident that she really was more than human.

“A striking-looking creature,” the soldier commented, gaze still on the image of the Glass Lady on the screen. “Quite beautiful, really, isn’t she?”

“Yeah, if you like ladies made of glass,” Bill agreed.

“Well, aren’t all ladies made of glass in a way?” The Other Doctor said, causing the soldier to laugh with him.

“Mate, you’re more breakable than I am,” Rose said. 

“Oh, my dear, I don’t think so,” The Other Doctor smiled condescendingly. “No, I think it is quite evident that is not true, given the state you arrived here in and how I myself could survive it. What with my-“

“Superior biology?” Rose interrupted, quirking a brow. “Yeah, bit of a spoiler alert, seen you get taken out by a sneeze.”

“In fairness, it was a really big sneeze,” The Doctor offered.

“Well, my dear,” The Other Doctor carried on, ignoring the comment from the Doctor. He tilted his head a bit to look at Rose as he gently said, “I hope it doesn’t offend you to know, given what you apparently are to me, that I had previous experience with the, er, fairer sex.”

Rose smiled wickedly, “So have I.”

“Me too,” Bill added as The Other Doctor and the Soldier already started to look utterly flabbergasted.

“Good lord,” the Soldier said, making Heather snicker.

She hadn’t said much, Bill realized. Mostly she just stayed quiet and watched everything. Bill glanced over to see Heather was watching her, a little smirk on her face, fond as ever.

There was a familiar clunk, one that Bill knew meant the TARDIS had come to a stop. She looked away from Heather, up to the ceiling as if it would tell her where they were, then looked at the Doctor who was still at the controls.

“Where are we?” She asked as the Other Doctor turned his attention to something on the controls.

“The only place I could think of that may possibly have any information on Testimony. There’s just one little problem,” the Doctor said as he pressed a couple more buttons.

“Which is?” Bill asked.

“It might kill me,” the Doctor replied without hesitation.

“Where are we?” Rose asked, hobbling a bit as she went to stand at the Other Doctor’s side.

“We are in the year five billion fourteen,” he said, sounding quite surprised. He looked to the Doctor and asked, “Did you mean to take us here?”

“I did,” the Doctor replied.

“To the Library?” The Other Doctor asked again.

“Yes.”

“You steered it perfectly.”

“Well, it does happen now and again.”

Rose took a breath, then started for the wall, which Bill realized belatedly was the doors camouflaged into the room of the ship.

“Where are you going?” The Doctor asked.

Rose paused, turning slowly.

“I’m gonna go out there and see if it’s safe,” She told the Doctor like he was a bit slow.

“I’m running a scan now. You don’t need to do that,” He replied calmly, evenly.

“And if it says they’re still out there?” Rose retorted, crossing her arms.

“If what’s still out there?” Bill asked.

“You’d still go out anyway, wouldn’t ya?” Rose asked the Doctor, ignoring Bill’s question.

“It’s the only place I know that could have the database,” the Doctor told Rose apologetically.

“Yeah, and which one of us would actually survive ?” She asked pointedly.

“Survive what?” Bill asked again.

“Vashta Narada,” He said. It took a second - and the Other Doctor’s eyes going wide - for Bill to realize he was answering her.

“I say!” The Other Doctor said, “No one would survive an encounter with them.”

“I have,” Rose said. “Can again.”

The Doctor looked pained, but after a beat of silence, Rose turned and started walking out the doors, and he didn’t stop her.

“You’re going to let her go out there?” The Other Doctor demanded.

“She’s not wrong,” The Doctor replied before something beeped, getting his attention. He barely looked at the screen before he was penguin running after Rose.

The Other Doctor sighed, then looked at Bill.

“Stay here, the pair of you. And you, sir. Best you not allow our Glass Lady the opportunity to find you.”

“Yes, sir,” The soldier said, going ramrod straight like he was about to salute before he caught himself.

The Other Doctor nodded, then left the TARDIS as well, though at a much more sedate pace.

Bill shuffled awkwardly when the doors closed.

“Forgive me, ladies,” The soldier said, rubbing at his head. “I feel like perhaps I should have a bit of a rest while we wait to find out what they find.”

“No problem,” Bill shrugged, managing to return the awkward smile the soldier gave them before he stumbled over to a cushy-looking seat that Bill wasn’t sure she had noticed before.

Heather stepped away, looking up at the ceiling and then down at Bill with a smile.

“So,” She said.

“So,” Bill repeated, smiling.

“What’s your favorite color?” Heather asked. “I never did find out.”

“Purple,” Bill replied. “What’s yours?”

“Green,” Heather replied, and the pair of them burst into giggles before exchanging little bits of information, the soldier’s soft snores, the white noise over which they got to know each other in ways Bill hadn’t been able to before.

~DW~

It may not have been a close thing, but the cold had done a number on Rose. Enough that even though she had technically gotten a head start, she hadn’t made it far from the TARDIS before the Doctor raced out past her. Far enough for her to step into a shadow and not get eaten alive, so at least she knew he wasn’t about to be an idiot.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” One asked as he came up beside her.

“Yeah,” she replied with a smile, “just been a bit since I’ve been through something like that, is all. Takes a bit outta ya, you know? But Bill, she wouldn’t have survived.”

After a few more steps, One said, “You are not a Time Lord.”

“I am not,” Rose replied.

“And yet, you and I have been married for a long time,” He stated. “Too long for a human.”

“Yeah,” Rose agreed.

They took a couple more steps before he said, “I can tell you are a modern woman, at least in so far as the standards of Earth when I was allowing Susan to attend school there. I’m a bit old-fashioned, I suppose, in comparison.”

“It’s a long time between the youngest you I met and this you,” She said as diplomatically as she could. “Always told me that you were different.”

“Part of me finds it difficult to believe I have grown so fond of humans as to marry one. To change one.”

Rose snorted, “Didn’t change me, I changed me.”

“I don’t know how that would be possible.”

“Let’s just say that the TARDIS and I have a special relationship,” Rose replied, turning just enough to catch One’s baffled gaze. She snickered, “Guessing she’s not as talkative for you at the mo’.”

“No,” He replied evenly.

“She will be. She stole you and ran away, she’ll start chatting soon.” 

One looked doubtful but didn’t voice it.

They continued heading through the library, the silence so loud that it was unsettling. 

“Been years since we’ve been here,” Rose commented, looking around. “Last time, we lost friends for a bit. Met our… well, we met someone important to us for the first time, but she had known us her whole life.”

One hummed, nodding.

Without a word, he extended his elbow toward her, all while still holding his lapels. Rose was baffled at first but then cottoned on that he was probably trying to be a gentleman. She looped her hand around the crux of his elbow, allowing him half guide her to where the faint sound of keys clicked ahead.

As they rounded the corner, she could see the Doctor at the main information station, typing away. He glanced at them over his shoulder, not pausing what he was doing.

“I disabled the courtesy nodes,” he said before turning back to the screen. “Didn’t know who would come up or what the state of their face would be.”

“Good call,” Rose said as she let go of One and went to the Doctor’s side, looking up at the screen and seeing he was running a scan for Testimony. “All this time up ahead of us, and you’re just startin’ now?”

“Well, I had to talk to CAL again, explain why we were back. Make sure the Library was, in fact, still receiving new information. Promised we would remove the warning to stay clear now that the Vashta Narada have died off.”

“And they absolutely are?” Rose asked.

“Nothing new to feed on. Hasn’t been for centuries,” He replied before a beep got their attention. 

They both turned back to the screen as the Doctor loaded the information that the search result yielded.

“Professor Helen Clay, University of New Earth, year… five billion and twelve. That’s only a couple of years ago,” Rose pointed out. “Well, a couple of years ago from when we are now.”

“We’ve been living linear too long,” the Doctor commented as he clicked a few more keys and brought up a video.

“The Testimony Foundation,” Helen’s voice started, sounding exactly like it had inside the Chamber of the Dead, “combines the resources of time travel with the latest in memory extraction techniques. The near-dead can be lifted momentarily from their time streams, their memories duplicated, and then their physical selves returned to the moment of their dissolution without pain, distress, or any recall of the process. Now the dead can speak again. We can hear the testimony of the past, and - channeled through our glass avatars - they can walk among us again. This is Heaven on New Earth.”

The video ended, fading off.

Rose stared at the blank screen for a few seconds before turning to her husband, seeing him just as baffled as she was.

“It’s not an evil plan,” he said. “I don’t really know what to do when it isn’t an evil plan.”

“Think we just… let things play out,” Rose said uncertainly. “Should know, though. Archie? He’s, um, someone important.”

The Doctor looked at her expectantly.

“Captain Lethbridge-Stewart,” She filled him in, watching the understanding wash over him.

The Doctor blinked, then turned away from the desk, striding a few paces away.

He paused, tilting his head.

“You’re here, I know you are. I suspect you followed us from the moment we left. Traced us here and now.”

Rose frowned, then heard the telltale click of shoes. She turned to where the echoes originated from and watched as her mum came around the corner.

“Of course I followed you, stupid.”

“Can we please, please, not have this conversation with you like this?” He begged. 

Jackie smirked but then shifted and became Helen.

“I assume you would prefer if I looked like this, then?” She asked.

“It’s better, if only because you are the creator of Testimony,” The Doctor replied. “Why do it? Why collect the memories of people? Is it just humans, or is it everyone everywhere?”

“Testimony is but one of many institutions around the Universe that collect the memories of the dead. We focus on humans, or those who identify as human.”

“So you mean, if we wanted to, we could call up bloody Cassandra?” Rose asked, and Helen chuckled quietly.

“Not in the way you knew her, but yes. Cassandra O’Brian is part of Testimony. As are your parents. We were able to collect their memories from their last moments on Earth in this Universe.

“We do it because that is all any of us are: a collection of memories. We can all continue on in some form or another. People come from all over to ask questions, to know what life was like for those in the past, at different historical points of the human race. And, in some cases, allow people to know family long gone.”

“So you know, then,” the Doctor said, “you know if our dear Captain, if he-“

“There was a timeline error,” Helen conceded. “After you ran, it was further investigated. Someone, somewhere along the time line removed someone who shouldn’t have been. The ripple caused us to be too early in extracting his testimony.”

“Removed from the time line?” One said, stepping away and inching toward where the Doctor and Helen spoke. “No, no. My dear, I’m afraid that’s impossible. See, that sort of disruption would be corrected before such ripples exist. The Time Lords would put things to right.” 

Rose chewed her lip as she watched her husband look at his predecessor with sympathy.

“I’d forgotten how loyal you still were to them, even if you did run away. How you still believed the rote they fed you in the Academy. Think of what you were sent to do. Think of what errors you’ve already corrected. There are going to be so many more of them to come, you have no idea. And that’s not including the big one.”

He then turned to Helen.

“We can put Captain Lethbridge-Stewart back to where he was supposed to go. And you can extract his memories when you were supposed to.”

“Agreed,” Helen said with a nod. “And we will be there, with you, to ensure that he doesn’t remember any of it and does not see you when time resumes.”

~DW~

Bill realized after the Doctor’s returned that time with Heather was likely running out. 

They’d woken up the soldier, informing him that they were, in fact, going to have to bring him back to where he was before the whole mess started. But first, they were going to go back to the Chamber of the Dead, where the Doctor’s TARDIS was, so they could part ways with his younger self.

No evil plot, no evil anything. Just the biggest archive of all time filled with real human lives who had a bit of an accident doing their job.

“Seems we never have enough time,” Bill said to Heather as they traveled through the Vortex.

Heather smiled, “Not yet,” She said, giving Bill’s hand a squeeze.  

She narrowed her eyes at Heather with a grin, trying to figure out what that was supposed to even mean.

“Suppose, if you’re part of Testimony, and Testimony actually does gather all our memories… gonna see you again eventually.”

Heather nodded, but there was something about the look in her eye that had Bill thinking that wasn’t what she had meant at all.

“So, I was thinking of finding my own place,” Bill said for something to fill the silence between them. “Thoughts?”

“I think you should,” Heather said. “Do all the things you want to do, Bill. A human life is so short, don’t waste it longing.”

She tilted her head. “Longing for what?” She asked Heather.

Heather smirked, “Everything.”

“We’ve landed,” The Other Doctor said, turning to the Doctor. “I don’t understand how you can steer the ship so well.”

“You don’t steer the TARDIS. You negotiate,” He repeated the same thing he’d once said to Bill to his younger self. “Eventually, you’ll work things out. She’ll take you where you need to go, and sometimes you’ll get to go where you want.”

The Other Doctor frowned but nodded slowly. He glanced at Rose. “I suppose I’ll be seeing you.”

“You get a bit before we get there,” She said. “Got a few more loves to go before you find me.”

The Other Doctor scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Love. Such a human emotion.”

“You’re not above it,” The Doctor said, giving his younger self a side-eye. “You never have been, you never will be. It will just take some time for you to see that,” He turned away, heading for the doors. “Come along, Archie,” He said, beckoning the soldier to follow.

The soldier stood up, straightening the top of his uniform before looking at the Other Doctor. 

“I thank you for your assistance, sir. And the Brandy.”

“Good luck, sir.” Other Doctor said.

Bill nudged Heather, not really wanting to see what sort of farewell Rose would give a different version of her husband.

The contrast between the darkness of the Chamber of Death and the TARDIS they’d just been in was drastic, and it took a moment for Bill’s eyes to adjust. When she finally managed to focus, she found Heather and smiled sadly.

“Suppose this is where we part ways,” She said with a tiny shrug.

“It doesn’t have to be,” Heather offered.

“You’re just memories, though,” Bill argued softly. “Memories that might know me a bit more now, but you’re not… you’re not proper Heather. And what if… what if someone who knows her sees you, yeah? She’s supposed to be a missing person now. Might make things messy if you’re seen mucking about Bristol.”

“We don’t have to stay in Bristol. We don’t have to stay anywhere.” Heather countered.

“I mean, traveling about is nice, but,” Bill shrugged again. “Wanna have some times not on the TARDIS, ya know?”

Heather chuckled quietly, the joke going over Bill’s head entirely. 

“You sure, then? Not quite ready to leave it behind?” Heather asked.

Bill didn’t understand. Leave what behind? Bristol? She was, but she wasn’t. And she got those moments of escape when she went somewhere with the Doctor and Rose.

“Yeah, not ready,” She said, not sure how else to word everything.

Heather close the gap between them, kissing the apple of Bill’s cheek. The proximity, the tender gesture, had Bill closing her eyes, her breath caught in her chest.

“I’ll be there when you are,” Heather said quietly.

When Bill opened her eyes, she was gone. No trace of her, not even a glass avatar in her place. But there was a wet spot on her cheek, and when she brushed it away, she realized it was a tear.

But she wasn’t crying. She never seems to be crying when tears suddenly find themselves on her cheek. In fact, at least once, it had actually been…. Rubbing the droplet on her fingers with her thumb, Bill turned about, trying to spot some sign of Heather and finding none. 

Rose stepped out of the too-small TARDIS, turning to watch it disappear while brushing her hair behind her ear as a breeze kicked up around them. Bill came up beside her, nudging Rose with her elbow as the last flashes of the time ship disappeared.

“That gonna change things? Him knowing you this long?” She asked.

Rose shook her head before turning to Bill.

“He’ll forget. Memories will probably catch up to him now, but he’s gotta forget when he crosses his own timeline. But that him? More stubborn than any version I’ve met.”

“How many of him have you met?” Bill asked. “Know he said something about eighth, and he’s the twelfth.”

“I’ve met, including that one, seven of ‘em,” Rose replied. 

“Ladies?” The Doctor said, pulling their attention to where he was sticking his head out of the TARDIS.

“’Mon, let’s not keep him waitin’,” Rose said, taking Bill’s hand and leading her to the TARDIS.

It occurred to Bill as they took off to the moment Archie was supposed to have been taking from that neither Rose nor the Doctor asked about Heather. And then Bill spent probably a hair too long debating if she should mention the tear that wasn’t hers.

In the end, she decided not to. Better they assume that Heather was part of Testimony because the alternative made Bill’s head spin. She didn’t need them poking at the possibility that Heather hadn’t died so much as change.

Bill smiled to herself when she realized it meant that Heather got her wish, that she got to leave and keep moving. 

It was a nice thought.

~DW~

Rose stood by her husband as they watched Archie return to the moment he was accidentally plucked from. In a crater between the two sides of the war, opposite a German soldier with a gun pointed to where Archie would settle in.

Helen, in glass form, watched with them. Once Archie was back where he was supposed to be, time resumed, and Rose braced for a gunshot that didn’t come.

“Christmas 1914,” The Doctor said, voice heavy with joy. “I noticed when you gave me the coordinates. The human miracle: the Christmas Armistice.”

Archie’s voice shouted for a Doctor, declaring there was a wounded man as he stood up in the crater.

“It never happened again, any war, anywhere,” The Doctor added.

“He won’t make it out, but I know you know that,” Helen said. 

“Yes, but it was too soon,” The Doctor looked to Helen on the other side of Rose. “Do you know who caused the ripple effect?”

Helen shook her head. 

“As far as we can tell, all things are as they are supposed to be.”

“Yes, but you thought at first you had plucked Archie from the moment of his death. You were off by a few months.”

“So we were,” Helen’s glass head turned to them. “Thank you for your assistance and understanding, Doctor. Rose.”

“Suppose we’ll see you again someday, yeah?” She said, trying for a bit of levity to match the joy taking place around them.

Helen’s face being featureless made it impossible to express emotions, and yet Rose got the sense that Helen was looking at her rather sadly. At them both, actually.

“Perhaps we will,” She said in a way that made Rose doubt it, and then she was gone.

“What do you suppose that meant?” She asked her husband as they turned to head back to the TARDIS.

“I think, perhaps, we or I took a Lethbridge-Stewart for a bit of a ride at the wrong time.” He replied.

“No, I mean,” Rose paused, then shook her head. Probably was imagining it, the melancholy at the idea of them joining Testimony. Maybe it was actually the fact that neither of them were human, a fact Rose frequently forgot.

“I remember,” He said as they stopped outside the TARDIS doors. “You’re goodbye for now, I remember. You kissed my cheek, used my name, and told me to be good, be kinder. I didn’t remember, but I think it stuck with me, just took a while to really sink in what it meant.”

Rose grinned, stepping closer to the Doctor and putting her arms around his neck.

“You ever go back to being like that again, I’m gonna smack you. No reason to be an arse, yeah?”

“Language like that’ll earn you a-“

“Don’t!” She interrupted, hearing what he was going to say through their bond and giggling as he chuckled. 

“I wasn’t instantly smitten with you like I always had been. But you certainly left an impression.”

“Well, all I can ask, isn’t it?” She said before giving him a quick kiss. “Should probably be getting Bill to that beach now, though.”

“Yes, we should,” The Doctor agreed, taking Rose’s hand and leading her back to the TARDIS. 

She could sense through the bond that he felt unsettled, vaguely remembering something else happening between his first self leaving them and actually regenerating. But he also didn’t seem worried, so Rose didn’t prod, just sent love and reassurance his way as they returned to their home, leaving the great-grandfather of their friend to his once-in-a-lifetime Christmas.

Chapter Text

Something was wrong, something was pressing on his mind, but he couldn’t figure out what it was.

“It’s timelines,” He told Missy as he paced around the vault, trying to talk this through with another time lord. Rose, no matter how much he loved her, no matter how much she changed herself to be more like him, she would never truly get it. The same could be said for Jenny, for Olivia, for Susan. Though the last one felt out of place, like if he tried to turn to her, the TARDIS would get turned around.

“What about them?” Missy asked, sounding bored.

“They’re wrong. There’s a wrongness to them, yet I can’t look too closely or they blank out.” He replied, pausing to face her. “I can’t figure out why I remember Amy Pond missing, yet know for damn sure she never was. Not in the way it seems she should have been. I know Susan was on Gallifrey in order for my eighth self and for Rose to have gone to her, and yet I remember her being taken from her flat in London before the thick of the war. The grandfather of a dear friend is pulled from his timeline because of a ripple down the line, yet I don’t recall anything ever happening to him, or his daughter for that matter.”

“Did it ever occur to you that you can’t look because you’re part of events?” Missy asked as though he were stupid.

And he was stupid because that is the obvious reason why he can’t look at the timelines. And yet, Susan was the closest he was to any of them being ripped away. 

“Can Rosie Posie look at them? See what might be there?”

“Rose doesn’t have the ability.”

“I could,” Missy offered, but the Doctor merely glared at her. 

Much as he wanted to tell her to go ahead, he admittedly wouldn’t trust what she had to say. Missy had come a long way, helped Olivia, and went back to the vault without an argument. Missy had changed, but old habits died hard for both of them, and this wasn’t something he could really risk Missy lying to him about. Not if he hoped to figure it out sooner than later.

“Where is she, anyway? Feel like I haven’t seen her in an age,” Missy asked with a pout.

The Doctor rolled his eyes.

“She was here yesterday,” He replied.

“Well, that doesn’t answer my question, does it?” Missy countered as he went and took a seat beside her.

“She’s helping Bill move house.”

~DW~

It felt like ages since she’d flown the TARDIS by herself. It hadn’t been, but there was always a bit of a thrill to it, even after all these years. And this was the first time in a long time that she was flying it away from the Doctor and not to one of their family. Even the TARDIS felt a bit giddy in her mind, happily wrapping herself around the boxes Bill had stacked in her room.

When they were fully materialized, Rose opened the door and greeted Bill with a grin.

“Got everything?” She asked.

Bill beamed back, “Yeah. Know it’s not much.”

Rose scoffed and waved her hand as if batting the thought away, “All I took with me when I left my mum’s for good was a backpack and a duffle bag. Don’t always need a lot, yeah?”

“Suppose,” Bill agreed. “Thanks for helping.”

“It’s a pleasure,” Rose said as she stepped back and made way for Bill to come aboard.

“You know, you should hire this out. Like a removal service,” Bill suggested as she closed the door, and Rose returned to the console to prepare the TARDIS. 

“Think the Doctor would have something to say about that,” Rose said as she began to make adjustments. “Probably something about advanced technology and whatnot. Honestly, he probably would just feel a bit miffed he hadn’t thought of it himself, what with all the mates we’ve helped move house over the years.”

“So this is common, then?” Bill asked.

“Not as common as you’re thinkin’, but often enough, he’d still get pretty huffy. So, where we off to, then?” She asked.

Bill gave her the postcode, and Rose set it in the coordinates. 

“This gonna set us in your room?” Rose asked as she flipped the switch. “Or are we gonna be carrying the boxes inside?”

“Um,” Bill shifted. “I, uh, well, I want to make a good impression, yeah? It’d be weird if I ended up inside the house without going through the front door. Plus, I dunno which one my room is, yet.”

“Makes sense, then,” Rose replied as the TARDIS landed with a dull thud. She then turned to Bill’s stack of boxes, sizing them up. “I can probably carry more out there than normal, but if normal’s what I’m guessing you're going for.”

“Couple at a time sounds good, yeah,” Bill agreed with a nose scrunch. 

Rose laughed as she grabbed a couple of boxes - books, by the feel of it,” and turned to the TARDIS doors. The Old Girl helpfully opened them for her, and she stepped out and cleared the threshold before coming to a standstill.

The house was massive. Older, for sure, bloody gorgeous and, from a quick glance around the neighborhood, in a place that would’ve had Jackie going on about airs and graces. But there was also something really eerie and off about it. 

“This is the place you’re renting?” Rose asked as she sensed Bill coming up beside her.

“Well, I mean, sharing. Yeah, there’s six of us renting.”

“An’ you lot all work, too?” 

“No. I mean, I don’t think. My mate Shireen rounded up a mate of hers, and then they found a mate, and here we are. So, yeah. Rent’s, like, super cheap.”

“Why?” Rose asked, turning to Bill, who looked taken aback.

“Why what?”

“Why’s the rent so cheap? I grew up on the estates in London, I know what it looks like to rent cheap. This is not that.”

“Yeah,” Bill agreed hesitantly, “I was like, ‘what’s the catch’ but actually, it’s fine. Just a bit drafty.”

“Drafty?” Rose frowned.

It was nearing mid-spring, which wasn’t precisely warm, but it was certainly warming up. And if she recalled, the weather lately hadn’t actually given much wind. Or rain. She looked up at the trees, seeing the leaves barely moving, and pursed her lips.

“Yeah,” Bill said with a shrug. “What do you mean ‘grew up on the estates’? Like, in the fifties, or?”

Rose turned back to Bill and grinned. “On paper, I’m only five years older than you are, yeah?”

“What, really?” Bill asked.

“1986 to your 1991,” Rose replied with a cheeky grin. 

“Bloody hell, that’s awesome,” Bill said giddily as they began to make their way up the walkway. 

Rose could tell that there were likely going to be a lot of questions for her when they got the chance, but a shorter girl appeared in the hallway just as Bill and Rose were stepping into the house, halting them.

“Hey, where have you been?” She greeted Bill excitedly. “I thought - oh. Hi. I’ve seen you around the university.” The last bit she said to Rose, though she flashed a sly grin Bill’s way.

“’M Rose. Would give ya a shake, but,” She tilted her head toward the boxes in her hand. Boxes she could technically hold in one hand if she wanted, but thought it best not to do that in present company.

“Right, you should go pick a room,” The girl said, stepping out of their way.

“Yeah,” Bill agreed, then stepped ahead, leading Rose upstairs. 

There was something about the way the floorboards seemed to creak that didn’t feel natural. Like they were out of sync with how their feet fell, she strained to listen but couldn’t discern anything else though she still felt like there was something or someone watching them.

She kept quiet while Bill glanced in the empty rooms, finding one she seemed to like, and dropped her boxes on the bed.

Rose set hers down on the floor, taking in the sparsely furnished room.

“Came with all this, did it?” Rose asked, glancing about as if something was going to come out of the corner.

“Yeah,” Bill said, sounding suspicious. 

Rose looked out the window in the back garden that was empty. 

“Remember seeing any statues or anything when you looked before?”

“Okay, what are you gettin’ at?” Bill asked.

Rose turned to her, seeing the hint of worry in Bill’s features despite how much she seemed to want to look annoyed. 

“Sorry,” Rose sighed. “Guess it’s just me being cynical. Can’t see something like this and not get suspicious, yeah? Seen too much.”

“But you’re only thirty-two,” Bill retorted cheekily. “How much could you have possibly seen?”

“Right, yeah, that’s how old I am,” Rose smirked. “Well, how about we get the rest of the boxes up here, then?”

Bill grinned, nodded once, and let the subject drop. 

Rose couldn’t, though. She listened and looked every time they passed through the house. Watched the roommates as she caught glimpses of them, looking for a hint of something off as they were all introduced to her. 

Nothing, at least not with them. Her mind kept telling her there was something more to the place than met the eye, and it wasn’t good.

“What’s with the tower bit? Who’s staying up there?” Rose asked curiously as they took the last of the boxes down the hall. 

“Think Paul wanted it,” Bill said absently.

“Say him coming outta a room downstairs,” Rose countered.

Bill paused, frowned, but ultimately shrugged. 

“Guess not, then. Old bloke we rented from did say it was unsafe.”

“Did he now?” Rose asked.

Bill tensed.

“There’s nothing going on,” She said adamantly. “Not sure what you’re thinking-“

“Not thinking anything in particular,” Rose assured. “Just, ya know, might have a glance about, yeah? For my own peace of mind.”

Bill glared but relented, and Rose turned and headed out the room and downstairs. She glanced around, making sure none of the roommates were paying attention to her as she crept about.

As far as Rose could see, there was no basement, which meant that if there was a washing machine it was probably in the kitchen. Maybe a room off the main living area, but Rose couldn’t find either, which was really odd for a house this size in this neighborhood in this century. She glanced about the kitchen, where she circled back to, taking in how retro it all was. 

No, not retro, old fashion. Far too old fashion for anyone to really be able to operate properly in the modern world. Hob was old, too old, and there didn’t seem to be a lot of outlets. The refrigerator was off, too. Barely something that could classify as a fridge. Nothing about this place seemed even slightly up to date, which shouldn’t be possible at all. There was no way that this lot was the only ones who rented the place out. And if they were, surely whoever owned the place knew they would ask for it to be updated. 

Something wasn’t right. All of this was wrong in ways Rose couldn’t put her finger on but knew in her gut it spelled trouble.

She made her way outside and looked around the house twice. There weren’t any signs of modern enhancements, renovations, or anything outside the original construction. 

There also wasn’t any wind, yet she could have sworn she heard the faint sound of creaks and groans from the house.

“Bloody hell,” She said. Rose tried to get the Doctor’s attention through their bond, but whatever he was up to, he didn’t want her eavesdropping. So she took her phone out of her pocket and dialed.

After a couple of rings, she heard Nardole say, “Hello!”

“Hey, Nardy,” She said with fond exasperation. “Listen, something’s off about this place Bill moved to. Gonna hang about here, see what’s goin’ on ‘round here.”

“Oh,” He said, a lilt of surprise. “Well, then.”

“Yeah, just let the Doctor know, alright? I got the TARDIS, so he’s not likely to run off on ya. And I know he’s with Missy, can feel him closed off.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Nardole replied cheerfully.

After he rang off, Rose huffed. She tapped her phone against the palm of her hand, pondering, heading back inside the house right away or giving Bill some space. She looked up at the sky, the hue of it changing from grey-blue to red. It would be dark soon. Never a good sign when something creepy is involved, and it was beginning to grow dark.

Also would be harder for her to find an excuse to stick around.

An idea hit her, and she immediately got back on her phone, glad that there was no such thing as a credit limit for them.

~*~

“Thanks again for the food,” Shireen said as the lot of them started settling in the lounge.

Rose smiled from where she sat in an armchair, one leg crossed over the other, foot bouncing as she clutched a container of Chinese takeout in her hand.

“No problem, really. Moving builds up an appetite, yeah?” 

Bill flashed Rose a suspicious glare, but it was laced with a grin. 

She had popped off in the TARDIS to go pick up the order she placed, returning just later enough that it could be believed she went to pick it up, waited, and returned.  Bill probably knew Rose hadn’t actually been gone long but had yet to corner her to call her out on it. 

“Yeah, I’ll say,” The bloke named Harry said as he snatched up another one of the cartoons before plopping down next to Bill on the second sofa. “So, you’re the Doctor’s wife?” He asked the others in the room, trying desperately hard not to look like they were listening.

“Yeah,” Rose replied. “Been married a while now.”

“But he’s so old,” the one named Felicity said. When Shireen smacked her, she shrugged, “Well, he is! Can’t imagine looking at someone old enough to be my grandpa and deciding that was the bloke for me.”

“Maybe he’s rich,” Paul joked.

“He’s the best man I ever knew,” Rose replied. “And we’re a lot closer in age than his looks make it seem.”

“Either you have a really great skincare routine, or he needs one,” Felicity commented, causing the others to laugh nervously. 

Except Bill, who winced and mouthed an apology to Rose.

Rose merely shrugged. Wouldn’t be the first time she had the comments thrown her way since his regeneration. Likely wouldn’t be the last, either, if this current regeneration lasted a long while.

They started chatting about other things, about who was dating who and who went where, and it reminded Rose that she wasn’t precisely wrong about her and the Doctor’s age gap. She was so much older than this lot, ancient. She really was closer in age to her husband than to them by a long shot, and it was so utterly stark in that moment it made her chest ache.

In some ways, she never got to be this age. Not properly, anyway. By the time she had been in her late twenties, she had already lost her mum to void, became a mum herself, learned she would live as long as the Doctor had, and had abandoned a proper human life for nearly a decade.

She never got to share a flat with her mates  - just a shitty boyfriend - or got to go to University. Maybe she never would have, but the chance had long past her by the time she was the age this lot were. 

But, she remembered, she also had her life far more together in a lot of ways. Knew who she was, what she wanted, and who she wanted to spend it with.

There was a crash of thunder, putting a pause to the conversation happening as everyone looked up at the ceiling with apprehension.

“There’s no reception,” Felicity said after a moment. “Hasn’t really been since we got here. Anyone notice?”

“Haven’t really had time to get on my phone,” Bill commented with a nervous chuckle.

Rose frowned, not having noticed one way or another if there was a lack of reception. She could take out her phone and check, but it wouldn’t be an indication of anything, what with the jiggary-poke she and the Doctor continued to use to keep her device’s universal coverage up to date.

“I get nervous when there’s no reception,” Felicity said, tapping more desperately at her screen. “Like something bad’s going to happen.

“Have to get a landline,” Shireen teased.

“Landline? What is this, Scotland?” Felicity scoffed back.

Shireen and Paul started teasing Felicity with the possibilities of what might happen in the house, all of them being plots of horror movies that seemed increasingly unlikely to anyone who had never experienced an encounter with aliens.

All the while, Rose was running over the various things she’d seen in the house in her mind. The possibilities for the tapping and groaning the others mentioned and attributing to any kind of monster that might be something more sinister.

It hit her, then, what she hadn’t seen once in her search of the house.

“Is there even a spot for a landline?” Rose asked, making everyone cease their tale-spinning. They turned to her with a frown. “Landline. Never saw a jack for one, which isn’t surprising because the outlets are outta date, too.”

“Thought it was just mine,” Shireen said, glancing at the rest of them while they nodded in agreement.

“Whole place needs an update, actually,” Rose continued. “Hob’s not modern, no heatin’ for the whole place. An’ I hope there’s a laundromat nearby, ‘cause there’s no washer here.”

They all looked at one another nervously.

“Rooms are really big, though,” Harry said apologetically.

“Exactly,” Paul agreed. “It’s still the best place for the money. I’ll just call the landlord, sort it out.”

“You can’t. No reception,” Shireen reminded him.

“Okay, so I’ll go down the hill,” Paul said, getting to his feet, turning on the heel of his foot, and stopping short. “Oh, hi.”

Rose peered around him, watching as an older man in a brown suit entered the room.

Instantly she bristled. Something about him setting off every alarm bell in her head despite how utterly harmless he appeared.

“A gathering,” He said genially. “You’re all here. Except one.”

“Pavel’s upstairs,” Shireen told the man.

He scanned them again, eyes landing on Rose’s.

“And one in addition.”

“Here to help,” she replied, setting her mostly empty carton on the table and slowly getting to her feet. 

She stalked around the furniture, heading toward the man slowly. 

“’M Rose. My husband tutors Bill there. She’s like family to us, see, and we wanted to make sure she was alright.”

“Is she?” The man said. “It’s hard to part with family, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Rose said carefully, studying the bloke.

He seemed squirrelly like he wanted her gone and far from the house but, at the same time, wasn’t opposed to her being there. “Have a couple daughters,” She said, seeing how he would react. “Hate leaving them when I gotta.”

“Yes,” He said. “I have a daughter as well. I’m most fortunate she’s still under my protection. So long as that’s the case, I’m most content.” He ducked his head a moment as if to realign himself, then turned to the others. “So, I was calling to see if everything’s satisfactory.”

The renters all listed the out-of-date things Rose had pointed out, as well as the things they had complaints about themselves.

The man, the landlord Rose now knew, didn’t seem to be hearing any of it despite his genial smile.

“Have you got a cat?” Bill asked.

A beat of silence followed the question.

“A cat?” The landlord asked.

“Er, yeah. Harry said that he heard some noises? Upstairs? Like, walking around?”

“No cats. No pets,” The landlord replied, a bit snippy. He smiled again, still a veneer that Rose couldn’t help but want to smack off. “You understand I won’t be able to do any of this tonight, but as soon as possible, yes. Knock on wood.” He said before doing just that. The wall creaked unnaturally. “Do what I can.”

“That’s another thing. This house is really creaky,” Shireen said. “Everything you touch, it’s like urrrr,” She growled, earning some nervous chuckles. 

“It’s unavoidable, my dear,” the landlord said.

“How do you get into the tower?” Harry asked.

“You don’t,” The landlord flashed his eyes angrily at Harry. “The tower is specifically excluded from the terms of our agreement.”

“Oh, right, well. Thank you. No tower. Got it,” Harry said haltingly, shrinking back.

The landlord glanced at Rose but didn’t hold her eye as he asked, “Are you staying here tonight?”

“Yeah,” She said without hesitation, no room for argument in her tone. “Bunch o’ kids moving stuff. Gotta make sure nothing happens to ‘em.”

“Kids?” Paul said quietly to someone. Rose didn’t see who as she stared down the landlord.

“Right. Well,” he said before pulling out a tuning fork and tapping it against a panel. He held it there until it hummed, then pulled it away with a smile. “I’ll attend to your requirements in the morning. In the meantime, sleep well.”

Rose watched as he slinked past her, out of the room toward the entrance.

“Rose,” Bill said after he left, coming up to her and pulling her off to the side. She looked out at the others, then turned to her and quietly asked, “What’s going on?”

“Something’s not right. I know, know you don’t wanna believe me. But I got instincts about these sorta things, and he’s making me want to rip him apart,” she said with a tilt of her head to where the landlord left. “The house shouldn’t be creakin’ the way it is. Early, when it had? No wind. None. Looked all around this place, and it hasn’t had any modifications since it was built, an’ that was probably in the thirties.”

Bill huffed, clearly warring with herself, and Rose couldn’t blame her. The place was probably the best they could get, and Rose could only imagine how desperately Bill wanted independence after so long with her foster mum. 

“Before you try and talk your way outta it, ‘cause I know you want to, I’m gonna go outside and check things out with the TARDIS. Get the feelin’ now that ol’ man creepy has been here. Things might show if I do a scan.”

Bill narrowed her eyes but sighed, nodding.

“And maybe, while I do that, you should check on the roommate everyone says just locks ‘imself in his room. ‘Cause I dunno about you, but there’s no song I love enough to have play on repeat for nearly twelve hours.”

Bill frowned.

“Has it been that long?”

“Paul said early he and Pavel showed up the same time. Hadn’t seen him since. Whole time I’ve been here, it’s been the same song,” Rose pointed out.

“Hey, let’s get a selfie before Shireen packs it in. Bill, come on,” Felicity called Paul with his long arms already taking a photo with Bill and Rose likely in the background. 

“Yeah, fine,” Bill said, relenting. “I’ll check.”

Rose squeezed her arm, stepping back and heading for the entryway. She heard others deciding to head up as well, the night coming to an end after all of them had spent the day lugging boxes and setting up.

She turned the corner, then stopped short when she saw the door.

Or, rather, where the doors should have been. Sealed shut, it was like it had never been there.

“Bloody hell,” She sighed before getting out her phone and ringing Nardole again.

“Hello!” He cheerfully answered.

“Get my husband,” She said flatly.

Nardole moved about on the other end of the line as Rose went back through the living room, smiling at Harry and Felicity as they seemed to decide not to retire just yet. She headed into the kitchen and started looking around, opening cupboards and various doors that she could, investigating what was inside. Lots of canned goods, lots with vintage-looking labels. Things her gram might’ve kept about when she was still alive. The sort of thing the older generation bought and held tight to because it was familiar.

On the phone, she heard a grumbled exchange between Nardole and the Doctor, then the phone changing hands.

“Rose?”

“Something’s wrong with the house,” She told him flatly, noting the controls hidden behind a curtain inside the pantry. “Can’t put my finger on what, but it’s raising my heckles, and the landlord seems to realize I’m dangerous.”

“What is it about the house?” The Doctor asked, Missy saying something indistinct in the background. 

As Rose located the gate for the service elevator turned pantry, she told the Doctor what she noted while she was there, up to and including the doors being sealed off.

As she finished speaking, the shutters on the kitchen window began to slam shut.

“What’s happening?” He asked her.

“House is sealing us in,” Rose said, watching as the seams of the shutters faded into nothing. A beat later, there was a scream, seeming to come from outside, sounding like Felicity. 

“Okay, Rose,” he said, “there’s probably something in the wood.”

“Ya think?” Rose retorted. “Figured that out with all the creakin’, but dunno what it could be. Never really encountered livin’ wood outside the trees on the space station our first date. But what’s the chance that this is the same thing?”

“Unlikely,” He agreed. “You said the landlord did something with a tuning fork?”

She frowned a moment before snickering. She then removed her Sonic from her pocket, giving it a little toss like his tenth self out, and pointed it at the nearest wooden panel.

“Clever girl,” Her husband said as the sound probably traveled over the phone.

Rose watched the panel as the creaking around her grew louder, almost believing it was quivering. Then it parted like a knot was forming in the wood, and a bug the size of a small mouse with a glowing antenna popped out.

“Infested with some sorta alien species,” Rose told him, describing the bug. “Ever seen one?”

“Sounds like a dryad,” The Doctor replied with a mix of caution and intrigue. “They’ll swarm prey, contain them, slowly devour them over months or years.”

“Great,” Rose huffed as she turned off the sonic. “So how do I….” She trailed off as she watched a bunch more start pouring out of the walls. “Yeah, Doctor? I gotta… I gotta go,” She said as she backed off into the lift. She slammed the gate closed as her husband started to protest, but there wasn’t anything to be done about it. She hung up, putting her phone on silent as she flipped the switch and headed down to the basement of the house.

The musty scent hit her as she descended, her eyes adjusting as the darkness fell over her. When it came to a stop, Rose opened the gate and stepped out into the room. She used her sonic to at least give her a bit of light until she found the switch, throwing it and lighting up the room. 

It wasn’t very big. There was a staircase off to the side, probably leading to another part of the house that was closed off or disguised as something else, explaining why she’d never found the basement before. There were tables, too, gathering dust, holding three boxes, all from different decades, all open but packed with things from bygone eras. 

Rose noted records in one, and a Polaroid camera in another. She went up to what looked like the oldest one, finding a crumbling lease on the top. She read off the names in her head, then noted the date was from the fifties. She set the lease down gently, then made her way to the next box. The lease was a bit buried in that one, tucked to the side out of sight. The photos were on top, drawing her eye and calling for her to look at.

As she crept over, a mental pounding came at her walls, startling her.

“ Not the time,” She told the Doctor.

“ Make time. Are you alright?”

“ Not dead yet,” Rose replied as she went over to the other box, rifling through it. 

A group photo of six people, various snaps from the night, a shot of when panic started to set in, then, after a couple, the bugs. Dryads, as the Doctor called them. Setting them down, she read the lease and found six names listed.

Six, a pattern there. She also noted it was about twenty years after the first. 

“ If I don’t hear from you in another hour, I’m finding a way to get to you. Be safe, ” He said firmly, a hint of fear mixing with his love.

“ Do my best ,” She sent back, closing off the bond as she looked at the out-of-date records.

Rose heard a creak on the stairs, more natural this time, but only slightly, but didn’t turn around. She didn’t need to to know who was there.

“So you lease the house every twenty years, presumably when the dryads need feeding again,” She stated. “Don’t gotta see the next box to know when it’s from.”

“They were all fine men and women,” the Landlord said behind her. 

“You’re helping the dryads,” Rose turned then, stance hardening as she coiled her muscles, ready for a fight. “Why?”

The landlord didn’t look at her. Instead, he diverted his gaze to a portrait propped up against the wall. 

“My daughter was dying. Nothing could be done until these creatures saved her,” he said as a pair of dryads moved across the painting. “We’d do anything to protect them.”

“’S not right,” Rose told him. “Get it, I do. But ya can’t keep killin’ people - other people’s children - to keep yours alive.”

“She must survive!” He snapped.

The swarm seemed to pop out of the tables, crawling over to Rose and covering her legs.

It made them feel numb, like pins and needles, and she gritted her teeth against it. But the dryads didn’t climb any further up her legs than mid-thigh, seeming to be unsure what to do with her limitless energy and her inability to properly die.

The landlord’s eyes went wide with fear, looking at where they stopped and then up to Rose’s glare.

They had a silent stare down as the old man didn’t seem to know what to do, likely having never faced or imagined such a scenario was possible. 

“Take it she’s in the house?” Rose asked, breaking the silence.

“She is,” He replied with a shaky voice. 

“Seen a lot in my long, endless life,” She said, making his eyes widen more. “You call these off, I can see if I can help her. If you don’t, you and I are gonna stay here, just like this, until one of us kicks it, an’ I get the feeling it’s not gonna be me who does.”

The man swallowed, looking down at the dryads who hadn’t moved higher at all, the lot of them seeming to get more agitated.

With a defeated sigh, the landlord took out his tuning fork, tapped it, then pressed it against the wood, letting it hum. The dryads crawled down her legs and sunk back into the wood around them.

Rose sighed, though she still hadn’t got full feeling back in her legs. She stumbled as she took a step but didn’t fall. 

“Lead the way,” She told him, following slowly behind, one step at a time, while her legs regained sensation.

As they made their way through the house, Rose noted the lack of anyone at all. Given the windows and doors all remained shut, she didn’t think they managed to escape. It was everything she could do not to let her fury get the best of her, maybe throw the man up against the wall, hold him by the throat until he made the dryads cough up Bill’s friends.

But she didn’t know if it was possible, and until they made it to wherever this daughter was - the tower, she was guessing - she was going to hope that Bill at least made an escape.

It was silent until they were partway up the stairs to the tower, not a peep or a creak to be heard until a voice echoed down.

“It’s upsetting,” She heard a woman say. “I understand. But father says we must survive.”

Rose followed the landlord into the room, her gaze landing first on a terrified but still living and safe Bill, then on a wooden woman.

“Eliza, do not fear this lady. She might be able to make you well.”

“Never said that,” Rose snapped. “Said I might be able to help her.” She looked again to Bill. “You alright?”

“Yeah,” Bill sniffed. “Yeah, I’m okay. Shireen….”

“The bugs?”

“Yeah.”

Rose nodded, then approached Eliza. She glanced her over before offering a gentle smile.

“Hello, ‘m Rose,” She said kindly. “You’re Eliza, yeah?”

The woman nodded.

“How old are you, Eliza?” 

She frowned, “I don’t… I don’t know.”

“This isn’t help, you’re distressing her,” The landlord growled.

“Oi, mate, shut it,” Rose snapped back, glaring back with all the animosity she felt toward him. He coward like a little boy, shrinking back from her. “You want me to help your daughter? You gotta let me ask questions.”

“Daughter?” Bill repeated, confused.

“Yeah,” Rose said, turning to Bill, softening her features. “The bugs, they’re keeping her alive. Probably have been since the thirties. Definitely since at least the fifties, that’s when the first lot of tenants came and likely eaten.”

Bill’s frown deepened.

“That’s, like, sixty years ago. At least,” She pointed out.

Rose frowned as well, looking back to Eliza, who looked like she’d cry if she could.

“Rose, he’s not wood. If he’s her father, and she was like this for sixty years….”

Rose turned to the landlord, who glared at Bill, reminding Rose of Melody and Olivia when they were small and didn’t get their way.

“Where’d you find the dryads?” Rose asked him. 

“Out in the garden,” he bit out. “I showed them to her.”

“And they, what? Why did they turn her into this?”

“She was sick,” He explained bitterly. “I left the bugs with her when I was shooed from the room. When I visited her the next day-“

“She was this. Or almost this,” She looked back at Eliza, the woman confused. She looked to the landlord, “But why? Why would they do this to her?”

The landlord glanced at Eliza, “She was ill. The doctors said she was dying, they didn’t think I knew.”

“You probably didn’t, not at the time, not until you had hindsight. But you never got to properly grow up, did you? Not if you had to keep her secret. Guessing that the dryads left you alone because they sensed the connection between you - seen something similar happen a long, long time ago. But the rest of the house - the servants, the doctors, all of them. They were consumed, weren’t they?”

“I don’t understand,” Eliza cried. 

“You’re his mother, Eliza,” Rose told her gently, a hand on her arm. “He’s your son, he was taking care of you the only way he knew how. He helped the dryads, the bugs, so they would keep you alive long past what you should be, illness or not.”

“If you could save the one who brought you into this world, wouldn’t you?” The landlord asked.

“No,” Rose said immediately. “An’ I can say that with absolute certainty because I’ve had the chance twice. At least not in a way that would keep her around like this, hidden from the world, keep her from getting hurt, yeah, absolutely. Let her live a long, human life. If it was possible, I would.  But this isn’t a human life. It’s not normal. An’ what’s gonna happen when you’re gone, huh? She’ll fade off.”

“No, no,” he denied, shaking his head as though he could shake the reality of it.

“I did what you told me because I thought you knew best,” Eliza said. “But I’m your mother?”

“Yes,” He said.

“And you, all these children, these children you’ve taken. You told me it was necessary, that we had no choice.”

“It was. It meant we could stay together. Don’t you understand?” He pleaded. “We were happy! I kept our lives a secret and a secret we must remain.”

“Not a life, though, is it?” Rose asked. “Not a real one, not a proper one.”

“You aren’t helping her, you’re only making things worse!” The landlord turned on her. “I will take your friend and then trap you here, and we will live!”

“You aren’t living, mate! Neither is she! Your mum woulda never wanted this for you, not ever. She’d have wanted you to take in life, not take lives, and certainly not for her sake. She’d have wanted you to see the world, whatever bit of it you could. She’d have wanted you to get out there, fall in love, see the beauty in things. Open the shutters, let some light in,”  Rose retorted, impassioned and angry all at once.

Eliza turned, and what Rose had thought were walls turned out to be shutters, which flew open to reveal the world outside, and the fireworks in the sky.

She felt a bit dumb, then, to not have realized the thunder couldn’t have been natural. Like the wind hadn’t existed to make the house creak, the forecast had been clear without a cloud in the sky for the afternoon, making way for the fireworks in the park Rose recalled being held this time every year.

“It’s the freshes’ party in the park,” Bill beamed. 

“I remember,” Eliza said as she gazed out the window before turning to the landlord. “My son, leave my side at last. Go see the world.”

“No,” he said in a childlike voice. “I don’t want to! I will finish them, and you will live!”

He took out his tuning rod, face scrunched up like a toddler about to throw a tantrum, but before he could tap it against something, Eliza’s hand shot out and grabbed his wrist. 

“John,” She scolded as the dryads ran down her arm and onto him. “My little boy, this has to end,” She said as she took him into her arms. 

“No, we mustn’t end. We have to destroy them. She could help us live forever.”

“No,” Eliza insisted gently, mournfully. “It’s our time.”

The dryads swarmed them both, crawling frantically all over them.

“No, I don’t want to,” he whimpered.

Eliza held him tighter, and the swarm covered them as Eliza said a quiet “thank you,” before they disappeared entirely.

The house gave a mighty rock.

“What’s happening?” Bill asked.

“Well, I reckon that Eliza’s telling the dryads their time is over, too,” Rose said as a hand started to emerge from the floorboards. “Is that Shireen?” She asked as she reached for the hand, pulling Bill’s mate from the wood. When she was completely resurfaced, she looked around in a panic but looking no worse for wear. She spotted Bill, the two of them grabbing each other in a hug.

“I thought you were gone,” Bill cried in relief.

“Are you okay?” Shireen asked. 

“Yeah, I’m fine,” She replied before looking at Rose. “What about the others?” 

“Let’s check on our way out, yeah? We gotta move,” She said, beckoning them with a tilt of her head before taking off at a run.

~*~

“Just this once, everybody lives,” Rose said as she got her and Bill back to the University. The others she made sure got to a hotel for the night, the collapsing of the house alerting the neighbors who called the fire department.

There was no smoke, no ash, just the wood parts deemed rotted away, and an investigation as to how the place wasn’t deemed uninhabitable started. Their stuff, at least, would be retrieved where it could be.

It was late, Bill looked exhausted, and yet instead of going to her TARDIS bedroom, she stayed in the console room, watching Rose from the jumpseat. 

“What did he mean?” She asked after they landed in the Doctor’s office. “Trap you? He said he would take me and trap you. Why?”

Rose tilted her head, smiling. “I don’t die. Not really, not permanently.”

“What do you mean?” Bill grinned.

“Mean,” Rose sighed, making her way around the console to plop down on the seat next to Bill. “Once upon a time,” She started, making Bill chuckle, “a girl met a madman with a blue box and fell desperately in love with him.”

“This a bedtime story? A little fairytale after the horror movie that was my life?”

“Yeah, sorta,” Rose mused. “Anyway, she fell in love with him despite the fact that he wasn’t human, and nearly a thousand years older than her, and often acted like he was better than her simply because she was human. But it wasn’t that, it’s because he loved her, too, but already lost so much and was scared to open up. They ran together through so many different times and places until one day, they ran into an old enemy of his. And because he loved her so very much, he sent her back home to live a life with her mum and her ex and prepared to die all alone in the future.

“But she wasn’t havin’ it, so she and the blue box did something mad and merged, turning the girl into a time goddess.”

Bill’s eyes widened, and she looked around the TARDIS.

“What, really?” 

“Mmhmm,” Rose nodded. “She became the Bad Wolf. She saw all that was, is, and would be. She saw, in that moment, that there was a chance she could lose the Doctor and said ‘no.’ She changed her destiny, and when she did, she linked her life with the madman’s, making it so he would never have to be alone again. ‘So long as he roams, so too shall the wolf.’ It didn’t matter what happened to her, she could die over and over again and always come back to him, and when the Doctor takes his last breath, she would as well, and they would die together.”

Bill’s breath left her in a rush as she looked around the TARDIS again.

“So he regenerates…?”

“And I die for a bit, yeah.”

“And, what if he didn’t regenerate?” Bill asked.

“He’s got another life left after this one,” Rose said. “But if someone were to try and kill ‘im while he was regenerating, that would be it. But I don’t die until after the change, so I can keep him safe while it happens.”

Bill shook her head. “So, you’ve died?”

“Yeah, lotsa times,” Rose told her. “The dryads, the bugs, they tried, but because nothing physically happens to my body when… I mean, if I get shot or stabbed, there’s an injury. But I’ve been through explosions and encountered flesh-eating monsters, and while I don’t regenerate, my body does. Like, it doesn’t lose matter.”

Bill’s eyes watered as she continued to look at Rose.

“It’s fine,” She assured. “Not the best feeling in the world, but ‘s a price I’m willing to pay.”

Bill nodded slowly, understanding seeming to come to her the longer she sat with the idea. 

“So, you woulda just been trapped there forever if Eliza hadn’t done whatever she did,” Bill asked, voice damp with unshed tears.

“Least until the Doctor showed,” Rose nodded. “Actually, only had about an hour before he found a way to get to us.”

Bill scoffed, “You don’t need him.”

“No, I don’t,” Rose agreed. “But it’s nice, having someone I know will always have my back. Speaking of,” She said, pushing against her knees as she got up, “the Doctor and I been here a long time. Summers we spend on the TARDIS, but it wouldn’t be unreasonable for us to have bought a house somewhere near the university. ‘Course, if we don’t live in it, we might as well rent it.”

Bill blinked before Rose’s words and their hidden meaning hit home.

“You’re joking?” Bill asked, getting to her feet in an instant.

Rose smirked. “I’d say give me a day or two, but I live in a time machine, so I’ll probably have a place for you tomorrow.”

“You’re the best,” Bill crowed before throwing her arms around Rose, holding her tight.

Rose returned the hug, rocking Bill side to side as she said, “Wouldn’t be the first friend we helped like this. Though I hope you know that your lot’s rent would magically find its way back into your bank accounts eventually.”

Bill threw her head back and laughed, and Rose chuckled along with her, the adrenaline in her system still going strong enough to make her gleeful.

When they parted, Bill held her by the shoulders.

“I’m gonna go enjoy that bed, and I’m not coming out until I’ve slept, like, twelve hours.”

“Have at her,” Rose said, waving her off.

Bill bounced on her toes a moment before turning and heading into the corridor. Rose watched her a moment before leaving the time ship, making her way through the empty university and down to the vault where she was sure her husband was still with Missy.

Sure enough, at her opening the vault doors, both of them turned to her with a hint of worry, then a rush of relief.

“Well, nice to know I was missed,” She teased before slowly heading to the Doctor, plopping down in his lap and half turned to face Missy. “A house that eats people. Been around a long time, and I can’t say I ever say that.”

“What about House who ate TARDISes,” The Doctor countered.

“Not the same, not even a lick,” Rose replied without missing a beat. “What about you?” She asked Missy.

“Well,” the time lady said, shifting in her seat and spinning a tale that reeked of lies but was entertaining.

Rose settled against the Doctor, feeling his arms come around her, a comforting sense of home settling around her.

They could have this for centuries, she realized. If Missy was as reformed as she seemed to be, they could travel the three of them. It would have been impossible to imagine back when she was Saxon, but this version of her? The future versions? It could happen.

It would be wonderful to have a friend they could keep around for years without decades or centuries between visits.

~DW~

There was a post on the internet, Instagram, to be exact, that had Rose Tyler in one of the photos. A house in Bristol, freshly bought off the market a week ago, and a bunch of college students moving in. She was in the background, her face turned just enough that the facial match registered at 95%. 

 It was geotagged, so it wasn’t any trouble finding her at all, and it wasn’t hard to get to her with the right technology.

The one who watched her wanted. Always wanted, always had, and never stopped. Rose was that unattainable prize that had been so close and yet so far. They tracked her as best as they could as she moved through the house, straining to listen.

It wasn’t the right Rose. This one was a bit too late down the line, but that was alright. It was the first time they got to see her in person when the Doctor wasn’t around. They just had to keep looking along the timeline for a better opportunity. 

In the meantime, they watched. And when they lingered a touch too long, when it seemed like Rose finally realized she was being watched, they put in the coordinates for home base into their vortex manipulator, and left.

Chapter Text

Rose was only human. Yes, human with some unique tweaks - enough that any scan of her across the universe would say she very much was not - but human nonetheless. She didn’t have her husband's superior physiology, so she would, therefore, often get headaches. Not often often, mostly if she tried to think too hard about something she shouldn’t. But every once in a while, something would give her one that was so utterly human that she wished she had used some of that foresight she supposedly wielded as Bad Wolf to make her immune to this.

“What are they snipping about?” Nardole asked as he strolled into the TARDIS from the apartments, his robe, and cap on, clearly ready to settle in for a night in the theater room.

“Romans,” Rose replied with exasperation. “They are arguing about Romans.”

And had been for an hour already. 

Rose hadn’t been entirely sure how it started. She’d been in the TARDIS reading, nursing a cup of tea with the doors open to the office so she could listen to Bill and the Doctor when her tutoring session came up. She loved hearing what he would deem worth going on about, and she loved hearing Bill ask questions. 

Tonight was different, though. Their conversation had started out as background noise, soft and excited. Or at least, that’s what Rose thought it was until the Doctor came storming into the TARDIS, Bill on his heels, and the heated but friendly discussion was taking place in the console room, disturbing Rose’s peace.

She had tried to listen at the beginning, tried to stay focused, and maybe offer input.

 “Weren’t the Ninth Legion Autons?” Rose had offered when they seemed to be circling the same points, hoping to settle the debate and move them on to something else.

“No, that was just a ploy by Her and the Nestene Consciousness,” The Doctor had waved her off, explaining an Auton to Bill before hopping right back into their bickering.

It was about that time Rose started to get a headache. She wasn’t entirely sure it was hers alone, but if she were to ask, she knew the Doctor would deny it.

“Tell ya what,” Rose said to Nardole as she got to her feet. “I’ll step out, and you can go to the media room. That way, if this devolves into a trip - and I’m sure it will - someone you trust not to let Missy outta the vault will be here, yeah?”

Nardole narrowed his eyes at her.

“Don’t exactly trust you not to let her out, either,” he retorted. “Your granddaughter would’ve gotten the idea from someone, and you’re awfully friendly with the prisoner.”

“My granddaughter gets all her rebellion from her mother, of that I can assure you,” Rose smirked. “But these two are giving me a headache, and I’ll take possibly being murdered over hearing about Roman tactics for the twentieth time.”

“Alright,” Nardole hedged, clearly not thrilled about possibly being on the TARDIS when it took off. He was wandering toward the hall before he paused, turned, and said, “oh, by the way. A message from the office made its way to the Doctor’s desk today, but I think it was for you. Something about B.W. meeting No in the courtyard. Something about seven-thirty tonight.”

Rose frowned, “time is it now?”

“How should I know? You live on a time machine.” Nardole scowled before rolling his eyes and waddling deeper into the TARDIS.

“Gonna step out, Love,” Rose said, though the Doctor didn’t stop his arguing for a moment. 

He did send love through the bond, an acknowledgment that he heard her. And, to no one’s surprise, the inklings of an idea of taking Bill back to 102 Ad to show her how wrong she was.

Whether that idea was meant for her to see or not, Rose sent a warning to be safe before venturing out of the TARDIS. She glanced at the clock on the wall as she headed out of the office, noting it being a ten after seven. She could have looked at the note, but she would have had no idea where Nardole would have put it after reading it. Once, she found a memo from the school in the kitchen under a box of tea. She wasn’t going to find it before the allotted time if the time was even for today.

As she strode down the halls of the university, offering a grin to a few of the people she sort of recognized, she felt a buzz in her pocket. Without missing a step, Rose took her phone out of her pocket and headed down the stairs. She glanced at the new message icon, looked around her to make sure she wasn’t bumping into anyone, and then made her way down to the ground floor before finally opening it.

Nell: I’m here.

No wasn’t “no,” it was N.O., which brought on a snicker before the message caught up to her.

Rose paused, a strange feeling of dread flooded her veins.

I’m. Not we’re , I’m. The Osgoods almost never did anything without each other. She continued her steps just as quickly with a caution to them that hadn’t been before. She sipped her tea more casually, watched, and listened more attentively as she headed out the main doors. 

There were plenty of people still milling about, what with it barely being seven in the evening and the days having gotten longer and warmer. But that didn’t mean that Rose didn’t zero in on the lone girl sitting fifty feet away on the bench, with her back to her. 

Rose didn’t even look around as she crossed the courtyard, knowing she was probably giving off enough of a predatory vibe to ensure people stayed clear of her.

Nell, when Rose rounded the bench, didn’t look up. She continued to look straight ahead, a worried crease on her brow. 

She was wearing a blue, pinstriped suit with a burgundy tie, looking quite dapper and not at all out of place among the students. It made Rose briefly wonder what Pat chose to wear, and who she chose to emulate, which had her asking….

“Where’s Pat?”

“She’s with our mum and dad,” Nell replied. “They don’t know about me, so we take turns visiting them. It’s her turn, so I… I came here.

Rose shifted to face her better, trying to get a read on what was happening.

“Nell?”

“I have something I need to show you. Something I’ve been working on since we last saw each other,” She turned to Rose, “Somewhere the Doctor might not see it.”

Rose glanced away, and looked around the campus.

She had the vaguest memories of being at UNIT, Kate having called her in for… something. If she thought about it too hard, the headache she had that was beginning to subside would start coming back.

Nell was right, whatever this was, the Doctor probably shouldn’t be involved.

Rose could just feel the TARDIS and her husband slip away from the edges of her mind, but there was no telling how long they would be gone. And if Nell had something she wanted to show her, chances were it wasn’t for anyone to just walk in on. 

“I know where we could go, but I don’t think you’re going to like it,” Rose warned her.

Nell winced, “The Vault?”

“Yeah,” Rose nodded. Seeing the trepidation on Nell’s face, she added, “She’s not gonna hurt ya. Know it’s hard to believe, but I think she is changing. Might just be the optimist in me, but….”

“It was Pat she threatened, not me,” Nell replied. “Frankly, I’m painfully curious to see her.”

“Well, let’s head down there, then, shall we?”

~*~

The piano could be heard outside the doors, but it wasn’t a menacing melody at least. It took Rose a second, but it clicked as the locks unlatched that Missy was tapping out a song the Doctor wrote for Rose.

As the doors opened, Rose said, “You knew I was coming or something?”

“Rosie Posie, I always hope for you,” Missy said, her back to the door, unable to see their guest. It didn’t stop her from sensing the extra presence, though, and the tune came to an abrupt halt, the Time Lady going utterly still.

Nell froze up, and it took a gentle nudge from Rose to get her going again. 

Missy turned on the bench, eyes immediately landing on Nell.

“It’s you,” She said rather gently. “I remember you. From the plane.”

“It wasn’t me,” Nell replied, finding her stride again as she crept forward. “It was my sister, but I know what happened.”

“Well,” Missy said as she stood, smoothing out her skirts. “You’re pretty, too, dear. But I have a feeling if I were to pop you like a balloon, Rosie Posie would be very cross with me, and I don’t want that,” She flashed Rose a smirk and an exaggerated wink that just had Rose huffing in barely contained amusement.

“Right. Nell, what was it you wanted to show me?”

Nell glanced at Missy again before reaching inside her blazer and pulling out a tablet. 

“You remember when we called you in with Ace and Tegan?” Nell asked as she started tapping on her screen.

Rose frowned.

“Vaguely,” She replied. “I try to focus on it, I get a headache.”

“That’s what I thought,” Nell said smugly. She sobered an instant later. “No one else really remembers either, is the problem. Within days, everyone but me seemed to forget about it at UNIT.” She stopped tapping and looked at Rose. “It took me a while because I had to do this on my own. Even Pat doesn’t remember,” She said this meaningfully, and Rose nodded, understanding the secret to be kept.

“Well, that’s interesting ,” Missy said as if she gleaned something from the whole interaction. Maybe she had. Maybe Missy understood or knew more than she would ever have let on. When she realized she had Rose and Nell’s attention, she lifted her hands in mock surrender. “Please, continue.”

“Right,” Nell said, a bit unsure, before looking at Rose and squaring her shoulders. “You don’t remember, and I think I know why. You’re directly involved in what’s happening.”

“And what is happening?” Rose asked, crossing her arms. 

Nell pursed her lips before turning to the nearest table. She set the tablet down, then tapped something.

A holograph of twelve people with short bios shot up in a line. Rose took in each, seeing herself among them.

Susan Foreman marked down as missing since the year 2000, looked not unlike the Susan who fled Gallifrey with the refugees. Alistair Lethbridge Stewart, who supposedly vanished while on vacation in 2008, looked older than any version Rose had had a passing conversation with. Jo Grant, missing since 1993. Sarah Jane Smith, with not a single silver hair, didn’t come home in 2008. Nyssa and Tegan Jovanka, missing since 2013 and 2017, respectively. Dorthy “Ace” Gale McShane didn’t report to UNIT in 2018. Fitz Kreiner had simply disappeared from record in 2005. Adam Mitchell clocked in for his shift at UNIT last year and never clocked out. Just vanished. Rose herself apparently turned a corner or something back in 2006, though she didn’t remember that at all. Martha supposedly never went home after the Saxon election, and her family was sure she was a political prisoner of some sort. Rory Williams said he and his wife Amy were attacked in 2012, only for him to wake up just down the road from where he lived with no Amy in sight.

“How?” Rose said, frowning at the people she knew she had interacted with since their supposed disappearances. Hell, even herself with no memory….

Well, there was something on the edges of it, but that bloody headache would roar back in if she tried to focus on it, so it was best she didn’t. 

“That’s the thing. I’m not sure. All I know is that there is no evidence of anyone else on Earth simply disappearing. Not even other companions that settled on Earth in the last thirty years. Jo is the earliest missing former companion.” Blushing, Nell glanced away and said, “I also realized that out of the twelve of them, about half either had a romantic relationship with the Doctor, or were, um… friendly.”

“Oh, naughty Doctor. Didn’t think he had it in him,” Missy commented.

“Before you get any ideas, I know about all of them, even the ones who aren’t on this little list,” Rose shot over her shoulder without looking away at the names. “He was a bit of a flirt in his eighth body. Should know, have some experience with it.”

The sound of Nell’s inhaler cut through the moment of quiet.

Rose narrowed her eyes, her brain moving faster than she could almost keep up with as she took in the names and faces, comparing them to the history she heard through him or experienced herself.

“Susan is family,” She said aloud. “Ace was like family, pretty much a daughter or granddaughter, depending on how you look at it. Amy, we co-parented with.”

“She, umm, also….” Nell stuttered.

“Yeah, I know,” Rose waved it off. “Alistair was a sort of uncle or brother type friend. So, three out of twelve are family to the Doctor. Tegan and Nyssa… he regretted how they left, and I know there was a very strong attachment to them, but I don’t think… if there was a romantic link, it wasn’t strong, not like with Sarah Jane and Jo. Fitz he loved. He told me as much. Then there’s me, he married me. Martha….”

“Martha walked the Earth for him, made the world believe in him,” Missy said from her enclosure. “He adored her in a way.”

“And Amy isn’t just the birth mother of one of your daughters, but she was also an avid believer of the Doctor,” Nell said. “Her mentions of him were enough to have UNIT look into her a couple of times. Her therapist was-“

“Yeah,” Rose cut her off. “We don’t talk about her. So, where does Adam fit in here? We took him from the Van Statten bunker, took him on one trip, then he was back home after getting a bloody door in his head. Hardly thought about him these last few thousand years.”

“The only thing I could think of was he came to work for us,” Nell said. “I had hoped your experience with him would point something else out. I’ve looked into his file, and nothing about his time with Van Statten would have me believe he would be taken for anything in particular.”

Rose snapped her gaze to Nell. 

“Taken?”

Nell bit her lip a moment before leaning over the tablet, tapping something else, and bringing up a video.

Surveillance, of all things, of a hotel corridor in 2006. Rose frowned, recognizing it somehow despite not really remembering being there. She was dressed up in a suit, looking very sheik and also very spooked. She turned, looking at someone off camera, stalking momentarily forward like she was yelling at someone when there was a flash, and someone appeared behind her. Rose watched as she struggled with an unknown assailant, really putting up a fight. She had turned them both toward the camera a moment before the man stabbed her in the arm with something, and she went limp in his arms.

The man looked utterly delighted, taunted something she couldn’t hear, then looked at the camera with a terrifying smile.

He was handsome. Dark-skinned, sharply dressed, if not a bit outlandish in color choices. At that age, at that time, had he approached Rose, she would have easily flirted with him, maybe wandered off with him in hopes that if the Doctor wasn’t going to do anything, then this bloke would at least sweep her off her feet for the night.

At least until she saw the crazy in his eyes, the glimmer of madness that Rose of that moment would be well acquainted with, the universe was full of people like that, and she had already met a fair few of them.

“I know him,” She said with certainty. “I don’t remember this at all, but I know I know him. He’s familiar in a way I can’t point out.”

“Not surprising,” Nell said with an edge to her voice. “I’m pretty sure he’s the Master.”

Rose stared at the face in the projected image, then slowly turned to look at Missy.

She had expected something like denial, maybe hostility. What she saw was regret. Heavy, weighted regret and glistening eyes that bore into hers pleadingly, begging for Rose to understand.

“It was. It was me,” She confessed with a little nod. 

“What are you doing?” Rose asked as kindly as she could.

“It’s a bit foggy, I don’t-“

“Missy!”

“I’m part of events, aren’t I? You and I, we’re outta sync. That me, the one who took younger you? I know older you. I know the Doctor as a woman, and then I- … well, suppose I shouldn’t tell you. What’s the curly one say? Spoilers?”

Rose huffed, and watched Missy look away, trying to surreptitiously wipe away a tear.

Her bloody, bleeding heart wanted to believe her desperately, but there was a part of her that still doubted. Had to, what with everything Missy already tried to pull.

Seeming to know it, Missy straightened up, squared her shoulders, and met Rose’s eye.

“I want to be good,” She said firmly. “I want to be your friend. I want to be the Doctor’s friend. I want to stand with you. I know you don’t trust me, I understand. Even in this version of me… but I’ve been trying to do good. Maybe not good like him or you, but I have.” Then, with a huff, added, “When was the last time I tried to kill someone, hm?”

“You’ve been locked in here for hundreds of years,” Rose pointed out.

“And I never tried to kill you when you came in, huh? Think of how easy it would’ve been. Get you to trust me enough to let your guard down, let me outta the enclosure, and I, I dunno, break your pretty neck? Use your hand or your eye or any other biosignature to get me out before you reanimate.”

“You seemed to have thought it out well enough,” Nell commented apprehensively.

“Yes, but I didn’t do it, did I?” Missy asked like a petulant child, hands on her hips and a little stomp of her foot. “That’s the whole point. Woulda been easy, and I didn’t.”

“So what was the plan?” Rose asked her. “What was the point of your scheme? Especially if you knew it wouldn’t work. You, that you who took me, knows older versions of me and the Doctor, so why even try?”

“To get your attention, of course,” Missy said like it was obvious. “Try and hurt him, maybe hurt you, the details are all,” She waved her hands around her head, blowing a raspberry. “But it wasn’t all my plan, you see. I had… help.”

“Help?”

“Might have been more me helping him than him helping me,” She said nervously.

“Him?” Rose said, glancing over at Nell to see if she had any idea what Missy was talking about.

She shook her head regretfully.

“I didn’t uncover it. I was hoping you might be able to sort it out.”

Rose shook her head, looking back at the projection of young her being caught by the Master, trying to remember.

She could recall the Doctor holding her close, swaying with her as they had in the hospital, only without the threat of zombies coming after them. She remembered how he seemed to cling to her tighter, bury his nose in her neck, all while rambling softly about everything and nothing. 

Rose had been too deeply in love to really take in much more, though she still got an inkling that someone had been there. Someone they knew.

The TARDIS came, her signature brushing against Rose’s mind, grumbling. The Doctor returned as well, though he seemed to rather abruptly put up walls. Whatever happened, clearly he didn’t want her to know until he could explain himself.

It had her rolling her eyes fondly, momentarily forgetting what they were meant to be doing.

“Hold on, you said Adam was taken for something,” Rose turned to the image again, inching toward it. “He worked with alien tech. Intimately, probably knew more about it than anyone outside UNIT. And with the bloody door in his head, he probably knew things none of you possibly could. So,” She turned to Missy, “He made the thing that knocked me out, didn’t he?”

Missy’s lips quirked in a fleeting grin, “Your warm,” She said.

Rose narrowed her eyes. “More than that?

“Getting warmer.”

Rose took a step closer to the enclosure. 

“He developed more than the drug. He… provided tech.”

“Getting hotter, fingers tingling,” Missy said, wiggling her fingers.

“What sort of tech would he be able to provide? Cyberman weaponry?”

“Oh, no, colder. Getting chilly.

“Dalek, then,” Rose suggested.

Missy scrunched her face, “you turned on the heater, but it’s not kicking in yet.”

“Dalek-ish. So… capsules? Something to keep someone in.”

“You’re warming up but still so cold.”

Rose took another step. 

“A prison. But what’s that got to do with Daleks? Adam’s only ever encountered the one. And he only ever went to Satellite Five with us.”

“Oh, she’s turning up the temperature,” Missy grinned.

Rose narrowed her eyes, and tilted her head. “Satellite Five… and Daleks. That’s… but he wasn’t there,” She said. “Adam wouldn’t have known anything about that, what happened. To me, to any of them.”

“Rosie Posie, you’re getting there,” Missy encouraged, hands on the glass, looking imploringly for Rose to just get that final bit that she wasn’t grasping.

And maybe she could get there. It was like her brain was darting around something she couldn’t quite land on, no matter how hard she tried. 

The vault doors opened, and Nell yelped, moving for the tablet before stopping short at the panting Nardole. 

Still in his robe and a little cap, he bent over to catch his breath before looking up at Rose.

“He’s gone! The Doctor. They took him.”

“Who?” Rose asked, crossing the room to Nardole before she even thought to do so.

She steadied him, tamping down the panic that rose within her while Nardole got himself together.

But he only shook his head, shoving a folded piece of paper at her.

Rose looked over at Missy, whose eyes had darkened and hardened in a way Rose hadn’t seen in this incarnation. 

So she opened the letter.

Rose,

This version of your future is limited. But don’t worry, you’ll have a better one soon. 

All my love

It wasn’t signed. She didn’t recognize that handwriting either. 

“Nardole, where’s Bill?” She asked as she crushed the letter in her fist. “Is Bill still on the TARDIS?”

“No,” Nardole panted, shaking his head. “No, they took her, too. Shut the doors behind them as they left, I saw it on the monitor.”

“How did they get in?” Rose asked.

Nardole shook his head. “They were there when we got there, I think. I dunno. They just sorta vanished after they had them.”

“Vanished. So it wasn’t….” Something clicked in Rose’s brain, and she turned to Missy. “Vortex manipulator.”

“She’s scalding,” Missy said with a hint of pride. “She’s is just too hot to touch.”

“You used a vortex manipulator. You got to him and the others using one, possibly one that was in Van Statten’s vault. Possibly even Jack’s since he was stuck here for a while.”

She should call him and get reinforcements. Chances were, the Master wasn’t keeping the Doctor and the companions on Earth, probably not even at this particular time. But Jack would take a while to get to her. She could call the girls, but what would it be like to reach out to her daughters and find they weren’t there anymore because of her disappearing. 

Without a second of hesitation, Rose turned and crossed the room to the enclosure. She touched her sonic to the keypad, unlocking it and setting Missy free, earning a yelp from Nardole.

“You know where you’ve gone,” She said. “You know when and where. If you’re really with us, if you’re really now truly on our side, you’re gonna help me get the Doctor back.”

Missy took her hand, holding it tight.

“You trust me?” She asked, clearly going for light and missing the mark. Her voice was too shaky for levity, the determination in her eyes too sharp.

“Yeah,” Rose said. 

Missy nodded, a shaky grin in place, before she took a deep breath and grew serious.

“There’s just one thing you need to know before going in,” She said.

“What’s that?”

“Baldy said ‘they.’ I wasn’t working alone.”

Chapter Text

The Doctor dreamed. Or, maybe more accurately, remembered things while unconscious. 

He’d barely gotten out of the TARDIS and into his office when he was struck. The exact part of the cranium he would need to be, too. It was all very precise, and he didn’t even have enough time to worry about Bill. Which was probably for the best for whoever hit him because if he didn’t have time to worry about Bill, he wouldn’t have had time to warn Rose.

Which reminded him that he had popped out after getting Rose back from the Frost Fair, just wanting to triple-check that Amy and Rory really weren’t home. They parked in the park they always had, he darted out, and bam!

He also remembered stepping away for a moment when Rose with Donna, heading somewhere - likely not important - and he was knocked out. 

He’d left the older Rose, turned the corner….

He popped back to London to see how Fitz was doing….

He’d gone to get more tea while Ace….

It flooded back to him, hazier and hazier the further away from his current self he went.

Something was going on. Something he and Rose kept forgetting about, timelines going wrong. People missing when they shouldn’t. Recalled one moment, forgotten the next.

He came to cuffed to a chair, with thick metal straps keeping him in place. His head felt a bit woozy, nothing that wouldn’t clear up soon. A side effect of a good knock on the head. 

“Welcome, Doctor.”

Lights blinked on with a loud click, lighting up tanks two at a time on the other side of the room, separated from where the Doctor was by a control panel. Inside each of the tanks was a person. 

Deep down, the Doctor already knew who each of those people were. The memories of them being taken from him were fleeting but there. Wisps of memory he’d been ignoring too long.

There was a groan beside him, familiar in a strange way, and he turned to see another reason why he was still so woozy from the knockout.

“Or should I say Doctors ?”

“I don’t know who you are, but you have to know of the paradox that could happen having all of us in a room like this.” His Seventh self snipped.

The voice, which was still from somewhere out of sight, snickered. 

Actually, no. It was someone different, the Doctor realized.

“Suppose it could pose a problem, but I do so love to watch the world burn,” the original speaker said as the click of heels echoed closer. A man in a plum-colored suit strutted past the Doctor, turning on his heel to beam maliciously at the collected bunch.

He then let out a deranged, giddy laugh as he looked them over. Silently, he counted, pointing at each of the collective before giggling again.

“Almost a full set,” He said. “Almost, the latest one, that’s a slippery one. Can’t seem to get a hold of it. No matter, no matter. I can - no, we can - make it work with twelve.”

“We could have probably been able to do it with one,” A familiar yet changed voice added.

“Oh, I know, I know,” the man in the suit said, waving off the comment. “But you have to admit it’s much more fun to hit him where it hurts over and over.”

“Doctor?” 

Easily, ten heads whipped up at the sound of that voice, all looking at the same tank as Sarah Jane looking as she had when the Daleks tried to use Earth as part of a reality bomb.

“Sarah Jane?” He heard his fourth self gasp out in confusion. She had been looking at someone else, maybe his tenth self, but her eyes darted down the line, widening as they did.

The man in plum laughed delighted again.

“Oh, this is fun,” he growled the last word. “Adam, your plan to pull them when you did? Remarkable.”

“Knew I recognized that stupid voice,” The Doctor’s ninth self grumbled.

“You really do think me lesser, don’t you?”

There was the soft tread of another set of feet coming from behind, but instead of watching him stride inside, the Doctor scanned the tanks, seeing if could spot….

Rose.

Young Rose.

Before Bad Wolf Rose.

She was looking down at them all wide-eyed, gaze darting between the lot of them and the men who had them all under their thumbs.

“Not hard to. Never met anyone so stupid,” Nine said with derision.

“And yet, you’re the ones all strapped to a chair.” 

The Doctor pulled his attention away from young Rose and turned it to one Adam Mitchell.

Older, more than he should be, given the year the Doctor was pulled from and when he had dropped the boy off. Grey around the temples, wrinkles around the eyes. He was dressed a lot like Van Statten had been, with a blazer over a turtleneck and tailored trousers.

“It’s funny,” Adam said, glaring down the Doctor he had traveled with. “You told Van Statten you were the last of your kind. Lies, of course. Even if you don’t count the fact that there have been multiple versions of you in the same place at the same time at various times through Earth’s history. I discovered that when I met your friend here.” 

Adam turned to the plum-suited man who put his arms out to the side in a “ta-da” gesture.

“I almost don’t want to know,” Eleven said with a heavy sigh.

“What in Rassilon’s name does he mean ‘last of your kind’?” Six asked, baffled.

“You don’t wanna know,” Nine snapped back.

“Actually, I think we do,” Five countered.

“Enough!” Plum Suit shouted, put out by the Doctors not paying attention. 

There was the barest hint of a pout like he hadn’t been used to making the expression and wasn’t sure if he wanted to. There was also a very malicious gleam in his eyes that was painfully familiar.

It all clicked, then.

“The Master,” The Doctor said, almost grinning to himself. 

“Really?” Eleven asked. “How?”

“I don’t know, but I think I know when he is. I’m guessing… after Saxon?”

The Master giggled. “Oh, you got me.” He pointed to the Doctor, wiggling his finger. “Did that stupid, brave, noble thing and let you escape. Let my friend go, and what did I get for my trouble? Torture. Forced regeneration, I don’t even know how many I have left.”

“A never-ending number, it would seem,” Eight said with annoyance. “But I’m not sure I understand the game here. Why are we here? Why do you have our companions contained?”

“He wants to know, Adam,” The Master said, turning to the stoic man at his side. “Would you like to tell him, or shall I?”

Adam stared a long time in silence, gaze focused on Nine.

“You only take the best,” He said after a long time, the bitterness heavy in his tone. “Except, that’s not true, is it? You said I should stay out of trouble, live a quiet life. But do you know what happens when you encounter, well… you? You get taken to the Black Archives in a tinted-window vehicle. You’re photographed and cataloged and put on a list. There is no quiet life, not really. It’s an illusion all those you leave behind or have the common sense to walk away live with. Unless, of course, UNIT sees the potential in you. And despite what you said, I am the best.”

“You work for UNIT?” The Doctor asked in disbelief.

Adam turned to him, really looked, then scoffed. He turned to the Master and asked, “You put them in order?”

“From one to twelve,” The Master confirmed.

“So you’re saying he went progressively younger, only to turn into that ?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” The Doctor asked sharply.

“Well, the eyebrows,” Eleven said, and the Doctor glared back at him.

“At least I have them.”

“Enough about your vanity. I wanna know how an idiot who gets a door in his head works for UNIT.” Nine demanded.

“A door?” Three asked.

The Doctor and his nearest three predecessors all snapped their fingers in unison.

Nothing happened.

Adam scoffed, “Do you really think, after all this time, I haven’t changed the setting?”

“You shouldn’t know how to,” Ten said darkly.

“Oh, don’t look at me,” The Master grinned. “He had it changed when I found him.”

“UNIT, as I’m told you know, documents the people you’ve been in contact with. Registers the ones who traveled with you - however briefly - into their ‘companion database.’ While I was being documented, someone snapped their fingers. You can guess what happened. And without a way to change the setting, I ran a risk of breaking the minds of the everyday person. They managed to help my mum forget, in case you were wondering.”

“Didn’t ask, thanks,” Nine bit out.

The Doctor stared at his once travel mate, sizing him up, wondering if the others were doing the same.

“UNIT fixed it, then?” He asked.

“No,” Adam turned his attention to him. “They sent me to Van Statten’s bunker, where I was put to work doing the same thing I had already been doing: sorting out and cataloging alien tech. Except this time, I knew better. This time, a bit of that history I was so hungry for back on Satellite Five was still sort of knocking around. So I wasn’t only better at the job than I had been, but I was able to actually use the tech to my advantage. Including configuring my own enhancements.”

“Thought they were filling it up with concrete?” Nine asked darkly.

The Doctor, Eleven, and Ten all scoffed.

“See you haven’t been around UNIT much,” Ten grumbled.

“Believe me, you don’t know the half of it,” Eleven added.

“Young man,” One said down the line. “Why did you bring us here? Why have you captured our companions?”

Adam smirked at One, then turned to the tanks where the companions in question all watched on silently.

So many of them were older than when he’d last seen them. Ace still had that glimmer in her eye that spelled trouble for anyone who crossed her, but it was subdued behind age and maturity.

Tegan and Nyssa both had their shoulders squared and their heads held high, standing as close to each other as their tanks would allow, palms pressed against the glass as if holding on to one another. Jo was still blonde, but there were hints of silver in her hair. Fitz was much the same in that there was just a bit of grey throughout, little lines by his eyes.

The rest were about the same age or far younger. Martha, for one, and Amy. Rose, especially, who was doing a damn good job at not looking freaked out.

And Bill. Bill who looked so lost and so scared, having not been through even half of what the others had.

“When you eventually leave me alone in 2012,” Adam said, “It will be under the guise of my being inadequate. But I’ve seen who you take along, Doctor. Which companions you keep, and which ones you help. Which ones you revisit now and again. Do you know what I noticed? It’s not the ‘best’ you take,” Adam turned to face them all. “It’s who you love.”

“Love?” Two asked incredulously.

“Your granddaughter,” Adam said.

“A human you look to with more respect than you’ve ever shown your brother,” The Master added with a smirk.

“A woman you fancied but never told,” Adam said with a straight face.

“And then another one,” The Master teased.

“You did whatever you could for the couple because you adored them so very much.”

“Your substitute granddaughter. Replacing everyone in your family with a human was a trend, wasn’t it,” the Master said gleefully. “Oh, and then you have one who pined for you so hard she was willing to die for you. Walking the Earth, singing your praises. Doctor, Doctor ,” The Master snickered, then turned to look at Martha. “Like what you see? I know you couldn’t have this one,” he gestured to Ten, “but have you tried a younger model?”

“A little girl who idolized you,” Adam said, “called you her ‘Raggedy Man.’ And then there’s the new one. Granddaughter replacement version two.”

“And let’s not forget the piece de resistance, your wife.” The Master said, hopping backward to the controls and turning a knob. The lights over the Rose in the capsule brightened a touch, causing her to squint. 

“So do you take the best?” Adam asked, “because Rose is many things, but she doesn’t know a fraction of what I did.”

“It’s not about knowledge, Adam. It’s about heart,” Ten said. “All of them, every one of them, have acted selflessly. Show them the wonders of the universe, and they look at it in awe. You looked at it and asked, ‘what could it do for me?’”

“Apparently, a lot,” Adam said before turning the controls, flicking a few switches, and causing the Master to giggle gleefully.

He turned to the line of Doctors, looking at all of them, darting his gaze up and down the line, never looking at the same one twice.

“This is good,” He said. “This, this here is just… so great!” He laughed, giddy and maniacal. 

“The Master here asked where I got my infospike from.”

“We took a trip there, but of course, the TARDIS I was using was a bit… finicky.” The Master added.

“It took us a bit too far into the future,” Adam said, “but we made some interesting discoveries. Who should we start off with?” Adam addressed the question to the Master.

The Doctor narrowed his eyes, wondering what they were playing at as the Master played “eenie meenie miney mo” with no real rhyme or rhythm to it.

“That one,” He said, pointing to Alistair. 

Adam turned a knob, flicked a switch, then pushed a button.

Before the Brigadier could say a word, he was gone. The ray hit him, and then a pile of dust fell to the bottom of his tank.

The Doctor’s stomach rolled as Master laughed with absolute delight, clapping his hands before leaning toward Adam and giving him a high-five.

“Where did you send him!?” Three demanded, pulling at his cuffs as if he could somehow get free.

“Nowhere,” The Master said with a massive grin. “See, Adam and I, we went a touch too far, as we said. The Satellite that had once broadcasted news had - at one point - switched to game shows. With deadly consequences.”

“Instead of them being voted out, the contestants were killed. We thought it was a trans mat, so we did a little test. Hit something with a… what did you call it?” Adam asked the Master.

“A temporal tracker. Something the Time Lords used in the war on their more… volatile warriors,” The Master answered with a grin. “Can’t have anyone off destroying the universe unless they’re doing it in the name of Gallifrey.”

“The tracker remained in the pile of dust instead of going anywhere,” Adam said, keeping his voice eerily level. In fact, he had yet to really show any emotion at all.

“Right, so you killed off the Brigadier as a demonstration, then? Wanted to show us all how tough you are,” Nine spat venomously. “So what’s the catch? What do you want?”

“I want your TARDIS,” The Master replied point blank. “Oh, but don’t worry. You’ll get it back in a few thousand years,” he added giddily before sobering. “But I want to travel freely, I want,” He paused, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath, “I want for the Time Lords to not be able to find me.”

“Don’t need my TARDIS for that,” Ten said glumly.

“He does,” The Doctor replied, sensing his younger selves from after the war look at him. “They didn’t just use the Master to break the time lock once.”

The Master frowned.

“I’ll have you know, I broke out. I broke free. I was forced to regenerate, and when I did, I used that energy to massacre the ones who tried to hold me captive for Rassilon and his bloody inner circle. Then I stole a TARDIS and ran away, just like you. Went back to before the Time Lock had been re-established and slipped out to Earth. But now that we’re here, it won’t let me in, won’t let me fly. I want my freedom.”

The Doctor narrowed his eyes but kept his mouth shut. If this Master escaped post-regeneration on Gallifrey… well, it was a long shot, but he might have been from before Missy. 

“And what about you, Adam?” Ten asked. “What do you get out of this?”

Adam stared at Ten for a long, loaded moment.

“I get Rose.”

Rose in the tank barked out a laugh, which had the Doctor smirking.

“How in hell does all this get you me?” She demanded, her accent thicker than the Doctor remembered it being in a very, very long time. “What in the world - the universe - makes you think that you killing off all the others here is going to win me over?”

“Because I know that by the end of this, he will have let me kill every single one of the others off, which I’m sure is the absolute last thing I think you want to happen. You did change the heart and mind of a Dalek, after all. Or, he’s gonna let me push this button,” He said, walking over to where there was another button on the controls, “and with it, I will wipe your memory of having ever met him. Of loving him.”

Rose blushed, looked at Nine, then looked away. “I -I don’t… It doesn’t matter, does it? Because I’m not that important to him. Right, Doctor? Save the world, lose me. That’s the deal, yeah?”

The Doctor watched the younger version of his wife plead with the Doctor she knew, hoping he would make the same choice he had all that time ago in 10 Downing Street. 

But he also knew that decision wasn’t that difficult. He could go down with her if it had come to that. And Downing Street had been bound to have some sort of bomb shelter. Chances were good they’d make it out of there.

“The answer should be obvious,” Four said. “We can’t let… why are you even contemplating.”

“Are you really willing to sacrifice them all for her?” Six asked with derision.

“Why don’t you just shut it,” Nine snapped.

“You’ve no idea what she means to us. What taking her from our timeline at the point she’s in would do to us,” Ten added.

“Is that a ‘no’ to the memory wipe?” Adam asked, moving back to the other, more deadly choice.

“It’s not a yes,” Nine grumbled.

“Well then,” Adam said, not even looking as he pressed a button before hitting the switch.

Amy disappeared with a yelp.

“Adam!” Eleven yelled, trying to launch from his chair in a knee-jerk reaction to seeing his best mate disappear into dust. “Adam, think of what you’re doing! The timelines.”

“Oh, I’ve considered it,” Adam said, calm and dispassionate as ever. “I consulted the Master.”

“And you think he’s a good judge of what should and should not happen?” Five demanded.

“I think time is in flux right now. And if you just give us what we want-“

“How do you think you’ll get the TARDIS?” The Doctor asked curiously. “I doubt very much you brought any of us here in one.”

The Master grinned at him. “Because I know that if you don’t put a stop to Adam’s little plot, your wife is going to start to wonder where you are. And she will come here in your TARDIS, and it will be easy enough to take it. Unless, of course, one of your younger selves wants to give me theirs?”

There was a chorus of scoffs and dismissals, which the Doctor wasn’t surprised at all.

The sound of the disintegrator charging cut through the rumbles, and a gasp rang through the room.

The Doctor focused back on the tanks to see Ace gone.  

“Enough!” Seven shouted. “Wipe the girl’s memory.”

“You can’t be serious,” The Doctor asked. “You met her. Surely you remember.”

“Yes,” One said. “I surely I would, and I frankly don’t think we need-“

“Oh, do shut up,” Eight cut in. “You have no idea what we will need in the future.”

“You tell’em, Doctor,” Fitz spoke up. 

A second later, he went to dust.

“Clearly, I wasn’t choosing the right companions. Perhaps I should have started with the exes.” Adam said thoughtfully.

“Doctor,” Rose said, panic creeping into her voice. “Please, please, I’m not worth this.”

“You really wanna spend your life with him, then? ‘Cause that’s what’s gonna happen,” Nine pointed out.

“Can’t make me fall for ‘im,” Rose protested.

“If he has the ability to wipe your memory, my dear, he can,” Three said regretfully.

“If he can wipe it, he can rewrite it,” Six said, surprisingly sympathetic.

“And it’s not just the current you, Rose,” Ten said. “If we wipe your memory now, if you forget me, there’s a whole future that will be wiped from existence.”

“Including this moment,” The Doctor re-enforced. “Because if you don’t continue on traveling with me, then there’s a chance that those who came after you will never meet me. That the man I am now, the men I am after the one you know, may not ever come to be.”

Rose frowned, mouth moving like she was trying to say something, but the words wouldn’t come.

It was then that the sound of the TARDIS materializing filled the room.

“Oooh, she’s early,” The Master mused. 

The doors opened, and two pairs of shoes clicked across the floor behind them. The  Doctor tried to turn to see his wife and whoever was brought with her, but he couldn’t move fair enough. He looked at Eleven, meeting his eye, the same mixed emotion of Rose being there reflected in those green eyes. Eight would know about her being linked to them. All the Doctors in the room likely would remember meeting her, even if she were a shadow in the memory, but there were likely only three of them that would know what she was capable of.

“And you brought a guest,” The Master said with apprehensive delight.

“Don’t worry about your theatrics, I already filled her in on what’s going down here.”

The Doctor’s blood froze at that Scottish brogue, and he immediately tried to look around his predecessors to see what Missy was up to.

“I’ll make you a trade,” Rose said with confidence. “Stop killing the rest of them, you wanna wipe a memory, wipe mine.” 

She stepped forward, and the Doctor could see she had changed, wearing the same suit her younger self was wearing. The same pink top under the black suit, which he realized hysterically matched the tip of her sonic perfectly. It was in her hand, held loosely, her stance and posture so much like his own at times, it was like he was seeing what it meant when the married couples they knew said they started to emulate each other.

Adam looked her over, eyes slowly raking over her from head to toe.

“Look pretty good for my age, yeah?” Rose remarked cheekily.

The Master narrowed his eyes at her, then glanced at Missy.

“You’re me?” He asked suspiciously.

“Well, I’m a fair superior version, but yes. I was you,” She said coyly. She then looked to Adam and said, “I’d take that one, really. She ages well. Imagine: A sexy, young wife for your whole life. She never ages, never changes.”

“She may suit,” Adam said, looking Rose over again. “But I don’t trust that this isn’t a trap of some sort. I won’t be releasing the younger Rose.”

“’S fine, mate,” Rose said, easy as anything. “Sure you can redirect that little memory wiper of yours to a different pod, yeah?”

She strode toward the one that had Fitz, opening it and stepping inside, carefully avoiding the dust pile as she settled in. 

The Doctor narrowed his eyes at her hand wrapped around the sonic, watching for micromovements that would tell him she was about to disrupt the ray like she had done for Missy.

Rose looked out over all the versions of him, smiling to herself as she did.

“Gotta know,” She told the collective, “even if most of you don’t know me… I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”

Missy went to the controls, looking at them, caressing them. 

She then turned to the Doctor, met his eye, smirked wickedly, and pressed the disintegration button.

Rose had closed her eyes, braced herself, and didn’t see the pain about to hit her.

There was a flash, and then…

Then there was dust.

Nothing in the tube. 

Rose. Gone.

The Doctor sat numbed. The mental signature that had always been there, brushing against his mind, was now gone. 

“That’s… that’s not….” Eleven started to say, shocked.

“Are we sure… sure it,” Ten started, more choked up.

A beat of silence, and then the Master and Missy laughed absolutely gleefully, the Master moving to Missy to high-five her.

“Bloody hell , I am amazing. I am, clearly, since you’re me, and you… you figured out how to kill the big, Bad Wolf.”

“Well, dear, when you get her talking, earn her trust. She’ll tell you all sorts of things,” Missy said, patting the coif of her hair. “Really, all I had to do was pretend to be good for a few hundred years.”

“You betrayed her,” The Doctor growled. “She was your friend, and you betrayed her.”

“Dear, you are my friend. How many times have I done the same thing to you?”

There was something in her eye, a code he couldn’t figure out. She was trying to say something, but he couldn’t make heads or tails of what it was.

~DW~

“ Rose, darling, do you trust me?”

Missy had asked Rose well before they landed in the bunker where Adam Mitchell spent most of his life, becoming increasingly reclusive. Mad. Obsessed.

She had trusted Missy, of course. Might have been foolish, but she had. Missy said she didn’t remember how this turned out but pointed out that if things hadn’t worked out a certain way, she wouldn’t have been able to go back for the Doctor as Missy, to offer the Cybermen to take down Gallifrey and failing that, to enact the Time Lord’s plot to separate them and trap the Doctor in his own confession dial. 

Circular paradox.

Rose went with it, followed her lead, and did what she had to do to be where she had to be. Go to the pod next to her younger self, say something nice, then….

She opened her eyes, not much enjoying the sensation of being transmated anymore than she had the first time thousands or billions of years ago.

“It’s not the same one,” She heard Ace say.

“She looks an awful lot like her,” A different voice said. Male. Older.

“Well, yeah. That was a younger Rose with us.”

Amy. Bloody hell she hadn’t heard that voice in a long time.

“She’s the one that got to keep him? Really?”

She didn’t know, but that was probably Fitz.

“Believe me,” Rose said as she pushed herself up, realizing she was lying on the floor. “He might look pretty, but he’s a lotta work.”

She peered over to Ace, Amy, Fitz, and the Brigadier as they turned to look at her from where they were hovering around some controls. She got to her feet, straightened out her jacket, and only then realized she still had her sonic in her hand.

“Excellent,” She said as she looked at the trusty device in her hand. “Now, time to get to work, yeah?”

Chapter Text

Bill had been scared before. Recently, even, what with the light-eating monster and what not. Utterly terrified was a state she was used to being in around the Doctor.

This was different, this was a scared Bill didn’t know how to be. She was calm, sort of, because at least it looked quick. Amy was there and gone, after all. But there was a chance she could be next. At any moment, with just a press of the button. It’s one thing knowing that if you went down, you at least went down for the greater good of something. This was pointless. A tantrum thrown by a pair of grown men. 

She was so bloody scared.

Bill watched the Doctors in front of her after the older Rose was apparently….

Yeah, that didn’t seem right. Not with what Rose had told her. Nothing was supposed to happen to her body, so why had the Doctor looked like someone ripped both his hearts out and stomped on them? And not just the oldest him, shaggy-haired him, too. And sticky-uppy hair. And nearly bald - he looked more like he was about to murder that Adam bloke if he ever got free from the chair. Pretty Victorian looked much like the older Doctors. The rest didn’t seem affected one way or the other. Bill wasn’t sure how that worked - like, the white-haired bloke with a mindset from the fifties looked quite crestfallen - but the others didn’t seem as sad.

So, scared. Terrified, really, because if Rose wasn’t supposed to completely and totally die, then they were really in for it if she had.

“It was a bit of a waste to destroy the elder Rose,” Adam said, though he didn’t really seem to care either way. “But at least I still have the younger version, then.

“Can’t,” Sticky-uppy hair choked out, too-long legs kicking against the end of his long brown coat. “Can’t let you-“

“Oh, she’s just a girl ,” Missy said, sounding a bit whiny.

Was this the real her? Someone who so casually killed off someone Bill had thought was a best friend of hers? 

“She’s not just a girl, and you know it!” The Doctor snapped. “You are messing with things you don’t understand! You are rewriting time that can’t and shouldn’t be rewritten.”

“You’re only saying that because you wove her,” Missy pouted, making a sick little cooing voice and batting her lashes.

“I doubt she would have lasted, anyway,” The Master bloke said, dismissing the Doctor with a wave. “Whatever modifications you made to her, she was going to wear down eventually.”

Missy glanced at the Master - herself? As a man? - then turned her gaze away, looking somewhere else before staring down the Doctor again. Well, the Doctors. All of them. The older ones, anyway. Looked at each of them in turn with a sternness that made no sense.

None of this made sense. 

Shit, was Bill ever scared.

A tickle on her cheek, and Bill swiped at it, feeling it come away damp. Sweat, probably. A cold sweat from being so bloody terrified. 

~DW~

“I’m taking that this is a ‘no’, then?” Adam said, looking at no one in particular before turning back to the controls.

“Adam. Adam please, listen to me,” Ten begged. “You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to keep killing off my companions. We can talk about this, figure out a way to help you,” he tried to reason.

The Doctor knew Adam would be unaffected. He wasn’t surprised at all to see him turn and stare down his younger counterpart derisively.

“You probably should have considered that when you dropped me off home and left me with nothing,” Adam replied before hitting the button again.

Sarah Jane was there and gone, causing an uproar from Four and Three and an argument forming down the line.

“We’re missing something,” Eleven said quietly, keeping his voice low.

“I’m aware we are, but I can’t put my finger on what it is,” The Doctor replied.

“When was the last time Rose died by a … destructive means?”

The Doctor frowned, thinking about it as best he could.

“Missy,” He said as the memory suddenly hit him.

“Elaborate.” Eleven demanded.

Keeping his eyes on the Master and Missy as they basked in the argument happening between the younger Doctors, the Doctor said, “She had a gun of sorts that disintegrated people. She used it on Rose.”

“And?”

“She was still intact.”

“So she might not actually be dead. None of them might be.”

“Unless she saw this coming,” The Doctor said as he watched the Master and Missy head over to the TARDIS. “Unless she saw a point during her time as Bad Wolf that she couldn’t alter, and this is it. Because if Adam gets his way, Rose won’t be there for any of what happens from Big Ears’s regeneration on. Who knows what we’ll become? If we become anything at all.”

“You think she put in a second clause?” Eleven asked, sounding like he was frowning. 

“She may have,” The Doctor replied as the Master started feeling around the top of the TARDIS, likely looking for the old spare key. The Doctor grinned as he shouted, “Sorry, switched to keyless entry. You don’t have the passcode.”

“I do,” Missy said, turning to look back at him as she casually snapped her fingers. Nothing happened. She did it again, twice in quick succession. Still nothing.

“You’re biometrically locked out,” He told her. “Even if Rose brought you here, even if you helped fly, you aren’t going to be able to get in on your own.”

“I’m sure we’ll figure out a way,” The Master said confidently, a bit of a sneer to his smile.

“So,” Adam said, getting the attention back on him. “Should I wipe Rose’s memories? Or do you want me to kill another one of your companions?”

~DW~

“So you knew you weren’t going to die,” Ace asked as Rose took a look at what they had to work with.

She wasn’t sure where she was precisely. There were no windows around them, no hint of where the transmat might have beamed them. But she knew they were at least on a spaceship, though whose spaceship she had no idea. Everything she was reading was translated for her.

“I don’t die anyway, but I knew it was gonna send me away,” Rose replied as she started to do a scan for life on the ship. It came back with nothing but the five of them already in the room. She then tried a scan to see if it could pinpoint where in the universe they were.

“It’s true,” Amy said as Rose did the scan. “Seen her not die enough times to know how it works.”

“Been a long time since I was that reckless,” Rose replied, turning to grin at Amy. “And it’s been a bloody long time since I’ve seen you.”

“Really?” Amy asked.

“Thousands of years old, now,” Rose replied, looking at the controls as grief overwhelmed her for a moment.

She might never have been as close to Amy as the Doctor was, but that hadn’t meant she didn’t miss her. They’d run out of time with the Ponds while they were younger, centuries before they became the keepers of the vault. Bringing Melody to them so they could watch her grow up until Melody went off and became River. From there, it was sporadic visits, and then they were stuck on Earth, and from time to time, they’d pop across the Pond, pay them a visit until….

 Swallowing the lump in her throat, she partially turned to Amy and added, “So you know, Melody is still very much around to us. Haven’t used up all our time with her yet.”

That seemed to make Amy both happy and sad at once, giving Rose’s arm a squeeze with a half-smile.

“Wait, hold on a sec. You tellin’ me you’re thousands of years old?” Fitz asked, breaking the heaviness. Letting out a low whistle, he added, “See why he chose you.”

“We chose each other,” She replied, flashing Fitz a tongue-touched grin. Rose turned her attention back on the controls when it beeped. Not terribly far from the edges of their solar system. Chances were good if she sent out an S.O.S. a particular someone would be around to pick it up. So, Rose started searching the system for a communication channel. “Though that’s not to say he isn’t fond of his exes.”

“Damn right, he is,” Fitz said, making Rose chuckle as she found what she was looking for in the ship’s computer.

Before she could begin setting up the message, there was a higher-pitched hum and a flash behind them, and Rose noted the others turning out of the corner of her eye.

“Sarah Jane,” The Brigadier announced, and Rose felt the air around her shift as he moved.

“Well, this is probably better than the alternative,” Sarah Jane said.

“Am I the only one who passes out from a transmat?” Rose asked no one in particular as she started putting in the message and traceback for their coordinates. She smiled, sighing before pointing her sonic and amplifying the special S.O.S. through space and time, trying to reach a TARDIS of a certain age.

“So,” Fitz said as he leaned over the controls, looking from them to the screen. “What exactly did you do?”

“Sent a message to the Doctor,” Rose told him. “Probably not gonna be here for a bit, though.”

“Right,” Fitz frowned. “How’s that gonna work if he’s all chained up? A past him? A future him? ”

“A future Doctor,” Rose said, “One the Master and Adam didn’t get their hands on.”

“Rose,” Sarah Jane said, sounding utterly relieved to see her. “What in the world is going on? Do you know where we are?”

“Vaguely? Just outside our solar system. Specifically? Not a bloody clue, if I’m honest,” She replied, turning to Sarah Jane. 

“Right,” Fitz frowned. “And you know all this cause you did a scan.”

“Yeah.”

“‘S not in English.”

“Well, the TARDIS translates,” Amy reasoned.

“I can’t read that, can you?” Sarah Jane asked, indicating the panel.

Amy frowned, looking it over.

“I mean. Yeah. But how long has it been for you? Maybe time away makes a difference?”

“It does,” Rose said. Tossing her sonic in the air and deftly catching it. 

“Still, she knew how to work all this,” Fitz gestured to the controls before turning to Rose. “Is there a specific reason we came here instead of, I dunno, somewhere else? And are we gonna have to fight off Judoon or something?”

 “Nah, mate, we’re fine. This is an alien ship that either crashed or was abandoned. No one’s on board, it was just in stasis until the transmat activated. I’d wager it was the closest one to Earth, so it picked up on the signal when whoever transmated first was sent down the line. Missy, she told me where they got the technology from. Satellite Five, place the Doctor and I have a bit o’ history with. Thing was, there was these games, yeah? Made it look like you were getting killed off when really you were just sent away. Mind, you were sent to the Daleks and eventually processed into one, but that’s not the point. What is the point, is I’m guessing the Master didn’t know that, really thinks he’s letting Adam off every companion. So, send me along. Makes them think they won for a beat, and puts me in a place where I can help get you lot back,” She shrugged.

The Brigidier blinked.

“Good lord.”

“It’s like talking to a female Doctor,” Fitz said, face scrunched in confusion and intrigue.

The gorgeous sound of grinding and wheezing started to fill the room, the air around them moving and stirring up hair and ruffling clothes. Rose beamed, sensing the Old Girl coming up behind her.

“Yeah, about that,” Rose grinned as the gentle thunk of the TARDIS landing behind her punctuated her sentence.

A beat later, the doors opened.

“Sorry,” Thirteen said, “Had to drop you off first so you wouldn’t see you. Got your message, but you know that. Hi fam! Should I call you fam if you aren’t the fam? You’re still my fam, of course, but, yeah. Got a gob this go.”

“Flock me,” Fitz said, wide-eyed like the rest of them as they stared past Rose at the Doctor.

Rose turned to see her wife leaning against the open TARDIS doors, absolute delight written all over her face as she took in who was there.

“Haven’t seen the lot of you in a long time,” She said. “Mixed crowd, though. Why are you all-“ She stopped, her smile dropping as she seemed to suddenly understand. “Oh, it’s then , is it?”

“Yeah, Love,” Rose said, straightening her blazer. “You remember who the last one to get sent over was?”

“No,” The Doctor shook her head. “But if anyone else gets sent here, you’ve got the signal going. We can pop back and get them. For now, let’s get you lot back where you’re supposed to be. And put an end to this.”

~DW~

“Know what I wanna know,” The Doctor asked loudly, seeing the Master and Missy turn toward him out of the corner of his eye, “Is how the pair of you even got your hands on this stuff if the TARDIS stolen from Gallifrey isn’t cooperating anymore.”

“There was something in Van Statten’s vault. The Master called it a Vortex manipulator. Had the initials J.H. embossed in the leather. Supposedly, it had belonged to a Time Agent or something. We repaired it.”

“Probably why it took you to the time on Satellite Five you went to. It was when Jack left from,” Ten commented.

“Harkness?” Nine asked with disgust.

“You don’t want to know,” Eleven grumbled.

“So you used a vortex manipulator. Must have given you quite the headache. I seem to remember you passing out after your first bit of travel,” The Doctor egged Adam on.

“I was younger. Inexperienced.”

“He hurled,” The Master said before breaking out into giggles. 

“Enough,” Adam snapped, finally becoming something more than stoic. He took a deep breath, rotated his head, and pulled at the cuffs of his blazer sleeve. “You have what you want, now leave me to getting my end of the bargain.”

“I’m going to have to break into my end of the bargain,” The Master snarled back. “Maybe I’ll break into that head of yours and use your puny, pathetic human brain as a processor so I can cannibalize the damn thing again if need be.”

“You wanna try that, knock yourself out,” The Doctor commented blithely.

As if that had been the cue she was waiting for, Missy spun around, swinging her umbrella hard and whacking her younger counterpart in the head. 

The Master dropped at base of the TARDIS, completely out cold.

Missy then turned the umbrella on Adam, pointing the end of it like a gun.

“I was secretly on your side all along, you silly sausage,” Missy said, glancing briefly at the Doctor as she strode toward Adam.

“If that was true, then why-“

“Hush,” Missy said as she got the point of her umbrella up under Adam’s chin. “Now, you. You, my dear, are going to listen to me very carefully because I want you to remember this. You deserve nothing. You are nothing. The Doctor only takes the best, and that did not include you, you slimy little creature.”

Adam, despite having what was likely a deadly laser pressed against his throat, arched a brow at Missy.

“Is that really the best you can come up with?”

“Well, I’m in two minds right now, and one of them’s unconscious. So, how about you do everyone a favor and get into one of those lovely little cells you and I made.”

“And why should I do that?” Adam asked.

“Because if you don’t go voluntarily, the five people you released earlier will make you.”

“I didn’t release anyone unless you call their death a release. On life or in general.”

The Doctor felt his TARDIS groan in displeasure before the whirring and grinding of the Time Ship sounded from the opposite side of the room.

He, and likely eleven other heads, snapped toward it, watching a TARDIS that didn’t look like precisely like the one across the room come into view.

When it fully materialized, the doors were open, and an irate Fitz came storming out.

The Doctor wasn’t sure if the rush of relief and excitement that zipped through him was strictly his own or if it was amplified from having eleven other hims in the room and another in the TARDIS. He wasn’t sure it mattered as a grin tugged at his mouth.

“Fitz,” Eight said softly with delight.

“Let me at ’im,” Fitz sneered, grabbing Adam by the lapels, turning him away from Missy and pulling Adam toward him, getting in his face. “You’re in trouble now, mate.”

Amy stepped out, Eleven laughing with giddiness as she took her place at Fitz’s side while Missy retreated.

“What should we do with him, huh?” Amy asked, hands on her hips as she looked Adam up and down, furious and dismissive in a way that only Amy could pull off.

“I’m sure there’s a bat in the TARDIS I can find,” Ace added as she stepped out. 

The Brigadier and Sarah Jane followed, glaring at Adam but keeping their distance from the scene unfolding.

The Doctor watched the doors, waiting for the inevitable reveal. And, frankly, getting a bit impatient when she wouldn’t step out. He wanted to see her, whole and alive. The him in the TARDIS had his own Rose, he didn’t need The Doctor’s.

“If you could stop snogging whatever version of me is in there,” he called when nearly a minute went by since Fitz came out.

“Now, now,” Rose said as she stepped out. “It’s rude to not say thank you.” She turned to face whoever was in the TARDIS with a soft smile. “Bye, Love.”

“Later!” A feminine, northern accent shouted back before Rose closed the doors. She watched the TARDIS disappear before turning to the scene the other supposedly murdered companions were making.

“I don’t… I don’t understand,” Adam sputtered as he looked fearfully at all of them, but especially at Rose.

“Yeah, you wouldn’t,” Rose replied as she stalked slowly toward the group. 

He could almost see her glowing, even though he knew logically she wasn’t the Bad Wolf. Not in the sense that she had the heart of the TARDIS in her veins. But the way she moved, the way she spoke, made his mind’s eye superimpose the image on her. It made his hearts leap and gallop.